#you can dislike a ship without being a complete asshole it's not hard

[ammy246]

Person: Your ship is problematic!

Also Them: *Harasses shippers and tells them to unalive themselves*

You aren't really proving your point when you are worse than the shippers you claim are the villains.

#my hero academia #rwby #final fantasy 7 #gravity falls #steven universe #the last airbender #genshin impact #star wars #naruto shippuden #jujutsu kaisen #black butler #you can dislike a ship without being a complete asshole it's not hard

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for arguing with someone over ships?

🧀⛵ so i can find this later

Yes, this is ship discourse AITA #294729472 you can scroll away, english isn't my first language, my apologies.

So I (16M (But 13-14 at the time)) am in a very niche fandom. As in, we didn't have any new content for the past 5 years and media is old af (2013), very few fans, most of us know each other already.

I used to have these mutuals Cheese (Not their real name) (around my age i think?? I can't remember) and Breadstick (Not his real name) (18M).

We all had our little ships, ok? I like the little (dumbass golden retriever boy) x (badass traumatized man) ship, Cheese liked the little (badass traumatized man) x (literally the same thing but evil and abusive) and Breadstick liked both ships.

I met Breadstick before meeting Cheese so we were already friends before i met Cheese. I thought "Cool, another person likes this little niche thing i'm hyperfixated on!" So we became mutuals.

I didn't anticipate that we would argue about ships, but oh well. So, i'm a very chill person regarding ships, literally any, although i do have NOTPs, i'm not really toxic about my hatred, i just go "Ah, not my thing" and scroll away not without blocking the person, but really nothing personal and no hard feelings, i can perfectly be friends with someone who loves my notp.

In fact, that was the case with Cheese. They shipped my NOTP, like A LOT. But I was okay with it, i mean these are just characters and all we're doing is being silly. I didn't take this THAT seriously. However, when I seemed to talk about my ship, Cheese seemed uncomfortable in some way.

When I was talking about my fankid (call me cringe idc) of my OTP, Cheese got very confused and asked who was i talking about. Breadstick came in and introduced my fankid to them, since he knew about it before. Cheese just started being rude, literally saying swear words (Not against them but, the context didn't really call for it? No one was being mean or mad), saying, and i quote as best as i can, "I don't know what the fuck made you think i knew who the hell [Fankid] was".

I got very mad about it, so i privately dm'ed Breadstick about Cheese's attitude. We began trash talking about them, which, i admit was a very trashy thing to do and definitely asshole material™.

Reason why may i be the asshole: over time, Breadstick just started complaining a lot about Cheese, and I could honestly agree, it came to the point of us disliking them to some degree but not telling them and not breaking the mutual, that could be considered two faced behavior.

This was partly influenced because of another incident. So Cheese and Breadstick where rambling about an OT3 (3 person ship) they had in common, basically sharing ideas and stuff. I thought it would be fun and went "Hey, I have an OT3 too, maybe i should post about it too". So I went and posted about it, but Cheese felt very uncomfortable with that, since basically my OT3 was exactly like Cheese's OT3 but one character is different, "basically".

They said "You have your thing, let US have ours". Felt bad and honestly, maybe i shouldn't have intruded their ot3 rambling. I didn't expect such negative reaction out of them.

In other occasions they complained about me posting a little too much about my ship, even though they did the same thing with theirs. And they also had a mutual that said "If you ship [this character] you suck and i fucking hate you. [character] is too abusive to be shipped with anyone and you can't just make an AU, that would just change him as a character completely" which, dear god, that language wasn't needed, right?. And despite that crazy person saying that, Cheese agreed with their take, despite literally shipping the character in question with another one. And abusively too, which like you do you, lord knows i do that too, but agreeing with a take like that while doing exactly what it is complaining about is weird. On the other side, that person wasn't my mutual, so it's unrealistic of me to expect Cheese to control their mutuals over me, Cheese can mutual whoever they want, but i can still be weirded out right?

That is without including them telling other people to kill themselves over shipping, so it was clear that Cheese took this shipping thing seriously while me and Breadstick to some degree didn't. Honestly another reason why i might be an asshole, clearly they felt their otp was personal and me not liking it + ignoring it caused a bad environment, mala mía, but what else could i have done?

So, clearly Cheese is kind of an asshole to some degree. But i think what makes ME an asshole too is when I trash talked behind their back and cut them off way later than i should've. And also, i guess i shoved my ship down their throat taking by how mad they were about it? I didn't do it intentionally though and i could definitely say they did the same thing too when 80% of the fandom and character tags was them posting about their ship. Again, small niche fandom for old unpopular media, we are keeping it alive ourselves.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #ship discourse #posts that make me crave one of those lil cheese dip breadstick snack packs #which i have not eaten in roughly uhhhh at least a decade and a half #but the taste. you never forget that taste

[hoodlessmads]

Dark Heir spoiler thoughts:

Okay some of these are criticisms but please understand I really liked it! I liked it even more than Dark Rise. I’m just an overdramatic person and need to yell sometimes.

These don’t have any particular order, I’m just freestyling -

Reading Captive Prince years ago (and rereading since) before reading Dark Rise made me have an unfair resentment towards James for being basically the same character as Laurent but not as good and that continued here

Will is the second best character Pacat has ever made after Laurent and book 3 might push him ahead

I loved seeing Will use more and more of his evil powers

The best one being where he possesses anyone with a brand and his eyes turn black and he turns into Legion (maybe shoulda turned that off before trying to appeal to Violet…)

Finding out his mom actually was tying him to bedposts and beating him this whole time somehow shocked me because for some silly reason I believed one of the most unreliable third person subjective narrators ever, Will, that she was a nice lady just doing her best. Anyway I love this revelation because it makes such perfect sense, it’s just, “Oh. Of course.”

Violet and Cyprian are both himbos yet Violet is somehow the only character with a single brain cell left at the end of the book

Cyprian drinking from the cup makes no sense after they had a whole discussion in the first book about how drinking from the cup put the Stewards into the Dark King’s plans and made them his thralls and was the entire reason they died, a massacre which Cyprian experienced viscerally, and then he goes and drinks from the cup anyway and oops surprise Will can in fact enthrall him. Cyprian is able to fight it off but that doesn’t change the complete recklessness and out-of-character-ness of it to me.

Violet/Cyrprian is a good ship

Phillip/Visander is hilarious (in a good way)

Will/James is fine but I wish I was more compelled by them than I actually am. For being the main couple, I don’t feel like their relationship has been given the room it needed to develop organically and instead it feels like we’re falling back on physical attraction and a vague shadow of a past relationship in the old world that we didn’t get to see. It’s hard not to compare to Damen/Laurent which by contrast was developed so painstakingly.

Elizabeth is incredible

Visander sucks, actually

The whole Light kind of sucks. The Stewards, the Sun Kingdom, they were all assholes

People with black-and-white morality are truly terrible, aren’t they? And pretty much everyone is like that except for Will, James, and Violet

Sometimes I felt like that fact was really being hammered in on purpose almost as though to make James murdering like 300 people seem less bad (but it didn’t….)

But I don’t dislike James because he murdered 300 people, I actually love villains and I especially am attached to the idea of everyone being redeemable. But what I don’t like is the book telling me I should like James without giving me a good reason or the book downplaying his actions to make him seem more sympathetic. He can have murdered all the Stewards and still be compelling, we don’t need to diminish what he’s done in order for him to be likable

Also everyone in this book except like, Will and maybe Violet and James is an idiot (and I’ll excuse Elizabeth for only being ten). Someone send these characters to Psych 101, they don’t seem to understand the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy…

Like obviously if you tell someone they’re evil over and over again for their whole lifetime they will become evil

Theory - I don’t think Violet will turn on Will. I think she’s just shell-shocked. She wasn’t really given a chance to take a stance before James Peter Panned him away. Violet knows exactly what it feels like to be told you are evil because of some past thing, and she knows Will better than any of the other characters. And she knows that morality is not black and white (Tom is her brother). She’ll definitely end up in Will’s corner by the end.

Theory - The line of the Lady and the line of the Dark King are the same bloodline and they split off later. Sarcean’s “cataclysmic night together” with the Lady was mentioned not once but twice. Pacat doesn’t waste lines. The child that the Lady had was Sarcean’s, or at least one of them.

Will better figure out how to destroy that collar quick…before they both get even more traumatized. I think that will be one of his main goals in book 3. Or I hope…otherwise it will be hard to develop the genuine romance

I sure hope Will can also figure out how to expel that shadow from Cyprian before he like… dies. Don’t do that to Violet D:

So, I’m not a huge fan of YA in general (outside of YA anime and manga which for some reason hits different). I used to like it a lot, it used to be most of what I read. I grew up reading series like Redwall, Darren Shan, Demonata, Pendragon, and so on. But I’ve grown out of the genre (I’m 27). Not every adult does - one of my best friends who is a year older than me still really enjoys YA. But because I don’t like YA, I think my enjoyment of Dark Rise/Dark Heir is influenced and my criticisms may be unfair.

But I find that with fantasy series like this, I the books really need to be longer. Or there needs to be more of them. I feel like Dark Rise has so many moving pieces, enough characters that there could be a trading card game (and there are literally collectible cards), so many different magical artifacts and magical powers, an entire magical old world beneath the semi-magical 1820s Europe world to develop, and also by the way a whole story that took place 10,000 years ago that has to be told at some point. I find myself feeling like all these different elements are being introduced and moved on from too fast and I wish they were all given more time to breathe. I think that’s part of why the relationship between Will and James feels a bit rushed to me. I don’t know if the short length of the series was Pacat’s choice or an editor’s, though. I don’t feel like Captive Prince had this issue because there were no supernatural elements, the cast was much smaller, and the plot was comparably simple so a lot of it got to be characters just talking to each other, which was great, and the world building was accomplished mainly through these interactions. The plot and world of Dark Rise is much larger in scope but the page count is the same (a little longer maybe).

So wait who is Mrs. Duval

Why did Ettore leave the Stewards anyway? Other than the obvious, which is that they suck

Where was Grace during the whole ending scene? Wasn’t she there but just not saying anything. As this total calamity befalls her only remaining friend group she finally has seen too much and just nopes out and is busy making tea in the corner or maybe popcorn

I do really like Cyprian btw in spite of thinking his moral code is shitty. Gave Violet a chance but sold Will for one corn chip… I see how it is (okay that’s not fair but you know what I mean, he has flaws)

It sounds like I’m in the majority when I say that I still don’t like Devon - I saw that theory about him being the final big bad and I’m so on that train. I think he’d make a good enough final villain. I agree there is something predatory about him and Tom. I don’t necessarily think Pacat wants us to root for them as a couple, though. There were better ways to pull that off if that was the intent.

Not to repeat myself but Phillip was such a pleasant surprise. Like who is this fruit and how did he get here

So next book, I hope (assume) we get to see the rest of the old world story filled in so we can understand where it all went wrong for Sarcean and also the exact nature of his relationship with Anharion because so far it’s been quite vague (intentionally I assume). Like….. you know….. did he agree to put on the collar?

The tricky thing about this series is that once the reader learns that Will is the Dark King, it’s hard to maintain any sort of external tension. Right? It’s hard to feel afraid of the forces of the Dark when the protagonist has total effortless control over them just by virtue of who he is. Will can literally just be like, “No, don’t” and everything’s fine. He did just this at the end of Dark Rise. I find the way Dark Heir seems to end with their “only hope of stopping the Dark army” destroyed to be pretty unconvincing. Why on earth would Sarcean create a destructible object that is the only way of controlling his own army? Of course Will should be able to control them with his will alone. If he can control Shadow Kings and make them die with his words alone, why didn’t he try yelling at the shadow army to stop trying to possess people? This doesn’t make sense to me. And if people become Returners through his magic, shouldn’t he be able to exert some control over their existence the way he does with the branded? Pacat has done a good enough job at getting us to know Sarcean (an extremely good job btw) so as to make the destroyed brand plot point unbelievable. Anyway…

Instead, the tension in Dark Heir is almost entirely internal or realized in character relationships rather than physical threats. The tension is between Will and himself, and between Will and his friends. (There are tensions between other characters but focusing on the main plot here.) The possibility that they might find out and abandon him, and the possibility that he might actually be as nasty of a guy as Sarcean was, the slim chance that he might learn something that makes him go, “You know what, I agree with my past self after all.”

Now that everyone has found out who he is, that particular source of tension has sort of evaporated, so now in book 3 Pacat has to find a way to make Will’s conflict with himself and his friends compelling enough to carry us through 450 pages (I don’t expect this will be difficult). What I see as the problems now are 1) what was Sarcean actually planning and how did he plan on getting Will (himself) to fall in line with them (this was a question in Dark Heir as well but now it’s bigger), 2) how is Will going to destroy his own (Sarcean’s) Dark artifacts so he can free James, and 3) Can he convince anyone to ever love him (oh no ouch).

If I had to rank these books at this stage I’d probably give Rise a 3.7 ish…. and Heir a 4.2. I’m holding out for Dark King to be a 5 or close. (I don’t know what the actual title will be, I’m just guessing lol.) I definitely think Dark Heir is an improvement over Dark Rise since I always thought the most interesting part of the latter by far was everything that happened once Will learns he is the Dark King at the very end.

“Are we going to talk about the magic pseudo-sex scene—“ No and I hope we never will

#dark rise #dark heir #cs pacat #dark heir spoilers #will kempen #will is the beEEeEeSsst #let me know what you think

[crusherthedoctor]

3, 5, 6, 13

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

No. I would only unfollow someone if they're being extremely unreasonable, and their asshole behaviour is escalating.

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

*looks over at Sonamy*

I was always indifferent to it, but the sheer spectacle made over it has made me beyond sick of it. In fanworks, Sonic is often made OoC for the sake of the ship, or his side of the matter in general is an afterthought at best, because it's said that Amy deserves his love because "she's earned it". They'll waste valuable question time on the Twitter Takeovers over Sonamy stuff. If Sonic and Amy are onscreen together for even a moment, no matter what it is they're actually doing, everyone will hail it as proof of Sonamy. And of course, they'll go crazy when they actually do tease it, using it to shut everyone else up because "Sonamy is Canon, deal with it", even if that teasing is incredibly minor and fated to never go anywhere.

It's a weird feeling looking at all the Sonamy VS Sonally wars over the decades, and not giving a solitary fuck about either of them. And yes, this was already the case long before a certain cardinal sin was initiated on my end. *coughs over horse noises in the background*

Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Can't think of any.

Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

Sonic: I'm sick of people going one extreme or the other with him. He's not Mr. Principles, nor is he completely selfish to the point of only helping others for his own enjoyment. And I especially dislike when fans misinterpret his role in Black Knight and use it to claim that he's a full on anti-hero. No, he's a legit hero and good person who just so happens to enjoy what he does rather than adopting the usual superhero mantra, and has to make the occasional tough decision for the good of the long run for everyone. What's hard to get about that?

Tails: "I'm wildly inconsistent" does not count as fixing him. Neither does repeating the exact thing that Forces!Tails got slack for to an even more inexcusable extent.

Knuckles: The idea that he tries to see the good in people despite his standoffish nature is fascinating to me, and it's a shame that it's only been brought up for the sake of making him look stupid when he falls for another one of Eggman's tricks. It'd be nice if this got delved into more, in a way where it doesn't screw him over for once… Just don't turn him into Principles the Echidna.

Amy: Like @colony-drop-program, I recognize the… importance(?) of Amy's crush on Sonic, but I find all her other traits infinitely more intriguing.

I also wish people would remember Tails was the one who actually blasted his way through Prison Island. It's become common for fans to give Amy all the credit for that one.

Bean and Bark: Not that I'm super invested in them or anything, but I suppose it'd be nice if they got more opportunities to be the good guys they were intended to be rather than always being pigeonholed with Fang as the Hooligans thanks to Archie. Fang strikes me as a loner type anyway.

Shadow: I don't think I'll ever be on-board with him officially joining G.U.N. I'm fine with him forgiving them, and maybe having a connection of some sort with them afterward, but being a full-on agent himself? I dunno man. After his long life as Gerald and Black Doom's tool, I'd rather he carve out a future where he can be truly free, without needing to answer to any superior.

Rouge: She's not a villain. She's not a villain. She's not a villain. She's. Not. A. Villain.

The entire point of her role in SA2 is that, oh shit, she was only pretending to be on the bad guys' side, and ever since SA2, she's been a loyal ally to Shadow and helped out the other heroes with little hesitance on multiple occasions. She may be a jewel thief, she may have her rivalry with Knuckles, but she's proven time and time again that she's a far better person than most people and comic writers give her credit for.

Cream: I've seen some Amy fans hate on her for supposedly stealing some of Amy's traits, but that's a disservice to her. You can have more than one character in a franchise with similar traits, since they can be explored from different angles. Compare this to a character like Eggman Nega, who really is nothing more than a leech who requires the real Eggman to be split in half in order to seem more impressive.

Silver: Of the many reasons why I'm not interested in him, one is that his schtick gets old very quickly. There's always something to turn his future into yet another Bad Future, and after a while it becomes comical how often his efforts to avert one catastrophe and make a Good Future get revoked by the following catastrophe. Combine that with how he has actual friends in the present, and he might as well just stay in the present full-time and kill two birds with one stone… but then fans would complain about him losing something special to him. Cue frustration.

Also, fans can insist all they want that Silver trusting Mephiles was due to sheer desperation, but until they release the Snyder Cut of '06 where this is actually shown, it's nothing more than a headcanon. You can explain writing fumbles with headcanons, but you can't defend them with headcanons.

Elise: She's not a bad character. Underdeveloped, yes, but the hate she receives is largely exaggerated.

Marine: Her accent annoys me far less than Bunnie's. *mic drop*

Eggman: This notion that he needs to be softened up in order to be fleshed out is ironically a shallow one. He was fine the way he was. There's more than one way to expand on a villain.

Also, he shouldn't be underestimated just because he's a human instead of a god, a demon, an alien, etc. Bowser is an overgrown turtle who can breathe fire when all is said and done, and he still came close to conquering the universe on two occasions. If Bowser can do great things, so can Eggman.

Metal Sonic: It's possible to explore his identity crisis without making him turn traitor. If anything, him staying devoted to the guy who is the real Sonic's arch-nemesis adds an extra compelling layer to his insanity.

Lyric: I actually like his design? Yeah, he's still a crap villain and another one to throw onto the Fucks Eggman Over pile, but his design is at least more interesting than Mephiles the Druggie and Dark "Waiter, There's An Eyeball In My Taco" Gaia.

Infinite: Even if he was meant to be played completely seriously, and the idea of him being parodic to at least some degree isn't actually true, he's still a better maybe-parody of tryhard villains than either Scourge or Surge.

Sage: While Eggman using her for his own ends is preferable to him genuinely caring for her, the mere idea and circumstances of her character is something I'm very opposed to. I just don't like anything that could even vaguely be fitted into the role of Eggman's Bowser Jr, because no matter how it's presented in canon, fans will reduce Eggman to little more than Sage's father regardless. And I'm forced to see a shitton of "wholesome" family bonding regardless.

It doesn't help that beyond her relationship with Eggman, she doesn't have a whole lot of character anyway. The Heavies had more character in Mania, and they had no dialogue whatsoever. Black Doom arguably had more character, because at least with him, I can remember that he doesn't know what lightning is.

The Egg Bosses: They don't work. There is no reason why Eggman would forgo his robots in favor of anthros who, despite his ways of keeping them under his control, still talk back at him, something that the doctor has consistently been known to hate. Eggman having one organic right-hand as the Lefou to his Gaston is fine (like Starline or Agent Stone), but anything more than that just feels wrong IMO.

Tangle: Out of all the IDW-exclusive characters bar pre-Flynned Starline, Tangle is the one I'd be willing to give a chance if she were in something where her characterization wasn't exaggerated to the point of having room temperature IQ. I like the basic concept going on with Tangle, with her being well-intentioned but just a tad overeager for her own good, so I feel kinda sorry for how hard she got flanderized. Compare that to many other characters exclusive to this comic, who I instead wish would just fuck off and never return.

Starline: YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE. IT WAS SAID YOU'D SIMP FOR THE DOCTOR, NOT USURP HIM. CAST ASIDE THIS TIRED CLICHE, NOT FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER. *cries like Ewan McGregor*

Surge: If a character has been shoved in my face relentlessly as the central focus of a character study for over a year, yet I feel as though I know nothing about who they really are by the time it's concluded, I'm gonna say that character might not be very good.

Mario: I cheered when he appeared at the end of the second movie, but why Chris Pratt?

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog

[peachhoneii]

Hi! Want to talk about Mel a bit? If not you can ignore this ask.

I wasn't a fan of Mel at first because she just didn't grip me in an emotional way (i mostly resonated with Vik as a partially disabled person myself) and I wasn't sure what she would end up being like, but after I saw her past and all the hardship she went thought I understood her motives, why she did what she did and ended up loving her.

I'm really sorry about people being against her for "standing between" Jayce and Viktor.

I'm unsure if you are familiar with the VLD fandom but it felt like Allura vs K《*nce all over again to me, black female characters being torn down for a ship. Fandom racism is a serious problem amongst a bunch of other problems.

I am always up for talking about Mel. Let's talk about Mel.

I completely understand anyone connecting with a character they resonate with. Mel doesn't resonate with a lot of people, and I understand. I am happy you connected with Viktor because he (also a fantastic character) represented you in some capacity. In my opinion, that's a good thing when someone relates to a character for whatever reason.

Your reasons for not liking her (initially) are valid. Mel is a morally ambiguous, manipulative, and frankly, shady character, but from Act 1, I guess I knew there was going to be more of her. But I was already in her corner the second she appeared. There was no way I was not going to be ride or die for Mel. I've always wanted to watch a character like her exist in my fantastical world. She's a politician. She's playing the game of thrones in a morally corrupt city; she needs to be this way to survive.

As much as people may not agree with me, Mel didn't so much influence new traits in Jayce as much as she encouraged what was already present in Jayce. She saw him. She read him. "If you want this, this is what you'll have to pay. Here are all the avenues and channels. I'm sorry, but you're going to get your hands dirty." That's how I read Mel and her relationship with Jayce.

She's a very compassionate woman too. She could've been angry at Jayce for leaving her and she was a little miffed. But when Jayce explained why, she was instantly a source of comfort. She supports Jayce. She helps him, and when she feels he's making a bad play, she voices her opinion respectfully.

She isn't soulless, and you discover this compassion put her at odds with her family. She has a heart. It's so easy for people to demonize and demoralize Mel while lifting fucking Silco, who I also love. He is...something else.

(And then you meet her mom. It explains so, so, so much and btw, I love her mom. Her mom is awesome but also horrible. Just so awesome. The scene when her mom admits why she cast her out? Ouch and yet so amazing.)

I knew what to expect. Fandom claims they are very progressive and inclusive, but that's a bunch of a bullcrap. We know it's a lie. People are assholes, and you're going to find them in wherever fandom you go. Unfortunately, that includes racist misogynists. She's a woman. She's black. She's presented as a viable (and currently canon) love interest for Jayce, who is shipped with Viktor. I'll admit Viktor and Jayce do look like a great couple if made canon. I don't dislike it. What I don't like is when they shit on Mel to support their ship.

I remember VLD. I didn't even care about Klance. I remember loving Allura and Shiro, and that obviously blew up in my face. Hard. I remember all the crap Allura's character got swept up in fandom and canon.

Fortunately, Arcane seems to have raised the bar extremely high, and I feel (hope) Mel is going to get some gosh darn justice in this series.

Just to add, none of the characters are without faults. That's a big point in the series. It's a big point of the story and theme. Every character, or most of them, are doing what they feel is right for their people, consequences be damned in some cases aka Silco.

The most morally upright characters, in my opinion, are actually Caitlyn and Ekko.

#mel medarda #jayce #viktor #arcane #league of legends #league of legends arcane #fandom racism

[turtle-paced]

Revisiting Chapters: Jon IX, ADWD

It’s been a while! 

The story so far…

Stannis might have left Castle Black to campaign for Winterfell, but the problems he’s brought to the Wall are sticking around. Plus there’s that pesky ongoing humanitarian crisis with the Free Folk for Jon to deal with too.

Royal Newcomers

The chapter begins with Selyse Baratheon’s arrival at Castle Black, her particular faction in tow. Jon’s not taking chances here, as he brings along his own retinue for the introductions just to make sure Selyse doesn’t mistake him for a stableboy. Sure enough, the first thing she does is mistake him for a functionary. Jon’s prepared for this, having read some reports from Cotter Pyke at Eastwatch. It seems that the folks at Eastwatch did not much like Selyse or her retinue. Axell Florent was highlighted as being standout unpleasant. Shireen, poor thing, blushes when Jon offers her some basic courtesy. Patchface is not officially introduced, but Jon’s got Cotter Pyke’s notes on him anyway.

Finally, there’s the other “curious member” of Selyse’s entourage: a man dressed like the Mad Hatter, Tycho Nestoris, representative of the Iron Bank. Jon’s prepared for that too, considering the banker “more welcome than this queen.” We’ll talk about him in a bit.

Before Jon can deal with the guest he wants, though, he has to deal with the guests he doesn’t. He leads Selyse and company to their assigned quarters, and their exchange as Jon escorts her to the prepared quarters reads like barely-veiled impoliteness judo. 

“How kind of you to make room for us.” The queen’s words were courteous enough, though her tone said, It is no more than your duty, and you had best hope these quarters please me.

For his part, Jon wastes no time hinting that Selyse should maybe, you know…not be here.

“Your Grace,” said Jon Snow, “my builders have done all they can to make the Nightfort ready to receive you…yet much of it remains in ruins. […] You might be more comfortable back at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.”

He hits the point again, too, in about two sentences. Message received - neither party wants Selyse and company to be here and neither party likes it.

It’s also worth noting that despite Jon’s observation that Selyse’s party must be cold and hungry, Selyse wants to go see Melisandre first. First, keeping in mind all the things in this very storyline about who’s waiting upon whom…who’s waiting upon whom, here? Who is queen here? Second, this does indeed show us Selyse’s priorities. Religion first. Third, since Selyse’s party must follow her, it’s a bit of an asshole move for her to go seek out her spiritual advisor while the rest of her cold and hungry party is delayed in receiving the warmth and food of the Night’s Watch common room.

The basic upshot of this is that Selyse refuses to return to Eastwatch, but the Nightfort is uninhabitable, which means that she’s stuck at Castle Black for the forseeable future. As they head towards Selyse’s new quarters, however, there is an interruption.

An enormous shadow emerged from behind the shell of the Lord Commander’s Tower. Princess Shireen gave a shriek, and three of the queen’s knights gasped in harmony. Another swore. “Seven save us,” he said, quite forgetting his new red god in his shock.

“Don’t be afraid,” Jon told them. “There’s no harm in him, Your Grace. This is Wun Wun.”

Jon introduces Wun Wun politely, explaining the language barrier and the context in which Wun Wun has found himself at Castle Black. His compassion is clear as he remembers that Ygritte cried for the deaths of the giants. He makes it clear that Wun Wun is his guest. In response, what he gets from the queen’s party is…less tolerant. Selyse describes Wun Wun as “bestial”, Axell Florent is disgusted that Jon would afford Wun Wun guest right, and when Wun Wun laughs at Patchface, another knight draws his sword.

That last knight is Ser Patrek of King’s Mountain. Jon sternly tells the man that in the north, guest right is sacred - and Wun Wun is Jon’s guest. For the reminder, Ser Patrek takes over escorting Selyse to quarters. Jon allows it.

This doesn’t mean he’s done with Selyse’s entourage for the day. After the interlude with Tycho Nestoris I’ll discuss in just a bit, he encounters Axell Florent. Jon’s inclined to dislike him just on what he’s heard.

If he is not a kinslayer, he is the next best thing. Axell Florent’s brother had been burned by Melisandre, Maester Aemon had informed him, yet Ser Axell had done little and less to stop it. What sort of man can stand idly by and watch his own brother being burned alive?

Asks Jon, who later finds himself utterly unable to stand by while he believes his sister is in Ramsay Snow’s clutches.

Axell’s got an agenda. He wants to know where ‘the wildling princess’ is. Jon dodges the question by informing Axell, accurately, that the Free Folk do not see Val as any sort of princess. Another cultural misunderstanding that Selyse’s entourage have no intention of remedying. Axell is persistent, though, and presses Jon to ‘bring her out’. Jon leans heavily on etiquette to dodge that one - I mean, he’s right, Val’s not a horse to be paraded for inspection, but this gets nasty.

“Must I speak to the queen? A word from Her Grace and I can have this wildling girl delivered naked to the hall for our inspection.”

[…]

“The queen would never presume upon our hospitality,” Jon said, hoping that was true. Now I fear I must take my leave, before I forget the duties of a host.”

Tell me how you want to punch a guy in the mouth without telling me you want to punch a guy in the mouth, Jon. Anyway, Axell’s complete lack of class left it open for Jon to decline with a mild to moderate amount of grace, if without any plausible deniability.

Surely, these guests will be nothing but pleasant, and relations continue smoothly between them.

Debt or Death

 But Jon does not let Selyse’s party go without a word to another of Selyse’s guests. As Jon’s internal narration mentioned earlier:

Jon Snow had thought of little since.

First up on the agenda are the ships that Tycho Nestoris came with. Three, because the Iron Bank likes redundancy. Plus the storms are getting worse out there. With that said, Jon promptly asks Tycho if he would like to see the top of the Wall. Which Jon also admits is freezing cold and that men have been blown off the top. Tycho declines.

So instead the meeting between Jon and the representative of the Iron Bank takes place in Jon’s solar. There’s some background to be done first. For instance, why is a representative of the Iron Bank even here?

“A debt.” What else could it be?

We are talking about a banker, after all. So whose debt? Jon asks about Stannis’ debt. Tycho Nestoris refuses to either confirm or deny. That leaves the national debt. And that, Tycho is willing to talk to him about. Jon here receives confirmation from what we’ve learned from Cersei chapters - the Lannisters are no longer paying the debt they owe to the Iron Bank. So the Iron Bank has sent a representative to a war zone in the frozen ass end of nowhere to track down Stannis and see what he wants to do about said debts.

From the interplay here, it looks like Jon picked up that the Iron Bank was looking to see if Stannis would be, ah, less obdurate. The new info for Jon appears to be that the Lannisters defaulted entirely.

Jon points Tycho in the direction of Stannis. It’s a big cold war zone out there; in order to get to Stannis, Tycho most definitely needs Jon’s directions. Before that, however, Jon has his own agenda.

“There is always a price, is there not?” The Braavosi smiled. “What does the Watch require?”

“Your ships, for a start.”

The first request is the odd one. The second is a loan, which is a more usual thing to negotiate with a banker. The loan is quickly explained on the page. Jon just doesn’t have the resources to feed his people until spring. So gold is the answer, enough to pay for food and the transport of food. Jon’s thinking years ahead with this. What’s missing from the discussion is any talk of amounts, any talk at all. Part of this is GRRM’s maths-aversion. Good call - we don’t need the exact details of principal, interest rates and repayment plans to get the gist, here. But also this is because the numbers are irrelevant to Jon himself, in many ways. Jon just doesn’t have the resources to feed his people until spring. He needs to get them. It’s that simple.

Jon’s compassion also explains the first request, which was the use of Tycho’s ships to mount a rescue mission to Hardhome. Jon’s not stopping at protecting the Wall and the people already there; he’s actively planning to search out more people to rescue. He knows he’s on a hard time limit.

Eleven ships was not wise enough, but if he waited any longer, the free folk at Hardhome would be dead by the time the rescue fleet arrived. Sail now or not at all. 

The knowledge of this time limit is an important thing in Jon’s storyline. He does not believe he has the luxury of extended consideration. He’s aware that he’s running out of time until winter sets in. He’s constantly making decisions under that time pressure. He’s also aware he’s making decisions for the short term, as he narrates for us when he reviews the agreeement.

A long hard winter will leave the Watch so deep in debt that we will never climb out, Jon reminded himself, but when the choice is debt or death, best borrow.

He did not have to like it, though, and come spring, when the time came to repay all that gold, he would like it even less.

The entire process leaves Jon “uneasy”, because he thinks it happened far too easily. His take on the broader implications of the Iron Bank seeking out Stannis continues to be that this is bad news for the Lannisters.

A Grey Girl

No sooner has Jon fallen asleep at his desk than he’s being woken up again to deal with more problems. Specifically, a highborn girl on a lame and lathered horse, as predicted. So, not Val. Jon’s mind then goes immediately to Arya, with a rush of rather painful thoughts in the light of what Jon’s lost in the past few books and in-universe years.

Jon felt fifteen years old again. Little sister.

Jon’s seventeen at this point, I believe.

He wanted to believe it would be Arya. He wanted to see her face again, to smile at her and muss her hair, to tell her she was safe. She won’t be safe, though. Winterfell is burned and broken and there are no more safe places.

He cannot even fully commit to this moment of wishful thinking. He only wants to believe. The reality of his situation and what would have to happen with Arya immediately intrude. Jon truly struggles to allow himself to be happy. At the same time, this is also a selfless sibling love here:

He could not keep her with him, however much he might want to.

[…]

Wherever he might send her, though, Arya would need silver to support her, a roof above her head, someone to protect her. She was only a child.

Whatever illusions he might have about what Arya’s been through and how it’s affected her - and who could blame him not wanting to think about what might have happened to her between being reported missing in AGoT and reportedly ending up with Ramsey Snow - Jon is thinking of Arya’s wellbeing first, above his own emotional (and political) wants and needs. It’s pure GRRM irony that Jon thinks of sending Arya to Braavos. Where the reader knows she already is.

Sure enough, the girl now at the Wall is not Arya. And because Jon didn’t really get his hopes up all that far, he’s not all that disappointed when he realises it’s not Arya. The girl wakes up, slightly confused, but that’s quickly resolved.

“I am told you have been asking after me. I am -“

“- Jon Snow.” The girl tossed her braid back. “My house and yours are bound in blood and honour. Hear me, kinsman My uncle Cregan is hard upon my trail. You must not let him take me back to Karhold.”

This is Alys Karstark, and I think she’s one of the most impressive minor characters in ADWD. In this scene alone, she’s naked, exhausted, starving, fleeing a marriage to her abusive uncle, and she’s ridden hard in the North’s late autumn to seek help on the very thinnest of possibilities. (I really don’t think the “Stark and Karstark are kin” thing holds up any more.) There’s still a bit of casual prejudice against bastards thrown in there, though, when Jon and Alys recall their last meeting about a decade ago, when Alys was brought to Winterfell in the hopes that Rickard Karstark could arrange a marriage between her and Robb:

“[Robb] was very courteous and said that I danced beautifully. You were sullen. My father said that was to be expected in a bastard.”

“I remember.” […]

“You’re still a little sullen,” the girl said, “but I will forgive you that if you will save me from my uncle.”

She’s pretty free with repeating negative stereotypes for someone who really, really needs Jon’s help. Doesn’t even seem to see how a reminder of those stereotypes (and the reasons for them) might be a sore spot with Jon. Bold move, Alys.

She gives Jon the rundown of internal Karstark politics. She knew her uncles were pieces of shit and begged her father to leave one of her brothers behind to run Karhold. Her brothers weren’t interested in missing out on a war and her father didn’t listen. So of her three brothers, two are dead and the third was taken prisoner, all the info she’s got on him a year out of date. Her father is also dead, killed by Robb for reasons she doesn’t initially understand but accepts when they’re explained to her. She’s got nowhere to go but the last son of Ned Stark, she says (another example of Ned’s legacy).

Jon asks the obvious question.

“Why not the king? Karhold declared for Stannis.”

Before Alys gives the reveal, notice that Jon’s not referring to Stannis as “King Stannis”. He’s referring to him as “the king”. The king. Sole and singular. Subtle, but it’s well ingrained into the storyline that Jon has well and truly picked a side in the War of Five Kings. It’s a very human thing - he cannot put aside his biases that easily - but it’s still got its impact on the politics around him.

And speaking of those, Alys reveals that her uncle, one of the few to declare for Stannis, is leading him into a trap. The fate of Stannis’ campaign to take the North and win the Iron Throne is in the balance here. Its importance to this campaign is obvious on its face.

But because this isn’t a story about who wins the throne in the end, it takes a backseat to Jon’s ethical dilemma.

Rewinding just a bit, Jon explicitly notes that “marriages and inheritances are matters for the king.” In other words, in assisting Alys, Jon’s doing the king’s job. Not the job of the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. It does not have to be pointed out to him. He knows this already. Helping Alys, no matter how much she needs it, is breaking his vows.

The reveal also goes to show that if Alys is to receive assistance, it must be Jon who provides it. Stannis is going to be betrayed and led into a trap, which means he can’t help. Jon is literally the only person in all the North in a position to help Alys Karstark. So what does he do?

That’s where we leave him for the chapter.

Chapter Function

Well, Jon’s still prepping for the zombie apocalypse. This time he’s just taking out loans for it.

While Stannis is off page, this chapter also works hard to show his campaign’s prospects. Jon’s financial conversations show how Stannis can remain funded. His conversation with Alys gives the reveal that there are traitors in his camp and a trap being set up at Winterfell. Stuff to get back to when Asha’s PoV becomes the vantage point on Stannis.

In introducing Selyse & Co, we’re seeing the introduction of another important faction at the Wall. Stannis might be uncomfortable and demanding, but Selyse is uncomfortable, demanding, and intolerant. These individuals are no less a burden on Jon’s resources, but also far less gracious about working with him - and less gracious than Stannis is a serious problem. In Axell’s case, he’s an all-round jerk, objectifying Val in her absence and behaving so boorishly Jon has to just end any further conversation there. Most notably for ADWD’s arc, we also have the set-up of hostilities between Selyse’s faction and the stranger of the Free Folk. Wun Wun in particular. This tension will, by the end of Jon’s arc, result in bloody violence. With Ser Patrek, who drew steel on Wun Wun, no less.

I’ve read some criticism of Jon’s ADWD arc that in a series full of moral grey, it’s super, super clear he’s The Good Guy when it comes to the humanitarian issues of handling the migration of the Free Folk. And yes. He is. Jon is indisputably on the right side of this particular conflict, and also treating the Free Folk with the sort of tolerance and respect that appeals to the modern reader, especially in contrast to Axell fucking Florent. But as with Ned in AGoT and most especially Dany elsewhere in ADWD, so with Jon - he can be right all he wants, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into a just outcome. While we’re cheering for Jon showing human decency and compassion, politics continues in the background. It’s the same structure. Get the reader on side with Jon’s character and overall objectives, set up for the punch.

In terms of Jon’s book-long arc, the exchange of note is this one:

Tycho bowed his head. “We who serve the Iron Bank face death full as often as you who serve the Iron Throne.”

Is that whom I serve? Jon Snow was no longer certain.

Miscellany

For all Selyse still desperately wants sons, for the moment she’s got no problems calling Shireen Stannis’ true heir, who “will one day sit the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms,” explicitly seeing Shireen rule in her own right.

From farther east, the Braavosi hear queer talk of dragons. Jon wants one at the Wall. The Braavosi aren’t laughing. Neither part of this exchange is at all important.

Also from Tycho Nestoris’ news of places that aren’t the Wall, he reports that “strange ships” have been seen amongst the Stepstones. This is JonCon!

Would you believe it? Selyse has queen’s ladies and a bunch of maids.

It amuses me greatly how Jon thinks “no doubt the Lannisters had good reason not to honour King Robert’s debts.” I mean, there are good reasons for the Lannisters to be worried about their capacity to pay off state debts…but those weren’t the ones Cersei was using.

Clothing Porn

Clothing porn arrives at the Wall! Selyse wears a red gold crown with points in the shape of flames. Patchface has an antlered hat hung with cowbells and squirrel-fur flaps, plus a motley cloak in beaver pelt, sheepskin, and rabbit fur. Nesto Tychoris has a three-tiered purple felt hat. Tychoris accentuates this with a high-collared, ermine-trimmed robe in a purple described as ‘somber’. Ser Patrek’s wearing a white fur cloak over a cloth-of-silver surcoat with a five-pointed star. In a hairstyle note, Alys Karstark’s braid is bound with strips of leather.

You may safely assume everyone else is in black. 

Food Porn

Mulled wine for negotiations. A brace of capons for the queen’s men. Sausages made mostly of “grease and salt and things that did not bear thinking about,” but which look a bit more palatable in the context of Frey Pie.

Next Three Chapters

The Princess in the Tower, AFFC - Dany X, AGoT - Eddard XII, AGoT

#ASoIaF #valyrianscrolls #revisiting chapters #jon snow #a dance with dragons

[kittydemon9000]

SO MERLOPIAN KAI PART 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

So, with Kalmaar, he ofc immediately goes to his parents about his feeling, slightly placing his revenge on hold. They are...dubious about it, but Maya raises the point of how there has never been a human/merlopian hybrid before, and from what Ray has told them about having two EM parents it’s possible for Kai to have some water abilities himself, which could be what gave Kalmaar his feeling. So, they agree to look into it.

Moving on..... Uh. Kai doesn’t have a fun time in S6, as briefly as he’s there. You see, Nahdakahn knows exactly what buttons to press and is able to get Kai into a panicked state where he, on the verge of a panic attack and mental breakdown, just says “I wish that I could just be normal! I wish I could just go home! I wish I could be with dad and mom and father and Kal and Bentho and Nya!!!”

The “normal” comment comes from how they weren’t able to completely hide Kai’s heritage since yeah, there were other people on the boat who saw him. That and he also tried a lot less to keep it hidden. And because some humans are assholes, he has to deal with that.

So ofc, Nahdakahn interprets it in the worst ways and as two wishes. Kai is now a full human yes….but was also sent to where the fish fam currently were……which just so happened to be at the bottom of the ocean.

So yeah, double trauma for both groups. Kai got to experience what drowning felt like, and his fam was essentially forced to watch him die since there was nothing they could do. They were too far under to take him to the surface and too far from the palace to take him there.

But dw, it gets even worse.

You see, the whole reason Nahdakahn is being this malicious about Kai’s wishes is because he learned that Kai was the reason the Preeminent was destroyed, thereby destroying Djinjago.

Nahdakahn is then able to do a “oh? Is this not what you wanted? I thought you wished to be normal.” Which ofc sounds really bad since it’s in front of his family. “But, I understand. You grow tired of the stares in the street, how they whisper behind you back about what you are. Not human, not merlopian, not normal. Just a freak masquerading as one of them.”

This ofc supremely pisses off the fam. Like, weapons drawn ready to commit murder.

But then Nahdakahn stop them with a “ah ah ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. After all, I am the only way your son has a chance at living. So go ahead. Make a wish.”

Trimaar ends up being the one to do it, and is smart enough to know this uh will twist it in anyway he can so says. “I wish for Kai to be sent safely to the surface without harm done upon him.”

Blah blah blah, your wish is yours to keep, Trimaar realizing “wait there’s a lot that could be interpreted” but too late BAM now Kai’s kinda stuck on the Misfortune’s Keep.

And he....generally has a pretty bad time. Think Jay but this time it’s personal.

However, Kai’s appearance had Trimaar get the Merlopian army and start heading to the surface. The remaining ninja have a brief moment of “are you kidding me two enemies at once” before learning that this is Kai’s lost family and they’re here to help.

So now the ninja have a whole ass fish army to help them, plus a very protective, very angry fish family.

But for the rest of canon, the only difference is that when they’re leaving Tiger Widow Island, Nya gets snatched along with Jay(who was taken because he hadn’t used his wish yet) and they aren’t stuck on the island, and then later that Kai gets sucked into the sword when the ninja launch their rescue mission.

But yeah, it gets all Un-Happened by Jay’s wish(which at seeing Kai physically hurt and being emotionally torn apart at his baby sister dying, wished that none of this ever happened and that Nahdakahn was never found), only like canon Nya and Jay still remember what happens.

Nya is now firmly on team Kai Is Alive and tells her parents everything about what happened and the wish Jay made, and more importantly where Kai is.

Unfortunately, they need to take some time and prepare. Trimaar and Maya have been doing their best over the years to open the populace possibly making bonds with the humans, but now it’s finally happening. They can’t just go up there out of no where, since from what Nya has told them 1) most humans don’t even know they exist and 2) in the past few years they have been subject of many attacks, mostly from non-humans, so they need to make sure the humans understand they don’t mean any harm.

So DotD happens, then the beginnings of S7 :)

Right out, Kai never liked the museum curator. Up to that point he’d only ever caught fleeting glimpse of him but something about him Kai just despised. As a result, he also visited the museum as scarcely as possible, and thus didn’t notice a very interesting painting containing a two very strange figures.

When he learns his name was Dr.Saunders.....things don’t go well.

It happened when Kai brought the helmet with his dad’s symbol on it. As much as he disliked the curator, he was the most likely to be able to recognize what kind of helmet it was.

Then in his anger he gets himself captured.

He’s taken to a special cell lined with vengestone and has guards around the clock, and Krux takes extra care to make sure Kai doesn’t know where Ray is.

ofc it’s around this time that the Merlopians arrive and express their wishes for a possible alliance between their two races. Unfortunately they showed up at literally the worst time, and double unfortunately the people in charge of diplomacy decide to bring some of the ninja in as an extra precaution because of the villains have been running around.

So the people who join the meeting are Lloyd and Jay from the ninja(they would’ve brought Kai but he hasn’t returned from his missions yet and isn’t answering their calls) as well as some police officers and from the Merlopians is the whole royal family plus a few guards.

Both Jay and Nya have a silent moment of staring at each other since “I know and I’m not sure you know but I think you know but I don’t want to say anything since you might not”

And just as they’re about to start, The Time Twins attack. Because why the hell not.

They’re actually able to hold them off for a while, but unfortunately there are too many Vermillion. Then Kalmaar whips out his Water Powers which causes him to get kidnapped since they need both Fire and Water masters for the blade.

While they’re recovering, Lloyd then gets a panicked call from Zane saying that he checked the museum footage and Kai has been captured. The gets overheard by the royal family, and then Lloyd asks why they looked so upset at which they learn(sans Jay since wish) that Kai is royalty. The eldest son actually, and thus first in line for the throne, as well as being presumed dead for the past five years.

So basically Krux has kidnapped the King and Queen’s husband, the crown prince, and the second in line prince(if anyone knows a more fancy term for this please let me know)

Maya, Trimaar, Nya and Benthomaar are not happy. Not with the Ninjagian people, no they’re fine, but they’re bout ready to murder Krux, and they don’t even know about Ray yet.

So they offer any help they can.

Zap back to how Kai and Kalmaar are doing.

Kalmaar is….kind feral tbh. Like, he’s biting, clawing, trying to strangle them with his tentacles, and before they got vengestone cuffs on him was trying very hard to drown anyone.

Ofc, this does little to the Vermillion and soon Kalmaar finds himself in the cell right next to Kai’s. He’s overjoyed to see his brother again, albeit upset that this is why.

They both reluctantly come to the conclusion that there isn’t much they can do at the moment, and there are many Vermillion guards right outside their cells, so they decide to start catching up.

And for pretty much the rest of the season canon is pretty much the same, just shuffle around the characters a bit and add a protective Fish Fam. 

Though their little trip back in time is quite sight for the Past EMs, especially because of how Kalmaar is using his powers, which leaves Kai mostly stuck in his Fish Form. This time they don’t even bother trying to explain, just give instructions on how to defeat the Vermillion and jumping into the battle. 

And I mean just imagine that from the EMs perspective. An enemy you thought you defeated just returned with a giant metal creature and an army of snake things that don’t look like any kind of Serpentine they’d ever seen. Then a shark person and squid person??? show up and not only do they know how to fight the snake things but they also seem to be Elemental Masters???? Despite the fact Ray is very much alive and they didn’t even know there was a Water EM. Then the two not only summon dragons but they also fuse their dragons into an even bigger one with two heads.

And then all of them disappear into the sky without a trace.

W i l d

But yeah, after that it calms down quite a bit. Kai spends the time skip before S8 reconnecting with his family and his dad, and through some tech courtesy of Borg they're able to bring Ray with them :D

And Kai actually goes to meet the Jade Royal Family since y’know. He’s the crown prince. He’s kinda important and legitimately forgot about it. Luckily Kalmaar is able to help coach Kai through it, but is also a bit smug about how he finally has something to teach to his older brother. Kai was actually the one who suggested asking the ninja for help protecting the mask.....but we know how that inevitably ends.

Bentho, Kal and Nya were actually on the ship for this particular adventure, and then Nya and Bentho were dragged along when they got sent to the First Realm. Bentho, despite being the youngest sibling and to the surprise of literally everyone, was actually really good with kids and spent the most time with Little Wu, right behind Cole.

But yeah S9......Nya and Bentho have a really bad time in the First Realm beause of the heat, but at least they don’t get captured. Kai on the other hand....

Yeah at some point he gets accidentally splashed with water and well.....it definitely doesn’t help with the Oni accusations. The Dragon Hunters decide to burn him along with the Wind Dragon, which moves up their Build Our Own Dragon time table.

After they escape Faith is actually pretty chill about the whole fish thing, but she does ask a lot of questions. 

And then S10..... kinda the same. They end up dropping off as many people as they can with the Merlopians since the smoke can’t reach them.

I might make a Part 3 for the rest of the seasons, but yeah. this is where we’re at.

#merlopian royalty au #info dump #ninjago #kai #kai smith #kalmaar #prince kalmaar #trimaar #king trimaar #krux

[itsclydebitches]

Hey there! Admittedly I'm a little bit nervous since this is my first ask, but I'll try to not be too rambly.

So, recently the main subreddit, r/RWBY, made a ban on active users of the r/RWBYcritics subreddit. As a result there's been discussion around bad-faith criticism in the latter subreddit. What are your takes on bad-faith criticism?

For me personally, I think a bunch of people are misusing the term "bad-faith" and using it as a way to shut down criticism, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Hey there, everyone! We woke up to some drama this morning, huh? And hello to you too, Tortoise! I'm so glad you decided to send in an ask, even if it's following some pretty tumultuous events...

Right, I'd like to start with a story. The story of how I personally don't spend time on Reddit, but I have plenty of friends who will occasionally cross-post something for me to see. Yesterday (or the day before? Idk time is meaningless) a friend told me about a post — which, significantly, I'm now having trouble finding — that covers RWBY's inconsistent writing and the fandom's tendency to try and explain away those missteps. They'd thought I'd be interested because I'd just had a conversation here on tumblr where I made that exact point to someone who, also significantly, vehemently disagreed with me, but in a very civil fashion. Given everything going on, I feel like this side point needs emphasis: we debated, we did so in a sometimes heated, but nevertheless respectful manner, it was clear neither of us was going to sway the other, and the conversation ended. The two "sides" of the community interacted without Armageddon coming about.

But back to the purpose of this tale. I went to take a look at this point and found that it no longer exists. There's just some vague message about it not obeying the subreddit's rules. "What happened?" I asked. "Why'd they take the post down?" "People were getting too heated in the comments," my friend replies. So, given that the comments were still visible, I proceeded to read through them, expecting personal attacks, slurs, harassment, etc. Any number of things that would justify deleting the post itself to put an end to such behavior. Instead, I found a thread of people having a conversation. Was the conversation heated at times? Sure. Did one or two individual posters edge into the realm of petulant, "No. You're wrong and stupid" responses? Yes. Was any of this remotely what I was expecting given the post's removal? NOPE.

"This isn't allowed?" I said. "Well then what is? People were being civil! Or at least as civil as hundreds of strangers ever get when discussing a series they're passionate about online."

Then, this morning, I hear that the entire critic subreddit has been banned.

So to answer your question, Tortoise, I don't actually think that "good faith" criticism exists. Meaning, it's not just that fans are misusing the term "bad faith criticism," but rather that there is no unified, agreed up method of writing criticism that will meet their standards. It's not possible and we know it's not possible because fans have been trying to meet those elusive standards for years:

A fan posts nothing but praise for RWBY until changes make them criticize the show as it is now. Their entire body of work is dismissed as the product of a "hater," despite the overwhelming gap between positive and negative reviews.

A fan posts a review that's a pretty balanced mix between praise and criticism. They're dismissed because it's still too much criticism.

A fan posts a review that's 99% praise with 1% criticism. That's still too much, with fans focusing on the single problem they had with the work and using it as an excuse to dismiss the entire review out of hand.

(As an aside, the argument that critics are "obsessed" with only saying negative things and that the only problem here is that they're "too" negative ignores the argument that... RWBY has a lot of flaws nowadays. Few are willing to acknowledge the possibility that it's not fans insisting on making things up to be mad about/ignoring the good parts of the show, it's the that show is, as of now, legitimately more of a mess than it is a praise-worthy product. If I'd been writing recaps in the Volumes 1-4 days, my work would have been skewed far more towards the positive. The critics' stance is that RWBY has gotten worse, which yes, results a higher volume of critical posts. To say nothing of how criticism takes far longer to explain, likewise resulting in posts focused primarily on that side of the divide. I really enjoyed the image of a crying Jaune reflected in his sword. I did not enjoy that moment's context. Saying that you liked an animation choice is a one sentence thing. Explaining the complexities of Jaune securing emotional moments, the problems with Penny's second death, the hurt many fans experienced watching an assisted suicide, etc. takes a whooole lot longer. Hence, you get massive, multiple posts about these nuanced topics and fewer, smaller posts about the details that are working well.)

A fan talks about a topic that has been metaphorically banned by the fandom as a whole. They have something good to say about Ironwood. They dislike something about Blake/Yang. They enjoyed Adam as a character. They have a problem with Ruby's leadership, etc. There's a whole list of topics nowadays that will result in an automatic dismissal, regardless of the point the fan is trying to make or how well they make it.

A fan talks about the minority representation of RWBY — its black characters, its queer characters, its disabled characters, etc. — and as a result has something to say about the biases and missteps of those writing these characters. This is considered an attack on the writers and, therefore, automatically bad.

A fan talks about how they enjoyed RWBY as it was years ago and is having trouble reconciling the dark, complicated story with the simple, hopeful one we started out with. This is seen as an attack on Monty's vision and an unwillingness to accept that "everything is planned."

A fan does as asked and ensures that their post is meeting all the requirements of "real" criticism. They have an argument to make. They have a point. They provide evidence. They recommend a solution. They keep their tone respectful. They don't attack the creators. They provide disclaimers in every single paragraph about how they do not hate RWBY. It doesn't matter. They're considered too negative.

I have, quite literally, seen every one of the above examples on multiple occasions. I have had many of the above accusations leveled at my own work. When fans say that they're fine with criticism provided it's not "bad faith" criticism, they don't actually have a specific post-type in mind; a checklist of behaviors another fan can emulate and, provided they do that, no hate will come their way. Or, if an individual fan does actually go, "Yeah. That criticism I'm fine with" that response is in no way universal. One person's "They make a good, civil point" is another person's, "Omg stop bashing the show!" Because "bashing" has come to mean everything from curse-laden insults towards everything RWBY has ever done, to posts that just happen to say something other fans don't agree with.

It's a rigged game. There is no way to post criticism about RWBY in an agreed-upon, appropriate manner. This recent ban is proof of that. I think it's incredibly telling that almost immediately after I was going, "Wow. A pretty calm debate about the flaws of RWBY in the main sub. That's great to see," all posters from the criticism subreddit were banned. The main sub literally just had the sort of criticism that they claim to accept — people respectfully posting analysis-based arguments resulting in calm debate — and yet they implemented the ban anyway. I'm not going to pretend that I've never gotten too heated on my own posts, never made snarky comments when I'm frustrated, never used exaggerated reaction GIFs that can come across as insulting... but I'd say on the whole my RWBY work is precisely the sort of "good faith" criticism that other fans are supposedly looking for. I never make an argument I don't think I can back up with evidence. I try to allow for the nuance and differing opinions of complicated topics. I try — even if I don't always succeed — to write in a clear, respectful manner. Yet none of that work has stopped people from telling me I'm a "bitter... raging asshole," a "deranged, delusional psychopath," telling me to set myself on fire, threatening to smash my head in, or just messages to straight up kill myself. If someone like me who legitimately works hard to create fair, defendable criticism and who only ever posts on a personal blog that people can easily block, who never engages in debate until someone else starts it first, never seeks out other fans I disagree with to harass them about what they like... if someone like me is still a "bad faith" critic who "deserves" that kind of hate mail... then what kind of criticism do people want?

Nothing. That's the answer. No criticism whatsoever, of any kind, no matter if it's delivered respectfully, is making a good point, whatever. That's why "RWDE" was created. That's why the critic subreddit was created. The community at large has demanded a complete separation between Praise and Anything That's Not 100% Praise, which has now resulted in this ban. Any other explanations we see are excuses, which becomes glaringly obvious when you look at the mods' supposed reasons for implementing the ban:

"Constant arguments with r/RWBY users" - As opposed to the arguments surrounding things like shipping that never, ever happen?

"Vote manipulation and comment brigades" - The subreddit with 3,000 participants, with around 200 on at a time, is manipulating the votes of a subreddit with 155,000 participants, with over 1,000 on at a time? Those numbers just do not check out. If a positive post is downvoted, or a critical post upvoted, maybe that's because large swaths of the community actually agree/disagree with that assessment, not because the incredibly smaller group is somehow manipulating things.

"Attacking and harassing those they disagree with" — Again, as opposed to those non-critics that never, ever harass people? This is an individual problem, not a community problem. Both critics and non-critics have their sub-groups acting in ways they shouldn't. If anything, the main sub will have more individuals harassing other fans, simply by virtue of being so much larger. As the above examples attest, it's not other critics who have told me to light myself on fire and, just to be clear, the asks I've responded to are a miniscule number compared to the amount I've received. I delete the lion's share for my own sanity and to save my followers from reading the really graphic threats.

"Months-long NSFL spam brigades" — I am, admittedly, not sure what this is referring to. Spamming of NSFW content? If so, that's also an individual problem.

"Homophobic, transphobic, and racist attacks towards our users" — See the above points. Again. If someone is being homophobic, transphobic, or racist, then yes please, ban them. Don't ban an entire community for the actions of a few. It's like walking into a store and banning a customer for causing a scene... but then also banning everyone else who happened to be shopping at the same time. It's guilt by association.

The silver lining to all this? The community as a whole isn't pleased. At least according to the main subreddit comments and a few individual voices like MurderofBirds. Despite the increase (from my perspective anyway) of critical voices post-Volume 8, criticism of RWBY is still very much seen as taboo. As this ban showcases. But it's really reassuring to see so many fans, critics and non-critics alike, going, "This was a mistake." A community is meant to include all aspects of engagement: praise, criticism, and the gray area between. If anything, fans like the mods of the main subreddit should be creating a separate subreddit that is specifically for praise. In the same way that there should have been a tag for RWBY praise, rather than trying to eliminate any and all criticism from the main "RWBY" tag. The majority of fans, even those who claim to hate critics and all they (presumably) stand for, recognize that a blanket ban of all criticism is not the way to go, especially when "criticism" has come to have such a staggeringly broad definition. If you want your RWBY experience to be nothing but sunshine and roses (ha), then cultivate your own internet experience to reflect that. Create your own pockets with rules about how this is the space for praise and if you're not up for praising RWBY right now, don't interact with us in this particular space. Don't try to make the entire community — the main tools used to discuss the show online — conform to your preferences. As established, there is no "good" criticism that everyone in the fandom will accept, which just leaves a fandom with no criticism at all. I'm glad to see I'm far from the only one who, when presented with that extreme, is going, "Nope. No thank you."

#rwby #mymetas #suicide tw #rwde

[criticallyacclaimedstranger]

Fic: So Close Yet So Far Away

Fandom: Triple Frontier

Ship: Frankie Morales x Jay 'Lady' Ray

Warnings: Language, talk of sex, throwback to sex, Pope is a crude asshole. Yearnnniinnngggg.

Summary: Lady and Pope get into an argument and Frankie sorts her out. Cue some elite level yearning.

A/N: HAHAHA I wasn't even meant to write this today but I woke up with this on my mind and I just had to because they're my BABIES. This is an instalment in the Frankie x Lady series and takes place back when Lady was in Frankie's squad, before they were an item.

Jay should have known better than to ask about everyone’s weekend. She just wanted to make small talk while they got prepped for a field exercise. She wasn’t ready to hear about their night out on Saturday, how Santi, Frankie, and Benny all scored some willing chicks, Will only missing out because he had a girlfriend, not because he didn’t pull.

All the while Jay was stuck with her family, listening to her mother go on about how she was too good for the army, she should leave while she was still alive, get a normal job, marry, have kids… She could have been out with the guys, maybe get lucky herself and if not, at least have a fun night. Get drunk instead of sad.

And now she finds herself listening to Santi talk about his one night stand, not giving Benny a chance to talk about his, while Frankie, quite characteristically, clammed up about personal stuff.

“Nutted her so fucking hard and all she did was beg for more,” Santi brags, “best fuck I had in ages…”

Jay’s been in the military since she was 18. She knows how soldiers talk, she’s heard it all, she’s participated in the crude joking, she’s not put off by it. But on this Monday morning, while the squad is assembling their equipment, she doesn’t want to hear it.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Pope, do you fucking have to talk like that?” she barks, unable to hear one more word about his sexual conquests. The rest of them cease their activities in wait for Pope’s reply. Working so closely together, sometimes spending weeks cramped up on assignments builds close bonds but also breeds discord. It’s normal to be at each other’s throats from time to time but it’s rarely Jay who flies off the handle.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, My Lady,” Santi replies with a smirk, his voice at its most velvety. “I meant I made passionate love to her all night – “

“You are so fucking disgusting, you know that?” Jay hisses. “Just shut the fuck up about the whole thing, nobody wants to hear about it.”

“Clearly not you,” Pope drawls, quick to anger. In the corner of her eye, Jay notices Will shake his head at him. Don’t engage, bro, just drop it. But Santiago Garcia is someone who doesn’t let things slide when he’s in gear.

“When was the last time you got laid, Ray? You need to get those pipes cleared out. Get some d.”

When was the last time? Too long ago. She does have an itch but last time she scratched it, it just didn’t feel right. She had the same feeling of detachment as she experienced just now when she heard about last Saturday night, particularly the fact that Frankie got laid.

It’s not that she’s jealous. She’s just more comfortable with the idea that Frankie doesn’t sleep around with anyone.

“A dick isn’t going to solve my problems, Santi, unless it’s a big one up your sorry ass,” she snaps, a rude laugh from Benny telling her she scored a point. Staring hard at Pope, whose ridiculously handsome features show an obnoxious amount of amusement, she knows that he won’t budge until he’s drawn metaphorical blood.

“Just name the time and the place, Ray, I’ll be there. Will you?”

“Okay, knock it off.” It’s Frankie, of course. The voice of reason. “Redfly’s gonna be here any minute and I don’t want to do extra laps just because you two can’t play nice.”

Frankie always has that calming effect on her, even now when she’s inexplicably mad at him for having fooled around with some random girl he picked up at their usual dive. Is there a possibility of her being there again in the future? Jay doesn’t want to think about it. Right now, she focuses on the sense that Frankie’s words make. It’s not worth it. Santi’s not worth it.

“Just stay away from me, asshole,” she warns Santi before going back to her kit. The tension in the room eases and Benny, who’s closest to Jay, gives her a brief pat on the back and a nod that says Good call. She hears Frankie murmur something to Santi behind her back, then Santi’s mutter: “She on the rag or something?”

That does it. Jay throws down her backpack and spins around.

“You say that to my face, you piece of shit,” she growls, taking a step forward. Her body is quivering with pent up rage in need of an outlet and knocking Pope on his ass would serve as an adequate one.

“Jay, he’s not worth it,” Benny tries to placate her but she barely hears him. Her whole focus is directed at Pope and his shit-eating grin. He says one more thing…

“Got your panties in a twist?”

She lunges forward but doesn’t make it to Pope as several hands grab her and hold her back.

“Hey, hey, hey!”

“Calm the fuck down, Ray!”

“Crazy bitch – “

“You’re on really thin ice, too, Pope! Shut that motherfucking mouth of yours!”

Benny is physically restraining her as she practically vibrates with desire to beat the crap out of Santi, who’s held back by Frankie.

“Ray, he’s not worth it,” Benny tells her. “Take a walk. Smoke. Calm down. He’s an asshole.”

He’s right and Jay knows it. Mustering up all of her willpower, Jay rolls back onto her heels, straightens her back, and squares her shoulders. Without looking at anyone, she turns around and stomps out.

Frankie finds her by the vehicles, in the backseat of a Humvee. Her fore and middle fingers are rubbing against her thumb: she’s quit smoking but is clearly wishing she had a cigarette right now. Frankie climbs into the backseat from the other side and pulls up a pack from his pocket, offering it to her without words. Jay hesitates but eventually takes one and leans closer to him when he flicks open his lighter. Frankie can smell the anger on her, a sweaty tightness that radiates from her muscles. She sits back, inhaling deeply before exhaling in a frustrated puff of smoke.

“Fuck,” she mutters, “I don’t wanna die because of these.”

“I thought you quit?”

“I did.” She throws him a glance and a grimace before flicking the cigarette out through the open door. “I thought you quit as well?”

“I keep them around for emergencies like this,” he shrugs. Jay looks pointedly at him.

“Then you haven’t truly quit, have you?”

He loves it how she puts him on the spot like this, provokes him, forces him to reconsider, change his way of thinking. She always does it with such ease, sometimes with a teasing glint in her eye. She just makes him want to be a better person.

“I guess not.” He throws her a small smile that goes unreciprocated. She stares into the back of the seat in front of her, lips tight. Frankie would love to just sit here in silence and let her lead, let her open up in due time, but he knows that if they don’t join the others soon, Tom is going to make a scene.

“Pope’s an asshole,” he states. Jay scoffs but says nothing. “But what’s up with you? You usually don’t let shit like that get to you.”

Her nostrils flare and he sees the muscles of her throat flex. Eventually, she parts her lips to speak, her voice strained.

“I spent the weekend with my dear mother, my brother, and his family. And you know what mom’s like.”

Frankie nods. Yes, he’s heard about Jay’s mother and the dislike the woman has for her daughter’s career choice. The older brother is married with one kid and another on the way and he, of course, is a saint, a pinnacle of human achievement, his children the very essence of what makes a successful life, his wife the perfect picture of Woman.

Jay suddenly twitches, then kicks at the seat in front of her.

“Fuck!I hate this fucking shit!”

Frankie refrains from putting a hand on her shoulder, no matter how much he would like to. He might end up with a broken nose.

“I cut her off,” Jay says tonelessly. “Completely.”

“About fucking time, Jay.” He’s been waiting for this to happen and he wants to tell her that he’s proud of her but it’s not his prerogative, no matter how much he would like it to be.

“Yeah,” she agrees, still not looking at him. “I kept hoping that she’d get her shit together but…” Her voice trails off and she swallows hard. “Fuck. I miss my dad.”

“He’d be proud of you,” Frankie assures her, biting off the endearment that threatened to escape him. Mi amor. Querida. He wants to be able to call her that, wants to be the one she’d come to with her sadness. Wants to be the one to call her mother and tell her to go suck an egg.

“You should’ve called,” he tells her but she only shakes her head. Stubborn as a mule.

“You were out. I didn’t want to ruin your night.”

It had been ruined the moment Santi laid eyes on the company of three young women by the bar. He had zoned in on the curvy brunette and Benny had picked the fiery redhead, leaving Frankie with the blonde. He didn’t want her, didn’t want any of the others, but he had fallen for the peer pressure and for every drink, he figured it could be a good idea to get laid. The girl was pretty, funny, nice. She had a hot body and was clearly willing. They had gone to her place and he had treated her like he would treat every woman he slept with: he ate her out, giving her several orgasms with his tongue before even thinking about putting his dick in her.

She had insisted on riding him. Frankie didn’t mind but as she bounced on his cock, her round, heavy tits jiggling in front of him, he didn’t see her face anymore. No, it was Jay all along, Jay’s long, lean body on top of him, Jay sinking down on him, her slick, hot pussy swallowing his cock while he swallowed her moan. The fantasy had become so real that he had to wrangle the woman off of him and take her from behind instead.

He left in silence once she was asleep, crept out like an asshole, a coward. He usually asked a woman if she wanted him to stay, he had once upon a time enjoyed having breakfast the next morning, sharing kisses when he finally left. But now, it all felt like cheating.

“You wouldn’t have ruined the night,” he tells her quietly. “It wasn’t that good.”

“The night or the sex?”

“The latter.” His ears are burning and he refuses to look at her.

“Too much to drink?” There it is: that sweet, amiable little taunt she saves for him only – or at least he hopes she does. He’s never heard her speak like that to any of the other guys.

“Wrong girl.”

Jay turns her head and looks at him. The distance between them in the backseat seems to shrink and grow at the same time when he returns her gaze. The hairs at the nape of his neck rise when he loses himself in the fathomless ocean-blue of her eyes.

He has to kiss her. He mustn’t kiss her.

“Are you two done with your fucking therapy session?”

Both of them startle when Tom shows up by the open door on Frankie’s side.

“I have an exercise op to run and I don’t have time to wait for you to feel quite ready, Ray,” he adds before slapping his hand to the roof of the Humvee. “Get your asses in gear.”

He leaves without having noticed anything. Frankie wonders how it’s even possible. Didn’t Tom feel the air crackle with electricity? Didn’t he hear how hard his heart was beating?

Jay gets out of the vehicle and slams the door shut, and Frankie follows suit. As they walk back, keeping a distance of two feet between them, Jay murmurs a Thank you, Morales to him.

“Sure,” he replies easily, forcing himself to sound neutral. “I got you, Ray.”

#my fic #triple frontier #francisco catfish morales #francisco frankie morales #frankie morales x ofc #frankie morales x lady

[tinypurplewizardfan]

Wow it's amazing how hard it is to relate veigar in a loving way to any character without it seeming unnatural or forced by his overbearing personality but for my own luck, I like platonic and dramatic loves.

This ask has been hard for me to decipher.

Are you talking about shipping? Then if so, I completely agree with that first part- I can't imagine Veigar falling in love very easily, if at all. He's really not in a place right now where a close relationship with him would be healthy at all. He's got trouble with boundaries, sees relationships as transactional, and expects followers, seeing equals as a threat to his power. He really doesn't like the idea of anyone having any sort of power over him, as that's a whole hell of a lot of trauma he doesn't want to spend time unpacking.

Simply put, he's an asshole. Trauma doesn't give him an excuse. He'd be absolutely terrible to someone who gives the kind of trust needed for a close relationship to him, never giving anything back. He'd drive away anyone other than an utter doormat, I think.

(Then again, no matter what character and what fandom I'm in, I generally don't like most shipping dynamics in the first place. I dislike shipping abusive relationships, and I absolutely do not see the whole "redemptive power of love" that early 2000's supernatural fantasy went on about, so that heavily colors my view of this. Please don't let this post discourage you from shipping whomever you like!)

Being friends with Veigar requires 1. impressing him somehow and 2. drawing hard, strong boundaries and sticking to them. That's how Senna manages, I think- Firstly, she's distinguished herself as separate from the "peasants to conquer" with her magic and her strength of will. Secondly, they don't talk about politics, she makes it clear that she doesn't support everything he's doing, and she stands up for herself if he ever does something that crosses a line. Basically, an actual friend (someone who wasn't just kissing his ass) would keep him real just as much if not more than they indulge his villain fantasies.

With all that being said, I absolutely adore it when Veigar has friends, especially with people who completely disagree with him politically. It's a fantastic character dynamic and let's be real, he needs friends. 10/10 would read fluffy friendship fics between him and others all day. And I also do think that Veigar is nice to the people under his command- but only in the way that treating your underlings nicely increases their performance and loyalty, not that he sees them as equals. Obviously, you can't apply this philosophy to a romantic relationship.

Now, can I understand the appeal of a dramatic, long-winded tragedy fic where somebody pines for a romanticized version of Veigar and everything ends up falling apart because of it? Well, somebody wrote this really fucked up Syndra x Veigar fic that I can recommend if you're into that kind of angst! Just a warning, it's genuinely disturbing but it's really well done.

Hope this is a good response to your ask, anon.

#veigar #original content #league of legends #legends of runeterra #this is probably the most depressing character read I have for him? #don't take this post as canon! Ship whoever you want! That's none of my business! #please remember that flawed characters are interesting and it's not an attack to believe that veigs would be a shitty partner! #about that fic- it plays veigar entirely straight with no jokes and the tone similarly matches in angst #definitely some trigger warnings for gore and unhealthy pining in that one like sheeeeesh

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

Do you have any hopes for the season finale? I saw in another ask, you described the dynamic between rick and morty this season as "very weak, distant, and downright frankly boring" and I completely agree with you! I hope that, because this is most we'll see rick and morty interacting this season, it'll have at least a few moments of what makes their dynamic so interesting to watch.

(Ok i started airing my grievances with this season, which ended up being... long, so skip this paragraph (starting at / / /) to get to my thoughts on the finale)

Oh gosh I remember that ask (I think-). And yeah, maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. I'll probably look back on this season with retrospect, and a kinder, fonder view. Ik androgynousblackbox (think thats right) made a great point about it being the season FOR rickorty shippers. And sure, I agree on some bits, like Rick acting all pissy and partying the way you would if your ex got with someone new in the planetina ep. Overall though, i think my problem lies in that I was enjoying more individual moments than episodes themselves, especially the middle three. For example- Amortycan Grickfitti. Like, I really liked the idea of the Ship getting on a crazy adventure with Summer and Morty (and Chutback). I like the idea of a Beth-Jerry-Rick adventure. But put together, it's just kinda... meh? You know? I liked the first half of the Thanksgiving special... but it kinda dragged on after that. I get that they want to give other characters (particularly female ones) more attention, which is completely understandable and i encourage it(!) but I can't help but find it underwhelming. Like, Summer in the voltron ep was like- girl how are you STILL vying for Rick's attention! He's the worst! Haven't we done this already? (I will say though I ADORE how far Beth has come, props to her for continuing to seeing through her dad's BS. I was worried the character would relapse into a more typical s1/s2 Beth, and I'm glad she didn't). Some of these plots, funnily enough, seem more fitting of the comics (they actually had a voltron parody already). Fun and entertaining for two or three-something issues, not so much a 22 minute episode. i think most of my complaints come from the dynamic between our titular characters- ok, I know I'm very biased (I mean you can see it), but I came to the show primarily for their relationship. It doesn't even feel drama-fueled, just that they kinda... can't be arsed. I'm torn because on the one hand, they're unhealthily codependent and this separation is probably a good thing, but on the other... it doesn't feel natural? I'm not sure if that's the right word- it's like, season 4 had them practically joint at the hip, but all that's suddenly flung out the window. It just kinda feels like this "i got better things to do" vibe from both of them and its strange. The only time they both got a solo adventure (I'm classifying "solo" as an adventure where they spent a significantly large portion of time together, without the other family members) was in the sperm ep and Thanksgiving ep. And, well, in the Thanksgiving ep Morty felt like a side character in his own show, and the sperm ep... um. Yeah. I don't think it's AS bad as people were saying, but I was cringing the whole time (the second hand embarrassment for Morty was so strong I had to turn off the episode multiple times and return to it. It's just like- godammit MORTY). And I think there's good reason those two seemed to be the most disliked episodes overall. They're the ones RaM spend the most time together and it's... meh. Meh? Meh. I don't mean to say the season overall is bad (it has loads of good points, and its amazing for Smith family as a whole) just that if we're talking specifically about the dynamic between these two? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend a single episode from this season so far to use as an example of their relationship.

/ / /

There's one thing this season has been pretty good at, though. And it's showing us what happens when Rick is alone.

And that brings me to the finale.

"Who is Rick without Morty?"

Well... we already know the answer to that. Pathetic. Sad. Lonely.

This season has been phenomenal in humbling Rick. (And trust me I'm happy for it- every time someone beats the crap outta this shitty old man I'm like YES!!! IT'S WHAT HE DESERVES!). Ep 1 had his "nemesis" clearly besting him, ep 2 had Beth making constant digs (love her) and overall pointing out his extreme callousness and cruelty towards even himself(ves). Ep 3- when Morty shows interest in a girl and ditches him (like seriously it's not like he's moving out, chill) he immediately goes on a bender and develops a deep attachment to the first person he can (wearing yellow, funnily enough). Ep 4, he devotes himself to becoming an "honest man" for his new child, only for it to instantly be taken away from him. Ep 5 highlights how RICK is the asshole for making fun of and taking advantage of someone well-meaning and honest, if "simple", and how literally not cool that is. Ep 6 has his crazy rivalry with the president, and they both get smacked down a couple pegs for that. Ep 7 shows what happens when he allows himself to get carried away, and that he can end up driving everyone else away in the process (lucky they still wanted to save his ass when he needed them). And episode 8? Hooooo boy. Episode. 8. We see a direct parallel in Birdperson with Morty, and the whole "Rick and [insert] 100 years!" Rick has few people he cares about, arguably only one or two that he truly devotes himself to, but when he does, boy does he go HARD. We see younger Rick, optimistic, energetic, friendly and hopeful. And we see all of that crushed in minutes. Rick is desperate for a companion, someone to see the stars with. He needs someone there, someone he can trust and rely on to stay. Someone like Morty. So without Morty, who is Rick?

No one.

And the thing is, Morty doesn't need Rick anymore. Not like Rick needs him. In season 1, Morty was this bright-eyed kid who was new to the cosmos and the multiverse, who needed his grandpa there with him as they explored all these places together. But that's not him anymore. That's not them.

The promo has Morty using the portal gun to go somewhere w/o Rick's permission (i like to think it's boob world lol). It doesn't matter to me as much where he's going, as much as he's doing it alone. He doesn't just not need Rick there, he doesn't want him.

(Also correct me if im wrong but I've missed that sweet portal gun so much. I think the last ep was like- the first time this season we saw it).

Morty's response to Rick? "Replace me!". And wow. Wow. WOW. Morty doesn't give a FUCK! I think Rick thinks that because he's so smart, that he can offer so much, that Morty will come crawling back, and I don't think he will.

Hopes for the finale! Hmm. I mean, I definitely hope "evil" Morty makes a reappearance, haha. I think we all do tbh ;). I want to see some Morty development too, this season has been very Rick-centric (not that there's anything wrong with that!) so I wanna see what's in store for Our Boy. I really hope we get to see the Citadel again, and see the state it's in, but I doubt it. We know something super big is in store, it's just a question of what? Other hopes I have is some Summer + Beth action (please let them team up Im BEGGING) and Jerry too ahaha. I'd love if some other side characters made an appearance as well. Oh- I'm definitely expecting a dramatic cliffhanger at the end of the first half leading to the second half, with the kind of angsty music that leads into the credits (pls that shit is so good (OH WAIT imagine if it was like, for the damaged coda, but like- the chopin version or smth so it could be more subtle maybe bruhhhh)). Ok haha, maybe that's asking too much, the writers made it clear in the story train ep that they weren't gonna do that big dramatic showdown (... unless 👀). Oh, I'd also love some Premium Angst too, like someone getting kidnapped/nearly dying (like ACTUALLY nearly dying). These stakes better be so damn high I could spear a man on them! OH, also I remember androgynousblackbox (is that right? I hope it is) mentioned something along the lines that they could be driving Rick and Morty apart this season in order to have them come back together stronger than ever in an explosive finale, which, I'm strongly hoping for myself.

Thanks if you made it this far! If you have any thoughts on or hopes of your own for the finale please feel free to share! :D

#ohmygod im sorry #i rambled way too long #akdjsksaksn #someone needs to take this phone away #also AGAIN im not shitting on s5 as a whole i actually quite like it #its just the RaM dynamic thats lacking #but again that could be intention so ig we'll see #RaM #rick and morty #meta #? #long post #citrus speaks #oh wait i should probably tag to be safe #rickorty mention

[spockandawe]

For the ships, Liujiu, Bingjiu or YueJiu ?

Oh man, Shen Jiuuuuuuu

Okay, so my answers for these are going to share some themes, so I’ll try to keep it a bit brief instead of repeating myself x3. Let’s see if I can keep a handle on this without it getting away from me, haha

Liujiu:

Downsides:

So, my biggest logistical struggle with these two is... making it happen. They’re both pretty aloof and standoffish people, and they take a strong dislike to each other early on. I love me some good hatesex, which matters a lot for the bingjiu, but with liu qingge and shen jiu...... getting them to tolerate each other for long enough for hatesex is hard. 

And also, even though I love hatesex, for some reason I get really sad in here because they’re both going to take so much damage. Which is a common feature of hatesex? And I’m not opposed to hatesex for either of these men? But together... I don’t know, there’s something about how fragile Shen Jiu is and how bad at people Liu Qingge is, and the way they both amplify each other. I don’t know why this ship in particular makes me so anxious, but they definitely do, haha

Upsides: 

Such...... hateful............... hatesex.........................

Like, it hurts me to think about how much they’ll hurt each other, but think about how much they’ll hurt each other! The potential is EXQUISITE. Shen Jiu has a sharp tongue, he’s quick on his feet, and he’s very good at finding cruel, cutting things to say. Liu Qingge is willing to give you his everything, but only if you’re nice to him first, which Shen Jiu is absolutely not willing to be. And Shen Jiu is so proud, and so horribly brittle. He takes damage from someone trying to be nice to him, he’ll react so badly to someone seeing him that vulnerable and trying to be mean.

I don’t know, it’s one of those ships where I instinctively Crave it, but I would have so much trouble figuring out a scenario where I was both satisfied where why they would do it (fuck or die is the easiest scenario, but tbh, i have a real hard time justifying that, even if i enjoy it), and I was confident I wouldn’t exit the scenario just... super super sad. It’s something I would idly like to write, but I’d have to be in a VERY particular headspace :P

Bingjiu:

Downsides:

Okay, now, to be clear-- I do like some well-executed noncon. It can do LOVELY things with character and emotion and power dynamics. And we don’t get much original Binghe on page to draw characterization from, but I’m going to go ahead and assume that similar to how he was hungry for Shen Qingqiu in canon, he was also hungry for something from Shen Jiu. But in a situation like this where one party is clearly and persistently wanting, and the other party is clearly and consistently rejecting, I find straightforward noncon more often... boring.

Upsides:

So what we’re left with is messy, deceptive dubious consent and messy, manipulative hatesex. Which I love. These are some of my favorite favorite kinds of unhealthy ship dynamics, and I live for it. I’ve read some nice liujiu before, and I’ve read some nice bingjiu, and they were both well-executed, but the bingjiu definitely stuck with me more. The liujiu? Even if it was hateful, it tended to be honest, and like........... if I have the option to bring lies and coercion into the situation, why would I say no?

I feel like I’m regularly being introduced to new variants on this ship, but I don’t want to just rehash existing fics that I liked. But there’s the idea of transmigration within canon, where Bingge enters a younger version of himself (or there’s one where older Bingge and Shen Jiu enter swapped bodies for their younger selves). There’s Binghe coming back from the abyss and somehow (angrily, sexily, messily) working things out with Shen Jiu. Or there’s Binghe leaning on his dream abilities and flat-out lying/steering to Shen Jiu to get him into bed. Either way, it’s more complicated that just taking. There’s a psychological/emotional component to the maneuvering that makes it all deliciously interesting to me.

Ah, here’s an angle I think I missed before. With Shen Jiu’s past in the Qiu household, I find a straight-up forcing to be... uninteresting. Shen Jiu himself has so much baggage that unless a fic or whatever is focused on aftermath, I’m very *shrug* about the dynamic, I think canon did plenty well for itself without even fully Going There. For a dynamic as poisonous as this one, I’d much rather see Shen Jiu having all his walls and boundaries and defenses, and being coaxed out into the open (whether he knows what’s waiting for him or not) rather than having his walls just blasted down

(and if you can avoid totally taking out Shen Jiu, it’s so easy to add a mutually assured destruction element to this dynamic, which is ALWAYS a favorite of mine)

(also, Binghe is like the one person in the universe with the power to unlock the secret that Shen Jiu used to hide in Qiu Haitang’s room for safety and comfort, and just....... *grabby hands*)

Qijiu:

Downsides:

None. None? I adore this so much it kills me.

Wait no hold on, Yue Qingyuan cannot fucking communicate. That’s the one downside.

Upsides:

Oh my goddddd, THESE TWO! THEY MAKE ME FUCKING BAWL! They care about each other so, so, so, so much, and they come so close to breaking free of their childhood together, and then it all barely falls apart, and it probably wouldn’t have fallen apart if they didn’t each care so fucking much, and I want to scream.

There’s something about a ship. Where one party is a complete unrepentant asshole who loves one (1) person in the entire universe, and would give them the WORLD, and cares exactly 0% about anyone else... It kills me every time. Especially in the flashbacks, okay. It’s like hua cheng, only Shen Jiu is also still absolutely vicious with Yue Qi, but! Yue Qi cares not at all, he just adores Shen Jiu right back and doesn’t even register the meanness. He’ll maybe, maybe tell Shen Jiu to play nicer with the other kids, and everyone involves knows that he will do nothing to enforce that.

The Qiu household thing... breaks my goddamn heart, I swear. Yue Qi promising to come back for Shen JIu. Shen Jiu waiting and enduring and finally thinking that Yue Qi must have died, or he would have definitely come back. Their reunion, where Shen Jiu is like ‘oh.... I’m an intrinsically terrible person’ because he realizes he would prefer that Yue Qi was dead rather than knowing Qi-ge abandoned him. Yue Qingyuan’s emotional confession in canon that he didn’t abandon Xiao Jiu, he never wanted to abandon him, he trained too hard and too fast and almost destroyed his body and his teacher locked him in the caves for a year. 

The downside is that they love each other so much they can’t deal with the idea that Yue Qingyuan abandoned Shen Jiu! They can’t deal with it to such an extent that they can’t even come close to resolving the misunderstanding! The downside is that Shen Jiu loves Yue Qingyuan enough that he pushes him away, just for a chance that he can save him from Bingge, and that Yue Qingyuan loves Shen Jiu enough that he came back for him anyways, knowing that he was walking into certain death, whether it was for the chance that Bingge would take some mercy on Shen Jiu, or because he couldn’t bear the idea of abandoning Shen Jiu again! 

The downside is that Shen Jiu quietly dies, Shen Yuan quietly slips into his body, and that Yue Qingyuan goes on loving Shen Jiu without ever realizing he’s already gone.

#ask memes/ #spock replies #liujiu #bingjiu #qijiu #liu qingge #shen jiu #yue qingyuan #luo binghe #long post/ #noncon mention/ #dubcon mention/ #Anonymous

[thatblondeperson]

Thank you for writing good and healthy TimSteph, as I do find them to be too gosh darn cute, though your latest chapter probably contradicts that because Tim is angsty. It is a shame that a lot of people hate the ship and usually make one of the two super ooc to break them up, usually Steph unfortunately. But again thank you for writing TimSteph and I look forward to any future fics you do in the future, especially if they are TimSteph related.

I could argue for so long about how Stephanie isn't abusive, and how they're not a "toxic problematic couple" they're just teenagers with too much on their shoulders, trying to navigate their relationship with little prior experience. They both have "toxic" traits about them. Yes Steph starts out a bit too forward, and Tim is definitely cheating on Ari by kissing Steph. People also don't like to remember that Tim kissed Steph first without asking, because that would ruin their argument that Steph is sexually harassing Tim who is completely innocent. Or that Steph only wants s*x out of Tim and like, ok, show me the receipts. Where are they? Show me where in comics she has repeatedly tried to get him into bed with her or how that has been a central part of her character.

It baffles me now much time people spend rewriting a narrative to the extremes that prove their point. Someone could argue that I'm doing the same, but the difference is that I pull from the source and don't, you know, go completely batshit crazy with anger over a FICTIONAL CHARACTER. ACKKKKK. If I can do some good by writing them as just a very sweet, albeit misguided couple, then I'm doing my job.

I recognize that both of them are prone to bad behavior. They're both terrible at communication, they both have setbacks that would impact their relationship negatively. I added Tim's outburst in this chapter because in canon, Tim has made asshole comments super casually like he doesn't always seem to have a filter. He's also still rough around the edges and I think that makes him a got punchy. He's an idiot sometimes, they both are.

This idea that couples can't have any conflict is wild. Conflict of different kinds is an inevitable result of being human. It can be something simple such as disagreeing on what salad dressing to use at dinner, to larger conflicts that can sometimes cause fights. At the end of the day, the reason I think Tim and Steph have a healthy dynamic overall, is the trust and understanding that builds between them over time. There's a connection between that that's very much unbreakable, which is why you see them cone back to each other time and time again, whether it's for a relationship, or just for support.

And I'm not saying this to try to convince anyone that they should automatically get on board with this ship. People are free to like and dislike things as they wish, hell I'd probably be classified as an anti-shipper in most fandom spaces just because I'm a grump that dislikes most things. But holy shit. Hate TimSteph if you want, but leave it out of the tags and don't be an asshole about it.

I'm happy that you're enjoying the fic! I'm hoping that I'll get to continue it with sequel someday so I can show them growing stronger together, let them have the healthy "no drama" dynamic that I crave from them daily. Fingers crossed I don't procrastinate that too hard!! ❤💜

#personal #ask tbp #timsteph

[hamaon]

JGY or WWX?

I feel like a fair disclaimer to give before getting to Wei Wuxian is that I watched the Untamed despite, not because of, wangxian! I originally checked out the beginning of the animated series because someone I followed was getting into it, but I already had an inkling that the main romantic relationship in this romance wouldn’t be my cup of tea. The Untamed followed, more than half a year later, really only because I had hit the gorgeous soundtrack on youtube.

How I feel about this character Part of the reason I presumed I wouldn’t be into wangxian was because neither of the main players really spoke to me, and on this account I am happy to have been proven wrong! When I finished the show, Wei Wuxian was probably my favorite character. There's something very satisfying about a surface-level heroic main character hitting his absolute lowest points and starting to be actively harmful to himself and others. “This is all I’ve ever wanted for the class clown type of character”, I think I said at some point. Let it all burn.

I go back and forth on whether I find the flightier parts of his personality charming or annoying, but it’s a spectrum. The Untamed version is my favorite, character-wise.

All the people I ship romantically with this character Nie Huaisang, in the sense that, what with their roles in the plot, it would be fascinating to see how things would play out if this was the main romance, instead. Especially because romance would not be Nie Huaisang’s priority. What would the relationship trajectory even be, teenage sweethearts, ending with a definitive breakup by the finale? I've never sat down with the idea long enough to do anything with it, but sometimes it comes back to me. The main reason I'm into it is because hey, it's the main character & the main driving force behind the story! this is an intellectual puzzle to work out!, but they also had nice, easy chemistry when they were young and seemed to enjoy each other's company, which was something that was... not present in the actual main ship as far as I could see, and apparently my only kink is obvious mutual interest and stability in a relationship. I don't think they really had romantic/sexual chemistry in particular, but hey.

Wen Ning. I just think ningxian is cute. Also has lots of potential for difficult and uncomfortable exploration re: consent and autonomy.

But I think at the end of the day, the only relationship he has that just by the actual shape of it would be something I'd be interested in seeing turn into a romantic and/or sexual relationship is with Wen Qing, which, uh. Yeah. The fond push-and-pull, the two leaders, it’s good stuff. Just a physical relationship during their hunkering together time would be fun, too.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Jiang Cheng. I remember originally being pretty peeved about the fact that the romance (censored or not) is treated as the main focus when the Yunmeng duo is, to me, the real heart of the story. Let Lan Wangji be a supporting character.

I'm not sure if I really want a reconciliation between them, personally, but I want to note that it’s not because I think it would be fundamentally impossible, or because one or both of the characters is genuinely better off without the other. I think it would be very good for them if they managed some sort of genuine healing together!

I don’t want a reconciliation because thinking about their complete and total failure to communicate and consequently never making up makes me experience genuine agony in a very satisfying way. I have in the past gone into people's tags for the two of them and managed to work myself into a sobbing mess within five minutes. It is extremely cathartic.

My unpopular opinion about this character That time when he walks into a Jin party and starts throwing threats 3-2-1, part of me is going “fuck yeah” and part of me is looking at all the collateral damage servants trying to stay out of the way in the background, who never asked to be terrorized by this very powerful man. It’s not something that makes me dislike the character in any way or form, as stated before if anything it just makes him more interesting to me, I just don’t think that it was an uncomplicatedly ‘cool’ moment.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon The man should be actually responsible for his own misdeeds. I’ve heard people say that this was a censorship thing, but I have no sources on that.

And A-Yao gets to go under a read more.

How I feel about this character Continuing down the nostalgia lane, my initial reactions were “this man smiles very deliberately” and, towards the end, “man, fuck the gentry, you should get to win”.

I, hm. It feels sometimes like there are two kinds of opinions that fans have, and I don’t connect with either of them! There’s the “this character is an unrepentant asshole and I’m proud of that, you don’t need to make up sympathetic motivations for villains” which, while I agree that he can justify a lot to himself, just doesn’t ring true to me. I think that many of his actions were either forced by the circumstances, or understandable, or sympathetic and made with decent intentions, or not particularly bad compared to shit that other characters and their society as a whole gets to.

Obviously there are all these breakdowns about the specific acts of altruism that he does that in-universe are rare from someone that high up in power, and those are great, but even without all of that, he was a stable, peaceful, competent ruler who wasn’t doing any large-scale nasty shit after a series of complete nightmares on the throne, and upsetting that long-standing balance should bring about repercussions for several social classes that does more harm than anything he was individually doing at any point.

As for the other take, there’s the “oh no he’s so small and so cute and should be pampered so much” which I don’t... get, emotionally, and additionally it is reaaal hard for me to see the character as someone who either wants or would even particularly enjoy being the one being taken care of. Usually my response is-

There’s that part during Nie Mingjue’s capture in Empathy where he’s just, running the whole show? Like, on one hand it is very important that he’s probably the weakest person in the room, and might lose in a direct confrontation against even the random soldiers standing to the sides, and if he plays his cards wrong or even sub-optimally one of the two big strong cultivators in his vicinity is going to pulverize him, and also aware of all of this at all times and living in low-key terror. But also -- he pulled it off.

If I’m working myself toward some emotional response with “A-Yao small” it doesn’t end with “someone should hold him 🥺” but with “and doesn’t that just make it all the sweeter that he sat on that throne”. (I have two kinks, and the other one is power reversal.)

All the people I ship romantically with this character Only Lan Xichen, really, but there are some tentative side paths to take!

Qin Su, in that the initial attraction would be fun to explore, and then it becomes less about the relationship dynamic and more about the underlying horror.

Nie Huaisang, in a not-particularly-serious, one-sided, never-happened-and-now-it-never-will kind of way. The ideal would be Jin Guangyao thinking of Nie Huaisang as a tiring but cute little brother figure (he doesn't have those, all of his family relationships sans mom take a weird turn at some point! this one sure is about to!), while Nie Huaisang has a lil crush, and then it goes all the way to hell. ...And I know that I set “won’t happen” as a precondition, but I guess if there was a character who keeps the (fierce or not) corpse of the late Chief Cultivator close in an effort to feel alive post-canon, Nie Huaisang is the one I’d want for that role.

Jiang Cheng, because that family unit is so under-explored in canon, and because out of a handful of favorite characters these two are usually my number one, so watching them interact with each other can be fun just because of that. But in my heart of hearts I want Jiang Cheng to stay forever single by choice, and really I'm just here for platonic family shenanigans with Jin Ling. (I've written some of this, but out of everything it's probably the least likely to ever see the light of day.)

But really only Lan Xichen. When I was watching the early episodes and didn't remember the characters well and in my head these two were only “the disturbingly handsome older brother” and “a bit part soldier (lol) from some other sect” I really imprinted on that goodbye scene, like damn, look at these characters who are friendly with each other and showing obvious interest. It's only the circumstances that are getting in the way! If I were to ever read fic from this show, it would be these two. (This was all a counter-reaction to early wangxian haha.) But increasingly it goes to show that what I'm really into is people having mutual and mutually recognized affection for each other, the negotiated part in the relationship being less about whether it'll happen and more about how to go about it. More romances that start with getting together instead of ending there.

I am laughing at my past self here though, after actually finishing the show my thoughts on xiyao were that it was nice that it was both there and stable (until, you know) and unknowable, whatever the shape of their relationship in private they are aware of it and have made their peace with it, and that's all I need to know, and now I'm sitting here with several WIPs, wondering if this is what finally pushes me to start publishing fanfiction.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Lan Xichen. No, I’m not interested in a non-romantic* read on their relationship, yes, I just want him here, too.

Also, the only other relationships of note here are with Meng Shi, Jin Ling and Qin Su, and using ‘non-romantic OTP’ for any of those feels off to me. Meng Shi and Jin Ling are at too much of an uneven level, Qin Su doesn’t reach OTP levels even if the romantic filter is off. Su Minshan and Xue Yang might be a better fit, but again, OTP level is too high. Early-canon Nie Huaisang... maybe.

*non-sexual is fine. never officially getting together w/mutual acknowledgement is fine.

My unpopular opinion about this character I think I already went off, so. The hat is fine, and the hate sounds performative and weirdly ignorant at times. I don't love the Untamed version, but it’s fine and the ones in other adaptations are fantastic, even. The warm yellow-brown combination looks really nice. More of the characters should wear hats, actually! Which I realize is an opinion influenced by historical Japanese and Korean dramas, which are of a different genre altogether (also not Chinese, but hats in official settings are a constant in all of these cultures). Nevertheless.

I wish it was used only post-timeskip in the Untamed, too, though, for more variety in costuming and to further differentiate the pre- and post-timeskip versions of the character.

...................................and a specific xiyao pet peeve also: I am becoming increasingly wary of the... either super common or I just happen to keep finding these, take where he’s some sort of unwilling/particularly hesitant participant in this relationship. Like I went back to watch parts of episode 4 (to figure out why it was that I was so sure Meng Yao would be swinging a sword around in future episodes and my conclusion is: because everyone else was swinging theirs) and even the initial interactions in the goodbye scene are like-

Meng Yao literally runs up to a guy waaay out of his league like “Hello I am bringing myself Forth because I have the audacity to assume you might Personally Want to Know that I am leaving and here are some pretty personal reasons why (gosh you really are lovely)”

Reactions I’ve seen to this: look at the little dude running away from his emotions

Me: w h a t

And then the natural conclusion here is that Lan Xichen is there to love him (with his dick and/or sunny personality) until he’s forced to accept it [serene face emoji] and it makes me. Not enjoy it much.

Ofc this doesn’t include normal human hesitations one might have about... anything and everything in life, really, but when it’s treated like this automatic character/relationship hurdle I’m just hhhh

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon I'm pretty satisfied with things as they stand? Just like the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian makes me feel cathartic agony, Jin Guangyao's fate makes me feel cathartic rage. Look at the low-born bastard child go down the stairs of life, one last time!

......Sometimes I have my weak moments and do wish he had gotten away in the end, though.

#tägäämätön #huaisang gets around in this hm #xiyao-feels

[diloph]

I recall Adam Malkovich being an Other M character. I take it you don't like him or Other M?

Oh boy, isn’t that a can of worms?

Yeah, having played Other M all the way through more than once, the shortcomings of the game are pretty much on display from the get-go. Lackluster voice-acting, confusing and sometimes nonsensical plot-points as well as baffling story structure; its only saving grace is its gameplay and even then, I’d only really enjoyed Samus’ mobility and physical ability to grapple/finish opponents.

Of note, the characterization of Samus is all over the place. As I’m going through the E-Manga right now and have seen other characters with similar, I’m not adverse to Samus having some form of PTSD from her traumatic backstory it’s just that it’s done in such a piss-poor manner that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The Ridley confrontation is nonsensical, considering that she’s reduced him to a bloody smear several times over by now. On a ship where everything from Zebes seems to have been cloned (including the Metroids and an android emulating Mother Brain) Samus wasn’t even expecting him to appear in any capacity whatsoever?

I can understand her shock, fear and even hesitance to re-engage, but it’s never stopped her before; why did Meta Ridley not provoke the same reaction aboard the Orpheon, according to canon his first resurrection proper? Or to play into post-Other M events, such as Ridley’s return in Super/Proteus Ridley? Ridley-X?

Why does this appearance of Ridley reduce her to a frozen state?

Spoilers for when I get to it, but the E-Manga does this far better. That’s not to say that perhaps it goes too far as well, I’ve yet to have a good hard think about it, but the execution is far better than what happens in Other M and matches what had happened in the volume by that point. Samus’ life is hardship and suffering and it all comes to a head in those particular scenes.

But that confrontation in Other M is just the start of the odd decisions made that reduce Samus from the incredibly capable woman she’d been portrayed as up to that point, into a naive, shrinking character with nothing resembling her drive or will.

She becomes unable to make even the most minor decisions, especially if they fly in the face of common sense (a reoccurring theme with characters I dislike in “serious” works, as you might have noticed, so having one I like suddenly doing that almost seems like a challenge to get me to dislike them).

I’m supposed to believe that this woman left the Federation to become an independent bounty hunter? It extends beyond her character to even her design; she loses a foot and two inches of height so that she’s shorter than all these guys, all of her established muscle and tone evaporates and high-heels appear on the Zero Suit that, while skintight, was deliberately designed to NOT have them.

And, of course, her general (borderline suicidal) deference to Adam.

It’s so bad that I’ve genuinely come to believe that this version of Samus is a GF clone that was meant to act out her own Shadow Moses simulation, like Raiden did in MGS2, only for her to go rogue and save the day regardless.

As a matter of fact, the whole game feels like a bad attempt to emulate a Metal Gear game, with its rumination and navel gazing, but lacks the talent or focus to actually discuss the topics it wants to.

It’s badly done and what’s worse is, even in Metal Gear’s most nonsensical or badly written moments, they’re at least funny or tragic and Other M is neither.

Which brings me to Adam Malkovich.

Oh, Adam, Adam, Adam.

What the fuck am I meant to see in you? Samus’ dialogue tells us one thing, the actions, visual direction, the way in which he addresses Samus, orders her, controls her and ignores her tells us another.

We’re expected to root for this guy. To agree with Samus’ assessment of him. But all it does is further that idea that Samus is, in fact, an idiot who needs people more capable than her, to do everything for her.

Simply put, Samus, when not doing everything in her power to remember the Baby (another botched take on what was fondly remembered, the bond between her and the infant Metroid has now forever been tainted, even with Samus Returns’ efforts to save that whole thing) talks about Adam, how wonderful this commanding officer is, how patient and kind and caring and-

Yeah, no, he’s a dick and he acts like he can’t stand Samus’ very presence.

Without even going into the hated authorization mechanic, he never once looks at her with anything resembling warmth in his face; you could put that down to the models looking uncannily robotic to begin with, but Anthony Higgs seems to be the most expressive and can do... emotion. Even in dialogue and his VA’s recorded lines, there are no smiles, no change in inflection or in-jokes.

He comes off not as an aloof CO, but somebody who dislikes being in the same room as Samus herself.

And the big part is, for all Other M draws from previous canon and the E-Manga, now that I’ve read further ahead, guess what? Adam is a completely likable human being in it.

By that, I mean he’s an average filler manga character and not a raging asshole; he’s ranked higher than Samus, but is a bit accommodating towards her situation when they meet and later they do seem to have struck up something similar to the relationship stated in Other M.

He jokes with her, smiles, when she goes independent he goes out of his way to help her, she’s quick to remind him of her boundaries and his lack of control over her which he quickly agrees with. Samus and Adam have a much healthier working relationship there and the one in Other M is meant to reflect it? Rubbish.

In short, from what I’ve gathered, Other M was an attempt to canonize or at least further develop the E-Manga and completely shot itself in the foot by contradicting the E-Manga, prior Metroid canon, Samus’ character and archetype and ultimately, itself.

But hey, looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, at least we got a game to put up there with Hotel Mario and the CDI Zeldas that rounds out the embarrassing meme trifecta of Nintendo’s Big Three.

#Metroid

[thanksjro]

Zero Point, a Last Stand of the Wreckers prose story- I Sure Hope You Like Eye Imagery

Ooh, an artsy start to our prose this go around.

This story takes place after the events of Last Stand of the Wreckers, with our dear friend Springer well into his Overlord-induced coma.

Roadbuster is a gentle soul, when he’s not busy ripping people’s spines out.

Roadbuster’s been put in charge of the Debris station since Springer’s out of commission. It’s boring. He’s bored. He has a routine he follows, but there’s only so much grave-visiting/security-checking/weapon-building/eyeball-cleaning a guy can do within a 120 hour day before it becomes less of a routine and more of a compulsive habit.

Springer’s eyes are a specific shade of blue known as Matrix Blue- supposedly a marker for being Matrix Compatible. Considering that Senator Shockwave had to go and get multiple guys some nonconsensual plastic surgery to make sure they could actually fit the Matrix, I’m going to go ahead and say that that’s some bunk someone made up to hype up the mysticism of Primehood.

Springer’s obviously in a bad way, and it’s not looking like things are going to get any better. You can tell, because this is the point where his internal monologue kicks in, reflecting on just what it’s like to die, and his past. Sure hope they don’t have any vats filled with corrodia gravis on this space station.

Back before the war was The War, Springer was young and naive, but his boobs were just as awesome as they are now.

Springer became slightly disenchanted as his time on the front lines went on, thinking that he needed to do more to help the Autobot Cause. He decided he wanted to join the Wreckers, though he knew next to nothing about them at the time, and everything that he’d heard probably should have sent him running in the opposite direction. Decepticons caught by Impactor and friends would kill themselves in the middle of the street if they managed to escape.

But we’re dealing with a mind that’s been shaped by a civil war, now aren’t we? Impressions are warped for Autobots, because Decepticons are evil, and therefore they deserve that sort of thing, now don’t they? Nobody is immune to propaganda.

Springer first met Impactor at Sherma Bridge, where he saw him punch through a ship’s windshield, spear the driver’s head with his drill-hand, and then land the thing in front of a memorial statue. Gee, what a guy.

Springer, even though he’d seen all this and was feeling a little wary about this whole situation- which is a very valid reaction to witnessing a murder, no matter who’s been killed- decides to get put on the list of reservists for the Wreckers.

It’s amazing they even bother with Rung at all, isn’t it?

Springer’s interview is a violent one, because this is the Wreckers, and we don’t ever go half-mast on anything- Impactor falls out of the fucking sky in the middle of a huge battle and tells Springer that he’ll be coming with him. And that was that.

Oh hey, it’s the IDW2 eating chairs. And hello, Kaput, it’s nice to see you again.

Kaput’s diagnosis is as bleak as it is cryptic- Springer’s probably for sure going to die. Kaput seems to only exist to tell people they’re dying or dead, unless they’re the once and future Optimus Prime.

Kup’s pretty bummed out about this whole thing, pacing like a 1950’s father in the birth and delivery waiting room. Kaput doesn’t seem to notice, or is too lost the the medical sauce to realize that him going on about how they fixed that weird humming noise Springer’s legs used to make is making folks anxious.

Roadbuster asks just what exactly’s wrong, if they fixed everything from his ripped-off face to his weird humming legs. Kaput doesn’t like confrontation, so he blathers on for a bit before admitting that they haven’t found the zero point.

Roberts, how many times are you going to do this to Kup? First Rodimus, now Springer- did Kup bully you in primary school? I’m starting to get concerned.

That was six months ago, and while Roadbuster had been polite about it at the time, all the nothing that’s happened since has made him feel a little less kindly toward Kaput.

Okay, who’s ready to find out why doctors and mechanics aren’t the same thing on Cybertron? Because I sure am!

So they have to account for the soul, is what you’re saying. Is this about having some sort of bedside manner, because the mental aspect of healing has to be taken into account? Or is it more to do with the bizarre implications of the soul being physical as opposed to metaphysical, and therefore capable of being destroyed? The ethical conundrum that the spark presents is fascinating.

If a break happens between these two nerves, it can cause the energy of the spark to be redirected away from the points it’s meant to go, like a heart with a hole in it. Yes, the blood is still inside the body, but it’s not inside the veins and is therefore useless, and in fact is directly harming the body.

Roadbuster, after reflecting on the grim reality Springer is currently living, breaks out Wreckers: Declassified. This isn’t reading for personal enjoyment or ego-stroking however- Roadbuster actually greatly dislikes reading about himself in Fisitron’s datalogs. No, this is more of a last-ditch effort to save Springer’s life.

Roadbuster learned to read to act on a theory brought up by Rung- he and Kup are friends, on account of both of them being very old- that the spark is psychosomatic in nature. It can be influenced by intense emotional responses to potentially heal the physical self. They’re willing to try this, because nobody really knows how exactly a spark works, so Rung’s guess is as good as any.

Story time for the evening picks up on a chapter in a story called “The Wreckers’ Air Attack”, getting right into where Megatron’s about to shoot Impactor in the back of the head. But not without pontificating first.

This is so over the top, so romantic- and I’m talking Romantic as in the literary style. I don’t even know what to say here. Luckily Impactor does.

Fisitron may not know what this whole scene is about, but we as the reader do. The hardcover trade edition of Last Stand was published roughly a six months after “Chaos Theory”, where we got THIS exchange:

If this is what Megatron’s poetry is like, it’s no wonder Impactor isn’t a fan. Purple prose out the wazoo, incredibly flowery imagery- I’m sure there’s an audience for all that, but I doubt Impactor’s a part of that crowd.

Megatron is distracted just long enough for Springer to descend upon him on the sky sled, like a murderous Santa Claus, jumping off so the sled can slam into Megatron and send him careening down the side of the mountain.

That’s taken care of. What next?

It’s at this point that Roadbuster checks what chapter they’re on, because he’s really not the biggest fan of Fisitron’s writing style. Guess he isn’t one for fanfiction, or adverbs. Turns out, each of these datalogs are less blog posts and more fully-fledged books. Every single one of them.

Roadbuster’s feeling kind of hopeless at this point, and it’s not hard to understand why; there hasn’t been any sort of response from Springer at all in all the months he’s been reading to him.

He considers the contents of the only datalog he hasn’t cracked open yet, outright skipping over it every time- #113, the one about Pova. He doesn’t ever read it because it’s full of false information, as was made very clear in Last Stand #5.

Springer joined the 17th iteration of the Wreckers, after a hazing ritual so brutal, it required the addition of an amendment to the Misuse of Weapons Act. Horrifying. None of the original members of the Wreckers had survived the war by the point Springer had been brought on- except for Valve, who does not count because he left the Autobots to go be a Decepticon, a fact which will never be expanded upon, much like Eugenesis Skywarp having been an Autobot for some friggin’ reason.

Springer, once on the inside, realizes that maybe the Wreckers are a little too dark a shade of gray for him to be able to sit comfortably with- the battering of POWs just a little too enthusiastically, the bending of the rules a little too sharply, the blatant disregard for the Tyrest Accord being smoothed over with an “oopsie doodle!” It’s looking like the Wreckers aren’t completely on the straight and narrow; shocking, I know.

Still, he doesn’t really see the point in arguing with it, instead just trying to make sure that he’s not the one doing the maiming and such. Complicity is not the answer to this sort of behavior, Springer.

When Squadron X came onto the scene, Impactor was so upset at the perceived slight- because obviously if Squadron X was the Decepticons answer to the Wreckers, and they were a bunch of murderous assholes, what did that make the Wreckers?- that he made it everyone else’s problem. The Wreckers WOULD destroy Squadron X. It was his new goal in life.

This went exactly where you’d expect such a singleminded hate-boner to go.

After the execution of eight POWs who should have been let go due to being on sovereign territory, Springer decided that enough was enough and called the cops on Impactor. High Command had been itching to get this guy back under control, so things moved pretty quickly after that.

Springer resigned from the group afterwords, but then everyone started coming out of the woodwork, pestering him to come back and LEAD them, because they were worried about being shut down. The likes of Roadbuster and Whirl don’t exactly make for good executives. After thinking about it, and after the trial, of course, he agrees to come back on as the leader of the Wreckers. So began a new era.

Back in the real world, Roadbuster’s trying to read the falsified account of Pova, but just can’t go through with it. He decides to tell Springer the truth, if only so he won’t die with a bunch of bullshit bouncing around in his brain.

Springer did so many drugs in Eugenesis, he BECAME drugs in Last Stand.

So Springer is apparently the greatest hype man to ever live, as he pumped everyone up so much about getting Squadron X, they just went completely feral the moment they saw their ship. Squadron X wasn’t even doing anything, and the Wreckers were frothing at the mouth.

When this lead to the inevitable, and Springer was trying to break down the door to prevent Impactor from racking up eight war crimes in under two minutes, Roadbuster and Whirl had a little moment. They knew what had happened, they knew that they couldn’t stop it, they knew that Springer couldn’t stop it, and they were pleased as punch about it.

Once Impactor had been arrested, the other Wreckers were worried that they’d be the next to get ratted out. To try and prevent this, they created a false narrative to lure Springer back into the group, placing him in a position of leadership to soothe his worries about the others having been complacent in the murder of Squadron X.

Roadbuster finishes off this horrifying admission with a non-apology, complimenting Springer on being a good leader. Then he notices that Springer’s got a tear in his eye.

That’s a [ tair ] , not a [ teer ]. It took me a second, too. English is a nightmare of a language.

He tries to buff the tear out, manually peeling back Springer’s eyelid to do it, only to find that maybe Rung wasn’t completely full of shit after all.

#transformers #jro #last stand of the wreckers #zero point #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #prose writing #wreckers trilogy