#((addendum: i also have A Lot of feelings about him actually not getting better and letting him follow his heart into full-on villainy))

[wildcardjoey]

Anita jean!

ANITAT JEAN!!!

Alright so the Little Wren AU is basically just 'Bruce manages to find Anita after she fakes her death' and she actually does become his first sidekick. She isn't a fighter, Bruce puts her under three layers of armor, and she basically fills a mage and healer role with first aid (mostly for civilians and criminals) and the virtual reality gas drug, the use of which allows batman to remain a cryptid for far longer.

Anita also takes longer to get the hang of grappling hooks because she's less coordinated than even Tim but she does get them probably not too long after Dick comes to the manner since the two can train together. Her inability to use grappling hooks when she first enters the field is why The Whirly-Bat was made, named The Hummingbird in this au because it's Anita's and was named before Dick was adopted into the family and took a bat-gimmick to every piece of equipment in the cave. Before he joined the team, Bruce and Anita were work shopping names for a lot of their stuff but hadn't come to decisions for most of them, so Dick still gets to do that, but not for Anita's Hummingbird.

Rather than the dynamic duo, this au has either a tritastic trio of Batman, Wren, and Robin, or the dynamic duo is seen as Wren and Robin, as Batman's sidekicks. When Tim ends up at the manner, Anita basically tells him he's too tactical to be Robin and gives him the Wren mantle, which she either had already left behind or was in the process of considering it. Steph ends ends up becoming his paired Robin, for much longer than Canon.

Steph initiating that plan that required Matches Malone probably still happens, but with Anita's help she's able to salvage it, but it opens up an entirely new set of problems because at that point Anita was already on the verge of discovering The Court of Owls (because their one give away was a nursery rhyme and she wanted to find out it's origin because it's her hobby) and now The Court sees the bat clan take control of the city basically in it's entirety so those two things combined make The Court release the elite talons. A temporary alliance with The League of Assassins and the timely first arrival of Cass in the city means they just barely manage to win. This is also the family's first introduction to Damian and a recently resurrected Jason is probably also there, but dressed like the rest of the assassins so he isn't recognized.

Anita herself, which is what this au is actually about, is going to be depicted as better adjusted due to not living her life since she was, like, eight alone and eventually dedicated to revenge. She has hyperfixations on birds, nursery rhymes, programming, and tech and is an excellent detective. I already mentioned she's less coordinated starting out but that doesn't mean she's weak, she'd probably be able to beat Dick in a fight when he first gets to the manor since he's at that point just a gymnast but she's been training as a martial artist for like six months at that point.

Speaking of Dick, I really look forward to writing their banter. They are going to be so sassy to each other but very protective of each other. Almost as much as they're both protective of every one younger siblings, which, and seeing some of your posts this may be disappointing, isn't going to be terribly long. Finding a way to fit every obscure batfam character in is for my other dc au, the same one that my ruleset for Claire's powers is for, but I do have Calvin, Charlie, and and Dana (Talon, Misfit, and Strike) as sure-shows for Little Wren.

Long-Term, the au's story-arc will focus on the eventual take down of The Parliament of Owls as the main antagonists, as it feels fitting for an Anita Jean focused story for previously stated Nursery Rhyme related reasons, although I do also plan for The League to be taken down due to Tim still having his globetrotting adventure and then the batfam actually capitalizing on it.

Edit for Addendum: the first paragraph makes it sound like Anita never fights, I should clarify that her role on the team does evolve as she gets older and Bruce becomes more lenient.

[jomiddlemarch]

I loved and guessed at you, you construed me

It was not that he was waiting for her as much as that he was most often in the faculty sitting room at this hour and so was she and the staff knew to leave out a full tea service and also a magically chilled bottle of very dry amontillado, the color of her eyes. And then to tell anyone else that the room was occupied and that they were not to be disturbed.

It wasn’t that he was waiting for her, but he did look up when she came into the room, letting the ancient, rare and precious book he held slip out of his hand, an instinctive, wandless spell keeping it from clattering onto the floor.

“You cut your hair,” Draco said. 

Any pretense to eloquence, savoir-faire, or intellectual rigor associated with achieving his Potions Mastery and Mwandamizi kemia had been decimated by the four words, uttered in a tone of complete shock, which given his Pureblood upbringing meant flat, with a hint of scorn. He had spent the past twelve years working to convince Hermione he wasn’t that man anymore, the one who would have meant the scorn, the fault-finding appraisal, cold and superior and not terribly clever underneath it all.

(The one he’d felt doomed to become before the chandelier fell in his family’s ballroom. Before she’d testified to keep him out of Azkaban. Before she’d returned his formal letter of apology with a brief addendum You were a child, Draco an absolution he didn’t deserve.)

Blaise always said he was his own worst enemy. Theo always nodded and offered a glass of single malt Scotch. Neville always shrugged and tried to reassure Draco, meandering through some nonsense about how they’d all had to grow up too soon, let down by the adults, forced to experience trauma that they’d been lucky to survive and a plate of buttered toast would soon set him to rights.

Luna changed the subject and talked about some possibly fictional chimerical creature to take his mind off his shortcomings. It never worked but he appreciated her effort and consistency.

“I suppose that’s better than ‘Bloody hell.’ And “Holy fucking Christ.’ Harry reverts to Muggle obscenity when he’s really surprised,” Hermione replied. “You only told me what I already know, as I didn’t accidentally fall into a Mongolian silver scissor-bush.”

“Is that a thing?” Draco asked. 

He had to keep talking but there was a lot to take in, the startlingly gorgeous line of her bare neck, the angle of her jaw, how her eyes looked enormous, luminous. How her chestnut hair was swept across her brow and came to a delicate little point on the nape of her neck, all these hidden aspects suddenly marvels revealed. Suddenly, astonishingly breath-taking and erotic and also heart-breaking, because he’d wanted so to run his fingers through her loose hair, to stand behind her and draw a brush through her curls. Watching her eyes get drowsy in the dressing-table’s looking-glass, resting a hand on her bare shoulder and feeling the tickling silk of her hair. He’d wanted to cast the spell that ended the charm securing her chignon, to pull out the jeweled pins she used to keep her braids in the coronet around her head. 

“No. It sounds like something Luna would mention though,” Hermione shrugged. It was as if he’d never seen the gesture before.

“It’s a lot to take in,” he said.

“It’s actually not. It’s both literally and figuratively not,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Snape being a double-agent in love with Harry’s mum was a lot to take in. Any Sunday lunch at Molly Weasley’s table is a lot to take in. War and Peace in the original Russian without a translation charm is a lot to take in. I took off a few inches—”

“A few inches?”

“Fine, I got the first professional, Muggle, haircut of my adult life because I was fed up with my hair and charms and Sleekeezy and glamours, so many glamours, and you would think I have announced I am Grindelwald’s secret lovechild,” she said in a tone of complete exasperation, pursing her lips in a matching moué he felt an impossible urge to kiss very thoroughly and until she was gasping his name. 

He was fairly certain that action would not be requited, not now, and potentially not ever.

But definitely not now.

She was now almost glaring at him, waiting for a response.

If this was ever to become something beyond hopeless pining, if he were ever to be allowed to call her sweetheart and coax her back to bed, he couldn’t get the next part wrong.

“Are you happy with it?” he said. It was a gamble, saying anything would have been a gamble, but there was a chance he’d gotten it right.

He’d surprised her, that he could tell instantly, though her face changed very subtly. It meant no one else who’d seen her had asked and considered she might be. No one else had thought about why she’d done it, only what they thought of it. Evidently, both Weasley and Potter had indicated a negative response, Weasley likely driven by his own unrealized Pureblood upbringing, where all witches wanted the long hair associated with power and Potter never wanted her to be anything other than she’d been in their youth, when her unruly hair was her most obvious signifier.

“Yes, I think I am,” she said. 

“That’s good. That’s what matters,” he said. He was supposed to reference the book he’d been reading or follow-up on their most recent conversation about geopolitics or whether Chopin was a Squib or at the very least offer her something to drink, the tea first and then, when she demurred, the sherry. But all of those would require him to look away from her and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Not quite yet.

“I ought to have done it a long time ago,” she said. She spoke without her usual forthright confidence, but also without any of the regret the statement might have implied. She sounded hesitant, as if she wanted something from him she felt she shouldn’t. Or shouldn’t ask for.

It was tempting to make some sort of declaration, offer reassurance or an argument. But he’d gotten this far by asking her a question.

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know. It would have been a way to move on. Grow up. Make my life easier, decide it for myself,” she said. She was watching him very closely as she spoke. She liked that he’d asked, though she wasn’t smiling. “It wouldn’t have been grief or some kind of, I don’t know, unhinged trauma response.”

It would very much have been a response to the colossal trauma she’d experienced if she’d hacked it all off after being tortured, and it wouldn’t have been unhinged when one considered the myriad extremely risky alternatives she might have chosen, but Draco wasn’t about to ruin everything. Even as his own worst enemy, he could keep from doing that.

“It could have been just something you do when you’re in your twenties, trying something out. Like, going to the Maldives or studying Norn. Learning earth magic from tribal elders in Namib.”

“Only you would saying learning earth magic in Namib is something you do in your twenties,” Draco said wryly. “Most people just go to the pub and fret a lot.”

“You didn’t,” she said.

“I think it’s well established I’m not most people,” he said.

“No. You’re not. You’re the only person who didn’t tell me cutting my hair was a terrible mistake,” she said. “As if it could even remotely compare to the other terrible mistakes I’ve made.”

“It’s not a terrible mistake,” he said. “And you’re the person I know best whose made the fewest terrible mistakes in her life and we can sit here drinking sherry talking about it because of it.”

“My parents wouldn’t agree,” she said.

“Neither would mine. I wonder how people grow up when they don’t have to discover their parents were deeply, entirely wrong about something absolutely crucial to survival,” Draco said.

“We could ask Blaise Zabini,” Hermione said after very clearly Thinking About It, a little crease appearing between her eyebrows.

“Too risky,” Draco replied. “It’s only the husbands people talk about but people have a way of disappearing when they ask questions about his mother.”

“No one would comment on her haircut,” Hermione said wistfully. “What a bloody icon.”

Draco laughed, startled.

“You’re enchanting,” he blurted out. Stupid, gauche, impulsive—he could go on (and on) about how ill-considered it had been.

“Well, I am a witch,” she said. She did not seem put off. In fact, she smiled at him, a little shyly.  “Goes with the territory—”

“You enchant me. Bewitch me,” he said, throwing caution to the winds. “You don’t want anyone to comment on how you look, so I shouldn’t but you’re exquisite—”

He broke off, fearing he’d broken it all. She was still in the room and he still had all his bits and bobs, when he knew she was a dab hand at wandless curses. It was rather late to decide discretion was the better part of valor, but better late than never.

“I didn’t do it for you,” she said.

“No,” he replied.

“I didn’t do it only for you,” she clarified. “But I was curious to see how you’d react.”

“Did you have a hypothesis? You usually do,” he said.

“Yes. You’ve exceeded it slightly,” she said. There was a gleam in those sherry-brown eyes and when she tilted her head to the side, he understood the vampire’s insatiable lust. 

“I can do better than slightly,” he said, half-dazed with the realization that she was requiting far more than he’d ever imagined. And that she’d imagined his response to seeing her bare neck, had wanted his admiration. He got up from his chair and crossed the room to her, standing close enough to take her in his arms. “I can do a wide margin. Prodigious. Overwhelmingly—”

“I like prodigious,” she said and he leaned in and kissed her parted lips softly, then deeply, one hand at her waist, the other cupping her cheek. The urge to possess her was tremendous, held in check only by an immense and constant tenderness, the moon that could pull the devouring tide back from the shore.

“Can I see overwhelmingly?” she whispered. “For comparison—”

“Of course,” he answered and moved to kiss her neck. He tasted the pulse of her carotid, sucking gently where he wanted to nip her. He moved back up to the hollow behind her ear, grazing her lobe with his tongue, then murmured,

“You cut your hair. I love it.”

[marypsue]

Ahh also as an addendum to my previous ask about the age swap (which I might’ve accidentally labeled as the body swap fic due to the foibles of being awake unexpectedly early ), I was curious what your criticisms are regarding Robin and Will’s treatments by the Duffers? I know you’ve alluded to being bothered by both but I’d be curious to hear more ( if you have the time/hankering!)

Hooboy. Okay. Buckle in. 

Obviously this is going to be a combination of actual literary analysis and Big Feelings That I Have, so like, please don’t take this as any kind of moral dictum on what to or not to watch, or how to or how not to interpret what you watch. Also, a lot of what makes me uneasy and unhappy about how canon deliberately handles queerness (as opposed to when it does queer things apparently by accident, which as you may have noticed, I have considerable amounts of fun with) has to do with behind-the-scenes context I���ve read about, so there’s a certain degree of Telephone involved. And I’m still only halfway through season four. There’s just so fucking much of it. 

With all that said. 

The behind-the-scenes context I’m most specifically concerned with are the season-one pitch bible(? I think that’s what it’s called) (which, it should be noted, ended up diverging in some quite significant ways from what ended up in the show) where the Duffers first raised the possibility that Will might be gay, and the anecdote that Joe Keery and Maya Hawke were the ones who decided Robin should be queer and had to really push for it and wrote and choreographed that scene in the bathroom. Put the two together, and it tells you that the Duffers planned that there would be One (potentially) Gay Character in their show. 

And that character was the one they spent an entire season directing violent, vicious, eventually outright murderous homophobic hatred at through the mouthpiece of a couple of bullies. You can say what you want about revenge narratives and those characters ultimately getting their comeuppance, but for Me Personally, it sucks all the fun and escapism out of season one to watch it thinking that those bullies only got punished when they aimed that vitriol at someone to whom it didn’t literally apply. Also I still have to sit through however many episodes of that vicious homophobia onscreen regardless, so, like, that’s a walk in the park anyway. /sarcasm 

And then there’s that whole bad business in season three, where it’s never been quite clear to me if we’re supposed to see Mike as having been in any way in the wrong. Kind of scuppers the argument, to me, that we’re supposed to be on Will’s side. And season four, which so far has had Will tagging along after people who are supposed to be his best friends but mostly don’t seem to give a single damn about him, doing absolutely nothing but looking morose and sullen and tragic and *coughcough* Artistic, and causing Problems for the nice straight couple. 

(Tangential to the point I’m coming to, but also, my son deserves better than to be reduced to a soggy cardboard standee with ‘GAY’ scrawled across it in magic marker the way season four seems to be angling toward. All the Byers, but especially the Byers boys, deserve better than season four seems interested in giving them. But I digress.) 

Also. I love Robin. If you follow me, you probably know that. I’m a hardcore, ride-or-die Robin girl. But. With Robin, from what I’ve heard of the context, the Duffers never intended for her to be queer. They wrote a girl who was smart and funny and sharp and talented and a little bit mean and a little bit insecure and a little bit weird but in an interesting, endearing way - as a love interest for Steve. 

And then, as soon as season four rolled around, once they’d been pushed into making her canonically, on-screen queer (in a beautiful, tender, heartfelt, true-feeling scene that they didn’t fucking write), suddenly she’s had a complete personality transplant. Suddenly, she’s an awkward, bumbling, annoying loser who’s only funny when she’s the butt of the joke, who’s no good at anything and who nobody really likes except maybe for Steve, an outcast even amongst the freaks. When she does do something smart or competent, everyone around her reacts with shock, like it’s wildly out of character instead of how her character was originally written. One of these versions of Robin was written with ‘gay person’ in mind, and it unfortunately wasn’t the one we were obviously supposed to like. 

In both cases, I get the feeling that the storytelling issues stem from this like...assumption that queerness equals isolation and misery and tragedy, and that there’s nothing to queerness outside of that. That there’s something inherent to queerness, something pitiable but repulsive, that causes the isolation and misery and tragedy (not that those things are imposed from outside, by, say, violent homophobia). That it would be absurd to imagine that queerness could ever be joyful, or playful, or that someone might ever, given the chance to choose, not choose to be straight instead. Or that there could be enormous friendship and community and heart and pride in queerness, or even that queer people might find friendship and community and strength in each other. Or even fucking talk to each other, ever. 

Which is especially infuriating, because the whole central theme of season one (besides surface appearances being deceiving) is that community and care between people who are very different but discover they have more in common than there is that separates them is what saves the day! That love comes in all kinds of forms, and they’re all important, and that love can be stronger than fear! 

But apparently, according to the Duffers, queer love doesn’t count and queer community doesn’t exist. It’s just isolation, misery, and tragedy, and I guess we the watchers are supposed to sit outside of it and pity Them for it (and be quietly, sneakily, a little bit nastily grateful that it’s not happening to Us). Because of course nobody watching the show is queer. Of course. This show is made for normal people. 

It’s part of the same attitude I’ve also seen play out with the Duffers’ inability to just let a white dude be bad. Oh, they want to talk a big game about how they’re on the side of the freaks, and bullies are bad, and everybody should be respected and appreciated for who they are. But when it cuts down to the bone, when applying that precept to a girl or a person of colour or a queer person makes a straight white guy come off as a monster, they keep trying to dodge it. 

The more antagonists they try desperately to rehab without ever acknowledging why they were antagonists in the first place, the more it starts to look like they simply don’t really believe that the people those antagonists hurt really matter. That, somewhere deep down where the assumptions that are so baked in you don’t even realise they’re assumptions live, they don’t really believe that girls, or Black kids, or queer people are as fundamentally human and deserving of respect and compassion as their beloved awful straight white men are. That what they really think about bullies is that bullies are bad because the bullies picked on them, instead of the kinds of people who deserved it.

(See also: that time a twelve- or thirteen-year-old Sadie Sink didn’t want to have to do a kiss in the Snow Ball scene, so the Duffers, who had just been joking about having her do it, actually made her do it. For multiple takes. Specifically because she didn’t want to. And then later related that anecdote to the press. Because they thought it was funny.)

Anyway. Personally, I’d prefer canon just never say anything definitive on the matter of Will’s sexuality and stop trying to push the narrative in that direction, so I don’t have to watch the Duffers spectacularly fumble yet another attempt at Writing About Marginalised Groups. 

(Also, this is absolutely not me saying Watch A Different Show - I’m here writing fanfic for this stupid show, it’d be pretty fucking rich of me to try to tell people to stop watching it. But I’d really love for many of its fans to get some more exposure to less-mainstream, more deliberately queer literature and film, so y’all can see what it really feels like to be seen and acknowledged and loved by a story, on purpose. I get it! I do! I too have wanted very badly to feel like something I loved, loved me back. 

But you don’t have to content yourselves with scraps. And you definitely don’t have to be so concerned with those scraps that you blame your friends, cousins, siblings, brothers in arms for ‘stealing’ some kind of ‘representation’ from you by asking to be seen and acknowledged and loved as well. The bastards who’ve been withholding that recognition from all of us would love nothing more than to watch with amusement, gorging themselves on a banquet, while we tear each other apart over a couple of discarded bones. Don’t give them the satisfaction. We don’t have to be isolated, pitiable, pathetic, miserable tragedies. Put the hollow promises of exclusionism and respectability down. There is queer art and literature and film and community and joy and love in abundance that you don’t have to beg anyone for, and you are invited to participate. This is me inviting you to participate. 

And cordially inviting the Duffers to meet me in the woods behind the 7-Eleven.)

...

tl;dr the way the Duffers treat queerness when they do it on purpose feels like a combination of othering, contempt, and misery porn, and I hate it. And that, in a nutshell, is the rant I’ve been sitting on for the last two-and-a-bit years. I’m getting down off the cafeteria table now. 

[writesailingdreams]

What are your ideas on Amphibia’s idea of self-love and how it’s tackled?

I’m afraid I don’t have very in-depth thoughts (or more precisely I hadn’t thought about this idea until asked*). But from my few days brewing on it my answer is: I think it’s idea of self-love is something I would have been grateful for when I was Anne’s age and I think it’s tackled pretty well.

As an addendum, I felt only Anne really had an arc defined by discovering self-love. To me, Marcy’s arc was about coming to term with facing unpleasant things, and Sasha’s was recognizing how she wanted to be a better person/grow. I also don’t see any of the Plantars needing to learn self-love. Sprig might come closest but to me, his arc is more about finding a friend, someone who will actually like him/spend time with him, and it’s less him learning to love himself but finding the friend who will love the himself he already is pretty open about expressing/seems to like.

As to what I mean in more specifics (because of course), I’m having a hard time arranging it my head coherently. But essentially: I felt Anne’s arc to self-love was handled very gradually.

She’s starts out (Best Fronds) as very concerned with what her friends will think if she isn’t agreeable to what they say; she has to be likable, she has to be what others want her to be. But then she meets Sprig (and family) and live in Wartwood, where she has to make decisions on her own/withiut her usual friends. Wartwood is disturbed & distrustful but she earns their trust & respect (Toad Tax). Then later there’s Wally’s bit of “you can be whoever you want to be here” advice and her becoming less worried about whether she’s the “town weirdo” (Wally and Anne). Then there’s the whole Reunion bit with Sprig defending her and saying she’s a good person & brave & not going to be pushed around; she’s someone—as she has presented herself in Wartwood—of value and love (at least in the eyes of this pink frog boy. See this is why I get so emotional about these two?)

I’d say there’s less direct instances in S2a (at least nothing immediately jumps to mind), but by the time she’s there she has had some growth. I think this is most evident in her relationship with Marcy. By the end of her stay in Newtopia, she’s opened up to Sprig (and vice versus) (Hopping Mall). She’s learning to express how she feels and be okay with that. So by the time the show gets to Bessie and Microangelo (I love that ep), she’s happy with herself. (Oh, Tritonio helped, less in his ultimate goal reveal but in instilling in Anne an actually desire to work at something and see herself as worthy as be capable of working at something. Oh, and Stumpy’s statement that her parents would proud of what she did feels like it boosted some kind of ‘You’re ideas may be over the top but they come from a good place.”)

Like omg! To 13 yr old me those kinds subtle and but very clear & audial expressions of my value and worth would have been amazing. Maybe it’s okay to just be the weirdo you are. Maybe others *will* like you. Maybe someone will be your friend even if you share your weird and sentimental feelings. Aaaah! (Heck, I’m in my 30s and I’d still love this).

In that sense, to me, Anne’s self-love grew very much from the space where others (frogs) allowed her to be who she was and as she grew more expressive, she became more sure of herself and the more sure she became the more self-love was genuine. Anyway, I think it’s beautiful.

*this ask reminded me that I’ve been wanting to rewatch Amphibia; I have been reminded that I usually dig my teeth into fandom media when it’s complete, One Piece being the nearest thing to an exception and even then (1) it’s a lot easier to analyze Ace than other characters and (2) I usually narrowly focus or broadly react

[anx1oustig3r]

why do you draw dark willow like that

tbh i could give a snarky answer but i’ve had my lunch and a painkiller so im in a good mood rn

for me a big thing with character design that i love is trying to reflect the characters personality and attitude in the design and … i think i gotta take a moment to talk about valve’s issues with character writing in dota, specifically with poor little mireska sunbreeze

an addendum i also believe that anyone’s read of the character is perfectly fine and valid, this is just mine and i get that it’s extremely different to the Oversight one that’s more popular

tl;dr: i see her as a dangerous, evil character and draw her more sharp to reflect that

mireska in particular really suffers from her canon design. i dont think it’s bad mind you, i actually like it a lot, but i will say the first time i saw the character my response was “ugh of course, waifu porn bait, not surprised.” then i read her lore and i was SHOCKED because the character presented in the lore just didn’t line up with the visuals. now granted, the character in game is very “haha mischievous little fairy” but thats where i want to bring up the inconsistencies.

im firm in my stance that snapfire is the most interesting and well written character in dota, but i seriously believe that spot could have been mireska if they just commit to what was set up with her.

this is her lore piece in game and there’s key words here: spiteful, contempt, manipulation, cutthroat. along with the note that she was GOOD at dealing with this stuff. she fit in with it and even says herself if it wasn’t for her father she’d have stayed in revtel

it’s pretty evident here. mireska is an absolute piece of shit made worse by the fact that this is very clearly an active choice she’s making and has zero intention to change if these lines are anything to go by.

(tumblr is glitching so im praying it chose the right photos)

it doesn’t really come across when you load her into the game. it’s just, cheeky waifu at best. she doesn’t seem all too effected by what she’s supposedly been through. granted that’s the standard of dota writing, but thats what i’m getting at. the lore sets up one character but then the game presents you with another very watered down one note version of them.

so the mireska i draw comes from the character presented in the lore. a rebellious asshole who was fucked up enough to burn her families estate down to the ground AS A CHILD and steal a family heirloom purely to rub salt in the wound of her father, clearly there was some messed up dynamic there but the game wont really elaborate further outside of “overbearing”. i often find myself thinking it would have been great if they let her acknowledge this in game, especially since it’s evident some years have passed since the fire, you don’t become wanted in 6 nations with a nasty reputation and armies worth of assassins and bounty hunters after you in just a couple of weeks.

does she feel any guilt for what she did? has she realised that she’s set herself down a spiral of self destruction but she could stop it at any point as dontè implies? does she know this but trying to change and be better is basically admitting that she’s in the wrong which she would rather tear her own wings off than admit that?

i don’t know if im crazy for having this read of her, or looking too hard into a game that regularly gets memed on for not having any lore, but personally these themes of holding yourself accountable that hang on the back of her character are fascinating and resonate a lot with me. and i guess that’s why i draw her the way i do. i see her as this rough, conflicted character who’ll shank you first, rob you blind and not bother to ask questions. someone with a bitter past that she’d rather leave behind and be the worst version of herself purely to spite whatever expectations were put on her in childhood (given her father was a merchant king and the way she talks about him, there was clearly SOMETHING)

so i use a lot of sharp shapes, hard edges typical of a roguish dangerous character. dark outlines, fangs and claws to exaggerate that she’s a monster and a clear threat. she’s thin and gangly like a bramble stick you’d find walking in the woods in the dead of night, with cat eyes that gleam in the darkness like a predator watching.

i could talk about why i read a very queer interpretation of her too but i think i rambled enough as it is and this is gonna get posted to reddit where gamers will laugh at me and send anon hate to this blog but what can you do, such is life im afraid.

[russilton]

holy fuck. Read the snippet from omega George and holy fuck. We need the whole story! Also, I like how you incorporated George's actual tastes in food in this, sounded very real. Will you consider (given what Lewis said in VF interview) adding to the fic George's reaction to AD 2021? I know they're a year apart but I think it would be a great addendum omega George going berserk over alpha Lewis being robbed of his title and causing chaos --- maybe Lewis himself having to go and stop him?

This is actually a major plot point of the fic! I discussed it a little here but I’ll use this as a chance to expand on it.

When I set out to write a gewis a/b/o fic it mostly came from the fact I kept complaining about how most omegaverse fic will skip or fade to black ruts, if they’re mentioned at all, which is fair enough but I have a thing for slightly desperate tops. After I complained enough my partner told me why don’t I put up or shut up (but a lot more lovingly). On top of that @polycedes amazing fic chasing happiness introduced me to the concept of panic heats being triggered by stress, which makes absolute hormonal sense and now I’m obsessed with it, and wanted to consider the other side, stress induced Ruts.

So, mash all that together, and throw in some “author writing to compensate for pain” and AD 21 is the perfect opportunity for a potential stress induce Rut, particularly if you conveniently drop a heat for George in that would have Lewis running a little hot. I would pose that perhaps it’s around Brazil 21 that George ends up with an out of sync heat, he’s had a rough year with all the signing stress and it catches him by surprise. He and Lewis have been getting close, and Lewis is the only alpha he trusts that way, so he asks Lewis to help him through the heat so it’s a shorter affair and he can be back in the car in time to race. Some point in George’s heat there’s some silly but loving confessions they come out the other side in something tentatively together. Lewis is a happy alpha with a partner he loves, he drives the race of his life riding the adrenaline and happy hormones. This also contributes to his next two incredible wins, but behind that he’s starting to circle a pre rut thanks to spending a heat with George. Alphas have a little more ability to pick and choose when their ruts happen, but they can only put it off so long. Lewis is trying to push it to the end of the season, he’s tense but determined, everything is a little on edge, the underlying hunger makes him a better driver but he doesn’t like how much it’s sitting on the edge of his mind. There’s lots of cuddles with George who knows Lewis needs at least a little let off steam.

By the time AD happens he’s right on that edge, figuring that at least when the race is over he can go home and ride out his rut in his own bed (maybe with George) whether he wins or looses. But then you know what happens, adrenaline keeps him from falling right into it but then as the podium ends he feels his grip slipping, and begs the team to get him away from the track any omegas or beta’s since while he’ll still have some control, any compatible scents are going to make it worse. George hasn’t been able to get close to Lewis after the race in all the chaos, and he doesn’t want to push Lewis and make it about him but he’s a little hurt when Bono sends him back to his hotel and tells him he can talk to Lewis tomorrow. Lewis is already on a private plane to Monaco by the time George wakes up and Bono explains that Lewis went into a stress induced rut and wouldn’t even let Peter or Angela near him because he was so worried. George ends up calling Lewis and through some conversation and coaxing convinces Lewis to let him come to Monaco and have someone look after him for once, rather than always being the one to look after George. Lots of dirty, sweaty, loving rut sex follows and George marvels over Lewis and being able to the the one he shares this with.

[prettywitchiusaka]

So I meant to make this post last week, but, gonna be honest, I wasn’t feeling super great up until a few days ago.

Now that I’m starting to feel like myself again (and with the recent announcement regarding who will be writing Secret Wars), I figured that now is the time to make an addendum to my post about today’s writers (at least in Hollywood, anyway) don’t seem to do any research, be it for adaptational purposes, or just to enhance their own work to make it better/flesh out the world and characters a little.   

And honestly, I feel like Michael Waldron is a perfect example of this (with Jessica Gao being a close second).

I’ve made no secret that I have very mixed opinions and feeling regarding Multiverse of Madness, mostly staked in my love of Doctor Strange in general, and his MCU counterpart in particular. I tend to be a lot kinder to it than most, as I do think it’s a decent film that needs another rewrite or two before it could’ve been something great. But let’s be clear, I actually don’t entirely blame Waldron for what went wrong with this film. From what I know about the production, it really seems like Kevin Feige is the real villain of Multiverse.

I recently discovered watching MauLer’s take down of the film (I skimmed through it, tbh) that, as Waldron puts it, he was hired by Feige to come on board shortly after Derrickson left. Now that part I knew, as I’d been keeping up with the film’s production on and off since the initial announcement back in 2019. What did surprise me, though, was that they already had sets being built when Waldron came on board, meaning that not only were they still building sets that were made for the Jade Bartlett draft, it also meant that shooting was set to start soon. This meant Waldron was left to write a new draft with very little time to prepare (three weeks) according to him. And...well, this is where I’m actually going to defend the man for a moment.

Do I blame Waldron for performing the job he was hired to do? No. Unless your Harlan Ellison or (maybe) John Hughes, NOBODY can write a polished shooting script for a big budget film in three weeks. It simply doesn’t happen, and I put the blame entirely on Feige for that one. It’s INSANE for him to think that Waldron (or anyone for that matter) could turn in something worthy of being called a Doctor Strange film in that timeframe, especially when he’d already wasted time, resources and freaking MONEY creating standing sets and character designs for the original script that was discarded because he wanted his precious Multiverse saga, and couldn’t be bothered to wait another film or two before getting to that.

So yeah, I don’t blame Waldron for that.

That being said...I do blame Waldron for what happened after. 

It’s no secret that the film industry (Marvel included) was shut down for a bit due to Covid, and Multiverse was no exception. This means Waldron was given a second chance. He could watch the first DS film, read some comics, do a quick wiki search and figure out which Doctor Strange comics are essential to the character and which ones he should read to write a new draft. You think he did any of that? Nope. Of course he didn’t.

This is what I mean about how we’re heading into an age of writers who don’t seem to do any research. Instead of studying Bartlett’s draft extensively, reading up on some comics, hell, maybe even phoning up Benedict and consulting with him on basic DS lore, he doesn’t do any of that. Instead, he just makes up his own plot and makes Wanda the villain because “Marvel wanted a Multiverse movie, so I had to figure out who’d be a threat to it”, even though he could’ve easily re-worked Nightmare into his plot if he’d been bothered to look up anything about the character. I mean, dreams are established to be windows into the lives of one’s Multiversal selves, how hard would it have been?

And before anyone chimes in and says “Well, he was probably busy with other projects”, I’m sure he was. But guess what? If you’re a professional writer in any capacity? You’re ALWAYS working on several assignments at once. Especially if you’re freelance. And yeah, sometimes you don’t always turn out something great. Sometimes you have several projects going on, and you have to whip up something that’s not your best due to time constraints. It happens. But if you’re passionate about writing, you’ll still put in the time and effort to make something worthwhile. You’ll do research and try to understand the material you’re writing about. And if fail that’s fine, because at least you tried.

And Waldron very clearly didn’t. 

I’d hate to say “Don’t quit your day job”, but if you don’t want to put in the effort to improve your craft than maybe you should stick to being a producer, Waldron!

[jess-themess05]

This isn't really an idea, but more of an explanation to better elaborate on how Vanessa's possession in my outlines worked

Prelude: How the possession in my outlines works

I have noticed that a lot of people are a bit confused on how the possession here works, so I wanted to clarify it with this little addendum of sorts. My version would have Vanessa initally black out occasionally for the first month or so after her initial possession. They would happen more specifically when she has her therapy visits. This is also where GlitchTrap/Afton attempts to rewrite her childhood memories to include an abusive father figure (presumably like him) to try and make her more obedient.

This is contrary to Vanessa's actual childhood, which was fairly standard and had 2 normal loving parents. It should be noted that in this universe they died in a car crash the year before the events of Help Wanted. All the therapists would play along as a way to diagnose her (or something idk) before eventually telling her that her memories don't line up with what her patient report sheet (or whatever they use) says about her childhood. (In this universe, patient 46 doesn't exist and the lines in their tapes about them misreporting their childhood experiences are moved into Vanessa's tapes. Also any references to courts in Vanessa's tapes are replaced with lines that imply Vanessa was the one who told th therapist about her "abusive" childhood.)

This gets rid of all the work Glitchtrap puts in and Vanessa original memories come back the overwhelming shock of which causes her to freeze up, and during this time she blacks out and Glitchtrap takes control of her and kills the therapist. He would then get her back to her apartment where she would regain consciousness and be none the wiser to her therapists fate. Controlling Vanessa directly takes a lot of energy from Glitchtrap and tires him out since he isn't intended to "control" humans just be manipulative. This is why he can't take direct control of Vanessa and has to resort to attempting to mentally gaslight her.

This happens 5 times before Glitchtrap says "screw this" and decides to create Vanny. He doesn't really want to do this, as he will be creating a different persona. This persona will be "programmed" to be subservient to him. However there is always a risk that since they are effectively their own person, this seperate personality can decide to not listen to the instructions correctly or do them their own way. They can also have their own goals that conflict with Glitchtrap's (something that you see in idea 6). He doesn't see any other way however, and is getting impatient and wants to start being evil again quickly. So he creates Vanny out of his own agony power thing and some of Vanessa's emotions. He uses ones that are still hurting from her parents death, duplicates and then corrupts them beyond all recognition.

Vanny is "made" (for lack of a better word) to control things directly, unlike glitchtrap. As such, the experience is now completely different. At her last therapist visit, Vanessa is forced to watch herself kill someone for the first time, starting off the worst 6 months of her life.

I hope that cleared up some confusion. 

yayayaya ooohh this is very helpful! more backstory aswell heheh >:)

well first off, what a power move to insert memories of an abusive father based on yourself. least he’s honest!

afton just getting rid of the therapist makes sense, the logical side of me (there isn’t much) thinks that if i were having frequent black outs and memory loss i would see a doctor, but who would want to take care of a patient, whom the last time they saw a professional, ended up being the last patient they would ever see before dying of mysterious causes

or

just a mysterious murder

and i still love the idea of vanny being made from vanessa’s negative emotions, her anger and irritability, just generally the emotions you’d rather not feel. i believe i’ve said this before (and if not then oops) but vanny technically being made from vanessa would make not blaming herself wAYYY more difficult! no she didn’t directly directly cause it, but possibly knowing her negative feelings were used to create her worst nightmare has gotta be difficult.

[the-firebird69]

There's a lot of people getting sick and the threats are going up it's time to get intense he's going to hit from all over we need to start working on it. There's also a number of things these guys doing wrong they're not really getting it

-the sun says they have the computing ability to do it then to full the sensors and then start small and it can work their way in with a network of computers and take over the ground stuff partially it's kind of happening and even without the laser light at least I have to protect with everything where it's gone and they can't use they had much faster computers in the back well the sensing is out it's still a chore cuz they do like exercises and they build new ones on board they try solid state testing and there's other infiltrators that were all intermingled that helps with that. So yes both ways are possible

John renalord looked into replacement windows and said no but since the security issue with alligators and criminals and storms and the ships can make debris fly around and they looked at and said wow that's a big business and even to put the shutters like one of those storm windows in the front door or the impact lexan with a design full view in the desert looking at it. They took a look at it and said we can't seem to get it going but they're doing their own and it says it makes a difference you can hear everything you shut the windows and you feel better you have shutters you can shut them at night takes 5 minutes and they say if you can do it from the inside would be nice unless you mean the shutter like have three latches this latch the top is going to half assed. You can make the latches automatic and the large from the inside but if someone has the code it ruins the effect and everybody does that these days but most people keep their windows closed in Florida and not tons of people have screens how did anybody actually is true to the zombie screams out these days they're putting the outside more or less it's kind of the outside so these shutters were great and they said they do that and really people don't have screens they're nice to have them but.

Now they looked at this and said it makes a difference it makes you feel better and the house is safer in a storm and it's safer during any season it's not much to do at night and not many people notice it the front yard you can put lexan over the window that shutters and not really but you can do the door how many windows in the front. There's a lot of ideas in some of them are real good but we got to move on here so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

You see him too A lot of times the shutters are mission style they look like solid wood with a kind of an arch and they close the same way and they're almost paying the same color as the wall just a little lighter and they have their visible and the solid metal and when they're open they look nice you frame the window out you can put a flower box or two they look beautiful I left with the flower box a little lower

-there's other stuff happening for real there are giant numbers of people who are not aware of what is really happening today. Our son and daughter just came up with another idea it's a mock-up kitchen and it would be modular and a certain cabinet faces and you would make like a a cheap subframe that's metal and we can connect to it maybe like a rail system and you can change out the panels if they want to look at a different look and they're real light like panels you have in your motorhome and the doors will be hollow like hollow core doors have people might start buying the fake kitchen and there's really no rules or anything let me come out of plastic they have like a low flame spread no but it could make it that way with filler they're kind of laughing. And each kid number for the kitchen could be used and then you just put them off vacations like addendum and really with the metal frame and the way he's talking about making it you can make the whole kitchen out of it and it would be really cheap. You're like $300 for a whole whole kitchen for the size of the house in Northport that the countertops would have to be light. It's a great idea and a tool for people to sell to the builders who build a lot of houses you show up on site they have a couple models being built and you asked him if you can put in a kitchen for free and then say okay but it's just a mock-up I didn't see what he means it looks exactly the same way to see it if you want to buy it it's only a mock-up and they say what the hell is that for and it's really a good idea because the builders would do it if you can make that mock-up you can make a different type of cabinet it's inexpensive and have a full line so he's right there you make clips and reinforcing the eclipse on the clip on the face and it's durable it's like these panels they have everywhere they take a beating and the luggage steel would be fairly heavy gauge but not real heavy and the steel stronger they used to be metal is gross so we are getting to something else in a moment

We did already sign it yes

Yes they did

Hera I came up with the power where it could be like this metal frame and then he went nuts with the door and I went nuts with the facade the face another side is a face where you can use panels and clip them on and it's like permanent so they have this really cheap idea and you can raise it up with the frame and you simply put like plywood down on the bottom and you could have cabinet to drawers and everything with the frame it's just a cheap frame it's really easy to put together but everything would be supported by metal frames instead of all this wood and saves tons of time and money and the kitchen as well as modular if you break a piece or a door you order another one that comes like a day and the only thing is they're so cheap that nobody would put them in no tons of people might in apartments and condos so I'm going to check into it

Good night dear it's a great idea you guys look through the cabinets and things are bulky and they're a pain in the ass fixing them is impossible and here we have the idea

Thor Freya

[rebelyelll]

Whiplash Riot - Author's Notes

Hello and welcome to the official tumblr blog for my jjba fanpart, Whiplash Riot!

If you're here, then I can assume you are already familiar with the story and the characters. If not, and you find yourself intrigued by this blog, then feel free to click here and check out the story!

Notes:

Conceptualization of the Main Protagonist

💔 Léon's concept was actually something vastly different in the beginning. I wrote him to exist in the original universe as Polnareff's son, but realized that it wasn't fitting. He was going to appear in a sequel to another part I am/was writing, but to be frank, I couldn't wait that long lol. Every time I'd try to focus on the outline I had for him and Polnareff, it just felt like I was flip-flopping back and forth between the two. Oddly enough like they were two separate stories. Which, yeah. Léon's was a sequel, but it just...didn't feel right?? I guess?

Long story short, tl;dr, I came to the realization that the reason Léon wasn't working as Polnareff's offspring was because he works so much better in a completely different universe as Pol's son, with his own story and his own problems. It felt liberating to let go of the constraints and let him take the reins with the plot and the world. And you know what's fucking funny about this whole thing? Léon is that type of character that will rebel when it comes to people trying to make him fit a particular mold. Okay, Léon. I get it. Calm down.

💔 Funnily enough (and boy this may come across as cringe) but in the original drafting phase, Léon Polnareff had siblings...7 of them. Before you ask me why that is, I want to explain that there was a reason for this. Story reasons, but also personal ones:

I am 1 of 6 children who was adopted as an infant and acquired 3 new siblings. Technically, I have 8 siblings both biological and adoptive. So yeah. Kinda of an insert thing going on there. Except in Léon's case, he got to interact with his siblings, which was such a treat because I've never met my biological brothers and sisters, while I have interacted with my adoptive siblings. They however are a LOT older than me. So, in this bizarre circumstance, I'm the true middle child. Older than my bio sibs, and the youngest of my adoptive sibs.

Wow this paragraph was long wtf.

For Whiplash Riot I decided not to bog the story down with all these OCs, and went with giving Léon AU Sherry as his only sibling. Which in my honest opinion was the best decision. It's something familiar, but also brings something new to the table.

💔 Léon's stand, Rebel Yell, originally had a completely different stand ability. Originally it was copy-catting other people, then it was absorbing information and learning new things at a rapid pace. Both of which didn't seem to be working. Then I came up with the idea to take inspiration from one of Billy Idol's songs, Eyes Without a Face. He could blend into his environment -- become his environment. Well, it was interesting, but it wasn't enough. So, I started writing. To my surprise, the story seemed to know itself better than I did, because Rebel Yell is now officially a "clay" type of stand. Didn't really see that coming, but I'm so glad I decided to keep it. As for the Eyes Without a Face thing, well, technically the part about blending into his environment still works with clay.

💔 Whiplash Riot is a story telling itself. I'm writing it by the seat of my pants with light planning on the side, editing as I go.

In Addendum

When I first published the first chapter on AO3, the scene with Iommi Legrand and Steve Ennui giving commentary didn't exist. It was a news report, yes, but not fleshed out the way it is now with a silly anchorman. The idea to add Iommi into the story came about when I was reading about a news reporter, and it sparked this urge to make a sudden change. The report asking the old lady with the snake questions was originally unnamed and just referred to as "the reporter". Since then, I've settled naming her Trisha Cle (pronounced "clay"), which is just French for 'key'.

Chapter I References

Jean-Claude Léon Polnareff Namesake: I named him Jean-Claude after JCVD and Léon after Lyon Galtier, the protagonist from the film Lionheart. And yes, that is a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. There are quite a few references to JCVD in Whiplash Riot that I plan to make.

Léon's stand, Rebel Yell Namesake: Rebel Yell by Billy Idol (I'm a HUGE fan of his)

Moncestierre Namesake: Okay, the lore behind this name is so stupid. So stupid.... I wanted something that sounded like a Frenchified version of "Manchester", that way I could make the connection to Melissa Manchester. Looking back on this now, why the fuck did I think 'moncestierre' had anything to do with Manchester?! 'Cestierre' (as far as I know) is Corsican for baskets (?). So, if that's the case, then Moncestierre's name just means 'My baskets'. LOL 😭

Moncestierre's stand, Quarterflash Namesake: Quarterflash, an American rock group from the 80s

Skid Row -- I got the idea to reference the rock band, Skid Row, as a name for the outer expanded city of Paris that Léon's from. Plus, it's a little reminiscent of Saints Row (shut up). It's fitting with all the gang activity that goes on in that district, so... Rue de L'espoir Vide -- French for street of empty hope. Empty hope in the street's name is a reference to Yours is an Empty Hope by Nightwish. (Fucking love that band.)

The title of the story, Whiplash Riot, is a reference to two things: Billy Idol's album, Whiplash Smile, and the band Quiet Riot, which is also the name of the gang that Léon, Tenmei, and Avdol are in.

Seven Nation Army -- a song by the White Stripes.

Tenmei Kakyoin -- I remember how Araki intended for Kakyoin's first name to be Tenmei, but his editors mistook it for Noriaki. So, in this universe, I named him Tenmei. :)

Abbas Avdol -- I didn't want to recycle Mohammed Avdol as a name, since I was creative with the others. So, I looked up Egyptian names online and picked Abbas because it comes close to being an ABBA reference... which is also another band I am fond of hahaha.

Léon's crush, Roxette -- named after the rock group from the 80s.

Iommi Legrand -- the first name comes from one of the greatest riff masters out there, Tony Iommi. Whilst the surname, Legrand, is based off of a French electronics brand.

Steve Ennui -- the first name is based off of Billy Idol's guitarist, and friend, Steve Stevens. The last name I just picked on a whim because I was having such a hard time finding a surname fitting enough!! I was just sitting there like "ugh this is so boring" and then it clicked. So long story short, I went with Ennui, which is French for boring lmao. (Steve Stevens is NOT boring!! Finding a surname good enough and struggling was lmao)

Idol News Network -- Pretty sure that anyone who is aware by now knows the real reason I named the News Station 'Idol'. (Yes, it's another Billy Idol reference! How could you tell?)

Company B -- a Latin American music group from the 80s and 90s.

Cherry Bomb Cafe -- the song Cherry Bomb by the Runaways.

Fight scene note: Because I love Polnareff, and kept Léon relatively close in terms of a few character traits, I wrote a whole-ass bathroom fight scene for the first chapter. And yes, this was intentional. Even in an alternate reality, Polnareff's bathroom curse haunts him to the ends of the earth.

This line: By the way, the name is Jean-Claude Léon Polnareff. And I'm not a fucking robot. It's a reference to the original universe Polnareff. (the whole 'my name is' speech thing anyway. Not the robot thing, that's this universe lol)

Moncestierre telling Léon that he drew first blood is a reference to the movie Rambo: First Blood.

Rebel Yell's stand cry, MOUREZ: In the song Rebel Yell by Billy Idol, there's a line in the chorus that goes more, more, more. Which sounds almost similar to MOUREZ, which is French for die. Hence where the stand cry originates from. Annnnd that's all the notes I have on Chapter One! If you have any questions, feel free to send me an Ask; or comment on this. Either one is fine. Whiplash Riot has an official discord server where you can earn roles and get announcements on chapter updates. If this interests you, feel free to join the server here!! Again, thank you for reading! It is much appreciated! 🥰

[morganaux]

RELATIONSHIPS  — TALK ABOUT THE MUSE.

NAME: Morganaux de Roulemet / Morganaux de Dzemael ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Gay, polyamorous PREFERRED PET NAMES: He would rather not have any used on him. Excluding situations where he’s in Ishgard and having to be on his “best” behavior, he goes almost exclusively by the nickname “Morgy,” unless he trusts someone to call him by his full first name. However, he will allow pet names that are given to him, so long as there’s significance behind it. RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Entirely verse-dependent, and unless discussed otherwise, he’s single. FAVOURITE CANON SHIP: (i don’t know why the font got larger here but i don’t know or care enough about formatting try to fix it lmao) There’s no canon, official WoL ships, so none. Unless you count his non-RP “canon” written exactly to my own tastes, and in that case, it’d be Morgy/Emet/Hyth/Eli. FAVOURITE NON-CANON SHIP: See above. OPINION ON TRUE LOVE: It absolutely exists and he will do anything for the sake of true love, viewing it as a force of good in the world that can warm even the coldest of hearts. This sounds pure and wholesome, but it’s not healthy at all for him (or those around him, for that matter), and him learning a more realistic form of love is one of my favorite character arcs to explore for him! OPINIONS ON LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT: It’s not something he truly believes in deep down in his heart, but he wants to believe in it and will say he does! HOW ROMANTIC ARE THEY?: On a scale of 1 to 10, a thousand. Once he’s convinced he’s found the right person, he’s going to put his all into the relationship. IDEAL PHYSICAL TRAITS: Long hair, taller than him IDEAL PERSONALITY TRAITS: Wants to do good in the world (even if it doesn’t line up with his own vision of good. it’s the intent that matters!), ambitious, critical thinker, open-minded. He’d really like to be with someone intellectually stimulating who helps him in his quest for knowledge and gets him to question the world around him. UNATTRACTIVE PHYSICAL TRAITS: He can’t stand people who don’t even try to present themselves nicely, especially when it comes to hygiene. He will tell someone to their face if they need a bath and he isn’t sorry at all about it. Too much muscle is also a turn-off for him for the most part, with few exceptions. UNATTRACTIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS: Close-mindedness, excessive piety, lack of ambition, having no interest in being a life-long learner. IDEAL DATE: Exploring an unfamiliar locale, especially if it’s somewhere they’re not supposed to be. Dancing in an empty ballroom would also be ideal! DO THEY HAVE A TYPE?: Morally grey (or completely immoral) mages. He doesn’t purposefully seek out the villainous type and is very much aware that it’s a problem, but he gravitates toward them anyway. AVERAGE RELATIONSHIP LENGTH: Verse-dependent. By default, he hasn’t been in any relationships due to him being a very repressed Ishgardian with little free time on his hands. PREFERRED NON-SEXUAL INTIMACY: Simply being in the presence of his partner(s), even if they aren’t speaking or doing the same thing, being content in the knowledge that they’re happy together.  COMMITMENT LEVEL: Completely and utterly devoted to a fault. (In a self-destructive, prone to corruption kind of way, not in a way that disrespects any boundaries!) OPINION OF PUBLIC AFFECTION: He’d prefer not to, but wouldn’t shut it down completely if it’d make his partner(s) happy, so long as it remains in moderation. He isn’t shy about his affections, but simply values his privacy and hates the idea of his relationships being the subject of gossip, which is pretty much inevitable as a WoL and a High House noble. PAST RELATIONSHIPS?: By default, none. He was, however, deeply in love with his best friend Noudenet, but the two of them never actually told each other how they felt before the whole Thordan situation happened.

TAGGED BY: saw the thing, did the thing

TAGGING: If you want to do this, you’re tagged!

[phoenixyfriend]

Systems' Scourge: Addendum

I don't actually have an intent of writing more of Systems’ Scourge, but I do have associated daydreams specifically based around other surviving padawans and their legions coming back, which is deeply unfortunate, because neither Cal nor Kanan was actually aware of the fact that, you know, the clones were mind-controlled.

So they just wake up on Venators surrounded by all the clones that survived that far (which is a skeleton crew, because Palpatine doesn't care and kept replacing them with natborn soldiers), and have panic attacks.

The clones are also unaware of the fact that they turned because of chips, so they're not having a great time either. ("A chip in my brain made me do this" sucks but it's better than "I did this and I don't know why." So, you know, the 501st is a lot better off, honestly.)

Luckily, nobody gets shot in either circumstance, but it's a close thing.

Then whoever's on the bridge and handling communications just lights up because there is one other GAR ship showing up, so maybe they should ring that up???

They do. It's the 501st. Ahsoka issues all the orders--she's three years older than Kanan, and Cal looked even younger so I'll say he's five years younger than her--and the first thing she tells them is to get the CMO and do a level five atomic brainscan, because even if they aren't active, and nobody on the bad guy side really knows how to activate them, the chips are there and as the Tup incident showed, they can malfunction as a result of a head injury.

Which leads to a whole uncomfortable Conversation about brain chips.

Ahsoka has them route to rendezvous and explains the whole Thing with the time travel and getting bankrolled by Dooku and technically being terrorists but they're targeting criminal empires and slavers so it's fine.

I think Kanan and his legion show up about two and a half years after the 501st, and Cal about six months after that?

Enough time that she's older by an even bigger margin than before, and already married, and has had time to set up this absurd military game she's playing.

There's a tangent where she just complains about how Dooku keeps interfering with her personal life because she told him she was part of the lineage and it backfired because he made her have a big wedding instead of just the small Mando thing she and Rex were thinking of-- "Wait, you're MARRIED?" "I mean... I haven't been a Jedi since I was seventeen. Not exactly breaking the code if I'm not beholden to it in the first place, you know?"

"Yes, Dooku. I know. I know. But still. Dooku's gonna be all misanthropic and jaded anyways, let’s just direct that somewhere useful." The Dooku thing is the what has Kanan and Cal both hanging back on trusting her because really? Really, bitch?

They admittedly don't have the advantage of being his great-great grandpadawan for negotiating with him.

(Cal and Caleb were both just running around trying to survive as scrappers and whatnot for years after O66, and I recognize they were teenagers and even doing that much was phenomenally difficult, but I find it really funny that while they were just trying to keep their heads down and eke out a living, Ahsoka took like one year to be depressed and then went to Bail like "knock knock motherfucker, I know you're fighting the Sith, gimme something to do.")

Anyway this is mostly an excuse for the Republic and various others to freak out about the fact that General Fulcrum has acquired two more Venators and they still can't figure out where from. Kuat is denying up and down that they had anything to do with it, but...

"Those serial numbers don't exist. They won't exist for another... decade."

Also there are a lot of rumors going around, including that they're an offshoot of the Children of the Watch because everyone refuses to show their faces. The actual reason for that is because they all have Jango Fett's face, but they can't just say that so

Also I'm imagining that she bullies Dooku into at least trying to reconnect with Qui-Gon and Rael (the Komari situation is a bit more complicated), but what that turns into is:

1. Ahsoka has to go save Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan when they get captured by pirates, and she can't go as General Fulcrum so she has to go as Freelancer Mercenary Torrent (different mask/helmet)

2. She then has to reintroduce herself as Sokari, Dooku's adopted granddaughter and heir apparent, and they're side-eyeing her because she's definitely the same girl from the pirate ship but? Sure, okay?

3. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are then bullied into attending A Fancy Party in Fancy Clothes (which they hate) and Ahsoka drags Obi-Wan out and onto the roof halfway through because he's not enjoying himself and she feels bad.

4. All the masked security guards are just clones. Dooku lets that happen because, hey, he knows they're good, and they're all loyal to Ahsoka.

5. Rex joins them but doesn't take his helmet off, is introduced as Sokari's Husband, which is hilarious for both of the time-travelers because Obi-Wan's face does a lot of weird things as he tries to parse his new friend being married. He's pretty sure she's not that much older than him (he's underestimating, she's like eight years older than him), and also Dooku used to be a Jedi, and Ahsoka had shown some Force-Sensitivity and combat skills as Torrent, so... he'd been mentally processing her as equivalent to a padawan, and her being married is suddenly reminding him that Actually No.

[nachosncheeze]

2x22 Thoughts

Jake Keaton Is Not A Smart Man... but I can at least give him credit for his willingness to toss his tiny mustelid body wholesale into trying to tackle a man with a gun.

Also, thank you to @scottimae94 for pointing out another instance in which Keaton gets strangled. I think we can all get behind that.

Patty is DONE with your shit. DONEZO. ESPECIALLY YOU, Jane and Weller. Quit beating around her bush mister assistant director. Either take the lady to pound town, or do not! Patty's sick of being forced to have your shit in her vicinity!

I like Hirst. A lot, actually. Her pragmatism is a big part of why this last mission for the season succeeds, I think, and I honestly think she's a much better leader than Sam "Angry Micromanager" Pellington. She comes in and hits the ground running with only files and first impressions to fill her in about almost all of her staff and the case they're working, but she seems to recognize and respect everyone's skills, trust that they know what they're doing, and just keeps them focused and on task. Plus, she's got heart. She instantly saw Jane's situation for what it was (after a whole season of the team to varying degrees being ignorant and at times unbelievable jerks about the whole thing). She recognized it without ever having met any of them, and one of her very first acts was to open the door to making it right. She's got her flaws, which I will not go in to because I'm trying to be careful that none of my content spoils later material, in case any newbies come along. :) But I have a couple of headcanons about her that I really love, and will post about in season 3 rewatch. For now I'll just say that overall I think she's really a pretty good egg. 👍👍

How has Reade not heard of the Soyuz? Like. Was the space program not mentioned in school? Did he not have a television? Access to any books or magazines? Like... he was canonically a child in the 80s/90s or something right? Not in the pre-space early 50s? Not the post-science/'the shuttles have been retired' 2010s? Is it just me or is this.....????????????? I stg the men on this team.

Excuse you JAKE, gettin a lil chummy there. You are not on a first name basis with these people, and you're the only one who doesn't seem to realize it. Zapata should have gone the extra step and called him James or something instead.

CIRG encapsulated in 3 lines of dialogue or fewer: "Lookin' good, pegleg!" "We were very worried about you." "Weren't that worried."

Ways to demonstrate best friendship: "I'm going to go to, uhh, not here?" (Patterson you win the wingman of the year award xD) She really truly is done with their shit xD

It's only just occurred to me on rewatch how perfectly this season was bookended for me. I've always known I love "Two Years Later". But I've often said it was the very opening scene of 2x01 that elevated the show from enjoyable casual viewing to something that I knew I was going to love and have a long, long relationship with. This Nepal sequence is a perfect counter and addendum to that. It was about 3am when I saw it the first time and I was going to stop for the night. But then she started... glowing?! WHAT?????!!!?!?!? That was and remains a favorite scene of the series as a whole, after all 100 episodes. The music, the angst, the desperation and devotion between Jane and Weller (Jane's hair, Jaimie's face, that box, that disc, the visual parallels to 1x01/2x01...... I could go on and on). I will never be tired of it. I have mixed and at times 'meh' feelings about some parts of season 2, but for me it started and ended in exactly the right places, and I will love them forever.

[drwcn]

Hi! I hope you are doing okay with all the discourse going around. Im white and raised in a very white society so i will never have a say in it, but i was wondering, is there any way i can educate myself more in asian/chinese culture? Im aware i consume content thru western lens and because of that i dont really get all the nuances of the shows, but i would like to have at least some backround. Im guessing just watching the shows doesnt give enough of that, can you maybe reccommend some blogs or books to check out? (If you dont thats totally fine and im sorry if i said anything offensive)

Hey friend! Not offensive at all, no worries. Honestly, I’m not too sure. I think just keeping an open mind about things is a really good start. I’m not really sure which blogs to recommend but if I could recommend some dramas? Since it’s probably easier to watch a show then read a book?

《The Story of Minglan》 is a good one to sort of parse out the intricacy of historical Chinese society in the Song Dynasty, keeping in mind that different dynasties have different practices, so even amongst different time periods there were differences. 《The Story of Yanxi Palace》 is another good one for Qing Dynasty (circa 1740s) if you wanna get into imperial harem stuff. (Or you can watch 《甄嬛传》 or 《如懿传》 for harem stuff. I just think The Story of Yanxi Palace is the most palatable, most aesthetic, and most fun out of the three. The other two are kinda tragic?) There are other dramas but I feel they’re not as... accessible?

Chinese historical dramas come in 3 flavours: serious dramas, idol dramas, and those that ride the fence. What I mean by idol drama is...everyone in it is young and hot and the writing is eh and the acting is eh. More often then not there’s a lot of modern elements to it. The Untamed is so popular because it’s idol drama done really well.  (xianxia and wuxia genre used to be more quality when I was a kid, but now they’re kind of ehhhh.) I would say Minglan and Yanxi are both successful because they ride the fence. 

On the other hand, serious historical drama has A LOT of politics and can be quite dry especially if you’re watching it through half-assed subtitles. The actors typically are more seasoned, older. People jokingly say that idol drama is what mom watches and serious drama is what dad watches, and honestly given my parents’ tv habits...it’s pretty accurate 😂.

Some really well known ones from the past 20 years are: 

The 《铁齿铜牙纪晓岚》 series 1-4. I would only recommend part 1-2, 3-4 are not as great. This one has quite a bit of humour but it might fly over your head a bit because of the language barrier. The story surrounds a well known government official and scholar named Ji Xiaolan  纪晓岚, his frenemy and colleague the (EXTREMELY corrupt) prime minister He Shen, and the Emperor Qianlong. For better or worse these three are depicted as both liege and subjects as well as friends. Trying to see Ji Xiaolan and He Shen one up each other while Qianlong tries to balance his court and rule the country is quite interesting. I won’t pretend this is an easy series to follow, but it’s actually quite fun. 

《汉武大帝》 - is about Hanwu Emperor of the Han Dynasty circa 150 BC? He’s one of the most famous emperors of distant history. It’s basically about the course of his life and the many people that featured in it. 

《大明王朝 》- my memories of this one is very vague, but it is about the Ming Dynasty (the dynasty before the Qing Dynasty c. 1500,1600.) 

《The Advisors Alliance 军事联盟》-  2017 two-part television series based on the life of Sima Yi, a government official and military general who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of China. circa 150 AD. 

As a side note, a lot of serious dramas for a while now have been focused on the Qing Dynasty, just because it’s the last imperial dynasty before Imperial China fell into decline, WWI and WWII ravaged the country and communism happened. Even a lot of idol drama are about the Qing Dynasty (I feel like I should do a post about this, just to string things together haha). 

So for the Qing Dynasty, because they are Manchurian, their last name is Aisin Gioro or in Chinese Aixin Jueluo 爱新觉罗. Their earlier emperors are much more well known than their later ones and have been the focus of MANY dramas. (You’ll notice their names in the beginning spell very different than the Chinese names you’re used to, but once they take over China, the emperors’ names start to become more and more mainland Chinese and less and less Manchurian.) 

Nu’er Hachi 努尔哈赤/ Nurhaci - The granddaddy of Qing Dynasty, but was never officially Emperor of China during his life time. 

Huang Taiji 皇太极 - Nurhaci’s oldest son. He led the campaign against the Ming Dynasty but died before the campaign was over 

Fulin 福林, Emperor Shunzhi 顺治 - Huang Taiji’s 9th son. He is the real first Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. His uncle Duo’Ergun 多尔衮/ Dorgon was his regent as well as his commander-in-chief. Dorgon was the one who won the war against the Ming Dynasty and instated his nephew as the Emperor. Fulin was 6 years old when this happened, and now you may wonder why the fuck is that? It’s because Fulin’s mother, Huang Taijii’s widowed concubine Consort Zhuang (name: pu’erji-jite bumubutai  (pinyin) 博爾濟吉特 布木布泰/ Bumbutai Borjigit, Da-Yu’er 大玉儿) remarried her brother-in-law Dorgon. Whether Bumbutai and Dorgon were actually in love is....contestable. Certainly one of my favourite serious dramas that depict this part of history is《大青风云》. 

Xuanye 玄燁, Emperor Kangxi 康熙 - Fulin’s third son. Very famous. Very long reign. Serious drama associated 《康熙微服私访记》， 《康熙王朝》

Yinzhen 胤禛, Emperor Yongzheng 雍正 - Xuanye's 4th son. His reign was highly contested because some ppl believed he forged the succession document. It’s probably not true. He was an efficient emperor but very austere, very severe. Not well liked. The best serious drama about him is probably 《雍正王朝》and the aforementioned《甄嬛传》. The former is 100% politics and a fictional re-telling of historical events whereas the latter is 100% harem drama and 100% made up. 《步步惊心》is an idol drama about a girl who transmigrated back to this time and fell in love with Yinzhen. Lol. 

Hongli 弘历, Emperor Qianlong 乾隆 - Yinzhen’s 4th son. I think he’s the longest living/reigning emperor of Chinese history. SOOOOO many dramas were made about him or set in his reign. Of the serious drama category:  《铁齿铜牙纪晓岚》 that I mentioned earlier is really good. There are others but I won’t name them here.  《如懿传》 is a serious drama about his harem, but really terrible? I really didn’t like it (just my personal view). Incidentally it was released around the same time as《The Story of Yanxi Palace 延禧攻略》which is also about his harem and MUCH better in my opinion, because the actor for Hongli in Yanxi is much better skills-wise. 《还珠格格》was the OG idol drama about Hongli’s children. I gave a brief synopsis about it here. It was made in the 90s but damn...so nostalgic. 

There’s many more emperors after him, but they’re not as important. 

Okay yeah, so I’m not sure if any of this is really helpful, but definitely watching serious drama gives you much better context and understanding of Chinese culture than idol drama. I mean when the drama has flying and magic...the historical relevance sort of falls to the side. 🤣

ADDENDUM: I made a typo earlier. Fulin is Huang Taiji’s 9th son, not Nurhaci’s son. Also Abahai is Huang Taijii’s mother’s name (wikipedia lied to me on this one XD). 

[ninjakasuga]

More Sonally Headcanons!!

Well, sort of. They’re headcanons related to Sonic and Sally, but this is actually more of an in depth introduction to my fankids J.C. and Kathleen. Along with an addendum to my last headcanon I flagged for @boundforfreedomsonsal. Turns out as I re-read it, I left out a part for Sonic’s headcanon. The stay at home dad part, I barely touched and that bugs me, so here’s that segment fleshed out and then some info on J.C. and Kathleen! Sonic the stay-at-home-dad: As mentioned prior, Sonic knows he’s not cut out for the majority of what being Prince-Regent entails. Showing up for parties, events and giving back to the people of Mobius, he can do that. Ruling stuff, that is absolutely Sally’s domain. Sure he can offer his viewpoints and all that, but the long-term, big-picture view thinking isn’t his style. That said he doesn’t wanna be a lay about, nor just jam off on adventures and leave Sally doing the hard stuff either. When the children are born, Sonic sees a way he can contribute more after Sally’s maternity leave period is officially over with. Not that Sally intends to stop being maternal, but at some point she is going to need to get back to the day-to-day logistics of running the Kingdom. Motherhood is wonderful and she isn’t going to neglect it; but she has her duties she must fulfill. To help with this; Sonic figures he can handle some ‘solo parent time’ while Sally does her part of the ol’ Kingdom running bit. To which his lovely wife is very grateful for, but also concerned. She recalls some of the trouble he had babysitting his little brother and sister; plus these two MIGHT have his speed. Sonic as usual, brushes off the concerns with the ol’ charm and a smile. Of course this bites him in the ass when the kids DO start to show they have his speed. Especially when said children are still being potty-trained and their diapers don’t stay on due to the velocity of said speed. (Not trying to be gross here, but it is a scenario the two will have to deal with, I pity the cleaners at the castle). While Sally feels that she’s putting a large heft of the parenting responsibilities on Sonic, he points out it’s the least he can do. He can’t do what she does, and while they are BOTH together on the parenting journey, he can handle the tykes for some hours while she’s doing the Queen-y stuff and once she’s done; it’s family time all together. “Sal there’s gonna be times when I gotta do stuff and you’ll have the kids by your lonesome. It’s just part of the gig, you ain’t abandoning the kids, that ain’t you. Go on, be the Queen. Your Prince, will keep our babes safe and adorble!” Now onto the kids themselves: This kind of goes over their base personalities as they develop in their preteen-to-teenage years. Kathleen: The daughter of the twins (whose name is a meta-homage to Kath Soucie), who as she grows up, gains a tomboy streak and is very much the apple of her Father’s eye. Feisty, sly, and prone to mischief (at least moreso than her brother who can be mischief-y himself). Out of the two, she’s the one truly in love with their inherited speed, and the freedom it offers. While she can be a bit blunt, and snarky, she has a keen mind, and education that she can use to scary effect, when she wants. She’s not above using her ‘cuteness’ to get what she wants, as long as she uses it sparing on her parents who are WISE to her antics. As her Aunt Bunnie puts it “She’s a lovable troublemaker with Sonic’s knack for trouble, and Sally’s brains to get out of said trouble.... most of th’ time.” She also has picked up some mechanical aptitude after hanging out often with her Great Uncle Chuck, Uncles Tails and Uncle Rotor. She loves repairing things and trying to build her own gadgets or vehicles. Well once she builds one that doesn’t fall apart from her overzealous designs getting the better of practical usage. In a tense situation where trouble brews, she’s the most likely to start throwing punches, and worry about ‘why’ the troublemakers started trouble after they’re tied up from their punch-naps. Of the royal duo she doesn’t exactly try to slack in any royal duties she has, but the idea of adventuring across the planet sounds more keen than sitting on a throne or doing paperwork, or both. Despite being closest with her Father she does love and respect her Mother; if anything she sees her as the ultimate badass Queen; but she also loves to push her buttons, a lot. Lastly unlike her brother who aspires to be a decent cook, he isn’t, and she is, and she does love to rub it in J.C.’s face she can pull of ‘Uncle Twan and Aunt Bunnie’s recipes’ with gusto. Jaleel-Craig (J.C. for short): The brother of the twins (with a double homage to Jaleel White and Roger-Craig Smith), J.C. is the more serious of the pair, but in a more laid back manner compared to his Mother. Of the two royal heirs, he’s the one who takes their responsibilities to the crown seriously. That said he’s not in any rush to be crowned King either, feeling he’s still lacking qualities or the ability to see things his sister does that he feels make her just as good a potential ruler as she feels he will be. Just getting her to understand that is a tall order. Not unlike his sister, while he loves both parents equally and shares many traits with both; while Kathleen is the apple of Sonic’s eye, J.C. is Sally’s pride. Sharing a love of lore, history, and learning in general. It isn’t uncommon to find the two engrossed in going over books and tomes of lost lore they’re trying to regain after so much was lost in the Robotnik/Eggman wars. While he and his sister both were taught hand-to-hand and various self defense moves by both their parents after their kidnapping at age six; J.C. found himself favoring the use of melee weapons in conjunction to the lessons from his parents and extra martial arts from Aunt Bunnie. To this end, his Uncle Twan’ was happy to show the young man the way of the blade to which J.C. has proven proficient and capable to his Uncle’s delight. Plus it gives Antoine playful ribbing ammo to use against his Father. J.C. is also a skillful diplomat-in-training having picked up some skills from his Mother and some of the best silver-tongues on the planet. As much as he is the studious son, he still shares a streak of mischief not unlike his sister; he’s just much better at being subtle and under-the-radar about it. Alas one skill he aspires to master but for the time being, fails at is cooking. If it’s anything but his Father and Great Uncles Chili-Dog recipes, he finds himself burning water not unlike his Mother. The fact his sister who usually prefers junk food, can make Uncle Twan’s Crepes’ or Aunt Bunnie’s Peach Cobbler from scratch vexes him. Much like his sister, he does revel in the speed inherited from their Father, but he views it as a ‘with great power, comes great responsibilities’ viewpoint as opposed to his sister ‘freedom above all’ mentality of the super-speed. That said, he’s not above using it to help her preform pranks from time to time. A last bit of side information. After the kidnapping, as an extra safety precaution, Sally asked Nicole to create some helper A.I.’s to work alongside the children. A notion Nicole found not just a good tactical idea, but also endearing as it would in her eyes, foster a continued foundation of friendship and family between her own growing ‘cyber family’ and Sally and Sonic’s own. With some ‘help’ from a certain former Metal Sonic-turned-good (*cough*Shard*cough*), Nicole created her own A.I. ‘children’ to be companions for the duo, housed in upgradable ‘watches’ that would house the A.I. when they were away from the nanite-network of New Mobotropolis. Kathleen gained ‘Berri’ Nicole and Shard’s ‘daughter’ who seems split between trying to ‘reign in’ some of Kathleen’s more spastic tendencies, and yet from time to time; loves to work alongside her in her crazy endeavors as Kathleen gets her to ‘lighten up’ some, as their friendship grows. Sometimes two crazy minds work well together. Kathleen equates Berri to having a portable, nanit-hack-capable sis-in-crime. J.C.’s A.I. companion Fragment or ‘Frag’ as they coined as a nickname is a bit of an oddity. His default persona is that of a semi-stiff minder, who encourages his more academic past-times, and furthering his education. Yet at times Frag shifts into a female persona who sometimes uses ‘Fraggie’ as a nickname. Fraggie is more laid back, trying to get the young Prince to mellow out when his more serious side becomes ‘a bit much’. She also seems to enjoy trying to play match maker between J.C. and his crushes. Okay I hope ya’all enjoyed these tidbits on my fankids. Next time we return to headcanons about their parents!

[janiedean]

hey ignore this if you're done with the cersei discourse but do you think it's sexist that grrm gave jaime the redemption arc and cersei the downfall arc? and do you consider the addition of melara to be a shitty thing because it implies that she was evil along instead of being who she is because of the way the patriarchy affected her and stuff

in order:

do you think it's sexist that grrm gave jaime the redemption arc and cersei the downfall arc? no because grrm has nine different female pov characters all of which are wildly different and c. is the only one with the downfall arc, also there’s shit male chars, shit female chars, nice male chars, nice female chars, if she was the only female char he had then yikes but she’s not so ppl can miss me with that argument if you have a variety of well written female chars then you’re not misogynistic if one is a villain

and do you consider the addition of melara to be a shitty thing because it implies that she was evil along instead of being who she I would like to state that a) if c. has narcissism then the fact that she was like that from the beginning would be coherent with that diagnosis, b) c. is a privileged af rich noblewoman who was in a best position to use/fight the patriarchy and she didn’t so I’m extremely skeptical about ‘the patriarchy ruined her’, c) some people are actually that shitty and the thing is that the patriarchy doesn’t turn you into someone who sees everyone as ‘what they can do for me’ and not ‘they’re people with feelings’ c. has a lot of patriarchy issues which made her worse, but like bro the patriarchy wasn’t who made her sexually molest tyrion (canon), we can argue that some of that is parental abuse but like melara is there to show you exactly that c. is a villain that grrm is not interested in redeeming, the end, and in that context there’s nothing misogynistic abt it because guess what grrm has written a bunch of other female chars that are not like that and that he actually likes writing

addendum 1: all women in asoiaf are victims of the patriarchy, arianne is a victim of the patriarchy in almost a specular way, arianne is not c., do the math

addendum 2: catelyn is also a vitim of the patriarchy in a way extremely similar to c’s except she didn’t marry a king, do you see cat gleefully sending other women to be tortured? nah. some women also have internalized misogyny which c. is way more about thanks

addendum 3: grrm has at least another two chars like c. (royd’s mother in nightflyers and that celise in tuf voyaging) in his body of work I mean they’re... least well developed but they’re about like that. I’ve... met people like c. (including the one who slapped me in the face) which lived in this day and age in the western world so sorry but we’re not in a medieval patriarchal society and I can 100% assure you those ppl weren’t like that bc patriarchy. grrm is most likely at his ripe age still coping abt someone like c. who most likely gave him some trauma back in the seventies. having known some like them, I wholly do not blame him if he doesn’t want to give them the redemption arc. and even if he didn’t, he’s not obligated to give anyone redemption arcs especially when c. is not the only female char he writes.

also, if reading re melara someone thinks ‘ah she exists to make c. look bad’ and not ‘no one deserves to die for a crush’ i think I don’t want particularly engage with them. /shrug

also, add-on: asking ‘is grrm sexist’ in general when he writes all female chars with a different personality, managed to write a mother figure that’s not like the usual drivel, managed to do two gnc women pov that aren’t the same character which today is like... extra rare still, got the ‘growing up as a notstandardattractive girl’ experience way better than any other female writer I know and so on when this entire fandom hates catelyn bc of one shitty thing she did which she had her reasons for and like for all she wished jon would die in her grief for bran sure af didn’t send him to get killed like c. did with all of robert’s bastards and that’s imvho way more sexist than whatever grrm can have written ever is honestly really rich and I’m saying it in general not to you anon but like ‘grrm is sexist’ is a take that I can’t take seriously anymore and it’s been like... almost ten years I’m tired XD