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witch-and-her-witcher · 2 months

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Little Tiger

feysand, feyre & nyx, rhys & nyx | G | angst, family, hurt/comfort, fluff

based off of this headcanon post. just a little sad, but ends with fluff.

thanks as ever to the support squad. 🥺❤️

ao3

~*~

“Should I take watch, darling?”

“No. This is my mess to clean up.”

“Maybe you should cool off —”

“No.” Feyre bites down on the inside of her cheek. Cool off? What else has she been doing, perched in this tree top — on out of practice, aching knees while rain drizzled down through the canopy? “Thank you,” she adds, because it really is her own mess and her husband doesn't deserve her venom.

That belongs solely to herself.

And maybe some as well for her —

Her thoughts cut off as the gentlest snap of a twig underfoot gives away a new presence.

Feyre hones her gaze on the forest floor beneath her ambush spot.

The smell of citrus and jasmine is just barely there: hidden under damp foliage, river mud caked fur, and hot breath scented with gristle stuck between teeth. An old meal, if the noxious odor is any tell.

An odd sensation runs through her: concurrent twisting of her gut in anxiety as well as the sharp bloom of anger heating her neck, cheeks, all the way to the point of her ears.

Feyre checks that her shields are in place, carefully masking every aspect of her presence. Forces every inch of her body to draw tight as a bow string.

Doesn’t risk breathing even as her prey draws out of the shadows of a Night monsoon drenched frond. Shoulder bones, drawn tight in a crouch, protrude out of an inky black pelt.

Closer, closer.

Feyre’s quarry is focused completely on the dazed fowl clucking and flapping in the narrow clearing.

The high altitude rainforest is alive this evening with bugs chirping, birds ducking to and fro in the tree tops, but even the bullfrogs stop their persistent calls as the juvenile tiger approaches with ill-practiced stealth.

No wonder the meal on the tiger’s breath is old.

Probably something that was sick or dying, easy pickings.

Somehow, Feyre tenses further as one paw draws in front of another, just moments away from triggering —

“Go easy on him,” Rhys sends his final plea.

And this is exactly why he isn’t here.

“You’ve grown soft in your old age.”

“In fatherhood, yes. I would like my son to return home in one piece.”

Those front paws press just the right amount of weight down.

The snare releases with a sharp twang.

The sound is nothing compared to the ferocious yeowling of the tiger.

Feyre drops into the clearing, lifting the spell from the brightly colored fowl and letting it squawk away in a flutter of feathers, and locks eyes with the tiger’s stormy blue gaze just as its jaws clamp shut.

“No promises.”

“Remember you love him, remember the picture hanging above the mantel he gifted you last Solstice —”

Feyre cuts off the tether between herself and her overprotective, doting to a fault, far too soft mate.

Anger courses through her veins.

“Nyx Archeron, you will shift back. Now.”

The might of the woman who faced down a Middengard Wyrm with nothing but sheer grit and a hand crafted bone speer speaks through her. There’s no warmth, no kindness, only the hardness that has seen her through battles, through loss, through condemning her citizens when necessary.

Her son stares back with all of the same, unearned defiance, through the grizzled face of the tiger he’s become so fond of in his pre-adolescence.

“Nyx. Now.”

Feyre throws in the weight of the High Lady behind her command. An overstep she will feel guilt over later — later, when anger isn’t riding every one of her nerve endings.

Nyx bares his unclean teeth at her.

But fortunately for his hide, it’s a dirty-faced fae child facing her a moment later.

Arms crossed over his bare chest that’s littered with scrapes and various burrs and pokers from the plants he’s been dragging his body across out in the forest miles outside of Velaris.

“You have one minute to explain yourself.”

Those lips, his father’s lips, press into a hard line. Nyx’s stubborn expression is only punctuated by the draw of those dark brows.

Another torrent of heat flares within Feyre at that look.

That damn look she’s become so familiar with in the last few months.

“Fifty seconds.”

“I know how to count,” he snaps, as if he just can’t help himself.

His mouth snaps closed with an audible clack.

A growl rips from Feyre’s throat.

Mother above, no one had prepared Feyre for this part of parenting.

She was ready for love so great, so overwhelming that she wouldn’t even hesitate at the thought of sacrificing her life for this child. Prepared for insurmountable joy at watching him experience the world, all of his first times. Pride over his growth and the almost greater sadness over every conquered milestone, every sign that he’s not that same baby she held so, so close. Anxiety over keeping him safe, providing for him, giving him the best youth to not only grow into himself, but into the court he will one day rule.

But the shift in emotions?

When the anxiety over his well-being morphed into fear and anger and devastation that her child would act against her, against all of the love and thought his parents poured into him?

And for what?

An act of rebellion?

To get attention?

“You will speak now!” Feyre roars.

Days. It's been days since her son ran away.

For the life of her, she couldn’t understand the joking nature Nyx’s uncles took the news with, the shit talking and arm punching that accompanied comments like, “Like father, like son, huh? Nothing like a prince sized temper tantrum.”

Her baby gone — by choice, none the less — and they all acted as if it were some rite of passage.

Feyre hasn’t slept. Hasn’t eaten. Hasn’t been able to function outside of pacing the halls, waiting for Nyx to give in and come back home like they all kept saying was inevitable.

The comfort of her and Rhys’s daemati powers feeling his presence still within their borders did little to ease her mind.

He’d accepted Rhys into his mind, had assured his father that he needed to do this, that Rhys wouldn’t understand, before shoving him out.

He hadn’t accepted Feyre’s attempts to contact him.

Nyx didn’t want his mother.

And that thought has been eating Feyre up from the inside out along with every other undulating pulse of fury, indignation, and anguish.

“Why are you even pretending you care?”

“Excuse me?” Feyre mirrors his arm crossed posture, ignoring the strain in her muscles from the long stake out. Her son had held out longer than she expected before giving in to his growling stomach and going for the too-easy trap.

“Go adopt one of those kids from the orphanage since you love them so much more —”

“Is that what this is about?” Feyre has to force herself to breathe against the new surge of insurmountable disappointment, disbelief. “You’re jealous I have been spending time with less fortunate children? You ran away, driving your family mad with worry, to throw a fit to get more attention because I am doing my duty as High Lady and a person with a beating heart by checking in on — I — Wow. Wow.”

“Please, you both knew where I was the whole time,” Nyx grumbles, eyes shifting down for the first time.

“That’s not the point, Nyx!”

Nyx’s wings jut even higher with his stiff posture.

“What were you thinking?” Feyre grounds out. “I can’t — I don’t even know the boy I’m looking at right now. To be so self-centered is beyond you.”

Hurt flashes in those big, blue eyes. “I did it because of you.”

“To get my attention? Well, here you go, Nyx, here’s my attention —”

“No!” Nyx cries out, the sharp bite of the tiger’s screams echoing still. “Because I overheard what you said to Aunt Nesta!”

Feyre screws up her face in confusion. “What are you talking about? What I said to Aunt Nesta? Nyx, there’s no excuse for behavior like this —”

“You were telling her what a spoiled brat I am! How entitled I’ve become! How I’ll never … I’ll never understand how you were raised, those lessons you learned.”

All of the emotions Feyre had been feeling gutter out.

Tears begin to line Nyx’s eyes in a silver limned underlining of the truth.

Nyx had overheard …

“I … That’s not what I meant,” Feyre croaks.

She reaches out her hand to touch her son’s shoulder, to try and convey the misunderstanding of the conversation, of her intent.

But Nyx steps back out of her reach. He locks his jaw tight again even as a few tears slip free.

“Nyx, I’m so sorry —”

“That’s what you said. I’m spoiled. You understand the younglings in the orphanage better than your own son.”

It hits her like a leaden weight.

The regret of her words being overheard and the inability to explain the complexity of it all. The heart wrenching understanding of just how Nyx would have taken those words.

A betrayal.

And a reminder that her little boy is more aware, every day understanding more and more about the significance of what is said around him, about him.

“I thought maybe if I lived rough for a while, you’d understand me more …” Nyx swipes the back of his hand beneath his nose to wipe where it’s begun running. “Love me, like those kids.”

Nyx had run away because of the pain she had caused. His own mother who should only love, support, guide —

“You didn’t mean it the way he’s taking it, darling.”

The shock of her son’s words must have lowered her shields.

Feyre bites back her own hot tears threatening to spill, the knot in her throat, because she doesn’t deserve the comforting caress along her mind, the thoughtful strum of the bond.

“Nyx —” Feyre clears her throat, clears away the broken sound. What can she say to make this right? “Nyx. What I said to Aunt Nesta is complicated.” Gods, she’s feeling her age. Unprepared. She doesn’t deserve her son, doesn’t deserve to inflict this inexperience on him. “I’m sorry you overheard it, I really am. But you have to know how much I love you?”

Before he can answer, a low, guttural rumble from deep within Nyx’s belly cuts through the distance between them.

“Talk after he’s eaten.”

“I know how to care for our son,” Feyre snaps, the inadequacy riding out logic for a moment. But then she considers what she’s already done to one member of their family, and adds softly, “I know you mean well. But this is …”

“Nothing that will be solved right away,” Rhys says gently. “You are a good mother. I’m proud of you.”

“Is father mad?”

Feyre shakes her head. “I told you, we’ve been sick with worry, Nyx.” She steps forward more deliberately, extends her hands out with beseeching eyes. “Let me take you home. We’ll talk after food and a bath?”

No one had prepared Feyre for the ups and downs of emotions that later childhood brings in a parent, but also for the mourning.

Nyx hesitates, but another adamant groan from his stomach seems to make up his mind. He nods and accepts her outstretched hands.

Mourning for the loss of the unshakable faith of a child in their parent.

A soft sniffle is buried in her knees as Feyre fights back the swells of sadness.

Whatever she felt for Nyx in those moments before he’d revealed his true motives for running away is turned ten fold against herself.

The disappointment in herself for failing her child, letting Nyx be cut so deeply by her own careless words.

The bath water plips and trickles along as Nyx scrubs clean the filth of days spent in the rainforest.

Old enough to demand privacy in the bath, but not too old to forgo Feyre’s offer to sit with her back to the tub and simply work her magic to channel the warm stream of water from the faucet down his back, through Nyx’s hair to wash away suds. As she had done since he was small. Keeping him warm at all times, avoiding that stark chill from water damp skin exposed to the cool air above the tub.

That simple gesture of accepting her offer nearly had Feyre bawling after they’d finished a tense, quiet meal. Just the three of them and their clinking spoons and soup bowls, fresh and steaming buttered bread wafting between them.

“Mama?”

“Yes, Nyx?”

“I’m sorry.”

Feyre shakes her head. “Don’t be. I should have never —”

“It’s okay,” her son’s voice is gentle in the manner he’s picked up from Rhys and it squeezes Feyre’s heart that much more for it. “Father explained over dinner … He told me there’s a lot I’m not old enough to understand yet and … No matter what, I need to be responsible because it’s not just about me. I’m a future leader of this court and I … I can’t run away.”

“Oh, Nyx.”

What can she say to that? That she wishes he didn’t have the burden of his family’s position and title? That she wishes he didn’t have to be so grown up already? To have a mother who can’t relate to what he’s experiencing because her childhood was so vastly different?

“This is where you two went off to,” Rhys says by way of announcing his entrance as he slips into the bathing chamber.

Feyre tips her head back just enough to see her mate’s broad frame without cutting into the view of the tub. As if they aren't the High Lord and Lady, Rhys sits down beside her on the tiled floor, pressing his warm thigh against hers as he positions his legs crisscross.

“I’m hurt you’d let me miss out on this cozy scene,” he says, kissing the side of Feyre’s head.

“Ew.”

Feyre huffs a laugh. “Nyx might have requested you didn’t join for this exact reason.”

The sharp cut of Rhys’s jaw falls open as he looks back at his son in faux offense. That sharp jawline Feyre recognizes as her son’s future, the beautiful features he has inherited.

“Greedy. Trying to keep your mother all to yourself. As if witnessing your parents love is so mortifying.”

“It is,” Nyx admonishes, but it's for the bit more than anything. “You always have to kiss and hug and it’s so gross.”

“Gross?” Rhys’s brows raise to his hairline as he sends Feyre the next shocked expression of the back and forth. “Never in my centuries have my romantic overtures been described as gross until you gave birth to my harshest critic.”

Nyx makes gagging noises at the word ‘romantic.’

Another swell of emotion chokes Feyre.

‘I love you,’ she mouths to her mate and his glittering violet eyes.

Curling his strong arm around her shoulders, Rhys squeezes back his wordless response.

Feyre continues to weave the warm water through tendrils of inky black locks, feeling the current of the water through each strand, down the knobs of Nyx’s spine and into the tub water. She hopes the water can convey everything she can’t seem to find the words to express to her son.

“The talk can wait. It’s been a long couple of days.”

“It seems you already had the talk. Busybody.” But really, Feyre is almost relieved. She doesn’t even know where to begin with Nyx, with her upbringing, with the grief over the situation —

“Our schedules were already clear due to a certain tiger on the loose,” Rhys says, smiling gamely. “Why don’t we take advantage of the time and sneak off to the theater. I hear the performers have really outdone themselves.”

“Oh! We haven’t been in ages! Really, you have time?”

“For you two?” Rhys winks. “Absolutely. Let me sweep your mother away —” Without warning, Rhys has Feyre in his arms and lifting to stand as she yelps in surprise “— and you dress?”

“Alright!” Nyx calls cheerily to their departing backs. “Can we get treats?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Feyre curls into the hollow of Rhys’s neck, settling into the hold. The touch of her mate’s skin eases some of her internal turmoil. Soothes the worst of her self-deprecating thoughts.

“This isn’t going to get any easier, is it?” Feyre whispers, once they’re out of ear shot of their son’s bathing chamber.

“With him inheriting your magic? I wouldn’t imagine so. The shapeshifting began so early, I can only imagine what else we’re in store for.”

She clicks her tongue in disagreement, but she can’t be bothered to lift her head from the warmth of him.

“I don’t mean the magic.”

“I know.” Warm cedar and fresh linens meet her as they cross the threshold into their chambers. Rhys sets her lovingly on the bed before stepping back, gripping her hands. “But the rest of it is a tale as old as time. We won’t be the first to struggle through raising a youngling and we won’t be the last. I’m only lucky enough to have the best partner to face the challenge with.”

A blush settles across her cheeks. “Stop. I’ve made such a mess of things. Chased away our poor son —”

Rhys presses his fingers against her lips to still them. “Later, darling. For now, let's dress for the theater and enjoy an evening out with our son.”

Feyre smiles softly. “Maybe you are getting wiser and not just older.”

“That’s the second remark about my age today,” Rhys growls, eyes darkening with silken promise. “Perhaps I need to remind you just what these old bones are capable of.”

“Later,” she mimics, sticking her tongue out in a flash before he can catch it.

For now, she will cherish their time as a family. No matter her faults, no matter how things may shift in their dynamics, at least she can be certain that they can make it through together.

#nyx #feysand #nyx & feyre #nyx & rhys #acotar #acotar fanfic #my writing

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joy-crimes · 7 months

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What would you say is the Fullmetal Alchemist of yuri?

ILTV

Reasons:

-character focused adventure

-Interesting and well-explained magic system so you understand the stakes at any given time

-starts off normal, becomes the best thing you’ve ever read

-Near-ending twist that literally changes everything and hits you like a freight train with a baseball bat

-political commentary that isn’t filled with “both-sides”-isms and actually has coherent ideas that deepen the world and the characters’ roles in it while also providing a reflection of our own

-forever altered my brain chemistry

-well written romance that doesn’t feel tropey or unearned in the slightest and is actually used to deeper explore certain characters & how they interact with each other

-i likey it :)

#iltv #in love with the villainess #iftv #i favor the villainess #fullmetal alchemist

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shitouttabuck · 5 months

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tease tuesday

tagged by @rewritetheending @try-set-me-on-fire @eddiebabygirldiaz @devirnis @jeeyuns @athenagranted @malewifediaz <3

hi this is in tiny text because i started rambling.... from i can love you better ft buck’s sucky parents—i do not think buck thinks that family that’s blood or marriage is more important or more real or anything close, but i do think after donor baby it’s something that’s been on his mind a lot. donor, not dad. what counts as being a dad, then? his own? yikes! he’s doing a lot of thinking about ways people are tied together. and a lot of wanting, in the context of his own biological family letting him down again, and christmas being a time everyone around him is with their own families, blood and marriage or whatever. i don’t think he believes it, it’s just one of those lurking sadnesses that lies to you

“They’re my family,” he says, mouth a sad, resigned twist. You are a real family. Eddie said that to him about these very same people not so long ago. He wishes he hadn’t, offhand and flippant and like it was the most obvious thing in the world, because it’s not. Eddie and his own parents may have been patching things up and making it work, but Buck’s parents are not Eddie’s. If he hadn’t been so quick to extend the same courtesy of second, third, hundredth chance to the Buckleys, if he’d let himself be the one person telling Buck hey, it’s okay to want out of this cycle of unearned forgiveness, of the constant loop of hurt and disappointment, maybe he wouldn’t be stood here, brokenhearted and so terribly small. Eddie feels his jaw tick as he clenches it. “Not in any way that counts.” Buck blinks at him, brow beginning to furrow. In askance or objection, Eddie doesn’t know, so he hastens to add, “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t—I can’t decide that for you, but… Buck.” He says his name almost beseechingly, and he is, isn’t he? Beseeching Buck to get this. “Family makes you feel loved. Looked after. Wanted, even when… Without strings, you know? Not conditionally. Not transactionally. Tell me if I’m wrong—actually, no, don’t, because I’m not wrong, but I don’t think your parents make you feel like that.” Buck swallows, looking up at the ceiling as he blinks hard. “And you know you already have that. I know you know that. Your parents—they’re just people you’re related to. People you lived with once. You can’t choose that. You can choose to let go of any belief that you owe them anything more because of it, though. They don’t have to be your family.” Buck laughs, hollow and awful. “Okay. I know that. I just—I know you’re not supposed to care about, about being blood-related, or tied together in any capacity official enough to be, I dunno, recognised by society at large as family. I know that doesn’t mean anything. But without them, what? I have Maddie and Jee. And I have a whole bunch of friends who love me so damn much I can’t believe it sometimes.” He presses the heels of his palms into his eyes, hard. “And I’m the most ungrateful person in the world for—for wanting something more. Something tangible.”

anyway lol i lost most of this fic when my computer crashed the other day but we cry and persevere ig

tagging @onward--upward @eowon @housewifebuck @buckactuallys @zahlibeth @chronicowboy @transboybuckley if you fancy xoxo

#sorry buck youre having a Time #wip #tag game #if this needs better editing lol sorry i’m sleepy

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transvaltrans · 4 months

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Looking back on the books I read this year, and was reminded of just how much Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief- absolutely frustrated and disappointed me. Spoilers ahead.

To some degree, this was going to happen; the whole series has been heavily hyped up to me, it's hard for any book to live up to such lavish yet vague praise. But, you know, I actually got through most of the book without being distracted by my own expectations. It was tense, and spare- it felt like every word mattered and hinted at an underlying truth. I love when books withhold from the reader, and nudge at you to consider what might be left unsaid. And I was so, so satisfied when my predictions paid off (totally called Gen palming the stone rather than losing it).

The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, I enjoyed that the author wasn't committed to a super specific and our-world-accurate timeframe for technology, and I found the characters compelling and variable. I always enjoy travel stories, nevermind stories about thieves.

Which is exactly why I was so annoyed by the ending.

Again: I love twists. I love being able to predict them, and I love being surprised. I did not feel like any of the twists in The Thief were unearned; it's a well-composed book, with plenty of foreshadowing.

However, one of the twists, despite being foreshadowed, absolutely blindsided me- because I would not have considered it as a possibility, due to undermining exactly what had me so excited to read The Thief in the first place. Fantasy literature sometimes shies away from politics, into pure escapism and fluff. Even some of my favorite fantasy books are pretty hollow when it comes to their fundamental beliefs, and shy away from challenging the status quo- unless it's to restore old glory (cough The Old Kingdom series).

But I can almost always count on stories about rogues, and thieves, and con artists, to at least bring up the issue of class. These characters so often come from disenfranchised backgrounds, from the poor and displaced. They're street rats and gutter scum, who have clawed their way up from the bottom, and never forget where they came from- can never forget, from the way others treat them. Theft is subversive; there's a reason we won't let go of Robin Hood, but even more self-motivated thieves often have something to say about the unfairness of wealth distribution. Stories about thieves almost always have something to say about the relationship between the wealthy and the poor.

So, yeah, I was really fucking annoyed at the reveal that Eugenides was actually the Queen's cousin. That pretending to be from a lower class background was so insufferable to him; that of course he's only so educated and knowledgeable because he's a noblemen, that it was so hard for him to pretend to be stupid and crass like a peasant. That the reason he was so pissed about being disrespected by his captors wasn't because they beat him and imprisoned him and insulted him constantly, that they treated him as less than human because he was poor and a criminal, a tool for their own use and disposal- but because he was one of them, and it injured his pride- his noble pride, not his human pride- to be treated like that. Like he wasn't one of them, and deserving of their respect.

Fuck, I hate it so much. It immediately took away my favorite parts of the book- the tension between Gen and the magus's companions, the weight of the magus having been a commoner once, the way Gen constantly stuck by himself and refused to just accept his shitty treatment- the way every monarch treated him as a means to an end. I thought there would be more tension in Gen having conflicted feelings of resentment and camraderie with the magus- I thought it would pay off with either some of them acting in his interest for once, and/or some of them rejecting their freindship and leaning back into that class difference between them.

I'm not opposed to Gen having been working for the mountain kingdom the whole time! But there are so many other ways to do that- I was suspecting that someone was holding his family hostage in some way. It's easy to imagine a story where Gen is a lower-class thief, who was also being used by his own country's royalty.

But, making Eugenides a nobleman is a subversion of the classic trope- which means it's clever and interesting. Uugh. It just exhausted me, and- disappointed me. I loved so much of this book, and it had been a while since I'd read a good low-fantasy story about thieves. It was suspenseful, with rich descriptions, and interesting character dynamics. I thought I was getting something like Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge, or The Goblin Wood by Hillary Bell- not necessarily stories about thieves, but stories about the underestimated and undervalued, peasant con artists and hedgewitches. But with more of the tension and bite of your average dnd rogue getting up to stupid shit (my go-to class since I was a kid).

I totally understand why people love this book. There is a lot I really admire within it. But man, I don't think I can get over how much that final twist- not just rejected my original interpretation of the story. That's fine, plenty of good science fiction or horror does that. But that it specifically rejects the character and story type of the lower class thief. The very name of the series, The Queen's Thief, had me expecting a story about that seeming contradiction; about the power imbalance, and a constant game of cunning, of maintaining autonomy despite being bound to a royal power. And I expect there will be some of that, in the later books; it just loses a lot of its appeal, when it turns out Gen himself is a nobleman, who was doing a favor for his cousin, the queen.

I liked that the book ended with more insight into the mountainous kingdom, and Gen's feeling of belonging and pride to a cultural group everyone else had been deriding- but that didn't have to be accomplished by him being related to the nobility of that country. None of this had to be accomplished through Gen being a nobleman; it just felt like a 'gotcha' subversion, taking away, rather than adding more.

#I emerge from the mists a hater sdfghjdf #god I wanted to love this book. and I did- up until the very end.#also gotta be clear: I was not expecting The Most Class Conscious Themes- just the basic ones all thief stories dip their toes into #anyways I read this several months ago ergo me not naming the various kingdoms. because I'm lazy and just needed to get this out of me #going to main tag it because- I'm curious if anyone else felt the same way! I've seen so much love for this series on tumblr #and again: totally get why! It's well written! it's fun and compelling and tense!#but boy it was a let down for me personally #the thief #the queen's thief

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heddagab · 7 months

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Oliver Putnam, you absolute maniac, you did it! You produced a hit and got to get with a girl who looks like Meryl fucking Streep, you lucky wonderful bastard! I'm jelly

Listen, I liked Joy but goddammit, honey, if you were really involved with this, revenge is not a good look on you, I have to decline. Also, why does Charles always get with women who want to murder him?! The most boring and sweet mf on the planet 🤣 (Okay, Jan was a serial killer BUT STILL)

Sazz, I mean it when I say it: You will be missed. I gasped at the finale, she was the most beloved recurring character on the show 😭

As for the producers, I have to say they were my suspects early on, from around Oliver's first heart attack. But I left them aside for a while because I thought they might not even have a legit killer this season and circled back to them these last few episodes. They were the only ones who had something to gain by killing Ben (the show) and be ruthless and detached from their humanity enough to actually do it, like every other rich person walking around. They were the only ones with a real motive I thought back then and I am SO glad it turned out this way.

I'm not mad I got it right. It didn't "lose" me. I still gasped and got emotional and laughed with both of them. I still was yelling early on in the episode "Oh my god, it was him! She kissed him and he must have wiped his lips!" Doesn't matter the actual movements were a little different. All I'm trying to say is that a well crafted story ALWAYS beats a twist for shock value. Always. I don't give a f if you give the greatest reveal, if it's unearned, I won't feel good. Period.

I'm so glad this show is so cute and funny and well crafted. I'm glad it exists. And I need the soundtrack of that damn musical!

#only murders in the building #omitb spoilers

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roseworth · 2 months

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Would you have done Terror Titans differently?⚔️

i would change pretty much everything about rose's characterization </3 my biggest problem with that book is that her motivations make no sense and arent at all in line with anything about her character and it drives me crazy

it seems like they thought that rose secretly working against him the whole time would be too obvious so they just. didnt. and shes hanging out with clock king and working with him for no real reason. i think it would've been SO much better if, even though its an obvious twist, she was trying to dismantle the tournament from the inside. the story,,, sort of did this???? but not in a way that mattered. it basically waits until the end to say "now rose realizes that this is bad" as if she didnt know what was going on the whole time?????

^ this is not a reveal. she knew exactly what was happening the entire time and she was a part of it. its a discredit to her character to act like she would've been complicit in this at all. honestly even as a "shes doing it for her own motives" thing, she wouldnt do most of what she did. she was fighting brainwashed heroes and training villains and enabling clock king for the whole book just to go "wow nevermind" at the end

fighting brainwashed heroes is probably the worst decision mckeever could've made for her. she KNOWS what its like to be drugged, brainwashed, and forced to fight. and then she lets it happen in this book anyway and actively encourages it. i am strongly on team "rose makes lots of selfish decisions" but this is a line that she would Not cross. yeah she enjoys fighting & would want to enter a tournament like that. but she wouldnt choose to fight people that didnt have any agency in their fight

which makes it feel like a slap in the face when she brings it up in the last issue

surprise! after shes spent the entire book fighting the people that were mind controlled to fight her, she now realizes that its a bad thing. she knew this from the start so this part feels extremely unearned because, again, she knew this from the start. they dont even try to build up to this moment

(everybody strap in; im about to say something nice about williamson's rose for the first time) theres a really good comparison to be made between terror titans and robin 2021. theyre both tournaments that rose is fighting in with ulterior motives, but robin does it sooo much better. she keeps her morals, she helps damian, she kills people because its a tournament that they all agreed to be a part of & the whole point is that the pit will bring them back after they die. in terror titans, shes fighting heroes that dont know what theyre doing and standing back while clock king kills whoever he wants to. everything she did in robin was at least sort of in line with her character & morals, but in this book they have to ignore everything shes done in the past just for it to make sense that shes there

which brings me to the other big issue i have with this book. mckeever had to ignore and roll back so much character growth just for this book to happen

^ this part from tt03 #41 is basically explicitly saying that rose Doesnt Kill. she didnt kill anyone after joining the titans until mckeever took over and pretended that shes secretly been a killer the whole time.

not to mention the arc in tt #43-46 where the WHOLE POINT was that the titans trusted rose and didnt expect her to kill

"even wonder girl's been nice to me" but you wouldnt know it since they ignored that as soon as johns left.

like this dialogue would've made sense when rose first joined the team but to say shes "homicidal and warped beyond words" after rose & cassie had been starting to get along AND rose hadn't killed someone is infuriating, especially since this is followed up with rose trying to kill them and acting like this is what always happens

it almost feels insulting that we have to pretend that she hasnt had all these arcs of her getting closer to the team and Not Killing People just to get this arc that leads into terror titans

anyways all this to say, terror titans relies on us believing that rose wouldnt care about the team's interests, the team doesnt trust her, and that she is fine with killing people. which are all things that were explicitly disproven 10 issues before this.

PLUS she, for some reason, trusts clock king. she doesnt know anything about him and watches him do all these bad things. but we're supposed to believe that she feels a Connection because of their precog

not to mention. she knows exactly what he did to eddie. it would be a stretch to say that she could have a civil conversation with clock king after this, let alone work with him and talk about their Connection

honestly. 90% of my problems with this book would be fixed if she had secretly been working with m'gann the whole time

if the twist had just been "mgann was secretly there, and rose knew and was distracting clock king & the terror titans (and trying to get more intel) while mgann freed everyone" it would have made so much more sense. that way she has a reason to be competing in the tournament and working with them, AND she would be working with the titans & reestablishing the trust that she had

in conclusion this book is bad. but it does have one redeeming quality: the fight between rose and lorena where she chokes her with her thigh while pulling her hair

#SORRY im incapable of talking about this book without bringing up the lorenarose fight at least once #anyways.#the worst part is that a lot of the characterization that i complain about is vital for my beloved fresh hell #so this book is important for the transition to fresh hell. but that doesnt mean its good or worthwhile at all #rose wilson #dc #long post

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from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras · 1 month

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Ok BUT Imagine a Théodred who is born as fair as any Eorling lord

but plot twist

his hair goes dark in adolescence. Like blondes often do. And he has real difficulty coming to terms with the change.

Well…first off, I would want to grab him and squish his cheeks and hug him and assure my sweet, wonderful little guy that he’s perfect exactly how he is.

But if this happened to him, I think his insecurity would push him to be an even better and more compassionate leader. We know that dark hair is sometimes looked down on in Rohan because of its association with the Dunlendings, and I think a dark-haired Théodred would see how this sort of knee jerk anti-Dunland prejudice is dumb (remind me to post my rant about Helm Hammerhand some time because he’s a huge offender on this front) and would make it a point to try to stamp it out, which would be a huge benefit to all kinds of Rohirrim (and Dunlendings).

Beyond their own borders, I think the opposite dynamic would come into play, meaning that Théodred might be MORE respected in Gondor because his dark hair would be a reminder of his Gondorian heritage, and he would push against that, too. He’s not accepting any better treatment, any unnecessary compliments, any unearned benefit-of-the-doubt from any Gondorian simply on the basis that they see Gondor in him. He’s a Rohirrim, damn it, no matter what color his hair is or who his grandma was, and if you think he’s any better than the blonde guys at home just because he’s got a Gondorian ancestor then he wants nothing to do with you. So in that way, he’s pushing back on the offensive and antiquated ideas still hanging around in Gondor about so-called “middle men” vs “high men” (something that I have FEELINGS about!) and claiming the rightful place for Rohan as equals to anyone in the world of Middle Earth’s humans.

Does this question mean you’re planning a new version of Théodred for your fics??? Switching to tall, dark and handsome from the equally handsome blonde short king??? 👑🐎🗡️

#answered asks #i will take a théodred of any hair color please and thank you #théodred #theodred #forth eorlingas #tolkien #lord of the rings #lotr

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duhragonball · 4 months

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In all honesty, while I do miss Super Saiyan "first times" being emotional beats, a lot of fans forget Goten did it by accident and Trunks did it because he felt like it. Like what, was Goten that angry at Chi Chi during their sparing match? Was Trunks' jealousy of Goten going super saiyan equal to Vegeta's self-loathing during the time skip before the Androids Saga? At least with Caulifla there's an in-universe explanation that honestly makes sense for her character. She's not the type to explode with rage and Cabba's not the type to antagonize her. Rather, she's adept enough at fighting to recognize that all she has to do is emulate the feeling of the transformation to attain it and skilled enough to do it by force. She basically skips the awakening part to get right to the "do it at will" stage which is perfect buildup for her as a rival of sorts for Goku.

I think what really bothered the Caulifla haters (besides their misogyny) was that she said the quiet part out loud.

The dirty little secret about the Super Saiyan form was that it was never this ancient and mystic power of destiny, but a quirk of Saiyan biology that almost anyone could replicate if they knew what steps to follow. The reason Vegeta, Trunks, and Gohan all pulled it off in such a short span of time was that they had a living Super Saiyan as a reference, and they had the motivation to work at it.

By the time Cabba showed up, it was considered a big twist that he couldn't turn Super Saiyan. That's how cliche the form had become. So when Cabba learns it very quickly, it's mostly because we need him to get "caught up" in a hurry. And Caulifla and Kale were even stronger than he was before he learned the form, so it only makes sense that they would get the hang of it quickly as well.

But their transformations weren't treated like this big dramatic moment that turns the tide of the story. That's because Super Saiyan was no longer a major milestone, but also because we'd already seen it done several times by several other characters. The gimmick with Caulifla and Kale was that they were prodigies, diamonds in the rough who were suddenly tapping into their hidden potential. Could they improve enough, quickly enough, to become a threat in the tournament?

The thing fans have to accept is that Super Saiyan isn't the be-all and end-all of this franchise. That's why we have Super Saiyan 2, 3, 4, God, and Blue, along with Ultra Intinct, Beast, and all of the other advanced forms that have cropped up along the way. And the bad guys have always been able to keep pace, so calling each new level "unearned" is pointless.

We could say that Caulifla deconstructed the whole concept, except Vegeta already did it when he first transformed in 1991.

One page. One page is all it takes to undermine whatever legend or superstition is still attached to the Super Saiyan form. This is the third character we've seen use the form, but Krillin still hung onto the idea that a Super Saiyan had to at least be a good guy. But Vegeta informs him that he simply trained and trained until he hit a wall and his frustration pushed his body over the threshold. But Vegeta still clings to the idea of a "Saiyan Messiah", even though he just demonstrated that there's nothing special about this. You don't need to be a mythical hero, or a man of destiny, or even a nice person. You just need talent and effort, and maybe some luck.

The U6 Saiyans just did a speedrun of Vegeta's process, and that may irritate fans, except that the U6 Saiyans were far, far more powerful than Vegeta was in the Androids Saga. Cabba and Vegeta fought evenly in their base forms, and that was the same "Saiyan Beyond God" level seen in Resurrection F. They were already capable of the transformation; they just needed someone to tell them it was a thing.

#ask duhragonball #vegeta #caulifla #kale #cabba #dragon ball #dragon ball super

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dirt-apple-productions · 11 months

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Yo 👋🏾!

Why did Catra, a violent, unhinged, and dangerous war criminal, get off Scott free and an unearned redemption arc? Why was Shadow Weaver not given a redemption arc and was given the death sentence?

I’m bad at respecting pronouns. I will do my best, but if I call N.D. by his deadname or misgender him, that is an act of forgetfulness and not malice. Please be patient with me.

First, the way you’re framing this is (unintentionally, I hope) a little intellectually dishonest. I would definitely not call Catra unhinged. She’s impulsive and definitely attempted more harm than Shadow Weaver did (while being a grown-ass adult perfectly capable of making her own decisions…), but I would not call her unhinged. Her behavior is typical abusive behavior, and I laugh at the idea of war crimes in She-Ra at all because Bright Moon also doesn’t even have a prison. Moreover, I’d argue Shadow Weaver is equally as dangerous as Catra up until Micah arrives and she starts to change. She was the one throwing away soldiers on pointless missions, sacrificing the collective to get Adora back, and trying to wipe her ward’s mind (not to mention the physical abuse both she and Catra committed).

That said, the reason Catra was forgiven by the narrative and Shadow Weaver wasn’t is pretty simple. N.D. doesn’t believe Shadow Weaver is capable or worthy of redemption.

I do agree with him that you can’t redeem someone who doesn’t want to be redeemed, but the language about someone not being “capable” or “worthy” of redemption is entirely different than acknowledging that universal reconciliation isn’t a thing. He is making an assertion about Horde Prime’s value and worth in this statement. Not the free-will choices he made. N.D. can pretend as though it’s about actions all day long, but this is not the true motivation. He’s also conflating Prime’s actions with his worth by bringing up his bad actions and long lifespan, which has nothing to do with anything. It’s all window dressing. What makes Prime’s end work is that he COULD have chosen at any point to repent, surrender, and face consequences, but he chose not to. Get that? C H O S E.

It’s also worth noting that N.D. doesn’t see Shadow Weaver as redeemed.

Here are all the effed-up things in this passage:

N.D. admits he didn’t plan Shadow Weaver’s arc from the start, which is laughable and shows he has a dearth of writing skills. If you’re going to write a story, literally the bare minimum is knowing the climax and ending. But he couldn’t even be expected to know that? Come on.

N.D. acts like it’s so terrible for Shadow Weaver to think she’s the good guy when that’s a.) literally how Catra behaved for the whole story, and b.) how everyone thinks of themselves. Everyone wants to think they’re going through life with the best of intent here.

N.D. asserts that Shadow Weaver ruined the lives of people she never ruined the lives of. She was never in Castaspella’s life before S5, and all signs point to her treating Micah with utmost kindness up to and including when she was possessed. I challenge anyone to find one instance where she treated him at all similar to how she treated Catra and Adora. They won’t find it.

Shadow Weaver does not care about Catra. She cares about Adora but the Spell twisted her love so much it no longer resembles the real thing. Love is an action, not a positive feeling, and the fact N.D. is stating otherwise shows he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

Shadow Weaver’s sacrificial ending was suicidal. I don’t really care who’s mad about me saying that. She said “it’s too late for me” and burned herself alive. Suicide is selfish and cowardly in its own way, but N.D. in other interviews portrayed the final act as a way to smarm Catra and Adora for resenting her, which does not come across in the scene at all. Again, N.D. has no idea what he is talking about here. I have autism and even I understand the basic concept of PORTRAYING WHAT YOU INTEND IN YOUR STORY. And if she was truly being selfish all along and never changed, only manipulated the girls to the bitter end, the next point makes no sense either.

The idea that Shadow Weaver has to “affirm” and “get closure” for the girls in order for them to heal is toxic. Not that Shadow Weaver shouldn’t repent and apologize, but Adora and Catra’s healing can’t be hinged to that or else the moment she makes a mistake in her journey, they’ll instantly be heartbroken. YOU CANNOT SEEK VALIDATION FROM OTHERS. And this brings to attention the tonal whiplash. Catra and Adora should be, by all accounts, utterly distressed. But they just…forget about Shadow Weaver immediately after that, like it was as easy as her death achieving their happiness. Demented. And to think kids are having this message as their takeaway.

So the reason is quite simple: N.D. doesn’t actually believe in redemption, and he never saw Shadow Weaver as redeemed to begin with. As to why Catra’s actions are downplayed, it’s because she’s hot, gay, and young, and she’s N.D.’s special girl. It’s really not that complex.

#spop #anti c//a #anti catra #anti c*tra #shadow weaver #light spinner #she ra #spop critical #spop salt #writing #criticism #nd stevenson #nate stevenson #tw suicide #tw abuse #tw child abuse #just all the trigger warnings please be careful

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cyberdragoninfinity · 6 months

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Oh I think I saw the post u meam and (u can delete/ignore this is its too far from the point and shit) the "The only yusei I like is a depressed one" is so. Idk? Harsh? Hes allowed to ve happy and still be written well, he doesnt need to be shoved onto other peoples sins when the series already has him doing that. He can have an implied decently peaceful life until death. Sometimes! You do so much and oull so much weight that you become something intangible and divine to someone whos never met but still thinks of u! And sometimes its one guy and sometimes its them and the last remnants of the human race out of a desperate love for both!

Idk, just let yusei be like, not suffering 24/7, they forbid him from even entering the WGRP for fun bc ig thats bad to so many characters, let him have a scrap

YEAH. YEAH. god ive been thinkin about this all day, this is so good anon you get it you're Logged In you see the Intent of it all...

again like. if the 'z-one isnt yusei' thing isnt someone's favorite narrative choice, whatever, thats your journey, but every time i see this "well he was ACTUALLY supposed to be yusei from the future for real!!!!" rumormongering i want to groan into my hands, it just feels like this desperate grasping at straws because they really wanted Sick and Twisted Evil Yusei Real and then when that didn't happen they had to make up some grand production conspiracy instead of just taking the "welp, cant win 'em all" with this one and acknowledging that's just not the story the 5D's writers wanted to tell.

i LIKE a good protagonist corruption/evil!protag AU, they're really fun, but you're so right, this sort of Insistence I see when people are like "no, it was GOING to be true, z-one WAS dark and depressed and hopeless future yusei," i just cant wrap my head around it. there's just this sort of miserable harshness to it that i'm not personally very into. (in general i cant really vibe with this idea of "i need my favorite character to constantly be suffering." just really not my thing, ESPECIALLY WITH YUGIOH CHARACTERS??) (also. like. we already did have that. with jaden. and honestly yuma also is fucking Suffering too. it's cool seeing a different spin on things. idfk!!)

i just want to like. grab people really gungho about this thing by the shoulders and ask "why do you want a Yusei who willfully betrays and gets his friends killed SO BADLY? why do you want to see a Yusei who hurts people THIS much?" I feel like it would have just been so jarring and unearned. it doesn't feel like Yusei even in his darkest hours (which imo is part of why Z-one is such an interesting character to me--the concept of someone who thinks if they can wear a fabled hero like a pelt, if he can Become them, then that will fix everything, then They can fix everything. that's so fascinating and fucked up to me!!!! i love thinking about it!!!)

this idea that in the far future Yusei's become this sort of folk hero, this "something intangible and divine" like you said, just from saving the world and doing good and helping people, that's just SO neat and has so much merit and is worth discussing!! and it's unfortunate that you have a Not Insignificant amount of people who just wont even consider the potential narrative weight in it, who are so sore Their Trope of Choice wasn't canon theyre out here weaving madeup production stories to back up their personal disappointment. just. idk. you can give the 5D's writers a lot of rightful flak for stuff in s2, but i do very much think there was great intent from the beginning to have z-one be Just Some Guy who's rotting in a body that isnt his own, and to have him reflect yusei in ways without Actually Just Being Him.

#ygo posting #asks #anonymous #anyway ty for the message this is good stuff i could talk about it a LOT #dana's ygo bible study #<--puttin this in my meta analysis tab cuz it's GOOD.#idk! folks can have their own opinions on it but for me personally i love that they didnt go with whats imo kind of. the obvious plot choic #to me there is merit even in a story that didnt go the way you thought it would invoke the narrative just you wanted. SHRUGS. AGAIN

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iwillhaveamoonbase · 2 years

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So much of the Princess Tutu experience is the constant flipping of scripts and playing with expectations. You have two girls who can be represented by a bird and a princess. There is a group of figures: a prince, a bird, a princess, and a knight and part of you is left wondering at that point, is Rue or Ahiru the Princess or the Bird?

It sets up a very specific romance between Mytho and Ahiru in the very beginning, though a tragic one that maybe they can circumvent. But, by the end, Mytho chooses Rue and Ahiru and Fakir have grown incredibly fond of each other if not fallen in love. Nobody ends up with who the genre dictates they should but it's also very satisfying because of how it's presented.

Rue is presented as the villain but the more we peel back, the more we learn that she is a tragic heroine who simply wanted love and to fill the loneliness in her heart and didn't know how to because she was never shown how to love. Meanwhile, Ahiru is shown as a loving, sweet girl from the start who will do what she can for the prince and she continues doing so, though she meets her fate on her own terms.

Princess Tutu is, in my mind, one of the best examples of the magical girl genre, one of the best anime of 2002 and just a beautiful example of how to play with your audiences' expectations and do the unexpected without making it feel cheap or unearned. If you want to learn how to do twists in interesting ways that the audience won't totally see coming but will also see in hindsight, Princess Tutu is an excellent example.

#princess tutu #moonbase muses

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veliseraptor · 24 days

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Hi! For the ask game 🕯🔪🐚 (or one or two of them)

⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

probably a 2. I think mostly because looking back at what I've already written is, well, not always fun, as far as my critical eye being like "this is all trash and should be scrapped" and just...once I've spent the amount of time with a project a lot of the time I just want to be done with it and don't want to go back and fiddle with it more. yet another one of the ways in which I feel like Not a Real Writer! but there you go.

⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

already answered this one here!

⇢ do you like or dislike surprises?

in what terms? in general in my life I'd say I'm not a fan of surprises (I am a planner and I like to know what's going to happen!) but I guess in terms of literature/media then I'm...ambivalent on them? I enjoy a good twist but if it feels unearned or like a twist for the sake of throwing in a twist then I'm not so interested. I don't need them to be satisfied - sometimes being able to see the pattern of a story isn't a bad thing. a story doesn't have to surprise me to be good.

#conversating #whoisthatmovinginthedark #lise memes

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jamiesfootball · 3 months

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4 for OGYGGIYHNBGL and 11 for any :)

4. Is there anything in the fic you're unsure about including?

Unsure about including? No. Unsure of my ability to write? Absolutely. Loads of them. About half of them, I'd say. Especially with some of the conversations (and arguments) coming up, it feels so so important to me that I nail them. I know that I'm swinging for Big Feelings here, and the risk of that is if things don't land then they come off feeling cheesy and unearned.

Whereas I want cheesy and earned.

In particular, there is a Sam & Jamie argument in a later chapter that I am terrified and excited and terrified about digging into.

11. Is there any scene you can't wait for people to react to when reading? Why?

I HAVE MANY. Mostly my no-spoilers scenes. The scenes where I will not even allude to them happening because I am just that giddy about it.

Specifically, OGYGGIYHNBGL has a two-part wham moment that I am besides myself to get to. The 5+1 sleepy Jamie fic has The Scene (it is always The Scene to me). The tiktok recipe / career retrospective has a yoink-and-twist. The wtnv au fic has a moment coming up that is simultaneously both peak Roy Kent and peak WTNV (plus!! The Ending!!!!)

One of these fics has a bit about Colin that I'm very very excited to get to and have been struggling not to spoil to anyone.

So if ever you worry that I have abandoned a thing, fear not- I must get to all these things, as fast as I can, because oh man am I not a patient person. I am likely to crack.

That said I did manage to keep the Sisyphus pull and 'looks like you found your fucking wings' to myself for MONTHS so who knows?

From this unwritten/untitled ask game

#ask game #ask box is always open #fic: oh god you're gonna get it (you have not been given love)

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crystal-lillies · 1 year

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A Rambling First Thoughts Review + Critique of "Peter Pan and Wendy" (Disney+ 2023 movie) Spoilers ahead.

Okay for being called "Peter Pan and Wendy" I think aside from prequel iterations, this movie had the least bit of connection and bonding between Peter and Wendy that I've ever seen.

Wow okay, not even sure where to begin on the rest of my thoughts but certainly that was the first one. I didn't feel much connection between Peter and Wendy at all, and the story had very little justification for the emotional moments between them it tried to eke out, which is actually very difficult to achieve since the original source material has it baked in that all the adaptations, even the ones that twist the formula, have been able to adapt and grow off of.

Oof and I gotta say the movie rushed the beginning to really crawl through Neverland. I was shocked at how fast it was that they were already going, and it didn't really seem like an urgent event. Just like, oh yeah Peter's just gonna show up at your window and take you to Neverland one day kthxbai. Rather than it being a motivated decision for Wendy to say "I'm growing up tomorrow" (leaving the nursery, going away, etc.) but I don't want to, so I'm going to go and never grow up.

Also sidebar, Wendy my love, being an ass to your brothers is not endearing to your plight and is definitely new for this adaptation which was a Very odd take. And it could be argued by the end...or even the middle...she realizes her responsibility to take care of them and look after them in Neverland but that's a weak sauce character arc for someone who HAS one built in that's just as valid.

A really odd take for them NOT to double cast Jude Law as Mr. Darling and Hook. I actually would have liked to see his take on Mr. Darling. But RIP Mr. Darling had barely a personality at all or anything to do here.

And RIP Nurse Nana. Now you are just a dog with nothing to do, and no reason to be put out in the dog house.

And then Neverland, oh my dear place of literal dreams, what they did to you! Now, I am somewhat a fan of the Home Under the Ground being a castle ruin in this version, that's actually something close to how I've seen Neverland at least once. But it felt very empty, both the Home and the island. It was too...empty. And even though every iteration we know only the pirates, Lost Boys, Peter, the Indians, the fairies, and the mermaids live in and around the island, plus animals, all the other versions haven't felt so barren. Is it because Neverland became one large same-y landmass rather than a place that has mountains and lagoons and tropical forests and literally anything children dream of? Maybe that's part of it. But it's hard to place precisely. It doesn't feel lived in. The castle ruins didn't have beds or a table for meals. It had a neat rope swing and a fireplace yes, but it still just looked visually and felt empty, when a badass castle hideout could be so cool!

And regarding Hook and Peter having a history, having a tragic background. First, I'm not opposed to the friends to enemies take. Saw it done pretty well in the prequel special Neverland, though it was from a Fagin+Snape-like mentor to an orphan Peter who looked up to him, rather than two kids and one who grew up. But again, it may have worked with a different story. I don't think it was the right choice here, or at least it was not properly executed. The voice in my head kept saying, if Hook was a lost boy and Peter's friend and he KNEW where Peter's hideout was all along, then WHY hasn't he tried killing him before? The whole sticking point in the source and other adaptations was that he had NO IDEA where Peter's hideout was, otherwise he would kill him there!

Tiger Lily being a badass is never bad in my book, but once again, her service in the story feels unearned. I don't feel the bond between her and Peter, honestly. She had more of a connection with Wendy (and it caught me off guard how I immediately thought, "okay I would ship that" after their conversation en route to the hideout.) And then her tribe is just sort of there. Without much connection to the island, or to Peter. Tiger Lily calls him "Little Brother," but taking the movie as it is without reference of any other Peter Pan media, it doesn't feel earned from what we are given up to that point. It just feels like Tiger Lily being Peter's deus ex Machina, which really historically has been Tinkerbell, and that made sense given Tink and Peter's shared history and friendship. (Something that's also sadly toned back in this movie as well)

"Peter Pan and Wendy" is not even a poor live action adaptation of a Disney animated movie, it's just... a strange and lackluster adaptation of Peter Pan, which had been done successfully as a Disney animated movie. And I think that feels a bit more disappointing.

#flowerspeak #peter pan and wendy #peter pan #movie review #sort of #disney #disney plus #disney+

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