#as far as i’m concerned it’s more canon than the movies themselves | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

linkspooky · 2 years

Photo

Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 205 Thoughts.

AND IT’S YUKI TSUKUMO WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!

So this week we continue with more fighting, however rather than the powers and strategies used in the fight itself, let’s look at the two special grade sorcerers fighting Tsukumo Yuki and Kenjaku. The matchups in Jujutsu Kaisen are not just about power levels, often the characters fighting foil one another in some way, so let’s analyze Kenjaku and Yuki the old school and new school sorcerers.

1. Thinking outside the Box

Considering half of this chapter is Tsukumo and Kenjaku analyzing each other’s strategies and cursed techniques before either of them throw the first punch to the point where the above image has their faces exactly aligned like they’re the left and right lobes of the same brain.

This happens every time Kenjaku and Yuki interact, down to the first time we see them meet in canon. Despite the fact they are clearly on opposing sides, they discuss their plans and theories like they are a pair of colleagues aruging with each other rather than on opposite sides of the battlefield.

Besides the fact that they have completely different ideas on what they think (the next stage of humanity) should be, they still talk and pick apart the holes in each other’s plans. Yuki grasps immediately that if Kenjaku were to try to optimize cursed energy, the people around the world would start targeting sorcerers as sources of cursed energy because they are almost exclusive to Japan.

She in effect predicts a part of Kenjaku’s plan far ahead of time, his going overseas to get world superpowers interested in harnessing energy from cursed sorcerers in Japan. Whatever Kenjaku’s actual objective is with introducing armies from foreign nations into the culling games, Tsukumo was able to predict the inevitable next stage of his plan through sheer guesswork.

On top of that, Kenjaku himself comments that he and Tsukumo think similiarly and that makes him happy because and this is just supposition he believes that few sorcerers in history have ever truly looked at the world the way he did.

The most famous appearance we have of Kenjaku in history is when he took Noritoshi Kamo’s body, and was reviled by the world around him for his experimentation with cursed energy. Living a thousand years body hopping he has been a social pariah for a long time, for good reason.

Kenjaku himself does not make social connections, and does not usually care at all for the thoughts and feelings of other people. He sees everyone as tools for furthering whatever result of his experiment he wants to bring about, and seems to judge people on whether they catch his interest or not. The fact that Tsukumo Yuki intrigues him when he dismisses his own children as boring is definitely something.

What unites their thinking is most lilely that they are both outsiders to the current world around them, seeking to bring about a change, though they obviously have opposite ideas of what that change might be. Yuki is similar to Kenjaku in the fact that she is a big picture thinker who is less concerned about the individual lives of people involved in her plans.

Yuki warns the main characters themselves that she’s not on their side. She also says that as a special grade she could have intervened and acted sooner, but she chose not to at the consequence of everything else. Considering that Kenjaku reconfigures Tenge’s barrier into a movie theatre, both of them tend to act as watchers from the outside rather than direct players.

They are like scientists observing the result of an experiment and therefore they minimize their involvement until absolutely necessary. Though, I’m sure the people who died in Shibuya aren’t really appreciative of the fact that Tsukumo didn’t play her hand sooner because she wanted to watch what happened next. Not that I’m saying it’s her fault directly but she herself admits she could and should have done something earlier and holding back to just watch was a mistake on her part.

She also at one point casually considers researching Toji as a test subject. Part of me wonders what that experiment would have been, considering that her ambition to change the whole world is probably more important in her mind than the life of one person.

However, Yuki at least seems to have some morals whereas Kenjaku is literally amoral ( driven by no sense of right and wrong or moral standard everything he does is just based upon his own personal desires and objectives), Yuki takes a firm stance against the senseless sacrifice of life.

2. Eros and Thanatos

Yuki and Kenjaku also oppose each other thematically, Yuki is a character surrounded by symbolism associated with life and the proliferation and preservation of life, whereas death haunts Kenjaku’s character itself where he may be a force of death itself bringing tragedy and destruction to the lives surrounding the main characters.

In Freudian Psychoanalytic theory, we would call this Thanatos and Eros.

With the publication of the book “Beyond the Pleasure Principal” in 1920, Freud concluded that all instincts fall into one of two major classes: life drives and death drives - later dubbed Eros and Thanatos by other psychologists. Eros was the god of love, fertility and passion in ancient Greece. Thanatos was the human manifestation of Death. [X]

Yuki is painted many ways as the Eros of the story, it all starts with her question. “What kind of girls are you into?” Both her and her student Todo constantly interrogate others about this question, and this question itself is symbolic of Libido, while her cursed energy makes little hearts.

In psychoanalysis Libido is the energy of sexual drive as a component of the life instinct. Quite simply, in order for all human life to continue people have to reproduce so early, early psychology theorizes that sex drive is influenced by psychological factors. Aoi even goes onto explain this question in basically terms of the Freudian idea of libido, that a person’s attraction to others is influenced by personality. Regardless of if this is actually true in real life or not, Megumi himself shows that his own personality has an influence in the kind of person he’s seeking a relationship with, because he wants a compassionate person.

Aoi just like Yuki is surrounded by ‘Life” symbolism. Todo explains cursed energy to Yuji in cooking metaphors (you have to eat in order to survive) he loves passionate people and takes no interest in people who are boring / have no passion for life. Food, love, sex, passions are all things that make life worth living.

Todo is also the most cooperative of all the Jujutsu Sorcerers as shown in his teamwork with Yuji, because the social cooperation that humans are capable of is also considered to be part of the life drive. Humans are a social species, no man is an island as they say, they have to cooperate together in society in order to survive. Yuki herself unlike Kenjaku cooperates with allies including Larue a former member of Geto’s family that has hearts on their nipples (recurring heart symbolism again).

When Kenjaku tries to paint Yuji as the center of all that disaster and death brought upon the world, then Choso corrects him and says that Kenjaku is the one who brings death to everyone around him, a symbolic bringer of death himself like a Grim Reaper or a Shinigami.

Kenjaku is surrounded by death symbolism, he is literally inhabiting a dead body as we speak. His nine children are named after the Death Paintings, which are named after the Kusozu (Nine Phase Diagram) , a budhist serious of nine paintings that depict the stages of death and decomposition of a corpse.

Kenjaku may seem like a life giver, because he is a single mother of one Yuji Itadori, and father to the Death Paintings, but what he does is actually a perversion of life. Succesful procreation requires that your children after all, he abandons the Death Painting Sibs to death, and sets up Yuji as a sacrifice to die. Even the curse painting sibs themselves aren’t properly born, they all in their cursed womb forms look like aborted fetuses in the nine month stages of fetal growth, which probably gives you a hint of how they came out of the mother.

Kenjaku prolongs his own life at the cost of other lives, he kills people and steals their bodies, and does the same for the resurrection of old sorcerers they have completely overtaken a host body in order to continue living for the culling games.

The death drive being the opposite of the life drive, drives people towards risky behavior, death, destruction. Which fits Kenjaku as his whole goal itself is to create risks, trying to bring something unexpected into the world.

The ultimate irony in Kenjaku is that while his goal seems to be creating something new, a future he can’t see beyond the chaos, a cursed spirit with an unexpected face, he himself is incapable of creation his methods are just destruction. He creates children and then abanons them when they disappoint him, he creates Yuji just to die. He is a perversion of motherhood, and he is a perversion of a creator too. He doesn’t create so much as destroy what is already there, recklessly, hoping that will lead to something new.

Yet, death is one half of life.

Everything life positive (love, social cooperation, etc. etc) is done by human beings, and everything that creates death (murder, violence, self-destructive behavior, addiction, risk taking) is also done by humans as well they make up two aspects of human lives. All humans want to live, and yet all humans also are aware no matter what they do they may someday die.

Which is why despite having opposite goals, Yuki and Kenjaku exist as two sides of the same coin.

#jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen theory #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen 205 #jjk 205 #jjk 205 spoilers #jujutsu kaisen 205 spoilers #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #kenjaku #tsukumo yukji #aoi todo #jujutsu kaisen

225 notes · View notes

delicatenightfury · 27 days

Text

Star of the Mountain Chapter 36

Warnings: fluff, angst, canon-level violence, spoilers for the Hobbit films

Pairing: OC x Thorin Oakenshield

Beta'd By: @mistys-blerbz

Author's Note: please do not steal my work! I do not own the Hobbit or the characters, but I do own my OCs and the parts of the plot that are not part of the movies. I have worked very hard on this fic. Please be respectful and do not steal.

Please comment, reblog, and like!

Masterlist - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

“What’s on your mind?”

Oreliell glanced over at Thorin, who was seated at his desk. He appeared to be combing through various stacks of papers, but she knew that he was still quite attuned to her.

Oreliell sighed.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just feel as though something is wrong.”

Thorin put down his papers and turned in his chair to face her.

“What makes you say that?”

Oreliell hesitated. She wondered if her concerns were simply in her mind, that she was fabricating something out of nothing.

Thorin stood from his seat and joined her by the large window. He took her hand, prompting her to look at him. The sun had barely risen over the horizon, yet the early morning glow cast a brilliant orange across the study.

“It is far too early to see your face so troubled, gimlelul. You must tell me when something is weighing on you. I cannot read your mind. I leave that job to you sister.”

Oreliell smiled slightly at his attempt to jest, but sighed.

“It is actually Vedis I am worried about. I have not been able to find her.”

“It is still early in the day.”

“Vedis rises earlier than the sun. She always has. Last night, something seemed to be troubling her at dinner. Then during the night, I heard her leave her room. When I checked this morning, she still was not there.”

“Have you tried calling for her?”

“Many times. She has not responded.”

“Is it possible she is simply out of reach?”

“Erebor may be vast, but we have yet to find a distance where she cannot reach me.”

Before Thorin could say anything more, there was an almost frantic knock at the door. The two exchanged glances of confusion.

“Enter,” Throin called.

The door opened slightly and a dwarf popped his head inside.

“Ori?” Oreliell said.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” he said.

“Nonsense, Ori. What is it?” Thorin asked.

“There’s… well, there’s been a situation in the throne room.”

Thorin’s brow furrowed.

“What kind of situation?”

“It’s best if you see for yourself.”

Thorin sighed, but nodded. He looked at Oreliell.

“We will deal with this, then I will help you find Vedis,” he said.

Oreliell smiled.

The two followed Ori out and to the throne room, where several guards stood. Typically, only two guards stood outside the throne room at a time. The guards bowed their heads to Thorin and let them inside. The throne room was empty, minus the small gathering of dwarves by the throne. Oreliell realized that they were all members of the company, plus Dís. They were mumbling quietly to themselves, making it slightly challenging for Oreliell to determine what was being discussed.

“Thorin,” Dwalin said, dragging everyone’s attention to them.

Thorin greeted them.

“What has happened?” he asked. “Ori said there was a situation.”

Dwalin nodded.

“It’s the Arkenstone.”

“What about it?”

“Thorin,” Dís said, stepping forward. “It’s missing.”

Oreliell’s eyes went wide and shot up to the throne. Sure enough, the Arkenstone was vacant from its place.

Oreliell felt someone grab her hand. Her gaze was drawn away and down to Thorin. He had her hand in a tight grip.

“How?” Thorin said.

“It was Bifur that discovered it,” Bofur offered. “Go on, brother.”

Bifur stepped forward. He had somehow lost the ax that had been lodged in his head during the battle, miraculously giving him the ability to speak in common tongue again.

“I was making my normal rounds this morning when I discovered it,” he said. “I came into the throne room and saw that the stone was missing. I called for Dwalin and made sure no one came in.”

“When I got here, I instructed several guards to remain outside,” Dwalin said, continuing with the report. “No one on rounds saw anyone go in or out of the hall.”

“The stone couldn’t have just disappeared,” Kili said.

“And we are sure it is nowhere in the hall?” Thorin said. “And that none of the guards have seen it?”

Dwalin shook his head.

“I questioned them all myself. None reported noticing anything, and they’ve all been sworn to secrecy until we figure out what has happened.”

Thorin nodded.

“Very good. Let’s initiate a search, but it must be kept quiet. No one must know. We do not want to create an uproar.”

Dwalin turned to the company and began passing out roles. Gloin was assigned to gather men, and several others would head different groups. The rest of the company would work to make sure word did not get out.

Oreliell looked down at Thorin. She squeezed his hand slightly to gain his attention.

“{Are you all right?}” she asked in elvish.

Thorin took a minute to respond, but ultimately shook his head.

“{The last time the Arkenstone was missing, I nearly lost my mind to the dragon sickness. It is the king’s jewel. To know it is missing once again… is difficult to come to terms with.}” He squeezed her hand. “{But I will get through this. It was the thought of you that pulled me through the darkness last time. With you now physically by my side, I believe I am less likely to stumble.}”

“{Even if you did, I would be there to catch you, my love. You need not stand alone ever again,}” she told him.

Thorin smiled up at her and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

“Thank you,” he whispered, making Oreliell smile. He looked away, going to say something when he noticed Dís and Dwalin looking at them. He eyes them suspiciously as Dís whispered to Dwalin, staring at her brother in surprise. Thorin sighed. “Now what are they up to?” he muttered.

Oreliell chuckled in amusement.

“Dís is merely commenting on the fact that you speak my native tongue,” she said. “The thought that you took the time to learn elvish never crossed her mind apparently.”

“Only enough for insults, once upon a time.”

“Like what you said back in Mirkwood?”

Thorin rolled his eyes at her teasing tone.

“We were being falsely imprisoned,” he grumbled. “Thranduil had no reason to detain us, that stuck up stick pixie.”

Oreliell laughed.

Dwalin, Balin, and Dís approached the two. Dís looked between them, obviously amused by what she had witnessed. But her expression became serious when Balin began speaking.

“This is most troubling,” he said. “We won’t be able to hold off the people forever. What will we tell them?”

“And what about the council?” Dís asked. “They are going to be anxious and curious about all the secrecy.”

Thorin sighed and ran his free hand over his face.

“We wait. Searching for the Arkenstone will be our primary focus. However, should we not find it, we will call a council meeting in the morning.”

Dwalin put his hand on Thorin’s shoulder.

“Will you be all right?”

“Yes,” Thorin said. “It is in the best interest of Erebor that we remain calm. We do not need to incite concern. But Dwalin, I want an increased guard around the mountain. Make it subtle if you can. If the stone, thief, or a clue is found, I want to know about it.”

“Of course.”

“We will find it, brother,” Dís said. “Do not worry.”

Despite the efforts of the search parties and increased guard, nothing turned up that day. Oreliell could tell that Thorin was becoming anxious. He tried to keep himself occupied with other things, but she knew the disappearance of the Arkenstone was weighing on his mind. Thankfully, not as heavy as it had before the battle. Thorin tried to keep Oreliell as close as possible, and was almost constantly holding her hand, as if it were to ground himself.

The next morning, Thorin summoned the council. Oreliell could hear them gathering behind the large wood doors, talking amongst themselves. She glanced at Thorin who straightened his coat. She offered her hand to him, smiling when he took and squeezed it.

“It’s going to be all right, Thorin,” she said. “We are here for you.”

“I know. And I will be forever grateful for your support. I just worry what will happen should this get out. What if my rule is questioned? I have lost the symbol of the king, and nearly lost the mountain. What if I am unfit to be in this role?”

“Enough of that.” She brushed some hair away from his face and ran her fingers through his hair. “You have done so much for Erebor and its people. You won back your home, you are restoring it to its glory, and you have brought your people back. No one else was able to or tried to do such a thing. It was you.”

Oreliell could tell that his smile was slightly forced, but his eyes told her that he was grateful for her words.

Thorin rolled his shoulders and pushed open the door to the council hall. The dwarves nodded in greeting to the two of them as they made their way to the table. Oreliell looked around at them. Those that had been part of the company looked tense, the knowledge of the missing Arkenstone weighing them with worry. The others were quiet but appeared confused as to why they had been summoned. And as always, Lord Korvon looked at her with disapproval in his eyes. He did little to hide his displeasure, but she was not going to try to force him to accept her.

Oreliell took her seat beside Thorin, who remained standing at the head of the table.

“Thank you for coming on short notice,” he said. “I would not have called you here if it were not dire.”

“Dire?” Lord Malark said. “What do you mean? Has something happened?”

Thorin glanced at Oreliell. She gave him a small smile and a nod. He turned his eyes back to the council.

“Yesterday, we discovered that Arkenstone had disappeared.”

Several of them gasped in shock and questions were fired in quick succession.

“How could this have happened?”

“Where were the guards?”

“Are there any leads?”

“Who could have dared to do such a thing?”

“Let the king speak,” Dain said over them.

“We do not know much, other than it was stolen during the night,” Thorin said after nodding at his cousin. “We have had additional guards posted outside the throne room, and patrols around the mountain have been increased. We are on the lookout for the thief, but so far we do not have much. Our goal is to keep the mountain from going into a panic if this were to get out.”

“I agree with this decision, your majesty,” Lord Trinan said. “We have had too much uncertainty regarding our home. Adding another reason would not be wise.”

“What else can we do to help?” Dain asked.

They dove into plans about how else they were going to search for the Arkenstone. They organized further search parties and guard rotations. They even created plans for if the people came to learn about the missing stone.

Oreliell saw Thorin become more and more relaxed as the council talked. Having plans in place was easing his nerves. Knowing that he had their support even though the Arkenstone was missing was a weight off his mind.

The lords pitched in their suggestions for the plans, debating what would be the most efficient way to assist in the search. However, one lord was rather quiet, simply observing the talks rather than putting forth his thoughts.

Apparently, she was not the only one to notice.

“Lord Korvon,” Dís said. “You have been rather quiet today, which is quite unlike you. Is everything all right?”

“Yes, your highness,” he said. “It’s just… I couldn’t help but notice something peculiar.”

“And what is that?”

“Lady Oreliell.”

Oreliell was slightly caught off guard. He had never once addressed her so formally, and his tone was… somewhere between mocking and curious.

“Yes?”

“May I ask where your sister is? I can’t help but notice that she is absent today.”

“I’m not sure, Lord Korvon.”

“Not sure? Surely you have some idea.”

“Unfortunately not.”

“But you two are practically joined at the hip.”

“Believe it or not, I am not my sister’s keeper. She may come and go as she pleases.”

“When did you last see her?”

“The other night when she left Thorin and I to spar at the training grounds.”

“Curious.”

“Why does all that matter, Lord Korvon?” Kili asked. “Vedis is allowed to miss a council meeting if she is occupied.”

Korvon shrugged, feigning innocence.

“It’s a simple observation, my prince. Or rather, it seems like a coincidence.”

Oreliell tensed, sensing where he was going with his line of thought.

“Speak plainly, boy,” Lord Rusnig said. “What are you getting at?”

Korvon huffed.

“Does no one else find it odd that the elf should go missing the same night that the Arkenstone does?”

The room fell silent. Oreliell stared at Korvon in shock.

“Lord Korvon, you can’t possibly be suggesting that Vedis is the one who has stolen the Arkenstone,” Balin said.

“Why is that so unbelievable?”

“What is the basis of your accusation? What proof do you have?”

“The night the stone went missing, so did she. Oreliell herself said she hasn’t seen her sister since then. And when I was taking a walk that night, I saw her headed toward the throne room.”

“Vedis patrols the mountain at night,” Dwalin said lowly, arms crossed over his chest. “That is hardly proof.”

“She kept looking around like she was making sure she wasn’t being followed! She was paranoid!”

“Perhaps it is because of dwarves like you that hold ill intent toward them,” Dain replied.

“Have I a reason not to? Elves betrayed us in our time of need. When Smaug first attacked the mountain, the elves of the Greenwood watched as our people died before turning their backs on us. When we sought shelter in the aftermath, they shut us out! And before that, elves have tried to stake a claim on treasure that is rightfully ours!”

“All of those instances were with the Woodland Realm and King Thranduil, and those conflicts have begun to be resolved,” Balin told him. “Oreliell and Vedis have only ever helped us.”

“Are you sure? Who’s to say that they haven’t been deceiving you all this time? They could have planned all this from the beginning, planned to seduce and trick our king by feigning helping him search for Prince Thrain and later reclaiming the mountain. All this was a ruse to aid the elves of Mirkwood get into the mountain and steal from us!”

“That is enough!” Thorin said. He was on his feet once again and glaring at the dwarf lord. “I suggest you hold your tongue if you wish to keep it, Lord Korvon. I will not have you slandering my One, your soon-to-be queen, or her sister. To suggest that they could be behind the Arkenstone’s disappearance or that they would create such an elaborate ruse with a kingdom they hold no allegiance to is disgraceful. I will hear no more of it.”

Korvon narrowed his eyes before shoving his seat back and storming out of the room. Many angry eyes followed him out. Thorin looked at the other dwarf lords, who all appeared to be shocked by their fellow dwarf’s outburst.

“If there is nothing else to discuss concerning this matter, you are dismissed,” he said behind gritted teeth.

“The nerve that man has,” Dís grumbled once the lords had left the room.

The others voiced their frustrations. Oreliell, however, stayed silent, still in shock. Lord Korvon’s words echoed in her mind. She felt hands on her shoulders, only slightly pulling her out of her thoughts. She placed her hand over one of Thorin’s, squeezing it.

“I cannot believe he would accuse Vedis of such a horrible thing,” Kili said. “She would never steal the Arkenstone!”

“But he’s right.”

Once again, the room went quiet. The dwarves looked to Oreliell, stunned that she would agree with Lord Korvon.

“Oreliell,” Thorin said. “Lord Korvon is simply looking to place blame.”

She shook her head.

“I’m not saying he’s right about Vedis stealing the Arkenstone. She practically hates the thing. I’m saying that the timing of it all is suspicious.”

Dain leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.

“How so?” he asked.

“Even if Vedis wanted to steal the stone, she would not have done so so obviously. She’s incredibly smart. She would have stolen the stone, stored it somewhere she deemed safe, then stayed present to feign assistance in searching and lead it away from her. Her absence raises suspicion of her being the thief and makes her more likely to be caught.”

The others thought on this in silence for a moment, slowly nodding.

“You’re right,” Dwalin said. “It’s too convenient, too easy to place blame.”

“But even so, we still do not know who has taken the Arkenstone,” Kili said.

“Then we must focus on one thing at a time,” Thorin replied. “While finding the Arkenstone is of great importance to the throne, our first course of action should be finding Vedis.”

“What about the lords?” Oreliell asked. “They will disagree with such a decision.”

“Their opinions do not matter when it comes to family and kin.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Dwalin, please gather some of your best men to begin the search. The search for the Arkenstone will continue, but I want Vedis found.”

The group nodded in agreement. As they began to slowly filter out of the room, Oreliell turned to look at Thorin.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked quietly.

“She is your sister,” he said to her, “and she is my friend. I want her found as much as you. And we will find her.” He kissed her forehead. “I promise.”

#The hobbit #Tolkien #Thorin Oakenshield #Thorin #Thorin Oakenshield x oc #Thorin x oc #Thorin Oakenshield x elf oc #Thorin x elf oc #Thorin x elf #The hobbit oc #Fan fiction #Star of the mountain

5 notes · View notes

kingofthewilderwest · 1 year

Note

Hi! Its the, “I like the new kids!” anon ☺️

Thank you for responding to my post. I’m a big fan of the dragons series, but I will admit that I haven’t read the books. I guess I wouldn’t feel too bad if the dragons were from different worlds within HTTYD movie/series canon. To me, if that ends up being the case, dragons would just be super adaptable species. But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t think Nine Realms is the best written show, but I do personally think people in the fandom are being overly harsh. That’s not to say fans can’t critique, and there are definitely aspects that deserve criticism. I’m just happy to get more dragon content. I think the modern world is an interesting setting that brings in new conflicts such as CORPORATE GREED, and I like that the new cast is diverse in a way that feels organic. I love how there are dragons from different lands/cultures even if I don’t like some of the dragon designs. I like how Tom is a distant relative of Hiccup’s. To me that’s bringing in just enough nostalgia without ruining the original story and characters.

I think my biggest problem so far is that there are only 7 episodes per mini season, so a lot of the dialogue seems forced because there isn’t enough time to fully flesh out situations. My favorite, Jun, bringing in Chinese mythology should have been a multi episode arc. But because there were so few episodes in Season 4, we instead get Tom sounding like a jerk thats’s trying to talk over someone else’s culture in an insensitive way, and acting as if Jun and Wu and Wei don’t hav the ability to make the best decisions in situations regarding themselves. I feel if those episodes had been given proper time, Tom and Jun could have still had a conflict about what is best/not best for Wu and Wei that sounded more genuine.

I was also happy with the duo of Eugene/Alex that I didn’t know I needed, but the same problem I had with Tom/Jun happens when Tom talks over both Alex and Eugene’s wants and concerns. Those two situations feel rushed and incomplete, and they make Tom seem more like a jerk than an impulsive teenager.

Now this is me wondering from a writing perspective why there are only 7 episodes per season when even with 3 more much more could be done per season. The characters would be more well-rounded, for one.

Welcome back! Glad to have the conversation continue! :)

To make things clear for folks coming into the middle of the conversation, I’m not intending to see whether DreamWorks and the book worlds match, because they’ve been distinct from the start (the books do have magic!). My focus is whether the DreamWorks world stays congruent to itself. The case of dragons having evolutionary adaptations also isn’t my main point, but an example of how DreamWorks Dragons worldbuilding situates itself firmly in the realistic. After three movies, several shorts, comic books, Riders of Berk, Defenders of Berk, Race to the Edge, and countless other tie-in materials that seek to depict a world close to ours (just with a few more animals), the foundation, framework, and finishing touches have let us know we’re not dealing with high level type magic like portals to other worlds. We’ve been given the constraints of what the characters can and can’t do and what does and doesn’t exist. For me, it absolutely would be breaking twelve years of DreamWorks worldbuilding. But it wouldn’t aggravate me either; it’d just be something I’d comment on, acknowledging as incongruent. To borrow your words and come to common ground: it’s neither here nor there. I’m fine watching whatever TNR decides to throw at us.

I’m also like you in that I don’t enjoy fandom areas that are scathing towards TNR. To be clear, that’s not criticizing fans! Just saying we do things differently! I understand why people feel that way, and please keep doing you, but I’m more lowkey and willing to live and let live. As you said so well, there’s a difference between having conversations with valid criticism and being nothing but harsh. I like to do the former: I want to engage in conversations about TNR that might have constructive comments, but aren’t trying to ever be disparaging. I’m having fun with the new content myself and want to have fun with other fans who wanna chat!

I want to agree with you on several pros you brought up! I also love:

The organic diversity of the cast.

Seeing dragons across different environments.

Looking into modern elements like corporate greed (and whether dragons like pizza).

Eugene and Alex as the Dismal Duo (TM). I didn’t know I needed it, but now I am a fan. I’ve wanted TNR to do more stuff like this: show unique bonds between subgroups of the team.

As far as the other stuff, I’m going to bring in a different perspective!

I don’t think the writing quality has anything to do with season length. It has to do with writing. Good writing can pack fantastic, nuanced conversations in two minutes. And for single adventure episodes (which exist in ROB, DOB, RTTE, and TNR), we’re given the same twenty-two minute time span for every show. Now, would long-term plot arcs have the ability to develop more with a longer structure? Yes. But it’s no solution for having the dialogue be as inane and dumbed down as it is. I don’t mean that to sound harsh; I just have no other words to describe it.

When conflicts happen in The Nine Realms, they’re overly basic, black-and-white, contrived, poorly developed, and the conflict resolution conversations use the most basic words and sentences without any nuance of thought. Lots of conflicts in TNR rely on the characters not noticing things a human being naturally would. People act one- or at most two-dimensional. This also isn’t a matter of appealing to age groups. We do unfortunately have a tendency to oversimplify dialogue, etc. for children’s shows, but the good children’s shows don’t, and the good children’s shows maintain high quality writing, character conflict, and conversation.

The characters could be very well-rounded if the writing wasn’t poor quality. They could’ve been well-rounded and complex after three or six episodes. There are entire television series or movies with high complexity for that amount of run time. The Wu and Wei episode was more than long enough to have been done justice with better writing. If Tom and Jun’s actions weren’t so oversimplified to the point of unrealism, the conflict would’ve been organic and interesting.

I’d say the problem with TNR is there’s no depth. I could take a character conflict resolution conversation, rewrite the words, triple the depth, and still keep the same number of words spoken and time allotted for the conversation.

To bring it around again, though, I do wish the seasons were longer, too. I don’t like the latest trend of shows being split up into so many small parts. I do think it messes up pacing and does, as you say, make it harder for many shows to pace well without rushing, skipping over things, or forcing conflicts and climaxes after too little development. There’s something to be said that forcing such hard structure constraints onto shows (as fracturing season length does) comes at the cost of organic plot development.

I hope these comments sound like a good back-and-forth because I love talking with you and hearing your alternate perspective. The fact we have different views is fine to me! So I hope my response came off okay.

#TNR #The Nine Realms #DreamWorks Dragons #analysis #my analysis #httyd #How to Train Your Dragon #ask #ask me #anonymous #awesome anonymous friend

9 notes · View notes

phoenixyfriend · 3 years

Text

OKAY so on the topic of Star Wars takes wrt “character ends up in an A/B/O universe where they’re an omega, but they were previously a cis male in their canon”

@atagotiak and I had some Thoughts on discord

So, obviously, Anakin would make a good omega and he’s also incredibly murdery. Foregone conclusion that we're using him for this.

There is no preexisting Anakin in the Omegaverse. He shows up JUST as the war is starting. Canon timeline is in the third year of the war (he’s 22), but whatever dumped him into omegaverse also tossed him back a few years. No de-aging, just a bit of mismatched timeline stuff.

He's... really good at war, and clearly a Jedi, so the Temple just kind of goes "WELL OKAY THEN, SURE, YOU'RE IN, EVERYONE PRETEND HE'S BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME." The Jedi, by and large, don't care about omegaverse dynamics beyond 'what do you need, medically, to be happy and healthy' and 'what do you need to be aware of so you can be prepared for biases you encounter in the field?’

None of the civilian natborns (mainly politicians) want to put him on the field because of those biases. Anakin, being Anakin, is VERY blatantly an omega in scent, has never been on suppressants (because it wasn't a thing he fucking NEEDED), is incredibly emotional as a person, loves kids, etc.

Like, nobody wants an omega fighting a war anyway, but THIS one is like PINNACLE omega, and those awful Jedi are making him FIGHT just because he's good at stab!

The Jedi: Actually, it's because he's got several years of war experience that we don't, and he's a good tactician that works well with the clones-- Coruscant: You MONSTERS The Jedi: Look, we gave him the option to not stab and he looked absolutely devastated. Anakin, several days earlier: You don’t want me? I’m not good enough??? Jedi: Also he can beat up at least half the temple.

He doesn't know a damn thing about dynamics, but he DOES know that sometimes he's so horny he wants to stab HARDER. The clones are largely disinterested in their generals' dynamics because between mostly-Mando* trainers and no-dynamic Kaminoans, they only really care if a person can shoot.

* Mandalore approves of Fighty Omegas. As far as (traditional) Mandalore is concerned, you want an omega that will kill the threats to your children as well as you do.

Anakin: You know more about being an omega than I do. Rex: ...I'm an alpha. Anakin: Yeah. Let that one sink in a bit.

We have two options for Obi-Wan!

Omegaverse local Obi-Wan (beta) has never met this man before, and is very unnerved that the immediate default reaction Anakin has to his presence is releasing Family pheromones as if Obi-Wan is his DAD and like. This strange, too-tall man from another dimension has got absolutely NO control over what he projects in the Force OR in his dynamic.

Obi-Wan was ALSO transplanted from canon to omegaverse, and is also an omega, for contrast reasons. He is nice and friendly and and likes poetry and that sort of thing... but also he has the highest dismemberment count in the movies. Also he doesn’t prioritize romance.

We went with the second one because it's hilarious.

Someone watching them spar: Wow, omegas from that universe are terrifying.

As previously mentioned, now with some tweaking to account for both: Obi-Wan and Anakin just straight up don't exist until they drop headfirst into the council room, already covered in blood. (It's mostly not theirs.)

Nobody realizes either one is an omega until they "naturalize" to this dimension and Anakin goes into heat... and doesn't realize it, actually, because his primary symptom is heightened protectiveness and aggression. Everyone else with the right nose realizes, because the man has no control over his pheromone production, but Anakin? No. He just stabs. He’s angry and horny and he will cut someone.

Ahsoka has no reaction to human pheromones but basically everyone smells Anakin's "my child!" reaction to her, so... Cool. Have a padawan, we guess.

Anakin ends up sparring a lot with Aayla and Ahsoka, because only humans and near humans have dynamics, so these two don't REACT to the pheromones situation.

(Palpatine is a Kindly Old Beta who tries to treat Anakin the way he EXPECTS Anakin wants to be treated, which is. Not. Accurate.)

(Anakin hates it.)

I'm just so in love with "An omega can't fight." "You wanna fuckin' bet?"

There are plenty of omega Jedi, by the way, it's just... most of them can keep it relatively low-key instead of Anakin's jet-engine broadcast. Some, if they're known to be omega, probably take advantage of being underestimated, like Obi-Wan probably (and especially a version of Obi-Wan that was always an omega, unlike this version). They have a very different way of presenting themselves than Anakin, who's not subtle about being an omega and also not subtle about being all aggressive and stabby.

At one point, Anakin has to protect some Very Traditional Individuals who get all "Stay back, Omega, it's not safe!" and he's just... so tired of this shit. “You are squishy civilians and I'm a trained Jedi Knight and accomplished GAR General who's killed more people in one sitting than there are in this entire palace. Sit the fuck down and let me do my job.”

It starts making the rounds that Anakin insisted on fighting in person, and the rumors shift from "how dare the Jedi force an omega to fight" and over into things that are deeply hurtful in-universe in the vein of "broken omega" and some people try to say it to his face but like...

He didn't grow up here.

He doesn't care.

Say that to one of his friends and he's going to rip out your spleen, probably, but say it to him and he's just staring at you flatly and asking if that's a negative on getting away from the encroaching battle droids, sir?

"You're rather unpleasant for an omega, aren't you?" [deeply offensive] "I literally could not give less of a fuck about your opinion. Move."

It's not that there aren't omegas that act like Anakin, either, it's just that most of them aren't, you know, Jedi who regularly interact with the upper crust, or capable of his level of destruction. Unbeknownst to Anakin, everyone clocks him as Outer Rim based on his behavior, well before his accent gives him away, and certainly before he mentions he's from Tatooine, because Core Omegas Don't Act Like That.

Someone they meet in a more diplomatic setting says something decently passive-aggressive about how at least Obi-Wan acts more like how an Omega should. Then a battle breaks out for some reason, and... well. Anakin and Obi-Wan cause such a scandal by keeping score of kills in a battle, don’t you know?

Turns out sending Anakin to fight Ventress is great because she keeps expecting him to react a certain way but NO he's here to STAB.

I like the idea that Obi-Wan's favorite opponent these days is Grievous because the cyborg doesn't have a nose, and thus gives zero fucks about dynamics or heats. Dooku is a rich old man who has opinions heavily influenced by Sith Juice Making Him More of a Dick, and the Dathomiri can smell dynamics even if they don't have them, and so they have biases about those things. Meanwhile, Grievous is just there to Kill, and Obi-Wan genuinely appreciates the lack of commentary on his dynamic.

Dooku’s probably an alpha, or a beta who's used the whole "we are more level-headed" thing as one of several angles to keep himself the public face and supreme commander of the CIS.

On to more fluffy things that have less to do with political biases.

There's a lot of "I'm upset that my loved ones don't know me," but also please understand the appeal of Obi-Wan marching up to Quinlan like "Yes, hello, I understand you've been read in on the full situation behind myself and my former padawan. I was close friends with your alternate universe self, which I feel is necessary disclosure before I propose the following: Would you like to join me for my upcoming heat, as I have minimal experience with the dynamics situation and even fewer people I actually trust, and I believe I can put my faith in you to treat it as casually as necessary while still having control and respect for my person."

(The Team is in a fairly safe place to process stuff, but having sudden unexpected changes to your biology has gotta be a little traumatizing, on top of ending up in a universe where none of your friends know you and people have a whole host of unfamiliar forms of sexism to point at you.)

Obi-Wan, who wasn't quite touch-averse but was much more easily overwhelmed by physical contact than Anakin (who craved it), suddenly finds his body switching gears and insisting on cuddles with Trusted Loved Ones, which is.... mostly Anakin, on account of nobody else really knowing him yet. Also Ahsoka, who is aware that she's something of a replacement for her alt-universe self, but Anakin explained it as "I love you so much no matter which dimension I'm in or what you're like, and I'd like to get to know you the way I got know her."

(It's rather eloquent for Anakin. He got Obi-Wan to help him draft up the script for when he pitched taking on omegaverse Ahsoka as a padawan.)

Anakin gets a more intensely sexual heat than 'usual' at one point for Reasons (IDK it could be as innocuous as 'we got better food than the usual rations and my body is reacting to the higher fat content with the belief that it's safer to have a baby now'), which nobody takes a whole lot of notice of because they're in a WAR, and also this is only his fourth one so it's not like he's got a lot to compare it to... except then the predominantly alpha clones can't stop themselves from reacting to the pheromones, mostly by wandering past his door and asking if he needs anything, offering up alpha-scented blankets and stuff for the nest to soothe the hormones, bringing snacks and electrolyte drinks, and like, Anakin is flattered, really, but fuck off please.

(He got a warning from medical a few hours before it hit that it would be different, so he actually does have alpha-scented fabrics to help him out. Apparently that's a thing you can just ask friends for, so he asked Rex if he had anything on hand that he could spare. He now has one of Rex’s recently-used sheets and a bodyglove in the nest.)

(Anakin has no idea how to feel about the nesting instinct, but at least it’s warm.)

Tia asked "Oh hey, who has the scared and horny reaction to his carnage?" and like.

Listen. I'm not saying I've been low-key imagining this as Rex being a very subby alpha who's really into Anakin's whole Thing but...

At one point Anakin gets injured in a way that requires painkillers and he ends up whining to the point of almost crying about the fact that nobody is cuddling him right now in medbay and Kix just gives up and comms Ahsoka to come hug her weird older brother.

And Then There Is Purring.

That’s a Thing Now.

Rex ends up in the pile somehow. He came over to check on Things and ended up yanked in by half-asleep, half-high Anakin, who has a grip like an octopus and no impulse control and is purring like a pod motor while NUZZLING HIM.

There’s a lot of blackmail photos featuring Rex’s very intense blush as he’s cuddled by his commander (giggling at him) and general (clinging like a tooka and rubbing himself all over).

Anakin is deeply offended that ANYONE thinks he'd want to get pregnant by just any old person, NO he needs to fall in LOVE there needs to be EMOTIONAL DRAMA and if Padme won't have him (apparently she's in a relationship and no he's not BITTER) then he'll find someone else to have a whirlwind romance with!

People think Anakin's a slut because he can't control his pheromone production (he has NO practice and for health reasons he can't go on suppressants) so he always smells open and ready for flirtations, which Obi-Wan also has to a somewhat lesser degree (he's older so his body just naturally produces less), and then someone tries to cross a boundary and grabs his ass and ANYWAY Anakin has to now fill out an incident report for breaking a civilian's arm.

Again.

#Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Rexwalker #Quinlan Vos #star wars #the clone wars #time travel #omegaverse #alpha beta omega #phoenix posts

916 notes · View notes

heartoftheserpent · 2 years

Text

Being obsessed with “blood purity” makes no sense for Grindelwald, a gentle rant

The only thing I truly object to in The Secrets of Dumbledore is the idea that Grindelwald cared about magical blood purity.

That’s just literally not part of my canon.

It doesn’t make any sense, it genuinely doesn’t fit with his ideology that magical people are born with the “gift” of power and that gives them the right to rule.

This is what I mean when I say that the FB movies are fanfiction, As far as I’m concerned that’s just part of the in-universe propaganda machine we know is working against him. This isn’t me being #Grindelwaldwasright, I just genuinely think it was in there to try and make him More Obviously Evil, because that’s a kind of magical racism we can easily understand.

And frankly, I think it came about in the movie!verse because when they wrote and filmed CoG initially, a lot of the actors/test audiences found themselves thinking that Grindelwald had a point, he was understandable, he was too sympathetic. So they had to put in way more signposts that he was Obviously Evil.

I want to see a Grindelwald where they actually ask the really hard questions, where they don’t make him kill baby animals and have his followers kill toddlers just to show the audience that He’s A Bad Guy.

My conception of it (I stole some of this from troth) is that his ideology was directly in reaction to a lot of stuff that was going on in the late 1800s - industrialization, the dwindling of wizarding villages, the way that wizards were essentially being driven farther and farther underground. Of course this would have appealed to Albus - his sister was irrevocably hurt, and his father died in prison, because of the Statute of Secrecy. Muggle boys hurt her terribly, and his father couldn’t even go to the authorities for justice because Ariana posed a threat to the Statute of Secrecy.

The vibe is very much that wizards are not safe, and industrial sprawl keeps increasing. It means more and more safe enclaves for wizards are disappearing. Now, it’s understandable that Gellert’s reaction is, “Okay, then we should be in charge so we don’t get smushed out of existence,” but obviously, this becomes intensely complicated by the fact that he sees Muggles as significantly Lesser than wizards. At best, he would see them like children who needed to be guided and helped into making better decisions. At the worst, he would see them as beasts of burden, entirely unable to fend for themselves and useless except as a wizard sees fit to use them.

This is why my conception of his ideology includes the idea that it was very easy for him to reach out to wizards who feel like they, too, are being legislated and oppressed out of existence - those with Creature blood, poor wizards, landless wizards, queer wizards, Muggleborn wizards, etc. That’s why he was able to gain so much traction for so long - not because he hoodwinked everyone, but because he was very very good at saying, “This isn’t your fault. It won’t always be like this. We can burn the whole system down, and you won’t be the one who’s hurt anymore.”

I just think the movies are afraid of making him look too sympathetic, so they’re giving him easy signposts of Villainy instead of trusting fans to engage with complicated methodology. And I’m not even saying they’re wrong, after some simplistic takes I’ve seen on this hellsite.

But yeah my conception of Grindelwald doesn’t give a shit about blood purity because it doesn’t make any sense for him, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#Gellert Grindelwald #Albus Dumbledore #Harry Potter #Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore #The Secrets of Dumbledore #TSoD #tsod spoilers #fantastic beasts

137 notes · View notes

theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 3 years

Note

"Tom Riddle effectively destroys the country from the inside out, which I believe was his true goal the entire time" (c) wait a second, so you think that he wasn't going to really take over or anything, just destroy the fuck out of w britain?

I have avoided this ask long enough.

I’ll start by saying that asking me about Tom Riddle is like staring down into a bottomless rabbit hole. We could travel down that path, but it is a dark and perilous journey, and by the end of it I will come out looking like the Mad Hatter.

It also requires a few prerequisites that you’re just going to accept as true (or else got off the crazy train here).

We know very little about Tom Riddle or Voldemort

What we do know of Tom Riddle comes to us from suspect sources

I’m just going to go out there and start with the basis that Tom is not crazy

Elaborating a little on number 1. We never actually see much of Tom Riddle or Voldemort directly. He’s a bit like Thanos in the MCU, or Palpatine in the first two movies of the Original Trilogy, he’s this looming threat that we pass by and glimpse every once in a while but never really get quality time with.

Generally, Voldemort makes an appearance in a moment of crisis.

He and Harry fight over the philosopher’s stone for Tom’s very survival. He and Harry fight over the diary for Tom’s very survival. He resurrects himself with Harry as a witness. We get those very strange dreams from Voldemort’s perspective (half of which we later learn are fabricated).

None of these really lend to our, or Harry’s for that matter, understanding of Tom Riddle. There’s too much going on, it usually happens far too fast, and there’s usually something Tom Riddle desperately wants or needs that eclipses all other concerns or else he has an audience.

This is part of the reason we get those Halfblood Prince pensieve lessons: Harry knows nothing of Tom Riddle and doesn’t understand him at all.

Which leads us, of course, to number 2, most of what we know about Tom Riddle comes from Dumbledore. I’ve talked about this before, so I won’t spend much time on it, but Dumbledore has a very clear agenda in relaying these memories to Harry. Dumbledore already has strong suspicions of what objects are horcruxes and where they’re located, he already has Snape as a very reliable agent to continue work when he’s gone, his job here is to convince Harry there is no path but suicide. And that involves portraying Tom Riddle as the most evil man who ever eviled, was born eviler than the antichrist, and will die eviler than the antichrist.

Now, does this make Tom necessarily good or bad? No.

However, it does mean when Dumbledore tells us things like, “See, Harry, an impoverished child was upset when I lit all his belongings on fire! What a monster!” (especially given that, in a similar situation, Harry thought it was hilarious when Hagrid gave Dudley a permanent physical deformity and Harry was told he was an angel child) we should take it with a very large grain of salt.

Right, so, with all that backdrop what I’m getting at is that a) we can’t take Dumbledore at his word b) even if we could he could be wrong c) Harry doesn’t have the introspection to be able to figure himself when a or b is happening. I won’t elaborate on this last much, suffice to say that Harry’s world is very black and white, divided into the camps of those who personally like him and those who don’t.

So, why do I think Tom’s goal was not to rule the wizarding world but instead to destroy it?

A few things.

First, there are so many easier ways he could have ended up ruling the wizarding world. More, even when he effectively does rule the wizarding world in book seven, he takes very strange actions so that he’s never directly in power.

Second, I never really bought Tom’s racism. It’s too convenient and too contradictory with his backstory.

The second first, because we’re going out of order today. I’ve gone over this before, but I don’t believe Tom had minions early and I think he was effectively treated as a muggleborn (see here and here) until he took on the Voldemort persona many decades later. I’m hard pressed to believe someone as intelligent, angry, and proud as Tom Riddle would willingly believe and accept he was inferior to the likes of Abraxas Malfoy. More, even if he wished he was a halfblood, I think the evidence of him being muggleborn would be stacked too high against him to deny even to himself (and when he finds out it’s not true, he has maybe a month or so before he realized that he’s the bastard son of a squib).

And it’s just so convenient. All the people with the power, with the money, who are itching for a cause against a threat that doesn’t really exist believe in blood purity. Ergo, Voldemort shows up suddenly espousing over the top blood purity rhetoric (rhetoric that directly clashes with his “there is only power” philosophy at that).

In other words, I think Tom Riddle gave himself a line that he knew would get him places very quickly.

And now for the first. For a guy who has had the entire country in the palm of his hands twice, one time taking it over in a bloodless coup, he’s really big on causing collateral damage and really small on actually doing the ruling thing.

The first wizarding war, Tom Riddle as Voldemort has the backing of the heirs of the most prestigious and wealthy noble houses save a select few. These are people with seats in the Wizengamot, which has a frightening control over the government itself (including the minister of magic). I imagine, in 1980 had Tom Riddle wanted to be elected as Minister of Magic, he would have been elected as Minister of Magic. If he wanted a friendly face in office then he probably could have made that happen to.

More than even this though, by this point, Tom had already won. By having control over the majority of the Wizengamot he owns the government. He’s done, it’s over, it’s finished, and many of the characters admit as much which is why Harry Potter was such a miracle. So why all the seemingly random, exceptionally pointless, terrorism?

One answer is that Voldemort is crazy bananas. And sure, I guess we can go with that, except for someone insane he’s oddly effective and very consistent.

I believe Tom was systematically destroying the very foundations of the country through its core aristocratic families. Within a few short years Tom decimates the Black family, it goes from having five heirs to none, and while some of this isn’t Tom’s fault he does take care of quite a few of them. He brands Lucius for life, while Lucius rises high in politics he never escapes the stigma of being a known Death Eater and in the end cannot escape the consequences for his actions. The Malfoy family is very nearly destroyed by the end of the series, had Draco died in the Fiendfyre. The LeStrange family, presumably decimated as well.

More, this is mostly me headcanoning, but I imagine Tom fuels an extremism that the Wizarding World had never contemplated. I imagine, previously, anti-muggleborn sentiment was probably fairly rampant among purebloods. Oh, some were very pro-muggleborn I’m sure, but I think most were fairly “eh” on the people and felt they were a drain on society (such as requiring constant funding for the obliviation department).

However, when Diagon Alley starts getting blown up every other week, when muggleborns start being tortured and murdered, when purebloods who aren’t anti-muggleborn enough are being tortured and murdered, this starts wigging people out in a way they’ve never wigged out before.

By the time we get to Harry Potter’s canon, it is now only a minority that are anti-muggleborn, and they’re perceived as raving lunatics. Nobody wants to be grouped with these people. Which, just goes to show, how much Voldemort rattles the wizarding world in a very small amount of time.

Then there’s Deathly Hallows, rather than become minister himself Voldemort installs a puppet minister. He shows no signs of wishing to change this and instead does things like destroy the sorting hat (which again shakes the very foundations of the wizarding world as whta will we do if we don’t know who’s a Gryffindor anymore?!)

So, where is this ramble going?

Given the results we see, that more than any others it seems to be the purebloods and often Tom’s own followers that suffer colossal losses, I think Tom’s actions are, in part, a means of vengeance against the entire damn wizarding world (but especially the purebloods).

He makes fools of these people, brands them as his slaves, and has them participate in the most over the top ridiculous rituals (the cloaks, the masks, the entire theatrics of it feels like Tom got drunk one night and planned this whole thing out). He destroys them entirely, and better, enables them to completely destroy themselves and the country they believe they’re trying to save.

Basically, I think by the time the series begins Tom is fueled by a nihilist rage that knows no bounds. But dammit all, the wizarding world is going to burn.

#ask #tom riddle #voldemort #anon

768 notes · View notes

thelightofthingshopedfor · 2 years

Note

I really like your meta about Wanda. So this isn't a criticism, more a question. When you talk about emotional and irrational female leads, I wonder if the reason it doesn't bother me as much is that when infinity war came out, Quill and Thor (not killing Thanos straight away at Wakanda) kind of both did a similar thing. I don't see that being attributed to them being men. Hope that makes sense. Or is it you are more concerned that this will be attributed to them being women?

It’s not so much that as...well, it’s partly that. But it’s mostly about numbers and patterns, the things that turn one-off plotlines into tropes and trends. In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with this type of storyline going to a female character, where grief and power combine to make her increasingly and dangerously unstable to the point where she either becomes a villain or can only find redemption through sacrificing herself. But nothing exists in a vacuum, and the actual context is that I’m having a hard time thinking of any male characters who get this type of storyline. Instead it tends to be a thing that’s written for female characters, the implication—whether it’s deliberate or not—being that women are too emotional to handle power past a certain point. Off the top of my head, comics Wanda, MCU Wanda, comics Dark Phoenix, definitely the first Dark Phoenix film (as I understand it, the more recent one was somewhat better this way), and Aida in Agents of SHIELD fit into this trope, and then you have even dumber stuff like Oz the Great and Powerful where the Wicked Witch of the West used to be good actually until she had her heart broken by a dude and then she just...kinda...turned evil?

In the context of the MCU specifically, it’s...kind of worse, although not quite as much as it would have been a few years ago, but—well, I mentioned numbers. In MCU canon at this point, only looking at what’s actually been released so far or will be released within the next month or so (and assuming I’m counting and adding right), we have:

22 movies named after one or two title characters

7 movies named after an ensemble and therefore not relevant to this discussion

6 Disney+ shows named for 1-2 title characters

What If, which I’m counting as an ensemble show, so it’s also not relevant

7 non-Disney+ shows with 1-2 title characters, and

4 non-Disney+ shows named after an ensemble.

Again assuming I'm counting right (although if I'm not, I don't think I'm off by enough to change my point), that leaves us with 39 movies or shows named after 1-2 characters each. (I’m only counting “the Winter Soldier” as a title character in his show, not in Cap 2, and I’m not counting Ultron at all.) Because a disproportionate number of those movies are about the same handful of dudes, I think it actually ends up being 30 different title characters, even if they shared billing with someone else. Of those title characters, only 8 or maybe 9 are female: Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Wanda, Wasp, Agent Carter, Dagger, Jessica Jones, Ms. Marvel, and arguably Hawkeye, although Kate’s kind of a stretch. (It’s also fair to note that only half of these characters get to be title characters by themselves rather than sharing the title with a guy, but since I’m trying to be fair, I will also note that only Ant-Man has been a title character by himself, and the others seem to have equal billing in their respective pairings. But honestly, that doesn’t make it much better.)

Want to guess how many other title characters get a storyline like Wanda’s, where they maybe start out with the bad guys (although for understandable reasons, if you’re not dead set on hating them from the jump), firmly establish themselves as good guys for multiple entries, and then spiral so far into villainy that apparently they just have to go the redemption = death route to finish things off, with absolutely no guarantees they're coming back from it?

Um…none! None characters! Bucky kind of does something similar, but I really don’t think that counts because it wasn’t his choice at all, and Loki’s arc is more the reverse of that than anything. I never watched The Punisher but I’m pretty sure Frank was an antihero from his introduction so I don’t think that counts either. Supreme Strange in What If is also sort of similar, except he gets a chance to redeem himself after his episode despite destroying—I’m pretty sure—a lot more than Wanda did. Come to think of it, Vision in the zombies What If episode is also pretty similar in that he’s a card-carrying Good Guy who ends up doing some awful, selfish things out of love and eventually sacrifices himself in an attempt to make things right, which is honestly kind of funny in terms of any WandaVision discourse about how she didn’t deserve him or whatever, but just like with Supreme Strange, that’s not the main-timeline version of the character…and it was in a one-off episode that didn’t matter that much because a lot of people didn’t even see it. Plus there’s nothing ickily gendered about it with Vision, because you’re not presented with a multiverse of possibilities where the only sane, stable version of the character is—just as a random example—the relatively low-powered suburban one who’s perfectly content having not come into his full power. Probably the closest any of our many male title characters came to Wanda’s arc was just…the glimpses of alternate-timeline Stranges in Multiverse of Madness. Which, again, were not the main-timeline version of the character like Wanda is.

The MCU has had so few female title characters to begin with. One of them was already dead before she ever got her movie, for fuck's sake. Making Wanda a major character, letting her be so incredibly powerful, and then doing this with her is just—

Again, in a vacuum, it wouldn't be such a huge deal. In a vacuum, or in a world where we've had a roughly equal number of male and female title characters in the MCU, with comparable levels of agency, it could be a compelling storyline, at least if you find a way to do it without sacrificing existing characterization. In a world where the MCU has at least experimented more with morally gray protagonists outside of Netflix, it would still bug me but it wouldn't be so bad, because there would be precedent, and there would probably be more of an attempt from the editing and directing--rather than just from Elizabeth Olsen's acting, by all accounts--to make sure the character stays sympathetic. In the context of the numbers and storylines we actually have so far, it’s...really kind of gross!

And actually if you consider a handful of additional major characters who haven’t been title characters, it gets a little worse, because still the only marginally relevant dudes I can think of were relatively minor SHIELD agents (well, and Ward) that we assumed were good guys who were later revealed to be HYDRA, and...Sharon Carter making herself the Power Broker because of reasons, which isn’t really relevant to the whole “women are too emotional for power” trope but is pretty weird in terms of “all the card-carrying Good Guys in this franchise who kinda decide to switch sides have something in common”. So there's that, too.

#conversations #anonymous #meta #my meta #wanda maximoff #marvel cinematic universe #doctor strange 2 spoilers #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #wandavision #wanda maximoff defense squad #marvel what if

21 notes · View notes

bellasgreensweater · 3 years

Text

✨Why I Think Bella Swan Is On The Autism Spectrum ✨

In this post I’m going to talk about why I personally believe that Bella Swan is autistic. As an autistic person myself, I really relate to Bella and I see a lot of autistic traits in her.

Disclaimer: This is just a headcanon- I don’t think Stephenie Meyer intentionally wrote Bella as autistic, and she or the movie producers never confirmed it, so I’m not saying to everyone that she is CONFIRMED to be autistic and that every one has to see her that way, I’m just saying that I personally think she is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Autistic people hardly have any representation in the media, and with the representation that we do have, it is almost always stereotypical, inaccurate and offensive. You do not have to agree with me on this, but just please be respectful in the comments and don’t hate :)

Ok let’s go:

1. She always felt different from everyone/she felt like nobody truly understood her and that she never really understood anyone either: this is what basically all autistic people feel, myself included. Feeling like nobody understands the way your brain works and the way you see the world. (And this is true, because autistic people do see the world differently than non- autistic people and autistic peoples brains are wired differently from non- autistic brains). Bella mentions this multiple times in the books and movies, at one point in the first book in the car with Edward, she tells him that she thinks he can’t read her mind because they’re a probably a glitch in her brain and that it’s not like other people’s. There is also this quote from the 1st chapter of twilight which sums up how she feels: “ Facing my pallid reflection in the mirror, I was forced to admit that I was lying to myself. It wasn’t just physically that I’d never fit in. And if I couldn’t find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here? I didn’t relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn’t relate well to people, period. Even my mother, who I was closer to than anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never on exactly the same page. Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain”.

2. Her motor skills: She’s constantly tripping over her own feet, has bad balance, doesn’t realize that she’s walking into things, constantly dropping things ect, a common thing for autistic people is to have poor motor skills and find it hard to navigate their body.

Another disclaimer about autism: not ever autistic person is the exact same, every autistic person expresses their autism in a slightly different way, for example, some autistic people are overly sensitive to sound, and some are under-sensitive to it, these are just the specific things I’ve noticed for Bella in this post, it’s not supposed to be a generalization of autism in any way! :)

3. Social disinterest and difficultly: all throughout her childhood and her time in forks, she wasn’t very interested in making friends or hanging out or going to parties, and she found that she could never make friends with someone easily, she just never fully clicked with someone. She did have some very nice friends in forks, however she never related to them too well or was very attached to them.

4. Dresses for comfort and not fashion: Bella typically dresses in what feels most comfortable for her, not what is the most fashionable thing, this is a common thing with autism. A lot of autistic people like myself are quite sensitive to clothing and fabric and will not tolerate uncomfortable clothing.

5. Limited interests/special interests: Bella doesn’t really have many interests, but the ones she does have, she’s very passionate about. A special interest is an autism-specific term used to describe interests and hobbies that autistic people have that are very important to them. They help regulate emotions, calm people down, provide escapism ect. Autistic people can hyper fixate on these interests for hours and hours and not get bored, they can get so engrossed that they forget to do basic tasks to take care of themselves like drinking or going to the bathroom. These interests can last for years, sometimes a lifetime and they are very important to autistics. Bella swans special interests would be reading, wuthering heights, and vampires. Bella says in midnight sun that she has loved reading all her life and it is one of the few things that bring her intense joy. She said she could read for hours at a time and would try to sneak books into her lessons and read any chance she could get. Bella says that her favorite book is wuthering heights and she has read it so many times that it is beaten up beyond repair and the spine is so cracked that the book lays flat. This would clearly be her special interest. Her other special interest is clearly vampires.

6. Burnouts and meltdowns when Edward leaves: when Edward left in new moon, Bella obviously fell into a huge depression, but I also think she fell into an autistic burnout (if you don’t know what that is pls research or ask me cause this post is already too goddamn long). And in eclipse, when Edward leaves to go home in the afternoon or to go hunting, she can barely focus without him and gets very anxious (this is obviously because she loves him and is literally obsessed with him lol, but I also think it could be a meltdown from separation anxiety and also a change in routine (a lot of autistics get very upset when their usual routine is disrupted or changed))

7. Sensitive to sounds: In the book, often Bella cannot concentrate or fall asleep because of little sounds like the rain, sometimes it takes ages for her to sleep because the rain or tapping is too distracting. (This is a common autistic struggle).

8. Stims & facial twitches & stuttering: in the movie, she is constantly stuttering over her words, and her face and body twitches a lot. She also stims a lot in the book by playing with her hair or sleeves or the zip of her jacket, or her hands or edwards hands. She also covers some of her face with her hair, this could be to do with sensory overload, seeing too much in her field of vision may be overwhelming for her, like a lot of autistics.

9. Trouble expressing feelings/ thoughts: bella struggles a lot sometimes with communication and telling people how she feels. You can see this in her relationship with Charlie. They both love eachother very much but they never say it and when they do it comes out very awkward and sometimes they use the wrong words. You can also see this when she is hesitant to tell Edward in eclipse when she doesn’t want him to leave for the fight, it takes her ages to work up to telling someone how she feels. She also tends to be quite private. This is common for some autistics to feel.

10. Sensory experiences: bella loves the sun and heat, she says that she loves feeling the sun seep into her skin- a lot of autistics feel the sensory world very strongly and love certain sensations and detest others. When Bella moves to forks, she hates the sudden change in weather and gets anxious and upset at the feel of the cold, and the rain against her skin. This links back to my other point where I was talking about how autistics fear sudden changes in routine. Bella is very relieved when there’s a sunny day in forks and goes and sits outside, savouring the weather which reminds her of home.

11. Not too concerned with how she looks: obviously not every autistic person is like this, but quite a few autistics don’t really focus on how they look/present and what they wear. They don’t really know about the social norms and what other people wear so they do what they want. This is something I often see in Bella in the books especially.

12. More quiet/ reserved and socially withdrawn and awkward: this is basically self explanatory. Bella is very well known for this. I touch a bit more on this in point 3.

If you made it this far then thank you so much! This took a long ass time to write and I’ve been thinking of making this post for months. There are more things that make me headcanon her as autistic, but these are just from the top of my head. When I re-read the series (for like the 100th time lol) later this year, I’ll annotate the book so that I can update this post in the future with more supporting this).

Again this is just my opinion and my personal headcanon, it is not factual (but I’d obviously want it to be canon) so please no hate :)

If you have any more things to add on then please do!! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

#twilight #twilight saga #bellaswan #twilightrenaissance #edwardcullen #bellaswanautistic #autism #autismawareness #actuallyautistic #autistic #neurodivergent #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #midnight sun #smeyer

472 notes · View notes

themagnuswriters · 4 years

Text

Asexuality in Fic Roundtable - What We Like

How do I write a convincing asexual character in a fic? Is there a way to address a character’s sexuality outside the context of sex or coming out? Can a story feature a character's asexuality aside from exploring the negative aspects of the asexual experience? It’s usually not too hard to find lists of what not to do when writing asexual characters, but much more difficult to find the opposite.

The asexual members of The Magnus Writers discord gathered to discuss their favorite ways to incorporate the day-to-day details of asexual peoples’ experiences into fiction. We also discussed depictions that we’ve enjoyed in the past, or would love to see more of. Note that this isn’t an Asexuality 101 resource, so if you don’t feel familiar with the basics, feel free to check out the resources we will link in the reblog of this post.

This conversation included a variety of ace-spectrum people from multiple countries, including both arospec and non-aro people, various genders, and varying relationships to sex and sexual content. Just like all asexual people are different, the things that we enjoy reading are far from universal. Some tropes/details brought up as favorites can vary widely--for example, “innuendo completely flies over their head” vs. “they understand but are completely unfazed by innuendo.” Additionally, some aces love tropes that others would prefer to avoid: for instance some enjoy discussions of physical boundaries to be included in the fic, and some prefer that to be established as happening in the past.

The examples brought up in our discussion are also far from comprehensive, and can be seen as the beginning of an endless list of possible ways to write asexual characters. Some examples given are specific to the Magnus Archives, but can apply to any writing. Take these as inspiration and a way to broaden your understanding of who we are and what we like to see!

ASEXUALITY IN YOUR SETTING

When writing a story including asexual characters, one of your first considerations may be for how asexuality is contextualized within your setting: Is it fully normalized and accepted? Does it reflect real-world stigmas? How is asexuality treated by the narrative and the other characters? Contributors showed interest in a variety of approaches on this front, with no single approach being worth more than other:

Fics including negative real-world experiences

These would include fics in a realistic setting, where characters may struggle with internalized acephobia, stigma, social pressure, microaggressions, dysphoria, and so on. This isn’t limited to just “issue fic,” where the focus of the fic is about examining and confronting a struggle, but rather encompasses anything that includes this consideration in its worldbuilding and characterization. While brighter settings can be refreshing, contributors described reasons why this kind of fic appeals to them:

Feeling seen: Reading about ace characters whose experiences reflect their own

Feeling validated: Being exposed to only stories where there are no issues on this front can feel like we’re the only one facing these struggles. It can be extremely cathartic to read something and think “I thought I was the only person who went through this.”

Exploring improvement/hope: From ace characters learning to accept themselves or other characters making mistakes and accepting correction, these can be validating and encouraging.

On top of ace readers finding worth in these fics, the act of writing the fic can also be very cathartic for many ace authors.

There is a lot of variety for how these fics can be written, such as:

Stories that focus on the negative experience

Stories where that experience is just part of the setting or characterization

The character(s) getting external support and validation

The character facing mixed dismissiveness, acceptance, prejudice, etc. from different people

The story resolving in a way where the situation is resolved: for instance, cutting off an acephobic relationship, or someone apologizing for a microaggression.

Stories where well-meaning characters are accidentally insensitive about asexuality, but learn better and change their behavior

The character confronting or overcoming an internal struggle

Stories where the issues aren’t fully resolved by the end, such as an insecurity not fully going away.

Negative asexual experiences don’t have to be the focus of a fic to be acknowledged. While “issue fics” that closely examine and explore these experiences are valuable, contributors also described enjoying stories that included them as simply an element of the worldbuilding or characterization. For instance, a story may reference Jon having bad past relationship experiences; facing assumptions that he’s having sex if he’s in a relationship; having moments of insecurities about his sexuality; etc.

Please note that writing negative ace experiences needs to be handled sensitively; fics of this type should definitely be tagged appropriately. For brief references, consider including author’s note warnings on the appropriate chapter (e.g. “asexual character assumed to be having sex”). Having an asexual sensitivity reader--particularly one of a type that corresponds with what you’re writing (i.e. sex-neutral, gray-ace, sex-repulsed, etc)--is very much encouraged.

Fics where asexuality is normalized

In contrast, there is just as much interest in stories that avoid all of these issues, and fully normalize asexuality. Contributors described how they enjoy stories where ace characters are allowed to just exist, without big important conversations or small othering details that depict asexual identities as less than fully accepted.

These can be included in any type of fic, but a few of the suggested details for how to normalize asexuality in a setting include:

A character being already out and accepted: For instance, Martin already knowing about Jon’s asexuality from early seasons.

Characters in the fic already knowing what asexuality is without needing it explained to them

Having more than one character be asexual: We aren’t confined to writing only canon characters as ace! This not only goes the extra mile in normalizing asexuality, but it gives the chance to include more of the ace spectrum.

If you’re aiming for asexuality to be normalized, please consider whether it makes sense for your asexual character to be anxious about coming out or discussing boundaries. There is a world of difference between someone responding to an ace character coming out with “I fully support you” and responding with “you’re an idiot for thinking we wouldn’t support you.” This is a common and easy pitfall to fall into, but the result is often less escapism and more a message of “your struggles aren’t real, and you’re stupid for thinking they are.”

Asexuality in Metaphor

Some contributors mentioned wanting to read settings where asexuality itself is normalized, but the issues facing aces could be explored on a metaphorical level. This falls somewhere in between the ideas of realistic or idealized settings as regards the ace experience, and could allow that exploration with a layer of distance. Ideas relating to this included fantasy settings with different kinds of magic.

PERSONALITY AND CHARACTERIZATION

The experience of being asexual isn’t something just limited to a relationship with sex: it can be shown in many ways, such as how a character relates to themselves, other people, media, and society. Like any other queer identity, it affects many aspects of our lives and informs a great deal about us as people. These little details don’t even need to be presented in a blunt “this is because this character is asexual” way--they can be little relatable notes for your ace readers, while not coming across in a “this is how all ace people are” way.

We’ve seen the question “how do I write a character as asexual, if I’m not planning on having someone ask them for sex or writing a coming-out scene?” many times. Our contributors were excited to share a wide variety of ideas for this from things they’ve read, written, or experienced:

Ace confusion

Not to be confused with the infantilizing “doesn’t know what sex is” approach, this could involve things like:

Being confused over what sexual attraction is: difficulty defining what they don’t experience.

Difficulty describing to others what lack of sexual attraction is: this is their default, and it can be difficult to contrast it to what they don’t experience.

Thinking that others describing sexual attraction or interest is just exaggeration

“Wait, that’s what you mean when you say ‘hot’? I just thought it meant they’re gorgeous.”

“You mean meeting someone and being instantly sexually interested in them is a real thing, and not just a movie trope?”

The Absurdity of How Society Views Sex

The jarring dissonance between asexual experiences and the norms in society and media can cause a lot of alienation and dysphoria in aces, but often it hits a point of feeling like a joke is being played on you. Contributors offered ideas for how this could be illustrated through a character:

Reading “How to Spice Up Your Love Life” articles out of pure morbid curiosity

Taking the most ridiculous Cosmo sex life article as How Everyone Thinks (and being concerned)

Having an allo friend or partner they can ask about whether any of it is legitimate advice (this one was brought up by a lot of people as a common ace experience)

An ADHD/autistic character getting a special interest or hyperfixation on societal views on sex or sexual practices, and pursuing it as purely a matter of research with no interest in participating

“Why do they keep bringing up ice cubes? Georgie, stop laughing, I am a researcher and a scholar.”

Needing to teleport out of the room if a sex scene comes up in a movie

Not minding the sex scenes, but needing to make fun of them or point out impracticalities

“On the beach? But sand is everywhere? Wait, they think getting sand everywhere is hot??”

Being baffled at what’s considered sexy: for example, Jon being baffled at “wet clothes are sexy,” having grown up by the beach and associating them with being terribly uncomfortable

Of course, asexual characters don’t need to be framed like they constantly need to learn about things from allo people--sometimes the reverse can be a fun twist. One reversal, for example, could be an ace person helping their allo friend parse whether their attraction to someone is simply sexual or also romantic.

Aces vs. flirting

While not specifically connected to sexual attraction, how a character interacts with flirting can very much demonstrate the asexual experience. Contributors discussed a variety of their own experiences, and details they’ve enjoyed reading for ace characters:

Having difficulty distinguishing between different kinds of draws to people--is it romance? Friendship?

Having difficulty picking up on whether or not someone is interested in them

Failing to realize they’re flirting or being flirted with

Enjoying flirting as just a fun thing to do without any particular goal (a popular suggestion for a Tim ace headcanon)

Casually flirting but then backing off if it becomes “real”

Several examples were given of scenarios these could be used for Jon:

Jon’s dry prickliness stemming from wanting to avoid people thinking he’s flirting or showing interest in them, not being sure where others judge the line between “flirting” or “being nice.”

Jon deciding he is going to make an effort to be more friendly to people, and awkwardly starts showering others with compliments; some of them interpret it as flirting and it’s very confusing.

Jon (or Martin) being overly dramatic or romantic when purposefully showing interest in someone, drawing from a basis of books or media rather than social experience.

Aces vs. hotness

We might use the word “hot” excessively, but ace people often have their own understanding of the word (and are often surprised to learn what others mean by it). Contributors brought up the following ideas for this area:

Using “hot” as an expression of “gorgeous to look at,” and being confused to learn that others use it as a sexual expression.

Engaging with “are they hot” conversations based purely on aesthetics, or other impressions like “would they give good hugs.”

Focusing on seemingly random physical details, like wrists or eyebrow shape, over more commonly sexualized ones.

Being confused over the criteria others use for hotness. Example: Jon’s reaction to “the hot one” comment.

Finding fictional characters not represented by a real person “hot” (e.g. from books, podcasts, video games with bad graphics, etc)

Using the words “hot” and sexy” for completely nonsexual things. Several contributors described being told they couldn’t be ace if they called anything hot/sexy, and then doing it more out of spite.

Being completely unfazed by innuendo or sex/nudity: For example, Jon’s calm response vs. Martin being flustered at Tim stripping

This is also an area where a story can establish the nature of their relationship with those around them: if a character is comfortably out as not being interested in sex, for instance, you can show that others around them support that by making their conversations more inclusive. For example, a “fuck, marry, kill” game with modified categories, or a “who would you have sex with” conversation changed to a “who would you have dinner with” one once the ace character enters.

Aces vs. sexual humor

Ace people’s reactions to sexual humor can vary as much as the reactions to flirting. Contributors described enjoying a broad range of these:

Aces who love sexual humor (not limited to sex-favorable aces)

Humor taking an angle of “sex is so strange, glad it isn’t real.”

Aces who are bored with or exhausted by sexual humor

Not finding sexual humor funny unless it’s also clever. “Yes I know that’s a sexual reference...wait, it was meant to be funny? Because it’s connected to sex? ....I see. Anyway.”

Bonus points if the “is that supposed to be funny because it’s sexual?” ace and the filthy humor ace are friends

It can even vary for the same person from setting to setting: someone may find making dirty jokes with a group of ace friends might be fun (see the “Absurdity of Sex” section above), but be very uncomfortable with someone else trying to twist something they said into something sexual. There’s also the nature of the joke itself: a silly pun may be fine, but a joke implying the ace person is interested in sex or said something sexual without meaning to may be alienating.

For TMA, the general interpretation of Jon is that he’d be uncomfortable with sexual humor, which is relatable to a lot of asexual people, but contributors brought up other possibilities as well: for example, the idea of Jon liking clever wordplay so much that if it just so happens to include something sexual, it doesn’t feel odd to him--why do the others look so shocked?

Note: A lot of asexual awareness posts insensitively treat the concept of aces who love filthy humor as more mature, more easygoing, less stereotypical, or otherwise superior to aces who are uncomfortable with sexual humor. This is a very harmful attitude that looks down on a lot of asexual people, and adds a pressure to push past comfort levels to fit in and “avoid being a stereotype.” Contributors loved reading stories that include flirty or filthy aces, but not when they take this tone. A favorite suggestion was to include more than one ace character to depict a variety, while treating them as equally valid.

Somewhat related to this is ace people’s relationship to sexual euphemisms. Contributors described their experiences or how they might write an ace character responding to these:

Being exhausted by how so many terms are considered euphemisms, or how any comment could be reframed as sexual.

Having a special annoyance when they accidentally stumble into or misunderstand a euphemism

Wanting to decouple euphemisms from their literal meaning: why does “spending the night” or “going home with someone” have to mean “having sex”?

In the same line, being very blunt and straightforward about making sexual references, because why dance around it?

Characterization Considerations

One discussion that is particularly relevant to The Magnus Archives is the idea of the “uptight nerd” ace persona. It may sound strange to say, but there is some legitimacy in this characterization, but for different reasons than is stereotyped. Many of us build up this persona while growing up--particularly in adolescence and early adulthood--to fend off uncomfortable social pressure, self-examination, or external criticism for why we relate to sex differently than our peers. This often involves playing up certain defenses for discomfort for sex or dating: “I don’t have time for any of that, I only have time for books and knowledge!” Or, the adult version: “I don’t have time for relationships, I’m married to my job!”

Where this departs from the stereotype is that these are generally coping mechanisms or facades rather than the truth. Asexuality isn’t “of course they don’t have time for sex, they’re obsessed with this or that”--but an asexual person who doesn’t feel comfortable in their environment, such as around work, school, or family, may deflect judgment with similar excuses. Similar to this, some find it tempting to be antisocial or hostile on purpose to fend off interest in them or avoid sexual expectations.

This is, of course, far from the only way an ace character could be written. For instance, if you wanted to write a setting where asexuality is more accepted, you could write Jon’s antisocial and closed-off tendencies as a result of being bullied from a very young age, while he is confident and secure in his asexuality. Or for other characters: you could write Tim as someone who has enjoyed sexual relationships, but just thought everyone was exaggerating on the attraction side of things.

Intersection of Asexuality with Other Identities

Another characterization consideration is how asexuality intersects with other identities and experiences included in the fic. Below are a few examples of many:

Asexuality and masculinity: Social expectations of masculinity place a high emphasis on sexuality, particularly heterosexuality, treating sexual activity as a commodity or prize. One possible reading of The Magnus Archives is Jon’s tendency to have closer and more numerous friendships with women connects to this.

Asexuality and trans identities: There is a significant overlap between aspec and trans identities, particularly nonbinary identities. Based on an October 2020 study by the Trevor Project (see link in reblog), ace respondents were roughly 50% more likely to be trans (including nonbinary) than allo respondents. Contributors described how they’ve felt things like “is this dysphoria I’m feeling a gender thing or an asexuality thing,” or how figuring out their asexuality helped them explore their gender.

Asexuality and race: In combination with LGBTQ+ spaces often being white-dominated, people of color often face stereotypes that hypersexualize or desexualize them. This can have a strong impact on people of color’s experience and self-perception as asexual. For instance, if you are writing Jon as Indian, you could consider how this may have impacted his experiences in LGBTQ spaces in university. As there is no ‘one size fits all’ experience for aces of color, we strongly recommend researching for the particular background you have in mind. We will be adding resource links to our main page shortly, but in the meantime check out the links in the reblog of this post!

INTIMACY AND RELATIONSHIPS

One of the topics addressed in our discussion was how a character’s asexuality may impact their experiences with intimacy and romantic relationships. Contributors discussed ways to portray this in fic, whether or not it includes sex or even mentions it.

Physical Intimacy

Intimacy, sensuality, and sex are separate things that may or may not overlap depending on the individual. Contributors discussed how, for people across the ace spectrum, the relationship between these three tends to differ from common societal frameworks or depictions of intimacy in fiction.

Enjoying physical intimacy without the expectation that it will become sexual: massages, falling asleep on top of each other, bathing together, etc.

This includes acts that would often be expected to “lead somewhere” but don’t, such as lots of touching or nude cuddling.

Craving closeness/touch completely outside of sexual drive

One scenario suggested for this topic is an asexual character discovering that without the worry that an act of intimacy will ‘lead somewhere,’ they enjoy something they used to get anxious about, such as sharing a bed or showering together.

Boundaries & Communication

Stories with an asexual character in a relationship often address physical boundaries within that relationship. The below are some of the scenarios contributors have enjoyed:

People communicating over their sexual boundaries, rather than assuming what these are as soon as they hear the word “asexual.”

The boundaries discussion being framed as something that any couple in a fictional relationship should have, not just because one is asexual.

In relationships between allo and ace characters, the allo character having boundaries of their own, rather than just the ace character.

Normalizing boundaries discussions for allo couples as well.

Note: If a boundaries discussion involves a sex-favorable ace character, take caution at the risk of having them sound offended or derisive that the discussion is happening (e.g. “What, I’m not a child” or “Not all aces are like that.”). Enforcing the idea that people should assume their partner is sex-interested is extremely harmful to sex-disinterested aces.

Some contributors noted that they prefer fics where the boundaries discussion is something that has taken place in the past, rather than run through at the beginning of each fic they read. In these cases, this past discussion could be illustrated in the interaction itself: a character’s awareness of what lines not to cross, the other’s confidence and trust that those boundaries will be respected, and so on.

Issues of Intimacy Outside of Sex

While aversion to sex is the most well-known dimension of asexuality, there are other aversions and boundaries that could apply to either ace or allo characters:

Ace characters that are kiss-averse and/or touch-averse: This also works against the “They won’t have sex, but they’ll make up for that with kissing even more!” trope that implies asexual people have to compensate for a nonsexual relationship.

Allo characters with their own aversions or specific boundaries: suggestions included how this can apply to trans characters.

Fluctuations in levels of aversion (note: it is important to not treat increased aversion as “progress” or decreased aversion as “regression”)

In cases of fluctuating aversion, characters developing ways to communicate these levels, and responding appropriately. For example, “Kissing is not on the table right now, let’s move on to something more comfortable.”

Contributors were excited to discuss how this area could particularly be used for the allo partner of an ace character, such as an allo Martin having difficulties with touch post-Lonely, or discovering that he doesn’t enjoy kissing.

Relationships to Sex (or Lack Thereof)

Asexuality ‘subtypes’ are terms many aces describe their personal relationship with sex and/or sexual content. These are simplified self-descriptors rather than rigid categories or mini-sexualities, and the terms rarely encompass the full detail of that relationship. Please note that the below discussion assumes a general familiarity with ace subtypes.

Needless to say, aces across the spectrum and of every subtype want to see their identities represented in fic. The discussion focused on ways to illustrate those experiences, and details contributors would enjoy seeing:

Non-averse aces trying sex and deciding they have no interest in it: pushing back against the “if you’re not repulsed you’ll like and want sex” idea.

No expectation that “sex-favorable” means always interested in sex.

The pressure an ace person may face to oversimplify their relationship to sex or sexual content out of fear they’ll appear inconsistent or exaggerating: “If I’m okay with this now, what if I’m not later? Will I seem picky if I’m only comfortable with something in an extremely specific scenario?”

“Sex repulsion” and “sex aversion” generally are used to describe asexual people who don’t want sex, but are simplified terms for what can be immensely varied experiences. Someone could be repulsed by physical involvement in sex, repulsed by personally engaging in anything sexual, repulsed by sexual content, repulsed by just the idea of sex--or any variation or combination of these. There are even repulsions that could be part of more sex-interested subtypes: an ace who enjoys sex but is repulsed by nudity, or an ace who enjoys sexual activities with a partner but not being touched during them, etc.

Contributors discussed how much they enjoy reading simple “I just don’t want sex” approaches to aversion/repulsion, but also look forward to reading explorations such as:

Enjoying one specific type of engagement with sexual content or activity, but having an aversion to others.

Regularly varying levels of repulsion: Days of “please don’t remind me sex exists” to days of mild curiosity, for instance.

Aces with a relationship to sex that doesn’t involve another person, including if they’re in a relationship.

Fluidity between ace subtypes can fluctuate between sex-interested and sex-disinterested in both directions: it can be both “I said I wasn’t interested in this before, but let’s carefully revisit” and “I know we’ve been doing this, but I’m no longer comfortable with it.” Contributors mentioned never having seen fic with the latter, and expressed an interest in reading stories exploring this.

On this note, it is common for stories of fluidity between subtypes to be only moving in a more sex-interested direction. Many asexual people, particularly sex-averse aces, face immense pressure to ‘learn how to like sex,’ or have their sexuality erased by saying they’re a ‘late bloomer’ who will learn to like it later. Depicting this direction should be done with great care and nuance, and we strongly recommend getting feedback from a sex-disinterested sensitivity reader for stories of this type. It’s possible that an ace reader who isn’t sex-disinterested would miss or not be affected by something that is quite painful to sex-disinterested aces.

CONCLUSION

If you’ve stuck with us for this long, well done! We understand that such a long resource can be a bit overwhelming, but we hope it can show you the depth of variety and enthusiasm ace readers have for more ace content and inspire you further. One thing we all had in common during our discussion was how excited we were to have a canonically asexual protagonist, and how thrilled we were to see content that explored his asexuality. In putting together this resource, we hope that you are encouraged to write about characters whose asexuality impacts their experiences and the story in unique, thoughtful, and creative ways. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

#asexuality #asexuality in writing #ace week #the magnus archives #tma #writing resources #asexual characters #roundtables

1K notes · View notes

thanksjro · 3 years

Text

More Than Meets the Eye #33: In Which I Write the Word ‘Quantum‘ 19 Times

Dang, I forgot what happened at the end of the last issue. It was pretty important, too, but I don’t have time to reread. Maybe the establishing shot can help me out?

Oh, that’s right, Rewind happened!

Everyone’s pretty jazzed that Rewind is here, non-exploded, and supposedly alive. Megatron carries this ridiculously small man over to a table, while Skids is busy admonishing Nightbeat for trying to put the pieces of this mystery together.

That’s one of the two first canonically, openly gay Transformers, Megatron. You bet your ass he’s important.

Nightbeat’s dragged Nautica over to look at that poster for Crosscut’s play they saw last issue. Together, they discover something interesting, and it’s not that Nightbeat’s chin has elongated to the point of absurdity. On this future ship, the play was completed and produced a mere few weeks after the initial launch of the Lost Light.

While this is going on, Rewind wakes up and asks Skids what the hell is going on. Skids, likely not wanting to poke at farm-fresh trauma, glosses over the fact that everyone on this ship was violently murdered, and that they found Rewind blacked out inside the hollowed torso of his brother-in-law.

…This is a dark story line.

You see, the joke here is that “Dark Cybertron” sucked major chrome.

Megatron reminds everyone that they’re still in grave danger every moment they stay aboard this ship, but Skids is more concerned with Rewind’s mental health. Which is sweet, but maybe not the thing to prioritize in such a precarious situation.

Rewind takes the fact that Megatron is an Autobot now pretty friggin’ well, as well as the introduction of gender into his species. That is, until Nightbeat, the king of social graces, saunters up to the scene to ask Rewind what the hell happened to the ship. He does get his answers, despite Rewind being horrified to the point of speechlessness.

Over at the hole in the wall, Nautica and Riptide are taking a gander at the quantum drums, which house the quantum foam for the quantum engines so quantum jumps can happen.

As Nautica explains the process by which quantum travel works, she realizes that the answer to what happened to everyone who disappeared was right in front of them this whole time.

Quantum, quantum, quantum- doesn’t even sound like a word anymore, does it?

The data slug Rewind made corroborates this theory, showing a series of events that definitely didn’t happen to the Lost Light we’ve been following throughout this story so far. The data slug contains this Rewind’s version of dead Rewind’s “Little Victories”, the travelogue that was never completed, where the question “are you happy?” revealed just how emotionally unhealthy most of the crew is. I’d like to imagine this Rewind’s film is called “Small Achievements”, or perhaps “Dear Fucking Lord, We’ve Been on this Trip for Three Hours and the Captain Has Been Killed by a Goddamned Soul-Vampire”, or maybe even “Where the FUCK is Our Therapist”.

The DJD came into the equation by way of someone having led them to the Lost Light. We get a flashback panel of the gorefest, in which Tarn appears to have learned how to fly, given the angle he’s coming from.

Because Rewind’s big thing in this series is being the guy who records stuff, the DJD take the opportunity to make some movies of their visit to the space yacht.

James, why do you keep getting Rewind involved with snuff films? I’m starting to get concerned.

Now, the thing about Rewind is that he’s almost always accompanied by his other half. Where is Chromedome, anyway?

He’s dead, that’s where.

Turns out, when you tell the DJD that you won’t do the thing they want you to do, they have a habit of doing nasty things in retaliation. Chromedome got stabbed in the friggin’ visor with his own finger needles, because Vos enjoys ironic deaths, I suppose. There’s some other stuff that’s implied to have happened, but we’ll get to that once we learn a little more about the DJD themselves.

While Rewind recounts the grisly tale of his husband’s demise, Riptide notes that the quantum foam has begun to spread at a remarkable rate. This is a bad thing, because that shit can and will explode, given half the chance, and this wreck is floating right above a potentially-inhabited planet.

Though I could have sworn we established that this planet was a Smartplanet, and therefore very much populated by students and staff. I don’t know. Maybe we conveniently forgot that, so we could make this a learning moment for Megatron.

Jiminy Christmas, Megs, do you even listen to yourself?

Skids, who has had a very long day of finding corpses and learning about quantum theory, snaps at Megatron, telling him that in order to actually be an Autobot, you have to have a little frickin’ compassion for those outside of your peer group.

Which is sort of contradictory to the Aequitas trials, the Killswitch debacle, the POW situation back on Cybertron, and whatever the fuck Prowl’s whole deal is, but maybe Skids is speaking about his own, personal relationship with being an Autobot. Hopefully so, otherwise he needs a class on critical thinking, STAT.

Never mind all of that though, because the problem just got a lot worse- the quantum foam has expanded to a point where any holes in the stuff are too small for the Rod Pod to get through. We’re going to have to get creative if we want to save the day.

Luckily, we’ve got a quantum duplicate of just about the tiniest little dude in the franchise here to do the job. Now we just need another, equally tiny little man, so the quantum drums can be shut off at the same time. Nautica commits more microaggressions, and this gives Getaway inspiration for a witty quip, which in turn gives Skids a brilliant idea.

The gang heads down to Brainstorm’s lab, to look for the mass displacement gun that was used for treating Ultra Magnus’s nanocon infestation back in the 2012 Annual. While they search, Nautica explains just why the hell the Lost Light disappeared in the first place. You see, quantum duplication acts on the Cain Instinct— it’s fine, as long as the duplicates don’t perceive each other. However, the moment contact is made, it says “oh man, guess I’m gonna have to end you” to one of the duplicates. The contact in this case happened when the Coffin Rodimus was brought aboard the ship.

Anything that wasn’t aboard the Lost Light at the point of the takeoff/explosion was never duplicated, and thus wasn’t erased from reality once shit started going to hell. This is why the Rod Pod is still around, and why the remaining cast are— well, the remaining cast.

While this conversation is going on, Nautica and Nightbeat uncover yet another dead body; it’s Brainstorm, and he’s a little underdressed.

…Someone run a paternity test, I think Cyclonus might be the father.

Also, Brainstorm’s a double agent.

Fucked up.

Getaway is furious that a Decepticon has been living on the same ship as him for the last six months, right under his proverbial nose. Even Megatron’s surprised, stating that Brainstorm isn’t usually who the recruiters aim for.

So, no mass displacement gun, and now they’re aware of the fact that there’s a traitor on the ship who’s had access to a LOT of weapon tech. It’s at this point that Megatron decides to stop lying by omission and tells everyone that he can mass-displace, since he used to turn into a handgun.

Smashcut to Megatron and Rewind floating out in space, the former now not much taller than the latter, as they traverse the web of quantum foam to get to the drums. Nautica instructs them from the Rod Pod. If this works, anything produced or connected to the quantum engine will be neutralized, and maybe we’ll even get the other Lost Light back! YAAAAAY!!!

Y’all really let this man go out there to fuckin’ kill himself for the greater good, didn’t you?

Rewind is honestly pretty chill with ceasing to be, seeing as he watched 200/+ people die today, including his long-time spouse.

Jesus. I’d say get him a therapist, but in order to do that, we’re going to have to wipe him off the map anyway.

Rewind asks Megatron if the Chromedome that isn’t his and his duplicate are still together. And I mean…

Luckily, Megatron has the good sense to lie.

With that, they flip the switches, and deactivate the drums.

And that’s a series wrap on Rewind! Congrats to Mr. James Roberts for the esteemed honor of burying the same gay twice!

Later on, everyone is back inside the Rod Pod, as their disappeared shipmates return from being nonexistent. Chromedome pops back in, and Skids is on him like a shark, telling him to go on the roof. Skids doesn’t even try to explain why. Which, fair. How the hell do you explain to someone that their dead husband’s quantum duplicate survived both a terrorist splinter cell attack, and the laws of quantum sci-fi bullshit crashing down on his tiny, tiny body, and that he’s right there on the roof waiting for them?

Welp, there goes the Chromedome/Dominus endgame. Shame, that.

Looks like Chromedome finally hit the threshold for having earned Roberts’ pity, and won’t be directly targeted by the plot for a little while. This isn’t something you see very often, so let’s really soak this in.

…Someone had to have told Rewind what happened to the other Rewind, right? I wonder what that conversation was like.

Back inside the ship, Blaster gets word that the Lost Light has reappeared. As they navigate towards it, Megatron requests that an encrypted call be made to Rodimus, to discuss the Brainstorm problem.

In the interim, Ravage is offered the opportunity to be a part of the crew, so he doesn’t have to keep skulking around in the shadows. We don’t get an answer from him, as our focus shifts over to Nightbeat and Nautica.

Nightbeaaaaaaaaaat, stop stating the themes of the comic verbatim! People are going to start thinking you’re a shonen anime protagonist!

Nightbeat’s somehow managed to keep ahold of the briefcase that they found on the other Lost Light. Unless Brainstorm’s boyfriend is in there, I don’t think this one was the work of Huey Lewis and the News’ hit single from the Back to the Future soundtrack.

Over on the Lost Light, specifically in Swerve’s, Brainstorm’s making his way through the crowd, briefcase held gentle like hamburger as he goes. He makes it to the bar, where Atomizer tells him he can’t have his briefcase in here. Brainstorm has what most would accept to be a healthy response to being told “no.”

It’s what I would do.

#transformers #jro #MTMTE #slaughterhouse #issue 33 #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #comic script writing

206 notes · View notes

onmykneesforhotdilfs · 3 years

Text

Okay, so in the interest of avoiding a lot of annoying comment writing later on, here are my thoughts on Valtor and just why he was so power thirsty in season 3.

So in episode 5, season 3, Valtor says how he wants to be the supreme sorcerer of magic dimension because according to him, he used to be that in the past. He also says how he only wants to return all that's his. Now, do I believe all of that? Sort of. Valtor kind of contradicts himself when he tells Bloom 'the truth' about her parents (because Oritel is really powerful and had he not lowered his guard, he would've never defeated him). We, of course, learn that's a lie. Now as to how powerful he truly was before he got captured... he was probably pretty damn powerful but not as much as he wished to be and how much he just likes stroking his own ego.

Comparing Valtor to the rest of winx villains, both past and future, it's clear that none of them are even close to him, in virtually all aspects. Darkar, for example, was defeated by winx wearing magic purses, like what the hell. Plus, he himself chose to sit in his underground castle most of the time while sending trix and his minions to do his job. And theoretically, isn't he supposed to be, idk, more powerful than Valtor being a prince of darkness?

Ancient Witches themselves proved to be less of a challenge for winx than Valtor. Shouldn't they at least, being the mothers of all evil, present more of a threat? Now as to what sort of relationship Valtor has with them... I imagine, not really good one. My guess is that Ancestrals, though they created Valtor, couldn't control him to the point they wished to, so in my opinion that's where that infamous demon form comes into play. It very well could've been their attempt at putting a leash on him.

They probably feared, as Valtor grew more powerful, that he would eventually surpass them and he would seek freedom. For as far as I'm concerned, that very well could've happened because the timeline we are presented with in canon doesn't fit. My guess is, it wasn't Valtor that destroyed Domino, but the witches themselves (like we see it in a movie). We know that Valtor was captured before that final battle because he is nowhere in it.

Company of Light fought that final battle exclusively against the three old witches, but we all know how that one turned out. Oritel and Marion sent them hurtling into Obsidian but they paid the price themselves. In a desperate attempt to cover their own asses, Company of Light settles for the second best option aka Valtor.

Now as to how Valtor exactly ended up in the hands of Company Of Light, we can only speculate. One very plausible scenario is that he truly was captured by them and defeated. But the other one, and the one that speaks to me a bit more because of how angry Valtor was at his 'mothers' in the last episode of season 3, is that it was the witches themselves that served Valtor on a silver platter to them because he either rebelled against them or simply became too much of a threat to them.

Valtor was probably furious at the witches but my guess is that he was more angry at Faragonda and the rest of the bunch that accused him and convicted him, probably falsely, of the crime he didn't commit. I'm not saying he didn't do some terrible things in life, but he probably didn't destroy Domino either. Plus, they keep telling us how Valtor is responsible for many deaths, but as far as we've seen, he didn't kill anyone. He imprisoned Faragonda into a tree and also threw Grifin into a dungeon but he didn't kill them and he was more powerful than them at that point, so he probably could've.

Also, he never actually tried to actively kill any of the winx, he wanted them out of his way. Sure, leaving the Omega portal open was a dick move, but he probably assumed that the planet would simply be evacuated. In my opinion, he has an understanding that there is a fine line between destroying realms and ruling them.

And that brings us to last few episodes that show us just how dangerous he can be when cornered but also sheds light on how much of a puppet he truly was in the hands of his mothers. Which leads me to believe that all of those charades were solely in order to become powerful enough to finally get rid of the witches and that hideous demon form (because he wasn't exactly happy when the witches forcefully turned him into that, probably because he wasn't a demon from the very beginning of his creation and was probably placed on him in order to control him).

I think his pride in general wouldn't allow him to admit or let alone seek help from anyone and that ultimately lead to his downfall. But with a character as interesting as Valtor, I think his past deserves a spinoff that sheds light onto his life before Omega. But if they're gonna butcher it like they butchered him in Season 8... I think I'll pass.

Also guys this is just my perspective, if you have any other ideas, do share.

#winx club #valtor #winx #winx valtor #winx baltor

70 notes · View notes

agusvedder · 4 years

Text

--I have in my head on a loop:

"...Gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day."

Ghostfacers - 3x13

On a loop. On a loop. In that haunted house, the victims repeat their deaths on a loop, again and again. Always a circle. And if Corbett was freed by the power of love, that means they not only repeat their deaths, but their feelings are still untouched, they're still there pulling something to keep those ghosts stuck, unable to move on... Like angels and demons in the empty, they repeat their deaths and their biggest mistakes, their unfinished bussiness.

Ruby: "Why do you call it Empty? This place is full, full of sorrow and despair playing over and over again, of angels and demons dreaming about their regrets. Forever" (15x13)

Now, in this Ghostfacers episode from Season 3, they used Corbett’s feelings for Ed as a comedic resource at some level. Because in Supernatural s3, Gay=Joke. We know it’s not that way anymore. We know it for a fact.

Now, I wanna bring some attention to this small piece of dialogue of the Ghostfacers episode.

SAM: Think we were off on this? I mean, that was just a death echo.

DEAN: Yeah, but what's it doing here? Did anybody get shot here?

SAM: No, not that I could find.

SPRUCE: What's a death echo?

SAM: Look, we got a problem here. That ghost ain't it.

HARRY: Yeah, that's real. Like, that happened.

SPRUCE: What's a death echo?

DEAN: Echoes are trapped in a loop, okay? They keep replaying how they died over and over and over again, usually in the place where they were ganked. It's about as dangerous as a scary movie.

SAM: So maybe the echo's not dangerous, but maybe something else is.

Okay, I know maybe it wasn’t the original intention of the writers for this episode to be a perfect guide to explain Destiel’s last episodes and the ending of Supernatural, but as show as well designed as this, and with so many callbacks, parallels and mirrors, I am doubting if this is not intentional, ‘cause the small piece of dialogue I wrote up there is not the end.

Finally, the intern Corbett dies. And Harry suddenly has a moment of clarity.

HARRY:- I...I know how we can get through to him.

ED: How?

HARRY: Ed... He had feelings for you.

ED: Huh?

HARRY: He wanted you.

ED: Wa-- wanted me to what?

HARRY: You know. And you know what you've got to do. You can do it, Ed. You've always been the brave one. Yes, you can. You make us brave -- Maggie, right?

MAGGIE: Yeah. Yeah you do. You totally do.

HARRY: Ed...You got to go be gay for that poor, dead intern. You got to send him into the light."

Out of the darkness, into the light.

"ED: Corbett, look. Hey, it's just Ed, buddy. It's just me. Hey, hey, Corbett, listen to me. Listen to me. I -- we... Okay. You meant... Corbett, you meant a lot to the team. You meant... You meant a lot to me. You know, never back down...Never say a bad word, okay? I remember that, Corbett. I-I remember that. I remember because I love you, Corbett. I really, truly love you. Do you remember that? do you?"

Ed says the magic words to wake Corbett up from that loop of suffering, death and regret. Words that remind me to other words.

Buddy. We needed you back. I don't get words wrong. We need you. I need you.

Goodbye Stranger. When Dean was honest about his own feelings, Cas was free.

Also notice how Harry used “He wanted you” instead of, I don’t know, “he liked you” or something. This is a theme that’s been repeating for seasons with Dean specifically, the Want vs Need, the Plural vs Singular in regards to Cas. The whole purgatory arc, the Michael!Dean arc with his famous, seemingly random question “What do you want?” in the beginning of season 14. Surprise surprise, it’s not random, and we know it.

(Tiny detail that maybe is not that interesting but I got it on my head and I gotta write it: In this season, episode 4, we see Chuck being a writer again, writing the last Winchester book. Chuck’s pseudonym in season 5 was Carver Edlund. This season we already had that callback to Carver, engraved on stone on the crypt where Rowena chooses to die. Where is our callback to Edlund? .... Well. Edlund wrote Ghostfacers in s3).

Also, this small thing answer my own question from 15x02 when I noticed a visual parallel between Cas and the ghosts from hell.

Okay, so my speculation is that this specific dialogue will repeat some time in the future when SOME human we know rescue SOME dead angel we know and love. It. Fits.

To Conclude, and in the Ghostfacer’s words:

ED: We know this much: that every day, including today, is a new beginning. We learned more than we can say in the brutal feat of the Morton House.

HARRY: The Ghostfacers were forced to face something far more scary than ghosts. They were forced to face themselves.

ED: War changes Man.

HARRY: And Maggie.

ED: War changes man. And one woman... You know Corbett, we just... ah gosh, we just like to think that you're out there, watching over us.

HARRY: As far as we're concerned, you're not an intern anymore. You have more than earned full Ghostfacer status. Plus, it would be cool to have a ghost on the team.

ED: Yeah. Heh heh. And here we were thinking that, you know, we were teaching you and all this time you were teaching us, about heart, about dedication, and about how gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day. Thank you, Alan J. Corbett.

(I know this is a mix of stuff, I’m not sorry though.)

-------

OKAY, so I’m not gonna detail phrase by phrase why it feels relevant, because it’s pretty evident, so I trust you guys to read it and share with me what you feel about the end, and how do you think this relates. But this is... ugh ñksndfñ.Its an amazing example on how FAR this show has gotten, how it keep circling back to the start over and over and over, and past canon but evidently evolved as an inspiration for future episodes. Certainly the “Gay” resource stopped being a joke a LONG time ago.

Side note: thank you crippling depression, anxiety and self loathing for finally allow me to post this meta.

#Supernatural s15 #Ghostfacers #SPN 3X13 #SPN SPEC #Spn s15 spec #Castiel #the empty #Destiel meta

256 notes · View notes

mylovelookup · 3 years

Text

Not even a week after the season’s finale and the fandom is feeling attacked lol. Honestly, after more than 10 years watching the evolution of the MCU the pattern has always been clear, in interviews during the promotions of their movies/series they’d always offer messy and ambiguous answers that are meant to confuse anyone who is reading because at the end of the day this franchise is an immense business that solely capitalizes on holding the attention of as many people as possible by entertaining their fantasies about the heroes they grow attached to. Obviously they can’t do that if they deliver statements that may divide the crowds, and consequently lose the interest of a good chunk of people.

This time the director didn’t really say anything that would particularly deny nor confirm the idea of Sambucky and it’s fine because she probably has no idea either (because she directed the series but has not written the script herself) or if she does, she’s simply not allowed to say anything about it. And Marvel people always lie, even the actors themselves lie.

This is not to say that Sambucky will go canon because, I, myself, am careful to not hold too much hope to that idea since, again, this is a franchise that has disappointed a lot of people before and for the same reasons. But do not trust the interviews because they formulate answers that are meant to sound prolific but end up essentially saying nothing at all.

Remember they’re growing as characters and they’re developing their relationship in a way that the mcu never did for any pairing be it a romatical one or not(remember Bruce/Natasha? Bc I do and I was more suprised about them than Steve picking up Thor’s hammer in Endgame). No, they’re not gonna kiss tomorrow (maybe even never) but it’s fine to hold a tiny breadcumb of hope.

//I don’t know why people act as if Sambucky just simply does not exist and cannot exist because as far as I’m concerned Sambucky is already canon. They are not a ship meant to be sailed, I mean they were before, when the amount of time they spent in the same shot was close to nothing, but you have to be wilfully blind to ignore all the tropes they decided to shove down our throats. I mean who in this fandom asked for them to roll down a hill? To have a couple’s therapy session with their thighs interlocked? To watch bucky shamelessly try to show off how strong he is to an unimpressed Sam? To know Bucky practically dislikes anyone who even dares to look at Sam? Did anyone ask that? Hell, no one could’ve even imagined it, let alone predict all of that. All I actually wanted was some cute friendly banter between Sam and Bucky because that would’ve been anough after being parched that long for the sheer lack of interactions BUT THEY GAVE US ALL OF THAT. And for what? To end up denying any romanticization between those two? After SAM AND BUCKY STARED AT THE SUNSET TOGETHER WHILST SMILING LIKE FOOLS?

AND SOMEHOW, WE’RE THE CRAZY ONES???

Dude, literally all I wanted was to see Sam introduce Bucky to Starbucks.

#sambucky #sam wilson #The falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws #bucky barnes #mcu #marvel #sorry for the poor grammar but I'm too sleepy to care about correcting any of this #everytime I'm on tumblr I'm sleepy #anyways #i have issues with this show #that I'll probably elaborate in another post #but the thing i have absolutely no issues with #is sambucky

43 notes · View notes

why-this-kolaveri-machi · 3 years

Text

Fic: move on

i’ve been meaning to write this for a while and finished it during a much needed spurt of inspiration - yay!

summary: missing scene from titans 3.08. dick returns from the hospital to the manor, battered physically and mentally. gar finds him.

warnings: big honking SPOILERS for titans 3.08. deals heavily with dick’s canonical mental health issues, including hallucinations.

move on

The manor is quiet when Dick comes back from the hospital; he’s not sure where the others are gone, but he thinks that Gar is still in the batcave. He’s noticed that Gar spends almost all of his time down there these days, from having his meals there to taking catnaps in between obsessively researching on the batcomputer. Dick knows that it’s not a terribly healthy situation, but he’s not sure how Gar would react to that opinion coming from him. It occurs to him that he can’t be a leader and a Bat at the same time, but that level of self-awareness is too much for him to process right now, so he lets the thought go.

For now, he relishes this rare moment of peace. Late afternoon sunlight slants in through the floor-to-ceiling windows and the silence is like a blanket over the sharp edges of the near-constant state of crisis that Dick and his team have been in the last week or two. Dick doesn’t have any immediate lead to follow as far as Jason or the Scarecrow is concerned, and… it’s okay. He’ll get back on that after a minute.

Just… a minute.

He’s got a headache to worry about, for starters: the doctor who discharged him told him it was a ‘mild concussion’ but that seems to be underselling the way his head throbs insistently like there’s someone in there jabbing his brain with a pickaxe, or the way his vision blurs without warning, or how the mere thought of food is enough to make his gorge rise. His chest twinges with every inhale and exhale, both from cracked ribs and the just-starting-to-heal bullet wound. Exhaustion seeps into every pore of his body in the wake of too much adrenaline and too much stress in too short a time, and it makes his joints ache and his skin burn.

And, oh. He’s hallucinating. Again. He thinks about the script for antipsychotics he has tucked somewhere in his bathroom cabinet, but choosing between taking them or just powering through with no treatment is a bit like a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea: not being completely in touch with reality could turn out to be a liability on the field, but he knows from experience that meds take a long time to get used to, and he can’t afford to be drowsy or stiff while jumping off buildings and leading a team of superheroes.

So… the hallucinations are just there, and he manages. He thinks about talking about them with Leslie, but again… too much to process. He’s not sure he has the vocabulary to talk about them or the feelings they engender. Alexithymia, Leslie might say. Who knows.

He’s sunk enough into the plush leather sofa in the living room that he feels enveloped by it, warm for the first time since scarfing down a burger last night while talking to Barbara and Kory. He even imagines that he can smell Bruce’s cologne, and the thought creates a pang in his chest. He misses Bruce. Even when he ran away, even when he thought he hated and resented Bruce with every fibre of his being, there was something reassuring about searching for Gotham news on his phone and seeing amateur clips of Batman foiling some nefarious thing or the other scattered across his social media feed. Hell, he’d even settle for hallucinating Bruce now, as caustic and knife-tongued as he can be. The complete radio silence is unnerving.

(The prospect of him never leaving Gotham again is much worse.)

“Dick?”

Gar’s voice startles Dick, and he snaps his eyes open (when did he close them/?). A fresh bolt of pain ricochets in his chest at the sudden motion, and Dick leans forward and hisses.

“Sorry!” Gar says quickly. He’s standing in front of Dick, a little closer than before, his hands up like he wanted to touch Dick but stopped himself from doing so at the last minute. “You okay?”

Dick nods. If the movement makes his vision wobble for a second, well, it’s not like he or Gar can do anything about it right now, can they? “I took a bit of a spill but I’m okay.”

“Yeah, Commissioner Gordon called,” Gar says, “and she said you nearly died.”

Dick spreads his arms. “A little banged up but in one piece and ready to go. The accident wasn’t as bad as it looked.”

He watches Gar chew his lip and look at him sceptically. Dick misses when Gar would act like Dick hung the moon, hanging onto his every word and following him without question. He’s done so much to shatter that trust and innocence that he’s lucky that Gar’s sticking with him at all; it’s so similar to what he thought Bruce did to him that--

No. No. Still can’t process thoughts like that. His brain is fried until this crisis is done and dusted.

(that’s when you usually throw yourself into the next crisis)

Gar sighs. “You know, Dick, we’ve got all hands on deck here. It’s ok to take a break to give yourself time to heal.”

He looks tired, Dick thinks. He doesn’t remember the last time his team had to unwind, to relax and be themselves without racing against the clock to prevent some catastrophe or the other. He’d tried to schedule weekly movie nights back in San Francisco and tried to take Gar and Conner out as much as he could, but he was always… aware of this barrier between them, the way he couldn’t get their wires to align enough to connect, no matter how hard he tried. He loves them, and knows that they love him too, but no matter how hard he works to deserve that love, he’s afraid that he’ll never succeed, and so terribly, terribly afraid that they’ll realise this and leave him for good.

(The only barrier is that stick up your ass, Hank would say to all of this, and the thought, unbidden, is so much more painful than his cracked ribs or his concussed brain that Dick takes the thought and the ocean of grief it’s floating on and crams it into its dedicated box inside his head before he can break down.)

Dick sets his jaw and gets up from the (warm, warm) couch and shrugs his jacket on. “I’m healing,” he says, “and we’ll all have time to sleep once we can stop whatever Crane’s doing and get a hold of Jason.” He turns to get his phone just as he’s putting his arm in the jacket sleeve, and it’s a mistake: the pain is like a vise around his ribcage, stealing his breath, and he stumbles. Gar is quick to catch him, and they both stand like that for a long moment while Dick catches his breath.

“Dick,” Gar says, and Dick can hardly stand the softness in that word, the familiarity, the sorrow. It’s too much. He can’t deal with this right now. He needs to focus.

He gently shrugs off Gar’s hold. Behind Gar, Dick-as-a-little-boy cocks his head at him, wide eyes blinking like an owl.

“You got any updates on Jason?”

Gar steps back, takes a deep breath. He looks resigned for a moment, then determined. “As a matter of fact,” he says, “I do.”

#titans #my fic #dick grayson #garfield logan #a byronic cupcake #manic pixie pop tart

14 notes · View notes