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david-talks-sw · 1 year

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What "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) tells us about the Jedi's status in the Prequels.

In 1999, George Lucas had this to say on BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of "Star Wars" and then The Phantom Menace's director's commentary.

“I greatly admired Kurosawa, especially the film Hidden Fortress, which told a story from the point of view of two serfs, two slaves...

... peasants who tag along with this famous general and a princess-- y'know, royalty. And the whole story is told from their point of view. And I like that idea. I like the idea of telling a story from the lowest person's point of view, uh, in the food chain, and that's how the story got to be told by Artoo and Threepio.”

“[The Phantom Menace] is told primarily from the Jedi's point of view, but the story that's being told is essentially the story of Queen Amidala and her plight of having her planet blockaded. As in, say, Episode IV, where the story is told through the eyes of the droids, in this one, it's told through the eyes of the Jedi.”

“But [from the moment we get to Coruscant, Anakin and Jar Jar] are standing on the sidelines. It's a little bit a riff on the very first film where the story is told through the point of view of the droids, who were sort of the lowliest characters.”

“And in [Phantom Menace], I'm doing it through - primarily - the two Jedi, but then the secondary characters are also carrying a lot of the weight when the Jedi aren't around.”

George Lucas draws a comparison between lowly characters like Hidden Fortress' peasants Matashichi and Tahei, the droids in A New Hope, as well as the Jedi in The Phantom Menace.

What do they all have in common? They are all the lowest-ranking characters in their respective films. Repeat: the movie frames the Jedi as almost at the bottom of the food chain.

Because of course they are. Functionally, they're just diplomats. They hold no political power whatsoever and barely have any authority .

What little authority the Jedi do have in TPM comes from the Queen's young age, which allows them to ease into a more advisory position, and Qui-Gon's rebellious streak. And even he's explicit about the fact that his mandate has limitations.

The only characters "below" them in status are Jar Jar, an exiled Gungan, and Anakin, who just yesterday was still a slave kid, Artoo the literal object and that's it!

Also the other Prequel films are consistent with this portrayal. Who do we see lower in status than the Jedi? Dexxter Jettster and the clones. Everyone else is pretty much above them.

Yes, the Jedi are part of the system, but they're not as high-ranking as you'd think. Yes, they have Force Powers, but that means squat when put against political power. So, like, to expect the Jedi to...

influence the decisions of the Senate,

wage a war against the Outer Rim to end slavery,

or blatantly refuse an order to join the war effort,

... is incredibly unreasonable.

They're not meant to be seen as "the elite, peering down upon the people from their ivory tower".

They're the servants! Servants of the Republic.

And they're seeing their higher-ups destroy what they should all stand for, but are unable to stop them.

Later on, with The Clone Wars, we are introduced to civilian characters and from their point of view, the Jedi are ultra powerful and are highly placed and "should do more but don't".

It makes sense that these characters would see the Jedi as 'the elite'. But they don't have the full picture.

We, as the audience, do.

So we know that the reality is more along the lines of the Jedi "should do more but can't".

After all, we are made privy many instances of the Jedi speaking up and trying to change politicians' minds, only to be dismissed and overruled at every turn.

↑ these aren't even all the times we see it happen, btw, there's more examples...

So at some point, if you - as an audience member - see all this and are still saying "the Jedi should've done more!" I really need to know... what more could they have done?

Take control of the Senate?

That'll result in a dictatorship, there's a reason they waited as much as they did before trying to take down Palpatine.

Power corrupts and they're wise enough to know it.

Don't join the Republic in the first place?

George Lucas never frames the Jedi's involvement with the Republic as a bad thing. In the foreword to Shatterpoint (2004), he says their being part of the Republic led to 1,000 years of prosperity.

Where's the issue, then? Well, it's a two-man job and the Jedi's bosses, the Senate, grew corrupt and stopped doing their part. They stopped carrying their end of the couch.

But “no Jedi in the Republic from the get-go” means the Sith will rise to power even faster. Fun!

Stay neutral in the war?

The Separatists were killing civilians and testing weapons on neutral systems, or enslaving them.

The choice put before the Jedi was "do what we tell you and fight, or let people die".

But also, out-of-universe... do you really think Palpatine, genius politician, master of spin, can't re-frame the Jedi staying neutral in a negative light?

When they joined the war, he unleashed propaganda that either directly (on the Separatist side) or indirectly (on the Republic side) framed them as "warmongers who corrupted their values". If they don't join, they're "apathetic cowards who care more about their own values than the lives of the people they're supposed to protect".

So either way, Order 66 comes around, wipes them out and the Republic goes "good riddance".

So what else could they do?

The answer is "not much".

Because the whole point of the narrative is that Palpatine checkmated them by taking the fight to a field the Jedi had no experience in or right to meddle with: politics.

So if you look at these characters who are nowhere near the top of the food chain, and say "well, why didn't they fix things?" I'm sorry to say you're missing the point of the narrative.

Or maybe you do get the point of the narrative and just aren't trying to be fair...

... in which case, at least be consistent and also argue:

"Why didn't Threepio & Artoo do more to save the Rebel crew of the Tantive IV from the stormtrooopers?!"

"Why didn't Matashichi & Tahei do more to save the Akizuki clan?!"

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acourtofthought · 6 days

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Somewhere SJM claimed that Lucien and Dorian would be friends if they knew each other and that’s always kept me hopeful. Dorian is one of the most interesting characters in TOG for me and he is also surprisingly slow to find love, even though he’s a rake and he enjoys the company of women. His experience with Sorscha is the same as Lucien and Jesminda (losing their loved one and witnessing their brutal deaths at the hands of their fathers). Both characters are fair and good despite everything else going on around them, they enjoy reading and knowledge, they are ready to sacrifice themselves, they are both excellent candidates to lead due to their innate sense of goodness and fairness. And even their cheeky personality is similar in many ways. Dorian’s access to his own powers was manifesting slowly in TOG and it kept trickling in with each book and I feel like we’re going down that path with Lucien too. We learned in ACOWAR that he sees magical work with his golden eye, we learned that he can track this magic very well. We also learned about his spell cleaving abilities that even he seemingly didn’t know (or hid from others) and we know from his time in autumn that his brothers felt threatened by the power they could sense in him from the beginning. I think Lucien might go through a similar arc to Dorian as he comes into his full powers and that really makes me think about how he actually might become high king. I love Rhys but Rhys is first and foremost for his own people and he is so attached to just the Night Court that I don’t think he would do well with representing everyone. Lucien is essentially homeless in Prythian, he belongs to so many courts and has connection to so many that I can see him do well with such a big title.

Add Elain to this mix. Her powers could be very useful for someone in her position if she ends up high queen with Lucien. They are basically an unstoppable safety net for each court. Elain might see visions of conflict and trouble coming their way, she could aid in decisions about anything, especially if she masters her powers and could look into the future for various outcomes. Her love of nature and travel would definitely come in handy. She would want to protect those courts. Not to mention her love for social events and her ability to charm people. Could you imagine her helping smooth things over between high lords just with her wit and charms? I know a lot of people think she’s going to become a spy but for me she is always more of a politician/courtier and her qualities would shine in such a situation.

I agree and it gives me hope too. Not only did she say Dorian and Lucien would be good friends but Lucien would be someone she could see herself co-writing a book with because of his cleverness. Dorian would be someone she could see herself going to the opera with, who wouldn't mind if she took a long time to get ready (and we know Lucien takes care in how he dresses). Dorian was a human with unknown powers and he ended up having unlimited raw magic that could be shaped in whatever way he wanted. She's also set up Lucien to be someone with unknown powers, a future HL as Dorian was King. I do think there are differences between Lucien and Dorian but those seemed to come into focus after he finally was rid of his valg collar. I think a little bit of that darkness seeped into him and he became well matched for Manon whereas Lucien and Elain both individually and as a pairing embody light. My vision of Elain matches yours as well, where Elain will make a difference, not sneaking around in the shadows spying in the quiet but out in the open, influencing others with her loving, kind and wise personality.

#elucien

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cogandstar · 5 months

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long and ramble-y post about persona 5 tactica and politics below the cut. spoilers and all that jazz, thou hast been warned.

persona 5 tactica has Interesting politics to me. because, well, it talks an awful lot about revolution and that jazz. and in the Kingdoms, you do a fair bit of revolution-esque stuff, complete with mass movements which are necessary for the overthrow of tyrannical rulers.

(the rebels are tbh one of my favorite parts of the game, especially with how they could very easily have been relegated completely to background noise, but instead at multiple points they are key for the success of the Phantom Thieves. it's great!)

in the cognitive realm, the game seems to come down pretty solidly on the side of "revolution is worth the accompanying violence" -- see the scene of Yoshiki presenting the Thieves with footage of the rebels suffering against the Aizen Squad, and, of course, the final boss being a god of peace who has decided to crush the revolutionary impulses within the hearts of humanity to ensure peace and tranquility.

Salmael is actually pretty interesting as a criticism of that general mindset of "peace over positive change." he's kinda (or at least can be read as) a symbol for the same thing Disco Elysium represents with the ideology of moralism. the thing that's most striking to me about him is his second form, wherein his appearance changes to be partially composed of bullets and other symbols of violence. with this, not only does p5t argue that the maintenance of peace over positive change is bad, but that it is, under the cover of gentility and nonviolence, itself fundamentally built upon violence and force.

it's not that hard to construct a leftist reading of this, even without the influences of Soviet constructivist art on the menus and UI, and the presence of Che Goddamn Guevara as a heroic Persona in the form of Ernesto. it's a game where the heroes organize mass movements to overthrow tyrannical rulers based on, respectively, a wealthy corporate heiress and a corrupt politician. (i'm not really counting nakabachi because he's not a real ruler and also Kingdom 3 is just less political than the others, it's very heavily focused on Toshiro as a person without really even a political surface level.) then, the heroes fight against the God of Liberalism, revealing the hidden violence underneath its guise of peace and moderation, and ultimately defeating it.

but you kind of run into an issue of like, what are the Thieves' revolutions for? ultimately, they're basically just all against what the tyrants do. in kingdom 1, they're against a wealthy aristocrat forcing people to set up a wedding for her and her forced-groom. in kingdom 2, they're against a ruler running an all encompassing surveillance system and forced labor camps. in kingdom 3 they're against school staff blackmailing students for personal gain.

and i think it's notable that both Marie and Yoshiki are mainly presented in settings that distance them and their wrongs from modern day capitalism. Marie's Kingdom is based on vaguely-revolutionary France, and she herself is fairly clearly based on the pop culture image of Marie Antoinette, from her name to her behavior and aesthetic in the Kingdom and even how in the real world, she makes reference to "the poors" and "commoners." if there's any class being criticized through the character of Marie Anto, it's not the bourgeoisie -- it's the old feudal aristocracy.

Yoshiki is also distanced from modern electoral politics by being predominantly shown in a world based on Bakumatsu-era Japan. it's also notable that, in the Kingdom, he is described as being a general, not in any way elected. so while in the real world, his power comes from the edifice of liberal democracy as it stands in Japan, the system that you actually lead a revolution against is a feudal-military dictatorship.

this is all without mentioning that, underneath the political veneer, the Kingdoms are all in-universe metaphors for what's going on in Toshiro's head. in the end, everything's very personal! and ultimately, after Toshiro has gone through all his character development and unleashed Che Goddamn Guevara as the manifestation of his true self, what does he do in the real world?

he gets two specific bad actors arrested, apologizes for his personal role in their corruption, and then restarts his career as an electoral politician.

as soon as p5t retreats from the cognitive world, so too does it retreat from the idea of revolution against prevailing power structures. i cannot recall a moment where anyone, really, even considers the thought of revolution against the systems that produced Marie and Yoshiki and Nakabachi; they have defeated Salmael and gotten the bad actors arrested, so it's all good.

so, i guess in summary, p5t presents pro-revolution (even pro-revolutionary violence!) and borrows aesthetically from communism, and though you can certainly read certain parts (i.e. Salmael) as fairly pointed criticisms of liberal capitalism, but. considering the game as a whole, it's structured in a way that distances its arguments in favor of revolution from those modern power structures both by limiting them to the metaphorical realm of cognition and by structuring the most political cognitive realms as historical oppressive structures.

#persona #p5 #p5t #p5t spoilers #meta #long post

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mxescargot · 3 months

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OC masterlist

misc/multiple universes

garv (fishboy)

prima (tropey good guy)

vindicta (tropey bad guy)

ursa (dark magic bounty hunter)

ari (light magic bounty hunter)

urban fantasy/superhero

premise: a timeline that diverges several years before ours where a significant minority of the population across the world contracted strange illnesses that led to various magical powers; focuses on the Eastern United States (aka what im familiar with). themes of disabled justice and solidarity.

micheal (he/they): friendly college kid who always puts others before himself, teleportation powers

jem (any pronouns): an old self-insert, shapeshifting powers

ayaan (he/they): kid with unique powers that mess with the fabric of reality, of particular interest to the villain

emilia (she/her): sociologist studying how superpowered people interact with a society built for non-superpowered people, recently gained fire/energy/plasma powers of her own in an accident

saiorse (any pronouns): software developer and emilia's spouse. he does not have superpowers

alison (he/him): evil CEO (maybe also politician?) looking to take advantage of superpowered people for his own gain. especially young, powerful superpowered people. i do not know how to write villains tbh

high fantasy: the world of An

premise: weird mix of some of the history i'm interested in, with a technological level of around the 1840s to 1860s? focuses on a governmental transition from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy and the greater inclusion of ethnic minorities in the political system and society as a whole. the people are sorta kemonomimi-hobbits with mammalian and insectoid features. also has eldritch shit going on in its magic system.

these are some of my oldest characters and have changed a lot, their original concept was a "five elements" thing and that still shows through.

the names are based on my conlang :> i didnt try to make the romanizations look pretty, just functional, so uhh ⟨v⟩ is a schwa and most letters correspond with IPA values but idk if thats accessible. here ill replace j with y and v with whatever letter looks best, you can see the mess of the "official" spellings in the tags. they dont exactly have a gender system like ours so pronouns are what i imagine they'd use if raised in our culture and language yk

baa'oni (they/she): activist reviving the long-suppressed/erased (idk what the right word is) life-related magic practices of their ancestors. name translates to "sundew"

lausa (she/her): noble who uses her position of power to help incite change, eventually becomes prime minister. romantically involved with baa’oni, causing suspicion and controversy. name translates to "shadower"

laanya (they/them): self insert. former water magic student reconnecting to it after trauma, also tries to get involved in activism. name translates to "river delta"

treyii (they/she/he): young and uncertain, pressure is put on him to achieve great things and they don't know where to belong. name translates to "sparks"

unnamed character referred to as "wind guy" (they/he): a vengeful prince with command over the weather.

star wars

premise: focuses on jedi fighting in the clone wars. i mostly made these characters in quarantine lol

aiya (they/xe): twi'lek anakin skywalker on a budget. padawan during the clone wars, becomes an inquisitor.

rakiss (she/they): mirialan; Aiya's fellow padawan and very close to xem. killed in O66

haalas (he/him): togruta; aiya's strict master, very loyal to the light side of the force itself and scared of losing another padawan to the dark side. survives O66, but is eventually killed by aiya, who blames him for rakiss's death.

malice (they/she/it): dathomiran zabrak who was the first padawan of haalas. left the order and turned to the dark side, but isn't with the Sith.

ekiv (she/her): rakiss's master, also a mirialan, and longtime friend of haalas. mom friend, but only because she's a people pleaser with massive gifted kid burnout. survives O66; assumes a new identity and learns how to heal.

hizta (any pronouns): tusken ex-bounty hunter who now runs a droid repair shop on coruscant. acquainted with aiya before and during the Clone Wars, aids the Rebellion.

penelope (she/they): human; old colleague of Hizta's. generally fairly cold and professional until you get to know them; actually very affectionate.

i also have some underdeveloped clone trooper OCs

hollow knight

cornu (they/them): HKsona. void-corrupted snail shaman capable of harnessing both soul and void magic.

unnamed fairyfly OC

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tomandharrisongifs · 2 years

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Why would mutants be hated in the MCU?

A large part of the identity of mutants in the Marvel universe is the fact that they represent minorities, and therefore, face a certain level of bigotry and prosecution. Now that the X-Men are set to join the MCU, why would the general public have a distain or dislike of mutants, considering other superpowered characters are treated like heroes, like The Avengers? I have a proposition.

I think that the concept of mutant hatred being politicised makes a lot of sense.

I think that governments and people in power preferring superpowered beings that they can control, and therefore branding anybody outside of that, especially people without a platform, the way that most mutants are portrayed as more or less everyday people rather than kings, billionaires, gods, etc. is a good and easy target for them to weaponise the public’s perception into anti-mutant, pro-government, pro-military propaganda.

The foundation’s already there with The Sokovia Accords, with various governments being much more in favour of controlling superpowered individuals rather than letting any of them freely act of their own individual or group accords. Mutants can simply be a face for that general sentiment to be perpetuated through propaganda. Yay War Machine, yay Captain America. Characters who have already been proven to have saved the world in large, well-known conflicts like what happened in Avengers: Endgame already have a certain level of public goodwill that governments would find hard to fight against, but newer, or lesser-known, or everyday mutants don’t have that same level of goodwill, nor influence, nor power (theoretically), that characters like The Avengers already have, and so could much easier be marketed as threats to the everyday public.

Also, seeing as not every mutant has powers that would largely benefit most governments, but there’s also some that could be weaponised dramatically, it’s believable that various governments would want to deter mutant goodwill as propaganda against other governments potentially using them, while also giving excuses not to put mutant-positive propositions forward themselves because mutants aren’t always powerfully useful for self-serving politicians and governments. If it doesn’t directly and selfishly help them personally, then they aren’t going to support it, and instead weaponise that disregard in an attempt to further their own agendas.

“Mutants are too variable to be trusted, or more accurately, used.”.

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whinlatter · 7 months

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1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14 for the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts *cackling in unseelie tones*

(ignore the previous ask pls! silly me, i chose the wrong no.)

ok… let’s have the tea on old dolores jane umbridge. i warn you, anon, that each of these answers is sillier than the last. RIP dolores* you would have loved valentino fall/winter 2022 🎀

1. Canon I outright reject

the weird girlishness of umbridge! it’s a real nuisance in canon for me. this is partly because it’s another example of jkr using being ‘girly’ as a sign a character is deserving of disrespect/mockery/contempt. but also because umbridge’s whole aesthetic presentation doesn’t really make sense for someone with her political ambitions. if you look at irl right wing female politicians, especially of umbridge’s generation, they almost always play with gender performance/deploy their femininity in very specific ways. eg: they lower their voices, they eschew open performance of patterns of behaviour and dress coded as female unless it’s to invoke a very specific officious schoolmistress vibe (more in mcgonagall’s vein). it’s clear that umbridge is someone of senior political standing who manages to rise up to a position of power in three governments (fudge, scrimgeour and voldemort/thicknesse). in all three instances, her holding a senior position would require a certain level of support from her colleagues i struggle to imagine a woman with an exclusively pink wardrobe with such openly twee taste managing to garner within a ministry that is extremely gender regressive (because the ministry does seem to have a gender problem, in that the only senior female official we encounter in canon other than umbridge is amelia bones, bertha jorkins and two mentions of griselda marchbanks - all other ministers, heads of department are men). so yeah never really made a ton of sense to me other than this is jkr’s yawn takes on girlbossery again. snore!

2. A canon/headcanon hill I will die on

umbridge and rita exchange christmas cards and meet for quarterly brunch to engage in a tit-for-tat exchange of info and influence. ofc they absolutely loathe each other and are competing to outlive each other so whoever dies first doesn’t get the pleasure of writing the other’s horrible obituary

3. Obscure headcanon

umbridge is such a fan of the popular muggle television programme antiques roadshow and tried unsuccessfully to exert her influence to get the wizarding wireless to adapt the format so she can get her extensive collection of pureblood paraphernalia valued

12. Crack headcanon

umbridge actually suffers from a very common form of colour blindness that mistakes reds for greens so thinks she’s actually wearing head to toe pistachio

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

‘filthy half breeds’ like… girl

14. Most heroic moment

wearing a horcrux necklace in literally the most prominent place possible to make for remarkably easy stealing

* i’m aware in canon she’s not dead but i like to think she one day paused to consider how hagrid must have been conceived and the shock of it killed her instantly

#umbridge #high inquisitor and girlboss extraordinaire #miss trunchbull could never #ask game #headcanons #dolores umbridge

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thesilverlady · 8 months

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Hey, I've seen you say that you have a lot of opinions on episode 4 and 7 I think of HOTD and on how Daemon and Rhaenyra have been butchered, so if you feel like sharing someday I would love to read it!

high chance this is gonna be a long reply so this is a warning ⚠ Also small disclaimer: because I know how defensive ppl are over daemyra, this is my opinion and me not liking something everyone else loves isn't the end of the world.

So, 4 and 7 are the episodes I hate the most from hotd and while they definitely killed daemyra for me I have multiple reasons why I especially dislike those two episodes however, I'll keep my reply daemyra centered. I'll begin by summarizing the episode and then making a small list

Episode 4

As it has been established, show Rhaenyra is different from the start. For what is worth I gave the show a fair chance and didn't originally compare it to the book because I already had it seperate in my mind.

so while I won't complain about Rhaenyra bring different from her book self. i will say that her character is already inconsistent by episode 4. Rhaenyra acts very immature for someone in her position. It has been established that she feels very insecure about her position because she's uncertain if anyone else will accept her as a queen, but is willing and eager to create a "new order".

So, for someone who is supposed to be all that she's very much uninterested and dismissive of all these men and what they have to offer. She already seems tired and fed up with the politics and the caging feeling she gets with the obligation that she has to marry.

Rhaenyra doesn't want to get married. To Alicent she explains that the men only want her name and her Valyrian blood and to Daemon she reveals there's fear for childbirth due to what happened to her mother - to which Daemon tells her not to live a life of fear (unhelpful but OK)

Later that night, Rhaenyra finds a scroll of parchment with instructions leading her to a secret exit, and cloaked in a commoner's garb, the secret path leads her to Daemon, who escorts Rhaenyra out into the streets of King's Landing.

There, Rhaenyra seems very much in awe of the night life but is quickly angered and hurt by a play that mocks her gender and status as future queen.

"Would she make a powerful queen or would she be feeble? Aegon the babe prince might long proclaim, he has two things Rhaenyra cannot: A conqueror's name and a cock."

After some walking and chasing, Rhaenyra finds herself in some very public brothel where she's touched by daemon and excitedly she returns the feeling. Daemon however quickly ditches her half naked and a shaken Rhaenyra has to return back alone.

When Rhaenyra sneaks back into her quarters Criston Cole hears her and boldly she invites him inside to which after some hesitation from this part, finally accepts and they end up sleeping together.

In the next morning, Otto tells Viserys about Daemon & Rhaenyra being seen at a pleasure house together to which Alicent hears and later interrogates Rhaenyra about who in turn lies about the events of the night.

Meanwhile a hungover Daemon stumbles into the Red Keep, where he's taken to Viserys who demands to know what happened. Where Rhaenyra lied about Daemon never touching her, Daemon lies about going further than they actually did.

Viserys complains about Daemon having "defiled" his daughter, and that he should disinherit Rhaenyra like he already did Daemon.

Daemon asks him to let her marry Rhaenyra and is accused for doing all this for the throne. He eventually gets banished - again.

Afterwards, Viserys deals with Rhaenyra, giving her the bs about the prophecy and she complains once more about the unfairness of her gender and how her desires wouldn't be a problem if she were a man.

Viserys declares, she's lost the right to choose her own suitor so instead, she'll marry Laenor Velaryon. Rhaenyra, ever the "savvy politician", strikes a bargain she'll do if if he fires Otto - to which he does.

So how were Rhaenyra & Daemon butchered in ep4?

Rhaenyra is very keen to unshackle herself from the burdens of royalty. And for all the talk she did about wanting to make changes in previous episodes she's unwilling to use her status because she's too busy viewing it as a burden

Aside immature this makes her quite unintelligent, because while her fears are valid she never does a single thing to work on them

Rhaenyra (an i assume 19?yr) princess and heir to the throne doesn't have any concern with disguising herself poorly and risking her reputation for a night if "fun & freedom"

While angered by the play, Rhaenyra still dismissed it "Their wants are of no consequence"

Rhaenyra doesn't immediately bolt when she's brought in a brothel where daemon starts doing his thing. Her face is visible to be seen by everyone but the thought doesn't cross her mind.

Despite daemon leaving her hurt her feelings, Rhaneyra has no problem in inviting Criston - a man who we hardly saw her having feelings for - in her bed and sleeping with him as a part of "claiming freedom"

The next morning Rhaenyra sells her actual freedom to get Otto fucking Hightower fired 💀

Conclusion: this episode showed Rhaenyra having 0 self awareness. Her immaturity and naivety can be contributed to her young age but 19 years is already adult for Westeros standards so I can't give her a lot of pass. This episode is supposed to show Rhaenyra acting out her heart and having to deal with the consequences through political scheming. Instead she came off as someone who doesn't understand her position and advantage and doesn't give much concern over the public opinion and image despite few episodes ago this being one of the things she was worried about.

To add, the whole "freedom" came off as very awkward and tone deaf. I've mentioned in the past that hotd uses psedo feminism to come off as deep and this was a great example of that. The episode played as if Rhaenyra was some imprisoned princess who was treated as a second class citizen. Hotd timeline isn't that far from the conquest. Targaryen women lost power after Rhaenyra lost the war not before. So lots of her treatment makes 0 sense even for hotd version standards.

And to top it off, she sacrifices everything to get rid of Otto Hightower 🤦🏻‍♀️

Now for Daemon:

His dynamic with Viserys is very much changed due to the show erasing his story with Mysaria. As a consequence, when he returns he seems very... loving even to Viserys

He doesn't voice much about the play that basically insults his niece other than a quick "the peasants' opinion are important" when Rhaenyra dismisses them.

Daemon's braincells don't work much in this episode because he takes his niece in a public pleasure house and starts addressing her and touching her in front of everyone

Then for whatever reason, he pushes her and leaves her all alone in an unfamiliar place she has never been before.

When confronted by his brother daemon lies about having slept with Rhaenyra and asks Viserys to marry her

Conclusion: some of these parts had been rumors from mushroom in f&b so while it's not shocking they were written, it doesn't make sense for daemon's characterization in the show. First of all, Daemon makes so many dumb decisions in this ep that it's painful. Since the dynamic with his brother is warmer and he's received way more warmly by Viserys there's absolutely no reason for him to lie about taking Rhaneyra's virginity. All he had to do was off his wife and then ask for Rhaneyra's hand. The end

We never get any actual reason as to why he abandoned her like that in the brothel and why he took her there in the first place. We only have fan theories which makes the entire act so poorly executed. Due to Viserys parting words the most popular assumption was for the crown. However while I'm a big advocate for book daemon wanting the throne, show daemon doesn't seem much ambitious. His whole character centers around his brother and niece and yearning for their love and sense of belonging

He comes off as very idiotic instead of reckless due to his actions, not to mention very hot&cold with how he deals with Rhaenyra

episode 7

I definitely went too far with the length so I'll attempt to keep this summary as short as possible.

basically Lana's funeral happens. An unsettled Rhaenyra is visibly uncomfortable by the words spoken by Vaemond, and so Daemon bursts laughing during his wife's funeral - assumingly to take the attention off his niece

The two meet again late at night where they walk down the beach. Rhaenyra admits there was no joy with Laenor but she found some with Harwin. She bemoans Daemon for abandoning her and he retorts that he was trying to protect her. They kiss and have sex.

The eye incident happen, Alicent attacks Rhaenyra and slashes her arm. Later she’s patched up by a maester and speaks to Laenor who admits he’s failed them and bemoans the Gods for making him the way he is. Rhaenyra calls him an honorable man with a good heart. Afterward she approaches Daemon and suggests they strengthen their bond together properly by marrying one another and plot Laenor's (fake) death.

so what do I dislike here?

I've mentioned before that young and older rhaenyra are too different and there was never any transition that could connect their different personalities. In this one Rhaenyra is more doubtful and fearful than ever and doesn't try to hide it. Whereas she was bold and impulsive in her youth here she's meek and trying to convince herself as much as she does for her children

daemon's character is obligated to center around rhaenyra and Viserys so his relationship with Laena was portrayed as badly as possibly to the point he'd rather clown himself during his dead wife's eulogy 💀

daemon's non existent braincells have made a comeback because once again he chooses to have sex with his niece in the most public place possible. Rhaenyra who is supposed to be used to hiding her affair also follows and does this with no second thought.

daemon is a liar for claiming he was trying to protect Rhaenyra because she was a "child" because his dead wife was waay younger than her in the show but he married her anyways. So is only Rhaenyra given this "child status"?

Rhaenyra allows Alicent to make snarky comments about her and Laenor without defending herself much. Mind you all of this happening in front of people so.... I guess older rhaenyra still doesn't care what everyone else thinks?

daemon sees his two daughters with blood and opts to "enjoy the show" instead of rushing by their side. Show daemon never beats the deadbeat dad allegations I fear

Rhaenyra is slashed by Alicent and neither she not anyone else makes a big dead about it. Small reminder she's still the heir to the Iron Throne btw

Rhaenyra straight up lies to Laenor and us (the audience) by claiming he was a "good man" when an episode ago we saw how he didn't give a fuck about the troubles rhaenyra had. Just become he escorted her after she gave birth doesn't mean anything? At this point I'm 99% the writers were just afraid of writing him as a flawed man out of fear of being called homophobic

Which bring me to the next point, Daemon and Rhaenyra decide to risk it all and fake Laenor's death - making any future kids they'll have together bastards, because they suddenly develop some newfound interest for Laenor and his happy ending

Both of their children look miserable af but neither have a care for the world and proceed to go along with the wedding ceremony.

I don't think I really need to conclude this but basically, both of them act dumb, maybe the exact same mistakes without having learnt anything from the past, show little to no care for their kids, while trying to scheme around but without spilling any blood because they're must be on the high moral horse.

I spent 2 hours writing this so I'm sorry if this is all over the place. When I use the word "butchering" It's usually relating to how the character were changed from the canon selves. But even if I seperate hotd as its own thing, the character are still inconsistent and don't seem to follow the rules of the worldbuilding they're supposed to live on

#ask reply #anti rhaenyra targaryen #anti daemon targaryen #again this is only for their show version I love daemon & rhaenyra and their relationship in f&b #again if you like their show version you do you but my feelings are very clear on the subject #anti hotd

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clonerightsagenda · 11 months

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Jumping back into podcast posting with a pretty heavy one, but I was talking to someone about this phenomenon recently, and so I was thinking about how Greater Boston depicts Emily Bespin leveraging white womanhood.

To start with, I'm writing this from the position of being a dfab white person who society is going to read as female. There is a long history - continuing into the present day - of white women capitalizing on being perceived as vulnerable/delicate/innocent and using that to harm Black people, especially Black men, by casting them as dangerous aggressors. I could list several examples even from recent news stories.

Emily is a young white woman who runs a successful mayoral campaign relying heavily on racist dogwhistles and white resentment. She runs as the Red Line Bride - leaning into that pure, virginal image. She scapegoats a Black teenager to cast doubt on her opponent, his aunt. (I don't recall if she knew about the plan to frame Isaiah beforehand - either she was part of the plan from the start, or she saw a Black teen arriving at the scene of a crime and immediately named him as the likely culprit due to her biases). She calls people protesting her actions dangerous terrorists and wins votes from commuters and railway workers who are mad about being inconvenienced. Once she wins the election, she kicks people out of their homes and begins a coordinated plan to make the city unlivable for poor and working class citizens, many of whom are people of color.

Whenever anyone brings this up, Emily insists she's not racist. She's married to a Black man, after all! (Ethan interrupts to say he identifies as mixed race, but she talks over him.) She may genuinely believe she doesn't harbor any racial resentment. It doesn't matter. She is consciously using her racial position and racist stereotypes to manipulate people and secure power.

America has an (increasingly legislated) determination to view racism as an individual moral problem caused by 'bad people'. Characters like Emily are often portrayed as simple bigots. And there are plenty of those out there! There are also people who are genuinely clueless and benefit from education - American society is so segregated that some white people can get pretty far in life without ever really talking to a person of color. (And boy do our politicians want to make that even worse.) But there are also many people who know exactly what they are doing, and I think Emily is a great depiction of that. (And in turn how she is a miserable and isolated person who's being used by larger corporate and political actors, because people lacking support systems are more likely to get radicalized.) Racism isn't perpetuated just because people 'don't know better' or are 'mean'. Racism is a tool that benefits the people wielding it. Emily is chillingly familiar in a way some more over the top podcast villains aren't.

Given all that, it makes me distrustful of how to interpret her ongoing mental and emotional deterioration. Is she the neglected wife of an unloving husband? Or is she doing exactly what she has shown herself to be very good at? Emily isn't a character we get a lot of interiority from, so it's hard to say to what extent the listeners are also getting played.

#perpetual perpetual ladies night #cw for discussion of racism #greater boston

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platoniccereal · 1 year

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this one is the post that has stayed in draft for the longest time and, tbh, was the thing that got me creating a profile here because i wanted to write about it. there is a relatively lengthy analysis of the iron bull's time on seheron, trauma, him rebuilding himself and the abuse of power under the qun.

it was inspired by many detailed analyses from other people, and especially this analysis of qun's attitude towards anger. because, may god be my witness, every in-depth post about bull's character just makes me grrr bark bark about his superiors. if you get my meaning.

ok, there's a very solid base to what paves the way for power abuse under the qun.

we know relatively little about the qunari society, out of all races they're the only ones we haven't met on their own territory, in their own culture. but even so i get the feeling that quite a big part of their people perceive actions of those in charge as fighting for the greater good and the enlightened society. or, to put it better, this is the correct point of view qunari are advised to have. meanwhile in reality these actions are also political. and this is what lets the abuse happen.

all in all, it's the “they fight for political reasons, while it's the betterment of society for us” dichotomy. that is, of course, a result of despising political life outside the qun – and propaganda within it. i don't believe it's an entirely meanspirited attitude of the high ranks that's intentionally hidden from the public eye. even arishok seems to believe it. you can get this impression through the whole second act in da2, where he continuously expresses contempt for human political squabbles. sten also seems to be puzzled by that part of human cultures in dao. bull openly hates everything that happens in orlais in comparison to what he saw in par vollen.

when it comes to criticism of the qun, it seems to be more about “the qun protects its people from themselves/taught to them as such protection”, which is again more ideological, than “it's politically profitable to make qunari think that the qun is the only way for them, because then they have meat for holding positions on seheron and conquering thedas”. the way they secure this position is in the whole story of qunari on seheron.

and as in any politics, qunari at the top ranks are able and willing to go over the heads and make sacrifices. just like they did with the iron bull.

it’s so cruel and expected of a system to pose itself as the only answer and attribute it’s screw-ups to its people simultaneously. besides, it’s just heartbreaking to see how it destroys people on a mental level. people there aren't sent the way sten was sent on the continent. service on seheron has no endpoint in one’s role and path. one’s path is to be a baker, one’s path is to be a philosopher, and one’s path is to serve in a hot spot for wear and tear until they die. because someone's made this decision and it’s politics. the very thing the qun is opposed to.

such attitude is even more justified in their society than in the “bas” ones because it's their entire philosophy. it's easier to turn a blind eye on something that cruel when you live in opposition to licentious bas nations that are drowning in their political games. they're taught that whatever happens, happens for the betterment of people. they're basically taught that for no qunari is it possible to wrong another. because the qun is right, the qun cannot wrong you, those who live true to the qun principles aren't interested in their own victories like human politicians are, they're interested in a healthy society, so they cannot wrong you. the qun definitely had its time to polish its system of gatekeep gaslight government to perfection.

but there are so many other ways and reasons why one may abuse their power.

i'm sure qunari see that, tal-vashoth see that. more importantly, the iron bull sees that. he understands that it sometimes more ruthless politics than the philosophical greater good. he's too smart not to notice.

plus, i think that with bull there's a giant problem for him in his own intelligence. ben-hassrath decided to send one of the smartest men in the room to the environment where each and every qunari goes rogue and the qun is daily doubted and tested by its people. this decision created a tragic situation where bull really does see every flaw and knows that he must not see that. and this decision to sent him there still was made even though bull's superiors knew the risks, because the qun needed more people on seheron to control what's crumbles. did anyone responsible care for anything else?

when i'm analysing this, i don't want to make claims against the whole qun society/philosophy here, since it'd shift the responsibility from certain members of it to an abstract Whole. every qunari also was brought up in that propaganda, but the understanding of it doesn't unable superiors in ben-hassrath from being held accountable. and maybe somewhere in some other world they should've been held accountable. i understand that it's in their mindset to use someone in the way the bull's superiors did. they used him like a horse that was driven to the point where its legs were broken, and then they continued to load it further, and then they got rid of it. because it's just how they treat people, but frankly, i don't believe the philosophy relieves the ben-hassrath of responsibility for their actions.

and bull's superiors knew he's not going anywhere. his tama said that he would solve problems others cannot, that he was a wise little boy, “eager to help”. this is in his nature, he's a people person and at his very core he's someone who ultimately wants to help others and make people feel better. but his outgoing all-seeing personality is a perfect tool to crack up people's shells to see what they really need.

at his core, the iron bull is ashkaari, a boy who called tama when he knew someone was in trouble. he is hissrad, a man who held his position on seheron for almost ten years because he was too loyal and because when he thinks something is going to make someone's life better, he fights for it. he doesn't want to hurt people he cares about. this proceeds to be true in the inquisition: he decapitates bad guys so he won't lash out to his loved ones. he likes to slay 'vints because at least he knows who are the bad guys, because he cares too much and hates any casualties.

as in any politics, these traits were used.

his superiors used this perfect tool at their disposal, twisted ashkaari's nature to make him track down and kill people in a hellhole of an island. which is ironic, since the qun's core principle is being true to one's nature/natural function. ashkaari wants to help people, but he became a killing machine; he's afraid of his anger and being possessed because he's afraid hurting his loved ones by his anger, but strangling friends on someone else's orders was exactly what he'd done under the qun. the philosophy is about staying true to one's nature, but it doesn't matter much when there's a call for political and military gain, i guess.

gatt says in his report to their superiors that hissrad was furious all the time: in a battle, at the dinner table. at the same time, he didn't have any agency or right to be furious. the iron bull had to carry conflicting statements within his head: everything is too bad for him, but it shouldn't be, because otherwise he'll go rogue, and he can't quit and not participate in this system that's too bad for him, because that way he'll go rogue, too.

this is just unfair. bull was indeed too stubborn and loyal to break, so there's nothing he could do except for creating an alternative universe in his head, where each of these statements didn't conflict with each other. if bull hadn't have this illusion (keeper of illusions, my ass), he would've had to explain these contradictory facts of reality in other, more conscious, intentional and resource-absorbing ways. so of course it was the way his mind chose to protect itself. on seheron, nobody had too many spoons, and he didn't have spare ones to deal with the fact that the qun ideas didn't meet reality as they were supposed to.

moreover, he neither had a right to give up and quit – nor a way to do so. this mind trap led him into burnout. he knew the only way for him to quit was to just let some enemy win a fight – and the only way for him and for any other qunari to reach out for help and guidance was to turn themselves to re-educators. so, the iron bull, whose main fear is madness. who as a child woke up at nights crying in fear of demons in his head. who hates the very idea of someone in his mind. turned himself to the re-educators. and every person above him knew that since his very childhood he was afraid of hurting people he loves. they used it to that degree to keep him on the leash. they managed to suppress him this bad.

the sad thing is, nothing gets fixed. he's sent there likely to just track down enemies, but he decides to help whoever he can on seheron when he wasn't supposed to, and nothing gets fixed. he spends eight years on seheron, trying to improve people's lives, believing that if he does all the right things, everything will be better, as if he has such responsibility, such power. but this is not true, and while he had no opportunity to give up, bull had to keep trying make things right, and eight years later, it's all still this broken same.

i reckon it's the story of many before and after him. people are sent in this hellhole in cold blood by their superiors who don't expect them to survive for longer than a couple of years, they're left to figure out how to cope with that mostly to themselves, they won't get any help if you don't count the re-education as one. all while it somehow simultaneously contradicts and stresses everything the qun is about.

i know it may be strange to view bull as a victim of his society and state, more often i see people view him as a victim of war. i suppose he even does it himself. he won't admit he's traumatized, in a huge part due to the actions of his superiors. he indeed describes seheron as a shithole, but throughout all his dialogue, i don't get the impression that he believes that seheron continues to influence him up until now as a trauma. it's also one of the fail-safe ways the qun secures itself, and it looks textbook abusive and gaslighting to me. bull may have left seheron or even the qun, but complicated and ambiguous feelings about it chase him up until demands of the qun and maybe later – so nearly ten years.

but there's something so beautiful about his personality. because even after the seheron's hell the iron bull remained himself. he brought everything that was the core of his identity out of this catastrophe and saved it. i can think of numerous dreadful ways he could break and become hardened, how many casualties this could've entailed (at the behest of the qun). but bull saved a man he didn't know at the cost of his own eye, he cares about common people of thedas the way he always cared about everyone all the time, even though it is expected (and approved) that the qunari will be chill about the way bas people devour themselves. all the things that were deeply damaged by seheron and the qun and tevinter, hissrad saved – and turned these shards into the iron bull (and i cannot stress enough how the fact that he gave himself the right to create this identity is important, because he could've remained hissrad and no one would even care- but that's a different topic).

this is where bull's true power and strength lie. re-educators most likely worried about his loyalty, if they worried about anything at all. i doubt they provided him with any real help while he needed it the most, shattered to pieces and lost his faith and will to live. the best ben-hassrath could think of is to shake their broken hissrad off into orlais. just to use what they still could benefit from. so bull had to help himself, alone.

of course bull’s afraid he will go astray without any role. but it wasn’t the qun that kept him sane, was it? it’s his heart, will and backbone of steel, his ultimate desire to make people’s lives better. years later, he still has ashkaari's heart of gold.

after demands of the qun bull must be on his way to understanding that not only the qun wasn't the reason his sanity was intact, but anger also won't be the reason he loses it. i can picture him being afraid of break-downs that eventually get to any person in the world, afraid now more than ever. and i can picture how he learns, surrounded by friends and family, that neither fury nor any strong feelings lead a person to madness. that it's ok and even healthy to have these feelings, as long as you express them the right way. bull knows these right ways, he's been dealing with anger and his own might that may hurt people all his life. he just isn't sure that it would be enough to stop him from going rogue. he'll learn the opposite, eventually. he'll learn that there's no re-educators, for better or for worse, and his people aren't obligated to turn him in to the re-educators, and now they will just offer him support and understanding, and it would be a perfectly normal thing to do. he will learn that his anger is just a feeling and no inner beast to be afraid of.

it always bugged me when he said those lines:

because no, it's not true for many reasons. but it makes sense from his point of view, if you see it as bull’s way to protect himself. it’s rather a self-affirmation. it’s what hissrad was taught so he won’t go astray even in his mind. thus, he himself makes sure he doesn’t do it.

the iron bull ends up as a good person who had to dedicate himself to wrong people that were able to value him only as a useful function – because it's the qun, where his well-intentioned personality was abused and subdued for the sake of a pure political profit, where people in charge made sure that he had no way to break free, and from a very young age he didn't have a chance to escape this faith. it is a tragedy.

in heaven bull jokes that he doesn't need the inquisitor's protection since his blade pretty much protects him. bull carries his own weight, everything bounces off of him.

but i think he needs it. this man needs community and to learn how to lean on them.

he's afraid to go rogue, eventually, but now he has the chargers and the inquisition. it's not seheron anymore. he's out. bull had friends before, but now he doesn't need to look into his people's eyes and guess which one is the tevinter's mole, which one will snap soon. he doesn't need to think that tomorrow he'll need to kill someone who today is his friend. he doesn't need to brace himself for daily deaths of his men. it's all different now, bull is safe and has got unconditional love and support.

and maybe he needs to understand that *sigh* he was abused. he rightfully hates the great game of orlais in opposition to the qun, but he may need to understand that he suffered not only from military actions and tal-vashoth they've created, but also from the political gain. from tevinter and the qun's sides. when he names things that made seheron unbearable, it's the whole range from tal-vashoth to fog warriors, but bull names nothing connected with the qun itself (ofc).

the iron bull also suffered from his government. he says to dorian that they both had to walk away knowing they didn't fit in and disappointed people who cared about them. but as gatt wrote in his letter, ben-hassrath owe bull for what they've done to him.

#brb punching walls #my poor little meow meow #what have they done to you #they literally didn't deserve him #they owe him so much #grr bark bark #please let him go to therapy #and treat him gently #dragon age inquisition #dragon age #iron bull #dragon age meta #sort off???#qunari #my post

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sybaritick · 4 months

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it's the BG3 fic writing 2023 summary meme!

just doing this for fun because I've seen a few writers taking part!

What are your Ao3 stats? How many words written, how many hits, kudos, and comments?

For 2023, words: 24608 hits: 19414 kudos: 2115 comment threads: 97

oooh, statistics!! now let's do a regression or something. ("on what"?? i don't know. could do something with the fic-by-fic data i suppose on comments vs kudos vs hits or whatnot) I'm happy with these stats, and the comments make me happiest -- I had so many great reactions to my fics that really made me smile to read. (Or laugh, in some cases, which might be even better).

Did you have a favourite canon character to write?

Gale. gotta be Gale. I love doing Astarion's dialogue too tho because he has SUCH a fun voice.

Did you have a favourite OC to write?

I’ve written very little OC stuff, only a single Tav/Gale fic. So Vierlin, the morally deficient enchantment wizard and fellow nerd to Gale, wins by default in Suggestion!

Which fic was your most popular?

That's nor heaven peep through the blanket of dark, the Astarion/Gale sussur flower fic! IMO it's only the most popular because it was posted in September.

Which fic was your personal favourite?

Hm, I think oh, rotten little thing, just because corrupting Gale makes me horny :) my upcoming gortash/gale fic will be. very much about that

Was there anything you wrote that was a surprise to you? Why?

in full honesty no I'm not surprised. I'll write anything. I did do a very overtly niche-kink-driven fic tho for us feeders/fat fetishists, catalyst!

What is your favourite piece of description you wrote? Why do you like it?

It's hard question, but one of the most fun is this section with ascended!Astarion in At Knifepoint: Astarion's face was cruel and angular in the half-light of the darkened library, stark shadows cast across his features, lips curled into a teasing smile. The Dispel Magic spell rushed over him faster than he could answer it, dark and sour like a sickening wave, and the invisibility curled away from his body like the burnt edge of a newspaper. lots of tasty sensory detail and imagery!

What was your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote? Why do you like it?

the Conversation Full Of Lying between precanon gort and durge in Grim Trigger was just fun as hell to write: "What, as an arms dealer? If I were to judge you by your victims, I would hardly be willing to set foot in the same room. But the cattle you so devoutly dismember are not me-- and the politicians and power-brokers that come under my influence are not you. Our relationship differs fundamentally." The Dark Urge was silent for a moment, but Gortash saw by the set of his jaw that he remained very much unconvinced. "What is it you imagine I would do to you?" Enver said. "You'd like to hear that, wouldn't you?" the Dark Urge answered, his lips curling into a cruel smile. "With the blessings of Bane it's only become easier for you to have anything you please. An ordinary mortal falls apart underneath you so dreadfully easily-- and you wish I would go down just as soft and easily, swallowed up to satisfy your urges." “You confuse your condition for mine, Bhaalspawn.” Gortash felt the air thicken with the thoughts coalescing in the Dark Urge’s mind. "You are not as different from me as you imagine." "I'll take that in the complimentary spirit I'm sure you intended.”

What was your overall feeling about your writing in 2023? What were you proud of? What were the highlights?

I feel positive about it! The biggest highlight is just that I'm happy I started writing again-- I'm glad to be banging this stuff out instead of letting it languish in my head until I forget it.

What would you like to explore more in 2024?

A Lot. Possibilities include: - several pairings I want to write but haven't yet (or at least haven't posted yet), especially Gortash/Gale or Gortash/Durge/Astarion - a longer fic or two - more and worse kinks (things i currently have at least in the back of my mind? hypnosis, sexual coercion/blackmail, some stuff that is fetishizing the political corruption in baldur's gate lol, forced impreg and misgendering, some medical play...) - perhaps additional originals/non-bg3 works as well because i do still enjoy writing them!

i encourage anyone who sees this and feels like it to do this too! it was fun to reflect on the past year of fanficcing :D

#cal txt #fandom #bg3

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fantastic-rambles · 10 months

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Fandom: Sk8 the Infinity

Characters: Ainosuke Shindo, Tadashi Kikuchi

Warnings: None?

Word Count: 2k

Summary: In a world in which every person is born with one of their soulmate's eyes, Ainosuke is determined to do whatever he can to find the one person who he is destined to be with. [Year of the OTP 2023 @yearoftheotpevent. June: Soulmate AU]

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Ainosuke gazed into the mirror as he ran a comb through his hair. He’d always loved his eyes: red and green, they stood out among a sea of varying shades of brown, with the occasional splash of blue or green. He’d always thought that they would make it easy for him to find his soulmate… and yet, he’d watched classmates fall in love, business partners get married, people coming together to start a new life with each other while he remained alone.

Of course, it was possible for people to find happiness, even without finding the one they were fated to be with, but he couldn’t bring himself to settle for that. The idea that there was someone out there who was supposed to be his, so intimately bound together that they could see the world together through the same eyes, was something that spoke to his very soul. He just had to look harder, to put more effort into meeting more people and reaching out beyond the boundaries of his own world.

All of that ambition had led him here, to this moment. Of course, his family was thrilled and more than happy to support him in his goal to become a politician: a position of power like that would only help to raise their own stock and likely play to their advantage in other ways. But Ainosuke didn't care about that, not really. His own motivations were equally selfish, if not more so. By having an excuse to appear in public in larger and larger venues, perhaps his fated lover would see him and reach out themselves, someday. If Japan was still too small, then he'd even aim for the position of Prime Minister and go abroad, leading this country to the forefront of international politics in exchange for a few extra minutes in the spotlight. No matter how long it took, he wouldn't give up.

Tucking his brush back into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, Ainosuke turned to leave the bathroom, nearly running into another man. About to murmur a polite apology, he glanced up at the other man's face, and the words died on his tongue. A pair of brilliant emerald eyes stared back at him, all the more beautiful for having been completed. He never could have mistaken them, but even so, he glanced over his shoulder to find two crimson eyes staring back at him from the mirror.

"Please excuse me."

The other man didn't seem to have noticed anything as he continued to try to edge past Ainosuke, but Ainosuke's own heart was racing as he reached out to grab the stranger's wrist.

"What's your name?"

A flicker of emotion—annoyance—crossed the man's face, but he answered anyway.

"Tadashi Kikuchi."

Tadashi. A beautiful name for a beautiful man… but Ainosuke's contemplations were brought to an abrupt halt as he suddenly recognized the name. Tadashi Kikuchi wasn't especially well-known to the general public, but he was a thorn in the side of Ainosuke's own party. He was said to be not much of a speaker, but when he did talk, he was straightforward and honest, which had contributed to his election as a "trustworthy" politician… not unlike Ainosuke himself, though his own popularity was founded upon a facade more than reality. Rather, Tadashi's strength was said to lie in the written word, drafting bills with all the flexibility of a lawyer while finding loopholes and alternative readings of Ainosuke's own party's proposals to strike them down. But that had nothing to do with their love.

"Tadashi. I mean, Kikuchi-san. Do you know who I am?"

Another flash of annoyance.

"Ainosuke Shindo-san. If you'll excuse me, I need to use the facilities. If there's something that you would like to discuss with me, you can speak with my secretary about adding yourself to my schedule."

"That's not it," Ainosuke started to protest, but then he bit his tongue. Tadashi seemed to have the wrong impression of what Ainosuke wanted, but he was right that a bathroom wasn't the right place to have this conversation. Besides, Ainosuke wanted to do this properly. He hadn't expected to run into his soulmate here, but he'd spent years thinking about what he would do when he finally found them. This was his chance—his only chance—to make everything perfect.

Furthermore, Tadashi already knew who he was, which meant that he had some amount of interest in Ainosuke, right? Perhaps not romantically, since he still hadn't noticed the change in both of their conditions, but he'd clearly been paying attention to the younger man in some way. That was more than enough for a starting point.

"But I'll do as you say. I'll see you later, Kikuchi-san!"

Smiling, Ainosuke let go of the other man before leaving the bathroom and quickly returning to his own office. There was so much that he needed to do, after all! Contacting Tadashi's secretary first to schedule an appointment later in the afternoon and making sure that he had no events after work, calling up a florist for a last-minute order of three dozen red roses in full bloom, making a dinner reservation since both of their evenings were clear for the moment… It was truly regretful that they were in session. Otherwise, they could have planned a relaxing trip together, perhaps to Ainosuke's native Okinawa or the other extreme of Hokkaido. They could always arrange such a trip for the future, of course, but it wouldn't be the same.

He could barely get through his own work as he constantly checked the clock, waiting for the designated hour to arrive. Ten minutes before their appointment, Ainosuke headed out with the bouquet in one hand while brushing his hair back with the other. By the time he arrived at Tadashi's office, he was humming, eager to surprise his beloved.

When he knocked on the door, it opened immediately. A man in a dark suit ushered him in… and then left, closing the door behind him. Ainosuke's heart leapt in his chest when he realized that he and Tadashi were alone: had the other man finally realized what had happened? Was he ready to accept their eternal love?

As Tadashi rose from his desk, Ainosuke quickly closed the distance between them so that he could catch the older man as he walked around it to greet him. Lowering himself to one knee, Ainosuke offered the roses to him, belatedly regretting that he hadn't ordered more. A hundred, at least, according to his original plans. As many as the florist had available, and if one shop didn't have enough, he'd have reached out to more. And even that would have been a pittance compared to what Tadashi deserved. But he'd decided to hold back, a little, in case the other man still hadn't put the pieces together so as not to overwhelm him.

"Kikuchi-san. I've been searching for you, my soulmate, for my entire lifetime. As a token of our acquaintance, I have prepared these flowers, which hold the meaning of 'passionate love.' Will you please accept my feelings?" he asked, gazing up at Tadashi with an expression of earnest devotion. His beloved's expression was harder to read, blank and impassive… while he made no effort to take the flowers.

"Please get up, Shindo-san," he requested, and Ainosuke scrambled to his feet, his hold on the bouquet tightening as he started to grow anxious. Had he made a mistake? Did Tadashi still not understand? Was there another reason the man had dismissed his assistant for this meeting?

Then, Tadashi sighed.

"I understand why you're here"—pale, elegant fingers reached up to brush the corner of his eye, just under the fringe of black hair—"but you do understand that this is mostly superstition? Certainly, the phenomenon of eyes being exchanged exists, but people who experience it do not have a greater chance of 'finding happiness,' or falling in love, statistically speaking. When it does happen, it's more likely to be some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy due to the active, concerted efforts of those involved. Otherwise, it's nearly impossible to develop a relationship with someone you don't even know based merely on a peculiarity like this."

Tadashi was saying things that Ainosuke had heard before, but he was hardly going to give up because of such a minor obstacle, especially when he was more than ready to put in "active, concerted efforts" to achieve his dreams. It seemed that his fated partner was one of those who didn't believe in fate, which was unfortunate, but not entirely uncommon. More and more people these days were accepting it as just another part of life rather than searching for the person who would complete them. But Ainosuke wasn't like that. Instead, he smiled more charmingly as he lay the roses on Tadashi's desk.

"Of course I understand that. Which is why I've already made us a dinner reservation for this evening. We can spend as much time as you like getting to know each other over good food and a few drinks. You're alright with French, I hope?"

But Tadashi shook his head.

"That's not the issue. Frankly, Shindo-san, I'm not interested in playing along with some sophomoric game. I have more important work to do. We both do."

"I'm entirely serious about this, though? Ah… are you dating someone else at the moment? Or is there some other, personal reason that you can't accept this? Are you heterosexual?"

Ainosuke himself had never worried about such things: regardless of who his soulmate was, he'd been determined to dedicate all of his love to them. It didn't make sense, after all, for a soulmate to be someone the other person couldn't be attracted to. His fairly invasive questions seemed to be making Tadashi blush, though, such an innocent reaction making him all the more endearing.

"No, that's not… No, I mean…"

"Then can't you at least give me a chance? Come to dinner with me, at least. If you decide that you hate me, then that will be the end of it, I promise. But if I'm tolerable, then let's continue meeting up outside of work. We don't have to call it dating, if you're uncomfortable with that. Just hanging out, getting to know each other, and seeing where it goes from there. And if you eventually decide that you do like me, then our romance can finally begin."

Tadashi's lips turned downwards, but the frown seemed to be more thoughtful than displeased, so Ainosuke stayed silent, not wanting to push too much and encounter resistance. He was starting to get the measure of the other man and learning how to best appeal to him. His suggestion was perfectly reasonable, which would make it hard for someone as serious and diligent as Tadashi to refuse him despite understanding the motivations behind the invitation. Even so, Tadashi seemed to be trying to find some sort of excuse to turn him down… before he sighed again.

"Just dinner," he warned, and Ainosuke nodded enthusiastically.

"Just dinner," he promised, pulling out one of his business cards and a pen so he could write down the details of their reservation before offering it to Tadashi with both hands. After the other man had taken it and reviewed the details, Ainosuke smiled again.

"I'm looking forward to this evening. Thank you very much for indulging me in this, Kikuchi-san."

Reaching for the flowers on the desk, Ainosuke extracted a single blood-red bloom, raising it to his lips to press a kiss to the soft, velvety petals before reaching out to gently tuck it into Tadashi's breast pocket. An equally rosy color stained Tadashi's cheeks again, making Ainosuke want to pull him into an embrace and kiss him, but he forced himself to hold back. Bowing slightly, he excused himself, waiting for the office door to close behind him before he reached into his pocket to extract his cell phone.

He needed to call the restaurant and make some adjustments to his initial request that they design a romantic evening, after all.

#year of the otp #yotp #yotp 2023 #sk8 the infinity #skate the infinity #sk8 #fan fic #fanfic #sk8 adam #ainosuke shindo #shindo ainosuke #sk8 tadashi #sk8 snake #tadashi kikuchi #kikuchi tadashi #mine

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lasnevadaslaborunion · 1 year

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i NEED yr insight on cee loanshark PLEASE 🙏

Okay LISTEN UP Y'ALL

I'll set the scene. The date is sometime after LN5 first airs. I was in the middle of rewatching Foolish's six-hour building stream in which Quackity recounts his entire life story, when suddenly my third eye burst the fuck open.

And I guess there's no better time than now to drop my c!loanshark meta.

/dsmp /rp

I've always liked these characters, and I've picked up on a lot of really cool connections between them. c!Quackity is a former idealistic young politician turned jaded capitalist, building a legacy and clawing his way up with bloody fingers. c!Foolish is a physical god who once used violence to get his way but came to regret that way of life and now copes through creating beauty. Quackity explicitly manipulates Foolish into joining him by appealing to his newfound fear of mortality, a fear which Q shares. They're both trying to move away from past versions of themselves, but what they each see as "the problem" is very different.

What compels me about this dynamic is that Foolish simply existing as himself is a refutation of Quackity's worldview; building things up rather than tearing them down worked for him. That's how he got immortality! That's why he has so many friends! And while Quackity is trying to push Foolish back into the life he used to live because he desires and envies that strength, Foolish does not want to lose himself to that side of himself; when he does join Las Nevadas, he claims he's simply trying to find a "healthy balance."

But because of the kind of person Foolish is trying to be, combined with the perspective from centuries of existence, he's in a perfect position to reach Q. Quackity has a history of getting easily attached, both to powerful people and to people who show him compassion unprompted. Foolish is both of these.

And we see this! We see Quackity in that very same stream opening up and telling Foolish everything about himself, despite admitting that it makes no sense for Foolish to stay and listen. We see him trusting Foolish to run the country after Slime died. We see him enlisting Foolish's help to make canonical babies clone an army of slimes.

And... controversial take incoming, but this dynamic is easier than Quackcicle for me to read as potentially romantic. I think that generally, and especially post-Schlatt, Quackity prefers to be intimate with someone he sees as... an equal, at least in some sense. And as much as he cares about Slime, he does not view him as an equal; him simultaneously infantilizing and idealizing the guy is one of the big problems Slime rips into him for ("you found me, something malleable"). Meanwhile, he's still Foolish's boss, officially, but he also knows that Foolish is experienced, capable of extreme violence, and definitely capable of killing him if he wanted to. He's kind, he's nice, but he's not pure. There's a certain... safety in having someone like that on your side. Doesn't hurt your ego, either.

So for Quackity it's "you are one of the few people who can truly understand why I am the way I am" and "you could destroy me if you so chose, and you wouldn't be wrong for doing so" and perhaps later on, "knowing you better now, I want to do right by you; don't I wish someone had done that for me?" with a healthy dose of "you know, the fact that this guy could snap me in half and I'm only still alive out of mercy (or am I the one in control here? Nice.) is… kinda hot."

And for Foolish, it's "I still hate you for what you couldn't or wouldn't do" and "I feel sorrow for the parts of you I see myself in" and perhaps later on, "I came here for my own benefit but maybe you and this place deserve a second chance; didn't I want a second chance my own?" with a little dash of "… okay, I'll admit it, this mortal is kind of cute, and I could always kick him and bail later if I really wanted to."

The rub we find with a romantic relationship between these two, though, is getting it to go the other way. Despite having been very civil to Q, Foolish has no reason to trust Q. This guy let him die, came into his home, insulted him to his face, and probably doesn't pay him nearly what his work is worth. Foolish still has some self-respect left. He seriously considered betraying Q to Dream, for goodness' sake, and it's hard to blame the guy.

But after Quackity's second death, Foolish is... basically all that Q has to confide in. And again, maybe he's in the perfect position to understand and discern whether or not Q's change is genuine. Given his own history, he knows that people can change.

Picture this: Quackity now has hundreds of humanoid slimes to care for, right? Maybe he wants to do better by them than he did for Charlie, and is realizing just how badly he might have fucked up by raising them the way he did. Maybe he tries to encourage them to do things independently, too, and it isn't quite working. Maybe some of them gain enough agency to be angry and choose to leave Las Nevadas, and maybe part of Q's growing process is letting them go.

But maybe Foolish stays to help those who remain; after all, wasn't he their creator, too? Doesn't he have some responsibility? And while he's teaching them new skills like building, or helping them hone their individual styles, he's also there for Q to lean on, ask questions, confess things he hasn't told anyone else. Maybe Foolish tells Q a few stories from his own past, and Q isn't horrified to hear the gory details. Maybe they go from coworkers to tentative friends, and perhaps something a little more... flirtatious. Yeah, that's the word. Nothing too serious, just fun. Like when Quackity comes to Foolish in the middle of the night, shaky from a dream he's not remorseful enough to call a nightmare yet, and asks if he can sit with him. Or when Foolish asks for feedback on a blueprint that's giving him trouble, and Quackity spends half an hour praising and hyping him up (it's little... weird, but appreciated). Maybe one day, Quackity finally gives Foolish a true, heartfelt apology.

Foolish isn't going to hold Q's hand through his self-improvement journey; Q has to face his guilt and do the hard parts alone. But maybe at the end of it, Foolish will still be there, in this cold country that's starting to feel just a bit more like a family, and maybe that says everything it needs to.

On a completely different end of the spectrum, cAN YOU IMAGINE THE ANGST IF FOOLISH HAD ACTUALLY BETRAYED Q IN LN5. AFTER Q HAD FINALLY STARTED TO TRUST AGAIN HE GETS SMACKED WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS OWN ACTIONS. WE WERE FUCKING ROBBED OF THIS SCENE. ROBBED, I TELL YOU-

Sooo... yeah. Their dynamic doesn't need to be romantic, per se, but it's a ship I find very interesting and appealing. Hence the essay.

P.S. - tiny prettyboy twink + muscular literal god, do what you will with that

#dsmp #c!quackity #c!foolish #c!loansharkduo #do these two have a ship name?#quacklish? fookity?#ahhh loanshakr is a pun it's fine #analysis

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haamuart · 7 months

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Peter and Ogid (my OCs). Doodles from 2021.

It seems I have something to say about these two so lol there's a story about them under the cut if you want to have a look. I tried mentioning something in the notes but it looks like it's getting BIG

So I may have something on this on this blog already but I can't be bothered to check and these are my OCs anyway so. If I have different details than elsewhere just ignore it.

So the marks under Peter's (the shorter guy who looks a young hobbit sometimes) eyes mark him as a royal. The Aizalardean royal family has three dots appear under their eyes by some genetic mutation or magic or whatever. Everyone knows this.

People also know that the late queen had two boys. However, no-one knows what they look like or how old they are, as the queen was just THAT secretive. But they know they could identify the boys by the dots under their eyes.

So some years later, by some weird and dramatic chain of events, a very young Ogid (who wants to become a politician) claims that he is the older boy. He shows off the dots under his eyes as proof, and no-one notices they have been tattooed on his face. The authorities, used to leaning on the royal family in their difficult country (they live literally underground), welcome him with open arms, surprisingly. Sure there are a few who doubt, but they are swiftly and mysteriously dead soon.

It helps that Ogid soon introduces the younger prince to the public. You know, the one that had been missing for all these years, like Ogid supposedly was? (Ypu, the "brother" was very young and separated from his true older brother for years. He barely remembers him.)

At the same time, this is a result of Ogid wanting power and being stupid and young. He starts to regret everything, especially when he notices how difficult it is as a lone "royal" trying to control the scheming politicians who are not afraid to have you killed if you protest too loud. He came from a wealthy family, but slowly he realizes just how badly most of Alardeans are doing because of the ""authorities"" greediness.

So!! That's pretty much me trying to work out whatever the hell I drew and planned when I was a kid for these characters lol. They made even less sense at some ten years ago. So Ogid's in this weird situation where he's supposed to be the king but he is kind of powerless and he got that position by lying. He also kind of want an out, wants to reveal his sins, and desperately wants to better the situation but does not know how. Honestly, it is an relief when a mysterious boy breaks into the palace and starts speaking to him.

#fantasy art #fantasy characters #fantasy character design #urban fantasy #in a way???#doodles #doodling #doodle #sketchbook #sketching #drawing #traditional art #traditional drawing #pencil drawing #my ocs #my oc art #peter ottiro #ogid

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colnerys · 1 year

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i think the interpretation of what the mirrorverse means is super interesting. to me, the mirror isn’t what’s “opposite” of who you are. it’s more than just “evil vs good” and whatnot. the mirror reflects the inverted image of you. often times the only way to see what we look like is through a looking glass, the inverted image of you. you see things that you don’t like but it’s not really you — it’s a reflection of you but at the same time it’s also you. in some ways, we can interpret the mirrorverse versions of characters as what the characters themselves either hate the most / notice the most about themselves.

for example, if we take the intendant kira vs major kira: in “battle lines” (ds9, 1x13) we get a glimpse of one of kira’s biggest fears —— being seen as heartless, being seen as someone who gets a sadistic enjoyment out of violence. the intendant, is literally the mirrorverse’s version of a gul dukat in the way how she doesn’t really care about killing lives or enslaving people because it serves her cause. then we have “progress” (ds9, 1x15) in which we very clearly see how kira hates the notion of being someone with any real power because she’s seen how power gets abused over and over again. she ardently rejects helping the bajoran government for so long because she can’t stomach the ideas of abusing her power —— even though there are checks and balances for kira (sisko being a huge one) to not do that. meanwhile we have the intendant being so incredibly selfish, using her power to get anything and everything we want. to kira, the intendant reflects everything she fears and loathes about herself.

kira even confesses how the intendant scares her. especially at the time of “crossover” (ds9, 2x23) because imagine finally feeling even slightly comfortable with her newfound position and identity but to only see yourself in the worst light possible and having everything you hate about yourself accentuated and exaggerated before your very eyes. it’s stomach churning, and it’s shame inducing.

yes kira can be authoritative, can lash out, can resort to violence because she’s wired to respond to threats with violence —— and the truth is, those are all things she hates about herself.

the intendant’s self centred nature is something reflected in kira’s martyr complex that she has —— which is something she does struggle with. kira’s incredibly uncomfortable with even implying that she’s a politician of any sorts or treated as the hero who brought home li nalas — or hell, even the fact that she’s a historical figure in cardassian history. she grapples with the line of “this isn’t about me” to “fuck it, i’m doing this for my cause” — so there is that internal struggle of wondering if she’s only fighting for her beliefs because she’s selfish and needs a cause to validate her or if she genuinely cares.

now, to the intendant’s overall ✨horny energy ✨ and what that means for kira. now this is the fun part where i’m more gonna veer into headcanon & beta canon territory. it’s not sex that kira’s uncomfortable with, it’s the indulgence that kira’s disgusted by. now, i think her upbringing is so important here because growing up malnourished, she didn’t believe that she was allowed to have likes and dislikes (aside from the cardassians, of course). in fearful symmetry, we see this example extrapolated from shakaar admonishing kira for throwing her life away and not knowing what to look forward to in the future. because nerys had no idea whilst the rest of her cell mates had all these post-occupation aspirations. because of the fact that she lost her entire family during the occupation, the thought of indulging in too much of anything and not doing something to further progress bajor is guilt inducing.

so to see the intendant literally doing nothing but indulging herself? it disgusts her. the intendant expresses a lot of the desires and wanting that kira has internally but those are things that she tries hard to suppress because unlike the intendant, kira doesn’t live for herself — kira sees her purpose as something much, much greater than herself so to even be so selfishly indulgent? she finds it repulsive.

anyways, i can go on and on about this but the tldr is that the intendant reflects everything kira fears and hates about herself onto an image that looks like her but is not quite her.

#* 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 : headcanons #yknow this started as a hey lets talk abt kira being h*rny into #hm lets psychoanalyze her

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jumpols-nostrils · 2 years

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I am still so fascinated with how in Not Me The Series, the Gang probably really disliked Black as a person but worshipped him as a concept

I totally believe Sean that he couldn't stand Black and thought he was an Asshole. But I also believe him when he said Black gave him a reason to live.

Same goes for Yok. I am convinced -by them- that they would throw hands with Black given the opportunity.

But Sean has bigger things to worry about. He lost almost everything to some narcissistic politician. And he must have felt very helpless and hopeless. And hope is a strong thing, especially in its absence. Black just comes along and suggests they target that specific politician. Does that make Black likeable as a person? No. But suddenly Sean isn't alone in a fight. In fact, he has a whole crew at his back. And different from Black, they are actually nice too! Thanks Black, for bringing this together lol

Similar is Yok's situation. He witnesses the unfairness towards his mother on a daily basis. He is angry and he can't help, he can't change the situation. But targeting a politician who is part of the problem is something!

And Black isn't just determined, he's ruthless. He will go in and push through what he thinks is appropriate and he isn't afraid and he doesn't care for the consequences. And to the others? That must look so strong. They probably never consider that it is partially because Black has already lost so much. The gang most likely only know that Black's parents are divorced and he has beef with his mother, who is in such a good position that Black still benefits from the privileges. They don't know he had long ago lost something of himself when he was separated from his Twin. A twin that was so connected to him, he would have had the power to kill him but, as is turns out, can also bring him back to the living. Black is broken enough by this loss that he, just like White, doesn't even mention his Twin to others. Not to mention that his father doesn't even care enough to check up on if he's still living. All of this also plays into how the relationship between Black and Todd is and what it means to them but that's maybe for another post I'll never make lmao

Anyways, the point is that to the Gang, Black is mostly this force that keeps them fighting too. And the moment he said he would quit, something broke.

This stance towards him, to worship him, must have confused them so much. Especially Yok and Sean were not sure how to deal with a Black that is a person, when so far he had been an Idea.

Personally, I would have loved to see more of that. I don't think we see enough of Yok and White and we see just enough of Gumpa to figure out his very reliable mentor role. But the show could have easily benefitted from having one or two more episodes for the character dynamics alone.

And then there's Gram, who sees Black more as an idol but also as friend, tho there is no doubt that he also respects him in a way where he would never try and get in Black's way. Black and Gram seemed to be the only ones that had a real relationships when looking at Black's relations. And yet, Gram has obvious expectations towards him, so much that when White knows shit about their subject, he assumes it's a joke because Black must know all of this. Making Black still his idolized friend maybe. However, it speaks volumes about how he saw Black more as a person than the others did when he immediately helped Black when he had his first breakdown after almost dying.

Anyways, these are just pointless rantings of how I saw and interpreted the relationship between mostly Yok/Sean and Black before he was White. I don't even know where I was going with this. Have a great day!

#not me the series #like really. just something i needed off my chest because it's interesting to me #but I wished we got to learn more #rambling on my own

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