#I don't believe such a fun show will pull a permanent Death of Personality for Robot Flower's original “self” | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

diamondcitydarlin · 2 years

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i got unreasonably frustrated with a post last night advocating for Lucius' death to be permanent for story reasons lol and the urge to counter this person's points are too great for me to ignore but I didn't want to just randomly go after someone entitled to their opinion I just wanted to argue with the opinion that it would be better writing if he stayed dead because I absolutely could not disagree more so I'm just putting this here to get it off my chest...and, mostly, to defend Lucius' right to say alive at this point (if you know which post this is addressing pls don't share it with the OP they don't deserve to see some random old lady whining about something they posted for fun)

The thesis statement of their argument that I will try to sum up as objectively as possible and as close to what was actually said without creating a strawman:

"Lucius should stay dead in season 2 because the moment where Ed pushed him off the side of the ship was a very shocking scene that I believe would be diminished if it turned out Lucius had survived. Ed shouldn't get a bandaid solution like that when he's a bad person who makes bad decisions. I feel like this show already shows us that not everyone is immortal and there are consequences for violence and having Lucius be alive would also diminish that. Basically I loved Lucius dying and I hope he stays that way." (and then also some frankly condescending suggestions that anyone who thinks otherwise maybe doesn't understand how television writing works)

Well. As someone who has had to write, edit, and make up concepts for professional scripts, I absolutely disagree that Lucius staying dead would be a natural fulfillment of anything the writing has planted beforehand. To a point, I'm not even really sure we were watching the same TV show because this stuff you're saying about how no one is immortal and there are always consequences for violence...uhm.

1) Stede and Ed casually get impaled, all the time, and yet are somehow completely fine by the next day even without modern medicine.

2) Both Roach and the Swede have jumped off the ship without lasting consequences.

3) Like literally anything else that happens on the show unless you're a Badminton in which case everything is permanent lol

But okay, let's humor the idea for a moment that OFMD pulled a game of thrones and decided to just perma-murder Lucius via a method that has yet to kill anyone else. What kind of significant effect do we think that will have on the plot? How will that move the story forward? Because Ed is the only one who knows what happened, and the revelation of what he did to Lucius wouldn't come out or be important until he and Stede crossed paths again and it (potentially) came out. I suppose it could give Black Pete some sort of motivation to do a revenge thing? But then he isn't a difficult character to give motivation to, he hardly needs someone PERMANENTLY dead to do an impulsive thing- in fact, even in this context it makes a lot more sense for Pete to just THINK he's dead. Beyond this I don't see how Lucius being permanently dead is supposed to have a more profound effect on the narrative than him actually being alive, I don't see why him being permanently dead is even a necessity for the aforementioned things to happen anyway. Because at least from how I understand this trope and how it works in scripted TV narratives is that the death has to be shocking, but it also has to contribute to the plot. A princess let's say being suddenly murdered without warning shocks the audience and brings about the potential of a war plot between the opposing kingdoms, etc. Stede and Ed also already have more than enough reasons to be at odds with each other and have drama (Stede left him, Ed marooned his crew and took his ship) and I'm not sure Lucius and Stede are close enough for his dismissive attitude about Lucius' possible death before to have changed all that much.

The main thing for me is that it's just too vague. All we really know for sure is that Ed pushed Lucius off the side of the ship and that he was still alive after hitting the water. Technically he did not die on screen and any assumptions that he might be dead are just that, because falling overboard gives a rather wide range of possibilities of survival and it's kind of missing the point of the show to go 'well it's not realistic that Lucius could find a piece of driftwood or get rescued by another ship or turn into a mermaid or just hold on to a piece of the ship or find a way to sneak back in etc' because uhm...yes, in terms of the rules of 'realism' that this show has established for its own universe, any of those things are absolutely plausible. I'm pretty sure getting impaled multiple times without significant health issues isn't 'realistic' either but that's not really the point, is it? Like these characters might as well be made of rubber I'm not really sure where the idea that consequential realism is a huge part of this show (maybe they were watching Black Sails instead or at the same time and got the wires crossed? idk, I'm confused)

also in my experience with Taika's works and works he is involved in, this is exactly the kind of chekov's gun that will come back in a big way later and the only way Lucius' 'death' as it is is going to have that kind of an effect is if he is in fact not dead at all, and yet FULLY aware of what Ed tried to do to him. It may take a couple episodes for him to pop back up but it's what makes the most sense to me. Really the only person that can give a quality, dramatic reaction with profound effects on the narrative as a result of what happened to Lucius is...Lucius himself lol. See, that's the problem. There aren't many preexsiting parties that could bring about much of a consequence to this action outside of him.

also ofc I take issue with the assertion that Ed is a 'bad person who does bad things' because, again, missing the point. If the show were trying to make a point about how irredeemably bad Ed is and how irrevocable Lucius 'death' at his hands was, why not have Ed strangle him before pushing him in? Stab him? Why not have Ed make some kind of effort to insure the job is done instead of falling back on that old pattern of 'outsourcing the job'? No it doesn't make what he did, as it was, fine and okay and undeserving of recourse, but the entire point of Ed and Stede's stories are that they flawed, nuanced characters, neither of whom are entirely 'good' or entirely 'bad'. The point is not and never has been to prove why one of them is completely irredeemable and always has been, otherwise those moments like the one in the tub were pointless and might as well have been cut. hell I'll even go so far as to say killing Lucius wasn't Ed's main priority, it was just getting him the hell off the ship so he could revert into Blackbeard without being called out on it by someone who knows better.

So, that all essentially gives Lucius access to knowledge that no one else has. Why would they plant all that with a character that couldn't bring all the dirty laundry back and make it everyone's problem?

Anyway, my basic point is that it's 100% okay to personally prefer that Lucius stays dead for your own reasons, but I don't think it's at all accurate to say that this has been the sort of thing the show has been leading up to all this time.

#im not tagging this lol #im literally just ranting to avoid addressing someone directly #i dont want a fight i just want to kvetch

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mochiwangj · 3 years

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Ich verbrenne innerlich

Angst, songfic, goodbyes

«The night was cloudy and starless, and a soft breeze was blowing against Dabi’s skin, making him shiver.

Dabi looked in front of him, with his hands tightened on the rail of the balcony, and the city was bright and alive. He was alone in that old building, but he didn’t need anyone else. Not even his family.

That tumbledown building was kind of his safe place, even though he hadn’t been there in weeks. Since Hawks left, Dabi thought. And he cursed himself under his breath for that, because Hawks didn’t deserve any of his time or concern. Hawks was just a traitor. Dabi leaned forward and closed his eyes, letting the cool air brush against his cheeks and through his hair. He tried to control his rage, because he was there for a reason and he didn’t want to lose any precious time. Dabi hadn’t come into the building to get lost in his memories. He hadn’t come to cry over the past. He had had already done that plenty before he had found his family, the real brothers and sisters who loved him no matter what.

Truth to be told, that spot was something he was missing. Dabi found it casually, he wasn’t looking for something that sad or lonely or abandoned. He was just walking, minding his own business, when he found a broken window and curiosity took over.

Dabi had been in that building every night he felt alone, every night he felt homesick, even though he didn’t know what “home” meant to him anymore. His parents, his siblings… were they family? He didn’t think so, so why did he feel abandoned like that? Like that old, insignificant building. How pathetic was he to feel connected to an empty, decaying object?

Dabi used to go to that same place every night, to look at the city and to smoke a cigarette. He always went there alone, always late at night, trying not to wake up any of his friends, especially since he didn't want company. Sometimes he needed an hour to think, to cry, to compose himself and believe that one day he would make it, that one day he would show everyone what he was made of.

When Hawks had joined them, Dabi had had a hard time trusting him and he’d spent more nights on that balcony than in their hideout. And over time he'd even noticed that Hawks had followed him on a couple of occasions, probably wondering where he was hiding each time. Although, Dabi had to admit to himself that Hawks had never told anyone about that old building.

The first time Dabi had noticed his presence, he didn’t do anything to acknowledge to Hawks that he knew he was there. Truth be told, he was already expecting Hawks to ask Shigaraki about that god forsaken place right the next day. But to his surprise, Hawks never did that. So, by the third time, Dabi had simply told him that hiding was useless and he might as well come into the light.

So, Hawks and him started going there together, but Dabi didn't know how it happened. They had never planned it, Dabi had never explicitly asked Hawks to keep him company, it just... happened. One night Dabi had gone out and Hawks had appeared right behind him, fluttering without saying a word. And so it had been for most of their time in that place: Dabi sitting outside on the ground, staring down at the city with a cigarette between his lips, but he was no longer alone because Hawks was next to him.

And it was true that Dabi didn’t trust him, but only at first. When Twice had asked him what changed his mind, Dabi answered with a shrug, but the truth was different: he had learned to trust him during those lonely and empty nights that didn’t feel as dark with the bird by his side.

They’d always stayed silent the first couple of nights, each one minding his own business, but then, one day, Hawks told him a detail from his past and Dabi listened in silence. He didn’t say anything, nor did he offer his point of view on anything, he just listened. And Hawks had kept talking like that for all the nights that followed, but Dabi had never answered him. Until one day, after Hawks had told him about an event from his past, Dabi had thought about a funny story from his childhood – a single, childish and good thing, that he couldn’t understand why it was stuck in his mind like that – and had told Hawks about it. For the first time in years, a genuine and true smile had risen on Dabi’s lips, and that had scared him.

The nights had passed quietly, and they had talked, smoked, and got to know each other more and more. Dabi started to feel something and Hawks had confirmed that he felt the same when, after another of their confessions, the bird kissed him. And Dabi did not pull back. On the contrary, he grabbed him by that stupid jacket of his and had returned that kiss, deepening it, biting Hawks' lips, demanding for more.

He didn’t know what type of relationship he and Hawks established that night, but something had definitively changed. When they were with the others, they always behaved in the same way, no one had noticed anything - or so it seemed to Dabi - and the group overall never asked any questions. But when Dabi got out of his bed in the middle of the night to go back to that building, Hawks always followed him. And kisses were added to the chatter and cigarettes.

And in the blink of an eye, that place had become their place. One night, Hawks brought along a marker and wrote their names on the wall where they used to lean. “It’s to remind us that here we can always leave everything out and just be ourselves,” he said. “Stupid bird,” Dabi murmured.

Dabi moved away from the rail and turned towards those permanent marks, looking at them like he could set them on fire. Dabi took a hand away from his jeans’ pocket and pointed it towards those letters, causing blue flames to gush from his palm, covering Hawks’ name, and he watched the fire dance until it wore out.

After Hawks had revealed himself as a traitor, Dabi had stopped going to that building. He had only come back that night because he wanted to take it back. He wanted to take his life back, his spaces, the person he was before Hawks. Because truth to be told, he had to admit it to himself: there was a Dabi before and a Dabi after, and he hated the “after” to death.

Dabi could feel his flames bursting inside him. His rage and anger and frustration, his hope and his dreams and his ambition. For long he had felt them, all of them. But now all he was feeling was something that was eating him alive.

He had found a family, but something was still missing. Then Hawks came and suddenly that void seemed to be filled. But Hawks was a fake. Even Hawks' feelings for him were all made up. Hawks was a lie, and Dabi had been naive enough to fall for it.

Hawks had come to them claiming he was on their side. And Dabi should've listened to his gut: do not trust the bird. But he their life like a thunderstorm. First you see a blue light crossing the dark sky and you don't know the damage it'll do. You hope it’s not huge, you hope you’ll get through it. But then the noise that follows rushes through everything, leaving you breathless and defenseless.

"Dabi," a voice came behind him and Dabi knew exactly who that was. Dabi already knew Hawks was there, because, like in the good old days, he always knew when Hawks was following him.

"Don't you even dare," Dabi said, without moving, without turning his face. "Stay the hell away from me, Hawks."

“You know I can’t do it,” Hawks said, and took a few steps towards him. He stopped at arm’s length, with his hands buried in his jacket’s pockets. “I miss you.”

“Bullshit,” Dabi replied, lifting his chin up. He pointed his eyes into Hawks’, the flames

that were bursting in front of him reflecting in them. “You lost that privilege. You lost the privilege to talk to me or even think about me.”

Hawks didn’t say anything, he just stared at him. And Dabi hated him, with all his gut and, unfortunately, his heart.

They stayed silent for a long time before Dabi moved and stepped away from him, but Hawks followed him, stubborn.

“I just want to talk,” Hawks said, not risking touching him though. Dabi knew that if things hadn’t changed, Hawks would’ve done it. He knew Hawks pretty damn well and he regretted it.

“About what?” Dabi asked, and finally he stopped in the middle of the room, the empty space was surrounding him, devouring him. “About how everything you said was a load of bullshit?”

Dabi laughed and it was mirthless and hysterical. That laugh echoed through that desolate space and Dabi was pleased when he saw Hawks’ having chills.

“I never told you any bullshit, and you know that,” Hawks answered, then he stepped closer to Dabi.

Dabi stayed still and watched him, with an eyebrow arched. “And you think I’ll believe you? After what you’ve done? You betrayed us,” Dabi shot, his anger released. “You betrayed me!”

“I’m just doing what I believe is the right thing to do,” Hawks started and Dabi wanted to stop him, but Hawks insisted and kept talking. “But that doesn’t mean that everything I said to you here, right here in our spot, was also a lie. This,” Hawks said, gesturing between them, “was never a lie to me.”

Dabi clenched his hand into fists, and he could feel his nails digging into his skin. Pain was never a problem for him. On the contrary, pain was the only solution.

“We were never a this,” Dabi replied, giggling. “Get your head out of your ass before it’s too late. We had fun, sure, but that’s it. Nothing more! Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Dabi bowed, laughing teasingly, and then turned his back on him. He was leaving, he was done with all that shit and with all of Hawks’ lies. He couldn’t take them anymore.

But while he was walking away from him, Dabi felt one of Hawks’ feathers fly rapidly near his ear. Dabi stopped abruptly because he had felt something wet and warm running along his ear. Hawks had hurt him. A small, harmless cut, but it had done its job. Dabi whirled around and spread his arms, starting to unleash his blue flames from the palms of his hands. Ahead of him he saw a series of Hawks’ winged feathers pointing at him and noticed an amused, stinging smile on Hawks' face.

“You don’t want to listen to me?” Hawks asked, with a hint of irony in his voice. “Well, it means I’ll force you.”

Dabi smirked and slightly lowered his head. He tensed his legs’ muscles and relaxed his shoulders, ready to fight. “Oh, I can’t wait.”

For a few seconds nothing happened, the tension lingered freely between them beating time slowly, as if everything had stopped, as if they were in another dimension where no one else existed. Then Hawks threw his feathers at Dabi, but Dabi was quick and burned them with one movement of his hands. The feathers had come so close to him that Dabi smelled their unmistakable smell, making him feel nauseated.

“Is this the best you can do, Keigo?” Dabi mocked him. He used Hawks’ real name and he knew that would piss him off, but Dabi did that on purpose. He wanted Hawks to be mad at him, he wanted Hawks’ to hit him and hurt him and make him bleed again.

Within a few moments, the two of them had gone into combat mode, hurting each other and themselves. The only noises in that room were their increasingly labored breathings, the sound of flames and wings, the smell of fire that was eating everything it touched, their sweaty bodies meeting and clashing repeatedly. But the fight ended like it started: suddenly, and those two looked into each other’s eyes.

Dabi wiped off the sweat from his forehead with his forearm, not looking away, but keeping his eyes focused on Hawks’ movements.

“I told you, remember?” Hawks said suddenly, his chest rose and fell because of the effort of that rapid fight. “I l-“

“Don’t you dare,” Dabi hissed, moving his arm in a clear gesture to shush him. “Don’t say those words, they mean nothing to me.”

Haws laughed, genuine. “You never told me, but we both know how you feel about me.”

“You know nothing about me!” Dabi shouted and strode towards the hero in front of him. He grabbed Hawks by the collar of his shirt and pulled his face closer, only a few inches away from his own. It was hard to look into those golden eyes without feeling anything but fear and anger.

“I know a lot about you,” Hawks replied, then he grabbed Dabi’s wrist with his hand and tightened his hold, not moving. “I know you and, despite everything, here I am again.”

“You know what pisses me off?” Dabi asked, but he didn’t wait for Hawks to answer. “That you knew. You knew that was your last night. You knew that was our last kiss. And you still left, without turning back.”

Hawks swallowed and freed his grip on Dabi’s wrist, defeated, but didn’t look away from Dabi’s dark eyes. “Kiss me,” Hawks whispered.»

You can find the end on ao3:

#dabihawks fic #dabihawks #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #touya todoroki #keigo takami #mha hawks #hawks #bnha dabi #mha dabi #mha fanfiction #mha fic #my hero academia fic #boku no hero academia fic #bnha fic

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