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fizziepopangel · 2 months

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HuskerDust Headcanons (romantic)

Husk says “I love you” first. It’s not a big romantic thing, but to Angel Dust it means the world.

Angel and Husk were both quite affectionate with each other. The two can often be found cuddling in one of their bedrooms. Angel loves being held, but his favorite way for them to cuddle is actually having Husk lay on top of him since he finds the pressure grounding, and he’s found that scratching the cat demon’s back between his wings or scratching behind his ears while he’s tired and comfortable results in purring.

Angel steals Husk's hat every now and again.... Sometimes he steals it solely for the purpose of putting it on Fat Nuggets to take cute pictures of him in it.... While the pictures are adorable, this has resulted in the little pig occasionally taking it upon himself to steal the hell cat's hat, resulting in the man chasing the little creature around the hotel like a madman.

Husk becomes the father figure Fat Nuggets never had and Angel absolutely goes crazy for the relationship between his pet pig and boyfriend.

Although he doesn’t show it often, Husk does sometimes get overwhelmed, causing him to eventually break down in tears. During these episodes, Angel usually holds the grumpy drunk, rubbing his back and humming “Loser Baby” until he’s calmed down enough to talk, or until he’s fallen asleep.

Angel is a sucker for romance. He buys Husk flowers, makes big plans for their anniversary, makes long and mushy posts and posts cutesy pictures on his sinstagram, and goes all out for Husk’s birthday. Husk acts annoyed, but he secretly enjoys the little romantic gestures.

Despite not being the most romantic man, he does randomly grab Angel at random points while they’re together and begin dancing with the man, even humming or singing softly under his breath when Angel points out that there’s no music.

Charlie has so many candid photos of the couple being cute. She’s making a scrapbook for them for their anniversary

After Husk showed him the song, Angel plays “A Sunday Kind of Love" whenever their anniversary lands on a Sunday and makes Husk breakfast in bed as it plays. He calls it their song.

When Angel can, he does drag shows at one of his favorite clubs in downtown Pride. Husk goes to every one of Angel’s drag shows to watch him perform and despite his usual gruff demeanor, he cheers the loudest when his boyfriend is on stage.

After long, rough shoots in Valentino's studio, Angel usually comes back to the hotel exhausted and sore so he sits at the bar, sipping water and listening to Husk grumble about work until he falls asleep at the bar. Husk usually ends up carrying him to bed despite constantly grumbling about being "too old for this shit".

In the event that they both wanted to get married, both of these men would try to make the perfect plan to propose to the other.

In an attempt to be romantic, Husk would begrudgingly ask Alastor to help him make a nice Italian dinner and a cake to hide the ring in. He would be an anxious wreck through the whole dinner as Angel ate as he waited for dessert and the discovery of the ring within the cake.

Angel on the other hand would go the cheesier way of dressing Fat Nuggets up in a little tux and tying a ring around his neck with a bow and having him come up to Husk as the two had dessert with a sign that reads “Will you marry my daddy?”

In true romantic comedy fashion, Angel’s proposal pig would get to Husk right as Angel nearly choked on the ring Husk put into the cake. Of course, they would both say yes.

Despite not being the romantic in their relationship, Husk is a bit of a groom-zilla. It’s not really that he cares about flowers or color schemes or any of it, he’d be happy as long as he’s with the man he loves and their an open bar so he lets Angel handle it all for the most part…. But he does think Angel deserves the best and he’d be damned if he didn’t make sure that man’s day didn’t go absolutely perfectly.

Niffty makes Angel’s wedding dress, and although he will deny it, Husk does cry when he sees Angel in it.

Husk doesn't choose the first song they dance to, but he does request later in the night that the song Frank Sinatra’s “I Could Write a Book" be played so he can ask Angel to dance to that.

Husk recites his vows to Anthony, not Angel Dust.

#fizziepop thoughts #vivziepop #hazbin hotel #hazbin headcanons #all aongs are linked for you to listen #husk hazbin hotel #huskerdust #hazbin hotel angel dust #husker x angel dust #fat nuggets #husk is fat nuggets second dad #frank sinatra #i could write a book #a sunday kind of love #etta james #loser baby #this is one of my favorite ships

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souperbloom · 6 months

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this outfit is my roman empire. my superbowl. my tour de france. my presidential election. my olympics. my sun, my moon, and all of my stars.

#soupster speaks #this fucking outfit my god #i could write a book #ashton irwin

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cornerdudee · 9 months

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hope renewed

#rottmnt #mikes art tag #rottmnt future #casey jr #leo #man i’m so ill about them #i could write a book #father n son….

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blueballsracing · 7 months

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george: i mean obviously winning my first race was–

alex: he doesn't stop going on about it

lando: jeez

#THE LOOKS THEY GIVE EACH OTHER #i could write a book #about how their body language is like #giving everything away #their true INNER feelings #like hello what #lando norris #george russell #alex albon #f1 rookies 2019

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pixiedane · 1 year

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Star Trek Picard and Trauma

I want to preface this by saying I am thoroughly enjoying S3. I've noticed a marked improvement in storycraft and pacing, the characters and relationships are lived in but not stagnant, and thus far the treatment of trauma has been respectful and moving. However, I've noticed some trends wrt whose traumas are centered and how they are presented.

Content warning for: childhood and generational trauma, loss, death, and spoilers for Star Trek: Picard through episode four.

Picard: This series is and always has been about Picard's trauma. He is also the only one who was allowed to have a traumatic arc in TNG and the films so the writers have a long history to work with. The story should and does center his trauma and the wild thing is he actually is better at interpersonal communication post S2! In S3 Eps 3 and 4 he uses actual words to describe his emotions and his needs to Beverly and to Jack. He diffuses the Shaw situation with a little smile that tells Shaw he understands and a request to work together. He allows himself to be vulnerable in small moments. It's growth.

Picard's main trauma response is fight. He's known as a diplomat but in times of danger or fear he fights. He spent all of Ep3 seeking a fight. Heroes fight so it's the easiest trauma response to write for/most common to see in a positive light.

Riker: Will's trauma was revealed in S1 but it was a plot point and character beat, we didn't see him dealing with it. Now we see the profound impact losing his son had on him, we see why he gave up his command, and why his family is fractured. Riker's trauma is painful to witness and Frakes is incredible in the role.

Riker's trauma response, now, is freeze. He's lost too much already to risk losing more. He's stuck in the trauma. That's why he prioritizes keeping the ship intact. That's why he can't record a goodbye message to Deanna. It's the opposite response to Picard's, which sets up a great conflict and then coming together.

Beverly: Like Dahj and Yvette before her, Beverly's trauma guides the narrative. Unlike Dahj and Yvette, Beverly has a point of view and is an active participant in the story. It's a huge step up from S1&2, and from TNG, and should be celebrated. That said, Beverly's trauma, and Beverly's story, is entirely related to men. Mainly to Jean-Luc, but also to Jack I, Wesley, and Jack II. "I lost my parents" including her mother as well as her father is the only nod to a woman. Beverly was raised by a single (grand)mom and became a single mom twice and none of that ends up in the story. Beverly's motherhood is all about Jean-Luc's fatherhood and that is a missed opportunity.

Beverly's main trauma response is flight. She literally fled the legacy of Picard. And that's been true all along, she's run away from relationships and emotional entanglements and regulations she doesn't agree with. But backed into a corner she fights. Sometimes with a phaser rifle, sometimes with a surgical implement, sometimes with her brain.

Shaw: I clocked Shaw's abrasive personality as a trauma response from the beginning and I guessed it was Borg related (to be clear that indicates good storytelling). He's now begun his atonement arc and has already won over the characters and audience.

Shaw's trauma response is "asshole" aka fight. He's a specific type of character that Hollywood loves to write.

Seven: I have so much to say about Seven. Seven's entire arc, since Voyager, is based in trauma. In Picard S1, Seven exhibited a fight trauma response. She was in a bad place emotionally and she responded by shooting, shouting, and drinking. She was alone, which is especially terrible for someone who grew up in the collective. But by the end she'd integrated into Picard's band of misfits. Then in S2, Seven exhibited a fawn trauma response. She was afforded respect and affection that she'd been starved for her whole life and she'd do whatever it took to keep it, even give up her own identity. And that, too, is related to her childhood, in which she wasn't allowed to have her own identity. Now in S3, she's exhibiting both fight and fawn. She's playing a part, a part she hates!, by putting up with Shaw's abuse because she doesn't want to lose her new Starfleet position and community (collective). But she's also fighting it, and she's spent every single episode so far stomping around the halls in a tear going after various bad guys. S3 Seven is closest to Voyager Seven because she was absolutely walking the line between fight and fawn throughout Voyager. It made her super complex then and it makes her super complex now. But Picard Seven is a Strong Female Character™ and I miss the vulnerability of Voyager Seven. Jeri Ryan is absolutely playing it, but I don't see it in the writing, the way it is for Picard, Riker, Shaw.

Worf: Worf is "working on himself" and I love that for him! It's not clear what prompted his zen makeover or what the end goal is. It is, perhaps paradoxically, still a fight trauma response. He's in the zone. I love his interactions with Raffi, but I also have concerns. I think she needs validation more than tough love and tea.

Raffi: Raffi wears her trauma like a cozy sweater and she is constantly and openly punished for it. Every single person she talks to in the first three episodes berates her for choices: the Orion drug dealer, her anonymous handler, her horrible ex Jae, her son by proxy, Sneed the Ferengi gangster, and no longer anonymous Worf. Raffi explicitly asks for support and the answer is always no! Finally, in Ep 3, Worf accepts her as his partner in crime, but he is so condescending about it! I love that he calls her by her full name but it does come across as judgement: no one will take you seriously if you are angry and sarcastic and go by a cute nickname. Raffi deserves so much better than this show ever gives her.

Like Shaw, Raffi's trauma response is to make her trauma everybody else's problem. Unlike Shaw, she gets absolutely no respect from the writers or the audience for it.

Deanna: We haven't seen Deanna's trauma onscreen in S3 (unlike Will, we did see some of it in S1) but we've heard about it. Unfortunately, it was described as literally mirroring Will's emotions which, YIKES.

Jack: My precious boy is truly his parents' son. Beverly's and Jean-Luc's childhood traumas created the circumstances of Jack's childhood trauma. Like Beverly he was raised by an older single mom to doctor the needy and marginalized. Like Jean-Luc, he was raised by a loving, frightened mother and an absent, distant father. Jack grew up to be precocious, independent, brave, and compassionate — and yearning for but equally afraid of commitment and connection. Beverly and Jack read codependent to me, but the ease with which they are integrating Jean-Luc back into their life (which, again, I see as due to his growth since S2 even if that's an accident) is promising. I'm excited for their circle to widen even more when they meet up with Deanna, Worf, Geordi. It won't be easy, Beverly's flight burned bridges, but I'm excited. I also demand more of the Jack and Seven dynamic. I half hope he tells her about his visions before he does his parents (tell someone Jack, I beg you). Seven is outside the TNG family, but connected to it through Picard, and that's what Jack needs. She will protect his identity separate from his status as Jean-Luc's and Beverly's son. And Seven totally needs a little brother so it's win win.

Conclusions so far: Obviously, we're only 4 episodes in, but they've laid the groundwork. I think it's safe to say the writers find it easier to write men's trauma with respect than they do women's. Again, Beverly's treatment is a gigantic improvement from Yvette's. But it's still centered on men (and the frank discussion of the personal trauma that led to her decisions was notably written by two women). And Raffi's treatment hasn't improved yet (I do have hopes! please don't dash them!). I'm most worried about Deanna. I hope she turns back into a person when we see her irl instead of on a screen.

#star trek picard #jean luc picard #beverly crusher #jack crusher #seven of nine #raffi musiker #will riker #deanna troi #liam shaw #worf #trauma #i could write a book

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constantineshots · 9 months

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this makes me upset for so many reasons. especially as you learn more about him throughout the years, with his dad, his mom.... he makes me so sad i get so.

#john constantine #hellblazer #HE MAKES ME EMO #i could write PAGES on this man #I COULD WRITE A BOOK #DC GIVE ME THE PEN #LET ME WRITE

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rewritingcanon · 2 years

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teddy and victoire headcanons because they are such an ‘it’ couple to me:

fairytale sort of love

like teddy would transfigure themselves to look like a prince when they were super young because then vic would get upset at him because how could they be a prince whilst she couldn’t be a princess? and then teddy would just say ‘but you’re already a princess vic’ and yeah. literal disney-like childhood friends to lovers

when teddy went away to hogwarts for the first time victoire was absolutely distraught, and even more so when she found out out he’d been sorted into hufflepuff because she was convinced she would be in gryffindor since she’s a weasley (surprise! she wasn’t!) and got immense separation anxiety

so everyone knew they would get together and that it was only a matter of time, and fleur, being the romanticist she was, was obsessed with teddy.

like if victoire brought any other person back home fleur would be polite but there was always that hint of coldness towards them because why aren’t they the golden-hearted punk enby vic’s been so clearly in love with since she could process what love was????

teddy and fleur are like that rough, has a cracked tooth, part time tattoo artist who constantly smells like nicotine and the pristine middle aged french woman who has casually acheived milestone successes in her youth and always has her hair and makeup done pair and they just binge watch sad, terribly-written romance films together because they are both extremely sensitive and LOVE cliches

also they do each others makeup and victoire gets very sheepish about it sometimes

victoire and teddy were both heartthrobs at school and they had major game, so they didn’t have much trouble getting partners. suprisingly enough they were never that toxic ‘seething-with-envy’ pair of friends. they were actually quite supportive of one another, if not confused at why they got sad sometimes when seeing the other with someone else

james will claim he found out first that vic and teddy were in a relationship, but it was actually dominique, who is leagues better at keeping secrets.

victoire is high strung perfectionist and teddy is a concentrated chaotic mess, but instead of it being a peeve to each other, they simply balance each other out

teddy used to have dreams of victoire leading up to the moment they realised they were in love with her, and sometimes would wake up morphed as her and become incredibly confused (having gender identity issues was not helping their situation)

teddy gets victoire into philosophy, victoire gets teddy into curation. no one ever thought they’d see the day where either things were possible

victoire has an incredibly grumpy designer persian cat called Camille and she only has a soft spot for her and teddy

after a really long and stressful day at work (victoire’s a sub manager in st mungos), teddy will take down vic’s ponytail, and gently brush her hair out as she relaxes on the couch.

teddy is just overall being great spouse material, i could go on about this point by i would have to make a seperate post

its the tattooed blue-haired bruised-knuckles punk x preppy pastelle pink 2000s fem aesthetic couple

its staying up in your room painting your nails or flipping through an old magazine with your cracked phone crammed between your face and shoulder at night as you slowly fall in love with your lifelong best friend over the phone, and you don’t even know it, because this had been going on for years.

teddy fell first, victoire fell harder

this is a couple that wears big chunky platforms and sleek shiny heeled shoes ONLY

teddy is a huge flirter whilst victoire tends to get flustered more easily, but their dynamic switches when it comes down to each other, making victoire the flirty one and teddy the shy one

victoire’s love language is acts of service, teddy’s is all five because he’s perfect (words of affirmation mighttt just top however)

that’s all because this post is already so long. lmk and request if anyone wants hcs on any other couples!

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erikatsu · 8 months

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writing one fic for yingxing to fit “hold me like water” and then a second for blade to fit “hold me like a knife”

#i could write a book #on how he is so different yet still v much the same from who he used to be

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huntzbergered · 1 year

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There’s quiet literally nothing I dislike about Everwood lol (post #192828 about my fav). Like sure, do I cry in anguish at how things crashed and burned in s3? Yes. But I’m here for it, I’m here for the development and the writing and the anguish.

Like everything really had purpose and was so damn real. Andy wasn’t perfect but he was so fleshed out, someone you could understand and love but also not always agree with. A real ass person🥹. The same for the rest of the lot. My favs, Amy, Ephram - perfect to me but flawed and complicated and teenagers.

#everwood #I COULD WRITE A BOOK #andy brown #Ephram brown #amy abbott #bright Abbott

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freepassbound · 1 year

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Tagged by @youknowitsworthfightingfor

(also tagged in a pair of posts about recent songs by both @gentlefdomx2 and Gaby... I have no response - yesterday was the first time in probably months I'd listened to anything that wasn't classical, and that was only because NPR fuzzed out once I got over the bridge. It was just generic "'80s, '90s, and today!", I couldn't even tell you any specific song that came on 🤷‍♂️; it did its job, though)

Relationship status: Unaffiliated

Favourite colour: Blue, any shade.

Song stuck in my head: I think I was doing some kind of jingle in the shower this morning... but I don't remember what it was.

Last song I listened to: see introductory parenthetical

Three favourite foods: Tuna onion casserole, lightly breaded whitefish, a good chicken chimichanga.

Last thing I googled: I think the only thing I googled today was to see what soccer was on?

Dream trip: Oh, goodness... there are an infinitude. Domestically, I'd very much like to get in a condition to take a month and properly do Yellowstone & Glacier; and I've always had a fantasy of taking a summer and bumming around the UK and Ireland.

Anything I want rn: a good night's sleep! 😅

#regarding the other items of X's tag activity #the last photo I took is literally the previous post 😂#and my lock screen is the default?#I've never changed it 🤷‍♂️#there are so many more trips #I could write a book #I guess that's main course edition for the food?#various rates of delay on this one 😅#trying to avoid any bad self-talk #...don't really have the bandwidth to tag anyone #(also it's somehow 12:45 now)#(i started this at least an hour ago)#thank you for the tags!

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allherfaeriesmeetinjuly · 9 months

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there’s this guy that i haven’t seen since 5 years ago and we just caught up with each other! and our history dates back to those 5 years ago and more where we had a crush on each other but in different years 😭😭. i liked him in the 4th grade while he liked me in the 5th grade. by the 5th grade i was over him and crushing on someone else blah blah blah. ppl found out we had a crush on each other and shipped us but we weren’t together blah blah blah and a girl friend of mine was dating him for quite some time so i just avoided him for a bit because of that history. anyway they have since broken up and she started dating another guy. i text him sometimes. we were close but not that close. but skip to yesterday because it played out like a romcom.

friday: by 3:00 pm i have arrived in tgi and i feel perfectly content but also dazed and tired. we went over to my uncle (actually cousin’s) bakery to pick up my cousins (actually my nephews) and this was on by a switch in my head. because oftentimes i am not up for adventure. i am perfectly happy chatting with my family. but here i knew for sure i wanted to go pick up the kids. when we arrived i heard my aunt shout his name and his sister’s. and shocked, dazed, and confused i was, i stumbled in the bakery without my glasses on, greeting them. i think he was shocked too though i couldn’t make out his face. i’ve told him i was coming but not that early and definitely not that a bakery he frequented. we were processing each other. his sister was especially nice. we said our hellos and how are yous and i’m fines. i heard conversations of them learning boxing at a stadium nearby. they talked while i wandered and he hugged my aunt goodbye.

saturday: we were at harrng cafe, a place where i am planning my 16th birthday celebration when my best friend mentioned meeting him at his boxing stadium, for fun. i laughed along too but i was excited to meet him, a bit nervous even. i dressed up nicely to meet her anyway: in a long sleeved babydoll shirt. black skirt overalls, a dagger necklace, and my favourite what i like to call, killer boots. i feel pretty in them. i won’t feel embarrassed in what i’m wearing at all. we went in the boxing place where we see his sister and him boxing, amateurly. they were practicing! and they started only 2 weeks ago so! at 3:30 their class was over, so the three of us, my bestfriend, him and me walked around for a bit, bought some water because i haven’t drank anything but iced lattes and melted ice creams and headed over to the bakery i met him at the day before. i greeted my favourite relatives: my aunt, uncle, grand aunt & uncle, and my little cousins. he bought his pastry and i got a chocolate croissant for free! we headed over to the bogyoke aung san park. before that talking on the way and debating going to another old friend’s restaurant. we walked around the park, sat on dirty seesaws, watermelon table sets and tree trunks. we exchanged truth or dares and talked shit in general. we got sick of the sun. we headed across the street to a deli that sold toast and bubble tea. i got a taro flavoured one and he got a burger and by my bestfriend’s recommendation, a korean cheesy toast. we halved it and shared it. the taro was too sweet but it was enjoyable. he told me i was fascinating. he told me he wanted to pursue agricultural engineering. i told him to go for it. we chatted about everything, to the most personal of details to the most lacklustre of facts. it was fun. i had fun. his parents picked us up to go to my bestfriend’s restaurant and offered to take me back to my place. i sat with him and his sister as we chatted about life abroad and books i enjoy, or presents for me. he was sweet. i think i like him. or maybe i’m overthinking this and i am delusional and he sure as hell doesn’t see me that way.

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catilinas · 5 months

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The wind blows their ghosts to the ground

line (loosely a translation of iliad 6.146-9) from memorial by alice oswald, embroidered onto a ginkgo leaf i found on the ground

#desk lamp lighting because it is dark and i Would take a photo tomorrow but i am Sure it will shrivel overnight #and it's in red for iliad book 3 reasons :-)#oh embroidery as somewhere in between the ideas of historical memory as presence and historical memory as a series of puncture wounds #we're really in it now!!!!!!#like leaves who could write a history of leaves #trees instead of gravestones #embroidery #alice oswald #iliad #beeps

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somnimagus · 5 months

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My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]

#legend of zelda #loz #twilight princess #loz tp #i'm still reeling that someone sent me an ask about this one.. that they took the time to find my tumblr and tell me they liked it #it really meant a lot; thank you to anyone that stops to leave comments like that. they make me happy #but yeah! here's the usual symbolism ramble:#i thought it'd be cool to have the 'spirits' flowing one way and the cats walking through them the other way #to kinda show the difference in life inhabiting the village in the past and present #link's face is covered because impaz was just waiting for 'the hero' so his clothes are what matters; not his face #and it (hopefully) gives a surreal and intangible sense to 'the hero' she could only hope would actually show up #you can feel free to interpret the glowy blue sheikah as ghosts or just as memories of the past! i couldn't decide either way #the one on the bottom left is oot impa since she's implied to be the village founder. so i guess she would be a ghost actually?#fan art #my art #project stuff #and ahhh the book-- everyone's stuff is so beautiful!!#especially the writing. some of the fics made me really tear up and some were so fun and clever. i really love them #a lot of them captured the sheer burden of the role of the sheikah; all of the time and grief and doubt #i know i always say this stuff about every project but. the people i get to work with in these are truly so skilled every time

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phantomskeep · 1 year

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Smol death warning? It's just mentioned a few times but I don't want to trigger anyone D: I'm being sappy in this aidhsisb

I don't like a lot of things about college. Shitty dorms, hard classes, stressing over the tests, and having to wear a scratchy uniform from 6am until 5pm? Not my cup of tea.

But, driving down the beach roads with my best friends in the car while absolutely blasting the Bluey soundtrack? After spending pretty much all day catching up, watching the Puss in Boots movies, dragging one of our friends into the Bluey cult kicking and screaming? That's the stuff I love. It's what reminds me why I love my friends. Why, despite every shitstorm this godforsaken campus offers me (from having to hike through the muddy wastelands my freshman year looking for a dead student, that same night losing a friend through a medical emergency, having a serial killer running around campus, from almost getting a pallet of supplies dropped on my head from a crane, having my favorite teachers leave, getting chased by coyotes and boars, and dealing with this entire school's staff not knowing how to run anything) I still am so thankful to be here.

I love my friends. I love making random trips to the shops in the middle of the night. I love trying to convince each other to not spend all our money on random shit we don't need. I love having dance battles. I love bitching to each other when AO3 is down. I love going to conventions and Ren Faires with them.

They're the reason I find happiness here.

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ofswordsandpens · 8 months

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actually I also wanna talk about the part where Percy convinces Bob to kill Hyperion because even though Percy never says anything outright sinister, the way he handles the entire situation with such cool ease, playing on Bob’s emotions... its so insane???

Because Annabeth’s reaction to the three of them encountering Hyperion reforming is: “oh this is bad we need to get out of here” She knows if Bob remembers himself, that it's not going to play out well for Percy and her. She also thinks about how they're being pursued and don't have a lot of time. Her solution to the problem, seemingly, is to leave.

But Percy's solution is to work the situation to his advantage. He re-affirms Bob's loyalty to him:

Percy then re-establishes Bob's moral code: "Some monsters are good. Some are bad. This Titan is bad. He tried to kill me and a lot of people. He's not good like you are."

And it ends with Percy leaving the choice of whatever to do with Hyperion to Bob but of course, is it really what Bob chose to do? Bob decides to kill Hyperion. It's not what he may have done, if Percy hadn't intervened. But it's exactly what Percy was oh-so-sweetly leading Bob to do.

And listen, I'm not claiming that it was exactly morally bankrupt of Percy to take advantage of a once-evil titan who could get him and his girlfriend through hell in one piece. Percy, Annabeth, they manipulate monsters and enemies all the time. Annabeth ended the previous book with manipulating Arachne into weaving her own web. So it's not exactly like she's against using manipulative tactics, in theory.

But Bob, at this point, is not just some monster. He is so painfully sincere in his belief in Percy and their friendship, so yes, it does feel a bit sinister whenever Percy uses Bob... and he really uses Bob.

And I think what makes the scene so unsettling, it isn't just that Percy manipulated Bob, its how well Percy manipulated him. He manipulates Bob so well that Percy doesn't even have to kill Hyperion... because Bob does it for him. He manipulates Bob so well, that Annabeth couldn't tell if Percy was purposefully trying to manipulate the situation. (Newsflash, he most definitely was). Like holy shit.

#percy: friends kill for friends <3 #ITS CHILLING #Riordan allowed Percy to be unhinged for ONE book in hoo and then got to boo and went #/um actually writing the realistic outcome of Percy's turmoil in Tartarus sounds like a lot of work so how bout I dont :)/#okay wait while I love this scene in hoh the one part I dont like was Annabeth being like: I had no clue Percy could be so cunning #and like girl YES YOU DO #you were there in BOOK 1 when Percy convinced Crusty to lay down in his OWN bed and then decapitated him #I choose to believe she was simply afraid unsettled and in denial lmaoooo #pjo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #mine

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secretmellowblog · 6 months

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Another reason I dislike Les Mis adaptations that make Jean Valjean constantly openly angry/violent is because they miss that Jean Valjean is not allowed to be angry. The fact he is forbidden from expressing anger is, I argue, actually a very important part of his character in the novel!

One of the subtler political messages of the story is that some people are given freedom to express anger, while others are forced to be excessively meek and conciliatory in order to survive.

Wealthy conservatives like Monsieur Gillenormand can “fly into rages” every five minutes and have it treated as an endearing quirk. Poor characters like Fantine or Jean Valjean must be constantly polite and ingratiating to “their superiors” at all times, even in the face of mockery and violence, or else they will be subjected to punishment. If Gillenormand beats his child with a stick, it’s a silly quirk; if Fantine beats a man harassing her, she is sentenced to months in prison.

(Thenardier and Javert are interesting examples of this too. Thenardier acts superficially polite and ingratiating to his wealthy “superiors” while insulting them behind their backs. Javert, meanwhile, is completely earnest in his mindless bootlicking. But I could write an entire other post on this.)

The point is that….Jean Valjean has to be submissive and self-effacing, or he puts himself in danger. He can’t afford to be angry and make scenes, or he will be punished. The only barrier between himself and prison is his ability to be so “courteous” that no one bothers to pry into his past.

Jean Valjean is excessively polite to people, in the way that you’re excessively polite to an armed cop who pulls you over for speeding when you secretly have a few illegal grams of marijuana in the your car trunk. XD It’s politeness built on fear, is what I mean. It’s politeness built on a desperation to make a powerful person avoid looking too closely at you.

It’s politeness at gunpoint.

Jean Valjean has also spent nineteen years living in an environment where any expression of anger could be punished with severe violence. That trauma is reflected in the overly cautious reserved way he often speaks with people (even people who are kind and would never actually hurt him.)

So adaptations that have Jean Valjean boldly having shouting matches with people in public and beating cops half to death without worrying about the repercussions just make go like “???”

Because that’s part of what’s fascinating about Jean Valjean to me? On one hand, he is a genuinely kind compassionate person, who cares deeply about other people and behaves kindly out of altruism. But on the other hand, he was also “beaten into submission” by prison, and forced into adopting conciliatory bootlicking behaviors in order to survive. And it can sometimes be hard to tell when he is being kind vs. when he is being “polite” — when he is speaking and acting out of earnest compassion vs. when he is speaking and acting out of fear.

The TL;DR is that I think it’s important that even though Jean Valjean is very (justifiably) angry about the injustice that was inflicted on him, his anger is harshly policed at all times— by other people, and by himself. He has been told his anger is wrong/selfish so often that he believes it. His anger takes weirder more unhealthy forms because he has no safe outlet for it. His rage at society becomes a possessiveness towards Cosette and silent hatred of Marius, but primarily it becomes useless self-destructive constant hatred of himself. And while I might be phrasing this wrong, I think that’s what’s interesting about Jean Valjean’s relationship with anger— the way his justified fury at his own mistreatment gets warped into more and more unhealthy forms by the way he’s forced to constantly repress it.

#les mis #les mis letters #jean valjean #don’t mind me just Valjeanposting #you know I’m doing okay when I’m Valjeanposting #but yeah I can’t remember the first person who started talking about this concept with me #(it was years ago)#but now I think about it constantly #when you read the book looking through that lens #of certain charcaters being forced to act conciliatory and polite ‘under threat of violence’#you notice it constantly #it’s such a running Thing #and you could write tons of posts about it on www.tumblr.com

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