#(i had to bring them up for the example. for the science. for the fandom ship name science guys. ignore them y'all know about NEITHER of my

[angeltism]

Aqua + Ivette (Ivqua? Aqette? Aqvian? Leviqua? whats your ship name) 24k word slowburn fan + idol to friends to lovers ao3 fanfiction

HELPPPP oh my god 😭😭 anon ty for this this made me laugh n therefore make my brain stop trying to make me feel bad (<- mental illinois) so uhhh. my savior 🙏

[keilikelebrant-creation]

The comic's author posted an article about the comic's lore(and a very detailed one at that) on September 29, 2024. So I'm posting some of the lore here. A little later I will post the continuation of the comic.

Article Ⅰ The Origin of the World and the Era of "CHAOS"

Talk about the origin of the world is usually as distant as the mouse wheel in the game Spore, reaching beyond the boundaries of our planet into distant space.

Stars, planets, and cosmogonic hypotheses-that is, theories about the origin of the planets and the universe-were some of my favorite topics in my high school environmental science classes. Maybe that's why I imagine the interworld in fandom the way I do. A vast space filled with hundreds of worlds, like planets or solar systems.

There are many theories about how planets form: from clouds of dust, gas, or explosions. But for Kami, a very different origin was chosen, partly reflecting my love for the most frightening phenomena of our world. It's also an allegory of how this universe was created in my mind.

A black hole.

It is this truly terrifying phenomenon that brought this world into existence.

Millions of years before the first life appeared, the black hole actively consumed all the space around it like an open drainpipe. But according to the law of conservation of energy, anything that fell into it could not simply disappear without a trace. Absorbed worlds were ground up and became the energy of a cosmic phenomenon. But as it passed through, some of the fragments of worlds were not split, but were thrown out the other side, pushed by gravity. And that's how the mass of the Earth grew, layer by layer, from the torn pieces of hundreds of worlds, not united by common laws, chaotic and in constant spiral motion together with the black hole.

But only with time did its speed begin to slow down under the weight of the Earth's plates stuck to it. The worlds it absorbed were the ones that slowed it down. Ironic, isn't it? That's when life began to appear in the Kami. Some shards brought plants, animals, even humans and monsters. But the chaos that swirled around the world prevented life from fully developing, as it was in a constant struggle for existence.

This dawn, the birth of the Kami world, is called the "Chaos" period.

In the annals of Kami, one can find mention of what existence was like at that time. Knowledge and its accumulation is the greatest jewel for the inhabitants to this day. And this attitude towards history and memory developed right around this time. Knowledge was gold, the currency that was passed between the ancestors of all the races that exist in Kami today. Writing did not exist then, and all knowledge was learned verbatim and repeated to descendants, passed from mouth to mouth for many generations, so as not to lose the bits and pieces they had accumulated through years of study and existence in that difficult time.

From what could be preserved and recorded, the Chaos period was described as "a time when life and death existed on the same plane. This meant that death may not have been the end, and it may not have been the beginning. Like life, death was highly contingent and unpredictable. The clearest way to see this is through an example:

Here is a man living, but soon he will die, but not in the way we are used to. Death was like an unpredictable dream. He would "die" for a few years, but then he would "come back to life" and live again, if you can call it that. And then it would happen again. And again. Until eventually death put him to sleep forever. But that's not for sure either, because he could wake up hundreds of years later.

And the condition of the corpses? Rot was just as unpredictable. It could appear in the living and bring them to life as a rotting mass. And the dead could lie undamaged.

All phenomena in our lives have logic, laws, and order. In the time of chaos, the kami obeyed nothing and was in constant motion from one state to the third, then to the seventh, and back to the first.

That is how the world was then. Rivers of fire instead of water, or water instead of fire. Life and death in one person and the total unknown of what would come next. No day or night. No flow of time.

It's all chaos.

That's how the world began.

[auncyen]

8 and 10! For Isat ask thingy!!

8. post-game things I'd like to see lmfao I mainly just want to see the trip that the whole fandom thinks happened BUT a few minor h/cs--

post-game his memory improves. It'll never be great if you compared it to someone else but they're pretty happy with it. It's a combo of Isabeau and Odile trying to help him find ways to better remember things and the group remembering some things for him and kind of easing that mental load. (I remember reading something once about how like. in longtime couples each person kind of specializes in remembering different kinds of things and can prompt each other to remember things relevant to a subject/event by bringing up what they remember and with Siffrin we do see like. some pretty old memories ARE there, they just need to be prompted and then not eaten by the Universe.) ...Also less anxiety.

The world rediscovers astronomy as Bonnie's generation and younger don't associate the subject with the Island. (way way far out obviously.)

If Siffrin settles down with Isabeau, their part of the living arrangement probably gets very cluttered at times with them wanting to keep TONS of things as souvenirs and no longer being limited to what they can carry--which might also lead to frustration at times if Siffrin does end up forgetting where he got something from. Isabeau's probably surprised by this at first and it might even cause conflict if Isabeau tends more toward "things should be organized and in their place", but they could probably figure out some sort of solution. (Maybe they add lots of "pockets" to Siffrin's side--aka a big cubby hole organizer where they can keep all those things on display. Siffrin tries to sort through it when it needs dusting to make sure he still cares about something and that helps reduce "I've forgotten what this is but I have it so it must be important" frustration. Still happens sometimes though.)

10. headcanons about the world--

already gave some of this away in fic but Poteria emphasizes "beauty" pretty heavily. They praise Muses of science and art (and yes, it's definitely borrowing from Greek mythology). Given the science bit it's not always about visual/sensory beauty but there is like. a general sense that what is pleasing is good. (This can at times lead to some messiness in dealing with what isn't pleasing.) Also not all Poterians do this but it's openly acceptable in Poteria to also worship gods/faiths from other countries, since the Muses are seen as like. Praise-worthy for helping them find enjoyment in life, but not omnipotent or anything like that. They're credited with very specific things and that's it.

Countries having varying attitudes toward Sadnesses and the people they spawn from, some very accepting and tolerant or helpful (Vaugarde very much on this end of the spectrum) and others having negative attitudes that pressure people to attempt to hide having a Sadness, which...definitely tends to do more harm than good. (I'm not 100% sure I want to use that attitude for the Island but it is kind of tempting to wonder if the journal is supposed to be understood as a cautionary tale because the clone who perfectly understands the writer's pain turned out to be "the first Sadness" or whatever. Similarly Sadnesses being seen as some sort of twisted, selfish wish, trying to force your own pain on others. ...Again, not very helpful for someone who actually has a Sadness!)

Sadnesses could have originated after the loss of color. This is just springboarding off how negative thinking is usually more a hindrance than a help nowadays but might have been important for an ancestor surviving in the distant past. The loss of colors would have been a huge loss of information, and probably still is (think plants/animals that you recognize as poisonous to eat by color for one easy 'could get you killed' example). This probably caused a lot of upheaval when it happened and you had a better chance of surviving if you were prone to being cautious. Societies eventually adjusted as well as they could but 'no color for u' probably had a huge effect on people's psyches so yeah. just tempting to think Sadnesses might not have even been a thing before that.

[rottentiger-art]

is it true that logan had a crush on zoey? I read it on the fandom wiki

There was an implied mutual attraction in the show, but I think they dropped that idea around season 3, maybe season 2 (thankfully)

I don't think Logan's crush on Zoey was ever that serious, I think he just found her attractive and wanted to make out with her, same way he wanted to make out with most girls. He grew to like her as a friend later on, and the make out jokes never felt like he meant them since then.

I really believe he fell for Quinn on season 3, so he completely got over any left over attraction for Zoey by then. And she also seemed to drop that as well, way earlier. The fact that they both annoyed the shit out of each other probably helped get rid of it.

You didn't ask about Quinn but I'm gonna talk about Quinn

Before their kiss, Logan described Quinn as "smart, pretty and kinda fun". Those things could apply to Zoey too, so why didn't he fell for Zoey instead? Well he might have said only those things, but those were not the only reasons he fell for Quinn. She's much more than that.

Quinn also annoyed him and challenged him, like Zoey, but he ended up falling for her still (dare I say, because of it). Quinn had other attributes that attracted him, I think Quinn's weirdness/quirkiness and personality played at hand for why he feel for her but not Zoey. Like Erin and Matt mention recently mentioned Quogan have more in common than people think. I think their shared interest in science was something that drew Logan in, despite himself. They're also both romantics, again, despite himself. They have mad chemistry, something that just comes naturally with couples, and something that wasn't really there with Zoey.

She's different from Zoey on many things, and I believe Logan loved every single one of those differences.

Quinn is kinder and less self-centered than Zoey. She doesn't make every issue her problem, yk? and she is actually a pretty sweet girl.

She's not self righteous like Zoey, something that often causes Logan and Zoey's fights (even tho he kinda is also, in a way that he always thinks he's right too) Oh, actually that last part just made me realize another reason why Logan and Zoey never developed feeling*.

Quinn is always willing to help her friends, when asked, unlike Zoey who simply inserts herself in the situation and give advices without asking first.

Quinn took revenge on Logan as well, but I don't think she ever went as far as Zoey had, like in Anger Management, for example.

Quinn is not as judgy as Zoey either, probably bc of the fact that she's an outcast tbh.

Zoey has a serious communication problem, connected to her self righteousness, where if she feels wronged, she never let the other person explain themselves (it's mostly Chase), while Quinn makes things less complicated and expresses those things (like when they were laughing behind her back and she told them it hurted her, bc she expected it from Logan but she thought of them as her friends, no one made a move to apologize or talk so she left). Basically both Quinn and Zoey are confrontational, but in completely different ways.

*What I realized, is that Zoey and Logan have a lot in common too. Like how they both want to be in charge at all times and have troubles accepting their wrong doing. The things they have in common are their flaws, while with Quinn, they have their better parts in common. I don't wanna bring Dana into this, but I believe this would have been the case for her and Logan too if she had stayed. So, I guess Quogan would still had been endgame (now I kinda want a fic where while Quinn was with Mark, Logan had a messy relationship with Dana, Quogan is still endgame at the end, I think it'd be more dramatic and make Logan also experience what's like to have a healthy relationship after coming out of an unhealthy one)

One could argue that Logan's attraction to Quinn's less dominating qualities and attitudes in comparison to Zoey could be attributed to his sexism and his own dominating personality at the time, but then again, Quinn is a dominating girl too, we see that in her relationship with Mark, so I don't think it's only that, I think at the end, it was more about Quinn's healthier way of dealing with things drew him in. He really needed someone that was at his level on that aspect but would match him and work with him for the better instead of someone who made things worse.

Logan and Quinn balance each other and bring the best in the other. Logan and Zoey, despite their moments of friendship, bring out the worst. They're too similar to like each other while Quinn is has the right amount of similarities and differences to make their relationship work and generate an attraction that later turned into love.

Now he's not only too in love with his wife to still harbor a crush on her, he also doesn't seem to like Zoey very much.

TL;DR: kinda but it wasn't that deep, Zoey and him weren't compatible like that.

[nova-they-exist-yup]

As a "youth" who's generation is being discussed in this conversation i would like to put in my two cents. Mostly about what I see in my peers and my own experience with growing up the last few years.

Let's look at my english class first. It's standard english, not honors or anything, so already we have either a) the kids that struggle with english or b) the kids who just want to get through high school and be on their way. It's the latter group I want to highlight here.

I've seen, multiple times in my class, throughout the year, people deliberately not paying attention to instructions nor the content we'll literally be tested on. When I say not paying attention, they'll usually be zoning out or whisper talking with their friends. l've also seen people start the assignment before dismissed which is something I can sort of understand but they're still sometimes missing out on information that the teacher literally tells us when we first get our assignments.

I've seen COPIOUS uses of chat gpt for school. I've seen it on people's computers countless times and as someone who is vehemently anti-ai, it pisses me off to no end. Chat gpt is used so much that, again in my english class, the teacher has literally had to spend ACTUAL CLASS TIME to drill in the point that she can tell when they use it and that it won't trick her.

I have heard one (1) example of using it that I can honestly understand the logic of, and its from some of my friends who are more lenient on ai use. That example is that the class (which irc was like ap english or something like that) was too difficult to get through without using it. As in the teacher was so strict with her grading that most people used ai because they wouldn't get a good grade otherwise. The nitty gritty details of that situation are unbeknownst to me, as l am not in that class, but I feel like it's important to bring up anyway.

On a separate note: in regards to media literacy and critical thinking, I really have to thank not only the people i watch online but also my online friends for that. A good amount of the content I watch is commentary or educational. True crime, talks about internet drama, science related matters ranging from radioactivity to biology, particularly made by like-minded people in my opinion. This kind of content lets me learn about the world, what could be right/wrong, and lets me dig into topics that are complicated or nuanced. And in regards to online friends, most of the people I know are adults, or at the very least older than me. It's my time in fandoms with them that has made me self reflect not only on the media I'm consuming, but also on myself and my morals.

If I didn't have those friends or watch that content and didn't experience the sort of soul searching and analyzing that I have, then I probably would have way worse critical thinking skills right now.

I have gained pretty much no knowledge of critical thinking skills, particularly how to develop them, in school at all. It's all been from my experience online. And everyone's digital experience is going to be different; you're going to find your different niches, the algorithms are going to change to what you seem to click on... Considering the type of media that is online that blatantly lies and spreads misinformation, I can totally see many of my peers not learning the same critical thinking skills that I have currently. Because we're not taught that effectively in school.

Like fangirltothefullest said, we're all burnt out, we're all tired of school. We're given too much information in a day and then tested on how well we can memorize it. Not only that but school is not fun for most people. We're taught things that we're usually not going to use, that are usually not very interesting to most either, and we have to suck it up and memorize it for the next test we get. Plus, people sleep through classes because they stay up all night to study for the tests they have on any given week, or to get long homework assignments done.

The pessimistic mentality of "the youth are doomed" and "look at what the youth think, they're so dumb", is ultimately useless. Yes, it's important to see the demographics and look at just how many people think terrible, terrible things, but to blame it on the youth? Blame it on us, who are victims of our environments? It's completely uncalled for and counterintuitive. We *are* trying our best, but it is getting increasingly difficult for people my age to be properly educated and learn important critical thinking skills because, in the end, all that matters is that we pass. We need to get a 70 or above in our classes and that's it. We just need the numbers to show "yes, i know enough", even if that "knowing" is memorized information you forgot the moment you finished the test.

"the youth will save us" the youth are repeating nazi talking points

[piratesfromspace]

Why is Omegaverse popular? - a few thoughts

I know Omegaverse a/b/o fanfictions have for the most part a "bad" reputation, even amongst the community of fanfic writers. But once we have had a good laugh at the Bad-Wolf-Science behind it, and the occasional crude grammar or improbable sex scenes, why is it a not negligible part of fanfics in a lot of fandoms? Why is it popular? Why do you kinda enjoy it even if you don't want to say it out loud?

I find it fascinating to try and understand why this genre is appealing to a group mainly comprised of women & queer people. There are a few recurring themes that I think makes up the appeal of the Omegaverse, especially in reader-insert fanfics:

the weird body stuff: if you're a woman or a trans person, you have experienced your lot of body-shaming, of society telling you what your body does and how it looks is weird and gross (think period or body hair for example). In Omegaverse situations, the bodies are allowed to be animalistic, to produce pheromones, sweat and any kind of fluids, the bodies morph, new organs appear, the gender binary is more irrelevant than ever, the knots swell, the cavities expand. It brings our bodies at the center of the storyline, and those bodies are allowed to be weird, it's even natural.

no guilt in desire: you want to have sex, but it's because you're in heat, it's not really your fault, not really what you chose to want, it's just nature. That is in a few words what Omegaverse offers, through the heat or rut phenomenons, described as so powerful one can't and should not resist them, sometimes at the risk of death. You're for once completely free of the guilt or shame society tells you to feel when you want sex.

the need for protection: more often than not, Omegaverse fanfics shows a powerful Alpha being protective over their Omega partner(s). They will protect them against any external threats or anyone trying to "steal" them, often displaying animal-related behaviors like baring teeth, growling or straight-on fighting. It can turn into something abusive, no need in denying it, but the loyalty displayed is very appealing for readers who may struggle to find true allies in real life.

exploring consent: what is hotter than a partner so turned on but so respectful that they refuse to take advantage of you because you can't think straight, even if you're begging them to do it? Well that's the premise of quite a few Omegaverse stories (often close to the sex pollen trope in this aspect), and it shows low is the bar for men, when the simple fact of respecting one consent is such a pivotal feature of the appeal.

I think we can add a lot to this list, especially around the concepts of commitment with biting, or nesting. Feel free to add your thoughts (please keep it constructive) on this post in the comments or reblogs!

[sixth-light]

I've followed you for some time so I may be more familiar with you than some of the people who are reblogging your post now haha but I have to admit I also had to take a deep breath and reread the last bit to reassure myself that you weren't conflating 'legitimate distrust, skepticism, and anger towards western science systems' (especially, but not exclusively, archeology/anthropology) with anti-intellectualism. Im a researcher as well but it's really hard for me to say that all public distrust and dismissiveness towards the process of science is anti intellectualism and is a Big Problem when the scientific community has still done very little work to repair broken trust/earn respect. Much like the conversation about how deriding all vaccine hesitant people as 'anti-vaxxers' is counterproductive and doesn't acknowledge the role of the medical establishment in engendering legitimate distrust. maybe part of what you were trying to get at is that genuine cross-disciplinary work that doesn't privilege one knowledge system above others is part of doing that work? idk

Okay. First up: I agree with you entirely that the scientific community has big and legitimately earned trust gaps with many people, and also that just saying "why won't people just listen to us when we're right!" achieves precisely nothing to combat that.

But what I see in the popular 'lol scientists' post on this site is not an actual critique of exclusionary science. What I see is that it takes actual examples of interdisciplinary science, times when scientists are doing exactly what these people say they want, consulting with other experts, bringing together different forms of knowledge, and turns it into 'lol scientists are so dumb'. It's not actually encouraging genuine interchange or understanding. It's also eliding the actual complexities and difficulties of research and knowing - as many people have pointed out in the notes, a lot of the popular examples feature alternative hypotheses which are very cool and interesting but still hypotheses. It's really easy to have a cool hypothesis. It takes a lot more work to substantiate it.

Furthermore, I think it's important to remember that anti-intellectualism is not just about a response to the damage science has done. It is used deliberately to further the goals of powerful people. When we go 'lol scientists don't know anything about the real world', what does that do to the ongoing public debate about climate change and how to address it? About COVID-19 and how to end the pandemic? Who benefits? Everybody on here wants to eat the rich but it never fucking occurs to them that it benefits the rich for them to distrust scientists.

The thing is, science, like fandom, isn't special. It is not exempt from the bigotry that permeates our societies. It is done by people, who are often petty and close-minded and suspicious of things they don't know. Like the rest of society its problems are often systemic and if you want a list, I have a list. But when the tools of science are made available to everybody I genuinely do believe it provides us with, you know, some pretty fucking awesome stuff. The way we get more of that is by critiquing the specific problems, and celebrating the people who are doing it right.

Let's go back to climate change. Scientific research has told us how it's happening, and why it's happened, and the basic facts of how to stop it. But it can't tell us which choices to make about how we fix it: that requires knowledge from and of our communities. Do you move the town inland? Do you try and get people in electric cars, or on bikes, or some of each? What crops are growing here that couldn't before, and which are getting wilted by the heat? That requires people engaging with science and science engaging with people. And you do not get to engagement with 'lol this is just common sense'. You just don't.

also please (not you specifically anon, in general) read some fucking words by people who spend time thinking constructively about this stuff I beg you

[elriell]

Some jumbled up thoughts about Elain, Lucien and Azriel + Mating Bonds

There have been a lot of conversations regarding this topic and I thought I’d flesh it out a bit myself, but these are facts/observations that as a fandom many have noticed, discussed, analysed. I just wanted to dive in myself fully.

I want to talk about each of them individually as well as, as a whole. Their emotions and mindsets, as someone who loves all three characters and wishes for all of them to get a happy ending. I will preface this with saying I will be discussing why it is very likely Elain will reject the bond and such things, so along the lines of Anti-Elucien. If you are a fan of them, thats cool, just skip this one if you happen upon it. 

We are going to dive in to the following;

Lucien & Elain  (their choices)

Lucien & Azriel  (contrast)

Rejecting the Bond

New Bonds

Fate & THE POV 

and why the writing is basically telling us everything we need to know...

Lucien 

Lucien is noble male, he has a good heart and has suffered his plenty, and this is why people want what is best for him, to be the happiest he can... Unfortunately I think that in this case Elain is not it. 

He is right to feel that way, just as Elain has a right to feel as she does. I think it is incredibly interesting that when we finally see from his POV we see that in a way he feels as though this has been thrust on them. 

That with his last love he had a choice and so did she.

It reminds me very much of this line about Rhysand’s parents, who were an example of an unhappy mating bond.

We will deep dive in to wrong matches further down, but the fact is that mated couples are not always indicators of true paired souls, that they very well could be the couple that do not end up happy together.

I speak on Elain and her agency a lot because I feel like a large portion of the fandom like to discard it as if it means nothing, and even judge her for it but if we actually take a look at Lucien’s behaviour he is not all that more happy.

There are some key differences between them though, Lucien as a male feels their bond to a different degree than she does, and he also has been raised to believe and respect the bond. And thus he feels a certain obligation to honour it in the best way he can. 

This doesn’t mean he thinks she is right for him, any further than his attraction to her (which like same dude same), he hasn’t displayed any signs that they actually aline as a couple. And I feel like SJM clearly highlights this when she sets examples of his gifts not being... well right for her. 

The gloves we know she never wears show us how little they know each other as she loves to get dirty [which Feyre had told him] and the pearl necklace is then contrasted by Azriels which was very personalised to Elain. 

(The rose, the secret beauty of it hitting the light etc...)

These are all deliberate moves by Sarah to showcase their misaligned bond.

And during Elain’s section I will also be pointing out some Lucien moments that really don’t read well for him. I genuinely believe he is much happier amongst the Band of Exhiles than he is when he is seen with The Inner Circus.

Elain

Here is the thing, this situation isn’t any easier on him that’s true but people need to respect Elains feelings, and the fact is she does not like him. Not only does she not like him but she shrinks in on herself, she looses all the progress and confidence she has made since the Cauldron. That is not a good sign of anything healthy.

If this is suppose to be a romance we root for why is she doing everything in her power to make it seem the opposite? If she genuinely was playing the long game she would have at least started to make them comfortable around each other, goodness they don’t even have to talk, but she does the opposite.

She emphasises that he brings out the bad in her. Again, no bueno. She quite simply does not want to be around him and with SJM’s writing I think this is highly deliberate on her part. 

[And let’s be clear there are countless quotes from the other books that do NOT reflect well on their relationship but I am trying to stick to ACOSF, as it is her most recent work, otherwise I would be here all day.] 

Rejecting the Bond

We have almost a two page discussion on why mating bonds are not an exact science, and that they can be more harmful than good. We are given two examples of it, with both Rhys’ and Tamlin’s parents. And then we get a very subtle hit at Azriel. This is all in the book Sarah said she began planting the seeds for the sisters journeys.

We also know from this there is a choice. But that many force it, because they feel it it right, (much like Lucien is probably doing right now, because he feels a duty and hope that it will work out.)  

Then we have the fact thrown at us that a lot of males believe that their mate belongs to them and will challenge the other male, which we now have a call back to with Rhys’ mentioning “The Blood Duel”. 

There is literally not one reason Sarah would put this in TWICE only for it never to happen or come close too happening. How anyone can question at this point that Elriel will happen is confusing to me, she has laid all the groundwork for it.

Now I don’t believe for a second that Lucien wouldn’t respect her choice, I think it will most certainly come down to Beron forcing his hand to wage the war we know he wants.

I think despite what Rhys said in Azriel’s POV under immense stress, TNC will protect Elain and ultimately stand by her decision. 

Not only does ACOSF spend a great deal of time creating a further divide between Elain & Lucien it also add a shockingly large quantity of easter eggs about “Elain choosing bonds” “Other Mate” “What if it chose wrong?” and again in this book like in ACOMAF we bring back up a failed mated pair to remind you of it’s existence.

All possible signs lean towards them breaking the bond.

And frankly from a storytelling perspective having three perfect bonds that are basically the same overarching love story (enemies to lovers) is boring, she would want to shake it up and throw a little curveball.

Lucien + Azriel  &  Why I think Azriel will have a bond with Elain.

“If anyone can sense if something is amiss, it’s a mate” And low and behold it is Azriel who figures out what was going on with her. Not to mention in the reveal SJM further displays that Lucien has no clue what was going on with her.

I don’t know what bridge holds their bond but I wouldn’t trust crossing it personally... :/

Further still, Lucien cannot hear her heart. Their bond is definitely not strong but you could also argue that is not an element of the bond at all but rather of her abilities perhaps. Since we know she could hear the sea too though it was nowhere close by.

But Azriel did hear her, he did pay attention and he figured out what was amiss. 

It is interesting to me that people took such issue with this when I believe very few have issues with Rhys or Cassian fighting for their respective partners. Now I have gone in to it in depth about how I think that this was pure emotion and illogical on Azriel’s part, and I don’t believe he would kill Lucien so carelessly.

I think it speaks to the same blind emotion a lot of them have displayed for their mates, Lucien may have wanted to see if she was worth it but Azriel knows she is worth the fight.

And for all intensive purposes in that moment he was willing to fight for someone he believes shares his feelings.

Now let’s tackle the whole “Possessive” crap.

First of all, all of the male pairings in this series have shown moments like this, so if it is bothering you here why isn’t it bothering you at other points?

Lucien has been just as instinctively possessive from their bond, and let me clarify, I am not shaming him for that anymore than anyone else. What I am pointing out is the double standard, if anything Azriel has more reason to feel like he can fight for her because she has actually shown him care, interest and attraction. 

They have actually bonded a lot more than she has with Lucien thus far.

And if they truly do have an upcoming bond then judging him on three paragraphs when we don’t know what the heck is going on is just ridiculous.

On the same note of that scene, let’s talk about “deserve”

First of all he never said he deserved her, Rhys implied that is what he was gleaning from the conversation and that it is just lust, which we know is not the case. Clearly Rhys perception is not accurate at all so to take his statement at face value and call it fact is a bit disingenuous.

Azriel wasn’t claiming he deserves her, did you read his POV at all?? He didn’t even feel like his hands should touch her let alone deserve her. Please go back and read that chapter again if you can’t see that.

Not to mention I think that the idea of FATE, and believing in hope even when the odds are stacked against you (AKA her having a mate) is actually very consistent with SJM storytelling and Az. Remember this;

The fact that he is hopeful despite the despair of his situation is exactly what people have valued about him. Not to mention after Rhys says this to Azriel he says to them;

So Rhys too believes they were brought in his family for a reason, some sort of fate.

Amren too thinks they are blessed by fate. Why is it so shocking and offensive that Azriel have a little hope that there is a reason they came in to their lives? Because he isn’t with your fav?

Let’s be honest he didn’t exactly get over Mor in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and then even ACOFAS there are slight moments, thats over a long period. Three sisters didn’t just arrive and he went TAG “I want one.”

No, he genuinely grew to care for Elain, and let go of his past, and in watching Elain not find any connection with her mate he saw it as a sign that the Cauldron was wrong, which we know it can be. 

I don’t know if people are selective readers but if you think that he doesn’t care for her as a person beyond being a “sister” I don’t know what to tell you, we are not reading the same books.

ANYWAYS back on topic.

I think Sarah has laid a lot of groundwork for her breaking the bond and perhaps choosing a new one. I know not everyone is keen on another bond as they feel her free will and choice is enough, that’s fair and I agree to a point. 

I just wanted to analyse the data at hand, and I do believe after ACOSF (I never thought it prior really) that they are mates in some capacity, whether that is because of the Cauldron or something that will occur... I think she has laid enough groundwork for them being Soulmates at the least. Hence why I love the idea of a Carranam bond.

There are so many parallels between Rhys, Cassian & Az that could be taken as little signs but honestly this is long enough I am sure you all want to kill me already for making you read all that hahaha 

One last little morsel, it very well might be nothing but Az shouting after they take Elain is an interesting choice, it’s ambiguous enough that you can take it to mean the pain but it could also be another little crumb.

Basically with all said and done I think she will give Elain her agency back and break it.

And potentially something will occur with Azriel as a result but thats certainly more grey than the rest of it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk!

Obviously, to each their own opinion, have fun and ship whatever you want these are just my thoughts on the text at hand!

(Also I am sorry I got like 20+ messages to get to in my inbox, yeah I kinda ignored everyone and worked on this today, sorry!!! I’ll be back tomorrow)

[sfb123]

Whatcha Wearin’ Under There?

I am participating in @wackydrabbles prompt # 93 “Was this what made her [him, them,you] happy?” which will appear in bold.  

Pairing: Liam x Riley

A/N: I was having a conversation with @kat-tia801 and @queenrileyrose this afternoon, and it got pretty lit, we ended up complaining about the horrible underwear choices for the male LIs in TRR, one thing lead to another, and this idea was born. Now one of you just needs to write the other underwear shopping idea that came up.

Thank you to my fandom soulmate @jessiembruno for helping me design the perfect sexy underwear. It definitely turned out way better than the real life examples I have lying around my house.

Word Count: 1,140

Rating/Warning: PG-13 bordering on R, I’m towing that 🍋 line, but it’s all implied.

All Characters belong to Pixelberry

Tags: Listed below. Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed.

Liam slipped out of the bed, his back to Riley as he put his underwear on. When he turned around, he saw that she had rolled to her side and was watching him dress. “Like what you see?” He said with a smirk.

Riley smiled nervously, this was as good a time as any to bring it up. “Um...not really?”

“I’m sorry?” Liam couldn’t hide the shocked, and slightly hurt expression on his face. 

She immediately sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet over her chest. “Oh no no no Liam, not like that! I love the product, it’s just the wrapper I’m not a huge fan of.” 

“Come again?”

“Listen, I know it’s called European cut, but just because you’re from Europe doesn’t mean you are bound by law to wear man panties.” 

Liam chuckled and sat on the bed, wrapping his arm around her. “Love, I had no idea you had such an aversion to my undergarments.”

“It’s not that.” Riley paused, her mind racing to find the best possible reasoning to get her way, she turned to him as soon as she determined the perfect route to take. “You want kids right? I mean, you need them, heirs to the throne and all.” He nodded curious as to where this was going. “Well, boxers are better for your sperm count. It makes conceiving way easier. It’s science. I’m only looking out for you, and for Cordonia.”

“Is that so?” He cocked an eyebrow. “Well the Rys line has been around for centuries, so perhaps this style isn’t quite as limiting as you have been led to believe.”

Riley grimaced, partly because that reason didn’t work, but the other was the mental image of Constantine in his underwear that Liam had just planted in her head. She shook it off, she couldn’t have that rattling around in her brain if she was going to get plan b to work. She shifted so that she was straddling his lap, letting the sheet she was holding slip away. 

“You know how sometimes, when you undress me, I’m wearing those cute little surprises for you?” He audibly gulped and nodded in response as her fingers slowly trailed across his chest. “Well, don’t you want to wear something that will make me just as...excited as I make you?” She tilted her head down slightly and looked up at him through her lashes, biting her bottom lip. 

“Yes, my queen.” He pulled her mouth to his in a hungry kiss, thrusting his hips up, both groaning at the sudden jolt of pleasure. 

“Mmmm...now my king,” she said in a low sultry voice, as their lips parted, “imagine how much more comfortable that would be if you had more room for everything.” She gestured at his growing bulge.

“Love, I don’t care what I’m wearing, as long as you’re the one taking it off of me.” He flipped them so that he was now hovering over her, causing Riley to yelp. “Let’s go shopping tomorrow, I will get anything you want.” He kissed her again as her hands slid down to his waist to free him from his confines. 

The next day, Riley and Liam stepped through the doors of one of the local Cordonian shops. They had sent the guard ahead of time to close down and secure the store, to insure the utmost privacy for their intimate excursion. Riley rushed toward the racks while Liam lingered behind, smiling to himself at his wife’s excitement. 

“Come on Liam, these are for you, you should come pick some that you like!” She waived for him to join her. 

“That’s alright, all that matters is that you are happy with the selections. I’m sure I will love whatever you choose.”

Riley shook her head, laughing to herself, continuing to pull her selections from the rack. She continued to riffle through the options, running her fingers along the materials, and admiring the selection. Once her arms were full, she hurried over to Liam and handed everything over to him. “Ok, go see what you think!”

“You’re not coming in with me to help?”

“Oh, I have no problem going in there and helping you take things off. It’s the having to put things on that may prove difficult. You’d better fly solo on this one.” She said, placing a light pat on his behind. He laughed and gave her a kiss before moving into the changing room.

Once inside, Liam held up the first pair and examined them carefully, Was this what made her happy? He thought to himself, confused as to why one would need so much material if the intention was to just cover up his private areas. He shrugged before pulling off his clothes, changing into the Versace boxer briefs that Riley had chosen for him. The first thing he noticed was the color, green. He smiled to himself, knowing she settled on that color because it was her favorite. He ran his hands up and down his thighs, feeling the luxurious cotton fabric that covered him. They did feel nice, but it still felt like an odd amount of material for an undergarment. 

He peeked his head out from behind the curtain searching for Riley, who was seated on a chaise on the other end of the fitting room, scrolling through her phone. He cleared his throat to get her attention. She looked up and smiled. “Alright, bring on the sexy fashion show.” She rubbed her palms together in anticipation. 

Liam stepped out of the changing area and walked forward, stopping just in front of her and placing his hands on his hips. “Riley, love, aren’t these just a pair of shorts?”

She laughed at the comment and approached him to get a better look. “No Liam, they’re underwear, I promise. How do they feel?”

“Quite comfortable, actually. I’m just afraid they will be cumbersome when I am wearing pants over them.”

“You’ll get used to it. I promise.” She reached up and kissed him on the nose. “Are you going to get them?” She asked hopefully. 

“Do you like them?” At his question, her eyes roamed up and down his body, licking her lips as she did, and finally nodding her head. “Then I will get them in every color they have, and two of the green.” He winked.

“Great! You should go change so we can check out and head home. Like now.” 

Liam could tell by the heat in her voice exactly why she was in such a hurry to get back to the palace. “Why don’t you come with me? I would love to have your assistance.” He took her hand and lifted it to his lips. 

“Yup. Totally. Let’s do that.” She nodded her head frantically and pulled him into the dressing room.

Permatags: @anjanettexcordonia @athena-penrose @chemist-ana @cordonia-gothqueen @cordoniaqueensworld @gabesmommie1130 @gkittylove99 @hopelessromanticmonie @iaminlovewithtrr @jessiembruno @kat-tia801 @khoicesbyk @kingliam2019 @lucy-268 @marshmallowsaremyfavorite @mile9213 @mom2000aggie @pixie88 @queenrileyrose @secretaryunpaid @sweatyrysconnoisseur @theroyalheirshadowhunter @twinkleallnight @txemrn

One Shots: @bebepac @darley1101

Liam x Riley: @jared2612​

@wackydrabbles​ @choicesficwriterscreations​

[starrybouquet]

On Seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG1

A note: I wrote a series of essays several weeks ago, when I was feeling particularly crappy. I'm not particularly proud of them--they're pretty dramatic--but they do explain several of my more personal fandom feelings. I know I don't always tend to be the best at explaining things on the spot, so I'm posting these with the hope that I can refer people to them the next time that happens.

Um, I mentioned they're a little dramatic. I'm really, really sorry about that. But hey, if I can't be dramatic on Tumblr, in fandom, where else is that gonna go?

But still - if you're feeling a little sensitive today, maybe you wanna skip this. Or not. Just a light warning. :)

This piece is on seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG1, but they aren't all Stargate-related. I'll be posting them in the next few days, hopefully.

To those of you who like s9-10: I have nothing against you. Some of you I know better, some less well. In general, though, I like you, you seem like fine people. This is not about you, I hold nothing against you for liking those seasons. In fact, I envy you. This is more a personal post about why I'm an idiot. If you want, feel free to scroll down past this. I won't be offended. I'd put it under the cut but I'm on mobile.

Okay. Why, hello, those of you willing to read this rant...

No matter how much I denounce and ignore it, I cannot get past the pain of seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG-1. I've never watched them in full. Seen a few episodes here and there.

I cannot, repeat, CANNOT stand the thought today. It hurts.

It's an old pain, and it's not just SG1. SG1 is just one of the highlights in a long line of books and shows that have repeatedly broken my heart by being SO GOOD and then taking an, uh, precipitous right turn, shall we say. Because a hard right seems too kind, and a precipitous drop too harsh.

I love SG1. I love love love it. I like the plots and I love the science, but what I really fell in love with was the characters.

I loved all of them. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if Sam, Daniel, or Teal'c had been on any other show, I guarantee you they would have been my favorite by far. Jack is just so...Jack that he has to be my favorite. That's SG1 for you.

I've never had super close friends. I have good RL friends, don't get me wrong. They're nice people. But we don't have much in common.

That's okay. That's been my experience forever--really nice folks who maybe didn't always get me or have anything to say to me, but were good, decent people.

And this is good. Really, it is. It's just that SG-1, for me, has always represented the promise that there *are* people out there that are your true friends, and you will do brave and brilliant things with them. It will happen.

It's naive, I know. But I haven't been able to let it go. Maybe someday. But not right now.

Which brings me to s9-10 of SG1. It hurts.

It hurts that SG1 scattered to the wind.

It hurts that they sent Jack away from a place where he was happy, where he'd found friends and meaning in life again, away to fucking DC. To be...what? A politician? I could write a whole post just about this. Actually, I have. I could still write more posts about it!

It hurts that Sam went to Area 51, and nobody seemed to mind, the 'Gate didn't spontaneously combust as we were always led to believe it would.

It hurts that Daniel's personality supposedly changed that much, in the absence of his friends. Though some of his lines are funny, they aren't the earnest, idealistic, thoughtful Daniel I fell in love with. I get the idea that new-look Daniel would roll his eyes at s3-8 Daniel, and beat up floppy hair Daniel. And floppy hair Daniel is my baby and anyone who doesn't appreciate his brilliance can face my wrath. That includes you, buff s9-10 Daniel, and also whoever decided/approved that change in characterization.

Really, the only one who doesn't hurt is Teal'c. Because it feels like he's moving forward, toward happiness.

So...here we are. Season 9. Mitchell, Landry.

I often say I hate Mitchell. Do I resent him for replacing Jack? Yes. I do. We can talk about plot reasons and all that, but at the end of the day, I was going to hate anyone who tried to be Jack.

This is true in real life, too. You can't try to be anyone else. You've gotta walk your own path.

Now, people say that I didn't give Mitchell a chance. I say that the way he was portrayed, in the few episodes I've seen, tells me enough.

I can think of lots of ways Mitchell could have been interesting. How would Daniel and Teal'c react to an old, actually bad tempered (not Jack bad tempered, actually bad tempered) hardass after eight years of their best friends leading them? Or--start with his actual character. Mitchell, he hasn't been at the SGC. Wouldn't he get some flack from the longtime team leaders of SGs 2-5ish? They'd be insulted, right?

Or we could've gotten a nice Daniel Teal'c episode arc and then we could've had one Samantha Carter as team leader, though we won't get into that.

Bringing me to my next point. Co-leads?? Seriously?? You're trying too hard, folks. Telling me Sam used to know Mitchell does not actually make me like him.

Same thing with Landry. Unlike Mitchell, I guess I don't really have an opinion on Landry. He's just....there? No character development for this man.

Anyway, back to the team.

One of the things I love about SG1 is how the humor and friendship was so damn natural. Other than a few episodes (Urgo comes to mind), the plots weren't intentionally humorous. They were campy sci-fi plots sometimes, sure. They were funny because Jack was funny, yeah. They were lower budget than some other sci-fi. But they were as serious as sci-fi gets. It was how the characters reacted that made it funny.

Similarly, we were never told SG1 were found family. We just Knew. Because of the way they acted with each other. Because of the way Jack would "order" them to do things.

And hey, by the way, they weren't always family. Sam used to be less willing to ignore Jack. Daniel used to be less willing to trust Teal'c. Jack used to be a little more stern.

So...they meshed together. Like all found families do.

Every time I see a photo of new-look SG1 in seasons 9 and 10, I can't help but feel that they're trying too hard. I don't get the family feel because they aren't a family, damn it. It doesn't matter how many times you *tell* me they're super close. One of the reasons the original team got so close is because they all needed each other. Jack was depressed, Daniel was grieving, Sam was alone and had lost her mom and wasn't speaking with her dad and had never opened up to anyone in her life, Teal'c was an alien fighting for freedom after spending 100 years essentially as a slave.

And partly because of that, by season 9? Daniel and Teal'c (and Sam, when she comes back) don't need a family the way they used to. They have each other. They have Jack, or at least they *should*. *Glares in angry at Jack in DC vibes*

So...they simply don't have the relationship with Mitchell they do with each other.

It'd be different if Mitchell needed a family. It's not that SG1 hasn't added people before--I think Jonas is a perfect example of this. He wasn't Daniel, and that always hurt. But he was young, and naive, and innocent, and he needed SG1 because he'd left everything he'd ever known.

And that worked.

Without needing family, Mitchell is just a coworker. He can be a friendly coworker. A friend. But if he wanted to become better friends, family, he needed to show depth and vulnerability. He needed to need SG1.

And he never does, from what I've seen and heard about and read about. Or if he does need SG1, he doesn't need them badly enough to show more than an occasional bout of thoughtfulness before returning to his normal pale-Jack-imitation ways.

Now, I don't know why that is. I lean toward bad writing. I haven't watched Farscape (it's on my to watch list) but it seems like Ben Browder is a fine actor.

So, seasons 9 and 10 are probably fine TV. I'm never going to watch them through, so don't ask. I've tried and failed and every time it just tears my heart a little more and I'm won't be doing it again.

Those seasons...they just lost everything I watch SG-1 for, and so...yeah. I feel the hate strongly. Not because they're bad--I think they're different, not necessarily bad. My hate is only because in creating those seasons, they tore down the parts of SG1 that I loved most.

So s9-10 show me a few nice hugs and laughs? That's nice. I like comedies, I do. However...that's not my Stargate. Not the one I love. I liked the sarcastic one, the one full of wonder, the one where they had to scrape and claw their way through the galaxy with naivety and courage and brilliance. The one where they ate together, fought together, died together, were resurrected together.

It hurts, man. It hurts when the things I love turn into something that's lukewarm. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

That's why we have fanfic. And, with any luck, I'll actually start that AU I've been talking about.

It's fanfic, and so it'll be my Stargate. The ending I wanted--which really wasn't an ending at all, more of a closure of one chapter of the story.

Damn, did that turn dramatic. Um, sorry about that, and also sorry for spilling my feelings all over you guys. Thanks for reading, if you got to the end of this.

[everything-laito]

hey,,, i've seen this controversial opinion about laito not being sexually assaulted by cordelia. . .as the only opinion of laito that matters, what are your thoughts on it? i know you've made some posts in the past about cordelia and laito's relationship, but i think that now would be a good time to i guess, remake a post or clarify your thoughts so people could follow along?? i hope you enjoy your day.

*proceeds to crack all my knuckles at once*

This isn't really my own "response" cuz oh boy I'm sick of this petty ass drama lmao. To begin, SKLDJF I'm very flattered that you hold my opinion in that high of regard! I'd say there's others that have interesting interpretations of him too though :) but again, thank you :') glad you enjoy what I have to say!

I know I've already kinda responded to this via a screenshot here, just to hold you––and others reading this––over. As much as this is a great time to talk about a how-to-analysis, I’ll still put that as a separate post eventually, but I still will go over the philosophy of truth and writings etc. But anyways, to answer your initial questions, they’re under the cut!

And no, I’m not specifically calling anyone out here. These are just issues with the fandom that I find as a whole, along with some extremists. Thus, I’m not going to be putting tags for people to easily find this post because I don’t want to be wound up in this drama––once again this is just more commentary on the fandom as a whole, which hopefully you can apply to people you find!

I have a lot of my own thoughts about Cordelia and Laito’s relationship here (just in case if people need it):

1. Goes over potential grooming of Laito, facts about Cordelia and what happened before she did stuff to Laito, and when did she rape Laito for the first time?

2. Stuff about incest and how any relationship out of a parental/child relationship is abuse even if it’s not penetrative sex, more incest stuff, and just more thoughts on their relationship

3. Neuroplasticity, trauma, Karlheinz, and isolation

4. What does sexual trauma look like? And some stuff on Laito’s facade

5. More stuff on his facade, and projection on Yui

6. My thoughts on Laito’s dark fate vampire ending + Conclusion

7. Answering some inbox stuff relating to Cordelia

Sure I realize I might be missing some stuff but that’s just my whole analysis on them. I’ll probably make some follow up posts eventually but I’m not sure when that will be.

But as for this analysis/ramble, I’ll divide it up into sections:

The issue of hypocrisy in the Dialovers fandom:

I- oh dear god. Ok, just saying, there’s a lot of people being like “oh I hate Cordelia because she was abusive” then ??? yo??? Why do you like the boys?? They’re abusive and we see more of them than Cordelia??? I just personally hate hypocrisy. However, it’s okay to hate Cordelia! It’s okay to love Cordelia! It’s okay to hate the boys and it’s okay to love the boys too. But recognizing that you don’t like one or the other just because “they’re abusive” is a fallacy at that point.

The reason why so many people hate Karlheinz/Cordelia/Beatrix/Christa/Richter (or at least start off hating them) is because they are written as the villains of the story! Karl’s the main villain, and the rest (including the diaboys and Yui) are kinda just tragically wound up in his plans. You sympathize more with the boys because you spend more time with them and watch them grow! It’s a whole “us vs them” situation. Since those people were awful to the boys/the boys hate them, you’re like “yeah they’re bad!” But the issue with the whole “us vs them” situation (as in real life) is that people tend to excuse the actions done by the “us” party.

Same thing goes with extreme Karl/Cordelia/Richter fans (I’ve never seen a hardcore Beatrix/Christa fan but they’re probably out there). Some hate the diaboys but love the people in that party. They’ve also done some shitty stuff too! Bro, even Yui has done some terrible stuff! But that’s because she was a product of the events she was thrown into––and same with everyone else.

Karl has been the mastermind of all this, and for me I don’t have any sympathy for him, mainly because we’re not shown anything to sympathize with (except that he just is tired of living but idk why he wants to create a whole new race like lmao science nerd ig, I feel that king). A lot of people like him for his looks, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing––he’s a fictional character, objectify these characters however you want. This is more of a personal opinion of mine though. And maybe people do just sympathize with his outlook on life, that’s totally fine.

But since these characters are all attractive in their own regard, they all get the treatment of “pretty-boy” syndrome (Idek if that’s the exact name for it). Which is just the privilege pretty people get. But again, this is fictional, so it’s not necessarily important in this case. Bro I got into DL cuz of “ooga booga hot vampires” and stayed for the complex lore and characters (especially one complex character, wonder who that could be). I imagine most people got into DL because of that, or out of sheer curiosity.

Ok, I’m throwing out a lot of points but not really connecting them. Lemme give you an example: I don’t like Reiji. His character doesn’t vibe with me most of the time aside from the fact that he’s hilarious. But I just am very neutral/neutral-negative on his character. But I’m not like “oh cuz he’s mean/abusive” cuz LOL EVERYONES MEAN IN THIS GAME. Sure you can still say that, it’s just not a very strong claim. Hypocritical claims tend to be like that. Same with a lot of Yui haters. In this case, they’re more jealous that she’s there and not them, which I’ve explained a lot in this post about toxic femininity and Yui in the fandom etc. But it’s ok to just not like a character! It’s alright! I know someone who just doesn’t vibe with Subaru. She doesn’t know why, she just doesn’t vibe with him. There’s no need to defend it either. But the use of hypocrisy is my main issue, and I’ll get to that in the next section.

(There’s a really good post explaining this too but I cannot find it for the life of me. I think it was made by @/abottleofkarlheinz or @/the-madame21)

How opinions of fictional universes left unchecked can effect real life:

I’ve said this a little bit in that Dialover PSA post I’ve made about Yui that I linked a couple paragraphs ago. But the reasons why people say they hate Yui is concerning. If you don’t like Yui, that’s totally fine! Again you don’t need reasons to hate on a character or defend it. But if you do choose to defend those characters, make sure what you’re saying isn’t out of some other place in your heart. Let me explain.

In that “Yui PSA” post I made, I say how your attitudes in being critical of a fictional universe usually does reflect on who you are as a person, at least when you’re making certain claims. In that Yui post, I say that the hatred on Yui is a result of the “other girl” mentality. On top of that, it erases her experience as a survivor. Yes, this is a fictional character, but bringing that into real life can have some dire consequences if you don’t differentiate them. If you have the same attitude of Yui with other survivors if the “abuser is hot” then thaaaaaat’s so fucked up.

For example, there’s people who have crushes on real life serial killers! That- that’s absolutely disgusting! Those real people killed living people and effected so many lives and families. Dude I have fictional crushes on fictional serial killers, and that’s different, because it is a removed universe. It’s why I can still call myself a lesbian but still have crushes on fictional male characters, for a further example (and vice versa! I have straight friends who crush on fictional characters of their same gender! But that doesn’t make them any less straight. And no, I’m not erasing bi people here either, just clarifying in case if you needed that).

Not being able to differentiate your opinions of a fictional universe can get very toxic. Like I love Laito, but I’m not like “omg I wish he was real so he could do that stuff to me uwu” like no!!! UH!!! I wouldn’t want to date anyone like him in real life! That’s literal abuse! And if Laito was here in real life it’s not a controlled environment, he’d literally be able to do anything with you, etc. That’s what makes a fantasy, a fantasy. They’re controlled.

Also vice versa, some people get really triggered by Dialovers, specifically Laito’s route. A lot of non-consensual acts that he does have been experienced by people in real life in any extent, myself included. For me, it’s a personal escape from that, because it is an environment where I am prepared for those events and can control my exposure to it. For some, they are reminded of the reality they had to experience. Fictional universes are inspired by real life, no matter what way you look at it. Real life people are making it, after all.

I feel like I’m going in so many circles, but trust me, I’m getting to the point.

I- I can’t explain this enough but it is most definitely implied that Cordelia had raped and sexually abused Laito. If it was explicit, DL would be an 18+ game, but they cannot do that in Japan. I’m not going to like defend this point because so many people (myself included) have defended this point. It’s implications carry over into Laito’s character and why he’s like this. He’s a textbook sexual abuse survivor. I just,,,, cannot explain this enough. Same thing with overwriting the abuse of Yui. They get jealous of Yui. Sure I’d say a good chunk of people have ravishment fantasies here. At least the 18+ people in the fandom who are into that stuff. But oh my dear god, ravishment fantasies are super super dangerous to enact in real life. It’s possible to do them, but it would take years of building up to that point in kink. That’s a whole other discussion though and I’m not incredibly comfortable talking about it knowing that minors read my blog (I’ll also have to say here: no minors in kink--its alright to educate yourself but pleaaaaaaaaaase don’t enact on any of those activities until you are of age, and even so that still can be dangerous right as you turn 18).

But anyways, saying that Yui should enjoy this because she’s experienced the ravishment fantasy you’ve dreamed of? Oh fucking hell, if you leave that opinion and mentality unchecked and it goes into real life, that’s incredibly awful. Abuse apologists are absolutely terrible people, almost as much as the abusers themselves.

If you twist the narrative that Laito loves Cordelia or Yui loves the boys at the end of the first game, that’s still––ughhhhhhhh. Especially when it’s so obvious that Laito has so many mental issues with Cordelia. His whole monologue and breakdown at the end of Dark Fate definitely tells us that he has had such an issue with Cordelia. And MB+ Laito is still Laito. As for Yui, dude she literally goes through stockholm syndrome in the first game like it is so goddamn apparent idek how to explain this at this point.

Ok dear god lmao wow, uh I think that’s answering the first couple of questions?

The philosophy of truth:

“Truth” has been an incredibly debated topic in philosophy for years. Truth is more of a subjective item rather than objective. Sure you can have personal objective truths, but they may not be the same truths for others. For example, a tomato is red. However, that tomato is red to me, because I am not color blind. A red-green color blind person may see the tomato as being brown or more muted in color. That’s their truth. They can’t really imagine what red is (ok depending on severity of their color blindness), considering they have not experienced the color red in the same way people who don’t have color blindness do. God uh, here’s a whole ass essay about truth, I’m cherry picking some of the things in there that are relevant to this.

Basically what I’m saying is, truth is very subjective. However, there are philosophers arguing a more objective truth. But that’s a whole other discussion. Also, this isn’t to support any political opinion, but I can use that as an example. Let’s go for well... The death penalty. I’m in America, we have the death penalty in some states. Yes, this is a very controversial topic, and no I’m not arguing the ethics of it here. Just hear me out.

If you live in Europe for example (except in Belarus and Russia––ok when I looked it up they consider Russia in Europe and technically it is but also there’s the whole chunk that is not- lmao even the truth of geography can be subjective), you might be like “yeah what the fuck are Americans doing?” (a common sentiment that I also share lmao). But yeah, what the fuck are we doing? Why is the death penalty still in existence? Yes, there’s statistics that prove that it doesn’t deter crime, but even crime rates is caused by a lot of different things too. Even statistics aren’t always accurate, because of many different factors. They’re not objective either, although good statisticians try their best to get good results and not skew the data. (please try to see where your data is coming from and who it is sponsored by––it matters a TON)

I’d say the closest thing we have as an objective truth to argue the death penalty or not is money. Money, although the concept is subjective, is a very objective currency. It’s why artists hate “exposure” compared to “money” as sole currency. The death penalty is very expensive, and not even used that often.

So, although money is currency made by us, and is technically 75% linen and 25% cotton (in America at least) with some funky dudes n numbers printed on it, it doesn’t sound that special. However, it would be considered as a baseline of some type of “objective truth” in ~society~ because people are typically on the same page of what money’s worth. Even so, this baseline of truth is still subjective! If Bill Gates accidentally has a $20 bill fall out of his pocket, that’s nothing to him! But if someone who’s working very hard to make ends meet loses that same amount of money, it could deal a lot of financial damage to that person.

Ok, hopefully you guys kind of get my drift. There are a lot of theories of truth, I’m just explaining one (honestly I forget the name of this theory) because it is the closest to the types of truth we are dealing with. And in this case, it’s called “canon.”

What the fuck is analysis:

The concept of “canon” is the objective truth that we have when analyzing universes. They’re our bread and butter of interpretation and extrapolation. The art of analysis clings to this notion of an objective truth. It needs a baseline. I’m going off of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle, because that type of analysis I have the most experience with.

This is called rhetorical analysis. Rhetoric is the use of words in a persuasive fashion, and the analysis part is a breakdown of how words are used in order to achieve persuasiveness. I don’t typically use a lot of explicit rhetorical analysis in my personal writings, but I guess a version of it. Which typically has to deal with intention and execution. A lot of analysis on language has to do with this. Language is incredibly subjective. Certain words carry individual meanings to people. I have gone over the difference between real and lexical definitions before, and I’ll do it again.

I’ll just copy and paste what I’ve said before here from this analysis:

To put it simply, lexical definitions are the definitions you find in the dictionary. This is an “official” and “agreed upon” definition. Real definitions (quite a misleading name in my opinion) is the definition that’s more kind of “felt” in a way and how you internally interpret the word in context (these can be through individuals or any niche group). What I mean by this is that when you say a word (for example) to convey a feeling, you usually won’t know the dictionary definition off the top of your head. You say that something’s “savage” for example when you want to describe something violent or gruesomely awesome (it depends if it’s in a slang context or not) but there’s many lexical definitions (and outdated lexical definitions) of the term. But the first definition that usually comes up is “adj (of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.”

But people typically don’t think of the lexical definition when they learn what a word means; they usually learn the context of it and apply it as such. And that’s what a “real” definition is. Laito has a differing definition of what affection and love is, and that’s his own meaning and what it means to him.

I’ll even add another example to that too. The word “cunt” in english refers to a vagina. That’s just it. It’s lexically synonymous with “vagina,” “pussy,” etc. However, “cunt” has a subjective meaning to it. This is where “real” definitions also come into play. Many people view the word as vulgar and dirty. And that’s cuz we live in a ~society~ lmao. Our use of language has shaped what this word means in a context outside of the dictionary. I’ll do you one more. The Japanese word マンコ (manko) is also vulgar slang that’s kind of like our word “cunt/pussy.” Sometimes I say “cunt” for jokes, but I don’t use it that often to begin with since it’s just a very strong word to most (albeit it’s not that strong of a word for me). However, マンコ is a strong word to many Japanese people, but if I hear it even though I’ve been learning Japanese, it doesn’t have that same effect as hearing “cunt” for me is (which still, idc if I really hear it depending on context) because I haven’t been shaped in a culture that uses Japanese.

Even so, tone, intention, and context is HUGE in this. If someone called me a “useless fucking cunt” when they’re angry at me, I’d be close to crying. If someone told that to me as a joke, I’d be like “lol yeah you right, bitchass” and if someone said that in a consensual sexual context, it would certainly tickle my masochistic heart.

DSLKFJ also sorry if you don’t like hearing that word, I just had to utilize a strong example for this. But anyways, now let’s change the lens to Dialovers.

No, it never explicitly says that Cordelia rapes Laito. It doesn’t. However, there’s this WACKY thing called being able to infer, reading between the lines, and identifying implications. Those are kind of all the same things. However, indirect exposition is used a lot in effective creative writing. The utilization of this type of exposition is more preferred when writing a story, because direct exposition is kind of referred to as “info-dumping” when used excessively. Forgive my jargon: this is just showing vs telling as we’re taught in every writing class. I’m personally very bad at it, which is why I stick to writing these, and stick to reading creative fiction. (NOT SAYING IF YOU’RE NOT GOOD AT THIS TO NOT CONTINUE TO PRACTICE CREATIVE FICTION, I JUST DONT HAVE THE CURRENT MOTIVATION TO GET GOOD AT IT)

Dialovers uses a LOOOOOT of showing. And even so, its “showing” ability is very minimal considering the Japanese language can be vague on its own, it’s medium (visual novel) does not show a lot of things explicitly most of the time (and even when it is shown it doesn’t convey a lot). There’s several CGs of Laito and Yui where it doesn’t show the amount of pain or the dire situation Yui’s in, compared to what she’s saying she’s going through.

When I made my whole breakdown on Laito’s HDB route from Yui’s perspective, I got several comments about how they didn’t realize how bad his route really was. That’s either because people might not have experience with verbal abuse themselves, can’t exactly see Yui’s body language except her head (and even so, her expressions are limited), or don’t know a lot of gaslighting/verbal abuse techniques/have done research into it. Honestly verbal abuse is kind of hard to realize, so I’m not calling anyone dumb here. Despite me knowing a lot of the signs, I didn’t know I went through it––and even so I’ve denied it. And that’s what is so effective about this game though! Especially Laito’s route! Because you’re also sucked in with limited knowledge because you’re seeing this through Yui’s perspective, and on top of that it’s isolating. You can only make so many choices, and I feel like Dialovers is perfect as a visual novel. You get caught up with a lot of shock value things that Laito says, which serves as a perfect distraction for your first time through. But anyways, I’m getting off track.

For example, many people found his Maniac 07 chapter to be very confusing. I broke that one down here as well, and even so I was confused at first (also I was like 14/15, dear god). It tells you SO little, but you know that Laito’s incredibly upset at Richter for some reason, and even so, Yui comments on it a little too. Laito is shown to still hate Richter in DF, but he talks about it a tad more.

Here’s a further example from my writings in that first part of the Cordelia/Laito analysis series but I have bolded the terms I use to convey this rhetoric:

There hasn’t been any flashbacks that specifically show us the first time that happened. However, I believe that there was a flashback in HDB that shows one of the first times. Here’s a scene from Laito’s Dark Epilogue:

Cordelia: ー Laito…Laito… Laito: …Hm? Is something the matter? Cordelia: I have a favor to ask. It just isn’t enough. You can do it, right Laito? Laito: You really are something…So that’s why you came to me again? Cordelia: Fufufu…That’s right, Laito. Come on, quickly… Laito: …Guess it can’t be helped. I’ll love you plenty. Cordelia: Aah…My cute Laito~ I love you. I really do. Laito: I can do it…right? Cordelia: Of course, Laito. Now, quickly…

First of all, ew. Second of all, Laito’s diction implies that this was maybe the second or third time this occurred. He asks a question, and ends it with “again.” We know by this that it is not the first time, but the question also means that Laito might not have expected to occur again. His tone also implies some surprise to it, at least in my ears. His other question, “I can do it, right?” screams hesitance to me. If this scene took place down the line, or after many times he did this with Cordelia, I don’t believe he’d be some level of surprised or hesitance.

That’s what rhetorical analysis is. You take the contextual meaning of the words, the tone they use, and extrapolate what they imply. On top of this, we know that the term “love” here is sexual, implying that they did something sexual. We are not given the details of this, but considering we know that Laito uses “love” before he rapes Yui in the game, we can infer that’s what happened (or something similar) to himself with Cordelia, considering he projects on Yui quite a bit.

I was going to go over what is good/bad analysis, but I think I’ve implied it anyways here. Utilizing separate information from different sources of canon in order to make sense of something is good analysis. That’s our objective truth: canon. I’m not saying I’m the best at analysis, but I am fairly confident in it. It’s how I’m able to attempt to answer some of your “how would Laito react” questions without it being specifically hinted in the game. You cannot cherry pick specific sentences and go off of that alone for analysis. It’s context. It’s reading tone. It’s knowing the characters attitudes towards things, how they speak, etc. There’s a lot going into analysis in general. I know I didn’t elaborate on Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle right now, but that’s for another date I suppose.

Oh dear god I hope I didn’t lose you guys, I know this is a lot of information, but if you have any questions/comments/clarifications, as always, please let me know!

Hope you enjoyed! -Corn

[calliecat93]

When I started TNG, the biggest curiosity I had was why Dr. Pulaski was so hated. I heard plenty about why, but at the same time I wanted to see for myself and be able to draw my own conclusions. Well now that I’ve finished S2, I think that I can safely state my opinion and the reasons why she had such a bad reception.

My general opinion is… Pulaski’s fine, but she got an bad start. She’s a very competent doctor who is devoted to her duty. She’s a bit of a smartass, but otherwise a friendly enough person. She’s a VERY much based off a certain CMO form a certain other Star Trek show that came out before this one, but we’ll get to that later. Pulaski honestly had a lot working against her and she just wasn’t able to get over them despite her actress Diana Muldaur (who played Miranda Jones in TOS) doing an excelent acting job. It ultimately ended with Pulaski being dropped all together and Crusher returning in Season 3.

While I understand the hate against Pulaski and can’t say that it’s unwarranted to an extent, I think that a lot of it that I saw was overblown. Now if people disliked the character, that’s fine. Everyone has different tastes and reasons for what they like and dislike and should be free to have and express those thoughts. But a lot of the issues with her that I had were taken care of very early on and she became much better by the end of her tenure. So why do I believe that Pulaski ultimately failed? Well I’ve come up with three explanations based off my own observations from watching the show and what I got from fandom consensus. Now this is all my opinion based on those observations and is not objective fact whatsoever, so take this with a grain of salt. So I believe the reasons that Pulaski failed are:

#1. She Is Essentially a Female Dr. McCoy… Sort Of: Pulaski was clearly heavily based on Dr. McCoy from TOS. She’s an middle-aged, somewhat world-weary doctor. She’s stubborn, grumpy, and doesn’t put up with anyone’s crap. She’s witty and always ready with a biting comment. She has the dedication to her job. She has the bantery relationship with the Science Officer, which we’ll go into that here soon. She is a doctor before she is an officer and that will always be her top priority, even at great risk to herself. She has a zero tolerance towards authority and isn’t afraid to talk back to anyone no matter how much they outrank her. She even outright has a hatred of teleporters that McCoy had. The parallels are all there. It may be why I’m a bit more lenient on her since McCoy is very much my favorite character in TOS and so far all of ST. But I think it is very much the root of the problem.

While Pulaski has several of McCoy’s traits, I think the writers really only understood McCoy on a surface level. They forget to include his compassion, his empathy, his humanism, his loyalty to the captain even when he opposes his actions, all of the things that make McCoy… well, McCoy. I don’t even know if the pacifism is there. Also McCoy had over 70 episodes of TOS and at that point five films (Undiscovered Country hadn’t been made yet). Pulaski had about 20 episodes and her relevance depended on the episode. McCoy had that as well, but he also had more material so we had FAR more time to get to know him. Pulaski didn’t get to have the time to gain that depth or care from the audience. Like… can I imagine Pulaski hypoing someone so that she can be tortured in their stead and it have the same impact that The Empath did? Can I see her counseling and assuring Picard if he’s having doubts like McCoy did for Kirk in The Ultimate Computer (okay tbf that would be Troi’s job but still)? Could I imagine any of the main cast being crushed about Pulaski dying of a terminal illness and choosing to stay on essentially a doomed spaceship with someone she just met and feel as gutted as I did in For the World is Hollow…? Honestly… given time maybe but in the end no. Now could I imagine McCoy risking getting an aging illness to possibly cure a child and others of it ala Unnatural Selection? Yes, albiet I think he’d be smart enough to bring protective equipment with him to be safe. Could I imagine McCoy telling someone like Data they’d be wrong to sit by a woman giving birth because he wasn’t human ala The Child? Hell no. Maybe he would if he was worried it would cause potential distress the one giving birth, but it sure as hell wouldn’t be because they’re an android. But I could imagine that someone who just saw McCoy as ‘grumpy doctor with a bad bedside manner who says witty lines and argues with the logical Vulcan character’ would get that interpretation. Thus why I think that Pulaski may have ended up how she did.

Now mind you I do think it IS a double standard to excuse McCoy’s dickish momemts and flaws, but demonize Pulaski for her’s. It’s like saying a man can be that way because it’s just expected of them and they can be forgiven, but a woman doing so or being assertice is wrong and they are horrible and unforgivable for having these traits or having flaws even if they correct them. That being said I do think that it’s more than that and it all comes down to the fact that TOS and TNG are two different shows with different character dynamics and ways of doing things. TOS mainly followed a Triumvirate (for the most part but that’s a different post entirely), TNG is much more of an ensemble. Pulaski didn’t have a Kirk nor a Spock to bounce off of or either let her traits shine or be kept in check like McCoy did nor did she really develop any unique relations for herself aside from maybe with Troi. We hear about her empathy and humanitarianism, but we don’t really see it on-screen like we did with McCoy. She has his surface level traits, not the deeper ones that the Triumvirate dynamic along his doctor position allowed him to showcase. In other words, Pulaski was put in a series that wasn’t designed for her while McCoy was exactly where he needed to be in order to thrive. It really speaks to how much the TNG writers didn’t really seem to get McCoy or why and how his character worked, which is strange since they got him right when he showed up in the series premiere. But maybe that was due to DeForest Kelley and him absolutely knowing the character he’d played for so long. But yeah they tried to replicate McCoy, and it just didn’t work with TNG’s already established character dynamics nor did they fully get the character that they were trying to recreate. If I want McCoy, I’ll go watch TOS or AOS. I didn’t need Pulaski for that.

#2. Data and Misconstrued Character Dynamics; This is in relation to the first reason and REALLY shows how much the writers didn’t think the dynamics through. We all know how much Spock and McCoy bantered. How they are opposite ends of the spectrum and how their perspective points helped Kirk in making his decisions. Well clealry they wanted to re-create that with Pulaski and Data. Makes sense, Pulaski represents the humanism and Data the logical. But there’s one big, BIG problem with that: Data is NOT Spock. A lot fo people have pointed this out, but here’s the thing about Spock. Despite whatever he may have said, Spock DID have emotions. He kept them suppressed due to the issues in his upbringing and that wasn’t necessarily healthy, but he did have them. And despite speaking in a calm manner, he was also an utter sass bucket, could be rude, and had no issue putting down humanity if he had a point to make. He and McCoy were very much equal in their bantering and yes maybe McCoy could go too far with his insults, but there was always an equal balance and Spock was also perfectly capable of starting/escalating their spats. There were also plenty of moments to show that in spite of it, they were still friends and cared a great deal about each other with probably the best examples of this being The Immunity Syndrome, Bread and Circuses, The Empath, and plenty of moments in others like Miri and For the World is Hollow… Those who have been following me know how much I love the Spock/McCoy dynamic and I could go all day, but the point is it’s a complex relationship that may seem like disdain on the outside, but is so much more when you examine it up close.

Data however? Data is intelligent and the Science Officer with a calm demeanor, but that’s about where the similarity between him and Spock ends. Data is an android. I do not believe that he is emotionless, he just has a different wiring that causes him to feel things differently. He’s never shown disdain towards humanity at least from what I’ve observed thus far. If anything, he actively seeks to understand it and emotions more. He actively has hobbies like Sherlock Holmes. He tries things like sneezing and growing a beard in an effort to understand more. Data is more or less a child with a child-like understanding of things and he doesn’t really understand social cues or things like humor, but he DOES have emotions and feelings. There’s too much on-screen evidence to say otherwise. He just has his own way of processing it. This is what makes Pulaski look so bad. When she calls Data a machine, says he can’t understand, and even purposefully mispronounces his name, she comes across as an outright bully. She is essentially bullying a neurodivergent child. Do I need to explain why that’s awful? Data, while by no means a doormat, isn’t the type to sass back or make any biting comments back like Spock would. There is no balance. There is no equal footing. There are not enough positive interactions outside the banter to show that there is something deeper there at the end of the day like Spock and McCoy did. Heck you can even compare how Pulaski and McCoy talk to Data via McCoy’s guest appearance in Encounter at Farpoint. He DOES make a quip about Vulcans when talking to Data and when Data points out he’s an android not a Vulcan, McCoy mumbles “Just as bad.” But immediately after he gives Data genuine heartfelt advice on treating the Enterprise with care. It’s clear that ultimately it’s McCoy being his usual grumpy self who’d be acting the same way towards anyone else and is otherwise perfectly civil and encouraging to Data. We’ve known him long enough to know this. Pulaski didn’t have that luxury, coming off as condescending towards Data at best and considering that she’s a doctor, it looks especially bad.

Now to be fair this only lasts for about four episodes. Pulaski does start catching herself by her second episode, and stops completely after Unnatural Selection when Data helps her and stays with her after she gets the aging virus. After that she’s MUCH moe civil to him, even defending his choice going against the Prime Directive in Pen Pals and was at his retirement party in The Measure of a Man. But clearly the damage had been done. Data is a very beloved character and by Oulaski’s intro had already been established and well-liked character. Data was treated equally and was valued as far more than just an android among the rest of the crew, Crusher included, so Pulaski coming in a season later and acting that way also didn’t help. The writers did not think through why Spock and McCoy worked and how to try figure out a unique dynamic for Pulaski and Data. Instead they just tried to copy TOS, and it utterly failed. It ruined Pulaski’s chances before she could even really start running. But I do believe that she could have rebounded and as I said, she DID get past it. She did relapse some at the end of the season in Peak Performance to the point I wanna say that maybe it chronologically happened earlier in the season, but even then she felt realized her screw up and apologized. It’s still an improvement from early on. But things just weren’t meant to be, which leads is to…

#3. She Only Lasted One Season/She Replaced Dr. Crusher: I believe that the biggest thing that worked against Pulaski is simple: she was cut after Season 2. Pulaski was created when Gates MacFadden left the show. I’ve seen conflicting reasons as to why, but regardless she left and a CMO was needed. IDK how popular Crusher was, but I had really enjoyed her. She was essentially the mom of the ship which added something different from TOS (wel McCoy was also the mom lets be real XD), had a son onboard which also added something new, was very much capable and devoted to her job, and was a badass when she got to use a phaser. Her being written out sucked, but that’s not necessarily a reason to hate Pulaski. But as I highlighted above, she just didn’t work. They tried to make McCoy, but without the dynamics and depth that let McCoy flourish. TNG is not TOS. Whenever TNG tried replicating TOS like with The Naked Now? It blew up in their faces. The key to a spinoff or reboot is to keep certain themes and tone alive, but to not just replicate what came before. TNG flourished when it began to find it’s own footing, and ultimately lasted four seasons longer than it’s predecessor due to it.

I genuinely believe that Pulaski COULD have developed into her own character and could have found her place the same way that McCoy did. But alas that didn’t happen. People wanted Crusher back, so they managed to get MacFadden to return and thus Crusher was put back in her rightful place. Because of it, Pulaski was just forgotten about. She didn’t get the chance to form her own character. She didn’t the chance to develop further and leave her early days behind. Why? Because she simply wasn’t given the opprotunity to do so. I can’t say it was the wrong choice, but it’s an utter shame because I do believe that Pulaski was on her way to improving. But it was too late. Her bad start with Data, her character not working in the TNG dynamic, and her replacing an already perfectly likeable character who did fit the dynamics all amounted to the character’s abrupt end. And because she didn’t get the chance to develop further and find her own path, her bad reputation has stuck to this very day.

In the end, the whole thing just feels like a waste. Pulaski had potential, but it just didn’t work in the end. I can’t say that I hate her. If anything, I feel bad for her. The writers failed her at the end of the day and by the time they tried correcting their errors, the audience had already made their judgement. It may have been for the best to just drop her and bring Crusher back, but I also hate seeing character potential just so utterly wasted. I hope that if any side material used Pulaski, they were able to find a much better direction for her. I can’t say that I love Pulaski. In a more TOS-like setting maybe she’d have worked better. But in the end I think that Pulaski was a decent character who just had too much working against her and they caused her to crash and burn. Just an unfortunate case all in all.

(Image Source)

[cafeinthemoon]

Headcanons for Founders trio with an s/o who's a bookworm 📚

I don’t know if this has been done before but I myself am a bookworm and when this idea came, it was funny to imagine how each of the founders would react to having a partner who’s passionate about books

Ps: I’m sorry that I’m not capable of writing a short list of headcanons okay I really try but I can’t sorry

Fandom: Naruto | Founders trio

Symbols: 💗 | ◼ | ▶▶

Hashirama

First of all, I don’t see him as a book lover, but neither he’s book hater. He’s just the average person who can live in peace with the fact that there are books in this world without being too attached or disgusted by them

This is bc he probably has some trauma from reading caused by the huge piles of paper he has to deal in his office (he tries to avoid them by procrastinating and then begs for his brother’s help)

But he has a genuine interest in your passion bc well, he loves you, which means he loves almost everything about you and believes that understanding this hobby is a way to understand you as a person

And bc of that he always goes with you when you say you want to go to the library or the bookstore

Hashirama is the guy who’s capable of getting excited with your enthusiasm though he’s not really into the same stuff as you

So he will have so much fun following you around those corridors and shelves full of books

And will analyze every book cover you show him aka agree with all of your reviews on the covers bc he trusts your capacity of analyzing things

He will also hear when you talk about your favorite plots, characters, writing styles and quotes

If you get indecisive between one book and other you certainly will he will try to help you make up your mind by telling you that “this one’s cover is prettier than the other’s” or “I think this one will have more exciting adventures”

He will be content whether you choose this book or the other, and will laugh if you decide to get them both

Plus: Hashirama is good at spoiling his s/o so he will insist on buying any book you lay your eyes on to the point you’ll have to argue for him to let you pay for your own books

And when it’s time to go home, he will help you with the piles of books you borrowed from the library or bought from your favorite bookstore (with a significative % of discount ofc)

So we can agree that despite not having a great love for books, Hashirama will be the most fun company for a bookworm like you 💕

But this doesn’t extend to the occasions when you recommend something for him to read

He always promises he will read that book soon but you know he’s going to forget that the book exists right after you leave it with him and will only remember it when you ask it back 😐

Tobirama

Now, with this guy things are way different

Bc if you think of yourself as a bookworm, Tobirama says GET READY TO KNOW WHAT REALLY MEANS TO BE A BOOKWORM

Seriously, he has been reading since he can remember. It’s a part of him as much as the shinobi life

He reads absolutely anything. Politics? Yes. History? Ofc. Poetry? Same. Cookbook? He had already gave it a try. And do not let him start with Science 🔍

And he has a prodigious memory for what he reads, so he’s capable of spotting any book he has in his personal library with his eyes closed, so that even if you remember only one quote from the book, he will find it for you

The best part of this is that you can talk about anything about any book bc Tobirama probably has read it and will understand your point, and if he hadn’t read it yet, it’s just a question of time until he adds it to his collection

Or he will make comparisons between this book and others that are similar to it that he already has and that’s what he does to understand the whole point

The connection that comes from this is something unique. Your love for him grows as much as your love for the books you read

But everything has its dark side, and in this case it’s called COMPETITION

I’m sorry to give you such sad news, but Tobirama is that person who can turn the most innocent hobby into a competition if he feels threatened thinks you’re becoming more experienced than him in it. So expect to see him become a bit petty

He will not start a proper fight but you will sense that he’s getting into discussions about trivial details more often. He doesn’t need an invitation: if you say something that he mildly disagrees, he will discuss it until he convinces you of his pov (or you say you give up)

If you’re really into discussions and such, you might enjoy it like a sport. However, if you don’t like conflicts, I feel sorry for you lmao

If it extends for too long, it will become a reason for a serious fight, because he will get to the point of saying that “you need to refine your taste for books a little” or that “you should slow your pace in order to pay more attention to what you’re reading and have a better understanding of the book’s subject”

If things get to this point the only person who will be able to help you to make amends is Hashirama. But I hope it never happens

Now, the biggest advantage of being Tobirama’s s/o and loving books is that you almost never need to buy books, bc he’s the owner of the greatest library in the village (he has all the books you won’t find in the public library)

Ofc you manage to buy some, but you don’t use to do book hauls because you don’t wanna end up broken he always gets the books you want

That doesn’t mean you two don’t spend time out on bookstores and get back home late sometimes ❤

Madara

Can’t believe I couldn’t find that gif of him reading a book with his Sharingan

I don’t know but Madara and books in the same sentence sounds peculiar to me lol

I think his attitude towards books is similar to Hashirama’s in some points, except that he promptly recognizes the importance of books as knowledge and intelectual development’s tools. But in general terms he’s not the most passionate person about them

The thing is that he prefers activities outside the house, that push him to the limits of his body. You know, with this man it is about the PHYSICAL

So things like staying indoors, enjoying a good book doesn’t have appeal to him. You might love it, but to him it sounds a bit tedious

But he respects and admires this preference of yours. It’s good to see his s/o engaging in a healthy and safe activity

Sometimes, when he gets home, he might ask casually what you are reading this time, but this is not to be understood as an invitation to a long talk. He just came home, he’s tired and the last thing he wants is to hear about things in which he’s not quite interested, so it’s better just to say the book’s title or the genre

If he’s in a good mood, he will sit by your side and watch you while you read. Getting close to you and observe what you’re doing is a habit of him no matter what task you’re performing, but seeing you immersed in something you’re passionate about is different

He likes to pay attention to the way your eyes go through the lines, your lips move to repeat the characters’ sentences, your expression changing to follow your emotions and the delicate manners with which your fingers touch the pages

If you stop reading to look at him, he won’t even try to disguise 😁

And if you ask him what is it, he will just smug and continue to stare at you

Observing you is like a hobby to him, it’s his way to get in touch with you

Now, talking about your readings is something complicated when you have a partner like Madara

I believe the best way to talk about books with him is doing it indirectly. For example, instead of saying things like “I’ve read it in a book that if you…”, just say “Maybe it’s just the case that they will…”. Just bring out the idea itself and leave the source aside

He knows that you probably found it in one of your books, but he will not be bothered. Instead, he will praise the fact that your readings turn you into a smart and observing person, with a deep understanding of the world and its people

As you can imagine, going with you to buy books is to him what going with a s/o to buy shoes is to other men. Yes, he is that guy that tries to make you walk in another direction so that you won’t pass in front of a bookstore or the village’s library bc he knows that once you step into these places, you won’t leave so soon

Bc of this you use to go alone to do your book hauls or to ask your friends to go with you. Sometimes you wish you could make Madara change his mind, for you love his company, but you’re ok knowing that it’s not going to happen and try to concentrate on being in good terms with him ❤

[trifle-of-doom]

The Hawk X Demetri Manifesto

Okay, here is the thing. Despite being well past my teens, there's a particular ship of Cobra Kai that has drawn my attention, this ship being Hawk/Eli x Demetri. When I first watched the show, I was actually more invested in the adult characters storylines than the teens. I immediately rooted for Johnny and Carmen, and I was always hoping for more interactions between them. But then I saw episode 2x05, in which the atmosphere between the Binary Brothers becomes way more dense, and that's when I started to see some potential for them. Not because I'm a deranged person who fosters abusive relationships, but because I immediately caught the hurt/comfort dynamic of the duo, which is something that works really well when it comes to fictional relationships. However, it wasn't until 3x10 that I said, "Ok, that's official, I need to see more of these two! I totally support them!" And I was quite surprised to find a fairly large amount of people who are very committed to this pairing, to the point it's caught the attention of the screenwriters/producers as well. Honestly, I don't know if the showrunners will ever have the guts to make them an official couple, and chances are their supporters will have to keep reading between the lines of their bromance, but in any case, here is my take on why Hawk/Eli x Demetri is an option worth to be considered.

#1 - The Bromance

If there's something that many years of navigating the Internet taught me, is that the main driving factor for fan-made ships is the presence of either a solid relationship based on mutual brotherly love or a bitter rivalry that may or may not flow into hate/obsession. If you consider anime fandoms, there are thousand examples that fit into either of these categories: Yugi and Jonouchi from the Yu-Gi-Oh series (yes, that's how old I am), Yugi and Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh, Sakuragi and Rukawa from Slam Dunk, Light and L from Death Note, etc. And our Hawk and Demetri fit into both categories. When we first see them, they are the stereotypical nerdy friends (possibly childhood friends?) sitting at the losers' table, who have no one else but each other. When Eli is at his most sensitive and fragile, you can tell he feels comfortable being with Demetri by the genuine smile he has on his face as Demetri is joking with Miguel at the canteen table. Through his sarcasm, the mouthy kid acts as a catalyst to deviate the attention from Eli, speaking for him, reprimanding Johnny when he makes fun of his lip and trying to make him feel safe. Besides, you can see a certain degree of frustration in Demetri when Kyler and his gang are harassing Eli, and he's unable to do anything to defend him. And they even have a jingle for their friendship with a robot dance, I mean, how cute is that? But of course, a solid friendship between two helpless nerdy guys is not enough to spark a ship to be rooting for. In order for the magic to happen, another key ingredient is needed, i.e. a little bit of angst. Which brings us straight to the next point.

#2 - The Angst (aka the Hurt/Comfort Dynamic)

Even though I never liked the Twilight saga or any similar urban fantasy young adult works, I can easily see where the appeal comes from; the attraction to a charming, dangerous person who could either protect you from any harm or crush you like grape. Although with different franchises, I wasn't immune to the bad boy trope either (Yes, I'm looking at you, my teenage self drooling over Grimmjow from Bleach). If we can appreciate the genuine, brotherly friendship between nerdy Eli and Demetri, the shift that Eli makes as he transitions into Hawk and becomes more aggressive and dominant gives their relationship a totally different flavor. Attrition sparks a certain tension that, in the viewer's eyes, could either flow into a brawl or into passion.

During the mall fight, Demetri comes to the realization that his former best friend is actually someone who can crush him like grape. We see Hawk intentionally harming him for the first time, and Demetri's heartbreaking expression as he drops the line: "You'd actually hurt me?" And if that line gave us a pang in our hearts when we first watched Season 2, imagine rewatching it now that we know what happens in Season 3. Demetri is chased down the mall, running for his life, and then he's locked in a grip, as his best friend menacingly advances towards him. Demetri appears as the damsel in distress, however his friend is not the one who will fight to protect him, but rather his tormentor.

During the party at Moon's, Demetri manages to briefly go through Hawk's mask and reach out to Eli, thanks to a casual conversation about Dr Who. But then the beer incident happens, and Demetri defends himself with the only weapon he has – his loudmouth. The situation is reversed, and for a brief moment, he gets to be the dominant one as he discloses all Eli's most intimate secrets. Demetri is now actively contributing to the Hurt/Comfort dynamic; he's no longer just a target, but he's doing his part to enlarge that gaping hole that has formed between them. And Hawk didn't take it well.

From this moment on, Demetri becomes a sort of obsession to Hawk, who hunts him down the school, teasing him and taunting him sadistically, like a serial killer from a horror movie, during the big fight. Of course, in real life, this would be completely insane, and the police/a social assistant/psychiatrist should be called, but in ShipLand, these situations are pure gold. Okay, we get it, Hawk wants to get revenge for the humiliation at the party, and he wants to crush that nerd part of himself he sees in Demetri, but he does it with such an intensity that it borders on ridiculous. It's like this is his twisted way to acknowledge Demetri's presence. Eventually, Hawk ends up smashed into the trophy case, and I confess I felt a little disappointed when Demetri broke that hug to give Hawk a roundhouse kick. I mean, it was a great comeback, but I was sincerely hoping for a "No hard feelings man, let's get outta here!" scenario.

Getting back to the sick and twisted way Hawk acknowledges Demetri's presence, he destroys his science project after he got jealous due to him being confident in his nerd self and laughing around with his ex girlfriend (whom the writers insist he still has a crush on). Speaking of Moon, I have a feeling she likes Hawk mostly based on his badass appearance. Remember when she goes "I like this (mohawk) and I love these (muscles), but I'm not dating a bully"?

Then the football match happens. Okay, let's break this down. Demetri trips Hawk and acts all sassy, and a fellow Cobra Kai is immediately ready to take him down, but Hawk stops him. "Fight smart, he says". Too bad that literally 5 seconds earlier he had shoved a kid to the ground just because his ex girlfriend (again, duuuh~) ignored him when he winked at her. And then, as he's trying to intercept the ball, BANG, Hawk hits Demetri, sending him to the ground, pretending it was an accident. So, what does this tell us? That Hawk has some serious anger management issues? Yeah sure, but also that he cares about fighting smart only as long as it serves as an excuse to leave Demetri for him, because he's his designated target. Again, this is all but romantic, and it doesn't necessarily have to be interpreted as him lusting after his friend, but it's undeniable that this dynamic offers a lot of ship fuel.

The arm breaking thing is just too painful to even analyze. We see a completely helpless Demetri begging for mercy to his ex best friend, who has made No Mercy his life motto. And that scream, oh that scream. All I wanted to see was Hawk realizing what he had done and throwing himself on his knees while begging for forgiveness. But I'm glad that at least we get to see he feels awful for what he's done, and I like to think that, as he got home, Eli cried out all the tears he had in his body thinking about poor Demetri at the hospital, with a swollen broken arm, all because of him. Of all the situations, this is undoubtedly the most deranged and extreme, and if something like this happened in real life, the wrongdoer would deserve to be punished and would definitely need to be sent to therapy. But in ShipLand, this opens the road to many, many different scenarios, in which the bully understands his mistakes and shifts back to the good side, or the two share a tender moment after they reconcile, or the traumatized character has to to learn to trust the other one again, or the bully becomes overprotective of his former victim, etc.

#3 - A Rewarding Reconciliation

Finally, we come to the reconciliation, in which Hawk makes his heel-to-face turn. While we've seen him torn with doubt for an entire season about his sensei's teachings, his actions and the people he wants to surround himself with, the key factor that drives Hawk's redemption is the sight of his best friend being held down for him to beat. And with an epic stunt and his awesome KEEEH screech, Hawk jumps to the rescue of his friend. Like many of us, Demetri thought this was still part of the "Only I Can Torment Him" dynamic I discussed earlier, as he steps backwards a little concerned, but then he understands that action was actually meant to save him, and the two begin to fight side by side, in sync, watching each other's back. You can see Demetri's eyes sparkling at the thought of having his friend back.

Also, not only Demetri stands up to alpha bitch Tory in defense of Eli, but he also speaks for his friend when he's faltering, just like he used to. So kudos for Demetri.

#4 - The Red Oni, Blue Oni Dynamic

Binary Brothers are two sides of the same coin and complete each other with opposite character traits, visually expressed by the color red and the color blue. Being the color red typically associated with violence, rage, passion and irrationality, as opposed to blue, which is associated with calmness, melancholy and rationality, red is clearly the dominant color. Again, this opens many interesting scenarios for shippers.

#5 - Body Language

Besides the situations I described above, which may or may not be read from a romantic/attraction standpoint, there are also a collection of small gestures I noticed when rewatching the series with a more attentive look on their relationship.

- Demetri's heart-broken expression when Eli shamefully covers his lip during the anti-bullying announcement.

- The smile Demetri gives when Hawk responds "Hell yeah!" after Aisha proposes to crash Yasmin's party, implying he's learning to embrace this new wild side of his best friend

- The astonished look with which Demetri watches Hawk at the tournament and the way he's pissed no one knows his real name.

- How deeply hurt Demetri is when Hawk belittles him by saying: "Five against three. More like two and a half." He even tries to reply, but he's caught so off guard that words die in his throat.

- How Demetri takes a step towards Hawk during the mall fight, before Sam makes him back off, and how sadly he looks at Hawk's nearly unconscious body after Robby defeated him.

- How Demetri smiles and nods when he briefly connects with Eli at Moon's party, despite the mall incident.

- How Hawk watches Demetri juggle with the cleaning product from behind his bike helmet (how did he stuff the mohawk in there by the way)?

- Hawk's psychotic/sadistic faces when he smells Demetri's blood, and how he likes to hunt him down like he's his prey.

- Hawk's secret impulse to comfort Demetri after the arm breaking (I hope you get nightmares of Demetri's howl of pain for the rest of your life, Hawk).

- The way Hawk twitches his upper lip when he sees his friend Demetri in danger.

- How Hawk and Demetri are so absorbed in their new-found friendship, that they're caught off guard, and Demetri swings Hawk to allow him to deliver a kick using their handshake as a lever. And how they keep fighting together, shaking each other's hands even when they're out of focus and the attention is on Miguel vs. Kyler.

- How they're standing so close at Miyagi Do, in comparison with the other Red/Blue partners.

In conclusion, this kind of relationships are engaging and entertaining to watch, and they make us wish the best for the characters. They make us hope that, in the end, as Miguel puts it, love really conquers all (and what is friendship if not a form of love?), despite all the hurt they did to each other.

So this is it. I hope you enjoyed my Ted Talk. Feel free to share it with whomever you want, especially if you need some solid reasons why this ship has got some good potential.

And remember: the ship is in the eye of the beholder.

F.

[nestasgalpal]

Sorry but Feyre is not an unreliable narrator.

I know this is currently a controversial opinion, but I don’t think Feyre’s pov is meant to be unreliable. Yes, her version of the story is partial, and many times dynamics between characters are affected by how much Feyre knows, or how much she has shared with others (e.g. Cassian greeting Nesta for the first time with harsh words about failing as a sister and putting Feyre in danger makes me think none of them know about Nesta trying to bring Feyre back literally a week after she was taken). But I don’t think this is something SJM put there to make us think “oh, we can’t trust Feyre, she is manipulating the facts”. In storytelling, even if your narrator is trustworthy, there is a key element to tell the tale, and that’s manipulation. Manipulation doesn’t have to be bad (but it can be).

An example of manipulation being used for good, logistic-wise, is Feyre not remembering her mother, and dispising the brief memories she can have of her. Having a dead mother is usually heartbreaking, and losing a parent is many times the main trauma of the protagonist (ej. the hunger games, city of bones, divergent, the young elites, the kingkiller chronicle or even tog). Losing a parent means losing protection, and pushes the young adult main character into danger, forcing them to grow up. But for Feyre, the death of their mother meant basically nothing, she couldn’t remember anything but bad things, so she didn’t care for that part. SJM was just taking her out of the equation, telling the reader “don’t worry about that”. The mother’s death was not written so we think “oh, Feyre’s pov is unreliable because it doesn’t match Nesta’s reaction to the same thing”, it was put there so we didn’t get distracted from the main story Feyre was telling us.

When the main character is an unreliable narrator, like Kvothe is in the Kingkiller Chronicle, their pov usually contradicts what happens, so the reader can tell clearly they are telling the story from their point of view. In the KKC, to keep the same example, Kvothe describes the woman he is in love with as the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and then his friends interrupts him to say she is actually not that beautiful, her nose is “meh”. In other parts, he even claims he tought a millenia-old-sex-godess some new things to make in bed, even if he was a virgin before he met her. And it’s just a comment, but now you know he is exaggerating some parts. Feyre’s perception of things is never contradicted by other characters, and her perception of things is not contradicted by the things that happen either. At least not on purpose. She says Rhysand is a great ruler. People (me included) disagree because he only takes care of one city in his entire Court which was doing perfectly fine before he sat on the throne, but the author herself has said that in our world, he would be a political science major. She didn’t write him being neglectful on purpose. Yes, he had to give something in return to make his subjects obey, but that’s not described by Feyre as him not being respected, but as him being willing to sacrifice. He gave up Mor’s safe space to her abusers, but after discussing it with both Rhysand and Mor, all of them come to the conclusion that it was for the best. It was a betrayal, but none of the characters (not even the victim, in the end) blame him. So Feyre is not being untrustworthy, because there is nothing coming from the story or the characters that contradict her. Feyre is not saying that Mor is okay with Rhysand’s actions and then we see Mor avoiding him, she seems perfectly fine. Everyone ends up accepting Feyre is right and sometimes even praising her for it.

Now, this has become an issue in the next book. Why? Because the main character is Nesta, the other side of the same coin, as Feyre herself described her sister. The Archeron mother from Feyre’s pov was a neglectful woman who only cared about parties and didn’t bother hiring a governess for them. But Nesta actually mourned their mother’s death and it was a breaking point for her. The importance their mother gave to status is seen as the main issue, everything else she did wrong coming from it, and Feyre puts the origin of Nesta being a bad sister on the same spot: Nesta didn’t go hunting because she wanted to be a proper lady, so while she was the youngest, she was also the one who didn’t get to appreciate their life as aristocrats as much, she didn’t care for status. For many people in the fandom, it’s impossible to feel empathy towards Nesta and acknowledge her trauma because Feyre’s perception of the same issue was the opposite. Yes their mom died, but she was a bad mother, so how bad could it have been for Nesta?

Feyre said Nesta blamed their father because he did nothing (and he had the resources to at least try). Some fans say Nesta abused their father, who had a disability, but we are also told by Feyre that he was already neglecting them after their mother died and so on for the next two years, when he still had money. THEN, he got his knee destroyed, and then Nesta literally chose to starve herself only to provoke a reaction from him. It’s not just that Nesta is mean and she abuses the weakest links, she has been trying to make him react and take care of them for a longer time than it seems, starting YEARS before Feyre had to go into the woods for food. We know that from Feyre’s pov, but that piece of information stays in the back because Feyre’s story starts when she becomes a huntress, and she is the main character. It’s her story what matters in these books, even if we might prefer other characters.

And even if their father, an adult who had to take care of his daughters was there the whole time, the blame of Feyre going to hunt at 14 y/o is put on Nesta, because at that time she had to sacrifice for the family and grow up to take responsibility, their father couldn’t walk properly. And Nesta, who has been trying to make her father take accountablility for his responsibilities and has been desperate to find a father figure in him, is now facing the anger of Feyre’s new family, who don’t know her side of the story neither do they care for it.

When Feyre told her life story to the IC for the first time, she skipped over her mother just saying she died when she was young, and then told them the hardest part for her: she had to go hunting for a family who didn’t care for her. If it was Nesta telling her story (this is a hypothesis because we don’t know yet what went on for her), she would probably start way back, with the death of her mother, because as Feyre said, it affected Nesta the most. She would tell the story of their father not caring for them, and he would be the only villain. But that doesn’t mean Feyre’s side can’t be trusted, because what she said is also true. They simply are two different characters.

And that’s not Feyre being an unreliable narrator, that is the way the story had to be told in order to not distract from the main point with double family drama.

[itsclydebitches]

Is Penny about to die again? Like how do you stop her self destruct order? I guess they can have her somehow fight off and eliminate Watts’ hacking implements. Or somehow Pietro will become relevant again and save his daughter.

Also what happens to the maiden powers if she dies? Like specifically Penny? Does it take into account her memories as a machine. Will her corrupted half cancel any memories and make them randomly (but convenient for the protagonists) or will her last uncorrupted memories count it goes to Nora or Ruby.

I would hope RWBY didn’t include the “surprise” of bringing her back last volume and give her something as significant as the Maiden powers just to kill her off again. If that were the case, what was the point of bringing Penny back at all? Especially when she and Ruby haven’t had any significant growth, what with Ruby’s lukewarm reaction to her resurrection and Penny asking the exact same “Am I a person?” question from Volume 3. If Penny dies in the next four episodes, we could have accomplished all of this with any other character. Fria leaves with the group and, given her illness, spends just as much time asleep as Penny now has, then Ironwood threatens to nuke Mantle unless she’s handed over. Grab any other women in this cast, make them sympathetic to Team RWBY, and you’ve got the same, bare-bones ultimatum. The only things that would change are Amity tower and Watts’ hack, neither which, frankly, would be missed. Granted, we haven’t yet seen whether Penny’s loss of autonomy will become important, but right now we could tweak all of this without any loss. So Cinder attacks without damaging the tower. Or Pietro does some science-magic to keep it afloat just long enough for Ruby’s message to go out. Ironwood interrogates Qrow instead of letting Watts tinker with Penny’s sword. Everything else  — Maiden accompanies the group, Ace Ops attack to get the Maiden back, Hound goes after the Maiden and knocks her out  — can happen with someone else. Penny has yet to do anything as the Maiden that makes her being the Maiden significant, so I certainly hope that happens once she wakes up again. Regardless, if she dies the power might indeed go to someone like Nora? Provided she’s not thinking of anyone in a corrupted state (in which case the powers would be lost to someone random). But I recall the writers saying once that no one on Team RWBY would be made a Maiden... but they also said Ironwood has used his semblance in the office and that Ozpin’s cane stores time, two of the most recent examples of commentary being proven wrong. So I think we should take any Q&A info with a grain of salt. 

At this point, if Penny does survive, my money is actually more on a generic “She overcomes the virus with the power of knowing she’s her own person.” I mean, that’s what they’re pushing so far. Despite being hacked, Penny miraculously holds it off because Nora reminds her that she’s a person. Then Watts says she’s somehow fighting it, the implication being that this shouldn’t be possible. Rather than treating this like the physical blow it is  — the equivalent of breaking one of the character’s legs, an injury/violation that doesn’t go away simply because they want it to  — RWBY seems to be edging towards it representing Penny’s human-ness. If she just wills herself in control then she will be, never mind that another person couldn’t will away a biological virus. It’s not necessary at this point (we’ve spent Penny’s entire time on screen re-emphasizing that yes, she has a soul, we learned and accepted that years ago) and it doesn’t make sense from a realistic, in-world standpoint. I’d much prefer them to remember that Pietro exists and have him fix her, but I have a bad feeling we might get something like Ruby shouting at Penny You’re my friend! You can fight this! and Penny does, shaking off the control to declare (again) that she’s not a machine... even though, physically, she is. 

I can’t help but think though that RWBY has boxed itself into a corner. I mean, obviously I don’t believe killing Penny off again is a good idea, but what are they doing to do with her if they don’t? I suppose she could stay behind to help Atlas, keeping her Maiden powers a secret, or using them to help now that the world knows about Salem (still dangerous, but RWBY’s never going to tackle that again), but if she doesn’t, we’ve got a problem. Not only is that another main character to keep track of, Penny has too much power at her disposal. This volume we watched Ruby take out the most powerful grimm they’ve ever seen instantaneously, then we watched Oscar take out the whale, Salem, AND all the grimm instantaneously. We have two characters with one-shot powers that negate any stakes and the one time the show asked, “What happens if Ruby or Oscar can’t help?” the answer wasn’t, “The others find a way to save themselves in a satisfying manner” but rather, “Blake begs Ruby to wake up. She does. Ruby saves her.” We’re already seeing the problems of giving your characters that kind of power and making them The Savior of every scene, so what’s RWBY going to look like if a Maiden permanently joins the team? Nothing outside of Salem herself will be a threat to them and if something is, the audience will be asking why in the world they’re not using the powers at their disposal. Like the fandom throwing up their hands every time Marrow doesn’t use his ‘stop’ semblance when it would be very useful for him to do so, we can’t keep giving our characters this kind of power and then crafting scenes where they just, I don’t know, forget they have them? So either the tension of fights is lost, or the characters end up looking stupid. Or you snag great writers capable of coming up with truly threatening scenarios that impose limitations despite that power (like the Apathy)... but that’s unlikely to be consistent. 

Idk. I think at this point I’m team “The kingdom needs help after everything is said and done, so Penny stays behind to provide that, keeping her Maiden powers hidden and, hopefully, safe.” That feels like the less complicated option out of a number of bad possibilities.