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sayuri-of-the-valley · 9 months

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On how Crowley and Aziraphale's dynamic shifted in s2:

Okay so I was inspired by this lovely post by @rebeccasteventaylor which I couldn't find the link to in order to reblog directly, but if anyone has a link to it pls I'd love to put it here:

Anyway, while I absolutely 100% agree with @rebeccasteventaylor 's meta, I have to point out that s2 shifted it a little. Especially for Aziraphale.

We don't see him looking away trying to hide his heart eyes anymore as he used to do in s1 (we all remember the "smitten" scene, only to cite ONE). Compare the little breath of lust from the Bastille (when he looks away twice) to the "don't hesitate to ask me if you have any questions about love" one.

In s2, he touches Crowley like crazy. He touches his chest, his hand, his back, asks him to dance, gives him a whole ass cotillion ball.

He was deliberately and explicitly pursuing Crowley this season. If s1 was all Crowley pursuing Aziraphale, s2 was all Aziraphale pursuing Crowley.

And Crowley seemed to either not notice or not acknowledge that Aziraphale was doing that (the way he said Aziraphale only has 3 reasons to call him still drives me crazy. Crowley ffs those were ALL the reasons there is to call someone. He's ALWAYS thinking of calling YOU).

I think Crowley was afraid. Probably for the same reason he never told Aziraphale he was homeless. Which is sad and kinda doesn't make sense at first bc this is all Crowley has ever wanted, right?

Until we remember the last time Crowley let himself love and be loved freely, he was cast away (yes, the Fall). He lost everything bc he wasn't worthy according to some crazy criteria. Apparently he doesn't even know what he DID exactly.

I wonder if Crowley thinks he's not worthy of Aziraphale. I wonder if that's why he refused to see their love for centuries until Nina threw it at his face (Nina LITERALLY doing the Lord's work). I wonder if he's afraid of loving and letting himself be loved and then losing it again. Afraid of daring to ASK and losing everything. Again.

And Crowley wasn't *happy* this season, even with their freedom. I wonder if Aziraphale was mistakenly arriving at the conclusion that he was not enough to make Crowley happy. That him alone would never make Crowley smile the way he did when creating nebulae.

These 4 years were breathing space between the two "wars", according to Crowley himself in s1. And I think Crowley doesn't deal well with their relationship in a calm environment. He only knows how to make grand gestures, and heroic rescues, and go fast and act on impulse because then he doesn't have to THINK. Once he needs to sit down and make a commitment (telling Aziraphale he's homeless for ex), he just STOPS, he can't.

Aziraphale was the opposite. The calmness without any danger was giving him all the space he needed to act on his feelings, while the sense of danger always made him enter denial mode (which ironically seemed to be Crowley's mode in s2).

Of course they still need to put a name on what they are and stop pretending, Nina was absolutely right (and Crowley did catch up on that faster in those last 15min), maybe Aziraphale was still lacking this bit even if he was pursuing Crowley, but we can't deny that until those last 15min the "us" was coming from Aziraphale.

It's sad to realise that unconsciously, without even noticing, Crowley was rejecting Aziraphale almost the whole season.

UNTIL suddenly there's a huge problem, a desperate situation and he wants to abandon everything, take Aziraphale and run away again! (his original plan wasn't even to run away, it was to go to the Ritz). And who can blame him after what happened when he Fell? The Fall was totally unexpected, nobody even knew that could HAPPEN.

Crowley doesn't think himself worthy of Aziraphale (he's UNFORGIVABLE!), and Aziraphale doesn't think he's enough to make Crowley TRULY unashamedly happy and carefree.

And they're BOTH immensely WRONG ofc, we can all see it. They're each other's WORLD.

But they just assume stuff and never ASK, never TALK (bc well, it was literally dangerous before, I get it, their communication issues don't come from nowhere). That's why they have different perspectives on how to fix their situation in the end.

And btw I have to add we can't ignore Crowley was opening himself more too, always taking off his glasses when he was at the Bookshop for example. Ironically he was just a bit slower than Aziraphale for once. All that ofc until those last 15min, when they both change back to their old behaviours (makes me want to bang my forehead onto a wall).

I do believe they'd get there if the Metatron hadn't intervened (interesting that he chose this *exact* moment), especially after that little push from Maggie and Nina (for Crowley) and ofc brielzebub (for Aziraphale) that was gonna make them BOTH confess their feelings.

Anyway, bottom line, fuck the Metatron.

This is also a thread on Twitter :D

#good omens #good omens 2 #ineffable husbands #good omens meta #my meta #renew good omens #shift in dynamics #aziraphale pursuing crowley #crowley's denial

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super-paper · 8 months

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I still don’t understand AFO. Why is he like this. This series repeatedly goes out of it’s way to humanize the villains but AFO is still just evil because he wants to be the demon lord and I don’t get it.

That would be the point, I feel-- AFO doesn't want to be understood or seen as "human." He wants to completely lose himself in character, wants other people to mindlessly play along with the story he's written for himself like good little extras, and wants everyone around him to acknowledge what a ~perfectly inhuman demon lord~ he is-- and he's bent the entire narrative of MHA around himself like a shield in order to accomplish that. Like, the idea of people breaking the same black and white narrative that he's been using to protect himself (and trap others) quite literally drives him insane:

"That murderer--" "You killer--" oooooo you're so mad that human nature is basically good, that people are endlessly capable of growth and healing, and that actual human beings can't simply be shoved into teeny black and white fictional boxes ooooo all the more evidence that he's gonna completely lose his shit when Tomura ultimately refuses to kill Izuku lmao

I wanna point out his speech bubbles in the second image, bc Hori frequently uses speech bubbles to emphasize a character's mental state-- Like.... Bro is literally coming apart at the seams with rage that Stain is trying to be anything more than a starter villain. 😭The english translation also kind of sort of makes it seem like AFO is simply referring to Stain by his moniker (Hero Killer), but the term he uses in the original text feels a little more... loaded, imho?? The kanji used for Stain's "Hero Killer" Moniker is "Goroshi" ("殺ごろし"), but here, AFO instead refers to him as a "Murderer" (殺人犯/satsujin-han). Calling Stain an out-and-out murderer instead of calling him by a villain moniker feels a lot more specific, a lot more pointed, and it also tells us a lot more about AFO’s fucked up sense of values.

Anyway, I've said this before, but AFO is a character who reads heavily as an escapist fantasy gone horrifically wrong. "Why is a world where villains are allowed to climb back up from rock bottom and heal so intolerable to AFO?" "why does the idea of people breaking free from their roles make AFO so angry?" "why is AFO literally trying to BECOME a comic book character?" are better questions to ask than "why is bro just evil for the sake of it," I feel. Like obviously, a world where the label of "villain" gets thoroughly and utterly dismantled is one where AFO loses his power over others.... but it's also a world that rips that protective layer of "fiction" away from him, exposes his own humanity, and destroys that delusion of becoming the "perfect villain king" that he's wrapped himself up in.

tfw you LARP so hard that it ends up getting your brother killed and now breaking character means you gotta Process All Of That .................................................... Unless...? :)

What I find especially interesting about AFO is that MHA's narrative actually cooperates with shielding him from the readers, to a degree-- scenes that depict rare moments of genuine emotion are overlaid with contrary, cartoonishly evil narration that's meant to distract the reader from what's actually being depicted. The bulk of the series depicts his face being hidden in shadows even though it *literally* has no reason to be, and we don't get an unobscured look until the other characters finally start rallying together to reject his story. He is literally introduced to the series through a TV screen, which MHA has been using as a shorthand for its depiction of fantasy since day one:

In my opinion, I feel the final act of "rejection" that AFO fears isn't from his brother, or his followers, or "his other self"-- what he fears is the story itself rejecting him and finally exposing him for what he is: an utterly mundane human. Like, a total freak of a guy to be sure, but still totally human. The narrative revoking its various "protections" and working against AFO to humanize him acts as the final insult to everything he claims to believe in while doubling as the last bit of confirmation that he was never gonna become a "perfect demon lord." MHA being what it is, this is something inevitable.

Where other characters in this series draw strength from their origin-- the moment that defines them as a human and individual-- AFO likely fears and rejects his own origin for this same reason.

Anyway. I would describe AFO as a wannabe-author who refuses to make public appearances or divulge details about his personal life, but ultimately reveals a little too much about himself through the "stories" and "characters" he tries to write-- so ppl still know he's a freak with issues by virtue of how fatherless his content is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Putting together all the pieces of himself that AFO accidentally lets slip is part of what makes MHA so fun (to me, at least!).

#thank you for the ask!#all for one #mha spoilers #mha.txt #my hero academia #this mostly turned into me rambling abt what i personally like about AFO. He Is For The Pathetic Men Enthusiasts.#like i gotta stress that I still want him to get dragged out into the wilderness and torn apart by ravenous wolves though lol

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totallyboatless · 6 months

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It is time, friends, for another Pip's Weed Essay game. The rules: I'm about to take an edible and start writing a mini-essay in one sitting. I edit a tiny bit as I go, but for the most part this is on the fly. I've thought about this topic a lot, but haven't outlined it. I'll let you know when the edible hits, but there's a chance you'll realize it before I do. (PIRATE FRIENDS STICK AROUND - this is Pip from the future, I get pretty high in this, but anyway I'm here to tell you that this goes in a very unintended OFMD direction that i'm still reeling from. Anyway back to Past Pip)

Edible ingestion commencing, time: 7:37pm Mountain Time

I polled my followers for the topic, so today we're going to talk about:

Fixing the Puck Problem

I've read and seen A Midsummer Night's Dream more than any other Shakespeare play. At this point I don't know if I've seen it so much because it's my favorite, or enough opportunities for me to see it have lined up that it's become my favorite by default. It's easily the Shakespeare play I know best. I haven't seen a staging that I fully disliked, but there are two elements of this show that I feel like are rarely handled the way I want them to be.

Problem one:

Puck will never be as funny as Bottom

It's common to consider Puck to be the main character of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He's at the very least the most famous character in the play. Puck is a dream role, and obviously with his being a fairy, he's usually directed to be weird and whimsical--and a lot of the time, playing for laughs. It makes sense, he's a trickster, it's built into his nature.

But in modern day, his lines and actions don't translate as well as Bottom's. In all of the times that I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream, I've *never* seen a production where Bottom fails to steal the entire show away from Puck. I've had multiple experiences where I could feel the director wanting me to laugh at Puck; I could see the reasons for the direction, but it just wouldn't hit. In those same productions, I've laughed so hard at the Bottom scenes that I cried.

I'm thinking particularly of the 2010 production with Judy Dench reprising Titania (honestly still in shock over seeing that lolol) and the 2019 Bridge Theatre production (which you can find streaming, it's *incredible*).

In the 2010 show, the Puck actor kept doing what honestly felt like a Woody the Woodpecker impression lol. He would pause for laughs and they just...wouldn't happen. Meanwhile, Bottom was set up with the kind of success that let him steal at least one scene from fucking Judy Dench.

In the 2019 Bridge Theatre production, I genuinely like the direction they gave Puck--he's a weird little twitchy Irish punk doing fucking aerial silk shit. But even with a unique vibe and a fun performance, it's still not enough to outshine Bottom.

Basically my thing is that I want to get to the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream and feel more connected to Puck. I *want* him to be my favorite. And there's just absolutely no way to make him my favorite if his core purpose is to be funny. Puck is supposed to be a larger-than-life being--the audience is never going to buy that when he's not even the largest character on the stage.

The second problem is smaller, and in fixing it there's also a fun chance to fix the Puck problem:

Problem two:

The audience usually doesn't understand why Titania and Oberon are fighting.

If you've gotten this far you're probably already a nerd who knows this, but gonna pose the question like I've done for other people I've seen the show with: Why are Titania and Oberon fighting? What's the core reason?

Bc you're a fucking nerd you probably yelled CHANGELING! Which yes, good for you, if I had become the Shakespeare professor I wanted to be but didn't have the money to become, you would be in my class and I would throw a snickers at you for a reward.

But the thing is, a *lot* of people who only know the play casually don't know. And most productions don't assist them in knowing.

Elaboration for non-nerds: Titania had a "and they were roommates" totally not at all lesbian relationship with a human women who was pregnant. The women dies in childbirth and Titania takes the child to raise, and she cherishes him more than anything, which is an extremely straight thing to do. In the play, the character is only referred to as the changeling. Oberon gets super jealous of this kid and wants to steal him away and make him join the Wild Hunt so that he can have Titania's full attention back, because he's got that issue creepy men get when they have kids and then are like "I'm jealous of my son because he's making it less likely for me to fuck my wife" and it's like "dude calm down with this projection of an Oedipal complex."

If you're not a coward and read Titania as in love with the changeling's mom, then Oberon's issues are maybe slightly less creepy, but like not really

So that's it really. Titania loves this kid of her sapphic lover that died. Oberon is jealous about it. He decides to play a trick on Titania both as a way to get revenge, and also as a distraction so he can steal the kid.

But the issue is that 1.) all of this is communicated in a long and kind of boring speech, and 2.) the changeling literally never has a line and also no stage directions

The 2010 production had a hot dude chained up and writhing on stage in a kind of hot dance snake movement thing when Titania talks about him, but most productions never even have an actor cast as the changeling. I was really shocked they didn't have anyone for the 2019 production, given how much I love most of the rest of their choices.

OKAY SO. We now have the two problems: Puck isn't the fan favorite even though he should be; and most people in the audience have no fucking idea about the changeling.

(THIS IS HIGH PIP FROM THE FUTURE I FORGOT SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO THIS PROBLEM: If you do know about the changeling/follow along with that plot, it's *very* hard to root for Titania and Oberon when they reconcile. Which can be fun and cool and a little hot even maybe if you're going all dark, but thIS IS A PLAY ABOUT HORNY FAERIES HAVING A GOOD TIME so I won't be having that. I want this play to make me like that Titania forgives Oberon so easily. Okay Past Pip, take it away)

lol okay yeah weed friend has landed, I just wandered away for a minute with a desperate need to put taquitos in the air fryer. Time stamp: 8:16.

OKAY FOR REAL NOW LET'S GET INTO:

Pip's Most Ideal Staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream Which Fixes the Problems in Theory

The Staging:

First off I want the production to be in the middle of the literal woods where there's pretty lights in all the trees and people are sitting on blankets and have snacks and drinks and drugs and whatever they want, and the whole staging has the actors weaving through the audience. Not just theatre in the round, full immersion

I also want people to not fully know where the production is, just that it's on the outskirts of the forest, and then the actors emerge from the woods at a designated time and bring the audience to the secret stage section. And ideally this would be like a park on the outskirts of woods so that there would also be people there who wouldn't know what the fuck was going on. And ideally some of the fairy actors convince them to come along and the people go having no idea what they're about to get into. That's how A Midsummer Night's Dream is meant to be experienced in its purest form: with actors dressed as fairies trying to seduce unsuspecting strangers to follow them into the woods to an unknown location where they'll probably be offered drugs.

TAQUITO TIME

Taquitos acquired.

Puck's direction and motivation:

When Puck is first introduced, it's by a fairy called Peasblossom who's otherwise not a big part. Peasblossom lets the audience know who Puck/Robin Goodfellow is by basically going stan-mode and being like "holy shit you're famous." PB literally starts listing his greatest hits.

So picture with me: instead of an extremely fairy-like whimsical Puck, I want a Puck that wanders on-stage like a burnt-out rockstar. Cigarette in one hand, beer in another. Probably on a cocktail for faerie super magic mushrooms. Just fully numbed out. In this moment, Puck feels way more human than faerie--and I want the performance to be in a way where that feels off. To have it be communicated in manner and clothing, and the juxtaposition of PB recounting Puck's glory days, that Puck hasn't always been like this. This isn't a faerie trickster in his prime. This is a man who's lost all sense of fun and is going through the motions.

That's what happens, right, when you become just a little too famous?

Puck is the only one of the main characters who gets to the end of the show and is entirely alone.

(my favorite thing about being high is how *good* it makes food taste, these taquitos are not fancy but with the power of the devil's lettuce it's so good--oh my god I have Dr. Pepper)

(I'm back with the Dr. Pepper. I'm having fun, are you guys having fun? If you've made it this far i kiss u)

So Puck is alone at the end of the play while everyone else of import is either with their lover or with their theatre-kid-found-family. And it's largely because Puck lives between worlds. He's not powerful enough to be fey royalty; he's Oberon's right-hand man, but he's not Oberon's peer. But the lower fey court are also not his peers -- they treat him like a celebrity, he can't actually connect with them. He's not allowed to frolic and play with them anymore, not really.

With this interpretation and direction, we now have a Puck whose action in the plot can lead to a happy ending (keep with me), and whose existence isn't just to be quirky and whimsical for the audience. Instead it's a Puck with a motivation: he's lost all joy in his job, he's disconnected from him community, and Oberon only treats him like a fuckbuddy so he's sexually frustrated. (Oh right yeah I was supposed to write about how Puck is in love with Oberon. He is.) That's all fucking sad, bro! And you know from the Pip that traveled into the past that this play is fun and should be fun!

Now for the final part, where we put in the special ingredient to tie this particular Puck direction into the happy ending:

LET'S 👏 GET 👏 GAY 👏

Do you guys (gn) remember the changeling? It was like possibly an hour ago, the time-warp this particular edible always sets me on has fully set in. It's possible this essay is like 5k words long. It's also possible it's only 500 words long. I wish I was lying when I told you I don't know.

Anyway, the changeling. Let's make him a fuller character and let's give him to Puck wrapped up in a sexy, charming bow.

Picture this: The Changeling, from now on capitalized as a character, shown on stage in Titania's court. Locked up like a princess in a tower because Titania is desperate to protect him. And the Changeling is all *sigh and flutter big beautiful princess man eyes* because he wants to explore what's out there. Because he's a man who's grown up and been forced to live between two worlds. He's not fey royalty, he's not Titania's actual kid and she kind of honestly treats him more like a momento of her lesbian lover than an actual adopted kid. He can't be one of the fey court, because he's not fey, and also he's not allowed to frolic and play with them.

That should sound familiar to you if I did it right.

Puck and the Changeling, both feeling the same sort of empty spot. So let's smush them together.

Give the Changeling all of Peasblossom's lines. It makes more sense for a detail I left out before, too--Peasblossom doesn't recognize Puck they see him for the first few lines. Once they do they're all like "omg you're the dude that makes people horny for each other and also some other trickster things." They know all of Puck's stunts, but they don't know what he looks like? It's clearly an exposition device, but it's a weak one (sorry, Shakesy). He's the rockstar of the fey world. You'd have to be living under a rock or, I dunno, locked away like a beautiful man-princess --

(Okay you know where I'm going and I have to stop there because I'm cry laughing, I swear to you -- I swear to fucking god, guys, I wish I was joking -- I thought I was being cute and clever saying "man-princess". Not because of irony. IT'S BECAUSE I FORGOT THERE IS A WORD FOR A PRINCESS WHO IS A MAN AND THAT IS A PRINCE. Okay i should clearly wrap this up lol)

In this staging, the Changeling clearly doesn't want to be locked up. So...he finally finds a way to sneak out. He goes on a romp through the forest and that's when he runs into Puck (this is the scene where we first meet Puck). The Changeling wouldn't recognize Puck, though he's have heard of him. He probably loves stories because what the fuck else does he have to do, so he's asked the fairies to tell him about Puck's adventures over and over. Meanwhile, Puck wouldn't recognize the Changeling because Titania has been keeping him so under lock and key. It allows an opportunity for them to connect on more of a peer basis as they--

Holy fuck. Wait. Hold on. Is the Changeling Stede. Is Puck Ed. What the fuck. Did I write an AU on accident. I don't even like AUs very much (sorry AU writers it's not personal it's just not my thing).n ANYWAY sorry for the pirate aside. God this is properly off the rails now.

They like each other, you get it. And now Puck has someone he wants to impress. There's not a lot of opportunities to give the Changeling more lines, but that doesn't mean he can't appear on stage. He can stay with Puck (hiding from Oberon whenever he's there, leading to some good chances for physical comedy) and go on the nighttime adventure of his dreams.

This leads to a fun, unique choice: having Puck fuck up the love flower juice plan on purpose. So that he can show this hot dude following him around with wide enthusiastic eyes the kind of things he's capable of OH MY GOD THIS IS ED AND STEDE I SWEAR THIS IS NOT ON PURPOSE I AM JUST NOW SEEING THE PARALLEL

Okay we're nearly at the end I promise. We just have one more problem to solve: How are we supposed to root for Titania and Oberon to get together when Oberon literally publicly humiliates her and then steals her adopted son and forces him to join the Wild Hunt even tho Titania REALLY doesn't want him to? Well, the first one is easy, Titania and Oberon are so fucking kinky, and Oberon likes getting cucked (remember he's only jealous of the Changeling, never the lesbian).

The second one is also easy. Make it the Changeling's choice. Leaving Titania and joining Oberon's court means two things: He gets to be with Puck, and joining the Wild Hunt allows him to go on exciting adventures. If Titania saw that the Changeling wanted this with the staging that both Titania and Oberon look over and see Puck and the Changeling making out right after Titania's spell is broken. Then Oberon can jokingly delivers the line about having stolen the Changeling, realizing that the plan worked but in the most ridiculous way possible. And how could Titania not find joy in all of that?

It makes me so much more glad to see them get back together.

Puck's closing soliloquy is his most famous, but I like his last big monologue right before it better. There's a very important line he says that communicates an important shift within the context of his particular staging:

And we fairies, that do run

We.

Puck isn't a lonely, washed-up rockstar anymore. He's part of a "we." Not just the Changeling, but the other fairies, too. Puck and the Changeling act as bridges for each other, to be part of each other's worlds in a way that feels like a whole -- OH MY GOD IT IS ED AND STEDE

Puck being alone on stage isn't so sad anymore, after all that. Because Puck, who starts off the play with so little sense of belonging, now has so much to go back to.

And that's it, that's my ideal staging of this play. Honestly, I really, really want to direct it. I have no experience directing but I have the audacity to think I could do it lol. No resources, tho

OH ONE LAST THING HELENA NEEDS TO BE INTO PUP PLAY

also the lovers are all in a polycule, that's just a given, any other staging is cowardly

alright bbye

[exit]

final time stamp: 9:25 PM, not rereading, just hitting post. We die like Mercutio.

#Pip's Weed Essays #shakespeare #shakespeare staging #a midsummer night's dream #ofmd sort of i don't know how this happened #i mean it could have influenced me coming up with this staging??? It must have somehow??#I didn't start conceptualizing it until this year #I wasn't in the middle of a pirate hyperfixation at the time tho #but i guess they just always are there in the back of my head #shakespeare analysis

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kingusukaras · 9 months

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some (mildly disjointed) thoughts i had about the translation of most recent leona overblot scene from the second twst novel. unsaid disclaimer is obvi these are just my thoughts and youre free to disagree. i cant stop you

read more because i might ramble a bit 💆🏾‍♀️

i'll start by saying that i'm very grateful for the novel & yuureis translations, bc its given me so much to chew on wrt leonas psyche and mental state, much more than book 2 in the game did. i havent bothered to go looking for reactions tho, bc i can already kind of predict the takes i'll find (knowing how parts of the fandom talks abt leona generally) - and i do "get" it, in the sense that i do also feel the way he tortures ruggie before he overblots is upsetting - but theres so much to dig into here, i feel like its such a waste to get hung up on obsessively moralizing

(i'll mention here that to formulate these thoughts i'm also pulling from the translation of leona's post-overblot scene, plus some moments from the game that i'll mention specifically as i go)

for example, the things leona says pre-overblot, his meltdown about dreams being stupid and useless, how the savanaclaw students (ruggie included) aren't meant to question him; they're meant to obey quietly, sound less like actual things he's trying to tell them and more like him lashing out at himself. as in, he's more talking at them, not to them. skipping forward to book 6: there we see leona give jamil advice, but the implication underneath is that everything he's telling jamil are things leona wishes he had internalized himself - again here, he's talking to someone, but really it's also directed inwards. almost like it's easier for him to look at (and speak about) himself critically when he can externalize it as critique of other people

the other thing im curious about is the distant, detached persona he adopts when he's truly angry. this'll be quick because i don't feel i have enough information to unpack it properly, but if i allow myself to spin thoughts out from limited information: it could almost be a habit he picked up as a child - something he might've forced himself to learn as part of an effort to be seen as more of a 'model' prince. if people were afraid of his moodiness because they feared what his UM (he) could do, then if he swallows those emotions maybe he can mitigate that. this, ofc, being shot through with the expectation that, as royalty, any order he gives people will obey

the final thing, for this post at least, is unpacking the way leona lashes out at ruggie when ruggie defies him. i'm willing to make the very safe bet that most of the reading of this moment is focused on leona being angry over being defied at all, or general disgust at how small and weak ruggie is (appears) to be. and while i think both of those points have some element of truth to them, i think the larger aspect of leonas reaction is jealousy. ruggie somehow, despite everything, despite all of the disadvantages life has thrown at him, still has the courage to have determination. and i want to be very clear here: this is not me saying being poor or struggling is admirable because it makes you strong - i'm not naive and i'm not here to romanticize poverty. what i am trying to say here ruggie's tenacity - a tenacity his life circumstances developed in him - is something that leona lacks, and that's what he's jealous of. he's jealous of his inability to keep having that hope, to maintain that courage in the face of his own repeated failures

(an aside: isn't it ironic that part of the reason ruggie has that tenacity is leona? leonas tutoring, leonas effective leadership of the spelldrive club, and as housewarden?)

(an aside 2x: in many ways, 'giving up' can be seen as a luxury. ruggie does not have the luxury to give up, because it could very well mean that he doesn't eat that day. for leona, regardless of what he does he's going to have a roof over his head and three square meals a day anyway, so what does it matter if he gives up? sure, he won't be happy, but he'll be comfortable in a material sense, and isn't that enough? except, of course, it isn't - not for him. as much as he tries to deny it, he's as fiercely ambitious as the rest of his dorm)

#king's meta #twisted wonderland #twst leona #leona kingscholar #disney twisted wonderland #every new translation post gives me so much more to mull over i love it #thank you yuurei

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frogboy0 · 1 month

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How does Lute feel about what happened between her and Vaggie in your AU?

Lute is a commander dedicated to her cause, dedicated to Heaven, everything she knew and believed in was taught to Vaggie by HER. Vaggie was practically an EXTENSION of herself (both literally and figuratively)

I DO think that Lute cared for Vaggie, I think before Vaggie fell, they both cared for each other IMMENSELY. They literally did everything together even outside of training and stuff. BUT.....

My Lute is a very................. unemotional person. Like, she's cool to hang around with and stuff but, she's kinda like your emotionally distant dad. Her and Vaggie were close and I think Vaggie's 'betrayal' (that's how she sees it) really did hurt but since she's not one to want to or even have TIME to think about those feelings, Lute on the outside is cold and unaffected.

Okay this is long so rest is under the cut 😋

I think she tried reason with herself that this was BOUND to happen. 'Vaggie has always been too nice', 'she was never cut out for this anyway', 'She only got as far as she did by sheer dumb luck', stuff like that.

She tells herself this but on the inside, this shit hurts like a BITCH!!!!!!! Because FUCK!!!!!!!! They were each others' everything at one point!!!!! (In a familiar sense) Lute literally taught her eveything she knew!!!! She was her mentor!!!!! They LOVED EACH OTHER!!!!!!! And it fucking HURTS to know Vaggie had gone against Heaven and had broken one of their rules that Lute KNEW that she ALWAYS followed.

I imagine that sometimes, during the RARE instances that Lute finds herself with nothing to do, she thinks about Vaggie. She would wonder what made that Extermination Day any different from the THOUSANDS they've done before? What about one child made Vaggie do a complete one 180? What made Vaggie spare a Sinner?

(What would have happened if Lute pretended not to see Vaggie do it?)

But it happened and it was done. Lute HAD to de-wing Vaggie, she HAD to leave her in Hell. It was punishment. Heaven doesn't do second chances when it comes to the exorcists, it just doesn't work like that (Lute never questioned why).

And you can totally skip this part if you didn't read my fanfic (I wouldn't blame you for not LOL)

(SPOILERS BTW‼️‼️‼️)

Towards the 2nd of the fic, during the Extermination when Vaggie and Charlie reunite and Lute approaches them, Lute has on full Exorcist Angel armor obvi so the others can't see her face or how she's feeling IT'S A METAPHOR BC IM SO ARTSY FARTSY!!!!!!

Lute puts up these walls so no one, not even Vaggie, knows how she truly feels, she does this because of her position, so it makes sense for her walls to personify in her ARMOR!!

In the fanfic, the entire scene, Lute is paying NO MIND to Charlie, her attention is on Vaggie the whole time, which should be concerning as she's a literal exorcist and the princess of Hell is standing right in front of her.

It's a moment of weakness for Lute. She doesn't say anything but it was important that she saw Vaggie. She knew Vaggie would survive in Hell, not just because (at that point, what they all still believed) Angels couldn't die, but also Because, despite all the things Lute tried to convince herself about Vaggie after she was banished, she knew that Vaggie was tough, that she could handle anything.

The surprise wasn't seeing Vaggie, it was seeing Vaggie, narrow eyed (single eyed, because of her), and with her spear pointed at Lute.

Lute was now an enemy to Vaggie.

So Vaggie was an enemy to Lute.

TLDR; Lute did and STILL DOES care for Vaggie and she was SUPER upset about Vaggie sparing a Sinner and she does wish things turned out differently but has repressed her emotions so much that all she could reason within herself is that Vaggie got what was coming to her for betraying Heaven and after seeing her fight on the side of Hell, she understands that they're enemies for all of eternity

#ask #thank you for the ask!!#oouuigh i need to draw lute #shes so crazy and silly to me

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toburnup · 1 year

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Just wanting to pick your brain( bc I'm kind of like this too) what is it about Steve? He's the common denominator in all the ships you write (Which you do so beautifully btw) like steddie, stommy, and now stonathan (!!!!!). And you've also said it's easier for you to write in Steve's POV than Eddie's. Is there a particular reason? Do you relate to him in canon or your writing?

You are such a genius, I could listen to you talk about your writing all day.

I cannot wait for whatevers coming down the pike: the wip stonathan fic, the iylo update (see what I did there?) . Everything you put out into the world is a gift anyway so <3

!! thank you! hah, why steve? i'm not sure! i was a steve hater for a long time. still am, in a lot of ways.

in canon, i like steve best as a side character. his character motivations shift so drastically between seasons that i find the more screentime he gets, the less sense he makes lmao (probably why i disliked the scoops storyline, tho i love s3 robin).

and honestly, i think i like writing steve as much as i do because i want to read him a certain way, and it's not a version i see enough (for my taste). i really like steve as someone with grey moral values, a bit selfish, rude as a default. not necessarily stupid but he doesn't care if he's wrong. competitive to a ridiculous degree. distracted by trying to figure out who he is but also caring too much about what other people think to really find an answer.

i relate to him (the way i write him) in a few ways, but it's hard for me to pinpoint the exact reasons why tbh. some people who know me well can read my writing and see when i'm projecting onto him.

the big thing for me is i like writing him falling for different people. i love his friendship with tommy and carol, and all the potential romantic overlap. him and eddie are fun (and i love eddie, but steddie isn't my ~OTP~ or anything). jonathan is a PAIN to write but i'm liking it so far. and i know some people will give me grief for it, but i'm also writing a metalsandwich fic (so steve, billy, and eddie) which has been super fun.

i find the s2 confrontation between billy & steve at the byers house to be one of steve's best scenes ("were you dropped too much as a child, or what?... she's not here") - lying to billy's face feels like a fucking wild choice and i love it. steve with anger simmering beneath the surface. finally learning to plant his feet. still gets beaten to a pulp <3

he's an idiot boy and i love him.

did this answer the question? maybe! i can also talk about steve forever, so i love getting messages like this :) :) thank you for reading my works.

#oops long post #steve harrington #steve harrington meta #feeling loved #vio answers

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winryofresembool · 5 months

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Hey My English is pretty bad but i have a questions for You, on the dark profecy Calypso said that leo isnt her saviour but leo think he is, i don't understand why she thinks he doesnt do You have any throughts of it?

First, don't worry about your English! I'm a non native English speaker myself :)

Second: you know what? That is a valid question. A disclaimer before I get into it: It's been a few years since I've read The Dark Prophecy so my memories of the exact context of that scene are (more than a little) hazy. I don't have the book in my hands so I could check it right now. But I do remember that that exact line made me kind of cringe too when I was reading it.

Anyway, from what I can remember, Calypso was having some difficulties in adjusting into her new life. Living in the modern USA is so different from the life she was used to, and even though Ogygia was also her prison, I believe she was occasionally feeling some homesickness and she also missed having her powers. Well, all of that and the fact Leo and Calypso didn't really manage to talk about their issues (=lack of communication) caused her to snap. Leo is absolutely one of my favorites in HoO, but he isn't perfect either: he didn't always respect or listen to Calypso's wishes, such as when she told him to not call her Mamacita (there were more examples but I can't remember the details right now).

So, from there we get to the question: was Calypso's snapping justified? Not really, not in my opinion at least. It is a fact that she can't/shouldn't deny that without Leo she /would/ still be in Ogygia and would likely never get out of there on her own, because the gods didn't want to release her. In other words, Leo /was/ her savior in that sense.

But was her snapping surprising? Again, not really, not for the reasons I explained earlier. The girl has a lot to deal with and sometimes we say things we don't really mean when we are frustrated. What these two need in order for their relationship to work is to talk about what's bothering them. In TDP it seemed both were bottling up things inside them and then waiting till things were at boiling point, which caused them to fight. (Tower of Nero spoilers ahead if you haven't read that book!) I think the break that was mentioned in ToN is probably a good thing in the long run bc that way they both can process what they want and what they should do differently. Honestly, I feel that at that point Rick had just read so much Caleo hate on the internet that he was like 'screw it'.

Why do I think Rick wrote Calypso that way? He was likely afraid of presenting her as a damsel in distress. These days the books targeted for younger audiences are all about having badass female characters, and Rick is someone who doesn't take criticism well (see f. ex. the way he wrote a whole essay about why he presented Piper the way he did when he got criticism for it) so he was probably worried that Calypso admitting that Leo did save her would probably paint her in the wrong kind of light. Well, if that was his reasoning, he was wrong there. Admitting the facts doesn't make someone weaker. (To be honest I disliked TDP so much that I prefer to just ignore the whole book, I don't understand why he ruined good characters that way.)

This became way too long and rambly, I'm sorry. I hope you still got something out of this answer! TLDR: I don't think Calypso actually meant what she said about Leo not being her savior, she was just so frustrated with her whole situation that it caused her to snap.

#tia speaks #caleo #calypso #leo valdez #the dark phophecy #trials of apollo #caleo haters dni

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quetzalpapalotl · 10 months

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[slides seductively onto a piano] hello if you're open to talking blorbos may i request your fave shockop headcanons

Hello, yes, sorry I asked for questions about my blorbos and then didn't answer for like a week, I was busy playing TOTK until I forgot my own name and doing other stuff, but thank you so much!!

My favorite thing about shockop is this extremely weird relationship dynamic they have going. Like, Orion is driven by his desire to do good and help people, but has realized that what he understood was good isn't necessarily, so now he's cashing on Shockwave to show him the way, and Shockwave is so hot and talks the talk so good, Orion has unshakeable faith in him.

Like, Shockwave modified his body without asking (and I hc Cybertronians have a weak sense of bodily autonomy but still), keeps a bunch of stuff to himself and is generally very sketchy, but Orion is 100% behind of whatever he says. Hell, Orion doesn't want to be Prime, he never talks about it, we only know he knows that's what Shockwave wants bc Roller bring it up, and Orion is seemingly okay with ruling the fucking planet if that's what Shockwave thinks is best.

But that's the things, despite having him on a leash, Shockwave's plan involved making Orion Supreme Ruler because he thinks Orion could use that power wisely. And Orion is actually capable of imposing his will on Shockwave, which he only does to get Shockwave to stay put during Shadowplay for his own sake, which is SUCH an OP thing to do.

There is a great deal of mutual idolization going on. They are people will similar morals which may not be all that great. There's something very sinester underneath it all despite the fact that they genuinely meant good and genuinely care for each other. Tho a part of that caring is caring about the good they can do for Cybertron rather than for each other as people.

Not that they don't care for each other as people, they're obsessed with each other, it's just kind of a loop. But yeah, Shockwave is so obsessed with OP that even after 4 million years of Shadowplay and 12 million years of going insane, he still wants Optimus to join him and will go out of his way to try to make him see his point even if that's of no benefit to his plans.

God, JRo introduced this weirdly ambiguous sketchy relationship and then Barber doubled down on that and I owe them my life. Great work, guys! I'm not really interested is pure fluffly wholesome shockop, these guys are insane.

I suppose that's not a headcanon so much as a reading, but uh, I'm not good which such open questions. Anyway, a more straightforward headcanon is about this scene

This would be their first time meeting after Shockwave joins the Cons and after the flashbacks of exRID #17. The reason the dialogue is so impersonal here is ofc, because Autocracy was written before Shadowplay and so before the mysterious Senator was established to be Shockwave, But my headcanon of what's going on is that the last time Orion tried to talk to Shockwave he tries to appeal to who he was and their relationship and got nothing. So he decided to try the opposite and treat Shockwave like a random Decepticons thinking that his Shockwave was so vain he would hate Orion acting like he's nobody to him and that would surely get a reaction. At least something like "This isn't the first time I've saved your life" but he still got nothing :(

#quetzal rambles tf

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buckleyx · 1 year

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Short character study of Chimney in SE4EPS4

In honor of the new episode airing today, I really wanna look back for a second on Chimney's part in se4 episode 4: What's your grievance?

We were gifted with the icon buckley dinner scene and Buck's line: "Love me anyway." that fanfic writers, including myself, ate the fuck up.

I was recently rewatching the episode and noticed during the diner scene how well and respectful Chimney handled the situation. He was clearly there on invention, knowing Chimney himself would probably be hesitant at first to participate since he knows how important that diner was for Maddie and Buck, and he probably didn't want to overstep. So the main reason he's there is as support for Maddie, which he did perfectly.

MORE AFTER THE CUT

So with that in mind, again with the fact that he didn't wanna overstep, he was kind and respectful, didn't make anything about himself and sometimes tried lighting the mood when a hurtful remarks were thrown around at Maddie or Buck.

He let's Maddie speak, he doesn't intrude. He knows this isn't his place to meddle even though maybe he likes to say something in their defense. He knows it's a family situation and he doesn't want to overstep. He offers mental support for Maddie, which she is very grateful for. Just him being there means a lot to Maddie. He lets her speak, comforts her with physical touch like holding her hand or looking at her when she speaks. He wants her to know that he's here for her and that he is listening.

What really stuck out to me was his attempt to comfort Buck, a job normally his parents would do. When Maddie is given her baby box, Buck's immediate response is asking when he'll get his, in which Margaret and Philip share an annoyed look.

Chimney sees this happening and is taken aback. He didn't expect their reaction.

After noticing the silence on Buck's question he tries his best to comfort Buck. He knows how awful they hurt Buck with their unanswered answer so he tries to lighten the situation. He places a hand on his shoulder and answered in Margaret and Philip's place with:

"you're not even a grown up yet, they're probably still adding stuff"

He tries providing an answer to comfort Buck. Even throwing a "right?" after it as he is seeking confirmation with the parents to undo Buck's hurt. They reply very quiet, nodding their head in shame, not wanting to go further in on it. But their silence confirms what they all expected, they never made a box for Evan.

He later checks back in on Buck after he realizes that Buck realizes there isn't a box for him. He feels bad about his failed attempt to comfort his friend. He's stuck. He wants to do more but knows it isn't his fight.

These tiny moments show a lot about Chimney himself but also his love for Maddie. He understands their trauma and the situation they are put in. I also personally think that Chimney deserves more love bc his character is sometimes overlooked, even tho he places a big (comforting) role in lots of situations.

I really hope this makes sense ahaha! Feel free to add anything you like, I'm really interested in what you think about it, my asks are always open!

LINK TO MY ASKS!

#short but wanted to share!#SPREAD THE CHIMNEY LOVE!!#911 fox #chimney han #evan buckley #maddie buckley #911fox #❥ flo's thoughts #howard han

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lumibye · 5 months

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hii charm i wanted to ask , what was sycamaris first date ? 🤔 how did it come abt , who asked, how did it go ? im soo interested , and i hope uve had a wonderful weekend ! - @catake

hehe hi clara ! hope your weekend's been lovely as alwayss and i hope your finals went just as well !! i'm sure they did but sending my heart and wishes anyways ofc ofc

( ♡ ) ty honestly sm for encouraging me to talk abt them bc it's all in my drafts but i'm just . . soso shy ( if you could believe it ehe ; ) so it really means a lot to me ! i'm v grateful i get to speak my silly nonsense eek >_< their first date was . . it was a ' date ' but it wasn't ? this is prob a good time to explain why they're ' working together ' ig for context purposes ! ( i'll prob compile this all into a post at some point actually )

( long post again bc my filter is broken ehe ; )

although he has a lot of information on mega evolution in regards to battle , he doesn’t have a lot in the way of contests

pokemon aren’t affected by any external factors like attacks or status conditions when performing , but they’re still expending a good amount of energy with the use of moves

so , as someone that’s very invested in the subject , his research and the bond between pokemon and trainer - this information would be valuable to compare and contrast with his current findings

he doesn’t really know anybody in the contest scene? there’s serena, of course, but she’s also currently undertaking the gym challenge and being one of his pupils it doesn’t feel right to stick this kid with even more work considering she’s a dex holder so mariannes his best bet , even though they're only acquainted at the time they share a mutual acquaintance in serena at least . it's mutually beneficial in a sense , if marianne can't use mega then she's going to be at a disadvantage in the contest circuit ( i hc that contests are similar to ORAS in kalos hehe ) her ' job ' would be to monitor the behavioural changes in her pokemon after rehearsals and performances as well as their general health and wellbeing . there'd be weekly or biweekly ' check ups ' at the lab for more thorough analysis but these ' reports ' are more casual to fit both their schedules also , it's a good excuse to go out for him to go out for coffee considering he's so busy . but they're not dates , don't be silly . . . ( /hj he doesn't intend it to be . . but . . ) anway ! to actually answer your question now ( i'm soso sorry i can talk for aages they live in my head rent free 24/7 ; ) once he proposes this to her at the lab ( it's like on a weekend so nobody's there ) and gives her a list of pokemon that can mega she notices the only one that can is benched because of her accident in the unova circuit reasons and she goes ' umm , i don't really have any on this list at the moment ' and augustine is kind of stumped because this meeting is now way shorter than he expected it to be so he goes ' oh , that's ok . . well let's go out for coffee instead ' ( not those exact words ofc ) because

a.) she's not super familiar with lumiose and having a kind of ' guide ' might be helpful

b.) atp he knows she's a bit of a reserved person and the few times they've met he hasn't seen her with any friends so that's mildly concerning

c.) if they're eventually going to work together he should know her a bit better and

d.) she's piqued his curiosity honestly marianne's very bad at saying no especially on the spot so as nervous as this makes her she agrees , for similar reasons too . this person's offering her an advantage in her career so it'd be rude to say no , wouldn't it ? so they go to soleil ( because taking a shy girl to your best friends cafe on your first outing seems like a really bad idea ) and he offers to pay and she protests and there's that cliche back and forth about who's going to pay that makes the barista a bit ticked off ( people pleasers , the both of them ) and it takes her a bit to open up but he's genuinely enthused when it comes to learning about people . so eventually she does crack a little bit , especially when the topic of coffee comes up . she used to be a barista in castelia and coffee is his passion so that's their jumping off point . after that they both surprise each other with just how similar they are ! they talk about their thoughts on self expression ( he asks about her career ) and just how important it is and their energy just gels . they end up almost gushing to each other about their thoughts and beliefs , which is something she hasn't done in ages since she's been alone for quite a while so it makes her so so happy . he didn't expect this to come out of someone like her and she didn't expect someone primarily invested in research to share her beliefs and ideas . afterwards she feels bad that she's talked primarily about herself but still . . . it feels good and honestly ? that's kind of exactly what he was hoping for and he's pretty happy himself . they both are ig , more than they'd thought they would ! she definitely goes home and screams into a pillow about how embarrasing she was tho ehhehehe

#: charm's chatting ✦#୨-sycamari-୧ #⊱ lore tag ⊰#⊱ mailbox ⊰#ty clara u r such an angel - hugging u ♡

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noihavenosanitythanksforasking · 7 months

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so I finished link click s2 yesterday and i'm losing my mind

So imma ramble

alrigh so when powers are activated, the user's eyes turn a different color. cxc's/whoever he is possessing(?) turn gold, Li Tianchen's turn red, (I assume smth happens to tianxi's eyes too, but it could just be that she needs to have her eyes closed as thats the only way we see her. Though it could be that her eyes turn milky like Qiao Ling's do after tianxi's death). Anyways so when lu guang activates his power his eyes turn blue. But allegedly, he's been going into the past over and over again to try and save cxc. This is confusing to me. If Lu Guang has been through this timeline multiple times over and over, would he not know whats going on already? Even if things do change every timeline, after going through a certain amount of times an incredible amount of time, its easily plausible that the changes that would occur wouldn't be too hard to predict. Like Lu Guang said multiple times in season 1(i forget where) time has these node things which i think of as like check points in time. The way the explanation made sense in my head was almost like some sort of binary code. The Node either happens or not. So with this reasoning if lu guang when through the time line enough times to create every possible combination of these happened or it didn't happen moments, he would be able to "predict" the future. (that would also mean that lu guang is suuuper old because there are so many of these checkpoints that could happen in 4 years) Anyways, at this point im not sure what i believe about lu guang's ability anymore. If he's gone through the timeline so many times, couldn't he just have the knowledge of whats going to happen in each photo through his connection with cxc? His eyes turn blue, and we see flashes of the photo, but how do we know that its not just his memories from a past timeline.

Speaking of memories from a past timeline. Does qiao ling have all Lu guangs memories? That wouldn't make sense at all and if she doesn't why did she see the one of cxc dying? Was it because it was particularly traumatic? Why that particular one because allegedly cxc has died multiple times.

also-

my current theory about the death thing is that the node isn't necessarily for one person, but just a death in general. For example, in this timeline, Li tianxi died and cxc lived. but if cxc died would tianxi also die? in the scene where cxc is trying to talk emma out of unaliving herself, lu guang gets all surprised that it seems to be working(also side note, talk about trauma. give the boy hope and snatch it away) but she ends up dying anyways. What if the only way to save someone from dying in the past is to kill someone else. So if emma lives, cxc would have to die. And bc cxc is a self sacrificial idiot I could see him doing that to save someone else, possibly on accent but i could see on purpose too. (Lu Guang ofc wouldn't let him do this cause he's in love with him but i digress)

Which leads me me to another idea, which is the scene where Lu Guang gets stabbed right.

He was not expecting that from what I can tell. But he accepted it. Almost like he was thinking that maybe him dying in this time line would save cxc from death. It didn't work, bc he survived but still. Lu Guang getting stabbed must have been a node he hadn't come across before, which means that he had to go in blind for the entirety of season 2. This contradicts my Lu Guang power theory but that wasn't a super strong theory anyways so idk.

One of my main questions is why the hell wouldn't lu guang just do smth about tianchen before it becomes a problem. Even if he didn't come across the node of him getting stabbed before, he would still know whats going on to some extent and be able stop it right? Unless my idea about cxc sacrificing himself was the real main issue. (which will make me cry if thats true i will not survive)

Also last side note, where did lu guang originally come from? If he just popped up in their lives because he was trying to save cxc, how did they meet originally?

simple answer: he's god.

idk if any of that made sense.

#link click #link click season 2 #lu guang #cheng xiaoshi #qiao ling #li tianxi #li tianchen #link click theory #link click spoilers #shiguang dailiren #link click s2

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queerxqueen · 2 years

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Some of the 'explanations' regarding Mike's actions from Milkvan's don't make much sense to me.

1- Mike acts weird around Will because they have not talked for months and Mike was focused on El.

Firstly, this doesn't make much sense to me. Ok, let's say that Mike was focused on El so much that he ignores his friends. But he cannot even give a proper hug to them? Like, what? I would have understood his actions, him focusing on El makes sense, but why would he have brushed off his friends around him (Will in this case) and cannot even bother to give a proper hug??? How's that make any sense? It would make any sense if the person Mike doesn't want to hug 1- was his ex-boyfriend/girlfriend and he didn't want El to misunderstood things, or 2- He had a thing going on with that said friend, and that's why Mike didn't want to hug him (Will) in front of El.

Honestly, there is no other decent explanation for this. You don't literally brush off your friend and don't want to hug them just because you are focused on your date. It just doesn't make any sense... unless, you know, there's something else going on.

2- Mike cannot say ily to Eleven because of his parents/he is shy

As most people have already pointed out-- there is no indication of this. I really would understand if Mike was truly being shy or got affected by his parents' actions, but like... as El also said, he cannot even write 'ily'. Why he cannot even write it?

Also, why does the plot make this so freaking important and dramatic in the first place? That means there is something else going on behind Mike's actions. They have been dragging this plot for ages now, if it was truly just about him being 'shy' or bc of his 'parents' they could indicate it in a different way. But they made it seem like there was another reason behind it. Honestly, it Duffers are planning this huge 'ily' declaration from Mike to El, and that's why they have been dragging this plot point for ages, it really would be so disappointing. The most possible and logical explanation from a writing standpoint would be Mike coming to the realization that, while he cares deeply for El and loves her-- he doesn't love her romantically.

3- Mike acts rude to Will because Mike has always been rude anyway

Mike has always been 'rude' but we, as the viewers, have to consider his actions and the reason behind them. All the times he has acted ''rude'' to someone else, there was a reason behind those actions. So, Mike just decided to distance himself from Will (he cannot even hug him??) because he just wanted to? What's the reason behind this action. Honestly, this comes to the first point-- if he's acting this way just because El is there, honestly, it makes no sense. You can focus on your gf and still hug your best friend. It's not like that best friend in question is your ex or your crush that El could potentially get jealous of. Mike's this change is supposed to be there for the audience to notice and think about it. Else, why the writers would decide to add such a plot point in the first place.

4- Will is acting weird just because he doesn't want to grow up

Yeah, when I don't want to grow up, I look at my best friend in such a dreamy and admiring way in order to remember my 'childhood', and want to gaze at him adoringly in order to 'stay as a kid'.

I would understand this 'Will doesn't want to grow up' theory but honestly, at this point from the way Will acts and just looks at Mike, it is very obvious he likes the guy lol. Also, the other scenes literally point out Will's sexuality (a pretty girl in his class outright flirts with him, he rejects her and ignores her advances). These types of scenes are there on purpose. They are meant to indicate something about Will. Will's project is about Allan Turing, a gay British man from the past. Alan freaking Turing is his childhood hero! C'mon guys! Writers specifically chose Turing to be Will's hero for a reason!

This is not about just some childhood thing anymore. It's pretty implicit that Will is gay. If he doesn't come out, honestly, then yet again it will be bad writing. Still, he'll be a queercoded character even if we don't get an open coming out because all of his characterization and proofs point out to Will being gay.

5- Will will come out but Mike will reject him because he is straight and is in love with El

If this happens then I truly want to ask Finn about his acting choices because lmao. Even Milkvans admit that his acting in his scenes with Eleven is weird and that Mike feels very 'empty' about the scene (their fight about Mike not being able to say or write ily) when Millie is giving all of her heart to the scene. And honestly, connecting these types of scenes together with the other ones, it honestly is obvious where Mike's character is probably going.

Also from a writing standpoint, why the writers would drag Will's love for Mike for all these years if it will just be 'unrequited'. Just for the angst and to make Will this 'little sad gay boy who has a one-sided crush on his straight friend but that straight friend ignores him for his gf' plot? This doesn't make any sense. If Will came out earlier on and was given a boyfriend, I honestly would be fine with that storyline for Will. Characters like Robin and Max all got added later on. But honestly, dragging Will's crush on Mike for years only for him to come out in season 4 or 5 to be rejected by his 'straight' friend is just a very weird choice IMO. It would also bring out so many questions about Mike's actions and other points I've written. It would literally be queerbaiting for me. Because even though Will comes out as gay, it still doesn't explain several choices for Mike's character. It would seem like they just brush off all the coding for Mike's character in order to make the heteronormativeness canon, and not make the gays thrive. It would play right into the 'sad gay boy having a sad crush on his straight bff' trope, which is not good. There were so many ways to make Will gay and come out without adding that tired trope.

6- Mike and El has been the main ship for seasons and breaking them up would erase that development

Honestly, I gotta disagree. There are many ships in the media that got together (and has been seen as the 'main ship' for many years) but didn't become an end game. Considering all the build-up, it honestly would make sense if Mike and El break up. If this all leads to a 'big love declaration' from Mike to El and they decide to stay together, honestly it would set their characters back in one go. If there was a proper point for Mike to say 'ily' it would have been before El became a ''superhero'' again. It still doesn't explain the reason behind Mike's not even writing love you to El, nor the other plot points in the show.

If you have other reasons to add here please do so. Honestly, I am usually a pessimistic person, and critical of the potential 'queerbaiting' and 'heteronormativeness', but all the things considered I honestly cannot see any ending than Byler.

Hard agree with everything above, Anon, thank you for sharing!!! Posting for others to read but I have nothing to add.

#byler #anon #answered #stranger things #stranger things 4

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deanismysavior · 2 years

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unrelated but I wanted to just ramble about some byeler scenes and wanted to hear your take on it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the mike/will scenes in the airport and at the roller rink. we as the audience already know HOW much mike projects his own feelings and frustrations and pushes that blame off of himself (dear goodness i love him so much but he’s so dramatic all the time <3).

We’ve seen this in prior seasons! ex: mike getting mad at will in s3, and being annoyed at will for wanting to still play dnd with him, while knowing he didn’t focus enough time for his best friend (and projecting that into the questions to will about girlfriends and wanting to play dnd).

he does this CONSTANTLY in s4, which honestly showcases byeler so strongly to me. mike does this when he brushes off will’s ecstatic hug attempt. mike does this when he gets mad at will for “ruining the day” by rolling his eyes and not talking (whereas mike is the one BARELY engaging with will since he arrived in cali). he does this when he gets mad at will for “not reaching out”, and when will debunks that argument, mike denies it and says “that’s not true”, and, “you should’ve reached out more”, and “why am i the bad guy?”. if this doesn’t showcase mike’s own behavior to a tee, i don’t know what does. mike does it once again when will asks about their relationship and the letters he sends to el, and mike gets mad and just says something along the lines of “el is my girlfriend, and we’re friends.” (defensive much? why would his friendship with will somehow get in the way of his relationship with el and vice versus….unless?) (there’s MANY more examples of this too)

THESE are mike’s feelings. whenever mike tries to deflect and blame someone else’s behavior, it’s himself all along. hell, he even does this with el! when she mentions he hasn’t said “i love you”, he just says, “i say it.” we know he doesn’t. he knows he doesn’t. she even pulls out the letters that all say “from, mike” on them. instead of owning up to his blatant lie, he shifts the blame to “other people” getting in the way of their relationship (alluding to???????) (also if i don’t quote this scene correctly or make it more vague is bc i don’t have the scene on hand)

why in the world would there be any reason for mike to need to consistently deflect people’s questions about his feelings? why does he feel the need to shift the blame onto others when they call out his strange behavior? (poor mike is the KING of projecting <3 i love him dearly though)

anyways, spare thoughts? i’m going kinda crazy about this by myself so i’d love some feedback.

Oh gosh. Michael "Blame Shifter" Wheeler. There's so much to say about him. I think your assessment of his actions is absolutely correct, Mike's knee-jerk reaction to everything is to get defensive first, but I'm so glad because we REALLY see him work on that this season with Will. I think he finally recognizes this pattern in himself and is ready to start owning his shit a bit more. We not only see this in Mike's apology to Will, but we also start to see him take accountability before he gets interrupted by Argyle in Surfer Boy Pizza. And though we never get to hear what he was going to say to El, tonally it felt like he was really going to explain himself and why he couldn't say he loved her.

I mean he's definitely hiding something about his feelings, because even at the end of s3, when El confronts him about how he blurted out I love you in the cabin, he tries to deny he ever said anything, says he doesn't remember, and says it was in "the heat of the moment," which are things you would generally say to someone if you didn't want them to know how your felt. It wouldn't make sense in the context of Mike and El's relationship because they've been together for six months and there would be no stakes of losing someone by telling them you love them in that scenario. You could plausibly chalk that up to his not wanting to say it first, but then we get the awkward kiss and the face of utter confusion after. That's not how you react to your girlfriend reciprocating your love for her.

And then we get all of the blame shifting around feelings when it comes to Will, (i.e. It's not my fault you don't like girls), and when we put this pattern together, it's a lot more telling. When Mike is refusing to talk to Will and being petty with him for not reaching out, we see Mike again in this state of being distant and suppressing, but then blaming the distance on Will. So Mike is creating a good deal of that distance, but he doesn't actually want it, and instead he's upset that Will isn't seeing through that he doesn't want space (so it's almost like a double blame shift here), and that's why he acts so petty with him in Lenora: Mike is simultaneously blaming Will for his own feelings towards Will and he's blaming Will for not being attentive to those feelings, even though Will has no clue about them and also reads Mike's weirdness as Mike pushing him away.

We see so much deflection of Mike's own feelings in his scenes with El this season because he's grappling with so much internally. If he really felt that way about El, it would be easy to tell her since she's already told him and he'd have no stakes in losing her if he told her, but he doesn't tell her because he doesn't actually feel that way, and then blame shifts to other people interfering in their relationship because he's not ready to acknowledge that he doesn't feel about his girlfriend the way he should.

To me, his actions read a lot like him desperately trying to hold onto to what he has while he's sorting his shit out. He's buying himself time with El by deflecting her questions, and he's buying himself time by pushing Will away, because then he doesn't have to acknowledge what's really wrong here.

#byler #byler endgame #byler nation #ask #mike wheeler #will byers #el hopper #st #stranger things #will byers is gay #mike wheeler i know what you are #will x mike #mike x will

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thegeminisage · 7 months

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tng update of the evening. we did "the last outpost" and "where no one has gone before." verdict: watchable?

"the last outpost" is the ferengi episode. i actually had fun here; i loved data's finger trap and how it tied into the overall story (we have to band together to unstick ourselves), the ferengi were decently funny, goerdi getting stuck upside down was funny, nobody was too annoying. did sigh deeply when all the ferengi saw tasha and started gasoing because they wouldnt believe a WOMAN was allowed to wear CLOTHES. we were doing so well

oh also shoutout to when the entire spaceship was about to freeze to death. which is why children shouldnt be here. and crusher was like "i was tempted to give wesley a sedative, but..." and picard was like "you shouldn't" and she was like "but i'm his mother and i love him" and picard was like "yeah well he deserves to meet death awake" and she was like "is that a male perspective" FIRST OF ALL WHY ARE WE MAKING THIS ABOUT GENDER YET AGAIN WHY ARE ALL OF CRUSHER'S SCENES ABOUT HOW SHE'S A WOMAN. secondly they're both insane it is obviously so much kinder for him to be sedated thats why they put their kids to sleep first on the fucking titanic. when peasants from 1912 have more common sense than a starship captain lmao

anyway aside from those two fumbles i would call that episode solidly watchable. i even had fun at some points (funny fight scene, jonathan frakes asked a question). i can see that this could be a good show if they could get out of their own way

more mixed feelings about "where no one has gone before" because while it was the first time i actually liked wesley (he was just a nice kid behaving and being nice to that poor silver guy while being interested in his work!) the episode immediately invalidated all of that by going but wesley is SPECIAL we have to let him be an ENSIGN so he can STAY ON THE BRIDGE and DO WHATEVER HE WANTS and also not even ask his helicopter mom first.

it's bonkers to me because most of the time wesley seems to get away with murder but the one time he had a reasonable thing to say to an adult he got told to buzz off. and i'm sure next time he's being annoying the narrative will jump to making excuses for him again. i think i could also like wesley for being a bright and kind kid but ONCE AGAIN we cannot get out of our own way here.

i liked the concept of the episode - like shore leave but serious - but it also feels like it's way too early for this kind of ep. i wanna know what these people are like normally before i know what they're like when their thoughts are becoming reality and i still don't know. i'm barely convinced that they're friends instead of friendly coworkers and they're pulling out the deep shit. worf's pet pig and picard's mom were fine, also, but i did not like the upsetting thing with tasha's cat and YET ANOTHER mention of the rape gangs. she is the fucking janice rand of this series gene roddenberry must have had some kind of issue about blonde women. i did read somewhere that she left the show bc she wasn't happy so that bodes SUPER well i'm sure

that said i did unironically enjoy the scifi premise of the ep which is "what's at the border of the universe" because i think about that all the time to scare myself even though i know "border of the universe" doesn't work like that. i also really liked the cgi. so that was a mixed bag

except i continue to want good things or even just more meaningful screentime for characters like tasha geordi or worf bc i think they're interesting and i wanna know more about them but star trek said <3 no

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb #i'm not really clear on how much geordi 'sees'...sometimes hes like i cant see like you all do and then sometimes he can see like #holo images or w/e #i wanna know why a klingon is serving aboard a federation ship #i wanna know why tasha is so goddamn tense ALL the time i mean i guess i know but i feel like there's so much potential there #that will not be explored at all #also i want jonathan frakes to ask more questions

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masschase · 7 months

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15 and 16 for Casey for the Saints Row Boss ask meme thing 💙

Ooh thank you I'm excited to get these again!

Boss ask meme

15. Are there any small things about them in the canon that you've really run with in your headcanon?

This is a question I recall really wanting someone to ask me when I made this meme and it's taken so long I've forgotten half of what I wanted to say 🤣

I'm going to go with what I still remember though I'm sure there's way more. Everyone knows I'm canon's bitch by this point. When I started my fanfic I wasn't thinking Matt x OC, I was thinking Matt and The Boss.

So I spent hours on wiki reading about The Boss, combined with what I remembered from actually playing, working in elements of a fitting backstory where I could, and that somehow made Casey. I kind of didn't realise she was an OC until tumblr 😅

Anyway, here are some of the results of that memory/research:

Likes Jane Austen, and the Brontës(male Boss mentions reading Jane Eyre a load of times). That somehow became her quoting it when she's drunk and with a lot of research bc that's really not my thing, drawing parallels between Emma and Mr. Knightley and Casey and Matt(but there's the odd Mr. Darcy joke too). God the fact I bought the Jane Austen collection and the Prose Edda (where the story of Ragnarok is from) to ship these two is not normal of me.

Doesn't like talking about life before the Saints/daddy issues.

I've used the whole 'Playa was originally called Mikey/Mickey" thing by making her middle name Michaiła and therefore Mikki bring one of her pseudonyms.

Somewhat interested in Nyte Blayde after Matt's mission(she's actually the one who appears on his couch at the time she knows he watches one time).

The idea that she rambles when she's emotional, particularly in the romantic sense, and that all of her partners will at some point have to shut her up with a kiss because of it, comes directly from the GatBoss romance scene. In fact the idea that she's not always the best at initiating physical contact even though she really wants/needs it kind of grew from that, too.

The whole going to a massage parlor way too young thing; there's a whole scene with a time-travelling Matt and Johnny seeing her come out of there.

Being bad with tech bc there are a few mentions in different games about that.

Liking robots when she was 6 is something that comes up a few times. I also ran with the fact that she and Matt are the only ones who call it "the robot".

Her voice mentions a therapist at times. I used that for at least one of the reasons she mellows out over time, especially between 2&3.

Surreal jokes such as "Asha, that light had a family."

I saw on the wiki that Boss is supposedly 6'2"; I made her 5'9" with 5 inch heels.

The fact the Boss uses the heavy pistol a lot in cutscenes is why her gold .45 Fletcher became her signature weapon.

As I say, there's probably way more! I don't want to make this so long that no-one reads it!

16. Is there anything from the games you've drastically avoided or downplayed in your headcanon?

This one I did actually answer before, but to summarise:

She's cis and even with the whole "she looked like a boy" claims, I've never made her in SR1's character creator (I do love some of the in game outfits for her though), plus I pretty much hc her always having her SR3/4 voice, just a little higher/more timid in 1.

She never went to college (referencing voice lines) because she dropped out of HS, though she did do some online study when she had time.

At the time I also said I didn't fill out her sr1-3 life much, but I have started to do that bit by bit. One I didn't mention for some reason:

SR3/4 Boss seems kind of stupid at times. Casey's pretty sharp tbh. She spends years hating that people underestimate her intelligence, but eventually kind of comes to terms with the fact that she's smart and that makes her kind of downplay it instead.

Recently, there's been more I've wanted to downplay for example:

I don't really like that I wrote in the Cyrus Temple thing. I like to think that's way downplayed, if she did have surgery for that it was minor, although that remains the time she decoded to stop getting plastic surgery for every scar and injury.

While GOOH kind of had to happen for a lot of my hc, I don't think it was quite like that(I can tell you for a fact Dex was not there for a start!). OK that's moving more from Casey to general universe but still 😅

I feel like there's more for both answers, but I guess I can always reblog with them later 😊

#thanks for the asks!#boss ask meme #sr boss: casey clark #saints row #saints row boss #asks

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