#and additionally all of the other separate things that make my father evil

[bedofthistles]

The Little White Horse: Robin Minette

In continuation with my analysis of the novel, the Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge, I want to cover the characters and the main themes of both the book and the movie.

Here's my thoughts and opinions one Robin De Noir, and Robin Minette, two wildly different characters

TL;DR

My enemy. 

My beloathed. 

The one I despise! 

This boy is insane, he is the definition of toxic masculinity, he’s only a child and already he sucks, and I know for a fact he will never get better because he is never punished for his actions. 

And what did he do wrong? 

Well first I would like to remind you all of my beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, baby-eyed Robin De Noir. I have no idea how we got Robin De Noir out of Robin Minette, but I am forever grateful. 

For starters, Robin De Noir takes the place of Mr. Cock in LWH. Where Mr. Cock has trapped the hare, Robin De Noir has, where Maria gets chased by Mr. Cock in the book, she gets chased by Robin De Noir in the movies (and yes, technically the Coeur De Noir and all of the De Noirs are chasing after her as well), where Maria and Mr. Cock run through the forest so she can show him the White Horse, she and Robin De Noir run through the forest in search of the pearls. Additionally, he is no longer Robin Minette, Loveday Minette’s son, but the son of the Coeur De Noir, and Loveday’s brother. 

One, this change is already ten times more dynamic. Throughout the book, we are only told that the De Noirs are wicked, and it isn’t until Maria’s last minute change of heart about them that suddenly they aren’t. Those poor people are demonized in the book, and are not given any sympathy. Now I hear you saying, the movie was the same! They were evil until Maria decided she needed Robin’s help! 

I need you to go back and give Augustus Prew his due, because that boy acted his ass off. I don’t think I’ll be able to go over all of his exemplary acting choices, and I may make a separate post for that, but that will require gifs and screengrabs. Anyway! There are several scenes that show us, the audience, that Robin De Noir is just a boy who is trying his damnedest to make his father proud of him. We see this when the Coeur De Noir calls him a ‘dolt’ after the rabbit trap, and you can see his face just fall, he is devastated, not that he lost the princess, but that he disappointed his father. 

We also see this when Robin quickly decides to help Maria. The very first time I watched this, I didn’t really understand his reasoning, but once I started thinking about it (probably about the time I started writing fic and needed to get inside of his head) I realized that he is fundamentally good, just born on the wrong side of the valley. Robin chooses the Valley over his father, he chooses to help Maria despite not even fully trusting her, he is beside her until the very end because he knows she is doing the right thing, because he loves the Valley and wants to save it. So, despite what we are told about the De Noirs (as by sir Benjamin, who calls them bandits, poachers, and plunderers) we know from visual cues, Robin De Noir’s desperation to be a good son, and his choices at the end, that the De Noirs are not purely wicked. 

Robin Minette on the other hand can die on a stick. Robin and Loveday Minette are actually a part of the Merryweather family (more on that later) and are not associated with the De Noirs at all. 

So what are all of Robin M’s sins? 

Well, if you’ve heard about the bird theory, it is the simple idea that when you call out “oh look, a bird!” the response of your partner/friend/companion should be “where!” Not because they are necessarily interested in the bird (though they should be) but because you are interested in the bird. The logic being that the person will listen to whatever random, boring, stupid thing you’re saying because they are interested in you, and are not looking at you as a source of entertainment. It’s a very simple, and beautiful concept, that shows a person who is interested in you, is interested in you! 

Robin Minette is not interested in Maria. 

I say this because in the book we are told multiple times that whenever Maria asks too many questions, Robin just walks away. He does not answer, or even asks her to stop, when he is astral projecting into Maria’s dreams, he just leaves the dream and wakes up. Again, this is in conjecture with one of Goudge’s morals: female curiosity is of the Devil. 

“All my life, Robin, I'll always tell you all about everything." “And I'll tell you," said Robin. “If I didn't you'd ask me so many questions that life would not be worth living."

This is not an okay lesson to teach to children, any boy or girl should not be learning that her voice does not matter, that her questions should be squashed, and that curiosity is a bad thing. I genuinely have no idea where Goudge got this idea from, other than it is just a very old and misogynist viewpoint. It’s not even Christian, as scripture encourages followers to study, and yes that includes women. 

I don’t think it is a harsh stance to take that a character who walks away from another while they are talking, is not interested, or in love with that character. Maybe possessive, but not in love, and it's certainly not the kind of love anyone should be idolizing. 

Furthermore, like most entitled men, Robin Minette has anger issues. I don’t want to quote the entire section, but I can post it somewhere because it is absolutely insane. 

After Robin and Maria defended Paradise Hill from the De Noirs, they go back to his house. Since it was raining, they had to change out of their wet clothes. For whatever reason, Loveday Minette decides to put her old wedding dress (that she never wore because she ran away) on Maria. 

Maria loves it, and asks if it can be her wedding dress, and Loveday M says yes. 

When Maria joins Robin in the kitchen so they can have tea, Robin asks what that is. 

“It's my wedding dress. I'm trying it on to see if it fits." "Are you going to be married?" asked Robin sharply, his munching jaws suddenly still. “Of course," said Maria, reaching for the cream. “You didn't expect me to be an old maid, did you?" “Are you being married today?" demanded Robin. “Of course she isn't being married today, Robin. She isn't old enough to be married yet. But when she is married she will wear that dress." [Loveday] “When you do marry, whom will you marry?" Robin asked Maria. Maria swallowed the last of her bread and cream and honey, put her head on one side and stirred her tea thoughtfully. “I have not quite decided yet," she said demurely, “but I think I shall marry a boy I knew in London." “What?" yelled Robin. “Marry some mincing nincompoop of a Londoner with silk stockings and pomade in his hair and a face like a Cheshire cheese?" The parkin stuck in his gullet and he choked so violently that Loveday had to pat him on the back and pour him out a fresh cup of tea. When he spoke again his face was absolutely scarlet, not only with the choke but with rage and jealousy and exasperation. “You dare do such a thing!" he exploded. "You--Maria --you-- if you marry a London man I'll wring his neck!"

Now, you’ll notice three things here: 

One, the fate of all Moon Princess’ is to get in a fight with her love, and if she doesn’t humble herself, she’ll be forced to leave Moonacre. This is something Maria knows at this point. 

Two, Robin is a thirteen, fourteen year old boy displaying this much anger, possessiveness, and audacity. This is not something he is punished for, and he gets away with this behavior. 

Three, his mother is right there???? And her chief concern is: 

“Robin," said his mother, “that's not at all the way to propose. You should go down on one knee and do it in a very gentle voice."  

Ma’am your son is a maniac and you’re giving him tips on how to propose properly? 

Now, I want to swing back to my first point. To state it very plainly, this is one of the reasons as to why people stay in abusive relationships for so long. Maria knows that if she and Robin hadn’t made up right then and there, she would have to leave Moonacre. This language and ideology puts the blame on the victim’s shoulders, making the victim feel as if they have to be the one to make amends, to fix what is broken, and appease the abuser. This is the cycle of abuse that is seen time and time again, and while Goudge does not frame this as an ideal relationship we can gather that based on all that Maria has learned, it is her job to keep the peace. 

Am I calling Robin Minette an abuser? Yes, yes I am. 

Maria immediately forgives his behavior, Loveday is obviously okay with it, because she does nothing to stop him or scold him, and Goudge obviously sees this as okay male behavior. 

It's preposterous and yet this book is only eighty years old, we can obviously see people who behave this way, and we all know people who are like this. However, I think we have finally pivoted to presenting this behavior as abusive in media and art. Too often we think of abuse as just physical, but so often it is emotional, financial, and sexual, and the consequence of that mentality is people suffering abuse thinking that they aren’t because they don’t get black eyes. 

Here, I would also like the mention the BBC miniseries, Moonacre. The Miniseries is boring, it’s praised for being a more direct adaptation of the book, however they do make some major changes, especially to the plot. They add this thing about the ‘Blackheart’s’ having their water supply being cut off, all their wells are saturated with saltwater, and they blame Sir Wrolf for cutting off a pipe that would lead freshwater back into the valley. In this, we do get Loveday and Robin (still mother and son) as De Noirs. Loveday is the direct descendant of Black William, and despite teaching her son to hate the Blackhearts, he is also a De Noir. Robin Minette in this movie is boring, he doesn’t get mad at Maria for asking questions, but all he really does is show up at convenient times to save her from the Blackhearts. He’s fine, he’s not as problematic as Robin in LWH, but his character is not as compelling as Robin De Noir in TSOM.

Prev | Next

Full wedding dress excerpt

#IM NOT SORRY #ROBIN MINETTE SUCKS AND I HATE HIM #the secret of moonacre #the little white horse #moonacre #TLWH dissertation #robin m actually reminds me of my absuvie ex boyfriend #so thats not a positive

[seekfirst-community]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2023. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.net

Meditation: What makes a person unclean or unfit to offer God acceptable worship? The Jews went to great pains to ensure that their worship would conform to the instructions which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. God's call to his people was a call to holiness: "be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44; 19:2). In their zeal for holiness many elders developed elaborate traditions which became a burden for the people to carry out in their everyday lives. The Scribes and Pharisees were upset with Jesus because he allowed his disciples to break with their ritual traditions by eating with unclean hands. They sent a delegation all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to bring their accusation in a face-to-face confrontation with Jesus.

God's law teaches us how to love God and neighbor in holiness and truth

Jesus dealt with their accusation by going to the heart of the matter - by looking at God's intention and purpose for the commandments. Jesus gave an example of how their use of ritual tradition excused them from fulfilling the commandment to honor one's father and mother. If someone wanted to avoid the duty of financially providing for their parents in old age or sickness they could say that their money or goods were an offering "given over to God" and thus exempt from any claim of charity or duty to help others. They broke God's law to fulfill a law of their own making. Jesus explained that they void God's command because they allowed their hearts and minds to be clouded by their own notions of religion.

Allow God's word to purify your thoughts, intentions, and actions

Jesus accused them specifically of two things. First of hypocrisy. Like actors, who put on a show, they appear to obey God's word in their external practices while they inwardly harbor evil desires and intentions. Secondly, he accused them of abandoning God's word by substituting their own arguments and ingenious interpretations for what God requires. They listened to clever arguments rather than to God's word. Jesus refers them to the prophecy of Isaiah (29:31) where the prophet accuses the people of his day for honoring God with their lips while their hearts went astray because of disobedience to God's laws.

If we listen to God's word with faith and reverence, it will both enlighten our mind and purify our heart - thus enabling us to better understand how he wants us to love and obey him. The Lord invites us to draw near to him and to feast at his banquet table. Do you approach with a clean heart and mind? Ask the Lord to cleanse and renew you with the purifying fire of his Holy Spirit.

"Lord Jesus, let the fire of your Holy Spirit cleanse my mind and my heart that I may love you purely and serve you worthily."

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2023.

new creations (part 2)

“God created.” —Genesis 1:27

On the threshold of Lent, we pray for a new springtime in the Spirit resulting in new creations. The Lord continues to create through His Spirit, Word, and light.

In God’s light, we see the “formless wasteland” (see Gn 1:2) of our lives. We see the need to establish God’s order, harmony, shalom. Accordingly, we begin to separate things in our life, just as God separated the light from the darkness (Gn 1:4), the waters above from the waters below (Gn 1:7), and the land from the sea (Gn 1:9). A re-ordering is necessary for re-creations and new creations. We must “come out from among them and separate [ourselves] from them” (2 Cor 6:17); that is, we must separate from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (see 1 Jn 2:16, RSV-CE). We must separate from the ways of the world, for Jesus has chosen us out of the world (Jn 15:19). In the darkness of the world, the growth of God’s creations is stifled.

Additionally, for God to create anew in our lives, we must “be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:28). We must bear fruit for God’s kingdom by sharing our faith and leading others to new life in Christ. If we don’t co-create with God by sowing the seed of God’s Word, then we don’t want and don’t receive God’s new creations that much.

This Lent, be separated from the world and fruitful in the Spirit. Be newly created and creative.

Prayer:  Father, create in me a creative spirit.

Promise:  “God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.” —Gn 1:27

Praise:  Fr. Charles developed a free Bible school so everyone could train in holiness.

Reference:  (We offer a retreat for lay people Feb. 17-18 in the Cincinnati area, Discovering the Essential Role of the Lay Person in God’s Plan of Salvation. The Church and the world need us to do our part to bring about the Kingdom of God. Call 937-587-5464, 513-373-2397 or e-mail [email protected].)

Rescript:  "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for the publication One Bread, One Body covering the time period from February 1, 2023 through March 31, 2023. Reverend Steve J. Angi, Chancellor, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio June 15, 2022"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[crocgirl420]

My literal father’s war-induced PTSD: 🤮🤢❌

Bunky’s war-induced PTSD: 💗👩‍❤️‍👨🤟🏩☺️

#ultimately these things are not the same due to the difference between the wwii draft and the 2003 Iraq war #as well as the difference between killing real people and killing imaginary people #and additionally all of the other separate things that make my father evil #but just FYI I do see and acknowledge the hypocrisy

[yiling-daddy]

Yes, that was me! I can definitely expand on my thoughts re: how Madam Yu’s behaviour reads differently to me due to my traditional, Chinese upbringing.

There is a lot of subjectivity as to whether Madam Yu can be read as abusive, and this reading is often influenced by culture—hence you often see completely off-base takes floating around. However, to me, the way that cultural context influences the reading will actually change depending on the relationship, so I will discuss each one separately. Most of the culturally insensitive takes are about her being an abusive or uncaring mother (she’s not), or that she’s a spurned woman (it’s more complicated than that), so you can skip down to the JC, JYL, and CSSR sections for that.

Madam Yu and Wei Wuxian

As a trend, I think western fandom tends to simplify Wei Wuxian’s dynamic with the Jiang family into an entire adopted family. Consequently, Yu Ziyuan gets perceived as this two-dimensional, evil stepmom figure—but I think this doesn’t capture the truth.

There’s a bit more variability among Chinese audiences when they read the Jiang family dynamic, partly due to our deeper familiarity with wuxia tropes, but mostly because there's a mediocre Netflix translation colouring the western interpretation. Though many Chinese fans do view them all as a sort of family unit and read Madam Yu as a stepmother, I do not. To me, Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli view Wei Wuxian as family—but Madam Yu does not. Madam Yu views him as a servant, a disciple of the sect, and an outsider at the dinner table—and it’s not wrong for her to do so. It’s not gracious, but it’s not unfounded. I don’t think Wei Ying ever gives any indication that he views her as a mother, either.

If you agree that they don’t have anything like a mother-son relationship, all these insults/complaints that Yu Ziyuan levels at him—that he’s the “son of a servant”, that Jiang Fengmian is weird for openly favouring Wei Wuxian over his own son, etc.—these start to make sense? Like, it’s shitty to listen to, but none of it is wrong. Suddenly it reads less like pointless insults and more like actual points.

Additionally, if we consider that Wei Wuxian is a disciple of the sect who goes around and raises the ire of the Wen clan, corporal punishment suddenly looks very normal (again, within the culture). Hence, when I watched the donghua and CQL, I hated seeing Wei Wuxian getting whipped, but I didn’t perceive this as abuse—especially because of the political nature of the decision.

But it is definitely still possible to mistreat a disciple.

In CQL, you see Madam Yu throwing an unnecessary amount of vitriol at Wei Ying. In the novel extras, it's revealed that she regularly whipped him but never whipped the other disciples, indicating that it wasn't normal corporal punishment. She also whipped him for absurdly stupid reasons. To me, this signals that she tended to abuse her authority over him. Even if you don’t view her as an abusive mother to Wei Ying, it's fair to read her as an abusive authority figure.

Importantly however, "abuse" is a loaded word suggesting a violation of social norms, and again, the situation is complicated because the social norms of the setting don't match those of the modern world. Madam Yu is not overstepping her bounds as master of Lotus Pier—hence, people do not think very much of this treatment in-universe, including Wei Ying himself.

Madam Yu, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yanli

Okay, when I first watched CQL, I cringed when Madam Yu started dragging her family because she sounded like My Actual Chinese Mother. I felt for a second like I had transmigrated into Jiang Cheng’s body and I was experiencing his agony firsthand!

Madam Yu reads very realistically, and I think this is why it gets personal for a lot of Chinese people when this fandom discusses her character. Yes, she belittles and hurts her children for their perceived failures, but many Chinese people can tell you that this is just a common parenting style. And while it might look like bullying to an outsider, this behaviour is usually motivated by love. It is often also motivated by fear that the child’s future will be substandard. This is textually obvious when you consider what exactly Madam Yu yells about:

She snaps at Yanli to stop peeling lotus pods, because she shouldn’t act like a servant. If Yanli keeps behaving so passively, what kind of role is she going to fall into in the future—especially given that she is not a cultivator?

She berates Jiang Cheng for always being inferior to Wei Wuxian no matter what he does. If Jiang Cheng is constantly overshadowed by Wei Wuxian, what will that mean for his future as sect leader? Or his future status and reputation among the sects?

I can do these Chinese Mom Translations because parents in real life will actually say things like this out of concern for their children (insults included), in an attempt to motivate them... and it really does light a fire under our asses. I attribute many of my personal successes to this parenting style. Thus, when I see posts like “Madam Yu didn’t show any sign of caring for others” or "Madam Yu was a purely selfish and arrogant person" or “Madam Yu is an abusive mother and nothing else"—well, I can tell most of these people are not Chinese, or if they are, then they likely did not have a traditional upbringing.

While I don't think these uninformed readings of Madam Yu are necessarily racist, I do think they they are unpleasant for Chinese fans to constantly see. For those of us in the west that had this type of upbringing, we often struggle with trying to frame and process our relationships with our parents. For me, this was partly due to the emotional baggage of my upbringing (Jiang Cheng winning!!!)... but it was also because white society kept telling me that my parents didn't give a shit about me when obviously they did. That’s fucked up to experience. It reeks of cultural imperialism. Thus, when I see Chinese people getting annoyed at these Madam Yu takes, I’m not surprised. This is unfortunately a fictional discussion that very much resembles a real one for us.

Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Fengmian, and Cangse Sanren

A lot of people view Madam Yu as a spurned woman and assume that is her motivation for constantly antagonizing Wei Wuxian and her husband. But because I assume that a lot of her chaotic yelling stems from her concerns as an Actual Chinese Mother, my take is different.

Remember the scene where Madam Yu catches Jiang Fengmian scolding Jiang Cheng just after praising Wei Wuxian? She drags Jiang Cheng up to his father and, in both CQL and the donghua, says something to this effect (paraphrased from memory):

This is your son, the future master of Lotus Pier! Even if you don’t like him because he was born to me, his surname is still Jiang!

And in CQL, she also says this right after berating Jiang Cheng for not measuring up to Wei Wuxian:

But it’s not your fault. Your mother is no match for his mother.

Yu Ziyuan isn’t angry about Cangse Sanren because she’s jealous; she is angry about Cangse Sanren because she thinks Jiang Fengmian’s feelings for her are jeopardizing his competence as a father to Jiang Cheng. Viewed in this light, it also makes sense why Yu Ziyuan is hostile to Wei Wuxian in a way that alienates him from the family—constantly calling him the son of a servant, pointing out the rumours about his parentage, etc. She’s not doing this because she hates Cangse Sanren or Wei Wuxian; she’s doing it because Wei Wuxian’s presence in the family is threatening Jiang Cheng’s future in her eyes.

Bonus: Did Yu Ziyuan love Jiang Fengmian?

Yes! In both the donghua and CQL (I ashamedly admit I don’t clearly remember the novel), I thought their final moments made it quite evident that they cared for each other. They fought together, died together to protect their home, and reached out to one another in their final moments.

But when I rewatched Madam Yu’s scenes in CQL and the donghua, I realized we got other hints that westerners probably missed. I'll focus on CQL:

Right before Jiang Fengmian sets off with Yanli for Lanling, Madam Yu sees them off. She gives Yanli some snacks and then—without making eye contact with Jiang Fengmian—says that she’s also giving them medicine in case someone gets a headache. Jiang Fengmian pauses, because it’s obviously for him.

This is recognizable behaviour for a lot of Chinese people. I can’t tell you how many times my mother got apoplectic at me, and then the only follow-up was her going out of her way to make me my favourite meal. The chaotic yelling you see between Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan is also pretty typical to many Chinese parents, and again, the follow-up in my household was often one of them going out of their way to do something for the other.

This is just how the culture is in a lot of families. “Sorry” isn’t expressed in words; it's expressed in actions. “I love you” isn’t expressed in words; it’s expressed in actions. In Chinese culture, the dominant love language is acts of service. It's fleeting, but we get glimpses of that kind of love between Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian. 

#the untamed #cql #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #yu ziyuan #madam yu #jiang yanli #cangse sanren #jiang fengmian #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #damn i guess its madam yu loving hours here #my meta

[thedragonemperess]

What's your personal opinion on why Elite Force was so bad? Since I've ranted about that a lot and started the 'elite discourse' tag.

Introduction

I don’t think it was really bad. Yes, it was terrible compared to Lab Rats and Mighty Med (of which both deserved more seasons since they both set up so much and than threw it all away), but it wasn’t too bad. Why it was bad, though? They undid all character development, overlooked some of the best characters, and so much more!

Chase

There’s a lot wrong with Chase. First of all, they undid all of his character development and reduced him to a self-centered smart guy. (I’m not gonna say a mini version of Donald because he’s really more like Douglas, but they really just threw away his character.) And for character archs. When AJ made his list, he put Chase at the bottom. A good thing to point out is that this list was based off of the number of powers each person has and the number of powers each person has alone. So lets count how many powers they all have:

Kaz: Pyrokinesis and Flight Oliver: Cryokinesis, Flight, and Super Strength Bree: Super Speed, Vocal Manipulation, Invisibility, and Super Agillity Chase: Molecular Kinesis, Force Fields, Super Intelligence, Super Senses, Laser Bo Generation, and the Commando App (technically Super Strength as well, but that’s only Spike) Skylar: Flight, Super Strength, Super Speed, Acid Spit, Regeneration, and 21 other abilities (10 after the whole thing with Bree, but that still leaves her with the most) CHASE SHOULD BE #2 ON THAT LIST!!

And even if this wasn’t based on only their powers, he’d still be at #2!!

Then we have the Arcturian. The Arcturian Space Rock will kill you if you make direct contact with it, key word being direct. So Bree, being NUMBER #3 on the list (did I mention they overlooked her abilities, too, with the exception of one throw away line?), decided to touch it. After a series of events, she gets superpowers from it.

Bree got superpowers.

Because she was insecure about her bionic powers.

THIS WAS CHASE’S ENTIRE ARCH FROM THE BEGINNING!

And he wasn’t only insecure about his powers, he was insecure about his appearance, self-worth, and a ton of other things.

This arch was engineered for Chase, and they threw it away in favor of Bree.

Skoliver

Skylar and Oliver was the main romance of Mighty Med. Oliver had a crush on Skylar and Skylar was a lesbian didn’t reciprocate. This didn’t stop Oliver from trying to get with her, though. But the difference between Oliver persevering in Mighty Med and Olvier persevering in Elite Force is that in Mighty Med, he did it in a healthy, respectful way. In Elite Force, he became a stalker!

He watched her in her sleep, recorded her without permission, had a pretend version of her that he was dating, and more.

They turned a really nice thing from Mighty Med into something terrible just so that they could put less time into coming up with actual jokes. (The writers of these shows never really handled healthy relationships and comedy well, if Adam and Chase’s relationship says anything, but you would think [I’m only saying this because its Disney] they would put more effort into a romantic relationship.) The worst part about this is that they got together somewhat in the end of Elite Force.

Reese

Reese existed as a way to lead us to the finale of the show. She also existed as a love interest for Chase. She had the potential to be Elite Force’s Marcus or Experion, but they just didn’t do it right.

The Lab Rats’ relationship with Marcus was built over the course of two seasons, which let both the audience and the characters get to know him. Sure, we knew he was evil before everyone else, but how evil he truly was changed up until Douglas’ plan was finally revealed. He was also really close to a lot of the characters, so that makes it really painful.

Experion was one of Skylar’s close friends, almost like a brother, and we saw that play out on screen. He was only there for a short amount of time, just as Reese was, but he was already in a predetermined relationship with him. Reese had literally only met Chase that day, meaning that connection just wasn’t there.

(Also, was Reese just there to degay Chase? Because that’s what it seems like.)

Representation And Other Things Of The Sort

Lab Rats was a show that had a family in which half of it was married into. Shows have done this before, yes, but this showed the kids really just excepting it and not getting mad at their respective family. This was also a mixed family, which watching now that I’m older and really understand the importance of it, is really nice. Especially as a mixed person myself.

As for Mighty Med, and I’m starting with family again, it had a father figure who, more or less, actually cared about his kid(s) and was active in their life. It also showed him, a person of color, in a position of power. Skylar, who is a woman of color, was a badass who wasn’t boy crazy. She didn’t care about boys and the one time she did chase after someone, it was an introverted girl whom she wanted to be friends with which is pretty gay but whatever Disney. She was pretty freaking powerful, too, even without her powers.

Now for Oliver and Kaz, they were geeks. That’s a recurring fact in the show. It’s also something that is constantly saving all of their butts and was the main thing that got them their jobs. They weren’t picked on or made fun of for it, that was just who they were.

And unlike Lab Rats, Mighty Med showed a healthy relationship between brothers. Additionally, Gus was a really weird kid, but no one ever made fun of him, either. They treated him like they treated everyone else. He even ends up as one of the popular kids a few times.

Elite Force really just threw that all away in favor of (what became) a bunch of bratty kids in a pent house together.

Backstory

Mighty Med ended off on a cliffhanger, with Mr. Terror escaping, Oliver and Kaz obtaining superpowers, Alan meeting his father for the first time, and Horace using his last revival. Not to mention, Mr. Terror is Oliver’s mother and was supposed to be Horace’s wife.

And then they completely forgot about all of that and destroyed Mighty Med, killing all of the people in it in the process while also forgetting about Mr. Terror completely?

As for Lab Rats’ ending, it was actually pretty fitting and satisfying, all things considered. Adam, Bree, Leo, and Chase split up after defeating Giselle, Adam and Leo going back to the island to help the students with the big change (an update that let them control their abilities, hence no need for them to be teachers anymore) while Bree and Chase joined the Elite Force.

But why Chase and Bree? Sure, I guess the fandom Chase, but we did care about Leo more than Bree if we’re looking at it from that stand point. Now if we’re looking at it from a logical, in-universe stand-point, it makes no sense. Bree and Chase were the smarter, more experienced of the four, so they should have gone back to the island, while letting Chase and Adam join the Elite force.

Also, Leo has just become a mentor, which was what he was striving for since the start of the season. He was always being overlooked, and now, when he finally gets his moment in the spot light, its taken away from. That just really bothers me.

What Was Good About Lab Rats: Elite Force?

Quite honestly, not a lot. But considering the target audience, it was pretty good. Having two well received shows come together into an, albeit poorly set up and attempted, spin-off where they can have their own battles and story lines together is pretty cool and different. There are some flaws, like how Mighty Med logic and Lab Rats logic really don’t intertwine, but you have to keep in mind that this is a kids show.

It also showed Douglas being a pretty good father, which is really nice. Sure, he’s their birth father and/or creator, but it also shows them mending their relationship.

There were some smaller things, too. AJ’s introduction, Skylar and Bree slowly become sisters, and Chase and Kaz becoming friends were all really fun to watch. (The characters growing relationships with each other, period, were fun to watch.) The villains had good motives, and the small cameos from other shows (Bob and Crossbow [she’s more of a piece of what Mighty Med used to be, but I’m counting it]) were really fun to see. The plot could definitely be better, but it was still pretty good. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the show was genuinely funny. The amount of times I’ve spit out my water while watching this show is surprising.

Conclusion

Was Lab Rats: Elite Force as great a show as the source material? No. Was it all we thought it would be at the time? That depends on how old you were when it came out. It was, and still is, a fun show to watch, though. Yes, it would have been better if it never happened and the shows continued separately, but I’m glad that we at least have an answer to what Mighty Med and Lab Rats alluded to in their finales. Am I upset about Elite Force’s finale? Yes, and I will probably die mad about it, but we didn’t have as much time to get to know the characters and connect to them, so is it really that much of a loss? That’s up to you. Is it a fun show to watch? Absolutely.

#long post #very long post #long post tw #long post tag #lab rats #lab rats bionic island #mighty med #lab rats elite force #lr #lrbi #mm #lref #lrmmlref stuff #answering asks #fave

[emmys-grimoire]

Michael is probably still a good

He’s a favorite for me to write about, if you haven’t noticed yet. And it looks like we’re going to gradually get more of him, so I’d figure I’d toss in my assessment.

Even in spite of his involvement in the event, I still think it's more likely that Michael is in the "good guy" column (and so is Simeon tbh). It doesn't nullify all the evidence before and how the other characters react to his presence in the story in general. In spite of him not actually appearing yet -- he's been an element in the story planning from the early drafts if the Obey Me MAX slides are accurate. 

I think if the Celestial Realm was comfortable with casually brainwashing people (or at if least the leaders -- Michael and previously Lucifer -- were), the troublesome trio of brothers (Beel, Belphegor, Mammon -- and later Lilith) would have never been allowed to continue troublemaking after Michael's/Lucifer's explicit warnings to not trespass into the Human World. Additionally, if this was Michael's modus operandi, I believe Lucifer would be far more suspicious when he submits his two closest attendants to the exchange program. He doesn't voice any suspicion that Simeon/Luke may be brainwashed and not acting according to their own will, and I think if that was the case he'd at the very least warn Diavolo and advise against having tea parties with Simeon.

Hell, in general, Lucifer does not seem to have any deep negative associations with Michael at all (not even in this event when they bring up that they’re Michael gifts -- he presumably puts the bangle on lmao), and this is the guy that presumably led dad's forces against him in the Great Celestial War and was tacitly involved with his sister's demise. The most he does is stress out about Michael learning new embarrassing stories about him and sharing them, and bring up what Michael may potentially do to the brothers if they tried to sneak into the Celestial Realm... which the brothers immediately dismiss and tease him about Michael's mancrush on him. And, curiously, in that scene Lucifer doesn't actually disagree or protest against their assessment and his reaction towards Asmo bringing up how hurt Michael was at Lucifer announcing his departure is to throw a look at him that's scary enough to make Asmo cry (this implies that incident is still a sore spot).

Now dad and the Celestial Realm as a whole... is different. Lucifer does vilify them both unprompted and doesn't react well to the Celestial Realm being brought up in any context -- even in a lighthearted, friendly one (like when Simeon tells him that the other angels were inquiring about him). The event reaffirms that. He previously mentioned that he and the brothers had grievances with father separate from his desire to punish Lilith, and that's definitely going to be explored.

Michael/Simeon/Luke, though? Not the subjects of his ire, in spite of two of the three siding against his rebellion. He has positive relationships with the latter two and the first has "it's fucking complicated" written all over it. In most works of modern fiction depicting Lucifer, his bond with Michael is usually this way (and it seems they usually go for the ‘two sides of one coin’ motif). I don’t expect it to pan out any differently here.

The thing is I'm not sure if they're ever going to have dad/God appear in the story: it's clear they're much more comfortable having Michael be the Celestial Realm figurehead, and I can understand why. But dad is... kind of the very obvious problem.

That is not to say he’s going to be a knight in shining armor: I think he still is very much a creature of the environment he grew up in, and this event + how Simeon and Luke behave give good insight on what his moral shortcomings likely are. It’s just the crumbs suggesting that Michael is evil and the chessmaster in a devious scheme feel like red herrings that don’t really hold up when the story as a whole is scrutinized. There just isn’t enough animus towards Michael to make him a convincing final boss. He will more likely be the Dragon, or was previously. 

That, and I just want to cling to my unlikely headcanon that he’ll ironically be the one who ends up successfully toppling dad and replacing him when it becomes obvious that he’s the true threat to the three realms. Like, a better version of what Jon Snow did with Dany in GoT lol.

#obey me #obey me! #obey me michael #obey me lucifer #obey me theories #obey me analysis #obey me celestial realm #obey me angels #theories #analysis #theory

[starring-movies]

Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 3, Episode 5 - Are You from Pinner? [Part 1]

This episode, like S3E4, follows a comletely different format to all the other episodes, as it focuses solely on Villanelle’s time with her family in Grizmet and doesn’t include any other storylines from any of the other characters in the series.

We begin with Villanelle’s arrival at Grizmet, where we get a scene of a huge logging truck beeping it’s horn at a completely oblivious Villanelle, as she’s walking along listening to music. This lack of awareness in her surroundings is highly unusual for Villanelle, who’s success in her profession hinges on her being constantly alert and highly astute. Previously the only other instance where we have seen Villanelle not being on top form; is in S2E4, when she takes drugs and almost kills a girl for no reason, after she thought Eve had lost interest in her. Making the point of showing us how she’s not as alert as usual, displays how Villanelle is distracted and not able to focus at the thought (and pressure) of being reunited with her family.

Villanelle also has her hair out, illustrating how she’s willing to open, and immerse herself, into her family that she’s going to be reunited with.

On arriving at the family home, Villanelle enters the house and examines the kitchen. She looks at all the little mundane objects like the sugar bowl, the food cooking on the stove and some knitting supplies. As Villanelle’s looking at these things, we can see that she’s considering what her life could have looked like, and how different it would have looked, if she hadn’t been left at the orphanage.

After Villanelle has met most of the members of her family (she’s yet to meet her mother, Tatiana), we see her sitting in Bor’ka’s bedroom as she talks to him about the best foods to eat in the various countries that Elton John has visited. When asked about Vienna, Villanelle tells Bor’ka that there is “great ice cream in Vienna”, which is a nice little reference to the very first scene of the whole series, when we first meet Villanelle eating ice cream in Vienna after a kill.

During her conversation with Bor’ka, Villanelle puts on some red heart glasses with pink-ish coloured lenses in them, an accessory that Elton John is famous for wearing. We get a shot of her looking at her family with the glasses on, as well as a shot of her view of her family through the pink lenses of the glasses. In the first shot of Villanelle as she looks at her family with the glasses on; through the imagery of this shot we are shown how Villanelle is watching her family with literal ‘heart eyes’ - just like the apron she wears at the end of the episode, she is putting her whole heart out and offering it to her family to try and find the place of belonging she has been looking for.

Similarly in the shot of Villanelle’s point of view through the tinted lenses, we are shown how Villanelle is watching her family through literal ‘rose-coloured glasses’, the definition of this idiom is “a happy or positive attitude that fails to notice negative things”). In this way, through the chosen imagery in both of these shots, we are being shown how Villanelle is letting herself be carried away by her heart, now she thinks she’s found her family and finally found a place where she feels that she belongs - she is looking at her family unrealistically and putting an impossible optimism them for what she hopes to gain from her visit home.

As soon as Villanelle finds out that her mother, Tatiana, has arrived home, we see one of the only times Villanelle has been in pure terror and distress. Villanelle fully panics when she finds out Tatiana is back and she frantically runs around the living room, trying to find a way out. The only other time we have seen Villanelle display this level of anxiety was in S1E2 when she being held prisoner by Julian and was incredibly weak after being stabbed by Eve.

As Villanelle is running around trying to escape, ‘Bumble Bee’ by LaVern Baker is played over the scene. The lyrics that can be heard are:

“I'm gonna have to put you down,

You been treating me like a clown,

You know you've hurt me once before,

You'll never hurt me anymore,

Shoo-ee, you hurt me like a bee,

A bumble bee, a evil bumble bee”

Although we haven’t been told yet what happened between Villanelle and her mother, the lyrics of the song accurately reflect what is soon revealed to us. The lyrics of the song, together with the information that we are later given - that Tatiana was a terrible mother to Villanelle, who she thought had “a darkness” - is the reason for the frantic panic that Villanelle reacts with, when she realises that she has to confront her mother again after all this time. When Bor’ka says that “mum” is home, Villanelle suddenly remembers how her mother “hurt [her] once before”, and most likely how she doesn’t want her to “hurt [her] anymore”.

When Tatiana enters the house she drops her shopping bags, she walks over to Villanelle to hug her and then starts crying, calling Villanelle “my Oksana”. It’s left fairly ambiguously as to whether this emotional reaction from Tatiana was genuine. However, the three separate close-up shots that follow the hug, suggest that Tatiana was not being genuine.

We are shown two shots of Knick-Knacks on bookcases and one shot of some family pictures on the wall. Interestingly, within these three shots, there are a total of four framed photos of Tatiana on her own, with no-one else in the pictures with her. The choice to show shots of the Knick-Knacks suggest that Tatiana is not being sincere, as we are being shown how she attempts to hide her “darkness” by putting on this facade of being a good wife and mother, which we (and Villanelle) later see starts to slip.

The individual photos of Tatiana also suggest that she is not reacting genuinely to seeing Villanelle, as we can see that she’s clearly a narcissist and so makes as effort to put out a particular image of herself - in this case she’s putting on a show for the other members of her family, so that she can maintain the image that she’s spent so long building up: the loving mother who was forced to give up her child and is finally being reunited with her, after thinking she was dead for all thee years.

It’s further shown how Tatiana tried to bury her old life and start a fresh one (she started again by getting a new husband, a new house and new children), when Pyotr brings the photo album with the childhood pictures of Villanelle. He brings out the album and says that he found it “in back of loft”. Tatiana has plenty of family photos in the house, and a great number of them are of herself; so to not have any pictures up of Villanelle, and the fact that the album was found pushed away in the back of the loft, shows how she tried to hide away any remnants of Villanelle after she left her at the orphanage.

Even more notable is that there is no pictures of Tatiana’s husband, Villanelle’s father, anywhere. As Villanelle is looking through the photo album she says “where is Dad? There has to be one of him before he died”. Again it’s been heavily emphasised that there’s a lot of photos in the house, and there’s even quite a few pictures of Villanelle even though they were hidden away. So for there so be absolutely no pictures at all of the father, it’s insinuated that Tatiana and the father’s relationship wasn’t good before he died, or it wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility to assume she’s lying and the father left her - or perhaps even, given that Tatiana has a darkness akin to Villanelle’s own darkness, that she killed her husband.

Following Tatiana’s arrival back home and her reunion with Villanelle, she says to Villanelle, “I used to like dressing up and you always wanted my clothes, so I would make costume from old curtains for you”. By Tatiana saying this, it is implying that this is where Villanelle began her love of clothes and dressing up in different disguises.

The next scene we get, is of the whole family playing a card came, called Mafia/Werewolf, together. Fyodor accuses Villanelle of being Bor’ka’s ‘killer’ in the game, but he gets it wrong and Tatiana reveals that she was in fact the ‘killer’. Villanelle is the literal ‘killer’, however in the game it’s Tatiana, which signifies how Tatiana actually has more darkness than Villanelle, but she tries to conceal it.

The card Tatiana holds up is also the Queen of clubs, which further emphasises how she is the queen/matriarch of the household.

In this scene, we also get our first glimpse at Tatiana’s cruelty. Bor’ka says “mum you murdered me”, and Tatiana replied that “I had no choice Bor’ka” and he says that “you could have murdered the others”. He’s right, why would she choose to ‘murder’ Bor’ka when he’s the youngest one playing and is still only a child; she picks on him unnecessarily, just like how she picks on him at the Harvest Festival by telling him that he was “stupid and embarrassed her”.

We are also shown the complete control and power that Tatiana, being a narcissist and as the matriarch, has over the family - she only needs to say “eh” and tap on the table while Pyotr and Fyodor are arguing, to get them to stop.

Tatiana’s narcissism is additionally shown, when she makes her speech to the rest of the family. She says “I like to make speech. This night is very, very special for me. My girl, my little girl”. Tatiana’s repeated use of the personal pronouns “I” and “me”, demonstrate how her focus is all on herself, not on Villanelle or the rest of the family, but on how important and special this is for herself.

The scene continues to give us another instance of dancing, which Villanelle is uncomfortable with, just like in S3E1 with Maria. However unlike with Maria, where Villanelle just sort of stands and looks at Maria, while she’s trying to dance with her, Villanelle actually makes an attempt to partake in the dancing with her family.

She gets up with them and bobs up and down a bit, and we even see her start to sing the chorus of ‘Crocodile Rock’ by Elton John, with them before the scene cuts. Although she’s clearly uncomfortable, the fact that Villanelle makes a conscious effort to dance with her family, shows us how much effort and how desperately she wants to belong in the family. However, the fact that she’s still uncomfortable and it’s still not coming naturally foretells how although she is trying, this still isn’t the right fit for her or what she’s looking for.

Going onto the next scene, we see Pyotr taking his anger out on an old sofa and Villanelle comes to visit him. She’s wearing a mostly black outfit and has her hair up now, unlike the day before when she arrived; her appearance is reflecting how she’s closed herself off more now, and to show that she’s focused (like when she’s on a job). Villanelle is focused because she uses the day to speak to each of the members of the family, to find more information about what happened in the time while she wasn’t there and also to find out more information about her mother.

While Villanelle is speaking to Pyotr she says “you always wanted to be a firefighter, right?” and Pyotr says to her “you remember”. As Tatiana said earlier, that “the orphanage phone me and say you burn place down”, it’s most likely that Villanelle burned down the orphanage in the hope that her brother (who she knew wanted to be a firefighter) would come with the fire brigade to the orphanage to put out the fire; and in turn, come and find her there as well and rescue her.

The description that Villanelle’s gives to Pyotr of her father, that he was “funny, strong, taught me how to fight”; just like Tatiana and the clothes, we can see that Villanelle has taken these characteristics from her father: Villanelle tells Gabriel in S2E1 “yes, I am funny”, later on in this episode Yula’s friend says “she’s funny” and it’s clear that she’s strong and can fight.

Pyotr goes on to ask Villanelle “how they say we die”, and she replies only by saying “car crash” - another foreshadowing for the end of the episode. Villanelle’s family may not have died from an actual “car crash” when the orphanage told her they did, but they do end up dying at the end of the episode because her visit to her family was a metaphorical “car crash”.

In the next scene, when Pyotr and Villanelle are eating golubtsy, Pyotr says that “she’s [Tatiana] not a bad woman, people here say she is saint” and Villanelle says that “people here don’t know her”. This confirms what had up until this point just been alluded to, that Tatiana got a new husband, a new family and a new house (presumably in a different town) to try and hide her previous life and create a new image for herself.

*TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2 OF ‘ARE YOU FROM PINNER? Episode Analysis’*

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

——————————————————————————

#killing eve #killing eve season 3 #killing eve episode analysis #3x05 #ke #villaneve #eve polastri #villanelle #killing eve analysis #killingeveedit #movies #film #cinematography #tv reviews #reviews #good tv #tv recommendations #killing eve spoilers #killing eve discussion #ke analysis #killing eve 3x05 #killing eve S3E5 #phoebe waller bridge #jodie comer #sandra oh #fiona shaw #scene breakdown #carolyn martens #lgbtq #killing eve are you from pinner?

[miriamctaylor]

So You Want To Write A Rivals/Enemies-to-Lovers Arc?

This past summer, I went on an absolute romcom binge, and ended up watching far more dislike-to-lovers movies than anyone should ever see in their lifetime. The end result was that I noticed a standard plot structure most dislike-to-lovers stories follow, and I figured I’d share in case it inspires someone working on one of these stories.

NOTE: This is not intended as a rigid set of guidelines, just inspiration if you’re feeling stuck. It’s also not necessarily bad that so many movies follow this list- I’ve added a lot of examples to demonstrate that this arc can be done in many unique ways. Additionally this post takes heavy inspiration from existing structures like the Save The Cat! plot, just customized for this particular flavor of romance.

So, without further ado:

1. Opening: Standard for most genres. Introduces the protagonist(s)- they’re sympathetic, but something is missing from their life.

Leap Year: Montage of Anna’s life

Enchanted: Giselle falls in love with Edward

Tangled: Flynn’s heist and “When Will My Life Begin?”

10 Things I Hate About You: Cameron’s crush on Bianca introduces us to the Stratford sisters

Christmas Wedding Planner: Kelsey’s attempt to get a blueberry scone

Beauty and the Beast: The Beast is cursed, and Belle longs for an escape from her small-town life

2. Inciting Incident: The start of the plot. The couple meets each other, and/or we get the first hint of whatever’s gonna shove them together long enough to fall in love.

Leap Year: Anna meets Declan after getting stranded

Enchanted: Giselle is thrown into NYC

Tangled: Flynn breaks into Rapunzel’s tower

10 Things I Hate About You: Cameron plans to pay someone to date Kat

Christmas Wedding Planner: Connor asks Kelsey to help him investigate Todd

Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s father is imprisoned in the Beast’s castle

3. Start of Act Two: The couple is forced to spend time together for some reason. Often, this involves a deal between them, or a lie that’ll be revealed at the low point.

Leap Year: Declan agrees to drive Anna

Enchanted: Robert agrees to let Giselle stay in his apartment

Tangled: Flynn and Rapunzel make a deal (the crown for the festival)

10 Things I Hate About You: Patrick speaks to Kat for the first time

Christmas Wedding Planner: Kelsey gets dinner with Connor and agrees to help him

Beauty and the Beast: Belle agrees to take her father’s place

4. Pinch Point 1/False Valley: Their partnership is off to a rocky start, and both wonder, “how is this ever going to work?” This is the nadir of their bond until the low point- they almost give up, but can’t until they both get what they want.

Leap Year: Declan and Anna get into a car crash

Enchanted: Giselle causes trouble with Robert’s fiance, job, and apartment, and he tries to kick her out

Tangled: Flynn takes Rapunzel to the tavern to scare her into giving up

10 Things I Hate About You: Patrick’s getting nowhere with Kat, so Cameron and Bianca snoop through her things

Christmas Wedding Planner: Kelsey and Connor bicker their way through the fancy party (although it does culminate in fake kissing)

Beauty and the Beast: Belle tries to run after the Beast repeatedly loses his temper with her

5. Midpoint/Breakthrough 1: Breakthrough! Someone’s tragic backstory is revealed, they bond over a serious threat, there’s affection/attraction for the first time, someone realizes their feelings, etc. Looks like [love interest]’s not so bad after all.

Leap Year: Anna and Declan’s night at the B&B pretending to be married

Enchanted: Robert and Giselle’s pizza “date”

Tangled: Flynn reveals his backstory after nearly drowning

10 Things I Hate About You: Bogey’s party. Kat and Patrick open up to each other, and almost kiss

Christmas Wedding Planner: Connor and Kelsey bond while on a stakeout

Beauty and the Beast: Belle and the Beast bond after he rescues her, “Something There That Wasn’t There Before”

6. Pinch Point 2/False Peak: After the midpoint, things continue to improve between them. This moment is the peak of their relationship until the finale. They almost get together- but something is still holding them back.

Leap Year: Anna and Declan’s drunken walk on the beach, where they almost kiss

Enchanted: Robert and Giselle’s argument over Edward ends with them almost kissing

Tangled: The festival, “At Last I See The Light” (another almost kiss!)

10 Things I Hate About You: Patrick and Kat play paintball

Christmas Wedding Planner: Connor and Kelsey get dinner together, and (again) almost kiss

Beauty and the Beast: The titular song & their romantic dance

7. Low Point/True Valley: Whatever was holding them back returns with a vengeance, and everything comes crashing down. Secrets and lies are revealed, misunderstandings and arguments abound, someone is left thinking “they’re exactly who I thought they were...was it all a lie?” Often, the situation forcing them together is resolved so a) they get what they initially wanted and realize they don’t want it anymore, and b) them spending time together afterward is a choice.

Leap Year: Jeremy proposes to Anna

Enchanted: Giselle’s heartbreak at the ball

Tangled: Gothel convinces Rapunzel that Flynn abandoned her for the crown

10 Things I Hate About You: Kat finds out about the deal Patrick made

Christmas Wedding Planner: Kelsey finds out about the checks written to Connor

Beauty and the Beast: The Beast releases Belle, knowing the chances of her returning before the final petal falls are slim

8. Start of Act Three/Breakthrough 2: After some wallowing, the final obstacle keeping them from getting together is removed. One or both realizes their feelings. Disposable fiances are disposed of. Whoever was at fault for the Low Point realizes what an ass they were, and races to apologize and confess their feelings.

Leap Year: Anna pulls the fire alarm

Enchanted: True love’s kiss

Tangled: Rapunzel realizes she’s the lost princess and Gothel is evil

10 Things I Hate About You: Kat has a heart-to-heart with her dad, and he apologizes for his overprotectiveness

Christmas Wedding Planner: Connor and Kelsey’s confrontation before the wedding (this one is more about their respective character arcs than their romantic arc as both had already realized their feelings)

Beauty and the Beast: Belle defends the Beast, and Gaston points out that she has feelings for him

9. The Finale/True Peak: It’s grand romantic gesture time. Villains are defeated, dramatic love confessions are made, and the heroes finally have that big damn kiss. All the obstacles are gone, both the heroes have grown as people, and they can finally make it work as a couple.

Leap Year: Anna and Declan propose to each other

Enchanted: Robert and Giselle defeat Narissa, culiminating in their big rooftop kiss-in-the-rain

Tangled: Flynn sacrifices himself for Rapunzel, and Rapunzel brings him back

10 Things I Hate About You: Kat’s sonnet

Christmas Wedding Planner: Connor shows up at the wedding and clears up all of the misunderstandings

Beauty and the Beast: Belle confesses her feelings to the Beast as he dies & the last petal falls

10. Conclusion: Usually has a “Where are they now?” vibe to it (and the answer is usually living happily ever after!)

Obviously, not all of these movies follow the structure exactly- for example, Kat and Patrick are arguably together by the paintball scene, and the low point/start of act three for Beauty and the Beast were a bit difficult to separate from one another. However, I hope this is still useful as a very loose guideline, if you’re working on one of these stories and need help with the plot. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading, and happy writing!

#writeblr #writing advice #tips for writers #ship prompt #enemies to lovers #rivals to lovers #well more just 'people who dont like each other to lovers'

[rhowena]

Pile of stuff concerning what happened to Loki between Thor and The Avengers

Originally posted on r/FanTheories

https://inforapid.org/webapp/webapp.php?shareddb=IAxUFHnwkGJSYMj9OFbT8mRl5goHm9SC2qHbWw4knO1cng5qI5Wrg48nP1MdgbWlJmHj6UpwbN343IqnstQUwxIIO01M5Rvb

As it does not escape my notice that I’ve created a digital version of this meme, some navigation help for anyone who needs it:

Mouse over/tap an item or relation to view its description

For items with the yellow ‘Note’ label, select the node and then 'Notes on Item’ in the side menu to view an additional notes page

If an item has a globe icon it the top-left corner, click it to open a webpage

'Adjust View’ in the side menu has controls to zoom in/out, increase/decrease the distance between items, and filter items or relations by category

Relations (and items) are color-coded by type: solid green lines are for in-universe evidence (light green connects evidence to the theory it supports, while dark green connects pieces of evidence that should be looked at together), purple dotted lines denote parallels, and dark red lines mark cases of “one of these things is not like the other”

And an overview of the theories contained therein:

First, the central piece of tinfoil around which all other tinfoil is arrayed: remember how, at the end of the first Thor, Loki was pathologically obsessed with gaining his father’s approval? And how, when he next showed up after vanishing for an entire year, he’d gotten mixed up with a guy who keeps a menagerie of adopted children? And how, during his argument with Thor on the mountaintop, he said this?

Loki: Did you mourn? Thor: We all did. Our father– Loki: Your father. He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?

Loki: I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract and when I wield it—

Tom Hiddleston: There’s a bit where Thor says, “We all mourned! Our father…” and Loki interrupts him and says, “YOUR father.” And it’s that sense of 'don’t include me in this anymore. I have no relation or connection to you.’ It’s his way of saying 'I’ve let go, I’m gone, I’m on the outside of the fence, I’m happy here, I don’t want to come back in.’

If I may take a minute to get out some of my extremely complicated feelings on this, while there’s a bunch more evidence in favor of Loki having been another of Thanos’s children that can be viewed on the mind map, I want to highlight this pair of quotes because it’s everything implied by the words “Your father” that makes it into a devastating punch in the stomach which draws on both halves of Loki’s Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds characterization: his genuine love for his family is his primary redeeming quality and that he forswore it like this puts the terrible moment when he first knelt before Thanos and pledged himself to the Mad Titan’s service firmly into archetypal Faustian sell-your-soul territory, but when you consider the straits he was in at the time and the implication that Thanos initially ensnared him not through promises of power but by preying on him emotionally, it’s a very human kind of tragic mistake.

The other mitigating factor is that based on everything we’ve heard from Thanos’s other children, it’s a safe bet that he did in fact do unspeakably horrible things to Loki too – indeed, noticing the resemblance between the existing theories about Loki having been tortured/brainwashed and Gamora’s “He took me, tortured me, turned me into a weapon” was what prompted the above realization in the first place. (It’s reminiscent of Theon’s storyline in ASOIAF/GOT: yeah, he betrayed his adoptive family and did some generally awful stuff, but no one deserves what happened to him.) It also bears emphasizing that accountability cuts both ways: one of the key takeaways from the previous bullet point is that the suffering Loki went through doesn’t absolve him of responsibility for his villainous actions, but the other side of the coin is that Loki’s partial complicity doesn’t absolve Thanos of responsibility for the choice he made to take a broken, desperate young man who’d just lost everything and turn him into the rabid animal we saw during The Avengers, and I dearly hope that exploring the rich font of psychological horror that is that time period will erase any remaining doubt that Thanos’s claims of acting For The Greater Good are nothing but empty, egotistical, self-righteous posturing and everyone in the audience who insists on taking them at face value is being duped just as Loki was.

Stephen: No. I mean, come on. Look at your face. Dormammu made you a murderer. Just how good can his kingdom be?

As for where this is all going, I believe there’s a good chance that the Loki Disney+ series will be where they finally address this as a. the split timeline Loki the series will be following is still fresh from his time with Thanos and it will therefore have to explain what happened if we’re to understand the kind of headspace that he’s in at that moment and b. Tom Hiddleston has revealed that the series will also clarify whether or not Loki really is dead in the main timeline, and everything I have so far indicates that understanding the nature of his original pact with Thanos is essential to understanding both Loki’s choice to die and Thanos’s choice to kill him (see the 'Pledge of fidelity’ and 'Limited use’ notes pages on the mind map). Character-wise, I think one of the points of emphasis will be that Loki’s death in Infinity War doesn’t wrap up his story as neatly as it may appear to on the surface; truly completing his redemption arc will require him to confront this part of his past in full, and with it his guilt over everything he’s done and his fear that he’s wrecked his life and relationship with his family so thoroughly that he can never, ever fix them.

Loki: Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? […] Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer… PATHETIC! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will *never* go away!

An additional giant red flag indicating we really should be asking more questions about that time gap is a group of lines in The Avengers which reveal that Thanos taught Loki how to use the Tesseract.

The Other: The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will.

The Other: You question us? You question HIM? He, who put the Scepter in your hand? Who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?

Loki: I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract and when I wield it— Thor: Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be king?

Sharing that kind of knowledge and power with someone as volatile as Loki strikes me as an monumentally terrible idea (and as much as I don’t want to be the person who throws a tantrum because their fanfic didn’t come true, I’m kinda salty that Thanos was defeated without it coming back to bite him in the ass), which leaves me wondering what Thanos hoped to gain that he believed would be worth the risks. My thoughts on that particular sub-puzzle are still somewhat hazy, but my basic sense is that there’s something weird going on between Loki and the Tesseract and wanting to exploit that connection is one of the reasons Thanos went to all the trouble of breaking him into submission.

Loki: So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?

The other reason for Thanos’s interest in Loki ties back to all that emotional twistiness I talked about earlier: he planned to leverage Loki’s anger and resentment towards his family in a bid to destroy Odin and Asgard from the inside.

Zemo: An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That’s dead… forever.

As a prelude to this, during The Avengers Thanos had additionally tasked Loki with killing Thor as a way to prove his loyalty and destroy the last remaining shreds of his own humanity, a test Loki failed because he still loved his brother too much.

Coulson: You’re going to lose. It’s in your nature. […] You lack conviction.

What’s more, Thanos anticipated this, and the Scepter’s influence over Loki was aimed at forcing him to go through with it if he refused.

Loki: I won’t touch Barton, not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And then he’ll wake, just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I’ll split his skull!

Lastly, even with Infinity War having established that Thanos simply gets off on emotional torture, that he would go out of his way to fuck with Odin personally by turning his second son against him leads me to believe there was a special hatred there stemming from some as-yet unrevealed history between the two. I mean, when I picture the alternate universe where Thanos shows up to attack Asgard with a corrupted Loki in tow like “You screwed up so badly that he chose me as a father figure over you” …that isn’t something you say to a complete stranger.

GRRM on writing villain POVs: That’s a comic book kind of thing, where the Red Skull gets up in the morning [and asks] “What evil can I do today?” Real people don’t think that way. We all think we’re heroes, we all think we’re good guys. We have our rationalizations when we do bad things. “Well, I had no choice,” or “It’s the best of several bad alternatives,” or “No it was actually good because God told me so,” or “I had to do it for my family.” We all have rationalizations for why we do shitty things or selfish things or cruel things. So when I’m writing from the viewpoint of one of my characters who has done these things, I try to have that in my head.

#mcu #loki #thor #thanos #odin #loki's missing year #theory #analysis #mind map #i swear i will turn this into an actual essay one of these days

[nyangibun]

GoT S08E02 Thoughts

So due to packing and getting my life sorted, I haven’t had time to watch the latest episode until today. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the episode!

Disclaimer: This is a Jonsa/Pol!Jon-goggled review so please just ignore this if you don’t like that stuff. It’s truly easy to just scroll past. 

Even though I expected it, I can’t help but feel so disappointed and annoyed by Dani. How can she lack such self-awareness? She’s sitting there condemning Jaime, a man she doesn’t even know, for the crime of killing her father when said father also murdered Rickard and Brandon Stark. She is acting as if she has undergone some tragic loss when she never met her father and Dani’s circumstances were entirely caused by her own family (although being hunted was Robert Baratheon’s). Jaime is not innocent by any means. There are plenty of crimes he committed he could be tried for; however, killing Aerys the Mad King was not one of them.

Dani also can’t just condemn a man for killing her father when her father was out there murdering innocent people, while a season ago asked Jon to not hold the crimes of her father against her. But then she also can’t say that and still go after the Iron Throne. Basically, her logic is all kinds of messed up. What it boils down to is what Dani wants she gets by fire and blood.

Brienne vouching for Jaime was also pretty unsurprising. I expected this too but damnit it still gave me all the Braime feels and I was loving it! 

Two things struck me about this scene though and one was that Brienne doesn’t address Dani, their supposed queen, but Sansa. It makes sense because Brienne is loyal to only Sansa and it’s her authority/leadership she follows. And the second was as Brienne was vouching for Jaime, Sansa’s face changes from being angry to immediately compassion and understanding, even to the point where it looked like she was holding back tears. Sansa doesn’t trust easily, with good reason, but the people she does trust, she does so wholeheartedly and with unwavering faith. If Brienne says Jaime is to be trusted, that he is an honourable man who helped save Sansa because of his promise to Catelyn, then there is no reason for Sansa to doubt that. All is not forgiven, I imagine, but if he has protected Brienne and stayed honourable to her mother, that’s all Sansa needs. 

I also like that Jon takes Sansa’s side. Although I think another factor of it was also simply what he said: they need all the men they could get. But Jon trusts Sansa’s judgment and if she is willing to pardon him then he will to, and that’s the nature of their partnership/relationship. This dynamic has come up so many times in the past 3 seasons. They fight and bicker but at the end of the day, no matter what, they’re a team.  

I wonder if Dani notices this too. Their dynamic is very much Lord and Lady of Winterfell, not in just the way they compliment each other as leaders but also visually. Additionally, this dynamic is also emphasised by the way others address both of them. They look to Sansa first, Jon second and Dani as an afterthought. For instance, after Jaime is pardoned, Sansa ups and leaves right away without excusing herself to Dani. Immediately after she does, Jon leaves. It could be said Jon is avoiding Dani so he leaves right away to avoid her but why have Sansa leave first and him right after? It looks like he is following after her so they can speak in private. The timing of it feels very pointed. If they wanted to point out that Jon was avoiding Dani, there was no need to have Sansa leave first, before everyone else.  

The scene with Tyrion and Dani feels very telling. I have always been of the opinion that sometime soon both Varys and Tyrion will become disillusioned by Dani and see her for who she is (Varys is already beginning to, probably). But what happens here is interesting: Dani basically asks Tyrion if he is a “traitor or fool?” He responds that he’s made mistakes, ie. suggesting he is the ‘fool’ and not a traitor. Throughout the rest of the episode, after Dani’s heart to heart with Jorah, she begins to ease off of Tyrion and tentatively trust him again to lead her to the Iron Throne. I feel like this emphasis and the initial question -- all of it is suggesting that Tyrion may, in fact, become a traitor to Dani. 

What makes me believe this, even more, is Tyrion’s conversation with Jaime. Although Jaime doesn’t say anything particularly negative about Dani, it is what he’s not saying that’s telling about how he truly feels about her and who she would become as queen. This isn’t the first time speculations over how good of a queen she would be have been brought up around Tyrion. In general, the topic of Dani as queen is a contentious one in any case for many characters in GoT but the fact that it is consistently brought up to Tyrion and he has to consistently defend her feels like it’s leading to a point where Tyrion won’t be able to defend her actions. He has thus far been justifying her decisions, making excuses and trying to convince others (and himself) that she will be a good and just queen, but Dani is going to do something soon that he won’t be able to explain away and that will be when he will have to reevaluate exactly what kind of world he is helping her build. 

But moving on... GENDRYA!! I did not expect this and I have doubts this will happen in the books, but shit, we still got Gendry and Arya getting down and dirty and I am here for it! Although with that said, this makes me worry about the fate of Gendry. I saw a post where someone mentioned this episode was the Starks saying goodbye to the people in their past (separate) lives. If such is the case, would Gendry live to see the end of this? I don’t know if Gendrya was ever a part of GRRM’s plans but I do feel that Gendry has a larger role to play. The fact that he is Robert Baratheon’s bastard hasn’t come up as a plot point at all since the Melissandre. He was supposed to keep his parentage a secret but he has willingly blabbed it to both Jon and Arya. There has to be something bigger that will involve Gendry so I don’t believe he’ll die in this battle. I do however think he might die for his parentage. A foil, perhaps, to Jon’s parentage reveal. 

Slight brief moment to squee at Proud Mama Brienne watching her son Podrick teaching someone how to fight. The duo I never knew I needed! 

I have to say that this episode has been Braime GOLD. Everything about their interactions have just hit my shippy heart in all the right way. Jaime telling Brienne that he came all the way here to “serve under her command” was basically a love confession. Am I wrong? I mean... please. 

Maybe it’s my Jonsa goggles, but I can’t help feeling like Dani and Jorah’s scene serves as a direct contrast to Jon and Dani later. Even in Season 7, they highlighted how Jorah and Dani say goodbye versus the lacklustre dismissive way Jon said goodbye to Dani. Here, they show the way Jorah looks at Dani and attempts to get her to listen to him, but you don’t have that with Jon and Dani at all. Their interactions are physical. There is no scene where they sit and talk about their problems, try to help each other/give advice. There is no sense that they are a team, whereas Jorah and Dani are (granted he is her subordinate but so is Jon) and Jon and Sansa are (an equal partnership). It’s just different and it’s obvious it is. 

Anyway, speaking of Sansa and Dani. There is a lot to unpack in their scene together. I feel like everything Sansa has had to learn about appeasing her captors has led her directly to Dani. Although Dani is not more intelligent than Cersei or Petyr or even Ramsay, she is volatile and unpredictable, which makes her more dangerous, especially considering the sheer power she wields. Sansa isn’t dumb enough to underestimate her. 

When she tells Dani that Jon loves her and men do stupid things for love, it’s actually the opposite. If we’re going by what Sansa has experienced, it hasn’t really been under the vein of “men doing stupid, terrible things for love”, it has been “women doing stupid, terrible things for love”. Cersei, for instance, has done horrible things in the name of love (for her children) and Sansa has seen this firsthand and had to endure those horrible things from her and her children (or rather Joffrey). Then you have Aunt Lysa who has done and would’ve done terrible things to Sansa in the name of love (for Petyr). And who else has Sansa encountered? Myranda. Her love for Ramsay has made her do seriously evil things and Sansa has witnessed and experienced all of this. The only time she has witnessed a man in love is Petyr (and his ‘love’ is questionable at best) but he hasn’t done terrible, horrible things for love. He has done terrible things for himself under the guise of love. Sansa knows this too. So when she is saying this to Dani, I don’t believe that she is actually talking about Jon at all. She is talking about Dani and she is worried for Jon, worried he is being manipulated by Dani and will pay the consequences for her love. Among that worry is also what I believe is jealousy. 

Look at the framing of the question. Dani is trying to make peace with Sansa; she is asking why exactly aren’t they seeing eye to eye as women (which is another thing that annoyed me because this idea that women must support all women is dumb and not feminist; women aren’t infallible to being evil or even just disagreeing on fundamental principles & future goals and that’s what you have here with Sansa and Dani). When Sansa doesn’t answer, there is a pause where the camera is focused on Sansa. She is clearly restraining herself. There is anguish there, so when Dani asks “your brother?”, it’s framed in a way that makes it sound like Dani is confronting Sansa about her feelings about her brother. While Sansa diverts the conversation, Dani does nail it on the head. There is tension between them because of Jon. Another point where they seem to be setting up a love triangle. 

There are actually quite a few lines from this scene that feels like misdirection and/or hints towards something else. Sansa saying “families are complicated” feels pointed considering how utterly complicated it really is and how clueless they both are to the extent of their complicated families entangled with each other. Then Dani saying “tell me who manipulated whom?” to emphasise her love for Jon felt like one of those tv trope moments like you never say “it can’t possibly get any worse than this” and in the next moment, it clearly does for the main characters. That line felt like that. As does Dani’s whole spiel about trusting Jon wholeheartedly and him being the second man for whom she does trust that way. Saying “he’s true to his word”. It all feels like an ominous foreshadowing. So imo, Pol!Jon is still well and truly alive. 

The ending between Sansa and Dani felt perfect to illustrate what I said above about women not needing to support each other to be considered ‘feminists’. Sansa and Dani are both truly strong and fearless leaders who have risen above the men who deemed them unfit for their gender. That is certainly something worth celebrating, but this is where the similarity ends. Fundamentally, Sansa and Dani have two completely, opposing goals and principles. Dani wants the Iron Throne, by all means, necessary and that includes total and complete control over the Seven Kingdoms. Sansa wants independence for her people and the North; for them to never have to bend the knee to a foreign ruler and go fight in someone else’s war. These two objectives conflict and Sansa is smart to remind Dani definitively that this is something she won’t budge on. Perhaps it will invite Dani’s ire in later episodes so maybe not too smart but as a leader, Sansa is making sure her people’s voices are heard.  

Moving forward to the next scene, I first have to say that the Theon and Sansa reunion hug was everything I ever wanted from this!! Their friendship has been something I’ve loved in GoT and I’ve been waiting for this for so long. I could feel the emotion between them and I have to applaud both Sophie and Alfie for their performances. 

But speaking of the scene itself, there is only one thing I’d like to point out, which is something I already touched upon. When it comes to authority in the North, Dani may have it in title but it’s Sansa who has the true power and authority. Theon greets Dani but he looks to only Sansa for permission to fight and defend Winterfell. 

Okay, so the reveal... I saw a lot of people saying that Jenny’s Song being sung in this episode suggests that Jon will give up his throne for Dani. But... no?? That’s not it. There is a beautiful meta somewhere out here about Jenny of Oldstones and her relation to Sansa Stark, so I suggest finding it if you can (or linking it if you have it). But essentially, this is my opinion: Jenny of Oldstones was from the Riverlands and Duncan Targaryen renounced his throne for her. All of the Stark children have a connection to the Riverlands through their Tully blood on Catelyn’s side, but Sansa has always been the Stark child that had the most connection to her Tully side. Visually, she has the Tully look (as did Robb, Bran, and Rickon) but she is also most visually paralleled to Catelyn (as well as quite literally being said to look similar to Catelyn). House Tully’s words “Family, Duty, Honour” are also most embodied through Sansa’s narrative arc. Therefore, this song could suggest instead that Jon, a Targaryen like Duncan, will renounce his throne for a non-Targaryen girl from the Riverlands, Sansa. 

I personally don’t think it means he’d renounced his throne for Dani. It doesn’t make sense for a Targaryen to renounce his throne for a Targaryen. Not to mention that Jenny’s Song and the history surrounding it is more than likely a song about the Prince That Was Promised, which we now know is Jon and not Dani. That difference will become a point of conflict between both Jon and Dani, as we are already given a glimpse of when Jon reveals his parentage to her. Dani’s whole identity has been founded on this idea that she was the last living Targaryen, the true heir to the Iron Throne, and when Melissandre came to see her, she also adopted the title of Prince(ss) That Was Promised in her mind. Dani’s foundation relies on being the ‘most special’ but here comes Jon, who is destroying every wall she had built around herself and not in the good way. It is telling after all that after the reveal the thing Dani focuses on isn’t that they are related but rather that Jon now has a claim to the Iron Throne. She is immediately suspicious and paranoid. Remember, Aerys the Mad King was not always mad. He was actually once generous and wise (had a ‘good heart’) but he began succumbing to his paranoia, believing those around him were out for his power and that led to his ultimate insanity. Dani instantly focusing on Jon’s claim to the throne rather than their relation or that she is no longer alone and has family is evidence of her growing paranoia. It had been building over the past seasons.  

That is mainly all I have to say but I do want to just point out some stuff I loved: 

- The Group Pow Wow!!! Yeah, that was adorable. I love every single character in that room and them all being there together was great.

- Brienne is finally knighted!! Tormund’s proud dumb face and Jaime knighting made my shippy heart cry happily!

- Lyanna Mormont, may I adopt you?? 

- The Bromance That Was Promised!! Looooove Ed, Jon and Sam so much!

- WE FINALLY SAW GHOST BUT JFC WHAT A SHITTY CAMEO. GIVE ME MORE GHOST!!!!  

- Overall, it was not bad. It’s just... we have 6 episodes and for 2 episodes, nothing really has happened except for the reveal. It’s a lot of moving parts which I know is needed but does that mean the next 4 will be super rushed?? 

#jonsa #jon x sansa #anti daenerys #anti jonerys #Game of Thrones #actuallyjonsa #got spoilers #spoilers #my thoughts #long post

[floralseokjin]

Hello, everyone! Even though Devil Seokjin’s story has been complete for quite some time, I am still not ready to give it up /sobs/. I still receive some asks about the universe as a whole and how it works, and because I am in the middle of writing a Hoseok story set in the same world, I’ve been imagining and creating a more in depth universe as I go. I think it would be beneficial and informative if I compiled it all into one post. As well as fun! 

I’m unsure if there are any loop holes, or perhaps, if I will change some things in the near future, as I began writing The Devil’s Wears Armani before I even thought of the universe and how it works. But if anything changes, I will update this post! Additionally, if you notice something I haven’t spoken about, or have any other questions, please ask away! 

The more I write about this universe, the harder I fall for it. Some things found in this post I have already included in existing fics, some will be included in the Hoseok fic, and the rest are saved for two additional ideas I may get to writing,  Yoongi and Jimin’s. So, fingers crossed! 

;index

i. how being a devil works ii. how hell works  iii. how selling souls work iv. characters in the universe v. stories in the universe  vi. potential stories in the universe  vii. characters with no stories 

i. how being a devil works

• A devil works pretty much the same way as a human. They have the same lifespan and will die of old age eventually. The only difference is that they can not die from human illnesses. Terminal or other. 

• Although that’s a little up in the air now! With the revelation that some devils can turn more human with their time on earth; like catch the flu, needing prescription glasses, getting drunk etc (Seokjin, I’m looking at you...)

• Devils do not have any magical powers. They are just a lot more cunning than your average human! The only “magic” per se, is the removal of the human’s soul. 

(See more: iii. how selling your soul works.)

• You cannot get turned into a devil! You’re either devil or human. However, if a devil mates with a human, they will create halfbreeds! These can die from human related illnesses, but can reside in hell if they like. 

• Most devils are just like humans. They see themselves as equal and alike, and have no qualms with befriending/falling in love with one. These are usually the ones who live on earth! But there are exceptions. Jimin for example; he likes living on earth and has no problem being friends with humans, but he doesn’t think he will ever fall in love with one, because they wouldn’t “get” him fully. (Cue, a potential Jimin oneshot.) Also, there are probably also devils who live in hell but have no qualms with humans. 

• However there are also devils who segregate the species. Hoseok for example, who is only interested in them for sex. And there are also devils who hate earth and wish the integration never happened (again, Hoseok.)

• There are probably also more “evil” devils, lurking in the depths of hell (maybe even earth) but that’s not really a part of the universe I will ever concentrate on. However, they do exist. 

• A lot of humans obviously know of the existence of devils, it’s just a very well kept secret. They blend in so well, it would be impossible to tell anyway, unless they disclosed it to you! Many businesses in the human world are run my devils (popular or small), and most devils on earth work beside humans in normal day to day jobs. 

ii. how hell works

• Devils can choose to live in hell or on earth, due to the integration of both species that Seokjin’s father implemented back when he was alive (Seokjin’s father was the original CEO of the accounting company on earth and after his death Jin took his place as both CEO and “King” devil.)

• Seokjin just like his father did, and his grandfather before him, keeps hell in check and is in charge. Head devil if you will! Seokjin’s twins are the heirs to hell and shall share it when they come of age/Seokjin gives it up/he dies. 

• That’s why he leaves Hoseok in charge whilst he lives on earth. Now Hoseok makes sure everything is in check while he’s away. Hoseok is his childhood family/best friend (their fathers were close friends) so Seokjin trusts him with such a job even if their lifestyles are vastly different now. 

• Hell is filled with the devils who don’t want to live on earth or just ones that share their time between both. It is also filled with the humans who sold their souls. 

• A devil will take a human’s soul most of the time without disclosing the truth behind their decision. Which is; once agreeing to sell their soul their life is a ticking time bomb. They will die within the year and thus get sent to hell to live there for eternity. (See more: iii. how selling your soul works.)

• A human can only reside in hell if their souls have been taken. It is impossible any other way unless they are a halfbreed (half devil, half human). 

• To put it simply, hell looks and acts like earth for the most part. Devils have companies and jobs. There are rich and poor ones. The humans must work too. However, if they are lucky enough or cunning enough they can survive by finding a devil mate who will look after them. The night life in hell is very prominent. It’s all about partying and sex. 

• The only difference between hell and earth is that there are levels. This is a little hard to explain, but basically the level I talk about and will write about (Hoseok oneshot) is the top level of hell (the one closest to earth). The most civilised level. One that works like developed (and capitalised) countries in the human world. You work to live and pay your dues. 

• I’m not sure how many levels there are but the deeper you go, the deeper you go into no mans land, or more fittingly, no devils land lol. These literally could range from red terrains, pitch black land, and the deepest of levels, the true pits of hell, filled with fire and hot lava. It is said, that the True One, Satan himself lives there. In my mind, some levels are used by certain devils (maybe the most evil ones), some are used as tomb storage for the dead demons. One is used as a type of prison (devil and human) and some are used for the now immortal, soulless humans when things get too eternal/overpopulated. (See more: iii. how selling your soul works.)

• I have also wondered how hell would work as a whole… Like is it just as vast as the world above? How would that work? Surely Seokjin couldn’t be in charge of the entire stretch of endless lands in hell and to be honest, that’s something i’m still thinking about lol. In my mind, the best scenario is for there to be multiple devils who are in charge of separate stretches of land. (ie. America, Britain, Asia etc in the human world, but of course, they’d have their own names in hell!) When Seokjin says he rules hell that would be an exaggeration. He is just one out of the multiple devils that rule hell together! He would only rule one part of hell if this idea is true! But yeah, still working on this one, and seeing as I’m concentrating on Seokjin’s area of hell in this universe, it doesn’t matter anyway!

iii. how selling your soul works

• So a lot of humans accidentally summon a devil (See TDWA.) This means they would have no prior knowledge that demonkind exist until then. Summoning would basically be “I would sell my soul/I want to sell my soul…” etc and then poof, a devil appears!

• Humans could also know a devil beforehand and sell their soul that way. But one thing is for sure, they rarely know of the consequences. A lot of the devils who take souls do it just because they can (it’s fun/asserts their superiority/used as a bragging tool etc). Some devils will not go through with the soul taking if they think it’s for stupid reasons (and of course, it they are a little more humane!)

• Humans think it will get them what they want instantly but of course there is a price and that is death! After selling their soul they will die within a year. They are always given what they asked for/what they wanted, before that but are unable to reap the benefits in the long run (depending on what it is). 

• Also note; some humans want their soul to be taken so they can go to hell, despite the repercussions. (I have a yoongi fic planned with this sort of storyline). Maybe they hate earth, want to follow someone, or are just plain greedy and think they know it all. Whatever the reason, a lot of the time they are not always tricked.

• Does a human change upon their soul getting taken? Not really, but their humanity would drop substantially after residing in hell for a long time. They would harden as a person and often become greedy and self obsessed (if they weren’t already). But it’s more so hell changing them as a person, not the removal of the soul. 

• A devil will rarely take the soul of someone over 50. They do not want OAPs roaming around hell (ruins the aesthetic lol) but of course there are exceptions.

• Once in hell, you are there for eternity. It is impossible to escape, and that effectively makes them immortal. They do not age, and are basically cursed. Living forever in a place that is not their own, nor are they truly welcomed/respected. (Of course there are exceptions.)

• Like i said earlier, they have to work, but if they find a devil mate then they usually look after them/help them out. Only problem is only a small percentage of devils are monogamous in hell, so they can get pretty bored of their human “plaything” quite quickly. Not that a lot of humans care. They can sometimes be hooking up with numerous devils at once. Basically everyone pretty much loves sex in hell lol, but maybe some fall in love who knows...

• Humans can also fall for other humans. There’s no rule to that either, and that would probably work out better considering the whole immortality/cursed for eternity thing. 

• Humans can not conceive nor impregnate in Hell. 

• One last thing; which is again a little up in the air and something I need to work on, is that I probably need to think of an overpopulation problem. If devils are takings souls willy nilly it’s going to get pretty crowded fast. This is where the levels come in! I’ve already said there is a level working as a jail. There is a law to follow even in hell, so anymore breaking it in the top level will get dropped to “jail” (human and devil.)

• Living for eternity doesn’t seem pleasant at all, so I have an idea. If a human gets bored of life, they can just stop existing. That includes no eating or drinking and eventually they will become immobile, not really alive nor dead. This means they can be kept in tombs in a deeper level of hell! Haven’t really thought much about that, for example, is it the human’s choice? or are they forced? Is there a time period in which they can exist in the top level of hell?? Again, all up in the air, but possible solutions. 

• And lastly, is there a way a human can officially “die” in hell? They wouldn’t really need to seeing as they could be kept immobile but I have been toying with the idea of incineration to be the final, fitting death of any soulless humans. (They would have to be immobile first.)

iv. characters in the universe (so far)

— Seokjin (devil; ruler of hell, residing on earth.) — Hoseok (devil; seokjin’s second in command, residing in hell.) — Jimin (devil; friend of seokjin’s, residing on earth.) — Taehyung (halfbreed; best friend of jimin, residing on earth.) — Yoongi (human; seen in ‘My Sweet 666.’) — Namjoon (human; seen in ‘My Sweet 666.’) — Jungkook (human; seen in ‘My Sweet 666.’) — TDWA oc/reader (human; seokjin’s wife and mother of their twins, residing on earth.) — Burn in Hell oc/reader (devil; seokjin’s cousin, residing in hell.)

v. stories in the universe

— Seokjin → The Devil Wears Armani (3 parts.) → My Sweet 666 (oneshot.) → The Devil’s Family (oneshot.)

— Hoseok → Burn in Hell (she said) (oneshot) 

vi. potential stories in the universe

— Yoongi → Untitled (oneshot; set in both earth and hell.)

— Jimin → Untitled (oneshot; set on earth.)

vii. characters with no stories

— Taehyung (he falls in love with TDWA oc/reader’s best friend in ‘The Devil’s Family.’) — Namjoon (does not know the devil universe exists and will never know.) — Jungkook (does not know the devil universe exists, but eventually will one day when he meets and falls in love with a halfbreed woman on earth.)  

see you in hell!

#this took forever whew #fic:devil universe #fic:tdwa #fic:ms666 #fic:tdf #fic:burn in hell #floralseokjin:writings

[radiantresplendence]

Chamrand’ded (2018-) Season 1

So, I’ve been familiar with the Charmed series, probably since the early 2000s. I’ve even read some of the comics which are set after the series finale of the TV show. It was a show that my mother enjoyed and I, and my younger sister wound up picking the fandom up, at least to a degree. I’ve probably watched the entirety of the original series’ eight season run at least six times, likely more. In terms of fandoms that I’m a part of, it’s among the earliest in my repertoire, alongside the likes of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Consequently, I was mildly skeptical of the reboot, but told myself that I’d watch it in its entirety out of respect for the original, no matter the quality. For the most part, I think the reboot is a mixed bag. There’s some things that it does that I like, and other choices that it makes that I really do not. The show tends to give off a feeling like the writing staff was constantly at war with itself for the duration of the season. 

I’ll start off explaining the premise, and then I’ll dip into spoilers. 

The show is set in 2010s US, specifically a college town in Michigan called Hilltowne. The show tends to utilize the local college as a hub for a lot of the episodes. This works decently well for the most part, but has a habit of tending to shrink the world instead of expanding it. Essentially the majority of stuff of import happens to revolve around this college. 

This is a modern fantasy setting, with the main cast of three being revealed as the chosen “Charmed Ones” after their mother is killed under mysterious circumstances. They’re each granted magical powers and begin to study witchcraft, under the guidance of a guardian angel called a “whitelighter”.

The main characters are as follows:

Macy Vaughn- The oldest sister, an estranged half-sibling who is separated from the family and was raised by her father without knowledge of her mother. Upon learning of the death of the women she suspected to be her mother, she makes contact with her siblings. She’s a bit awkward, nerdy and headstrong. A lot of the time she stays more independent than her siblings. Her power is telekinesis. Of the cast, I think she’s one of the stronger performers and generally tends to have fairly strong plots. 

Mel Vera- The middle sister, who despite living most of her life as the elder sibling, fits neatly into the role of the defiant middle child. An outspoken lesbian feminist with a tendency to make rash decisions. She’s the staunchest defender of personal lives away from magic in the group and tends to dislike authority. A lot of her personal plotlines tend to revolve around her romance interests with mixed effectiveness; despite this, I think her plots tend to have the most intrigue as a whole. She has the power to control time. I find her to be very derivative of Piper from the original series, without the same kind of character development that Piper had to reach the comparable mindset. She has a very genuine, close platonic relationship with the sister’s whitelighter, Harry, that develops quite organically over the course of the season, despite originally being openly hostile to him. I like this relationship a lot, despite Mel being my least favorite member of the main cast. 

Maggie Vera- The youngest sister, an empath who tends to be the glue that holds the group together. She’s more bubbly and outgoing than her siblings and is a freshman in college, unsure about what she wants in life. She’s reminiscent of Phoebe from the original series, but isn’t nearly as derivative as Mel is in regards to Piper. She’s portrayed as generally capable and quite stable, yet naive. Her plots tend to revolve around a sorority at the college, and honestly they get old quite quickly as it’s quite apparent from the onset that she won’t officially join the Greek system. Her better plots tend to involve her “bad boy” significant other, Parker. 

Harry Greenwood- The sister’s guardian angel, assigned by the powers that be to guide the sisters. A resurrected British man from the mid 1900s. He develops a genuine relationship with each of the sisters as a friend and confidant. He often plays the role of the comic relief and the all-knowing cast member. He winds up living in the sister’s house for the majority of the season. He’s honestly the most complicated member of the cast, despite being rather upstanding. He follows the rules, but personally isn’t infallible. He has baggage and relationships with characters in the world. Despite being sometimes played for comedy, he’s never portrayed as incompetent. I did a longer breakdown of the character in the middle of the season. His powers include, age resistance, teleportation, healing, memory manipulation, limited clairvoyance, limited illusions, limited telekinesis and self healing. My second favorite member of the cast. 

Minor characters include: 

Parker- Maggie’s half-demon “bad boy” boyfriend. Believed to be the host of the Source of All Evil. Actually does almost nothing wrong all season but is often discriminated against by much of the cast, both good and evil. Reminiscent of Cole from the original series. 

Niko- One of Mel’s romance interests. A police officer who’s presence tends to cause a lot of issues tangential to magic. Reminiscent of Andy from the original series. 

Jada- Another of Mel’s romance interests. The forbidden child of a witch and whitelighter pairing who’s affiliated with an organization called the Sarcana. A character who I quite like. 

Galvin- Macy’s romance interest. A geneticist who works with her, has a family background associated with the occult. 

Charity- An Elder with a history that includes Harry. Somewhat untrustworthy, but competent. 

Alastair- A powerful demon who wants to bring about the apocalypse. Often portrayed as the main villain of the first season. 

Spoilers from here on out. 

Generally speaking the first season revolves around the sisters coming into their powers and forming a bond, particularly revolving around Macy’s relationship with her sisters. The main plot points revolve around the Sarcana coven and the assassination of Marisol Vera, the sister’s mother, Parker and the Source, and Harry and Charity’s involvement in the loss of Charity’s sister, Fiona, a powerful witch known as the Keeper of the Sacred Flame. 

Generally speaking, the plot is at it’s most powerful, when pushing the third narrative, as it is the most distinctive and intriguing of the three main plots. It gets wrapped up in the second plot when Alastair needs the Sacred Flame as a pawn in order to evoke the Source of All Evil. The first plot is largely resolved in the first half of the season upon it being revealed that Charity was responsible for Marisol’s death. It begins to bleed into the third plot when the Sarcana saves Fiona from her banishment. 

It is revealed that Maggie and Macy are full sisters, not half, and that Mel is the one with a different father. It is also revealed that Macy is the product of necromancy and has the potential to develop a demonic power called the evil sight at the cost of her humanity. 

Parker’s full-demon brother, Hunter acts as a recurring villain over the course of the series. The brother’s father is Alastair, who also owns the lab that Macy works for. 

The strengths:

The season really shines in its ability to keep things interconnected. Parker’s parents are affiliated with Macy’s work, Niko is investigating the Sarcana, the Sarcana save Fiona, Fiona is needed to summon the Source, etc. 

Additionally the character interactions tend to be fairly strong. I really believe the interactions between the members of the main cast, particularly Harry and Macy’s. 

The reality warping that changes the timeline in order to save Niko might not have been the easiest, or obvious solution, but it was the most interesting. 

There’s an episode with Harry and Mel where they go to the UK that really cements their relationship. It’s incredibly sweet and really shows how much Harry means to the Veras and the degree to which they trust him. It ends strikingly bittersweet and is likely one of the most well-written episodes of the season. 

The reveal that the Sacred Flame and the Source are ultimately the same force that seeks an ideal host is very well done. 

The last two episodes of the season are extremely strong and subvert expectations, particularly the penultimate episode. Macy takes on the Source, kills Alastair, prevents the apocalypse and essentially becomes a god with the power to massively manipulate reality at will. Maggie and Mel have to rely on the bond they formed with Macy over the course of the entire season to get their sister out of the corrupting influence of absolute power. 

The weaknesses:

The show has a bad habit of flip-flopping on character relationships. Harry and Charity are on and off, Mel and Niko and Jada have a back and forth relationship all season. Maggie’s pilot boyfriend is on and off. Maggie and Parker are on and off. Macy and Galvin are also on and off. I just kind of wish that the series would portray a stable relationship. 

The powers of whitelighters are somewhat inconsistent. They manage to be stronger than their original series counterparts, but also weaker. Essentially it creates a situation where I wonder why the Elders don’t create an army of immortal whitelighters to support do-gooders. They make more righteous dead people every day after all. 

The show has a bad habit of taking back decisions on an episode to episode basis. It’s bad enough where there are episodes where it feels like you miss an episode in-between despite watching episodes back to back. It really feels like writers conflicting over what they want on an episode-to-episode basis. 

The sorority plot is stupid. I like Maggie well enough, but Lucy should have shown up consistently in the first half of the season and like twice afterward. 

I feel like a lot of the “demon of the week” episodes were wasted airtime because of the pace that the series has been taking. The original series could do that in the first season because the build up to the source took almost two seasons and happened in the middle of the series. The reboot pushed the Source as the big narrative that the first season is trying to overcome. It needed every second of the airtime it had to properly build that up, and I feel like it squandered a lot of it. The finale could have been pretty incredible if they focused more on the lead up to that the entire season. 

The Conclusion: 

Charmed 2018 isn’t necessarily for fans of the original; it’s for people who watch the CW. There are some cute nods to the original series that you can tell were snuck in by clever writers. 

Honestly, I find a lot of problems with it. The show is certainly a little more rough around the edges than the original series. Despite this, I enjoyed almost every episode. It nods to the original, but tries not to copy it and explore its own ideas that branch off from the concept. 

I honestly think that if make an effort to take more risks in the second season and branch away from college setting, they can recapture some of the magic of the original. 

It’s a seven out of ten from me, but it has potential, especially if they’re willing to commit in the same way that they did in the last few episodes. I’d be all too happy to see more. 

#charmed #review #charmed 2018 #charmed reboot #macy vaughn #mel vera #maggie vera #harry greenwood #the cw #chamrand'ded

[richincolor]

Group Discussion: Patron Saints of Nothing

Hey, everyone! The Rich in Color bloggers have gotten together to discuss Randy Ribay’s PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING. As always, there will likely be spoilers in our conversation. If you haven’t yet read it, we recommend you go get it.

A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder.

Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story.

Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth — and the part he played in it.

As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity.

Crystal: Families are complicated. Very complicated. Jay likely knew that on one level, but as he gets re-acquainted with his extended family in the Philippines, this becomes even more obvious. I found it interesting that Jay felt closer to his cousins than his siblings. And even more notable was his relationship with his uncle, but for completely different reasons. I think his changing opinions of his uncle were evidence that he was maturing. He begins to see that not only are family relationships complex, but people are too. We’re not simply good or evil. Individuals have so many facets.

Jessica: As someone who grew up in a different country than my cousins, I definitely connected with Jay’s relationship with Jun — close in some ways, distant in others, and overshadowed by the regret that they’ve drifted apart. The letters the two exchange really brought Jun to life, and his initial introduction — consoling Jay — sets the tone for a central conflict: The ways Jay is connected to his heritage, and the ways his perspective differs, as someone who grew up in America. I’m in awe of how PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING managed to thread the needle on this conflict, and show the fraught complexities of family, and coming from an immigrant background.

Audrey: I really liked how PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING tackled complicated family dynamics between and across generations. Whether its Jay and his immediate family, the relationships among the parents’ generation, or his slow-building connection to Grace, there is a lot simmering under the surface. Not only are different people actively keeping secrets from one another, but Jay is also at a significant disadvantage due to language and cultural barriers. (Side note: As someone who can’t communicate much with her own grandmother due to a language barrier, Jay’s interactions with his grandparents were painfully familiar.) I really appreciated the scene with Jun’s service for this reason; even though Jay couldn’t understand most of what his other family members said, it was obvious that Jun had mattered to them all despite the ways they had/had not shown it previously.

K. Imani: I agree with you Audrey about how the novel tackled the dynamics across generations. In my extended family, so many stories are unknown because the elders refuse to speak on it, like Jay’s father about why he left the Philippines. The last years of Jun’s life would have been another untold story had not Jay decided to seek it out and stir up trouble in his family. I could truly empathize with his struggle and his frustration with his family, specifically his uncle. I feel like Jay’s insistence on learning about Jun and his family helped not only himself but the rest of his family.

Crystal: A large part of this story focuses on Jay’s connections to his family and to the Philippines. His father explains that “It’s easy to romanticize a place when it’s far away. Filipino Americans have a tendency to do that.” He goes on to say, “But as many good things as there are, there are many bad things, things not so easy to see from far away. When you are close, though, they are sometimes all you see.” Jay definitely has to square his ideas about the Philippines with the reality he meets.

Jessica: Ack! This was a big deal to me… so naturally, I’ve already discussed it in my earlier answer — but yeah, that line from his father is so important, especially in stories where an American goes back to the motherland. I feel that, as someone who’s always dreaming of Taiwan.

Audrey: Jay marched into his extended family’s lives (and the Philippines) with a lot of ignorance and multiple preconceptions, and by the end of it, he left with a better understanding of them and himself–and a desire to close the distance between them. What elevates this from the painful White Person Goes to a Foreign Country to Find/Better Themselves narrative is that Jay gets called out on his ignorance and assumptions constantly, and he isn’t a savior who sweeps in and fixes everything. There are Filipinos already doing the hard work and who will continue to do that work after he leaves. At the same time, Jay also has claim to his motherland, and his uncle’s gatekeeping and frequent digs at Jay are clearly unhelpful. I think a lot of diaspora folks will find things to relate to in Jay’s story.

Crystal: This book deals with President Duterte’s war on drugs. The abuse of drugs is such a huge social issue. It seems when people declare these wars on drugs, they actually seem to declare war on people. And the people they are warring against are often the ones most negatively impacted by the drug use. Jun’s cousin Grace tells him that Jun thought “that those suffering from addiction needed to be helped, not to be arrested because their addiction was as much genetics as it was a choice. And those pushing need to be employed, not killed, because most of them were only trying to survive.” Beyond that, looking for the corruption that allowed the drugs to get into the country would also be a good place to start. It’s so much easier to demonize the addicts and the pushers than solving many of the problems that lead to the drug use — especially when the people in power actually benefit from looking like they are working on the problem, but still leaving the whole system in place. This story helps share the human side of this war.

Audrey: PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING did a great job of pointing out the complexity and hypocrisy surrounding this war on drugs and how easy it is for people to start looking at one another as less worthy of life simply because they are visible symptoms of larger social ills. Even Jay doesn’t want to believe that Jun could have been using drugs, and that leads him to erroneous conclusions for much of the novel. It’s simpler for those in power to make an enemy of those who are suffering rather than doing the complicated, expensive work of tackling corruption and the problems that lead to drug use in the first place.

K. Imani: I agree with both of you that this novel does an excellent job of putting a human face on drug abuse, and highlights the issue with Duterte’s drug war, that sadly, many in the US do not know about. It definitely showed that the way to deal with drug abuse is to treat it as a health issue, rather than a criminal issue, because Jun wasn’t a criminal. Jun was a troubled, but giving soul, and if he’d had treatment instead of killed, he would really make an impact in his world. Additionally, I feel like this highlight of Duterte’s drug war also shows how power corrupts and how people can fall so easily into following along to hold onto power. I know that we learned different sides of Uncle Maning, however, his blind faithfulness to Duterte and the drug war disturbed me. The belief to do anything for the “law and order” and the “safety of the people”, when in reality the ones in power are the ones we fear. This hit a little too close to home to me.

Crystal: Many families have secrets or things they really don’t talk about much, but there were many things going on here that Jay was learning for the first time. Some of his family members are working to help girls escape from trafficking situations and he never even knew. It makes me think about how many things people are keeping from each other. And like Jay wonders, why do we not share more and love more when we all have the capacity to love so deeply? We certainly miss out, but it’s protective to stay separate and keep things hidden.

Audrey: Some of the best scenes in the book are when Jay is able to bridge that gap between himself and someone else in his family. It takes courage to speak and the willingness to be vulnerable, and Jay is starting to embrace both by the end of the book. Jun’s letters were excellent examples of this, as was Jay’s final letter back. I was really pleased with how the book ended and how Jay had changed in this regard when he came back to the U.S.

K. Imani: Without giving away the ending, I loved the way Patron Saints ended because Jay and his father’s conversation ended the cycle of keeping secrets. In the beginning of the book, Jay didn’t really have a deep friendship with anyone and I felt sad for him, but clearly it was because he was used to growing up with a closed off family. Clearly, he needed an outlet and I feel like the trip to the Philippines and his brief time with Mia, who became a real friend, helped him express himself for the first time in years. It was also very brave of him to speak out to his family, but it overall lead to a healthy change for Jay and his entire family. I almost wanted an epilogue at the end to see how much his family had changed after Jay’s experience, as I would have loved to see how Jay’s relationship with his father changed for the better.

Crystal: I haven’t seen many books set in the Philippines, but I’ve really enjoyed the ones I’ve read — ANGEL DE LA LUNA AND THE 5TH GLORIOUS MYSTERY (review here) and DURAN DURAN, IMELDA MARCOS, AND ME (adult book with YA appeal). Have you all read many other books set there? Do you have any to recommend?

Jessica: This is a short story and not a YA book, but it’s really good so I’m going to take the chance to plug it anyway: “Asphalt, River, Mother, Child” by Isabel Yap on Strange Horizons. The story tackles the what’s going on in the Philippines right now, and it’s incredible and heartbreaking. (Please check the content warnings before reading.)

Audrey: You know, I think PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING is the first book I’ve read set in the Philippines! I have read works by Filipino-American writers before, but this was the first one actually set in the Philippines, so far as I remember.

K. Imani: I read ANGEL DE LA LUNA AND THE 5TH GLORIOUS MYSTERY as well and really loved it, so I second Crystal’s recommendation. I don’t think I’ve read any others, but I’m definitely open to reading more in the future.

Extra: Salve Villarosa (@cuckooforbooks) a BookTuber in the Phillipines created two great videos about this book. The first is her review of the book and the second is a Q&A with Randy Ribay during his book launch in Manila.

To add your thoughts, please send out a tweet or comment section on the Rich in Color blog post.

#Patron Saints of Nothing #Randy Ribay #YA book discussion #YALit

[princessmans]

About that “Return to Murder House” twist... (SPOILERS)

My first reaction to the revelation that Tate had been used by the Murder House as a vessel to create Michael was a mixture of disappointment and relief. On one hand, I loved being able to enjoy Tate running down the stairs to Violet like a little kid at Christmas, but I also felt like one of the greatest villains ever portrayed on screen had been cheapened by what felt a tad like fan fiction. 

To be honest, I always felt like Tate being manipulated by the house was a possibility based on some of the direction, dialogue and acting choices. It was what I WANTED to be true, but not knowing if this was the case, or if he really was just a psychopath, was what made him so scary to me and I felt like that fear had been taken away by a definitive explanation. 

However, the more I have thought about it and reflected on the events of Murder House and early episodes of Apocalypse, the more I think it works and is actually kinda brilliant. It makes Michael an absolutely terrifying villain and makes Murder House disturbing in a whole new way. I have compiled just a few examples here. Obviously, since this is Tate and AHS we are talking about, some topics may be triggering. 

Tate’s First Therapy Session

Most of what Tate says in his first session with Ben appears to be symptoms of some sort of mental illness - cutting and violent fantasies specifically. But analyzing his dialogue with “Return to Murder House” in mind makes what he says even more chilling. 

“I prepare for the noble war. I'm calm, I know the secret. I know whats coming and I know no one can stop me not even myself.” 

His mention of a noble war echoes Michael’s dialogue in Apocalypse whenever he talks about fulfilling his purpose and even the way he believes he is purifying/re-building the world through nuclear war. Additionally, Tate saying that even he cannot stop himself could be interpreted as pointing toward some form of possession where he truly is not in control of his actions. 

“The Indians believed that blood hold all the bad spirits, they would cut themselves once a month in ceremonies, let the spirits go free. There’s something smart about that. I like that.”

Again, this line - and the way that Tate does admit to self harm- can be interpreted as another symptom of the emotional pain he is obviously in. But now I can’t help but be freaked out by the idea that he subconsciously knew he was being possessed or at least manipulated by some sort of evil spirit. Tate even sees a vision of himself covered in blood - which he ignores and is never explained but introduces the idea of dual personas. 

The Rubber Man Reveal Scene

I have always found the Rubber Man reveal scene to be particularly strange in the way it seems to cut between two separate takes with two completely different choices on Evan Peters’ part - especially since we see him lower the mask twice. At first he looks horrified at what he just did, then it cuts to a more determined, villainous expression before cutting back to horror. 

In retrospect, the editing choice could be interpreted as revealing not just Tate’s inner conflict, but dual spirits in one body or at least a visualization of how Tate is being manipulated. If he was fully possessed in the way Mary Eunice was in Asylum then there is a whole other horrifying option to consider. If he was completely controlled by a demonic force, than Vivien is not the only victim of rape in the scenario - Tate is as well. However, I tend to lean towards more of a demonic influence and manipulation over full-on possession for reasons I will explain later. 

Inability to Kill Gabriel Ramos

Everything Tate does - apart from murdering his peers, but more on that later - is for a specific purpose. He either wants to appease or avenge ghosts in the house (Nora or Larry’s family who immolated themselves), help create and protect the Anti-Christ, or protect Violet from physical and emotional harm. His desire to kill Gabriel in order to give Violet a new boyfriend appears strong but he is ultimately unable to kill him. 

This final violent act occurs after Michael has left the house and is in the care of Constance - supporting Madison’s theory that the evil inside Tate did leave with Michael. Without it, Tate is unable to go through with the murder, despite how much he may want to in order to “help” Violet.

Not Remembering the Westfield Massacre

Tate’s claims to not remember killing 15 of his peers can easily be interpreted as denial or straight up lying in order to not lose Violet - though Evan Peters’ raw emotional vulnerability in some scenes has always made it difficult for me to not believe him. Re-watching these scenes now puts a whole different spin on his claims. 

Could he not remember what he did because he was not fully in control? I have always found the skull makeup in his visions to be an interesting choice, seeing as he did not wear it during the actual shooting. Another Tumblr user suggested that the skull makeup was his subconscious’ way of representing the devil that was influencing him and I agree that it comes across that way. 

Even if he does remember the murders on some level, he is unable to say why he did it- apart from his first claim that he did it to save his victims from the pain of the world. The scene where Violet finally confronts him about this shows him at his most vulnerable as he repeats “Why would I do that?” Again, this could be further denial or lying, but maybe he really doesn’t know. 

In what I always believed to be the most harrowing and disturbing scene of the season, Tate is shot to death by a SWAT team in his bedroom before one of the officers asks him why he did it. His death before he can answer has always been profoundly moving to me, not just because the audience is not given an answer as to why Tate did it, but because it reflects how the motivation behind school shootings is often left unknown. 

Now I just find this scene really depressing. In order for Michael to be born, Tate needed to die in the house in order to become a ghost. It is possible that the house/the darkness/the devil manipulated him to commit a mass shooting and return to the house and pull out a gun so he would be killed. 

Warning: The rest of this section enters the realm of even wilder speculation and theorizing less supported by facts. Skip if you want.

Of course, Tate could have just killed himself in the house, but it is my personal theory that in order for the Anti-Christ to be born, the spirit who fathered him would have to have committed horrible acts. In my mind it is sort of like Voldemort having to kill people in order to split his soul in order to make Horcruxes. I actually theorized this before “Return to Murder House” aired but I really don’t have anything to support this. Moving on. 

Michael Langdon is Hella Scary

I started to wonder if Tate’s actions were going to be explored while watching the first episodes of Apocalypse, especially after Michael delivered the following (amazing) line:

“I’ve never been a fan of getting my hands dirty. Learned that from my father. Always more fun to entice men and women to dirty deeds. Confirms what I’ve always believed...That all people, if given the right pressures or stimulus, are evil motherfuckers.”

Michael, according to Cody Fern, is the human form of Satan - which makes sense as a further perversion of the Holy Trinity. This means Satan, Michael and the Darkness that influenced Tate are one and the same. Even in the bunker we see Michael’s power over people to do awful things - Venable wipes out the Outpost with the apples and snakes Michael sent, and Mr. Gallant is tricked into brutally murdering his grandmother. 

This is what makes Michael the new most terrifying villain in AHS for me. Yes, he can make people’s heads explode, killed a great many small animals, and can literally wipe souls from existence. But what really scares me is his ability to “see into the dark places” of people’s souls and use that knowledge to manipulate people’s actions. 

This is why I personally find the explanation of Tate being full on possessed less interesting than him being manipulated. It seems to me that Satan/the darkness/the house/Michael whatever you want to call it, knew exactly what would drive Tate to murder and rape. So maybe Tate’s life would have been different if he had lived in a different house. Instead he was used by the Devil to create the Anti-Christ - completely ruining the lives of Tate, the Harmons, Chad, Patrick, 15 innocent students, and Constance in the process. There is even the possibility that the human side of Michael - the side that wanted to be good and grieved his grandmother - is also being destroyed by the demon inside him. That is pretty evil if you ask me. 

This leaves Tate’s character and morality in a weird place. He is certainly not a hero as he succumbed to the influence of the Darkness - even if he was possessed, he is merely a victim. But he isn’t a villain either. Redemption may be too strong a word, but I personally believe he deserves a little happiness with Violet. He even seems to have forgiven his abusive mother (why is no one talking about if she deserved to be with her children?) and has worked out a lot of his issues with Ben. I hope we see more of him.

So while I may be a little disappointed that Tate is no longer the greatest villain on AHS, his story builds up a villain who is shaping up to be really something special. 

Of course, there are still 4 episodes left. We may find out that Madison was lying, the magic dust was cocaine, Tate is actually evil and everything I just said is completely pointless. 

#tate langdon #michael langdon #ahs apocalypse #evan peters #cody fern #murder house #violate #madison montgomery #ahs coven

[singuhome]

Final thoughts on the crossover

I think I’ve made most of my thoughts very clear, but this is a final little rant. One major issue I had with the crossover was the need to compare the leading couples in a way that reflects negatively on Olicity. I am quite angry that Iris and Felicity didn’t get bigger parts in the crossover, but I’ve talked about MG’s sexism and personal bias being the reason in other posts. Also, I’m so angry that Oliver decided to not tell Felicity about the body swap. It wasn’t logical, especially when she’s already justifiably mad. What dumb writer decided to have him do the exact thing that made her break up with him in the first place three years ago? I KNOW that Oliver knows better. Come on, do better.

Honestly, one of my favorite scenes was when Oliver and Barry fought Reverse Flash and Malcolm Merlin respectively and then talked about it. I think one failure of the show writers is that the two haven’t continued to talk to each other and dont always have a good understanding of everything the other’s experienced. They live so close on the same Earth and yet rarely mention the other. This crossover was a good opportunity for them to appreciate the other more. I hope Kara gets to know them better in another crossover at some point because I think she could come to a better understanding of who they are, and the reverse is true also. I’d like to see Kara have the leading role next year.

Also I love Lois Lane.

Anyway here’s some thoughts.

Why comparing West-Allen and Olicity is ineffective-A Mini Thesis by a procrastinating college student

The two couples have such fundamentally different relationships, both of which are healthy and loving, but they’ve been unfairly compared in the last two cross-overs in a way that make Olicity look cheap and ridiculous compared to West-Allen. This is the writers fault for not respecting the complexities of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship, but I want to clarify some things.

First of all, I would clarify the two as representing two different outlooks on love. West-Allen represents “meant to be.” Barry and Iris grew up together and Barry has always loved Iris. He states that “[he] loved her even before he knew what the word meant.” It took some time for him to tell her that he was the Flash and for her to realize she loved him too, but they were meant to be. They’re best friends who understand and believe in each other so fundamentally. I can’t even list the amount of times that they’ve inspired each other. I think Barry’s “you’re my lightening rod” sums it up. They just complement each other and recognize the good in each other. From the beginning, they see the hero in one another. They don’t really fight. The only fight I can remember is when Barry proposes because Iris isn’t wearing a ring in the vision of the future and he thinks it will save her from Savitar. She doesn’t want him proposing out of fear.

I would have liked them to deal with their feelings about Savitar being an evil version of Barry and Iris killing him a little more. Sometimes I feel like Barry doesn’t get to discuss how he feels about the trauma he’s been through enough. They had a good opportunity with Nora visiting old villains with Barry recently, but I don’t know if they fully utilized it. Then again, he and Oliver react very differently to similar experiences of trauma.

Oliver and Felicity are very different. Oliver met Felicity as an adult when he was just beginning his journey towards being a hero. He’d just spent 5 years in hell and was trying to fight for his city in a way he wouldn’t realize was wrong until later. It would take Diggle and Felicity being his moral compass for him to start to work his way from the dark. Barry doesn’t have these dark origins. Additionally, part of the reason Oliver starts to fall in love with Felicity is that she represents the light. However, he has a lot of personal growth to do before a relationship with her will work. It took realizing that he was no longer in love with Laurel (because there was no chemistry between the two and it was an unhealthy relationship, get over it comic fans. I still can’t believe her last words were that he was the love of her life...she and Tommy were so much better) and two years for him to admit he loved her. It took another year for her to admit she loved him. He needed to deal with issues of who he was throughout that season. Then they got together at the end of season three and engaged at the mid-season finale of season 4. However, this quickly falls apart because he still has a lot of growth left. Felicity has always loved him, but she can’t marry him if he won’t act as a partner and let her in on decisions like sending his son away. They both grow separately for a while. She comes to a deeper appreciation of why he is the way he is, aka why he doesn’t trust and just makes his own plans, and he becomes a better person and hero. They’re finally able to start working on getting back together when they get stuck in the bunker. Felicity realizes on the island that she loves him and doesn’t want to regret not kissing him, so she does. Then they have to deal with William losing his mother and having Oliver in his life as his father, but they’re able to be together again. Felicity becomes anxious when he proposes because the last time they were engaged, everything fell apart and she was paralyzed. Felicity’s fear of abandonment is a constant theme and something I think should be addressed more often. However, she again realizes she can’t lose him as it’s her greatest fear and they do get married because she believes in their love and their relationship. He always comes back to her whenever the world separates them and she believes he will continue to fight for them. I wish the two couples had separate weddings, but that’s another thing.

Married life is treating them well until Oliver goes to prison. They have their issues right now due to that, but I believe it will be resolved. They have a long history of choosing each other. They love each other and I firmly believe are the love of each other’s lives, but often the world tries to separate them. They’ve very different people, so they have to work to choose one another. And they do. They’ve tried to walk away, but they can’t. They love and need each other too much, so they’ve worked on themselves and fight for their relationship. I’d argue they have consistently made healthy decisions because they spent time apart when they needed to, grew, and now they talk about problems and resolve them together. She sees him for all he is, all the light and all the dark, and loves every bit of it “more than any person should love another person.” He loves her because she is the best part of himself, she’s incredibly smart, and she always fights for what’s right. Is it incredibly annoying when Oliver makes decisions without telling anyone? Yes, but I’d argue they’re no longer selfish (see my previous post) and I put a lot of blame on the writers because sometimes they seem to not know what to do when there isn’t conflict. Part of their problem is not listening to fans, honestly they should hire someone to read their social media and report on it with fan criticisms.

In conclusion, Barry and Iris have their fair share of trials, but their journey is vastly different from Oliver and Felicity. Oliver feels his mistakes deeply, and he has made many. He doesn’t have the support of his city or his team half the time. Sometimes it’s justified when his team questions him and challenges him to do better, but other times it’s just the writers torturing him. For example, one of Barry’s friends would never have sold him out and then not told him. It’s no wonder that Oliver doesn’t trust people. Psychologically they’re such different types of heros. So when comparing the two, which I don’t think we really should do, these differences need to be acknowledged. They’re both great, but for different reasons.

#arrow #the flash #iris west #barry allen #oliver queen #westallen #olicity #felicity smoak #elseworlds #supergirl

[nyxelestia]

What I Didn’t Write in 2017

So thanks to a confluence of limited time and resources, I had to put a moratorium on starting any new fanfics. That said, I'm still getting plotbunnies. I've found that the process of writing out and talking about a fic is a surprisingly good way to get it out of my system.  

Hence, this tag/this series of the posts. Basically, a little bit about my plotbunnies, and what it was about them that intrigued me - whether it was a premise, a theme, or even just a particular scene or two.

(And if anyone finds themselves intrigued by an idea and wants to give it a shot, I absolutely encourage them! :D Please just make sure to drop me a line if you do.)

This particular post is over a year late, and I will be making a separate "what I didn't write in 2018" post soon enough.

Quick list:

Mermaid/Siren+Banshee!Lydia. Lydia as a Siren/Mermaid as well as a banshee (or rather, all three are the same creature at different "stages").

Accidental Mob Boss Scott. Scott gets mistaken by the FBI for a criminal prodigy and he kinda runs with it because reasons. :)

BBC Merlin "Crossover"/AU. The Core Four (Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia) are reincarnations of the original medieval Core Four (Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Morgana).

"Bitten!Melissa AU". Canon divergence from Season 1, where Stiles wasn't able to get to Melissa in time when she went on that date with Peter, and he Bit her.

Dark Scott/Deucalion fic. After Season 5, Scott starts sleeping with Deucalion in exchange for Deucalion taking some of his more traumatic memories involving his loved ones.

CSA!Survivor Scott. Rafael molested Scott, and everyone finds out because nogitusne. Scott still resents Rafael more for leaving him than for abusing him in the first place, but also still loves him - so he tries to protect his father from all his friends.

Boyd/Malia, bonding over their guilt about being responsible for their little sisters' deaths, and finding a new family in their pack (and each other).

bb!Scott and Stiles brushing up against the supernatural. "I've got a prompt for you, Can you write a story about Scott and Stiles as kids exploring/getting in trouble in Beacon Hills with a bit of supernatural throwed in because it's Beacon hills but they don't really realise it ?"

Sheriff Stilinski as a LEAP Officer. How that influences him being a police officer to such a crazy town as Beacon Hills, and how that's why he encouraged Stiles to become a detective/go the FBI route instead.

Expansions and elaborations below the cut.

1.) Mermaid/Siren+Banshee!Lydia. Lydia as a Siren/Mermaid as well as a banshee (or rather, all three are the same creature at different "stages").

All right, so we already know that many of the supernatural creatures and shapeshifters have multiple shapes - i.e. the werewolves have their largely human shape, their somewhat monstrous shape, and then some change into a wolf or coyote altogether. It's also mentioned that the kanima has another stage of development in which it has wings - and honestly, put wings on the kanima, you basically get a small dragon. We also see that most of the legends are heavily distorted, but with grains of truth to them, and sometimes the different legends get mixed up.

What if banshees are the same way?

We know she has psychic capabilities - which extend well beyond merely detecting people's deaths, as we see in the later seasons. We also see that her voice is her power, giving her powers far beyond what banshees have in legend...but coming awfully close to certain other legends. i.e. Lydia uses her voice to "call people's names" and draw people forward - almost like what sirens and other "water women" in myths (most typically associated with sound, singing, and seduction) also do.

Additionally, what was Lydia and Lorraine's favorite fairytale? The Little Mermaid.

This one, I never wrote because it was more of a headcanon or concept idea, rather than any actual plot or story. I might still incorporate this into another AU entirely. But tl;dr, banshees are just mermaids (and/or sirens) whilst on dry land, so along with being a banshee, Lydia is actually a mermaid.

2.) Accidental Mob Boss Scott. Scott gets mistaken by the FBI for a criminal prodigy and he kinda runs with it because reasons. :)

This one is actually still in the works with @liveandletrain, but it's still mostly a collection of ideas without much plot yet, and it was planned in 2017 but it's now 2018 2019, so it's on this list.

The gist of it is, take a look at all the mayhem in Beacon Hills from the perspective of the FBI. In particular, take a look at Scott McCall. There is all this violence and chaos - and Scott seems to be at the center of it, time and again. There seems to be a long history of violence and bad blood between the Hale and Argent families, for no discernible reason - and yet Scott swoops in and suddenly it gets resolved, with the descendants of those two families making peace with each other, and apparently even working together?

FBI eventually concludes that this must all be secret mob activity, and Scott is some kind of evil teenage prodigy that somehow managed to take over these two different mobs in high school. They start stalking the McCall Pack in an effort to figure this out - and now the pack has to balance preserving the secret of the supernatural, with keeping their own asses out of jail. Clearly, the answer is to actually pretend that they're a mob, without doing so in a way that creates evidence.

They...have a little too much fun pretending to be in a mob. If you don't believe me, I ask you to imagine asking Corey and Mason to be pretend mob henchmen.

3.) BBC Merlin "Crossover"/AU. The Core Four (Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia) are reincarnations of the original medieval Core Four (Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Morgana).

To be honest, I don't have much more thought behind this than that. I noticed some parallels and ran with them, and I might still make a gifset or something out of this. I just had this idea that everything we see in Beacon Hills is just a "dress rehearsal"/precursor to something far bigger and deeper, something that's going to change the world - a change that will be spearheaded by the original Core Four. But we don't see that yet, we just see what they're up to as kids just warming up for the real deal.

Scott and Arthur are both leaders who have to contend with a lot of warfare, lies, and manipulation, but try to rise above them -- instead striving for peace and diplomacy, though with mixed results. They will both battle if they have to, and their proficiency gives them the capability to end wars. But, while they sure always end fights, they never start them.

Stiles and Merlin are, of course, their best friends and confidantes...and the ones occasionally willing to do their "dirty work" so to speak. I had two ideas, one is that Stiles inherits Merlin's powerful magic...and the other that Stiles isn't magical at all/is no more powerful than any other given Emissary like Deaton. He's just a regular ol' Emissary, because magical power is not his power, what makes him particularly powerful. But things like a certain level of suspicion to counteract their leading friends' whole heartedness, and doing "under the table" work to supplement their friends' best efforts. The kind of magic Merlin had is not all that necessary or helpful in the modern era, but just about everything else about Merlin is, and Stiles has them in spades.

Allison and Guinevere are both beautiful women, but also warriors in their own right - and on top of that, both of them make weapons, too! Ironically, I originally paralleled Allison to Guinevere purely for them both being leaders (Allison as the Argent Matriarch, Guinevere as the Queen of Camelot), and for the fact they both forged weapons/made weapons. I then remembered they both had a relationship with the other leader/the king. XD

Lydia and Morgana can both, in their own ways, see the future. They both also had their early stories marked by people lying to them and manipulating them, and people constantly trying to use them. They both had a somewhat sororal relationship with "the king" (Lydia being somewhat sisterly to Scott, and Morgana being Arthur's half-sister) and to "the queen" (Lydia being Allison's best friend, and Morgana once being Guinevere's best friend).

4.) "Bitten!Melissa AU". Canon divergence from Season 1, where Stiles wasn't able to get to Melissa in time when she went on that date with Peter, and he Bit her.

I didn't really have a plot for this, it was just a neat idea. What would change about the ending of Season 1 if Melissa had also become a werewolf? And the rest of the show after it?

The most significant idea I had was that Scott, still believing Derek's claim that they have to kill the alpha who turned them, would realize this means they can't both be cured. In his desperation, he would likely finally cave in and go to the Argents - especially if he finally told Melissa everything, and she assumed that Derek's claims (and the limited conclusive evidence he presented) were exaggerated or unfounded.

The Argents would probably still be quite hostile to Scott and Melissa, but also a little more sympathetic if made to see them both as victims, neither of them willing werewolves and both seeking a cure. They wouldn't have one, but since most of the Argents at least try to stick to the Code, they wouldn't just murder the McCalls on the post.

...except for Kate, who they still don't know really DID murder the Hale pack, despite their innocence. >:)

5.) Dark Scott/Deucalion fic. After Season 5, Scott starts sleeping with Deucalion in exchange for Deucalion taking some of his more traumatic memories involving his loved ones.

Slightly dark AU in which Scott desperately wants to get rid of certain memories - not of the people who he hates hurting him, but of the people he loved hurting him. Ranging from Derek's attacks on him to Allison hunting him down to Stiles' lashing, Scott's been hurt by the people he loves one too many times. Rather than try to do the healthy thing and address those traumas, he figures he might as well take a silver lining in being a werewolf, and manipulate memory - in this case, his own. Especially since he records a video diary of what happened or writes it down, so it's not like he's trying to pretend it never happened - he's only erasing the trauma itself.

Of course, it turns out an alpha can't take their own memory away, so he has to find another alpha to do it for him...and the only one willing to do this is Deucalion.

And he's not gonna do it for free.

6.) CSA!Survivor Scott. Rafael molested Scott, and everyone finds out because nogitusne. Scott still resents Rafael more for leaving him than for abusing him in the first place, but also still loves him - so he tries to protect his father from all his friends.

I ended up not writing this for my mental health/personal reasons, but I actually outlined this entire thing. The nogitsune, when it needs to buy itself some time, distracts everyone by revealing Stiles' long-standing suspicions about Rafael to everyone. Of course, it doesn't significantly change things at the time, save one way: Allison's last plan, made in the car with Derek and her dad on their way to Oak Creek, was to try to find evidence to get Rafael imprisoned for what he did to Scott, and to do so without having to tell Scott what they were doing.

And then she died, but Chris and Isaac are determined to carry out her last mission - even against Scott's wishes - and Derek, finally coming to terms with what Kate did to him, agrees to help. Scott insists that this is between him and his father, and it should be up to him to decide whether or not to forgive Raf or press charges, right? The only one who agrees with him is Lydia - though she argues if there are other victims, they should have the same right. So, Scott brokers a deal - if his friends find evidence that Raf ever hurt a single other kid, Scott would press charges to get the investigation rolling, but if they didn't, they let it drop.

Unfortunately for everyone, they never did find such evidence, nor are they willing to just drop it. They're a step away from just killing Raf to be safe, and Scott has no idea what to do...until someone reveals that this was Allison's last mission, and her effort to protect Scott, or at least get justice for him. Scott walks into the police station himself, after that, with not just an accusation, but video evidence - which it turns out he'd had the whole time, and held onto because he wanted to protect his dad.

7.) Boyd/Malia, bonding over their guilt about being responsible for their little sisters' deaths, and finding a new family in their pack (and each other).

Everyone lives AU, and also one of those premises without a plot. Mostly, I liked the idea of Boyd and Malia bonding because they both felt responsible for the deaths of their little sisters.

Malia doesn't know how Boyd can stand working at the ice rink she went missing in - until she realizes he has held onto that job despite all the supernatural-induced inconsistency due to the rink owners' guilt, and Boyd uses his position to make sure no creeps ever harm a child again. It's too late for him to save his own sister, but he can make sure there's never another case like that again.

Meanwhile, Malia never stops regularly visiting the crashed car where her mother and sister died, preserving the doll she leaves there in remembrance. It's with Boyd's support that she finally tells her dad the whole truth, and indeed he doesn't take it well at first. But he eventually comes to realize that it wasn't Malia's fault, how much she regrets it, and how she was the one taking care of their death site all these years. Boyd helps Malia make a new, proper roadside memorial/grave for her mom and sister.

8.) bb!Scott and Stiles brushing up against the supernatural. "I've got a prompt for you, Can you write a story about Scott and Stiles as kids exploring/getting in trouble in Beacon Hills with a bit of supernatural throwed in because it's Beacon hills but they don't really realise it ?"

This was a prompt, which I promptly lost and sadly am not getting back to because I don't even remember what the prompt was for/from in the first place. In retrospect, that means it probably wasn't an event? IDK

But basically, wolf!Talia's POV taking a relaxing stroll through the forest when she comes across a dog whose leash is tangled in a bush. It takes a bit of cowing to get the dog to hold still, but she's able to untangle the dog and release it, whereby it runs back towards two little boys who are clearly looking for a "Roxy", shouting around in the woods like that.

Boys and dog are reunited, though Talia is a little worried that two unsupervised boys made it this deep into the woods, and she realizes they must've given their parents the sleep. So, she gives a nice, theatrical growl, that scares the boys right back to their parents' sides where they belong.

All in a day's good work.

9.) Sheriff Stilinski as a LEAP Officer. How that influences him being a police officer to such a crazy town as Beacon Hills, and how that's why he encouraged Stiles to become a detective/go the FBI route instead.

This was more of a headcanon than any kind of plotbunny, and thus absent of plot, I'm not writing a dedicated fic for it. But the idea is that Sheriff Stilinski is a member of LEAP - formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and nowadays Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Basically, it's a group of cops, judges, and other law enforcement officials who advocate for community based and less-/non-violent policing.

The group was originally founded by police officers who saw the War on Drugs as needlessly creating more violence and solving almost nothing in relation to drugs. They wanted to end drug prohibition, seeing it as a source of violence and a waste of police resources. They've since expanded to ..."improving police-community relations, reducing and finding alternatives to incarceration, improving access to harm reduction services, ending the War on Drugs, and global issues.".

So how is this relevant? Well, the focus on this kind of policing is about expanding public safety - and not on "justice"/arrest and incarceration. Community comes first, and arresting people is not nearly as important as reducing recidivism. In other words, it's a kind of policing which puts "help the people" first...and "catch the bad guys" last. This certainly goes against the typical image of policing, doesn't it? But while this does change law enforcement priority, both are necessary.

The fic was basically about the Sheriff telling Stiles that he'll make a great detective one day...which is exactly why he shouldn't be a cop. A cop is someone who sticks around in their community and focuses mostly on helping and protecting good guys. Analyzing messy situations, finding bad guys, and taking them down, that's not really a big part of police work - and ideally, the least amount of police work. He thinks Stiles should focus on being a detective, with someone like the FBI, where their entire job is hunting down bad guys (rather than protecting and serving the people).

Given how much Stiles has idealized himself as a beat cop, it's a tough conversation to have - but a necessary one, because putting someone who sees bad guys everyone into the metaphorical blue shirt is a recipe for police brutality. He thinks Stiles has great skills - he just wants to make sure those skills get put to use in the right place, and the streets ain't it.

#nyxie DOESN'T write things #teen wolf #nyxie talks about her writing