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tongue-like-a-razor · 2 years

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Tailspin | Chapter 16

Maverick x F!Reader

Summary: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell falls in love with his number one rival’s girlfriend.

CW: swearing, love triangle, angst, elements of infidelity

Thank you so much to everyone reading, liking, reblogging, and commenting on this story <3 We're getting close to the finish line for this one!

Start from the beginning: Chapter 1

"What's this about, Maverick?" Tom calls, stepping out of his car. He slams the door to his Buick and jogs over to Maverick and Goose who are standing outside the air station. "Is she okay?"

Goose looks at Maverick pointedly. "Go ahead, Mav," he says. "Tell him."

"Tell me what?" Tom glances worriedly between Goose and Maverick. "What happened?"

"Well, Ice," Maverick says. "Amelia is on her way to LAX. In fact, she's already landed."

Tom furrows his eyebrows. "What's in LA?"

"An airport," Goose says.

Tom narrows his eyes at him and grimaces. "Can you just tell me what the hell is going on?" he rounds on Maverick. He starts snapping his jaw aggressively.

"Her layover is in LA. And we don't know where she's headed next," Maverick elaborates.

Tom freezes mid-chomp. "How do we know this?"

"The intel is solid," Goose confirms. "It comes straight from my wife."

"Okay, why the hell are you still here then?" Tom asks in outrage. "And why am I here?"

"We're here," Maverick says. "Because the jets are here."

Tom blinks at him. "Excuse me?"

Goose starts to fretfully rub his forehead. "Just wait," he says.

Maverick throws Goose a reproachful look. "I'm going to LAX," he says.

Tom stares at him. "Don't say it." He shakes his head.

"And I'm taking Ghost Rider," Maverick finishes.

Tom continues gaping at him. "Are you insane?" he hisses.

"He is, in fact, yes," Goose confirms.

Tom ignores Goose. "Maverick, you will be discharged! You could be thrown in prison! Hell, your plane could be shot down for entering controlled airspace!"

Goose nods in agreement without saying anything.

Maverick sighs. "That's where you come in," he says.

Tom shakes his head again. "No, no, it's not. I refuse."

"Ice, I need to get to her before she takes off," Maverick says. "She'll be on the ground for at least an hour and a half between flights." He looks down at his watch. "It's been about an hour, so" –

"So, you were at an airport," Tom interrupts him. "Why didn't you just buy a ticket?"

"I would've been waiting five hours for the next flight out," Maverick replies vehemently. "I could make it to LA in a jet in two and half minutes." Maverick's face looms closer to Tom's as his tone grows more heated.

Tom gives him a withering look. "On what planet?"

"Let's aim for five minutes, Mav," Goose says gingerly. "Just to be safe."

"You are on board with this?" Tom exclaims at Goose.

Goose cringes. "He's not exactly asking for permission," Goose says.

"Look," Maverick says. "All you have to do is distract tower. Goose will help me with the prelaunch checks."

"You are out of your mind," Tom says.

"Ice, she's leaving. We don't have time for this!" Maverick says impatiently in a low voice, looking around to make sure no one is listening.

"Even if this weren't extremely dangerous and illegal, why would I help you?" Tom growls.

Maverick sighs. "Because, Ice. Regardless of how you feel about me, you want her to be happy, don't you?"

Tom narrows his eyes. "I'm not going to help you steal my girlfriend!"

"She's not your girlfriend anymore." Maverick breathes out steadily, setting his jaw.

Tom clenches his fists and both Goose and Maverick tense up, ready for another fight. But Tom lets out a heavy sigh, stretching his neck and shaking out his shoulders. Goose gives Maverick a wary glance. "If Goose and I are implicated, we'll be going down with you," Tom says.

"You won't be implicated," Maverick says. "Just create a diversion until they notice my plane. Then your work is done. I'm not asking you to reason with Jester on my behalf."

Tom juts out his jaw, deliberating. "For the record, I think this is the stupidest idea in the world."

"You got a better one?" Maverick asks.

Tom shakes his head reluctantly. "Just tell me one thing," he says. "You're risking a career you've spent your life working toward. In fact, you're more than risking it, you are throwing it away."

"Is there are question in there somewhere that I missed?" Maverick asks coolly.

Tom makes a face. "Why? Why not just let her go? This is clearly what she wants."

Maverick stares at Tom in confusion. "Because I love her, Ice."

Tom rolls his eyes. "You met her five minutes ago."

Maverick presses his lips together and nods. "And I think I've been in love with her for all five."

Goose inconspicuously slides a foot in between Maverick and Tom, prepared to throw Tom off if he tries anything. But Tom just closes his eyes, trying to compose himself. "Fine," he says, breathing out steadily. "I'll help you."

...

Tom walks into the tower, eyeing Jester warily as he takes his coffee break while maintenance crews prep the next segment of F-14s on the flight line below. Tom's gaze drifts over to Maverick and Goose as they rush through their walkaround haphazardly.

"Lieutenant Commander Heatherly, sir!" Tom says loudly, saluting Jester.

Jester starts, nearly spilling his coffee. "Jesus, Lieutenant! Didn't see you there."

On the far side, in plain view of the tower, Goose starts tapping on the panels on the starboard side of the plane, ensuring the fittings are intact. He makes his way aft to check the environmental control system duct for birds and inspects the intake for foreign objects. Maverick goes straight for the landing gear bay to check for leaks, simultaneously pulling on the gear doors to make sure nothing is loose.

Since there are several people on the tarmac, they don't look severely out of place, but Tom clenches his jaw anyhow because they're not exactly being discreet. Maverick is in his flight suit and black boots and sticks out like a sore thumb as he climbs into the cockpit to start the plane. They initialize the systems while Maverick pulls his helmet over his head and begins to strap himself in. Meanwhile, Goose clambers up to pull the ejection seat safety pins and then jumps down to stow the steps.

"I apologize for the intrusion, sir!"

"Eh, no need," Jester replies tiredly, sitting down at the command center. "Something on your mind, Lieutenant?"

Tom watches Maverick's plane taxi toward the runway in horror as Jester inspects the flashing lights on his board. "What the heck?" he says, his face slowly lifting.

"Sir!" Tom cries, and Jester whirls around in his seat.

"Jesus, Lieutenant!" Jester repeats. "Tone it down a notch, will ya?"

"Sorry, sir," Tom says. He starts walking briskly toward the command center. "You've just – you almost spilled your coffee on the equipment, sir." Tom grabs Jester's cup out of his hands and Jester stares at him in outrage.

"Nonsense, Lieutenant," Jester articulates, taking back his mug. "Now, what d'you need, huh?"

Tom swallows as Jester slowly turns back in his seat. "I need to take a leave, sir," Tom blurts out.

Jester pauses mid-spin and looks back at Tom. Behind Jester's head, Maverick's Tomcat is nearly on the runway but Tom is still cursing Goose's sloth-paced scrutiny of the plane. Goose likes to be over-prepared, compensating for Maverick's recklessness, no doubt, but Tom could've completed the checks in half the time. "What are you on about, son?" Jester stands, watching Tom closely.

Tom blinks distractedly. "Sorry, sir?"

"You're taking a leave?" Jester asks gruffly.

"Uh, I am." Tom nods, trying his best to maintain eye contact with Jester as Maverick pushes the throttle into zone two. "For the, uh, rest of the day, sir."

Jester narrows his eyes while Tom starts coughing to drown out the sound of Maverick's engines. "You coming down with something, Lieutenant?" Jester reaches up to feel Tom's forehead with the back of his hand.

"I think so, sir!" Tom yells, continuing to cough between his words as the board lights behind Jester start flickering. A beeping resounds in the control room and Jester turns around to inspect the cause of the commotion.

"What the..." Jester says, seeing Maverick's plane lift off the runway.

Tom scratches the back of his head anxiously.

"Who gave permission for that plane to be airborne?" Jester growls, grabbing the radio. "Who is that up there?" Jester rounds on Tom. "D'you know who that is?"

Tom shakes his head quickly. "No, sir!"

"Well, get up there and find out!" Jester yells.

Tom hesitates, clearing his throat.

"Oh, right," Jester mutters. "You're on leave." He picks the radio back up. "Pilot!" Jester yells. "Pilot, identify yourself! What the hell are you doing?"

"Tower, this is Ghost Rider," Maverick's casual voice crackles over the radio. "Just going for a cruise."

Tom rolls his eyes while Jester starts shaking out of sheer fury. "This is an alert, get me a fighter prepped for launch immediately. I need somebody to bring back that rogue plane. And, if you can't get it to turn around before it leaves restricted airspace, shoot it down! You hear that, pilot?" Jester screams. "You're on borrowed time!"

Tom starts for the door.

"Where are you going, Lieutenant?" Jester calls.

Tom whips his head around. "I'm going to catch that plane, sir."

"I thought you were sick," Jester says. "I need somebody who won't hesitate to carry out this mission."

Tom straightens his posture and salutes the lieutenant commander. "I won't hesitate, sir!"

Tom blows through the door and hops down the stairs, cursing himself for getting involved in Maverick's ridiculous scheme.

Read Chapter 17

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dangermousie · 9 months

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Farscape rewatch - Green Eyed Monster, 3x08

You know something this ep made me think of? How eternally grateful I am to Farscape for not creating any stupid contrived love triangles. There is no one for Aeryn but John, and there is no one for John but Aeryn. They have plenty to overcome and deal with in their different lives and traumas without adding contrived, soapy complications to the mix.

Because there is, of course, a triangle here. But not the silly, standard Crais-John-Aeryn one you would imagine. No, the 'third' in the triangle is Talyn, the living ship (I confess to never warming up to erratic, adolescent Talyn, but in the final count, he is yet another victim of forces outside of his control: he has been created unstable due to PK experimentation). It is Talyn who is sticking spokes in the wheels of true love (yes, a bizarre metaphor, I know). Talyn, whose reaction is really that of a spoiled adolescent whose Mommy picked up with a man he doesn't like instead of Dad (I think Crais' own, not too happy feelings about John, sort of leaked and amplified into Talyn, who read them through haze of adolescence and jealousy and paranoid instability). Any hint of triangles on FS was never soapy but about much larger, different things. Stark's interest in Aeryn was displacement for Zhaan, was because he almost made her be worth things because Zhaan died for her. Grayza to John was rape. Chiana with Jothee was about rebellion and inability to commit and Chiana being young and wild. Crais' interest in Aeryn was unspoken and about a kinship (through Talyn) etc etc etc. And yes, John is vulnerable to Talyn's manipulation, the way he never is, except with Aeryn. And the recent attacks on his psychic selfhood hadn't helped. But oh, the way he slumps in relief, as if he can breathe again, when he finds out the truth. And I love that Aeryn tells him, matter of factly, that she had never been with Crais, and the enormity of his quiet ‘yes, it does [matter].’

Of course it does. Just look how his eyes look as if he is dying when he first sees the doctored vid.

It is even worse because it’s Crais, someone who hunted and tormented and tortured him. It’s even worse than when, in S4, Aeryn brings Scorpy on board (even though then she didn’t have a choice), a feeling of betrayal. And the awesome if mushy, very mushy tag, when he tells her she is his constant and he always names the reference star after her. You can tell she is afraid to hope for happiness but she does, anyway. (And it ends very badly eventually.)

Of course, the other thing I love in Farscape is pace. Almost any other show, it would have taken the characters 10 eps to figure out that this was a frame-up job. Not here. Bam. Dealt with. At speed intelligent people would. Farscape never dragged (but never felt crammed either. It was perfectly paced). I really do not care for Talyn's red design. Very discordant. Very PK and in character, but I bet living there, even if it didn't bother Aeryn and Crais who are used to PK red, really did create a dissonance. Oh, what else. I love that Aeryn and John have an ugly fight there, early, but he still wants to be there when she receives the implant (but Talyn prevents him).

I love that Aeryn now loves him enough to actually try to talk things out. I love that she admits she needs him (when trying to convince Talyn.)

And her plague speech? My heart!

Of course, such daring openness, such opening up to love but also to hurt, will lead to devastation in IP. I also love Rygel and Stark together. Especially Stark. If for nothing else, than for smacking Rygel. YES. And he can be clever and plan-full when push comes to shove. Oh, and Crichton has a Lymond-like dislike of people outside the small circle calling him by his first name (he snaps at Crais not to call him John). His name=his identity=intimacy=selfhood. This is not the trusting John of S1, and he will never, ever trust and like Crais: once you’ve been hunted and tortured by someone, I think that person is permanently off-limits insofar as tolerance goes. PS My favorite nonshippy moment.

This comment by John to Crais is so encompassing of how far John has come and not in a hero’s arc kind of way.

PPS It’s so telling the moment there were no two of them, Aeryn was just able to forget about it and fall into Talyn John’s arms. God, there was never a good way out, was there?

#farscape

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lilisouless · 11 months

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You may have already covered this before… but,

I was/am rewatching SAB season 1. Is it just me or does it seem (at this point in the show) like they’re trying to make Zoya simply be this mean bully who is jealous of Alina because of her ‘feelings’ for the Darkling?

Like the scene where Zoya tries to talk Alexsander out of following after Alina (and pointing out Alina ‘may’ have run off rather than having been taken)… at the end when the Darkling ‘chooses Alina’, they have Zoya throw this hissy fit of sorts in response.

Oh the can of worms you just opened, sit down because you founds yourself on a middle ground scape situation, hope you have the patience.

The thing is that people blame the showrunners for "ruining Zoya" (which i say "are you dense?") when its actually 50% on them and 50% on Leigh.

Because one of the reasons i dont' like (i actually kind of hate) the first two thirds of the first shadow and bone book (the one the first season takes in count) is that the characterization there is ATROCIOUS, it improves on the third act (which Zoya isn't there as i remember) but its really hard to get trought, specially how she went out of her way to make a military setting into a high school stereotype. My point is: LEIGH created Zoya as a misoginistic caricature, the typical mean girl who the protagonist hates and viseversa because for some reason every woman in the first book is a bitch except Genya (who turns out to be a traitor to Alina anyway) as a way to justify Alina hating them. So yes, book!1 Zoya IS a mean bully who is jelaous of Alina and whetever her feelings for her darkling are suppused to be romantic there is irrelevant because she was still shown to be competing with Alina for his affections (whatever the nature of this are)

In some parts it actually improves the book, for starters Zoya is on the final battle, allowing her to show her mourn over Liliyanna and Lada, making sure the audience knows she was never a character to be hated and the beef with Alina is over, even without the release of season 2 you knew their relationship was going to be diferent from book 2 (hang in there) you are allowed to feel for Zoya and she is ultimately made out to be way more sympatetic than the darkling.

"But Zoya is never shown coming onto men!"

Well, you are completely wrong. Book 3, the best one of the trilogy, the one that has more ups than down and the characters are actually on line with their future personality and everyone (except Sergei 🙄) is mostly likeable, even that book has Zoya said she came into Mal many times after they had sex once. This was to high up Alina´s character of course.

The whole Zoya/Mal thing to me never made sense, it should had been Ruby, i will die on that hill, it makes more sense since i don't see Zoya going to illegal grisha fights or jumping over guys to kiss them.

So i will be forever grateful Zoya was spared from that love triangle bullshit on season 2, it never made sense, it was never in her fate and it would only make the audience slutshame zoya to no end (something Alina, and by extention Leigh did a lot of book 2 and 3).

Also want to point out that other small things the show improved was simply not making the other female characters hate her. Nadia and Marie in the book can't stand her (despite them being just as catty) while on the show there are little lines

"i can't believe she did that" "she is just jealous" "she could be with me"

Nadia and Marie don't hate Zoya on the show, they seem to be surprised she would trow a fit in the middle of a practice which to me implies that they think higher of her and don't bathmouth her since they are right to call her out on what she did to Alina. Is little changes but it makes me feel they actually see Zoya as the general she is, instead of the high school mean girl.

Also, about the scene you are asking, sure is not on the books but there is one equivalent, there is one were zoya leaves Kirigan´s room crying AND Alina and Genya trow her out of her room while she is still down. Zoya doesn't appear after that, Alina never questions anything so , you as the reader are supposed to laught at Zoya´s misery, thats Leigh´s intention there. This is one scene the show didn't improve for almost the same reasons, and we´ll see them later

Doesn't mean i don't like book zoya, i do a lot mostly for the nik duology but she does have a good growth on the gt books, Leigh failed in some things but not on making it clear that at the end of the day she is another victim of a militarized emviroment and that just because a person has a mean personality , doesn't mean they are actually evil and they can always improve.

Okay, enought of defending the show, lets drag down that bitch now.

For the starters i agree the show lacked some of Zoya´s vain,mocking and kind of bitchy traits, there were some speecs but was watered down, some of her jabs were certainly missed.

The only scenes with Zoya that i think were ulter trash was the half breed comment (uncalled for, doesn't even fit with her character since show!zoya is not actually racist,just a jerk, and overall stupid because "peasant" has the same effect) I`ll be quick with this but there are my thoughts: i don't think Zoya is supposed to be actually racist on the show, that she said it to hurt Alina which is just as wrong, but the writers were awfully tone deaf and didn't calculated that people will actually think she will be seen as racist, like thats one way to set her up to be hated.

The other scene is the one you made the ask for:

Gonna say this first, the thing about this scene that pissed me off the most , as a crow stan, is how she doesn't seem to care that Nina is gone (but at this point no one on the show cares about Nina, do i have to mention that anytime?). But to the point, this is the equivalent of the room scene and this is my take:

Zoya coming into Kirigan is not out of character for show!Zoya and, after some revisions, maybe not quite for book!Zoya, depending on how you see their relationship there. The problem to me was the same of the book version; the framing. Am i supposed to feel that Kirigan is a disgusting creep for sleeping with the girl he raised? i am,of ocurse. But thats not the message it is "oh look. he is choosing Alina over her!" and there is no comdemed for him where it should be.

Her being and feeling rejecting is honestly not a bad thing, not only it did happen on the books, the show version was a little more sympathetic BUT the problem was their bonner on the darkling and the refusal on making him seem like the creep he is. The thing is that they have been able to learn from Leigh`´s mistakes so i don't see why they would keep the tone of one of the worst parts of the book.

I think they were not setting Zoya as just a mean bully, but as a "oh look, you thought she was a mean bully but she is actually not" like yeah , because thats how you CHOOSE to paint her! By this point the Nikolai duology was already out , at least the first book, so they had no excuse on NOT making Zoya´s character closer to there, since they improved Alina,Nadia and Marie ,Fedyor and Ivan were kind of forgetable on the book and this is just my opinion but to me Genya was improved too, so why not do the same for Zoya, like actually get her in line with her KoS character since it´s already there? They made KAZ nicer but couldn't extent the courtesy for her?

Would it be so hard to Zoya smile ,strug and go "your loss" get out of that room flipping her hair , chin up and go to her room where she either trows a rage of wind or hugs a pillow to tear on it, that would take care of both the hurt of being rejected , the realization that she was that reempleazable. This wouldn't hint that he raised her but at least the sympathy would be on her. Also have her heard about Nina on another time and actually be surprised and a look of concern, maybe some blink and you`ll miss post scene where she is looking for dallias. Would that be so hard? i literally pitched it in one minute, payed writers can't do it better? (btw, out of the subject but they do need to pay their writers,sorry for the out of topic, just wanted to adress it)

I think many people, incluiding me, went out of season 1 feeling like the writers hate Zoya when the overall character is honestly a little watered down compared to the book but not quite awful, is just that she had two atrocious scenes that seemed to overshadow anything else.

Sorry for all that, but there was a lot to unpack. I just think Show!Zoya get critism for the wrong reasons

#zoya nazyalensky #netflix shadow and bone #leigh bardugo #grishaverse #grisha trilogy

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dont-take-me-home · 1 year

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Thoughts about the very lovely and satisfying Ted Lasso 3x06:

Rebecca

I remembered Rebecca falling into a canal in Amsterdam from leaked shooting photos and I’m very happy it’s not Ted who saved her like some fans wanted it to be. Actually, no one needed to save her, she just swam out like a grown-up. Good shit.

Houseboat Daddy can GET IT. What a hot dilf. And the complex, grown-up chemistry between them. Damn.

This man obviously represents everything Rebecca wants right now – authentic, reliable affection, warm homeyness and a family. I understand that they wanted to create a vibe of Rebecca taking a break from her real life to be this girly girl in a floral dress flirting on a houseboat, and then the break is over and she has to go back to her real life. But it’s a bit too romcommy for me that she just left without getting the guy’s phone number or even his name for no reason. The distance between London and Amsterdam is negligible if you have Rebecca’s money, they’re both single and into each other, what’s the deal? This is totally something she can pursue.

Keeley

It’s funny that we all had these fic ideas where Keeley dates Rebecca and gets to live the private jet, private yacht life, and the writers were like “nope” but then “wait, actually yes to the sugar mummy thing”. ❤️

Ted

Look, I don’t like him, but his scenes were great. Pining for the home he left, stuck so hard in his head he can’t even bother to learn anything about the sport he is allegedly coaching for two years now, and then finding himself in this unsettling parody of America where the portions are mountain-sized and nobody knows what Chicago is. POIGNANT

(I actually thought the script was going to go to a bad-trip place where the restaurant becomes really clownish and creepy and I’m glad they didn’t do that, it was much fresher and more interesting this way.)

(The thing where the drugs were a dud so it’s like Ted didn’t really take drugs was not fresh at all. We get it, he’s still pure. Whatever. It's a good story, so I’m forgiving them for the cop-out.)

Am I proud of Ted for reinventing Total Football? Heck no. He should have known about it. He is in Amsterdam playing against Ajax. The fact that he got the idea for the triangles from an ancient Chicago Bulls game instead of the wealth of football knowledge that is always in front of his eyes and at his fingertips is insane. But. It’s the right way to go, even if he got there through the most stupid route imaginable. And he is sitting in this amusement-park version of America, watching stuff that reminds him of his dad, but thinking about his team and how to improve them. Finally. So that’s something.

“My phone is at the bottom of a canal.” “Is that Keats?” – ok, I laughed 😤

Roy

Loved his speech to the interviewer about not pretending to give a fuck about the pretend game. Vintage Kent. And LOL at how even Jan is impressed by Roy’s brutal honesty.

Roy’s bitterness and anger being defeated by Jamie’s determined cheerfulness until he is forced to (1) enjoy himself on a fucking bicycle and (2) apologise to Jamie is the most adorable thing I can think about. HUG HIM JAMIE. HUG THE GROUCH. CONQUER THE GROUCH

Jamie

I love him.

First, we are reminded that he can be smart and capable and know a shitload of things about Amsterdam. This has a double purpose: in the long term, he’s on an arc of becoming even more of a team player and maybe a leader? Someone who can pull them out of the slump? But in the context of this episode, they want us to remember that Jamie has a brain. So if he glosses over things in his head, namely, Keeley having a girlfriend, or the disturbing way he lost his virginity at age 14, it’s intentional. He doesn’t want to think about these things because he wants to be happy.

Also, he’s not surprised Keeley’s into girls. She has talked about it openly, so. Yeah. Why would he be? (Well written.)

Notice how Jamie’s not intimidated by Roy anymore? Nor does he take the shit that Roy says to him personally. He is mature/secure enough by now to know that Roy is just taking unrelated shit out on him. He doesn’t even let it ruin his mood: he knows Roy is still doing the best for him as a coach, so he enjoys that. Our boy has grown up so much 🥲

I loved the complexity of Jamie’s little added backstory here with his two Amsterdam vacations. Short scene but so rich.

1. Vacation with his dad, age 14: Jamie knows his dad was being a dick and faking interest in him in that vacation. But he stops short of defining it as a bad memory. He was basically ordered to lose his virginity to a sex worker while he was still a child, and that must have affected him in a bunch of ways, and he doesn’t argue when Roy says it’s a fucked up experience. But he also “doesn’t remember it”.

2. Vacation with his mum two years later: she acted like a real parent and showed him the city and the museums. He doesn’t come right out and say it was important to him, but we know by the way he still remembers every little detail about Amsterdam by heart.

Jamie says it was like his dad was there with them. Does it mean his abusive dick of a dad was a shadow hanging over Jamie’s nice vacation with his nice mum? Or is it a good thing in that Jamie felt, for a while, like he had two parents? Or both?

Colin

Is now an actual character with a personality and not just comic relief. I will no longer give you side-eye if you like him and pair him with Jamie and will not wonder if you were just looking for the whitest face in the dressing room regardless of the fact that other guys had much more of a connection to Jamie.

I’m amused by the adventures of vanilla vodka. Back in season 1, when Jamie drank vanilla vodka, it was obvious the show didn’t want to make Roy call him gay/girly for it, because they didn’t want to make Roy homophobic or sexist. So Roy called Jamie a child, which also tracks, because fruit-flavoured drink (like Jamie’s vanilla vodka and alcopops) is associated with young kids who want to get hammered on nights out without having to endure the taste of actual alcohol. But right now Ted Lasso is carefully admitting that homophobia exists even in Ted-Lasso-world. So vanilla vodka gets to come out of the closet and be defined as a gay drink. Anyway.

The Himbos

Epic. I especially liked the way the pillow fight ended with an orgy. Always good for team building. Gangbangs also work, but then you have to single out one guy to get gangbanged and the others get jealous, and then you have to make a gangbang schedule so nobody gets left out, and it’s a hassle.

#ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso thoughts #ted lasso 3x06

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idealisticrealism · 2 years

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Where do you think the writers are going with the Nadia & Arman & Robert triangle? Arman seemed jealous of Nadia last ep but the writers also fired up Armony again. (loved those Armony moments!!) I think Eva D said in an interview that Nadia won't betray Arman but tensions seem to be rising for sure. I can't see him walking away from Thony at this point.

You'd think that after the insane amount of words I just wrote for my 2x04 recap that I'd try to keep this short... but apparently I am just literally incapable of that when it comes to this show.

But anyway. I have no idea if this will really answer your question, but I'll give it a try. Just bear in mind that I don't look at spoilers so I have no idea what actually lies ahead in this show, I'm just going on what makes sense to me based on what we know of these characters and what we've seen so far in the season.

So, the way I see it, this season needed two things:

a Big Bad with an interesting arc

a way to separate Nadia and Arman, to create room for Armony

What better way to achieve those things than with the same person? Enter Robert, who (at least, as it seems to me) is the linchpin of the season: he's Nadia's ex who clearly still desires her; he has forced Arman into business with him, and now has power over this choices and actions; and he is apparently deeply involved in the drug ring that Garrett is trying to bust, which means Thony is connected to him on two sides-- through being Arman's life business partner, and through Garrett forcing her involvement with Maya.

So, for Robert's plotline to be high enough stakes, it needs to seem like he will actually destroy Arman and everything he's built; and for that to happen, it would likely require a betrayal from Nadia, who knows where Arman is weakest. Which means that we as an audience need to feel that there's actually a genuine possibility of her doing that, and the way to do that is to have her pull away from Arman and move towards uniting herself with Robert.

How perfect, then, that this also allows for the other main plotline of the season, and the one we're all here for: Armony.

I think the writers know that in S1, we viewers were able to put aside the discomfort of the infidelity angle to an extent (I know I absolutely did, and infidelity is usually one of my total deal-breakers)-- and they aided us in that in a few ways, like by making Marco an absolutely terrible husband, and pretty much making it clear that his and Thony's marriage would have already ended before she left for the US if divorce was legal in The Philippines; by having Nadia and Arman's relationship often being portrayed as somewhat businesslike, or even tense and antagonistic at times, where even the more tender parts were generally from Arman reacting to Thony being unobtainable; and by having Armony be just so damn entrancing, but also having them be (relatively) restrained, both of them almost always hiding their emotional connection behind other things, like saving Luca or dealing with the FBI.

After Arman almost being blown up, though, and then being thrown in prison with a man who wanted him dead, and then having to put everything on the line for his freedom, it forced he and Nadia closer again-- partly because yes, there is genuine love there, but also because Nadia knows the life she adores depends on the money and power Arman possesses, and without him she risks going back to having/being nothing; and also partly because Arman feels honour-bound to her, not just as his wife, but as someone who helped save him and who now relies on him for survival.

So how the hell do you make Armony happen in the face of all that, without making Thony look like a homewrecker and Arman look like a dishonourable, ungrateful asshole?

Easy. You have Armony do their best to keep their distance for a few episodes, while still demonstrating Arman prioritising Thony's needs even at the detriment of his and Nadia's own situation-- and all the while, having Robert shower Nadia with respect and appreciation, reminding her how it feels to be desired and adored above all others. Before long, you have Nadia-- proud, self-respecting, slightly spiteful Nadia-- deciding "Alright Hubby, you want to put this other woman's needs above mine? Well, two can play at that game" and cozying herself right up to Robert again.

And ta-da! You suddenly have a marriage where both parties are pulling away from the other in favour of being with someone else, which is so much more comfortable for viewers than seeing Nadia as the loving and dedicated wife who is trying to cling to her husband while he ditches her to get it on with Thony. It's more comfortable for both Arman and Thony, too-- Thony genuinely likes Nadia and doesn't want her getting hurt, hence why she has always stopped things between her and Arman before they could go too far (and of course in S1 it was also because of her own marriage, though that is obviously no longer a factor, thank god). And Arman himself will definitely be relieved to feel the grip of his marriage loosening, though tbh it's still going to be complicated for him-- he'll be stuck between wanting the freedom to be with Thony (and respecting that it's absolutely Nadia's right to leave him), but also feeling like he needs to keep her from allying herself with Robert because of the serious consequences it could have for himself in terms of his business/his debt (and subsequently, the consequences for Thony, who won't be able to run her own cleaning business/clinic without him and his money/connections).

That struggle is going to be a central theme of the season, as is the question (like mentioned above) of 'will Nadia betray Arman and help Robert destroy him?'. And tbh, I don't think she will-- it might look like it, right up until the end, but she won't. Honestly, my dream is that she will fulfil the role of Robert's pretty little plaything until the time is right, and then she'll turn around and betray Robert, taking his entire empire out from under him, and proving she was never just a prize to be won or a possession to be owned. Then the season can end like a matching sequel to the first-- with Robert (like Hayak) either dead or in jail, and Nadia taking her rightful place on his throne, finally getting all the power and respect she's always wanted, while leaving Arman and Thony free to run their own little medical enterprise and live happily ever after like the two idiots in love that they are.

Is that what will actually happen? Probably not, sadly! But still, there's always hope lol-- and honestly, whatever does happen, I really do believe Armony will get through it just fine.

(Whether we fangirls survive is another matter entirely).

Well, anyhow, there's my thoughts lol. I guess the TL;DR is that Robert exists as a romantic counterweight to Thony, and that this season we will see Nadia/Arman turn into Nadia/Robert and Arman/Thony, just as we'll see all the complications that come from those complex connections and interactions and loyalties-- and damn if that ain't gonna be great to watch.

#The Cleaning Lady #TCL meta #Armony #Nadia/Robert #Good lord I need to stop writing about this show and go to bed #would be interested to hear what you guys think about the Nadia/Robert situation though #so feel free to share

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xhudgenssistersconfessions · 9 months

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I thought long and hard if I even would post something about it but maybe some of you feel the same way, so here it goes: I feel like something has been off with Vanessa for quite some time. I can‘t name an exact date when something changed just that it did. I know that her fans and even some of her „friends“ think that she seems at her happiest but I am really wondering. I‘ve been crossing her paths several times in the past and then she was more carefree and „true“ to herself and others. For the last couple years (maybe it started after Austin or with her relationship with Cole) she‘s been more guarded and has been back to „manipulate“ some things. It‘s like she‘s playing a character, I don‘t know. But given her more recent past with Ashley and GG/Vince it‘s no wonder that she‘s hiding a lot more than she had in the past. Now I‘m rambling but it‘s hard to explain what I want to say…..I‘m stopping now.

This is so true and well said!!!! I really think this anon nailed it 💯 . I just wish she would do something for herself first and not for others. I also wish that she wouldn‘t have said yes to Cole for obvious reasons. The fact that she hid it for almost three months says so much. Maybe she is extremely happy with Cole but there‘s still so much baggage.

My two cents about Cole and her relationship with him: He‘s her „big man“ but is he really? Their relationship started off as a triangle, GG was always with them in the beginning. When he was still in the major league Vanessa would post stuff about him playing even when she couldn‘t be at the stadium with him. When she was there, there were always pics….just like this past week when he was drafted to the Rockies. We got something from the game against Milwaukee and we got something from Thursday night when she was at the LA Dodgers stadium with Oliver. But why wasn‘t there almost nothing when he played for Triple AAA? Wasn‘t he her big man then? And why would she hide an engagement for three months? I would get it if she wanted to get married first but anouncing it three months later? That‘s not her only time posting late when she‘s with him. I totally get that she doesn’t have to post anything at all when she‘s with him but why is she posting stuff weeks later and makes it seem like it was more recent? Maybe I‘m seeing things but it just seems so off.

But that's a really weird thing to say LOL, she doesn't do those things in return "Put Cole on the map" I mean he would be a baseball player with or without her, him being in the media now is a consequence and it's not like she is expecting him to do something in return like putting her as team coach (lol an example) I think it's all consequence, you mentioned Elvis she told Austin to audition but she said he was her best friend bigger inspiration and supporter, i think now it's kind of convenient for us to talk but i do think he did something for her or i want to believe he did because she said it herself. It's not fair saying "she gave Cole followers" is not something he was going for at first LOL. I agree with everything else I really don't think she had time to get over it alone because she doesn't like being alone she was made for long and intense relationships and she makes that person her world which doesn't mean she's overreacting and loves him less, no, it's just her way of loving, very deep. But I contested the text because like, even Oliver is in this? we don't know what he also did for her on off, these people were with her in the worst moment of her life (her dad passing away) Oliver doesn't need to create a company after her mame to have done something for her, and she knows it.

#answered

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onstoryladders · 1 year

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i said i would write a post about a stranger things (byler) soul eater au and here i am <3

(tagging @apatheticlexicographer in case you're still curious about this but feel free to ignore <3)

MIKE & WILL & EL

yeah i recreated the love triangle thing because i couldn't resist, sue me! it just opens a lot of cool scenarios and dynamics and i'm here for it

i am still torn about mike because i can't decide whether i like him better as a weapon or a meister given that both ideas are super cool, but also he's very protective and has terrible coordination (lol) so i would say he's a weapon, and then @vivelegalite said in my other post that he'd be The Sword™ and so i haven't stopped thinking about that since because hello?! it's PERFECT

so mike is the weapon (a sword) and will is the meister. they're a formidable team because their souls are synced since they were like 7 n they love and understand each other like no one else does

then they meet el, and will is taken away (the context doesn't matter). el is special, sorta like crona? the hawkins lab did to her what medusa did to crona, so like they experimented on kids and created these weapon/meister hybrids who could turn their own blood into weapons

and like the upside down is this madness-fueled dimension created by vecna, who's like asura and who was used to create the lab kids who are half gods or something, but were all killed after an accident like it happens in canon

so el and mike become a team because maybe el can't wield her own blood at some point because she's too exhausted, and so mike becomes her weapon for a while when they're still looking for will. he feels lost because he can't do anything alone, so fighting with her helps him manage his own feelings of powerlessness

when will comes back, he still can't fight for a while, and el is gone (just like s2, again the context doesn't matter lol), so mike starts training on his own, but of course he's not as strong without a meister who can wield him

anyway in the end el comes back, they get together, and mike starts training with both el and will, but then trouble starts because he can't manage both relationship at the same time for some reason, and it's getting a toll on his synchronization with both of them. so el can feel something is wrong with him, and they break up, and then one time will tries to wield him and he gets burned or something, because they have secrets for the first time in forever and those secrets are making it hard for their souls to connect and resonate

then in the end will pulls an anime!maka and discovers he's also a weapon (yes i love this trope and i use it in every soul eater au i plot lol) and maybe mike has to act as a meister for a little while, i don't have context for this but it sounds cool and also kinda funny lol

i don't know what kind of weapon will would be, maybe a rifle? and mike is like “will are you kidding me you know i can't aim for shit” so then will is like “let me worry about that you just make sure not to drop me” and they SLAY

and then after a bad fight where they almost lost because they couldn't fight properly, mike realizes that he has to come clean, and he confesses to will, and they kiss, and it's all very sweet and they go back to being the best team ever <3

ok i thin i'll stop here for now but anyway se au's are always super cool and so much fun hehe

#byler #soul eater #soul eater au #stranger things #plot bunny

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covertnarcissismblog · 6 months

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Review #1

Taylor Swift - Folklore

This so-called review is the my first ever written review about literally anything, and I’m very sure it will definitely be so far away from an acclaimed critic’s review, but since I would like to express my opinions better and more understandable both in English and in my native language, I guess it can be said as a very fresh start, I shall say.

The reason that this is the first album I review is that it is the first ever CD I have bought for my collection! (which doesn’t exist just yet)

So, what can I mention of this album from my head only?

It is Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, which was released on July 24th, 2020, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, and the finest work of hers until this day. But why am I saying this, so bluntly, without proving any points based on my own notes and vision? Well, it is just my own gut feeling that speaks from me now, but if I had to actually support this gut feeling with valid objections, then I’m really sure I would say the same.

This album reached the general public really unexpectedly, and so had the fans.

Swift announced her new studio album without any early signs and just posted the cover of the album with the news that folklore is coming next day, midnight EST, with a new music video for the song called cardigan.

Before I’ll go into the detailed analysis, I would like to talk about the album itself, after hearing it in a whole.

(Disclaimer: the review was written after 3 years of the release and many thorough listens of the whole album, so the opinion was not formed by a first impression)

Folklore as a whole is a very cohesive record, to say the least. Every song stands its place in itself but harmonises so much with the other tracks as well. Swift always knew how to create an aesthetic, a vibe, a harmonical piece within an album. Since her sophomore album, it is quite noticeable, but sometimes stood off from this route (let’s say reputation or Red - these two are very diverse records from her). With the more acoustic production, she left behind the electronical way, which mostly defined her previous 3 records, and that made her really good. She broke through the pop girl image, which she carefully built throughout her career, and really showcased the writing, composing skills she previously had as well.

Besides all this, and without getting into her career analysis, let’s go back to the record itself.

The main focus of the album is as simple as the title: storytelling, in a detailed, descriptive way she had not done before for a whole record long. (of course, there are exceptions - yes it’s All Too Well and also Dear John)

She tells not only biographical, but mainly fictive stories for 67 minutes. We can find many perspectives in a song, and some of them are actually connected (which is a very very smart way to get people engaged in your record, if they even care that much)

The vocals on the record are very clean and simple, and the acoustic instrumentation even helps to it. The whole album fits into a kind of melancholia and sadness feeling, and from the first seconds of the first song, it does not leave until the lakes end (yes, I’m counting that into my review as well)

the 1 starts with a statement that “she’s doing good” but the song’s theme builds around a relationship that did not end as she would have wanted to. That song is a solid opener, as it is not that much of an acoustic style she plays with for the whole length of folklore, but the sense of the new style can be noticed there.

The cardigan-august-betty trinity is the three that are definitely connected. These are telling the same story but from different perspectives. The story is about a love triangle, and each character tells their own side of the events.

The third and the fourth tracks are the complete opposite (for me!!)

While I’m not not liking, but the least enjoying the great american dynasty, I’m always moved by exile, which is one of Swift’s best craft until this point.

The story and the lyrics in itself do not bring me in for tlgad, as much as exile does. Maybe this opposition gives the third track a weaker chance to get success by me.

There is a very solid track run from 5-9 (from my tears ricochet to this is me trying), and I am simply cannot skip any of them. The hauntiness, the emotional overload, the instruments - especially for august!! - are all peaking here in each of these.

This streak breaks with illicit affair and invisible string, but not entirely. These are a bit laid-back songs, with still touching narratives. It all comes back with mad woman and betty (and even in peace, in its own special way). epiphany is an odd one out, as it is a very deep and personal story. However, the length of it is a bit of a lack; don’t matter, how beautifully composed it is and how deep the lyricism is, I do not feel the same attachment and interest through the whole song as I did with the previous ones.

hoax and the lakes are the perfect closers for the standard and the deluxe versions, respectively. Both are underrated in most ears, but they achieve the matching feeling that the album gave since the beginning, and did not get flat in this case.

I might seem like a biased bitch according to this, but if considering her music, I can seem critical. But to my taste, my personal preference in lyrical style and production, and most importantly, album-wise, this is a near perfect record.

It surely will not be one of the best album ever in most people’s top lists, but as of now, Swift had not done a better album in my eyes. And I really like all of her records.

It is equally honest, creative, beautiful, ethereal, but also melancholic, hopeful, and clean.

This album is really a great starter if you are into indie genres or folk-acoustic genres, and also if you are skeptical about her and her popularity. Because this might just break the top of the iceberg enough to get a little interested about Swift.

The highlights for me: exile, seven, august, hoax

My least favourite: the last great american dynasty, epiphany

9.7/10.0

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rosiewritesridiculousshit · 3 years

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Love for their daughter is inadvertently getting Yang Yang, Herbalist Guy, and Rich Bitch back together. Adorable.

#yes I'm ignoring that they keep trying to push a weird love trident with the girl #yes I am creating a love triangle without her #a real one #fuck you i do what I want #whirlwind girl

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captnjacksparrow · 2 years

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hi, so i’ve wondered what you think about kishimoto and his take on women. do you think he doesn’t know how to write strong, independent women? and how do you think did the fact it’s a shounen influence him on writing women? are there any women in naruto who had potential but were ignored due to the very fact they’re women? and what female characters do you personally wish you saw more about? love your blog!!

Okay.... I think people who follow my blog almost consider me to be the 'Defender of Kishimoto'.... And that's why I am receiving Asks based on his Misogyny or Treatment of Women.

KISHIMOTO & HIS “SO-CALLED” MISOGYNY - MY TAKE

Can I simply say "Yes, Despite me being an Independent Tomboyish Girl who always picked fight with Misogynistic Boys on a Regular basis, I liked Kishimoto's work and I am completely satisfied with Naruto, the Series without any resentment" ???....

That’s because I never approach any media by wearing GENDER LENS OR SEXUALITY LENS..... I don’t desperately look for any female characters to get inspiration or motivation from.... If I like a Character... I will love them and get inspired from them.. I don’t care what’s between the ‘said’ Character’s legs. It’s Simple. I got motivated by few male characters in this series and they DEFINITELY CHANGED ME IN GOOD WAYS.

This doesn’t mean I am slandering everyone who looks for female representation in any media. It’s just that this Series never hinted at anytime that this was going to be about Girls kicking Ass or something. So, it’s pointless to expect something from nothing and criticizing the Author for it.

But I just couldn’t understand one thing from SNS Fandom, especially. We all scream to other shippers that “Remove your Hetero Normative Lens to understand SNS”..... Yes, I whole-heartedly agree... Which means, we all acknowledge the fact that we are supporting a ship where 2 Boys Love each other and we want people to remove their Hetero Lens. Fine. Agreed.

But why expect 50-50 representation for Women in a Gay Media??? I seriously don’t understand this logic. AT ALL.... Which Gay media had a strong women portrayal???? Why are we still wearing our Gender Lens and criticize something pointless???? Male Characters are also Humans, you know...

You may now ask “Why can’t a Gay media have strong and independent women Characters?”

Ummm... It’s very similar to asking a Gay Boy, “Why can’t you like a Girl?”

And this is not a Joke.... If you have some time, you can visit [this link]... It’s a list of Highly Rated Yaoi Novels from China with respective links to the Novels which is translated in English. Among the top 20 novels in that list, I’ve so far read 4.... All 4 of them were written by Women... And one of the Writer actually became insanely rich because her Novels were adapted into Anime, Live Action, Manga, Merchandise, International Broadcast and what not....

In all those 4 novels I’ve read so far, I’ve never found a single women Character to have made an impact to the story in a big way and to be honest I don’t even remember most of their names except for 1 or 2... And the joke is that they were all written by Women. So, Can we call all those Women writers to be misogynistic???

There is pattern for Women Characters in those BL novels.... A Girl who lust for the body of a Main Character... Her purpose is to show the readers how Handsome he is...

Handsome Main Character who rejects girls like some annoying pest because he only has eyes on the other Main Character...

A Girl who is there to create some stupid Love Triangle between 2 Main Characters... [[Usually Chinese women readers hates these girls... And begs the author to kill this Character because they don’t want anyone to come between their OTP]]...

Don’t you think all these patterns conform to Naruto Manga as well????

I wonder if only Naruto loved Hinata & Sasuke loved Sakura passionately.... Will this claim that “Kishimoto being Sexist” arise????

I don’t think so.

My Point is, we, SNS fans know the nature of the relationship between the main characters and yet why are we expecting A Strong, Independent Women Characters from this piece of Media???? Have we ever found any importance for Sakura in those SNS fanfictions???? Fic Writers change her into somewhat pleasant girl with no Assholery and THAT’S ALL.... She won’t be playing any important role in any of those fictions... Because it’s all about how N and S love each other and their struggles.... No body gives 2 fucks about how Sakura kicks Ass in SNS Fictions. Kishimoto also employed the same logic.

If Fanfic writers treats Sakura into a Marriage broker for SNS, then that’s fine... But if Kishimoto does the same in his Manga but in a despicable way, then it is called Misogyny, eh???? I find this claim to be Extremely hypocritical.

Anyways, Let me tell you what attributes I want from a Woman Character to consider her as strong....

A Woman Who

Can make her own life choices without having to be subservient under any Man

Fight for the same respect as a Man....

Has her own dreams to pursue...

Has the Ability to be intelligent and diplomatic rather than acting foolish before Boys in order to attract them... (Eeeshh.... I just hate them)

Has the Ability to hold a Leadership position

Can be Kind and Empathetic or can be a vile bitch who could screw up other people by making clever plans..... I don’t care which side she falls into.... All I need is a personality with a strong Conviction...

Possess strong Emotional Strength

Has the Ability to endure severe harsh life circumstances because women are damn fucking strong enough to endure a lot......

Has weakness and how she overcomes it...

And there are many more which I possibly can’t list here... But all these attributes are applicable to Married, Unmarried, Housewives and Working women too....

If I find three or four of these attributes in any Women Characters.... Then I consider her as Strong.

Now just look at these basic Attributes, I repeat Basic.... A Complex woman Character has even more attributes to portray but I think this is enough considering Shonen... and see how many points Tsunade, Kushina, Konan checks as compared to Sakura & Hinata... [[Konoha is where the story revolves around and Tsunade is a fucking Hokage for God’s Sake!!!!]]

i’ve wondered what you think about kishimoto and his take on women. do you think he doesn’t know how to write strong, independent women?

Many girls in this fandom don’t even know What is mean by an Independent and Strong Women and start to write some stupid post that Kishimoto is a Misogynist....

Because Majority of Girls in this fandom believes.... Punching Stuffs and Bossing around subservient men is a measure of Strength... They don’t care about her emotional development and all they care about is her physical strength which is not needed at all, you know. What they want is a Mary Fucking Sue....

If Kishimoto can able to write Tsunade.... Can’t he give the same tropes for his ‘supposed’ Main Female Character????

He can.

But he simply chose not to.

And Here’s the thing.... If Someone is not a Feminist Icon..... It doesn’t mean they are sexist or misogynist... There is something called INBETWEEN...

I consider Kishimoto to be INBETWEEN..... or maybe by the end of this post.... You might be have a differing opinion.....

But before that let me answer your Questions....

What female characters do you personally wish you saw more about?

Konan and Tsunade.

Konan had a wonderful fight with Obito... But her name was never mentioned again.... Naruto could’ve referenced her & Nagato in Chapter 700 and give a closure for Amegakure... But it was abandoned entirely....

Tsunade... I wish I could see her even more.... Can’t specifically say where... But I loved her.

Are there any women in Naruto who had potential but were ignored due to the very fact they’re women?

For sure, I won’t be saying Sakura’s and Hinata’s name here..... He would never make them into anything other than some despicable dolls... That’s a given.

But Why nobody was talking about Choji, Neji, Kiba, Lee who had no development since forever????

Neji was in Kazekage retrieval Arc.... And.... That’s all... He died as a Love Broker...

Choji... He got his Butterfly wings when fighting with Edo Tensei Asuma... And that’s all.... I don’t remember him doing anything since Sasuke retrieval Arc...in Part 1...Same with Kiba and Lee....

So, Male characters also had potential but were ignored mercilessly... So... If Kishimoto was a Misogynist... Then those fake feminists are called Misandrist.... Because they don’t care about any male characters and they are okay with them being ignored.

how do you think did the fact it’s a shounen influence him on writing women?

I haven’t watched any other Shounen other than Naruto (Currently watching JJK)... So, I couldn’t comment on this.

But I am sure about one thing....

Kishimoto wants his Heroine to be Strong. Even stronger than his Hero. I had this feeling when I was re-watching Naruto.... And I became 100% sure after reading his other One-Shot Manga named Mario.... [Link]

Let’s see....

This is a quote from Naruto’s Official Data Book named Meigenshu Kizuna ‘Bonds’ where Kishi explains about Sasuke.

“Since Naruto is to be considered the “hero”, from the beginning he’s receiving growing popularity as the protagonist, while Sasuke; who is usually being chased by numerous characters (in a romantic sense), even if he’s a guy, roughly speaking, Sasuke has the heroine status in this story.”

[[Am not bring this NaruSasu/SasuNaru thing in this post... Am just pointing what Kishi said about Sasuke]]

With all this being said....

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE WITH A SPECIFIC LOOK

I can’t find any difference other than the hair style.... Can you able to????

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE TO FIGHT HIS HERO BACK

Even today people are crying that, “Kishimoto is a Misogynist because he made Sakura into a Doormat for Sasuke.... He probably wants his woman to be like Sakura...”

But this comparison proves otherwise....

Saori is just someone who will shoot your Brains if you touch her... And here, Saori is not a Doormat to Mario.... She is just like Sasuke. I wonder, How come Kishimoto can be a Misogynist in one Manga whereas he becomes a Normal person in his other Manga???? Is this some split-personality disorder????

Well... Both pairs starts their ‘thing’ with Hate!!!!

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE TO BE STRONGER THAN HIS HERO

LOL.... No explanation need, eh???

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE TO SNEAK ATTACK WHILE HIS HERO ACTS AS THE DECOY

Naruto usually attacks his enemy with his Shadow Clones and Sasuke analyze the battle from behind using his Sharingan. If the enemy attacks Naruto, Sasuke always saves him. This is the dynamics that was established in Land of the Waves, Forest of the Death and even against the battle with Jigen.

Similarly Mario acts as the decoy and if someone attacks him, Saori analyze it very carefully and blast them off from behind... Like she does in this panel.... Both Naruto and Mario looks back to see their Heroine...LOL

(I promise you all, I never intended to make this into an SNS post.. I only wanted to talk about Saori. Like I was sort of joking when I started this section, but I’m convincing myself now... Saori is Sasuke and viceversa.)

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE’S LOVE TO BE UNCONDITIONAL & PURE....

Now... Just because I bring the word ‘Love’.... Don’t even imagine it’s something Romantic. It’s just not.

Mario, the Hero is a Money minded A-Class Asshole and a sell out... (which he himself agrees...)

Here, They both come to meet this fat guy for some job... But that Old-Fatty wants to spend some ‘lonely’ times with Saori.... His assistant even offers Mario some money, for him to leave this girl alone with them....

As expected he leaves her alone... Poor Saori got horrified... But Saori is not very innocent... She escaped her way out somehow but it was implied that she killed that old-fart when in reality his Assistant killed him and put the blame on Saori.... She is not some damsel in distress, you know.

And because Saori ‘seemingly’ killed those Old fart, She carries a bounty on her head worth of $500,000.... To which Mario, the Asshole, agrees half-heartedly and concocts a plan with his friend to finish her off....

As it happens.... Mario distracts her and his friend shot her from behind... Asshole!!!

Now, his friend turns the tables and pointing the Gun towards Mario’s head in order to steal all the money for himself....

But then,

SAORI’S BODY MOVED ON IT’S OWN.... To protect this worthless betraying jerk.... Even Mario himself was surprised...

This is a clear parallel to this Land of the Waves scene

Naruto, unlike Mario, is not a jerk here... But he never did anything profound for Sasuke for him to give up his life easily.... At this point, they are not even acquainted with each other.... Sasuke just loved Naruto and did what he did without expecting anything back....

Similarly Saori also worked with Mario on many missions and ended up liking him because he never tried to flirt with her or make any ‘unusual’ advances on her unlike other men... (this is her childhood trauma which you will know if you read that manga)... She liked him to the point of saving him even though he betrayed her 2 times for money.

In both the cases, I really want to scream at Saori and Sasuke, “Why are you going so far for this betraying/useless jerk??”.

KISHI LIKES HIS HEROINE TO RESEMBLE HERO’S MOTHER

Uhhh.... ???

I’ve made a post about how Sasuke resembles Kushina in many ways.... [Link]. And Mario openly confesses that Saori resembles his mother!!!!

Anyways.... You can read the manga and understand Saori’s character even better.

Kishimoto saying Sasuke holds the heroine status in Naruto Manga and giving Sasuke’s character attributes to Saori is not coincidental. It’s very clear that he want his heroine to be like Sasuke which explains that Accidental Kiss and that Femme Fatale scene in Orochimaru Lair. LOL. Mario is just a 52 page Manga and his characterization of Saori is very impressive. He drew her in a very dignified manner... Meaning, he didn’t sexualize her.

She is the definition of Independent, Strong, Vulnerable “Don’t mess with me, you MF!!”, “Touch me, I’ll Shoot you right **there**” kind of badass and Motherly woman.... She has every potential to be developed into a complex character and is very capable of having her own arcs, if this Manga was developed further.

There is no way an author can be an Asshole in one Manga and becomes a Saint in Another one... Not to mention that Mario manga was conceptualized in 1998, that is way before he started drawing Naruto in 1999... So, all these proves that Kishimoto can write wonderful woman Characters like Saori, Tsunade, Konan, Kushina. He simply didn’t want to give any scope for Sakura or Hinata.

He gave all the tropes he envisioned for Saori (in 1998) to Sasuke in Naruto Manga.... by officially calling him as Heroine.

To finish off,

I seriously don’t understand the logic behind the expectation of Independent, Strong Women characters in a media where the story is all about how 2 boys finds love in each other... But still, the author went on to give us Tsunade, Temari, Konan, Kushina, Granny Chiyo...

People getting petty about female side characters getting ignored whereas Kishi ignored many male characters equally. But no one bothers about that. This blatantly shows their hypocrisy in consuming this media.

Female Characters getting knocked down by male characters using a Jutsu doesn’t qualify under Misogyny or Sexism. Writing despicable female characters also doesn’t come under Misogyny. I am saying this for the Umpteenth time, Sakura and Hinata were intentionally designed to be mocked and ridiculed. Don’t consider their portrayal as a sample for Kishimoto’s take on Women characters. Honestly, those kind of characters does exist in real world.

I have to appreciate the way Kishimoto characterize his Heroines in both the Manga (Sasuke & Saori). They both are really layered and complex... And definitely not some Mary fucking Sue at all.... If this is not the proof for his wonderful take on Women, then what is???

I think it’s about time we have to start removing our Gender Spectacles and see the characters as Human First rather than what’s between their legs. In that way, we can able to enjoy this series very much. This is applicable to any media. Or atleast for Gay media.

Kishimoto might not be the Flag Bearer for feminism. But he is definitely not a Misogynist or Sexist... That’s what I felt after watching Naruto and reading Mario.

#sns #sasunaru #narusasu #sasunarusasu #mario #saori

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yesimwriting · 3 years

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The Problem With Light

a/n i literally did not mean to write this, i was working on requests and then my mind was like ‘remember that lowkey love triangle kaz brekker x reader x darkling thing you always say you're going to write’ so yeah,, here we are :)),, two longer fics are coming!!

Summary: Kaz changes his plans after meeting the Sun Summoner and Kirigan teeters on a line the reader isn’t sure she wants.

Chapter One: The Conflicts of Prayer

Narrator.

Kaz knows a lot about patience. He knows how to bear the weight that the passage of time thrusts onto one's shoulder. He knows how to cultivate the seeds that he sews. If he wasn’t like this he’d stand no chance at one day avenging the ghost that refuses to leave him.

But Jesper is almost an hour late. Kaz has been standing in a dimly hit branch of a relatively important hallway in the Little Palace. Jesper was supposed to come while in disguise to bring Kaz his new disguise and his newly repaired cane. Kaz’s hand flexes again, wishing he could feel the detailed head of one of his few comforts beneath the broken-in leather of his gloves. A bitter part of him claims that if Jesper isn’t injured once he arrives, he’ll be injured once Kaz gets his hand on his cane.

He shifts his weight, the pain in his leg starting to take its toll. The slight relaxation disappears once he hears footsteps. Kaz turns, ignoring the ache the motion brings him. His entire body hardens, preparing for a fight. He doesn’t look like he belongs here yet and there’s nowhere to run. The person crossing his path will need to be taken care of--knocked out or something more permanent.

The person only pauses to look at him when Kaz angles himself forward in a fighting stance. He watches the person, a girl, shifts back slightly, eyes wide and defensive. She’s a mess--hair disheveled, nose slightly bleeding, and dirty kefta. Her appearance isn’t why Kaz finds himself frozen, not because of the girl’s appearance but because she’s her. Y/n l/n. The Sun Summoner.

“Sorry! I--” She almost winces, but then her eyebrows furrow together. “You’re not supposed to be here.” Kaz’s jaw locks. He could take her physically, but for all he knows she could raise her arms and blind him permanently with her light. “That’s okay,” she breathes, something in her looking a little relieved, “I’m not supposed to be here either.” Kaz watches her oddly, wondering if her trustingness is a trap in itself. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

It’s a joke. That much is clear by the gentle uptilt of her lips. It’s as if she doesn’t know she’s bleeding and looks like she just ran out of a fight. Her expression doesn’t harshen at his silence. Kaz finds himself disliking that. It’s not enough that she can summon the sun, she also has to seem like it.

He needs to say something. Jesper was supposed to be watching her and now he’s not here and she is. The plan is unraveling and if he talks she’ll stay here or reveal where she’s going to next. That’s the kind of thing he needs to salvage this.

His lips part, but he’s not sure what to say. “You’re not supposed to be here?”

She shakes her head once. “No--I’m supposed to be in personal training, but I kind of got my ass kicked in group training and my pride needs a break.” The admission leaves her sheepishly. “It’s probably for the best, becoming a Sun Summoner overnight has given me a bit of an ego.” She sighs, the sound strangely light. “Then again, I kind of need an ego for what’s wanted from me and if one bad fight is all it takes to kill it then it’s not strong enough, considering--” Kaz tenses as she cuts herself off. “Sorry, I’m rambling, we both have places to be.” Hope presses into him stiffly. She’s going to say it. “Where--where are you supposed to be?” She shifts back slightly. “Not that I have to know, but you’re not from here, and--”

Kaz steps forward, pushing through the stiffness in his leg. Y/n’s gaze drops. Kaz’s discomfort worsens, someone like her doesn’t need to know his weaknesses. “Are you here for me to pray for you?” She scratches her arm, “I-I can, but I tell everyone I pray for I don’t consider myself a Saint.”

The honesty of the comment twisted something in Kaz’s thoughts. “Yes,” he lies, partially distracted by the beginnings of a scheme. He can feel Inej’s future anger as he lies again, “I’m here for prayer.”

“I spent so long rambling,” she says in a tone that implies apology.

He nods once, wondering how someone could be that apologetic and survive. The weight of such power must strangle someone like her. That could be a good thing. Someone like her must be spiraling with all this change and sudden strength. Maybe this could be simpler than an abduction plan, a few choice words and he could convince the girl to come with him. He could get her to believe there was something she needed to do in Ketterdam. If she went there willingly, things could be much more efficient.

Inej won’t like this, and for this to work he’ll have to think of the right way to present the plan to her. He weighs his options and the details as y/n whispers words with her eyes closed and hands folded together. The words he can make out are kind. He expected that, but what he didn’t expect was the earnestness of them.

She means each part of her prayers. Kaz regrets noticing that.

“I can’t promise my prayers do anything,” she finishes, voice returning to its normal volume, “but I hope you get what you need.”

What he wants is within his grasp now that he knows what to do. “I’m sure good things are near.” It’s the most honest he’s been since her arrival.

Y/n nods once, “I should go before my reprieve costs me more than it's worth.”

He watches her disappear down the hallway. Her movements are light, calm and unweighted.

“Boss,” Jesper’s appearance is brash, “I’ve spent this entire time looking for her. She was in training like she was supposed to, took an awul blow, delivered an even meaner one, and then disappeared.”

Kaz tries to imagine the same hands that were just so neatly folded in prayer as fists. “You just missed her.” He doesn’t wait for Jesper’s reaction, he just takes his newly repaired cane back. “And we’re changing the plan.”

Y/n.

I tried going to Baghra. I told someone who believed my prayers meant something that I was going back to training. But then I remembered her words from last time and the shame I felt when I could not create light. I haven’t summoned light once without Kirigan’s touch.

I’m the Sun Summoner--I am the person that summons the sun by themselves. Kirigan and I aren’t the Sun Summoner together. I’m pathetic. And instead of trying to get better, I’m wandering the library because all anyone can talk about is the way Zoya punched me in the face.

Baghra picked me apart when I looked shiny. I can’t imagine the kinds of comments she’d make if she saw me with a bloody nose and dead leaves in my hair. I’ll go tomorrow, once Genya fixes both my matted hair and cracked self esteem.

For now, I have the one thing that’s always comforted me. My books. I wander the library, trying not to think of anything. Of Baghra, of Zoya, of the strange man in the hall.

He seemed weighted by something. I always wish I could do more for those that ask for my prayer, but the longing is sharper now. I don’t know him, so it’s ridiculous to want to help him so badly, but my uselessness itches beneath my skin in a way I’m not used to. I don’t know why I feel more protective about this stranger than others. I’ve had people fall to my feet weeping, begging for me to save them. That hurt me, but the desire to help this one stranger burns in a way I’ve never felt before.

“I don’t know why they don’t look for you here every time you disappear.” His voice is as soft and subtle as a shadow. “They’d save so much time.”

I fight the urge to defensively grasp the first book I can reach. “You’re making it sound like I have a habit of vanishing in order to make a point.” My defense is weak. We both know that this isn’t the first time I ran away from something here. “Sometimes absence is just that.”

“When you’ve waited for someone as long as I have, all absence is significant.” The words are not harsh but they should be. I don’t know how I could respond to that.

He steps forward easily, as he always does. I keep myself still despite the way that warmth settles against my chest uncomfortably. I manage to hold onto my stillness even when he raises a hand, one gentle finger brushing above my top lip. I tense at his lingering touch.

Kirigan turns his hand slowly, exposing the red on his fingertips. “How di--”

“Training,” I interrupt quickly, “I promise I got a decent hit in as well.”

When he nods, his expression is clearly weighted but I cannot interpret it. He almost always looks like that. I shouldn’t find anything about the man that stole me from everything I’ve ever known (even though he had good reason to do so) alluring, but I want to understand him. It’d feel like knowing a secret the rest of the world is desperate for.

For a moment we just stand there, Kirigan closer than he’s ever been. Sometimes when he’s quiet I think he knows my secrets. All of mine. Even my curiosity about him. “I don’t doubt that.”

At least he tries to be nice to me sometimes. It’s more than anyone else here can say. Except maybe Genya. “You don’t have to say that.” He knows it’s true. “Keep in mind you found me in the library, hiding from Baghra.”

He hesitates. “No one likes training.”

“I think I’d find it tolerable if…” Can I say this to him? Admit the extent of my helplessness? He looks at me patiently, waiting for me to give something to him. “I’m the Sun Summoner--that’s supposed to be me. That’s supposed to be mine, and I can’t do it by myself.”

The patheticness of my struggle hits me in full force. I drop my head as he weighs my words. “It’s in you,” he says it so surely I don’t think I could argue.

I smile politely. “Thank you.”

Kirigan reaches downwards, towards my wrist. He latches onto me so quickly I’m too surprised to back away. “Light,” he prompts like it really is that easy.

I know I can do it with him, so I don’t see the point in showing it. “It doesn’t count if I get help.”

“Y/n.” Sometimes I think his voice is softer when he speaks my name.

I raise my hands, overlaying them, letting the hand that he touches make up the base of my cup. Reaching into myself, I search for the power beneath my skin. With him, that power seems to sit directly beneath the surface, desperate and greedy. I don’t call to it, instead I simply let it flow. The light bleeds from me, a sphere of blinding light bursts into my hands. It’s bright, burning, and desperate to escape my control.

My mind clamps around the power tightly, restraining it without choking it out until the light in my hands is exactly as small as I want it to be. I hold it there, letting its warmth melt away all of the bad. I let it grow, the light illuminating a path I can barely see--a path in which I do not disappoint those that need to have faith in something and for some unknown reason decided to place it in me. I hold onto that feeling, and then I let the light disappear.

I smile at my hands. The only good that’s come from this is the way the light makes me feel. “Y/n.” I look up at Kirigan, who’s showing me both of his palms. “That was you.”

A feeling better than the light coils up my stomach and into my heart. I grin. I did it without him. I can do it without him. “That--how did you know that would work?”

“I knew that you could do it, you just needed to see it.”

Warmth fills me, light and easy. A little too light. I have to work at not reaching for him, not because I need to, but because I want to. “Thank you.” This time I mean it.

“Your gratitude is premature,” he warns, but nothing about it is harsh, “I’m here to send you back to training.”

At least the thought of facing Baghra no longer devastates me. “There’s always a catch.” I smile, hoping he understands what he’s done for me. “But I think this time it may be worth it.”

He almost smiles. “Tell me if you still feel that way after spending time with Baghra.”

A fair warning. It’s more than I expect from him. “Will do.”

Kirigan’s expression threatens to soften, but he turns away from me with a soft nod before I can try to decipher the look. I let him leave before disappearing down another hall, forcing myself to look for Baghra. I think of my interaction with both Kirigan and the stranger, at least Baghra won’t be the weirdest part of my day

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retvenkos · 3 years

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Grishaverse Deep Dive: The Darkling is a Character that lives in a Society.

((spoilers for ALL of the grishaverse))

Ah, yes, Shadow and Bone season 2 is gearing up, the birds are singing, I have a cup of earl grey tea before me - it is finally time to sit down to talk about the Darkling, and explain his tenuous relationship with the Grishaverse.

The Darkling is a character greatly contested. When simply looking at his motivations, we see a rift in the fandom. Add in his backstory and it fractures even more. When you pepper in the third ingredient of his relationship with Alina, you get an entire war. The Darkling is a divisive character. He gets under our skin and lingers for days afterwards.

I am going to take you on a deep dive of the Darklings character, and try to tease apart the problems that lie within the creation of his character. Why were so many fans betrayed by his ending? How did he muddle the messages of Shadow and Bone, and why is his ending so complicated that it satisfies very few? Today, we’re going to look at The Problem of the Darking: An Essay in Six Parts.

A little history lesson;

So first, allow me to take you back in time, to 2012, when Shadow and Bone was first released.

Two years prior, The Hunger Games Trilogy had finished coming out and, in a rather stunning turn of events, shifted the popular Y.A. category from the genre of the paranormal romance (thank you, Stephanie Meyer) to the dystopian society.

Now, this is not to say that there weren’t dystopian stories prior to The Hunger Games, or that there weren’t paranormal romances in the Y.A. genre afterward. Both have survived, but the boom of dystopian stories and the whimper of paranormal romance was definitely felt.

So 2012 hits. In comes Shadow and Bone, in a time where we have some interesting precedents that our Y.A. forefathers created:

Firstly, let’s talk about themes.

Carried over from both genres, is this idea of duality. There is light and there is dark, and whether or not there is a middle ground is up to the author. As the Y.A. target audience is quite large, there’s a lot to be said for how nuanced this idea can be. In many stories, it’s a nail on the head. In others, the lines are a little more blurred. In most stories, you get some semblance of Good = Light, Bad = Shadow. In the end, the ultimate goal is to embrace one or the other. At the end of the series, we’re either in the midday sun or the midnight darkness. The peak of the story leaves very little middle ground.

Then, brought over from the dystopian genre, we have the idea that The Current Regime is Bad for insidious reasons, and it needs to be torn down and built anew. This is often the main focus of dystopian stories, and our main characters are revolutionaries that see the world in a new, free light.

Finally, a trap of the Y.A. category is it’s simplistic idea of good and bad. Again, we hark back to the vast target age range, and you can see why this would be so prevalent. There is very little by way of morally grey, in the Y.A. category, and if there is moral greyness, it almost always falls into two categories: (1) it is held by the main character alone, and that is why we root for them, or (2) it is martyred and killed. Moral greyness is either the Ushering of a New Era, or The Ideal that Could Not Be. If greyness is to survive, it must exist in the main character who, readers hope, will usher in a new dawn of peace (and light moral greyness) either through their small acts of love (the angel loving the demon) or in large displays of change (the morally grey character rising to be ruler).

These are all themes we expect to be present in Shadow and Bone. And for the most part, they are!

But now let’s talk about character tropes.

Carried over from the paranormal romance, we have the introduction of the “Othered” love interest. This character has a condition that sets him apart from others, and (whether it be vampire, demon, werewolf, etc.) is so prevalent that he cannot fit in. And because of his differences, he has been shunned by Society. This character, notably, is not the “light” or “pure” paranormal figure - he is not the angel - but rather, the demon. The angel would be able to slip into society (presumably because his goodness grants him some kind of godly camouflage). The demon cannot. He doesn’t fit in, and he never can. This creates tension in him, and so he shuns others just as hard as they shun him - he has done so for a very long time until he meets our main character, who gets close to him and breaks down his walls. This character is often the eventual love interest, for reasons that will become apparent later.

Sometimes carried over from the paranormal romance is the idea that the main character is secretly an “other in hiding” (an angel without her wings, etc.). This creates a bond between the “Othered” love interest and the main character - a bond that can’t be deteriorated once it’s been made, because the main character can’t be un-Othered. They can’t take back the forbidden knowledge they’ve obtained. If this character pops up, the “Othered” love interest is almost always chosen, if he exists.

The dystopian genre has a branching version of this trope, as there is almost always a healthy amount of othering. The main character usually comes from a group of people that is Othered from Society, but our main character is even more unique/different from their “Othered group.” This “specially Othered” character is superpowered in that they can navigate both “Othered” Society and “normal” Society. They can be the go-between.

Sometimes found in the paranormal romance is the “normal” or stereotypical character. This is the average human - the character that doesn’t understand the “Othered” love interest, and wants the main character to go back to the way things were before. This character can sometimes make up the other leg of the love triangle and become a love interest. Other times, it’s a family member or a friend or even an abstract ideal. The point of this character, however, is to show the main character that they can’t go back to the way things were. Too much has happened. Too much has been discovered.

All of this is to say that when Shadow and Bone came out, audiences had expectations with long standing. It is safe and fair to say that the Darkling was set up as a character to be viewed in a certain light, and then the rug was pulled out beneath fans, who had already invested so much in his character.

Shadow and Bone: The characters that Don’t Fit;

So now let’s look at Shadow and Bone in the scope of history and audience expectation. Let’s look at the characters as well as the Grishaverse, in broad terms.

The Darkling is, in the first half of Shadow and Bone, the stereotypical “Othered” love interest. He can summon shadows, which is remarkably different from the other powers of Grisha, and his “forefathers” have done terrible things with this power, making him not only an other in talent but an other in animosity and fear.

In comes Alina, and she is a perfect fit for the main character being an “other in hiding” as well as a “specially Othered” character. She was otkazat’sya before she realized she was Grisha, and she is seen as the go-between for these two different worlds - she can bring them together. Furthermore, she is stronger than your average Grisha - distinct from all others, excepting the Darkling.

Alina is understood by the Darkling. She is discovering parts of herself that she didn’t know she had. This is all decidedly Good, and the romance that is forming is living up to reader expectation.

We also have an interesting occurence of duality. Alina, with her light, is the equal and opposite to the Darkling and his shadow. Together, they have limitless power, a common goal, and perhaps a purifying dynamic as Alina can “save” the Darkling. Her light can banish his shadows.

History is leading us to believe they are the endgame ship.

This is only inculcated when you have Mal, who is the “normal” character. Through the framing of the story (not seeing Mal, holding on to him only causing Alina to not reach her full potential), we see that the love story with Mal is the Romance That Cannot Be. They are fated to be apart due to the tropes that readers know and understand.

But then the second half of the book kicks in, The Darkling is proven to have been manipulating Alina, things go South, and readers are left unaware of what’s coming next. In this moment, the theme of The Current Regime is Bad slaps readers across the face.

So let’s take a second to look at The Current Regime is Bad, because how the Darkling and his motives exist in that tempest is thought provoking, to say the least.

The Darkling is, decidedly, a part of The Current Regime. He is a general and close to the King, after all. He is a part of this life... and yet he is not. Remember that The Darkling is our “Othered” character. He cannot be a part of The Current Regime because he is shunned by it. And yet, he is tied to it like a prisoner.

The reader thinks: is the Darkling bad? He is shown to be a part of Society. He wants the war to continue - he doesn’t want to tear down the Fold.

As the reader is grappling with this revelation, we are told (in the same book!) that the Darkling is actually not a part of The Current Regime (which is Bad), but rather, had been working against it.

Okay.

So now the reader thinks that since Society is Bad, and the Darkling is against it, he and Alina do have a common goal, and his status as a love interest can be saved. He can be redeemed as a character because Alina can purify his methods, then together they can get rid of the current regime, and they can be Others together.

It’s a solid thought process. After all, the “Othered” characters have been consistently good at heart, and Alina can redeem him. We still have a bad guy to take down - and it’s not the Darkling.

But...

Leigh Bardugo decides that is not the story she wants to tell, and she has to pull out some literary gymnastics to give us an explanation. The idea is, no, the Darkling is Bad and his “Othered” status is not relevant because it doesn’t justify his actions. He is a part of a radical portion of The Current Regime and is just as Bad.

Enter Nikolai Lantsov, who can take over The Current Regime, because as the reader is constantly reminded, Alina no longer wants novelty - she wants normalcy (which is represented by none other than Malyen Oretsev).

So, what does all of this mean? The Darkling decidedly Doesn’t Fit into any of the currently accepted (and expected) tropes of the Y.A. genre. This, on its own, is not inherently Bad or Wrong, but you can see how readers were thrown and consistently, ideas were stretched to fit the simplistic ideas of good and bad that run rampant through the Y.A. category.

The Darkling: What We Left Behind;

We have all heard the critique that the most frustrating thing about the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is how the treatment of Grisha is never fixed. It’s mentioned, but it’s never addressed.

To play the Devil’s Advocate, I am going to tell you all that this problem was never fixed because it was never part of Alina’s Narrative. As I will now attempt to point out, The Darkling is an ill suited antagonist for Alina’s story.

As I like to joke with my friends, the Darkling is an Adult Fantasy character inside of a Y.A. Fantasy story. He cannot be properly served because the story does not fit him, and it doesn’t really try.

Y.A. stories are incredibly focused. There is usually a lot going on in the wider story, but the reader is confined to one point of view and one narrative. This is why the main character is always leading rebellions and fighting in the thick of things. In order to address the problems of the wider narrative, the main character needs to be pretty front and center with the problems.

Alina is at the center of an inner conflict of power vs. normalcy. She is not at the center of the Grisha’s problems.

Time and again, we see that Alina largely doesn’t care about how terribly Grisha are treated, as a whole. She has moments of clarity where she is angry (notably the scene in Ruin and Rising where the nations’ treatment of Grisha is described in detail), but her remorse doesn’t really extend past sympathy. In the end, she still does nothing to save Grisha.

Alina is a terrible hero when matched to the problems the Darkling is trying to solve. She doesn’t understand their full breadth, having not grown up with them, and she doesn’t want to fix them.

The Problem of The Darkling is that he is a character with problems and motivations that get shrinked and discarded because they do not fit into the Alina Narrative.

Alina’s story is about three things: (1) learning that a lust for power is bad and only corrupts; (2) tearing down the Fold, which is the representation of lusty power; and (3) returning to normalcy. (If you’re wondering why Mal is a rough™ character, it’s because he’s supposed to be the ideal of normalcy, that Alina both wants but can’t have as long as she seeks the amplifiers.) The Grisha don’t factor into that equation.

Alina doesn’t have a solution for giving the Grisha a safe existence where they won’t be sold into slavery, won’t be persecuted by the world, and won’t be forever Othered. She stumbles upon the vague promise of fixing the last of those problems when she runs into Nikolai (purely by chance, or, if you want to stretch it, The Darklings machinations). Furthermore, she doesn’t want to do any of that - she wants normalcy, remember? Her story isn’t going to be saving the Grisha - that’s not what it’s about.

The Darklings entire character motivations focus on all of the plot points that Alina doesn’t hit. He wan’t to make a safe existence for Grisha, he wants Grisha to no longer be persecuted and Othered. How is he going to do it? By ugly means, yes, but he’s going to achieve it nonetheless.

The Darkling has motivations that are not addressed in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. They aren’t what the story is about, or what the story chooses to focus on. His story is a braided narrative that is too complicated for the simplistic, black and white story that the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is.

So here’s the problem: the story insists the Darkling is the bad guy, but he can’t possibly be the bad guy if his intentions are Good, and there is no other way. Until Alina finds another way, he is a martyr - he is the Starless Saint. The Saint who was misguided, sure, but the only Saint who tried to solve things.

The Darkling is not fit for Shadow and Bone. His story and what he advocated for isn’t resolved by the end of the trilogy. So when he dies, it feels unearned. It’s tragic - and perhaps there is some beauty in that tragedy, or some lesson to be learned about how you cannot justify evil means for a good end - but it feels undeserved. His problems aren’t addressed. He is defeated, but his cause and his essence aren’t put to sleep.

King of Scars: A Cause Without Its Martyr;

Which leads us to the Nikolai duology.

Like I said - The Darklings’ problems are forgotten in Alina’s narrative. So what happens when we break out of that point of view? After a brief (and iconic) interim with the Crows, we are back in Ravka and the Grisha are still struggling with the problems that Shadow and Bone failed to address. Ravka is still dying, but now that we have gotten rid of a reluctant cast of characters and have made distance from the trope-heavy Shadow and Bone, we are better equipped to save her.

But here’s a question - can we ignore the man who pioneered these problems in favor of a more palatable cast? Can we not address the Darkling while picking up the sword he used?

Leigh Bardugo needs to reclaim the Grisha Problem by stealing it from the Darkling’s grasp. That proves to be difficult, given that we’ve killed him and have given him a tragically beautiful death. Absence has made the heart grow fonder, and in his final moments, the Darkling was not the evil Shadow Summoner but rather Alexander Morozova - the boy within. Readers (even those who didn’t like the Darkling) might be more endeared to him now that everything is said and done.

We need to separate the Darkling from his cause.

Enter the Cult of the Starless Saint and the Condemnation of the Starless.

To remind readers that the Darkling is bad, Leigh Bardugo does a few things. Firstly, she has her characters repeatedly condemn the Darkling. On one hand, it makes sense and feels genuine. On the other hand, it can be a little excessive. Sometimes, the vehemence reads like what it is - Leigh Bardugo is giving us reasons to hate the Darkling again. Add on the fact that Nikolai’s monster is Bad and one of few remnants of the Darkling still surviving, and you get a lot of hate.

Except, ah! The more we talk about the Darkling, the more we are reminded of what he stood for!

So we have to strip him of that - we have to take his legacy and drag it through the mud. Thus, we create The Cult of the Starless Saint. They represent the Darklings legacy and status in history - were his intentions Good Enough to grant him mercy? To give him Sainthood?

Spoiler alert: They are not. Not as portrayed by the Cult of the Starless Saint.

The Cult is a laughing stock. They don’t have a stance of the Grisha, they’re worship of the Darkling is meant to be seen as mocking Alina’s sacrifice, and the main priest readers interact with is the receiving end of a slew of jokes. They don’t care about anything the Darkling cared for, and they don’t really want to help Grisha. This is done to muddy the waters - if the people who emulate the Darkling are selfish and without cause, well... the Darkling clearly wasn’t Good. They just think his shadow powers were cool and want him to be a Saint. They exist to slander the Darkling.

So now we have separated the Darkling from his cause, and the story continues. The Darkling is Bad. He doesn’t have a legacy. His cause is passed on to others.

But (because we’re Delta airlines and life is a f*cking nightmare) it doesn’t end there. We bring the Darkling back from the dead.

*long sigh*

Resurrection? The Curse of a Second Life;

I have wracked my brain for many an evening, trying to give reason as to why we brought the Darkling back. The obvious answer is for his role at the end of Rule of Wolves - we need him to hold the rift of the Making at the Heart of the World together. However, when Leigh Bardugo introduces real Saints, he’s not needed. Suddenly, we have a slew of characters who could do the same. Furthermore, part of why this rift exists is because the Darkling was brought back. If he is both the cause and the solution, the conflict didn’t need to be there in the first place - especially considering how inconsequential it was to the narrative.

If I had to pin a reason as to why we brought the Darkling back, it was simply to further push the Darkling from his original motivation. He comes back and... doesn’t do much. He doesn’t seem to have the same care for Grisha, he has watered down character traits, and he largely does nothing. The Darkling in the Nikolai Duology is Not The Darkling because he’s a shell of the character he used to be.

Bringing him back from the dead was unsatisfying, and it weakens his original ending. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Darkling coming back cheapens whatever meaning readers gleaned from his ending. The Darkling is resurrected and he doesn’t truly seem to care about anything - which is the direct opposite of what the Darkling has been shown to be.

The Darkling has been bastardized in any appearance he’s made after The Demon in the Wood, and ultimately, it leads to a rather anticlimactic end for such a distinctive, hallmark character.

But let’s really quick establish why the sacrifice the Darkling makes at the end of this book is unfulfilling.

Because, in the final moments of Rule of Wolves, the Darkling gets his moment of penance and sacrifice - he chooses to hold the rift. It’s said he will have to hold it for eternity. You would thing that this would leave an impact!

However, as is, this ending leaves much to be desired for a few reasons:

The Darkling has been so far removed from his character, that when he states, “Everything I did, I did for Ravka,” it feels... incorrect? It sounds like the hollow, misguided claims of a tyrant king, because for an entire Duology, the Darkling has been bastardized and has been the cause of a blight that is killing Ravka. His presence is actively killing the country he claims to serve, and as for actions, he has done very little for Ravka, and nothing for the Grisha. The last time he did anything of substance was before Six of Crows!

None of the characters present for his sacrifice have any sympathy for the Darkling. The Darkling chooses to sacrifice himself, and we get no emotional closure. Alina isn’t there to whisper his name and mourn him, and while Zoya gets the glimmer of weak pity, we have much reason to believe that Zoya mostly feels disenchanted because he will be praised as a martyr and not hated as the evil man she knew him to be (more on that here). There isn’t sympathy so much as there is bitterness and the semblance of the remnants of tattered respect shining in the dim light.

The final chapter of Rule of Wolves tells us that it’s all going to be made inconsequential in the coming books, when they are going to replace the Darkling with something else. The Darkling won’t even get his full sacrifice, because he is undeserving of a redemptive act of selflessness.

So now, where do we leave the Darkling? For two books, we have separated him from his initial cause, watered down his character and motivations, and given him ends that are largely unsatisfying.

We’ve actually started to fix the Grisha problem, and there’s something interesting to be said in that it’s fixed by Zoya Nazyalensky, who goes up through the chain of command in a very similar fashion as to how the Darkling planned. She was a General, and then she became Queen of Ravka - the acting monarch, no less - with a beloved public figure on her arm (which, in the Darkling’s case, would have been Alina).

So I am left to wonder - was the lesson, then, indeed, that you cannot justify evil means for a good end? Was the moral of the Darkling all along about how you must be good throughout - with good acts and good intentions - in order to make change and be revered for it? If so, why did Leigh Bardugo slander the Darkling retroactively, the way she did?

If the problem was his actions and not his intentions, why insist that his intentions were devoid of meaning, as well?

Aleksander Morozova: What We Buried;

Now, you all knew I was going to get here eventually, and if you’ve made it, congrats. We are now talking about the emotion behind the deed, the man behind the monster, the boy swallowed by the shadows.

I believe it is pivotal to understand that Leigh Bardugo has always wanted us to struggle with our feelings over the Darkling. She wanted a character that you could sympathize with, she wanted a character with humanity, and she wanted a reason for his villainy. I think that Shadow and Bone, for all of its failings, gave us that. There’s a reason why there is such a big divide over the Darkling in the original trilogy. He was a compelling character! Somewhere along the way, Leigh Bardugo lost that nuance of her own character. At some point, she resorted to stripping him of his meaning and slandering his image.

Perhaps I am playing the Devil’s Advocate again, but I believe this was intentionally done.

Because one has to ask - why slander the Darkling? A large portion of the fanbase already hates him, so cheapening his character is doing nothing for them other than giving them sweet vindication, which is unnecessary and only disenchants the other half of your audience. There has to be some deeper reasoning. Leigh Bardugo wanted this character to be sympathetic, so why, now, does she want him to be two-dimensional?

Once more, I am asking you to think back to the original trilogy. What was the main moral? That power, no matter how good-intentioned the pursuit of it is, corrupts. What is the Darklings purpose of coming back again if not to simply have power? He certainly shows no other motive than lusty greed, after being resurrected.

And even if we ignore his lust for power, as he so willingly gives it up to Zoya Nazyalensky in the end of Rule of Wolves, we have two other corrupting forces that could account for the degradation of his character - time, and death.

We know the Darkling to have lived for eons, and he would have continued to live on for an eternity more. There is nothing like time to truly corrupt a character’s vision, and there is nothing like death and resurrection to husk a character.

In fact, if Mal’s character did anything of importance when it comes to effecting the Darkling, it lies in the epilogue of Ruin and Rising, where it is stated that “the boy and the girl had both known loss.” Mal’s loss is equated to Alina being stripped of her power - that is the power of having died, and being forcefully brought back to life. That is a vague basis for which we readers can compare what it must have been like for the Darkling to come back - even if he is so desensitized to feeling, that he doesn’t remark on it himself.

But let’s keep chugging on.

When we first met the Darkling in 2012 Shadow and Bone, he was unfeeling. He was cold and harsh. There was something beneath the surface, yes, but there were thick sheets of ice in the way. You had to mine for it. Time had already warped the actions of his intentions. It’s expected that time would continue to do its damage, and when he is revived in King of Scars, his intentions are warped as well. He is nothing of the person he used to be other than memories and power. That is why, at the end of Rule of Wolves, when he states that he did everything for Ravka, it feels hollow - that was once true, but the Darkling has even lost that. He has the vague impression of it, but nothing you can sink your teeth into.

I think, had this idea been looked at in deeper depth, it would have been a far more compelling story. Had Rule of Wolves really dedicated itself to showing the Darkling’s conflict of his current apathy, and the knowledge that there was once a time he possessed meaning, we could have found the marrow of his arc. If the book had made an allusion to this concept, his character would have been more satisfying. But as it stands, the Darkling is just degraded in the later books, and unless you really search for meaning, there isn’t any.

And perhaps, if the Darkling had been a different character - a character who, at his core, was more unfeeling - the way we left him would feel okay.

But while The Darkling was harsh and cruel, Aleksander Morozova wasn’t, and that’s what has us all hung up on his character.

If you haven’t read The Demon in the Wood for whatever reason, do yourself a favor and read that instead of revisiting the show’s version of his villain origin story. The show made the Darkling far less compelling by showing him as the grief stricken Black Heretic, rather than the boy within. When we meet Aleksander, he is a boy who is afraid of the world, who has never belonged in it or with others, and who is, ultimately, afraid of himself. With his mother, Baghra, he has taken on a thousand names and traveled a thousand places, and all the while, he is afraid of getting too close to others because he is an amplifier and he knows that if any Grisha were to find out, they would kill him for his power.

Thus, there is so much nuance to his relationship with the Grisha. He is one of them, but he is not. To hark back to our history lesson, he is the exact opposite of the “specially Othered” character that is so often given to protagonists. Instead of acting as a go-between, he is the one person that everyone - Grisha and otkazat’sya - can come together to kill.

And as a little boy, he knows that. He knows he has to stay in the shadows, and yet, he is deathly afraid of the dark - afraid of that which sets him apart, and that which he cannot escape.

This is poignant because at the root of every great character is a singular, vulnerable emotion, and for the Darkling, it is fear. And most importantly, fear of the shadows.

When he meets Alina, we truly see the strength of their duality. We truly see why he was so drawn to Alina - why he could so easily fall in love with her, despite the years and despite the tide, and despite his fear of letting others in. She is his equal and opposite - with her, there are no shadows. There is no fear. The fact that he lets Alina use him as an amplifier is so telling of his deep feelings for Alina.

Where each reader draws the line between their dynamic - either him truly loving Alina, or him simply loving and obsessing over the idea of her - is for the individual to decide. The wonderful thing about the Darkling in his current state in the original Shadow and Bone Trilogy is that he still has good intentions within him, no matter how corrupted by his evil actions. Whether or not they truly could have been is up to each person because the question over whether or not Alina could “purify” the Darkling was never deeply explored. We will never know if she could save him, or if it would have destroyed her in the end. Whether or not you want her to try is personal preference.

Again, Alina didn’t want to fully commit to that act, and so we readers will never truly know. Luckily, fanfiction exists.

But, I didn’t name this section “what we buried” for nothing, and I think it’s important to note that even in the beginning of The Demon in the Wood, the Darkling was already on his way toward a darker, harsher existence.

Baghra, from presumably the moment he was born, groomed the Darkling to be a certain way - the same way as her, a survivor with little hope, living for the sake of living and fighting for the sake of a meal. She had no plans to save the world - it was only after the Darkling had a run in with the possibility of death that he unearthed a deep desire within him - the desire to save the Grisha. Before that, it was buried.

Before that, the Darklings' desires were buried beneath his mother’s words and buried beneath the dirt that settled over his heart like a shallow grave, because his connection to others was buried as well. Baghra did that, and whether or not she was misguided or if she was the smarter of the two is an essay better tackled by looking at her, specifically, which we won’t do here.

As we’re reaching the end, I feel like I have earned the right to be cliche and quote the Darkling’s thoughts from when he was still a boy, but already a shadow. In The Demon in the Wood, he thinks:

“My father is dust. You all are.”

At such a young age, the Darkling has already lost his grip. Already, he knew he would outlive and outlast anyone, and this heavy knowledge was already piling up, and he was slowly being buried alive in his own infinence.

It was only ever inevitable that his story would end like this - with a detached man who was once a hopeful boy, but could no longer recall what such confidence tasted like - so perhaps the tragic beauty in the end of Ruin and Rising was not that he died, it was that he wasn’t given an end.

— Special kudos to @onceupon-a-decembr who let me scream about this with her, and another kudos to @musicallisto who introduced me to a book series that I will never stop screaming about. Ever.

— tagging: @maybanksslut, @musicallisto, @catsbooksandmusic, @thefifthweasley, @thegirlwhocriedwerewolf, @amirahiddleston, @lachichapequena, @mrs-brekker15, @amortensie // add yourself to the taglist here!

#grishaverse #grishaverse meta #shadow and bone #shadow and bone meta #meta #meta analysis #writing #the darkling #aleksander morozova #the darkling meta #i am once again ranting about the grishaverse #if miss leigh bardugo wants me to stop analyzing her characters and (kind of drag her) she better put me in the writers room.#or put me in the show her choice #and there's more i could have added to this smh #but i feel like people stop reading after 5.6k words.

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