#because that is obviously the rational way to react to that situation

[lucky-clover-gazette]

driving long distance tomorrow. sure hope i don’t meet an insane cringe theater guy with big callused hands and sparkling green eyes actively doing crimes at a rest stop on the way <3

[thesituationship]

i think the saddest answer is ford learned to control his fear when he was still living at home. "men are rational and women are emotional" was just the truth back in the 60s, so i can see ford (who is naturally sensitive and kind, and who was struggling to cope with a lot of social pressure) wanting to double down on "rationality" as a way to stay off his father's radar.

"my father scares me ; he gets madder if i look weak : my father is proud of me for my intellect ; he will be happy if i stay rational." so just breathe and focus on your intellect.

unlike stan, who is also naturally emotional, but where ford internalizes stan externalizes. stan lashes out, he acts out, he stands up for himself whenever he can, as best he can. ford watching filbrick and stan go round and round while he tries to dissolve into the wallpaper.

like i said, breathing skills are the first thing we teach for controlling the fight-flight response, ford IS coping well, it's just that how he understands it needs some work.

ford in a very unstable household, being bullied all the time, over working himself to prove he deserves a place in society, constantly battling with his sympathetic nervous system until he gets so good at it that when he goes 1:1 with bill his first response is "he may be a god, but im a scientist"

this being may be more powerful than me, he may be trying to terrorize me into submission, but it wont work because i'm smarter than him

Oh you're absolutely right. All of this.

The desire to be rational is definitely a trauma response from growing up in a fighting household, especially if you're not the one being directly attacked like Stan, but rather, the one being asked to take sides. The one that has to be 'mature' even as a child. It can make you extremely adverse to conflict, but also disgusted by it.

Ooughg and can clearly see how that, while also being the 'gifted child', affected ford's adult personality:

He's prideful because of that need to be 'above it all', to be better than the fighting people around him.

He's independent because people have always been trying to influence him, rely on him, to bring him to their side. And it's controlling, suffocating. That's in contrast to Stan, who's needy because people always rejected him.

He's reckless because he doesn't engage with fear and that prevents him from effectively determining how dangerous situations are.

He's naive because he refuses to engage with any complicated emotions leaving him really inexperienced.

He's a people pleaser, a praise seeker. Keeping people happy means he's doing 'his job', it means he's worth something.

He's vindictive, reacting to Stan, fidd, and bill betraying him with very visceral disgust and anger. One of the few things he fears irrationally is conflict itself.

I'm not even gonna go into the gender roles of the 1960s that ford very obviously doesn't fit into although he tries desperately to. Trust me I could write a whole essay about that one. I could write about ford forever honestly.

[chair002]

My favorite moment so far in S6 has been the spacewaffles conversation after Mapicc & Jepexx kill them. What makes it really special for me is the way Planet is so adamant about turning down any negativity whatsoever from Bacon. Bacon keeps saying how they just let them win and they're now on low hearts and everything is fucked and Planet just goes "Nope! Errr Error!!" and tells him they'll make it despite everything. Made me think back to how Zam & Bacon reacted to Planet's suicide back in S5. 'Cause initially Zam was kinda chill about it, his reaction was literally just "damn well that just happened" but then Bacon rolled up like PLANETLORD IS DEAD! FOREVER! and that reaction made Zam panic as well. Meanwhile here instead of giving in to Bacon's as always extremely pessimistic view of the situation or ignoring it Planet just shuts it down immediately and even makes sure Bacon looks him in the eyes while he's doing it. And after watching his pov of the Planet Revival stream, it's a similar situation for him, i think it's interesting Bacon's lowest points are often when Planet dies and cannot log back on, i guess because then there's no one to snap him out of it. this is not something exclusively Planet does (Kaboodle tries to cheer Bacon up after he dies during her and Red's duel, to no avail) but Planet is just such a close, naturally positive presence in Bacon's life, and so his absence is felt the strongest. Even if most things Planet says seem naive or sometimes just simply untrue.

Like, when they went to retrieve the hearts Kaboodle stole from Planet that one time, Bacon keeps insisting they're gonna get killed, meanwhile Planet innocently goes "noo why would anyone do that? dont worry," and obviously Bacon's the rational one here, because theyre naked at spawn and there was a huge commotion there earlier - but nothing ends up happening. they don't get killed. and so even if sometimes Planet is actively choosing to be gullible and naive about people being kind and everything being fine, he's not always wrong. it's very deliberate. He's not stupid, he knows violence first-hand, from both ends of it, but that doesn't break his generally good nature. and i think that's the counterweight Bacon's negative outlook needs

[gldnstrngs]

it actually makes me so upset how people will get mad at merlin for poisoning morgana in s2

obviously it was fucked up. OBVIOUSLY. it should have never happened, but it feels like people like to push the narrative that morgana was completely innocent in this situation or merlin could’ve just talked to her or arthur

at that point in the show, merlin is roughly 19 y/o and has to hold the weight of an entire prophecy on his shoulders— one that defines the future and the wellbeing of everyone. he’s 19. and he has to deal with the reality alone. sure, he has gaius, but there’s no one who can truly understand him

and, in this case, gaius isn’t even there to guide merlin when he needs him most. instead, he has kilgharrah to turn to, who is putting all of this weight on merlin’s shoulders. he also has an ulterior motive (which completely makes sense considering he’s held captive), so any advice provided is going to be flawed in some form

so merlin is confused and scared because morgana, who he thought was his friend, sided with someone that was considered the enemy at that point. even though morgause most likely did show the truth about ygraine (at least to an extent), she was now raiding a defenseless camelot with an army of invincible men

obviously, morgana didn’t know at first that she was the reason why everyone was unconscious in camelot, but eventually she was beginning to connect the dots the way merlin was. she worked with morgause, but her vulnerability was also being exploited by her

morgana wasn’t totally innocent and neither was merlin, but actually imagine being in his position. he couldn’t have just told arthur the truth, not when his oppressor (i.e. uther pendragon) was laying in the same room. that must’ve felt like some sort of sign that he can’t tell arthur. and there was no guarantee that arthur would react rationally, which would only make things harder

and, as i said before, merlin couldn’t have confronted morgana now knowing that she was working with the enemy. poisoning morgana was a smart decision, despite the consequences. and it’s not like he hadn’t done it before or after— arthur agreed to poison himself when they were dealing with catrina and he poisoned gaius in s3 to get the goblin out of him

basically, what i’m trying to say is that merlin did what he could in that moment, no matter how flawed it was. i do think it would’ve been better for him to tell morgana about his magic before the invasion so she didn’t feel as alone, but he was actively being told by his mentor figures not to and he already had so many things to worry about

++ morgana’s reaction to being poisoned wasn’t justified. i’m sure morgause did feed lies about merlin and such, but to completely turn on arthur, who she considered her brother, and gwen, who’d been her best friend for YEARS, absolutely doesn’t make sense. realistically, she would’ve been pissed off at merlin, but i don’t think it would’ve been enough to turn her evil. and merlin DID try to explain why he had to do it because SHE was working with the enemy

[xjulixred45x]

I HAVE A ANGST IDEA FOR A HADES GAME READER!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Did you see how Demeter made all life on earth incredibly difficult for mortals as punishment for having "stolen her daughter"? Well, based on the fact that in myths people literally DYING OF STARVATION (and apparently in the game, of cold) this idea came to me.

Imagine that the reader is a normal mortal, nothing particularly remarkable, EXCEPT that she is a farmer with the rest of her family, who just before the eternal winter came, they worshiped Demeter so they could have good crops and so on.

but then, without warning, winter arrives.

At first it's not so bad, because they can ration certain things and get by with some groceries, but as the months go by and the winter continues to get worse, so does the situation in the reader's house.

The surrounding villages begin to have pests, have problems with resources, not having to eat, etc. and the first deaths begin thanks to this, which quickly spread throughout the community where the reader lives.

The first to fall from the family are the most vulnerable, the grandparents and children of the reader's younger siblings, to whom they perform the appropriate funeral rituals along with all the people who had already died due to the winter.

Everyone's life is turned upside down trying to find ways to survive without having a coast to fish and with now few animals, and the cold gets worse and worse...

The community soon begins to decay and reader participates in the funeral rituals out of respect and to not think about the horrible situation, becoming more educated in the chnotic gods.

They are all desperate to survive, but the snow makes it almost impossible to leave the city where they live, so they are stuck.

It doesn't take long until the reader's parents also succumb, either from illness, from the cold, or from starvation from giving all the food to their surviving child.

and it's not even the worst.

reader is now sick too. So the remaining people of the town cannot allow her to make them all sick and kill them, so after giving the proper services to her family, they lock her in her own house.

but at this point the reader is so tired that she doesn't even mind being isolated. but she knows one thing. she can't allow herself to die like this. not because it is degrading or unfair, but because she knows that if she dies and no one performs an adequate ritual for her, she will not even see her family in the afterlife.

all the pain and suffering in vain.

So against all odds, the reader finds ways to survive on her own at home, constantly being in the limbo of life and death due to her horrible health.

and, thanks to this, the reader meets Thanatos.

I think I'll leave it vague if the relationship would be platonic or romantic, but they definitely got off to a bad start.

We already know that Thanatos finds his work exhausting, so the fact that the reader clung to life and did not want to leave even when she was in horrible conditions bothered him to no end.

and on the other hand, the reader OBVIOUSLY did not want to die and it was annoying that he wished her dead (even if it was technically his job?) and that led to several verbal fights. at first.

Thanatos appeared at the reader's house when she was especially weak, whether she could not move on her own, had respiratory attacks and/or was in special pain, etc. episodes that, although temporary, were still close encounters with death.

When Reader and Thanatos eventually get tired of insulting each other in these moments, at first they just wait to see whether Reader will survive this particular episode or not, in a rather tense silence.

It is not until the third or fourth time this happens that the reader begins a conversation with Thanatos in an "informal" way.

As one can imagine, at first Thanatos didn't even react or try to continue with said conversation, just do his job and leave, but as time went by he began to show more signs of listening to what the reader was saying. and eventually even give short answers.

He doesn't share much, but now the reader doesn't go crazy being alone.

I also imagine that on some occasions, when the reader can't move much, she DRAG to go get food/medicine, which bothers Thanatos because it seems 1- unhygienic and 2- stupid in a certain sense, mortals get sick because of it. not taking care of themselves, does she NOT want to get better?

It is from there that their relationship begins to improve, but the reader's health worsens every day.

It's the same as what happens with the other villagers that Thanatos collects, weakness, coughing up blood, pain in the rib cage, inability to eat, difficulty breathing--

but even so, the reader STILL wants to cling to this miserable existence, she can't even eat or stand anymore and STILL doesn't want to leave...

WHY? WHY SUFFER THIS WAY INSTEAD OF SIMPLY DIE?

and the reader's response is quite simple.

There is no one who can give her a burial, but her family did have one, without that she would simply wander through the Underworld and be alone AGAIN.

but at the same time, the reader no longer has the strength to continue holding on, the pain is UNBEARABLE and the little energy she has leaves her...

Thanatos is there, at least.

I like to think that the reader would agree to go with Thanatos VOLUNTARILY if he even lets her see her family one last time, thus dying peacefully.

And it would be especially ironic if by chance the reader ends up as a shadow in the house of Hades😅

I think that in general, a deceased reader would be like a more responsible Hypnos, she is not going to bother the GOD OF DEATH so she does the minimum ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

She is definitely happier now that she is no longer in pain, but she was quite traumatized by the experience :') although on the positive side, she is one of the few people who can play pranks on Thanaros with almost no consequences!

simply....mortal reader sheneigans.

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

Maybe i could use this Reader with another characters? Idk. I didn't know how to finish this but i like it!

[yoshinoritoshi]

I'm not very good at asking for requests but can I get the AOM men (Frederick, Norton, Orhpeus) and how jealous they are if another survivor tries to flirt with a reader-insert they're interested in/dating? Arigato Yoshi thank you for telling me about your blog so I can go crazy

Man who hates Orpheus, asked to write about Orpheus, oh the cruel irony... Still, I'll try my best cause Yoshi is new to IDV writings... (And I'll be sure to make a collection for these types of IDV asks on AO3 asap!)

•

•

Frederick

First off we have the composer himself, who is quite honestly, the second best at hiding his jealousy. It's not quite seething or anything, but he likes to keep tabs on any rumors concerning you (and him) and if he can, watching you from afar to make sure you're not getting in trouble.

Of course, if he spots someone openly trying to flirt when he has clearly already expressed interest in you, he will very politely request your attention to get you out of that situation, while shooting the person a dirty look over his shoulder. If they try again after that, he isn't afraid of confrontation, manor rules be damned.

All in all, it's not easy to make him jealous, outward action that disrespects him is what sets him off, and he'll be sure to shower you in genuine affection so you don't even think about entertaining such low effort flirts in the future! (You never even considered leaving him, but extra attention is always good, so maybe you're a little complicit in intentionally trying to make him a bit jealous...)

Norton

The worst at hiding his extreme jealousy, cause he usually wears his emotions right on his face, and he isn't polite with anyone. While he will do his best to not be aggressive (because he thinks it will upset you), he can and will absolutely snatch you away from any potential flirt and start kissing you so you can pay any attention to them over him. Because of this, you've both developed a reputation for public displays of affection, though it's usually him initiating.

Still, not everything makes him jealous (at least not right away), sometimes it'll take a few days for him to realize that that other survivor handing you an extra serving of ration while you were preparing for a match was actually an attempt at wooing you... And he'll stop eating dinner, mouth agape, as it registers in his mind, before he's then glaring daggers at that survivor for months after.

At the end of the day, his jealousy is shockingly easy to quell, give him some affection and adore him and he'll be melting into it as per usual. Sure he's the quickest to react, but that goes both ways, as he is quick to calm down and apologize (in his own way) for getting upset... He really does care about you, after all.

Orpheus

The absolute best at hiding his feelings of jealousy obviously has to go to the aloof novelist himself, (though he doesn't get jealous often.) He's a master at remaining neutral, so even though he could be simmering with rage and jealousy under the surface, you'll never know. Still, seeing another survivor flirt with you, it does get him a bit ticked off at the sheer audacity...

In such a situation, he'll easily come up with a reason to swoop you away from them so he can have you all to himself for a while. Though he doesn't want your attention, he more of wants to give you all of his so he can show how he's superior to that flirty bastard... How about a hand drawn bath? A massage? Or even a specially made dessert? How about all in that order?

His jealousy is quiet and subdued, and it washes away just as the grime from your skin does, so he rests easy knowing you'd never betray his affections in such a way. Rather, he's mostly irritated that he hasn't shown enough affection to you that others think they can do better... Rectifying that misunderstanding will be one of his top priorities, until no one could possibly think you'd leave him.

[linddzz]

Hello, I wanted to ask you a question since I love the way you answer. The other day I saw a discussion that was generated by the scene in the council of Jayce and Mel in chapter 8 and many of them did not understand Jayce's reaction (they basically destroyed him). I particularly understand, and other people do, that Jayce is acting according to the consequences of the trauma he lived in the other dimension (obviously it does not justify the mistreatment). I think that he is carrying a lot of guilt and pain for his past actions, and he needs to unload that. In addition to that in the case with Mel, their intimate bond is broken by the manipulation he suffered from her (although he also had his things). But people say that he is an exaggerator, an impulsive fool, Mel also went through horrible situations (I do not deny it) and yet she did not treat him badly at that time. Well, I would like to know your opinion regarding this scene that generates debate.

It is always wild to me when I hear of or see glimpses of Arcane discourse that can be summed up with "we missed the point of the show that's heavily themed on how trauma and emotional upheaval can cause people to act in ways we may not agree with, but can understand" :)))

Also wild that people expect Jayce to be perfectly rational and emotionally competent here after we just saw him staggering around Viktor's commune with terrifying hallucinations, screaming as he blasts a hole in Viktor's chest. Not to mention that we just saw the actual hell he went through that left him in that state?? Is Jayce, who has shown that he reacts with brash anger when he's frightened and in over his head, maybe going to not be the most level headed??

One thing that I really like about the scene is that he DOES apologize to Mel afterwards. He recognizes that he acted out, apologizes for being an asshole, and recognizes that Mel is hurting as well. Yeah his actions weren't great (tho to me seeing him acting physically aggressive was another sign of just how fucked up Jayce was) but damn in the context of how everyone else in this show responds to emotional trauma, he's pretty mild.

I'll also argue that neither of them are wrong in this scene, and you can pretty clearly see why he escalated so quick. Even without an in depth analysis that looks further back, his reactions are pretty understandable (for said analysis, @avelera has some great posts on this as a breakup scene for Jayce and Mel, pointing out that his auditory flashbacks in the pit focused a lot on realizing that Mel was using them) Let's break it down:

Scene opens with Jayce already reminiscing on the traumatic event that started all this. He's standing in the place where Viktor died, where Jayce made the decisions that created whatever Viktor is now. When you rewatch it, you have the added context that he's likely grappling with what Mage Viktor has told him. It's important to note that at this point, he doesn't know that Mel has arcane powers until his hammer and arcane corrupted mind spidey-sense her arrival.

We already know he was dealing with a ton of survivors guilt for being untouched by the blast while everyone else was grievously injured, and while Viktor specifically mortally wounded. This is probably the worst place and the worst time for him to learn that Mel has arcane powers and that she's the reason they were unharmed. And that sucks. Because he's closing Mel off even harder than he already would have, while he's the one Mel learned to be more emotionally vulnerable with.

Something happened to her too, and she reaches out for that connection. She doesn't need to be a strong Noxian with Jayce, so she tries to connect on the fact that they both obviously went through something, but unfortunately it's just when he thinks his worst suspicions about her are confirmed. 

Because hey let's ALSO talk about Jayce realizing Mel has been using him and why he's gonna take that hard! Jayce is pretty obviously a romantic person in season 1. It's almost a comedy beat when he snuggles up in her lap and she looks startled with the realization that her boytoy is a puppy. That is so obviously a lad who does not see sex as something casual, and he's very emotionally vulnerable with Mel very quickly.

Now, we, the viewers, have been able to see Mel allowing herself more vulnerability with Jayce in return. We've seen that she views her political manipulation as a way to benefit everyone. We've seen that she really came to care about Jayce, that sleeping with him became more than another way to influence him. But Jayce has only now realized he WAS being used. Who WOULD respond nicely to that? 

So you have that, on top of suddenly learning there is a reason he was fine while Viktor wasn't. Yes it's unfair to immediately blame her for it, but as soon as he says "because you used me!" I had a moment of "OH...yeah actually he's right tho. he's not out of pocket there"

(Also we can see him shutting that emotional vulnerability down. He tells Mel "it doesn't matter" because he's seen how his openness with her made him easy to manipulate. Again, she has opened herself up in return, but he has no way of knowing how much was sincere or not and is in no state to be rational about any of it.)

It doesn't help that she pretty much confirms that she used him. To Mel, it's not an insult to be seen as an investment by her, so she justifies herself for it, and I'm gonna read her a bit for this; when someone is feeling some sort of way about being used as an investment, explaining why they were a great investment isn't the best move!

And then. Yaknow. His brain is all jacked up from Arcane corruption and he's got Mel already setting that off with her powers, then Viktor's making them go extra wild by creeping around with his freaky little cuntbot. I didn't like him getting physically intimidating but it's also pretty obvious that he was seeing her as an active threat until Viktor showed up.

And again. He pretty quickly apologized and gave her an opening to talk about what happened to her. It's not perfect, but no one on this show IS. That's the point of the show! The fact that he quickly apologizes both times we see him lash out at people he cares about shows a pretty substantial amount of emotional intelligence in comparison to everyone else in this "Hurt People Hurt People" show.

So. yeah. I also had the emotional journey of "hey Jayce that's not fair, she pretty obviously said she couldn't control it, what the hell are you stalking at her with that hammer for- OH. I mean. YEAH she did use you that....hey that part's fair...also Mel back up girl, he's super obviously Not Okay." But I think acting like Jayce is some sort of unique asshole in THIS SHOW is quite a stretch.

[havenesc]

hello HELLO!! I am OBSESSED over your rancher AU,, you have such a big brain!! If youre in the mood to yap about it, i am sooo interested in hearing more!!

WOAH HI!!! thank you so so much, that means quite a bit!! I love this AU and it has been quite a joy to work on when I'm stuck in my office job or away from my own horses so :') Always happy to indulge and yap and this........ is a very long yap LOL.

I am writing a frankly ridiculously long fic about it, but this whole shit really started with ""i like jason and i like horses and i keep listening to lord huron's way out there on repeat." so here we are. rotting it out. <3 <3

I think physically removing Jason from Gotham, or from any major metropolitan area containing capes, is a really interesting idea. He lives and breathes and is born from this city. (Where's that one post calling it his wire mother?) Jason is so deeply interconnected in the machinations of the city and how she operates that by removing him, by forcing him into a situation where he cannot go back for the time being and instead has to live among people he perceives as "regular," he gets to breathe outside of the walls that Gotham and Bruce have defined for him. He gets to explore who he could be, really, beneath the masks and the death and the failed legacy of a kid who just wanted to be magic, who isn't living with his mental/emotional triggers sitting on his bedside table like a loaded gun. For once, even under a fake name, Jason Todd gets to be something other than a tombstone or the face of a tightly-run crime syndicate. Jason doesn't even bring that dying shit up all the time, but everyone else seems to hold it against him. (Probably due to rationalizing all the murder.)

He's like a shelter dog following the 3 Rules of Decompression. This guy gets a horse and gets some friends who don't really know what to make of him at first but he's a hard worker and a fast learner and he wants to work as a team, no matter how prickly and weird he is at first.

Additionally, I think it's also fun to explore what his absence does to Gotham, and how the city would react to not having an enforcer. The Batman and his brood exists, obviously, but there is an ecosystem that Red Hood understands intricately in a way that the Batman cannot and will not. He has the uniqueness of being one of the only Robins to both live poor as fuck and also experience it from Bruce's perspective -- the only other one really being Stephanie -- and he knows how to weaponize this for max efficiency. Red Hood is the wolf introduced to keep the deer population down. How does the crime scene change, how do the Bats have to navigate adapting to that radical change? When it breaks that the Red Hood is out of business, who takes charge? And at what point do you look at yourself in the mirror, say, "Yeah I fucked this one up, bring that guy back?" And what the hell do you do when you find out you can't?

Anyways! I love thinking about how vital Jason is to the Gotham Social Fauna. I also love thinking about how his blue roan gelding, Blue, is a descendant of Doc Bar. I love thinking about the plates in McLaren's tibia because he got nailed by a bull in the exact perfect spot for the damn bone to split in half. I love thinking about Jason experiencing nature, and Glacier Park, and for once in his life feeling so small and insignificant in the world that his problems actually feel the distance they are from him. I love thinking about him finding the connections with people who have always been receptive to him in some way, even when he's a bristling scared snarling dog, because even if Jason Peter Todd is convinced that he is unlovable and irredeemable, nobody else knows that shit. So you might as well put your foot in the stirrup and come along because we need you and your resilience and your strength and your laughter and your good-heartedness to get through another twelve hours in the saddle together.

Also, these two songs in order on my fucking jason rancher au playlist are very jason and dick coded and listening to them makes me want to lay on the floor and stare at my ceiling for about three hours. Actually this whole thing is a love letter to lord huron.

[cosmicdream222]

A reminder not to create stories around unwanted circumstances

I saw something like that posted on Twitter a couple months ago (don’t remember who wrote it tho sorry) and it’s been rattling around in my brain ever since. I finally have the personal experience to understand and explain it:

It’s a normal human response to rationalize or try to find reason behind something happening. We do it all the time, we want to know why. Often, we create negative stories in our minds about the past or the future that are totally catastrophic and overblown. And what happens when we persist in a story? It becomes true, even if it wasn’t.

Now on the surface, I thought I had understood that. Lately I’ve been better at not reacting to the 3D, not letting circumstances affect me or let me spiral. But I was still accepting them as fact, and therefore perpetuating them.

Let me give some examples.

Say you look in the mirror and have a new pimple. An anxious, spiraling negative response would be something like “omg another zit, I hate my face. Why do I always have such bad skin?”

That’s obviously reacting to the 3D and letting negative circumstances overcome you, right? So, a more healthy and detached response would be “Oh no, I have a pimple. Maybe it’s because of my period, or I didn’t get enough sleep yesterday. I’ll just take care of it and I know it will go away soon.”

On the surface, this seems like a positive way to turn around a negative thought, but it’s actually still identifying with the negative circumstance, it’s still coming from the state of someone who has a pimple.

The truly detached, living in the end response is literally just something like “my skin is so clear no matter what!”

Another example: your sp is acting distant and not texting back

Unhealthy response: checking phone every 5 minutes. “omg he must hate me, what did I do wrong?”

“Healthy” response that’s still actually identifying with the negative: “He’s probably just busy at work. I know he’ll text me when he has time”

Living in the end: “This man won’t stop texting me! My phone has been blowing up all day!”

To truly avoid letting unwanted circumstances control us, we need to stop identifying with them, even in seemingly positive or healthy ways. Instead of rationalizing or reacting to unwanted situations, focus only on your desired end state and don’t let the 3D sway you otherwise!

[alicentsgf]

so there’s clearly a time jump in the latest episode (of like 3-4 months I think) do you think shauna was thinking during that time how she could like overthrow Natalie? Because after she got that taste of power during the trial idk I find it hard to believe she wasn’t thinking about taking the leadership for herself during those months. Do you think Shauna would have eventually found a way to make herself leader if Nat didn’t kill Ben?

I think Shauna always has that desire for power but i dont know if shes been thinking rationally enough to be planning a coup tbh. Shes always been very impulsive and her rage is whats driving her atp. She seems to swing between anger, detachment, and confusion. I have wondered if its more than just postpartum rage and its actually some form of postpartum psychosis as well. The visual hallucinations she experiences could be a result of untreated postpartum psychosis, especially with the type of hallucinations she has. Trauma, lack of nutrition, and poor sleep are all risk factors and Shauna was suffering from all 3 even before enduring a traumatic stillbirth. Either way, I think her thought processes at the moment are pretty much all reactive, she lives in the moment except for when shes reliving her trauma. Considering this, it'll be interesting to see how she copes with a leadership role. I think she could start to hate it very quickly.

Beyond that I think she on some level knows its Lottie who holds the power in this respect, and Shauna is just not a good liar or manipulator. She associates a lot of pain with the wilderness religion/lottie so she tends to keep her distance and beyond that shes just not good with people lmao. like whatevers going on internally rn, she doesnt seem to be able to understand people in general, let alone someone as complex as Lottie, so even if she was thinking clearly i dont think she'd know how to swing things in her favour. Like you can see when lottie names her leader shauna is truly shocked, she hasnt been planning for this, she never thought lottie would choose her. I dont think shauna was even rly thinking about installing herself as leader when she was calling for nats head, she was just fucking angry. because of everything that happened the night javi died a lot of her angers been focused on nat and all that rose to the surface again in that moment. shes been undermining nat at every possible opportunity this season but i think once again thats just her reacting very organically to the situation in front of her, its not an overarching plan per se.

Theres also the fact shauna doesnt feel as powerless as she did anymore, so i think thats been mellowing her slightly. Tai says shes been "better" and I think thats what was meant. Like shes obviously not been happy, but feeling more control over things probably has her acting less volatile. she has melissa to exercise control over, giving her that adoration shes been seeking, and shes also probably feeling some security in the little bit of power she gets via the others fear of her. that might have been enough to fufill her desire for power at least for a while.

So basically, no i dont think so. Shaunas not a calculating or forward-thinking person like that, especially now. she just silently seethes and prays on peoples downfall. Definitely think she was at least subconciously hoping for an opportunity, but i dont think she was actively conspiring and I dont think she becomes leader without coach bens death. Not without something equally as big disrupting the order of things. honestly the chances of shauna eventually snapping and killing someone herself, resulting in her having a similar fate to coach bens, would be higher imo.

[thegreatcaptainusopp]

The Water 7 Fight: An Analysis

So. Water 7. There’s a lot to be said about the Usopp vs Luffy fight, their motivations, and the right vs wrong of it all…it’s a complex situation, and so I wanted to share some thoughts:

The Set Up

The growing tension and activity that led to the fight between Luffy and Usopp is so so well explored in the scenes right before it happened. Of course, events are kicked off by Usopp’s abduction by the Franky Family, and his subsequent beating and losing the money. This, on top of the many many clues sprinkled throughout the early bits of the arc and earlier arcs regarding his own feelings of inadequacy as well as his connection to the Merry, is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Usopp in my opinion. This was one of his deepest fears, finally realized: he felt that he had finally crossed the line into more than just useless but an active liability to the crew. He admits as much to Nami when he sees her: he’s ashamed more than anything else. He can’t face the others.

Nami’s reaction in this moment is also really interesting. She sees Usopp at possibly one of his most vulnerable moments ever, and she reacts so kindly: she tells him it’s not his fault, that it’s going to be okay, that she’ll get him some help. It’s such a mature and responsible response and out of everyone here I think she reacted most rationally to this whole situation. I think if she had been a little more confident she could’ve engaged in some really good conflict resolution practices with everyone.

At the same time, everyone slowly gets the bad news about the Merry, and their differing reactions are interesting: they’re all upset, and openly discuss that. Sanji even notes that Usopp is going to be particularly upset to hear this, so they’re all already aware that this is going to be quite bad. What’s interesting, though, is Luffy’s reaction: he goes through a similar emotional journey that Usopp does when getting the news, but their ultimate destination is what differs greatly here. I think the difference here is probably down to two factors: 1. Luffy does not have the same particular insecurities that Usopp does and 2. Luffy is the ultimate authority in the decisions here, Usopp is not.

Then, Usopp picks himself back up, badly wounded, to return to the Franky family to try to get the money back. This is a big moment too, because it showcases that he is the type of person to fight even when he knows he isn’t going to win, which is what ends up happening here. Even the moment where he burst in really felt paralleled to the moment he stares down Luffy in a fight later: it’s a really good set up.

And then he gets injured even more, and chopper has to check if he’s even alive when they find him, which is important to note because his physical condition is just dire right now.

I found the reactions of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper interesting too because they get super angry, obviously, partly because of the money but more because of how Usopp is hurt. In one sense it’s funny that they just left him there while they took revenge for him, but on another it’s a little tragic because that wasn’t what he needed in that moment. I don’t think he ever finds out about it either if my memory served me correctly. There’s another layer of irony in the way they all leap to fight to save their crewmate but we’ll get to that later.

I also think it’s notable that Luffy locks in his decision to get a new ship here, right after they destroy the Franky family’s hideout. I think he felt a sense of responsibility for what happened, maybe believing that if he’d been more decisive in his leadership, then Usopp wouldn’t have been this badly hurt. Which is also just oof. Extremely ironic.

So they take Usopp back and it takes him a while to even wake up, and when he does he’s all apologies. The physical framing of it is interesting too, because he’s on his knees and hugging Zoro’s legs and stuff. He’s not outwardly expressing his shame like he did with Nami earlier but it’s close. He’s not really standing up at all.

And everything seems to be going ok, and Usopp is asking about next steps and then…and then Luffy drops the bomb. And that changes everything.

The Confrontation

Usopp starts the whole argument in full denial. It’s a pretty classic gamut of emotions here: he goes full tilt into the cycles of grief, starting with just straight up denying that Luffy would do this, to bargaining by asking if he was at fault in this situation and trying to convince the others to let him continue fixing the ship. He’s clearly feeling a lot of guilt here: he believes he is directly responsible for the Merry’s “death” as it were and is scrambling trying to take responsibility for fixing her. I think everyone else was taken aback by the level that this guilt went and were wholly unprepared to deal with it. Luffy yelling that he isn’t a carpenter I think was him trying to talk him down but ultimately had the exact opposite effect: all Usopp heard was he had no expertise in this and was useless, and may have even harmed Merry further or out her in this situation to begin with.

This snaps Usopp into the anger stage, and this is where it really starts to get ugly. It’s notable to me that he’s the one that escalated by grabbing at Luffy’s shirt and yelling at him that he excepted better, which were intended to hurt I think. Luffy though gives as good as he gets, and is the one that actually turns the confrontation violent: knocking a grave injured Usopp down. In short: he doesn’t descalate or calm the situation, but instead adds to it. The way his temper is so hair trigger in this scene is extremely interesting to me.

Nobody else intervenes either (at least not yet). All of them try on occasion to tell them to calm down or stop fighting but not more than that. Not even Zoro steps in at this stage, which I found super interesting. Nami tries to tell Usopp at one point that Luffy had a similar emotional reaction ti him about this choice, but Luffy stops her. Funnily enough I think if he hadn’t she may have been able to calm things down a bit here.

It’s not until Luffy is right about to tell Usopp to leave, it’s practically already left his mouth, that someone actually steps in here. And it’s SANJI. Sanji, who knows very well how it feels to be told you don’t belong somewhere anymore. Sanji physically knocks Luffy back and he does it with FORCE, and it’s him who desperately tries to wrangle some control back of the situation. And the thing is: it almost works! Everyone listens to him, nobody objects to his methods, and Luffy actually starts to reign himself back and apologizes!

But it’s a bell that can’t be unrung at this point. Usopp has heard what he heard and has made his decision. What’s interesting here though, and what I realized upon rereading it, was how self aware Usopp was at this stage about the whole thing? Like he was fully aware that he was substituting himself in for the Merry and straight up tells the crew that he thinks he’s useless and that they should get rid of him in the same way that the did the ship. Like…he’s not subtle at ALL about this, and about the reasons why he’s behaving the way he does. He knows exactly why! And he tells them! I honestly credit him for that in a way…he’s spiraling here but he’s aware of it, and he’s aware of exactly what he’s feeling and why. The way this fight is remembered and discussed in fandom I feel is he’s characterized as throwing a tantrum about it but this really isn’t what happened here at all.

Nobody really pulls him back on his statements: I think they were too shocked here to really know what to do. Chopper is falling apart emotionally, Nami is trying to get him to hang back and wait, Sanji even starts yelling at Usopp to come back. Zoro…Zoro says nothing, which interested me a lot too. He does however have a flashback to him being the one to invite Usopp on board, which I have a LOT of thoughts about. From Alabasta, Zoro has been privy to a lot of Usopp moments that were important turning points for him: carrying dalton up the mountain, expressing doubt after long ring long land, etc. I think he’s thinking of those things here too. I think he’s feeling a sense of responsibility here that he doesn’t know what to do with.

Luffy says nothing too. He looks angry, which I think is a cover for upset, but his silence is fascinating. He’s letting things play out here because I think he’s still in fight mode but also because I think he’s letting Usopp make his own choices here, as he should. I think he’s trying to be captainlike here. But…also not quite. He’s spiraling just as bad as Usopp here, imho.

And then, Usopp issues his duel request. There’s a few interesting bits in between where Nami is trying convince Luffy to not go through with it, but he’s very dedicated to doing so anyway. She’s telling LUFFY to apologize which is interesting thinking of the fandom recollection of this fight. She’s trying conflict resolution here but it’s a bit too late for that.

I also like that Sanji and Zoro are fighting about this too, blaming each other for what happened. I think it’s a form of tension release for the two of them, and Nami stopping them shows it’s still a bit of a sensitive time for it anyway. Which leads to:

The Fight

This fight is one of my favorites in OP, insofar as actual fighting techniques/approaches go. It’s unique to the series and so emotional and just hits different. Luffy’s later fight against Sanji hits similar notes but this one stands out specifically because it’s Usopp, who is very much not a fighter in the same way Sanji is.

For one, Usopp’s a ranged fighter, and he’s fighting Luffy at close quarters. He’s already at a MASSIVE disadvantage and he knows this, Luffy knows this, the straw hats know this. It’s his fight to lose, and he picks it anyway. And I think this is what’s so key to this entire conflict, from start to finish: Usopp KNEW he was going to lose. He knew it from the start. He knew Merry was doomed. He knew that from the start too. But he did all of that anyway. Why? I think the why is so incredibly nuanced, from loyalty to pride to fear of rejection to abandonment issues. But it also highlights his tendency to bullheadedly get things done if he thinks he’s the only one left who hasn’t given up on something. And I think that’s so important to him as a character, and it’s this realization and this specific fight that made Usopp into my favorite character. It’s also why I don’t think there’s a black and white wrong and right side to this conflict. From one end, Luffy’s the boss so they need to follow his instructions without question. From another, I like it better when Luffy’s challenged by his crew for both story and character purposes for all involved. I think Luffy needed this to happen, not because he needed to assert his authority as captain, but because he needed to fuck up as a leader and learn from that.

For another, Usopp is also on the brink of collapse this entire time. The fight ends when Luffy gets a single hit in, which means Usopp was on his last legs and he still went through with it. That is super admirable to me and a testament to his super tanking abilities and determination when it counts. He had the deck stacked against him here and he still went for it.

Now: fight techniques. Usopp took this fight seriously, like for real seriously. He pulled every weapon out of his arsenal and went for it, from lying to caltrops to dials and actual honest to god explosions. It was interesting to see the crew be so surprised at him doing so well at the start. He even uses Luffy’s care for his injuries against him which was a notable part of it for me. The impact dial bit is one of my favorites: it’s such a powerful moment to me.

And then he loses, and is probably actively dying as a result lol. Everyone’s absolute devastation, expressed in different ways, was really fascinating to watch. Chopper just trying to run over and fix things and Nami unable to watch hit hard. Zoro being super composed on the outside and holding Luffy together but…yeah he’s not pleased about this. Sanji telling chopper not to go because Usopp doesn’t need pity. Luffy crying…which always is very emotional. Them giving Usopp the ship and moving on to demonstrate that they took all his words seriously but also to acknowledge his dedication to the Merry. Ooof.

Anyway this arc physically hurts. 10/10 experience. Destroys me every time.

[violinios]

Dream Sans headcannons!

Some might be not cannon accurate, and it's only my own interpretation of him. Might update sometime. I'll mix angst headcannons with fluffy and some funny ones.

The illusion his aura creates also affects people's smell. Yeah, people's smell. His aura makes other people attracted to him in many ways, and smell is one of them. Each person can feel a different, pleasent smell coming from him, it depends of their personal favorite smell. If their favorite smell is chocolate, they'll feel like Dream smells like chocolate. If someone likes the smells of strawberries, Dream would smell like strawberries to them. The only ones who are actually able to feel his true smell are, obviously, people not affected by his aura. I like to think his aura creates a lot of types of illusions that make people attached to him.

Once he got a (temporary) room for himself, he decorated the ceilling and almost everything he could with star-shaped things. This is because Dream used to sleep with his brother under the stars, looking at the sky at night before going to sleep, and he started to miss this feeling. Of course that sleeping in a bed is way more comfortable than sleeping against a tree, but he still misses his old home. Even if the stars on the ceilling are fake, it stills feels nice and it brings him a feeling of nostalgia. He only wishes he had his brother once again to watch the stars with him...

Dangerous animals become soft around him. Or at least, most of them. Lions, for an example, are pratically kittens when around Dream. Yes, this is also a result of his aura. Wouldn't it be fun if he just came back home to meet his partner with a motherfucking lion following him like a lost puppy?

He's unaware of how harmless or how dangerous things can actual be for mortal beings. He thinks they're way more fragile than they actually are and can be overprotective without noticing. He's barely affected by deseases that affects normal people and can handle more than mortals would physically be able to handle, but he has no idea if some things are deadly or not, and becomes overly worried about normal things such as a cold. It took him some time to realize a tummy ache won't kill his friend...

He has healing tears. His body heals by his own, and he can use magic to heal other people, but this makes him extremelly tired since it demands a lot of his powers. So when healing others, he has to cry and let his tears fall on the bruises instead of using his powers, but it would take more time to heal serious injuries. They would heal a deep cut in a matter of minutes, at least.

He panics around statues. At his first years of freedom from his imprisonment, he thought that the statues were people going through the same situation he went through more than 400 years, stuck in stone and started to react as a result of trauma, trying to free them in any ways he could, yet failling because they weren't real people stuck in stone. It took him some time to realize that, and he tried to tell himself to act more rational when around statues, but still, he feels uneasy when he's around statues of real people. He tries not to react or to be worried, but he keeps trying not to look at them and avoids being near them.

Everyone compares him to an old men when he texts. He likes to use a lot of emojis and uses those "good morning" gifs non ironically. He writes like he's writting a formal letter, like he used to write to his brother when they were young (even though he writes like a formal letter, his writing is definetly not the best... he's not good at writing at all lol. example below.)

Even though he's still tries to mask his own feelings with a positive and cheerful attitude, his behaviour changed a lot. He's less energetic than he was as a child, a bit more shy due to insecurity and less extroverted than before, but still social. He's a bit closed off when it comes to his own feelings, but knows how to handle social situations well and how to handle with other people's emotions. His adult self is less silly and more serious and mature, but still as gentle as ever. He got rid of his childishness, even before becoming an adult, as a result of feeling guilty for the events that happened in Dreamtale, as if he told himself he doesn't deserve a childhood. He prefers to, instead, give a good childhood to the children around him, the childhood he never had, and is more protective of children than adults (but he won't deny them protection too, he just enjoys being a brother/father figure to the young people)

[qoldenskies]

Donnie changes so much from the beginning vs the end of Caged lungs, I cant help but wonder how he'd FEEL if he saw into his future and saw how he turned out/interacted with him…. like how would he react if he saw?

he would not believe it.

the implicit message of the scene above (or not so much, its not super subtle or anything) is "if i was in that situation, if someone hurt me and lied to me so directly and obviously, i would not fall for it." he says this, not knowing that thinking this way is the exact thing that dooms him to being unresisting towards the abuse. i was also kind of drawing a parallel between splinter not seeing anything in big mama and donnie not noticing the obvious signs in his own brothers (in both cases the red flags were RIGHT THERE. from an outside perspective, DUH, especially because in both cases the audience goes into it knowing that the turnout is going to be negative. easy for you to say. easy for donnie to say), even if the context/type of relationship is different, because i love paralleling the boys with their dad and i cant help myself

is it hubris? partially. but more than anything else its this unshakable pride in THEM. donnie feels like he has to earn their love, and always outdo himself, even if logically he knows better, and knows that they're not going to drop him the second he messes up (its why i mentioned bpd coding in the tags, sometimes the mental illness will just do that to you no matter how well you rationalize it). they took advantage of this. donnie's self-worth centers around his family, and their approval is where his confidence is born from, and having his pride in THEM broken is what breaks him.

if you told donnie at any point before CL's events what would happen, he would not believe it. if you told him about the curse, he'd say he knows them well enough to know that something would be wrong, not knowing that even when it happened he DID. the whole time he knew something was wrong. but they twisted it to make him think something was wrong with HIM.

he'd think the very concept would be ridiculous. i think he knows how well his family could break him if they really wanted to, because he knows deep down how fragile he's always been. but the illusion hasn't been shattered, it wouldn't process to him how possible it is. he'd know better. it's his job to know better! he's the smartest, he's not that stupid, wouldn't it be obvious? they wouldn't hurt him like that anyway! not like that! (and deep down he thinks: yes they would. it was only a matter of time.)

but through time travel fuckery (or alternate universe fuckery if we're talking about canonverse) if he actually MET cc!donnie? immediate shock and horror. then probably adoption. this is a version of him that has been reduced down to what's essentially the soft underbelly he works hard to protect, the weakest and most vulnerable parts of himself that he's afraid of speaking just in case his worst fears come true, and once he gets over the initial shock and shame of having to confront this part of himself, he would guard him with his life.

[conundrumsofphilosophy]

obviously i don't have any requests yet so i asked a friend for a random scenario to write headcanons about and i was told merc movie night. so :)

scout

- throws a fit about whatever he wants to watch being chosen but it never gets picked because he has terrible taste

- literally guzzles his entire drink within the first five minutes of the movie and then refuses to get up to pee unless the movie is paused

- his attention span is awful so he stops paying attention for half the movie and then bugs someone (probably spy.) to recap him on what happened

- "who's that" "what's his name" "why is he doing that" "wait where are they" "how does it end"

soldier

- attention span is worse than scout's. ends up trying to talk through the entire thing, gets shushed violently

- if the movie really bores him he falls asleep like someone's dad and snores in a way that is so devilish. gets throw pillows pressed over his face

- if he manages to get sucked into whatever they're watching he will randomly bring up things from it weeks later and nobody realizes what he's talking about and he doesn't have the capacity to explain

- gets so comfy cozy on the couch but then tosses and turns the whole time because his comfy cozy never lasts

pyro

- straight up does not care what they watch, just happy they're hanging out

- gets super into the movie and reacts verbally and physically to what's happening on screen

- asks engineer questions if he gets confused about what happened. he rarely gets confused though because he pays such close attention

- loves slapstick comedy flicks

engineer

- falls asleep no matter how much he's interested in what they watch. head thrown back, throat gurgling, demonic snoring emanating from this man. elbowed awake by pyro and scout but it never lasts he goes right back to sleep

- will fuck up some popcorn

- hates when spy's movie gets picked because it's always some foreign arthouse film he does not care to understand. he likes things that make sense and have a good plot

- doesn't bother for a recap on whatever he missed while he was asleep. he goes into movie nights knowing he'll fall asleep so he doesn't get upset about missing anything

demoman

- similarly to engineer, he will FUCK UP some popcorn. he is absolutely destroying that shit and every other snack that's provided. he needs to constantly be doing something with his hands and can't sit still for an entire movie so he just shovels popcorn down his throat

- spends half the movie squinting at the tv because he is so confused. it could be spelled out on screen and he still doesn't know what's going on

- gets up to pee one thousand times and trips over someone every single time

- his movie picks are always great

heavy

- reacts so strongly to high emotion moments in movies. laughs like a maniac at comedies, cries at tragedies. he isn't afraid to show emotion!

- anytime he isn't reacting though he looks so pissed off. arms crossed, back straight, staring dead at the screen

- only one to have never fallen asleep during a movie night. everyone else has AT LEAST once

- will never turn down a little blankie action. toss a nice blanket over his legs he's a happy man

medic

- does not really enjoy movie nights. he enjoys spending some time with the others but it gets to a point where he really wants to be alone and he doesn't know how to politely escape the situation

- cannot handle the sound of snoring so if engineer or soldier are out he is pressing his ear against heavy's shoulder and his own hand over his other ear. he'll guess what the actors are saying

- appreciates spy's movie choices (is the only one that does)

- sits really uncomfortably for the whole movie and has to pace around stretching out when it's over

sniper

- loves a good movie. he really really just enjoys watching a movie he's a simple man. won't complain about whatever gets picked, will just kick his legs up and relax and enjoy it

- expert at rationing his snack and beverage to last the whole time. will not share

- looks like he's asleep but is not he's just very very still and relaxed

- sometimes sits in the floor leaned against the couch rather than on it or on a chair. it's easier for him to get his legs stretched all the way out that way + he tends to give the furniture up for the folks that are going to end up asleep

spy

- as previously mentioned, he always chooses the snobbiest foreignest arthouse films that are no fun to watch and he truthfully doesn't even like that much himself. it's all a facade

- how many cigarettes he goes through during a movie is an indicator of how much he enjoyed it. the more smoked the worse he thought the movie was

- gets really embarrassed if he laughs at something stupid but even spy is not immune to slapstick comedy. he tries to cover it up with a cough but nobody falls for that

- sometimes scout falls asleep on his shoulder and it makes him so mad (he doesn't mind it)

~

yay first post! to anyone who may see this, consider shooting me a request :3

[atopvisenyashill]

the ‘what’s the worst things my favs have done’ is hilarious becuz it’s either things that are acceptable in medieval fantasy (murder with dragons, executions, lying, blackmail) and then like, actual crimes like r*pe and shit like that.

rhaenyra out here calling for the heads of her allies after suspecting they’re on some bullshit and aegon can’t keep his hands to himself nor his dick in his pants, then there’s fucking maegor and my beautiful queen rhaena who did nothing wrong ever.

and then dany trying, like literally trying and then failing, and then fucking theon being fucking theon.

the range, man, the range.

No exactly aksjdjd it’s like when you’re talking about bran, the worst thing he’s done is obviously the hodor mindrape, which is a completely fantasy based crime, and you compare to davos, whose crimes are more similar to ned in that it’s about how he’s rationalizing the harm the feudal system does & how he’s just SO hypocritical about stannis exhibiting the exact same violence as the other lords + i guess like, being kind of a deadbeat husband? but then you get to ROBERT and it’s like WHERE DO WE BEGIN AKSJDJD and how do we define “worst thing” which IS the same thing as dany funny enough bc like do you weigh the structural harm over the warring or over the interpersonal violence??

with robert it’s like……idk you could probably group the awful husband + awful dad stuff together but his complete inability to actually LEAD & taking the easy way out from the trident incident down to his handling of the lannister-stark beef when ned is injured is SUCH a big moral failing to me because of the combination of it being disastrous politically AND personally. like, ned is your BEST FRIEND and you put him in this powder keg of a situation with your insane & evil family that you drive CRAZY and he can’t even do ned the decency of siding with him when his son starts and loses a fight against a toddler & his wife is asking for one of their pets to be murdered in retaliation. like bro what was the point of even asking ned to come in this case. AND A WAR STARTS OVER THIS.

but it’s crazy to put that side by side with “eight year old invades & controls the mind of his cognitively disabled companion” you know. i don’t want to understate that what bran is doing here is a gross violation of hodor’s personhood & he is old enough imo to realize “hodor does not like when i do this, i should talk to jojen about this and see if it’s okay” especially when this is something luwin scolds him about & bran feels a lil quirk of guilt which says to me it’s clear he understand the lesson of “you shouldn’t be treating hodor in this way.”

and then there’s like, sansa & arya who, in incredibly stressful situations, kinda reactively Do A Thing that gets someone else killed. that’s not the same at ALL aksjd bc with bran this is a pattern of egregious behavior that he should understand is wrong and sansa & arya just reacting bad in a situation. oh sansa gets wine drunk & reacts wonky during a fight. oh sansa pulls a ouat snow white & tattles about something she doesn’t realize is so serious to a Trusted Adult. oh arya is running for her life and accidentally gives the stable boy a killing blow. oh arya on the run for her life during a horrific war basically gets scooped up like one of those stolen orphan war adoptees you read about except instead of a wasp family it’s an assassin’s guild. see hers is just as absurd as bran’s akskdkd just in the opposite way. bran absolutely did that shit (but LISTEN-), arya is innocent your honor!!

[warsamongthestars]

I've seen the arguments about "Well characters are flawed and shouldn't take the most logical option!"

Well, yeah. Part of making a character run into conflict, is to see how they will react, resolve, not resolve or make the situation worse.

A watchable character ain't a video game PC.

My problem is "This isn't the rational option that this character would take, based on how they are", AKA, this character was written to have these specific points and they are not following these points.

AKA, the set up doesn't match the action / reaction.

For example.

If you have a scene, where you are placing a puppy into a gift box, because you are preparing for a child's birthday... and when the birthday comes, the puppy just rushes in from off screen with no shown scene as to why...

That, is a problem, because it makes the set up that time was spent on, absolutely pointless.

( That scene actually did occur in the Humongous Game "Fatty Bear", an old old 90s PC click-adventure game. Its set up mishap isn't nearly as bad, because well, limited resources for early 1990s, and it is just a cute point-n-click game for kids. A teddy bear sets up a cake for his friend. Frankly, can't get much cuter XD )

Now on to your favorite part--me going after the TBBshow again.

One of the parts of what broke TBBshow for me, when it comes to reasonable character progression, happened in the first 15 minutes, and then continued to drag until it reached the most unreasonable conclusion.

... And that was Hunter not confronting Crosshair.

When it comes to reasonable reaction, character is a set of guidelines to use for the imaginary object being written. If done right, it looks organic enough that we will follow, discuss or blame the character, and not the writer at their keyboard / wizard behind the curtain. This is part of how suspense of disbelief occurs. This is the magic we all scream about when we say "Oh, the Bad Batch should've done this!" instead of "What the fuck, writers?"

( As you can tell, the magic kinda broke for me in the worst way. )

The prior show sets up that Hunter is very close to his batchsquad. Makes jokes, semi-busts balls, instinctual trusts them both on the field and off the field (and gets extremely antsy when having to trust an unknown element--Echo).

This is a man who, obviously, is very comfortable with his squadmates. If something were wrong, he would be the first to get involved and offer vocal comfort (see Hunter trying to comfort Wrecker when his fear of heights start acting up at the worst time).

So what would you say this man would do, if his very close brother and squadmate, started acting off?

Perhaps a confrontation in private?

As the Sergeant and assigned Leader of Clone Force 99, its not just in his character as a brother, but also his Duty as according to his Rank, to confront as he deems fit, abnormal behavior.

As someone who clearly cares about his brothers underneath the quiet exterior (I refuse to call him stoic--he's anything but), that confrontation would probably be a "hey, what's going on man?"

( Hunter shuts down if he gets yelled at or gets confronted in public. See his reaction to Rex yelling at him. )

That, is the reasonable step, that the set up for Sergeant Hunter from Clone Wars, would likely take. I say likely, because as a fictional character, all his actions have to be written down and you have to sell the reactions.

Its just like roleplay. If you were Sergeant Hunter, what role would you play?

What the TBBshow chose to do instead, is ignore the problem. Crosshair acts abnormal, shooting at kids, AGREEING WITH REGS, and Hunter just sorta shrugs his shoulders and they are at Kamino in the next scene like teleportation.

That sounds more like, the Plot wanted the Batch somewhere, without ever confronting Character action at all.

But you'd prolly point out, they were on the cusp of confronting Crosshair later on in that same episode...

... And then it resolves to thinking "Oh my Gods, Omegawd is IN DANGER MY NEWLY INSTALLED PARENT DRIVERS ARE TINGLING".

That is another trip up.

There is not a character rationality here, where Hunter wouldn't have stomped his foot down and kept his confrontation with Crosshair. Maybe out of actual anger, maybe out of concern turned anger, maybe out of Fear (we don't have enough of Hunter from TCWs to show what he would do--so we'd have to make up something reasonable up).

It wouldn't be rational as the stressed caring brother he is, and it wouldn't be rational as a Sergeant.

Especially for some random kid who... had lunch with them once.

This is because the plot demands that Omegawd takes center stage, and has no skill in writing characters beyond stock and cliche.

So what was being seen wasn't, in fact, character rational at all, but instead, was Plot Demands.

They cannot confront Crosshair, becuase Plot wants him to be Evil.

Hunter cannot do anything but Save Omegawd, because plot demands he be the Parent, even though the plot cannot write parenthood either.

( The way it does write parenthood, gives me PTSD flashbacks, and makes me deeply despise TBBshow's Hunter. Like, I dream putting this asshole through the wringer, and calling him out on every piece of bullshit he's ever pulled. I yearn to beat the shit out of him. )

I have a problem with Plot demanding things when Characters can do so much better, with so much more interesting flair.

So, I don't' really take the "But the character shouldn't act logically!" arguments very seriously, because sometimes, a lot of the problem is the Plotting, not the Character.

So, because deconstruction and destructive criticism is easy and far too common, time to pull in the reconstruction using the elements above.

To reconstruct:

IF WE WANT TO KEEP THE CURRENT PLOT... ... Out of fear of what is going on with Kamino, Omega stows away in the Havoc Marauder when the Batch take their first Mission under Admiral Tarkin.

This is set up already, as she has this habit of A) wandering away from Nala Se, B) causing mischief and trouble, and C) really wants to be apart of the squad she saw grow up.

When they confront Crosshair, it gets interrupted when Omega wanders out to see what's going on, and the Batch collectively go "Oh Shit".

Trying to figure out what to do next, the Batch are tend caught by following Imperal Trooper forces, who were on standby due to the local planet being an Insurgency spot and were alerted when the spy droid was shot.

This results in the Batch's capture, and the resulting escape from the Star Destroyer ends up leaving Crosshair behind when its assumed he died in the resulting escape attempt.

(How this is, can be made up. Like, maybe parts of the ship decompressed, maybe he had a lifesign signal and it got damaged, maybe he got overwhelmed by imperial forces, and it looked like he was shot to death).

This cleans up. A). The refusal to talk about Crosshair in the resulting episodes. B). Having Omega with them that doesn't involve jumping parsecs of space.

IF WE WANT TO TAKE A DIFFERENT TURN, BUT KEEP THE PLOT... ... The reason the Batch became so obsessed with protecting Omega, was because of a secondary / alternative chip installed in their heads by Nala Se in order to protect her assets.

This chip can work in conjunction with the inhibitor chip, but not always. Let's called it the OP, or the Omega Protocol.

In parallel, like how Crosshair Inhibitor Chip worked too well, Hunter's OP Chip worked too well. With alternative effects on the rest of the Batch:

Tech becomes distant from learning, focusing entirely on technical skills.

Wrecker's is actually damaged from the blast he took to the head--so the chip misfires and causes memory issues. He knew hand signs once, but now he doesn't.

Echo's is actually a looping program installed not long after he joined the Batch. This has caused irritation, headaches, and long term memory problems--he can acknowledge that Fives died, but he can't quite muster much about it because of the loopback in his head.

Omega is not aware of this secondary chip.

Crosshair was considered a paid price to the Empire, if it meant Nala Se's assets were protected.

How this would resolve... is a story for another time.

IF WE WANT TO SHIFT THE PLOT BASED ON SET UP...

... The Entire Batch, save Echo, fall under the Chip, resulting in a rival team to Echo and eventually, Rex's Rebellion.

... Omega has always been an active participant with the Batch ever since Echo joined, as she's meant to be Echo's assistant. May or may not coincide with the plot above.

... None of the Batch fall under the chip, because deviancy prevents it, and the show is about them on the run.

... None of the Batch fall under the Chip, because of deviancy, and the show is about them starting / joining the Rebellion. May coincide with plot above.

... The Bad Batch show is actually the sister show of the Clone Wars, and starts when the Clone Wars Starts, and ends just before Anaxes.

... The Bad Batch show takes place entirely between Anaxes and Revenge of the Sith.

... The Bad Batch chips activate, and instead, the show is entirely about their missions with the Empire.

... The Bad Batch chips don't activate, but the show is half them having missions with the empire, only to join the Rebellion later on.

... The reason the Bad Batch don't show up later on to steal the Deathstar plans, is because they inevitably died in action.

SHIFTING THE PLOT BASED ON "RULE OF AWESOME":

... The Bad Batch show actually starts with the Bad Batch being sent thousands of years into the past to face off in the Jedi-Mandolorian Wars, KOTOR style.

... THe Bad Batch show is actually about the Bad Batch entering another Galaxy entirely, marking the first Star Wars show that doesn't occur in the Star Wars galaxy.

... The Bad Batch become Force Users, but are inevitably killed by Darth Vader.

... The Bad Batch Show instead is about how the Bad Batch got frozen and were sent Decades into the Future AFTER the OG Trilogy occurred.

... The Bad Batch Show is actually Echo's dying dream as his cybernetics fail him, leaving everyone wondering if it was real at all.