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good-chimes · 11 months

Text

Proposing:

Grand Unified Scarian Theory

a single, overarching Scarian romance arc across the whole Hermitcraft and Life series as well as a primer for anyone curious about the early seasons.

We start with NEIGHBOR MEET CUTE in early Season 6:

Season 6 begins in a peaceful pirate bay. SCAR, an established hermit just beginning his third season, is happily making pirate caves. Into this tranquil scene comes GRIAN.

Grian, fresh-faced and new to Hermitcraft, picks a sea-themed base location right next to Scar’s pirate caves. He gets himself set up and starts his base. Even someone like Grian can get newcomer nerves, and he spends the first few weeks desperately trying to act like a normal person instead of the horrible gremlin he really is.

(Some hermits are taken in by this. Doc and Xisuma give him pity diamonds, something that—after getting to know Grian—they noticeably never do again.)

The only person exempt from Grian’s just-a-little-birthday-boy act is Mumbo, whom Grian already knows, clearly has a puppy-crush on, and pursues relentlessly.

Grian and Scar don’t interact much at first. Grian sees Scar for the first time while passing by his base. Scar instantly falls in one of his own caves and dies.

Grian panics.

Grian: I DIDN’T DO IT!

Scar, intrigued by his new neighbor, makes some overtures of interest:

1. Scar leaves a fully enchanted trident at Grian’s base as a welcome present. This is a generous gift for the cute neighbor you have a crush on and frankly the most normal thing either of them do in the entire years-long relationship.

Grian goes ‘huh!’ at the trident, never finds out who sent it, and immediately forgets the whole thing.

2. Scar entertains Grian’s traveling-salesman pitch and buys his overpriced armor boxes.

Multiple jokes about the size of Scar’s wallet. Grian clearly pleased by the transaction.

3. Scar makes Grian a complementary in-joke build (Spongebob’s house by Squidward’s house).

This delights Grian immeasurably for five minutes until he turns back to his prank war with Mumbo.

(Poor Mumbo. Clearly immensely fond of Grian but not sure he wants to be in a relationship with a lit stick of dynamite. This is very understandable.)

By this point Scar obviously kind of clocks that Grian is insane about Mumbo. This isn’t much of a leap. The entire SERVER is aware that Grian is horribly in love with Mumbo.

Ah. That’s okay. Scar backs off a bit. He recognizes when he’s not really in with a chance.

Maybe this thing he has with Grian is just going to be a friendship, and that’s okay! Having a crush is fun even if you’re not going to do anything about it. Scar is going to build some shops about it and be normal.

Both of them are going to be very normal.

FLIRTING (First Stages) – mid-Season 6

Both of them immediately forget to be normal.

Grian has started a detective agency and has no mysteries to solve. Scar instantly invents a cookie-based mystery supervillain called the Jangler and leaves Grian a series of tantalizing cookie-based puzzles for enrichment in his enclosure.

Grian has invented a game where you kill people with rockets. Scar volunteers to get murdered. Both of them are delighted.

Scar and Cub’s business empire is incidentally crushing Grian’s startup venture. There is no reason for this to be so flirtatiously charged.

At this point all the hermits move to a new village because of the Minecraft update. Grian starts a who-can-build-the-tallest-house war with Mumbo and Iskall. Scar notices and starts doing the same from the other side of the village.

It quickly gets so wild that Mumbo taps out (Mumbo does not do well with intensity, would rather just not, thankyouverymuch), and it's only Grian, Iskall and Scar.

Scar builds a wild giant plant eating his rocketship, and then a castle in the sky, and an enormous version of himself firing a canon at Grian's house. This is the first time you can really see Grian trying to hold in shrieks when he flies back in to see what Scar has done while he's gone.

Grian’s interest has been caught. He’s gone from barely seeing Scar to checking on him regularly. What’s our good friend Scar up to? What’s Scar done? What is Scar going to do next?

FLIRTING (How To Catch Your Crush’s Interest By Building A Secret Government Facility) – late Season 6

What Scar does next is put on a snazzy military uniform, team up with Doc to steal the time machine Grian invented last week, then, in the most effort someone has EVER gone to to get Grian's attention, spend weeks on end building a fully-functional 'Area 77' military base and containment facility to stop him getting it back.

Turns out this works beyond Scar’s wildest dreams.

Grian INSTANTLY obsessed with breaking into Scar’s base and retrieving his time machine.

Grian persuades Ren into forming a hippie camp with him next to the base and spends weeks entirely fixated on Scar. Meanwhile Scar, who is starting to really understand how to get and keep Grian's attention, builds more and fancier infrastructure to keep Grian out. This is also where Grian really starts looking at Scar's art—the insane cliffs Scar has build around his new hangers—and awkwardly not quite managing words, because it would be very embarrassing to just outright say the word beautiful, and Grian’s a very normal and non-embarrassing person.

In the climax of the season, Grian-the-hippie breaks into General Scar’s base.

Nobody can say that Scar making himself a top brass general and Grian making himself an anti-establishment flower power hippie does not end up with plausibly-deniable not-making-out Grian-provoking-Scar-into-holding-him-against-a-wall.

but.

BUT.

This is Hermitcraft. It’s temporary. Scar and Grian both know it was a bit. A bit they both got super into, sure! But a bit. Not weird at all.

(“Sure, mate, not weird at all,” Mumbo says, after all of this is over. “Then why are you making it SOUND weird Mumbo you’re the WORST”)*

(“Sooo....” Cub says, and Scar says, “I know. I know!”)*

*not canon but you can't tell me it didn't happen off screen

FLIRTING (But What About…) – early Season 7

Okay, so that was weird, but Grian is definitely still in love with Mumbo. The Mumbo pursuit is going great and Mumbo definitely doesn’t look nervous whenever Grian turns up with a new idea. Grian is going to get Mumbo to fall in love with him and they will marry in the spring and have a dozen beautiful children redstone contraptions.

Grian attempts to make it more official with Mumbo. Surely they have been flirting long enough, they are ready for the next stage! This is in no way a reaction to Scar becoming a weird wizard in a way very unsettling to Grian and building the kind of wild organic tangled forest build that Grian is fascinated by but can't even begin to comprehend.

Everything is very under control in Grian's life. He's now official boyfriends with Mumbo. They live together and have a messaging system and everything.

Mumbo announces he’s moving out.

It’s-not-you-it’s-me

You’re… you’re moving out? Grian says, in the smallest possible voice.

We’ll still have the messaging system, Mumbo says, unconvincingly.

FINE, Grian says, I’m moving out TOO.

Mumbo moves out.

Grian deals with this in the healthiest possible way. He invents a mayorship and attempts to give it to Mumbo.

Grian is Mumbo’s self-appointed campaign manager so Mumbo has to be round him ALL THE TIME, it’s for the CAMPAIGN, Mumbo.

Mumbo, a man who doesn’t deal well with pressure or responsibility, is maybe not the ideal choice for mayor, something that has escaped Grian entirely.

Mumbo builds a robot and attempts to palm off all responsibility for decision-making onto it. Grian immediately calls it their son.

Grian puts his moustache all over the server.

NO other hermits support them for mayor (except Scar, from a lost bet, who Grian has continued to have intensely weird flirtations with while all this is happening)

Things reach a fever pitch. Election day arrives. Mumbo doesn’t want this actually but try telling Grian that. The entire MumboGrian edifice that Grian has obsessively and wildly build has reached an unsustainable pitch and finally comes tumbling down around them.

Mumbo votes Scar for mayor.

Grian votes Scar for mayor.

Mumbo disappears for several weeks to do some nice soothing redstone and calm down.

FLIRTING (Civil War) – late Season 7

Everything has calmed down now. Scar is mayor. Mumbo is...somewhere. Grian is going to work on his base normally.

Grian has a new project. He wants to build in the new nether biomes. He builds a huge and echoing and obsessively inverse version of his huge and echoing and obsessively symmetrical mansion base. It's very impressive. It's totally hollow. There's... no one else here.

Grian decides that okay, he is going to bring PEOPLE here.

He invites Mumbo, because he hasn't seen him in weeks. He invites Bdubs, because Grian above all loves genius. And he invites Scar. Because of course. Everything major Grian does now, Scar is an of course.

Bdubs shows up! Generously builds Grian's entire mansion interior. Mumbo shows up. Builds a tiny upside down disco shack.

Scar does not show up.

Scar is being mayor! Scar is a very busy and important man! Scar has spent the last few weeks obsessively replacing every single goddamn mycelium block in the shopping district with beautifully tailored grass and making trees whose flowers are diamonds. He's also got his own megabase going on. For once Scar has so much to do it's even enough for Scar's ambitions, which have never been small.

He does not come when Grian calls.

Grian is Not Happy.

This is the point where Grian starts a steadily more unhinged campaign of leaving Scar invitations. He makes little tailor's dummies of himself and delivers them to Scar's house. He sets up a tea party of three grians in a secret space under Scar's mayoral throne. He hangs himself in effigy on the tip of Scar's megadrill build. Normal behavior.

And then when Scar still doesn't notice, he puts a tiny bit of mycelium back on one of the streets of the shopping district.

This starts… THE MYCELIUM WARS

Scar attempts to contain the growing mycelium patch with warning tape.

Grian spreads more mushroom spores.

Scar brings in his allies to help contain the growing mushroom patches.

Grian digs out an underground rebel HQ, recruits several rebels, and declares himself Motherspore.

Mayor Scar stares into a camera and uses his most velvety baritone to proclaim he will hunt down Grian and the mycelium resistance and bring them to justice.

Grian sets loose mushroom-spreading sheep.

Mayor Scar obsessively searches for his base.

Grian and Impulse build several decoy bases and trap them.

Mayor Scar employs Mumbo to strip-mine every block of the shopping district with redstone tunnel-borers.

Eventually Deputy Mayor Bdubs, having his own thing with rebel Etho, tricks all of the resistance into ender-pearling into jail.

Scar gets to threaten to pour lava on an imprisoned Grian for ten minutes straight and they’re both enjoying this so much.

Grian: Scar! SCAR! Scar Scar Scar no Scar no Scar no listen Scar

Scar: Yes?

Grian: …Let’s take this somewhere else.

They ‘take this’ to Scar’s beautifully-appointed mayoral office. Grian sits on the arm of his chair (I don’t know what to tell you, this is on-screen canon).

Grian: So I know how to end the war.

Grian: We have to play minigames and make personal bets.

Grian: And Scar, Scar, if you lose…

Scar: Yes?

Grian: … you have to help build my base.

Entire room: [stunned silence]

Etho: Is this what it was about the whole time, Grian?

So! That happened. And the thing is, they could both mentally pass off the area 77 general/hippie stuff as Just A Fun Bit That Got Very Intense.

They can't do this with the mayor/motherspore stuff. They are basically making out on Scar’s chair. The resistance have noticed. The mayoral staff have noticed. EVERYONE has noticed.

Scar is into it. Scar is going along with it. Scar knows he’d had a crush for a long time, and he isn't scared of swimming with a huge wave, never mind where it's going to break. Scar has always embraced the rush. With Grian, you never know what’s going to happen next.

Grian has always loved being around Scar because there’s so much going on that you don’t have to think. Grian doesn’t have to think until everything’s calmed down. It's not until now that he stops and realizes… could this be… something.

(Maybe it already is.)

And then, by whatever eldritch mechanic you personally favor:

3rd life begins.

HEAD-OVER-HEELS – Third Life

In the tiny claustrophobic stripped-bare world of Third Life, Grian makes a choice. Grian thinks, for once very, very clearly: what if it wasn't a bit? What if it was real. What if Grian took every explosive piece of who he was and handed it over to someone he's—okay, he'll admit it—someone he's been obsessed with for a long time. What if that heady sparkle he's been seeing in the corner of his vision is true. What happens if you grab it with both hands?

Scar—surprised, bemused, amazed but wrong-footed—almost doesn't know what to DO with this.

Scar is so used to Grian layering all his obsession behind a thick layer of irony and drama and second-guessing and schemes. ‘Sure we can make out but only if I'm trailing mushroom spores and you're wearing that sash.’ ‘I'm only here because Mumbo's not around.’ ‘It’s not a thing.’ ‘It's not real.’

But it is real.

And, for once, Scar hears a tiny alarm go off in his brain. Scar knows Grian better than anyone else does, by now, and even he doesn't know where this ends. Grian is a force of nature and Scar has never been his unfiltered target. But Grian's throwing himself into this, throwing himself at Scar. And Scar always says 'yes.' 'Yes, and.' 'Yes, let's'. Scar never wants less of Grian. Scar has always taken what he can get.

But with that warning bell, Scar does try to keep that slight layer of dramatic distance, even in this new world where you can die and not come back, even if they don't know if they'll get out of this alive. Scar doesn't fully buy into Grian's second-in-command-devotion, he forces a space for Grian to still be the Grian he knows, some kind of safety vent (‘here's a bee on a lead’). And it could be a lot of reasons, but part of it is…Grian's head-over-heels, for once, and Scar has the unfamiliar feeling of needing to be the one to look where they're going.

Because where they're going is: the last two, all their friends dead, not knowing if there's any way to survive but knowing their friends haven't come back, and at that point Scar takes off the very last of his brakes and the very last of his reservations and says:

For everything you've done for me you can kill me.

(I want this. I want it to be you.)

This breaks Grian absolutely and completely.

And not broken in the fun way! Grian is too far in. Grian let go of Mumbo, who was safe because Mumbo never let it get too far, and he took a risk on Scar, and now Grian is discovering that he didn’t even know what risk meant. Grian is in emotional pain he never suspected existed. Grian has let himself put all his gambling chips on someone who wasn't SAFE and he has lost.

Grian has LOST SCAR and he has LOST HIMSELF and he has FOUND OUT HE CAN BE HURT and he is never going to be the fucking same again.

Scar is in the pond with Grian’s sword at his unresisting neck. And Scar is going to die, and Scar (damn him damn him) has turned it into: he's going to die for Grian. Now Grian is hurting, he's complicit, it turns out grief is an inevitable part of love and beauty, this is all it's taken for Grian's worldview to fall apart in pieces he can't pick up, and Grian has no defenses against pain so there's obviously no way to cope except to beat Scar to death in a cactus ring and jump off a cliff.

AFTERMATH – Season 8

They wake up in Hermitcraft.

They wake up in Hermitcraft! Scar is delighted to find out they just reincarnate, after all that!

Sure, they've all got some lingering trauma but Scar has never let that stop him from doing anything. Scar thought that whole thing went well! He just about dares to think...romantic...? Maybe...?

Grian is Normal to him.

Grian is so fucking normal. it's like. s6 normal.

Scar is. kind of. confused.

Grian is NOT acting like someone he had a romantic death match with.

(Grian is falling apart, but if there's one thing Grian has proved in his building it’s that he’s SO. fucking. good. at facades.)

(Don't go round the back.)

Neither of them are ready for the death game to repeat.

DIVORCE (Traumatic) – Last Life, Season 8

Second death game. Grian deals with his trauma super well by isolating Scar, stealing all his friends, tricking a life out of him, dropping his horse in lava, forcing him into an extortion death loop, then abandoning him and—just as a bonus—murdering Mumbo as well.

This time it’s Scar who comes back falling apart.

A theory that seems plausible: Scar’s old friend Cub picks him up, puts him back together, gets him on his feet. What we do know is that Cub moves in next to Boatem, where Scar is still living with Grian, and incidentally builds an enormous dripstone megabiome that is coincidentally very hostile and might murder you upon landing if you're someone who flies a lot, or happens to be a bird.

There’s a hole with an endless dark void between Scar and Grian’s Boatem bases. They built it together. It’s around this time they both keep repeatedly falling in it.

DIVORCE (But When It Was Good It Was So Good) – Season 8, Double Life

Then the moon gets big. Gets close. Gravity breaks down and that should be the end, should be a way out of this terrible spiral they're in, surely they're better without each other—

Grian turns up at Scar's base and says: Scar. Build us an escape pod.

—and Scar does.

They go out together. Both of them can feel the pull back into each other’s orbit but they’ll die if they acknowledge it. At the end of it all, the void, the protective suits, the unbearable gravity of falling into space together, of holding each other until another uncertain end. They're nowhere but they're in it together.

Is this a good time for another death game? Of course. How much worse can it get.

Double Life, and this time Scar keeps his distance. My soulmate is this allay! My soulmate is my cat! I don’t need a soulmate. Oh—it’s Grian? This whole time? Hahaha. How funny.

Grian: Soo… do you want to base together?

Scar: Do we have to?

Grian: It…might be nice…?

Scar is wary.

He has been burned.

But the pull is still there. The pull is always there. You can’t forget Grian, but you can blunt the edge of him on your skin. Scar is here to take care of these cat-pandas. Grian can do what he likes.

Cheated of Scar’s full attention, Grian tries to tempt BigB into a pale imitation of the Scarian folie à deux (BigB is a genuinely nice man who does not deserve this).

The rest of the server turn red, one by one. Grian and Scar are the last greens. BigB is audibly nervous when Grian proposes a red-green alliance, even though BigB is the red, he has the power. But Grian can’t escape the rest of the server, and the red hunt begins.

Grian and Scar, hunted—trapped at the top of flaming towers, jumping from heights, chased down like foxes at bay, crammed into boltholes with their hands over each other’s mouths, Grian shrieks and laughs and falls back on Scar and Scar catches him and they’re both as alive and elated as they’ve ever been. Scar dies once to Ren and BigB’s zombies and Grian murders both BigB and Ren in revenge (BigB was right to be nervous). Grian has another unhinged murder plan underway when he dies for the last time.

This whole time, Grian was hit in the face by remembering that when it's good, it's so good.

Scar isn’t surprised. Scar has known that forever.

Back in Hermitcraft, its not magically fixed. They’re not innocent any more. But every time Grian looks at Scar he remembers: when it’s good, it’s so good.

And Scar never forgot.

DIVORCE (We’re In Love And We’re Not Done Yet) – Season 9, Limited Life

By now we're into Season 9. They’re still alive. They always live, they always start again, and the other one is just there. Being, infuriatingly and magnetically, them.

Grian is thoroughly annoyed by Scar’s new allegiance to King Ren, but he keeps coming back to Scarland anyway. Scar, I made you an obstacle course. Scar, stand here and get squashed by this anvil. Scar if you don’t do something I’m going to start a resistance.

Grian pretends King Ren doesn’t exist and he has more important things to do, and pretends this so hard that he incidentally invents a mad science robot pulls them all through into the Empires dimension.

Scar, assuming Grian is doing his own thing, shacks up with Jimmy.

It takes Grian three weeks to notice and be shriekingly outraged.

Scar we’re doing a project. Scar you can’t spend all your time with Jimmy! Join my cult. Get in my shrinking machine. I made you an enchanted netherite bow. I need your allegiance. (Another real quote).

Scar teases Grian for weeks then instantly abandons Jimmy when the choice comes down to him or Grian.

Fourth death game—they’re used to this, now. Nothing too intense. Nothing too weird. Grian can’t help murdering Scar.

At this point, Scar is starting to read it as: I love you.

And that’s how we get to the current Scarian dynamic we know and love of you're the worst and I'm the worst and we've divorced a few time but we still like each other so fucking much.

It's been years. They've killed each other every possible way. These two characters are in love and they're not done yet.

#scarian #grian #goodtimeswithscar #hermitshipping #yes canon IS a grand romantic arc #to be super clear: i don't think any of this was cc intention #but we can have a little narrative framing fun #as a treat #i think nearly all of this is true to canon except some timing vagueness and the dialogue in parentheses #thank you to the hivemind for theory help #long post #glossywrites

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stellanslashgeode · 23 days

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I'm happily educating myself on all things Barriss via your wonderful blog. If you'd ever feel like unpacking more of your Wrong Jedi thoughts/intrigue, I'd love to hear more of your analysis.

Oh my, you've put a quarter in the machine now you have to hear the whole song.

The arc is very divisive with Barriss enjoyers because her character veers so far from her Legends depiction. She was a pretty prominent character in the original Clone Wars multimedia project and was a caring and selfless healer. And the arc doesn't do much to explain her motivations for turning.

Another thing that vexes me is because it is essentially a police procedural (they even hired a writer from Third Watch for this arc) so much occurs off-screen. So, we do not know quite what happened but have to infer.

Let's start with motivation. In her very few post The Wrong Jedi appearances they've tried to hint at Barriss falling mainly though post-traumatic stress disorder. And that's sort of a good explanation? She was at Geonsis at the start of the war, and was one of two Padawans we know of IN the arena who lived and the other was Anakin! You have to think this is a healer, someone who was trained to be a pacifist, and the battle was so sudden and frantic that she had to witness other Padawans she knew in the creche die all around her and she was too busy defending herself to do anything. So that's trauma and guilt. The short story A Jedi's Duty shows that she sat out nearly the entire first year of the war healing others back at the temple, explaining why she wasn't there to deal with Asajj Ventress with Luminara in TCW season 1. Also, she is having trouble sleeping because of memories of that first battle. She asked for help but they told her to meditate if she couldn't sleep, but she couldn't meditate properly because of this haze of the dark side invading her perceptions. She's even having trouble Force healing and she feels guilty that others are taking risks that she is unwilling to take. She consults with an old friend, Tutso Mara and is finally able to meditate, but right then Luminara calls her to a briefing, and wouldn't you know it, they're going to Geonosis again. She is frightened but memorizes the tunnel formations under the weapons factory they need to destroy because that's her duty to the Light and to her Order. The last scene is her joining Luminara and Gree to depart for the battle. And it's such an ironic story because Master Mara is one of her later victims and the place she bombs is right there in the temple hangar where the story ends. I think that's why she chose it as her target, it was the place she went from safety to chaos.

And what happens next? She almost is buried alive Right Away, then as she's reeling from that she gets a Geonocian brain worm. She was also at the Battle of Umbara, and you know how that goes. So I guess trauma is a fairly good reason, as well as her love and admiration of Jedi ethics and pedagogy that just went right out the window when the Jedi had to do what it took to fight in this war. Barriss is a bookworm, all that heritage meant something to her. And really, that was the purpose of the war, to isolate the Jedi by having them betray their morals and sully their reputation with the public.

Fanfiction writers also can pick and choose from Legends, such as all the crazy stuff that happened to her on Drongar but that's a story for another day.

So we get to the Wrong Jedi Arc itself. We aren't shown how she meets Letta Turmond, how much of a partnership that was. Letta says Barriss was the mastermind of the operation but that's after she's jailed. I don't trust her. I mean, Letta is a grown woman and while Barriss was an idealistic and heartsick Jedi at that point she's just 17-18 according to Feloni. I can see it as a situation where a teenager gets politically radicalized and taken advantage by a woman she trusts. If we get a Letta flashback in Tales of the Empire I will be so happy!

Ahsoka is framed. But there's a multi-step aspect to it. Part A, Letta calls Ahsoka to the prison because she was told she was the only Jedi her collaborator trusted and gets Force choked by someone we do not see. Part B, after she is arrested someone leaves a key card outside her cell and she follows a trail of first injured then dead clones to make it look like she broke out and went on a killing spree. Part C is the only one we actually see start to finish, where Ahsoka contacts Barriss and she lures her to the factory that made the nano-droids.

Barriss is guilty of Part C. But did she do Part A and B? She was at the funeral with Ahsoka and heard same time as her that she was transferred to a military compound. Then in the maybe hour, two hours Ahsoka was in a mission briefing Barriss supposedly broke into a brand-new high security compound, got in the walls, and strangled Letta as Ahsoka was in the cell alone with her. Then Part B, she hung around undetected for a few more hours to set up the escape while also erasing the audio off the recording of the murder.

I personally think Palpatine MIGHT have done part A. He has much greater access and he has the motive (to take away a pillar of stability for Anakin). If Barriss did do Part A, what was the motivation? The most pessimistic reading is she did it to save her own skin and purposely framed Ahsoka. Another is that Barriss genuinely talked up Ahsoka to Letta, and did NOT do so to set her up but because she was one of the lonely girl's only friends (and maybe love interest) and then Letta goes ahead and calls her there, Barriss is in the walls, and she just cannot have Ahsoka's opinion of her ruined. She killed Letta to silence her from tainting this one friendship she had left, did so out of panic, and wasn't thinking of the consequences. Then Part B, oh no I got my girlfriend framed for murder. So she springs her out. So why does she kill those clones to further frame her?

Consider the conversation after the funeral, "Ahsoka, do you think it is right for us to ignore our emotions?" I think the subtext there was "Ahsoka, I'm hurting so much, join me to stop me." She was feeling her out to see if she felt the same about the war as she did. And she did Part B to see if Ahsoka would run, SO THEY COULD RUN AWAY TOGETHER. Sure, it's manipulative as all Hell, but that's the dark side for you. It was a test, and Ahsoka failed because as soon as she gets out, she calls Barriss to help clear her name. So that she could get back to the war. The war Barriss hates with all her being. So that's why she did Part C. She had been alienated by the Order and her own master by all these deployments and the one person left who she valued was buying into the propaganda that the Jedi needed to finish this war. It broke her. And she did something awful.

All and all I think her fall is fascinating because it wasn't for personal power or attachments, she wanted to sacrifice her own grace to save the souls of all other Jedi. She did it out of love for the Order, even if it came in such a twisted and destructive form. That's also why she'd become a lousy Inquisitor. They're the anthesis of all she stood for, an army fighting for the dark side.

I know a lot of fans hate this arc but... man that speech! I spent the whole Prequel trilogy and TCW waiting for a Jedi to stand up and say "What we are doing is wrong, we should stop." Yoda and Mace know their path is leading to the dark, but they see no other way but through. I just wanted someone to say no with their whole chest. And it was Barriss. That's why I love her, your honor. I admire the idealists, her and Satine. They should have teamed up and put a stop too all that nonsense.

Sorry this is so long? I have a lot of FEELINGS and now you can see why I have a lot of trepidation about this Saturday. You know, I thought of you last night when I was rewatching Tales of the Jedi. It was the scene were Dooku was leaving to meet Palpatine with Yaddle following in The Sith Lord. I was imagining how you felt watching that for the first time, and I remembered my reaction was "Oh no, it's the temple hangar! Barriss is going to blow the shit out of this place in a decade and change!"

#barriss offee #the wrong jedi #tales of the empire #barriss and staine could have hooped

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evilkitten3 · 3 months

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Hey, thanks for the reply! Also sorry for using comments instead of reblogging, I own only a blog with goofy fancomics and I don't want to mix plot discussions into it. I hope you don't mind. If you want, you can cite this whole reply in another post, but I'm ok with anything.

When it comes to narrator reliability, I go for "reliable unless proven otherwise" approach. I agree here, that picking Obito's statements was not the best way to prove things because he had been proved to talk nonsense before. On the other hand, with how few glimpses of Madara's PoV we have, they are consistent with Hashirama's tale except for VoTE fight where Madara intentionally tricked Hashirama about his goals and the outcome. So I'm going to consider Hashi mostly reliable, also because his account is the last one we get, so if Kishimoto planned it to be false, not showing Madara's contradicting PoV (or at least hinting at it, which we don't get either) would be plain bad writing (still doesn't give 100% certainty, but I'd take this over the "God of the gaps" approach).

Even if we don't consider the info on Izuna's dying words true, Hashirama says that Madara had claimed that Izuna had been killed by Senju (also states it as a reason for not being able to trust Senju enough to make a truce), and Madara later confirms that Izuna had been in fact killed by Tobirama (the "Tobirama pin cushion" scene in War Arc). Also, we were never given an explanation for Uchihas turning their backs on Madara other than

prolonging the war

Madara allegedly stealing Izuna's eyes. Both these things trace back to Izuna's death. One can try to give other reasons, but this would be entering headcanon territory at this point, so something that the reader wants to be true rather than something that the reader has actually been given.

As for Tobirama, he plays a way bigger role in his and Madara's paranoia than Madara, and his prejudice is largely ungrounded (however understandable because of his own traumas), but here are some things Madara did that could rile him up:

refusing truce for so long, stemming from Izuna's death (according to Hashirama)

pulling off the whole "it's either me or him" stuff twice (first one is when Tobirama calls Madara a lunatic, so this had started before the founding of Konoha): this also fits thematically with Izuna's death, because having no living brothers left would have put Hashirama and Madara in the same spot

attempting to nuke Konoha with Kurama (even if we assume that Madara didn't want to do it, he intentionally made this impression to lure out Hashirama, so Tobirama can't be blamed for believing it) which had been partially caused by Uchihas rejecting Madara which had been caused by… etc. Tobirama explicitly says that his persecution of Uchihas was to avoid the rise of another Madara, but this is Tobirama we are speaking of, so take this with a grain of salt. Also, through grooming Obito, Madara played a significant indirect role in Uchiha massacre, but I wouldn't necessarily consider it intentional on his side (we can't tell to what extent Obito was guided by "Madara's will"). So in the end, his actions do bear characteristics of a self-fulfilling prophecy, although I admit that it's debatable how much Uchiha opression could have been avoided without Madara fueling every bad stereotype, because the prejudice didn't start with him. No Obito and no Kurama attack could have at least remove a convenient pretext for the massacre from the story, but it's absolutely possible that Konoha elders would have found another one.

I'm not saying all of this to prove that Madara wouldn't have pursued IT with Izuna alive (in fact, it would be interesting to see BZ sway Madara without killing Izuna). My point is that there are too many factors that more or less directly trace back to Izuna's death to confidently state the opposite.

entirely fair! and don't worry, plenty of people prefer commenting for various reasons; no offense taken

honestly, i tend to be more or less the same, although i actually think hashirama's story was probably pretty solid; he doesn't try at all to make claims for the stuff he wasn't there for. he doesn't even say "madara was definitely standing outside the window" he says "tobirama looked out the window and i found a leaf that looked like the one madara looked at the village through"

having said that, from what i remember, at some point kishimoto did end up pressed for time, and that seriously affected the quality of his work (and... let's be honest, the war arc was never naruto's best writing. the war arc wishes it had what the wave arc had)

i think the reason we never heard hashirama's take on why madara's clan distanced itself from him is bc hashirama can't really,,,, comprehend that? like madara explicitly says "no one in my family likes me :(" and hashirama goes "i don't believe that" like he has any way of knowing XD

personally, i'm fairly certain that tobirama killed izuna, and i have no reason to think otherwise (i guess it's possible that black zetsu personally snuck an infection into his wound somehow just to make sure he kicked it and madara got his eyes, but like you said that'd just be headcanon territory, and also it kinda doesn't matter since neither madara nor hashirama would have any way of knowing that, so neither would we)

frankly i personally like the idea that tobirama was just scared shitless of madara, but it's also possible that he held a grudge over the whole "kill u or ur bro" thing. probably not the other stuff tbh, since tobirama never seemed all that invested in the idea of a village before it was founded (probably just. didn't think it could happen), and madara trying to nuke the village didn't happen until after he'd left, so while it may have affected tobirama's relationship with the other uchiha, it didn't really affect his relationship with madara.

obito's role in the massacre was,,,, really badly handled tbh. and also part of why i suspect that the original concept of "tobi" (from a meta perspective) was meant to be madara's ghost possessing obito's mostly dead corpse. madara had a reason to resent the uchiha clan (although i don't think the character we meet in the war arc would've done that, even if the character we met after tobi's "reveal" might have), but obito never really got one. there were fan theories, but not a lot of solid canon evidence. it might've happened, since both obito and madara were justifying everything they did with "well they'll all be fine when the infinite tsukuyomi kicks in, so whatever"

if you keep izuna alive and don't remove black zetsu from the equation, then it's less of a "would madara still do this" question and more of a "how long until black zetsu manages to cause izuna's death and lead madara to do this" question. zetsu needed madara to get the eternal mangekyou sharingan, after all. if it was possible to do that while keeping izuna alive then that'd certainly be interesting, but it's not something zetsu would particularly care to pursue, especially when izuna dying makes it much more likely that madara will take his eyes. but black zetsu is black zetsu, so i'm sure it could figure something out.

if you take out black zetsu entirely, then it's hard to say if madara would've come up with the eye of the moon plan on his own, but i do still think he would've seen the village as a failure and left in the end. like you said, it's hard to say for sure, though.

#naruto #naruto shippuden #uchiha madara #meta #long post

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glasskey · 1 year

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Justice THT Style - Part 2 - Nick Blaine

Today we're looking at the enigmatic Nick Blaine and his road to true justice. Let's get started.

For 5 seasons Blaine has been wandering the streets of Gilead as an Eye and now a military Commander, his very job description determines that like it or not, he’s a source of Gilead justice. He might not say a Hell of a lot but if you live in Gilead, its definitely not a promising sign when he turns up at your door if you’ve misbehaved. He’s constantly quoting bible verses that have a very “fuck around and find out” quality to them, in fact dear old Fred got a mouth full of the whole “reap what you sow” business, just prior to his demise. In season 1 Nicks sense of justice seems more procedural rather than retributive but he’s green and yet to see what Gilead will do to the love of his life. “No ones above the law” he says in S1 but this is fanciful idealism, these commanders are rotten to the core and he’ll have to drown himself in blood to get them to behave like virtuous men. He’s a peaceful man, restrained and noticeably stoic, but watching the various ways that the Waterfords and Gilead tortured and crushed June, is more than he can stomach. When Nick joins June in those dark woods handing Fred over for the revenge she so desperately craves, he doesn’t take part in the Salvaging, it’s a ritual only performed by Handmaids and as such he knows it’s not his place. Instead he silently marches Fred through the woods, ignoring his pleas, to deliver him to June and leaves.

Historically when it comes to acts of justice and revenge Blaine acts as more of an intermediary, justice will be served, not directly by his hand, but he does make sure that everyone “gets to the church on time”. But lately we’ve seen the sands shifting, from season 4 we’ve witnessed instances Blaine will directly take a pound of flesh and I personally wish him well. In season 4 ep 10 he back hands a mouthy Fred, a call back to a slap Fred previously delivered to June, as Nick stood there horrified and helpless. With that one gesture he redresses the balance and takes back his power.

In Season 5 he shot Putnam for raping a handmaid, and while under the guise of Gilead justice, Blaine was more than happy to oblige for his own reasons. In Ep 10 he became enraged at an attempt on Junes life, ending with a bit of a throw down with Lawrence in front of the evil Commander McKenzie. This moment crystalized that Nick Blaine was becoming both increasingly dangerous and unpredictable. It also foreshadowed the Battle Royale we can expect between these three in season 6. With Blaine being such a purveyor of New Testament scripture that espouses forgiveness and love, he’s inclined to feel a great deal of guilt over any act of revenge. It suits him, a sense of guilt gives a character an aura of contemplation and depth, something that Blaine seems to swim in. Comparatively, a lack of appropriate guilt makes a character seem sociopathic and superficial. Blaine’s “tried to be nice about it” as they say, but unfortunately he lives in Gilead and well, Gilead’s gonna Gilead, so as Lawrence would say “enough of the carrot, time for the stick”.

It’s been interesting to note that scenes of Blaine at war were cut, participating in a war against a peaceful country sits poorly with a character who has such a balanced sense of justice. There is always a difference between referring to a character at war and actually SHOWING one picking up a gun and shooting it at an innocent. Showing these types of acts makes an effective redemption arc almost impossible to survive and lowers the chances of welcoming that character back into the fold at the end of the day. The fact that these scenes were cut significantly increases Blaine's chances of coming home.

Until season 4 we never saw Blaine engage in any acts of direct violence that weren’t as a result of self defence, when he did commit them, they could be traced back to his feelings of anger at witnessing June’s abuse. In Season 5 he became increasingly dark and lost hope, ala Godfather style, because he’d lost the one glimmer of light in his life: June.

It would have been unusual for writers NOT to show him descending into a place of darkness without her. She’s everything to him and now with Tuello holding out his hand he can just see her again standing on the distant horizon. God help whoever stands in his way.

Next up Serena and the Nick Blaine of Canada: Tuello.

#nick x june #june x nick #nick blaine #june osborne #max minghella #osblaine #hulu #hulu streaming #hulu series #the handmaids tale hulu #nick and june #bruce miller #hulu tv #noir aesthetic #the boss #elisabeth moss #the handmaid's tale #handmaid's tale #handmaid's on hulu

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outrunningthedark · 1 year

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I'm feeling kinda optimistic? Like, I know it's weird, but after what you said today about how there's a chance that they could have an ambiguous scene for closure (because they didn't know for sure when they were working on the episode that they were going to be picked up by ABC), I'm obviously mad at Kristen for preffering five minute love interests as "endgames" than have them together officially and only giving them an up to interpretation scene for the sake of the internet.

However, I'm also thinking "hey, we lost the battle, but not the war". It's probable that not a lot will shift with ABC, but who knows? Kristen got what she wanted with Buck and Eddie right now, but with a new network on the horizon that's well known for actually caring about the promo of its series... I'm not giving up just yet.

Pretty much how I feel (as someone who hasn't abandoned my 'they can drag this shit out to the bitter end' stance). I don't think Buck and Natalia - with the way they were written in the first episode - is going to make it past the finale, so if Buck's *not* still single at the end...something went wrong at the last minute, aka someone panicked, lol Eddie and Marisol *could* go on a date (I didn't say definitely, guys, just that they could), but with it happening right after Eddie made the remark about dating people from a call not being the best idea...I think the plan right now is for it to not get anywhere serious - maybe the s6 finale makes the audience think Eddie's on the right track just so his arc is neatly "wrapped up" because s7 was TBD - and then, unless there's another "deep dive" into the fan base that reveals a love of Marisol, Eddie will remain unattached at the beginning of or sometime during the early portion of next season. Buddie won't be THE story in the finale - that's for the overpass collapse and Chimney whump (that brings back the Lees?) and whatever happens to Bobby because there's (obviously) always something for Bathena to go through in the big moments - but could we close out with a Buddie/Buckley-Diaz scene that leaves a mark, a scene that is meant to carry us through however long the hiatus is because this fandom's talent is making a meal out of crumbs? Yeah, I think we could. What I won't speculate on is where the show runners take it now that they know s7 is locked in. New season, new story.

#anonymous #tina speaks #tv: 911 #tv: 9-1-1 #buddie #911 speculation #911 spoilers

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recurring-polynya · 9 months

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If you're still doing these~! For the Fanfic Writer meme:

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

30. Is there a Bleach character that you haven’t had occasion to write for yet (or who’s cameo’d but not featured), but that you’d really like to it the opportunity presented itself?

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

This is really silly because my first instinct was to say "If it's not too selfish--" but this is a purely theoretical exercise in an Ask Meme, if you can't be selfish here, where can you?? Anyway, I would pick one of my longer chapters of Heart is a Muscle, probably Call Me Back When the War is Over, but What We Do with Our Hearts would also be extremely acceptable, and I would like to see it animated in the style of the late OG Bleach anime (think Reigei Arc).

In these stories in particular, I feel like I am always trying to capture the Full Range of Bleach, from the fight scenes to the reaction faces to the dramatic dialogue, and it would be really super cool to see that somewhere outside my own head. ngl, I mostly just want to see the fight scenes, particularly the ones where Rukia fights Ikkaku and the one where Rukia and Renji fight Yoruichi, with sick Bleach fight music. I would also cry a million tears to hear Orikasa Fumiko and Itou Kentarou banter with my dialogue. I want to see Kira make a series of really horrible faces when Rukia and Renji make him go to the Squad 11 bar with them. I want to see how many split screen reaction shots they could possibly fit into the scene where Renji has to go have Fancy Dinner at Kuchiki Manor.

I also have to say that being adapted into comic format would also be extremely cool, I would not say no to any of this.

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

Ahhhhh, this is hard because I feel like you know all my Fun Facts! (you probably know this one, too, but I still think it's neat)

Here's one I learned when I was studying travel in the Edo era enabled by the Five Routes. Traveling medicine sellers had a system called okigusuri, where they would just leave their big box of medicine at your home. They would come back on some semi-regular schedule and you would pay them for what you used, and they would re-stock your box. The medicine sellers kept really detailed ledgers that let them figure out which medicines were used in which areas, the rates at which they were used, families' medical histories, etc. These ledgers became so valuable that they could be sold when a medicine seller wanted to retire. The medicine sellers also brought little souvenirs with them, which reminds me of the pens that drug companies give doctors. I thought that was a surprisingly sophisticated business model, except that it's all paper ledgers and people walking around with giant boxes on their backs, and I love that combination of modern and period elements. Here's an article for further reading!

30. Is there a Bleach character that you haven’t had occasion to write for yet (or who’s cameo’d but not featured), but that you’d really like to it the opportunity presented itself?

I don't usually hold back from Writing What I Want and also from shoehorning every character I can think of into a fanfic, so I think my bingo card is pretty well checked off. That being said, I think the answer is actually, believe it or not, Grimmjow. He very much Does Not Appear in my usual circles, and I don't love him to the degree that I want to write an actual Grimmjow fanfic. On the other hand, he is very much an Important Bleach Personality and he's got really fun energy. He also has such huge popularity within the fan community that it just feels kinda weird that I never get to get my hands on him. The most I've ever written him was in one chapter of my Tattoo Artist AU. I think it was short and unimportant enough to be safely classified as a cameo but I had an awful lot of fun writing it. If I could come up with a story that he could reasonably take a supporting character role in, I'd love to have a chance at him.

(full question list here)

#fanfic ask meme #i am sure other people have higher ambitions than their fanfic being made into a filler episode #but NOT ME i had such a nice fifteen minutes fantasizing about which soundtrack bits i would use where

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starshine-selfships · 3 months

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YOURE ALSO SHIPPING WITH AN ANGEL NAMED GABRIEL!?? TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT!!!! 🩷🩷🩷

GOD GOD YES!! Also fun fact I lowkey knew you specifically would see those tags and got excited to see if you would say anything hfjgrgj

Here's the guy of the hour, the week, the YEAR

(The art with the oranges is my own lmao)

I got the game he's from as a gift for Christmas from a friend who really likes it (and I was like yeah!! I wanna play the game too!!) so everything I'm saying has a grand total of a month and a half behind it, and I feel like the short time duration is important to highlight the insanity here kdjffk

ALRIGHT SO spoilers for the entirety of ultra.kill as a game bc he's integral to the overall plot, but some background before Gabby, the game is centered around a robot (controlled by the player) descending down through 9 layers of hell a la dante's inferno style, bc this particular machine is blood powered and mankind has been completely wiped out (partially by war, partially by something that hasn't been made 100% clear yet), so you're just going around slaughtering everything in sight, with the chunkiest graphics known to man along the way.

Gabe's role here is to step in and try to stop you bc you're basically a walking abomination to all that is holy, Gabe is the angel that sends people to hell and is also the one chosen to carry out the will of god so he's also done a lot of killing to do that; he loses to the machine, gets so mad he curses at you (calls you an insignificant fuck) and then leaves, but we see a little behind the scenes, where we learn he's never lost a fight like this and the rest of the angels call it heresy; they sever his connection with divinity and tell him he has 24 hours to fix everything or he'll die. So naturally, next fight he's pissed as hell, and starts out MAD, yelling and threatening, but as it goes on, he starts having fun and laughing and taunting, and when he loses again, he says he feels relieved and needs time to think. He starts introspecting and starts questioning everything he's been told after he realizes he wasn't feeling hatred, but a sort of passion in the challenge of the fights. He starts asking himself if the angels he followed were actually in the right, and ends up killing them all, accepting that he's going to die but that he'll die not only having been freed from the constraints placed on him, but also having freed heaven itself from the angels that basically held it hostage with their power.

He's also as close to trans as you can get without explicitly calling him such! The devs discussed angels and pronouns in a recent stream and said they wanted angels to have no pronouns if possible, but then realized that they needed to gender Gabe when another character wrote a diary entry about him, so they settled on pronouns as a mark of angel status, which means that he didn't originally use he/him, but picked it up later and continued to use it no matter what; the other angels called him "it" after the took his divinity, but the overall narration still uses masculine pronouns for him, so it comes with the implication that he's still exactly who he knows he is, no matter what is said about him, which. as a trans man. good lord fhsjg the trauma of his arc hits very close to home for me and that was part of what propelled him into the spot he has on this blog.

The other thing that got him here was. and there really isn't any other way to say it. This man turned everyone into rabid animals, I have never seen so many people look at a character and desire him so violently, everyone wants to do unspeakable things to this man and it is so funny hdsjgks his VA will also voice pretty much anything in-character as well, so there's a lot of unhinged bullshit that makes for an absolutely incredible image of this man. He's a little uptight at first and throws a fit when things don't go his way, he seems like the exact kind of man that would be kind of silly, this man would struggle to peel an orange, throw it at a wall, and then later hang his head in his hands about it. This man would be able to speak multiple languages but would somehow mispronounce every single word as he goes. He's an astounding character and he's also kind of pathetic and something about all these factors just. lobotomized me. There is a gay little angel where part of my brain should be and I've just accepted it. I had a gay dream about him one single week after I saw him in game, the grip he has on me is UNREAL and I've fully accepted it.

He gives the very fun aspect of "is not human and has no idea what humans need or how they act", which makes him utterly hilarious to me, I wanna see this man try to preheat the oven, he is trying so hard to cook something for me and he is burning it so badly, he does NOT know what a car is and is frankly too wary of it to even consider getting in it. People also arrived at the consensus that he's probably very tall, it's been confirmed that there are no canon heights in the game, but everyone has agreed that Gabby is at least 7 feet tall and it is the funniest thing on earth to me. Very large and somewhat confused angel who means the best trying very hard in his new environment. Oh my god wait when the developers had that stream I mentioned they also talked about Gabe for a bit in regards to his personality bc in-game he saved someone from being swept away in the river styx (now an ocean after an influx of souls), and they were so grateful they added a fully functional hologram of him onto their ship, saying the lines he'd said when he'd saved them, and the devs said that they'd wanted that to be a glimpse into what Gabriel is like when he's not immediately targeting you as an enemy or fighting, and the specific words they used were "he's kind and loving" and that short-circuited my brain immediately upon impact.

He is The Guy Ever, he's basically trans and 70% of the people who drew him gave him top surgery scars even before the devs talked about gender, he's got religious trauma and guilt, he's too tall and has probably never read a book outside of the bible, he giggles and whimpers, he is considered to be one of if not the most wifeable character in the entire game, he has an official body pillow, I want to put him in pretty little outfits, I want to hold his hand and take him to the beach, I want to pin him against a wall, he is. Such A Guy,, thank you so much for asking me about him he makes me feel so insane hsgjsdl

#fun fact! i typed this up on my laptop and then switched to my phone to add the pics #i uh. i like him 👉👈 this gave me an excuse to infodump about my favorite game ever so thank you!!!#this man would be so so afraid of accidentally hurting someone he cares about; he is so physically strong and it would kill him #he would however. be kind of smug about it. he is purposefully putting things out of reach so you have to call him over #the guy ever.. love this man... i am still fighting for a ship name bc i feel like i can do something so funny #sitting with like. match made in heaven and in the arms of an angel but he's got light motifs #he is literally called ''the light in my darkness'' by someone in game like. it's like there's gay and then there's whatever #this guy has going on #i am having such a major gayboy moment over him and allegedly the body pillow #(which is always out of stock mind you!!) might restock tomorrow and I'm like. it would be so funny to have it 😭#he makes me feel unhinged and it's so much fun bc no one is normal about him #vs my bug boy that no one else cared about. the whiplash has been absolutely insane 😭#i love my stupid giant angel he activates every single neuron in my brain simultaneously #okay okay i think. this should be everything. i could talk about him for so long 😭#star speaks #asks #thank you so much again!!!!! 💖#i am. not proofreading this kdjfkfk whatever i said is what's getting posted. stream of consciousness 😤

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captnjacksparrow · 2 years

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Hi. Can you please give me your opinion on this? Why is it that SNS shippers generally have a much better grip on the story? Not just their ship, but the story, character development, narrative and plot points.

Whereas NH and SS shippers struggle to understand what's canon, what's filler. When they claim that some random novel is canon because Kishi drew the cover, I am like??? How are you sooo stupid?

I get that they prefer their own ship, but their interpretation of the story and characters are just so bizarre and illogical.

And then they have the audacity to argue so righteously? I don't even willingly engage in ship wars, I am usually content with my own ship, my one true otp. Sasuke and Naruto. Because no one can even imagine to touch them, in terms of story and development. Like not a chance in hell. And then, these stupid shippers come along harassing us on SNS platforms, like why are you even here? This ain't your ship! And I don't feel like engaging with them but it's my space, my page, my account and I can't let them spew stupid shit about this story that they obviously don't understand for shit. Then I get angry and then I regret it for getting provoked. But I just can't take them criticising SNS. On my platform. Even if they don't get the entire narrative, fine. But if you are a shipper, at least get your own ship straight! They really don't understand that fillers are not canon.

Anyway, why do you think there is such a huge disparity in comprehension between NH/SS and SNS?

Another Anon, who coughed up invisible blood on seeing some stupid delusional post made by SS/NH, just like me😏😏😏

Why is there such a huge disparity in comprehension between NH/SS and SNS?

Selective Reading

Do you think every NH and SS shippers who participate in the fandom read/watch everything from A to Z???

They want to see/view only what is relevant to their needs and they consume it just like that. They don’t care about other plotlines and what message it conveys and how it gets passed onto the other storylines like a ripple and weave together coherently...

I've never seen any of those shippers write extensively about something that doesn't have anything to do with their ship... Do you think they care about why Nagato turned out that way and wanted to destroy Konoha??

Of course not. Because they have no reason to.

All they care about is that Naruto-kun sprouted 6 tails.... all because of Hinata. **Which is not true anyway** Why do they have to expend their energy into a plotline that doesn't have any ship moments???

Since, these Girls has no relevance to any of these plotlines, all NH/SS is to harp on those irrelevant moments and make it all about themselves.

Whereas when it comes to SNS... That's not the case. Even if you want to selectively read about something, you simply can't... because N and S are written to be tied to every arcs and plotlines in someway. And to get their characterization and motivations right, you need to read everything and in the process you are forced to get a better grip in the story...

So, Selective reading is something SNS shippers can’t afford to do...

Cherry Picking with Intentional Denial.

Most of those shippers are totally behaving like some imbeciles who doesn’t even know how scene Coherence, Continuity and Comprehension works on a broader sense.... No, these are not some media terms or anything. It’s just some basic reading/visual comprehension

For Example, During War Arc...

Sasuke didn’t even bothered to save Sakura when tailed beast bombs were about to blast the alliance...

He didn’t care when Madara made her into a selfie stick.

He left her to die in the Lava pit.

He indeed said that During Mugen Tsukuyomi, he saved her and Kakashi because they were next to Naruto.

But in One moment, he caught her.... And all of a sudden, it’s called ThathuThaku love. Love was overflowing between Sasuke and Sakura because their skin touched...

And the very next moment, he put her in a cruel Genjutsu and said she was Annoying. Even mentioned that there was no reason for him to love her...

Let’s assume If Sasuke was indeed in love with her when he caught her.. Why couldn’t he show an ounce of love before and after that???? There is no Coherence and Continuity in his feelings when it comes to Sakura.. They pick one particular moment which the Author obviously threw as a Bone and then they deny everything that happened before and after...

Do you think any Story Telling works this way??? If they intentionally deny a chunk of their Bad moments, then where will they get this Reading comprehension???

Herd Mentality with no Fact Checking

Most of the shippers don’t even read the Original Source material (which is okay) and what’s worse is that they don’t even finish watching the Anime. What they do is to go to Twitter or Instagram... they watch few posts which has a collection of SS moments and they think that SS is real without even getting inside the Source material.... Like they eat all the canon and non-canon materials that was floating in the Internet and spread misinformation as facts...

Just like that Fake Post regarding How Sasuke was asking tips to Itachi about how to approach the pink haired Girl.

Since they are in Hordes, Misinformation spreads fast and they become their Reality...

Win at All Costs Attitude

Some Shippers really have comprehension... That I agree. They have all-over understanding of the series but when it comes to the Shipping though... They just won’t accept that their Ship is stupid.

Like I could very well be the thickest of the thick friends with any of those SS shippers, if they could accept that, “Yes, SS/NH makes no sense... It is absolutely shitty in canon. I ship them because I like the aesthetics and I want to self-insert myself... Other than that, there is nothing”....

Will they ever accept this???

No.

Because they want to brag and rub it in other people’s face that they became canon. And for getting that bragging rights, they just would do anything... Like even going to the extent of willfully accepting the non-canon material or editing the Panel according to their taste... And spin theory that, “Well, this is why we became canon & Naruto loved Hinata-hime all along... Because Naruto saw the kitten of Hinata in Bikachu Episode”

Positive Validation

Truth just Hurts.

Whereas Lies just taste like Honey. If you have a Honey, why would you want to consume a Bitter Medicine???

This is applicable for any faction of the Fandom... Not only in Shipping fandom. But I see this most in the Shipping....

Like for example, They clearly know the truth... Their Negatives and Positives about their ships and they are very well aware that inside Canon, they have Nil materials to support their claim. These Novels and Fillers just give them what they want all along, a positive validation that their ship makes sense and they conveniently ignore the Truth... That’s why SS/NH shippers blogs were full of Novel quotes and Movie scenes because those are the only things that validate their ship... And hence they resort to their Warped reality instead of the Canon materials.

#narusasu #sasunaru #sns #nsn

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gofancyninjaworld · 2 years

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Garou: it’s not quite over yet

So I've been thinking about heroes and Garou's redemption arc.

When

do you need a hero?

Since I live in the UK, there’s been an insurance company running an ad campaign in which superheroes come bursting onto the scene (complete with gratituous property damage) to save the day… only to find that the people they wish to save from mundane disasters like having a car break down, a pipe leak in the middle of the night, someone breaking the glass of one’s shopfront windown, have sensibly sorted it out already. It’s intentionally hilarious, but it has a point: there’s a time and a place for heroics and that’s not when there’s effective contingency plans.

Seriously, when do we need a hero? Is it not when things have gone so badly wrong that what structures are normally in place just can’t help? You don’t need to be a hero and try saving people from a burning building if there’s a competent fire service close at hand.

The heroes in One-Punch Man, especially the pro-heroes, aren’t being paid to deal with everyday problems. This is a modern society with competent emergency services and people there call for heroes to help against dread monsters that appear out of nowhere, and against villains so dangerous it’s folly for regular people, even if they’re the police, to try tackling. If many heroes **will **help kids cross the streets, that’s because they’re decent people, not because it’s a formal expectation.

The things that Garou is angry about, the bullying, discrimination, structural inequality, war, the kids being picked on for being different... NOT ONE OF THEM IS APPROPRIATE FOR A HERO. They’re real problems and yeah, they’re problems that regular people perpetuate. They’re problems that can be usefully attacked within a community, socially, legally, or politically – they’re really not amenable to a superhero crashing through the walls. You have to be rather dumb to believe that these are hero problems. It may be fictional, but the society of OPM does not require or expect that of heroes. And Garou’s a lot of things, but he’s not exactly stupid.

What gives?

I thought about it from an acculturation perspective: since Garou is in too deep into cartoons as representations of bigger truths, he might have internalized the fictional presentations of heroes. In their world, just as we market superheroes on everything and on every message, Garou will have grown up with Justice Man telling him to look both ways before crossing the street, or tell an adult if he's being picked on, or not to do drugs. Must be a shock to internalise all those messages, grow up and there comes to be a group of people who do nothing other than be heroes...and they’re nothing like thefictional ones. That probably would have potentiated his deep dissatisfaction with the world.

So, anyway, onto the present day. Garou's gotten beaten, but he still thinks he has a point. This is a real problem because he still thinks it’s right to try controlling what other people do, but I get ahead of myself.

While he’s still wrong-headed, he has been thinking. He did go sit in seclusion to meditate, renew, and recommit at least until Bang interrupted him.

Here's the thing, as someone who's a long way from stupid, given some time, I wonder if Garou wouldn't come to the conclusion that the problems he wants to address aren't best solved through heroism? Something like being an anti-bullying campaigner could be amazing for him. He might decided too that maybe it's good to be some sort of hero (paid or otherwise) to keep monsters off peoples' backs, because when people are fighting for survival, they don't have the mental space to be fair to one another? [1] Or something…

It’s not like it’s an all-or-nothing thing where you either have nothing to do with heroes or are a pro-hero. We’ve seen that the Hero Association keeps a record of strong people who have no intention of being heroes but are happy to lend their strength in times of need.

Before I go further, let me summarise what I’m saying so far.

1. The problems that so excite Garou are worthy problems to tackle.

2. The problems that so excite Garou are not good problems for heroes to solve.

**3. Garou does not have to be a hero to be helpful to heroes. **

A potentially deadly interruption

If there’s a character I have to take issue with at the end of the arc, it’s Bang. Bang isn't giving Garou a chance to think things through in his own time. He’s made Garou come back with him rather than let Garou know to come find him when he’s done thinking.

I don’t think it comes from an evil place, just the same self-centered place that’s gotten Bang in so much trouble throughout his life. I think that Bang is just too desperate to leave a good legacy behind. We saw it first in the first season's OAV 4, where he decided to try recruiting Saitama because he was anxious about having no one to inherit his fist. Certainly, he's chased after Saitama (and Genos) mightily since.

If it were Waganma who'd skipped out on a meal and Narinki had just paid any fines without even docking the kid's allowance, folk would be rightly up in arms. Even though Waganma's a kid who's a long way from working age. Bang's paid off Garou's fines, which are Garou's wrongs to set right, even though it's something Garou could easily take responsibility for. A strong, competent, hard-working young man in a city that’s desperately rebuilding? Even with restitution and fines, it’s a week’s wages, max, and it’d be very satisfying for Garou to clear his own debts.

Bang's going round with Garou to apologise to heroes, even though that's on Garou to decide to do. That is a horrible thing: a sincere apology is very healing, but an insincere one said just to get it out of the way is an insult. Bang is in too much of a hurry to allow Garou to think things through properly and make decisions on his own. :/

The worst thing Bang is doing? He has promised Garou to the Hero Association as his replacement. Without telling Garou. If Garou were to take the Hero Test normally, he’d probably be culled on the basis of the written test, which would make it clear that his heart really isn’t in it, but he’s probably going to be parachuted in. With disastrous consequences for all. They’re not ones to welcome.

Sicchi understands that it’ll cause trouble, but I don’t think he understands that it’ll quickly stop being about the Hero Hunter and become about how the Hero Hunter is a symbol of the disdain with which the Hero Association treats its heroes, how utterly unwilling it is to listen to their concerns and respond to their actual needs. Or how quickly things can fall apart when you lose the goodwill and trust of people who do work damn hard in unreasonable circumstances.

We’ve seen in the bonus story ‘Big Promotion’ that yes, the HA has a lot of resources and hires trainers and the like for heroes, but few are actually listening to what the heroes want and need and those who are listening don’t get listened to.

Yes, I do feel for Bang as he’s worked so hard for so long and has very little to show for it. It is not right though that he’s trying to make Garou fit into a mould of his making rather than support the young man to make the best choices for him.

I think that's what's really making this new problem so interesting to me is how it's another manifestation of Bang not really able to be there for others.

So once he was a very selfish and cruel young man who cared only about self-gratification. Bomb put a stop to that and he decided to do better.

Then he was a talented martial artist who opened a dojo but somehow never had any students stay loyal to him... because he wasn't really there for them.

Now, he's decided to focus on his relationship with Garou, but he's trying to decide what path Garou should take and it's one that suits Bang.

I know he thinks he’s doing the right thing, but what works for Bang isn’t necessarily what’s right for Garou. They’re not the same people, no matter how strongly Bang sees himself in Garou.

Normally, Garou could be expected to push back strongly and set real boundaries on what he’ll allow Bang to ‘help’ him with, but with his parents having functionally abandoned him, he’s not in a good position to do that. Yet. He can't risk alienating the only support he has in the world. When he does eventually kick off, he’d better not hurt anybody in rebellion. Other than the meddling old man.

I have a feeling though that it’s going to take Saitama sitting Garou down and really talking to him. With all the attendant misery that Garou getting Saitama’s attention again will imply.

Aside

[1] Yup, that Absolute Terror thing? It is entirely counterproductive in every possible way. I do have some thoughts on how Garou could come to such a bizarre idea, but this meta is long enough!

#OPM #meta #Garou #Bang #Garou is still of the same terrible opinion #because he's not had the time to really sit down and think through what he really wants to achieve and how better to achieve it #and with him being railroaded into a role he's neither ready for nor wants #the potential for him to go wild again looms large #he hasn't the tools to process his problems reasonably #Bang means well but he's gone a lifetime not thinking about what others really need #doesn't look like he's about to start now #the Hero Association is on much thinner ice than it realises #if/when Garou is enrolled and heroes start leaving it won't be because the leavers are bad: they're just terminally frustrated

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tottwritesfanfic · 9 months

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so aside from my current "omg I'm so glad I'm taking it slow because I'm REALLY ENJOYING THIS" brainrot about the new Guild Wars 2 expansion, I am currently feeling pretty bowled over by feels for my HQ superpowers AU, but...

...well, I'm currently planning out a heap of character dynamics which are like, three major plot arcs away at this point. My brain is is..Frustrating. But also, and devoid of any context whatsoever, Miya Osamu is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters in this damn thing, and he's not even really IN those three plot arcs I just mentioned.

work on HF has stalled for.. Well, for stupid reasons, I can be honest about that. I am having difficulty picking a PoV to use, and it's rather hard to write a scene when you haven't made that decision yet. I dunno, so far each moment has called out to me who it should be, but this time it's just...it could be any one of four different characters. It's a problem, I'm sorry. I promise I'll wrangle myself into a decision at some point once I'm done overthinking every possible impact this could have on the fic. Which is not a lot, because (and this is probably the worst part), it's not even a major scene? Writing sucks sometimes, but hey, it means I actually started tinkering with Metanoia again so that's something?

...REALLY no promises about an update on that one yet. It's...it's another one of those "I have hit a wall and it is Hard" moments, and, well. I am not so far into my burnout recovery that I want to risk pushing too hard on those, you know? I like being able to write stuff again.

#progress update #my fanfic stuff #hope's fire #trinacriform #i need a tag for my powers au tbh

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carewyncromwell · 2 years

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“I'm in love with a fairytale, Even though it hurts, 'Cause I don't care if I lose my mind... I'm already cursed.”

~“Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak

x~x~x~x

I blame this ENTIRE idea on @drinkyoursoupbitch...but yes, with this, I issue a new challenge for all of you --

The R AU Challenge!

Basically, take one of your MC’s closest friends or even love interest and make them a sleeper agent from R, placed at Hogwarts specifically to help them find and infiltrate the Cursed Vaults. How do they fill the role of villain (or anti-villain)? What sets them apart from their canon self? How does MC and their friendship with them affect them? Do they go through a character arc of redemption, or does MC get corrupted by them instead? And yeah, as you can see, I chose Carewyn’s future love interest Orion for my entry! 💚

It was so fun designing Orion’s R look! I naturally had to include some long gloves over his blousy tunic because Orion, and his necklace (similar to his one from the game) features an evil eye pendant, specifically a light blue one, which used as a symbol of protection and as a conduit for peace, solitude, and deeper, more open-minded thinking. The red “R” tattoo, in my personal canon, only appears when its magic is activated or when someone with it makes skin-to-skin contact with another R member: I’ve drawn both Jacob and Rakepick with it in the past. I also headcanon Orion’s wand being made of beech, so I kept his wand’s coloring rather light compared to the rest of his outfit.

As a member of R, I see Orion as an anti-villain in the vein of Princess Kraehe/Rue from the anime Princess Tutu -- a talented, but tragic figure who was raised knowing nothing but selfishness, cruelty, and manipulation, but still somehow knows how to love, no matter how much pain it causes him.

In this version of Orion’s storyline, he’s picked up from the orphanage he was raised at by R as a very young boy. It turns out that his father was indebted to R for some unknown reason, only to die in the height of the Wizarding War. This debt was then transferred over to his child -- thus Orion, as long as he can remember, was a loyal servant to and puppet of R’s will, most notably its Leader, the cold and cruel man who Orion doesn’t know is called Charles Cromwell. The mark on his face, cursed to only appear when its magic was activated, made it so that Charles Cromwell always knew where he was and could inflict any of the Unforgivable Curses on him, even without articulating the spell or being right beside him. Among other members of R, Orion was referred to as the Magpie, referring to the bird of the same name, which can be symbolic of bad luck and deception. This symbol turned out to be more appropriate to Orion than any of R’s leadership realized at first, however -- for the magpie can also represent good fortune and true love.

At Hogwarts Orion serves as R’s faithful agent, keeping an eye on the Cursed Vaults -- but while at school, he’s enough distanced from Charles Cromwell that he can actually live something akin to a normal life. The flying prodigy soon makes friends in the Quidditch world and even earns the position of captain while only a fourth year. He also makes friends -- not just his team, but especially his best friends, Murphy McNully and Skye Parkin. Then, in his third year, when the Ice Vault is causing havoc, a new figure appears: the “Cursebreaker,” Carewyn Cromwell. Knowing R won’t want anyone else going after the Vaults, Orion craftily arranges it so that Carewyn’s friends try to coax her onto the Quidditch scene, thinking to both keep an eye on her and distract her enough that she won’t have time to get in R’s way again. But once he gets to know Carewyn after she seeks out the open Chaser position on his team, Orion soon realizes that Carewyn’s seeking the Vaults out for her brother’s sake, and that she won’t rest until she finds him again. Orion soon develops a soft spot for the noble little Cursebreaker, and wants all the more to coax her back onto his team to try to keep her out of harm’s way. When that doesn’t work, he appears to her in his red robe and explicitly warns her to stay away from the Vaults, only for Carewyn to refuse to back down. And so Orion -- ever a master at reading people -- reluctantly tries to use Carewyn’s heart against her. If Carewyn won’t back down for her own sake, perhaps she will for the sake of the people she loves...and so Orion uses the Imperius Curse on Ben one year and Rowan the next, trying to scare Carewyn enough that she’ll stop pursuing the Cursed Vaults. Try as Orion might, though, Carewyn will not be deterred. And, as Professor Rakepick herself warns Orion at one point in his sixth year, R would never leave her alone, even if she did --

“You know R as well as I do, Mr. Amari. Surely you don’t think you’ll be able to keep her safe, now that she has caught their notice?”

Orion himself merely keeps his back to her, clasping his hands tightly in front of him as he obscured his anger behind a cool, passive-aggressive mask.

“She certainly has caught your notice. …I do believe, Madam Rakepick, that you warned the student body to stay out of your way, when you first arrived. Do not force me to echo that warning myself.”

It’s also Rakepick who told him that R’s Leader was the man called Charles Cromwell. She says coldly that Charles isn’t having Orion scare Carewyn to keep her away from the Vaults, but instead to scare her into joining R, as her brother had before her. Orion doesn’t known how much if any of this is true, but it troubles him greatly. He hadn’t known Carewyn’s brother had been forced to join R as well, and if it is true, that Carewyn’s family is in R, as his father had been...then it means that Carewyn is fated, like him, to join their ranks. As much as that thought makes him nauseous at the start, it also fills Orion up with a bizarre kind of comfort. He’s always known that upon leaving Hogwarts, he’ll have to go back to being R’s puppet again. He’ll have to abandon Quidditch, his friends...the entire person he’d been able to be at school, forever. But if Carewyn joins R...then he won’t be completely alone, once he graduates school. They won’t have to be enemies any longer. He won’t have to frighten her or her friends again. They won’t have to fight each other. And R will no longer threaten the safety of the friends that they’d both made while in the safety of Hogwarts’s walls...the friends they’d each come to see as family...

There could be some peace for both him and Carewyn if they merely accept their fate, Orion thinks. What point would there be in them fighting against R anyway, aside from more suffering? Maybe that’s why Carewyn’s Patronus took the same form as his, that time R sent a dementor to Hogwarts. Maybe, somehow...he and Carewyn were fated to meet...to serve together, as servants of R...

But Carewyn Cromwell, of course, is not one to believe in Fate. And so now our Slytherin paragon has to find a way to both defeat R and save the wisest, gentlest young man she knows from their abusive, defeatist claws.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #r au challenge #orion amari #carewyn cromwell #charles cromwell #my art #patricia rakepick #yes carewyn in that last doodle is wearing her 'fakepick' outfit from my good!rakepick au finale #minus the cape XD

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bengalaas · 1 year

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A Year In Review: 2022 Writing

So I’m weeks behind the usual end-of-year memes, but whatever. The past year has not been too great, although good things happened too. Anyway, here’s how it compares in terms of writing: 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |

Writing

I wrote a measly 7600w for A Different Kind of Courage, making 2022 the... third (?) year in a row when I’ve been planning to finish the fic, but then life happens and everything flies out the window. But those were quite solid three chapters and I’m rather proud of them, as the story reached the crash-and-burn end point of an arc. It was terribly satisfying to write. So many things coming finally together, mmm.

In the beginning of last year I randomly started Poludnica / Midday Shadows, a Shadow & Bones fanfic, of all things, and got some 16k words in before Russia’s war in Ukraine made me kinda unwilling to continue writing in a setting/aesthetic based on romanticized Tsarist Russia. But it was very fun while the inspiration lasted and maybe someday I’ll pick it back up.

I also wrote a small ‘Tasertricks in Thedas AU’ oneshot Dancing In the Ruin; a tiny M!Lavellan/Josie drabble Air; a similarly tiny Matt/Elektra ficlet Trade it all in for a lifetime of smelling your skin; and translated two fics: People Caught in a Storm (American Gods) by @spaceinthecage and Leave Barefoot (The Punisher) by She is Hale, which is a prose poem and I’m pretty proud of that one too :)

So that’s 38,600 words writing and 2145w translation.

Somehow, I apparently have had less productive years. (how...??)

Beta thanks

@serial-chillr is still as awesome as ever, she knows the craft, and she also just holds my hand when I haven’t posted anything in a while and suddenly start doubting every single damn thing I know about English grammar XD

Progress

I think Poludnica was the most important learning exercise, as I cut myself some slack and just let myself get some writing done. So there’s some time-jumping, cutting of boring scenes I didn’t want to write, there’s short chapters, there’s more summaries and less descriptions than usual, etc. But apparently the pacing still works okay. So yeah, I guess I now have experience consciously writing an average fic just for fun :D

I also discovered that prose poems are a thing, and that I love them. There should be more of them.

Community

I’ve kinda drifted away from DA and The Hobbit; blazed through Shadow & Bone, and then @sausagesquirrel dragged me into the Daredevil/The Punisher fandom. So I’m making some new friends like @youwouldneverbreakthechain and appreciating the ones I’ve known for years, like the excellent @cafeleningrad, @serial-chillr, @vyrridiana, @dafan7711, and other pocket friends (and @dorianpink came back to tumblr!!) ♥

Comments

Unexpectedly many, on a fic I didn’t give much of a damn about :D So fandom is weird.

But also I’m so impressed by Serial and Squirrel and @valla-valla who have kept reading my fics even in new fandoms: you are so lovely, and your support means a lot to me ♥

2023

Honestly, I just want to finish something by this point lol. I’m hoping to have more free time this year, but I think that, for a while, at least, if I’ll be writing anything, it will be behind the scenes until I’m sure I can carry on. I really don’t want to update and then disappear again.

So that’s the most important plan. Sort out this inconvenience called depression, and fall in love with writing again :)

#beng's writing #bengruminations

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nikkisreading · 1 year

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It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

★★★★☆

This book was so over-hyped that when it was chosen for the smut book club read in July, I was dreading it. One of those things that when something gets too big, it's almost off-putting. But I bought it and let it sit on my shelf for three and a half weeks and finally picked it up to start reading the Sunday before book club meeting.

I. fucking. loved. this. book. Absolutely loved it. It took a bit to get into (the setup was long and highlighted a lot about what kind of world Piper came from), but as soon as we got to Westport, I was sucked in. - Also helped to read the author's note and see Piper was inspired by Alexis Rose from Schitt's Creek, so I had appropriate expectations going in.

First, I love Christmas romance books. They're an absolute guilty pleasure. The Hallmark story of city person meeting small town person, their tug of war, loving the peace and charm of small town life, and smut under twinkling lights and promises of reindeer is literally my perfect story. So when this hit that swing, my little Christmas-in-July moment, I was in. I loved it. Brendan's animosity was the perfect seasoning to this summer romance and as soon as he was an ass, I knew I was hooked.

Piper and Hannah are amazing. I loved watching the character growth and how they react to the town. Piper's fortitude worked splendidly and I loved watching her learn how to adult. (The kitchen fire was one of my favorite scenes.) Also how Piper handled people? It was amazing. One of the worst scenes for Piper (the memorial) was also the best mental image ever. The humor was evident and very well executed, showing moments from the best POVs to allow the reader to fully experience the story and world as they unfolded.

A big thing: The entire town of Westport needs grief therapy. Stat. I get being stubborn and continuing on. I also get respecting the dead and lost. I do NOT get people never moving on. Seven years since Brendan's wife died? Seven years? Can someone please open a counseling office, the town would be a better place.

Also, I hated the implication that Brendan didn't truly love his previous wife. That is common thread I've seen in the dead-spouse trope and I am absolutely not a fan of it. You don't have to tear one person down to lift another person up and that's what this felt like. If authors want to write that "you're the only one I could ever love", then write soulmates/fated mates. Don't make your MC a dick because they married someone they didn't truly love, only to then kill off the dead un-truly-loved spouse. - In all fairness, Brendan also talks about his own regrets in his previous marriage and what he's learned over the seven years since. I can see this being part of his growth looking back on his marriage and seeing it through older and wiser eyes. And he does eventually acknowledge that he will always hold love for his previous wife. But the ambiguity during his character arc was, while wholly and utterly believable, a little frustrating for me.

The other thing that really bothered me: Mac. Mac was a DICK to Piper. The daughter of his best friend and that's how he treats her?? He set her up to fail calling the memorial a party and then just being a jackass when she started dating Brendan was awful. And I'm so angry he was never called out. There's a singular moment where he expresses his remorse to Brendan near the end of the book, but it was not. enough. It really was believable -- especially in this town where no one knows what healthy grieving looks like ever -- but I was disappointed that Mac got away with all his shit with barely a slap on the wrist. He wronged Piper: apology goes to Piper, not Brendan.

All that said, I'm so ready to pack up my life, move to Westport, renovate a dilapidated bar, and see where life takes me. (My husband can come too if he wants.)

#romance books #romance book review #book review #booklr #contemporary romance #it happened on summer #tessa bailey #four star #take a shot every time i said 'also'

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egopocalypse · 2 years

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12 35

12) Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

Ooh, so there's this little (37k+) story called Gone Away--

In all seriousness though, I AM making progress on Gone Away and will hopefully (maybe) have the next chapter out in the next week or two. This chapter has been a pain for several reasons (to the point where I took about a month break from writing in general), but I finally made some good progress on it last night. The chapter itself is 7k already and has about a scene and a half left to go, so I hope it's worth the wait.

(However, the chapter after this one is what y'all should be excited for. This next chapter is merely the set-up for the fun we'll have after. ;) )

35) Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

Oof, I'm not sure if this will come off as a complaint or just rambling, but I really do miss canon-setting fics. As fun as AUs are, it really feels like canon-setting fics have been overshadowed in this fandom, and while some of my favorite fics are AUs (Ouroboros, Ours Poetica, and Guided Evolution, to name a few), there is so much potential in canon-setting fics (whether they're adjacent, compliant, or divergent) that I personally feel isn't being utilized. With the amount of dropped/emerging plotlines, plot points/character-defining moments that could easily be so different if one singular choice was or wasn't made, and just how big and detailed the world and story of the DSMP is in general, canon is teeming with opportunities for fics and other creative projects to bloom in between the cracks. I mean--look at the two Disc War Finale fics I'm writing and the new idea I posted about just one or two asks ago! Look at all the possibilities for fix-it fics, rewrites, canon-divergent fics, codas, and more that have already been posted, and then see what else can be done! You could literally take a dart, throw it at a spinning wheel, and pick an arc that you could write about, and the options are endless.

I understand that a lot of people are concerned they won't get the characterization right and/or are worried that the fics they're reading won't have great characterization for their faves, but this is fanfiction! You're writing this for free! It doesn't need to be perfect, and with how large the cast is, there's no way to have in-depth knowledge about every single aspect of their characters. Hell, not when the CCs themselves know everything about everyone's stories! So take risks! Write about the characters you love within the world you grew to love them in! If it isn't perfect, so what??? My characterization certainly isn't perfect 100% of the time. But if you never try, you'll never learn, and you'll never grow as a writer. So challenge yourself--even if you never post it anywhere. Just write something within the canon universe. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up loving it and fall in love with the DSMP even more. You'll never know if you never try.

TL;DR: Please, I'm begging y'all, read and write more canon-setting fics. And tag me. I want to see them.

Ask game

#ask game #anon ask #thanks for the ask!#Well #You asked me to ramble and I certainly did lmao #I really hope it didn't come off as a complaint #I love AUs but there are just *so fucking many* in this fandom #especially Superhero AUs #like dear god #There are a bunch of great ones but they're *everywhere*#Canon-setting fics at least provide some variety based on the characters season and arc(s) the author chooses #Plus with all the complaining people do about canon why wouldn't they write fics that addresses those issues????#idk #It just doesn't make sense to me

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martelldoran · 3 years

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WHAT'S THE CAUSALITY LOOP THEORY

Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. I’m not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...

Steve Rogers’ Ending and How Endgame Doesn’t Support a Causality Loop and other such rambles

Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steve’s ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didn’t save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblr’s search function is bad? 🙄 But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggy’s husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so I’m going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.

Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.

To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesn’t support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagrid’s Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriff’s execution, so we’ll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees ‘something’. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.

Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trio’s current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. It’s almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they aren’t to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagrid’s hut they panic because their counterparts aren’t leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, it’s very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.

And it’s the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the ‘first run through’ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, ‘Oh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.’ From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that there’s something bigger at play. It keeps them ‘in the loop’ as it were.

This doesn’t happen in EG.

To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, “I’ve lived my life, my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.” Then saying soon after, “Sometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.” Peggy’s character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steve’s own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. He’s just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, he’s in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because he’s trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.

From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steve’s character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didn’t get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggy’s husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.

Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggy’s funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesn’t matter isn’t shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggy’s husband doesn’t matter to the narrative. The person in Peggy’s family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CW’s funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesn’t happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isn’t mentioned again until EG.

In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanos’ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. It’s incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesn’t make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friend’s ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steve’s eventual ending at the end of the film.

Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggy’s relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggy’s conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.

It’s impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something that’s completely absent from Endgame’s narrative. Steve himself doesn’t even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of ‘going home’ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, “The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. He’s taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. He’s starting over and moving on.

With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggy’s casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,

“I would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Cap’s time travel . . .I mean, we’ve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wife’s coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.” [emphasis mine]

This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didn’t have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.

What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesn’t hold water. The film doesn’t support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there aren’t any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because there’s some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggy’s husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.

Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.

The TL;DR of this one was that Steve’s ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that he’s this man out of time and he can’t find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I don’t deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I don’t deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, ‘bUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRc’ and tried to play it off like this wasn’t true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.

These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both true. They’re intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isn’t at the heart of Steve Rogers’ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steve’s movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steve’s story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.

You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesn’t address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didn’t require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if he’d actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. He’s still getting the chance to ‘be selfish’ but he’s not throwing the life he’s built away. At this point in EG, he’s spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isn’t the future for him anymore, it’s the present and he’s lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.

But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.

When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but it’s like they’re taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only ‘works’ if you have the context of 10 years’ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what they’ve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.

However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didn’t have to take into account anything you’ve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didn’t get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesn’t work. Steve’s story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc we’ve been presented in previous films.

Ultimately, Endgame is a movie you’re supposed to watch once and then not think about again. It’s made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.

Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these ‘Steve’s ending makes sense’ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.

#in this essay i will #endgame wank #anti endgame #for the filters #steve rogers #my writing #because this i didn't spend my afternoon on this for nothing #marvel #stevie #angelblue007

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