#was his shooting scene supposed to be emotional or impactful at all?

[matan4il]

Buddie 613 meta

We now know that the man who risked himself to get Buck out of the line of fire during the shooting arc is Jeshan, which means ‘clear’ (if you’re interested, you can find more name meanings for 911 characters here). So let me just giggle for a second about the fact that 911 had once again reunited Buddie with a character who can be referred to as Captain Clear Me(h)ta. Coincidence? IDK. But I have to admit, it kinda made me reflect back and feel nostalgic. When I first started watching the show, I had no intention of writing meta for 911, but after going ballistic when 309 aired, I knew I would HAVE to use the s3 hiatus to write down all my thoughts about everything Buddie related so far. That’s what I did, I wrote and shared my baby, my first round of Buddie meta. That’s where it was supposed to end, but then people asked and encouraged me to write meta for the eps in 3b as they would air, too. I figured I could try, and that’s how my Buddie weekly meta posts were born. At the time, there was no one else writing proper weekly meta (I don’t mean a summary/review of the ep, or meta posts that stand on their own, but proper analysis on Buck, Eddie and those who matter to them, organized and serialized for each ep as it aired). And now, I’ve been writing them for almost 3.5 seasons. And I feel like they’ve inspired others to do the same. TBH, I can’t actually remember seeing weekly meta posts in other fandoms (maybe they exist and I just haven’t come across them, IDK). So I got all emotional, thinking about how these posts may be love notes to Buddie and the show, but most of all they’re a love letter to the wonderful people who have been supportive and encouraging, who’ve been reblogging the posts, who’ve been commenting on them and telling me that what I do makes a difference for them. Thank you so much, these posts wouldn’t exist without you. You have a much bigger impact on the fandom than you might have realized! So if Captain Mehta is indeed a nod to the meta, it’s a loving, appreciative nod that belongs to all of you. ~~

When Chim shows up to escort Hen to work, he ends up sitting down for a talk with Denny instead, and I really enjoyed this scene, it was lovely, but it also once again emphasized the difference between the firefam kids’ relationship with their parents’ colleagues and the r/s Buck and Chris have. Chim talks to Hen’s son when he happens to come across the kid, but he only sits down for a proper conversation because Denny implies Hen and Karen are up to something intimate, and Chim shouldn’t interrupt them just yet. Consider how different that is to how Buck intentionally looks to spend time with and dedicated to Chris! And then Chim is impressed by how smart Denny is. It’s cute, but it also reveals just how little they interact that this comes as a surprise to Chim. It’s so different to the intimate familiarity of a parent, which is what we know Buck has with Chris (and that Chris has with Buck, which can even be seen in the kid’s teasing, for example regarding the snoring in 414). ~~

You might have seen that, when the promo came out, I momentarily lost my sanity and posted this. I just couldn’t get over the fact that they actually had Eddie correct the chief on the duration of Buck’s death. It was such a spouse thing to do. It was a declaration about the anguish that each single second represented, when Eddie couldn’t breathe because Buck wasn’t. It was a confession of sorts, on how Eddie felt as he desperately NEEDED his husband to live (I’m not even joking when I ascribe him this title, Eddie said with his whole chest, “THAT IS MY IDIOT HUSBAND THAT I HAD TO WATCH DIE FOR THREE MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS AND I WILL NEVER FORGET ANY OF THOSE SECONDS, NOR LET ANYONE ELSE DO THAT”). It was a glimpse into how time must have moved differently for him as each second etched itself forever into Eddie’s mind. And yes, it’s a clear parallel to 413, when we witness time slowing down for Eddie. And I mentioned in my post that in both scenarios, Buck is just out of his reach, so close, but simply not close enough. In one case, this forced Eddie to believe he must now accept his own death. In the other, he couldn’t accept the possibility that Buck would die, so he just fought harder, and if he couldn’t save Buck with one course of action, he tried another, Eddie just had to keep going, 'coz the idea of those three minutes and seventeen seconds turning into an eternity? Unacceptable. ~~

But notice in my unhinged post from that day, I used the word ‘counting.’ Eddie counted the seconds, and this is revealed to us at a poker game where Buck is counting the cards. I already noticed that when we saw the promo, but this connection was reinforced in the ep itself when Chief Williams vocalized what Buck was doing. The thing about counting is that it’s reserved for what matters, what’s crucial. Buck is counting the cards in order to win, and he wants to win because it matters to Eddie. Buck wasn’t the one who initiated the search for a poker game where he could use his newfound skills, Eddie was the one to take that initiative. And he could bring Buck along without telling him where they’re going (I would normally scream for a whole separate paragraph just about Eddie telling Buck to dress nice and there being no need for any further explanation or prompting, but we were so well fed, I’ll have to scream about it into my fist for just one sentence) 'coz Eddie was so sure his husband would go along with whatever crazy scheme he’d come up with. And he was right, even though Buck didn’t think it would end well, he still went along with what his husband wanted. Please let me reiterate: Buck’s counting cards because Eddie is so important to him, and Eddie was counting the seconds because Buck’s his vital sign. ~~

Another thing to keep in mind about the poker game is that the only other time we’ve seen Buck playing poker was in 312. In that ep, Eddie was off to meet Christopher’s school teachers (leading to his eventual lackluster r/s with Ana), so having a free evening, Buck spends it with Maddie, Chim and Josh (and is told he unequivocally sucks at Poker). Jokes were made about setting Josh and Buck up, and it was implied whatever Buck’s sexuality was, that was not the reason why Maddie abstained from making the match. What I find interesting is seeing how far our boys have come! In that ep, they were operating separately, and it led them down the wrong paths.

In this ep, Buck and Eddie were inseparable both as a couple (even sharing the winnings from Buck’s new talent, because what don’t these two share? And I was particularly chewing glass when Chief Williams asks Buck how he wanted HIS winnings, but instead of answering her, he looks at his husband. THEY ARE SO FREAKING MARRIED), and as a family unit with Chris (which is maybe a good moment to point out that all of the romantic couples were paired off in 613, and so were Buddie! Now, one could argue that Buck and Eddie were paired off because, well... who else is left for them to hang out with? But 312 is a reminder that when the show wants to, it can push the main cast and minor characters into the same orbit, so it still didn’t HAVE to pair Buck and Eddie off here. It chose to. On top of that, by showing them with Chris as well, 911 reminded us they’re far more bonded than just two best bros hanging out together ‘coz none of their other friends are single). In short, during 312, Buck lost and Eddie was about to be lost on a detour in his romantic journey. In 613, they ARE a family, they work as one throughout the ep, not just in parts of it, and they’re both winning. ~~

Something that gets to me is that when I first shared the BTS pic of Buddie at the poker game, it was clear that Eddie was just bursting with self confidence. He looked like he would be the star of that game. But when we got the promo, we discovered that it was actually going to be Buck who would shine that night. So what makes me slightly froth at the mouth is that all of that sexy confidence we picked up on in the photo? It was real. We weren’t wrong. It just wasn’t confidence that Eddie had in himself, it’s confidence he has in Buck. All of his swagger? Is a reflection of how much he believes and enjoys seeing his husband be a star. I am gonna need 3-6 working weeks at least to recover from knowing this. ~~

Speaking of things that destroyed me forever, everything about the Buckley-Diaz family in this ep falls into that category. I mean, not only did we once again have incredibly domestic scenes, we had one that was very reminiscent of the lasagna one in 601 (Eddie with Chris at the table, Buck fussing around them only to join in once he brings along something to be consumed), reinforcing that this is THEIR NORM, we also had Eddie and Chris being so cute and supportive when it comes to Buck’s new ability (Chris calls him a superhero, Eddie goes along with it, and when Buck’s upset he didn’t get a better superpower, naming some he would have liked to have, Eddie comforts him by saying those other options sound horrible). 

And then to top it all off, we had Buck and Chris cooking together. Bobby’s been explicitly acknowledged as basically being Buck’s dad by both of them, and we know Bobby’s been teaching Buck how to cook. Now we get Buck doing the same with Chris, clearly marking them as father and son, especially since this is done with just the two of them, this special time that’s allocated just to their bond together. Eddie is not needed as a middleman. I know that this isn’t news, but every single time the show reinforces this truth, that Buck is Christopher’s other dad, that their bond is that deep, I gain 10 years, so I have to mention it. ~~

For 613, I made my weekly gifset about Buck and answers, but I’d actually like to elaborate on what you see there. In 602, at the happiness center call, we see Buck looking to Lev in search for his own answers on what his happiness looks like. When he still can’t find any, he turns to Hen, because she always has them. Along this season, that’s been his theme. He’s trying to figure out what he wants in order to be happy, which is connected to the couch theme we’ve all been screaming about since 601 (and especially after he fell asleep on Eddie’s in 612). In 613, Buck suddenly finds that he’s the guy with the answers and he likes it. But has he really got them? Buck says these words to Eddie and Chris, and in addition to that, while he utters them, he’s literally captured in the same frame together with Eddie. But it’s also essential that we heard why Chris can’t just be given the answers. It’s in order to learn, Eddie tells him. That’s exactly what Buck has to do, he has to find his answers in order to learn from the search process. He’s not just there yet, but the framing of the whole scene coupled with the ongoing couch theme is very loud. ~~

What gets me maybe most of all in a whole ep of REALLY GOOD BUDDIE CONTENT, is the way the whole thing wraps up. The storyline on Buck’s new abilities doesn’t end with any commentary on those or on his recovery process. His last scene in this ep is the one with Chris. It follows directly the one with Hen and Karen, a scene which reminds us that we’re never surprised at either woman spending solo time with and caring about Denny, even though neither is biologically related to him, because they ARE BOTH his parents. In the same way, it’s only natural that we see Buck spending alone time with Chris, without Eddie around. It is so meaningful that the last shot of Buck in this ep is not about his story line at all, and neither his abilities, nor having died for several minutes is the point. Instead, the last, and therefore most significant shot of Buck in this very Buddie domestic ep, is him smiling at their son. I feel like that says everything about his trajectory.

~~ (my weekly meta posts) (my Buddie gifs) (all of my content)

~~ My tag list will follow in the reblog, please let me know  if you wanna be added/removed here.

~~ Thank you so much for reading and for any reblog, like, comment or supportive tag! Also, HUGE thank you to @whosoldherout​. On top of real life stuff, she makes her own amazing gifs AND helps make these posts so much better. She’s the one with the real superpowers!

#buddie #911meta #buddie meta #911 meta #9-1-1 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #911 spoilers #evanbuckleyedit #eddiediazedit #christopher diaz #wm #911edit #buddie gifs #buddieedit #911onabc #911 on abc #911abc #911 abc

[valictini]

How I wish the dragon tears quest had concluded and impacted the rest of the game without changing too much of what nintendo gave us (FULL endgame spoilers ahead)

First of all, I got inspired by a comment under a YouTube video and I fully agree with this idea: Impa could have just told Link to not divulge what happened to Zelda while she tries to figure out if there's a way to get her back. The justification behind it would be that not only it would shoot everyone's morale, but it could also create a political disaster if we randomly announced that Hyrule had no ruler anymore.

Impa could have transmitted the message to Purah so she can make her own research. Purah could have a unique dialog where she acknowledges that even though it probably won't get Zelda back, Link should still investigate the strange happenings around Hyrule, just in case.

Impa would actually be in Kakariko Village as soon as we finish the quest!! Idk why they didn't do this in the first place!!

When visiting the different regions, we'd have the same dialog and events, except we'd get a unique dialog where each future sage remarks that Link seems unenthusiastic about their search for "Zelda". Link being sworn to secrecy, and the sages being polite, they'd probably cut it short and apologise for prying or something.

When you finish each temple, they all remark that maybe it wasn't Zelda. Cue, another unique dialog where they ask Link if it's why he seemed reserved about this mission.

When we finish the regional quests, Purah tells Link that they didn't find anything yet, and maybe they should reveal the truth to the others for their input.

So they do just that and!! They have!! An actual!! Emotional response!! When they all learn the truth!!

Like holy shit was it just me or did they move on from this very quickly? Aren't they supposed to be friends? Idk man, maybe it was because I had been waiting for this moment for hours but it felt really underwhelming.

Finally, after getting Mineru, we could have Impa and Purah announce to Link that they might have an idea: taking inspiration from Purah's experiments with age regression, they could possibly make a machine on a larger scale that would revert Zelda's age and hopefully get her back into a human. (still baffled that Purah's age experiment is just a background joke at this point, so why not make it actually relevant!!) They warn Link that it would take years to develop such technology and it could not work in the end so he shouldn't get his hopes up etc

Purah also remarks that if only they could somehow boost the time reversion power in Link's arm, it would be so much simpler. But alas, such amount of power seems impossible to acquire (wink wink)

She concludes by saying that unfortunately, all Link can do for now is fulfill Zelda's wish and kill Ganondorf once and for all.

Finally, thanks to all this foreshadowing, when we beat Ganondorf and get the cutscene where we see Rauru and Sonia boost Link's powers to revert Zelda, it wouldnt feel like such a Deus ex Machina anymore!!

(I mean, canonically they use both time and light but honestly i struggle to understand why they needed to specify that. At least in this version, they could have just said they boosted only the time power and simply kept it as a reference to the scene where Sonia and Zelda boosted Rauru's light powers to beat the moldugas)

As someone who finished the dragon tears quest line before I even started my second dungeon, I can't tell you how immersion breaking it was to have everyone chasing an obviously fake Zelda without being able to say anything.

It feels like such a huge oversight. I don't even understand how the Devs managed to give unique dialogs to every NPC depending on weather/what you wear etc and NOT think about players who'd finish this questline before the rest. So here's a simple but satisfying way that they could have done it IN MY OPINION

#totk #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom spoilers #dragon tears #dragon tears quest #loz #impa #purah #zelda #link #honestly if i could i would have changed a lot more but i wanted to propose something that they could have easily added

[morganas-pendragons]

There Is Quiet | Commander Cody and Phantom

tag: @generic-geek-girl​ @erishimoon​ @social-mockingbird​

part one - fox

***

b e f o r e

He married you. He married you, his quiet Phantom, under the flickering lights of Seventy-Nines with his closest brothers as his witnesses.

You'd made a sacred vow to the Marshal Commander of the 212th. A commandment. A promise.

He married you.

And now he was trying to kill you.

It doesn't make any sense. The last thing you had talked about was this quaint little apartment on the Upper Levels of Coruscant that he wanted to buy after the war was over. It always came back to that.

After the war is over.

Nothing was ever over.

The last thing you had talked about was the home you'd have after the war, and now you were falling falling falling down the enormous pit that composed the center of Utapau's main colony and into the water's below.

You were too busy trying to comprehend the fact that the clones had shot you and Obi-Wan off of Boga to realize that the water was coming closer.

Everything hurt the minute you both made impact.

The Force is writhing as you emerge from the water in search of Obi-Wan. His Force Signature is dark, damaged, like he's in physical and emotional pain and can't quite make out why the Force is permeated by such anguish.

You can echo that sentiment.

"Where's the Knight?"

You weren’t even supposed to be here. You were supposed to be on Coruscant, but Obi-Wan had said you would be invaluable for this mission and would be able to oversee the 212th if anything happened to him. You worked as well together as he and Anakin did. 

You weren’t supposed to be here, and now you’re going to die here. 

Every molecule in your body freezes at the sound of the clone's voice. You don't have any recognizable factors to use in order to ascertain who it is. The armor is the same 212th gold as the rest of your boys. There's no special markings to help you recognize him.

What you do recognize is the man who emerges from behind him. You're quick to lower yourself deeper into the water, keeping your breathing quiet as you watch from around the edges of a large rock.

It's Cody. The armor matches, the voice matches, the Force Signature matches.

"I gave the order to shoot her down, soldier," Cody's voice is sharp, calculated. It doesn't sound anything like the man you left only mere days ago with the whispered promise of a future that seems further and further away. "We're under order from Lord Sidious to ensure the bodies of the Jedi are found. Get looking."

Lord Sidious? Who the Kriff is Lord Sidious?

All you're left with are more questions then answers as your survival training kicks in and you're forced to flee the scene in search of your Master. You need to get back to your ship. Get back to the ship, find Obi-Wan, and get the kriff off of this god-forsaken planet.

Padawan-mine. Listen to me.

Your arms are aching by the time you finally drag yourself onto land. Your lightsaber is, thankfully, still attached to your hip. It might be your only saving grace in this situation.

The Vode are not themselves. Cody is not himself. Whatever this is, we will fix it. I swear it. Meet me at the upper east-side landing platform. It's time to flee.

You don't have the heart to grace him with a reply. With a heavy heart, you slowly begin creeping through the lower levels until you're graced with an elevator that leads you to the top.

The moment the doors shut, you break. You can't help it. It feels ridiculous to have once been that Padawan who believed in spoken promises of forever inside of a bar on Coruscant where you'd committed your life to the man you love.

It feels ridiculous to have hoped for something better.

***

This is how it feels to be CC-2224, former Marshal Commander of the GAR and the 7th Sky Corp. Former Marshal Commander of the 212th and husband to Obi-Wan Kenobi's second Padawan, Phantom.

You're plagued by memories of things that become more difficult to recall as time passes following Operation Knightfall. A mission to a droid foundry on Felucia. Fear. Panic. Safely being wrapped in Phantom's arms after finding out your Jedi General is dead. Stolen kisses in quarters on the Negotiator.

All of it seems so far away. Such a long time ago.

It doesn't matter though because it's not something you're ever going to get back. You are one of the highest ranking clones with a singular purpose: To glorify The Emperor and the name of the newly established Empire.

It doesn't matter what you used to call yourself. Cody, husband, friend, brother... None of that matters now.

You are a soldier even if the rest are marching far away. Your twin is dead. The clones are dead. So many clones are dead.

You're a soldier.

And you're meant to press on even if you no longer have the strength to do so.

This is how it feels to be formerly Cody, Commander of the 212th.

Numb.

***

One Year Later, Set During The Bad Batch 2x03

Obi-Wan did the one thing he promised never to do to you: He left you on your own. He left you on your own because Maker forbid he actually tell you that you mattered to him, Maker forbid he dare to love something again after the fall of Anakin Skywalker.

You don't blame him. You don't want to love anything again either. It's not worth it. Hurting because of that is not worth it.

When you, Yoda and Obi-Wan are forced to go your separate ways, he suggests giving up everything you've ever loved and stood for to become someone you aren't. To be rid of Phantom. To be rid of Cody.

Because getting rid of Phantom meant you were no longer the person Cody fell in love with, and that may as well have been the proverbial nail in your nearly finished coffin.

Obi-Wan went to Tatooine. Yoda went to Dagobah.

You went back to Coruscant and found your life on the lower levels until you found something else. It was fun, for a while. Being someone else. Leading a life to forget, even for a moment, about who you were.

The unfortunate truth is that you can never be rid of the core of who you are. And who you are is a Jedi. A Jedi with strict moral values and a compassionate heart that aches to free the clones under the servitude of the Empire.

Most of them don't know about the chips. It had taken a while for you to learn, but through the Rebellion network - and Dove, who you had cried upon reuniting with even briefly - you'd learned the truth about Knightfall and why the clones had turned on you.

Why Cody had shot you both down.

You changed enough of who you were to become who you are now. A shadow. A Spectral. It's not much different from your skills as a Jedi, but it's made you a phenomenal spy.

And that's what's led you right here. Senior officer of the Empire assigned as oversight of the clone squadron now assigned to the mission on Dessix. You've gotten good with a blaster. You've always been good at negotiations, but Rampart has told you that you were tag-teaming this mission with another expert negotiator.

"You will meet him at the battlefield memorial."

There's about twelve hours left until you really have to depart, but you're drawn to go to the memorial anyway. Most of the active patrols are skeleton crews at that point, so nobody will actively be seeking you out.

That's what prompts you to arrive near midnight with the hood of what once was Jedi robes drawn over your head.

It's the make of the helmet that catches your attention. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the antenna on the side. It's the only indication that it's Cody's helmet because none of the vibrant 212th gold is present anymore. Everything he's wearing is a muted grey.

As he approaches - bathed in starlight and under the cover of darkness - the memorial, your Force Signature writhes as it reaches, reaches, reaches in search of his own. There is not a part of your very soul that will not recognize Cody when he is around.

You ache for him. You have always ached for him.

Cody's eyes are scanning the Aurebesh letters for the names of fallen brothers when he hears it. It's a low sound, soft and mournful, a whistling tone that Obi-Wan had taught Phantom during a campaign that could be used to signal troopers from far distances.

Only select people knew it. Obi-Wan, Cody, and you.

He already knew Kenobi was dead. That meant...

Peering into the dark, Cody whispered, "Ner kar'ta?"

Everything came to a screeching halt. That was his voice. Not the monotone, flat voice you’d heard after the impact in the waters of Utapau. It was your husband. Your Cody. 

You whistled again, long and low, daring to peek out from behind the barrier to meet his eyes briefly before you took off in the direction of the dormitories. There had been whispers that the clones were being eradicated and replaced in favor of the ones they’d taken to calling Stormtroopers.

One of the commanders had remained though. He was their renowned. Their best of what used to be. 

It made sense that it would be Cody. 

You took off toward the dormitories in the direction of the higher ranking officers quarters. It was easy to cloak yourself. You’d spent the last year of being in the Empire doing so without any suspicions of being a Jedi. 

You didn’t realize what Cody’s room was until you saw it. The barest mark of a rising sun painted in the upper right corner of the door. It was faded. Just another reminder of what the war had taken from you both. 

Your fingers move of their own accord across the keypad. There’s only one code it could be. 

The day of your wedding flashes on the keypad in front of you before the door slides open and you’re allowed inside. It’s sparsely decorated, as expected, because clones were not allowed to own anything now just like they had not been able to own anything during The Clone Wars. 

Your Jedi had aimed to do things differently then. It’s a shame they’re all gone now. At the bare minimum, Cody should be allowed to own himself. To own the wedding ring he’d gone out of his way to find. 

He doesn’t. He owns nothing. Not his mind, not his heart. 

Nothing. 

You’re left to your own devices as you survey the room, choosing to remain hidden by the window as you absently chew on your thumbnail and wait for the door to open. Anyone in the vicinity that dared to be close enough to you would know how nervous you were by the frantic pounding of your heart. 

You were absolutely terrified. What if he didn’t love you anymore? What if he recognized you weren’t the same? What if he wasn’t the same? 

Was loving Spectral any different than loving Phantom? 

  “Phantom.” 

  “That’s not my name anymore.” 

He’s standing in the doorway by the time you’ve finally roused yourself enough to pay attention. He looks tired. So tired. There’s a perpetual heaviness that has never seemed to leave him in his gait as he walks into his quarters and locks the door before turning back to face you. 

  “The only person I’ve ever known to whistle that sound was Obi-Wan Kenobi’s former Padawan and himself. Considering he’s-” Cody swallows the knot in his throat as the image resurfaces, again and again, because it hasn’t left him once since it happened. “He’s gone. He’s gone, and you’re still here, and I don’t understand why. Not after what I did to you.” 

You take the moment he chooses to talk to carefully nudge his Force Signature with your own. It’s a deep, mournful blue, closed off to anyone else who dare try to know him past the helmet he always wears. The armor is a means of protection, sure, but it’s also a way to keep himself safe from people who try to get inside. 

You were the only one who had ever managed to claw your way into his heart. 

  “I know why you did what you did,” You say softly as you remove your hood to peer up at him. He’s close now. Close enough to touch. “And I will tell you this as many times as you need to hear it, Kote.” Daring to jump over the precipice that stands between you, you reach out to press your hand to his chest. 

His heart leaps at your touch. When was the last time he’d been touched that way? In any way that wasn’t hostile? 

  “It doesn’t matter,” He admits quietly. “I still have to live with those choices. I still have to live with the after.” 

  “What came after?” 

It’s a long time before Cody answers, “Quiet. It was quiet.” 

There isn’t a sound for a long time. There doesn’t need to be. You and Cody had always been good at communicating without words, and it seems the same can be said now even after so much time apart. 

Your touch is gentle and reverent as you methodically call into the old habit of removing each piece of his armor until he’s left vulnerable in front of you. Cody’s hands tremble at his sides, unsure of where to find purchase, and he’s left to do nothing except watch as the stack of armor floats to the open spot beside the door. 

  “Cody,” Your voice shakes as you nudge the back of his knees and force him to sit on the couch so you can remove his boots. “I spent this whole year thinking that you were dead. It... It tore me apart. It tore me apart falling from the cliff and being left behind and thinking you were dead for a year. We made a commitment to each other. A vow.” 

  “I stopped thinking of myself as a man when I made the choice to give the order that shot you off of Boga,” Cody admitted quietly. “I broke that vow to you. I tried so hard, Phantom-Phantom, I tried-” 

And it’s only because of the tell tale signs of an impending panic attack that you firmly place Cody’s hands on your hips, slowly easing yourself into the natural part of his legs where he sits on the sofa. 

  “I believe you. I believe you tried, and it’s okay. I would’ve loved you the way I do now even from the grave. It was never your fault.” 

Hm. The vow is till death do us part. Cody is inclined to believe you. 

  “You would’ve loved me even then?” 

You nodded and scooted closer to press your foreheads together in a attempt of a keldabe kiss. He shudders at the contact - it’s like fire spreading through his veins, a fire that is a most welcome burn after being cold for over a year - and leans inward as if his body is naturally seeking more of it. 

  “Even then.” You whisper. 

It’s only through sheer confidence and an aching familiarity long built between you two that coaxes Cody into easing you into his lap. “How are we supposed to do this?” He croaked, dragging his fingers up your sides to tangle in your hair. 

Despite the tightness in your chest, you smile. It’s a question he asked you many times under the cover of darkness of his former quarter’s on the Negotiator. Obi-Wan had never known the depths of quite how much his Marshal Commander had struggled with the weight he carried. 

  “What do you hear?” You ask. 

Cody frowns. “It’s quiet.” He replies. “Very quiet. Usually is in this part of the dorms.” 

You grin and lean forward, just barely hovering a hairs breadth over his own mouth. “Exactly. So embrace the quiet.” 

The full body shudder he gives as you tug on his hair and slant his mouth against yours does not go unnoticed by you. Everything in Cody’s brain short circuits the moment you meet because he’s dreamt about this for over a year. There’s been so many different scenarios that plague his dreams. 

This was one of them. And this one was one of the few that were good. 

Groaning quietly into your mouth, you grin against the curve of the Marshal Commander’s lips and use the opportunity to tease the seam of his own and slip your tongue inside. He still tastes the same. Everything about him is still so much the same. 

You know that even more so when he dares to deepen it. You used to be timid, shy. You used to let him take control because he was already in control of so little anyway, so why not let him have control over one thing that was purely his? 

Now though.. you’re not that timid little Padawan anymore. Where Cody is fire - and he kisses like one that burns rageful - you are the sun. Stand too close and people get burned.

When you do finally find it in you to pull away, Cody’s head rolls and falls into the crevice of your neck. “I’m afraid, Phantom.” He murmurs. “I’m afraid we’re not going to make it out of this alive.” 

It’s a legitimate fear. You’ve had that own fear so many times. 

 “Hey,” Your fingers slide up to the clasps around your neck to remove the second chain that has been sitting on your neck since you went into hiding. “Believe me, I understand that fear. That’s been my life for the last year. But I’m here now.” You lightly tapped the gold ring sitting on the chain and leaned inward to clasp it around his neck. “You have me.” 

You have me. 

Your fingers gently travel up and down the length of his spine as his body gradually relaxes into your own, absorbing as much contact as possible. “I love you.” Cody said quietly. “That may be the one thing that hasn’t changed.” 

Eyes flicker to the window where the moon is at its fullest peak, shards of moonlight breaking through the curtains to fracture against the sharp plains of Cody’s face. You didn’t think it was possible for him to be any more beautiful then he is. 

And it just makes you want him more. 

  “Cody?” 

  “Yeah.” 

His fingers are beginning to skim under your officer’s uniform. Daring, teasing, like they’re threatening to go higher but remain unsure if the situation allows for it. 

With that same tenacious spark of fire that’s always lingered in your eyes, you lean backward and take one hand into his own to firmly place it on the bottom of your shirt. 

Hm. Maybe you really haven’t changed all that much. 

  “We never did quite get to consummate our wedding night,” You tease. ‘’You know. With the war and all.” 

You have twelve hours until you deploy. You don’t even know if you’ll see him again after that, and then the loud buzzing and the ever-constant screaming in the Force will be your only constant companion again once the quiet, 

Cody seems to get what you’re saying because the next thing he’s doing is dragging your body down onto the couch and covering it with his own. 

  “I like your thinking, wife.” 

*** 

a f t e r. 

It’s him that makes the choice to go AWOL. The early hours of the morning greet you before you can fully fall into the kind of sleep your body is aching for - Dessix was hard, harder then you’ve had in years, and attempting to act as if you aren’t fearful for Cody’s life when it’s nearly taken is the most difficult thing you’ve done - and you naturally rise with the gentle click of the lock as the door to your quarters opens. 

You are running hand in hand with Cody less than an hour later. Getting around the patrols is not difficult, neither is procuring a vehicle, but there’s something oddly warm that settles in your chest once you are out of Coruscanti airspace and away from there. 

Warm. It feels so warm. It takes you a minute to realize that it’s Cody. Cody, who used to wear sunshine gold and had gotten a tattoo of a rising sun on his hipbone the day after you’d gotten married - Maker, the sounds he made when you kissed it - and who had spent so long being warm, wrapped in the love of his brothers, that he’d forgotten what it was like to be cold. 

The blue had shifted into a brilliant gold and only seemed to get brighter the longer you were around. 

  “So, Phantom.” Your husbands drawl is smooth and confident as he spins in the pilot’s chair to face you. There is not an echo of the traumatized, anguished man you had held the night before. You know he’s just lurking underneath the surface. Regardless, it’s still nice to see Cody smile. “Where to?” 

  “I’ll go anywhere you want,” You reply with a wink. “Just not home. You pick.” 

  “How about everywhere?” 

  “Everywhere sounds wonderful, rid’uur.” 

This is how it feels to be Phantom, former Jedi Knight, defected Imperial Officer and spy. 

Safe. 

#Commander Cody #Commander Cody x Reader #The Bad Batch #Star Wars imagines #Star Wars oneshots

[smengus]

I cannot sleep so I'm gonna write another tristamp post

I know there are now technically three versions of the July scene (since they wombo combo'd it in tristamp) but honestly the tristamp version was completely lost on me in terms of emotional impact. which is so ironic, considering how epic and beautiful and sweeping it was. etc etc etc

but idk nothing will ever chill me as much as the original anime scene. the simple, nostalgic and bittersweet music ('not an angel' is such a great track, the entire first donuts album is great, tristamps ost was super forgettable and also strangely very loud????? soundmixing was fucked lol) overlayed with knives calmly manipulating and guilting vash, then mood swinging until he creates the giant fucked up gun arm on vash. and a line delivery I quote all the time with my friends just because it has so much weight and sad hilarity to it when comparing it to a previous scene in the anime (when vash shoots knives in the leg, and knives gets super upset cause it hurts a lot and his brother shot him, and then vash dips cause he's upset too)

"are you actually going to shoot me again?" < said with all the confidence of a man who doesn't think his brother will purposely shoot him, again

"ARE YOU ACTUALLY GOING TO SHOOT ME AGAIN, VAAAASH?!" < said with all the anger and betrayal and surprise of a man who's currently getting blasted by the weapon HE turned his brother into

idk, I know the like, reaching for the cube thing with knives promising to make paradise for him and vash was also supposed to be pretty moving, but I didn't care for it. partially just because the characterizing of knives was already not to my taste in tristamp

but yeah, I just rlly like the original anime version of that scene and wanted to make a post about that

#trigun #trigun stampede #knives millions #leon rambles #favorite scene forever in the anime

[swampgallows]

I've been following you for a few days. I don't know if it's a good idea to talk to you by asking questions, but I did it anyway. I feel that most people on the Internet don't have a good opinion of Garrosh (it's true that he did a lot of bad things in the later plot), but these people have gradually evolved into attacking you 100% if you say something good about Garrosh. They even send some vulgar meme expressions to attack this poor guy 😢. So do these people really understand the shaping of Garrosh's character? Maybe they only know the later version of Garrosh's blackening to curse him as a complete villain, or maybe they just want to curse this character for the sake of cursing? I really can't accept this kind of thing. If they really haven't understood Garrosh enough and come to attack him, then I think they are completely lacking in connotation, either stupid or bad. I just started playing World of Warcraft recently and immediately fell in love with Garrosh. Now I'm trying to learn about Garrosh from the TBC version and through some veteran players' stories. I learned that this character was messed up by internal struggles among the screenwriters. He was essentially supposed to be a positive and heroic character, not the big villain who collapsed later. But there are always people who don't want to analyze the core of this character, but simply attack him from the worst version. I feel very uncomfortable 😭 and this kind of misunderstanding is particularly serious on Twitter. I'm very sad 😢 and sometimes I'm even influenced by this kind of misunderstanding and have self-doubt. I really can't stand it. They say Garrosh is a tumor, but I feel that they are the real tumors and even more toxic than tumors. Oh...I really feel sorry for Garrosh 😢 and hope to eliminate this misunderstanding 😭。

first i want to say that anyone is welcome to talk to me in my askbox, that's why i have it open and have anonymous on! i can be a bit caustic in my interactions with online strangers however, and that's my fault. i am sorry if i had ever made you feel like you couldn't talk to me; it is one of my major weaknesses. I am trying to get better at reining in my emotions, but i do have a hard time with it.

Second, I apologize because as a newer WoW player, this may all be a bit overwhelming to you.

The situation with Garrosh is complicated because yes, it is true that his story was changed partway through, but yes, it's also true that Garrosh's "worst version" is his canon, or "true in WoW" version of himself. He has zero regret or remorse for his actions, and his fictional villainy has inspired violence and hatred in real life (mass shooting trigger warning at this link).

Garrosh is characterized as a fascist—by both fans and by Blizzard themselves—and many people have drawn parallels to real world hateful, racist leaders like Trump and Hitler. Also, the Blizzard (ex-)employee most responsible for Garrosh from the very beginning is Alex Afrasiabi ("Garrosh was my guy"), who is one of the main perpetrators of the sexual harassment and discrimination mentioned in the recent Blizzard lawsuit. As a result, Garrosh as a fictional character and Garrosh as a representation of real-life hatred and violence across history and behind the scenes at Blizzard bleed together, which is why so many fans (appropriately) have such a strong negative response to him. Many fans also played through the years of Garrosh's character shift and felt betrayed for ever having believed in him, or they started playing later in his story and know him only as the incredibly evil character that he is. That impact may be lost on a newer player; although that culture shock is one of the reasons I became so fixated on Garrosh.

Therefore, many people are right to be wary of die-hard Garrosh fans (or "Garrosh apologists") who say things like "Garrosh did nothing wrong". The "[x] did nothing wrong" meme is originally "Hitler did nothing wrong", after all, and there are many people who believe Garrosh truly "did nothing wrong" despite the canon itself saying otherwise (again) (and again). It's also why I try to make it abundantly clear that I may like Garrosh as a character, but my love for him is only as a fictional character. It's fine to be a fan of the character and wish he turned out differently; the game itself acknowledges his wasted potential. But it's also important to know why people dislike him and may react strongly, although that does not give them any excuse or right to be cruel to you.

Oof. I really ought to make a video essay about all my complicated Garrosh feelings one day, lol. Anon, I am always happy to talk about Garrosh any time and at great length, so you are free to send as many asks as you like :)

#ask #anon #yamyell

[bepractical]

Jimmy and Michael, Part Deux

I’m almost done recapping season 1 of Kin, so what better time to do some rambling about Michael and Jimmy’s relationship? Specifically (but not exclusively) Jimmy’s emotional speech to Michael in episode 8.

In case you haven’t seen the episode in a while, I’ve transcribed the scene below for maximum impact.  Here are some pics, to remind you of how sad and pathetic they both look. See also this post for more screen shots of sadness. For context, this is the scene where Jimmy finally calls out Amanda and Michael’s relationship, and the fact that they’ve most likely been in love since before Jimmy and Amanda got together. This has been an open secret all season, a lovely pairing to Jamie’s paternity.

Jimmy: You know what I often wonder? Why you didn’t just let me know about you two back then. You could’ve just told me…that you loved her…that she loved you. That you wanted to be with her. You could’ve just said it. Why didn’t you say it?

Michael: Suppose I…didn’t want to hurt ya.

Jimmy: Thing is, if you’d just told me back then, I would’ve been gutted, I would’ve been fuckin’ raging, but I know I’d have gotten over it, eventually. I would’ve moved on. Could’ve met someone else. I’d be happy.

Michael: I’m sorry.

Jimmy: I just wish you’d told me back then, is all. 

Oof. Definitely in need of a bulleted list for analysis. 

First, this is the second time I’ve transcribed a speech of Jimmy’s for my recaps (the first was his eulogy at Jamie’s funeral). 

Is Jimmy lowkey the best character on Kin?

Okay, no, but he is emotional and transparent about his feelings: he isn’t afraid to talk and cry publicly over his love for Jamie; or piss in a bag of blood money to show his disdain; or cuddle Michael and kiss his sons to show that he loves them; or tell Amanda he loves her when he feels her pulling away; or tell Michael how much he’s hurting when he realizes he never really had Amanda at all. Compared to Michael, whose emotions are only evident when dealing with Anna and sometimes Amanda, Jimmy is an open book. It’s easy to forget he made the bed he’s lying in. He’s a lot like Eric that way.

Second, Michael’s reaction. It is fascinating. Think of the how we’ve seen Michael react to Anna and Amanda. Remember this?

How about this?

Or this?

Now look at his reaction to Jimmy pouring his heart out.

I think it’s fair to say that Michael is somewhat emotionally detached from his brother.

This scene reminds me of their conversation in the bar after Jamie was killed, where Jimmy was upset and reaching out- he’s always reaching for Michael- and Michael’s response was formal and canned. Take a look at the header of this post, all those instances of Jimmy trying to connect with Michael. It’s never the other way around.

It’s the difference between Michael yelling and cussing at Amanda in fear and anger after the cafe shooting and staring quietly at Jimmy’s snakes in the aftermath. 

For whatever reason, this is how their family dynamics have shaken out. It’s interesting to track over the course of the season and it makes me sad for them both.

I should also note that, while Michael apologizes to Jimmy, he doesn't specify what he's apologizing for, not for how he feels, or even for hurting Jimmy. He doesn't try to walk back anything Jimmy says.

Lastly, there’s one thing Jimmy doesn’t do in this conversation with Michael, and that's take any responsibility for his failing marriage. He thinks he’s unlocked the root of the problem- Michael and Amanda are in love- but he doesn’t recognize what he’s done, what we’ve seen him do, to exacerbate their issues. He scratched at the surface of it during his conversation with Amanda last episode but just missed the mark. While there are definitely feelings between Michael and Amanda, Jimmy and Amanda have been together for at least 18 years, and for eight of those years Michael was in prison. Their problems are bigger than Michael. Much as I loved this conversation, the Michael and Amanda of it all is not the sole problem in Jimmy's failing marriage. 

Jimmy is emotional whereas Michael is not, but they're both vulnerable, damaged people. Jimmy can have a myopic view and get caught up in his own emotions. Take the scene in episode 4, when Jimmy and Michael return from the hospital after Michael's brain scan to find Frank and company waiting for them. Frank tells Michael a hard truth- killing Caolan Moore has destroyed his chance at seeing Anna- and Jimmy looks like this in reaction.

It's clear he didn't take into account the possible consequences for Michael killing Moore. This is a pretty persistent thread with Jimmy. He's not malicious, but he can be oblivious. Also like Eric. It's a family trait!

To be fair, Michael is incredibly closed off. Jimmy is the one who is comfortable expressing and articulating his feelings, so Jimmy's feelings may feel like they take precedence. And there's always the specter of bad dad Bren. I suspect he played a large role in shaping them both. All roads lead to bad dads (and moms).

#kin amc #michael kinsella #jimmy kinsella #charlie cox #emmett j scanlan

[hughhowey]

Pretending to be an Actor -- Take Two

"Sound!" is the first thing they yell. It's when they sync the audio and video with that little arm-clapper-thing. And it's a cue for all the chatter around set to stop.

A bell rings somewhere off stage to let the crew know we're shooting. Red lights flash on. Doors are guarded so no one can enter. All it takes is stray light or noise to wreck an expensive and time-consuming take.

(Continued from Pretending to be an Actor -- Take One)

"Background!" is shouted next. That's the cue for the two hundred of us extras to start moving. There's a man with a microphone who I quickly came to see as a cat shepherd. His job was to shut us up between takes, when little whispers would turn into a background roar, but then to get us looking like we were talking when the cameras were rolling.

Extras are absolutely incredible at looking natural when the cameras are off, and perfect mannequins or stiff-limbed puppets when they're being recorded. I felt the difference myself. Between takes, I would chat with the cast members and extras arranged around me. During takes, I would stare numbly at a down-deep deputy, flap my lips, or mumble things like, "Do you think it looks like we're really talking if I just say something like this?"

Meanwhile, a hundred or so of the extras are moving from one place to another, so the scene isn't static. It's all been meticulously arranged during the rehearsals. (During this time, the main cast gets to go lounge off-set while stand-ins pose in their places. It's like hockey line-ups, with the cast switching places with crew members who are similar heights and genders).

The A team is in for an actual shoot, the background is now moving, lips flapping--

"Action!" the director shouts.

Now the main cast starts the scene and we get the bits we are actually here to shoot. At this point, a protagonist I made up walks by and talks to another figment of my imagination. Two characters who didn't exist until I dreamt them up. Now someone is being paid very good money to embody them. Somehow this is supposed to feel normal. It doesn't.

We shoot quite a few takes. At one point, the extras are reacting with anticipation of something that they shouldn't, and before I -- as the guy who wrote the original scene -- can think to say anything, the director comes out and explains the rules of my world, the world of WOOL, to hundreds of Brits who have no idea what this story is about. They're just here for the day to look appropriately bedraggled and dystopian.

We try it again. Hours and hours of takes, and there won't be much of a break for these poor extras. Maybe twenty or thirty minutes to grab a bite and use the bathroom while the cameras are being moved from one side of the set to the other. It's brutal work, and honestly you have no idea what the camera is even capturing as an extra. I could barely hear what the main cast members were saying, and they were arm's reach from me. As far as I could tell, we weren't getting much on camera other than the collective reaction from a large room of extras. How was this going to have any emotional impact?

Boy was I wrong. Seeing the dailies the following day was surreal. There we were, not just me in my kinda-mohawk / kinda-mullet, but the extra who became my wife in one or two takes, and the deputy who got in the habit of high-fiving me toward the end of takes, and the poor gentleman behind me who got a few of my crushing hugs. We were just background noise, but it looked convincing. And up front was the cast, delivering lines, real emotional powerful stuff that I had no idea was happening. Lines that moved me to tears watching them on my laptop for the first time.

It's wild how you can spend all day on the set of a huge production, be in every shot, and have no idea what's going on. No idea of the rules of the world, if it's a series or a feature, where or when it's taking place, what the motivation is supposed to be, and yet you know just enough. Every cog spins and does its little job.

Soon you all will get to do your small part and watch it on screen. I can't wait. Especially for you to see what we captured this day, a beautiful moment, captured from all angles, and me just a tiny, extra part of it all.

#WOOL #writing #TV #books

[cowboyhorsegirl]

Honestly? I think the Russo’s would have had Tony just not be mad at Steve in EG so they weren’t thinking that Rhodey would be mad in IW. Like Tony is kinda cagey about Steve in IW, but he isn’t spitting mad at him. In EG tho there’s BTS stuff floating around that instead of “no trust liar”, Tony was just supposed to be like “sorry gang I’m out!” and then retire in like grief and exhaustion, but RDJ straight up re-wrote the scene because he was the only actor in the MCU that had the clout to go over the writer/directors heads to make his character consistent.

yeah i honestly don't know what the russos were thinking with their original plan of not having any emotional closure for the fallout from CA:CW. the way that RDJ handled that scene too was so perfect and painful for both tony and steve's arcs, i'm glad that he both had that kind of power with the studio and a deep enough understanding of those characters to do that confrontation justice.

i guess i just wish that Rhodey was able to get a similar emotional catharsis or reflection in IW somehow? i know that the avengers splitting had an intense impact on everyone involved, but idk, I think rhodey was deserving of some sort of acknowledgment about the specific physical toll that that fight had on him. even beyond his allegiance and loyalty towards tony, i'd imagine that because of the extensive injuries he sustained, he would have spent much of that two years reckoning with the knowledge that he was a casualty in a conflict between a group of people who did, at one point at least, respect and care for each other and were torn apart because they weren't prepared for the magnitude of the extenuating circumstances that drove them against each other. how do you place blame and process anger in that situation? was it tony's fault for directing vision to aim at falcon? falcon's fault for dodging? vision's fault for shooting? steve and bucky's fault for running? natasha's for letting them? his own for not sensing the threat fast enough to move?

we know that everyone left that airfield in germany to mourn the end of that era of the avengers, but rhodey's paralysis was the physical manifestation of that breakdown in trust. he's the embodiment of the fact that you can't pin all the responsibility for the civil war on any one person or side, and yet he still chose to go to wakanda to fight with the rogues anyway. it was the right thing to do but it wasn't easy and i think we miss part of his story by not getting a glimpse of what that decision meant to him, the fact that his duty to protect earth must supersede any lingering sense of mistrust or betrayal he may have felt.

#mcu #meta #james rhodes #avengers #signed sealed delivered #anon #idk what do y'all think #also keep in mind that i haven't seen any phase 2 or 3 movies in like years and years so please forgive me if i misremembered anything <3

[patchworklove]

thoughts on mayans pt.1

(s4 mostly) under the cut bc it's a lot and yet i'm still gonna have to make a part 2 lmao

angel's character has gone downhill so badly that he's basically a new character at this point. he doesn't really respect or have and love for anybody. how long was he friends with coco and then he just fucked his daughter on the sofa when she was grieving? he cares so much about being a family man but couldn't call felipe back or see what was happening? nails was fairly far along right, so she could have been in labor (very early) but he just didn't give a shit? it's not the same guy from s1/s2 at all, and i know adelita's baby was supposed to be part of that change but you'd think he would actually give a fuck about this baby too

i wish adelita was less boring. she was so strong, and i enjoyed her sort of getting back to being the rebel leader in s3 but now she can throw everything away for her son? the same one she knew she wouldn't raise when she let herself be the one arrested. she had children dying for the rebels, and was running around pregnant and armed/with armed escorts. she wasn't some saintly maternal figure, and it doesn't suit her now. and i'm all for women not being one dimensional and changing their minds. but it felt more important that she was a woman who was willing to throw her maternal side away to do what was needed to protect others. to protect the version of her that saw her family die and prevent that from repeating for someone else?

i thought maybe i didn't care as much for ez/gaby last season as other ppl bc she was kinda naive to the club but no - i think jd just doesn't have a lot of chemistry with the female costars. ez and sophia are kind of bland. there's more emotion looking at sally, and as much as i'm over it, the phone call from emily. good for gaby for going to lodi.

felipe and gaby's relationship was cute, and i'm glad we got to see him care for nails. i like to think he would have done it for her anyway, but to do it knowing his son wasn't worth the j*zz he was shooting??? felipe is the only valid reyes. and ejo got it that scene at the end of 4x06. he knew felipe would care about losing his grandbaby but wouldn't want nails to see that. i hope he knocks angel into next month when he sees him.

bishop's sex scene - also bland. his character arc is worse than angel's. he's lost his club, but how is he far more pissed about that than finding out the truth regarding riz from taza? skewed priorities.

i don't trust manny. he's too eager to do things with ez/for the club. patch into sp or fuck off back to yuma? padrino would probably let you. also how fucking lazy to just have the same character name as the actor. i feel like they're using this character as a filler for coco in the way that he was s1/2 with the reyes brothers.

gilly gave a shit about coco. and it sucks that he was the only one to. i mean creeper tried and coco wasn't accepting of it, but i am the tiniest bit curious to see if they have anything about gilly handling his grief. especially since they're angling for coco's death to be opie 2.0 (it is not even close and they know it)

the sudden backstories for gilly and creeper feel too little too late. we knew basic info about sons characters (regulars) way earlier. like chibs had a wife and family before the club. tig was in the marines and had beef with kozik. bobby was married and had to pay child support, and moonlighted as an elvis impersonator. happy's mom was sick. juice was puerto rican but spoke no spanish. kip lost his nut serving. like - why has it taken this long for creeper and gilly to have backstories if they're supposed to be important to the show's narrative?

ditto hank on that one. like, just his mom. and then that he tattoos? his closure scene with steve's family was poor. sure it showed that steve's death was impacting him, but he didn't give enough of a shit to check on him. and i hate comparing the two shows so much but shit: juice was supported by chibs after miles and the russians. hank didn't seem like he did that or that he was a great sponsor either.

part 2 here

#mayans s4 #i have thoughts and i hope it's ok to share them #mayans season 4 #mayans spoilers #mayans mc

[thesillybus]

Daisy Johnson in Agents of SHIELD: ‘The Honeymoon’

#daisyjohnsonedit #aosedit #aosladies #marveledit #daisy johnson #agents of shield #aos spoilers #jayd's edits #is it just me or was the acting in the ep realllyyy awful... #rewatch the scene with deke on the gurney lolol asdfghjk #maybe the fam's got end-of-seasonitis >:] #not diggin' S5-B at all tbh. but for all the inconsistancies at least daisy #remains consistently kind and thoughtful #apologizing for things that she's not responsible for like the Daisy!LMD #and going out of her way to get talbot a secure line to contact his fam #she's better than everyone and she's got a beautiful soul and you're all jelly #what's going on with deke goin on important missions now? #if he wants daisy to stop ordering him around like an agent he should gtfo #was his shooting scene supposed to be emotional or impactful at all? #who gives a shit if he lives or dies honestly. i don't get it #the writers spending time on his inappropriate/disturbing attraction to the woc #he sold to slavery is another thing i don't get #5 episodes left in the season and every second counts ffs #maybe use it on shiz that matters to tie everything up in the end daaamn #there's no way the writers are going to give us closure i dont trust them :(

[caspercryptid]

Jayvik

Thank you for the prompt my dear. inspired by this post.

CWs: Temporary major character death. Obviously. Associated gore (minor?), car accident, grief spiraling.

__

Jayce dies on a Tuesday, and Viktor has to watch.

He’d always hated these movies, the way they shoot the death scenes, the way the car hurdles up out of nowhere, the way the handsome protagonist looks up at the last second, the way his face changes, the way the camera pans to the blood on the street. The way the love interest is a second too late, the way the door of the coffee shop they were supposed to have their first date in jams, the way he can’t cry out in time. He blinks and he misses it. The camera refuses to focus on the moment of impact. Jayce ran into the street, after a cat. The traffic slammed to a halt, except it didn’t, and he flung the cat out of the way, the cat is in the street too, and it ends up in Viktor’s arms as he runs into the street, it stays in his arms, he doesn’t know how it happened, he is still holding the cat when they take Jayce away. There are no last words. He’s dead before Viktor reaches him. It’s all profoundly unfair.

It’s a petty thing to focus on, but it’s the only thing he can. Focus. On. Every other thought runs through his fingers like water. He can’t hold it, can’t hold Jayce. It’s not real. It can’t be. The universe may be cruel and unrelenting but not specifically so. Indifference wasn’t spite. This felt like spite. It was too much. Cosmic coincidence. He’s mourning what is and what could have been and what isn’t. He’d almost had it. For a brief shining moment everything had aligned. He’d asked Jayce to coffee. He’d emphasized it. Going out. To coffee. He had been brave, and now all he wanted was to turn the clock back and go back to being a coward. If he hadn’t asked, Jayce would have been in the lab. They both would have. This stupid cat he’s still holding would have been hit by a car. Jayce would still be alive.

It’s Sunday now. The cat is licking his face. He is processing it all from very far away. None of it is real, except for the empty space in the world where Jayce used to be. Nothing else reaches him. And then there’s a noise against the door.

It’s a knock.

It takes him a minute. He takes in the walls, the floor, the ceiling. He’s in the living room of his apartment. The one he’d barely used because he was forever sleeping over at the lab or at Jayce’s. He’d probably have stayed in the lab, or at Jayce’s, just to sleep in his bed again, but he’s telling himself he’s not that pathetic, and anyway, this apartment was close to the graveyard. And he’s anticipating spending a lot of time. At the graveyard.

Another knock.

Viktor manages to focus his eyes on the wall clock. 1.06am. Strange. He can’t actually feel any alarm, because no other emotions have reached him in days. He’s grieving. Probably. At least that’s what Sky has told people in hushed tones as she shooed them away from him. Probably wise. He gets his cane.

The third knock is softer, more tentative, like his caller is losing their nerve, and Viktor sighs.

“Just a moment.” He says, picking his way over in the dim from his single lamp and his laptop screen, the floor a mess of discarded things he simply hasn’t felt were enough of a priority to pick up.

He opens the door.

The first thought to strike him is that Jayce smells awful. It’s followed on its heels, rapidly, by the familiarity registering consciously, the fact that the shoulders and the face he is looking at, the one that’s scratched and bruised and just barely cleaned of blood by the morgue, is Jayce. The funeral was closed casket. His mother hadn’t wanted to—

“Viktor.” Jayce says, and he sounds so relieved, and Viktor doesn’t know what he’s going to say, how he’s supposed to react, but he opens his mouth, and apparently screaming. Apparently screaming is what he’s doing.

Jayce looks hurt, and frankly how dare he, frankly how dare he look hurt when he’s covered in grave dirt and there’s still blood in his hair, how dare he come here and look hurt, and Viktor’s eyes are stinging as everything he’s been trying not to feel hits him all at once, and he claps his hand over his mouth, because there’s the sound of a door unlocking down the hall, and no, no no no, no they can’t see this, they absolutely cannot see this, so Viktor bites down the deep instinctual gut panic that the sight of a dead man on his doorstep is instilling in him, and grabs Jayce by the hand and hauls him in, slamming the door behind him.

“What.” Viktor manages. “In the fuck.”

His own voice is pitched higher than he knew he was still capable of, it’s impressive, apparently he is not immune to panic inspired adrenaline responses. This is new information. Scientifically interesting information. His heart is trying to kill him.

“I— wanted to come back to you.” Jayce says, doe-eyed, and Viktor wants to throw salt at him. Thinks he should, in fact, because this is not real, this is not happening. He backs away, and Jayce reaches for him. “—Viktor.”

“No.” Viktor says, trying not to sound hysterical. “No. You’re dead. Because I watched you die. This is not happening. I— am having a sleep deprivation related hallucination.”

“Viktor—”

“This isn’t real, because you’re dead.” Viktor manages, voice shaking. “You died. I named the cat after you. I went to your funeral.”

He doesn’t finish the sentence, because Jayce closes the space between them and takes Viktor’s face in his hands, and all the words stop.

“Viktor, please—”

“You are dead, because I love you, and when I lose things I love they don’t come back. I’m hallucinating. This isn’t happ—”

Jayce’s hands are cold. He smells like formaldehyde and dirt. But the look on his face—

“I love you.” Jayce says. “I came back for you. I just— I couldn’t let go. I don’t know what happened but I kept fighting because I couldn’t let it end like that. I love you.”

Viktor takes a deep, shaky breath, and then he leans up to close the gap.

Jayce tastes so awful that he almost comes back up for air immediately, but he forces through it, because it’s Jayce, and he needs him, and it’s real. It is horrendously real, because no illusion or hallucination would give him everything he wanted and make it suck this much. He can’t stop smiling.

“I am going to wash my mouth out.” He says, as he pulls back. “And so are you. And then we’re going to try that again.”

When Jayce smiles, the world has color again.

“Anything for you.”

#jayvik #vikjayce #viktor x jayce #jayce x viktor #hextech husbands #jayce talis #viktor arcane #casper's haunted fic tag #tw death #tw minor body horror #tw car accident

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 313: Deku VS Lady Nagant

Previously on BnHA: Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai Lady Nagant showed up to fire a cupid’s arrow into my heart, and a bunch of literal bullets into my son. Deku was all “oh shit it’s Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai, what do I do, let me think back to Hawks’s advice for a sec.” Flashback!Hawks was all “anyway Deku so if my super-hot badass murder senpai ever shows up you’re basically screwed so you’d better abscond the fuck out of there.” Present!Deku was all “lol idek why I flashed back to that conversation since I’m just going to do the exact opposite of what Hawks said” and charged directly toward Nagant because WHY NOT. Overhaul was all “waah I need to get back to my boss who I put in a coma out of love” and Nagant was all “jesus christ why did I even bring you here” and had a flashback to AFO who was all “ILU NAGANT IMMA GIVE YOU AN EXTRA QUIRK SO PLEASE CAPTURE DEKU FOR ME PLEASE AND THANKS” and yeah. Shit is all over the place right now and I love it.

Today on BnHA: All Might gets attacked by a pair of discount assassins and is all “Call an ambulance! ...BUT NOT FOR ME” and it’s really badass but also I really wish he would stop tempting fate like this. Lady Nagant is all “[casually flies around town shooting shit]” and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t read an entire chapter of just that. Deku is all, “[gets shot (≥_<)]” and releases a giant Smokescreen which prompts En to show up. En is all, “( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) (⌣̀ Δ⌣́) ( •̀_•́ )σ (¬､¬) (눈_눈)” which I consider to be a high point of both the chapter and of my life. The chapter ends with Deku using the Third’s quirk to launch a bunch of random objects at Nagant so that he can jump up and grab her arm all sneaky-like, and I’m sure this is going to prompt another week’s worth of discourse that I don’t care about at all, but fuck it, I’m having a good time.

OH WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO ALL MIGHT WELL THAT’S NICE I GUESS. CONGRATS ON NOT BEING DEAD

you named your car??

you named it Hercules??

I love you so much??

please marry me you giant fucking dork???

lmao speaking of huge fucking dorks

who the fuck are you clowns. la dee da we’re gonna murder All Might with our synchronized spear attack!! I mean... they’re clearly trying their best... maybe I should just be nice and politely hype them up like All Might is so clearly trying to do

like okay, but we all agree that this is actually the least intimidating attack any of us has ever seen, right?? these guys zipped up their hoodies all serious-like and are trying to attack All Might and Hercules with their Walmart tiki torches, but just, no?? right?? like the only way this could possibly be effective is if they were trying to kill All Might with secondhand embarrassment

“those are assassins” this is a VERY generous assessment, All Might

OH MY GOD THE TIKI TORCHES ACTUALLY KILLED THE FUCK OUT OF HERCULES

[slaps roof of car] this baby can fit so many weaponized festive backyard lighting solutions in it

and yet, even after watching this with my own two eyes, I still can’t take these dudes seriously. idek what it is. anyways r.i.p. Hercules, I loved you a lot but I guess you weren’t actually a very good armored car were you

omg they didn’t know it was All Might??

okay 1) for a moment there I was like “oh hey maybe they’re not so bad after all” but then a moment later it was like “ah nope, they are.” like, that was an interesting .06 second emotional journey there. anyways 2) All Might you have my permission to kick their asses for this disrespect, and 3) anyone else all of a sudden getting “wouldn’t this be an interesting time for Stain to suddenly show up” vibes?? no?? just me???

(ETA: hmm tbh I’ve still got those vibes and they haven’t gone away lol. Stain?? you out there buddy?? do you want to be cool for just once in your life. ball’s in your court pal.)

OH SNAP ALL MIGHT ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DO IT ARE YOU GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES

PROTECTIVE DAD MODE ACTIVATED?? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, SO YEAH, FEEL FREE

omg he’s shouting at them about how much Deku has suffered lmao and they’re just like falling over from being scolded

so they have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about though, right? “SIR THIS IS A WENDY’S” well whatever, you killed his pet car so he’s in a bad mood now

OH MY GOD

LIKE, JUST SO WE’RE ALL CLEAR, THESE FOUR PAGES SO FAR HAVE MADE ALMOST ZERO SENSE. LIKE MAYBE 2% SENSE TOPS. BUT ASK ME IF I CARE. GO AHEAD AND ASK. I SAID GO AHEAD, IT’S OKAY. ...NO I DON’T CARE AT ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

(ETA: also, the more I look at this panel, the more I’m just like, why the hell would you phrase it like that though, sob. way to doubly tempt fate?? are you trying to give Horikoshi a challenge??)

and now back to Deku who is randomly bouncing around the city and narrating it to himself just in case he was confused about why he was doing this

who are you talking to Deku. but thanks we appreciate it

man you gotta love that overconfidence. the smartest guy in the world warned you away from this lady, so SURE, LET’S RUN RIGHT UP TO HER. “I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT, FLASHBACK!HAWKS, BUT I’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” well okay then!!

I think it would be funny if RHA.com put little Buzzfeed-style polls in between the chapter pages so they could survey people at random intervals as they read their way through the chapter. like, you finish this page and then there’s a little poll there asking “do you think Deku’s plan of catching up to Lady Nagant and finding out where Shigaraki is will work?”, and you click “no” just like everyone else and then nod as the results show that 97% of your fellow readers also picked “no”, and you chuckle to yourself wondering how many of the 3% accidentally clicked on the wrong option by mistake, and then you keep on reading

ANYWAY, SO

HOW’S THAT PLAN WORKING OUT FOR YOU SO FAR DEKU. nice kick, though!!

omggggggg

ouch

update: Deku’s plan not really working out. sources tell me my boy has been fucking shot. this is an ongoing story and we will keep you posted with the latest developments as they come in

wait what

feel free to explain to the rest of us what all of this “UNLESS...” and “THAT POSSIBILITY...” shit means anytime, Deku

oh lol did he realize she could fly??

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE, CNN’s John King reports that Deku is still fucked. eyewitness reports now coming in that Nagant is doing no-look shots and basically not even giving a fuck. sources described her mannerisms and expression as “sexy, but in like an effortless sort of way.” we will continue to bring you the latest

so now there’s basically an entire page of Deku being all “ah fuck so she’s basically closing in and she could already hit me with impossible accuracy even from Far Away, so if that’s the case then her being Up Close is probably going to be even worse!” making good use of that Big Hero Brain there, Deku

so now what, you’re doing some kind of spiraling kick thing?? how is that going to help

oh lol he’s using Smokescreen to create some cover. aww, good for you Deku you named one of your Smokescreen attacks

OH NO LADY DON’T TELL ME AFO DIDN’T EVEN FILL YOU IN ON THE BASICS

seriously, AFO?? you basically told her what Deku’s exact strategy was going to be but then couldn’t be assed to drop that little, small, barely notable piece of knowledge that Deku is rocking multiple quirks?? is it supposed to be a secret or something?? you dropped the ball here man

damn this is getting intense now

(ETA: the way En is poking Deku’s head in that first panel is fucking sending me, I love this guy so much omg.)

well then what are you planning, Deku?? I’m actually really curious!! I am genuinely starting to be invested in this fight scene not only in the “wanting to see who wins and how that impacts the plot” sense, but also in the “wanting to see how it happens because the choreography and strategy is actually pretty cool” sense, which honestly hasn’t happened for quite a while now! this is fun

anyway so what’s up Deku, are you going to use another quirk?? I’ve been speculating that he hasn’t actually unlocked the last two yet (since Two and Three didn’t exactly seem convinced when we last saw them), but maybe I’m about to be proven wrong

(ETA: well he clearly has Three’s obviously, but Two’s is still MIA, and that’s the one I am of course the most curious about. that’s the one we’re all curious about, let’s be real.)

OH SNAP???

AHHHH I’M HYPED LOL. ANOTHER SHINY NEW QUIRK LOL SHOULD I PUT UP THE USUAL DISCOURSE DISCLAIMER

(ETA: so yeah, after thinking on it, I’m not gonna say “please no Deku discourse on my blog” this week, but I probably will ignore any discourse that does come my way though, just because I don’t have much interest in getting involved in what would probably be a pretty repetitive discussion. like, I can just sum up my opinions (which is what they are) here instead. in fact here they are lol:

1) I like the SIXQUIRKS and I like seeing Deku be a badass.

2) I also don’t think Deku is too OP. more like he’s exactly as OP as he needs to be at the moment, given that we’re approaching the end of the series. I expect the other kids will also be pretty damn OP when we see them fight again. we’re just at that point now where they’re all badasses (as well they should be; they’ve grown a lot and they deserve it). it’s just that Deku’s the one we’re getting to see right now.

3) of course I miss Kacchan and the others, but for me this vibes much closer to the MVA arc where even though I missed them, I was still having a blast (as opposed to the dark days of the Basement arc where I was pretty much losing it lol). like, even though Kacchan’s my favorite, I still love Deku a lot and this arc has been amazing for him getting to shine on his own (for like the first time, really).

4) y’all know I love the OFA plot and I’ve never been shy about that lol. I like all of the Vestiges a lot. Banjou and his over the top personality; En and his “guy you thought would be serious and :| all the time but is actually hyper-animated and ALL OVER THE PLACE” energy; Shiro who actually is a :| sort of guy lol; Three who I still expect will be fleshed out in a more detailed flashback at some point; and of course Two, who, well. you know what I think about him lol. Bakuverse is still on the table and I’m still hyped. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we still have yet to see Two actually talk to Deku (as opposed to talking to the other Vestiges while Deku is distracted). did he lend him his power yet?? or is he still holding out?? either way it’s definitely going to be a Big Thing when it finally happens and I can’t wait to see it.

5) Lady Nagant is Everything and just because Deku grabbed her arm doesn’t mean the fight is over yet lol. Overhaul hasn’t come into play yet either. not to mention that even if the fight is over, the “where do we go from here” part still has me excited either way. her connection to Hawks and the HPSC is very intriguing and we’ve barely touched on that as of yet; she definitely has more of a role to play in this.

6) last but not least, I feel like every week the discussion is all about how much focus Deku’s getting, and how OP he is or isn’t, and OFA this and OFA that, but meanwhile I’m actually so invested in the character development here though?? the way Deku has distanced himself from everyone (except for the Vestiges, because of course they’re already dead so it’s not like they can die again lol)?? the way he’s pushing himself far too hard and we can see the shadows in and under his eyes, and the fact that he never smiles, and even All Might has remarked on how he isn’t taking care of himself at all?? the fact that he’s so single-mindedly obsessed with focused on stopping AFO?? the fact that he’s still the same sweet old Deku despite everything and was so kind to that fox lady with the umbrella, but there was also something so sad about that scene because it felt like a reminder of the type of hero that he wants to be, but that he’s not allowed to be right now?? because the stakes are too high and the world is falling apart?? and he feels like he’s the only one who can do something about it?? and that he has to be?? and that he is putting so much pressure on himself right now, and it’s absolutely too much pressure for any one person to bear, and I feel like no one is fucking talking about this lol goddammit.

anyway so yeah. I have feels about this, and every week that slow-burn angst is getting more and more intense behind the scenes, and I feel like it’s all going to hit a breaking point eventually. sooner rather than later. it really feels like a mirror of Katsuki’s post-Kamino arc. where all that angst was just churning below the surface for like twenty chapters and then it finally was like “okay it’s time” and it all came bursting out and we got the best five chapters of the fucking series (in my admittedly biased estimation lol).

basically, I know that most of fandom is billing this as either the “villain hunt” arc or the “solo Deku SIXQUIRKS fighting arc” or whatever. but for me, it’s always been and still is the Deku Angst arc lol. the cool fights are a sexy bonus (the worldbuilding less so because even though it’s interesting to see society at such a low point, it’s also very depressing and gets old pretty fast), but for me the thing that’s really keeping me engaged chapter after chapter is seeing Deku like we’ve never seen him before. seeing him all quiet and withdrawn and brooding and focused on AFO, AFO, AFO, and seeing that “he just doesn’t take himself into account” mentality taken to extremes. I am invested in that. I’m soaking up that angst each and every week, and I’m invested in seeing what comes of it. it’s a big picture thing. week to week this arc might just seem like a bunch of villain fight scenes, sure. but Deku’s emotional journey is the thread that’s going to carry this arc through from beginning to end, and for that I’m willing to be patient.

anyway that turned into a BIG OL’ RANT there but yeah! so those are my thoughts on the disk horse as it currently stands. and like I said, I’m open to discussion, but tbh I will probably just wind up repeating these same talking points endlessly so just a fair warning lol.)

anyway so Three says Deku has yet to use his quirk at ALL but now he’s trying to combine it with another quirk?? damn. also please check out En’s face here you guys

En launching a sneak attack up my favorite character list by the sheer power of his expressions alone. he really knows how to make the most of his screentime

OH DAMN DEKU

at this point the 3% from that hypothetical poll earlier are starting to feel prettttty damn smug, I’ll bet. well shit

what in the fuck

?? so like releasing his chi or whatnot?? isn’t that basically just like base OFA all over again?? also Deku did you seriously just apologize to Gran’s cape

update: Nagant has turned her eyeball into a gun

hm. hmmmmmmm. ...okay yep, still somehow sexy

anyway so she’s just floating up there building suspense, as one does. lord I sure hope she has good reflexes because something tells me she’s going to need them

OH SNAP HE THREW GRAN’S CAPE AS A DECOY WHAAAAT OKAY THAT’S SOME SMART SHIT DEKU

LOL SHE’S MAD NOW

JESUS CHRIST SHE JUST NEVER TAKES A GODDAMN BREAK FROM BEING AWESOME HUH

DEKU ARE YOU JUST THROWING EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR INVENTORY

but without the cape and the hood how will you continue to look like an enigmatic badass. you really can’t. which means we might finally be moving on from the wandering nomad part of this arc, stay tuned

LOL YOU MANIAC

I hope he went full Kacchan with the dialogue there. his face sure looks like it lol. popped out of a building all mad fdskljlkj omg

well this was fun, shit. I still have basically no idea what Three’s quirk does though lol. like, can he use it to charge up objects with kinetic energy or something?? but then what was all of that talk about combining it with one of the other quirks?? or was that just because he was using Smokescreen at the same time??

(ETA: having seen and read an additional half-dozen explanations of Three’s quirk, I can say with confidence that I still have basically no idea what it is or does.)

anyway so!! Deku is a badasssssss but something tells me not to count Nagant out just yet even so. also I really enjoy seeing Deku flip out on people like he doesn’t have a fucking hole in his torso because it reminds me of A CERTAIN SOMEONE and I always love to see him channeling that feral energy; I feel like it’s been a while

anyways good luck to you both!! I truly wish that both of you could win. but if not, then maybe you can at least become friends instead. you have so much in common, you both can fly and have multiple quirks and you’re both badasses, and plus it would just be really funny to see the look on Hawks’s face lmao

#bnha 313 #midoriya izuku #lady nagant #bnha meta #deku meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[kitkatopinions]

I think something that confuses me is that every time a RWDE poster complains that we didn’t see something or don’t even know if it happened, we’re told that the writers don’t need to hold our hands through everything and that obviously we should just assume that it happened off screen.

Ignoring the fact that sometimes things don’t work well without proper explanation and/or execution - like for instance Robyn stealing government resources and then us not seeing her do anything with it doesn’t make her seem like an effective leader, which she has to seem like if we’re meant to think she’s more effective than and more moral than Ironwood who actually was explicitly doing something with those resources - it’s very weird to make a point that’s essentially ‘why don’t we ever see this interesting stuff’ and to have people tell us ‘are you too stupid to understand that they want you to assume it happened?’

I get that they want me to think that Blake and Ruby are really super close friends. I want to have actually seen them grow and develop as friends. I get that they want me to think that Ren and Nora grieved for Pyrrha, but I want to have actually seen it happen. I get that ‘Yang recovered even if it was rushed’ and ‘Qrow’s recovered from drinking’ and ‘Ren and Nora know that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon’ and ‘Ruby feels sad about Yang ‘dying’’ and ‘Weiss stopped being anti-faunus’ and ‘Oscar was impacted by things like James shooting him off of Atlas’ and all this other stuff that the writers clearly want us to think happened. But isn’t it fair to say that I don’t want a story where all the interesting things I care about - character reactions, character growth, character dynamics - are all just presumed and never really gone into anymore? Isn’t it fair to say that what I want is a show that pays attention to those things instead of just shuffling them along to drop the next ‘aren’t we so shocking’ plotline that I’m also not going to get any pay off or emotional depth to?

Weiss was literally horribly anti-Faunus, and then without even apologizing, she made the entire situation about how she felt about Blake’s past, and then next thing we know, it’s season six and seven and she’s defending Blake from anti-Faunus people. It’s clear that MKEK just want me to say ‘well, looks like she did growing off screen and now she’s no longer anti-Faunus.’ I’m looking at a white-board that has ‘Step A’ and ‘Step C’ written down, but when I say ‘where’s Step B,’ I get mocked for not knowing that B comes after A and before C. I know that logically in-between ‘Weiss is being an anti-Faunus b word’ and ‘Defending her Faunus friend from anti-Faunus people,’ there should be a ‘Weiss deconstructs her anti-Faunus mindset.’ But guess what? It wasn’t included in the damn story, and the story would be much better if it was, because then Weiss’s whole character wouldn’t feel so shallow, two dimensional, and fake.

I know that logically in-between ‘Ren and Nora don’t know that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon because he only told Pyrrha,’ and ‘Ren yells that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon,’ there should be a ‘Jaune or Pyrrha tell Ren and Nora that he cheated to get into Beacon.’ But guess what? That wasn’t in there either, and the story would be better if it was, because then the writing wouldn’t have taken me right out of the scene, and we could’ve seen a growing conflict of Ren realizing how deeply Jaune is in over his head that we as an audience get to see.

There’s so much to these characters, to their dynamics, to the story of RWBY as a general whole that we’re just supposed to assume happened or just assume was the case. I know what I’m supposed to assume, but just throwing a bunch of circumstances (some very badly done or clearly not thought through) into a story and focusing less and less on how any of the mains feel about it, each other, or what’s happening around them and then just jumping to the conclusion the writers want without doing any emotional set up is A. exhausting. And B. Makes for a story that to me, is both not good, and very personally unappealing.

I love character dynamics. Character dynamics are the most important thing to me in any piece of media. So it’s really frustrating when I don’t get to see Ruby and Blake interact very much at all after season one, and then all of a sudden in season eight, they’re super close friends and Blake really looks up to her. My friends, why didn’t I get to see their relationship grow??? “They did that off screen, duh,” is not a satisfying answer when that’s why I’m complaining in the first place! I was so looking forward to seeing Blake and Yang work through their problems after V5, even despite never shipping them, I wanted so badly to see them reconnect as friends, explain how they felt, and get through that together. And then they tossed that entire conflict out the window, gave us a new conflict that they also never worked through, and just had the girls say feel good stuff during a very traumatizing fight and then all of a sudden they were nuzzling foreheads and I was expected to believe they were in love. Being told ‘obviously they worked through that when the story wasn’t focused on them and we just didn’t get to see it’ is not a satisfying answer when that’s why I’m complaining. And so on and so forth.

Toxic RWBY fans, learn that just because you’re satisfied with a show that will rush through and drop and push aside all kinds of interesting story, character arcs, character dynamics, and other stuff for the sake of ‘quantity over quality’ doesn’t mean everyone else has to be. It’s not ‘needing your hand held’ to point out that the show often skips right past Step B. So much of RWBY feels so shallow, fake, and thrown together, because the writers don’t often incorporate a Step B and they jump right from Step A to Step C without putting in the work to connect the two.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby hate #rwby bashing #rwby criticism

[lol-jackles]

Season 3 ask (I'm the anon who thanked you for being a light when I was unwell). Season 3 is my favourite season. Jared padalecki acted so well and outpaced jensen ackles in so many scenes. It stands out because usually I get drawn to following dean in joint scenes, but this was more Jared's season, more than S.5. the season carried the foreboding of deans deal. It may only be referred to occasionally but it permeated it all. I dont understand how they achieved this technique. Can you explain?

Disclaimer: I have not re-watched season 3 in ten years except for a few classic episodes like "Mystery Spot" and "Very Supernatural Christmas", but I think it will actually prove my point in answering your question.  This is what I remember about season 3: Sam's struggles with Dean's deal, Sam looking for ways and options to save Dean, his emotional turmoil and all the in-betweens.  I remember Dean's impending dire fate but I don't remember what Dean was actually doing during that time.  Some readers shared with me that they were surprised that they seem to "forget" Dean when they recall specific storylines, I said that's kind of supposed to happen with the support-protagonist.  Do any of you remember what John Watson did in the classic Sherlock Holmes?  Or what impact Nick Carraway had in The Great Gatsby?  They all kind of disappeared into the protagonist's story.

What sets Han Solo apart from the disappearing-supporting-character is the humorous hypocrisy dialogues.  For example,

Luke Skywalker shoots down a tie fighter:  I did it!  I did it!

Han Solo: Great kid!  Don't get cocky.

Han had already been portrayed as an arrogant, cocky smartass.  We found out only later that he has a heart of gold under his rough exterior.  But the irony of the most cocky of men advising his much younger friend not to "get cocky" was brilliant because he was in denial about his own flaws.  Humorous hypocrisy.

Fans say Dean Winchester gets the funny and best lines and Jensen delivers them brilliantly, but the missing piece in the lines is humorous hypocrisy, which is important because Dean is mostly in denial about his own flaws.  Only when Sam brings it up and Dean responds with, "come on, don't quote me back to me", makes Dean memorable at that moment even if you don't remember which season or which episode that line was spoken.

Let's go back to Nick Carraway, we see Jay Gabtsy through his eyes.  Nick is a flawed human but doesn't recognize it and is dishonest about his own shortcomings, so he becomes an unreliable narrator and readers and audience of the movie easily forgets that Nick is present in every page or scene.  The few times Nick is memorable or visible is his interaction with his love interest, Jordan, and we see his honest emotions and vulnerabilities.   Sounds familiar?  Like Nick, Dean is an unreliable narrator.  Like Nick, Dean becomes memorable in his interaction with his 'love interest', Sam, where we see his honest emotions and vulnerabilities.  So unless Dean is honestly interacting with Sam or unwittingly verbally revealing his hypocrisy, he's in danger of becoming forgotten.  This is partly why the Dean in fanfictions bears little resemblance to the Dean in the show, especially destiel fanfictions because they remove Sam or the Sam/Dean relationship entirely from the stories. 

“the season carried the foreboding of deans deal. It may only be referred to occasionally but it permeated it all.”

Because Sam is absorbed and embodied by the foreboding Dean’s deal while Dean is in denial.  As pointed out earlier, when characters are in denial of their own shortcomings and don’t have humorous hypocrisy lines, they end up kind of disappearing into the background.

At first glance Sam Winchester and Scarlett O'Hara couldn't possibly have anything in common, and they don't except for three distinct traits: they don’t conform, they change with the time, and they're not hypocrites, or at least they are the least hypocrites of all the characters in the book/movie/show.

Scarlett O'Hara is ruthless and very practical in every way (except for Ashley) and she just takes in what is going on around her and does her best to make it work to save herself and her family from starvation.  Scarlett became an outcast of Atlanta society because she refused to be a hypocrite and conform, instead she change with the changing times, as did Rhett Butler, while the rest of the characters, including the noble Melanie Wilkes and even their servants/former slaves, refused to do so and cling to their old pre-civil war past. This is why she is one of the most memorable characters for the past 80 years.

Sam was ruthless in his pursuit to save Dean from his deal and even said he has to become like Dean, he thought he should change, while everybody else just carry on the same as they always have.  Season 3 show the various state of Sam’s psyche that would later remind me season 14 Sam’s shredded psyche while Dean blindly accepted his dire fate without putting up much of a fight.  Sam has consistently been a (mostly) dynamic character, a quality one usually finds in the lead protagonist.

#sam winchester #dean wincheste #season 3 #jay gabtsy #nick carraway

[ashen-crest]

Im having a lot of Percy thoughts, so I’m putting them under the cut

(I should clarify here that no, I did not watch the stream, this is purely a commentary on the show)

The only thing I wished the show had done was establish a stronger relationship between Percy and the rest of the group before the final fight. The sight of him shooting at his friends, then him resisting the demon in order not to hurt them HAS to be in contrast with his pre-fight bond with them, otherwise the emotional impact isn’t going to be as strong. And I am all about the set-up and the payoff of emotional arcs.

But I get why the show didn’t quite nail that down, and it’s because they chose to have the party not be friends at the start of episode 1 (Pike’s line “why are we even together?”). The season was supposed to show them growing closer, but in focusing on that overall arc, the individual relationships lose screen time.

For me, the relationships that felt the strongest were Pike and Grog, and Vax and Vex- because it’s very clearly established that they’re friends/family! They have history, they have rapport! On the other hand, you have:

- Scanlan, who everyone was consistently annoyed by

- Keyleth, whose relationship screen time was mainly spent on the romance with Vax (though she had a good beat with Percy, and I liked it)

- And Percy, who, apart from one banter scene with Vex that didn’t totally sell me on their relationship, stood off from the rest of the crew.

And I get why he did that- but again, in doing so, you lose out on the emotional impact of him shooting at people who are dear to him!

(And I know that in the stream, this is handled differently, and I may go and watch the Briarwoods arc just to see how it’s done. This is just me commenting on the show choices.)

And I don’t even think it needs to be solved by Percy being buddies with everyone. He really only needs to be friends with one of them (like if they had solidified his friendship with Vex more) in order to have a stronger tie with the group, you know?

Don’t get me wrong, I still loved his character and his arc, and now that he’s like, not demon-possessed or whatever, he can show other sides of himself, which will be neat. These are just some thoughts I had.

(But like I REALLY wanna focus on Keyleth in season 2!!)

[cosmicjoke]

Okay, onto chapter 128 of SnK.  There’s some really huge thematic payoff in this chapter which I want to talk a little about!

The big theme that really comes full circle here is the theme of violence, and how it’s intrinsically linked to the human condition.  That’s obviously a huge theme throughout this entire series, but in a lot of ways it culminates in this chapter.

I first really noticed it in a big way, in terms of having a big impact on the characters, way back in chapter 50 something, during the Uprising arc, in that scene where Jean, Connie, Sasha, Mikasa and Armin are waiting around, and they start talking about Levi and how repulsed they feel by what they perceive to be his unnecessary violence.  They flatly condemn him for it, even going so far as to say there’s something wrong with him, and making bold statements about how they would never kill another person, no matter the circumstances.  This statement of course comes back to bite them not long after, when Armin is forced to kill one of Kenny’s squad in order to save Jean, and Jean begins to understand the impossibility and even selfishness that can be inherent to holding without compromise to one’s moral values. 

That theme comes back in a huge way in chapter 128, and it’s really interesting to see Reiner try to step in and take on the role of martyr by telling the members of the 104th that they don’t need to fight, trying to save them from the moral dilemma of killing their own comrades.  What I found really interesting here was how Jean, Connie, Mikasa and Armin don’t answer at first, and you can see this is a huge struggle for them, the scenario presented before them one which clearly goes against everything they want to believe they’re fighting for.  Connie even says that they’re supposed to be saving people, not murdering their friends, etc...  But it’s impossible to ignore how it’s Hange who steps in and dashes any possibility of them sitting this fight out against the rocks.  They say they aren’t interested in being a spectator, and reminds everyone there that humanity doesn’t have any time left for them to be debating their morality.  This ties back in perfectly with what Levi had spoken to his squad about way back in the Uprising Arc, again, when he told them he doesn’t know what’s right or wrong, and that all any of them can do in any given situation is act in the way they think is best, both for themselves and those they care for, and for humanity as a whole.  We’ve seen Hange come to terms with this blunt and often brutal reality well before this, during the battle for Shingashina, for example.  Hange really began to separate whatever moral qualms they might have had, any emotion they might have had about killing other people, during this arc, and coming to really understand and accept that sometimes morality was something that had to be sacrificed for the greater good.  Here in chapter 128, Hange isn’t interested in or willing to indulge in preserving either their, or anyone else’ moral purity at the expense of the Marlyean group.  They’re in this together, and Hange understands fully that to accept Reiner’s offer of sitting back and watching while he, Annie and Pieck take on the Yeagerists would be the height of selfishness and a prime example of placing one’s own moral purity over the well being of others.  I always think it’s brilliant the way AoT explores these issues, of how an uncompromising loyalty to one’s idea of morality can, in fact, lead to total disaster for others, can in fact worsen the lives of others.  How if one has a moral code they are absolutely, under no circumstances, willing to break, that person often is the one who is most self-serving and self-centered, more concerned with keeping their own hands clean than with helping anyone else.  SnK doesn’t condemn violence, but instead makes very strong arguments for why it is sometimes not only an option, but the ONLY option, and that’s incredibly bold, and incredibly true to reality.  

Armin, as usual, is the first to understand this, after Hange reminds them all.  Armin was also the first, back during the Uprising Arc, to extend understanding towards Levi and his violence, and why he had to at times resort to it.  Armin flat out says here “I refuse to stand by with clean hands”.  He’s acknowledging the selfishness inherent in an uncompromising moral code, and refuses to place himself above the rest of humanity, even if it means once more getting his hands dirty with the blood of other people.  He still comes up with a plan to try and avoid any bloodshed, but you can see Armin is willing and ready in this moment to do whatever is necessary, which he does when he and Connie get into the situation they do with Daz and Samuel.  Armin is the one who tackles Samuel, which is what gives Connie the chance to shoot him.

There’s this huge moment with Levi I want to talk about, after everything goes to shit and Armin’s plan falls apart, where Yelena says “You can’t separate humanity from violence.”  And then she says to Levi “Right, Captain?”, and we get a look at Levi’s face, and once again, he just looks filled with naked despair.  I think these two panels are incredibly important in understanding Levi’s own psychology during this entire final arc.  Yelena is right, for once, when she says you can’t separate humanity from violence.  It’s a part of the human condition.  And she asks Levi specifically about it, because if anyone understands this, it’s Levi, who grew up in a world where violence was often the ONLY option, if one wanted to survive, or protect those they cared for.  But Levi’s saddened expression in the following panel really speaks to his feelings regarding the undeniable truth of Yelena’s words.  Levi knows it’s true, but he wishes desperately that it wasn’t.  I’ve called Levi an idealist over and over, and it’s because Levi is someone who understands the way of the world, and understands human nature, with more clarity and compassion than probably any other character in the series, he understands that violence, pain, poverty, desperation, fear, death, are all a part of life, and especially a part of the human condition, and yet, even with that understanding and acceptance, Levi is also someone who strives towards something better,  towards a world in which these things AREN’T necessary, aren’t inevitable.  Levi has been fighting this whole time in order to try and create a world in which people can live in genuine peace and prosperity, without fear, or violence or inequality.  But every bit of Levi’s life experience tells him and reminds him, day in and day out, of the impossibility of that ideal.  The impossibility of creating a world in which these things don’t exist.  Nothing in Levi’s life would ever lead him to believe true peace and prosperity for all is an attainable dream, nothing in his life which would ever give him real hope in that dream becoming reality.  But still, he fights for it.  This is part of what makes Levi so remarkable.  It’s the very fact that he STRUGGLES to believe in the possibility of a better world, and yet still gives everything of himself to make it a reality, that makes Levi such a hero.  In fact, Levi doesn’t really believe that it’s possible, I don’t think, his life having been too hard and too desperate to fully embrace such an ideal notion.  But, once again, even as he’s riddled with doubt as to it’s attainability, he sacrifices everything he has for the possibility, no matter how slim.   Levi’s naked despair in the panel following Yelena’s question is because he’s being reminded once again of the impossibility of that dream.  Once again, he’s being shown that humanity is incapable of achieving true peace within itself, he’s being shown once again that people are by nature violent and warlike, and that everything he’s fought for seems more and more like a distant and hopeless dream.  Yelena sits in stark contrast to Levi here.  She’s bitterly accepting of the ugly reality, unmoved and unemotional.  She doesn’t care.  She thinks humanity is a worthless mess, unsalvageable and unworthy of salvation.  To Yelena, this is the inevitable result of humanity’s very existence, and to fight for something that unrealistically idealistic is a fools errand.  Indeed, Yelena seems almost to revel in it, the violence serving as affirmation of her beliefs, giving her a sense of validation.  But Levi, beside her, is deeply affected, his pain and sadness openly expressed in his face, his disappointment and heartbreak plain to see.  Levi is HURT by the violence, by seeing it unfold.  Levi, despite knowing the truth of Yelena’s words, despite knowing from the most first-hand experience the brutal and violent nature of human beings, and the improbability of humanity ever achieving true peace, still believes with his whole heart that humanity is WORTH fighting for.  Levi, despite how hard it is for him to believe in actually achieving a better world, still believes that FIGHT is worth an attempt.  And that’s really one of the most vital philosophical difference between Levi and people like Yelena, or Zeke.  Despite knowing and understanding better than anyone the brutal and harsh reality of the world and humanity, to Levi, it’s still something that’s worth fighting to protect, and worth sacrificing for.  Even against his own, weary doubts as to its possibility.  And that just shows a strength of character that is immense.  To be so burdened by doubt, but still to fight with every last ounce of your strength, to give to your very last breath.  That’s Levi.  That strength of character, that unwavering conviction in giving his all to a cause he isn’t at all sure is even possible, is never more apparent than in this final arc, when Levi is in the most literal sense at deaths door, physically wrecked and barely able to even stand, and yet still he fights with everything he has.  That truly is remarkable.  That truly is heroic.

Just one more note.  Floch really exposes himself in this chapter for what he actually is, which is a power freak.  He’s been spouting off this whole time about the Empire of Eldia and saving the island and the people on the island and blah, blah, blah, but during his conversation with Kiyomi, he admits that he doesn’t really believe that the island will be safe, even if Eren wipes out all of humanity, that people will still continue to kill each other, and then he starts in about how what’s important now is for people to “know their place”, as he holds a gun to Kiyomi’s head.  Floch is a power freak, he wants to control other people, wants to dictate to them, wants to hold power over them.  He exposes that about himself here.  He doesn’t actually care about Paradis, or the people on it.  He’s simply getting off on being able to push other people around and make them do what he tells them to.  He’s such a bitch.  It was hilarious when Kiyomi took his ass down and messed his arm up.  

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #hange zöe #Levi Ackerman #snk 128 #meta #thoughts