#like if they had at LEAST died on earth then you could show the supporting cast reacting by watching it on television or something

[novafire-is-thinking]

Speculative Analysis: Why TFP Soundwave is so Terrifying to His Fellow Cybertronians

Time for an essay on why I think TFP Soundwave might have chosen his current cryptid form—electrical tentacles and all. There’s a TL;DR at the end, so feel free to scroll down first and then decide if you want to read the full thing.

This will involve cross-continuity speculation, centered around TFP / Aligned but with some IDW / MTMTE lore thrown in. This could also loosely apply to Bayverse Soundwave, but I won’t be focusing on him. I’m confident you all can infer the potential implications for that version of his character by the time you reach the end.

Okay, so I’ve seen several fellow TFP fans speculate about why Soundwave went from beefy gladiator to bonafide cryptid. Some say it could have been due to the loss of his horde of “minicons” (the term used in ‘Exodus’ by Alex Irvine). Others think it was just Soundwave’s way of adapting to the direction of the war by taking on a form that would give him the best strategic advantage in his position as Megatron’s communications officer. I agree with the latter, but I think there could be more to it than that.

As we see in the flashback for Ratchet’s story and the TFP Titan comics, Soundwave had his current frame type, armor, and alt mode back on Cybertron:

[Sarcastic Soundwave: Superior]

In the real world, Soundwave’s design is based on the MQ-9 Reaper military drone—an earth-based aircraft, but I’m not going to address that small discrepancy since it’s not relevant to this analysis. Skinny, cryptid drone Soundwave existing prior to his arrival on earth supports my theory anyway.

“Can’t we throw a tarp over him? He’s creepin’ me out.”

-Bulkhead in Minus One

On the surface, Bulkhead’s comment and Smokescreen’s subsequent response seem like an interaction between a couple of Autobots who are unnerved because they’re familiar with Soundwave’s reputation—Bulkhead more so than Smokescreen since the latter had probably not seen Soundwave up close in action before coming to earth. However, I think some of Bulkhead’s fear might have been due to an entirely different reason: Sparkeaters.

While reading MTMTE #3, my eyes were met with this lovely sight /s :

[Hey, wasn’t the energon eater in Rescue Bots called “Sparky” too? I guess it’s a cross-continuity tradition to call life-sucking parasites “Sparky” at least once.]

Terrifying? Yes. But I stared in horrified awe at this abomination and thought, “Wait. One. Fragging. Minute. I’m having a galaxy brain moment.”

Mind. Blown. Their overall sharp, jagged appearance, their thin, but formidable frames, their prehensile cables extending from somewhere inside (fuel lines for the sparkeater; multipurpose tentacles for Soundwave). I was—and still am—fascinated by the uncanny resemblance.

[Now who’s Sparky?]

It’s true that sparkeaters aren’t confirmed to be canon in the Aligned continuity, but their existence isn’t denied either. We got something similar with the zombie Terrorcons, but those were a new phenomenon produced either by Megatron’s blind ambition and stupidity or Knockout and Starscream’s lack of forethought and scientific restraint. For the sake of where I’m taking this, let’s assume that sparkeaters, as defined by IDW, do exist in the Aligned universe. What would this mean for Soundwave’s disturbing choice of frame/body type? Why choose a visual motif so strongly associated with death and disease?

One word: Mimicry

Mythologically, historically, and medically, sparkeaters are inseparable from death and disease. Their very existence instills fear in most Cybertronians. What better way for Soundwave to strike terror into the sparks of his enemies (and potential enemies) than to take on a physical form that resembles the sparkeater—something that has been known to kill normal Cybertronians using a deeply disturbing, painful, and even sacrilegious method? Even though the initial shock of seeing a “sparkeater” show up during or around a fight would have dissipated once the Autobots realized it was mostly cosmetic, an impression would have been left. Coupled with his spy capabilities and gladiator-style prowess in combat, a message would have been sent: Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

And there you have it, folks! Another reason to love Soundwave’s design.

Bonus:

I could see Soundwave being called a few things by allies and enemies alike: “The Decepticon Sparkeater,” “Soundwave the Sparkeater,” or just “The Sparkeater.”

An interaction between two Autobot scouts:

Scout 1, over comms: “You there, kid? Who is it? Who did Megatron send this time?”

Scout 2: “It’s The Sparkeater! He’s here!”

1: “You mean Soundwave!? Do you have a visual?”

2: “How many ‘Cons do we see walkin’ around looking like sparkeaters??? Of course it’s Soundwave! And yeah, I’ve got a visual.”

1: “Aw, hell. Things just got a whole lot more complicated.”

TL;DR: Soundwave may have put more thought into his appearance than is obvious. He may have opted to look like a sparkeater as a way of sending a highly effective warning.

#transformers prime #maccadam #tfp #tfp theory #tfp analysis #tfp meta #what if: cross continuity edition #tfp soundwave #//superior// #the phoenix of kaon #soundwave superior #idw transformers #tf idw #idw1 #MTMTE #robogore #sparkeaters #long post #nova’s nerding out again

[isuckatwritingsobenice]

Hi there! How are you? I hope your doing well! I wanted to send in a request if that’s alright with you, if your requests are closed feel free to ignore this—! Anyways, your writing is also really good as well ^-^ Also quick question but do you take matchups by chance? Anyways, 시작하자!

Could I request Alastor and Vox (together or separately if you like) with a Male! Or GN! Reader who’s was a really famous rapper back on earth but sadly died because they were shot outside after finishing a concert? also the reader raps about true stuff like king von did.

Thank you and have a great day! さようなら！

A/N: Hii! Thank you so much for requesting this & I’m so glad you like my work (i was in a writing slump & was afraid i fell off)!! As of right now I’m not currently doing match ups, but possibly in the future I might! As someone who doesn’t listen to rap all that often this was a bit of a challenge, but we got this 😝

(Inspired by several artists)

Warnings: Headcannon format, headcannoned male reader but can be read as GN, SFW all the way, mentions of shootings, mentions of smut but not in detail,

Songs you can listen too while reading: The World is Yours by Nas. Hail Mary by Tupac. Crazy Story 2.0 by King Von.

Navigation!! // Masterlist!!!

Vox is actually a fan of yours, that’s kind of how you two met

Valentino had been trying to get in contact with a girl on your security team, so he decided to take Vox to a show of yours, the show had just ended and you had been getting asked questions about your life and cameras were everywhere

Now, vox controls the media, television at least, so he decides what makes if on air and what doesn’t and this is how you two talk

you ask him to make a deal with you, nothing negative about your human life gets out into the media and when he asks you to clarify, you tell him

to say he was a bit more than shocked is an understatement

he was TOTALLY shocked to his core and in all honesty he felt bad

so he decides to help your friendship is short and sweet towards the beginning,

your team handling most of the contact the two of you shared so it was usually business talk

untilll he’s invited with valentino to go to a party of yours where the two of you get wasted and end up sleeping together

he’s embarrassed, not of you but of his emotions, is this even right?? did you care at all??

WELLLL turns out you did because the next day when he woke up still at your house you calmly told him of your feelings, and that despite only speaking about business you felt like you two could become more

he almost sheds a tear poor guy is SO OVERJOYED HE WASNT THE ONLY ONE, and from there you two develop a relationship 🫶

your biggest supporter, he is always at concerts and interviews with you to make sure everything goes smoothly ,

he’ll even talk to Velvet to make sure your socials are covered and no one posts anything online about you

want a day to yourself? paparazzi just got a report you’ll be somewhere you totally weren’t thanks to velvet

a crazy fan lied about you? valentino is already on it

you literally never have to worry with Vox around

trust whoever killed you while you were alive WILL be dealt with

Now, Alastor is a tricky man meaning

he hates anything that isnt Jazz or from his time

so he definitely didn’t like you at first

like he wouldn’t even care to listen to music let alone YOURS he’d just walk away or hum something to himself

Charlie is the one that actually gets him to listen, and she explains that your different from other artists, uniquely you

so he caves and decides to sit and give it a listen

ten seconds in and he’s stopping the music getting up and walking away claiming he still doesn’t like it but again,

Charlie is charlie and REFUSES to stop so she makes him restart the song and listen yet again

by the end of it he still doesn’t particularly like the music you make, and a part of him actually hurts your feelings

“Why share your issues to the world? Sharing that side of you makes you weak. Horrible taste!”

Cue Vaggie rolling her eyes and Husk just scoffing because what is this dude yapping about?

Doesn’t help this all happened before you left for a show so your nervous the entire time

Charlie gets upset and scolds him, telling him it’s wrong to say that and it is in fact your music so you can do what you want and he agrees, it is your music, but he’s not gonna listen to it

he’s definitely more personality based out of the two, he does think your a nice person, and after hearing you got shot he almost chokes, it triggers his memory

you catch him sitting in the library of the hotel reading and try talking to him

the conversation is light before you somehow land on the topic of your death and when you learn Alastor too was shot you feel a bit more connected to him

surprisingly enough alastor is the one to approach you about a potential relationship and you’re like extremely excited because how often is it the radio demon asks to date you?!?!?!

he does start going to your shows more often after you two begin seeing each other, and though he isn’t entirely too crazy about it, he goes to support you <3

#hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin charlie #hazbin angel dust #hazbin vaggie #hazbin demon #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel rosie #alastor #vox x reader #vox fluff #hazbin hotel vox #helluva boss vox #isuckatwritingsobenice

[chumpovodir]

i don't have it in me at the moment to make a long, detailed rant about this but r/castlevania's insistence that games!Isaac is a lesser character for being a "self-harm obsessed, shallow BDSM playboy that only serves as an inciting incident" compared to N!Isaac?

first of all, i think y'all are letting anime stereotypes from the early 2000s massively color your opinion and it's really obvious you didn't bother looking at his character any deeper than that. edit: i'm putting this under a cut because it was actually, in hindsight, a pretty long post lmao

"BDSM playboy"? my man was sitting in the ruins of his home for 3 goddamn years letting the clothes rot off his back, in no condition to care about his appearance and with precious little materials to forge something new. you could also argue that his skimpy look is a mark of his arrogance (already well-established by his fight with Hector previously, and feeling so cocksure he sends his Devil away and even arms Hector with a sword, confident he could easily take him in a fair fight), going into battle barely clothed as a show of faith in his own skill after playing Hector like a fiddle. or even as a radical show of his devotion, the Devil Forgemasters crest embedded in his skin for the world to see; the fact that the physical marks of his position may fade away, but it goes so much deeper than that - it's seared into his very flesh, and will only die when he and his corporeal form finally leave this earth. also, it just speaks to a really shallow understanding of BDSM in general to associate "skimpy strappy outfit = kinky"

"self-harm obsessed"? first of all, where is ANYONE getting this notion from the game itself?? (considering there's a very low chance these people even know about the mangas) there is literally no scene in-game where he self-harms - further proof people are grafting a grab bag of stereotyped character traits onto him when the canon doesn't support it. if this is about his tattoos, i consider this a bit of a reach, but then i don't regularly associate tattoos with masochism.

there is of course this one, singular panel from Prelude to Revenge where we see him slitting his wrists:

but the context here makes it clear: 1) he's doing this as a morbid way to mark the passage of time and 2) most likely in response to the sheer contrast between him and Hector's respective situations - how would you feel seeing the guy who was at least partially responsible for your predicament living a happy life, while you're forced to live in the abandoned ruins of your home, constantly surrounded by all that you've lost? this is an act being shown when he's at his very lowest.

and this is the only instance we actually see - there is no other official material that implies this is something he does on the regular, although it's a popular headcanon considering the general fandom consensus that he most likely had a very rough start to life.

shitting on him for being "merely an inciting incident"? i don't even know what to say to this - do you understand how characters and stories work...? the narrative lives and dies on the push and pull of characters taking actions and other characters responding!

but it sure is curious (read: hypocritical) that this is a negative in these people's eyes when you point out the similarities between Lisa's and Rosaly's deaths.

sure, there is a bigger story about the cruelty of humanity as a whole that Lisa was executed, unprompted while Rosaly's execution was deliberately manipulated by Isaac - but that also adds to Isaac's character, the fact that both he and his younger sister were persecuted for being bonafide magic practitioners, and the sheer hypocrisy of and underhandedness of knowing that pain firsthand, and choosing to inflict it on an innocent woman anyway. it really shows how much his morals, if he ever had any, has truly eroded to the point he only cares about causing maximum damage.

i don't even want to waste my words on the ways N!Isaac is a worse character, comparatively, if you actually take into account the themes of the Devil Forgemasters' respective stories as presented in the games. but it does chap my asshole that, from this angle, both N!Isaac and N!Hector end up for the worse since now their stories are completely decoupled and it ruins the symbolism and duality that their game counterparts had.

#raaaaaaaggghhhhhhh CHUMPO SMASH!!!! #castlevania #anti netflixvania #isaac laforeze #isaac castlevania #castlevaniaposting #<- N!Isaac dickriders you WILL read my posts and quit acting smug #akumajou dracula

[utilitycaster]

Is it just me or are some of the more intense Imaudna folk…kind of mirroring Imogen’s over-defensiveness of Liliana? Or at least uncritically accepting Imogen’s assessment of her, without acknowledging her “bias”? (as we are now apparently calling the characters’ family - so K-pop of us)

I’m not saying she’s a terrible mother - she’s literary moving heaven and earth for Imogen [and herself] - but she’s helping bring about what could be an apocalyptic event, on the off-chance that it could relieve them of their powers.

And I get why people wanna ignore that in favor of Imogen reuniting with her Mom and building a relationship with her. But it’s frustrating when you remember that some of the people her Mom has fucked over include Kiki and the Ashari (not just Orym) and that she’s working with a guy that allowed Trent’s abuse of Caleb, who Beau has spent years working to take down, and we still don’t know what’s happened to those two.

Again - shades of gray, and we all love villains and complicated, messy women. But it’s quite the slice of cognitive dissonance to see fandom *really* pile on Fearne’s parents for abandoning her (especially when it was only six years as far as they knew), but even after she’s party to nearly murdering Kiki, we shouldn’t be assuming the worst of Liliana?

(Just read this back and…I don’t think some these Imaudna fans are actually Marisha fans)

I don't think it's mirroring Imogen, per se. Or rather, I think this is all part of the larger trend I've touched upon for some time: there are a segment of shippers with absolutely no empathy for or generosity towards anything that interferes with the ship. Ideally, they'd like to also support Imogen and Laudna as individuals; but even then the ship comes before the characters. As you said, they're not really Marisha - or Laudna - or for that matter Imogen or Laura fans. They're fans of them playing characters who are in a relationship together.

When Imogen was upset with Laudna for breaking the gnarlrock, there was a pretty prevalent attitude of "but it wasn't LAUDNA's fault, so why is Imogen upset, that's unfair" even though the rock is still broken and it happened when it was in Laudna's possession and, frankly, had Imogen not given the rock to Laudna, she'd still have it. In retrospect this has gotten even more wild, because since then, they've leaned very far into the negative effects Imogen experiences as a result of her powers as an argument as to why she's allowed to do whatever she wants, but at the time if you pointed out Imogen found relief from the rock and is justified in having an emotional response, you were met with screams of HOW DARE YOU BE MEAN TO LAUDNA. This hypocrisy is of course tied into the lack of empathy, because said lack of empathy rests on granting infinite grace to those who support or even merely recognize the ship, no matter their other actions (eg: Otohan), and dismissing the feelings of anyone else.

When Laudna died, it was a pretty common attitude among Imogen and Laudna shippers (I would say Laudna fans, but quite honestly almost every post grieving her was just as much about the ship as the character) that Orym would have been happy to have remained dead because he was a widower. This is a horrifying mentality to have - people's partners do die young, and most people choose to continue living - and was also notably untrue based on Liam's statements both in and out of game. You'll notice that "Orym doesn't want to die and felt like this was a massive failure" on 4SD never took off, but "Orym can't be objective" on 4SD has been blown to ludicrous proportions that show a stunning lack of understanding of like...basic human emotions and their role in decision-making. Because there's no consistency except The Ship.

When the party went to Whitestone, and Percy was in fact played as someone with very complicated and layered feelings about death and dying, and who was not going to change his developed principles for a stranger, he was lambasted. The fact that Delilah Briarwood is just as responsible for his trauma - repeatedly so, she was the architect of both his family's murder and the reason why Vecna achieved godhood, she's literally why his brother-in-law is dead, the Briarwoods have been responsible for two of Vex's deaths - was completely ignored. The fact that Vex and Pike were not spiting him in the end, but rather developed a mutually acceptable plan that permitted Laudna's resurrection with a contingency plan to kill her if Delilah returned led to some pretty harsh criticism of them as well.

FCG was pretty popular among the shippers for quite some time because he wanted everyone to get along and wanted Imogen and Laudna to make up after the gnarlrock fight (note: this is also true of Ashton and Orym, both of whom as discussed have since fallen from grace because they continued to exist as characters with their own thoughts and motivation) and had a lot in common with Imogen. However, a series of things occurred that led to their fall from grace among the shippers. The first was that FCG's coin is why Orym was resurrected instead of Laudna. The second is that Shared Dream was not, in fact, intended only to let Laudna go into Imogen's dreams, but rather allowed anyone in the party to go. The third is that FCG started to find a purpose beyond "help others no matter what," particularly after realizing they had a soul and were in fact a person, and specifically began exploring religion. Religion is unpopular with Imodna shippers particularly after 3x49 and Imogen's consideration of the Vanguard, but there's also definitely a mix of obvious ex-fundamentalists who never unpacked their feelings and instead just want all their fiction to validate their new beliefs. The fourth is that FCG/FRIDA "stole" the first canon relationship spot (which also confirmed that FCG was, in fact, shippable rather than some kind of robot eunuch with nothing better to do than push Imogen and Laudna together). And so you get some really fucked statements. Like, when I say I've seen "I hope someone makes that robot eat their stupid coin" that's not exaggeration; it's pretty much verbatim. That's not a post that a person who makes any attempt to understand experiences other than their own can make in earnest, but it does make sense from the perspective of someone who has decided Imogen and Laudna's relationship is the heart of the show and is angered that five other main PCs exist and have their own interests.

Ashton occupies a truly fascinating space, in that they're oddly popular, in part because their scenes with Laudna are genuinely unmissably fantastic scenes for Laudna. It's one of the only places where Laudna takes off the mask (though she's started to with Orym too). He also overlaps with a lot of what makes Imogen popular, except it's canon where Imogen's is subtext, or it's obviously more severe (Imogen's mom left? Ashton's an orphan. Imogen's had a few headaches? Ashton has chronic pain). So they hated when he pointed out he'd been abandoned by his friends in a way Laudna hadn't (also because Ashton and Laudna's conversation in 3x49 was just far more honest than Imogen and Laudna's, and because Laudna sought them out), but they like him when he's supportive of Laudna. They're constantly on the thinnest of ice because of this and because they're a genuinely compelling character, but because of that, might get in the way of what said shippers want, namely, a hundred episodes of Imogen and Laudna sipping tea at Zhudanna's and having a lovely time.

Following Imogen considering joining the Vanguard, Orym fell out of vogue despite his previous interactions with Imogen, because he very justifiably pointed out, as I've said, that the Ruby Vanguard killed his husband and his father-in-law (whom he saw as a father figure himself), and used a toxin that ensured they couldn't be brought back. I've talked about this a ton and so I'm not going to rehash every aspect, but the fact remains that while I like Imogen's choice to do this - conflict is fun! It makes sense for her character! - it's an incredibly insensitive thing to say. (It blows Ashton's statement about loneliness out of the water, for sure; incidentally, Ashton pointing out the more general hey girl they murder everyone who disagrees did NOT sit well with the hey let's harass everyone who disagrees crowd.) And when you mix it in with the god stuff discussed regarding FCG, Orym has become the periannath non grata of choice to the point of a similar response to the gnarlrock fight - if you sympathize with him, they see it as an attack not just on Imogen but on Laudna, for...not talking about Laudna as well. This has only gotten worse with Orym firmly committing to destroying the Vanguard, to the point that there are, generously speaking, misunderstandings or misrememberings of the text, and less generously speaking, outright lies. A notable one is that Laudna begins to tap into Delilah before Orym nods (Marisha's mention of the purplish hue is at 2:52:02 in episode 3x63; Orym's nod is at 3:01:42, a solid 9+ minutes later); he supports her decision, but he is not responsible for it.

Then there's the guests. Deanna was obviously made to ask Imogen about Laudna. She's here to ask them if they're married. She's here to encourage Imogen to follow her heart. She's definitely not here to have her own active and interesting love life and personal feelings about the gods (that conflict with Imogen's) and history and perspective. Oh she's...she's calling out Imogen's nonstop use of psychic powers? She's having a three-way with Chetney and Fearne? FRIDA is hooking up with FCG and admitted their anger about the gods was mostly due to projecting their personal anger about feeling powerless and having been awoken without their consent? Uhhhhhh Deni$e was obviously made to to ask Laudna about Imogen. She's definitely not here to be a connection to Dariax and have her own active and interesting love life and personal feelings about the gods. Wait, no, maybe Bor'Dor will ask about it? Uhhhhhh *flips coin but not in an FCG way* Laudna will *rolls dice* mentor Prism and this will...make this ship happen? Oh, won't these people with their own distinct personalities and motivations who keep having conversations with Orym and Ashton and each other stop doing that and just presume that a specific one of the four other people in Bells Hells they've never met and probably don't remember the names of is married to Laudna? Won't someone stop playing their character as a fully fleshed out person whose life is entirely unaffected by Laudna and Imogen's respective love lives? Oh and then Bor'Dor did ask about the relationship, and it was because it was a weakness and he was trying to infiltrate.

Quite literally? It goes as far as the gods! Why didn't they save Laudna? To which I'd say sure, let's explore what happens if they did! Let's follow this thread! Do they just save Laudna and maybe her family and no one else? Why Laudna? Does she get saved at the expense of some other dark-haired girl in Whitestone? Or perhaps they save everyone. Perhaps the De Rolos remain in power, and Campaign 1 doesn't fucking happen I guess, and Laudna grows up, and she lives out the rest of her life in Whitestone, and she's a woman in her 50s now - maybe even married, perhaps with children - and has never been to Marquet and wouldn't know or care about some random 20-something with purple hair. Like, what are you driving at here? Maybe the gods let Laudna die because that was the only way to bring her to Imogen. Ever think of that? (alternately: how do you know they didn't? What if Laudna's undead state has to do with Vecna? You didn't specify if it was the Primes or the Betrayers, or how she gets saved; she's still living after a hanging, which some might consider a miraculous gift. What if it was the Dawnfather acting through the Sun Tree? Can you describe what you want the gods to have done and where that puts us in 843 PD or do you just say shit hoping no one will ever poke at it?) When do the gods intervene? Do they make sure nothing bad ever happens to anyone? Are mortals just dolls the gods move around with no free will?

So anyway. I don't think these feelings about Liliana are based on mirroring Imogen's thought process. I do not think there is a level of consideration that Imogen and Laudna have motivations (motivations mean they can be something other than perfect flawless victims who found each other). It is simply "Imogen wants this, Laudna will validate anything she does, and so it's correct." The party line for anything else "fuck your trauma, fuck your dead family and dead loves, fuck your own hopes and dreams and goals: you exist only to fawn over two random-ass women. It doesn't matter if they are strangers to you. It doesn't matter if you've only met one of them. It doesn't matter how they act towards you. It doesn't matter if you're one of them, if you step out of line. This is your sole purpose, and if you fail, you're not a person to me." There's absolutely no thought put into the implications of anything they say beyond "it supports the ship, or, if not, it perpetuates the blameless, perfect and thus boring frozen state of the characters."

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #long post

[cienie-isengardu]

Fire Lord Zuko and Iroh

One thing that will never sit well with me in regard to the post-war Avatar: The Last Airbender world, especially as presented in the comics series, is the fact that Iroh gets so easily out of the mess of reforming Fire Nation and have relative happy ending, while 17 years old Fire Lord Zuko is left to deal with all the political shitty nightmare on his own. 

And look, I get the storytelling goal of the new generation stepping in and “repairing” the world the previous generation fucked up and all. But Zuko is not just forced to undo damage done by his father’s six years of regime or Sozin and Azulon, but by Iroh as well, because Iroh was part of the Fire Nation set to conquer other people. It was Iroh that besiege a Ba Sing Sai for 600 days - it was him who joked about burning the city to ashes in his letter to beloved family - and who didn’t finish the task only because his son died, with little regard to how many of Fire Nation soldiers or Earth Kingdom soldiers and civilians was killed through the almost two years because he had once a vision he will take the Ba Sing Sai. 

Zuko’s formal education ended at the age of 13,  when his father burned his face and banished to chase Avatar that no one saw for hundred years already. Sure, the animation series showed that Iroh was teaching his nephew both firebending and what makes one a good leader but what Zuko experienced and learned during his banishment is not exactly the equivalent of political knowledge he will need as Fire Lord who must find a way to rehabilitate Fire Nation in the eyes of the world but also figure out how to reform an imperialistic and military country into peaceful society with stable economy. A country that saw him as disgrace and traitor not so long ago, mind you.

And as much I see a merit in Iroh’s decision to pass the throne to Zuko - the Avatar’s friend and firebending master, him choosing tea shop over Zuko is just so fucking wrong to me. Iroh literally admitted Zuko was like a son to him in the first season and spent the next one trying to keep his nephew safe from their horrible family and other dangers and I’m supposed to believe when Zuko officially became Fire Lord with not only political nightmare to solve peacefully but also his abusive father to keep an eye on* and younger sister with mental breakdown, Iroh just… washed his hands from those problems so he could enjoy tea and Pai Sho game in peace? In Ba Sing Sai of all possible places with no consequence? Like, seriously?  

Legend of Korra strongly implies Zuko did a good job and had a healthy relationship with his family, as both Fire Lord Izumi and General Iroh II seem to be fine people on their own. Which is great and nice! But does Zuko really need to deal with problems created by his predecessors all by himself where there is alive Iroh, the actually fully trained, educated Crown Prince to help him get a grip of the political matters at least in the first few years of Zuko’s rule? I really want to know what Iroh was thinking? Give a throne to Zuko and hope the boy will survive all the assassination attempts and magically figure out how to deal with the consequences of war that lasted for 100 years?

I like Iroh but I’m not blind to his flaws and him being part of White Lotus should not be a free pass from the problems he helped create in the first place.

*Aang finding a way to stop Ozai without killing him is great for him and I’m happy he managed to do so while staying true to his own culture but he is not the one that is left to deal with Ozai for upcoming years. Taking Ozai’s bending doesn’t magically erase his abuse toward Zuko and Azula and the man still has political supporters that made Zuko’s life much harder and more dangerous than the kid deserves.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #prince zuko #fire lord zuko #zuko #uncle iroh #my rants #because this makes me so angry #iroh get a free pass while zuko is left alone to unfuck the mess on his own? #no thanks #if zuko was like a son to iroh he should be there and help him deal with reformation of fire nation #let's be real here if iroh stay with zuko the fire lord would not need to turn to his abusive father for advice in the promise comics #i get it i really do #but i hate this plot #atla critical #just in case

[child-of-the-danube]

So this is truly it, huh? Just like that, no more Doom Patrol?

I don't think I can completely explain how I feel about the show as a whole and how much it means to me, but this final episode just left me empty for both good and bad reasons.

WARNING!!! SPOILERS INCOMING!! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE YET!

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The whole Immortus/Butts resolution felt like such a cop-out. Immortus just going "Nah, you know what, I'm fine. Here's your longevity. Oh, and I'm besties with the Butts now. Too-da-loo 🥰" after being presented as their biggest threat ever? Meh

It would have been more cathartic had they somehow defeated Immortus when she was occupied with the Butts and got the longevity thingy off her neck to then run home only to find Rita already dead with Laura frozen with shock/grief beside her. To have them think they managed one more victory but with their biggest loss yet. And for Rita and Laura, the moments before she died could have been used to have a proper conversation and resolution between them. I would have loved if the final scene between them (and with alive non-ghost Rita in general) would have been Laura bringing her the Immortus nail just for Rita to decline cause she's at peace with dying. Even a simple "You're forgiven" would have been enough. And what was the point of telling Laura she's part of the Doom Patrol now to go "Yeah, you should all go your own way now" five minutes after she kicked the bucket???

Vic's ending was expected. It was obvious from the start that he would make it. And I'm glad cause he deserves happiness and to build a future that HE feels is right for him finally.

I'm also delighted Jane (a.k.a just K now) got her happiness both within herself and with Casey. And she's the only one we saw on screen saying goodbye to at least one person properly. Her and Cliff's realtionship was one of my absolute favourite things about the show.

Seems I managed to guess Larry's ending almost exactly. It was so sweet and beautiful. He didn't just return to space with Keeg but Rama as well. Can't lie, I've shed some tears during that scene. And his moment with ghost Rita... 12/10 wouldn't change anything about it

Cliff's ending is my favourite and the one that got me bawling my eyes out. "It's ok. I made it home" Uhm, excuse me?????? How dare the writers break my heart like that???? I am unwell and will need 5-7 business days to recover from it. Poetic, beautiful, amazing, showstopping etc. I love Cliff so fucking much

Dorothy who? Guess she just fell off the Earth after Immortimas

Also, Shelley? Never heard of her. Try looking in the woods when it gets foggy maybe 🤷

I guessed Rita would definitely die too but her whole "Each of you will be better off on your own" turnaround just didn't sit right with me. She's the one that spent her life keeping this little, broken, miserable bunch of just the unluckies motherfuckers known to the world together and managed to create a family that loves and supports eachother to death and THIS is her conclusion?? That they should just disband? Nope, not buying it. I guess it's somehow a way of telling that now the one that held them together, the heart of the show if you will, is gone that it's all done but I feel like that's a an insult to the rest of them and to the strength of their bond. Yes, Rita's insistence brought them together at first, but they've grown and gotten close so much since then even without her interfering in their one-on-one relationships. It just doesn't feel right. I also knew we'd get a Malcolm reunion scene but am I the only one that doesn't really care about him? Tbh, we didn't get to know much about him beside the fact that he was Rita's lover that tragically died. I just can't care about a character I know nothing about. I guess have fun posthumously frolicking in a field, Rita and Malcolm 🤷

So Jane got Casey and her sanity, Larry got Keeg and Rama, Vic got his friends and students, Cliff got see his family, their future and die peacefully beside them, Rita got to reunite with the love of her life in eternity and Laura got to, uhm, *checks notes*, play with a flamethrower? Like, ok, I do dig that she got to destroy the place that ruined her whole life guns a-blazing but what exactly does she get to do later on? The ones who remained alive all got someone to share their new found joy with, a proper plan for the future, they're at peace. Laura didn't get to neither truly reconcile with Rita, nor the Sisterhood, and now the only people she felt close to either died or went their own way without a true goodbye. What, pray tell, does her future look like beside, once again, loneliness and grief???? I fucking hated her ending. Give us a Laura de Mille spin-off, you cowards. Make it right...

#doom patrol #doom patrol spoilers #doom patrol finale spoilers #doom patrol season 4 #doom patrol 4x12 #rita farr #april bowlby #jane #diane guerrero #cliff steele #brendan fraser #larry trainor #matt bomer #victor stone #cyborg #joivan wade #laura de mille #madame rouge #michelle gomez

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Vampires Anonymous

Joey looks around the abandoned office-turned-Vampires-Anonymous and wonders how this night is going to go.

There’s about ten people scattered throughout the room. A guy playing a harmonica in a corner, some upbeat tune that’s probably actually a folk ballad about how some guy died in the old west, two heavily tattooed girls playing some kind of card game that involves a lot of yelling and smacking the top of the deck, a young guy with a frowzy shock of dark purple hair, an old man with cowboy boots and a weather-lined face apparently dozing off with his feet propped up on a battered desk, a guy who looks like he could have been a lawyer in his past life brushing off the seat of a wobbly spinning chair, and a woman with a dandelion poof of hair and a patch-covered jacket perched on top of a four-foot-tall filing cabinet. Then there’s Joey, and Shay, and the listing stacks of paperwork, file boxes, and busted chairs the previous tenants left behind. 

Part of what Shay’s doing as community service for his own mentorship is starting a support group for fledglings that’s connected to the mentor program. It’s one thing for young vampires to have a connection to someone who can offer advice and the wisdom of experience, but it’s also good to have people who are at the same spot, sharing the same struggles. 

Joey’s got her halfway house ‘sisterhood’, but she agreed to come anyway because Shay should have at least one person he knows to offer support the first few weeks. 

But if Shay’s nervous about his first night leading the group, he’s not showing it. 

Lawyer-guy looks around the room. “Shouldn’t we be, like, making a circle of chairs or something?”

“You wanna hold hands and sing Kumbaya, too?” Cabinet-percher asks. 

“This group is what we make it,” Shay breaks in, with the same authoritative calmness Joey remembers from the days when he drove off jerks harassing her. “In my experience, too much structure makes everyone feel too formal, or too put on the spot because we’re all looking at each other. We’ll try it this way first.” He looks around. “I would like everyone to introduce themselves but only as much as you’re comfortable with, and no last names right now. I’ll start. I’m Shay. I’ve been a vampire for a little less than two years, but I was bitten in college and it took me quite a while to actually die and turn. The reason I got picked to work with this group in the first place is that I was trying to deal with the chronic venom pain and got hooked on heroin. I’ve been in and out of mandatory rehabs and group therapy most of my adult life. The point being, I know something about what makes a group work or what makes them useless, and we’re going to try to be one of the better ones here.” 

Joey tries to pay attention as the others follow suit. 

Tattoos and Tattoos Two are sisters, Kai and Lia. They got turned the same night when they played a punk-rock gig at the wrong bar and ended up on the menu instead of onstage. The old man is Loren, a name that makes Lawyer-guy snicker until Harmonica throws a ball of crumpled paper at him. He’s a former rancher who ended up bled dry by both the banks and vampire loan shark he turned to in desperation. Purple hair is Francisco, whose story is disturbingly similar to Joey’s, except that the vampire who took him and four other people across the border decided to hang onto them for a while. He’d been the only one infected, and had woken up in the middle of a body dump in the desert. Like Joey, he’s on Chimera’s case docket for home earth citizenship. Harmonica turns out to be a very unassuming Jay, which feels like way too short and normal a name for his charismatic aura. He’d been a bit part actor in sitcoms until he tried to break up what he thought was a rape in the backlot and ended up surprising a hungry vamp instead. Lawyer-guy, whose name is actually Keith, really was a lawyer, apparently. A divorce lawyer whose less than above-board methods led to him crossing paths with a sleazy vamp offering PI services for his clients. One argument over payments later, his practice and his life were over. Cabinet-percher is Aaliyah. Former LA cabbie who got literally stiffed on a fare. Twice over, unfortunately for her. The first time by a vamp who bit her rather than pay up, and the second time by a desperate guy who was fleeing an armed robbery. When the radio gave out his description, and Aaliyah had looked into the mirror to confirm it was her passenger, he’d shot her in the back of the head and bolted.

Joey didn’t really mean to go last, but it kind of just happened. She’s not the sort to break into the conversation, and she was trying too hard to take in everyone else’s story.

“Uh, I’m Joey. I’ve been a vampire for about eight months. I was bitten when I was nineteen, by a border smuggler.” She kicks at a dust ball on the floor. “I spent the next six years in LA and when I died, my family buried me and I turned. Now I’m in the mentor program to get a chance at getting them back in my life.” It feels painfully slow. Two weeks is too long to wait for the physical visits, but if everything goes well, in another month she’ll get moved up into the once-a-week bracket. “I hadn’t told them I was going to become a vampire. Mostly because I didn’t actually think it would happen.”

One of the two tattooed girls (it’s going to take weeks for Joey to remember who’s who) scowls. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t know you had the venom in you?”

Joey laces her fingers together and looks down at her hands in her lap.

“Not for sure.” She sighs. “I didn’t want it to be true. I couldn’t afford it to be.”

“Didn’t you feel anything?” Aaliyah asks. “I felt like my skin was going to burn off whenever someone touched me. It hypersensitized me to everything. And my teeth were killing me.”

“I kept telling myself everything I felt made sense.”

She was driving her sister to appointments, working the fights at night, scared she'd be caught and deported because she couldn't get a visa. She’d figured the stomach pains meant she’d end up like Jorge across the hall, with a stress ulcer before thirty because he too had overstayed his legal welcome. She thought the hunger was from skipping meals so her siblings got more. 

She was ignoring the pain because Via came first.

“Everyone else in our neighborhood was just like me. Always tired, alert to anything that might be trouble, not enough in our pockets to put enough on the table.” Even the teeth had made sense. She’d always ground them in her sleep. Mauri used to complain about it in the camps, say she was keeping him awake.

The one thing she’d never felt was the aggression Shay had described, that drove him to the fights where she’d met him. Chimera’s been theorizing for a while that there’s a subclass of vampire in which the venom activates the victim’s flight instead of fight response, creating a stealthy, shadow-dwelling vampire when they finally turn, an ambush predator rather than one that stalks its prey actively. 

They still don’t know if it’s linked to the person’s inherent responses to traumas, or if it’s connected to a specific strain of sires. After all, one could argue that the vampire who turned her was the same sort. That kind of alert wariness would be an asset to someone in his line of work. 

“That’s messed up.” Jay shakes his head. “I can’t believe you just ignored that.”

Joey swallows. No one will blame her if she stops talking now.

She’s not sure telling anyone the specifics about her family is ever a good idea.

But that’s something born out of years of running and hiding and fear.

She doesn’t want to carry that with her into this place. 

“I wasn’t alone when I came across the border. I made the deal I did in exchange for him getting my siblings and me here, so my sister could get the medical help she needed. Via was always the brave one. Facing her pain with a smile even on her worst days. If she could be okay, how could I be anything else?” Joey swallows. “It felt like nothing compared to what she must have been living with. She needed me to be strong for her, and I had to make sure she could get to the doctor, that we could pay for her treatments, and that she felt safe.”

“Damn. You just ignored vampire venom poisoning because taking care of your family was the most important thing in your life. That is bad-ass,” Aaliyah says. “You told something killing you from the inside out that it was gonna have to get in line because your little sis needed you.”

Joey didn’t think what she’d done was that impressive. She’d just been getting herself out of bed every day for Via, like she’d done every day since their mother was murdered. But apparently, to a room full of vampires, she’s managed to pull off something extraordinary.

“Yeah. Don’t think I can top that,” Keith says with a shrug. 

“You literally got infected and died in the same day, of course you can’t,” Kai (Joey can tell now because she’s spun around in her office chair and there’s a big stylized K inked on her shoulder) retorts. 

“Beginning to think you should be the one leading sessions,” Shay says, a hand resting gently on Joey’s shoulder. 

She shakes her head. It was scary enough telling a roomful of vampires about her siblings even existing. She’s not someone who likes the spotlight. Ever. 

“No way.”

He gives her a smile. “Well, in that case…” He holds out a chipped bowl full of strips of paper and pens. “Write down your favorite vamp bar. Has to be a legal one though, and not a coven-members-only kind.”

“Okay, why?” Francisco asks.

“Because I think we’re going to have a much better time getting to know each other over drinks.” Shay says with a grin. “We’ll draw names every week, rotate through.”

“That seems like a weird way to run the vampire version of AA,” Keith mumbles.

“We’re not trying to stop drinking synth-blood,” Lia says. “We’re trying to learn how to cope with being vampires. I think it’s great.” She tosses her slip in the bowl. “Heads up Kai and I have the same pick and it’s karaoke so be prepared to sing for a round because there’s double the chances ours gets picked.” 

“Oh no,” Jay groans.

“What do you have against music? You were playing that harmonica for a solid ten minutes.”

“Music, fine. Me singing, so not a good idea.”

“Then you’d better start practicing and hope it gets picked a couple weeks from now,” Aaliyah says, tossing her own pick in.

Shay swirls a hand around the bowl. As the only member of the group without a suggestion, he’s the most unbiased picker. He pulls out a folded paper, opens it, and shakes his head. “Okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but who possibly suggested a dive like the Vein Drain?”

No one raises their hands.

“Well, it is a legal establishment, but can we at least try not to start a full bar brawl on our first meeting night?”

There’s a pretty mixed response of nods and shrugs.

Shay looks at Joey with the first really concerned expression she’s seen all night, but all she can do is shake her head. “You let them pick.”

“And I think I’m going to regret it.” Shay sighs. “I’m going to be really bad at this aren’t I?”

“I guess we’ll find out if Lawson has to read us the riot act and bail us out of holding in the morning,” Joey says. “In the meantime, I guess we’re going to find out why this place is one of our new friends’ favorite hangouts.”

(You can read this story and others from this universe on my WorldAnvil here!)

@catwingsathena @nade2308 @the-one-and-only-valkyrie @telltaleclerk @ettawritesnstudies  @writeouswriter @whump-place @the-lovely-wren

#febuwhump #febuwhump2024 #febuwhumpday26 #help them #vampires anonymous #shane barrett #josefina quintero

[tanoraqui]

hey!! i love your blog so much your takes are *chefs kiss*

i saw an Amazing post a few months ago where someone laid out a really cool plan for a silmarillion tv show and i cant find it again. it haunts my every waking moment. i think i saw it on your blog so i figured id ask if you knew it.

Either way, have a great day!

(note: I got this ask several thousand years ago, and am answering it now because I asked my roommates if I should write something serious tonight, or something ridiculous, or read a book; and they said ridiculous.) (note 2: I wrote the above several days ago. I'm posting at 6.5k words) (note 3: I'm going to pretend this is a deliberately timed gift to @thelordofgifs for their latest fic updates, which were bullet points of heartfelt and sober compelling canon divergence. this...is bullet points of [heartfelt? compelling?] lunacy. I hope you might enjoy it.)

Are you thinking of this, the "Supernatural but make it Silmarillion lore, and also women" show of my dreams? (Me, approaching the Tolkien estate with an offer for the rights to the Silmarillion: I swear, I will ONLY show the First Age in limited flashbacks. Everything else will be the characters as they are at least 10,000 years later, maybe even with an active framing device to identify them as modern interpretations of the characters...")

Oh huh, I forgot I thought a bunch more about that "teeechnically-not-AU" and never added it to that post. Regardless of whether it's the show you were thinking of, dear Anon:

one of the protagonists is definitely the reincarnation of Fëanor. Her name is Seraphina, which translates to something like "fiery divine being", bc her mom had a good sense of these things. They don't know this at first

her slightly older twin sister is Martha, named after their grandmother but it does mean the feminine of "master", because I spent at least an hour trying to translate any name Turin ever had into something reasonably modern and this is the best I could do (they also don't know about this reincarnation at first, ofc)

their father was killed by some sort of monster when they were babies so their mother took up monster-hunting ranging, etc. etc.

(the underground community of modern monster-hunters are called Rangers, in reference to the roaming heroes of old)

Seraphina, the Wild One(TM), ran away to go to college, where she double-majored in astrophysics and mechanical engineering and double-minored in linguistics and metallurgical engineering, and wrote an art history thesis. Martha, the Dutiful One(TM), stayed with their mother and kept ranging. They reunite when Martha shows up on Phina's doorstep because "Mom went on a hunting trip and hasn't been home in a few days", etc. etc.

the Bobby-style substitute parent should really, to (kind of) round this out, be a dwarf or hobbit. The full "Team Free Will" should represent all peoples of Arda... But I'm not making up OCs right now (yet)

a unifying legend of the Ranger community is that their unofficial network has been supported and guided for millennia by their cousins, the peredhel, Elrohir and Elladan, who quite simply never Chose and have been wandering the earth, saving people and hunting things, ever since their sister died. They don't NEED to Choose until they die, technically!

This is, in fact, true - or, it was. Until about 25 years ago, when [flips a coin] Elrohir married our heroes' mother, settled down into peaceful domesticity, and a few years later died dramatically to buy [throws a dart at a wheel of names] Laura and their children time to escape the whatever.

Laura knew about his profession and that he was older than he looked, but not his whole deal. She found that out later while vengefully hunting monsters...and never told her daughters.

The plot of Season 1 involves unravelling this mystery, including at some point meeting their elusive uncle Elladan (who has maybe gone a little mad with the sudden death of his twin? That'd be a fun season antagonist/arc/theme...dealing with grief...very topical!)

By the end of s1, all of the above have probably had a nice closure-giving(-ish) confrontation/conversation with Elrohir's ghost - who's been waiting in Mandos for his wife and/or brother despite Mandos's INCREASINGLY strident blandishments to stop acting like a cat in a doorway and choose - and Laura and Elladan are both dead in suitably dramatic circumstances.

...or, Elladan is. Apparently John Winchester didn't die until s2e1! So, what happens is:

- (earlier in the s1 finale episode, Laura, noticed something once or twice which her daughters didn't - saw a curl of smoke, seemed to be examining a McGuffin extra closely...)

- Laura has been mildly injured, and someone needs to guard a McGuffin or maybe a random innocent civilian caught up in this, so she stays behind while Phina and Martha go off to deal with whatever the actual big bad of the season is. Maybe a cult trying to sacrifice half-elves for some reason? Directed, though not personally managed, by whatever killed Elrohir in the first place, which is...I gotta figure an OC balrog? Like, not one of the big ones from canon. We'll just call her (Laura's) Bane henceforth.

- not long later, while Phina and Martha are fistbumping in the remains of the cult's hideout Seraphina maybe have used chemical explosives), or maybe discretely looting Elladan's body for useful weapons laying their uncle to rest, the scene cuts back to Laura

- she's pacing, patrolling. Ready for a fight. She senses something and goes even tenser, drawing her ancient sword. It glows softly blue - but this is no orc. Heavy footsteps, flickering shadows and firelight, maybe the sound of wings. We do not see the enemy, just a middle-aged woman in improvised combat gear with a pistol in one hand and a Gondolin-made sword in the other, and a look of iron determination and defiance. She pulls off the bandage on her arm, revealing that she'd faked her injury so the girls would leave her behind.

- "I knew it was you," she greets her old enemy, unflinching, as a faint reprise rings unnoticed in the Great Music. She moves to attack, met by a whip-crack and a flash of fire, and cut to black.

Season 2 starts where s1 ended, for Martha and Seraphina. They're almost back at their car (the beloved 1967 Chevy Shadowfax). Note: few times in s1, Phina has had strange visions or nightmares, never anything prophetic but once a good clue to defeating the MotW...

She reels with the force and horror of this one. Darkness, utter and choking, pierced eventually by a single desperate torch. A dark and empty hall where there should be life and light. Flickering firelight reveals blood on the floor...

She gasps, "Mom," and demands that Martha drive, drive, fucking drive faster already -

They're too late, of course. Laura is long-since dead.

...so, back to Monster of the Week, with additional focus on tracking down the Bane!

Seraphina's strange dreams and visions get more frequent, more memorable. Sometimes they're peaceful, full of beautiful Light. More often they're dark, or at least, dim - climbing strange, starlit mountains (finding a cousin of aconite which turns out to also be useful for defeating werewolves). Choking grief as her hand brushes the air just above a vibrant tapestry, too afraid to ruin it with touch. Fire in her throat as she shouts world-shaking words in a language she doesn't remember (she repeats them a moment later, fending off a corrupted wind-spirit, and it flinches even before Phina feels a burst of vicious, raging, burning strength.)

Seraphina is curious as hell and keeps pushing herself to learn more, see more. Do more. It's not just visions, eventually - she starts to read minds, here and there. She's always been a fidgeter, happiest with some petty creative task of wire and beads or yarn in her hands, but now she can swear that sometimes her craft supplies sing at times, directly surpassing her ears, and she can make things with quality, with power. A new-knitted scarf is sturdy as a gorget. Glass beads glow. The more Phina does, the more she's frustrated rather than satisfied - she knows she's missing something, and she HATES being ignorant. Being wrong.

Martha, always the responsible one, especially feeling the need to be so now that their mom has died, wishes she would stop. Wishes she wouldn't put herself, put both of them, in danger like this. Martha is literally game to fight an orc with her fists one on one, any day of the week; she's no stranger to a quick temper and impulsive action. But she grew up! Why can't her sister!

(Martha: [venting the above to a stranger in a bar or something. Meanwhile, Seraphina has found an medieval Songbook and is trying to, like, apply principals of Elvencraft to chemical engineering. more arguing ensues.])

Toward the end of the season, there's, idk, several murders at the site of a geothermal drilling experiment in the North Sea, and oh shit, Bane is trying to get something that came out of that drill shaft! Violent interrogation of some evil minions reveals that it's no less precious thing than a Silmaril! Our heroes read about those recently in some ancient tome! (Phina got a headache so bad, and a sense of being aflame, that she passed out.)

In the third-to-last episode of the season, they hunt the Silmaril to the unlucky random research facility to which it's been taken. Mundane authorities and/or scientists are already coveting it as a potential energy source, adding extra mooks...who mostly just die when Laura's Bane arrives. But our girls get to it just slightly faster. The jewel is in a jead-lined box. Phina has been increasingly consumed by single-minded focus on getting this thing; even as the Ban storms in all fire and darkness, she's furiously picking the lock. She flings back the lid; we see a shining gold-white jewel - and the Light consumes the screen.

The second-to-last episode starts with pure Light - then it fades to simple Mingling, as the Noldor hold a funeral for Miriel. They had rites for the fallen in their starlit home of old, when they knew no return. They are having a modified version now, knowing that in her weariness she will, at least, take a very long time; in the hope that it will help those who loved her move through their grief.

- young Fëanor (age 5ish), tears running down his cheeks, whispers to his father that he is sorry, so sorry he killed her. Finwë denies it fiercely, lovingly, and holds him tight. Indis approaches, seeking to offer comfort; Finwë sees her over Fëanor's head and, gratefully, shakes his head. She retreats.

- but in the next memory, it is Fëanor (age 10ish) who watches Finwë and Indis, as they move joyously in unison around their wedding dance floor. Someone says something to him, he responds bitterly.

- (I'm not sure exactly what narrative of Fëanor's life I want to construct here, but assume subsequent memories/short scenes include: dislike of half-siblings (ft. fear of loss/abandonment masked as superiority complex), finding genuine joy and contentment in craft, exploration, and Nerdanel & their children; Melkor & rising tensions with Fingolfin, the Silmarils, the sword Incident, banishment (ft. savage dislike of Valar), Finwë's death (the same memory that struck when Laura died!), the Oath, Alqualondë, the theft and burning of the ships...and Amrod...and shortly thereafter, Fëanor himself, in a rush that only wasn't suicide because he really thought he could bust in and kill a Vala right up until he realized he absolutely could not do that.)

- (very fast final montage of key events post death, only snapshots, maybe styled as tapestry seen from Vairë's Halls? Fingolfin, crowned, raising Maedhros from a bow and embracing him; the glorious hosts and castles of the Noldor, Dagor Bragollach, Fingolfin's death, Doriath & Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin's deaths, Sirion & Amras's death (both with the Silmaril evading them in the background), Morgoth's defeat by Host of the West with Eärendil shining far overhead, the final attack/theft, Maedhros's death, Maglor flinging the third into the sea and collapsing)

- camera close on Seraphina's face as she opens her eyes. They are shining with Light. She says, "Fuck."

FINAL EPISODE OF S2 STARTS WITH:

- a few second earlier: Martha sees from across the room as Phina opens the box and a joyous Light shines forth, and her sister collapses. The Silmaril falls and rolls.

- Martha doesn't have time to see where it rolls, because she has to fight the monster that killed both her parents. We've seen Laura's Bane in the shape of a woman with cavern-black hair and fiery eyes a few times before, and when it killed Laura and Elrohir, we glimpsed much more. But 2 episodes ago was the first time we saw it in all its terrible, burning darkness. The building is falling apart around it. There were a couple security guards and a scientist here; they're dead within moments.

- like her mother, Martha started out with a gun and a sword. She quickly gives up on the gun - it IS a special magic gun, but she's just better with a sword. She's snarking at the monster as she fights, because this is a gritty urban fantasy show so she's going to die, but by Eru she's going to die with sarcasm on her lips.

- the Bane's whip finally catches her around the wrist. It's not clear if it's the pain of the break or the burn that makes her drop her sword. The Balrog steps over it and grabs her by the throat. Darkness enwraps her, the searing, choking claws and the all-encompassing wings and the swallowing of her vision -

- Light pierces it like a blade. The Balrog falls back, dropping Martha to the floor.

- there stands her sister, Silmaril raised, almost glowing herself with its Light. Her eyes blaze with the particularly fiery Light that was always Fëanor's.

- Power in her voice, in English she says, "I am Seraphina Elrohiel [cool epithet she's picked up as a hunter]"; in the most traditional lisping Quenya she adds, "and I am Fëanáro Finwë-Curufinwë." English again: "I wrought this jewel five ages of the world ago…and to be honest, I don't really know what I can do with it now."

- - (the soundtrack crescendos, the Music crescendos; unseen, all around Arda and beyond, beings tuned into the Great Song of Ëa know that Fëanor once again holds a Silmaril, and go oh, shit, fuck!!)

- she smiles, fey and burning. "Do you think it's a good idea to stay and find out?"

- Laura's Bane flees with a snarl.

- Martha gets to her knees, and no further. She's panting, still catching her breath, bleeding and bruised and burned, and staring up at her incandescent sister(?).

- Seraphina (who is, has always been, Fëanáro Curufinwë) stays standing and glaring for a moment more, making sure the enemy has truly gone. Then -

- - [note: it came up, in their hasty recent recent research into the Silmarils while chasing them, that they are blessed such that evil hands can't touch them. they'd hoped this would be protection against the Bane, if they got there too late to stop it]

- - [note: in the very very brief memory-views of Maedhros and Maglor's last moments, it was clear that their grips on the Silmarils were agony]

- Phina falls to her knees, Silmaril dropping from her hand without protest. Once again it rolls offscreen, glow faded but still bright. All force of presence gone, she cradles her burned hand and sobs in agony and irreparable loss, not to mention the sheer overwhelming experience of everything.

- older sister instincts (again: despite the fact that they're twins) gets Martha moving when nothing else did. Still not actually sure what just happened, she crawls forward and hugs her sister.

...then they get out of there. Martha picks the Silmaril up carefully with a piece of cloth and puts it back in the lead-lined box, and Phina carries the box. For the rest of the episode, they hunt down Laura's Bane before it can escape them utterly - unless it tries to come back and get the Silmaril while they're still off-balance, which is entirely possible! Either way, they kill it so dead!

Season ends with the two of them sitting in a dingy motel room, or maybe back in the Shadowfax [car], staring at the Silmaril box. Martha says, "So...what do we do with this?" Phina says, "We find out what the hell happened to the other two!"

IN SEASON THREE...

...I stop having particularly coherent ideas for what happens, is what happens in season three

honestly, I was originally conceiving of this as 5 seasons a la Supernatural didn't it have a great show finale in 2010? so great. thank goodness they didn't make 10 more seasons for some canonically godforsaken reason. But Fëanor retrieving even just one Silmaril would so kick off an s4 level of divine intervention and incipient apocalypse...

I dunno, or maybe they CAN have a full season of Monster of the Week plus arcing plot which is half standard hunting, half various supernatural entities tracking them down either to steal the Silmaril or to kill Fëanor (again) for her many crimes?

They retrieve 1 Silmaril that season, while evading, idk, I guess Sauron is our Lilith equivalent... And it WOULD be fun to have s4 start with Martha kicking open Mandos's doors (she's holding 2 Silmarils; she can kick open whatever doors she wants) and demanding her obnoxious sister back...

(We COULD do a thing where the Valar deliberately put Fëanor back asap, but lbr they...would probably rather not, even if they need her alive to do certain things. On the other hand, if they did, what a fun conflict for her! On the third hand, SOMEONE has to Lúthien the other's Beren at least once - not that Martha is singing. She's going more for the 'threatens Ainur with swords' side of her heritage.)

(That WOULD create a fun 'Martha has been doing increasingly badass and angsty shit offscreen (while Seraphina was dead)' scenario that could lead smoothly into some flashbacks about what Martha was doing before the show started - namely, increasingly badass (and angsty) shit while Seraphina was in college...)

Because in terms of focus, the first 2 seasons are a little more about Seraphina. Having not Ranged for a while, she's more the audience's pov character to start, and then the big plotty drama is focussed on her in s2...and in s3, as they hunt the next Silmaril and she adjusts to being... That is, Fëanor adjusts to being...

She was Fëanor for a MUCH longer time than she's been Seraphina, but she's been Seraphina more recently and kinda more...vividly? She hasn't fully processed being Fëanor. Her hröa is human (and female-shaped and human-female-gendered, and elves don't define gender the same way and don't have gendered pronouns at all, so she's sticking with 'she/her' and it's not a big deal), and her fëa has been acting human, so her memory capacity is still mostly human, as are her reflexes, her need for sleep, etc... She's getting better, but it takes time.

But boy has this enhanced ALL of Seraphina's natural attention-seeking, forward-leaping, fight-starting, prideful, self-centered Protagonist(TM) behavior!

Which is driving Martha CRAZY, all the moreso because there's reason for it now. Aside from the fact that even with no memory of her past life, Seraphina was always brilliant, while Martha was just...normal at best. Clumsy and un-witty except with a weapon in her hand. Prone to sulking and shyness. Downright unlucky, while the universe seems to shower blessings on her sister.

Even when Fëanor is trying not to start a fight, she's so condescending. to her sister who is a mere mortal Man. Having been one for 25-odd years - still being one, in fact - Fëanor has lost much of her suspicion of Man as an usurping species (it was never really about Men anyway). But she's SO condescending.

(Martha IS her sister, still. Martha can hold the Silmaril without the Oath pushing Seraphina to burning wrath, because she is Fëanor's kin.)

(Though "Fëanor's kin" was only ever a stand-in for, roughly, "people Fëanor could trust to temporarily hold a Silmaril because he knew they'd give it back to him instantly if he asked." So, as the rift deepens between then, as she grows paranoid again...)

...returning to the point above: as Seraphëanor steps up as Person Who Can Explain Advanced Supernatural Shit, audience pov connects a little more with Martha. Also because Fëanor's radius of destruction is really fun to watch from the outside.

Yeah...Seraphina gets pretty high up her own ass over the course of s3, then dies, maybe heroically or maybe as foolishly as last time, then post-season hiatus smash cut to Martha kicking in Mandos's front door and dragging her back to life... I do love that.

SEASON FOUR...

After the shock wears of, the classic Fëanorian paranoia isn't helped by the fact that Martha IS keeping secrets. What she's been doing, who she's been doing it with...(some Maia, maybe even an Úmaia?) Though Arda's mythology doesn't have the same Heaven/Hell dichotomy as Earthly Christianity, so alaos we can't have the sexy sexy s4 thing of an angel on one sister's shoulder and a devil on the other's...

But basically I think s3 has to have been somewhat of a tragedy, as Túrin (unknowing) and Fëanor (just bad at this) played out their old tragedies in tandem. Rashness was often the undoing of both. Leaping to conclusions, action or both, though usually in opposite directions. With maybe a dash of parallels with ancient (ie, Second Age) Elf vs Man conflict - Martha is increasingly down on herself, but also, jealous of Seraphina's Protagonist Energy and increasingly ready to do some violence about it.

And none of that resolves in s3! Seraphina just gets killed!

So in s4, they have to figure it out. Seraphina needs to learn some sort of (gasp) humility, and how to let grievances (and loved ones) go. Martha needs to learn how to cope with regret and grief with means other than changing her name and moving to a different city.

(She's already starting, though! This time, she asked "what would Seraphina do', then broke into Mandos and demanded solutions!)

(...and Mandos, perhaps, was very ready to refuse until he got a good look at her fëa, silently went 'huh' in recognition, and waved them out.)

Then Martha starts having strange dreams and visions - maybe after they fight an ancient dragon? or maybe she already was, in the s3-s4 gap (after fighting an ancient dragon with her new Maia friend?)

Seraphina is initially PSYCHED about this- twinnies for real!! But they get some entity to look at Martha's fëa and they confirm that she's 100% a Man.

Monster of the Week episodes are still the main focus btw. Vampires and werewolves, cursed magical objects, rogue petty nature maiar, peacekeeping between factions of non-humans still dwelling secretly here and there... Though perhaps the masquerade is starting to fracture?

And, of course, some (other?) Maia has shown up and informed them that Sauron is embodied again and trying to complete a ritual to break a hole in the envelope of the world to let Melkor back in, which our heroes must stop!

Also, definitely need to get the 3rd Silmaril back this season. They got the one in the earth and the one in the sea...

- so, a fan favorite recurring character [a/n: IT'S MY IMAGINARY TV, I CAN IMAGINE THE FANDOM'S REACTIONS, TOO, AND ALSO TBH I'M CERTAIN I COULD DELIBERATELY CRAFT A FAN FAVORITE CHARACTER] is the twins' Uncle Earl, who isn't technically their uncle but rather an old family friend of their mother's. He is, in short, kind of an old kook. Some flavor of Southern - I'll flip a coin and say Louisianan? Lives on a houseboat, refuses to go ashore unless absolutely necessary because "the feds'll get me." Visiting nieces means there's someone else to go get groceries and gasoline (necessary, but he doesn't trust most delivery services or modern technology, either), so they've possibly never seen him set foot on land except maybe once on an isolated beach in rural Oregon. Fought in Korea. Has probably looked grizzled since age 12. Eats mostly fish, talks to birds, talks back to the radio.

- to be clear, this guy is not filling the Bobby 'faux-parent' role. ...okay maybe he is a little, emotionally. But he's not involved in "the family business." In terms of SPN characters, he's roughly Garth - appears once a season or so, is a delight for 1 episode, then we part ways. He calls Martha in s1 because there's been some "weird deaths" in the port he's in right now, and he knows they deal with "this sort of thing" but he can't get ahold of Laura. There's a mention of him in s2, that they called to tell him Laura had died. In s3, they need to lay low for a while so they join him on his boat for a few weeks, go stir-crazy and end up fighting a sea monster.

- Idk if he calls them again in s4 or they're trying to lie low again or they just run into him by chance...but they're dealing with MotW murders in some swampy Florida shore-town and on his ship (The Flower) when something much bigger than a swamp monster catches up with them. Say, Sauron sent an unstoppable Carcharoth-sized wolf monster, or maybe a super-vampire (some aerial combat would be fun), or just some Úmaia miniboss that a season or two would've been a season-climax boss fight...

- they're moored up when it arrives. Phina curses, Martha shouts for Earl to drive, drive the boat out as far and fast as he can! Earl was half-asleep at the table; he starts awake demanding if it's the feds?! Phina leaps to the wheel herself and slams the gas, while Martha grabs the old shotgun off the wall and fires at the giant shadowy wolf-monster.

They leave it howling on the pier. They'll have to go back and face it eventually, but they're not ready right now. Maybe they can even re-land far upshore, and it'll have lost their scent again...

- the giant shadow-wolf finishes howling starts chasing them running on the water

- Martha curses, and shouts Phina to drive faster. Earl (looking over Martha's shoulder, also cursed, almost impressed, at the sight of the wolf) tells her to give him the wheel. Phina shoves him away and shouts back as she yanks the wheel that they need to turn back, they can't win this fight on the water -

- the wolf is snapping at the Flower's keel. Phina curses in Valarian and yells at Earl to take the wheel and steer them back to land, while she runs back to help Martha fight the wolf.

- Earl flips a red lever in the [boat mechanics] cabinet under the wheel which we've probably seen before (Seraphina fixed something in s1), labeled "High Octane" and shouts, "Hold on, girls!" He slams the throttle again and the whole houseboat hydroplanes. The wolf falls overboard; Phina goes with it but Martha grabs her.

- the wolf gets to its feet on the water, and starts chasing them again

- "Confession time, girls!" Uncle Earl calls, steering the boat beyond full throttle while Martha and Phina get to their feet. "I did befriend your ma's dad while he was fighting in Korea. He whispered to the stars at night, when he felt lost." Adjusts a standing spyglass, tugs a string a couple times to turn on the lanterns on the prow and above the steering console, dons his navy blue-and-gold captain's hat. "I thought I couldn't have been happier to guide him home - then Elrohir met his Laura, and they fell in love. And had the two of you!"

- "Do you have a point?" Phina shrieks. She's scrambling to get her jacket out of her bag under one of the seats, because her Silmarils are in its pockets and the shadow-wolf is gaining. Martha, shooting at the wolf again, glances back, maybe having noticed that the old anecdote is phrased differently than before. Old Uncle Earl is standing unusually straight, his grizzled-gray hair gold-ish in the warm lantern light.

- "Yes!" he calls, jerking the boat away from the wolf again. Some of his Louisiana accent has fallen away, too. "Don't lose your wits - and keep holding on to something!"

- he tugs the light-cord again and the yellowy lantern-case above the wheel opens, and the light that shines forth is far brighter and paler. Its source falls into his hand as the lantern shakes with the Flower's speed, and he sets it on the brim of his hat - the illusion of which fades, leaving only the golden band on his brow with the Silmaril set upon, and Eärendil standing as tall, young, and golden-haired as when he first sailed the sacred seas. He gives the wheel another stern yank and the ship's prow rises even higher - and keeps rising, with the rest of the Flower in tow - the Foamflower, Vingilotë, every plank now aglow.

- "Also," he admits, looking over his shoulder to make sure neither of the twins has fallen off (again), "I'm your great-grandfather. I really am sorry to have - hey!"

- that's for Seraphina, who is Fëanor, Oath blazing in her heart, regaining her balance, sprinting up the deck and lunging with wrath in her eyes for the Silmaril.

- Eärendil dodges smoothly, while still keeping one hand on the wheel. "I said," he says reprovingly - while Martha bodily tackles her sister to the floor - "keep your wits Fëanáro. I'm here to help, as I ever have been for the people of Arda."

- the girls wrestle on the deck for a few more seconds before Seraphina calms down. It helps that they realize the wolf had grown giant wings of shadow and is chasing them aloft as well.

- btw: late in s4, the dwarvish researcher who's Bobby's fill-in and/or Martha's probably-trustworthy Maia friend should really be present as well for all of the above, but this ain't really about them. So I think they're just kinda. awkwardly Present for this family not-reunion. helping fight the wolf & all that.

- (Eärendil doesn't actually give back the Silmaril. But he lets Seraphina hold it for a few minutes, during which she is more at peace than she has been in millennia, and promises to let her have it again if/when she really needs it, if it isn't more urgently needed elsewhere. This is, more or less, satisfying to the Oath: as discussed "Fëanor's kin" was only ever shorthand for "people whom Fëanor could trust to hold a Silmaril without ever withholding it from him.")

Eeexcept it turns out that even Eärendil doesn't know that the Valar DO want Morgoth back, because they're kinda totally down to have Dagor Dagorath and reboot the world. Look it'll be great - Túrin - that's you, Martha - will help Eonwë and Tulkas slay him, then Fëanor will break the Silmarils, releasing the Light so that Eru can use it to Remake the world, Unmarred this time - Hey, where are you Children going? Stop stabbing people! Stab only the people we tell you to stab!

(Ulmo, ever wise, offscreen: When has that EVER worked? Especially with Fëanáro and his kin?)

Yeah, there's a scene very much like the end of SPN s4, wherein Martha gets grabbed by the celestial "good guys" and they admit that this is all kinda set-up but don't worry - here's your destined fuckoff-huge black sword, just wait a few minutes for your "sister" to once again achieve an evil end that's the exact opposite of what she intended; and then Martha has to convince the Maia she's been befriending all season to help her escape and go rescue Seraphina before she jumpstarts the apocalypse...

(Nb: Martha was already trying to stop Sauron from freeing Morgoth when the season started - she broke Seraphina out of Mandos party bc she loved and missed her sister, partly because she needed a Silmaril expert. But she's grown skeptical of the task somehow, while Seraphina - perhaps because Seraphina - has gotten vengefully obsessed with it. As Fëanor is wont to do. Hell, she has even more reason than she used to - she knows what Sauron did to her grandson.)

So, y'know

They do, of course, accidentally free Morgoth.

On the plus side, in the process, they get to jointly murder the SHIT out of Sauron, who was the REAL mastermind behind much of Laura's Bane's actions (and, honestly? Might've been the real one who killed Laura, and only set it up to look like a Balrog. Flames and shadows both can have many masters!)

SEASON FIVE, THE FINAL SEASON DEFINITELY FOLLOWED BY NO FURTHER SEASONS despite the temptation of a terrible sexy humanoid Ungoliant

I only have 3 ideas for season 5:

1. They go to Valinor at some point, of course. Perhaps to rally aid? The first elf they find, they introduce themselves grandly, Fëanor and Túrin Turambar here seeking allies to fight Morgoth! and the elf says blankly, "I have never heard of either of you." *squints* "You're Men, you say? Lord Ulmo keeps a Man on Tol Eressëa, I think. You could go to him?" But after that, as a running joke all episode, every other elf they meet recognizes Fëanor on sight (she has a very distinctive fëa) and immediately punches her in the face...and every other elf recognizes Tùrin on sight and all but tackle-hugs Martha while shouting joyfully that they never expected to see him again. Some (Beleg) actually do tackle-hug her (and nearly gets stabbed again) (#worthit).

2. To everyone's surprise, including the other Valar, Morgoth started his war upon creation subtly when he returned...but doesn't remain subtle for long, nor do those opposing him. By the end of the season, the masquerade that non-human sentient peoples and various other supernatural beings still live in Arda is all but shattered.

3. Then it's THOROUGHLY shattered in the finale. I don't know if the general human populace participates in the final battle - though I am SO weak for a moment when, like, the regular-ass armed forces, who are not necessarily allies to the heroes, show up to help fight a massive superhuman threat. When the SHIELD helicarrier shows up to evacuate civilians in Age of Ultron, when UNIT does pretty much anything in Doctor Who...I love it when the best protections & warriors the mundane human race could pull together also show the fuck up and help save the day because damnit, this is their planet too. ...Which is, in fact, very on-theme for Tolkien. So yes, actually, this definitely happens. Probably there's some conflict with US military forces mid-season, our heroes have to talk (fight & escape) their way out of being arrested for blowing up a national landmark while fighting a balrog, and the general in charge whom they'd half-convinced returns in the finale with a battalion to slam some missiles into Morgoth...

oh, and 4: Ar-Pharazón et al totally do come back from the dead. Probably on Morgoth's side lbr. They get a twisted undead immortality wherein they cannot die, just go on fighting for the dark lord to whom they once turned in jealous worship...

More importantly...

Okay, I really don't know exactly how the Dagor Dagorath goes. We're following the version that Eärendil will chase Morgoth from the skies; Tulkas, Eonwë and Túrin will fight him upon the field and Túrin will avenge his House and all the Race of Men by slaying him; and Fëanor will break the Silmarils and Yavanna will use their Light to remake the Trees, and the lands will be leveled or in some cases raised from the depths, and everyone will live happily ever after except possibly Men who aren't mentioned beyond Túrin.

This is what the Valar expect to happen (though they don't actually know-know Eru's plans.)

What happens instead is...

Most of the Morgoth-defeating does go exactly like that. Except probably they don't kill him for good - they CAN'T, because the Marring of the world is part of what Morgoth is, and the only way to undo him completely is to remake the world completely.

Which maybe could be done, by Eru if no one else, if He were beseeched? Which might be done with the strength of the Silmarils, their Light released?

And Seraphina does break the Silmarils. That's important for her - giving up her Protagonist role, just as slaying Morgoth - embracing her Protagonist role - is important for Martha.

...but I don't think they give the Light back to Yavanna. No offense to the Trees, but they never illuminated most of Arda anyway, and the world is round now anyway - and making it flat again would fuck it up - and we have, like, electrical lights, now.

Hell, maybe Seraphina is ready to give up the Light... Her instinct is to hold it back, to follow her own novel plans with it, but, oh, to regain what was lost! And she has come around on...some of the Valar. Selectively. Yavanna's one of the okay ones.

- but Martha, half-dead from the battle, drops to her knees beside her and catches her hands before she can loose the Light upward unto the grasp of the Tree-Queen.

- "Together?" Martha says (Túrin Turambar, ever the greatest Men had to offer - bull-headed, loyal, brave, unafraid of death, loving and losing and loving again).

- Seraphina's trembling lips curve into a fierce grin (Fëanäro Curufinwë, ever the greatest Elves had to offer - brilliant in mind and spirit, devoted, ever seeking to preserve and glorify the beauty of the world, and eventually learning some wisdom about letting go).

- "Together," she agrees.

- together, they hold the Light that once shone in the Trees, the Lamps, and the Flame Eternal of Creation itself; and as they release it, reach for the Great Music of Ëa that is deep in both their blood - for they are the daughters of Elrohir, son of Elrond, son of Elwing daughter of Dior son of Lúthien Tinúviel, daughter of Melian the Maia; and indeed, even before that, they are both trueborn Children of Eru, are they not? - and eschew utterly the Choice of the Peredhel by leaving the world round but Un-Sundering the Sea, that the kindred might still live apart, if they wished it - the Elder in their land undying, the Younger in their realms of quick and sometimes joyful, often savage change - but that they might visit one another, at least, as they pleased.

(I mean, wasn't the false division of siblings the whole problem from the start?)

Random Additional Features of this Show/AU/Thing

All elf and ainu side characters, canonical and not, will be cast gender-blindly, and characters referred to with the understanding that elvish personal pronouns don't necessarily correlate with physical phenotype, but Ainur do generally try to match local standards of gender assignment. Dwarves will all use he/him (and have beards!) even when fairly clearly female.

I have no idea what Martha is doing for gender once she remembers being Túrin. With all the time Túrin spent with Elves, she probably rolls pretty smoothly with being she/her now, though it's weird. Her memories definitely integrate more easily than Fëanor/Seraphina's, though, as much because she's the same kind of being both times as because there's less of them.

Both protagonists are definitely bisexual. Martha has a range of love interests; it's a running joke (at first) that Seraphina has a total Thing for redheads. Any kind of redhead. But especially creative ones - any kind of art or invention.

The role of Gabriel WILL be played by Maglor, albeit with a different death (don't worry, he'll be back for the finale) and much more...gloominess. And angst. Okay, and maybe his first appearance, in s1 or 2, IS cursing them - not knowing who they are - into a musical episode. (A WOMAN HAS NEEDS; THE WOMAN IS ME.)

When Martha meets Fingolfin and/or any of Fëanor's other siblings, probably in s5 but maybe s4, they immediately Vibe completely. It's the shared experience of growing up with Fëanor for a sibling. Needless to say, Seraphina Hates This.

Their chief researcher friend is a dwarf, who is also on the young-ish side I think, and a woman (he/him).

There's gotta be a notable hobbit on the Team before the end, too...but overall, hobbits remain symbolically representative of the Civilians in this war story.

Durin is alive again somewhere. Durin usually reincarnates in time to guide his people through particularly difficult times - or, to try. Their dwarf friend - what the hell, I'll just call him Bobby - tries SO hard to be Cool about meeting him, and fails SO hard.

I generally prefer to judge and characterize the Valar and associated Maiar as fallible to the point of clumsiness or negligence but basically wise and thoroughly benevolent...but I AM willing to throw some of them under the characterization bus for ease of making conflict in this hypothetical CW show.

...I probably have many more random thoughts but it's 3am and I want to post this whole insane thing. Feel free to ask me questions if you have them! And/or petition both the Tolkien estate and a major TV network for the rights, money, and support to help me make the terrible but wonderful show we deserve!

#the silmarillion #supernatural #my fic #feanor #turin turambar

[autisticlancemcclain]

Allura clutches the receiver in her hand, looking at it desperately. Her grip is so tight her knuckles are bloodless. 

Things are not looking good. 

“We’re not even close,” she says miserably. 

Pidge peers over her shoulder, taking in the number, and – hey. 

“It’s not that bad,” she argues. “We’re halfway there!”

“We’ve only got one act left,” Hunk reminds her quietly. Any and all hope shrivels up and dies in Pidge’s chest. 

“Oh. Right.”

It’s so stupid. The whole thing, all of it. The Coalition – it had been doing so well. They’d been getting signatures left and right, planet after planet promising their aid. But at some point, somewhere between Keith leaving and the start of the Coalition Show, they’d hit a sort of… plateau. Suddenly, they stopped expanding. They were still getting distress calls, still making treaties and agreements, but for the type of missions they were planning, the level of reinforcement they needed… it was nowhere near enough. They were even having some planets turn them away – send them a distress signal, accept their help, then refuse to join the Coalition. And it was their right to refuse, sure. Voltron would never force anyone to join them. But it definitely felt like they were getting used, and for the life of them they couldn’t figure out why.

Answers came by way of what was basically an intergalactic e-mail. Apparently, thousands of different planets and governments had gotten to talking, and had come to the ever so wonderful conclusion that they wouldn’t join the Coalition unless they saw ‘more support’. Allura – and the rest of them – had been a great mix of horrified, angry, and confused. What the hell did they mean, ‘more support’? More civilian support? More vocal support? More financial support?

The consensus had been a mix of all three. The planets on the fence had decided that if Voltron could prove that they had overwhelming, vocal support from civilians and other governments alike, then the unsure planets would join, and wholehearted support in the fight against Zarkon’s Empire. 

The proof of support in question?

A sum of donations, from anyone in support of the cause, of at least three billion goddamn GAC. Three motherfucking billion. Nine fucking zeros. 

They’d been mostly out of ideas. How the fresh fuck were they supposed to procure that kind of money? Begging could only get so far – they’d completely forgone any kind of dignity – and they didn’t want to financially cripple any planets already on the Coalition. That wasn’t fair, or even really possible. 

It had been Coran who had come up with the idea. (Although he looked uncomfortable any time someone congratulated him for it. As if he thought he didn’t deserve the credit. It was strange, and usually something Pidge would investigate, but she didn’t have anything close to the time to investigate it, so she dropped it.) What if they were to host a special version of the Coalition Show, like those fundraisers on Earth? A larger scale than any of the others, featuring acts not just from Voltron themselves, but many of their allies. A live show, broadcasted to every civilian and anyone else, really, willing to watch, on any planet that could receive the signal, whether their planet was in the Coalition or not. 

Billions of potential viewers. Enough that if each one gave even one GAC, they’d meet their goal several times over. They’d poured weeks of energy into organising this, preparing and training and coming up with original ideas.

And here they are now, falling short. One act left in the show, one and a half billion GAC left to go. They’ll never make it. 

No wonder Allura looks so upset. 

“I think… I have an idea,” Lance says, lip between his teeth and eyes trained on the number displaying their giant failure. 

Shiro shakes his head. “We appreciate it, Lance, really, but there’s no way you could come up with an idea this late in the game. It’s… well, we’re going to have to take what we can get. Just finish your act as planned, and we’ll figure something out tomorrow, okay?”

As much as Pidge hates it, she has to agree. No one could raise over one and a half billion fucking GAC in a four-minute act. She knows Lance comes up with a million plans a minute, and a lot of them have saved their asses at the last minute, but this? This is too much. A quick glance around the room tells her that she’s not the only one who feels this way. If she had to pick one word to describe the look on everyone’s face, she’d pick defeated. 

If anything, though, everyone’s hopelessness only seems to further Lance’s determination. 

“No,” he says, eyes hard. “I need you guys to trust me. Really. I have ten minutes until my act starts. I’m gonna – I’ve gotta make a couple quick changes. Trust me.”

Lance doesn’t wait for approval before striding out of the room. 

“Lance –” Shiro starts, half standing to go after him, but Allura’s hand on his arm stops him. 

“Don’t bother,” she says tiredly. “There’s nothing he can do, but there’s no point in crushing him now. It will do nothing to help him.”

Shiro sighs, hunching over. “Yeah, good point. It’s just – if he really thinks he can fix it, it’s going to hurt him that much more when he can’t.”

“There’s nothing more we can do now,” Hunk says, speaking up for the first time since he pointed out the problem to Pidge in the first place. “Let’s just go sit down and watch Lance. We’ll pretend everything’s fine, we might even enjoy it. He’s a good dancer, anyway.”

“And he does bring in the largest chunk of our viewers,” Allura points out. “We won’t reach our goal, but he’ll certainly bring us closer.”

That’s true. It’s a silver lining, at least. 

“Maybe Lance’s big plan is to switch to pole dancing. That’ll get his viewers to break out their wallets,” she jokes. It falls a little flat, but at least it makes everyone crack a half-smile. Lance’s devoted fans are… something, all right. Pidge has read the comments on some of Lance’s videos, and they are genuinely the horniest thing she’s ever seen. If Lance wasn’t who he was as a person – that is, someone who thrives in the limelight – she’d be shocked that he’d ever leave the castle, let alone tease and flirt with his fans at every opportunity. 

She once saw a picture of a fan who’d gotten Lance’s face tattooed on their person. Lance’s face. On their body. For permanent. (Personally, Pidge thinks that is insane behaviour. Whatever floats their boat, though. Lance seemed to get a kick out of it. He’d retweeted it on Space Twitter. It had gone pretty insanely viral.)

As they take their seats in the front row, getting as comfortable as they can for Lance’s performance, Pidge notices something off. 

“Hey, where are Lance’s silks?”

Hunk notices something next, squinting at the corners of the stage. “And why are the microphone speakers on?”

“What on Earth is this kid’s plan?” Shiro mutters. 

Allura shrugs, eyes still glued onto the receiver, watching the numbers start to pick up in anticipation of Lance’s performance. 

Still too slowly, though.

“Doesn’t matter,” she says quietly. 

...Right. 

They sit in silence for the next few minutes, any jovial mood built up completely dashed to pieces. Lance will get them closer, sure, but they’ll never get the support of those planets. 

Two minutes to Lance’s performance, Coran rushes over, elbowing his way through various rabid fans to get to his seat. He looks strangely excited, even for him. He knows they’ve failed. Why is he so ecstatic?

“Why such sad expressions?” he asks, as soon as he’s seated. 

“Why aren’t you sad?” Pidge questions. “We bombed, man. There’s nothing Lance can do to make up –” she peeks over Allura’s shoulder for the number – “one point three billion dollars. Not in the four minutes he has.”

Coran smiles at her, eyes twinkling. “I think you’d be surprised.”

“Hey, everyone.” Lance’s voice stops any further conversation, the very sound of it sending the audience absolutely feral. People are outright screaming their heads off, and Pidge is sure she hears a marriage proposal or two shouted in the mix. 

“It’s good to see you guys too,” Lance chuckles, tuning his guitar. 

Wait a minute. Tuning his guitar?

“Why isn’t Lance dancing?” Pidge yells over the insane amount of cheering. Hunk only shrugs. 

“No clue,” he shouts back. 

“I’ve got a little change of plans for y’all, if you want to listen up,” he says, and the speed at which the audience goes completely, pin-drop silent is astounding. 

“Now, I know you guys came here to see me dance, and I can still dance if you think this will be terrible,” he says, and the audience laughs, shaking their heads and yelling encouragements. Lance has got them intrigued – there’s not a chance they’ll turn him away now. Hell, Pidge can’t wait to see what he’ll do next.

Allura gasps. 

“What?”

“The – the numbers,” she stammers, “they’re skyrocketing. And he hasn’t even started yet!”

Pidge peers over her shoulder, and her jaw drops. They’ve already cleared half a billion donations. Half a fucking billion. They’re two-thirds to they’re goal, now, and Lance has only been on the stage for thirty seconds. 

Pidge feels dangerous stirrings of hope erupt in her chest, along with a snake of guilt. 

Will Lance really do the impossible, raise them a billion and a half dollars by himself?

…And did each member of the team really dismiss any possibility that he could?

“You see,” Lance continues, tearing Pidge’s eyes away from the receiver, “I got my heart broken a little while ago. And as much as I love to dance, I need to get this feeling off my chest before it eats me alive, so I wrote a little song. That okay with y’all?”

The audience goes fucking apeshit. Not only is the idea of Lance singing and playing for them admittedly pretty exciting, but the idea that Lance – Loverboy Lance – had his heart broken? By whom? Who is the mysterious person who didn’t want Lance?

It’s an ingenious marketing strategy, Pidge will give him that. She wonders if it’s true, if he really did write a song about heartbreak. 

She glances at Allura, who is staring resolutely at the receiver, and then exchanges a look with Hunk. This might work, yeah, but yeesh. 

It’s going to be a little uncomfortable, that’s for damn certain. 

“So this is Loneliest,” Lance announces. “I hope y’all like it.”

An echoing note sounds through the speakers, and then he strums his guitar. 

You’ll be the saddest part of me

A part of me, that will never be, mine

It’s obvious

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

His voice is crackly, upset. His brow is creased, and one hand grips the guitar tightly when it’s not moving on the frets. 

He really does look sad. 

The audience is holding its breath.

Allura still hasn’t looked up. 

You're still the oxygen I breathe

I see your face when I close my eyes

It's torturous

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

Lance’s voice is slow and sad, accompanied by soft drums in the background and his own guitar chords before every line. The audience – seemingly without realising, as if they can’t help it – has begun to sway to the beat. Pidge is surprised to find herself swaying as well, along with everyone else. 

There's a few lines that I have wrote

In case of death, that's what I want, that's what I want

So don't be sad when I'll be gone

There's just one thing I hope you know, I loved you so

The mention of Lance’s potential death causes a visceral reaction. Everyone suddenly realises that it’s not a famous singer, up there with a guitar, but a paladin, who has his life on the line every day, and may very well be killed at any moment. 

By now, with Lance’s emotion very real and obvious in front of her, Pidge is sure Lance was telling the truth, in the beginning. These words are truly coming from a place of pain, of heartbreak. He’s written this in advance. But, like, again, from a marketing standpoint: Lance has knocked it out of the fucking park. The words remind everyone what this show is for, what they’re trying to achieve, and, well –

The counter spikes. 

“He’s doing it,” Allura breathes. Her face is a strange mix of pinched and relieved, which Pidge can understand. When this does work – and Pidge is sure now that it will – it will all be because of Lance and the heartbreak that he has likely experienced because Allura does not return his feelings. That’s… a rough place to be in, that’s for sure. 

The next part builds, each syllable hitting a new note and a new beat, climbing and climbing and building tension that has the audience at the edge of their seats. Lance’s vice is heavy with pain, enough that faint hints of his accent affect the shape of the words. 

'Cause I don't even care about the time I've got left here

The only thing I know now is that I wanna spend it

With you, with you nobody else here

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

The beat drops, and Lance’s voice goes fucking raw.

You'll be the saddest part of me

A part of me that will never be mine

It's obvious

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

You're still the oxygen I breathe

I see your face when I close my eyes

It's torturous

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

There’s not a soul still sitting down, now, everyone standing up with Lance, some people even singing along. More than half of the faces that Pidge can see are wet with tears. 

“He’s done it!” Allura shouts. “We’ve reached three billion!”

“Is it still going?” Hunk asks, yelling to be heard over the noise of the audience and the heavy bass of the music. 

“Yes!”

The numbers are climbing so rapidly they’re blurring. Lance must have half the fucking people in the universe, watching and relating and weeping, each feeling the same heartbreak that any person can feel. Lance’s voice is steady and strong, and his hands are firm on his guitar, never missing a beat, but there’s – something, about his voice, that aches. 

Allura has set the receiver down, no longer worried about the numbers, but she still doesn’t look at the stage. 

I'm sorry but I gotta go

That’s what he said to me, as he let me go, he left me alone

Wait a second. He?

Allura’s head whips up to look at Lance, jaw dropped, and Lance isn’t even looking at her. His eyes are squeezed closed, and his expression looks agonised. Pidge watches, shaken, as a tear drips down his face. 

And I just keep on thinking how you made me feel better

And all the crazy little things that we did together

In the end, in the end, it doesn't matter

If tonight is gonna be the loneliest

Suddenly Pidge is thrown back to the months before they found Shiro again. She thinks of Keith struggling to lead, to stay part of a team, but the way the crease between his eyebrows smoothed when Lance spoke. How Lance would sometimes duck into the observation deck in the dead of night, eyes red, and Keith would follow, and when she went to check on them in the morning she saw them tangled together, expressions peaceful. She thinks of the insane training simulations they made together, how Pidge and Allura and Hunk would tap out halfway through because those sims were never made for the team, not really, but instead for the red and black paladins and the leaders of Voltron and the rivals, neck and neck, hand in hand, who were each other’s match in every possible way. She thinks of every quiet smile traded between them that she assumed was friendly and reassuring, of every shoulder clap that lingered too long, of every teasing look. 

She reaches this conclusion at the same time as the rest of the team, who stare at each other with wide eyes. 

This song is not about Allura at all. Lance’s heartbreak, his brokenness, is because of someone else entirely. His desperate loneliness – palpable, from the stage – cries out for one person and one person only, and he’s nowhere near. 

You'll be the saddest part of me

A part of me that will never be mine

It's obvious

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

The lyrics feel so much different, now. Now the situation is far from unrequited feelings. Now Pidge knows that Lance has been, by circumstance, wrenched away from the love of his goddamn life, from his comfort, from Keith, and he never knows when or if he’ll see him again. Pidge feels her own chin begin to tremble, because there’s no awkwardness, now, no pity. Now Pidge is watching one of her best friends flay his heart out on stage, aching, and is reminded of her own pain – she misses Keith, too. Now the song is that much closer to her heart, and it hurts. 

You're still the oxygen I breathe

I see your face when I close my eyes

It's torturous

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

Lance's voice curdles with emotion, hunched over the mic and the guitar, before he takes a breath, and the fingers shred the frets. There are no lyrics for a moment, nothing as Lance plays and plays and plays and pours his pain into the music, fingers moving so rapidly on the strings they blur, notes cresting high and crashing down, evoking the desperate and terrifying feeling of never knowing if you’re going to be whole again. 

Then he takes a deep breath, slows down, and sings again in almost a whisper. 

You'll be the saddest part of me

A part of me that will never be mine

It's obvious

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

The drums kick back in, and Lance lifts his chin, opening his eyes, and looking straight into the audience. There’s no mistaking the pain in the brown irises, the misery. 

You'll be the saddest part of me

A part of me that will never be mine

It's obvious

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

You're still the oxygen I breathe

I see your face when I close my eyes

It's torturous

The drums fade out, and Lance takes his hand off his guitar, wrapping them carefully around the mic. His voice goes quiet and sad again, like in the beginning of the song.

Tonight is gonna be the loneliest

The last note rings out in the stunned silence of the audience, shaking to its quiet death as Lance takes a step away from the mic. He takes a deep bow, song finished, and the audience goes wild. Lance walks off stage to screams so loud they’re deafening, to applause and stomping and sobbing. 

Pidge is suddenly very grateful for front row seats, as she doesn’t have to wade through a mass of people to take off after him, the rest of the team at her heels. She finds him in the same room backstage where they gathered before his performance. He’s got his face buried in Coran’s neck – he must have left before them – shoulders shaking. Coran holds him just as tightly. The room is silent, Lance is silent, but Pidge can wager a guess as to what’s going on. 

“Lance?” she asks quietly. 

He whips around at her voice, quickly wiping his face, but there’s nothing he can do about the red rimming his eyes. 

“Hey, Pidge.” His voice shakes, hoarse. Any strength he had on stage has left him. “Did we do it? Did we make it?”

“You did it,” Hunk whispers. “We beat our goal by miles. We’ll – we might never need funding again.”

Lance tries to smile, but it shakes, his chin trembling. “That’s great! Glad we managed.” He blinks rapidly, swiping the tears from his face as they drop without his permission. “I, uh, left something running, so I’m gonna go –”

“Lance –”

“I’m fine, I just need to –”

“Lance, you should maybe talk –”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Lance snaps. The venom in his voice makes everyone rear back, a little. 

“S – sorry, I don’t mean to yell. It’s just – I’m fine. I gotta – bye.”

He runs out of the room, and there’s nothing Pidge can do but watch him go. 

She can’t help feeling that even though they far suppressed their goal – she’s not sure it was worth it.

#any allura bashing will be immediately deleted miss me with that shit #vld #voltron #pidge #pidge holt #lance #lance mcclain #langst #pining lance #klance #post s4 #i think #allura #princess allura #shiro #takashi shirogane #clone shiro #hunk #hunk garrett #coran #singer lance #songwriter lance #hurt no comfort #heartbreak #songfic #my writing #fic #longpost #maneskin

[butmakeitgayblog]

So I'm relatively new to the fandom, and during my stay in this rabbit hole, that is, Clexa, I've got a few questions that I'm hoping you could answer :)

Why is everyone here pro-Lexa? Like don't get me wrong I absolutely love Lexa as a character and Alycia is a queen, but why all the hate towards some of the other characters, like Bellamy? I've never watched The 100 the whole way through (literally exited outta the show the second Lexa died), even then, it's been years since I watched it. Did I miss something while I was binge-watching, or was my teenage brain at the time just too immature to realize he was a total jackass..? Also, it's not just Bellamy, I've also seen hate for Bob, the actor who plays him. Which brings me to another question: does this fandom not like Eliza? I always see so much support when Alycia has an upcoming project or is posting Instagram updates but nothing for Eliza? Again, no judgment for the Alycia love because I completely understand why everyone here is head over heels in love with that girl but I just wanted to know, has Eliza ever done anything wrong? Or have I just conveniently only stumbled upon Alycia stans on this app?

Anyway, a totally unrelated note but since I'm here… may I just say ma'am, your writing is the bomb diggity. Like the perfect blend of humor, sexiness, angst, and fluff, THE GODDAMN FLUFF. Genius, you're a genius, like a mad scientist of Clexa fanfic. Hope you keep doing what you're doing, my friend. Take your time though, and don't listen to those ignorant anons that are crawling around yelling "wHy ArE yOu TaKiNg So LoNg To UpDaTe?" Thank you for writing for the Clexa fandom! ❤️

First I wanna say thank you for the sweet words and reading, that means so much to me 🥹💕 not to be a nerd but I screenshot that for one of my worse imposter syndrome days lol

Long post so you can read under the cut. Long time clexas you can just skip if you want because honestly I got annoyed all over again just typing it and you know it all already 🥴

Now right off the top, you don't have to hate Bellamy if you don't want to. It's not like that's a prereq for being a clexa, so if you like him, like him and don't worry about what anyone says. He's a fictional character so anyone who gets intense over someone liking him I think needs to take a walk.

But the reason why a lot of Clexas, myself included, hate him is somewhat of a two part answer. The main reason being is that his character is trash 😅. I mean I'm not gonna dissect every little bit of canon but the main points for me at least, since I can't speak for anyone else, are that he was constantly fucking up literally everything. He gets to earth, proclaims "tHeRe aRe nO RuLeS" and then,,, immediately declares himself the leader and starts forcing people to follow what he says. He literally almost let Clarke fall into a pit of spikes, tried to handcuff her and keep her hostage "for her own good", he spearheaded the whole thing with taking off their wristbands, HE BACKED PIKE, participated in the massacre of a peaceful army sent to protect skaikru, he constantly shamed and blamed Clarke for everything that ever went wrong even when a lot of that stuff was either the best solution in a bad situation OR was an indirect fallout from something fucked up that skaikru had done. The sweaty little fucker was always trying to control/manipulate Clarke and skaikru and his own damn sister despite the fact that everything he ever planned himself turning out to be: A Terrible Idea. Basically the dude sucked but was held up on spindles of glorification as being this heroic uwu soft boy that wasn't actually supported by any one damn thing in canon when you actually look at it objectively. And I'm sure I'm even forgetting stuff. The dude just sucked.

Agian, that's my own two cents.

The other reason being, it's rollover from having to deal with blarks. Their constant harassment and shoving their fanon, non-existent ship down everyone's throat, while being entitled little brats throwing tantrums about them not happening at every turn has led from what probably would've been just a mild distaste for a character for most into loathing even the name. Understand I'm not saying the word harassment lightly. They were awful for years. Death threats and homophobia, spamming inboxes with hateful messages and sending awful pictures/memes etc. One even sent EJT a dick pic with Blark written on their penis. They sent memes non-stop about Lexa dying when people were still reeling from it. I'm not saying all Blarks are bad because they're not, but there was enough harassment and viciousness from a large enough and loud enough faction that at a certain point it becomes a blanket feeling of animosity toward the entire ship and everything that follows it.

As for disliking EJT. In reality, she used to be the fandom favorite. I mean she was our girl because she used to champion us and was hilarious about it. Go look up old cons and interviews with her. She was funny and great. Once upon a time E was our biggest cheerleader and dealt with A Lot of abuse and harassment from The Other fandom for it. I'm talking body shaming, slut shaming, comments about her intelligence, sexual harassment and trolling her about her boyfriends and very descriptive messages about how they wanted her to harm herself. The list goes on. And no one, especially not Bob who was the golden boy for The Other fandom, ever said a word in her defense. Never told his fans to stop or that he condemned it. Ever. Not once. That never sat well with clexas, but you can't control what other people do.

We had her back anyway. So, it was whatever. Gross, but whatever.

And then she married Bob. Which, and Blarks cannot seem to wrap their heads around this fact, literally no cared about. She could've just married him and kept being the same person and no one would've cared. In fact, the way this fandom loved her, at first everyone was like hmmm weird and sudden but good for her I guess! Be happy!

But then Bob's ex came forward with very serious allegations about her past relationship with him. She released a statement that you can easily find online and from that it painted a very dark picture of things that involved both him and EJT. As I'm someone who believes victims, I have no reason not to believe her, and since the very bizarre (non) rebuttal that EJT posted in reply made zero sense, that was that. It changed the lens of how a lot of people started looking at her.

Which leads me to the charities.

Hear a collective Clexa sigh.

They're a saga in themselves, but to sum it up as short as possible, EJT had been a part of a children's organization for YEARS that she herself helped set up. Clexas raised a lot of money for this charity through fundraising and selling fanart and we really cared about it. And literally within months of them being married, he became involved in it, and then shortly thereafter, magically they both had to "step away from it" for dubiously explained reasons. (Which, if you read his ex's statement, logical deduction of what probably actually happened will make more sense than what they claimed, and not in a good way.) Sensibly, they started recieving backlash from supporters because, again a lot of people had been helping this charity for years and all of a sudden she was just gone from it and all the projects were halted. I'm not blaming solely her for anything but to just cut and run like she did was sus to say the least.

So to steer away from that shitshow, they started another charity. With a bunch of right-wing MAGA nuts. Yeah. They weren't open or transparent about anything, no records of where any of the money was going, iirc no real legitimate charity registration/tax documentation that anyone could find (and in the US that's all public info sooooooo). It was a total clusterfuck that people started calling them out on from the start. At first they tried to ignore it and just keep collecting money by doing these ridiculous cameos as cash grabs, but just like the first charity, after a while (and a lot of initially unaccounted for money being raised) the poor little darlings just had to "step away for mental health reasons."

Which I would accept and support wholeheartedly because mental health is extremely serious... except funnily, they didn't stop doing the cameos. They kept doing those and charging their fans money to listen to them blather on about made up ~behind the scenes info~ about Blark stuff and it being super secretly canon but for a million reasons that they don't know and can't name, stopped it from happening. Claims of love scenes and kisses that have never been backed up by evidence (like a script) or corroborated by a single person involved in the show. But it's totally true guys, just trust them bro. So yeah, they've kept doing all that. Just... not giving the money they're charging for the cameos to their "charity."

So that's the meat of it, I might be forgetting things and smudging some finer details because it's been a long while ago, but I think you can get the gist. People don't like Bob because he was an ass to fans and EJT herself before them even getting married. He's said ableist things and quoted racists trying to sound smart and never once apologized for anything. He's been accused of abuse in his personal life and has never addressed it, only made his wife write a terrible fanfiction-esque response to appease his ardent followers. And frankly, she pissed off her fans. Once she married him, she completely flipped her personality from a funny charity doing, body positivity leading, cheerleading about "Clexa are soulmates" and "Lexa is the love of Clarke's life" girl, to doing personal cash grabs constantly while spewing all this made up Blark garbage that directly contradicts things they've both said in the past to please her faithful paying cameo fans (read his fans).

It's all left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth, to say the least.

And ya best believe if Alycia does some crazy shit, I'll turn on her too 🤷‍♀️ but honestly I'm not too worried about that cuz the girl is a cryptid who you literally can't pay to go to cons or do cameos

#anon #long post #again #not interested in starting discourse I'm just answering an ask as I see it

[karin-gespenst]

Season 13 episode 4 - after two watches

the shots of the case books were so interesting! I tried to capture them but it's hard to really read the entries.

remember? back in season 2 we had another TB family: Julia Masterson and her father, all her siblings and her mother lost to TB. Julia gives birth to her daughter minutes before her father dies, and in the show we don't see them again. In the book though, the story ends with Julia losing her daughter to TB, and that is one of the changes they make in the show that I support. They usually do not give away anything about a characters future, so they would have to bring the family back to show what happened, and I'm alright if they don't. Their story is already sad enough.

Mrs. Stanton and her teenage daughter: She's old enough to be with her Mom during labour and she looks about 16 years old, why on earth should she not be able to at least help with cleaning, if she can't do it on her own? A Poplar girl who can't clean? How did that happen?

war in Nigeria - 1967 until 1970 there was a civil war in Nigeria. I had not learned about it before, maybe someone else who also didn't know got the chance to learn from this episode.

How long did it take from diagnosis til death for Mr. Chidozie? Two days? even if he could have stayed in hospital directly, would it have made a difference? Or was the damage to severe already when he was diagnosed? That was very mean foreshadowing with Nancy telling him that people don't die from TB in this time, "Not here" is what she says, standing in the very spot that he will stand later while coughing up blood and falling down dying.

On a lighter note: I admired the crochet part on this shirt:

Rosalind standing up for Joyce is superb, their friendship has blossomed and I do hope for more scenes with them together. The way they slow burn all of the romances with the main characters I don't expect any hand holding until the season finale, but I do hope for it.

Millicent is always prepared to take minutes, that's a highly welcome quality. Usually nowadays people will be reluctant to volunteer taking notes in a meeting, at least in my experience, so I find it refreshing that she just does it without being asked to. I noticed that Miss Flannagan refers to Nancy's mother as Mrs. Corrigan. There was no mention so far of Nancy's father, but that implies that her parents were married, and that is a new detail.

Is this the first time Trixie has reason to doubt herself as a nurse? So far she has excelled with helping in all kinds of dire situations and most of the time her patients were fine. I'm curious: Has anyone of you ever seen a placenta in real life? I haven't, but I think it would be interesting and I'd stand there like Sister Monica Joan, marveling at it.

Her enthusiasm about the moon landing is so endearing! The idea of eating something similiar to the astronaut's packets of paste and making sure the TV does not break before the big day - just the right way to go about it.

#call the midwife #call the midwife spoilers

[crows-home]

Do you sometimes wonder if Maria had oldest daughter síndrome ™ and what was going through her head while they were haunting down his little baby brother who she never was able to protect and knows how poorly he is treated by everyone else but her ?

hooooo boy ok. i have so many thoughts about Maria Robotnik anon. You're lucky i have free time right now to ramble.

THIS ENDED UP SO MUCH LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD SORRY LMAOOOO

Maria is somewhat of a blank slate, no? at least, she was in the beginning. Her main purpose was "tragic backstory." and there's something to be said about girls/women in media and their only roles being support for the male characters and their arcs. but those are big conversations that other people are more verbose in digging into. also i'm sleepy.

Maria, to me, has always been a blank slate. If not, she's always been the "perfect, proper, glass child." Poor Maria, so soft-spoken, so kind, but sick. She died sacrificing herself, don't you feel bad for her?

i don't think Maria has eldest daughter syndrome. It's something adjacent, though. It's a suppression of emotions, especially negative ones, that can be seen as eldest daughter syndrome. It's the expectations that have been put on her, by herself, to be kind, be courteous, be good.

Because Maria has a terminal illness, perhaps since she was born. The people in her life care about her so much, her grandfather takes her to space because it lessens her condition, there is a massive project going on to save her life!!

Maria doesn't get to be sad. She doesn't get to be angry. She can't show any of these emotions, can't scream and cry about how unfair all this is, can't speak out against people talking like they've already lost her when she's right fucking here. She can't be "difficult". Because her family has given so much to her, for her. They're so sad when they look at her, she can tell. So, I think, Maria puts this pressure on herself. To smile and be happy and positive, so as to not worry or bother anyone.

Children do that, when they perceive themselves to be a burden. It doesn't matter if they're explicitly told that or not. Maybe the adults in their life tell them "God, taking care of you is so expensive. Do you know how much better things would be if you weren't here?" Or maybe their family is loving, but at the end of the day, they see their parents struggling to pay bills, struggling to put food on the table, and wonder "Is it because of me? Am I weighing them down?"

So they become what I like to call "low-maintenance." Never taking more than is needed, because they're hyper aware of the resources they're taking. They make sure to stay happy and agreeable, because they don't want to cause trouble or bother anyone.

In my head, this is where Maria was at. She was happy, sure! No doubt, she loved her family and her grandfather and she loved Earth so much, so desperately did she want to be a part of it.

But she could never talk about the ugly bits. About her anger and frustration and even the depressing thoughts.

I think she started to with Shadow.

Here's her little brother, this little guy that was born from a test tube to be her cure, but has a soul all his own. Who she could talk to about these tough things.

"I sometimes wonder why I was created," Shadow might say.

And Maria, her soul aching, understands.

They come to their own conclusions, on the ARK, about who they are. Shadow is treated like an experiment, a pet, a thing, rarely ever with respect. By most, except for Maria. Maria looks at Shadow and sees family.

With Shadow, she can be moody. She can be snappy. Shadow can be silly and as unserious as he wants without constantly being under the proverbial magnifying glass. They are siblings, that's what they do!!! They don't have to put up this front like they do in front of other people. They don't have to be perfect when they're around each other.

"I feel guilty," Maria might say. Her voice might quiver and shake, like she's admitting something damning. "For existing, sometimes."

Shadow, absolutely floored by the admission that his sister is not always happiness and sunshine, understands.

I love headcanons and aus where Maria is allowed to be just a Weird Little Girl or really get into what she might have been into (goth, macabre, art, etc.) It gives her depth. It gives her life.

So I imagine all this, all the ways this young girl kept herself amicable and calm and pleasant, because she's so afraid of being anything but. Then I imagine all of it coming away when she's with her brother.

Then I imagine her running down the hall, grabbing his hand as the alarms blare. She is filled with love and hope for a world that she was never sure she would get to see. But by God, Shadow will see it. I imagine that there was always the possibility of death looming over her life, and the bullet just sealed it. I imagine the guilt that she feels when she pushes the button that sends him down. I imagine the fear and sadness she feels at the thought of him being alone, ultimately knowing there's nothing she can do. But hoping it was enough.

#answers #pobre payasito #sth #maria robotnik #sorry anon idk if this is what u were expecting #did i project a little? whos to say. #look if i think about maria and shadow too long i will cry #i have a wip thats just of maria. about her life and what she might have gone through. i need to finish it... #sorry my words arent very pretty. this is sloppy. my brain is mush and im really tired but. i needed to get this out. #i think about maria robotnik so much. theres so much i didnt include in this post. im too tired to. #but i mainly focussed on the eldest sister thing and what she was thinking about with shadow #ok gn everyone

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 2: Episode 10 Review

- Starting off the episode with a mass murder, beautiful. Though the good thing is that there’s a cool down period so if we can draw out the fight long enough, we may be able to win

- Chuchu begging Secelia despite her being a Spacian, how far we’ve come. And the fact that she hooks her boy Rouji up to get some tech info is also great.

- Felsi is the best girl and I will accept no disagreements. The way Earth House just adopts her like a homeless puppy is funny. Also the fact that she was so willing to do something besides wait for Petra to get better is great. She is the ultimate kusogaki as she is the only one going to the final battle.

- GOD DAMN IT ANIME GIVE ME YOUNG ELAN FOOTAGE!

- I’m guess the backstory was cut due to time constraints but I just want to see who the Elan’s were before they’re unfortunate unpersoning. However, we were still given delicious 5nore crumbs so I will accept it. It’s interesting how El5n stated El4n was the lucky one despite earlier in the series saying he was unfortunate. He finally realized that even though El4n died, he had someone who loved him, and now he knows just how important his actions towards Norea were. His line about envy could be directed at either Norea, Suletta, or El4n, and I hope he finds his own self separate from the Elan persona that had been forced on him

- Suletta and Guel’s duel was so stupid but so adorable. It really hammers home how they’re still children and they’ll do childish things. Also Guel 100% threw that duel, or at least they animated it so it was clear Guel knew how to fence but Suletta was just floundering. He’s the ultimate supporter of lesbians and I love him for that. Please G-Witch, give him a boyfriend. Also Guel slapping himself to remind himself not to butt in on SuleMio’s affairs, lol.

- The talk between Suletta and Miorine with slash playing in the background was just *chef’s kiss* perfect. Right or wrong, and even if there’s nothing to gain, Suletta wants to move forward. And she wants to move forward with Miorine. They have to face their problems head on. They lock fingers, willing to move on together.

- Guess they didn’t have the money for Delling’s VA. But it is nice to see a realistic depiction of a coma patient. Though I’m not sure if he appreciates being yelled at after he wakes up

- What is Prospera searching for? It can’t be the Calibarn. Is it something special Notrette made? And who removed it?

- What deal did she make with Shaddiq? Is she taking his harem squad? Did she plan to work with him on Earth?

- The fact that the tomato is literally embedded with love in its very DNA is beautiful. The tomato has always represented love in this series, and here we see that it’s very creation was because of Miorine’s mother’s love for her.

- Poor Suletta is struggling hard in that Gundam, but also it’s the coolest suit in the show so far. IT HAS A FREAKING BROOM. SHE IS LITERALLY THE WITCH FROM MERCURY. RECLAIM THE SLUR

- Suletta is talented. Aerial used to overshadow as we didn’t know how much handholding Eri was doing, but this proves she’s great even without it. But I don’t think it’ll be enough to defeat Eri all by herself. She needs others to help her. They all need to come together and create a better future!

- Lauda, my son, please stop this. We are destroying the Death Star right now. Have your angst moment later. And dear god don’t make your brother kill you, and don’t die of heatstroke like a dog in a car with the Schwarzette. I’ve seen some people say Guel might die but I reject that reality. After all the suffering he’s been out through, he needs to live.

I feel like we’re in a weird space where there both could and couldn’t be a second half. We have a lot to wrap up, but also we’re closing up Suletta and Miorine’s personal journeys. Though I hope we do get the second half and have it focus on Earth and the Space League. And maybe we’ll get to kill Peil while we’re at it

#gundam #g witch #gundam witch from mercury

[innocentimouto]

Jet is not worse than Iroh

Defending Jet feels weird sometimes because I don’t condone what he did but I also really understand how it happened and still consider him a good person.

People can like or dislike any character, but something has always pissed me off with how people talk about Jet and I finally found a coherent way to express it.

Let’s look at Iroh. He fought in the war and killed many people to the point he made himself known across the Earth Kingdom. He was once friends with the Rough Rhinos who were the cause of Jet’s loss. He breached the walls of Ba Sing Se and the only reason why the Fire Nation didn’t succeed then was because Iroh lost his son.

Iroh was an adult. Iroh was a powerful firebender. Iroh had strong political power. Iroh had an army. Iroh could go anywhere he wanted. Iroh lost his son at war as an adult.

Yet the fandom:

 praises him

says he’s a great person

even wants him to be Zuko’s father

feels horrible he lost his son

says he felt sorry

doesn’t see a reason why any character should hate him

and will argue it was the propaganda he was fed

Now Jet manipulated the Gaang into flooding a village. We don’t know much about Gaipan beyond that there were soldiers there, but the show didn’t color in the scene of Sokka warning them (wonder why). I think we could assume there were EK civilians there. The only reason why no one died was because the Gaang interfered.

Jet was a child. Jet wasn’t a bender. Jet had other children fighting with him. Jet had nothing to his name. Anywhere Jet did go there were Fire Nation soldiers. Jet lost his parents as a child. Jet lost his home.

Yet the fandom:

demonizes him

calls him a monster

compares him to the Fire Nation

barely acknowledges his trauma

only considers him remotely likeable because he tried to change

or still doesn’t think that’s enough

believes there’s no way Katara could ever forgive him

and will argue he should have seen past his prejudice and trauma

If people look at Jet and condemn him, Iroh should be treated even worse because he was in a much better situation and did worse. He had wealth, he had a nation supporting him, he was an adult.

What did Jet have? Trauma, a home where soldiers are constantly passing through, a bunch of other orphans to take care of, a nation that’s losing more and more, a nation that doesn’t care about orphans, and a mind and body not old enough to deal with it (if you could be old enough to deal with it).

Jet didn’t even kill anyone. Iroh killed hundreds if his title is anything to go by  and would have probably won the war had his son not died. Meaning he didn’t stop because he wanted to. He stopped because he was forced to.

Which is the same thing as Jet except every other disadvantage Jet had.

What about Jet is worse than Iroh? What about Jet makes people say he should have seen passed his anger and trauma, but Iroh is excused as a functioning adult? Even people who like Jet act like he’s worse than Iroh or that it will require a lot for him to be accepted by the Gaang.

Oh Iroh was fed propaganda his whole life.

Yeah and Jet was fed death and killing and homelessness and cruelty at least half of his life. I wonder what that does to a person.

Jet didn’t get the opportunity to see the Fire Nation living as regular people, but Iroh sure did with the Earth Kingdom and he still killed them.

Also Jet actually cared about the war and what happened to his people. Iroh did nothing until the very end. He didn’t fight in the Invasion, and he never confronted Ozai.

Jet would never

#I should change the title #Jet is better than Iroh #do people even defend Iroh with propaganda? #I just used that because what else do you have? #honestly I rarely see Iroh fans acknowledge his actions deeply #Jet #atla jet #Jet meta #Jet defense #Iroh critical

[drpepperhateblog]

HOT D - The End

Remember before House of the Dragon came out when I listed my hopes for the show? 

I was skeptical of the series due to the fact that in the books all the characters are horrible, irredeemable people. While I could accept some outright villains on each side, I hoped the potential rulers, Rhaenyra and Aegon II would at least both be sympathetic, at least at the beginning.

Unfortunately, the Dyana scene has confirmed that they will not be doing that at all. House of the Dragon has instead chosen to make Rhaenyra more sympathetic and turn her into the protagonist of the story. While Alicent is more sympathetic in this version too, she is also not the ruler! There is no reason for the audience to root for the Green faction now. That sucks. That’s not “the human heart in conflict with itself”. You might as well replace the Greens with Sauron and they’d be about the same level of sympathetic.

What’s perhaps more striking is that they have not only chosen to not make Aegon II sympathetic, but they’ve outright made him even worse than his book counterpart.

With that being said, I have to write down all my thoughts.

The Dyana thing is infuriating. Aegon II is now confirmed to be irredeemable. Of course they had to go down the rape route. It wasn’t enough to have him be someone who sleeps around or is surrounded by sex workers á la Tyrion Lannister. The decision now means the only “right” thing to do is to support the Blacks, whereas in the books while everyone were fucking terrible, at least they were all terrible and didn’t receive clear favoritism as Rhaenyra very clearly gets here. It’s disappointing.

Targaryen memorabilia being replaced with stars of the Seven did not happen in the books as far as I know, and it’s quite obvious the showrunners want us to think Otto and Alicent do so because they’re the bad, ambitious, greedy, power-hungry Greens who want to replace the Targaryens with themselves. Boring! Suggestion on alternate ways to do this if they wanted to make it more interesting: Maybe have the Hightowers and other noble lords grow discontent with the Valyrian traditions, like the incest for instance, and be grossed out by it. This would however also require separating Aegon II and Helaena, so that would need to be rewritten if they wanted to go down that route. Or just, you know, don’t write it at all.

Happy to see Criston with the Morningstar that he was supposed to kill Joffrey Lonmouth with. But isn’t it a tad too dangeorus to use against an unarmored prince of the Iron Throne during practice? I do admittedly know nothing about weaponry however.

Why does Jace and Luke not get proper time to talk about the fact that they are bastards? Luke inheriting Driftmark that he knows he has no actual claim to. Jace being next in turn to the Iron Throne that he knows is not his, since he is a bastard. Surely they have some feelings about that?

Why does Rhaenys not advocate for Rhaena and Baela inheriting Driftmark? First off, she believes Daemon and Rhaenyra had her son killed. Explore that, properly. Secondly, Rhaenys was the eldest who was passed over in favor of a less competent and younger man. Laena was older than Laenor. Baela and Rhaena’s claims to Driftmark are just as good as Rhaenys’ (and Rhaenyra’s!) own to the Iron Throne. Instead she doesn’t even try to argue in favor of them but settles for a marriage match, when she knows that last time she did so HER SON DIED! When Laena married Daemon, she died due to his choice to stay in Pentos and not get help from physicians in Westeros (Rhaenys’ words, to be fair, Corlys claims the Pentos physicians are just as capable). When Laenor married Rhaenyra, she and Daemon ordered him to be killed (or so Rhaenys believed). Why on earth would Rhaenys think marrying her grandchildren to a family of people who caused the deaths of her own children is fine?

“I thought I wanted it” Rhaenyra tells her father regarding herself and the throne. Rhaenyra, you did not want the throne. You said so yourself, so many times that Criston even thought you’d be willing to run away from it.

Vaemond should have argued that he is a closer blood relation, being the Sea Snake’s brother rather than his grandson, and also that he is older and more capable. Book Vaemond could not really pull that argument as he was a nephew. But I guess Show Corlys is fine with his brother dying?

Daemon goading Vaemond into calling the Strong boys bastards makes no sense considering it undermines the claim of himself and Rhaenyra too.

Instead of Rhaenyra ordering Vaemond killed Daemon just straight up publicly executes him, because I suppose no one possibly could step in the way or ask the king for orders? The Kingsguard? This is a relative of the royal family! The silent five are also excluded for some reason. Likely because it shows that Rhaenyra is an awful person.

I guess the event where Alicent wears green and Rhaenyra wears black is just straight up removed.

Of course we had to add Aegon II being an ass at dinner. Lord forbid we give him good traits. Helaena also publicly insults her husband, because we needed additional reminders that Rhaenyra is the only good choice and the Greens are bad. Further attempts to make Rhaenyra look good by being the first to arise and compliment Alicent, despite the fact that Alicent’s strength is supposed to be that she is politically competent whereas Rhaenyra is not. At least they added Luke giggling at Aemond and his eyepatch, which does make his “Strong boys” toast a bit more justified. But again, why the hell is Aemond being made more sympathetic than Aegon II?

Excluding Rhaenyra and Alicent having different opinions on what maester should best treat Viserys was unfortunate in my opinion, especially when Daemon acts as if Otto and Alicent are drugging Viserys into being completely incapable.

Where the hell is Daeron?

Alicent misunderstanding Viserys does give her some additional reasons to crown Aegon II, which is nice. But they already have a good argument, and the show seems to forget that frequently: the Great Council of 101.

#house of the dragon #house of the dragon spoilers #hotd #hotd spoilers #aegon II targaryen #aemond targaryen #alicent hightower #rhaenyra targaryen #vaemond velaryon #rhaenys targaryen #daemon targaryen #viserys I targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #lucerys velaryon #helaena targaryen #otto hightower #daeron targaryen #corlys velaryon

[zoobus]

the people saying jökër was going to inspire acts of violence (white supremacist and misogynist mass shootings? what?) - where on earth did they get that idea from??? Some people started saying that and writing articles with that thesis, what the hell inspired that thought??

The Dark Knight (2008) Joker was popular, beloved, and the actor who played him died before the movie came out, adding an extra air of tragic coolness to his character. It almost goes without saying that for several years after, each high school had at least four chuunis larping as Heath-Joker. Perception of this ranged from "annoying edgelords" to "future school shooters who should be treated as such." People figured this would be a repeat.

Because the Aurora shooting happened in a theater showing the third Nolan Batman movie, many presume the shooter was inspired by Heath-Joker. Afaict this is hearsay with nothing to substantiate it, but that's another tic for the joker causing violence box.

I could write about this point at length; as much as liberal/left circles proclaim support for mental illness, they are deeply uncomfortable with acknowledging mental illness as inconvenient, recurring, abrupt, personality affecting, sometimes worsened at random by no fault of the sick. It can make, yes make you a worse person. It's nicer to think you get what you fucking deserve, isn't it?

It would be nice if this was a reasonable ask. That a human withstand poverty, child abuse that ends in permanent disablement, gutted welfare services, living with your abuser, endless harassment of your disability, no chance at forming positive relationships, having the one dream that keeps you from shooting yourself shat on live tv by your hero, and still maintain a "good" heart. What I'm trying to get at is woke types are super uncomfortable with mental illness as an inescapable burden or prelude to harmful actions rather than an empowered journey. They can only interpret "a mentally ill person lashes out after a lifetime of systematic and personal violence" as "a ✌️mentally ill✌️ white man refuses to hold himself accountable, blames everyone but himself for his circumstances." Portrayals of negative acts impacted by mental health demonizes us or something.

Culture wars, clickbait, ragebait, easy e-validation. We are still in a period that rewards you for pointing out someone is a white male. Joker is a white man, Joker is ✌️mentally ill✌️, Joker is a terrorist, hmmm jogs my noggin🤔 Sure you could put in more effort but why would you, it's not like anyone reads past the headline anyway.

Not sure how impactful this actually is, but there's been a significant change in how people talk about the Joker and Harley Quinn, where his abuse of her is an Irredeemable hill he should never be forgiven for, while Harley is an abuse victim getting her mojo back by kicking the joker's ass with her girlfriend Ivy before going on to be gay, do crimes (wholesome). I have no idea how much anyone really cares about their dynamic given that Birds of Prey flopped, but I see the abuser/misogynist sentiment leak into discussions about the joker frequently, even when Harley isn't a character in the story. You can probably tell that I'm not fan of this shift.

We're never getting gun control. Why not scapegoat a movie? Why not blame the clown

#the fears of joker larpers annoyed me so much bc deadpool larpers were ten billion times worse