#ESPECIALLY since we don’t see his offscreen leadership

[katsidhe]

Sam and Dean Breakups, Part Two: Involuntary

Part One: Voluntary

Sorted by how much longer I think they should have lasted. 

Unlike in part one, pretty much all of these involve Sam or Dean dealing with either possession or grief, which adds additional flavor of

5.22-6.01/6.12/6.22 (Sam in the Cage): a year/a year and a half, one/twelve/twenty-two episodes. Perfect. Chef’s kiss. We get both a long time of Dean without a part of Sam, and a long time of getting to know this significant, different part of Sam. Which all builds delightfully to a crescendo when we finally get Sam back fully—and even then, his memories form yet another barrier. Getting him back in pieces wonderfully, brilliantly permits us to still have Sam present while simultaneously preserving focus on the length and enormity of his absence, and of the Cage’s impact. S10 and s14, take fucking notes: this is how you emphasize offscreen transformation while keeping your characters visible. 

15.20 (Sam after Dean’s death): probably around forty years, part of one episode. I, personally and privately, want to read several different large sets of novel-length fics about Sam’s life after Dean’s death. Under absolutely no circumstances do I want any of these reified as canon. Let Sam’s recovery be nebulous; let it be under perpetual construction; let it be blurry and private and vague; let him build it in a place we can’t see and can’t reach.  

3.11 (Mystery Spot): one day/nine months, one episode. Imagining this as two episodes instead of one is delightful, I will admit. However, I prefer the horror of it contained to just one episode, to really drive home the insignificance of this to everyone but Sam. An event with such horrific and outsize impact on him is contained to what, for the rest of the world, is just one Tuesday. Instead of it becoming an event like 2.21 that Dean externalizes, that is dragged out and explored for an additional episode and then an additional year, 3.11 is totally internal, and not something Sam mentions again.  

2.21 (Sam in Cold Oak): three days, one and a half episodes. Seeing Sam apart from Dean in strange circumstances and yet confident, in his element, is so enjoyable that I’d gladly see this extended. This would also serve to ease how abrupt the ramp-up to the Azazel confrontation is--allow more time to flesh out the idea of demon hunger games. One thing I don’t think requires extension is how long Sam actually spends dead. The brevity of the interruption, how quickly Dean makes his decision, is kinda the point. 

2.14 (Sam possessed by Meg): two weeks, one episode. Similar to Mystery Spot—lots of character impact contained to just one episode, a lot of Sam internalizing. But here, I think the story could have benefitted from more separation: dwelling on Sam alone rather than only on Dean’s reaction to him, lending additional horror to Sam’s true predicament rather than only to Dean’s fears of him ~going bad~, and giving s2 a greater sense of urgency and direction. 

3.16-4.01 (Dean in Hell): four months, less than an episode. Much as I would have personally enjoyed the impact of an additional episode of Dean’s absence, the structure of s4 is such that Sam’s team-up with Ruby is revealed gradually: s4 is told expressly from Dean’s POV, as he struggles with suppressing and then remembering Hell, and discovering Sam’s extracurriculars. To change this would be to change our perception of the manner in which Dean experiences these events. Even so, the significance of Hell to Dean is not dealt with the way it is with Sam, nor is Dean’s absence or Sam’s grief particularly keenly felt. Putting Hell onscreen is a bad idea, and yet having Sam and Dean split up and apart from each other for longer in the beginning of season 4 would please me. Sam apart from Dean and training to kill demons with Ruby, versus Sam apart from Dean and trying to recover with Amelia: united in their forbiddenness, united in their othering.  

7.23-8.01 (Dean in Purgatory): one year, less than an episode. One problem with extending this is that there would be longer Purgatory scenes, and Purgatory is objectively extremely boring. And I can, to some extent, appreciate the structure of s8 as-is: with flashbacks illustrating their lost year and with the emphasis on the lack of understanding between Sam and Dean. But I can’t help but feel that this point would have been illustrated more effectively without the flashback structure, or at the very least with less of it--if instead, we’d gotten a few episodes in the beginning showing Sam’s collapse and subsequent recovery with Amelia, alongside Dean’s friendship with Benny and issues with Cas. The flashbacks add a tone that removes urgency, since we know so clearly and explicitly how everything ends up. It’s basically a less deft version of s4′s structure, which I’m also on the fence about: and there, at least, the mystery was both a benefit for the audience and representative of how Dean was processing, neither of which is really true in s8. S8 needed better integration of the reality of Dean and especially Sam’s separate lives. 

11.23-12.02 (Sam abducted by the BMoL): a few days, two and a half episodes. Sam should have stayed abducted longer. It was definitely the high point of s12, and of the BMoL’s status as villains. I think that Sam having to deal with the BMoL from within their internal structures would have been really fun, and a nice change of pace! Like, arguing his way out from under a bureaucracy, or even letting Sam be persuaded on the effectiveness of their tactics from within the institution—it would have made the BMoL both more distinct and more frightening. Also, look, it’s just plain fun that Sam’s being tortured and thinks Dean is dead, who actually wants that party to end?? 

13.23-14.02 (Dean possessed by Michael): around a month, one and a half episodes. What a missed opportunity. Every day I wake up and I weep for what s14 could have been. The secret good s14 that lives in my head is episode after episode after EPISODE of Jack, Sam, Nick, and Cas all coping with each other and with Dean’s absence. The tangible effects of the events of 13.23 require time to unwind, and they require that Dean not be around: I want to see Sam dealing with victory, with grief, with leadership, and with a mission; I want Sam and Nick to accidentally get locked in some room in the bunker together; I want family dinner with all four of them. I want Jack to yell at Sam. I want Dean to cope with possession in a way more lasting and meaningful than bouts of dizziness; I want Sam to cope with how he imagines Dean might be coping. This is the most ripe for conflict and recovery and pain that the show has ever been in Dean’s absence, prove me wrong. And it was squandered. 

#sam and dean #sam and soullessness #dean and purgatory #dean and hell #sam and possession #dean and possession #sam and grief #2.14 #2.21 #3.11 #4.01 #6.01 #8.01 #12.01 #14.01 #15.20

[haloud]

My main problem with Michael and Alex and Malex in both seasons was that they are basically allowed to actually talk about stuff twice in a whole season and the conversations always need to be dramatic because apparently CAM thinks that's what great writing is. Michael's hand comes up once in 2x01, and then 10 episodes later after zero conversations in between. All of Alex piecing together Michael's backstory also happened off-screen and 2x05 seemed to retcon much of it. It's all bad writing.

i will say that television writing is a collaborative beast, so while on some level the buck will always stop with the showrunner, and it’s the job of leadership to hold the reins and keep the story going in the right direction, there are also story editors, episode writers, and a hundred others stirring the pot...so I don’t think it’s quite fair to put all the blame on carina. carina’s leadership and her writing, directly, also gave us so much of the malex that we love.

but yeahhh and the thing is the conversation about michael’s hand didn’t HAVE to happen with alex. it should have happened with max; it could have happened with isobel; it could have happened with maria, since she’s the only other person who even mentions it; it could have happened with just about anyone, if the show as a whole saw it (both michael’s hand itself and the violation of his consent/bodily autonomy) as the massive issue it deserves to be treated as.

in a short order show some things will always happen off screen, so i don’t have as much of an issue with alex piecing together the alien stuff offscreen, especially since we’re already watching Liz do it on screen, and she’s the main character, not alex. (though it would be nice to see them put their heads together sometime lol LET PEOPLE HAVE FRIENDS S3)

the malex flashback in 2x05 is tonally and continuity-ally a complete disaster and it makes my head hurt and also my heart hurt because it’s still so cute lol but IT SHOULDN’T EXIST 😂

#forced healing #nonconsensual healing #fandom discourse #rnm s2 critical #Anonymous

[seadramonster]

Why some cats aren’t in the DF

Since the beginning of the time we learned where certain cats went, a lot of people have been asking why certain cats went to StarClan or the Dark Forest. The most popular examples being; Thistleclaw (before Spottedleaf’s Heart), Ashfur, Rainflower, and Appledusk.

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that the Dark Forest is where all the bad cats go, no matter what. But that’s not what we’ve been shown in canon. Let’s take a look at all of the Dark Forest cats to see what they did that made them go to the Dark Forest and use the information to figure out why the cats people think should have gone to the Dark Forest went to StarClan instead.

NOTE: I’m only going over the cats in the Dark Forest whose crimes we know. Cats such as Houndleap, Maggottail, and such who we barely know anything about will not be discussed, since we have no idea what they did. Although we can assume it was something similar to everyone else in the Dark Forest.

Antpelt- Antpelt chose to join the Dark Forest because "These are my Clanmates more than WindClan ever was. Where else would I go?". He could have been in StarClan, but chose the Dark Forest instead.

This shows us that a cat can, if they are capable of going to StarClan, choose to go to the Dark Forest instead.

Brokenstar- Heavily broke the code by training kits too young, killing them and his own father (perhaps even others offscreen), exiling elders, and driving out another Clan

Darkstripe- Attempted to kill a kit by tricking her into eating poison, betrayed his Clan not once, but twice by leaving to join Tigerstar and then joining BloodClan immediately after.

So why is Darkstripe in the Dark Forest for being a traitor and other cats who left their Clan not? Well, aside from attempting to kill a kit, Darkstripe was never loyal to any Clan, just Tigerstar. And when Tigerstar died, instead of fighting alongside his new Clan, he instead betrayed them, too. 

Cats who leave their Clan for another usually do so with good intentions and are either loyal to their new Clan, or end up returning to their old one and are loyal to that one now that they realize it’s where they belong. Even if the decision was selfish, it was never done so to harm others. Darkstripe just wanted to be on the winning side, and once Tigerstar was gone, he had no one left he cared about except himself.

Hawkfrost- He just wanted power and wasn’t afraid to turn on his own Clan to obtain it. It’s heavily implied he struck up a deal with Mudclaw to help him take leadership from Onewhisker, he talked Ashfur into luring Firestar into the fox trap, and then tried to kill Brambleclaw when Brambleclaw refused to kill his own leader.

Mapleshade- I know a lot of people have pity for her and all, but like. She was a literal serial killer. She fell in love with a cat from another Clan, had his kits, lied to her Clan about the father of her kits by letting them believe it was the cat her mate had accidentally killed, made the stupid decision to take her kits across a flooded river in the middle of a storm, and it got her kits killed. Then she killed a medicine cat, the cat who she had manipulated into believing Mapleshade’s kits were her brother’s, attempted to murder a pregnant queen, and killed the father of her kits. Mapleshade was a victim, yes, but so was everyone she killed. She was not forced to go across the river, she chose that path herself. More on Appledusk later.

Redwillow- Joined the Dark Forest in the final battle against the Clans and was killed by Blackstar. Pretty clear why he ended up there

Thistleclaw- The big one. Spottedleaf’s Heart confirmed he chose the Dark Forest and this is all but confirmed in Crookedstar’s Promise already when he reveals he thinks StarClan are weak fools. While he was loyal to his Clan, he was also incredibly bloodthirsty and made it obvious that he wanted to destroy the rest of the Clans. A medicine cat had a whole prophecy saying he would bring unnecessary war and bloodshed as a leader. He also nearly had his apprentice murder a kit and attempted to kill the deputy of another Clan. It’s possible he may have killed cats from other Clans or from outside the Clans offscreen, but as far as we know, he didn’t kill anyone from his Clan.

Tigerstar the first- I don’t think I need to explain this one

So what do we know about the Dark Forest from this? What qualities does a cat need to have to be in there? Well, they.

Need to have betrayed their Clan maliciously and have little to no loyalty whatsoever, even to their new Clan if they have one,

Needed to have severely broken the code by either murdering cats without good reason or attempting to kill an innocent kit,

And/or could have gone to StarClan, but chose the Dark Forest instead

The Dark Forest is an extreme punishment for cats who were never loyal to their Clan, or who killed others without a second thought. It’s not meant to be the place where bad cats go. It’s meant to be the place where traitors and serial killers go. Cats who are bad people but never really did anything wrong still go to StarClan, because at the end of the day, they were still loyal to their Clan as a whole.

So now it’s time to go over some cats people think should have gone to the Dark Forest, but didn’t;

Ashfur- This one was the subject to heavy debate. Here’s what I think. Ashfur may or may not have known what Hawkfrost was doing exactly. It’s possible he didn’t know Hawkfrost’s entire plan and thought Firestar getting caught in a fox trap wasn’t part of it and ran to get help. Or, maybe he decided he didn’t want to go through with it after all and chickened out.

As for what happened with the Three... Well, he did attempt to kill his Clanmates, but again, nothing came of it. He chickened out again. And it should be stated here that like. The three were adults. They were not harmless kits! They knew of their powers at this point! Nothing was stopping them or even Squirrelflight from just grabbing Ashfur and hauling him off the tree or throwing him to the fire. Especially Lionblaze whose entire power centers around him not getting hurt in a fight. It would have been a four on one fight if everyone fought him off. They could have easily stopped Ashfur at any time, but they didn’t, because the plot demanded they didn’t. They were never going to die there, not without a fight. Maybe if Ashfur had died there, he would have ended up in the Dark Forest, but he didn’t. He never actually killed anyone, never actually physically attacked anyone himself, and even warned the Clan that his leader was in danger. He was just focused on getting revenge against one specific cat, but we never saw him treat the rest of the Clan poorly. And for StarClan, his loyalty and the fact he never actually killed anyone was enough to let him in on a bullshit excuse.

Appledusk- A shitty, shitty person. But overall, loyal to his Clan. We never saw what Appledusk was like to the rest of his Clan offscreen. All we know is that he was cheating on his mate with Mapleshade (who Mapleshade clearly had no idea was his mate). That’s basically the only crime we’ve seen him commit. Is he a bad person? Yes. Yes, he is. But he never murdered someone, and admitted to his Clan he thought his relationship with Mapleshade was a mistake. As far as StarClan was concerned, that’s all it was. A mistake. He was a loyal warrior who died protecting his real mate and their future kits from a traitor, and had likely proven his loyalty in other ways offscreen.

Rainflower- Another case of “terrible person but ultimately loyal to their Clan”. Rainflower never killed anyone as far as we know, or even broke the code. She treated her son horribly, but I don’t remember her ever being rude to anyone else. And even if she was, as we’ve seen, being a bad person isn’t enough to land you in the Dark Forest.

Mudclaw- He may seem like he belongs in the Dark Forest, but here’s the thing. StarClan was never against Mudclaw’s leadership. Tallstar made the decision by himself. For all we knew, Mudclaw would have made a better leader than Onestar or been exactly the same. Tallstar changed his deputy last minute on his deathbed and didn’t do the ceremony correctly. The only cats who saw were cats of another Clan, and the one he was making the new deputy. Mudclaw had every right to challenge the decision when it was announced. From his perspective, another Clan was lying about their friend being chosen as the new deputy. Of course he was going to feel wronged, because in a way, he was. It’s possible StarClan may have even rejected Onewhisker, if Mudclaw had not revolted at the time he did. I don’t think Mudclaw’s death was divine intervention, either. Not every bad weather event that happens in Warriors is StarClan’s doing, even if the cats think it is. I think it just Mudclaw being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was still loyal to his Clan, he was just trying to get back the position he thought had been stolen from him.

Oakstar- Oakstar is the one who exiled Mapleshade and her kits and everyone thinks this means he belongs in the Dark Forest. I. Disagree with this. Yes, he exiled the kits, but that isn’t actually against the code? The only codes about kits are that they can’t be apprenticed before six moons and no cat can neglect a kit in pain or in danger. (an extra rule is they can’t be out of camp without a warrior) You probably can’t throw out just a kit on their own, but Mapleshade’s kits weren’t alone. The kits were with their mother. 

A single mother in the wild can and will raise kits on her own. Will they all survive? It’s unlikely, but there’s no guarantee they would survive in the Clans, either. Not being in a Clan does not mean these kits will die, just like being a Clan doesn’t mean they’ll all survive. There was a good chance at least one of those kits would have survived to adulthood. Oakstar probably thought Mapleshade would take them somewhere safe, or, if she did take them to RiverClan, that she would use the bridge that led across it up by fourtrees instead of the flooded stones. He only told her to the leave the territory. He never told her where to go. Mapleshade is the one who chose to take them across the river in the worst spot possible.

Let’s look at it from Oakstar’s perspective; Oakstar had just lost his son and an apprentice in a big battle. His daughter is still grieving for the loss of her brother, and it’s likely Oakstar is still grieving, too. And then Mapleshade becomes pregnant and the Clan mistakenly lets them believe that Oakstar’s son is the father of her kits. Only for them to later discover the cat who caused the deaths of Birchface and Flowerpaw, a cat from another Clan who they all believe killed Birchface on purpose, is the real father. What else was Oakstar going to do? The Clan wouldn’t have treated those kits or Mapleshade fairly. Their lives would have been miserable. Think of what happened with Tawnypaw and Bramblepaw, only the entire Clan is against them, not just a handful of members. Exiling them was likely the merciful thing to do.

As for the “no neglecting a kit in danger” code, the kits weren’t in danger until Mapleshade herself put them in it. There was no mention of foxes, badgers, or anything else in ThunderClan’s territory. The only issue they had (the snakes), had been dealt with already. No, they couldn’t have known it was like that in other places, but as long as they were in ThunderClan’s territory, those kits were safe. And there was no reason to think they’d be in immediate danger in other territories either.

The Clan territories are actually rather safe, all things considered. Threats like foxes, badgers, and the like are dealt with quickly. The only real threats in another Clan’s territory are the cats who own it, who would probably not attack a queen just passing through with her kits. If anything, if she had met with ShadowClan or WindClan first, they might have even allowed Mapleshade to stay, once she explained everything to them. At least until the bad weather had passed.

So, yes, all of the cats above were terrible, but they never actually did anything wrong by StarClan’s standards. They were loyal members of their Clan who made some mistakes, but ultimately never killed anyone or severely broke the code. Just being a bad person isn’t enough to send you to StarClan. As long as you’re loyal and don’t actually kill anyone, they don’t care.

#Warrior Cats #StarClan #The Dark Forest #StarClan is inconsistent in a lot of ways #This is surprisingly not really one of them

[lunarmoonflowyr]

So. RWBY. 

I’ve been sitting on this for a while now, because I’ve wanted to get my feelings out but never really got to put words into it because it’s a difficult topic for me to untangle. 

I’ve been watching RWBY since Red Trailer first dropped, and I fell in love with it immediately. It rapidly became my special interest and I fell in love with the world, the characters, and even the FNDM to a degree. I met so many wonderful people through this show, and it gave me a lot. 

When Volume 3 ended, I was honestly really excited. The animation quality had jumped from 2, things were actually tense and there were real, tangible consequences at stake for once and the finale didn’t chicken out like Breach. Lest we forget. 

I didn’t even have an issue with Pyrrha’s death oddly enough the way a lot of the fandom did. I had issues with how it was executed, but her death in it of itself made sense to me and I was glad that it looked like it wasn’t just going to fuel Jaune’s character development, but Ruby’s. I could talk for a while about how I think the negative reaction to Pyrrha’s death was hilariously overblown, because speaking as a writer, having a character exist purely to die to further the plot and other character’s growth is nothing new and completely acceptable, but I digress. 

I liked Volume 3. As a whole, I enjoyed it. I had a few nitpicks, a few scenes in particular I felt could have been done without, but...anyway. 

Volume 4 was...a disappointment. 

It started out shaky in hindsight. I was blinded by excitement and optimism, seeing as RWBY is my special interest and all. 

One thing that immediately struck a very, very wrong chord with me was Jaune, and Ruby. 

It felt like all the established growth and, well, character of these two from the past two volumes was just undone. They didn’t feel like themselves. Or rather, they felt like stunted versions of themselves. 

Jaune suddenly is the tactician? Excuse me?

Last time he tried that it failed miserably and resulted in him just telling Nora to go nuts. 

Ruby on the other hand had consistently, throughout all the past volumes, shown that she has the innate capabilities of a leader and takes that role seriously. She’s shown to be competent, quick to adapt, and clever. 

Remember the Nevermore fight from volume one? Remember that entire episode?

Remember this? I’m honestly never gonna forget this moment, and it surprises me how little it’s talked about when it comes to Ruby. This moment right here, after rallying seven people, six of which she barely knew, getting them to follow her, and turning back to look on them, was way powerful. It showed Ruby’s innate charisma and leadership, it showed that it came naturally to her.

And Yang saw it too. She’s staring at her little sister, so incredibly proud of her. She sees the little leader that could.

The Nevermore fight in it of itself was incredible, and I think for a lot of us, definitely myself, it was the moment where we actually started taking RWBY seriously. Up to that point, outside the trailers, it looked like RWBY would just be this quirky, funny little thing that wouldn’t really DO much. Especially since it was plagued with animation buggery and voice acting problems from the get-go, I don’t think anyone was really expecting much out of it.

After the Nevermore fight though, I realized this show had serious potential. And it all lay with Ruby. 

That leadership is GONE in volume 4. That confidence that she showed in commanding her team, the natural charisma, the snap thinking and the dedication to which she took on that mantle. It’s just nonexistent, and suddenly Jaune steps up instead?

I don’t get it, it confuses me and upsets me honestly. Jaune apparently got a lot of character development offscreen, and Ruby regressed. And that’s just the first episode. 

Another sticking point for me is the overarching plotline. It took three and a half seasons for the main character to even begin to understand what the flying fuck is going on. We, the viewer, know what’s going on, but the main character doesn’t. 

This, in my opinion, is bad writing. The viewer should very rarely have this level of concrete knowledge above the main fucking protagonist. The audience and the protagonist(s) should be on equal levels or very slight variations leaning towards the audience. 

I think part of this stems from the amount of characters RT seems to want to share the main character spotlight. Through the first three volumes, we had eight characters trying to share main character duties, so much so that the four girls we were assuming were the main characters got sidelined so hard in the first volume and a half that we knew more about Jaune than any of them. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I liked Jaune. I thought he was a wonderful character and he definitely deserved screentime, but RT did a terrible job of balancing the screentime between main characters. 

We still don’t know that much about Ruby, and that infuriates me. Weiss and Blake got the most character development throughout all four volumes, Yang got a little bit in 2 and a lot more in 4, but we know jack fucking shit about Ruby aside from what we’ve already seen, which isn’t much. 

Ruby in volume 4 felt like a little bit of a slap in the face. No on screen processing of Pyrrha’s death (Which she witnessed mind you. She literally saw someone die. That will fuck anybody up, and she saw one of her good friends die.) whereas Jaune gets his angst moment in the forest, he gets his rememberance with his upgraded gear, he gets to be mopey.

Volume 4 Ruby is the most one dimensional version of herself since early volume 1. And what irritates me even more is that all the other characters have gotten decent development at this point, even if it has taken four goddamn seasons. 

But Ruby still feels bland and almost like a caricature of herself compared to the other characters. 

I honestly have a lot less gripes about this show than a lot of people. My biggest issues come from Jaune and Ruby’s character in volume 4, but it’s such a glaring issue for me that I can’t really look past it. Ruby is my second favorite character in the show after Weiss. 

But the writers are treating her badly and neglecting her greatly. In my personal opinion, she is being written horribly and without much real thought or care put into it. I’m not going to cry sexism because Jaune was essentially shoehorned into the role she previously filled, but I am going to say bullshit because in my opinion, it is. 

I think the thing that hurts me the most, honestly, is that Jaune isn’t even written BADLY, per say. The offscreen character development turning him into the brains of the team is the one real gripe I have with how he’s been written, and I don’t have an issue with what he turned into, just....show us him getting there. 

But Ruby, the main character, the character the show is NAMED after, is getting sidelined and with that, I’ve found my interest dwindling. 

This isn’t the show I expected to watch, in short. At the beginning, we were promised a show that would center around these four girls. Red, White, Black, and Yellow.

But we haven’t gotten that. At all. The girls barely interact, they separated for an entire volume which I personally think was a terrible idea, and the show isn’t about them as a unit and I wouldn’t even say it’s about them as individuals anymore.

While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not what we were shown at the start. 

To close out this massive, rambling mess, RWBY isn’t a bad show. It has a lot of questionable moments, it has a lot of shitty moments, but it also has a lot of good and even great moments. It created a living, breathing world with a cast of varied and wonderful characters. 

But, it’s not...RWBY. It’s something else. RWBY is Monty Oum’s creation, his baby. These girls were like daughters to him, and RWBY was about them, as a unit. And whatever the show is now, it’s not that.

It’s just a disappointment. To me, at least. 

#long post #rwby #rwde i guess #moonspeak

[ganymedesclock]

What do you imagine an AU where Lance (VLD) went on the mission instead of Shiro, being made to fight in the Galra pits and then escaping? How do you think Lance and Shiro's characters would alter in this situation? As a bonus, what do you think would happen if Galra!Keith was raised by the Galra (like by Thace or whoever that parent might be) was involved in this too?

So this is a lot of complicated variables at hand here and I think first I’m just going to focus on the idea of if Lance was the one taken by aliens for a year, and make a follow-up post about hypothetical raised-in-the-Empire Keith as its own scenario. As far as combining the two I will say that I really don’t like any of the premises I’ve seen that feature Empire!Keith interacting with Shiro while he’s imprisoned because I haven’t seen one that features Keith having serious misgivings about it, but… I’ll get to that.

So basically our proposition is, Lance is the pilot of the Kerberos mission, which would seemingly bump him and only him forwards a few years so he’s not a garrison student, just a pilot. To fill the void, we’d bump Shiro back and assume that he’s the pilot student paired with Hunk and Pidge. That said, I’m gonna focus more on Lance.

First question: Would Lance make the same decisions Shiro did?

This mainly refers to the situation with Matt Holt in the Gladiator ring. In canon, Shiro attacked Matt and postured as a ruthless gladiator in order to guarantee not only that he would fight first, but that Matt would be removed from combat- because with a useless leg, Matt is not going to make for an ‘entertaining’ gladiator for the audience, which would mean, ideally, he would be shuffled to the same work camp that held his father.

This hinges on both Shiro’s sacrificial qualities and his quick thinking. It’s a rather impressive plan and Shiro had to commit to and act on it with no hesitation to sell his act- not a small feat because this involves seizing a weapon and assaulting his friend. He also had to pick a specific target on Matt’s body that would incapacitate him enough to save him, while not injuring him enough to threaten his life.

Assuming everything offscreen is constant- that Lance, like Shiro, is taken with Matt to the gladiatorial ring- I do think Lance would come to the conclusion that he needs to go into the ring first instead of Matt.

I don’t think, however, Lance would injure Matt Holt.

Because the thing is, I don’t personally buy the idea of shuffling the paladin associations. I’m taking this AU with the idea that regardless of age adjustments or backstory swaps, Lance is still the Blue Paladin.

And the virtue of the Blue Paladin is compassion.

Lance is someone who in the canon timeline takes a bullet for someone he barely knows (Coran)- he not only throws Coran free of the explosion, but he also shielded Coran from the blast with his own body.

Because the thing about Shiro attacking Matt is that it was a very messy affair. Going in, Shiro knew this was something cruel, and vicious- that’s the persona he presented when he was doing that because that was how he saw it. But it was also a surefire plan to get Matt away from the ring and with that goal in mind Shiro was able to set his chin and not hesitate.

I don’t think Lance would even consider that a viable option. I still think he’d make a similar choice, but his focus would be on the guard. Because reading people- and playing people- is where he excels. He might yet get the ‘bloodthirsty’ reputation by coming across as positively itching to get into the ring- and probably deliberately acting unnerving to prevent the issue from dragging out or people from questioning it.

As far as Myzax?

Well, now, Lance isn’t really a fighter, but, neither was Shiro at that point. And Lance can think on his feet pretty well, so I still think he’d win that fight. Especially because Myzax is playing with projectiles, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lance might have instead found a way to use Myzax’s weapon against him. Either way, we’re gonna assume canon compliance there and that Lance emerges victorious, thus setting the stage for getting Zarkon’s attention and everything that follows.

I’d guess Lance’s hypothetical cyborg prosthetics would be different given his different fighting style/weapon proficiency, possibly his eyes? Since you don’t really need Super Arms to pull a trigger. I still feel mean about it because I feel like everybody comes for Lance’s eyes for some reason. 

That said, Lance is still able to escape- he’d likely notice the same details as Shiro since Lance is perceptive when it comes to people, albeit a little selectively. (at least in this AU he wouldn’t be totally in the dark about Pidge, knowing Matt Holt)

And this leads to:

Lance coping with trauma (and trying to be a member of the team dealing with it)

To a certain degree, Lance is terrified, he’s really shaken up by what happened, he’s shaken up by how much of a hold it has on him. Given Lance is the most overtly homesick of the team, that would weigh on him a lot. Especially the idea that he could go home but didn’t really have a chance to get back to Varadero or talk to his family at all before he had to turn right back around and get back to space.

That would probably be his major stress point, combined with feeling like he might not ever be able to go back to the way things were. I feel like in this AU, Lance would probably relate pretty strongly to Allura in the sense of feeling separated from home.

But he doesn’t want to admit that’s seriously eating at him. I think he’d leverage how well he can read people and use this to try and joke about the situation.

I actually think that would be a rather intense point of contention between him and Hunk, if we’re maintaining Lance and Hunk’s friendship and thus putting Hunk, to a degree, in Keith’s role- that Hunk was seriously affected by losing Lance. Because Hunk is too smart, and knows Lance too well, to be fooled by the act and he’d probably get mad that Lance isn’t even taking his own issues seriously. I imagine in this alternate timeline of the show Hunk would probably blow up at Lance around episode 2, as a sort of combined “I was worried about you, you jerk!” and “Stop pretending you’re okay like you can fool me.”

Not being in the Leadership Position might make it easier for Lance to accept help, especially because Hunk would, again, be on his case about that pretty strongly.

I feel like Lance’s breakdowns would have a very different tone compared to Shiro’s. Because Shiro’s breakdowns interact very much with who he is as a person and his role as the leader and relationship with the sense of control- as you can see pretty strongly in, say, his conflict with Sendak in the cryopod- Shiro basically has a panic attack, tries to aggressively slam down on the panic attack to prevent it from getting out, and tends to oscillate in that regard for a while until something stabilizes or distracts him. Him jettisoning Sendak and punching the pod’s glass is an example of that trying to slam down control on the situation.

I feel like Lance would much more be just a kind of hurricane of emotions but interacting very much with a sense of helplessness. It’d depend on what set him off and what stimuli he associates with it- and this is where Lance’s perceptiveness could work against him. He might remember minor tics of body language in the soldiers who kept him prisoner or the druids that worked on him and those might become triggers. Certain smells. Certain words and phrases.

Mostly, I feel like Hunk would take a major role in this AU. Not only does it play into Hunk’s thematic motifs as the Yellow Paladin, but again, assuming he takes the role for Lance that Keith in the canon ‘verse does for Shiro: as the close friend who waited for him and was deeply affected by losing him. And, not to knock on Keith- but Hunk would respond differently in this situation. I feel like Hunk would find his motivation to fight a lot earlier in this AU, to the point that I think the argument of “do we stay and fight or do we run” would switch certain points- with Lance and Hunk advocating stay and Shiro, who, without the personal experience of the Galra, would fall back on his own somewhat cautious nature- which would raise the question of whether or not Keith would take Shiro’s side or have his own, separate motivations for staying.

I do think it’d be very interesting to explore Lance’s relationship with the Blue Lion in this AU, especially given, again, the specific virtues of the Blue Lion. 

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Lance #abducted Lance AU #readmore

[andyastral]

Thoughts on chapters

It’s best to be up to date in Straw before reading this. This is the first 9 chapters worth of authors notes.

1

This was a short chapter, and i had 18,000 words already written, but as time went on, the story evolved and changed from the direction it was going from. I had intended to just cut the entire Salem part out at this point, but wanted to bring in Tyrian, and couldn’t without bringing the rest of the plot into it.

Anyway, this was the last time in my mind that Qrow would be close to his right mind, and I kept it vague because I was toying around with different ideas on where I wanted the story to go, and it kept the mystery of what happened and who done it a big old question.

As well as yeah. It was a very violent attack that he needed surgery after a stomach pump. This kind of thing is shocking for everyone involved, family, friends, and of course the person that’s been hurt. Since Qrow doesn’t walk up for a good while, the focus had been on everyone else, his nieces and kids under his wing (ha), Ironwood, and Clover.

And I knew from the beginning I had to work hard to make sure I wasn’t implying that Clover was going to fix Qrow like how i’ve seen a lot of post noncon fics are like, that the victim needs an SO to make them feel complete and help them through it and later bang, when it’s just. Gross. For so many reasons. So it’s navigating Clovers feelings and actions as well.

2

I toyed for a while that Jaune was going to be the one to find out about Qrow’s attack, his semblance tipping him off when he was healing Qrow and I decided against that because I really didn’t want any extra drama with the kids.

As I wrote, James started to be a bigger character then he was supposed to be and I started to develop his and Qrow’s friendship. He’s incredibly shaken at not just the thought of Qrow dying, his violent injuries, coma- but the very implications he might have tried to kill himself because Qrow was very much a reason James didn’t kill himself after the accident and was a pillar of stability for him. Ironwood then places the case on Clover’s shoulders for several reasons. He can’t deal with it himself even if he wanted to, and that Clover would be every invested in making sure who ever did it was caught and he could trust Qrow in his care.

The Winter and Clover exchange was a late added part, and it was the start of writing the two of them as right hand man and woman- we don’t exactly know what Winters actual role is besides being a specialist and if her closeness is because she’s the winter maiden candidate or that’s how the ranking works. I also tried not to make her James glorified secretary- but I also didn’t want to add more characters then I should.

This was also the beginning of hinting that this attack could have been political,

Not informing the kids right away is something that i felt seemed right, because Clover is a fucking mess, and he didn’t want the girls to see their uncle dying and the last thing they saw was him struggling on life support. It’s a desision he shouldn’t have made for them, but once he’s stable Clover realizes how selfish his actions were. This is when Yang begins her own investigation off screen while Clover takes Ruby to the tundra to blow off steam and to take her away from the distress that is seeing her uncle comatose.

So they have a bonding moment, Robyn steps on toes by accident and Ruby shoots at her in warning. I very much enjoy Ruby as a character, she’s played up as innocent and a simple soul, but she is intelligent, a protégée and fucking brutal, she tore Tyrian’s tail off with no hesitation and I like characters like that. She’s also a young girl suddenly without her uncle that she relied on, and while Qrow doesn’t lead them, he supports them, and finding that she’s without his support at all terrifies her.

And her guilt over not trusting Ironwood with what they know about Salem eats at her, because in her mind, Ironwood has gone above and beyond earning her trust, but she’s traumatized from being betrayed by so many people- So her leap of faith in him I didn’t want to frame as ‘doing it because Qrow isn’t there to support her and her decisions’ but more she’s putting her trust in ironwood  ater her talk with Clover about being a leader, and while she’s keeping secrets, it’s normal as a leader, but in this case, Ironwood deserved the truth.

So her telling him once she gets back was something that I didn’t plan to happen, but it did. It was the spiral that lead to me going through chapter 3 as I did- because Qrow was going to wake up in chapter 3, only his memory was gone for the afternoon he was attacked due to being drugged. I changed that.

The Clover and Elm scene is short, and I sort of want to develop the ace ops more, but put that on the back burning because I’m already judging so many characters. It’s to show that Clover is a mess, pushing himself and his teammate is stepping up to support him and get him to eat and rest.

 3

Because Ironwood isn’t told about Salem being immortal and there being no way to just defeat her when they’re about to get attacked and he’s not high from adrenaline and painkillers from skinning his arm, he has time to process and adapt, then immediately informs Winter and Clover when he’s got something substantial.

Ruby also lied about one thing, and I’m not sure if anyone noticed it.

This also leads to Clover having very little sleep, and goes to see Qrow. In the original draft Qrow was going to wake up as Jaune was healing him, and he had no memory of the attack and Clover told him what happened. he’s obviously shocked and confused. This was when I didn’t know where i was going with the story, and there were drafts where neo was going to come assassinate him, leading to Cinder and her being found out, to Tyrian coming to take advantage of Qrow being hospitalized to kill him.

But I settled on some dialogue that made me have to throw 13,000 words out the damn window. I thankfully recycled some of it, but it goes to show I’m a gardener kind of writer at heart. Clover asking Jaune if Qrow had enemies, and Jaune immediately saying Tyrian Callows- one search later, Clover has a brain storm and it snowballs from there.

I stuggled with this chapter a great deal because I had to make it believable that he would suspect that it was Callows and that he was in the City, and that someone had to be helping him. It all turned out to be a coincidence, but it worked out for me as Tyrian and Watts are taken in, and Salem’s army is no longer on it’s way so I can have the timeline to myself, bar of course the election.

Ironwood puts the alcohol away before he calls in Winter in particular, knowing her aversion to it.

Because Ruby had just proven her trust to ironwood, he’s more willing to listen to her, and when she mentions bringing Robyn in to help with the search and to get the people to help he considers the idea- and because it all did work out, he asks her to be his protégé, and wants to train her more in leadership, as well as knowing he can learn something from her in turn. They both care about Qrow a lot, and him being moved somewhere safer and thinking that they caught the attacker eases them considerably.

 4

 This is an accumulation of Clover not sleeping, barely eating and being exshausted, it factors into him beating Tyrians face in. Tyrian had been hoping it would be the General he was tilting with his words, but got Clover kicking his ass instead. The goal was to not just distablize mantle, but tilt the general to scare him into doing something stupid, something that in canon Salem does flawlessly. Without the Seer grim being there, getting destroyed offscreen. Out of Meta, they have no idea that Salem is coming, but she’s also called off the attack because she’s lost contact. So they’re not exactly sure, but since Watts and Callows are imprisoned they’re at ease, having no idea Cinder and Neo are in play.

But yeah, Clover looses his cool, and Marrow tries to stop him from beating a prisoner, and he accidently hurts him- breaking his trust in Clover and making him realize how completely frazzled he was.

Because i forgot what happened in season 3, Qrow implies that Ironwood was a recent addition to the inner circle- I’ve headcanoned that Ironwood was also an academy recruit and just built from there. By the time i rewatched it I had already wrote the scene, so just rolled with it. It’ weird that I had Clover ask about how he feels about the whole ozpin thing, out of everything else, I wasn’t good at conveying that Clover had been worried about the General’s well being, especially after he says if he was present he would have killed Callows for his words.

The thing is that with all these changes, the general has been able to keep a cool head and make RATION DESISIONS TM.

5

Clover getting to know the kids a little better and being true to his word in looking out for the kids is something I enjoy writing about, and something i want to keep in mind as things move forward. While he feels like he can’t replace Qrow, i never went into how they feel about clover.

I wanted to slowly hint at Nora and Ren seeing him as a paternal figure, even if they don’t do a lot of interacting in the show, and that Yang and Ruby aren’t the only people effected by his sudden attack- and fleshed out how Oscar felt about Qrow when the last real interaction they had was QROW PUNCHING THE POOR KID.

And the beginning of Yang approaching Clover was something i wanted from the beginning, but Clover was going to struggle but eventually be able to keep her from the truth. Only it didn’t work out.

 6

So. One of the first chapters I did. And BOY.

I don’t have much to comment on for this one. I wondered for a while if it would be weird to have it as a light chapter, when Lazu was a suspect, but it worked out as much as it could, Clover and Qrow had their first kiss and Clover is a blushing school boy because i had the idea that he’s great being a flirt, but the moment Qrow flirts back or makes his own advances he’s a blushing school boy cause my favourite trope is a flirt getting the tables turned on them and not knowing what to do.

The bee’s were going to pretend to have a catfight over the bodyguard, but i decided for it to happen off screen. Lazu also locked the door on Qrow so he wouldn’t leave, and is a definite sleezey move and he needed Yang to bust him out.

I never got to convey that Lazu was a big sword buff before he recognizes harbinger before he recognizes Qrow- his declaration to find Qrow when he gets out is kinda typical for a criminal to yell at an arresting officer.

And Qrow and Clover go have dinner together, and it’s called their not date and it’s truly the beginning of them going from flirting to starting to consider something between them and growing closer outside of work.

 7

Bad cop wrote itself- half of it from the old draft, and the latter part was Yang and Clover being cop buddies. Breaking in, then Lazu having his security find them immediately. He was an interesting character, Clover’s POV already paints him badly, and won’t consider that he’s being sympathetic to what happened to Qrow and suspects he was involved. He implies that he cares if Yang knows what happened to her uncle, and that he’s disgusted over what happened, and clover interoperates that he’s disgusted that Qrow was a rape victim unable to protect himself. Lazu genuinely wants to help- as well as clear his name and hinting of his empathy.

Due to Clover loosing time after going to talk to robyn and just needing support, Yang gets to the place early, and Junior gives her the files she asked for so she’ll leave her alone. What was going to happen was Yang and Clover were going to turn up and Juniors mother, Mama Bear, ambushes them because she’s sick of Yang pushing her baby boy around. It was cut in favour for Yang going to go beat Lazu’s shit in.

There isn’t a question that Yang was going to go kill him, and it’s not even brought up as a moral choice. She’s going to kill him, and Clover getting in the way and vouching for him stalls her, he get’s over whelmed and starts crying, and Clover comforts her. It looking like Qrow tried to kill himself is something that keeps coming up, because no one knows for certain if he did or not. Yang didn’t believe it, but after finding out Qrow was raped it’s now a possibility and she can’t take it anymore.

Lazu Mason was a hint to him. Lazu being lapis lazuli, a stone known for honour, wisdom and clairvoyance- his intelligence work and his security and his stress on his own honour, and Mason, aka a stone mason that’s been helping fix the wall.

 8

Qrow finally wakes up, and Yangs internal thoughts was something that actually made me cry writing because holy shit the poor girl has had to grow up fast, and as a result has a bit of a mother hen complex. She’s good at giving emotional Support, and mature for her age, but she’s still 18 years old and like Ruby, she’s now without her uncle who has ALWAYS been there, even when he was intoxicated he was still there. She recognizes that he’s done for her and Ruby and Tai, and she’ll never not be grateful.

Qrow is confused and just thinks that Yang has woken from a nightmare and came to see hi, unable to comprehend that she’s 10 years older then she should be in his memories. So the conversation they have is offscreen where he’s confused about what year it is and treating her like a child. It’s offscreen because I was already spent from the first part, and I didn’t know how to go from there. So her coming out of the room shaken, and I left it up to Ironwood to help him remember a little more.

Also because i just didn’t want yang to have to do that. You all watch Steven universe? That’s what happens when a kid takes on adult problems like that- and Ironwood recognizes that Yang is too young to be dealing with that and already emotionally drained.

Moving on to Ironwood and Qrow, this is academy days Qrow, a teenager/ young adult that’s still heavily traumatized from a childhood and being adopted into the branwen tribe was a step UP from the house he was in. James is heartbroken at his friend’s state, and Qrow unintentionally opens up old wounds that hurt him, as well as highlight to James that his friend’s memory is in tatters.

The entire conversation convinces him that Qrow is too fragile in the state he’s in, and that he’s failed in protecting Qrow because he was hurt under his care, and the theory that he was attacked over the embargo is still on the table. Rereading and keeping the tin tyrant in mind.

And to tie Yang and Ironwood together in this, Ironwood had the sobriety coins printed for his friend but gave it to yang for her to give them to him because he didn’t know where they stood as friends. I called it sobering because Qrow being awake, and definitely not right in the head is a cold slap in the face for any celebrations.

9

Infested Tundra really is filler except for the part where Marrow and Clover make up, and we get a little more into Clovers mind. Blake being worried for Marrow is hinted at, and he just confronts Clover without fear when Yang doesn’t turn up, so he gives her the truth. I hinted that Blake was being standoffish to Clover, and her reasoning was she knew Marrow was upset with him but he didn’t tell her why.

Giant worm for fun, Blake and Ren being ninja friends and Ren being a little shit in dobbing on Blake and jus team building. Ruby taking some leadership is to show her lessons with ironwood are quickly rubbing off on her.

Also Ruby using her eyes over the sheer joy of learning her uncle was awake is just. Good shit. And I wish I wrote it better. Maybe one day i’ll do a rewrite, but that’s not on the table until Straw is DONE.

#there s only straw #authors notes #fellas is it egotistical to write 5 thousand word notes on your own work