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#to put that depth back into the other characters through on-screen action
shelfperson · 11 months
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Aight, look, Good Omens 2 empirically does not need to happen. The book was a complete narrative that concluded satisfyingly, was adapted quite well, one of the co-authors has passed away, the story is over. It is inherently superfluous.
BUT. I am so very deeply exited for Neil Gaiman and John Finnemore's high concept Terry Pratchett tribute fanfiction featuring wacky mysteries, hopefully even more Best of Queen, and gothgirl David Tennant. That sounds rad to me.
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cfr749 · 2 months
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Next week's episode, I imagine, Tim will end up learning to let people in and accepting help. Another character growth for him, while Lucy isn't even allowed to really feel the emotional consequences of her near fatal shooting. It's already as if nothing happened and she's over it, nothing comes back to haunt her.
To me, the biggest turn off of this show/ship is this unbalance of storylines and depth between the character, the female one always getting the short end of the stick.
Hi anon!
Thank you for the meaty, thoughtful ask! Definitely some thoughts here that are right up my alley.
I'm going to start by saying I have genuinely been surprised by and happy with this season so far. Season 6, at least for Chenford, has felt like a return to the to the show's earlier roots of being truly character-driven. And I mention that simply because I still see a LOT of potential for Lucy's storyline this season.
This is the first time in YEARS we've had a multi-episode storyline seeded for Lucy, and I'm over the moon about it. With that said, the show still has its issues, and I completely get what you're saying.
While the moment with the radio was sweet and I can appreciate the sentiment, I agree that it was actually quite strange that we went from Lucy being devastated by the idea of almost killing someone to Tim framing something that will forever remind her of that moment and them smiling and laughing about it. I think in the show's attempts to deliver fan service, there isn't always someone asking: is this actually something a normal person with human emotions would do? 😂
So yeah, in making that choice, it did seem like they'd swept the shooting storyline under the rug and were moving on.
That said, I will be completely flabbergasted (and legitimately outraged) if there's not more to come in terms of Lucy's broader storyline, including her having to come to terms with her feelings about all of the challenges she's faced this season. We're coming off of multiple episodes that were very focused on Lucy's emotional state around the detectives exam and the aftermath, so I understand why they've shifted to seeding a storyline for Tim for a little bit, but I'd argue that as much as this episode gave us some (tbh kind of convoluted 😬) backstory for Tim, it was just as much about how Tim's actions impacted Lucy.
I'd argue that it was WAY easier to empathize with Lucy this episode than it was to with Tim (minus Eric's teary-eyed "Understood" that was an act of violence against us all). And tbh I'm not sure if that was intentional, but I'm more than okay with it.
For me, this was one of Lucy's best episodes in a long time -- this is the badass, take no shit woman from Seasons 1 and 2. She loves Tim dearly, and we know it must have killed her to ask him to leave, but she still found the strength to stand up for herself. She knows she deserves to be treated as an equal partner, and she demanded that Tim either provide that or go. And for her to be able to do that amidst everything else her character has been through in just the first 4 episodes of this season was IMO phenomenal (and so, so painful but absolutely needed) to see.
I couldn't agree harder though with your broader point -- the show has seemed very lopsided in terms of giving Tim lots and lots of backstory and multiple opportunities to grow and evolve, and then can't even be bothered to keep track of Lucy's parents names😭. It genuinely sucks. And they have so much to make up for.
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They've given Lucy plenty of screen time and they've put her through tons of shit. I just think they haven't seemed to have had much interest in really exploring the actual impact on her character in any meaningful way, until now (I hope!).
And to be clear, I have zero interest in seeing Lucy simply tag-along on Tim's story for the rest of the season. I love that they are going to be together; I love that they are getting to support each other, but Lucy needs (and deserves) a fitting conclusion to her own story.. And if they don't give her one...
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Thanks for the ask anon!
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Interventions Part Two
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Season Two Episode Seven
Dr. Spencer Reid x Reader (Aaron Hotchner’s Sister)
Words: 4430
Series Masterlist
Summary: Derek brings the reader back to the BAU after a tenuous reunion. The people who love her band together to mend her broken spirit. 
Notes: Alright, here is the second half of one of my favorite episodes I think I’ve had the idea for. Exploring the relationships with every character is something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m so glad I was able to do it here. 
Alcoholism, suicidal thoughts/actions, depression, PTSD, etc. (I told you guys in the last one, so ye have been warned)
-
You felt that it should have worked by now. That you should feel new and better and unbroken. But even as Derek pulled the car into the parking garage, all you could feel was the coldness of the concrete, the depth of the sunless dark corners, as if your mind were melding with the space outside of you. It was stupid. You’d spent so long studying the human mind and yet you still expected to magically feel like everything was fine the minute you stepped into the building. 
But you didn’t.
Instead, that crushing weight of panic on your chest crumbled into numbness. A defense, you thought, to force yourself to keep walking in those doors. 
You didn’t see them. Only a glimpse. Derek walked you right to Penelope’s den of an office without so much as stopping to check in with the others. 
In the glass of the window, you saw your reflection. 
Gaunt was the only word that came to mind. 
You didn’t remember putting the scarf around your neck and yet the shock of purple broke up the blankness of the rest of you, from your face to your jacket. Like you were burying yourself but the memory of him wouldn’t let you completely. 
Stop analyzing yourself, Y/N. 
Is this how it felt to lose your mind? Is this how your mother felt when she stirred that poison in with the sugar? 
Empty?
“Garcia’s going to sit with you for a bit while I talk to Hotch,” Derek said. 
“Can’t we just get this over with so I can go home?” You knew the real reason you were here was for them to figure out if you were a risk to yourself or others. The BAU’s version of suicide watch. “There are some things that still need to be taken care of. Come on.” 
You glanced over your shoulder again, hoping and dreading you’d see him. Either of them. But you didn’t. 
Derek opened the door. 
Penelope 
The head of puffy blonde hair whipped around as soon as the latch clicked. Penelope shut off her screens, but you still caught glimpses of your info displayed on several monitors. 
“Oh my god, you’re here,” she exclaimed. “I-I was so worried we wouldn’t find you. But you’re here and you’re okay and-”
“Penelope,” Derek said firmly. 
“Right, sorry. Deep breaths.” She stood up and opened her arms. “Is it okay if I hug you?” 
“Yeah, Penelope. You can hug me,” you laughed, but only slightly. The other woman pulled you into her arms and you felt a slight spark in your chest cut through the numbness. 
“You okay if she stays in here while I go talk to everyone?” Derek's eyes conveyed a  plan and she nodded in understanding. 
“Yeah, of course. I’ll make us some tea. Do you want tea?” 
“I’m okay, thanks.”
Derek looked at you one more time and you felt something pass between you. Whether it was thanks or dread, you couldn’t tell. He closed the door behind him. 
“I have snacks around here somewhere. You’re probably starving.” Penelope rummaged through her drawers. “Have a seat. Make yourself at home.” 
You did as she said, but didn’t say anything. You were still imagining the two men in the other room. What were they thinking? What were they talking about? Were they angry? Relieved? Did they wish you’d just stayed vanished?
“Hey,” her sweet voice cut through the trance of negativity. You blinked and refocused on her face. “I’m not going to ask if you’re okay because that’s a stupid question.” 
You just looked at her, blankly, not even nodding to understand you understood, but somehow she knew you did. 
“I don’t know if Reid ever told you, but I almost died last year. It would have been around when you guys started seeing each other, but before you and I met. I was shot by a guy I went on a date with. I thought he liked me, but he was just using me because of this whole other thing.” 
You remembered Spencer talking about his friend being in the hospital, but you had no idea it was something like that. 
“Penelope, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” 
“It’s okay.” Her lips tugged to a sad smile. “I survived. Just like you did. Not that we went through the same thing, of course, but I just thought you should know that about me. Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh, right.” She put a hand on yours. “I’m not going to tell you everything is going to be okay. I’m not going to tell you that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or something else cute and cliche like that. I’m just going to tell you three words that you can take however you need to.” 
She watched you from behind her colorful frames. Somehow, even in the darkness of the moment, she radiated the same light she did when you met her, warm and bright. Penelope’s grip tightened gently. 
“We love you.”
Something beneath your ribs jerked.  
You pulled your hand away. “I know that.” 
She shook her head sadly. “I don’t think you do.” 
“Penelope-”
“We love you.” 
“What are you doing?”
“We love you.”
Each time she said it, it was like searing shards cutting into your chest. No. The numbness. It protected you. She was breaking it down, burning it up. 
“Stop it.”
“Y/N,” she cried. A tear slipped down her cheek. “We. Love. You.” 
It didn’t make any sense, the power of those three words. The repetition, like a spell consuming your thoughts. You couldn’t move. You couldn't. even speak. Your lip only trembled with the sobs threatening to escape. 
She patted your hand. You didn’t remember her holding it again. 
“I’m going to go get you that tea now, okay sweetie?” She stood and stopped at the door. “Think about what I said. I mean it.” 
Thankfully, she didn’t say it again. The click of the door echoed through the room. Or maybe just in your head. You couldn’t tell. 
-
Reid jumped to his feet. Morgan entered Hotch’s office with a graver expression than he left with. 
“Where is she? Is she okay? What happened? What did she say?”
“One question at a time, kid,” Morgan said. He corrected himself. “Reid.” 
Hotch stood. “What is it?” 
Morgan looked between the two of them and swallowed. “She’s here. I wanted to bring her here in case…”
“In case you thought she’d kill herself,” Aaron finished, closing his eyes. 
“From what I could figure out,” Morgan said, speaking slowly, “she isn’t currently suicidal. She thinks she needs to be stopped, even if that means her death, but I don’t think she’ll take her own life.” He exhaled, hating the feeling of helplessness in his heart. “But she is hanging on by a thread, Hotch.” 
The three men all looked at each other, each of their hearts filled with love and terrible worry. 
In Penelope’s office, you sat and waited for her to come back. The effect of her words still lingered in you, the tearstains on your cheeks as proof. You tried to fight it off with the anger you’d reserved for yourself. 
“I get it,” you called out. “She’s good cop. You're bad cop.” You started pacing back and forth. Your eye caught Penelope’s row of trinkets on her desk and revoiced those three little words that drove you mad. “If we’re playing this game, you might as well come out, Morgan! Come on. Let’s get it over with!” 
Still, nothing but silence. It was too much for you. You slammed your hand on her desk. 
“Damnit Morgan, come back here!” 
The door handle turned. You took a deep breath that hitched in your throat when he stepped inside. 
Spencer
You stumbled back, hitting your leg on the desk corner. You leaned against the wooden surface to keep from falling. 
“You’re not Morgan,” you managed to blurt out. 
Spencer’s lips formed a thin line and he nodded. “And you don’t usually call him that.” 
You hadn’t even realized you’d made the switch. You tried to shrug it off, an attempt to resemble something nonchalant. 
“I’m probably just detaching,” you said. “My mind’s way of dealing with being here, maybe.” 
“That would make sense.” He made the same face, with the same nod.
Neither of you said anything, the tension of the room succumbing to that all too familiar awkwardness. 
“So…” Spencer started. “Are you going to start calling me Reid?”
You laughed, shaking your head. “I don’t think I could.” 
“That’s good because I would hate it.” His lips tugged at a smile. He stepped towards you. You skirted away, knocking over one of Peneolope’s decorations. He stopped. 
“I have something for you,” you said, moving to your jacket hanging over the chair. You pulled the soft purple scarf out of the pocket and jutted your arm out to him. “I’m sorry I took it.” 
He didn’t move for a moment, just staring at your outstretched hand and the article of clothing. You stared at it, too, looking anywhere but his eyes. Those big, brilliant eyes that were filled with questions and guilt and pain that you caused. 
“I didn’t even realize it was gone,” he whispered, finally. Spence reached for the scarf. His fingers danced across your palm. It ignited something, a new burning to go along with the embers Penelope left in your chest. 
You jerked away and sat down, keeping your eyes planted on the turned-over trinket on the desk. 
Spencer set the scarf aside and rocked back on his heels. 
“Did I ever tell you about Phillip Dowd?” He asked. 
You finally looked up at him, if only to show your confusion. “What?” 
He took a seat across from you. “Four years ago we investigated a long-distance serial killer that suffered from Hero Syndrome. When we narrowed it down to Dowd, he took the entire E.R. hostage, including me and Hotch.”
You watched him and vaguely recalled Aaron telling you something about the incident at the time. You remembered him talking about the agent he was helping renew his right to carry and how the young man had saved his life and the lives of all of those people. 
“I killed Phillip Dowd,” Spence said. “I shot him in the head with the gun I got from Hotch’s holster. I had just turned 24 and I had never killed anyone before.” He looked down at his hands. “I remember being scared because I didn’t feel anything at first. I thought there had to be something wrong with me. I mean, I literally just ended someone’s life and I didn’t feel anything.” 
“Spence-” you started, but your voice caught in your throat. 
He continued. “On the plane back, Jason Gideon sat across from me and he told me, ‘Not knowing how to feel, that’s not the same thing as not feeling anything.’ He said, ‘This is going to hit you and when it does, there are only three facts you need to know.’” Spencer stared passed you as if watching the memory unfold while you felt tears run down your face. “‘You did what you had to do and a lot of good people are alive because of what you did.’” 
He stopped, taking a moment to collect himself. 
You leaned forward. “What was the third thing?” 
His eyes snapped back to your face. His voice cracked as he spoke. “He told me he was proud of me.” Spencer inhaled sharply, the tremble of his breath betraying the sobs he was holding back. “And I’m sorry I never told you that. I’m sorry for never telling you that no matter what happened, you did what you had to do. I’m sorry that I never said I was proud of you for fighting to get back to me, to your brother, when it meant becoming the thing you feared the most.”
Spencer kneeled in front of you, taking both of your hands in his. “I’m sorry that you felt like a killer and I didn’t do enough to help you.”
The lump in your throat stopped you from speaking, not that you could find the words to begin with. Slowly, you slid off of the chair and let him envelop you in his arms. 
“I’m sorry,” you whispered, feeling the damn beginning to break. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” You muttered it over and over like you were praying. With each crying apology, he returned with three words that shattered you. 
“I love you.” 
You collapsed against him, hands clinging to the back of his shirt while your arms locked tighter around him. 
“You can’t.” You screwed your eyes shut as he pushed back to look at your tear-stained face. “Spencer, I’m… broken. And I don’t know how to put myself together again like I did before. I can’t force you to be a part of that. I can’t be with you if I don’t know how to be me anymore.”  
He laid a hand on your cheek. “You aren’t forcing me into anything. I want to help. I want to be a part of your life,” he took a deep breath, “even if that means we can’t be together while you figure things out. I still want to be there for you every step.” 
You opened your eyes. “I don’t know how long it would take, or even if I can.” 
Spencer flattened your hand against his chest, pressing it to his beating heart. “I can wait.” 
“Spence…” For just a moment, you could see who you used to be in his eyes. But then it faded into the future you couldn’t give him. 
“Y/N,” he said, “you’re the love of my life. I’m not going anywhere.” 
Spencer pulled you back to him, lips pressing a ghost of kiss to your forehead while you melted into each other’s arms. He whispered more sweet things to you and you tried to hold them like coins slipping through your fingers. 
With the numbness fully surrendered, you knew what you had to do. And there was one more person you needed to see. 
-
Aaron- Three Years Ago
You sat at your desk, grading papers from your Psych 101 class. 
You’d been teaching at a local community college while you continued working on your doctorate. You were even thinking about getting two. 
Things were going well. You liked your job, you hadn’t seen or heard from Dr. Calvin in years, and you were eighteen months sober. 
Still, the sudden sound at your door made you jump and reach for the box where you kept your gun. Until you heard his voice. 
“Y/N, it’s me. Can I come in?” 
You stood up straight, head tilted. “Aaron?” 
“Hey, I know it’s late but… can we talk?” 
You shuffled across the floor in the slippers Haley got you last Christmas and opened the door. Your oldest brother looked awful. His eyes were sunken from not sleeping, harsh lines framed the frown on his lips, and he shivered against the autumn air you welcomed through your open window. 
“You look like you could use a drink,” you said. He frowned. “That was a joke, Aaron. Come in.” 
Aaron immediately began pacing around your living room, arms crossed and frown deepened. 
“Okay,” you said, stepping in front of him. “Spill it. What’s going on?” 
You both sat down. He ran a hand over his face and sighed. 
“I don’t know how to do this.” He rubbed something with his thumb and you realized it was his wedding ring. 
“Did… something happen with Haley?” 
“No, it’s not her, it’s…” He turned away from you, hunched over like he was praying. “It’s him.” 
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know how to not become… him,” Aaron whispered. From the desperate look in his eyes to the trembling in his hands, it didn’t take you long to understand. “How can I become a father when all I’ve known was ours?” 
Of course. He and Haley were expecting their first child, your soon-to-be nephew. All this time, you’d been so excited, you hadn’t stopped to think about everything going on in his head. 
“Aaron-”
“How many people have I brought in that went through what-what he did?”
“Abuse isn’t a path that everyone walks the same way, Aaron.”
“No,” he took a deep breath. “But it is a cycle. How do I know I’m going to be the one to break it?” The break in his voice sent a pang through your chest. 
You took his hand. “Because you are the man that found a fifteen-year-old girl at the darkest moment of her life and you helped her out. You’re the man who faces the worst in humanity every day and still believes in good.” You looked into his eyes with firm reassurance. “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever known, Aaron. And you’re going to be a damn good father. You’re already the best brother I could’ve dreamed of.” 
He let his face fall into his hands, taking in everything you’d said while still battling with the gripping fear in his heart. 
You laid your head on his shoulder. “You deserve to be happy. Don’t let him take that from you.” 
There was a beat, a moment where the world went still as your words won their battle in his mind. He shifted and pulled you into his arms like a drowning man holding onto a life preserver. 
Neither of you said anything for a while. He only muttered something against your shoulder and kept holding you. 
“I’m so glad I found you.” 
-
They seemed to trust you enough to let you leave with Spencer. He took you back to your apartment and you packed a couple of bags. He stood with his hands in his pockets, trying to keep a supportive smile on his face, when really all he wanted to do was lock you in the room and never let you out of his sight again. 
When his phone rang, he wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed. He gave you a nod. 
It was time to go. 
Spence insisted on walking you to the car and carrying your bags. 
“I’m not going to make a break for it, you know,” you teased, trying to get both of you to smile a little. You knew it did nothing to hide the nerves shaking every atom of your body. 
He nodded, the corners of his lips lifting just slightly. “I know.” 
The two of you descended the stairs with nothing said. You didn’t need any more words. Everything both of you wanted was so close, but the fear in your head wouldn’t let you hold on and you knew that could never be fair to him. And he knew you needed time and he knew he just needed to give it to you.
Outside, there was the car. 
And there was him. 
You stopped in the doorway, looking out at your brother through the glass. Aaron stood up straighter when he looked up from the pavement and saw you. 
“Do you want me to go talk to him?” Spence asked. 
You shook your head. Heat in your cheeks burned red with shame under his gaze. “No. If this is going to work, I have to do this.” 
Spencer nodded and opened the door. 
The late November air filled your lungs and sent a welcome chill over your skin. Fall was on its last breath and winter would be here soon. A time for sleep. 
Aaron opened the back seat and helped Spencer with your bags. You turned back to the apartment building. In those walls awaited the life you almost threw away. While you knew you couldn’t just wish things back to the way they were, you knew that that life would still be here, waiting for you when you came back. 
If you ever could. 
“All set?” Aaron asked. His voice made you jump, the motion making the tears welling in your eyes slip down your cheek. 
You hurried to wipe them away. “Seems like it.” 
He glanced between the two of you and put a hand on Spencer’s shoulder. The younger agent gave him a look with such pleading sadness he couldn’t help but feel for him. Hotch nodded reassuringly. 
“I’ll start the car,” he said, leaving the two of you alone. 
You stepped toward Spencer. “Spence… I’m so sorry.” 
“‘All of the variety, all of the charm, all of the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow,’” he said. 
You smiled. “Is that what this is? Shadow?” You thought it was the train. 
“No,” he shook his head, “this is the light. You just have to find it again.” His fingers fiddled with the strings of his sweater to distract him from the sinking in his chest. “And I’ll be there for you until you do.” 
You breathed a shaking breath. “Spencer.” With a quiet cry, you through your arms around him. 
He enveloped you in a tight embrace, burying his face in the crook of your neck. 
“I love you. Nothing is going to change that,” he whispered. 
You took everything in from his warmth to his smell to the feeling of his shirt against your cheek. And then you pulled away. 
He opened the car door for you and you climbed into the passenger seat. You watched him through the window and mouthed a final ‘I love you’ before Aaron pulled away from the curb. 
-
Aaron- Now
“There are extra towels in the cabinet there and if you want another pillow, there’s some on the top shelf,” Aaron said. His tone was oddly calm like you were visiting for the weekend. He lead you into his office where an air mattress sat in the corner. “I’m sorry I don’t have something better. There’s the couch in the living room, but I thought you’d want the privacy, especially when Jack’s staying-”
“This is fine, Aaron,” you interrupted with an awkward smile. “Thanks.”  
“Of course.” He nodded, setting the stack of sheets and blankets on the edge of the mattress. “Let me know if you need anything else.” He started for the door. 
“Is that it?” You scoffed. 
He stopped and took a deep breath. “Do you want it to be?” 
The whole ride here, you’d sat in silence, waiting for his lectures, his worries, and the conditions for living with him. And now he was just saying goodnight as if nothing was wrong? 
You leaned back on his desk. “Since when are you so diplomatic?” 
Aaron’s gaze darkened and his voice broke. “Since I spent my day picturing my little sister cold and dead and alone on a motel floor somewhere.” 
“Aaron-”
“I’m not going to yell at you if that’s what you’re waiting for,” he said. “You aren’t nineteen anymore and I don’t think either of us have the energy for that.” Aaron ran a hand down his face. He was right. He looked exhausted. “I’m glad you’re okay and I’m glad you’re here. I’m going to take some vacation time to help you settle in-”
“You don’t have to do that.” 
“I want to.” 
The two of you looked at each other without saying a word. Then he said goodnight and left, closing the door behind him. 
He walked towards his room, mind racing with pleas to go back and force you to see all of the reasons you were wrong. But he knew he couldn’t. It had to be you. He walked a little slower. 
The office door opened, pooling light into the dark hallway. 
“Aaron?” You gulped. Your voice was heavy with the sobs you were trying to hold back. He turned around. You stood with your arms hanging limply at your sides and your shoulders shaking. 
There, in that doorway, he saw that terrified teenage girl he met what seemed like a lifetime ago. 
“Yeah?” 
Your words came out as a pleading cry. “I’m scared.” 
Aaron wasted no time crossing the space and pulling you into a protecting embrace that kept you standing. You sobbed in his arms and he felt tears of his own fall down his face. 
“I am too,” he breathed. 
“I-I tried not to feel it. I didn’t want to feel it anymore, but it’s always been there,” you cried. “D-drinking didn’t make her go away like it did before. She’s still there and now she’ll never go away.” 
“No,” he said. He pulled away, keeping his hands on your arms to steady you. “She won’t. But how you fight her is up to you.” His hand moved to your cheek and he gave you a small smile. “And you don’t have to do it alone.” 
You dabbed at the moisture in your eyes with your sleeve. “But I’ve already hurt all of you. I stopped talking to you. I lashed out at everyone. I abandoned Spencer and now I can’t even stay in our home.” 
“Reid knows that this is going to take time for you.”
“What if it’s more than just making him wait? What if I can’t get better?” You asked. “What if I can never be who he deserves?”
Aaron’s brows drew together. “Y/N, is that what this is about? You think you aren’t good enough for him? For the team?” 
You looked at the floor. “I don’t know if I can ever give him what he wants. Even if it’s what I wanted with him.” The last part you hadn’t meant to say, but it just came out. You didn’t even realize it was true until the words formed on your lips. You wanted it. You wanted that life with Spencer. But you didn’t know how anymore. 
He nodded in understanding. You leaned against the wall, body finally succumbing to the exhaustion you’d been fighting off, and slid down to the floor. Aaron sat next to you. 
“I’m only going to say one more thing,” he said, taking your hand in his. Aaron turned to look at you, the caring look in his eyes bringing more tears to yours. “You deserve to be happy. Don’t let her take that from you.” 
Your lip trembled from holding back another sob and you closed your eyes, your own words from all those years ago echoing in his voice. 
You laid your head on his shoulder, feeling the brush of his lips on your forehead, and finally drifted off to sleep.
-
The In-Betweens series: @amywright; shesoperfectt;  hereforsmutbcicantgetenough;  violetbossler;  hyper-half-blood;  i-bitch-you-bitch; xcastawayherosx; preciousbabypeter; @jori21; @sol-48;  @murdermornings ; @ staygoldsquatchling02; @ ara-a-bird
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mingot-studios · 2 days
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Stella Is an Antagonist, NOT an obstacle
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How do I put this?
Antagonists are characters that directly oppose the protagonists in some form, through their actions.
In Stella's case, she puts a hit out on Stolas because she wants to get back at him for humiliating her.
We also have a pretty good idea of who Stella IS as a character: She is a spoiled elitist aristocrat who has never been told 'no' who was stuck in an arranged marriage with a man who she didn't love but instead of trying to get out her unhappy marriage, she decided to take her anger out on him and only stayed with him for status reasons and because she liked having someone she could torment.
So when Stolas finally stands up to her, she takes it personally. She doesn't really seem to give a damn that she was cheated on, but that SHE was cheated by someone she assumed would always be submissive to her. Not only that, the person who her husband cheated on her with was an IMP. The lowest rank of demon there is, AND said Imp literally crashed a tea party she was having while trying to slip out after sleeping with her husband and, and telling her extremely casually, to her face, right in front her fellow aristocrats, quote; "Sorry, I f*cked your husband."
And just to rub salt in the wound, this was the morning RIGHT AFTER her "Not Divorced" (aka the anniversary) party she threw, just so she could gossip and vent to friends about how awful being married to Stolas is WHILE HE'S IN THE ROOM ONLY A FEW FEET AWAY.
So to summarize, Stella is a spoiled brat who is used to getting her way and no one standing up to her, so when someone does, she takes it personally and goes to extreme lengths just to get back at them, even if she gets nothing (other than satisfaction) from it in the long term.
Now Let's compare this to Rachel's character in the first Sonic movie;
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( i couldn't find a gif of her in the first movie sorry)
While the sequel would give her a bit more depth, I'm going to be focusing on how her character was handled in the first movie, and calling her a 'character' in the first film Is saying a lot...
Okay so first off, we don't know ANYTHING about Rachel other than that she's Maddie's sister, she has a daughter, she lives San Francisco, and most importantly, she hates Tom. WHY does she hate Tom? idk, the movie never tells us! We are never given ANY context as to why she dislikes Tom, who (aside from being a cop) is a good guy! And she hated him long before he ended up becoming America's most wanted man for attempting to help Sonic.
For all intents and purposes, she hates him for no reason at all. And this is her defining trait in the first film, whenever she's on screen, she's usually telling Maddie to leave Tom, with no elaboration. Her hatred of Tom isn't even treated like a real problem, it's just a joke.
So when Tom shows up with an injured Sonic, she says she's gonna call the cops. And what happens to her? Tom and Maddie tie her to a chair in her own living room, take her car, just leave her there!
Rachel's presence in the first movie is to be nothing more than slight nuisance to the main characters without having a good reason to be there and no motivation for her actions, she's delegated to being nothing more than minor obstacle that the heroes have to deal with to reach their goals.
Rachel has no real agency in the movie she' just there to do two things; Hate Tom for comic relief and get in the way of Tom and Maddie helping Sonic. She's just there to be a nuisance to the main characters and nothing more. She is not an antagonist, she's an obstacle. An object with agency of her own and only there to serve at a minor road bump in the plot.
Say what you want about how Stella was handled, but you can't deny that she has an important role in the story, you can't remove her. On the other hand, Rachel could be removed from the story, and almost nothing would change.
The key to difference to me at least, between a full antagonist and an obstacle, is that an antagonist takes action to go against the protagonists ways that actively effect the plot, where as obstacle is someone the author throws into the the story just to slightly inconvenience the heroes who presence has real effect on the wider narrative, and may as well be something like a wall blocking the way that the characters have to climb over. And I don't mean like a giant wall I mean like a wall to a factory. It's a minor inconvenience that once gotten over has no real purpose in the grander narrative.
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othramblings · 3 months
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Nathan made mistakes, yes. But, you seem to constantly have to point them down to try to detract from the fact that Haley cheated. They got back together, they got past it. But own up to the fact that your fave cheated, and that Nathan may have flirted but he never cheated. I can love them both. You don't have to tear him down nonstop.
Honestly, I’m not sure where this is coming from other than as a response to the couple posts I made today. I’m not sure what good answering you will do but I guess I will anyway. I do encourage people who disagree with me to talk to me too. I like seeing peoples different points of view. Haley critics often bring up Chris as a way to deflect from Nathan’s mistakes or anyone who criticizes him. That one mistake she made in season three as a 16-year-old does not mean that Nathan has reign to hurt her over multiple seasons without complaint from fans.
If you pay attention to my blog, you will know that I talk about Nathan’s mistakes because they’re not talked about much anywhere else. I also talk about them because if you know who the creator of the show is, so many of his gross ideologies come through in the character of Nathan. Why shouldn’t these issues be talked about? Why aren’t they talked about more? He is a raved about character who rarely gets any critical feedback. At best, it’s one critical comment for five defenses in response. Besides what I have posted, when is the last time you saw someone pointing out Nathan’s wrongdoing on the show? He makes decisions that negatively impact Haley almost every season and they go unremarked on by most people. His wrongdoings also aren’t really acknowledged on the show. Haley worked her way back to Nathan in season three over multiple episodes. The character herself also got less screen time and almost no solo storylines after the tour. That discrepancy doesn’t upset you?
I have said it before and I’ll say it again for you, but Haley going on tour and all the ways she did it wrong are talked about in depth anywhere where people are still discussing one tree hill. She gets hate for that decision all the time. If there was already an equal amount of criticism for Nathan, I wouldn’t be talking about it as much.
I just put out my opinions on this blog and you don’t have to agree with what I say or even read it. Also have I said anything about Nathan that wasn’t true? The recent remarks I made about Nathan and Taylor for example. Maybe it bothers you that I’m talking about it at all, but my commentary is all based on his actions and the fact that the show hardly acknowledges them and the fandom even less. Nathan, as a character gets so much exploration and depth on the show that it’s particularly messed up imo that what he puts Haley through gets overlooked in the narrative and by fans. I’ve said this multiple times. I could make post after post about Lucas, but there’s no need because the Internet has that covered. There is a lot of criticism for Lucas out there nowadays actually and I wonder if that bothers you as much as criticism on Nathan does.
I also encourage people who have different opinions to talk to me too. But I’ve made a handful of posts over the last several months, if even that, so my “constant” talk on Nathan is really more intermittent.
Adding this on bc come on people. You must come from the Sophia Bush world of cheating, where only technicalities count. Nathan was not faithful to Haley in season five. He still betrayed her. And unlike Haley, he didn’t just have this one storyline that dabbled in betrayal and dishonesty. 
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jaggedcliffs · 11 months
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So I’ve finally finished Dan Simmon’s The Terror (2007). The fact that it took me a month, rather than a less than two week, should give a quick preview to my feelings.
Stuff that’s Good Actually:
The Goodsir, Pelgar, Bridgen, and Blanky chapters
I love the depth and the history of Pelgar and Bridgen’s relationship (which, in the series, for me was unfortunately hampered by the fact that I couldn’t recognize Pelgar since he was just another brown-haired white guy)
The Blanky chapters are wild, as expected
While the Goodsir chapters have neither the tenderness of Pelgar/Bridgen, nor the excitement of Blanky, they were still a nice break from everyone else’s POV
While they’re stuck on the boat in the first two thirds of the book, it’s a slog to get through. However! the slog across King William’s (Is)land is comparatively very engaging
It’s really effective at conveying the exhaustion of boat trek in a way that the series can’t get across (and why I also think it’s a good idea they didn’t try to)
Similarly, the effects of scurvy and the other mysterious poisoning from the tins (I think botulism?) are horrifying in a way that can’t really be conveyed on screen
Like, the detailed description of FItzjames’ slow, agonizing death...it makes you appreciate his death in the show, and not just because of the homoeroticism.
JOPSON!!! 
(Jopson dies almost the same way as in the series, but it’s still painful. and it was his birthday....)
It’s also kind of funny how Tuunbaq starts to eat Hickey’s soul, then immediately regrets it because Tuunbaq’s body is temple and he has standards. 
In the trek across King William’s (Is)land and across the straight that leads to the Back River, there’s this terrible sense of hope. Maybe, maybe, maybe they just might make it. In the series, they’re barely even that much into their trek when it becomes obvious that they’re doomed (which I also quite enjoy). But they make it far enough in the book that, even though you know they don’t make it, they might. They might.
(They won’t)
The Rest:
If a woman appears, 9/10 times she’ll have her titties out
Silna gets naked in pretty much every single chapter she appears in
The Platypus Pond chapter exists.
The first two thirds of the book is, again, a slog. So many POVs that are just so hard to get through
Book!Irving is a fuckboy. And has many POV chapters
I wanted Hickey to kill Irving in Hickey’s first POV chapter just so I wouldn’t have to read any more fucking Irving chapters. Alas, Irving dies at the same time, place, and way that he does in the show
There is...a lot about boats.
The problem is just that it’s not well written at times. Mainly -- though not always -- because Dan Simmons is so focused on showing off research that he sometimes forgets to write a narrative
In the first chapter, Crozier sees that Hickey is out on deck, then goes on a spiel about how he can recognize the men despite the fact that they’re so bundled up that they don’t have any recognizable features -- like some have scarves from home and the like. But he doesn’t say why Hickey is recognizable. Hickey, while not as important as in the series, is still pretty major here. And what is noticeable about his way of dress might, for example, say something about his character. Maybe there’s a lack of clothing from a loved one, because he’s an asshole.
If Crozier tells us in detail why the topmasts are down in winter, then Blanky doesn’t need to tell us the exact same thing, in detail, several chapters later. Either put it in Blanky’s chapter, where it’s narratively relevant, or put it in Crozier’s chapter as exposition with only a quick reminder in Blanky’s because Blanky is currently getting chased by Tuunbaq so it’s better not to interrupt the action
Crozier’s stupid fever dream chapter where he tells us in exact detail what the rescue effort will be like -- including the names of ships, which country they’re from, which islands they’ll search, etc.. That’s not narrative, that’s research. Make it more fever-dream-ish and make it weirder and vaguer! Or put in a POV character from back in England like the show! Or put it in your endnotes! Incorporate research in a way that doesn’t sound like a history text, or just write a research book and not a novel
(and etc. -_-)
I don’t know what the fuck was up with the dead body with the rat teeth or whatever in Terror so Crozier has to burn the ship down (the irony is that in real life, the Terror is so well preserved that Parks Canada is letting it be for now to focus on Erebus.)
In the last 150 pages or so, it includes some good reflections from Crozier on the way he’s treated women, the folly of the British Empire, colonialism, and even a glimpse into the future of the ruin of global warming on the north. It’s also obvious that Simmons did a lot of research into Inuit ways of life, as well as some mythology. And we finally get a better sense of Silna as a character as well as her voice, in a way. But it’s all still told through Crozier. Like, the stories of Inuit mythology that Crozier dreams come through Silna, yes, but they’re still filtered through Crozier’s POV. And Silna is still so much presented as this exotic other throughout the book, not just because she doesn’t have a tongue, but because she’s also always described as not reacting to anything. As just constantly staring unblinkingly. Even while getting naked. She only gets with Crozier because, in the book, they both have second sight and she needs babies with second sight...yet she’s also so devoted to Crozier that she’d apparently follow him to England or America. And it’s frustrating, because while we finally get a hint of her personality,  it doesn’t do enough undo her presentation in the rest of book, or even a lot of the final portion.
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prettyinpwn-blog · 1 year
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I saw your post in the Ford tag and gotta say: I have heard stories about the times when Ford was commonly disliked, and I can't imagine living through that 😭 I joined the fandom right before Lost Legends came out, and I only ever came across one blog still posting about disliking Ford. He is my favorite character from any media ever. Welcome back to tumblr, I'm glad you get to experience the fandom finally giving Ford all the love and appreciation he deserves
Come and sit near the fire, youngster. Let old Grandma PiP tell ya stories about the good old days...
But yeah, both Ford and Mabel got lots of angry rants in those days. To be honest, most of them were made out of love for Stan (because Ford did treat him like garbage at points) and Dipper (because people perceived that he gave up way more for Mabel than vice versa).
But it kinda sucked because oh man, here was our theory son finally getting his time to shine. And what was even better is that he was just as awesome as we'd hoped he'd be. We'd always thought he'd be a giant nerd like Dipper but also a badass because of his getting lost in the portal (though we were wrong about some things - like him being the author and not McGucket, what he was doing before he was lost, why he and Stanley fought, that his name was Stanford and Grunkle Stan was Stanley, etc).
He was my favorite character the moment he walked out of that portal and showed his face (well, kind of before that, given much of my blog was posting headcanons/theories about him before he was revealed, but nothing was canon yet so it was all what-ifs - we never knew if we’d actually like him or not until he had screentime). 
And then I get online to see how other people responded... and it was not good. Granted, some like me loved him and many had their minds blown with the reveal, but he got a lot of flack. Even legit anger. I remember thinking, “Damn, I know we all love Stan to bits, but give Ford some slack! Give him time to shine and make it up to Stan.”
To be honest, I think had he had more screen time, especially more scenes from what was described in the physically released Journal 3 and Lost Legends, people would have liked him more from the outset. I’m still of the opinion that the story in the latter half of S2 feels rushed, and as much as I love this show and appreciate the effort put into it, I think Ford suffered for it.
Stan, Mabel, and Dipper got two seasons to shine. He got half of one, and a few episodes of that half didn’t even involve him much or at all (cough Roadside Attraction cough). And what we do see of him is punching Stan, talking about their broken relationship, telling Stan that the Mystery Shack has to go, him giving Dipper a mind control device, him explaining how he worked with Bill, and him inviting Dipper on a path away from Mabel. The few positive scenes we saw were in DDaMD and his heroic actions in the finale episodes.
He gets fleshed out way more in supplementary materials and, upon reading those, I think he arguably can be seen as the best character in terms of growth and depth (though Stan rivals him closely in this area imo).
I would love to do a whole Ford character analysis post at some point soon, because the way they wrote him is worthy of a closer look. He’s heavily flawed, but that’s what makes his arc and story all the more satisfying, and interesting to examine. A flawed character is a good character from a writing perspective, and like you, he’s been cemented as my favorite character in all media ever so far because of it. 
He had an arguably abusive father, deep insecurity and ego issues, pride that shattered his relationships and led him to push people away, made many mistakes, was intelligent but easily manipulated, and had to accept that - as much as he wanted to be a hero - it was Stan who was the true hero... But even so, he found redemption and happiness in the end. He’s still a broken man and still has flaws, but like I said: his growth arc? Amazing. He’s also relatable to me on a personal level because I’ve struggled with many of the above issues in my own life.
I am like 99.99% sure Hirsch will never return to Gravity Falls, but if he does in some form, it would be great to see a mini series or comic or [insert thing here] with Ford as a main protagonist, be it his story between getting to Gravity Falls and being shoved into the portal, his portal adventures, or his adventures with Stan after the main series. I know we’ve seen summaries or hints of these time periods, but man, with how little screentime he got in the show, I think fans would gladly go for it.
I also think it would be great to explore his and Stan’s stories in material that’s allowed to be more adult. Gravity Falls gets away with an astonishing amount of darkness for being a Disney show, but I think something targeted for an older audience would allow for greater delving into these dark aspects of Ford and Stan’s lives, like breaking generational trauma and family cycles, how to mend long-broken familial relationships, reflecting back on major regrets in your life, morality in the face of survival (if Ford’s portal days are ever explored more in-depth), etc. 
But Disney owns the rights so if they’d be up for that... not sure. I’m not saying make it Rick and Morty or Inside Job level adult, but somewhere between the original series and those shows. The fandom is older now, and if Stan and Ford were the protagonists, it’d make sense to age up the target audience, as well.
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aohendo · 2 years
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Hallo there and happy STS, my friend!
Today I'm asking a question about editing: Once you're done with a first draft, what's your editing process (timeline, software, other writer/reader feedback, etc.)?
Happy STS, @aschlindartroom!
I love editing. There. I've said it. I love editing. Getting the content down is nice, yeah, but making it work is something special.
Answer's long so it's below the cut. I'm happy to share pics or examples or explain anything in more depth, if anyone would like!
Throughout my first drafts I leave notes for myself in <<triangle brackets>> because they're easy to search. My first task after completing that first draft? Searching for the triangles and sorting out whatever I was complaining about/flagging for later. This normally takes a hot minute.
But yay, let's say I finally got through the triangles! Now it's onto the "to do" list in the project's Onenote. These are things which would have been in-text triangles, but I realized would need to be fairly major changes (as in, outside of that particular page or chapter). Accomplishing these to-dos takes even longer than dealing with the triangles, often requiring rewrites, restructuring, and continuity searches.
Finally I've completed those to-dos! This is where I take a pause to scribble out the plot and put it on some sort of structure. For Attenuate/Reverberate, it was an 8-step hero's journey. For Prince for Hire, it'll probably be Save the Cat. Usually my plots don't exactly hit the main beats, so that's something I flag to work on during draft two.
Okay, we've got out plot scribble out, our notes and to-dos fixed, and we're ready to go. Time to reread and make more triangle notes, and more to-dos. I'll re-read the entire draft in its entirety, pausing occasionally to throw in comments of things to fix, emotions I'm missing, areas to clarify, etc. IE, it's death by triangle note again. This is the moment where if a scene or section is just absolutely not working/accomplishing what I need, I'll open up a new word document and rewrite it. I'll keep the OG version open on one half of my screen (to save the good parts), but then I will make the scene accomplish what it needs. This serves to tighten the pacing and ensures I hit my plots and subplots, as well as my worldbuilding.
Draft two has been thoroughly noted-up and rewritten (as required). Time to go back through and fix those triangle notes. Again, this takes a hot minute, and may result in more rewriting.
Let's say I've finally finished with that. Now comes the fun part! I tend to be very wordy when I write, which jacks up my pacing. This next edit is the "destroy it with a chainsaw" edit. I change the font to something easily readable (like Open Dyslexic or Comic Sans), I set that spacing to 1.5 or 1.75, I pop by the local office supply store and buy a three ring binder, and... I print it. The entire thing. All 600ish pages.
From there it's a classic hack-and-slash edit. I like using pink pens because I think it's funny to use something not red, and green is far too serious. I look for redundancies. I look for sentences which are just too long and winding. I look for unnecessary descriptions (or descriptions which are simply stage directions). I look for overly verbose dialogue. I look for anything confusing. I slash through them.
This is mostly a subtractive edit. That said, it'll happen that I end up hand-writing entire pages to fill random gaps, or to clarify things, or whathaveyou.
Okay, we're finally done this "destroy it" edit. The next bit is fairly logical: I take those handwritten edits and I apply them to the digital manuscript. This is then what I term draft three.
In draft three, my primary focus is clarity. Does the plot work, does it make sense, and are the characters' actions logical? Are there any areas I still have mentally flagged as "not what it should be, and I will be able to fix it on my own"? Draft three is for ensuring I have the manuscript where I want it to be.
If I've got the manuscript to the point where I can't fix it any further without outside input, I set it aside for a week and use that time to search out a critique partner. We'll arrange a manuscript swap (usually via Google Docs), let each other know our harshness tolerances and things specifically we're looking for, and then we'll go for it. Treat their manuscript like your own. It needs care, and it needs love, and it probably needs some help, too. If it didn't, they'd be querying/readying for self-pub rather than working with a critique partner.
In my mind, critique partners are more like an editing buddy than a beta reader. Beta readers read from a reader perspective and share their reactions, while critique partners read from a writer perspective and share their techniques. I've learned so much from previous critique partners, it's absolutely astounding how talented they are.
After draft three's been thoroughly torn apart, and if I agree with what my critique partner suggests, I'll go in and try again. Fix it. This becomes draft four. Usually, there's so many significant changes after editing the digital version of draft four it's worth printing again for another subtractive edit. This print and destroy edit is the same as the original one, and once it's all tapped up again, it becomes draft five.
Draft five is usually where I feel confident in the manuscript, and this is where I'll look for beta readers. Basically, I want it ready to publish before I send it out to sample readers.
Anywho, that was long! Like I said up top, I actually love editing, and would be happy to go more in-depth/share examples/pictures if anyone would like me to :)
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agonycrossbow · 3 months
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Why I don't like Aeon:
It's all telling and no showing, and as a result, I don't know what those two see in each other or what a fucking loser like Leon has to offer someone like Ada, who is objectively smarter, more mature, more independent, and more stable than he is.
We're told everything about their relationship, but we never get to see anything play out. Ada tells Leon that she fell in love with him in RE2. Leon says he's still attached to her in RE4. Ada says that they met up to bang prior to Damnation. Helena says that Leon has feelings for Ada in RE6. But we don't get to see any of that, because their on-screen dynamic after RE2 has been reduced to ACTION HERO POWER HOUR!!11 with absolutely no depth or nuance outside of the actual mission objectives that they're both pursuing.
Like -- say you're at a party, and someone comes up to you and tells you that some drama just went down and now a girl from your class has retreated to a room by herself to cry. Now that you've been told that, you know that. Intellectually, you know that that's happening, and you can form an opinion of "well that sucks" but you probably won't think about it much deeper than that.
But say you're at a party and you go into another room just to take a quiet moment for yourself, and you're met with a girl from your class sitting on the bed all by herself, sobbing into her hands. Now, you've seen it, and you're in the room with her so you're a part of the moment with her, and you feel that.
That is what's missing from Aeon. We, as the audience, don't get to share those quieter, emotional moments with them. We just have to trust that they're happening because the characters keep telling us that they are.
And so when a writer treats a relationship as something to be told, not shown, and then tries to do what RE6 did and have Leon's feelings cloud his objective, professional judgment, it feels out of character and unearned. It's the payoff for something that was never built up -- and that's all that storytelling really is. It's just a series of build up -> payoff over and over and over again, for every part of the story. So, when you skip that first step, you'll end up with a huge chunk of your audience looking at your payoff and going "how the fuck did we get here?" That's why so many people were pissed about Leon's characterization in RE6. The relationship didn't earn the reaction from the character, because the on-screen writing never put in the work to actually receive catharsis from the end result.
But that leads into another, arguably way bigger issue with Aeon, and that is:
We only ever get to see the relationship from Leon's perspective because Capcom treats Ada like an accessory to Leon's character and doesn't allow her to be her own person in her own right. Ada's relationship with Leon holds her back so much from a narrative and character advancement perspective.
I would probably be much warmer towards the ship if the two of them really were their own separate people living separate lives that sometimes crash into each other unexpectedly – but that’s not what the ship is. It’s what Capcom, I think, intends for it to be, but that’s not how they write it. 
Leon is his own independent person doing his own independent thing, but Ada very much is not. Ada does not exist in the story without him with her. And I don’t fuck with that. It makes her less of a character and more of just an extension of Leon, and Ada as a concept should rightfully be so much more than that.
Think about all of the really important plot things that Ada is actually involved with. She worked with/for Wesker for at least 6 or 7 years, and we don't know why. She then went into RE4 already intending to betray him and actually goes through with it, but then we never get to see the consequence of her doing that -- despite the fact that she just threw away a years-long relationship with Albert Fucking Wesker, the single pettiest man on the planet. Then she gets involved with Derek Simmons and gets him so completely wound up over her that RE6 happens, but we don't know how or when or why that happened or what her goal actually was.
We don't get to know any of that, because the only time she's ever allowed to be shown on screen is for the explicit purpose of creating melodrama with Leon.
And because so little of her backstory and personality is actually written out and tacked down, Capcom uses her simultaneously as a melodrama dispenser and a "Get out of jail free" card for anything they need to wave away or explain in the plot. How the fuck did xyz happen? Oh, Ada did it. How why or when? Doesn't matter -- hey look, Leon's being sad over her again! Isn't that more interesting???
No, Capcom, it's fucking not. It's not fair to Ada's character to make her so damn important and then never let her actually play out that role, because Capcom's writing staff would rather use her screentime to serve as a vessel for Leon's manpain.
And, as an unintended consequence of that, it also hurts Ada's character in the sense that she's woefully underdeveloped and -- despite being arguably one of the main characters in the series -- has no backstory, no character motivation, no observable character arc (post-RE2, at least), no personality outside of "ooh she's mysterious~", and no character flaws that would make her more human and sympathetic to the audience.
Every single part of Ada's character suffers because she's forced to serve as Leon's love interest. It's sexist and fucked up and reinforces her racist Dragon Lady stereotype, and the entire narrative of Resident Evil as a whole is worse because of it.
My beef with Aeon has absolutely nothing to do with "weh weh Ada's mean to Leon" or whatever stupid bullshit braindead Leon simps come up with. My beef with Aeon is one that has its roots at the most fundamental level of the crafted narrative and the character writing. This is not a ship problem. This is a writing problem. This is a sexism and racism problem.
Leon, Ada, and Resident Evil as a whole would all be so much better off if the entire series was rewritten from the ground up to remove their romance, and that's why I have so much hope for the Remake series taking this franchise to far greater heights -- because that's exactly what it's doing.
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digi-threads · 1 year
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SEO Packages That Will Help You Get On The First Page Of Google
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Do you want your business on the first page of Google? Your site is not just important, but it’s also one of the most crucial factors that can determine whether someone will click through or not. If you need help getting started with creating an optimized search engine friendly website, then this post is for you! We’ll discuss in-depth what you could possibly do to improve your SEO ranking, with affordable SEO packages as well as give you some actionable advice that you can implement right away to increase traffic (including link building!).
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However, if your target audience is searching for products similar to yours, try providing them with direct affiliate links. These won’t get passed over by Googlebot, and they’ll give people the confidence to trust you! Use long-tail keywords when possible. Some keywords include words like “buy now”, “buy in store”, etc. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is “make sure your keyword is less than 50 characters and longer than 5 words!” Also, make sure to avoid using low search volume terms such as terms that don’t have enough competition, such as “new”, “best price ever”, “all natural”, etc. Instead, choose words that have high search volume since those tend to perform better in searches.
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As such, having content that is easy-to-navigate and enjoyable on mobile devices is critical. Ensure to add responsive design principles to your homepage and web pages. Check our article, “What Is Responsive Design?” to learn more about responsive design principles. Offer discounts and coupons. Customers want companies like Matebiz which offer promotions, discounts, special offers, and loyalty programs to entice them to purchase from you. 
Provide incentives to encourage impulse purchases. Promoting discounts and offers on popular shopping apps, e-commerce sites, etc can significantly boost conversion rates. Give users valuable content. Provide helpful and engaging content from time to time. Remember that users who receive helpful information are more likely to recommend you to others. Incentives work especially effectively when combined with value-based ads or push notifications.
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Source Link:  https://blogmypost.com/seo-packages-that-will-help-you-get-on-the-first-page-of-google/
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Dragon Age: Origins
Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting.
Having just finished replaying Dragon Age 2 for the first time since I moved (6+ years), I decided to go ahead and give Dragon Age: Origins a replay.
And honestly? It felt like a chore.
Don't get me wrong, I love the setup for the rest of the franchise - DA2 remains one of my most favorite video games ever and it could never have existed without everything DA:O built - and the depth of the world building shows itself particularly well in the Chant and the events of Kinloch Hold. And yet barely twenty hours of gameplay felt like work.
The plot is bland. BioWare gave themselves one of their best antagonists in Loghain Mac Tir - who genuinely, honestly, thought he was saving Fereldan with every action he took - and allowed almost none of the uncertainty regarding what is right or just or moral that DA2 has. Loghain was a hero - that's why his betrayal was supposed to be so shocking - but practically everyone you talk to leading up to the Landsmeet is like "oh yeah, I never liked him anyway."
(Or, DA:O is the entire plot of Mass Effect if everyone had believed Sheppard about the Reapers from day one. It doesn't make for a very interesting story, especially when it seems every other video game is about the end of the world. They can work - the ongoing success of Star Wars and LotR attest to that - but they have to make you care. And DA:O never did.)
The characters are even worse. The protagonist is a write-off even with six possible origin stories, and honestly it sometimes took me a moment to connect that character on screen with the magnificent mustache and mutton chops to that character I've been playing as for 20 hours. It could just be because the protagonist doesn't have a voice actor, but I don't remember it ever being a problem for KotOR or KotOR:II, which are similar. The companions aren't terrible, but I don't like any of them. Oghren is particularly objectionable, but about half the time I find Alistair treading a finer line than I'd like between humor and why am I putting up with this?
And don't get me started on the werewolves.
There are things I like - the horror of the blighted turning into Darkspawn is something that I wish later games had excuse to play into and Hespith's poem is just perfectly creepy in that regard (it gives me chills every time) - the opening lines of "Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting. You have brought Sin to Heaven and doom upon all the world," which promises so much more than the game provides - but they're almost completely overshadowed by the rest.
When I first discovered DA2, shortly after DA:I came out, I couldn't put it down. I had exams to study for, but DA2 kept drawing me in. When I first played DA:O shortly thereafter, I could barely bring myself to play it all the way through despite having nothing else to do during break. Despite my love of DA2, it almost completely turned me off the franchise and it would be almost another 2 years before I played DA:I.
And that really says everything. When I get into a new fandom, I obsess. Endlessly. I delve into the deepest and darkest corners and eventually put whatever I love on such a pedestal that reality inevitably comes to disappoint. This process can take months, if not years. DA:O managed to compress this process into a single school break and might have succeeded in turning me off Dragon Age forever if I hadn't stumbled across DA:I on sale sometime later.
At least I have a custom world state I can use for later DA2 replays, which was really all I wanted from this replay anyway. But I think I need a detox before I jump right back in.
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ukai-simp-services · 3 years
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your hq s/o walking in on you masturbating
includes: kenma, oikawa, ukai, kuroo
warnings: heavy smut, cursing, nsfw; degrading, praising, edging, teasing.
a/n: god this took so long for me to write, i hope y’all enjoy. i worked very hard on each character so be sure to read em all ;)
(female character descriptions)
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kenma kozume
  you sat with your legs criss-crossed on the plush comforter of your bed - your shared bed with your boyfriend. kenma was rarely ever away from you, his job required him to sit at home by his desk most days, trying out different video game graphics, typing up notes or ideas after trying said game. It wasn’t very often that his company called him in for a meeting, maybe once every few weeks. 
  alas, you still found yourself sitting here, alone on your giant bed, wondering what you’d do with your time. you came home, hours prior, yearning for your comfortable bed after a long day at work. and you certainly relished in those desires, taking a much-needed nap for a couple of hours. but now here you were, brightly awake, with an unusual warmth of desire in your stomach. you were unsure where the urge came from, considering your boyfriend wasn’t even home to tempt you. but it was still there, and it needed to be satiated. 
  so you began your mission, it had been quite a number of months since you last masturbated on your own. your lovely kenma was always by your side, always there to feed your cravings, masturbation wasn’t even a thought when you knew he was just a room away from you. you almost forgot your usual routine when it came to “doing the deed”. 
  first, you slipped out of your leggings, feeling the cold, but soft comforter tickle your bare legs. then, you snaked your hand up your stomach to your breast, fondling it as best as you could. funny, it didn't feel nearly as rewarding as it did when kenma did it. lastly, you picked up your phone from its spot next to you and began your search.
  you searched a reliable porn site you used to use all the time, quickly finding a video that you knew would get you off quickly. you chewed your bottom lip as the video started, excitement building up from the depths of your core. as the video continued, you snuck your free hand down your stomach to your panties. hesitantly, you creeped your fingers under the elastic band of the soft cotton material and reached slowly for your folds. you gasped at your wetness, it was nothing remarkable, just a little surprising considering how quick you made this decision. you began stroking your clit, slowly to start, while still keeping your eyes on your screen. as the video continued on, you quickened the pace of your rubbing, swirling your juices around your clit with your two fingers. you didn’t realize how focused you were on your phone screen, till the sound of your bedroom door creaking open snapped you out of your daze. 
  yellow, cat-like eyes peered at your disheveled state in both shock and curiosity. you opened your mouth to say something, but was only able to let out a struggled mewl. his gaze was locked to your body, taking in your entire form, focused mainly on the hand buried in your panties, taking note of how your hand continued its motions, slowly. you couldn’t take your eyes off of him and he couldn’t take his eyes off you. 
  a loud, choked moan vibrated from the phone in your hand, snapping both you and kenma out of your trance. 
  “I-i...” you scrambled for words as you quickly shut off the video and began retracting your hand from your panties.
  kenma dashed towards you, animal-like instincts, and snatched your wrist in his grip, slowly putting your hand back in the spot it was formerly in. 
  “continue.” he said, voice laced with the deep desire you so fortunately get to see in him often. his gaze remained down at your body, instead of looking you in the eye. you simply nodded your head and continued your movements again. taking you by surprise yet again, kenma lifted your phone from your other hand and clicked play on the video again for you.
  your cheeks burned in embarrassment, but soon your whole body was flushed from the euphoric feeling rising in your stomach. kenma held your phone up with one hand, watching you masturbate to whatever the hell was on there. he then took his other hand and pulled the cotton material covering your sex to the side, watching your glistening fingers work magic into your clit. 
  he decided he should help out a little bit, so he poked his warm, firm tongue out of his mouth and penetrated your cunt with it. you gasped at the contact, not expecting it since your eyes were trained on the screen. your movements became spastic as the twisting and curving of his tongue played with your insides wondrously. your body convulsed around his muscle, thighs squeezing and enclosing his head. the video you were watching was quick to end, but you couldn't care as you tossed your phone to the side and grabbed a handful of your boyfriend’s hair. 
  kenma’s assault on your cunt only became more intense as he felt you reaching your orgasm, walls pulsing around his tongue. you moaned in approval of his actions, bucking your hips for the friction of his nose against your clit. your high came shortly after, leaving you grasping kenma’s hair for dear life.
  your chest rose and fell rapidly, waiting for your breathing to normalize again before you spoke. kenma plopped next to you on your bed, automatically snuggling his face into the crook of your neck.
“never leave home ever again.” you breathed out, a smile starting to form on your lips.
he simply just chuckled and said, “sounds like a deal to me.”
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oikawa tooru 
  oikawa constantly had you on your toes, always watching and waiting for something to happen. with this, also came teasing, he was a huge flirt in general, everyone knew that, but when it came to you it was in every way worse. 
  you stared down at your phone, more specifically, at the text your boyfriend had sent you. 
pretty, but you’d look prettier with the dress off and your legs spread for me <3
  for context, you had went shopping earlier and sent a picture to oikawa of the new dress you were contemplating buying. of course, he was no help in your decision and only used the photo to helplessly fluster you. you sighed to yourself, guess it couldn't be helped.
  but you hated to admit that the text hit you with a swarm of butterflies in the very pit of your stomach -  you couldn't help but imagine your boyfriend in between your thighs, pulling the tight dress up your hips rather slow. 
  of course you had bought it, how could you not after reading that text.
  part of you wanted to surprise him in it, let him come home to you laying in your bed with the dress tightly clung to you and a pair of matching high heels strapped on. unfortunately, reality reminded you that tooru would be practicing ‘til late tonight and you knew that all he would want is a warm bed to crash on, barely even making it to the shower. 
  so instead of bothering your already over-worked boyfriend, you decided to take matters into your own hands.
  finishing your dinner alone at around 7pm, you cleaned yourself up and headed for the bedroom. you crawled across the smooth duvet cover on your bed, cold material rubbing against your bare legs. you situated yourself against two plush pillows, propping your torso up while parting your legs. 
  you pondered for a moment what you should do, it wasn’t an odd occurrence for you to be pleasuring yourself; tooru was out quite frequently because of his busy schedule. your confliction was caused by the fact that you simply wanted tooru, nothing else. 
  even so, you continued your actions; sliding your soft cotton shorts down your smooth and long legs. once situated, you grabbed your phone and searched for something hot to get you off. because you were feeling so touched starved, videos simply wouldn't do it for you today. you needed something more intimate; like the sound of a man’s voice in your ears, coaxing you to your orgasm, directing you to play with yourself how he wanted. 
  yeah, that would do it.
  so you went to your very reliable (totally not reddit or anything) website and searched for something you knew you would like. a seemingly promising result caught your eye, and you proceeded to plug in your earbuds and adjust the volume of the video. you leaned back further into the pillows, trying to get comfortable enough to relax. 
  the video began and you couldn’t help but feel awkward, yeah the man’s voice was hot as hell - deep and seductive too, but something about it didn't feel right considering you had a boyfriend, with a much nicer voice.  
  oh fuck it, you thought.
  there was no secret rule against this, it was basically the same as porn, only it felt nicer because the plot was directed towards you and your orgasm. you felt more at ease with yourself - and with the video. the voice playing was smooth and relaxing. 
  you slowly began to move your fingers as instructed - or should I say demanded, whilst also bringing your left hand up to palm your breast through the thin material of your shirt. you were now working both your clit and your breasts, the feeling of warmth beginning to pool in the pit of your stomach. 
  the voice commanded you to begin fingering yourself - in his words; to “bury your fingers deep in that little cunt of yours”, and who were you to disobey? 
  you did exactly as instructed, indulging your fingers deep - well, as deep as they could go - inside the warmth of your core. you received praises from the man, calling you names of which you most certainly enjoyed. this encouraged you pump yourself faster, all while your left hand toyed with your breast through your shirt. surprisingly, your hands made a dream team, you hadn't felt this amazing masturbating in so long. it was like the voice in your ears was real and the hands on your body weren't your own, but someone else’s. 
  what you failed to realize was, down the hallway from your bedroom, your boyfriend was putting his bags down on the kitchen table and approaching your room - where he heard your soft moans coming from. 
  tooru wandered over to your bedroom, both curious and confused. the way you were moaning, he wondered if he’d find another man on top of you. he decided to bite back his nerves and enter the room quietly, inching the door open with caution. his head poked through the small gap of the doorway that was now exposed, peering over at your writhing body to see that you were in fact alone. oikawa let out a small sigh of relief at this, but then noticed that you were still unaware of his presence and that your ears occupied a set of wireless earbuds. the man smirked to himself, now somewhat aware of what you were doing. 
  he cleared his throat obnoxiously, immediately turning your attention over to him and releasing the breast in your hand almost shamefully. you opened your mouth to say something, but tooru quickly cut you off.
  “my my, what do we have here?” his voice was low and taunting as he took slow strides over to your bed.
  “tooru, i was just-”
  “playing with yourself, my dear?” he chuckled and took a seat next to you on the bed, “that much i can see for myself. just to what would that be, is the question.”
  your face burned in embarrassment and regret, knowing he would manage to squeeze the answer out of you.
  “you- you weren’t home, and i...needed something...”, your voice trailed off as you glanced down at your phone, the audio was paused, but not for long. 
  oikawa seemed to have caught on to your implications and in one swift movement, snatched both your phone and your right earbud from your possession.
  “tooru, please-” 
  your boyfriend made a tsk tsk noise with his tongue, “nuh uh, what makes you think you get to enjoy this alone? honestly, it looks to me like you’re having a lot of fun-” he gestured to your hand which was deeply buried in your panties, “-and i wanna join in on the fun too.” his voice was low and laced with seduction now, his eyes dark and taunting as his face was merely inches away from yours. 
  your chest heaved with heavy contractions, stomach full of butterflies and warmth. you could barely muster out a word, so you stuck with a brisk nod. tooru smirked and plugged the earbud in at your approval, then clicked the audio back on.
  the audio was halfway finished, so the man’s instructions were even more intense than you wanted oikawa to hear. 
  “that’s right you little slut, be a good girl and keep fucking that little cunt for me, yeah?”
  your eyes widened in embarrassment, quickly scanning tooru’s face for any sign of laughter. what shocked you more was the dark expression on his face now, hidden with a deadly smirk on his lips.
  “c’mon baby, do what he’s telling you to do.”
  “good girl, that my good little slut.”
  the mix of the voices overstimulated your senses, your embarrassment soon turned into a wicked desire. you began pumping yourself harder, hand coming back up to grope you breast. your eyes closed shut and your moans began escalating again.  
  you weren’t sure what you boyfriend was planning on doing next, but you felt the pressure of the bed go down as he switched spots from next to you to in between your legs.
  the audio kept encouraging you to pump faster, enticing more moans to spill from your lips. the feeling of a warm, moist tongue pressing against your clit made your eyes shoot open and your head jerk up to see tooru with his head in between your thighs.
  “what? am I not allowed to help?” he quizzed you with a tone laced with teasing.
  you let your head fall back onto the pillow as oikawa took his time lapping at your clit. your fingering stuttered, but never ceased as the voice of a man and the tongue of your man continued to pleasure you. the audio was nearing an end and you felt yourself also nearing an orgasm. oikawa pushed your hand so your fingers went even deeper than they already were, this earned a whimpering gasp from you. you looked down at your partner to see his eyes were locked with yours, tongue poking out to lick at your swollen clit. you felt your walls clenching around your fingers at the sight, voice in your ear aiding in it too.
  “look at you, so helpless, getting off to some guys’ voice? such a needy little whore, aren't you?” 
  you felt all the oxygen in your lungs leave your body, fingers growing stiff inside of you. your boyfriend’s words tugged at something inside of you, an animalistic version of you deep down that needed to be freed. 
  tooru smirked up at you, perfectly aware of his effect on you. his tongue withdrawing from inside his mouth to lap you up for the hundredth time.
  “how pathetic, were you that desperate for an orgasm that you resulted to audio porn?”
  “good girl, that’s my good little girl, cry out for me.”
  you felt your orgasm coming like a tidal wave, the two voices overstimulating your senses once again.
  “that’s so fucking embarrassing, your own fingers are barely enough to please you anymore. you need my tongue to help you.”
  “that’s right, come for me, come around those pretty little fingers of yours.”
  “yeah? you're gonna be an obedient little slut and come for for him? listen to his orders like he’s your daddy, right?”
  and you did.
  with a final whine of pleasure, your body violently rocked itself through your orgasm. your eyes rolled to the back of your head as your back arched into air helplessly. your fingers slowed down on their movements, eventually coming to a slow finish. you breathed heavily, chest heaving as the ringing in your ears quieted down. all that could be heard in the room was the thick silence in the air and your contracted breathing. 
  tooru slowly approached the spot next to you on the bed from his former position between your legs, lying next to your disheveled form. once your body had calmed itself down a bit more, your retracted your hands from their position  and turned toward your lover, resting your head on his shoulder. 
  “well, I certainly did not expect to come home to that.” tooru chuckled lightly.
  you quickly dove your face into the side of his neck, hiding in mortification. 
  “god, I'm so embarrassed.” you mumbled into his skin.
  oikawa only laughed louder, earning a light slap on his arm.
  “come on, don’t act like you didn’t enjoy every second of that.”
  “you know I did, that’s why I'm embarrassed!” you lifted your head from his neck to retort back.
  he only shook his head and laughed again, wrapping his arm around your body to keep you warm.
  “why did you come home so early, anyway?”
  “well practice ended early because the team wanted to go out to dinner for a sort-of, congratulations for doing so good in our last match. that team we went up against was really hard, remember?”
  “yes, I do. so why didn't you go!” you suddenly jerked your head up to scold your boyfriend.
  “because...I'd much rather be home with you celebrating. besides, I thought that text I sent you was a hint of what I wanted to do with you tonight.” his voice trailed off quietly.
  “oh god, I thought you were just being a damn tease like always! that’s why I took matters into my own hands.”
  tooru propped himself up on one elbow, facing you.
  “c’mon, you know damn well you enjoy my teasing. plus who says we can't go for a round two?” he wiggled his eyebrows at you and gestured at the rising tent under his sweatpants that was nearly poking your leg.
  you smirked, looking back up into your boyfriend’s eyes.
  “i guess that can be arranged, but it’s my turn to tease, i've had enough of your teasing for one day.”
  before he could protest, you were on top of him straddling his waist, hands holding his arms up over his head.
  “fine by me.”
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ukai keishin
  coming home from a long day at work, you plopped down your bags and ran your fingers through your hair. ukai was working the late shift at his convenience store like he usually did on weekdays, and he probably hadn’t eaten anything besides snacks since lunch this noon. your body was tired and sweaty, but you motivated yourself with the idea of a hot shower to keep you up on your feet for a bit longer. as quick as you could, you whipped up a plate of steamed dumplings and rice for you and your fiancé to eat. once satisfied with your work, you left the meal on top of the stove with a glass cover on top to keep it warm. 
  hot shower hot shower hot shower you chanted to yourself, reminding yourself of your reward for the long day you had. you went to your bedroom first to quickly strip, tossing the restricting clothes away into a hamper. afterwards, you entered your bathroom - now naked, a chill ran over your body. you turned the knob of the shower to the left, far to the left, making the water spring to life and begin to heat up.
  after a few moments of waiting for the steamy-hot water to rush out, you took a step into the tub. immediately, your muscles relaxed under the flow of the hot water, your skin burned a little at the sensation too. you sat under the water for a good 30 minutes; lathering your soft skin with foamy body wash, scrubbing at your scalp and rinsing the stress of a long day off your body. the shower was full of steam and the sweet scents of all the soap you used. 
  you exited the shower after feeling fully clean and content, wrapping a dry towel around your head to hold your drenched hair. you dried your body off with another towel and slipped a soft robe around your form, before approaching your room. 
  following after brushing through your damp hair, you slid on an over-sized t-shirt from your closet, probably one of ukai’s without realizing. you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror as you walked toward your dresser, you admired the way the t-shirt showed off the shape of your breasts and hugged your hips. you took a step back to appreciate your form a minute more, becoming seemingly more and more confident in your looks by the second. it had clearly been awhile since you felt confident in yourself, your teenage days were over and adulthood was settling into your appearance. 
  still, for the first time in awhile, you thought you looked damn good. 
  a flame ignited in your belly, a flame you had not felt in a long time. you usually tended to ignore said flame, because you simply did not have the time to deal with it. 
  but today was so draining and you had not done this in so long. surely you deserved a reward, right?
  yes, yes you did. a hot shower alone simply was not enough of a prize for the type of day you had. 
  you crawled onto the bed and sat against your pillow, spreading your legs for yourself in front of the mirror across the room. grateful you had not put on underwear yet, you reached down to touch your bare petals. you weren’t wet yet, but it didn't take you long to get there, not with that mirror in front of you. 
  you watched yourself from the spot on your bed, grabbing your bare breast underneath your shirt as you started rubbing lazy circles around your clit. you found yourself soon more relaxed than not, giving in to your suppressed desires. you began to imagine you weren’t alone on your bed, that your future husband with there with you; crawling in-between your legs. you moaned at the thought, eyes fluttering close in a daze. 
  you thought about him grabbing you by your thighs, holding on to them as he made out with your sloppy, wet pussy. you imagined the sounds, his vibrating moans, your wet slick being lapped up and sucked on. 
  your was sex dripping with your cum now, and you watched yourself in the mirror with hooded lids, vividly imaging your husbands head and back facing the ceiling. you could even see the details of his back muscles contracting and relaxing as he continued aggressively devouring you. 
  your thoughts were paused when you heard the front door open, your eyes widened, but remained glued to the image of your body. 
  your fingers hadn’t ceased their movements either.
  “honey, i'm home” ukai teased in his “i'm-a-loving-husband-who-brings-home-the-bacon” voice. something you both found funny ever since you got engaged. 
  you made no sound, too afraid you voice would come out in a squeal.
  you heard his footsteps go into the living room, before his voice called out again, “baby?” 
  you decided to play around and not answer again, leaving him no choice but to find you himself. you continued rubbing your clit as you stared at yourself in the mirror, biting your lip to hold back an excited grin. as ukai’s steps got closer to the door, you found yourself indulging a finger into your core. then, one turned into two. and you found yourself having to hold back your moans, as he was so close to entering your room. 
  a mere second passed before keishin was strolling into your room, looking for his beloved fiancé. he stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes fell on you, two fingers plunged into your pussy, all whilst staring at your reflection in the mirror. 
  he exhaled through his teeth before saying, “princess, what’s this?”
  you tilted your head to the side, gazing at the man before you with half-lidded eyes.
  “what does it look like, daddy?” your fingers maintained their rapid pace.
  keishin was enthralled with the scene before him - not wanting to move an inch so he could continue watching you, while also wanting to pounce on you like a caged animal.
  he decided to just slowly creep over to you, long strides taunting you from your spot on the bed. he kneeled on the mattress, beginning to crawl closer and closer to you. your gazes were locked on each other, all while your fingers kept their assault on your core.
  “you look so pretty baby, touching yourself like that in our big ole’ bed.”
  you only bit your lip in response, eyes trailing back to the mirror in front of you. keishin followed your glance, now also looking at the reflection of you two. 
  he scoffed, “what a little slut you are, getting off to yourself in the mirror.”
  a shaky breath left your mouth at his words, before he turned to you again and propped himself up on his elbow.
  why isn't he doing anything?? you couldn't help but think.
  “go on, don't worry about me. I wanna see you keep playing with yourself, just like that.” it was like he read your thoughts.
  you became a little frustrated, you were hoping he was going to join in on your “play time”. even so, you persisted, trying to dig deep for an orgasm. you continued staring at the mirror, watching keishin watch you. it was fucking hot - but you needed more.
  “ ’shin...” you whined out, tilting your head to look at him.
  “what? is my princess having trouble?”
  you nodded your head.
  he clicked his tongue, “that’s too bad isn't it? my little girl started this herself, now she’s got to be the one to finish it.” he punctuated his words by leaning in closer and closer, his hot breath on your face felt too nice. 
  you understood what you had to do, cum for him once and then he’d finally join you for a second time, but you were so damn touch starved. it’s one thing to be alone and touch starved, it’s another to be with the person you want to touch you, just for them not to. 
  you bit down on your lip as you pounded into yourself harder and faster, fingers reaching deep to hit your sweet spot. you tried and tried, but to no avail. your breathing was rigid now, frustration marked on your forehead, all while keishin sat and watched you like a sly motherfucker.
  he hadn’t even taken an inch of clothes off, and he wasn't even palming himself through his sweats.
  tears of frustration dribbled down your cheeks, there was no warmth in your stomach, no clench to your core, just the cum that dripped down your folds - and that was only from the mindless finger-fucking you were doing. 
  “poor baby, are your fingers not enough? can they not satisfy you the way my cock can?” keishin’s voice was low and his breath caused goosebumps to rise on your neck and cheek. you leaned into his warm touch as he wiped the tears off your face.
  “p-please.” you begged.
  “please what? use your words, princess.”
  “please- please help me cum.”
  keishin laughed in your face, making your cheeks glow a bright red. 
  “so fucking pathetic, can't even cum with your own fingers. what happened to that tough girl act you had on before, huh? when I caught you playing with your pussy to your reflection in the mirror.”
  he leaned in closer, lips barely grazing your ear.
  “-where did that little slut go? you’re so desperate now, it’s not even funny.”
  a wave of pleasure took over your body, and you finally understood that he was helping you cum, he just didn’t even have to touch you.
  “daddy- please...” you begged for more.
  “there’s my slut, there she fucking is. i bet you were just waiting for me to come home earlier; you were waiting for your daddy with your cunt wrapped around your little fingers, legs spread - practically begging to be caught.”
  you let out a loud moan, core clenching around your fingers as you felt your orgasm approaching. keishin tugged at the fabric of your shirt, before pulling it up to reveal your breasts.
  he scoffed, “even wearing my shirt, huh? bet you couldn't wait to stain it with your cum. you dirty little girl, i’ll make you clean up every last drop of yourself with your tongue” 
  you were already so close, but keishin’s words and the way he pinched your erect nipple with his thumb and middle finger - really pushed you to the edge. 
  “cum, cum for me you fucking whore.”
  with one final drawn out moan, you came around your fingers and all over the bed. keishin didn’t even let you calm down from your high, he was already in-between your legs getting ready to lick up your slick.
  you tried to push his head away - your body was still so sensitive from the orgasm, but you knew that the night wouldn’t end without ukai overstimulating you, as he always does. you both knew each other’s boundaries, and this was definitely acceptable - but it was still part of the act for you to resist. 
  “keishin, please. i'm too sensitive.”
  he ignored your words, pinning your wrists up above your head to get your hands out of his way. you complied, but still writhed in his grasp. ukai brought his head down to meet your pussy, shoving his nose harshly into your sensitive clit, before plunging his tongue deep in your walls. 
  you screamed at the rough contact, your ass threatened to lift up from the bed - but keishin put a firm arm down on your body to ensure that you were going nowhere. 
  he continued licking out your insides, moaning into your clit. one hand was holding your stomach down and the other was roaming your left breast, fondling the perked nipple in-between his fingers. 
  you couldn’t help the bodily convulsions you were having, you had already felt so close and he was just starting. you glanced up to watch your reflection in the mirror, smirking back at yourself after remembering how only 15 minutes ago you were imagining this scenario unfolding. 
  ukai began licking you with more fervor, his tongue moving up to toy with your clit, whilst two fingers plunged into your hole all at once, making up for any contact lost. 
  you groaned, arching your back so that your pussy was pressed against his face. ukai moaned into your core, licks becoming a sloppy mess. 
  “you taste so fucking lovely, feels like i haven’t ravaged you in way too fucking long.” ukai groaned his words into your sex, causing all sorts of vibrations to be let loose. 
  you were close, so close, your moans were becoming more rapid and you couldn’t hold back your hands from tugging into keishin’s hair. he didn't seem to mind it either. 
   you were pushed over the edge at the feeling of keishin’s lips sucking at your clit, the sensation being way too much for your over-stimulated pussy to handle. it also didn't help that his lidded gaze locked with yours in the exact moment that his lips wrapped around your little bud. you ground against his face as your cum made its new home all over his chin and all over the bed. 
  the two of you breathed heavily for a few seconds, staring into eachother’s eyes for what felt like forever. 
  “you’re so fucking good.” you spoke first, words coming out choked and breathless.
  he chucked, “yeah, it helps that you taste fucking delicious.” 
  you giggled at his words, making it sound like you were a fucking plate of dumplings or something-
  “did you see the dinner? I made dinner!” you sat up excitedly, suddenly remembering the meal that you made.
  “baby, i think i’ve had my dinner.” ukai smirked up at you. 
  you weren't taking any sexy jokes, not after you remembered your yummy dinner.
  “nope, get up. i did not slave over a stove for nothing.” you bounced off the bed, still naked.
  keishin rolled his eyes at you, “we coulda just ordered in ya know?”
  “hush.” you playfully hit him on the shoulder, before putting his shirt back over your torso and leading him into the kitchen.
  after padding into the kitchen, keishin spoke up.
  “you know, I meant what said. about you getting cum on my shirt, and licking it clean.” there was a playful smile on his lips as he crossed his arms and faced you.
  “I didn't even get cum on your shirt, asswipe.” 
  “not yet, but I'm nowhere near through with you tonight, princess.” 
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kuroo testurou
  the red blinking numbers on your alarm clock glowed directly in front of your face, mocking you. 3:32A.M. it told you. you had been tossing and turning for the past 3 hours, how did this happen?
  next to you, your husband kuroo was comfortably snoring, his breathing a steady rhythm. normally, the noise itself would lull you to sleep, but tonight your body was wide awake, antsy about something. you had already gone to the kitchen for a glass of milk an hour ago, a trick your mother taught you as a child. irritated, you glanced at the empty glass next to your bed, clearly it didn’t work anymore. it only made you have to pee, twice.
  you gently flipped onto your back, careful not to wake your soundly sleeping husband, god knew he had to wake up at 6am for work.
  you laid there, flat on your back as you stared up at the ceiling; wide eyed and fully awake. you wondered what other remedies you could do to force sleep on yourself. you could chew some melatonin - but you were sure you’d never bought melatonin in your life, you never had a reason to. you drew in a long breath, letting it out in a sigh. meditation? counting sheep? hot tea? – no, you didn’t want any more trips to the bathroom keeping you up. 
  then a brilliant thought crossed your pretty little mind; masturbation. you almost snorted out loud at the sheer sincerity of it. shifting around a little bit, you rested your hand over your lower stomach - almost teasing the idea of it. your fingers crept lower, now fingering the hem of your cotton shorts. then proceeded to slip your fingers past both the shorts and your underwear. you quickly peered over at your sleeping husband, a wild nest of black hair spread across his pillow. you smiled in admiration, he’s always slept like a rock, usually an arm anchored around you - preventing you from getting out of bed. that same arm was now stuffed under his pillow, you had learned the ways of escaping kuroo’s giant arms long ago. 
  you paid mind back to your situation at hand, continuing the creeping of your hand further down your skin. you sighed at the feeling of your fingers grazing over your slit, instinctively spreading your legs slightly for better access. you began rubbing at your now exposed clit; slow circular motions. you bit your lip at the newfound warmth bubbling in your stomach, a feeling you’ve always enjoyed.
  your husband stirred slightly in his sleep, head now facing yours. you froze slightly, but let out a sigh of relief when his snoring continued. his jet black hair covered his face, only allowing you to see his lips; which were parted as he snored. you almost thought he looked cute, so tempted to run your fingers through his hair. you decided against it, not wanting to wake the poor man up.
  your sex started growing quite wet - quicker than you thought it would. maybe it was the idea that what you were doing...so close to your sleeping husband-
  -was so dirty.
  you bit down on your bottom lip and quickened the pace of your motions, rubbing your little clit with more pressure from your fingertips. 
  still, you wished it was your husband’s tongue instead of your fingers. lapping up your slick and prodding at your sweet spot. you moaned softly, quickly biting your lip again to suppress the sound. fortunately, your husband stayed asleep.
  you started pumping your middle finger into your cunt, needing more friction to finish you off. the action caused you to moan louder, although you really tried to hold them back. and if it weren't your moans that woke your husband up - it was the arching of your back and bucking of your hips, causing the mattress to dip in your spot.
  you didn't notice him though, you didn't notice his eyelids fluttering open behind the shaggy head of hair he had, covering his eyes. he laid like that for a good minute, watching you writhe under your own hand, beginning to grab your bare breast from under your shirt. sleep still clouded his head - making his thoughts a bit foggy, but he was becoming more aware of your upcoming climax by the second. you were so far gone you didn't even realize his snoring coming to a halt, your mind was filled with the most lewd fantasies of kuroo pleasuring you in your bed. 
  when you felt yourself coming close to a climax, a large hand paused your movements by grabbing your wrist. you let out a small yelp, out of pure surprise and terror. you looked over at your husbands form, he was propping himself up on his elbow and jerking his head back a bit to get a better look of you, a smug smirk growing on his lips. his messy hair only covered his left eye now, and you could see the dark hues of his right eye practically glistening, looking down at you with a dark intensity. 
  “test-”
  “i hope i'm not interrupting you, my sneaky girl.” his voice was sleepy and one whole octave lower than it was during the day. 
  “no, you're not...um. i had trouble sleeping baby.”
  he gave you a knowing look and pulled back the blanket that covered his torso, exposing to you his flexed abs. 
  “and you couldn't ask me for help?” he began creeping over to your frozen body, still halfway under the covers.
  “you were sleeping, dummy.” you squinted at him.
  “name calling? well baby, two can play at that game.” he got fully on top of you, then proceeded to sink himself back under the covers, until only his head was poking out. 
  “let me help my chibi-chan out, yeah?” he drawled out the name slowly, knowing just the kind of reaction you'd have.
  “testu, you have work in 3 hours, i-”
  kuroo rolled his eyes at you, before fully submerging his head below the blanket. your hand was still in your pants, it had seized its movement, but it still remained there almost frozen. kuroo pulled the inconvenient hand out of his way, tugging down your cotton shorts immediately after. you felt unsure what he’d do next, considering you couldn't see him.
  after your shorts were long gone, you didn’t feel anything for a few seconds. you perked your head up from its position on your pillow almost ready to call out your lover’s name. you were quickly stopped when you felt a long stroke from his tongue to your wet slit.
  you threw your head back, a long moan escaping your mouth. the ecstasy from the feeling of his tongue unexpectedly replacing your fingers was unimaginable. you writhed beneath his mouth, his arms instinctively going to wrap around your thighs, anchoring you down in your place. his tongue continued its assault with an immense amount of pressure; pushing the muscle deep into your hole, then bringing it out to run circles around your clit. you already felt your body closing in on its orgasm. you had gotten yourself pretty far earlier and your husband was only getting you further. kuroo felt your tightening core around his muscle, and he slowed down his tongue movements - ultimately trying to edge you.
  and you certainly felt on edge, that was for sure.
 your eyes widened at his suddenly slow pace, looking down at the lump of his body covered by the thick blanket. you knew he was getting warm down there, but this was kuroo for crying out loud; this man would go on for hours if he wanted to.
  you felt his grip around your thighs tighten as you bucked your pelvis into his face, demanding a little bit more friction. to your dismay, he gave you the absolute opposite of that; digging his nails lightly into your plush skin to almost warn you not to be impatient. you whined under his tongue, the feeling of slow circular motions was driving you crazy. you were about ready to suffocate his face with your pussy - underneath the already claustrophobic blankets.
  kuroo suddenly sped up his pace again, planning on bringing you close to another high. and maybe if he was feeling nice, he’d let you come this time. he added two fingers to pulse into your sopping wet cunt as he licked away at your clit and your folds - lewd noises escaping through the small holes between the blanket and the bed. he continued pumping you ‘til he felt your walls begin to clench again, squeezing his two fingers tightly together. he immediately pulled them out.
  you gasped at the loss of contact, this time you were really ready to rip the blanket off this man and yell straight in his face. but to your surprise, kuroo submerged himself from under the blanket to meet you face to face.
  “having fun, chibi-chan?” he smirked down at your pouting face.
  “i was.” you accentuated your words with a roll of your eyes.
  kuroo chucked, then grabbed your cheeks in his hand and squeezed them.
  “hey, who said you could give me an attitude, huh? you should be thankful that i’m pleasuring you at this hour.” his voice was deep and laced with lust. you know his actions would soon contradict his words, so you played along.
  “want some kind of award? oh, i’m so glad my husband edged me at 3am! when i could’ve came and went to sleep already! thank you truly-“
  kuroo’s eyes went dark; knowing this game all too well. his hands went from your cheeks to around your throat in a mere second.
  “watch your fucking mouth, brat, or you won’t be coming at all tonight.”
  you smirked up at him, knowing you got him where you wanted. kuroo pulled down his boxers from his position between your legs and began pumping his half-erect member. you simply sat back and watched him. after a moment, he lined himself up with your core, slightly adjusting his position to get closer to you.
“someone’s taking their sweet time.” you had to bite back a laugh at your own statement.
  “patience is virtue, chibi-chan. or did you forget that i could simply stop here and go back to sleep?” kuroo tested you.
  “whatever you say, sir.” you looked deep into his eyes, not an ounce of satire in your voice.
  kuroo licked his lips devishly, any hint of tiredness he had felt before was long gone now. he pushed his cock deep into your core, bottoming out all at once. your back arched instantly at the feeling of his cock already pressing against your cervix.
  “think you can take me, little one?” kuroo smirked down at your face, which was contoured in pleasure and slight discomfort from taking his cock all at once.
  “know i can. start moving grandpa, i’m not getting any younger here.” you teased his slow pace.
  he raised an eyebrow at you, “you asked for it.” and began shoving himself in and out of you at the speed of fucking light.
  you threw your head back in ecstasy, the feeling of his “larger-than-most” cock would never get old to you - no matter how long you two have been together. he almost always stretched you out to unimaginable points.
  “test-testu.” you whined out, tongue beginning to loll out of your mouth.
  “that’s mr. kuroo to you, little one.” the muscles of his biceps were starting to tense up as he continued fucking you senseless.
  you could barely whine out a response, his cock was already so close to pushing you past your breaking point. he made matters worse by bringing a hand down to play with your clit, only to retract that hand and slap your pussy with it, tauntingly. he knew exactly what kind of response he’d get from that, as you wail out from under him.
  “i’m so close...” you almost regretted saying that in fear that he’d just pull out and go to sleep. but you knew better that he already sensed you were close without you having to say anything.
  he smirked from his position on top of you, black hair falling in a mess over his face as he tilted his head down to look at you better.
  “so am i.” he groaned into your ear as he inched his body closer to yours, your erect nipples practically brushing against his bare chest through your thin shirt.
  your core tightened as your climaxed reached itself. you dug your nails into the bare skin on kuroo’s back for support, he barely even hissed in pain at the sensation. your hips bucked as your orgasm took over your whole body, legs shaking from the aftermath of the intense high. your husband fucked you through your orgasm relentlessly, seeking to find his own orgasm. he came shortly after you, deeply groaning into your ear - the noise had goosebumps rising all over your body.
  “always so fucking good, chibi-chan.” his eyes were half-lidded, as were yours.
  your chest heaved as you began to calm down from your high. kuroo pulled himself out of you and quickly retreated to the bathroom to get some towels to clean you guys up.
  but when he got back you were already half asleep, cuddled into his pillow, inhaling his fresh, yet musky scent. he smiled down at you, a towel still in hand.
  you mumbled to him, sleep nearly taking over you, “thank you, baby~”
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musclesandhammering · 3 years
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Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)
Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.
OOC Bullshit
• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.
• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.
• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.
Shitty LGBT Rep
• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.
• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.
• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”
• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.
Thematic Issues Galore
• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.
• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).
• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.
• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.
• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.
• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.
Missed Opportunities
• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.
• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.
• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.
• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.
Various S*lki Fails
• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.
• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.
• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.
• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.
• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.
I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.
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rcksmith · 3 years
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Felling — Five Hargreeves
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Request: “Hi love could you maybe do #38 from the fluff prompts for Five where maybe Five is struggling with accepting the reader trying to be like romantic or affectionate with him !!! Thank you I love you !!!!”
Fluff Prompts:
38. “You say you hate it but your red face is telling me otherwise.”
A/N: We not tolerate any pedophilia here!!
I write about Five with their 20s. I write the same about the characters of Harry Potter.
I loved this request so much! I found it so cute and adorable!! ❤️ I hope it got close to what you wanted. I love you❤️
Here I used some fragments of Five's original chronology because it would help with the plot, but guys, keep in mind, please, that he is a 20 or more.
English is not my first language, so I so sorry if have a mistake.
Requests are open. Love you ❤️
Couple: Five Hargreeves/Fem! Reader.
Warnings: Just bad words, it is very fluff.
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The Hargreeves were a family full of wounds, trauma and deep-seated fears. They were trained to be super heroes. Strong, courageous, centered, perfect. And that was why no emotion could be on the way to that goal. Feeling love, passion, affection and affection was the gateway to becoming vulnerable. And a superhero couldn't be vulnerable. So they were denied that their whole lives.
Within each one pulsed a different problem, a different trauma. Denying love to a child only made him develop complications to connect with his emotions, feel empathy and be able to deal with different contrasts in a healthy way.
The Hargreeves brothers' lives were not easy, but some of them found, in the beginning, a way to connect with different types of love; Luther and Alissom for each other, Diego for the maternal love, Klaus and Ben in the partnership and complicity for each other. Vayna found her way in love for her brothers when her biggest internal problems were resolved.
But Five... well, Five was alone in the abyss of the apocalypse.
He did not have a chance to mature his feelings, deal with his psychological and transform the various traumas into something productive and healthy. Then, in the midst of loneliness, devastation and chaos, Five just threw his feelings under the rug until, like his childhood brothers, they stopped harassing him.
As they never had the opportunity to mature, those sensations remained on a primitive level. And his complications to bond with his emotions became even more broken when Five had to kill for the Commission.
Facing death and being the author of such devastation was not a mild endeavor. The smell of death was still in the air if Five stopped to concentrate on breathing, and the murder scenes were still fresh in his mind when he slept. But, just as Five did with any feeling, he just pushed them under the rug once again.
He didn't want to deal with them. They brought, for Five, pains, fears, weaknesses and a constant reminder that, perhaps, he... had failed in many things. And Five hated seeing himself as a failure.
And that was when he came home. And even when the waters have calmed down, when the winter breeze gently touched his face, when he can rest, dealing with feelings was something he still repudiated.
But that's when Five met you, and his whole world was turned upside down. When you first looked into his eyes, fierce, warm heat swept through Five's body, from the top of his head to his toes. The heat immediately gave way to a cold sweat.
Five thought it was just a second of madness, in which his system had given a blue screen for something else, not for you. But as soon as you smiled at him, there was a quick feeling of being stabbed near the diaphragm or in the belly. His composure didn't waver an inch, but he felt like he couldn't breathe.
The situation took on unimaginable proportions. You are going the Hargreeves mansion a lot times , since, what has been said, you were friends with the brothers, and Five lived lost in an agitated sea of ​​exasperating feelings whenever he was near you.
You were brilliant as the sun, smiling as happiness, beautiful as masterpieces and stunning as the evening. You were the personification of…Perfection, was the Five thought at the time. And it almost broke his heart, because he could never have you for himself.
Five couldn't because, as much as he refused to admit it, wouldn't know how. He couldn't because the whirlwind of emotions was a fierce scream that caused a stir in his mind. Five looked at you and saw a masterpiece - sublime and human art at the same time - and he didn't know how to name those emotions. And now, unexpectedly trapped by the intensity, Five was unable to reason properly when he was close to you.
All he could see was an excessively beautiful girl who was standing in front of him as something he wanted very much. And if you understood the state Five was in whenever you talked to him, you would have stopped at the first sentence. No, if you really understood, you would end up running as fast as you could. But you could not understand what Five did not understand.
So he preferred the loneliness of the apocalypse to those emotions that made him feel hot and cold at the same time, which seemed like his stomach was filling with birds, all beating their wings and trying to escape, and then his hands started to shake.
Five didn't know what it was all about, a mixture of emotions; attraction, passion, an overwhelming desire to touch you. But even if he knew how to name it all, he wouldn't know how to act. Five was a genius, he could solve the biggest equations about space and time with his eyes closed, but as a lover, however, he put his feet in his hands.
Five never thought of the most tender emotions without coldness and objectivity, they were great to justify the actions of human beings. But you have revoked absolutely everything.
Over time, it started to hurt physically in Five not to touch you, not to succumb to the most overwhelming wills. And then, one night he took refuge in a bottle of vodka, you walked in the door and it was the end for Five. He got up from the bar, came to you in determined and firm steps, and, sending everything to hell, held your face in his hands and kissed you as if he wanted to do this for a lifetime. Maybe more.
You were the opposite of Five. It was as if you were the heat and he was the ice, day and night. You burned like summer heat and Five burned like winter cold. You were everything Five was not: extroverted, agitated, knew how to deal with emotions very well, you were passionate, caring, loving, you loved physical contact. So when you returned the kiss, Five felt himself burning with your warm touch.
You wrapped your fingers around the black strands on the back of his neck, letting him put your bodies together and the kiss started to heat up. And then you said:
“You're beautiful.”
And that's where Five fell in love with you. He fell in love because when you took a breath and looked into his eyes when you said that, he felt like you could see the depths of his soul, all the secrets, all the sins, all the fears. You knew him, deeply.
Five was no longer able to stay away from you after this event. He always chose your side at a table, he was very less acid in conversation whit you were. And when you two played chess, and he let you win on purpose just to see your happy smile and your eyes shining, he knew was in trouble.
While Five tried to deal with so many new emotions and so many traumas, you were the opposite. You have been in love with him for so long, even when you saw his painting on top of the fireplace, you felt something different. So when you two kissed, came closer, you let your feelings out.
You were a loving person by nature, you loved hugging people, physical contact. You were an incorrigible romantic and, to be honest, you loved being like that. You loved feeling too much.
So with Five it was no different. You liked holding hands, hugs, more tender kisses and also quick hello kisses or bye. You loved touching physically, either way. But being like that taught you that many people didn't taste the same as you. And in the case of the Hargreeves, so broken and lost, dealing with feelings was not easy, especially to express it physically.
But with Five it was… more difficult.
He was very reserved, controlled, closed. You felt perfectly when he went rigid whenever you touched him: any affection on the arm, kiss on the cheek when you had to go to college, hugs.
You started to think that maybe he didn't like you that much or didn't want something serious, but Five was always looking for you. Whether showing up at your apartment, in your room, or going to be near you at the mansion or kissing you. So you ended up realizing that he just didn't handle feelings well.
It was very cold that night, you were in your room with the books and college notebooks on the bed, trying to solve some calculus equations, otherwise you would end up repeating in that subject. Your head was already pounding and you were getting frustrated, it was definitely not for you and your desire was to hit your head on the book and give up.
“What a nightmare.” You mumbled.
“What a nightmare?”
The voice at your side made you scream out in fright, turning to the left and seeing Five standing on the edge of your bed. The distilled moonlight came in through your open window and bathed the man in front of him with a builder in his black hair and alabaster skin, you held your breath, Five was always so beautiful that he should be considered a crime.
His hands were in the pockets of his dark pants, followed by the shirt and blazer from the Academy uniform. Five looked at you with a small condescending smile in the corner of your mouth, and you felt your heart pounding.
“Ah, it's just a college subject.” You sighed, looking at the notebooks in front of you “It's a nightmare.”
Then Five leaned forward, looking closely at your notes.
“You know where you went wrong, don't you?”
You jaw dropped, and you turned to the notebooks with your calculations. That was the only exercise that you thought was correct.
You felt frustration rising from your feet to your head, snaking through your body. You snorted, running your hand through your hair, it had been hours since you tried to understand that misfortune.
“I will never graduate, that's it. I accept the defeat of the God of mathematics.” You grunted, leaving the pencil on top of the books, giving up.
Five laughed softly, sitting beside your bed, still far enough away not to touch you.
“Give me the pencil.” He pointed to the object and you handed it over.
You frowned when Five pulled your notes to him, balanced the pencil in your other hand and redo your calculations at the end of the sheet.
You should have paid attention to what Five was doing, at each step, but the truth was that you got lost looking at him. The winter breeze shook his black strands as if they were a cloth from the night sky, his emerald green eyes were focused, and a slight crease on his forehead indicated that he was concentrating.
Your heart raced, the world seemed to stop breathing and the air took on a caustic and magical intonation. You would show all your shadows if Five showed his, you would do anything to show how sublime he was.
Then Five looked up at you, and the hemisphere seemed to make sense that second. So you leaned over and kissed him. You kissed because there was no cell in you that didn't want to kiss him. Because Five was a young god and you were just a mortal surrendered to his charms.
But you felt his muscles go rigid, the spontaneous physical contact catching him off guard.
Five burned in contradictions. It burned in the hot fire of passion and burned in the icy heat of feelings. Your touch was potent and had an overwhelming effect on Five.
He wondered what would happen if he had sex with you at that moment. Would he burn in your heat or would he be consumed by troubled emotions? Would he feel every part of your body pulse or would he lose himself in the confusion of his own mind?
Five gently parted his lips, still close enough for his breath to hit your lips.
“I feel your tension. Everything is fine.” You commented quietly.
Five just breathed, his eyes confirming to you what his words didn't say.
“I'm sorry for everything you've been through.” You were sincere, and cautiously put your hand under his. “But you have to understand that it’s normal and good to feel emotions. It's okay not to understand them. Feelings are not like math.”
Five felt your touch become more present, and you gently approach. He should have said something, but his body started to contradict his mind and he got lost in a blue shambles. He desperately wanted you. Wanted to fuck you until feel you completely and kiss you until taste love. But he also wanted to get away. He wanted to go away and push all those feelings and emotions under the rug.
But when you sat closer to him, and your hands cupped his face, Five realized he couldn't leave.
“How would you react if I did that..”
Then he noticed your mischievous smile, and before he could say anything, you held him more firmly, and filled any part of his face with kisses that you could reach.
You laughed between Five's kisses and protests. But you only stopped after the twentieth kiss. Five was marked with your lipstick, his eyes closed for you, his face in a warning expression.
“Y/N!” He grunted, wiping his face “Are you crazy?”
But his cheeks were red and you could feel his temperature high from where you were.
You laughed louder, settling on the bed.
“.You say you hate it but your red face is telling me otherwise.” You pointed at his cheeks, waved your index finger between them, signaling.
Five frowned even more, trying to wipe the lipstick marks off his face. But slowly, a little smile was struggling to come to his face.
“You are smiling!”
“You are so childish!” he rolled his eyes, but his voice was soft.
“You love Me!” Then you threw yourself at him again, kissing his face where the marks had been cleaned.
Five grunted, but ended up just resting his hands on your waist, feeling ... relaxing.
When you stopped laughing and looked at him, Five held his gaze. Gently, his right hand went to your face, removing a lock of your hair from your eyes.
“I think you're right.”
His voice was low, like a summer breeze, and yours eyes lit up when you understood the meaning of what he was talking about. But Five didn't give you time to answer, he leaned over and captured your lips in a passionate kiss.
You love him too.
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pale-silver-comb · 4 years
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So I know absolutely nothing about Leverage except what I've been seeing you post lately and I have to admit you're making it look tempting to watch! Can I ask what are some of your favorite things about the show/reasons you would suggest people watch it? And is there really a poly relationship that is canon?
Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.
In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals. 
I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:
1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.
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2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong. 
Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.
Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)
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Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day. 
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Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot....just.....lets...her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.) 
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I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that's for another post.
3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.  
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4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.  
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5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.  
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Honestly, I could list a thousand reasons for why Leverage is amazing but to list them would to be spoiling so many amazing moments you’d get to discover for the first time on your own if you do choose to watch it. It’s the kind of show you can watch with an eagle-eye and sink your teeth into. But it’s also the kind of show if, you would prefer, put on in the background for something entertaining while you do something else. Each episode is about the job at hand but it’s made up of so many moments between the characters that show how much the creators and writers care about them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll do whatever it is you do when something Soft and Wonderful happens that makes your heart melt. I am so beyond grateful for Leverage. It’s everything I always wanted in a show. Nearly every show I’ve watched in the past 10 years has disappointed me in some way, usually either because the writers run out of steam or characters who I love are treated poorly or given some kind of unnecessary “shock value” arc. Leverage doesn’t do that. Leverage is what it says on the bottle. Fandom isn’t something I joined because I needed canon fix-its. Fandom only enhances and celebrates an already excellent canon. 
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nonbinarykai · 3 years
Text
Ok since two people asked
Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him
Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post
Why I don’t like Lloyd
Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine
He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him
I think this is mostly for two reasons:
1. His screen time
2. His “character arcs”
I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself
Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable
A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11
Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12
The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own
And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them
My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed
But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.
And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.
Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show
Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season
Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck
Im going to be honest with you
Lloyds kinda an ass
The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.
The same can’t be said about Lloyd
Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him
Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4
But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting
The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later
The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN
The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.
Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective
This scene would have worked if
1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai
2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus
Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.
To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back
“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”
Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions
Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true
But since we’re already on this topic
Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character
I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story
There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer
1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon
2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius
3. If the story is a tragedy
Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character
A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character
A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him
Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended
But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP
Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing
What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure
And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character
Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby
How I would rewrite him
I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree
But not in the way you think
I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives
More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore
I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself
I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.
And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says
As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable
Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10
Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions
Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass
Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on
He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better
AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER
ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)
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