#it's so beautifully tragic

[lastbluetardis]

🎵 i just think we, as a society, need more taylor swift-inspired tenrose fics & james x rose AUs 🤍💫 (sorry i’m late btw)

I agree this fandom needs way more TSwift-inspired Ten/Rose AUs 😂

Song: Ivy

AU Idea: Another somewhat angsty song and idea, also with themes of infidelity due to the nature of the song.

This would make for another good ye olde time piece where James and Rose are each in an arranged marriage/betrothal to other people, but neither of them particularly ever wanted to get married, and they especially didn't want to be forced into a marriage. Both their marriages/betrothals are loveless and as a result, they're each miserable and depressed and want to burn the world down.

James is taking his betrothed out on the town, chaperoned of course 'cos God forbid anything untoward happen if he and his fiancée are left alone, even though everyone is aware of how much James hates being engaged. Perhaps Rose is a barmaid or something at the little pub James and his partner are at, and while she isn't his server directly, they keep locking eyes from across the room. James had never seen anyone so beautiful, and he's enchanted by her easy smiles and bright eyes whenever she interacts with a customer. Rose, meanwhile, thinks he's gorgeous and it's the first time she ever considered wanting to corner a stranger in a dark hall and kiss him silly.

Rose's shift ends before James and his fiancee finish their meal, and James sees her leaving and panics, because even though it's stupid and irresponsible, he wants to know her name and wants to see her again. He pretends he needs the toilets, and he follows her out the back door of the pub.

"Excuse me!"

She turns, and a delighted smile crosses her face to see the man she's been lusting over for the past hour. She smooths her hair back, and James's stomach sinks to see the wedding band on her finger. He nearly stutters out an apology, because surely she's a better person than him and doesn't despise her husband, but Rose saw the way he went a little dumbstruck at the sight of her ring, and she grimaces. He's confused, so he oh so loquaciously asks, "Er... married?"

She sighs. "Unfortunately. Earlier this year. Never met him 'til my wedding day."

Part of him aches that someone as seemingly lovely as her seems so unhappy, yet another part of him rejoices that he's not the only terrible person that hates their soon-to-be spouse.

"Yeah, I know what that's like."

"Oh? Miss blonde in there...?"

"Arranged. Parents need me to "carry on the bloodline"."

Rose giggles a little, and she holds out her hand. "I'm Rose."

"James." He shakes it, and it's like electricity shocks through him, stealing his breath and making his heart stutter deliciously in his stomach. "Say... I know this is odd and improper... but d'you... d'you maybe want to... take a walk with me sometime?"

Rose considers, and he's almost certain she's going to decline, but then she nods and says, "I take morning walks through the farm fields. I like watchin' the cows. I start my route on Henrick's street. Maybe I'll see you there?"

And she walks away, leaving him feeling giddy but so, so wretched.

And so a routine is borne. James and Rose regularly take morning walks together. Not every day, and not the same routes, because they're trying to avoid being noticed. It takes all of a week for James to tentatively reach for her hand while they stroll, and another week before he braves kissing said hand. They're each sick with guilt that they're essentially courting each other while they're promised to someone else.

But they can't seem to stop.

After the first month, they share their first kiss.

After the second, they make love in the shadow of an unoccupied barn.

That's their new routine. Walking and kissing and making love. But one day they're caught by the farmer whose barn they regularly commandeer, and word gets back to Rose's husband. He beats her to within an inch of her life.

James only finds out through whispers going 'round the town that Rose cuckolded her husband, and that she deserved the punishment she got, and that really, it could have been a lot worse.

He runs to her house to check on her, but she dismisses him and slams the door in his face when she sees him. It wasn't quick enough, because James hears a man shouting down the hall, asking who it was, and soon this hulking mass of a man is on the porch and takes a swing at James. The two of them skirmish, exchanging blows, with Rose pleading for them to stop. But all James sees in the swollen, bruised mess of her face and the arm she's got cradled in a sling. James punches her husband right in the nose, knocking him out.

James holds out his hand for Rose. "Run away with me?"

"Run away? Where are we going to go?"

"Does it matter? Anywhere is better than here. I know this is mad, but I'm in love with you, and I can't bear the thought of you staying in this house a moment longer. I can't bear the thought of not being with you, of not falling asleep and waking up beside you. Sod the rules and sod the expectations, and especially sod this horrible brute of a man you call a husband."

Rose wavers for a few seconds, eyes filled with tears, but she nods. She wiggles her wedding band off of her finger and slips it onto her husband's pinkie.

James almost collapses with relief, but he takes her hand and ushers her away into the morning. James has a bit of money saved up, so he sneaks into his house and grabs it all, leaving behind all of his material valuables. After all, he's got Rose. What else could he possibly need?

Send me a 🎵 and I’ll shuffle my Taylor Swift playlist

#cosmicallytragic #ash answers #doctor who #ten x rose #ten x rose au #this got away from me too 😂 #ivy is one of my favorite songs #it's so beautifully tragic #honestly everything from evermore is my favorite 😂

[comradekatara]

Your atla analysis is the best so I wanted to ask your opinion on something I've found the fandom fairly divided on - what did you think of Azula's ending within the show proper? Unnecessarily cruel or a necessary tragedy? Would you say that her mental breakdown was too conveniently brought about in order to 'nerf' her for the final agni kai? Also, do you think it was 'right' for Zuko to have fought with his sister at all or would it have been better for him to seek a more humane way to end the cycle of violence?

okay so im saying this as someone who loves azula to death like she has always been one of my absolute favorite characters ever since i was a kid and i’ve always vastly preferred her to zuko and found her to be extremely compelling and eminently sympathetic. i am saying this now before the azula stans come for me. i believe in their beliefs. but i also think her downfall is perfectly executed, and putting aside all the bullshit with the comics and whatever else, it’s a really powerful conclusion to her arc. obviously that isn’t to say that she wouldn’t continue to grow and develop in a postcanon scenario (i have a whole recovery arc for her mapped out in my head, like i do believe in her Healing Journey) but from a narrative perspective, her telos is in fact very thematically satisfying.

no, she wasn’t nerfed so that they could beat her in a fight. the fact that she falls apart is what makes them feel that they can confidently take her on (although i do think in a fair fight katara could win anyway), but the whole point is that it’s not about winning or losing in combat. the whole point is that zuko and azula being pitted against each other in this gratuitous ritual of violence as the culmination of their arcs is fundamentally tragic. yes it’s a bad decision to fight her, and zuko should have chosen another path, but the whole point is that he’s flawed and can only subscribe to the logic he has spent his whole life internalizing through violence and abuse.

that’s why aang’s fight against ozai, while tragic in its own way, is also a triumph for the way in which his ideals prevail in the face of genocide, while zuko and azula’s fight is very patently tragic. there is no moment of victory or triumph. even as zuko sacrifices himself in a beautiful mirroring of “the crossroads of destiny” and as katara uses the element of her people combined with techniques across other cultures to use azula’s hubris and ideology of domination against her, it’s presented as moments of personal growth occurring within a very tragic yet inevitable situation. it was inevitable because azula had always been positioned as an extension of her father, and thus to disempower ozai also means disempowering azula, his favorite site of projection, his favorite weapon.

yeah, it does rub me the wrong way when zuko asks katara whether she’d like to help him “put azula in her place.” it’s not a kind way to talk about your abused younger sister. but it’s also important to understand that zuko doesn’t really recognize his sister’s pain, despite the fact that they obviously share a father, because he’s always assumed that she was untouchable as their perfect golden child and thus never a victim. and he’s wrong. zuko and katara expect a battle of triumph and glory, noble heroes fighting valiantly so that good may prevail over evil. but as they discover here, even more so than their previous discovery two episodes prior, a battle is not a legendary event filled with bombast and beauty until after it has been historicized. often a war is simply fought between pathetic, desperate people who see no other option but to fight.

aang’s ultimate refusal to fight despite having all the power in the world is what makes him so important as the protagonist. but katara and zuko both share a more simplistic view of morality and what it means to be good. and zuko assumes that by fighting azula, he can only be punching up, because she has always been positioned as his superior, and she (in her own words!) is a “monster.” and then azula loses, and his entire worldview shatters. joking about putting her in her place makes way for the realization that behind all her posturing and lying (to herself more than anyone) and performance and cognitive dissonance, azula has always been broken, perhaps even more than he is.

azula says “im sorry it has to end this way, brother,” to which zuko replies “no you’re not.” but i think azula is truly sorry, because in her ideal world, she wouldn’t be fighting zuko. she doesn’t actually want to kill him, as much as she claims to. she’s already reached the conclusion that zuko will only truly reach once their fight is over. she lacks a support system, and she needs one, desperately. if she could somehow get her family back, do everything differently, less afraid of the consequences, she would. she’s smirking, she sounds almost facetious, but really, she is sorry. as of this moment, she really doesn’t want it to end this way. but zuko cannot accept that, because in his mind, azula is evil. azula has no soul nor feeling. azula always lies.

her breakdown doesn’t come out of nowhere, either. it’s precipitated by everyone she has ever cared about betraying her. first zuko betrays her, then mai, then ty lee, and then ozai — the person she has staked her entire identity to and to whom she has pledged her undying loyalty and obedience, become nothing more than a vessel for his whims — discards her because she had the audacity to care about someone other than him. what i don’t think zuko realizes, and perhaps will never realize, is that azula betrayed ozai by bringing zuko back home. he was not supposed to be brought back with honor and with glory. azula specifically orchestrated the fight in the catacombs to motivate him to join her, and it’s not because she’s some cruel sadistic monster who wanted to separate a poor innocent soft uwu bean from his loving uncle, it’s because she genuinely believes that she’s doing what’s best for him. she believes that their uncle is a traitor and a bad influence, and she believes that bringing zuko home with his honor “restored” is an act of love. to her it is.

yes, she claims that she was actually just manipulating him so that she wouldn’t have to take the fall if the avatar was actually alive, but also, she’s clearly just covering her own ass. she didn’t know about the spirit water, and only started improvising when zuko started showing hesitation. but even if she was only using zuko, then that was an insane risk to take, because either way she was lying directly to ozai’s face. and zuko admits it to ozai while simultaneously committing treason, so of course ozai would blame azula, his perfect golden child who tried to violate his decree by bringing zuko back home a prisoner at best and dead at worst, and instead found a way to restore his princehood with glory.

we only see ozai dismissing and discarding azula in the finale, but it’s clearly a tension that’s been bubbling since the day of black sun. and we know this because we do see azula falling apart before the finale. in “the boiling rock” she is betrayed by her only friends. in “the southern raiders” we see that this has taken a toll on her, that she is already somewhat unhinged. she and zuko tie in a one on one fight for the first time. and she takes down her hair as she uses her hairpin to secure herself against the edge of a cliff. unlike zuko, who is helped by his friends and allies, who has a support system. it’s a very precarious position; she’s literally on a cliff’s edge, alone, her hair down signifying her unraveling mental state. azula having her hair down signals to us an audience that she is in a position of vulnerability. she is able to mask this terrifying moment wherein she nearly plummets to her death with a triumphant smirk, but it should be evident to us all that her security is fragile here.

and the thing is, even though she’s always masked it with a smirk and perfect poise, her security has always been fragile. azula has never been safe. azula’s breakdown is simply the culmination of her realization that no matter how hard she tries, she will never be ozai’s perfect weapon, because she is a human being. she is a child, no less. and there is no one in her entire life who loves her for nothing. zuko has iroh, who affirms to him that he could never be angry with zuko, that all he wants is simply what is best for zuko. but azula doesn’t have unconditional support in her life. she doesn’t even have support.

everyone she ever thought she could trust has betrayed her, and so she yells that trust is for fools. because she feels like a fool. of course fear is the only way; it’s what kept her in line all these years. azula is someone who is ruled by fear, and who is broken by the recognition that fear isn’t enough. her downfall is necessarily tragic because her worldview is wrong. the imperialist logic of terror as a tool for domination is her own undoing, just as ozai’s undoing is losing the weapon he has staked his national identity to. it’s a battle of ideals. aang v ozai: pacifism v imperialism. katara and zuko v azula: love and support v fear and isolation.

zuko is unfair to azula, it’s true. he tries to fight her even as he can clearly recognize that “she’s slipping.” instead of trying to help his little sister, he uses that weakness to his advantage, tries to exploit her pain so that he can finally, for the first time ever, beat her in a fight. it’s cruel, but it’s also how siblings act. especially considering the conditions under which they were raised, and how zuko has always viewed her. and in zuko’s defense, she has tried to kill him multiple times lately, both in “the boiling rock” and in “the southern raiders.” zuko is someone who gets fixated on a goal and blocks out everything else, including recognition of his surroundings or empathy for others. so of course when he’s promised to put azula in her place he’s going to exploit her weaknesses to do so. after all, isn’t exploiting his weaknesses exactly what azula does best? so he allows himself to stoop to her level, and in fact only redeems himself through his sacrifice for katara. but it is when azula is chained to the grate and zuko and katara, leaning on each other, look down and observe the sheer extent on her pain, that zuko realizes that “putting azula in her place” isn’t actually a victory. it feels really, really bad, actually.

they’re in a similar position as they were when they faced yon rha. and now it is zuko’s turn to understand that he is not a storybook hero triumphing over evil, but rather a human being, facing another human being, in a conflict that is larger than themselves. to “put someone in their place” is to imply a logic of domination, of inherent superiority, that someone has stepped out of line and must be reordered neatly into the hierarchy. but aang disputes the notion, ozai’s notion, that humanity can be classified along these lines, that there exists an ontological superiority among some and not others. so operation: putting azula in her place was always going to be flawed, even if she was performing competency the way she always does, because they’re nonetheless subscribing to her logic.

of course they should be helping azula, of course they should be reaching out to abuse victims through support instead of more violence. but first they must recognize her victimhood. first they must come to understand that they didn’t get lucky, and they didn’t dominate her because they are more “powerful,” that they weren’t “putting her in her place.” they must understand that they are not heroes fighting villains in a glorious trial by combat. that the logic of the agni kai is flawed. that they are all victims. that they are all just scared, hurt children who are still grieving their mothers.

#update: ok i readmored it 👍🏼 #azula #analysis #zuko #katara #ozai #azula&zuko #azula&ozai #asks #malatilata #ugh azula is such a beautiful character….. i love her sm #her arc is so beautifully perfectly tragic #just thinking abt the mirror scene gets me sooo . distraught #this was supposed to be like 2 paragraphs lol #as is always the way . with me..

[jbmar]

twitter is crazy because somebody like sunday can say plain as day “i hate the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ because i view myself as weak and understand how other fellow weak people feel, so i want to make a paradise where the weak and strong are equal and everybody can be protected under my watchful gaze” with very clear connotations towards catholicism/orthodoxy, the sacrifice of christ, and ‘the ones who walk away from omelas’ by ursula le guin (a story about a perfect utopian world that only remains such at the expense of a small child below the surface that is left alone to suffer) and be equated to that of a fascist ableist in support of real world eugenics that wants to kill minorities to create a perfect paradise.

tldr; learn to read before you make your ‘informative threads.’

#hsr #sunday hsr #rant #maybe open your ears next time #hsr fandom lacking critical thinking skills as per usual #sundays character is so beautifully tragic & then u twist him into this alienated hobsquash #there’s a reason why people argue that his goals and ambitions are based #because they are #he is very very well intentioned #and if u can’t see that then u also lack reading skills idk what to tell u friend #hsr sunday #honkai star rail

[transldpdl]

Claudia • No Pain

#amc iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #vampterview #amc interview with the vampire #ldpdl #ldpdl.txt #interview with the vampire #iwtv #this episode mannn #you can rlly just feel it tipping tipping at the end didnt ss but yk the one like god so heartbreaking #such a tragic character written & performed beautifully

[literariyumi]

This sequence really hurt me in the movie. It's just beautiful how Varadha could trust that one person, be vulnerable in front of him and him alone, without fear.

#Varadha deserves a hug #Deva please hug Varadha #varadeva #salaar #deva #devaratha raisaar #varadha #Varadha Raj Mannar #they are so beautifully and tragically gay that i can't help but fall in love

[zyana-wyvern]

"The Moon...

My one trusted companion these hundreds of years, but I am a traitor and I would trade her cold light for the scorching, cleansing warmth of the Sun..."

#bg3 screencaps #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion #bg3 #bg3 astarion #bg3 screenshots #astarion ancunin #crying shaking screaming in a pillow #I love him so much I can't express it #I started playing his origins and it made me even crazier if that was possible #no one loves the sun as he does and its so tragic and beautifully done uuhhghg #astarion sunday

[kadextra]

I’ve slept on it, it’s a new day, I feel like can say that Sweet Despair is the best lore stream I’ve ever watched

#like what…. it was so unbelievably good I’m still stunned. the perfect emotional culmination of this long & beautifully tragic arc #so fun to watch as it unfolded over time- some of the most fun I’ve had in a fandom community tbh #it’ll take a while for me to recover #the stream literally destroyed me #many many thoughts in my brain #at the end of the day it’s all about love. always about love #im so sentimental ajsjdjfkgkh #qsmp #qsmp badboyhalo

[sheryl-lee]

idk if this makes sense. but i kind of love that the last of us makes me cry and viscerally FEEL true emotions on a weekly basis. like i cant remember the last tv show i watched that had me consistently bawling my eyes out and so immersed in a show because of the characters, the story, the incredibly strong writing, etc. and it doesn't feel manipulative. it just feels profound and beautiful and poetic but also tragic and... human.

#it's a whole spectrum of emotion!!! it's beautifully tragically human!!!! is that not what it is to exist!!!! #and it's therapeutic honestly. to spend like an hour in a world that isnt real but that you can relate aspects of your life to. #and you can just connect to these characters and their experiences and release the emotions that have been building up inside. #i'm sure that if you've played the game you feel this all the more strongly #but as someone who hasn't and went into tlou without prior knowledge #i'm just very pleased with it and idk i love watching a show that can elicit such a strong reaction from me #granted i AM what people would call 'sensitive' and 'emotional' or whatever #but even for me i dont think i've felt quite this intensely about a show - especially not right away during a first season #these are just my half baked thoughts and i definitely could say so much more but i'll leave it here for now #sameera.txt #the last of us

[tthelady]

THIS IS MY FINAL STRAW OH MY GOD

#my baby aventurine #they gave him such a beautiful and #tragic backstory #they wrote him so beautifully #his character this patch was #executed so beautifully #fell in love with him so much this patch #aventurine #hsr #honkai star rail #hsr spoilers

[whatkindofnameisella]

me when im having a normal day but then i think about lady patience

#PLEASE SHE'S SO. SHE'S SO. I CANT I CANT SHES SUCH A BEAUTIFULLY TRAGIC CHARACTER................................ #IF THINKING ABOUT THESE CHARACTERS MAKES ME FEEL LIKE THIS. HOW IN THE HELL AM I GOING TO FINISH ASSASSIN'S QUEST. #rote #assassin's apprentice #books

[neighborhoodlum]

I can't stop thinking about Art and Patrick as yin and yang (respectively), two halves of one whole without which the other would not exist, meaning Tashi will never be able to get all of what she needs from either of them regardless of an injury & how that implies they really ARE a package deal because they balance each other out in ways all THREE of them need.

I can't stop thinking about Tashi, Art, & Patrick as the three-body problem, Tashi being the third object in their orbit that throws that yin-yang balance off entirely which in turn renders them chaotic and unpredictable, impossible to quantify yet wholly reliant on one another's gravitational pull to keep them grounded (all the while knowing any tiny variable change can and will send them spiraling).

I can't stop thinking about Tashi and tennis as star-crossed lovers, fated yet doomed from the start by a momentary lapse in judgment, by a would-have-been that rejected the only love language she values most, by a star that loves her too much and it not enough, soulmates forced apart by all of this like some kind of cosmic punishment.

#challengers #challengers 2024 #tashi duncan #art donaldson #patrick zweig #*insert grabbing you until you bleed.jpg* #the dynamic is SO fascinating and tragic and beautifully depicted i'll be thinking about this film forever #rambles #and i could go on about tashi & patrick/tashi & art but these are the Ones for me

[wylanslcve]

Do you ever think about just how powerfully symbolic Matthias killing the wolf in Hellgate at the beginning of SOC is? How him killing the animal sacred to Djel is a representation of him "killing off" the values imposed on him? Of him "killing" his old self, the drüskelle who'd sworn an oath to his country and to its cause, the boy who'd been manipulated and had his grief and pain exploited to fuel hatred, forced to drink the poison Brum had forced down his throat his entire life? Of how he recognises that "the life you live, the hate you feel – it’s poison. I can drink it no longer", but then there's the bitter irony of how that poison still kills him in the end as he's shot by another drüskelle, as he's "killed" by his past and the boy he'd been? Because I think about that a lot.

#i'm sorry for bringing up chapter 40 at the end there #but it felt relevant #because matthias' story is so beautifully tragic #matthias helvar #calahan skogman #six of crows #crooked kingdom #grishaverse #shadow and bone #seige and storm #ruin and rising #six of crows spin off #soc spin off #leigh bardugo

[iwozlegit]

|| 🍍• I love how Megatron in Transformers: Prime acts as if he’s constantly surrounded by idiots, and yet he’s the complete normal one who had to ingest literal ‘spooky wooky space crack’ to see Optimus Prime for the first time in three years…

#|| ooc • #|| all aboard the queue queue ~! • #|| crack • #|| jess speaks • #he’s so silly #just Megatron pacing before seeing Optimus wondering if his rehearsed lines sound cool #the fanon have run away with their relationship fr please carry on #it’s both beautifully tragic and sadly tragic #tfp #transformers prime #Megatron #Optimus prime #megop #megaop #maccadam #@legitconcrusher

[5-turtleducks-in-a-trenchcoat]

Frankenstein characters as ghosts (depending mostly on their deaths):

Victor: A sorrowful spirit wandering through the cold in the far north. His wails can be heard upon the arctic wind from time to time. Some feel it is a warning that they should only find death in the cold ice and don’t dare venture out but some have been enticed by the mystery and sought out the source of this voice, a task which ultimately lead to their demises in the treacherous icy waters.

Elizabeth: A protective spirit for many young women. Her ghosts watches over brides on their wedding night haunting down anyone that tries to hurt them. She manages to save lives, more than she could when she was alive.

Justine: Her ghost is restless, unable to get justice. She is found standing in the corners of court rooms, watching mournfully as other innocents are condemed, unable to do something. When she appears it is usually a sign of a great injustice happening.

Henry: His ghost still wanders the shores and streets of Ireland always in search of his best friend but forever unable to find him.

When spoken to he'll only say he's "waiting for Victor" and continue on his way; an eternal search for someone he can never see again.

William: The ghost of a small child lost in the woods. When you cross paths with him he'll ask you for the way and whisper that his brother was supposed to look for him. Sometimes the ghost is willing to play hide and seek with you but when he has to hide he will always disappear, not to be found until the next night when he will wander through the woods again.

Creature: I think he as he lived can also be applied to a ghost. At first a benevolent spirit that helps people by bringing firewood or other little tasks. But he looks too horrifying to human eyes and only scares them. Later a vengeful ghost seeking only his creator's destruction.

No matter of he is alive or not he's a ghost in his own way, unable to exist in the same world that humans do, something unnatural, something to be feared by mankind.

#I woke up in a spooky mood this morning #There’s something so beautifully tragic about ghosts and I love it #Victor's parents are also dead but they aren't cool enough to be ghosts #mostly I can't think of anything for them #frankenstein #the modern prometheus #frankenstein weekly #victor frankenstein #henry clerval #elizabeth lavenza #justine moritz #william frankenstein #the creature

[creativesplat]

So I watched WW84, and this scene was a MiphLink scene if I ever did see one. 

#ww84 #miphlink #I'm sorry guys #I wanted to make myself sad because this scene fit so beautifully with the couple #to make it even sadder #listen to one wish by sleeping wolf - I listened to that whilst doodling and aaaa it's so sad and so miphlink #anyway this is obviously only BoTW so I'm sorry guys #tragic vibes #mipha #link #botw #creativesplat draws #say what you want about ww84 but that scene broke me #just #it was so intense #the voice acting was gorgeous as well #would recommend watching that scene

[literariyumi]

I am in love with VaraDeva.

This is to certify that everything reminds me of them. And I am basically obsessed now. Thank you. 😭☺️

#salaar #varadeva #devaratha raisaar #Vardharajmannar #in love with them #they are so beautifully and tragically gay that I can't help but fall in love #salaar 2 come soon