#And she literally doesn't know what to do without her mother or how to properly take her spit but she tries and it only gets harder when—

[captainsweet]

I'm confused how me writing some request somehow ended up with most of the cast being dictators, a literal war happening, literal slavery and tons of racism, and so many other sucky things. But then again, they did request it to be Steven Universe based, so... What else do you expect.

[radiance1]

Killer Croc and Jack Fenton are brothers.

Killer Croc was the first born, just a about 5 years older than Jack. Their father was a large man, much larger than should be possible considering he never had a meta gene.

But oh boy would it have not surprised them if he did. Because that man was strong, 10 feet tall, and shrugged off things that would injure most people.

Like a brick to the head.

Anyways.

Croc was entranced with his younger brother; he was so small so much tinier than he had any right to be, and cuter than a button. He babbled like most babies do, but Croc wouldn't think twice before calling his baby brother the best baby of them all.

His dad could fit him in the palm of his hand easily! Which was just one of Jack's many great qualities in his opinion!

Croc and Jack's parents weren't really on the best of terms, Croc could tell. He didn't know why, really, but he didn't want his baby bro to feel unloved in any sort of way, and it's not like he really had friends to hang out with, plus his parents were busy with jobs.

So he mostly spent his time taking care of and playing with Jack. Changing diapers, feeding him, lifting him up and down with his tail, just the normal sibling stuff.

He feels kind of bad for his dad though, whatever kind of job he had didn't even let him come home most days, and when he did he could barely even walk upright without falling asleep and jolting awake. He still made time for them, however, when he got those rare few off days.

He's honestly surprised that man managed to drive a car properly in the state he was in.

Their mother was often out of the house, Crocc didn't know what she was doing but he just thought it was like his dad. Unlike his dad, however, she didn't really like him. He didn't really know why, nor did he really care either if he was to be honest.

Around a year later the tension between their parents got so thick it could be cut with a butter knife. Then it turned to arguments in the rare times they both were in the house, he didn't even know his parents could make such cutting remarks to each other, and then both of them being in the house less than before.

Then when he turned 10, and Jack 5. They got divorced. Croc was left with his mother and Jack got taken by his father. His mother didn't take the divorce well, really, probably because at the same time she got fired from whatever the hell she was doing and was left jobless.

Then she dropped the bomb on his that his dad wasn't even his actual dad and Jack is only his half-sibling and then promptly abandoned him in the sewers with the rats and what was most likely very poisoned water due to it being the sewers and Gotham.

Well. Fuck.

Croc thinks that Jack doesn't even remember him due to how young he was, nor did he ever see his dad again cause, y'know, being abandoned in the sewers and all.

Then multiple years later he ran into his brother again and got DAMN was he tall. Not taller than him, but it was basically the equivalent of a gut punch to Croc, because he remembers his baby bro being so tiny, so baby.

He blames his father's genes for him being 8 feet taller now. A head shorter than him, sure. But he wants back his small baby bro alright.

Then he finds out his baby bro has a family.

And fuck did he not want to involve himself anymore in fear of being a catalyst for tearing said family apart due to being, well, him and all. Then he was promptly (quite literally) dragged over to meet said family despite his stance on the matter.

Then he finds out he's just treated like a normal person with zero amount of fear. His wife? She had to have a giant in her family too because she was 7 feet tall and was smart enough to kick his ass.

His daughter? 6 feet tall and their first meeting she accidently became his therapist. Also, he was sure she was a meta of some kind, probably something to do with wolves.

Then finally, their son.

It felt like he was thrown back to his childhood when he saw him, he looked so much like Jack did, and he was so, so tiny just like his baby bro was. He had to physically hold himself back from doing anything with the kid because he feared he would accidentally break him or something.

Then he found out that apparently his nephew was half-dead and that his brother and his wife hated ghosts with a passion, built a portal to the other side, had their city attack by the ghost king and then promptly found out about their son's half-dead status and had to do a major revamp of basically everything they knew and acted upon.

Which they're still working on.

Oh and also their daughter is a werewolf, she had a meta gene from someone of his dad's side and only recently activated it.

All of that which was a lot to take in for old Killer Croc, also he knew his niece had something to do with wolves.

So, Killer Croc in all of his life from the point of being abandoned at up to now, decided to go screw the bats and whatever they're attempts of figuring out what the fuck's going on with him (look at you Red Hood.) and decided to try and integrate himself into this family and brother's life again as best he can.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Taking this out of Faith's notes because it's not fair to clog them up but seriously I feel like Tilney is very often boiled down to charming man who knows about muslin but to me honestly the people who are like "hmm seems like a fake flakey guy" are more right because it's definitely got this underlying cynicism to it which put together with the charm gives a fairly calculating feel. But to me it's like! Imagine your mother dies and your father didn't murder her but when you describe it later you say he as good as killed her by his slow cruelty and disinterest, and you're left with your sister, your older brother who is also AWFUL, and that same father in an old obscure abbey. What do you do? a. you stop really liking or trusting many people because 2/3 of the people you're meant to like and trust are awful, and b. you get Really Good at being liked. Because that's going to get you out of that house, and it's also going to, as much as possible, save you when you are still in that house. It's not the ONLY response to an essentially emotionally abusive situation like that, but it is a clear response.

And this also explains why Tilney doesn't seem to take things seriously very often, because making a joke out of everything is also a tried and true way of surviving a life like that. If you laugh at it then it won't hurt you so he laughs at his family and he laughs at the shitty parts of society and at the Thorpes and at everything.

Except Catherine then turns up and she's not calculated, she's the opposite of calculated. She's charming because she's so honest, she runs up and pours out how sorry she is that she didn't make the walk and how much she wanted to and had been whisked away, and she tells it without an inch of propriety and it's impossible to keep being angry with her. She's silly but she's also inexplicable clear-eyed, she sees the unhappiness at Northanger so clearly even if she imagines the source wrong! That's always been so important to me as part of her character that she was RIGHT there WAS something rotten in the state of General Tilney!!! It just wasn't Literal Murder. And I think Tilney sees that and he loves that because it's so different from the twisted nature of his own past and upbringing, because it's true and honest and good and he still strives for those things (because even if his charmingness IS calculated, he still sees young women and their chaperones unhappy and abandoned and immediately steps in! he is still very much kind! I might speculate about how it's possible to live an identity for so long that it becomes true, but in this case that would just be speculation because we don't have enough information so I won't.) And then I think he does come to love Cathy properly with more time and all, but the original attraction I think is how straightforward she is.

And I KNOW this isn't the only interpretation of the characters but it's the one that makes Tilney make sense to me, he's too cynical and slightly bitter to truly be the perfectly kind charming man he makes himself out to be, but he genuinely cares too much to be a fraud. I think the complexities arise from the survival mechanisms he's created which make sense given his background, and how they intersect and interact with the rest of his nature and the outside world.

[tizeline]

I’ve never seen a separated au with Leo being raised by big mama, what do you think that would be like? (Since he’s kinda rebellious)

For the record, there are AUs where Leo's been raised by Big Mama, the ones I know of are Gemini AU by tangledinink and True Colors AU by v-albion. I'm not super familiar with either of them, but they're there if you wanna check them out.

That being said-

LEO being raised by BIG MAMA omg I have THOUGHTS

Listen, I don't see enough people compare Leo to Big Mama, but he's quite similar to her. Splinter and BM never got a kid together, BUT IF THEY DID that kid would literally be Leo he's basically just a fusion of the two of them!!

As I've mentioned several times before because I love bringing it up, Leo is strategic, quick-witted, observant and good at talking. In the show (as well as in my own AU) Leo's strengths aren't really recognized, let alone aknowledged for a big portion of the story. Because of that, for a long time he doesn't really get the chance to develop these skills, as much potential Leo has to become a master planner his impulsiveness and inexperience has a tendency to get him into trouble.

BUT! All of these skills also happen to be skills that Big Mama has and would value in Leo. So if he were to actually have to opportunity to not only be raised by BM but also trained by her for his entire life. If he got to properly learn strategy, planning, manipulation...?

... Holy shit Leo would be terrifying.

Think about it, canon!Leo managed to out-smart BM in Many Unhappy Returns without any real experience, just imagine what he could do with a whole life-time of training.... yikes!

Not sure what exactly Big Mama and Leo's relationship would look like. In my opinion she would view him as her son and love him dearly, especially if she knew that he's Splinter's biological son.... it's just that BM has interesting ways of showing affection. ("The love of my life just proposed to me?? Great! I'm gonna lock him up in my gladiator fighting ring for the rest of eternity!") She'd at the very least be quite controlling, I imagine.

As you pointed out, Leo can be quite rebellious, so that mixed with Big Mama's obsessive need to be in complete control of everyone around her would certainly cause some tension. Actually... considering how clever Leo would be in this AU... uh oh.

All of these qualities that BM initially appreciated and encouraged in Leo, what if, as Leo became more and more capable, Big Mama started to eventually view them in a more negative light? If she feels like she's loosing control over Leo, if she interprets Leo's rebellion as not just a normal teenage need for independence but rather him malicously working against her. What if she starts viewing him not as an asset or as a tool, but rather a threat?

If BM has reason to believe that Leo might try to overthrow her and take control over her criminal empire, she might take preemptive action and get rid of him before he has the chance to get rid of her.... Not like murder-get-rid-of, I don't think she'd just kill him, lol! But like lock him up, maybe throw him into the Battle Nexus, I dunno. Anything that would allow her to remain in control of both him and her business.

As for Leo, maybe he would actually try to overthrow BM. Considering he was raised by a literal mafia boss, his moral compass is gonna be a bit wack. Maybe Leo's desire for control over himself would cause him to try to seize control over his mother's business. Oooooorrrrr maybe Leo just wants some independance but doesn't actually want to compete with BM, so when she interprets his actions and behavior as malicious he's not prepared for that at all and, as a result, is more than a little hurt that his own mother would take such extreme actions against him. Who knows?

Hhhhhhh there's a lot of fun posibilities here but MAN I'm not really in the mood to work on an entirely new AU. Maybe I'll create some art for it I dunno, this concept is really fun, but I'm not gonna turn this into a proper Thing, so if anyone else wanna steal this concept and explore it for themselves, feel more than free to do that!

[somewhereinneptune]

Astrology Observations II

Note : these are based on experiences and personal observations. Observations mentioned may not accurately apply to everyone 🩷

🫀Someone's life path number could be the number which is strongly tied to that person's signature sign in their chart, either being the number of the house that originally rules their signature sign or a characteristic that is tied with that signature sign.

Examples: My signature sign is Aquarius and I'm a life path number 9 , life Path 9 is associated with being the humanitarian and serving the collective

My mother is a life path 3 and her signature sign is Gemini , which is originally ruled by the 3rd house. My brother is a life path 6 and his signature sign is Virgo, which is Virgo’s house. I also read about life path 4 being strategists and I've known someone who's signature sign is Capricorn which corresponds with such energy

🫀Unpopular opinion but if I had to switch the signs elements, I'd put Scorpio as a fire sign and Aquarius as a water sign. With Scorpio it's probably because it was originally ruled by Mars, Scorpio always gives me such a fire energy compared to Pisces and Cancer. Not exactly Scorpio sun but dominating Scorpio energy in the chart, i think it's also the intensity they ooze and the level of confidence and also self- assertion, they have such a commanding presence which gives me fire energy too

As for Aquarius, despite having the characteristics of being quite distant at times or having difficulty with opening up, it's usually for how intense they are, it's a form of protection. I've made the mistake in the past of seeing aquas as detached until they actually unfolded which shocked me, the amount of depth and intensity of emotions they hold is a 360 and I've observed the same in my chart. It might be due to them being a fixed sign,but definitely that depth doesn't give the air sign vibe. Another reason is how they tend to be more introverted or reserved compared to Gemini and Libra, it gives me that water energy too

🫀Chiron in first is such a difficult placement in my opinion. It either puts you in a constant self - conscious state or you project your trauma on every situation and blur reality from there

🫀Uranus and Neptune in third 🤝 mental illness. That's it, that's the post

🫀Pets and the 6th house man….Aries / Taurus on the cusp is a cuddly adorable pet but one that will literally not do what you say no matter what, also energetic asf and has attitude esp when you say no to them- oh and very reckless, will do things that will have you question your life choices and have a heart attack on the spot because they were curious about something like jump off a high desk and not care or run into something that would harm them, literally no brain cells just impulse

🫀The degree of the planet could indicate the age that planet unlocks for you , and weird thought but hear me out : that degree could stretch up until it's time for the next planet to unlock

Example : I have Jupiter at 24 and I'm turning 25 this May . Yes I've been in my Jupiter theme and actually it seems it's only going to properly expand even more. Now the only planet left for me is Saturn at 29, and I have the theory i’d be living the Jupiter theme until I turn 29 or untill I officially start my Saturn return

I  also have most planets at 5 too like Uranus , and Venus and Neptune at 1 : i was literally the calm kid that has a crush each time she gets (and sometimes is front about it without shame 😭😭 literally one time in second grade my crush's tummy was in pain and the teacher asked who knows their house to help them go home and i stood and said MEEEE in front of everyone and kept asking to be the one to take them home til i got yelled at 💀) i also had 4687357766 anime crushes as a kid and for Uranus , was the type to get mad and throw things on the ground when told no (I threw my tea mug once cause i didn't wanna go to school and slapped my kindergarten teacher cause she didn't let me go home with mom when i saw her visiting the principal 😭😭😭)

🫀Saturn in Aries 🤝 almost dying of cringe and shame at the thought of acting child - like and doing goofy stuff/ having fun

🫀 this is popular but Leo placements and secretly checking your own posts and stories and giggling at them lmao

[pedge-page]

I can literally imagine preggo wife randomly going vegan after watching a bbc documentary on animals and automatically contradicting it after seeing Joel eat the fattest steak known to mankind.

She'd be soooooo dignified too. Like peeling her soy beans and boasting how full and satisfied she is. Plus she's saving helpless baby animals who remind her of the baby she's carrying. It all makes sense. Mothers care for life.

And Joel's telling her how ridiculous she's being, that she needs protein and natural things found in meat for her AND the baby, that she's not going to get enough nutrients from peeling beans all day.

And Joel just knows, if he directly tells you otherwise, you'll be more stubborn and go even harder on your vegan trip. So he takes a better approach and let's you do you.

And cooks the most fabulous, juiciest, thickest steak, the most expensive cut from the deli too, and only makes one for himself. And you're sitting across from him at the table, staring at him lightly salt it while you poke at your nuts and berries. Feeling so exhausted and hungry and yet crazed like a lioness ready to attack a child just to get food. (Its been 27 hours since you watched the documentary).

Joel cuts a cubed piece and puts it in his mouth, moaning loudly and chewing slowly. Making a big show of how delicious it is, savoring the flavor without saying a word to you.

He glances at you gripping your fork so hard it's bending. And he decides to get up and get a glass of water.

He turns for maybe 0.4 seconds and hears a loud thunk of a chair hitting the ground and shuffling feet before looking back to his place setting and seeing you tear into his steak with your bear hands, k9s sawing away and your jaw working extra hard to rip big chunks of it in your mouth.

And then he's running over to you and cutting it up quickly into small bite sized pieces, lecturing to you about a fork so you don't accidentally choke. Doesn't even get upset you've swallowed his $35 dinner whole without asking.

Joel just knows what you need, and how to convince you properly whenever you wanna be stubborn about it.

[luvhughes43]

how does her injury happen/her brothers reaction

im going to be writing an in-depth fic for this aswell but with finals the next two weeks i dont have a lot of time! so here's some thoughts!

the injury itself happens during one of her competitions. it's her first season without her abusive coach, and so the pressure was on blake to win because her old coach was notorious for producing winners.

anyway! she agitates her back (which is an injury she's always had troubles with. she sprained it and it never properly healed due to her training) during her short program. she doesn't tell anyone about the injury because she needed to prove she could win. so she competes anyway...

everything's going fine in her long program, until shes almost at the end. she has a short sequence of jumps and she lands the first one fine, until she moves onto her next jump and completely falls out of it.

she falls on her back and shes literally sobbing out in pain on the ice clutching her back. she tries getting up but can't, and thats when the medical team rushes out.

reactions!

jack: actually freaking out. thats his twin! as soon as he sees that shes slow to get up hes rushing his whole family out of their seats so that he can get to her.

when he finds out how serious the injury is hes so upset. hes not allowed to see blake right away, and so hes literally cursing out loud in the hallways.

quinn: hes in shock. he doesnt really say or do anything right away, just sort of letting jack order him and everyone else around. when he finds out its serious, his hands are shaking but he tries his hardest to stay collected for jack who's literally panicking

luke: blake is luke's second mother! when she cries, he cries. and so when he hears her sobbing on the ice he's tearing up and immediately asking his family if she's going to be okay. he doesn't really know what to do when the doctors tell them its a serious injury. he just sits with blake and tries to distract her from the pain/realization that she may not be able to skate anymore. they watch tiktok's or something on his phone.

[coraniaid]

AU: Kendra returns to Sunnydale when she learns that Drusilla isn't dead.

Having Kendra show up as early as possible to have as much of an impact on the course of S2 as she can:

Buffy isn't the only Slayer who dreams about Drusilla still being alive. It takes Kendra a little while to fly out to California though, so she only gets to Sunnydale some time during the events of Innocence. She tries her best not to say 'I told you so' when she hears about the situation with Angel, and not to let slip that she was worried enough about Buffy that she came here without her Watcher's permission, and to hide how impressed she is by the sight of Buffy with a rocket launcher. She doesn't necessarily do a great job of any of those three things.

As both a literal and metaphorical representative of the "Angel's a vampire, he should die" school of thought, Kendra also argues for Buffy using lethal force to stop the werewolf in Phases (at least before they learn the werewolf is Oz), and is much more sympathetic to Jenny/Janna than Buffy is inclined to be (Kendra doesn't know Jenny at all -- she never even met her in canon -- so she doesn't have any personal sense of betrayal and is mostly confused about why everyone is upset because it doesn't actually make any sense that they are). Neither of these things do much to endear her to Buffy (or to Willow, who gets to be jealous of Buffy spending time with another Slayer a whole season ahead of schedule), but maybe Jenny ends up offering Kendra somewhere to stay while she's in Sunnydale (I think the implication is that she previously stayed at Buffy's house while Joyce was out of town buying art, but she can't do that this time).

Kendra and Jenny bonding as the group's two outcasts also means Kendra is there to save Jenny from Angelus in Passion. (Given that Jenny is staying late at the school to research her spell she probably doesn't have the foresight to ask Kendra to come with her for back-up, but what else is Kendra going to do but keep an eye on her?) Kendra herself still doesn't really approve of re-ensouling Angelus, but thanks to her it happens a few episodes ahead of schedule. With his soul back, Angel speed-runs his Season 3 arc and quickly breaks up with Buffy "for her own good" and heads off to brood fight crime be directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many defence attorneys in LA.

Willow is impressed by Jenny's spell to ensoul Angel -- it's a lot more magic than Jenny had admitted to being able to do before -- but Jenny herself probably doesn't let Willow get involved in the magic (certainly not if Giles is also there to help). They both tell her it's too dangerous. But Willow's old friend Amy is still getting into witchcraft around this time, and maybe Willow starts hanging out with her more now that Buffy and Kendra have gotten over their earlier disagreements about Angel and are patrolling together most nights. ("Really," Buffy tells her friends brightly, while explaining unprompted for the fifth time how incredible it is to go on patrol with another Slayer and how they definitely don't need to try to set her up with Scott Hope or anybody else even though she's single now, "We're just good friends.")

Angel's departure doesn't stop Drusilla from trying to wake Acathla. And since Kendra is already in Sunnydale, Sam Zabuto himself has to bring the sword blessed by the knight who first slew the demon to California. Meeting Kendra's Watcher (and learning more about her lack-of-relationship with her parents) prompts Buffy to come out as a Slayer to her mother (after taking care of Acathla and chasing Dru and Spike out of town). In this new context -- no murder charge, Kendra still alive and there for moral support instead of Spike, no impending world-ending deadline and no reason Buffy can't sit down and explain things properly -- Joyce takes the revelation rather better. (Actually, her mom had already picked up that Buffy had broken up with her older boyfriend and started sneaking out after dark to spend time with a girl Joyce doesn't know and whose existence Buffy seemed to be trying to hide, and that Buffy seems a lot happier and more comfortable in her own skin than she did a month or so ago, so when Buffy starts to tell her she has something important to share Joyce thinks she knows what it is already. It takes Buffy a bit longer to figure that part out for herself.)

[slakedbyiron]

I'm drunk again but we'll take a crack at it. I couldn't find the post so here's the page again lets analyse

Okay no 1 Francisco and the dojo:

Izzy feels so bad that she can't do what seems to be a really tough spectral move (on the previous page only Spender who is described as Francisco's strongest student can do it properly) at only 6 YEARS OLD she starts crying - and Izzy isn't actually a part of this training session so it implies that even Francisco thinks this is too hard for her to do, and yet she still holds herself to the standard of an adult spectral because that's what Francisco has taught her

He holds her to an unattainably high standard and the one thing she is properly skilled at and proud of (her exceptional connection with spirits and her skills with tools) is belittled by him as weak and cheating. Francisco doesn't accept anything less than an automatic reaction to physical pain as a reason to cry - and even then he still ridicules her, saying "is that all?" as if a child wouldn't cry at being hurt.

He also calls her mother over to deal with her, even though she's a nurse she's incredibly busy and just about to leave for work he feels like it's her issue - presumably Amy feels secure working as much as she does because she believes that Izzy has a strong support system at the dojo, knowing how much she looks up to Francisco and how many people are around to protect her. on the next page he implies it should be her job to look after Izzy at the expense of her career because he's housing them both - despite the fact that her father still lives in town. similar to the way Isabel is treated by him, he holds Amy to a higher standard because Ángel has disappointed him, as if it has anything to do with her.

Despite the fact that Spender is the only person on this page who doesn't actually live in the dojo he's the only one who goes to see if Izzy is alright - the rest spend way more time with Izzy yet seem awkward to borderline disinterested in her pain in the 4th panel - I know she's a young kid but they should have a stronger connection with her. This could be related to how she's literally pitted against adults in the present, whereas in the past it's slightly more theoretical/in her head

That leads us to no 2 Spender and Izzy's relationship:

The penultimate panel I feel shows how close she and Spender are. It implies that he picks her up a lot because she instinctively knows what he's doing even though he turns around without saying anything. In addition the fact that he picks her up presumably also because she says she hurt her foot, so she doesn't have to walk on it - even though banging your foot wouldn't really impede your walking

Also, Spender doesn't even notice how Francisco is treating Izzy this whole page, because he's too wrapped up in seeing if she's okay (the final panel shows he still has his hero worship of Francisco which I'd hope he wouldn't if he realised how terrible he treats her) this is something he still does in the present day but it hinders Izzy because he focuses on "keeping the kids safe" rather than emotionally secure and regulated. It also very literally happens again in chapter 4 when he's worrying with Lucifer about whether he kept the kids safe properly and misses Izzy asking for his help dealing with Francisco.

finally no 3 more on Isabel:

She's too young to have as strong a handle on her emotions as present-day Isabel (read: emotional repression) but she still thinks that this is a weakness to have a completely normal reaction that all kids that young would have to frustration. Isabel is only 6 years old and she's already internalised that emotional pain is insignificant and weak, and that the only 'valid' pain is physical, as shown by her lie. despite this she's still invalidated because the pain wasn't bad enough. Also her kneejerk lying about pain is a trait commonly seen in abused children.

This can be seen to have both the aforementioned emotional implications in current Izzy, as well as physical - she attempts to use plasters to cover a wound that actually needs stitches because she doesn't want her grandfather to know and be disappointed, risking an infection.

I realise half of these are just statements w no conclusions but I hope you can infer what I mean. anyway concluding statement no one looks out for Izzy like they should and also her and Spender's relationship and all of its shortcomings is one of my fav things abt pnat both bc there's so much meat there and bc they're my 2 fav characters

[guiltreservoir]

i personally think eddie's decision to take kim on a date makes so much sense for his character. this is a heavily traumatized man who has not properly processed the grief of losing his wife and mother of his child. this is a man who has been seeking to recreate the fantasy family he'd built with christopher and shannon in his mind - even though shannon herself was ready to divorce him before she died. this is a man who wants nothing but a second chance, an opportunity to try again, to make it work, make it better.

and then he sees kim, and his good conscience is clouded by potential. she looks exactly like shannon. she laughs like shannon. she's quick-witted, charismatic, magnetic. she's absolutely gorgeous. she feels so easy and natural to talk to. she isn't shannon, she just feels like shannon - eddie doesn't even know her at all. but to him, she might as well be a carbon copy. she is someone that is so easy for him to project all of his wants and desires onto. she is someone who could be just like shannon, maybe, at least for now. eddie wants to find out for himself.

this is a decision eddie is making purely out of his own wishes, and he is not thinking about it clearly; he is being straight-up delusional. this is one of the first decisions we've ever really seen eddie make that is so blatantly self-serving and selfish, even more so than leaving for the army. this isn't a self-defense mechanism, this is a self-sabotage. some sort of fucked-up penance, or maybe a willing step into purgatory.

for maybe the first time in his life, eddie isn't thinking about anyone else. he esepcially isn't thinking about christopher - imagine what chris would think if he found out his dad's dating a dead ringer for his dead mom (let alone that it's on top of dating marisol)? even if eddie's somehow justifying it in his mind - maybe chris would be happy about it too - he knows this is a terrible choice and he's doing it anyway.

he is desperate to recreate what he thinks he could've had with shannon, he is very much hurting and still in deep mourning, and he is still not being honest with himself about what he truly wants or needs to be happy with himself. he's also realizing that whatever he wants, it probably isn't with marisol. but instead of breaking up with her, he's making the choice to complicate things for himself even further. it feels like some sort of subconscious self-flagellation. very ex-catholic of him.

it's so interesting that eddie is doing this without considering the true repercussions. he is blinded by the fact that he has a chance to date 'shannon' again and isn't thinking about literally anything else. it's going to cause suuuch a mess and i am so excited to watch how everything unfolds. i think eddie needs a bit of a reckoning to be able to get fully real with himself, and i really hope this is the first domino that tips to knock over his entire carefully-constructed illusions, the streak of sun that burns through the clouds in his mind so he can find some meaningful clarity.

[homunculus-argument]

Random story scene of the Unfinished Book:

The protagonist, who is a baron (his mother being a baroness) and half a northman, spent his teens running out of the house to hang out with stray kids in the city his mother lived in after his father's death and a childhood in the northlands - living a double life with a "stray name" with such conviction that most people are absolutely not convinced that he even is the baron he claims he is. His official legal identity of Aiden ar Gar had a bounty for high treason (which he was innocent of) and is legally dead (he didn't fake his death on purpose, he mainly got lucky).

Due to a turn of events he and his friends end up at a high-end socialite party where most of his friends are passed as servants of different sorts, and when they wonder what to do with him, he goes "it's alright, I'll pass myself up as some lesser foreign prince. I'll act offended when people have never heard of me and they won't pry for more details." They don't think this will work, but there's going to be a huge party with wine, fancy drugs and rich milfs in there so it's not like they could stop him from going.

His friends - who have mainly known him as the stray - are surprised to find that he actually can conduct himself quite properly in a palace, knowing how to walk in a nobleman's boots (literally) and eat with a fork like a baron could. Then he overhears some courtesan bragging about the ermine in her outfit. The wealthy have gotten into the trend of wearing white fur in their clothing, because what could be more frivolous than wearing fur in a land so warm that their language doesn't even have words for "ice" or "snow"?

And Aiden - at this point already drunk - turns to the other party the next table over and goes girl. That is not ermine. His friends are mortified but can only watch as he confidently turns to the table and starts explaining to the courtesan how the fur is far too thick for ermine and doesn't have the distinct traits of weasel pelt - this is clearly the winter coat of a hare, that someone botched skinning, cut into strips, and passed off as an ermine. Whoever sold her that was a cheat and a fraud and she should not conduct any more business with them. Drunk as he is, he clearly knows what he's talking about, and did this so casually and without a thought that he clearly could not have done this with any deliberate calculation.

His wavering claim of being some sort of obscure lesser nobility has been solidified, no-one else could not only so confidently break social tacts of not interrupting other peoples' conversation, and speak so confidently and expertly about something so frivolous as white pelts, and he clearly is no tailor. His friends still don't quite believe his claim that he used to live in The Northlands (not any more than they really believe he actually is the Baron ar Gar), but his northman father was a fur trapper. Not only has he seen both an ermine and a mountain hare in their winter fur in the wild, and would actually know how to trap them, his father taught him that stripping trick.

[noir-fem]

daisy's thoughts on *that* scene

SPOILER WARNING!! I'M ABOUT TO YAP ABOUT HOTD SEASON TWO, SPECIFICALLY BLOOD AND CHEESE!!

DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!

the scene itself

obviously, the show couldn't adapt B&C verbatim without traumatizing child actors in the process, so i'm happy that certain changes were made and that the actual murder happened off screen. i still think they could have kept small details that made it so horrific in the books without hurting child actors though.

the problem is mainly within the writing because there's really no build up. there's no scenes of Helaena being loving with her kids beforehand, no slaughtering of guards or bed maids to make Blood and Cheese look scarier, nothing that builds an impending sense of dread. also B&C being confused/low key cartoonish villains didn't help. these guys are supposed to know the Red Keep's secret pathways like the back of their hand; showing how intruders could get into the keep so easily definitely would have made the scene scarier.

also making B&C into a "misunderstanding " and having Aemond be the original target completely downplays the most evil thing the Blacks ever did and further shows that the writers are unashamedly biased towards the Blacks. the main message of the story is that both sides were war criminals who did awful things!! the senseless cruelty of targeting a toddler for something he had no role in was literally the point of B&C!!

i get that maelor doesn't exist yet, but they still could have done "a son for a son" and kept Helaena being forced to choose between her kids. one person on here suggested having her point to Jaehaera in order to spare Jaehaerys (the heir to the throne), but B&C killing Jaehaerys instead. i think something like that would have kept the psychological torture of having to choose and could still have been done without scaring child actors.

overall, if the writers were trying to out-do the Red Wedding in terms of horror, it didn't work. What made the Red Wedding so terrifying in the first place was the psychological aspects of it and all the tiny clues the audience was given beforehand, the small details telling the viewers that something bad is coming.

that being said, the show's adaptation of B&C still captured the horror of a child being murdered in front of his mother without showing it/being gratuitous. they did an amazing job with just letting you hear the sounds and leaving the rest to the imagination.

in conclusion: r.i.p. sweet baby jaehaerys. daemon targaryen, your days are numbered.

Helaena's reaction (or, rather, lack thereof)

i didn't properly understand/appreciate Helaena's reaction to B&C until i saw other people's takes and rewatched the scene for myself.

at first, i would have liked to see some sort of desperation like there was in the books (like Helaena begging and offering her life). HOWEVER, book!helaena and show!helaena are obviously gonna have some differences, especially with show!Helaena being a dreamer. and with her being coded as autistic/neurodivergent, her reaction makes total sense to something that i myself would do.

say it with me: there is no "right" or "wrong" way to react to trauma!! your brain is literally just doing whatever it has to do to get you out of that situation, and that looks different for everyone. a lot of people freeze or fawn! it doesn't mean that they're "emotionless" or unaffected by what's happening!!

now looking at it, Helaena's silent shock and horror were more gut wrenching to watch than any amount of screaming or begging imo. she's probably already seen this happen in her visions and knows that there's nothing she can do to stop it: all she can do is get herself and Jaehaera out of there. her resigned facial expression, her eyes, her quiet little pleas as she's carrying Jaehaera, her literally dissociating in order to get her and her daughter out of the situation and clinging onto her baby for dear life. Phia's acting was incredible and i believe she did her best with what the writers gave her.

now lastly....

the alicole scene

why???? just WHY????

look i'm all for alicent and criston being hypocrites and alicent finally getting to experience pleasure, but having helaena walk in on her and criston RIGHT after watching her son get brutally murdered.... i don't even need to say any more about this. nobody needs to explain why that is a bad writing choice.

my opinions on the show's take on B&C will likely change depending on how they handle helaena and alicent's reactions to it later on in the series. might even dabble in writing fics and drop my own take on this storyline sometimes hehe.

in conclusion, somebody PLEASE take Helaena's pain, quadruple it, and give it to daemon NOW.

[duck-takes]

tbh, that other della crit anon was right.

It is impossible to criticize Della duck in this fandom, not without getting a LOT of hate,or people calling you misogynistic.

The fandom often compares her trip to the moon as out of her control, but canonically,she is the one at fault.

It's her fault she got on that rocket, it's hr fault the kids grew up without a mom, and it's her fault Donald had to struggle for so long.

Later on, it's obvious that her parenting is less than ethical. She is bad, to be blunt,but hey, she's been gone for a while so it's kind of okay?? Then she fumbles it all with Louie. The punishment here was absolutely not the problem. The problem was leaving a child around the age of eleven years old alone with a robot with a very high potential to go evil. She didn't even stay to look after him!?!?! Like hello?!?! He's eleven??!

And don't get me started on how the fandom treats Louie's actions compared to hers.

For Louie, it's : He left his family to be lost in time!!! They could have died!!!(They nearly die daily, he nearly dies daily due to their actions, it's not that huge, plus he's eleven, so , still a kid)

For Della? UwU, she girlbossed her way to the moon but got lost(abandoned her entire family for an adrenaline rush, while expecting CHILDREN, at the age of around twenty, I assume? )

I get so mad about this, because so many people say that she 'had her own issues, didn't think she could be a good mom, needed to get away and clear her head, didn't plan the storm's then don't advemture where literally NOONE has been before???? Scrooge warned her about it!! She knew it was a bad idea!!! She was an adult!!! She deserves to face some anger from her family for just leaving, but she does not. She is immediately accepted back, but the LITERAL FUCKING CHILD has to work towards it, and is in extreme danger while his mother deliberately leaves him ALONE.

Don't even get me started on the ETHICS VIDEOS (what do you know about ethics???? You abandoned your fucking 'precious family'!)

She says

'if you wanna be a part of this family, you gotta stop.'

It's not woobifying a character by stating they would be damaged by hearing their formerly absent mother say that about what they consider their best talent.

K, sorry about that rant, but I had to get this shit off my chest, and it's on anon for obvious reasons

I do love your username !

yea i also agree with what ur saying. the show doesn't have time to properly delve into her and yea ppl do have takes where they woobify her. a lot of fandoms have a problem with taking away the nuance of a character to make them their precious baby

the 'if you want to be in this family' comment is vile though. that was her worst character moment for me. it actually pisses me off so much

also ppl can obviously still send long, della takes but i'm gonna be slow with responding to those. it's kinda tiring /gen

[home-of-renn]

Ya'll wanna know what I love? COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS!

That Danny and Jazz have a very close relationship due to their parent's neglect. Jazz is pretty much the true parental figure in Danny's life and for the most part, always has been. Jazz's nagging and constant involvement in pretty much all aspects of Danny's life increases after his accident, which Danny doesn't really seem to notice cause he's got too much shit on his plate after waking up half dead. (But also cause Jazz has always been nearby and reliable - which does wonders to soothe his Obsession, so he honestly doesn't take much notice of her mother-henning).

BUT, this does end up influencing his relationship with Dani.

Even though she's the only surviving clone, she's still extremely unstable and could pretty much dissolve into goo at any moment without warning. This makes Danny's Obsession freak out and go on high alert any time he's near her. Not to mention that Dani - despite being technically the same age - is viewed as being much younger by Danny (and pretty much everyone else as well) due to how inexperienced she is and the fact that she is literally only a couple weeks/months/years old.

So all this stress about Dani's messed-up situation and the fact that there is literally nothing Danny can do to fix it (since she wasn't really meant to exist in the first place), combined with the way Jazz treats Danny, kinda skews his perception of what a sibling relationship is actually meant to look like. Tucker and Sam don't have siblings and no one else in Amity is willing to even go near the Fenton kids without so much as a ten-meter pole, let alone comment on the obvious lack of parenting going on in that family.

So, from any outside perspective, Danny's relationship with Dani is bordering on being parental/paternal. Which freaks Danny the fuck out when he finally realises why Dani gets so cranky and snappish about his overbearing tendencies (she's never experienced any form of parental affection in her very short life). Sam and Tucker never bothered mentioning anything cause they know it's probably just Danny satisfying his ghostly urges, and they also know that both Danny and Jazz have always lacked personal boundaries - that and the fact that honestly, nothing about their family is even close to being normal, including the way each member treats one another. Not to mention, when you're dealing with the kind of spooky shit they deal with on a daily basis, it's better to be in each other's pockets than too far away when something goes wrong.

But then one of them accidentally lets slip that Danny's attitude towards Dani is very much abnormal and Danny feels like he's been dunked in cold water. Cause Dani was made using Danny's own DNA, and there aren't any hard or fast rules on how you should view your totally impossible clone.

Danny's been struggling with controlling his Obsession after the crushing realisation that he had one - just one more thing that chipped away at his already contestable humanity. He knows he's overprotective and he knows that Sam, Tucker and Jazz don't mention how smothered they sometimes feel. And then he realises he's been doing it to Dani without even realising it, and once the realisation hits he's faced with a second realisation - which is that his Obsession doesn't know how to properly categorise Dani. Cause he has absolutely no desire to display any kind of fatherly affection towards her, let alone view her as a potential daughter figure (also wouldn't that make Vlad the other parent? That thought alone makes his stomach churn).

It's an embarrassing, humiliating tension he's felt since the day he met her. A twisted thing he sometimes thinks about in the dark of his room when he's trying to fall asleep. It feels guilty and shameful and something that's too close to grief. He's never even mentioned it to Tucker or Sam, and as soon as the thought pops up he dismisses it and keeps his mouth shut. He hasn't even finished school yet.

Danny doesn't want to think about his future. He doesn't even want to entertain the idea of him one day having a family of his own. But Dani never fails to make him think about it (all the things he could no longer have).

Danny's feelings towards Dani will always be familial. When they'd first met and found out what their connection was he had subconsciously drawn that line in the sand and then shoved it into a box before abandoning it in some distant corner of his mind.

Maybe, just maybe, if Danny was older he would have viewed her as a daughter.

But he won't. He's already too close to her. One day she's going to dissolve and Danny will be left inconsolable. The small still-human part of him realises that - even if the ghost in him refuses to acknowledge it.

Sometimes he feels like his Obsession has already taken away so many of his choices. Limiting his decisions and swaying his judgement. He's not entirely sure where it begins and where it ends and it makes him wonder, just how much of a different person would he be without it? Would he even be the same at all?

The moment all these realisations bloomed in his head was the day he fought with himself and convinced himself to take a step back.

So, he watches Dani from afar.

She seems happier now that she has more freedom to do what she wants without anyone looming over her shoulder. She doesn't understand how he feels - she doesn't have an Obsession. She lives her life flitting from one whim to the next.

But now she visits more, no longer staying away from Amity for as long as she can without risking Phantom coming after her.

He hadn't realised she was staying away.

Now Dani is the one who seeks him out. She wants to spend lazy days floating above the clouds basking in the sunlight. She pesters him to try every item on the Nasty Burger menu and begs him to ditch his homework to go watch a midnight screening of some tacky old horror movie from the 80s. She even convinces him to teach her the names of all the constellations as they recline on a grassy patch behind the Amity observatory (even if there wasn't much convincing involved at all).

He indulges each and every one of her childish desires. Because every time he turns his head to tell her no, all he can see are bright blue eyes dripping into a toxic green puddle. It never fails to make him bite his tongue and nod his head.

They continue the rest of their relationship with Danny keeping a close eye on that line in the sand.

He adores Dani - loves her even - and it's a feeling that grows the more time they spend together. She will always be special to him, and whatever that special thing is, it's something that doesn't need to be defined. She will always be someone important - someone who he loves the same way he loves Jazz (he makes sure of it).

-------- BUT THERE'S MORE

Not only does this anxiety-inducing realisation change the way he interacts with Dani (he no longer actively seeks her out all the time) but it also opens his eyes to the role Jazz has played in his life.

He realises that all the jokes and complaints about Jazz acting more like his mum rather than his sister aren't far from the truth. He slowly comes to terms with the fact that Jazz had a heavy hand in raising him and still continues to watch over him. It changes the way he treats her and it leaves him with a lot of guilt.

Somewhere down the line Jazz ends up realising that Danny now understands that part of their relationship, the part that Jazz had tried to hide from him - something she did to cast her parents in a better light so that Danny could have some semblance of a normal, happy family while having to grow up being a Fenton.

It hits her while her parents are still tinkering in their basement and Danny's just slipped out the window in the middle of the night to go fight a ghost. He'd seen the light under her door and let her know that he was heading out - something he'd only started doing recently. He'd stood awkwardly in the doorway and wished her goodnight before slipping intangible and disappearing from sight.

It made her realise - like switching on a lightbulb.

She'd buried herself under the covers and gone to sleep that night with swollen eyes and her library-loaned textbook dotted with salty tears.

Danny didn't comment on her puffy face the next morning and she didn't question the bruise that was blooming on the back of his neck - just handed him an ice pack and continued scrambling the eggs.

Neither of them talks about it.

~~~~

Just Danny having a complicated, anxious relationship with his clone - who has zero idea what her pseudo brother is actually feeling.

If yall haven't realised, I'm a sucker for complicated relationships

And if I'm being honest, the way Dani and Danny are depicted as twins/cousins and the two of them just readily going along with it has always been a little boring and one-note for me. I feel like having a clone - especially one that you feel a little responsible for - would open up a gigantic can of worms in regard to how you treat them and how you should feel about them. Throw Danny's ghostly Obsession into the mix you have a perfectly complicated situation.

(also I actually quite like the trans!danny headcanon - especially in regards to explaining how Dani turned out female. But in regards to this ^^^^^^^ I kinda like having Danny being cis cause it implies that Vald not only stole Danny's DNA but also mixed it with someone else's. Cause genetically speaking, it would be physically impossible for them to be clones if one has an entirely different chromosome. Which just adds another whole level of fcked up to this whole mess and just Vlad in general. Cause Danny - or at the very least, Jazz - is definitely aware that Danny's "clone" shouldn't be female and somebody realises this but can't bring themselves to speak up. Cause god forbid all of them are too young for this and too traumatised and would rather just brush that little tidbit to the side and under the rug, just so they can all move on)

(also it would leave Danny wondering who makes up the other 50% of Dani's DNA and honestly Vlad is so messed up that he could have just found a way and used his own and that would make Dani the closest thing to Dan and I don't think Danny would ever be able to face that)

[loominggaia]

"Crazy in Love" explanation

The following text is about an unreleased Looming Gaia story, so it will contain major spoilers. Read at your own discretion!

I just wanted to explain a decision I made for a story, which might seem controversial.

So, I've said previously that I think Zov would be too psychologically damaged to ever have a romantic relationship. If you saw that post, then you're probably confused about the plot of "Crazy in Love", so I just want to explain why I changed my mind about this.

As I wrote the drafts for Zov's saga, I got to develop him more as a character. He started to grow on me, and I felt like I got a better understanding of where he's at mentally and what kind of person he is. I felt the same way about Lilian early on, and now I feel differently about her too. Previously I've said that she probably shouldn't be in a romantic relationship because she's too damaged, and there's no way a relationship with her could be functional.

I changed my mind about both of these characters, and strangely enough, I think they're a perfect match for each other. They've both been imprisoned, used, and abused their entire lives. Neither of them knows how to behave in normal society, yet they're both highly motivated to learn and grow.

However, I do want to clarify that if left to their own devices, no, I don't think these characters should be involved with anyone romantically--especially not each other. That's obviously an abuse scenario waiting to happen. But in the case of "Crazy in Love", they're in a unique situation where they're both being coached and supervised by their mentors while they learn how to be in a relationship.

Like, they literally build a lesson plan around courting eachother and turn it into a classroom experience. It's funny and awkward, but it's the only way they can make it work because they are both so far behind in their social development. In the end it actually works well for them, as unconventional and weird as it may be.

Zov has to learn how to interact with people properly and express emotions in a mature way, rather than using violence. Lilian has to learn how to stand up for herself and not fawn over men who abuse her, because she is unfortunately drawn to that behavior after being conditioned by Dario for so long.

Without someone there to coach them, I believe Lilian would end up in another Dario-like scenario with Zov. Not because Zov is evil like Dario (he's not), but because he truly doesn't know how to interact with women beyond abusing them, which Dorzlaf forced him to do to arena slaves for all those years.

Zov truly loves Lilian. But he's never been in love before, he doesn't know what to do with that emotion, and he was conditioned to see women as nothing but brood mothers his whole life. He doesn't see Lilian that way and he doesn't want to hurt her, he simply does not understand what else to do with her. He has no idea how healthy, happy couples express love.

He just knows that he feels strongly for her, and at first that manifests as this aggressively possessive behavior. He doesn't want her to talk to other men, to do this or that, and his first instinct is to hit her when she disobeys him because that's all he knows. It's the way his "loving" master, Dorzlaf, treated him as a father-figure. Of course Patience steps in to correct this behavior immediately, and Zov is willing to open his mind to learning new ways from her because he genuinely cares for Lilian. He learns that he can express love with tenderness rather than violence, which he previously did not even realize was an option.

The very same thing can be said for Lilian. She was conditioned to believe abuse = love for her entire life. Dario taught her that women are inferior to men and must serve them like slaves. Even though she knows better now, she's still learning to break herself out of those habitual behaviors of cowing to men, especially ones that treat her like trash. Patience corrects Lilian when she catches her fawning over Zov while he's being an ass. As difficult as it is, Lilian is just as motivated as Zov to change her ways because she genuinely cares about him, and wants this relationship to be successful as much as he does.

So anyway, that's why I changed my mind about these two. I think they actually can make a romantic relationship work, they would just need extra help to do so. They will always have rough moments between them, simply because they are both quite mentally ill, but with their mentors' guidance I believe they could work through these moments safely.

While their mentors deserve a lot of credit, this relationship wouldn't be possible at all if Lilian and Zov weren't so damn motivated to be with each other. So the point I want to make with this story is that where there is a will, there is a way. Even if something has to be done super unconventionally, it still counts. Their will to be together is stronger than their dysfunction, so they are able to overcome it.

And, quite frankly, I just think these two deserve to be happy after all they've been through. They deserve love, and to deny them that because they're "too fucked up" seems cruel in retrospect. It's just not a good message, so I'd like to shift that into a more positive message about overcoming the things that got you fucked up and thriving despite it.

That's my reasoning, I hope it makes at least a little bit of sense. As I wrote the rough drafts of their saga, they became one of my favorite ships specifically because of how much they had to overcome to be happy together.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Your thoughts on Azula/Tyzula haters saying Azula only apologized to Ty Lee at the party because she didn't want her to "make a scene in front of everyone"?

"The girl that turned a ball into a nuke during a game and then wrecked a boy's house because he rejected her did not want to make a scene" Bruh.

And Azula did not just apologize - which is already one hell of a big deal from someone like her - she admited she was jealous of her friend and insecure about her complete inability to properly flirt with a guy without scaring him away.

If Azula was only worried about not causing a scene, she'd have stopped at the "I didn't mean it" or by ordering Ty Lee to stop being dramatic. Instead the animators make her look far more gentle, Grey made her sound genuinely apologetic, and the writting itself makes Azula let herself be vulnerable for a moment.

Hell, The Beach has her be vulnerable MANY times. The whole point of the episode is "Ember Island reveals your true self."

And what is Azula's true self? A princess that fully believes everyone should worship the ground she walks on, yet decides, of her own free will, to see if people would still like her if she was just a regular girl. A child soldier that thrives on anything regarding war, but was left with no socials skills because all she knows is war and no longer knows how to exist outside of it.

Someone that is both very arrogant and deeply insecure, to the point that she WILL lash out at others, either verbally or by literally destroying their home, because her feelings were hurt somehow - yet can sometimes regret doing that.

A girl that is upset due to thinking her mother didn't love her, yet tries to surpress that pain as much as possible. Someone who will go check on her sibling, try to get him out of a depressing place, and genuinely push him to ask himself what is making him so angry because she does care, but will still call him pathetic for having doubts on if he is doing the right thing and being visibly traumatized by the actions of their father.

No one is obligated to like her as a character, or want her to be redeemed, but to claim that any moment in which she shows she's not completely evil is just an act because "Azula always lies" is absolutely ridiculous because:

1 - NOBODY lies 100% of the time, not even pathological liars - especially not in a fictional story, because it's guaranteed to make it boring.

2 - The "Azula always lies" line is introduced to us when Zuko doesn't want to believe his dad agreed to murder him - which Ozai himself admits was indeed true. "Azula always lies" is not a rule, it's, ironically, a lie Zuko told himself when his sister was using a horrible truth to mess with his head.

3 - Once again, the whole point of The Beach is "We are seeing who these four characters REALLY are" - and regardless of what fans like or dislike, Azula is a complex person that is capable of being both terrible and not that bad, a tormentor and a victim, cruel and compassionate, a scary villain you shouldn't mess with and just a child that is trapped in an awful situation and sees no way out.