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imaginedisish · 3 years

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Feels Like We Only Go Backwards (Tenet) Neil x Reader

A/N: Hey there guys!!! I’m back...again ahhhhh. I’ve been gone for a while (I always am) but hopefully I’ll be back for a while now :) I hope you’re all staying safe and doing well. I know the world is ass, but hopefully things will be better soon. Anyway, I’m obsessed with Tenet right now and I decided that I had to write a Neil x Reader one shot (I love Robert Pattinson, it’s a problem) Also, I think this is my longest fic yet...if someone wants to let me know how to do the “keep reading” thing, please tell me omg. I’m so sorry to those who have to scroll through this. Hopefully I can change that. Anyway folks, ENJOY!!!

p.s pls request tenet stuff. gimme some smut to write.

Summary: You allow your feelings for Neil to get in the way, causing you to compromise the mission and put everyone in danger. (AU, obviously because of the reader insert, and also because this particular scene does not actually happen in the movie). ~loosely based off “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” by Tame Impala~

Warnings: Violence, mentions of death, guns, blood, wounds, cursing, angst, possibly implications of being “lovers (or friends with benefits)” and luckily fluff :)

Word Count: 4,163 (Please fucking teach me how to add the “read more” thing holy shit)

You storm down the cold, grey, skinny hallway lit with dimmed fluorescents. There was something inexplicably chilling about this place, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on exactly what that thing was. Maybe it was the way the lights reflected against the walls, glowing subtly against the tiles. It wasn’t a pretty glow. It was the glow one could expect to see along the walls of a morgue.

Maybe it was the peculiar, dull ringing that followed you down the corridor, haunting your every step. Maybe it was the simple sound of your heels clicking against the concrete floors, and the idea that those clacks could call someone to your very location and leave you absolutely defenseless. Maybe it was the fact that you only had two bullets left in your glock.

Or, it was because he wasn’t with you anymore.

You quickly shake off the thought that he, of all people, could make you feel better. You didn’t need him. Hell, you didn’t need anyone, you thought to yourself. But still, your mind kept circling back to the image of him popping up in front of you, taking your hand and leading you away to-

You cut yourself off. You couldn’t let your mind wonder for that long, especially about Neil. Still, you can’t help but flash back to just minutes ago, when Neil was by your side, when you made the massive mistake of letting your feelings get away of the mission.

Neil pulled you down the hall, his hand firmly clasped around the upper part of your right arm. He was practically dragging you with him since you couldn’t keep up with his speed.

Finally, Neil yanks you into an alcove, hoping you two can hide for at least a few minutes before running again.

“Neil you need to give me an answer, what the fuck is-,” Suddenly, Neil pushes you against the wall, his right hand presses hard on your hip while his left hand covers your mouth. His face is in yours. Any personal space between you two is non-existent. He’s so close that you can feel his breath on your nose. He’s so close that you can feel wisps of his dirty blonde hair dance across your forehead.

He smirks, “No time for answers.” You felt a twinge in your stomach, like butterflies, or maybe something much more gross, because now was not the time for Neil to make you feel this sort of way.

The worst part is that he knows exactly what he’s doing. He carefully selects each and every movement he makes. He removes his hand from your mouth and places it at the nape of your neck instead, his thumb brushing lightly just below your hairline.

You stifle a quiet moan at his touch. “N-Neil, what are you doing?” Your voice is quiet, but shaky.

“Keeping you calm, I can tell you’re about to lose it,” He says matter-of-factly. Of course that’s the only reason, there’s nothing romantic here, and there never will be.

‘Neil will never feel the way I feel about him’ you think to yourself. You can’t help but get a bit angry at his ability to put you under his spell. Despite your heart racing, despite your brain being bent out of shape by the close proximity of Neil, you can’t help but feel calmer. And you hated that. You were too stubborn for your own good.

He breaks the silence, “Are you alright? I figured you’d have something to say. You said you wanted to talk to me before, didn’t you?”

Before…when you had planned on telling him how you felt. You were going to tell him before. Before the mission escalated past the point of return. Before you had ruined everything. Before Neil risked his life to bring you to safety. You had fucked up this time, insurmountably. It wasn’t entirely your fault, but you didn’t make it much better.

Neil blew the entire team’s cover all to save you. You forgot the script, all because you were far too concerned with how you were going to handle your feelings for Neil. It wasn’t just any mission, either. It had to do with Sator’s henchmen. This was Tenet’s way in. This was how you could get more information. This was how you could save the world.

And yet, you brought it all down. Somehow, Sator’s men believed that you were the only spy, and that everyone else was legitimate. They were going to kill you and spare the others, but Neil practically threw you out of the room and down the hall before anything could happen. The second he grabbed you, gun shots erupted. Now you had to pay for it, hiding in a barely-lit, cold hallway, with Sator creeping somewhere close behind, ready to attack.

Suddenly, the guilt began to overwhelm you. What if this was it, what if you would be the reason Neil would die? What if your actions destroy the mission all together? Tears free themselves from your eyes, sliding slowly down your cheeks.

“Hey,” Neil whispers as he moves the hand that rested on your neck up to your left cheek. He wipes away a few tears with his thumb. “It’s alright. We’re going to be fine, don’t worry-,”

Before he can get another word out, you grab his hand. “Stop, please, just stop,” You plead, unable to take anymore. He has to know what he’s doing to you, he just has to, you think, as your sadness slowly turns to anger. It irritated you that he was able to swoop in and save your day. It irritated you that he was able to touch you and comfort you, despite the lack of relationship that you desperately wanted fulfilled more than anything. None of this was fair. It wasn’t fair that he could be this non-nonchalant while you were practically doubled over with butterflies and other real anxieties from the situation you were currently in.

Neil looks a bit more annoyed now. “I’m just trying to help,” He says, his eyes staring deeply into yours. Those eyes, you could drown in them if you weren’t careful, so you snap back into reality, allowing yourself to feed into your anger.

“Maybe I don’t need your help,” You say, instantly regretting the words as they leave your lips.

The corners of Neil’s mouth turn up slightly, his cocky attitude showing yet again. “So back there, earlier,” He gestures backwards, to the past, “You didn’t need my help?”

You shake your head, “I’m just sick of this.”

Neil’s smile fades away as a confused look finds itself on his face. “Of what?” There’s a sadness in his voice. “Us?”

His use of“Us” immediately takes you back. ‘What the fuck does he mean by “Us”?’ You ask yourself. You were undeniably close, but he never confirmed or denied his feelings for you.

Your stomach does a back flip before you allow yourself to grow angry again.

“There is no ‘Us’, and that’s the problem Neil,” You say, pushing him off of you. He stumbles out of the alcove and rushes back in, closing the space between you and him once again.

Neil gives you a puzzled look.“Bloody hell,” you hear him mumble under his breath. “What the fuck are you talking?” There’s a seriousness in his voice now. His cocky facade disappears into nothingness. He’s frustrated, and it’s all because of you.

You just couldn’t take it anymore. You needed to say it.

“Don’t act like you don’t know how I feel.” Your voice is louder now, and it seems as though you’re practically begging to give away your hiding spot. “Neil I-,”

He covers your mouth with his left hand once again. “Alright that’s it,” His voice is still quiet, “You’re the one that needs to stop now. You don’t know how much I-,”

You push him into the wall before he can get a word out, just as he had interrupted you seconds ago.

You step out into the hallway. “I don’t know what? How much you don’t care about me?” You notice the sudden pain in Neil’s face. You didn’t expect that, but you also refuse to believe it’s real. “I don’t need you, Neil. I never have and I never will.”

You begin walking down the hallway as Neil whisper shouts your name, trying to get you to come back without blowing your cover.

“(Y/N)! Please!” He calls out.

A hand on your shoulder brings you back to reality and stops you dead in your tracks, “(Y/L/N), I’ve been waiting to meet you.” It’s a familiar voice, a voice you’ve heard before. It’s bitter, callous and malignant. A chill runs up your spine as the name of the voice dawns on you. You flinch, quickly stepping backwards and spinning around to look at the devil-man in front of you. Although, you know he would prefer if you referred to him as a god.

“Sator,” You curse, spitting on the ground disrespectfully. You brandish your gun, trying to put on your best fake-confident face. Sator doesn’t know you only have two bullets left, and quite frankly he doesn’t need to, you think to yourself.

Before you can even aim, Sator launches towards you.

You jump back, and turn around to run. There’s no way you could get away from him in what you were wearing. Your black kitten heals slowed you down a great deal. Your tight, black dress made it hard for you to move in any way at all.

Sator is right behind you. You kick off your heels, allowing you to speed up a bit. While running barefoot is much better, you know you can’t last forever. You run for a few more seconds before realizing that Sator is only getting closer.

You turn around, back peddling now. You hold your glock up and aim.

BANG!

The bullet misses Sator and ricochets off the tiled wall. What the fuck? You think to yourself as the bullet falls to the ground. The walls must be bullet proof or something.

Sator is almost within an arm’s reach of you. You lift your gun again and take aim.

BANG!

But it’s no use. you miss again. This time, the bullet hits such an angle that it comes back straight towards you. It grazes against your left side.

“FUCK!” You cry out in pain, stumbling a bit. You try your best to continue running, but the pain is far too great to keep going. You feel your legs starting to give out. You crumble to the ground, letting a small whimper of pain escape your lips. You grab your side, blood draining into your hands and onto the floor.

Sator chuckles maliciously. “You seriously thought you could get away? This is my place. You’re playing in my world,” He shakes his head and reaches for his gun. He points the weapon directly at your head,

“And just so you know, I’m God here.”

Tears form in your eyes as you hear the gun cock. You brace yourself for impact as your thoughts find their way back to Neil. You hate how you left things, especially considering that would be the last conversation he ever had with you. Guilt began to grow heavy in your stomach.

What a way to die, totally and completely guilty, a failure, and alone, You think to yourself, as tears fall down your cheeks.

Sator chuckles again. “Crying are we know? Too late for tears, (Y/N). I think you’re all out of time.” You shudder at his words and you prepare for this moment to be your last, shutting your eyes tightly.

“No! (Y/N)!” A familiar voice cries out from behind you.

BANG!

You open your eyes to see Sator standing in his place, the gun now pointing above your head. You look down and see a single bullet right next to you. It must have ricochetted off the wall, just like yours did. But where did it come from? You think.

Turning around slowly, you spot who Sator is pointing his gun towards.

“N-Neil,” You stutter, wincing in pain simply from talking. His gun points back at Sator. His eyes nervously look you up and down. This was far different from when the evening started. You remembered the way Neil looked at you when you had finished getting ready. You remember how he knocked on the door to your hotel room and let himself in. He didn’t wait for you to give him the okay.

“Wow,” Neil said, taken back by your tight, little black dress. He looked you up and down, seemingly removing each article of clothing in his head. “You look incredible.”

You missed that moment now. You wish you could just go back. But now you were faced with reality, with a gun in your face.

Sator looks down at you, and back up to Neil. “I think I’ll let you watch her die, and only after you watch her take her last breath, I’ll kill you too. How’s that?”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Neil states confidently. You look up at him, confused.

Just as Sator pulls the trigger, Neil grabs your arm and slides you out of the way.

In the near distance, just a short ways behind Sator, you see a fiery cloud of orange erupt, followed by a massive boom. Neil somehow was able to orchestrate some sort of explosion.

Sator stops in his tracks and turns to look behind him, giving Neil just enough time to pick you up and run down the hallway, turning down a series of other corridors in an attempt to outrun Sator.

It isn’t long before Neil realizes that you’re bleeding onto him. “H-holy shit,” He looks down to your left side. “I need to get you out of here.”

You ignore what he’s saying. “Why did you come back for me?” You whisper to Neil.

He steals a quick look at you as he continues to run down the hallway, but he doesn’t answer your question.

You clear your throat and try again. “Why did you come back?”

He ignores you again as you approach an intersection of 3 hallways, each one looking the exact same as the one you’re currently in. Neil pauses for a second, contemplating his options. His heart is beating out of his chest. You’ve never seen him this nervous. While you had only been at Tenet for about half a year now, you had grown to know Neil far too well. The stolen moments you shared, the kisses you swore to tell no one about. You didn’t know what you were with Neil. You didn’t know if this was superficial or real to him. But, you knew his emotions like you knew the back of your hand. You could tell he was panicking. You had never seen him quite like this. Something was different. Suddenly, Neil grunts and choses to go down the hallway to your right.

You wanted to say something to him, to talk to him, but you felt yourself falling in and out of consciousness. You knew you needed to stay awake. Neil looked down to check on you and immediately noticed your condition.

“Stay with me, okay?” He begged. You had never heard Neil talk like this before. “Please stay with me. I’m right here, it’s going to be okay.” He started to pick up his pace, practically sprinting down the hallway now.

“N-Neil?” You managed to call out to him.

“Yes, darling?” He responded between gasps for air. You could tell that he was getting tired.

“Are you okay?” You ask, looking around his body for any signs of blood or even for a possible gun shot wound.

Neil starts to slow down a bit. He looks down at you again, “I’m alright. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“You’re not actually worried, are you?” You ask.

Neil stops for a second, completely out of breath. He takes this as an opportunity to look at your injuries again. He puts his hand over your wound and feels all the blood that’s there. He shakes his head, clearly nervous about how much blood you’ve lost. He readjusts his hold on you, making sure you’re secured in his arms.

He brings his face closer to yours. “Fuck, of course I’m worried about you,” He says in a stern tone. He seems annoyed at the thought that you didn’t know he cared about you. “What the fuck would make you think otherwise?” He isn’t just annoyed now, he’s angry, yet he doesn’t take his face away from yours. You can feel his breath on your nose, just like you did before. The wisps of his hair greet your forehead again too.

“I-I guess I just don’t know how to read you,” You say, taking a deep breath once you finish your sentence. Neil quickly picked up on your labored breathing and began to jog again.

There’s silence for just a few seconds before Neil finds the right words to say. “I came back for you because I care about you. The second you left I chased after you. You were just far too quick for me.”

Your heart flutters in your chest. You didn’t know how much he cared for you. You figured he only saw you as a member of the team, a coworker, a girl to flirt with, someone he had to care for out of convenience and association. The way he was speaking now lead you to believe that he cared for you far beyond that. You stare up into his blue eyes, gathering the courage to finally confess how you feel to him. You felt yourself slipping more quickly out of consciousness, and you desperately wanted him to know how you felt.

“Neil, I just want you to know that-,”

Your words are interrupted by the loud swinging of a door. Suddenly, you’re outside the now flaming building and in the bitter, dark night. The wind whips and nips at your bare skin. You take a quick look around and remember that you’re in Amsterdam. At least it’s a pretty place to die, You think to yourself. You shiver as the wind attacks you again.

Neil notices how cold you are. He sets you down on a nearby bench and takes his brown suit jacket off, draping it over you. He picks you up and starts jogging again.

Just a short ways up the street is the BMW he had been driving for the mission. He opens the car door with one hand, making sure to keep you nestled into his chest with the other. He puts you down on the passenger’s seat, buckles you in, and carefully shuts the door.

When he gets in on the other side, he sees you drifting off again. “Come on, (Y/N), stay with me, please,” He pleads. He leans over to you and gently kisses your forehead. Your eyelids throw themselves open as Neil’s lips leave your skin. He starts the car engine and begins to drive away. He doesn’t say a thing, but you can’t stop thinking about what just happened.

“What was that?” You ask, wondering if he simply did that to distract you, to wake you up. He had to know what effect he had on you.

Neil doesn’t say a thing. He only speeds up, blasting through red lights and ignoring stop signs. You look over at him. He looks like an absolute mad man. His dirty blonde hair is a mess. Dark, purple bags rest under his blue eyes.

At one point, Neil turns the on the radio and glances at you. “Try to listen to some music, maybe it can keep you awake.” Or maybe his concern for your well being could be enough motivation for you.

It feels like I only go backwards baby,

Every part of me says, “Go ahead”

I got my hopes up again, oh no, not again,

Feels like we only go backwards, darling.

Neil somehow gets even faster. You notice that he’s pushing the gas pedal all the way into the floor of the car. You manage to get out one final sentence before losing consciousness, “If I don’t die from this wound, I might die from your driving.”

Then, your eyes shut and the whole world goes black.

——

Your eyes feel like they’re glued shut, but you force them to open. There’s an arm pulling you in tightly to a firm, warm chest. You inhale deeply, instantly recognizing the scent.

It was Neil. His face was right in front of yours. He looked so calm, so relaxed. Either this was Heaven, or he somehow managed to save your life from his hotel room. You were hoping it was the latter. You wanted this to be real life.

Neil began to stir about a bit, but his arm never left your back. In fact, the more he stirs, the closer you seem to get to him. You decide to take it all in, because you know reality is going to come crashing down eventually. You know Neil is going to back off of you, apologize, and quickly say that he was merely watching over you to make sure you weren’t dying and didn’t mean to fall asleep. There was no way that he meant to hold you like that.

“Good morning,” Neil said casually, not taking his arm off of you. He manages to pull you even closer still. Now your noses are touching. A playful smile stretches across Neil’s lips.

You couldn’t believe this was happening. You’re shocked, too shocked to say a thing.

Your silence makes Neil concerned, “What’s wrong? Did I do something? Are you in pain?”

You smile at him, “No, everything is okay. Of course I’m in pain, but this feels good.” Neil’s smile reappears. But, you’re still confused. “I just need to know something Neil,” You say, as the smile disappears from Neil’s face yet again.

“What’s the matter?” He asks as he draws letters on your back, or at least that’s what it feels as though he’s doing.

You shake your head slightly. “Nothing is the matter,” You pause, recalling the events of the previous night. “It’s just, am I okay? How much blood did I loose? And Neil I need to know how you feel about-,”

Neil abruptly cuts your rambling off, “You’re alright. I took care of you after you passed out. I cleaned out the wound and sowed you up. It was easier to do with you asleep, to be honest. I don’t think you would’ve like it very much,” Neil grins before continuing, “Luckily your heart rate stayed completely stable the whole time.”

You nod your head, waiting for him to address the half asked question towards the end of your rambling that he seemed to get the understanding of. But, there’s no response.

You decide it’s time to say something. It can’t wait any longer. “Neil, I need to know what all this means. I need to know how you feel about me.”

“Likewise,” He returns, but there’s no grin upon his face. He’s serious, if not somber.

Regardless, you’re annoyed. “Likewise?” You repeat back to him. “I’ve liked you since the second I saw you, and I feel as though I’ve made that abundantly clear. I’ve given you all the signs, all the hints, and you just continue to play these stupid ga-,”

Neil cuts you off, “I had to sit there and watch you almost die. I worked on your wound all night. I’ve been fucking terrified for the past 12 hours wondering whether or not you would make it. I ditched the team to make sure you were safe, and I don’t regret that choice one bit. These aren’t games (Y/N). Being in love with someone isn’t a fucking game.”

Silence fills the room. Being in love with someone…those words repeated over and over again in your head. You couldn’t let them go.

Neil catches gaze and holds it. He’s waiting for something from you, but you don’t know how to communicate how you feel anymore. It was like he broke you.

You know Neil can’t take the tension anymore, and before you can say a word, Neil’s lips hungrily crash into yours. He grabs your waist carefully, keeping you pulled in tight without hurting your wound.

Neil’s lips leave yours. “Are you happy now?” He asks, brushing where he just was with his thumb.

“Y-yes,” You say, wanting more.

“Then it’s settled,” Neil states confidently. He smiles slyly, as he always does.

You’re confused beyond belief. “What is?”

“That you’re mine,” Neil says, taking your chin in between his index finger and thumb. He brings your face closer to his, and kisses you again.

201 notes · View notes

vivithefolle · 3 years

Note

I just wanna ask, and don’t get mad at me cause I’m genuinely curious, how do you stan Ron? Like, I like him, but he is definitely misogynistic (slut shaming Ginny, treating hermione like she owes him something and being mad that she kissed someone years before, always objectifying Fleur, and acting like girls who aren’t pretty aren’t worth much). Like, by DH I feel like he definitely has mostly grown out of it, but still 6/7 books he’s kinda unbearable IMO

how do you stan Ron?

Like this:

OH MY GOD HAVE YOU SEEN. HAVE YOU SEEN HIM DID YOU SEE MY BABY OH MY GOD. WHEN HARRY’S ARM HAD GONE KABLOOIE BECAUSE OF LOCKHART AND HE. RON. HE WAS. HELPING HIM GET DRESSED???? OH MY GOD BABY???? HHHHNNNNGGGG. AND. AND. AND ALSO WHEN HE. OMG. WHEN HE WAS PUTTING FOOD ON HIS FRIENDS’ PLATES LIKE. MOM FRIEND ALERT MOM FRIEND ALERT MOM FRIEND ALERT. AND THE WAY HE’S ALWAYS BLUSHING AND BEING EMBARRASSED AT THE SLIGHTEST PRAISE BUT ALSO HE’S SO DESPERATELY SEEKING IT BUT HE KNOWS HE CAN’T TAKE IT AND EEK EEK EEK THAT’S SO CUTE SOMEONE HOLD ME IT’S ADORABLE RONALD WEASLEY YOU ARE SO GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE THIS CUTE!!!!

Ok and then.

he is definitely misogynistic

No. And here’s why.

slut shaming Ginny

Yes, that was wrong. And guess what, that’s also something he probably - scratch that, definitely - picked up from his mother. And also his brothers, recall how Fred and George too don’t like to see Ginny go around with boys. There’s also something to recall: Ron was there when Ginny was taken into the Chamber of Secrets and learned later that it was because she had trusted an older guy. You seriously wouldn’t be paranoid about who your sister dates after that? It was wrong. Yeah. And he more than learned his lesson when Ginny clapped back by virgin-shaming him and basically told him that he was childish because he hadn’t have a relationship yet. So would that make Ginny sexist too? Or is it just for Ron?

treating hermione like she owes him something

..................... uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh... when? When the fuck did anything like that happen?

He made a prat of himself at the Yule Ball, that much is obvious. But he didn’t tell her anything like “you should be with me” or didn’t insinuate anything of the sort. He was a jealous bitch but kept attacking Krum, not Hermione.

If you mean in sixth year when he treated her with “icy, sneering indifference” for the course of two weeks, yeah that was bad but that’s not “treating her like she owes him something”, the fuck?

being mad that she kissed someone years before

Yeah. I know. And that was bad, ooooh you got me to admit Ron did bad stuff, that’s what you want to see, right? And I reckon he was also mad that she hid it from him, and that he had to learn it from his sister of all people. We see Ron handles what he considers betrayals terribly. I have some meta discussing the possibility that he has a form of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.

always objectifying Fleur

Um... no, he doesn’t. He makes a stupid comment about her once in GOF then stops. Let’s also fucking remember that Fleur is a Veela, she literally makes guys stare at her as part of her powers!! I’m not blaming her because she’s literally born that way, but you can’t blame someone who is under magical compulsion either.

acting like girls who aren’t pretty aren’t worth much

So tell me why he was friends with Hermione then?

Because Hermione wasn’t Emma Watson the super hawt sexy model goddess. Hermione was Mrs Generic. Until this once at the Yule Ball when she got the pretty princess perfect Mary Sue makeover but then stopped because she had to remain ~relatable uwu~.

Again. Ron made stupid sexist comments. But it’s actively shown that he doesn’t follow up on them. If he did indeed live by the motto “girls who aren’t pretty aren’t worth much”, explain to me why he wasn’t simping and drooling all over Padma Patil who is explicitly stated to be one of the prettiest girls at school when she was his date? Why exactly did he ignore her and was a miserable twat the whole evening instead of basking in the joy of having snagging a girl that was “worth it”? Well surprise, it’s because HE ACTUALLY ISN’T LIKE THAT AND WHAT HE SAYS IS MAYBE SHIT HIS “COOL OLDER BROTHERS” SAY AND HE THINKS THAT BY EXTENSION IT WOULD MAKE HIM COOL TO REPEAT IT. MIMETISM, THAT'S BASIC FUCKING HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY FOR FUCKING TODDLERS MY FUCKING GOD.

Like, by DH I feel like he definitely has mostly grown out of it,

............

...................................

...............................................................

so. so why. so why wouldn’t you. use that. as a reason. to stan him.

like.

fuck all the “hurr durr ron weasley the boy who made it out of the friendzone!!!!” bullshit, let’s start going with “Ron Weasley, the Boy who became a Man, and not one of those 'uugghh im such an alpha male’ ones but one that’s got the balls to say ‘hey love, I’ve got an idea, what if you kept doing that job you love and feel passionate about while I support you and do the majority of the childcare while also working a smaller job on the side so we’re never short on money’“

Why you people gotta be “yeah I like Ron BUTT” when you know full-well this fucking awful fandom will rake him over hot coals over the slightest mistake he does - worse, will actively go out of their way to interpret his positive moments in the most negative way possible??? Fuck off with that bullshit. Ron dared to say bad stuff omygah big deal, he was forgiven for it all and you’re just all cowards looking to feel “pure” by telling yourself “oh yeah but he was problematic once uwu”. FUCK. THAT. NOISE.

but still 6/7 books he’s kinda unbearable IMO

And IMO he’s not, funny how that works

So.

I guess it’s impossible to stan Ron because he was problematic uwu.

Ok.

Then I hereby decree that it’s impossible to stan Hermione Granger because:

“I’ll bet you wish you hadn’t given up Divination now, don’t you, Hermione?” asked Parvati, smirking. [...] “Not really,” said Hermione indifferently, who was reading the Daily Prophet. “I’ve never really liked horses.” She turned a page of the newspaper, scanning its columns. “He’s not a horse, he’s a centaur!” said Lavender, sounding shocked. “A gorgeous centaur . . .” sighed Parvati. “Either way, he’s still got four legs,” said Hermione coolly. “Any-way, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?” - Order of the Phoenix, ch 27

wow casual use of a racial slur yay!!! A+

And it’s also forbidden to stan Harry Potter either since:

It was raining hard now, and she was nowhere to be seen. He simply did not understand what had happened; half an hour ago they had been getting along fine. “Women!” he muttered angrily, sloshing down the rain-washed street with his hands in his pockets. “What did she want to talk about Cedric for anyway? Why does she always want to drag up a subject that makes her act like a human hosepipe?” - Order of the Phoenix, ch 25

and

“Harry! There you are, thank goodness! Hi, Luna!” “What’s happened to you?” asked Harry, for Hermione looked distinctly disheveled, rather as though she had just fought her way out of a thicket of Devil’s Snare. “Oh, I’ve just escaped — I mean, I’ve just left Cormac,” she said. “Under the mistletoe,” she added in explanation, as Harry continued to look questioningly at her. “Serves you right for coming with him,” he told her severely. “I thought he’d annoy Ron most,” said Hermione dispassionately. “I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole —” “You considered Smith?” said Harry, revoked. - Half-Blood Prince

Victim-blaming! Nice Harry, nice. Always classy.

Ok, Ginny stanning is already cancelled because she virgin-shamed Ron, right, so who’s left, who’s left... ah yeah:

“There you go,” said Fred proudly. “Best range of love potions you’ll find anywhere.” - Half-Blood Prince

Selling date rape drugs proudly ouh là là. Bye Fred.

"Do they work?” she asked. “Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question...” “...and the attractiveness of the girl,” said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. “But we’re not selling them to our sister,” he added, becoming suddenly stern, “not when she’s already got about five boys on the go from what we’ve...” “Whatever you’ve heard from Ron is a big fat lie,” said Ginny calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf.

Assuming that only girls use love potions, and only on boys. Men never rape in JKR’s world, only women do, you heard it from George Weasley here folks, I’m just passing on the message. Ah and I hope you’re also starting the Fred And George Hate Club given how he’s also slut-shaming Ginny.

“What’s this?” “Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher,” said Fred. “Excellent on everything from boils to blackheads, but don’t change the subject. Are you or are you not currently going out with a boy called Dean Thomas?” “Yes, I am,” said Ginny. “And last time I looked, he was definitely one boy, not five. What are those?” She was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, all rolling around the bottom of a cage and emitting high-pitched squeaks. “Pygmy Puffs,” said George. “Miniature puffskeins, we can’t breed them fast enough. So what about Michael Corner?” “I dumped him, he was a bad loser,” said Ginny, putting a finger through the bars of the cage and watching the Pygmy Puffs crowd around it. “They’re really cute!” “They’re fairly cuddly, yes,” conceded Fred. “But you’re moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren’t you?” Ginny turned to look at him, her hands on her hips. There was such a Mrs. Weasley-ish glare on her face that Harry was surprised Fred didn’t recoil. “It’s none of your business. And I’ll thank you” she added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George’s elbow, laden with merchandise, “not to tell tales about me to these two!”

Ah, good on you for defending yourself, Ginny, but remember, Ginny stanning is prohibited because she’s been problematic in the past and is gonna be problematic in the future and that’s baaaaaaad. Careful kids, don’t get ideas. It’s problematic to like people who’ve done problematic things.

So I guess nobody can like anything or anyone now. Sorry guys. Liking things is evil, what if the thing you liked had, OR USED TO HAVE, *gasp* flaws, can’t take that risk, ohmygah.

#vivi answers #ask #ron weasley #ron weasley defense squad #ron weasley defence squad #hp fandumb #hp fandom #harry potter #harry potter series #fred weasley #george weasley #fred and george #ginny weasley #hermione granger #problematic content

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pavcrti · 4 years

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chicago’s very own pavarti kumari has been spotted on madison avenue driving a rose gold model x , welcome ! your resemblance to mishti rahman is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty fifth birthday bash . your chance of surviving new york is uncertain because you’re fiery , but being eloquent might help you . i think being a pieces explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be fresh fields of lavender that expand into a cotton candy sky , the reflection of the sun caught in the glimmer of a crystal , rhyming couplets professing deep - seeded emotion . ( i ghost write songs for artists who like to claim they write their own work . ) & ( cis female + she / her ) + ( emily , 25 , sher / her , pst )

holy shit , it’s ya girl . i’m back after needing a bit of a break from being in a group . and bc i honestly adored this place sm and i made so many great friends here i am back . . . 👀 i expect plots with each and every one of u btw so u best deliver . i desperately wanna get this finished before i pass the fuck out . i’ll be joining the server in the morning , but in the meantime if u wanna be my friend 👀 👀 titsiana praises satan#7989

biography .

name : pavarti kumari

age : twenty five

gender : cisfemale

zodiac : pieces

sexuality : bisexual

profession : singer / songwriter

hair color : black

eye color : brown

piercings : both lobes , nose

tattoos : none

voice claim : jhene aiko

released albums : sail out ( ep ) , trip

miss pavarti was born in bangladesh . her parents are both 100% bangladeshi and immigrated to chicago when pavarti was four years old . she had an older brother who was five years older than her . his name was siva .her family traveled back every summer so she is very immersed in the culture of her homeland and is a very spiritual person as a result . from a young age , pavarti had a fascination with the english language . not only was it so complex , but there was so much that could be done with it as well . she loved poetry and different types of prose . she also developed an absolute adoration for hip hop as a result . she’s been able to work several of her lyrical inspirations in her albums , something she would’ve never anticipated growing up as an immigrant child . when she entered middle school , she joined the school choir as an extra curricular activity which is what inspired her love for music and introduced her to her vocal talents . within time , she began combining her inclination for poetry with her voice . she wrote her first song at thirteen and began to freestyle for her friends . unfortunately , she was never taken too seriously by her peers . she was a female , hardly the usual suspect for the rnb , soul vibe that her voice conveys . before she graduated high school , her brother siva was killed in a car crash . the unexpected death of her best friend and protector sent pavarti into a spiral . this begun her tendency to alter her reality to escape from her pain with the help of drugs . she frequently writes about her brother in her music . when she was eighteen , she was discovered , ironically , by a manager of a local rapper at a poetry slam she was performing at . she impressed him and he introduced her to his client . this is how pavarti entered the hip hop scene , albeit , in secret . in hip hop , it’s very custom for performers to write the tracks that they put out themselves . pavarti learned that she could learn the skills of the trade whilst making her own connections and making pretty good cash , as well . as the years progressed , the notoriety of her clients rose . she’s written bars for multiple big names and by harvesting these friendships , she was able to get signed to a record label and put out her first ep at age twenty one . it was well received by critics and pavarti was thrilled to be taken seriously as an artist doing what she loves . she kept working , kept her nose in her business and released her first full album , trip , just last year . she feels like she is constantly growing artistically and finds herself inspired everywhere she turns . she’s currently working on her second full album and just dropped a new single , p*$$y fairy . other than that , there’s not too much else to note in her history . she did not grow up rich , rather she’s only recently come into wealth . her money is very new and she’s not too skilled at spending it wisely .

personality .

okay , so this will probably just be a long winded explanation that no one really asked for / needed but here we go ! first and foremost . . . pavarti is a dreamer in every sense of the word . she’s whimsical , she’s connected to the earth around her . she drifts off into elaborate day dreams and tells herself stories in her head as she falls to sleep . she is very spiritual . she meditates twice a day . her house always smells of incense . she has an affinity for weed and hallucinogenics . she really enjoys writing under the influence . her album trip is literally inspired by several drug experiences she had that had a profound impact in her life . pavarti’s general demeanor is borderline wall - flower . you wouldn’t expect her to be so shy , but she is . she’s the giggly girl who’ll hang back and let someone else come to her first . in the meantime , she’s taking in every single detail . she’s incredibly observant . sometimes she thinks in poetry . she realizes that she isn’t the typical visual for a female hip hop , rnb artist but it’s truly her passion in life and her art flows through her . she says more in her songs than she does to the people she needs to and that can definitely be problematic . with that said , pavarti is very well spoken . girl knows how to sweet talk her way through just about anything . but she also has the temper of a devil . she does not tolerate being fucked around with . she has that attitude about her where she will go and key your car if you hurt her or one of her best friends . people typically wouldn’t expect such an explosion from someone so outwardly sanguine and easy going but she’s the type to scratch someone’s eyes out if she has to . her music is her spouse . this fucks her up relationship wise a lot because she tends to let chances pass her by because she would rather stay undistracted . she has an ego , but not really in the outward way that one would anticipate when ego is involved . she knows she’s talented . she knows she’s attractive . but she also knows that she’s fucking lucky to be where she is and she’s grateful . pavarti is the type who wakes up with a smile because she has another twenty four hours to be alive . she doesn’t take things for granted --- she used to , until she lost her older brother and she realized just how quickly things can change . pavarti is a fiercely loyal individual to her friends . she will stand up for them , no matter what . the thing is , she expects it back . she is very much aware of her self worth and does not react kindly to a one sided vibe .

plots .

ok , ok , ok . . . so how i am going to do this is offer up some songs / song pairings for songs that i believe pavarti has written for specific people with certain plots in mind for at least her side of things . and then i will also list some basic plots that aren’t based on anything in particular , but are still plots that i would like very much to have ! the links go to lyrics ! all plots are gender neutral , so ignore any pronouns that are in the songs .

bed peace / stay ready / while we’re young --- fwbs with feelings : pavarti and your muse have been friends for a while . somewhere along the line things crossed the line and they began hooking up . it’s obvious that they feel something intense for each other but something is always in the way of them being together --- plus , neither are really sure if the friendship could withstand a romantic relationship crashing and burning . so here they are , stuck in this awkward limbo . they hook up , hang out , awkwardly third wheel when the other is dating someone else . it’s an interesting dynamic and pavarti wouldn’t deal with drama with anyone else but your muse . they have a really compelling bond and neither can think of life without the other but things have been like this for a long time and there is only so long a relationship as complicated as this one could actually function .

the worst / comfort inn ending / moments / when we love --- exes that ended badly with lingering feelings : this was . . . just a crazy hot and cold relationship . when it was hot , it was fucking hot . when it was cold ? damn . hell itself could freeze over . they probably have done and said a lot of nasty , nasty shit to each other . at the same time , they could’ve been literally planning their wedding at some point because they both were incredibly serious about each other . in comfort inn ending , pavarti suggests their relationship was a result of her cheating on another boyfriend to be with your muse and your muse ultimately cheated on her as well . we can discuss that but i would high key kill for the extra drama . around the time pavarti was writing her first full album , they had a rekindling that inspired her to write moments and when we love . i don’t envision this relationship having ended in a decent way from there , though . more cheating ? fighting ? they were definitely toxic . she’s definitely planning on dragging their ass some more in her tracks .

lsd / sativa --- platonic soulmates : omg so this plot is . . . so fucking cute . but these two would basically die for each other . there is zero sexual attraction , just genuine , pure love . they do everything together . but what really sealed their bond ? well . . . many different intense acid trips , of course ! they love to get high together and forget about the world . they both feel like they can trust the other because they have been present for so many life - changing moments . they rarely go a day without seeing each other and absolutely never go a day without talking in some capacity . sometimes they fight like siblings . but pavarti would honestly kill for your muse . there is nothing she wouldn’t do for them .

new balance / newer balance / you are here / clear my mind --- the romantic bad influence : this plot is another messy piece of trash . from the beginning , when they first met , pavarti always thought your muse was too good to be true . they reminded her so much of her brother . she felt this sense of peace with your muse . she fell in love quickly but at the same time , felt like there was something looming over their relationship . like it wasn’t permanent . like it’s all just a dream . the bad influence part isn’t portrayed too much in the lyrics other than stressing pavarti’s fear that your muse isn’t exactly who they say they are and this relationship is doomed to fail somehow . she knows that when this explodes in her face that it’s going to destroy her . i see your muse bringing out edgier sides of pavarti’s personality . they party a lot , they influence pavarti to do crazy things with them and she does and she feels so alive with your muse . that is , until , it all crumbles . the facade is destroyed and whatever it was that your muse wasn’t being upfront about shatters the way she feels for your muse entirely . she feels betrayed . clear my mind is pavarti’s way of trying to hype herself up to be stronger than she really is .

never call me / --- best friends turned enemies : this is my last long one i promise , wtf , why did i decide to do this . anyways --- this plot is again , a shit ton of angst so enjoy that . your muse and pavarti used to be the best of friends . inseparable . that is until things went south . fast . we can discuss what it was that happened between our muses but it was something huge and preferably something where they both could stubbornly blame each other . pavarti feels slighted because she thinks that your muse should be the one who reaches out and perhaps your muses could be thinking the same about her .

romantic plots : crushes , unrequited love , hateship , party hookup , friends with benefits , secret fling , summer romance

platonic plots : give me close friends ! and tons of them please ! thanks . roommates , drug buddies , confidants , unlikely friendship , travel friends , only friends in the dms , enemies turned friend

#wealthyhq:intro #tw death #tw drugs #um um this got so fucking lONG i prOFUSELY APOLOGIZE #i need 2 pass tf out now baiiiiiiiii

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kylermalloy · 4 years

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So, I'm curious, what is your favourite TO episode? If you are able to make a choice ;)

Oh, oh! This is one ‘favorites’ question I have no problem answering.

My favorite episode is and has always been the season 1 finale, “From a Cradle to a Grave.” Honestly, I think this is where the show peaked in its writing. I was on the edge of my seat the entire episode, just loving the excitement, the tension, the themes, and all the narrative threads coming together in one culminating, sweeping episode.

This episode is everything I love about the show. Murder, mayhem, and family :) But seriously! (Omg am I going to have to do a blow-by-blow of the episode? I think I might.)

In that case, the rest goes under a cut. (Spoilers for TO ahead!)

The episode begins with Hayley giving birth, induced by the witches who betrayed Klaus. It’s in the church, that unholy horror of a murder museum.

Intercut with the rose-tinted flashback of pregnant Hayley and Klaus feeling their baby kick, Hayley gives birth as her voiceover promises a safe home and family to “Zoe…or Caitlyn, or Angela.”

*irony* but it hurts.

Klaus and Hayley are, for once, united in the fight for their child. They’ve been at each others’ throats all season, and in the past neither have had trouble getting their way. But in this crucial hour neither the Original hybrid or the uncontrollable mama wolf can do anything.

Can I say: I love love LOVE that look Klaus and Hayley share after the baby is born. Hayley asks to hold her, and they share this…look. Listen, I’m not much of a klayley shipper, but their partnership is golden. They’ve reached a tentative agreement at this point that they’re both going to play a role in raising the baby they created. The trust and pride and satisfaction between them in this moment, despite the horrid circumstances, melts me.

And then Hayley dies.

Klaus screaming NOOOOOOO is all of us in this moment.

Oh! And I almost forgot—Klaus being pinned to the wall in that Christlike pose. That was NOT an accident. It helps tie in to the larger theme they’re going for, that Elijah expounds for us later. He’s not a sinless, perfect Christ figure—in fact, he’s the opposite. He’s the monster under the bed, the devil in the night. One might even go so far as to say he’s the symbol for everyone to pin their problems to. The ultimate scapegoat. Not to say he didn’t exert some effort of his own to get there—this is the price he has to pay for his sins. Crucified, figuratively, forced to watch helpless as his newborn daughter is taken from him and her mother slaughtered.

Then Elijah bursts in. (Bless Daniel Gillies’s funky lil run, it gives me joy in the bleakest of times)

And this, oh goodness, this quiet grief they share over Hayley. Klaus has held her body since he woke up, I’m guessing, this woman who carried his child, chafed against every controlling measure he tried to impose on her, whom he holds some degree of respect and fondness for.

And Elijah, dear Elijah. He pinned all his hopes (hee) to this woman, this werewolf Madonna and her child. He gave her more space in his heart than he’d given anyone, including women who’d haunted him for centuries. And now she’s dead, just like anyone who’s had the misfortune of sparking his affections.

Klaus healing Elijah—HEY REMEMBER EARLY IN THE SEASON WHEN KLAUS BIT ELIJAH AND LEFT HIM TO SUFFER?! Now, Klaus offers his blood without compunction, without hesitation. This time it’s Elijah who hesistates. You have to wonder, is he deliberating which nightmare he would prefer—the torture of wolf venom, or the torture of Hayley’s death and her baby’s disappearance?

“You were bested? My invincible brother?”

Klaus doesn’t rise to the bait like he normally would. He barely reacts. He’s broken. He wanted too much—he played king and gained the whole world, but lost his soul. And then his kingdom.

You see why I love this episode?

We move to the graveyard, where we see not only Klaus and Elijah trapped in a maze, but the witches preparing for a sacrifice. Let’s not gloss over their costume change, either—in the church, for the birth, they were all clad in black. But here, as they prepare for their worst atrocity yet, infanticide, they wear pure white, like they’re going to a christening or something. *irony*

Then comes *the speech* from Elijah, the one that mirrors the pilot so perfectly (I know them both by heart, thank you very much.) In the pilot, Elijah’s speech is rousing, patient, and encouraging. Here, he has lost his patience. Here, he tells us what we’ve been seeing throughout the entire season.

“This is the world you created, Niklaus. All your scheming, the enemies you have made every day do your miserable life—what results did you expect? That your child would be born into a happy life? That the mother would be alive, to know her daughter? That we could live and thrive as some sort of family?”

“That was your fantasy, brother, not mine—”

“No, brother! This was our hope. This was our family’s hope. And now she is gone.” (And then we realize that he’s not just mourning the baby, that family he imagined—he mourns Hayley.) “Do you understand? I let this person in. I let her in. I don’t let people in.”

And Klaus’s reaction! This Klaus, with compassion he deserves only for his closest family—this is the Klaus that melts me. This is the scene that slaps. This is how we tie a bow on a season—nay, a millennium—of brotherly tension. They’re not healed; nothing could truly heal the damage they’ve done to each other (or the damage others have wrought on them) but it’s a start.

And Hayley wakes.

Before I go on, let me mention Marcel. Ally, enemy, friend, surrogate son to Klaus (and that could be all in one episode!) He’s destined for death by hybrid venom, having led his vampires into a massacre. All his attempts to rally his people have failed. He’s lost the city, and his vampires have been slaughtered by Guerrera werewolves. He has almost nothing left.

He goes out, armed to forcibly obtain Klaus’s blood and heal his friends—but he upon finding Klaus he makes very on-brand choice. He saves the baby.

He does what the combined efforts of Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah can’t. He wins Klaus’s trust back by saving his newborn daughter. He protects the innocent instead of contributing to the feud. He murders the girl he once tried to save from the Harvest. And he gets to meet his baby sister.

It’s strategy and heart all in one. It’s very Marcel.

He reconciles with Klaus, and Klaus heals him. They are healed—to some degree.

Then Klaus gets to hold his child for the first time, and we all die.

This is what the season has been building up to. Yes, it’s been building to Klaus being toppled off his throne, yes it’s been building to the splintering of his ego, but THIS is what we’ve been promised since the beginning—before the beginning of the show, even. The Original hybrid, brought to his knees by this child. His child. Someone he loves without reservation. Someone who doesn’t fear him. Someone innocent, who carries none of the burdens of their family. Someone who inspires hope in the hopeless. Someone he would kill for, or die for. (he does both)

And I can’t, I just can’t with them. I love the way JoMo handles the baby in this episode—very gingerly, a little awkwardly. It’s probably been a long time since Klaus has handled a baby (one that he hasn’t eaten D: ) and it’s just. so. endearing.

Meanwhile, Davina has…brought Mikael the destroyer back to life? I remember reading somewhere that Josh was supposed to die in this episode, and while I wouldn’t dare wish to deprive Josh of the happiness (and subsequent heartbreak) awaiting him in s2 and beyond, I think Davina’s motivations would’ve made more sense here if she were seeking to avenge her friend’s death. But I digress. Davina resurrects Mikael. Oh dear.

I haven’t mentioned Genevieve yet! She is one of my favorite antagonists. At first, she seemed to come out of nowhere, and I suspect she might have stepped into the narrative hole that was originally filled by Sophie Deveraux, but regardless I like her conflict. A witch cheated out of life (by an Original, no less!) and coerced to murder by her coven, living and dead. An apologetic killer. Yikes.

Klaus and Elijah then discuss how to protect the baby (and I swear in the opening shot it looks like they’re holding hands—but alas, it’s just a trick of the camera angle.) and Hayley helps them determine that they need to send her away. And let me say, Phoebe Tonkin impressed me more with her acting in seasons 2-3, but she hurts me here too. Ouch.

We get a few expository scenes—Francesca spins the werewolf attack into a gang war (she’s not wrong), Marcel makes a deal, Oliver is still an arrogant brat, and Davina plans to keep Mikael as her secret weapon (you poor child).

Then we get the most painful scenes in the episode, because even though we know this tragedy is a lie, it’s still a loss. The baby did not die, but their pain over losing her is real. Elijah says as much: “grief, after all, is grief.”

Klaus and Cami share a scene, and this is one of my favorites of them. Klaus admits that he finds her…beautiful. And for that reason, she should stay away from him. Whether you read this as romantic or not, it’s still so good. This is a woman Klaus pinpointed as being useful, intelligent, insightful, and strong enough to handle his psyche. They began with a rather twisted relationship (let’s save that essay on autonomy for another day, shall we?) but by the end of the season they’ve shared some experiences and gained more sympathy and respect for each other. And Klaus, in his moment of clarity and grief, recognizes that he is fundamentally not what she needs. (Or we could say this is all part of the lie. We’ll never know.)

Also, let me give a shoutout to the music in this episode! The two songs that play toward the end, Open Hands and Shallows are stellar. Speaking of the end! Let’s get into the biggest surprise this episode has for us.

“In what world will she be safe without her father? Who can protect her better than we?”

“There is one person.”

Rebekah. The thousand-year-old beauty queen I honestly thought we’d never see again after her exit in episode 16. The Original sister, the girl who loved too easily, who broke her brother’s heart and incurred his wrath. Who left to live her own life, who only could leave after her favorite brother set her free. Who always wanted what she couldn’t have, a family of her own.

And here she is, smiling at Klaus even though last time they screamed themselves hoarse in a graveyard and he put an enchanted stake through her chest, inches from her heart. She loves and hates him in equal measure, but she has nothing but love for this newborn baby. It’s a peace offering and the ultimate gesture of faith. Klaus could not trust anyone else in the world with his daughter, but he will hand her over to his beloved sister. It is the PERFECT way to end the season, especially with their parting words. Rebekah wants to know the baby’s name.

“Hope. Her name is Hope.”

They’ve been planning this gimmick from day ONE, I’m telling you. Ever since the pilot, when Elijah asks, “who’s more pathetic—the man who sees hope to make his family whole again? Or the coward who only sees the world through his own fear?” And I don’t care how cliche and gimmicky it is—if I did, I wouldn’t be watching this CW show. It’s perfect. This is what the baby means. She is the hope for this broken, broken family. She’s no savior—she doesn’t have to do anything but exist. But she reminds these siblings who, after a thousand years of bloodshed and fighting, are “the definition of cursed—always and forever,” that they can be better. They don’t have to remain the shells of who they were. They can pick up the pieces and begin a new chapter.

And that’s what this episode does for me, folks. It’s honestly too much to handle. I cannot watch this episode like a normal person—I writhe and scream and laugh maniacally and recite the lines. It’s a trip.

This episode concludes the season so strongly. It’s actually a major part of why I rank season 1 as my favorite! I did an official ranking of all 5 TO seasons a while back, which was a lot of fun.

#the originals #original groupies #asks #aeruthien #thanks for sending this in!#mymeta #to 1x22 #klaus mikaelson #elijah mikaelson #hayley marshall #hope mikaelson #marcel gerard #this got long but i'm not even sorry #i cannot express deeply enough my love for this episode #i was gonna find gifs of all the scenes but lbr i don't have that kind of patience #just enjoy my words #kylerrambles

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amwritingmeta · 4 years

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15x04: Lucky Them

Wow. Davy Perez has this knack of bringing it, and this time was no exception. Icing on the cake was the delight at having Jensen directing again!

We got a glimpse of Benny (happy not to have more) (however much I love his character, he’s fulfilled his purpose in the narrative in beautiful ways that I don’t really need extrapolated on) (anyway) and we got Becky back, with some real character progression to juxtapose Chuck’s alpha and omega of douchebaginess.

The more of a douche connected to dark and horrible endings Chuck is, the more hopeful I become of the opposite heading our way. *fingers crossed* :)

The best line that Becky delivered was about how she’s carved out a good life for herself and she actually likes herself now. That’s character growth right there. She found what would truly make her happy and she built on it. Bless you, Becky, you’re one of the lucky ones! Sorry you got smoked. :/

But let’s move into the meat of the story (pardon the pun) and talk about Sam and Dean and how they are simply not dealing at the moment. Either of them.

*e p i c*

Sam

Oh Sam. Sam is having nightmares and they’re of the callback kind, because here we get a glimpse of how he’s still not processed his choice to drink that demon blood, how he still carries the self-blame and the guilt and the fear of losing his tightly held control of himself around with him, even to this day. Because, as he will state in that gorgeous (and seriously tear-jerking) end-of-the-ep exchange with Dean: he can’t let it go.

But letting go doesn’t mean forgetting. Letting go means understanding that you can’t change the past, that you can’t live in a blame bubble and that carrying that guilt for choices that you wouldn’t repeat now, if put in the same situation, is toxic for the mind because it hollows out your sense of self.

Moving on means gaining perspective enough to forgive yourself your past mistakes, trust yourself not to repeat them and gain actual control of yourself through understanding where your boundaries need to be drawn and drawing them for yourself.

It sounds easy (it’s not), but if Sam can just see how strong he truly is in himself, how strong he always has been - he held Lucifer and went into the cage with him and was tortured by the Devil himself and he’s still standing - then he can begin to trust himself not to ever let the past repeat itself.

I loved that the images of Sam with black eyes was a nightmare. Does this mean it’s not foreshadowing? I don’t know! Maybe Sam needs to face his demons through a visual manifestation, but I think an internal gradual moving away from this fear of losing control could be just as effective. We shall see!

Sam daring to take the leader position is one of the ways him dealing with this fear can be, and has already been, explored, because he’s been happy for Dean to take the lead for so long because of his fear of losing control of himself, of hurting people, of hurting the ones he loves and, of course, hurting Dean, that he’s been okay with second chair, but Sam is the born leader and that second chair has never really fit him all that well.

He just has to accept that happiness, while in the life, is always going to be shadowed by the fact that people will die, that they can’t save everyone, that monsters will continue to roam the Earth, but that they’re doing what they can to make the world just a little bit better each day, and that’s all that we can ever hope to do. Like Cas once said to Dean: “You can’t save everyone, my friend. Though you try.”

Dean

Dean eats his emotions. This is what is known as an unhealthy coping mechanism, meaning that instead of actually acknowledging and dealing with whatever emotion he’s feeling that’s causing him distress, he pushes that emotion down and because of him suppressing it, the emotion finds an unhealthy behavioural outlet.

This is also a form of self-punishment.

Guilt, shame and regret are all powerful emotions that cause a person to have an unconscious need to self-punish. And what emotions are Dean feeling at this very moment, ever since he pushed so hard at the love of his life that the love of his life finally decided to put his foot down and leave?

Yeah. I’d venture there’s a fair amount of all of those emotions battling it out inside Dean. What I love most about it, though, is that yes, he’s eating the entire episode, but he only takes a sip out of that flask. Meaning? That this is unhealthy coping, but at least it is just that: coping.

He’s not being self-destructive in a putting himself in harms way, let the chips fall where they may sort of self-destructive. He’s not taking care of himself, obviously, because he doesn’t feel he deserves it, because of the aforementioned guilt, shame and regret, but he’s also not taking unnecessary risks. His sense of hopelessness, of his chance for happiness being gone, is subtle and is only highlighted in that end-of-the-ep exchange with Sam.

Oh, it’s enough to send shivers down your spine. And jerk them tears, too. *iCry*

Through that exchange we also get a Dean who is determined to keep going, to find a reason to keep going, which, to me, means there’s still slight hope that Cas will find his way back to him again. That this isn’t the end at all. Dean just doesn’t know exactly what he can do to ensure it isn’t.

I would think it would be absolutely beautiful if what Dean needs to do is drop the fast food and eat some fruit, you know? If he actually starts to do little things of self-care that show he’s actually beginning to open up to forgiving himself his past mistakes and loving himself as he is. The moment Dean can believe he deserves Cas’ love is when he’ll be able to actually see Cas and see that he might mean as much to Cas as Cas does to him. And once that door begins to open…

Yah. Fireworks.

Anyway, that’s just what I’d love to see happen.

Cas’ self-worth has clearly sky-rocketed, demonstrated to us when he decided to leave that Bunker and Dean’s emotional abuse behind, effectively telling Dean that he deserves better treatment than that. Like hell yes.

This action was so necessary, not only for Cas’ sense of self-worth, but to bring Dean into a position where he honestly has no choice but open himself up to some much needed self-reflection.

Dean needs to reflect on his own behaviour, and he should feel guilt and shame and regret, but without getting defensive about it, without pushing it down and pretending he’s fine with it. He has to actually face the consequences of his actions and step up and take responsibility for how his usual behaviour of taking his emotions (his anger) out on those closest to him is harmful, and he needs to become self-aware enough to not engage in it anymore.

Time to grow up, Dean Winchester, you beautiful man!

Let’s take a look at the end-of-the-ep exchange, shall we?

End-of-the-Ep Exchange

So we get the brothers, in the Impala, having one of those heart-to-hearts that Baby seems made for half the time. In this place of safety there’s room for honesty, always. And they usually find their way to it around her.

*still worried something will happen to Baby by the end of the season as a visual manifestation of them letting go of needing her to have this type of communication as well as moving on from the past and into the future but omg I hope nothing does and still I kinda hope something does gah*

Anyway.

I’m skipping into the meaty part of this exchange (okay stop with that pun already it’s already old) Fine.

Dean talks about how he felt like cashing out in the crypt after Chuck went all Apocalypse World 55.1 on their asses, but Sam brought him out of that line of thinking by reminding him that what they do matter. And Dean is all about picking Sam up, has been trying to for the whole episode, wanting to do the same for Sam that Sam did for him, of course, and remind him that what they do matter, because they save lives.

And a little more than that.

They keep the blinds down for the rest of the world, right? They allow for people to live their white-picket-fence lives and never worry about what goes bump in the night, which is what Sam has been so fed up with for the entire episode: the hopelessness of their situation; because there will always be more monsters, no matter what they do, and people will die, no matter how many they save.

To the exchange, then –>

Dean: ‘Cause it is, you know, It’s a crap job. We do the ugly thing so that people can live happy. Sam: Yeah. Lucky them. Dean: Yeah, lucky them.

So Sam’s reaction here can be read whichever way you like it, really, but looking at the subtext of the exchange - which, for Dean, is un-subtly all to do with Cas - Sam’s reaction tied to Dean agreeing that the people who get to live happy are lucky can very well be seen as Sam reacting to Dean letting his guard down and admitting that, yes, happy sounds good, happy sounds nice, and he wouldn’t mind a bit of happy for himself.

What’s more mind-blowing about this admittance, to me, has to do with the Cas-subtext of the exchange, though, because that’s for us, the viewers, who understand that when Dean talks about moving on, that’s a signal for us - who witnessed that very private moment between Dean and Cas in the previous episode - to get where Dean’s head is at.

So when Dean very subtly agrees with Sam about how living a long and happy life (and I’m paraphrasing Mildred because relevant) would be good, we can detect that there’s a deeper reason for why it’s not only monsters and death keeping Dean from living it.

And, what’s more, the fact that he puts into words that he wants to live a long and happy life is a huge, huge marker, at least to this meta writer, of how far he’s come in his progression, because he wants it and he’s not about to lie to himself that he doesn’t, but, by that same token, he still does not believe he deserves it and he can’t see himself ever having happiness, which is part of why he’s been self-punishing himself the entire episode, because it’s this incapability of accepting happiness when it’s right there that made him push Cas away and it’s a vicious, vicious cycle of lack of self-love and self-worth.

(jaysusssss very beautifully done)

And look at Dean’s FAAAACE ^^^

And Sam is still reacting to all this because what? – did Dean just admit that he doesn’t want the Blaze of Glory ending for himself? (and yeah with Cas having left I’m pretty sure Sam is hyper aware of the possibility that Dean is actually, in his own way, admitting that a future without Cas looks pretty bleak to him)

Back to the exchange where Dean says all these amazing, amazing things –>

Dean: But it doesn’t change a thing. You know what I mean? We still do the job, but we don’t do it for us. We do it for Jack, for mom, for Rowena. We owe it to anyone who’s ever given a damn about us to put one foot in front of the other. No matter what.

And let me pause for a moment there and just have us all look at what exactly he is saying here, because, oh boy, is it telling of how he just has not reached a healthy place in any shape or form. Now, in a way, this is healthier than digging himself a hole and lying in it, yeah? Absolutely.

It’s that “fake it” mentality of S7 all over again and I’d rather he be here, with a glimmer of hope (I always thought you’d come back type of hope with that trench coat in the trunk of every car they drove that season), and finding a reason to keep going, than be in that dark place he was in during his grief!arc at the start of S13, when he couldn’t believe in a damn thing and he didn’t care, at all, what happened to him, BUT there is still that echo here, which is why it’s such an unhealthy frame of mind for him to cling to.

They don’t have a purpose in life for themselves, they find it through others.

No.

It brings us right back to what he said to Sam at the end of 13x20: I don’t really care what happens to me, I never have.

And what he told Death in 14x05: I don’t matter.

This attitude is the reason why he can’t move out of this perpetual state of not believing he deserves more. That he deserves everything.

And this is what’s keeping him from daring to want more for himself, daring to feel how much more he does want for himself, because every time he’s dared to want more, it’s come crashing down around him. His fear of happiness runs extremely deep.

It’s time to face it and let go of it and embrace the fact of how his life and how he chooses to live it benefiting others is a great gift, but him giving that gift also means he has every right to balance the giving out with a bit of receiving.

*please and thank you*

Of course, all of this is underlined in what he says next –>

Dean: And hey, man, like you said, now that Chuck’s gone, we’re finally on our own. We are finally free to move on, you know?

And the way this is phrased, so brilliantly, of course makes it impossible not to see it as a subtle reveal of what Dean is thinking about Cas leaving: without Chuck pulling Cas’ strings, Cas was finally free to make the choice to leave.

But this is also tied to what Dean needs to stop getting hung up on, because he’s purposefully blocking out what Cas said, which is that for all his string-pulling, Chuck still had to pivot with their choices. He didn’t control those. He manipulated them, sure, but he didn’t force them into making them. And each choice they’ve made has added to their understanding of themselves and of the world and their place in it. They are real.

Cas didn’t choose to leave because now he’s free of Chuck’s influence - he chose to leave because Dean was breaking his heart, because Dean refused to hear him, because Dean was shutting him out and pushing him away, because Dean’s inability to stop using the blame game as an excuse not to connect or open up wasn’t gonna fly anymore.

And this is what Dean needs to face, so Dean talking about finally being “on our own” and free is the last vestige of his performance remaining, the final lie he has to tell himself until he can face his fears and take responsibility for his actions, because the alternative is to live without Cas, aka without happiness.

I mean, the absolute defeat on Dean’s face in the screen grab above reminds me of his face watching Cas’ body burn at the end of 13x01. And then that expression switches into this –>

–> grim determination.

The top one is all: I’ve lost him, I’ve lost him.

The bottom one is all: It’s for the best anyway, what did you think was gonna happen, he’s better off without you, let him go live his life.

(headcanon but yeah like fuuuuck feelings)

And, of course, Sam is there to voice exactly how Dean is really feeling.

Sam: I don’t know if I can move on. You know, I can’t forget any of them. Dean, I still think about Jessica. I can’t just let that go. Dean: No, no, man, that’s not what I’m talking about.

(because Dean is talking about the healthy way to let go, which is to not let the past rule your present, to be aware and appreciate and remember, but not cling onto old ideals and ideas, or past mistakes that you can’t change, no matter how much you wish you could)

Sam: I know, I know, I know, I’m sorry, I know, but what I’m talking about is that I don’t feel free. What we’ve done, what we’ve lost, right now that is what I’m feeling and sometimes it’s… Sometimes it’s like I can’t even breathe.

And all I could think when Sam said that was Dean talking about feeling as though he was drowning while being possessed by Michael. The suffocating feeling of the weight of all those old ideals and ideas and having no other choice but to succumb, because he wasn’t strong enough to fight them at the time.

Sam is dealing with his own set of old ideals and ideas now, because while we see Dean actively suppress his thoughts and feelings and finding unhealthy, though at least stabile, outlets through coping mechanisms like overeating and drinking and working this episode, Sam is not about to suppress anything.

He feels his irritation, his impatience, his hopelessness and it comes out in how he interacts with others, with his surroundings, with Dean, with the case. Sam doesn’t have outlets. He bottles everything up. He thinks he’s fine and he’s handling it, but he’s not. And he hasn’t been fine for a very long time. That hopelessness always niggling. That question of what is the point if there’s no end to the suffering?

I honestly believe he needs to accept that not everyone can be saved. I’m hopeful that he will, but I’ll admit I’m a little worried about what’s in store for our Sam. I hope he’ll have to get dragged through the darkest place before he can come out victorious on the other side, the same way Cas and Dean have been over the past four seasons.

Sam: …Maybe tomorrow. You know, maybe I’ll feel better in the morning. Dean: And what if you don’t? Sam: I don’t know.

It’s interesting looking at how this conversation is structured: Dean reminding Sam that Sam saved him from himself and succeeded, and Dean, this episode, trying to save Sam from himself without success.

The thing is, I can see Sam needing to save himself, needing to get to a place where he’s ready to fully let go of Dean, because he realises that Dean doesn’t need him the way he used to, and them holding onto each other and their old ideals and ideas of how to relate themselves to each other is no good, for either of them, and, once this shift in Sam happens, for him to, without hesitation, step into a leader position and accept that this is his place and where he belongs and there is great purpose to be found there, and through that purpose, there’s great happiness to be had too. Aw Sam! *hopes and wishes*

I really loved this episode so much. I’m still not over this scene, haven’t quite digested how Jensen delivered that slight speech and all the very subtle truths baked into this exchange that were so extremely revealing of what’s really going on inside of him, as well as Sam stating what’s going on inside of him, following that harrowing dream sequence that opened the ep.

Gorgeous stuff. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

Text

8x22: Clip Show

Then:

Cas almost gets hit on by Dean

Now:

Lost Creek, Colorado

A couple are at a cabin in the woods, and the woman is so happy that her boyfriend finally joined her. He acts like it’s no big deal but we flash back to a memory —specifically of Supernatural season 1, episode 2: Wendigo. He’s Tommy and has some serious PTSD from the terror he experienced that night in the woods.

He thinks he hears a growl and pulls his girlfriend away from the window. He knows that a Wendigo is outside and pulls out a flare to take the unseen monster out. He crumples to the floor and then just explodes right in front of his girlfriend. Eeerp.

At the bunker, the brothers continue to find records that the Men of Letters have kept over the years. Sam’s not doing so well due to all the Trials. He’ll feel better once they finish them.

Cas shows up in the war room, and it appears that Dean and Cas didn’t follow the golden rule of not going to bed angry. Dean doesn’t even acknowledge the angel. Cas is still convalescing. He sits down to talk with Sam a bit about the trials. Dean comes back with food for Sam—well, jerky, beer, and peanut butter cups.

Cas offers to go with Dean for more food, but still gets the cold shoulder. “I’m sorry.” “For what?” “For everything.” Classic DeanCas, lol. (Brb, off to throw myself off a cliff.) Oh wait there’s more, Dean calls out Cas with the whole bolting with the angel tablet and adds, “You didn’t trust me?”

THESE BOYS ARE NOT IN LOVE:

Cas is contrite but Dean is not accepting his apology. Sam stays out of it all for a bit but interrupts eventually to pull Dean aside to make it clear that Cas is one of the good guys. What’s that saying? Dean’s harder on Cas because he loves him the most? Well, meh, I do like their later seasons of grumpy banter more than the divisiveness of right now.

In any event, the brothers head to a storage room.

Sam wants to find a case that their records mentioned. He finds the box, and Dean finds a dungeon! Sam’s box contained a movie film.

They set up the movie (They even made popcorn, guys!)

It’s an old black and white film of the Men of Letters. Josie, the woman that Abaddon possessed, is filming the experiment. They have a demon captured in the very dungeon the Winchesters just discovered. They throw holy water on the demon, recite an incantation at it, and then one priest cuts his hand and presses it on the demon. It flares out, apparently gone. The film stops. It was weird (!!!) One of the priests is still alive and Sam thinks it’s a good idea to get the lowdown on what they just watched on the film. Cas wants to go too but Dean won’t hear of it. (Brb, flinging myself off another cliff. DO NOT LIKE.)

Cut to the brothers meeting with the priest. He tells them that the other priest believed that demons could be saved. He thought that they could cure the demon and they could be a normal human soul again. There were other experiments after that one attempt, and then the priest ended up dead a couple months later. Something had torn him apart. Sam tries asking about records but goes into a coughing fit, complete with blood. He heads to the bathroom while Dean continues to talk with the priest. The priest agrees to give them the other priest’s papers.

Meanwhile, Cas is on a mission to make up with Dean. He’s at a Gas ’n Sip and pulling all the essentials to make Dean like him again.

Ways to woo Dean Winchester:

Beef Jerky

Porn

Beer

Protein

AND Smiting the sap who can’t provide the pie

Cas almost smites the poor attendant. Metatron interrupts. They need to talk.

He wants to talk about Heaven. It’s apparently a mess up there without the archangels. Naomi isn’t in charge as much as she’s led Cas believe. Cas blames himself for everything that’s happened in heaven. (URGH, no! —I mean, yeah, but NO). Metatron thinks they can buddy up and save the day! They can sort everything out. First, they need to shut down Heaven. Then he mentioned crepes and flies away.

At the bunker, Sam can’t find Cas. Dean doesn’t care (URGH, no!) They decide to watch the last audio recording before the priest died.

Once again, there’s a demon in chains. This time, the priest injects the demon with purified blood. He continues to do this 8 times. And the demon seems to be cured.

They decide to try the experiment out on their own decapitated Abaddon.

Meanwhile, Cas flaps over to Metatron’s brunch location, a cute restaurant with an outdoor patio overlooking the water. It’s a perfect place to relax!

Iconic dialogue alert:

Waitress: Cool coat.

Cas: No, it's actually quite warm.

Waitress: Cute and funny. Okay…

Metatron: I should have picked a better looking vessel.

You’re not here to accidentally flirt with the waitstaff, Castiel! Cas asks for clarification on Metatron’s quest to close the gates of Heaven. Metatron waves it away as just another godly safety switch - you’ve got one for leviathans, demons, and Heaven, of course. Metatron tells Cas that it’s time for a heavenly lock-in to work out all their feelings. And he needs Cas, the warrior, to do it. Cas owns to feeling responsibility for the current state of Heaven but recoils when he hears the first trial. He’ll need to cut out the heart of the cute waitress, the sole nephilim on earth. (Pronounced in this episode as neph-IL-im.) “What’s more important?” Metatron asks. “Her life? Or your family?”

With season 9 under my belt, I watch Dean and Sam sewing Abaddon’s head on with particular horror. Like, you took on the Mark of Cain to defeat her, Dean Bean. Which led to a whole bucket of depression and sad men. Nobody likes buckets of sad men. (JK obviously I love it or what am I even doing here?) What a spectacularly bad idea! Still, it wouldn’t be my beloved show if characters were making smart choices. Abaddon wakes up, cracks her stitched neck, and greets them with “Morning, sunshines.”

“I can’t wait to tear out those pretty green eyes,” she says, lovingly. The Winchesters smirk, drawing her attention to her handless state. (They chopped off her hands - or maybe just left them detached.) “I’ll stump you to death,” she says and...that’s the spirit, Abaddon! She knows about the priest and his work curing demons. In fact, she was a special dispatch straight from Hell to make an example of him. The priest led her to Josie and possessing Josie helped her dismantle the entire Men of Letters network. Yeesh.

The phone rings. It’s Crowley! Abaddon is appalled to learn that Crowley is the King of Hell. Dean and Sam leave the room to talk to Crowley and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BOYS they leave Abaddon alone.

Outside, the Winchesters chat with Crowley. He directs them to some news stories, “sexts” them an address, and bids them farewell. They discover that Crowley’s been putting out hits on people the Winchesters have saved.

While Crowley’s giving them the news, Abaddon makes like Thing from the Addams family and puppets her hands out of the loosely closed box on the table.

Her hand crawls into her mouth and pries out the demon trap bullet. It’s freedom time, mofos.

The Winchesters return to find Abaddon gone. You FOOLS! Sam keeps his eyes on the prize, though. Crowley’s latest address is from their “witches and baked goods” case and is clearly a trap. Time to make a play to catch themselves a different demon.

Prosperity, Indiana

The power’s out in the target’s apartment (and so are the cupcakes! yum!) Unfortunately, Jennie’s body is also out - sticking out of the oven, that is. “You were a great gal, Jennie Klein,” Dean says and...okay? Great mourning, everyone.

Crowley calls them up again. He’s killing off everyone they’ve saved (and using the books as a reference guide) until they deliver the demon tablet to him.

Metatron and Castiel stalk the waitress outside her place of work, Metatron goading Cas to make a choice. Urg. It’s just the bad decisions gang all around. She whirls around to confront them and saves them the trouble of introductions. “I could see your halos.” (I start to hum Beyoncé to avoid thinking about this next part.) Metatron calls her an abomination and she begs to be allowed to just live her life. (She apparently works twelve hours shifts as a waitress, for heaven’s sake. It’s not like she’s exploiting her power.) Cas looks disturbed, apologizing even as he advances on her. She throws him across the grounds like he’s nothing and then advances on Metatron. Castiel kills her from behind. Oof.

The Winchesters race to the next location, only to discover Sarah - the art dealer Sam flirted heavily with several seasons ago. She’s staying in a seriously adorable hotel room, with actual art on display. Dean greets her like he’s just dropped by for a casual visit. OMG Dean. Sam briefs her on the plan. Devil’s traps at all the exits, shotguns, and an exorcism ready to play on loop. We learn that Sarah’s married with a kid. (Sam gets a peek at what-could-have-been.) Sarah tells him that he’s changed - he’s more confident and grown up. She misses the old haircut. Awww…

Crowley calls and starts counting down and when he reaches zero, Sarah starts to choke. She collapses. “You son of a bitch!” Dean shouts. “Son of a witch,” Crowley clarifies - his mother taught him a few useful spells. The Winchesters start tearing apart the room to try and find a hex bag. Crowley continues his villain monologue: he’s keeping all things hell-related far away from the Winchesters - no more demons getting close enough for them to kill.

“I think the people you save, they're how you justify your pathetic little lives. The alcoholism, the collateral damage, the pain you've caused – the ONE thing that allows you to sleep at night, the one thing is knowing that these folks are out there, still out there happy and healthy because of you, you great, big, bloody heroes!”

I mean, when Crowley’s right, he’s right.

Sarah dies. Ugh. UGH. Crowley gives an ultimatum: they stop their quest to close Hell or people keep dying. In rage, Dean hurls the phone across the room. When it breaks, they finally find the hex bag. (Me: But okay she only stopped breathing a minute ago? Start CCR and call 911!)

Back at the bunker, Sam is Not Okay™ and does not respond well to Dean’s attempts to cheer him up. Sam, who continues to look awful and exhausted, suggests giving in to Crowley. “We’ll kick it in the ass like we always do,” Dean insists. Rousing speech, babe.

We fade to black, with everyone we love on dark paths of one kind or another.

______________________________

I NEED Quotes:

Well, that was weird with three exclamation points.

I NEED pie.

I can't wait to tear out those pretty green eyes.

First things first – what are you wearing?

You’d better find him toot-bloody-sweet.

I know this is insane, but insane is kind of what we do.

______________________________

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 8x22 #clip show #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #cas #metatron #crowley #sarah blake #abaddon #supernatural season 8

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crossgartered · 4 years

Text

P5R Liveblog (17/?)

November 20th

Huh? "The distortion inside that Crystal is still linked to distortion somewhere else"?

...is this a plot thing, or is it because I usually have sent the calling card by the time I go to Mementos

Oh, now it's flu season. Well, I'll save reaper farming for ng+. It doesn't look like I'll be able to max all the social links until ng+, too, but that's to be expected, honestly. I made some mistakes.

Still, I'm doing pretty well. Either I'm close to maxing someone or else I've practically never hung out with them. And I'll be able to max out Kawakami before I'm not able to go to school, so that's great.

Priestess 6, Empress 1, Emperor maxed, Hierophant maxed, Lovers 8, Chariot maxed, Justice 8, Hermit 8, Fortune 9, Strength 9, Hanged Man 1, Death 5, Temperance 9, Devil 3, Tower 2, Star 8, Moon maxed, Sun maxed, Faith maxed, Councillor 9.

And I'm pretty sure the Justice & Councillor need more plot to happen before they can progress.

I still can't believe that Kasumi is just gonna randomly show up in the casino after all this. Can't wait to figure out what she's doing.

I hate turning down the girls. It's like, 'So why are you so nice to me?'

'Because we're teammates' or 'Because I love you' like NO IT'S BECAUSE WE'RE FRIENDS AND I LIKE YOU GODDAMMIT

*sigh*

I think I heard her heart shatter. I'm sorry, Futaba. It might have given me an 'are you sure' option but I couldn't take that chance.

OH THANK YOU PHONE CALL CONTENT

I was able to tell her that she was a true friend ^u^ ...of course, that only gave 2 points, so I'm guessing 'partner' or 'key item' would have worked better, but still. I can express my platonic affection.

WHAT IS THIS SPECIAL BOND READING OMG????? THIS IS AMAZING

Oh, good! They did add variety to Haru's plants

I am. Third-wheeling to the extreme here. How do people manage to date Ann.

Can I PLEASE not be a dick to girls I am not trying to date. Can I PLEASE say 'you have us, your friends' or 'Youre not alone' or something that does not imply you will not be there for her while still not dating her?? Especially since you're going to be leaving soon, too.

Ohya or billiards, Ohya or billiards...

YES FINALLY. Hello, Kasumi. Please talk to me.

Kasumi...

YO I CAN MAX FUTABA

THAT POOR PRIEST LOL

Wait I was going to go to untouchable

Whoops

MARUKI NO

Oh god fucking damn it this is going to be just like the cookie thing

Lol your glasses got all fogged up. They even have a sprite for it

BOTH OF THEM COULDNT SEE I LOVE THIS

FUCK HE KNOWS

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no

Seriously? Back in April?

Man, the Shibuya thing for Kaneshiro feels so foolish and ridiculous. We just literally disappeared into thin air, huh. And I though it might at least be someone who was deliberately watching for us who would see us, but that's not even true here. Guh.

OH MY GOD WE EVEN SAW HIM HUH

Well, great. I feel used.

He was pretty honest about wanting my help but. Ugh.

Maruki, I feel like you're going to flip your shit over the course of the next few days. I wonder if...

Hmm. Well. Onward.

Ah, I figured this was going to be the max rank with him.

Were you going to ask for my wish, Maruki?

LMAO RYUJI "ain't this place always empty though?" "I'm telling Boss." OAO HIS MODEL CHANGED.

Have I never chosen that option before or have I just never noticed

Ahhhh the hypest part of the game. I'm super psyched

MAKING CURRY INCREASES MY GUTS???!?!?

IT'S SHOWTIME

Ooh~ the roulette panels changed : 3

OH MAN I TOTALLY FORGOT TO TETRAJA THANK YOU FUTABA I AM SO GLAD I MAXED YOU

Aww. One more move and Makoto would have been the one to deal the last blow.

"THOSE GUYS IN BLACK SUITS ARE ALMOST HERE"

Huh, so Futaba can see a bunch of Shadows in police uniforms. Interesting.

Ryuji...! Thank you for your faith in me. I definitely will do my best not to die. ;U;

MAN I LOVE KNOWING THE REVEAL ALL OF THIS IS SO GOOD

I'm curious if the original plan was to take them all or just Joker. I wonder if the counterplan actually saved everyone from getting arrested and/or killed

Ah, to see how 'boyish voice' turns into 'Morgana', and all the rest

NOBODY ASKED YOU, INARI

ARSENE...!

I wonder why, from a Watsonian perspective, he comes back.

I wonder if we ever told the others about Kasumi

Oh, man, in hindsight, her coming to the casino Palace was actually really dangerous for her! Esp if Crow heard Futaba wtfing at her being there. Puts a target on her back, it does

??? I can still use my party's skills, even though I'm alone right now?

I still don't understand the logistics of this takedown. Ah well.

KASUMI WHY ARE YOU /HERE/

Did we plan this? Did I tell you /anything/ about the situation KASUMI WHY ARE YOU HERE

Nope sae never heard of them I have been the only phantom thief I have been by myself the whole time I am alone in this room right now

I sure do! And I know that you're lying to me! And that I have a big heart full of love for my friends! I'm not gonna sell anyone out. Glad that we've established that.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I love that whole everything.

I was riveted for a solid chunk of that. I remember the first time I played I was practically yelling at the screen and I had wanted to skip past the bits with the SIU director and all that bc I wanted to know what had happened to the protagonist and what was going to happen with Sae

Like, did I mess up??? Oh my god the eyes are open and there's blood and where would you even put the squib??? I was trying to figure out if I had chosen wrong and stuff.

When I played p4 for the first time, I got one of the responses to Yosuke wrong. I had said something about the window instead of vaguely saying that there's something bc I thought, well, why would he be trying to escape from the window instead of through the TV?? But he just got angry at me : ( and then I got the """normal ending""" which. yeah. and so then I reloaded and went through all that again. ...It was really frustrating.

Anyway.

MAN IT'S SO SATISFYING. The casino palace and its aftermath is really satisfying. The villains then deciding to be cartoonishly evil is a bit of a detractor but otherwise! Very cool.

And man the music is so good. Whims of Fate. Life Will Change, with lyrics! It's good stuff. I love the persona 5 music. although lbr persona music in general is AMAZING. i have playlists with just persona music it’s good good stuff

#p5r liveblog #p5r #p5r spoilers #long post #persona 5 royal #p5 spoilers #this one gets emotional at video games

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madartiste · 5 years

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Deadly Fortune, Book 1, Chapters 1-5

So I started reading the only English translation I could find of the DMC4 “Deadly Fortune” novels to mine them for good character info. I have no idea if anyone else will be interested, but I’ll post the notes I’m taking here. Mostly this is just a retelling of the game, but there are scenes that aren’t shown and some interesting context/internal monologue things to be found. I skipped the first chapter because it was just Dante and Trish being cryptic, and I didn’t notice anything interesting. I’ll post more as I work my way through the novels.

The chapters are referred to as “stages.” Stuff in bold are things I found particularly interesting. Everything is under the cut because I’m a wordy fool and I didn’t want to drown anyone’s dashboard.

EDIT: Forgot the friggin link to where I found the translation: https://originaldmc.github.io/DivinityStatue/Downloads.html

Stage 02 (Pregame)

Kyrie visits Nero (he doesn't live with her). She sometimes brings little gifts to the knights in the barracks.

Nero doesn't know if his arm is poisoned or possessed

Kyrie is one year older, treats Nero like a kid when something bad happens

Kyrie hasn't sung in front of a big crowd before (though she has sung in church)

Attendance at the Festival of the Blade isn't mandatory, so Nero finds an excuse not to go every year -- except this one since Kyrie asks him if he's going and she's performing

Nero's arm was injured one month prior to the game. The demons were in the 'forests of the suburbs.' (Later he says it's Mitis forest, though when he describes getting to the scene he doesn't actually go that far?) Only three knights were sent because the ones that show up near the city are usually weak, but this time there were a lot of them. Nero isn't considered a 'team player,' and he thinks that he is about as far from being a hero as you can get, so he isn't given tasks like that.

Nero is given tasks that require him to work alone and thinks that even the order has secrets he wants to keep. His job is to deal with humans who've been possessed by demons that the Order thinks can't be saved. He is expected to kill them without a trace (OMG!). Basically, the Order doesn't want the people to lose faith in them if a devout follower is possessed by a demon. The people are told that Sparda will protect them, and if they knew the truth it would look bad for the Order. Nero says he isn't happy about killing people, but if no one else will do it, he will, since it's very difficult to save someone who's possessed. So Nero is basically a hit man jeeeeeeeeeeeez.

Another reason Nero is shunned is that he likes using guns. Being the 'Order of the Sword,' they place a huge emphasis on swords. Nero doesn't care about that -- if it kills demons, why not use it? -- and since there are no gunsmiths, he built Blue Rose himself. (He talks a lot about the gun a lot and why he chose a revolver too. Kid knows his guns, though he says he's not a 'serious gun expert.')

The 'dean of the Orphanage' where Nero was raised is an old lady named Sister Xista. (Nero comments that he knows she loves the orphans she works with.)

Kyrie was out in the forest with the orphans on an outing. Ah! She had come back from Mitis forest and was in the city when they got attacked by (30!) scarecrows. Nero runs along the rooftops to get there (and is really casual about it like a normal person could just vault up there and run).

The three knights are Josh (who dies -- poor Josh), Sagan, and Tonio (who seems to be in charge? He's also old fashioned, uncomfortable around Nero, and also 'obsessed with honor.').

Apparently Red Queen is so suped up that if Nero uses it too close to people he could accidentally burn them.

Nero likes that Kyrie is the type of person who would protect other people at the risk of herself but also kinda hates it since she could get hurt.

There's a very interesting passage where Nero thinks about how many of the knights want to become famous and are very into the legend of Sparda, but Nero feels they should be focusing more on the 'good heart of his struggle to protect humanity' part of the story. He also feels they should be less mad at him for jumping into the fight and stealing their thunder and instead comfort Kyrie and the children who were nearly killed.

An Assault pops in through a 'magic array' right behind Kyrie as she's trying to tend to Josh's wound. This is where the "Kyrie, run!" memory from when Nero blacks out in Agnus' lab comes in. Josh tries to defend her, but gets slashed up. His blood actually spatters on Kyrie's face, who is too stunned to react. Nero revvs Red Queen all the way up and jumps at the demon, can't block an attack which is how his arm gets hurt. He burns out the Exceed system so he can't really protect himself. Sagan and Tonio jump in to help while Josh gets Kyrie and the kids away. The demon chases them and injures a kid named Kelly and kills Josh. Nero finally takes it out with his gun.

One of the kids is named Gili.

The Order tries to hide the incident, but since a bunch of kids were involved, it's a bit hard. Josh was an orphan (like Nero), and all of the other adults were forbidden from talking about it. The whole thing seems to piss Nero of since Josh died and Kyrie was injured. He decides to try to get stronger, and apparently Sagan and Tonio have the same idea since they start training a lot.

Nero refers to a building called the 'Sword House' which used to be the Order's HQ until the 'new Faculty HQ' was built. Credo's office is still in the Sword House, and Nero tries to avoid making too much noise on the creaky stairs. Hahaha! Credo asks Nero "How are you so slow?" Credo's got a new mission for Nero -- Nero refers to it as 'dirty work.'.

There's an 'Investigation Bureau' for the Order.

Credo wants the mission dealt with quietly since today is a festival day. He DOES very seriously ask if Nero is okay to fight. Which Nero sarcastically replies "Will someone else do it if I say no?"

Red Queen is out at the 'technical bureau' for repairs because it has a lot of special parts. Credo gives Nero one of the Caliburn swords (the Durandal is the officers' sword type). He also tells Nero not to use his gun because it'll make noise and draw attention. Nero notices that Credo is out of sorts. He's apparently pretty upset about Nero being injured, Josh being killed, and all of it being covered up.

There's some guy named Kars (or Karls? The translation keeps changing his name) who Nero asked to buy that cute necklace for Kyrie. Nero is nice and apologetic for keeping the guy waiting, which throws Kars off a bit.

The Devil Bringer hurts as well as glows when there's a demon around.

Nero beats up a bunch of Scarecrows and heads back to go listen to Kyrie sing. That's literally the only reason he's going since he doesn't actually have to be there at the ceremony.

Okay, so Fortuna Castle is where Sparda supposedly lived when he was lord. It's used as an Art Gallery these days, and citizens are free to come and go as they like. The 'technical bureau' room (the underground lab) isn't known to most people, though, and their purpose is to build weapons to fight demons.

Agnus loves research, teaching, and Sanctus apparently. He also talks to Yamato. It doesn't talk back, but he's mainly complaining to it about not being able to fix the damn thing. He found Yamato a year ago on the outskirts of Fortuna. Even though the sword is only mentioned a few times in ancient books, Angus recognized it right away. In the translation Devil Arms are referred to as Magic Swords -- which might be how the Order thinks of them? In any case, they lost track of Sparda's swords after he left 2000 years ago.

Apparently you can repair Devil Arms. Some repair themselves overtime, other kinds can be fixed if you have the right type of material. Yamato is neither of those. Agnus thinks if Yamato was made from a Devil, then this makes sense -- BUT if that was the case it should've lost all its power when it was broken. Instead, Yamato still has lots of power. He calls the sword 'unpleasant' after yelling at it. Heh.

Gloria shows up with a guy named Greg. Agnus hates Gloria and is apparently a misogynist. As if we need another reason to dislike him. He doesn't trust her and also thinks it's distasteful for women to flaunt their stuff as a 'weapon.' Also Gloria clearly likes harassing him because he's such an uptight jerk.

The Order has never accepted 'foreigners' into its ranks before (hence some of Agnus' distrust). There's a line about the church paying attention to 'the birthplace and family' of its members -- which is interesting. I wonder if that's part of the reason some of the knights are weird about Nero? Because no one knows who his family is…

Gloria told them she was a treasure hunter and that's how she found the Devil Sword Sparda. Agnus thinks the sword is basically a holy relic since it was Sparda's actual sword. She caused quite a stir when she showed up and asked to speak to Sanctus (the knight who met her thought she was his mistress!).

Gloria also brought along the Devil Arms that were used to power the smaller Hell Gates (lol, Trish just swiped all of Dante's stuff!). The real Hell Gate can only be opened with a complete Yamato.

Stage 03 (Start of the game)

Nero bought his headphones from Kars.

Nero thinks the preaching is bullshit. It was Kyrie and Credo and their parents that showed him love and warmth, not some 'sinless' god. He thinks it's weird that their parents were so kind to him, and that it was probably because he has 'silver' hair like Sparda is said to have. There's an interesting line: "I don't have parents, so in their hearts I might be someone who has a relationship with Sparda."

He feels they were good people, if blind and naive, and seems angry they were killed by demons. It happened before he was a knight, and he doesn't know the circumstances. There's a reference to them investigating the ruins in Mitis Forest when they were killed? But that's why he doesn't believe in Sparda -- because why would god let good people like that die at the hands of demons? He also says that he could understand if it was someone like him (!) but not people who were devout, kind believers.

Very Vergil line from Nero: "So, I don't believe in God, I only believe in power."

He also decided to stick around to protect Kyrie, presumably because no god was going to do it.

The necklace Nero bought for Kyrie isn't very expensive. He wanted to thank her for taking care of him and congratulate her on getting to be the soloist at the ceremony.

"The Buddhism of the Pope on the stage continues." That line cracked me up. I assume it just means that Sanctus kept going with his sermon.

Dante shoots Sanctus, everyone panics. Nero doesn't worry about Kyrie dropping her gift since he can just buy her another one if she wants.

Nero's surprised by how fast Dante wrecks the knights since they're trained to fight demons. He mentions that 'many demons have human forms.' He didn't even stop to think before drop kicking Dante. He just wanted to save Kyrie.

When they end up on top of the statue of Sparda, Nero realizes that Dante is way stronger than he is even though Nero is far stronger than a normal person.

There's some surprise from Nero when Dante doesn't care that Credo and Kyrie escape, and he wonders if the 'murderer' has some kind of conscience after all. But he also doesn't care. Dante is clearly amused by this whole thing.

Nero's got an 'auto-loader' for Blue Rose because he has to load two types of ammo.

Nero doesn't use his right arm at first because he doesn't know when reinforcements will show up and doesn't want to have to explain it to them.

Dante doesn't seem to know what to make of Nero's arm at first? He asks if there is 'titanium inside.' Which is weird. Not sure if that's a translation thing or not.

Nero's right hand might actually be stronger than Dante. When Dante goes to staff him and Nero catches Rebellion, Dante can't quite pull away (though there's no indication of how hard he was trying).

Dante says "You too?" when Nero goes to throw the statue's sword at him, and Nero is confused. Dante also says "No, you don't have the smell of garbage," which I assume means he can tell that Nero isn't one of the artificial demons like the other knights.

Ooof. Nero thinks that he's killed humans possessed by demons but he's never killed a living person before. He can't really tell what Dante is, but he's gonna kill him. There's a weird line about how 'some fierce part of my heart awakened' and that he 'must kill this man, just like he is my old enemy.'

Nero isn't thinking clearly when he nails Dante to the statue and is a bit freaked out by his own reaction.

Nero's reaction to Dante surviving being impaled: 'This is a very outrageous guy.' Hah!

There's more made out of Dante saying that he and Nero are the same in the book. Dante out says "I am not human, are you not the same?" and Nero replies "I am… human," but he hides his arm and is shaken up by the question.

Dante still yeets out through the ceiling, but he calls Nero "little devil" when he leaves. It's kinda cute.

Nero's never met a demon that can understand human language. Evidently it's mainly the powerful ones who can. He worries that he might be a demon after all. The reinforcements show up before he can go check out the dead Order knights to confirm that they're not human. He wonders if he just imagined it, but knows that asking questions won't get him anything.

Switch to Dante POV. Sparda told his boys stories when they were little, though it seems like he left when they were still too young to really grasp everything or to think it was weird that their father was a demon. A lot of the stories of Sparda are considered just fairy tales and legends, so it's hard to piece together what he was really up to for those 2000 years before he met Eva.

The wording is strange, but Dante seems to realize that Vergil likely came to Fortuna to investigate legends of Sparda. After thinking it over, he laughs off the thought that Nero could be Vergil's kid.

Trish is 'very concerned about punctuality' and Dante has to go to the castle to meet her.

Back to Nero: He wants to go back to the dormitory and rest (what a mood), but Credo wants him to chase down Dante. Nero actually thinks he's not sure he can do it.

There's someone named Claude who's Durandl Nero was using? It just references "Claude's Durandl' being a very good sword.

Fortuna is surrounded by a solid wall, and there is only one exit by land. It's in the opposite direction of the Opera House and… the Fortuna duna? (Maybe the docks?) The Order keeps an eye on the ships in the port, though, so Dante can't escape that way.

Awww, he thinks the necklace suits Kyrie.

Demons attack the courtyard outside of the Opera house. Demons in Fortuna aren't rare, but having so many is. Also Nero has never seen them in the center of the city before in his 'few years as a knight.' Nero wonders if Dante is responsible. The plan is to take the citizens to HQ to keep them safe. (I get the feeling that the layout of the island is not so spread out as it is in the game. Either that or headquarters is actually a mistranslation.)

Nero mentally gushes about how great Kyrie is, that she'd even protect someone who treated her poorly. The boy is totally smitten. More very Vergil type thoughts: 'compassion without power can't change anything.' He decides he will be strong so that Kyrie's compassion isn't wasted. (Awww).

Nero deliberately breaks the archway to keep the demons from getting to the people. He ends up having to take the long way to get to HQ because the road is blocked

Stage 04 (Sanctus' resurrection and Berial)

'The room on the uppermost corner of the Magic Swords Corps' is Sanctus' bedroom. I'm assuming this is in the HQ building since this scene analogous to the one in the game where Sanctus is resurrected in the 'Ascension Chamber.'

Hahaha! Sanctus refers to Dante as an "awful guy." Okay, he apparently knew that Dante might come after him, but didn't expect him to drop into the middle of a big ceremony. He's also annoyed that he was killed in front of all the believers.

Agnus and Credo clearly don't like each other. Credo deliberately says some things to piss him off and Agnus absolutely takes the bait.

There's some strange wording, but my interpretation is: Credo partly sent Nero after Dante to make the kid look good. He knows that Nero isn't respected by the Order, but Credo thinks Nero is very strong. There's a comment about the Ascension Ceremony -- which Credo is convinced Nero could survive despite the low success rate (it says only 10 people survived, but that doesn't seem right). Evidently Credo wants to help Nero get in everyone's good graces to prepare him for the ceremony (Credo! Wut r u doin'?!)

Also Credo doesn't think there's any point in reasoning with Agnus. He really doesn't like him. Sanctus has to be the adult. He has some good skills in that, having to get all the different personalities in the Order to work with each other.

Agnus is a giant Sanctus fanboy. He's also easily excitable, which both Sanctus and Credo comment on.

Back to Nero: Lots o' demons in the city. He's very confused. Certain places are easier to open a Hell Gate than others. The translation is confusing here, saying it's easy to open a 'cave' in the area around 'Fodu.' I'm assuming that it means you can open portals to the Underworld easily on Fortuna?

Nero is pretty sure Rebellion is a powerful Devil Arm since he felt something in his Devil Bringer when he touched it.

Fortuna Castle was built up in the mountain because the people of Fortuna didn't want to destroy the environment. They do a lot to try to preserve the state of the island as close to how it was when Sparda was there. Nero thinks Sparda wouldn't care if they made their lives more convenient by modernizing things. (Pretty sure he's right.)

They refer to the big Hell Gate in the city as 'the monument.' Nero is surprised to find one in the Ferrum Hills.

Nero can tell how strong a demon is by how much his Devil Bringer hurts.

Hahaha! He thinks that Berial's sword is 'a little pitiful.' There's actually a nice illustration of Nero facing down Berial.

Nero seems convinced that Dante is a demon when he hears Berial also speak in a human language. There's a weird phrase: 'a lovely type of chat in the demonic race.' I'm not sure what that means.

Nero doesn't like heat. He's also annoyed (?) that Berial just ignored him because he's a human. He also calls Berial old. Also, oh snap, he quickly realizes that Berial is no threat to him, though at first he's a little worried. Nero thinks Berial is weaksauce compared to fighting with Dante. Berial also calls Nero "little devil."

Berial is surprised by Blue Rose. He's never seen a gun before. Nero's ticked that Berial has stronger fire than Red Queen.

Nero has been avoiding thinking about his arm too much, but fighting Berial makes him realize that his power is definitely like a demon's. Berial demands to know if Nero is human or not, and Nero's response is basically "I'm a special case." After Nero beats him up, Berial says he's sure that Nero is a devil, though Nero now denies it.

Berial gives him a weird look and says "Neither a demon nor a human being… that's it. You are like him." And then yeets into the Hell Gate because he knows he can't beat Nero without a refresh.

Nero apparently tries to destroy the Hell Gate but can't. He decides to move on, and wonders if the 'him' Berial was talking about is the man in red -- Dante.

Stage 05 (Fortuna Castle and Bael)

Dante POV: He's running around the castle to find Trish. She didn't tell him where to meet, only when. He wonders if Sparda really lived in such a place because there are only normal human things lying around and not Devil Arms.

He pops by the library and grabs a book off the shelf (Nero in the game comments on Dante having been there), but can't read the language. He feels like someone is watching him and calls them out. It's Trish who didn't want to startle him because she looks different. Dante feels the library suits Trish because 'she has a strong desire for knowledge.' (Interesting.) She doesn't actually show her Gloria disguise to him here.

Trish tells him where Yamato is. Dante wants it back because it's a memento of both his father and brother. There's a nice illustration of Dante and Trish.

They decide to deal with the Order before grabbing the sword since it's broken and they can't use it. Dante decides to poke around the castle a bit more, though Trish correctly guesses he's looking for anything that might have belonged to his dad.

Back to Nero: It seems like Nero hasn't been up to Lamina Peak (It's also called the Holy Mountain) before. He thinks the snow might be normal, but isn't sure. Tourists are rare, but the Castle is a big draw.

So the complicated route to get to the castle might have been to make it hard for enemies to get there in the Middle Ages. But he says the bridge is 2000 years old in the next sentence, so… Not really the Middle Ages.

Nero is actually pleased the bridge gets broken because it gives him a shortcut he wouldn't have thought of otherwise. Fights the Frosts, thinks they can't be the cause of the snow because they're not that kind of demon.

Nero is sure Gloria isn't from Fortuna, and he definitely notices the saucy clothing. Fortuna ladies don't dress like that. He mainly wants to know who she is. He has no idea why his Devil Bringer is still hurting after the demons are defeated, and wonders if that means the woman is a demon.

He hides his Devil Bringer from her -- which is why he doesn't shake her hand. She knows who he is, which means she's a knight, so he assumes that his arm is reacting to other demons nearby.

Gloria lists his nicknames: "'The bad bird to get along with', the arrogant atheist''

He's not surprised.

Ah, he turns away when she puts the knife away because he's being a bit polite and kinda doesn't want to get flashed.

Oh, he HAS been to the Castle, but he can't remember when. It was at least 3 years ago, before he was a knight. He doesn't like the place because of the 'damp air.'

He thinks maybe Dante came here to steal art (hah!).

Nero can't completely read the book Dante was looking at either. He knows enough to pick out that it's about demons, though, and he thinks that it might help him understand what Dante is after.

He's never seen the Bianco Angelos before, and figures it has to be a new weapon of the Order. Nero seems to think the guy in the armor is just a jerk messing with him.

Nero isn't even slightly tempted by Bael's sexy ladies -- the translation uses the word 'goblins' for them. Like Dante says in the game, Bael smells pretty bad. Also Nero can barely understand what Bael is saying, his human is so garbled. Bael also calls Nero "little devil" when he dies.

Link to the next part of the notes: https://madartiste.tumblr.com/post/186824600040/deadly-fortune-book-1-chapters-6-11

#devil may cry #dmc4 #deadly fortune #My notes

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sophygurl · 5 years

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Here is my list of unresolved questions/mysteries in The Raven Cycle, in no particular order:

What was produced at Monmouth Manufacturing?

Was Ashley spying in the Gangesy’s quest? If so, does she have a connection to one of the magical artifact hunters? If not, did she know about Declan’s magical dealings? She seemed smarter than she was letting on...

Why did Artemus disappear when Blue was born? Was he with the unmaker that whole time?

What is the joke that Ronan wrote on the rock in Cabeswater to signify to himself that it was him that wrote it? Also what was his joke that he made on the board in Latin class? Same joke??

Do the tree-lights in Cabeswater know that Blue is Artemus’s daughter? They only mention that they recognize her for being the psychic’s daughter, so do they know that she’s half-tree-light? Did any of them live through the unmaker’s slaughter? Does Blue have any other tree-light relatives in the world anywhere?

Blue and Gansey find Noah’s body somewhere that’s not directly on the ley line and nowhere near his Mustang, so did Whelk move the body?

Why did Gansey’s mom think he wanted the Camaro?

Is the dreamer/greywarren stuff always genetic? Was one of Niall’s parents a dreamer?The Gray Man makes a comment about Niall also asking if he killed his father - what does this mean?? Was his father also a dreamer that was murdered for his power? What about Kavinsky? Were one of his parents dreamers? Another theory: Niall’s stories about when he and Ronan were born involve earthquakes. Do earthquakes happening on a ley line when someone is born cause them to be a dreamer, or does a dreamer being born cause an earthquake on a ley line? Cabeswater says “many thieves, one greywarren” - so only Ronan is a greywarren? Did Niall treat things the same way Kavinsky did, by stealing instead of creating and asking? How many other dream thieves are there out there?? Did Niall also use Cabeswater or did he have his own dream forest or did he not need one? When exactly did Ronan dream Cabeswater and what was it before he gave it shape and where were all the tree-lights when it wasn’t ... what it was?

What exactly is the reason Niall decided not to let his sons on the Barns after he died, until Ronan could figure out how to fudge the will? Why were Ronan’s powers treated as such a freaking mystery? Why wouldn’t he have trained his son in how to control and utilize that power, explain to him how it worked - instead of just telling him to never talk about it and then forcing Declan to run his business and never allow them to talk to one another about what was happening? Why did Aurora never bother to clue her sons in? I have so many questions about this! What about that devil creature he saw his dad with when he was a kid - was that Niall’s nightmare creature? Did Niall know Ronan saw that? It seems like Ronan knew/remembered/suspected some things and not others ... IDK ...

Also, like. How did they keep doctors and insurance people and such from questioning what was going on with Aurora after Niall died? Or all the cattle on the land? Like, someone must have been tasked with tending to that stuff, so WTF? And Declan was for sure sneaking onto the Barns to get dream objects to sell. What a hypocrite.

Dream creatures are sort of PART of the dreamers, right? This is less creepy when thinking about Chainsaw or cattle. But Aurora was a part of Niall? Matthew was a part of Ronan?! How does that ... work??

That fucking Camaro wheel under the lake on the ley line that was hundreds of years old MIRITE?!?! And how is it related to the shield boss? They were both left behind? Calla talks about both Gansey and Glendower as people who reuse time, so ... uh ... the fuck?

Gansey DOES abandon his spare wheel at the airport to make room for Malory’s things - is that somehow connected??

What is with Gansey and sucking on those mint leaves anyway?

When Adam and Gansey are at that party and the lights go out and everyone hears that “Make way for the Raven King” stuff - wtf? Was that Cabeswater? Noah? Glendower? Someone else? Why that and then and there? Is the Gansey family mansion on a ley line??

Why does no one ever notice an entire fucking field of white Mistubishi’s with knives painted on the sides and odd fuck-ups in the design?!

Where was Ronan sleeping that Kavinsky saw him when he had his bad dream where he woke up all bloody? Just like ... in the street??

Why is Ronan paralyzed when he comes out of his dreams but Kavinsky isn’t?

What is the actual deal with Kavinsky’s family, speaking of? Like is his mom an addict or does he just drug her to keep her compliant? Does she know what he is? What happens to her after he dies? What about the whole story with his dad? Did he really kill him? Did he then copy him like he did Prokopenko?

Is Kavinsky’s creature also a night horror to him too? Or was it once? He seems able to control his, even though Ronan can feel the hate coming off it like he can with his own. Ronan’s creatures eventually stop hating him because he stops hating himself. Kavinsky clearly had a death wish, so how is he so comfortable controlling his creature?

Is Henrietta just kinda like Sunnydale and they all know something is a bit off and that’s why no one ever freaks out and calls, like, the FBI when actual fucking dragons start fighting in the sky?? (Also did the Gangsey have to bury Kavinsky’s creature that night to make sure no one found it?? What did the authorities think about Proko’s sleeping body??) Or like when Noah started throwing shit around in the counselor’s office - what did she think ... happened?? Or when there is water dripping off of a picture in the hospital waiting room - does ... does no one else see this stuff? NOT TO MENTION when there’s like a primal scream and an ancient beast appears in the street and then hordes of birds of all kinds start swooping about and flying cross country!??!

So.... this whole three sleepers thing. The unmaker was the one NOT to wake. Gwen was Maybe the one to wake or Maybe the one in the middle or Maybe not even a sleeper since she was never fully put to sleep. Glendower was ... actually fucking dead so not a fucking sleeper at all? Adam thinks, symbolically, that he was the sleeper to be awoken, which is nifty, but prolly not what the ladies meant. Are there OTHER sleepers still?!?

Okay. When Maura disappears, who becomes Blue’s legal guardian? I would think maybe Jimi, being her aunt? But it seems like Calla is the most responsible/parental one so perhaps Maura had already designated her as a guardian if something were to happen?? I’d love to know, honestly. I need so much more about this household,really.

Was it one of the Fox Way psychics who came to sage the Greenmantle’s rental place? I wonder which one...

Is the sleeping that the dreamed creatures do when their dreamer dies somehow connected to the sleepers referenced on the ley line??

WHAT is the story behind the time Blue ran away and they had to call the police?!?! When did this happen?!? I need details!

Calla seems to recognize or sense something about Jesse when she meets him - what’s that about?

It seems like Gwen and Artemus, as tree-lights, can live a really long time and Gwen lived a long time not-really-asleep with no food or water or anything. Does this mean Blue will get to live a super long life?

Can Persephone’s ghost come and go the way Noah’s does? Is that how she communicates with Adam? Why only him?

WHAT is the story behind when Jimi punched Calla??

Did anyone ever tell Declan that his mom got to be alive again for awhile in Cabeswater and how pissed was he that he never got to go and see her?

How does Gansey’s voice command thing work, and how is it/he connected to Glendower? I’ve got a LOT to work out about this one....

Which Laumonier is Piper’s dad? How did that all work? Did they all raise her as one? Does she even know which one is technically her dad? Why are they ... like that??

Who is the dead person in Calla’s life that Noah reminds her of when he’s doing the creepy 6:21 stuff? I want THAT story, too.

Are all of the Asian kids at Aglionby from Vancouver? Is that... a thing??

Here’s one: is Declan even Aurora’s kid or did Niall have him with a human person? I don’t know why I strongly suspect this so much, but I do.

How much does Matthew know about his weird-ass family? Any of it??

What is the story behind Blue dumping the stuff over the kid’s car at school? Also what’s behind the Not Your Bitch nickname the other kids have for her? Gods, tell me so much more about Blue being a badass trouble maker okay!

Also, omg, going back to the Lynch’s - so we talk about Chainsaw and Opal as being sort of part’s of Ronan’s psyche, right? So ... is that what Aurora is? Was she, like, Niall’s psychopomp??? That is so weird.

When Blue has her tree-dream ... was she actually integrating into the tree?? Did she really take Gansey in there with her?!

The unmaker is a wasp. Gansey was killed by bees. Coincidence?!

That woman who comes to the Barns in Opal’s story RIGHT?!?!?

Also, gods, I have SO MANY QUESTIONS about Glendower and Artemus and Gwenllian and all of those folks. Why did the magic of putting Glendower to sleep not work? Or did it? Did it wear off? Did the kids just find another false grave and he’s still yet to be found? Did they just not do the right things to wake him? Will they come back to that? Did Artemus purposefully not put Gwen to sleep-sleep? If so that is seriously fucked up, dude. Why is Artemus so messed up after they find him again - so much lesser, I think, the narrative says? Is it because of having been down with the unmaker for so long? It feels like there’s more to it than that. Gwen seems simultaneously really ticked at her dad and really wanting for him to be found - what is their story?

When the Fox Way ladies do their big reading at the start of TRK, they ask “does this mean she’s still alive?” - I’m guessing that’s about Neeve. And then “does this mean she’s leaving?” - probably Blue? And then “does this mean she’s coming back?” - could this be about Persephone? Is she gonna come back in some way PLEASE SAY YES, PLEASE SAY YES.

Also, omg, Persephone’s whole backstory is one giant mystery that I want uncovered. I mean - all of the lady’s stories are, really, but hers, especially. It’s said a few times how she never tells anyone anything about herself and they’re just not sure about anything about her, etc. She is so vague all the time and never answers questions about herself so ... yea, that means I wanna know everything.

I don’t know, folks. I have just so many other questions. Some are mundane things I just wanna know about the characters. Some are deep mysteries that there are probably clues to that I just have yet to piece together after my 20 re-reads thus far. Some are left hanging on purpose so we’ll have different theories and interpretations, probably. SOME ARE HOPEFULLY GONNA GET ANSWERED IN THE DREAMER TRILOGY?!?!? But this is long enough. Feel free to add to this or answer me if you think you’ve got one answered!

#the raven cycle #trc #maggie stiefvater #trc questions #trc meta #trc mysteries #the dreamer trilogy #i honestly just need so much more in this world #i need help

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mtvswatches · 5 years

Text

Wynonna Earp 1x09 Bury Me with My Guns On

Wynonna Earp 1x07 Walkin’ After Midnight

Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Oh, wow…

This definitely reminded me of this…

2) “She is also a distraction I cannot afford right now.” Too late, Doc, you’re officially distracted…

#swoon

3) This is exactly what happened and I cannot be convinced otherwise…

But in all seriousness, it’s quite interesting how Wynonna finds herself chasing any kind of feeling now that she’s done with the rage and revenge. The problem is, no matter how many revenants she puts down, she’s never going to get her family back and she’ll never get the forgiveness she so desperately craves. She needs to come to terms with these facts, and she needs to find a new purpose now.

I also find it interesting how she doesn’t find it hard to open up to Doc. For someone who’s quite closed-off and who puts up all these walls, she opens herself up rather quickly with the people she cares about.

4) Holy shit, she’s not messing around…

5) Oooh, this is gonna be like “When She Was Bad”, right?

6) Wynonna is going to be psychoanalyzed on the day she decides to go bad. This should be interesting.

7) Man, this girl is all tough and shit but she definitely wears her heart on her sleeve…

DOLLS: We need to be careful, alright? You're not even a real deputy, Earp, come on.

WYNONNA: No. I'm just the one with the big-ass gun who sends the fiends of Hell to their deaths.

DOLLS: Technically, it's not the gun that kills them, it's…

WYNONNA: Oh my God! You stupid government lackey, you left me in there with a bureaucratic sadist and I was alone and scared.

DOLLS: You're not alone, Earp.

WYNONNA: Or a murderer.

DOLLS: Okay.

WYNONNA: Just once, I want you to say it. That you care about me. Pussy.

It’s kind of refreshing to see this type of portrayal of women, you know? She’s hard as nails but she’s also not afraid to express her feelings and show her vulnerability to others, and that doesn’t make her any less of a badass. You can be both, what do you know?

And not only did Dolls not tell her that he cares about her, but he also took away her badge. Uncool.

8) Oh, that’s a big promise, Wynonna…

That’s like calling bad luck, is all I’m saying.

9) OMG…

She made this poor dude piss himself. Guess the Bad Girl thing is already backfiring.

10) She finally got her way…

11)

What is Drek, other than the witch’s baby/son? Is he a Revenant or is he something else altogether? I’m thinking he’s something else. And what does she mean when she says they “will be gods”? All I can think of is she wants to sing in the meadows…

12) “Lord, girl, you need to blow off that steam.” Please tell me he’s going to bang off the steam out of her. Pretty please?

13) SWEET LORD JEBUS, PRAYER WORKS!

14) So… the Sheriff dismissed Nicole’s report of what she had experienced herself by defining “Purgatory” as quirky. Riiiight. But then, he picked up her report from the trash. So, he’s either waking up and starting to believe there are supernatural forces at work here, or he is the Sheriff because he’s been in the know and assigned precisely to dismiss any type of supernatural claims – a la Snyder in BTVS. Either way, I think it will be an interesting turn of events.

15) They are having two completely different conversations, and I love it…

NICOLE: Um, can we talk?

WAVERLY: Yeah.Yeah. God, we're totally overdue.

NICOLE: I'm not I'm not crazy, right? There's something going on here.

WAVERLY: No. You're not crazy.

NICOLE: Okay.

WAVERLY: I'm not sure I'm ready to get into it.

NICOLE: Why?

WAVERLY: Because it's different for me, right? And it's really personal.

NICOLE: But it's personal for everybody, right? I mean, they must know. People must whisper about it.

WAVERLY: My God, I hope not! No, I kind of only just discovered it. When I met you.

NICOLE: Me?

WAVERLY: Yeah. You're kinda special.

NICOLE: Okay, maybe a little bit more open- minded, but it's not like I have some mystical gift or something.

WAVERLY: No, I get it. You're a lesbian, not a unicorn, right?

NICOLE: What?

WAVERLY: What?

“You’re a lesbian, not a unicorn” is such an iconic line. Also, there’s no reason you can’t be both, what do you know?

16) I still don’t know what Bobo is looking for, but I guess that’s it for Drek and his brother...

I’m guessing the reason Drek burned to death is that the Stone Witch used one of his brother’s bones to build him up, right? And who was Drek’s father? I wonder if we’ll meet him…

But I keep coming back to this question – what is Bobo after? What is this “lead” the witch promised him?

17) *heart eyes* *fans self*

18) So Doc still wants to kill the witch, even though he now knows it will probably kill him, too. But Wynonna is having none of it…

Get it, boy? She doesn’t want you to die, she wants to keep you around.

19) Why didn’t Wynonna run after Doc? He couldn’t have run that far away in 5 seconds…

20) I really enjoyed the whole conversation between the Sheriff – Randy – and Dolls. I think Dolls is a bit arrogant and he underestimates how useful Randy could be. I also liked how Randy admitted that he figured out the real reason Dolls had set up shop in Purgatory a long time ago, but he’d chosen to turn a blind eye because it didn’t really affect him and he strikes me as the type of guy who just wants to do his job, go home and have a beer. But now his own deputies – and friends – are getting hurt because of all the weird shit that’s been going on in Purgatory, and he won’t have that. So he’s decided to get involved.

Now, I’m not saying that he’s not honest about his intentions, because I’ve totally bought his whole “let’s work together” spiel. But I’m not dismissing but my other theory just yet. There’s still that guy who was a judge or something who had the picture of the seven, so the Sheriff could still be playing lackey to the higher-ups.

21) Waverly just told Nicole that maybe they can be just friends, and I’m like…

22) I LOVE HER…

23) Um, no, I don’t like this!

What the hell is going on? Is this some “I’ll fight my own battles” macho bullshit? Because I expect better than that from Doc. Or is it simply because he doesn’t want her to interfere with him killing the witch?

24) Can… Bobo smell that Doc and Wynonna had sex? That’s so creepy.

25) It’s really smart how Doc put Bobo into a no-win situation. He had to either let Doc go with the Witch or show his minions he wasn’t a man of his word, which would probably turn into a revolt against him. So he obviously chose the lesser of two evils.

26) What does Bobo mean by “I have a very special surprise for you”? What the fuck is he going to do?

27) I really like how supportive Gus is of Waverly, encouraging her to live her own life like she wants and with whom she wants, but I still don’t understand why she would sell the bar? And I’m afraid Bobo’s going to be the new owner. Is that his surprise for Wynonna?

28) Well, considering one of his minions just showed up at Shorty’s asking for Wynonna, I’m guessing that’s going to be the case.

29) I don’t like this…

WYNONNA: Who won't you make a deal with, huh? First a witch, then the Devil himself. You're nothing like… You're just nothing.

DOC: You can judge me all you want. What do I care for some broken woman's evaluation of my character?

There’s so much subtext here is overwhelming. First, there’s Wynonna unfinished line “you’re nothing like...” I think she was going to say something along the lines of “you’re nothing like I thought you’d be.” But that would’ve shown vulnerability at a moment when she didn’t feel Doc deserved it. So she hits him where she knows it will hurt him most. And he pays her back in kind by calling her a “broken woman.” But we know he’s not indifferent to Wynonna’s judgment of his character. On the contrary, it affects him greatly. He’s just probably trying to convince himself otherwise.

30) How many times are they going to point guns at each other in one fucking episode?!

31) So we finally know something about the origin of the Earp curse…

WYNONNA: Tell me about the Earp Curse.

CLOOTIE: The details are hazy, as that was my demon husband. Revenge for the death of our boys. Direct and manly and, quite frankly, boring.

WYNONNA: Not the first word I'd use.

CLOOTIE: Us girls like to take vindictiveness to the next level, don't we, Wynonna? And I wanted my own revenge on Wyatt, so I went after what Wyatt loved most. His best friend.

DOC: You're a liar.

CLOOTIE: I threw it a few juicy morsels like "health" and "longevity," and you were mine.

DOC: You tricked me.

CLOOTIE: When Wyatt found you buried in a whore's muff instead of underground, when he learned of our deal, his heart broke in two. Then I threw you down a well, so that even if Wyatt softened, came looking for you…

DOC: Did he?

CLOOTIE: And you got to spend decades in the dark, knowing your best friend despised you. John Henry. This whole time, you thought it was personal, but it's always been about the alpha dog.

DOC: You shut your lyin' mouth.

CLOOTIE: You're a good sidekick, dear "Doc," but you'll never be a hero. A perpetual second choice. But in the end, everyone chooses the lawman. Everyone.

So the Earp curse and Doc’s curse were two sides of the same coin, one cast by the witch’s husband and the other by the witch herself.

What I find the most interesting, though, is the fact that Doc was Wyatt’s Achilles heel. What did she mean when she said that Doc was what Wyatt loved most? I can’t help but feel gay undertones in that. I mean, why else would Wyatt be so hurt to find Doc buried in a “whore’s muff”? Were they ever romantically involved? I’m going with this theory and I love it.

Also, why did she look pointedly at Wynonna when she said that “in the end, everyone chooses the lawman”? Does this mean Wynonna will choose Dolls over Doc at some point? Because I don’t want that!

32) I love how Wynonna used their previous conversation to talk Doc out of killing the witch right then and there.

33) OMG they’re going to bury her in salt flats!

34) Yes!

WAVERLY: I've always wanted to do things that scared me. But, well, it's not so easy to be brazen when the thing that you want, that scares you to death, is sitting right in front of you. NICOLE: I scare you? WAVERLY: Yes. Yes, you do. Because I don't wanna be friends. When I think about what I wanna do most in this world it's you. Oh God, that sounded so much more romantic in my head. Just jump in any time, Nicole, because I really, really don't know how to do this. NICOLE: Oh, sure you do. WAVERLY: Maybe I should just stop talking. NICOLE: See, you're getting better at this already. WAVERLY: Maybe you should stop talking too. NICOLE: Maybe you should make me.

I knew they would become a thing, but I really wasn’t expecting to feel so much for them? They’re super sweet together but also super hot, and I definitely got all tingly inside watching them.

35) So… we still don’t know what “the lead” is. We know what it is for, but we don’t what – or who? – it is. But I fear what Bobo might be able to do if he can break himself from the triangle and from Wynonna’s curse…

I really don’t know why they didn’t bury her completely. Oh, wait, is it because if they did, she would die and therefore Doc would die? Yes, that’s probably it.

36) Wynonna basically just asked Doc on a date, and I’m here for it.

37) So, Dolls faked a report of Wynonna passing the deputy exam or something.

38) Called it!

39) I guess that whole “no one’s ever taking anything from us again” thing instantly backfired, huh? What a packed episode, and there are only a few left in the season! I can’t wait where this all leads up to!

40) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

#Wynonna Earp #Melanie Scrofano #Tim Rozon #Doc Holliday #Waverly Earp #Bobo Del Rey #WE recap #WE 1x09 #mine #MTVSwatches

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drivingsideways · 5 years

Text

Episodes 7 & 8

Spoilers and yelling under the cut

Well, just a note that I really love the theme music, esp the bit they use as the love theme.

-honestly I feel bad for Feng Hao. Like sure, he’s not the sharpest tool in the box, and frankly, he’s like..entitled and annoying until this part of the series, but the dude has a point about the whole “at least tell me the truth before i die!!!” thing.

-Anyways, the Feng/Qiu family dynamic is also so interesting- Feng Zhiwei and Feng Hao are such different personalities! My guess is that Mingying both devoted a lot of her resources to making sure Feng Zhiwei would be “ready” when the time came, but also held her to impossibly high standards! Feng Zhiwei is scared of her mom in ways that Feng Hao is not! And perhaps Qiu Mingying compensated for (placing Feng Zhiwei first) with spoiling Feng Hao, so that he basically got away with being an idiot most of the time.

-Prince of Chu literally jumping in between Feng Zhiwei and a sword *starry eyes *

-Hahaha, Feng Zhiwei being all like “you better fucking save my mother and brother, PRINCE” before she realizes he’s actually wounded. Also, the fact that she calls him Mr.Tailor before she calls him Prince of Chu (oh no oh no!)

I think Ning Yi never realized the depth of her devotion to Qiu Mingying and Feng Hao, though honestly, he should have- starting from when she’s willing to take her mother’s crime upon her? Somehow he doesn’t seem to grasp, later, how much their deaths devastated her, especially since she blames her own existence for that.

-Oh no, Ning Yi trying to tease her because he doesn’t know how to deal with her distress! (also the soft lighting and the general intimacy of that scene, THANKS FOR NOTHING SHOW)

-Feng Zhiwei blaming herself for everything-pretty similar to how Ning Yi also internalizes blame and guilt-in some ways they are both so similar in this, that’s perhaps one of the reasons that they can’t talk through things, later.

-Ning Yi has like 50 expressions in the space of 1 minute going from “oh no i need to comfort her which is awkward and weird and i’d best deflect her by teasing to oh fuck what am i doing”, the entire thing is delicious, YOU COMPLETE IDIOT NING YI.

-OH NO NING YI’S TINY SMILE AT NING CHENG TO LET HIM KNOW HE’S MOSTLY OK while they stage a drama for Official Zhao. OH NO I AM HERE FOR THEIR FRIENDSHIP ALL THE TIME

-Chen Kun’s cheekbones should be declared illegal, that’s just a fact.

-Ning Cheng is the best because he knows when he’d be An Intruder (the way he sneaks off while Feng Zhiwei is being nurse-maid to a sleeping Ning Yi is so cuuuuute)

-I wish there were subs for the song that plays over this scene.

-Poor Zhiwei- so conscious of the seriousness of her oath, which she doesn’t fully understand, and also this-something- she feels for Ning Yi, which she doesn’t quite understand, either.

-Ning Yi watching her sleep, don’t be a creeper, Ning Yi, sorry, this whole trope was ruined for me with Twilight, and I can’t stand seeing it on screen anymore!

-His exaggerating the pain to deflect- you’re such a loser, NY, omg. lol i love how she sees through him. That’s one of my favourite parts of this pairing at the start, how they intuit each other’s true feelings/intentions more often than not. But that can never be a substitute for actual talking???about things??? and you can see how they fail at the end. GOD I AM MAKING MYSELF SAD IN ADVANCE.

-HOW HAD I FORGOTTEN THE HALF REVEAL OF A COLLAR BONE, THANK GOD FENG ZHIWEI STOPS HIM, I THINK WE WOULD HAVE ALL GONE UP IN SMOKE OTHERWISE.

-LISTEN CHEN KUN’S CHEEKBONES ARE A HAZARD TO PUBLIC SAFETY

* AMBULANCE SIRENS IN THE DISTANCE *

- Ning Yan, you’re like not even playing in the same league as your brothers, I’m so glad you died fast. Like honestly, Ning Chuan’s expression alone should have made you run for the hills, but you actually thought you were getting somewhere.

-Note on the sets at Prince of Chu’s residence- I fucking love that room with the opera masks - need to find a BTS video subbed in English to figure out more about them, but 100% that was a great choice for Ning Yi’s personality, and we often see him framed against those, as I recall.

-The repeated theme of “hiding” from Feng Zhiwei- the first time they meet, he’s literally hiding from her behind a screen at the House of Lanxiang, until he knocks it down because he’s curious about her-and now he’s hiding in a different way, because he doesn’t want to answer her questions-but she’s literally like “there’s no place to hide” and just *sigh * i love how that’s both literal and metaphorical in this story between them. Ning Yi has spent his life hiding-his feelings, his skills, his intelligence- and Feng Zhiwei forces all of that out into the sunlight, so to speak. *starry eyed about it *

-I love how Ning Cheng is all of us, if he had popcorn, you bet he’d be eating it right now.

-XZ being all passive aggressive about Feng Zhiwei *cough cough *

-XZ has no second thoughts about sacrificing the entire Qiu family if it will eliminate Ning Chuan, although the earlier, the killing of the canal workers troubled him quite a bit. It’s Ning Yi who says “I don’t want my throne to be tainted with innocent blood”. Idk why XZ feels differently about the canal workers vs the Qiu family- perhaps, on some level, he can justify this by saying that they *were * after all, “enemy of the state”- and their fate would be the same whether it was the Emperor who dealt the killing blow or them- so in XZ’s scheme of things, it just makes sense to use it to their advantage, as the outcome would not have varied, in any case. Unlike the canal workers, who were entirely caught up in this by accident.

-I like how Ning Yi says the line “I’m the only one who can protect her”, twice; the first time is a justification to XZ, the second is a justification to *himself *. And XZ knows it too.

-lol NY’s absolute fury at Feng Zhiwei being like “so long and thanks for all the fish” - god, he hates having his plans interfered with, and this woman just won’t listen, will she?

-Idk if this is a subbing issue, but occasionally, there are lines,esp idioms that seem completely out of place in the show. For eg “Each man for himself, the devil take the hindmost” is something both Gu Yan and Col Qiu say; and in this episode Col Qiu says “Man proposes, God disposes” which seems really weird. Anyways.

-Oh Ning Yi, the relief he feels when he sees Feng Zhiwei safe-under his roof, thanks to Chief Gu-after that whole dialogue earlier to Col Qiu about “Wouldn’t it be better if a person didn’t have to care for other people” . *cackling * My poor prince, having to spend his life pretending he doesn’t care, when the problem is that he cares *too much * (about some people!)

-The scene between Gu Yan and Qiu Mingying is one of the best scenes in the show! For one, it features Qiu Mingying who gets tooo few scenes, gdi. Second, god I love how she uses her silence as a weapon here- in the Qiu household, she had to stay silent, swallowing every insult until it became truly dangerous to be silent, and she makes her thoughts known very strongly- but here she reduces Gu Yan to tears with her silence. If she had (justifiably) given vent to her anger, I don’t think it would have been half as effective! The person who holds the power in that room is not the Chief of the Royal Guards, it is that unyielding woman and her silence.

-Honestly, all the actors in this series are so GOOD, like Hai Yitian as Ning Chuan is just perfect as the paranoid, menacing and not very competent Crown Prince.

And finally, gosh, I love our manipulative Prince of Chu literally setting a “little cat” among the pigeons.

#the phoenix pit #phoenix drama

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zalrb · 6 years

Note

What, in your opinion, was the worst tvd season and why?

Season 8 because nothing made sense and it was BORING. From previous posts and highlights from all of my reviews of the eighth season:

I would say that in the season finale a lot of things didn’t make sense. Why was Elena in a big white bed in the middle of the woods? Where is this place, why are they there? How did Enzo know to find Bonnie there and how did he bring her back to life? Is Enzo God? Stefan didn’t know Bonnie would be able to wake Elena up but he still gave Damon the cure in the off-chance that she would? Katherine pretended to be Elena, she wore Elena’s dress in the casket but had the time to dress Elena in her own clothes and put her in the school? And her hair was straight and suddenly it just became perfectly curly again? Stefan was shot and stabbed, he bled everywhere in those instances but he managed to not age rapidly but because he took a syringe of blood and gave it to Damon suddenly Damon has the cure and Stefan would start aging? Really? He could’ve called Caroline or saw Caroline, there is actually no reason why Stefan could see Elena, it’s not a logical part of the episode in terms of plot or lore, it doesn’t make sense, except that Elena had to be the last person he saw before he died.

8x01

22. Writers, it’s too fucking late for the whole “surrounded by death, Stefan That’s what we’ve been for a hundred and some years.” nonono, you didn’t stick to that vampire lore throughout the seasons, it makes no sense to reinstate it now. In True Blood, from season 1 to season 7, it’s iterated and reiterated that vampires are death and whoever wants to sleep with them or be around them wants to die because they’re surrounding themselves with death. That isn’t a theme in TVD.

23. Nope, you can’t do hell all over again and try to back it up by going “not stone hell but real hell!” nah, y’all were lazy and just did the same shit again.

26. Stefan and Bonnie coming face to face with Damon and Enzo should’ve probably been more impactful? Like I don’t know, I don’t get the sense of complete and utter hopelessness. DO some fight club shit:

Make them gaunt and pale and red-eyed, like if they’re drones or slaves then make them as such. Because Damon is just acting like Damon, the only reason why we know he’s doing these things against his will is because of the over-exposition in the dialogue, there is actually nothing to indicate that Damon is doing this against his will other than the repetition in the words.

33. How hard are they going to hammer this shit in our heads? Damon doesn’t believe in redemption AGAIN, Damon thinks he and Elena are on different paths AGAIN only so SURPRISE he’ll be proved wrong by Elena near the end! Been there, done that.

8x03:

6. I love how it’s become such a big deal that Sybil has mind control. “We’re dealing with something that has the power of mind control” SCARY MUSIC. Right because vampires compelling people was just ….

15. Damon describing Sybil’s hold over him is literally describing compulsion.

17. So Sybil is Rebekah and the Salvatore Mansion is the library and instead of Elena, Caroline and Stefan talking about SE and DE it’s Caroline and Bonnie talking about Damon and Enzo.

18. OK so Sybil is also Klaus who has to “Siren” obedience like how Klaus had to Sire hybrids.

19. OK so Sybil is Klaus again making Bonnie choose between Enzo and Damon like Klaus going, “So Elena, Jenna or Stefan?” Or she’s No Humanity Caroline who essentially did the same thing with Matt and Tyler. ‘Bout the most sadistic game imaginable, writers you’ve recycled this at least three times.

32. “Bonnie, I’m going to count down from 10 and then I’m going to let Damon finish what he started.” Like the clock Klaus put on Stefan biting Elena? LOL OK TVD.

8x03:

28. So basically when Sybil got Damon’s full devotion is exactly like when Damon and Elena thought Stefan betrayed them for Klaus and the scene between Caroline and Stefan when Stefan is all “Damon is gone” “Don’t give up hope” is Stefan and Damon “Stefan is gone!” “Then we’ll let him go.” We’re redoing season 3 just terribly.

8x04

35. So a black man is the devil. EXCELLENT, TVD. JFC.

36. Also their version of the devil makes absolutely no sense. Why is Cade in hell in the first place when he literally did nothing wrong? Did he create hell for the souls that he keeps and why is he collecting souls in the first place? And they keep mentioning God, as in the Christian God, so how are you going to have a Christian God but not a Christian Hell? WHAT?

44. So Georgie goes to hell because she killed a girl in a car accident. OK so like I don’t get it does that mean Julian is in hell too? What about Mary-Louise and Nora? Are they in hell? WHO goes to this hell? Does just everyone who does a bad thing go to this hell?

8x05:

9. You know why banging a tuning fork doesn’t come across as torture? Because it’s a weak fucking form of torture. At least have Sybil’s ears bleed, have her crying with pain, have her clutching her head, screaming STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT. Like OMG.

10. And of course Bonnie isn’t at Tyler’s funeral but so is no one else. It’s true that the Lockwoods are dead but they’re a founding family, you mean this town won’t mourn the loss of the last living member of such a family when the town is supposed to be big on tradition?

11. This episode is ridiculous. I won’t believe that Stefan wouldn’t be fast enough to stake Damon in the leg or to push him off Matt, Stefan vamp-sped and pushed Damon off Bonnie in season 1, he pushed Katherine off Jeremy in season 2. After being the only human in MF for how long, Matt should’ve picked up a few tricks on how to take down a vampire. Caroline is also a vampire with a history of beating the shit out of Damon, you mean two vampires can’t contain one? Whatever.

15. “It was awful, like Damon is desperate for us all to hate him.” But you just can’t right? For absolutely no fucking reason. I’m actually getting severely tired of Damon killing everyone, abusing everyone, making everyone’s lives worse and the show constantly protecting him with lines that distance him from taking any responsibility. It’s OK that Damon killed Tyler because he wants you all to hate him? Are you fucking serious?

20. REDEMPTIVE RIGHT NOW. Hammering it into our heads that he didn’t want to kill Tyler but he did it for Sybil, he doesn’t like that his friends hate him but he made them hate him anyway for Sybil (although legit no one looks like they hate him) and I’m fucking OVER it. Damon kills but his heart isn’t in it, so the fuck what, why the fuck do I care about that? Doesn’t MEAN anything.

21. Dude, I thought that Sybil inserted herself in Damon’s happy Elena place and then I thought she made Elena die so it was like Damon never met her. What was the point of Sybil inserting herself in Damon’s Elena Happy Place if he just does things to make her happy but doesn’t put his heart in it, he was doing that anyway before.

8x06

5. So we get to see mediocre SC sex in 8x01 but we don’t get to see mediocre BE sex in 8x06? Oh true. I see you, Julie and co.

9. WHO eats bacon that way? Seriously, who the fuck eats bacon that way? That’s not sexy, it’s weird.

13. This writing is ridiculous. You and Sybil aren’t Cade’s missionaries, Seline, you aren’t converting people to your ways or “spreading the word”, you’re eating their flesh and giving the souls to Cade, you’re his butchers.

27. “Two of history’s most prolific killers.” LOL WHAT? People have committed GENOCIDES, TVD.

30. “I raised them” they’re THREE. And on the real, it didn’t look like or feel like you were dying when the twins were gone, Caroline.

33. “I gave Damon what he promised me an eternity of misery” HOW THO? Damon’s BEEN spending his immortal life killing people, like how is it any different that he and Stefan are doing it for a purpose now? Jfc. Also legit, guys, y’all are immortal, vampires, you’re never going to hell, the paranoia surrounding this place is ridiculous especially since they have both died as vampires and haven’t gone to Cade’s hell dimension each time.

35. Lmao why is this ending with Alaric killing Damon as if Damon is actually dead? We know he isn’t! Stefan just told us they’ll live forever serving Cade and we already know he and Sybil crash Steroline’s Christmas. LIKE? THIS ISN’T SHOCKING.

8x07:

13. “If Elena was here Damon wouldn’t be doing any of this?” Are we forgetting that he systematically killed Whitmores while they were together, that he kidnapped her brother and had Enzo suffocate him, that he killed Aaron … that a lot of the destruction Damon caused to the group was in Elena’s name? Damon didn’t change for Elena, I need the show to let that one GO.

15. There is weird tension between Caroline and Damon and it makes me uncomfortable.

18. “I know there is a future you that’s going to ask for my forgiveness one day” like when he asked for forgiveness for raping and physically and emotionally abusing you, Caroline? Oh right, that never happened.

23. Cade is basically Klaus trying to get Stefan go Dark Side. THIS IS THE EXACT CONVERSATION HE HAD WITH KLAUS.

8x08:

5. I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY NO ONE IS TRYING TO FIND LOOPHOLES AGAINST CADE. Caroline is just “cool, Stefan, go and be evil with the devil” WHAT?

15. It’s really annoying and in bad taste that the show is discussing how the Founding Families didn’t found Mystic Falls because other people were there first (witches) and we’re just ignoring the fact that there would’ve been Indigenous nations. I also like how we’re talking about history but we wouldn’t talk about enslavement even though MF is in fucking Virginia.

22. Are we really fucking doing this? Matt’s dad is angry at the Founding families because they were rich and ran the town while his family were skilled traders and looked down upon as such when Bonnie’s fucking ancestor was enslaved to Katherine??? WHEN THERE WERE ENSLAVED PEOPLES IN THIS TOWN? Matt’s dad gets a rant but we’re not talking about the racist history? Why am I even surprised by this?

8x09:

17. Oh my GOD, we’re only 20 minutes in?

20. Why are we acting like Damon’s humanity will crush him? He was fine with killing Lexi, turning Vicki, killing Jeremy, killing Aaron, kidnapping Jeremy, trying to kill Caroline, raping and abusing Caroline, etc. Like why wouldn’t he be fine with this? Elena won’t care.

21. Why do they keep saying Matt is stupid? How is Alaric any smarter? A fucking siren was his nanny for months.

8x11:

1. So I don’t remember if this is from 8x09 or 8x10 when Sybil explains that opening the door from Cade’s world into this world will destroy everyone in this world but that is literally Buffy season 5. Glory is a hell goddess who wants the key back into her dimension but if the key (who is Buffy’s sister) opens her world then the dimensions will bleed together and reality will cease to exist. LIKE??? Does Julie even know what an original thought is?

11. “Look at Damon, humanity on and he’s a new person!” HE IS EXACTLY THE SAME. DAMON ALWAYS REMAINS EXACTLY THE SAME. MAGNUM IS THE SAME LOOK AS BLUE STEEL. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

13. So Matt can say that it’s still Stefan who tried to get him to destroy the entire town but he can say that Damon turning and effectively killing Vicki is a long time ago, him murdering Tyler wasn’t him. OK true. Not transparent at all TVD.

18. Why is Damon giving him pancakes and not blood? Is Stefan not a vampire? Is he drying Stefan out? What’s the point of this?

21. Oh my God, I am literally only 10 minutes in.

38. 21 minutes and 41 seconds.

42. Talking talking talking talking

43. This is the final season though?

52. I don’t care for Bonenzo but seriously Julie taking away Bonnie’s happiness at every turn is a blatant hatred of her character, I don’t give a shit if she says she gets an unexpected happy ending, the unexpected happy ending will probably be her and Enzo reunited in death or something.

8x13:

1. Seriously, Cade seems like a really petty devil though. “Kill 100 people or your brother’s girl” like … why? Don’t you have some world domination plans going on or…? Like why the interest in Stefan and Damon, what about either of them are particularly special to the devil? It doesn’t make sense to me. At least with Supernatural, everything from season 1 was leading up to Dean and Sam being vessels for Michael and Lucifer, like every season, every plot point fed into that so it made sense, this is just fucking random.

2. I’m legit taking this opportunity to tell people to watch Goblin because it is so much more intriguing than whatever the hell TVD has become. You can watch it on: Drama Fever, Box Asian, Drama 4 U Viki, like so many sites, guys. I mean, I’m just saying, if you want a show that’ll make you cry and keep you in suspense and make you fall in love with characters then that’s it.

5. “Stefan, thank God” sound even less enthused, Caroline.

9. “I don’t think this is just colonial bling” did they seriously make Dorian say that? UGH. Also who says bling anymore? Are we in the early 00s?

11. Why is Damon acting like he didn’t kill Tyler? I find this actually unbelievably fascinating. He can stand there and lecture Caroline about how Bonnie wouldn’t answer her calls when he killed Tyler who was supposed to be Caroline’s first love and her childhood friend? LIKE THIS WRITING.

12. I don’t understand this, Stefan is human so he can’t be immortal anymore and therefore is out of the contract so Cade will kill him? Can’t he just make Stefan an immortal human? Like why does he have to be a vampire? He can kill people without biting them, there’s always good old fashioned weaponry. Like what powers does Cade actually have?

20. Like there are no side effects to turning human? You’re just human and that’s it. You don’t feel slower, weaker, you can just operate normally?

25. Lol Caroline and Stefan are so bad at being together.

31. “Sirened to ring the bell” it’s just compulsion.

40. And seriously he’s not even going to STAY with her? The supposed love of her life died and no one is going to just BE with her? Remember when I said she would grieve alone?

8x14:

2. I think it’s funny that Cade is talking about how Damon is in limbo, “the space between spaces” because my guy, that is JUST the Other Side.

3. No, see, the entire plot line with Cade and the Salvatores irritates me because it’s so conveniently linked to Damon and Stefan. He is the devil or the devil’s right hand man (since Katherine is the Queen of Hell for some reason, right?) I don’t understand why he can’t just find the weapon himself or get someone else to do it for him, there’s no reason that it has to be Damon and it’s the problem when a villain keeps making threats “Or I’ll drag you back to hell”, so then do it. At least with Supernatural when Zachariah wanted Dean to do something and Dean was like nah, Zachariah was like OK so what if I give Sam stage 4 stomach cancer? Or hey, how about if I take away his lungs? And we see him inflict these tortures on Sam while Dean watches. Or Dean starts off the season coming out of hell and we get flashbacks to what hell was like for him and we find out how much it fucked him up so when Uriel and Castiel threaten to throw him back into hell, it’s an actual real threat because we’ve seen the effects and why he would be scared. This whole thing with Damon is like … every time Cade says he’ll send Damon to hell I’m like motherfucker, no you’re not or you would’ve DONE did it by now, stop.

5. Bonnie being able to see Enzo is like Jeremy being able to see Bonnie and Elena hallucinating Damon. I’m bored.

14. Also where are the twins if neither she nor Alaric are watching them in this scene? Like if they’re setting shit on fire because of temper tantrums and are literally prone to blowing each other up now, I would be around them all the time.

17. I like how Stefan has, like, an actual plan to kill Cade but if you’re going to kill him, will you not slash his arm and punch him and make witty remarks, can you just stab him?

18. Because you see what happens, Alaric’s cell phone rings and he stops ringing the all important bell.

24. *SPOILERS FOR OUTLANDER* So there’s this show/book called Outlander about many things but at the centre of it, there’s a love story between Jamie and Claire and throughout the series, Jamie makes these declarations of love to Claire and says he’ll do anything for her, that he’ll be her shield, he’ll die for her etc. and there’s this villain called Jack Randall who is a sexual sadist and he has a particular interest in Jamie who he nearly flogged to death years earlier, basically Randall gets a hold of Claire and is going to kill her in front of Jamie so Jamie offers up his body to Randall in exchange for Claire’s safety and in that scene Randall nails Jamie’s hand to a table and kisses him while Claire has to watch and then Claire is forced to leave Randall and Jamie alone and in the next part we basically see the rape and torture that Randall inflicts on Jamie over and over. A lot of people had issues with that and asked the author why she felt the need to show the brutal rape of Jamie and her response was this:

“So, OK. Throughout the book, we’ve seen that love has a real cost. Jamie and Claire have built a relationship through honest struggle, a relationship that’s _worth_ what it’s cost them. This is the final challenge, and Jamie’s willing to pay what will apparently be the ultimate cost.

Why would I throw that away? To have him escape rape and torture (he–and we–_know_ what’s coming) by the skin of his teeth would be to undercut his sacrifice, to make it of little moment. (It would be like someone turning up in Gethsemane and telling Christ, “Hey, buddy, you don’t _really_ have to do this. Come with me, I got a secret way outta here…”)”

And this is what TVD fails to do with DE. It’s one thing for Damon to be willing to go to hell for both Stefan and Elena but Bonnie shows up and actually saves him from having to undergo that threat and it undercuts his sacrifice because he didn’t actually have to sacrifice anything, he just had to be willing and it’s not impactful. So I’m not even a little moved by what Damon did because he didn’t do anything first of all, second of all after everything he’s done throughout 8 seasons why wouldn’t he choose himself, I mean, it’s the least he can do.

25. “Bonnie, wake up”, Stefan can you check her pulse?

26. “That little psychic blast must’ve blew me into my body” that literally makes no sense.

27. Damon and Stefan sitting on Damon’s car, drinking is basically just Sam and Dean. Stop it.

29. “Someone who can create a safe, supportive and loving space for kids … someone like you” is that Caroline, though? I’m sorry but she doesn’t seem like any of those things to Josie and Lizzie, she’s shrill and just tells them to stop doing things, like I don’t know why she didn’t actually ask Josie and Lizzie how they felt when their magic was going haywire, like we don’t actually see her BE with them, she just scolds.

33. Finally, what anons kept asking me about, Katherine Pierce being the Queen of hell. I am going to admit something, I think the show and the characters gas Katherine way too much, she isn’t the baddest bitch of all, I don’t think the characters are toast because she’s running hell, I don’t even think she deserves to run Hell, she’s petty, it’s not like she has master plans that completely destroy lives, she just makes things inconvenient for the core group like *ugh* I mean I guess I gotta go fix Elena because she has venom in her system, like what were the major consequences of what she did in 5x15 to Elena? Elena didn’t see Damon for an entire episode and couldn’t sleep with him immediately. Getting Jenna to stab herself was rude but the major consequence of that is Stefan and Elena breaking up. She outted the Klaroline sex and it just fractured an already fractured relationship with Tyler. The worst thing she did was cause Jeremy’s death and that wasn’t even intentional, it was just like oh well … yeah, my bad, bye. Like she’s a mean girl on steroids, that’s kind of it, she isn’t like this Badass Villain that no one can top and OMG SHE RUNS HELL. I mean Rebekah caused just as much damage as Katherine did because they’re both petty.

8x15:

2. I like how opening the door to Cade’s world will only destroy everything for “miles”, like that’s such a small scale, shouldn’t it be the end of the world if the devil is walking among us? Or is he not the devil, is Katherine the devil? I’m confused about the Hell hierarchy, you see.

5. Sorry, pausing because my cat is being extremely affectionate and I would rather play with her for a little than watch what trash this episode is going to be.

6. But now she’s on my keyboard. It’s like she’s trying to spare me.

14. “That was a lifetime ago, things have changed since then” that should just replace the title of TVD. “Didn’t Damon kill your sister?” “That was a long time ago.” “Didn’t Damon kill your brother” “That was a long time ago.” And now apparently abandoning your family because of man pain and cowardice and immaturity is “a lifetime ago” too but oh no, Stefan was a ripper a literal century ago and we need to harp on it forever.

16. Why would Dorian agreeing to help them on how to get rid of the “Queen of Hell” be misconstrued as him being “cool” with Stefan though? Isn’t getting rid of someone who is supposed to be the devil Plus be in everyone’s best interest? Like whatever, it was just another chance to take a shot at Stefan. Transparent as fuck.

21. I mean, I don’t blame Bonnie for hating Stefan but Damon was responsible for killing Jeremy and kidnapping Jeremy, Enzo was responsible for suffocating Jeremy and she’s cool with both of them, hell she fell in love with one of them so I’m just like girl, I guess. The writers are ridiculous because it just feels like they don’t know the web they’ve created with these characters and understand that they’ve turned pretty much everyone into a hyprocrite.

24. I don’t even know why Damon needs to tell Stefan that what happened to Enzo will haunt him like Stefan isn’t new to guilt. Why are they making it seem like this is Stefan’s first rodeo?

37. “I hope I get to see this one day with you and Elena” lol the FLATTEST delivery ever. Like do you even mean it? Do you REALLY? Think hard, Stefan.

54. LMFAO SO WHO ISN’T IN HELL? Vicki was in hell, Kelly was in hell, so like ERRBODY GOES TO HELL THEN? WHAT CRITERIA IS THERE? Like if I run a stop light do I go to hell because it’s against the law? What if I jaywalk or accidentally step on an ant or something? BECAUSE SERIOUSLY.

55. STEFAN WHY DON’T YOU EVER CHECK ANYONE’S PULSE?

and you already saw my thoughts on 8x16

#stelena #stefan salvatore #anti-tvd #anti julie plec #anti caroline dries

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hermionesterrier · 6 years

Text

More Than Human: Chapter 9 Liveblog Pt. 1!

“Monday Broke My Heart” It really did :’(

The hilarious irony that BUTCH is the one with the defensive special power hehehehe

“We'll be moving," Blossom said. "We'll find you," Brick responded, and she went warm. HE'LL FIND HER JKHGFDSATLKGHFD!!!!

Someone please hit Butch.

"I hope Butch won't," Buttercup snarled. "I hope he gets punched in the sack." SAME!

Kiss With A Fist by Florence and The Machine very appropriately decides to come on my playlist right at this moment xD

BUTTERCUP YOU DON'T HAVE POWERS WTF ARE YOU DOING *FACEPALM*

Butch to the rescue....kind of xD

Butch is absolutely loving this

"I feel like I'm wearing some sort of girl armor," he remarked once they were in the air. "It's weird."

Butch, you fucking idiot!

BOOMER! I know Bubbles is your girlfriend but you grab BOTH girls with no superpowers

Why do people still live in Townsville? One of life's greatest mysteries...

*Cue musical montage of Brick looking like a heroic Greek God*

Oh Blossom...he'll never be the hero you want him to be.

"Oh, in that case," he said, then produced a really big gun from behind his back. "Buttercup has a point," Blossom said. "Where do you hide these things?" A serious question that needs an answer asap

Now Brick to the actual rescue!

Reds screaming at each other...well this feels more familiar xD

Awww it's really adorable how worried Brick is about Blossom. You'd think something like this would knock some sense into his thick skull but no ofc not!

Oh my fucking God Butch YOU DROPPED HER WTF DUDE

She stopped, then looked at Boomer. "I'll give you ten bucks," she said. Boomer immediately slugged his brother in the face. Buttercup later gave him an extra ten for the sound Butch made as he ate the asphalt.

I neeeeeed to know what Bubbles is working on *_*

He picked at a corner of his textbook cover, trying to straighten it and thinking of how easily she had smiled at Robbie. "I can't believe you did that. Without powers or anything. Jumped through glass, I mean. Up from seven stories. And then beat Mojo Jojo, on top of it." He could almost sense her relaxing beside him, her anger giving way to a slight confusion. "You're kind of a beast," he said, and she fidgeted. Brick is totally buttering her up and she is totally falling for it lmao

What a heartwarming father-son reunion xD

He turned on his most beatific smile and saluted. "Hi there, Professor Utonium. Nice to meet you. I'm, you know, Boomer. I'm here to see Bubbles." "Of course," the Professor said, and something curled in Boomer's stomach, something dark that screamed Danger and Doom and Death Will Soon Be Upon You.

R.I.P Boomer...you will be missed :')

I think the real question is what wouldn't he do to you, Boomer? :’) MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh man this face-off between Brick and Mojo is EVERYTHING holy shit

"You," Mojo Jojo said quietly, "have been such a disappointment." Brick's eyes flashed. Brick is totally triggered that the one who created him, the one Brick considers to be beneath him, the one who's wasting his talent and brain by staying in Townsville, is disappointed in HIM! You can tell how much this enrages Brick because, unconsciously, he's still looking for validation from Mojo. He wants Mojo to admit that he, Brick, is better than him and has put his talents to better use. He wants Mojo to admit that he's a failure. Basically it's a who's-more-Evil contest. That whole visit was an ego trip for Brick. It backfired. Obviously. Because even with everything he's achieved, Brick is a teenager craving his parents' validation of his life choices but still wanting to be free of them. You can’t have it both ways when your creators are a diabolical evil monkey and the Devil himself.

Poor Boomer AHAHAHAHAHAHA

"Shut up. You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." The urgency in his voice made it obvious. Mitch meant it. Buttercup looked at the camera, her eyes soft, almost sad, but that smile was on her face, that tiny, scared, and yet deliriously happy smile that lit up her expression, made it almost shine in the dark. Mitch was right. She was... Just wanna point out that this whole scene is from Butch’s POV. He’s the one thinking all of this. One look at this happy, scared, in-love Buttercup and he agrees with Mitch 110%. She is the most beautiful girl Butch has ever seen. Not on a superficial oh-she’s-so-hot level, but more like on a deep I-see-your-soul level. Butch isn’t falling for Buttercup because she’s fucking hot (though obviously he knows she is), he’s falling for her because she’s beautiful and he knows her. He knows her and she knows him and they share a deep, quiet, comfortable and comforting connection that they don’t have with anyone else.

Butch stared at the screen, his jaw sore. He'd been clenching it; he hadn't even realized. It's always a ‘show, don't tell’ with the Greens AND I LOVE ITTTT

Butch is so thrown off by the Buttercup in the photos and videos. He's not used to a smiling and genuinely happy Buttercup and he feels left out that he wasn't a part of that. He's jealous, not just of Mitch because obviously he's jealous of Mitch and the fact that he and Buttercup dated, but he's jealous that he, Butch wasn't there during this time and that Buttercup might have shared a connection with someone else other than him. He's supposed to be her best friend, no one else. And he also wants this Buttercup. He wants that image of her smiling and being happy so yes, damn right, he's gonna keep staring at it until it leaves a permanent print on his brain.

I wonder if he keeps them though...

I love how surprised Brick is that Robin invited them to her party #introvert

Awww @ Brick missing Bubbles in class ❤

Blossom was already there, and she glanced up from her book as he came in. He tried to take his time getting over there. Keyword being "tried" ofc AHAHAHAHAHAHA yea sure Brick as if you didn't attend this class just to see her xD

"If it's free reading could we just leave?" one of the students asked. "Who was that? John? Stacy, hit John for me." There was a whack, followed by a subdued, "Ow." BAHAHAHAHAHAHA...JOHN IS ME THO

since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; It's a testament to how many times I've read this story that I now know this bit by heart. LOVE the choice of poem considering who's reading it *winks*

Brick is unrecognizable in this part of the chapter...his feelings for Blossom are intensifying and showing and that's terrifying him but at the same time he's not giving a single shit...so far.

"He started it!" Butch cried, pointing his knife at Boomer. "He made fun of Bubbles!" Boomer cried, pointing his knife at Butch. "You started it," Buttercup growled, pointing at Butch. "And you were the one being made fun of, not Bubbles,"

Ugh Reds are KILLING me this chapter

Brick racking his brain on how to ask her out and growing so desperate that he literally chokes on air bahahahahahaha

THE BOYFRIEND KILLING MACHINE OMG I AM LMFAOOO

IT IS SO A DATE I MEAN COME ONNNNN

Reds at their best and most adorable *_* I LOVE it when they forget themselves and actually get along. I'm in love with these scenes of them and how they're both completely loosening up in a way they never have around other people. THOSE TWO CONTROL FREAKS ❤

This story has made me wanna read Camus ngl

Oh my god I think this is the first time we ever see Brick laughing a real genuine full-on laugh like wow

She swallowed her bite, her guilt dissipating as she watched him take a bite for himself, from the other end of the slice. He nudged the plate towards her. "I don't mind," he said around the fork in his mouth, staring at the plate. His voice sounded odd, a little strained, even. "It's not a big deal. I don't mind sharing it with you." BUT IT IS A BIG DEAL HOLY SHIT I'M DYINGGGGG

BRICK OPENING UP. BLOSSOM OPENING UP. BRICK AND BLOSSOM ARE ON A FUCKING DATE AND I'M LOVING EVERY LITTLE TINY BIT OF IT!!!!

Seriously, the date scenes are my favorite Reds scenes. SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET ALONG LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE YOU TWO CONTROL FREAKS!

"I beat Mojo Jojo up for candy," she said, a little breathlessly. "I let our dad steal toys for us when he was sleepwalking. I stole an expensive set of golf clubs for him." The candy episode is one of my faaaavorites!!

Oh my god, Blossom, you're supposed to be the smart one! OF COURSE HE'S FLIRTING WITH YOU! AND OF COURSE IT'S A DATE!

Brick trying so damn hard to look cool and casual as if his heart isn't light speeding waiting for her answer hehehe

"These are awesome, Buttercup," Mitch said, "Thank you, Mitch." After a pause, she added, "See? No wonder Mitch was the only guy I dated." A sudden, awkward silence fell over the room. Buttercup, seeming to have regretted her attempt at comedy, started to devour her snickerdoodle. Butch stared at her from the corner of his eye. Her customary smirk and hard expression had given way to uncertainty and she was clearly upset with herself. The laugh he forced sounded natural enough, and everyone turned to look at him. "Don't lie, you dyke," he said, still forcing a snicker. "Sorry to break it to you, Mitch, but you were just a beard." CAN WE JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THE BEST FRIEND THAT IS BUTCH BECAUSE HE JUST DOESN'T GET ENOUGH LOVE! Also also another instance of Butch reading people like a pro and being better at social situations than he’s ever given credit for.

I think Blossom is having an out-of-body experience xD

Brick? A gentleman? And worried about seat belts? Huh...?

OMG BOOMER'S BRAIN GOING ON OVERDRIVE DOMESTICATION SLOW DOWN DUDE AHAHAHAHAHAHA

"I'm fine. Fine. Just... my brain's being stupid." He smirked at her from behind his hand. "You know... just being myself." She settled back, a frown on her face. "I don't think you're stupid." He moved his hand away from his eyes and rested his chin on it. "Thank you for thinking that." THAT IS PROBABLY THE FIRST TIME ANYONE'S EVER SAID THAT TO BOOMER AND IT BREAKS MY HEART TO PIECES

Blues being one in the same *_*

Those two control freaks being spontaneous together ❤

Brick sure is a chivalrous date...who'd have thought xD

Aaaaand mood killed. Leave it to Brick to think of Blossom as "fucking icing on the cake". THIS IS WHY YOU'LL DIE ALONE!

So I decided to split this chapter’s liveblog into 2 parts because I obviously cannot stop rambling and this first part was big enough xD

Click here for more awesome ships to cry over!

#sbj more than human #jess reads mth

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jeremystrele · 4 years

Text

A Day In The Life Of Artist, Designer And Small Businesswoman, Rachel Castle

A Day In The Life

Sasha Gattermayr

Rachel at the CASTLE studio with Sydney the sausage dog. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A morning walk around the neighbourhood with Sydney. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel starts a morning at the office with a coffee from Ona in Marrickville. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel and the team! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

The ever-bubbly, gorgeous Rachel Castle! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

The studio slash office is filled with prints, inspiration and works-in-progress. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Chatting with Design and Production Manager, Simone. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

There is no shortage of colourful paints to play with lying around! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

There is always time in Rachel’s day for sketching, painting and drawing. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A true artist’s space! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel started embroidering in the evening when her kids were little and in bed. Now, she has to do it in the early hours of the morning before her team arrive at work! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel gets into the studio early to sew, and catch up on TV! Her current favourite is ‘Ramy’. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Swathes and swatches of fabric in rainbow shades. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A piece in construction. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

It’s the mark of a true creative spirit when they spend every spare second making something for the sake of it. This was how it all began for Rachel Castle, who picked up embroidery in the early hours of the evening when her young kids were in bed, the only time she had to herself during their childhood years. It was here that her true calling revealed itself.

But before she was an artist, designer, and the director of her own small business, Rachel’s professional life meandered from PR to marketing. She and friends Alex Willcock and Russell Pinch used to run a branding company in the United Kingdom, but when their second child was born, Rachel left the business to become a full-time mother. She considers this the best decision she ever made.

‘I believe you can definitely have everything in life, just not all at once,’ she says. ‘I was never conscious of a path, I just worked with people and product I loved, and the rest worked itself out.’ Though the meandering route she describes is encouraging for others who might be in the same working-it-all-out boat, it undersells the seriously hard work Rachel has done in establishing her cult lifestyle brand. Between her firm focus on keeping her business small and practice-based, and the overtime hours she clocked developing her distinct artistic style over the years, Rachel is a tenacious, self-made professional.

Rachel took TDF around her heavenly Marrickville studio where we spent a day in her sunny, colourful world. Her creativity knows no bounds!

FIRST THING

I’m definitely a morning person. My husband recently retired which means (hallelujah!) for the first time in a decade I can go to work whenever I want. For years I had to scramble around to find the time to work, but now I’m free as a bird, which is an amazing feeling. If I wake and can’t sleep at 5am I go to work, but generally, I’m in the car by about seven. I don’t do social media in the mornings, I’m too old and can’t handle the early morning scramble to find my glasses and get three sentences together that make sense, so I just amble around quietly and slowly, a way better and nicer way to start each morning.

It’s a half-hour drive to work so lately I’ve been listening, for the first time in my life, to a really good AM radio station. During the protests its had some really diverse speakers, activists, writers, artists, poets. I’m converted! Also, I can’t work out how to change it back to FM so I’ll leave it here until the end of 2020 and see what else I can learn.

As soon as I arrive in Marrickville I grab a coffee from Ona down the road, and get straight to it.

MORNING

Emails and DMs…. Omg there are so many. I check all the inboxes and delegate where necessary and then, best part of the day, I sew and watch TV until the girls arrive at 9. The earlier I get to work the longer I can spend watching anything from Homeland to Ramy to The Real Housewives; this is my junk time and I LOVE IT. Sewing for me is like getting a massage or going for a run or doing yoga, it’s my outta body knock-knock-there’s no-one home time.

The girls slowly start to arrive and its the normal chit chat (‘Where did you go last night? Did the NBN guy come? Where’d you get your pants from?’) and then we all move into getting the orders out for the day, getting the artworks signed, the tea towels sewn and the commissions sorted. I potter around watering the plants, and mid-morning try to sort something with our Wholesale and Web Content lead, AJ, for socials, a little video or pics for our stories or a new wall for our studio. FINALLY having the space in our studio for a bed has transformed the way we spend our days as there’s so much bed-making and wall painting to be done!

There’s really no routine to the morning, I just go creatively wherever I feel the need, I might try to cut up some new embroideries, or prepare some canvases for painting, or do some little watercolours on paper. So by lunchtime, I’ve generally got 7,000 things started and not a single thing completed (not joking) every single day of the week.

AFTERNOON

Generally at around 3pm we all have a heart attack and realise, ‘OMG! It’s 3 o’clock!’. The girls get some lunch and I get ready to spend some time with Simone, CASTLE’s design and production lead. No two days are the same, but this week we’ve been working on our new towel shoot with Stephanie Somebody, and an upcoming collaboration with Gorman, some new sweater designs and our next Spring/Summer range. In between there are all the usual production issues!

During COVID-19 the Indian ports were closed for a month and a lot of our suppliers are on skeleton staff, so it’s been a very challenging period for us and for them. It’s very slowly getting back to normal, and we hope and pray things for India start to improve soon. Over the years we’ve become very close to our suppliers, they are as much a part of our family as our customers, we send them love.

LATE AFTERNOON

From the minute I wake up I start chanting my mantra….. ‘I will do more painting today, I will do more painting today.’ It only ever happens around 5pm and recently I’ve been coming to terms with this. I’ve tried LITERALLY everything to get more time painting but I just can’t do it. So I’ve started reframing the narrative, and now I’m grateful that I get an hour to do it at all. The advantage of having grown children with no more play dates and park visits is I can go into work on the weekend, where I can smash out a thousand brush strokes in an hour. Time stops in the studio on the weekend, it’s an incredibly peaceful place to be.

EVENING

I’m home every single weeknight by 7.15pm. I love my drive home, this is my time to ring my mother and speak to my friends on the phone. It’s just me and the boys at home, so we eat together and Lucas goes off to study (apparently). He’s in Year 12 so a big year for him where we all try to be as quiet and gentle as we can. Cleo moved home too during COVID-19, and I have to say the family time has been nice!

I don’t cook or go to the supermarket anymore (SOUND THE TRUMPETS) and it’s the best part of my new older life, so the evenings for me are spent eating and then doing my social media… then falling asleep reading with my glasses on and then trying to find all the right creams for my face at 10.30pm. Then snooze and sleep like a baby.

Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Right now I’m listening to/watching/reading…

Watching Ramy I laugh and cry from one scene to the next, it’s teaching me a lot about Islamic culture and religion. It’s hilariously funny and, equally, really tackles the big issues, it’s really good.

Reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It’s a beautiful Indian tale covering the country’s growth over the past 30 years. Knowing the history of this beautiful country is really important to me.

Listening to any podcast I can get my hands on, and always a daily dose of Dan Savage!

One important thing I do every day is…

Eat dinner with my family. Every weekday of our lives, it’s a deal breaker for me.

I get my best work done when…

I’m in the studio by myself with my music on and my phone switched off.

A philosophy I live and work by is…

Touch it once. Emails, DMs, designs, products. Going back to something we discussed yesterday doesn’t work for me. We resolve it on the spot, or resolve it to a point where we can pick it up later. I never say ‘Let’s sleep on it’, which means I make mistakes, but we need to keep moving because inertia is the DEVIL!

My productivity tip/tool is…

Definitely the above, touching it once.

Something I learned the hard way is…

Don’t put a whole range on pre-order just before a pandemic… note to self!

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themomentofdavyprentiss · 7 years

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Not Your Average Zutara Fic Rec

So I’ve gone through a LOT of Zutara fanfiction, probably too much if I’m being honest, and finding good fics can be really hard. When looking up fic rec lists I’ve noticed that a lot of the lists are just the same select fanfictions recommended over and over (We get it, everyone and their mother loves ‘His Majesty Prefers Blue’ and ‘Stormbenders’ [I never finished HMPB, sue me]).

So this list is for all of you who are in my shoes and can’t seem to find anything besides the same ten or fifteen stories recommended and are desperate for something new. Everything listed is complete! (If I listed the incompletes/abandoned stories I’d have a lot more chaptered stories listed… RIP ‘The Confrontational Approach’…)

I have a lot of bookmarked stories that I have yet to read and am in the middle of (Almost caught up on @firelordandlady ‘s ‘Say Anything’!), so I’ll try to update this when I finish something I think deserves a recommendation.

Chaptered

In the Same Candlelight by Like a Dove

In a world where there is no war, Zuko and Katara spend their summers together. Growing up is messy, embarrassing, and at times sad, but they think it might be okay because they have each other. Edited summary.

I know. I KNOW. I LITERALLY JUST SAID I WASN’T GOING TO RECOMMEND FANFICS THAT ARE ON EVERYONE’S LIST. But I NEED to mention this one. I spent so long not interested in this fic. I don’t like drastic AU’s, or modern AU’s. My taste is strictly canon divergence, so I didn’t think I would like this. I WAS SO WRONG. Trust me, if you are like me and don’t like big AU’s, read this anyway. I promise, you won’t be disappointed. Characterization is still so spot on, even with such a different take. Aang is precious. There is nothing but fluff, fluff, and fluff. It will melt you. You will probably die and your spirit will rise up smiling and beaming out rainbows and sunshine. That’s what happened to me.

Lilacs and Lily Pads by sadladybug

A tale of clumsy courtship and calamitous court weddings, featuring awkward family encounters, floral mishaps, cultural complications, and good old fashioned fluff and conflict. Takes place in the five years following war’s end. For Zutara Week 2016. A prequel to Bones.

Clothe Me in Seasons, Dress Me in Snow is a very commonly recommended Zutara fic (And for good reason, I shed many tears reading it). But this two-shot (A companion to Bones, a smut one shot) by the same author is really underrated and beautifully written. It follows Zuko and Katara as they try to plan their wedding, as well as shows two scenes from before they got engaged that solidified the relationship to be one they knew would last. Just really well done overall and very very sweet.

EDIT: I talked with the author and apparently it isn’t finished?? But they are apparently working on the next chapters so yay!! And each chapter is independent so it doesn’t feel unfinished.

The Slow Path by Tazainian Devil

Eight years after the fall of Ozai, Aang returns to the friends he left behind - Taang, Zutara, Sukka

This is technically a Taang fic, and if I’m being honest I kind of just skimmed through the non-zutara chapters, but the Zutara storyline was good enough that I think it’s definitely worth the read. And the overall plot has a great premise. Be warned, it has a sequel that was never finished.

Another Word For Alchemy by FanPanda13

Five years have passed since the Avatar defeated Fire Lord Ozai, and the members of the Gaang have all gone in their own direction. But when Aang invites them all to a Peace Summit at the North Pole and tells them of his new project, for which he will need their support, the group comes together again for adventure, fun and romance. AU. Zutara. COMPLETE.

So this fic is crazy for me. At first, it started as just really good natured fluff. The writing wasn’t anything fantastic (Although I loved how it broke the 4th wall and didn’t take itself seriously), and there were some definite OOC moments. But I had so much FUN with it. The plot (while definitely not the focus as everyone is more concerned about when Zuko and Katara will get together) was interesting, and there were some really sweet moments. It was also HILARIOUS and I had multiple moments where I genuinely laughed out loud. But then about five chapters before the end, the quality SKY ROCKETED. As the plot and mystery come together, the characters all come together in a moment that truly feels like it came from the show. Even the writing quality increases by a lot and I was genuinely shocked and impressed. Definitely recommend.

Kyoshi Hold ‘Em by cupid-painted-blind

When a blizzard shuts down the fourth annual Peace Summit, the group has to find some way to pass the time. /Zutara, Taang, Jet/Mai, Jet/Everyone, Sukka

If you’re looking for a good crack fic, look no further. It’s post war and utter nonsense. Jet is alive for some reason??? No one questions it and he’s shipped with pretty much everyone. It’s funny, it’s decently written, there are drinking and sexy time shenanigans, and overall just lighthearted. Also, it does a great job of being a crack fic without crossing the line and becoming unfunny and just a trash fic. A lot struggle to find the balance and resort to going over the top and ridiculous, but this one does a really good job.

Come With Me by Steamboat Ghost

Coauthored by fuzzytomato. Troubled over his newly restored honor, Zuko finds solace in the familiar guise of the Blue Spirit. In a chance meeting with the Painted Lady, a friendship is forged as the two heroes seek to help the Fire Nation’s neglected.

I’ll admit it: I’ve never gotten into Blutara fanfictions. I only read the first couple chapters of HMPB and dropped it after the tree scene. I don’t know, it felt really OOC for me and I may go back and read it again just because EVERYONE raves about it, but IDK. I’ve never been a huge Blutara fan because while I love the concept, I’d much rather see the Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit come together as equals. Most fics present Zuko behind his mask to Katara, and it feels imbalanced. There aren’t a lot of stories where we see their alter persona’s come together even though that’s the entire point of the parallel between the two. Insert this fic. I only wish there was a sequel dealing with Zuko in the Gaang after these events. Hey, a girl can dream.

A Zutara Story Anastasia by LastSunset

Katara, the only suviving waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, joins two con men, Zuko and Iroh, while a fearful admiral chases for her death. A Zutara Story. Based on the movie Anastasia.

So this isn’t so much a retelling of Anastasia but with Katara and Zuko as it is a fanfic version of the movie but with the characters names and world changed. It takes a lot of lines from the movie. But WHO CARES? It’s Anastasia and Zutara!!! What more do you need???

Oneshot

this burden you bear by cowlicklesschick

Word travels, and war stories will be told round campfires and on freighter ships until every person in the world knows what Master Katara did for the new Fire Lord. She fights the burning in her throat at the thought of people knowing why she had to heal him in the first place. Post-war Zutara.

This is an angst-with-a-happy-ending, which I say is the absolute BEST type of angst. Katara deals with the guilt of what Zuko did for her as the Fire Nation celebrates what she did to save his life during the Agni Kai. The two come together beautifully while struggling to see the feelings they both share. Really well written and like I said, it has a happy ending, which we all need.

The Best of Me by Laririn-Shadow

The night before his eighteenth birthday Zuko wraps a bandage around his left wrist. He has a country to run and no time for frivolous things. It will make everything easier if he waits. Zutara Soulmates AU

Soulmate AU’s usually aren’t my thing (With the glaring exception of one Until Dawn Soulmate AU, but that’s besides the point), but I really enjoyed this oneshot. It isn’t sweeping or insanely romantic and the reveal isn’t “OMG I’VE LOVED YOU THIS WHOLE TIME” But it’s a subtle love that grows, which I really like.

my salvation, he’s not anything by sarsaparillia

Let’s run away and start another war. — Zuko/Katara.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What can I say? I love the ‘Let’s run away together, consequences be damned’ trope. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Time is Ripe by Casa Circe

ZUTARA WEEK 2012 Day Seven: Seasons. There are many stages that a heart goes through before it can finally be ready for the love it was meant to have. The road is often a rocky one but eventually, it leads you home.

A oneshot for the Zutara Week 2012 prompt ‘Seasons’. Not too much to say about it. Short, sweet, and well written. What more do you need?

Serendipity by Boriqua-chan

Iroh goes hunting for tea leaves and finds something…interesting. /Zutara week, day 1/

Secret relationships! Fluff! Happiness! And all from Uncle Iroh’s perspective!! Everything I love in one great oneshot!

Too Close for Comfort also by Casa Circe

ZUTARA WEEK 2010 Day Three: Pain. After watching “The Ember Island Players”, no one is in the mood for teasing. But a little slip of the tongue leads to the painful realization that the play was more accurate than they were willing to admit.

There are two Zutara plots/tropes that I am a complete and utter SLUT for. The first is the ‘Let’s talk about that EIP show’ trope. This is one of my favorites.

The Color of Truth is Red by Mrs. Pettyfer

Written for Zutara Week prompt “awkward.” Zuko and Katara discuss the Ember Island Players.

Another post EIP oneshot

Enlightenment by Blade Quill

Choices are made on the day of Zuko’s coronation, and sometimes, enlightenment is just the simple truth at hand. Zutara. AU of the final moments of the Book 3 Finale

The OTHER plot/trope I’m a slut for is finale rewrites. LET ME SEE THEM COME TOGETHER AFTER HE TAKES LIGHTNING FOR HER. Ugh, I love it.

Framework by profoundlycan

What if in “Sozin’s Comet” Katara had come into the room instead of Mai? Zuko/Katara. Prequel to Schema.

Another finale rewrite! Let’s just get Mai out of the picture here…

Lightning Shocks the Heart by drunkzutarafeels

Why do our hearts remain dormant until a climactic moment makes time stand still?

And here’s yet another finale rewrite. There is a really popular Zutara gifset that someone animated of the Agni Kai ‘Thank you’ scene, but Katara kisses Zuko after she hugs him. This is the fanfiction equivalent of that gif set.

Sunrise by lewilder

The days go on and on, and even if she feels more comfort from the moon, Katara learns to cherish the promise of each new sunrise. Zutara AU, largely finale-centric. Oneshot.

LAST FINALE AU I PROMISE. Really sweet, starts right after The Southern Raiders and goes past canon.

all the ghosts we cannot kill (we learn to love) by raisindeatre

Zuko and Katara; the moments we didn’t see. Or: Maybe we are all somebody’s ghost. And maybe sometimes we can be more than that.

“…My quarrel has only ever been with you, Zuko,” she says, his name sharp on her tongue. “This has only ever been about me and you.”

“You’re wrong,” he rasps, his voice rough in the late afternoon sunlight that falls around them, tangles them in golden nets. “This has only ever been about me and the Avatar. Not you and me. What we hold between us has nothing to do with it.”

This is a really beautiful one-shot that follows a battered, war torn and hardened Zuko and Katara through the scenes we DIDN’T see throughout the entire show. A Zutara must-read.

Drabble Collection/Series

And Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Advocaat

A collection of humorous and crack-tastic oneshots corresponding to the days of Zutara Month

Really great Zutara Month themed drabbles, and it contains the only body swapping plot that I’ve read and really enjoyed. Also the chapters ‘Potential’ and ‘Festival’ are some of my all time favorites.

Zuko Was No Coward by hootowl

Zuko was many things, but a coward he was not. A collection of Zutara100 prompts. Title may change.

Definitely some heartbreakers and angsty drabbles in here, but all well written and thoroughly enjoyable. If you read ANYTHING from this list, read chapter two of this drabble collection. I MELTED when I read it. It’s perfection. Aunt Wu’s prediction has always been a plotline I’ve loved in Zutara fanfiction, and this one just does it PERFECTLY.

Zutara Week 2012 by ichilover3

A collection of oneshots inspired by the prompts for Zutara Week

Not much more to say. The first, third, and fourth prompts are my favorite from this series.

Zutara Week 2015 by bianca_anna

It started at a tea shop and ended with forever. My entries for Zutara Week 2015. I hope you enjoy them.

Oh my GOODNESS. So they’re Zutara Week prompts, but all set in the same universe. The Zutara!Family depicted in these drabbles has become my headcanon. I’ve seen many a Zutara family, but this one is by far my FAVORITE. This is now my official family for them. I want the very last chapter fully animated because it’s so good and epic and I want more of this families adventures.

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #zutara fanfic #zutara fanfic rec #zutara fanfiction recommendations #fanfiction masterpost #100 #200 #300 #400 #500 #600 #700 #800 #900 #1k #susannah recs things

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