#I do think he’s extremely intelligent especially with planning like duh

[starlooove]

Hate this vid I just saw

[itsclydebitches]

(1/?) I'm curious as to your thoughts: was there a good way to write Ironwood as CRWBY intended him, 'fundamentally good person shows signs of instability and a worrying commitment to the idea that everyone should be willing to make a sacrifice as long as he is, takes this to unacceptable extremes when a great sacrifice is called for'? I've been reading all these posts that actually make it seem like a coherent character arc, and I don't consider myself a 'bootlicker' or someone who

Always happy to explain my thoughts! Though Ironwood’s situation is incredibly complicated and I’m tired as hell right now, so apologies if this attempt at working through things is more than a little messy… 

You’re right that Salem herself fundamentally changes the heart of the “well-meaning but ultimately misguided general” setup. Meaning, normally when we see a character like Ironwood, someone military-minded and driven by pragmatism, whoever it is they’re fighting against is us. It’s a war against other humans, or at least another intelligent (and sympathetic) form of life. Ironwood’s attempted archetype here relies heavily on the assumption that he’s taking things too far when there are better, more peaceful options open to him. No, general, don’t nuke all those people even though we’re at war with them because they’re still people. No, general, don’t blow up the alien ship even though you perceive them as a threat because they feel just like we do and I, the protagonist, believe that I can make peace with them. Though RWBY doesn’t have quite that same conflict—everyone agrees that Salem needs to go—it’s nevertheless worth acknowledging that his archetype is built on a history of unsympathetic characters… who are unsympathetic because they’re choosing to harm others for needless reasons. The hardened military general is an antagonist because he takes the violent route either due to greed or a lust for power. He makes sacrifices not because they are truly necessary, but because they’re easier or better for him. He believes that this violence/sacrifice is the only answer when the audience can clearly see another, better route. Think characters like Miles Quaritch from Avatar whose goal is, ultimately, to force a peaceful people out of their home/outright kill them in order to gain access to a natural resource on their world. Even if there is, broadly speaking, a “good” reason for doing this (humanity needs that resource to solve their energy crisis) there’s no confusion that his reasons are far from justified and that he’s taken things way too far. Not only because gaining resources is, you know, not a reason to kill people, but also because Jake Sully, our hero, provides him with alternative routes that he then rejects. These people are peaceful. We can negotiate with them… but Quaritch says no. 

So this is, broadly speaking, the archetype Ironwood and Team RWBY are thrust into. He’s the general supposedly taking things too far and they’re the heroes standing in his way. Problem is, RWBY’s enemy isn’t a sympathetic, potential victim. The grimm are literally mindless beasts and Salem is a classic Big Bad. She might have a tragic backstory now, but that hasn’t impacted how we read her as a threat. She isn’t another group of humans we should be making peace with. She’s not an alien race who we just have to extend a hand to. Defeating her—in a literal way—is thus far the only possible route and that undermines the archetype Rooster Teeth wants to chuck Ironwood into. He can’t be the cold-hearted military man choosing violence over peace when peace is simply not an option.

So we have a setup where every single one of Ironwood’s decisions is automatically both sane and justified because there is an immortal grimm queen trying to kill them. And she cannot be reasoned with. Extra security? No duh you want that. Suspicious of others? No shit Beacon fell precisely because it was infiltrated. Making sacrifices? What else is there to do except roll over and let Salem win? The options presented to him were “make sacrifice” or “everyone absolutely dies” so no, in this case the sacrifice is not deemed “unnecessary” and therefore something that we can criticize him for. Ironwood is not fighting a powerful but also potentially sympathetic enemy, inviting a perspective that his actions may be too severe in the face of that threat. Salem isn’t a Darth Vader who is going to turn back to the light when she sees her child. She isn’t a Sauron with a convenient Achille’s heel (as of yet anyway) thereby inviting an easy solution that doesn’t risk too many lives. The grimm are not the Klingons who, if you just take the time to know their culture, you can find common ground with. They and Salem are more akin to the Borg: a relentless, unreachable, immortal force that seeks only to destroy everything. She is RWBY’s devil and thus by default any question along the lines of, “But should Ironwood really have..?” is answered with an emphatic “Yes.” Because the only other option is total annihilation for the entire world, not just the one city you’re worried about. RWBY’s villain is such a massive, unarguable threat that the setup doesn’t allow debate in regards to what’s going “too far.” By having Team RWBY and Oscar parrot those views from other stories they just come off as sounding naive, foolish, and arrogant. Salem is not an enemy that you just need to try really hard to beat in battle. She is currently immortal. She is not someone you just need to talk down. She will annihilate you and laugh while doing it. “Unnecessary sacrifice” only exists in a world where you have a chance of taking another route with success. RWBY hasn’t provided that route yet. 

Thus, most military archetypes don’t have to face the level of threat that Ironwood does. In fact, their status as antagonists largely relies on the belief that the threat isn’t severe enough to warrant whatever horrific order they’re giving. Rooster Teeth has written a character based on tropes that do not work within the scenario they’ve set up… and a good chunk of the fandom aren’t critical enough viewers to see the disconnect. They just watch that collection of tropes and characteristics and fill in the blank based on what they know from the rest of popular culture. Like a really messed up Mad Lib. “Ah! I recognize this character! He’s a military man. He’s strict at times. He’s taking control of a situation and achieving that with an army. This is all a Bad Thing and I know that because I’ve seen it a thousand times before in a thousand different stories. The powerful military man is the antagonist and the heroes are the ones who fight for the marginalized!” And thus the viewer is encouraged to prioritize that assumed reading over the actual context of this particular story. Few are willing to admit that “Leaving marginalized people behind because otherwise we will all be slaughtered” is not the same situation as something like “Outright attacking a marginalized people because I want something from them. Or abandoning them because I just don’t care.” They see the basic, surface characteristics and think they know the answer to this story. Team RWBY = good and Ironwood = bad. 

That’s only the tip of the problem though. It’s a big problem, but literally every step of the way Rooster Teeth would need to change things if they actually wanted to give Ironwood this arc in a way that made any sense: 

They would need to change how they portray Mantle going all the way back to Volume 4 because we knew straight out of the Fall that Mantle has had a lot of problems for a very long time. That’s not all on Ironwood—it’s not possible for it all to be on Ironwood—and thus it’s neither correct nor fair to paint Mantle’s dystopian-like state as his doing, as we saw at the beginning of Volume 7. 

They would need to convince us that Ironwood is actually paranoid/being overly cautious, rather than what we actually have which is… completely logical safety measures against everything that has done them in up until now. Everything Ironwood implements is in direct response to something that killed people or felled a school. 

The story would need to give Ironwood better solutions that he then rejects. Obviously this is crucial for the leaving Mantle situation. As I’ve said numerous times before, you can’t paint Ironwood as a horrific person for following the only plan they had. “Stay to die” is not a plan. If they wanted him to read as in the wrong for leaving, Team RWBY needed to give him a good reason to stay, one that doesn’t automatically equal everyone dying, especially when Ironwood’s own solution is “save at least some.” However, this also needed to happen in regards to Amity. The fandom keeps pointing out that Ironwood took resources from Mantle, painting it as this cruel and awful thing… without acknowledging the necessity of that. Or that our heroes likewise demanded that he finish. Ruby is equally responsible for taking those resources. Again, if they want to paint Ironwood as unhinged and cruel in his decision, they need to provide him with alternatives: “Hey, general! Why don’t we just use these other resources instead?” “No. They must come from Mantle.” or “Hey, general! We’re just going to let you know that finishing Amity is fundamentally useless because you can’t defeat Salem with a giant army. Maybe stop taking resources now.” “No. I don’t believe you. I’m going to forge ahead with my own plans, ignoring this new information.” Neither of these things happened. We weren’t told that there was another way to build Amity and Ironwood wasn’t told that his plan was flawed… making his decision both necessary and justified, given what he knew. To my mind, Team RWBY is far more responsible for Mantle’s state since they encouraged that drain on the resources while knowing the use of those resources wouldn’t achieve what Ironwood assumed it would. Which, while failing to paint them as heroic, likewise undermines Ironwood’s supposed villainy. Why do we hate him for this again…. when Ruby is doing the exact same thing…? 

They would need to have established, all the way back in Volume 2 and onward, a personality that allows for him to go to certain extremes, such as shooting Oscar. I don’t have the energy to dive into this one in great detail right now, but suffice to say the fandom has decided to horrendously miss-characterize Ironwood in an effort to justify an illogical action based on what we know about him. I’ve seen the “He once said he would shoot Qrow!” so often I’m literally astounded by the reach there, but I’m also seeing a lot of “Ironwood has never shown any sympathy towards children!” Which… okay. The absence of interaction is not proof of hatred. Meaning, having watched seven volumes in which Ironwood doesn’t interact with kids only tells us we don’t know how he feels about kids, not that he obviously despises them. A lack of scenes wherein Ironwood expresses his adoration for everyone under the age of twenty is not evidence for dislike, nor more than making a claim like, “Well Ruby obviously hates pears” would be. Why would she hate pears? Because we’ve never once, ever, heard her say that she likes them. She’s never spoken positively about them. Never stood up for them! So clearly they’re her least favorite food. Sound ridiculous? Same situation here. To say nothing of the fact that we do see Ironwood interacting positively with kids, if we define “kids” as “characters significantly younger than him.” We watched him desperately protect large groups of students at Beacon. Stand up for Weiss at the party despite how much that threatened his political situation with Jacques (as seen in Volume 7). Send Yang an expensive new arm purely because he knows what it’s like to lose a limb. The narrative has gone out of its way to demonstrate how kind and compassionate Ironwood is, all of which would need to be changed—if not outright erased—to give us someone capable of shooting Oscar like that. 

The fact that the fandom chooses to ignore characterization doesn’t mean it’s not there and that characterization, at its core, fundamentally hinders the “military man goes off the deep end” archetype. Because Ironwood is nothing like his parallels in popular culture. His situation is not one that he can resolve peacefully. He was not given better options that he then rejected. He has never been a cold, manipulative, cruel person. Honestly, if they wanted to write this arc then they needed someone other than James Ironwood living in the world of RWBY. We’d need a different kind of war and a different character introduced all those volumes ago. Because as it is, the story Rooster Teeth wanted to tell simply isn’t a story fit for the Ironwood and the Remnant they created. 

[p-and-p-admin]

Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.  (sharing here Admin approved)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello Ciule and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you for sitting down with us for a chat.

SS/HG readers might be familiar with your stories “Awkward” and “Headmaster’s Wife”. 

Okay, let’s jump right in. What's the story behind your pen name? Well, I sort of took one of my real names, swirled the letters around in the air with my imaginary wand, and I ended up with this. Can’t begin to imagine where I got the idea from... ;-) Later on, I realized that Ciule is actually a name in Romania. I had no idea, but there are people out there carrying this name for real. I guess I’m #sorrynotsorry?   Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most? To be quite frank: No one, really. This is more about the characters I like, than truly identifying with them. I can relate to parts of some of them, but not the whole package. Primarily, I write about Hermione, Voldemort and Severus, and the one common thread between those three is the search for knowledge. That’s a trait I can identify with, but I’m neither an evil bastard, a grumpy protector nor a fretting, intelligent activist. I am, however, a swot. If you had asked who I’d want to be, the answer is clear. I want to be Albus Dumbledore. Though I can’t agree with the things he did, I feel absolutely certain that he’s the one who has the most fun during the books. I want to have that twinkling fun in face of absolute chaos.   Do you have a favourite genre to read (not in fic, just in general)? Fantasy! Definitely fantasy. While growing up, I read ‘everything’ in every genre, and in my twenties, I decided I’d spend my time reading what I loved the most. So, fantasy it is. Do you have a favourite "classic" novel? You landed me in an existential crisis right there. I mean, there’s so many to choose from! ‘Wuthering Heights’, I think. It hurts so good. Or maybe ‘Rebecca’, at least, I loved that when I was younger. Or the fairly obscure ‘Lorna Doone.’ When I was a kid, I wanted to be a film director, shooting Lorna Doone into an epic film. Oh well, there might be a theme in this selection of books which reflects in my writing… At what age did you start writing? The creative process has gone on since forever. I’ve told myself thousands of stories in my head, but rarely written anything down. At the age of ten, I had a co-writing project with one of my friends. We created this secret room in her basement, and painstakingly wrote a ‘novel’. It was fun, though the writing ended as it became too cold down in the basement during winter. How did you get into writing fanfiction? In 2009, I became completely obsessed with a TV-show in the last episode. I was watching the entire series, casually enjoying the murder mystery, and in the last episode, the villain said: “I can do the math,” and I was literally gone. That obsession sparked writing my first fanfic stories. Those stories are still on FFnet, but they aren’t any good. *shrugs* What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works? Compromise. The world isn’t a perfect place, and will never be. You can, however, make it more to your liking. It may not be perfect, but if you play the cards you are dealt, you might improve something. In Robert Jordan’s “the Wheel of Time”-series, one of the characters goes through a test in a parallel universe of sorts, and she thinks: “The world was not what she wanted, not anywhere near it.” I loved that: trying your best to make things as you want them to be in the face of dangers and difficulties.   And then there’s time travel! I love messing with time, and there are so many great Time-travelling fics. Plus, I have to say I have a certain love for the villains...   What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter? Currently, I’m not writing for any other fandoms. I read Star Wars, GoT, POTO and LOTR, and in the past I read Smallville. Though it’s more of a type of ship for me, because I only read Reylo, SanSan, Erik/ Christine, Lex/Lana and ….drum roll… the extremely small and quite oddball ship of Eowyn/ Grìma Wormtongue. If you’ve never tried the last one, go search for the fantastic stories by auri_mynonys. If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon? One change: duh, that’s easy, isn’t it? Severus lives. Or, maybe Dumbledore acting more rational, not keeping so many secrets. Maybe telling McGonagall that Severus is on the Order’s side… (Interviewer is laughing - ”NOT so easy”) I do write Voldemort wins AUs, but I wouldn’t want canon Voldemort to win. I prefer him to be more sane than in canon. My absolute favourite piece of fanon has to be the Black library. I thought it was canon, but it’s not. This is a thing that really, really should exist in canon! Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet? I’m very much inspired by music, and sometimes I listen as I write, but not always. Some fics are heavily inspired by music, such as ‘Absence’ and the last epilogue to ‘The Manipulation of Time and Matter’. What are your favourite fanfictions of all time? Definitely ‘Two Steps from Hell,’ by the amazing Ssserpensssotia, but that’s a Volmione. This was such a wild ride, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath the entire time. Those twists and turns were so unpredictable and … Well, I’m in awe. The SS/HG fandom is so massive, there’s a plethora of great stories out there. The unfinished ‘Self-Slain Gods on Strange Altars’ is a wonderful story by scumblackentropy, and I love Slytherpoufs stories, especially the wip ‘Ghosts’, but also ‘Angels to Fly’. And then there’s the one that got away - it means, I can’t find it. In this story, Severus watches the thestrals, befriending one of them, I think, but they’re unpredictable and maybe even dangerous. He’s heartbroken, and knows how it all will go down, having bitterly accepted his role. It made me cry. And then there’s the works by Aurette, and lena1987, Subversa, Kittenshift… Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process? I need (strike that: want) to draft the entire story before I post, to have some idea on how it goes. That makes it easier to write, but if it’s a long story, I’m happy as long as I know the general direction. This year, I finished a story that was on an unintended hiatus for two years, and I think part of my problem on getting back into writing it up was a too vague idea for the ending.   What is your writing genre of choice? Uh. I don’t know? Basically, you could argue that I’m a porn writer, or at least it’s fuelled by sexual tension and angst. So, romance or drama, bordering on erotica might be correct. To be frank, I haven’t really thought about categories after I started posting on AO3. Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why? Hard to say. I might go with “the Manipulation of Time and Matter,” because I think it’s the best plot I’ve created. Besides, I managed to write Hermione having a relationship with both Severus and Voldemort in the same fic. My favourite “clean” SSHG would be the short story ‘Grimmauld’. Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it? In Grimmauld, the house became a character. That was unexpected, and not something I had planned from the beginning. So the lesson would be “don’t start posting until you know what’s going to happen.” Or else, this story might have turned out very much different. I had to throw in a little made-up lore on how you set blood wards on a house too to make it sentient. That proved to be a quite chilling piece of magic.   How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write? I love old houses. Exploring abandoned houses, going inside to see what remains of furniture, tapestries and everything is so exciting. (It can also be dangerous, but that’s another matter). Such houses makes me feel .. nostalgic, plus I get those nice little shivers down your spine that is a little like a horror story. So, I wanted to use Grimmauld as a setting to explore that in a fic, to really dig into the aching loneliness of a lost house. The story came very quickly to me, so I guess that helped me.   What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing? Big question there. Hmm, I think … it’s hard to say. I’m a reader, really, and I couldn’t easily pick apart any influences. Though I have to say that one of the things I enjoyed when reading ‘Two Steps From Hell’ was the attention to magic. I think it’s important to include spells, rituals and the use of magic in my fics, because that’s what sets it apart from a Muggle AU, for example. That’s an important part of the world-building.   Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction? My significant other knows. I didn’t tell him, but he found out for himself, probably by spying on me. When he told me, I almost couldn’t stop laughing, because he… erm, he said he had thought about reenacting a scene in my PWP ‘Twenty Points to Gryffindor’, where Severus shouts the title as he… well… you get the gist. If he had done that, I’d have had a heart attack. I would literally be dead. Instead, I laughed non stop for an hour.   How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"? Haha, so true. You spend all those hours in front of your laptop - and if I wasn't motivated by doing it for myself, I can’t even see how I’d force myself through all those hours. It’s fun, though. I do this because I love it.   How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media? Very important. I'm on the publishing sites (visible interaction is why I prefer AO3 instead of FFnet) and on Facebook, mainly. I love feedback (as all authors do), and when people form theories or make comments, I get an insight into my own writing. I know how it’s going to pan out, but the audience doesn’t, and how they perceive things might be different from how I think it is. At times, it influences how I go forward, mostly because I need to add things, to explain what’s going on. What is the best advice you've received about writing? Don’t post until you know the ending, and remember: the devil on your left shoulder will be at war with the angel on the right side. Listen to the angel telling you to wait a little longer, and not to the devil chanting: ‘Post, post, post!’ In the end, of course, you’ll give in to the devil, regretting it until you’re done. What do you do when you hit writer's block? Read. Read a lot. And read some more. Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing? Certainly. I’m a foodie. For example, everything that Voldemort eats is stuff I love. His food habits are primarily mine, and I love cooking.   Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser? It’s a short piece, maybe three or four chapters, with the title ‘Transference’. The point of departure from canon is during their time in the tent at DH. Hermione wakes up in a bed, in a room she doesn’t recognize, having no idea where she is, but she spots a large, moving picture on the drawer:  Feeling panic rising, she stared hard at the moving and smiling pictures, and her heart leapt into her throat, pulse hammering as she recognized herself in the largest picture. A slightly older Hermione, in a white wedding dress, kissing and laughing at someone who simply had to be a much younger Severus Snape. It had to be him: Long black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin - but then he looked so young, carefree and happy - expressions she had never seen on her dour Professor's face. Beside the picture, there were numerous cards, greetings and well-wishings for their wedding - the date an impossible 21 August 1982, and amongst the cards, the largest one stood out, the black ink showing an elegant handwriting: “Dear Hermione and Severus! Best wishes for your wedding, Lord Voldemort.” Any words of encouragement to other writers? Read and write, in that order. Don’t worry about trolls, because when you contribute something that you created, it makes you so much more than people spending their time just raining on anyone’s parade. You brought something new to the world, they’re just reacting to things. If someone accuses you of a self-insert, go ahead and lecture them on the intentional fallacy. I promise, you won’t regret looking it up. ;-)   And please, mind the normal physical limits when you’re writing smut. Unless you give the male a stamina potion or put him under the Imperius, it’s unlikely that his refractory period allows him to come five times in one hour. Realistic smut is so much more sexy, lol. Thanks again for speaking with us Ciule.

[sylwritesstuff]

006) Heaven (1910)

Part of the Light to Dancing 100x100 List.

Rating: PG13 (language)

Featuring: One of my many many ideas on when Aziraphale was created and how he and Crowley fit into the whole Fall thing. 

----

He'd had stranger thoughts, in his opinion. He gazed skyward or, more accurately, Heavenward, and considered the errant thought. It was very possible. It would certainly explain why he hadn't Fallen and why Crowley didn't quite carry his demonic nature as strongly as the rest did. Why he was allowed a bit of kindness and why Aziraphale was allowed a bit of... 

Well, Crowley had called a bit of a bastard but Aziraphale preferred to think he had a touch of mischief. 

In any case, his conclusions helped him with an issue he'd been ignoring since the beginning but had truly been grappling with since the Second World War. He, an angel, loved a demon. And part of him had been waiting to Fall ever since. He'd waited for the cracks to form, for his wings to blacken with char. 

And yet... 

And yet. 

"Seen something we should be worried about, angel?" Crowley's eyes narrowed. "It is you, isn't it?" 

"Yes, my dear, of course. I was merely contemplating."

There was a moment, Crowley staring at him as if trying to see through him. He even pulled down his glasses. Aziraphale merely smiled at him. He had nothing to hide. "Right," Crowley finally said, dropping onto the bench. It was more of a sprawl, really, the way he took over the entire space as if someone would dare join them. 

Aziraphale inched closer until his shoe touched Crowley's boot. Crowley shifted a little, his only sign of surprise, and the angel's small smile warmed. "What were you contemplating, then?" Crowley demanded. Had Aziraphale not known him so well, he never would've noticed the slight gruffness of his tone. 

"The ineffable plan."

That snapped Crowley out of it. He groaned. "Come on, Aziraphale. I thought we weren't gonna talk about that anymore."

Aziraphale lifted his brows. "Whatever gave you that idea?" 

"The fact that I don't wanna talk about it anymore."

"Oh... Pish-posh."

"'Pish-posh?'" he echoed incredulously. 

"It means-" 

"I know what it bloody means. Don't say it to me. You always talk like-" He stopped dead when Aziraphale simply laid a finger over his lips. It took a full three seconds - Aziraphale counted each of them - for Crowley to lean back in shock. "That- Aziraphale, that was actually rude."

"Yes, it was. It did seem a bit necessary, though." Instead of sitting back up and placing his hand in his lap, Aziraphale laid it on Crowley's leg. "I've also learned that a bit of... temptation is necessary. Now and again."

"Ngk."

Wonderful. Aziraphale smiled brightly. "You know I didn't come into being after the Fall, don't you?" 

It was another three seconds. "Wot?" 

"I know you and I never met. I didn't meet any of the angels until afterwards. God said I was an angel, gave me all the details I suspect She gave to everyone when they were created, and then said I was to go to Eden. She only said that I must stay until She called me back up. She would have a gift for me."

He paused, waiting to see if Crowley was actually paying attention or still focusing on the fact that the angel was touching his thigh. "The flaming sword," he said, solving that mystery. 

"Precisely. I did stay as I was told. I watched the sign go up on the very tree you complained about when we first met and I found a nice spot of dust when asked. It became Adam, you see, and I was quite proud of that. I still am even though God rather quickly decided She should make a better model using some spare piece of Adam and then Eve was born. I enjoyed them very much, you know."

"I know. What's this got to do with the insufferable plan?" 

"It-" Aziraphale sighed at him. "Ineffable."

"It can be both."

"Now don't go around poking fun at the Almighty."

"Poking fun at you."

Aziraphale decided to ignore that. "Now whilst I was in Eden, I began to hear the battle. The humans couldn't go over the wall, as you know, but I liked to walk it at night. I've always enjoyed looking at the stars."

"I know that too."

Aziraphale squeezed his thigh to say two very important things: 1) You know me very well, my dear, and I like that about you, and 2) Shut. Up. "As I was saying, I heard the battle. I was very concerned, obviously. There were only my fellow angels, God, and these two humans about. Not counting the animals. But I did as I'd been told. I stayed in the garden and I waited to be called. I didn't want to leave Adam and Eve behind. They were so... innocent, then. Naive, really. I didn't want them to be hurt.

"Finally, I was called back up. I finally met the other angels and, to be perfectly honest, I was shocked to find I didn't like them. Not one of them."

Crowley cocked his head. "Even then? You always acted as if you liked them."

"It was the right thing to do. We were all angels. God had yet to tell me about the Fall. But the others did. Michael especially. Adored bragging how they'd kicked Lucifer right in the face and sent him and his followers down beneath the Earth. It was a new place called Hell."

Crowley sucked his teeth. "Right. I remember that. Uriel blinded him and Gabriel yelled something stupid. Then Michael swoops down and there y'are. War's over. Everyone fell hard and I just... Well, I didn't have much choice. I was going anyway. Knew that."

"That's something I wondered. Did you fight in the war?" 

Crowley wrinkled his nose. "No. Why would I want to go and do something stupid like that? I watched from a respectable distance. Not my fault all my friends were on the losing side, but down I went anyway."

"Were you told to?" 

Brow furrowing, Crowley stared at him. "I just told you all my friends were on the losing side. Not my friends anymore, obviously. Lucifer became a right tosser the moment he changed his name to Satan and all the rest decided to get their revenge or whatever. I was never really down for it."

"Crowley, please, were you told to Fall?" 

"Not in so many words, no. It was just kind of expected. I'd asked the same questions that started the fighting even if I didn't participate in that bit. All the angels were prats and the now-demons were just as bad suddenly. I didn't care about the humans up here, but being in the middle seemed a lot better than being in Hell."

"So would you say... that you made the choice of your own Free Will? Just as I've discovered that I gave my sword away of my own Free Will? Twice now, mind you. I've chosen Earth over Heaven twice. And I haven't Fallen."

Crowley sneered. "Right. Yeah. Look a bit more smug about it."

"No, my dear, you don't understand. When we were created, what were we told about Free Will?" 

Crowley let out a long-suffering sigh as if he was tired of talking about the past. Aziraphale didn't blame him, but he did inch a little closer. Their knees touched. "We were told we didn't have it. What's the point of-?" 

"But don't we?"

"Don't we what?" 

"Have Free Will. I suppose as a demon, you could say that your lot stole Free Will and that's why you fell."

"Well, duh."

"No, no, no. Pay attention, Crowley. I am not a Fallen Angel."

"I know that. Stop rubbin' it in, you..." Aziraphale saw the moment it clicked, Crowley tipping his glasses down to give him that narrow-eyed stare again. "You think angels were designed with Free Will, then told we didn't have it. You think God planned the bloody Fall?" 

"Well, you can't very well have good without evil. And, I think, you can't live a very full life without the knowledge of both."

"They should've eaten the apple."

"They were always supposed to eat the apple, my dear. You're my apple."

Crowley sucked in a sharp breath. "S'cuse me?" 

Aziraphale scooted closer. Crowley had to adjust his legs so their sides could press flush together. "Out of all the intelligent beings in Heaven and Earth, you and I and the humans didn't fight. You took your Free Will and made a responsible decision and then you came to the garden and did the right thing. You've always done the right thing by me. Haven't you?"

Crowley grunted. Aziraphale decided it was an agreement. "There, you see? You're my apple. When I received the sword, God said 'Beware the snake in the garden.' I've been bewaring ever since, but... Well, what did you say on the wall? Not very subtle. Yes. I suppose I am very much slower than you are in some things, Crowley, and this very much appears to be one of them. But I've decided I should take a bite."

Oh, wait, no, that sounded- "A metaphorical one, I mean. I- I'm not actually going to bite you."

"Why not?" 

Aziraphale huffed, unamused by his little smirk. His speech was basically ruined now. May as well just say it. "I love you. And, I think, whether or not I knew it, I always have."

"And, ah, you think that's part of the ineffable plan?" 

"I don't know."

"Wot."

He spread his hands, beaming. "I don't know, my dear. It isn't my business to know and it isn't yours. We're here to make choices and take our sides. I've taken Earth's side and, just as importantly, I've taken ours. I don't know the ineffable plan, but I know I love you."

"And you tell me that on a park bench?" 

Aziraphale leaned over, kissing his cheek. The lenses on his sunglasses cracked and the angel only smiled. "It's a beautiful day. I thought it would be rather romantic."

"Oh, don't start thinking about romance. We've gotten on just fine without all that."

Aziraphale brought a quick miracle, fixing his sunglasses. "You saved my books from a bomb."

"That- That wasn't romantic. That was-" 

"You made Hamlet extremely popular."

"You liked it. It doesn't really matter like-" 

"Saved me from a French guillotine."

"What was I supposed to do? Let you get all discorporated?" 

He looked like he was going to crawl right over the back of the bench. Aziraphale kissed his cheek again. "Brought me chocolates for my store opening and, even though I don't know how, I do know you were the one who convinced head office to forego my returning to Heaven."

"Well, I- That-" 

"That was very sweet of you."

"Stop that," Crowley protested. 

"You mischievous darling."

"Oi!"

Aziraphale kissed him again, soundly this time and right on the mouth. Crowley made some sort of indecipherable sound that only made Aziraphale giggle. "I suppose it's good I didn't tell you before the Apocalypse. Your brain seems to have been turned to porridge."

"Mush."

"What?"

"The expression. It's turned to mush."

"Hm. I prefer porridge."

"You would."

They sat silently for a few seconds, Aziraphale smiling as ducks swam across the pond. Clouds continue to roll across the bright blue sky, and Aziraphale's halo stayed intact. He wanted it to. 

Crowley's stayed broken because he wanted it to. "I love you too, y'know."

"Yes. I'd hoped."

"So did I."

[c-sand]

Your tags on that literati post are so true. Both of their viewpoints are right but people still rally against Jess as if he's somehow the devil's spawn. Also acting like he broke up Dean and Rory intentionally when??? The entire relationship was based off of Rory trying to appease Dean's overbearing ass esp after she had to tell him she loved him just for him to get back with her??

It’s one of those really good moments where everyone’s right and no one’s really wrong -- even though basically everyone likes to say that Jess is. 

It is completely okay that Rory is feeling awkward and uncomfortable. She likes Jess, she wants to be with Jess. [I mean, Jess moved to town and, let’s just be honest, he handed her that book and got her lit reference and immediately somewhere in her gut (even if she didn’t notice) she went, “Oh wow, Dean and I suck huh? Can’t wait to slowly and painfully let our relationship die -- in an agonizing experience for all involved, but especially for the audience.”] But, the statement that everyone in the town is watching is not a lie or an over exaggeration. Everyone in the town is watching. Everyone in the town is judging. They all hate him. They literally had a town meeting once to kick this TEENAGER out, as if that’s acceptable behaivor. Not even her mother can find it in herself to not be an asshole say passive aggressive remarks about how she had zero issues kissing Dean in public and showing him affection and she didn’t have this problem with Deaaaaan -- all while her daughter is literally concaving in on herself from the judgement she’s facing from her new relationship with Bad Boy, Jess “I stole some baseballs, once” Mariano.

Despite her saying this is the first time her and Dean have broken up, it’s actually the second time he’s turned her into an ex in a not so graceful way. But, unlike the first time Dean decided to drop kick her into the sun (because, she’d been dating him for basically no time at all, truly, and therefor hadn’t come to the expedient conclusion that she was going to give him fourteen children after her mother sold her for two goats) where it absolutely wasn’t her fault that Dean is emotionally incompetent and manipulative -- the second time he breaks up with her, it is partially. Not completely. Dean’s emotionally abusive and extremely possessive. It hits a point where she’s literally flinching from him when he’s screaming at her -- her friend having to save her from a clearly violent situation. Dean’s behaivor is an absolute disaster, so he’s definitely at fault for the relationship’s end, too.

But, Rory meets Jess and immediately connects with him (and Rory is not allowed to talk to someone that isn’t on Dean’s pre-approved communications list, so it’s a big deal)and starts drifting away from the heinous situation she’s in. (Because, she JUST went through this with Dean, when he was out here planning how to murder Tristan only a month or two prior. Despite what I see all of the time: this behaivor did not manifest out of nowhere to make way for Jess. Dean was always like this). She completely disconnects from Dean. She’s a shadow self around him. For good reasons, obviously. But still, she’s not present. She’s so obviously into Jess, it’s a mess, she can’t even hide it. She cheats on him. She spends that whole dance staring Jess down and talking about him and flat out being a disaster. In this very moment, this break up is her fault. 

It was so public. Everyone saw it. Everyone hates Jess. Everyone’s watching. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone feels comfortable just ragging on this kid to her and everyone else 24/7, as if that’s appropriate. Everyone loves Dean. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone.

She’s got this guilt about how she treated him (even though I still don’t think it was anything compared to how Dean treated her), she’s never had a second boyfriend, she feels crazy pressure. She never in the entire show seems to realise that she was in an abusive relationship, so she just feel like she destroyed Dean and she feels horrible. She doesn’t want to hurt him any more than necessary, blah blah. The fact that she doesn’t want to flaunt it is perfectly understandable and perfectly reasonable. There’s so many reasons she doesn’t want to. A third is the town. A third is Dean. A third is her mom. No one likes Jess, but her and Luke. It’s totally okay that she wants to integrate into society slowly lolz

Jess is also not wrong. Jess is also right.

Was Jess obvious that he liked Rory? Of course. Did he put in much effort to hide it? No. Did he put effort into pretending he liked Dean? Absolutely not. But, if Rory wanted to be with Dean, she would be with Dean. Jess seemed to basically just take any time he could get with her that he could get with her, but there was never any actually pressure for her to be with him. The pressure she felt was from inside herself, because she liked him and didn’t like Dean anymore (which is beyond understandable and duh) and was trying to keep liking Dean and stop liking Jess and pressure pressure. But, that wasn’t on Jess. He even took time to try and understand why she did like Dean. It is not his fault she couldn’t think of a single reason.

He never came out and said, “I like you, please dump your boyfriend.” He never even said he liked her, before she kissed him. It was obvious, he pulled a bunch of stunts to get to spend time with her, but she had free will, she did not have to spend time with him, if she didn’t want to. After she kisses him for the first time, she tells him to keep it a secret. She doesn’t speak with him. She essentially chastises him for trying to move on, criticizes his girlfriend (he IS actually dating this girl -- they don’t just makeout, they go on dates, they talk on the phone, they do things together -- Shane is his girlfriend), is really degrading to, both Shane’s looks and intelligence. 

She likes Jess, she hates him, she likes him, she hates him. And it’s true she’s struggling with how she feels, how she thinks she should feel, what she wants, what she thinks she should do. But, to Jess it’s like a roller coaster of emotions. 

They’ve already done their initial limbo, upon getting together, where they couldn’t figure out how to touch without it being awkward and uncertain. XTC “Then She Appeared” all over the place and she apologized to Dean for being crappy about how she handled everything and now Jess thinks they’re in a comfortable place. And right out of the gate, they rewind back and she’s asking him to hide, again. Secret kisses. Hidden affection. Her reasoning are sound and clearly he’s not incapable of understanding, because he doesn’t put up much fight before asking her how long they interact on the down low. It’s not really a hostile conversation. She’s not flinching in fear. But, his feelings are sound, too. It’s a quick whiplash back to a, “Okay, but this isn’t a public situation,” that it had ended on before the summer. It’s totally rational for him to have a negative reaction at hearing she wants to temper their interactions, to make things more comfortable on Dean and the town -- even if that’s not exactly what she means -- even if it’s actually about her being uncomfortable and nervous.

Rory isn’t wrong. Jess isn’t wrong. They’re both right. And then understand each other at the end of the conversation. They’ll tone it down for awhile until she feels more comfortable. She feels more comfortable, later, and they tone it back up. Rory isn’t evil demon spawn for feeling uncomfortable being judged by everyone. It’s all good. Jess isn’t evil demon spawn for not being happy he’s being asked, again, to keep it quiet. They’re both just feeling their feelings. Neither was hurting the other in the conversation. Rory has some selective memory about how many times her and Dean have broken up and that’s honestly the most harmful part of the conversation, because I rejoice in those two separations, so have some respect for my joy, girl.

[ionlycareaboutteam7-blog]

why do sasunaru shippers hate sasusaku more than naruhina/sakura more than hinata? || aka a sasunaru shipper explaining why sasusaku is better than naruhina in every conceivable way

yeah yeah this isn’t my lane as a sasunaru shipper to comment on ss because it’s not my ship but it IS my lane to comment on sasuke and sakura, 2 of my favourite naruto characters.

this is my first post about naruto or any series in quite awhile, so excuse any possible errors on my part, but i’ve been thinking and i’d like to write out my thoughts on a particular subject. i’m back with a controversial opinion, of course because those are the only ones i’ll ever have

if you ship sasunaru and u viciously hate sakura i suggest going into this post with an open mind because... you aren’t gonna like a lot of what is said here but i suggest reading anyways :-)

during my time in naruto fandom i’ve noticed a trend among sasunaru shippers(and anti ending people in general), sakura is the butt of all of the jokes and especially after the manga ending and gaiden being released people have loved to make jokes about SS’s marriage but hinata never gets the same negative treatment and my thoughts are only

why?

act i: underratus sasusakus

i’m going to get straight to the point and say my opinion. sakura and sasusaku especially are given extremely unfair treatment and exaggerated belittlement among the sasunaru fandom. allow me to explain why

if you love this bitch right here

you should have done enough character analysis to realize these few things about him

1: he was completely deprived of love and any connections from like age 7 up until he met naruto, sakura and kakashi

2: he felt like he had to push everyone he cares about away because he saw it as weak

and 3: underneath all of his trauma he’s kind hearted

so knowing all of these obvious things, why would you say that in moments like these

he is actually trying to shake off someone he doesn’t like at all and only sees as a girl with an annoying crush?

or alternatively, why would you say he’s abusive and she deserves better but then go and ship him with your favourite character? it’s so transparent and it’s obviously just a filler excuse so you don’t have to actually look into the character dynamics and how they work because you don’t want to admit that your least favourite ship actually isnt awful.

Sasuke isn’t the type of person that would have such disregard and apathy towards a person that’s shown him nothing but love throughout the entire series. that goes against his entire character’s philosophy and most of the arguments seem to be pulled out of thin air also

He obviously cares about sakura plain and simple, no mental gymnastic argument in the world can disregard plain canon evidence. if youre so set on the idea that sasuke doesn’t give a shit about sakura, then i’m gonna raise the question: why would you have a character who doesn’t care about one of his teammates that supported him as ur fave? which leads me to my next point

there’s obviously gonna be theeese kind of people:

“of course my precious baby sasuke loves his team, but sakura has a selfish love and she will never deserve him!!!!”

there are SO many anti sakura arguments from sasunaru shippers that are just plain wrong so i’m gonna use this opportunity to crush them all

“sakura only liked sasuke cause he was hot and popular”

after sakura was surprised that the kid guessed she liked sasuke, she was informed he was popular with the girls

so that one panel gets rid of that argument

“sakura doesn’t really love sasuke, she was going to kill him...”

...because she thought it was her ONLY OPTION to save him from himself, she thought he was too far gone and it wasn’t until naruto showed up that she had hope again (which is why sasunaru shippers being as threatened by ss as they are is so dumb and crazy)

personally i don’t like this aspect of ss and heavily prefer the sasunaru dynamic with the whole eternal never giving up on you thing because it scratches my particular shipping itch but it’s foolish to say that sakura doesn’t love sasuke period, she obviously does and she does deeply and she’s one of the closest people to him and always will be

Sasusaku gets tons of unfair hate just because of the long running anti Sakura meme, and it’s always been the scapegoat of the anti naruto ending crowd. But it’s silly to me because it makes sense that if sasuke doesn’t end with naruto, he would end with sakura

aside from naruto, his closest living person is sakura plain and simple. she’s done nothing but love him, maybe not as absolutely and unconditionally as naruto has, and maybe she did falter but it’s more than anyone else in the entire series(besides naruto) has and it’s more than he’s ever got from anyone else (besides naruto lol) so if sasunaru doesn’t happen why on earth would you be upset that the boy who was so deprived of love for his entire life ended up with this girl?

if not naruto, sakura is the best person for sasuke plain and simple because literally who else in the series (besides naruto) put up with all of his baggage for the entirety of the series, + she raised his child when he was MIA and sarada actually grew up to be a diligent and intelligent ninja. i ain’t even mad when people ship SS

sasuke has recognized all of this, too.

and has thanked sakura for all of the love she’s ever provided for him throughout the years, even when he was not himself and hurting her, she always just wanted him to be okay, and he appreciates it. so of course he married sakura, duh.

you cant even be threatened by their eye smex

because sasuke gives naruto bedroom eyes all day long

he gives a shit about sakura okay?!?! sakura gives a shit about him okay?!?! it’s okay to acknowledge that his canon marriage isn’t the devil while still realizing the objective superiority of your otp!!!!!

all of this can be summarized into, for some reason sasusaku threatens the sasunaru fandom and leads them into having bullshit mental gymnastic arguments against it for no real reason when....

the real monster of the series is naruhina.

act ii: naruheinous disgustus

NARUHINA IS THE WORST SHIP TO EVER COME OUT OF ANY SHOUNEN MANGA, OR ANY MANGA EVER EXCEPT MAYBE SOMETHING LIKE VAMPIRE KNIGHT. I said it.

sorry about coming off a little strong there, but i have a lot to say about this matter, and you know i’m for real when i have a lot to say about something that has so very little.

it seems to me like most sasunaru shippers don’t actually care about naruhina and just give it a free pass cuz it’s boring and she’s nice and cute and whatever

but naruhina is so much worse than sasusaku on every imaginable level

so, so much worse

because where sasusaku at least has friendship

naruhina has nothing

at least where sasusaku has care and chemistry

naruhina has a bland empty space

because hinata is a bland and empty character

[due to plot holes and retcon in the last and other filler, i will only be using kishimoto’s material for this post. but hey, since naruhina is canon only the author written material has to be enough, right? right....? please guys he ships our ship he made it canon i swear he planned everything to end with their epic moon(who sasuke) love story]

we get shown this when naruto gets introduced to hinata and his only impression of her is that she’s a weirdo

We get this when Naruto never ever noticed Hinata, while Sasuke was actively trying to cheer Sakura up

naruhina in part 1 has absolutely NO basis at all. it’s absolutely nonexistent from naruto’s side.

unfortunately... it remains that way.

this moment. this fucking moment is when it all started to go downhill. i mean, naruhina was always at the bottom but this is when it becomes apparent that the ship is never going to pick itself back up.

i’m not going to be one of the people who say that after naruto completely ignored her confession that she should just never think about him again and find a new guy, that’s unreasonable.

however,

naruto completely ignored her confession! in fact, i don’t even think he ignored it. i think it just never occured to him that he should even talk to her which is even sadder imo... sasuke, who is apparently the devil to sasuke, at least y’know... thanked her.

after this happened we never saw hinata’s reaction to this, her feelings on why naruto never replied to her, we never even see her doing anything outside of thinking about naruto/talking to naruto period unless it’s a fight in a flashback

it’s almost like hinata is an NPC in the naruverse programmed to react to anything naruto related and nothing else. you can definitely not say this about sakura, she has a defined personality. Hinata doesn’t.

don’t even understand how this

[sending her son to fight alone against an enemy of unknown strength and only telling him to... take care of naruto-kun]

could ever be favoured over this

sakura > hinata

sasusaku > naruhina

sasunaru shippers = dumb for hating on sasusaku and giving naruhina a free pass

[asherlockstudy]

Bran Stark and the Long Night

A “Very Potter Musical” theory

Okay, no I did not lose my mind. This is not a Very Potter Musical theory but it discusses some similarities between Harry Potter and Game of Thrones and ends with a little help from Spotify. By writing this down I prove I have learned nothing from my past mistake of interpeting the questionable plot twists in BBC Sherlock through an optimistic perspective. I need to get it out though and I’ll just hope I won’t get too disappointed in the next episodes. Please keep in mind that opinions and preferences amongst GoT fans vary greatly - who is important or evil in my opinion might not be for you. 

This is a long post, so here’s a summary of what is discussed: 

Review of the Long Night

Many parallels between Bran Stark and Harry Potter. Bran is a (dark) grey character in this theory. 

Arya’s importance and whether she is the promised one or not

Personal predictions about the next episodes. All main characters are discussed. Might or might not contain wishful thinking. A whole lot about the prophecy of Azor Ahai which I REALLY want to see fulfilled properly before the show ends. 

Clues from the Spotify Game of Thrones Playlist D&D created for the ending of the show

Some noticeable emphasis on Jaime and Brienne. A LOT of Jaime.

First of all, I belong to the few (?) who loved the episode. I doubt any other TV show will ever manage to achieve anything remotely as ambitious. The cinematography is gorgeous, the actors, the crew, the visual effects, the music... everyone who took part in the making of this episode needs a standing ovation. As for the darkness? It meant to be this way! The darkness was what kept us on edge and it made it harder to understand if a character was dying or not, thus stressing us out even more. The darkness was meant to reinforce the feeling of uncertainty and imminent danger. Whereas Helm’s Deep battle was lit to emphasize on the heroism and the stunts, the battle of Winterfell is darkened to emphasize on its unpredictability and the feeling of death lurking in every corner. So it is unfair to rate this episode with 1s or 2s like so many people do. Even if you didn’t like the ending, there are so many elements here and so much hard work that deserve acknowledgement.

I didn’t like everything though. What did I not like? Well, duh, the ending. I was never interested in the whole “White Walkers” part of the plot and yet Arya killing the Night King in seconds didn’t exactly satisfy even the indifferent me. Don’t get me wrong, I like Arya and she sure is one of the most lethal characters. It just never occurred to me that she could be connected to this particular subplot. The thing, however, that I interpret very differently than most people writing reviews is that to me there was nothing final about this episode. Many fans act as if this was the general ending of the story and I don’t want to be too optimistic but I just don’t see it this way. So what then? Are we going to watch Cersei sip wine for the next four and a half hours until Drogon roasts her in the last second? Are they THAT bad? The fact that the characters in the show consider the Dead their greatest threat does not mean that this is the culmination of the plot. Let alone that the fact that the characters think the threat is gone does not mean the threat is gone. Remember the show we’re watching - the shocking plot twists always happen when you least expect them. If D&D have now become cowards, we must wait until the end to be able to tell. I, for one, consider the fact that they have not left even a mere second, even a still image, even a comment or a sentence about the last three episodes slip as extremely promising. Even the promo for the next episode is literally two scenes and obviously the least important. Anyway, I don’t want to defend them too much because this has been a boomerang for me in the past *cough sherlock cough*.

According to what we got, most have assumed that Bran was the ultimate good guy who had orchestrated everything so Arya, Azor Ahai, would kill the Night King.  My main argument is that Bran Stark...just doesn’t strike me like an *entirely* good guy. I know people have had enough of Bran is the Villain theories but I am not speaking about a full-blown villain and also...just consider it for a bit. The Three-Eyed-Raven is supposedly the eternal enemy of the Night King and is a wise entity. There is a problem in Bran’s case though: the Night King leaves his mark on him. 

Don’t forget, the Night King is known to create wights simply by touching  them. Craster’s living babies. Bloody (though dead) Viserion! The intelligence or the living state of the victim doesn’t seem to be an obstacle. The Night King then assumes complete control over his creations.

 Do you know what this mark reminds me of? 

This. 

Voldemort tried to kill Harry but his curse turned back at him because Lily had just died to save her child (because of love). It left a scar on Harry’s forehead instead of killing him. What happened between Bran and the Night King seems very similar. The Night King wanted to kill or turn into a wight the soon-to-be Third Eyed Raven so he grabbed him by the wrist but Bran wasn’t exactly there so there was an obstacle the Night King couldn’t fully overcome. Bran escapes him and returns to the present with a mark. We’re told that this mark can help the Night King find him. Is this all there is to it though? 

It takes five years for Dumbledore to brace himself and reveal to Harry why his scar is a sensor of Voldemort’s presence and extreme mood shifts. The reason is that the day Voldemort tried to kill Harry a part of his already ruined soul was merged with Harry’s soul which made them both have access to each other’s feelings and thoughts to some degree. As time passed, that connection became stronger, especially as Harry and Voldemort became aware of it. By his fifth year in Hogwarts, Harry’s mood is constantly affected by Voldemort’s; he’s often angry and full of inexplicable hate. He laughs and gets furious and has violent urges all of a sudden without understanding why. He starts getting visions where he is Voldemort.  The good thing in Harry’s case is that Harry’s soul is a pure whole soul that can’t get easily corrupted and that some powerful people know about this connection more or less and try to guard him against it (Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius etc).

If something similar happens to Bran, he is not that lucky. Nobody understands this connection except maybe the previous Third Eyed Raven who is dead. What’s worse, Bran does not only fight against the Night King’s effect on him. Whereas Harry’s soul was pure and healthy and whole, Bran’s soul and identity collapses under the weight of partly being both the Night King (or controlled by him) and the Third Eyed Raven. His mind fills with the memory and the wisdom of the world as well as with the awareness of the intent of death. Obviously, little Brandon Stark’s emotional and mental world doesn’t even make up 1% of the whole consciousness there is now inside him. 

As the Night King gets more powerful day after day, we see an evolution in Bran Stark as well. As the story proceeds, he becomes more and more emotionless and lifeless just like Harry was getting more irritable, envious and violent. Bran starts resembling a dead man. It does not help that the Third Eyed Raven has a pretty neutral stance as well but young Bran suspiciously beats the much older previous Third Eyed Raven in terms of neutrality. When he returns to Winterfell, he has already lost all his feelings for his family. Maybe Bran is still in there but only a last lost hint of him that needs something groundbreaking to happen to cause him to externalize some emotion. 

Another proof that Bran has a more special connection with the Night King than just being tracked down by him is offered to us when a panicked marked Bran (when he still could feel) argues with the Third Eyed Raven that the Night King can’t get to him in that sacred place to which the wise entity responds laconically:  “He can now”. Well, if the mark was just a track medium then the Night King would get stuck in the opening of the cave, aware that Bran is inside yet unable to enter. If he can now get in, this possibly means he is already in, protected by being carried by an innocent, still pure and very much alive being; Bran. The Night King is inside and thus the wights can now follow him there. 

Dumbledore thought it was too cruel to reveal to poor Harry that the only way they could completely kill Voldemort was to kill him too.  Aaaand Dumbledore thought it was important that Voldemort killed them both himself. The only difference here is that Bran is both the equivalents of Harry and Dumbledore in one body, so Bran himself was the one who knew what had to be done. 

When they are discussing the battle strategy, Bran tells everyone the Night King wants to kill him because he wants to erase the memory of this world. Despite this, Bran requires to be left outside in plain sight so that the Night King will find him and everyone assumes he wants to be the bait, something Bran neither confirms nor denies. But what if he wanted to be the sacrifice instead of the bait? Think about it, Bran’s plan makes the Night King supposedly more vulnerable but it also makes the Third Eyed Raven way easier to kill. If Bran waits for him in the open, it’s very easy for the Night King to reach him quickly with the dragon and if he does, then all the living die anyway! If Bran was in the crypts, the Night King would have a much longer way to go into the castle, thus having to confront many more living that could hopefully take him down. Honestly, Bran’s plan just makes the Night King’s job easier.  Moreover, Bran does not ask protection. Theon takes the initiative and swears to protect him and Bran once again says nothing because he doesn’t want to cause disagreements and end up protected in the crypts or with a more skilled fighter to guard him. At this moment Bran realises Theon is about to die for his cause and he allows it to happen for either the greater good or the greater evil. Bran says he doesn’t know if dragon fire can kill the Night King because nobody has tried, therefore making Jon and Daenerys waste all their contribution at trying to take him out in this way. When Daenerys dracarys at him, the Night King shows human traits and smiles sinisterly at her.

Hehe, tricked ya! Has he ever displayed so particular human reactions before?

In short, I believe Bran wanted to die in this battle. What’s questionable is Bran’s allegiances. Does Bran want to die to save everyone else or to ensure the Night King’s plan is successful? I tend to believe the answer is...both. The Raven inside him wants the Night King to fail but Night King’s consiousness inside him wants him to succeed. Either way Bran must die. However, I think currently the Night King’s will inside Bran is winning because Bran would try to pass on somebody else his gift before sacrificing himself. Another question is, is Bran totally honest? What if the Night King's actual plan was to resurrect him or merge with him after killing him which as a result would mean that the Night King would become the Third Eyed Raven, accumulating enormous god-like power? 

Arya prevented Bran’s plan whether his intent was good or bad. With this reasoning, Arya is not Azor Ahai because either she delayed the salvation of the living or she didn’t completely beat the “Final Boss”. Of course, there are problems in this theory. Why did Bran want to save himself in the past, why did he not head alone in the north to find the Night King first and end this without so much mayhem? Also, what about Arya and the dagger he gave her?

Possible answers: 

Bran’s high consciousness as well as his connection to the Night King get stronger minute after minute. It might have taken him some time to process what he needed or wanted to do and how he would achieve it. 

Well, he is a boy in a wheelchair. Nobody will let him just go find the Night King. He can’t escape their notice. Before this, Meera would never agree to take him north obviously.

The dagger thing is the hardest. Can we still assume there is a limit to what Bran knows and can predict? He doesn’t know everything. I think at this point I believe there is truly a God in the ASOIAF world and it seems he has a design for this world indeed. Bran might be more powerful than a regular person but he still is a tool in the divine plan. Besides, upon planning the tactics for the battle, Bran does not seem exactly sure of the outcome. Bran seems to know vaguely who is important but he does not know exactly how. Perhaps Three Eyed Raven Bran sensed Arya was meant to have that dagger but he didn’t know yet what for and whether it would benefit his Night King side or not. Furthermore, back then the Night King’s effect on him was weaker so that Bran was a better entity than he is now. 

Now let’s talk about the actual battle. When Melisandre sets the trench on fire, Theon seals his death by telling Bran that the fire is lit and the wights can not proceed (and therefore reach to them). Then - oh so coincidentally - Bran is like “OK thanx Theon gotta go now bye”. He then wargs into ravens and he leads them straight to the Night King. The ravens reach him and then and only then the Night King commands the wights to fall in the fire and create a bridge for the rest to cross. We see this on screen clearly so I wonder why people don’t talk about it at all. I would make a gif but it’s too damn dark! (Taking back all good words I said for the darkness lol). In short, Bran gets close to the Night King and sets him into action. Bran betrays them all. Is this a necessary evil for the greater good or just plain evil? Almost everyone was slaughtered after this, so I doubt Bran didn’t want to be in the crypts so more people would survive...bullshit. (Of course, all these apply if we blindly accept that the battle strategy was not just badly written.)

A similar scene happens in the seventh season when Bran wargs ravens to spy on the Dead and although they all are motionless, standing corpses, when the ravens arrive the Night King abruptly jumps to...errr...life and looks at them as if fully aware it’s Bran inside them. This terrifies Bran but also probably allows him to learn about the special nature of his connection with him. 

In Dragonstone, the first episode of the seventh season, the second scene is the dead marching South and the scene cuts to Bran warging while Meera drags him to the Wall. 

Back in the Long Night, Bran stays at warg state throughout the whole battle after this point. Now look... if you can. Apologies for terrible quality.  

Bran never leaves his warg state until the exact moment the Night King arrives and has direct eye contact with him. Therefore, Bran does not need to guide him anymore. He returns to himself and thanks Theon essentially for dying for nothing. However, Theon serves his purpose, delaying Bran’s death until Arya arrives. Then he dies betrayed, paying for his betrayal of Robb Stark. Bran then waits passively for the Night King to kill him. Their interaction is basically all but hateful. The Night King just stares at him with something close to content in his face, while Bran looks...happy?  

This is Bran’s happy face. I can’t unsee it!!!!! It’s excited or impatient or something like that... and Bran makes something like nod with his eyes and then the Night King tries to grab his sword..... but Arya arrives out of nowhere and kills him. Look at Bran. He doesn't look at the least bit happy or grateful. His - granted - blank expression somehow shows me he was thinking "How the fuck do I undo this now?". Look at Arya smiling at him after they are all saved and Bran’s reaction. 

You’re safe now, brother!

Yeah, I am so happy right now I could cut you with the dagger I gave you.. 

For an extremely expressionless face, I feel like Bran is probably screaming internally here. Tell me, does he look happier with the Night King or Arya?!

Let’s focus on Arya now. As a start, Arya does not fit any of the criteria for Azor Ahai except maybe the first one (Braavos' water dance fight style and strong connection of the city with water???). She hasn't killed a Lannister-lion yet and the Nissa Nissa thing makes the probabilities even slimmer. Furthermore, she doesn't kill the Night King with her Needle but with a dagger instead. No fire, no red colour, nothing. Actually, we see her repeatedly asking Gendry to make her the weapon. We’ve therefore been told that Arya won’t have her sword so she doesn't have a Lightbringer either. Three swords get a lot of mentions in the show: the Needle which Arya did not use at all throughout the battle (she literally uses every possible weapon except the Needle), Heartsbane which Sam gives to Jorah who then falls and Oathkeeper which Jaime gives to Brienne as a token of his love.

Arya was not Azor Ahai but she still functioned according to the God's plan. The God (whoever he is, the old, the 7, the Lord of Light or the Many-faced one) doesn’t want the memory of this world to be lost. What perhaps Bran had not thought (or did not want) is that he should not die until he passed his gift to someone else. If Bran's plan worked, the world as everyone knew it would change forever. When Bran explains what he is now to everyone, Sam interferes and says they should never let him die. Someone must be the Third Eyed Raven so that the humans will keep being exactly that - humans with history, backgrounds and memories. Here we might be getting the answer about why on earth Sam did not die in the battle. Sam understands better than anyone the importance of this entity. This might hint that he is going to become the Third Eyed Raven once Bran dies or contribute to find the chosen one. The archmaester in the Citadel told Sam something similar: “We are the memory of this world.”  

So, things were not going according to plan and also the real Azor Ahai had not showed up yet thus Arya was meant to save the day. Everything Arya did led up to this. She was filled with hate when her father was executed by Joffrey so that she would find the most skilled assassins to train her for revenge. Arya prepares the way for Azor Ahai. Beric was brought up to life to save Arya. The Hound was not killed by Brienne or Arya in order to then save the latter. The Hound most likely has more to do in the story (face Mountain) which is why Beric dies and Sandor does not.

Let’s go to the plot armour. Arya's timing saves Sansa, Tyrion, Missandei and Varys. During the battle, something of utmost importance happens in the crypts. Sansa plants an idea in Tyrion's mind - Daenerys is the obstacle in their way to be a couple. What's next; clever Tyrion will once again be the victim of a woman who promised him love and this is how Daenerys will be betrayed for love, fulfilling the prophecy. Tywin always admitted Tyrion's intelligence but despised him for being so weak in front of his vices; women and alcohol. Tywin cruelly tried to teach him a lesson twice, first with Tysha and then with Shae. But Tyrion did not pay attention and maybe his ultimate downfall is going to be Sansa. Missandei overheard what they said and she is still loyal to Daenerys. Tyrion is in danger. Varys heard them too but he might side with Tyrion. Let's see if mighty Tywin was cruel but spot on.

Arya's timing saves Greyworm who has promised to protect Missandei. Missandei is in danger now that Sansa knows she can rush to her Queen and tell her what she heard. Perhaps Greyworm survived so that the truth will reach Deanerys.

Arya's timing did not save Jorah but he held on enough to protect his Queen . Daenerys loses her last truly unyielding supporter. She is now more powerless than ever. Sansa has the upper hand in the North and if Dany opposes to Jon Snow, her fate seems doomed no matter what Missandei and Greyworm do. Then again, if Sansa finds out about Jon’s heritage, she might start being less friendly too. A cousin starts getting too distant especially when power is involved. 

Arya's timing saves Jon, the heir, whose purpose however was not to defeat the White Walkers. His purpose was to tell the world of their existence or he might have a great part to play in the last war. 

Arya's timing saves Tormund, Jaime, Brienne and Podrick. Out of all these only Brienne and Tormund naturally make sense to be still alive because of their strength and skill. And then we have one-handed Jaime and Podrick who honestly should have died in the first ten minutes. While everyone else fights for their life, Brienne and Jaime keep constantly saving each other almost like they are in their own world. Podrick surviving is very weird but we have already been shown that the boy has hidden talents. Podrick has not completed his arc. 

As for Jaime, Bran told him he shouldn't have him killed before he got to help “them”. And then the battle comes and he merely survives. Arya's timing saves him (and his love) in the last second. Jaime did nothing important for or against the Night King or Bran yet. Jaime was trapped in the battle, hardly able to survive let alone reach to Bran. Sure, Jaime killed probably hundreds of wights that night but he didn’t affect the grand scheme of things in this battle like Bran implied. Yet, Bran literally waited for him a whole night out in the dark cold. This must mean we have a lot more to see in the next episodes. 

Arya's timing saves Gendry and Sam but not Edd. Gendry still has a claim to the throne. Edd died so that Sam could live. I already spoke of Sam's importance. But something weird happens when Edd saves Sam. Sam falls down exhausted but something catches his attention. See the gifs in @nochancennochoice ‘s post: there is some debate on whether Sam sees Brienne, Jaime fighting with his two hands oooor Jaime fighting with a right hand. I think it looks like the third option is the right one and it would explain why confused Sam has a pausing moment in all this mayhem and forgets the world around him until Edd calls him back to reality. Sam sees Jaime through the flames, being in a delirious state, fighting like crazy with what looks like his right hand suspiciously a lot. We can be sure Jaime did not use his non-existent hand though - so could this be a vision in the flames by the Lord of Light...you know...a more accurate one than the ones Melisandre sees? Jaime was indeed fighting like crazy but Sam sees a changed image through the fire that puzzles him quite a bit. We’ll soon see if there was hidden importance in this oddly specific scene and, once more, it would explain why Samwell Tarly would survive the long night.

This does not mean Jaime is definitely the legendary warrior. However, he is the most likely contender in my opinion because a) he leaves his false vile identity in the past inside smoke and water (let’s pretend the baths had salts), b) he indirectly kills a lion, his father, c) he's truly the only character who is basically exclusively driven by love and we know Azor Ahai must make the ultimate sacrifice. Perhaps though and dreadfully so, Jaime still hasn't killed a lion because his father's murder is not on him. This might be the fulfilment of the Valonqar prophecy and Jaime gets to kill Cersei. At this point the story will have proceeded a lot and Jaime and Brienne will have confessed their love or acted upon it. Jaime has saved Brienne more times than we can count and especially in the first incidents Brienne asks him why, both in the show and the books. Jaime never responds in the show but in the books we see that he has meaningful dreams that lead his way. Jaime was destined to find Brienne, love her and keep her alive. Jaime gives her his sword and Brienne bonds with it so much that it almost already is part of her entity. The last challenge for Azor Ahai is to sacrifice his willing loving wife Nissa Nissa whose soul will become one with the sword and this will create the Lightbringer. It pains me to even think about it but Nissa Nissa doesn't sound like Cersei. Brienne will die so that Jaime can meet his fate.

Three guesses who.

After that Jaime and Oathkeeper will end this story by killing Bran. Bran still has a good side in him and it’s probable that he will guide Jaime to do it. I'm gonna cheat here with my evidence but this kinda explains why Nikolaj Coster Waldau loves the conclusion of the story but seems kinda sympathetic when Gwendoline Christie says she had trouble processing the end of her character and needed long walks at the beach and such. When asked, Nikolaj probably revealed too much at some point because he said the story is about that good guy Jaime and that Bran boy who sacrificed himself to save the world. Of course, it’s Nik. He might as well be saying what he wants the end to be lol. However... Bran did not technically sacrifice himself in the Long Night, right? If he knew Arya was coming, then he definitely did not. Either way, the outcome is the same - Bran has not sacrificed himself yet. 

Back to Bran and the Night King. People in and out of the show wonder why the wights became so powerful and persistent in this era. Furthermore, the Night King seems much more conscious and lifelike than all the other moving corpses. Maybe we can conclude the explanation with the help of Hodor's backstory. Everyone kept telling Bran to not lose himself in the visions but he ignored them just like he ignored Catelyn and kept climbing towers. Everyone is paying Bran's disobedience and he is going to pay with his life. When the Third Eyed Raven was asleep, Bran travelled into an indefinite time period and got his mark from the Night King. This might have happened long before Bran was even born or before he got paralysed. Therefore the Night King already was connected to Bran but Bran had to get the mark first to start realising and reinforcing the connection. The connection the Night King has to Bran gives him some glimpses of a human living self which is why he is superior to the wights and the White Walkers and shows rudimentary human logic and sense of purpose and identity. With the same reasoning, it’s only after the mark that Bran loses all emotions and vigor.

Upon first meeting Jaime, Jaime who is probably Azor Ahai immediately tried to kill Bran. When Catelyn asked him much later why he threw her son out of the window, Jaime did not respond even though soon afterwards he confessed he sleeps with his sister so hiding this was not the reason he did not respond. It was fate that drove Jaime's hand because even though he doesn't know it, Jaime is driven by a force to become the leader against the darkness. Bran did not die from an 100% deadly fall because although it was Jaime who did it, it was not the right time yet because he wasn’t yet reborn as Azor Ahai and the Night King did not yet live through Bran. Bran's first encounter with the fighter of the Lord of Light is the beginning for his journey to meet his destiny and as soon as Jaime cripples him, he starts getting visions that call him to the North. We might say that Jaime sets the evil going in order for good to fight back and prevail. The things I do for love... Fighting evil?

And now...some more evidence about the story can be taken from the spotify playlist that hints at the ending of the show according to D&D. Let’s see the songs in the very end of the list:

Gold Lion... In the “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” Tyrion and Jaime reminince on their past “glorious” days when Jaime was a Golden Lion and Tyrion was a whoremonger. Jaime specifically says his golden lion days belong to the past (which is like the most basic foreshadowing of tragic irony) but the playlist disagrees. Here are some lyrics from the song: 

Gold lion's gonna tell me where the light is... Tell me what you saw... We'll build a fire in your eyes...

If this is not the most ultimate “Jaime is Azor Ahai with Lightbringer” evidence, I don’t know what is. 

Then we have Here’s Your Future, which is a song in which God basically is considered responsible for burdening his children with sin. God forces them to sin so that the duty of atoning and cleansing the world falls on them in order to get worthy of  the future God has prepared for them. This really sounds like the Lord of Light so I do believe we’re going to have Azor Ahai by the end of the show. It is very similar to the concept of Jaime being destined to be depraved only to be led in the way of atonement, redemption and then glory. Melisandre and all sorts of God faith have been given a huge part to be totally meaningless. 

Since I mentioned Melisandre, she was meant to die. Maybe this was the only vision R’hllor truly had for her; that she should die after this fight in the snow. Why? Ser Davos is the last main character Arya saves repeatedly. Ser Davos and Melisandre’s fates have been interwined for long even though they hate each other. Ser Davos witnesses her suicide. Why did Melisandre have to die, in terms of fate? Maybe because, from now on, there aren’t going to be any resurrections. Whoever dies, dies. Why did they change the plot so that Melisandre would need a magical necklace to stay alive? 

Maybe because only one character will have the chance to defy death from now on. Chances are it will be a woman. Why is Ser Davos who literally can’t fight still alive all those years? Maybe because he saw Melisandre drop the necklace and then age and die rapidly. Davos will keep the necklace and probably save a woman he deems worthy of a second chance in life. 

And then of course “Love is Blindness”. There are only two couples this could apply to; Jaime and Brienne and Tyrion and Sansa but I’m positive Sansa only wants to use Tyrion to weaken Daenerys and fight Cersei. So the only truly fitting love story is that of Jaime and Brienne.

As if all this was not wishful thinking...imagine Brienne sacrificing herself, Jaime becoming a heartbroken Azor Ahai and the ever surviving Davos putting the necklace around her neck, to the one he seemed to be so appreciative and fond of back in the fireplace...

Okay, okay aren’t all theories partly what we wish it happens? It’s perfectly reasonable if you find this way too much, way too complicated, way too wishful and subjective. If there’s something in here that makes sense to you, you can take this and leave all the rest. I am aware I completely dismissed some basic characters. Let’s say something short about them: Daenerys in my opinion won’t make it to the throne. Not only that but she’s going to be one of the first main characters to die. Even next episode seems probable to me. Arya soon will have her arc completed. I think she reached the peak of her importance. Of all the Starks, I think Sansa is the one who has a chance for the Iron Throne somehow. Right now, she is the most competent in the game of thrones. Littlefinger lives through her. She has admitted to admiring Cersei. One Stark will survive because there must always be a Stark in Winterfell. I honestly have no idea what will happen to Jon Snow. Everyone is sure he’s Azor Ahai but actually there is no evidence the Prince who was Promised and Azor Ahai are the same person. Targaryen heritage is only mentioned in the PWWP prophecy, not that of Azor Ahai. Nevertheless, Jon literally prays to die again. I don’t know if I feel content with the idea of him sitting on the Iron Throne and being depressed all his life because of it. 

Cersei of course will die. Tyrion won’t be the one to do it. I would hate it if Arya was the one to do it by wearing one of the brothers’ face. It would be so emotionally anti-climactic and Arya already had her huge killing moment however in the Spotify list there is a song named “Dead Skin Mask” under the “Killer Wolf” one. God forbid. I hope she uses her skills to someone other than a Lannister because there is also an extremely disturbing and explicit song which is named “Sister” and guess what, the rather problematic lyrics are about a young boy who slept with his much older sister who is...nuts.

I was only sixteen but I guess that's no excuse

Oh, sister Don't put me on the street again Oh, sister I just want to be your friend

These were the most tolerable lyrics. (Wtf Prince?) I mean, the point of the song in the list is pretty clear. Jaime will meet Cersei once more and let’s hope he’ll kill her for ruining 20+ years of his life. Right now, Jaime doesn’t look particularly interested in Cersei. It seems as if everything regarding her has died inside him. Therefore, something will happen that will fill Jaime with wrath. The scenarios are two: 

Bronn kills Tyrion. 

Bronn tries to kill Jaime, Brienne defends him and falls. 

Both heartbreaking possibilities (although admit it, they are awesome in terms of dramaturgy). Both are terrifying to me but my desperation makes me wish for the first option. The fact that Bronn said in the fifth season that he does not kill women really DOES NOT help. However, if Brienne is Nissa Nissa then Brienne will die after Cersei so Bronn might indeed kill Tyrion. Besides, Nissa Nissa’s sacrifice could also have some figurative meaning instead of foreseeing a literal death.

All these of course are just personal speculations and wishes. Cersei might be Nissa Nissa. Or Arya might have indeed been Azor Ahai. Jaime and Brienne might just live happily ever after (without Davos’ help) or Jaime might fall heroically. Daenerys might live and rule. Bran maybe is an awesome dude. 

I will just say that judging from the way the eighth season is structured, I think D&D played a little game. They featured the huge, foretold battle in the third episode. If the heroes of the whole story were also the heroes of this episode (Arya, Bran, Melisandre) then perhaps it would be wiser if this episode was the fifth or at least the fourth. We are still not exactly in the middle of the season since the total duration of the last three episodes is going to be longer. So if this was the decisive turn of the plot, why would it be featured in the first half of the season? Furthermore, D&D promoted the third episode beyond belief while they kept the next episodes entirely in the dark. That’s got to mean something. Hopefully, D&D planned to create huge expectations for the third episode, therefore not allowing the viewers to build defenses for what would happen next. They tried to satisfy those expectations for the third episode with the exceptional cinematography, direction, music and unprecedented ominous atmosphere they created. This could potentially be the most important deviation from Martin’s future version, in which the Long Night might indeed be the prophecised event that would make Azor Ahai rise and most main characters die. D&D though want the show to be as unpredictable as possible and they have an Iron Throne to give which might mean they used the Long Night as a distraction, however epic. 

[nautilusopus]

Serious non-troll: What if you like the cop-outs and the scrambled bullshit plots and the nonsense towers of half-constructed ideas? I agree that for example Nomura is a goddamn crazy person but I find his convulsions fascinating and want to see more of them.

i mean, you’re entirely within your rights to do that. it’s just frustrating that there’s visibly no effort put into any of it, and he’s just writing for the sake of what makes the trailer look good, and that’s been 100% to the detriment of the story ever since he’s started doing it

i’m not even inherently opposed to ridiculous convoluted bullshit. i’m one of those pretentious fuckheads that unironically likes End of Evangelion and thinks it made perfect sense, obviously, duh, with all its absolute nonsense of adam and lilith and rei being a god-analogue from absorbing both the white and black seeds and allowing shinji to dictate the ultimate outcome of third impact in the culmination of a couple of really fucking long and extremely obtuse character arcs. i mean, hell, i’m 38 chapters into a fic that is running off nothing but weird high-concept ideas of how reality and parallel universes work and abstract metaphor andsleep deprivation. in any other circumstances, i’m fine with convoluted batshit nonsense.

i think the best way to explain the heart of the issue is to look at what happened to the matrix trilogy. or actually wait this is tumblr, everyone’s in high school and would’ve been foetuses or something when Revolutions came out. homestuck, then. we’ll look at homestuck. 

okay so homestuck. remember when that was as big as it was? initially, the big stumbling block was the slow pace of act 1 where john just kind of fucks around throwing glass at clown dolls for a while and if you weren’t into that kind of humour that was where the comic immediately lost you, but what ultimately got the ball rolling was [S] WV: Ascend. the general metric back then was if you weren’t hooked by that one, you wouldn’t like homestuck at all, and for many people that was the point of no return. the reason WV: Ascend was as big of a deal as it was is that we’ve been seeing a bunch of disconnected nonsense happening all over the place, and this is the first time we see our first major time loop actually closed, with the promise of a few more being set up. all that supposed joke nonsense we’d been watching the whole time? it actually mattered, surprise! from there, the narrative spends a lot of time introducing a lot of new concepts – we have captchaloguing and paradox slime, and time travel, and doomed timelines, and exiles and future versions of planets from a parallel universe the metanarrative being perpetuated by the author being diagetic and fuck knows what other things i’m forgetting about. and then, to throw you for a loop twelve whole other characters show up on top of that. so then the narrative needs to spend time establishing who these people are and what their relevance to the story is – which it does, by having them be active participants in the first arc as things go on. this ultimately culminates in [S] Cascade, where we see all these different concepts eventually tie into one another because they were deliberately set up to, and it’s at that point that you figure, well shit we’ve hit a point where all the time travel stuff has finally come to a head. and with it, you’d expect it to also bring all the character stuff to a head too, but instead hussie has an entire extra act to go so we can’t have that resolve yet. 

so in the meantime, here are 20-ish whole other characters doing some other things. but we don’t have time to establish what’s effectively the silmarillion by now, so we have to speed past it, meaning we aren’t given a chance to care about these new people. but we can’t have a chance to care about them either, because we still have to tie all this into 5 whole previous acts that are meant to feed into this. at this point, homestuck is visibly collapsing under its own weight. character arcs are forced to fart around in circles because the status quo can’t change because we still need to make it to endgame with these character dynamics more or less intact. but that’s boring to read so we’ll do this entire “what if” thing and then retcon it all out of existence, and then have the fact that you can retcon things suddenly become vital to the resolution of the coming in place of anything we’ve already established previously – not the time travel, not the parallel universe with the trolls, not even the whole thing with the Scratch leading to the alpha kids being here in the first place – when the mechanic was only introduced in the first place to sloppily patch a story together that had long since devolved into infodumps that served to paint hussie further and further into a corner as he was forced to define his lore to get the plot to keep moving forward despite the fact that the narrative wasn’t focusing properly on the people that could make that happen anymore because the story had since switched focus from those people almost entirely. 

and in the meantime the damn thing got eaten up by filler, and suddenly characters from that filler are showing up like they were totally relevant to the main story the whole time even though literally nothing they did in their own subplot had any direct bearing on the story at large, unlike the initial 12 trolls. why yes, Alternate Universe Calliope was a completely necessary addition to the story! didn’t you see our important sidestory thing where they do Stuff, and then her showing up in the climax to resolve some other things that are sorta disconnected from the main plot anyway?

not to mention the shipping. nothing ruins a story faster than throwing in a love triangle or eight, and then immediately invalidating all the character growth that happened on top of that anyway by having it literally never happen. not that it would’ve mattered anyway, because remember, we never actually got to have any of this really developed to begin with. 

by the time we hit end of act 6, there’s been so many new concepts haphazardly stapled onto the story and so many threads brought up and discarded entirely when we already established back with [S] Cascade that the story works best when they actually do this and it is doable, that it stops being merely complicated and off the wall, and starts being spread too thin, incomprehensible, and ultimately no longer part of a whole narrative deliberately comprised of interlocking storylines. shit’s just kinda happening at you, and rather than getting to see parts of a text interacting as a result of them coming from somewhere for the express purpose of then going to somewhere, you’re just being asked to accept that, yup, that’s a thing that’s going on right now. neato. sure is some stuff happening and whatnot. and in the end, for all that posturing, it didn’t even do anything. in pre-cascade homestuck that wouldn’t have even been a full flash. a bunch of nonsense happens, and then They Fightan Good, and then it’s over and there’s not a single time paradox or meta-interaction to be found. none of the stuff they built up to over all these years mattered, and neither did any of the stuff they just threw in, either. 

i’m sure you see what i’m getting at with this. 

(also he treats the women in his stories like shit and quite frankly i’m sick of it and even more sick that people keep giving him a pass for it because it’s practically reached parody levels at this point , so there’s that)

i have no problem with convoluted twisty bullshit in and of itself. but it has to accomplish something aside from just existing, and nomura doesn’t do that. by his own admission, kingdom hearts wasn’t planned, and it shows really badly. characters and entire story mechanics and plot lines are introduced solely for the sake of introducing them. they don’t go anywhere or build to anything, because they can’t, because fuck we have to stall for kh3 shhhh just keep adding more soras and hopefully no one will notice. i think the last time any of this actually mattered was kh2, and even that had a lot of the issues i’ve mentioned here. as a result of all of this, the character arcs suffer a lot, and you’re left with nothing but a big ball of plot twists that goes nowhere, and a bunch of characters that only somewhat have anything to do with any of it. 

i don’t feel like it’s overly nitpicky to find this kinda gross and seriously insulting of the audience’s intelligence. it’s just lazy time-stalling. i get that people sometimes really don’t care about stuff like narrative and character development and are just here to see riku punching mike wazowski in the teeth or whatever, but i think it’s disingenuous to pretend that these aren’t nonetheless important parts of a game’s construction – especially a studio that used to openly pride itself on selling games with a focus on story. 

and the genuinely frustrating part is, no one cares. people are gushing all over everything square puts out because it’s square, so they know they don’t have to put effort into their stories. i’m well aware i’m in the minority for saying that these games are bad. but i also thought we were done with treating, “it’s just a video game, bro! why do you care so much about the story having quality as a narrative? this isn’t an english class!” as a valid rebuttal. 

maybe i should’ve used the matrix trilogy instead. most people hate movies 2 and 3 for the weird “YOU’VE ALREADY MADE THE CHOICE/EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END NEO” shit and the bonkers christ-allegory ending. i hate it because neo is about as interesting as the rock that cracked goofy’s skull open.

[elbowgreaserp]

Alright, let’s get this show on the road? HERMIONE GRANGER, ACCEPTED! Know-It-All in the house.

OOC INFORMATION

NAME, AGE, TIMEZONE: Bolt, 21+, EST. 

ACTIVITY LEVEL: 7-8.

TRIGGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Duh.

ACTIVITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: x2.

NOTES: I apologize in advance for Hermione Granger and the high stress situations. 

IC INFORMATION

NAME, AGE, SEXUALITY: Hermione Granger, 21, straight.

FANDOM: Harry Potter.

HOMETOWN: London, England. 

CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS, OTHER:  TBA (there’s a lot)

FIVE POSITIVE TRAITS: Highly logical, extremely intelligent, resourceful, hardworking, clever, responsible, focused, determined, courageous, good hearted, ambitious, organized, proper, empathetic, curious. 

FIVE NEGATIVE TRAITS: Headstrong, Bossy, Obsessive compulsive, studious, skeptical, perfectionist, manipulative, emotional, blunt, argumentative.

BIGGEST FEARS & PHOBIAS: Failure, the death of her loved ones, public humiliation, being unable to solve her own problems. 

SCARIEST EXPERIENCE: When Hermione was much younger and shopping with her mother in an old C&A, she was nearly abducted by an escaped convict. The store clerk caught wind and security was involved (which turned into a nasty spat), and police apprehended him later that day.  Additionally, once again as a child, in attempts to get a book she couldn’t reach, she toppled over a shelf while trying to climb it and was buried in books. Her mother insists she could have died, but Hermione refuses to accept it. 

DO THEY BELIEVE IN THE GHOSTS/PARANORMAL?: Hermione is an absolute skeptic and tends to veer more along the scientific line of things always, and typically needs to see substantial proof before she throws her belief into it, but as a child after her granddad's passing she did see an apparition. She still tries to convince herself that it was very much a figment of her imagination, but the nagging never really left her, and deep in her heart she knows that wasn’t the case. 

ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER WE SHOULD BE AWARE OF?: For those that don’t know Hermione, she can come across in this verse as super posh, bossy, stuck up, and an extreme know-it-all (if ever a class was shared with her) but she’s got the heart of gold, especially if you’re close to her and within her small friend group. While doing this for the experience, this is a lot out of her comfort zone. Not in the sense that she’s afraid of getting her hands dirty, or the wilderness; but being around everyone for such an extended period of time with no school work, or an endless library to distract her from it. Typically the summers are spent traveling and catching up with her parents. She is OCD and prone to panic attacks when things veer off course, though she tries to keep a level head. 

ANY CHANGES TO YOUR CHARACTER THAT SHOULD BE NOTED?: The obvious is that she isn’t a witch. While the easier route would be to go with Hermione, Harry, and Ron knowing each other since they were children, I’m going to make it easy on everyone and state that they’re all their own people (despite adoring them, and their friendship from the bottom of my GD heart). 

WHY IS YOUR CHARACTER PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT?: Truthfully, Hermione’s thought process lies upon her resume, and if they can pull this off successfully, this is exactly the type of thing that shows her dedication, along with know how. Yes, there are other people there assisting, but the planning and execution, along with everything else that goes on behind the scenes is what she wants to be tied to. While she can appear to come across as stuck up, and a little too tightly wound, the party isn’t where her heart lies. 

WRITING SAMPLE

(College verse, 22 jump street au)                  What am I to you?

 “The reason my fridge is empty.” An ALL TOO QUICK response from Hermione Granger, laced in teasing, narrowed eyes PLAYFUL and bright. Albeit a little suspicious at to where the SUDDEN QUESTION came from. Ron was much more of a physical being in moments like this and it sounded a little WEIGHTY. Which shouldn’t have made her stomach swoop and twist with nervousness, but it had. The first impression he’d ever made wouldn’t be forgotten any time soon, if ever, but they’d come a LONG WAY since then.

         “An absolute cheater.” Because her pride still wouldn’t let Hermione admit that she wasn’t good at something. Especially something as trivial as VIDEO GAMES. made for children. Her neck arched up so her lips could capture Ron’s, a little incentive to take her words in stride instead of as a blow to the ego.

          “A personal heater.” That she clung to, especially when the snow was falling and the dorms were like ice. There had been many nights she’d called him over to cuddle, quietly laughing in the darkness when lavender brown started another long winded, unconscious conversation with herself. Because of course Hermione would not only have an intolerable roommate that left a cloud of glitter and obnoxious fruity breeze wherever she went with her peppy self; but a sleep talker as well. a NIGHTMARE.

          “Number four on speed dial.” Not that she ever actually used speed dial; but he was on there, purely out of the fact that they texted that much, that her iPhone had deemed him important enough to take precedent over the majority of her contacts beyond her parents and best friend that was halfway around the world, living her life.

          “Muscle, when I need it.” Airy and causal as she shrugged under his weight, though she fondly remembered when he’d taken FULL LIBERTY to be a nerd (a very sweet nerd) and opted out of flowers for books. Unable to carry everything back to her dorm herself, he’d helped and was rewarded with a locked door to keep Lavender out, and an all too exuberant thank you that spanned hours and ended with pizza at two in the morning.

           “My Ibiza roommate if you think harry can survive without you for a few days.” They hadn’t talked about it, but a few days without having to worry about assignments and the general school grind of events and extracurriculars? It sounded kind of perfect. “I know you two are terribly attached, but as a GINGER, I’m sure you understand the importance of sunscreen; and it goes without saying that I will need someone to personally apply it, and unless you’d rather him being THAT person for you…  I figure we could have a bit of a trade off. And maybe you could tell me what i am to YOU.”