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longing-for-rain · 2 days
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Sometimes I think about exactly how powerful Zuko’s story as an abuse victim is and I just have to stop and tear up for a minute.
Just let it sink in that at 13 years old, Zuko’s father mutilated him in front of an audience and told him he was worthless and unwelcome until he completed an impossible mission. Nobody stepped in to help him. Most onlookers thought he deserved it, and even Iroh was too afraid of Ozai to challenge him in Zuko’s defense.
Zuko went on for years believing Ozai was right, and didn’t recognize what happened to him as abuse. He thought his banishment and suffering were his own fault because something was wrong with him, and that it was his duty to change to become worthy again.
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Then this scene? Absolutely incredible.
Zuko’s whole journey leads up to this confrontation, where he not only recognizes that he holds no responsibility for the abuse inflicted on him; he confronts his abuser and tells him he was wrong to treat him that way, that he doesn’t owe his abuser anything.
And not only that, Zuko also tells Ozai that he sees how he’s hurting the rest of the world the same way he hurt him, and vows to stop him. That’s literally so powerful, especially watching this as someone who once felt as broken and alone as Zuko once did. His story is everything to me.
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nunalastor · 2 days
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varggies · 2 days
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People being upset about your character's facial expressions for ascended astarion's new kisses is an oddly specific gripe to have when there are plenty of other times the expressions dont match your feelings in the moment?
Why does my durge look worried about blowing up an entire building? Where's his look of sheer delight at the destruction? Where's the manic joy in my boy's face when he sees grim, because yes! Another big fuckoff thing to fight! My durge would absolutely adore that spectator in the underdark- he would not look afraid there at all
I just think if you're going to complain about expressions, complain about them all. OR! Just do what the rest of us do and make our little headcanons for ourselves and not harass the devs idk
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lmskitty · 3 days
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Rewatched all of hidden inventory this morning. Had a few thoughts.
1. Am I a masochist for deciding to do that on a Saturday morning?!? (Yes. Yes I am)
2. THEY WERE SO HAPPY OH MY GOD
3. Still the best anime intro I've seen. The bike scene?!? Shoko healing Haibara while Geto and Gojo get fucking yeeted by Yaga. It's so good.
4. There's been a lot of discussion recently about if Geto is actually nice or pretending to be and how mean he would be as a teacher. Seeing the way he is with Riko cemented for me that he is absolutely nice. Sure he has a sense of humour as much as Gojo and doesn't take kindly to being called weird bangs guy but he cares so much about Riko and Kuroi. He breaks not because he was like this always and his true nature came out but because he cared and felt it was all for nothing. When he speaks to Yuki he says he feels there are two parts of him fighting, one hating non sorcerers and the other knowing this is wrong. Seeing what happened to the twins pushed it over the edge.
5. Similarly Gojo is often portrayed as uncaring in this arc but that's so not the case. He chose to stay another day in Hokkaido for Riko. He pushed himself to the limit to allow her happiness.
6. I think in terms of Geto and Gojo their main issue was communication and pressure. They should have been allowed time to deal with what had happened but they were not. They were teenagers and the higher ups forced them both into mission after mission. The amount of pressure put upon them is insane. I think also if they had had time to really be together they could have communicated how they felt but they didn't get time to.
7. Gojo assumed Geto trusted him enough to talk to him because that's how they had always been. He was blindsided by what happened and still is. To him the Geto he knew would never do that and he's right but that Geto died with all three of them that day.
8. Toji is an outright monster and I will always hate him. "Oh but he thought about Megumi in his final moments!!" That's great did he think about how he was growing up outside of that? He had no qualms killing a child and he abandoned his own. "He loved his wife!!" Yeah well he dishonoured her memory by not protecting their blessing.
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Alright, I'll say it: Jack Harkness and the Doctor's relationship is possibly the most fleshed out/complicated dynamic in Doctor Who and that is INCLUDING the master/doctor relationship. Seriously, think about it:
the fact that when they meet jack is presented as sleazy con man and the doctor makes him brave- makes him good
but that they are both willing to die for rose as long as she is safe
and then she comes back and dooms them both to live (even though jack has already died for her and the doctor WILL die for her)
(ninerosejack is canon and you cannot convince me otherwise)
but then the doctor sees jack as immortal as someone he COULD spend the rest of his life with
and instead of embracing it like you'd think he would because he is so wrecked by people leaving him/being left by him the doctor RUNS bc the Doctor is so scared of jack of what he means of what he is
jack ends up abandoned in dalek dust goes back in time to find the doctor suffers a hundred years alone/being tortured but STILL WAITS
(screw amy being the girl who waited or rory being the boy who waited- Jack Harkness is the boy who waited and he did it FIRST)
Jack finds out that he was abandoned. that the man that he loves HATES the sight of him. that the doctor would rather have a genocidal murderer than have him
and so Jack gets the hell out of dodge to go to a man who DOES love him
and don't get me wrong Jack loves Ianto and Jack DOES remember Ianto until he dies as the Face of Boe don't forget that (protecting Novice Hame from the virus as he couldn't Ianto
BUT AFTER EVERYTHING THE DOCTOR HAS DONE TO JACK JACK STILL LOVES THEM
Jack still considers five billion years cursed to never die to be BETTER than the alternative: dying a young time-agent-turned-con-man
Jack has more reason than any other companion save maybe Amy to hate the Doctor & yet spends 20 years in jail to rescue Thirteen still LOVES HER
AND AFTER FIVE BILLION YEARS HE ORGANIZES THAT FIRST MEETING ON SATELLITE FIVE HE ORGANIZES 9/ROSE'S FIRST DATE
jack harkness is a living ghost a reminder of the doctor's failures a physical fixed point and yet he still loves the girl who cursed him and the time lord that turned him into the kind of person that would give his dying breaths to protect the last of humanity in a dying city and tell the doctor that he is not alone
because fuck it, YANA was a warning but also a reminder a final gift
jack had been there all along, a ghost an echo a PROMISE
there is no more human character than jack harkness
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cosmicjoke · 1 day
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For People, Not for a Dream
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Everyone always wonders about this panel, and why Levi didn't include himself when talking about what all his comrades fought and died for.
The thing is, Levi was never fighting for that ideal world, or to create an ideal world.
For him, it was never about a concept or an ideology, because he never believed in the possibility of an ideal world to begin with.
Even when he gives his monologue to the 104th, during the Uprising arc, and speaks about freedom and the chance to have a world without the threat of titans, he still says that both world's are hell, just that he chooses the hell of people killing each other over the hell of being eaten by titans.
So I think to understand Levi, it's important to understand that he never cared about or was motivated by any system of belief or philosophy. He never did what he did with the goal of creating some Utopian world or society. His actions were never driven by any sort of fanaticism.
He was only ever fighting for people. To help people. Even in their ugliness and with all their faults and failings. He accepted that about people and the world; he accepted their imperfection. He never tried to change anybody, he never labored under any sort of belief that he could weed out the bad elements of society and, as a result, force a better world into existence, or a more civilized society. He wasn't blinded to the ugliness of his own actions by a sense of moral righteousness or belief in the "greater good". He never believed any set of beliefs or principles or ideology was or could be made inherently superior to any other. He never believed people could be made better than what they were. And yet he still found their lives worth protecting, along with their right to choose what to do with those lives, whether it be good or ill.
I think that's a big part of why Levi never loses sight of his own humanity, why he never becomes cruel. Because he never loses sight of what he's actually fighting for. Not an idea or a set of beliefs or a dogma. But just people, even when they're not good people.
And we see that reflected in Levi's lack of any sort of dream for himself, and in his support of other people's dreams. He's not fighting for their dreams because he believes in them or their possibility, he's fighting for their dreams because he believes in the worth of the people who dream them. It's the people who have worth to Levi, not the dream or the ideology behind the dream. And he hoped to prove that worth by ensuring they didn't throw their lives away for nothing. That's why he lent his strength to those dreams. It was always for the dreamers sake, not the sake of the dream itself. To show their lives mattered by helping to realize whatever it was they gave those lives for. It's why he's so determined to kill Zeke, because those soldiers in Shinganshina gave their lives for that goal. It wasn't Zeke's death that mattered, but the lives of the soldiers that died for it.
It's why he says in the above panels that if it was going to be worth the price "you all paid", it would have to be an "exhaustingly idealistic world". Nothing less than that would be worth people's lives. I think it's also why Levi's expression is one of such sadness all through the final chapters, because he knows, and always knew deep down, that that idealistic world was an impossibility. That even without titans, the world would still be a hellish place, something we see proven by the final pages of the story, with the destruction of Paradis and the continuation of war. In the end, I don't think Levi believed the outcome was worth the price his comrades paid. It wasn't worth their lives. To Levi, the concept of a "greater good" isn't worth more than any, single life.
But it's also important to remember that Levi was never the type of person to tell anyone else what to do, or what to think, or how to live, and that in itself is testament to how much he values people. The worth he sees in their lives and existence is reflected in the respect he holds for their right to choose what to do with those lives, even if that choice is to give their lives for an impossible dream.
And so that's what he fights for. Not for any sort of dream, or for the realization of an ideal world, but to help people. To help them in whatever way he can, whether that's saving their lives, protecting their right to choose how to live those lives, or supporting the dreams they believe are worth giving their lives for.
It was never for the dream itself. It was for the people who dreamed it.
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vaguely-concerned · 3 days
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Ever since watching The Wire for the first time, my brain has doggedly kept working away at the Especially the lies of it all, and specifically at how much the structure beneath the different stories Garak tells contributes to the overall meaning of what he’s trying to say. While the contradicting narratives of course expertly obscure the factual circumstances of his getting exiled, using them also allows him to tell aspects and facets of the emotional truth I don’t think he ever could have, if he’d simply told the actual story of what happened. (It’s very Varric-core of him honestly.)
The first story — the ‘oh, you think you know me?’ story — says I have done things that would sicken you if you knew any detail of it. It’s clearly meant to scare Bashir away so he’ll leave him to die shamefully in peace already lol. But it’s also one of his (probably much-needed lbr) little lessons to Julian that are so frequent in the beginning, given while Garak still has some hold on himself — “Don’t be so quick to forgive me if you don’t even know what I’ve done; what would you do if this really were the sum total of what I am?” (And Julian seems to surprise him by going ‘Well, exactly the same thing, because no matter who you are I am a doctor. But I sort of take your point.’)
The second story — the letting the orphans go story — says I have failed to smother my soul in its cradle when it was required of me, and I regret that more than anything I’ve done. To my ears this is the one most shot through with active self-loathing too, which is interesting. He’s officially lost the control he’s been clinging to and it’s about to get ugly. His TL;DR is ‘Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all’, even all the way back here. (Which is the one lesson Julian steadfastly refuses to learn, which I think in turn does some serious rearrangement of Garak’s soul over the course of the show haha. Get uno reversed into the process of loving and being loved without shame asshole.)  This is also where he builds up to admitting to having any sort of need for companionship or closeness at all and — so much worse — that Julian’s role in his life actually has fulfilled some of that need, and he’s DRIPPING with defensive venom over it b/c well I get it Garak vulnerability is scary it can take a person like that. 
(I also feel there’s something honest and forbidden in ‘Suddenly the whole exercise seemed utterly meaningless’. I suspect ‘actually… why the fuck are we even doing this???’ is not a welcome sentiment in an Obsidian Order water cooler environment, no matter what you’re saying it about lmao. The very first seeds of him deconstructing the things he’s been taught about Cardassia and his work might be hinted at here, though they of course take a looong time to come to any real fruition.)   
The third story — the ‘Elim was my best friend’ story — says hey, remember that thing you said once, about how sometimes, you have to be loyal to yourself before you can be loyal to anything else? Well. guess what. I couldn’t even be that lmao. It also furthers that thread of being divided from yourself, split, that having ‘Elim’ as a separate person around in all versions of the story brings in. He’s in control of himself again, but he essentially hands his life and soul over to Julian to decide what should be done with them. 
I’ve done horrible things and it finally caught up with me, I’m getting what I deserve → I let sentiment master me and the fact that I’m too weak to do what’s needed of me shames me more than the evil I’ve done → I fucked up. I betrayed myself and everything I held to, all for nothing, and I have no one to blame for it but myself. But it’s very nice that you’re here anyway, Doctor. (Wow. I didn’t realize quite how isolated and lonely that last one was before right now. The way Tain has shaped him really has just… locked him completely into himself, huh.) We can also see a movement through from a completely professional context in the first story, to an intensely interpersonal and internal context in the last one — even his fake stories spiral in towards intimacy, which I think is what he longs for here even if he can’t quite like. Touch that without the stories as a buffer yet, it’s clearly like touching a hot stove for him to interact with it too directly. 
And you know what I find incredibly interesting the whole way through? Even on his deathbed, where he’s dying from the thing Tain had put in his head, he’s protecting Tain. He puts all the blame for where he is on himself (‘My future was limitless, until I threw it away’), even if he has to employ a strange twisty logic where he’s split himself into two to do it. Don’t get me wrong, Garak has done horrific things all on his own haha, but it’s notable that he almost isolates Tain from that. ‘Tain was the Obsidian Order. Not even the Central Command dared challenge him. And I was his right hand.’ Tain in Garak’s stories is this infallible implacable weirdly distant figure, even now. Indeed, as will make a lot of sense with the revelations further down the line, more than anything it seems the gaze of an abused child desperate for recognition looking up at an idealized (if not in any way nurturing) parent.‘He was retired at that point; he couldn't protect me’, Garak says, as if what he’d need protection from in the first place isn’t Tain himself lmao, as if Tain had no active part in any of this. He never lets blame touch Tain at all. At this stage he would rather consider himself a broken flawed tool than accept that the hands that have wrought and wielded him have ever had any fault in them. AND in the middle of it all, with plausible deniability, on death’s door and knocking meekly to be let in before he must finish the mortifying ordeal of being known and test the even more daunting possibility of being loved, Garak at the same time manages to drop the breadcrumb trail of clues to make it possible for Julian to find Tain if he so chooses and gets in the ‘sons of Tain’ thing too for future dramatic irony purposes. Truly he is the Michelangelo of lying. Every falsehood a multifaceted masterpiece. Elim ‘achieving a state of intertextuality in real life is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself’ Garak. I love him so much. 
I think all of this is why “I forgive you. For whatever it is you did,” works so well, because it too works on a structural level. It’s such a deceptively multilayered response — it has the syntax of a joke, in a way, and it is kind of funny even under the circumstances, but delivered with such earnest warmth and fondness. It’s both recognition and acceptance (forgiveness!). It’s saying ‘I finally understand enough of what you’re trying to tell me beneath and through all that, in whatever way you’re capable of, I see you’ and ‘my answer hasn’t changed (bitch)’. The forgiveness Julian offers here is complete — on principle, and out of personal feeling and empathy (only one of which Garak deigns to respond to during the second story, where he calls it ‘smug Federation sympathy’, placing it more completely on the principle side than it probably is. ‘Dude you’re my friend please don’t just lie down and die in a completely avoidable way on me, who else is going to not only tolerate but actually gleefully enjoy me being annoying as fuck over lunch’ seems to be the subtext that’s a lot harder to acknowledge and invite in for both of them. And yet Tain seems perfectly clear on the fact that Julian is Garak’s friend, which, y’know. Must be fun living with the knowledge that Tain has eyes everywhere looming over you every day haha guess you’d just have to tune that out.) 
Most of all — ’Don’t give up on me now, Doctor’... and he didn’t! He didn’t. Augh. Ow.
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heavenpierceher · 16 hours
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im not sure i would say i “ship” mithrun/kabru exactly it’s just a really funny mental image of the two of them in an insanely complex web of intense social attachments and internal monologues having harrowing conversations on 6 different layers of meaning while laios is just off to the side like
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fumifooms · 2 days
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Speaking of extras: is Chilchuck "I am a coward!" Tims so brave, or greedy, or dedicated, or simply bad-ass to go to deeper levels of the dungeon whilst other half-foots wouldn't go further third level?
I think it’s a bit of everything, and none of it at the same time? Alright so the relevant pages:
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Chilchuck has a high salary, but yes it’s because he has expertise at his job and the risk is high where they’re going. It’s not unlike in real life, where jobs who have a higher risk of getting hurt or such will tend to pay better specifically because of that risk. Tbf we know his rate is set for by the amount of days and paid in advance, but beyond that we don’t know if he charges higher the deeper the floor or if it’s all mostly equal, but regardless we see that he goes above and beyond in his work. His prices are high but if he’s overpricing is debatable is what I’m saying. Brave, greedy, dedicated… They all assign it too much will and moral intent I think, I think it’d be more accurate to say that he’s a guy with a job and that’s his living, he wants an amount of money that’ll make the work he does worth it and profitable. He’s experienced enough, and resurrections and healing are possible, that the risk feels manageable, so not as brave as it is confident and like taking on a favorable gamble. Not as greedy as it is that he needs money like anyone else and he knows the worth of his job, what amount will make him willingly put his life and time on the line. Not as dedicated as it is again having experience and needing a job, but yes that he’s willing to go fourth level or lower is very telling!
I wonder how much he’s explored the dungeon before… Between him arriving on the island and him getting into Laios’ party was two years, so yes he probably has explored this specific dungeon a bunch in that time inbetween setting up the half-foot guild. Just makes me wonder, because between him joining Laios’ party at 26 and canon that’s 3 years… Did he hop from party to party before Laios’ party? What’s different with Laios’ party is the question then isn’t it. And it’s something easily forgotten just how capable of a party they are! They fight dragons, they go down to floors that are seen as dangerous and pretty advanced, which makes them able to find more treasure and a decent payout if everyone was able to get their salary before Falin got eaten and they exceptionally lost their stuff, which then if Chilchuck’s salary is what other parties couldn’t keep up with makes sense that he could stick with Laios’ party. They’re quite the unique party
I love his slouching stance while being introduced… Guy has a tough facade to intimidate employers into respecting him and his terms… Ineffective on the Toudens, what a friendly guy In these pages it gives the feeling that he’s a big shot, rather than a more or less disliked union leader hah, it makes it feel lucky that Laios’ party got him on board
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romchat · 1 day
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In Blossom visual analysis (ep. 1-7): How to film a gothic romance
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Although I'm not completely convinced about some of the writing choices of In Blossom, I absolutely LOVE the show's production design and cinematography. @mademoiselle-red wrote a great post about how main character Pan Yue fits the gothic romantic lead archetype, and those gothic elements are not only present in the script but also in the show's visual storytelling.
Lighting
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A key element of gothic romance is its atmosphere of mystery and suspense.
Something I really like about In Blossom is that despite its dark subject matter, many of its scenes take place during the day. One of the show's main themes is that appearances can be misleading and the cinematography often plays with that notion by linking light to deception and darkness to truth. Note how many of the emotionally honest beats of Yang Caiwei and Pan Yue's relationship happen at night (e.g., their couple escapades at the Li Residence, Ghost Market, and Life and Death gambling house) while fakery, corruption, and evildoing happen in the day. It's with this subversion of our expectations for light that the show creates an unsettling atmosphere.
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And these lighting choices also help set up Pan Yue as a classic gothic romance anti-hero, someone the female lead, Yang Caiwei, fears but still finds herself drawn to.
Look at how Pan Yue is lit when shot through Yang Caiwei's subjective point of view. The strong use of light creates a lot of contrast--through her eyes, he is a mixture of light and dark, his morality as inscrutable as his shadowy figure.
Camera Angles and Shot Sizes
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The show's use of low angles and close-ups further reinforces the idea that Pan Yue is unpredictable and even dangerous.
In cinematography, low-angle shots tend to make the subject look more powerful and menacing, and the show uses this technique to great effect.
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Even in the intimacy of close-up shots, we can sense the threat emanating from Pan Yue.
For example, look at how much Liu Xueyi's face fills the frame in an early "romantic" scene. The shot feels almost claustrophobic as if he's so single-minded about his goals that he has no choice but to dominate the frame (and Yang Caiwei). It's an unnerving moment despite the soft words coming out of his mouth.
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Side Note: I live for Pan Yue's (vampiric) long shots. The production design team was smart for dressing the character in dark clothes with such a sleek cut and drape--he looks like a sexy bat.
The Nosferatu references in Yang Caiwei's tomb are also perfect.
Composition and Framing
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And finally, like any good gothic romance, In Blossom illustrates how love can drive one to despair and even madness.
Because of this, my FAVORITE scene of the show has to be the introduction of Shangguan Zhi. Her obsessive pursuit of beauty in hopes of seducing Pan Yue has left her a shell of a human being, and the scene's composition perfectly encapsulates this with how it focuses on the elegant lines of her body--not her face or personhood.
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Shangguan Zhi is trapped by her delusional fantasy of a life with Pan Yue--see how she's boxed in by the vertical lines of the screen panel she admires--and the show regularly uses architectural lines to show how her desperation has trapped Yang Caiwei as well.
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YOU are a Killjoy!!
Requested by: @eating-sim0n
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nunalastor · 3 days
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randomfoggytiger · 2 days
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have you ever made a meta post about mulder’s and scully’s attachment styles? my mom got me a book for my birthday about the different attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant, and anxious-avoidant) and how to recognize them in yourself and others, and i keep going back and forth on what scully and mulder would be. i think scully’s mostly secure but with a bit of avoidance, and mulder is probably anxious-avoidant (idk i haven’t gotten to that chapter of the book yet and also one’s attachment style can apparently change over time and revival mulder is definitely a lot more secure) anyway i’ve started rambling lol but have you ever written or thought about that
I haven't-- BUUUUUUT I did think about that just the other day! Is it a sign? o.0
Your assessment sounds accurate though now I'm curious what the technical dividing line between all of them are, what their expressions are, and why they aren't. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
If you have more thoughts, share share share because my brain is super duper curious now. XDD
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How do you think the relationship between Bella and the individual Cullens are Post-Breaking Dawn ? Especially the ones she has the least interactions with (Esme, Jasper, Emmett). Is her perception of the relationship different from theirs (like does she see Carlisle as a father figure, but he doesn't) ?
Bella has no real connection to the Cullens and just assumes she does.
Nothing has changed.
Bella herself assumes things have changed greatly. She's now a Cullen and an official member of the family. By virtue of being a vampire and having been turned by the Cullens and being on the diet she's a daughter to Esme and Carlisle, a sister to the rest.
Really though, I'd say her relationship is more daughter/sister-in-law at most. She's now married into the family, she is one of them, but she's clearly connected to them through Edward and maybe her friendship/close sister relationship with Alice.
She still barely talks to the others, doesn't think about them much, and the most is she thinks it's weird Jasper's actually hanging around now and asks what's up with that.
Bella still has very little connection with each of them, but still thinks she has a profound connection with each of them.
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artbyblastweave · 1 day
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St. Paddies day in Boston can be rough. I recognize the importance of traditions like this as a community building thing, I understand that in this atomized society of ours we have fewer and fewer of these communal events to hang our hats on, I do. And for these reasons, I’m loathe to be a killjoy about it. But the fact remains that The Running Of The Snakes is just completely incompatible with Boston’s contemporary car culture. It kind of made sense when the city was still an island, and it’s never been the worst if you’re on foot because they’re not very fast and the terrain can work in your favor depending on where you are in the city. But if you’re commuting? Total shitshow. Citywide meat grinder If they don’t get it over with before 5 pm, which of course they never fucking do. Thousands and thousands of snakes all over the road and only one direction your car can possibly go. And if you go over them perpendicular, you know, you can live with that- it’s like chopping a sausage, one or two points of contact, quick and clean. But if by unfortunate coincidence the tires line up with one lengthwise it’s like stomping on a tube of toothpaste. If you’re going really fast there can be collateral on that. While I was typing this I accidentally ricocheted a Burmese python vertebra off a lamp post and creamed a bike courier. The Mayor’s gotta do something. She’s gotta put her foot down
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prince-liest · 2 days
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popping in real quick to say I really love your "I love her/love her not" chapters! as much as I enjoy Al's antagonism with characters like Vox and Lucifer, his friendships with women in the series are sooo interesting to me. it's nice to see your take on how he (and Mimzy!) both struggle with their preconceptions of their time period and heteronormativity in general
Aw, thank you so much! Yeah, part of the reason I really wish we got more character-building episodes is that with Alastor in particular we see a lot of hints of him wildly different approaches to his relationships depending on who they're with, and I think that while he's definitely often antagonistic as hell in his relationships with men, he specifically is much less so with most of the women in his un-life. I remember watching Dad Beat Dad and going, "Wow, I can't believe Alastor is the first person we've seen set a good example for drawing a normal and healthy relationship boundary..." when he asked Mimzy to leave.
Like, compare how he snapped at Husk, who was actively trying to look out for him, for just saying a smarmy thing that Alastor is touchy about, vs. all the shit Mimzy did and the damage she knowingly caused... only for Alastor to not only, with full and stated understanding of her intentions and their consequences, still let her use him for her own protection, but then to be visibly pissed off and still clearly center himself and make the deliberate choice to be polite and honestly kind of kind in how he asks her to please head out.
And she's still fucking upset about it! The way Mimzy behaves in turn during that entire interaction is telling as well, because it's really obvious to me that it's not just her being a bitch for the hell of it. She very clearly did not expect him to draw that boundary and found him doing so shocking in a way that she took personally - and why wouldn't she? He's apparently been actively enabling her to rely on him in this way for literally their entire relationship. "But you love taking care of me!" is not a line that feels to me like she's putting words in his mouth, it really feels like that's what he's purposefully led her to believe, because 1) she's his dear friend and 2) he enjoys being a powerful individual that people rely on.
Anyway. That turned into a whole tangent, hahaha. I'm glad you're enjoying it! I desperately want to see Alastor interact with people he genuinely considers his friends more often, and I want to see how it compares to how he interacts with the people he's growing to care about a lot less willingly.
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