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thankskenpenders · 4 months

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Sonic Prime Season 3: Final episodes, final thoughts

Well, here we are. The final seven episodes of Sonic Prime are out on Netflix, concluding the story of Sonic's adventures in the Shatterverse. I've previously shared my thoughts on the first and second seasons, which I was pretty mixed on, but there were still glimmers of hope. The fluid animation, Shadow being fun in all his appearances, Nine being fairly interesting as a jaded alternate version of Tails, etc. There was enough to make me believe that after some highs and lows there was still the possibility that this show could end on a high note - or at least a decent note.

This did not happen.

Sonic Prime's final season sucks. The ending sucks, and the road to get there sucks. It's left me wondering what the point of all this even was. There are still moments I like that I'll try to highlight, and the animators and voice cast are still clearly giving it their all, but these efforts sadly don't outweigh the overwhelming mediocrity of the story. I would barely even recommend other Sonic fans who are on the fence go out of their way to finish it. I won't begrudge people who got more out of this show than I did, but I think overall I just really, really dislike Sonic Prime.

...The problem, of course, is that all other discussion of the show has been overshadowed by needlessly hostile arguments over its place in Sonic's canon. So we've gotta talk about that, too.

(This post will contain full spoilers for Sonic Prime.)

The show's out of ideas but they've gotta stretch that shit out to hit the 23 episode mark somehow

Season 2 ended with the big twist that Nine decided to betray Sonic and Shadow, taking the Paradox Prism for himself so that he could go turn the empty world of the Grim into his own little paradise, since he doesn't believe he'll fit anywhere else. Nine has made himself the true big bad of the show.

The main impact this has is that now, instead of fighting endless identical Eggforcer bots and members of the Chaos Council over and over, the good guys and the Chaos Council have to fight endless Chaos Sonic-style robots sent by Nine while he goes "grrrrr I need Sonic's energy to stabilize the Paradox Prism." This continues for six whole episodes until the series finale, when the show decides it's time for Sonic and Nine to quickly make amends, fix everything, and send Sonic and Shadow home.

That's pretty much the whole season.

I cannot emphasize enough just how much of this final season is just fight after fight after fight against Nine's bots, and how fucking boring that gets. The season feels like one long, drawn out final battle that did not need to be nearly this long, but Nine had his big heel turn 2/3 of the way through the show and we've gotta fill up the rest of the time somehow. The novelty of the bots being based off of Sonic's friends (including the Chocobo-sized Birdie from the jungle world) really wears off quickly when they're just used as generic, silent mooks that the good guys have to fight by the dozen like it's the climax of an MCU movie. The first episode of the season with Sonic and Shadow fighting the new bots is pretty good, especially because Sonic and Shadow's dynamic is one of the few redeeming aspects of this show's writing, but after that it just gets boring. Three full episodes in a row are spent showing all the characters fighting robots in an empty wasteland while Nine scowls next to a big beam of energy. I found myself missing the in-your-face attitude of Chaos Sonic so much. He truly was one of the best parts of this show.

While the cast is busy fighting all these robots for what feels like an eternity, various things of varying levels of interest happen. There's a halfhearted attempt to have some kind of rivalry between Shadow and the main Grim Sonic throughout the final battle, but it completely falls flat because Grim Sonic has no personality whatsoever. It's like Shadow beefing with an above-average Egg Pawn. (Actually, no, that would be funny.) There's also a death fakeout with the two other versions of Tails, where they make a makeshift bomb and throw it a little too close to themselves on the battlefield and seem to get vaporized. If they had actually died there they would have had the funniest, most pointless deaths in the entire franchise.

I also realized at one point that they were trying to do the Avengers girl power fight thing with the three versions of Amy fighting a bunch of Rouge bots. This was very funny to me. Actually, so much of this is just following the tired MCU formula to the letter. Fighting over a macguffin, two armies just kind of running at each other and clashing in a big empty field, constant one-liner quips instead of actual jokes, the need to take out key targets to make the whole enemy army disappear, a villain who has a point but has to randomly hurt people so that there's an excuse for the heroes to fight him. When combined with how shit the multiverse stuff is, this whole show really is just Man of Action tackling some of the most played out storytelling tropes in modern pop culture in the most bland way possible. What a bunch of hacks.

By far, the one truly fun thing that happens in this protracted final battle is when a giant robot based on Big appears. It doesn't have arms or legs, but it can swing itself around to use its tail like a giant mace, and it can also shoot Froggy-shaped missiles out of its mouth. I wish the rest of the show was even half as fun as this. Again, Sonic Prime has just enough good moments to make you mad that the rest of the show isn't better.

The thing is, all this repetitive (but well-animated) action and the thin excuse plot would be totally serviceable if I just gave a shit about the characters involved. But I don't. I don't care what happens to the pirate version of Amy who goes "arrr." I don't care about what happens to Hipster Eggman. And unfortunately, by the end, I didn't really care about Nine, either.

Nine as a villain

It's hard to criticize the story here without it coming off as a broad condemnation of the tropes at play. The thing is, I like many stories that try to do similar things. I love clashes between heroes and villains that are really just fantastical exaggerations of more personal conflicts. I love stories where a tragic, sympathetic villain lashes out at the world as an expression of the pain they feel, and a compassionate hero just has to get through to them. I eat that shit right up. Undertale is my favorite game ever made. Shit, I love other Sonic stories that do these exact things. And Sonic having to fight an alternate timeline version of Tails also has so much potential for drama!

So I can very easily imagine a version of the show where all this works for me. That just isn't the version we got.

Like I said last time, Nine's motivation is just too sympathetic and understandable for his sudden turn to supervillainy to make any sense. He just wanted to start over somewhere where he can be happy after a childhood filled with bullying and loneliness. Nine betraying Sonic and stealing the Paradox Prism to go make his own world? That tracks! Especially since we don't even know if Nine will still exist if Sonic goes through with his plan to restore his original world! But trying to kill everyone in New Yolk City by tilting the world 90 degrees, intentionally targeting the civilian population because it'll get to Sonic? Nope! Sorry, that's a bridge too far. I don't buy it. He's jaded and antisocial, but he doesn't strike me as cruel. Writing in an excuse about him needing Sonic's energy to fix the Prism does not make this make more sense.

This was really just one of those conflicts where it felt like everyone should stop and talk it out. Instead we got six episodes of fighting before one of Sonic's many, MANY attempts at reasoning with Nine throughout the season finally works. This isn't me pulling some Cinema Sins bullshit where I complain about characters in a work of fiction not always behaving rationally - the real problem is that it's just so damn repetitive waiting for this conflict to resolve. This could have been wrapped up in two or three episodes and instead it takes seven.

A brief aside about that weird Dorkly-ass Sonic Advance 3 flashback scene hacked together with mismatched sprites where Gemerl happens to be present, presumably just because he's a part of the sprite for the Sunset Hill boss, and seeing him briefly makes me remember the extended cast from the games and how much I wish they had just made a cartoon about them instead of a bunch of stock characters wearing the skin of Sonic's friends, but then Gemerl just explodes with the boss machine at the end while Eggman is shown to get away so I guess Gemerl just dies in this flashback

Yeah that sure happened huh

The ending

Despite having a final battle that felt like an eternity, Sonic Prime is a show that just kind of... ends. And that ending is weird and haphazard.

The understanding I had was that Sonic's normal world had "shattered" when the Paradox Prism was destroyed, and from those remnants these new worlds were created. This is why they use terms like "Shatterverse" and "Shatterspaces" and why there's shattered glass/crystal/whatever imagery everywhere. This is a broken, fragmented version of the real universe. Right? Right?? Isn't that the entire premise of the show? And therefore, if the universe has been shattered, then fixing it means putting all the shattered pieces back together. Which I would assume means that the Shatterspaces cease to exist.

So, in the ending... Sonic's world seems to just exist as another Shatterspace. Restoring the Paradox Prism doesn't seem to combine the worlds or anything, it just fixes the broken portal to Sonic's world that exists alongside all the others. So... what exactly was the point of all the shattered glass symbolism?

Things only get more confusing as the ending progresses. Shadow brings Sonic through the portal before the draining of Sonic's whatever energy makes him disappear, and they're transported back in time to right before Sonic broke the Paradox Prism. Only Sonic seems to remember what happened (Shadow might remember, but he doesn't say anything), and with the Paradox Prism never shattered, it's unclear if the Shatterspaces exist now.

I'm not particularly hung up on the time loop ending. It's very much in line with all sorts of classic morality tales like A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life, where the flawed protagonist goes through some kind of magical experience and then returns home with a new appreciation for the people in their life. It's always been pretty obvious that was the type of story they were telling. I'm more bothered by the fact that there's no time whatsoever spent on whether or not the other worlds and the characters in them continue to exist. Sonic seems to act like the worlds will go on without him before he leaves, but it's not like we get an ending scene that shows how the other worlds are doing, so they really truly might as well not exist anymore. Sonic just wraps up the adventure from the first episode when he gets home, and before he can explain what happened from his perspective he's interrupted by a mysterious energy wave from off-screen and it's off to the next adventure.

(Despite this odd cliffhanger ending, the show is extremely over and not coming back. I have to imagine this is just a "the adventures never end" type ending and not a hint that more shit is going on with the Paradox Prism.)

This ending is also a terrible resolution to Nine's whole arc, despite him being the driving force of so much of the show. The way I see it, there are are three possible fates for him:

The Shatterspaces continue existing, and things go as Sonic expects them to go. Nine is allowed to make the Grim into his own little utopia, and everyone else leaves him alone instead of punishing him for all the trouble he caused. Instead of finding love and acceptance so he can heal from a lifetime of bullying and loneliness, Nine is allowed to run away, isolating himself from every other living being in the multiverse, and live alone as the god of an empty world with only his own creations as company. Sonic was his only friend, and he's gone forever now.

The Shatterspaces continue existing, but because of the time travel ending, most of the events of the show never happened. Sonic never helped defeat the Chaos Council, so they still control New Yolk City. Nine is back to living in this dystopian city with no friends. He never met Sonic.

The Shatterspaces have been erased. After fighting so hard for his right to exist as his own person and not just a "wrong" version of Tails, when the timeline is altered, he just... stops existing. Along with almost every other character in the show.

Do I even need to explain why these are all unsatisfying?

Misc. thoughts

I skimmed over this, but a lot of the final season is just spent seeing Sonic's friends bicker with the Chaos Council and then Sonic has to beg them to get along to save the universe. It gets old.

We also never really got an explanation for why the Chaos Council exists. They can't have come from other Shatterspaces because there ARE no other Shatterspaces. If the original Eggman was just split into five guys or time travel was involved or whatever, it never comes up. I can live with this, but it seems like an odd omission for a children's show that's constantly bogged down in technobabble explaining the mechanics of its extremely small and finite multiverse.

I have no idea where Shadow was for the first part of the final battle. I figured Nine must have captured him off-screen after Sonic first left the Grim, but Shadow was just... hanging around until his cue in the script, I guess?

Sonic saying "help a brother up" to Shadow was funny

Hipster Eggman pointing to one of the few nameless extras who tagged along for the final battle and going "Who are you? Seriously, does anyone know who this is?" was the only funny thing he did in the entire show

Mangy Tails randomly pressing buttons on the Chaos Council's generator like a curious animal and managing to improve its output was cute

Rusty Rose randomly realizes that the Birdie in her chest actually isn't being used as a power source, and that the Chaos Council was just... using that to manipulate her, somehow? I don't really know how that works but whatever

The Sonic Advance 3 flashback uses the actual boss music from the game, but they can't use the real Sunset Hill theme because they didn't wanna pay Masato Nakamura for using the Green Hill motif, I guess

To my fellow fans of bad games: did you know that Man of Action wrote the story for the bizarre Square Enix game The Quiet Man? The one where the lengthy FMV cutscenes play out with muffled audio and no subtitles because the protagonist is deaf, so you can't tell what's going on? And you had to do a New Game+ playthrough to actually hear the audio and understand what's going on? The worst-reviewed game of 2018? That one? I only learned that recently and it blew me away

So yeah, that's the end of the show. I didn't like it, and I don't think I liked the show much as a whole. I am far from alone in this sentiment, but the reasons why people dislike the show... those vary a bit.

The canon conundrum

More than anything else, it seems like most other discourse surrounding this show has been consumed by one talking point:

How can this be canon? Why is it canon?

I want to state very clearly up front that I, too, am a person who's noticed and complained about the inconsistencies with the games in Sonic Prime. Some of the characters are a bit off - or, you know, completely unrecognizable when discussing the writing of some of the AU counterparts. I think it's lame to say Sonic and friends all live in Green Hill and act like that's the entirety of their world. That sort of thing. But if Sega says it's canon to everything else? Sure. Fine. There's weirder shit in the canon.

Really, most of this can be explained away pretty easily. The show was written at a time when Sega was still figuring shit out and there were looser restrictions. Why does Sonic act a little more immature? Probably just because Prime is aiming for a slightly younger audience than the games or the IDW comics. (And also it's, y'know, written by Man of Action, who people have accused of only knowing how to write one kind of protagonist for years.) Why do Sonic and friends live in Green Hill? Because that's the most recognizable location from the games, and the game world doesn't get enough screentime to justify modeling multiple different environments, so they just focus on Green Hill. Why is this considered canon to the games? Because this is the first Sonic cartoon that outright references events from the games as things that have happened to Sonic in the past.

But announcing early on that Prime would be canon certainly let fans' imaginations wander. It was one of the few things we knew about the show before it premiered. People wondered if characters from the games and comics who had never made any appearances in Sonic cartoons might get their time in the spotlight. We wondered if it would tie into the lore or any existing storylines in interesting ways, like the IDW comics do. But above all else, we hoped that its canon status would mean that Sonic Prime would finally be the Sonic cartoon that was faithful to the source material with no catches. We've literally never seen the actual world of the games brought to life in a TV show. Sonic X came the closest, but that still took its liberties. And so hype built for this Canon Sonic Cartoon.

And then it actually came out, and after a brief intro in Green Hill based loosely on the games, it spent most of its running time focusing on things like "what if there was a version of Eggman who was a bratty teen who just wanted to play video games?" The disappointment among fans is understandable. I am disappointed. Look at how much I've bitched about this aggressively mid cartoon.

Some fans, however, came up with an elaborate theory about the series. You see, when asked about the show's place in the game timeline during a live Q&A, Ian Flynn (who only served as a consultant on Sonic Prime and did not write any of it) said this:

"I cannot answer because I know the answer, and you haven't finished watching the show yet."

A couple days later, when answering another question about Prime's place in the timeline and also about a writing discrepancy, he said this:

"As to where it fits on the timeline, I can't speak to it because that would spoil the show to a degree. So you're just gonna have to wait 'til it's done. Towards the other point, I don't know how much I can say, so it's probably better that I not comment. That's a really dissatisfying answer, I know, I'm sorry, but my hands are kinda tied on that one."

I feel the need to quote Ian directly here, because these very basic statements about how he can't talk about behind the scenes shit or anything from unreleased episodes was GREATLY misinterpreted by the fandom. People clung onto Ian's claim that we had to keep watching like a life preserver. Some took it as Ian saying that the ending would explain everything. Finally, we'd have a definitive answer for every little discrepancy and the apparent differences in worldbuilding. An explanation for why Sega and the producers repeatedly insist this show HAS to be canon.

And to these fans, the only explanation that made any sense... would be if the ending of Sonic Prime pulled a Flashpoint.

As this theory explained, the Sonic we were following in Sonic Prime wasn't the Sonic we know from the games and the IDW comics, and likewise the world he comes from isn't really the game world. This is a different Sonic who fights a different Eggman in a world that's literally just Green Hill. It was a hint that something was off all along! But in the end of the series, this Sonic would sacrifice himself to merge all of the Shatter Spaces together and form a brand new world, and that would be the more visually diverse world of the games and comics. According to this theory, Sonic Prime was canon because it was a new origin story for the entire franchise.

I want you to really stop and think about how asinine of an origin story this would be. Really drink this in. The idea that there was another, slightly different version of Sonic who went on a kinda shitty multiverse adventure and then sacrificed himself to create the real Sonic that we've known since 1991. People convinced themselves this made more sense than the simple explanation that a different team of writers got some stuff wrong and Sega didn't make them change it. Interviews where producers talked about drawing on Sonic's "mythology" (ie: they reference the games in the show) were taken very literally - they must be saying that Prime's story is mythological in nature, and that this show would be integral to the games' mythology. Why bother making a show that's canon if it's not going to be crucial to that canon, after all?

The final episodes dropped, and none of this happened. Because of course it didn't. It was all Sherlock fandom-level copium. But fans were left confused by the lack of a grand reveal of where Sonic Prime fits in the timeline, believing they had been promised this, and they turned to Ian for an explanation. Ian's answer:

It doesn't matter, b/c Prime wipes itself out. It's sometime after Advance 3*, but otherwise, it's moot. I didn't want to sour anyone's expectations or investment by spoiling how Prime resolves, that's all. If you enjoyed it, awesome. Savor it. If you didn't, then you can safely ignore it. Simple as that.

* About a trillion people have um, actually'd Ian to point out Orbot and Cubot briefly appear in the show, but if we're really being pedantic here we don't actually know how long before Colors Eggman built Orbot and Cubot, so it wouldn't be fully accurate to say a story featuring Orbot and Cubot couldn't be set before Colors. Either way, a story set anywhere around Colors, or at any point later than that, could still be described as "sometime after Advance 3." Advance 3 is just the most recent game that has specific in-game events referenced in the show. Yes I can feel myself morphing into the nerd emoji before your very eyes

Anyway, this is the latest reason Ian is getting death threats on Twitter. This time it's over a show he barely even had any input on!

I'll cut to the chase. It is truly wild to me that people are getting this heated over canonical inconsistencies in a series as historically inconsistent as Sonic, to the point that they think threatening Ian is justified. The aesthetics of the entire world Sonic inhabits change every other game. Sonic Chronicles may no longer be canon due to the Penders lawsuits, but it was canon at one point, and it took huge liberties with Sonic's world, moving Green Hill off of South Island and reinterpreting Station Square as a tiny outpost in a snowy alpine forest region. Characters' personalities change from writer to writer and based on what Sega wants at the time, with some being WILDLY different across different games. One game Sonic will be stoic and cool, the next he thinks "Baldy McNosehair" is the funniest thing ever. Sega's STILL trying to figure out what Amy's personality is supposed to be. We still don't have the explanation for how the two seemingly contradictory backstories for Blaze can fit together. There have been multiple huge, sweeping retcons, and retcons to those retcons. Sonic Forces claims that Classic Sonic is from an entirely different universe than Modern Sonic, and the plot only makes any sense if that's true - otherwise, Modern Sonic would have already known Eggman was going to beat him and take over the world when he did, because his younger self had already lived through that war. All of that makes no sense in the newly reunified timeline, but Forces is very much still canon.

For fuck's sake, we're talking about the series where Eggman blew up half the moon and then it looked completely normal in every other game after, explained away as "the moon just rotated so we can't see the destroyed side from Earth." This has never, ever, ever been a franchise where everything lines up perfectly with no issues. It's not that serious.

The real core problem with Prime isn't that things don't line up 100% with our current understanding of canon, or that Sonic's characterization means this can't be the real Sonic, or anything like that. The problem, as I've been saying this whole time, is that the story is bad. None of these discrepancies would truly matter if the story was better. They'd just be nitpicks. The fact that Sonic and friends live in Green Hill would be the farthest thing from my mind if the drama was more engaging, if the villains were better, if the jokes were actually funny, if more of the alternate universe counterparts of Sonic's friends had more than one generic character trait each, if the multiverse was more creative and varied, if the final seven episodes of this show didn't devolve into the third act of an MCU movie and then just arbitrarily end, if Nine's character arc actually had a satisfying conclusion instead of ending with either isolation or nonexistence. Maybe we'd be seeing people talk about more than just whether or not it should be considered canon if the writing was any good.

"Canon" is not real, and it sure as hell isn't worth sending people death threats over. It's a storytelling tool. Real human beings decide what does and doesn't go into that canon, or how much they do or don't want to draw on past stories, when creating a new story. Serving that canon is secondary to creating a story where the emotional truth resonates with the audience. And Sonic Prime failed to do that. That is its true failing.

And finally, to close out...

Since people will ask, here are my current ranking of the Sonic TV shows, now that Prime is finished.

Sonic Boom

Sonic SatAM

Sonic X

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic Prime

Sonic Underground

Yes, I'd say Boom is my favorite. It's far from my ideal Sonic cartoon, but it gets a lot of points for being as funny as it is. But the top four are all shows I'd say I like, more or less. They all have their pros and cons.

So now, uh... I guess let's hope the live action Knuckles show coming to Paramount+ is better than the underwhelming synopsis of "Knuckles helps deputy sheriff Wade train in the ways of the echidna warrior" would imply? Maybe we'll get lucky?

#tkp post #other media

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coconut-dreamz · 2 months

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cornelia street

'i'd never walk cornelia street again' | tom blyth x reader

part one

a/n: i wasn't going to post a part two but i always wanted to write a story based of cornelia street and it worked so well !

you blinked a few times at his response. "you couldn't wait until morning?" you answer, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. he laughs at your comment. "maybe i should've, but i couldn't. i've missed you so much lately. i just had to talk to you." you were silent for a moment, you wondered how you had ended up here. it was just a few years ago when you first met.

we were in the backseat drunk on something stronger than the drinks in the bar "i rent a place on cornelia street" i say casually in the car

you and tom were in a cab headed away from the bar you had just met at. you had previously whispered into his ear between kisses, that you rented a place nearby. you were both more than tipsy and definitely not in the right mindset to be doing this.

but that didn't matter, you might have been tipsy on the drinks you had, but you were drunk off his kisses. you gave more than the necessary amount of money to the driver as you dragged tom out of the cab and up to your apartment.

we were a fresh page on the desk filling in the blanks as we go as if the street lights pointed in an arrowhead leading us home

you and tom were walking down the street hand in hand. you'd been seeing each other for a few weeks now. there was no official title on your relationship, you just went on dates and hung out and maybe did things further than kissing sometimes. everything about your relationship was rather spontaneous, but one thing that was constant was that you'd walk home together after every night out. walking hand in hand down cornelia street to your apartment.

and i hope i never lose you, hope it never ends i'd never walk cornelia street again that's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend i'd never walk cornelia street again

as time went on, tom officially asked you out and you asked him to move into your apartment. things were going amazing, especially since he had just landed the role of coriolanus snow in the newest hunger games movie. you were so proud of him, you always knew that he'd be successful, he was so talented.

as tom began filming for tbosas, a strange feeling filled your stomach. you weren't sure what it was at first, but quickly realized it was jealousy when you saw him and rachel interact over a facetime call one time. you knew that if things ended between you and tom, you might never recover.

to you, he was your soulmate, he was the one for you. he was everything. and because of that you knew that if things ever ended, you would never be able to walk cornelia street again. it would remind you too much of tom.

and baby, i get mystified by how this city screams your name and baby, i'm so terrified of if you ever walk away i'd never walk cornelia street again

despite having lived in new york long before you had met tom, the whole city reminded you of him. everywhere you went, you'd be reminded of him. it was both a blessing and a curse for you. he was still gone for filming and you missed him dearly, so it nice to be reminded of him. but every time you thought about how he was filming, you'd be reminded of who he was filming with. rachel. she was so beautiful and so talented, of course tom would rather be with her instead of you. it would be hard to avoid cornelia street if it all were to end.

back when we were card sharks, playing games i thought you were leading me on i packed my bags, left cornelia street

before you even knew i was gone

you'd had enough of the games you and tom were playing. all the constant fights which led to tom's indifference of your relationship. you were tired of it all. you needed to get away from it, you needed to get away from cornelia street. you packed up your bags and arranged to stay with a friend, indefinitely.

too bad tom had caught you as you left, which led to an awkward encounter where you told him you were leaving him and not to contact you for at least 6 weeks. in all honesty, you never expected him to contact you again after that. he seemed so checked out of your relationship lately.

but then you called, showed your hand i turned around before i hit the tunnel sat on the roof, you and i

"love? you still there? or did you fall asleep?" tom interrupts your reminiscing. "huh? oh yeah, sorry." you answer him, brought back to reality. "can i see you soon? i missed you so much. can we just talk about all of this?" he pleads with you. "sure," you almost immediately agree. you'd never thought you'd hear this from him, but it was a welcome surprise. "do you want to get coffee later today? my treat, for waking you up so early. i'm on a short break from filming so i'm back in new york right now." you just hum in response. you can hear a smile in tom's voice as he gives you more details and bids you a goodnight.

you never thought you'd be walking down cornelia street again, but here you were. walking towards the cafe you and tom would always go to, way back when. tom spots you immediately when you walk in. he stands up from his seat and envelopes you in a bear hug. "i've missed you so much." he whispers into the crook of your neck. it takes a moment for you to reciprocate, surprised by the affection and his confession. "i missed you too, tom" you answer him.

you hold my hand on the street walk me back to that apartment years ago, we were just inside barefoot in the kitchen sacred new beginnings that became my religion, listen

after coffee, tom invited you to come over. it felt weird being invited to your own apartment, but you just laughed it off. you had deja vu as you walked down the street with him, hand in hand. as you looked up to the window of your apartment, you remember how you would dance around in the living room together. you remember all of your firsts together in that apartment.

as you entered your old apartment, it looked just how you'd left it. "i couldn't bear the thought of moving anything around. i knew you'd come back so i kept it just how you like it," tom explains when he sees the look on your face. you just smile at this. "i was hoping you would."

"i rent a place on cornelia street" i say casually in the car

it had been a few weeks since you and tom started talking again. you both came to an agreement that since it was your apartment and he was still filming for the new season of billy the kid, you'd move back in and he could stay with a friend instead. you both knew it was too soon to move back in together. your relationship needed a lot of mending to be done to get to that.

tom was back once again for a short break from filming and you'd gone out to a bar with some friends. in similar fashion to when you first met, you whispered into his ear "i rent a place on cornelia street" in between kisses in a darkened hallway. he just gives you a knowing smile as you led him out the bar and hail a cab. it seemed you both would continue to walk cornelia street again.

#coriolanus snow #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #tom blyth #tom blyth imagine #tom blyth x reader #tom blyth x you #coriolanus x reader #tom blyth fluff

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torterracotta · 9 months

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When I heard Gerry Duggan get asked on Cerebro, white boy to white boy, about the unfortunate optics of announcing and then immediately murdering the least white team of X-Men in years, I knew we'd be in for some shit. Man, did he deliver - after some evasive waffling about how ORCHIS is meant to be fascist, and how the story's point is to put the collective back of mutantkind even more against the wall than it was any of the last six times something like this has happened.

And, honestly? That's fair! This year's Hellfire Gala is ultimately the first part of a larger story, and history shows it's not going to last forever — hell, does anyone remember what the status quo was immediately before HoXPoX? At least this time most of the characters have implicitly just been sucked into Mother Righteous's magical Poké Ball, rather than outright killed; if anything, that's an improvement. I was fully content to just think "hey, not for me," and get back to ignoring everything beyond Immortal and Sabertooth, secure in the knowledge that certain topics are bound to be handled poorly when almost everyone in the room is white, when Duggan said three words that stopped me in my tracks:

"Keep the faith."

See, that struck me, because for a lot of us, this entire era of comics has been about nothing but faith. I've been reading X-Men, and engaging with fans since I was eight, and I've never seen the kind of collective buy-in from other marginalized readers that I have with Krakoa. X-Twitter (or, I suppose, X-X) has been Blacker, queerer, more disabled, less homogeneous than the fandom has ever been, all of us buying in to the implicit promise that this time things would be different. Sure, the line was headed by a presumably straight white guy, but there were other voices in the room for a change, and it really felt like they were going to be listened to. We thought we'd moved past clunky metaphor, past queerbaitimg and awkward racial gaffes. Storm and Kwannon were getting to do stuff, Arakko was full of amazing characters of color, Cyclops and Wolverine were probably fucking, we were hooked, and we turned out.

It's hard to overemphasize just how wild this was to see in real time. X-Men has always been allegory, sure, but it's traditionally allegory by and for the majority. For years, the readers who might really feel that resonance, those of us who have been hated and feared for the unforgivable crime of being who we are, we were afterthoughts, tolerated at best. We got scraps, "representation" from creators who seemed to be offended by the implication that we would ever want something other than being fetishized tokens. We were, as Hickman so succinctly put it, told that we were less when we knew we were more. And then, out of nowhere, Krakoa made us inescapable.

The two biggest X-Men podcasts, X-Plain the X-Men and Cerebro, are hosted by queer people. X of Words has been rocking the Black, queer experience like no one's business, Mutant Watch has been a joy to listen to and to be on. Not just podcasts, either, in everything from criticism to fanart to cosplay, voices have been elevated that were previously silent. I mean, hell, I've gotten paid to talk about comics, that shit never would have happened four years ago.

All of that was based on faith.

Faith that we were being celebrated, for once, instead of just used. Faith that for whatever growing pains there might be, things were going to be better.

And let's not fuck around here, there were growing pains. In the first year alone we dealt with everything from blatant whitewashing, to queerbaiting — any Sunspot fan can go into detail there, assuming you can get one of us to stop crying for long enough. While that was going on, we watched Bryan Edward Hill (the only non-white writer in that initial wave) put out a book that was, let's face it, at worst aggressively mid, only to be excoriated by certain portions of the fandom, and dropped by the office, while significantly worse books managed to hold fast — er, hold on. Not to say that Fallen Angels was without sin, mind you, the book was packed with enough orientalism to make Chris Claremont blush. But, at the same time, Wolverine's first year ended with him doing what he does best: trying so hard to be Japanese that I had to check to make sure he wasn't Marvel's editor in chief.

Through all of that, we kept the faith.

Things didn't really get much better, of course. Arakko was a fascinating concept, and felt like it damn near doubled Marvel's characters of color. And yeah, the ending of X-Factor was one of the most poorly handled racist messes I've seen this side of… well, any given day on Twitter. Sure, the whitewashing has never stopped, to the point where everything from X-Corp to this week's Hellfire Gala has had to be hastily edited between previews and release. Maybe we keep dealing with stuff like butchered AAVE, even more queerbaiting, Kate Pryde's funeral, the genocide of almost all of those Arraki characters, and whatever the hell was going on with Lost in Way of X. Maybe there's a very real argument to be made that there's something insidious about three straight years of voting to determine if characters like Monet (who, by the by, has been retooled from "basically Superman" to "Black woman with anger powers") deserve the honor of being written by a white man who's stayed writing with his foot in his mouth. I mean, hey! All my white friends in the scene say he's nice, just like Williams, or Howard, or any number of other crusty crackers who are still proud of tripping over the bar Claremont left on the floor in the 80's!

And dammit, we kept the faith!

Even before the issue dropped, the Fall of X has had a lot of us wary. After all, all of the promotion leading up to it has been white guys saying the minority allegory has had it too good for too long, which, whatever, press copy. We all know they've gotta sell books — they, in this case, being the almost exclusively white, almost exclusively male creative teams attached to all of the books in the line. Sure, as Duggan said, the 616 has a fascism problem, but it’s hard not to see this as a deliberate step back from the almost double digit number of non-white creators these past few years — almost as if Marvel has realized they can make space for a fourth ongoing by their favorite white boy if they just throw out a Voices special every couple of months as a containment zone for the darkies. And, hey, considering how good ol’ C.B. got his foot in the door, I can’t even fake surprise. At this point, it’s a minor miracle any time a person of color is tapped for anything that’s expected to last beyond one issue.

In this issue, as a reward for keeping the faith, we got to see something astounding, something that'd bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical reader — a team that was only half white. My god. And sure, their brutal murder in favor of a team with Kate "Hard-Arrr" Pryde and the Kingpin(????) was only a pit-stop between the resurrection of the suddenly ashy Ms. Marvel and Lourdes Chantel being killed off for the sake of a white woman's angst yet afuckinggain, but ain't that the dream that Malcolm Ten or whoever died for?

The Krakoan era, ultimately, has been the same as every other. Empty promises by white men who show us time and again that there was never any point in expecting anything better. Any meaning we've found, everything of worth, has been what we've made for ourselves.

We've spent years keeping the faith, Gerry, while you and yours have continued to let us down. What the hell do we have to show for it?

#xspoilers #Hellfire Gala 2023 #X-Men

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canonicallyobserving911 · 2 months

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Buck & Eddie: Eddie's Season 7 Conversations

One of the trailers and several pictures from Season 7 illustrate how Eddie will be involved in a lot of conversations during the early episodes.

The first trailer included a quick scene of Eddie talking to Chimney that looks intense and important. IIRC, it will be the first important conversation they'll have in CANON since season 3 (reminder their conversation in 5x4 before Chimney left to find Maddie was cut).

TM (showrunner) released five pictures of Buck and Eddie and Eddie and Bobby that show them involved in more intense conversations but other than the looks on their faces and where they're located when the conversations take place, there's no context.

One of the first pictures is of Buck and Eddie working together. It's reminiscent of the look Eddie gave Buck in 3x18 when Buck was going to sacrifice his own safety for AC's fiancé.

There's a debate about who Eddie’s talking to here but I believe it's Buck based on the ugly shirt he's wearing that I've previously posted about (linked here).

These two pictures were released at the same time and they show Buck and Eddie like they're shown 90% of the time in two separate shots instead of showing their conversation in one shot. Since that appears to be Buck’s work bag sitting next to him, it seems like their shift has ended but Eddie’s either avoiding something or someone (hopefully he's avoiding M like Buck avoided TK in 5x18) since he's still sweaty and working out in the gym 👀.

The picture above is from season 7 and it's Eddie talking to Bobby or Bobby talking to Eddie (who knows) but the times they've talked alone in CANON in the past, it was about Eddie’s involvement in the fight club (3x8), before his breakdown (5x11), after his breakdown when Buck called Bobby to sit with Eddie while he took Chris to school (5x14), his performance review (6x14) or the other conversations they had about his love life (SD and AF) and everyone knows the results of those discussions.

I've included examples below that show Buck and Eddie having conversations in the past to illustrate how they were filmed in two shots instead of one. They were talking to each other and engaged in either a verbal or silent conversation.

2x1 while they were in the firehouse gym.

It happened twice in 2x4, once while they were at the firehouse and again while they were in Buck’s ex-girlfriend's apartment.

3x3 after the Tsunami.

3x5 during their grocery store argument.

3x9 in Buck’s kitchen.

4x4 while they were in the firehouse gym.

For the entirety of the shooting in 4x13 and 4x14.

5x1 near the pool table in the loft.

6x1 while they were in the loft and Buck cooked lasagna for the Buckley-Diaz family.

6x12 while they discussed how Buck was feeling in Eddie’s kitchen.

(There are others but there's a 30 picture limit on Tumblr.)

The point of this post is to show how Eddie’s going to have a lot of conversations in the early episodes of season 7 with Buck, Bobby and Chimney.

I wonder what or who ALL these conversations will be about 👀. Or could they be about Eddie choosing to stick it out again? Only the showrunner, writers and producers know the answer to that question.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #bobby nash #chimney han #911 abc #911 on abc #911 season 7 #911 season 7 speculation #911 meta #911 spoilers #911 speculation #anti marisol #anti eddiemarisol

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faebaex · 1 year

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Adventures of the Gargoyle Studies Club! Ⅰ

author's note: the first of three parts! this is the winner of the 200 follower poll! (o･ω･o) this part mostly sets the scene, so has an array of cameos from other characters, but the other parts will focus mainly on Malleus and reader, probably. this reader was interesting to write, and their personality just kinda grew itself as i wrote! plus i've never written a reader who is a Ramshackle dorm student, so that was also a fun new concept for me to try (ᵔ◡ᵔ) Prefect was also kept vague on purpose, so maybe you can imagine your OC or someone as the prefect too! hope you enjoy!

characters: Malleus Draconia x GN!Reader

background: you are a magicless student who stays at Ramshackle with prefect and Grim, all three of you form one 'student' (Grim with magic, prefect and you with non-magic/theory based classes/exams). You arrived at NRC at the same time as the prefect, but you didn't know each other previously.

Boring.

So boring.

You trudged behind the prefect and Grim as you headed back to Ramshackle dorm, your eyes dull and your lips pursed. At first, when you found yourself thrust into a new world, stumbling around some sort of weird ceremony, you were excited. This world has all sorts of things that were just fantasy in your world. Magic, talking monster cats, ghosts, even merfolk! You couldn't wait to see what this world had in store for you. But now...

Now you were attending school, living a fairly average student life. Not even alchemy lessons were enough to perk you up anymore. And the mysterious, magicless student reputation that you seemed to obtain was just annoying now. How did your exciting new life turn so dull so quickly?

The entrance to Ramshackle creaked open and you sighed, immediately making your way over to the beaten up couch and throwing yourself onto it, letting your textbooks fall out of your arms onto the dusty floor and throwing an arm over your eyes.

"Y/N, you okay?"

You cracked an eye to see the prefect peeking over the top of the couch at you, Grim having run straight to the kitchen to pilfer a can of tuna before anyone could stop him. You groaned, kicking your legs off of the couch as the prefect walked around and took a seat beside you.

"I'm just so bored," you complained bitterly, the prefect tilting their head as you pouted, a sheepish smile spreading across their lips at your words, "this world holds so many possibilities, and we're stuck at school."

"Don't let Crowley hear you talking like that, it would be just the excuse he needed to give us more work to do." The prefect joked, hoping to lighten your mood, but it only caused you to scowl. Jeez, how you loathed that joke of a Headmaster. Spiriting you away to this world and then trying to shirk responsibility at the first opportunity. And then making you do ridiculous tasks whilst holding your allowance over your heads? What a cockroach of a man.

"Maybe there is something you can do where you can channel some of your energy?" The prefect pondered, seeing your darkening expression and hoping to get your mind off the headmaster, "maybe try the library? Or maybe a part time job?"

You folded your arms behind your head and shot the prefect a look, your eyebrow raised, "reading about this place will only make me more miserable that I'm stuck at school. And the only one who'll benefit from me getting a job is Grim, I'm sure. He'll have spent it all on tuna before I even get paid."

The prefect conceded the point with a hum, and you both fell into silence. You stared at the ceiling, counting the cracks on the ceiling before the prefect suddenly exclaimed loudly, the sound making you jump slightly.

"I know! You should join a club!"

You were already pulling a face, but the prefect shushed you and continued on, "Hear me out! NRC has lots of interesting clubs, surely there has to be one that you click with. Plus, you can always quit if you don't enjoy it, and join a different one. Or none at all. But then at least you tried something, right?"

You rolled the idea around in your head, but you still weren't fully convinced. The prefect could see this, and continued to push, "c'mon! Just give it a try. You could visit some of the clubs after classes tomorrow. I'm sure Ace and Deuce won't mind showing you around theirs. There is no harm in it, right?"

You went back to staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore the prefect staring earnestly at you. Still, they didn't stop, and you eventually relented with a sigh. "Fiiine. I'll visit a few clubs tomorrow. But no promises."

The prefect shot you a sunny smile, and you could see why they were the most approachable resident of Ramshackle dorm's ragtag trio.

You stared at the infobook in your hands listlessly, a directory of active clubs staring back at you. You'd already struck some of them from the list as a pre-cursor, namely all the sports clubs. That had near broke Deuce's heart, much to Ace's delight, as he tried in vain to convince you to at least take a look around. Unfortunately, you think this had only encouraged Ace, as you were now following him to take a tour of the basketball club, despite your immediate rejection.

"I have basketball back in my world, you know." You commented as you both made your way to the gym, Ace not missing a beat in his reply back.

"Yeah, but you didn't have basketball with me in your world." Ace grinned at you, and you squinted in return, "yeah, we really dodged a bullet there." Ace feigned hurt, a hand pressed to his chest as he slumped into the wall. You rolled your eyes, the small smile tugging at your lips ruining your irritated façade.

"This better be worth it, Trappola. You know how many clubs I have to visit today?" You warned as you neared the gym doors, and Ace waved his hand at you, "yeah yeah, it'll be great. Just trust me!" He came to a stop at the doors and held his hand out to stop you, his other hand grasping one of the handles. "Just gimme a sec..."

Ace cracked the gym door open just enough to pop his head through, and you were both silent as he peeked around the gym before pulling the door open. "Lucky. I guess Floyd isn't coming today."

"Whose that?"

"You don't want to know."

You both entered the gym, and you glanced around the gym at the few club members that were already milling around, stretching or doing basic ball exercises. Ace span with his arms out, gesturing to the gym, "so this is it!"

"... Okay, and?"

"What do you mean 'and'?! We get the whole gym to practice in! What more could you want?"

"... You would make a terrible salesman."

Ace scoffed at your words, swinging his gym bag off of his shoulder and tossing against the wall. He picked up a stray basketball and began throwing it between his hands, "let me show you how good I am, and then you'll be begging to join the team! I can get this in the hoop from here."

You glanced up. You weren't that far from the hoop, but you decided to humour him regardless, "go on then, I'm watching." Ace shot you a cocky grin, turning towards the hoop and taking his aim. He eventually took his shot, sending the ball sailing through the air... Only for it to his the basketball hoop's rim and ricochet off, landing and bouncing sadly on the floor.

"... Wow." You bit your lip in order to suppress your laughter, Ace's ears turning red in embarrassment. "I meant to do that," he reasoned.

"Wait, can you do that again? That would look great on my Magicam." You pulled your phone out of your pocket as you spoke, aiming it towards Ace as he scolded in retaliation.

"Shut up."

You found yourself yet again staring listlessly at the directory of clubs. You took your leave of the basketball club shortly after their activities began, slipping out before Ace could try and rope you into some sort of activity with him.

With all the sports clubs already crossed off, it left you with few alternatives. And they all sounded rather... Average. The pop music club was clearly just the school band, so that was out. The board game club was out, you could just play board games at Ramshackle with Grim and the prefect if you really wanted to. The film studies club apparently required an audition before you could join, what was that about? Either way, that was out too. Science club was also out. As much as you liked Professor Crewel, there already wasn't much you could do in alchemy class so you imagined it would be the same there.

There was one that seemed to be slightly promising. The mountain lover club... What an odd name. Apparently, club activities included hiking and exploring mountains and it's var. Maybe this could work, maybe there is a chance you explore mountains all over this world and that could be your chance to explore new places? To join, apparently you needed to contact some guy from the Octavinelle dorm...

You sighed as you flipped through the infobook, mostly out of frustration more than any desire for more information. But then something caught your eye. On a forgotten page towards the back of the book seemed to be a listing for another club. The... Gargoyle studies club? You skimmed the club description, and you felt your eyes begin to light up.

Visiting gargoyles... Appreciating architecture... Exploring ruins?! Like real, magical ruins? Where there could be all sort of treasures and artifacts?! For the first time in weeks, you felt your cheeks flush in excitement. This sounded exactly what you were looking for. Your eyes searched the bottom of the page, trying to find who to contact... A student from the Diasomnia dorm, huh?

You slammed the infobook shut and took off towards the Hall of Mirrors, a skip in your step. You had to go find this student immediately. You resisted the urge to run through the halls, lest Trein appear out of nowhere and scold you. He seemed to have a knack for appearing whenever Grim was up to no good, that much was for certain.

You reached the Hall of Mirrors in no time. From your experiences of visiting Heartslabyul, you knew it was as easy as approaching the dorms mirror and simply walking through. After a cautionary inspection, you found the Diasomnia dorm mirror and didn't hesitate to step through.

... Wow, did all the dorms here need to look so intimidating? Plus, they made Ramshackle look like a ruin in comparison. You stared up at the imposing castle that was supposed to be a school dorm building, wondering how much of the school's budget went into this. They even had a drawbridge, was that really necessary? Cool though, you supposed. Oh well, you could ponder over this place another time, you had a club president to find!

You marched over the drawbridge with determination, and pushed open the dorm's entrance door, slipping inside. Jeez, it was so dark in here. Did they not have any electricity? You supposed it fit in with the castle theme but... Wasn't that inconvenient?

You wandered the corridors, not really sure where to start. There must be a lounge around here somewhere, right? You slightly regretted not flagging down a Diasomnia student on your way here, and you hadn't seen anyone since you'd walked through the front door. You let out a sigh, and almost jumped out of your skin when a loud shout rumbled through the corridor.

"HUMAN! What do you think you are doing here?!"

You looked up in surprise and squinted towards the figure at the other end of the corridor, a green haired figure with his hands on his hips as he glared down at you. Actually, he looked kind of familiar...

"Hey, I know you. You're that student who laughed at Grim's test score." You stated, making your way over to him. His expression did not soften, and he continued to glare at you as if you'd personally offended him somehow. Or maybe Grim did, always a possibility.

"You... You are one of the magicless students from Ramshackle dorm," the green haired figure stated, eyeing you suspiciously, "what business do you have here? If you are here to disturb my liege, I will remove you without hesitation!"

... What a strange guy. His liege? And did he have to shout every sentence? But with the look on his face, it seemed like he was about to throw you over his shoulder and toss you out of the dorm if you didn't answer quickly, so you pushed on. "I'm looking for a Diasomnia student, you can help with that, right?"

He scoffed at you. "Of course I can't. I must hurry back and guard my liege!"

Maybe this guy was participating in Live Action Roleplay or something, you wondered, trying not to get distracted by his odd demeanor. "You can guard your liege later. C'mon, I need your help!"

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because his hard expression suddenly turned smug, and he folded his arms across his chest. "You need my help? Of course you do, silly human. I suppose I can spare you a few moments, it would be very noble of me... Who are you searching for, human?"

A smile grew on your face and you flicked through the infobook quickly, trying to find the name before he changed his mind and rescinded his offer to help. "I'm looking for... Malleus... Draconia? Malleus Draconia." You looked up from your info book and to your surprise, the green haired student looked like you had just slapped him across the face. Before you knew it, he was grabbing your arm and dragging you down the hall.

"I knew you were suspicious!" He boomed, his grip tight and unforgiving, not budging no matter how much you tried to pull away or dig you feet into the carpet. "Let go of me, you brute! What is your problem?!"

"I can't believe a spy would be so brazen as to walk directly into our dorm! Master Lilia will know exactly what to do with you!" He spat, continuing to drag you along the corridor as if you weren't resisting at all. Was he seriously trying to drag you into his roleplay experience? Was he for real?

You eventually ended up getting led further into the dorm before the green haired brute of a student dragged you through some doors with him. Ah, well at least you found the lounge, one way or another. As you were pulled through the doors, you noticed two students standing together further in, both turning to look towards you as you were dragged towards them. One was the short boy with pink highlights that you vaguely remembered meeting in the cafeteria on one of your first days at NRC. Next to him stood an incredibly tall man, you felt your neck craning just to get a good look at him. And were those... Horns?! Oh great... You truly had stumbled upon some sort of roleplay group, just your luck...

"Who do you have there, Sebek?" Asked the pink highlighted student, amusement clear from the shine in his eyes and the tilt of his lips. You shook your arm futilely in Sebek's grip, a scowl beginning to paint your face.

"Master Lilia, I have caught an intruder! A spy!" Sebek bellowed, his back straightening as he presented you, grip still tight on your arm. You huffed in exasperation and glared up at him, "get off of me. What kind of spy would walk in here and tell you why they are here! Are you stupid?"

Sebek gasped, seemingly taken aback by your rant, "H-human! How dare you?!" Before you two could continue arguing, 'master' Lilia stepped forward, "now, now Sebek, I've told you about inside voices before, haven't I? And accosting a guest is hardly the manners I've taught you, hm?"

Sebek flushed, from his neck to the tip of his ears, his grip waning on your arm enough for you to rip your limb away from him with a disgruntled pout. "B-but Master Lilia, this human is clearly suspicious..."

Sebek continued to stutter out excuses, his hand travelling up to grip his hair nervously as he tried to justify his actions. You rubbed at your arm, promising yourself that if it ended up bruising, you'd stick Grim behind him during History of Magic class and bribe him with tuna to be as annoying as possible.

"Hey..." You addressed Lilia, who promptly turned his attention, "do you know where Malleus Draconia is?" Lilia tilted his head at your question, and you could feel the gaze of the tall man boring into you.

"What is it you require of our Housewarden, dear?" Lilia enquired, the curious glint in his eyes not hidden by his calm smile. Housewarden? Is that why Sebek was making such a big deal about you coming here? Still, wasn't it a bit much?

"I have a request for him." You stated, and you watched Lilia put his hand to his chin as his curiosity grew. "A request?" He repeated, and you only nodded in response. Silence fell between you all, before a deep laugh shattered it, mirthful in its tone. You looked up, curious of the source, only to discover it to be the tall man with horns.

"I see. To think a simple magicless human would be so brave to approach me in my own abode. In commendation of your efforts, I, Malleus Draconia, will allow you to speak your request." The tall man spoke, a rich, smug smile tugging his lips up as his bright green eyes continued to bore into you.

"... Y-your Malleus Draconia? Then..." You took a deep breath, taking a step forward. Sebek's hand shot out to stop you, only to hang in mid air as he received a sharp look from Lilia. Your eyes shone with excitement and you clenched your hands into fists, holding them up toward your chest in enthusiasm. You looked Malleus dead in the eye, and spoke your request with all the sincerity in your heart.

"Please, let me join the Gargoyle Studies Club!!"

#twst #twisted wonderland #malleus draconia #twst malleus #malleus draconia x reader #malleus x reader #malleus draconia x y/n #malleus x y/n #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twst fic

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nenilein · 1 month

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Hello! Apologies for sending an ask out of the blue but considering your familiarity with localisation differences in persona 4/golden, I was wondering if anything comes to your mind regarding this aspect and how the game depicts queerness and queer themes? Thank you!

Heya! Don't worry, I was thinking people would probably ask stuff like this. After all, I already replied to somebody's tags asking this same thing previously, but I know not many people saw that, so let me use the chance to go into more detail:

Unfortunately, Persona 4's treatment of queer themes is not a result of the translation. The only things that were down to translation choices were small things, such as which pronouns are used in which situation (because Japanese does not at all have the same concept of third person pronouns as English, and the way first person classifiers that mean "I" work is very complex and a lot more vibes-based than actually tied to gender.)

But for the most part, everything is pretty much the same. Kanji's reaction to Chie mumbling about something being "off" about how he interacted with Naoto that first time, the tent scene, Yosuke's extreme insecurity in his own sexuality in addition to everyone else's... I think maybe the only thing that's a biiit better in Japanese is that Teddie is kiiinda genderfluid in Japanese, with the artbook outright stating that he doesn't necessarily consider himself "male" when he's in his bear form, unless it's necessary for a joke.

A lot of this can be traced to the really odd relationship the game's director, Katsura Hashino, has to queer themes. In interviews about Catherine Fullbody (a game which infamously has a rather weirdly handled gay romance route which, however, is notably also the only romance route in the game that cannot possibly result in a bad ending), he talks about how he's always admired queer people for being "strong" and wanted to write queer stories, but couldn't really do it until Fullbody because Atlus higher ups were afraid of backlash from the fans.

Traces of this are actually seen in Persona 4 Vanilla's data, where remnants of a surprisingly well done romance route for YOSUKE, of all people, are still present. That route made it far enough into development to have voiced lines in both, English and Japanese. However, it was dummied out in the final game and its script content was removed. Yosuke STILL has the "girlfriend flag" in the code that all the female romance options also have, but in the finished game it only checks whether you can hug him during his social link or not. Everything else was dummied out. You can still find the voice files on the cutting room floor if you want:

And yes, the "I like you" line is unambiguously romantic in Japanese. His wording is very hard to misinterpret.

However, in the finished game and the rest of the franchise Yosuke's bisexuality was reduced to an in-joke of the developers. It's most poignant in Persona Q (the first one), where if you get the "marriage" scene with Yosuke in the second dungeon, his reactions differ WILDLY depending on which Protagonist you are playing as, far more than other male characters. With Makoto Yuki he acts nonchallant and deadpan about it. With Yu Narukami he acts like a blushy Tsundere and panics constantly. So, yeah.

Okay, so, if the director had interest in writing queer stories since before Persona 4, why is Persona 4 the way it is then?

Well, because - and there's no way around it - he sucks at it.

Katsura Hashino has to be one of the clumsiest "gay activists" I've ever seen in my whole darn life. He finds queer people "cool", but seemingly never had any queer writers or sensitivity readers on his teams and it's caused enormous blunders in how these themes have been handled. For example, when after Persona 3 it was pointed out to him that the writing of the female characters in interaction with the male characters was bad, he immediately hired more female writers and gave them free reign for how to handle the female characters from then on out. But apparently the same thing never happened with his mishandling of queer themes. He wants Catherine's Erica and Rin to be empowering figures for trans women and gay men, but makes a lot of blunders in how he has other characters interact with them to the point it buries his good intentions. Erica's boyfriend having gay panic upon realizing she's trans is treated as "funny and cute", even by Erica herself. Rin technically being a monogender alien really undermines his story of becoming more secure in his sexuality. It goes on and on like that.

The intention with Naoto's story was to point out the extreme sexism in Japanese society and how it forces female nerds to find alternate modes of self-expression, but the clumsy choice of including surgery themes in Naoto's dungeon completely buried that for especially western queer audiences. Most people don't even remember Naoto's dungeon was outright modeled after a Kamen Rider villain hideout. They completely shot themselves in the foot with this one. Additionally, the way Naoto is handled AFTER the dungeon makes her (I'm using that pronoun because she calls herself a "woman" in Japanese in the game) seem more like someone who's on the verge of discovering they are X-gender (the japanese word for "nonbinary") than a repressed girl. Like, right down to how she has Rise help her experiment with clothes in the canonical drama CDs only to realize she really is uncomfortable with skirts and go for an androgynous but less restrictive look going forward. The way she dresses in the Golden epilogue and P4D is pretty X-gender core if you ask me. If they had leaned into that they could have genuinely have had something AMAZING, while also presenting the themes of sexism they wanted to explore, but the lack of queer sensitivity readers kind of ruined it.

Same for Kanji. The way they write him makes it seem like he's bisexual or pansexual, rather than straight, but they kinda shove that part of him aside after his dungeon is done, leaving his actual orientation up in the air and wasting a really good chance for representation. NOW, given what happened to Yosuke's social link, it's quite possible the original intent WAS to explore this more and it got cut, but as it stands, we'll never know. The huge problem of the internalized toxic stereotypes his Shadow presented never being reflected on and put into their right context in the rest of the game, when his social link could've given a great opportunity for that is also a huge shame.

All of this happened because of Atlus being unwilling to let their writers go all out with queer themes in fears of alienating a cishet audience AND because Hashino never sat his writing team down with any actual queer writers to sort this shit out and learn how to get across what the team was ACTUALLY trying to say. Now, given, Persona 4 was far from the only Japanese media property with that exact issue at the time, but it hurts especially much in its case because of the game's themes of exploring the truth to its logical conclusion, as well as psychology. These are issues that a remake REALLY would do well to address and correct. I feel like they actually will HAVE to do that, because sensitivity readers have become the NORM in handling these themes now in Japanese media, rather than the exception. You can thank trail blazing mainstream works like Zombie Land Saga for that.

All in all, Persona 4's handling of queer themes is an exercise in frustration that I hope is corrected soon.

#Persona 4 #Neni Replies #Naoto Shirogane #Kanji Tatsumi

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lavendergalactic · 29 days

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A callout post on Locket. (aka @llocket)

(JOKE & NON-SERIOUS happy april fools)

1. he spread misinformation

i'll be talking about this post where they "defend" nahida being brown

locket spread misinformation on that post because famous non-muslim non-indian tiktok user firestorm703934 said she's based off the moon (not saraswati who has the godly glow of the moon, just the moon itself because that makes so much sense for the god of dendro and wisdom to be based off the moon itself) on a post where an artist drew nahida with melanin

as you see in this comment, they're totally right about their point, the moon ISN'T tan. therefore nahida shouldn't be "tan" either, it's perfect logic

2. sent me cryptic death threats

locket would sometimes send me messages that i don't understand, so i put them through in google translate and you will never believe what they said

this was really hurtful. i cried for days on end after google translating this.

3. cultural appropriation

locket speaks urdu, but they have multiple parts with names of different languages

as you can see here kaveh is a PERSIAN name. not URDU.

and here, kaeya is an INDIAN name. not URDU.

also, one of his parts used a language thats NATIVE TO INDIA (NOT URDU.) symbol as an aesthetic in their intro.

(urdu is a mix of arabic, turkish and persian just so you know, and they are half indian half pakistani, they can use all of these)

4. he was previously RCTA

from 2015~2022 locket claimed to be a different race, he claimed to be canadian and white, not half pakistani and half indian.

proof:

this is from their old carrd from 3 years ago claiming that they're white

here they are seen PHOTOSHOPPING THEIR SKIN to be another race, like wow, why would you do this to yourself? that's so fucking insane

this is their REAL HAND in comparison:

THIS IS SICK. ^

they've also made their roblox avatar white back in 2021 to trick me into thinking they're white:

his username is "J44KU", as you can see it's WHITE

5. copying my work

multiple times locket has purposfully copied my work. taking too heavy inspiration and then claiming it as their OWN.

here you see locket clearly copying my akira and ryo graphics i've made in december last year.

and here you see the CLEAREST COPY IN EXISTENCE. they copied everything about my part noir's rentry. it's SICK

TAGS: please spread the word.

@yaoitistic @hamusie @pwupsicle @venshuko @necroangelz @otoripink @mukurosgf @magnoliawriter @cactiflowering @triokoto

(PLEASE DONT TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY BY THE WAY, LOCKET WAS IN ON IT TOO AND GIVING ME IDEAS AND IMAGES!! please don't actually try cancel my boyfriend for this, this is all for shits and giggles, happy april fools!)

#talking #SERIOUS!! (not)#april fools day

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seventeenlovesthree · 8 months

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I'm not even ten minutes into episode 6 and I'm already dying over the found-family-display we're getting presented here. I don't even know where to start.

Nami being the only braincell once again, staying behind despite having been on the brink of leaving, just to make sure Zoro wouldn't die and gets treated well.

Luffy experiencing not only severe cases of shock, on the brink of PTSD, based on fears of abandonment and just... I've already spoilt myself, so I know the food-related "love language" will be expanded upon in this episode even further by paralleling Luffy's attitude towards Zoro with Zeff's attitude towards Sanji, but already... The fact that Luffy has lost appetite (which was mentioned twice at this point), prioritizing Zoro, his health and everything that's precious to him is just... It's all I could have asked for. Him valuing his beloved sword, having tried to remember its name since he knows it's so important to him... Him asking Sanji to cook his favourite food... And while Sanji warns him to make the right choices, we can tell, Zoro is all that's on his mind at this point.

And Sanji, oh Sanji... He's so enchanted by Luffy, the conversation they previously had, talking about dreams and free will and everything... He's already willing to dedicate his life to Luffy as well, doing everything for him. With the most charming voice+expression you can imagine.

Usopp is, unfortunately, still a little bit in the back in all of this, not on the same level of depth as the Romance Dawn Trio, but I KNOW we will get there.

#opla #one piece #one piece spoilers #opla spoilers #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #sanji #usopp #i am NOT okay #zolu #my two cents

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ingravinoveritas · 2 months

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Firstly i dont think she adjusted since moving to the UK what do u think?

And secondly this post feels that its all about her again like and the character is based on her in real life but the project was longed talk about in 2017 as michael said on the Graham norton show to which michael was with Sarah at that point. It's again trying to be the centre of attention again and stay irrelevant just cos she not getting it from michael

What ur thoughts on this recent of post of Al

So, apologies that it took me all week to answer this--I feel like the entirety of the month of February has just caught up with me, which essentially feels like a lot of tiredness hitting all at once.

I did see this on Monday, however, and I just...am again at something of a loss. I got a bit down on myself over my response to her Insta story from the first preview of Nye and thinking I was overreacting/reading too much into things...and then this happens.

The first thing I would say is that I agree with you that AL is making it all about her again. The post itself comes across as PR, which it likely was because Georgia also shared the same clip that day--albeit with a caption that was actually about Michael/centered on the show. And the contrast becomes even more stark when you look at this post from Caroline Sheen. Caroline is Michael's cousin and she had a small role in The Way, and her post is much more personal and essentially what you would expect from someone who is close to someone in the production. Which subsequently makes AL's post look even more like PR in comparison.

But I think what irritates me the most about Anna's post is that it's yet another instance of her making a dig at Wales. Talking of patterns as I tend to do, she did this previously in September of last year (the #FromManhattantoTonypandy hashtag), and in both of these cases it's her reminding everyone of where she lived before, and likely where she still wishes she lived. In thinking of your initial question, AL may have adjusted to Wales in some ways, but it's clearly not where she belongs or thinks she belongs. I've written previously on my blog about her likely thinking she would be living the celebrity life in New York or London, and Wales was almost certainly a place she didn't even know existed until Michael. So this entire post feels like it's tinged with passive-aggressive resentment as a result.

Let me be clear: In no way do I think that moving to a new country is an easy thing, and it is more than understandable that someone might not love every single thing about the place in which they live, especially if they are an outsider coming from a completely different culture. But the thing is, The Way is literally about Wales. It is entirely focused on Welsh identity and history, and it is a project into which Michael has poured a tremendous amount of his passion and energy and time, which speaks to what you mentioned about him talking about this since 2017.

Why, then, would you make such a snarky comment on a post promoting a show so centered on Wales? That your own partner directed, no less? At best, it comes across as thoughtless and self-centered, and at worst, as deliberately disrespectful.

I can also fully understand why Michael put out a tweet of his own promoting the second episode less than an hour after Anna posted that story. If we are to say that Georgia is a good representative for David on social media--which she arguably is, most of the time--then Anna, by contrast, is the worst possible representative for Michael. And a post like the one above only further highlights how mismatched and wrong for each other they truly are. I also think it's pained him to refrain from tweeting for this long, and now he finally has a reason to start again, for which both we and Michael can be thankful.

So yes, those are my thoughts on AL's story from earlier this week. Glad to hear from my followers as well about your reactions to this. Thank you for writing in! x

#angel19924 #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #the way #trying to provide a balanced perspective #but what's the old saying: when someone shows you who they are believe them the first time #choices #not all of them good #also does she really expect us to believe there is no coffee anywhere in Wales #and why would you use a PR post to complain about your life #i can't #but i will leave it to my followers to make up their own minds #anna lundberg #discourse

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vasito-de-leche · 4 months

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;R1999 DIKKE - General Headcanons

Compilation of headcanons and analysis on Dikke as a character and other related things.

as promised, here's the Dikke post where I go deranged talking about her, since it was one of the two with the most votes in the poll <3

the other popular result was to talk about the parallels and use of racial issues within the story, how the game replaces actual racism for fantasy racism (arcanists vs humans) - so that one will deffo take me some time!

On the subject of justice and Dikke's inspirations.

I've seen some people say that Dikke is based on Joan of Arc, given her righteousness and religious themes - but there are so many more details about her design that point toward other figures!

Like, really. A lot of references to law and deities of justice all throughout history and different cultures.

The most obvious one is Dike, "goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement". In Dikke's interview with Pandora Wilson, they literally address her as "the goddess of justice". And a small statue of Lady Justice, the personification of justice that originates from Justitia (roman equivalent of Dike) can be seen in her insight 2 garment.

It goes without saying that Dikke's sword is another symbol representative of the previously mentioned figures - but to have only the sword and not the scales could have some implications about her way of imparting justice.

I would like to point out that Dikke's sword has these two dangling pieces that allude to the scales she's missing in her design. And sure, it might be a reach, but given how much detail and thought goes into the characters of the game and their designs, I really believe this is the case!

On Dikke's items, we also get the name and description for the sword.

The name alone leads me to believe that Dikke's weapon and its design represents both the sword and the scales of Lady Justice, it's the totality of justice itself. Dikke WIELDS justice, she ENFORCES justice, she IS justice. You're going to get really tired of me repeating the word justice in this post, but bear with me!

On the subject of swords, there are two swords mentioned all throughout Dikke's in-game profile and information. Her insight 2 garment is titled "Sword of Hamurabi".

This is evocative of something called the "Code of Hammurabi", one of the longest legal texts dating back to the first dynasty of Babylon. According to wikipedia, this stele it also depicts yet another deity of justice, Shamash. Wikipedia also makes note of the prologue within the Code of Hammurabi, in which the author - Hammurabi - claims to have been given these rules "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak". This is extremely relevant to Dikke, as someone who fought hard for the rights of arcanists.

Pandora Wilson: I have heard many legends about you. The violent ghost of punishment, the crime-slaying sword of execution, the goddess of justice, the people's savior... Dikke: The desperate always need hope.

The stele of the Code of Hammurabi is ALSO relevant, because the artifact that follows Dikke around explicitly "belongs to some ancient stele". Yet another object that embodies justice and law.

I won't pretend I know anything about Babylonian culture or history in general, so anyone with more insight on this is welcome to add on to details and corrections!

The second sword mentioned can be found in the title for her 02 Story - "The Sword of Damocles".

This excerpt seems to be written by one of Dikke's coworkers, perhaps someone in a higher position of power since they mention being able to give others a day off. Overall, we're reading the thoughts of someone who is abusing their power and who does not think highly of Dikke.

"The story of Damocles is but a story" is something that Dikke herself says. At the end, there's a different phrase written and crossed out - "But the story of justice is not just a story".

Now, the anecdote of Damocles talks about how positions of authority and power are double-edged swords - a king may have all the riches and fortune in the world, but also be burdened with the anxiety of knowing there might be someone plotting against him. In the story, Damocles switches places with king Dionysus, to know what it's like to be a king, but to really make Damocles understand the position of king, a sword is placed above him - one that can fall and kill him at any moment.

With this in mind, Dikke's 02 Story becomes more clear - the first phrase is a warning given by Dikke herself to those in positions of power. The story of Damocles is a story, because not everyone will understand the consequences of being in a position of power. Not everyone will be given the opportunity to even reach such a position.

The author of the 02 Story is not a good person, only considering the idea of giving people HALF a day off, excluding those who work on the fields who will get nothing, refusing to lower taxes for the poor, and imprisoning someone who "interfered with the lord's land acquisition".

The sword of Damocles is also used to allude to the impending tragedy for those in positions of power, caused by the smallest of catalysts. So it makes sense to me that the final phrase, the one crossed out at the end, was either written by Dikke or alludes to the demise of this author at her hand.

And while we're at it, might as well talk about the last remaining item - her robes. Judges are required to wear these when working on trials, but Dikke is specifically stated to wear them outside of them - because she's always imparting justice. She's the opposite of Oliver Fog, she's always on the clock.

We haven't even gotten to another big aspect of Dikke's character - the fact that she's part of the Inquisition.

Without getting too much into actual historical events, the Inquisition as we know it focused on heresy and the conversion and persecution of Jews and Muslims. Within the game, this is recontextualized as a focus for arcanists instead. It's worth noting that her 01 and 02 Stories are written from the perspective of those who are in support of the Inquisition and its practices, or who profit from abusing their own power - hence the wording of "the Inquisition has been abused and considered evil by the ignorant."

There is an emphasis on how the Inquisition seeks power, while Dikke's final goal is justice.

This whole thing and yet another part from her interview with Pandora Wilson, is related to how Dikke associates herself with the corrupt and allows people to view her as a needlessly violent person for the sake of setting things right. On one hand, she could associate with the Inquisition and become a bishop to destroy corruption from inside out - on the other, she could acknowledge that to impart justice, one needs power because they're things that go hand in hand. The Inquisition is only able to have this much influence over trials for arcanists because of the common hatred towards arcanists throughout history.

The interview revolves around all the rumours surrounding Dikke, and we can see her showing distaste at the idea of cooperating with "what [she] shouldn't allow for the sake of justice" while at the same time, not denying her involvement with them. All the things she does are a means to an end.

Pandora Wilson: Does that mean you will cooperate with what you shouldn't allow for the sake of "justice"? Dikke: Fie. Pandora Wilson: Is that supposed to be a secret? Dikke: It sounds like we are talking about a conspiracy, yet it is but a means.

As for Dikke's own relationship with justice and her personal views outside of all the historical references used to create her character, I think this voiceline she has pretty much sums things up nicely.

Everything I doth… is so I may enjoy this calm wind on nights like this, rather than hear the sorrowful cries and moans of unhappiness.

She's a character that is strict in her ways and doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of life, such as the injustice arcanists have been subjected to for centuries. This extreme focus she has for upholding justice does cause Dikke to appear cold, and yet her ideals are almost childish, pure even - a world in which all misdeeds are punished and all good people are heard. Hell, her Ultimate literally purifies all negative statuses.

Dikke could easily lean towards righteous characters who exclusively see things as black or white, yet many of her voicelines and the origin of her devotion, show a very gentle heart. This is made clear by the fact that she's a healer.

Her two attacks and their names speak volumes about her own ways of thinking. Power is violent, power is not something that a judge should have so carelessly, but it is allowed in the name of "justice". Justice in quotations.

And then, actual justice is a rare occurrence, being merciful is not something that rules and the law take into account, but it's needed for those who cannot defend themselves.

On the subject of Dikke's backstory.

There's no resolution to this point, it just came up randomly while writing the previous one, because it just hit me that Dikke's Cover profile does not list where she was born. And that got me thinking about the fact that before settling down, she traveled all around Europe.

First of all, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pamiers is an extremely specific location - one that has ties to the Inquisition, as a very important document regarding the Inquisition's procedures during a very specific trial was found there, as far as I know with my surface level research into history references. This document also talked about how, within this trial, the inquisitor and the bishop had "almost equal responsibility".

We can assume that this is the place where Dikke became bishop officially, if this was her final destination.

This starts to fall within headcanon territory, since it's mostly speculation, but I feel that the 02 Story takes place before she becomes bishop and settles in Pamiers - as a member of the inquisiton, she must've traveled all over Europe to do her job.

There might also be something related to the name mentioned, "Murville", but I don't have time nor the brain to start connecting the dots with actual french history. All in all, I like to think that Dikke was given the position of bishop as an attempt to distance her from, you know, killing every single corrupt person in a position of power by keeping her in a single place.

None of her voicelines give away anything about her life prior her entire journey of justice, as far as I can tell.

If we take Dikke's ties with Joan of Arc, maybe she was a common girl roped into things beyond her control. But I personally don't like the interpretation of Dikke's ideals being born from divine intervention instead of her own experiences, seeing the crimes committed against arcanists and realizing that she would like to do something about it.

Another option I'd like to explore about her background - maybe Dikke did have a relatively safe and normal childhood, away from the stigma and persecution. A nice, gentle life that she willingly gave up after she was confronted with the reality of the state of the world, without Jean of Arc's holy realization. To me, there needs to be an emphasis on Dikke's choice and decision to fight corruption. Making this dedication a result of "God told me to do this" would render her a little shallow - not to say religion cannot be part of her character, but in my opinion, Dikke is best when the focus of her moral compass is a genuinely care for the weak and the defenseless.

On the subject of Dikke and the loss of humanity.

Yes, that's THREE characters in a row that I analyze and that have themes of loss of humanity. There's just so many characters who've lost or given up their own humanity for the sake of something greater or something wicked.

Pavia's was a result of how he was mistreated and as a way to reclaim power, Forget Me Not's was a self-imposed torture originating from his inability to take responsibility. Dikke's seems to be self-imposed as well, but unlike the previous two, her loss of humanity is more of a sacrifice she makes for the greater good.

In her voicelines, we see that she leads a very strict schedule - she's straightforward and curt (but never impolite!) with Vertin, alluding to how simple justice is (if one commits a crime or abuses power, they shall be dealt with regardless of their social status) and how her body is "a representation of justice". Dikke has become a symbol for an idea, the concept of a fair system - she is no longer an individual but a savior, an executioner, a violent ghost, a witch, a threat, etc etc.

The loss of humanity is obvious in the way we do not get to know Dikke outside of any themes regarding justice. It's extremely hard to gleam any information about her childhood, her family, her interests and so on because they've all been displaced by this identity as justice itself. To me, this speaks about how power and responsibility on this scale will inevitably separate you from the people, THIS is the Sword of Damocles, now applied to Dikke as much as it applies to those in line for her judgement.

And yet, there are still very small hints of humanity left within her (still related, in a way, to her goals) in her care for the weak. Dikke's quote on her hobbies in a way reminds me of Sonetto.

The idle chatter of the people is entertaining, but 'tis more entertaining that they are always the first to know about the corrupt behavior of nobles.

Sonetto is a character that is similar to Dikke, in the sense that they both became the embodiment of concepts that ultimately stripped them off their individuality. Sonetto by fulfilling her training at the Foundation and becoming the PERFECT example of a military dog, a child martyr who struggles to connect with others because she was only taught how to exist FOR the Foundation. And Dikke, by all the things mentioned before.

But both of them have very endearing hobbies. Sonetto reads newspapers and collects them to find TYPOS IN THEM. Dikke's hobby is to listen to people talk as they go on about their day, not gossiping but to just listen to people exist.

In the main story, Sonetto's upbringing causes her to have a barrier with the people she truly wants to connect to (Vertin, namely) and Dikke's goal causes her life to revolve around a single thing, now only able to engage in mundane things from an outsider's perspective. She listens to people, she doesn't talk to them. She protects people, she doesn't live among them.

I like to think that, even so, this is when Dikke is most at peace. That she enjoys people watching, knowing they're safe and sound - because it validates all her efforts, it means that what she's doing is, in the end, worth it. This might also be why Dikke tells Vertin that they might be on the same path - Vertin, slowly figuring out the truth behind the Foundation and Manus Vindictae and acting as a saviour for those stuck in the middle.

As for headcanons, here's a couple I have!

Dikke has such a dry and deadpan sense of humour that only Vertin can understand it.

Sometimes, very rarely, Dikke will chime in with the most outlandish reply - straight out of the blue, spoken in the most serious and monotone voice. Those who aren't close to her will most likely brush it off as yet another intimidating thing they can't understand about her, but those close to her like Vertin?

It's THE funniest shit in the world and Dikke, who is very aware of the image and respect she commands, knows it.

Dikke and the artifact that follows her are friends.

Quite literally, that thing is the hand of justice. I like to think that Dikke can communicate with it non-verbally, even though it's implied that the artifact is not created by her arcanum.

Part of me likes to think that Dikke insists on said artifact being just her partner in her long journey of bringing justice to the world, but due to all the years spent together and all, the artifact itself (and whatever entity that shows up in her Ultimate) have come to see Dikke as their protégé.

#reverse 1999 #reverse: 1999 #reverse 1999 headcanons #reverse 1999 dikke #dikke #yes im flexing my 100% bond with her in that screenshot #i only have 3 characters at max bond and its pavia zima and dikke LMFAO

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sassy-bi-latina · 30 days

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I have a new ramble incoming that might get me in deep waters with some bl stans. I'm sorry, I TRULY mean this with no hate.

First and foremost, I want to say I in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM mean hate towards Fourth nor Gemini

Context:

If you know me, you know I'm a ff reader, if you don't know me, well now you do. I mainly use AO3.

I'm currently watching 23.5 degrees, I love it so I went to read some fics.

There are 115 fics under the show's tag. I got excited thinking people work fast, absolutely not realizing the pilot trailer was out in 2022. I knew I've been waiting. I just didn't realize how long.

Previously to 2024, there were only 3 Ongsa fics.

Okay I'm rambling here and I'm not gonna edit the post. I write as I think.

So this is the context. Which brings me to my point.

I'm actually happy Fourth and Gemini are not part of the project anymore. I don't know them as actors. But I'm sure they would have done great. But I'm glad they aren't here.

As I said, there's 115 fics in total as of right now, Sunday 31st of March, but once you filter out Night/North you are left with 37, and that still leaves you with some other mlm tags. If you filter those out, you're left with 22. TWENTY. TWO. fics in TOTAL. And excuse me but I find that sad. And you might think, oh maybe you filter out some Ongsa/Sun fics when filtering everyone else. Yeah, I did, like 3 where they weren't main. And not even the ones left are only theirs but they're sapphic ships of the show. It's 25% of the totality of the fics made, in a show THEY ARE STARING.

Look, I'm the first to say, ship whoever you want, don't let canon cut your wings. I'm okay with people shipping, I'm happy people love something so much they decide to make art about it.

And this post isn't about going against these two actors or their fan base. It's mostly a I'm tired post.

I'm tired that sapphics in media always come second or third or whatever place but never first. Not even in their own shows. It's discouraging.

I'm tired of popular sapphic shows in western media getting cancelled left and right. I'm tired of barely there rep in the asian countries' media I watch. I'm tired of being shadowed by the latest pretty mlm couple.

So yeah, I'm happy they're not here. I know their fans could have brought more views which is a bonus. But I feel we would have media flowing with people talking about them and we want companies that GLs can have the same pull.

I'm happy that we still have gay men rep because I don't want that being pushed aside. But I prefer this approach where the focus are not one but two sapphic couples.

I also like that the boys aren't models and that they look nerdy. And soft and just, I just like this approach better.

If you read all this, thanks!! If you read all this and you're a fic writer. Continue that fic you left forgotten or are unsure to finish. You're marvelous and I love you. Y'all kept me sane during hard times.

Final note, I want to remind, once again, no hate to the actors nor their fanbase.

I also don't know how much sense this all made. Sorry for that.

#23.5 the series #23.5 degrees #23.5

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icyhottodo · 10 months

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love languages ♡

characters: dan heng, gepard landau, sampo koski | genre: fluff!

wc: around 200> per character

✩ DAN HENG + acts of service

dan heng is more reserved, not one to speak a lot or outwardly show emotions too much. so physical affection and words of affirmation are out of the way.

but the reason why i would only include acts of service and not combine them with quality time is that i think dan heng values his alone time.

"yeah. i’m not sure what to read right now after finishing my favorite series," you told the raven-haired man, mindlessly complaining about your trivial problems. dan heng only gave a hum in acknowledgment, seemingly not interested. not knowing what else to say, you turned to the pink-haired girl and started talking to march 7th, who was a bit more enthusiastic to reply compared to your other friend.

after the next few days, dan heng comes up to you with a tinge of nervousness on his face and a small but nicely wrapped present in his hands. "hey, so i remembered you saying you needed a new book to read. so i bought you this book based on books you've told me you've read before."

dan heng looks away as his face starts to turn a shade of light pink, hanging out the book and scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. awe-struck, you grabbed dan heng’s present delicately. "... you remembered? thank you."

✩ SAMPO KOSKI + words of affirmation

okay, hear me out on this one, even though the citizens of belobog can’t trust sampo’s words about changing his scammer ways. and sampo has lied to them many times. one thing sampo never backs out on is his love for you.

"hey, hey, love." sampo walks into your shared bedroom, checking on you to see if you are ready to go on a date with him. sampo notices your lovely figure and leans into the doorframe, crossing his arms. "wow, you look charming." sampo winks suggestively.

you throw a random piece of clothing lying on the ground toward your boyfriend, which covers his face. bullseye.

"i’m so lucky to be with you." sampo whines, clinging to your arm. you had saved the cunning man from being berated further by his doctor friend, natasha. "what would i do without you?" sampo cries out; you’re basically giving sampo a piggyback ride at this point.

but you especially love those times when sampo comes home from those business trips. cuddling on the couch as your comfort movie plays on the television. sampo tends to be more physically and verbally affectionate when he has been out for a while.

"i love you," sampo whispers tenderly. "you’re so special to me. and i mean it, nothing will change my love for you."

✩ GEPARD LANDAU + gift giving

since gepard is one of the captains of belobog, there are many times when he isn't able to be with you due to his duties. but one good pro about being captain of the silvermane guards is that it has a fat check.

so after his travels on duty, he would always try to give you souvenirs. when he is not, he’ll buy even more presents for you.

"hey babe! good morning, i've got you something!" gepard wakes you up excitedly one day with tons of wrapped or bagged gifts laying on the bed. after opening a few, there was one that caught your eye. it looked a bit different compared to the other presents he had given previously. the present was a small black box.

confused, you took a quick glance at your lover before looking back at the present.

"ge…" you said, sighing in the process, after revealing what was inside the mysterious box. the present turned out to be a silver ring that has half of a blue gem butterfly. you know, it must have been pricey.

"it’s a promise ring!" gepard exclaimed excitedly before showing the other half of the promise ring. the blue-eyed man brings up his arm to show the same exact ring, instead the ring is on a thin silver chain. "and it matches!"

"but gepard, it must have been so expensive," you said reluctantly, examining all of the details of the small piece of metal.

"you know, i don't care about the cost of whatever item i give you. because my love for you is priceless." gepard pecks your lips tenderly.

"now open this present; it's the shirt you’ve been eyeing since we were shopping."

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eriexplosion · 3 months

Text

Bad Batch Season 3 Episode Title Predictions

Okay, so I've poked at the trailer enough that I think I can do a series of predictions that is likely to topple like a house of cards immediately but hey what else is this month of waiting for? Here is my very rough outline of what I'd love to see in season 3 based on nothing but the trailer and Vibes.

Episodes 1-3, "Confined" "Paths Unknown" & "Shadows of Tantiss"

These three seem pretty obvious, we'll likely catch up with Omega and Crosshair first in Confined, which is likely where we'll see these clips from the trailer:

As well as probably the (SAD AS HELL) discussion between Omega and Crosshair shown in the Celebrations trailer. Mix their scenes in with catching up on Hunter, Wrecker, & Echo - I'm actually really attached to the idea that Echo is searching for Tech, having not given up on him. This also parallels to Omega talking to Crosshair, about not giving up - I think that's going to be a theme this season. Can't run away, can't give up. But if Echo is searching for Tech then it might just be Hunter and Wrecker right now, likely giving us a few of their action shots together.

I do think that Omega and Crosshair's escape attempt is going to be relatively early in the season - either at the end of Paths Unknown or the very beginning of Shadows of Tantiss. I went into it more in this post and paired up a few shots of Tantiss' defense systems as well as the crashed ship with Omega and Crosshair. From the look of it, they likely don't make it off planet due to the damage and crash land and have to try to escape and, in the process, are split up and lose each other. Possibly they are able to contact the batch, who are on the way to try and get them when things go wrong.

My guess is that by the end of this three parter we'll have Crosshair reunited with the batch, or about to be, Omega on her own trying to evade Hemlock and his men, and somewhere along the line our reveal that Tech is alive because at this point I can't see them not aiming at a comeback with how hard they're trying to keep his 'death' on all our minds.

Episode 4 - "A Different Approach"

If Crosshair didn't meet up with the batch by the end of the previous three, then probably he does it here, I just get the sense that he's been gone for so long that we need to get him zipped up with the others early in the season, especially since we'll have several reunions to get to by the end of the series.

With Omega still separated but hopefully out of Tantiss at this point, they have to adjust how they plan to find her. She's now a moving target, because she's on the run still and likely unable to contact them. Echo will meet back up with them here, I think, maybe with info on wherever Tech is (my prediction: still on Eriadu in some fashion, either held with the good old pirates & smugglers or possibly by Tarkin himself, but I'm hoping the pirates & smugglers) and Rex will likely come too. I do think that they have their exchange about losing brothers here but rather than being about Tech, as the trailer implied, it's about Nemec or Fireball (or both) who possibly died getting the information. I just feel like those two are not long for this world, unfortunately.

We'll also follow Omega here, now completely alone for the first time. Previously she always had the batch, then she at the very least had Crosshair. Now she has neither and she has to try and figure out what to do. The title does dual work here, both the batch and Omega have to find a different approach in order to try and reunite.

Episode 5 - "The Return"

I feel like this is going to be a mostly Omega centered episode. Where is she returning to is the question, I still think that this refers to a place rather than a person returning. Pet theory - Cid put out several bounties on her to try and get her tracked down and rescued and she gets a blast from the past when she's grabbed by Bane a second time and taken to Ord Mantell. She of course is Not trusting Grandma Crimes anymore, but Cid is trying to redeem herself and fix what she broke.

While this is going on, the parallel return is the batch getting to Eriadu in order to set up the two parter.

Episode 6 & 7 - "Infiltration" & "Extraction

With the batch set up, they're ready to go get Tech from wherever he's been stuck! These two are likely more action oriented, with a little bit of Difficulty between Crosshair and the others after so long apart, but they find their footing well enough and begin to work together in order to get Tech out. They're 5/6ths of the way to a full family, they just have one more to get a hold of!

Episode 8 - "Bad Territory"

Getting fully into Pet Theories here but I think that this shot from the trailer

is Batuu - going mostly from the distinctive looking spires here. Another possible Omega focused episode, Cid is taking her to Batuu to cash in a favor. Not one owed to her - one owed to Omega, by Roland Durand. (LISTEN HERE'S HOW INFESTED BEING RELEVANT CAN STILL WIN-)

Anyway the focus here is on Roland trying to link her up with the batch. This might be a good place for Fennec to make her reappearance too, working from the Batch's end.

Episode 9 - "The Harbinger"

I'll be real I have no idea, my ideas started getting thin right about here, but I will say the title sounds like a great place for Ventress and the Teth monastery to make their appearance (I'm assuming they'll be together) but how they would actually play into the plot if they appeared here is unclear. I do think that we'll finally get everyone together though or at least be on our way to it, in order to bring us to our next two parter.

Episode 10 & 11 - "Identity Crisis" & "Point of No Return

The team is back together and all is not well, because everyone is still suffering a severe case of the Issues. No one can agree on what to do, where to go, with the identity crisis being the batch unsure of how to move forward together. Omega of course gets immediately stressed out by it all because it seems like she finally got her family back together only for it to immediately start falling apart. Wrecker is probably right there with her. Tech & Phee have their moment together, Echo still thinks they need to fight and I think that Crosshair is going to tend towards that too. Hunter at least absolutely wants to retire to Pabu right now immediately, but as the show has been trying to demonstrate, avoiding things won't be an option because-

Point of No Return is the dreaded invasion of Pabu. The Empire followed them here in order to retrieve Omega, and they barely escape, evacuating as many of Pabu's residents as possible. Shep doesn't make it out and is imprisoned.

Episode 12 - "Juggernaut"

This is where like a full quarter of the trailer comes from because they can show us several exterior tank shots without showing who's in the damn tank. I think the point of this one will be to get Shep back, since it does look like him that Wrecker is carrying. We know that Crosshair, Hunter, and Wrecker at a minimum will go in, but I think likely Omega and Echo are there (likely together thus being why we don't see much of Echo in the trailer) and Tech might be with Phee.

Episodes 13-15 - "Into the Breach" "Flash Strike" "The Calvary Has Arrived"

Grouping these three together because I have no idea what happens here except that we're likely going to be mounting an attack to take down Hemlock and, hopefully, free all of the clones that he's been experimenting on. The time for hiding is over, they have to take a stand against the Empire. Not because they're soldiers, but because they're a family, and the other clones are still their brothers.

For the first time, we don't leave our own behind can get followed and they're going in.

The Calvary Has Arrived is not a title I can see going dark to be quite honest, it's more of a full circle moment, it's the Batch becoming who they're meant to be, a family that fights for each other and for the other clones, I will cling to the idea of a happy ending (hopefully one that sets up a continuation that might focus more on Rex and his clone rebellion) until it's ripped from my cold dead hands thank you very much. I think that after the family has spent two seasons absolutely torn apart, becoming increasingly fractured, the best ending is one that has them finally united, all six of them, for the first time.

Like Omega said. They're more than soldiers. They're a family.

#the bad batch #the bad batch speculation #VERY SPECULATIVE

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