#except he did and had lasting consequences on his development

[corvusalbus93]

Astarion & the Consequences of Good Deeds

So, I did the “Stop the Presses” the other day and for those, who haven’t done it, because I missed it in my first playthrough, basically you have to stop the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette from printing a hit piece against the party. You can trigger the quest by talking to reporters Lens or Estra Stir and it becomes time-sensitive after talking to Ettvard Needle in the Baldur’s Mouth (aka article is printed after next long rest).

Since you get kicked out of the building I naturally I completed the quest with Astarion, as he’s the best for sneaking through that building undetected. So, I snuck through, found a new printing block to replace the hit piece with and made it to the printer.

As it turns out, the thing is operated by the fairy Jelliwig, who recognized Astarion (and would have probably any of any party), because Dolly Dolly Dolly had been freed in Act 2. In my playthrough this too had been done by Astarion, since his Sleight of Hand-skills had made this very easy (also no disapproval, when he does it).

Apparently Dolly can’t shut up about him and so, as a result of that action in Act 2, Jelliwig offers to drop the hit piece and print a different story. If you haven’t freed Dolly you need to pass some dialogue/skill checks.

Printing Press: Oi! Gormless! Over here. Thought I recognised you. Dolly Dolly Dolly was right – you aren’t much of a looker. Printing Press: Dolly can’t stop talking about you. Hero this, hero that, hero here, hero there. Hello, hero. Printing Press: You know, there’s some absolute filth about you in tomorrow’s edition. Seeing as you were king enough to free Dolly, how’s about I do you a favour? Printing Press: Why don’t we change the headline? We can load up something a bit less... damaging for your reputation?

So, where am I getting with all this?

Well, as we learn more about Astarion’s backstory, we find out he was often punished and tortured by Cazador. The worst of it he suffered after committing a morally good deed, saving that boy he just couldn’t bring to his master. And even early in Act 1, he sees Wyll too getting punished for sparing Karlach and he doesn’t seem exactly surprised.

If the last 200 years have taught him anything (among others), is that people with power can do whatever they want, unpunished, and no good deed goes unpunished. That is part of the worldview he has when we meet him. It’s not surprising he sees no merit in helping anyone throughout most of the game, with a few exceptions.

But as time progresses, the party helps more people things start to change. The people repay the party with gear, supplies, information, ect. - Dammon even fixed Karlach’s engine as well as he can for free. And in the end, when everyone gathered at the High Hall, in a good-aligned playthrough, the room is crowded with people you’ve helped since Act 1. As players we too notice how the game is easier, when you make allies, and the characters in game would take note of the help they receive as well.

When Astarion first receives thanks from the tieflings for killing the goblin leaders he’s dismissive, but in Act 2, when he says he’s never pictured himself as a banisher of shadows, he smiles. The role is growing on him, little by little.

Then in continuities like mine, Astarion experiences the results of good deeds in at least one very direct example, as it pays off not just immediately (Dolly blessing the party to resist the curse), but unexpectedly later on (Jelliwig doing him a good deed in turn unprompted).

Sure, sometimes doing the “right” things is punished or makes things more difficult, but I think for his character development it was also important to relearn that good deeds sometimes do pay off, can be rewarding in various ways – not just in terms of material gain but in gaining trust, respect, allies, even friends:

Post refusing the rite: Wyll: Astarion showed restraint where most others wouldn’t. He might not appreciate the sentiment – but I’m proud of him. Lae’zel: To seek power for personal glory alone is a farce Astarion was wise to see it. Karlach: He’d hate to hear me say this, but I’m so fucking proud of Astarion. He could’ve had it all, but he kept his soul instead. Wasn’t sure he had it in him, but he’s changed so much. Overcome so much darkness. Ooh, I could smooch that pointy little face!

[artistmarchalius]

A formative experience.

A prequel to the Pop Rock Floyd series.

[lokis-army-77]

In Thanks

Masc!Mizu x fem reader

Word Count: 1.8k

You have been traveling with Mizu for a little bit and you can't help the feelings that have developed. Maybe it's time for a thank you.

Warning: 18 +. oral sex, fingering, slight choking, scissoring. I think that's it...

A/N: Be forewarned, Mizu is referred to as "he" the whole fic except for one instance.

Masterlist

You had become his traveling companion in a series of fortunate and unfortunate events. 

Unfortunately, your father had sold you to the flesh traders for money he could use to save the farm from disrepair. 

While on the road to another town, the two traders had begun to fight, Mizu was haplessly brought into the scrap when he was seen by the two agitated men. They turned their sights on the lone man just trying to pass by. 

Fortunately, he had killed your owners. At first, he was intent on escorting you to the nearest town and leaving you there in pursuit of his revenge, only that plan changed when you had proved to be useful when it came to medicine. 

A few weeks later left you here, on the outskirts of a small remote seaside town.

Mizu's eyes watch you from the other side of the campfire. They flick so subtly, catching your every move, or lack thereof as you continue to stare. 

It hadn't taken you long to learn the secret he was hiding or rather she was hiding. There were subtle tells, ones that no one would be able to notice or think back on or they were just passersby. But you had been at his side for nearly two months and it was so obvious to you.

"Would you quit staring- it's rude." Mizu quips before going back to cleaning his blade. 

You don't listen. Keeping your eyes firmly glued on his movements, the flexing of muscles under his skin, and the touch of his slender fingers rubbing at the blood on his sword. All of it made your knees weak.

While you had been with Mizu on the road, you had begun to develop feelings for the stoic warrior. Feelings of love and lust. Only now did you feel brave enough to do something about it, and act on these feelings no matter the consequences. 

Your thighs clenched as you continued to watch him. Now was as good a time as any. 

Mizu only tilts his head in your direction when the sound of you standing reaches his ears. Twigs snap under your feet as you make your way closer to him. he turns fully to you now, analyzing whatever it is you could be doing, and why you were nearing him. 

“What do you want?”

You didn’t want to come right out and say it, so you spoke coyly. “I never thanked you properly for saving me. I thought I could do that now.”

“You’ve thanked me enough.” 

“But I haven’t done all that I could. Please, Mizu, allow me to thank you fully.” You’re right next to him now, slowly lowering yourself to your knees. 

Sultry eyes lock on suspicious ones.

With gentle hands, you reach out for his glasses. he leans away only slightly, not far enough to be out of your reach. 

You place them safely on the stool-sized rock beside you. 

“Let me see your sword.”

She breathes your name heavily. 

Your hand caresses over his shoulder, teasing and soft. 

"I'm not what you think." Mizu murmurs just loud enough for you to hear.

You pause before you answer. "You think I don't know? That I do not see past the defense and deeper within? I know." 

His words catch in his throat. "-how?"

"You aren't the first I've seen that have hidden their sex from the world, and you won't be the last." Your fingers loosen the string tying up his hair. The silky strands begin to fall, making his all the more stunning. 

"I've learned to see what many do not and what others would like to keep hidden... call it a gift."

You let your lips fall to the shell of his ear and whisper, “Now, let me see your sword.”

Reaching into his lap, you grasp the hilt of the blade. Carefully you take the katana and sheth it before setting it near the rock. 

She doesn’t stop you when you begin to untie his pants or the obi around his waist. 

Clothes fall away leaving only warm, scarred skin bare to you. Mizu’s breathing deepens as the binds around his chest are removed. 

Slowly you crawl over his body, forcing him to lie back on the cape he used as a blanket. 

Your eyes scanned over his every curve, curves hidden away by the straight lines of men’s clothes. The cool night air had his nipples pebbling and his skin littered with goosebumps. 

With lust-filled eyes, you descend on him. Lips making contact with his own. It wasn’t tender, no it was needy. You wanted him, all of him and he wanted you too. his hands reach your face, pulling you in deeper. 

The kiss leaves you breathless but you continue to kiss him, pulling away from his lips to kiss down the column of his neck and to his chest. You wet your lips hungrily as you take his peeked nipple into your mouth, your other hand teasing the other. 

Teeth nip and pull at the sensitive skin. Your tongue laves over him, pulling out a soft moan of your name. It has you smirking into the supple flesh. 

You trail down further, peppering kisses over taut abs before you come to the place you have so desperately craved to be. The smell is sweet but you know the taste will be even sweeter.

“Thank you, Mizu.” You pull apart his strong, slender legs, inserting yourself between them. 

“Thank you.” You kiss the inside of a thigh then move to the other. “Thank you.”

You lay there with his legs thrown over your shoulders, admiring the pussy before you. Your mouth is watering as you trail a single finger over the slit. 

Mizu sucks in, body tensing, preparing. 

You move your mouth in closer, tongue lapping at the wetness between his folds. The taste had you moaning, the sweet yet heady taste filled your mouth and you knew you'd never get enough of it now. 

Pressing on, you began sucking Mizu's clit. Hands flew into your hair, tugging in pleasure. You could feel his nails scratching your scalp.

“Taste so good.” You hum against him. 

Your left-hand strokes over his firm abdomen while two fingers of your left slowly insert themselves inside Mizu's entrance. 

He's so warm and wet, clenching down around you, pulling you in with need. With lidded eyes, you look up, past the roaming landscape of his body, at his face. His brow is furrowed, pinched in pleasure as your fingers work into his walls. His mouth is open, jaw slacked as sweet gasp after sweet gasp erupts. It’s a wondrous sight to behold and all you’ve ever wanted to be privy to. 

Those gasps turn into short whimpers once your rhythm steadies out and your mouth sucks slightly harder on his clit. His hips buck up, pushing against your mouth as need courses through him. You feel like you’re in a trance, your eyes still locked onto his face as he continues to breathe heavily, lost in a pleasure escalating with each passing second. You keep going, determined to make him feel as incredible as possible.

The sloppy noises of you eating Mizu out have your stomach turning, fluttering with want. You know for certain that your own cunt is dripping, making a mess. You need more than just the pressure of your legs squeezing together, no, you need to feel Mizu against you. 

In the heat of the passion, you pull away. Mizu whines at the loss of your fingers and mouth. “What are-” He stops his question short. You’re throwing off the layers of your clothes, tossing them haphazardly around the forest floor.

With determination you crawl over one of his legs, slotting yourself against him. A breathy sigh leaves your lips when you lower yourself. 

With slow subtle rotations of your hips, you begin to feel the want bubbling in your belly pouring forth. The feel of his cunt against your own is like heaven. Your clit rubbing against his sends a jolt through you. 

“Fuck, I’ve never- ah- I’ve never done this.” He grunts. One hand holds you by the hip, guiding you as you grind down. Your own hands hold fast on his thigh in front of you. 

“Neither have I,” You answer between choppy moans. 

As you piston your hips, you can feel the wetness between the two of you growing. You both groan in pleasure, your hands moving to explore each other's bodies. His fingers trace circles around your breast and you shiver in delight. You heave when Mizu’s hand reaches for your throat and pulls you down into a kiss.

His tongue slips past your lips, pushing back against your own. You may be on top and in control at the moment, but there simmering below Mizu’s surface was a want to flip you both over and take the pleasure that had been so far from his mission of revenge, he had forgotten what it felt like to feel another persons touch in this manner. 

Your back arches at the growing ecstasy within your body and Mizu’s hand tightens. The air is stolen from your lungs for only a moment before he lets go, moaning into your kiss. 

 “Thank you.” You repeat once more. 

You can feel the ache in your abdomen as you move, you’re coming closer and closer to release, and by the way that Mizu is rutting his hips against you, strong and needy, you know he’s close too. 

“Look at me.” You plead, “Wanna see your pretty eyes.”

A deep red blush rises across Mizu’s cheeks at your words, not used to the compliment. The blush makes the topaz color stand out. You could stare into those eyes forever, get lost, and never leave. 

Your bodies move in unison, your ragged breaths become one as you both tip toward the edge. With one more thrust, with one more rub of your clits, your bodies tense. Your mouth opens in a silent scream of pleasure while Mizu lets out a wavering cry.

The movement of your hips slows to a stop and you fall in a heap over Mizu’s body. Tiredly you kiss the sweat-dampened skin of his chest, and he shivers. “Thank you.” You mummer one last time. 

Mizu’s hands hold you close, one in your hair, the other flat across your back. “You don’t have to keep thanking me.” 

“I know,”  you look up into his eyes, “but I want to.”

He keeps eye contact as he wipes the hair from your face. “I appreciate this… I haven’t felt this way in a long while.” 

It’s an intimate moment, one of understanding without having to speak. So, you rest your head and close your eyes, too warn out to redress and too tired to move. Mizu also doesn't move to push you away, you take that as a sign that whatever this is, it has a very good chance of happening again. 

[tinfoil-jones]

Jerk Ford AU: The Worst Timeline

Out of all the scenarios and alternate timelines / other AU's this one could cross over into or adopt elements from (You can see a Reverse Portal Scenario Here and Here), the worst and most destructive alternate timeline for Jerk Ford would be Drifting Stars.

If you don't know, Drifting Stars is a popular AU where during the events of Not What He Seems, Mabel goes through the portal instead of Ford coming out. And now Mabel and Ford are together in the multiverse.

Stanley never stopped being involved with family because he was never kicked out, so Mabel and Dipper have actually known their Grunkle Stan their whole lives, they've even visited him a fair few times and stayed over, the summer that the events of the show takes place in is just the first time they stayed for an entire summer.

Imagine if, about five years before the show starts, little 7-8 year old Mabel falls into the bottomless pit and somehow gets ejected to the only other thing out in the multiverse with the same dimensional signature as her; Jerk Ford, her great uncle who has been missing for twenty five years.

Jerk Ford sees this crying little kid and he takes pause because, for one thing what is a kid doing in Mystery Flesh Pit National Park in the Body Horror Dimension, and another thing why does she have an eerie resemblance to his nephew, who was only ten years old the last time that he saw him?

Jerk Ford at first was considering leaving her to the lost and found at the tourist outpost of the national park, but then she called him "Grunkle Stan." (Because she is mistaking him for Stanley, and Grunkle why did you cut your hair?) And it's all over.

Jerk Ford, a multidimensional space hobo vagabond who has been trying to get home for the past twenty five years at this point and has had absolutely no contact with his family for obvious reasons, he just goes YOINK THIS IS MINE NOW.

And why is this the worst timeline for the Jerk Ford AU?

You know that scene in the Lion King when Rafiki is holding up Simba to the valley? Well, imagine Jerk Ford doing the same thing with Mabel. Except she's like this:

Because Jerk Ford already has poor impulse control when it comes to pettiness without his brother to reign him in, and now he has Mabel who is a very similar brand of unhinged as he is, they're just subjecting the entire multiverse to a path of glittery destruction the likes have which have never been seen before and will hopefully never be repeated.

Jerk Ford was already wilding all on his own now he has Mabel who has so many ideas. And she has this pathetic, lonely man wrapped around her little finger.

Also, Jerk Ford is a known runner. He does not fight if he doesn't see himself winning, and he'll usually go out of his way to not kill people. He just lacks the trigger-happy 'shoot now journal about it later'-gene that most Fords have. (He has very specific exceptions)*

But in a scenario where he has Mabel? Where he isn't facing consequences all by himself? He isn't letting anything in the multiverse so much as breathe rudely in her direction. So now, he isn't just some jerk or mostly harmless nuisance, he is stacking bodies (not in Mabel's line of sight, obviously).

The (Jerk) Ford Hate Club is besides themselves. Now, stopping or killing Jerk Ford isn't their only prerogative, they also need to 'rescue' this small, innocent child from The Worst Ford and his influence. Unaware that the terrible-flavoured beanboozled jellybeans that keep making their way into their catering were all her idea.

When Jerk Ford and Mabel return in 2012, Dipper is besides himself because, sweet Moses his sister is alive! She's really alive!

But she's been with with The Author who he hates, and being raised by him for the past five years has had obvious effects on her development.

She's still happy go lucky and nice, she's not a jerk at all like her Grunkle Ford.

But she's basically a supervillain who is on the FBI's Most Wanted List in every dimension she's been to that has one, and some organizations both official and criminal consider her a bigger threat than Jerk Ford (relative to body size).

Her sunny disposition did not change at all; she's blowing up whole buildings with a damn smile on her face

It's terrifying. This is the worst Jerk Ford timeline.

*While he was in the multiverse, instead of celebrating Jewish holidays the traditional way there was no point without his family, he would travel to different parallel Earth dimensions to kill Nazi’s. He would try to be a little more traditional, and halt the killing spree while he had Mabel with him, she was too young for murder.

[sephirthoughts]

Vincent’s lingering obsession with Lucrecia is excellent drama, but their story is not a doomed romance.

This is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think Lucrecia deserves nearly as much pity and excusing of her actions as she gets. This is not character-hate post, it's an analysis of a character I think gets short shrift as a Mother-Mary in a bell jar, and deserves better.

Lucrecia is morally grey. Charcoal grey. I love complex, morally grey characters, particularly when they're women, since usually women are relegated to roles that infantilize and objectify them, particularly in video games, which have historically been a very backward, androcentric medium. I strongly dislike brainless victims, subject to the whims of the male characters, without much agency, and Lucrecia was not such a character.

Lucrecia was an adult with agency and brains. She was a grown ass adult. She was a brilliant scientist. She made decisions with her eyes open, and even sacrificed her unborn child to her work. She is a very interesting character. The fact that she didn't idolize motherhood as the end-all of female existence, and that her obsession with her work was stronger than her desire to be a 'good mother' makes her far more interesting than otherwise. The fact that she regretted it later and wanted him back doesn’t magically make her a good person, or change the choices she made. It demonstrates guilt and remorse, which are part of character development. The bottom line is that she committed atrocities in the name of science, then felt guilty about it later, once she realized how devastating the consequences were to her personally. To say she didn’t know what she was doing or Hojo manipulated or controlled her is to infantilize and disrespect her character. She’s not some sacrificial angel who was a victim of circumstances; she was a willing participant in her own downfall.

Lucrecia is a tragic character, but she's not a romantic lead. Except in Vincent's head. After all was said and done, she had one of those too-late changes of heart that make tragedy so emotionally impactful. She had a human reaction to Vincent's death and felt terribly guilty for her role in all of it, as she should. That doesn't mean she loved him, it means she wasn't a monster. She lost her son, and gradually, Hojo's callous inhumanity and her inability to escape the net she wove with her own hands closed in on her. Did she deserve to never hold her baby son and never see him even once? No. But she caused it, with her own actions. That's tragedy. She was miserable, bereft, and riddled with guilt, so she made a last-ditch effort to make something right...by doing more insane science shit that turned Vincent into a monster. Seeing that she'd only made everything worse, she tried to kill herself, but was unable to, and thus ran off to become a crystal statue in a cave (this is a trope that I dislike, but that's the story, so that's what we've got).

Vincent is a bad judge of the circumstances. Vincent persists in seeing her as a lost love, and someone from whom he was unjustly separated by circumstances. The fact that he is so blinded by his feelings for her that he places her on this pedestal and can't blame her for what she did is excellent characterization, and I love it, but it's because he’s wrong. He loved her. She didn’t love him (I think she was in love with his father, but that's just icing on the tragedy cake, at this point). His lingering attachment, not to the real Lucrecia, but to the idealized version of her he has in his mind, is a very sad reality that adds so much delicious pain to his character. In the end, he is unable to blame her, because he loved his image of her (and Hojo is a way easier target for anger, because he's literally the worst), which speaks far more to his personal bias in the situation than to her actual role in it. She’s not moustache-twirlingly evil like Hojo but she’s not Vincent's star cross'd soul mate tragically torn away by cruel fate. Lucrecia was her own person.

In summation. Their story is not a doomed romance, it's a complicated, messy, ugly tangle of thorns, and one of the best written tragedies in a game that literally bleeds tragedy from every orifice. It's got one-sided love, obsession, mad science, betrayal, jealousy, fetal experimentation, murder, corpse reanimation, and a guy who can't die, and is left to deal with the consequences of everyone else's actions by himself forever. No one is innocent and no one comes out unscathed…strike that. Vincent is innocent and Hojo comes out unscathed. But still. Lucrecia is not a holy mother, she's not a brainless victim, and she's not Vincent's lost love. She's a person he loved, and who didn't reciprocate. Most importantly, she's a person. A whole-ass, complex, morally grey, fully developed person, who made terrible choices, then made even worse choices, and in the end, couldn't escape the fate she wove for herself.

And then wound up encased in crystal so she could be a pretty statue forever cause the game devs just couldn't help themselves I guess.

[heylittleriotact]

𝐢 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒

𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐱 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐀𝐔

𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨.

This is a link to ao3 because apparently tumblr doesn't feel like auto-formatting links today.

Her head hurt.

Oh it hurt terribly.

‘I’m getting a bit too old for these, I think,’ she had smirked before tipping back a jagerbomb the night before. 

She’d been saying that for almost a year - every time she knocked back a shot of something sweet and boozy. And every time for almost a year, she ended up waking up in the morning feeling nauseous with a vicious headache and a general feeling of well-deserved malaise.

She was only 25: still young enough to party, but there was no denying that the consequence-free era of staying up until the sun rose and doing it all over again the next night was little more than a fond memory of her late teens. 

Staring up at the ceiling, roused by her 7:10 alarm, she decided there was a distinct possibility she was still slightly drunk. 

She’d woken up with her phone in her hand, her messaging app still open on the last message Emmrich had sent her.

Goodnight, Rook.

It had taken her a hot minute to recall their brief exchange in the early, drunken hours of the morning, and she’d forgotten sending him a selfie all together until she saw it with her own eyes.

“Goddammit…” she hissed at her own traitorous visage, snarling up at her from the phone defiantly, tits squeezed together, and fingers parted in the shape of a peace sign. “‘Thanks for looking after my headphones’ - heart emoji?!” Her stomach twisted on itself and threatened to vacate her body entirely through whichever orifice was most convenient. “Fuck me…” 

She quickly scanned through the rest of the messages again to ensure that she hadn’t said anything else incredibly foolish that she had missed earlier. Blessedly, the blatantly flirtatious selfie appeared to be the only mortifying thing her wasted ass had taken upon itself to send Emmrich the night before. 

Drunk Rook had all the impulse control of a toddler given unsupervised access to unlimited quantities of sugar and then set loose in a toy store. Except instead of sugar, it was liquor and party drugs, and instead of a toy store, it was apparently the repressed and horny corners of her mind. 

Or… or something.

She didn’t have time to try and divine the inebriated reasoning behind her decision to harass Emmrich in the middle of the night: she needed to get ready for work and pray that she could pass herself off as some imitation of a reasonably put together human at work that day. 

She showered and dried her hair, strange little jabs and jolts of adrenaline coursing through her gut whenever her mind wandered back to those words: Goodnight, Rook - which it appeared to be doing a lot. 

Alright, so maybe she had developed a bit of a crush on him, but in her defense, she couldn’t begin to tell where the fuck it had come from.

Truth be told, she had been sort of hoping he’d offer to drive her home the day before, because she was rapidly realizing that once she got over herself and gave him a chance, Emmrich wasn’t terrible to be around.

It wasn’t just his actions, but his energy alone was notably unthreatening despite Rook’s best attempts at talking herself into believing it was: most people that wanted something from her set something off in her mind - triggered a very sensitive and unforgiving defense mechanism to put herself as far away from the person setting her off as she could. 

But… Emmrich didn’t. He might have at first, but everyone did, and she was increasingly finding herself looking forward to their interactions... so much so that apparently when she was hammered, she felt inclined to send him pictures of herself after he texted her exactly one time to kindly let her know that she’d forgotten her headphones in his car.

Am… am I the creep?  

Lovely. Like ‘Professor Volkarin’ hasn’t got enough hot-to-trot raven-haired-death-groupies probably panting after him in his embalming course…

“Fuuuuuck!” She groaned, feeling terrible for her plight as she shrugged on her jacket and wrapped a scarf around her face. She flung open her apartment door and jabbed an accusatory finger at the rather sad potted Norfolk Pine in the corner and snapped, “Perk up!” Before slamming the door behind her. 

He wasn’t scheduled for any arrangements by the time he got in, but he had known from the service schedule released towards the end of the previous day that he was leading a service that morning. He’d done the arrangements with the family - it would be a fairly sizable funeral: services for younger people were always well-attended, with plenty of friends and family and colleagues to make an appearance to support one another through a difficult time.

And a difficult time it was: Helen Gardner had been only 56 when she succumbed to the pancreatic cancer that ravaged her in less than a year, robbing the healthy, active paralegal of her strength and vitality with harrowing efficiency. Her deeply bereaved husband, Todd, explained this to Emmrich at the arrangement meeting. Told him that a year earlier she had completed her fifth triathlon.

All it took was a routine blood test with a handful of abnormalities to start the avalanche of panels and scans and treatments, and despite her hard-fought battle, Helen Gardner was shuffled off the mortal coil with the same cold, uncaring hands of Death that would touch all living things eventually.  

Emmrich wasn’t far off from her age. He was 52.

Having done this work for decades, there were few things that made him uncomfortable anymore, but working with a decedent that was similar in age to him never sat right: it hit too close to home - was too thorough of a reminder that yes, Emmrich Volkarin, this will be you one day too - and that day may come sooner than you think. 

But just because he was unsettled by the reality of his own mortality, that didn’t change the fact that he had a job to do: someone had died, and those who loved and knew her were left behind to pick up the pieces.

So Emmrich did what he’d done for twenty-seven years, and he brushed his own fear and discomfort under the rug, politely dismissing it from his psyche because the Gardner family and their bereavement took precedence over something as silly and unimportant as his own crippling fear of death. 

He set himself up in a free arrangement office, and powered on his laptop, opening the file containing all of the information and details for Mrs. Gardner’s service and sending it to the printer in the main office. 

“Good morning, Rook,” he said brightly, sweeping past her to retrieve the print out of the file. 

He received a dismissive grunt in return and he turned to see her hunched over her desk, head resting heavily on one hand as she scrolled through the bevy of emails that had come in overnight. She didn’t look at him. 

Folding the file in half and tucking it into the inside pocket of his jacket, he rounded the desk and picked up the clipboard that held the printed service schedule for the day: he’d forgotten which funeral attendants were scheduled on the Gardner service with him.

It was silent apart from the familiar Tchaikovsky violin concerto playing over the speakers throughout the chapel, and the occasional ‘click’ of Rook tapping the down arrow key to read the next email on the list.

She looked miserable: her eyes were dull and dark circles lingered around them. Her skin was somewhat ashen, even with makeup, and she’d skipped her trademark scarlet lip-stick - the shade she was wearing in the picture she’d sent him.

Still holding the clipboard, Emmrich reached into his pocket and withdrew the blue headphone case, extending it to Rook with a soft clearing of his throat. 

Her eyes flicked from the monitor to his outstretched hand and an unmistakable flush of colour blossomed over the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. She snatched the case from his hand, eyes locked back on the computer screen. “Thanks,” she said distantly, very, very intently reading her emails.

Despite decades of adhering to a high standard of conduct in the workplace, and the fact that he considered himself a consummate professional, that bloom of colour on her face went straight to his cock.

It meant she wasn’t so inebriated that morning that she had no memory of their messages. It meant that she was just as aware of the selfie and their ensuing conversation as he was. It meant that she felt some sort of way about it.

“Did you have a nice evening?” He inquired, genuinely wanting to know.

Her slightly bloodshot eyes remained on the screen and she yanked a tissue from the box on her desk, blowing her nose loudly before sniffling and saying, “Too nice of an evening, if I’m being honest.” She wadded up the tissue and binned it, reaching for another one. 

Emmrich couldn’t keep the wry smile from appearing on his lips: she clearly hadn’t limited herself to drinking if the fountain of snot pouring out of her face was anything to go by.

“It sounded like it: you accidentally pocket-dialed me at one point.”

He could just shut up. He could not mention any of this and go on with his day and rub one out at lunch in an attempt to get this out of his system like a normal person, but no. He kept talking.

“Forgive me for unintentionally eavesdropping, but it sounded like you were on a date.” He flipped to the next page of the schedule, hoping he sounded nonchalant - just a co-worker asking another co-worker about their night in an attempt at making friendly conversation.

“I pocket-dialed you?!” Rook’s eyes widened, panic clear. “When?”

“Around eleven.”

She put her face in her hands and rubbed her eyes. “Fuck. Sorry. You must think I’m a complete fucking loser. My friend’s band was playing last night, and my old roommate Leon met me at the bar and he’s… oh man he’s a bad influence. I got pretty sloppy, and I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

Was he hearing this correctly? Was she apologizing to him instead of leaping down his throat for listening in on her private conversation? And ‘old roommate’? So it wasn’t a date…

Suddenly his whole day seemed better, even with the impending funeral of a woman four years older than himself. 

“No harm done. Nothing wrong with a bit of harmless fun,” he assured her, finally finding the page with the service he was leading, and - oh… interesting. “Were you aware that you’ve been scheduled on the service this morning?” He held up the clipboard, indicating her name on the list of personnel, along with another student named Elijah Frederick, and a part-timer, Jasper Blackwell. 

The clipboard was ripped from his hand. “What?!” She griped, staring at her name. “No one told me I’d be on a service today. I’ve never been scheduled on a service before!”

“Sunday staffing,” Emmrich reminded her. “There probably weren’t enough attendants working today between all the other services, so they put you on. It’ll be good for you to start gaining experience working funerals.” 

The tension in her face was palpable, and the image of her jeering up at the camera the night before waltzed through his mind: so confident and carefree. Something inside of him tugged at the thought of it, and something else simultaneously warned him away from the urge to follow it. 

“You’ll be just fine, Rook - I know it.” He smiled at her, hoping he’d put her mind somewhat at ease: all she had to do was go where he told her: he wasn’t going to put the stress of running the music or the memorial slideshow on her - Elijah had been with them long enough that he was trained and confident on sound, and Jasper was excellent at ushering, so that left the processional, and he'd be there to guide Rook through that. 

She groaned sullenly and took a long drink from the cup of black coffee in front of her. “And here I was hoping for a quiet day…” She looked up at the clock on the wall. “I haven’t seen Jasper or Elijah yet, and the flowers are already here - I saw them when I came in through the garage this morning…” she blew her nose one more time and stood, adjusting her skirt. “Better start setting up, I guess…” 

Hungover and complaining or not, this was what he appreciated about Rook: she may not want to, but she pulled her own weight and took initiative when the occasion called for it rather than hoping someone else would do the work for her. 

He followed her out of the office, through the foyer and into the garage. 

At least a dozen floral arrangements were set on the metal rack against the far wall past the hearse and the lead car - Todd Gardner had purchased the casket spray and two matching bouquets to be displayed at either end of the casket during arrangements, but the rest had been ordered and sent to the chapel by people who knew the Gardners and wished to express their condolences. 

It always warmed Emmrich’s heart to see the myriad ways that people supported and stood with the bereaved. Flowers, home-cooked meals, long embraces, and shared tears… humanity was indeed capable of seemingly depthless cruelty, but on the other side of the coin, the community that sprang up around those in pain was nothing short of awe-inspiring. 

They worked in relative silence, shuttling floral arrangements from the garage into the chapel. Rook had assisted with setting up enough services over the past few months that she required little direction, and the fact that she’d gone to bed around four in the morning seemingly did little to slow her down. 

Once the flowers were all stacked on pedestals of varying heights and freed of their plastic wrapping, they took the stairs to the lower level to bring Mrs. Gardner’s casket up to the visitation room. She was to be cremated after the service, but Mr. Bridges wished for her casket to be present at the funeral itself, and there would be a brief viewing for the immediate family just prior to the service. 

Emmrich held the prep room door open for Rook, allowing her inside first, much like he’d held the door open for her on the day of her interview. His eyes followed her as she passed him by, and the delicate scent of her perfume followed in her wake, diffusing into the air behind her and prompting the photo back into his mind - unbidden once again. 

Have some decency, he chided himself inwardly. The last thing I need is her accusing me of smelling her again…

“I think I’ll have you assist me with the processional, and Elijah can run sound. Jasper will usher and set up the reception.” He flipped on the lights and found Mrs. Bridges’ casket: a very distinguished oak, polished to a gleaming sheen. Expensive… and heavy. He carefully maneuvered it towards himself, mindful not to hit the other occupied caskets on either side. “That way if any other families arrive during the service and require assistance, you’ll be free to help: the processional will only take a few minutes, so once the service starts you can head back to the office and we’ll take it from there. If we need anything else, we’ll be sure to let you know, but I think between the three of us we can handle the rest of the service and the reception.” 

“What about the recessional?” Rook rounded the other side of the casket and placed her hands on the corners.

“The casket will stay in the chapel during the reception. No need to move it again until after the family has left.” Another easy smile. Another effortless reassurance.

Rook nodded, started pushing the casket, and together they guided it out of the room to the elevator. 

“Uh… Emmrich?” She said when the elevator doors closed behind them, something like worry dwelling on her face. 

“Yes, Rook?”

“Sorry for… sorry for being such a bitch over the past few months. You don’t deserve it, and you’ve been so nice and… and helpful since I started.”

The lift emitted a sanitary ‘ding’ to let them know they’d arrived at the main level. Emmrich felt his ears heat up and managed to close his mouth which he knew was slightly agape in reflexive shock at the unexpected and utterly contrite apology.

“Oh. Think nothing of it, Rook - you’re a pleasure to work with,” he willed another smile onto his face.

“I’m not. I’m short, and sarcastic, and mean.” 

They began wheeling the heavy casket towards the visitation room next to the main chapel. 

“You can be a bit… brusque at times, certainly, but I’ve never taken any offense.”

No. If anything her dry wit amused him. This profession was rife with good-hearted, compassionate, well-meaning doormats, and Rook Ingellvar was no such thing. Having worked under the Raffertys for as long as he had, he knew that those who walked through these doors unable to stand up for themselves were usually eaten alive in short order. Rook seemed especially resilient to the back-biting and bus-throwing that many of the established staff resorted to in order to stay on top. She didn’t seem compelled to sink to that level, but instead guarded her peace and stayed well clear of the frequent entanglements of ego that cropped up on a near daily basis amongst the hundred-odd staff.

“If you say so,” she conceded, not sounding convinced. 

They lined the casket up parallel to the wall in the visitation room, and Emmrich opened the upper half of the lid using the casket key he kept on his person. He removed the spread out piece of Kleenex that was covering her face, the lightness in his heart vanishing at the sight of poor Mrs. Gardner.

She was well-prepared - the staff that had embalmed her did an excellent job - but the frail, hollow shell of her corpse looked so unlike the image of the beaming, vivacious woman with sandy blonde hair and a toothy smile that graced the cover of the funeral programs designed and printed by the graphics department. 

To have so much potential… so many stories left waiting in the wings, forever unwritten… a fate so unjust and cruel that he could never quite wrap his head around it…

“‘S’cuse me - just need to fix the wheels…” Rook murmured, jolting Emmrich from his existential spiral as she slipped past him and dropped to her knees at the head end of the casket with all the effortless ease of someone half his age. 

He busied himself with ensuring Mrs. Gardner looked acceptable for the viewing prior to the service, but found himself watching Rook through the gap under his arm.

The corner of the casket nearest to him lifted ever so slightly as Rook braced her upper back against it and straightened slightly, relieving the bier of weight for long enough that she could reposition the wheel so it was facing outwards, aligned with the direction of the casket, then she crawled forward a few inches to do the same on the side closest to the wall.

Emmrich’s mouth went dry: Rook’s rear was inches from him, sticking up in the air as she squirmed under the other corner of the casket. Her skirt had hiked up a few inches and… goodness - was that lace? Black lace halfway up her thigh?

He felt a bit faint when she shifted again and the skirt pulled higher still, clearly revealing the scalloped edge of the black stocking coming to an end and revealing a combination of creamy white skin and the vividly coloured ink that had been injected into it: obscured patterns and designs that he found himself suddenly very curious about.

He became aware of the tightness of his pants in the vicinity of his crotch, and shame hurtled into him as his cock stirred at the sight before him, yet he couldn’t look away: he felt compelled by some depraved need to keep staring at the tight, curvaceous ass of his colleague as she went about her day, utterly ignorant to his lust.

Despite the impropriety of it, he simply couldn’t help but imagining what it would be like to slip his fingertips over the edge of those stockings and slip them down her long, toned legs… lifting her skirt a few more inches and—

“I would actually appreciate it if you stopped drooling over the young lady helping with my funeral like a pig and got on with your job.”

Emmrich started, and turned to face the origin of the voice: the pale, incorporeal specter of Helen Gardner, sitting in one of the armchairs against the wall, her legs crossed primly as she picked at a loose thread on her gray Chanel suit. Her face - thin skin stretched over bone, all fat and muscle stolen by months of cancer treatments - was set in a dubious expression befitting someone who had just caught someone else red-handed.

Him.

Rook didn’t surface from the bier at the sound of the voice: she carried on fussing away with the wheels like she hadn’t heard anything. 

Because she hadn’t. 

Only Emmrich could see and hear Mrs. Gardner.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, turning his attention back to the dead woman in the casket.

“Hm?” Rook grunted from under the casket.

“Nothing!” Emmrich said quickly.

“And fix my wig please - I never wore it like that: I always tucked some of the hair behind my left ear.” Mrs. Gardner’s ghost had risen from the armchair and joined Emmrich at her casket, resting her ghostly fingers on the edge and peering down into her own face, a strange expression on hers.

Not wanting to give Rook further cause to think there was anything odd going on, Emmrich nodded his understanding and quickly donned a pair of nitrile gloves. 

He tucked a strand of hair behind Mrs. Bridges’ left ear. “There,” he whispered. 

Rook, oblivious to all of this, moved behind them and set to work on the wheels at the foot end of the casket.

“You’re the only one who’s been able to see me,” Helen Bridges said, seemingly unable to remove her eyes from the body she once occupied. 

Emmrich nodded once, slowly, in confirmation. 

Mrs. Bridges let out a long sad sigh, and the temperature in the room dropped almost imperceptibly.

“We were supposed to be in Rivain this week… of course that was before I got sick and all of our plans changed…” She reached out and trailed her insubstantial fingers over her cold, firm cheek. “I was going to retire in the next few years and we - Todd and I… we were going to travel the world together…”

Her voice - distant and distorted like she was speaking through a tin can packed with cotton from the bottom of a swimming pool - wavered. 

“I fought so hard for him… for us… and now he’s alone...”

He isn’t, Emmrich wanted to say, but with Rook right there, he couldn’t, so instead he moved his hand a few inches to the right on the edge of the casket, feeling dreadful cold shock through his nerves as it came to rest on hers - in hers - lending her the closest thing he could to human touch… and comfort. 

“I doubt he’d even believe you if you told him, but… if… if you can find a way… can you… can you tell him I love him? And… that I’ll be waiting for him at the zebras: our first date was to the zoo, and we met by the zebra enclosure.” She finally managed to tear her gaze away from herself to look at Emmrich. “He’ll get it.”

Emmrich nodded again, and warmth flooded his hand as hers vanished. 

She meandered back to the pair of armchairs and sat down again, crossing her legs and lacing her fingers over her knee. “I think I’ll stay here a while longer,” she mused distantly. “Don’t wanna miss my big day…”

For the last time, Emmrich nodded - a cordial tip of the head, and he finished adjusting the casket.

Rook finally surfaced, finished with the wheels. She wriggled her skirt back down her thighs and dusted off her hands. 

“There!” She said cheerfully, grinning for the first time that day. “All done - oh.” Her smile faded at the sight of Emmrich’s rather blanched expression. “You uh… good, Emmrich? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

The irony of the observation was not lost on him.

She sat on the bus home after her shift, scarfed wrapped around her face, headphones absolutely fucking cranked, wishing for nothing more than a random, fatal embolism to kill her on the spot.

The rest of the set up and the funeral service itself had gone well.

The processional, set to ‘My Sweet Lord’ by George Harrison was… intense. Rook wasn’t sure if it was the song itself - chosen by Mrs. Gardner’s husband, or the fact that the three-hundred occupant capacity chapel was filled to the brim with friends, family, and loved ones. When the procession began and from the doors of the chapel Emmrich instructed everyone to please stand, and they did, and then they moved that heavy casket down the aisle, Mr. Gardner and the rest of the immediate family in tow…

It was… it was a lot. 

The love in that room was unmistakable: so powerful and tangible that for a moment, it almost seemed like it could be strong enough to reverse the very existence of Death itself, and bring the beloved woman back to life.

She didn’t think she’d ever forget that feeling.

Or maybe due to the combined effect of the cocaine and alcohol hangover, her dopamine starved brain was just reading into things too much.

This suspicion was all but confirmed when (for some reason) she plucked up the nerve after the service to ask Emmrich if he could drive her home instead of waiting - hoping - for him to offer. 

‘Oh dear… I’m terribly sorry, Rook - I can’t today. I’m afraid I have plans, and I need to head straight home.’

He looked truly pained to have to turn her down, and her stupid, blow-blasted brain betrayed her once again as the recent rejection stampeded through her mind and she was suddenly blinking away tears on the bus.

Stop it. Grow up. Holy fuck.

She forced a deep breath through her nose and tried to swallow past the tightness in her throat.

He doesn’t have plans. He thinks you’re a fucking weirdo and you’ve made him uncomfortable with your stupid selfies and heart emojis. You know better than anyone that unwanted attention from someone you work with is gross and awkward.

Idiot.

A tiny sob forced past her lips and she managed to disguise it as some sort of odd hiccup so that the people sitting around her on the bus weren’t subjected to the spectacle of a woman openly weeping as she listened to ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ by Prince because her kind-hearted coworker who was old enough to be her father had politely declined her request for a ride home due to the fact that he was a sentient human being with a life outside of catering to her.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and lifted her phone to read the message that had just come through - if it was Leon trying to get her to go out again tonight, he could shove it up his ass…

But it wasn’t. 

‘I truly feel terrible that I wasn’t able to drive you home tonight. I’m sorry. Please let me know when you get home safely? E.’

Oh.

That’s really nice of him.

He’s really nice…

[charmwasjess]

you know the drill

💔&🖤

Ohh, Boli, my love, you got me comin' in hot here:

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

Honestly? It’s Dooku. 

The films fail him as a character. He’s there to kill time between villains, foreshadow Anakin's fall, and because Lucas wanted a respected film icon in his prequels the way he had Cushing and Guinness in the OT.

"But Jess, he's your fav and you're uncomfortably horny about him on main?!" you might ask. Yes, Dooku has an incredible backstory, a huge amount of narrative and emotional complexity, and a burning pile of potential, but it is never addressed or expanded on in the films. He has no arc or dynamic development - even his political scenes with Padme hit the cutting room floor. His motives for leaving the Order or joining the Sith are confused at best, shunted to supplemental canon, and the fake war plot is arguably one of the weakest and most confusing aspects of the prequels. He isn’t even given last words; fitting in the scene, also a perfect summary for how the character is used in the narrative. 

Imagining him gone is also an interesting possible fix-it recipe. So: lil' baby Doo gets turned into a spinewolf snackpack back in bby 101 or whatever and never exists. Okay, without Dooku there to save his life, teenaged Sifo-Dyas is either a. smashed by a falling city, b. drowned in hospital basement bacta flood, or c. tortured to death by Evil Moss (holy shit Dooku rescues him a LOT in that damn book). Between the two of them, that means the clone army is out. And if Qui-Gon had a different Master, one who actually put their foot down about the prophecy holocron instead of codependently indulging him, would he still have gotten obsessed with it to the point that it built into his obsession with the Chosen One and actions with Anakin? Maybe, maybe.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

It’s ironic that my man Qui-Gon has become the canon poster child for The Only Truest Goodest Jedi, the exception to the so-called arrogance of the late stage Order, when his actions in Phantom Menace are a laundry list of things people routinely blame the Jedi for doing. Now, I love Qui-Gon, he’s my first favorite character, but let me just give a quick bad faith summary of his actions in TPM just to prove my point before I round back around:

convinces an enslaved child to participate in a deadly race, then buys the child from profits gained from betting on the race’s outcome

blatantly ignores priorities of intergalactic crisis to pursue the goals of his own fringe spiritual beliefs and conspiracy theories

takes said untrained 9 year old child into active combat after being told expressly not to train him 

Of course, this is a bad faith summary: all those decisions have greater nuance and narrative context. (Tho, actually, why did Anakin come to Naboo... nevermind) This is not to say I think Qui-Gon is secretly bad or something.

But I think people reduce Qui-Gon down to:

Qui-Gon follows his instincts to commune with plants and rescue cute animals :3 

When the reality is (also!):

Qui-Gon follows his instincts to do some morally dubious bad optics shit that works out for him by the end, which is a thing he learned to do from watching Dooku break shit with no consequences btw, and not a uniquely different approach from all other Jedi

I've said it before, I'll say it a thousand times: let Qui-Gon be a beautiful problem, that is part of the joy of the character!  

[accioepiphany]

I've come to peace with the way I feel about season 3. And I think it's still glorious at times and if you take each episode by itself, quite great. But as a whole, and as a series that needs to follow a group of characters it does gets lost and erases some of the characters' traits and progress that we had already seen, which by the end produces an accumulation of disappointment that is hard to rub off.

I do think its main issues could be summarized in three of the non-negotiables Carmy kept breaking throughout the season:

Focus

Carmy clearly gets out of the walk-in with the goal in mind to fix all his wrongs and he thinks the way to do that is by hyper focusing on his wrongdoings. Somehow, if he is aware of his mistakes he will be able to be one step ahead of them. Or at least that is what he thinks… you have him asking Ebra if he is fucking up, he takes Syd’s notes on a dish he creates as if it is his mistake that he didn't think of it better. But that's where he is wrong. This is not about him. And Syd calls him out on it in episode two, when she tells him that he is making it again about himself. He is so focused on himself that he fails to see everyone else's suggestions and attempts at collaborating with him. He is unfocused on the team…

And so is the show. It lacks so much focus on where the characters should go, it's part of why it feels so aimless. It's trying to do ten things at the same time and none truly. It´s trying to make Claire happen while never really giving it space and actual scenes. Just a bunch of flashbacks. It wants to take us into Carmy's brain without being too certain of what's in there, hyper focusing on his trauma and forgetting the Carmy we met on season 1 who was an asshole, but one that cared. So the focus is not on the people, which is so ironic with having Chef Terry say people forget the food but not the people they had it with.

Which brings me to the second point:

Vibrant Collaboration

Carmy’s non-negotiables have trapped him in a prison of his own that has closed up any attempt anyone might have of actually collaborating with him. So his vibrant collaboration is actually him imposing his ideas on everyone and maybe letting them work over them. Which is why we don't see many of the scenes we had in season 2 of him brainstorming with Syd. Just him being stubborn.

And the show also lacks a proper integration of its characters. Giving way too many screen time to the Faks, the people less integrated to the kitchen. Failing to incorporate Tina's and Marcus' ideas, which they are so enthusiastically developing, but never even get the chance to share. except for sparse acknowledgements by Syd, Nat and each other, that doesn't really take them anywhere. We get beautiful conversations among some characters that lead to nowhere, no consequence, and just because of that, makes them feel repetitive and a waste of time...

Every Second Counts

Which leads me to one of the prime phrases of The Bear, one with so many layers, that is what made it such a protagonist last season and what made Forks so poignant. It's the embodiment of being in the present, and not wasting time, because every second it's precious, which is why if you are not living it, consciously, to its fullest, then what are you doing?

And Carmy is so trapped in his past, thinking this is what will make him not waste time, that it ends up being the opposite, because he cannot just be in the moment and enjoy what he currently has at all.

Sadly, this season has a similar problem and has too many flashbacks and side-plots that drag and just doesn't move forward and kind of waste the very valuable seconds each episode has.

I still love this show and its characters, and I still truly believe it can pivot in season 4, specially if the creators were trying to set the ground with season 3 for maybe more action in season 4. But, I think it's also important to point out when it doesn't go well, as everyone did this season with Carmy, trying to tell him his non-negotiables where ruining everything. I just hope, different from Carmy, the creators of The Bear can listen and change.

[idkwhatimdoingbutslay]

… I can’t imagine that we actually watched the same show. Like I REALLY AISNSOSNWKMEJDND

hold on I’m gonna need to calm down.

Let me just make a list of why I disagree and at least organize my anger. Long post incoming.

Vander was friends and had a deal with Grayson. The sheriff. Idk what else to even add to that

Caitlyn is more than a cop and Arcane isn’t copaganda. Genuinely don’t know what kind of progress some of these people are looking for. Real allies are a necessity for real progress.

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR. HE FUNNELLED DRUGS INTO THE UNDERCITY AND PUT POOR KIDS IN FACTORIES FOR THAT DRUG FOR PROFIT!!! HE PAID THE ENFORCERS TO LET HIM DO IT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE

Vi is not as much as an activist as you would like to believe

WHY IS EKKO NEVER EVER BROUGHT UP IN THESE CONVERSATIONS????

Silco was not good for the Undercity

Silco was not a great guy. Ekko had to build an entire separate hidden community for the people he hurt and stepped on for his own benefit

Caitlyn is ignorant and naive. That’s ok. That’s what character development is for.

Loving imperfect characters like Silco and Jinx then hating characters like Vi and Caitlyn is peak media illiteracy to me

FOR THE LAST TIME: VI DIDNT ABANDON POWDER!!!!! Silco literally wanted Vi DEAD for trying to stop him from killing Vander??? How could you possibly say silco was there for jinx when Vi refused to be???? SHE WAS IN PRISON BECAUSE OF HIM???

Silco’s manipulation is working wonders on y’all

Embracing all the outrage without at all looking out for the people harmed by bigotry is not activism

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR x929282929394

Caitlyn was the first person in years to show Vi kindness and care. She listened and stuck by her and took care of her after Vi was locked up for years and beat up by cops (i wonder what led her to be thrown in there?). Cait being a cop stopped being a point of contention once Vi recognized her naivety and genuineness.

NUANCE NUANCE NUANCE. ITS NEVER EVER BLACK AND WHITE

The only way I can see Vi touching ‘class traitor’ in season one was the shimmer raid. Guess who the hell put those kids in there in the first place.

Just hanging out with Caitlyn isn’t being a class traitor if Vander’s allowed to be friends with Grayson.

Critical thinking is very necessary for watching shows like Arcane

What the hell did Silco really do for the Undercity???? What changed over the 7(ish) years he was basically in power of the place? All I’ve heard was he made the air cleaner, which would be great except for, you know, shimmer and the child factory workers

Jinx is unwell and feeding into it like this in a fully serious manor would not help Arcane as a show at all

What do you want Arcane’s message as a full show to be? ‘Screw cops’? That’s a little boring and unproductive isn’t it?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT EKKO AND HIS IMPACT PLEASE???? x9382728283

Caitlyn is trying to make Piltover and Zaun a better place. Is that not allowed? Am I missing something?

Caitlyn and Vi’s arcs have only just started. Season one is basically fully set up except for characters like silco and Jinx. This is far from the end.

Genuinely think Vander would appreciate Vi for being friends (using this term loosely because they are in love) with Caitlyn considering he was the one who was opposed to war and Vi wasn’t.

Silco should NOT be your idea of Undercity independence and respect. He oppressed the Undercity the same way the Council and the Enforcers did. He helped no one but himself, his team (barely) and Jinx.

You’re allowed to like and dislike any character you want but pretending like Silco is better for the Undercity than others is just so ridiculous to me. Everyone is of course completely allowed to like Silco, but we can’t pretend like he’s this stand up guy. If you have to pretend like he was, maybe you don’t like him as much as you think.

“Because Cait’s pretty” is also incredibly incorrect. Go check point #14.

Vi never stopped loving and caring for Powder. Powder’s mental health issues were amplified and utilized by Silco because he couldn’t even heal himself.

If all of your opinions of Caitlyn and Vi start and end with “cops suck” and “class traitor” then you genuinely don’t respect Arcane as a show enough to show you nuance.

The misinterpretation of characters is just so … it’s like you go out of your way to love and/or hate characters no matter how much they show you who you are.

Your closed mindedness is clouding your judgement and making you out to seem like you don’t actually want the Undercity’s triumph, you want Silco and Jinx’s, even if it means ruining the Undercity. And that would be fine because father/daughter evil duo but trying to say you’re all for this duo because you want what’s better for the Undercity when they continue to hurt it is simply not correct and very harmful (to fictional characters in a fictional universe 😭)

Only being able to understand how Silco and Jinx were oppressed and therefore should be able to not just destroy Piltover but also Zaun is not the eat you think it is

Why is Viktor never called a class traitor? I think he's great (I also think Silco and Jinx are wonderfully written) but we hardly saw him in the Undercity/ interact with people from the Undercity plus he killed someone (Sky) from there (accidentally)

EDIT TO ADD ANOTHER POINT: Caitlyn has shown little to NO malicious intent and has no real negative impacts other than Jinx’s attachment issues and insecurities being amplified by her mere existence. Again, this is her story and development. Throughout the season she is exposed to reality and recognizes her and her peers/ families wrongs. I have no idea what you want from this character. Should Piltover just be gotten rid of in the story? Then what? Should Caitlyn have just never gotten involved and continued to embrace her privilege? Should she have left Vi in prison and stay ignorant?

[epickiya722]

Do you think the reason people misunderstand Midoriya, Bakugou, Uraraka, etc. is because they misunderstand Horikoshi himself?

Like, people say chapter 431 doesn't contribute to the story, but I think that's wrong to an extent, since it does give closure to Ochako's character arc, which is her dealing about her feelings for Izuku (Hori probably got bored of the money to her parents motivation, since it's never brought up again). I think Izuku/Ochako was always Horikoshi's intention since he does mention that he planned her and Izuku to have several scenes, but like many shonen authors, he simply sucks at writing a proper romance or developing a female lead beyond pining for the hero, leading to Ochako becoming less prominent as he couldn't find a better role for her outside of being the token heroine that deals with the token female villain.

(His treatment of other female characters in this manga is also not the best it could be, but that's a talk for another day)

Meanwhile, he became more invested in writing Bakugou, likely due to popularity reasons (Horikoshi is famously scared of cancellation due to prior traumas with Oumagadoki Zoo and Barrage. It's why we had annual popularity polls). As a consequence, the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki became a lot more focused, which contributed to the popularity of the ship. However, I don't think this was ever intentional from Horikoshi's part, since again, he doesn't know how to write a proper romance, let alone a queer one. It's his own take of a Naruto/Sasuke-esque rivalry with lots of emotional tension, which he DOES know how to write due to growing up with Naruto, and it's arguably better written because he actually tries to explore the psyches of everyone involved. But at no point I think he even considered making an actual gay couple, especially since his exploration of rather sensitive topics like LGBT rights and racism are not particularly well-thought, even if well-meaning. Magne and Toga end up evil and dead simply for trying to find liberty in an oppressive society, and Shoji's discrimination plotline is squished in the story at the last minute despite its inherent potential. This all tells me that he's not really this overly progressive, status quo-shattering mangaka that some people believe him to be, he's just a guy writing a superhero story that sometimes deals with social issues, akin to the X-Men.

In the end, I think Horikoshi just decided to end things the way he planned from the start, while not giving much thought to the middle. He did make Ochako's feelings a plot point, so he had to give some closure to that, but alas, he didn't give it the development it deserved beforehand. It was always in the back of his mind as he always sprinkled those "Ochako is crushing again" moments here and there, but never had it as a priority in the story due to the popularity of the main duo + Shouto and his dad, thus chapter 431.

That said, Horikoshi is still an amazing mangaka, but like many others, he is still learning, especially now that he is no longer some obscure creator and has to deal with the usual trappings of fame. He probably never expected MHA to be as huge as it is and it genuinely caught him offguard.

Could be that people do misunderstood Horikoshi's writing. There's many writing styles out there. And really depending on the individual who cross a specific writing style they can either understand it or don't.

I, myself, don't think I'm an expert on any writing style except for my own.

I do think Horikoshi didn't expect MHA to become as popular as it did, especially when his previous works didn't even run that long. (I did enjoy OZ though, that was fun.)

During the years, with that rising popularity it could be that he had to keep building up the plot and I felt like had he had more prepared and probably had more time some of the plot lines could have been handled better.

He just had to experiment along the way while also going by the words of his editors and assistants. (There was also Horikoshi's health issues which hindered some creative development. How relatable.) So there some things he could and couldn't do. I mean part of the ending we got wasn't even the original ending we had in mind, not completely. One element of that OG ending (Movie: Heroes Rising) he did keep that I can think of is Midoriya losing OFA. Which was something that definitely coming.

Also, another factor of that misunderstanding of Horikoshi's writing are cultural and experience differences.

Now with Ochako and her crush, I'll be honest, even though it was "obvious" she's the supposed "love interest", I still don't think Horikoshi intended for her to only be known as that, let alone probably not really one at all.

Horikoshi has written female leads before and they're not written to be a love interest. (Shoutout to Hana Aoi, I adore her. Always doing her best.) Ochako didn't begin the story liking Izuku like that and that crush came later in the story. Heck, going back, a lot of their earlier moments I wouldn't consider "romantic". Just more like "look at these silly kids".

You mentioned Horikoshi stated he wanted to add more scenes for Izuku and Ochako, but what kind of scenes?

I get it as in more scenes in general. When thinking about it because as the story gets to the ending, Izuku doesn't have a lot of scenes with Shoto or Tenya who like Ochako he did become good friends with in the earlier parts of the story.

You know what, to me it seems like the first half of MHA was Izuku building up those bonds with the people in his class and the latter half became him kind of coming to grips on his responsibility as the last/ninth OFA user. First half of those building bonds kind of works because come later those friends do come in clutch for him in the second half.

But anyways!

With the romance, Horikoshi may not actually want to write it, no matter the gender. But probably went to add it in much later because it what draws some parts of the fandom in.

Who really knows, but Horikoshi?

I don't know, he never seem like the kind of mangaka who has cares to throw in a love plot (at least for the leads) in his stories.

I'm not an expert on his writing, I'm still trying to understand it myself. However, I do think his style is misunderstood.

Whose isn't?

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for 2023: 20K - 40K words

So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!

Alliance!Adrien’s AI is self-writing, enabling him to grow and change and adapt. As he learns and starts analyzing some of his own systems, he finds some disquieting correlations. Why are there such strong connections between akuma attacks and the Alliance network?

Fu keeps on trying to give Marinette Miraculouses. Marinette refuses to cooperate.

Chat is happy with the person Fu chose to succeed him as Guardian, but confused. Why did he choose Multimouse?

One of Hawk Moth’s akuma attacks ends tragically, with many dead, Adrien in critical condition, and Chat Noir MIA. Alya’s prepared to go to extremes to save the people she cares about, if it comes to it.

In Kuro Neko, Adrien decides to seal off his more rebellious, wilder side, in order to make himself into the perfect partner for Ladybug. This has unintended consequences.

Chat Noir suddenly turns on Ladybug, joining up with Monarch as Cat Walker. Marinette’s devastated. At least she still has Adrien by her side.

Nino offers to fake-date Adrien in order to get the paparazzi off his back. He starts to wish it wasn’t fake.

All this and more below the break!

---

The Ghost in the Machine by @jheqiawrites

As part of this function, Adrien knew about Monarch, the akuma butterflies, the victims, and, of course Ladybug and Cat Noir, the heroes of Paris. He was authorized to contact the Ladyblog as well as the citywide alert system if one of his platforms was active during an akuma manifestation, allowing his friends to get somewhere safe until Ladybug and Cat Noir could deal with the situation

While the necessity of these functions was disconcerting, it was programmed to be his routine so he gradually grew used to the inconsistencies. After all, humans tended to be selfish, highly inconsistent, and often flighty, but once you had observed them for a while an intelligence such as his could begin to see the patterns.

That is until she came online.

This is just a beautiful, though bittersweet story. I adore how Alliance!Adrien grows and changes throughout the story, how he develops as a person. He starts off not being able to figure out what he’s feeling, needing to make new modules in order to try to process the emotions he has welling up, and not totally understanding his own reactions. But as time goes on he grows and gets a better handle on himself. This isn’t an “evil AI” story, he’s just a person who’s slowly figuring out who he is and how to handle himself. 

Not that it’s entirely about Adrien Alliance figuring out his own emotions, there’s other things going on as well. He’s worried about why there seems to be weird surges in the Alliance Network right before akumas attack, for instance, and why the details about the reason for that seem to be hidden from him, making him more paranoid about the Alliance system the more he looks into it...

 It’s just... it’s really good and absolutely worth a read. 

---

Thanks, But No by @pauliestorylover

For every miraculous that Fu cupped in his palms, an image of the same blue-eyed girl flashed through his mind. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was born to hold the miraculous—she resonated with every single one of them far better than even the late Celestial Guardian, and it was Fu’s duty as the last Guardian not to allow such talent to slip through his hands.

Too bad Marinette wasn’t on the same page.

Or; au where Master Fu keeps throwing miraculous at Marinette hoping one will stick, Marinette goes around handing out miraculous like candy, and Wayzz has never seen anything so ridiculous in his millennia-long lifespan.

This one’s fun. Everyone except for Adrien ends up with a different Miraculous than in canon, and it’s really interesting to see how they all adapt. Marinette’s thorough noping out is pretty funny too, and there’s some sweet bits of Adrino and Alyanette in here!

---

The Power of Love by @nedjsmlfavs

In which Ladybug announces that she’s pregnant via her long term boyfriend and Chat Noir is a supportive partner. After all, he can hardly be upset when he’s been dating his Princess for years!

A different take on the show’s tagline (“The Power of Love Always so Strong”) written for Valentine’s day 2023.

This is just a sweet, fluffy fic about Ladybug and Chat Noir finding out they’re having a baby, revealing to each other, getting married, and becoming parents. Gabriel actually tries to do better here, as he does actually care about getting to know his grandchild, and realizes that he can’t undo this timeline without undoing his granddaughter’s existence as well. 

---

Radio Silence by @into-september

When an inexplicable change between Marinette and Adrien brings the two closer than ever, Alya is left on the outside of a secret too confounding to be about cheesemaking or puppy love.

[No S4 AU]

This is a wonderful Alya-centric fic, with her just being baffled by Marinette’s and Adrien’s newfound closeness. But it’s not all about her being puzzled by the Lovesquare. Things really get rolling when Lila makes her entrance and Marinette and Adrien are particularly hostile to her, with Alya being confused about it and thinking there must be a misunderstanding here, somewhere, even with Lila saying something she KNOWS can’t be true - partially because she doesn’t want to believe she’s been fooled all this time.

But this isn’t a saltfic. Alya’s treated like a full person, and her perspective and thoughts are given credence. She and Marinette talk things out in depth, with both of them feeling badly for accidentally hurting the other person, and reassuring each other (Marinette also told a lie, though unbeknownst to Alya, it was connected to her being a superhero. Alya, however, didn’t know that, and just knew that Marinette lied to her for no clear reason), and they make up. It’s really nice and treats the characters with love and respect.

It’s got a lot of similarities to The Investigation by @11jj11, so if you liked that fic, you’ll probably like this one too.

---

I’ll give myself a name (something stupid and pretentious) by @bbutterflies

Nino looked at the number and didn’t recognize it. Usually he wouldn’t answer, but he had nothing better to do – and could still really use a distraction – so he did. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nino.”

Nino stood up quickly, chest tightening. He knew that voice. He’d been waiting to hear it again for over two years. “Adrien?” he whispered.

“Yeah. It’s me."

-

When Monarch is defeated (and revealed to be Gabriel Agreste), Chat Noir immediately goes missing. Adrien disappears not long after. When Adrien finally shows up in Paris again, Nino would do anything to make sure he doesn't disappear again.

Ah this is lovely, Adrien’s been in a lot of emotional turmoil since Monarch’s defeat, convinced that everyone would hate him, SHOULD hate him, for not realizing that his father was the villain, and should hate him even more for disappearing like he does. But slowly Marinette and Nino get through to him, convince him that they just want him back. 

And also Adrien and Nino smooch. Multiple times. So that’s a bonus XD.

---

The New Guardian Is... Multimouse?  by The_Rabbit42

During the events of Miracle Queen, Master Fu passes on the role of guardian to a surprising successor... Multimouse! Marinette is frustrated, Alya is confused, and Chat Noir is oddly pleased. How will this affect Marinette's friendships and partnership on both sides of her identity? How will this affect Adrien's view of the girls in his life? And how long will they keep it together?

I adore this fic! It diverges from the season 3 ending, with Multimouse - who Chat knows is Marinette, becoming Guardian instead of Ladybug. Which leads to some ripple effects, like Marinette not confessing her identity to Alya, since she’s able to get some support from Chat when he drops by her house. Not that that stops tension from building between Ladybug and Chat Noir, since she won’t just let Chat go and get a Miraculous from Marinette during a battle, and she won’t tell him why, leading him to think that she just dislikes Marinette or doesn’t trust him to get Miraculous like she does. But even while all this tension is building between Ladybug and Chat Noir, Chat’s still able to talk to Marinette, air his feelings in ways he doesn’t feel like he should do with Ladybug, and it’s all a great, complicated situation that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing unfold!

---

Two Steps Back (One Step Forward) by @buggachat

Sure, Adrien hadn't been texting her as often as he used to. And sure, Nino noticed it too. But just because Adrien had struggled with depression in the past, didn't mean he was struggling now. Surely, he'd tell her if something was wrong. Right?

Marinette just missed him, and she had a tendency to catastrophize. Surely, he was fine.

But if he wasn't... well, she wasn't above hopping on a flight back to Paris to make sure.

—————

Marinette's at an internship in New York, and Adrien has a depression relapse.

Once again buggachat comes out swinging with a fic centered around Adrien being super depressed and his friends charging in to help him, despite him not wanting them to because he feels like a burden. It’s not easy and Marinette goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, especially since his apartment is in bad enough shape that it can’t be changed to something that a human should be living in without also going shopping, but gradually she helps drag Adrien out of the hole he’s gotten himself stuck in. The emotions are on point and just... if you want to read a hurt/comfort fic with Found Family helping one of their own who’s struggling and doesn’t think they deserve it, this is a great fic to read.

---

If only I could break free by megetstoread

It started with Adrien being upset about going away, but led to a lot of revelations.  

Another Sentiadrien fic here! After telling Adrien that he’s being sent to London, Gabriel takes advantage of Adrien being distraught to akumatize him. Luckily Ladybug’s right there and deakumatizes him before he can even do anything, but it shakes both her and Chat, leading to her allowing him to tell her a lot more about his home life than usual, and for her and Adrien to investigate to see whether there might be more to Adrien’s inability to stand against his father than just psychological abuse.

---

Skinny Dipping in the Seine by whensparksfly

When Marinette and Chat Noir cross paths one stormy night, an unexpected friendship blossoms, and between the two of them they’re both able to admit what they’ve been looking for the most — freedom. Vowing to tackle all of the things they’ve never tried before, they set out on a series of adventures to complete their bucket lists.

Cute little Marichat fic here! Just Marinette and Chat Noir hanging out and doing things they’ve always wanted to do, like going to a rave or, well, skinny-dipping in the Seine.

---

Nor No Man Ever Loved by @jheqiawrites

It starts with a gift to cheer up a friend, a friend Marinette's heart is trying to move on from. But when she is blatantly confronted with her feelings by the most unexpected person, Marinette's life takes a turn for the better.

Welcome to my Adrienette April story. It is based around Shakespeare's Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds. Each chapter will be framed around part of the sonnet and should be able to stand alone, though the story itself will all be tied together.

This is a nice little story, mostly focusing on Marinette’s perspective while being there for Adrien, WITH Adrien, while dealing with his father and the aftermath of his father’s takedown. We do get some perspective from Adrien though for things like his therapist appointments. I really like that it covered some of the therapy Adrien should have after this event, he needs it.

---

Villainous Matchmaking by @nedjsmlfavs

When Chat Noir is tragically unable to attend an event with Ladybug, the mayor calls in a favor from a designer ‘friend’. Now she’s attending in style, on the arm of the hottest male model in Paris. Which would be fine if it weren’t for one, tiny issue: Paris’ favorite domestic terrorist now knows how Ladybug feels about his son. This leads him to his greatest plan yet, using Ladybug’s extremely obvious crush on Adrien Agreste to akumatize Chat Noir.

A Ladrien/“platonic” Ladynoir fic

This is adorable and hilarious. Gabriel keeps on “accidentally” releasing things which makes it looks like Adrien and Ladybug are a couple in an effort to make Chat Noir jealous, while Adrien and Ladybug ae just over-the-moon about getting to spend time together and finding out that the other person loves them XD.

---

Vantage Point by @ashes-555

Most of the time, with more information, life get easier and things make more sense. But Alya discovers that sometimes, knowing everything is just plain complicated.

Alya POV fic here, which instantly drew my attention, I think most people know how much I love fics giving her some focus. 

This is set post-Gang of Secrets. Basically, Ladybug tells Chat that he can tell someone his secret identity, and he chooses Alya (he thought about telling Nino, but he didn’t want to rock the boat with Nino since he’s his best friend, and he figured Nino would let it slip to Alya anyway). Which leads to Alya just. Dying. As she deals with knowing the full truth about the Lovesquare and not being able to tell Adrien and Marinette that they’re chasing each other around in circles.

The fic soon changes gears, though, becoming a Hawkmoth Defeat fic, with Rena coming up with a plan to discover Scarlet Moth’s location, and then everyone dealing with the ramifications. 

---

Justifying the Means by @ashes-555

When the worst happens, Alya finds that she may be willing to do the unthinkable. Is any sacrifice to big to make for her friends?

Once again, Ashes comes out swinging with an Alya focused fic! 

Basically, there’s a major, destructive akuma attack. During it, Ladybug orders Chat to cataclysm a building in order to stop from being trapped. Unfortunately the building collapses, injuring or killing a lot of people - unbeknownst to her, including Chat Noir. Gabriel releases the akuma, which means she has no way of fixing the damage, either.

A lot of of focus is placed on Alya and Nino worrying over Adrien, who was found in the wreckage barely clinging to life, in a coma, with the doctors unsure whether he’d make it. Shadow Moth takes advantage of their distress to make an offer: if he gets the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, he can make a Wish to fix everything, including saving Adrien. With as dark a place as Alya and Nino are in, they seriously consider it. Especially with how unhappy both of them are with Chat Noir supposedly “abandoning” Ladybug and Paris as a whole, and Nino being angry with Ladybug for failing (since Alya knows that Marinette is Ladybug, she’s far more understanding on that front).

I love how much credence Alya’s thought and emotions are given here, and that she doesn’t go for the more drastic option right away, either - she talks with Ladybug about it first, tries to do it her way. She understands the costs, but... her friends are important to her, and she’s desperate. I think this was a really good way to present a more antagonistic sort of Alya. She’s still very much herself here, and still considers Marinette her friend, willing to do things her way to an extent, and understanding why Marinette doesn’t want to use the Wish, even though she disagrees with her. Alya’s mindset, her emotions, her problems, are given respect and credence by the narrative. She’s still willing to talk things out, she’s still sympathetic to Marinette and the enormous trauma and guilt she’s going through, she just disagrees with Marinette’s approach. She wants her friend back.

If you want a fic that has some solid focus on Alya as a person, on her emotional struggles and mindset and just... dealing with things, I highly recommend checking out “Justifying the Means”.

---

Would Trust You With Everything by @kasienda

Nino breaks off, tears streaking down his face. Adrien wishes he was here as himself instead of Chat so he could offer a hug.

“It’s not like I don’t think she deserved her privacy. It’s just it felt like I was her last priority. And if I knew why, then maybe we could overcome it. But when I don’t, I’m not willing to be her last thought. You know? I always put her first.”

“Yeah,” Chat agrees, able to relate too well. He always put Ladybug first too, and he’s not sure it has ever been the same for her. “I’m sorry you’ve been so alone through this."

“I haven’t been totally alone,” Nino disagrees, holding up his phone. “My best friend has been keeping me company virtually most of the day.”

“Yeah? It helped?”

“I don’t know if any of the stuff he sent helped, but like, given what I know he’s up to, he totally had to move heaven and earth to talk to me so much, and that really helped. You know, just knowing that someone was thinking of me.”

“I’m glad,” Chat Noir said. “I wish he could be there in person for you.”

Nino sighs. “Yeah, me too, but at least you’re here."

...

Season 4 au - canon divergent from Rocketear Rocketear led to DJWiFi breakup.

Ahh, Adrino my beloved XD. I love the identity shenanigans in this one with Adrien being around Nino as both Adrien and Chat Noir, and both of them vaguely describing their situations to each other. It takes Adrien a bit to figure out that he has a crush on Nino, but once he does...

---

Dr. Walker & Kitty Hyde series by @pearl484-blog

Summary of the first fic, Rain Falls, Everybody Lies:

Chat Noir loves the rain. He loves the danger. He loves the excitement, and he especially loves how much Catwalker hates it. 

Jekyll and Hyde AU

Adrien AUGreste Entry 3: Rain

So like the summary says, and the title indicates, this series is inspired by the popular conception of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - not how the book actually goes, but how it’s portrayed in popular media, with Jekyll splitting himself in two, with a “good” side and a “bad” side. 

During Kuro Neko, instead of just changing his appearance through changing his mindset, Adrien took more extreme measures, sealing off his “undesirable” characteristics, his anger and sadness and all his sharp edges, into the ring so he could assume a more placid, genial persona that’d be more accepted - Cat Walker. 

But Chat Noir’s still there, taking over whenever Adrien gets too testy, and desperately trying not to be pressed out of existence entirely. With embodying Adrien’s sealed anger and snappishness and rebelliousness, he’s not too kind to the other heroes - he already felt looked down upon and ignored before this, and seeing them accept Cat Walker while he’s fighting for his life doesn’t endear them to him either.

The series isn’t unfair to them - this isn’t a case where one party is entirely in the wrong and another’s entirely in the right. Marinette, Zoe, Nino, and all the others - they did wonder about what was going on with Chat, but he wasn’t in a position where he could see it, and he did have legitimate questions about how much Ladybug would budge on things, if he’d told her what he was going through. It’s a series that emphasizes characters hurting and lashing out in some terrible ways, but that hurt still being respected, and working things out, trying to get everything to a better place.

---

First Dance, Second Chance by @gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights

After fighting by Ladybug's side as Aspik, Adrien finally has an excuse to connect with her. But when Gabriel voices concerns about Ladybug during a charity event, Adrien realizes she might need him for more than just one dance.

Or, the one where Ladybug and Adrien work together to find out Hawkmoth's identity, while maybe squeezing in a date or two along the way.

Ladrien Hawkmoth defeat fic here! I love Ladybug and Adrien teaming up to figure out how to track down Hawkmoth and defeat him, and being super supportive of each other more generally. If you like Ladrien and Hawkmoth Defeat fics, you should check it out!

---

The Great War by icebelle24

'And maybe it’s the past that’s talking, screaming from a crypt Telling me to punish you for things you never did So I justified it'

The unthinkable happens, and suddenly, Chat Noir’s allegiances change. Now Ladybug stands on the opposite side of the battlefield from the boy who was once her partner, left alone to make sense of an impossible situation.

At least she still has Adrien to give her hope. Or maybe things are not entirely as they seem.

I adore Ladynoir enemies au, and this is a good one. The reveal of what’s really going on is pretty great, everything makes sense. I love the pieces of Alya’s POV in this as well, as she’s trying to support Marinette through one of the biggest betrayals that could possibly happen, even while Marinette’s making some frustrating decisions that don’t make much tactical sense. Everyone’s pissed at Chat Noir (now Cat Walker) for apparently siding with Hawk Moth, and the subsequent frustrating inability to make any headway against him, as Ladybug always insists on fighting Cat Walker personally, and letting no one else take part. 

---

The moment I knew (I’d no choice but to love you) by @bbutterflies

“He’s dating me,” Nino said, taking Adrien’s hand in his own.

Adrien could only stare back at him in shock.

“How dare you all force him to come out?” Nino continued, glaring at the reporters. “That was disgusting.” He pulled Adrien over to the car, guided him in, and shut the door behind them.

In the relative quiet and privacy of the backseat, Adrien finally processed what had just happened. “So… when were you going to tell me we were dating?”

This Adrino fic is delicious XD. Reporters keep hounding Adrien about his love life, so Nino finally gets them off Adrien’s back by fake-dating him. Problem is, Adrien’s actually been madly in love with Nino for years but has never been able to tell him. And now as they’re spending more time together, Nino’s beginning to find that he’s enjoying all these “couple” activities more than maybe he ought to if it’s entirely platonic...

If you want to see Adrien and Nino PINING for each other while “fake” dating (is it really fake if both parties want it to be real?) then you’ve come to the right fic!

---

Evillustrator Reimagined by onewaywriteturn

A full, mostly-standalone rewrite of the episode "The Evillustrator".

Nathaniel never planned to tell anyone about his secret crush on his friend Marc, but his world changes when Chloe picks up his sketchbook and mocks his art in front of the whole class, inadvertently outing him as bisexual. Now as the Evillustrator, he has two objectives: to take vengeance on Chloe for what she did to him and to go on a date with Marc for his birthday.

At the same time, Marinette is already struggling to defend Sabrina from Chloe when she learns of the Evillustrator's crush on Marc, one of her good friends. And while getting Marc involved with an akuma fight is messy enough, the fact that Marc has secretly liked Nathaniel for a long time complicates the situation so much more.

If you ever wanted to see Evillustrator rewritten to focus around NathMarc, this is the fic for you! The two of them just PINE for each other so hard and are so convinced that the other person couldn’t possibly actually want to date them, even with Evillustrator making it uh. Exceedingly obvious XD.

[cubesandblobs]

final thoughts of guardians of dafeng s1

yes, spoilers included: i heavily recommend this show so if you haven't, go check it out

what i liked:

really thematically consistent

xu qi an is probably the most likeable iteration of the bold youngster trope cos he's not really impulsive. he does think about consequences. he just thinks a lot of consequences are worth it if it meant delivering justice. which...isn't wrong.

the lack of love triangles is refreshing. huaiqing, caiwei and miaozhen remain as his platonic friends (yay). idk what nangong qianrou's deal is tbh but it never went down the romantic route either. what a relief because so many dramas seem like they're dying to put their male lead in a harem

what i disliked:

i didn't like how xu qi an's fight with zhen bei wang was just him whacking him with a giant sword. i wish he won more based on his own merits (see his tian yu fight) instead of because he was boosted by so many power ups. if the fight was just an excuse to lecture zhen bei wang (so valid) then i wished they kept the actual 'swordfighting' short and sweet. just one comedically simple whack, perhaps.

they have a real habit of unceremoniously killing off important characters just to revive them again. stop.

speaking of which, wtf was that ending? can you end your finale arc properly instead of chopping it off right after the climax because you wanted to make way for your grand twist? what's the plan here? cos i know i'll be watching s2 for xu qi an and wei yuan (hopefully revived by then) and not because i'm dying to know what xu qi an's dad (??) is up to

regarding lin an/xu qi an

i was not a fan of of how lin an was written because it seemed like her needs for an arc is put below the narrative's need to give xu qi an a cute silly girlfriend. she had the semblance of an arc at the start with the narrative acknowledging her problems but she didn't get to work on them for 1/4 of the show because the writers thought her cringefail energy is really entertaining and wanted her to humiliate herself juuuuust a bit longer (seriously why tf did the huaiqing-linan ruse last for that long). after that she had one amazing arc with her dead friend that really made me like her character, but she never fully developed from there. sure, she now have better things to do than terrorise huaiqing and she's mature and has the right opinions but she doesn't really get to do anything (rmbr when she tried to stand up for the civilians killed in chu city and her loved ones just told her to stay out of politics? same shit all over again as 20 eps before). ultimately she is still reduced to someone who acts cute with xu qi an and not much more than that.

now, to be fair, the show isn't great at making it's side characters useful. they get to make a magic shield for xu qi an, or insult a corrupt official for xu qi an's honour once in a while and that's about it. problem is lin an is the female lead, showing up more than anyone else (xqa excepted) so i expected her to be given a little bit more to work with.

i feel like the lin an/xu qi an relationship is just lin an embarrassing herself, at least at the start. I really don't like watching silly characters be silly repeatedly so it's a no from me. i think the problem is lin an doesn't add much to xu qi an's worldview (other iterations of the innocent girl x competent guy have the guy jaded and distrustful and have to be made emotionally ok again. xu qi an though is doing fine, relatively speaking.) i thought if anything xu qi an needs a stoic human to terrorise if they wanted a comedic relationship. like huaiqing or yang ying. i see him like a wei wuxian type of person so...yeah

overall thoughts: rewatch? yes. season 2? yes please.

[italeteller]

Well, it's officially My Herover

What a god damn bummer

I remember starting the series, feeling not quite satisfied with the MCU at the time and loving Izuku and All Might and the way the series didn't take long to put Bakugo's ego in check

Then the sports festival arc blew everything out the water. Deku's resourcefulness during the obstable race, the cavalry team battle, Bakugo vs Uraraka, my boy Shinso, and the unforgettable Deku vs Todoroki really made me feel like this was a mangaka who could make an excellent story with any character, no matter how little screentime they'd had before

The Stain arc wasn't quite as impactful as the sports festival, but it did wonders for Deku, Iida and Todoroki's growth, and Uraraka's martial arts training was a welcome surprise

The training camp was Deku's finest moment. I don't care what anybody says, "My Hero" is the greatest Izuku chapter and both the manga and anime did magic with it

And then came the peak of the series, though we wouldn't know it for years. All Might vs All for One. I remember being stressed out of my mind that All Might would die, and happy beyond belief when he survived

But then cracks started appearing. The eight precepts arc skipped the all-girls team and gave Izuku a get-out-of-jail-free card to abuse his powers with no consequences whatsoever. The festival arc was great but seeing Nejire in a beauty competition didn't make up for her being skipped in the eight precepts arc

And then Izuku developed a second quirk, and the promise of six more quirks down the line, which was honestly the beginning of the end. I said as much when the chapter dropped and history had proven me right. Because Izuku was already gonna become the strongest hero in history, stronger than All Might, because that's how OfA works. There was no need to give him a swiss army knife of extra superpowers

The villain arc did little to ease my worries. It focused on the three villains that had already had the most screentime and ignored Spinner and Compress who really needed some more background exploration, and it made Shigaraki bonkers levels of powerful

And then there was the war. During the kids' first year of school. Midnight got killed offscreen, because I guess Horikoshi needed someone "important" to die but he didn't want to kill anybody actually important (seriously, go look at the list of casualties of the war. It's a bunch of nobodies and Midnight)

Star and Stripes came and died only to nerf Shigaraki, which wouldn't have been necessary ir Hori could balance his power sets

Nagant came, exposed even more the dark side of hero agencies, got immediately redeemed by Izuku and then blew up

Deku's vigilante arc was. A thing that existed. And it really showed how underdeveloped most of Class 1A were, because the big emotional scene where everybody asks Izuku to remember the good times they shared together was 80% "hey remember this one and only scene we had?". Points for Bakugo and Iida though, they got the good stuff

The traitor reveal arc was also a thing that happened. Woulda been nice if the kids had had some actual time to process their feelings and deal with the fallout of the whole thing

And then the final war. Boy, did that one drag on forever. Bakugo died, then he got better because a hero who never had any screentime with him sacrificed himself to save him except he didn't even die so no biggie

Toga and Spinner could have had something, maybe, but Hori didn't spent enough time to seriously make them impactful. Spinner especially, the whole heteromorph discrimination thing felt way too forced and tacked on at the last minute

All Might busted out a mecha suit to fight on All for One's level, which would've come in pretty handy when they fought against Shigaraki. Then AfO died, but then he wasn't dead and was actually the one who gave Shigaraki his quirk, and he ate Shigaraki's soul and became the big bad, and then he died literally 2 chapters later, and Shigaraki who had enough energy left for one last hit against AfO also died for good. Oh and Izuku lost both arms, which had been built-up to happen since the sports festival, but then he got them back one chapter later so. No biggie

And then the final chapters. Society got better, don't ask for details. Everybody is 8 years older, don't ask for timeskip designs. Izuku is now a teacher, but he gets a new mech suit that shouldn't have taken 8 years to develop considering All Might's took months, and he jumps right back up to be a hero. The end

My Hero feels like the new gen Naruto. A large cast with varied powers that 80% never get properly developed in favor of the big 3, and a very interesting world that barely gets explored

The 1A vs 1B arc really feels like the point where the series becomes something different. Side characters begone, it's the Izuku-Bakugo-Shoto story. Inko, the protagonist's mother, who always had been shown suffering through Izuku's many injuries and even got All Might to admit he hadn't been taking proper care of his protegé, got sidelined and we don't even see her react to the truth of Izuku's quirk. Izuku masters 6 quirks offscreen, whereas before the series made an absolute point of showing the process of him growing and learning and improving

I really loved this series, and I'm damn dissappointed in what it became, in case it wasn't clear. I hope Horikoshi has made enough money to rest for a while. By the end he constantly needed to take breaks because his health was just going down the drain. I hope he gets to kick back and relax, and if he ever writes anything else I'm not gonna read it

Good bye, My Hero Academia. I'll always cherish the first parts and the characters, almost as much as I'll mourn all the wasted potential they all had

[herbofgraceandpeace]

My informal review of The Last Graduate (here be spoilers)

Well, I just finished The Last Graduate, and I’m just sitting with all my muscles clenched in tension and sorrow, lol

But seriously, what an interesting ending……I’m not sure what to make of it yet? The narrative was leading you to expect a big push/big sacrifice from El when something inevitably went wrong, and I was hoping that everything would simply go right (obviously), but I wasnt unaware of Orion’s opportunity to make the self-sacrifice play. WAS IT NECESSARY THOUGH???? *insert look how they massacred my boy meme. i think i read way too much of this book late last night (whoops), so my comprehension of it is not as developed as with the first book (shame on me for reading too fast like a glutton), but what a great sequel! I liked watching El wrestle with learning to trust people and work as a team, I loved watching her relationship with sisters sorry her friends develop, and I loved the growth of her relationship with Orion as well*. I will say I think his character has been a little underutilized at times, in a way not untypical for a romantic interest of either gender, but Novik that’s my mannnnnnnnnnnn, I wanna read about him! But we definitely did get some good scenes that developed he and El’s relationship and seemed the seeds for some of his own character development (let this man GROW). I’m not sure yet how I think the ending plays into that. If Patience-Fortitude was truly going to recenter the world, then his sacrifice was noble and necessary. But if it wasn’t, then why does my precious child need to kill it himself instead of letting El cast it into the void, hmmm? Side note: I loved El finally coming to appreciate the Scholomance cause I was freaking devastated by her willingness to condemn it. Maybe if I had suffered as much as she had, I’d hate my Alma mater too, but the loss of a place you know so well, a place where you have the happy memories of making your first friends—that’s gotta count for something, right?

I forgot to mention this in my review of A Deadly Education, but El’s Mom and their relationship is so important. God bless her, I’d love to meet her. I’d be exasperated at her character role as the Sole Voice of Truth and Goodness, except that’s the truths attributed to her are valuable, nuanced, and beautiful, and her knowledge of them makes sense in the context of how she has chosen to live her life. A life of uncomprising, open-hearted service and self-sacrifice teaches you a lot! Which brings us to one of my favorite bits of the book. I adore that Novik, Scholomance, and El all realize that you have to be faithful in the little moments because they shape you!!!! She had grown accustomed to saving the freshman instead of sacrificing them for her own benefit, and this shaped her character and prepared her to realize and then do what needed to be done to save them all. (I have so many good quotes saved without page numbers, so you’ll get those later, but boy howdy, these books have so beautiful things to say)

I’m so, so invested in what’s going to happen in the next book, but I’m not ready to have finished this delightful trilogy either. They’re going to be great rereads for sure! Here’s hoping things turn out okay for Orion (also why did El’s mother warn her off him? We do not know.) I’d love to see El get to change the world with her tiny enclaves, despite my dislike of large stakes in a story since they often render the plot unwieldy to the point of disbelief. It’s hard to write a story about something that changes the world without either 1. Writing Lord of the Rings or 2. Being massively and disgustingly reductive about what it takes to change the world and the u comfortable, uncontrollable consequences of doing so. Nevertheless, I am ready to be hurt again!

*I am once again asking for people not to put sex scenes in books. Please. Don’t do it. Ever.

[therese-lokidottir]

I'm going to say something controversial, thor and loki are not good heroes at all. They don't do good things out of their heart. Thor only cares if he is worthy for his father, he doesn't think of his people. If he was, he would have been a good king and never would have given the throne to valkyrie who is way worse than both of them.She sold people for living and lived without consequences. Plus, what's wrong with being a Queen ? Is being called a king better? How inspiring for little girls everywhere.And both seemed to care about life of a warrior then being a ruler.

Loki, on the other hand has the same issue, only care about being worthy, rather than doing out of his own heart. Even in the series finale, he's simply try to please people who wouldn't do the same for him, unfortunately. Basically every sacrifice he did was for nothing. If Loki wanted to reform so much, he should have confronted Jotun rulers and the victims of 2012. There is seriously no point of talking of how much you changed when don't try to reach them. Imagine 2012 victim hearing him reducing the battle of new york to "daddy issues" in season 2.

Another thing, if he was tired of living on others shadows, then he should have walked away. Isn't he fully aware its a losing battle? Is someone holding him back from leaving Asgard?And also HAVE THE COURAGE TO FACE ODIN. LIKE SAY" SCREW THIS SHIT , IMA DO MY OWN THING". Its the only way Loki would find peace within himself.Just like Zuko did.

Thor and Loki aren't the worst heroes, since this seems to be an issue for almost every marvel hero except spiderman, who sacrificed a lot and lost many loved ones while saving others. I'm talking about spiderman ps4(including Miles Morales) by the way. Only they get to be called a hero.

Sorry, I'm just tired of people pushing 'selfishness' for 'selflessness' lately these days from the media.

Thor was a good hero from TDW to AoU for that period of time when he broke away from Odin's influence and made decisions for himself. When he was actually a teammate and friend to the Avengers. For that short period, that's when Thor was a good hero. But then Ragnarok happened, and Thor was right back to being arrogant and turning to daddy. Then Love and Thunder makes him worst in which Thor truly acks like a complete oaf, reckless in battle, insensitive and oblivious to his teammates. Not great

The thing about Loki is he's never allowed to be a hero. He is a character all about his unhealthy attachments. Everything he does is about is about other people. Either lashing out, taking for himself because those attachments didn't work out or basically martyring for those other people until he's dead. Loki does have a sense of morality, he is the most moral character in the loki series by far. But again because of how he attaches himself to others his focused of just doing things for others. Loki never develops out of this because writings thinks himself is in itself what is positive change for Loki.

We see Zuko whole journey in ATLA, there's a lot to what makes his redemptions one of the best written. We see in the Earth kingdom, interacting with others, seeing people as people and sympathizing with those who've lost something in the war. There is a moment after he's let Appa go and he's had his fever dream, Iroh gotten a tea shop and Zuko tries to put everything into being happy for Iroh, but it doesn't last. It would have never lasted or been redemption. What Zuko need was to get what he thought he wanted and realize it wasn't right. Zuko needed to confront his father, call him out and reject what he was offering. It's not just about Iroh, the Avatar or any single person. Zuko changes because he wants to do what's right for the world.

Very briefly Thor got that in TDW when he finally started to see through Odin and saw how bad he could be. Then that was forgotten even when it turned out Odin was even worse than he seemed at first.

[ep2nd]

@anxious-anon-time sorry for being late, was really busy this weekend

I'm very sorry this is 2 weeks late, had to board a plane, then was relaxing on Vacay, then had to catch up in school the next week

"What do you think of the Ink Scroll arc"

I absolutely stinking loved it.

Now here's the essay you ask for (or didn't, I just want to write an essay)

1. Love the foreshadowing/self awareness. Ex. When MK says "Maybe this the part of our journey where things get DARKEE" the poor boy- also love how the word Journey was used, foreshadowing how it was about the Journey to the West

2. Everyone had good arcs, except Pigsy? Like, MK beautiful, Meis opposite nature to Ao Lie, lovely, Sandy fighting the monster allegations, been his trauma since the beginning (when he references he's changed since meeting Pigsy last), showcasing the difference between Tang and Tripitaka qns for Tang to get more development?! Woo!!! But Pigsy?? Having the same plot/character development of Sandy, where being a monster doesn't matter Yada Yada Yada, it just didn't make sense.

There was no part beforehand where Pigsy EVER questioned that part of him, unlike Sandy who's been afraid of hurting someone, yes I enjoyed the episode, the Cook references from previous (and also Freenoodle crumbs) were amazing. What I wish they had done was something like Pigsy questioning his family, or chosen family in this case. THEY EVEN WENTOF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THE "MONKEY KINGS NOT MY DAD PIGSY IS" MOMENT. Like- I just Pigys arc was more family/friend centered, definitely would compliment whatever jumbo shrimp mess MK had going on

3. Talking bout MK- the trauma and angst were GORGEOUS we love it. My boy been through so much. And we learned more of his past?! The theorists were going CRAZY. Love the Sunburst and Soysauce moment, MMMMMMMM, this boy needs to stop trusting people so quickly oh my gosh AZURE WHEN I CATCH YOU-

4. Really good villain. Love how they went with a villain who thought HE was the hero, and main character I guess lol. Was he a turned villain? Yes but he was a good one! Kinda wish the foreshadowing was better, instead of that one episode where Tang just watched and realized it. He's a complex character, who just wanted to help people, and yeah his ambition wasn't even bad, the Jade Emperor isn't great even, but he took it too far

5. Great job yall, you guys made a character everyone hates, Peng, Revalis brother from another mother

6. Yellow Tusk was ehhh, wish we saw more of his character, seemed interesting, loved his loyalty

7. Now LMK is very special from other shows I've watched he'd because well, I'm willing to rewatch many episodes, even if I know what will happen, I tend to not rematch ANYTHING because of this problem, but LMK is just different. For some reason the Scroll arc is the exception, I like it, but for some reason I don't see myself rewarching it, don't know why

8. Ink MK was a beloved, his voice?! Design?!? DIALOG AND SPEECH PATTERN!?!? BRILLIANT. really love all Ink people moments, mostly just Ink MK, and Wukong.

9. Glad Wukong got development, man is facing the consequences of his actions and its really getting him, I'm glad he's getting really good development.

10. Master Subodhi. Do I need to say more?! Loved him dearly. Wish he and Wukong remet. :( liked his character very much, I like how he wasn't even real in the Scroll and still had omniscient abilities. My only question was what else did he know?! On that note, is anyone going to talk about how the girl is just, like immortal?! The Acolyte as yall call her. Now I don't think Subodhi just GIVES out immortality, I feel like he saves it for special people, like Wukong, no I have theories and headcannons for her but that's another day.

Also I'm a suckered for any JTTW character appearance. LMK GIVE ME ERLANG SHEN, GOLD STAR OF VENUS, GUANYIN, ANY OF NEZHAS BROTHERS, AND MY LUFE IS YOURSSSSS

11. The only thing I can think of left is how in the world did the Scroll worked?!? Like, it didn't teleport them to the past, I've been making a simulator almost? But then why does the characters inside feel so real, and how did Wukong trap Peng and Yellow Tusk, and where and hwt have they been doing?! AND HOW DOES THE OMNISCIENT POWER OF SUBHODI WORK. MAN CANT HAVE THAT MUCH PLOT REASONS POWER. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE HOW DID THEY GET THE OLD PILGRIMS WEAPONS LAST TIME I CHECKED TRIPITAKAAS STAFF WSS IN WUKONGS CAVE