#it doesn’t ACTUALLY reduce him to being a violent murderer

[raceydays-hopelesshaze]

WHEN will people realize

what a character says =/= what the overall narrative says

#this is what happens when I look through the tag ig #anyway. just bc BRUCE reduces Damian’s relationships from Lazarus Island and Damian himself to revolving around killing DOES NOT MEAN we the #readers are supposed to agree with him #WE KNOW that isn’t true. it’s meant to highlight a disconnect between Bruce and Damian. Bruce not fully understanding his son. the obstacles #in their relationship. having a parent who doesn’t really /get/ you #Damian and Bruce have a fraught relationship and Bruce having this attitude- no matter how much he loves Damian- contributes to that #characters calling Damian a killer/murderer isn’t meant to tell US he’s a killer it’s meant to show how difficult it is for Damian to feel #like he belongs (even with his own family) and how little the people around him ACTUALLY understand him #WE know he’s not a killer and has a good heart. the people closest to him know too. others don’t. that’s hard on him! #that affects his relationships with others that affects his view of HIMSELF #having a character reduce Damian to being good killing let’s us feel some of his frustration. #it doesn’t ACTUALLY reduce him to being a violent murderer #å

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

When a Tomb Becomes a Womb (Part 1: Rings)

Well, it’s finally happened: I wrote a story for a movie rather than YouTube Egos. (Not that this is gonna become a regular thing, mind you. Lisa Frankenstein just so happened to check all the right boxes for my hyperfixation and brainrot.) 

(Disclaimer: While I agree that Creature doesn’t really need an actual name to be a great character, I still decided to give him a headcanon name—which is Callum, since I think it would fit him— just because this entire story is from his perspective. Mentioning his "true," pre-death name just seems logical. Neither of the characters in this story belongs to me. Lisa Swallows and The Creature are the property of Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody.)

(Trigger Warnings: implied murder/death, implied violence, gore/blood, mentions of electrocution and fire, scars, body horror, dismemberment. Please let me know if I missed anything.)

The soil was loose and soft. It yielded to the shovel’s rusty spade quite easily.

Though many emotions were thrumming through Callum’s skull at the moment, surprise wasn’t one of them. 

While dark clouds had clogged up the night sky, hiding the stars and moon and bloating with rain that would fall sooner or later, the current season was warm, and so the ground wasn’t too firm. 

This plot had only been filled hours ago. This grave was fresh; infinitely fresher than his had been.

By now, Callum estimated that it’d taken at least half a day for him to crawl up through the ground and breach the surface like one of the several worms slithering around inside him.

He hadn’t exactly been in the right headspace to consider it at first; back then, all he’d been able to know was light and electricity and shuddering and pain and. . .Lisa’s words. 

Lisa’s words. 

The same thing that fueled Callum to escape his tomb was now guiding him to free Lisa from hers, all with the same amount of violent tremors and desperation.

It was poetic, honestly. 

Perhaps it would’ve been a bit more poetic if he didn’t have to get so filthy in the process.

Oh, well. He could take care of that later. (Besides, the stains on his clothes were nothing compared to the layers of grime and mold and fungus that had been caked all over him on that first, fateful night.)

Right now, unearthing his beloved without getting caught seemed like a much more important thing to focus on.

His grip was vicelike around the wooden handle as he threw one shovelful after another to the side.

Almost there, Callum thought. (If he could speak, he’d be repeating that mantra in a whisper like his life depended on it. Which. . .well, it logically didn’t, but it technically did. The same went for Lisa.) Almost there. 

He’d wanted to take her away sooner. He would’ve been perfectly fine with forcing her family to waste money on a casket. Really, what good was a casket if you buried it empty? 

But the distinct lack of a corpse would have just caused more problems. As dense as her family seemed to be, they’d still know that the shiny, glowing box (Lisa had called it a. . .tanning bed? If memory served?) wouldn’t have been capable of reducing a person to ashes no matter how dangerous it was. 

He knew she wasn’t dead. Not completely; not truly. Yes, the combination of electrical currents and fire may have worked its horrific magic on her body. . .but that magic just hadn’t followed through altogether as it probably should have. 

The way the bed had convinced foreign limbs to function as intended mere minutes after Lisa sewed them onto him. . .the way it had rejuvenated his centuries-dead flesh bit by bit. . .

It had some kind of similar effect on Lisa. The vast majority of her had died, but there was still a strong, stubborn ember of something in her that was very much determined to live. 

Callum knew that very well. He’d seen proof of it before being forced to flee from the fire.

But Lisa’s family didn’t. As far as they knew, she was gone and never coming back. So, if she just disappeared before they could bury her, then they’d have an excuse to try and track her down. And if that happened, neither she nor her husband would get another chance. . .

Callum ground his jaw, putting even more force behind the shovel. 

The hole grew deeper.

The pile of disturbed earth beside it grew bigger. 

The dull, scraping tempo of grave-robbery began to sound like hitching gasps and sobs.

Just as the clouds started ominously humming about their plans for the night, the shovel reverberated after finally, finally, finally striking something much more solid than dirt.

Callum tossed the tool aside in favor of getting down on his knees, now using his hands to clear away a blanket of finer, thinner soil. 

He hoped Lisa could hear him digging. (Though if that was the case, then the state of her brain could potentially make her think that the sounds were echoing from somewhere farther beneath her. Which would be. . .less than ideal, as Callum didn’t enjoy the idea of scaring her again. )

Even in his anxiety, he subconsciously shook his head. Lisa had taken him in and repaired him even after being initially terrified. Lisa trusted him, loved him; if she didn’t, then he never would have woken up in the first place.

More time passed, and a soft, cold gleam suddenly manifested in the darkness.

Glossy wood. 

The coffin’s upper door. 

Callum groped at the edge of it, tugging with all his strength.

An odd, warm feeling skittered up his spine and shook through his ribcage. 

A low creeeeaaak rattled through the air as the lid was pried open.

. . .And there she was.

___

Callum had always been a fast learner, and yet he still had no idea what to make of his pulse. 

It’d been extremely jarring when he’d first awoken. The days that followed, it was irregular. Sometimes he could feel it, sometimes he couldn’t. It was always soft—following more of a murmur than a steady beat—always irregular, barely there at all.

Right now, however, it both sounded and felt very far away. More present than it had been when he’d performed a highly unorthodox beheading on that stain of a man who’d upset Lisa. 

Hell, it almost seemed louder and stronger than it had been on the most recent evening he’d spent with Lisa; the one that saw the two of them embracing and reeling and dreaming together. . .

Everything else was a blur as he brought her to her new bed, carrying her like the bride she was. He had to move slowly, carefully, feeling more anxious and unwieldy than ever. 

Well, at least until he laid her down, making sure the pillow offered enough support for her neck.

After that, he was much, much more erratic.

He sprinted about the house, tearing almost every other room apart as he searched. It felt like several hours had passed by the time he finally found what he—what his beloved—needed: a white, sterile-looking container. He opened it, just to be certain, then tucked it under one arm and hurried back over to the bedroom.

Every square inch of Lisa’s body was blistered to hell and back, adorned by a network of puffy, angry-looking veins that, had her heart still been beating, would have more or less threatened to burst at any given moment. Red and raw, several sections on her arms, legs, and chest having peeled off to reveal glistening tissue.

Her mane of thick, curly auburn hair had been reduced to a few small, fried patches that clung to the charred flesh of her scalp with a strength similar to bubblegum and well-intentioned vibes. There was a possibility that she’d died with her eyes open, but the awful swelling of the skin around their sockets had sealed them shut. 

None of that mattered, of course. 

Lisa was still just as beautiful as when Callum had first met her. She always, always would be. 

. . .Even so, those injuries had to be dealt with. Despite what Lisa had said before about accepting a person’s flaws, Callum’s instincts told him she wouldn’t appreciate being left to resemble a puppet made of half-raw-half-cooked steaks.

Callum set the medical kit down on the nightstand, ferreting out generous rolls of gauze as he loomed over the side of the bed. 

The world finally seemed to slow back down as he got to work.

It didn’t take long for him to find a gentle, precise cadence as he wrapped bandage after bandage after bandage around his beloved’s form. Something in the back of his mind wondered if this was what spiders felt like when they spun strands of silk together to make their webs.

Although Lisa’s skin hadn’t been rendered translucent, the burns in some places went deep enough for Callum to catch a glimpse of her organs. Both of her lungs were blackened, seared, sunken. Her heart was equally misshapen, now boasting a similar appearance to a blob of melted wax, looking like it was seconds away from collapsing in on itself. 

But even as all the carnage was swallowed up by more strips of gauze, Callum could still see the heart twitch. The movement only lasted for half a second or so, but there was no doubting that it’d happened. . .

Lisa still had a chance. She would never be truly alive again, but she could still come back.

She couldn’t wake up by herself. . .but she wouldn’t have to.

He’d find a way to help, just as she’d done for him. 

Callum blinked for the first time all night, and his hands were suddenly free; he was suddenly sitting at the foot of the new bed.

Lisa was cloaked quite literally from head to toe in clean, snow-white bandages. It was like he'd made the perfect combination of shroud and wedding dress for her to wear.

The thought made a small smile tug at his lips. 

Then he shook his head.

He couldn’t relax just yet. There were other things to be taken care of right now. Two other things, to be specific. 

Callum got to his feet and crossed the new bedroom to quietly close the door. He ventured down a narrow hallway, peering at an assortment of unfamiliar pictures hanging on the walls around him. Disposing of them would probably be another chore for him later.

His footsteps sounded hollow and heavy as he descended the staircase. (Unlike Lisa’s former home, the floors of this house were all hardwood rather than carpet. True, they wouldn’t muffle noise very well, but it was still quite a lucky coincidence.) 

He’d found this house completely by accident, when he’d still been trying to follow Lisa’s path. 

Even with the remnants of that lightning bolt sparking in his stagnant blood, even with Lisa’s voice echoing through his resurrected mind, it’d still taken so much time for him to truly wake up. He grimaced at the thought of how long he’d had to crawl around the cemetery before he could stand upright. 

(And that wasn’t even mentioning the state his vision had been in. The layers of rancid slime and dirt clinging to his face had made everything around him blurry and distorted. The fact that his eyes were also full of maggots at the time certainly hadn’t helped.)

He’d had to wander the surrounding woods for hours and hours before he could finally walk. The rot in his bones had kept his movement slow and uneven, but a bad limp was still better than collapsing every other moment. 

Callum wasn’t sure how the house’s previous owners hadn’t seen or heard him that night. They certainly had a few hours ago, but that wasn’t a factor anymore. 

He crept into the living room, where he paced a few slow circles around the fresh corpse lying in the center of all the controlled chaos. The crimson splatters now adorning the floor, the walls, the sofa’s floral print almost seemed to glitter.

Another carcass could be found just a few feet away, sprawled across the wide threshold that led into the dining room. The face was obscured, as blood was still leaking out to add to a large puddle that continued to slowly spread, inch-by-inch. 

Callum folded his arms across his chest, drumming the nails of his replacement hand against his cheek. He remembered what Lisa had said when he’d silently begged her to help him find new parts; a contemplative murmur about there being bad people in the world. . .

Her relief and gratitude when he’d bludgeoned that horrible excuse for a mother to death.

Her cathartic happiness when he’d dismembered the scum who’d tried to put his filthy hands on her.

Her tearful joy when she eventually realized why he’d risked so much to take a particularly crucial piece from the ignoramus who’d dared to play with her emotions. . .

It had all been so wonderful to see.

Those victims had all hurt Lisa, and they likely would've hurt others as well. Their deaths wouldn’t be an actual loss to the community.

But this. . .

Lisa definitely wouldn’t have approved of this. Yes, she’d understand why Callum had done what he’d done; after everything they’d been through, of course the two of them needed a quiet place to stay, if only for a while until they found somewhere better. A place that was a fair distance from both the town and the cemetery. A place just like this.

But. . .

A raspy sigh escaped Callum’s lips. 

He'd work with more tact in the future. 

Once Lisa was awake, things would be better. He’d listen to her input. They would make important decisions together.

Callum’s eyes wandered about, eventually settling on the axe—the same one Lisa had taken from her father’s garage—he’d left propped up against the adjacent wall. It was slathered in gore, to the point that its wooden handle was just as red as the paint on its blade. 

He approached to pick it up, letting the weapon’s belly rest on his shoulder. Then he stooped down, using his free hand to take hold of the first corpse’s wrists. More of the floor was painted red as he dragged it into the kitchen. He retraced his steps to collect the second body, coming dangerously close to slipping on the blood as he hefted his victim onto the countertop.

The next hour or so was filled with dull thuds, with splintery pops and cra-A-a-cks, with the drip-drip-drip of thick fluid oozing down the lower cabinets and plopping onto the floor. 

The axe was too heavy to be the most precise tool, but it was still efficient. It only took a few good swings to sever limbs from torsos and heads from necks. 

Callum couldn’t bury either of these bodies. Not right away, at least. Fortunately, he soon discovered that there were more than enough black trash bags under the sink to work with. 

Lisa’s body obviously needed repair, but he wasn’t sure which repairs should come first. (He knew she’d require a new pair of eyes, but he didn’t want to risk forcing her current ones open just yet.) Would it be better to take off her old limbs and put new ones in their place, or to simply slice off layers of skin and attach a new barrier to her burnt flesh?

Wait and see, a voice in his head suggested. Callum nodded to himself; when Lisa was able to communicate again, he’d organize these plans with her. It was only right, after all. 

Callum set the axe down by the sink, now focusing on wrapping up the detached pieces of human in tight, layered cocoons that crinkled with every second. Packing all the bundles into the freezer and refrigerator in a way that kept them from sliding right back out was far more aggravating than he would’ve cared to admit, but he managed. 

He gave pause, however, when it came to the two remaining pieces. 

A pair of forearms, to be specific, with their hands still attached. 

One from each corpse. 

Something small and metallic glinted around the fourth finger on each of them. 

The first ring had a very simple design: just a smooth, golden band. 

The second ring, meanwhile, was silver, mounted with a shiny stone.

It wasn’t a diamond by any means. Callum couldn’t tell what kind of gem it was, honestly. But it was gorgeous—it’d been carved into a smooth, perfect orb. It reminded him of an ember at the heart of a firepit, boasting a graceful mix of orange and red with a few soft hints of yellow.

The colors reminded him of that one night. 

Callum shoved the forearms into hiding with all the other parts, the two rings now nestled in his palm. With that, he exited the kitchen, an unfamiliar spring in his step as he ventured back up the staircase. Yes, he still had an enormous bloody mess to clean up, but this took priority. 

His odd, partial heartbeat echoed in his ears as he re-entered the new bedroom and knelt down beside the bed. 

Slowly, delicately, Callum took one of Lisa’s hands in his. He pressed a small kiss to her bandaged knuckles before sliding the new ring onto her finger. 

It fit perfectly. Just like the gold ring did for him. 

As for the odd-yet-sweet candy loop he’d made do with for the original proposal. . .well, he decided to leave it on the nightstand. 

Just in case Lisa wanted to keep it when she woke up.

@mblume125 @upstartgeek @paper-cuts-and-fresh-bruises @queenofcandys @magpierose753 @therulerofallpotatos @blue-spider-official @chofisaquino @strangewerewolf @alienbactria @aphroditeinarms @weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral @scootis-the-scoot. @cherryycocaine @sammispook @creepycrow31 @radisyn @allthesecottoncandyskies @that-random-assassin @shelf-life-of-the-party @big-sad-world @lisascreatures @we-were-d3stined-t0-expl0de @artnormal @cr-0-wsworld @bllops-world @night-writer-writer @bunnygirlgracesworld @occasional-trash @a-live-wire @babi-gir @secretly-larry-daley @fawns-things @confused-hufflepuff-screaming

#my writing #my stories #lisa frankenstein #lisa frankenstein spoilers #the creature #lisa frankenstein creature #lisa swallows #lisa x creature #(my headcanon name for creature is callum) #(I just think it would fit him well) #tw implied murder/death #tw implied violence #tw gore/blood #tw mentions of electrocution and fire #tw scars #tw body horror #tw dismemberment

[its-monster-mash]

Didn’t Your Momma Ever Tell You Not To Talk To Strangers?

Bo Sinclair X Reader: Part Two

Warnings: Fem Reader, Allusions to Past Noncon(Not with The Reader), Bo’s violent thoughts, Smut(Consensual), Reader doesn’t know about the Atrocities yet

Part One Part Three

There’s a nervousness creeping up his spine now that it’s just you and him alone in his truck, headed back up to his place. He hates that you make him feel this way—all you’re doing is sitting there, your nails anxiously picking at the rough hem of your shorts, your jaw still tense from the falling out you just had with your stupid little friends—but all he can think of is how you might react when you get back to his house.

He knows what the tourists think about him—the way they judge the town at first glance—Hell, that Corey punk from your friend’s van was exactly the kind of person who usually has the honor of being his brother’s canvas, but it’s been so long since he actually brought a girl home that the same stupid anxieties he used to have when he was a dumb teenager are flaring to the surface in full force.

What if you take one look at his place and decide he’s not good enough for you?

Sure, he can always drag you down to his shop’s basement and take a different kind of pleasure from you, but he knows damn well that’s not what he wants.

You look at him—he’s looking at the road, but he sees you—you’re smiling at him, an awkward furrow to your brow. You have no idea the danger you’re in, but this isn’t exactly a comfortable situation for you.

Still, you’re not uncomfortable because of him—you’re smiling at him—bright and hopeful, as anxious about making a good impression as he is, with none of the assurances of homicide to fall back on if this doesn’t go well.

He wants to consume you—he wants to chew up all of your brightness and hope in his great slobbering maw until you’re reduced to little bits of mush that he can swallow and incorporate into his being.

Maybe then he’d be happy too.

“I really appreciate this,” you break the silence, and he hopes you don’t notice the way his knuckles go white against the steering wheel. “Not a lot of people are willing to take a stranger into their home.”

“Not a lot of people are willing to stand up for a stranger when their friends are being dicks.” He doubts you’d have been so quick to speak up on his behalf if you knew even half of what goes on in Ambrose.

Stupid.

He’s stupid for bringing you here.

What does he expect to accomplish? He can’t really think you’ll have any kind of feelings left for him when you find out what really goes on in this town. Even if a week was enough time to get you to fall in love with him, it would all go up in flames the second he shows you his true colors.

You like Bo, The Helpful Mechanic who sweeps you off your feet when he hugs you—Bo, The Serial Killer who keeps women in his basement, is a far cry from the man you think he is.

But God help him; he likes the way you smile at the other Bo—the way you cared enough about a stranger to make his little gas station a permanent stop on your road trip just to give him a little sugar.

He can pretend to be that Bo for a while, if it means getting to feel your skin against his. The animal inside of him aches at the thought of you, splayed out across his bed, wearing nothing but that same smile you’ve got on your face right now.

“Yeah? I don’t know as I’d call Corey a friend.” The sourness of your tone shakes him loose of his own head, and he’s honestly glad to hear it—maybe if he can drive a wedge between you and those friends of yours, a week can turn into more. Maybe if he can keep the wool over your eyes long enough to get you to tell your friends to fuck off and not come back it won’t be so hard to make you stay once you know the truth. As long as you know that no one is coming to save you…

“How’d you meet that prick anyway?” He tries to sound casual—keep the murder out of his tone—but the mean smirk you shoot him tells him that it wasn’t lost on you, and that you liked it.

“College—meet a whole lot of people who don’t mean much to you there.”

College.

Of course you had to be a College Girl—too smart for him, and yet dumb enough to end up in his truck. You probably think he’s exactly the same kind of Hick Yokel Corey does—you’re just too fucking polite not to be offended by the dickwad saying it outloud.

Lester should have gone to college—he’s got the smarts for it—but after Good Ol’ Pa lost his medical license all his Doctor Money went quick. Sure, there was food on the table, but there wasn’t shit left for any of the boys to even think of a higher education.

He can’t help hating you for it—for the opportunity you had that his brother didn’t. His lip curls up at the thought of taking that from you.

“What’re you going for?” It’s a polite question on the surface, but more than that, he’s building the version of you that lives in his head—the one he’ll use to pick you apart and learn exactly how to hurt you—how to beat you down until you’ve got no fight left to try and run away from him.

You laugh. “I’m not anymore,” you confess, scratching the back of your neck awkwardly. “I was going for Psychology and Forensics, but I had a nervous breakdown when I realized I’d never be able to afford to actually finish my degree—I dropped out about a year ago.”

He swallows thickly—fuck—all the mean shit he’d been thinking dies flat in his chest like wasps drawn into an old glass of soda someone left out on the porch. “Forensics, huh? You into dead bodies or somethin’?”

You crack a grin at that, and he wishes he could digest the butterflies in his stomach. “I’ve always been fascinated with death,” you admit, and the way your fingers almost tremble with excitement unnerves him. “Have you ever held a human heart in your hands?”

He shouldn’t answer that.

He only cracks a grin, letting out an awkward chuckle that comes off as more of a scoff. “Can’t say I have.” It isn’t really a lie—he can’t exactly tell you about it now, can he? ‘Course, maybe it’s a story for later, the way this conversation is going.

“Sorry,” you shrink, and annoyance bobs in his throat. “I’m being weird—That’s not the kind of shit I should be saying to you when you’re taking a chance on letting me crash here.” He hates the thought of anyone making you feel like you need to crush down the sick enthusiasm that makes you so fucking fascinating to him.

“Nah, Girl—that sounds cool as hell.” He offers you a smile, gift wrapped by his twinkling eyes. “When have you held a heart?”

Other than his in this moment, that is.

“My forensics class attended an Autopsy my first year—one of my classmates passed out when the Pathologist offered to let us hold it,” you giggle, trying to stifle the sound. “The corpse suffered from an acute cardiomegaly—if I remember the terms right.” He shrugs—Dad wasn’t a doctor for long after he and Vincent came around, so it’s not like he picked up a whole lot of shop talk from the old man. “The heart was huge—I’ll never forget the way it felt to hold it in my hands.”

“Well you’re officially the coolest damn girl I’ve ever talked to.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in as he pulls off in front of the old house. “I like ‘em a little sick.”

He can’t help smiling at the way you laugh so openly—he’s almost excited by the prospect of letting you in on their little family secret. Either it’ll wipe that smile off of your face and show you what true horror really is, or—dare he hope—maybe, just maybe, you’ll fit right in after all.

“You wanna come inside?” He sucks his cheek between his teeth, trying to curb his enthusiasm as he looks you over—you’re looking at the house, and you don’t look comfortable.

Second thoughts, maybe?

What’s the matter, girl? Just now thinking about how stupid it was to come home with a strange man in a strange town?

“Yeah.” You nod. “Sorry, it’s just—I always feel awkward when I go into someone else’s house.”

He lets out a laugh that’s almost more of a snarl when he gets out of the truck, coming around the other side to help you out—he can be a gentleman when he wants to. “Good—nothin’ worse than houseguests who make themselves feel too at home.”

You grin when you take his hand, hopping down from the passenger seat. “Never heard that one before.” You’re a little off-balance when you land, and Bo takes the opportunity to help you steady yourself—pulling you into his chest like he’s not the one who tipped you over in the first place.

“Whoops, falling for me already?” He teases with a charming smile.

Your body against his—that’s what he’s waiting for. Gotta be patient though; he knows you want him too, and he wants to feel your hands run through his hair when he makes you see God.

“Sorry,” you squeak, a cute blush on your face as he allows you to sort yourself out. “Guess I kind of stumbled there.”

“No harm done,” he smiles as his hand finds the small of your back. “Come on, let’s get you inside.”

All the confidence he cultivated during the short ride to the house evaporates into thin air when you walk into his home—he hadn’t expected company, so the piles of laundry and dirty dishes are all still heaped up exactly as he’d left them.

Usually, he doesn’t even see the mess—it’s just home to him—but fuck if he isn’t hyper aware of it now. He doesn’t want to look at you; he doesn’t want to see the polite little smile people wear when they’re trying not to look disgusted.

“It’s uh—It’s laundry day tomorrow—I wasn’t really expecting to entertain,” he stammers, but when he finally hazards a peek at you, you’re not even looking at the mess—your eyes are fixed on a couple of wet specimens he’s got laying out on one of the end-tables.

At least a little of the tension leaves him when he sees how hard you’re trying not to make a beeline for them, and he can’t help thinking you’re damn cute.

Little fuckin’ weird—but you’re his kind of weird.

“Go ahead and check ‘em out.” His smile falls when you nearly trip over a pair of old barn boots that he just left right there in the middle of the damn floor. “Goddamn—I’m sorry—I should’a warned you this place is a hell of a mess.”

“No, Bo.” You turn to look at him—looking wide eyed and genuine. “Really—it doesn’t bother me a bit; not like I was expected.”

“Still, can’t be what you’re used to.” He awkwardly kicks the boots under the couch, hoping he remembers they’re under there when he goes looking for them again.

“Shit Bo, I grew up in a little trailer in the woods.” Your wide smile and the humor in your eyes makes him relax a little—you ain’t lyin’ to him. “Long as your back door is more than just some stapled up plastic and a blanket, and I’m not in danger of freezing to death in my sleep, this place may as well be a fuckin’ five star hotel.”

“Well, considerin’ it’s September in Louisiana, I don’t think ya gotta worry about freezin’.” He’s trying so hard not to look too excited—but knowing a little about how you grew up changes so much. He was so worried about you lookin’ at him like Redneck Trash, when the truth is that the shoe’s on the other foot. “But if you’re worried about it you can always cuddle up to me.”

Your fucking smile.

God help him.

Your fingers brush his, and he lets you lace your hands together—anything to keep you leaning into him the way you are right now. “I might have to take you up on that.”

Taking your hands with him, his thumbs come up to brush against your cheeks—he could look at your face like this forever—and he’s doing his damnedest to commit the adoring look in your eyes to memory.

For all he knows, his secrets could be out any second, and you may never look at him like this again.

He can’t remember if anyone ever has.

“Are you gonna kiss me?” There you go again, dragging him out of his thoughts when his mind starts drifting off to darker places.

“Oh, is that what you’re waiting for?” He teases, watching your eyes close as he leans in, but stopping just short of giving you what you want with a petulant grin on his face. “Maybe I will—if you ask me real nice.”

His lips ghost against yours as he speaks, and he relishes the look of amused frustration on your face when it registers that he’s not kissing you yet.

“Please Bo,” you indulge him, batting your eyelashes all pretty. “Please kiss me.”

He can practically feel the beast in his rib cage clawing at him, a soft growl nestled in his throat—spurring him on even as he wants to bask in the moment.

There’s no use denying it any longer—your breath against his lips is too intoxicating to resist—if he had wanted to tease you further, his plans are ruined, but he can’t find it in him to be irritated when the softness of your lips meets his, and the taste of your chapstick floods his senses.

Your fingers slip from his, coming to rest against his chest as his own hands weave into your hair, holding you tight against him as his lips move against yours like a man starved.

When was the last time he felt wanted?

He doesn’t care if it’s all fake. He doesn’t care if tomorrow you look at him like the monster he is.

At least for now, you’re clinging to him, snaking your arms around his neck like there’s any chance of him letting you go.

He’s startled by a harsh tap against the bottom of his boot, and a growl of genuine frustration cuts through his chest when you pull back with concern in your eyes.

“Something wrong?”

“Not a damn thing’s wrong at all.” He knows his voice is a little too loud when you tense—but it’s not you he’s really talking to.

He’d have given Vincent a little warning if he knew you’d be coming up, but fuck, he didn’t have the luxury of advanced notice.

He pulls you close again, his fingertips ghosting your arm in a way that makes you shiver deliciously as he leans into your ear. “Do you wanna go upstairs?”

“Yes,” you hiss, whimpering softly when his teeth catch your earlobe.

Your face falls when he pulls away from you, but the excitement quickly floods you when you see the damn near feral grin on Bo’s face. “Well go on then—” he gives your ass a sneaky pinch, making you yelp. “Git!”

He gives you all of three seconds to start running up the stairs—your manic laughter is music to his ears as he chases you. You’ve got no idea where you’re going, but it doesn’t matter. He’s faster than you, and he’s quick to scoop you into his arms and sling you over his shoulder.

It’s fun when you beat against his back—for once, he can tell it’s not in earnest—you’re laughing and smiling and having every bit as much fun as he is, and that feels good for a change.

He slaps you on the ass—hard—before he kicks open his bedroom door.

“BO!” You shout.

“Bo!” He mimics as he tosses you onto the unmade bed.

For a split second, the worry that it might smell crosses his mind, but that’s quickly dashed when in the same second you’re ripping your shirt off and hurling it at his face.

He’s on you in an instant—burying his face in your tits as you’re left in your shorts and push-up bra.

Like you fuckin’ need the damn thing—save some titty for everyone else, will ya?

He doesn’t care if your lips bruise—he kisses you hard as his hands go up your back to unhook your bra.

God fuckin’ damn it—you’re too good—arching your back all pretty to make it easier for him.

Dirty whore; you know exactly what you want from him.

Your bra goes flying across his room the second he pulls it off of you, and he’s grinning wildly at the sight of your naked tits.

“Like what you see?”

“I’m more of a hands on kind of guy.” His big hands envelope your breasts, and he can’t resist kneading them—god damn his pants are gettin’ tight.

“Me too,” you croon, and he chuckles when he feels you fumbling with his belt.

“Need a little help?” He leans back, grabbing your wrist and forcing your hand to cup the growing bulge in his pants.

He knows you’re impressed, and he relishes the quick flicker of concern in your eyes before you lick your lips and it gives way to lust.

He growls softly when you sit up on your heels, but he doesn’t stop you from unbuckling his belt and working his pants down his hips while he whips his shirts off to join the heaps of laundry on his bedroom floor.

And he definitely doesn’t stop you when he feels your tongue slide up the shaft of his cock from base to tip before you take him into your warm, wet, mouth.

“Fuck, girl,” he hisses, grabbing a fistful of your hair to pull you back and make you look at him, the head of his cock still bobbing against your lips. “Ain’t you an enthusiastic little thing?”

“It’s been a while,” you whine, kitten-licking his cock without breaking eye contact. “And I’ve been wanting you for a while.”

The quiet laugh he lets out is almost triumphant as he forces you to bob your head up and down on his cock. “Well damn, baby—you could’a just asked.” He growls when he feels you moan around his cock, one of your sneaky little hands moving to caress his balls. “Hurts my feelin’s a little knowin’ we could’a been doin’ this right along.”

You moan again as your response, and he shoves you further down on his cock as punishment, but fuck you take it like a champ. “Quit that, or I’m gonna bust before I get to feel that perfect little pussy quiverin’ around me.”

He relishes the way your thighs tense at his words, no doubt hoping to create a little friction. God he loves how responsive you are for him.

He yanks you off of his cock with a wet ‘Pop’, forcing you to look him in the eye when he thrusts a hand into your little denim shorts, his rough fingers finding your clit with startling ease.

“Bo!” You whine.

“Bo!” He whines back, rubbing you almost hard enough to tip the scale from pleasure to pain, but only straddling the edge.

He kisses you again, the hand wound into your hair keeping you right where he wants you as his teeth sink into your bottom lip. He almost wants to know what you’d do if he bit a little harder—hard enough to make you bleed for him—but for now your wanton mewls are enough.

Especially when you wrap your hand around his cock.

“Bo,” you beg, looking at him with pleading eyes. “I want you to fuck me, Bo.”

You whine when he slips his fingers easily into you, and he can’t help but groan at the fact that you’re already so wet for him—a perfect little slut for him, ready to be used.

“Say it nice,” he growls, pushing you back into his pillows. His hand comes up to squeeze your cheeks, watching your lips squish as he mocks you. “Pretty please, Bo.”

“Pretty please,” you beg—so sweet—as his hand slips around your throat. “Pretty Please fuck me.”

Wriggling your hips with his hand around your throat—fuck—but you are a nasty little whore.

His nasty little whore.

You gasp, sucking in a ragged breath when he lets you go—but it’s only for the moment—just long enough for him to hook the waistband of your shorts and panties to yank them both off in one desperate motion.

Desperate?

That’s how you make him feel.

It’s been a long time since he’s wanted to fuck someone so bad that it hurt.

He doesn’t give you any time to prepare—he hears you yelp when he impales you on his cock, but your little whimpers only spur him on, and soon his hand is back around your pretty throat as he’s rutting into you like the wild animal snarling and throwing itself against the inside of his body, like it will burst free of its prison if he doesn’t take it all out on you and your all too willing body.

It’s so sweet the way you try to moan without air, and he nearly fucking busts when the corners of your mouth turn up into a sick smile even as your eyes begin to roll back.

It would be so easy—all he’d have to do is choke you just a little longer and you’d be out cold—but he wants you awake—he wants you alive—so he lets go just in time to keep you conscious.

“Hey Sugarbabe,” he rasps, patting your cheek to keep your attention as he watches your world spin. “Stay with me now—wanna feel you cum around my cock.”

Your tits jiggle with his every thrust, and he’s not sure where to fucking look when your hand comes up to rub your clit, a downright devilish look on your face as your walls start squeezing around him.

“Fuck, Girl,” he grunts, burying his face in the crook of your neck to pepper little nips and kisses to the sweet skin there. “Keep fuckin’ doing that.”

You do, and soon enough he feels your pussy squeezing so hard on his cock it feels like it’s trying to suck him in. “Godfuckdamn.”

He fucks you harder, slamming his hips into yours as he grabs your wrists and pushes them violently into the mattress above your head as you scream his name. Your scream turns into a howl of pain when his teeth find your shoulder, and he can’t find it in him to care when he hears the sick pop of your flesh breaking, and he tastes iron on his tongue.

He’s buried deep inside you when he cums, and your greedy little cunt is milking him for all he’s got. The image of a little Him runnin’ ‘round Ambrose with his hand in yours flashes through his mind, and he thinks that’d be one way to keep you here, but he’s too gone to put much thought into anything right now—aside from collapsing overtop of you with his still-semi-hard cock buried within your twitching pussy.

“Fuck Bo.” Your voice is breathy—almost a laugh—and he leans up to follow your gaze to the bleeding impression his teeth left in your shoulder.

Honestly, he doesn’t give a fuck—if anything, he’s thrilled to leave such an obvious mark on you, but the way you have the nerve to grin at him makes his treacherous heart flutter. “That was intense.”

He pets your hair as he grins down at you, giving your throat just a light tease of a squeeze. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”

“I wasn’t.”

Fuck.

Your arms snake around his shoulders—resting tenderly around him as you press a sweet kiss to the corner of his mouth. He can still taste your blood. “You keep fucking me like that, Bo, and I’m not gonna want to go when the week is up.”

It almost hurts, the way you’re smiling so sweetly at him, the way you touch him so soft even after he left you bloody and gasping for air. He doesn’t trust himself to hope, but he’s in too deep to ever consider letting you go.

He can only hope you still look at him like that after the lies all fall down around your feet.

#Bo Sinclair #bo sinclair x female reader #bo sinclair x you #bo sinclair x reader #house of wax (2005) #house of wax 2005 #dymetynttts #fanfic #bo sinclair fanfic #mypost

[thornybubbles]

Jotaro Yandere Alphabet (Incomplete)

I filled some of this out a while back, but didn't post it because I never finished it. I decided to go ahead and post what I have to tide my followers over while I work on my other projects. So enjoy what I have. I may actually finish the rest of this at a later date. Be aware that it's in bits and pieces right now as I skipped over some entries.

Original alphabet found here.

Reader Beware! Dark content ahead! Yandere behavior and Jotaro being a big meanie because you won't just shut up and love him...

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

Hey, this is Jotaro we’re talking about. He’ll get as messy as he needs to in order to keep you by his side. Though, he doesn’t want you to be afraid of him, so if he needs to resort to violence, he does so when you aren’t looking. If he feels he needs to get rid of someone then he’ll most likely do it the sneaky and (mostly) non-violent way. Do you have a teacher that keeps giving you a hard time? He’ll corner her after school and “convince” her to back off. The next day, that teacher won’t show up for class. She never comes back to class. Jotaro’s scared her so badly that she not only packed up her things and moved out of town, but she never took a teaching job again. That one guy that’s always trying to get a date with you? He’ll suddenly end up suspended from school due to “suspicious objects” found in his locker. 

Murder is a last resort for Jotaro. As violent as he can be, he doesn’t want to have to kill someone just to get a point across. That doesn’t mean that he won’t, though. Don’t ever make the mistake of assuming that he won't take a life to have you all to himself. As said before, he doesn’t want you to be afraid of him or hate him. If he feels that he has no choice but to resort to killing someone, he’ll do it in a way that leaves no evidence. That’s where Star Platinum comes in. The Stand is more than happy to remove another pest from his user’s life. Due to Star Platinum’s limited range, Jotaro will still have to be careful, but rest assured the pest will be dealt with in a way that leaves no evidence. The authorities will blame an animal attack or a freak accident. Murder won’t even cross their minds as nothing human could mess someone up that badly. 

The only time that Jotaro will resort to taking a life right in front of you is if someone puts you in danger. If someone puts their hands on you with intent to harm you, Jotaro will have Star Platinum reduce them to a stain on the sidewalk. No one hurts you and lives. No one. 

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

Jotaro would only abduct you if he thought it was the only option. Most likely it was because you were hurt or almost killed. He knows it looks bad but if it keeps you safe then it’s absolutely the right thing to do. You don’t have to do anything. Just relax and let him take care of everything. It’s for your own good. All you have to do is love him back. That’s the only requirement, and it is required.

Jotaro will only be cruel if he thinks you’re being cruel to him first. One thing that you could do to set off his cruel side is to start acting like a total bitch. If Jotaro falls for you, it’s because he views you as a genuinely decent person. If you start trying to manipulate him, insult him, snap at him for no reason, or take advantage of his kindness towards you, then you’ll break the illusion of the kind of person that he thought you were. After all the work he put into getting you, after all the risks he took, after all the careful plans he laid, if you turn out to be a horrible person, he’ll realize that you were a waste of time and it will bring out the very worst in Jotaro. Being mocked will be the least of your worries.

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

Abduction isn’t really a part of Jotaro’s plan. It’s another last resort he doesn’t want to have to go to unless he feels that your life is in real danger. It’s not what Jotaro wants, but it isn’t completely off the table. Aside from keeping you safe, abduction may come to Jotaro’s mind if you keep rejecting him. It would be an act of desperation, but Jotaro figures that it may be outside influences that are causing you to reject him. If he separates you from those influences, then maybe you’ll realize that you were meant to be his from the beginning. 

How Jotaro treats you is dependent on how you act around him. As mentioned before, if he feels that you are being cruel to him, he’ll punish you accordingly. Especially if you push him away. He’ll isolate you until you start behaving how he wants you to. 

If we’re talking about forcing himself on you… No. Never. Jotaro would never do that to you. He wants the love he has for you to be mutual. If you don’t want him the way he wants you, then it’s a turn off for him. He may be twistedly obsessive and possessive of you, but even he has lines that he won’t cross. 

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

As stated before, it takes a long time before Jotaro can fully open up to you. It’s a slow, delicate process, but once Jotaro feels he can trust you, he’ll tell you almost everything. He’ll tell you about being a Stand user, about DIO and the trip to Egypt to save his mother, and about the crazy history of his family. He’ll eventually bring himself to tell you how he really feels about you and how he’d like for you to be together as a couple. Confessing to you will be like pulling teeth for Jotaro; painful. He doesn’t want to be vulnerable in front of you for fear that you’ll think he’s weak. He’ll get frustrated, embarrassed, and stumble over his words, but once he gets his feelings across he’ll feel a lot better. If you accept him, he’ll be over the moon. It will be the first time you ever see him smile. 

Reject him however, and it will devastate him. He won’t show it though, and he’ll act as though it doesn’t bother him, but that’s only because he has no plans to give up on you. If the direct approach didn’t work on you, then he’ll have to try something a little more devious. Maybe if he saved you from some thugs, then you’d realize just how much you need him in your life. It shouldn’t be too hard to set something like that up…

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

Jotaro can be patient when he needs to, but you fighting him will cause any patience he has to run completely out. He won’t hit you back, but he will have Star Platinum restrain you until you calm down. If you start screaming he’ll gag you until you get quiet again. If that doesn’t work, he’ll tie you up and shove you into a closet until you stop acting like a spoiled toddler having a tantrum. If you calm down, he’ll take you out of the closet and take the gag out of your mouth. He’ll leave you tied up though, until you can prove to him that you aren’t going to lash out anymore. Do it again and he’ll put you in isolation until you can learn to act more civilized around him. He has little tolerance for bullshit. 

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

Jotaro wouldn’t enjoy it at all. He’s in no mood for games when it comes to his relationship with you. If you try to escape him, he’ll chase you down with frightening relentlessness and when he finally catches up to he’ll demand to know why you’re running from him. What did he do to make you fear him? And you better word your answers very carefully, Darling. Jotaro may be a stoic delinquent type but his heart is fragile when it comes to you. If you break his heart, he’ll retaliate with anger. 

He never wanted to have to abduct you, but if that’s what it takes to keep you with him, then he’ll lock you up and throw away the key. He hopes you really like his house because it’s interior is gonna be the only thing you see for a very long time. Jotaro has to make you understand that you belong to him. It’s not up for debate. 

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

That all depends on you. How Jotaro treats you depends on how you treat him. Love him and you’ll (almost) never see his yandere side. Your relationship will be mostly normal (minus all the things Jotaro keeps hidden from you: like how he threatens your boss to give you a raise, or how he secretly follows you to the store to make sure nobody messes with you). 

The problems start only if you do anything to disrupt Jotaro’s sense of having a normal relationship with you. If you become aware of his possessiveness and confront him on it, he’ll deny it. He’ll act like he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. If you keep pressing him on the matter, he’ll get angry. Just let him love you and return his love! He’s never asked you for anything else, so why are you complaining? So what if he gave that delivery man a black eye? The bastard had it coming with the way he kept looking at you. No, he is not overreacting!

As long as you play your part as his lover everything will be fine. But cross him and he’ll put you through something that will make Hell seem like a vacation getaway.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

One of the main reasons that Jotaro fell for you is that you give him a sense of normality. It’s something he took for granted before becoming a Stand user. Not that he’s ungrateful for having Star Platinum and the power his Stand gives him, but having your life be turned into a constant battle for survival gets really old after a while. The stress of always wondering when another enemy Stand user will find him and want to fight to the death starts to take a toll on his sanity. Jotaro is more than a little sick of all the bizarre bullshit that keeps popping up in his life and he’d give anything if he could go back to a time when studying for exams, his mom embarrassing him, trying to ignore horny fangirls, and dealing with bullies was the worst he’d ever have to deal with. 

Jotaro feels grounded again when he’s with you. He can come home and relax in your arms and just let the stress of the day flow out of him and disappear. He’ll listen to you ramble on about your day with the smallest of smiles. (Blink and you’ll miss it.) You can talk about the most boring, mundane things and he’ll be fine with it. You’ve become almost like a drug for Jotaro and he hates how weak it makes him feel. It doesn’t stop him from coming back to you though. He’ll be the first to admit that he’s addicted. 

All Jotaro wants is to grow old with you. He won’t cage you or control you. He’ll even let you have friends… just as long as none of it gets in the way of you being with him. He’s fairly lenient for a yandere (at least as far as you know). Just as long as you agree to be his and live happily with him, there won’t be any problems. 

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

You’re walking on thin ice if you manage to make Jotaro jealous because he doesn’t cope well with it at all. He won’t stop you from having friends as that only adds to the sense or normality he has with you, but if he feels that certain interactions with one or more of your friends becomes a little too friendly, he won’t hesitate to intervene. After a while, that friend that you kept having to remind that you were in a relationship will suddenly stop hanging around you so much. It will get to the point that you hardly see them at all. You are relieved, thinking that they finally got the point that you weren’t interested. The truth is that Jotaro got them alone, broke their arm, and promised them even more pain if they didn’t stay the hell away from you. He also made them understand that if they didn’t leave you alone, he’d do worse than just break some bones. 

But if it’s you that’s getting too friendly, that’s a different matter. Now you’re playing a dangerous game, Darling. If you rouse Jotaro’s suspicions, he’ll follow you in secret to make sure that there isn’t anything shady going on. If he actually catches you cheating on him… he’ll snap. He wasn’t stable to begin with and you just snatched the rug out from under him. He has no choice but to fall, and he’s taking you with him. He’ll have Star Platinum tear your lover to pieces. Your lover got off easy. He’ll take you far away from everything and everyone you know to a secret place that is only known to him. Once there, he’ll lock you away until he can calm himself down. He’ll kill you if he isn’t careful, and death is too kind of a punishment. Once he’s calm enough, he’ll have Star Platinum remove your arms and legs. You won’t die. He’ll make sure of that. You will suffer though. Now you have no choice but to rely on him. You can’t cheat on him now can you? No one else will want you now that you’ve been reduced to a sobbing paperweight. But that’s okay. You have him and he’s all you’ll ever need. 

Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?

After becoming your boyfriend, Jotaro will seem as standoffish as always. As your relationship progresses, he will start feeling less embarrassed about public displays of affection and be more comfortable putting an arm around your shoulder as you sit together at lunch. After you have been together awhile, Jotaro will loosen up even more. He’s never been the romantic type so don’t expect any poetry or grand gestures. He’ll buy you stuff sometimes and take you to dinner at a quiet restaurant where the two of you can just talk and chill. 

Jotaro is kind of like a cat that is content to just be in the room with you. Sometimes he’ll wander into the room, sit down next to you, and open a book and start reading, all without saying a word. If you speak to him, he’ll respond, but in a quiet, calm tone. 

His favorite thing to do is to just lie partially on top of you while you’re on the couch with his head tucked under your chin while you run your fingers through his hair. Bonus points if you just ramble on about whatever mundane thing that comes to your mind. You grumble about a hard day at work, make fun of how dumb the new intern is, mention a few things that need to be added to the grocery list, talk about a new movie that looked like it might be good, or rant about your boss being a jerk (he’d take care of that later). Your voice is so calming to him that he ends up dozing off once or twice before he decides to sit up and turn on the TV and pull you close to him. It’s moments like this that make Jotaro feel normal again. He doesn’t have to think about poorly dressed vampires, enemy Stand users, or hand-crazy serial killers when he’s with you. 

Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

By being reliable. It would start subtly. He would always seem to come to your rescue whenever you needed help with anything. Locker stuck? He’d appear out of the crowd in the halls, knock his knuckles against your locker and unjamming the door, then disappear back into the crowd without saying a word. Lose your pencil? You’ll have one suddenly tossed into your lap during class. When you look up you’ll see Jotaro give you a quick look before he goes back to staring out of the window. Forget your lunch? He’s got you covered. You can share some of his. He’ll grumble that his mom always makes too much and it ends up going to waste anyway. 

This will continue even after you two are adults and out of high school. Eventually, you’ll get to the point where you wonder how you ever survived without JoJo. This is exactly what Jotaro was hoping for.

Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

Jotaro believes that the punishment should fit the crime. How he punishes you depends on what you did to set him off. 

 Try to manipulate or control him, you’ll find yourself being the one manipulated and controlled. He’ll gaslight you and start making decisions for you without consulting you. He’ll have you constantly second guessing your every decision and even doubting your sanity. It won’t be long before he has total control in the relationship and any free will you had will be a distant memory. 

Be mean to him and Jotaro will be twice as mean to you. Any insults you toss his way will be met with the coldest glare that Jotaro has to offer, followed by the cruelest thing he could possibly say to you. Jotaro already knows about all your insecurities and embarrassing secrets. Be nasty to him and he’ll throw all of it into your face. He’ll shame you, degrade you, and make you feel utterly worthless. He’ll have you in tears with one conversation and he’ll have you believing you deserved it. He’ll destroy your self esteem and feel no remorse for it. You deserve it for being such a bitch. 

If Jotaro suspects that you’re only with him for his money, he’ll cut you off without hesitation. No more expensive clothes, no more elaborate trips, no more jewelry, no more indulging in overpriced hobbies. If you want something, you can get it yourself. And if you have the gall to whine to him about it, he’ll look you full in the face and tell you that he’s not your personal piggy bank. You can either stop being a lazy bitch and get a job or….. 

… if you really want him to be your sugar daddy so badly, then you’re gonna have to earn it. Prove your love to him and he’ll think about getting you that new car, but you better make it damn convincing. Jotaro is nobody’s simp. 

One of the worst things you could do to set off Jotaro’s yandere side, is to push him away when he wants your affection. If you simply need some personal space, Jotaro will understand and respect that, but if you shove him away for no reason but to play with his emotions, then you have really crossed a line. Jotaro will snatch you up and put you in a place where you can be alone for as long as you want. (More like as long as he wants.) If you despise his presence that much, then he will deprive you of it, and everyone else's too. You obviously need to be reminded of how much he used to mean to you, so he figures that a few months in total isolation will help jog your memory. He’ll leave you there for as long as he deems necessary. You’ll have food, water, and something to keep yourself entertained, but you’ll have no contact with any other living soul and no possible way to escape. When Jotaro feels that enough time has passed, he’ll come and get you. If you still reject his affections, then another month or two of isolation should do the trick. If not, make it a year, two years, three… however long it takes to have you begging for his love. Jotaro is not the type to open up to others very easily. Emotions are tricky things and he has a hard time showing how he feels. It took a long time before he was willing to make himself vulnerable to you enough to tell you how he feels. To have you cruelly reject him after he bore his soul to you would destroy him. 

In short, break Jotaro’s heart and he’ll break your mind. He’ll do whatever it takes to mold you back into the person he fell in love with, even if that means he has to turn into a deplorable asshole. Jotaro never said he was a nice guy. He’s a lucid yandere and very aware that he’s the bad guy in this situation, but he doesn’t care. Not after the way you treated him. Cry and beg all you want. He won't show you any mercy until  you can prove that you deserve it. 

NOTE: If you really want to press your luck with Jotaro, making him jealous is the way to go. But be warned, nothing in this world can save you if you actually cheat on him.

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #yandere jotaro #yandere jojo #yandere alphabet #jojos bizzare adventure x reader #yandere jojo's bizarre adventure #yandere jjba #jojo x reader #jjba x reader #reader insert #jojo no kimyou na bouken #yandere jotaro x reader #yandere jotaro kujo x reader #yandere jojo x reader #yandere jjba x reader

[dankovskaya]

@exhausted-pigeon

Tried to respond briefly and it ended up not being brief so I'm putting it down here 👇

I don't really have a static thoroughly defined answer for this because it's hard to change the plot to reduce the extremity of classism without completely throwing out. Well. Practically everything before the final confrontation? And I also don’t feel like rereading it to try and work it out with specific details rn LOL. But the simplest answer I think would be to take a hint from Red Hood: The Lost Days with the relatively more sympathetic conceptualization of Jason's murder-morals and reframe the entire event as not like. A violent seizure of control of organized crime nor as a systematic execution of nearly everyone involved but more of a. Hm. Pruning of very specific very vile people who cause a lot of material harm but are unlikely to face significant consequences for that? This would take his focus off of well. specifically targeting the communities he is allegedly attempting to protect and spread his removal of the corrupt and abusive etc across all sectors I suppose which ironically would put a lot more heat on him.

Now I think it would also be important that he isn't too "justified" in who he goes after, his perception of what is and isn't unforgivable would be heavily heavily influenced by his own experiences (fundamentally Red Hood’s motivations are self-centered) and he would have a hypocritical tolerance towards "necessary" casualties in service of the "greater good" of getting rid of a nasty guy (sort of as representative of the fact that his wanton "death penalty" is going to end up hurting people who don't remotely deserve it basically no matter what, what does it mean to "deserve" death and is anything truly unforgivable etc.) It's VITAL to me at least that his judgment is both decisive and clearly clouded here and he absolutely does have to kill some people who most would agree probably Didn't deserve it and inadvertently make some situations worse/cause unexpected harm through the consequences of killing a particular someone because overall he is still just participating in the cycle of Crime and Death and Destruction. Like. He knows that no one individual can "stop crime" so he's not trying to do that, but I imagine he's getting too caught up in separating out and punishing "unforgivable" crimes (as a very very unhealthy and destructive emotional catharsis that doesn't work very well and is probably definitely making him worse) that things that would ACTUALLY help the people he is so conceptually emotionally invested in are lost on him and will continue to be until he addresses his own death and accepts he is alive and finds a way to stop approaching the things that upset him through the lens he is most familiar with which is of course. Vigilantism.

He can still involve himself in organized crime to a degree for monitoring purposes without wrenching control of it and he can still definitely go after Black Mask as a caricature of a horrible deranged hyperviolent mob boss (I imagine he can still fuck with his operation somewhat to throw him out of whack before he kills him, and at this point Bruce would probably be actively hindering Jason’s efforts anyway) to retain those aspects of the storyline as well as everything regarding the Joker but yeah I don’t have much of anything more specific to say than that.

Bruce is an entirely different beast that would need a whole nother post of his own because he is written so horrifically in that storyline that it’s hard to even figure out a way to redeem his characterization and have most of the story still take place BUT Jason is a stubborn bitch who rejects any and all help at this point so the basic fact that he would be unwilling to compromise on the murder issue for the time being even if Bruce has reached out with the absolute best intentions remains true and thus the outcome being a lack of reconciliation and and Jason remaining a rogue and Deeply Fucked Individual can still easily be retained. In my opinion. THOUGH I do think that having ultimately “failed” and lost to Bruce in the end would have him at least lightly reconsidering things after he um. Recovers. From the ordeal. So in my mind he would probably bounce back a little less extreme rather than more so and probably a little more willing to engage with individual people and communities Directly rather than holding them in his mind as an idealized concept that needs protecting? I guess? But he’s still a cunt this must never be forgotten.

Ok wow um. My bad for going overboard here. I haven’t talked about Jason for a while so it all kind of came out at once LOL.

#Luckily for my personal purposes in regards to my oc it literally does not matter what actually happened during utrh #just that some variation of it occurred in the near past 😭 #dc

[storyweaverofgondor]

I can't pay you, but I would listen very intently if you wanted to rant about the MCU!

Well, since you asked! TBH I actually have several main issues.

First, do you know the queen song Another one bite the dust? That is basically the theme for these movie now. They have gotten downright murder happy because (Second issue) the plots of every movie after endgame are exactly the same. They can’t elicit an emotional reaction from the story anymore so they murder a beloved character for emotion points. The plots of recent marvel movies is nothing more than a cinematic hallucination. Once you realize there isn’t anything of substance there you can’t unsee it. I mean, half the characters and all the sets are CGI, so even they aren’t real! If the characters didn’t work themselves to the bone to look ‘hot’ (Which i personally consider debatable. But this isn’t a rant about societal bs beauty standards) then wore tight clothes with an occasional teasing bit of nudity no one would be interested. i suspect you’d get better plots from a bad prono. (and i say that as a sex-replused aroace. So you know how little the recent films have been impressing me if I’m going “I bet a porno would be better.”)

Third, character development. There isn’t any. They have an interesting character? they either reduce them to a flat one note painfully obvious ‘archetype’ or repeat the original character arc or take the easy route of making them evil. Look at the himbo-fication of Thor. If that character had been handled well he’d have realized that he’d been borderline abusive/extremely emotionally neglectful of Loki for years, realized his mistakes, learned to value people different from him and have grown into a character that taught people how to move on from their mistakes. Instead he’s been turned into a blameless human shaped golden retriever who has everyone he cares about graphically murdered in front of him and gets mocked for having a full on mental breakdown.  Look at Loki and Scarlet Witch. Instead of addressing their trauma (Loki found out he was the thing his entire race was violently racist towards and had a mental breakdown, attempted suicide and was tortured by Thanos before being made to lead an invasion. Wanda lost everyone she knew and loved in violently devastating ways) Do they get a natural progression to their characters? NO! Their original arc is in increasingly obvious disguises and they are reduced to one note cartoonish villains.

Four, the interconnectiveness of everything. Like . . . look this thing has been going on for so long some of the people watching it now weren’t even born when the first movies came out! and if you haven’t watched every single movie, show and one off toon ever made since Disney bought Marvel you have no idea what’s going on. You can’t just skip the movies you know you won’t like and just watch the ones you are actually interested in. YOU WON’T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE BLOODY THING IF YOU DON’T WATCH OVER A DECADE OF CONTENT! Now, this has been a raising theme when it comes to tv shows recently, where you have to start at the beginning otherwise you don’t understand it. It annoys me there too. But even Supernatural eventually had an end after fifteen years. The ‘Marval Cinematic Universe’ is going to keep going until doomsday and beyond without stopping. At this point i want someone to pay Disney to just let it stop. Like let it end. Have people talk about and make videos on youtube about ‘the Marvel Generation’ and how insane it was, spoken in past tense. I am a huge fan of the Neverending Story but this story needs to end. It is like a faniction that should have ended on chapter three but is on chapter 178 with no end in sight. The author doesn’t even know what’s going on anymore. Please just let it die while i still care about it enough to say “Aww, man! That’s a bummer.” Please god just make it stop already.

#marvel cinematic universe #rant post #ask #personal opinion #is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer #marvel #I personally love Loki. he's one of my favorite characters in general #and the original avengers movie is loads of fun #but it has gone so far past 'Look at how they butchered my boy' it's not even really memeible #also there's the whole force you to get disney+ in order to watch the shows that are only available through that one streaming survice #which is just a whole blatant manipulation #which i can't abide #I don't respond favorably to peer pressure #i will sooner cut off contact than play into any sort of guilt tripping #if i can't get it on DVD I'm not watching marvel tv shows #sorry not sorry #You did ask for a rant #I could go on #but then i'd get as repetitive as a marvel movie #and i at least know when to stop

[bigshotautos]

need to ramble again. reaching brain capacity and gotta dump the excess. thinking about a jevil and spamton relationship progression, as i Often Do

its kind of hard to put into punchy comics like i do how their relationship would look like since i err on the Silly Side, but there’s a lot of potential for character growth and change with these two. you’ve got two characters who’re both a little ‘off’, enough to have trouble making personal connections and the corrupting force that changed both of them was aware of their susceptibility at least on some level. two people without a solid support network, who’ve both lacked a solid support network when things in their life went to shit. they have a lot in common! granted, a lot of things on jevil’s side are speculation, but with the little we’re given there’s enough to make inferences. 

the idea of them coming to be support for each other means a lot to me, especially considering what that’d have to mean for their characters. both of them have pretty huge egos, but jevil’s is the biggest roadblock in making a meaningful personal connection. spamton’s already ‘failed’ in his goals of surpassing his role as a darkner, let alone surpassing his role as video game character. jevil, on the other hand, doesn’t see anything wrong with his worldview and is pretty comfortable in the way he exists with the world as a big game. his worldview wasn’t contradicted or threatened by their fight with Kris & gang, even though he’s been reduced to an item to be used by Darkners (enforcing his ‘rightful’ place in the world being in service to Lightners). them coming together and spamton unlearning his antagonism towards jevil, and jevil likewise coming to feel like there’s more value to the world than seeing what happens when you throw it in a blender, is really something special to think about!

i feel like both of them would struggle hard with being vulnerable. spamton, because he thinks about himself first and foremost (plus KILLER abandonment issues) and that’d be hard for him to unlearn, and jevil because he absolutely CANNOT be vulnerable or that’d go against the ‘role’ he’s constructed for himself as a Funny Murder Clown Who Sees Through The Game World. spamton wouldn’t trust jevil much at first because He’s Jevil and doesn’t do things without an ulterior motive, and jevil wouldn’t see spamton as anything but an entertaining little angry voice line generator for a good while. but considering how isolated both of them have been and how much they actually want companionship, they can actually start to see that they aren’t that dissimilar and fundamentally, are both just pretty fucked up by the same thing.

could be a change where jevil decides one day that seeing spamton smile genuinely makes him Feel more than seeing him pissed off, seeing him afraid isn’t as fun as hearing him laugh. AND bonus points: jevil has felt extremely ‘alone’ in his worldview. spamton kind of gets it, but doesn’t get it in the ‘right’ way. being nice to him would be a way to endear him to his worldview of the world being just a fun game to be played. accidentally just so happens that he’s throwing qualifiers onto genuinely enjoying someone’s presence in a way that isn’t violent or antagonistic so that it doesn’t threaten his worldview.

so essentially what i’m saying is that jevil is pretty fucked up and does wild amounts of mental gymnastics to make the fact he’s gone through a lot of shit and suffered greatly ‘justified’, and a big deal of draw towards spamton at least initially would be not feeling alone anymore. coming to enjoy spamton’s presence enough to think ‘hey, we can be the TWO free people in the world, wouldn’t that be a hoot?’ and accidentally catching huge feelings for him while denying those huge feelings. and spamton would have a lot of conflicted emotions about coming to care for him too, probably denying the fact that he has feelings for JEVIL of all people and thinking it’s kind of pathetic since they were the first person to show him true friendship after All That in chapter 2 and he gets hit with such strong attachment.

lots of potential high drama shit! unfortunately i’m not a writer so all i can do are funny, silly comics and brain dumps like this. i just think with the general themes of deltarune and people growing and healing, i’d like that for them. aaand i think about got all the demons out of me now, so ty for reading this if you did LOL.

#tl dr of this is that i think jevil has so many problems but is being so fun and tragic about it #text #once their worldviews align more they become the first couple to be banned from every dave and busters in the country #thats what i want for them #taking a break from working on the comic... zzzz...

[k-s-morgan]

Hi! I've been in the Hannibal fandom for two years now. Rewatched the show many times and yet Will Graham still confuses me like no one else. Hannibal's design is complex but somewhat understandable after watching the show again again. But Will's design is like a loophole. He can empathise with the killers. That means he can understand them. If he can understand them then why does it feel good for him to kill them? How does it work for him exactly. Does he feel for the killers? If he felt for the killers then what about his violent tendencies towards them?

I've always thought that he is like a God. A God of the killers. The killers offer him their design and he takes sacrifice in return of understanding. But how does his psyche work exactly?

Hello! Oh yes, Will is a very confusing character - it’s his defining trait, and I think that’s because he lies to himself, to others, and to us as an audience. He wants one thing, wants to want another thing, does the third thing, and making sense of it is a complex process.

I think Will’s empathy is a big red herring. I agree with Freddie here: he understands killers because he’s one. He has an almost supernatural gift that helps him recreate the situations almost exactly as they happened. He understands what motivates killers, he might sympathize with them, but I think he might also envy them their freedom to be what they are. They are a reminder of what he is and what he can’t allow himself to have. But most importantly, they are a way for Will to find a compromise with himself and feel better about his true self. Killing bad people is an excuse to justify his darkness, but I don’t think it’s a part of his design per se. 

I agree with you that Will is like a God - he and Hannibal both are. That’s one of the things that separates them from others and elevates them above everyone else. Let’s make an overview of Will’s victims.

1) Hobbs. Hobbs was a monster and Will killed him. But it wasn’t about justice and righteousness, not according to him. Killing a person and feeling pleased that you saved someone versus liking the act of killing itself are drastically different things. Many police officers have to kill in their line of duty. Very few of them get off on the act of murder. Those who do are killers, and they are especially dangerous if they immediately try to follow it up with another murder. Will never once says he liked killing Hobbs because he made this world better. When asked, he says that he felt a sense of power. This is a motivation of many actual serial killers. If Will was just glad that he saved Abigail, he would know it's normal. He wouldn't have been almost on the verge of a break-down and haunted by Hobbs. So it’s not about helping others, it's about murder, even if the victim was a monster.

2) Stammets. Will had no reason to try to kill him (which he admits to doing). Based on his and Hannibal’s talk, he understands that he just wanted to feel what he felt after killing Hobbs, and this makes him panic. So again, no someone. He’s chasing the high of killing someone, and Stammets is the most appropriate victim. 

3) Ingram. On the surface, it looks like Will wanted to avenge Peter and himself by proxy, hence pulling the trigger on Ingram. However, after Hannibal manages to stop him, days later, Will complains about losing a chance to feel how he felt when killing Hobbs. Murder high is his main motivation again - everything else is background or an excuse, depending on your reading.    

4) Randall. Will threw away the gun on purpose to make the murder more intimate. This is not about justice and this is not about protecting himself because by doing this, he reduced his chances. Will also beat Randall up until he wasn't moving. There was no reason to snap his neck. Mutilation, cannibalism that followed, keeping his suit, admitting he enjoyed the murder and calling it his design - this is about murder and WIll’s love for it primarily. The design part is especially important: based on it, we can conclude that Will loves a performance just like Hannibal.  

4) Chiyoh and her prisoner who Will set up. Chiyoh was innocent and didn't deserve to die. Her prisoner might not have been guilty - in fact, Will was the one to suggest that, and yet Will still set him up. It was a game and he was an observer - he lied in waiting for Chiyoh’s scream. He then turned the body of a losing party into art. Very creepy and very like Hannibal.

5) Chilton. Will clearly explained his motivation: he wanted Chilton to pay just because he wanted to be famous and messed with Hannibal by writing his ridiculous book. Will showed no remorse and admitted he did it on purpose.

6) Police officers he set up to be killed by cooperating with Francis. The ones he stepped over without a second look. They were innocent and they were a collateral damage. Will is a cruel God who doesn’t bother with mere mortals as long as it fits his purpose. In this case, his purpose was freeing Hannibal. Everything else was still a blur in his mind. 

7) Francis. Enjoyed the murder, admired the blood, called the situation beautiful.

8) Bedelia. She's innocent in comparison to Will and his body count. If Will faced no repercussions and continued getting more and more people killed, she had every right to go free. But God doesn’t have to be fair, and Will proves it by targeting her. 

What does it all say about Will’s design and philosophy? Apart from Godlike attributes and indifference toward collateral damage, I think Will is led by his bloodlust - he just tends to control it and direct it at specific targets. 

Will might prefer to kill “bad people” in the first two seasons, but it’s the process of murder that excites him. So I see his righteous choices as a preference that helps him justify his dark nature partly, not the core reason for his violence. Hannibal seems to be moved by his interest in human nature and his hunter instinct, but Will, I think, is a truer killer because he actually feels drunk on murder. Unlike Hannibal, he looks downright euphoric when/after he kills Randall and Francis. In TWOTL, Hannibal is more focused on the fact that his dream came true and he and Will killed someone together, but Will seems primarily caught up in the murder after-shocks themselves. Hannibal thinks about Will, Will thinks about how beautiful blood looks under the moonlight.

So, post Fall, I believe that at first, Will will stick to killing bad people like murderers, but once some times passes, his need for justifications will fade. He’ll move on to rude people, only his rude will differ from Hannibal’s. Hannibal doesn’t differentiate between genders and ages, but I think Will will. He’s interested in a feeling of power, like he himself says, in a sense of dominance, so he’ll look forward to a fight. He won’t be interested in attacking a teenager like Cassie, for instance, because the power imbalance is too prominent. But as soon as someone more equal does something Will heavily dislikes, something that wakes his bloodlust (a personal insult, physical or verbal abuse toward other people/animals, etc.), he’ll attack. He’ll be careful - he knows how to avoid being caught, but it will still be unpredictable and passionate. Will is a storm to Hannibal’s calm.

Then there is unpredictability. Hannibal tends to plan everything methodically. The only times we see him being impulsive is in Europe, where he’s descending into self-destructive mode, so it’s not a norm for him. For Will, though? Will consists of unpredictability, and Hannibal is fascinated by it.I think Will is going to kill when an impulse strikes. For example, he might go shopping, without having any dark plans, and end up murdering someone because the circumstances pushed some unfortunate soul onto his path. Will might or might not display the body depending on his mood. Today he can be in an artistic mood, but tomorrow he’ll be in a violent and impatient one, wanting to destroy the body entirely and leaving a total mess behind.

How Will would prefer to kill? In my opinion, in an intimate way. It doesn’t mean he’ll be weaponless, but something like a knife would fit his tastes well. He’d be able to feel it plunge into his victim’s body, tearing through skin and muscles, etc. - personal and intimate. Akin to what he did with Francis - his feral half-snarl, the way he paused after stabbing him before opening him up - it was dark and mesmerizing. Will might get into strangling, too, because it takes a lot of time and it is even more intimate. It might end up being his favorite. So, I can see him using his hands or small weapons to fully sense what he’s doing to a victim. This is something that he has in common with Hannibal because from what we saw, Hannibal also enjoys more intimate and prolonged murders that give him a glimpse into a person’s pain and struggle for life.

#hannibal #hannigram #will graham #hannibal lecter #meta

[bananawanis]

look maybe i’ll be able to speak abt this eloquently someday but seeing people talk abt kepler and masculinity does make me laugh a little bc out of all the characters.. idk i’d say he actually doesn’t have a massive amount of that?

i’ve seen people say he does and, sure, when you think of a character who would usually fit into the role kepler’s in, you’d expect someone who’s the embodiment of “toxic masculinity” whose first solution to any problem is gonna be violence… but that’s not kepler. honestly, saying that is his character is reducing a few moments to the entirety of his character development, when he’s just as complex and layered as others. kepler isn’t murder-crazed or overly violent, he’s a diplomat above all. he knows how people work, how to work with them, what keeps them going, what makes them tick. we don’t see him resort to violence in canon when someone else hasn’t first. he treats everything like a game of chess, it’s all about strategising.

back to the actual point i was trying to make - the lack of any major gender influences on kepler as a character. it’s not an si5 specific thing, because maxwell and jacobi are definitely both influenced by typical gendered ideas. we have jacobi as a man having grown up in a military family, stereotypically “masculine” interests like explosions and engineering; maxwell going against the more traditional “feminine” ideals with her interests, and all that comes with being a woman interested in that (‘language mapping’, “…not just some girl who’s good at math”).

also with kepler… his whole thing is that his identity is very constructed (“the artist formerly known as warren kepler”, “you’ve met my job”) and, well, i mean… it’s not like gender or sexuality are things that he’s likely to focus on much (if at all) outside of… well, i think of it as kepler looking at gender and thinking “what offers me the best opportunities” and going from there. and given that his whole personal philosophy is that he’s given up being a person and this is a very personal thing to think about…

but those same stereotypical ideas aren’t necessarily there with kepler? like i said, maybe i’ll make this more eloquent sometime, but it’s definitely interesting to think about!

#wolf 359 #warren kepler #w359 #i think about kepler and gender a lot ok i have a whole lot of thoughts #i have a LOT of thoughts. #please talk to me abt kepler gender. i’m begging. i am begging.

[starlight111]

Sawa Nakamura and Aiko Tanaka: The Darkness of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

*Warning: Major Spoilers for Aku no Hana and Oyasumi Punpun.*

Trigger Warning: Abuse, Suicide

Nakamura and Aiko are two incredibly interesting and complex characters. On the surface, these two are vastly different, yet their roles in their respective manga are actually quite similar. Both characters primarily appear in the beginning and end of their works, with a prolonged absence in the middle. Their interactions with the protagonist become a major factor in his decisions, actions, and relationships. They shape the protagonist’s psyche, setting the tone of the entire manga. Aiko and Nakamura, even in absence, have a strong influence over the events and trajectory of the story. In fact, they are both responsible for beginning the protagonist’s psychological journey.

The very purpose of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is male character development. Typically, the MPDG enters the life of a male main character to inspire him and give him a new outlook on life. In Oyasumi Punpun and Aku no Hana, this trope is subverted and explored. In both manga, a damaged ‘Manic Pixie’ enters the life of the MC. They begin an idealized and toxic romance, which is tragically cut short by a betrayal. Instead of being inspired or enriched, the protagonist is sent into a mental spiral of despair, regret, and self loathing. In both stories, the event of betrayal is incredibly impactful to the main character. For Punpun, failing his promise of taking Aiko to Kagoshima was a strong source of shame, crippling his self esteem and enforcing the idea that he is ultimately a coward. For Kasuga, being pushed off the platform by Nakamura becomes a source of confusion and self doubt. He is plagued with the question of why she did this for years. As Punpun and Kasuga live without their respective love interests, they begin to wear rose colored glasses and their view of the past relationship becomes distorted. Enter idealization.

The absence of Aiko and Nakamura from their stories, and the unfortunate fact that we know so little about them as characters, ties into this theme of MPDG. While a facet of MPDG is “mystery”, it’s also notable because this speaks to the fact that they are not truly being seen by their protagonists. We don’t know about the character because that part is not considered “important”. That’s not their purpose in the story. Whether they are there or not makes little difference because their all consuming influence remains.

It’s important to remember that we are seeing these characters from the male character’s point of view. Thus, they are heavily idealized. Punpun views Aiko, not as a complete human being, not as the depressed and lonely abuse survivor she is, but as a goal for him to strive towards. She represents a mental hurdle for him: fulfilling his promise to her will relieve his immense guilt and prove once and for all that he is not a coward. This goal is more important to him than Aiko herself. After her death, he carries her body around and talks to her, which is very telling. It doesn’t matter if she hears him or reacts; she just has to be there.

As for Kasuga, his relationship to Nakamura is slightly different. He definitely possesses a semblance of understanding Nakamura and her pain, but their relationship still hinges on idealism and escapist fantasies, much like with Punpun and Aiko. Initially, Kasuga sees Nakamura as a release valve; someone to rebel with; she’s exciting and different. Eventually, Nakamura becomes someone for him to appease, with increasingly dangerous acts. He starts to see her as someone only he can understand, only he can help. In chapter one of Aku no Hana, Kasuga places his initial crush, Saeki, on a pedestal: “she is my muse, my femme fatale.” Later, in chapter 29, when Saeki states that Nakamura is “just another girl”, he reacts violently, restraining her and putting his hand over her mouth. He has gone full circle; from putting Saeki on a pedestal, to removing her from that pedestal and placing Nakamura on it. But by placing her on a pedestal, by reducing her to someone he can save, by allowing her to represent this ideal of rebellion and freedom, he fails to see the real Nakamura.

Of course, both of these relationships are ultimately toxic, dangerous, and power imbalanced. Aiko, viewing Punpun as a savior, uses him to escape her abusive home. Punpun takes out his rage on Aiko, who he grows to hate, seeing her as a badge of his failures and cowardice. He hits her, uses her for sex, berates her, and even fights violently with her in public. Eventually, after finally achieving his symbolic goal of taking her to Kagoshima, he attempts to murder her and then himself. Taking her to Kagoshima has been his goal, his all consuming fixation for so long, that once the goal is reached there is nothing left. Aiko is no longer needed.

For Kasuga and Nakamura, the power imbalance is in the other direction. Nakamura manipulates and forces Kasuga into a number of risky and criminal activities, even threatening or humiliating him when he fails to comply. Kasuga is blindly loyal to her, as “the only one who can save her”. They begin a sort of folie a deux, denouncing everyone else in their town as “brainwashed shit eaters”. This destructive relationship ends in a public double suicide attempt. In the end, after her long absence, Kasuga reunites with Nakamura. She has changed, both physically and mentally. When Kasuga questions her about those past actions, she simply rolls her eyes. She is not the same person who stood on the platform with him. The person he had been dreaming about and fixating on no longer exists.

Ultimately, Nakamura and Aiko were never truly understood. Both felt the loneliness of being relegated to a specific role, of being on a pedestal. After fulfilling their role to the protagonist, of providing his character development, they are no longer needed. Tragically, for Aiko this means death; in the face of choosing between being murdered at the hands of Punpun or being forced to live alone, she ends her life. As for Nakamura, thankfully she is able to move on and find peace in her solitude and her new life. Her last words to Kasuga are “Don’t come back again. You’re a normal person now.”

#aku no hana #flowers of evil #oyasumi punpun #meta #aiko tanaka #sawa nakamura

[templedragon]

Supergirl 6x18 Truth Or Consequences

Supergirl 6x18 Truth Or Consequences

The truth is, the queerbait and male domination continues. The consequence is, these showrunners and writers will be blacklisted in their future projects for the show and their behaviour online towards marginalised groups.

Lex, the cis white abled and now het (I'd previously assumed he was aroace as he showed no romantic or sexual feelings towards people) man gets his 31st century technology in nanobots, his romantic love declaration, the reciprocation of his feelings, his ability to predict everything the SuperFriends will do to have an advantage. This guy was murdered but sadly didn't stay dead in season 4. Instead, they have him kill a man of colour. Now, this man shouldn't have been introduced on the show at all in season 5 as the cast is already bloated and as such can't do justice to character development. His character could have been nice background but instead was violent towards his female boss, antagonistic to his female coworker as a guise, and replaced a transwoman as a journalist. That was last season. This season he's still a jerk to his boss and yet hasn't been fired, and for reasons we call male privilege has always been given instant access to secret places and relationships that Lena was denied for seasons. He gave lesbians proposal advice, gave a Pulitzer winning journalist work advice, gave a witch magic advice, and now is a baking baby sitter to a little girl. If he an Nia ever have a scene together it makes it more obvious that he stole her role. You know who he hasn't patronised with advice? J'onn or Brainy, the men. His journalistic integrty speech should have been Kara (or Nia as a backup) but they made her quit to suit him. Andrea has been reduced to being a bad boss to suit him. In killing him, it continues the show's harmful tradition of mistreating people of colour. He could have quit his job and opened a bakery in Britain. His death tarnished the happy moment of the bacherlorette party, so Andrea will feel guilty for using his name to publish Lex's journals, Kelly and Alex will feel guilty for having him babysit to have the party, Kara will feel guilty for having a night off, and Nia will feel guilty for not dreaming it coming. Again, the men in Brainy and J'onn won't feel guilty.

We still have the question of how Lena affords anything as she doesn't have a job and hasn't mentioned what part of the family estate she salvaged, and why her rich friends actually want to know her when she's not rich. We also have to factor in what's different about her Earth Prime friends compared to her Earth-38 ones as the latter were pretty sketchy. At the party, Lena has a longing look at the happy dancing couple which is immediately paralleled with Brainy believing he can't be with Nia as he has to travel to the future to heal the big brain. This... isn't how time travel works for me, as you go whenever and arrive when you need to, and the show has mistimed jumps before without ruining the space time continuum. This means there's only two happy couples will reach the finale - Nyxly and Lex, and Kelly and Alex. Brainy and Nia, who only had canon confirmation they had restarted their romance an episode or so ago, won't be together as trans rep. But while there are three canon romantic couples onscreen, the believed one of M'gann and J'onn doing long distance, makes it more apparent that Kara is single, and so is Lena. Kara is keen to follow Lena to the dance floor with the hip sway, and everyone is paired up with their coded or canon partners.

Nyxly is getting all the development as she's passing the totems and the SuperFriends are just stealing them from her. No idea what happened to the order of activation, or if one person has to activate them to have the all stone control or if it can be agreed upon as a group akin to the paragons in COIE. We've learned so much about a villain and she gets a canon het romance while overcoming her trust issues. Speeding up the process involves time travel, which begs the quesion as to why season 3 had a guy playing two women when he knew what would happen. Nia actually uses her dream powers successfully. As much as I hate the idea of Brainy going to the future right now, he has had the development of enjoying feelings rather than fearing them. Good for him. Meanwhile, J'onn is not getting stepdad of the year award as he doesn't reassure Kara that her concerns over Esme's powers are valid. Kara's lived the experience of fearing her powers will harm people unchecked, but Alex tells her she doesn't want unsolicited parenting advice. It makes it sound that Alex would rather Esme harm people than have stabilisers. I still don't know how Alex's brain functions as she's got three sets of memories regarding 'raising' Kara - Earth 38, Earth Prime, and the fake J'onn ones. Still, Alex relates to Kara about being able to fully express herself, as an openly queer women. Kara affirms that Alex should live fully, but Alex doesn't reciprocate the sentiment, as Kara has more secrets than her hero identity. Kelly is in mom mode too but her parenting skills aren't being questioned.

In giving so much weight to the reporter and Lex, the stuff that matters is lost. It's highly likely the two hour finale will have women talking about men, with a lesbian wedding as the setting rather than an emotional b plot to Kara's culmination of six years. I couldn't tell you what Kara's arc was this season. 1 was properly becoming Supergirl. 2 was half assed about being a reporter. 3 was even less screen time about her Kara Zor-El heritage. 4 was last minute alien prejudice and popcorn journalistic awards. 5 was framed around her dynamic with Lena. 6... could have been about her Phantom Zone trauma but only had one episode about it. As mentioned before, the totem journey of 6b belongs to Nyxly.

The show has set itself up as another Clexa nexus. The industry will listen to how representation of marginalised groups is done healthily. It needs reminding the protagonist has the A plot, as a show called Supergirl is about an individual (compared to Legends of Tomorrow which is an ensemble). Commentary on real life issues and inclusion of marginalised groups are done because it's the right thing to do, and not to get praise for it being tokenised. Queerbaiting is unacceptable, to the extent that even if showrunners say it will never be canon then the diaglogue and framing cannot parallel romantic couples. None of this paralleling to keep the viewership of desperate queer people, and the real life hate crimes it causes because it's not canon.

#supergirl #supercorp #dansen #brainia #dreamdox #supergirl season 6 #episode review #Supergirl 6x18 Truth Or Consequences #nyxlygsptlnz #lex luthor #kara danvers #lena luthor #kelly olsen #alex danvers #Esme Danvers #brainy 5 #andrea rojas #LGBTQIA+ #representation matters #asian lives matter #william dey #catco

[geenawrites]

'Black Widow' and undermining Dramatic Intent (II)

[PART ONE]

The 'Civil War' Effect

4): Elements that could’ve made Black Widow Natasha's personal journey are reduced to quick conversational bites told to Natasha instead of experienced by Natasha and the audience first hand.

The film could've built the story around her family selling her off to the government (on some eugenics mess). It could've set the stage for the subplot regarding her mother’s search for her until she was murdered, and Natasha trying to learn about her past pre-assassin.

For all the moments where we simply see her on her own, a lot of that alone time isn't used to explore how she feels, what she's thinking, or a personal throughline. It's just a montage of her looking gloomy and wearing comfy sweatshirts.

The only time Natasha truly feels like she is the emotional center of the movie is the opening act of the film. There, she’s portrayed by Ever (Gabo) Anderson and not Scarlett Johansson.

And as a film touted-as a vehicle for Johansson, that is bad. But also underlines why Florence Pugh’s Yelena was considered the real protagonist of the movie.

Black Widow could've been about Natasha wanting to reclaim her past from the Red Room (her abductors) because she reunites with her sister and parents (her surrogate family), and needed to finally deal with the consequences of killing Antonia (her ghost).

Instead, Black Widow is really Yelena’s story and emotional journey. Yelena justifies the presence of Alexei and Melina more-so than anything in Natasha’s history. As centered as Natasha was in the prologue, it works more as a establishing point for Yelena versus something like Natasha’s lost family or working with Clint Barton in Budapest.

Yelena being tasked to save the Widows (by the elder Widow who created the mind control cure), killing Dreykov, and destroying the Red Room are immediate issues that directly impact her arc and development as a character. Natasha is largely along for the ride, bringing Yelena where she needs to be in each act.

Natasha isn't as centered in her own her film as she should be. Simply compare the structure of her story to the structure in the Captain America (x2), Ant Man (x2), Thor (x3), and Iron Man (x3) films, and how those narratives focus on Steve Rogers, Scott Lang, Thor Odinson, and Tony Stark. Those films are about their emotional journeys while maintaining a healthy supporting cast that don't overshadow them.

Black Widow in comparison feels more like Captain America: Civil War, which is more of an Avengers film than it is a Captain America story. The emotional center of Civil War is Tony Stark and Zemo. Steve and his cast are simply underpinning Stark and Zemo's arcs. It also tries to introduce a new character (Black Panther) with the exact same story beat (revenge) as Stark and Zemo, and a MCU-wide subplot (Sakovia Accords) that ultimately goes nowhere later on.

The consequences of Civil War "Avengering" a solo film are on display in Black Widow in a big way. It's introducing new characters, and trying to tackle a trilogy's worth of storylines (the Red Room, Budapest, the Widow family, Civil War-fallout).

She doesn't even get a decent postmortem send off. The post credits, wherein Yelena mourns Natasha, is turned into a comedic skit and a teaser for the Hawkeye series. It's not allowed to remain a moment of mourning between two sisters separated by literal death.

As an Executive Producer of the film, I know this was not lost on Johansson. She might be an awful person, but she doesn’t strike me as someone so unaware of her environment that she set the stage to be undermined by her co-star. No, I think, given the timing, Johansson knew this was always going to be about setting up her successor.

Wrong Time, Wrong Place

Choosing to set Black Widow after Civil War was just a poor choice on Marvel’s part. Natasha circa 2016 has more or less come-to-terms with her history as a state-sponsored assassin for both Russia and the United States. Her arc as seen throughout the Avengers and Captain America films has come full circle following the events of The Winter Soldier. Now all she has left going forward is the arc dealing with Thanos' genocide and resurrecting everyone.

There is nothing to mine in terms of personal character drama because, at this point, she has laid it all to rest. It's nothing that torments her akin to Bucky trying to square away with his past as an amnesiac assassin.

All of Natasha’s threads are focused on the break-up of the Avengers. At first, seemed like her arc was going to be about not falling back into bad habits (being mistrustful of everyone). That it was going to deal with how she felt let down by the team (after trying to be the reasonable party among everyone), but the film doesn't really commit.

After that one conversation in Budapest, "getting the Avengers back together" isn't even a focal point. We just get awkward callbacks that tell the audience that Natasha isn't on the same level as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor.

Yelena forgiving her family is used to tack on the sudden parallel idea that Natasha has been convinced she can personally bring the Avengers together again as a surrogate family once things work with her Widow Family.

Again, even in her own film, Natasha is playing the sacrificial matriarch of a Boy’s Club (whose event films she features only as a supporting character. Something I think people are only just realizing). That says to me the MCU never valued her beyond her ties to the male Avenger cast.

”You’re such a mom!” becomes a lot less funny in that context.

If this film was immediately set after The Winter Soldier or even Age of Ultron, wherein all of her history and SHIELD’s was leaked for public record, then there might’ve been a chance for an emotionally resonant story arc.

How would a Natasha scrambling to create new covers, and new ways to protect herself, deal with the sudden public attention of the world knowing that she was a foreign assassin that bought her way into the United States and became a celebrity superhero? How would a post-Winter Soldier solo film deal with Natasha’s past in way that she didn't become overshadowed by her own supporting cast?

How would a post-Age of Ultron solo film handle her past as informed by her nightmare (which stuck closer to her history as a trained dancer in the comics) on top of the events of The Winter Soldier?

But even as a post-Civil War narrative, Black Widow should've really cared to explore how Natasha felt about having to revisit her history with the Red Room, on top of being betrayed by Alexei and Melina. Instead of giving all those emotional beats to Yelena, actually show us Natasha confronting them beyond “it wasn’t real!”

How would the story turn out if parent with the biggest hand in the facilitation of her abuse (Alexei) wasn't turned into a flat comic relief character? What if he actually got chance to really consider her grievances, show remorse for his actions, without being turned into a “ha, ha, he’s do dumb (and fat)!” punchline (after setting him up as the total opposite in the prologue)?

Melina could've been an interesting co-antagonist working with Dreykov, but the film skirts past how she is complicit in the harm that her daughters faced (Yelena especially) with a fake Heel Turn moment that only undermined Dreykov as a threat.

And that’s really the problem with Black Widow. The film, or rather Marvel Studios, doesn’t want to really tackle Natasha’s past or pain like they were willing to do with Steve Rogers in The First Avenger, and The Winter Soldier.

Maybe because that would mean approaching the story with the emotional maturity of The Bourne Identity, a PG-13 film that was plenty violent without being excessive. It was also emotionally resonate by dealing with the fact that Jason Bourne was, pre-amnesia, a US assassin that did awful shit.

Instead we get a plot about mind-control, and magic red dust that can break said mind control (that apparently requires invasive surgery of the brain).

Whedon seemed comfortable with getting close to the actual violence that was asked of Natasha (vs. done to) by the Russian government as a kid. The screenplay for Black Widow can talk past Natasha willingly doing awful things, but doesn’t want to confront that by having her or Yelena deal with an army of assassins who are walking down the same path Natasha did, fighting and killing for another government without any sort of mind control.

This is why Natasha's assassination of “Dreykov’s Daughter” (Antonia) as the thing that happened in Budapest also doesn't land. The movie doesn't want to deal with how Natasha learned to live with murdering a child to buy her freedom into America. They make it so that she didn’t kill her, actually, just gave her a bad case of pizza face. She’s not even the one that pulls the trigger, the film suggests that it was Hawkeye.

Her mustache-twirling villain of a father, who somehow survived the explosion and building collapse with zero burns or broken bones, is the one who does all the truly horrible things to his daughter (turning her into a mindless slave).

The Original Sin that Natasha is defined by is swept under the rug in the same way her history as a killer is blurred by the script. It’s akin to rewriting Xena’s history with Callisto as the killer of her family and village, and deciding, “No, Xena didn’t kill them. They all survived with minor burns! Callisto can now forgive Xena!”

Natasha's Antagonist

Dreykov is a weak antagonist/villain because the screenwriting seems determined to accredit the abuse of the Red Room entirely to him instead of making a systemic issue. What started off as a clandestine organization for the KGB throughout most of the MCU is rewritten in Black Widow as the personal playground of a thinly veiled Harvey Weinstein analogue who puppeteers his personal assassins to do bad things, thus rendering them all innocent of their wrongdoings. It makes them "perfect victims" in way.

(Johansson has gone on record saying that this film was influenced by the #MeToo Movement. Well, celebrification of it, anyway)

Dreykov doesn’t challenge Natasha, or her family. There’s never an immediate danger or stakes being driven by Dreykov. He’s not doing something they have to stop “before time runs out”, he doesn’t have anything on any of the characters that could push their actions.

He takes a backseat to the family hijinks, so the journey to finding and destroying the Red Room has no urgency (Natasha being dead already notwithstanding). As the supposed architect of their misery, he’s about as threatening as Mason (Natasha’s Black Best Friend who buys her things while in hiding).

Dreykov fails like the rest of the MCU’s villains (not named Erik Killmonger) because there's no depth to the character. There's no real loyalty to the character as a demonstration of his power or influence. Again, all his victims are blameless in their violent actions. No one with speaking lines or face time (that isn't a G.I Joe grunt) is working with him because they believe in his goals or ideology.

Complicating that matter is that the script never reveals what his goals or ideologies are besides, "I can create chaos with an army of assassins. I am so evil."

It’s wild to me that so many are rushing to defend the implementation of this sloppily written (and miscast) character because, “he works as a villain because he's a human trafficker” and “he mind controlled his own daughter.”

“He does terrible things”, or a character representing awful things that happen in the real world, isn't enough to make an effective villain. If that was all it took, then 90% the MCU’s villains wouldn’t be so forgetabble.

(He’s not real, I shouldn’t be reading posts like, “he doesn’t deserve screentime b/c he’s an awful human being! He earned his lazy death scene.” Girl, what???)

If you’re gonna tackle human/child trafficking as defined by one antagonist, then really make it part of the story. Make it something that Natasha and Yelena are actively trying to stop. Don’t montage it over a bad Nirvana cover and then shift gears into a G.I. Joe scenario in a floating fortress.

If you're gonna make Dreykov the abuser of so many women, then make it crucial to your protagonist's narrative. Don't add a silly Angry Beavers plot where his stinky musk can control a woman's bodily functions because as a weak analogue to "how men police women's bodies".

Because Natasha has no real conflict with Dreykov, confronting him in the climax goes nowhere. Dreykov is Yelena’s antagonist. It's why Yelena gets to kill him instead of Natasha, so it would've made more sense for her to confront him instead.

The film eventually establishes he's no real threat to Natasha because the writing pulled a Xanatos. The character feels like he exists only so Johansson can sass him, and make a callback to the Loki Interrogation scene (a scene that only worked because of the audience misdirection.)

Dreykov could've been an effective villain if he was anything like the Headmistress characters in the Samee-Waid Black Widow series from 2016.

The Headmistress and Anya (the new Headmistress later on) were characters with emotional connections to Natasha and the Widow children she was trying to save. They taught these girls to believe in the totalitarian philosophy of the ruling class. Natasha and the other Widows couldn't live without them until they were able to escape their influence.

The Headmistresses were women, which makes it plain that women are also perpetrators of abuse. It isn’t just something that men do, which is how this script has approached this subject entirely (Captain Marvel did the same thing as well). Abuse being exclusively a male theater of action.

Antonia's death could've been meaningful in regards to Natasha and Dreykov as characters if Dreykov cared that Antonia was murdered by a Red Room assassin. Natasha admitting that she killed his daughter and regretted it would've made a lot more impact than just having him shrug it off because he's so heartless and so evil.

Or, as other people have said, imagine if it was Antonia who was the antagonist gunning after Natasha because of what she did, not only to her, but her father as well.

It would not only render the mind-control plot pointless, it would re-center the focus on Natasha, and force the writers to do something else with Yelena, Alexei, and Melina (assuming they're even necessary in this scenario). Then, Natasha would have a genuinely threatening antagonist because the stakes are personal on both sides.

It would've been a hellva lot more meaningful than using Taskmasker as a plot-twist (after hyping the character up as the controller of the Red Room and Natasha's personal nemesis).

Callisto’s story as a villain resonates because she cared about what she lost, and Xena knew there was no real forgiveness for what she did to her. Imagine if they approached Natasha’s role in Antonia’s death like that.

(But that's probably asking for too much nuance from Disney and Marvel.)

Conclusions

In story that wants to be about the abused reconciling with their past and family, the film effectively robs the abused of their autonomy by going the extra of mile of making them zombies. In the same way the Star Wars sequel trilogy avoided Finn’s history as an indoctrinated and enslaved Stormtrooper, Black Widow doesn’t want to deal with the ramifications of indoctrination.

How people buy into and protect organizations that strip them of their humanity by making them complicit in violent systems. Oh, sure, they’ll nod and wink at it (as they do with Natasha and Melina’s past), but they won’t go any further than that.

Instead of dealing with how a forced hysterectomy effects Natasha physically and emotionally, we get a joke that isn’t any better than Natasha calling herself a monster, or the “time of the month” joke that got rebuked by the director and the cast.

Instead of reflecting on her time with SHIELD and the United States, the United States is portrayed as "the good-guys who gave her a real family” (ignoring even the half-hearted criticism of the US that The Winter Soldier made), while Russia is still out there doing nefarious Cold War Things and ruining people's families. All of which just feeds into uncritical Russian stereotypes and Red Scare that the film’s foundation is built on.

I enjoyed the film, but the more I think about it, the more I realize Black Widow really does nothing except undermine Natasha's darker elements and self-imposed redemption arc (as written by Whedon).

On top of rewriting key elements about the Red Room (the movies being broken as the comics is a true irony), It minimizes Natasha's violent past to make her into a clean, and boring superhero whose solo film thinks lamp-shading sexism is the same as subverting it.

#geenawrites #black widow #natasha romanov #mcu critical #scarlett johansson #ever anderson #writers on tumblr #bw spoilers #black widow spoilers #mcu meta

[sailormoonandme]

Usagi’s Evolution as a Healer Goddess

The other day I saw a post discussing the evolution of Usagi’s fuku and it occurred to me how Eternal Sailor Moon’s costume was her first Senshi uniform to ditch the tiara. 

That in turn led me to consider how that kind of makes Usagi weaker as it removes a very useful weapon for her. After all, if you include the movies, Usagi uses some variant of Moon Tiara Action in practically every season prior to Stars.

However, dwelling more upon it I realized how this tiny change was all too appropriate for Usagi’s character development.

Firstly, by supplanting the Tiara with her Moon planetary symbol, Eternal Sailor Moon more closely resembles both Queen Serenity, her own Princess Serenity form and her future self as Neo-Queen Serenity. 

Since all three are objectively more powerful than Usagi typically is as Sailor Moon I think the change emphasises how she has ‘levelled up’ in her Eternal form. When combined with the angel wings, Eternal Sailor Moon shifts Usagi visually closer to her future self as NQS, which in the anime is implied to be her most powerful incarnation.* It is almost as though the visual was communicating that the Divine Miracle Magic that she’d previously drawn upon as Princess Serenity in Classic-SuperS had now become ingrained in her standard Senshi form and thus was more accessible to her. 

It was in thinking of her previous efforts as Princess Serenity that I inevitably recalled her duel with Metalia/Beryl in episode 46 and realized that Eternal Sailor Moon was the first time since Classic that Usagi’s default attack was a healing  technique not a destructive one. 

Moon Healing Escalation was Usagi’s first healing technique but until Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss (and it’s later upgrade, Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss) it was also her only healing technique. 

Between regaining healing techniques and ditching her tiara/other destructive attacks/weapons, I think this represents her subtle growth in both her power and status. After all, it is a sad fact of life that it is easier to destroy something rather than fix it, thereby making the latter far more impressive.**

This skewing towards healing power rather than destructive power is also (arguably) thematically appropriate given the nature of Sailor Moon as a female power fantasy as (rightly or wrongly) the act of healing is typically coded as feminine. 

We can even take this further by examining things from the ‘opposite direction’ as it were.

Consider that in the climactic final episodes of Sailor Stars, Eternal Sailor Moon’s healing technique actually fails her when used against Galaxia. In later episodes, upon adopting her Princess Serenity form (complete with larger and more obviously angelic wings), she uses a sword to duel Galaxia.

Obviously a sword is, at least predominantly, an offensive weapon and can therefore be viewed as symbolic of aggression; let’s leave any Freudian or gendered interpretations alone for today. Her use of the sword is highly uncharacteristic (in the anime). Even her explicitly offencive weapons (like the Cutie Moon Rod or Spiral Moon Heart Rod) weren’t as clearly aggressive nor obviously violent. Desperate times calling for desperate measures? Perhaps, but we might also speculate it was her subconsciously reacting to grief. Not only can grief make you act in ways you wouldn’t normally, but a sword after all was a weapon wielded by her lover in his Prince Endymion incarnation. Her lover whom Usagi had just learned Galaxia had murdered. In other words, amidst her grief she reacts by going too hard in the other direction after healing her enemy proves ineffective.

However, when all is said and done the sword fails her.*** Ultimately is simply escalates the conflict by prompting Galaxia to become Chaos Galaxia and thereby make Usagi’s chances of victory all the slimmer. If we wished to stretch things, you could perhaps say that this is a commentary about how war and violence ultimately begets yet more war and violence.

Even if that is an over extrapolation though, it still served to emphasis the point that a sword is not befitting of Usagi, that she was doomed to lose if she continued to battle with destroying her enemy as the end goal.

In fact, her road to real victory begins when she not doesn’t attack Galaxia but makes it easier for herself to be attacked. In the end, Usagi doesn’t confront her most powerful enemy as the God-Queen of the future, the demi-goddess Princess of the distant past, the sailor-suited soldier of love and justice in the present, nor even a humble school girl.

She does it by literally stripping herself of all those things, of stripping herself of everything in fact.

Her weapons? Gone.

Her other items, like her Tiare? Gone.

Her comrades? Gone, and they’d be powerless against Galaxia anyway.

And finally, even her clothes? Gone!

Beyond the Silver Crystal (an outward visualization of her heart/soul) and the angel wings (symbolic of her role as a saviour) she is completely (but tastefully) naked.

Usagi visually and quite literally is more vulnerable  than she’s ever been, even more so than on her first night as Sailor Moon.

And yet this is Usagi at her actual most powerful.

It is her distilled to her absolute essence as a person, all other trappings removed. She’d just one person showing another they will categorically not harm them, that they bear them no malice and they have nothing to hide. That openness and compassion is what ultimately enables her to connect to the good within Galaxia and pull her away from the darkness that had corrupted her.

Usagi in this moment completely fulfilled her character arc.

·      In the Dark Kingdom arc Usagi destroys (or seals away depending upon your POV) Beryl/Metalia.

·      In the Hell Tree arc, Usagi resolves the over all plot via a healing technique (although it is functionally similar to a destructive attack). However, that only happens because the Hell Tree both instructs Usagi to do that and because it lets her. It is the equivalent of a sickly doctor instructing a nurse on what to do to make them better. The nurse might have the power but their agency as a healer is limited.

·      In the Black Moon arc, Usagi, with help, destroys Wiseman/Death Phantom. 

·      In the Death Busters arc, Usagi does save Hotaru and ‘purify’ her. However, like the Hell Tree, that was something Hotaru wanted. Additionally, her purification functioned as a way to heal the body of someone sick and who wanted to sacrifice themselves, not someone actually evil. The evil in question was Pharaoh 90 and it is presumed that Usagi destroyed him (although it might’ve been Hotaru or the pair of them together). 

·      Forgive me for skipping the Dead Moon Circus arc as Chibiusa is the real protagonist there, and Usagi’s role is chiefly as a rescuer. It therefore doesn’t really apply, although the Nehelenia mini-arc from Stars is a different story. There, Usagi was a healer again, but she did it with the help of her loved ones and with the aid of her Tiare device. Nevertheless, we can see by this point Usagi’s capacity as a healer heroine had been gradually growing until we get to the battle with Galaxia.

By the end of series, Usagi has successfully healed Galaxia and it is neither with the aid of her comrades, nor with the power of a weapon or device, nor with any instructions from her ‘patient’ or any other third party.

Additionally, Galaxia (unlike Hotaru) wasn’t someone’s who was saved from a noble self-sacrifice or had a physical ailment that needs to be addressed. In Galaxia’s case, her very soul had lost it’s way and become corrupted. She had lost who she was supposed to be and her purpose in life had been perverted.****

When combined with how powerful Galaxia always was, how Chaos and the Star Seeds empowered her further, Usagi’s victory here cannot be understated.

Her ‘patient’ was more powerful than all her other adversaries, was in need of more healing than her other ‘patients’ and was more resistant to being healed. Not to mention, since she’d directly murdered her beloved friends (and indirectly aborted her future daughter), Usagi would’ve been forgiven for not  even trying to salvage Galaxia 

And yet, with no weapons, no backup and just the power of her heart and soul basically, Usagi succeeded. 

After Stars the idea that Usagi could heal the entire planet after a global catastrophe and reshape it into a fairy tale crystalline utopia was all too believable.

What’s healing one planet when her ability to empathise had already healed a whole galaxy?

Who needs a tiara to reduce evil to dust when you can simply convince evil to be good?

*This is arguably symbolized by baby Hotaru’s vision of NQS transforming into Eternal Sailor Moon in episode 1 of Stars.

In fact, we might argue that a low-key subplot running through all of Stars (both the Nehelenia and Galaxia portions of it) is gradually transitioning Usagi closer to the person she is destined to become as Neo-Queen Serenity, hence why the first episode features the most explicit reference to her fate as Queen since R. 

**Personally I am an atheist, but nevertheless I and others like me can grasp why  deities in most major religions through history weren’t simply capable of mass scale destruction, but also of essentially manipulating reality to create  things too.

By that same token, it’s little surprise that perhaps the widest spread religious figure in history was Jesus Christ who rarely (if ever) engaged in aggression or destructive acts, predominantly employing divine healing powers.

I suspect the attraction of such figures to human beings lies in the fact that on some level we know that, given the right time and resources, we mere mortals would be capable of destroying anything. Given time it’s all but certain we will develop the technology to even destroy planetary bodies. On the flipside, I think we also intuitively grasp that  reversing  such damage, of reattaching a limb, of stanching bleeding, etc, is far more difficult if not impossible. Hence we attributed the ability to do such things to larger than life Divine Entities.

*** Now that I think of it, it’s also poignant that Usagi tries and fails to defeat Galaxia with a sword when we take Sailor Uranus into consideration. 

Uranus is of course associated with her weapon, the Space Sword and, like Usagi, tried and failed to use such a weapon against Galaxia.

Giving Uranus a sword is symbolically appropriate given her role as the leader of the more aggressive branch of the Sailor Team. Having her fail against Galaxia and Usagi consequently fail by in some way ‘mimicking her tactics’ is equally symbolically appropriate. Not only because of their ideological conflict in Sailor Moon S but also their tensions in Sailor Stars itself. In both situations Usagi’s more open, less aggressive, ideology was ultimately proven correct. 

Thus in using a sword against Galaxia it represented how Usagi was always doomed to fail by taking the aggressive/destructive route and how she was arguably not being true to herself in that moment. 

****It’s not to dissimilar to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker now that I think about it. 

#My Essays #Sailor Moon #bishojo senshi sailor moon #pretty guardian sailor moon #pretty soldier sailor moon #usagi tsukino #tsukino usagi #princess serenity #neo queen serenity #Neo-Queen Serenity #eternal sailor moon #Sailor Galaxia #Galaxia #queen nehelenia #nehelenia #Sailor Uranus #tenou haruka #HARUKA TENOH #Queen Beryl #Dark Kingdom #Hell Tree #Wiseman #Death Phantom #pharaoh 90 #Sailor Saturn #hotaru tomoe #professor tomoe #Queen Serenity #Darth Vader #Anakin Skywalker

[persepholline]

I've read that article about the romanticization of the Darkling and while I absolutely understand people who are pissed off/sad and I agree that it's shitty, I find LB's attitude towards Darkles stans very funny in a "girl what are you doing" sort of way because it's so petty like I've never heard of a bestselling author writing a portion of their fans into their books as a crazy cult before, it clearly hit a nerve

I'm new to the fandom but the feeling I get is she wrote something problematic ten years ago and became very embarrassed about it afterwards so she turned on the fans that liked it as a way to absolve herself. Especially since fandoms in general have become a lot more focused on discussion of what constitutes healthy/acceptable relationships to write about. And in a way I get it I had a huge Twilight phase in high school and afterwards I was super embarassed about it because of how problematic and cringe it was. But now with distance and more maturity I'm able to both still see why it was problematic and also why I was drawn to it (mostly the very unhinged representation of female desire) and like...it's really not the end of the world and no it never made me believe that breaking into somebody's room at night to watch them sleep was actually ok in real life lmao. This feels so obvious to me but apparently it needs to be said.

(More under the break this is turning into an essay, I've been thinking of this a lot recently)

And of course it's good to have these discussions about how historically romance tropes have echoed social dynamics of men's shitty behavior being romanticized and excused. But these days they often are so simplistic and focused on chasing clout that they become this weird new puritanism and moral panic about oh now women are reading novels it's going to make them hysterical or something

So you have these weird assumptions that you can't like a character and also be critical of their actions, or enjoy certain parts of a character and not others, or wish they were written differently and like them more for their potential (which I'm sure stings a bit for an author lol) - it assumes that if you like a character it means you would approve of their actions in real life, or that people just stupidly reproduce whatever they see on TV. That tendency to treat fictional characters like real people is the thing that actually worries me, to be honest, because it indicates a lack of distance and critical capacities regarding how stories are used and received. But people - fans and authors - are so scared of being called out as problematic and harassed for it that they're going to shy away from any nuance.

And yeah I think that it's good that standards of what constitutes an ideal relationship are evolving and becoming more feminist and communicative and all that and we definitely need more of that. But not all fiction has to be aspirational! Sometimes you just want to read about fucked up shit, because it's cathartic or fascinating, even healing at times because with fiction you are absolutely in control and can choose when to close the book. Toxic relationships in fiction can have an appeal specifically because they go to extremes of feeling that we don't want to go to in reality, in exactly the same way as horror movies or very violent action movies - which I don't see a lot of people besides fundamentalist Christians argue that they turn you into violent psychopaths (and that feels very obviously sexist). And for women, who are often taught growing up that love is the purpose of life, the "saving someone with your ability to love" can be a power fantasy in the same way that being a buff superhero who saves the day with their capacity for incredible violence can be a power fantasy for men. Still doesn't mean those women are going to fall in love with actual murderers or that those men are going to start beating up people at night. And love is scary, and weird, and weirdly close to horror at times, with all the potential for loss of self and being vulnerable and overwhelming feelings and potential for being horribly hurt and it should be possible for stories to explore that without anybody screaming about how this is going to Corrupt the Youth or something

And I mean I get it LB wanted to write a cautionary tale for teenagers, but it just did not work for reasons a lot of people have already written about - the fact that the Darkling is the leader of an oppressed minority and is the only one with a real political agenda to end that oppression in the first trilogy, the fact that he helps Alina come into her own power while her endgame LI is someone she keeps herself small for, that she's shamed for wanting power after growing up without any, a generally very wonky conception of privilege, and a lot of other stuff with yucky regressive implications to the point where stanning the villain actually feels liberating and empowering which is a surefire sign that the narrative is broken (unless it's a villain focused story lmao). But of course that Fanside article makes almost no mention of the political dynamics, it's all about interpersonal stuff which is an annoying trend in YA, there are those massive events happening in the background but it's made all about the feelings of the hero(ine) ; war as a self-development quest (which is kind of gross). Helnik is kind of an example of this too - I like them, I think they're fun ! But Matthias spends a big part of the story wanting to brutally murder Nina and her kind, and he mostly changes his mind because he finds her hot. Like you don't feel there is some sort of big revelation that his entire moral system and political framework is completely rotten ; it's all better because of feelings now.

As a teenager that kind of sanctimonious bullshit would have annoyed the hell out of me ; I read those books in my early twenties and I found the ending so stupid I wouldn't have trusted any message or life lessons coming from them. And I liked reading/watching dark stuff as a teenager, as a way to deal with the very intense inner turmoil I was dealing with - and I turned out fine ! Meanwhile I've seen several times women in very shitty relationships being obsessed with positive energies and stories ; they were so terrified of their life not being perfectly wholesome they ended up being delusional about their own situations.

Like personally I think the Darkling is a compelling, interesting, alluring character and also a manipulative, murderous piece of shit and that Alina should get to punish him (like in a sexy way) - but he's also the end result of centuries of war, oppression and trauma and reducing that to "toxic wounded boy" feels kind of offensive ngl ESPECIALLY since the books don't offer any kind of systemic analysis or response to oppression beyond "the bad guy should die" and "now the king/queen is a good guy our problems are solved!!!!"

In Lives of the Saints, we see how Yuri is abused extremely badly and almost killed by his father, and so when his father dies when the Fold swallows Novokribirsk, he thinks the Starless Saint has saved him. Later in KoS/RoW he's turned into this fanatic who explains away all the Darkling's crimes. The other followers talk about how the Starless Saint will bring equality for all men. Then the Darkling comes back and actually thinks his followers are pathetic, which feels again like a very pointed message to his IRL stans. Which is absolutely hilarious to me. Like oh no, if he was real he would not like you and think you're pathetic ! Yeah ...but he's not. Real. Damn right he would not like the fics where Alina puts him on a leash. I'm still going to read them. What is he going to do about it, jump out of the page ? Jfjfjjdhfgfjfj

Anyway I think the intended message is "assholes will use noble political causes for their own gain and to manipulate people" and "being abused/oppressed is not an excuse to behave badly." Which. Sure. But that's kind of like...a tired take, honestly ? A big number of villains nowadays are like this ; either they've been bullied as kids, or they're part of an oppressed group, or they have "good ideals but too extreme". This is not surprising because a lot of mainstream heroic narratives present clinging to the status quo as Good and change as chaotic and dangerous. And like sure in real life people often do bad shit because they're wounded and in danger. But if you want to do a story like that, you have to do it with nuance, talk about cycles of violence, about how society creates vulnerable people to be exploited, about how privilege gives you more choices and the luxury of morals, etc. The Grishaverse does not have this level of nuance (maybe in SoC a little bit but definitely not in TGT). So it kind of comes off as "trauma makes you evil" and "egalitarianism is dangerous" and "if you're abused/oppressed you're not allowed to fight back". And ignores the fact that historically, evil generally comes from unchecked privilege.

I guess my point is that there are many things I like about LB's writing, she knows how to create these really exciting character dynamics, and the world she has created is fascinating. But these stories are not a great starting point for imparting moral lessons. And her best characters tend to be, at least in canon, the morally grey ones. I hope one day she'll be at peace with the fact that she wrote the Darkling the way she did and leave his fans alone but in the meantime I'm just not going to take this whole thing seriously I'm sorry

#darklina #the darkling #alina starkov #aleksander morozova

[cogcltrcorn]

Is Technoblade power-hungry?

here’s techno analysis I did all the way back in january on reddit, i still like it, have it

While watching Tommy's pov of the "doomsday" I have been really annoyed at his characterization of Techno, so I've decided to actually write out how I understand his character. (btw, it's not a "I hate Tommyinnit" essay, I kind of get why his character is acting the way he does and I am not even particularly interested in writing an actual rebuttal to Tommy's description specifically. It was just an inspiration.)

Seeing Technoblade, one of the most powerful people on the server, violently oppose everyone in power may prompt one (ghm ghm TOMMY) to believe that he has political ambitions of some sort, that he wants power, control. That is, obviously, incorrect. Techno is always acting according to his beliefs. Everything he does is because and for anarchy. Techno wants freedom. But why? What fuels his opposition?

To figure that out, we can look at one of the most important events in Techno-lore. The Festival, specifically, Tubbo's murder.

Techno's reasoning, which is "I've been peer-pressured" is often disregarded or treated as a joke, but I actually find it very significant. When Tommy mentions Tubbo's death during doomsday, he implies that Techno was making a conscious decision to murder Tubbo and obey Schlatt, because Tommy can't even imagine the truth, which is: Techno is very easy to pressure. Tommy can't even imagine Techno (who's emotions he doesn't acknowledge) being scared, nervous, unable to resist.

Techno has a history of being dehumanized, denied autonomy. He is either perceived as a weapon, a tool to achieve a goal of some sort, aka "the Blade", or he is reduced to an animal. Wild, unpredictable, rabid even. Dangerous. The kind that should be hunted down and killed. He is either used, or, when he "doesn't behave", hunted down. He also is clearly dealing with a lot of mental problems, since "voices" essentially manifest themselves as constant anxiety, paranoia and violent outbursts. Techno's world is never silent, he is under constant stress. All of that makes him EXTREMLY vulnerable, maybe not physically, but emotionally.

And that is the reason why Techno opposes governmental structures. Because if force WILL be applied, he is likely to give in, either because of constant stress and anxiety or because he has always been exploited and used and that is just what he is used to. So he simply tries to get rid of the sheer possibility.

He is clearly trying to deal with the fact that he is so susceptible to pressure. He is leading a pretty hermit-like life, trying to pick his friends VERY carefully (he doesn't want to get used again and there are maybe two people on the server who actually view him as a person) and I imagine his "hoarding" to be a sort of a coping mechanism to make him feel safer.

Techno wants control, sure. Control over himself. Control over his own thoughts, ideals and actions. He wants to be able to choose what he fights for.

P.S. Please mind, that I am saying all of this keeping in mind that like, almost all characters on the smp have committed war-crimes (I kinda want to make an actual post about what actual war crimes have been committed on the smp...) so it's really not a "Technoblade is actually a good person!" post. He is traumatized and deeply troubled and I find figuring out the way his problems affect his actions and beliefs incredibly interesting. anyway, free my man he aint do shit

#dsmp #c!techno #technoblade #dream smp #dsmp analysis #dsmp lore

[agentrouka-blog]

I think SweetRobin dying and then LF gaslighting Sansa in order to have his grips on her makes sense. Grrm did say that characters will be at their lowest in TWOW . After that they will emerge victorious ( delivering justice within Winterfell after meeting Jeyne and her siblings ) . Also the guilt of being involved in her cousin's death something which I could see LF gaslighting her could take a mental toll upon her . Also all the child heirs- Shireen, Rickon, SweetRobin, Tommen and Myrcella , I could see them dying. I think SweetRobin's death could pave way for Harrold succeeding him ( though he will eventually die too ) in leading the Vale forces North to help her betrothed regain her home back. Also the theme of " triumph at what cost " also encapsulates perfectly. SweetRobin's survival and just I don't know makes the narrative look quite easy for Sansa . It's going to be hard for each of our Starklings before things go normal . Arya will be deepening in guilt with whatever violence and trauma she had to endure , meeting Stoneheart . Similar will be Bran who might harbour guilt for the death of an innocent ( Hodor ) . I think Sansa's could be similar too.

Hi anon!

The thing with Sweetrobin is that he is the rightful heir in Littlefinger's grasp. The bird in the hand. Being his stepfather (and bribing a few Vale lords, and Cersei's command to see him unharmed) is the ONLY reason he is Lord Protector of the Vale. Remove Sweetrobin, and Littlefinger is out because Harry is a grown man and needs no regents. Killing Sweetrobin would be self-sabotage. He could go off packing to Harrenhal.

The reason he is spending time and money on making the betrothal to "Alayne" happen right now is the fact that Harry is still only an heir with few prospects outside of that, he is not independently rich or impressive on his own. His aunt can chastise him and pressure him into marriage right now. Not once Sweetrobin is dead. He'll be everyone's boss then.

If the betrothal happens, Harry is locked into Littlefinger's influence by oath. He cannot marry someone else and father legal heirs without tainting his honor. This is a good status quo for Littlefinger to wait and see how things develop. During this time, he still needs Sweetrobin alive. Because while dishonorable, a betrothal can still be broken, especially if one party is a lowly bastard girl and the other the next thing to a king.

But even so, a marriage to "Alayne" would be impossible because she doesn't exist and a marriage to Sansa is impossible because she is already married, so he cannot lock down Harry in this final way and have control over Harry's future legal heir by Sansa. Would Harry go to the trouble of fighting for Sansa's rights - when she is already married! - if he already has the full power of his new title and could marry anyone he wanted?

So he still needs Sweetrobin alive until Tyrion turns up dead or an annullment becomes feasible. Harry the Heir is much less independently powerful and may be swayed by the prospect of glory in battle and the appeal of his future wife's inheritance. Because Sweetrobin might not die.

And even if they marry, who's to say that Harry will allow himself to be influenced by Sansa in any way? What power would Littlefinger truly have once he hands his not-daughter Sansa Stark over to him? Unless he is still Lord Protector, none. So he still needs Sweetrobin alive.

Of course, for Littlefinger to keep full control, Harry definitely needs to die as soon as Sansa has had a child by him. That baby is the new Sweetrobin for Littlefinger to base his power on.

And only then would it be safe for Sweetrobin to die. If he can be replaced with a new child heir in Littlefinger's control.

So while there would be angsty potential, there is very little logic in the idea that Littlefinger actively wants Sweetrobin to die any time soon. He just wants the idea to be firmly established as an expectation, because it increases Harry's importance and reduces doubt if/when he actually does die.

Besides, Littlefinger has already trapped Sansa in a dangerous lie. Testifying that Marillion killed Lysa is Sansa's darkest act by far, hands down, in the entire book series, and while we understand her motivations and are privy to her inner conflict, from the outside it makes her look like she went from kingslaying Joffrey to conspiring to kill the leader of the Vale (kinslaying her aunt!) all in a, what, span of a few months? If Littlefinger really wanted to milk it, he could bring up how she came to Cersei when Ned wanted to send her away from KL. Then he could bring up her "complicity" in trying to poison Sweetrobin.

He could gently imply his ability to ruin her reputation far worse than Jaime's, and make Sansa feel like she earned it. She already feels guilt over Marillion. Even though he was a rapist actively helping Lysa try to kill her. Sweetrobin doesn't have to die for Sansa to struggle with the consequences of her choices.

Also: In what universe has Sansa had it easy in the narrative? Being beaten, molested and forced into marriage, used as a tool for murder? She is the Stark with the absolute least amount of personal agency. And still where she has the opportunity, she usually chooses to help, to be compassionate, even to her enemies. She downright berates herself for it. That contrast to Arya and Bran is not a narrative "easy" path, it is an expression of her character and a different angle on enduring hardship. Sansa is not less of a character for being a good person. It is not easy. It is hard. And worthy.

Making hard choices will be part of Sansa's path, but neither does she artificially have to match the darkness of Arya's violent path, nor does Sweetrobin have to die to make it happen.

#Vale arc #sansa stark #Sweetrobin #Littlefinger #Sweetrobin lives #harry the heir #marriage annullment #Marillion #dark mentor #dark path