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#i watched like half of first season with her then bc i thought she might like it
blueberry-macaron · 4 months
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I'm in a salt mode so lets get into this
One of the biggest problems people had with the L//S is how poorly developed it's been and how less effort it has been put into it, And don't get me started how Adrichat and Maribug barely interact basically making the ship have 0 chemistry.
But then when ships like Lukanette and Adrigami came along, then there's some Toxic L//S stans who bash the characters (and doxx lukanette and adrigami shippers), with their only excuse being "ThEy R iN tHe Way of adr///ette/L//s (Mainly because they're insecure that Lukanette/Adrigami has Chemistry, proper development and effort and their ship doesn't)
I'm so sick and tired of the hate that Lukanette/Adrigami gets.
I'm so sick and tired of the hate that Luka/Kagami gets.
I'm so sick and tired of toxic L//S stans projecting their ship on every. single. damn. thing
I'm so sick and tired of seeing Lukanette/Adrigami shippers get d0xxed, threatened and bullied just because they don't ship the L//S or Adr//ette
Yikes, people doxxed each other because of ships?? For some reason I'm not entirely surprised. I've seen fandoms with super toxic people and the ml fandom sure can be toxic as hell. If you (general) get so worked up about people's opinions about characters from a kids show, you should be denied access to the internet and instead have access to tons grass to touch. But yeah, even just "normal hate" can be frustrating and discouraging, so it's best to just block those people. I completely understand your frustration.
Luka//nette isn't good because they were half canon, it's good because they have a meaningful bond and the root for drama is always outside circumstances and not the fact that they fundementally don't work together. If Mari wasn't Ladybug, they probably wouldn't have split up. That's why I love this ship so much. Besides, they never got in the way of anything. Realistically, no ship can get in the way of a confirmed endgame ship bc, well, it's endgame. So this argument is kind of falls flat (honestly most arguments against Luka//nette I've heard were either not really important or kind of a very outlandish interpretation of their relationship, I don't care about either.)
Heck, even if Luka//nette wasn't the rival ship but just friends in canon who interacted twice, who cares? Shipping isn't supposed to be serious, it's exploring different dynamics between characters and having fun putting them in different scenarios and have them have 6176310278 different first kisses. There's no rule that you have to be on board with the canon ship.
Now speaking of L//S developement (bc now I'm also in a salty mood and I have thoughts)
I and many others have already talked about how s1-4 didn't really do much with them. But I find it funny when people say that s5 did a great job developing they're relationship because... bitch where? I've watched season 5 (I have no self respect) and everything was confusing and over the place and I think that's bc the writers can't make up their minds about which problems the L//S might face actually matter and how they can be solved.
The season starts with Mari making a big deal about how loving Adrien is dangerous because hero stuff. Oh but actually it doesn’t matter, she likes CN now, problem solved! Oh wait no Chat friendzoned her and Adrien is pushing real hard for Adr//nette so they give up their fucking miraculous (in times of crisis I might add), problem solved! No wait, actually the new heroes suck so they take them back, but that’s okay bc being in love and being a superhero at the same time is actually no longer a problem for some reason! The actual problem is that Mari is incapable of expressing herself because she has trauma. And THAT’S the real shit because fucking everybody gets so invested they organize literal dates for them and watch from a distance until they smooch instead of, oh idk, letting them do things their own way. But actually that also doesn't matter anymore bc Zoe just confessed and Mari was so inspired she immediately ran to Adrien. Oh but Adrien is a senti without free will and he goes to england soon whoopsie. Also Gabriel and Tomoe are now Adri//gami shippers because of course we need an arranged marriage deal type of plot. Oh yeah there's also something about Monarch apparently having all the miraculouses but who cares amirite
See what I mean? There's no structure, no actually overcoming problems, it's just random shit happening without any connection to the previous random shit. The characters don't develop in a meaningful way. Mari's only life goal is making one cohesive sentence in front of Adrien and he's kind of just there. I mean he could maybe feel inspired by Marinette's passion for arts and crafts and try out some stuff or he could continue to have no direction in life. Yes, as a teen it's hard knowing what you want to do later in life, but Adrien doesn't even really have actual hobbies he can define himself through. The writers fail not only to develop the relationship as a whole but also the characters involved as people. They could as easily be a situationship where they meed every two days to make out and it wouldn't change anyting. It's just fan service here and there combined with shallow and forgettable dialogue (I think, there wasn't a conversation that stick with me at least) and idk this maybe works as a first love that maybe lasts for a year before they have a dramatic break up and then move on with their lives, But the show tries to sell this idea that the square will actually stay together forever (or have a constant toxic on-off thing bc that's the vibe I'm getting. Plus Bunnyx sort of implied that).
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spacehostilityy · 10 months
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So I watched Cursed by Light for the first time yesterday (even though I started watching sds circa 2017, I'm just late to the game🤪) and I have so many thoughts !! Might do more analysis later, but here's my initial thoughts
I NEED more Meliodas and Zeldris interactions like it is a NECESSITY
Elizabeth was so badass in this movie I love her and it made me want to see "Bloody Ellie" even more omg
On the topic of Elizabeth, I love her bc she's such a girls' girl. Like, find her a woman, and they will be besties. I mean Merlin, Diane, Elaine, Gelda, even Derieri - she's just such a girl lover !!
And it's pride month so legally, everyone has to agree with bi!Elizabeth... jk... kinda lol (honestly every single sin is queer in my head, im prohecting my queer onto all nnt char)
Cursed by Light DEFINITELY best movie like hands down
BUT I actually kinda wish that the Supreme deity plotline was part of the show rather than a one off movie
Like I want it as a season. I feel like her character had so much potential not only for cool plots and battles, not only for the resurrection of the goddess race and the problems that would cause, but also for Elizabeth's emotional and physical/power arc
Anyway I will be thinking of at least a half season to combat the SD, complete with flashback to and before the Holy War and Elizabeth defeating her mother with those famed goddess powers that the demon race was so afraid of
And of course, within this season would be lots of brother bonding, and a large amount of time set in the demon realm where we get to explore the society and world, along more with the demon bros' past as individuals and together
Meliodas atones for both his betrayal of his brother, and that of his people who he probably should have been protecting
Plus maybe some gowther (bc I love him) and original demon lore bc that would be cool
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eldritch-araneae · 1 year
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So; I finally finished watching earthspark; and I truly want to hug Bee; like a lot; my bot does not deserve all that happened to him. I also need more information about breakdown and brawl. Also where was Optimus. Also megatron gets a hug. And Tarantulas and hashtag!
Where is grimloc?
Bee needs a medic, by the way.
There are many more questions and feelings.
But I will end this here.
You also get a hug!
Rev
I have a lot of thought about this! Earthspark Spoilers under cut!
1)Bumblebee def needs a hug and I really hope he will receive some, poor guy! That's a great set up for his character arc as well, which I thinking will happen in second season. His struggles with the alt-mode, agent Schloder being so obsessed and incredibly angry as Bee, and the whole thing with Breakdown. Can't wait to see how this gonna play out.
2) Yeah I also wonder who will treat Bumblebee's injuries? Will it be one of Autobot medic? Or one of Terrans will take this role?
3) About Optimus it's very interesting how he was absent, there are mostly theories how he's being mind controlled by GHOST and such so I wont repeat those, bc I have an additional thought that maybe Optimus is working on better solution. Perhaps with work with some government people to get legal protections for cybertronians on Earth, but he must do this in secret bc GHOST might find out ( and lets face it, Megatron is unreliable in current state).
The reason why no one think of this is bc everyone projecting IDW, and I sincerely hope the ES writers didn't go the exactly same path as comics. Decepticons being oppressed while being the military faction, and Autobots being the oppressors while they are mostly represented by civilians and workers never sits well with me. Besides there an an official continuity where the roles are reversed and it's called Shattered Glass. Ofc there is still big possibility that writer still copied the IDW formula, which would be super disappointing to me, but I'll live. As long as they butcher Bumblebee ahaha. But so far I do like it what I see in the show in current state. GHOST being corrupted organization ( and we don't know if it was always corrupted or it got corrupted over years) but it's the only somewhat support Autobots had and Optimus knows it and he also knows it will affect everyone (which why he hides a lot of Autobots and Terrans in first place). And he's know there is some shady shit on, but doesn't know what exactly (and same with half of GHOST bc Schoder isn't aware either) that's he's trying to find a better way. (Side Note: Tbh, I think about how Croft's possible end goal is got get full control over cybertronians ( and even over humans, we saw how immediately she gain full control over Mandroid and he fails to see it bc of his own hatred) to use them as war machines to her army! Even Optimus kinds implied it when he said "I'm afraid GHOST might use them (Terrans) as asset", like asset for what? There is only one answer for it and we all know military do with those assets.)
Optimus is very interesting, he's really in bad situation right now, and he tries his best to solve it, but its really difficult and he often has to morally compromise just to prevent another war from starting.
And Megatron, even tho he good intentions to break down the oppressive system on Cybertron, he failed, and the main reason why he failed bc he surrounded himself with enemies like Shockwave (which I'm surprised on one else pointed this out yet). So his faction turned into yet another tool of oppression, bringing the war to Earth and trying to conquer it. And what I find interesting is just the fact Megatron isn't there yet!
Right now to me he appears to be someone, who only started to accepts his mistakes, but he doesn't take full responsibility yet. He doesn't realize that his movement was doomed to fail bc of ppl like Shockwave and the fact his still call him a friend after how badly Shockwave treated Terrans really screams it.
And if this gonna be a story not how Megatron isn't actually a traitor of Decepticons, but he was surrounded by traitors and Megatron finally realising it - this would be very cool and thousands times better than whatever it was in IDW!
And I much prefer the situation that a lot of cons joined the cause bc they were ether lied to, or were in desperate situation and Shockwave took advantage of this. This would make perfect sense for "not all cons are evil" and "cons are evil and they choose to be".
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im bored and kinda high so heres my opinion on all the reboot characters
caleb - is a character
axel - im just as gay for her as the next guy but there's no way in hell she's final two next season lol but i wanna hold hands w her
nichelle- yass girl give us nothing 🥰
scary girl - idc idc she was funny asf but i am glad she went early bc if she stayed any longer i wouldve hated her lol
damien - one of the best things to come from the reboot and yall are doing him a huge disservice shipping him w priya 🥴 that shit is so boring but honestly? there might be something there somebody's gotta make me a believer tho. CONVINCE ME
mk - as a bitter, annoying, sarcastic individual myself i could not stand this bitch omg 💀 her character has a ton going for it but all they did w her is make every single one of her lines sarcastic n shit and i was BORED
raj - dumb gay man i love him
wayne - dumb ace man i love him
ripper - bro just wasnt funy. i dont get why they make characters who just pride themselves in being nasty n shit kind of a waste of development idk
zee - we can all agree that he was great but he gives me early boot vibes for next season bc like if we're demanding development for all the first season early boots then he's just gonna be there ig. dumb can only get you so far yknow?
chase - him and emma both are such wasted potential like BREAK THE HETEROS UP OMG their relationship dragged the second half down so bad like chase is just bad for the sake of being bad. like he wasn't even funny either just a waste of space by the time he was gone 😭
emma - first i'll say im glad we got a plus sized girl w some fucking athletic ability beCause THEY EXIST yay happy but anyway she was so funy until she got back with chase and that whole shit w him throwing that challenge for pizza was so DUMB like she honestly thought he did that shit for her 💀 like she was CONVINCED bro the straight delusion was insane
julia - she was the bad bitch we all needed and deserved but i cannot sit here and let you mfs say that she played the game well bc she absolutely DID NOT. girlie had no actual strategy other than winning and thas not even a strategy. even her trying to "manipulate" chase that one time sucked too lmao. bro her goal was to get everyone to hate her and win out of spite that shit is so dumb but it's so her so idc we love her anyway
millie - there were so many times where i lowkey forget she existed lmfao i don't even dislike her it was just "oh yea she here too lol" but i gotta say it kinda feels like they used her as a scapegoat to make writing her outta the finale easier idk maybe it's just me. but her crying after bowie clowned her ass when she was eliminated was the funnies bit in the entire show i was giggling n shit bc she honestly did that to herself lmao rip
priya - people compare her to zoey and sky way too much honestly (its me, im people) but when you look at it we have a mary sue that was infuriating to watch , the same girl but olympic flavored whos existence i have to be reminded of every two months, and priya. priya is perfectly fine and she was a nice winner even if i knew she was gonna win the second she was onscreen lolZ but when she read millie's notebook and absolutely demolished her ego i was living. like girlie ate her up w absolutely no crumbs left idc
bowie (the real winner) - i was fully prepared and ready to hate this twink istg. like i was in my homophobic era and ready the second his name was called but omg i love him sm. he was the queen i never knew i needed in my life. and to all the mfs who say his gayness is his entire personally have never met an fem black man and it shows 💀 idc what anyone says he's the best writer character in the entire show 🤭 as much as i love him i cannot let his fit slide. the pearls can stay bc those were a serve but the pants??? THE FUCKING PANTS??? THOSE FUCKING FLOOD WARNING HIGH WATERS.?? why would they do him like that omg. fits like that are why we get hate crimed 😔
ok im done good luck to anyone who actually reads this lmao
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collecting-stories · 11 months
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I was so disappointed with OBX3. this might be long bc my friends don’t listen when i talk about shows
caution of spoilers lol.
1) singh and big john has too much screen time.
2) lowkey wish we got more poguelandia. i get there isn’t much you can do with teens on a desserted island before it gets boring. however i wanted to see more of the pogues in their paradise. I mean the seasons promotion built the poguelandia aspect up so much, i was excited. but then the show was released and they were rescued within 10 minutes. Give us at least half an episode of pougelandia
3) i thought jiara was cute until this season. the portray of it felt rushed and the chemistry was off- (as you been saying) i felt like maybe if we got more poguelandia this would of been fixed because in those weeks they definitely bonded and had their feeling grow but us viewers didn’t get to see it.
4) I know it’s a treasure hunting show but i felt like they focused on the treasure hunting a bit too much lol. I think alot of people enjoyed the show because of the banter between the pogues. There wasn’t enough balance between their friendships and the treasure hunting for the show to have a level of comfort (at least to me) And there wasn’t that many trends for OBX3 as there was for the other seasons which i feel shows how it lacked what made the show so loved. For example, people are STILL talking about strangers things 4 almost a year later.
5) besides the heist episode, which i really enjoyed because it felt the most normal with the pogues working together, Toppers storyline felt a bit unneeded. and burning down the chateau?? dude i get your upset sarah stood you up for john b(again) but committing arson and attempted murder of 6 people? Topper does have the tendency to SNAP but that was a bit too extreme.
6) Kies parents suck, your daughter just confessed to you she was kidnapped and you kidnapped her in return? side eye. i’ve been side eyeing them for the entire season but this was a big side eye i guess
7) wth happened to limbrey? she got placebo affected into walking for five minutes and that’s it? she would of realized she wasn’t healed… i don’t think her storyline is done (i hope not anyway) it felt like a sloppy ending if it was.
8) not really a big thing- but Barry looked hot with his haircut 💀
there is probably a lot more i can say about this season but i don’t want to tire you with it lol.
I just wasn’t left feeling how i felt watching the other two seasons. This season wasn’t a world i could escape into, i was disappointed.
First of all, I will always talk about shows so…just to preface that. If you wanna talk shows I’m happy to listen!!
1) I totally agree! Somehow they felt like they got more screen time than Ward in s1 or Limbrey in s2…I guess because The Johns went on their side quest but I didn’t really understand the point of bringing him back and then letting him basically die a hero. Like, he felt like a villain the whole time (I have some serious beef with Big John if you hadn’t noticed lol)
2) I absolutely agree about Poguelandia. First of all, you can’t tell me they spent a month on a deserted island and it was “paradise” the whole time. Not to mention, it created this offscreen (what felt like to me) deep friendship between JJ and Sarah that we were totally robbed of. Everyone kept talking about Poguelandia and how amazing it was but like…who knows, we saw them there for two seconds and then Portis picked them up.
3) Yeah, my initial problem isn’t with Jiara it’s their chemistry. I totally felt like in s1 and 2 their chemistry was so natural and this season was just forced situations and everytime Kiara and JJ talked it felt like they were just not connecting.
4) I think episodes 5, 7, and 8 were my favorites this season because it felt like those three really captured exactly what you’re talking about. The treasure hunting and the friendship. I think because The Johns side quest took John B out of play for so long, they felt so disjointed. At the same time though, I felt like it took them so long to get to South America and then it was just…over? Like where was the treasure hunting. I could have done without the obx and just had them go from Poguelandia to Barbados to South America.
5) Yeah I loved Topper in the heist episode but burning down the chateau was some Rafe shit like…Topper is not that unhinged, even if he talked to Rafe for 2 seconds. I feel like they just wanted to use him and it came across as like, pointless and unnecessary
6) I’m a Kie’s mom apologist lol, I really genuinely think she’s trying. She was kinda crazy in s2 but I can’t fault her too badly at that point her daughter was running around an island with someone who supposedly killed the sheriff. But Mike in s3 was totally uncalled for, the way he spoke to JJ was terrible and sending their kid to a teen camp was horrifying honestly!
- side note: the teen camp episode just felt like they needed a filler and shoved it in there to take even longer getting down to South America…I mean, maybe if it hadn’t been thrown into episode 9 and then had her rescued by the end of the episode (I felt like they could’ve taken more time to tell her story, I think it would’ve made it seem more realistic and made it more sympathetic)
7) I was fully expecting like, pissed Limbrey to show back up and get hers, like I know she was s2’s villain but Big John exploited her and then left her like…I can’t believe she wouldn’t have exacted some revenge. (The 18 month jump felt like they rushed things and honestly I have a lot of questions about what happened during that gap)
8) I just don’t find Barry attractive but I did like the short hair on him
I totally agree…this season looked awesome from the trailer (like I get the trailer has to look awesome) but the season ended up just disappointing me a lot and I really wanted to love it. My hopes for an s4 are dim.
Also, I have an entire note on my phone of commentary so like, any ramblings you have about obx I am here for!!
Edit: Sorry to make this longer but I was thinking about the whole Sarah/Topper drama this season and it really pisses me off. First of all, it felt so much like just the same story they told about in s2 and second, we’ve seen Sarah have so much agency throughout the two seasons. Standing up to her father and Rafe, honestly making plans, helping with the heist, creating more than a one-dimensional character that just there to serve a purpose for John B. To reduce her to some helpless girl who doesn’t know what to do because her and her boyfriend had one fight…it’s just not Sarah. It’s not the Sarah we’ve seen countless times and it was so frustrating to me to see her constantly reduced to this “can’t speak up for herself/doesn’t know what to do without John B” character that she isn’t.
And furthermore, she doesn’t have feelings for Topper. She didn’t have them in s1 so I don’t know why they insist on creating this storyline of like, conflicted over her old life with Topper and her new life with John B. It’s so dumb.
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ladytessa74 · 6 months
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Hi! We’ve never talked before but happy nice ask day! What’s your favorite season and what’s your favorite way to enjoy that season?
Hello!
Autumn! I love fall weather, number one. And also the leaves, and wearing sweaters and scarves. I don't get too much of those where I live but I do enjoy them,
I love breaking out my colorful sweaters. It actually gets nice enough to walk around, instead of unbearably warm, so I love doing that too. Cup of hot cocoa, a good book, cozy under the covers? yessss
And also Halloween is my favorite holiday which is so funnny bc for 2/3rd of my life I had never celebrated it. I love making spooky desserts, decking out the apartment in Halloween banners and watching a related movie. Last year it was Coraline. Before that it was Halloween.
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This is kind of hilarious but I actually originally interpreted this as 911ls seasons at first and typed out a whole ass essay 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭 before I realized what you might have meant. Anyway if you're interested:
Season 3 is hands down my favorite season. It was after S3 (or sort of towards the end) that I really fell in love with 911ls, so maybe that's why? But also, I think objectively it was a great season. There weren't too many plotholes and it was tight, story-wise. The episodes I really felt moved the plot forward, and made sense with the characterizations. Especially 3x13, Carlos feeling helpless, which is much like how someone who loves an addict feels. And 3x15 brought some levity in the form of Lou. Again, Carlos being horrified by insects was adorable characterization. And also for the other characters as well. Judd being a surprise dad, and how Grace was allowed to have her thoughts on it, and eventually came around because she's a lovely person. And Owen's too, with his brother and the trauma there. And discovering his half-brother.
It all just MADE SENSE.
So I would say S3!
I haven't actually rewatched any of the episodes. Sometimes while writing, I'll look up a scene or two.
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saltysuicune · 10 months
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I don't like Evolution so far...
You know, I've been watching evolution and I gotta say... I don't like i so far, at least not the start I'm at ep 16. People keep hyping it up as the greatest season ever but I feel like it's just blind fanatism for Free and Silas. I made a whole ass thread on Twitter about why I don't like it, but I still want to share my thoughts here, so buckle up people.
Also like, please remember I've only gotten to when they go to México, so I can't take into account any kind of character moments or character development that happens after that 'cause I obviously haven't seen any of that yet unless I got spoiled.
It's actually a single very simple issue, but it bothers me a lot 'cause this wasn't a problem in season 1, or at least it wasn't so big; I feel they misuse so much of their time, like, let me explain. They had like 15 episodes of a whole arc, to introduce around 12 new characters and I don't even know who half of them are supposed to be (counting only the guys back at BC Sol).
Season one had also 15 eps of the first arc, but around numeber 5 you already know the basics about every big player in that arc and even most side characters. Those being the main 6, plus Hoji, Orochi, Xander, and both Valt and Daigo's families.
Wakiya and Daigo had more impact in this arc than most of the new characters on Valt’s side, I care more for the French team than the new supposed deuteragonists. Why do you make so many new characters if you won’t do shit with almost any of them? How do you make me care more about the secondary characters more than the main gang?.
Most of these eps were incredibly boring to me because they just got rid of the thing I loved so much about season one, every character had something that made them different from the rest or a reason to care about them, but during this arc most characters are "literally who"s.
Like, I might for example not care about Zac or Ukio that much, but I have friends who do. But Honey? Django? I don’t know a single person who even remembers them. And there was no improvement to anything else from Season 1, so there’s nothing to make up for this issue.
They should have actually taken the time to introduce everyone and show you just who they are. Who’s Django for example? Because right now he’s literally just a walking stereotype, not even a character, give me a reason to care about the fact he’s leaving. Stan got incredibly upset when that happened, clearly it was supposed to be an important thing, specially looking at how much it changed Stan's own character into an abrasive and resentful shit stain of a guy for a while.
Like I said, I think they should use the first few episodes to properly introduce Valt’s new friends. Show Django and Stan’s supposed friendship and how they were supposed to be among the strongest bladers besides Free, show me Valt befriending the new people, show them Honey interacting with her sister, HOW does she not have any chemistry with HER SISTER. Just make them feel like actual characters instead of replacing already loved and established characters with boring different nationality versions of themselves.
THEN you bring the plot. They don’t even need that many eps, they’ve clearly proved they can give them that treatment with just one, look at Cuza or Gashem, for example. They established them perfectly, why can't they do that with the characters you're supposed to see every episode? The story would be so much better if they made you actually care about these people, but they just didn't.
So many moments in the later half of these few first eps would be vastly improved, the few times someone decided to leave, that one time everyone got mad at Valt and Rantaro after meeting with Daigo, Silas rejoining, the little conversations Kris and Trad often have.
I just wanna care about whatever is happening, like I did in season 1. Kris and Ange's conversation in that one ep, Kit following Valt to the royal's place, everything Free did, those are great examples, I needed more of that, just give me character moments, tell me who these people are, please, I wanna care.
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twdmusicboxmystery · 1 year
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More of the Twin or Duality Theory with Isabel/Leah/Beth
@twdmusicboxmystery
So, I woke up with something of a new theory in my head. Let's say, just for kicks, that Daryl does end up having a relationship with Isabelle. I'm not any more convinced that's going to happen than either of you are, but humor me. If he does, CLEARLY it's just going to be another Leah. Not something long term or soulmate like.
So, I was thinking about how we always said Leah was both a mirror opposite and a parallel to Beth. And then there's this idea of Isabelle being Beth's symbolic "twin."
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We've also talked about how the Leah storyline was originally going to play out much differently (we think) but CoVid changed everything and they had to shuffle things around, right? I remember saying once that I thought originally they would air the Leah storyline AFTER revealing Beth, and that would have changed the whole feel of it. Daryl would have been having this slightly toxic relationship with Leah, while fans already knew Beth was out there. But obviously it didn't play out that way.
So, I was thinking that maybe originally Leah was going to be Beth's symbolic, functional twin, but when everything happened, things got pushed back and rearranged, etc., they scrapped that idea, at least in its first iteration. Obviously, Leah still had a million shades of Beth in her (and Carol too) but she became more of a forerunner than a side-by-side symbolic twin.
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See, one thing I always thought and know I said a few times is that I think we're going to need to see Beth and her symbolic twin at the same time. In all the other dualities, they've been on screen together. Lizzie and Mica. Carol and Alpha. Rick and the Gov. Glenn and Nicholas. More recently, Max and Shira.
So, it just never made sense to me that if Leah was Beth's twin, she would die before Beth was even revealed. But again, now I'm wondering if originally the plan was to have them play out together, but that got scrapped bc of Covid, and now they've created Isabelle to take on the role of Beth's dualistic other half.
All I'm saying is that, if so, it would make sense for the question of romance to be there. It doesn't mean Daryl has to take her up on it--I agree that doing another exact storyline like Leah's feels really redundant--but she might offer it to him.
And given what happened with Leah, he might even be thinking that he screwed that up, so maybe he should give this woman a shot, but something about it still just won't feel right to him. Because, you know, Beth. Anyway, that's pretty much it. I still think, no matter how it all plays out, that it's leading to Beth. Just some thoughts I woke up with this morning. ;D
@wdway
It certainly could go that way. I see your logic in this scenario. For myself though I have come more and more to believe that Leah at least in FM was more about Daryl and Carol. He has such mixed up feelings about Carol and Beth. These two women that he loves in different ways.
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In the end I feel that in s11 by the time Leah tried to kill Maggie she was much more of a ruthless Carol figure. I think the good he saw in Leah was always him wanting to see Beth in her but she really wasn't Beth or completely Carol but he saw the best and the worst of the two women.
And maybe that is what I'm leaning towards after reading what you wrote. Leah represented the combination of Carol and Beth but ended up being more about Carol maybe Isabelle will be more about Beth. It makes more sense in my head than the way I explained it.
I got the DVD for s11 yesterday. One of the reasons prefer watching the DVD is because my control system for when I'm watching it on AMC+ or now on Netflix has like a two second delay in stopping when I hit the button which drives me crazy. I can't move frame by frame like I used to.
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I'm going through and catching some things and I was looking at the little running what I have always called the Beth blur and in this season there's 3 images. A main largest a second smaller and now a third image across the bottom. That's the shot above. When I read what you wrote, @twdmusicboxmystery, it made me wonder if this could possibly stand for the three, Beth, Leah and Isabelle. I don't know just random thoughts.
Another thought is that if that's true about the 3 then that gives us a rule of 3. Just as I believe Daryl will lose Beth a third time to complete the rule of 3. More random thoughts.
@galadrieljones:
Interesting for sure. I know back when 11a originally aired, I wondered if Beth would show up and kill Leah, like how Alice wins the chess game in Through the Looking Glass. She takes the Red Queen, which wakes the Red King, and the game ends, and she wakes up. I wouldn’t be surprised if they shared screentime because of the “twinning” thing.
Here’s a slight variation I was thinking of, given what we know about Isabelle. She is a nun. Or, she’s something like that. We see her wearing a habit in one of the leaked photos, and a light colored hood in some photos Norman has posted from filming.
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If she is indeed a nun, this could be building toward a madonna-whore duality of women. Whore is a strong word, but that’s just the name of the trope. Leah fulfills the “whore” aspect, as she checks a lot of boxes here. Independent (in an antisocial manner), selfish, mean, mercenary. There’s also that hint of sexuality between them. She tries to separate him from his family. She is violent. She follows a cult leader, and is therefore susceptible to idolatry.
Meanwhile, Isabelle is a nun. That’s much of what we know about her, other than her appearance: blond hair, blue eyes. She’s pretty in a very “clean” and clear way. We see her nursing Daryl back to health in her habit. She is the Madonna, or the pure aspect of femininity. This could suggest she is asexual, or that there is no sexuality between them. It’s pure, platonic, untainted. She will be independent but in a self-assured way, self-motivated kind of way, not anti-social. Unlike Leah, who is a mercenary, and morally dubious/indifferent/loyal only to herself, Isabelle will be unflinchingly loyal to a cause, to God, to something greater than herself.
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Remember Daryl in Rendition, when he tells Pope that he only believes “in himself” now, and how Pope tells him that’s too bad. Daryl’s been supremely messed up by Leah. So Isabelle will balance the scales that have been tipped in Daryl’s psychology, by Leah.
Leah may have soured Daryl on women, or strangers, the prospect of “good people,” which Beth introduces him to in season 4. Isabelle will restore his faith in people, and in women (the divine feminine), which will open him up, make him amenable to romance once again.
I don’t believe they’ll have a romantic relationship, not if she’s a nun. But she genuinely looks a little like Beth, and this will remind him of Beth, and of the more loving, nurturing parts of humanity that Beth represents in his psychology. These parts may have been buried away a little after seeing his ex-girlfriend trying to kill Beth’s sister, forcing him to kill her.
I also had this thought. If Daryl is gravely injured, or unconscious, and he wakes up to Isabelle leaning over him. The way she looks, he might at first hallucinate that he’s seeing Beth, dressed as a nun, hence the strained look on his face in the leaked photo, like he’s afraid. I even wondered if maybe the habit was a hallucination. Maybe she’s wearing a hood, and he hallucinates that he’s seeing a habit. But there’s nothing to suggest that, other than the fact that Daryl has hallucinated before.
In either case, the last time he thought he saw Beth, it was Leah in Rendition. She was in all black, wearing a terrifying mask. Now, we have another Beth look-alike, not in a creepy mask, but in a habit. So we have weight on both sides of the scale now: the mercenary and the nun.
Ideally, then, Beth would be a sort of balance between them. She’s a warrior, but she’s not indifferent. She’s loyal, but she’s not a nun. She’s sexual, but not a whore. She can be a romantic partner but also just, a partner, a best friend, a confidant. She sees the best in people, but when she sees a wolf in her flock, she will not hesitate to kill it.
I think this goes back to the yin and yang theory, that every force has an equal but opposing force necessary to balance the scales. Leah is dark, Isabelle is light. Beth is the yin and yang of them both.
@twdmusicboxmystery
I love all our theories, Gals!
@galadrieljones
Me too!! Here’s hoping we get some actual info soon!
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aberfaeth · 1 year
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top five fics (ever. for a fandom/pairing. by people you know. by strangers. whatever u want go crazy) ORRRR top five fob songs bc I know u and ilu and I wanna hear ur thoughts
hi sav. hope you know what you've unleashed here.
TOP FIVE FICS.....EVER
tell me about the big bang (star wars sequel trilogy, Finn/Poe, 37.8k.) i made my mom read this fic and that's not a bit i literally had her read this. and she isn't even a star wars fan. like she's seen tfa but she wasn't even that into it i just made her read this because it's one of humanity's greatest literary achievements and she still brings it up to me in conversation that's how much she enjoyed it. sorry this turned into more of tmatbb being one of my mom's top five fics but yknow. context. anyways i don't want to say too much about it because i don't want to spoil it for anyone who might check it out which Please Do That but suffice to say. it is a work of fucking art and i can only hope to someday write with half the talent nina varela possesses in her pinky finger
darling i'd wait for you, even if you didn't ask me to (the great pretender season 1, Laurent/Makoto, 11k.) swear to god this isn't me sucking up it is still the best gift i have ever received in my life. hey you reading this have you ever conceptualized a fic and went "boy i wish i could feed this into a machine and it would execute the idea perfectly in a way that managed to surprise and delight me as i read it" well you simply must get yourself a sav. because she will do that for you. anyways watch tgp season one literally just to read this fic.
Be Gay; Solve Crime (american vandal, Peter/Sam, 9.2k.) this fic has everything--outsider POV! perfectly in character banter! angie and michael who are real and canon to me! mr fernandez did you eat shit! gay lou carter! do your string thing man! MING, EVEN!!!!!! consider this a rotating spot for the work of my lovely lovely friends in the hanover high AV club, who have churned out some of the bangers of all fucking time which i talked about some of those in a top five ask four calendar years ago
Over & Through (dimension 20 fantasy high, gen, 62.7k.) also made my mom read this. she got the riz chapter first and said it gave her horrifying acid trip dreams. which is honestly so fair. if you are a dimension 20 fan and you haven't read this fic what are you doing. the form is inventive the prose is stunning the characterization is painfully sharp. if you've been watching neverafter going hey i wish this was actually horror READ THIS RIGHT NOW THE HORROR IS IMMACULATE
If You Could Let Me Inside Your Heart (leverage, ot3, 2.5k.) remains my favorite leverage fic of all time and also my favorite group character study. what a lovely premise and executed with such grace and perfect understanding of character and pacing like so much work is done for its length and GOD IS IT ALL GORGEOUS
okay haha onto the fall out boy--JUST KIDDING. I HOPE YOU HAD YOUR WEAPON READY TO TAKE ME OUT BECAUSE ONE TIME I SAID IF I EVER MADE A RECLIST WITHOUT I HATE TO LOOK INTO THOSE EYES AND SEE AN OUNCE OF PAIN YOU WOULD HAVE TO SHOOT ME BECAUSE I'D BE A POD PERSON. SO HERE'S ME DOING THAT, PLEASE READ IT, READ IT NOW. WHAT FANDOM OR PAIRING OR LENGTH? YOU GET TO FIND OUT WHEN YOU CLICK! THAT! LINK!
okay haha onto the fall out boy. so i earnestly did try to come up with my top five fob songs on my own. then i had a breakdown and filled out the whole damn fob song sorter yes all 500 battles. heres my top 25. note the repetition of numbers indicating my inability to make decisions
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elaborations on the medal winners:
THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT: when this song came out i was thirteen years old (in middle school) (did not have my own itunes account) (did not have spotify) and as all songs do it was released at midnight (i was thirteen) (supposed to be asleep) (it was a school night) i hid under the covers with my ipod touch on the lowest brightness setting (supposed to be asleep on a school night) midnight arrived and i could not buy the song on itunes because then my parents would get an email about the purchase and know i had stayed up (i was supposed to be asleep) so i just listened to the 30 second preview on itunes for like an hour straight (i cried) (a lot)
THE (SHIPPED) GOLD STANDARD: me for real bc im literally no good at math
(COFFEE'S FOR CLOSERS): also in middle school i used to doodle song lyrics to keep myself focused during class and my history professor was taking a walk around the classroom and spotted my doodle of a little coffee cup with the lyrics "i will never believe in anything again" and went "aw why not," clearly concerned for my mental health and wellbeing. and despite that horribly traumatizing experience, coffee's for closers remains one of my favorite songs in the world. so thats proof that its really very good
OF ALL THE GIN JOINTS IN THE WORLD: you only hold me up like thiiiiis cause you don't know who i really aAAaaAAAaam
PAVLOVE: sorry its the quirky girl tendencies again. when will they put this on spotify so i can scream my little heart out to I WANT TO MAKE YOU AS LONELY AS MEEEE SO YOU CAN GET GET ADDICTED TO THIS YOU CAN GET GET ADDICTED TO THIS! anyways folie >
now, a disclaimer: this sorter is obviously older than two weeks and thus does not include the songs off SMFS. i feel like recency bias means i can't accurately fit them into the list but i will say that there is no universe in which hold me like a grudge doesn't make top fifteen
if you've reached the end of this post, thanks for going on this journey with me. i meant to be asleep an hour ago. but i did this instead. was it worth it. well whos to say. if you ended up reading IHTLITEASAOOP then yes it was.
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hella1975 · 2 years
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You are the only fucking one with normal opinions about arcane and I Wish you were there to see when everyone’s tiktoks were full of nothing about arcane and everyone being feral over silco and his nasty ass and Viktor who is. Fine. The best of the topsiders but still involved in an overall boring plot unless it was about himself and his disability which were the only interesting parts on the top end. Or Vi and Cait and I Don’t Like Cait very much. Like she’s Fine but god she’s fucking dumb sometimes and doesn’t know when to shut up and I don’t like her in the game either. I wish we saw more Ekko in the show tho.
How do we feel about the thought of Ekko and Jinx’s fight feeling like Zuko and Azulas. Second part could you imagine if they interlaced the Zuko and Azula scene with them play fighting as kids like arcane did? I wouldn’t have survived that actually. Or the parallels of Jinx and Vi to Vander and Silco and the siblings who care for each other despite despite despite. Also! So many people were mad at Vi for hitting Jinx but that whole scene was a very human response? She (accidentally) killed like their whole family? She just had a big fight? I’m sure her adrenaline is through the fucking roof and people forget she’s also a child at this point. She immediately regretted it and walked away to calm down and then got picked up before she could come back and help or fix things. Like obv that’s not the best thing she could do but I don’t think she was in the head space to gentle parent her sister. I have so much to say about this show and everybody else had such different opinions on the whole thing 😩
OMG OMG YES EXACTLY okay i have several things to say about like. all of this so im bulletpointing lmao
silco - WAIT WERE WE SUPPOSED TO LIKE SILCO??? WHAT??? like even in a 'villain who was justified' or even 'villain you can sympathise with if not justify' i just genuinely wholeheartedly dont like him. looking at an incredibly mentally ill girl and saying she's perfect is not a redemption. putting drugs into your own streets and getting your own people addicted to the point of being loyal to you is not a redemption. there is literally nothing good about his character. im pretty sure i put in the tags the first time i really saw him that basically his anger towards topside was 100% justified and even his desire to use extreme measures after so long being ignored, but you totally lose that the moment you turn on your own people. like okay mr manipulating class traitor of the year respectfully i was not upset when you died
viktor - i was soooo disappointed by viktor's character bc i genuinely REALLY wanted to like him like i was so intrigued by his disability and i love that he's a nerd and an underdog and can be abrasive at times and i thought there was SO much potential with him being from the undercity, but he was just so so passive and half the time i was just angry at him and shouting at the screen. like he's watching these toffs who dont know anything about the undercity - and havent even been there - discuss the future of people JUST LIKE HIM and he just allowed it. he only cared about his inventions and maybe that will be explored in season 2 bc it seems like they're taking a narrative where it shows his obsession to the point of detriment (what happened to that assistant that fancied him) and he'll possibly change for the better but as of right now he's just completely forgotten his roots and only remembered the undercity when it benefited his inventions. he went off with 'in the pursuit of great, we forgot to do good' though like i'll allow him that much that quote fucks stupendously
cait - same hat as viktor i REALLY wanted to like her bc it seems like we might actually be getting queer rep and i dont want to hate 50% of the couple but my god is she ignorant. and actually ignorance isn't the problem it's not a crime to be oblivious and it's not her fault she was born into a better life than vi, but it was her insensitivity with her ignorance that bugged me like girl just SHUT UP SOMETIMES MAYBE???? like it's very easy to look at a situation you haven't been in and go 'i would never have said that in a million years' but i can still safely say that if i was in the slums surrounded by victims of horrific addiction who have been turned on by even their own people and now live in the most extreme clutches of poverty, and i was there with a girl raised in this environment who only knows how to fight and has been beaten down again and again and has spent the past few years in prison, something im intimately aware of as the person who BROKE HER OUT, then i wouldnt go 'i think this is a good time to be accusatory about her homelife actually'. like literally what the fuck was the thought process. and it wasn't a one time thing she did it ALL the time i genuinely dont know how vi didn't hit her she's so lucky she's hot
zuko and azula - WHY WOULD YOU SAY THIS TO ME MY GODDDD like that tiny snippet of them playing in the palace garden as kids except it's an entire scene of parallels to them in the agni kai. despicable
vi hitting jinx - i actually laughed out loud when i read that people are apparently getting aggy about the fact vi hit jinx. i have to assume people making those takes dont have siblings. i have hit my sister for far less and can guarantee if she accidentally killed all my loved ones then she'd be getting an awful lot more than a slap to the face. siblings fight. it's literally a universally accepted fact. it's not FUN or GOOD but it still happens and 99% of the time it's over shit much less serious than what these two were fighting over. touch grass
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bitch-butter · 11 months
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babes ! here lies the Prologue to a thought experiment called everybody wants to rule the world , released now bc yk Why Not 🖤 she's long, she's sort of a Medieval-Fantasy fusion and she has some Elements that rhyme with Shmalpha, Shmeta, and Shmomega. she's going to live here for rn, and might get put in my drabble collection if I don't decide to do more with her.
enjoy ~
He had only had occasion to ride through the night a few times before this one, each situation somehow more dire than the last. 
But never like this. 
His back ached, his thighs burned, the flesh of his face stinging and numb with the sharp bite of the wind across his cheeks, the hard stab of sleet that was threatening to become the first winter snow. In his chest his heart pounded with fear, anxiety, and Joe half believed he’d topple straight off the beast and die on the ground of some minuscule landowner before he could make it back to watch his father die. 
But he had known this day would come even before he had set out with their armies to defend their northernmost passage, and it was only his own foolishness that had the venture taking this long to begin with.
If a wiser man had been at the front then the whole thing would have lasted a day instead of over a year now. If his father had been strong enough - 
Enough, his mind cut sharply over his vision, the pounding of hooves beneath him making him feel as though the journey itself would never end. Beside him Chuck was keeping remarkable pace, and Joe could almost forget that this was the second time in two days he’d made the trip, tasked with bringing the awful news to the edge of the battle and then ensuring that Joe left with him at all. The poor guy's balls must be pulverized by now. 
Each time he returned home after being away for any length of time the castle struck him as a miserable, crumbling thing. But wealth was not their point of pride, independence was. They held fast to these things like a tree to its bark, these ideals of truth, loyalty, of independent will. 
Joe thinks if they really cared they would all have given up their titles long ago. 
His father would disagree. They had not agreed on things for a long time. 
Which is why it was crucial for him to get home, with as much haste as humanly possible. 
They finally breached the gate late into the night, but the torches in each window were lit, shadows moving quickly between flickers of light that told him that Chuck had not embellished as Joe had secretly hoped he had. The situation must truly be dismal.
He practically leapt from his horse, leaving her in the capable hands of the stable boy, feeling grimy and disgusting in his worn armor but drawing strength from its weight, as ill-fitting as it was. Each time he chose to leave with their armies they acted like it was a surprise that he even wanted to be involved, and they were far past having the kind of wealth for armor that fit his wiry frame properly. At the very least it led to Joe being more underestimated than not in a battle, the many years of picking fights and paying attention making him - if anything - a well-seasoned soldier. 
For a long time he had hoped that it would be all he ever was.
A cruel joke. 
Rushing up the back stairwells and around into the main hall he paid little mind to the steady humming of chatter that awaited him around every corner, striding stalwartly into the open and cavernous entry until he was halted by a familiar figure seated on lower stairs. She spotted him at once, standing up tall in her wrinkled gown and running forward to meet him, his arms opening up around her simply, gratefully. 
“Rachel,” he sighed, feeling the journey pulling mightily at his bones as her arms tightened over his shoulders. 
She heaved a great breath against him, mouth pressed against the cool metal at his shoulders. “I thought you might be too late,” she admitted, a whisper that had him shuddering beneath his heavy protections as she drew back sharply, dark eyes darting up and down his filthy form. “There’s no time, you have to come,” she said, taking his hand in a firm grip to begin to pull him up the stairs with her, the sounds of their footsteps booming as they moved, faster, faster. 
“Where are the girls?” he asked, feeling gently out of breath.
Rachel didn’t spare a glance back at him. “With him,” she tossed over her shoulder, her frizzy hair teasing up in the wind as they moved up to their father’s floor, the only one that at least seemed to maintain something of a chilly, careful silence. 
None of the usual hanger-on’s were milling about in the reception hall of his rooms, no servants at the entrance to his chambers, the fireplace in each one dead and cold against the riotous wind that beat at the windows, the sleet turning to snow in the darkness. It made a cruel amount of sense, that all the sycophants that hung over his father’s shoulders while he lived would now flee at the whisper of his demise, off to their separate corners to scheme and plot out how best to crawl next to Joe’s ear and court him to their sides.
More fools, they. 
Rachel pushed open the door to the chamber carefully, vying for softness, but the creak of the door drew all four sets of his sister’s eyes toward the both of them. He always suspected it drove his father mad that they had only ever managed to achieve one son out of all their many attempts at one, but the way he doted on them all would never have given it away. They were well-loved if not well-appreciated, the five of his sister’s, and even more a triumph as one after the other they had presented the same as Joe had: Alpha’s all. It was practically a commodity. 
It was one of the only things they had left to hold over the other kingdoms, their ingrained potential.
“Joe,” Emmy sighed in relief, leaving her solitary vigil by the fire to rush over and wrap her arms around him the same as Rachel had, but she had the wherewithal to scrunch her nose up in disgust at the smell of him. 
Against the far wall he could see Sarah seated atop the bed, piled high with heavy comforters, his father’s form merely an impression beneath them, his gnarled hand held tightly in hers. Della and Judy were seated together at the foot, and as Emmy embraced him they both came to him as well, enveloping him in their usual, hairy, too-tight ways. But after so long away it felt like perfection to be held, to feel again like a part of a family, of a cause worth truly fighting for. 
Sarah leaned over the figure in the bed, her shorn hair brushing at her jaw as she whispered to him. “Joe is here, Papa,” she assured, his thumbs stroking gently at the thin skin at the back of his hand. “He’s home.”
“Joseph…” the old man called, his voice barely ghosting across the air of the room, over the crackle of the fire.
Pulling in a fast breath, Joe released his hold on his sisters and stepped out of the warm circle of their affection, crossing over to the grand bed with quick but fearful steps, already feeling his heart in his throat as he looked down on him. In his childhood his father had stood as tall as a giant, thick and broad with scars along his hands, his hair a black corona and his beard an inky, close-cut thing that had always made him look like he was plotting, already satisfied with a plan that had not come to full fruition. 
Here, in this bed, he looked no more than a pale shadow of himself. As though his youth had burned away atop him and all that was left was silvery ashes. His hair had long left him, and his strength had followed shortly after, his body thinning down into mere myth. The only thing that had remained was his beard, but even that was pale and white, like a drift of snow across the jut of his jaw, and the hard, cold blackness of his eyes as they gazed up towards Joe with meager strength. 
“I’m here,” Joe said, unable to think of anything else to say in the face of this moment, the very one he had dreaded his whole life. 
It was the moment he was born for. 
“Send -” his father began, before coughing shortly, the jerk of his chest violent before he gathered his breath again with a wheeze. “Send the girls…”
Frowning, Joe looked aside to Sarah, who met his eyes with dark, tearful understanding. He turned from the bed with a harsh inhale, as though regaining lost breath, and crossed over to the fire in the hearth as behind him his sisters were likely giving what would be their final goodbyes to their father. It ran up on him like a tide, the traces of warmth his father had shown him through his life: the nightmares his hands had soothed, the fears that his wisdom had steadied, the dreams that he had nurtured, loved, and killed. He could feel his face contorting into a mask for a grief that was still too early, and he shut his eyes against it and bent before the fire to put his hands over his misery. 
Behind him he could hear the soft sounds of weeping, and it was like the morning that his mother had died. They had all been there then, too, everybody who was now in this room, but outside the sky had been vibrant and cerulean blue, the flowers in the trees fragrant with May, and there had been peace to know that they still had their father. For his spirit, his guidance, his jokes made at their expense, all of the minuscule things that life had been crafted around for these past 30 odd years.
A hand rested gently against his shoulder, and he turned his brimming eyes on Rachel, who looked down on him stalwartly, mouth pinched into a thinly controlled line. Behind her Judy was supporting Della as they practically stumbled out of the door on Sarah’s heels, Emmy trailing behind looking afraid to take her eyes off of the old man, appearing vaguely nauseated. He straightened with no small effort, feeling close to sickness himself at the prospect of being alone in the room with the old man who was soon to be a dead man. Rachel’s hand lingered at his shoulder for a moment more, finally retreating to approach their youngest sister and wrap her arm around her, ushering her solemnly from the room with a backwards look at Joe that was filled with an awful knowingness.
The next time they saw each other their father would be dead. Before the next dawn came he would be king. 
The closing of a door had never felt so stark, so bleak, as this. 
Breath still coming shallow and labored, Joe swallowed thickly before steeling himself to approach the bed again, finding himself unsteady on his feet and dropping down onto the spot that Sarah had inhabited as soon as he was able. Beneath the covers his father’s chest rose and fell with no rhythm, simply catching life as it still came to him, and his eyes were weak but clear when they locked on Joe’s own. Hesitatingly, Joe couldn’t help but reach for the old man’s hand, holding it with a surety that went no farther than suggestion as he found it limp, almost cold.  
“Father,” he breathed.
“My son,” the old man replied, eyes fluttering heavily. 
Moistening his lips, Joe cleared his throat and sought to think of something that might bring him peace. “The battle continues,” he admitted, but forced himself to give him a tight, overly kind smile. “But we are at the crest, it won’t be long now that we’re won and may all return home.”
Head giving a weak shake over the deep satin of his pillow, his father’s eyes closed. “No,” he whispered grimly, the rumble of his voice like something out of a nightmare. “This is at the beginning.” 
“It isn’t so,” Joe shook his head, even if it wasn’t the truth.
“Joseph…” his father wheezed, eyes opening once more to land on him with something like condemnation. “You have been a young man…longer than nature should have permitted you.”
Pulling in a breath through his nose, Joe felt his jaw tightening up the way his hands yearned to clench. “Don’t talk about this now, please,” he begged, voice low between them, already feeling foolish here at his father’s deathbed in his borrowed armor, like nothing more than an enormous child here to beg for more freedom.
His father sighed out a shaking sound, brow furrowing with the traces of pain. “It may be…” he struggled, voice faltering clumsily at the corners of his words. “The last time we have to speak of it, son.“
“When it is time I will choose,” he assured, even if the words were mere decoration by now. It was an argument that they had now been having for years, the endless quest for Joe to marry and his father’s endless disappointment. Even his attempts at being a soldier were at least halfway to being excuses not to be around to meet anybody that his father tried to parade in front of him.  “You of all people should know this isn’t a decision to be made lightly,” he tacked on accusingly, more aware than anything that his own parent’s marriage had been a success in no small part because they had known each other almost their entire lives before marrying. 
His father remained unfazed by Joe’s flailing, still looking on him unwaveringly. “It is time. You have played at being a warrior too long, it is time for you to be the king you were born to be,” he said, voice cracking into a cough that his body fought to tamp down, Joe’s hands soothing over his own as he shook with the force of it. “And with that comes many choices you will not feel ready to make.” 
Joe struggled, mouth opening, finding that he could no longer argue with a dead man and yet finding the need to give up almost more than he could bear. “Father…”
“You may…” his father began, faltering slightly. “Never be ready, my son,” he finished, sounding painfully weak, and yet that selfsame confidence shone even through the threadbare strains of his voice. “But you have to choose…what will be the best for your people at times, and not for yourself,” he finished, eyes warm over Joe’s face and making him burn with the shame that his father felt the need to assure him now when it should have been the opposite. “You are wiser than you know,” he spoke, and Joe had to hold back a sorrowful, desperate laugh at the words, body bending hard over the bed as he put one hand to his face. “You will…choose rightly.”
He shook his head, eyes hot and overflowing against his palm. “I’m not wise.”
A weak, trembling hand set itself atop his head, and he quivered beneath it helplessly. “You will be,” his father rasped, sounding frailer by the minute and splintering Joe’s spirit even further.
“I…” he struggled, throat tight against the feeling of desolation, face overheated with his shameful tears, feeling as far away from being king as he ever had before. “I can’t ever be king as you were.”
“You will be,” the old man said surely, barely a sound. 
A sob threatened to spill from his mouth, and he grasped both of his father’s hands in his own, pressing their coolness against his face like a child. “Be with me,” he trembled, afraid even to lift his eyes and let them lay too long against his father’s face lest he see a truth he could never recover from, something in his eyes that could never, ever be reckoned with. “Be with me.”
His father pulled in a slow, simple breath. “I will be,” he managed, a slur of exhaustion at the edge of his voice, and Joe could feel the strength falling from his body like feathers. “Always.”
He clutched at his hands desperately, eyes spilling with sorrow, until in the widow he could see that the snow itself had stopped for the moment and the night beyond was crystal clear, silent and solitary. It struck him then that this would be the whole rest of his life: bent, broken, nothing but the wisdom of the dead to put across his shoulders. Mouth opening to suck down another needful breath, he finally looked to his father’s face and found his eyes - at last - shut. 
His face was like the faces of saints, something of glorious pain and relief. The burden was gone from him, and had seemed to pass into Joe like a phantom.
The journey from the bed to the door was gone from him, his body moving of its own accord until he could push open the door of the chamber and stand hanging from it. Rachel still stood in the antechamber, eyes wide where she looked on him in the dark, and the crush of her sadness made her mouth finally part to allow a weak cry to echo throughout the empty room. They went to each other like children, catching one another in an embrace that threatened to break his bones, send pieces of himself flying from his body and into the night. 
* * * 
Dawn. The whole world seemed to grieve with him, as the sun hung heavy behind a thick curtain of gray clouds, wisps of snow beginning to fall periodically at the first touch of light over their rolling hills, their rocky crests. Silence fell across the castle as the word spread of the king's death, and Joe found himself unable to be parted from his father’s chambers as his attendants slowly filtered in, dressing him in his heavy, ceremonial mourning garments, shooting furtive looks over where Joe remained still by the fire. He could sense that they all wanted to rid him of his dirty, stinking armor, but the fear of what he would be forced into prevented him from doing anything more than scowling back at them. 
Truly the only reason he left the room at all was when his sisters re-entered to look upon the body, the strength of their sorrow almost too much for him to witness, the sounds of their sobs following at his heels as he moved numbly from the room and out into the world.
The world. As though this castle could ever contain anything approaching the sort, with its heavy stone columns, its drafty rooms, its shadowed memories hiding in every corner. He had left this place because he had wanted to discover the world, to become something more like a citizen than a conqueror. But destruction lived in his footsteps, deep in the pigment of his blood.
There was no discovery of the world he could make without also breaking it. 
Chuck waited for him in the hall before his own rooms, dusty and forgotten in his year of lost rest, and the sight of him was nearly spectral in its unfamiliarity. He had missed him acutely, enough to break his heart, and he couldn’t stop himself from stumbling forward to let his head drop against the other man’s shoulder.
“I’m nothing without him,” he croaked, voice muffled against the other man’s thick coverings.
The shake of his head moved over the thick, dirty tresses of Joe’s hair. “You’re yourself,” he assured, voice low in the chilled room. “It will be enough.”
Pulling in a shaking breath, Joe clenched his fists harder into the other man’s cloak. “You would make a better king than I will,” he ground out, anger at the world, anger at the blood that flowed through his veins bubbling up in his chest. “Anybody would.”
“Not anybody,” Chuck said easily, and it at least caught a laugh out of his throat, as tight as it was. 
He pulled back, mindful of his tear-reddened face, his dirty hair, and he shook his head at the other man. “I can’t abdicate, can I?”
Mouth tilted, Chuck gave him a pitying look. “Do you like being alive?”
“In this moment?”
“No, you will not abdicate,” Chuck decided for him, stepping out of Joe’s clinging hold and opening the door to his chambers for him, the two of them limping through the abandoned room, its furniture still strewn with heavy cloth. “You will serve the way you were born to, and you will win this war, and whether long or short your reign will be a gift to us all.”
“You’ve been drinking honeywine,” Joe muttered, crossing to the window to seize hold of the heavy curtain and yank it down to let the whiteness of the morning light flood across the room, a cloud of dust flying up in its wake. 
Chuck sighed, watching him with mournful eyes. “Your Majesty,” he began, but Joe paid him no mind as he continued along the wall, pulling at the curtains and letting their thick, stiff bodies fall to the floor. “Joe.”
Huffing, Joe clapped at his dirty hands, clearing them of dust. “Damn it, what?”
The other man watched him in silence for a moment, before he gave a helpless shake of the head, eyes down against the dusty ground. “The ambassador from Abbrennen is here.”
His heart seemed to stop in his chest, his eyes large over Chuck’s face as though searching for the joke, but the other man did not offer him that sort of reprieve. Mind racing, he blinked rapidly as he thought of any reason why their enemy would have sent a sentry, a messenger, let alone their ambassador across the front line and through the gates of the castle. 
“Why?” he asked, clipped and low, already knowing the answer. Likely they had heard a rumor of his father’s illness and were already scheming their next move.
“He wishes to speak with you.” 
Nodding tightly, Joe felt every muscle beginning to tense up once more, as though anticipating an attack. They were smart to have sent someone to confront Joe now, it would take all of his strength to hold himself together. “Fine, summon the war council,” he sighed, grimacing at the fact that only a quarter of the counselors that he would actually need to have an effective conversation were here, as Speirs had not been so moved by the news of the forthcoming death to abandon his post. Then again, Joe supposed that was why he was the best man for the job.
Chuck shook his head. “Privately.” 
Appropriately caught off guard, Joe’s head nearly jerked back at the thought. “Why?”
“He informed me it was a time sensitive matter of personal interest to you,” Chuck repeated lowly, brows raised at the pretentiousness of the statement before rolling his eyes. “If you want me to tell him to fuck off just say the word, the man hasn’t shown the slightest bit of respect since stepping through the -”
Nostrils flaring in annoyance, Joe lifted his hand to rub briefly over his eyes. “I’ll see him. It’s possible he may actually be amenable to a ceasefire until after the mourning period,” he said softly, detesting the thought of any time alone with the de-facto face of their yearlong enemy and yet knowing reluctantly that such interactions were going to be more imperative in the coming days than they ever had been before. 
Especially if he wanted to be home long enough to bury his father respectfully. 
Chuck didn’t look like he liked the idea any more than Joe did, and took a half stepforward. “Joe -” 
“I owe it to my family to hear it, Chuck,” Joe interrupted sternly, forcing himself to sound stronger than he felt, all too aware that the way Chuck let his eyes linger on him told him he was not being believed. “Send him in,” he finished simply, turning from his friend in order to take the few steps it took to cross over to the door of his room.
Behind him he could hear the gentle ‘tsk’ of the other man’s tongue, but he paid it no mind as cautiously he inched the door open, peering inside with his back to the wall like the room itself would jump out and try to bite him. 
It was like the room of a stranger. Barren, stripped of his own spirit, the windows tall and white against the sky, nothing but a few wayward piles of books and messy looking documents hiding along his shelves from where he might have glanced at them once in 30 years. On the long desk he seldom used against the window he spied a vase of dead flowers, and wondered at which of his sister’s had placed them there, at what point they might have believed he’d come home to enjoy them.
How many such tokens had he missed while he was off trying to be someone he could never be? How much time with his father might he have had if he hadn’t tried to dream himself into a life that wasn’t his own?
His heart ached so monstrously that he feared he might vomit for a long moment, jumping sharply at the sound of the door behind him opening once more. Refusing to turn to face the stranger head-on, Joe kept his back to his door frame as the shadow of the approach became a man clad in the distinctive Abbrennian purple, as dark as a wine hued bruise, the man lacking the traditional armor of the Northern kingdoms. 
Joe held back a scoff, halfway to remarking on what any Eastern kingdom would know what to do with armor anyway. But he held himself back, smarting acutely at the reminder that as foreign as war might be to the Abbrennians they were more than holding their own. More than he cared to admit, in fact.
The ambassador approached him on loose feet, and between the folds of his traveling cloak Joe could see the man had helped himself to a hearty jug of wine in one hand and two glasses in the next. It brought the scowl back to his face that the imbecile had the gall to face him on this day of all days, and if the impertinence wasn’t enough he had also clearly been ordering the servants around, as well.  
“Your Majesty,” the stranger acknowledged, the greeting making Joe want to squirm in discomfort, focusing instead on the informal nod the man leveled at him. As he raised his head Joe struggled to place him, thinking furiously if he had ever seen him before and concluding absently that he must have. He had a handsome face, with dark hair and eyes, the ghost of scruff over his jaw that Joe usually would have counted himself to note upon. His annoyance at the few pre-war proceedings they had had with the Abbrennian delegates must have been even more powerful than he remembered. 
“Ambassador,” he nodded back, thankful in part that he didn’t have to feel guilty for his curtness. “I’m at a bit of a loss right now, can you tell me if we’ve met before?”
The stranger smiled, an expression far too casual for Joe’s liking at the moment, crossing before him to set the wine jug and the glasses down upon the desk beside his dead flowers. “Just once,” he said easily, his voice rich and deep, smoothed over by what must have been a long education. “A number of years ago when I met with your father to discuss the initial…question of the border,” he continued, uncorking the jug with a comical sound before shooting Joe a teasing look over his shoulder that practically stank of condescension. “You told me I was a moron with shit for brains.”
Joe grimaced, silently acknowledging this was far from the only ambassador that he’d told to go and fuck themselves when his father was still steering the ship. “Sounds like me,” he admitted with a nod, approaching the man on cautious feet as he poured a healthy measure of wine in each cup. “Nice to see you again.”
“Nixon, your grace,” the ambassador provided knowingly, taking up one cup and immediately making to bring it to his mouth, pausing at the last moment to nod a small toast towards Joe. “May I extend my deepest feelings of sorrow to you,” he said, at the very least sounding somewhat earnest. “And to your family.”
Scoffing, Joe gave into the urge to sit, shooting Nixon a dark look as he shifted to sit up informally on top of the desk, clocking the judgemental look the other man gave him. “Forgive me if I don't put a lot of weight on your sincerity, ambassador.”
“Your father was a good man,” Nixon said simply, at last taking a sip of the wine, relishing it momentarily before gathering breath to speak again. “And he was an even better king. Even putting aside our petty disputes we can all agree to honor that.”
Joe gave him a disbelieving look as he raised his boot up onto the table, pulling at its ties impatiently. “So your armies invading our northern province is a petty dispute to you,” he said lowly, taking minimal pleasure in the way the other man’s face shuttered, the cup at his lips once more as he drank. “The couple hundred displaced citizens and dead soldiers might disagree.”
Mouth pursed over the taste of the wine, Nixon thought to himself for a moment before he pulled in a sigh with a raise of his dark brows. “Well, to that end I have something to discuss with you,” he said, tone the slightest bit brighter, more animated, and it set Joe’s teeth on edge. 
“I’m not interested in a complete ceasefire,” Joe cut in sharply, the laces of his boots hanging uselessly over the table as he paused, feeling as unhelpful in a conversation of this sort as he ever had been before. “But my sisters need me here, and my men need me there, and at least for the time being I would ask that you -” 
“We’re not interested in a formal ceasefire, either,” Nixon shook his head. 
Mouth popping open, Joe chastised himself at his own surprise. They were still actively at war with one another, it should have been naive for him to assume that the Abbrennian’s actually were as traditional as they liked to announce that they were. “Oh.”
“Formal ceasefire,” Nixon corrected, pausing to look on Joe with wine-dark lips for a considering moment, stepping closer so that he could lower his voice against the already silent room and halls beyond. “The proposition I bring to you now would be beneficial for the both of us, far beyond the two of us jackasses admitting we made a mistake and calling the whole thing off with blood on both our hands,” he said dryly, a rueful edge to his voice that Joe could respect. “And it might be beneficial to those couple thousands of citizens and soldiers.”
Frowning, Joe found himself caught off guard once more by the other man’s candor, finding himself responding before he could talk himself out of it. “What exactly do you have for me?”
Nixon smiled mysteriously, hip knocking against the desk that Joe remained seated upon, taking another - larger - sip of the wine. “Forgive my impertinence, your grace, but it hasn’t exactly escaped anyone’s attention that you aren’t a married man.”
Son of a bitch. Huffing, Joe resisted the urge to tell the man to fuck off straight from the jump, choosing instead to lower his boot down to bring the still-laced one up. “A fact that many people feel entitled to remind me of as of late,” he grumbled, unlacing it with careful, forced movements. 
“And that your interests align more towards -” 
Huffing, Joe looked to him sharply. “The point, Nixon.”
Stifling a laugh, Nixon looked down on him with a bizarrely pleased expression as he sipped the wine again. “Well, it may interest you to know that many, many miles beyond those hills,” he spoke, voice stretched out in exaggeration, fattened up with amusement. “Beyond your chilly ocean and your bloody northern battleground, there’s a prince in Abbrennen who is also suitably unmarried.”
Turning atop the table to face the man fully, Joe glared towards him with barely restrained fire. “Lord Nixon, let me be clear,” he spoke carefully, teeth grinding down on each word until they practically ashes in his mouth. “I am not interested in an arranged marriage.”
“I’m not speaking of an arranged marriage,” Nixon dismissed with a cool shake of his head. “I’m speaking of the merging of two kingdoms who don’t want to be fighting each other at all,” he said pointedly, the edge in his voice of the sort that told Joe that as relaxed as the man himself may seem he was no less knowledgeable of their shared plight. “You may be on the battlefield, but how often do you yourself move among your people? They want no fight with the Abbrennians, and each casualty only serves to alienate you further from the people you purport to protect.” 
It was the truth, but it cut sharply across his already frayed nerves. “So you would have me marry this prince I haven’t even met for the sake of ending a war that you started?” he spat, the words finally seeming to crack through the other man’s patina, as his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed down at Joe’s ready stare. 
“Had your grandfather not -” he began harshly, a touch of true ire in his voice before he cut himself off, closing his eyes to pull in a calming breath. “We’re getting away from the point.” 
“Which is?” Joe challenged.
“Once our kingdoms are united these continuous disputes will be done for,” Nixon said measuredly, hand gesturing at the air as though pleading for Joe to see reason. “Think of the expenses saved. The lives saved,” he said, the words making Joe falter in his anger, eyes dropping down to the stone of the floor. “You will be a new king, and a loved king, for choosing peace in place of furthering a fight that nobody wants.”
Joe swallowed roughly. “My father wanted it.”
The words had Nixon pausing minutely, and the feeling of a hand settling over his shoulder made him look up in shock at the other man, whose mouth was once more set in an even, understanding line. “With due respect,” he began, slow and uncertain as his dark eyes bored into Joe’s own. “Your father wanted you married far more than he wanted a few more hundred miles of kingdom. Or so I’ve heard,” he tacked on, just to put another nail in Joe’s coffin.
Not that he wanted to think of coffins right now. 
“You’ve made your point, ambassador,” Joe said gruffly, making the short hop down from the table and displacing the other man’s hand in the process. “You are welcome to stay the night,” he said, an air of faux incredulity in his voice as he busied himself at finally unlacing the strings and straps of his own cloak. “And I thank you for coming, but -”
“If I may, your grace,” Nixon cut in, looking unperturbed by Joe’s attempt at seeming unaffected. “Take the night to consider the offer. I won’t be required to bring your answer back until the morrowtime, at least, so think of it deeply, and discuss it with whomever you deem appropriate,” he went on, the cup of wine in his hand surely nearly gone by now as he drank from it again. “At least for the moment the weapons are down,” he said, nearly a mumble between them both as he gave Joe a shadowed, knowing look. “It will be your choice as to whether they are drawn again.”
Gauntlet so thrown, Nixon turned to make his exit before second guessing himself and reaching to take the jug of wine with him. Joe watched him in amazement for a moment, before finding the question fluttering to the front of his mind like it had been inside of him all along.
“My Lord,” he called.
Pausing, Nixon turned with an expectant look upon his face. “Yes?”
“Which son?” Joe questioned, bristling at the look of gentle surprise on the other man’s face. “I know there are two,” he offered, as though it was any compensation for being as ignorant as he was.
Nodding, Nixon replied simply: “The eldest.” 
Joe thought for a moment. He knew nothing of either son, only that the one offered to him must have been an Omega. Strange, he had not known that there were any in the Abbrennian nobility. 
“Goodnight, ambassador,” he said finally, already distracted by the steady beat of his thoughts.  
The ambassador took his leave thankfully, and Joe turned away from the closing of the door before it could do something to make his mood even worse. With any luck he could collapse onto his stripped bed and let the whole world come to reason around him. Why not? It wasn’t so unlike anything else he had done these past few years. He’d fall into bed and the sun would go down, and food would appear, and water would be drawn, and he won’t have to think any more of death, of disappointment, of responsibility. 
Of marriage. 
So he did. 
* * *
He slept fitfully, but at least until the sun was down. Awakening at dusk to the burgeoning sounds of the castle coming back to life beneath him, he had groaned and attempted to press his face far enough into the bed that he could imagine it was all a nightmare. 
But it wasn’t to be. 
From that point it was barely difficult to arrange for the food and the water that he so yearned for, and upon eating and sinking into a virtually boiling tub of water he began to feel something like a man again. Staring down at his skin as it was cleared of dirt, grime, traces of blood, made him feel nauseated. 
His hands were nothing like his father’s hands had been. They could hold a sword, but they couldn’t soothe anything worth a damn. Couldn’t unite, couldn’t lead, couldn’t do anything.
He bent his face into them with agony, letting the water go cool around him.
By the time he was leaving his bathing room it must have been late at night, and he found himself actually ready to sleep more even after his whole day of rest. Sure enough, as he had been away the room had been transformed into something like itself, like it had been the last time he had seen it, dressed in the plain, thick coverings that he preferred, his sheets dark and shot through at the edges with silvery thread. In the hearth a fire had started, and he moved towards its warmth with a sigh of gratitude, already tightening the knot of his robe around himself. 
He had nearly forgotten how it felt to be truly warm. It was the kind of thing a man could easily get drunk on. 
As he stood lost by the fire a familiar knocking sequence rumbled up from the wall at the far side of the room. 
Sighing, he crossed over into its darkness with reluctant movements, not entirely wanting the company but unable to find it in his heart to turn it away. His hands found the secret notch with ease, time unable to bend what had once been a virtual muscle memory, and the wall swung with unimaginable lightness to reveal Rachel, her dark curls set in a thick nighttime braid, her robe atop her nightdress, arms crossed before her with a questioning raise of her brow. 
“Well?” she urged.
He rolled his eyes, waving her in with an impatient motion. “‘Well’ what?” he groaned, letting the secret door shut heavily, watching as she moved into the room to stand before him expectantly.
“You met with the ambassador from Abbrennen,” she said, almost accusingly, dark eyes filled with unease. “Chuck told me.”
He laughed ruefully, already moving away from her. “Why didn’t you two just fucking get married?” he grumbled, seating himself at the edge of his bed closest to the fire. “You’re together talking about me enough.” 
Rachel gave the barb no credence, following after him until she stood no more than two steps before him. “What did he say? Will the fighting stop until after the funeral?” she questioned urgently.
Joe sighed, eyes drawn from the fire and down towards his hands. “I believe he’s amenable,” he said, voice blank, watching his fingers open and close like the petals of a flower. “But that wasn’t the true purpose of his visit.”
Frown deepening, Rachel blinked. “What do you mean?”
Sniffing gently, Joe shook his head, too afraid to look her in the eyes. “He came to try and convince me to marry one of their princes. Said that if I did that there would be an end to the fighting.”
She paused long enough for him to shoot a look up towards her face, and he found her nonplussed, clearly already thinking deeply. “I see,” she said softly, and he could tell that she could see, but the fact filled him with dread.
“He’s leaving in the morning,” Joe said brusquely. “I’m going to ask for the ceasefire to last at least a week or two, I don’t think that they would oppose that, given the circumstances.”
“Joe…” she began, before heaving a great sigh.
He tilted his head, the urge to be difficult flaring up in his chest. “Rachel.”
“You’re being purposefully blind,” she said, tone already biting and sure.
If she wanted him to feel abashed he refused to give in, and he leaned forward over his knees to glare at her arrogant pose. “If it were worth considering I would be considering it,” he said fiercely, eyes dancing over her face and wishing for a break in her judgment that never appeared. “As it is -”
“Why is it not worth considering?” she interrupted, sounding insufferably like she didn’t already know a thousand times over. 
Snorting derisively, Joe relished the way she rolled her eyes and turned away, choosing to seat herself in one of his low chairs by the fire. “Beyond it being a cheap ploy for them to get their hands on the trade routes that they want and the land that our family won fair and square a hundred years ago?” 
Waving a hand dismissively, Rachel sank back into her seat with a sigh. “We’re an impoverished kingdom with the expense that we put towards fighting off the inevitable,” she said, folding her hands in her lap with distinctly less annoyance than she had had only a moment prior. “Don’t pretend that you can’t see there would be benefits for us as well.” 
“Of course I see that,” Joe lied.
“Then what?” she shrugged, looking towards him beseechingly. 
He coughed out an aggravated sound, hand flying out to gesture meaninglessly at the air. “Then honor, Rachel,” he bit, blood boiling at the way she cast her eyes distractedly at the fire. “And pride, and - and -”
“You can’t think of a third thing,” she muttered, eyes still drawn to the flames.
Joe let his hand slap down on the bed, feeling childish and already far too strained. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck yourself, Joe,” Rachel tossed back with little effort, finally looking back at him as though she were his long-suffering keeper. “You’ve evaded the one responsibility you actually had for long enough, now it’s too late for you to keep pretending you’re actually going to marry for love.” 
It cut him to the core, and he sputtered wordlessly for a moment. Even if he had never said it in words to anybody, let alone his own family, it had long been the wish of his heart that if he did marry it would be outside of the bounds of political conquest. For love? Maybe. For adventure, companionship, desire? Certainly. 
“Says who?” he argued weakly, eyes down. 
Rachel spared him nothing. “Kings don’t marry for love,” she said decidedly, and he cursed the universe again for not simply switching the order of their births. “They marry for the exact reasons that you’re being asked to now. For the good of the people.” 
Joe sneered at the fire, an awful taste at the back of his throat. “Like the people would really care about who I marry.”
“They’re going to care a lot more than you do,” she said, sounding gently angry, convicted. “Which is why you should stop making this yet another selfish choice in your life.” 
He gaped at her, blinking like a fool. “Why are you so angry at me?”
She pulled in a hard breath, leaning towards him meaningfully. “I’m not angry at you, Joe,” she said slowly, brittle like a dead tree ready to crack at the limbs. “I’m terrified for you. You’re alone, you have nobody out there with you, and…” she faltered, mouth closing around the thought as she deemed it too extraordinary to voice.
Joe already suspected. “Go ahead, just say it,” he permitted softly, feeling its burn prematurely. 
Rachel looked at him for a long moment, her eyes moving from hot assurance and into a sort of cold pity. “And I don’t think that you’re ready,” she admitted quietly. 
It was the truth. He knew it was the truth. Still, it made all of his insecurities whirl like a storm in his heart. 
“Thank you for telling me that,” he said, barely more than a whisper.
“Somebody has to.”
Nodding tightly, he let his eyes drop back down to the floor, in search of any refuge from the barrage of emotions that battered him. “I know.” 
She sighed, standing from her place by the fire and moving to his side, her arm over his shoulders like a brace. “But this is a good thing,” she assured, voice warm against the brutal rain of his torment. “This would be good for you, good for the kingdom. It wouldn’t be a miserable thing, Joe,” she carried on, voice gathering faster the more she thought, desperate to convince him. “Did he say which one?”
Joe had to think for a moment before he replied, lost in the wilderness of his worries. “The eldest.”
A smile broke briefly over her mouth, and she nodded. “That’s even better,” she said, a note of true relief in her voice as she gave him a gentle jostle beneath her arm. “Have you ever met him?”
He looked aside to her with irritation. “When would I have?”
“I thought you had been to at least some of those Summer festivals.”
“That’s the shit they send you for,” he said wearily, releasing a hard breath through his nose before looking back to her curiously. “Have you met him?”
She shook her head, dark eyes fluttering with thought. “No. But I’ve heard of him.”
Mouth tilting uncertainly, Joe blinked back at her. “What’s he like?”
An unsure sound rolled out of her mouth, and the slight grimace of her face told him she didn’t know as much about this prince as she wanted to. “Intelligent,” she said readily, before giving him a pointed, amused look. “Beautiful. Young.”
“How young?” he asked automatically, hardly liking the thought of someone barely of a marrying age.
“I can’t remember,” she said dismissively, refusing to be budged from the point. “But what does it matter? He’s rich, he’ll know his way around the court, and with him the fighting will end and we’ll get back to what we were and they’ll take their boots off our necks,” she listed off, and the more she spoke the more he could feel his walls close to crumbling beneath the sheer pressure of her. “What more could you need to say yes?”
He swallowed, nose scrunching up in dislike. “Surrender isn’t exactly second nature for me.”
She held him closer, her forehead pressing against his temple like they were two children again and not two grown adults who would soon bury the one parent they had left. “Compromise and surrender are different things,” she advised, as soft as though she was trading him a secret. “And if you cared about this kingdom even a little bit you would realize that.” 
“I do care,” he answered honestly, fierce and low in the light of the fire. “I care about being strong for them, showing them that I’m not going to be a weak king,” he continued, hating that his voice broke slightly at the end, betraying the emotions as they swelled inside of him.
“You think it’s weak to strive towards peace?” she parried.
He huffed, slumping beneath her arm. “That’s not what I’m saying. You know it’s not.”
Humming, she allowed him a slow nod. “The people would find it weak for their king to continue a battle that’s already lost,” she said, solid and sure, her arm leaving his shoulders as she stood with a sigh. “Especially when there was another way to end it,” she said, already moving back towards the secret door.
Feeling weak and confused, he gave in to another dark curiosity. “Rachel?”
She turned back to him, hand braced against the notch of the door. “What?”
He almost changed his mind, but gave in at the last moment with a huff. “What’s his name? Nobody’s even told me,” he tacked on, taking no joy in the act of wondering. 
Even from across the room he could see the smile that spread over her face like a cat that had spied the prettiest canary in the cage. “David,” she answered, voice bending around the name as though he were the first person on earth to have ever heard it, like this prince was the first to hold it. “That’s what his people call him, at least.”
“I understand,” he said softly, voice practically dead in his throat. 
“Just think about it, Joe,” she said, exhausted and heartsick with the long length of the day, already stepping through the door. “Your choice is your choice, but you owe it to all of us to think about it.”  
The door closed behind her with a sound not so different from the shutting of a tomb, and with it he tried to trap all of the hopes that he had ever had before this moment behind it. 
His father had loved him, but he had never been proud of him. It was one fact among many. But it was the first one that he would now have a chance to face headfirst, to defeat even if it was too late for his father to see it. He stared down at his hands - his own hands - and stared, and stared, looking hard for their potential, for their purpose. 
Perhaps it was there, just beneath the skin, just a little farther than his blood. His destiny. 
Maybe he had lost the chance to prove himself to his father. But he could prove himself to his people, to his kingdom, to the whole land who expected no more from him but to gaze impossibly at his own uselessness. They would see him for what he could be, they would see them all for their greater meaning. 
And it would start with this one thing. It would start with the last wish his father had ever had for him.
He stood, pushing out of his rooms and striding down the empty hall towards the antechamber, feeling himself growing stronger with each step.
David. He wouldn’t have expected it to be the name that spelled the end of a thousand and one dreams. 
The servant in the antechamber jumped, eyes shooting to Joe from where he had been chatting idly with a young maid. It was the sort of look he was going to have to grow used to: awe, respect, something akin to fear. 
“Tell the ambassador I’d like to see him, please,” Joe said lowly, watching him scuttle away with nothing but a jittery nod, moving back into the darkness and letting the door shut tight behind him. 
7 notes · View notes
manofmanymons · 1 year
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I saw mha posting
Your thoughts on the 8 most relevant characters of mha going through the survive storyline?
Okay so I haven't actually caught up on mha in years so I don't know who I would count as the most relevant
But let's just say bakusquad (Baku, Kiri, Kami, Mina, Sero) and dekusquad (Deku, Uraraka, Iida, Todo) in Survive
Which *counting on fingers* is one extra.
But if we count The Others you could say Survive actually has 10 main characters so for the fun of it let's throw in Aizawa as a stand-in for the Professor and round out this group with also 10
I'm gonna go ahead and treat them all as their season 1 selves because, well, no one had their development arcs and half them didn't know each other very well yet in Survive so these kids are starting from square one as well
Which...is a recipe for chaos quite frankly
Bakugou keeps trying to do the opposite of whatever Midoriya thinks they should be doing, Todoroki keeps trying to go off on his own, NEITHER of them strike me as the type to immediately trust their parents so that's a shit show in its own right
In fact I'm gonna be so bold as to accuse them of being the first to die in the obligatory vanilla route
The only person who can keep them all in line gets thrown off a dam in I think part 2 if we follow the Survive timeline so...OOPS
Iida is stressed out bc no one is listening to him but I don't think he'd ever get as bad as Shuuji and I think he would rely on his partner and also his friends
Although...yeah okay yeah I think Ima diagnose Iida with "would have a villain arc in a bad route where something happened to Midoriya or Uraraka"
Uraraka keeps her idiots in line as best as she can. Sero keeps his idiots in line as best as he can. Other than Bakugou and Todoroki I think they'd be successful. I also think most of the kids would readily trust their partners.
Don't ask me to make headcanons about who would have what partner tho I'm not that creative.
Kiri having a Gotsumon and being afraid of them at first because of how they all got attacked by a bunch of Gotsumon at the beginning would be funny tho.
Also speaking of Kiri I think he would have a lot of fun evolution scenes yknow like in the beginning he'd having Crippling Self Doubt™️ and you'd just get to watch him become more and more confident that he can everyone as time goes on. I like Kirishima.
I think Ashido would lowkey be Their Rock (ironically) in the beginning. Like someone who's strong and confident but also agreeable and kind (if a liiiiittle on the dumb side) from the get go.
...I'm just gonna diagnose Kaminari with Minoru. Not to say they're exactly alike or anything but I could see him pretending to be sick just to mess with everyone or charging ahead if the group is hesitant.
I think a Potential Problem with this group is that, well, they're ALL wanna be heroes.
The Survive kids for the most part knew when to cut their losses, but idk if I could say the same about the mha kids. They might take more unnecessary risks and push their limits further than they should.
Oh and in routes where they don't fuckin die I think it would be fun watching Baku and Todo learn to trust their friends and their partners. There is a 100% chance that Bakugou would get real cocky about having the best partner ever. I can just imagine him bragging nonstop about them. What an annoying little guy.
Anyways this is all based off what I remember about these characters from a pretty long time ago so isjskdn sorry if I have offensively mangled anyone's fav's characterization <3
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nimata-beroya · 1 year
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MY THOUGHTS ON THE MANDALORIAN - Chapter 18 "The Mines of Mandalore"
Days late, but here it is my impressions about the latest episode. It was so great that reduced me to a screaming mess, especially with that ending. I still cannot believe it!
As I've watched the episode a few times already, this is going to be more my general thoughts on what stood out more for me than reactions to every scene. I should apologize in advance, because I'll get a bit rant-y on some points (about the fandom, not the show).
So, let's begin…
I love that Din did a pit stop in Tatooine and visit Peli (I love her so much). It was obvious that she was his go-to to find the circuit for IG-11. I've seen people complaining that that bit of trying to fix IG-11 in the previous episode is irrelevant now if Din was getting R5 anyway, and honestly, it makes me shake my head. Haven't any of you watched the trailers? We KNEW Din would fly the N1 with R5-D4 docked in the astromech port. It was obvious (to me, at least) that he was going to use him to navigate to Mandalore. Besides, astromech were made exactly for that function. IG droids were not.
I know that there's the thing about Din trusting one (1) droid, which gives all the feels, but that of bringing IG-11 back won't go to waste. I think IG-11 will be fixed anyway to be Nevarro's new marshal, which fits much better with his original function, don't you think? That'd be great because it'll mean we'll see him again and again as long as the show continues.
I wonder how many languages Peli speaks, because so far we've seen her speaking Basic, droid, Jawaese, Rodian, Frog, whatever it was Dr. Mandible spoke, and I assume she speaks Huttese too. She's a human universal translator!
And Grogu is going to say his first word this season and going to be dad, buir, or an equivalent. It'd be funny if he goes from babbling incoherently to perfect speech in a night. Extremely unnerving, but funny as hell.
Another thing I've seen in other reviews is that some people didn't expect Din going to Mandalore so soon. I was not among those. I think it's perfect. And for what we saw in the trailers, that should've been obvious too. People might think the footage in the trailers covers the whole season. I got news for you, my darlings: it does not. It covers only the first half of the season (just like it did in season 2). So, considering that, Din wasn't going the entire season going from here to there before getting to Mandalore. Remember that this season also is somewhat setting things up for Ahsoka and is upping the stakes. It's no longer only Din and Grogu anymore.
My heart melted completely when Din said "Our people" talking to Grogu about Mandalore. The whole scene is amazing. Not just because of Din including Grogu as a mandalorian, but also because we got more tidbits of his childhood. He confirmed what I suspected; that he's never lived in Mandalore, just in Concordia. And, we got a geography lesson, making canon that Mandalore and Kalevala are in the same system.
Grogu was a ball of anxiety the whole episode, first when Din sent R5 to get the readings, then when Din got kidnapped (me, too), and because of the bird-lizard thing that went after him. Poor baby!
But I can't help laughing at how fast Grogu convinces Din of anything. Repeated knocking or a whine is enough for Din to give in.
An episode where Din doesn't get his ass kicked is not a Mandalorian episode, and like in the premiere he wasn't, he got a double dose in the second 😆 And I like that he still struggles with the darksaber. We need Sabine to train him!
Live-action Mandalore, I love it. It's both beautiful and haunting, the way the crystallized rock resembles explosions. I love the design of the wreckage city, that you almost can see how it was before, especially if you've seen TCW and Rebels (mostly TCW, bc Rebels was set outside Sundari, and in Krownest).
What the hell was that thing that tried to bleed out? take bone marrow? from Din?! I don't know what it was, but first, it sounded a lot like Grievous; and I guess it needed Din's fluids to function/survive. All I know is that it was creepy as hell and well sure it didn't help Din and his trauma with droids.
Grogu being able to control his own pram is the best!. I thought at first that he was moving it with the Force (maybe for going forward) but then I realized there are controls for him in the front.
I must say that even when I'm not a fan of Bo-Katan, this episode made her bloom as an even more complex character. I love that for her. It's obvious that she has plenty of regrets for all she did in the past, but my beef with her is that, sure, she sees now all the mistakes that were made by all Mandalorians, but she hasn't spoken out loud of her part in it. She always speaks in general terms of Mandalorians but never say I did this, I was one of those, except to say I was the ruler and the Empire came and defeat me. She distances herself from her worst mistakes. Not that it isn't a normal human reaction, but it'd be nice having her owning her mistakes.
Putting my personal feelings about her aside, the scene of Bo battling that thing was awesome!!! So badass!!! The ease with which she wields the Darksaber is satisfying to watch. My favorite part is when she slides underneath the droid and cut it open. So cool!
It didn't occur to me until I heard it in a YT video, that when Bo says she didn't embarrass her dad when she took the creed might not mean that she usually displeased her dad and that specific day she didn't, which is how most people took it as. Maybe what she meant was that she DID take the creed while Satine didn't (because of her pacifist ideals), and therefore, embarrassing their father. That it's an interesting theory. I like it. It'd add more flavor to family drama (as if it didn't have enough of it 😆)
Deep down, I knew Din wasn't going to take his helmet off to bathe in the Living Waters, but he would take the rest of his armor, so he didn't sink, exactly like he did. That scene is both beautiful (as he recites the vow) and funny (the moment he sinks). Then fears hits, and I first wondered how he sunk so fast! The only explanation I can find is that the mythosaur pulled him under.
And OH MY GOD!!! The reveal of the Mythosaur was AWESOME!!! As soon as I saw the tusks, I lost it!!! This is when I became a screaming mess. I couldn't believe one of my wildest theories was true!! Since last year, when the Armorer said that the mythosaur would rise up to herald a new Mandalore, I had the feeling that Mythosaur were down in the mines, or at least one. I can't believe I was right!
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Kippa and Wovak shennanigans. Aka, Melinda and Pippa watching their two chaos gremlins be on major sugar highs from various sweets and just being like "fuck you're cute" and then watching a goofy Halloween movie until they crash and then watching a scarier (but still goofy) Spooky Season™ movie (like nightmare before christmas and then like scream or chucky). I thought a Halloween themed ask would be appropriate.
Okay so FIRST AND FOREMOST what is everyone wearing
Casey definitely mentioned to Melinda how she always wanted someone to wear couples costumes with so they go as like Velma and Daphne or they get dressed as two Jedi and Casey makes sure to let everyone know that they’re Jedi Wives
Kat goes dressed as a CoD character and gets hella compliments by nerd bois bc she looks the part
and Pippa would probably wear a lil generic minnie mouse costume and she looks super cute
we know that Casey and Kat join Jordan and Lia for trick or treating
Kat insists that its “For safety purposes” and “its okay babe that way you can stay home with Melinda and drink some cocktails”
Which is true of course
But its also because Casey and Kat have an inner child to heal
And yes maybe the four of them end up with the biggest amount of candy
And they split it equally of course
Kat and Casey then drop off the kids at Pippa’s parents’ house
and yes Pippa’s parents also have some candy for the four of them (you cant deny that Casey would be on a first name basis with pippa’s parents)
Do they start tearing into their candy stash and are half done with it on the drive to Melinda and Casey’s place? Maybe
And do they then develop the biggest sugar rush theyve ever felt?
Yes
Which leads them to parkour around the house for a good minute
And then playing a few rounds of mario kart, with pippa and melinda cheering them on
Because lets face it theyre already on their 3rd cocktail so they are truly vibing
But they did want to watch the new Hocus Pocus movie so they do settle down on the couch to do so
Kat and Casey start dancing on their seats during the show
Which makes Melinda and Pippa’s hearts melt
Because they did in fact fell in love with two golden retrievers
They all collectively agree that Hocus Pocus 2 was even better than the original
I will not hear anything else about it
And then they all decide on a scarier movie because why not
And I do feel llike they would do a goofy scary movie
They first do a horror horror movie and then after to lighten the mood they would do nightmare before christmas
How do they all like horror movies, might you ask?
Melinda is a medical examiner so she doesnt mind any type of gore in movies (plus she’ll also spot the inaccuracies)
Pippa is okay with it, its not her favorite thing but ya girl’s got a lot of trauma so who cares about a horror film anyways
Casey 100% loves them
And Kat doesnt mind them in the way that she doesnt care about gore but she doesnt fuck with the supernatural
Like she doesnt think it could happen but she also doesnt want to manifest it yknow
So they go for a classic like texas chainsaw massacre or something
(But it does get to a point where Kat is snuggling up to Pippa and using Pippa’s hand to cover her eyes at times)
Dont worry theyve dimmed the lights and melinda and casey dont see it :P
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tangerinecherrygal · 1 year
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Small S&B S2 rant for my two followers or; SOC and S&B shouldn't have been combined (opinion)
Hi, this is my opinion and if anyone here enjoyed both seasons then I'm so happy for you. There are things that I enjoy that my friends don't and them pointing that out isn't a personal attack on me. Different strokes for different folks :)
Ok, first, since season 1 I hated that they combined both series. The story between Alina and the crows was completely different and felt disjointed.
I do wanna say I have read the first S&B book and I don't think I'm finishing the series because, i didn't like the way it was written. I also couldn't finish season 2 for some of the reasons I'm going to list now. However, I'm still able to critique how the show felt and it felt messy.
The relationships: (Season 1 mostly)
The relationships between everybody but Mal and Alina felt very forced and sudden. Like when she kissed the Darkling I was like, you've talked for a total of 45 minutes??? and it feels like those were their only interactions. In the book it was also like that but I feel like if they just focused on the s&b storyline then the writers could rectify this.
Also the 15 minutes of Nina and Matthias and then they're in love?? Even if this is a backstory that isn't in the books they could explore it in a different show. That storyline was so interesting and could've easily been a show by itself. The same for the rest of the crows.
Kaz and Inej's interactions mostly involved Jesper (who I loved). So I didn't really feel the chemistry with them. Buuut... the friendship between them felt very real and was so fun to watch. These actors are so charming and suited the characters I think.
The pacing (Both):
Because they combined the storylines they couldn't explore the relationships much like I said before. Also, they couldn't show much development, especially Alina developing her powers. In the books they explained why she was so weak but didn't in the show. I think it was a nice point. (The analytical part of me wants to say it's a good allegory for how suppressing parts of yourself can wear you down. Since this is a YA series I feel like it still has life lessons so that's how I took it). They could have given us more time with Mal and Alina's friendship too, instead of those flashbacks. Alina getting 'over' Mal also felt like it came out of nowhere.
In season 2 it's even worse. Already in the first episode it felt like we had no time to settle into the new situation. Of course, it's going to be fast paced bc they're on the run. I'm talking about how it feels like I'm watching a a playlist of under 5 minute s&b then soc videos. I saw someone say that they were trying to combine all 6 other books. In the 8 episode slots that stupid Netflix gave them??? Ok guys.
Things they should have changed: When Alina got mad at Mal for not responding. It makes their friendship seem less authentic. Yes, I know she's quite young and scared (me too), but she's also able to be a bit rational. It's unbelievable that she wouldn't consider there may also be some other reason that he hasn't responded even if it's for a moment. If she maybe thought that he might not have been able to respond or if he was outside of the base camp and he couldn't get the letters yet. Then she could realize that she can't rely on him so much and needs to support herself. This would also make her confidence later feel more reasonable because it feels like she's working on it for herself.
More time with the Darkling in the first half. In the books I was annoyed that she went from being terrified of him to trusting him implicitly without much reason. Maybe if he was more involved with giving her advice then she might feel like she would be able to trust him.
Genya's hair. I can't deal with bad tv wigs, I think since I started being more interested in drag. This is a more petty thing but in the words of drag queen, Katya: If you have a fantasy show you're adapting for the screen, you can pull it together. If there is a fantasy world that you're adapting, [you've] got to say one thing, "this world is not real." This is not Ken Burns, we can take a little bit of liberty. We can do a low light, do a bang, we can experiment with some texture, we can make it whatever we want. Just make it look good. People get hung up on the good part. Like they could have at least given her some side swept bangs to hide the hairline. That was so twisted and evil I think. My girl was done so dirty.
This is more of a question. Why isn't Alina's surname Starkova?
The dialogue: What the hell? The downgrade between the writing from the previous season to this one. I'm not going back to watch and find exactly what I mean. But some of the dialogue felt so unedited and cringey. They are capable of snark and one-liners, they proved that in the first season. I think it was Nikolai that was the worst so far and the actor was working hard to make those lines work.
Finally, I hate you Netflix: (impromptu netflix rant)
I understand that most of the problems I mentioned could be fixed if they had more time. They could have a better chance of making the combined stories work. The other option is to keep the eight episodes and just adapt s&b.
The 8-10 episode format can't work for everything. GOT could do it but it takes a lot to pull that off for a fantasy show and not every production can do that with the constraints.
Also netflix clutches it's purse tight when it comes to non Stranger Things related content. $28m? For a FANTASY SHOW of a hugely successful book series? That's less than a single ST episode. Netflix open your purse girl, we know you have the money.
It's obvious they crammed a bunch of stuff into this season so if netflix cancels it, then they could have appealed to all the fans and wrapped it up. At the expense of quality :/. If netflix wouldn't cancel all their shows after one or two seasons, then i believe this wouldn't have happened. Idk how they expect to make legendary shows if they won't take that risk and let the fanbase gradually grow. That's how GOT, the office and breaking bad etc became so iconic.
I liked season one and thought it had a lot of potential. I was so disappointed that i didn't like this season.
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littlebigmouse · 1 year
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TMA MAG 60
A story about paranoia as Jon's own paranoia culminates - shit is about to go down.
.... Is what I thought and instead everyone had a healthy and adult discussion about their feelings, information is freely given, Jon admits he has treated his coworkers unfairly and promises to cool it, now convinced someone from outside or whatever is in the tunnels must have murdered Gertrude.
Huh.
Anyone else thing the statements these days show a sort of worst-case-slippery-slope Jon could be going down if he keeps it up, but because he still has friends, he JUST manages to avoid that same fate - for now anyway?
I say for now because I would in fact pay good money for Jon to drive a van full of explosives into the Archive. Although Jon doesn't as much feel watched as he is the one watching everyone else (or both). Maybe Tim gets to blow up the archives. He deserves it.
This is the midpoint of the season. Technically, it's still possible the point of the first half of it was to show easily Jon's mental health can slip, the discord and distrust sawn between the coworkers is not going to go away and may be their fall in the season 2 finale where season 1 their quick thinking and team work saved them.
That being said, I will be disappointed if it turns out Gertrude "just" died by someone on the outside/a monster in the tunnels. I would feel like I wasted half a season if it turns out the guy who likes to stab people for fun and lives in the tunnels turns out to have murdered the corpse that was found shot ... in the tunnels. He may have something to do with it, but considering she had her own room and wasn't in the... tunnels tunnels, that doesn't seem to be his MO. Whatever.
And I'm confused about the Deus Ex CCTV tapes too. They should not be the easy fix they are. As far as I know, no one but Jon had attempted to search the tunnels below the archives, where Gertrude's body was found. Certainly no one from the police. Please correct me if I am wrong about that due to information that has been established in the past but I misremembered, btw, that would be very kind. But that means that there might be alternate entrance into the archives through the tunnels that our murderer could have used, that isn't necessarily covered by CCTV (or wasn't searched) because no one knew that place was an entrance to the archive. That means any and all of them could have done it still!
All this, of course, leads me back around to my original suspect list: Sasha and Elias. Not-Sasha wasn't around for the murder, and while I maintained she'd have her own subplot, it would be kind of cool to have the real Sasha turn out to be the killer. This would give her replacement, who already seems to have some complicated feelings about her own existence, an interesting conflict, especially in terms of hashing out her relationship to her coworkers, and their relationship towards both Sashas. It would also merge the two major plotthreads of the season in a really interesting way! While I do think Sasha was a bit... under-established for this to work 100%, this could still be fixed by eg the characters finding her again, or a statement given by her, or anything. I think I've mentioned it before, but Sasha's frustration over Jon getting the position as head archivist could have been partially due to the fact that she killed Gertrude to get it instead. (It's weird bc I'm pretty sure this was one of the first things we learned about Sasha, and yet it didn't inform her character much and was never brought up again, soo-). It was also fascinating that Michael initially sought her out to help the archive - maybe she knew more than she let on and her statement about that encounter wasn't entirely truthful either. I'm saying, given some more puzzle pieces, this is something that could make sense to me.
The other major suspect is Elias, who remained on the list exclusively because he keeps being brought up for seemingly no reason. UNTIL NOW. Because see, I noted how Elias remains a mystery. He's just kinda there. It's like the story is going out of its way to make him uninteresting and uninvolved, like they only needed a name to play authority in the archives for other characters to throw around, without getting his own part in the story. Which, I mean, they could have done that. I wouldn't be too happy about it, but in a show with such a limited cast, they simply cut off their losses earlier and decided to do nothing interesting with the GUY who RUNS the supernatural archive that's the center of some supernatural tuck of war - yeah okay they won't do that. (Even though I also apparently heavily overestimated the other side character's importance to the story, sooo)
So why.
Here's the thing. Elias says he's "partially to blame for [Jon's behaviour]" because he let it go on for so long. If he were a proper character, we'd get a hint of the regret he feels, maybe some inner conflict. Elias, sitting on the information that there are CCTV tapes the police are reviewing, which will come out any time soon, which should put everyone at ease. That he doesn't have to run an intervention, that Jon seems down but everyone is coping and the CCTV will clear it all up. But then it turns out he miscalculated, and Jon got way worse than he thought, and the CCTV is still fixing things but had Elias said something 20 episdes ago, everything would have gone way better. This is the second time that something major has happened that, had he been more involved, could have been prevented or at least prevented some damage. I know we haven't gotten that much on the other characters either, but at least something like that would have been HINTED by now, and be it by the voice acting.
Elias doesn't sound particularly remorseful when he says this. Elias is the only one who's emotions aren't running high in that scene. Elias was the only one who kept calm in the season 1 finale either, if I remember right. I think I theorized back than that it was the slightly overwhelmed detachement of it all. Elias isn't friends with any of these people, and Jon hasn't been stalking him, so why WOULD his emotions be running high during the intervention? So, of course, the question: Why isn't he closer to any of them? Why doesn't he solve their problems sooner, if he noticed them? If he didn't, doesn't that bother him? Why isn't he bothered by his team falling apart at the seams?
He could just be a shitty boss, in the way that some people don't notice things, like to keep to themselves and aren't fit to lead. But he said that he did notice, and we don't even get a hint of characterisation that implies that he feels conflicted about his lack of action and relationship to the others.
So here's my crowning conclusion:
Elias doesn't give a shit.
It's all work to him. Pure business. He joins the intervention slash disciplinary hearing (notice the phrasing!) because the others have asked him to. He's here to do his job, and as long as the car is running, that's all he cares about. It's not running well. Two tires are flat and the engine is making funky noises but it's running. Where is it going? That's the million dollar question, isn't it. But that doesn't matter, as long as they arrive.
Yeah, that makes him a shitty boss.
And more importantly, that makes him a murder suspect, if Gertrude was in any way a person who wanted to stop the car for a bit (be it to change a tire or blow it up, you decide).
That also makes him a potential danger in the future, if the characters ever act in a way that is not in the Archive's ... "best interest".
Also, you know, the CCTV footage showed Elias finding and reporting the blood the day of Gertrude's disappearance, he may as well have knocked her out, brought her to the tunnels, murdered her and returned to report her missing.
Man I hope I'm not tunneling here. Pun very much intended.
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