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canonicallysoulmates · 3 years

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Just saw your post about the post phase 1 Marvel movies and the meme you used for CA:CW. So I'm here to ask and get you cancelled. What did you think about the movie? Are you Team Stark or Team Rogers?

........................................................I knew this day would come......okay, let's get me cancelled!

I hate this movie, I hate this movie with every fiber of my being. Watching it was torture, it as the longest 20hrs of my life. It was like living out one of those very confusing math problems I started this movie at 10am somehow 6pm rolls around and there are still 2hrs left! Coño cómo?! I watched this with my mom, and when we checked how much time was left we were left looking at each other like 'que carajo what twilight zone bullshit is this?' It's one of those Marvel movies that I am so glad I did not waste my money on, I wish I could get a refund for my time but I made my choice and I shall now have to deal with it.

I hate this movie for many reasons but I'm not gonna make y'all wait any longer for what you're really here for because I know what y'all really want to know is whether I am Team Iron Man or Team Captain America. When it comes to the political aspects ie. the Accords, I am Team Neither.

Now, I cannot get into a comprehensive debate about the Accords because the writers did a shitty ass job, in a 2 and a 1/2 hour movie that felt like a lifetime, at explaining what exactly the Accords are in the movie universe. Emphasis on the movie universe, because I have seen debates go on in this motherfucking fandom where some people will bring up aspects from the comics Registration Acts but we're not talking about the comics okay, we're talking about the movies! And they're two fucking different things! And the movie did a shitty ass job at explaining what the Accords are, and that's one of the reasons I hate this movie: that it's so badly written.

But back to the point, which is where I stand on the teams when it comes to the politics, I am Team Neither because ultimately they were both idiots on how they handled this, and I think they both have good points like yes the Avengers and other superheroes should 100% be held accountable if they fuck up, the fact that they are superheroes and the "good guys" doesn't mean that their actions shouldn't have consequences but at the same time Steve's mistrust of the government and concerns that the team and others could be weaponized are also valid so I think they both have good points when it comes down to it and the smart thing to do - and in my opinion what would have made a much better film- would have been to come together and make like a counterproposal, decide on amendments, try to ensure they can get a representative so they have a voice on the table.

So, there you go when it comes to the Accords I am Team Neither however when it comes to the characters and their actions I am 1,000% Team Tony. At the end of the day he wanted to do what was best for both people and for his team, he wanted to keep the team together because he knew they were stronger together, and he was thinking long term not short term.

And then there's Steve who is an asshole in this film and completely lacks self awareness, cause there's a scene in the film after they've found out about the Accords where Steve goes "that's because he already made up his mind" about Tony and I'm just like bitch so did you, pot meet kettle, Rogers you knew from the get go that you weren't going to sign those papers don't go acting different and then like- here's the thing Steve has some very good points when it comes to the Accords but one of his points is that the UN is filled with people with agendas and agendas change which true but also motherfucker you yourself have an agenda! The whole Sokovia mess is an example that they cannot be trusted to hold themselves or each other accountable because inevitably the time will come where they'll want to protect their team mate like we see in this movie Steve do with Bucky, or how he wanted to protect Wanda because he looks at her as if she were a child not an adult. Steve, you lot are not exempt from having your own agendas and biases.

And through pretty much the entire movie, he has this whole my way or the highway attitude like this man does not know the meaning of compromise in this film, and he has such tunnel vision for Bucky- and listen! listen, listeeeeeen, I get it, I don't judge Steve for making his bestie a priority; I understand that Bucky is incredibly important to Steve, that he's the one person who's gonna look at him as just Steve and not as the Steve Rogers, I get that he carries a guilt over what happened to his friend, I understand he misses him, I understand all of that and respect the ride or die game but goddamn he was so focused on being a good friend to Bucky that he forgot about everyone and everything else and was a shit friend to Tony.

Actually a lot of people in this film were shit to Tony for no goddamn reason but Steve was such a shitty friend not telling Tony about his parents, that was a shitty ass thing to do and listen! I know what some of y'all are thinking you're thinking some version of 'he wanted to protect Tony' shut the fuck up. No, no, that's an excuse and it's a cheap one, you know damn well that was a shitty thing for Steve to do and y'all know damn well you would have reacted the same way Tony did if someone who you thought was your goddamn friend knew about something horrible that happened to people that were important to you and they never told you; that kind of shit hurts, and finding out someone you thought of as a friend doesn't care about you as much as you care about them hurts.

And y'all know goddamn well how emotions work, you know emotions aren't gonna wait for the rational brain to kick in don't some of y'all go playing dumb as if you didn't know this shit. Same way deep down all of y'all know Tony was holding his punches, that man gave Thanos a fight and got some blood if he had wanted to kill Bucky he would have. Don't none of y'all motherfuckers try to play games and act like you don't know this info.

Steve was a shit friend to Tony. Period. The least he could have done is have some empathy or compassion towards Tony when he saw his parent's being killed- and I swear to motherfucking god to the person who is getting close to their keyboard thinking of saying he showed compassion by not killing him back the fuck away from your motherfucking keyboard what did I tell you about playing stupid, this is properly tagged, stay in your fucking lane. Some of y'all be acting as if it were still 2016 and we're gonna be talking about that too, anon wanted my opinion on this film so now I'm going off.

Back to what I was saying, in some ways Steve wasn't a perfect friend to Bucky either cause he kept looking at Bucky and thinking of the guy he used to know but Bucky's not that person anymore, he's been through a lot of shit and it feels at times like Steve didn't fully realize that.

I hate Steve in this movie, I wanna punch him in the throat; he's an ass, he thinks he's above the rules, he's unaware of his own flaws, he might be a good friend to Bucky but that's it. I don't blame Steve though I blame the writers cause they're the ones who wrote him this way; moving on from Steve, I wanna talk about Wanda real quick, I don't hate the character of Wanda but I do hate the way she was written in this film, I hate that the writers expect us as an audience to look at this adult and think of her as a defenseless child who should be exempt from consequences, I hate that instead of actually doing something with her and exploring some interesting dynamics they just give her an AI boyfriend and a pinterest quote which sounds nice but falls flat especially considering she says said quote as she uses her powers (which is what people are afraid of) to send her love interest down several floors of a building. They could have done so many cool and interesting things with her, shame they didn't.

Another thing I hate about this film is what it did to the fandom, and how it was promoted because it was very much promoted as a pick your fighter, pick a side type of movie and after this movie came out I feel like the divide between Tony fans and Steve fans grew toxically and the effects are still seen to this day like some people really do be acting as if it were still 2016 and attacking others for what side they went with or for who their fav between the two is, and I'll be very honest a lot of the hate I have seen has been directed towards Tony and Tony fans. I hate that, I hate when TPTB deliberately pits fans against each other cause it just encourages a toxic environment.

Let me think was there anything that I liked about this film- wait, oh my god talking about all these other things I hate almost made me forget the thing I hate the most about this movie: it's pointless. Its existence is unnecessary; the biggest aspect of this film isn't the politics of the Accords, it's Steve and Bucky and how far Steve is willing to go for Bucky and have him by his side...but Endgame exists. The end of Endgame turns this film pointless, because the only true point of this movie is the relationship between Steve and Bucky that's the biggest takeaway from the whole thing, but then you have the end of Endgame where Steve just leaves Bucky.

I hated this film before I saw Endgame but after.....I never plan to watch Civil War again but if I did I'm pretty sure I'd self combust cause I'd be so angry I'd scream every time Steve appeared cause that son of a bitch ends up leaving; tears the whole team apart only to end up leaving his friend behind in the end.

I hate this film, I hate everything about it, well that's not true I love the Tony and Peter stuff, but aside from a couple of things I hate this movie, someone give me time stone I'm eliminating it from the timeline.

So, there you go those are my thoughts on CA: CW.

In conclusion, I am Team Neither on the Accords, Team Tony on everything else, Steve I still like you but this movie demoted you in my eyes and makes me wanna punch you in the throat.

#i clearly had a lot to say #anon do you see the pandora's box you've opened #anti captain america civil war #anti civil war #anti cacw #steve rogers critical #pro tony stark #mcu negativity #mcu fandom critical #wanda maximoff critical #anti steve rogers #i'm not anti steve but i did say this post would be properly tagged #non spn #anon #ask #long post

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brownjet-archive · 4 years

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why the fandom doesn’t let katara express her trauma

there are two very simple things here: misogony, and racism.

as i just said in this post, all other characters in the show are allowed to express their trauma! Let’s break that down shall we!

Let’s start with Aang!

There is absolutely nobody who can dispute this, Aang has so much trauma. He is the sole survivor of a targeted genocide against the Air Nomads. Important things to remember in terms of Aang’s trauma, he is a twelve-year-old boy, and became the youngest master airbender (lok spoilers, he is surpassed by his grandaughter), and because of that the elders of the Air Nomads thought that they should inform Aang, again a TWELVE-YEAR-OLD (normally he would’ve been told when he was 16) that he was the avatar (the most powerful being) and that a war was potentially brewing, and that he would need to begin his avatar training. Aang, obviously scared, betrayed, and understanding the responsibilities of being the avatar, did a thing that is understandable for a twelve year old: he ran away.

And his actions will always haunt him; he will always live with the trauma of being the sole survivor of the genocide against his people, and in order to honor the memories of his people, Aang does his very best to always preserve the culture of the Air Nomads. And while, he is criticized for preserving his culture (shut up about how you wanted him to kill Ozai! shut up about saying aang might’ve killed people before! shut up! it’s not funny, and it says you don’t respect aang’s values, and if you can’t respect a cartoon’s values, how are you going to respect the value’s of people of color!!), but he is never criticized for talking about his trauma. Mostly because everyone watching can realize what horrible things he has experienced.

That’s about as much as people can process, and in their minds Aang remains a goofy child, forgetting the pain, anger, and trauma he experiences, and the fact that he chooses to forgive. He chooses to let go of his anger. He chooses to be kind. And within Aang, he cannot be both kind and angry because it would tear him apart. Aang chooses to be silly, goofy, and kind, because those are the values he was taught by his people, and that is the person he wants to be.

Let’s move onto Toph!

Everybody loves Toph because she invented a new bending discipline, she’s a badass, she’s rude, she’s disabled, and she’s hilarious. The thing about Toph is, she’s a hardass. She is stubborn, like a rock. She is grounded, and knows her power, and is never in any way humbled by a loss of power. She is a force to be reckoned with, and she knows this, and she loves fighting, loves bending, and has no shame about being apologetically herself. Wow, it’s almost like, she and Katara have the exact same values and are both the most powerful benders of their respect elements!

So, the thing is, up until she met the gaang, Toph wasn’t allowed to be herself in any way shape or form. So the first time she has freedom, the thing she craves, she gives in and lets herself be who she is. And she never fails to be herself.

Her stubbornness and Katara’s stubbornness are the catalysts of their rather tempestuous relationship. Both of them are bossy, but before meeting Toph, Katara had been the leader, had been the loudest and most outspoken, but upon meeting Toph there was someone with a similar volatile temper to her own, but rather than being another parental figure, Toph filled the role of the “wild child.” Suddenly the dynamic of the gaang was shifted away from Katara, and now there are two big stubborn forces at odds with each other: one about doing the fun thing and the other about doing the correct thing.

And the thing is, when they are not at odds with each other, they are the ones who have the most fun, they are the ones who work the best as a team, and they are the ones you want to have on your side. But when they are at odds with each other, they are volatile, and snappy, and rude.

But the thing is, Toph is allowed to do that. She’s allowed to do that because it fits in with her character as the “tomboy.” It fits in with her doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Toph is the most accomplished earthbender by the time we meet her, and the only time we have ever seen her struggle with her earthbending was when she invented metalbending.

Toph is allowed to be loud, rude, and express the trauma of not being herself, because that is a very common trauma, especially among children of color, and lgbtq children. By rejecting her old life, by being apologetically herself, she takes on the trauma of rejecting all aspects of her femininity, something that again, is very relatable. Whereas Katara doesn’t have that trauma.

Toph’s trauma is accepted, and talked about and it is because she is a character in who people can see themselves in, and that makes people like her more.

Where is Suki?

So, the thing about Suki, is especially since the revival, people are making sure that Suki is included, and talk about her a lot. It’s just cause she’s so amazing, and we are all probably just a little bit in love with her.

While Suki is an important character, her arc within the narrative isn’t one that we, the audience, get to experience a lot. She is allowed to be kind, and emotional, and she wears makeup and embraces femininity, but she is also established as one of the most, if not the most, powerful and important characters.

But because people are talking about Suki, her trauma at being a prisoner of war is being talked about. It’s not being talked about on a large scale, but it is being acknowledged and validated as real and actual trauma. But the other thing is, Suki herself doesn’t really talk about it. Not because she’s closed off, but because she doesn’t have the amount of screen time that any of the other characters have.

So this is kinda my disappointing end to the piece about Suki’s trauma because unfortunately there wasn’t a lot that happened within the show, and the show doesn’t have her resolving it in any way.

Now the Fire Nation people! Zuko!

I actually really don’t want to talk about Zuko because Zuko’s trauma is always talked about, and it’s always the first thing white people bring up when talking about the show. “Zuko’s redemption arc was the best thing ever!” Yeah, it was the best redemption arc to ever exist, but he and Katara are literally the exact same person! They have similar traumas, they are mean, rude, and explosive, and y’all eat that shit up for Zuko, but give Katara a hard time about her own trauma!!! It’s the misogyny and the racism.

Okay, I may write another post about Zuko’s trauma from my lens, because it is done well, and that’s part of why it is talked about, but the other part is it physically hurts white people to care about a brown girl in the way they care about an emo boy. For clarification, I love Zuko, but uh......this is just not it.

Azula!

Finally some good fucking food.

Azula is probably somehow the character who’s trauma is talked about second most and second least. Some people refuse to believe that she has trauma, but the fact of the matter is she grew up in the same environment that Zuko did, however it presented as better. Azula had “friends” and from what we’ve seen, Zuko did not. Azula had the attention of her father, and Zuko did not. Azula was a prodigy, and Zuko was not.

The thing is, Azula is shown to be one of the smartest characters in the show. She was not blind to the abuse that Zuko received, and she grew up listening to and parroting her father who’s only use for her was as a weapon in his favor. She knew that Zuko was being abused, and saw how horrible it was, and started doing everything in her power to be the most spectacular, and Ozai’s favorite, so that what happened to Zuko didn’t happen to her. Did she contribute to the abuse that Zuko received? Yes. Did she care that Zuko was being abused? No.

The thing is, Azula grew up hearing Ozai tell her that she was better than Zuko. Azula grew up knowing that her mother probably didn’t love her. Azula grew up with their uncle favoring Zuko, and not bothering to know her at all. Azula grew up with being told that she was better than Zuko but with clear examples that she was much harder to love than him, so she took the “love” from the person who bothered to show her attention.

To her, Zuko was everything she shouldn’t ever be. Which was why, her mental deterioration sped up when she felt she was being treated like Zuko. If she felt she was being treated like Zuko, she felt that she was being treated without love, and really without Ozai she wouldn’t have had anyone else. She had lost all the important people in her life; or rather they had all turned on her, and it was the last straw. It reinforced her narrative that she was difficult to love, reinforced that Ozai’s love was conditional, and affirmed to the audience that Zuko wasn’t who she wanted to be like.

People kind of readily accept that Azula has a mental illness, and while it is generally accepted that all of the characters aren’t always mentally stable, it isn’t generally accepted that their lack of mental stability, could in fact be a mental illness.

The thing is, like I’ve said before, Azula’s trauma is either talked about a lot or a little, depending on really if people are individually fans of her character. It’s honestly just more of a wlw thing, (i am a wlw!), cause we’re all about those unhinged ladies, so like Azula’s trauma is a weird topic in the way it gets addressed by the fandom.

Ty Lee

People stan The Beach, and people love Ty Lee cause she is cute and feminine. Her character arc is similar in Suki’s in the sense of how it is written and portrayed, but not necessarily in terms of Ty Lee’s actual character development. Ty Lee, like Suki, and like Mai, while being important and influential characters, don’t have a lot of screentime in which we see character development. However, what Ty Lee and Mai have that Suki does not, is The Beach.

The Beach is kind of the first and only time where we see Ty Lee talking about her trauma. In previous episodes she mentions running away, she is seen having insecurity about the Kyoshi Warriors being prettier than them, but in The Beach it is explained. She, like Toph, was scared of not being able to be herself. But in the way of wanting attention. She had six identical sisters, and felt that the only way she could stand out was to run away and join the circus. And she was happy doing that. And then she was forced out of it, but she, like Azula, knew that she would have to remain on the good side of the person in power, which for her, just happened to be Azula.

But the thing is, Ty Lee doesn’t have the intensity that Azula does. She portrays herself as loyal to Azula, yet wishy-washy in terms of her own personal choices, and that works in her favor when she chooses Mai, a choice that stuns all of them. And then, we don’t see her till the end, and by then she feels comfortable enough with who she is that she joins the Kyoshi Warriors who have a uniform that makes them identical.

Ty Lee’s trauma is talked about, though not as much because again, most of it happens on screen, but i haven’t seen people invalidate her trauma, the way it happens with Katara.

Mai

Mai is the only other character who’s trauma is invalidated. The thing is, she does not have the stubbornness of Toph, the femininity of Ty Lee, or the intensity of Azula, so she, like Katara is placed into an other category. She is kind of a wild card, because she is so emotionally closed off, and retains the emo and depressed teenager trope. And again, her arc isn’t given the same weight of the other characters’ so the only time we even learn that her trauma has to do with the fact that her mother was overbearing to protect her father’s political career was in The Beach.

Listen, I do have more to say but if I even attempt to this will become far too long (like it isn’t already), anyways I love my girl Mai and I am sorry to give her the short end of the stick, but if I write about her longer, I will forget my points that I was going to make.

Sokka and Katara.

So, the situation of Katara and Sokka is vastly different than each and every other members of the main cast. Why? Their geography.

Like all the other main members, they were pretty socially isolated, but unlike the others they were completely and totally isolated by geography. Yes, Suki was on Kyoshi Island, but that was more of a strategic isolation to avoid involvement in the war, but the point is, Sokka and Katara are totally isolated, and they probably think they won’t ever leave the south pole.

It’s played off for comedy when Katara introduces Aang to the village and you see how small the village is. From what we know, all the men of the tribe have left, and Hakoda, their father, is the chieftan, so therefore each Katara and Sokka felt they had a role to fill within the social dynamic of all the men leaving, in terms of how to maintain the village dynamic.

Sokka and Katara are by stark difference much older than the children of the village, and in fact in the flashback in the Southern Raiders, they are the only children that are visible. This means that, they have no peers. And the thing is, if you have siblings you do not consider them your peers.

So the roles that they feel they need to fill are much different than that of each others. Sokka feels he needs to fill the role of the men in the village; they are vulnerable without the men, and their only and biggest defense is that they live in the heart of the South Pole, and it is incredibly difficult for Fire Navy ships to navigate within the South Pole. So while there isn’t a likely chance of them being invaded, especially since the genocide of the Southern Waterbenders, there still resides a huge fear within Sokka that he is the last line of defense for his village.

By the way the village reacts when Zuko invades, it is clear that their worst fears have been realized, and all the adults know that Sokka isn’t enough for their defense, and he and Katara know that too. But for Sokka, it is important to be able to protect his village, even if he knows there is no chance of him winning. It’s about proving that he is strong enough to lay down his life for the people he loves, and that is the role he stepped into.

But the fact of the matter was it seemed pointless to step into that role, and for Katara, who tried to fulfill the role of their mother, it seemed like Sokka was avoiding doing chores.

The thing about Katara’s trauma is that it’s a culmination of being a survivor of genocide, loosing her mother, and loosing her father.

Despite the fact that Katara and Sokka are siblings, their traumas are incredibly different and they react in completely different ways.

Sokka is the most emotionally closed off character in the show. How? He is the only character that doesn’t readily give into their emotions. I’m not saying other characters don’t show restraint, but Sokka is the only character who doesn’t readily cry, isn’t ready to get angry, isn’t ready to take up space; at least not in the way it matters. Sokka is grumpy, and silly, and easily annoyed, but those are much more surface level emotions, and that goes back to not having any peers while trying to be the protector of the village.

Whereas, Katara is the most emotional character on the show. She is angry, rude, mean, happy, shallow, sensitive, kind, determined, stubborn, and snooty. And in the sense of, every emotion Katara ever feels she feels with every fiber of her being. Katara often moves when she talks, and in times of heightened emotions, before she becomes a master waterbender, all the water in her vicinity would react to her, heightening how much she feels.

It makes people uncomfortable to see a brown girl on screen who is angry. And the thing is, Katara and Sokka, and the Water Tribe members are the only characters in atla that unambiguously look like people of color (except for guru pathik but we’re not gonna touch that.) Despite the fact that every single character in atla is a person of color, only members of the Water Tribes are the characters that are unambiguously people of color. Every other character, in comparison are incredibly lighter.

But the thing is people forget the difference between Sokka and Katara. Katara has trauma surrounded her heritage of being a Southern Waterbender, a trauma that nobody else in her village shares. Not only is she the only waterbender in the South Pole, her status as waterbender is a symbol of hope among her people, and among herself. So not only is Katara trying to fill the role of her mother, dealing with being a survivor of genocide, but her ability is also seen as a symbol of hope for her people, and is also something that she knows will likely result in her being captured by the Fire Nation. So not only is it something that inspires hope, but it is also something that need to be kept a secret, and that is a lot to pin on a fourteen year old girl.

I should just say that I am not saying any one of these characters has more trauma than the other, and in no way am I comparing their trauma to each others. That is not productive, and is not the point. I am saying that Katara’s trauma about her mother is not as flat as white people make it out to be, but even if it was, there would be no excuse to criminalize her for expressing the fact that her mother was killed violently in a war that lasted for 100 years. Just shut up! If you think Katara expressing herself is annoying, shut up! She’s a 14 year old brown girl with trauma, and the way she is the one who is annoying is so transparent!

#katara #sokka #toph beifong #zuko #azula #mai #ty lee #aang #suki #atla #atla meta #i know this is long but im tired im mad and like i need to yell about it

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blakegallo · 3 years

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i didn't think i was gonna have to write one of these this week, but apparently i do. i'm gonna throw it under a cut bc i know it's gonna get long and ramble-y and touch on a lot of shit i've already touched on. so there's that.

i want to start with the reason i think s5 has been so horrible for me is the blackout. now not even what we got with the blackout, but i think bc we knew so little of it it really put a lot of speculation on my radar that was never there previously. so if this level of spec has always happened, i had been blissfully unaware. aside from maybe the eddieana breakup every other fan theory i saw wasn't even close to something that happened on the show. but what i have seen is a doubling down every week [ or at least up until we finally got that synopsis for wrapped in red ] for how the buddie long con was actually still going to be revealed, despite what was happening every week in the show.

i've also seen a level of making every other character's storyline about the buddie long con in a way that is just... do we watch the same show? any time some other character has a moment to themselves i've seen it added into meta and analysis about how it plays into the long con... and that' just... that actually doesn't make sense just all on its own.

in these posts are always discussions, disclaimers, about trusting the writers, but that feels pretty at odds with how quick the fandom is to tear down things that the writers are including. now i don't think that everyone on the planet earth is going to ship bucktaylor. i'm fine with that... but if people can take sonia's miracle moment in broken and make it a buddie longing glance or buck being in awe of two men dying together they were so in love and make it about how he looks at eddie [ something i knwo i've done in sets and have seen other creators do ], then i would think we can look at how he's actually fighting to be with a woman he not only demonstrates he loves but admits to loving and is happy to do so?? call me crazy, i think it might just back a lick of sense...

and what doesn't make sense is how this is all just the long con, buck's flying halfway across the country to be with her so that eddie can spend 5b pining after him, broken and hopeless. or that the christopher/eddie discord in wrapped in red is about buck dating taylor when that's been something that's happening for months. or how taylor would suddenly be against eddie and/or christopher being in buck's life and making a big deal out of it because she's already said that she knows how important they are. she's the one that told buck his life was nothing but meaningful relationships. that's a taylor kelly quote???? the fandom's obsession with painting taylor kelly as this evil woman that's going to hurricane through buck's life and ruin everything is just, so at odds with how the show has portrayed her? as a viewer if you want to be stuck in the parking lot at the end of dosed that's fine, but between buck actually and literally every other appearance she has made on the show you cannot point to a time where any character has had an issue with buck seeing her, or thought she was going to use any of them for anything. IN FACT the last time one of them was trying to use the other, it was buck... and both of them have clearly moved on from that.

i also really want to talk about the fandom's idea that buck and eddie talk about the hard shit. because i think the writers took a lot of shortcuts with this relationship, the fandom filled in a lot of the holes and now expect the fanon to be reflected.

now i'm not going to say that buck/eddie aren't important to each other, because that much is clear and is supported.

what isn't is this idea they talk about the hard shit. i'd argue that post tsunami it's the closest they get. it's still a lot of light teasing from eddie, but we do get him telling buck there's no one else he trusts with christopher, which is seemingly only because buck spent all day trying to find him bc they only have a handful of moments together in s2 where they have a pretty average friendship. then they have the kitchen scene post lawsuit... where eddie simply deflects a lot of that and buck attempts again to apologizes for how he handled things. despite being in the right, bobby did treat him differently, blood thinners or no. i feel like if you want to file a suit, file the suit.... and then the will.

the fucking will, that the writers never should have given the fandom bc y'all took that shit and ran to high heaven with it. again, it was the closest time that eddie's getting to matching the emotional vulnerability of buck in the friendship. i also just want to say that all eddie did in that moment was make buck a legal god parent. an adult figure in a child's life does not equal that child having a parental role. if you wanted to make a parallel to how buck hangs out with chris to how bobby was with may/harry in s2 then i guess you could, but that would be important to note that even there bobby was saying he was not a parent, not even a step parent, like athena said he was just fun friend bobby. regardless, christopher seeing buck as an adult he can trust also does not a parental figure make... and no one would ever break up with someone because the person they're dating is the god parent to their friend's kid? being a god parent is a pretty average thing in the world, and the fact that the show would have to kill off eddie for it to even be something to worry about would be the stupidest motivating factor to a break up and so to see it continued in theory after theory just gives the impression of grasping at straws and not at canon.

i also want to briefly talk about bobby's little speech in 509 to buck about his previous relationship. because i can see how it echoes what that old man told buck in buck actually, again, the same episode where taylor was the party not ready to commit to buck and now they are in a place where they are both ready and actually doing the work to show that they're ready. but his piece about going along to get along i think only fits with ali. with abby, yeah, he stumbled into that, but watching s1 again a few days ago i think you can really see him working to make that into something it was just never going to be, bc for five episodes he and abby weren't on the same page and after that fifth episode connie britton was already three seconds from leaving. ali, though, when you watch buck actually again, definitely feels like the rebound girl. it's even more clear when she doesn't actually show up in the show again until buck is moving into the loft and she's breaking up with him, and the only time anyone calls her his girlfriend i'm pretty sure it's the 118 when they're teasing him on a call/in the truck. bc they definitely go out of their way not to label themselves in front of the real estate agent. so i think it's true that in the limited relationships we've seen from buck he falls into them, and her certainly didn't do the work with abby and he hadn't here, this was a key change for buck.

and even if bucktaylor magically disappears in the future, that was a development for buck.. not for a ship.

just like not everything that ever happens to eddie is about buck. or for a ship. it can be about eddie...

but i have dumped enough thoughts into the universe for now. i retain the right to amend these thoughts with additional text posts at a later time if i so choose.

#monte has thoughts #911 #fandom wank #just a warning it's v long and v ramble-y bc i'm v annoyed

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shan2-d2 · 4 years

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Carry On? I Guess?

I want to start my take on the Supernatural series finale by talking about Rogue One (and if you haven’t seen either, spoilers ahead).

Everyone dies in Rogue One. Every single character that we have come to know and love-- EVERY. SINGLE. ONE-- dies. Even the droid. They are sacrificed to the cause, all of them dying brutal battlefield deaths. It’s particularly tragic because they all came together from broken lives, hearts, and homes, forming their own little rebel family in the short time that they knew each other, only to have that tiny bit of happiness cut short.

It’s heartbreaking.

However.

It’s also beautiful and poignant. Somehow, even after all six of the main characters die, the film ends on a hopeful note. Their deaths will not be in vain. And sure, part of that is because we know that A New Hope comes directly after, but it’s how they die that changes the tone. For all of them, it is a choice. Not only that, but a calculated choice, not just a throwaway self-sacrifice. One sacrifice leads to the next step in the plan, which requires another sacrifice, and so and so forth, until the mission is complete. All of them are at peace with their sacrifices, and they die heroes.

My point here is that the death of a character at the end of their story isn’t always a bad thing, if handled well.

The deaths of Sam and Dean Winchester were not handled well.

I’m hesitant to say “written well” because I know that TV series have production and network roadblocks to maneuver, and I obviously don’t know what went on behind the scenes. But the fact that the plot of the finale was approved by enough people to get it to air is kind of mind-boggling to me. Did they… did they really think that fans would be okay with it?

Like, I just cried (sobbed, at some points) for two hours over this episode, and I’m not talking happy crying. All I kept thinking was, “This is so cruel”.

It felt like a fucking funeral, instead of the celebration it should have been.

Listen, Dean’s my favorite, he’s my Fictional Soul Twin™. I went into the finale with a slight inclination that Dean would die. I knew I would be sad if that happened, but I thought that, after 15 seasons, they’d send him off in a way that would both honor his character and bring him peace (he deserves it, after all).

And okay, yes, he did find peace in heaven. I’m fine with that plot point. But the way he got there was just… horrible.

I mean, this whole season was about choice, right? Making their own choices, free from Chuck’s machinations. If Dean had, OH FOR EXAMPLE, made the choice to die to save Cas from the Empty, that would’ve been an honorable (or, y’know, LOGICAL) death. It would’ve been sad, but beautiful.

But he didn’t choose to get impaled by a rusty rebar on a simple hunt gone wrong. It just happened, and then he just decided to… give up? I guess?

Sure, the conversation between Sam and Dean was touching. But then we had to watch Sam mourn his brother FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, with a faceless wife and child that hopefully(?) filled the void that Dean left behind. It was painful.

And again, Sam didn’t get to choose when or why he stopped hunting with his brother. It was forced upon him, and he just… went with it, for some reason?? Even worse, we watched everything unique and special about Sam disappear into his grief over Dean. We see him in his brother’s room, his brother’s car, using his brother’s cell, taking over responsibility of his brother’s dog.

Smart, resourceful, sensitive Sam Winchester-- the man who resisted Lucifer, Rowena’s talented protégé, etc. etc.-- reduced to a shadow of his brother’s death.

You know what would’ve been wonderful for Sam? If he had watched his brother go peacefully to Heaven with Cas, and started a life with Eileen. Maybe still hunting, maybe not-- they could’ve made that choice together and had a beautiful family, ending up in heaven later on.

What the fuck?

The most frustrating part of all of this is that all they had to do to make the episode amazing was bring back Cas and Eileen. Like, that’s ALL. This perfect, beautiful ending was in their grasp and they just… completely botched it. Not only did Sam, Dean, Cas, and Eileen deserve better (and the actors that played them, for that matter), but the fans did, too.

That’s the most disappointing part of all of it, I think. These characters were so beloved because they always kept fighting. I mean, they literally talked about it in the retrospective! It’s such an important aspect of the show, and it’s helped so many fans in their own, real-life struggles. Hell, I’m one of them.

Watching Dean, the fictional character that I relate to more than any other, give up that fight broke my heart. All that suicidal ideation and self-loathing he battled, all the growth he made over the years, everything he went through, and it all ended with an ill-placed piece of metal. What lesson is anyone supposed to learn from that? “Keep fighting... until you don’t want to, I guess, and then wait for a random injury to take you out”?

It worries me, honestly, that fans who have used Sam and Dean for strength that they can’t find on their own will internalize this ending and lose hope for themselves (I say that because I thought it myself, tbh). I mean, even apart from that, this kind of ending was the LAST thing any of us needed in 2020. We’ve lost so much lately, did we have to lose not only our fictional heroes, but everything they stood for, too?

Man, I’m so sorry, SPN fandom. I’ve never really been involved, always just dipped my toe in every once in a while, but I’m with you tonight. Especially the Destiel shippers and LGBTQ+ fans, since they did you especially dirty. But try to remember the good parts, the positives that you can still take away.

Write those fics.

Draw that fan art.

And yeah, please keep fighting, regardless of what happened in the finale.

Our Winchester brothers would, after all.

#spn #supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #spn family #ugh i'm so sad #carry on #15x20 spoilers #15x20

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aclosetfan · 3 years

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For the Salty asks: 1, 3, 5 and 6?

Thanks so much for playing along! Ima be real with you 2 out of the 4 questions you asked really opened up a can of worms for me, and I’m so sorry. I put the less stressful ones first, and the other two are under the cut! Anyway, these were super fun to answer, but plz don’t hate me for it!! 😂😂

for anyone wondering, here’s the ask list: Salty Asks List

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

lmao yeah. It’s petty, but honestly, people’s personal morals really bleed through into their fandom opinions, and I’m not willing to put up with any unnecessary hate, especially in environments that are supposed to be fun. I’ve even blocked a few people. In the ppg fandom specifically, I’ve blocked a person who, I guess, thought it was necessary to try to gate-keep with racist/sexist/etc. terminology and ideologies, and I truly don’t have time for that 🤷‍♀️ (a lot of people probs know who I’m vaguing, but if you don’t, you’re lucky)

I can’t say I’ve ever unfollowed anyone for any innocent/not-in-conflict-with-my-morals fandom opinions. Usually, if I don’t agree with something, I just keep scrolling because lol whatever. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.

but ngl I have unfollowed people who just get annoying 😬😬 lol

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

I went into this fandom without having too many preferences, so I didn’t have a pairing that I’ve previously hated!

I guess I could say that while I never really hated them, the color-mixing and color-clashing ships weren’t ever on my radar until I came across the fandom content. Now, I really like them! Particularly, Brick and Bubbles!

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Before anyone gets pissed off at me, before you get into my answer for this question, I’d like to really stress that you’ve got to go into it with absolutely zero fanon context. Like, erase all your headcanons from your mind. I’m dead serious. Because I literally DO NOT get why ANY rrbxppg ship would realistically work ever.

Okay, canonically, these six little funky science experiments were dead set on ending each other. The boys were absolutely horrible to the girls. And the girls literally KILL the boys. I know in fairytale romances, nothing stops love, but bruh, it’s hard to come back from murder 😂 And yeah, I know Clipsville showed the girls and the boys together as older teenagers, and they weren’t trying to kill each other, but that was an obvious gag. In the documentary, it was revealed that that particular “clip” was made because a bunch of people wanted the boys and girls to interact again, and CN gave into the demand. (also, lol I know it super embarrassing, but I did watch the documentary. I just really like Craig McCracken) I just don’t think that realistically a canon pairing between the two sets of triplets would ever be considered a healthy relationship.

Also, ethically, I just—okay listen, I go back and forth with this allllll the time, but the ppgxrrb ships make me confront the “Would I sleep with my clone?” question way too often. Depending on my self-esteem, the answer changes each time. Like sometimes I’m like fuck yeah I would! Other times I’m like, ew, no, I’d have to consider my clone as a twin! I know counterparts aren’t technically clones, BUT the boys really do come across as identical to the girls in the show. The only difference really is their moral alignment (I’m nixing any gender argument). So, I’m like, omg, can I honestly pair these six together in any way??? Are they too close to each other genetically in some sense for this to be morally right??? Like if you ship Brick and Buttercup together, would that just essentially be shipping Brick and Butch/Blossom and Buttercup together in some messed up way??? Is Brick just Blossom, and Blossom just Brick?? Is it better just to ship color-matching instead of mixing???

On top of all of that, wouldn’t the boys and girls be pseudo cousins since Mojo was the Professor’s lab monkey? Technically, in canon, Mojo ends up being both sets of triplets “creator,” so could the rrb and the ppg be considered siblings of some sort? Some of you are probably like, wow, calm down. Stop thinking about it. They’re science experiments. It’s not so deep. Which I get, but I can’t stop, so let me hit you with something ten times worse: should the girls (or the boys) actually be considered biological siblings? Does sugar, spice, and everything nice make you genetically related? Nothing put in the stirring pot was organic—just a bunch of chemicals. If you ship the boys and girls together this could be a good thing! BUT, but, could some sick fuck use this information to somehow justify shipping siblings (ppgxppg or rrbxrrb) together??? This is a literal nightmare to think about!!

All in all, I can’t think about these pairings too much without getting caught up in the logistics of their existence even if they’re fictional lmaoooo! If it wasn’t for the fandom, I wouldn’t ship them together at all. I just think it’s amazing that the ships took off like they did lol, because their literal (fictional) existence is just one giant mind fuck for me. Anyway, I ship them at the end of the day, but tbh I do it with a bit of a guilty conscience. Is it morally correct to ship clone-like counterparts? Or should counterparts be treated like twins? Does it even fucking matter at the end of the day, it’s just fiction? I don’t know the right answer. But I do know the pairings don’t make sense.

Aside from the ppgxrrb, I don’t think there are many other BIG fandom wide pairings. Still, I just want to say that I don’t get why people ship Ace and Buttercup together. The pairing sounds off a few major alarms in my head for obvious reasons. There’s also a bunch of crack ships that involve crossovers with other cartoons. Generally, I don’t mind them, but it seems popular to ship Aku (from Samurai Jack) and Blossom together. And I’m real sorry to those devoted shippers, but again I do NOT get it. I see a lot of romantic fan art depicting romantic situations with Blossom still drawn as a child, and like I get Aku is an immortal demon, so “age is just a number,” but again, BIG ALARMS go off in my head.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

🙃 🙃 Kind of don’t want to answer this, but I will anyway because only a few people actually read my blog lolol, so lol, yep! And it’s the reds. Don’t shoot me lol. When I was in middle school, I got into this fandom, forgot about it, and then came back when I was hit by a round of nostalgia. I’m finishing up college now, and I can confidentially say that the fanon content for the reds hasn’t changed one bit. Or the demand for it.

I tended to find that a lot of red content follows many archetypes that I’m just not into. Their stories can get a real cringey, real fast. Blossom is always written like this “perfect, except she’s not (but she really is)” character. Like she’s the girl you WISH you could be, but she’s also going through a shit ton of stuff that no person IRL would be able to handle without having a mental breakdown. And sometimes, in some stories, Blossom does have a mental breakdown, but in a sexy way, so she’s still perfect. Generally, there’s still something problematic about Blossom that makes it easy for a reader to relate to her on some level, unlike the way people write Bubbles. And then there’s Brick, who’s broody, hyper-possessive or jealous, and hot figuratively and literally (gotta love the fire/ice trope). He’s the only boy—no! Wait!—the only person who could ever possibly outwit Blossom, and he is just so undeniably attracted to Blossom. They’re the smart power couple that should honestly just hook-up in Chapter One to save everybody time, but they don’t. Nah, they’ve got to survive at least two love triangles before they even consider admitting they’re attracted to each other.

And don’t get me wrong, none of that’s bad, but there are a million fanfics that go through the same song and dance with these two. And it’s kind of easy to tell when someone’s hardcore projecting onto Blossom because the type of person they’re personally attracted to is the way they write Brick. And I’m not knocking anyone self-projecting onto characters, sometimes people got to do that to give themselves a fun mental break, but bro, I don’t want to read about it. For one, smart broody assholes aren’t my type. Maybe when I was in middle school, but not anymore. And two, it’s just not interesting to me, which is a real shame since the reds are a majority of the fanon content.

Maybe if I found more red stories where the plot isn’t character-driven but plot-driven, so I see the romance between these two characters in a context where it’s not the main focus of the story, it would solve my issue with the pairing. I haven’t found many fics like that, though.

I can’t really think of any reds fic where I’m like ey, this aint bad unless it has a “major character death” tag attached to it lmao (which are always plot driven stories). However, in all honesty, since I’ve stayed away from red content for a while now, I don’t know the current state of things. Maybe there’s been a load more development for these two, or people have broken away from the same plotlines, but I’m too busy to check. I do browse people’s fic rec lists from time to time, but it sort of feels like everyone just puts the same fics on their lists and moves on.

And before someone’s like, “well, you can say all this about the greens or the blues,” just know I’m fully aware. The greens make me cringe too because there’s a shit ton of possessive and abusive storylines filling their story tags. And what makes me super uncomfortable is how people make Buttercup hit Butch or call him derogatory names, oftentimes unprompted. I don’t know why people make Buttercup such an unlikeable and overly aggressive person. I also don’t get why they make Butch some perverted idiot, but to each their own, I guess? Still, I see these green-character patterns most often in red-focused stories, which is another reason why I avoid them. I’ve found a lot of green-focused content that strays from the abusive tropes I try to avoid. Considerably less than I’d like, but the greens are typically the b-plot pairing, so that’s to be expected. Personally, I’d really like to see more content with the greens finding some kind of inner peace, and recently, I’ve seen a few fics that have tried to tackle this concept.

And lol, if you’ve read some of my posts before, you already know that I think the blues are an underdeveloped fanon pairing. The fandom can’t ruin that pairing for me because it never does anything substantial with it.

Anyway, at the end of the day, I’m just personally not into the way the reds are popularly written, but I get why people are and that’s good with me.

#salty ask game #lisathefan #an ethical debate in MY ppg post??? It's more likely then you think!#long post #ppg pairings #and all my issues with them #also im a firm believer in the block button being your friend!

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unwiltingblossom · 5 years

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Hey there. Sasusaku may know me, but Zutara probably doesn’t. I’m not in the ATLA fandom, but I have observed enough to notice something that intrigues me about Zutara, aside from the fact I’d totally board the ship if I were foolish enough to watch a show knowing I was going to fail (actually, consider me proto-Zutara I guess because I think I liked it in the movie. Maybe I liked Kataang. Maybe I liked both. Can’t remember. moving on.)

I think it’s interesting that somewhat unintentionally Sasusaku and Zutara illustrate pretty clearly the difference between Japanese fandom and western fandom, in a way that Sasusaku already shows to a lesser degree.

There’s a bunch of fundamental differences in these two ships, I’m aware, but at their core, I feel they’re much the same. Call it ‘same energy’, if you will. Yet in one story they end up together and the writer keeps adding more things to insist that they are, and in the other one they end up apart and the writers keep trying to delegitimize the pair more and more.

In Sasusaku’s case, not only do they marry and have a child, the writer has stated that he always intended them to be together, and given various interviews and novels and mini comics for them.

In Zutara’s case, the writers seem to contradict themselves claiming they didn’t plan it, and that while it’s interesting, they mock anyone who actually thinks it would be a good idea or would happen, claiming their relationship would be unhealthy and unhappy.

Now this is interesting, because there are parallels with how fandom reacted to Sasusaku (and if ATLA ever got released in Japan I’d be curious how the fandom reacted to Zutara). In Japan, Sasusaku has always been one of the, if not the, top ships. Mostly what beats it out is slash, because fujoshi are gonna fujosh. Fans love it, went crazy for its ending, and loved all the scenes it got leading up, joking about them getting married and such offscreen.

In the west, however, while Sasusaku is still super popular, it gets a LOT of pushback. People like to insult it, insist it’s abusive and horrible, claim that Sasuke and Sakura could never be happy, and that anyone who honestly thinks they should be together should never get into a relationship for their own safety, because they’re romanticizing abusive relationships and will be hurt.

Sure sounds familiar, right?

Well, I’ll do you one better. Because you’ll see often the complaint that “I wish Sakura had just been strong and realized she didn’t need a man, becoming an independent etc” or “This is really harmful to Sakura’s character, because it forces her to abandon the things she loves and live subservient to Sasuke as some wife”

These are, almost without exception, lies. What they’re almost always saying is actually “I wish she would have grown up past Sasuke and married instead (Naruto/Lee/Kakashi/Sai/a girl), but if she couldn’t do that, then at LEAST she should have been alone!” they just cut off the first part because it reveals their bias.

And frankly, there’s a lot of parallel between Narusaku, who had a childhood crush on Sakura because a part of him thought she’d give him the recognition he needed and becomes the sage of six paths hero who saves the world from war in the end, and...well. Kataang. Which basically seems to have been a puppy crush on the first girl he met, that he nurtured into love over years as he became the Avatar hero who saved the world from war in the end. Both have a brother/sister or mother/kid relationship with the female in question through their quest (Sakura treats Naruto much like an annoying little brother and Naruto + Minato both recognize Sakura as ‘like his mother’, and Katara has a very motherly relationship with Aang most of the time until they start kissing)

Most importantly, I feel there’s a lot of parallels to be found in Sasusaku and Zutara.

Sasusaku runs on a baseline of Sasuke being extremely hostile and cold to everyone, refusing to let anyone in, and Sakura reaching out to him and through his defenses over and over despite this. She is the first person that he admits the reason for his behavior to -before Naruto or anyone else, he begins to explain to her that his brother killed everyone - and they have a mutual respect. Sasuke acknowledges her skills and smarts, and considers her to be the one light in his life, the ‘spring breeze’ and ‘the one who filled his lonely existence with love’. Despite this, he betrays her and everyone else, choosing his revenge over his happiness, but even through the many years of isolation and hatred, his response to Sakura always has a softness that isn’t there for anyone else. He saves her when he doesn’t need to, he listens to and responds to her before anyone else, and he even offers to let her go with him on his quest. Yes, it’s because she’s a healer who can replace Karin, but do you really think he couldn’t have used Naruto at his side, the other one the village rejected and turned against, who might want revenge? Juugo and Suigetsu aren’t healers, but he keeps them anyway because they’re useful. Sakura is the only person in the Leaf he offers to join him.

Anyway. Although they’re enemies most of the story, her love for him endures and she keeps trying to reach out to him. Every once in a while he responds, catching her when she falls, caring about her harm. The eventual nexus of their relationship is after his final battle with Naruto - which he puts her to sleep during, because she jumped in the way and almost got killed last time, and he doesn’t want her to do so this time - is her kneeling over him laying on his back, healing him, crying. He apologizes until she finally accepts his apology, and canonically this is the moment he realizes he loves her (though it’s much longer before he acts on this in a real way).

I won’t presume to fully summarize Zutara, because I am but an observer. However, I do know that they begin as enemies, that she is able to break through his cold shell with her kindness and compassion, so that he opens up to her about things he either never does to anyone else, or doesn’t to anyone else for a long time. I do know that he betrays her trust, and that they don’t truly mend fences for a long time because of their antagonistic relationship and betrayed trust. I also know that one of their later moments involves a scene where Zuko is on his back and she’s kneeling over him in tears, and he thanks her.

Plenty of details are different, but there’s all sorts of similar themes, notes, and visual parallels. Zuko’s appearance during later episodes looks very similar to Sasuke’s appearance after his duckbutt hair stage, Sakura’s color scheme is usually red and Sasuke’s is blue, and of course Katara is blue while Zuko is red. Sakura is a healer (I can’t think of anything water related, no), and Sasuke uses fire (when it’s not illusions or lightning). You can definitely make a convincing argument to say these relationships are pretty close to the same thing portrayed in different media with a different story shaping their behavior.

So then, why is it that one of them ended up together and has a happy family life and is considered to be the ‘good end’, while the other one didn’t end up together and is considered to be the ‘bad end’ were they to get together?

Why also did Kataang get together and become the ‘perfect’ couple that everyone should have seen coming and agree with, but Narusaku was nothing more than jokes to tease the audience with occasionally and was completely sunk multiple times in canon before they both married other people?

Well...I think it’s a difference of cultural sensibilities directly affecting the outcome of the same story.

In the west, essentially, the woman is the ‘prize’ for the hero at the end of the journey. If he finishes his homework and saves the day, his reward is the woman he’s been pining after for ages. It doesn’t matter whether she openly wants him or not, there will be little ‘checkpoints’ through the story where you see that secretly she does want him as he gets better and ‘more heroic’, so anything he does in trying to woo her is ‘acceptable effort’, essentially. And more importantly, the person who has love needs to ‘deserve’ that love. The heroine has to get with a ‘good’ person like the hero because the antihero isn’t ‘good enough’ for her. He’s the ‘bad boy’ that she flirts with but then grows out of so she can marry the nice guy instead. And it’s this to an extreme. If she marries the ‘bad boy’, then she’s consigning herself to a lifetime of abuse or unhappiness, because she can’t be happy with someone who isn’t as good as her. This is tripled if they have an antagonistic relationship, like if they’re at war with each other and have been enemies. (this doesn’t work in reverse. A bad girl can marry a good guy if she sufficiently redeems herself and goes good, because men can’t be abused in this cultural standard) Instead, the antihero generally ends up with a woman of similar morals if he marries - another bad girl turned good, another rogue figure, something like that. That’s because it’s what he deserves and in turn what she deserves.

Weirdly enough, it works in reverse for attractiveness - hot women marry down, but not hot men. But that’s neither here nor there right now. The point is, you can see how on this scale the ending NEEDS to be by western standards Kataang, Maiko, Narusaku, Sasukarin. The tarnished and dark man MUST marry the tarnished woman of ‘inferior morals’, while the good and pure hero MUST marry the heroine, because she must be his prize for his heroism and success, and he is the only one worthy of her goodness, therefore the only one who can make her happy.

In Japan, it’s just not really like that. The hero doesn’t need to get the girl in the end as his reward, and in fact it’s often the girl who gets the man she’s always wanted by the end of the story. This is because ‘patience and dedication’ is seen as more praiseworthy and deserving of reward. Because the heroine stuck with the love she had even when that person wasn’t ‘deserving’ of it yet, her love should blossom and be returned to her. Much more focus is on enduring and quietly continuing onward in spite of difficulty, basically. Orihime must get Ichigo because she loved him from the beginning. Same with Naru and Keitaro, Hinata and Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, Juvia and Grey. They ‘make their love choose them’ instead. In fact, who the man wants is sometimes just played off as a joke, such as in Black Clover where Asta is determined to marry a nun while there’s a princess not-so-secretly swooning over him. It’s not hard to guess how that story is going to end.

Anyway, because the qualifications of what makes an ‘acceptable romance target’ differs in Japan, worrying about whether the girl is ‘good enough’ or the man is ‘good enough’ for the romance is less important, only whether they’re dedicated or patient enough.

It’s not saying one is better than the other, whether using the man as the prize or the woman as the prize is the correct way of writing it - and there are exceptions, plenty of Naruto’s couples are written just because they go well together, there’s western stories where the girl gets the bad boy after he’s redeemed himself and it’s fine - but the differences are there to be seen.

And, weirdly enough, I think is what ultimately determined the different endings between Naruto and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

#zutara #sasusaku #naruto #atla #fandoms #ooc #long post #meta

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artistshadow · 5 years

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Supergirl 5x11 "Back To The Future - Part 1" My Thoughts and Opinions. *Spoilers on the last episode so of*

Now that I have watched the Supergirl 5x11 episode and have had time to collect my thoughts I'm ready to give my opinions on the "queer-baiting" and the *SPOILER* whole William asking Kara out on a date in the next episode.

Okay so first off I really enjoyed the episode! So happy to see my boy/child Winn!! Jeremy Jordan killed it in this episode playing both Winn and Toyman and David Harewood directed this episode and he did an incredible job!!

Now on to the "queer-baiting" of the show. Now queer-baiting is defined online as "a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then not actually depict, same-sex romance. They do so to attract ("bait") a queer audience with the suggestion of relationships that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers." Now I can see how SuperCorp (the ship name for Lena and Kara) is coming off as queer-baiting. I joined the fandom of Supergirl back in season 3. I was watching all the Arrowverse shows on Netflix and when I tell you Lena became my favorite character after Kara I MEAN IT!!! Now a lot of people want Kara and Lena to get together because come on, they would be the ultimate power couple and I myself would love to see Lex's ugly face when he finds out his sister is dating the cousin of his number one enemy!😂😂 But here's the thing: I think the original plan was for Lena to become Kara's best friend (beside Winn and Alex). There would be rough times where everybody would be against Lena because she's a Luthor but Kara would stand by her and have her back and believe in her. They wanted to portray a strong, incredible, unbreakable friendship/bond between these two powerful, strong, smart, independent, successful, bad-A women. They can rely on each other, be there for one another, lean on each other when needed, but somewhere down the line, it sort of slipped a bit and instead of it coming off as true friendship it's coming off as there is a mutual attraction between them. It doesn't help the situation that the actresses (both VERY talented) have some major on screen chemistry.

Okay so in my opinion, MY OPINION, I don't think they are purposely trying to "queer-bait." I think that the writers of Supergirl are trying to give us a healthy friendship between two women that doesn't involve one doing something bad to the other or have them doing some dumb fight crap over some guy. None of that, just a good friendship. But in defense, when you try to write a good, loving friendship between two females, two males, and/or a female and a male (especially that one) it's going to be hard to write and portray it as "friendly" cause along the way it might start slipping and it's going to come off as romantic and people are going to think that they are attracted to each other. Especially if the friends are a boy and a girl cause God forbid a girl and guy be best friends without one having a crush on the other or one of them have to be gay in order for them to be friends.

Do I condone queer-baiting? No. Absolutely not. I think it's a disgusting, awful, horrible, and manipulative way to reel in LGBT fans in a sense they are going to see themselves represented in the media and get their hopes up just to watch them crash hard on the ground. Do I think Supergirl is queer-baiting? I believe that they're trying not to, but since they're writing for female/female friendship it's coming off that way and we're so far into that it's hard to back up on it because there such a big fandom for it. Cause I know some people are concerned whether of not if they do get together if it's because the writers want them to or if it's just fanservice.

Now onto the William and Kara thing. Guys, calm down. It's literally one date. We haven't even seen the episode yet and already everyone's losing their crap over something we haven't had a chance to watch. For all we know the date might go horribly wrong or they will try it out but realize they're better off as friends. Wait till the episode premieres before we start throwing toxic hate around. Put your pitchforks and torches away and let's find out what happens first. Dang. I guessed that William was maybe probably going to be a love interest for Kara back in the first half of the season. That they would develop feelings for each other over the course of the season. BTW I don't think you need to have chemistry with someone to go out a date with them. The first date is to stroke the fire and see if there's anything there. So let's at least give it a chance. Because at the end of the day, what’s more important: Kara being with Lena or Kara being happy (not saying Kara wouldn't be happy with Lena)? And God knows she needs some happiness with all the hell and high water she's been through over the past couple of seasons. Especially this season so far. Her whole freaking universe was wiped out of existence and there was nothing she could do about it and then had it merged with other earths and now she has to work with the person she hates the most (not to mention he's also considered a hero by the people of the new earth) and lost a close friend (Oliver), plus on top of alllllllllll that her best friend (Lena) hates her for lying to her about being Supergirl and y'all want to make a big deal over a date? That we saw in a promo? For an episode that doesn't air for 2 weeks? Good Lord.

Look for all we know, two things could be happening here: William's secretly evil and is trying to get close to Kara by tricking her or he's just a stand in until Kara and Lena do get together. I could use Shadowhunters as an example. Alec had feelings for Magnus but he agreed to marry Lydia to help his family but then at the wedding he realized that he couldn't hide his deep feelings for Magnus and called it all off, Lydia understood (she even encouraged him to go to Magnus), and then him and Magnus got together. It might not be the exact same thing as what's going on in Supergirl, but something similar like that could be the case. Plus think about it: SuperCorp could happen eventually. It might not be that fast to some of you'd liking, but it could happen. Heck it took them 3 seasons before Brainy finally looked accurate to his comic book character version. Good things come to those who wait and patience is a virtue.

Look, all I'm saying is that I get why you guys might be mad and it's understandable but I just urge you to please wait and see what happens the rest of the season. You might be mad now but you might not be come the end of the season. And it's okay to be upset and to voice your opinions but let's do it in a calm and kind way. There is no need to spread hate. Especially to the cast. They don't write the show so there is no reason on earth that they should be receiving your anger because you're unhappy. Voice your complaints but do it in the right way and to the right people. Otherwise nothing is going to get solved. Make noise but don't make chaos. I heard other people call the Supergirl fandom (as well as the SuperCorp shippers) toxic and I don’t want that to be true.

These are just my opinions. If Kara does end up with William and her and Lena reconnect and go back to being best friends, I won’t be mad. Will I be sad that SuperCorp's not happening? Yes. Will I be angry? No because I'll be happy that Kara's happy. Don't consider Kara and Lena being best friends a loss, consider it a win all its own. I don't want to disrespect anyone else's opinions and if you don't agree with mine, that's okay. Its not going to hurt my feelings. If I'm proven wrong, I won't try to argue over it. I can admit when I'm wrong. If you have any comments on this, your opinions on the whole thing all together or what I had to say about it, please fill free to comment. Just know that I will not be responding to hateful comments and if it comes to the point that people keep coming into my comment sections with noting but hate, I will delete them and/or block the users. Again, just my opinions and I hope you all see where I'm coming from and I have nice day.😀😊

#supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #you need to calm down #calm down #supercorp #season 5 #supergirl season 5 #lgbtq

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heartfeltheart · 5 years

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Alchemy: Magic Vs. Science

Chapters: 3/25 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter Rating: T Relationships: Edward/Winry, Lan Fan/Ling, and May/Alphonse. Primary Characters: Edward Elric, Severus Snape Additional Tags: Crossover, Teacher!Edward, BrOtp Edward/Severus. Sassy beyond measure. Series: Part 1 of 9. Summary: Magic and Science, are they the same or are they completely different? It just takes one person to point out all up and downs. Along with breaking the stereotypes that come up with being a wizard, alchemist and most of all being human. Thank you, @amynchan! D/C: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist. Discord: La Red(Mesh Mash of… stuff.): https://discord.gg/KYjmVAb Alchemy Series: https://discord.gg/DejEYNJ

“English and Edward’s accented voice.” “Amestrian or another foreign language.” “Written notes.” ‘Thoughts.’ First Name: Informal Last Name: Formal (Or used to annoy others)

"Dis is amazing..." Edward said in total awe the moment the bricks moved away to show Diagon Alley. He quickly looked over his shoulder to see Severus giving him an amused look. "Hov is dis place been able to keep out of the public eye?"

Severus started to walk forward in a seemingly random direction and signaled for Edward to follow him. "The entire place is charmed, no muggle is able to see it."

Edward pointed at himself. "And I?"

"Another theory, for another time." Severus replied quietly, he weaved through the witches and wizards. Edward followed him while looking around the area trying to take everything in. So many questions swam through his mind Edward wanted to ask Severus but he held back.

The last thing they both needed is someone listening in to them and talk to the wrong people. Even if Edward has full permission from that crazy headmaster to teach at his magical school, he didn't want to make any enemies...yet. There were a lot of kids and teens running about with their parents. All of them had a list in hand, chatting endlessly about the upcoming school year. Edward couldn't help but smile bitterly, he never went to a traditional school per say, he did go to a small school with Alphonse and Winry before his mother died. After that, Granny home-schooled them after Edward got into far too many fights.

"A knut for your thought?" Severus murmured glancing back at Edward who has a distant look in his eyes.

"Are a lot of deze kids go to Hogwarts?" Edward asked offhandedly, pointing at the kids running around Diagon Alley.

Severus glanced around the area before he nodded. "It is that time of year when they come out here to buy their supplies for the upcoming school year."

"...By do I have the feeling I am already regretting dis." Edward sighed raising his arms in defeat.

"You and I both." Severus replied as he walked into Flourish and Blotts. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, Elric. We do not need any unwanted attention."

Edward only rolled his eyes as he followed Severus, in his own pace. Glancing around the bookstore, he took note that the place was filled with more students along with their parents. All of them were in a hurry trying to get their books and find themselves out of the chaos. "Dis place...is rather chaotic."

"You don't even know the half of it." Severus sighed to himself, heading towards the back of the bookstore, where fortunately seemed to be empty except for a couple of random teens or older adults. Not giving any of them a single glance, the both of them walked passes them. The students were giving Severus nervous looks or quickly shuffled away in fear. "It should be over here...Here it is."

Severus stopped in front of a certain bookcase and signaled Edward towards it. "This section has all the alchemy books in this place."

With a grin, Edward started to glance through the titles and recognizing a few from the other bookshop he previously visited. He pulled out a book and began to get lost in the book. Seeing this, Severus turned around and headed out leaving Edward in his own world.

-.-

"Not good enough."

"Total trash."

"This will only get someone killed."

"...This guy is an idiot..."

"This one is...oddly decent."

Edward sat crossed legged on the floor in front of the bookcase with a large book in hand. Multiple piles of books scattered all around him, the piles were all coordinated by decent, okay, nope and just plain trash. There was a small tiny pile of good books, which only compromised three books our of well over several dozens of books he scoured through the area around his current spot.

Edward randomly picked out another book from the shelf and flipped it open on a random page. "This is actually good enough to be used."

Edward grinned as he read the book. He flipped through the pages, he landed on the dedication page. Whose names he saw written there made his blood freeze.

In the loving memory of my wife, Trisha.

To my sons, Edward, and Alphonse...I hope this book gets to you both.

Snapping the book closed, Edward turned the book around to see the spine of the said book. His eyes narrowed at the name of the author of the book.

Von Hoheheim.

Grudgingly, Edward placed the book in a different pile. Personal use. Even if his father was a shitty one, the man is still his father. Even though Edward still hold a deep hatred towards the guy...

"Whoa...look at this?"

"Who would take out this many books?"

"Who knows, George."

"Why don't we found out, Fred?"

"Lead the way, dear brother."

Edward blinked slowly as he heard those voices. It was obvious they were male, ten or eleven, and by their tone, it sounded like they are siblings. Slowly, Edward took a peek over the 'nope' pile of books. He came eye to eye with a two pairs of brown eyes, brown stared into gold. "Hello."

The two pairs of brown eyes widened in a realization that they got caught spying. With a loud oomph, the twins accidentally stumbled forward. They accidentally spilled over the pile of books.

Edward stared at the boys taken in their full appearance. Twins, they were identical twins, they were wearing worn but well taken care of clothes. Hand-me-downs perhaps? They were almost identical. He watched the twins scrambled up and began to take note of their differences. The one on the left had an extra freckle right under his left eye. The other has a bigger nose, hardly noticeable unless you take note of it. "Do you need zomething?"

One of the boys quickly looked around trying to find something to say that would not get in trouble with the stranger. "Alchemy! We were looking for alchemy books."

"Really?" Edward asked in false bewilderment, he inwardly chuckled at the horrible excuse. "Vell, how about dis..."

-.-

The sight that Snape came to see was Elric chatting away with two boys, Weasley's by the looks of it. They were chatting about alchemy while putting away books, each Weasley was holding a small pile of books while listening to Edward with such eager eyes. They took in Elric words about alchemy, they even seemed eager about it.

Snape waited until the last book was put away until he made his presence known. "Did you find everything that you needed, Elric?"

When Snape appeared, the twins paled at the sight of the man. Recalling what their brothers had told them about said man.

"Ah Zefferus, der you are." Elric grinned, not even taking note of the tense atmosphere around his perhaps future students. He saw that the Potions Master carrying a pile of books in his arms. "Done vith your shopping?"

"Done with yours?" Snape remarked, seeing Elric's own pile of books. He took a single glance at the twins, his lips curled back in a fashion he could only do. "Ah, Weasleys... Here I thought we could finally get a bre-"

Snape was cut off as Elric pilled his own books over the professor books. This resulted with the Head of Slytherin view being obscured by said books. "Elric..."

Elric ignored him as he took the books from Fred and George, who all had grins of mirth's, piled them on top of the rest of the book on Snape's arm. "Vu tvo are koing to pe first years, ja?"

"Yeah, we have three-"

"Older brothers and two of-"

"They are going to be at Hog-"

"Warts with us."

Elric's eyes pin pong between Fred and George as they spoke for one and for the other, finishing off each other sentences. He raised his hand to stop them from talking, as they began to get off topic. "Huge family, older broders, one younger broder and zisder. Pranks?"

Elric stared into the twins eyes, almost glaringly. He then pointed at one of them. "Fred..." Then he pointed at the other one. "George."

Fred and George stared at him in bewilderment, he actually guessed accurately right. Not even their own mother could get their names right more than half of the time.

"As much as I enchoy a prank effery once and a file...No pranks in my class." Elric shook a finger at the boys, talking in a reprimanding voice. "Dey tend to get you killed..."

The twins paled at how easy the golden eye teen spoke those last words. It was as if he could care less about it too.

Elric then grinned at the twins and ruffled their hair. "Nov come on, it is time to pay. Come on, Zefferus."

"About time..." Snape growled under his breath, he glanced over the stack of books in his hands. "Now come on..."

Elric only grinned and laughed as he followed him, he signaled for the Weasley twins to follow him. "Do not mind him, he is just being immature."

Snape huffed out but did not respond to the comment.

"Before I forget..." Elric looked down at the twins, brows furrowed. "Do you tvo need help getding your school books? You tvo helped me, I help you in return."

"You are on a limited budget, Elric." Snape said low in a tone, to the Elric wanting to get out of the current situation he was currently in.

"Den I vill uze my perzonal funds then...if I could do dat?" Elric muttered the last part to himself wondering if he could transfer the money he has accumulated for his work in the military. "Could I transfer money from my perzonal account and turned it into..."

Elric trailed off not fully knowing what else to say as he is not familiar with this worlds system works.

Snape took a quick glance at the Weasley twins, they were confused by Elric's words and his own confusion of the Wizarding World. The Potion’s Professor mentally debated if he should stop this conversation as it would lead to unwanted attention but...Seeing as the youth is probably going to make it a point on who he is and what he is not later on...

"We...could have that arranged." Snape said slowly, wondering just how much money the other has. As Elric had told him he was in the military but did not mention what was his ranking or payroll. "How much...?"

Elric quickly scanned through his pockets to quickly take out his notebook and a pencil. He quickly wrote down a number and showed it to Snape. "Vill dis be enough to get me through the year?"

Snape took one quick glance...then another...and another. His eyes widen at the amount on the paper. "In what currency is that in?"

"In bounds. I changed it ven I came to dis country." Elric said feeling unsure if the amount he wrote down is enough. "Vill it be enough?"

"Is this your entire savings?" Snape felt his mouth dry at the sheer amount that Elric presented.

"Just about..." Edward moved his head side to side as he thought it over. "Three months vorth of bay."

'He could buy ¾'s of Diagon Alley with that amount.' Snape thought to do the math in his head. He cleared his throat in trying to clear his mind. "It is more than enough. We'll head to Gringotts after this..."

"Vat is Grinkotts?"

"Are you a muggle?" Fred and George asked, no longer able to hold in their curiosity.

-.-

Mrs. Molly Weasley looked all over the bookstore frantically pulling her two youngest along with her. She looked over every crook and cranny trying to find the twins. One moment they were in her sight and then...they disappeared in their typical fashion only known to troublemakers. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue but Molly mind is on overdrive that day.

Four of her children are going to be attending Hogwarts and this year, money is extremely tight. Charlie and Percy were placed into advanced classes and they require new texts books and the twins, albeit they could reuse other books the other boys had gotten previous years, the required new textbooks are out of the families price range. It is not her year...

Molly ignored her youngest son complaints as she pulled them along with her. Even with Charlie and Percy looking for the twins too, it seemed like they were having the same trouble as her. The twins were nowhere to be found...panic is finally setting in.

"Fred! George! Boys, where are you!" Molly called out, no longer able to hold it in any longer. She took a turn and quickly headed back to the front of the store hoping that she just missed them. "When I get my hands on them."

"Mum, we found them." Percy called out running towards his mother in a frenzy. Molly stopped mid-step and quickly headed towards Percy's direction.

"Where are they, are they are alright? I knew this sort of thing would have happened." Molly prattled on as Percy led her through the shop. "We still need to buy your and your brother's books, among several other things."

"About that...Fred and George already got their books. They already paid for the books."

"How...?"

-.-

"He's going to be the new Professor at Hogwarts."

"He's going to teach Alchemy."

"We saw him looking through books."

"About Alchemy."

"The guy looked like he's Bill's age."

"I wonder if we could get into his class."

"Remember what he said, he gets to pick his students."

"Do you think he might?"

"Pick us? He said he might consider it."

"Fred...George...Do you even know if he actually is a professor." Charlie asked, feeling that a headache is coming in. Out of all the things the twins had done...

"That professor was with him. Nap?"

"Professor Snape?" Charlie asked feeling his blood run cold for a bit. "This guy was with Professor Snape? Getting books?"

"Yeah him, he was with Mr. Elric."

"Mr. Elric needed books for his class.

"We helped him and in turn."

"He bought our books for the year." Fred and George finished, each boy holding a pile of books in their arms. "And a couple of other books too, about alchemy."

Charlie stared at them wondering if he should be glad or angry at this point. Glad that his brothers don't have to worry about their books, as the book list that year is by far pricier compared to other years. Anger at that fact it was a handout, now th-

"I hope we make it into his class."

"Only if we study the books he got us."

"He also bought your other books?" Charlie asked he extended his arm out towards the boys. "Let me see."

Fred and George glanced at each other wondering if they should. Seeing how tense their older brother was, they quietly complied. The each took out four different books from their own pile and handed one to Charlie.

Charlie took the book and scanned it when he saw the tag price on the book his eyes nearly popped out of his head. That single book had to cost about the same as the average cost of a seventh year's book list. When he opened the book, Charlie couldn't make head or tails about it. He flipped the book to show it to the twins. "Do you know what this is?"

"That's a peripodic table...I think?" George's nose scrunched as he attempted to say out the word.

"Periodic table." Fred corrected him.

"Yeah that. It's a table of all the elements."

"Mr. Elric said that learning this would help us understand Alchemy." Both boys continued on in unison. "If we study it, he might consider allowing us to get into the class."

Charlie watched as his brothers spoke to each other excitedly about the subject in hand. The only times he ever saw the twins with that sparkle in their eyes when they talk about their pranks or play quidditch. Let alone something that has to be school reacted. Then again...anger persist.

Charlie was one of many that petitioned for the elective to be open the upcoming school year. Here are the twins... ending up meeting the teacher. The said teacher seemed to already teach them a couple of things on the subject, already received praised along with getting books paid. "And he just paid for your books? This must have cost him a fortune."

Fred and George paused, they looked at each other uneasily. The conversed nonverbally trying to figure out what they should say to their older brother. With a nod of determination, they figured out what to say.

"Mr. Elric is from another country." Fred started off.

"He works for their government." George continued off.

"During his time there, he hardly spent any of his money."

"From Mr. Nape." "It's Snape." "...Mr. Snape's reaction from the number Mr. Elric gave him made it seem like he was rich or something."

"Why did this...Mr. Elric buy your books? All your required books?"

"He said that since we helped him, he helps us." They said trying to figure out what that meant. "We tried to tell him to not to but..."

"It was rather..."

"Difficult trying to get him not to buy our books."

"He wouldn't take no for answer."

"The way he wanted us to repay him is by-"

"Studying and getting good grades."

"That's it?" Charlie asked taken aback.

"That's it."

-.-

"Doze two are the right age to start learning about alchemy." Elric said as he watched Snape shrink all the books and putting them into his suitcase. Once it was said and done, Elric closed the suitcase with a puzzled look as he picked it back up. "You haffe to tell me hov dat...spell vorks."

"Here I thought you would have an episode?" Snape replied dryly at Edward words.

Elric only shrugged, he turned around taking a good like of the area. "Vere to next?"

"Gringgots."

-.-

One hour later...

Snape resisted the urge to groan in annoyance as he watched Elric speak Amestrian to the goblin that is helping the blonde set up his own vault. The moment that Elric found out that he goblin, Kavex, spoke Amestrian, that was the main language they spoke making Snape feel left out.

"I never had any use of it until recently. I got by with what I had on hand." Elric said as he filled out the required paper. "I mostly spent it on...medical bills."

"You've accumulated a fair amount over the years of your military service..." Kavex said looking through a couple of documents. "How long will you be staying, if I could ask you of that?"

"At the most a year." Elric responded without a second thought. "I have other affairs back home...but who knows...I might come back."

"And everything here will be the same." Kavex nodded, he held out his hand towards Elric's direction. "I need your blood and signature to complete the vault."

"It won't be used or stored away...right?" Elric asked hesitantly.

"It will be the binding contract that will allow only you to access the vault." Kavex said, he pulled out a giant tome and slid it over toward Elric. "This is our laws if you wish to look through it before he finalizes anything. It's written in Amestrian."

Elric slid the book closer to him and began to read it, ignoring Snape's look of disbelief that he gave him.

Tag List Below:

Permanent Tag List: @runestarchild @princesskitomi @fanfictionpromptsblog @souleateralicestein @vixen-uchiha @okami-knight @legendaryneckjudgestudent @weird-homosapien @justafanwarrior @vivilakitty @ravennightingaleandavatempus @if-you-give-a-chat-a-cookie @moonwatcher04 @darkshadowguardian @two-faced-biatch @kris-pines04 @mewwitch @edwardhatori @kuroko26 @tall-and-angry @bloody-no-kissu @crazylittlemunchkin @tbehartoo @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @melicmusicmagic

#Alchemy Series #Chapter 3 #HP #FMA #Crossover #Au #HP/FMA #magic vs. science

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ask-aph-baltics · 5 years

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Forgive me for sending this on anon, but I'm kinda embarrassed about it. I never really GOT why people liked hetalia until I found the people running ask blogs, like you! It's really opened my eyes to it and, I'm sorry if this sounds gross, might also make me feel better about being bicurious? Again, I'm really sorry if this is just sounds weird and you can delete this if you want but you guys have a really sweet thing going here and you should be proud! :D

Ah, thank you, I think…

I use it to explore cultural things a lot of the time like… Oh, Basketball is the National Sport/Self Proclaimed Second Religion of Lithuania or I had no idea Fortnite was co-created by a Polish Studio and that company is entirely discredited from it for some reason. Didn’t know about the Ketchup on Pizza being a thing either. Is fun to explore these characters as more of a mascot for their country (while working with or tossing out the canon shit the author made like; Poland (in the original manga) was based on Anti-Polish Sentiment. Firstly I wouldn’t have known it WAS Anti-Polish Sentiment until I started to research into why the character was written like that but found out a lot of other interesting facts.

Going back to this general theme of not knowing. I did not know what the Iron Cross was. I had always seen it on biker or metalhead (like music lovers) kind of stuff in the United States but didn’t know it was actually a hate symbol worn by the German Military/Nazis. I think many people do not know it was a hate symbol. I was never taught it. Now I know so I know to be wary around people who have it.

In short, it’s a fun way to learn history through simple representations. To learn about various cultures and dates/wars (without having to learn every single detail) and how things progressed. It makes it more entertaining I guess? The thing is that some people in the fandom don’t want to admit their fave did bad and that just makes me really pissed off. I’m aware all of the muses on this blog have done things and I learn more and more about what bad they did every day. I am not supportive of the actions that happened.

I love the characters as themselves but cannot and will not overlook some of the horrible things or military choices they did. I wish more people could admit their fave isn’t a sweet perfect little angel.

I actually don’t follow much fan content or fans just out of the sheer fact they write shit that ignores history while writing about the countries.

Like I used to think Hetalia was really bad too, I avoided it for 12 years or something, looked down on my friends who liked it. So I get where you’re coming from. It’s shaky/rocky and not for everyone. As long as you don’t ignore the correlation of the nation and the character and admit the character/nation did do those things, it’s okay. Don’t glorify it, don’t say it was good behaviour. It happened. History happened. I’d rather not forget history happened.

OH DON’T BE TASTELESS AND MAKE LIGHT OF SERIOUS THINGS FOR GODS SAKE. I threw this in general tag to hope people might come to some senses. This is an old fandom and we’re pretty good at vetting our own. It’s filled with a lot of LGBT+ and people from different countries, races, ethnicities, and nationalities. Muslims and Jews. It’s diverse and sprawling with people just excited to personify and teach each other about their own country.

Just because I am exploring these countries through anime guys doesn’t change anything. It’s honestly, to me, a good learning tool.

#ooc #hetalia #Anonymous

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the--sad--hatter · 5 years

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Name Changing (4)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU, X-MEN, DEADPOOL

PAIRING - BUCKY X READER (female reader, no physical descriptions)

WARNINGS - ALL OF THEM, SMUT, VIOLENCE ANGST

DESCRIPTION - Sequel to Name Calling

After merging with your bloodthirsty alternate personality things start getting a little dicey. You’ve got two decades worth of anger to sort through, a feral mutation to figure out how to live with, a biological father who you hate trying to teach you control and if your wedding planner suggests teal for the bridesmaids again you might just eat her liver.

Luckily you have Bucky Barnes by your side, helping you figure things out. What Bucky doesn’t know is that you have found an outlet for the uncontrollable rage, one that absolutely nobody can know about. If your friends and family knew that you were out slaughtering people in the dead of night while they slept, they might be a little annoyed. Wade Wilson is happy to keep your secret though, so long as you keep bribing him with Mexican food.

For as long as you could remember, all you had wanted was to be good. Now you’re seeing the temptation in the darkness.

A Stark Reminder

Read the Exclusive Interview with Deathwave

Interview conducted and written by Kara M Pierce

Since her very public debut as the long lost daughter of Tony Stark, she has been the subject of much curiosity. Her story is a dark one, yet it’s also one filled with hope.

It quickly came to light that Miss Stark was far more than she first appeared and while she is in fact Tony Starks daughter, it is not by blood. Though after just a few minutes in her presence I am wondering if that is true. She exudes the same confidence and charm as her father, not to mention the same sharp wit. Having interviewed Mr Stark in the past I can confirm that both Starks harbour the same respect and fear for Pepper Potts as one look from the CEO can make either Stark fall into line.

Thank you so much for agreeing to sit down with me today Miss Stark.

Bold of you to assume I had any choice.

Thank you so much for convincing her to sit down with me today Mrs Potts.

She’s very happy to be here.

I imagine you are quite busy, does being Deathwave take up a lot of your time?

It does but apparently the bad guys have no concept of acceptable work hours. Someone should really start a labour union for them or something.

What’s it like being an Avenger and is it different from being a secret Avenger?

I used to just have to deal with Hydra and Vernichtung agents attacking me, now I have paparazzi as well but apparently I’m not allowed to blast them into smithereens.

Other than that, it’s not actually very different. Not having to wear the mask makes it a little easier, that thing was kinda warm.

How well do you get along with the other Avengers?

Sam Wilson, The Falcon is my best friend. When I first arrived at the compound he sort of took me under his wing. Sam is an excellent cook and he loves feeding people He’s also a great listener, he really cares about what you have to say and if you need advice he’ll do his best to give it to you but he knows when you just need to vent.

Plus have you seen the muscles on that man? Who doesn’t want to cry on those shoulders?

It sounds like you’re writing a dating profile for him. Are you trying to get him a date Miss Stark?

No... Maybe. Not that he needs my help, the man is handsome, charming, has the thighs of a god and is a superhero. He's also single. Just saying.

What about the other Avengers, are you close with them?

Well I am engaged to one so yes? We’re a family, all of us. I trust them with my life and they trust me with theirs. When we’re out there in the field our lives and the lives of the people we are fighting to protect rests in each others hands. That tends to form some close bonds.

So does that mean you’re close with Loki, the man who once led an attempted invasion?

Yes, I am. Loki was not responsible for that, and despite being controlled he managed to manipulate events so he would lose the battle of New York. He did the best he could with limited control of his own mind.

Loki was instrumental in helping me defeat Docherty, he helped us win the Second Battle of New York. He’s a hero, an Avenger and a friend and anyone who says otherwise can take it up with me personally. I’ll be happy to educate them on the difference between a hero and a villain.

You seem to have a protective streak, not just for those you know personally.

Was there a question in there?

I was wondering where that protectiveness comes from?

My father. He protected me. And I owe it to the world to follow in his example. He made a lot of mistakes along the way to becoming the hero he is today and he owns up to them and not only learned from them, encourages me to learn from them as well.

Speaking of your father, there’s been much speculation about your biological family.

Are you referring to the rumors that were leaked about Docherty being my grandfather?

Yes, those rumors have been circulating. Is there any truth to them?

Yes.

Would you like to elaborate on that?

Not particularly. Biologically, I was his granddaughter. He was evil, I stopped him. End of story.

What about the rest of your biological family? Do you have any desire to know about them?

What makes you think I don’t already know? My mother is dead, Docherty killed her. My father didn't know I existed until recently and he... he and I are working through our issues but that’s a private matter. If his identity comes to light at any point I just wanted people to know he didn't know about me or Docherty. It wasn't his fault.

That’s fair. Onto happier subjects Miss Stark, you won’t be Miss Stark for much longer. Are you excited?

You’d assume I was excited about my upcoming nuptials or I wouldn't be getting married would I?And the Stark name was the greatest gift I ever got, I’m not giving it up. I’ll be Mrs Stark-Barnes.

How did the romance between you and Sargent Barnes happen? Who made the first move?

(Miss Stark is trying to contain a laugh at this point, Mrs. Potts giving her a warning look.)

He made the first move. He followed me about for months, begging me for a chance. It was getting quite sad so I took pity on him.

What about the photo’s that appeared to show you on a date with Captain Rogers?

Well, Cap was my first love but he’s too good, too pure. I had to downgrade.

So you settled for Sargent Barnes?

(The laughter dies and the expression on Miss Starks face is one of love and conviction, it is clear her feelings for Sargent Barnes are very real and very powerful.)

James is the only man I have ever wanted to be with and the only man I ever want to be with. He’s my partner in every way, he supports me even when he doesn’t like what I’m doing, he challenges me when I’m being an idiot, he forgives me when I mess up, he holds my head above water when I’m drowning. He is the love of my life I know how lucky I am that I get to spend the rest of my life returning his love.

What about the blurred photographs that appear to show you in the company of the Vigilante and Mercenary known as Deadpool?

Deadpool is a menace to society. It is my personal mission to hunt him down and give him exactly what he deserves.

Quite a turn around from the woman who once refused to sign The Sokovia Accords.

My refusal to sign wasn’t about the accords themselves but rather the way they were being used. Secretary Ross is a slimy rat and I would never cow to his perceived authority. (There is a short argument between Mrs. Potts and Miss Stark but Miss Stark insists we can print her opinion on Secretary Ross, though it must be noted that the opinion of the interviewee do not necessarily represent the views of this publication.)

Colonel Rhodes is a man who knows the value of bureaucracy and the importance of the accords and balances it with the public's need for protection. The Sokovia Accords are no longer used as a power play but are in place to protect the people who signed as well as holding them accountable for their actions.

It’s at this point in the interview I informed Miss Stark I had some fan questions that had been sent in and she immediately perked up.

I like the fans, they’re just normal people who like me for some reason. It’s always strange when they come up to me and ask for a selfie or an autograph but it’s inspiring. Hopeful. It reminds me that there’s a world out there that I get to help protect.

From Jess on Ao3: How did you decide that you wanted to be good, despite the evils you’ve encountered?

I decided I wanted to be good because of the evils I encountered. My earliest memories are of cruelty and you’d think growing up that way might have given me a twisted sense of morality but I knew the way I felt was horrible and I didn't ever want to be the reason somebody else felt that way. There was a guard when I was really young, he slipped me chocolate through the bars of my cell. He was killed for it when they found out. That's how I knew they were evil, even if I didn’t know the word. And I knew I didn't want to be that way.

TaraStudiesaLot: Are you are interested in any art form? Photography, painting, film or music? Like, does do enjoy any of these or are they still foreign to you?

Steve tried to get me into art but I’m more made to appreciate it than make it.

I like to take pictures though, nothing special, just little moments from life. I like being able to look back at the photo’s, they help ground me and remind me of the good things I have in my life.

Phoenix-whiskey-Tears: What kind of music are you into?

I hadn’t even been out of the cage for a full day before my dad introduced me to AC/DC. So I kind of associate 80’s rock with freedom I guess? I’m also partial to big band music from the 40’s. (It should be noted that at this point, Miss Stark is doing her best to hide her blush.)

Firefly-in-darkness: I wanna know more of your habits and little simple things like your favorite colour, movies, books, etc?

Red. My favorite colour is red. The Iron Suit was red, red is the colour of freedom, of salvation, justice.

Books and movies? I don’t have favorites per se, it’s still exciting and thrilling to see and read them, even bad ones.

HoneyBadger: What advice would you give to abuse survivors? And do you think you’d ever take on a protege or sidekick?

Well first of all, I have a sidekick. Bucky Barnes.

To abuse survivors I would say this, you already did the hard part. You survived. You are already winning that battle by fighting it and I know it’s a long battle, one you’ll be fighting every day for the rest of your life. That thought is depressing and exhausting and overwhelming.

But it’s worth it. The world is still out there waiting for you, use the pain you have experienced to see the world differently. See the beauty in the mundane and normal because after your suffering you deserve every single tiny bit of happiness and calm you can grasp.

What happened to you shaped you yes, but it does not define you. You are so much more than what they did to you. Their evil does not leave a stain on you and your future is not dictated by your past.

You’re warriors, Kings and Queens who deserve so much more than life gave you. Life and people can be cruel and it’s up to you now, to take what you deserve from the world. Be amazing, you’ve already proven you have it in you. Support one another, hold each other up and never ever forget that we are a thousand times better than those who tried to put us down.

Pydia Packmaster: What keeps you going despite everything you have been through?

Life goes on, the world keeps turning. And everything I endured can be used to help me make sure others don’t have to go through the same thing.

All the bad things that happened to me are being used as a force for good now. Like I once said, I was created to end the world but I’m going to save it.

Beansy: if you had the ability to change anything in your past, what would it be and would you?

I wish I had known I had a mother, maybe I could have saved her before it was too late. Maybe I could have known her. But what’s done is done. My whole life I didn’t even dare to imagine that I would have a future but now I do and I won’t waste it by living in the past.

ToastLuvr: If you could choose an actress to play you in a movie who would it be?

Jack Black. Next question.

BuckityBarnes: Who’s your Avengers Crush?

Black Widow... Obviously. If Nat would have me I’d drop Bucky in a heartbeat. Have you seen that thing she does with her thighs? That’s how I wanna die.

Sitting down with Deathwave was just as inspiring as I had expected. Since the details of her past were revealed to the world she has become a symbol of hope to people everywhere. She is a hero, of that there is no doubt but what truly makes her an inspiration is the fact that she reminds us all of what we can be.

Who you are and where you came from doesn’t decide where you are going to go. That choice is up to you and you alone. No matter the challenges you face in life, big or small, they can be overcome.

Setback only set you back, they don’t stop you. People will stand in your way but they can be moved. You are the hero of your own story.

We are all the heroes of our own stories.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AUTHORS NOTE

This was mostly fun to write but there is a lot of of it that came directly from my heart. I’ve made no secret about how Docherty was based on real people who hurt me so the advice Baby Stark gives to abuse survivors is what I would say to those of you who it applies to and I mean every fucking word.

If you are or were in a situation of abuse, be it mental, physical, sexual or other then please consider my inbox a safe space to talk if you ever need it.

@nerdandproud-86 @harrison-shot-first@thejourneyneverendsx @thelostallycat @inquisitor-selvala@the-corruptor @iovher @kendrawr-kitkat @phoenix-whiskey-tears @the–real–wombat@buckitybarnes@fairislesheets@angieptt @meganjonezzzz@dugan365@fluffeh-kitty@memanda17 @krystallynx@theonelittleone@piscesbarnes@free-as-fishes@tarastudiesalot@captainamericasbeard@dropthepizza346@jaynnanadrews@likes-to-smell-books@drdorkus @life-wanderer@metalarmlover @animegirlgeeky@jsmith509@chipilerendi@nerdy-bookworm-1998@ericasabe@gravedollie666@madlykpopfan@l0kisbitch@mywinterwolf@sassysweetstories @life-wanderer @jessieray98@littledeadrottinghood @firefly-in-darkness @demonlover87 @jessieray98 @pinkisokay @chipilerendi

#hattersmarvelverse #Bucky x Reader #Bucky Barnes

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superlustersnew52 · 5 years

Note

Okay so obviously you hate kyle and Rey, and that's extremely valid. Especially since Finn is RIGHT THERE YOU IDIOT WRITERS, but I also remember you posting a story about sexy story Jasmine being Jafar's pet. He's a villain as well. So why do you seemingly like one pairing but not the other? Well maybe not 'like' but 'okay with'

They made R.eylo canon after having every single one of their interactions before the random make-out session be filled with him abusing her, torturing her, and them trying to kill each other. That’s a horrible thing to do in your family-friendly movie, and I do not support that. They did not do that with Jasmine & Jafar, so while I’m not a fan of that ship, I’m not as against it. The Rey/Kylo fandom is also like 90% people that hate Rey’s entire existence and treat her like a piece of Kylo’s property, and act like him torturing & abusing & trying to kill her are romantic acts by themselves. No thanks.

Basically the ships that I refuse to write are the ones that either canonically abuse the women and also make it romantic (e.g. Rey/Kylo, Kara/Mon-El) or have massive fandoms that treat their canon abusive interactions as romantic (e.g. Harley/Joker, Daisy/Ward). Rey/Kylo is both of those. Jasmine/Jafar is neither of them.

Also I kind of just hate Kylo in general because his story ruined the entire Star Wars Sequel Trilogy for me (and also Star Wars in general due to how they killed all three of the Original Trio to tell his story). He’s not an enjoyable or likeable character and his story ruined the Sequels so I’m not interested in writing with him at all.

#ooc #Anonymous

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justlikeeddie · 5 years

Text

black sails fic recs

I have got and continue to get so much enjoyment out of Black Sails and its fandom! It's so nice that this anniversary week of posts has made me realise it is two years since my dash was abruptly filled with people having full breakdowns over the S4 finale, and I was like, “man, I don’t know why this field of corn or whatever is so important, but I guess I should watch this show and find out”. And I did. AND IT WAS.

I don’t know how to make gifsets bcos I am an idiot, but luckily for this fan content Friday thing I CAN post a non-exhaustive list of fics in this fandom that I am absolutely obsessed with. You’re welcome!!!

Unaccommodated Man, The Peaceable Kingdom, and Congress by kvikindi / @septembriseur

James/Thomas, post-series

James looks at him, searching, and Thomas fears he will recognise that Thomas is not really Thomas, not quite Thomas, not the Thomas he had been, and so he says, “I have gone a little mad in this world without you, but now that you are here—” And James makes a sound, a sobbing, laughing sound, and crushes Thomas to him once more.

Like...obvs. This is one of the best series of stories I have read in any fandom, or, actually, that I have read in any context. Both on a macro level - with unbelievable fluency, this series encompasses trauma, recovery, intimacy, forgiveness, literature, the conception of madness, agriculture, 18th-century Native American tribal language, etc, etc - and a micro level, in which not a single word is wasted, and not a single sentence is unworthy of being read three or four times. Anyway. I have re-read all of these stories multiple times and Congress more times than I would admit to if I actually knew.

consider them both, the sea and the land by youremyqueen / @deathnoting

Flint/Silver, post-S3

Flint frowns, stiff and unbending, and leans down just a tad so that he is looking John directly in his eyes. If he’s uncomfortable with their proximity, he doesn’t let it show.

“Remember when you told me,” he grits slowly, each word weighted with emphasis, “that you had discovered the pleasure of being both loved and feared? Is that what you would like from me? It is not enough that you have earned my respect, my friendship. You would now like for me to be frightened of you as well?” His nostrils flare, his rage is quiet. “I am not one of your men.”

John can feel the words on his face and he bears them without flinching, says only, “And I am not one of yours.”

Flint’s brow twitches, and he moves a hair closer, disgustingly close, warm and sour with the smell of whiskey, a solid and immovable blockade between John and what he wants. And he says to him, of all the unbearable things, “Isn’t that exactly what you are?”

THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIC THAT CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT FLINT/SILVER. For like three whole series I just didn’t Get It. And then I read this and was like.....oh.....I Get It. It’s a weapon. Their attraction to each other is a weapon. And sometimes they like using it and sometimes they don’t. And I have never, my friends, looked back

and into what it will be changed by @sea-changed

James/Thomas/Miranda, pre-series

"The Hartfords left for the country last week," Miranda says; "they've merely invited us to view the painting. They cannot resist showing off, even in absentia." She and Thomas share a look, smirking at each other as if sharing an old joke. Then she looks back at James, and her mouth quirks up at him. "So you needn't worry about their judgement."

James considers protesting that that wasn't, exactly, what he was worried about, though upon second thought he wonders if it truly wasn't. "That's very kind," he says, hesitating.

"Is it?" Miranda asks, almost absently. "We do not invite you along as a kindness, Lieutenant; I believe I speak for both Thomas and I when I say we rather enjoy your company."

James feels his face heat, not unpleasantly, and he looks down at the carpet. Miranda is usually soft and kind, but occasionally she does this, speaks plain and pointed. She and Thomas both do this, push and keep pushing: Thomas seems to do so with curiosity, prodding until he finds something interesting, but Miranda does it as if she had already found the spot she wishes to target, and goes after it relentlessly. James thinks suddenly, and unexpectedly, that she would not make a bad Naval commander.

THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIC THAT CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT JAMES/THOMAS/MIRANDA. I used to be weirdly militant in the belief that James’s affairs with the Hamiltons only made sense if they were two separate affairs that didn’t even really overlap. And then I read this and was like....right okay....if they DID have a threesome it would have been like this

There’s Plenty of Men to Die by @autoeuphoric

Flint/Silver, post-S3

The five of them share a glance, passing it around the table, man to man. Flint’s mouth twitches and Madi laughs shortly. “I would wager every man here fancies themselves in charge. This is a meeting of chieftains. I say let it remain so.”

“Although…” Silver says slowly, pulling the others’ attention on to him. Flint’s eyes flick his way, and to his horror he realizes he has nothing else to say. No point, no segue, no plan for a redirection of the conversation. He had simply wanted Flint to look at him. A fierce longing for the days when it was just the two of them fills him, laying their plans together, even though the threat of sudden and nonnegotiable execution was much higher. But he knew where he stood. Here, there are complications. Confusions.

This is just a tiny little snatch of a scene but every beat of it is perfect! Silver navigating his obsession with Flint, in the midst of everybody navigating their new relationships with each other in the new fragile and tentative anti-colonial alliance.

a question of needs (and not rosary beads) by @seventymilestobabylon

James/Thomas, pre-series

Still: James wants to talk. If Thomas means this to be—what it is, what it clearly is, then he should have the fucking decency to say something about it. He also, and intensely, wants the whole business to be transacted without any conversation, but he knows better than to hope for that. Thomas is not capable of it, that implicit understanding. Even when he kissed James—

Thomas’s thumb very light at the hinge of his jaw. He felt a thrill like fear, when it happened.

Even then, Thomas said, “All right?” when it was over, and would have said more, except that James nodded mutely, minutely, and stammered something incoherent that required his presence elsewhere. Thomas and Miranda both looked hideously understanding about it, and James considered—as he walked home through ill-lit streets and inhaled familiar smells of smoke and fish and tar and shit—simply climbing aboard one of the ships in harbor and never returning to London.

This is one of the few pre-series fics I’ve read that really digs into James and Thomas’s incompatibilities and differences and misunderstandings - and sets them against how badly they want each other, and want to understand each other, nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong, obviously 1705 is The Only Time James McGraw Was Ever Allowed To Be Happy (tm), and I’m extremely into reading about him and Thomas making each other happy! But also - it’s so interesting to explore James being so frightened of how he feels about Thomas that he can be unkind to him, and Thomas being so immersed in how he feels about James that he can be complacent and sometimes a little thoughtless about it. And this pulls all of those things apart so well.

you and i survived by youremyqueen / @deathnoting

Anne/Jack, Vane/Jack, pre-series

“She’s not mine. That isn’t—we aren’t—I mean to say, do you actually understand what love is, Captain?”

“Love is possession,” Vane tells him, with his usual unselfconscious melodrama. “Not only of women by men, but of men by women. The point of owning a woman is to see to it that she doesn’t own you.” He speaks as if he’s explaining some very basic and widely known conceit.

Jack winces. “What a viciously horrible perception.”

Vane rolls his eyes. “Christ’s sake. Don’t you ever get tired of acting like a fucking woman?”

“Don’t you ever get tired of acting like a fucking man?”

And couldn’t they unpack that remark for days?

The extremely funny author’s note “if someone had told me two months ago that i would write a fic that featured charles ‘only straight person in nassau’ vane as a main character, i would not have believed them” is also a summary of how I feel about this fic. WHO KNEW that on top of every other fucking thing I have to care about in this fandom, I also care a LOT about Jack and Anne and Charles fuckin Vane! A principled, terrifying, Aslan-transfigured-into-a-human nightmare of a man! This fic is so excellent and does such justice to all of them. Their triumvirate gets kind of supplanted by the Max-Anne-Jack situation from S2 onwards, and I always forget how nuanced and odd and interesting this three-way dynamic is when we first meet them. This story does such a good job at trying to explain what the fuck that dynamic is.

Katabasis by unheroics

James/Thomas, pre-series, canon-divergent AU

There were Flint’s men, one leaving the cabin, another ransacking a chest for treasures, another still turning to speak to Randall; the words exchanged escaped Flint, as all else did, once his gaze fell to the Englishman.

He knelt barefoot on the deck, and wore the undyed, colourless linen of prison or asylum garments. For a precarious second Flint could only think that his hands had had nary a mark upon them, five years ago, and now were as scarred as those of a gamekeeper or veneur. He looked nothing like the man whose presence haunted Flint’s dreams, always at the corner of the vision, always cold to the touch and bleeding from the eyes and mouth.

In all his careful planning, and all his mirthless revenge, Flint had never thought to anticipate a variable in place of a set value. The presence of other men about was like an anchor at his feet, dragging him underwater, but it was Alfred Hamilton’s blood on his hands that kept him immobile.

“Will you kill me?” said Thomas Hamilton, in a voice harsh from paregoric. His tone had a note of morbid, queer hope. “I could pay.”

To spare you, or kill you? It was excruciating to wonder.

One of the very first James/Thomas fics I read! And certainly one of the first fics I read that started to probe and pull apart the McGraw-Flint dichotomy, by literally dropping Thomas right in the middle of it. And while the actual end of S4 is, obviously, the greatest and most narratively and emotionally satisfying thing that has ever happened on television, and you can quote me on that - one thing we do never get in canon is Thomas in Nassau, and I love getting to read that here.

#bsaaw #black sails #fic #flinthamilton #silverflint #one million emotions about one million different characters #did you mean: black sails

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jlf23tumble · 6 years

Text

1D Day, Hour One

God only knows what this hellscape will look like on December 18, so if I’m gonna recap each hour of 1D Day, I might as well do it now, eh?? 1D Day is a gift that none of us really deserved, and yeah, it has a ton of shitty moments, but much like X Factor itself, the true gem is Louis Tomlinson and how much he runs this entire show (and lbr, the band itself), Jesus, god, do I love him.

Anyway, 1D Day aired 7 hours of live content on November 23, 2013 to promote Midnight Memories, and yes, yes, we’ve all seen the gifsets, but like anything else with this band, it’s tremendously better in context. I watched this whole thing a couple of years ago, when I first got into this fandom, but I didn’t know all of the dynamics then, so it’s extra fascinating to me now. We’ve all binged worse shit than this that took way longer, and I promise you won’t regret an hour a night for a week--but if you’d rather read my hot take, here you go, under the cut! Note: these are really shitty screengrabs, and for that, I am truly sorry.

A horrible announcer introduces the D by saying they weigh in at a collective 792 pounds, and all I can wonder is does this mean they have daily weigh-ins, why is it that specific? This focus on their weight is just gross to me. C’mon, writers, you’re better than this (j/k, you aren’t).

The three-foot bubble between Louis and Harry is established pretty early on, with Harry doing the prettiest sitting in all the land before bolting to his feet immediately because Louis happened to walk by his couch. A very real question: Was this bubble a requirement that Ben Winston constantly whispers into their headpieces, or did sbb decide, hey, let’s make it obvious that we have to CONSTANTLY adjust where we stand, even if it’s two feet away because that’s not enough room for Jesus?

There are some truly hilarious guest “stars” to announce, the first being the giant video head of David Beckham, which pops up and immediately starts speaking, so we're already off to the races with a) fuckups and b) Louis’s annoyance at said fuckups.

Liam takes a good hard look at his future:

Harry isn’t allowed to gaze at Becks, he’s off by the listening booth, which is a giant red call box because they’re Briddish, pip pip, cheerio. Unrelated, but I low-key feel like Harry's coked up or else really taking the piss with all his “LIVE BANDDDDDDD,” JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!,” etc., not to mention how fast he’s speaking, the way he grinds on the guitarist’s lap while Louis fonds at the sky, and all the yelling with arms aloft.

The best part of the rundown of the guest “stars” (or breast stars, if you’re Niall) is that we’re only in the first 10 minutes, so everyone’s giving it a go, but then we get to Mr. Simon Cowell, and Niall claps five times to stony silence (me as Harry constantly staring at Louis from three feet away):

Piers Morgan comes out to describe the “grilling” he’s going to give them later, all angry—genuinely angry—that they’re trending on twitter because they keep saying that he smells. And they don’t stop, even here, they keep yelling, “What’s that smell? You stink, etc.,” and he’s such a dick that I want to bottle this moment and spritz it around my house daily.

This mild trash talking continues, with Piers promising “tears from Piers,” but Slytherin Niall pulls the fingernail out of his mouth, smiles that sneaky smile, and says, “Yeah, but this isn’t Piers Morgan Day, is it, this is 1D Day,” and I want a transcript because there’s so much talking, but all of it trashes Piers, and god, I love my sons.

Anyway, they keep winding Piers up (Piers: “I’m going to find out what you’re most embarrassed about,” Liam: “The way you smell,” Piers, genuinely in a rage: “Don’t say that”), and he keeps talking about how he’s interviewed heads of state, etc., the implication being that this is below him, but Niall counters that Oprah and Barbara Walters have, too, and they would have much preferred Oprah, to the point where Piers admits they couldn’t afford Oprah (lmaooooooo).

We move on to Harry, spinning a twitter wheel that means they’ll follow whoever it lands on, which seems like a cute idea. I’m guessing it’s the official twitter handle?? I don’t know or actually care!

Louis can’t read the teleprompter, and he mutters later that it’s because it makes no sense rather than being too hard to actually see, but me as Niall, already yawning at the 25-minute mark (the bubble is preserved, though, whew):

I’m guessing Scott Mills is the “host” of this show because he comes out with a stick (??) and an agenda (Scott’s no Dermot…he has a face for radio, as they used to say back in the day). This whole section just features a lot of Harry and his pinned sleeves staring at Louis, and honestly relatable:

The next task is toilet paper roll stacking, with two judges from the Guinness Book of World Records on hand to see if this band of hyenas can beat the current world record and stack 28 (!!!!) rolls in 30 seconds. Two reasons to love Louis: he interrupts this idiocy to ask, “How did you two get into this, is this a full-time job you do every day?” (I was wondering the exact same thing), and this is his face for this challenge:

Sadly, they fail, and Harry’s the one who has to tell the judges, “Well, sorry for wasting your time!” with a cheery wave from the ladder. Uh oh, though, the bubble, we’re at two feet:

Much better!

This is still too close for Ben Winston’s comfort, so we split up the teams in what feels like a college course with a lot of money to run fake broadcasting drills. Zouis gets to report from the field, with some tweet rapping; the weather guy, sports guy, and lead broadcaster experience some technical difficulties, prompting Harry’s infamous, “SOMETHING’S GONE WRONG,” and we’re off to Poland:

For a production company that seems hell bent on “no homo,” there are lots of things that raise my brows, like this big “handsome” (Harry’s words) he-man who’s going to pull a “boohs” full of 1D fans over a line, so the boys have to guess how long it’s going to take him…by writing all over his mostly nude body (I’m the eye contact that Harry and Louis maintain during this):

Dude pulls the boohs successfully, so yay! Next up is Wrong Direction, the world’s worst lookalikes (HONESTLY, I’m embarrassed for everyone in this segment on Hollywood Blvd: the idiots who are “fooled” by this, the guys themselves and the low-key insult of it all, myself because this went on for way too long):

I’ll spare everyone the individual matchups because yike, but the real Wrong Direction comes to the studio, with all the guys dressed up like their matches, and the real D is polite, albeit mildly “wtf are we supposed to do about this” (me, too, Zayn). Points to Harry for at least trying to strike up some conversation: “Did you have foon, acting like us?” We’re supposed to vote for the best one on Google+ (lolololololol).

Scott takes two girls who look like they’re legit about to pass out into the red call box so they can be the first people to listen to the new album. While they listen to something none of us can hear, we get some VT (that’s “videotape,” god, I hate the whole lingo lesson we got earlier) of Spain and some fans, all of which feels like lengthy filler. I feel for the people Scott mentions as being asleep during this because there is a LOT of fill. Maybe make this shit shorter, just a suggestion!

Next up is Jamie Scott from his home somewhere in the middle of the night; he wrote most of Midnight Memories along with Louis and Liam, and he gives them an 8.5 in terms of how they did on a scale of 1-10 (and that’s AFTER Louis insults his pillows with the alphabet on them, “In case you forget”). There’s a lot of Lilo hand-shaking in celebration, and some enthusiastic clapping from Harry (a little too enthusiastic…I’m gonna imagine that someone tells him to tone it down in his earpiece because he looks around quite a bit):

A few things happen that don’t really interest me: the first listen of “Through the Dark” (this is skipped in the vid), a remote report from Radio Disney (Harry: “HOLLYWOODDDDDD!”) and a fan who wins the chance to come visit them later in the day, and then we’re back to Scott, who looks exhausted, and it’s only been 40 minutes.

All is not lost, because the next VT is the totally unnecessary yet extremely vital coverage of the D’s exercise regime. I’ve seen so many gifsets of hottttt and sweaty Lirry, but you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Niall’s American accent while he stretches: “Welcome to my workout dvd! I’ll be with you for the next 45 minutes to give you the lowdown of how I stay in shape.” PLEASE @ NIALL, DO THIS.

I really WANT to be Harry and effortlessly pump out pushups, but in reality I’m Zouis, popping some robot dance moves and drinking Red Bull. The weird shorthand throughout this is that Liam is an animal (Ziam + a whip = fire), Harry’s into flirty sexercise, Niall wants an arse like Kim K’s, Zayn’s a slender boxer, and Louis…just fucks around? Missed opp for footie Louis.

The first performance is “Story of My Life,” and we’ve all seen it before, but godDAMN, Zayn sings like an angel. Lots of technical problems in the audio, prompting quite a few Louis/Harry hand gestures, but still, in spite of it all, they sound amazing individually and together.

Even local asshole Piers Morgan is impressed, as he comes out to tell them that they were surprisingly good, along with a bunch of other neg bullshit. This is another one of those segments that it pays to watch the whole clip of, and Jesus, do I want a transcript. They head over to the couches, and Piers points at Louis and says, “You have the most reason to be nervous,” but Louis’s like, “Yeah, but I’m not,” and wow, #goals.

Everyone gets a couch, and the upshot is that Piers is a terrible egoist who thinks he’s a fantastic interviewer, but he really isn’t…all the questions are shit, and these five eat him alive. Everything he asks falls flat, and it’s so masterfully, subversively handled, from Louis’s iconic “define girlfriends” (and the underappreciated attempt by Harry to define it for Piers later: “Like in primary school, if you hold hands with a girl and you're eight, is that a girlfriend?”) to the obsession with smells (Piers asking Niall, “Why do you always smell,” claiming it’s a fan’s question, and Niall answering that it’s because he had colic as a child, so can only fart; Piers asking Zayn, “Who stinks the worst,” and Zayn saying that they all smell quite good, actually) to Piers demanding to see Zayn’s tattoo and relentlessly attacking him for it being a gun (Louis keeps interjecting that it’s a watergun, but go off I guess, paraphrasing).

But the best is always Louis. “What’s the weirdest thing a girl has done to impress you?” “Tweeted Piers Morgan.” Later, he says pointblank to Piers, “You do stink.” But then…but THEN, it’s the Four interview 1.0, only instead of Ben trying to get Louis to deny gay rumors, it’s Piers, who does it twice: “What’s the one rumor you wouldn’t want to hear about yourself?” Louis’s answer: “That I’m not good at football.” “Are you good?” “No….I just wouldn’t want it confirmed.” Piers tries AGAIN: “What’s the worst thing you’ve had to read about yourself?” but Louis turns it around and says he hates reading about one of the other boys being dead (!).

Because he’s the worst, Piers takes it to the ladies and asks how many girlfriends they’ve had and how many times they’ve kissed a girl. Harry says he’s kissed 8 ladies (which prompts a good scoff out of Zayn), and everyone else says 5 or 6, 3 or 4, etc., with Louis declaring he’s only had one proper relationship (no genders mentioned), so maybe 2 (lmaooooo). Piers gets all excited that he’s kissed more girls than this hot boyband has, and I wanna say, you’re almost there, “friend”…keep working it through.

There’s more antics w/r/t Piers, like his poor 2YO daughter crying, and him trying to blame it on Harry Styles not answering her dad’s sex questions or stupid questions about embarrassing things they’ve caught the others doing, and yeah, I don’t think they’ll get into the big ot5 gang bang on live TV, but ask anyway, I guess?

The last person to suffer sitting next to Piers is Liam, and I love him always, but especially for saying, “How’s it going there, stinky?” when Piers takes a seat to ask him why he’s so sexy. Piers tries to “joke” that the sexy question is for him, but nobody says anything, and then he asks Liam AGAIN before admitting that it’s a shitty question, so then he asks about them all wearing tight jeans, and godddddd, why does anyone let him interview anyone??

The good news is that Piers can tell he lost, so as he tells them that he thinks they’re pretty okay, actually, but, “You’ve gotta stop calling me stinky,” and you know they never will.

Scott says it might feel like much longer, but it’s only been an hour, and Zayn’s lookalike won, so we can all rest easy. This hour closes with a review of the highlights, and it’s ham-fisted and awful. Shocking!!!!

I can’t do one of these every single day, but I’ll do hour two sometime soon! Hope you enjoyed this, @justlarried, lol!

#recap #1d day #hour one #it really did feel like a full day

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