#greye deserves better

[vacantgodling]

thinking about greye and kirsi being foils of each other and whatnot

#greye deserves better #in a perfect world they could’ve been sisters #but… nay…. #s: alizath

[homosexualjavert]

so valjean, what was your initial impression when actually beginning to get to know the inspector?

Well. My original impression of him was quite a long time ago.

He was at Toulon, which I only found out later, but I don’t recall him from… I don’t recall much of my time there. I remember him, however, as he was the one who gave me my papers as I was released. How long ago that seems now…

I met him once more in M-Sur-M. I never talked to him very much while he had his post there, as I was terrified I’d somehow reveal myself, but he didn’t seem to me as a man of much… well, character. He looked terribly annoyed and bored for most of the time, unless he was pursuing a criminal. He talked to no one aside from who he had to, and had a tendency to glower most frightfully.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I brought him back to my home. I couldn’t leave him to die, and when I saw him jump into the Siene, I jumped after him without much of a thought. I simply couldn’t let him die… He just didn’t deserve it. For the first few days, he was feverish. He was angry and scared and confused in turns, yelling gibberish at me half the time and unconscious the other half. He seemed to calm down more after two weeks. After that time, he was more level headed. However he was… He was very lost. He spent a lot of time staring at nothing and sleeping. I tried my best to talk to him and cheer him up, but he was very quiet and bitter. It took another few weeks for him to warm up, so to speak, and start displaying signs of a personality.

I never anticipated I would actually enjoy his company. When he was done “tweaking,” as you young people say, he was surprisingly companionable. I’m not exactly very friendly either, but he was quite snarky and funny. I enjoyed his cutting remarks, and conversations with him were quite entertaining. It was nice not to hide who I really was, as well. I think he felt the same way.

It’s nearing the end of the second month of him staying with me, and before the whole second existential crisis thing, he seemed to be getting along alright. The occasional few hours of sulky contemplation, sure, but he seemed to be coming to peace with the greyness of morality.

I’m glad he is getting better, but I think I’ll be… lonely when he and Cosette eventually leave.

-JVJ-

#les miserables #jean valjean #valvert #les mis #cosette #inspector javert #javert

[grey-sides]

greye.. steve and billy wearing each other’s letterman’s and freshmen think that billy’s name is steve and steve’s is billy because of it..

Anon! This is a wonderful idea and I took it and made it slightly funnier because Billy's Letterman jacket is from California. It's "hard" to Letter in 1 year so I imagine he would have gotten a jacket from there. Also, did you know that if you Letter more than once they just...give you additional felt letters? You only get one jacket, unfortunately.

“Stevie!” Billy shouts from where he’s sitting way too close to the fire in Steve’s backyard. “Bring a guy a jacket, would you?” 

Steve stares at him blankly for a minute, in what world is Steve responsible for making sure Billy doesn’t freeze to death? It’s probably the world where he allowed Dustin Henderson to tell him to take care of some demon dogs, so Steve turns on his heel with a defeated sigh. 

The thing is, Billy is broader than Steve in the shoulders, his waist is a little less tapered, he can’t exactly take one of Steve’s pullovers without stretching it out. And Steve doesn’t have an abundance of hoodies, his mom thinks they make him look sloppy. So he’s left with virtually only one option. 

Steve’s fingers close on his Letterman jacket, earned his junior year for placing first in Regionals for swimming. It’s kind of a weird texture, but generally warm and Steve stares at it for a minute before deciding fuck it and bringing it down for Billy. 

Sure, this sort of thing is usually reserved for a girlfriend and not the guy you tolerate who sometimes sucks your dick. But this jacket is kind of big on Steve so it’s guaranteed to fit Billy’s stupid biceps. And no girls Steve knows deserve to have his Letterman. At least Billy also has a Letterman jacket from California. 

He tosses it directly at the back of Billy’s head when he gets outside and flops back down into his pool chair. Steve has his Members Only jacket on as always, collar turned up to protect him from the biting wind. 

Billy grins and leers at Steve as he slips it on, stalking over to flex in the fucking jacket. As if Steve can see his muscles through the thick sleeves. At least the kids aren’t around to make fun of them. Nancy and Robin are, but they’ve been cuddled up in the same pool recliner and keep making eyes at each other, so Steve kind of doubts they’re going to notice. 

And Steve can’t bring himself to care much anyway when Billy straddles him on the pool chair and shoves his tongue down his throat. And if the way Steve shoots off almost as soon as Billy gets a hand on his cock is any indication, he might find Billy wearing his Letterman jacket a little too attractive. 

When they eventually make it upstairs, long after Robin and Nancy have left, Steve falls asleep almost immediately. His brain is absolutely connected to his dick because he always does this, passing out right after he cums. 

When Steve wakes up in the morning, Billy is gone and so is his Letterman jacket. Steve mutters a curse under his breath, but tries not to be too torn up about it, it’s not like he was using the damn thing much anyway. 

***

Steve gets him back though when Billy convinces him to go skinny dipping in Lover’s Lake. By some miracle (Billy being an asshole), Steve’s shirt ends up in the lake and he stands there dripping and shivering until Billy offers him his California jacket in maroon and silver. 

“Damn,” Billy mutters when Steve shrugs it on and shoves his hands into the pockets. “Maroon looks better on you, pretty boy.”

Steve just grins and decides he’s never giving it back, it’s comfortable, more comfortable than his own that Billy still hasn’t returned. And a part of his heart flutters when he thinks of Billy wearing a jacket embroidered with a cursive “Steve” across the lapel.

***

There are a couple new kids on the basketball team this season, freshmen who are showing real potential, Harrington. They’re okay, but they’re new and consequently they don’t know anyone’s names. 

Steve’s not sure if it’s because his reputation has stopped preceding him or if it’s because these kids just came out from underneath a rock. But for the first two weeks of playing together they exclusively call him Harrington and Billy, Hargrove because their last names are on the backs of their t-shirts. 

Billy decides for the both of them to not give any of the kids a helping hand and introduce themselves. So they’re only going by their last names until the cold snap moves in. 

Steve takes to wearing Billy’s jacket because it’s warmer than his Members Only jacket, and sure enough, Billy takes to wearing Steve's. Steve teases him because the green washes him out, and Billy finds ways to neg Steve about being whipped for wearing another guy’s jacket. It’s fun, it makes Steve’s heart flutter to know that maybe giving Steve his jacket had been Billy’s ploy all along. 

But it gets even funnier when the freshmen start to pay attention to their jackets. One asks Steve about California and he gives the kid a bewildered look before telling him it's beachy. Another asks Billy if he can help him out with his backstroke for the next swim season and Billy gives him a sly grin and says something rude about a girl stroking his back. It’s just kind of odd and out of character for these freshmen to even be approaching them at all outside of practice. 

Nancy is the one who cracks the case. She has a class with one of the freshmen boys who is apparently very good at calculus. 

“Well he was sitting there, talking to one of the girls that he knows Steve Hargrove and I was completely confused, so I asked him to describe Steve. I swear he described Billy, blue eyes, blonde hair, a mean streak,” Nancy explains over lunch. 

Steve furrows his brow and looks at Billy, making a face. “Steve Hargrove?”

Nancy glances between them and fixes Steve with a wide-eyed look. “Yes! Because you’re wearing each other’s jackets!”

In unison, they glance down at said jackets, with their names embroidered on the lapels. Billy snorts and drags his finger along the curly Steve and Steve murmurs “Billy Harrington,” under his breath.

It sends Steve’s heart aflutter all over again and he snuggles into the jacket a little more. 

#harringrove #anon #greye writes #drabble #stranger things #steve harrington #billy hargrove #ronance #nancy wheeler

[yvqip]

Another rant abt gojo bc yeah except this time its of the moral greyness of his character

‼️slight spoiler warning‼️for ppl who haven’t read the manga

In my last post abt gojo i was talking about his parallels to jesus but ONLY in the aspect of having to suffer for others as a sort of ‘duty’ and their relations to divinity. While yes, gojo did care for his students, riko, suguru, and his friends/coworkers and wanted to protect them, protecting others wasn’t why he was a sorcerer- he even said it himself multiple times that protecting the weak was tiring and that you can only save those ready to be saved- like in the Shibuya arc where he doesn’t hesitate to kill all those mutilated humans whereas someone like Yuuji would’ve struggled to decide what to do in that situation. I always characterized him as some sort of ‘hero’ because of the way he took in yuta, yuuji, and megumi and cared for the rest of his students which isn’t exactly wrong but it’s not completely right. The reason he did all of it was so he could help the next generation become as strong as him or as close as possible so that 1. He wouldn’t be alone at the top 2. To transform the world of Jujutsu and 3. So that the kids’ youth isn’t taken away from them (obv trauma comes with the job but it’s more about preventing unnecessary tragedies like the higher ups sending weaker sorcerers to handle curses that they aren’t ready for). His morals are more self centered as he uses Jujutsu more for self gratification than protecting the weak. Idk if ppl would agree w me on this but it’s been confirmed in the manga panel where he’s speaking with suguru and nanami in the afterlife ->

while gojo’s goals/intentions weren’t inherently selfish they weren’t for a heroic cause, his morals were based on his own emotions and self interests unlike geto whose morals were based on the institutional belief that sorcerers should protect the weak because they’re the strong but unfortunately his morals were founded in his faith within jujutsu society hence the reason why his morals weakened in correspondence to his faith in the institution. Although that’s why I think gojo is a good example of one of the most apparent philosophies in jjk which is, ‘do what has to be done’. This doesn’t mean i dont love when ppl characterize him as sweet and silly and clingy tho!! I adore it and think it really is a part of who he is just buried under the trauma and pressure, i imagine he’d be a lot more like that in another world where jujutsu sorcery didn’t exist! he deserves sm better </3

#jjk #gojo satoru #jjk suguru #jjk gojo #jjk geto #jjk chapter 236 #jjk character analysis #satosugu #jjk angst

[girl4music]

Another thing that Wynonna gets right that Buffy didn’t. I say “right”. What I mean is it’s what I prefer to see. Moral greyness. Without stipulations. Just the simple “I’m a better person than I was before” even when they’re not technically a “person” anymore.

“I do what needs to be done ‘cause I’m a hero. And you know what, yeah, sometimes that makes me a killer.”

“‘Cause I would die to save my sister. Or kill. Anyone. Everyone… I just want to keep my family safe.”

“You can't keep doing this. Killing people and pretending like it doesn't affect you.”

“Right would’ve been shooting that thing and us running for it!”

“He wasn't always a thing, Doc. And if I'm gonna keep killing them and not go crazy, then I need more than revenge!”

“God damn it, Wynonna, they’re bad people!”

“So I’m just supposed to ignore that they’re people at all?”

“You would be dead before you drew.”

“This whole ‘fastest gunslinger in the west,’ that something you proud of? Shooting people who don’t have a chance to fight back?”

“Some people deserve to be shot.”

“Who decides that? ‘Cause the history books say one thing; my family says another. So you tell me, do you deserve a bullet or do I? Maybe, I’ll let fate decide.”

“Whatever side we fight on, the blood we shed to win the war, will damn us all.”

“It’s not a war, Holliday. It’s just a town filled with women who would have us both fight to the death.”

Moral high ground is annoying and preachy. And there’s nothing really to learn from it other than good vs evil. But real people who have experienced both sides know that it’s not that simple or easy. Not at all.

Buffy touches on this a few times. But the problem is they don’t really explore it properly. And they keep to the moral high ground of a hero is always the law. And what that does is it prevents any real moral greyness because the heroes are always the heroes and the villains are always the villains: it’s not how it works.

So in this way - I actually prefer ‘Wynonna Earp’ because they properly explore what should have been explored in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ but never is. They have the conversations - the conflicts - but they don’t have the “am I really a hero for killing them”? And the reason why they don’t is because the canon lore is “demonic possession” rather than demonic corruption. Yet the arcs themselves show otherwise.

Wynonna leans into what is shown in the arcs.

They don’t reinforce the canon lore when the canon lore no longer makes any sense because of the arcs.

With Wynonna I get good AND evil and the fluctuation and the questioning of which side is which…

With Buffy I get “I am the Law and that’s that” when the other characters are challenging the hero on this. But the hero doesn’t learn anything from that conflict.

Because the hero always has to be the hero in the end.

There’s a mountain of war veterans that will say this isn’t realistic. It’s not the way any of that ever works.

So in this way - yes, Wynonna is better than Buffy. And I would even say Wynonna is a better lead protagonist because her flaws are on display and are addressed as flaws rather than just qualities and skills that she has to have to win a supernatural war that she never really gave any true consent to be the collateral damage for. I don’t think anyone realizes that Buffy isn’t a militant. She’s not a trained professional like Riley and Sam are. And she gets a Watcher to “train” her who isn’t either. She pretty much learns to deal all on her own which is inspiring but isn’t realistic. And is - in reality - illegal.

And I don’t know. Maybe there’s some kind of appeal in watching that very nihilistic point of view. But I would have preferred it if this woman got to retire and let everyone else that could and would fight take over. And I would have preferred it if they addressed that maybe not everyone on the side of “evil” had to die ‘cause if you make that damning call then you’re not really on the side of “good” either. You just play god. And I’m not saying Buffy did that but there was no real exploration of whether that is how she’s ending up even when it was revealed that she was part demon. Made from a demon. Whatever. You know what I mean. Belonging to the dark as much as the light.

And so Wynonna did what Buffy was too afraid to do.

And in the end - for me - it just leaves it all empty.

The Chosen One is a difficult concept to work with. But it’s compelling to watch because it’s difficult.

And I just think ‘Wynonna Earp’ did it better in the end. I think it ended the “right” way that it should.

I think it comes down to the differences in the creators/showrunners. Joss Whedon VS Emily Andras. Whedon took the nihilistic approach because he is nihilistic man. Andras took the realistic approach.

So the point I’m making is nihilism is not realistic. And it’s not realistic because there is meaning in the world. It’s just that you have to be brave enough to make that meaning. To determine that reality for yourself without being the arbiter of everyone else’s fate or destiny. Otherwise you just end up being what did that to you. And in all honesty I just think Joss Whedon gave up. You can say that he was always a monster anyway - and obviously cast confessions have testified to this - but I think it’s more likely that he just turned into one because he stopped believing that heroes are corruptible and villains are redeemable eventually - which is the reality of real people. Real human people. And then you have Emily Andras writing the complete opposite to that. Showing the complete opposite of it. That morally grey is the nature of everything that exists. It is only our choices that define who we are. And we step into the role of either hero or villain depending on which it is we choose to do in the moment. It is never inherently the only way to be. And this same philosophy goes for whether human/mortal or not because conscious beings are still real people.

Good VS evil isn’t a good story to tell if there’s no point to it that is actually relatable to real people. Everybody loves the metaphorical unpinnings of Buffy. There’s been books and thesis after thesis written on the cleverness of the metaphors used to tell the story. The deeper aspects to the teen supernatural concept. And it is clever. Absolutely. I’m not denying that at all. But I just think it fell flat as far as the final season goes because Whedon and Co just seemed to stop caring. And it’s just sad to say that others have done it better precisely because it ended better because they cared.

Maybe Whedon drove himself to nihilism in the end 😔

#wynonna earp #melanie scrofano #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #what I think wynonna did right compared to buffy #moral greyness #I guess a slayer is really just a killer after all #emily andras #joss whedon

[maxwell-grant]

Jojo bingo: Father Pucci

And that brings us our second bingo

If Jonathan and Dio are my favorite characters sharing a kind of number one position together, Pucci is in a bloody contest with Jolyne and Jotaro for number two. I would even argue that he's the best JoJo villain. Even with his significantly more nuanced and calmer personality compared to them, he’s just as gloriously over-the-top and ridiculously funny at points as the other main JoJo baddies. He has two of my absolute favorite Stands in the series (Whitesnake alone deserves a separate post for how much it’s personality and powers add to Pucci, who is already complex and fascinating and horrifying even without a Stand that has an entirely separate personality), he’s pro-active and vicious as a main villain to an extent the series hadn't seen since Phantom Blood Dio, he grows in power and scope and personality over the part, he’s psychologically disturbing and fucked up to an extent I'd argue surpasses Kira (y’know, the fetish-based serial killer), he adds a ton to Dio's character and his story culminates in him growing into a bigger, badder and better villain than DIO and, just, Pucci is incredible. There couldn't be a better villain to wrap up the original JoJo saga. One of the greatest villains of all time ever. 

I feel like out of all the main JoJo villains, Pucci is the only one who does pull off being morally grey (Valentine really isn’t, he’s a silver-tongued imperialist torturer and J.Geil-tier disgusting creep who’s just good enough at appropriating heroic imagery that he’s convinced himself and a good chunk of the readership (and the Eyes of Heaven writers apparently) that his deeply selfish and unfathomably monstrous plan is noble and selfless and patriotic. He’s a good and layered villain, but morally grey he isn’t). Having significantly lesser crimes compared to the others, more human reasons and more concrete goals, all of which doesn’t do that much to make him sympathetic, quite the opposite. Pucci is horrifying for a myriad of reasons, some of which have to do with the fact that we’re allowed to understand him and his backstory and his goals, and get in his headspace in a way that’s only really reserved for protagonists. Pucci is one of the best examples of how audience sympathy can be used to make villains more resonating and even more horrifying. Pucci is horrible, awful, even described as “the evil that doesn’t know that it’s evil, the worst evil there is”. And we walk through his journey every step of the way. 

Sometimes this moral greyness gives way to people arguing Pucci wasn’t so bad or that he was the only JoJo villain not motivated by selfishness, which I kinda disagree with. Because while it’s true Pucci doesn’t think of himself as selfish and genuinely believes he’s doing everyone a favor, Pucci’s plan is monstrous, and to pull it off he commits the most unfathomably selfish deed in the entire series. He quite literally breaks the universe and rebuilds it again in order to strip agency from everyone, HIMSELF INCLUDED (even if he does have more power over it than everyone else), so that everyone will accept the fate that’s decided for them and never try to defy fate. This, he argues, is born of “resolution eradicating despair”, which further cements Pucci as a Joestar-gone-wrong, in that he quite literally turns the driving ethos of the series against itself, against the universe and the Joestars. And he wins.

No one has any agency, no one's decisions matter, no one’s at fault for anything. Pucci rewrote the universe so that he’d fundamentally never be responsible for his sister's death, by making it so that she not only never really existed to begin with (since the dead do not carry over with their souls and personalities intact), but even if she did, she would have just learned it’s inevitability ahead of schedule and accepted it and be happy for it, just like everyone else, nothing anyone (certainly not him) could have ever done about it. And this? I find this to be a level of ghastly selfishness somehow scarier than anything DIO did, because it’s so much more human, so much more tragic, and so much more fucked up existentially. 

(People have argued a bit over whether or not this goal fits DIO’s character and there’s room to argue both ways, but even putting aside Eyes of Heaven (which is thankfully non-canon, but it’s take on Heaven DIO was designed with input from Araki himself, which counts for something), the plan outlined in DIO’s Diary was always meant to be fulfilled by a friend and not DIO himself)

And I think this is part of why I’m so strongly in that “Everyone is wrong about them” camp because, people consistently mischaracterize Pucci as only a couple of steps above the average DIO flunky, or someone motivated by a romantic love towards DIO (putting aside the age thing, DIO’s Diary quite literally states that Pucci would have been the wrong person if this was the case), or even non-canon spin-offs that depict Pucci as someone who’d immediately abandon Heaven if DIO was still around to boss him. I fundamentaly disagree with this because Pucci adheres to the same theme of legacy that defines Jolyne. And much like Jolyne, who has to battle for the sake of her lineage and the universe, needs to be better than Jotaro, needs to succeed where Jotaro failed (which she does through rescuing Emporio), Pucci has to be better than DIO. Stone Ocean is the glorious apocalyptic book-end to Phantom Blood, with Jolyne, at the end of the world, forcing herself into becoming the final Ultimate JoJo and wrangling along whatever reality-warping weirdos she can, as she desperately tries to catch up to the new Ultimate Evil who's running away with the plot so fast nobody can catch him until the end. 

Pucci surpasses DIO, in terms of power (he attains a Stand that surpasses all other time-based Stands, including the one that defeated The World), scope and accomplishment (he single-handedly disabilitates DIO’s arch-enemy with relative ease and then kills him by turning his time stopping power against him, as well as the current JoJo and the entire supporting cast that accompanied her, and recreates the world into one where the Joestars cannot do anything against him, and only loses because he, like Dio, goes too far and targets an outsider ally to the Joestars). Pucci isn’t DIO’s 2nd in command or partner or flunky, or DIO-lite, Pucci is superior to DIO, he’s DIO’s ultimate accomplishment, the supreme power he attains over Destiny and the Joestars, within the text. When they do JoJo mega crossovers like Jorge Joestar and Eyes of Heaven, they downplay Pucci’s agency and beef up DIO’s powers to be some multiversal world-challenging menace, just so he won’t be lagging behind Pucci, who already is that in-canon. 

Pucci is horrible because he makes use of every resource at his disposal, everything that the protagonists have, everything that the Joestar bloodline has used over the centuries, Pucci turns against them. Enrico Pucci’s endgame is to rewrite the history and ethos of JJBA itself so he may wrench defeat from the jaws of victory forever, and he succeeds, and I love that this is not at all an exaggeration of what he does. 

Pucci is horrible because everything he does stem from his complete inability to analze himself and admit wrongdoing, to even recognize his cruelty and malice as such, he has such a gargantuan moral and personal blind spot that even his Stand, the rageful melting spectre he bosses around to corrupt and kill people and strip away their memories or give them dangerous powers, is shown to be more introspective and reflective and humorous than the human who wields it, who has to yell at it occasionally to get things done. 

He compartmentalizes everything that comes his way and interprets everything so that he never has to have his worldview challenged, never has to question himself, never has to regret anything that ever happened to him or that he ever did. Everything was fated to be. Everything is a test that everyone, including him, must pass, ergo, he’s on even odds with everyone else. If he fails or fucks up, he’s being tested, ergo, he will eventually succeed. If others fail or fuck up, they’re to be disposed of, such is the order of things. If he succeeds or something goes his way, it was fated to be. If others get the upperhand, he’s being tested by fate, and since fate demands him to survive and complete his mission, he’s got permission to destroy and kill whoever’s holding him back. 

If he does horrible things, well, what’s a few corpses, or a hundred thousand, for the good of the entire world? Would you make their sacrifices meaningless by stopping him? Everything is fated to be, and fate is on his side, not yours. He’s DIO’s God’s chosen. If The Lord wanted him to stop, he’d have chosen someone else, he’d have died by now, but he didn’t, so it falls on him to drag mankind kicking and screaming into the better tomorrow his friend showed him. He barrels through the story with this mindset and even dies screaming it, screaming at Emporio and the vengeful power of the brother he murdered that they just don’t understand anything.

His backstory is so fucked up because we see how he was wronged by fate and circumstance time and time again, how he was just confused and looking for answers, but for all intents and purposes he was a good kid trying to do what was best for everyone. He went to a seminary to find answers, to alleviate his guilt over his (at the time) dead twin brother, to learn about how to find happiness for himself and others. A horrid situation was thrust into his lap by no fault of his own, and he tried to handle it with the least amount of harm to all parties, and he fucked up catastrophically. And that moment, that awful moment, where he finds Pearla’s body and has a moment of self-realization, where he briefly understands he is to blame and, is on the cusp of kickstarting the path that should have lead him to becoming a better person, a morally responsible person, and then

fucking

DIO

who immediately provides Pucci with the escape hatch out of the Painful Moral Growth path, who fills his head with poison and stunts his growth by giving Pucci absolution on the terms that Pucci wanted, not the terms that Pucci needed. What started as seemingly the most benign thing DIO had ever done for anyone (healed a young priest’s malformed foot and left him some parting words) spiraled into the actual end of the universe as said priest, well, no longer needed God, once he figured that DIO could play the part for him, could provide him the answers the church wasn’t giving him, could alleviate his guilt and teach him what brings people together and alleviate his guilt and teach what makes someone happy and alleviate his guilt and alleviate his guilt and alleviate his guilt and alleviate his guilt and

As much as I stand by the idea that Pucci is DIO’s superior and his ultimate legacy, because this is DIO we’re talking about and all evil in-universe springs from him (Araki said as much in the post-scriptum for Vento Aureo that DIO embodies Destiny and Fate), Pucci is also, to an extent, a victim of DIO. This is also part why I fundamentally disagree with the idea that Stone Ocean softened DIO. I don’t agree with the idea that his pursuit of Heaven was out of character either (it was essentially what he’d always been looking for, trying to attain happiness by taking control over his destiny in increasing bids for power and self-transformation), and I don’t agree with the idea that this was out-of-character. I’d argue DIO’s much-vaunted manipulative charisma, while always present, had never once been depicted as horrifyingly thoroughly as it is here, when he truly lives up to the dark messiah image his followers in Part 3 described and when we see how thoroughly he was able to corrupt Pucci, even while doing seemingly nothing but being the priest’s friend at a time of need. Stone Ocean, I’d argue, makes DIO scarier and more godlike in a way no other part (and certainly not those crossovers that did push Dio into actual godhood) did. 

I think Pucci is one of the few religious villains I’ve seen that I like because he’s much more interesting than just a condemnation of particular priests or the church as an institution, and he doesn’t go the obvious route of being an old white bigot (quite the opposite, since those types killed his family to begin with). Rather, he embodies so many kinds of thinking you see within religious circles or mindsets. “He works in mysterious ways”, “He saves all of us in the end”, “only His will matters”, “humans cannot possibly claim to understand His design”, “there is a point to the suffering”, “the suffering will be worth it if you trust Him”, “look out for His signs even if you don’t understand what they are for”, “your suffering on Earth will be nothing compared to how much better your life will be in Heaven”, “trust those that He sends your way to guide you”, “trust not those who fall into the path of evil, the path that is not His”, “your enemies deserve salvation as well even if they don’t know it”, there’s just, so much you could dissect here, in terms of how Pucci speaks to the experience of religious thinking, or even just believing in the existence of God even if you’re not specifically christian or religious (...see why I put up there why I’m a little scared to admit I relate to, or at least kind of get, Pucci? Sometimes I think of Pucci as almost a big Mr.Hyde to the collective experience of everyone who grew up religious and had that shape their worldview whether they wanted or not.).

Pucci, a man every bit driven by the same unsatiable black hole that DIO has (just replace “ambition” with “guilt”), takes all of these, and drives them to an unfathomably horrifying, yet entirely plausible, conclusion. Spearheaded by tangible proof that yes, Fate is real, Heaven is real, and he can make it happen, no, he’s the one assigned by higher powers to make it happen, so long as he just does this and that and gets rid of some vile enemies of his that would rather have all of mankind suffer before letting him win. But, no matter, the sinners always get their due, in the end. 

I hate that Netflix’s release schedule killed the Stone Ocean hype but, no matter, nothing can take away from how great it is and how great Pucci is. Not quite my favorite but one I’d easily argue is the best villain in the series, the perfect apocalyptic pilgrim JoJo needed to bring the end of all things and the birth of countless new ones.

Also, I always read Stone Ocean and applied DIO’s OVA theme to Pucci’s scenes. I love his anime theme, but I will always think of this as Pucci’s theme first and foremost.

#replies tag #character opinion bingo #jjba #jjba part 6 #stone ocean #jojo's bizarre adventure #enrico pucci #dio brando #whitesnake #made in heaven #that scene where he finds the body is so fucked up man #he comes SO CLOSE to getting the epiphany he needed #he was just a lost and confused 15 year old #Dio ruins everything even when he doesn't really do anything #I love Pucci but he fucks me up

[ode-to-fury]

I have not watched the show and I also don’t plan to, but I do hear a lot about it through second hand sources and articles and posts, and I think the worst thing that Rings of Power has done isn’t any of the lore changes or even the story changes (though I detest both of these deep down to the core of who I am) but the fact that I’ve now heard from multiple people that Galadriel and even some of the other characters are unlikeable.

Because I think at its core, any piece of Tolkien writing is about the fact that humans (or other races, if we’re being pedantic with wording) are good and kind and honourable, when given the chance to be. Even characters who aren’t “good” (Boromir, Denethor, Feanor, Túrin come to mind) are not evil. They mainly do bad things out of a desire to make things better, or an inflated sense of self, or grief. Human flaws that anyone can relate to, but this does not make them evil, because at the end of the day they still fight against the BBEG (Sauron/Morgoth).

What I’ve heard so far from Rings of Power reviews and friends who’ve watched it, is that Galadriel is cynical and harsh and plain mean. And that isn’t a Tolkien Character. The writers and cast and producers hace talked a lot about the series “representing the modern day” or something like that in interviews ive seen, and I just… is that what you think of people now? That at their core they’re harsh and mean? That they would leave each other behind when given the chance to? That they would discount their friend’s feelings of dread instead of listening to someone they trust? That women need to be able to wield a sword in order to be seen as powerful?

Tolkien lived through two world wars, fought in one of them, lost a best friend in that same war, could have lost two sons in the next… and he still managed to write a story that said yes everything is bad but at our core we’re good. At our core there is hope and love and friendship and kindness.

These writers… the worst part is I don’t even think they jilted his themes intentionally. I think they just don’t care. They know some of the heartfelt moments in the peter jackson films are really good cinema, but they have no idea why. Like there is just a baseline dissatisfaction with the source material, the core message of the source material, and it almost feels disrespectful. I’ve heard really good things about the portrayal of Elrond, though, which I’m glad about. He deserves all the love in the world, even in a bad show like this.

Now I’m not saying that there’s no unlikeable Tolkien characters. There’s a whole bunch in the Silmarillion that I destest, and everyone hates Denethor, but this is because Jirt is using these characters to show how bad behaviours and bad attitudes reflect on people’s perception of you. And most importantly These Are Not The Main Characters. This is not Game of Thrones, where main characters can be bad people because Grrm is trying to teach us a lesson using them, this is Tolkien, this is Middle Earth, where good wins. Good wins because good will always win, because again and again that’s the story Tolkien tells. Even with monumental losses, good will still win.

Very long rambling post and I don’t know if I made my point clearly, but I really do believe you can’t modernise Tolkien. Not in the way these writers want to, because modern storytelling is all about moral greyness, and cynicism, and sarcasm and that just… isn’t Tolkien. Though, like I said, I haven’t watched the show, only small clips and reviews, but I still think I’m right.

#lotr #tolkien #anti rop #anti rings of power #and i wish theyd just make another generic fantasy series instead of slapping tolkiens name on this #i hate the modern film and television industry

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

PSN2: How to write a mature narrative

In this age of progressive content and boundary-pushing, there is still something missing. Most of the boundary-pushing media is made for children and the media trying to be adult tends to sadly fall into the South Park trap of excess.

Enter Psychonauts 2 and I’d say one of the most mature story arcs I have ever seen depicted. Especially as this story arc has no right answer or an easy solution.

The Maligula story from start to finish has this feeling of regret and every character (minus poor Helmut) messed up in it.

To start with Lucrecia opened her mind and destroyed most of the mechanisms protecting it. That isn't bad, it was a time of experimentation. But when her country was invaded and her husband was killed? She left without rebuilding her mental defences. Yet the most important part of this is that she left at all, considering she must have known Grulovia was a shithole. Lucrecia could have taken her sister and her spouse from the country and emigrated to America.

She didn't, though. Because as flawed as it was, Grulovia was her home. Her family had lived there for generations, they had a history there. So she rushed back home to defend it. Being one of the foremost experts in her field, she became a great asset in the war. Which eventually netted her a high political position, because dystopias are nothing if not pragmatic. Morally speaking, this was not a good choice. Lucrecia was supporting a tyranny as its punishing arm. Yet, this is a choice people often make in situations like this. Grulovia was invaded once, it could be invaded again. People who have faced a defensive war often feel the need to be on their toes, even generations later.

Lucrecia ending up murdering her sister adds to the moral greyness. She did not want to do it, it was an accident. But by that point, her choices had let her into a mental state that was just waiting to explode. Maligula choosing to just drown the whole country makes a twisted amount of sense. The Gzar's orders led to the death of her sister, the country was not getting better.

So screw everyone equally, they deserve to drown.

This alone is a very mature storyline, as it showcases how a person can end up the way Lucrecia did. Many have ended up becoming monsters in similar situations in real life. Minus the psychic powers of course.

Then we come to the fallout of Maligula and how it hurt her friends. How Ford, in a desperate attempt to 'fix' things, ended up creating a massive lie and something that would affect Lucrecia's family generations later. The Hand of Galochio serves as a great stand-in for generational trauma.

He ended up hurting Helmut too since he left the poor guy's brain chilling in the Astralade without even a note stating it was Helmut's brain.

The narrative lets Ford's actions stand for themselves. Was he in the right? Was there another way? The game does not say, because to offer a solution would undermine the story's point. Sometimes, people do awful things with good intentions. Sometimes, there is no right choice but a bunch of bad ones and you must choose one.

 Sometimes, people cannot recover from such trauma. Compton was already a nervous wreck, seeing his friend become a monster was the last straw for him. Bob lost his husband and was already self-medicating with alcohol. Cassie could not figure out the role she should play. Ford destroyed his mind from the shame. Otto was the only one who kept on going, I guess he had better coping mechanisms than his friends.

On top of all of this, the person who ended up rekindling the conflict? A spoiled rotten rich boy who could not accept even a little loss of status.

The maturity of this storyline shows up in all its aspects. The choices the characters make and why they make them are sadly very realistic. The fact that the team split up and could not cope is sad but it happens. The complete lack of any 'golden ending' or an easy way out for the characters shows how intentional this was.

This is how to do a mature narrative right.

#psychonauts 2 spoilers #psychonauts #psychic 7

[wispstalk]

🔥 oblivion and/or actually whichever is your fave tes

oblivion is always going to have a special place in my heart because it was the first one I *really* got into. i think it gets a bad rap for its graphics that it really doesn't deserve. i like the goofy technicolor look of it better than skyrim's gritty greyness.

#asks

[ambrosialpurple]

i find myself staring at our pictures

smiling, looking back

two digitalised figures

but with you a smile i never lack

you're always so sweet

always there to help me when im down

it's incredible that we got to meet

how you take away the greyness of our town

childhood friends

turned to confusion

pages scribbled down of feelings in purple pens

unsure if I'm living in my own delusion

we would never make our parents mistakes

you would be the heart I always sought

in an unknown way my soul aches

for our two lines to merge in the plot

but you deserve better than me

you need that wholesome stability

but I'm the half drank cup of bitter tea

and if I broke your heart, I couldn't take that liability

~ap

#poetry #abrosialpurplepoetry #poetry on tumblr #poet #poetey community #poetry community #poetry writing #blog #feelings #crush

[woluf]

What I love most about IWTV is it’s very much just not about Vampires, like it’s not the whole focus even if it’s the main dish. It includes, very intentionally, so many direct commentaries on humanity both to Louis the recently turned who struggles to see himself as so changed and what this now entails, and Lestat who seeks to eschew his humanity - seems to abhor it even - revelling in who/what he is and can be quite literally monstrous, and yet in his eyes is loving too. Lestat’s love for Louis can be true and real, but healthy or good is continuously up for question, and that it isn’t avoided - nor the variety of feelings Louis has throughout - is what makes this show and their relationship so interesting.

Also everything surrounding race and queerness is very present at the surface and the acknowledgement, inclusion and confrontation of that works as such a balance to the concepts of vampirism: murderous, bloody - sometimes even indiscriminately so, violent and abhorrent. Because humanity, specifically white supremacy and what it influences like homophobia, and being human is all these things too. I just really enjoy the varied levels of moral greyness where Louis can be righteous and deserving in his justice both personally and for his community but also struggles with the necessity of his new existence and how to kill, or if he even can from a moral standpoint. I just love Louis gets to be an incredibly complex character.

(Also the actors clearly LOVE it too and it’s just so obvious seeing Sam Reid act as Lestat he must truly love this role. That love always makes a show so vastly better)

[d2kvirus]

11/12/23 Fact of Fiction

Statement #1: Marvel and DC would sell more comics if they used more big name creators on the marquee titles. FICTION - You know how Marvel and DC will sell more comics? Make it so people don't need to take a spreadsheet with them to their comic book store to make sure they're buying the next issue of the title they're reading, not a spinoff, not an offshoot, not a crossover or anything else that gets in the way of the next issue of the title they want to read being on the shelves

Statement #2: The Dark Knight Returns is not only the best Batman book of all time but also the best comic book story ever. FICTION - In terms of Batman, TDKR is certainly up there, but for comics as a whole? Oh boy, I think I just hear the Berserk fanboys mobilising on that one...

Statement #3: On Amazon Prime’s animated Invincible series, it was a good thing to change the main character, Mark Grayson, from a seemingly white character in the comics to Korean American on the show. FACT - Mainly as I haven't seen the usual suspects on Twitter losing their shit about it while trying not to directly quote white supremacist conspiracy theories, so either it's been handled well or their handlers haven't paid attention

Statement #4: In hindsight, Spider-Man: Brand New Day was a pretty good idea. FICTION - The fact I'm a regular at my local comic book shop yet have never heard anyone talking about One New Day is reason enough to believe that, no, it was not a pretty good idea. I haven't even heard anyone kvetching about it, so I'm going to guess that it also wasn't a pretty bad idea, it was just a big blob of greyness that occupies space for a while

Statement #5: Alan Moore deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. FACT - Not least because, if he did bother to give an acceptance speech, it would be glorious in its curmudgeonly disdain...even if that does run the risk of Zack Snyder fanboys losing their proverbial as Snyder would surely get bodied in it

Statement #6: Tradition aside, digital comics are better than paper comics. FICTION - While my spare room has been a potential fire hazard due to the huge great stacks of back issues piled up in there so I can see the obvious benefit of digital editions - but the point is that if I do some lumbar stretches I can access any back issue of any comic I have in there, and that cannot be guaranteed by digital-only platforms, and then there's the other issue with digital-only platforms which hit ComiXology hard which is if they get bought out as they were when Amazon flashed the cash the platform can change overnight and, potentially, either titles vanish overnight or even the platform itself

#fact or fiction #factorfiction

[belladonna-wright]

You Turned The Tables On Me

As Time Goes By - Chapter 12

London, September 1934.

Jessie tapped her finger on the side of a teacup, watching a bead of condensation roll down the steamed up cafe window. The place was all but deserted.

London was grey at this time of day, with the clouds a heavy blanket overhead. The street, the buildings, the rain, lit only with the flashes of car headlights that streaked by. The city seemed defined by that greyness, all-consuming and bleak outside, and people had scurried for their shelter where they could find it. And yet there was warmth seeping into her hand from the tea, there was a low murmur of conversation between the girl at the counter and the friends who had come in and were trying to make their cups of coffee last all afternoon. 

“I’ll give you a ha’penny for them,” a voice came. 

Jessie blinked, and looked back at the woman sitting opposite her. 

“A ha’penny?” She arched her eyebrows. “I would like to think my thoughts are worth a little more than that!”

“Maybe.” Ellen gave her a look that Jessie couldn’t quite pin down, with half a smile on her lips. “But I’m only a poor nurse, after all, and I’ve got to look after my finances.”

“Oh, very responsible,” Jessie rolled her eyes. 

She didn’t want to say what she’d been thinking. She’d been thinking about how she should leave. She’d already been here too long. Maybe she had needed that rest at the time, to let the world stop spinning for a moment, but now there was a whole wide world out there, and it would probably be best for everyone if she got back to it. She could be far away from grey and dismal London and go somewhere where she could see something new, she could grab life by the horns again and leave this old world behind. Maybe back to America and the freedom she’d felt there from the pressing memories of the war… Maybe somewhere in Europe, where she could try to rediscover the beauty in fresh green shoots springing up all over the place. Maybe somewhere far and distant where she couldn't be touched by memories of the people who had come and gone.

“You know they’ve got an evening showing of The Count of Monte Cristo on at the picture house?” Ellen was still talking, stirring her cup of coffee and glancing between it and Jessie. “Didn’t you say you wanted to see that?”

“Oh.” She remembered. 

“Well, I enjoyed the book, of course, but I’m sure that the film will pale in comparison,” Jessie tried to manoeuvre her way out of making plans. She’d been doing that a lot lately. It seemed kinder, really, to let the young thing go back to her other friendships, to focus on her work. She did not need a friend like Jessie. She deserved better than that.  She slipped again into silence and listened to the rain against the window.

The sudden warmth of Ellen’s hand on her wrist seemed almost scalding. Jessie looked around, and grey eyes met brown. 

“Where are you?” Ellen asked, her head tipped slightly to one side. 

It was hard to be anywhere else in moments like that one, the anchoring warmth of her hand permeating into Jessie’s marble-cold skin. 

“You were a thousand miles away,” Ellen pointed out gently. Jessie had lingered too long, perhaps, in her own thoughts, in the great question of what she was supposed to do next. Yet another reason it was time to be going, time to actually be a thousand miles away. 

“I’m sorry,” she shook her head lightly. “I don’t mean to, there’s simply a lot on my mind lately.”

Ellen did not remove her hand, even if Jessie tried to slowly but firmly shut the door on her. She could try to make clear that Ellen was not in her confidence, and yet the young woman never seemed to take it personally. Instead she simply ran her thumb over Jessie’s wrist, in a way that almost felt like the spark of a pulse in her still veins. 

“It’s alright. If you don’t want to go to the pictures, I understand. You can just say that. I know sometimes these directors really don’t get to the heart of a book,” Ellen smiled, trying to make light of it. That only made Jessie all the more cross, with herself, with Ellen, with the universe. She really had no sense of the gravity of the situation, did she? 

“No I-” Jessie felt the words out of her before she could actually think what she was going to say. “I can only make the matinees… at the moment.” Coward. It was cruelty, nothing more, to keep lying to her. “And I know, what with your shift patterns.” 

Ellen withdrew her hand. The bare skin felt oh-so-cold without it there. 

She sipped her tea in silence, while Jessie resumed staring out of the window. A bus rumbled past, some women made their way by, the rain kept falling. “You know you don’t have to make up excuses?” 

Ellen’s voice was low. Jessie looked at her, trying to read that face, before her own slipped into a mask of polite confusion. “Ellen? Whatever do you mean?”

“You don’t ever want to make plans after nightfall. Because you’re worried I’ll see something I shouldn’t.” She issued it like a challenge. Jessie stared at her in surprise, her lips parting slightly as she opened her mouth to issue a denial that didn’t come, her brow furrowed a fraction ready to question what on earth she was talking about, but she did not speak. Instead she searched Ellen’s face, the conviction shining in it. 

“Like…” Ellen swallowed, looking a fraction uncertain as she leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Like your fangs?”

She should have left, should have left while it was safe. Jessie cursed herself internally. Fool. It was never worth staying. This was why you didn’t stay, why you never let yourself stay. It was rule number one. 

“H-” Jessie paused, trying to work out what she could even say here. She should, of course, lie. Act scandalised and confused and cut off all contact on the pretence that Ellen had lost her damn mind. 

“How?”

“How did I know?” There was something in Ellen’s face that was, for a moment, terrifying, as her lips curled into a laugh and it felt like betrayal. But those eyes never grew cold. Instead they looked at Jessie with warmth. “I always knew.”

Jessie shook her head a little. That wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be right, could it? She had hidden herself well, been careful, been cautious, never given much away… she may have lingered too long here but she had not been so stupid as to-

“Mr Wright told me. Jed…”

The name still felt like a dull ache in her chest. 

“He told some of us nurses. He wasn’t sure how it worked, you see.” The smile vanished from Ellen’s face as she looked at Jessie’s face, the flicker there. “He didn’t want you to be alone… if he was asleep, and couldn’t ask you in.” 

That kindness was almost more than her taut shoulders could bear. Jessie closed her eyes for a long second. Oh Jed. Kind, foolish, hopeless boy. Did he have any idea what he had done? What danger he could have brought on them all? 

There was a weight to this secret, it was all-consuming. She had to move on, never let people come too close, manage her feeding responsibly, never arouse suspicion, accept that life could hold little warmth for her because it was better to live around the edges of the campfire than to let herself get warm, and then be turned away, as was inevitable. 

Jessie closed her eyes. It had been nice, she supposed, while it lasted. She would remember those moments, when she could pretend to live a normal life; walking through shaded boulevards of trees laughing about the latest work gossip, the sight of Ellen singing in the passenger seat of her car as she steered them along green country lanes, the touch of her hand on an arm when she got excited. How simple, the things one missed without realising you had missed them. Warmth. Companionship. A genuine laugh. 

Her eyes opened. It was almost a shock to see the chair opposite her still filled. She had expected, somehow, that Ellen would have fled, like a thief in the night, faded like an autumn morning's mist, be gone from her now in all but memories. But there she still was, sitting, her head tipped slightly to one side as if she was waiting for something. 

It took a moment, before a quiet hopeful voice sounded in Jessie, like a whisper. She’s still here. And if she had always known… 

Jessie withdrew her hand, eyes widening slightly. No, no. That couldn’t be right, could it? There was something here she wasn’t seeing, some… awful thing that would spring out at her in a moment. A trap? Vampire hunter? Or was Ellen some crazed vampire-obsessive or…

“Jessie!” Ellen chided her, before casting a guilty glance at the people at the counter, and lowering her voice again. “Look at me. You know me.”

Did she? Jessie folded her arms across her chest, more resolved than ever to leave. She would put this all far behind her, she reached for the back of her hair ready to stand up-

“I’m not scared of you.”

Ellen was looking into her eyes. Somehow that made it worse. 

“I was. At first.” She spoke low and quiet, glancing again to make sure they weren’t being overheard. “But then I saw you, Jessie. I saw you. Sitting and reading the cricket scores to Jed even though you think it’s a silly sport. Clearing out and giving the family space every time they showed up… you sat with him all those hours.” Ellen broke off. “You never once pushed him. I know you could have.” 

Jessie shook her head. No. No she wasn’t going to talk about this. Ellen did not know what she was talking about, it wasn’t that simple. She didn’t know Jessie, she would never know Jessie. Jessie wouldn’t let her, and if she ever did really see her then Ellen would run for the hills as fast as she damn well could. 

“I’m not scared of you. You don’t have to try to hide from me.” The sincerity in her words almost burned. 

Well if Ellen would not run and hide, then Jessie would simply have to do it for her. She was good at running; she had run from the farm when things got hard, had driven her husband away, had run from the boys when their futures together forever became a little too real for them all, had run from every city and every person she’d known since. She would run a little more, it would be good to stretch the legs again and reinvent herself. 

And yet she did not stand up.

#you turned the tables on me #as time goes by

[bratz-kitten]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS • PART NINE 🦋

many cancer suns i know just… LOVE appearing slightly spooky. like. having their nails painted black, big silver rings on every other finger, snake, skeleton, etc. jewellery on (they’re a sucker for lots of jewellery by the way, and they can be very good at layering), alternative style of clothing, chokers and very intense eyeshadow. hu tao kinnies, i swear

i’ve observed that having MERCURY, saturn, pluto, URANUS, neptune in the 3rd house is a huge indicator of struggling with mental illnesses. this is because the 3rd house deals with our mental processes and the perspective in which we take in the world around us. saturn, pluto and neptune are malefic planets, which bring a lot of difficulties and obstacles to overcome, while mercury and uranus have a very inconstant and volatile energy that brings a lot of unpredictable transformations and can make our minds prone to a very unstable nature/coping mechanisms, which is why i put those two planets in all caps. but of course, remember that mental health is a very complex subject and it’s much more complicated than this, plus birth chart interpretations are different and personal to everyone

mercury also deals with our mental processes, it’s the very essence of how our mind works and takes in life, so a highly aspected mercury can make someone have a very fascinating and complex way of thinking, filled with contradictions and different ways of seeing things. it can also make you very introspective because your mind is a very alive and active place

going by that line of thinking, i believe your most aspected planets are the areas in your life where there is the most ground for complexity. the same way people with a highly aspected mercury have a very complex mind, people with a highly aspected moon have a very complex, perhaps even confusing and intense emotional life and relationship with their childhood sense of nourishment and mother figure; your least aspected planets can be the most direct and “in your face” kind of black or white that doesn’t give much space for the greyness.

pluto can be very tied with your feelings of guilt and shame, so its house in your birth chart + the planets it affects can give you huge insight into where you feel guilty. people with a highly aspected pluto in general deal with a HUGE amount of guilt over everything, even things completely out of their control—which can be very burdensome and downright debilitating, due to living life through a constant fear that they’ve hurt others and are guilty of their suffering, feeling very guilty over minor things, etc. but going back to pluto and the themes of guilt you deal with, let me give you an example: i have pluto in the 9th house and i come from a very religious household, and i deal with a lot of religious guilt. pluto aspects my ascendant and i often feel guilty when i feel like i look hot because i feel like i somehow don’t deserve to experience a good self-esteem; pluto aspects my mercury and i feel very guilty over the judgments i make of others, guilt over my intrusive thoughts and stuff like that. i imagine that if pluto aspects your venus, you can feel very guilty over your necessity for love and openly expressing your affection for others, you can also feel ashamed of your past romantic endeavors. pluto aspecting your mars can make you very ashamed of your aggressive and impulsive drive, over the way that you assert yourself. pluto aspecting saturn can make you feel much too guilty when disobeying rules and being irresponsible, you can go beyond and above to be thoughtful towards other people so when you don’t, it makes you ashamed of your behavior, and you can feel veryyyy guilty when you lose control.

having sun conjunct venus is like. oh, im sorry for being fun and flirty and a delight to be around, for being the sun that lights up the life of the people around me, for seeing always the good side of things and being eternally hopeful for better days, for laughing loud and hard and constantly and believing in the goodness of human nature, it is absolutely my fault and i WILL do it again! 😌🦋

mars in aries people…. my beloathed. i urge you to be more mindful and patient with others because time and time again i see people with this placement lashing out on others unprovoked because they can’t keep their own emotions in check. your loved ones shouldn’t be dealing with your explosive tantrums and passive-aggressive silent treatment when they have nothing to do with the emotional battle you’re facing. please do be more considerate

people with jupiter in the 2nd house can be hoarders and feel very attracted towards collecting things of their interest—if you’re into spirituality you can collect crystals, if you’re into anime/kpop/books/video games you can collect a lot of merch of the fandoms you’re in and put a lot of emotional baggage on said collections, which can be hard to break and can develop into a shopping addiction. marie kondo speaks to your hearts

i don’t know which venus in the 7th house/10th house/11th house needs to hear this but you can’t keep using your sex appeal to establish connections and then wonder why all your friends either (1) are in love with you or (2) want to fuck you, have a great day you charming little shit

i fully believe that in pride and prejudice’s book, elizabeth is 100% a gemini, and with heavy gemini influence (in the book, because when i think of the 2005 movie, it’s no surprise that she’s always talked of as a capricorn—but the movie and the book portray her character much differently i feel). her biggest and most distinct personality trait is her wittiness and fondness for analyzing other people’s character; she uses words VERY provocatively and constantly analyzes past recollections, memories, even letters so that she can see them from a different perspective and find the subliminal meanings in them that she missed. i legit cannot think of a character who embodies the gemini archetype more than her, so much of her is tied to her sharpness and even her flaws are tied to the way her mind works, aka her prejudice. AND her biggest trigger is her family embarrassing her with their lack of social intelligence. IT’S SO PERFECT

venus in the 10th house is the biggest milf placement. people with this placement age backwards and tend to grow into their beauty, to bloom more and more as the years go by. the perfect example i have for this is alex (hrh collection) on youtube—i swear she looks more youthful and glowing every time i see her, it’s mystifying

love is stored in the kitchen for 2nd house moons. cook for them and they’ll feel so overwhelmed with emotion, they often forget to take care of themselves so when someone takes the time to prepare them a fresh and cozy meal, it’s the biggest proof of affection for them. and they’ll reciprocate your energy eagerness because they secretly love to take care of others as well, they give peak caretaker energy

in synastry, when your venus conjuncts someone’s venus, people can ship you together a LOT. people can always assume you guys are a couple and you can be constantly told that you’d be very cute together; you can be very soft for each other which makes others suspect you’re more than friends even when you’re just platonic. you guys literally give each other love eyes whenever you’re close

people with mars in the 4th house seem ALWAYS at war with themselves; i swear they could be talking to the wall and still get very argumentative. and, you can bet they will defend themselves to the very end. you can try to come for them, but they’ll always rise stronger and with more perseverance. also, they can give off a very aggressive energy (especially if they have aries in their chart)—even when they want peace and to chill, people think they’re looking for a fight.

the body part which your saturn rules can be the one you use the most, and become more practiced with. i have saturn in gemini and i’m a writer, my bestie also has a gemini saturn and she’s in the arts field where she draws a LOT. “what if i have saturn in capricorn? capricorn rules the knees” that means you’re always sucking dick, next question

planets which are both aspected by saturn and jupiter have that “last year i abstained, this year i devour” energy. mercury aspected by both saturn and jupiter: going from being very silent to very talkative REAL fast. moon aspected by both saturn and jupiter: going from feeling emotionally numb to overwhelmingly intense emotions. venus-saturn + venus-jupiter: addicted to affection vs. feeling repulsed and terrified of intimacy. wearing your emotions on your sleeve and then, protecting your heart with an iron grip. with saturn aspecting jupiter, you can go from incredibly responsible and low-energy to dangerously impulsive and hyperactive in a heartbeat.

being saturn/capricorn/aquarius ruled/dominant can make you a very studious person, not necessarily related to school. even if you didn’t care at all for school, you find it very important to be a highly educated person, so you research a lot on the topics which pique your interest, you constantly expand your vocabulary and you can feel very drawn towards extensive reading and critical analysis. video essays my beloved

listen to moment by victoria monet—whatever that song irradiates, is the essence of people with pisces placements/neptune predominance in their birth chart

having venus/moon in the 3rd house in your composite chart with someone can point to bonding through your music tastes, also to listening to music while thinking of the other person a lot, to dedicating each other songs + making playlists together; music is a whole love language for you guys

i have NEVER met a sagittarius/jupiter dominant in my life who wasn’t OBSESSED with christmas. they have that “157 days till christmas!! i can’t wait 🥰” energy LMFAO, they get so excited about festivities in general

having a 4th house predominance in your composite chart with someone, or having your planets falling in someone’s 4th house and vice versa in synastry can point to showing love through cooking for each other, cooking and eating a lot together, teaching each other new recipes, etc

having a strong 7th house energy can literally mean you get involved with the law a lot. especially when personal planets are there, you can find yourself fighting through legal cases in the court throughout your life, and they can get messy and very time-consuming.

Virgo in the birth chart can indicate your biggest source of anxiety. If you have virgo in the 6th house, you can be very anxious at work due to a perfectionist streak and fear of failure. If you have virgo in the 11th house, you can be very anxious thinking of the future and thus, have a million different plans to overcompensate for your fear of not achieving success. With virgo in the 7th house, your relationships can be what gives you the most anxiety + the way you’re viewed by others, your reputation. Virgo risings can be extremely anxious when it comes to their identity because they find it difficult to know who they truly are and what they want from life. With moon in virgo, you can fear emotional turmoil and so you avoid overly emotional situations so that you won’t lose control of your emotions. you can also be incredibly anxious when it comes to receiving criticism. jupiter in virgo can feel anxious about their luck or lack thereof, by feeling like luck is barely ever on their side, and that they have to work very hard for whatever they want because it never comes easily.

i feel like… people with venus conjunct mars often feel uncomfortable by the amount of attention they receive. like. they understand very well how magnetic and charming they are because people don’t hide their obvious preference towards them, but they can become so overwhelmed by the fact that people just don’t leave them alone. plus, they can often feel oversexualized, like they’ll be at work chilling and people will still constantly try to flirt with them. i want to give yall a hug

the calmest people i’ve ever met had an aquarius mars. and i don’t mean “calm” in the sense that you’re quiet; quite the contrary, you have a very spontaneous and quirky personality. i mean calm in the sense that, in situations where others would have lost their shit, you remained collected. you find it very difficult to show your anger… and you possess an insane amount of patience. you have great leadership skills due to your ability to not only keep your cool but also ease other people’s stress

#astrology #aries #capricorn #pisces #taurus #leo #gemini #cancer #aquarius #sagittarius #libra #virgo #scorpio #mercury in the 3rd house #uranus in the 3rd house #pluto in the 3rd house #saturn in the 3rd house #pluto-ascendant #pluto-mercury #pluto-venus #pluto-saturn #pluto in the 9th house #sun conjunct venus #mars in aries #jupiter in the 2nd house #venus in the 7th house #venus in the 10th house #venus in the 11th house #pride and prejudice #elizabeth bennett

[thornedrose44]

supercorp prompt: kara gravely injured, lena at her bedside waiting for her to recover, leading to soft confessions

“It was always you. Always. Even when… even when I burnt everything to the ground. Even when I stood and cried in the ashes, wishing to burn it all down again. It was you.” Lena inhaled shakily, lifting Kara’s limp hand to her lips and placing the softest of kisses to the cool skin that used to radiate ridiculous warmth.

“I felt it from the moment you walked into my office, trying to shift back into Clark’s… Superman’s shadow. But you were never meant for anyone’s shadow. Never meant for darkness and hidden away places. You shine. Did you know that? That was my first thought when I saw you. That you were brighter than the sun. That you glowed.

“My heart skipped a beat when I saw those… baby blues of yours. Later on… when I knew… I always wondered if you heard it. Did you think it was just nerves? A flicker of a lie? It was you. I felt so seen in your gaze. I always feel seen in your gaze. And the thought that I might never… that I may one day have to go without that… without you.”

Her voice cracked, splintering like her heart had when Supergirl fell to the ground and didn’t get back up again.

“It’s tearing me apart. I don’t know what kryptonite feels like and I know you would never want me to know but I wonder if it feels like this. Draining, destructive… I feel so helpless, nauseous whenever I consider-“ Lena cut off, she wouldn’t say the word, not even hint at it, not with Kara still recovering from the precipice her life had dangled on. She wouldn’t risk it, wouldn’t entice the reaper to turn his empty sockets to their sanctuary. “I feel like… someone cut my heart out of my chest and left the wound open and raw. Rubbed salt into it and keeps cutting back in whenever it considers healing. It will heal. It is healing… with every continued breath you take, every beat of your heart… it’s healing as you heal. Intrinsically linked.” Lena chuckled hollowly to herself as she defined their melded hurts. “Quantum entanglement.

“You hurt l, I hurt. I get it now…” Lena revealed softly, eyes focusing on the rhythmic way Kara’s chest rose and fell with the ebb and flow of life. “Why you didn’t tell me… you knew it would hurt, truly, deeply hurt. The sheer enormity of it would create a negative feedback loop between us so overwhelming that… all that would be left is ashes…” Lena wiped an inconspicuous tear that had managed to escape off her own cheek. “I hurt which hurts you which hurts me and on and on and on it goes.

“It was you even when there were others. It was you when I was scared, it was you when I was happy, angry, jealous, irritated, delighted, wistful, amused… everything. It was always you. I just want you to know that. Everything I have is yours. Everything I am is yours. I know that-“

Lena bit her lip, teeth digging into the soft skin, ripping into it and staining everything with the smallest drop of crimson.

“I know that it’s not the same for you. That I’m your best friend and that… that’s all you’ll ever see me as and I’m okay with that. Genuinely because that… that position is still sacred, a blessing from the heavens. I get to bask in that… radiant glow of yours and it means everything to me. But you should know - though I will never be brave enough to say these words to you in person - that it's you. For me: it’s you.

“My port in the storm. My lantern in the night. My best friend. My love. My true love. It’s you. It’s always been you and always will be you. I love you, Kara Zor-El.”

And with that, Lena leaned forward out of her chair - still cradling Kara’s hand - and pressed her lips to the uncreased forehead.

“Lena?”

Lena didn’t jump or jerk away at the sound of Alex’s soft voice from the doorway. The redhead knew, had seen the way Lena would blossom under Kara’s light - this little tableau the youngest Luthor had created wouldn’t have taken any of the Superfriends by surprise. They were kind enough - or discreet enough - never to mention it. It was Lena’s secret.

They had carried Supergirl for Kara.

They would carry this for Lena.

Lena stepped back, carefully settling Kara’s hand by her side and tucking the blankets tenderly around her form before turning to face the older Danvers with a raised eyebrow. Alex wouldn’t interrupt unless it was important, wouldn’t even consider pulling her away from Kara unless lives were in the balance or she could assure the task was quick - Kara’s hand not losing all contact heat in the time it took for Lena to complete the task and return to her side.

“Brainy needs your help. Just a quick review of the neutraliser design to make sure it works, he doesn’t want to send us in without being certain it will do the job.”

The ‘after the alien took down Supergirl’ goes unsaid.

“Right, of course.” Lena nodded, making her way to the door, head bowed only to be stopped by a light touch to her wrist.

“Lena.” Alex murmured; it was the gentleness of her tone that made Lena stop, it was a gentleness Alex only ever gifted to Kara, Kelly and Esme. “You should tell her.”

Lena pursed her lips at that, already shaking her head without the need for clarification.

“I appreciate the advice, but I can only stand to lose your sister so much.” Lena confessed. “I’ve already gone without once and I’m not brave enough to risk going through that again.”

“But-“

“I’ve made my choice.” Lena asserted, voice firm yet kind.

“And what about her? What if it’s you for her too?” Alex questioned, brown eyes only showing the smallest slither of regret for eavesdropping.

Lena didn’t have it in her to reprimand for the trespass, Alex’s understanding of boundaries always got murky when it came to her sister - and considering everything the family had suffered, Lena could understand where that moral greyness originated from.

“I highly doubt that.” Lena replied, unable to hide how her shoulders dipped with loss at the prospect.

“But what if?” Alex pressed, hand squeezing Lena’s wrist tighter - not restricting, just reassurance of something solid and tangible to make this real and grounded.

“Then you should do everything in your power to change her mind.” Lena said bluntly. “She can do better. She deserves better.”

“No, Lena-“ Alex spluttered, jaw dropping open as the raven haired woman tugged her hand free and marched out of the room.

“Keep an eye on Kara for me until I return.” Lena ordered, not daring to turn back.

#supercorp #supercorpficlet #supercorp prompt #soft angst

[warrioreowynofrohan]

About two years ago I posted a couple bits of my idea for a fic about Maedhros in the Halls. I’ve finally managed to put together a draft for the first chapter now.

Maedhros had not intended to seek the Halls.

He had not intended anything, in those last moments, save to remove his stain from the world. That the fires of the jewel and the fires at the heart of the earth might serve to purge both body and spirit, and leave Arda free of him. When he found his spirit living still - burning still, though flesh and bones and nerves had all melted away - he was too weary and lacking in will to do anything but obey the pull of Mandos’ summons.

To the degree that he still had the strength to expect anything, he expected judgement. Condemnation. That Mandos would see that such a thing had no place in the world, and cast him into the darkness. But there was no such moment, only a long sitting in the dimness of the Halls, alone, with nothing save burning in his hand and horror in his soul.

“Hey, big brother.”

The voice broken unexpectedly into his thoughts, and then Amras was grinning at him. There was something strange in his eyes that Maedhros couldn’t quite place, and that unsettled him. But he was family, and he was here, and he seemed inexplicably pleased to see Maedhros.

“I got you killed.”

“As I recall, a mob of Sindar and Gondolindrim got me killed. It’s all right, you know. They’re not - the Powers aren’t going to do anything to us. We’re here, and they’re never letting us out one way or another, but that also means you have nothing to gain from feeling miserable. It’s not as if it’s our fault anyway. Come, see the others.”

Amras pulled him to his feet by his right arm and started tugging him along, and Maedhros followed.

“You do understand that it’s not our fault? They trapped us, we never had a choice. They curse us so that we can do nothing but evil, and then they blame us for doing it and expect us to beg forgiveness. Well, joke’s on them, because we’re not playing that game. Nobody else here seems to want to talk to us - all going along with Them, look at us like there’s something wrong with us - but we’re fine by ourselves. It’s a big scam, making people feel like they need to moan and cry and grovel when the Doom determined everything from the start. Well, they can exile us, and they can rob us, but they can’t rule us, not if we don’t say so.”

The shape of the Halls was vague greyness, but there was a sense of leaving a passageway and entering a larger room, where other figures sat. Celegorm unfolded himself and rose, and Maedhros froze at the sight of his face. The features were all the same as he remembered, but the eyes -

The eyes were not those of the Eldar.

He had seen such eyes in Angband. Had seen them in orc-faces in a host of expressions bitter and hate-filled, cowed and resentful, grinning and gleeful at the chance to torture a prisoner. Now they were triumphant, exhultant, victorious.

“Welcome back, brother! No more lectures? No more pious platitudes? It was convenient to have us around, wasn’t it, to do all the things you liked to tell yourself you didn’t want? All fakery, in the end. You’d do the same and more.”

Maedhros took a step back, and Celegorm’s smile took on a furious edge as his voice rose to a shout. “Don’t you look like that! Playing Their game, are you, trying to pretend there’s something wrong with us! There’s nothing wrong! It’s all just a ploy, a conspiracy, to try to get to us! To try to make us think we need to be fixed! Well, we don’t! We won’t stand for being robbed, not by anyone, not of throne nor realm nor Silmarils! And whoever tries to rob us deserves what they get!”

He leashed his anger again and the smile returned, gentler and more ghastly then before. “There’s no point in trying to run from it, whatever you think you see. Whatever you think we are, you are too. Don’t try to fool yourself that you’re any better than us.”

“I’m not,” Maedhros whispered. “I’m worse.”

“So.” Celegorm plopped back down and gestured at the floor beside them. “Stay.”

Five pairs of orc-eyes gazed into his own.

Maedhros stumbled back one step, then another, then turned and fled into the dark.

#tolkien #the silmarillion #fanfic #maedhros #celegorm #halls of mandos #sons of fëanor