#so she will bond with him during what I personally consider to be our prime

[copperbora]

⚠️EARTHSPARK SPOILERS REGARDING ✈️STARSCREAM ✈️ UNDER THE CUT⚠️

This fan theory post regards episode 21 of Transformers: Earth Spark, What Dwells Within, which revolves around our favourite flight frame Decepticon, Starscream, and the evidence that I believe that it shows of Starscream's complicated relationship with Megatron, possibly more excitingly his relationship with Skywarp (which points hopefully towards a future introduction of Thundercracker,) and other seekers in general as Novastorm is in it too. There's also implications of the fanon concept of seeker/flight frame sky hunger.

⚠️Spoiler alert: we finally get to spend some time with Starscream in this episode as it opens with him, Skywarp, Novastorm, Soundwave and Swindle attempting to escape from GHOST's Decepticon prison. Swindle and Soundwave being groundframes, they aren't able to keep up with the speedy seekers and end up being left behind as the trio of seekers make their escape. During this escape we learn a key rule of Skywarp's teleportation talent (spark sigma) in Earthspark: she can't teleport through solid objects.

Unfortunately for our erstwhile seekers, the Terrans are at the same time trying to reach their cave water and Novastorm, who is especially eager to escape, causing sonic booms, accidentally sets off a cave in, during which the bottom of the water cave collapses right on top of her and a chiding Skywarp.

That's when our boy Starscream shows up and at very long last the Terrans meet him (he immediately schemes to take them hostage in order to secure his and his seekers' escape from GHOST.)

Aw damn, Starscream you handsome devil. (Again: why do you have blue optics though? I mean, I'm okay with it, but it's still weird as frag.)

In this scene Starscream also shows that he doesn't have any issue whatsoever with being right in his fellow seekers' personal space as he grabs Novastorm's wing to pull it out of his way so that he can see the Terrans better (and scheme at them.) (This gesture feels a lot like the fanon notion of seekers being a rather snuggly group.) In a later episode he is not okay with Twitch affectionately hugging him in thanks and shrugs her off.

The Terrans appropriately run, accidentally straight into the lair of the Dweller, a hideous space monster that brings to mind a sparkeater of IDW lore, except it drinks Cybertronian's energon like an oversized vampire bat instead of nomming on sparks. (And it is significantly less cute than a vampire bat.) The Dweller initially tries to eat Thrash but spits him out as it discovers that nope, energon doesn't run in Terran fuel lines, so it goes for the energon-rich seekers instead, rushing straight at them.

This is where Starscream has a choice; he's standing between Novastorm and Skywarp in a narrow passageway - so who does he try to push to safety? Skywarp.

I really think that this can read as an implication of the beloved fanon concept of trinebonds. Starscream by default saves his trinemate; he doesn't even need to think about it. Novastorm isn't his trinemate: she belongs in trine to Acidstorm and Ionstorm (where the Pit are they?) Starscream doesn't even consider saving Novastorm instead of Warp.

Skywarp does share a bond of some sort with Novastorm though as she immediately rushes to Novastorm's rescue, pulling her from the tentacles of the Dweller. (I'm not sure what Skywarp and Novastorm's bond is - did they pack together after finding themselves seperated from their trines and other seekers? Are they sisters? Lovers, maybe?)

Meanwhile, Megatron is pissed off that Starscream has escaped and complains about it to Optimus Prime and Croft. Despite Croft's negative permission on going after Starscream (she's more concerned about keeping her creepy horrible secrets than a deadly seeker being loose,) Optimus helps Megatron to the place where Starscream escaped with his two seekers then promptly sets Megatron on hunting down Starscream, asking that Megatron bring Starscream back safe.

By this point in the episode it has been made clear that Megatron and Starscream have some serious trust issues - and that Starscream seems to have very good reason to fear Megatron. Hashtag, being a kid, is willing to listen to Starscream where adult Cybertronians have not and she and Starscream become friendly after she saves him from the Dweller and more importantly, states her willingness to hear his side of the story, despite her liking Megatron.

And, of course, after some more incidents with the Dweller occur, we do witness a pretty violent encounter between Megatron and Starscream as Megatron attacks Starscream unprovoked. Starscream tries to defend himself from his lifelong enemy but ends up pinned down and helpless by Megs.

Hashtag, again, saves Starscream's plating, putting herself between him and his old tormentor. (Yes, I'm a Starscream sympathizer.) Hashtag points out that they need to unite against a common foe (the Dweller,) which Megatron doesn't believe until the Dweller grabs him, at which Megatron gives it a literal taste of his fusion canon.

Unfortunately, the Dweller manages to grab Hashtag, and Starscream then attempts to pull her free! (Gee, Megs, is it so hard to be kind to your seeker? Look how loyal he is when somebody gives him the time of day!)

Starscream ends up being caught by the Dweller too, which takes him and Hashtag to its lair where we find Novastorm and Skywarp encased in grotesque giant magenta Dweller-spit crystals.

Starscream's gaze immediately goes to Skywarp as she taps the crystal encasing her to get his attention and looks pointedly at the ceiling. It's important to note that Starscream looks at Skywarp before she signals to him, again, potentially implying that a trinebond exists between them.

Skywarp looks pretty hilarious in this frame, ignoring the fact that she's stuck in the Dweller's spit crystal.

The Dweller lets go of Hashtag and Starscream, and Starscream, seeing the monster's attention fixed on the vulnerable young Terran, prompts it to attack him instead by yelling at it, telling Hashtag to run.

The Dweller's predatory attention now fixed on the Air Commander, Starscream follows Skywarp's tipoff and shoots a large crystal that is hanging from the ceiling above the Dweller, which crashes down on top of it! A fight endues in which Hashtag gets powered up by the cave water which splashed down when Starscream's shot caved the roof in and literally drags the Dweller into a watery grave, the water being toxic to it (which was implied in an earlier scene where it was trying to grab Skywarp who had fallen into a puddle of the stuff.)

The Terrans have their field day with the water, (which fails to help Robbie,) then outside against a sunset we see Starscream refusing to let Megatron put him back in a GHOST cell, which he calls a 'cage' (sky hunger?) Megatron asks if instead he could send Starscream somewhere where he would be safe (the Malto/Terran base?) but Starscream refuses, claiming that he will never be safe wherever Megatron is.

This really does imply that Megatron has abused Starscream a lot in the past.

Starscream takes to the sky at which Skywarp and Novastorm materialize as if they have been loyally waiting for him to takeoff and before teleporting away to Megatron-free safety, Starscream calls his friendly regards to Hashtag, a fledgling bond of friendship having formed between young Terran and Air Commander.

Skywarp is holding hands with Novastorm (lovers?) but she grabs Starscream seemingly happily (trinebond?) and after Statscream salutes Hashtag with his nullray they teleport away (presumably to go find Thundercracker, I like to think.)

I really liked this episode; I especially enjoyed how curious Starscream became in the map room, which to me implied his past as an innocent scientist and interstellar explorer. (Will we see Skyfire ever?) Also when rousing a stunned Skywarp and Novastorm to get up and run, whose pedes did Starscream kick? Skywarp's.

I really think that a trinebond was implied here in this episode, and that there really is some very bad energon between Starscream and Megatron. I dearly hope that future episodes and seasons of Earthspark will show us more of Starscream's story.

Throughout this episode the seekers generally stayed together, apart from the initial incident with the Dweller where Starscream doesn't help Skywarp save Novastorm from it. Furious at Starscream over this, Skywarp chooses a different path than her Air Commander, at which Hashtag goes to Starscream's rescue instead. (Evidence of Skywarp and Novastorm being lovers? Or sisters? Whatever bond they share, it exists outside of the platonic bond of trining that Skywarp has with Starscream.)

Anyway, a great episode which left me really hoping for more!

#earthspark starscream #fan theory #maccadam #earthspark skywarp #transformers seekers #earthspark hashtag #earthspark megatron #thundercracker #earthspark novastorm

[transingthoseformers]

The Autobots in this one lack the having flexable and highly adaptable leadership. If Prowl mirrors his IWD counterpart he will stop at nothing to win. Do what he seesnessary and devil take the hindmost. But he doesn't consider his blindspots. Ultra Magnus is extremely lawful but he is very much lawful good. UM would do well early on but as the facade crumbles he's gonna struggle. And he might be the first with shadow play or slave coding. At that point UM is going to be subtlety careless and start implementing malicious compliance. Maybe his Malicious compliance is how the Wrecker managed to get out. Starting a methodical grid search in the wrong spot to give them time to escape. Deliberately emphasizing and deemphazizing reports to poison the Tac-net's data.

Also once the Deceptacons learn about the slave coding they're going to be less focused on killing and more on capture and debuging. OP because it's right, Megatron because New Recruits.

I think things will be interesting with Forged mech and the council's access to them. Because their intermediaries with the Allspark are not on their side. And ya know ya boi Starscream, she's real good at assassination. The ones who sided with the status quo don't have a long life expectancy.

Megatron is gona be so touched when OP did a Violence™️ for him and their stillborn though. It won't fix everything but they're on the path to a new OK. Enough so he's not lashing out through the bond anymore

Yep yep they do

Now, I don't know much about aligned Prowl other than the fact that he's not in tfp, but I can very well see his personality becoming more and more like IDW Prowl's more notorious characterization the more he works with the council's autobots as his moral boundaries are pushed again and again until he learns to just. Throw morals to the wind because they're going to get stomped down regardless. After all, IDW Prowl didn't start out as methodically ruthless as he soon became infamous for.

Exactlyy I do feel like rolling with tfp Mags he's certainly caught up in the rank of it all but he's going to have so many opinions about all of this, honestly I feel like he's a good target for slavecoding (which I can totally see being connected to mnemosurgery in a different way than shadowplay??) considering his role and how you're suggesting malicious compliance.

And from what you're suggesting yesssss on it being the way out

Cool that this makes them focus more on capture and not kill, I just got the vague idea that this would play as an interesting game dynamic

I get the vibe that the council's autobots will utilize a lot of "short term" members with short life expectancies, being fed on a strict information diet with our dear friend propaganda in there, and typically aren't all that loyal? If that makes any sense?

Starscream will play a very interesting role because she is really good at not only assassination but the entire political game and strategy; aligned Starscream was a full ass high ranking Vosian general both before and during a lot of the canon war, after all.

Optimus and Megatron are going to have such a time healing from their loss and navigating being Prime and Protector, "a new OK" is a good way of describing it

#maccadam #transformers #fuck the council au #tfp megatron #tfp optimus prime #megop #idw prowl #prowl #tfp ultra magnus #tfp starscream

[thunderpot]

how old will kagome be when she bonds with inuyasha in aurora?

Haya, noony! she will be close to 40, think something around 35-38.

#aurora #aside from the obvious non-humans #the humans start around 25-28 #so she will bond with him during what I personally consider to be our prime #the 30s haha #Noony

[softinkshadows]

Shingeki no Kyojin Astrology: sun-moon-rising combinations

I was looking around tumblr for detailed astrology speculations of my fave anime characters, but there aren't that many! Being q well-versed in astro myself, i thought why not do my own version (very spoiler-free, don’t worry)! I followed the birth dates given by isayama:

Eren Jaeger - Aries sun, Scorpio moon, Cancer rising Aside from the fact that he can be hotheaded and impulsive, Eren's feelings of vengeance run deep and explosive. Remember that time he was chained to the bed after the attack on trost, and his eyes were wild with the need to violently eradicate all titans? He's so tenacious and emotionally stubborn too (a Scorp moon trait) to the point of being closed off from everyone else, especially towards the end where he seems to take the weight of the world's burden on his own shoulders. And all for the sake of protecting his community and ensuring the safety of his friends for the rest of their lives. His comrades and family are his motivation. This is his Cancer rising steering his life.

Mikasa Ackerman - Aries sun, Aquarius moon, Aries rising "Look that moody brat is running off on her own again." Mikasa is similar to Eren in her impulsiveness and determination, but different in two ways- what they aim to protect and their extent of fearlessness. Eren is aware of his own weaknesses and helplessness, but Mikasa's amazing physical prowess makes her act without any hesitation at all. She's hella fierce and driven to keep herself in shape too, doing all those sit-ups and chopping firewood post-injury. I think she deserves a double Aries! An Aries rising means a Libra descendant too, which is reflected her whole-hearted devotion in her close partnerships (Eren and Armin). Her aquarius moon really shines thru with her stoic independence, focus and perseverance.

Armin Arlet - Scorpio sun, Virgo moon, Pisces rising He's the brain of the 104th cadet corps, and is second to Erwin in terms of strategy! An intelligent planner with low self-esteem often found second guessing his own analytical abilities, Armin is a true blue Virgo moon. His emotional self stands out the most from the main three protagonists - Eren & Mikasa mostly express anger and desperation, whereas Armin is usually shrouded in fear and worry. He's a very soft bb, hence the Pisces rising, not to mention he gets so dreamy imagining the sea, the vast plains, and the magical world beyond the walled universe he knows. A spiritually-attuned and curious explorer :")

Levi Ackerman - Capricorn sun, Scorpio moon, Virgo rising Levi is such a complex person, thanks to Isayama's brilliance. Like many Cap suns, Levi is authoritative, cold and incredibly savage. That's not to say he doesn't feel anything either. Levi is an evolved Scorp moon (maybe even moon in 11th house) because his feelings are never for himself, but he hurts so much for others - you can tell every death hits him so hard, but he doesn't show this to anyone else. He also exudes this quietly intimidating aura of natural competence, a common characteristic of this sun-moon combo. He can take things personally as well (re: height issues) but it never snowballs into more than passing irritation. The turbulence of his emotions and habit for violence is balanced out by his earthy Virgo rising, which is emotionally subdued, quite thin and delicate in physique, and super neurotic and nitpicky when it comes to cleanliness and health. Cap, Virgo and Scorp are some of the most guarded signs, and a combi of all 3 are hellish. You can tell this poor beautiful man is always caught between feeling and thinking, between maintaining his humanity and forsaking it.

Erwin Smith - Libra sun, Capricorn moon, Leo rising In another life, Erwin Smith would be the damn CEO of a global conglomerate because he oozes so much charisma. Hell if charisma were energy Erwin Smith would be its prime, eternally renewable source. His stature alone is so commanding, and I find some strong Leonine traits in his thickset physique, strong eyebrows, beautiful hair, and that way he shouted in full glory atop wall Rose in that one episode to the cheering masses below. He might be a Libra sun, diplomatic in political affairs, but his Capricorn moon is what drives his decisions. Cap moon has a rep for being cold and unemotional, but i believe they are way more than that! Cap moons rarely boast about their long list of achievements, instead looking forward to the next goal. They struggle with emotional expression, and are super driven and disciplined. Erwin is capable of making the hardest decisions, putting aside emotions to strive for an abstract ideal, and this is to be expected of the commander who takes on the role of the devil.

Hange Zoe - Virgo sun, Sagittarius moon, Gemini rising All hail our favourite mad scientist!! Hange is such a breath of fresh air in the Survey Corps, balancing out the heaviness of missions with their wacky tales of titan research and experimentation. Their penchant for study and higher knowledge is typical of a Sagittarius moon, who is drawn to advanced academic study and spiritual truths. It's also a lighthearted and optimistic sign, true to Hange's upbeat personality. The Virgo in them contributes to their sheer intelligence and obsessiveness with research subjects. We also know they LOVE to talk, and once Eren asks Hange about experiments, they cannot stop (Gemini governs communication). Virgo, Sag and Gemini are the most intellectual signs, and because they are mutuable Hange tends to follow orders rather than give them, making it difficult to adapt to their new role towards the end of the series. Mutable signs also means rapidly-changing emotional states, and a whole lot of chaos, which suits our beloved squad leader.

Jean Kirstein - Aries sun, Virgo moon, Taurus rising Our third Aries on the list ohmygod. The snk universe is full of feisty hotheads. Jean is always seen clashing with Eren, fuelled by Eren's closeness with Mikasa and his own adorable jealousy. I mean, they had a full on fist fight right after dinner in the mess hall, although everything went downhill after the first few punches. Our first impression of Jean during his cadet days is coloured by his desire to work in the interior, and this favour for material safety and wealth is perhaps common to a Taurus rising. Also, Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of beauty and harmony, and thus often figures in the charts of artists. If you've seen Jean's drawing skills in that special episode, you'll know that his artistic abilities are the finest we have seen, exceeding even that of isayama himself. Jean's strong principles such as being averse to killing people and oftentimes cynical nature, is also characteristic of the moral and cautious Virgo moon.

Sasha Braus - Leo sun, Gemini moon, Taurus rising Not all Leos are showmans. Sasha is the type of Leo who displays more of the quirky, unabrashed personality suited to her opposite sister sign Aquarius. Authority doesn't exist when food comes into play, as we see when she breaks potato with Shadis and later steals a slab of meat from the officer's warehouse. Unlike the visual artistry that Jean possesses with his Taurus rising, Sasha's Taurus centers around her love for food, and hell she can have fiery determination for it (rmb the wild night she mistook Jean's hand for meat?). I love that both of them were pitted with each other in that cooking special episode. I considered placing her as a Taurus moon, but Taurus moons are usually steadier and classier in emotion, whereas Sasha is often breezy, gets nervous and chaotic, with stellar intuition, making her likely a Gemini moon.

Connie Springer - Taurus sun, Cancer moon, Gemini rising Although not much attention is paid to Connie's growth, his character development reminds me a lot of Aang from ATLA. Cheery and happy-go-lucky at first, before the incident with his mother made him more prone to feelings of anger and vengeance, especially near the later chapters. His strong protective bond with his mother is what compels me to say he is a Cancer moon, which is a moon sign that is very homebody and drawn to family and traditions. His goofy self and him referring to Sasha as "his twin" puts him as the spunky Gemini rising, another sign he shares with her.

Reiner Braun - Leo sun, Pisces moon, Capricorn rising Aside from his natural leader personality (Leonine), Reiner likes to take on the persona of the big brother of the group. His outward stoicism, decisiveness and task-oriented nature is typical of a Cap rising, who is often serious and solemn in appearance. He reminds me of that Cap rising workaholic who does his best in a corporate organization, working 9 to 5 plus overtime as it fulfills his sense of purpose. Beyond his stoic facade reveals a more troubled personality. Like a Pisces moon, Reiner is impressionable, and it's difficult to tell if his emotions and personalities are his own, wavering and absorbing traits from those around him. His internal war with his identity and the ensuing fatigue characterises him during the second half of the series.

Annie Leonhart - Aries sun, Aquarius moon, Virgo rising Annie is the kind of Aries that is so motivated to achieve her goals that everything else is sidelined, including her own emotions. She's quite ruthless in chasing her objectives, and her composure, focus and endurance is highlighted with an Aquarius moon. I'm guessing she has a 4th house influence somewhere because of her motivations to go home to her father and lead a normal life. I find the daintiness and delicateness of her features similar to Levi, who is also a Virgo rising. The Virgo effect also registers as a brutal, unfiltered honesty (also seen in Levi), and Annie doesn't hesitate to speak the truth about her own or her opponent's capabilities.

Other characters which I won't go into much detail about:

Bertholdt Hoover - Capricorn sun, Virgo moon, Pisces rising Bertholdt is quiet with an unobtrusive personality. His lack of supposed iniative and aggression can perhaps be attributed to the mutuability of Virgo and Pisces, which goes with the flow instead of charging forward. He keeps his feelings to himself, but reacts when the people he wants to protect are threatened.

Historia Reiss - Capricorn sun, Libra moon, Cancer rising Historia initially lives for the sake of others (esp Ymir), and is more co-dependent than many of her other squadmates. She also tends to put up a front of pleasantness, afraid of disappointing or offending people. She has a strong tie to family, and a profound sense of duty.

Ymir - Aquarius sun, Pisces moon, Aries rising Ymir is extremely astute when it comes to evaluating human behaviour. The religiosity of her background is also usually found in this sun-moon combination, which tends to attract paths of strong spirituality. She also has a bold and noble sacrificial streak for the sake of her companions.

Zeke Jaeger - Leo sun, Capricorn moon, Scorpio rising A headstrong, intelligent and radical character. In a way similar to Erwin in his ruthlessness, but emotionally darker and much more sinisterly private.

Kenny Ackerman - Aquarius sun, Sagittarius moon

Rod Reiss - Virgo sun, Libra moon

Dot Pixis - Virgo sun, Sagittarius moon

Hannes - Capricorn sun, Taurus moon

#snk astrology #snk #aot astrology #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #anime astrology #eren jaeger #mikasa ackerman #armin arlet #levi ackerman #erwin smith #hange zoe #jean kirstein #sasha braus #connie springer #reiner braun #annie leonhart #bertholdt hoover #historia reiss

[demonslayedher]

Your content on Kny is interesting, being a Kny fan I would like to share a cusiority. During the final battle did you notice that the Hashira were passive about the death of some? When Shinobu died only Tanjiro had a reaction because of how busy he was; Mitsuri didn't seem sad and when Iguro remembered who died in the middle of the final battle he didn't even mention her. What did you think? It would have been nice if Gotouge had shown us what the Hashira's thought when the others died

[cont.] I'm the anonymous person who asked you the question about the Hashira who fell in the fight, Tumblr makes people write very little. Apart from Tanjiro they seemed cold to me, even for Tokito; the only one affected was Himejima; when always Iguro mentioned him during the clash with Muzan it was like he was thinking normally. There wasn't time to mourn for the dead but I was expecting a slightly deeper reaction. Anyway for Shinobu yes there was Inosuke and Kanao but the pillars are important too

  Thank you for the Ask, time to get into it! This served as a good excuse to flip back through of a lot of the later volumes... or rather, a huge chunk of the series. Short Answer: I don’t think Mitsuri knew about Shinobu’s death.  Longer Answer: A walk-through of the Pillars’ situations in the final showdown and a partial analysis of Kimetsu-style story pacing. 

Disclaimer: I finished this around 2am. I chose to leave it rambling and unedited and typo-ridden. HAVE MY FEELS, I’M DISHING THEM.

(Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be a plug for my own fics, but since they are born out of my emotional experience of canon, mentions will make their way in. U fu fu.) First, absolutely yes on there being no time to mourn. From the moment the Ubuyashiki Mansion blows up in volume 16 to the actual end of the fighting in volume 23, that is one hell of a night; this final arc(s) had NO CHILL. Like, wow. It’s been a long time since I followed another battle-driven manga, but that seems like a lot, especially for a relatively short series.  And I was initially happy to dismiss all the lack of satisfying sadness as being due to the fact that they are in *PANIC MODE* and entirely focused on fighting, but that is also not necessarily the case; they do come off slightly cold.  I want to touch a bit on what we want to see the characters mourn each other, but also why I think it works out a bit better that we didn’t; from a purely narrative standpoint.  LET THEM BE SAD: Parasocial Needs Science says we form bonds with fictional characters that affect our brains in very similar and impactful ways, so our feelings are legit when they get killed off. It affects us like a breakup or other goodbye and makes us crave closure.  As for my own assumptions, we look for proxy characters in-universe to give those characters we love the attention we wish to; their sadness validates our sadness, watching them get emotional can be super cathartic, and a good mourning arc can provide satisfying closure.  This is something we got with Rengoku, canonically loved by like, everyone. Hell, even the guy who killed him was sad. Just to rub salt into it, the most recent fanbook that includes a section about how the Pillars see each other, and it drives home that even if we never saw much or any canon interaction between him and any other given character, they’re all like, “Oh yeah, Rengoku, he’s a great guy.”  And, he’s the only character we really get space to mourn, pacing-wise. First, because of when it happens in the plot, this gives the story time to show us each and everyone one of the Pillars hearing the news; it gives them times to process it (which Tokitou clearly needed), and most of us, it takes us in depth through how it affects Tanjirou, our main character whose emotions that we, the readers, are most in touch with. Rengoku got star treatment in the way he was mourned, and we readers get to lap that up.  So then when we don’t get that in-universe star mourning treatment, it does feel a bit jarring by comparison. Gotouge did say she was sorry to hurt everyone, but these are the conditions the little humans were up against all along and a point driven home again and again; even with power on par with demons through the attainment of a mark; even Pillars are just breakable humans who will never be able to regenerate like demons can, hence why their stakes are so much higher in every battle they go into. Furthermore, the Pillars are more ready for this than anyone else, they of all the characters would be the best at keeping their emotions in check in the heat of a battle.  Which means they had to keep them in check for seven volumes of near constant battle, love it or hate it.  KIMETSU LOGIC: The Writing Sins That Make This Manga What It Is I could go on and on and on and on about the writing sins this manga commits and how it shows that it’s Gotouge’s first time writing something of this length. In manga not all of it can be blamed on the author alone because the editors have a very significant influence, but yeah, this is not the most amazingly crafted story out there, by a long shot.  Would I change any of it, though? Well, a few things, yes, of course, out of personal preference. But on the whole, no. It’s the collective errors that stamp KnY with its style and make it what it is, and I find it as endearing as all the randomly super goofy art.  Now, when it comes to the lack of Pillars reacting to new of each others’ deaths, I wouldn’t necessarily classify that itself as a fault, and if I were Gotouge’s editor, I probably would have encouraged her to keep it to a minimum too. After all, I would be considered with selling a new shot of tension with every week’s installment to keep any readers from getting bored with the constant battle. And dang it, THAT TENSION WAS HIGH, those battles were remarkably emotional and tense through and through.  The breaks in tension that we got were necessarily and not distracting, with the notable exception of Iguro’s past. That was clumsy placement. I’ll be honest, I didn’t bond with Iguro as much as a character because he lost his earlier chances to be appealing to me, and by the time the chapter with his flashback came out, I DIDN’T CARE, I waited anxiously all week to see what was happening to Tanjiro and was invested enough to have an appetite for the additional Sumiyoshi and Yoriichi bits, but dang it, Snake Pillar was getting in the way of what my emotions were primed for at that point.  But, such is the way of fickle weekly readers; with THAT MUCH tension going on, readers crave a little breather here and there with a look at who else might taking in a breather in a flashback. We got bits and pieces of that mostly through flashback, like Tamayo’s memories of conversation with Shinobu experienced in real time through Muzan, as well as in-real-time moments with the characters having very slight chances to catch their breath (no pun intended).  But, how well those breaths worked depending on each character, and how the readers’ emotions were getting slammed week to week. Just like how I as a weekly reader (by that point) had no appetite for an Iguro flashback while eager to move forward, there likewise would have been limited appetite for mourning, and we’re stuck with who we got as proxy characters to react through.  ACTION, REACTION: The Rhythm of Basic Writing Advice It has often been said that in writing, something should happen in a scene, and the next scene should be a reaction to it. In the next scene something new happens, and likewise, there is a reaction. We could also thing of this as stages within the same scene, like the part when the music changes or the moment the battle has ended but we’re still on the battlefield.  In Rengoku’s case, we got one big happening, and then a whole lot of reaction drizzled through the story after that.  In the Infinity Fortress case, we get a big happening with the Ubuyashiki Mansion blowing up and then--a big happening!--a big happening!--a big happening--! A--uh oh, there’s a reactio---NEVERMIND, THINGS ARE STILL HAPPENING, GOTOUGE, PLEASE, THIS HURTS, OW, OW, HOW ARE YOU SO CRUEL, WE GET IT, THIS SITUATION IS AWFUL, PLEASE STOP HURTING THEM---

The reactions are there, scattered throughout. They’re short, but they sure make themselves count.  While Tanjirou is our Empathy Personified hero, it’s natural that we get more of his reactions, but the lack of them in other characters is, I would say, a natural fault of having a huge cast to work with it. Once you start dragging too many other characters into the reactions, the actions have trouble moving forward, and with the level of seven volumes worth of tension it’s the actions that keep readers hooked and buying magazines.  THEY’RE ONLY CORVIDS, OK: Now We’re Actually Looking At Canon Details Now that all being said, although it’s easy to dismiss a lot of Kimetsu Logic as amateurish at first, on further reflection, the little worldbuilding logic does excuse itself for not plunging each of the characters into a period of reaction to actions happening elsewhere.  Not all the birds had Yushiro’s papers. Not all birds were created equal. It’s really hard to navigate that place. Ergo, communication was probably highly imperfect; not all the crows knew everything going on. We don’t feel that as readers because we’re seeing Kiriya and his sisters get all the available communications.  In Iguro and Mitsuri’s case in particular, I suspect that might not even had been Mitsuri’s crow (as that one has a distinct personality and accessory) giving her orders to gather where Muzan is. It was probably any old down-to-business crow working with the information it had as clearly as it could in the battle that was most difficult to physically navigate. If Mitsuri’s crow (named Urara in the most recent fanbook) had been there, I imagine she’d have been having difficulty that whole time to even stay within a close range of that battle. Furthermore, a crow like that with a strong bond with Mitsuri might had also judged that telling her about Shinobu’s death was a dangerous distraction, and chosen to withhold information.  The fanbook specifies that Iguro’s crow Yuuan was the one who told him about how Tokitou got a red blade (in fact, this is basically the only thing said of this crow besides its name and gender). To able to report in such detail that Iguro could analyze that Tokitou attained the red blade by the strength of his grip, that probably quite an accomplishment to have either witnessed that much, or to pass on crucial information that detailed and quickly. At that time, Iguro and Mitsuri were physically separated and she was distracted by the crow giving her orders to gather where Muzan was, so she might not even have overheard that Tokitou had died. As for Iguro, the second fanbook tells us that because Tokitou was young he had hoped he wouldn’t die. There was no opportunity to mourn him, and they weren’t close enough for that to throw him off much from battle, but on a Pillar to Pillar level, I think the amount of thought Iguro did dedicated to Tokitou showed a certain level of esteem for him and regret at this passing.  What would have been nice? Maybe a little look over his shoulder to Mitsuri like “I hope she didn’t hear that.” That would have revealed a tender side of Iguro in a very short use of panels.  I want to come back to analyzing Mitsuri’s reaction later, so let’s keep focusing on the loss of Tokitou. Once he attained more of his sense of self back, it seems he preferred the company of Corp Members closed to him in age (if we go by his little flashbacks, which in true Kimetsu Logic, are things we didn’t know about until they come up in flashbacks). Most of the Pillars weren’t especially close with him, even if they did care about his wellbeing, as they seemed particular aware of how young he was. Sanemi probably had never interacted much with Tokitou until that battle, and *OKAY, HERE IT IS, THE UPCOMING FANFIC SELF-PLUG* one of the things I really liked working with in my post-canon fic is that there’s a point at which thinking about Tokitou forces Sanemi to deal with all the trauma he’s buried from that battle. I figure it would hit him later; he had a good excuse of a distraction. Ugh. Man. My heart hurts again thinking of that chapter.  Let’s also not forget, after Himejima showed his respects for Tokitou both quickly and sincerely, he couldn’t allow Sanemi to deal with Genya’s death until after everything was over. All the Pillars had to think like this.  What would had been nice? I liked this reaction scene to two simultaneous and horrific deaths exactly as it was. Ow. Ahhhh. Owwwwww, it’s hurting again. This is catharsis exactly the way I like it.  Let’s keep going with Himejima, the only one to have known to expect all this, and who stayed ready and likely hoped to bring down Muzan all by himself without any other sacrifices (welp, so much for that). There’s a scene in the novels that implies he had some idea that Shinobu wasn’t intending to make it out of the upcoming battle(s) alive, and I imagine he felt the same regret and bitter acceptance in advance that he also felt with Ubuyashiki. If we heard the news about Shinobu like Tanjirou and Giyuu did, I imagine he was hurt but it wouldn’t have been noticeable, and he probably would not be surprised even at how quickly it happened.  What would had been nice? Anything. Just a “How pitiful” and some tears as he runs through the halls woulda’ been great.  So since Giyuu did hear it loud and clear with Tanjirou, I first want to point out that whether that was Tanjirou’s crow or not (might not had been, because his crow was busy with a letter delivery from Senjurou at the time too), that crow must had loved to shared details; maybe even details that were not necessary. Like, would telling the lower level Corp members everything really help? Wouldn’t the loss of each Pillar make them lose their nerve? Was it because that crow was wearing one of Yushiro’s papers that it had to report extra detail for Ubuyashiki HQ? Whatever the case, Giyuu is initially shocked about Shinobu and then is like, “what is that paper the crow has? It sure is reporting things fast.”  What would have been nice? ANYTHING MORE THAN ONE PANEL OF SHOCK. Come on, Giyuu, give the GiyuuShino shippers S O M E T H I N G. Granted, if Tanjirou had been killed in battle with Akaza, I believe Giyuu would have had an initial outburst of emotion, but then gotten himself under control real quick and stayed that way until it was safe to break down (which he did immediately later on, since the threat was gone--but he was just as soon picking up a sword and stabbing him, so again, Pillar-mode must come before experiencing emotions). I interpret canon as that even though Giyuu might had found it easily to address Shinobu in conversation due to frequency in how much they had conversed and the fact that she would usually talk to him first, he would never had considered himself especially close with her (since he never saw himself close with any of the Pillars). I feel their relationship had potential to grow closer if Giyuu had actually gone out of his way to communicate more with her, and he probably would had if they both survived, but at the time she died he probably still felt a distance, which is why it did him harder when Tanjirou--someone who Giyuu did actually get to a point of enjoying conversation with--was dead right in front of him.  (Side not, oh man, OH MAN, being a weekly reader was so tough then. I still have so many emotions from that week. Oh man. Oof. Ouch.)

Of note, Giyuu had the best opportunity for reflection on a comrade’s death since he had enough recovery time once he woke up to build a fire and treat wounds, and Tanjirou took that chance to read a letter. 

What would have been nice? AGAIN, GIYUU, ANYTHING, but after that battle I think he deserved to disassociate a bit.  Also of note, I don’t know that they had complete information either, because NO ONE (by “no one” I mean Tanjirou and Inosuke) seemed to hear anything about Zenitsu single-handedly killing Upper Moon Six and surviving it. What would had been nice: “Good for you, Zenitsu, I hope you’re okay” or “Six? Again? Didn’t we already do that? There was a third??” or “well I got Upper Moon Two SO THERE” or “..........are you sure?” or even way, way after all is said and done, off in epilogue times, “you fought WHO by YOURSELF???” but I digress. Now back to Shinobu, losing her so early on in this marathon of high-stakes battles made her death seem forever ago by the time we got to another Pillar death. It would had been nice for more of them to react both with “no, not Shinobu!” and “we are in deep trouble” sort of ways. That made the glimpses we got of her in flashback feel way, way more nostalgic, since for our experiences as readers, she had already been gone a very long time. I like that the battle with Douma got stretched over so long a span of the manga, they really showed the stakes in how difficult of a foe he was, even if that battle was itself was relatively shorter than others. And as stand-ins for the readers to mourn Shinobu, I love how we got that both through Kanao and through Inosuke.  But yes, it sure would had been nice to get something from... Mitsuri.  Now, if I had only read the events of canon, manga chapter to manga chapter, and even the Taisho Secrets, I still never would have guessed that Shinobu and Mitsuri had such a warm friendship. I know this purely from the fanbooks and novels, and that is something I find a writing error that detracts a lot from the work. Some of the most apt criticism I’ve heard of the Kimetsu pacing is that it could have stood to give us one of more arc to bond with the characters at least a little more, so we could really, really be emotional over loosing them. We get all our spare Pillar interactions in works outside of canon and after Tanjirou initially gets to know Shinobu, he has no more on-screen interactions with her; she mostly appears in Taisho Secrets.  Pillar Training was fun and all, but maybe another arc with stakes in it that occurs closer to home and brings out some different sides of the Pillars in Tanjirou’s presence, instead of each of them getting one dance each with our protagonist. That would had been a chance to show Shinobu and Mitsuri’s friendship, in which case, we would had really, really wanted to see Mitsuri’s reaction.  But, Mitsuri had a job to do in the very, very, very heavy tension and battles that ran in weekly magazines for months on end. She carried the very heavy weight of needing to provide brevity. Her silliness contrasted against all that tension was fresh air for readers who had been holding their breath (no pun intended! kinda) through so much. And man, our reliance on her for that made it hurt all the more when things suddenly got very serious for her.  But, that means she was also unable to play a heavy emotional role too early on. There wasn’t room to give her a satisfyingly emotional reaction to Shinobu or Tokitou; when after all, this is the girl who was fretting about dearly beloved Oyakata-sama, was horrified to see the explosion, angirly attacked Muzan, but was saved from certain doom almost immediately after she was taken by surprise in the Infinity Fortress, and then she’s BACK TO 100% FANGIRL MODE. Like, giiiiiiiiiirl, Oyakata-sama just diiiiiiied, tone it down a notch.  I feel like I had more to say.  OH YEAH.  WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: To fanfic, duh.  Going back to reaction and action and producing something with sellable pacing, again, I wouldn’t risk bogging down the tension-heavy final arc with too much open sadness (less is more definitely applies when the reaction scenes were often SO GOOD), but it clearly set up the desire for it. And, the length and intensity with which a work of fiction can live rent-free in audiences’ minds is a measure of its success.  If we MUST turn to fanfiction to get that emotional closure (or force the Pillars to get theirs), then this is proof of a job well done in making us care.   Herein lies the freedom with fanfiction: It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to sell. It doesn’t have to fit a regular serialized format. Fanfic is whatever it wants, all it has to do is indulgently scratch an itch.  I have way more stomach for sappiness in fanfic than in original canon, because I have higher expectations of canon to honor writing conventions, and to make decisions that will serve the overall story, not necessarily cater to my tastes.  But fanfic? Fanfic, you are here to serve me. Dive into those characters’ dry eyes with a jackhammer and gives me their tears. I don’t care how much you have to fry their brains to do it, give it to me.  I mean, I don’t write fanfic like that, noooo. At least, not that I post publicly. Ssh. No one needs to know aaaaaall my particular canon itches I wish to have picked raw. But all the more power to people who DO post that publicly and provide a great service to all the other people with that same need.  But, in the spirit of writing fic that tries to honor the spirit of canon, I try to sprinkle the juicy emotional potential canon could have had around as needed, to draw out what I feel canon just didn’t have the opportunity to give us. It’s ultimately self-servicing for what I wish canon would had done, but my style of published fic does try to stay widely appealing as a gen fic. Everybody’s got their own balances and tastes, and that’s cool.  And that is freedom canon authors don’t have.  I’ll conclude by saying that, although we as readers collectively earned it, the ending of Kimetsu no Yaiba was too bright and happy and specifically chose bittersweet moments that would be easy to swallow (pretty smart for a quick ending), but entirely skipped all the really heavy stuff in the immediate aftermath.

And yes, as difficult (and even dull) as it would be to slog through, there’s a part of me that wants to see all that, for the sake of closure. 

And now I sleep byyyyezzzzzzzzz

#KnY fandom theories and meta #KnY Spoilers #tw death #KnY nerdery #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer

[felidaefighter]

Our Metaphorical Get-Along Sweater

In which Wilbur thinks of Ranboo as an arch-nemesis while Ranboo is just There Vibing and also, Phil has adopted Ranboo, making for two very different siblings and a very interesting relationship 

[Fluff, comedy, fix-it fic, some light angst that is immediately softened, work in progress; every chapter will swap POV]

Chapter Two: A Second Chance From The Second Son

     For Ranboo, coming home empty-handed was always the worst part about his trips, second only to not seeing Michael for a while. So, before even stopping at home to unload, the moment he got back to familiar lands he headed to Snowchester, spending the entire afternoon with his son and only heading back to his own house as the sun was beginning to set. In truth, he had been grateful for the accidental timing regarding his trip. It allowed him time to think. Although he and Phil had discussed Wilbur before, he hadn’t been alive during that, and Ranboo honestly felt a prick of guilt at how he knew that might’ve changed things-- he highly doubted Phil would’ve adopted him had Wilbur still been alive, after all.

     It definitely didn’t help, either, the way Tommy had spoken about Wilbur-- though Ranboo had known Ghostbur, and knew that in some ways they were likely similar, they weren’t the same-- it made him wary of Wilbur; not just for himself, but for Tommy and Tubbo’s sake as well. Still, he believed in second chances, and a second chance at life was something pretty rare. He wanted to be optimistic. And although Phil was going to be biased, because Wilbur was his son-- his son that he had raised from birth, especially-- Ranboo trusted Phil’s judgement on people more than nearly anyone else save for his husband. He wanted to get to know the man. Not the man he used to be, not the man he was, but the man he is now.

     After putting away the small amount of trinkets and excess materials Ranboo had picked up on his adventure, he checked his memory book to see if it had anything to offer in terms of what his next step was. Oh, right! He’d wanted to give Wilbur a proper tour of what had changed; Tommy had succeeded in showing him around, after all, but if Ranboo knew Tommy (and he did, very well), there was no way Tommy had actually given a good explanation of the events behind the changes to the man. Now he just had to offer. He just… had to do it. Yeah. Noting that the sun had only just set, it was reasonable to assume that Wilbur and Phil were still awake. Very very awkwardly for someone who had every right to be there given his adoption, Ranboo knocked on the door to Phil’s house.

     Phil let him in with an easy smile. “Ranboo, mate, you don’t have to knock y’know.” It kind of felt strange not to though? Considering the recent change in situation. “Yeah, but with Wilbur here, I don’t wanna interrupt anything, y’know?” He asked Phil with an awkward laugh. “You’re just as much part of the family as he is,” Phil assured, and Ranboo felt himself untense a little. “Welcome back from your adventure, by the way! Were you successful?” Phil asked, realizing he hadn’t yet. “I don’t wanna talk about it,” Ranboo moaned miserably, and Phil laughed. “Not well then! Got it.” Ranboo shook his head. “Everything else I can find no problem! Like, come on, man, this one isn’t even for me.” The two stood in a pleasant moment together.

     Right. The reason he was here. He had to get it over with one way or the other. “Hey Phil, I was wondering actually, is Wilbur around…?” He asked before he could convince himself not to. Phil looked at him quizzically. “Yeah, he’s upstairs. Wil!” Phil called, and Wilbur immediately stuck his torso out the ladder hole, looking like he very much would rather be elsewheres. “Ranboo wanted to speak to you,” Phil explained, and Wilbur disappeared for a moment before climbing down the ladder properly. “Okay, I’m here, I see you. What’s up?” Wilbur asked, and although he looked like he’d been interrupted genuine curiosity colored his words. Admittedly, it was a little intimidating to have Wilbur’s attention. Ranboo had just… heard so much about him.

     “Oh, well uh… you got a tour of what had changed from Tommy, right?” He started. Wilbur tilted his head. “Yeah, you could call it that.” Ranboo nodded; he’d expected something like that. “Well, I was wondering-- if you’re free tomorrow, would you like a proper tour? I know Tommy is horrible at being straightforward and explaining things like that, so it might be nice to have an actual explanation right?” Ranboo asked. There it was, the big, awkward sibling bonding question. Huoagh. Ranboo turned to Phil. “No offense, Phil, but you and Techno don’t really…” Ranboo trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish his sentence. Phil shook his head. “None taken, you’re right. Aw that sounds nice eh Wil? It’d be good to get you all caught up.” Wilbur looked a bit taken aback, but not unpleasantly so. That was good! That seemed like a good thing.

     “You know what? Sure, Ranboo. I’m down to try that.” Ranboo grinned in excitement. “Awesome! Okay, tomorrow, I’ll give you the grand tour.” Wilbur nodded, continuing. “I’ll admit Tommy left some holes in his stories-- almost as big as the one I apparently left in L’Manberg,” Wilbur added with dark chuckle. Ooohhh okay that didn’t seem like the greatest sign but dark humor wasn’t necessarily indicative of anything bad-- though it did, admittedly, make Ranboo feel a little wary. Caution would probably be best when handling everything. But that was okay! Ranboo was a cautious guy. He felt confident in his ability to, well, be cautious. “Yeahhh that’ll happen with Tommy,” Phil said to Wilbur in agreement, and Ranboo nodded in turn. The three chatted idly for a short bit, and then Ranboo left for the night, ready to sleep in his own bed after a week of travel, with the plans for tomorrow secured.

------

     Ranboo woke up and did his morning routine, bracing himself for the plans he’d made for the day. In truth, he wasn’t really sure what to make of Wilbur still. He’d had an entire week to think about it, but it just seemed so complicated. He’d heard good things from Phil and terrible things from Tommy, about the man who had created a nation and also was now his older brother. It would be good to get to know him, though, Ranboo reasoned-- so the tour was a good idea. Ranboo found Wilbur tinkering with some things in Phil’s house, having very clearly been awake for quite some time. “You’ve been up a while,” Ranboo said, and Wilbur looked about to scowl at the intrusion before settling himself into a more neutral expression and nodding. “The sunrise; It’s beautiful,” he explained-- and suddenly Ranboo felt as if Wilbur might be okay after all. They headed off in relative silence aside from a passing remark from Wilbur about the magma cubes that consistently jumped to their deaths; the only thing of note about the nether was the vaguely safer renovation of the community portal.

     “The community house looks different,” Wilbur commented, and Ranboo grimaced. “Oohhh yeah. It got blown up. Dream--” At least, as far as anyone knew it was Dream-- “Blew it up and framed Tommy for it while he was in exile. He used it as an excuse to blow up L’Manberg. With uh, Phil and Techno’s help actually, but y’know.” An unreadable expression crossed over Wilbur’s face, and he nodded. “Dream’s a tricky bastard, that doesn’t surprise me. I do remember Tommy’s exile, now, by the way, it--” Rage flashed across Wilbur’s face, almost too quickly for Ranboo to take note, but not quite quick enough-- before he took a breath and looked calm again. “It was rough,” He surmised instead. Ranboo nodded. That had been a horrible time. He’d tried writing letters, but, well. Ranboo decided to focus on the tour before the queasy feeling in his gut grew too big.

     “Over therrrre is Kinoko Kingdom or whatever it’s called-- Sapnap and Karl live there I think? Also George maybe but that guy is always asleep so honestly who knows,” Ranboo said, gesturing to their right/the East. Wilbur looked like he was calculating something. “So there are new nations here after all?” Ranboo shrugged. “I mean I wouldn’t really call it a nation-- I don’t think there’s a government so much as a lot of buildings that nobody even lives in honestly.” Wilbur just frowned at that, despite it being true. Ranboo was beginning to think that maybe it’d be a lot harder to get on his good side than he’d initially hoped.

     Ranboo walked out the other side of the community house and Wilbur trailed behind idly, long-legged stride making up for his casual pace. His dark eyes flitted about, searching for things the passage of time had and hadn’t touched. “The prime path is pretty much the same,” Ranboo said, desperately hoping the shift away from nation-talk would lighten Wilbur’s mood. “Oh! On the right there is Captain Puffy’s therapy office. I’ve heard about it from--” Actually, that was none of Wilbur’s business, no offense to him. “--From somewhere. That’s why it says ‘therapuffy’ on the sign.” Personally, Ranboo was very pleased with that pun. Puffy had done a good job with it. And Wilbur-- Wilbur actually quirked an eyebrow. “She’s started a therapy office, has she?” He mused, and Ranboo hummed in affirmation. “I s’ppose that’s useful. I’m sure a lot of people around here need it.”

     “Apparently there’s a discreet box you can drop a note into to make an appointment,” Ranboo said, which was about as close as he was going to get to saying his real thoughts which were more along the lines of oh my god PLEASE get therapy you of all people need it especially considering you made your dad help you kill yourself and have been dead and gone for years in what you essentially described as hell. “That’s cool,” Wilbur said, and Ranboo nearly wilted a little, but he did take a small victory in the lingering glance that he noticed Wilbur left it towards it. Ranboo allowed himself to hope just a teensy bit that maybe Wilbur would visit again after the tour with nobody else around.

     “On the left here is Niki and Puffy’s flowershop and bakery, and Fundy and I’s icecream shop we made to compete with them. Ours is just a little bit taller,” Ranboo added smugly. “They’re both kind of abandoned though, because--” Oh, that was not a good look on Wilbur’s face. It passed almost immediately, which was almost even more concerning. “Go on, Ranboo, what were you saying?” Wilbur prompted softly, and Ranboo hesitated but it was clear he wasn’t going to get anything out of that look. It was also, frankly, not something he was willing to unpack with the older man. “They’re both kind of abandoned, because I haven’t seen Fundy in a long while and I think Niki and Puffy kind of drifted apart? They were dating at one point I think,” He rambled, and relaxed a bit as Wilbur smirked, easily caught up in gossip and drama.

     They passed by Church Prime-- Wilbur declining to go in for personal reasons-- Punz’s house, the karaoke stage, and the weird, pale-checked building, which had all been there since long before Ranboo’s time and thus didn’t earn anything more than a passing, melodramatic comment from Wilbur about familiarity and stagnation and how sometimes even the land couldn’t change. Ranboo didn’t really think that was a fair assessment, though. Basalt columns supported chunks of Punz’s house that bore visible fire damage. Nearly every time he’d passed by the checked building the inside had been renovated. He was pretty sure even the karaoke stage had been patched up a few times. But to be honest, being around Wilbur was awkward. Even the idea that he knew things that Wilbur didn’t didn’t seem quite right, since Wilbur had been there first-- with both L’Manberg and being Phil’s son-- even if he’d missed some time. So for now, Ranboo would just stick to the facts.

     “That’s a Christmas building,” Wilbur said, aghast, pulling Ranboo out of his thoughts. “Hm? Oh! Yeah, that’s-- I think somebody lives there but I’m not sure actually. It’s definitely--” Ranboo made a noise, and Wilbur nodded his head at the noise. “Yeah. See, that’s something you and I can agree upon, Ranboo.” Wilbur then swivelled his head around and did a double-take. “Is that gay Target? ...Didn’t that used to be a walmart?” They passed the Targay, beginning the steep climb up the mountain, and Ranboo nodded, bemused. “It’s Targay, I think. Puffy renovated the walmart. It’s kinda been ‘opening soon’ since before I even got here though so I think it’s effectively abandoned. Tommy and I were talking about that the other day, actually.”

     Speaking of, they reached the top of the mountain and Tommy’s plot of land-- “Tommy’s shit-fucking-shack is the same,” Wilbur said dryly, fake disgust in his voice betrayed by the fondness on his face. And there it was-- proof. Not for anybody other than Ranboo himself, of course, but it was there. Wilbur did care about something. Or someone, at least. Someone that Ranboo cared about, too. That was enough to get Ranboo’s confidence in his plan back up a bit. Good, actually. He liked being optimistic. Preferred it without a doubt to anxiety spirals and the idea that everything was doomed. “Pretty much,” Ranboo admitted, “But there’s a bunch of flowers and stuff around that were planted when-- when he was gone for a bit. He took down everything else. I guess he likes it looking like a hole in the hill.” Wilbur rolled his eyes.

     “Do you want to see the hotel and the prison and Snowchester next, or would you like to visit L’Manberg?” Ranboo asked, hoping Wilbur wouldn’t realize the near-slip-up had been alluding to Tommy’s death. The mischievous, conniving look in Wilbur’s eyes clouded, and the man looked thoughtful. Ranboo waited anxiously, fiddling with his hands. “Let’s go visit L’Manberg,” He said, taking the lead, and Ranboo followed behind. The man’s strides were purposeful, and though Ranboo did think that Wilbur could change, something about the way he was moving hinted at… lingering ideologies about the former nation. Also, Ranboo was internally pouting a bit about Wilbur taking charge now. It was meant to be his tour.

     “I haven’t seen L’Manberg since I blew it all to kingdom come,” Wilbur remarked, Ranboo trailing nervously behind him. Confusion temporarily overrode his nerves, and Ranoo tilted his head. “Are you su-- really? I thought you said you remembered stuff that happened when you were-- Ghostbur?” Wilbur downright scowled at the mention of Ghostbur, and waved off the mention like he was shooing away a pesky fly. “I don’t see what Ghostbur has to do with that,” Wilbur huffed, and Ranboo was silent for a moment. Maybe-- hm, that would be interesting wouldn’t it? Because Ghostbur couldn’t remember the bad things, and the only example Wilbur had given of remembering Ghostbur’s memories was how awful exile had been for Tommy.

     Ranboo was so focused on theorizing and figuring out how he might propose said theory to Wilbur that he nearly careened right into the man, who had stopped dead right at the end of the prime path. Luckily, he saved himself the dignity and Wilbur his dramatic moment right at the last second. If Wilbur noticed, he didn’t comment on it. He was staring out over the massive crater. “Wow,” Wilbur breathed mournfully, “I really did do a number on this place, huh.” He stepped off the prime path, minding the pockets where fire and explosives had scarred the earth. Ranboo watched him walk across the glass-- eerily, like a ghost taking long-forgotten trails, the transparent glass helping the illusion. Except, no, Wilbur was alive, and more importantly--

     “You didn’t, actually,” Ranboo said bluntly, and Wilbur snapped out of whatever daze he had been in, the illusion shattered as the contradictory statement made him virulent and very much alive. “What?” Ranboo admittedly reeled a little at the tone, but come on. He didn’t. “You didn’t,” Ranboo reiterated; “Techno, Phil, and Dream were the ones to blow it to bedrock. Your explosion didn’t get anywhere close. And the reason I know that is because it flooded afterwards, but it didn’t even flood that deep. It’s why L’Manberg-- the one I knew at least-- was rebuilt on stilts,” Ranboo explained, carefully watching the expression on Wilbur’s face. The disdain on Wilbur’s face was slowly blotted out by confusion.

     “What do you mean rebuilt on stilts?” Wilbur asked, and it was definitely visible on Ranboo’s face when it clicked for him that his theory had been correct. Wilbur didn’t actually remember Ghostbur’s memories-- not all of them, at least. He only thought he did because he, well, couldn’t remember the rest. Ranboo knew the feeling. “And what does that look mean?” Wilbur scoffed. “Well, you--” Ranboo felt his face get hot, the center of attention and eyes being on him never really the best for his enderman instincts. Ranboo opted instead to glance down at the bedrock, visible through the glass. “After-- after you died. L’Manberg was rebuilt. Tubbo said the land was still good, so when it started flooding they built it up on stilts and platforms. It was mainly Ghostbur that did the rebuilding, actually!” With the last fact, Ranboo glanced back up at Wilbur, who was just staring, trying to process what he’d just heard.

     “So, you’re saying… I didn’t have a big impact on this place.” Wilbur prompted. Ranboo just sighed. “Well, you did. It just wasn’t all one thing, y’know? I know Tubbo-- I know Tubbo liked having L’Manberg around and so did Tommy. They were devastated when, well--” Ranboo gestured to the visible bedrock deep, deep below them-- “That happened. And Ghostbur rebuilt it, he made it beautiful, with the lanterns.” Ranboo paused. “Phil told me a bit about the lanterns, actually.” Something indiscernible crossed over Wilbur’s face. Then he looked almost bitter-- then-- Wilbur sighed. “See, Ranboo, I appreciate your trying to ‘tell me I’m not a bad guy’ or whatever,” Wilbur said, emphasizing the quotations with a false, mocking tone, and gesturing dramatically, “But it doesn’t really matter. This is my legacy! This crater. Everyone knows I’m a bad person. That’s just fact.”

     “...I don’t think you’re a bad person,” Ranboo said quietly, wincing at how unconvincing that must sound even as genuine as he meant it. Wilbur scowled. “Why? Because Phil said?” Ranboo immediately countered, offended that Wilbur thought he couldn’t have his own opinions. “...No, not because Phil said. Because I don’t know you at all. We haven’t gotten a chance to meet. And I think that maybe you were a bad person, if you blew up L’Manberg, but I also think that you were going through some things that affected you and I think that people can change. Even if it’s only been a few years for us, it’s been thirteen years for you. You aren’t going to be the same person as before. And you deserve a second chance. Everyone does.”

     Wilbur was the one to turn away this time, and Ranboo politely pretended not to notice the way his eyes had become more reflective and puffy. He seemed like he had something he wanted to say, and Ranboo would’ve let him, really-- but instead he looked out over the glass at the bedrock and rubble and dead vines that hadn’t yet been reclaimed by nature. Wilbur took a deep breath, and Ranboo waited in nervous anticipation. “What do you mean it’s ‘only been a few years for you’, Ranboo?” Wilbur asked. Oh. That had not been-- but he did have a good point. That was probably some important information that Tommy had apparently also left out.

     “Tommy… didn’t tell you that either. Figures,” Ranboo muttered. “Okay so, when Tommy came back and said he’d been gone for months, it had only been two days, so…” Ranboo began, and Wilbur held up a hand, signalling him to pause for a moment. “Thank you for the tour, Ranboo,” Wilbur said, “But this has been a lot. Let’s walk and talk on this one, eh?” He sniffed, not in a cry-y way, in his usual talking way, (even if one would think it’d be in a cry-y way-- Ranboo tried to not let his thoughts wander too far, though), and said softly, “I’d like to go home.” It did catch Ranboo a little off-guard. There was still more to the tour! But… well, it did make sense, L’Manberg being what it was. Yeah. That seemed reasonable. “Alright, yeah,” Ranboo said, and the two found their way back to the prime path. “So since Tommy had been gone for two days but lived-- or unlived I guess?-- for months-- we figured time moves differently in the afterlife or whatever it is, right?” Ranboo explained the time differential to Wilbur as they walked, and the man was surprisingly free of snarky commentary the rest of the way home.

-----

     They had trudged through the snow in complete silence, leaving Ranboo to his swirling thoughts about how he felt about Wilbur being his brother. He was trying hard to not think about it actually. The mix of the family thoughts and the snow on the ground did remind him that they never went to Snowchester for the tour. Honestly? Ranboo was okay with that. He hated to admit it, but he did not trust Wilbur around Michael. Okay, in all fairness, he didn’t really trust anyone other than Tubbo around Michael. Call it paranoia, or maybe “an awareness of what the rest of the people in the realm were like”. It was hard enough dealing with having a sibling when he’d only just gained a parent-- Ranboo really didn’t need to deal with whatever thoughts might come with Wilbur technically being Michael’s uncle. He shuddered to himself, and Wilbur glanced over questioningly, but Ranboo muttered about the cold and the man seemed to buy it.

     Phil was waiting for them when they got home, and opened the door warmly to both of them. He shot Ranboo a questioning look when he didn’t immediately come inside, but Ranboo subtly shook his head-- Phil giving an almost unnoticeable tilt upwards of his head in acknowledgement. Talk later. “Sooo how’d it go?” Phil asked conversationally from the doorway, and Wilbur was startled out of his own thoughts. Luckily he didn’t catch the exchange they’d had. “Huh? Oh.” Wilbur turned to Ranboo thoughtfully. “The tour was lovely, thank you. You definitely did a better job than Tommy, at least. And cleared some things up for me.” Something about Wilbur, Ranboo had noticed, was always guarded. He guessed that’d be the paranoia. Or maybe old habits from being sneaky-- Phil had told some stories of when Wilbur was younger.

     “I’m glad,” Ranboo said sheepishly though, “I’m glad I could do that and, clear some things up for you, yeah. And it was nice getting to hear your stories about the things that had been there for a while, too,” Ranboo offered, an open invitation for reconciliation, even if he still wasn’t sure what he’d done that made him and Wilbur get off on such a strange foot. Wherever Wilbur’s thoughts had been drifting to, they quickly snapped back at Ranboo’s softer tone. “Yes,” Wilbur said curtly, “Thank you for the tour, see you around.” And he promptly slipped past Phil, who was muttering baffled protests, into his room upstairs.

     “What?” Phil squawked out as the door shut, and then turned to Ranboo. “I don’t-- what-- I’m sorry Ranboo I genuinely don’t know what that was about.” And Ranboo laughed, relieved to have someone else sharing in his confusion, feeling at home with Phil for the first time in a while since it was just the two of them. “I don’t either!” He admitted, sharing in Phil’s trait for giggling in confusion. “But I think I said something that maybe he thought was nice and he doesn’t like the fact that he thought it was nice…?” Phil sighed, and then laughed. “Yeah, yep, that’d do it. Wil’s-- He’ll come around. He’ll come around. He just needs some time to adjust to the situation properly.” Phil narrowed his eyes at Ranboo. Uh-Oh. It was his dad mode.

     “And so do you. You can’t let him bully you around just ‘cuz he’s older or you think he gets more rights as my son due to seniority.” Ranboo flushed, feeling very caught-in-the-act. “Okay well hey wait a minute you didn’t have to call me out that hard,” he fake-complained nervously, and the two of them laughed. “I did though! It’s true!” Phil protested. “You’re as much family as he is,” Phil continued softly, and Ranboo desperately tried to not let his eyes water.

     Phil, either due to his allergies for prolonged contact with softer emotions, or sensing the need for a mood change out of worry for Ranboo’s allergies to water, decided to change the subject back to Wilbur’s style of siblinghood. “--And Wilbur will bully you around ‘cuz he’s older. And you can’t let him get away with it or he’s gonna get away with it forever,” Phil scolded, “Ranboo, you have to grow a backbone.” Well that just hurt. “I have one, that’s not fair!” Phil, however, put his hands on his hips and looked sternly at Ranboo, who was thoroughly pouting. Then he sighed and laughed softly. “Fair enough, fair enough. That’s a start.”

     They stood on the porch together for a moment, enjoying one another’s company. Phil sighed again. “How did the tour actually go? How was Wil?” He asked finally. Right! Now this was something Ranboo was prepared for. He straightened up, much to Phil’s dismay (because Phil was much shorter than Ranboo as it was). Ranboo laughed a little internally at that, but he was rather proud of his observation skills in this matter, so he was all business on the outside (not that this was business). “He was kinda melodramatic, honestly,” Ranboo explained, and Phil nodded; it did make sense that that wasn’t out of the ordinary. “I did point out to him where therapy was,” He added, Phil bursting out laughing in response to that with a sort of ‘bwahahaha’ sound. “Good,” Phil said, before letting Ranboo continue.

     “He did… he did get a bit weird when it came to L’Manberg,” Ranboo admitted, and Phil sobered some at that. “He took over the tour and started talking about how it was his fault. Phil, I don’t--” Ranboo leaned down in a conspiratorial whisper, Phil drawing him closer to the door and away from any windows or line of sight. “--I don’t think he actually remembers Ghostbur’s memories. He just thinks he does. He only remembers the bad things from Ghostbur’s memories.” Phil paused. “Ghostbur had bad memories?” His eyes widened. “Oh.”

     Ranboo nodded. “Yeah. I did clear up some stuff-- like how the bedrock leveling was you and Techno and Dream and not him, and he’d only been gone for a few years as opposed to thirteen like on his end.” Phil nodded some more, thoughtfully. “Ah, yeah. Thank you for clearing that up, Ranboo, I honestly-- time for me is, well, y’know.” He made a so-so gesture with his hand and Ranboo understood. “I do feel kinda bad about that, but uh-- I still stand by it. It had to be done. That government was corrupt.” Ranboo nodded. He had complicated feelings about that-- he supposed most of his feelings were complicated, actually-- but ultimately he respected Phil’s decision, and liked where he’d ended up because of it.

     “And I take it you didn’t show him Snowchester.” Ranboo grimaced. “Yeahhh I didn’t really want to have that conversation. Plus it was in the opposite direction of L’Manberg, so…” Phil nodded once again. “Good thinking. We can chat some more later, yeah? When you’re comfortable doing so in a place that isn’t the freezing cold.” Ranboo nodded, grateful that Phil understood his hesitations even if he didn’t agree with them. Phil patted Ranboo’s arm softly as Ranboo headed off and he went back inside, and Ranboo was grateful for the time alone to think. Because a lot had happened, but he did want to think through that particular scenario, since it was important. Even if the family aspect was strange. Even with Ranboo being particularly protective. And especially with his relationship to Tubbo being what it was. So the question was this: How did Ranboo want to go about introducing Wilbur to his nephew, Michael?

-

-

[Until I publish this to AO3, anyone is welcome to ask to be tagged when the fic updates!] @enternalempires

#ranboo #wilbur soot #philza #dreamsmp #mcyt fanfic #they write #oh gosh please don't open this readmore on mobile. new tab is better #it's almost 5000 words #HERE IT IS CHAPTER TWO #oh gosh i'm so sorry it's been so long #my appointment for my finger injury ain't until october but. slow and steady writing should be alright

[anakin-skybreaker]

A Brief Analysis of Clone Wars Characters Via Knights Radiant Orders

Ahsoka Tano:

It’s been stated that the Edgedancers are the most religious of the Knights Radiant orders. Faith, I believe, is a cornerstone of Ahsoka’s character; faith in the Jedi Order, losing that faith and gaining it in herself, not to mention her faith in Anakin.

A good chunk of her character arc is centered around the common man, learning the plights of the disenfranchised and living up to what the majority of people believe Jedi to stand for without the restrictions of political alignments. Edgedancer ideals fit Ahsoka’s overall arc.

Second Ideal: “I will remember those who have been forgotten.”

Third Ideal: “I will listen to those who have been ignored.”

Edgedancers have the ability to ignore friction which I feel would be well-suited to Ahsoka’s fighting style.

“...they were elegant things of beauty. They could ride the thinnest rope at speed, dance across rooftops, move through a battlefield like a ribbon on the wind.” – Edgedancer, page 4.

“When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned…” – Words of Radiance, page 20.

Captain Rex:

This might be a controversial choice considering what we know of clones, but Rex is a bondsmith. Sure Honor is a whole, veritable, god on Roshar but Rex is a bondsmith and you can pry that from my cold dead hands.

What do I have for evidence of this? Why, the Second Ideal of course.

“I unite instead of divide. I will bring men together.”

Rex watching his brothers being forced to break their oaths of honor and kill their spren all for Palpatine’s agenda. That hits different, bro.

Honestly, I don’t think I need to go any further but for the sake of it I will.

Having a clone, who many consider to be less than, climb the ranks and become a must in terms on long term warfare just feels good. Long story short, Rex is irreplaceable and he deserves an order which maximizes how irreplaceable he truly is.

Commander Cody:

Here we have our first windrunner proper.

Cody is a good man, a loyal man, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t suffer the same ideological differences and hypocrises that plague the Republic. The side he serves condemns slavery and yet he himself and his millions of brothers are a slaves. He is a tool for war yet trying to bring peace. He fights to end the war and yet the Republic refuses to open peace talks. 

He’d be the closest to Kaladin, in terms of practically everything; Cody is a child of Honor.

Cody knows how the universe works so he settles on his own code of honor. He will protect those who cannot protect themselves, regardless of his personal feelings toward them. He knows he can’t save everyone, but what’s most important is that he try. Somebody needs to.

Padme Amidala:

Like Rex, Padme would be well-suited to the bondsmiths. She aims to unite instead of divide. But given her role in TCW, however, and her role as the one who steps up to call out people and be the one to spend her life trying to better society, Padme is an elsecaller.

She’s a diplomat at heart, individualistic and esoteric. Padme follows her own logic and goes out on the front line when she deems it necessary. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Anakin or the Jedi or the Republic says, Padme abides by her own moral compass and what makes sense to her.

“...the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they never did relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren…”

She is a senator who creates connections between peoples.

Queen Padme Amidala and Queen Jasnah Kholin, while having a lot of political differences and different approaches to warfare, would get along famously.

Padme contributes to the war effort by soulcasting food, medicine, and other necessary materials.

Anakin Skywalker:

Here’s where things get complicated.

If we’re going purely by plot, then Anakin is a skybreaker since that is one of the only orders that suit his personality which would still allow him to “fall to the dark side” while maintaining his oaths.

Also, I’m not going to slide past it. My URL is anakin-skybreaker for fuck’s sake. It would be a crime against nature for a man named Skywalker not to have gravitation manipulation like come on, he was born to fly. 

It’s just too good, too fitting. I can also see Anakin saying some variant of Kaladin’s line in Words of Radiance, but during a version of the Rako Hardeen arc. “You sent him to the sky to die, assassin, but the sky and winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.” Though entirely separate, the two have roughly the same amount of melodramatic entrances.

On the other hand, if we’re going for what’s best for Anakin as a person then he’d be either a windrunner or a dustbringer (releaser). The Fourth windrunner ideal says more than I ever could. “I accept that there will be those I cannot save.” Anakin is fueled by ambition so there’s no way he wouldn’t make it to the fourth ideal and then be forced to come to terms with himself and his fears or risk stagnation (or worse breaking his oaths and killing his spren).

As a dustbringer, Anakin would be taught how to control and channel his destructive/violent impulses. Dustbringers get a bad reputation because of their capabilities for mass destruction and because of that shared prejudice, I feel that might help Anakin settle in even quicker than he would in the other orders. Like if he were a windrunner, Anakin would be forced to confront aspects of his personality and truly learn restrain and responsibility.

“Most Dustbringers were tinkers who liked to take things apart to see how they work.”

Dustbringer spren canonically love to break stuff. So, Anakin making friends with a spren that wants him to break stuff because it wants to know what’s inside? 10/10

Obi Wan Kenobi:

A lightweaver in personality and a windrunner in mentality.

It hardly needs saying that Obi Wan is an honorable man. It would come to the point where, even as a renowned lightweaver other people would make comments on it. How he’d be better suited to the windrunners, how “I could’ve sworn you bonded an honorspren” and stuff like that.

Lightweaver ideals are tailored towards the individual, but generally follow the pattern of admitting personal truths. Obi Wan has more than a few truths to admit to himself. He and Anakin would be having an argument, only for his liespren to chime in to call him out going, “mm, lies” and forcing the two to actually talk out their feelings.

He would be Grand Spymaster of the Republic. Obi Wan is already known as the Negotiator, so he’d arrive at the palace of a government he needs to win over for the Republic dressed to the nines, positively glowing, standing at imposing six foot five, where underneath the lightweaving he’s going on three hours of sleep, is wearing yesterday’s clothes, and hasn’t combed his hair in three days.

He’s a lightweaver, but for the life of me I cannot get the image of Windrunner Obi Wan vs. Skybreaker Anakin, battle of Mustafar style, out of my head because the concept of them both being able to control gravity while representing opposite ideologies slaps okay?

Plus, Obi Wan would look immaculate in Kholin blue.

Anakin being busy blowing stuff up, turning canons to dust while Ahsoka skates past him as if solid ground were made of ice cutting through squads of droids while Obi Wan wears the face of the enemy leader and convinces them to surrender? 20/10

Maul:

This one is a lightweaver too and for the same reasons as Obi Wan.

He’s a charismatic bastard and he’d used his abilities to their maximum destructive potential. Just like in Clone Wars, he’d topple governments and overtake civilizations from the inside out. 

Lightweavers are not bound by honor so Maul can pretty much do what he wants so long as he’s able to admit truths about himself. Whether he’s successful in doing so remains to be seen.

An important sidenote, Maul has Nightblood.

Maul would have Nightblood and everybody would be in danger.

#ahsoka tano #captain rex #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #maul #darth maul #tcw #the clone wars #star wars #stormlight archive #radiants

[i-just-love-spop]

Breakfast

Direct follow-up to “I’m here”, it would be best to read that one first. “At the end of the world” and “About what happened...” are also both referenced, but you don’t necessarily have to read them to understand this story.

Takes place in between “Taking Control” and “Perils of Peekablue”. This assumes that traveling from Etheria to Prime’s flagship and back took them at least three weeks each, because of their old ship, their limited knowledge of the technology and the lack of any ability to teleport or create portals. I have no idea if that’s accurate, but then again, nobody really knows how much time passes during the show.

Summary: In which Catra tried to make breakfast and it’s better than everyone expected it to be (but that might just be because Adora set the bar extremely low with her first attempt at cooking), Glimmer can’t help clinging to Bow after the precious night, Bow reflects on his feelings towards Glimmer and Adora has no idea why she gets so nervous around Catra all of a sudden, but is just glad to finally be able to call her a friend again.

Also, Entrapta casually calls everyone out on their feelings.

[The amount of Glimbow and Catradora in this is pretty much 50/50.]

Best Friend Squad-bonding in space? Best Friend Squad-bonding in space.

—

Bow and Glimmer were rudely awoken by the sound of the door swooshing open and unpleasantly loud voices.

She still had her arms around him the same way she had when they’d fallen asleep, and she didn’t plan on letting go anytime soon.

“See? I told you so! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to go back in here.”

“Huh, and here I thought you were just looking for an excuse to share the mattress with me again.”

“What? Me? Nooo...”

They heard Adora laugh.

“Do... do you think we should let them sleep?”

“You should have thought about that before you barged in here,” Glimmer murmured groggily and threw a pillow roughly in the direction the voices had come from without opening her eyes.

She was way too tired for this nonsense.

‘Whoever said space is peaceful and quiet definitely never traveled with these guys.’

“Good morning...?“

Bow blinked, still half asleep when he sat up on the mattress. He kind of dragged Glimmer up with him accidentally because she was still unwilling to let go of him.

...not that he minded.

“What are you guys doing in here?” Glimmer wondered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, yawning.

Her grip on boy tightened a bit when she saw Wrong Hordak. He seemed to be pretty okay, but he brought back a lot of bad memories, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to that.

“Well, Adora and Catra just spent a weird amount of time commenting on your sleeping position, especially considering I found them in the same one,” Entrapta analyzed with her usual enthusiasm.

The two girls flushed scarlet.

Bow grinned.

“Awwww, you guys were spooning?”

“We. Were. Not. Spooning,” Catra growled, but then she dropped the demeanor, her face turning into a sheepish grin. “...and also, I might have burnt breakfast.”

That genuinely surprised Glimmer, but in a positive way.

“You tried to make breakfast?”

Catra grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, yeah. Emphasis on tried. I mean, you cooked for us once, and Arrow Boy did it the rest of the week, and I just... thought I should try it? Argh, I... I don’t know. Maybe that was a stupid idea. Especially because I don’t know how to cook.”

Glimmer shrugged.

“No, that’s fine. It’s... really nice of you, actually. And I don’t think anyone here knows how to cook, except for Bow maybe.”

Adora chuckled.

“Yeah, she has a point.”

“I mean, it can’t be as bad as when Adora tried to make food. We ended up with half-cooked broccoli with chocolate sauce and sprinkles for dinner,” Bow pointed out, shrugging. “It looked kind of nice, but...”

He was trying to be polite, but really, there hadn’t been much in the meal his friend had made that one could be polite about. There was a difference between ‘you clearly haven’t cooked before and your cooking still needs a some work’ and ‘your cooking is literally weapons-grade’.

Glimmer’s face went green.

“Oh stars, don’t remind me. I still want to throw up just thinking about that.”

Catra’s eyes widened.

“Adora did what?!”

She had never tried either of these things, personally, but she roughly knew what they were, and even she could tell that there was no way these were supposed to go together.

The blonde scratched the back of her head.

“It wasn’t as bad as it sounds...” Glimmer gave her a death glare. “...you know what? Actually, it was.”

Adora blinked for a moment. Why had she tried to defend the terrible food she’d made? She was usually totally cool with the others joking about her really, really poor first attempt at cooking, especially because she herself knew that it had been awful and that she would never try that combination again.

And yet, today she felt a pang of... embarrassment?

Weird. Why would she...

‘It isn’t because Catra’s here, is it? She knows what I’m like, better than anyone, so I doubt this surprises her. And, I mean, there are other ways I could impress her than cooking!’

...wait, why would she want to impress Catra?

That made no sense.

Adora shook her head and abandoned these thoughts.

“And that’s the story why almighty She-Ra over here is banished from Bright Moon’s kitchen,” Glimmer concluded, giggling.

Catra chuckled. That did make her feel a little better about her own cooking skills.

And Adora getting a tad bit embarrassed was also a nice bonus. She looked really cute when she was embarrassed.

...damn, Catra had missed her best friend.

“Not to worry, you guys. No broccoli today. Would have been hard to make anyway, seeing as we have no broccoli on the ship,” the brunette promised. “You guys coming?”

Glimmer smiled.

“Sure, we’ll just get dressed real quick, and then we’ll be right there.”

—

“How are you?” Bow asked his best friend as soon as the door closed behind the others.

Glimmer gave him a small smile.

“Better, I think.” She nuzzled against the crook of his neck. “Just tired.“

He stroked her head.

“You’ll never be a morning person, huh?”

She laughed, visibly relaxing a bit. Being with Bow always made her feel so much better...

“I mean, technically, there are no mornings in space – but no, I’m definitely never going to be a morning person. At this rate, our kids are going to have to wake me one day instead of me waking them.”

Bow stared at her for a second.

Had she just...?

No. No way. Glimmer wouldn’t... she didn’t... they were close, obviously, but... he’d know if she had feelings for him, right?

“You think they’ll be close? ...our kids, I mean,” he added when he saw the confused look on her face. “You know, since you suggested they’d come wake you up together.”

“Yeah. Right. They’ll be best friends, just like us. I’m sure of that,” Glimmer replied, just kind of going with what he had said because oh stars she couldn’t believe she’d just suggested having kids like that without even telling him she was in love with him first.

Bow shook his head and smiled at her softly.

Of course that was what she’d meant.

The mental image of their kids also being best friends one day was adorable.

Despite that, for a moment, he couldn’t help but imagine a girl with his dark curls and Glimmer’s beautiful eyes and a little boy with his eyes and her cute little nose and smile climbing into bed to wake them, him and Glimmer still sleepily embracing each other the same way they had tonight.

‘Huh.’

He really had caught feelings for her, after all.

...or maybe he’d always felt that way about her and hadn’t realized what his feelings truly were until he’d almost lost her.

That thought had always terrified him, but this had been so much worse than anything he could ever have imagined.

This was already the second really close call since they’d met. He’d do everything in his power to make sure there would never be a third.

He hugged her. She snuggled against him. He felt his cheeks heat.

It was weird. As mad as he’d been at her, and as terrified as he’d been about possibly losing her, apparently this was what he’d needed to put some things about their relationship into perspective.

“Hey Bow?” She asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks again for earlier. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He smiled at her.

“Of course. Anytime.”

He’d tell her eventually. Maybe.

But now was not the time.

After a while of comfortably sitting like that in silence, Bow spoke up again.

“Come on, we should actually get dressed now, before the others-”

Too late. Catra stuck her head in again.

“Hey, are you guys coming? If you keep making out in the cabin for another hour, the food will taste burnt and be cold by the time you join us!”

Glimmer blushed scarlet and let go of Bow, like that would change anything about what Catra just saw.

“We were not making out!” She protested – then realized how weird her reaction had just been.

She and Bow hugged all the time. Hugging was a normal thing that friends did. There was no need for her to be embarrassed about anyone catching them.

Glimmer shook her head.

‘Well that was subtle... I just made everything worse, didn’t I?’

Surprisingly, though, Catra didn’t bring it up again.

“Sure, whatever. Now get up and get dressed so you can join us for breakfast.”

—

“So... what do you think?”

Catra was super nervous what the others thought about the food she’d made because she was pretty sure it wasn’t terrible – she’d tried it beforehand, of course, she wasn’t trying to poison anyone, after all –, and she really wanted to do something nice for everyone after they’d saved her and been so nice and kind to her despite everything that had happened between them... that she’d done to them.

“This is actually pretty neat,” Glimmer concluded after a while of chewing.

Bow nodded in agreement, and Adora was already moved to tears because Catra had tried at all.

“This is the best thing I have ever eaten,” the blonde breathed, just loud enough for Catra to hear.

The brunette shook her head.

“That’s sweet, dummy, but we both know the food Bow and Glimmer made was way better.”

But Adora shook her head. She meant it. She really did.

The food made her feel warm inside, in a way it couldn’t when Bow or Glimmer cooked.

Wrong Hordak was just eating quietly.

Entrapta put her fork down and cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

“Is that something you do as friends? Lie to the other person to make them feel better about their inadequate skills? Fascinating...”

Catra flattened her ears.

‘Ouch.’

“We’re not lying, Entrapta. This is actually pretty good,” Glimmer chimed in. “Especially considering this is her first time cooking. You can’t let someone cook for the first time in their life and then except the kind of meal professional kitchen staff would make. Besides, Adora has been trying to learn how to cook for years, and let me tell you, it did not get much better after the broccoli with sprinkles-incident. Somehow, Adora is still worse after years of trying than Catra was at her first attempt.”

“Hey!”

There it was again. Adora was embarrassed for no reason. The fact that she couldn’t cook wasn’t a secret, and she usually didn’t even care about it. Other people joking about that was fine. And it wasn’t like that was a skill that really mattered at the moment.

What was going on?

Catra chuckled.

‘Wow. She has a really nice laugh.’

Adora shook her head.

She knew that. She’d always known that. Why was she thinking about that now?

“So that’s your biggest weakness huh? Who would’ve thought! Etheria’s almighty hero, defeated by a stove and a frying pan,” Catra teased her, grinning.

“...shut up.”

Adora tried to sound annoyed, but she was visibly beaming when she nudged the brunette. She was just happy that, after all this time, she could finally call Catra her friend again.

“Never,” Catra replied teasingly as she nudged Adora back. “That’s the only thing I’m going to be talking about for the rest of my life.” Her grin widened. “Hey, that means I can now officially put ‘cooks better than She-Ra’ on my resume, right? Oh, I know! I need a cup that says that! Or an apron!”

Adora giggled.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m an idiot that can cook,” Catra shot back, sticking her tongue out at the blonde.

They were all laughing now, except for Entrapta, who was speaking into her voice recorder.

“After a couple of days of observations, I think I can safely conclude that it is indeed still very much mutual.” She squealed. “Oh, that means I can update Scorpia when we get back home! How exciting!”

Catra winced a bit when hearing her former friend’s name. Scorpia had been nothing but kind to her from the start, and Catra had been the worst friend possibly imaginable. She felt awful. Scorpia deserved an apology – or twenty –, and then, maybe, she’d forgive her. Maybe they could actually be friends this time. Or maybe Scorpia wouldn’t want the person that hurt her back in her life, and that would be okay, too, despite the sting Catra felt when she thought about it. What mattered was that Scorpia was happy, no matter what she would choose – just like it had been with Adora.

Catra was done making everyone miserable – herself included.

“Update Scorpia on wha-” Glimmer started, then stopped in mid-sentence. “On second thought, I don’t think I even want to know.”

Entrapta blinked, then eyed Bow and Glimmer.

“Speaking of, you two are also interestingly close today. Amount of touching in comparison to the last couple of days increased by about twenty percent. That brings us pretty close to a hundred percent so far! I don’t think Glimmer has stopped holding onto your arm since you two entered the room... Should I write that down? I’m going to write that down.” She thought about the best way to word it for a moment. “There appears to be a chance that travelers will develop an increased need for physical contact while in space, as indicated by four different research subjects.”

There was a moment of very awkward silence as everyone but Wrong Hordak blushed scarlet and tried to avoid eye contact with the person they were sitting with... but Catra didn’t move from where she was sitting, and Glimmer still didn’t let go of Bow’s arm.

—

In the end, it was Adora that broke the silence as she cleared her throat and looked directly at Glimmer and Bow.

“Entrapta’s kind of right. You two do seem even more attached at the hip today than usual.“

They looked very cozy. It was pretty cute.

Glimmer had to bite back a comment about how Adora was really one to talk, with Catra sitting on her lap and all.

Over the course of the last few days, Catra had slowly moved closer and closer to Adora during meals – which had been blatantly obvious to anyone but Adora – until on the prior day, Catra had carefully touched her arm, and Adora had pulled her a little closer, which the brunette had taken as a signal that they maybe could go back to the way they used to be. Her initial shyness had melted away from her now, and she’d gone from sitting next to her friend to straight up planting herself in Adora’s lap today. The blonde hadn’t complained one bit.

“Did something happen?” Adora asked when neither of them replied.

Glimmer‘s semi-good mood disappeared instantly as she remembered the previous night. Her mouth went dry. Her voice was incredibly monotone as she spoke.

“Nothing, I just... had a nightmare,” she said.

“Right. One,” Bow murmured, glancing at his best friend worriedly.

She immediately elbowed him in the ribs for that.

Adora already had enough on her plate as it was, there was no need to worry her further, especially with something as silly as a couple of nightmares.

“But I’m all better now.”

Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but apparently it was convincing enough for Adora to not dig deeper.

Catra kept quiet, but gave the Queen a sympathetic, encouraging look that made Glimmer certain the brunette knew what it felt like.

All things considered, Catra had definitely had it way worse than Glimmer on Prime’s ship. Glimmer shuddered at the thought of being robbed of her free will, of being forced to fight the people she loved.

Didn’t that mean that Glimmer was just being a baby that was upset for no reason? If Catra could cope with that, why couldn’t Glimmer even calm herself long enough to let go of Bow’s arm?

She closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from shaking. It didn’t work very well.

Apparently guessing where Glimmer‘s mind went, Catra coughed a bit and spoke up.

“Sparkles, listen, I... I know we’re pretty different, but nightmares always suck, no matter how bad they are, and I don’t think they can be compared anyway because different people are afraid of different things. It’s good that you have someone there to comfort you.” She snuggled against the crook of Adora’s neck. “But I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better.”

“I... thank you.” Glimmer’s smile felt less fake now. Bow nodded at Catra appreciative as he put an arm around his best friend. Adora was thankfully way too distracted by the brunette purring against her chest to really listen to what they were talking about. It was better that way. “What about you guys? How did you sleep?”

“Good. Great actually.” Adora beamed. “I don’t think I’ve slept this good in years.”

Since she’d left the Horde, to be precise.

“Yeah, me too. I... really missed sleeping next to you,” Catra mumbled, blushing.

“What do you mean, ‘missed’?” Glimmer raised an eyebrow. “You’ve done this before?”

“Pretty much every day before I left.” Adora grinned smugly. “She couldn’t sleep without me.”

“Oh.”

...that actually explained a lot – especially the time Adora had climbed into Glimmer’s bed because she hadn’t been used to sleeping alone. She hadn’t just meant that referring to the fact that she’d been sharing her room with so many other cadets before. She also hadn’t been used to sleeping alone in her bed, because she’d shared it with Catra for so long before leaving the Horde.

Catra blushed even more, and her first instinct was to get defensive and deny it... but then she didn’t. She’d promised herself to be a little more open with her emotions, after all.

“It started back when we were kids, actually... and then we got so used to it that we never stopped. The other cadets always said we could give my bed to someone else because I never slept there anyway.” Catra shrugged and laughed. Adora looked at her in surprise... but then her expression melted into a soft smile. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been this happy. “I was losing my mind without you...”

“Being apart from you wasn’t easy for me either.”

Catra bit her lip.

“If I’d just come with you when you asked me to, none of this would have happened. I’m so sorry.”

Adora squeezed her hand and kept her voice down when she started speaking.

“Don’t get me wrong, everything that happened really, really sucked... but I think it kind of needed to happen. Even when we were so close back at the Horde, there was so much standing between us... so many things we didn’t talk about, so many things we never realized about the other, and we both had issues that we had to work through back then. ...that, and we started being an ‘us’ so early on that we needed some time away from each other to learn who we are separately.”

She’d been thinking about that a lot lately.

For a second, Catra was back on Adora’s bed at the Horde, sitting back to back with her best friend, telling her that she wouldn’t know who she’d be without her.

She knew, now.

That Catra kind of sucked... she’d hurt others, and she’d been hurt, until finally, she’d broken down and reflected on everything she’d done, and then she’d cried and drowned herself in regret and guilt. Now, she finally really knew who she was... and who she wanted to be. Now, she would learn from her mistakes, and she would be better.

“We needed to grow apart so we could grow back together,” she whispered when she understood, and it hurt and it sucked because it meant that even if they’d left together, everything still wouldn’t have been fine – but at least it also meant that everything that had happened in the past few years hadn’t happened completely in vain, even though she still wished things had been different. And maybe they could be fine again now. Or better, at the very least. “I’ve made so many mistakes and hurt so many people...”

Adora hugged her best friend from behind.

“These days are over. And now you’ve got all the time in the universe to be better.”

“And I will be. I promise.” Catra smiled softly and squeezed her hand as she snuggled against her.

Bow and Glimmer just gave each other a knowing look while Entrapta was rambling into her voice recorder again.

After a while, Catra looked up at the others and grinned.

“Now that we’ve unveiled my deepest, darkest secret... you guys have got to have some more silly Adora-stories, right?”

Glimmer laughed and cracked her knuckles.

Bow’s and Glimmer’s relationship with Catra was still strained for several reasons... but she was slowly starting to grow on them, now that they could see she was truly changing. She was almost fun to be around.

“Oh, you bet we do.”

Adora sighed.

“...oh no. ”

#catradora #glimbow #adora #catra #glimmer #bow #glimbow centric #spop #she ra #entrapta #best friend squad #my works #my writing #fic type: tons of fluff with a little bit of angst #friendly teasing #spop season five #Catradora and Glimbow are both very in love #and Adora is the only one that’s still in denial at this point #everyone else has come to terms with their feelings and just isn’t ready to confess yet #best friend squad bonding – IN SPACE #Adora is a terrible cook #and everyone knows it #nobody ever recovered from her first attempt #I love Wrong Hordak but I didn’t really know what to do with him in this fic I’m sorry

[ericdeggans]

How My Love for Sean Connery and Bond Led to a Serious Case of White Guy Hero Infatuation Syndrome

Like a lot of people all over the world, I have long considered myself a stone Sean Connery fan.

I often recited the juiciest dialogue bits from his Oscar-winning turn as a beat cop-turned crusader in he Untouchables (in addition to the speech everyone quotes, I loved how he told Eliot Ness he knew he was a treasury agent without seeing his badge because “who would claim to be that who was not?”) I watched the painfully clumsy 1986 B-movie Highlander mostly for his charming turn as Egyptian (!) immortal Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez.

And, of course his work as James Bond always set the ultimate example for urbane cool. Which explains why I often felt the theme song thrumming in my head whenever I wore a stylish suit or hopped off a plane in a cool city. For men from the generation before mine, he practically defined the sophisticated, stylish machismo found in the pages of Esquire and Playboy.  

For these reasons and more, I have always loved the rogueish Scotsman as an actor. And yet, when news of his death at age 90 spread across the world, I couldn’t bear to pay tribute to him on my social media pages, until now.

That’s because his passing highlighted my problem with a particular malady. I call it White Guy Hero Infatuation Syndrome. And I have suffered from it for many years.

Put simply, my fan’s brain knows that Connery’s landmark performances were the stuff of film legend – especially as Bond. Cool, authoritative, suavely menacing and mostly unflappable, his take on a secret agent who knows the best suit designers nearly as well as the best pistol manufacturers set the template for escapist espionage fantasies over the next half century and beyond.

His first line as the character – “Bond. James Bond.” – has become pop culture legend.

But as a media critic, I also have to contend with James Bond’s status as a relentless sexist and a British agent who walked the world as if it was made to be ruled by wealthy, capable white men. Watch him slap the behind of a pretty blonde who was massaging him poolside in 1964’s Goldfinger when CIA agent Felix Leiter turns up for a chat. “Man talk,” he tells her dismissively, sending her out of the scene.

Or check out how he treats Quarrel, the bug-eyed Black man who acts as a “fixer” for him in Jamaica during the first Bond film, 1962’s Dr. No. Scrambling across a beach to avoid the bad guys’ goons, Bond turns to Quarrel and tells him “fetch my shoes” -- as if he were his butler, rather than a local ally helping him avoid thugs with automatic weapons.

And there’s loads of scenes where Bond forces himself on women who quickly succumb to his charms – like Honor Blackman’s character in 1964′s Goldfinger – perpetuating a dangerous myth that a man can earn a woman’s love by pushing her into being romantic with him. (Or that a dismissive, vaguely annoyed tone with women – treating them like impertinent children or misguided simpletons – is also, somehow, irresistible to them.)    

When Connery played Bond, he played a character who was the embodiment of white privilege. He made it look sexy, virtuous and necessary – the natural state of things in a 1960s-era world that, outside the comfortable confines of Bond’s make-believe spy games, seemed to be coming apart at the seams. But in the America of 2020, it’s a symbol of how media can teach you to accept a limiting legend.

And this was a fantasy I bought into eagerly. As a kid, my mom and I bonded over the heroic white guys she loved on film and TV, mostly from westerns. Just this past December, as she was fighting cancer and months before she would succumb to an infection, we sat and watched Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall save the day too many times to count.

As I got older, I’d make fun of all the misogyny, racism and white centering going on in these shows – gibes which my mother, a proud Black woman who loved her people and culture, tolerated with a weary smile. “These are my guys,” she’d say playfully, swatting aside any idea that there was a deeper impact from gorging on stories which treated these virtuous white men as the noble, natural center of every story. I wish the issue were that simple; it often isn’t.

For me, it wasn’t just a problem with Connery. As a kid, I loved Eastwood’s 1970s-era Dirty Harry movies, where the taciturn cop with a Magnum pistol cut through all the nonsense to nab the bad guy. Same with Bronson’s Death Wish films, where the solution to rampant street crime wasn’t better policing, but a taciturn, middle class white guy with a gun shooting down street criminals. It’s a potent fantasy, especially if you’ve ever had to deal with the numbing bureaucracy of real-life law enforcement or the brutal violation of being a crime victim.

It wasn’t until I got older that I realized many of those bad guys Harry Callahan was hunting were young hippies and Black people – the kind of folks who, in real life when Dirty Harry was released in 1971, were trying to get America to face how it was chewing up poor, young men in an unwinnable, unnecessary war in Vietnam. It was a prime example of “copaganda” – convincing the audience that the excesses Detective Callahan committed to nail a person the audience already knew was a serial killer, was justified.

Even now, I wonder: Can I watch these movies and appreciate why they are thrilling, while rejecting the tropes that present a white male-centered world as just and appropriate? In my work on race and media, I’m often telling audiences that people who insist they are not affected by media subtexts are often the most affected by them. Couldn’t that be true for me, when it comes to heroes like Eastwood, Bronson and Connery?

(One caveat: Sitting in an arena in Tampa, watching Eastwood give his infamously strange “empty chair” speech at the Republican National Convention in 2012, broke me of my affection for his work. I have avoided watching new Clint Eastwood films since then. Click here to read my report on the empty chair speech for the Tampa Bay Times.)

In his later years, Connery denied or walked back quotes where he seemed to approve of physically hitting women in real life. His roles in films like Highlander, The Untouchables, Hunt for Red October, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen often featured him playing the older mentor to younger white guy heroes portrayed by the likes of Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Costner.

And so, as the question of Connery’s legacy in show business arises, the fanboy part of me is at war with the media critic. One side of me is lost in the absolute coolness of the suave masculinity he so often symbolized, particularly as the world’s most successful secret agent.

The other is painfully aware of the inequalities and oppression such portrayals enabled, and how much they may feed our real life fantasies for a powerful white male savior to set things right, even now. 

Especially now.

And saying these characters were a product of their flawed times somehow doesn’t seem enough.

This is a tough column to write, and not just because there are so many fans who want to focus on the best moments of Sean Connery’s life now that he’s gone. It’s difficult because he was a personal hero of mine for a long while – and remains one of my favorite performers – even as I acknowledge the terribly male-centric and white-superior ethos he embodied in so many roles.

This may sound like disrespectful nitpicking to hardcore fans and family. It’s never easy to sit with the more uncomfortable aspects of a great artist’s legacy. And the time after his death has been filled with heartfelt tributes to Connery, a man of great talent and no-nonsense sensibilities who was respected and loved by a great many people who worked with him.

Sometimes the media critic’s job requires being a buzzkill; insisting the public pay attention to troubling aspects of a film or TV show that we would all just rather sit back and enjoy. Because part of unwinding the effect of past portrayals is acknowledging their power in the present day.

Which means, every time I watch Connery stride to a baccarat table in Goldfinger, Dr. No, or Diamonds Are Forever, archly demanding a precisely constructed alcoholic beverage, I also have to remind myself of the damage done by too many characters like that offering too constricted a vision of what a hero looks and acts like. And I suggest you do the same.

It's the only way to balance a comforting myth with the reality of how that legend can, unwittingly, teach us to cling to ideas that ultimately hold us back.      

#james bond #sean connery #race #pop culture

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

Day #35: You Belong With Me

This is the last one before the epilogue. I had fun writing this piece of insanity. Goodbye boys.

—————————

As Crosshair kept smiling at the pure insanity that was Korkie’s life story, he can’t wait for them to be part of his future wedding. Crosshair said there was no way they would have a large one since Korkie’s not a Kryze anymore, but they would still have the family members that meant something to them. Though, he knows Obi-Wan wasn’t going to be there. It might be bittersweet that Korkie was never going to be given away by his blood family, but at least Nanny Rana was going to be there.

“So Obi-Wan is alive?” Echo asked. “He didn’t die at the temple?”

“He’s alive,” Korkie said. “But he’s in hiding. For what maybe the rest of his life.”

“Sorry about that then,” Tech said. “I’m not knowledgeable when it comes to Mandalorian House weddings, but I guess you don’t have a parent to give you away during the wedding?”

“Not at all. Yet, I did have a nanny. She’ll be happy to substitute for my parents.”

“Well Crosshair doesn’t have parents!” Wrecker pointed out. “We’re all clone and Prime never saw us as sons.”

“What about Hunter?” Fennec asked. “I mean, Hunter is your leader and older brother.”

Every member of the Bad Batch looked at Fennec and then at Hunter. Technically, Echo was the oldest, but Hunter was always going to be Crosshair’s older vod. So that should be okay?

“I mean does it work?” Hunter asked. “We’ve never met royalty who wanted to marry one of us.”

“Well,” Korkie said. “It would work. My grandparents died before my mother or former aunt could get married. By technically, the person giving them away during a Kryze wedding would be the eldest Kryze no matter the rank.”

“Hunter,” Crosshair called. “You better wear the best clothes we can get. I’m not going to be given away by you in camouflage!”

Wrecker laughed as Hunter rolled his eyes. Tech started talking about a suit shop they saw earlier that might provide the best clothes. Echo countered it by saying the wedding would be months away. Crosshair kept eating his meal as Korkie and Fennec were talking about buying her a suit in case Bo-Katan crashed the wedding. Dinner was finished when Wrecker couldn’t eat anymore.

“You really got lucky Crosshair,” Wrecker said. “He’s a good cook.”

“I might not never understand the Force,” Crosshair replied. “But I’m grateful if it brought us together.”

“Speaking of the Force,” Tech said. “What is the ability that you’re good at Korkie?”

“Force visions,” Korkie answered. “Mostly telepathic abilities that lie whether or not it’s considered the Light Side or the Dark Side.”

“So you’re really not a Jedi,” Echo said. “Most Jedis look toward the Light Side.”

“Well, I wasn’t raised as a Jedi. I only learned to hone my abilities through my visions. Even then, I am still learning.”

“Was it your visions that brought you three to the bounty?” Hunter asked.

“Yes it was,” Crosshair replied. “We have the last fob. As in the reason those people cornered us.”

“We were late,” Echo said. “There was another cantina with a fob for the bounty.”

“We need the prize for the Marauder,” Hunter explained. “Most for some repairs.”

Crosshair smirked. “Wanna help? The prize might get us all the credits we need.”

“Are you sure? I know we’ve both apologized, but are you really sure?”

“That prize is too dangerous since multiple groups are going crazy for a fob. If we team up, then we might have a chance.”

Hunter smiled and took out his left hand. Crosshair shook on it and they all went back to their respective ships. Korkie and Crosshair retreated to their joint room while Fennec was going to sleep in the pilot’s seat.

“Was this the craziest way to meet with your brothers again?” Korkie asked.

“Could have been worse,” Crosshair replied. “But at least we’ll be a band of brothers again.”

“What about the ship?”

“Who said we only needed one? Tech and Wrecker are good pilots, but having back up would be nice. Besides, we haven’t used the ship’s blasters yet.”

Korkie laughed as they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Morning past and the Bad Batch met up with Crosshair, Korkie and Fennec at the entrance of a fortress. The fob went crazy as they got closer. Suddenly, a bunch of failed mercenaries got out when the doors opened. They looked like they went insane from the bounty. The Bad Batch and Crosshair’s group stood their ground and proceeded to enter the building.

It was bare and dark. Webs and dust littered the area as they walked in. Fennec used her scope to look for anything unusual while Tech analyze the area. So far, there was no threat. Then, Wrecker placed his foot on a tile. It triggered a trap that sent all of them underground. When they landed, Wrecker almost crushed Tech as Hunter and Echo avoided hitting each other. Fennec barrel rolled into Wrecker and Korkie barely had time to use the Force before Crosshair’s body hit him. Overall, everyone was okay.

The area they fell in only had a hallway with dimly lit fires and one door.

"I guess the real test is about to start," Korkie said. "By the way, I did use my visions last night, but it didn't seem to work."

"How in the world is that possible?" Echo asked.

"I have no idea. Maybe this place does not work with Seers?"

"We all might have to agree with that hypothesis," Tech said. "Force Seers are rarely written about due to their secrecy, and so no one really knows the full extent of their powers and the limits they have."

The group walked with caution towards a door. So far nothing was being triggered. If there was any trap, they were lucky. Hunter opened the door and a bunch of dust fell on the group. It wasn't poisoned from Tech's scan, but there was too much that make all of them cough. Or in Wrecker's case, sneeze like crazy.

"Makers bless you," Korkie said.

"Again, Crosshair," Wrecker sneezed. "Korkie's a keeper. He's nicer than you."

"I know," Crosshair coughed.

They kept going inside the room as the room got darker and dustier. It was beginning to make all of them feel claustrophobic as they kept walking, but Korkie used the Force to guide them to another room.

"How are you not afraid?" Fennec asked.

"I am," Korkie admitted. "But I have used Fear as a weapon, so I'm getting better in handling Fear as a weapon."

Korkie sensed another door and opened it. There was light and not much. The Bad Batch, Korkie and Fennec entered the room. Hunter suddenly went numb with a cold. Tech analyzed the room again and the scan went crazy.

"Something is wrong here," Tech announced. "I don't know what it is, but we need to be careful."

Korkie used the Force and screamed. He fell towards Crosshair who caught him.

"What happened?" Crosshair asked.

"It's so cold," Korkie replied. "There's a Force signal here, but it's so cold."

Crosshair hugged Korkie to warm him up. Korkie shook his head. It wasn't physical. It was using the Force. What ever the prize was, it was powerful enough to make entire groups of mercenaries run. Now, it was effecting both Hunter and Korkie to the point of weakened bodies.

Echo walked through the room with Wrecker and Fennec going with him. Tech stayed with Hunter who was panting in paused breaths as Korkie's breathing became colder as Crosshair kept hugging him.

The room exploded with light. Hunter screamed and Korkie writhe in pain. Hunter not have been Force sensitive, but he will always blame the Kamioans for making him hyper sensitive to everything. Korkie felt the anger and sadness of a Force being. It was angry that there were more people.

A figure of a female child came into view and pouted at them.

"Get away!" she screamed.

The child used the Force to push Echo and Fennec away, but Wrecker kept his ground and got Echo and Fennec back on their knees.

"Who are you?" Wrecker roared.

The child cried making Hunter and Korkie cry out in pain. They felt the child's sadness. Korkie looked at Crosshair to go to the child to end his pain.

"You're just another bad person!" the child cried. "Everyone wanted the treasure, but not the responsibility."

"If you tell us what responsibility you mean," Crosshair said. "Then can you stop hurting our family."

The child stopped crying. "You're a family?"

"We are. My name is Crosshair. The one who asked you first is my brother Wrecker. The ones you pushed are my brother Echo, and apprentice Fennec. The two in armor over there are my brothers Tech and Hunter, who you're hurting because he's sensitive. And the one I had to leave is my fiancee Korkie, who is like you, he also uses the Force and you're hurting so much it's hurting me too."

"How am I hurting you if you can't feel the Force?"

"Because I love him and we have a bond. And seeing the person I want to be with for the rest of my life is hurting me because I can't relieve his pain when he's done so much for me."

"I don't believe you!"

The child pushed him away from her. Once again Wrecker got to him and placed him safely on the ground. He was kneeling as Fennec went to his side.

"It's not going to work," Fennec said. "She is not happy."

Crosshair got up and walked back to her. He kneeled to her.

"I understand you're mad," he said. "Why?"

"I was taken away from my home," she cried. "By the time the man realized what he stole, it was too late. He placed me here for years and went back to bounty hunting. But, my people cursed him because I was a sacrifice. He died not opening any of his money and insane."

"I'm so sorry you died so young."

"I'm not dead. I'm just using the Force. I was sacrificed because I had it."

"Then, if you're not dead, can you be saved?"

"You wouldn't love me."

"But it's better to be freed than being a prisoner."

The little girl cried and faded away. Hunter and Korkie stopped being in pain. A wall opened in front of the group. Crosshair went back to Korkie to pick him up bridal style as Tech walked Hunter to the door. Wrecker opened the door and they all gasped.

There was treasure everywhere, and a dead body on a chair. Crosshair and Korkie wanted to find the girl and asked Tech for scanning. There was a secret door behind the treasure. Crosshair and Korkie opened it to find a small crib. There was a little baby who was crying. Korkie smiled and asked to be placed down. Crosshair obliged.

"She's so powerful," Korkie said as he cradled her.

"And she's been through do much," Crosshair said.

They looked at each other and agreed. They needed to take her away from this place and give her a better. It didn't matter if the child was highly different from them, no child deserved to live a harsh life. The group left the building with the child and whatever treasure they can take for them to live a good life.

At the Katalyst's bunk rooms, Korkie was too busy being a parent to their new crew mate that he didn't notice they had left the planet. The Havoc Marauder was next to the ship with Tech and Wrecker piloting.

"How's the child?" Tech asked through the ship's comm.

"Korkie's spoiling her," Crosshair said. "I think he won't let me handle her."

"Good luck raising a daughter," Hunter said.

Crosshair laughed. He did have a daughter now. Fennec was at Korkie's seat and smiled at him.

"Go to your future husband," she ordered.

Crosshair went to Korkie who was singing a lullaby to their new girl.

"She's perfect," Crosshair stated. "She looks like us. But with brown hair."

"She's from a alien species that doesn't grow up until they're a few years old," Korkie said. "But she's just five."

"Well, she's going to live an exciting life with us. Whether or not she's cursed."

"Oh no. She's not curse, it was the man who kidnapped her. This little one is perfectly fine by herself. Even if she never got a name."

"So she needs a name."

Korkie and Crosshair looked at each other and smiled. They looked at their new daughter with happiness.

"Welcome to the family, Sarad Katalyst."

#korkie kryze #korkie kenobi #crosshair #clone trooper crosshair #clone trooper hunter #clone trooper wrecker #clone trooper echo #clone trooper tech #fennec shand #hunter #tech #wrecker #echo #the bad batch #star wars

[dramastudent2021]

Making Performance 2 Blogs & Conclusion

Performance Overview

This American Life podcast autographically (mainly, aside from when they decipher Mrs Miller's letter) depicts a particular switched at birth story of the Miller's and McDonald's' daughters in Wisconsin, 1951. Our interpretation of the story's main themes/issues in which we are including: family (strongly family-orientated story, we see a journey of these two families brought together, but also how such a life-changing incident affects them individually and also as a family dynamic), relationships (permanently changing the bonds the family share etcetera. sibling relationships or parent/child relationships), community (both families express the importance of the involvement of being in a tight-knit Christian community. Many members of the church community suspect the switching of two daughters before the parents did. Lies/secrets (whether it is church members or the Miller family, some knew of the switch but kept it away from the women until they were told much later in life). Nature vs nurture (e.g. siblings Bob and Martha instantly connected, whereas Sue was raised with Bob but had opposite personalities, or when Sue was relieved for being brought up in the McDonald household instead of the Miller's because it was a different environment, etcetera). Betrayal (whether Mr and Mrs Miller's inability to speak out sooner on the situation, the Miller children, church community, or the hospital staff, they were blamed for not correcting the mistake sooner). Furthermore, favouritism (post-discovery of their switch, both Sue and Marti developed prominent insecurity in their relationships with the family they were brought up in, specifically, if they were going to be abandoned by their biological family member).

 In the beginning of the creative process, our group's creative vision for the performance was to initially decipher the switched at birth podcast in the category of events that happened within the story (Mrs Miller's letter, the Miller dinner party), potentially staging the piece where several characters are interviewed in 'present day' (for instance, Sue, Marti, Mrs Miller, and Mrs, McDonald) and having another version of these characters who re-enact present day's character's memories through visual flashbacks (some recorded, some live), we discussed the possibility of Mrs Miller's character writing or reading the letter in sections while flashbacks appear, our group mutually agreeing to wanting to captivating our audience's emotions through our themes (betrayal, relationships, etc), possibly showing the differences visually between both families (wearing contrasting colours, different lighting colours), involving the use of verbatim theatre by asking those closest to us what family means to them and quoting their response in our performance.  

 Some key dramaturgical decisions we made that led to creative breakthroughs/choices include: the back and white effect in our FlipGrids because not only did this help us to represent the era, but also later using this to differentiate the present to the compilation videos of the past, the layering of the distinctive audio (50s music, hospital sounds, etcetera) over visual/movement scenes, the use of some of our group's FlipGrid videos being trial runs/first attempts of some pre-recorded aspects (for example, in scene 1, specifically with the different colour bundled blankets for the audience to follow the babies being switched visually), the splitting of Mrs Miller's letter to the two women into sections so that the audience can see the progression of the story, and, additionally, the dinner scene and the creative changes in the true story (the emerging/changing the order of life events within the story) for dramatic effect within the performance.  

  Research

In a realistic scenario, the reality of having a child switched at birth with another infant is scarce. An article conducted in The Baltimore Sun in 1998 had reported that:'28,000 babies in every 4 million babies are switched at birth (some temporarily or permanently)' (Peterson, 2021). It equivalates to '1 mistake per every 1,000 baby transfers' (Gaille, 2017). During a short stay during a hospital (two days), an infant can be 'switched on average six times,' although the mistake is usually corrected before hospital staff hand over their infant. Between the years 1995 and 2008, 'only eight occurrences of baby switching were documented in the United States,' though such incidents were immediately corrected within hours or days of said mistake (Gaille, 2017).

 For switches that are not immediately corrected, legally, 'a hospital could be held liable under various theories including negligence, respondeat superior, res ispa loquitur, and negligent infliction of emotional distress' (Crane, 2000: 110). However, such liability 'only occurs if a patient suffers an actual injury' (Crane, 2000: 111). However, claims must be brought to court within 2-4 years (state-dependent) to avoid legal limitations.

 This American Life podcast delves deep into a particular switched at birth story of the Miller's and McDonald's' daughters in Wisconsin, 1951. Frequently referred to as the baby boomer generation, the 1950s was a decade and recovery and preparation for another war (Cold War). The societal norms of domesticity in the 1950s believed that 'marriage celebrated traditional gender roles' (Dorr, 2008: 27-48) in which 'women should be homemakers and men should be breadwinners' (Wikipedia.com). Author of Woman's Work: The Housewife, Past, and Present, Ann Oakley, describes a housewife's role to be a 'demeaning one, consisting of monotonous, fragmented work which brought no financial remuneration, let alone any recognition (Oakley, 1975: 23). A middle-class housewife in the 1950s duties consisted of 'organising and maintaining a home that emphasised the male breadwinner's financial success' (Oakley, 1975: 23). Many household manuals and cookbooks were released in this period, such as Robert Kemp Philip's Why Domestic Science: Affording Intellectual Reasons for the Various Duties Which a Housewife Has to Perform (1869). This manual which detailed the 'scientific principles which bear upon the Housewife's duties; so that she may not only know that she should do a thing, but WHY she should do it, and, knowing why to perform it all the more effectively and willingly,' (Philip: 1869: III). This lifestyle was a 'sought-after desire' (Gueren, 2011: 23), and having a 'booming economy,' made this lifestyle possible. By the mid-50s, '40% of Americans were living in the suburbs with, on average, 3.8 children, two cars and two television sets' (Zhang, 2013). For many housewives, their aspirations for a sense of individuality outside of being housewives and mothers, although 'only 38% of women went to college in 1958 compared to 57% in 1920, despite the availability of more federal aid to pay for university education in post-war America,' (United States House of Representatives, 2007).

 The domesticity of the standard 1950s family had a heightened 'model of masculinity that involved submission to Christ' (Coontz, 2007: 1208), with the Miller and McDonald family being a prime example of this. An example in their switched at birth story is when Mrs Miller was forbidden on acting on her maternal intuition of returning to the hospital because she instinctively knew Martha was not her child. Her husband reprimanded her because he did not want to return his child and 'obscure' claims that his 'hormonal' wife was so adamant about the doctor who had gracefully allowed his wife to deliver their child in the safety of the hospital. Mrs Miller quickly dropped it because she did not want to anger her husband further (as she feared him leaving her with their six young children to care for) but also because she had a sudden haemorrhage a few days after bringing Martha home. This instance was a depiction of the accuracy of sociological studies, making it 'frighteningly clear how frequent male aggression was and, indeed, how normal, accepted and silenced it remained,' that unfortunately, the Miller family were a subsequent example of that (Dorr, 2008: 27-48). The sad reality that domestic violence has only been a point of discussion legally around the world from the 1990s onwards and before the late 20th century, 'most countries there was very little protection, in law or practice, against DV' (Smith, 2008: 94).

 For our group's switched at birth performance, the companies/artists heavily influenced the development performance being Frantic Assembly and Mike Leigh. Frantic Assembly's works influenced us to tell an audience an exciting story in an engaging way, which is the quality we want in our piece. Additionally, a trademark element of Frantic Assembly's works is their creation of movements within scenes/piece in general, and including the creation of exciting transactions between scenes, which are elements we are highly considering to include in our piece in some way when we begin devising the staging of our piece. Another artist who has influenced us is Mike Leigh, who focused primarily on character-based devising. It will be a helpful attribute to our group's piece to educate us on successfully embodying our allocated characters in our piece through the close observation of Leigh's work.

  Digital Performances  

The three digital performances I have selected are Tom Marshman's Shakesqueer (2021), Sharp Teeth's Sherlock in Homes (2021), and You Are Here or Home: Part 1 (2021). These digital performances were used for inspiration for different techniques and additional dramaturgical options for our performances. While watching Shakesqueer (2021), I observed the combination of pre-recorded videos and live theatre throughout the performance. In terms of this dramaturgical choice that Marshman made, created a distorted reality and a non-sensical dream-like state that, left to audience's interpretation, could represent a coming-out journey through the mind's way of distracting us (overthinking – worry, wonder, fear of the reactions of those close to them but also society as a whole) and the desire for acceptance. The collaboration of different art forms/features (someone drawing a sketch live and Zoom's spotlight feature) provides the moment of intimacy the performer(s) aspire to achieve with their audience. Marshman's signature movements of returning to the closet throughout this piece and bringing us along with him indicated him experimenting (change of clothes) with different individuals and still being metaphorically in the closet to everyone. In the broader context of the piece being related to Shakespeare, it gave the impression of the lack of representation Shakespeare showed within his plays and sonnets.

Sharp Teeth's Sherlock in Homes (2021) was a fun spin-off of the famous Sherlock Holmes detective that was highly interactive in multiple ways (frequent polls, personal engagement – allowing the audience to directly interrogate performers before they switch out of the breakout rooms). This dramaturgical aspect demonstrated a considerable perk to live digital theatre space because it feels more of an online group discussion than heckling from a few outgoing audience members within a traditional stage environment. The latter seems more socially unacceptable even when it is significantly encouraged. The performers' digital frame gave audiences potential clues in the interrogation the audience members partake in. Our group considered this in the process of our piece (illustrating more show, not tell).

Abbey Theatre's Home (2021) was a pre-recorded digital theatre piece that delved into the mistreatment unwed mothers and children faced in institutions under Catholic rule in Ireland. Home (2021) was produced using relatively dark imagery to possibly signify its dark colour story with the dark contents of the piece, but also to illustrate the seriousness and lack of joy this period brought to many during this time in history.

  Evaluation  

In the aftermath of our group performance, I had my own individual creative development progress grow expediently as a performer, maker, and director through the drastic improvement in my ability to vocalise feedback within a group based on what I work well what needs improvement within our performance. Within the developmental process of our performance, the areas that worked effectively in our group, such as teamwork, went massively in our favour that we worked exceptionally well in being on the same wavelength not to have any substantial contrasting ideas on the creative direction the performance would go down. Each group member had an excellent work ethic/morale through our dedication and productivity during rehearsals in trialling out ideas early on, asking for feedback when applicable. My encouragement to other team members to contribute verbally to the significant creative breakthroughs to give their input before proceeding with other developments. The developmental process of the performance also came with its flaws that would occasionally hinder the progression of the piece. Examples of this include communication/listening (acknowledging and addressing any problems/queries group members had) and the group's inability to plan and organise (issues with scheduling had last-minute changes to rehearsals, confusing rehearsal times due to them changing weekly). I often felt like a hindrance with my lack of technical skills (editing videos together seamlessly, layering audio tracks and music over the visuals) and with the written contribution sector of our piece (script) due to my learning difficulty of dyslexia (group vastly progressing through the writing of the script and would slow the process down so would continue to contribute as much as I could verbally instead).

 In hindsight, if I were to do the same piece/something closely resembling this performance, I would want to educate myself before this semester's work in gaining the technical skills required to edit effectively because our group had a lack of individuals who could edit so the video content that needed editing fell on those who could do so. An important reminder I had whilst making this piece was time management. Time management was notably an essential lesson as a contributing member of this piece because I would actively check with group members due to having a busy weekly schedule for rehearsals that were at different times weekly. In future projects, I plan on using what I have learned to keep an open dialogue with future group members to clarify any uncertainties I have, no matter how small/insignificant I feel they are.

 The FlipGrid videos I felt were the strongest (access code: 388469):

Flipgrid | 2021mp2a

Flipgrid | 2021mp2a

Flipgrid | 2021mp2a

Flipgrid | 2021mp2a

Flipgrid | 2021mp2a

These FlipGrids were the strongest because they illustrated very early on in our performance's developmental process of our style (black and white) and helped us to see (in the third person) if we kept or remove any dramaturgical decisions our group made by (literally) stepping out of the frame.

  Bibliography

This American Life (2008). 'Switched at Birth.' Available at: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/360/switched-at-birth (Accessed on: Friday 7th May 2021)

Peterson, A L (2021). 'Mom Knew She Brought the Wrong Baby Home From the Hospital; 43 Years Later She Finally Reveals it to Her Daughter.' Available at: https://www.familytoday.com/family/mom-knew-she-brought-the-wrong-baby-home-from-the-hospital-43-years-later-she-finally-reveals-it-to-her-daughter/ (Accessed on: Friday 7th May 2021)

Gaille, B (2021). '21 Rare Babies Switched at Birth.' Available at: https://brandongaille.com/20-babies-switched-at-birth-statistics/ (Accessed on: Friday 7th May 2021)

Crane, R T (2000) 'Mistaken Baby Switches: An Analysis of Hospital Liability and Resulting Custody Issues'. Journal of Legal Medicine. Vol. 21, Issue 1 (March, 1), p. 109-124. DOI: 10.1080/019476400272828. Accessed on: Friday 7th May 2021

Gueren, C (2011). 'Identical Strangers: What Switched-at-Birth Twins Teach Us About Human Nature’. Psychology Today. Vol 44, Issue 5 (Sept-Oct), p. 23

Philip, R K (1869). 'The Reason Why Domestic Science: Affording Intellectual Reasons for the Various Duties Which a Housewife Has to Perform.' London: Houlston & Wright. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433006783413 (Accessed on: Thursday 13th May 2021)

Zhang, L (2013). 'The Pill: Birth of a New Woman.' Available at: https://archive.ph/20130105104848/http:/93778645.nhd.weebly.com/the-1950s.html (Accessed on: Thursday 13th May 2021)

Oakley, A (1975). 'Women's Work: The Housewife, Past, and Present.' New York: Pantheon Books. Available at: Woman's work : the housewife, past and present : Oakley, Ann : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (Accessed on: Thursday 13th May 2021)

United States House of Representatives (2007). 'Postwar Gender Roles and Women in American Politics. Available at: https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/Changing-Guard/Identity/ (Accessed on: Sunday 9th May 2021)

Smith, B G (2008) 'Domestic Violence: Overview'. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Oxford England New York: Oxford University Press, p. 94 (Accessed on: Sunday 9th May 2021)

Coontz, S (2007) 'Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s James Gilbert'. The American Historical Review, Vol 112, Issue 4 (Accessed on: Sunday 9th May 2021)

Dorr L L (2008). 'The Perils of the Back Seat: Date Rape, Race and Gender in 1950s America.' Gender & History, Vol 20, Issue 1, pp, 27-48.

Wikipedia (2021). History of Women in the United States. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_women_in_the_United_States (Accessed on: Sunday 9th May 2021)

Marshman, T (2021). 'Shakesqueer' (Accessed on: Thursday 4th March 2021)

Sharp Teeth (2021). 'Sherlock in Homes' (Accessed on: Saturday 27th February 2021)

Abbey Theatre (2021). Home: Part One. Available at: Abbey Theatre | HOME Part One | Full Performance - YouTube (Accessed on: Monday 10th May 2021)

[fiercestpurpose]

hi u talked about how jean often gets overlooked as a mother, would u be willing to talk more about it? its really curious to me how scott is often associated with the role of 'father' and his relationships with nathan and rachel, how he 'failed them etc, gets talked about to death but people dont talk about jeans as much. anyways would love to hear what u have to say!

Hi! I really have three main categories of thoughts about this: Jean’s relationship with Rachel, Jean’s relationship with Cable, and Jean’s relationship with the idea of family/her own motherhood.

Jean’s relationship with Rachel is… complicated. First of all, Jean is incredibly important in Rachel’s life, but it’s not always our (616) Jean. Rachel is obviously the biological daughter of another woman, 811 Jean, and that woman raised her and was her mother until she died when Rachel was about 8 (well before the rest of Rachel’s X-Men did). Losing a parent that young is frequently very traumatic and defining, and it certainly was for Rachel, so she develops this relationship that is not so much with Jean as it is with Jean’s death. She comes to the 616 and she learns that Jean is already dead, and she vows to reclaim the name Phoenix and honour her mother’s memory (even though 616 Jean is not really her mother). And then, at least twice during the Cross-Time Caper, Rachel has to watch different universe’s versions of Jean die, trying and failing to save her. So Rachel has this whole relationship with Jean as a concept, with Jean dying and leaving her, before she and 616 Jean ever develop a real relationship with each other.

And sometimes, people (fans and writers both) use Rachel’s preexisting relationship with Jean As A Conceptual Mother as evidence that 616 Jean doesn’t really count as Rachel’s mother. However, 616 Jean and Rachel do have a relationship. It starts with Jean rejecting Rachel, denouncing her because she doesn’t accept the future that Rachel represents and doesn’t want to consider her as her daughter. She later apologizes for this, saying that she shouldn’t have pushed her problems onto Rachel because they weren’t Rachel’s problems to deal with. And we see them hug and make up and it’s clear that they consider each other family.

That relationship, the daughter viewing her mother as a concept more than a person, the mother pushing her problems onto the daughter and trying not to accept the future that she thinks the daughter represents, reads to me as a very believable mother-daughter relationship. The circumstances are a little strange, but the emotions are familiar. Many children have a hard time adjusting to seeing their parents as their own people. Many parents have a hard time recognizing their grown children as being their own people and also their children. It’s a very complex relationship that’s certainly worth exploring, and referencing it only when they want to make a joke of it (as X-Men Gold and All-New X-Men both did) is a sign of writers who are not really invested in the emotional lives of those characters.

Onto Cable! In some ways, Jean’s relationship with him is a lot simpler because he is actually and inarguably her child. To be clear, she’s not his biological mother, and we’re going to put her blood relationship to his biological mother aside because it’s not actually that important. Jean is his mother because she raised him. In X-Factor vol 1, she becomes one of his primary caregivers once his mother is out of the picture, largely because she is dating his father at the time. (I’m not going to get into the whole Sinister-creating-Maddy-to-breed-with-Scott thing or the Maddy-living-in-Jean’s-head thing. It’s messy and it complicates things, but it doesn’t change the basic facts of Jean’s situation.) Jean in X-Factor is a co-parent with a day job, a woman who’s responsible for feeding the baby and changing his diapers and helping teach him how to walk and talk and keeping him safe from harm (that time she takes him into a fight excluded, of course). The first manifestation of baby Christopher’s psychic powers is that he and Jean share a special telepathic bond. It’s hard to tell how long this goes on for (comic timelines are, as always, vague and difficult to pin down), but it’s at least several months.

After Simonson’s run on X-Factor, baby Christopher is removed from the picture by being sent off to the far-future — only to be raised by Slym and Redd, who are, of course, Scott and Jean. As a Scott fan, a Jean fan, and a Scott/Jean fan, I’m always surprised and frustrated by how little The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix gets referenced. This is years of their lives that they spend raising their son. Specifically, twelve years, which is quite a long time, and means that Cable is probably 13 by the time Slym and Redd have to leave. Redd is the mother that Cable remembers when he grows up. She’s the one who rocks him to sleep, who negotiates with his father about how to properly raise their son, who does everything in her power to protect him while continuing to participate in a secret rebel organization. And the telepathic connection he had to her resurfaces, so that they are able to fight together on the astral plane.

(If you ever want to cry about Scott/Jean or Cable’s childhood or the Summers family in general, I highly recommend The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix. I will forgive Lobdell any number of crimes because he gave us such an excellent miniseries.)

But she isn’t just there during his childhood. Jean has a relationship with her adult son as well. They work together as X-Men many times, before and after she realizes that he is her son. Of course, there are those incredibly cute panels you may have seen of Scott and Jean and Cable all getting together to celebrate Christmas. And after the defeat of Apocalypse, when Scott is believed to be dead, Jean and Cable become especially close. It is Jean that Cable confides in, sharing with her his feelings, his loss of purpose now that his war is over, how hard it is for him to be vulnerable again. And when Jean thinks Scott is still alive but no one else believes her, Cable is the one who comes with her and helps her bring him back. Unfortunately, post-Search for Cyclops, Morrison comes in, and Morrison has no interest in love or families and does have an interest in killing Jean off to further his ship.

Prime Cable is dead now, of course, so I cannot hope that writers will explore that relationship any further. (EDIT: Oh, yeah, he maybe sort of came back again in a comic last month. Clearly that shocking turn of events made a big impression on me.) I did enjoy getting to see Jean and Hope bond after his death over the love they shared for him, and I can wish that the writers will carry that relationship forward. As for Bable (baby Cable), he’s an angry teenager who experienced the events of The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix #4 about three or four years ago. He’s angry, he’s upset, he’s lashing out by killing his future self. There could be something really interesting there, in Jean’s relationship with Bable, if they chose to remember that he’s still the kid she raised. Her place as the mother of a rebellious teenager is complicated because he’s both the boy who brought her husband back to life and the boy who killed the adult son that she loved. If writers looked past the soap opera of it all to actually acknowledge the emotions involved, they’d see there was an interesting story there, one that is not just about the Scott/Cable relationship but necessarily involves Jean as well.

I’m sure there are things to be said about Stryfe and Nate Grey, but I honestly do not know or care enough about alternate versions of Cable to really have a coherent picture of Jean’s relationship with them, so I’m gonna skip that.

Next, I want to talk about Jean’s relationship with the concept of family. I would like to mention (as I always do), that Jean’s entire family — her parents, her siblings, and her siblings’ children — were murdered by aliens. How she feels about this is a mystery, as the comics have not addressed it at all, but she might feel guilty, because though it’s not her fault, they were killed because of her. She might also feel guilty because while family in the abstract is very important to her, her relationship with them was strained and she wasn’t as close to them as she’d like to be. She might also feel angry as hell that somebody decided to murder her family despite them doing absolutely nothing to provoke it. Any of those emotional responses would influence how she relates to her children and her granddaughter. Maybe she becomes a little more attached and attentive because she has no other family left. Maybe she distances herself from them out of grief. Maybe she rounds up her incredibly angry son and takes him into the stars to attack aliens so they can be angry together. I think any of those, done properly, could be interesting and in-character for her, and I just want some writer to acknowledge Jean as a character with her own history and her own relationships that shape her actions.

Finally, Jean’s relationship with the concept of her own motherhood. Jean is someone who wanted and expected to be a mother. I usually tend to read Jean as coming from a more traditional and conservative family, but I don’t think that’s an adequate explanation. I think Jean genuinely wants children. In X-Factor, she says, “I always thought we’d have a girl,” when talking to Scott, showing that she had thought about children being part of their future. When she talks to Rachel about her upcoming marriage to Scott, she mentions that she thinks it likely that another Rachel will be born. She wants kids, she’s seen them as part of her future for a long time, and then she got them! She got to be a mother, to Nathan Christopher and to Rachel, as explained above. I think a woman who wanted to be a mother and now is a mother should be allowed to have real relationships with her children. This isn’t like Emma, whose distance from the Cuckoos can be read as her viewing herself more as their teacher than their mother, since Emma always understands herself as a teacher. When Jean holds a baby in X-Men Red and winks at the mother and tells her that she’s implanted a psychic suggestion he not cry so much, that’s because Jean has been responsible for a baby before. Being a mother is part of who Jean is, just like it’s part of who Jubilee is or who Sue is, and I wish that writers and fans understood that.

#Do I have thoughts about Jean? Oh boy do I! #jean grey #rachel grey #x men blogging #asks #Anonymous #long post for ts #ch: heart and soul #ch: mind and will #cable

[alvaar-aldaviir]

Wondrous Tails: Listening to Music / Polyamory Discussion

This is going to be my last official prompt entry for the Wondrous Tails of FFXIV event. It's been an absolute blast, and I suppose no better way then to cap it off on a dual prompt my bingo board just gave me. With my Bard. And the weird road he's taken to get here.

  Time Frame: Post Canon (years after Shadowbringers) Very minimal spoilers.

Notes: All characters are aged up. Mentioned possible poly relationship between my WoL and the twins. No, there won't be incest, ship what you like but I still don't think it fits the twins' personalities.

Also I have no idea how I keep writing from Alisaie's perspective but it keeps happening and I'm not even going to argue at this point.

  Her brother was hopeless in matters of love. It was something Alisaie had long known about him, especially after having to endure the misplaced affections of several of his numerous crushes in the Studium. But watching him around Alvaar was borderline painful by proxy at times.

She’d thought it odd, the way he had immediately excused himself from the lavish hall of the Canopy as soon as Alvaar had taken up his harp and the amused snort the Bard made as he left. Yet another inside joke between them it seemed, and again one she hadn’t the faintest what it meant.

Having heard Alvaar’s music many times before she knew it wasn’t that he was terrible. In fact, his cheeky quip of being a ‘Bard of Bards’ sounded fairly accurate as she’d seldom met anyone rivaling the pull and sway of that skilled tenor and accompanying harp. Music hadn’t been any form of her specialty or interest in her studies, but she knew enough to tell when someone was good. Hells any random passerby who stopped in could tell that he was exceptional. A fair few had even found a seat and ordered food and drink to enjoy while they waited out yet another of Gridania’s torrential downpours.

Perhaps it was given his long years as a Bard of battle, raising voice and lyre to inspire and weave bolstering magic with his allies, which lent a persuasive pull to his songs. There was a... sincerity, she supposed. Buried deep in every tune ringing off strings and lyrics resonating in his voice. Age old stories and memories wrapped up in each song and if she closed her eyes it was almost as if she could see them herself.

Far off battles for ancient kingdoms. The journey and trials of heroes. The giddiness of a wild flight through open skies. The sorrow and determination of a Queen of ice.

And though there was no trace of Bardsong in his movements, no telltale hum of potent resonance as he wove supportive spells, she could vaguely read a subtle shift of aether. Not enough to invoke anything, but there nonetheless, shifting about him as if charmed by his song.

It explained a great deal she supposed, if his regular singing could tune and prime surrounding aether. Several of his clever tricks and impressive feats in their adventures made more sense if that were the case.

But even if she enjoyed his songs, it wasn’t in her nature to sit idle while the sun was still up. Rising to her feet after an hour she made for the door. A bit of rain didn’t mean she couldn’t explore the indoor market space or perhaps brush up a few skills in one of the practice yards.

It was just as she was clearing the door that a familiar shock of white caught her periphery, surprised to find her twin on the porch still, seated against the corner of the building and sketchbook on his lap. For a moment she pondered leaving him be before discarding the notion. What was the fun of that? Much more interesting to find if he would be too absorbed in his work to notice her approach when she doubled back to try the south exit and creep up over his shoulder that way.

“From memory, dear brother?” she asked abruptly as she studied his half-finished drawing, smirking as Alphinaud startled and almost dropped his charcoal stick. And even if he quickly and quite huffily clapped the book closed, they both knew the damage was done.

“Invasive as ever, dear sister,” he returned flatly.

“You know Alvaar would likely hold still for a portrait if you asked,” she commented lightly, leaning against the corner wall, and crossing her arms over her chest with a smug air.

“It’s just practice,” he murmured. “Nothing I would need him specifically for.”

“Mmm. So why, if I may ask, are you seated out here, in less than ideal conditions, sketching pictures of a man who’s been sitting fairly still and inside with better lighting?” she inquired.

“I like the peace and quiet actually, and ordinarily the privacy, but it seems rather lacking in it today,” he clipped back.

“Funny, I can still hear Alvaar just fine from here. Almost uncannily so...”

At that he merely shook his head and stared out over the lake the Roost overlooked, expression pensive and clearly not in the mood for their usual banter.

“... You should tell him you love him,” Alisaie stated after a moment, glancing down to meet his surprised stare. “Oh please... I’m your twin. I know you’ve been enamored with him longer than I have whether you want to admit it or not.”

A soft noise left his throat, trying for words and clearly meaning to protest before breathing out a heavy sigh and his shoulders slumping in defeat. It was probably one of the most miserable looks she’d seen on him in some time, and the notion of it grated on her nerves far more than she liked.

“And to what end?” he asked quietly. “I’ve no interest in hazarding the bonds we’ve built and driving a wedge between you and I, Alisaie. He seems quite taken with you, so I’ve no wish to jeopardize that for my own self-interest.”

“We’re casual. There’s nothing there for you to jeopardize,” the Red Mage answered simply.

“But you wish there were,” he returned promptly, meeting her gaze with a moment of resigned and knowing maturity.

It was enough to still her reflexive scoff and the lie that wanted to spring from her tongue. Damn it. Even after all these years he still had those moments of being infuriatingly mature. “... I do,” she answered.

“Then I’m not about to hazard that,” he stated firmly.

Sighing deeply, she lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose a moment. “Alphinaud... just because we’re minutes apart does not make me a child needing to be coddled from the world. Don’t sacrifice your own happiness because you believe mine more deserving. I’m a grown woman, I will be able to handle whatever he may choose.”

Silence filled the space between them, only accented by the hiss of rain and distant hum of harp and voice. Brow knitting in irritation as her brother continued to stay mired in his thoughts with no sign of changing his mind, she blew out a slow sigh for patience.

“Who’s to say he picks either of us anyway? .... Who’s to say he won’t pick us both?” she tosses out flippantly.

“Begging your pardon?!” Alphinaud blustered, staring at her in stupefied surprise.

Giving a one-armed shrug she gestured vaguely with her other hand. “I’m just saying that historically, things tend to work out where Alvaar is concerned. You never quite know how they will until they do, but neither will you find out just sitting around being miserable. And I’m not about to thank you for martyring your own feelings on my behalf, Alphinaud. You’re my brother. My twin. The one constant I can count on if no one else. If the world threatening to end several times hasn’t managed to change that, what makes you think the Warrior of Light could either?”

Glancing at him and the sincere surprise and sentiment in his eyes she looked away with a huff, resettling her stance to ease some of the embarrassment she was feeling.

“Do you mean that?” he asked softly.

“Of course I do and you know it. ... Besides, we’ve shared everything else most of our lives. If we could manage to handle sharing Angelo growing up, I think we could manage this too,” she reasoned casually.

“A dog is a far cry from a mutual boyfriend, Alisaie,” Alphinaud mumbled, face staining a bit red even just speaking of it.

“Well it would certainly make a more sensible reason for sharing the same house now wouldn’t it?” she teased, flashing him a grin at the inside joke.

Blinking at her in puzzlement for a moment, he finally gave a soft chuckle when it clicked. “You still remember that? Gods that was... over a decade ago now I think,” he mused tapping at his chin with a knuckle in thought.

“Of course. And I’m still just as intent on spiting that old bat now as I was then,” Alisaie confirmed.

She could still remember with perfect clarity the words Alphinaud had thrown back at their first instructor. An overly prim and proper Roegadyn woman who had picked and pried at them during and after lessons for always being together. ‘What will you do when you’re grown and married?’ she’d challenged them one day, haughty toned and dismissive as she’d stared down at them. ‘We’ll all live in the same house together of course!’ he’d shot back angrily, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world. Because at the time, and to them, it was.

If they weren’t meant to be together, two sides of a coin, why be born twins at all?

Giving an amused snort at the memory she pushed herself upright fully and stretched. “Maybe we can get another dog too. That would be nice.”

“You’re serious?” Alphinaud asked, tone still wary with disbelief.

“Sure. If you pay for it, I may even let you name it this time.”

“Not about the dog, Alisaie,” he sighed, ruffling his hair in exasperation. “You know what I meant.”

“I meant what I said Alphinaud. If you can be fine with whatever outcome happens, I can be fine with it to. If he picks you, or me, neither of us, or even both of us. It won’t change anything between us,” she answered firmly. “But if you don’t tell him because you’re worried about me, I’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

Sitting back against the wall, the Scholar made a slight face at the threat before he looked thoughtful instead of withdrawn. “I’ll... consider it.”

That was progress of some form at least she supposed, and that would have to do for now.

“Very well! But note I do demand payment for my invaluable advice,” she intoned haughtily, drawing herself up grandly before striding away. “Finish up that portrait and leave it in my inn room before sundown and I’ll waive my travel expenses too. If you need me, I’ll be in the markets.”

She didn’t need to look back to know the put-upon expression he’d be making. Just as she knew that half-finished picture of the Bard would be complete and on her bedside table when she retired to it.

    “Hey Ali!” Alvaar greeted her cheerily, face flushed from liquor and a slight slur on his words. He was sitting at a table when she arrived back to the Roost during sunset, leaned heavily against the furniture and various bottles littering around him.

“What did you do?” she asked flatly, hands settling on her hips as she surveyed the scene disapprovingly.

“Nothin! Just... playin and singin and need booze fer my throat,” he chirped, smiling brightly.

“And about drunk off your arse. Come on, let’s get you to bed, it’s getting late.” Stepping closer she moved to help him up but stopped when he pressed a hand to her arm and held fast.

“Nah... ahm good. Dun worry bout me,” he soothed, smiling warmly. “Help will be along soon. Always does when I stop playin.”

Raising a brow at him, she sighed and opted to humor him. While she could certainly haul him to bed with the wiry strength she’d gained with her growth spurt and years of Red Mage training, trying to force Alvaar into anything when he didn’t want to was a recipe for failure. And bruises, as she’d learned once before on accident.

Grabbing up the empty bottles she took them to the counter for disposal, perking up at Alvaar’s next enthusiastic greeting while the proprietress made off with the bottles.

“Hey Alphi!”

Turning to watch her brother finally make his appearance from the stairs, she stayed put at the bar and waited. Noting the way Alvaar brightened in that quiet way of his, nodding and answering whatever questions Alphinaud had for him. The way her twin’s expression softened with a lovesick fondness even as he fretted over the Bard gently while Alvaar leaned into him for support instead of the table.

A few years ago, she’d spotted the easy trust between them. How they could speak without words almost as well as Alphinaud and she could. The confidence in each other and way they both eased when together. It had been an alien feeling, vexing in a way she couldn’t describe. Half worried she was losing her brother, and half convinced the flame of a crush she’d held for Alvaar was already a lost cause.

In some way she still worried, but if the many years fighting side by side against the threats of Source and Shards alike hadn’t diminished any of the bonds between them and only managed to strengthen them instead, she told herself there was little reason to pay it much mind.

“Ah, that’s a sight I haven’t seen in some time,” the Elezen woman behind the counter remarked softly, drawing Alisaie’s attention for a moment. She was an almost plain woman, with cropped ashen brown hair and simple dress, but the air of gentle confidence and friendliness was refreshing in a city that tended to huff at outsiders.

“A few years ago it would be almost weekly they would be here, Alvaar entertaining my patrons until he could barely stand, and young Alphinaud finally swooping in to see him off to bed like clockwork,” she mused aloud as if to no one in particular. “Alvaar used to get so sad when he played late into the night after he went to Ishgard. It was as if the sound of a broken heart was on those strings. It’s so nice that his music has its joy again.”

Blinking at her quietly for a moment, she looked back at the pair with a small nod. “Yea, it is,” she murmured.

“And they’ve grown up so much over the years too. Why, I remember when Alphinaud was still almost elbow height! And he used to boss our poor Bard around all the time and Taelis would get so furious with him he’d stomp out at all hours of the day. Of course, at the time Alvaar barely said a word so it was definitely on his behalf… It took Alvaar so long to come out of his shell from when he first arrived here, a fresh young Adventurer looking to help people. Oh, but then there was that nasty rumor in Ul’dah that had them both taking refuge here years ago… and then a few months after that Miss Y’shtola was recovering in one of our suites. They must have been sitting out here together until almost dawn waiting for her to wake up. They’ve been through here so much I almost can’t remember all the tales I’ve heard accompanying each visit...” she mused aloud, voice cheerful as she spoke of days long past.

There were a few beats of pointed silence that stretched between them, both watching silently as Alphinaud gathered Alvaar’s things for him and pressed the Bards harp into his hands so it could be dismissed dutifully.

“They love each other very much I think,” the proprietress mused aloud. “You can see it plain as day in how they look at each other.”

Feeling her heart sink at the ease of that statement and the truth in it, Alisaie looked away, starting to move before the woman spoke again.

“I wonder what adventures he must share with you, Alisaie, for him to look at you so lovingly as well.”

Turning abruptly to stare at her in surprise, she tried for words a moment and only managed a flustered, “W-how?”

Smiling at her kindly the woman raised a finger up with a gesture of confident intuition. “A Mother knows many things. She can always tell when one of her children is so genuinely in love.” Looking back at the pair fondly she continued. “I have always dearly wished for the happiness of the many adventurers and aspiring heroes who have found their way through these doors. So please, I ask you and Alphinaud both to take care of one of my dearest sons, as I know he will take care of you.”

Studying the gentle and proud demeanor of the woman in puzzlement, she was interrupted from whatever she might have said in reply by a loud cry of, “Ali!”

Looking over she noted her brother’s quiet amusement as Alvaar waved at her energetically in his liquor fueled excitement.

“Come on time for bed! I’m not going without you I told Alphi so!” Alvaar announced loudly, shifting his stance needlessly given the Scholar was mostly holding him up at this point anyway.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she called, casting a glance at the proprietress who still smiled at her fondly. Unable to think of anything to say she offered a nod, quickly making tracks as Alvaar whined her name again. Sweeping up under Alvaar’s other arm, she helped Alphinaud to carry his weight towards the suites. “Come on you, that’s enough yelling. Let’s get you to bed,” she chided.

“Okay!” the Bard chirped overly loud again. “Goodnight Mother Miounne!”

“Goodnight Alvaar! Pleasant dreams!” Miounne called fondly, watching the three make their way off to the stairs.

“Yes, you’ve all made Mother very proud indeed,” she murmured to herself fondly.

#alisaie #alisaie leveilleur #alphinaud #alphinaud leveilleur #alvaar aldaviir #wondrous tails #wondrous tails of ffxiv #ff14 #ffxiv #final fantasy 14 #wol #poly ship #writing #mywriting #sfw #oc #alphinaud x wol #alisaie x wol #mother miounne #yea... I remember who she is you think Alvaar doesn't fill her in on everything? #OF COURSE HE DOES HES A GOOD BOY

[kagebros]

Rain (Optimus Prime x Reader)

Summary: It rains during the middle of the night and you go out to cover Optimus to keep him from getting wet. Instead you get wet and have a conversation with him you’ve wanted to avoid for a while.  Warnings: N/A Word Count: 1895

Tags: N/A

It came unexpectedly. Like all weather did. Thunder rumbled above with a powerful rattle, jolting you awake from your sleep. A quick glance at your nightstand told you it was 2:00am. You frown for a moment before your attention is turned towards the window, rain pattering against the glass. 

It’s a sound you’ve come to welcome with open arms and you had to stop yourself from falling asleep to this new lullaby. Lightning struck in front of your window and you sat up in your bed fully this time, realising who was stuck outside in this torrential downpour. You bound out of your bed, running down the stairs to the garage, pressing the button to where the garage door automatically folded itself up. You ran out with no shoes, grabbing the largest tarp you could find before running up to the red and blue semitruck parked in your driveway. You unfolded it, its large expanse spreading and you did your best to pull the tarp over the semitruck, luckily being able to cover him entirely before he got too wet.

“What are you doing?” a deep voice rumbled from the semitruck, sounding like he was just coming out of recharge, especially since a large plastic cover was being pulled over him like a blanket just earlier. He then shifted out of his altmode, holding the tarp over him as rain hit the plastic. “May I ask… what this is?”

“It’s rain, Optimus,” you said, a soft smile graced your face as you looked up at him. You were drenched to the bone from the rain, water dripping down your hair in front of you but you didn’t exactly care. “Our planet releases moisture from the air built up in the atmosphere, since this planet has so much water it just goes up and comes back down every now and then,” you explained.

“Ah,” Optimus said in understanding. “If you were worried about me getting wet, you do not have to, (y/n), I have dealt with far worse. Water will not harm me.” He then noticed that you were starting to shiver, the cold from the rain starting to get to you. “You, on the other hand, seem to be reacting to the rain in a negative way,” Optimus pointed out. He then switched back to his altmode and opened the door to the driver’s seat. “Get in.” You got in, your soaked form sitting on the driver’s seat for a moment before you felt warmth radiating throughout the interior. Problem was you were still in soaking wet clothes.

“Hey, Optimus…” you started. “Is it alright if I take my clothes off? They’re pretty drenched and staying in them is only going to keep me cold,“ you said.

“If that is how you can warm yourself, then please do so,” Optimus said, a hint of worry in his voice. You slipped your shirt off and opened the door, wringing the shirt out under the little shelter the tarp had provided. You slid your pajama pants off to do the same before being left in your boxers that were luckily dry.

“Well, this isn’t how I wanted you to see me,” you laughed awkwardly. You then lied down on the bed behind the driver’s seat, still a little uncomfortable with the situation you were in.

“Is it inappropriate to show yourself like this?” Optimus asked. He was still learning about human culture and how everything worked after all, having landed on Earth just a year ago to rendezvous with Bumblebee. You’d found him in the forest by accident, taking a hike late into the night felt like a good idea to you at the time but then you caught sight of him. Walking in the forest like a gentle giant. You remembered how his optics glowed with a calming blue light as he looked at you, startled for having been seen and running off like he were a deer. Except he’d been easy to track and fairly slower. You called out for him to stop, your voice soft, feathery as it floated in the air. And to your surprise he did. And he has been your friend ever since.

“Humans would call what my current state is as indecent,” you explained. “We don’t like showing our bodies because  the fact that clothing helps shield us from the elements. Sunburn, the bitter cold of winter, at least in some countries, wind. That, and we’re a bit modest, we only really show our bodies to people who mean a lot to them.”

“Like you are to me now?” Optimus questioned. It was an innocent question and one of pure curiosity, after all he was trying to make sense of human culture. You cleared your throat for a moment and then laughed awkwardly once again, heat rising up to your cheeks, a pink tint obviously on them.

“Uh, no, this is just because the clothes I had weren’t waterproof and I don’t want to stay cold,” you replied hastily.

“Then I do not mean a lot to you,” Optimus said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. You felt bad. The disappointment wasn’t obvious but to your ears his voice was dripping with it. You wanted to tell him that he did mean a lot to you but you felt it’d deter him. Cause him to cut off contact with you, especially since Bumblebee, Optimus’ second in command as he told you earlier, had to leave someone close to him as well so as to make sure she was safe and stayed safe. And you knew Bumblebee loved her. Whoever this Charlie was.

Optimus was your friend, that was it. Yet he came back to you every now and then, sitting in your driveway as he recharged or to simply see if you were home. Sometimes he’d be gone for months and appear without any notice. Such attachments are folly, you’d tell yourself. What kind of freak would fall in love with a metal man? Oh yeah. You. But with Optimus, you felt safe. Safer than any other time you were with a man. Perhaps it was the chemicals in your brain that made you feel this way, influencing you to fall head over heels for this giant metal man.

You may not have known it earlier, when you saw him that day in the moonlight, walking among the forest creatures who were still struggling to get used to him. But something did hit your mind when you first saw him. Ethereal.

You came back from your thoughts, looking at Optimus with a sad smile. The last thing you wanted was to lose him.

“Humans tend to place romance above friendships,” you said. “But I know the bonds we make, no matter what it is, mean whoever that person is on the other end will mean the world to you.” Vague and philosophical. Always the best route for you to go when you couldn’t answer truthfully. Might as well sound wise when you lie. Optimus gave a thoughtful hum before falling silent.

“Then the bond you share with me,” Optimus started. “Does mean that I am something to you.” Shit. Well, nice deduction on his part.

“I...” you can’t think of a bullshit answer this time. “I can’t,” you finally said.

“What do you mean?” Optimus asked, he prodded further, attempting to find an answer he’d see fit. You didn’t answer for a while, trying to find the words to give him an answer he would have liked. Perhaps honesty was the best route to go. Lying again... no, he wouldn’t have liked that.

“I’m... afraid,” you finally said. You could feel Optimus shuffle for a moment before settling. “Afraid of what’ll happen if I... if I’m honest about my feelings towards you. Afraid of getting...” your voice grew quieter. “Close.”

“Why?” Optimus asked. You stared up at the roof of Optimus, feeling wherever his gaze was focused on you.

“I don’t, I don’t want you to leave me like everyone else has. I don’t want you to have to leave me like... Bumblebee had to.” This felt wrong. You were vulnerable to the very being you respected and looked up to. Literally and metaphorically. But what was any type of relationship without communication? You considered him a friend, someone you could trust, yet you closed yourself off at times like these because you were afraid. And you hated yourself for that. You let out a sigh and placed your hands behind your head, resting on the pillow below.

“(y/n),” Optimus’ voice then reverberated. He let out a sigh through the vents as if this were a conversation he knew was coming. “There is a reason why I always come back to you. Even after long periods of time.” He paused for a moment and if you could see his face, you could tell he was looking away in embarrassment. “I have found myself missing your presence. Something I haven’t learned to control after all these years of fighting.” You sat up now, sitting at the edge of the bed. You were afraid of loving him. Not because he’d be killed but because you knew the life he led was dangerous. And he’d do anything to keep you safe, keep you out of it. Even if it meant abandoning you. And you knew that. The conversations you had with him gave you an idea of how dangerous it was going to be if you stayed. That’s why Bumblebee had to leave Charlie. Even if he wanted her to come. Even if it meant putting her life in constant danger so he could have her in his life. You gripped the edge of the bed, knuckles turning white as thoughts raced through your mind. You couldn’t bring yourself to respond so you simply listened to the rain. The rain pattered on the tarp above you, your heart calming down as Optimus only listened for some response, not saying a word. You take a deep breath and suddenly feel exhausted. Oh right. It was 2:00am when it started raining.

“Maybe when it’s safe,” Optimus said in the darkness. “When this war is over, I’ll come back to you. And you won’t be afraid of losing me anymore.” He paused for a moment. “There’s a reason you risked lowering your body temperature to come out here and cover me, (y/n). Especially when it took time out of your recharge.” You don’t answer and sat in the dark for a moment before shifting to lie down on the bed again. Optimus heard your shuffling and the two of you stayed in silence for quite a while. When Optimus had thought you had fallen asleep, you finally spoke, quietly in the darkness, barely above a whisper, blending into the rain as it fell from above.

“I love you.”

The warmth from the vents that came from Optimus went on full blast for a few moments before going back to normal, heat enveloping you during those few moments. You don’t hear a verbal response from Optimus though so you turn on your side and shut your eyes, letting yourself fall asleep. Before you let unconsciousness take over, you heard the four words you’d been wanting to hear for a very long time. It’s quiet, gentle, and genuine.

“I love you, too.“

#x male reader #optimus prime x reader #transformers #short and sweet one shot idk #was always imagining that it either hailed or rained #and you just dash out to cover him up from it #ignoring the fact that you yourself get wet #takes place after the bumblebee movie btw!! #kagebros.writing

[edgarbright]

[ Zero's route | Part 24 spoilers ]

Oh my god, fam, oh my goodness

Don't expect this to be coherent but do expect it to be long because I'm  bursting with emotions right now

Spoiler mentions from Sirius and Edgar’s routes

THIS IS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED BUT NEVER EVEN EXPECTED TO HAVE. I didn’t know this was something I could even ASK for.

My five favorite guys teaming up for the battle at the top of the Magic Tower. ALL FIVE OF THEM, NO MORE, NO LESS!

I literally decorated my room like this months ago to make this image but never had reason to use it-- until now!

Before I jump into part 24, let's go back a few parts for a second! All the events building up to this battle were marvelous.

The themes for this route are all about saving, rescuing, helping, belonging, loving.

And the bonds of trust.

Lancelot saves Alice from the Magic Tower, from himself, by directing Edgar to change assignment orders and send Zero to "help" him. Lancelot trusts Zero so much that he trusted Zero to betray him. He trusted Zero to do the right thing.

MY HEART IS BURSTING WITH LOVE FOR MY KING! T_T

Zero saves Alice from Lancelot at the Magic Tower's front door. He promised to protect her. He wanted to protect her. So he threw away everything to do so.

Harr saves Alice from the forest. Harr is "repenting for his sins" in regards to Zero and wouldn't have made a move if Zero hadn't agreed to it. But Zero realized he had to trust him. More so, Zero may have vaguely remembered him (per His POV) and knew he could trust him.

Harr and Alice go to save Zero from the Magic Tower. Alice already trusts Harr. Fun fact: Alice is ALWAYS quick to trust Harr in every route. (Then again, she’s quick to trust just about anyone so lol) I loved that we got a moment at Harr’s house and finally met Loki! It was a sweet little family moment. My belief has always been that Zero is also part of Harr’s “family” too and I was not disappointed! Zero carrying on Harr’s lollipop kindness. My heart. T_T

I would love it if Edgar got his candy addiction from Zero giving him candy for the first time and then it just got out of control (lol). No evidence yet but the route isn’t over...!

The truth about Zero reveal: I had already surmised as much because too many people in this fandom hint at spoilers like it’s their job but it still hurt to read about. The flashbacks to Zero as a child in the Tower are honestly painful. Also knowing that Harr would have been about 15 during those flashbacks, we now have one child trying to stay kind and show kindness to another child in a cruel environment and T_T Harr just wanted to study magic to make the world a better place, and instead he got wrangled into a world of child abuse and torture... And he’s still seeking to repent after twelve years for not saving Zero back then...

Edgar saves Alice from her prison cell. Good lordy God bless. Before that we saw him basically running Red Army HQ with Lancelot gone and Jonah at the front. Beautiful. Edgar is nothing BUT trustworthy in Zero's entire route. When Zero isn't around to protect Alice, such as at the party, he trusts Edgar to do it and Edgar does it spectacularly because Edgar is, in fact, the best.

As Dean so wonderfully stated earlier: Edgar is great at taking care of other people.

AND THAT’S THE TEA! Don’t let anyone tell you Edgar is anything but loving!

Edgar realizes Alice wants to come along with him to save Zero. Edgar trusts Alice to know what is best for her. He trusts Alice cares for Zero as much as Edgar cares for Zero, so they'll work together. BEAUTIFUL. I love my man acknowledging Alice’s strength!

Lancelot causing the explosion was somewhat expected. He’d vanished earlier and I KNEW he had to be up to something, somewhere.

And that moment when he betrayed Amon!? HOT DAMN I LOVE MY KING, Y’ALL!! A shame his attack didn’t work but I am ALL about that rescue-Lancelot lifestyle! Harr is too as we’ll see shortly lmao

Edgar saves Lancelot by evening the odds. THE TRUST BETWEEN THEM COMES FULL CIRCLE. I'm STILL buzzing over that goddamn moment chapters earlier when Edgar comes upon Lancelot kidnapping Alice from Red Army HQ. I honestly couldn't tell if Edgar would have followed commands or fight back, but you could tell he was wrestling with it. If Lancelot had forced him to follow orders, that would have been the ultimate betrayal considering Edgar is already pact-bound to be an obedient dog. Lancelot instead has Alice locked away so he can talk to Edgar 1:1. Lancelot might not have told him the whole truth but Edgar is intelligent enough to put the pieces together himself. He often does so in other routes without prompting.

Edgar and Alice save Zero together. EDGAR’S PLATONIC LOVE IS GIVEN EQUAL FOOTING AS ALICE’S ROMANTIC LOVE!! That moment when Zero was still holding out against Alice's pleading and Edgar just round-house kicks him to the ground and puts a sword to his neck and just DEMANDS Zero to think about who he is, what he wants, why he wields his sword!

HOT DAMN YOU TELL HIM, EDGAR! I LOVE EDGAR SO FREAKING MUCH!

My heart hurts so much for Zero, who was robbed, even temporarily, of all that love by the Magic Tower T_T They tossed him away, he found a place to belong, and they tore that from him. The absolute cruelty.

And then surprise! Loki saves Harr from imprisonment! Harr is no damsel in distress so I was wondering if our current team was going to have to rescue him later, or if he was going to rescue himself. But he absolutely deserved to be at the final fight AND I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED! The second that ??? for the speaker showed up I was just !!!!!

Basically Edgar and then Harr’s appearances got me like:

So now we have a Lancelot, Edgar, Alice, Harr, and Loki team-up vs. Amon and Dalim! Operation Stop Amon and Save Zero is in full effect!

And holy shi-- The moment when Amon starts using Zero's tattoo to hurt him was brutal. It was bad enough when Dalim did it in front of Zero’s soldiers but  here they are at it again in front of all the people who care about Zero the most.

Personally, I think it's wild that some people claim Ikevamp is darker than Ikerev. The Ikevamp cast talk about dark plots but the Ikerev cast deal directly with war, murder, betrayal, coercion, kidnapping, child abuse, child neglect, torture, PTSD, depression, child abandonment, and more. It just wraps them up in a prettier, brighter package.

But moving on!

Alice saves Zero from Amon. I love all the flashbacks. I love Alice's promise to Zero. I love how she guards his neck to keep him from hurting himself and how she'll protect him. How they’ll protect each other. It hurt so bad but felt so good.

(Mockingjay Part 2 was on TV last night so I already got a heavy dose of Peeta and Katniss angst and how they always protect each other -- “It’s what we do” -- so I was primed for the feels between Zero and Alice here.)

At some point Alice also shows sympathy for Dalim and that struck a cord with me as well. I was actually wondering what the point of Dalim has been, as a potential suitor, since he's just been acting like a second-rate Amon this whole time, being just as villainous and coercing Lancelot the same as Amon. But seeing Amon abusing Dalim, too, and having Dalim continue to fight even when he was in such bad shape just gives me a throw-back to Edgar, who continues to follow his uncle's orders even at the cost of hurting himself. Although that Dalim used Zero's tattoo to hurt him is a big F-NO so he's got lots of redeeming to do lol

Lancelot and Harr (LANCELOT AND HARR, TOGETHER, ALLIES, FRIENDS!!) save Edgar, Alice, and Loki from the collapsing building. Lancelot and Harr aren’t antagonists in this route! HARR ONLY HAS TO SAY LANCELOT’S NAME AND LANCELOT KNOWS WHAT HE MEANS AND WHAT THEY NEED TO DO!

Harr: Lancelot!

Lancelot: Yeah!

Lancelot and Harr used their magic to shield us from the falling debris.

THAT'S IT THAT'S ALL THE CONVERSATION THEY NEED AND THEY ARE IMMEDIATELY IN UNISON. My heart is bursting with love and happiness from such a small moment. I hope we get some follow-up after this omg

(As a salty aside, this is leagues different to when Harr shows up in Sirius's route and Sirius is just like, "What are you doing here???" and then Sirius gives Loki the third-degree with all that mistrust.)

BUT MOVING ON!

That final CG with Zero makes my heart bleed. He looks so sad and so tired, but he’s alive.

Zero: I'm home.

Alice: Welcome home!

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING!!!

I love Zero so much. A lot. In abundance. The love and relief is so palpable at this moment. Alice and Zero have such a beautiful love story.

Part 24 took me over a half hour to read which is twice as long as usual and every second of it was a PLEASURE. Just a few days left until I’m done with the whole route and it’s honestly shaping up to be one of the best in any otome. It’s adapted a lot of elements from other routes and made them it’s own to great effect. Just a fantastic, well-rounded story with a beautifully heart-warming romance. Bless bless bless!!

#my ikerev #ikerev zero #zero's route #zero route spoilers #ikerev spoilers #when i say rambling i mean rambling

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hey! Any theories on the intro? And the upcoming fight with Oscar and Ironwood. I'm soooo excited 😖 gooo OSCAR!!😍

Hello again Luna. Well I don’t wish to discuss much out in the open since there are still folks who follow my blog and content who haven’t seen the episode as yet. So out of respect for them, I’m going to give my answer under cut.

Theories based on the intro. Whelp since the tradition since V6 is that RWBY opening sheds light on some of the story beats and subplots that will be focused on for part of the season, here’s what I’m anticipating is going to go down for V7:

Keeping Up with Best of the Best: 

JNR_RWBY will probably placed under the guidance and supervision of Atlesian Ace Ops who will more or less oversee their continued training as huntsmen.

We’ll probably have at least one episode or two in which our young heroes head out on missions  around Mantle and Solitas accompanying the Ace Ops in the field.  

While I’d love to see JNR_RWBY work alongside the Aces for more than one mission; if I’m going off the footage in the V7 opening and the V7 trailer,  the main mission will obviously be the one teased before in the trailer. The mission that takes place presumably in the Dust Mines of Atlas; infested with Centinal Grimm and another Geist Grimm.

Wouldnt surprise me if we got that mission episode between CH3 and 4 since I’m sure CH2 will involve the group being held in prison under firm interrogation until Ironwood arrives to bail them out (much like in @miki-13’s fanfic “Reconciliation”)

Oscar-Worthy: 

While JNR_RWBY will be out with Ace Ops, they’re not the only ones getting a taste of Atlas style of teaching. As shown, Oscar will remain in Atlas to be trained personally by Ironwood.

James and Oscar weren’t fighting. I guess this was more or less a little friendly sparring match for Ironwood to test just how far Oscar is in his training and skills as the successor to Oz.

Like you, I’m interested to see how this match will go. However at the same time, I’m not rooting for Oscar to win this one on one. On the contrary, I’m more anticipating Ironwood to wipe the floor with Oscar in their first match. He’ll probably go easy on him at first only to later take it up a notch and become more aggressive, forcing Oscar into a corner.I’m hoping this first fight between them is actually more…I guess serious when it comes to the actual episode. This opening makes it look like these two are play fighting and Ironwood is humouring Oscar. Don’t get me wrong. I want Ironwood to more or less be a good teacher to Oscar but at the same time, I don’t want him to coddle him either. Ironwood has been shown to be a hard boiled badass of a soldier. A man who singlehandedly slam-dunked a charging Beowolf with one hand and shot it straight through the neck with his other hand.

Let that guy teach Oscar a thing or two on what it’s light to be a warrior. War is nothing to take lightly. One slip up—even the tiniest of them can easily open the door to victory or failure. I can see Ironwood drilling that lesson into Oscar very firmly.

One thing I’m also hoping for is that there will be an audience there to show Oscar support during his sparring match with Oscar. I know JNR_RWBY will be mostly out in the field but I think it’d be cute to have someone there on Oscar’s behalf to cheer him on and help him up after Ironwood kicks his ass the first time.

With Ironwood training Oscar for V7, I’m hoping for V7 that we can at least get one Oscar-worthy episode where he is the focal point or key driver of the chapter. 

Similar to how we had the Jaundice multi-part episodes back during V1, it would be pretty great if Oscar got his own ‘Oscar-worthy’-titled episode that focuses heavily on his feelings handling everything (leaving home, the events of Mistral and Haven, Jinn’s story, Ozpin’s isolation, etc)  while additionally trying to keep up with Ironwood’s rigourous training regiment which the poor boy unfortunately struggles with in the beginning.

As a matter of fact, one thing I’m anticipating for with Ironwood training Oscar is the show highlighting Oscar struggling at first. I understand that Oscar’s whole thing is that he picks up things fast while also being expected to inherit Oz’s muscle memory; which we’ve seen him achieve.

That being said, I hope it’s not another example of the Writers neglecting to portray Oscar as his own character first and foremost.It still bothers me that after two seasons, we still don’t know much about Oscar’s true thoughts and how he feels. 

For the most part we’ve just seen him humbly accept everything that’s happened to him since the events of V4 and be perfectly comfortable with being puppeteered around by Ozpin while signing away his life to being another for Ozma to live through.

…Yep. Oscar has been with with the heroes for 48-49 days (1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days since V4 to V6, according to the RWBY timeline)  since he first left his presumably sheltered life back in Mistral and he’s just fine with all that’s happened since then. Uh huh. That’s what the show and the CRWBY Writers want me to wholeheartedly believe. Sure. 

It was especially worse last season where Oscar was supposed to be a focal figure of the season, like Ozpin, but the Writers once again overlooked him in favour of other characters (including ones who weren’t relevant to the main plot of that season). 

This is why I believe an Oscar-worthy episode isn’t only warranted by strongly needed at this point. What could be even better is if that episode is used to spark a close friendship and potential brotherhood between Oscar and Jaune. 

Why I want an episode where Oscar is seen struggling with his training and/or slowly beginning to fall apart from the pressures of everything around him to the point of frustration is because I can see it parallelling Jaundice where Jaune suffered through the same emotional struggles.

Jaune have come a long, long way from the whimpy kid he started off as. Perhaps he could use his experience to help and/or guide Oscar when he falters. 

I believe it was mentioned in an interview with M&K that Oscar might share a similar story beat to Jaune when he first started out.  I hope this means we’ll get to see Oscar go through an Jaundice-esque type of experience which in turn will prompt Jaune to want to help him since he sees his old self mirrored in Oscar. It’d be even nicer if this is followed up by Jaune offering to have practice sessions with Oscar to help him with improving his fighting technique. 

While I’d still love for Ruby to be the one to help Oscar with his training, I feel like it’d be more meaningful if Jaune offers to help Oscar similar to how Pyrhha once offered to help him back in V1.

I’ve been waiting for a moment where Jaune becomes a big brother/ mentor type character to Oscar since V5.

Plus if Oscar is indeed destined to join JNR (as the opening alluded to), this would be a nice way to have Oscar and Jaune bond to build into the potential of them eventually become teammates and brothers in arms.

I’d love it if we get a moment where Jaune and Oscar are training together while Nora, Ren and even Ruby observe from a far.

Having RNJR be a part of Oscar’s training and development as a fighter is a nice callback to V5 where the five of them were being trained under Oz’s watch and guidance.

Plus this could provide another example of RNJR becoming Oscar’s Golden Circle of close confidantes.I’m seeing more and more signs of the Golden Circle being a canonical possibility as the series feeds me more evidence for my Pinehead headcanon.

I hope they don’t stop for V7. I really want to see RNJR become Oscar’s main group. JNR as his potential huntsman team and surrogate family and Ruby as Oscar’s best friend, most trusted companion and of course, his potential love interest (maybe).

So yeah it’d be nice if Oscar training Ironwood is a sign he might have his own Jaundice-esque episode that focuses on him and his growing friendship with RNJR. I mean it’d be nice if one of the episodes gave us that for him this season. 

But given the Writers’ track recording on dishing those out; that’s wishful thinking. Ey who knows?

Schnee Family Affairs: 

Judging by the fact that they are featured in the intro, apparently Weiss is going to have to confront the conflicts with her that she left behind in V4. This also seems to be tied into something to do with the Crimes of the SDC. As alluded to the audience during the World of Remnant episode on the Schnee Dust Company, the company has committed one or two nefarious deeds under Jacques Schnee’s leadership. 

The intro also highlighted the new Robyn Hill character looking at tele-ad of Ironwood which later glitches to Jacques.This makes me wonder something curious but I’ll save it for my musing post. 

All I will say for now is that there is a definitely a connection between this Hill character, Ironwood and Jacques Schnee. It can also be noted that Qrow will meet Hill face to face. My theory on that is that James will probably task Qrow to investigate some strange things going down in Mantle that’s connected to Hill. 

My hunch with that is that Hill is the prime suspect in some reported mishaps down in Mantle when the reality is that it’s Tyrian Callows who's been causing trouble on Watts behalf. 

That’s my hunch. Speaking of Watts.

Watts’ Mole?

In the opening Watts is seen observing an image of the Ace Ops. This got me curious about that. Why show a shot of Watts eyeballing them specifically of all things with a smirk on his face?

This made me consider two theories as a rationale. Either Watts is watching the Ace Ops because he plans on using them and their influence on the People of Atlas as possibly their finest soldiers to once again humiliate and mock the strength and integrity of Atlas’ Kingdom to the rest of the world; as it was done back during the Vytal Festival.

Or…the Ace Ops or at least ONE of their members is secretly in cohoots with Watts. While I understand that Watts’ gig is that he’s a genius, what if…he had a secret accomplice among the ranks of the Ace Ops who has been feeding him valuable Atlas intel that he then used against the Atlesian military.

We can assume that Watts’ was exiled from Atlas for reasons. But imagine if before being banished, Watts had a family? Like imagine if...Watts is also a dad and one of the Ace Ops members is secretly his kid who he was forced to leave behind when he was banished. Watts then reunited with said child and together the two have been working together to enact their revenge and said child is in the Ace Ops and has been feeding Watts valuable info to help with his schemes for years; including the Fall of Beacon.I could be completely wrong about Watts having a kid in the Ace Ops but…who knows. Let’s leave it on the table for now.

Attack on Mantle: 

This shot makes me think that at some point for the V7 Finale, something big is going to go down in Mantle. Like there might be some big attack. Maybe Watts will create a stronger virus that’ll once again take over all mechanical lifeforms down in Atlas and the robot soldiers (inclusive of Penny 2.0 possibly) will suddenly turn fire on the innocent civilians, sending the People of Mantle into a frenzied panic which in turn will bring forth an army of Grimm to reign down on the Surface Kingdom. It might even attract another big Grimm.

Last time for V6, we got an underused Kaijuu Grimm. Perhaps this round we’ll get an Artic Yeti or Abominable Snowman type of Grimm. Who knows. 

The Relic of Creation: 

Well…we saw it clear as day in the opening. So we can bet the Relic of Creation will be a factor this season. I’m curious to see how Atlas uses this Relic since my hunch is that part of the reason why Atlas has been able to advance so much is due in part to them using the power of Relic of Creation. And since we saw the Relic, I wonder if this means we’ll get a teaser of the identity of the Winter Maiden and the Vault of the Winter Maiden.

Penny: 

... As much as Penny’s shining smile in the opening brightens me up every time I see it, I can’t help but feel uneasy about that. I’ll talk more about on that later in a future musing post. 

No Fire and Icecream? 

Another thing to point out in the V7 opening is the lack of Cinder or Neo.

Even though they were teased heading toward Atlas at the end of V6, the V7 opening showed nothing of them. This makes me wonder if the two are even going to appear at all this season.

I mean take Adam Taurus for example. Even though Adam Taurus didn't appear until the later half of V6, he was still featured in the V6 opening.

Cinder and Neo; nowhere to be found in V7′s opening. This leads me to believe that we may not see these two at all for V7. Then again, it was said in another interview with the Writers that we’ll be learning about Cinder’s past at some point. I can’t remember if it was teased for V7 or a future season.

Either way I can’t really think that she’ll be a character for V7 since she wasn’t shown. 

The same can be said about Salem’s army of Winged Beringels sent after Oz at the end of V6.

I guess they won’t be a factor for V7 either. I guess they’ll be saved for V8 (which is actually a good call).

Speaking of Oz, he was also omitted from this opening. Makes me wonder how much of a presence he’ll have this season.

I’m at least hoping for a thing where Oz comes back a bit for Oscar’s sake. Like maybe he and Oscar sort of reconcile but Oz doesn't take over Oscar’s body anymore. Instead he just plays a voice of guidance to him at times. I wouldn’t mind if Oz was relegated to that role for Oscar’s development. I want V7 to focus on Oscar since his side of things is often overlooked so much. He needs to be a focus.

Love is the Key: 

Looking at how much times it was mentioned in the opening, it may seem that love is a central theme for this season.

It also seems like the lyrics to the V7 Opening might be alluding the Fox’s lesson from the Little Prince. Interesting.

With all this talk about love, I hope this means that romance is in the air for some of our young heroes.

I know we’re more likely to see love in the form of friendship (platonic love), family (familial love) devotion and responsibility to another person. But regardless of this, this squiggle meister is hoping for cupid to rear his fat naked ass and prick some of our heroes with a dose of love straight through the heart.

I want to see some of our characters fall in love with each other (particularly a certain pair of rosebuds who’ve been shown to really care about one another despite only knowing each other for 49 days and have been pretty chummy these past two seasons---just saying).

And yeah, that’s it. That’s all the theories I have for now based on the V7 opening. Anymore that pop up, I’ll just share in a musing or headcanon post. Hope that answers your question, fam.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019) 

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