#just goes to show that you can find parallels in anything LMAO

[jerreeeeeee]

people so often interpret sazed as taako’s ex, which like, to each their own obviously, nothing wrong with that, but i think its so so much more interesting to interpret him as taako’s apprentice instead. and like all we have to go on is that he really looked up to taako who sort of taught him how to cook. “thought taako hung the moon and stars” or something like that iirc. which brings so much more depth to taako’s relationship with angus if sazed was to taako then what angus is to taako now, someone who idolized him and saw him as a mentor.

it puts some of the conversations taako’s had with angus into really interesting context. like the fact that the first person taako’s (ever?) told about what happened at glamour springs (which he didnt know at the time, but was sazed’s fault) is angus. does he tell angus because he doesn’t want him to be betrayed (like he assumes sazed was, since he ran away)? or because he doesn’t want angus learning from someone so clearly unfit to be a mentor (both since he was unfit to be sazed’s, because he was dismissive to him, and because he believes himself to be a murderer)? he teaches angus magic and cooking. when he implies that angus might become as or more skilled than him he jokes about striking him down. which is exactly what he did to sazed when he wanted equal share.

but taako redeems himself with angus. he mistreats angus in the beginning, bullying him and dismissing him and generally being a dick, but as angus becomes taako’s apprentice, he’s more open and a little nicer. still “open” and “nice” in his own way, but definitely more than he was before. learning from his mistake, letting angus in and being encouraging and honest in the way he wasn’t with sazed.

idk. i think it’s so interesting and so rarely explored

#i also kinda feel like thats what justin was going for just from the way he describes sazed but i could be wrong #that doesnt matter as much to me as the narrative parallels though #taz balance #taz #taako #sazed #angus #angus mcdonald #taz taako #mine #obviously theres some differences. sazed is implied to be young but he wasnt a child #and angus is a lot more understanding of taako's eccentricities and sazed was more ambitious #so there's a difference in the way taako treats them but also in their individual personalities #i wanted to write a fic abt this exploring it more but idk if thatll happen so i'm just gonna post it. maybe still write it someday #it astonishes me time and time again how good of a narrative taz is despite being fucking improvised. #how is there FORESHADOWING when they MADE IT UP AS THEY WENT!! #just goes to show that you can find parallels in anything LMAO

[canmom]

Comics mini-Comints: Dungeon Meshi

reread dungeon meshi through to the end. still such a great manga. here are immediate thoughts - if I end up having time and energy I hope I can write something that goes deeper!

ironically i was only a few chapters from the end when I stopped keeping up, but I was struggling to remember all the characters and context, so reading it through in one go was definitely an ideal way to achieve maximum impact there.

ryoko kui does a very elegant job of handling a transition from 'silly antics' to 'big dramatic fantasy' while still keeping the central thematic throughline - eating and being eaten, belonging to an ecosystem, the significance of sacrificing others to achieve your own desires. a lot of setups pay off in a way that feels meticulously planned - and of course the crux of the final showdown revolves around characters attempting to eat each other, of course the big payoff is a huge feast that symbolically unites all the conflicting factions. it is maybe a bit too neat and happy for my taste, but it's undeniably tightly executed - it never loses sight of what it's about. especially compared to something like Frieren, it's an incredibly coherent serialisation, up there with e.g. Fullmetal Alchemist.

kui's art style deserves all kinds of praise - it feels effortlessly simple, but it clearly communicates all sorts of different shapes and body types and it's really fun to see her play around with remixing the different visual elements when she switches the races around. in general Laius's autistic monster loving ways clearly reflect kui's own deeply felt appreciation for all the ways people and animals live (accentuated further by all the extra sketches the scanlators tuck in). in a way you could kinda call it like Parts Unknown the fantasy manga.

the stakes of the final conflict are interesting - there is much to be said about the framing of 'desire' and its fulfilment, of this occult idea of 'the infinite'. lots you could put in relation to other manga, and also buddhism. (in particular I really want to develop a comparison to Made In Abyss, there are so many parallels, it just might be too spicy for tumblr lmao).

one thing I really like about it is how much its fantasy dungeon-exploring setting owes to D&D and other TTRPGs, rather than videogames. monster ecology has been a fascination of that game since the early days of Dragon magazine, and Kui sharply zeroes in on some of the intrinsic conflicts baked in to that fantasy milieu, notably the lifespan thing, while smartly avoiding the traps of 'evil races'. there's some really fun nods to the weirder monster manual entries. and in a story with so many characters and factions, it does a genuinely incredible job of furnishing everyone with understandable, reasonable motivations, conflicts drawn from their context just like the monsters are explained by their ecology.

and one thing that I particularly appreciate is like... how much it is able to simultaneously understand and sympathise with a character and also show us how and why they'd rub others the wrong way. it's impossible not to like our main group, they're all such charming dorks and the manga leads you along with all the crazy rpg party shit they do, but at the same time you definitely find yourself thinking 'guy's got a point' in the kabru chapters lmao. I'm projecting hard bc i don't really know a thing about ryōko kui but laius def feels like the sort of depiction of having an autism that you can only do if you've lived it.

but yeah, it's a fuzzy ending where it all turns out well. but what's the deeper thrust of it all? there's a funny moment where marcille is like 'maybe in the end our journey is about learning to accept death' and the grouchy old gnome guy completely laughs this off as naive, because death doesn't mean anything. and indeed their big plan pays off, and falin does indeed come back just fine. but still, through all of this it asks you to bite the bullet that being a living creature means eating to survive, at the cost of other creatures, with the other side being that one day you too will be eaten. in contrast to this honest way of being is the beguiling fantasy of infinity, where all your desires are immediately fulfilled - this is shown as a dangerous path of corruption that produces madness and manipulability. having limits and rubbing up against the wishes of others, or 'doing things you don't want to do' as izutsumi's arc puts it, becomes necessary for having some kind of definition as a subject. the thing that makes the demon concrete as an entity is a desire, or appetite, that can't immediately be fulfilled.

of course we can connect this to the idea of narrative conflict. a standard advice for putting together a plot is to ask what each character wants and why they can't get it. wanting something implies movement. and indeed over the course of this story, we see that while having too many desires fulfilled too readily leads to incoherence and callousness, equally a character who is left catatonic as their desires have been eaten by the demon must be reawakened to activity by finding a new desire.

it's kinda Buddhist innit. neither the opulence of the palace nor asceticism. desires are what tie you to the world. but mixed with ecology: what a creature does to find the energy to live is what defines its lifestyle, its form.

this is probably where I'd start talking about entropy gradients and shit if i wasn't typing this on a phone at 1:30am lmao.

but yeah - it's a powerful move to go from 'D&D monster recipe show sendup' to 'living with the inherently violent nature of being an organism fated to live in a finite sum game' and yet Dungeon Meshi makes it feel natural and convincing, while remaining tremendously charming and funny throughout. ryōko kui is definitely some kind of genius, and I can't wait to see what her next act is gonna be. it's all definitely making me appreciate the act of eating a lot more.

next story on my plate is probably The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, which sounds like it will present a very gnarly thematic contrast.

#manga #dungeon meshi #comics comints

[ghostbc-headcanons]

Can you write some fluffy Headcanons about Swiss and Dew and all the other ghouls? Please?

of course i can!! the ghouls give me life

FLUFFY GHOUL HEADCANONS

Swiss

biggest prankster in the whole clergy. will doodle on your face in sharpie if he finds you passed out. it's just the way life goes

never makes a serious face in photos. will pull wild grins and stick tongues out and give people bunny ears

probably the most physically affectionate out of all the ghouls!! hugs, kisses, cuddles - that's his jam dude

Dewdrop

you know when dogs get comfortable and they do that 'hmpf' sigh thing? he does that.

regularly makes smores with his fire magic. if you ask him to make you one he'll roll his eyes and say 'don't say i never did nothing for you'

sunbathes all the time like a cat. if he's missing from the group, chances are he wandered off to find a patch of sunlight in front of a window

Aether

is a really proficient cook! making meals is like his love language, he loves it when the ghouls like his cooking

GIVES THE TIGHTEST HUGS EVER. will squeeze the life out of you seriously but like... it's aether so it's ok

one time he gave rain a piggyback ride and rain has said it was the most amazing experience of his life, so make of that what you will

Rain

sings in the shower, but only in the shower. would die if someone asked him to sing in front of them

parallel play is his favorite way to spend time with people. just being in proximity with someone without having to talk much is heaven to him!

he obviously loves the rain, but he loves snow even more. the first time he experienced snow he was in it for 2 hours, simply laying in it and watching the snow fall down from the sky.

Mountain

he snores like crazy LMAO the ghouls have tried everything to make it stop but nothing has helped so they just live with it

loves holidays!! even though christmas is a christian-based holiday, it is by far his favorite. wears all the ugly sweaters

bites to show affection. he doesn't bite THAT hard or anything he's a gentle giant okay he just thinks it's the best way to say 'hey. i like you'

Cumulus

just. a literal ball of fucking sunshine??? you can't NOT be happy around her cause she's just so happy all the time!!

always holding hands with cirrus. those two are literally attached at the hip.

if you're upset or stressed out, she'll sing to you and run her hands through your hair. she does this for all the ghouls too, of course.

Cirrus

has the most deadpan sense of humor, but she always giggles like crazy after delivering something completely absurd

gives everyone forehead kisses before a show for 'good luck', the ghouls (+ copia) have gotten used to it at this point

she heard about how humans wish on practically everything, so she's started wishing on stuff too. eyelashes, dandelions, even when blowing out ritual candles she makes a wish!

#ghoul headcanons #ghost bc headcanons #ghost headcanons #headcanons #ghost bc #ghost #ghost band #ghost the band #cirrus ghoulette #cumulus ghoulette #rain ghoul #dewdrop ghoul #aether ghoul #swiss ghoul #mountain ghoul

[vroomian]

i'm sorry but i HAVE to know about masa's relationship with his batty in laws. like bruce definitely hates his guts but i feel like he'd get on pretty well with both jason and tim?? but for like. vastly different reasons lmao. sorry i had a train of thought here but i just got sidetracked by the horrifying image of masa and dick co-parenting damian during bruce's jaunt through time and that has thoroughly derailed anything insightful i had to say. just thought i'd inflict that thought on you <3

Bruce is complicated tbh. Deep down He absolutely hates masa, and probably sees him as worse than the joker? At least the joker has insanity as a defense — like he’s clearly not well. no one’s ever accused masa of insanity. Bruce is also conflicted because he actually watched masa grow up techinally. masa was about fourteen when he joined the rouges gallery in Gotham, so Bruce (especially after he gets Jason) is always going to wonder if there was something he could’ve done to steer Masa out of crime.

(There was not!)

You’d think masa and Jason would get along but masa actually tried to eat him when Jason first became Robin. Whoops! In masa’s defense no one told him that the Robin change happened so he rolled up on a random Tuesday expecting to bother Dick only to find some other kid in Robin colors! Masa was like *head tilt* the fuck is you? And Jason got belligerent and accidentally implied that Dick was Gone instead of just out of town. Masa was like: oh. Well then! If my Robin can’t be Robin then no one can :) *chomp*

Batman was the only reason Jason survived the night lol. He showed and cleared the misunderstanding and Jason lived to see another day (mostly because masa healed him in a oops my bad move). He’s always gonna be wary of masa though and he still has some nasty scars. It gets better after his death though.

For Tim yeah they get along. Tim looks masa and goes : oh an enabler for all my crazy crazy plans :) and masa thinks the kid is the bees knees. Also free entertainment. If Dick wasn’t his Favorite it’d totally be Tim, and Dick is sorta simmering with jealousy.

Damian’s lucky masa is impossible to offended and thinks Dick in the Batman suit is sexy as hell. Otherwise the kid was verrry close to getting et. Masa is not parent material but Dick is overwhelmed enough to let him babysit a few times. Eventually they start getting along. Sometimes masa and Damian chill in the same room doing their own things like some sort of weird parallel play, or they spar.

#you've got questions we've got answers #bbp au #baby blue au #despite how it seems masa isn’t around the batfam that much tbh #he’s not a casual houseguest except for dick #he’s not dropping by the manor to have brunch #it’d bore him

[willandmichael]

I wasn't gonna say anything until the last tag. It is literally called "for you". The fact that you get mad over that says too much. Also, if he doesn't love her romantically, why does he kiss her? Why doesn't he break up with her? And don't say "because he's scared" or "because he just doesn't know it yet" or anything like that. Also, I didn't try to start drama. I am allowed to post whatever the fuck I want on MY BLOG.

I won't be suprised if you don't answer this. Good day.

you're bothered cause i can see u came straight from tiktok? lmao

"if he doesn't love her romantically why does he kiss her?"

because it's what he thinks it's right, that's mike's whole arc: he's trying to conform to society's standards. it's also a very heavy message in stranger things, especially in season 4..

forced conformity is killing the kids! since season one mike feels out of place: he's bullied, he's an outcast, he's a nerd. he gets physically hurt at school and emotionally hurt at home by his parents (especially ted's very pointed comments towards him).

mike is relentlessly bullied for hanging out and being friends with will, having homophobic comments thrown at him constantly (watch s1 again), then he finds this girl in the woods and becomes friends with her. everyone around him is saying he likes her and he has a crush on her, neither of them understand what they're doing in s1, mike and el had a brother-sister relationship they mistook as romance. "will you be like my brother?" this is a canonical line of dialogue, i'm not making it up. so mike and el get into this entanglement, mike loses her for a year had has to live with survivors guilt - he is paralleled to nancy losing barb and feeling guilty for her death. he says it himself, he wants to be needed by her or else he doesn't know what to do. his whole arc in s3 was to show that mike can't handle dating el and managing his friendship with will because he overcompensates his feelings. mike didn't outgrow dnd, he didn't outgrow his friends or his nerdy side, we see that in s4.. and then he goes back to hiding once he has to be with el again, he becomes a "shitty knockoff" because it's a FRONT! mike and el's excessive making out is NOT shown in a good light by the show at all, it's uncomfortable for everyone on screen and to the viewers. have you got my point yet? people date all the time without liking each other, because it's what society is telling them, because they think it's the right path to follow (hello? nancy's whole thing about not wanting this kind of life for herself???). IN CONCLUSION, MY own theory about mike is that he's a closeted boy who found himself stuck in a relationship he doesn't want. he was not the one to get back together with el, he had months to mend their relationship and he didn't. if el hadn't confessed and kissed him when she was leaving to cali they would not be dating at all again and would remain simply as friends. his confused face and open eyes when she kissed him should be telling enough.

also, "i didn't try to start any drama" YOU came into our tag with a terrible take and saying rather heavy stuff with the whole "mike is abusive" thing. and you're right, it's YOUR blog but tumblr is still a PUBLIC platform with a proper tagging system, no one wants to see anti byler posts on the byler tag.

you're trying to be so high and mighty with your "omg i bet you won't even answer this, you ignored my ask, i wonder why" lmfaoo do u think i'm a coward or something ? :/ i hadn't even seen your ask when i made that post. anyway, you don't have to agree with anything i say or other byler shippers say on here, stick to your boring straight ship and kindly leave us alone

#byler #answered

[bonesandthebees]

Okay, so first off all (more like second but shush), I love that we continue like there was no chapter end at all. We stay in the same scene and in the same moment. There’s no time skip. We get to see all hell break lose in real-time. And it’s nice that Tommy does get the benefit of the doubt. Like us, the Deathlings know that this is out of character for Tommy. It’s only once he confirms it that people start ‘turning’ on him. And even still, everyone wants to know why. Because they have that same gut reaction of, there has to be a reason.

And there was a reason. It’s a valid on. It’s an understandable decision. Heck, it’s in line with a lot of Glass!Tommy’s character. He’s not scared of Death, never has been. He’s know to be the reckless type and it was a very reckless decision. He’s young dumb and childish even with all the intelligence he has. But most importantly, he’s gotten used to making decisions for other people with Wilbur.

I don’t mean that Tommy necessarily decides things for Wilbur, not without Wilbur’s input most of them time, but not always with him permission either. This is because Tommy is convinced he can read Wilbur pretty well. Maybe more than he actually can, but so far it seems to work. So he makes a lot of decisions for Wilbur, like telling Techno to back off when Wilbur doesn’t.

He also disregarded his agency with the whole name thing. Both finding it and using it. And that’s a fun parallel because Tommy did the same thing to Jack. He disregarded Jack’s agency when he wouldn’t listen and made the decision for him. Not with malicious intent, both times he trying to help. He means well.

You could argue that he made the right choice both times, because Wilbur needed to be humanised, needed to have his boundaries pushed and Tommy and Jack are still alive (though Tommy got really lucky with that one). There’s a slight difference. This is a way more impossible choice. And he picked they right option, by pure luck because that was not his intended, but they made it back alive. Tommy shouldn’t have had to make the decision, but now he did.

There’s also a difference in consequences. The difference being that Tommy has had very little consequences for finding Wilbur’s name and using it. I’d even go as far as to say he’s getting a possitbe reward out of it. And this one will have major consequences. Bad ones. It’s starting to feel like that’s a theme of Glass. Actions and consequences. Trust and what happens when you break it. Identity. It’s very similar to Stars, but in a completely different context.

-🌲

yeah I wanted this chapter to continue directly after the last one. almost kind of like when you're watching a tv show and right when something dramatic happens it goes to a commercial break and you're just left waiting in terror for the break to end. I kinda wanted it to feel like that lmao

I really wanted the murder attempt to feel in character for tommy but not in a way people expect. in the earlier days I purposefully had wilbur think about things like "what could being raised in an environment like this do to a kid" as kind of very subtle foreshadowing that, yeah, being raised by a death cult will screw with your perception and attitude towards death a bit. he's reckless, he's impulsive, he's loyal to death and doesn't fear it—it was just a whole list of ingredients waiting to be mixed together in the wrong way. and of course like you pointed out, he's recently gotten used to making decisions for other people.

tommy definitely thinks he knows wilbur better than he does. thankfully it's worked out most of the time so far, but a lot of it is just him going off his gut and getting lucky with his guesses. also at this point he has gotten pretty good at reading wilbur, so he can usually tell when wilbur is feeling uncomfortable/nervous/unsure but doesn't wanna say anything.

but yes the agency thing is most obvious with the name, and then with jack. tommy claims that he knew wilbur was never going to get around to telling him his name on his own, just like he claims he knew that there was no way out of the situation on the roof with jack. tommy thinks he knows these things as facts. he doesn't. jack believed they could still escape. that's also part of what made tommy's decision for him such a betrayal.

i'd say tommy's choice with wilbur was closer to being the right choice than it was with jack. because wilbur desperately needed to be humanized and that was definitely going to do it, but tommy was not trying to save jack. he was trying to kill them both. and yes, it ended up in their survival, but that was completely accidental and can't be credited to tommy whatsoever.

and yeah, tommy had next to no consequences for his decision with wilbur because, y'know, wilbur needed that to happen. but also you could argue there are consequences to his decision to find wilbur's name, it's just not what the audience typically sees as a 'bad consequence'. wilbur and tommy are growing extremely codependent on each other, and part of that is a direct result of how tommy brute-forced his way into helping wilbur rather than taking things at a slower pace and letting him heal on his own. now there's an unhealthy attachment there that's only going to be made stronger by the new situation at hand. so yeah. action = consequence.

#ask #spruce anon #through a glass divine

[red-ro5es]

While looking for some other screenies I found these and it just reminded me how badly I hate Alex and the parallels between Jean & his mom.

(Spoilers & me rambling follow the cut!!)

For anyone that doesn’t know (and also just to say it), Alex’s dad (idr his name LMAO) didn’t support his mom in raising him at all. He stayed out of Alex’s life until he was over 18 which means his dad was a deadbeat until there was no way he would have to actually take care of his kid.

Now to be clear!! His dad did seem to want to help him and take care of him later on. Which is better late than never I guess, but either way waves my hand.

Alex tells him that the only one who can forgive him for his absence, lack of help, and abandoning a teen mom (if I remember correctly!) is his mother. Who has passed away and won’t get the chance to do that, not that she would want to.

But throughout the entire series !! Alex is literally showing up at jeans house begging her to forgive him. He shows up at her place of work, where she’s trying to make her first film, and her HOME. because he wants her to forgive him so badly for something she should never have to deal with again.

She is aggressively uninterested in seeing him!! In the first screenshot she is actually telling him to get the fuck away from her. The second is when he shows up to her house (part 2 I think.). By the way he goes to her house multiple times. She didn’t tell him where she lived!! she probably spent YEARS paranoid and avoiding him only for him to relentlessly stalk her 10 years later.

And yeah sure Alex didn’t know what happened and the whole time travel thing but that literally does not matter!! She didn’t want to see him and he knew this and he kept coming back.

Despite all of this he doesn’t stop until he’s cornered her in the back of an engagement party for two of their high school friends. He doesn’t stop until she is sobbing telling him she wanted to forgive him and asking him to leave one final time.

I would!! Get a restraining order?? i mean that’s awful it’s literal harassment. How can he harass the girl he traumatized, knowing vaguely that he did some awful hurtful thing. And then turn around and say that only his mom could forgive his dad. It makes me so mad. Jean did not want to see you! She didn’t want your apology she didn’t want anything to do with you! And you kept coming back!!

I know that talking to his dad was later in the series but even after that he shows that he learned nothing. He corners her after expressing that nobody should have to forgive someone who hurt them. And then once he’s back in time he still immediately seeks Jean out. Which seems unbelievably stressful & upsetting! Especially considering the context he finds her in. He didn’t know if Jean was okay with him showing up or if she ever even wanted to see him again. He did not care! He decided that he wanted to be there so he would be, because it’s what would make him feel less guilty about everything.

Also, my mind is a bit fuzzy on this last bit so forgive me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Alex’s dad try to apologize to his mom at one point? How can he understand and even defend that some people don’t deserve forgiveness only to do this.

But then again! When has he ever listened to what Jean wanted or showed genuine concern for her comfort. Or followed her boundaries. Or even respected her.

God he makes me so mad sometimes actually I hate him a bit LOL. It drives me wild when I think too hard about the warp effect, always find something new to explode over I guess :,]

#back again with my ‘Jean didn’t deserve that’ #gmmtv #the warp effect #brainrot #rambling #~🎬 #&co

[caatws]

The sad thing about woc and shipping is that I've seen characters called aggressive, pushy, predatory and the list goes on just for showing any interest in male characters. Most often when dealing with white male characters. I'm certain if the roles were different there would be tons of hate towards Gam laced with mysogynoir if people tried putting her with the male lead after what happened.

That's if even half the same amount of people saw fit to do so. The degree to which people insist characters like her need to be alone, are too strong for a relationship, aren't seen as attractive enough, feminine enough and the list goes on is so pervasive. The way this is reflected in real life is also pervasive. Then it often runs into different kinds of love, support and how we routinely undervalue some women. It can influence reactions to when some women are hurt or killed which I think parallels reactions to Gam. I do think there's enough information out there today to easily understand this on at least some level.

This is why I can't love the movie as much as I'd like too. There are too many ways it treated Gam with a disregard for her death and who she is now. It kept her from experiencing the love of a family the whole trilogy is about. This was the last movie and many characters barely spoke to her. I can't ignore that she went from a lead to sidelined after being vital for 3 appearancs. She ended her arc with less connection to what was going on than a tree, more minor character like Kraglin and even a dog got to celebrate Christmas. By the time credits were done rolling every character got to be on the team but her.

you're so valid anon. it's crazy how the gotg franchise has managed to give a certain humanity to characters like rocket and groot consistently that i feel like it's lacking with original gamora...like the dignity of just having a complete arc at all

so much of my feelings toward the treatment and reception of gamora is just an extension of what i've felt and observed in fandom, but especially mcu fandom, for years. the way there will be thousands upon thousands of fics for two white male characters who've never met, hardly interacted, or have barely anything in common, yet literal crumbs for fics showing natasha and gamora meeting and finding common ground. the way yelena has existed in mcu canon as nat's sister for not even 2 years yet the yelena & nat tag has already blown the gamora & nebula tag out of the water on ao3 (~1600 fics and 365 fics, respectively)

like i get it, the gotg were never going to be as popular as the avengers in fandom or whatever, but still it's just. kinda wild to me LMAO. and even if you just look in avengers fandom works alone, there's a clear racial bias there already—i mean, just look at the popularity of something like st*ve/b*cky compared to rhodey/tony, who have pretty comparable, longterm friendships, yet one is Infinitely more popular as a romantic ship than the other, and i wonder why.... so add that already present racial bias in with gotg being less popular and gamora having the misfortune of being both a woman and a poc. Well. the math sure maths, don't it

#in other words: i hate it here! #ask #the gamora situation

[parallelroutes-old]

what made you choose this muse? // is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP? // what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…) // what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

what made you choose this muse?

i like playing chaotic and spontaneous gremlins who are silly, weird, cool-looking, punk/goth, and seem empty/depressed deep down. hits a lot of nice 'oh that's my type of rp character' energies. and you will also get a mini story here too.

tbh when i looked around the internet for random series fanart in 2010, i ran into pics of him and genuinely used to think he was ... kinda ugly ngl. i have never liked the old design. personal pref. but i went hunting for random new fanart last year/2022, where i found his new design and was like "wtf that's the same guy? this is the best glow-up of the entire decade?"

that preference ties into why i only rp him as post-future arc? he is just... not attractive to me whatsoever before showing up with a new design LOL...

is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP?

Enma-kun, my beloved ♪

what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…)

80% my absolute favorite is other characters changing their opinions of him, esp if they're reluctant in some way. hurt/comfort, usually as comfort. fluff. deep convos. Wise Advice. atonement!!!

i struggle with making my own full AUs and making OCs takes so much effort for so little payoff rp-wise, so i just. i will let others make the AUs/OCs and i just join them in the party. gladly. bc i love both of them.

what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

current: i actually don't have one for sure yet? i'm still feeling out the verse so idk. right now i'm gonna guess green day - boulevard of broken dreams. mostly for that "i walk alone with my shadow bc that's all i know." aspect. see also:

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's home to me, and I walk alone

I'm walkin' down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the borderline Of the edge and where I walk alone

previously i had it as GLIM SPANKY - In the air because it was intended to be the 'parallel worlds traveling' thing, which i have not really been using. i will also skip luz's cover of Ikkitousen because that gives future arc byakuran vibes and you have just now been told how i feel about that, lol.

4YL: cristina vee's english cover of bad apple. ( thank u neo-chan. )

Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night? Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light? Am I hurting? Am I sad? Should I stay, or should I go? I've forgotten how to tell. Did I ever even know? Can I take another step? I've done everything I can All the people that I see I will never understand If I find a way to change, if I step into the light Then I'll never be the same, and it all will fade to white

this is just kind of the verse's whole vibe? the whole... living with people who only know 'you' of yesterday and don't want to see anything else - and a lot of them can't. but you don't want to be that person anymore.

that's why he's so sad and different. the entire point is to get him to 'move on' from the past and what he did. i should really go explain things and why you will primarily get the deep convos out of this verse, not current. eventually. i don't have much energy lately lmao.

#>> OOC. #>> ASK. #[ TY for sending! ] #[ sorry for not really... being here? ] #[ been more in discord / other khr sideblog lately ]

[kingdomoftyto]

Uh oh am I liveblogging ANOTHER IwtV thing? Two nights in a row? Yes, yes I am

I'll try to mush this one all into one big readmore post though, to keep it compact.

Anyway time to rewatch the 1994 movie and compare it to the early version of the script from '92! I hear it's got Different Vibes 👀

So first off, in the '92 script, we actually get to see Louis and Daniel meeting outside the bar, which is interesting. Louis confirms he was indeed hunting and that he only spared Daniel because he introduced himself right away.

... Oof, the portrayal of slavery/POC is even more uncomfortable written out than it is onscreen. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I'm a bit surprised to learn that the detail of Louis having a dead wife and child goes back to this early draft, though I guess it is an easier shorthand for grief than having to explain the brother thing. (For those who don't know: the wife was invented for the movie. Book!Louis was never married, and the AMC show was actually pretty spot on with his family history. He had an extremely religious younger brother named Paul, who was mentally unwell, and who fell to his death in an ambiguous accident/suicide, which Louis' family sort of blamed him for. It was the biggest catalyst for his spiral into depression and self-destruction.)

Speaking of movie!Louis' dead wife:

That's some pretty LOADED metaphor, there, monsieur 👀

I LOVE this. Lestat casually saving him, then just smugly backing out of the room with a shit-eating grin. Also a neat parallel to the cane-sword thing from the AMC show--I wonder if that was a reference to this somehow...? I don't remember book!Louis drawing any weapons before Lestat attacked him although I may have just forgotten.

Then, Louis still has a confrontation with the gambler who draws a pistol on him. A neat detail that got cut is that the guy actually challenges Louis to a duel, but he just laughs and declines. The guy calls him a coward. I like that.

... Oh. Huh. The entire bit with Lestat flying into the air, asking Louis "Do you still want death?", and dropping him into the river is not actually in the draft. He just bites him and then leaves him in the rainy street. Who the heck decided that the Loustat First Bite henceforth needed to include unexplained levitation?? I'm not complaining, mind; I'm just baffled lmfao

Lestat ghostwrote this part

oh sHIT... beta Louis is not here to play games! He continues to be angry for the rest of this scene lmao

... Oh wow, and then as Lestat is trying to sell him on the merits of vampirism, there's a whole dream sequence of them sailing a ship through a dark ocean, riding horses, attending lavish balls... All this while the sound of heartbeats is overlaid on top of his voiceover. Hoo boy.

REALLY giving Lestat more credit than usual here! Interesting indeed. Also love the detail that he's sitting on the bed. Still Not Gay Enough, but doing his best

... OH. Oh holy FUCK. There's a WHOLE SCENE of Lestat convincing Louis to MURDER A WOMAN WITH A KNIFE. It's the woman who tried to poison his drink earlier--I wasn't expecting that to be foreshadowing anything!! God, yeah, okay, I can see why this was cut from the final version but also this would have made a HUGE difference to the story, holy shit. It would have made Louis' tortured guilt over feeding on people more hypocritical later, and it would have shown that Lestat really did go out of his way to get Louis' informed consent on the turning. This is pretty much canon (not a woman, but he does have to assist with a murder), but it happens pretty quickly in the book and isn't brought up nearly enough.

For the sake of the movie I guess they wanted Lestat to be more irredeemably evil, and I don't blame them for that. But damn, this would have been SO different. It was obviously written with Lestat's personality from later in the series in mind, because he goes out of his way to find an "evildoer" as their target for the exercise.

Ohhh boy. Little out of character, but I'll allow it because it's pretty gay

Jesus, okay, so Louis runs to the crypt of his wife and kid, and Lestat taunts him, asking if he'd rather join them. Louis says he deserves to die for killing the tavern girl, and Lestat punches the crypt open so Louis can see the rotting corpses of his dead family

FELLAS, THAT'S GAY

And then Lestat pulls a fakeout and drops him on the ground, says "you can leave now", and ‼️BLOWS HIM A KISS‼️

Louis cries out "No! Give it to me!" and THEN Lestat finally turns him

PHEW, that is a LOT more buildup to the turning and a LOT more seductive Lestat vibes (as opposed to the final movie, where the selling points he provides to convince Louis to join him are basically just that vampires are free from sickness and death, and wouldn't it be cool to live forever?).

Noooooo not the buttons!! 😭 How could they have cut one of my favorite lines from the book again. Still mad that they didn't reference it in the AMC series

Presented without comment

Then Lestat takes Louis hunting and it's book-accurate (a.k.a. Very Uncomfortably Racist)

There's some quick scenes of them showing-not-telling which vampire stereotypes are myths (Louis sees himself in a mirror, etc), but I think it was wise to just have it cut back to Daniel asking Louis directly like it does in the final cut (and in the book).

👀

Anne Rice over here trying to retcon Lestat into a decent person right when he should be at the peak of his assholery lmaoooo

Then we get the scene where Lestat drinks from the other tavern girl ("Teresa" in the script). In the final cut, Louis looks wildly uncomfortable as this takes place, but the original had him "amazed and amused in spite of himself". Then:

WHO IS THIS and WHAT has he done with my Louis

Also fascinating that Louis didn't succumb to temptation in the original but DID in the final cut. Guess they really wanted that super awkward kiss/bite thing to happen. God the final version of this scene is so dumb lmao

(also this has nothing to do with the draft script but I hate the little claw thumb ring thing they gave Lestat in the movie. Just let him cut people with his nails. They're vampires, for god's sake)

There's a whole scene of Lestat teaching Louis this "game" of taking little sips of blood from people without them even noticing. I don't recall this "Little Drink" concept being mentioned in the first three books, so I'm left to assume it's mentioned later on in the series.

(Similarly, I see the word "swoon" used CONSTANTLY in fanfic and at least once already in this very script, but I don't remember it being a thing in the books I've read. I guess it must be a common terminology later in the series, though, for it to be so pervasive in the fandom??)

(Btw it's a little maddening to me that none of the vampires in the series ever seem to question whether they could live off of these nonlethal bites. They try living off animals but it's Not The Same as human blood, so the craving gets overwhelming. But... why can't they just take small amounts of blood from several people instead of killing a whole person? Morality problem solved?? Hello???)

... Okay the script is now diverging significantly from the movie, so my side-by-side comparison isn't going to work as well. The final version of the movie has moved on to the scene where Lestat teaches Louis that they can drink from animals, and then to the party where Lestat realizes Louis can't read minds. They have a conversation about how "evildoers taste better" and Louis fails to kill the poodle lady.

In the SCRIPT, on the other hand, the mind reading and "evildoers taste better" conversation takes place during the "Little Drink" scene I mentioned before, followed by a quick detour of Lestat breaking into some rando's house and stealing some books (???). Louis then presses Lestat on their purpose, what the meaning of it all is, etc, and Lestat gets pissy with him. I think some of this dialogue ended up in the final cut. But THEN:

WHOA, WE'RE REALLY DOING THIS

They duck briefly into a theater where a production of Macbeth is in full swing. Louis won't drop the subject, so:

my GOD

SHE REALLY WANTED TO PUT HIS ENTIRE BACKSTORY IN THIS MOVIE, HOLY SHIT

ANNE NO, IT'S KIND OF IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT THAT LOUIS THOUGHT LESTAT WAS PENNILESS hadsjgkhdsjfhjdsakg

I can't BELIEVE this. Retcon level over 9000

"KINDLY"??? And god, changing this part of the exposition from Louis telling Daniel to a scene of Lestat telling Louis changes SO MUCH. ANNE... ANNE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING

He's so gentle and PATIENT. This is like a fix-it fic for her own damn dysfunctional characters.

Anyway obviously this is where the rat scene happens in the original script.

... AH. Got it now, this line makes WAY more sense in the original context than it does in the final cut lmfao. Also, Lestat's quiet little "yes" in response to Louis specifically admiring the rat gives me some BIG TIME feelings. Flashbacks to newly fledged Lestat plucking a live rat off the floor in front of some mortals to stare in wonder at its wiggly little toes.

Yeah yeah, this is the "explanation" I always assumed--that they crave the death just as much as the blood itself--but I still call bullshit. The only real problem here is that Louis isn't practiced enough to bite without killing. He just needs to learn the restraint first. I'm gonna remain forever salty about this worldbuilding detail sorry lmao

... Ah, okay, and then we move on to the burning of Pointe du Lac. So the poodle lady wasn't in the original script at all. Makes sense lmfao. That does also mean it didn't have the part where Louis attacks Lestat and Lestat gleefully laughs, "Anger! Fury! That's why I chose you!" and claims "Life without me would be even more unbearable."

...

oh WHOA, REALLY?! One of the BEST bits of dialogue in the entire movie was NOT in the original script? The whole iconic part of Lestat throwing a tantrum in the burning mansion ("Perfect! PERFECT!! Just burn the place! Burn everything we own!" / "You thought you could have it all..." / "Shut up, Louis!") was not in the original. Instead, all she wrote was:

Which, yes, is more Loustat flavored, but at the cost of Lestat making a big dramatic scene. No question which version is better lmfao

God, if ONLY Lestat was even a fraction this forthcoming in canon. They could have avoided all their problems entirely if he'd been willing to actually talk these things out

Man, this script is DETERMINED not to let Lestat come across as the bad guy... and also maybe to paint Louis as the bad guy, a little bit. (Yikes. Even if he is undoubtedly in the wrong sometimes: yikes.)

Okay THIS could have stayed though. Alas, too romantic for mortal eyes. 😔

....

OH. HAHA. SERIOUSLY, ANNE RICE??

Okay so that super romantic exchange I screencapped just now was a full-on REPLACEMENT for the scene with the two whores at the inn. You know, the one where Lestat traps the second lady in a coffin and psychologically tortures her while he needles at Louis to kill her? The scene that the final movie rips almost word-for-word from the book??? She tried to CUT THAT SCENE and skip straight from this tame little argument to Louis wandering onto the plague street.

Just WOW.

For the record, that is ANOTHER of the best scenes in the final movie, because Lestat is completely fucking unhinged in it, and it is also equal parts darkly funny and genuinely horrifying. Thank god the AMC show had the sense to adapt it.

......hpfjkfghdJFHJDSGHDJFKLHVJNJFE

I skipped ahead a little to make sure she hadn't just rearranged some scenes before Claudia's turning, and

indeed, the scene with the two whores has been cut entirely

WE GET LESTAT'S ✨ENTIRE✨ BACKSTORY IN THIS SCRIPT. THE WHOOOOLE FUCKING THING. I ONLY CAUGHT GLIMPSES OF IT BUT HE TALKS ABOUT GABRIELLE! ABOUT ARMAND!! DIRECTLY TO LOUIS! HOLY SHIT HOW IS THIS EVEN GOING TO WORK

Mon dieu, I'm less than a quarter of the way through this script and it's after 3:30 a.m. I'm going to have to split this up into multiple posts at some point anyway, so I might as well cut this off here so I can experience Lestat hogging the spotlight in its full glory, when I'm more awake

#Tyto reads IwtV92 #this is going to take a few posts lmao rip #holy frick though this is a WILD ride

[mondaijo]

I would KILL for a backstory to that dragon mo ran and his hoard

...don't tempt me like this anon!!!!!!

while I'm drawing a scene like that I can't help but start thinking about how that happened? so p0rn or not, I try to conjure a story so I can understand better what got these characters where they are, what are their expressions, how they're related to each other etc etc.

this is from what I had originally in mind for this AU, but also from when I mentioned it on twitter and some people started giving me some ideas! so what I had in mind was basically:

(under the cut!)

cw: non/dubcon mentions & parallels with 2ha main plot, which could be spoilers if you haven't finished the book //

(disclaimer: all the monsterf*cking prompts I came up with were all badly disguised excuses for drawing ultra corny p0rn cause I think it's super fun.... like those corny romance covers? like that vibe lmao, I strayed from it a little but but at first I wanted chu wanning to be a damsel in distress princess from a cheesy western fantasy world, that was kidnapped by the evil dragon that, gasps, has two huge dongs............. so yeah it's very tropey and corny and cheesy and somehow mo ran is based on a western fantasy dragon, cause I needed the whole evil dragon with a hoard thing.... for extra horny points......... this is so bad... but please enjoy)

- chu wanning is the only son of a noble (huai zui), king to a secluded and kinda small kingdom, and after trying to rebel and break free from his father's control, he is being kept locked up inside the palace until huai zui can secure a nice marriage for him that would make his family more politically powerful etc etc.

-of course chu wanning is an unparalleled beauty here too, and also very kind, strict, and skilled in cultivation, so he wishes to break free from the palace and his family so that he can save the common folk (I love him)

-before huai zui can marry him off (maybe to this other noble's son called shi mei?? 👁👁) the settlements/small towns around the palace report dragon sightings, and missing livestock. the towns panic and some people start to go missing too, and before they can do anything about it the dragon shows up and attacks the palace & city around it, causes some damage, maybe k*lls some guards too. oh no he calls himself taxian-jun 👀 he lays siege to the castle, being a very fucking awesome dragon and all, and despite all the offerings of food and gold and riches, the only thing that he says will make him leave is the king's son ~

-cwn is still locked up and he only knows what's going on through some guards gossiping near him, and even though huai zui does his best to beat the dragon so that he won't need to give away his prized beauty, no matter what he does taxian-jun is too powerful.....! and if it goes on he'll just destroy the whole palace......

-so he does end up giving chu wanning away, who's suddenly being taken from his room and draped in red to marry the dragon??? who's actually very big and hot (quite literally)............ oh no..............!

-wanning is brought to mo ran's cave and now he's one of mo ran's prized possessions/hoard too.... he's being kept away just like before, txj does txj things and there's probably a lot of non/dubcon too, but then despite being an evil tyrant dragon, deep down he finds out mo ran (which he learns is his name) can be kind too 🥺 (this is like, peak beauty & the beast shit)

-probably something something about cwn saving mo ran when he was little, even though he was a "monster"..... mo ran thought all humans were bad but this one is not only the most beautiful person he's ever met (who reminds him of his late mom), but also very kind...!

-and uh something something about taking revenge against the emperor (ru feng) for what they did to his mom, maybe he's cursed too (something akin to the flower, that makes him try and raze everything to the ground) and wanning finds out and wants to help him since in a way mo ran helped him too!

-yadda yadda there's a lot of political intrigue and war stuff that would sound very nice if I could make it up so please insert it here to make the story cooler, in the end they save the world and each other and it's beautiful, they fuck a lot too! so good for them, good for them......

please enjoy this masterpiece, anon, you'll never read anything quite as grand as what I have just written 😌

#anon #2ha #ranwan #dragon mo ran #chu wanning #congratulations anon #you just made me write this masterpiece #I don't think any piece of fictional media can quite compare to this #EXQUISITE WORLDBUILDING I WOULD SAY #lmao I told you it was tropey stuff..................................................... #cw: noncon / dubcon mentions

[makeste]

hello! I’ve seen some debate as to whether the 2nd meant allies in general would bolster izuku and although I do think that’s true (ofc any sort of support system that he lets himself rely on would bolster him) I feel like if that was what was meant it would’ve been made clearer? maybe instead of just katsuki showing up, the final panel would’ve had several students burst onto the scene. what are your thoughts?

agreed. and incidentally this is another big reason why it's not Toga. if it was her then Horikoshi wouldn't have devoted any time to OFA II's little hype speech. it just makes it kind of pointless, unless this whole time we've been sleeping on Toga's hidden ability to bolster Deku lmao.

but anyways, yeah. and I mean, Two's commentary here is really just acknowledgement of something we've long since known already. Kacchan is the one who will ultimately be able to reach Deku. we don't actually need a piece of dialogue to tell us this, because the manga has been showing it to us since day one. his resume is fucking stacked. I mean, let's go through it.

he is mean.

I love this you guys. I honest to god love it. because the thing is, if you ask anyone what Kacchan's absolute worst quality is, this would be the obvious answer, right? "he's an asshole" lmao.

but that's exactly what we need right now!! someone who's not afraid to tell it like it is, and won't try to sugarcoat things. someone who's not afraid to argue back and risk hurting someone's feelings. because right now Deku is walking all over anyone who can't do that. All Might tries to feed him lunch and he's like "nah I'm good, anyways bye." Endeavor tries to tell him to rest and he's all "I'm fine" and fucking hangs up the phone. nuh uh. enough of that. what we need is someone who will call him out on his shit. "hah!? don't tell me you're fine when it's obvious to anyone you can barely stand on your own two feet, dumbass."

he is stubborn.

kind of ties into the other thing, but yeah. right now we need a bullheaded asshole who won't take no for an answer if he thinks he's right. good luck trying to sweet talk your way out of this one, Deku.

he understands the situation.

this one is important, because in fairness, simply standing in front of Deku and saying "you shall not pass" isn't gonna be enough to actually accomplish anything here. ultimately he's going to have to be able to reason with Deku too. and so in that respect, it certainly doesn't hurt that Kacchan is someone who understands the OFA situation as well as anyone, and has always had clear judgment about it. he understands the threat of AFO ("they all died young"), and he understands the burden of All Might's legacy. he knows what Deku is dealing with, and that's going to give him an edge when it comes to finding that elusive-yet-critical talk no jutsu knockout blow.

he's been where Deku is now.

Kacchan knows a thing or two about burdens. granted, they've more often than not been ones that he's put on himself, but that didn't make them any less heavy. Deku right now is struggling not just with his feelings of responsibility, but also with all of the misplaced guilt that's feeding into it. AFO is targeting him. if innocent people get caught in the crossfire then that's on him. every minute that AFO stays out there getting stronger and causing more chaos is all on him, because he hasn't defeated him yet. and so on and so forth.

and Katsuki knows what that's like. because he blamed himself for what happened to All Might. that feeling of "if I'd only been stronger" is one that he's intimately acquainted with. that feeling of blaming yourself, of not being able to look someone you care about in the eye because you think it's your fault they got hurt. this is something he knows. this is a road he's already been down. and so if Deku tries to pull any "you don't understand" nonsense, Kacchan is uniquely situated to immediately shoot that shit right down.

he's immune to low blows.

lol I keep thinking of all the different counterarguments that Deku could make, and all the different ways in which Kacchan is perfectly equipped to handle them. anyway, so this particular thing is a very recent development, but very fortunately timed. so as we all know, Kacchan was a first class dick to Deku during their childhood. something which Deku, with his abnormally kind and forgiving nature, has never once confronted Kacchan about, even though he would have absolutely had the right. but anyway, so here's the thing though -- right now I fully believe that Deku can and will do or say just about anything in order to get Kacchan and the others to leave. and that includes hurting them in order to save them. so it would not surprise me at all if Deku goes as far as to throw Katsuki's old, cruel, selfish behavior back in his face as part of a last-ditch effort to get him to back down. desperate times and all that.

and maybe there was a time when that actually would have worked. but here's the other thing -- we know something Deku doesn't. namely, that Kacchan has recently leveled up emotionally and has finally unlocked his atonement quest. he finally understands that it's not all about him. which means that it doesn't matter even if Deku pulls out the big guns. he may hurt his feelings, but he's not going to scare him off, because Kacchan's focus right now is on atonement, not forgiveness. he's not doing this for a pat on the head. he's doing it because it's the right thing to do. and no amount of insults will be able to sway him from that.

he learned from the best.

I said this in another post a couple of weeks back, but yeah. Angsty Nomad Deku has nothing on early Kacchan in terms of pushing people away. early Kacchan was the motherfucking king of pushing peeps away. if you so much as LOOKED at this kid in such a way that SUGGESTED you might even be THINKING about possibly trying to save him, he would straight up throw a ten-year hissy fit lmao. Deku's "All Might, you don't have to tag along anymore"s ain't got SHIT on all of Kacchan's "STAY BACK DEKU"s and "I'D RATHER LOSE!!!"s and "OMFG HOW DARE YOU BE THE ONLY PERSON TO TRY TO SAVE ME FROM THIS RAMPAGING SLUDGE MAN WHO'S ABOUT TO SUFFOCATE ME TO DEATH"s. Kacchan is the undisputed goat here lol.

but anyway, so what this means is that he has accumulated a whole HOST of iconic lines and fateful parallels which he can throw back in Deku's face at a moment's notice. and the best part is that he learned it all from THIS EXACT MOTHERFUCKER, RIGHT HERE. what is Deku even gonna do!! argue against his own past actions?? "well, uh, I guess now that you mention it I should have just sat back and watched you die all those times" OH REALLY?? YOU DON'T SAY. THAT SOUNDS SO CONVINCING.

and so guess what, Deku -- if Kacchan was worth saving, then you're worth saving too. it's an ironclad argument. congratulations son you played yourself.

he always wins.

okay so real talk, we all know that what's really driving Deku right now is his fear of losing people. he's helpless against that. he saw Kacchan get stabbed right before his eyes and it fucked him up. he saw all these other people getting hurt and killed because he couldn't save them, and he straight up could not deal with those emotions at all. he's scared. he's more afraid of that happening again than of anything else. and AFO knows that, and that's why he's resorted to his current tactics, which have isolated Deku even further and caused him to push even All Might away.

what Deku is missing right now, and what he needs to have restored, is trust. trust is the antidote to fear. and when you're as scared as Deku is, it takes an extraordinary amount of assurance in order to ease those fears. basically you don't want to place your faith in anything less than an absolutely sure thing.

but Kacchan is exactly that. this is the exact type of situation that Kacchan's "aiming for the top" overkill confidence was made for. he's the one who never loses!! the hero who's going to surpass all other heroes!! Deku inherited All Might's compassion, but Kacchan inherited his determination. Kacchan is someone who brings reassurance. his confidence is unwavering. and in the end, I think it will be strong enough to pull even Deku back out from the darkness.

he is strong.

Kacchan is Deku's rival in every sense of the word, and I fully believe he's capable of matching him step for step even now. and so Deku can try to push him away, but Kacchan is capable of withstanding that force and staying his ground. Deku can try to run, but Kacchan still has him matched for speed. and as a last resort, Deku can even try to defeat him -- but Kacchan won't ever concede to defeat.

and all of this ties back into what I was saying about trust. because Kacchan is strong. strong enough not to die. strong enough to live. strong enough to not make others worry about him. and that's what Deku so desperately needs right now in order to finally let go of his fears. Deku needs someone who can get him to trust in others again, and to do that, he has to be able to trust in their strength.

and last but not least...

he has a secret weapon up his sleeve.

several, as a matter of fact. his hero name reveal. his apology, if he chooses to give it now (though I could see him waiting for a more sincere moment, rather than whipping it out now when it could be misconstrued as a manipulation tactic). but perhaps most importantly...

never underestimate the power of an iconic role reversal. because that's what I'm getting at here, if it wasn't clear lol. this probably would have worked better if I had a picture of him actually reaching out to Deku. but I mean, that's kind of the point lol. I don't have one because he hasn't done it yet. BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE. good luck withstanding that, Deku.

so yeah. look at all that. he really is a one-man Deku-saving army. which is not to say that the other kids won't have a part to play as well, or that it's not important for them to be there, because it is. but as far as the lead role goes, it's Kacchan. like that astronaut meme guy says. always has been.

oh and as a bonus he was smart enough to finally leave the mask at home today lol. LET DEKU SEE THE SINCERITY IN YOUR EYES. YESSSSSSS.

#bnha 318 #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #bakudeku #bnha meta #bakugou meta #deku meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks

[greensaplinggrace]

honestly THANK YOU for saying all that abt baghra bc i thought i was going crazy from not liking her??? bc i haven't read the books and only summaries of them on wiki and like. i dunno why ppl like her actually even in the show bc this guy, her son, is like "i wanna make the world better for us grisha" and she's just like "no." even tho he sees that she's MAKING HERSELF SICK from suppressing her powers! she's literally like in bed coughing in the flashback yet seem much healthier at the little palace. also like after everything, after her disapproval, after the fold, after centuries of waiting for the sun summoner.. he never abandons her. he makes sure she's cares for. he doesn't harm her. and i have to wonder if baghra has ever thanks him for that, for just not leaving her alone. like i dunno how im suppose ro believe aleks is a heartless villain when he still cares for his abusive mom like this. like has baghra even told her she loved him (honestly she reminds me of a classic emotionally unavailable asian parent but maybe that's just me). also im wondering if baghra ever told aleks that he had an aunt.. bc like.. now that u bring up her isolating him it's like hmmmm...

not at me being like alina... why do u trust the bitter old woman who literally beats u with a stick and verbally abuses u every chance she gets.. just bc she showed a bad painting... like.. pls use two braincells to see that who u figured out as his mother... is also using his protection..

like baghra could've upped and left with alina. but no. she stayed bc she knew she was safe under aleks's protection.

alsoim just impressed that after his first friend tried to drown him and harvest his bones... he didn't go into hiding???? he still wanted to make a safe heaven for grisha!!! HE STILL WANTED TO PROTECT GRISHA EVEN AFTER HIS GRISHA FRIEND TRIED TO KILL HIM FOR HIS FUCKEN BONES. like... this is the guy im suppose to believe is the villain???

honestly i feel like part of the reason why LB's plotlines seem so bad and disconnected (and sometimes outright racist but that's another rant) and why darkles is disproportionately more violent and villainous in the later books is bc she didn't expect the darkling to be so popular and wanted to stick with her guns of making him the villain. but also wanted the money from aleks's popularity. but like you can't have ur cake and eat it too.

Well thank you for sending this ask! It's very sweet and very passionate. I'm glad you liked my post! I didn't put as much thought into it as some of my others lol. I kind of just talked. But it was nice to be able to finally talk about some of the problems I have with both her character and the fandom/author's perception of her.

HERE is the post this is referring to, in case anyone's wondering.

👀👀 You've hit the nail on the head for so many things, here!

Baghra is extremely emotionally unavailable, basically to the point of neglect. She's also verbally and physically abusive, traits which I doubt were only reserved for her students and not her son. Baghra claims she would do anything to protect him, but I've known a lot of parents who have that mindset and yet still harm their children because they think it's "good for them".

Aleksander stays at Baghra's side for years, and even when they're opposing each other she's never too far away from him. Idk if you've read the books but he does eventually hurt her. And as much as I don't like Baghra, I think his actions were horrid. But I'm also honestly kind of surprised it took him so long lmao.

Yeah I mean, in terms of isolation, let's not forget that she never wanted to introduce him to his father, either. Baghra's sense of eternity clouds a lot of her judgments on relationships, which means she views most people as dust and therefore teaches her son to as well. The problem with that is that he's a growing child, and he needs those social and emotional attachments for healthy development.

I would bet quite a bit of money that Baghra has either never told him she loves him or she has told him so few times it's practically forgettable.

And everything becomes more complicated because so many of Baghra's actions are understandable because of her life and her history, but the impacts they have on the people around her, especially Aleksander, are permanently damaging. And the fact that that's never gone over in critical depth in the books or how it's glossed over in fandom is just very disconcerting. Like, acknowledging Baghra's failings doesn't mean we're excusing Aleksander's actions, it just means we're holding Baghra liable for her own. Which the fandom should be doing, considering she's the epitome of an abusive parental figure.

And Alina trusting Baghra over Aleksander is even more confusing! Especially in the show!! This is the woman who beat her and abused her and tortured her friends when they tiny little children (and who probably still does so now that they're adults). This is the woman who mocks you and harasses you and insults you on a regular basis. Why does Baghra revealing she's Aleksander's mother make Alina change her mind?! Like fuck, I'd just feel bad for Aleksander. No wonder he kept it a secret, I would too! And that painting is enough evidence?! Really?! A random painting shown to you by this abusive mentor that's been making your life hell. That's what you're going to betray your new lover over?

The friends trying to harvest his bones thing is a good point, too. I think Aleksander, especially show Aleksander, is incredibly idealistic. I think he cares too much for others - those he's deemed worth his care (a sentiment given to him by Baghra). Despite everything she's tried to teach him about hiding and abandoning others and never caring and never doing anything to help or reach out or connect with people, Aleksander still continues to do so. It's likely because he never got it from Baghra growing up, and so is desperate for those emotional needs to be fulfilled elsewhere.

His turning point, when Baghra tells him it was understandable that those kids tried to kill him because the world is such a hard place for them - that's crucial. And the reason it's possible as a motivating factor is because of that idealism and that desire to help and that desire to be everything his mother isn't. Baghra tells him this trauma he just experienced was because of the oppression of his people, and instead of following her lead and accepting that, going into hiding and abandoning everybody to their misery, he goes I can do something about that. I can make it so this never happens again. Which is usually how trauma like that combines with one's core personality traits at a young age, especially when there's none of the essential support systems in place to aid in recovery (ie, the role Baghra should have been filling but wasn't, because she decided to exacerbate the problem instead).

And yeah, one of my biggest problems with the ham-fisted "beating you over the head with a sledgehammer of evil deeds" look-how-bad-this-character-is! portrayal of the Darkling in the later books comes from the impression I get that Bardugo doesn't trust her readers. She's so desperate to have us hate this character and think him an irredeemable villain, not trusting any of her readers to engage critically with a morally gray character, that it feels quite a bit like condescending fucking bullshit. Which ew, I know how to engage with literature, thanks.

She really does seem to look down on a large part of her fandom, and imo, the infantilization of the female characters in her books seems to carry over to her impression of most of her female readers as well. Which is why the Darkling's character arc gets fucking destroyed. But he's still a good cash grab, of course, so she'll shake his dead corpse in front of the fandom for money every time she wants something from it.

Also! Another reason I think her plotlines feel disconnected (I'm sorry Bardugo I respect you as a person, but shit-) is because the writing in SaB is just bad. I mean, nevermind the absolutely nauseating implications of the way she portrays the Grisha as a persecuted group who's situation is never actually fully addressed as it should be, considering Grisha rights is what her main villain is fighting for (imo for a series called the Grishaverse, LB seems to be pretty anti Grisha), but her characters and story alone are just wrong for each other. They don't fit together.

And the ending is one of the main pieces of evidence in that regard! You can’t say the ending where Alina isn’t Grisha anymore is her “going back to where she started” when she’s always been Grisha. She just didn’t know she was Grisha because she denied that part of herself that she was born with.

Alina is reluctant to move forward or change, she struggles with adapting, and she’s very set on the things she’s grown attached to throughout her life. She also has some latent prejudices against the Grisha, and so denies the possibility of being Grisha for those reasons as well.

Alina’s lack of powers in the beginning of her life because she willfully doesn’t learn about them to avoid change versus her lack of powers at the end of the book when she’s accepted them and then they’re stripped away from her by outer forces are two entirely separate circumstances. You can’t make a parallel about lost powers and lack of Grisha status bringing her back to the start when she was always Grisha and she always had powers and she simply refused to come to terms with it because of personal reasons.

The first situation is an internal conflict that indicates a story about growth and a journey of self acceptance. Denying herself the opportunity to learn about her heritage and to find acceptance with a group of people like her because she’s tied to the past and because of the way she was raised is the setup for a narrative that tackles unlearning prejudice and learning how to connect with a part of her identity that was denied her and learning how to grow independent and self assured. It’s the setup for a different story entirely. The second situation is an external conflict that centers around the ‘corrupting influence of power’... for some reason.

In a world where Grisha do not have social, political, or economic power and they are hunted, centering your heroine’s journey of self acceptance and growth around an external conflict about... the corrupting influence of power (in a group of people that don’t actually have any power?!) just doesn’t work. It is literally impossible to connect the two stories Bardugo is trying to push in Shadow and Bone without seriously damaging the main character’s developmental arc.

The only way a narrative like this would work, claiming that she has gone back to where she started, is either a) if the Grisha weren’t actually a persecuted group and instead were apart of the upper class, or b) if the one bad connection between the two instances is acknowledged - that Alina denied a part of herself crucial to self acceptance and growing up, and that losing her powers at the end has also denied her. It is a tragedy, not a happy ending.

Alina suffered because she didn’t use her powers. She grew sick. It was bad for her. This was not a resistance to 'the corruption of power and the burden of greed', it was her suffering because she couldn’t fully accept herself.

Framing the ending as a return to the beginning can’t be done if you don’t address how bad the beginning was for your main character. You brought her back to a bad point in her life. You regressed her. This should be a low point in her arc. It should be a problem that’s solved so she can finish developing organically or it should be something that is acknowledged as a tragedy in it’s own right, for the future the world (the writing) denied her.

This is a ramble and it makes no sense and I’m really sorry, but my point is that Bardugo put the wrong characters in the wrong story. The character arc required for organic development doesn’t match the story and intended message at all. The narrative doesn’t fit the cast. She's got two clashing stories attempting to work in tandem and she ends up with both conflicting messages that fans still can’t comprehend in her writing and an ending that doesn’t suit her main character to such an impossible degree that it’s almost laughable.

So yeah, there's a few reasons why I think the story and the plot feels so bad and disconnected. I hope you don't mind me making this answer so long! 😅 I was not expecting to write this much.

#shadow and bone #sab #grishaverse #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #mymetas #the darkling #baghra critical #anti leigh bardugo #sorry! #sab salt #sab meta #fandomcourse #negative #negativity #myramblings #asks and answers #joonmono #anti baghra #leigh bardugo critical #abuse tw #torture tw

[iheartbookbran]

Ok so actually my biggest problem with the whole “Daenerys will burn KL” theory—not even the Mad Queen Dany theory, which is of course very sexist for obvious reasons, but just like, the idea that Dany will ~accidentally~ ignite the wildfire in the city, burning it all to the ground. That, at first, doesn’t sound that bad, but the longer I think about it the more I hate it because tbh it doesn’t do anything for her character? And also… that fate for her is just down right cruel.

Like, the most frequent argument I see on why this would be at all satisfactory for Dany’s arc is basically that it would be a sort of lesson for her about the dangers of unchecked power and the real threat the Dragons can pose on humans and that she shouldn’t use them to fight against other people. And that’s all well and good, excellent message… except that’s not something Dany’s ever really needed to learn? Not anymore that her fellow rulers, which I will touch on more detail later, but in general Dany has seen what the abuse of power can do. Starting with her conflicting feelings regarding Viserys and how she recognizes that even though he was her brother and she loved him, he also abused his power over her as her older brother, her only family and her king; she feels guilt about the atrocities Drogo committed to the lhazarene and tries to help them; she feels so much guilt about not handling things correctly in Astapor that she decides to throw away all her plans to go to Westeros and instead stays in Meereen.

And about not knowing the true danger that her dragons can pose? I mean, this is the same girl that literally agonizes across several of her ADWD chapters because Drogon killed a child, and then takes the extreme measure of caging Rhaegal and Viserion to prevent that from ever happening again. I think she’s at least a little bit aware that the dragons can be dangerous, thank you very much.

Ok so this got long...

Anyways, the only time Dany legit uses Drogon to harm someone and not just as bluff was at the house of the Undying, where she was being attacked, and in Astapor… and like, lmao, that asshole Kraznys mo Nakloz and the rest of his slaver buddies deserved it. Don’t at me. Also, Dany’s hardly the only one with a big magical and deadly beast at her disposal, why didn’t Robb had to go through some horrifying traumatic incident to learn he shouldn’t use Grey Wind in battle to tear his enemies’ throats. Bran will be learning about the dangers of abusing power, but that’s linked to his magic powers and an actual reprehensible thing he’s doing, not the use of his glorified prehistoric dog to kill, which he’s done, just like Robb. By all means let the narrative hold Dany accountable for her mistakes… but her actual mistakes and not shit she has no control over, because she doesn’t have much control over Drogon or the other dragons even though she’s trying to, and that’s very obvious in her last ADWD chapter where she’s delirious and Drogon could kill her at any moment, and she knows that.

The other big argument people make for Dany burning KL (even if it’s by accident!) is that it will teach her about the price of war, that someone as young as her shouldn’t be leading armies and conquering kingdoms, and that fighting for the Iron Throne is not a worthy cause, and I feel like that misses the actual point of her story by a mile. First of all because a) Dany is hardly the only teenage ruler in the story and b) this is a fantasy medieval story, a lot of the characters shouldn’t be doing the things they do, aaaand yet. Also speaking of other teenage rulers with far more power that they should have—Robb and Jon, being the biggest examples.

Granted, Robb and Jon aren’t exactly successful during their time as rulers, they’re literally betrayed and killed by their own men (even if Jon will technically come back for round 2 of bullshit he’s too tired for). But the moral of their stories is not that they lost because theirs was an unworthy cause and they were stupid kids wholly unprepared for their roles. And I actually partially agree! They are just kids, including Dany, and they shouldn’t be responsible for looking after so many others and going to battle, but their cause is still just and worthy, even with all the mistakes they make along the way. Robb didn’t loose because he was wrong in demanding justice for his family or trying to protect the riverlands from the Lannisters and their minions, he lost because Tywin Lannister was a giant coward who couldn’t take him out in a fair fight.

Likewise, it isn’t wrong of Jon to try to incorporate refugees from beyond the Wall into Westeros. He’s not too stupid and honorable to do politics like his father (how I hate when people insult Jon and Ned like that), and while he did some very obvious mistakes that inevitably ended in a coup and in him dying, this is more connected to his inability to let go of his ties with his family (mainly Arya or who he believes to be her), and in isolating himself from his friends and the people he could actually trust.

I’ve always thought that Dany and Jon share a parallel narrative within the story, so while Jon is struggling with that Dany is faced with similar problems. She cages her dragons, that to her represent the only family she has left, and she tries to compromise with the slavers, marry a man she doesn’t love, pretend she’s ok with reopening the fighting pit. While she tries her best to rule wisely in Meereen, it all comes at the cost of betraying herself and her beliefs, so it’s no surprise when it all crashes around her and she’s betrayed and nearly killed. Ironically, it is Drogon who comes to rescue her.

If they are monsters, so am I.—Daenerys II, ADWD.

This is hands down one of my favorite Dany quotes from the whole series, and I hate that it’s been given such a negative connotation in the fandom, when for me it represents Dany’s humanity and compassion at the fullest.

GRRM has a knack for humanizing the ‘monsters’ of his story, for showing the good in the outcasts and the ugly and the scary. He embraces their ‘otherness’ and makes them the heroes of his stories; Arya, Bran, Brienne, Dany, Tyrion, Jon, Theon and many others are all compared to monsters or beasts at one point or another in the books.

Dany sees herself in her dragons, literal monsters in every sense of the word. Later on she faces Drogon inside the pit, and in that moment you could say that she accepts that ‘monstrous’ part of her, and in doing so she’s saved from her fate of dying at the hands of the men who would crucify innocent children and gleefully profit off of the suffering of their fellow human beings while watching them fight each other to the death for their own amusement. Now tell me who’s the real monster in this situation.

But shortly before that happens, Dany is able to see the humanity in Tyrion, an outcast who has been branded as monstrous and unlovable due to his disability all his life, a man who has come to believe in his abusers’ rhetoric about him so strongly that he’s started to act cruel and detached. She saves his life. She sees value in his life when few others would, because she cares.

I’ve always find it funny that the “dragons plant no trees” is—another—example fans use to argue in favor of Dany’s descent into Darkness™ because the actual scene goes like this:

You are a queen, her bear said. In Westeros.

"It is such a long way," she complained. "I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl."

No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words.—Daenerys X, ADWD.

Now am I the only one who finds it at least a bit relevant that it’s freaking Jorah Mormont aka Jorah the Enslaver whom Dany’s subconscious, at her literal lowest moment, utilizes to represent this particular thought, which btw I’ve always interpreted as Dany’s own self-loathing manifesting in her, and this is something she’s actually always struggled with—the idea that she’s not enough and she’s failing. Because above all things, even Westeros or the Iron Throne, what Dany wants is peace, she wants to plant trees.

When Dany made her descent, Reznak and Skahaz dropped to their knees. "Your Worship shines so brightly, you will blind every man who dares to look upon you," said Reznak. […] This match will save our city, you will see."

"So we pray. I want to plant my olive trees and see them fruit." Does it matter that Hizdahr's kisses do not please me? Peace will please me. Am I a queen or just a woman?—Daenerys VII, ADWD.

But of course the world doesn’t work like that, and so long as there’s Jorahs and Tywins and Eurons out there, men who would take the freedom of humans and submit them to their will, Dany can’t have the luxury of peace, just like Jon can’t have the luxury of belonging and family so long as there’s people still beyond the Wall who need his protection.

And I think that’s fine. It’s fine that Dany failed, it will help her develop as a character and realize that there’s no room to compromise with slavers, the metaphorical monsters of the story who do far more harm than the other more literal ‘monsters’ of the story. So that when she has to face down Euron Greyjoy—who btw, there’s a high chance he will end up stealing one of Dany’s dragons via Victarion using Dragonbinder… y’know, as in enslaving one of her children and using said dragon to inflict god knows what horrors, yet not many people ever consider this for some reason?—she will know. When she has to face down the Others, the magical ice fairies with no regard for human life, she will know.

That’s why I believe that it would make absolutely no sense for Dany to have to go through such a tragic and traumatic experience like burning a whole city even by pure accident, over something that’s either never been a problem with her character or she’s well into her way of learning anyways, so it would just feel repetitive. As I have pointed out, she’s already reached one of the lowest moments of her arc. Not saying there will be no other blows for her, and probably the destruction of KL will be one of them, and knowing Dany she will feel responsibility over it no matter what, but that doesn’t mean she has to be the culprit, intentional or otherwise.

#yes i wrote this whole thing because i actually love the ‘if they are monsters so am i’ quote and i’m trying to push my agenda on others #jk i spend like half a minute in an anti dany blog and i was like. war #but i don’t regret it so #daenerys targaryen #stormborn #pro daenerys #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls #meta #my meta

[mikeshanlon]

i really enjoy the way young royals explores the theme of legacy and how detrimental it can be to have to live up to a legacy or be obsessed with reputation. (analysis and thoughts under the cut)

i think wilhelm resents the fact that he has to live up to the role of being in the royal family and yet is very afraid of ruining that legacy bc of all the pressure. before he was sent off to hillerska he went to a normal school and wanted normal people around him and was content with erik having to take on the responsibilities of crown prince. and when he does have to assume that role he says he can never be erik, that he’s always had to be compared to him and obviously doesn’t like that. but even before erik passed and he had to take on those duties he was afraid of fucking up the legacy of the crown, when he sees that sign in the hallway that says you are in charge of your own legacy after he holds hands with simon, his anxiety worsens. you can tell it’s been instilled in him for a long time that what is most important is the crown’s reputation rather than his own wants. in the scene where him and simon fight about alexander being caught, he obviously wants simon to stay, but he focuses on how him doing drugs will fuck up his family’s reputation if it gets leaked. as much as he cares for simon, his legacy and his duties are like this oppressive cloud hanging over him. 

i do think that wille cares for his family of course but to me it’s different that the sort of loyal unconditional care with simon and his sister/mom. erik and wille had unconditional love, erik understood how difficult being a prince in the public eye was, and wille obviously cared for him deeply and felt like he could to talk to him about issues. his relationship with the queen is much more strained, she wants a tailored, doctored representation of him in the media, he cannot be anxious and bite his nails, she makes all the decisions for him. family is important to wille partially because it has to be bc of how special his family is. he helps his family, he helps august pay his tuition, and then makes a point of disowning august after his betrayal as his new “brother”. but again, because of the royal status and expectations upon the family, that supersedes and colors all of their relationships with each other. it seems to be more a sense of “duty” than unconditional love. especially after erik’s death, wille always has to consider how the crown’s image will be impacted, even though he never wanted to have this responsibility, or even the responsibility of being the “regular” prince under erik. being a family unit that is under constant public scrutiny is going to strain relationships. the queen knows that the anxiety of fucking up his legacy will get to him, and she uses that to get wilhelm to back out of admitting it was him in the video and coming out. wilhelm has to choose between his own happiness and their reputation, is forced to think that denying it’s him in the video is the only way. he loves simon and wanted to live freely, but that pressure of legacy won out.

i don’t know if i think wille necessarily values the crown over his own personal happiness and relationships, like in the way maybe the queen does--i don’t think it comes from a place of “i’m lucky to be prince and owe my duty to the crown, so i do what i have to do to stay that way” (like how the queen said the crown is a privilege not a punishment), but from fear of destroying the legacy and his family. afterall, he still wanted to pursue a secret relationship with simon, i think if he fully valued the crown and uplifting legacy and fulfilling his duties he wouldn’t have tried that. he wouldn’t have made a point to tell simon he loves him. hopefully we get another season because i think with the iconic ending revolution rendition and him looking in the camera, which also parallels the shot of him being forced to apologize/go to hillerska, he is realizing that focusing on legacy is taking away what’s important to him, and he’s going to shake shit up.

august is definitely the most obsessed with legacy, wanting to carry on his father’s business, being persistent on befriending wilhelm and trying to social climb, wanting power and perfection with being prefect, rowing captain etcetera. he is so obsessed with perfection and reputation he gets addicted to drugs, he fucks with simon and makes him get stuff for parties he can’t afford because good parties will make him look better, he manipulates sara multiple times, he mostly wanted felice because of her nobility, he fucking films wilhelm and simon and OUTS him, his own cousin. he hates that wille has everything he wants but isn’t as interested in preserving and more importantly improving the legacy he’s inheriting. meanwhile august’s familial legacy is dwindling, and he holds on to the last bit of assets and names that he can.... v much sick and a weirdo that shows how harmful being obsessed with legacy is

the queen is of course v focused on legacy and it really breaks my heart and makes me angry that she doesn’t care about wilhelm’s happiness more than their reputation, and moreso doesn’t get august in trouble for literally leaking child p*rn of her kid for the sake of appearances?!?!?! like how is he even remotely trustworthy she is wrong for that! like i said earlier the obsession with legacy puts a strain on their mother/son relationship. she doesn’t even really say anything about wille’s sexuality or his relationship, and barely comforts him, mostly goes in with a plan she’s already concocted without him to fix everything. 

erik seemed to understand and accept his role as crown prince but obviously had issues with it as well, like when he makes the plan for him and wilhelm to run from the press, or when he tells wilhelm to enjoy himself while there aren’t so many eyes on him that care. erik shows someone who has more unconditional love and empathy but still has to focus on legacy and is much more inclined to continue his legacy, but we do see those glimpses over how even the most “ideal” attitude of preserving legacy causes issues.

felice is expected to live up to her mother’s legacy, of being an equestrian, of being the lucia, but she doesn’t want either of those things. her mother wants her to be thinner and straighten her hair, and find someone of nobility to be with. obviously she does find wilhelm attractive lol but i think the main reason she pursued him and definitely why she pursued august was because she was expected to social climb and have royal kids. felice feels the need to portray a false narrative of herself on social media to uphold a certain image of herself. it’s very fucked up that her mom wants those values instilled in her but i love that felice was putting up boundaries and pushing back against her mother and the narrative she’s supposed to live up to. her giving sara the role of lucia and focusing on supporting her friends more in the latter half of the season shows growth and i’m excited to see where her story goes. 

sara is interesting because she seems to want to reject the legacy of her family and being working class and to fit in with the elite of hillerska. sara hates micke, hates that simon contacted him because it’s bringing in this “shameful” and painful part of their past (which i mean is def fair). other than sara’s betrayal in 1.06, i think the scene where she tells her family that she wants to reside at hillerska really exemplifies where she’s at in her relation to legacy/class. after dining at hillerska and living amongst the elite she gets annoyed at eating around the TV, she blames her mother for not leaving micke sooner, she gets angry with simon for caring for her. she wants to lead her own life, be popular and wanted because people want her, not for pity (even though i think simon of course truly cares abt his sister she feels annoyed with his protection and care). felice says early on that she thinks sara doesn’t care what other’s think or having friends, and sara says she still wants friends though. i think sara’s biggest thing is she wants to belong, her and simon moved schools after she was bullied for being autistic so i think that definitely affected her even though she tries to act nonchalant about hillerska at first. we see sara’s longing to fit in in smaller ways at first, like her asking her mom for a better piece of her uniform because hers are “cheap” and already worn out. she gets annoyed at simon for chewing loudly, or her mother sitting casually at the table. as she gets closer to felice and madison and all the other students, the allure of the upper class and their lifestyle draws her in more. so much to the point where she gets very anxious and upset at the idea of her and simon leaving hillerska because he’s having his own crisis and doesn’t consider his pov. so much so that she effectively betrays simon and felice, the people she’s closest to, to make a deal (and make out lol) with august to room there and “be just like him”. personally i think sara’s attraction to august is mostly that allure of the elite and that he seemed to “desire” her when he kissed her because he was being a manipulative dickhead--again that want to fit in and be wanted. and  i think there is a really interesting angle of jealousy and competition in female friendships, even if it is really subtle or not intentionally insidious or anything, sara does slowly start to trying to assume all the roles/fashions/mannerisms of felice to live that life she wants. i do think felice and sara’s care for each other is genuine and one of my fave parts of the show, but i think a lot of people who experienced being a teen girl know how we are always pitted against each other even in our subconscious because of how society treats and values women.

simon seems to be the character that is least interested in upholding legacy and tradition or giving a fuck what anyone thinks (as omar said here lmao) and that makes him a really interesting foil to wilhelm. there could be something said about micke fearing that simon is following in his footsteps, but to me that plot more so reveals how the upper class (august) continually exploit the working class for their benefit, and the trappings of generational oppression. the other thing that can be said is simon signing up for private tutoring and rowing, but again i think that serves to further show that he is forced to “play” by the game of the elites because the school/society is corrupt, and also, that simon has further ambitions outside of where he’s at. he wants to get good grades because he wants to explore new places and avenues. to me simon’s biggest motivations are his passions, the things and people he loves--music, his family, wilhelm. he isn’t loyal to others just because he’s expected to be, or uphold a certain image but because he really cares. he doesn’t watch out for sara because that’s his expected role as her brother to do so, but because he cares. he wasn’t interested in knowing wilhelm because he’s a prince like everyone else, he makes it clear he thinks the royal family are privileged and exploitative, but he is interested because he saw the real wilhelm. he’s out and proud even though his elite classmates are more conservative, he doesn’t care about voicing his unpopular opinions, he has no problem walking away from august’s dickhead behavior or calling him out on his shit. simon doesn’t care if people don’t think of him in the best light. (the only exceptions ig are the drugs conflict and the video, though literally anyone would have a problem with that because it’s much deeper that public opinion and has ramifications and is deeply traumatic--but just adding that before someone is like “well actually!”) i also think it’s interesting that most of the songs simon sings has themes of pushing back against the societal norms, and being remembered in history, plus of course the revolution song motif, and how much those songs affect wilhelm, he seems to connect deeply, like he wishes he could do those things but simon is the one who gets to sing them and actually live them.

#young royals #the way this is 2k words lmfao #i do not expect ppl read to this but when the analytical worm starts gnawing on my rottin brain i must oblige

[swanqueensalad]

Is your question thingy still on? if so, would you rate top10 episodes to watch if you want swanqueen :)

ahhh this is such a good question!! and my ask box is literally always open for anything, i love chatting with y'all <3

this is Not a comprehensive list, just ten great ones that come to mind (plus two bonus ones and a lot of rambling bc, as always, i got carried away).

i've tried to put them in chronological order for the show!

1. a land without magic (1x22)

don't get me wrong, there's a lot of incredible swan queen episodes in season one (the pilot, desperate souls, that still small voice) but the content in finale just does something to me man...

emma pinning regina against the wall, the intensity of the confrontation and regina admitting everything, the way they're instantly a TEAM despite all that fury and heartache because henry comes before anything else, the literal entire sequence paralleling charming fighting maleficent and saving snow to emma fighting maleficent and saving regina, i -

2. broken (2x01)

feel like this a bit of a rogue one since, again, s2 has lots of good stuff, but there's a LOT going on in the premiere! emma promising to protect regina for henry (which we know develops into this kind of sacred oath she fulfils at her own peril over and over throughout the years) and being so attentive to her, saving her from the mob, helping her to her feet, human-shielding her, and the look on regina's face when emma's touch restarts her magic and opens a portal to another realm - the literal requirements for 'true love'. so, so good.

3. the cricket game (2x10)

a classic. emma starting to not only see but fight for the woman regina really is. this strange developing trust and respect, the desire to not be enemies for a brief second before it goes wrong again.

4. and straight on til morning (2x22)

i will never be able to scream enough about the sq development in the s2 finale. regina being the most vulnerable and herself in front of emma, begging her to let her die as herself because she knows she's the only one who could understand and grant her that - and emma not letting her, emma jumping in and finding their shared magic together for the first time to save each other and everyone else. emma speechless, seeing everything regina feels for henry.

also "you might not be strong enough but maybe we are" is one of my favourite swan queen lines, because i think it just sums up the whole ship!

5. going home (3x11)

jumping to the 3A finale, what can i say? once again, as always when it comes to henry, they are a team above all else. the group hugs, henry calling them 'mom, mama', emma being a human shield again, regina whispering her name as she wakes up, ready to give emma everything she ever wanted for herself and their son.

the incredibly intimacy and intensity of their goodbye and all those things unsaid and unfinished between them. *chefs kiss*

6. breaking glass (4x05)

ok so despite the stupid frozen arc, season 4 is actually one of my favourites for swan queen content, bc you have emma promising to give regina a happy ending in the premiere and seeing that all the way through to sacrificing herself for her in the finale. and that's what dreams are made of.

i specifically mention breaking glass bc there's so much sq screen time. emma is gutted that regina thinks she'll never have her back, literally follows her around all episode trying to prove the opposite (in the same way hook follows her around lmao), elsa telling emma not to give up on her.

and there's that gorgeous scene where emma is so honest with her about the two of them having something special and unique and different from what they have with anyone else, and that hopeful 'it's a start' ... i ...

7. operation mongoose (4x22)

what would be a list of top tier swan queen episodes without the climax of all that 'fighting for her happiness' - the saviour sacrificing herself to the darkness to save regina. this was truly the peak of ouat i swear to go d

also lots of nice stuff in the alternate reality with emma, henry and regina!

(before i move on from season 4 i do have to mention bonus episode: lily - emma's super gay fucking backstory, regina telling her she needs her, the first (?) swan queen road trip!, regina talking emma down from shooting lily/beating up that dude because she believes so strongly in emma's goodness)

8. dreamcatcher (5x05)

i remember after this episode came out, there was a post circulating of a bunch of c$ fans saying they were literally worried sq was becoming canon/getting undeniable.

so yeah. everything in this episode is pure gold. the swan mills family dynamics, regina trusting emma with her most painful memory, emma crying over the dreamcatcher, and that deliciously tense argument on regina's porch that was so electric it made sq feel inevitable. ('don't miss swan me, we've been through too much' is another favourite line!)

9. only you (5x22)

swan queen road trip, them being married af the whole time plus regina once again being her most open and vulnerable with emma? what more do you need

10. wish you were here (6x10)

this is another episode i don't think i can ever scream about enough - there's just so much to unpack! firstly, emma becoming enfuriated and attacking the evil queen because she's upsetting regina. secondly, regina thoughtlessly wishing to be sent after emma to get her back. thirdly... emma swan waking herself up from a curse and remembering who she is, sparking her own magic back to life, because even in her most cursed unknowing state she had to save regina mills.

how do you ever get over that (also they're so soft together once emma's awake, i...)

honorable mentions go to

enter the dragon (4x15) - for regina's gay backstory with mal, emma being insanely protective of regina and literally following her around all night super unhappy about her being in danger ('if i see anything i don't like i will come in blazing' oof) all the while regina is doing it to protect emma in return, jesus christ -

birth (5x08) - purely for the scene at the well where regina begs emma to tell her why she's hanging on to the darkness (aka begging emma to admit she loves her, while emma is being super repressed but they both know that's what they're talking about)

i'll be your mirror (5x08) - for all that good married sq teamwork content in the mirrorworld, regina admitting she's scared to raise henry alone and emma promising to always be there and never let anything bad happen, and the softness and tenderness of them watching him dance with violet and realising they've done such a good job together... i'm so weak bruh

#sorry this took so long and it's so fucking rambly hahah #but we all know that's what happens when you get me talking about this #thanks for this ask btw my lovely!!! #this was a really fun one #so much good stuff i probably haven't even mentioned but this post was long enough as it is #swan queen #sq #swan queen top ten #ouat #regina mills #emma swan #swan mills family #henry swan mills