#absolute crash and burn

[swan2swan]

Imagine being Roxie, an attractive and perfectly eligible young lady assigned to Project IBRIS, seeing the beautiful redheaded manager of the park hanging around your raptor project facility all the time, talking with her, chatting with her, getting to know Miss Dearing on a first-name basis...and then she goes and sleeps with your stupid Navy-SEAL boss.

Of course you'd volunteer to be a Camp Counselor on the park's new side project.

[dwynartist]

What I imagine you would’ve seen if you were standing on the other side of the hexagon wall

[scribl-oi]

Super freak

[quibbs126]

I’m thinking about it, and I think Optimus banishing Megatron from Iacon with the High Guard was probably one of the worst decisions he could have made to deal with this situation

Because Optimus pretty much left him alone, outside of his home and I’m fairly certain the only remaining city on Cybertron, so to live out in the wilds of the surface, with a bunch of complete strangers whom they literally call nut-jobs and have a strong belief of “strength of one bot over another”, and are also much older and more experienced than him

And in leaving him with the High Guard, he’s likely isolated Megatron even more than if he was banished alone. Because while Optimus and the others have friends they can be vulnerable with and be comfortable talk about their feelings, Megatron does not know these people, and they don’t know him. But he’s now their leader in a group that values strength above all else, and emotions are usually considered a weakness in these sorts of settings. So not only does he have no one to talk to, he has to bottle up his very strong and raw emotions to appear stronger and worthy of his position, thus making them far worse and probably leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms

This could end up not being the case, and the High Guard are very considerate of his emotions. But it’s also very possible the case that they aren’t, or Megatron believes he can’t be vulnerable around them. They (the quartet I mean) don’t know these people, and they’ve really only seen them be violent and aggressive, and Megatron knows he’s an outsider to them. It’s a more likely scenario that they’ll be harmful to Megatron’s mental state rather than helpful

And again, they’re a lot older than him too, and they probably all know this, at least on some level. And thus, he’s far more likely to be influenced by the High Guard’s mentality and beliefs, which we already know aren’t great (even if it’s somewhat justified why they’re the way they are by this point). And assuming they’re pissed at Optimus as well, they could very well try to have Megatron distance himself from his old friends, and it be more successful than if he was alone

But moving away from the High Guard, there’s the fact that Optimus banished him from his home and left him to fend for himself, which Megatron would absolutely take personally just on its own. He was clearly not in a mentally stable place at that point and I think he thinks what he’s doing is right, he’s the one not being like Sentinel while Optimus is. It definitely isn’t right, but he thinks he is. And the banishment to him could not only be Optimus/Orion standing against him, but essentially him saying he’s given up on Megatron, making him leave his home. And I mean, Sentinel did kind of do this to the High Guard 50 cycles ago, so yet another parallel to be made between Optimus and Sentinel

But note that when I say all this, I don’t mean it as a criticism of the movie, that this is a flaw of the plot. I’m fairly certain this was 100% intentional by the writers. It wasn’t just Megatron that created Megatron and led to the war, it was Optimus too, even if he didn’t intend to

Optimus probably thought at the time that this was the best solution in dealing with him. He doesn’t agree with Megatron’s actions but he understands where it all comes from, and he was someone very important to him. So he probably doesn’t want to arrest him, punishing him for what he thought was right and making himself more like Sentinel, oppressing those who were supposed to be on his side. But he still has to be punished for his actions. So by banishment, he is punished while still being allowed to essentially be free, just not in Iacon, and maybe in turn he’ll see his wrongdoings and come back better. And even if the High Guard aren’t ideal, they did help Optimus and Elita rescue their friends, and maybe he thought at least with them he wouldn’t be alone in his thoughts. Also they agreed with Megatron’s ideals and probably shouldn’t be allowed to just roam free in Iacon, especially in this politically fragile state it is right now

But in doing so, Optimus essentially threw Megatron to the wolves and created the perfect environment for his anger and pain to fester and cause him to become more like the Megatron we know in the future

I’m not sure what the actual best solution would have been to this issue though. Maybe it would have been just jailing Megatron? Granted in the short term, it’d probably sting even worse for Megatron, that his own friend would lock him up, and it’d probably make him even more resentful. But at least there, he’d still be in Iacon, with his friends and people who want to help him, and with Optimus and Elita at the helm, they can probably see that he gets treated well and has access to people that can really help him work through it all and see what he did was wrong

But that’s not what happened

[fiona-fififi]

I truly hate this Bobby storyline. There was so much potential set up in s7 to explore Bobby's loyalty to his dad and to do something interesting with his mom and brother. The idea of exploring the effects of that loyalty and trauma on Bobby's relationship with his mom is so compelling to me. I think it would be fascinating to see a good mom who spent Bobby's childhood just trying to keep him safe from his abusive, alcoholic father, and then trying—and failing—to combat this romanticized version of his dad that lives in Bobby's mind because of the guilt he feels. There could have been something so interesting to say there.

But nope. We're getting another shitty parent who's apparently a fucking cult leader now.

[alaskan-wallflower]

y’know what’s interesting?

the way almost all of us eighth graders who read the book either didn’t like darry or thought he was the bad guy in the situation. but as you grow up, you realize darry only had pony’s best intentions at heart and the kind of stress he was under would make anyone lash out.

i think it’s interesting. when you’re the same age as ponyboy you see darry in the same light as him. but when you grow up you realize darry wasn’t the bad guy and he was simply trying his best.

[sysig]

Is this small and pixely enough that it’s not a spoiler

[rosesradio]

. . .

[good-enemy]

Finally started watching severance, I'm a few episodes in and I have several questions, first off why does Helly only seem to own 1 pair of shoes

[bewareofthenewphannie]

ugh

[slutcore-starships]

coming out as a fake slut (tmuy horts too much D:)

[dearheart42regenerated]

so I LOVE the idea of bringing Holly back in with maybe a bit of a "character makeover" so that we don't have the tired misogynistic trope of a jealous woman "competing" for a love interest's attention lol...BUT. ALSO. toxic femininity can be genuinely compelling and delicious in a character when it's executed well.

WHAT IF: instead of Holly seeing Julie as a threat and poking holes in her "intern" story from the Burner side - we had her doing all that from the KaneCo side? Holly, the ambitious cutthroat corporate businesswoman. Holly, the aspiring-CEO girlboss.

instead of competing with Julie for Mike's attention, she's competing for Kane's. because she's gonna get all the way to the top of the corporate ladder no matter who she has to step on, she's worked too long and fought too hard for every pay raise and ounce of respect she's got in this place, and goddammit why is this random intern suddenly landing big positions and getting promotions and special "training seminars" with Kane?

what makes Julie so special? she's clearly nowhere near as qualified and dedicated as Holly is, like...what is she really up to?? constantly running around and disappearing when she thinks nobody's looking?? SOMETHING sketchy is going on.......

[the-one-who-lambs]

bamsara's ramble about their own au has me thinking about Risen Lamb/Fallen God Lambert and their issues but I wanna finish revising the other smutfic i went back to edit today because I'm almost done w it nyway ARGH

[funsizedshark]

99% of the conversations ive had in the past week did not pass the bechdel test because all of my friends are having Guy Problems. now im trying really hard not to develop a lesbian superiority complex but while all this is going on i went on a hiking date this week and we're going to a pottery cafè on tuesday

[emotargaryen]

degrassi flew so that glee, riverdale, and euphoria could jog and stumble over a rock

[italoniponic]

someone tell me why it took me the entire Dune: Part 2 runtime + the dinner after the movie to notice that Thufir Hawat simply disappeared? NO SERIOUSLY LOL

book Hawat @ Baron / movie Hawat