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dear-mrs-otome · 1 year

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Jude Jazza - Fake Lovers Event + Sweet End

(AKA Villainous Love That Unfolds on a Moonless Night but fuck that title it's too long)

I make no guarantees on accuracy. I make no guarantees on seriousness. This is, on multiple occasions, a shitpost in summary form - but I hope you enjoy it anyways.

~~~~~~~~

Our story opens on Kate - her lips hot, her heart pounding - telling Jude that she never wants to be the ‘lover’ of someone like him, ever again.

Jude thanks her sarcastically, before telling her it should have been him turning down someone like her to begin with…and Kate’s in total disbelief, wtf is wrong with me style, at the fact that his cruel smile is kinda doing it for her right now.

Absolutely fucking not, she’s telling herself. IX-NAY, FULL STOP, BAD OVARIES DOWN GIRL.

~~~Rewinddddd~~~

After she’d become the fairy tale writer, Victor had come up with an idea to help Kate get to know the boyos better, her first task. To pick one of the members of the Crown and spend the day as their ‘lover’. She’s like, nani the fuck?? How am I supposed to pick someone for that? But Victor’s clearly evil accounted for this, because he’s got the solution - if she can’t decide, he’ll decide for her. With DARTS.

Already prepared for this, Victor hucks a dart at a target and then immediately turns to her all soberfaced and apologizing. Not feeling that apologetic though because the next moment he’s smiling as he says she might be in for a bumpy road. He leads her to the lounge and goes right up to JUDE, of all people, which has Kate utterly dismayed. He literally managed to pick the WORST person possible, didn’t he?!

Jude is far from pleased at being interrupted, looking up from his paper with bitchface as Victor explains his proposal, and his answer is clear. A flat nope.

Just because she’s a woman, he’s supposed to have her pose as his lover? He doesn’t think she’s got the stomach for it in the first place.

Victor cheerfully tells him he’ll bump up how much money Jude’s getting next month, and Jude’s still far from pleased at the idea but money clearly talks, and with a patented-Jude ‘tch’ and a sneer he turns to Kate.

Jude: Once we’re outta here, I don’t wanna hear whining anythin’ like ‘I wanna go back’ or ‘I hate this’ or whatever. Promise that and we’re on.

She’s thinking fine fine, she’s come this far already may as well give it a go. She’s gotta take this first task and do it well so that she can be trusted as a fairytale writer and get out of this castle.

Kate: Yes! I promise!

Jude lets out a sigh like he can’t believe she just said that so enthusiastically, and Roger chimes in looking totally gobsmacked. He warns her that she’s just earned herself a rough go of it, making a promise to Jude - Jude’s deadly serious about keeping promises he’s made, but he expects the same of anyone else, and he’ll exact cruel ruthless revenge on anyone who breaks their word.

Kate’s all kinds of nervous hearing that now, and when she echoes it she glances over to find Jude with a cruel smile on his face, as if enjoying her fear.

Jude: Don't make promises so easily, Princess. I’m gonna spend the rest of the day teachin' you that.

~~~~~~~~

It takes her only a few minutes to regret her life choices, wishing for nothing more than to go back home already.

Jude and Ellis had told her they were going to work, so she tagged along with them, and it had taken only a brief while before Jude had ducked into an alley off the road and there been accosted by a man with a knife. He jumps out, yelling about how he can’t forgive (a thoroughly unimpressed) Jude for wanting to make the man lose his mansion, his property, everything he has. No matter how much he works he’ll never pay off his debts, the man shouts. His family will be ruined! It’s ALL Jude’s fault!

Jude merely says Ellis’ name, and in a blink Ellis has the man pinned to the ground, disarmed.

Leaving Kate shocked by how fast he moved and how deftly he handled that.

Jude reminds the man it was HE who broke his contract - if he wants to starve to death paying for a lawsuit he can’t win, go right on ahead. Tossing those words at him all casually as he simply walks by, leaving the man wailing on the ground.

The dude seems pretty defeated, so Ellis lets go of him and gets up to follow Jude…but Kate is conflicted. Obviously she doesn’t have any clue what sort of deal the guy had with Jude, or how he broke it, but he seems pretty busted up and too pathetic to just leave him lying there in the dirt like this. Feeling bad, she takes out her handkerchief and hands it to the man - but all that ends up doing is enraging him, feeling like he’s being pitied by a girl like her.

He grabs her leg rather than the kerchief, causing her to squeal and tell the man to let go of her, but he shouts at her for mouthing off to him.

Just as she’s frozen in fear…a well-polished shoe smashes the man’s face.

Jude: Don’t just touch something of mine.

Kate’s aghast as she follows the leg attached to the heel still grinding into the man’s face and finds Jude standing there, looking down at the dude and looking pissed. The man manages a few grunts, but that just causes Jude to grin and say how much he’s relishing the man’s miserable expression. Laughing at the sight of the blood running from the agonized man’s nose before turning away.

Kate forces herself to follow Jude, leaving the broken man behind, but she still carefully leaves her handkerchief beside him before she goes.

~~~~~~~~

Though the method might leave something to be desired, she’s gotta admit to herself that Jude protected her, and so she thanks him when they get back out to the street. But Jude just scoffs that she’s a sheltered princess, and tells her he didn’t do it for her. It’s because right now she’s supposed to to be ‘his woman’, and if he lets someone doing something to her slide to her it’ll only cause problems for him - AKA he’s gotta keep up appearances.

She thinks to herself that she’d rather he just accepted her thanks, since he did help her, but she gets why he was so vicious about it at least. And she broaches the subject of the guy, asking what the deal was with him, but all Jude says on the matter is that the guy made promises he couldn’t keep, and now he’s paying for them.

Jude: Pretty sad, pathetic, and hilarious, innit?

She’s trying to figure out how Jude’s so chill about a dude hating him enough to want to kill him - actually, scratch calm, he looks almost like he’s enjoying the whole thing. Like he’s having fun. And she thinks back to the write-up she’d seen on Jude:

‘Curse: The 13th Fairy. Ruthless, arrogant, and vindictive.’

Sounds spot on, she’s thinking.

Jude reminds her to watch herself, lest she end up like that dude, because he knows she was just thinking how she wanted to go back home and how she hated all this. (AKA about to break her promise too)

Kate: I might have thought it, but I didn’t SAY it.

Jude: A shame. I went into that alley and put you in danger and everythin'.

Cue Kate like…whaaa? She asks incredulously if he's saying he tried to get her attacked on purpose to make her break her promise?!?

Jude smirks and implies she managed to guess right, which only enrages Kate.

Kate: You’re the worst!

Jude (100% unrepentant and grinning): Why thank you. I’m lookin' forward to finding out just 'ow long that sassy attitude of yours lasts.

~~~~~~~~

She’d assumed saying they were going to work meant an office or something, but instead they bring her to the dockyards. Makes sense though she guesses, when you own a trading company.

Jude sends Ellis off to prepare for some unspecified ‘thing’ that might happen tonight, and Ellis seems to get what he’s alluding to, bidding Kate a cheerful farewell and leaving her wondering just what they’re talking about and where Ellis is going. Pondering that she follows along after Jude as he moves about the dockyards, giving instructions here and there. He speaks with dock workers and the foreman and she finds herself a seat between crates to watch him as he does. Taking in the way everyone looks at him with a mixture of fear, nervousness, and sometimes hostility - tempered with respect.

He finishes up the conversation, and a friendly young man comes rushing up to Jude, who pulls a face at how loud the man, Jack, is. Jack is delighted that Jude remembers his name, and Kate’s a little surprised to see that someone out there is a Jude fan.

That’s about when Jack notices her there, and asks who she is.

Jude: Oh, my woman.

Jack’s about to losing his mind over this revelation - holy what?? Bossman’s girlfriend?? And he’s practically shouting, so loud that Kate’s cringing as a sea of eyes turn her way. It freaks her out and she wonders if it’s all in her imagination that she feels like people are all jinxing her.

Jude scowls and says what of it? What if he does have a girlfriend? Jack’s left trying to make excuses and apologize for making a spectacle, until Jude just long-suffering sighs and tells him to get back to work

Felling hella uncomfortable, Kate’s scrunching herself down between the crates and such trying to stay out of sight as much as possible, when she senses Jude’s amusement and looks up.

Jude: Yeah, good, stay small like that. There’s plenty of people who’d kill you just for bein’ my woman.

She asks if he’s meaning to say she might be attacked again like she was before, getting nervous all over again remembering that guy who’d grabbed her leg.

Jude asks if she’s scared, and she starts to say OF COURSE but she stops herself, trying to decide if he’d consider it a complaint if she did. (AKA a violation of her promise)

He snorts at that and steps closer and says of course she’d be terrified - a sheltered, defenseless princess like her? It’ll be a miracle for her to make it home unscathed after all the things that’ll happen to her.

Only when he finishes does she realize he’s backed her up against the crates, with nowhere else to run - a fact he gleefully points out. He wraps his fingers around her throat and squeezes, not enough to hurt or cut her air off, but tight enough to make her blood run cold.

Kate: Sto-!

She keeps herself from finishing that too, not willing to tell him to stop and risk breaking her promise. But being unable to resist like that only amps up her fear more.

Jude: If I put just a bit more strength into this hand, you’re never going back to the castle. Alright?

Kate’s thinking NO ACTUALLY THIS IS FAR FROM OKAY?! But she can’t protest so she does the next best thing - glares at him furiously.

Jude lets out a little laugh and says he likes that face, it’s the cutest thing he’s seen all day. He almost feels bad for her, because she clearly wants to go home but can’t say it. If she breaks her promise, he’ll do terrible things to her, no?

He seems amused, clearly seeing right through her fears and conflict, and she wonders if THIS is what he meant when he’d threatened to show her that she shouldn't make promises so easily. But that’s just what she does.

Pissed off now, Kate finds her voice, and furiously she tells him it’s not because she’s afraid of his vengeance that she doesn’t protest. It’s simply because she doesn’t want to give up on earning their trust and earning her freedom.

Jude looks taken aback, as she finishes by telling him that’s why she will keep the promise she made to him.

He clicks his tongue and lets go of her, and the sudden rush of blood to her head makes her dizzy. She staggers and starts to fall, but he grabs her by the upper arm and hauls her roughly back to steady on her feet.

Jude: Can’t have my woman just falling down can I?

She’s fuming to herself about how he’s still quite literally The Worst, when he tells her he’s going to be taking care of some business so she’s on her own for awhile here, and with that he just unceremoniously leaves. And stays gone, for hours…long enough for Kate to be left wishing for home once more as she’s freezing her ass off once night begins to fall.

The young man from earlier, Jack, approaches her, and she recognizes him. Jack tells her that Jude’s sent for her, and she’s fuming internally at him leaving her along for friggin ever and then summoning her whenever he damn well feels like it…but she forces herself to smile and accepts Jack’s offer to take her to him.

He takes her through the streets to a business warehouse, and inside she sees an unfamiliar man dressed in black with a bowler hat on, and guards surrounding him.

Bowler Hat Man: Are you Jude Jazza’s girl?

A wary Kate tries to back out, but she’s grabbed by Jack. Appalled, she asks Jack if he’s stabbing Jude in the back, but Jack tells her it’s not betrayal - it was just contracted work, and he’s found a better-paying job. Who wouldn’t take it?

Jack hands her over to the Bowler Hat Man, who evil chuckles over how he figured Kate would make a worthwhile hostage so he’d had her brought in - that man bringing a woman along is something that never happens. Kate asks if by ‘that man’ he means Jude, and the Bowler Hat Man agrees. He tells her how Jude killed a dude who tried sending a woman to seduce Jude for his own gain, and that Jude seems to surprisingly give a shit about ladies.

Kate’s like uhhh are you sure you’ve got the right person here?? This amuses the Bowler Hat Man a ton, but he says basically that Jude’s got some dirt on him, and he’s going to leverage Kate’s safety in exchange for negotiating.

She asks what’ll happen if Jude refuses, and the Bowler Hat Man simply says too bad so sad, that’ll mean she dies. THAT scares the shit out of her, because she knows there’s no freaking way Jude’s going to negotiate for her. She’s gonna have to figure out how to somehow get out of this all on her own.

Kate tries to tell the guy that she just tagged along with Jude to work today, but Bowler Hat says nah girl you were spotted getting all flirty at the docks today.

Kate: Did that seriously look like we were flirting? He was strangling me!?

Bowler Hat Man says hey, some people are into that kinda thing, and Kate’s about ready to choke at that. She starts vehemently protesting that she really truly doesn’t have anything to do with that man (Jude), this is all just a huge misunderstanding!

Jude’s voice: What a terrible thing to say about your lover…I’m wounded.

She turns around at the sound of his voice and the thump of something heavy falling to the ground, and sees Jude there walking in past an unconscious guard, tossing out a snarky greeting and an apology for interrupting.

SWEET END

The man in the bowler hat recognizes Jude, and he grabs Kate, wrapping an arm around her tightly and pressing something up against her forehead that she realizes, to her horror, is a pistol.

Jude: Ha, that’s a great look, Kate.

She’s bracing herself for the inevitable moment where Jude says she’s not his lover and he refuses to negotiate, at which point…she’ll be killed. Just the thought has her shaking like a leaf with fear - and Jude seems to be genuinely enjoying the sight of her in terror as he laughs and says how much he likes the frightened look in her eyes.

He asks if she wants his help, and she’s thinking NO SHIT ISN’T THAT OBVIOUS?

She’s nodding YES desperately, only to be left more and more of a nervous wreck as Jude strings her along, until the Bowler Hat Man is like, so much for a sweet reunion between lovers?

Jude’s a little disappointed he’s got to stop enjoying the sight of Kate in distress and pay attention to the man, but he switches his focus from her to Bowler Hat and states that it seems the guy is using Jude’s warehouse for business other than they’d agreed on. Jude doesn’t give a shit if he wants to use it to sell guns or whatever other nastiness - BUT. They had a contract that specifically said no buying or selling of PEOPLE didn’t they?

Kate’s thinking, holy crap they’re trading in people?

Bowler Hat wants Jude to overlook all that though - after all, he says, even poor people can fetch a good price when sold. It’ll line Jude’s pockets and help clean the filth from London’s shithole excuse for a port.

Jude’s just silent at that, and the guy keeps wheedling - Jude loves other people’s misery, and money, so of course he’d let something like this slide, right?? If Jude agrees to it, he’ll give Kate back unharmed.

She’s summing this all up in her head, that obviously what’s going on here is the guy broke his contract with Jude to use a warehouse he’d rented from him to engage in human trafficking. And now he’s trying to threaten Jude into letting it continue.

The whole thing makes her sick to her stomach, and while she doesn’t WANT to die she can’t wrap her head around sparing herself at the expense of ignoring the awful shit this guy’s up to.

She could never, ever, do such a horrible thing.

So, biting her lip to hold back her fear, she looks squarely at Jude and puts all her effort into keeping her voice from trembling when she speaks.

Kate: Jude…that nod earlier? I take it back.

He startles at that before he answers.

Jude: You’re seriously hopeless, you know that?

But her heart skips a beat at the smile he’s wearing when he says it - pitying and dumbfounded, but somehow still gentle. She’s honestly having a hard time believing what she’s seeing.

Slightly warm fuzzy moment all gone though when the smile falls from his face and he says he doesn’t need to be told what to do by her, so quiet down. His eyes are cold when he turns back to Bowler Hat and says there’s a few things the man seems to have misunderstood about him that he’s going to clear up.

First - that Jude loves other people’s misery and money. What he loves is eating the rich, basically. He loves the despair when the high and mighty, like Bowler Hat, fall from their comfy lap of luxury.

Bowler Hat has only a moment to be like, wtf? Before the air in the warehouse is torn apart by gunshots and screams, as the guards surrounding Bowler Hat all collapse. He’s so dumbfounded that Jude easily darts in and takes advantage of the distraction to twist his gun arm back.

Secondly, Jude tells him, is that no matter what kind of leverage someone tries to use against him he’ll never let anyone get away with breaking a contract.

Jude: Third…

He rips Kate away from the man and into his own arms on a sneer.

Jude: Whatever my answer is, I’m gonna be sure to get her back without a scratch.

He drives a knee hard into Bowler Hat’s stomach at that, and the man falls over on the spot. Kate’s still trying to catch up to the fact that Jude’s helped her again…and trying to tell her pounding heart to chill out. It’s most definitely NOT racing over Jude saving her bacon, or because he’s holding her. Absolutely not. Clearly it’s just because she’s scared.

Clearly.

She knows she’s telling herself lies nobody would believe, and in the meantime Jude aims the pistol he stole from Bowler Hat at him and tells him not to worry - he’s not going to turn him over to the police. In return for that, he just asks the man to be the subject for some dangerous research. Jude takes perverse delight in the idea of Bowler Hat experiencing the ‘joys’ of physical labor for the first time.

When the agonized man finally passes out, Jude calls out for Ellis to carry the guy off, and Ellis materializes out of the shadows with his own gun in hand. He observes on a smile that Jude seems pretty pleased right now, which only leads Jude to pull a face and tell Ellis to go get his eyes checked if that’s what he sees, after dropping this dude off at the lab.

Ellis seems a little disappointed, but he does as asked and disappears with Bowler Hat.

Kate asks if the man is going to be killed, and Jude tells her that he accepted this mission on the condition that if he could destroy the human trafficking ring, he alone got to decide whether the target lived or died.

Jude: I don’t see why I should let condescending bastards, living comfy and cushy lives while they exploit others, get off with something as easy as dying. It’s the way of the world that what goes around comes around, and it wouldn’t be fair for them to die before suffering through the same hell, right?

Kate’s still reeling from the revelation that this was all a mission though, and says as much aloud. Jude grimaces at her screeching and says what the heck else would it be?

Kate: So you didn’t come to my rescue because I was kidnapped by accident…

Jude tells her he knew they’d try anything to get him to negotiate with them, so she’d make a natural target if she was seen out and about with him. Kate’s like, wait you KNEW THAT and you left me alone?!

They devolve into arguing, Jude exasperated that she’s gotta pester him with so many obvious questions and Kate still furious that hello?? She might have been KILLED?!

Jude, scoffing: I’d never do anything to get my bait killed.

Kate’s just seeing red over having been used as bait, and she tells Jude, once again, that he is The Worst. Jude’s practically rolling his eyes as he tells her she already used that line earlier, doesn’t she have any new ones? Lighting up a smoke, he walks out of the warehouse - pausing on the way to land a hard parting kick on Jack, who is lying on the ground with the rest of the defeated guards.

~~~~~~~~

Back out at the docks, Kate questions Jude as to the nature of this ‘dangerous research’ he’s going to use that man as a subject for, but he tells her it’ll never have anything to do with her.

If it’s so dangerous, it seems like it might have serious and permanent effects, and she’s wondering whether Bowler Hat will come seeking revenge on Jude if he survives it. Also remembering with a shudder the hatred in the man’s eyes who threatened Jude with a knife in the alley. She could never stomach living with people constantly hating you and wanting to see you dead.

Kate: The more you torment people, the more they'll just hate you…why do you have to torture them?

Jude just smirks and tells her it’s the price of a delightful hobby, and she asks if it’s really fun enough to risk his life over. He stops at that and turns back towards her, causing Kate to almost crash into him, leaving them almost nose to nose.

Jude: Can I torment you until you hate me so much you wanna kill me, just to be sure?

Only for him to immediately break out laughing when Kate gasps, and say he’s just fucking with her. Quite pleased with himself at having her at a loss.

He tells her that a sheltered princess would never get it, and she thinks that she doesn’t understand and she doesn’t WANT to understand.

This man’s a cold-hearted, arrogant, ruthless sadist…but…when he put her in danger today, it was Jude who freed her and kept her safe. If he’d really made that promise to her with ill intent, she’d not have made it through the day unscathed.

That moment where Jude had promised to spend the day showing her the folly of making promises so lightly comes back to mind again…and she realizes he’d done exactly what he’d said he would and taught her the rules of this dark world she’s stepped into. Maybe because he knows the importance of a promise.

That doesn’t make showing appreciation any easier to swallow though, leaving her to force herself to thank him for today.

Jude asks what’s with the surly attitude saying it, would it kill her to smile more? Aaaand Kate’s back to exasperated with this man, but she tells him she learned a lot about the dangers of making promises and that she’ll be more careful next time, all on a smile this time.

Jude snarkily praises that…then grabs her chin with a cold smile, setting her flailing and asking what he’s doing.

Jude: You’ve done a good job of keeping your agreement with Victor and your promise to me…but I saved your life two times today. You owe me twice.

Kate’s in disbelief, even as ruthless amethyst eyes glint at her bewitchingly. Like a cunning predator, toying with its prey. Then Jude smirks and wonders aloud…what exactly should he get in return for saving his ‘sweetheart’?

FIN

(The little scene we get at the start of the story is from the epilogue)

~~~~~~~~

<< Bitter End | Epilogue >> (TBC)

~~~~~~~~

@violettduchess @just-simping-over-genshin

#ikemen villains #ikevil #ikevil jude #spoiler #spoilers #ikemen villains spoilers #ikevil spoilers #mrs o's translations of dubious quality

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rose-tea-and-strawberries · 5 months

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Trey: *Trying to explain Riddle is that way because of his mom*

Me: Give me a minute as I pull up my ‘Trauma Doesn’t Excuse Sh*t Behavior’ PowerPoint.

Say it with me, everyone: an explanation is not an excuse 😊

You know, the other day I was watching one of Ryan George's Pitch Meetings and when Producer Guy asked Writer Guy how the audience would root for the villain of the franchise and the response was "he's handsome" which basically explains most people's reactions to fictional men.

Prepare for incoming rant that has little to do with the ask

This probably might come as a shock because one of the main appeal of twst would be the whole villainous aspect/Disney Villain fanbase but I don't really like villains that much, at least, not romantically. Like don't get me wrong, I think that they're incredible characters and it would be so fun to sit down with one and have a conversation with one. Villain songs are so fun (I was literally singing ‘This Day Aria’ to myself the other day I haven’t heard that song in like a decade) and you can tell that that characters like Scar or Hades or Shere Khan or Jafar or Maleficent are having so much fun being deliciously evil and even the more serious, complex ones like Loki or Frollo are fun to pick apart so yeah I understand the hype. I just always rooted for the heroes and I guess heroic characters have always been more my type.

My mother absolutely loves Erik Destler and is forever salty that Christine chose Raoul (despite my many many attempts at arguing why Raoulstine is the superior couple - smol primary school me could not understand why my mum liked the chandelier dropper and was deeply concerned), my best friend has been in love with Heathcliffe since we were eleven, and my little sister has literally told me that her type of fictional men are the toxic red flags (not exactly word for word but she did explain why she likes bad boys over good boys when I was complaining about how my type (wholesome soft boys) always get sidelined for the arrogant, snarky bad boys - we're also very diametrically opposed on our views of friends to lovers (my s++ tier all time favourite and her loathing) vs enemies to lovers (I can't really stand it - Pride and Prejudice is the only exception - and that's literally all she consumes) so that might also be a reason).

Like, I understand the appeal of a Byronic hero (Mr Darcy has far too much power) - a closed off, broody man that hates everything but you? And will burn down the world to keep you warm? I can respect that there are people who dig that. But their not really for me.

The mild bout of insanity thirteen year old me had where I spent two months attracted to Edward Rochester is an outlier and should not have been counted (though that was during my wattpad phase so...)

But I can admit that I have yet to shake off my feelings for Dr Henry Jekyll, Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray (though to be fair, Mr Gabriel John Utterson the lawyer and cinnamon roll artist boy Basil Hallward do own my heart). And yes, Jeremy Jordan did make me question my morality as he did make my feelings for Light Yagami be too positive to be sane for a brief moment (Touta Matsuda is still my man, don't worry). But apart from them, literally all of my faves are what you'd call your traditional, morally upright heroes.

Basically what I'm saying is that my perception might be skewed because I've never had the whole 'villains are cooler' mindset when it came to stories. Yes, I love the villains as characters but I always liked their heroic foils more (goodness is just so attractive to me). You get lots of amazing heroic protagonists that have horribly tragic backstories and they're the ones I always fall for because the idea of being a kind sweetheart despite the world being anything but is just *chef's kiss* that's a kind of strength that's so swoon-worthy.

I guess that's why it's harder for me to look past the characters' actions in twst is because, well, they chose to do everything they did. They made a conscious choice to be terrible, despite understanding the consequences. Riddle may have been brainwashed into becoming a tyrant by his mother but he still admitted that he knew he was being horrible - he understands the concept of morality, of good and bad, and he willingly and deliberately did everything he did.

I suppose this text post I found on Pinterest would explain my point better:

#twisted wonderland #twst #asks

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archiveikemen · 1 year

Text

Liam Evans Main Story: Chapter 5

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I was woken up by the sun shining on my eyelids.

Seeing the pink roses glistening in the morning sun, I knew that it was the start of a brand new day.

Kate: … Alright, I shall do my best today.

(Come to think of it, last night…)

== Flashback Start ==

Liam: What do you think about observing only me for the next one month and writing about me in your report?

Kate: Write about you…?

Liam: That’s right. Not about Crown, but about me as a person. It’s because the finest stories are the ones with the best main character.

== Flashback End ==

(Liam told me to write about him for a month.)

It didn't feel fair for Liam to be the only person my report was about.

(... What should I do?)

I hesitantly pushed open the door to the dining room, where Crown often gathered…

Liam: I knew I could count on you, Victor! Thanks, I’m glad I consulted you about it.

Liam: Ah, good morning, Kate! You look lovely today. I’m so happy to see you in the morning.

Victor: Good morning, Miss Kate. You came to the right place.

In good humour, Liam put his arms around Victor’s neck.

Kate: What do you mean by “the right place”...?

Victor: Oh, Liam just negotiated with me about you becoming his personal fairytale writer.

Liam: — And Victor said OK to it.

(Huh…?)

Kate: … So, it’s alright?

Victor: Yes, because I’ve always been thinking of how I can avoid overworking you.

Victor: And, as Liam said, it’s a lot of work to have to observe every member of Crown and write a report about them.

Liam: Hey, Victor! You promised that you wouldn't tell—

Victor: Oops. Sorry, sorry. It was a slip of the tongue.

Victor winked at me as I stood there, puzzled.

He wanted to show me Liam’s kindness.

I got the feeling that Victor knew from the start that this would happen.

He could tell just by observing us for a few days, because he’s Her Majesty the Queen’s right hand man.

Kate: Thank you, Victor. Liam, too.

Victor: It’s hard for me not to give in when there’s two people persuading me.

Kate: Two…?

When I heard him say “two people”, I turned my eyes to the other people in the room.

(Who helped Liam persuade Victor?)

Seated at the dining table were Harrison, who was still sleepy; and Roger, who was eating meat for breakfast.

Harrison noticed me staring at him, and threw me an aloof smile.

Harrison: Did you think I’d help you?

(— Does that mean it was Roger?)

Roger met my gaze with a confident smile.

His smile reminded me of a reliable older brother.

Kate: Thanks for your concern, Roger.

Roger: Hm? Oh—

Roger: I did try to persuade him. But it's nothing to deserve your thanks.

Roger: I joined Crown to conduct research on people born with curses.

Roger: The curse of a cat has many interesting things, such as getting attacks.

Roger: Therefore, Liam is a very important research specimen to me.

(Erm…)

Kate: So, am I right to say that… my report is a very valuable resource for your research?

Roger: Yeah, you’re right. Means to say, I persuaded Victor for my own sake.

Roger: I’ll be looking forward to reading your report, Miss Fairytale Writer.

(...!)

(I thought he’s the reliable older brother type of guy, but I was wrong. He’s—)

Liam: Be careful of him, Kate. Roger is a very egotistical man.

Liam: But at the same time, he’s a top grade doctor. I mean, heaven doesn’t give with both hands, right?

Roger: Oi, Liam. You can say whatever you want about me, but go to another doctor the next time you get hurt, yeah?

Liam: Eh— I’m sorry, Roger! You’re the only doctor I want to go to.

Victor: My beloved cursed ones are so smiley today and getting along so well. Right, Harrison?

Harrison: … Don’t put your arm over my shoulders Victor. You’re annoying.

Harrison pushed Victor’s arm off himself and ate his chocolate danish in silence.

Liam: I’m feeling parched from all that talking. Harry, I’ll have some of that tea.

Harrison: Hey, I poured five cups of sugar into that—

Liam: That was delicious. Thank you for the meal.

As Liam drank the tea, a waiter burst into the room with his face pale as a ghost.

(What's the matter?)

Roger noticed that I couldn't understand sign language, so he translated it for me.

Roger: He said, “the jars for sugar and salt were reversed. I’m truly sorry for that.”

(The sugar and salt got mixed up? That means…)

Liam: Ahaha. I was wondering why the tea tasted salty.

Harrison: …

Harrison: Do you usually drink your tea with salt? Good grief, are you still half asleep?

Liam: Maybe. Alrighty, Kate. Shall we hang out together after breakfast?

Kate: Okay!

…

Ever since then, Liam and I have been spending a lot more time together.

Because I was his “personal fairytale writer”, Liam would take me everywhere.

Liam: Kate, let’s make a detour here. That gelato shop I mentioned the other day is nearby.

Sometimes, he took me to fun places.

…

Liam: Tonight I’m going to search for evidence of certain people involved in illegal gambling. Be sure not to leave my side.

And sometimes, on missions that make me anxious.

Strangely enough, going on missions with Liam was always fun.

I rarely had blood splattered on me or felt helpless.

However, those were mere coincidences — like the calm before a storm.

…

It was a quiet night.

Three of us, Liam, Ellis, and I, had to chase down a man who was involved in several robbery and assault cases towards nobility.

After successfully catching him, we interrogated him and were told that he was forced to commit those crimes due to poverty.

Robber: I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry… I swear I won't do it again.

Liam: … Leave. Make sure you keep your word.

Liam: — The next time you commit evil, “someone” will come condemn you for your crimes.

Robber: … Eek.

The man fled the scene upon hearing Liam’s words.

Ellis: Are you sure we should let him off?

Liam: He didn't kill anyone, so Her Majesty ordered us to give him a warning.

Ellis: Hmm, I see. … Well then, I have to go meet Jude. See you, Liam and Kate.

Kate: … Okay. See you.

As I heard Ellis’ footsteps grow distant, my chest became filled with a dreary feeling I couldn't dispel.

It was like… drops of jet-black ink falling onto a blank sheet of white paper.

(If his sin were as bad as it sounded, I wouldn't feel this bad for him.)

In this world, there is evil without reason.

Such as finding pleasure in causing harm to others.

Those people trample on others for their personal gain.

(However, most people do evil with a reason. This was something I’m starting to realise.)

And every time I realise that, my moral compass wavers.

(But still, I—)

Liam: Kate?

Kate: O-Oh, yes? Sorry. I spaced out for a moment…

Liam: …

Liam: Hey, want to go on a little date? The sky is full of stars tonight, it’d be a waste to go straight home.

(Huh…?)

The moment I nodded, Liam carried me in his arms and hopped onto the roof of a building—

And leapt into the air.

Kate: Wah…!

Holding me in his arms, Liam ran from roof to roof like he was flying.

(If I fall from here…)

I reflexively squeezed Liam’s arm, making him tighten his grip on me.

Liam: Don’t worry. I will never, ever, hurt you.

Liam: If I ever hurt you, I’ll never forgive myself. I'll die to pay for it.

Liam: Hey, look up. What do you see…?

When I looked up, I saw countless stars twinkling brightly.

Kate: I see stars. … This is amazing. I think I might be able to touch them if I reach out.

Liam: Right? This is what I wanted to show you.

Liam: … This is nice, I’m so thrilled. … Fufu, this is fun.

Liam: Maybe I’m feeling this way because of you.

Looking up at Liam’s profile as he ran through the night, I noticed that he had a rather unsettling look on his face, perhaps because his curiosity had been piqued.

Liam: London bridge is broken down, broken down, broken down… ♪

But I wasn’t afraid.

Because I knew that the arms around me would never let go.

Admiring the beautiful scenery and receiving Liam’s kindness melted away all lingering feelings of helplessness.

(Ever since we met, Liam has always been helping me…)

After hopping around the rooftops for a little longer, Liam dropped me off on one of the higher rooftops.

Liam: Isn’t this place so high up? This used to be a bell tower. It’s my favourite spot to be.

Feeling the soft breeze, we sat down next to each other and admired the stars.

Liam: My curiosity has been satisfied because of you. Thanks for hanging out with me, Kate.

Kate: I should be the one thanking you.

Liam: …?

Kate: You’ve always been helping to relieve my anxiety and feelings of helplessness…

Kate: You saved me countless times. Thank you, Liam.

Liam: … You’re welcome.

Kate: …

Kate: You know what, Liam?

Liam: Yes?

Kate: When I first came to Crown… I couldn't understand why you guys were doing what you do.

Kate: I thought that no matter what evil deeds someone has committed, it shouldn't end up with their lives being taken. Taking someone’s life is to take everything from them.

Kate: I still think the same way, that’s why I’m feeling so lost.

Kate: But now, I want to understand. I’ll keep thinking about it until the day I find a definite answer to my doubts.

Liam: You won't stop thinking about it…?

Kate: Yes, because that's the only thing I can do while I’m here.

Kate: Ah, and of course the whole thing about keeping secrets and safely returning to my old life.

Liam: You’re so admirable, Kate.

Kate: …?

Liam: It’d be much easier to stop thinking about those things. And yet… you’re not the type to run away from your problems.

Liam: But I want to make you smile, that’s why I’m always pampering you.

Liam took my hand and kissed the back of it, purposefully making an audible kissing sound.

Kate: … Liam.

Liam: Hey, hey. Do you dislike this type of pampering? Sorry.

(... He’s so sneaky..)

(Come to think of it…)

A question I had never asked before surfaced in my mind.

Kate: What’s your perception of “evil”, Liam…?

#ikemen villains #ikemen series #cybird ikemen #cybird otome #otome #ikevil main story #liam main story

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 6 months

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Loki 2x6 Review (Spoilers!)

Phew, so that episode was quite the ride. Overall as an episode I really loved it. Were there some things I feel a bit conflicted about? Yes, but for the most part I thought it was an epic finale to the season, also I am pretty sure I cried my way through about 70% of this episode. Fair warning I have a lot of thoughts so this is another fairly long post, sorry bout that. So lets get into the episode.

Spaghetti Loops

The episode starts off exactly where we left off at the end of ep 5 and this is one of the very few predictions I made that actually came true, Loki just kept going back and trying it again and again trying to do it faster and poor Victor got spaghettified over and over. Now don't judge me ok, but I just found this whole sequence hilarious. Loki getting more and more exasperated every time it fails. Also the way everyone was looking at him like he had gone completely mad and being confused when he keeps saying again and faster this time because for them this is the first and only time its happened. I also loved when Loki gets the loom model out and says 'Mobius you're in luck. It looks like Mobius but its actually Victor Timely' about the little figurine. Loved the call back to the argument they had in ep 4.

Another moment that had me cackling like a mad woman was when after asking OB how long it would take to learn everything to know about mechanics, physics and engineering, and Victor answering centuries, it comes up with the centuries later text screen. This guy legit spent centuries learning everything he needed to know to make that multiplier faster, he's dedicated that's for sure.

A concept I did like about this sequence was how Loki would take all the things that go wrong each time and then ensure they don't happen the next time, like making sure Victor's suit is taped in all the right spots, that his visor is locked properly, that he doesn't trip on the first step, that he doesn't put down the multiplier so it won't roll off the gang way. Eventually he is able to guide Victor through a successful attempt. Well successful in the sense that he is able to get the multiplier to connect to the loom and make it back. I'll admit when they were celebrating and for a moment it looked like it had worked, my first instinct was nah this is too good to be true, it is way too early in the episode for this to be fixed. Which is when we learn that actually the Loom is impossible to fix.

A Looming Problem.

I felt so bad for Loki in that moment when they realise that the Loom can never be fixed because you can't scale for infinite. I mean he looked so damn relieved and happy when it seemed as if it had worked, poor Loki had done that scenario and watched it fail who knows how many times and for a moment it finally seems like its going to be ok but then you realise the terrible truth that all your efforts will always be futile.

I do feel like the whole sequence before that was played off in a very comedic way despite the scenario actually being rather dark, Loki has to watch Timely and his friends die over and over. But I do think choosing to give it this comedic tone was a genius move on the writers' and producers' part as it puts the audience in a good mood, so when the moment when both the characters and we the audience learn the Loom melting down is always doomed to happen, its even more of a gut punch. It really puts you in Loki's shoes, like him you're on a high and then you just get dragged right down with this drastic tonal shift.

Sylvie saying that as soon as the timeline branched this was doomed to happen gives Loki the idea to go back and try to stop her from killing HWR. I loved the scenes that took place in the citadel particularly the conversation between Loki and HWR. I loved how it seemed like once again HWR is the one in control and in the know. He reveals to Loki that the time slipping, Victor and the Loom were all part of his plan too. That the Loom was actually a fail safe to protect the sacred timeline and a way to ensure his own resurrection. It also explains why everyone was sent to their branches when the Loom exploded. HWR says that the TVA was collateral and easy to rebuild, so the Loom resets everyone and then HWR just goes around and collects them all and on and on it goes.

I love when Loki stops time and its revealed that actually Loki is the one that is a step ahead of HWR and has already had that conversation with him. I really loved that moment. When HWR tells Loki that the equation always has the same outcome, loki loses, Loki decides to 'change the equation'. This reminded me so much of the end of ep 5 when he says he'll rewrite the story. His plan is to just break the loom. I think it is interesting that HWR actually looks surprised by this. He immediately starts trying to manipulate Loki into not doing that. In episode 4 Sylvie wonders if HWR was scared when she killed him and she just didn't notice, well I can't help but wonder the same now, is HWR scared in this moment, is he scared because he knows that Loki could destroy the Loom and if he does then all of HWR's plans come crumbling down, Sylvie will kill him and with no Loom there's no failsafe, no resurrection.

HWR's response to this is to try and scare Loki into doing what HWR wants. Its like what Loki said in 1x01, its an illusion conjured by the weak to inspire fear. The illusion being this threat, if you destroy the loom there will be a war that will kill and destroy everyone and everything. Now I don't think he's lying about all of it. I do think with HWR gone there will end up being a multiversal war between his variants but do I think this war will kill everyone and destroy every timeline? Nope! This is a superhero franchise so obviously our heroes are going to band together and save the day.

Before the episode was released I made a prediction post, well there was one thought that crossed my mind that I didn't put in that post because it was more of a deep fear than a prediction and I didn't want to accidently manifest it into being. That unwritten prediction (fear) was that as a last, nothing else has worked so this is the only option left, move Loki would go back to the citadel and kill Sylvie. So you can imagine my distress when we first have Sylvie, repeatedly, saying you'll have to kill me. Then HWR says Loki has two options, destroy the Loom and unleash a war that destroys everything, or kill Sylvie and protect what you can, ie the TVA and the sacred timeline.

My immediate reaction to this was something along the lines of, no, no, NO, NOO! Not going to lie they had me going, I really thought they were going to go through with it and have Loki sacrifice Sylvie to protect everyone else. Especially when he goes back to speak to her in timeline OB's workshop. And I will come back to that scene in a moment but first I want to talk about how great the transition was between the scene where HWR lays out the two options and you see Loki looking at Sylvie as he slowly approaches her and then you hear Mobius asking 'What are you going to do?' and then we're back to when Loki was first arrested and interrogated by Mobius.

What is really interesting about this scene is that looking back at it now they give us the answer to the question here, they tell us what Loki is going to do, past Loki tells us himself, when Mobius asked what he was going to do he replies, 'Finish what I started... Claim my throne.' Then when Mobius asks if he wants to be king, Loki responds 'I don't want to be. I was born to be." Throughout the whole franchise this idea has been pushed that Loki was born to be a king, he says it multiple times himself, but Odin also tells him as a child that even though only one of his sons could sit on the Asgardian throne they were both born to be kings. Come the end of this finale Loki is now on his throne. There is also this idea of Loki being burdened with glorious purpose that's repeated throughout the franchise and that is something else we see him find in this episode. I just find it funny that they told us all the way back in 1x1 what choice Loki was going to make in the season 2 finale. One little detail I like is that both ep 1x1 and ep 2x6 have the same title 'Glorious Purpose.' It's a neat way of bringing it all full circle.

The story Mobius tells about the hunter and the 8 year old boy he couldn't prune was also really interesting to me. Firstly because it reveals that Mobius, like Renslayer, was once a hunter before he became an analyst. Also that Renslayer was his partner which explains their bond. I do wonder if the reason why Mobius couldn't prune this boy was because he was just a kid playing with his brother and maybe subconsciously it reminded him of his own boys and even though he didn't remember them, some protective instinct kicked in and stopped him from pruning the boy.

I also feel like this story about the boy is supposed to be a mirror to Sylvie's own story. They were both kids who were minding their own business playing, when the TVA showed up and destroyed their realities. In the boy's case he was pruned to boot. In both instances it was Renslayer who was the responding hunter. I think its fascinating that Loki is trying to make this impossible decision on whether he should kill Sylvie and in that moment he is told a story that has to have reminded him of Sylvie and how she was a little girl who had everything ripped away from her.

Whilst they told us in that scene with Mobius what Loki would ultimately decide to do, obviously whilst watching the episode I hadn't figured that out yet, so when Loki went to see Sylvie right after this scene, the moment in timeline OB's workshop that I promised I'd come back to, I was filled with dread. To me at first it seemed like a goodbye scene and like he had gone there to kind of explain why he was going to have to kill her. I am not ashamed to admit that I did tear up at that moment, the mere thought that they might go through with having him kill her for 'the greater good' was heartbreaking to me.

But once I had pulled myself together I rewatched that scene and what is really interesting about it is how it parallels and links to their pie room scene. In the pie room scene you had Sylvie saying that it would be easier to destroy the TVA and start from scratch and Loki saying fixing things is hard, hope is hard. Here in this conversation those two ideas combine and meet. You have Sylvie explaining to Loki that growing up in apocalypses taught her that sometimes its ok to destroy something and that's when Loki realises and finishes for her 'if there is a hope that thing can be replaced by something better.' Loki is being asked to make the hard choice and here Sylvie is asking him to have hope that destroying the loom will lead to something better which links back to what Loki said in the pie room, hope is the hard choice and therefore the choice he chooses.

King of Time

Sylvie asks Loki some really good and deep questions in this scene as well which I think influences the decision he makes. She asks him what kind of god he wants to be, whether he really wants to be the kind that takes away people's free will, aka the god he was in the first Avengers film. She also kind of points out that he is asking the wrong questions. He's asking what good is free will if everyone is dead and she's asking but who are you and what right do you have to make that decision for everyone. They have the right to chose to die trying, fighting for something better. I just think its a really interesting debate.

Another little clever detail that I noticed is that after making his decision when he timeslips into the loom room the aura reader announces 'welcome he who remains.' Loki is about to become the kind of new HWR and it's almost like they are announcing it in that moment.

So now we get to the hard part, and yes I did bawl like a baby during this whole scene. Loki heads down into the Loom and looking back to where Sylvie and Mobius are behind the locked doors he says. 'I know what I want. I know what kind of god I need to be. For you. For all of us.' Again I think this is a parallel back to the bar scene between Sylki where she asks him what he wants and also the scene in this episode where she asks what kind of god he wants to be. I know there is some debate over whether Loki was speaking to Sylvie or Mobius or both here when he said 'for you.' Personally while I do think it was partly to both I do think it was mostly directed towards Sylvie. My reasoning being that it was a reference to those conversations he had with Sylvie alone.

The scene where he was walking down the gangway and his clothes turn into his new King of Time outfit was stunning, like breathtakingly so. Him breaking the loom and setting the timelines free was also really beautiful imagery. There's a moment when Loki reaches for one of the blackened branches and tries to bring it to life with his magic but the moment he lets go it begins to die again and that's when he realises that he is going to have to weave the branches and hold them stable himself. It's such a bittersweet moment as he takes one last look back at the ones he loves and cares for before making the hard, the impossible choice to isolate himself at the end of time. Again the scene where he is weaving those branches together and the way what once was HWR chair turns into a pure golden throne that Loki takes his seat in, stunning, visually it was stunning.

Yggdrasil

Just when I thought nothing could be more stunning than that sequence the camera panned out and showed us that the timelines were now woven together in the form of a breathtakingly gorgeous tree. I mean it was such a stunning image that I want to get a copy to frame and put on my wall.

But I am sure I am not the only one who saw it and instantly thought of Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse Mythology. So here I have, well I don't know if I would call it a theory or not, but a thought at the very least.

So something that I think is really interesting that I think might possibly have some significance later on, maybe, is that in some versions of the myths around Yggdrasil (there are different and varying accounts and sources) the tree has three main roots. One is rooted in Midgard, the realm of men. The second is rooted in Jotunheim, the land of the giants and the third is rooted in Hel, the underworld.

I think these three roots are symbolic of Loki, Sylvie and Mobius. Mobius would represent Midgard, he's a human who had a life on Midgard. Sylvie would represent Jotunheim, as a Loki variant she would have been born on Jotunheim and is a frost giant. Then Loki would represent the root for Hel, he's currently at the end of time and in season one to get there you had to go through the void and when Loki first woke up there he asks if its Hel, it definitely has that imagery or symbolism of an underworld.

I don't know exactly what this could mean going forward but I think the three of them are going to be the key to keeping the tree together and protecting it. Or I could be looking too much into it.

Sylki

So anyone who has seen any of my previous posts will know that I am huge sylki fan, so obviously I have to talk about them in this review, feel free to skip over this section if you aren't a fan of sylki.

But anyway, before this episode I was of the opinion that if we didn't get a kiss or at least a scene where they talked about their feelings and cleared the air, then I would be really disappointed, and whilst yeah it would have been nice to get those scenes I am surprisingly not disappointed because in my opinion what we got might have been even better, or at the least just as good. After this episode I am in no doubt that these guys love each other, Loki was particularly obvious about it.

I've said in previous posts that in my opinion everything Loki has done this season has been for Sylvie. His motivation was simple, what he wanted was simple, he wanted Sylvie to be ok. This episode is no different it only further reinforces that this is Loki's desire.

He is faced with this impossible choice kill Sylvie and save everyone else, or risk everything by protecting the free will Sylvie gave everyone, that she fought for. Give her the chance to live a life. HWR I think thought Loki would choose himself, would choose to sacrifice Sylvie to ensure he wouldn't be alone and so that he could get a throne. But I think HWR underestimated the love Loki felt for Sylvie. I mean he replayed that citadel fight over and over because he was not willing to hurt Sylvie even to stop her from killing HWR. Again it all circles back to what Loki said in 1x6, he doesn't want to hurt her, he doesn't want a throne he wants her to be ok, and this is something HWR doesn't understand and that is why he loses.

The moment when Loki chooses to sacrifice himself for her is so heartbreaking, the way Sylvie immediately followed him down to the loom and how she desperately said she had to get in there when she realised what he was doing. There is also a moment when the portal thingy opens to the end of time and Loki knows what he has to do, he looks back to Sylvie and she shakes her head at him, he just gives her this sad smile and does what he needs to do. It reminded me so much of the moment in 1x5 when Sylvie says they need a distraction for Alioth and Loki puts a hand on her shoulder, Sylvie shakes her head because she doesn't want him in danger. It was clear how deeply she cared about and loved him, it was just so bittersweet.

Sylki's romance in season 1 was very different from season 2, last season they were very flirty and cute whereas this season has been mostly angst thanks to the fall out after the citadel in 1x6. But I still think it was still a romance in season 2. Loki sacrificed his own happiness for Sylvie, there are so many quotes out there about sacrifice being the purest form of love and I think that is what they were going for here. Loki choosing to sit at the end of time and hold the timelines together was the burden he chose to carry for her, what's more romantic than that? I mean it hurts and it sucks and makes me want to cry, but its still the epitome of romance.

Also I couldn't help but see the parallel between Thor choosing to destroy the bridge and therefore separating himself from Jane for the greater good and Loki choosing to trap himself at the end of time away from Sylvie to protect her and his friends, as well as the greater good. Both brothers end up away from the women they love in an act of heroism. The glimmer of hope for me is that Jane searches for Thor, eventually they are reunited. I'm just saying Sylvie still has that tempad. I would love if we get to see these characters again in a season 3 or other Marvel project, if we find out that Sylvie has been searching for a way to free Loki but still keep the branches stable. Maybe she could even team up with thor and mobius. Or she could seek out Wanda or Dr strange to get more magical knowledge. The possibilities are endless.

After

So lets talk about the ending and where everyone ends up starting with B-15, Casey and OB. So I like that they all stayed at the TVA and that B-15 seems to be kind of running the show. I also loved that OB wrote another TVA guidebook edition 2, I feel like it might be a bestseller. I also love that it is yellow as that colour symbolises optimism and the promise of a positive future which I think will be good for the TVA going forward. Another thing of note and which I really loved was that when they show the new TVA with its new 'growing together' propaganda posters, everyone look really happy and content, like they've got this new purpose and its one they feel good about.

Well everyone looks happy but Mobius. Both his and Sylvie's endings were left very, very open. I do get the sense that they are both feeling lost now that Loki is gone. That could be why Sylvie seeks Mobius out, she knows he too feels lost without Loki. When asked what she's going to do now Sylvie shrugs because she doesn't know, which is interesting to me because if she is happy on her branch like she has been saying all season, why wouldn't she just say she's going back to her life there? Unless Marvel have other plans for her character. Same with Mobius we don't know what he's going to do next. Though the door for him to return to the TVA has been left open with B-15's offer that there is always a seat for him if he wants it.

Ok so let's talk about Loki. Now can I appreciate the character development of Loki going from the selfish, narcissistic god who wanted a throne and who tried to take away people's free will, to a hero who sacrifices himself for the greater good and to ensure people get to keep their free will. Yes. Do I think it was hella romantic that he chose this path because he couldn't bear to hurt Sylvie? Oh yes that was some real romantic stuff right there. Do I think his arc was well written? It was, beautifully so. Am ok with Loki ending up trapped at the end time alone, something he feared? ABSOLUTELY-FRIGGEN-NOT!!! What the hell marvel! Honestly if this is the end of the story for this character then Marvel and I are going to have issues going forward.

A Glimmer of Hope?

The first thing I did this morning was hop onto google to see if there was any information on whether we'll get a season 3 because I had seen alot of talk about season 2 wrapping up the story and I was met with a little spark of hope. There are several articles out covering an interview from producer Kevin Wright where he says this about a potential season 3:

We take it season by season, and there are certainly things that Tom and I and other casts have talked about of where we see this going, and I know there’s some excitement for that internally, but just from a storytelling standpoint, I think we always conceived of seasons 1 and 2 as a whole."

The producer went on to describe both of the Tom Hiddleston-led seasons as "two chapters of the same book," but admitted that there are "other stories" or "new books" to be told:

"That these are two chapters of the same book, and that season two is finishing that book, and there are other stories to be told there, but I think they would be new books, if that’s not too coy."

"It was similar to Season 1 in we wanted to tell this story and tell it well, but even in Season 1, we obviously were thinking about where we were going. I would say Season 1 and Season 2 were developed and created as, like, kind of two chapters of the same book. We felt pretty strongly, all of us involved, that Season 2 was about closing that book but that there are many other books on the shelf for this character and for this world. But this felt like it wanted to be the conclusion of these great things that we set up in Season 1. We don't want to constantly leave people with drastic cliffhangers for our finales."

So it seems like all the talk about closing the story was actually just in relation to the storylines they had set up in season one and that this isn't intended to be the end of these characters' stories full stop.

A few of the articles also talked about Marvel's plans for their tv shows going forward:

Contributing Loki's Season 3 odds is Marvel Studios' new direction for its Disney+ shows since, via The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel is reportedly "leaning into the idea of multiseason serialized TV" a la Loki instead of the "limited-series format:"

"And just as 'Loki,' which returned Oct. 5, marked Marvel’s first season two of a series (out of nine TV shows to date), the studio plans on leaning into the idea of multiseason serialized TV, stepping away from the limited-series format that has defined it. Marvel wants to create shows that run several seasons, where characters can take time to develop relationships with the audience rather than feeling as if they are there as a setup for a big crossover event."

So if they are going to be leaning more into multiseason shows it would make sense to me for them to make Loki one of them as it is one of, if not the most, popular shows they've done so far. So I would expect that they would monopolise on that.

So I do think there's a good chance that we'll potentially get a season 3, I for one would love to see where they take these characters next. And that is all the thoughts I have on the finale, sorry this got so long but if you did read all the way to the end thank you.

#loki #loki season 2 spoilers #sylki #loki x sylvie #loki review

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thestarsarecool · 1 year

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An anecdote about the kindness of Linda McCartney:

JON RONSON: I was thinking of other people, the people I was writing about, as sort of specimens. Specimens to try and figure out. “Specimens” is such a horrible word – puzzles to try and solve. I was so concerned with trying to figure out why they were behaving the way that they did; they were like maths equations.

CHRIS HEATH: The irony being that, on one hand, you’re trying to figure out all these human things, but at the same time you’re not treating them as human at all.

JR: Yeah, exactly. And let me once again say that these were my early days of writing. This is before I became the writer that I am now. But that’s exactly what it was. I’d gone from being, you know, the bullied kid at Cardiff High to... I definitely wouldn’t say I was like a bully, because I had no malevolent intent whatsoever, but it was exactly what you just said: I was so concerned about trying to figure out why they behaved the way that they did, what made them human, that I sort of forgot that they were human. And I was getting loads of work because people loved that stuff.

CH: Which perhaps leads to the rather chilling story about an aside you once made about Paul McCartney.

JR: Yeah, it was Christmas. I had to go back home and visit my family, so the train was going to be leaving and I had to finish the column and there was, like, a paragraph missing. And I just thought, “Fuck it.” It was when Paul McCartney’s ‘Rupert the Bear’ chorus song was all over the place, ‘We All Stand Together’. It was playing at all the stores. And I wrote, “God, if I hear that song one more time… Mark Chapman shot the wrong Beatle.” I thought, “Okay, that’ll do.” And a few weeks later, I got a letter from Linda McCartney: “So are you saying that my husband and the father of my children should be murdered by the man who killed his best friend?” It was like a slap awake: I don’t want to be Victor Lewis-Smith, I don’t want to be Julie Burchill, that’s not who I am. And I should stop trying to be it. I wrote back to her, and I said, “You know, I thought you lived in icon land. I’m sorry.”

CH: She didn’t acknowledge your reply?

JR: Oh, no, she did. She wrote back.

CH: What did she say?

JR: She said, “I totally understand and thank you for listening.” It was a very nice reply.

CH: Did you ever run into her?

JR: No, never. Very recently, actually, a couple of weeks ago, I got a call from somebody saying that Paul McCartney is bringing out a book of his lyrics, and he wants somebody to interview him: “Would you want to be considered? Are you available?” I said yes, as long as I didn’t need to quarantine for ten days on arrival. I’m sure they’ve got somebody else by now, because of the quarantine thing. But I was thinking, “Wow, if I did do it, should I tell him?” Because it was a kindness, what she did. It was a kindness.

CH: And you really did take that lesson seriously at the time?

JR: Really seriously. Because I was being somebody that I wasn’t.

Jon Ronson, Interviewed by Chris Heath, 2021. Ronson also described this episode in this piece in the Guardian in 2007.

#while we’re on the theme of dehumanization #I thought I’d post this #my quotes #linda mccartney #paul mccartney #john lennon #the beatles

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faebriel · 5 months

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hgs brainrot has returned due to tbosas .. speaking of hgs here’s an ask abt the hgs au: if things were totally different, and Wilbur were to be a 12 victor, what do you think a possible mentor-tribute dynamic would look like between him & Niki? I feel like it would be similar to Snow & Lucy in the way that he’s just going out of his way to cheat n help her

anon u have in fact struck jackpot because this is a concept i was spinning some thoughts abt before bee mentioned avoxes and we went OOOOH at that!!! so yes i have considered rainduo as a mentor-tribute dynamic and would love to talk about that concept too :]

so for this concept i think wilbur and niki would be close friends throughout childhood from 12, and then in their teens wilbur is reaped and, well, no one has particularly high hopes (he's a writer and a musician at heart, not a fighter) but through sheer trickery and dumb luck, he makes it to the end of the games. wilbur pulled some pretty fucked up tricks to win - when you can't use brute force, you have to use your brain - and partly due to the trauma of the games, partly due to his shame and survivor's guilt, he sinks into the capitol and relishes a new life there as a socialite. to him, the old wilbur died in the games and the new one has taken his place - to niki, and to his other friends in 12, whatever the games did to him made him into every vapid heartless capitol victor there is.

or. niki has her doubts. they all saw how horrible the games were, but surely there is some part of him left, some part that's hurting, even if it's buried deep?

anyway.

like og spin of the au, niki is reaped and this sucks - this time she does expect wilbur as her mentor on the train, and she expects some kind of warm welcome (maybe even an apology for leaving them so suddenly and silently? an explanation?) but she gets jack shit. wilbur is jaded and cruel and unrecognisable and niki entirely hates it. this is the part where i REALLY WISH we got some time of those two beefing with each other directly in canon (or at least interactions while niki was So Mad at him) but it's okay we fly blind. niki feels abandoned, lonely, thrown off of her kilter - she expected an ally in this place, but she doesn't recognise the person wilbur has become. she doesn't recognise his shallowness (...much), his ruthless advice for the arena, the way he doesn't seem to care for anything. she's scared and now she's lonely and it pisses her off - their mentorship is fraught. here are some thoughts from discord on that:

i tend to think of niki as a bit naïve before l'manberg or even doomsday - i think this is an au where this streak would come out real strong, and niki is stubborn that she can get through the games without losing herself. stubborn that she can stop things, that she can protect people. i don't think wilbur is cold enough (or, really, can bear to say aloud) to say that her odds in the arena are slim enough as it is, but he definitely tells her that she's making enemies and that her odds of survival dwindle with the more trouble she causes.

beyond that... hm. niki's trust in wilbur is almost unshakeable until nov 16, even when she outright says she doesn't recognise him anymore. i think she'd reluctantly listen re: don't burn down any buildings, but she would grow bolder each day she had to stay in the capitol. she gets more honest in front of the cameras. she makes more friends in training, and not the ones wilbur recommends. she throws barbs at him every time he makes one of those callous, cold-hearted comments about other tributes and rankings and odds. and besides, she's going in the arena this time, not him. she needs to practice her bravery.

it's like... she hasn't given up on him. she thinks the old wilbur is in there somewhere. (she is wrong. that is not how trauma works.) but she won't hold her tongue just because she

for extra angst points could definitely play up the whole 'feeling abandoned' angle between them as niki goes into the arena - probably due to how fraught their friendship gets leading up to the games. niki wants to focus on them and their friendship, wilbur has stringently cut off (almost) everything from 12 and refuses to let her in; he tells her to behave for the cameras, she tells him she never will. i think the last point in that screenshot would also make for a super tasty argument where niki feels wilbur has gone astray, that he's abandoned 12, and that he'll probably do nothing but sit on his ass and watch her die and he can't even bring himself to care about her anymore, can he? just more fodder for the arena. and honestly, i think wilbur would passively agree with most of that - he values niki's opinion, after all, even now, and if she says he's rapidly descending into a lost cause then she must be right. and it's niki, so she will be fine, and he goes to his bedroom that night and tries to pretend he is sleeping perfectly fine instead of feeling paralysed with fear.

okay now onto the games - YES HE SO WOULD. or at least i think he would go out of his way to help. as for cheating - he's a recent victor for 12 and i think he would value tommy (no doubt a link to him... i think they'd be in touch in this au also) too much to risk the punishment falling onto him as well. i get the vibes this is a games closer to 74th than 10th, so there are far fewer opportunities to cheat and the consequences of getting caught are higher. but schmoozing up sponsors? making stupid ass radio interviews or whatever to talk up niki's odds? sharing anecdotes from their childhood - some real, some entirely fabricated - across capitol airwaves to stoke their sympathy? 100%. with less to lose in this au, i think niki would be far less inclined to play nice for the cameras - i hope you starve, she spits at one of them, and wilbur appears on a talkshow two days later as she scrambles for survival in the arena to talk up how she always saved loaves from the bakery for the poorest mothers and children in 12. he borrows and begs and swindles to the point where it feels like cheating. but hey, this new wilbur is capitol-branded. he knows how to play the game.

if anything he probably sinks into the game a little too much. self-preservation is not his forte. probably wracks up a few heavy debts and favours to owe, but those are not priority until niki is out of the arena, alive. as long as she wins, and as long as the family he has isn't in danger, he will manage. wow it would suck if at some point those two goals became impossible to co-achieve. anyway

i kind of see niki's victory in the arena being similar to the one in the main au - if only because planning out an entire games is hard for meee >-< . she walks in bolder and braver for sure, and with a less strategic pick of allies, but they all get picked off and she spends a few weeks so terrified she can barely sleep and then she ruptures some fuel line and sets the arena alight with a fire that burns brighter and more ravenously than it should. but she wins, and she's airlifted out of a filthy, muddy creek she had resigned herself to die in, and wilbur barges his way through as many peacekeepers so that he can actually see her with her burnt skin and hair and unfocused eyes and trust that what was on the screens wasn't a fluke, and that they made it. and then it's just a matter of surviving the after.

i'm sure there are some other random quirks or tidbits i can think of re: this take on a c!rainduo hunger games au but these are my base thoughts!!

#can i just say whatever the hell lucy grey n snow had going on in part 1 made me so berko btw. like congrats ur my means to an end youre my #symbol youre my buddy? should we kiss? i'll get you out of here / don't make me leave these people behind #BRIDGING OFF OF THE TBOSAS DISCUSSION. i think the thing with crainduo (or at least how i like to depict them) is that they care about each #other extremely deeply and value each other... without being each others number one priority at all times.#i don't think niki plays priority with people she cares for like that; see her relationships with like wilbur and eret in lmanberg #even her friendship with and offering ponk a place to stay in her city after manberg even tho manberg hurt her #as for wilbur: his priority is tommy. like always. if it was just him on the line he'd do anything to get niki thru but it's not #asks #hunger games au #they would truly be such a nightmare in this au like. wilbur's self loathing is SO HIGH due to survivors guilt and trauma and mental illnes #he thinks that niki is So Good and Has It Together meanwhile he is So Bad #and is a mess that she cannot possibly rely on him. she can't possibly need him. she can't possibly want him around #<- and this shit is INGRAINED like. it's not even an active thought pattern anymore it is carved into his brain like a groove #and so shes like. do you even care whether i live or die??#of course he does. but this is the capitol. he cant be vulnerable in a way that matters #and that alienates niki further and this rage and heartbreak is building in her with nowhere to go. and in the arena she thinks it erupts #nah uh. i think its AFTER the area when she has to face wilbur again that she would go full screaming meltdown #ANYWAY !! i really like aus where they have this friction esp because i think like.. idk i think sometimes our views of rainduo are too ros #wilbur kind of forgets about niki sometimes because his self hatred is that bad. niki doesnt get wilburs mental illness and takes it both a #a burden/blame AND a direct rejection of her and her friendship #and they hover just outside of each others spaces anxious and angry and almost self flagellating. GOOD FOR THEM !#anyway Yes this did unlock something within me. thanks anon feel free to add on if u had more thoughts esp re: tbosas and such bc i had suc #a good time watching that movie

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alvadee · 2 months

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for what it's worth, I, a stranger on Tumblr, would totally read your Vic biography if you were to write one :)

Thank you!

Gonna take the chance to give my thoughts in general on this. It's not so much that I don't want to write a book about him it's more that I think it's nearly impossible to write anything that passes for a real book and not just as...booklet...about him. First of all, I started this whole things to satisfy my own curiosity. Because of that there's a lot of stuff I don't have the sources for anymore and I also talked to/interviewed a lot of people (some have passed in the meantime) but never asked if they allowed me to publish what they wrote me. So, that's a whole can of worms. Then there's the simple fact that I wouldn't be able to offer the kind of insight you'd expect from a biography. I know that there's an audience for such a book, not a huge one but it exists (I also know a publisher who wants a book about him and who had hired three writers already in the past, they all gave up because of the lack of info...). From what I've seen online people would be most interested in his sex life and the behind the scenes of his career, especially regarding Batman and such. I can mostly offer brief, educated guesses in those departments. I doubt that besides me anyone will get a kick out of stories about Victor's dogs, his love for Shakespeare and little anecdotes on how fucking nice he was.

Also, his nephew already wrote a book about him/their family (idk if he still intends to officially publish it in book form but he publicly published it as a video series) and given how open he was with me (he said me interviewing him in 2017 kicked that project off) I don't want to rain on his parade. Because I do see a few things different from him and it's also hella awkward to write about an actor you can only write about as a fan, because you were born when they were already dead, but a close relative of them, who knows you too, reads it??!? Nightmare. I would love to proofread his book through (I noticed some details are wrong and he sometimes misses context, which I have) and contribute in that way to a book on Victor.

Another thing is I would also want to showcase all the photos of him I've found to show what he looked like and was like off screen. I know regular people have usually no idea that he often would look quite different and how changeable he actually was. But again, don't see how I would be able to get and afford all the rights.

And lastly: My lack of writing skill. German is my mother tongue and I don't think I'm a good writer and I don't have a very extensive vocabulary in English. It only makes sense to publish such a book in English though. To offer something of quality I would need professional help, which I wouldn't be able to pay.

And I nearly forgot, I have no idea if I could write about him in a way where it isn't obvious I have a massive crush on him. :/

#alvadee's shit #ask #vb

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thelonewolf48 · 1 year

Text

An Announcement:

SO! I didn't finish watching Madre Solo Hay Dos. Reasons are diverse, but the main point was the total bullshit that became such a good show!

I get we didn't need to focus on Marian and Ana relationship, not entirely, but that was the whole point of the series! It began with them, it should had ended with them!

And don't get me wrong, I liked they spoke about "late" pregnancy, women feeling insecure because they're pregnant at certain ages, and the talks about abortion. That's something worth talking about in TV series here in Mexico.

BUT! BUT!

We didn't need Ferran in the first place. Ferran was an attempt to turn this series into a Hetero-romance. And don't come at me saying, but Mariana is bisexual and it's okay if she ends up with Ferran. Well, I tell you this, if the writers really wanted Mariana to end with a man, then I expect Pablo to be the one. First, they already have a baby together; second there was tension between them; and third they still were friends and knew each other.

And the excuse they told us of Ferran already being a father, who abandoned his family because he wasn't ready at the time and not telling Mariana. BULLSHIT!

Tere and Victor sort of saved this third season and although I loved their interactions and seeing them on my screen. It felt like I was watching a show about them and not about Mariana and Ana. THE ACTUAL PROTAGONISTS!

Mariana leaving felt like such a cheap conflict. Ana rushing there on bikes was cute but I expected more! But since this is not an hetero-romance, we don't do great gestures! And in the end Mariana still left!

We didn't get the fake dating to real dating we deserved. We didn't get the pinning, the tension, the love. We only got a quick and regretful drunk sex that didn't create other problems, we didn't get an enemies to friends to fake lovers to enemies to lovers we all wanted and I HATE IT.

Now, as a Mexican used to these kind of bullshits, I'm not surprised! I did tell everyone that they wouldn't brave enough to give us a nice romance. One like they did in Season 1! And partly is because of the Mexican audience.

Not everyone, not yet at least, can accept these kind of representations on TV. Even if it comes from Netflix. We have long and exhausting road ahead, and until some writer/producer/director is brave enough to push for far better plots, we won't enjoy a good romance representation.

As some of you commented, we got the ship, but not in the way we hopen and wanted. It felt anticlimactic even.

Now, not everything is lost!

Madre Solo Hay Dos with all its flaws is a first and a huge step towards more content for the us gay/queer people. Moreso, the Mexican community. I think (and I can be wrong because I haven't watched telenovelas in a long time) it's the first W/W couple that ends up together!

So, let's applaud Madre Solo Hay Dos for existing!

Note:

I'm gonna watch the series again, this time with Eng subs on so I can comment if the subs are accurate enough or if they're different, how they're different, and why they change the feeling of the scenes!

An example on my reaction to Episode 3!

#madre solo hay dos #daughter from another mother #mshd #dfam #I have so many other thoughts but I don't want to unpack all that today #The show did so many things right and wrong at the same time tbh #I'm happy they ended up together but hate the journey #Anyway! that's all!

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hamliet · 1 year

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Do you think there is a right side (or a side which grrm favored) in Dance of The Dragons? Writers pushing that nobody is flawless so we should not choose one.

Not a "right" side morally speaking. Both sides do terrible things.

Admittedly, the Blacks have descendants while the Greens die out. (Besides maybe Aemond.) But, is this really a sign of being "right?" Or is that, itself, dependent on other factors, like history being written by the victors? That's a worthy conversation to have.

The tl;dr is that I think "who is right" misses the point of the story and isn't the most thematically rich conversation to have. It's like reading Hamlet or Othello through the lens of morality, when it's really more about individual tragedy in broken worlds. Instead, I think it's more a conversation about how love isn't always victory, but it's all we have.

I will say that I do think the text is pretty clear that Rhaenyra is the tragic protagonist, while Alicent is her tragic antagonist. An antagonist, however, is not the same as a villain, and Alicent isn't one. There's only one real villainous character, and that's Criston Cole, who is every bit the incel in the book that he is in the show.

The reason I say this is because, well, the Greens start the war by ignoring Viserys' will--and it isn't just a misunderstanding in the book. Of course, Viserys wasn't a great king and there were plenty of other factors involved in setting up the war. Still, the Greens ultimately make the move to disinherit Rhaenyra, which makes them the antagonists; there would have been no war without this. Rhaenyra is an antagonist to the Greens, but the book is framed as a history of Targaryens, and all Targaryen ruling descendants are from Rhaenyra and Daemon. Plus... the Greens made the first move. So, they are undoubtedly the antagonists.

However, that doesn't mean it's simplified to "Greens wrong Blacks right." It's a tragedy. There were factors leading up to that "first move" of course, so... did they really make the first move? Just because they're the ones who made the war inevitable--wasn't it arguably inevitable before? Was that truly the first move, just because the book writes the tragedy hinging on that decision?

I'd actually argue the book invites us to question and wrestle with the framings and bias of the writer (it's written as a history, after all.) It also invites conversation about sexism and precedent and the greater good vs. the individual, and of course, ye olde duty vs love. As I've said in my rereadings of ASOIAF, Martin argues they aren't inherently opposites. Is the real villain the individuals, or the institutions that they are a product of? To what degree can we even fight those institutions?

All of these, I think, are far more interesting questions than who is right and who is wrong.

#ask hamliet #fire & blood #fire & blood meta #hotd #house of the dragon #blacks vs greens #asoiaf

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lorata · 2 years

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Okay this might be a little too spicy to ask, so feel free to ignore, but do you have any THG fanfic/fandom characterization/headcanon pet peeves? Aside from I assume one-note Careers. Mine is the way people erase the mentorship bond! I see so much Finnick stuff especially where he tells the writer’s chosen lover for him that they’re the “only one who sees the real him,” and I’m always like, hello, MAGS???

oh hard agree, plus I'm not a super fan of that even without the mentor thing. like don't get me wrong I love a good, codependent fictional relationship that would be absolutely destructive in real life (delicious) but everyone should have more than one person. there can be MULTIPLE codependent relationships! codependent fractal! a weird group of people with a weird shared experience that nobody else can hope to understand. FEED ME THAT LIKE SKITTLES.

(don't come for me about my fictional preferences. leave me and the fellowship ALONE)

on a similar note I also used to get tired of how everyone made all the mentors sexually and/or romantically involved with their victors (like Beetee/Wiress, Brutus/Enobaria or Finnick/Annie where he's her mentor, whoever.) like no shade to people who read or write it BUT I feel like there was a weird period where no one could envision ANY close relationship without writing it into a pairing. Maybe it's my aroace coming to the surface but I got a bit grumpy. So I wrote an endless permutation of complicated, intense relationships with absolutely no sex or romance aspect. what are ya gonna do about it!

one of my less controversial peeves is "peeta starts out dating glimmer who is vapid and promiscuous and cheats on him so he can get together with katniss who is perfect" like an early taylor swift song. it was E V E R Y W H E R E for a while. if there was a modern AU, Peeta was dating Mean Bitch Glimmer and she'd get her comeuppance around the end of Act I. why. please. one of Katniss' actual, literal, canon character arcs is realizing Glimmer was a person who was forced to act the way she was (her interview dress chosen by her adult stylist was SEE-THROUGH) and she died, alone, for an audience who immediately forgot she existed. and you're gonna "not like other girls" her for your wish-fulfillment barista AU. cool.

on the other end of the scale -- and this is a very personal trigger, so I don't blame anyone for liking it -- the District 5 repro girls / thin girls fanon that was rampant in 2012-2014 fanfic. a bunch of people incorporated it into their stuff but it is such a violent, visceral nope for me that if a story uses it I close the tab immediately.

characterization-wise, there is a fic i still see floating around where rue makes me scream. listen. rue is the oldest of 6 kids AND her father died when she was even younger than katniss. she has been working full time to support her family in a job where you are literally murdered for mistakes since she was nine years old. rue is calculating and intelligent, she tells katniss that peeta is "okay" when she knows he's bleeding to death because if katniss realizes he's dying she'll leave. PLEASE. respect the hustle, the girl is not naive.

ok you did say spicy so i will give you ONE (1) hot take. it drives me bananas when fanfic uses Cato Hadley and Clove Kentwell. they first appeared on wattpad in 2010, when fandom tossed a few names around for a while and hadley and kentwell were the ones that stuck. but IT'S NOT THEIR REAL LAST NAMES STOP ADDING THEM TO THE WIKIS AND TELLING PEOPLE IT'S CANON AAAAAAAAA.

there's my one petty hunger games post, lol. i am pretty live and let live, generally if I don't like something I scroll past or filter it out. the annoyance happens when it's stuff like, trying to read fic about Careers and the first page of results is just them background tagged in an ensemble fic about the main characters -- but that's a minor character in juggernaut fandom problem, that's EVERYWHERE. i do the "search within results summary: name" trick to solve that

#lorata answers #anonymous

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forfoxessake · 1 year

Text

March (2023)

It’s silly but I’m happy I managed to watch some recent works that I was interested in, I sometimes get trapped into watching what I think I should watch, and not what I want. I can say the same for books, although I’m still finding it difficult to truly focus for more than a few pages.

_________

8 films

Catherine Called Birdy (2022) - directed by Lena Dunham, Bella Ramsey is a coming-of-age story, with a lovely cast and a profound reflection on what is to be a woman, and how you can find yourself among all the many things expected of our “designated roles” in society. Bella truly shines here and I want her to do more diverse roles.

Disenchanted (2022) - I love the original film and was genuinely excited for this, the trailers looked fun, and I was disapointed by the quality delivered, it’s a good idea badly executed, and while Amy Adams is forever delightful, and especially when she is being bad, but it’s not enough to make this an enjoyable film, not even for a 10 year old.

Glass Life (2021) a short documentary insanely full of references, I could barely keep up with it and need to watch it at least 5 times more. But I loved it. It’s a reflection on our choices in regard to our daily life, our capitalism image-obsessed life.

Holy Spider (2022) directed by Ali Abbasi (who also directed two great The Last of Us episodes) it’s not an easy film to watch, a real-life story about a serial killer who targeted sex workers and used a religious belief to justify his killing. It doesn’t hide anything, it hurts to watch it, but it’s necessary, it can be like many other similar crime films that make it all seem glorious.

Happy Together (1997) directed by Wong Kar-wai I’m slowly going through his most famous work and loving the way his movies have textured, you can feel them with our of our senses. It’s love in a non-Hollywood way, it’s real.

A Quiet Place II (2020) The first one is so refreshingly good, unfortunately, the sequel is unnecessary, more of the same but not in a good interesting/captivating way.

Inherent Vice (2014) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this was the wrong movie to start watching on a long daytime flight back home, and it took me many weeks to finish it, and I won’t pretend to understand anything that was happening here, I’m not even sure we are supposed to understand anything.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage have fun being meta. Paddington 2 is in fact the best movie ever.

_________

4 books

Anton Chekhov - read two of his plays, Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Garden, both really good works and now I need to watch “Drive My Car” again to better understand how they use the complexity of the play in the film's narrative.

Victor Hugo - Toilers of The Sea - I have read Moby Dick so I didn't think I could have a hard time reading something complex about the sea, and especially something written by Victor Hugo who does it so beautifully, but I just suffered silently until there was only 20% left and everything was sewed together beautifully.

Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1) I love the Netflix series and postponed reading the books until it was all over, I wanted to focus on that, and not to confuse any divergent timelines or anything like that. Because I believe Cornwell is an exceptional historical/fantasy writer and I knew this was going to be good.

_________

3 tv series

Landscapers (2021) it’s a true crime mini-series that does a wonderful job integrating the main character's (Olivia Colman) fantasy of old Hollywood life into the narrative, making her seem almost innocent, and childlike. We almost forget that she did kill her parents and buried their bodies in their backyards.

Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake (2022) a shocking natural disaster that leads to the worst of humanity. I saw this alongside the last few episodes of The Last of Us, and that helped me understand what they were trying to say.

The Last of Us (2023 -) already one of my favorite series ever, a brilliant first season, it says so much more than anyone was ever expecting. I’m not a fan of apocalypse-based fiction, and I give this a shot thinking that it sounded more than that, and I was right. There’s a lot more here than mushroom zombies, what is even more frightening is what we do as humans to survive, and how far we will go. It’s almost what we see on a smaller scale happen in Aftershock.

_________

Music

Vide - Hanging By the Bayou Light (2020) weirdly, this helps me focus on studying, I call it atmospheric black metal.

Comeback Kids - Heavy Steps (2022) I love when my friends recomend me stuff that fits my mood perfectly

Paramore - This is Why (2023) I gave this a try even though I have never really enjoyed their work, what made me listen to it was a vinyl reviewer tik toker that said this sounded almost nothing like their original work, more jazz than pop rock.

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