#this is key to understanding the whole forgiveness thing. imo

[officialfoxsquadron]

y’all ever think about how crazy it is that every parental or mentor figure luke had lied to him? owen and beru lied, obi wan lied, yoda lied. the only person who was actually honest with him was vader

[atopvisenyashill]

imagine you’re ned. your son and heir is nearly marriageable age and your family is down to one (1) slender branch. your eldest daughter is also a major catch and nearing an age when a betrothal might be arranged. you’ve also got a bastard son whose future urgently needs to be decided, and three younger children whose futures must be considered too. you are severely traumatized by everything that went down during robert’s rebellion, and while it’s the long summer, winter is coming. what plans do you make for your children?

i think the key thing here to understand is that ned wants to BURY this secret. that’s his MAIN priority. so personally if i’m ned, i don’t want any of my kids in the capital. rip to robert but if i was ned trying to avoid the capital, i would have made sure those kids were promised before he came calling. probably also, the best place for jon IS the wall comma but we know ned did sort of want robb & jon to continue being close and EYE think it’s mean to banish a child to the wall SO!

i’m going to apologize without apologizing to catelyn about being so hostile about the wylla of it all*** and signaling that i will be less hostile to anything she has to say regarding her feelings towards jon or wylla from this point forward.

im sitting the oldest three down and telling them You Aren’t Grown But You’re Not A Baby. i am expecting more from you but also, i didn’t know shit when i became lord, its fine if you don’t know, that’s why you have all these advisors. i’m emphasizing family togetherness here.

also im telling catelyn to have a talk with sansa about like, Being A Woman; like a for real one where she’s Serious to Sansa about the actual reality of it (bc it does seem like they don't ever....genuinely prepare Sansa which is crazy bc Catelyn seems from her own memories plenty prepared for her move & marriage)

idk that Ned notices the catelyn-arya issue as an issue. i think he sees this as very typical exasperated mom-unruly daughter thing. however, if he’s paying more attention to them bc he is being possessed by the spirit of bisexual asshole from chicago, i think the fact that sansa & arya argue all the time is p obvious, so i Do think id sit them down & be like “the hell is happening between you two” and i’m arriving much faster at “arya needs an outlet” and letting her train with the boys/finding someone who will train her. if catelyn is like “this will not help her behavior” my argument is nothing else has why can’t we try something new + i mean cat if YOU want to learn how to use a sword, i can get someone to train you too. maybe you would feel better if you got to beat the shit out of something once a day idk. i can put some padding on theon if you want and you can just go hog wild. something something the north is hard.

then i am engaging sansa POST HASTE. even one Second of thinking would tell you that robert was gonna want to engage joffrey to sansa, they are Very close in age!!! so im simply beating him to the punch PUBLICLY

but not like too publicly, i dont want robert to know im husband hunting until its too late

who do i engage her to? i mean that’s tricky bc catelyn is going to have opinions & imo if they’re too Weird of a choice, robert is going to send a raven like “hey just call that off i got joff right here.” probably the only non northern house that Doesn’t get robert’s attention in a negative way is the blackwoods, with brynden being around sansa’s age and heir.

but really staying in the north is key - you’re probably guaranteed an immediate yes and i think ned could absolutely pull the “my whole family is dead robert, let me keep my kids in the north” card. does this argument work? honestly, no idea but i think it doesn’t hurt to announce it first and if necessary ask for forgiveness afterwards.

esp bc as you say, they’re down to One (1) branch. i do think ned can and Would lean heavily on guilting the hell out of robert IF after he announces the engagement robert is like “what the fuck”

(if robert asks about arya, well first of all i’m making the same argument, second of all, i will have prepared for that and had a betrothal for her too that i can’t possibly break.)

but we’re threading a thin needle here when it comes to all these engagements being Good but not Suspicious. the girls are tricky are on their own but jon is a whole can of worms. i dont need to get jon engaged any time soon - men get married later often anyway, and if i give him a nice match, catelyn is going to have a heart attack. but i think ned would just fully commit to Giving Jon A Place At Winterfell if he gets to make the choice before robert comes (is sending him to the wall easier? probably, but so was sending him with howland so). to tell jon “you will be to robb what i would have been to brandon, what i wish i would have had.”

i think id just like, foster jon somewhere. and not in a “im sending you away” way, i would once again compare him to myself, since ned also got fostered, and i'd ask for jon's input to make it clear this isn't a punishment for Existing As A Bastard. two ways to do this. either i get the boys together (EYE Rani VisenyasHill would also bring sansa in but i do Not think that would occur to ned) and say “what are your opinions on which of our vassals we should foster a stronger bond with by sending them jon for a few years?” OR im going “and i know just who to send you to - my good friends HOWLAND REED” whatever causes ned less anxiety. robb gets to escort jon there (do i go with?? idk, worried that would make Robert look at me too much) and stay for a bit (brandon seemed to travel a lot, i think ned should encourage the same with robb. get these kids out of the fucking house ned!!). might send robb out on a lil tour just so people don’t get jealous idk

Prepare for Winter. idk what this entails when you have years longs winters. are they hoping to get one more round of produce planted and grown? do they start consolidating in the same castles for warmth and safety in case of snow? do they flock to the southern north houses, like does white harbor get Super packed during winter? i would assume white harbor gets kind of important as the only major port city but how far out does the ocean freeze?

anyways i think i’d float the idea of fostering bran out to white harbor, so he can become a knight and live in The Big City, with the aim of preparing him to start his own Stark cadet house. I'd focus on making it kind of Manderly-esque, in that the house is meant to be built around a city (maybe another port city?) and meant to culturally be a lil Southron-y.

i would ask jon & robb what they would prefer - jon living with bran (eventually) or jon returning to winterfell.

NOW ROBB'S MARRIAGE. okay, like, the thing is, i think it wouldn't hurt to continue fostering a sense of unity with the south by reaching out to a rich house who will give me a bride with a huge ass dowry that we can use to continue Preparing for Winter. but also. again it's about not pissing robert off. would he be upset if i said like, hey i'm engaging robb to margaery tyrell? maybe a myrcella match would make robert feel less jilted, especially since i am potentially sending jon off to foster elsewhere, so robert won't even have contact with the kid nor will myrcella until they're all grown up. but i do worry robert would get greedy, and also that this would be too much for ned's nerves.

not to be like, ned should be angling to be known as the Stark Who Cured Winter Starvation, but i do think Ned should have been really digging in and trying to make it easier to travel in the north. it gives him a great excuse to ignore robert, it regains some points with some of the lords in the north who seem to feel bitter about rickard & brandon's behavior, it cements his own legacy as A Lord Who Rose To The Occasion, A Lord Who Cared (which, imo, seems to be something Ned cares about - he is quite preoccupied with his reputation tbh!!), and it helps him get his house rebuilt.

tldr - foster jon somewhere in the north and let him feel like its his joint decision alongside robb (and sansa, maybe). get sansa & arya engaged BEFORE i even THINK about contacting robert for anything. send bran to foster at white harbor (not right away). Prepare For Winter (whatever that means). get robb a rich fiance so i can Prepare For Winter and be known as the stark who Prepared For The Winter. call me Ned the Prepared. Ned the Winter Killer.

all of this is so that by the time robert comes north after jon arryn has been off, i don't have to send sansa & arya down there, jon is already gone, and potentially I can say that myrcella can marry robb if robert gets pushy. also, this would allow me some semblance of control over the south if i have to go there - i've already started working on shit with wyman, mending fences through arya and sansa's engagements, and i have CRONIES to bring south. then i am immediately and i mean IMMEDIATELY going to fire the entire small council including renly, putting my own people in there, and telling stannis that if he doesn't get his ass to the capital right now i am accusing him of conspiring against the king and having him marched across the goddamn bay to answer for his behavior.

*** listen i can’t tell cat. this isn’t a debate about whether he should have it’s about If Ned Realized His Kids Would Grow Up One Day What Would He Do. if i want to keep jon around and fight marginally less with my wife about it, i think id just be up front about The Lie. that is to say, i'd apologize without apologizing (i dont think he’d would want to apologize when he’d do it again and i also think ned is too Like That to just lie to manipulate cat and say he’s sorry for how he’s approached it - and i do think we’re really stretching the limits of ned’s ability to lie here), and just tell her something about wylla. like, she was married & i completely fucked her life bc i was horny & sad and then i took her kid away from her and i’ve been really touchy about whether that was a good thing to do or not. something. say anything. fucking anything. just acknowledge he’s been a dick & also make her feel a little bad (he said that line about brandon, he’s not above a little guilt & low blows).

(the ashara story would work BETTER to get cat’s sympathy - like she KILLED HERSELF do you know what kind of yarn he could spin about that & his guilt keeping jon here bc of that!! but he’d never do that lol. tbh i’d also just bring up ashara - i would say that i reacted so negatively bc like, i murdered her brother and then she killed herself 😭 that’s bad enough and now people are saying she had my BASTARD? that i ruined her life TWICE and then she killed herself?? of course i was pissed off people were gossiping about it, but i should have been nicer to cat about it. but anyways, ned would just never lie on ashara’s name, he had the wylla story in mind and that’s the one he went with. but,,,, he HAS a story. ned SAY THE STORY OUT LOUD.).

Does this fix everything in their marriage? Obviously not, i’m sure Cat is still going to push about Jon, but I think signaling that i'm going to be less hostile about this would bring Cat’s hostility down in turn.

[lovesickangelz6137]

no ones requested this but im bored so heres my personal headcanons of Yandere!Manjiro Sano (aka Mikey) from Tokyo Revengers.

❌ALL OF THIS IS REFERRING TO ADULT MIKEY!!!! I DONT DO HEADCANONS ON THE RELATIONSHIPS OF MINORS❌

some nsfw mentioned, nothing in detail though

okay imo normal mikey is the chillest guy on the planet until you royally piss him off or sumn so i like to imagine him as being a pretty fucked up yandere. Like he'd be subtle about it for the most part, or atleast at first and then suddenly it would be... not so subtle.

-his object of obsession would probably be someone who was victimized by the leader of a rival gang.

-this person witnessed Mikey literally beating this rival gang leader within an inch of their life. it was terrifying and the person probably shivered in fear as Mikey noticed them and approached them.

- when Mikey reaches this person he does so with caution. but he soon comes to realize that this person is only a victim and probably doesnt want anything to do with gangs.

-Mikey feels a strong sense of responsibility to protect them and kinda takes them under his wing. Not really forcing them to join Toman or Bonten or anything at first.

-as time goes on Mikey finds himself growing more than fond of this person. scratch that, he's obsessed. they are always on his mind. he does everything he can to keep them in his line of sight and by his side.

-anytime someone gets a little too friendly with them, they quickly disappear or suddenly start keeping their distant from Mikey's love interest. Love interest doesnt understand why.

-Mikey is more than overprotective. he doesnt let them go anywhere without him personally escorting them or guarding them.

-eventually, Mikey basically proclaims to this love interest that they are his lover now, not really giving them a choice. The now lover doesnt really think much of it at first, and actually finds it endearing in a way.

-Mikey quickly pressures and practically forces their lover to move in with him. he does things over time to slowly isolate them from the world so that all they have is him.

-He basically changes all the locks in their apartment so that both inside and out require a key to unlock and lock. a key that only he has.

-He starts to plant ideas in his lovers head that the whole world just wants to hurt them and take them away from him. The lover falls for this manipulation due to how much abuse they went through at the hands of the previous gang leader.

-Mikey lives for the severe attachment issues his lover has, the way his lover basically submits to his every command.

-Mikey eventually kinda pressures this lover into marriage. probably even pressuring them to let him get them pregnant (if they are capable of that, this is a gender ambiguous lover).

-they comply on both ends, but only after Mikey completely wears them down.

Bonus!!!

in the situation that his lover were to open their eyes and see he is only manipulating them for his own selfish reasons, he has ways of keeping them in place :)

-he would likely use fear tactics. "Rival gangs know that i love you. if they ever see you separated from me they will take you away and harm you. if you leave me that will happen and i will not save you."

-if you didnt listen to his warning and ended up getting kidnapped and held as a hostage to lure him out, he would show up to where you were. but he would not make any attempts to rescue you until you beg for his forgiveness and say you'll stay loyal to him and only him.

-after that he'll probably kill every person in the room single handedly and maybe even fuck you while covered in blood to remind you what you just agreed to.

-you are his and only his and he plans to keep it that way~

[js589]

So, my husband and I just finished The Dragon Prince, and...

We're mad.

(There is a lot I love about TDP, and about season 7, but it gets very little mention here. You have been forewarned.)

Like, this final season was just coming at us with everything it had for most of the first 8 episodes. Sure, there were filler-y bits every now and again, but there was a pretty good buildup. Episode 8 especially was just like oh wow, we're going here. (As much as Karim just never learning was frustrating, it made his fate very fitting. I was both horrified and impressed.)

But it seemed like the final episode, rather than serving as a fitting ending if there isn't further media, reminded us of all the plot threads that are still dangling, some from much earlier seasons!

The whole show had moments of "okay, this was an unnecessary bit" and "okay, when are we going to get back to this thing that seems to be really important?" but Mysteries of Aaravos was definitely much worse about it. The baitlings/glowtads, for example, probably should have been relegated to side materials.

And Harrow-bird... I have multiple misgivings. First of all, it should have been much clearer earlier on if this was indeed going to be A Thing. There's no way it resolves quickly, but it could have been spaced out through the seasons. And the unseriousness of the reveal really felt like it cheapened the emotional impact of Ezran deciding to forgive Runaan even though he doesn't know how to yet. That could have been an amazing exploration, and instead, it's moot because Harrow arguably hasn't actually died. Like, Callum could bring him back. Easily.

And while this is a show aimed at children, Ezran not actually using the nova blade after it got hyped for so long felt kind of like a pale imitation of AtLA, but Ezran's peaceful ideals never actually got confronted the way Aang's did. In TDP, Callum had to face up to his inner darkness multiple times, but God forbid Ezran not get saved from actually doing anything remotely controversial. I mean, Avizandum and Zubeia's sacrifice works, IMO, but it just feels like anytime Ezran has to confront big, scary things, it turns out he didn't need to and it's actually all kind of okay somehow.

But above all, the arc title is now too fitting. A lot of those mysteries of Aaravos are still mysteries, and they didn't need to be! If this is the Aaravos arc, then it should have had an actual resolution and not a "we'll circle back in 7 years" ending. Like, they'd better put it together and just keep Aaravos from coming back in that case. Seriously, Aaravos gave humans dark magic. Why did the Startouch council not intervene the way they did with Leola? Why did they not intervene when he returned? If he'd done something to incapacitate them, you'd think he'd have said so, but he appears to not have exacted revenge yet. Other questions: does the book that uses the key still exist? Is the key actually important? Can Callum use it to forge connections? Is (as my husband jokingly theorized) dark magic just star magic with a different source?

What about Claudia? I'm left wondering why she still serves Aaravos. I'm assuming it's because she understands his desire to avenge Leola and she doesn't care about who else gets harmed along the way, but I feel like that doesn't really square with her characterization? I dunno...

Finally, as much as I love Rayllum... yeah, it got a little too much focus. Not as much undue focus as other elements, but it was definitely overdone. (But I did actually appreciate Rayla readying to kill Callum. Like, dude's got plot armor up the wazoo, but she doesn't know that.)

Overall, I'm just really dissatisfied with all that's left open. Mysteries of Aaravos had massive pacing issues. I believe that the story could have been told in its entirety, and I wish it would have been.

[lesbianboyfriend]

another nugget to consider for your sexual violence Buffy thesis:

In season 7, episode 8, we find out Spike has been killing and siring people. The official count is 10 women and then just however many men we see in the basement.

obviously the show has compared a vampires bite to sexual violence before so this is an instance where Buffy has given a second chance to the man who tried to rape her and there are now 10 dead women around him. And Buffy gives him another chance even after that.

in the story, he doesn't know what he's doing and is being influenced by the first evil but I think there's still a lot of messy messaging in how Buffy keeps this man alive despite his body count. She can forgive him all she wants but he repeatedly demonstrates how he is a danger to the women around him

okay you’re so right. spike occupies such a massive place within the sexual violence thesis. he’s the character that looms the largest as someone the audience is supposed to like while also being explicitly named as a perpetrator of sexual violence. + the whole vampirism as sexual predation thing is like, a key part of the thesis

now i think the scenario with season 7 is kind of like i mentioned in the original sexual violence post, spike has a soul now. ergo, he cannot (by the show’s logic) still be a perpetrator of such violence bc he’s #good now. and of course, there is the first evil to be reckoned with as a factor in it. which is i think where they get back to the, “see, the sexual violence this guy did was because of some intrinsic monstrous evil” once again cementing sexual violence in the realm of monstrosity instead of actually grappling with it.

to be honest this is where i think angel season 5 ALMOST did something really interesting with spike. we know that angel as a person and tv show operates under the realm of, trying to make up for what you did as a vampire despite the fact that it “wasn’t their fault” so to say. it reckons with those acts of (sexual) violence as something intrinsically horrible regardless of “fault”and asks the perpetrators to truly reckon with their actions and past…..kind of. as we’ll see

and like, spike’s whole thing is that he only really became good because of buffy. and he thinks because of that he intrinsically “deserves” buffy (which is a whole nother level connected to sexual violence as system imo). and BECAUSE he has a soul, he doesn’t actually have to grapple with what “good” means, because that’s not how it works in the buffy moral universe. but then angel season 5 separates him from buffy. and asks him to be good WITHOUT reward. WITHOUT the promise of buffy. particularly with him as a ghost, only able to manipulate the world if he wants it enough. and we see him “wanting” it in moments where he’s trying to do good!!! just for good’s sake!!!

……and then they reintroduce the fucking shansu prophecy and spike compares his/angel’s atrocities to a scared girl lashing out at her oppressors and they go to rome and try to separate buffy from her new boyfriend and all over again we see him (and angel!!!!) still having that sense of ownership over buffy, that they somehow “deserve” her for being good. and that while they may be reckoning with their pasts for being “bad” they don’t actually fully understand the system of (sexual) violence that their actions took place within. so they don’t understand or grapple with how they’re still upholding those systems. so kind of a flop there!!! but for a brief second i thought angel season 5 was doing something really cool. should have known better i guess

but yeah saying this all as a spike fan. an enjoyer of spikebuffy. the narrative does NOT at all reckon with his position as perpetrator of sexual violence and honestly the show and his character arc suffer for that. and quite frankly the fans who refuse to acknowledge it as part of his character are deeply annoying. lol. lmao even

[the--highlanders]

thoughts on the star beast!! under a cut bc spoilers

first of all just. as someone who really did not vibe with the chibnall era at all. dear god it feels good to be excited about doctor who again

it was FUN. it was great bouncy silly charming fun and that is exactly what the show needed at this point I think. I can really imagine kids tomorrow running around pretending to be the meep

also the meep was great and I'm SO glad it was practical effects, it looked so good

setting aside the doctor-donna plotline, the callbacks to the rtd era were fairly low-key (resonating concrete!) and fitted in with the episode but they were fun if they meant something to you

on the other hand the glass divider between the doctor and donna and him raging at having to kill her really felt like a kind of. reverse of ten and wilf and the radiation chamber. which HURT. ten raging over having to save wilf vs not-ten raging over not being able to save donna.

rose was lovely!! I really hope we get some more substantial stuff with her, I think she'd be a great companion

seeing unit again was fun, and I really liked shirley actually!! I hope she's a recurring character, I thought she worked well with the doctor and her gadget-y wheelchair was fun

also kate sorting out a place for wilf to live 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I did think the solution to donna being able to keep her memories was pretty creative, and the acknowledgement of the doctor being outside the gender binary made me yell

that being said I really didn't like the line about a 'male-presenting time lord never thinking of [letting go of power]. I feel like that was rtd trying to be too hip-with-the-kids progressive, which like. obviously I want the show to be progressive!!! but it's the sort of thing I hate

like, first of all, we've just established that the doctor is more or less nonbinary - and the show has been very obviously referencing time lord society as genderless since like, twelve's era. time lords feel that they are /genetically/ superior - it's a species thing, not a gender thing. a 'male' /or/ 'female' time lord is going to have a tough time giving up power. and this felt especially incongruous when we've just had thirteen, a doctor who used her white privilege to hand the master over to the nazis. doesn't seem like she was very interested in giving up her power there.

imo one of the doctor's whole character tensions across the whole show is them trying to break away from time lord superiority, and again that's species-based, not gender based. and it was literally established in journey's end that the doctordonna could think of things the doctor couldn't because of her human part! there was already a solid logical grounding for donna and rose to give up their time lord powers /because they were still part human/

there were a few thematic things I would have liked the episode to dwell on a bit more, like the whole cute-appearing vs frightening-appearing thing with the meep and the wrarth warriors, and how appearances are sometimes deceiving; or the stuff with the doctor and gender; or even just rose's character as a whole

that being said, this was an episode with an awful lot to do, and also an episode which was there to be a fun romp. it HAD to be a romp. so from a sort of metatextual point of view I can understand and forgive

overall I really liked it!! it really recaptured the magic of doctor who for me after so long not feeling it and I think it's going to do a good job of its most important task, which is getting the show afloat again in terms of casual viewers.

also SO glad they've gone back to a confidential-style program, unleashed was so fun

[thecheshirerat]

mmkay no one’s said this yet and I’m kinda surprised because I thought it was fairly obvious but

We (and when I say “we” i mean the Good Omens series fandom) wouldn’t be here if Aziraphale didn’t feel like he needed to prove himself.

Yeah, he believes that God and Heaven are fixable, yeah, he’s been emotionally manipulated by the Metatron, yeah, he sees the Metatron’s offer as a potential safe future for him and Crowley.

But imo, none of those reasons fully account for his choice. No one’s yet (to my knowledge) mentioned the sheer simple fact that Aziraphale saw, in Metatron’s offer, an opportunity to prove himself, and to a certain extent, prove the world wrong about him.

Think about what people say regarding Aziraphale in this season, both to his face and in discussion. Shax belittles him for being soft. He is called things like “Crowley’s emotional support angel” and “Crowley’s pet.” Condescension has come towards him from his enemies (“don’t tell me YOU did it?” - Seraquael regarding the miracle, from Shax as aforementioned) but also from the people he loves around him, and it’s been that way his whole life.

Crowley’s protective nature is adorable, but his concern isn’t always communicated well. He says, “you really are terrible at magic,” rather than “I was terrified I was going to get you discorporated and I don’t ever want to do that again.” While the bookshop is under siege, Aziraphale steps forward and seems to have an idea, but Crowley dismisses it. He doesn’t give Aziraphale key information because it would upset him, but as a result Aziraphale is unaware the true depth of disgust Gabriel held for him, he doesn’t hear about “extreme sanctions” until it’s too late, Crowley doesn’t explain his absence after the Resurrectionists minisode. This lack of communication is bad for both of them, but I digress. On top of this, Aziraphale relies on Crowley for validation- he needs to tell him his good deeds, and, notably, the entire conversation at the end of the Job Minisode where Crowley gives Aziraphale the option to be “an angel who goes along with heaven as far as he can,” serves as an example of this.

Let’s even zoom in on The Last Scene, for examples of the tiny ways in which Aziraphale struggles to feel as though Crowley truly respects him. “You can’t leave this bookshop.” “I think I understand a whole lot better than you do.” “Listen. Hear that? […] That’s the point. No nightingales.” “You idiot.” Obviously there’s a lot to these lines, but Crowley’s tone is decidedly condescending from Aziraphale’s perspective- he asks questions that have trick answers, he insists he knows best, and being told that he doesn’t know what he’s doing is a real pet peeve of our Angel’s. It’s also key to Crowley’s character. He loves doing this shit, to Aziraphale, to Muriel, all over the place.

With that context, some of Aziraphale’s lines make a lot more sense. “You can be my second in command!” “Oh Crowley, nothing lasts forever.” “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you.” “I forgive you.” He’s trying to say “two can play the condescending game,” but he doesn’t have the confidence. You can see it in his face when he says, “Well. I suppose there’s nothing more to say.” That face is screaming “there was no need for that tone of voice.” He’s mimicking the condescending tone of the other angels, striving to be right, for once- because he should be right, shouldn’t he? (“I’m a great deal holier than thou, that’s the point!”)

Because Aziraphale hates when Crowley condescends to him! He hates that, time and time again, he’s the one who ends up doing the “i was wrong dance” (why do you think he savors it so much when Crowley does it?), he hates that Crowley’s right all the time. And he knows Crowley is right, at the end of this scene. You can see it in his face when Crowley says “no nightingales,” you can tell he knows what he’s doing isn’t cute. He’s just terribly, terribly frustrated, and he doesn’t have it in him to back out now that he’s gone this far. Maybe if his self-esteem was stronger he could’ve siphoned up some humility.

So yeah. He wants to go to heaven and prove everyone wrong, and be the person that Metatron says he can be- a strong leader, wise, right all along. He knows, by the end of his conversation with Crowley, that it probably won’t be as easy as Metatron says it will be, he realizes Crowley’s suspicions could be true, but he can’t let Crowley win by backing out. Because then what would he be?

Crowley’s pet. Crowley’s emotional support angel. etc etc etc

He needs to do this in order to learn. He needs to do this in order to prove to himself that he can stand on his own. He needs to be the one to swoop in and save Crowley in season 3.

[oozywoozycon]

porsche

bc he’s the one most likely to accept mistreatment out of all the theerapanyakul love interests.

sure there’s the whole thing w pete and vegas lmfao but imo pete is aware of the fucked up parts of their relationship, and that is in fact a key component of his interest in it; anything healthier would simply not work for him. and also vegas is deeply aware of it.

porsche tho i mean he is consistently fucked (figuratively, here. lmao) by kinn. you’ve got their whole pre-relationship thing, then their beginning when porsche is drugged to high hell, there’s the tawan situation that’s almost made worse by the fact that kinn was faking it the whole time? it’s one thing if he was tricked by tawan but he WASNT he was just keeping porsche in the dark and yes he had his reasons!

the point isn’t that ‘oh it’s unforgivable etc etc’ bc these guys are literally in the mafia, a good normal healthy relationship is not possible and also would be no fun. who watches the mafia show for well-adjusted people and same relationships

the point is porsche does not stay angry about any of these things nearly long enough. he’ll do a little silent treatment and maybe run away but he’ll forgive so so quickly !!! and i understand it in terms of his character!!! it makes sense and it’s delicious!!!!!! but i feel that it’s a very important part of him to keep in mind bc yes he does stand up for himself occasionally but truly he is not the poster boy of enforcing boundaries and self-respect

[ussuri-tiger]

I wrote a whole thing about why Catra's decisions in the beginning of the show are very understandable, focusing a lot on Adora's complete lack of threat perception and lack of disclosure making it very hard for Catra to make the complete jump into the dark that going AWOL from an Evil Horde is, especially when you consider how Shadow Weaver shaped her world view and expectations.

As the show goes on there's a race between Catra's understanding of the Rebellion being not so bad and perhaps willing to forgive and her own transgressions ruling her out as a possible beneficiary of such forgiveness, a door that is fully shut with the events of Shadow Weaver joining the rebellion and the Portal.

There's a few stages to Catra's evolution through the show though it keeps the same overall trajectory. Initially she's, imo, trying to replicate the safety and camaraderie she had with Adora by forming the Super Pals Trio. She'll have their back and they'll have her back, and it works pretty well up until the Crimson Wastes where repeated body blows to her psyche put her in a frame of mind to make some truly awful decisions.

One series of awful decisions later her trajectory is altered as she alters herself to fit the expectations and roles of the Horde, there's a lot less Catra in Catra by season four compared to earlier seasons because as much as lashing out and anger are a part of her personality that's a flattening of her character and this flattening is to help her serve her role and push her guilt aside with anger.

Ultimately this both succeeds and fails, succeeds in the sense that she has the Alliance on the ropes and displaces Hordak as leader but fails because as much as she's at war with the Princess Alliance she's also at war with herself and she's losing that war. Then the Heart reverses the fortunes of the war against the Alliance too.

Now you have a thoroughly tormented catgirl who's been harmed by others but more recently harmed by herself all to get a role whose supposed safety has proven illusory fighting a war that's now turned against her.

All that for nothing. Catra's not so much feeling energized to do better as much as too exhausted to keep doing worse her self-worth is nil. 'What're you waiting for, do it' are her words to Glimmer when she's got the magical equivalent of a gun pointed at her.

And then she goes to space.

Given time and space in the semi-captivity of Prime's ship she's given a chance to think and be introspective. Her self-worth probably recovers a bit in this time but not by much, she goes through the motions but...

Trinity : Because you have been down there, Neo. You know that road. You know exactly where it ends. And I know that's not where you want to be.

She's climbed power structures before, she's been the underdog before, she's played a bad hand well for her own power before and she hated it. Still, she knows how it works and it's as much habit as choice by now, surviving.

With Prime though things are harder, she has even less agency in how she fits into the Galactic Horde. With Glimmer reminding Catra how alone she is and Adora just being seen to remind her of something she cares about.

Both Glimmer and Adora keep her from fully succumbing to that habit. Glimmer nettles her about how alone Catra is and seeing Adora threatened reminds Catra that she still cares. Then Glimmer asks a lonely catgirl to stay and she does. While I don't think Catra makes her final decision at this point I do think this is the last external push needed for Catra to change her course, she gets the rest of the way there sitting in a window watching the apocalypse from orbit.

The key here, in my opinion, isn't Catra's intrinsic willingness to do nice things so much as her willingness to bear the usually brutal cost. Because that's her life, when she does something nice she very often catches hell for it so she tries to be discreet, a bit nice perhaps but not so nice that she gets caught. Now though, with Catra's self-worth still pretty low and her future looking bleak at best, her life is not such a high price to pay, if she can help someone she loves... still.

So she saves Glimmer, helps Adora and apologizes to her, she knows she's going to catch hell for this but she's accepted that.

Getting saved and having to continue living in the aftermath of that choice is almost as hard as the choice itself, in Corridors she poured hours or perhaps days of intentionality into 5-10 minutes of saving Glimmer and apologizing to Adora. Now she has to learn to bring that intention to the present which is hard for her but she does manage it.

Catra Rant! >w<

Everything has a cause and effect. If you don’t water a flower it will die. If you tell a child their worth and literal life is based on and how much another person loves them, they will believe you. That child will learn to do anything for that person’s affection, as she was told she would be literally killed if that person didn’t like her anymore.

What she-ra does amazing at showing is how someone can do bad things, but that doesn’t make them a bad person. Catra obviously throughout the show makes many bad choices and hurts many people but that is because she was desperately fighting to make herself a title and give herself worth when Adora left.

A lot of anti-catra’s make the argument that Catra had the opportunity to leave with Adora, but let me count the times and reasons she (and you) wouldn’t want to go with her, keeping in mind how her worth was defined by her relationship with Adora her whole life:

When Adora initially left she told Catra to stay behind so she could sneak out and then from Catra’s perspective ran away with two strangers who where now her best friends (replaced Catra) and the only reason she asked her to come along was because she was there in the moment. Adora never tried to go back for her.

She went out of her way to save glimmer and bow after princess prom, but Catra damn well knew Adora never came back for her. And yet Catra still saved her from the horde and gave her back her sword. Does Adora understand why? No, does Catra even know why? Probably not consciously, but subconsciously it’s because she cares so deeply about Adora, she just won’t admit it to herself because the ways she was betrayed by Adora.

And THEN Adora (accidentally) tells Catra that Shadow Weaver abandoned and used Catra to get to Adora which sends her in a complete mental spiral and she ends up setting off the portal in a manic episode.

in the portal, Adora forcibly Tazed and kidnapped Catra to bring her to the sword with her, where her intention was good but also Tazing someone you love to force them to come with you? Not very smart, I’d be pretty pissed too.

At that point Catra was so caught up in being her own person, even if that meant being the bad guy, just to separate herself from someone who hurt her so badly. It makes sense that it took her loosing Hordak’s trust, Scorpia’s relationship, DT’s relationship, her title, EVERYTHING for her to fully understand that “oh shit I need to move past what Adora did to me and fix what greater good I can while I’m still alive”

Everything that happened to Catra was the cause for her actions. Cause and Effect. Does that make it okay? No. Does it make her a bad person? Also no.

You while reading allat:

I’m sorry <3

[bigskydreaming]

Part of why I harp on about Last Laugh all the time is because its not just about Dick killing the Joker which is what Jason always wanted someone to do for him, to know that he mattered enough for that......but also when you erase Last Laugh or discard it because it just doesn’t fit into your perception of the characters as fanon has dictated, like.......another huge factor of the Jason-Bruce-Dick dynamic falls by the wayside as well.

And that’s how Jason’s not only always been convinced that Bruce would kill to avenge Dick’s death.....but in ADDITION, Jason has always been convinced that Bruce would be more forgiving of the kinds of actions Jason has taken, aka murder, if Dick had been the one doing it.

Because see....the other thing Last Laugh showed aside from Dick’s feelings about Jason’s death......is that Bruce very much was NOT okay with what Dick had done. Bruce always said he brought back the Joker because he knew Dick wouldn’t be able to live with having done that, but IMO it was NEVER about what Dick could or couldn’t live with, it was about what BRUCE could live with Dick having done.

Because regardless of the Joker being resuscitated.....Dick was still keenly aware of the fact that he’d still beaten him to death first. Jason’s resurrection, Dick being revived after his own death, those never erased the impact of their actual deaths, rendered them moot, and neither did resuscitating the Joker. If Jason died and it matters? Coming back doesn’t make that unmatter. If Dick only was dead for a couple minutes tops, that doesn’t mean Luthor DIDN’T kill him and he wasn’t still dead; he’d still actually died.

The same is true of the Joker’s death, no matter how short-lived it was. Dick still DID it. Dick was still very cognizant of that. Dick actually struggled with this for a number of issues, though I don’t think that really was about regretting what he’d done so much as that he’d let the Joker ‘win’.....AND it was ALSO about how Bruce saw him now.

And IMO you can’t argue that Bruce only resuscitated the Joker for DICK’S sake and because DICK couldn’t live with that.....when Bruce notably, distinctly, NEVER EVER EVER actually....engaged Dick on the topic of what he’d done there. 

Ever. 

He went back to Gotham and never made a single appearance to help Dick process things, even when others like Wally showed up in Bludhaven while Dick was holing himself away from the world. Bruce and Dick literally NEVER spoke of it again. Because Bruce wasn’t okay with what Dick had done. He didn’t know how to forgive him or look past it, so he basically did everything in his power to make it so it basically never happened. 

And the difference with UTRH is....when Jason showed up, by the time Bruce knew it was him, pretending Jason hadn’t done the things that Jason wasn’t the least bit ashamed of was never actually even an option.

So I don’t actually think Bruce is any more inclined to forgive Dick of things like murder because its Dick.....I think Bruce had to force+quit all thoughts of Dick actually killing, in order to preserve his relationship with Dick. 

(Even though his relationship with Dick still suffered, because Dick was still keenly aware that Bruce was not okay with what he’d done, and like, not trying to understand WHY Dick had done it or that he was actually maybe okay with having done it albeit outside of the context of it having played into what the Joker wanted him to do. Like, Dick after Last Laugh still very much angsted about Bruce’s assessment of him after it, and did need that reassurance that Bruce still loved him and forgave him....and what Bruce actually gave him is “I’ll agree to never reference it as having happened and look past it for the sake of our relationship” which is very much NOT the same thing. And with, as I’ve also gone into before, this no doubt being HUGELY central to why Dick was so lost and shaken by his fears of having let Bruce down AGAIN by letting Blockbuster die. These things are absolutely connected.)

The flip side of this is that......I don’t think Bruce was any LESS inclined to ‘forgive’ Jason of murder just because he was Jason and not Dick. In that case, it was just more about the fact that there was no way for Bruce to even TRY to force+quit out of his awareness of what Jason had done. Denial wasn’t going to cut it in the same way it had with Dick, because Dick’s ‘crime’ had been one and done.

But THEN, the flip side of THAT - or maybe we’re just on a tangent now, oh hell, who can keep track, let’s all just agree that flips were flipped and tangents were...tangented - like, the other interesting facet of this for me is if Bruce HADN’T been so intent on forcibly ignoring or forgetting that Dick had killed the Joker, for the sake of their relationship or whatever, or if someone else had brought it up - not only could this have improved Dick and Jason’s relationship, it also could have forced Bruce to confront the logical fallacy inherent in like...his MAIN ARGUMENT for why he was so deadset against Jason’s choices. 

And that all goes back to how Bruce has a tendency to project his own worst flaws onto his children, and be paranoid that they’re going to go down the same dark paths he constantly is trying to keep himself from straying down - ironically in part due to how he uses his childrens’ similarities to him in order to build common ground and see a place and purpose for himself in their lives in the first place. He sees himself in his children, that’s what draws him to them in the first place, and makes him act to bring them into his own life and build a home for them....but there’s a double-edged sword element to this too, as Bruce I think often perceives his worst fears for HIMSELF in his childrens’ actions and choices....and acts based on that. Rather than keeping centered his awareness that for all that they are LIKE him in various ways, they are their own people. As different from him as they are alike.

See, because like....Bruce’s primary reason for why he can’t ever allow himself to kill, even someone like the Joker....is because he KNOWS himself, and knows that if he ever allowed himself to cite precedent by doing it even just once.....he’d open up the door and progress through it past a point of no return, whereupon he’d never STOP being able to come up with justifications for why he should also kill this villain and this one and this one. Its the slippery slope argument. He can’t ever start down that slope, because he doesn’t trust himself to ever stop.

And he projects this same logic onto his children, who he seems so much of himself in....the good AND the bad. And so his fears AND his judgment, for both Jason AND Dick when they kill, even just in one special case....is that it sets them both on the same slippery slope. Because they are after all just like him, right?

But also they’re not....as evidenced by the fact that Dick DOESN’T KEEP KILLING. The Last Laugh is basically an outlier (assuming we don’t count Creighton, which I don’t rate the same because while I think Dick definitely did kill him, it was a clear cut case of self-defense and thus a totally different ballgame). Its significant that Dick killed, not just because he did it, and not just because Bruce didn’t actually ever forgive him for it....but also because...despite Bruce being afraid to face or acknowledge it because of how it played into his own fears for his own worst self and choices.....Bruce facing it is exactly what needs to happen in order for Bruce to ever acknowledge that his actual fears of the slippery slope....DID NOT HAPPEN, with Dick. Dick’s never used what happened with the Joker to cite a precedent, to justify to himself the choice to do that again with another villain he had just as much reason to hate.

And from THERE....once you connect all these dots and all these parallels and contrasts and intersections......its notable not just that Jason has killed, and with intent and without regret....but also that there IS no rationale for taking it for granted that Bruce acts differently with Jason’s crimes than he would if Dick committed them, just because its Jason and not Dick.....because the key difference is not WHICH of them did it, its the CIRCUMSTANCES of them doing it....and Jason’s circumstances not affording Bruce the same luxury of denial.

And then from THERE, finally, the coup de grace at the end of it all:

Is it also makes it equally notable that....just as Dick’s lack of killing again after the Joker, like, establishes a counter argument for Bruce’s fears that such a thing is inevitable once Dick killed even once....and with this fear being WHY he comes down so hard on the topic of even his children killing villains guilty of heinous crimes....

Dick’s lack of killing others after the Joker ALSO establishes a PRECEDENT....for the fact that no, killing someone does not make it IMPOSSIBLE to ever step BACK from that ledge if one so chooses. ‘Pulling the trigger’ as it were, even just once, initially....does not doom one of Bruce’s children to a lifetime of never being anything BUT a remorseless killer who can never choose a different path.

And of course, the fact that Jason killing certain people DOESN’T mean that he can’t ever stop, like....this is actually central to the entire Batfam’s dynamics as a whole?

Because after all.....literally every canon story, continuity or fanfic that has Jason reunite with the family to ANY degree, after having killed....which is like, basically all of them.....

These all take it as a given that....Jason is absolutely fully capable of choosing not to kill. He is not LOCKED into anything, beyond the possibility of having any kind of relationship with his family whatsoever, just because he’s killed....with the proof being like....literally all the stories where he still has a relationship with his family despite having killed previously or even still killing in some circumstances in the present!

The slippery slope does not rule all, is the thing. And the proof that Bruce’s fears of the slippery slope once slipped upon, being a one way street straight the fuck to hell, like.....the proof that that’s more a HIM problem than a hard and fast rule that can only ever play out one way for everybody Bruce see himself reflected in?

That proof literally begins with Last Laugh. With Dick. Paving the way for Jason there, rather than making a case for how actually things with Jason and Bruce would look totally different if it had just been Dick and Bruce there instead.

The second you acknowledge that the comics and most fanfics ALREADY take it as a given that Bruce’s projection of his own fears of the slippery murder slope is like....NOT actually any more of an inevitable death knell for Jason’s relationship with his family than Jason’s own actual death knell meant shit about his own longterm survival.....

Then Dick’s killing of the Joker in Last Laugh becomes extremely relevant not just because of what it reveals about how Bruce’s views on murder and his sons doing the murder is NOT actually conditional, based just on which son it is that does the deed most dirty....

It also becomes extremely relevant because of the precedent it establishes in countering the very argument/view that is central to keeping Jason from having any real relationship with his family until Bruce gets the fuck out of his own and everyone else’s way on this front.

[no-name-district]

I just binge watched 3 seasons of Young Justice and I have Thoughts

Kaldur CARRIED the first 2 seasons. He put his back into everything and I love him for it [aLSO HE’S SO PRETTY!!! KON IS PRETTY TOO BUT NO ONE MENTIONS HOW PRETTY KALDUR IS??? GORGEOUS MAN!!! PHENOMENAL HERO!!! I LOVE HIM SM!!!]

Season2!Conner is my favorite Conner. Season1!Conner is (understandably) unstable - which was fun to watch - but season 2 let’s him be stable/dependable while also not erasing his temper. Conner (at least the YJA version) and the Team are all about taking what their mentors taught them and making it their own. Conner definitely embodies Superman’s unwavering sense of justice, but in season 2 he doesn’t feel removed the same way Superman often is. Conner is allowed to be mad and rage and fight because that’s the right thing to do in the face of injustice. Plus he had some great lines. “Learn to cope” *chef’s kiss* He got his ass handed to him 10 seconds later but what else is new

Bart Allen, my beloved! I could write an entire post about him and the potential his character has (probably will tbh) but to summarize my thoughts: underappreciated and underutilized. He built a functional time machine from scratch using only scavenged materials??? Literal boy genius??? Literally put the fate of universe in his own hands at age 13??? I love him and I NEED this show to acknowledge his trauma because he’s Been Through It

Artemis remains the best character imo  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Argue with the wall if you must

Season 3 was ... A Lot. Looking back, there was a lot of potential and I think most of what was introduced (The Outsiders, HaloBrionForager, VICTOR STONE, intergalactic metahuman trafficking as a whole) was really interesting. I think the main problems (for me at least) were the erratic pacing (some missions felt too long, others felt too short, there wasn’t a clear rhythm to the season), the awkward characterization of key players (Violet and Forager felt incredibly child like in a way that felt dissonant with the darker themes of the season, Garfield felt like a walking PSA in the first half, a lot of The Outsider dialogue felt stilted or awkward, etc.) and [please forgive me] the style/quality of animation (LISTEN, ANIMATION IS EXPENSIVE AND THE ANIMATORS WHO WORKED ON THIS DESERVE THEIR FLOWERS BECAUSE ANIMATION IS DIFFICULT but the dcau style is unpleasant to my eyes and the choreography was lacking especially considering that this a superhero show)

Season 4 has me in a chokehold right now and I’m 100% ok with that. Like??? I’m suddenly invested in the Supermartian wedding??? I care about Mars and M’gann’s family??? I care about the Legion??? Congrats, Young Justice, you have me researching comic book stores near me BECAUSE I NEED ANSWERS

[kachinnate]

,,,,okay i know i just said i wasn’t going to talk about the deh movie but actually yeah imma talk about it for just a sec bc y’all actually make me legitimately distressed sajkfndsmjkgds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ_A0H1otc i dont have the braincells to do a shot by shot analysis right now but here’s what we’re lookin at

under a readmore because ghhhhhhh

firstly, let me lead with this: yes, from what we know, there’s a lot of things wrong with this movie. 

the worst, in my humble opinion, being the bts treatment of the (very few) actors of color, and the lack altogether of any production team members of color. that’s something that should be acknowledged, talked about, and fucking dug into especially at the current fucking period of time we’re living in. it’s unsurprising, but disgusting nonetheless, and it set this movie up for failure from the very beginning. i’m a white person so by no means so i feel inclined or like i have any authority in saying what one should feel wrt all of that, however i will say if there’s to be a boycott in not watching this movie, that should 100% be the reason why. it’s fully poc’s choice whether or not to forgive the production team or give this movie a chance for the irredeemable shit it did in regards to handling the movie’s production. the movie imo definitely doesn’t deserve their forgiveness, but again, that is not for me to say. 

there’s some little things too that i can’t fully think of off the top of my head - like, the whole making larry connor’s stepdad thing fucking irks me, for example, but, like...... listen.

if you know me like at all, you know my favorite word is nuance.

so, i’m going to say it outright: the way you people are approaching this three minute trailer shows literally.... none?? no nuance ??? is it no-nuance november over here or ???? like i’m begging you i’m BEGGING YOU to put aside your pre-determined prejudices against this movie and like stop pretending to be a renowned film critic for ten seconds because it’s really not as outright fucking abysmal as you are saying!! and also it’s possible to have opinions that aren’t completely fucking polarized to one side because guess what, the deh movie? a piece of media! what is the shit y’all are constantly preaching about having the ability to consume media critically ? because you’re trying to cancel a fucking trailer based on the contents of the trailer alone !!!!! hello !!!!!!!!

media is bound to be problematic. if y’all were as quick to judge any movie as you did this one, guess what you wouldn’t be watching any movies like ever <3 

anyway lets get into the parts that are probably going to get me cancelled lmao 

ben platt - listen. LISTEN. listen i know he’s too old to be reprising evan we ALL know he’s too old to be reprising evan i’ve heard this same argument since the announcement was made we get it we all know. haha he’s a grandpa yes bestie ur so right ur so funny wow. i do agree that we should’ve maybe had a not-ben-platt evan moment but here’s some things to keep in mind: the arguments of “oooh ABF is right there !!!!!!” 1. who’s to say he was available? 2. the environment of a movie is so, SO much different than that of a musical -- as much as you wanna pretend you know everything from just a trailer, there’s no way of knowing what scenes were added that might’ve made the movie like.. idk possibly more intense story-wise not even COUNTING the fact that just inherently a movie set is different than a musical one? like yes ben platt might be just being used as a device but that’s probably not the sole and only reason. Also, if i see One (1) more comment about his FUCKING HAIR 😃 first of all it’s not that deep like... if you’re so distracted by an actor having their hair different that’s on you, but going as far as to call it bad or distracting or being like Vehemently a way about it? y’all i know it’s most likely not your intention but that is literally just ben platt’s natural fuckin ETHNICALLY JEWISH hair sajknfgkjds!!!! i’m not the first to make this point, but like dsjnfkjdsg!??! y’all are being so mean about it and for WHAT? again, maybe not intentional, but it reads as like high key Very antisemetic and you should.... maybe not 😳 be that way

connor. the thing about a trailer is that they don’t show you all the scenes because they want you to come see the movie. right? can we agree on that? all the connor scenes in the trailer had SEVERAL hard cuts, omitting a lot of the scene -- like the computer lab scene! we see the beginning of it, there’s a VERY obvious hard cut, and then he’s running out! in my opinion my first watch through of this trailer i had a very like “:// hmm all these actors feel a lil like dry”, but man oh man the comments ive seen about connor. holy shit guys. this boy gets 7 minutes of stage time in the actual musical, and the whole thing is we DON’T KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM. not to burst your bubble, and i by no means hate connor, i love me some good connor lives fics and stuff, but everything we write with connor being alive? that is !! speculation on our part !!!! those are headcanons and us using the little context we have!! connor doesn’t have any significant development IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL that is being adapted into a movie !!! you 1. can’t fully judge a character with already limited screentime in a 3 minute trailer, 2. can’t really call what connor has canonically in the musical as in depth character development !! what is his arc then !!!! he pushes evan, goes to the computer lab, has an outcast loner kid moment, gets upset, takes the letter, DIES. sorry stans, that’s just how it is !! and, AND, everything in between, all the idiosyncracies, that depends on the actor playing connor! speaking of, you know who the actor is playing connor in the movie? that’s right, colton ryan! so, i don’t know, maybe... have some trust in the process, in an actor who ALREADY has played connor on broadway???? and also trust that you will get more connor content then u are seeing from a 3 minute trailer!! dhgnijsdg and some of the comments on like his appearance specifically? like are you really made that he doesn’t have long hair?? they kept his nails and his rings but nahhh the hair was apparently a MUST HAVE (even though like.. not all connor actors on broadway always had/have long hair but w/e).. REGARDLESS. tldr on THAT , the movie would have to do a pretty shitty job if they want to take something from someone who doesn’t have much to begin with and i think y’all are being extremely harsh on this point 

jared. honestly i’m a bit worried too about the like... name change, because it does have the potential to be taking out some representation, but... they did change the name to fit the actor’s ethnicity? it’s a really [hmm] topic because, again, from a trailer and from what we have been told we don’t KNOW a lot of the context, but i think it’s important to remember that uh.. jewish people aren’t just? always white ?? there’s a possibility they changed the last name to fit with the [ethnicity] while keeping him jewish?? ofc there’s the possibility that they Didn’t and ... again hm that’s its own thing altogether but just reiterates the point that you can’t knock a whole movie just based on the trailer. you can’t talk about things you know nothing about. 

alana. same thing as before, you can’t.... completely bash a character based on a 3 minute trailer. there was discussion about how she seemed ‘shy’ when talking to evan, which like.. maybe she is but also that scene was them talking in a library like if u actually take notice of what’s happening in the scene jdskngsd though i do share the general consensus with many others that she won’t get a lot of screen-time but that’s neither here nor there 😔 moving on

scenes and the setting. one of the things i was most like.. tentative about in regards to a switch from a musical to a movie was how they were like... going to do certain scenes? naturally, a lot has to be different when we’re going from a minimal stage set to an entire movie with like.. settings. there are going to be new scenes because a movie lends to have like, physical places that aren’t just [evan’s bedroom] and [murphy kitchen] and [implied school]. so new scenes, new conversations, slightly different pacing.. this is all to be expected right like are y’all geneuinely surprised here or ........

there’s a lot we aren’t seeing yet because this is a TRAILER. again i already mentioned this re: connor but like... again, y’all are making some Claims that just... fucking outlandish. there are so many moments in the trailer that are very obvious Hard Cuts. you don’t have all the information yet. you are angry at a tiny fragment of something that is confusing you because you don’t have all the context. is there a chance that some of this shit is just genuinely Bad? yeah but you really cannot 100000% say it with your chest and gauge it without seeing the movie and understanding what that scene is in context. lowkey uhhh saw some jokes about the zoe scene in the car and :’))) ? jesus? christ????

concluding thoughts because my brain hurts but like. you don’t have to like the movie. you don’t have to WATCH the movie. like all media if you choose to consume the movie you should do so with some CRITICAL THOUGHT. but, just like the novel (and i do not want to have any discussions about that i don’t care if you think it’s good Or bad that’s not what this is about) you guys are going in this WANTING to believe it’s bad and completely polarizing your thoughts on what this is going to be. yeah, maybe there shouldn’t be a movie. i genuinely think we could’ve gone without. but it’s just a piece of media, it’s not a progression like all your (musical is good, novel is bad, MOVIE IS WORSE OH NO) posts are suggesting. they are all just. different pieces of media stemming from a source. at the end of the day it’s just a fucking movie. if you already hate it so much, guess what? you don’t have to watch it! you don’t have to put so much needless fucking hate into a 3 MINUTE TRAILER. you can stop being performative and dissing it for its poor treatment of POC while then going on to make fun of ben platt’s hair and just targeting a different group like! please !!!

i’m not trying to be a fuckin’ advocate for this movie because there’s so much opportunity for it to suck, i do Not have high hopes for it, and i’m not even really sure i want to watch it (i bought the novel when it came out and have yet to read it, and i’m sure the movie will like.. elicit very similar vibes from me lsdngjkdsg like im just not uhhh feeling it) but y’know what? watching the trailer did not bring forth the fucking onslaught of hatred in me that apparently has fuckin posessed all of y’all and like djnsgjksdg plagued my dashboard for this whole evening. don’t come into my inbox trying to like.. argue with me about this (preemptively im turning off anon because i like i Can’t lmao) this is just like... a rant i needed to get out of me real quick. 

SO. tldr for now: have critical thought about shit you consume, there’s no ethical consumption under [the film industry], you can’t judge a movie entirely on its trailer, and y’all need to calm the fuck down 

[elriell]

what are ur thoughts on eris, there seems to be a lot of chaos and seperation in the fandom atm... how'd you feel about his showing up in acosf?

This feels like a tricky question to answer, because opinions about this really do verge on the extreme of both sides. From what I have seen at least, and I definitely feel this has caused a great deal of division amongst fans of the series.

While I certainly didn’t expect an appearance of his character in ACOSF, I am not surprised in the slightest at a potential redemption. As soon as he made the comment about “not knowing what it cost him” in ACOWAR, I got major Rhysand flashbacks... And from the moment I read that chapter I felt SJM was going to go down the redemption arc path as she did with Rhys. (Assuming of course that is her plan.)

Because it is definitely her type of character and one she enjoys writing, example; Rhysand & Rowan.

So! We have a month before it releases so let’s talk about it all, good, bad and ugly, as always everyone is free to share their own opinions but can we keep it civil it is just a book after all and not reason to attack anyone, one view or another.

A big reason a find it so incredibly hard to answer this question is because I do dislike Eris for his actions, from what we have been told about him from day dot he is not written to be a likeable character. But here is where the big issue lies I feel like SJM is going to try and flip the table on us, as she has so many times before.

And at the end of the day we can either go with it, like for example people had to accept Rhys for his appalling behaviours in ACOTAR or ignore her attempt at a redemption ARC. [Up to you.]

And here is how I think it is going to go, I think she is going down the path of unreliable narration, I.E Lucien’s clouded view, and the IC views from Mor.

It would not be a shock to me at all, and we have seen very prominent example  of this very thing between Feyre’s skewed POV to Nesta’s reality.

“It wasn’t entirely my fault that I was scarcely able to read. Before our downfall, my mother had sorely neglected our education, not bothering to hire a governess. And after poverty struck and my elder sisters, who could read and write, deemed the village school beneath us, they didn’t bother to teach me.”

VS.

“I didn’t know you couldn’t really read,” Nesta said as she paused before a nondescript section, noticing the way I silently sounded out the words of a title. “I didn’t know where you were in your lessons—when it all happened. I assumed you could read as easily as us.”

“Well, I couldn’t.”

“Why didn’t you ask us to teach you?”

“I trailed a finger over the neat row of spines. “Because I doubted you would agree to help.”

This is a classic example of how unreliable narration can cause a massive perspective hinderance. Feyre made the audience believe her sisters did not care/want to teach her, yet they had no idea she was illiterate. And even further still she never even asked for help, she assumed what the answer would be, but the ripple effect of this is that we as readers will now go three books thinking this is a fact rather than her personal assumption.

“A shadow crossed Eris’s face. “There are few things I regret. That is one of them. But … perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me.”

The fact is we know very little about Eris, we are told what a rough childhood Lucien suffered at the hands of his family [Eris included] but then by that token the same should apply to Eris. We have so little information about his childhood, and about his character save for the opinions of Lucien and Mor (and company).

We have as a fandom touched on this time and time again, whether certain characters and actions are redeemable. Some people will stand by Rhysand’s actions in ACOTAR and others will find it unforgivable, the same applies for Nesta most commonly. But really it can apply to almost any of the characters in the series, Azriel tortures people, Cassian wiped out a whole village, and so on, I do not think that it is fair to criminally punish some characters above others IMO.

Now if you want to hate them all and stand by your feelings, go for it, To each their own, but everyone (or next too all) have done something highly questionable over the course of the series.

The people Rhys has killed, minds he has invaded. Azriel/Cassian’s victims, they were all someone too. They all had a potential partner, family, life, dreams & goals. But because we do not see or hear about them we are desensitised of it. We overlook it.

With Eris, we have two of his victims for lack of a better word, in front of us. Some readers love them, feel protective of them and therefore prioritise their POV over every other. Does that make sense? And that is fine.

Completely, everyone is entitled to enjoy or express their view however they see fit, but I personally do not want to demonise people for wanting to make a more informed opinion on a character and not shutting out the possibility of there being more to his story, for better or worse.

I do believe whole heartedly that nothing Eris has done is any worse than Rhysand and/or the IC, the only difference is he was raised in a crueler environment, amongst cruel people. As readers we sympathise with Az and Mor for their upbringing with good reason, because we know of it, yet condemn Eris when we scarcely know his.

A much larger can of worms is the question of culpability, and I have seen so many incredible meta’s about childhood trauma and it not being used as a excuse for toxic behaviours (mainly in respect to Nesta in this fandom) but I do think it is a important key to understanding the overall character... And note, I do not say like but rather understand/empathise with him more clearly, because right now I do not have any real compassion for him.

And as I said above all of them have done some fucked up shit, it is up to you as  reader to decide for yourself whether you consider the particulars forgivable.

I could go on and on about the details and nuances of all his individual relationships but no one wants to read that, and me ramble on and on and on...

In summary, love him or hate him, he is in the next book. We just have to wait and see what SJM’s plan for him truly lies. Fo all we know he could still be an antagonist, but I highly doubt it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[faelapis]

@babybeetlebongos asked me whether i thought more “forgiving media” like SU will not be looked fondly upon by history because it’s not as “violent” as your spops or your gravity falls, and i had a lot of thoughts about that. tw for discussion of real-life politics, hopefully with enough sensitivity to explain where i’m coming from without being extremely tacky. i’ll probably fail, and i’m very open to criticism here, but i’ll try.

many people conflate healing with violence, and change with punishment. i don’t think they’re right about that, i think some people mischaracterize where SU would fall within “the politics of the moment” in the short term, even though SU takes the much more long-term, “cultures actually need to change over time, and there’s reasons people are the way they are that are bigger than the individual, and nobody will change if you don’t give them reasons to think that the future includes them rather than punishes them for sociological phenomenon outside any individual’s control”.

because the thing is, systemic change and “punishing the bad guys” aren’t actually the same thing. they’re sometimes related, but they don’t have to be. i think the “peaceful vs violent protest” debate has obscured another debate altogether - which is individualism vs structuralism.

individualism posits that, infamously, there’s “no such thing as society”, we are all individuals and we are all accountable for our actions. we have perfectly free will, so therefore, anything we do can and should be used against us. 

structuralism posits that actually, we Do live in a society, and what we can and cannot do is extremely limited to our environments. everyone are shaped by their upbringings, socioeconomic status, culture, social norms, et cetera, and therefore, it’s more important to change society than to punish/reward individuals. our responsibility is collective, not just to ourselves. the point isn’t who is “bad”, the point is that society is the reason why many internalize bad beliefs, and that’s what we need to work on - it’s a collective failing that we haven’t, and we all need to take responsibility for *each other*.

and i think a lot of people who pretend to be for systemic change would settle for punishing their abusers, when it should really be the other way around. i really hate “individualistic leftism”, as a structural leftist myself.

to take the current political example, which, yes, i know is tacky and not the point, but it was what prompted the discussion so i think i have no choice but to address what the discussion actually became - defund the police is more important, imo, than punishing individual officers. one is transformational change on a large scale that actually makes life better for people. the other... is really just venting / individualizing things, as if it would fix anything. to me, the fix is not about punishing the bad guys, it’s changing the system as a whole.

i understand the idea of "why not both", i'm not against that, but i try to be consistently against individualistic framing. thinking punishing individuals fixes systems is equally a shitty liberal mindset as thinking that things will go “back to normal” once trump is out of office. it just has an edgier, more violent spin. 

and that’s what bothers me about the framing of media like spop or gravity falls as the “good, revolutionary” media to SU’s “bad, reformist :(” media lens. it’s really reductive, and it makes that key prioritization that “punishment > change”, which is a very conservative mindset. 

SU actually changes the system. the diamonds are no longer in power, and there is no hierarchy. everyone are slowly changing to find themselves in a world where everyone equally has the chance to do so. gravity falls and spop gets rid of the bad guy on top and thinks that fixes everything. to those latter shows, the status quo was actually fine, we just needed to get rid of the bad people. to SU, it’s the opposite - we can’t expect getting rid of the “bad guys” to “fix everything” (that’s what rose tried to do w/pink), because the sociological cultural norms of gemkind means that they’re taught to love the diamonds. so if you just kill them, you become their bad guys (the way everyone reacted to “killing” pink). you have to have the compassion to understand that to these people, this idolization is normal, and dismantle that normal without condemning the people as a whole. 

but that’s not as sexy as “valid to kill anyone who does The Bad Things. having revenge fantasies about punishing your abusers = good leftist praxis. we fix things by punishing individuals for social issues beyond their control”.

and what’s sad about that mindset is that it often, actually, doesn’t think things can truly get better. nothing that happened in spop stops more shadow weavers from popping up, because the sociological conditions that lead to abuse haven’t been dealt with. it doesn’t seem to think it CAN be proactively prevented, only punished once the children are already scarred.

SU is a lot more... hopeful yet deterministic, in a way? as in, it thinks about (and cares about) how we are influenced by each other. it wants to achieve social equality so that those power relationships don’t exist to influence us in negative ways anymore. with the understanding that nobody is above those influences (not even the “good” privileged people like steven*). whereas spop - and gravity falls - are very much not that. they are individualistic. you kill the bad guys on top and that solves eeeeverything. no cultures need to change. they just need to be intimidated into knowing the “good” people are on top now and obeying them.

(*future is basically saying there’s no good diamond to replace the bad ones, and nobody should be "on top”. it hurts everyone - the same way the expectations of patriarchy hurts everyone. we’ve molded the ones on top into thinking they must and should take responsibility for everything, when that is neither good nor realistic. we’re all, collectively, responsible for healing the traumatized & creating equal relationships. and we can’t do that by individual reward & punishment. as much as that would validate some people’s anger.)

and those people? they’re ultimately just venting their feelings. which is fine. many have been told that their personal anger is something to be demonized, so they vent by engaging in these validation circle-jerks about how good and important it is to be angry. and then many think they’re woke leftists FOR being angry, rather than anger being a personal emotion without inherent good or evil.

many of them have people who’ve hurt them personally that they want to hurt back, or they just wanna make sure to condemn the Bad People so nobody will think they side with or excuse the bad people. the idea is that somebody needs to hurt. so we just gotta make sure it’s the “right” people.

maybe one day, they will realize that actually, social issues are bigger than individuals - and this goes both ways. it can’t just mean “and so we can’t blame the poor, disadvantaged for not being A+ students”, it must also mean “and so dismantling cishet privilege is more important than punishing individual, ignorant cishet people”. that’s the only way to be consistently sociological in your framing.

we don’t decide our upbringings, social norms, who are demonized/deified by society, or who has unjust amounts of power. we’re shaped by our environments, and so, it’s more important to change those environments (and undo those power structures) than to kill individuals we consider particularly heinous. punishing those individuals will not lead to social change. it never has. people generally don’t think they have to change because others were made “examples” of. they revel in being in a “battle”. people like having a fixed bad guy to fight. cops like the power & sympathy it gives them.

the current protests... aren’t even “violent”, in the spop or gravity falls sense. they’re just... property damage and collective direct action, which is much more targeted at dismantling the system than to punish individuals. they’re not really violent. people aren’t killing individual cops, they’re demanding that THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE change. its cop culture that’s bad, it doesn’t matter if the individual cop is good or bad. ACAB because the system sucks. even if you try to be a “good” cop, you’re likely to be fired for speaking up, because the whole culture is awful.

this is kinda similar to something SU is saying - changing the system is more important than figuring out who “the bad people” are and killing them. people think they’re doing the right thing, but ultimately, the structures around them are making them think the hierarchies they’re in are just. it’s the whole of cop culture that needs to change, and maybe the idea of cops in general is a bad one. the system is the problem, and it’s bigger than any individual... which in turn means, or SHOULD mean, that the system can be destroyed and the individuals within it can change, because they’re not really “the problem”. the idea of putting the individual responsible offers behind bars is a fine one, but... it’s more symbolic than truly transformational. the true transformation would be to defund the police. 

i know these media comparisons are inherently tacky. they are. anyone who thinks that is more important than what’s going on irl is being shitty about it. you should be donating, protesting, doing a million more important irl things.

but these tacky comparisons ARE happening, and some people do think “liking the right media” is praxis, so... if you really wanna fit gravity falls or spop into this, the analogy would be more akin to like. defeating the biggest, scariest cop, and thinking that’s somehow gonna change policing as an institution. or thinking that someone killing trump will make all the police & right-wingers go away.

basically, it’s conflating your vengeance with true change. it’s spitting on the leftist value of universal compassion in the face of the sociological nature of reality, in which Everyone are influenced by their privileges and lack thereof in ways that are bigger than individual circumstances (and thus can’t be undone by individual punishment), and so we’re all responsible. but you’d rather not be - because you’d rather see the right people burn than focus your anger at the world and at challenging yourself and your own privileges. 

[letbenfuck2021]

tua s1 brought something that was very unique to the superhero scene. it marketed itself as a show about people who had super powers but were very far from being heroes. they were all deeply flawed and heavily marred by their upbringing which seemed cruel, cold, and devoid of affection from their patriarch and this resulted in damaged, bitter, imperfect but also very human characters. what was even better was how different each sibling was in general but also specifically in how they responded to their horrible upbringing and the consequences they faced because of this. their differences allowed for a wider appeal. we're all a little fucked up because of our childhoods but we all respond to that in different ways and having seven different characters who all had their unique responses meant that even if you don't really connect with one sibling's response, it is likely that you might connect with another's. and imo, this is what made the show work. the plot is....frankly it's weak. there are plot holes big enough to fit Five's inflated ego through. but the weaknesses in plot were more forgivable because even when it was at its weakest, the investment in the characters meant you still cared what happened because it was happening to characters you cared about.

s2 completely threw this to the wind. they spent a lot of time kind of....smoothing out the siblings. one thing I noticed was that the sibs all talked far more like each other. and I have siblings so I know that this is something that actually happens in families but in this case, I don't think it added to the story and actually took away from characterization. a lot of the character arcs from s1 aren't continued or built upon but rather they are either retcon-ed, ignored, or rehashed. instead, all of the siblings are smoothed out. their jagged edges are sanded away unt they are more "likable" (which is pretty wild when you consider how much smoothing out they did when transferring the characters from the comics).

why did they do this? well....it's what the fan base, or at the very least the most vocal part of the fan base, asked for. I will say that in a way, the characters are far more palatable now. take diego for instance. in s1, he was possibly the most volatile of the siblings, even Five, the time traveling assassin, takes issue with his level of violence at one point. and we understand that diego's violence comes from a place of hurt and his hurt largely comes from a place of rejection. he is rejected by his father, by his siblings, by the world around him and this manifests as a hyper-violent nature despite the fact that diego is actually quite soft hearted as we see through flashbacks and key moments in the present. he is angry because he cares. most of this is shown to us instead of told. no one ever says in s1, "diego uses violence to cope with his pain."

so in comparison, why is diego the way he is in s2? and how are we told this? most of the time, we are told what diego is feeling and what his motivations through various mouthpieces even if these explanations don't quite make sense. why is he attached to the jfk assassination? a therapist tells us why as well as lila often operating as a mouth piece for diego's internality. five sometimes explains to us who diego is as well. and while there's nothing necessarily wrong with any of these things in isolation, all together and in context to one another, illustrates an issue with how the writers decided to construct their characters this season.

another example, vanya. this whole "characters being dictated to the audience via mouthpiece" device that the writers decided to use constantly this season is a lot more obvious with her because its pretty much built into her amnesia arc. vanya can't tell us who she is because she doesn't know so other characters will tell us instead. take the dialogue between sissy, vanya, and carl at the beginning of the season when vanya says something along the lines of how she isn't the kind of girl that people would miss and sissy disagrees but....why? how does the story tells us this or not tell us this? do any of the siblings, all of whom, save for five, have been in the 1960s longer than she's been there have not spent one bit of time it seems looking for her. even in her relationship with the family she's staying with, we have no context for sissy's statement. who vanya is told to us. never really shown. who is vanya to sissy and harlan and carl? who is she to her siblings? why is she important to any of these people? is that shown to us effectively or is it just told to us?

and I'm not talking about this to shame or bash on ppl who enjoyed the season. I'm not here to say that you are bad for liking the way the siblings are written this season better than last season. I get it. they are far more palatable now that their mean, bitter, jagged parts have been shaved down. but... palatable is not "better" or "good". I think the same goes for writing that is "gritty" or whatever. it all depends on whether or not it works within the context of everything else going on in the narrative. I think the messier versions of the siblings worked better for the story. It provided a grounding and human element to the story, some much needed levity. I don't think the new characterizations work as well and renders much of the "stakes" of the show a lot less meaningful and worthy of investment and while it was clear that the show had a higher budget and was hell-bent on using it to make the show more action packed and flashy but without strong character writing, the resulting product came off as very empty.

[dragqueenpentheus]

Okay no one has to read this but i DO have to write it:

PYROC VS FATHER PAUL

Ya bitch needs an art break bc im getting angry about voices existing as i try to keep myself entertained. Today is NOT a god one for sinking into repetitive line work and that’s just about all i have on the table atm

SO! Im gunna do a little thinking about my little meow meows all fucked up by religion. Just a comparison for my sanity and interests. Pyroc is my baby i wrote him for the first time years ago. Five?????????? Whadda hell. Going on six.

ANYWAY john joined religion because of his trauma. His sister died and he felt lost. He was unmoored in this fishing village and looking for reason looking for hope. Hed had his heart broken and trying to make sense of tragedy on his own was totally beyond him. Thats why his interactions with riley in AA are SO good like. He knows that confusion and he knows the rhetoric that’s supposed to combat it. Only it dooesnt work for riley.

The same sort of thing happens for pyrc, only inverted. Loss urns him away from god and religion because its SO strong in his family and not only is he loosing trust in god, but his kin as well. He’s suspicious there’s mre they arent telling him, at the point of his fathers death. And he agrees to, on the surface, absolutely wholly throw himself in to being the second the family and the village need. But he’s keeping his treachery under wraps.

That’s one of the coolest things about father paul imo is like. That slow unraveling of what is. Frankly. An awful half assed plan, driven by fear and loneliness and desperation and dementia and love. Even VERY obvious things like. Taking down the newspaper photo of his young self ‘slip’ by him. I think, on some level, its DEEPLY intentional. He wants people to CHOOSE this. He wants people like bev. He wants people who see him and are in aw of him beating god. Of killing death. He wants to be worshiped and adored and for people to come to him willingly, no tragedy driving them to his arms.

Pyroc also wnats to be worshipped, but he ALSO wants to do the worshipping. He really longs for an element of almost????? But not quite??? Subjection?? He wants to be shown something and for a Great Voice to tell him, unquestioningly and unerringly that it is GOOD. Full stop. And then he wants to spend his life worshipping it. But this booko is an exploration of how….. no such thing exists. And more importantly no great voice exists either. There is nothing wholly good, nothing wholy evil. His lack of faith in himself once he becomes god is him starting to understand that as well. Thats on purpose baked into the lore. The starting point was ‘what if god was a position and in order to get promoted you had to be a murderer. No matter what’. He understands things are not wholly good, at that point. I onder how long it will be for him to realize they are not fully evil as well?

Bc pruitt does hm hm hm an interesting move. Where he takes something the narritve is very sure to communicate is EVIL no wiggle room just fact. Even if its driven by animal instinct its. Evil. And he makes it, not just good, but HOLY. And god i LOVEEEE that for him i ADOREEE that what a MOVE. Driven by desperation and dementia and relief and ‘if god saved me than maybe i can be good despite loving and sinning and maybe if i defeat god then i will be Thee Good’. SO sexy of him. Im really fascinated by his morality. He seems to have an understanding of the shades of grey in some respects??? But if he had a BETTER one with more forgiveness in his heart i feel like hed have left the church anyway after sarah was born??? Even if millie didnt ask him??? That might just be my own sensibilities creeping in but ….. like he culd have seen her on the weekends. He can do other jobs. Hes straight (??? Not totally convinced of this) he could have just dated her that makes me crazy. LIKE OBV HE HAD LINES HE THOUGHT THAT WOULD CROSS AND HE HAD INTERNALIZED THE CHURCH AND THE RULES AND SHE WAS MARRIED AND ECT ECT i know he couldnt have really but. Thye were straight. They coulda.

Im not gunna do fantasy homophobia bc i think its …………….. Boring. But i think some element of??? The vindlegaurd line MUST be passed along and for that particular rules must be applied. But thats also boring as hell :/ maybe i can work in my parthenogenesis lore?????????? I bet pyroc would love building that spell in any universe. That’s the sequal when he goes to magic university in helsin. But yeah i do like the concept that. Anyone can have a baby thru magic its just a time and energy commitment. Just a matter of wanting it enough together. Every baby is so deeply wanted and its mere existence is proof. Thats dope i love that. HMMM to be decided at a later date when im deeper into the story i think. I still havent figured out fully how and where and why orion is going to be invovled and if???? Pyroc and orion are even going to be romantic??????? Im torn im TORn…….

Thikns about john bonding w sarah over science and learning and starts wEEPING…. Like theres some surity beloved. Its just a matter of uncovering. I think sarah felt that same thirst for answers and hunted them differently. Her faith is in logic and science. I loveeee her god. Every scene w her and her dad absolutely RUIN me like!!!!!! SHE DOESNT KNOW!!! SHE DOESNT KNOW HOW LOVED SHE IS!!!!!! I hope at hte very end she saw the blood as the gesture of love it SO clearly was and not him trying to poison her. God i love that she spat it out. GOD. Thats about being gay, btw. Spits the religious offering that could save you across the gasoline soaked church floor like BABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think we as a collective should talk about the possibiites around sarah/erin more. Bc their defiance combined would be. Earth SHATTERING for crockett.

In the future pyroc gets a kid. Ever since that campaign where Enemy ended up playing his daughter im like. How did i NOT know this idiot wanted nothing more in the entire world than to travel it with his daughter. I dont care how or why hes getting a kid. Hed be so doting and awful abut it. He would need orion as a co-parent for the kids self esteem to be normal levels. thINKS ABOUT PAUL GETTING TO RAISE SARAH AND JUST ABSOLUTELY GASSING HER UPPPPPPPP HANGING EVERY DOODLE SHE EVER MADE ON TEH FRIDGE. BOASTING ABOUT HER SCEINECE PROJECT OT ANYONE WITHIN EYESIGHT EVEN THOUGH ‘WE K N O W JOHNWE WERE ALL AT THE SCEINCE FAIR’!!!!!!!!!!! Let these fuck ups be doting fathers im fucking begging. That scene where paul is like. You take ccare of everyone on the island sarah. Its more than being a doctor. You comfort them.

HM HM comfort is such a thing for Miss Bitch like!! He sees it as a Good Thing. He tries to bring it for riley by asking to hold the AA meetings on island ((also manipulation. Obvously also manipulation. I wouldnt have bene shocked if he was slipping the vampire blood into the coffee every meeting either. But thats just a theory. A game theory.)) ANYWAY he sees comfort as hly. The church gave it to him when he needed it. The angel gave it to him in the cave. Feeling safe and warm is HIGH on his list of priorities and what makes him hand over respect.

I think pyroc has lived a very comfortable life in SO many ways, but in none he. Activly recognizes. A key part of his character arc his him…. Opening his eyes to the world around them. Seeing the privilege he has and being like. Wait. This isnt Right. We have to change thi. And when no one agrees ti shifts to I have to change this. With Violence. A little revolutionary <3 it only costs the life of his whole ass family

Thats more fun comparison ground like…… paul is SO much about I know whats right and there is a cost but i AM ignoring it. Like HE KNOOOOWSSSS he knooooows he just doesnt want o See. I’m not sure if im going to surprise yroc with the ……megadeath of. His whole family. Or if it’s a choice he has to activly make. I think a choice makes it more compelling, more layerd. It has to be in the moment though, becaus ei think thats. A key difference between them. Pyroc wouldnt do it.. hed just leave hed peace out and do what he could in small ways. But he wouldnt do his big stand off with god. Hed shrink his goals in order to not hurt his family. Out of love?? Intimidation?? Some instinct wihtin him that balks at the idea of disobedience??? I think even he doesnt know. But i LOVE john becaue he jsut decides to lie. He closes his eyes and says i am being stupid on purpose. I think thats PERHAPS more compelling than good guy coward pyroc BUT!!!!! Thats who he is rip to ths little man. Cant change him now hes a whole ass child in my head. The PLOT i can change. Him….. not without massive character development <3

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MM set my brain on FIRE!!!! Im so glad nano is coming up. I love sharpening pyroc against the comparison of other AMAZING characters. Father paul hill my beloved millstone <3 anyway sorry to anyone who reads this its literally me unhinging my jaw and emptying my brain out. I had to write stuff that wasn’t novel or fic. A little character time down and dirty. I wil NOT be editing this love and light to future me trying to decode this