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tlgtw · 7 months

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//Spoilers for Everything in AC6: Fires of Rubicon//

The Meaning of the Motif of "Borrowed Wings" and how G5 Iguazu Exists to Reinforce It

What seems to fly over everyone's heads about G5 Iguazu is that the point of his character is how 'deciding upon a goal and having the willpower to strive for it, no matter what' is literally as important as the line between life and death.

You need to find a purpose for yourself that you personally believe in. Cause no matter how grand or how petty that purpose is, if you don't have one... you die!

With whether or not you actually succeed at that goal being completely irrelevant... to your conviction for it.

(Something, something, it's the ambition that you're living for, not whether or not you get the accolades at the end.)

A moral proclaiming the importance of "deciding upon a purpose of your own free will, and then pursuing that goal no matter what setbacks you encounter" is all nice and easy when you're main character e621, who experiences no setbacks because, as the player, you're necessarily going to be strongest fighter in the galaxy.

But it's pretty obvious how trite that is on its own, where your only canonical character trait is that you always win no matter what.

And so, Iguazu's purpose narratively is to show how, beyond any ounce of doubt whatsoever, that 'winning' is not a relevant part in what makes "having a purpose" so important, or so necessary.

In essence: It's what makes Iguazu live.

Start of the Game: Volta and Iguazu both want to beat up Michigan.

- Volta gives up, and then he gets sent by Michigan to die at the Wall.

- Iguazu deserts. And he does not die at the Wall.

After Gallia Dam he send you hatemail to say that the Redguns will scale the wall, but Iguazu himself doesn't even approach the Wall after this. As G4 Volta's last words reveal, he deserts before the operation is attempted.

Iguazu *himself* watches from the sidelines, costing him no less than an almost certain death like Volta's.

And the reason Iguazu changes his mind about scaling the wall with the Redguns is because, after Gallia Dam, Iguazu decides upon his purpose. His personal conviction.

Iguazu personal goal becomes -> He wants to kill you.

We love pathetic boys.

But the reason Iguazu deserts for the sake of this new goal is specifically because he wants to become stronger than 621, and not want his obligations as part of the Redguns to get in the way of this goal of his, he goes independent.

--- Correction ---

Iguazu deserts the Redguns at Watchpoint Alpha, prior to the death of G1 Michigan. He doesn't desert the Redguns at the Wall, he only goes Away WithOut Leave. The reason for which he goes AWOL being to take independent work, as we see an example of at Grid 086. Outcomes of everything are still the same, I just mixed up the order.

Also;

Volta: "Iguazu, listen, like, Michigan really like cares about us...! It's like we're part of his family, man, just give him a chance."

Volta: *Gives Michigan a chance*

Volta: *Gets killed under the leadership of G1 Michigan*

It's really funny but sad.

It's also really funny and sad how effective at Yank-bait G1 Michigan was.

But it's illustrative of how effective it is to break down someone's expectations and feelings of self-worth to legit 0, such that empty platitudes like simply saying the right words, like the names of the expendables themselves or to bring in the medical teams after a battle (as if they wouldn't have come otherwise?), will leave such an impression that they think you really do care about them--even in despite of how worthless they obviously are~!

And all at the same time as your direct actions and orders lead them straight to their meaningless avoidable deaths.

What could be more cost-efficient for your employers than soldiers who're literally suicidal for you, right?

Ha!

--- ---

And not only does this decision directly lead to Iguazu not dying at the Wall, but, no longer squeezed under G1 Michigan's boots, G5 even directly improves as a fighter.

This is shown in how his AI differs between his fighting at the Gallia Dam--where he's overly defensive, constantly having his shield up, despite wielding two guns.

And then, later at the Grid--where he actually fights aggressively like his AC's loadout is built for.

The second major encounter with Iguazu is Watchpoint Alpha where he either fights you directly, and dies there. Or he hires Coldcall to kill you, and survives elsewhere. Again, this is an instance of Iguazu's legitimate determination towards his chosen goal directly separating him from life and death.

When he hires Coldcall, Iguazu focuses on his goal, and let's go of distractions like his personal pride and image.

Ridiculous, right? Iguazu letting go of his pride?

But consider how it's directly Iguazu's personal feelings that lead him to facing 621 personally. He doesn't *just* want to kill you in that instant, he wants the glory of killing you as well.

But the accolades at the end aren't what makes it worthy to pursue a chosen goal.

Iguazu wants 621 dead. And when he hires Coldcall, this is him coming to terms with pursuing his goal, regardless of his personal setbacks. Iguazu faces the fact that he personally wouldn't be able to kill you. And, because he comes to term with this setback, he finds an alternative method that would still lead towards fulfilling his chosen purpose.

To confirm, of course, Iguazu's purpose is really dumb and terrible. But it's not whether one's chosen purpose is 'a good goal' or not that the value of pursuing it comes from. The value comes from it being one you decided for yourself, as opposed to, for, for example, by a corporation's profits. (Not a coincidence narratively how Balam's forces, united most in their complete idolization of G1 Michigan, following *his* word no matter what even knowingly to their deaths, are the deadmost losers in the story.)

Unlike for example e621's chosen conviction, or Rusty's chosen conviction, (Also no coincidence narratively that G1 Michigan, who only exists as the weapon of his corporation and put out a bounty for his own assassination--expressing how he has no personal plans for the future and literally wants to die--is guaranteed to be taken out by either of these two, no matter what.)

It's not the loftiness of a goal that determines if it's of worth to decide upon one of your own free will and pursue it in the first place.

The 'value' of pursuing a goal is unrelated to what that goal itself is.

What makes pursuing a goal valuable, is the conviction.

You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be emotionally mature. You don't have to be a good fighter. You don't even have to be brave.

You just need to choose your purpose and follow it.

This is what the motif of 'wings' and 'borrowed wings' are all about in the story as well. It's about pursuing a goal that was chosen by someone else, versus pursuing a goal that was chosen by you yourself.

"They choose what to fight for, and take to the skies in flight."

"One cannot fly on borrowed wings" in this case literally meaning that if you pursue a goal not because you want it, but because someone else wants it, it will directly lead to your death.

Criticizing their "borrowed wings" is what Ayre and Rusty chastise the RLF for for solely repeating slogans and "not bothering to think [for themselves]."

And Iguazu, deciding he doesn't care about how he'd be seen by others, and only caring for the goal itself to be accomplished. Survives, where Coldcall dies in his place.

Coldcall, a far superior fighter to Iguazu. Dies, instead of Iguazu, because he was flying for Iguazu's purpose -> Fighting on borrowed wings.

Etc etc "this is hell, we're in hell!" and so on and in the Alea Iacta Est true ending of the game Iguazu, outta nowhere!, becomes the legit Final Boss of Armored Core 6.

How the hell did this 4th-gen AC pilot, otherwise a completely random nobody without a purpose not given to him by his employer, get to outer space and stuff, right?

Well, consider how the complete rando that was e621 does the same: Their personal conviction.

"But Iguazu only got to become the final boss out of dumb luck," right? ALLMIND chose him for little else but that he was the only old-gen Augmented Human that was still alive. If ALLMIND wasn't there, he couldn't have accomplished anything, so obviously it can't actually be meaningful.

But how would 621 have escaped Institute City without being rescued by Carla? How would we have escaped Arquebus re-education without the AC that Handler Walter secretly assembled left for us?

And, most relevantly here since this is the Alea Iacta Est route itself: How would 621 have known about V.II Snail planning to ambush you in Institute City without ALLMIND herself's very assistance?

C4-621 is, at a glance, just as much a recipient of dumb luck as Iguazu.

But thematically, it's not pure happenchance.

It's the results of the both of these characters continuing to fight for a cause they chose to believe in, no matter what.

So Iguazu survives. He survives the hijacking of Watchpoint Alpha by ALLMIND. And he even goes so far as to survive the hijacking of his own brain by ALLMIND, taking over the final boss even after being assimilated.

"What essential difference made ACs superior to unpiloted craft?"

The answer is simple -> One cannot fly on borrowed wings.

Unpiloted craft can never have a purpose that is actually their own. They exist only for the person who's wings they borrow--who's purpose they serve--who built them.

That's why piloted ACs are better. *Not* on borrowed wings, in this case, they can fly higher.

For C4-621, that chosen goal is to achieve Coral Release. (Since it's is still the mission you yourself choose that finally puts you on the Alea Iacta Est route or not, it fits within the theme of free will. Even though, as a videogame, there's an obvious limit to just *how* much free will the player is actually able to express. Within the story, however, when 621 chooses the mission to begin the path to an ending, that's them deciding for themselves 100% that's that the goal they want to achieve, no matter what.)

For Iguazu, that chosen goal is to kill you. (The goal he wants to achieve, no matter what.)

And so, because he was not flying on borrowed wings. Iguazu survives fucking everything. Stupid wings, yeah. But that just shows: What matters is only that they were his own.

Even against the most powerful super duper AI mastermind that ALLMIND was, the biggest loser on Earth, G5 Iguazu, survived.

Where even she is made to give way to Iguazu's conviction -> Killing e621.

Hammering this point home is why "I'm only here for what *I* want! I don't care about ALLMIND's goals, just my own!" is basically the only thing Iguazu says across like 2 entire 3rds of the final boss.

Iguazu's chosen goal is not ultimately successful.

But it wasn't whether or not Iguazu ultimately killed 621 in Rubicon's exosphere that lead to him not dying at the Wall like G4 Volta, or at Watchpoint Alpha like G1 Michigan and Coldcall, or upon the destruction of his physical body by ALLMIND.

It was his conviction that lead him past those things. His WINGS!

He chose what to fight for, and he fought for it.

On the wings of his free will, Iguazu flew above even the very clouds of Rubicon itself.

And that's why he was the Final Boss.

The only thing able to finally kill him being the person with a conviction even greater, C4-621.

(As a sidenote; Taking account of the main moral of Armored Core 6 really puts into perspective how many trillions of times it gets repeated explicitly across the game lol.

VS Rusty, VS Rusty when he calls you "power without a purpose," VS Cinder Carla, VS Handler Walter, Ayre's description of what the name "Raven" is literally supposed to mean, etc.

They all talk about how you've chosen your path and you'd made sacrifices to get this far and you finally have a conviction that is your own and how big a deal that is and so on.)

#tlgtw ooc #g5 iguazu #my boyfriend who hates me g5 iguazu #armored core 6 #armored core 6 spoilers #alea iacta est #armored core lore #g1 michigan #it is way late at night and I am stressed out about computer problems and the only way for me to feel better #is to get as many thoughts out of my brain as possible. I'm not even really sure if this is coherent or not #but that's okay #as far as I'm concerned anyway e621's conviction is just seeing G5 Iguazu again gehehehehhehehe

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ourflagmeansgayrights · 7 months

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ok so i was actually kinda surprised to find that looking at the ao3 stats and adjusting for how long ofmd’s existed (a year and a half) vs how long the stucky fandom’s been around (coming up on a decade), not only is gentlebeard on par with stucky but it actually beats stucky for amount of fics written. but i’m making a prediction now just based on how i’ve observed fandoms to work: i do think the gentlebeard popularity will peter out faster than stucky did

i’m not saying bc i think gentlebeard is worse or the ofmd fandom is weak or anything, i’m saying this bc in fandom it seems like the white masc queerbait ships* have like, an absurd amount of longevity that goes way beyond the general fandom surrounding whatever media said white masc queerbait ship hails from. im thinking abt the protagonist/rival ship from the TERF wizard series that nobody decent talks about in public anymore. before we all cut jkr out of our lives, people were still churning out fics abt the main character and that racist blond kid pretty regularly. and another example, we have those scientists from pacific rim that are more popular than any of the main characters from that movie. it’s been years and the newt/hermann fandom is still going strong.

and i say “newt/hermann fandom” intentionally, bc that’s the thing that i think actually gives these ships their longevity: when there are fans who are primarily invested in a piece of media because of a noncanonical masc4masc queerbait ship, they’re not really fans of the media itself. i mean, some of them might be, but if they are then that’s in addition to being fans of this alternate queer interpretation of the media in question. they’re a fan of the fandom mass hallucination that the fans collectively and collaboratively invented of a romantic/sexual/homoerotic relationship between two guys who on-screen might hug like once or twice (or sometimes even never)

and i’m pretty sure the reason this sort of fandom phenomenon tends to have so much longevity is bc the fans have already created this whole extensive romantic storyline using what is often some pretty minimal canonical material to work with. so when the movie franchise or the tv show ends and the shippers no longer have any new canonical material to work with, they can keep going for years because really, they were already making shit up from the start.

so compared to that, gentlebeard is way different bc everything the fans might have invented on our own the show pretty much already did for us, and anything the show didn’t do yet is probably coming for us this season (or in s3, fingers crossed). i’ve mentioned before how a lot of fanfiction seems to fall on a spectrum between “fix” and “expand,” and by the end of ofmd i doubt there’s gonna be a whole lot that gentlebeard fans feel like they need to “fix.” versus stucky, where there’s so much that needs to be fixed that you might as well just throw the whole canon out.

i don't really mean any of this as a criticism or an attack on fans of queerbait ships like this, im just pointing out fandom trends that i've noticed. i myself have been deeply invested in stucky, newmann, and the gay wizard boys at different points in my life. like there is something very fun abt putting on slash goggles and making queer content out of nothing. personally though, now that we're in an age where we're getting canon queer content, im not so engaged in a lot of the ships i used to care so much about, but i don't think it's inherently wrong** for people to still enjoy some classic fandom queerbait ships. it's just a very different thing from enjoying canonical queer ships like gentlebeard

*im using “queerbait ships” loosely to include popular gay ships in media that was never in a million years going to make these characters gay.

**a clarifying point: i don't think it's inherently wrong, however there are a lot of problematic elements to this kind of fandom activity, namely the way a lot of these queerbait ships will dominate a fandom while other characters who are important in canon get completely sidelined (and yes, the sidelined characters are often women/poc). also, less importantly, when people's primary media consumption revolves around strip mining canon for shipping content, this absolutely destroys their media literacy and critical thinking. again, im not saying this to attack ppl who engage in fandom primarily through fic/art of noncanonical gay ships, i myself have done the same thing. but i think ppl who do should also make a conscious effort to also engage with fan content that centers women/poc, or at the very least need to be aware of the issues around this kind of fandom activity.

#txt #meta #mine #og #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #pacific rim #mcu #stucky poll #fandom crit

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justatalkingface · 9 months

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what's your opinion on the big 3? When I was hyperfoxed on this series they were the thing I care Abt the most (I enjoyed season 4, obv I'd change some stuff now but I still remember it being atleast ok)

I hate how dirty they did my girl nejire, as far as I'm aware they didn't even do anything with her after the whole pagent thing she just got a small backstory about how she was sad (don't know all of it I haven't been keeping up that well w the manga)

mirios not having a quirky and having to save eri (a girl who I can't imagine would be that skilled at the age she is and has been training on lizards to give his quirk back all together, I'd imagine it taking a few more months but bnhas time is shit so) and coming back in the war arc to punch one person and then basically do noting iicr

The only decently written one was amajiki, I wish they had more going on I think they have a fun dynamic (w them helping taking care of eri and me rlly liking idk what it's called but I love the fluff it brings) :(

Lots of mixed feelings, in all honesty. Lots of mixed feelings.

I'll admit, a big part of my mixed feelings about them is they showed up as the latest, 'Stomp on Izuku's everything' at the point in the story where it was becoming obvious that there was always something stomping on Izuku, and that gave me a bad first impression on them I've never been able to shake... which isn't helped by how they're connected to the clusterfuck of Nighteye, of all people, which is kind of my whole thing with Mirio (warning; I am biased):

As a person, he's obviously nice, but as a character, basiclly his entire reason for existing was, 'give Izuku an existential crisis' and I don't think I've ever forgiven him for that, really. His entire character is just bigger, stronger, older, happier, more capable, more confident, more successful, more loved Izuku, who had a Quirk his whole life and only had to dig deep to find out how strong it, and he, was all along.

Unironically. It's....

It's a really bad look, to be blunt; he feels kind of like a bad fanfiction character written by a bad writer who wanted to put their super special OC in the story, except he's canon.

Since we've never seen him even think something unheroic, there's really nothing that distinguishes him from that impression factual statement, which, again, makes it hard for me to give a shit about him, or even remember him... which is a problem Hori seems to share, lol. It doesn't help that I loathe Sir Nighteye and that most of his development time is spent admiring him, to boot, and that his parts of the story are either empty or focused on a living plot device I can't quite like no matter how hard I try because of how blatant the emotional manipulation is about the biggest story breaking, SOD shattering plot device until Stars and Stripes showed up.

If he ever got any kind of development to flesh him out a human being rather than being either Izuku and/or a heroic archetype, it'd help, but beyond all of that his biggest personality trait is liking jokes, and that barely even comes up. Or, rather, considering both the Final Arc and his response to Bakugou's name, along with Nighteye's own tendencies, 'jokes', maybe.

He doesn't deserve it, I admit it, it's not his fault, but I just can't get past that. He also doesn't deserve to just be forgotten until his big moment of a butt joke, but... MHA, everyone. In all honesty, I'd just like him better if his entire story arc didn't exist in and as some of the worst parts of the Overhaul arc, but he's tainted by that fact.

I freely admit that I am unfairly biased against him, so take all of that with a mountain of salt.

As a side note though, god, the story doesn't seem to realize how badly Nighteye is using the poor kid; Mirio thinks Nighteye is training him because he's worthy, while Nighteye mainly seems to be doing it because he's the closest thing to an All Might clone he can get, bar him actually cloning All Might, even if he grew to like him for who he is. I'm not sure Nighteye ever thought of Mirio with just his Quirk as anything more than a temporary situation; even at the start of canon, when on his own merits he's rising to fame with how successful he is, Nighteye's overall focus is still about getting AFO into the kid.

I almost wish I could see Nighteye explaining how all of his training came down to getting All Might's Quirk, just to see MIrio react and tear Nighteye down a peg about it, except Hori's history of handling these kinds of things means he'd never be allowed to be properly offended on his own behalf, the poor bastard.

Moving on, Tamaki. Out of all of them, he's had the biggest of an on-screen story arc, and in a intellectual way his Quirk is easily the most interesting. Unfortunately, while he has a personality, it feels so bland at times that he's far easier to remember for his Quirk than who he is.

I liked his story, really, but at the time it was overshadowed by Mirio and his everything, and by the time he showed back up it was clear how irrelevant it and he was, so it was more about how (admittedly, very) cool he get his Quirk to be than it was about him, and with some brutal honesty, it's probably because his Quirk is so interesting that he even got that much focus beyond that initial arc by Hori.

And... Nejirie.

In a combat sense she's easily the best of them, really; Mirio is almost purely defensive, which limits him (especially if he's not surprising someone with it) while Tamaki's Quirk, while flexible, is so conditional in ways that can easily hold him back (we only ever see him fight with full preparation; if he's not gearing for a fight he'd be easy to ambush), and like a lot of things in the Final Arc, his big laser canon thing is.... questionable.

Nejirie, though, is just simply powerful. In a setting where everyone has one power and one main application of that power, where you either fly or blast things, but not both, she's the closest I've seen to a 'traditional' super hero, like you'd see in Marvel or DC.

At the same time, though, out of the three of them she least has a story, for obvious reasons, and it's a disgrace, really. If Hori had just spent some time on her, on the her backstory that apparently exists (yeah, I'm not sure where that is either), she could have been so interesting... but really, all she is is the Girl Teammate. Her personality traits are The Girl Teammate's personality traits. She's just The Girl Teammate stamped over all of the interesting stuff, and it's such a waste, it really is.

And finally, as a unit? The Big Three is a shiny toy that Hori forgot in the corner somewhere as soon as he got bored with it. He spent a few minutes oohing and aahing over them, focusing really hard on developing interesting powers, how they could be used, and how strong they were, only to start to lose interest as soon as those powers were established, and he was writing the three of them off before their introductory arc was even over.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #nighteye critical #izuku deserves better #my deeply conflicted feelings on Mirio's everything #he doesn't deserve it but still #he's the true victim of the Overhaul arc #i hate nighteye ever so much #hori's chronic hatred of women #the big three is big wasted potential

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m1ckeyb3rry · 8 months

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Hurricanes / Hummingbirds: I

Series Synopsis: As the years go by, you find that it is incredibly difficult to survive wars and fight storms, especially when the only thing you have by way of a cursed technique is the blessing of a tiny bird.

Chapter Synopsis: You meet your new classmates at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Hajime Kashimo x Female Reader; slight Kento Nanami x Female Reader; slight Satoru Gojo x Female Reader

Chapter Word Count: 5.6k

Content Warnings: swearing, enemies/rivals to lovers, character death, canon-typical violence, angst, gore, original characters included

A/N: i become obsessed with kashimo -> i discover there is no content for him -> i write my own fic -> he doesn't even show up until like chapter 8. go figure.

“They say I was born with a hummingbird in place of my heart,” you said, staring at the ground and clasping your hand over your chest. “But that’s not possible, of course.”

“Certainly not.” The man you were speaking to was tall and stocky, with close-cropped hair and the sort of aged, lined face that made him seem exhausted beyond his years. The pursing of his lips was the only deviation from a normal expression he deigned to show, his dark eyes trained on you kept carefully blank, his forehead smooth from any unnatural furrows.

“Well. At any rate, that's what they believed, so that’s why they sent me here,” you said.

“Do you have a cursed technique?” he said. He was a blunt person, this man, evidently seeing no purpose in dancing around subjects and instead preferring to get straight to the point. You shrugged in response.

“I wouldn’t know,” you said.

“That means you likely don’t,” he said, clicking his tongue in disappointment and then crossing his burly forearms across his wide chest. The man was built like a mountain, and you felt so fragile in front of him, as if he could smash you with one step. “At least you can see those ghastly little things.”

“Yes,” you said, pleased to have done at least this one thing right. “Yes, I can!”

“Very good. Then there should be no issues with you enrolling,” he said. “There’s two other first years; you should get along with them well enough.”

“Only two?” you said before you could stop yourself. “Isn’t that — I mean, I’d heard that Japan was the seat of cursed energy, so shouldn’t there be more?”

The man snorted. “You’re an optimistic girl. Sorcerers are a minority no matter where in the world you are. There really are only two. Three, if you’re counted.”

“I see,” you said. “And, um, will you be my teacher?”

“Next year,” he said, his hand roughly thumping down on your shoulder in what was likely meant to be a comforting gesture. “For now, you’re stuck with Hinode.”

“Hinode?” you said. The man let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Kaito Hinode, that insufferable being. He’s the first-year teacher for Tokyo,” he said.

“Oh,” you said. Though you barely knew the man, you had been hoping for the sense of familiarity he would bring. Alone in a place where you recognized no one, at least the man would be someone you could look to as a sort of constant, a variable you somewhat understood. “Thank you…?”

His eyes widened. “Ah. I forgot to introduce myself; forgive me, it’s only that I knew your name already, so I assumed you would know mine. Of course, you’d have no reason to, and I don’t blame you for being confused. I am Masamichi Yaga, the second-year teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu Tech.”

“Thank you, then, Yaga, sir,” you said, swallowing and bowing your head. “I am very grateful for all of the help you’ve given me.”

“It wasn’t ‘help.’ I was just doing my job,” he said. “The higher ups sent me to get you, so you can thank them.”

“Why did they go to such lengths for me?” you said. He actually laughed at the question, and you were sufficiently put-out by his amusement.

“It wasn’t because they particularly cared about you. They’re just desperate for fresh blood. More bodies in the eternal war against curses, you see?” he said.

“That makes sense,” you allowed. After all, if you only had two other classmates, then certainly there was a dearth of people who had the aptitude for sorcery, meaning the higher ups would naturally do as much as they could to foster any available talent, no matter how meager.

“Don’t take it to heart,” Yaga said. “That’s how it is in this world. Anyways, I’ll show you to your dorm room and you can unpack your things. One of your peers will come by tomorrow morning to take you to your classes.”

“Thank you, sir,” you said. He gave you a look out of the corner of his eye as you began to walk.

“You are surprisingly grateful for a girl yanked out of a spoiled life and thrown into a world full of monsters,” he said.

“A spoiled life?” you said. “I guess it could seem that way.”

“Was it not?” he said. You thought back to your time at home, and you frowned slightly, ducking closer to Yaga’s shadow to conceal yourself.

“It was fine. They treated me as well as they knew how to,” you said. Yaga’s severe features softened almost imperceptibly, and he slowed so that you could keep up with him easily.

“That’s the most we can ask for, isn’t it?” he said. Despite his words, you could sense the distaste rolling off of him in waves, wrapping around you like a thorny blanket warding off the old thoughts. Your frown slipped away, replaced with a small smile at the fact that there was even just this one person in the world who cared about what had happened to you.

Your room was small and neat, but it was your own, which made it more than enough. You didn’t have very many possessions, so unpacking your things and hanging up your few photographs did not take very long. There were uniforms already hanging in your closet, the fabrics of which were smooth and liquidy under your fingers, all of them dark-colored like shadows and likely already tailored to fit you.

You thought it might take a while for you to fall asleep, but almost as soon as your cheek touched against the cool silk of your pillowcase, the sun was rising in the east once more. The thought of staying in your bed was tempting, but any pleasure you’d derive from lazing about would likely be canceled out by the shame of one of your new classmates catching you in such a position. So, with a heavy yawn that sent blood rushing to your head, you kicked your blankets off of your legs and resolved to get ready for the day.

The bleary daylight struggling through the curtains was just enough for you to see by, so you did not bother with switching the lamps on — anyways, the dimness was better for your eyes to adjust to. If you had to feel around a little bit, well, that was the price you would pay for comfort.

The daily tasks of washing your face and brushing your teeth and fiddling with your hair were a comfortable routine that you were able to settle into rather mindlessly. Whether here or at home, the act of putting toothpaste on a brush was the same, and you were lulled into a state of relaxation as you milled about, even humming to yourself in a rare fit of joy.

By the time there was a knock on your door, you were completely ready and sitting at your desk, writing a letter you would likely never send. You sprang to your feet and straightened your clothes one last time before opening it, trying your best to seem composed despite your curiosity about who had come to get you.

He was the most dour looking boy you had ever seen in all of your years of living, his very posture radiating exhaustion and gloom. There were heavy bags under his brown eyes, and his blond hair fell limply in his face, parted neatly above his left eyebrow though it was. Though upon closer inspection he really did seem to be your age, some quality of his made it appear as though he was eons your elder. Perhaps it was the permanent scowl, or perhaps the disheartened hunch of his shoulders, as if he were burdened by the weight of many centuries.

“I’m Kento Nanami,” he said. His voice was a dull, deep monotone, exactly what you had expected from him. “Hinode told me to pick you up. You’re the new first year?”

“Yes,” you said, offering him your hand to shake. He raised an eyebrow but took it without hesitation, his grip firm and assured. “Y/N L/N. Oh, I know it’s polite to refer to people by their last names here, but I’d prefer if you just called me Y/N. It’s what I’m used to, you see, since that’s how it’s done where I’m from.”

“Sure,” he said. “As long as you continue to call me Nanami.”

“Yes, I will definitely do that,” you said, having already planned on doing so and seeing no point in irritating him on your first meeting. He seemed to be the stricter sort, a very by-the-book sort of person, and if he really was to be one of your only two classmates, then it would not do for him to think you a boor upon first impressions.

“Thanks,” he said. “Did you eat breakfast? No? You wouldn’t have. We’ll be late for class if we stop by the dining hall, so…here, have this.”

He fished a granola bar out of his pocket and handed it to you delicately. It was lumpy and misshapen, but the wrapper was intact if not wrinkled, so with a shrug, you ripped it open and took a bite.

“Thank you,” you said once you had finished the entire thing and your hunger had been staved off for the moment. “You didn’t have to give that to me.”

He gave you an odd look. “It was a mushed up granola bar from my pocket. I don’t know how much gratitude it really warrants, but I guess you’re welcome?”

“I would’ve been hungry until lunch without it,” you explained. “So I’d say it warrants at least a little gratitude.”

Nanami wilted, his already glum countenance greying even more at your words. You furrowed your brow, hoping you had not offended him, but all he did was open the black bag he was carrying and produce a sandwich for you.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “You can have it.”

“Ah, what is that?” you said.

“A sandwich? Do they not have those where you’re from?” he said.

“Of course they have sandwiches where I’m from. I mean, why are you giving it to me?” you said. He pouted and looked away.

“I thought you’d be a lot more annoying,” he said. “But I guess you’re pretty nice. Sorry for not getting you early enough for you to be able to have breakfast.”

“It’s alright,” you said. “Is this yours? I don’t want to take it if you’ll be hungry without it.”

“No, it’s actually something one of the older students made for me,” he said, rubbing the back of the neck. “I don’t really trust him, though, so I wasn’t really planning on eating it.”

“So you gave it to me?” you said with a snort. You hadn’t tasted anything strange in the sandwich, so you didn’t feel alarmed in continuing to eat it, but it remained that there was some humor in Nanami not trusting the sandwich enough to eat yet letting you do so without remorse.

“It’s not like that!” he said. “Er, well, you see, it’s not that the older student would do anything bad to the sandwich — rather, he would think that me eating it would amount to a declaration of friendship, and as I’ve vowed to stay far away from him, that’d be somewhat inconvenient.”

“I get it,” you said. “Is this older student some kind of a criminal?”

“No,” Nanami said.

“A bully?”

“Hm, not necessarily. At least, he’s never seriously cruel, though he does joke around quite a bit.”

“Um…exceptionally stupid?”

“He’s decently smart.”

“Then why do you dislike him so much?” you said, completely befuddled now. Nanami scowled fiercely, crossing his arms and sticking his nose haughtily in the air.

“He’s fucking annoying, that’s why!” he said, and though by all rights he should’ve sounded whiny just then, his voice remained at that same blank pitch. “He might be strong, but don’t be fooled, Y/N, he and that best friend of his are so incredibly immature it’s actually laughable. You’d do well to stay away from them.”

“I will try my best,” you said. You were all but forced to trust Nanami on this one, since you didn’t know anyone else who could confirm or deny his opinion, but you weren’t too disappointed by that. He seemed to be the unbiased sort, and despite the fact that he had almost made you survive the entire morning on nothing more than a single granola bar, you sensed you could trust him a little. “Though the sandwich was admittedly really very good.”

“Don’t tell him you think so,” Nanami warned you. “He’s that kind of guy.”

“Hm?” you said. “What kind of guy?”

“The kind that’s good at everything without trying and consequently has an ego the size of Tokyo,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to imagine what he’d be like if he heard that you liked his cooking.”

“I’ll pretend like I thought the sandwich was horrible should we meet,” you promised.

“Smart plan,” he said, pausing as you reached the entrance to a classroom and giving you an intense stare. It was almost frightening, seeing the lifeless Nanami glare at you, and you shrank back. “Listen. Our teacher, he’s a little strange, alright? So just — just ignore it. He’s as strong as he is ridiculous, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go along with whatever he says!”

“Um, okay,” you said, all sorts of thoughts brewing in your mind. What manner of person could prompt such a reaction from Nanami? Was your teacher a sadist? Did he really enjoy torturing his poor students? Should you be afraid? Even Yaga had called him an insufferable being, so maybe you’d do well to be cautious.

There were two people in the room. One was a dark haired boy with large, innocent brown eyes sitting at a desk and cheering on the other, who was chugging a bottle neatly labelled bleach. The man drinking had curly black hair and thick brows, which were furrowed over beetle-bright eyes. With a satisfied sigh, he slammed the bottle on the desk, leading the boy to whoop in excitement.

“Congratulations, Hinode, sir! That’s a new record!” he said. Hinode — as in your teacher, Kaito Hinode — high-fived the boy, the smack resounding through the room like thunder. Nanami scoffed under his breath at the display, quiet enough that only you could hear, and then he cleared his throat.

“Hinode, sir, I’ve brought the new student. Her name is Y/N L/N,” he said. Hinode and the other boy turned to look at you and Nanami before turning back to one another and squealing in unison.

“Aww! Nanami is with a woman!”

“Aren’t they sweet together, Haibara? Aren’t they?”

“Yes, yes!”

“What are they talking about?” you said. Nanami rolled his eyes.

“You can just feel free to pretend like they’re not talking at all. You’ll find it a lot easier to respect Hinode if you do,” he said.

“By the way, was he really drinking bleach earlier?” you said, motioning towards the now-empty bottle. Nanami slapped his palm against his forehead.

“He’s like an alcoholic,” he said. “Hinode, sir, you should stop drinking so much. You don’t need any excess cursed energy right now, so what was the reason for wasting perfectly good bleach like that?”

“I’ll have you know that Haibara here was timing me to see how fast I could drain the bottle,” he said. “The faster I can drink on missions, the faster I can react, right? So it’s for research purposes!”

“Sure,” Nanami said. “Whatever you say, sir. Now, you really should introduce yourself to Y/N before continuing to scare her.”

“Right! Y/N, my name is Kaito Hinode and I’ll be your teacher while you’re a first year at the Tokyo campus of Jujutsu Tech. My cursed technique involves drinking poison to boost my cursed energy reserves, which is why I was drinking that bleach just now,” he said.

“Oh, alright,” you said, relieved that he wasn’t the sort of person to just drink bleach for the humor of it.

“And I’m Yu Haibara! I’m your other classmate!” the boy said.

“It’s nice to meet you, Haibara. Please call me Y/N,” you said. He saluted.

“Will do! And it’s nice to meet you as well. I’m so excited to have another classmate!” he said. His cheer was contagious, and you could not help but beam, matching his energy with some of your own.

“Do the both of you have innate techniques?” you said. After hearing about Hinode’s technique, you were invested in learning more about the different ways that sorcery could manifest in a person, and there was no better place to start than the two boys you would spend the next few years learning with.

“I do,” Nanami said. “I forcibly create a weak spot at the ratio point of seven and three.”

You blinked. “Huh?”

“It’s relatively simple,” he said, picking up a piece of chalk and drawing something faintly resembling a whale before dividing it up into ten equal pieces and circling one of the divisions. “See this? Seven and three. If I strike at this spot, the effects are devastating.”

“It’s much easier to see it drawn out compared to when you explained it with words,” you admitted sheepishly. He did not quite smile, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards in approval.

“I don’t have a technique,” Haibara said with a dramatic sigh. “I just reinforce my body with cursed energy and fight hand to hand. It works well enough.”

“More than well enough, since you’ve made it so far,” Hinode said. “I won’t have any of my pupils putting themselves down — you’re definitely not weak just because you lack a technique.”

“That’s true, sir, thank you. What about you, Y/N? Do you have a technique?” Haibara said. You shrugged and then shook your head.

“I don’t think I do, which, according to Yaga, means I don’t. We’re similar in that sense, Haibara,” you said. Hinode squinted at you incredulously.

“Did he really tell you you don’t have a technique?” he said. “It’s obvious you do.”

“Really?” you said. Though you had not been sad about lacking an innate technique, it was nice to hear that Hinode believed you had one. Like a validation, almost, a proof that there was a reason you had been sent to learn sorcery.

“Hummingbird’s Blessing,” he said. “It’s only manifested once in recorded history, and even that was centuries ago, so I don’t blame him for not recognizing it, but it is a technique.”

“How do you know about it, then?” you said. Hinode winced.

“You’ll think I’m a nerd, but the truth is that drinking poison enhances my perception and my memory, both of which came into play in this. One: I had just read a book about extinct techniques the other day, and Hummingbird’s Blessing was briefly mentioned in it. Two: my temporarily enhanced senses allowed me to see the signs of your technique relatively quickly,” he said.

“I guess that checks out,” you said. “What does Hummingbird’s Blessing do? Is it a good technique?”

Hinode pursed his lips. “Well, uh…the book just said that it allows you to borrow the strength of the hummingbird.”

“What does that mean? It’s not like hummingbirds are particularly strong. Actually, I’d even go so far as to call them weak,” you said.

“Right,” Hinode said awkwardly. “It’s okay! Plenty of people with substandard techniques learn to use things like cursed tools to make up for their shortcomings. For example, there’s a sorcerer named Mei Mei who’s so fearsome with just her battle axe that she rarely even uses her technique when fighting, and she’s still one of the strongest sorcerers in the current era.”

“Yeah, plus don’t forget about Kusakabe!” Haibara chimed in. “He doesn’t even have an innate technique, but he’s going to become a grade one sorcerer soon. It’s possible to be strong without having a special grade technique.”

“Exactly,” Hinode said.

“I guess it’s better than having nothing at all,” you said.

“That’s the spirit,” Nanami said boredly, though this was likely easier for him to say as he had an actually effective technique and therefore would not have to work as hard as you and Haibara would to be strong.

“Say! Let’s let that be our first lesson, then,” Hinode said. He must’ve picked up on the way your hopes had surged and then been quashed, and was now doing whatever he could to cheer you up. “Come on, you three. Let’s go to the cursed tools warehouse.”

“Ugh,” Nanami said. “What a hike.”

“Y/N can’t start training if she doesn’t have a weapon of her own,” Hinode explained.

“Do you think I can stock up on stuff, too?” Haibara said, already ten steps ahead of the rest of you. “I know I prefer my fists, but still, it would be good to have a dagger or two at hand, don’t you think? Right, right, Hinode, sir?”

“Yes, sure, if you find something you like and which the Big Three Sorcerer Families won’t throw a fit over you taking, you can have it,” Hinode said. Haibara pumped his fist in the air.

“Alright! Y/N, this is going to be so fun. Think of it like a huge shopping trip!” he said, waiting for you to catch up to him and then throwing a companionable arm around your shoulder.

“I’m very excited,” you said genuinely. “Say, what did Hinode mean when he said you couldn’t take anything that the Big Three Sorcerer Families would be upset about? Who are they?”

“I forgot you weren’t from around here, so of course you wouldn’t know who they are,” Haibara said, his arm dropping back to his side as he frowned in thought. “They run jujutsu society, essentially. Gojo, Kamo, and Zenin: they’re the most powerful, both in terms of technique and influence, so what they say goes. Most of the cursed tools in the warehouse were found by them, so they belong to them until a sorcerer comes along to use them.”

“They’re fine with random people using their weapons?” you said. “If I was that powerful, I wouldn’t want anyone touching my stuff.”

Haibara chuckled. “You underestimate quite how much ‘stuff’ they’ve got stockpiled. Most of the tools never see the light of the day, even with sorcerers combing through the warehouse at leisure. As long as their stronger weapons are left alone, they don’t care that much, although all of the tools from the warehouse have the condition that they must be returned to the warehouse upon the user’s death.”

“That makes sense,” you said, shuddering at the morbid provision. “It probably only benefits them for more sorcerers to be competent at their jobs.”

“Exactly,” Haibara said. “It’s so cool that I get to teach you about all of this stuff. I feel like a tour guide. Am I doing well?”

“You’ve been very helpful so far,” you assured him.

“Thanks! But enough of my talking. What was it like where you went to school before?” he said. You thought back to your old life, which seemed so far away now that it might as well have belonged to a different girl entirely.

“It was nice,” you said. “Normal. I was friends with people who couldn’t even see curses. I didn’t know anything about sorcery; well, to be fair, I still only barely do. Outside of Japan, there’s very few people that actually understand how curses and techniques and all work, and there are no well-defined governing bodies, so misinformation runs rampant. But regardless, I was the daughter of a wealthy man and a beautiful woman, which meant things came easily to me and people liked me very much. That is to say, my schooling and life were entirely mundane.”

“You speak in the past tense,” Haibara said. He was far more perceptive than you had pegged him for, and you smiled bitterly.

“I’ve always been able to see the curses, of course, but when I was younger, it was explained away as me being a little girl with an overactive imagination. Actually, believe it or not, it was seen as something endearing about me,” you said.

“Did that change or something?” Haibara said. “Wait. That was a dumb question. Of course it did.”

“Yes, it did change. As I grew older and older, it became less and less excusable for me to speak up about what I saw. I learned to keep my mouth shut, but it wasn’t enough — my parents always feared me, were always wary around me, treated me like some monster that they had the misfortune of housing. Their final straw was when I was nearly hit by a car because I had run into the road trying to avoid a curse swiping at me. They took me to the nearest sorcerer; he told me I had a hummingbird in place of my heart, which I guess was probably his attempt at describing Hummingbird’s Blessing, and advised me to be sent to Japan. My parents were grateful that there was a reason that their daughter was such a freak. They didn’t question the man telling them to send me to another country. They just…they just did it,” you said.

Haibara’s face scrunched in sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you said. “I don’t blame them. If I was in their shoes, I likely would’ve done the same. It’s hard to be brave about things you can’t understand. Considering that, they were good to me.”

“If you say so,” he said, though he clearly didn’t agree. His attention shifted, and his demeanor abruptly switched as he brightened and pointed at the door you had finally reached. “We’re here!”

“Step aside, Haibara,” Hinode said. “Let me unlock it.”

Haibara rocked back and forth on his heels in anticipation; it was a comical sight, especially next to Nanami, whose shoulders were slumped in defeat as he dejectedly kicked the toe of his left boot against the ground. He had been reluctant to go from the start, and it seemed he had not gotten any happier about the visit during the walk there.

The door creaked as it opened, leading into a vast, cavern-like room stacked with shelves upon shelves of weapons and tools. Some radiated power, while others seemed almost innocuous and harmless, but there was no doubt that all of them possessed at least a modicum of cursed energy. You understood now what Haibara had meant when he said that the Big Three Sorcerer Families didn’t care about a couple of their cursed tools being shared with random sorcerers — in fact, you doubted they would even notice if one or two dozen went missing.

“I know it can seem intimidating, but just close your eyes and trust your cursed energy to find whatever is best for you. It’s an old-fashioned way of doing things, but there’s nothing wrong with going back to the basics; after all, this way, your ego is removed from the picture entirely,” Hinode continued.

“How do I do that?” you said.

“Trust your cursed energy?” he said. You nodded. “It’s the same as feeling your pulse. You aren’t aware of it until you think about it, are you? That’s why you haven’t been able to sense the flow until now. It’ll take some time for you to be able to really harness and use it for anything meaningful, but finding a weapon is rudimentary enough.”

It wasn’t that specific of advice, but you found it was enough. When you really concentrated on trying to feel your cursed energy, you suddenly were unable to escape it. It was everywhere, swirling around you, flitting between your fingers, perching on your limbs, preening at your neck. Hinode was right in that you could not actually direct it to do anything, but you were aware of it now, which, according to your teacher, was sufficient for the moment.

With your eyes screwed tightly shut, you inched through the warehouse. Your cursed energy seemed indifferent to every single tool you passed, and it must have been at least five minutes of walking at a snail’s pace before something finally happened.

You weren’t sure what weapon had sparked the change, but whatever it was, your cursed energy sang in recognition, spiking and aching for the cursed tool, which was on the shelf directly to your left. Reaching out your hands, you felt about until you grasped the cold metal of what could only be a sword. Opening your eyes when you did so, you pulled it out into the light, your cursed energy settling and fading back into the depths of your consciousness, something that you only thought about when reminded to.

It was a sword, as you had assumed. The hilt was made of ivory, the crossguard a warm silver with intricate floral designs made of enamel inlaid into it. The long, slender blade was white and iridescent with cursed energy that sparked when you touched it. The scabbard beside it was rich, dark wood, mounted in gold that was inlaid with the same enamel flower motifs as the crossguard, though on an even finer scale, the patterns more detailed and the colors even brighter.

“It’s so beautiful,” you breathed. You had never thought you would describe a sword with such an adjective, but there was really no other word for it. It was beautiful, as much a work of art as a weapon for battle.

“Special Grade Cursed Tool, Sword of Syrinx,” Hinode said with a laugh. “You have expensive taste.”

“It's a special grade?” you said, almost dropping it.

“At one point, it must’ve deserved the designation, I’m sure. See, it belonged to some sorcerer from the Edo period who supposedly imbued their cursed technique into it while it was being forged, so theoretically it should be a very powerful tool — hence the ranking. However, either that sorcerer was exceptionally weak or no one’s come around that’s managed to really utilize the sword properly, because so far, it’s never been to anyone’s tastes for anything more than tasteful decoration,” he explained.

Your grip tightened around the hilt. “I want it.”

“Are you sure? It’s not a weapon that’ll hold your hand. I mean, no weapon will literally hold your hand — if you’re incompetent, you’re incompetent — but some weapons are easier to use for beginners than others. The Sword of Syrinx, however, has proven useless even in the hands of trained swordsmen such as Atsuya Kusakabe. Do you really think you will be the one to prove it wrong?” Hinode said carefully.

His words were convincing, but something about the Sword of Syrinx called out to you, a mournful humming of energy that begged for you to keep it at your side. It remained, too, that your own cursed energy hadn’t reacted to any of the numerous other weapons in the warehouse, and that had to count for something.

“It was meant for me,” you said, with more conviction than you had ever said anything in your life. “I will use it.”

“Pretty sword, Y/N, are you going to take it?” Haibara said, appearing from behind a shelf, haphazardly balancing stacks of knives in both of his hands. He peered at the sword and then at you, blinking owlishly without care for the precarious situation of what he was holding.

“Be careful with those!” Nanami barked at him before turning to you and raising his eyebrows when he saw the sword in your hands. “The Sword of Syrinx? You’re more ambitious than I realized.”

“It’s not like that. I’m not trying to prove anything. I just…like it,” you said.

“That’s all well and good, but will the clans give up a special grade item to a first year student?” he said. “I mean, sure, the Sword of Syrinx is pretty useless, but it is still a special grade, and you’re an untested sorcerer who — no offense — has shown no indication that you’ll actually be able to wield it.”

“I think Y/N will be able to fight with it,” Haibara defended. You weren’t sure what you had done to earn his loyalty already, but you were immensely grateful for it.

“Ordinarily, that would be a problem, but if she’s really set on using it, then I think things will work out for the better. She’ll have to convince the current owner to let her have it, but I doubt it’ll take very much effort. After all, he’s very, ah, accessible,” Hinode said, smirking just the tiniest bit.

“You don’t mean to say —” Nanami broke off, face pale with horror.

“Say what?” you said politely.

“The owner of that sword is the older student I was talking about earlier,” he said. “The annoying one.”

“The one that made the sandwich!” you said, picking up who he was referring to almost instantly.

“Yes, him. You’ll have to convince him to let you have it,” he said.

“Okay, but why does it even belong to him?” you said. “Why does he have more of a claim to it than I do if we’re both just regular students?”

“The difference is that you are comparatively a normal person, and he is one of the strongest sorcerers alive,” Hinode said. “As well as one of the most highly respected. It’s not that his personality is all too dignified and worthy of admiration; rather, your upperclassman who currently owns the Sword of Syrinx — and who I’m sure Nanami has warned you to stay away from — is none other than the scion and sole representative of the Gojo clan, Satoru.”

#kashimo x reader #kashimo x you #kashimo x y/n #canon au #reader insert #m1ckeyb3rry writes #hurricanes / hummingbirds

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sweetestpopcorn · 2 months

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Hi popcorn! Firstly I love your fics, they are such a wild ride lol and you can tell how much effort you’ve put into them. I found it interesting to have the Aegon/Helaena match be suggested by Otto, I’d always imagined it as Alicent’s idea to show their “Targaryen-ness” to the world. In your fic, who was Alicent considering for Argon’s wife instead do you think, since she knew he would someday need a “Queen”. Or was she just not thinking that far ahead lol

Hi there 😊 and sorry for this delay.

Thank you so much for your beyond kind words, and yes, it was much effort 🥲

I do believe the idea came from Otto in canon (Fire&Blood - asoiaf) so I wanted to keep it the same here. Otto was always the "head" behind the Greens, the one actually trying to do something and to move the pieces to first try to name Aegon as heir - before being dismissed in 109 AC - and then trying to name him king - in 129 AC. Alicent was always too preoccupied with finding ways to insult and spread rumours about Rhaenyra - e.g., "Do keep trying, eventually you might get one who looks like you." and "Ser Criston protects the princess from her enemies but who protects the princess from Ser Criston" - but she actually did very little that was useful to their cause. The only thing she actually did that was a smart move was getting Criston Cole to their side, but again, this is painted more as something to spite Rhaenyra, and having a good ally comes second.

I can actually see it being maybe part Otto for wanting to give Aegon a Targaryen wife to have Targaryen children - as noted by Lord Beesbury it did seem like not being full Targaryen/being less Targaryen than Rhaenyra could be used against him so this would be a smart move - and part maybe Eustace who was the court's confessor and liked Aegon as an attempt to get him to behave (i.e., stop sleeping around so much and being so lazy). Indeed, this is posed in "Fire and Blood" as one of the reasons to wed Aegon to Helaena, that being a husband and father could "calm him down" in a sense. Job well failed as we know, but to his credit, we have no evidence of Aegon mistreating Helaena, and actually evidence that he seemed to care for her a little bit (e.g., being jealous when Jacaerys asked to dance with her) and also for his children. He went half mad himself when Jaehaerys died, drinking to numb his pain, so he wasn't an unfeeling monster by any sense.

At the end of the day though, the final decision belonged to the King, but no doubt the Small Council would support this, even because, the vast majority for them with the death of Lord Lyonel Strong in 120 AC where Greens, and this was what Viserys decided. And mind you, he had had a 13 year old wife who had problems in the birthing bed for being bedded to soon, but that didn't stop him from wedding 13 year old Helaena off to Aegon.

Father of the Year 🙄

As for the second part of your question, Aegon was still only 15. I don't think Alicent was considering who he was to marry just yet.

PS: Asoiaf canon and characters only, so please leave the lizard redacted show out of it. Thanks!

#otto hightower #canon otto hightower #alicent hightower #canon alicent hightower #not the crying one the karen one #viserys i targaryen #canon viserys targaryen #aegon ii targaryen #canon aegon ii targaryen #helaena targaryen #canon helaena targaryen #the rogue prince #the princess and the queen #fire and blood #valyrianscrolls #pre asoiaf #asoiaf canon #popcorn answers

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leastdatablebracket · 8 months

Text

ROUND 1, MATCH 53

Propaganda under the cut!

Baxter Ward

That Boy Needs Therapy

He ghosts you after the end of step 3, even if you try and date him.

look i love my boy, but baxter literally dumps you outside of your childhood home, shuts the door in your face even if you’re sobbing in the middle of the street, and then ghosts you for five years and then pretends he doesn’t care about you when you meet again. this is even if he’s aware that he’s your first love (if you chose to make him that). he literally says that you have bad taste in men if you choose to date him again before you’ve talked anything over shshhshssbb. love him but he needs a therapist waaaaayyyyy more than he needs a partner.

Ryouta Kazama

ok so i havent actually seen all of his route cause the game's only available in japanese and the streamer i watched play the game switched to a different guy like halfway through the game n i seriously doubt anyone else is gonna submit him i just need someone else to know about this so! ryouta and the player character (doesnt have a canon name but is given the nickname of marii by the two girl friends) were friends in kindergarten with ryouta having a very blatant crush on her n wished on a pinwheel for them to get married when theyre older he then moves to england as soon as he gets old and he n marii dont interact at all until nine years later when he comes back for high school and is still very blatantly down bad for a girl he last talked to when they were six but has spent the last nine years still thinking about (theres something in the game you can unlock called adv events where you get the love interests pov on moments in their lives and one of ryouta's reveals that even though he couldve he never sent marii any letters but very much did spend all those years thinking about her) n a lot of his interactions with marii are weird n circle back to him being obsessed with them being friends as kids and like a first it just kind of seems like oh he hasnt gotten over his puppy love yet lol but it is kind of like acknowledged that this is a weird thing in game as if marii gets his gift in the christmas exchange ryouta will say something about it being fate n marii pointedly ignores that n is like wow what a coincidence that we got eachother's gifts (not in an oblivious heroine way btw ryouta's straight up is like oh ok ur ignoring what i said) n he treats her like shes naive n completely innocent which like marii is cause shes a mostly blank slate otome heroine but its still noteworthy as being weird due to his aforementioned memorialization of them being friends in kindergarten n that none of the other love interests really treat marii that way or really make note of those being notable traits of hers that often while its something ryouta does frequently anyway so the moment that made my thoughts on ryouta switch from "lol hes kind of weird" to "i want to study him like a bug" is that His Bedroom Is The Exact Same As It Was When He Was A Six Year Old Child In Kindergarten And Hes Keeping It That Way On Purpose like genuinely thats immediately read to me as horror movie shit imagine reuniting with a childhood friend of urs who keeps bringing up stuff you did as kids (that you dont really remember cause you were like six n are now in high school) n making comments about how naive and easy to read you are n gets weirdly jealous about other guys being buddy buddy with you and then like a year or so after hes moved back n you've becomed friends again he invites you to hang out at his house so you go over and then His Room Looks Like It Belongs To A Six Year Old and hes telling you about how his room hasnt been altered (beyond cleaning) at all since he left n since hes come back hes chosen to keep it exactly the same n hes telling you this like its a reasonable thing literally what the fuck also while ryouta is the posterboy childhood friend love interest of this game theres another love interest who was both ryouta n marii's childhood friend and you'll never believe this he treats her like a normal person and is just a normal guy who barely remembers being friends in kindergarten and him n marii only learn that theyre childhood friends cause of ryouta being mildly exasperated that neither of them really remembers them being a trio when they were six theres definitely like worse love interests i could submit from this series (like the teachers n one of the three secret love interests in the second game whos route is just straight up him emotionally abusing the heroine) but im submitting ryouta cause his reasons for sucking as a romantic partner are bizarre n live rent free in my mind

#round 1

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suhmayzooka · 1 year

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19–Rant about a change they made to a character of your choice.

jason todd's everything

OKAY i mentioned this briefly here but i do think one of the worst things done to jason was actually done to willis and catherine todd: namely, making willis a basic abusive drunk deadbeat criminal, and making catherine...Just an Addict

i hate RHATO for many reasons (i only touched the tip of the surface here but tldr I Hate Scott Lobdell so fucking MUCH), only one of them being the absolute disgusting retcons to the todd family. thank god for RCO so i don't have to give a sexual harasser a cent providing these screenshots

from rhato 2011 #0, our introduction to catherine and willis was catherine in labor crying "get it out already" because she "really needed a cigarette" and willis already jumping out of the picture to flirt with the hospital staff

willis drives drunk and runs someone over, goes back to catherine, fights, gets arrested, leaving jason to take care of catherine who's addicted to drugs, etc. this is all a very, very basic story that has been told over and over, because (unfortunately) many people have experience growing up in this kind of environment. especially in poverty. perhaps if written by someone who understood poverty, crime, drugs, addiction, the cyclical nature of it all, this may have been told well. unfortunately scott lobdell is a piece of shit and DC can't handle sensitive subject matter, so DC has given us the backstory that, i reiterate, REAL PEOPLE EXPERIENCE (i know because i know real people who had this upbringing—poverty, drugs, abuse, violence) as an excuse to make jason 'street trash' and dehumanize low income families.

but lynx, you just said that you know real people whose lives are reflected by this, shouldn't this be valid representation for them? isn't it realistic?

sure.... maybe, if all the surrounding stuff about jason's story doesn't make this all so CLASSIST and gross in retrospect.

it's not enough that jason escaped the cycle of poverty.... he had to be saved by batman lest he become a Bad Criminal like his father, because that's the only possible outcome to this. there's no reason willis was abusive or drunk or a criminal beyond the fact that he's poor, that he's a 'street rat.'

(side note, can some fans like,,, cool off calling jason a 'street rat' all the time? it's dehumanizing, and like. you know. there are real life people in these situations, they're not 'street rats,' they're the results of a failing system that perpetuates poverty. your anger should not be with 'street rats' but with the governments and the system that leaves vulnerable people behind while lining the pockets of millionaires and billionaires who won't ever step foot into east harlem or brownsville. go serve soup at the bowery for one day and look into the eyes of people stuck into the failing systems, of families coming in with their kids who are trying to do what they can to survive, they're not 'street rats' they're evidence that leaders don't give a shit. your privilege is showing. i digress).

the thing is... making willis and catherine like this isn't bad on its face. before i read DITF, i assumed this characterization was always like that, since both canon and fanon never seemed to indicate any differently.

OH how wrong i was. as i mentioned before, one thing about DC comics that i find... weird... is how comics from before 2000 can be more progressive or sympathetic than comics from the past 20 years.

THIS is how catherine and willis todd were APPARENTLY introduced originally, from batman #426 (part one of DITF):

"her name was catherine todd, a good woman who probably loved her son deeply, only wanted the best for him. willis todd probably loved jason also. maybe that's why he drifted into crime, hoping to give his son a better life. the poor fool realized too late that those kinds of shortcuts never pan out. catherine todd's life was cut short by a disease that didn't care just how much love she had in her heart. jason's dad fell victim to the vicious gangster he was working for, two-face."

wow! so from this... it seems that willis todd wasn't a piece of shit criminal, but someone who turned to crime out of desperation. to give jason a "better life." shocking.... this is ..... more in line with how poverty actually makes people turn to crime. being poor doesn't make someone turn evil just to be evil.

POV you're willis todd. your wife is terminally ill (and, i want to remind international DC fans, gotham is based in new jersey. no free healthcare. no universal basic income. if you want to be precise about when this specific comic was written, RONALD REAGAN was president. think about the circumstances going on). you have a kid. you are unemployed, and there aren't many work opportunities around you.

do you relocate to metropolis, since that city seems better than gotham? with what money?? most of what you do have is pooled with your wife's money to fund her medical bills, but remember this is america and the costs are piling up. additionally, you have to pay for your kid's necessities like food and clothes. you're not going to find an office job making more than minimum wage.

two-face comes along and, being a criminal, can pay you better than working at a random warehouse can. you just go along and follow his orders, and sure it's dangerous and you know you can be arrested but your priorities in life are catherine (until she dies) and then after that, your kid. to willis, and indeed many real parents who find themselves in this situation, crime is probably the most immediate solution; whether willis dies or gets arrested isn't as important as making sure he can put food on the table for just one more night.

let's just go back to catherine—i've seen some people speculate that "the disease" was actually just a euphemism for drugs and the comic was trying to be vague about that. here's how I would handle it if I worked at DC: catherine was sick from some terminal illness, but couldn't afford to pay the ungodly medical bills, so she turns to illegal drugs. you think living in high poverty just makes people turn to nonmedical opioid (the 'opioid crisis') because they're evil ne'er-do-well drug addicts? no!

NOW let's get to jason. he's already an orphan when bruce meets him, stealing the batmobile's tires not out of an inherent evilness within him but because he needs money to survive. he says it himself, he doesn't want to be a criminal! did willis want to be a criminal? did catherine want to die? no! from batman #409:

"i don't wanna learn to be no crook. i just boost what it takes to survive..."

everything about this could make for a compelling story and why i hated HATED HATED cheer so much. jason KNOWS the relationship between poverty and crime because he's LIVED IT, more than bruce could ever understand.

jason is adamantly AGAINST the systems in power BECAUSE HE'S SEEN oppression and injustice. he's lived it.

making willis abusive severely diminishes any sort of sympathetic connection jason could have to petty criminals...which makes no sense because he was one. jason should not be killing random thieves or henchmen, his issues should always be with the people in power. including in crime. note that he DOESN'T go on an anti-drug, anti-crime crusade in UTRH (which, as a whole comic, does contain some war on crime propaganda, but overall miles better than the bad parents retcon). he DOESN'T think that all criminals deserve death; his issue with batman ISN'T that gotham is too full of criminals that should be killed, but if you read the retcons and the abusive willis todd it's easy to interpret that (URBAN LEGENDS CHEER MY BEHATED).

i think lost days should be included in every printing of UTRH because of how much emphasis it places on jason's compassion for the downtrodden; he's not just murdering people because hee hee the lazarus pit made him evillll but because they're oppressing others; he kills people in positions of power who are abusing the systems in place. (NIGHTWING ANNUAL 2021 MY BEHATED)

so much of that is just... it just doesn't come off the same if willis was abusive at the start.

now. even after my rant, i want to say there's an upcoming fan film about jason's upbringing as an "abused street kid", HOWEVER the creator has discussed many times that this is based on his own personal experience so i have a lot of hope that it'll be less misery porn than what DC wrote.

salty comics ask game!

#yes i watch many red hood fan films i have a whole playlist. some are pretty fun!#if anyone wants fan film recs i can provide a list. i think i've watched enough to do so #dc #lynxreadscomics #meta #asked #jason todd #benbamboozled #moots

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aaeds · 4 months

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I've had it with HS^2

I don't make fanart or content for this fandom anymore, but after putting on "Let's Read Homestuck" in the background while I've been working I've returned to having a few Alpha kid WIPs. I have also returned to scouring the tags for cool fanart and opinions.

This is not the fandom I remember back when I was reading the comic partway through Act 2.

I cannot say I'm inspired by Homestuck^2, and to roughly quote another user - I don't know who the audience for this comic is for. The epilogues themselves were a disaster and the Candy/Meat timeline idea appears to exist to create even more drama with lackluster stakes.

There's no real clear 'goal' or core to the story besides...the fact there are two universes. And we have Ultimate-self villains.

It reads like bad fanfiction, that's nothing new - the problem is I don't think the authors are writing with irony. The series has turned into a ship-heavy metal bat beating older fans to death with teen drama and character assassination.

The current team clearly has no interest or plans for Jade for example, and in the recent update with Aradia and Robo-Dave discussing time travel - it really seemed like her body being on the floor was an excellent time to rehash several existential conversation points we ALREADY had in the original Homestuck about stable timeloops, dead Daves and how he uses his Godtier powers.

Outside of several unnecessary pages of dialogue, it was disturbing that no part of Ultimate Dave would help move Jade off the fucking floor while he and Aradia sleep in lawn chairs watching her until she became 'The Muse' It is so out of character. Pre-retcon Dave died protecting her body, Davesprite destroyed his relationship with both John and Jade knowing they would be reunited with the 'real' Dave. He was a true knight when he felt it was appropriate and mattered. But now we have a Dave who is back to having an existential crisis about his powers, life and death - and his sexuality. By bringing up dead Dave's Marriage from the epilogues. He didn't even mention Jade by name, presuming the reader read at least the wiki article on the disastrous self indulgent mess.

But that was all he had to say on that dead Dave. Just about not loving Jade. No one else, doesn't even bring up Karkat or Terezi, let alone any of his friends. Talking about Sollux for half a second I'm convinced was just to bring up a failed marriage and apparently 'not wanting to be gay'? This isn't Dave anymore, and if that's the point I want to know why we as readers should care because I promise you coming fresh off Act 6 for the third time these are not the same characters. Davepeta had a better outlook on what it means to experience doomed selves, whether they were chipper about it because of Nepeta's influence is neither here nor there. No matter what Davesprite did, it was in character for what Dave would have done because he knows himself. When it meant self sabotage so his friends could go back to the Alpha timeline Dave, that was a circumstance, and an act any Dave would have made because of the way he thought at 13 years old. That doesn't mean he didn't change, or would never change.

I don't think the furthest ring has rattled the kids in a glass jar hard enough to give them critical brain damage through every doomed timeline that they're different people. At least not in the way Robo-Dave is, or frankly anything in the Epilogue.

I'm done with the writers treating Jade as a dead animal to stuff Calliope into for a milquetoast attempt at a plot device without treating that as a joke in itself.

No Homestuck isn't a serious comic, but there's a reason Cascade broke several websites while Beyond Canon can barely drudge a handful of tagged UPD8 replies. Its audience is small and unchallenged. We don't need to bring back the use of the hard R to be invested in a storyline, but if all you're interested in in a piece of media is gender identity and sexuality well you've got it. That said, neither are a genre on their own.

HS^2 lacks one and direction and it's just going to keep dragging its carcass through the dirt until every unseen pairing in panel is churned through the fanfic machine.

#homestuck #rant #DNI to argue or debate #This is my opinion and it won't change to look at it through deranged twitter specs.#Where the hell is this story even going anymore are we going to scratch the retcon? Merge everything? If Dirk is the true villain #Why does it feel like doesn't matter or that there's no character progression #It's a fanon fanfic come to life and I thought it would get better but this is it.#The unparalleled amount of Davekat at the expense Jade as some kind of foil has me howling.

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isitoctober212015yet · 1 year

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MOB PSYCHO 100 WARRIOR CATS AU WHOOOOOO

I've been chugging along at these designs for ages and I am so proud of them and stoked to finally share them AA if you have any questions FEEL FREE to ask me I have been plotting and drawing this au so much (have many things still in the works to post!!)

AU Summary: A Long time ago a strange interloper claiming to be a Starclan warrior took over the clan (Dimple/Mosswish). He gave them a prophecy from the ancient times of a cat that would one day be destined to take his place as the True leader of the clan.

Years later, a stray (Reigen/Weaselflight) found two kittens (Mob & Ritsu/Sproutmask & Thistlestrike) abandoned in the trash and took them in. If anyone asked he would claim it was just so that he wouldn't have anyone's death on his conscience but nobody ever asked. He staked out a human neighborhood and left them on the doorstep and once he saw them get taken in went off on his way.

Almost a year after that Sprout and Thistle have no memories of the cat who saved them and they have both grown. Sprout is constantly wondering what lies beyond his yard.

He befriends a stay who just came back to town named Weasel that seems oddly familiar, who's been mentoring Sprout on the ways of the Clan. He uses Weasel's "true" stories as a springboard for all the things he wants to do someday and tells his brother all about (Thistle hides his concern about that) But there are clan cats who have been watching them convinced Sprout is the one chosen by Starclan to help them.

Eventually they come to him, offering him anything he wants if he will join them, permanently.

I have a lot more I'm keeping secret for now you'll have to find out >:3c

design and name notes under the cut!

First off: I started on these BEFORE the fursona plush actually ever got announced but about mid-way through plotting all this They Happened and I knew I could not use any aspect of them for these designs so if u want to know why they don't look like those. that's why. I ardently refused to use those designs. I love them!!! I have fanart in the works of them, but they're not part of this.

Mob - he was the first character I drew and the base off of which I drew everyone else because he's the default. He's the glass of water, the firestar, the plain chip, the True Neutral of design.

He was also the last one i colored and actually finished a design for LMAO. When it came to his name I knew I wanted -mask as his suffix because of the fact he is the most autistic character I have ever seen in my life (I am a professional autist, I know my own) and he is absolutely masking 95% of the time before the confession arc. I was stuck on what his suffix could be though, but my friend @cellulr suggested broccoli as a name and I remembered that OH YEAH he can make plants grow, which is how I got to Sprout, also it just sounds cute. He's a growing little sprout, it works.

Reigen - My design is very specifically based on the Least Weasel. I do not subscribe to fox headcanons under any circumstances. I don't care what reason people have for them he's not a fox. He's literally the quote "weaseling out of things is important to learn! It's what separates us from the animals...except the weasel." incarnate.

His name was the easiest one for me. He's a weasel, he loves to get out of Situations, Weaselflight. It's a winner.

Serizawa - He's a calico :3c I made him a calico because it matched the color palette of his pajamas and I just love his pajamas look because the blue suit is............kind of boring sorry <3.

I was really stuck on what to name him but i found out on the wiki that the zawa kanji of his name means Marsh and I really fell in love with that. -whisper was based on him being kinda shy when he first joins the clans but just like in actual canon he gets braver but is still a big gentle giant type guy

Dimple - I don't believe in realistic cat genetics for warrior cats content, these are a bunch of strays in the woods who have organized religion and superpowers. The cats can be green if I make them green. So Dimple's design was translated pretty literally but I made him very short and rounder than everyone else. And I gave him the same nicked ear that the claw security guard people draw him with/as all the time has. Also he's short and people keep thinking he's an apprentice I think that was a funny part of Scourge nobody used.

If you want to get realistic or something you could say maybe Dimple being green was proof enough to the clans he's otherworldly and therefore totally a real starclan warrior. His suffix Moss is pretty obvious but -wish has an in and out of universe explanation. In-universe it's about his own wishes of being important (godly perhaps?). Out of universe it's a reference to my favorite old timey warrior cats fansite warriors wish.

Teru - okay I will admit this is the only design that's loosely based on some fursona art. I saw art of him as a Pomeranian with the rest of the gang and I was obsessed I could not let him be a cat. He is a full respected warrior of the clan though do Not make any comments about him being a dog unless you wanna get killed. I love warriors aus or fanclans where non-cats are part of the clan too I think adding other animals adds a lot of fun elements to the world. In another clan of mine there's a pig. Reject canon. Add more animals to the clans.

As for his name I thought about naming giving him the Star prefix just to be annoying but theres certain lines I won't cross and that's one. So he's Suntuft. the -tuft is because he's a big fluffy dog lots of fur.

Toichirou - So like...in terms of structure Claw is basically just Bloodclan and guy who shows up out of nowhere with a huge army at the last second w/ plans to take over the world (forest)? that's so Scourge coded. Why does he have a clan name though? Secret For Later >:3c

In terms of design he's literally just a taller pointier Mob now in Red. Why he has the -claw suffix should be pretty obvious and I know in the anime his hair isnt quite red but i remembered it being pretty red when I was designing and Shou has red hair (im getting to him dw) so...red. I also thought it would be diabolical to give him the same name as the canon hero of the actual warriors books.

#mob psycho 100 #mob psycho fanart #warrior cats au #shigeo kageyama #reigen arataka #serizawa katsuya #mp100 ekubo #teruki hanazawa #toichirou suzuki #mp100 warriored cats #i have been doing nothing but these for months oh my GOD #i have a lot of WIPs but i wanted to get their design sheets down and i have DONE IT #i very rarely take on big projects like this and I certainly never make it this far. i usually draw one character and then give up #the power of absolute cataclysmic autism i guess but anyways im happy to post these and actually be able to talk about them more #my room channel in my friends server is full of so much bullshit i want to do with them and me problem-solving how to plot this in real tim #my friends r getting so tired of me LMAO #anyways none of you can see me but i am Vibrating at a frequency that shatters glass i love this au so much i am disastrous

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navree · 1 year

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ok if you know me you shouldn’t be surprised to know that i really don’t like bridgerton (i know, shocking, a history buff and writer who openly despises bunk theories and shoddy worldbuilding doesn’t like the show predicated on a bunk theory followed by shoddy worldbuilding, stop the presses), but i have watched it, mostly for background noise, but watched it nonetheless, and i think i finally figured out what irks me not just around season 2 of the dumb show but also the fandom response and reactions to the dumb show.

the show, to my understanding, said prior to the season 2 release that they were treating the story between anthony and the sharma sisters as more of a love triangle (which made a lot of fans mad because edwina’s supposed to be one of those characters who exists solely to cheerlead a different character even if it’s at their own expense which is just the worst kind of character), and so fandom is reacting accordingly by treating this as if it were a “team edwina” and “team kate” situation that you see in other tv show love triangles and the like. but here’s the thing. a love triangle, as understood in most media, is that characters a and b like character c, who likes both of them and is torn for a while before realizing that they like character a/b more and thus ends the love triangle.

except that’s not what season 2 of bridgerton was. it’s not that anthony likes both kate and edwina but ends up choosing edwina for a bit before finally realizing his true feelings lie with kate. anthony doesn’t like edwina at all. i’m fairly convinced that he couldn’t differentiate edwina from eve. anthony shows no care or concern for her at all not even as a love interest, but barely as a person, and has no regard for her personal feelings or wants or objectives or desires or literally anything about her. i’d be genuinely surprised to learn that he’s ever felt anything for her beyond the standard feelings we have towards humanity as a whole in knowing better than to do shit like punch randos on the street. this isn’t necessarily a solely anthony problem, the narrative appears to treat edwina exactly the same way which is bad writing because yes, she’s not one of the Main characters of the season, anthony and kate are, but she’s still a major player nonetheless. nor is this necessarily me writing anthony off, there’s a reason for his asshattery that’s been well established both by backstory and by the canon of the show itself back in season 1. the issue for me is that it doesn’t seem that anyone realizes that this is why anthony and kate were in the wrong with the marriage thing.

edwina got a lot of flack from the fandom for being upset at kate and anthony about the whole wedding fiasco, and for holding a grudge for a while afterwards, and a good chunk of that seems to come from that old gripe i mentioned earlier about how edwina wasn’t following her book characterization of being kanthony’s number one cheerleader. but a lot of it is that i genuinely don’t think people understand what the issue is here. yeah, anthony deciding to marry edwina for shallow reasons even tho he knew she wanted a happy love match, while also being into her sister is bad, and kate knowing all of this and still deceiving edwina is also bad. but the core “this is a fucked up thing to do” element in her anger at kate is that kate is very aware of the fact that anthony literally just does not care for or about edwina in any capacity whatsoever beyond what he would care for, like, a lady passing on the street, and she was still willing to lie to edwina and let her enter into a marriage with someone like that, not only not giving edwina the full information to make her own informed consent about whether she wants to be in this marriage, but also just letting her walk into a situation like that knowingly. like, imagine how psychologically damaging it must be to be married, shackled for life, to someone who probably wouldn’t even remember your last name if it wasn’t the same name as the lady he was actually into. that’s a very valid reason for edwina to be mad at the two of them, especially in being mad at kate, considering that a guy screwing you over is one thing, but a close sister doing the same is a whole other level. and if edwina lashes out because that’s a fucked up thing to do, even for the “right reasons”, honestly that’s fair and valid. i love my sister to death but if she was egging on a marriage between me and someone whose only concern about whether i lived or died would be how it affected my sister, i’d be pissed for a really long time.

(and no i’m sorry the “kate was doing it for edwina’s sake like she does everything” doesn’t really fly, you can’t pull the “i do everything for everyone can’t i do this one thing just for me” excuse out when the person you’re “doing everything for” a) never asked you to do it b) never had any expectation for you to do it and c) would have been perfectly content and likely even happier if you hadn’t done. kate’s reasoning is something that needs to get brought up with mary and with idk her regency era version of a therapist, not edwina. that’s not edwina’s responsibility, because most of us generally learn the concept of having to handle our emotions and that how we react to things is on us alone by age ten generally.)

and the worst thing about it is that it’s never resolved. edwina is justifiably angry at the people who hurt her, the fandom’s mad because it’s viewing the situation through a love triangle lens and not the “two people who refuse to admit they wanna fuck and also the poor innocent who got dragged into and very nearly got screwed over as a result” and also because edwina’s being Mean to the primary couple and isn’t hopping up and done in ultimate ship mode for them. and then kate hits her head and that’s it, the justifiable anger is over and done with. i don’t think that edwina should have still been holding a grudge while her sister was dealing with a serious head injury that could have killed her, but that shouldn’t have been the end of the situation. none of edwina’s concerns got addressed or even understood, it’s just that the narrative wanted us to view it as edwina being unreasonable and coming to see the light and the glory of kanthony after nearly losing kate, which makes no sense. as mentioned, edwina’s anger is justifiable, because when you actually look at what happened and not the “love triangle” angle, it is an entirely reasonable anger. that edwina was willing to put it aside when kate was in trouble, because she loves her sister and obviously doesn’t want her dead and is relieved that she’s okay, that works. edwina being immediately over it does not work; her grievances aren’t addressed and it doesn’t seem like the narrative, let alone the characters themselves, understand why she was upset, and thus any reconciliations ring hollow. i mean hell, she doesn’t even get a scene where anthony, like, openly admits that this whole situation was a dick move on his part and sincerely apologize for his behavior and what he put her through, which really only cements how little, if at all, anthony cared about her in any way.

edwina should have been allowed to take her time on forgiveness, and the way that she and kate especially built back trust and rapport should have been vitally important and deep character work, not just for edwina herself and the satisfaction of her arc, but also for kate and for her own development. but instead, edwina’s over it, she’s the cheerleader at long, and she gets dangled the possibility of a consolation prize as her reward for no longer being upset at her fiancé for being an ass and at her sister for violating her trust and nearly putting her a deeply unhappy situation for the remainder of her natural life. it’s bad writing to the extreme and it also makes kanthony both as a ship and as individual people seem like jerks and the total misread of the situation and the hate edwina got for her reaction just makes the fandom seem borderline illiterate.

anyway this is rambly and not very eloquent and likely riddled with spelling errors but i woke up at 5am and made myself mad about this while getting ready for the day so this is my two cents on a specific element i hate about the dumb bridgerton show and its dumb ways.

#personal #anti bridgerton #i know it sounds like i'm being mean about this and like i hate these people #but the thing is i don't care about this show or these characters at all #the only ones i can stand are edwina and the lesbian who wants to figure out who julie andrews is #like there's just so little i like about the show except idk i think that the bridgerton boys' hair and how they were styled was good #but the rest of it is just......nope #and this part in particular is a big ole NOPE #also i made sure to tag this anti so if you need it tagged anything else lemme know but if ANYONE #hops on my dick and gets mad about the fact that i tore this show a new one while it's literally tagged 'anti show'#i will beat you with a metal bat

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