#I think they kinda had a glimpse of it at the start of season 2

[swan2swan]

Until someone from the staff says otherwise, I will stake actual, genuine money that this was an exchange from the writer's room that made it into the show.

[blvckqwz]

Officer Grimes (SMUT)

TWs: smut duh, teasing, a lot of teasing actually, sexual tension, semi-public sex kinda?, brat reader, switch Rick, age gap (reader is 21 and Rick is 38), alcohol use, Shane slander (as I should), mention of cheating (Lori), sassy reader, dirty thoughts, Rick is technically still married oops, season 2 era, it’s like 99% flirting and 1% smut sorry. Also this sucks since it's my first smut sorry again.

Rick knew deep down, really deep down, that he was a sick man, meeting you was just the confirmation. It all started a few weeks ago, when he and his group had just arrived at the farm. At first he only saw glimpses of you, whispering in your sister’s ear and giggling with her as you two watched the new group, or helping around the farm, sweat running down your neck to under your shirt, making Rick’s head spin. But you never spoke to him, to much of his disappointment. Well that was until two weeks before…

“Dude, Maggie’s sister is totally into you.” Glenn said, whispering to the sheriff as they walked to the makeshift camp they had built a few days before.

“What?” Rick asked in disbelief as his eyes landed on you, chatting with Maggie while sitting on the front porch “She’s too young for me.”

Glenn shrugged, replying, “Maggie said she turned 21 last month but whatever you say.” before walking past him to Maggie, waving to her.

"Really?" He murmured as his eyes scanned you, already watching him as you sent a small smirk to him, followed by an almost imperceptible wink. 

But oh boy he surely did notice it.

Glenn must have said something about his talk with him to you because since then your attempts to flirt with the police officer had become more bold, making the poor man every day more frustrated.

“Good morning Officer Grimes.” You said with a cheeky smile as he walked past you and Beth. “Good morning Y/N,” He replied, trying to sound as cool as he could.

Your eyes kept following his figure as he walked away, eating him with your eyes until Beth elbowed you, “Are you trying to get in his pants?” She asked in disbelief, whispering-yelling in case your father or someone else happened to hear you. 

“So?” You ask with a nonchalant smirk, “I think he’s hot.” You admitted, making your sister giggle. 

“Isn’t he also like 40?” She said, shaking her head, “And what if Daddy finds out?” 

“Well first of all he can’t find out what no one knows, and I’m sure you’ll keep your secret,” You said, waiting for Beth to nod, “And second I think older men are better.” You continued with a shrug as you closed your eyes, enjoying the sun shining on your skin. “What?” She laughs, “I can’t believe you just said that!” “Well,” You reply with a grin, “I’m sure he can do things Jimmy couldn’t dream of.” “Y/N!” Beth exclaimed with a fake shocked face as she lightly pushed you as you laughed.

If only you knew how right you were…

Rick was reaching his last strike, he realized as he whipped his hand on his pants, trying to erase the tension as he watched you return home from a supply run, riding your horse like you had done multiple times before. God he wondered if you would look as good as you did right now while riding him instead of a stupid horse. 

By now he had picked all her habits and routine, as creepy as it might sound. For example he knew how she would sneak out the house every night, disappearing between the trees before returning hours later, when the sun was almost ready to rise. He also knew about the whisky bottles that were coincidentally disappearing with you. The only thing that was still a mystery was what you did during the night with those bottles. Did you have a secret boyfriend? He hoped not, only the thought of you with any other men made his blood boil. He knew it wasn’t right, he hardly ever spoke to you, a miserable attempt to hide what he was truly feeling, but he was jealous as hell.

“Hello Officer.” You winked as you approached him, making his Adam’s apple shake. “You don’t have to call me like that, it's not like I’m a police officer anymore.” He said with a breathless laugh, “You can just call me Rick.” “Really?” You ask with a brow raised and a half grin, “Then why do you always seem so tense? Like you’re always ready to arrest someone or stuff like that.” You say, nonchalantly touching his shoulder as you talk, making his mind go blank and his pants feel tighter. 

“I guess it’s just because I’m talking to a pretty girl.” He replied before thinking, cursing himself immediately after the words left his mouth. 

“Smooth move Rick.” You say with a laugh before walking inside the house, sending him one last wink as you hurried inside.

Yup, this was his last straw for sure.

“Shit” You hissed as your backpack fell off your shoulders, the bottles in it loudly slamming on each other, “Shit, shit, shit.” You kept murmuring as you picked it up, quickly checking inside if the bottles broke. Lucky for you they didn’t. Unlucky for you, someone heard the noises.

“Shouldn’t you be inside?” Rick’s deep voice asked from behind you, holding his gun in one hand while the other one rested on his hip as he made his way towards you. 

“Shouldn’t you be with your wife?” She shots back before pulling her backpack back on her shoulders.

“Touché” He chuckled as you too couldn’t help but feel a smile growing on your lips.

You knew him and his wife had their problems and that she was cheating on him, you wouldn’t have eyed him otherwise. Marriage was still a sacred thing even during the apocalypse, that’s what your father had taught you. Plus it was unbelievable to you how she went from someone like Rick to a scumbag like that man she saw yelling at the most random things manytime. One thing was sure: if he was your husband you wouldn’t let him go. Ever. God if you just had the chance to show him how good you could make him feel even just once he’d forget about that Lori girl immediately.

“Why are you out here?” Rick asked, snapping her out her unholy thoughts.

“I wanted to take a walk.” You shrugged, “Are you going to arrest me, Officer?” You asked, the name making Rick feel things that were very very wrong. But still very very turning him on.

“No, although I’m sure I could give you a fine for the bottles in your backpack.” He replied, shaking his head, “But I won’t, just because you are nice to me.”

“Am I corrupting you, Officer?” You asked then, slowly advancing towards him.

Oh yes, you were very much corrupting him, he thought as he took a deep breath to calm himself. “That’s not how corruption works, sweetheart.” He says with a smirk. 

“Well, maybe that wasn’t…” You say, finally reaching him.

He could smell his scent from where he stood, fresh grass and soap, and he could swear his head was spinning.

“...But this surely is.” You say before quickly grabbing him by the wrist and running towards the woods, coughing him off guard.

“Hey.” He says between the pants, “Where are we exactly going?” “You know my secret so now I have to kill you.” You reply with nonchalance as you slow down your pace. “I'm just kidding, you asked why I was out so I wanted to show you.”

“I still have to decide about the killing part.” You then add.

“Do you still think about the old world?” You ask as you tilt your head to look over at the man sitting next to you on the roof of an old building you had found weeks before and had claimed as your secret place. 

“Sometimes,” He replies with a sigh, “Nothing will ever be the same again, not after what we’ve all seen.” You hum in agreement before taking a sip from the bottle that was now just half full before handing it to Rick, who gladly took it.

“I think about it everyday.” You admit, your eyes fixed on the trees as you avoid Rick’s piercing blue eyes staring at you, “Although the world had already fallen apart years before.” “True.” He replied, fidgeting with the neck of the bottle, “Do they scare you?” He then asked.

“Not anymore, I just find it sad now.” You say, “Those people were just like you and me and now we kill them like it’s nothing.” You sigh.

“You think we shouldn’t kill them?” He asked then, handing you the whisky bottle.

“No, of course not. I just think it’s sad we have to.” You explain as you take a large sip of alcohol.

Rick cautiously watches as your lips perfectly adapt around the bottle, wondering if they would be just as perfect around his c-

“You are staring.” You state with a laugh, breaking the silence.

Rick lets out an embarrassed laugh, “Sorry.” You shrug in response “I don’t mind.” You say with a smirk before letting your eyes wander on the man’s body. He was surely hot, you thought as you met his blue eyes, and he was probably into you too.

“I…” Rick’s voice died in his throat as his eyes found yours, already admiring you. Suddenly he felt like an awkward teenager with his first crush again, so shy yet so whipped.

“You know,” You say, “If I didn’t know you I’d say you have a crush on me, officer.”

The poor man almost choked when those words reached his ears, his eyes widening, not daring to look at you in fear you might be disgusted. God of course you were, he was too old for you. He takes a deep breath, clears his throat and then dares to start speaking, still avoiding your gaze, “Don’t you think you are a little too young for me?”

Now it was your turn to be disappointed, you really thought that he might be into you? He was probably just a very polite man and you just misread his actions. But still something about the way he was acting was telling you to not give up just now. 

“I don’t mind.” You answer, your voice barely audible. 

But sure as hell he heard it. And it all went straight to his cock. Still it felt very much wrong to flirt with a girl half his age.

“You are drunk, you don’t know what you are saying.” He murmurs, not noticing how close you two were standing until you started talking.

“You are drunk too, doesn’t that make us even?” You ask as you keep staring at his face, hoping he would look at you.

“I… I can’t.” He shots back, “We can’t.”

“Hey,” You say, placing two fingers on his face to make him turn to you, “I know you want me just as bad as I want you.” You say as you sink into his deep blue eyes, “Isn’t that right?” You then ask, making Rick nod in response.

“Then what’s wrong with it?” You ask, bringing your face closer to you, “Just give in.”

Rick’s Adam’s apple bounces up and down as the dirtiest thoughts flashed in his mind, all the things he could do to you, the things he wants to do. No, he doesn’t just want to do them, he needs to. He needs to do you.

You murmuring his name brought him back to reality, his eyes lingering on your lips, his cock twitching in his pants.

“Fuck it.” He murmurs before putting a hand behind your neck and pulling you in a heated kiss. You quickly reciprocate, one of your hands tugging his hair as the other rested on his chest. 

Rick quickly pulls you on his lap, basically making you straddle him as the kisses become more desperate, all the unsaid words purred in it. You could feel Rick’s tongue teasing your lips, begging you to let him in. Of course you do, quickly gasping for air as you begin to roll your hips on his painfully hard dick. 

Rick groans against the kiss, sending vibrations through your whole body. You still could taste the whisky on his tongue as it kept exploring your mouth, making you go insane. You could feel Rick’s hand trailing up from your hip to your back under your shirt as you fidget with the collar of his jacket, goosebumps forming on your exposed arms at the cold breeze.

“Here.” Rick murmurs, breaking away from the kiss to slip his jacket on your shoulders, “I don’t want you to get cold.”

You can’t help but let out a breathless laugh, “You are supposed to undress me officer, not cover me up.” “I guess I’m just too much of a gentleman.” He replies with a smirk, “You haven’t met many of them, have you?” 

You shyly nod, your eyes falling on the oversized jacket on your shoulders. You knew there was no one like Rick, you just didn’t know how right you were. 

“Then I guess I’ll have to show you how a real man treats a proper lady.” He says as his big hand cups your cheek before leaning closer, “And for the jacket don’t worry, I’ll eventually take it off you along with all your other clothes, if you give me the chance.” He whispers against your neck.

“You can have all the chances you want.” You whisper back before reconnecting your lips with his. His mouth quickly started to pepper kiss on her neck, leaving a few marks when he found her sweat spots. You softly moan at the feeling of his bears scratching on your neck as he keeps kissing your jaw and neck. 

“Rick…” You murmur as he softly bites your neck, soothing the pain with his tongue. “I need you so bad.” He whispers as his hands raise from your hips to your breast, squeezing them lightly under your shirt, making you whimper. 

“I’ve always wanted you…” He keeps mumbling as you fidget with the buttons of his shirt, slowly unbuttoning it. 

“You have me now.” You whisper back before pulling him in another heated kiss, making him groan as you press yourself against his erection. You can’t wait, you realize as the kiss becomes even more passionate, breaking apart just to quickly take off her shirt and tossing it somewhere near his.  

“God you are so beautiful.” He mumbles, making you suddenly feel so shy as you look in his eyes and find pure adoration as they scan your semi naked body, looking at you like you were the only person in this world. It makes your head spin.

Quickly the rest of both your and his clothes are scattered around. Rick cautionally holds you as he swaps position, now hovering over you as he propped himself up on his shoulders. “Are you sure you want this?” He asks breathlessly. You nod, “I’m sure.”

You eagerly reattach your lips to his as Rick’s hands roam your body. Your hands also wander around his bare back, your nails involuntarily digging into his skin when he squeezes your naked hip. 

“Rick, I need you so bad.” You pant as your eyes meet his. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” He answers as he ghosts your lips with his thumb.

He pushed some hairs of your face before lining up himself with your entrance as you could feel yourself get wetter each second that passed. Your legs quickly wrap themselves around his hips as he slowly pushes his length in. Your back arches as he completely fills you up, making him groan. He soon starts moving, each thrust making you whine as your hands tug his hair. Rick moves his hips back slowly, watching your reaction as he moves back inside you. He starts moving faster, finding his own rhythm that you waste no time to meet, raising your hips against his, allowing him to go deeper inside you, forcing a low moan from him as you feel your high coming closer. Rick moves his hand to your clit, his arousal increasing even more as you become more vocal. 

“I- I’m close.” You say.

“Me too.” He murmurs before bringing his lips to yours, his tongue eagerly exploring your mouth. It’s all it takes for you to cum, burying your head in the crook of his neck as you practically screamed while your body shook, your orgasm taking control. He soon after reached his high too, loudly panting as he rolled next to you.

"That was..." -your words die in your throat as her breathing is still ragged, but Rick knows exactly what you mean.

"I know." He replies with a smirk.

[pinkcrocss]

Is A-Train "redeemable"?

I have been thinking about this discourse that people have been having, following A-train's actions so far in season 4. And I know we've watched A-train teeter on the edge of good and bad for the last 4 seasons (generally falling to bad more than good). But i think the revelations about Frenchie's character kinda add an interesting spin to this question.

We need to consider how much our personal bias towards the characters we have grown to know (their motivations, their trauma's, their back stories), is impacting moral judgments we pass on other characters across the board.

Atp, every member of the boys has crossed "the line" in terms of black and white morality, but we give them a pass because we are convinced that they are all truly good at heart, and that their cause is just.

However, when you actually break down the actions of said characters, it kind of paints a different picture.

What has A-train done, that we feel he has to atone for? (this is just going off my terrible memory, so forgive me if I miss some things)

He killed Hughie's girlfriend (through negligence)

He killed popclaw (at the behest of homelander)

He's generally pretty arrogant and doesn't care about the horrible actions of his comrades, until it affects him

He killed bluehawk (most people agree that was justified)

Since season 2, Frenchie's past as a hit-man was hinted at (with little Nina explicitly stating that he had also killed children in season 3). It's clear Frenchie never had a particular moral code when he was a hit-man (no women/children type limits). He was simply a hired gun.

We sympathize with Frenchie because we know he had a difficult upbringing with his abusive father, as well as his loyalty to his friends (Cherie and Jay), the boys and especially Kimiko. Him serving as a comic relief often, also adds to this empathy bridge.

But season 4 has actually shown us a glimpse of just how many lives Frenchie has taken in cold blood. A whole room full. Why are we rooting for Frenchie's peace of mind, while debating if A-train is redeemable?

Frenchie has killed more people than Atrain (supe or not) and as far as I know, A-train has never killed a child.

Would it be easier to understand the gravity of Frenchie's crimes if Ryan or MM's daughter was one of his victims? Because his victims are all nameless, we act like his crimes hold less weight.

And then he goes on to start a sexual relationship with one of his victims, while hiding the knowledge that he was perpetrator of his greatest trauma. I think maybe we overlook the sadistic nature of that act because we interpret Frenchie as a "lover at heart", a true romantic that was swayed by his feelings and couldn't help that he had fallen for someone he had wronged. Bruh. When Colin eventually calls Frenchie a psychopath, he's not wrong.

And what about starlight? Her hands aren't clean. Remember the civilian she killed in Season 2? How is that any different from the situation with A-train and Robin? Yeah, it was an accident. In other words, negligence on her part. She needed to save Hughie; but why does Hughie's life matter more than that man. Her and Butcher were trying to carjack him and he had offered to call for help. He had a right to try to defend himself, and that bullet wouldn't have hurt her. That man was a father.

By the logic of why the boys are doing what they do, why we justify their murders of supes who have harmed them and their loved ones; if the child of that man grows up and hunts starlight down, would we need to root for that child to kill her?

Not so different from the shining light girl that keeps trying to kill Kimiko. From what was revealed of their backstory, Kimiko was the one who lured the girl into shining light. That's actually a common tactic of human traffickers, to use their victims (usually women and children) to lure in more victims cuz they seem less threatening. And obviously we can't fully blame Kimiko. She was trapped, brainwashed, and a child trying to protect her younger brother.

However, that girl also has every right to hate her. From her view, her life was forever taken because Kimiko chose not spare her (kinda similar to Gamora and Nebula). When Hughie said to A-train, "everything started with you!" we side with Hughie and we agree. So everytime Kimiko faces against that girl, why are we rooting for Kimiko? Wouldn't kimiko be A-train in that instance?

At this point, the only member of the boys who is still maintaining some Moral code is MM, and it's no coincidence that the show has made him seem pretty useless so far this season.

Btw, this post isn't a defense of A-train nor is it truly an indictment of any of the characters I used as examples. It's just an inconsistency I've noticed with the general fan discourse of who's "good" and who's "bad" on this show. Who is worthy of "forgiveness". Who's "redeemable". Redeemable to whom tho?

P.s. I'm not here to argue. Don't come for me cuz I critiqued your fave. I'm just thinking out loud. Feel free to respond/disagree, but if you're rude I'll just block you.

[inconspicious-random-thoughts]

Do you think a large part of Charlie’s arc next season will be learning to use her power more. The first season was about her getting pushed to start using it by the end of season 1 and I feel with the vees being an antagonist next season she might be pushed further. I kinda see it like mark from invincible season 2 finale.

Greetings!

I think if there was a greenlight of multiple seasons it would definitely be an arc 100%

I'm not entirely sure if it make it in season 2 since its not greenlit multiple season. As we already have an idea of a line up on arcs already and if the limited to 8 episodes it may not be able to be squeeze in. It may be added in as a companion to a larger arc. For example, her learning and controlling her powers could have been a larger arc, but has to be lessen down to accompany the arc of defeating the Vees and their larger and main arc.

I did envision for a larger and longer arc, Charlie undergoing training and it be under Alastor tutelage. It would further the mentor/protege relationship. The two developing a close bond and trust which everyone else do not trust. It also would increase the hidden danger Alastor brings if he is a double agent by gaining Charlies trust and bonding for him to manipulate her. It would create angst within Alastor if he is playing double agent because he rapidly growing fond and caring for the princess that he was meant to betray by orders of his master.

I also imagine we get a tiny glimpse into Charlie past and why she doesn't use her powers and rely on others to do so. Her powers seem to burst when she upset. So I think in her angst, emo teen phase she kept losing control and end up accidentally hurting someone. So she grew very wary and hesitant on using her abilities. It may be why she so adamant of defuse fighting and solving issues by talkings etc.

With Alastor assuming been weaken in his own power and still recovering from his fight with Adam, I can see the need for Charlie to step up in that regard. Alastor would be the best teacher as he has transformative powers as well his sheer magical strength. As different as his powers would be from Charlies, it would be the closest match to the princess out of Hell...

...except for Lucifer. He sort of throws a wrench in my thought process if he going to be residing in the hotel and be more active in Charlie's life. Lucifer being around makes Alastor use redundant. Alastor coaching Charlie giving him a reason to stay beside Charlies protest against Alastor leaving. So, both will try to teach Charlie, which would be amusing as Alastor and Lucifer rivery, jealousy, and bickering would just continue.

I think Charlie need to train her powers would be prompted by Alastor first, as it seems one of Alastor main motivations is to have the princess come to power and be under his guidance. But to Alastor dismay, it be Lucifer to train her. At first anyways. But his method is slow. Not only is Lucifer is nearly as time itself and is time blind but he very protective. He be baby stepping everything which they don't have time with the looming doom approaching. Lucier would be training wheels, swim wings and floaties to teach Charlie to swim metaphor. Charlie making progress...but slowly.

Out of frustration of the slow progress from Lucifer protectiveness and lack of urgency, Charlie approaches Alastor for help (I guess another deal would be made as Alastor unlikely to help for free and needs advantages in his weaken state, despite this is the opportunity he been striving for.). Alastor method is the sink or swim metaphor. He the teacher that would throw a kid into a pool or push a bird out of a nest and wait for the child instincts to kick in as a lesson. Which is what Charlie needed. (Lucifer and Vaggie being pissed to find out Alastor literally push the princess of a cliff for her instincts to manifest. Yay for Charlie possibly having wings like her father or Vaggie?? "Alastor, how you know she had wings? -I didn't but what a delightful surprised that turned out to be!-Wait,what?" But Charlie would defend Alastor methods to them while Lucifer and Vaggie continue to give Alastor the stink eye while Alastor is just amused) Then he will guide Charlie to fine tune and hone in the intricacy of the abilities. At this point, we glimpse more of Alastor personal ideology and philosophical beliefs like we have in Hello Rosie! when Alastor talked about the power of a smile.

Since Alastor most likely playing both sides. He is simultaneously setting up Charlie to succeed but leaving an opening to fail.

How nice to have a scene of an ecstatic Charlie that her hard work paid off and Alastor just looking down at her with a genuine fond smile and proud look as he pats her head in a job well done.

then maybe have it be ruin when Charlie hugs him with a "I couldn't done it without you" and Alastor looks guilty that he setting her up for disaster but CHarlie didn't see the expression as she buried her face in her chest as she hugged.

A later point, Alastor was force to betray Charlie by his master call. Leading the trope of trumpant student over teacher battle. Along with Charlies forgiveness theme of the story.

But I suppose if Charlies arc is in season two, it just be a much more shorten speedrun version minus Alastor betrayal. That betrayal be saved for a later season with the looming doom of a bigger baddie. (Roo)

Either way, I hope we get to see something with Charlie embracing her powers more or the reason she doesn't...because seriously, its weird that she set up to be the most powerful but relies on Alastor power to keep the hotel-her dream running? You think, if its her dream, she put more effort into it if she has the power to do so instead let it run down to the ground like the pilot. So WHY is she holding back?

Side note: Vaggie helps train Charlie how to fight with a trident more efficiently and have sparring matches.

Well, those are my two cents, hopefully its enough vaule to purchase something

[neko-loogi]

Okay.. so, episode 5 of season 2 from Helluva Boss just came out. I watched it and honestly I have so many mixed feelings about it. I don't even know how to explain it-

So starting off, we have Blitzo running around doing who knows what, asking random people for his sister Barbie. Which is like the sub plot of the story (that later turns out to be relevant sort of). And since he's "soo busy" focusing on that he completely ignores a client and lets Moxxie be in charge for once.

Since this is Moxxie's first time being in charge, he's all like "Oh, this has to be perfect, nothing can go wrong blah blah" and it's honestly like the stupidest thing ever. Because Moxxie instead of focusing on killing the target (which Millie already knows who it is and tells him) he just does a bunch of dumb shit to show off to random preteens at a summer camp. This is the part where we see him dressing up as a girl, and I fucking hated this part.

I physically couldn't stop cringing while watching the episode, every time Moxxie was on screen with his girl outfit. I feel so bad for Richard Horvitz having to make a really stereotypical Lumpy Space Princess sounding ass voice to make Moxxie sound like a popular girl- it was unbearable to listen to.

Moving on, I kinda like how the episode was a bit more focused on Millie, that's like the only thing that I liked about the episode, so I'll give it that. However, I don't like how Moxxie is still the punching bag of the series so yeah, it feels weird that he's all whiny and jealous of his own wife because she's getting more attention than him. I dunno, it feels off. Also I think it's really stupid that they spend an ENTIRE FUCKING WEEK trying to kill some guy, all because Moxxie is too self centered that he doesn't focus on that.

At the end it turns out that one of the camp counselors was selling drugs with a random lady and that random lady turned out to be Barbie (aka Blitzo's sister). Yeah and also Blitzo shows up to the human world and we get a glimpse of Asmodeian crystal or whatever you call them, so there's that.

Anyway, can I just point out how fucking ugly Barbie's human disguise is? (I honestly hope Blitzo and the others don't look as bad as her in the future-)

I swear her design looks so off to me, I don't know if it's the fact that her hands are really big (which makes no sense because this is her human version, so I don't understand why they gave her weird imp hands). Or the fact that her human disguise has those markings on her arms, including the stupid forehead crest, that could've been replaced with birthmarks or hell, tattoos even. The pigtails don't really suit her either, she could've had a better hairstyle.

I also really dislike her voice, no offense but she sounds like a Texas lady that smokes like 40 cigarettes at a New York bar.

I never really liked her design to begin with but this episode made me hate it more. Not only that but the implied that she's a groomer in the episode which is gross-

Anyway, the episode ends with a really unfunny and unnecessary incest joke (seriously this entire episode has really disgusting "jokes" that aren't funny in the slightest).

Overall, I didn't enjoy this episode and I hope Vivzie's hardcore fans realize that her writing is absolute garbage and her comedy ain't shit-

[ojamayellow]

Earthspark spoilers. It's time for my opinions and theories.

Before I start, I am aware of the writers changing. I will put that into consideration in this. And for the record, I did enjoy Season 2 so far, but I admit it has nothing on S1 for now.

First two episodes were really good, I loved the Breakdad moments, I love Aftermath and we get a glimpse on how the Decepticons have been operating. 2nd episode with the Quintesson gave us some lore and suspense, and I always love a Mo and Thrash tag team. These episodes felt... right for Earthspark, but not as Season 2 starters? If that makes sense.

Hashtag's alt mode is neat, but I miss her chunkiness in robot mode. Made her feel more distinct you know? But I'm with the others saying VAL being an AI in Hashtag's mind is really weird considering what Mandroid did. Maybe she's coping? I have a theory that this VAL might be manipulated in a future episode to control Hashtag, but for the sake of Hashtag's well-being, I HOPE this doesn't happen. (Also, hi Shockwave).

Carnival episode. Is Schloder reduced to an incidental now? I hope not and that he becomes important as well. But also, I figure its a traveling carnival/circus, which makes sense to why we haven't seen this Fairemaestro before, and the little interaction with Swindle shows up 'oh yeah he's a bad guy' already. But you can't just tease a GIANT COSMOS-LOOKING RIDE AND THEN 'OH BTW ITS COSMOS' LAST FEW MINUTES. If Cosmos doesn't show up in later episodes I'll be so disappointed, like...it's freakin' Cosmos! <-Perfect design though. *chef kiss*

I do think the Robby crush on Izzy was cute, but it being involved with the plot felt....eh? It was like, nothingburger to me.

JBAM episode. I LOVED THEM. Jawbreaker has clearly gotten more comfortable with himself and such since Grimlock, but him not taking a hint from Aftermath (who was being direct) reminds me of my younger self. <-Was an insane chatterbox and would not shut up no matter what was said to me.

But the contaminated energon stuff like, yeah callback to that weird bear. Sorry if I forgot, but back in S1, was there a reason GHOST was just leaving it around? I don't remember. And what's with the horrific energon mushrooms, and those poor animals? I know people who are going to be turned off from this show just from that alone, but at least it's 'off screen'? But also Aftermath betraying Jawbreaker hurts, I was hoping he'd like, impress Breakdown with the stolen water BUT NOPE, NO MORE AFTERMATH AND BREAKDAD STUFF. (I know Aftermath was like, not 'what did you just call me' when he was called Son but, cmon!!)

Spitfire episode. I personally think this episode went hard. Gave me Sonic VS Metal Sonic vibes. The fight scenes were really done well, and the tension was so good! To me, Spitfire wanted to be superior but felt inferior when not chosen for the mission, so that desire to be the best consumed her. I'm personally a big fan of this episode, and Alex is awesome. And so was Spitfire, I'm kinda obsessed with her.

Bodyswap episode. Always love a good bodyswap scenario, but somehow this felt... weak. It's plausible for the others to believe Spitfire (as Twitch) had a scrambled processor from the previous episode BUT the fact Wheeljack was the first to catch on? Before a Malto? I'm SO GLAD they referred to Dad2 again but, IDK, feels... strange to me.

Trailer episode. Was kinda nothingburger again? It felt like they needed to add SOMETHING before the horrors of the final two episodes, but maybe I just need to re-watch it because I didn't feel much from it. Optimus was clearly getting aggravated and uncomfortable, which was making me uncomfortable. But also, OPLITA? COMPLICATED? If they don't ever bring this up again I might be a bit...bitter.

And finally, the Witwicky 2-Parter. My anxiety was through the roof here, but I also kinda figured it out early that a Titan was involved. Was still surprised though, and her design is awesome?! But what was making me panic more than anything was Hashtag was going to see Starscream. Yes I know, a one-episode bond may not mean much, but we all had hopes, yeah? Anyway, I love nasty bitch Starscream. It's what makes him Starscream. And I do think what he did was in-character. But it would feel off if Earthspark was someone's introduction to Starscream, you know? This specific one, who's attitude told the audience 'I hate Megatron he abused me so I'd be a better leader than him'. But also...

The scene with him killing the Chaos Terrans was a fucking horror movie. It does a lot when I am SCARED OF STARSCREAM. I wish he didn't do it, but he also needed the shards. If the Autobots/Maltos needed the shards from the Terrans, how would they do it? Would they hesitate to find a safer way to keep the Chaos Terrans alive? Or would there be some sort of urgency? It really makes me think, but Starscream wanted those shards ASAP, he does what he need to do to get what he wants, he's Starscream. A manipulative, traitorous bitch who almost never gets his way in the end.

But you might be wondering, "Kit did you feel like the character development was thrown away for Starscream?" Well, yes and no.

It's really upsetting how Starscream twisted his advice to Hashtag. Truly upsetting. But it also does feel like something a Starscream would do. I keep flip-flopping between "yeah this makes sense" and "um what the FUCK writers". See what I mean by "yes and no?" And Hashtag calling Starscream worse than Megatron AND Screamer taking it as a compliment? Again, very Starscream thing to do, but I think ES! Starscream should've been at least a bit offended?! And out of all bots to call him the worst... Why did it have to be Hashtag? I guess it has more 'meaning', but still...

My theory (or moreso, hopeful thinking) is that Starscream re-invented his advice to Hashtag so he could get detached from her. Starscream had a mission, a personal selfish goal, and he needed to take care of HIMSELF, no friendship. Only comrades willing to follow him, and the Maltos were not those comrades.

My other theory (which I gained from seeing someone on twitter saying this) is that the Chaos Terrans DIDN'T GREY OUT FROM DEATH. Therefore, there is a chance they can return. Maybe something from the Allspark or Matrix or some kinda macguffin will help?! And I sure hope they come back, because they could learn to be good (but still cheeky) and we can bring back the messages and theming from Season 1! Right, right?

As for 'Starscream the child killer'...look, it's upsetting I know. But like I said, selfish goals. And while I am not familiar with every Starscream from different canons, I've met enough versions. Other Starscreams have have committed war crimes, blew up a human hospital, threatened to kill innocents, committed war crimes, wanted to kill everyone to end a war, squished humans in his servos... (yes I know Skybound is more for an adult audience than kids but I'm just saying). War crimes. I am not excusing Starscream's actions here, but when he needs something, he'll do what it takes to get it, for his own selfish goals. It makes sense but I also feel its wrong and I agree with other fans who were quite upset with this scenario. If the Chaos Terrans don't come back I'll be really sad.

Again, I've considered the fact this show has new writers, which is unfortunate. I saw someone on here say that Season 2 (so far) feels like a bootlegged version of S1, which is how I feel about it. I did enjoy the episodes, but they were a bit messy. Also, the lack of Nightshade and honorary family member Bumblebee really made me sad. Was it a script decision, or could they not afford Danny Pudi enough because they used the money on the new cast like Flea? (Don't quote me on like, celebrity net worth here). The lack of Nightshade though is very suspicious though, considering how big of a deal it was for them to exist as a non-binary character.

Side note, Shockwave. I'm glad he finds Cybertron itself more important than creating a New Cybertron, it feels right for him to not care about Earth. But if he going to attempt to lead now? Or something?

If you read this, thanks! If you have any responses feel free to reply or reblog. Feel free to reblog in general, I love hearing opinions and such.

[presidenthades]

⚠️HOtD season 2 ep 7 spoilers❗

Your thoughts on this ep and Alicent reconnecting with nature?🎤 Also, I hope your pillow is cold on both sides and everyone who pressures you or is rude to you steps on lego🥰🙏

I actually had some genuinely positive thoughts about Ep 7. Then I read about the Ep 8 leaks and all my nice thoughts are gone again. 😔 I won’t talk about Ep 8 spoilers in this post, but if I’m not as happy about Ep 7 as I could be, it’s probably because of Ep 8.

Also, I will continue with my “here’s what I’m harvesting for fanfic material so hopefully I’m not being too negative” methodology because that’s my coping mechanism. 🥲

Very minor scene, but we glimpse Elinda Massey, highborn lady, running around the poor parts of KL in her bright red velvet cloak as if the hood will help camouflage her. I had a giggle at that, and it reminded me of Aemond in Compromise Ch. 6 going “my fancy green cloak is a great disguise.” 🤭 (Compare to S1E9 Aegon who was a hungover mess, but his clothes were spot-on for blending in with the masses.)

Show is strongly insinuating that Hugh’s mom is Saera. I’m not sure how that would work, because there’s no way Saera could’ve stayed in a KL brothel for years without Jaehaerys doing something about it. So either Hugh was born somewhere else and moved to KL (possible), or his mom actually isn’t Saera but maybe a bastard of Jaehaerys (also possible, maybe a bit convoluted). I’m still undecided about how much of Hugh and Ulf’s show versions I want to incorporate in my fics. My Ulf is way closer to his book counterpart, but Hugh is malleable enough that I could incorporate more show lore, e.g. he’s married to Kat in my fic too.

I liked Rhaenyra taking a dark turn this episode. I have been dying for the show to give her some more life this season, and Rhaenyra going on a messiah arc hits the spot. If this is why they’ve been hamming about the prophecy so much in the show: 👍. If you’ve read my fics (and some of my replies in comments), you know that I think prophecies are super fun to play with in fiction, but I think they’re best when people misunderstand or try to thwart them. The PTWP prophecy is not about Rhaenyra, but her believing it’s about herself is very Greek tragedy material.

I have a fic idea that’s been on the back burner for a few months. It’s supposed to have fairy tale vibes, with the trope of three brothers (Targbros) going on an adventure to the spooky island fortress (Dragonstone) where they have to negotiate with the dark queen figure (Rhaenyra) to get some dragons. And of course something about maidens in the tower (Velargirls) who help them on their quest. The E7 shots where Rhaenyra looked kinda villainous have been inspiring ideas for this fic again. 👀

Jace’s argument with Rhaenyra was very juicy. Stories are best when there’s conflict and tension, and infighting among TB is definitely interesting. I don’t think Jace is at a point when he would actively work against Rhaenyra (yet?). He’s still loyal. But those conflicted emotions add to his character, and the cracks in their relationship might lead to even more drama later.

I was starting to get a little tired of Harrenhal, but the Riverlords scene was 💯. It reminded me of early seasons GOT when there was more talking and less battle/dragons, but things were still INTERESTING because those conversations were important to characterization and plot. And now I feel compelled to incorporate more of the Muppet Tullys somehow.

The Aegon scene was painful to watch. Larys is definitely still manipulative, but he also seems to genuinely care about Aegon (although it does benefit him if Aegon gets better). I might try a more sympathetic depiction of Larys in a future fic.

Orwyle deserves a raise.

Re: Alicent in her nature phase. Man, if I ever felt guilty about making the royals’ security detail not as secure as they could be (e.g. Jace at the Sept in The Golds), all that guilt is gone. If Alicent can go to the woods with one single Kingsguard in the middle of a war, anything goes.

No not really. I’ll still try to make things realistic. But I’m not going to fret too much if the guards aren’t sweeping every corner before they let the royals into a building.

Now the ending. Dragonstone is close enough to KL that in the book, Rhaenyra and Daemon were said to race there and back somewhat regularly. So I imagine the two places are not terribly far away, BUT it still requires some time to travel. Even dragons can’t teleport, and Vhagar is especially slow. So Ulf and Silverwing went on a prolonged detour to KL, then Aemond and Vhagar gave chase for a few hours before retreating. Idk about you guys, but that seems like a LONG time to be on dragon back without a bathroom break.

And I know the show says Vhagar is too large for the Dragonpit, but I choose to ignore that. In the book, Balerion resided in the Dragonpit until he died, and he was way larger than Vhagar ever was. But we can headcanon that Vhagar prefers to be outside during her retirement era, and Aemond has to deal with it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[pigtailedgirl]

Now I'm curious how you got into due south originally, if you feel like explaining :)

Sure! It's nothing too exciting I guess, but my Dueser origins begin as a wee girl. I know my family must have vaguely watched it because I remember the image of All The Queen's Horses mountie chase pre-dates my series watch beginnings. I know my grandma later confessed as I had it on tv one summer that she watched it. Cause cute Benton Fraser lol.

But real seeing and watch began with a random catch of Free Willie one morning on the Showcase Network. Thank you kindly Showcase.

Yeah, I caught it one morning and stayed to watch because I think I vaguely recognized it, and just fell in love with it's charm and wit and Fraser and Ray. It was the first episode so great timing too. And they had it schedule set to air one episode in the morning, the same at night, five days a week. Perfect for catching up.

Promos were hilarious too. I should see if any are online.

Oh, and it was original edit, so it had extra scenes like the different Victoria's Secret ones.

So I caught up on the series quick. Also, what I think really cemented my season 1 and 2 love was they played that set for months at least before switching to the 3/4 season. That highlighted the difference in tone to my POV too I think, and it's why I kinda view them apart still.

But I really got to experience show first this way.

I think I found fandom when starting Livejournal same time the show hit resurgence there. And I happily caught the tail end of Yahoo Groups so got to back read fan stuff there. Missed most of Ray Wars. Yay. There was the 2000's snippets, but everyone was so fun at content creation and love, that was the best take-aways. It made for a great time. I participated in a watch-along! A big highlight of fannishness for me! That's when I saw The Pilot. Or my fav was squeeing about Pizza and Promises.

Just, some of the many wonderful fans like Nina_DS and movies_michelle and duenorthlaurie for episode discussion, and Sdwolfpup, Belmanoir, Aingeal8C as content creators, or Scotchsour, and Lozenger8 who made some banging icons....Truly, there were so many wonderful people, I couldn't even name them all. Due South provided so many wonderful glimpses of other fans to share with. LJ friends were so lovely.

I fell out in LJ world strangely cause I felt kinda outside the fandom wave as it crested I think, not shipping F/K or really loving those seasons as much. And just personally felt not into fannishness as whole after awhile. It's a me thing across everything, not just Due South. I took an internet break for a long time. I still watched the series on tv, with Showcase and TV Tropolis and DejaView lol, and by then DVD often. Along with new TV of course, although not much cause Tumblr me is not too different from old LJ me. Still kept an eye of forums, sometimes, or such, cause I love discussion as you can see by my screeds versus tech/creative skills, but not actively or with comment.

I return cause, I don't know, seeing people express love for the series again is hitting a happy place of nostaglia I think. I had a rough bout with real-life and comfort fannish stuff is reminding life was full of small good moments. The joy of the endearing nature of the show and the spirit of love for it in the fandom is proof of stuff enduring. Joy that it's still on rebranded Showcase here on the weekends lol, even if you never know which season.

And a new vidder made a wonderful F/V fanvid that, timing again as I hit Tumblr, I stumbled into, and just had me crying when I watched at the beauty and love I remembered in the pair. It spoke to my love of them so hard I think it jolted me into thinking hell yea that love deserves happy expression, I can do it too maybe. Sadly they took it down, but yeah, that was the spark, and that's me fannish story.

[jamiesfootball]

📓 give me a glimpse into ur mind

Let me tell you about the Greater Richmond Pet Acquisition (aka Give Jamie Tartt a Cat)

So it starts here with Jamie, having just joined the team again in season 2, and he is struggling. He basically blew up his life and its in pieces and he's having things that definitely are maybe panic attacks

He accidentally ends up befriending Higgins.

Higgins who back in season one through poor late Cindy Clawford's collar into the curse fire. Since then they've gotten a new cat (who i had the perfect name for but i can't find it in my drafts and my tagging is shit), and just like Higgins shows Jamie pictures of ducks and the memes his kids use that he doesn't understand, he also shows Jamie pictures of their cat.

So Christmas rolls around, yeah? And Jamie fucked up secret santa, and Higgins invites Jamie to his house for the team Christmas but that doesn't feel fair to the team

(and him and his mum are still on the outs, have been for years, and one of these days he's gonna be accountable but he's not so much of an asshole he's not so much like his dad that he'd just drop in on her unannounced at Christmas)

So he spends Christmas in Richmond alone with the bottle of champagne that he got at secret santa and it's brutal and he's lonely and he sees an ad on the telly for an animal shelter and decides screw it- I'm gonna get a cat. If I'm gonna be miserable and lonely like an old cat lady then I might as well have a cat.

So he goes to the shelter and he's thinking 'yeah i'll get a nice sleek cat one of those cool posh ones with the markings' and then he finds this ginormously rotund squash faced orange fat bastard and just. laughs.

His name is Big Ben and he's a surrender. His previous family up and moved, and they decided they didn't want him anymore. He came from a house with three kids (responsible for the kinda lame name) but no one ever really gave him any attention. He was kind of a nuisance. Always underfoot. Always yowling for attention. Too needy. They were a bit relieved to have an excuse to get rid of him to be honest.

Jamie is weirdly upset by this and can't pinpoint why. He gets the cat.

He gets a bunch of cat stuff - beds and toys and a robot litterbox that cleans itself - and he takes the cat home an he's like 'wait what the fuck did I just do?' Because he's never had a cat, or a dog, or any sort of creature relying on him to keep it safe. So he looks up Youtube videos on 'what to do when you've fucked up and bought a cat' and they're like 'well start them off in one room in the house' and Big Ben hates that.

It's a horrendous first few hours for both of them, Big Ben yowling at the top of his big unhappy cat lungs while Jamie is about to lose his goddamn mind, spiraling and on the verge of a panic attack because oh god he didn't just fuck up his own life now he's hurting this big giant fluffball cat the cat is crying fucking hell what do I do I can't call Higgins it's Christmas

So he breaks. He lets the cat out of the room and Big Ben barrels into his legs and starts purring. Loud. Like the loudest a creature has ever purred in its life. And he's looking up at Jamie with it's big green cat eyes and it's making little chirpy noises.

"You wanna hang out with me, buddy?" Jamie asks, and he feels stupid, talking to a cat, and Big Ben leans against his legs and-

-tiiiiiips over. Flops right over on Jamie's socks and looks up at him with his big adoring face like Jamie's the best thing that's ever happened to him.

Jamie could get used to someone looking at him like that.

[stars-of-kyber]

I would love to hear your opinion about S3 !!1

Ooooooh girl! I have so many feelings here... This might get long, beware

Overall, I enjoyed this first part quite well.

I like how faithful some moments are to the book, although Colin's book is tied with Ben's as my least favourite and it was the one which took me the longest to read. I liked the Proposal, bc that's a scene I really like from the book and Colin's journals. I also like the glimpse of Colin's repressed anger.

I feel like the show could have mixed the Whistledown issue more with this first part. I felt like it was very separate. First, we deal with the love story, and then we bring the whole LW x Queen thing. The book actually starts with Lady D announcing she'd offer a reward for the person who gave her LW's identity. It didn't bother me that much during the episodes, but when the 1st part ended, it kinda gave me a feeling of... completion? Yeah, okay, we had the issue, we worked it out, the couple is together, we'll have a pretty epilogue moment and then yay. I know it's not just that bc I read the books, but even so it gave me that feeling. I don't know if splitting in two was a good plot device here, because the cliffhanger is... not actually a cliffhanger? There's nothing that makes us hold our breaths wondering what's coming next but that little trailer in the end. If it was me (not a professional obvs) I would either not have split this at all, or end the first part with Colin finding out Pen was LW. THAT would have been a cliffhanger worth holding your breath.

Particularly (Please don't come at me for that people), I don't feel the chemistry between the two of them, which is a bit sad. They were there, staring at each other about to kiss and I didn't feel that OH MY GOD YES KISS! They fell a bit flat for me, chemistry-wise. But again, I felt the same with the two of them the previous seasons so no big surprise here.

The Kathony, tho. God I love them. I want more of them. I need it. (I honestly think they were kept away from this beginning due to managing their schedules with other projects) But we'll see them in the next part being horny lovebirds together.

I really REALLY liked the sideplots too! Unlike season two and that god-forsaken annoying Eloise x Theo thing and Cousin Jack side-plots, I actually enjoyed the stories that were going around. I liked the Moldriches; I had some good laughs with Portia struggling with her daughters and sex ed;

Kudos to Lord Debling. I really liked him as a character and his interest in Penelope was nice to watch.

OH MY GOD FRANNIE AND JOHN! SUCH BABIES I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! NETFLIX PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME, MY POOR HEART CAN'T TAKE IT! DON'T MAKE ME LOVE JOHN JUST TO WATCH HIM DIE PAINFULLY! (Also please can we get a bit of a shout-out for our baby boy Michael in part 2? Thanks)

The most surprising of all, I actually LIKED the Eloise and Cressida side plot, which I was really not expecting. I like the way Cressida is presented, not an angel but also not super bad. And I love that she managed to give Eloise some very important call-outs and threw some truths in her face that she desperately needed to hear and no one else had done in the previous seasons (at least not so directly).

A little hurray to baby Greg and Hyacinth being the most adorable little pre-teens god they are so big, I can't! I love them so much.

Also, I had quite a lot of fun with Benedict, especially him being called out by Lady Tilly for the EXACT same reason he was having a laugh at Anthony last season. I absolutely loved that one. And I want to know what's the deal with Lady Danbury's bro.

I didn't particularly care for the music in it as a whole BUT I have to say this: I did NOT expect Pitbull's Give Me Everything would work SO DAMN WELL SERIOUSLY I LOVED IT! I saw it on the setlist and I was like Oh my god grab somebody sexy tell them hey! How is this going to work? And IT DID! I VIBED SO HARD WITH IT! Seriously did not see THAT ONE coming.

I have ticked off 9 of my bingo predictions! Unfortunately, as we know, Anthony's butt in ep 1 was not one of that (so so so sad) Colin being chased by a duck was neither, which makes me really upset BUT we still have another 4 eps to go 🦆 (I know, I know, let me dream, leave me be).

I'll be watching it again later today with my mum, maybe tomorrow again with my Frannie. (ADHD hyper fixation yeah I know).

As I said, it had its ups and downs but overall I liked it very much. I can't wait for the next part.

[fluffypotatey]

I dunno if you talked about this yet, but very few ppl are talking about s5 since the dub hasn't come out yet so I'll just put a thought I had here (and again, if you've already talked about this, sorry!!)

This isn't really a theory, bc the "evidence" is flimsy, more like a gut feeling, but like:

You know how 9 (I think that's his name) asked Macaque "who did you make a deal with to get these powers?" and Macaque seemed genuinely confused?

I think Wukong might have been the one who made some sort of deal.

Again, this is mostly speculation, I'll honestly have to rewatch the LBD storyline just to ensure that it doesn't contradict this, but idk, for me this would explain certain things fans were pointing out before- I'll just get to the point tbh:

1) It would explain Wukong's lack of confusion at Macaque's first appearance.

Macaque died, plain and simple, and as far as we're aware, this was the first time they had seen eachother. Wukong is definitely not happy to see him, but he certainly doesn't look confused. He never questioned it, actually.

I don't remember if he was surprised with him working with LBD, but I do remember that despite everything, he still affirmed to MK that Liu Er was not a bad guy. And coming from Wukong, especially at that point in the series, that's not something small.

2) Wukong clearly regrets Macaque's murder.

It's difficult to tell what happened when Macaque died, since we only have some vague screenshots and (now) a small audio that might have or might have not have actually happened (since Wukong's memory might have been very biased). But what matters is that we now know with 100% certainty that the murder HAPPENED. It wasn't mind control (or at least doesn't seem like it), it wasn't an illusion by a third party that tricked Macaque, and Wukong certainly KNEW that Macaque was dead.

This is important bc the main conclusion lots of fans got from the whole "Wukong didn't seem confused about Macaque being alive" thing was those theories. Which now seem pretty much impossible.

For a character to do something in a story, 2 things need to be true: they need to have a reason AND they need to actually be able to do it.

Considering desire alone, it seems like a Wukong thing to do. He clearly didn't wanna have anything to do with Macaque (seeming at least annoyed and at worst angry with his presence at the beginningof the story), but he also just didn't want him dead. It wouldn't be out of character for him to revive Macaque if given the chance, but also simply not look for him.

If he can do it? I don't know. He has alot of artifacts, and he's known for breaking rules to get his way, both in JTTW and in lmk. Whatever it was, it probably had to do with chaos magic, but (although not the the lmk's team fault, it's clear that this was mostly bc of complications in production) the season's plot was kinda rushed, they had litte time to tell their story, so I can't be sure.

3) Wukong's conversation with Macaque at the start of the season.

Okay, so this is the main one (bc it can make or break my entire point, which I'll explain real soon), since this WHOLE season had alot of references to past events AND alot of the first episodes' scenes were brought back in some way by the end.

And their conversation felt a little... idk, out of place. Kinda Chekhov's Gun-y.

Bc this wasn't a season focused on how their old enemies came back. Heck, it wasn't focused on Wukong at all! Sure, the poor guy was the season's punching bag (or in this case, more like a squishy stress toy lmao), but the vast majority of his scenes were focused on his bond with MK (be it with the fact both of them came from the same stone, or just his general love and care for the kid, to the point where he was willing to die in his place if it meant keping MK and the world safe.)- and those that weren't were glimpses with Macaque.

Okay, so why can it make or break my point? Because it's gonna entirely depend on weather or not Wukong is being honest in that conversation.

Now, Wukong is a big, fat liar. We all know this. The Samhadi Fire thing happened ENTIRELY bc of his lies. This man is not honest, and he loooves passing the blame to someone else when he can, especially to Macaque.

And I think he's lying in that conversation. I genuinely think he's lying. Why? Because he said he didn't know what MK was before he chose him as his sucessor.

And, okay, he might not have known the full story, but that man knew SOMETHING. We see in flashbacks that he had been observing MK far before he found the staff. He might not have known that MK came from the same stone as him, but c'mon. He is not that stupid. Also, the body language might be a bit harder to read bc of the budget cuts, but he did not seem honest at all. His first instinct as he said it was to avert his eyes and then TURN THE OTHER WAY, angry.

"Okay, anon, but your whole argument was about Macaque's revival, not MK's birth-" I'm getting to it.

What I'm trying to say is that we should take Wukong's words here with a massive grain of salt. Him and Macaque seem to be working together to discover more about MK, but that does not mean that Wukong is gonna be 100% honest with him.

Which comes the juicy part of this conversation: when the topic switches to Wukong's old friends with grudges returning. More specifically, Macaque mentions Azure Lion.

M: We still don't know who released Azure Lion. All of your old friends are back at once. You don't-

W: What about you?! You came back all of a sudden too!

Wukong's body language was really weird here. Like he was angry that Macaque was questioning things. Maybe it's just him being nervous about it too and letting his fear show off as anger, but it's still weird. This could be him just immediately throwing this at Macaque, because it's easier, with something along the lines of "What about you huh?? You came back too!" as a response for having his methods questioned, but again, it feels really weird.

Especially since this is not the thing you do when you're willing to be honest. Even when you're not willing to be criticized.

This might be a language barrier thing, since the subs I watched with weren't the best, but it was unclear to me wether Wukong was trying to lump Macaque together with everyone else that returned OR wether he was trying to differentiate him from the rest. With the eng dub it'll probably be clearer, but I genuinely couldn't be sure wether this was a "You came back too, just like the rest of them." or a "It wasn't JUST them, you came back too" meaning. This could also be attributed to him possibly being the only one who might have actually died before his return, instead of just "imprisoned", but idk.

And then Wukong looks down, with this weird conflicted look, until he mentions that someone might be manipulating MK, which makes him blink up and immediately pin it all on Macaque again, despite him definitely knowing by this point that Macaque would not do this.

As if he felt like it was a personal attack over something he did.

Which makes me feel like he was involved in some way with at least SOME of these returns, and not just in a "the ppl I messed with came back with a grudge" way. Since the topic of a deal was specifically mentioned by this season's villain, (which Macaque, again, didn't really seem to know about) it might have been that.

4) Lady Bone Demon.

So, I'm really gonna have to rewatch her entire story to be sure about the details, but this woman is the definition of opportunistic. She knows quite alot about destiny, and at some points, even the future.

She was sealed and became a whole lot stronger, sure, but the power to bring others back from the dead? Lmk is not very accurate to JTTW, but she was legit just a skeleton demon with the power of illusion from what I've managed to find. Heck, before she tricked MK into releasing more of her power, she was pretty much stuck with the Spider Queen.

And this was AFTER she supposedly brought Macaque back from the dead.

This woman is powerful, but not THAT powerful. Not at that point! Wukong supposedly defeated her with ease before according to the show, and even he had troubles with the underworld. Also, out of all of Wukong's past foes, it feels weird that she'd willingly choose Macaque to be the one to be revived- the guy with a conflicted past with Wukong that, considering everyone else he's faced, is pretty avarage in terms of power. Also, again, this man has a huge grudge, but he also has a really big past with Wukong. Even IF she could just bring someone back from the dead like this, she'd be smart enough not to choose Macaque. The risk of disobedience was far too great (since he's pretty smart + would likely not want to put up with her bs for long) and his strength is simply not great enough to justify that decision. She had to constantly check on him, threaten him, and even THEN he still found a way out of it.

Sure, maybe Wukong could go easier on him compared to other foes, but that's still not a good bet. Wukong killed him, after all, likely bc he was a danger to his JTTW friends based on previous scenes- so who's to say he wouldn't do it again?

So all of this: the flawed logic of choosing to revive macaque; the likelihood of her being able to just bring someone back from the dead WHILE weakened; the fact that she clearly didn't trust Macaque like she did the totally not a mayor guy; how her biggest strategy has always been to wait for an opportunity instead of doing the work herself... It makes me question wether she brought Macaque back at all.

Because maybe she just saw an opportunity and took it, maybe she just tricked him into thinking that she was behind his revival- as to make him obey at least somewhat- so she could lock him in a deal. Maybe it wasn't Wukong, maybe it was someone else, but the fact that the chaos magic thing along with the word "deal" wasn't immediately attributed with LBD (the only one we know to have made a deal with Macaque at some point till now) was just really weird to me.

Anyway, wow this was long! Sorry about that! Again, I don't truly believe this is the show's intention, I might just be overthinking/misinterpreting things, but idk. I thought it was at least an interesting enough hypothesis to bring it up fhdhdhhdhd

gawddam anon 👀 that’s quite a theory

also here’s a link of what Nines said to Macky (also there seems to be a new ship between the two and i, for one, suggest that their ship name should be called SixNine :D )

idk i agree with Wukong being the one who struck the deal but you do bring up a lot of hood points 👀✍️ Wukong lying about only having a “feeling” when he met MK (even i could smell the bs), Wukong’s “and what about you!” being more of a misdirect from what Macky wanted to talk about -> like these things i def thought were fishy but you bring up a new perspective 🧐

time will only tell!

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

Tbh I still like the Collector in TOH as he is but mostly cause it opens up possibilities of frightening cosmic entities and, though kinda sloppy as is, the possibility of retconning his character to something in between the 2 "versions" of him we see (pre and post freedom Collector I mean) if the show is ever allowed more episodes or seasons.

Like, Collector having experienced death before or that some things hurt others being something he dislikes can explain why he scribbles out the genocide part of his book.

Or like, since they took the child route, he's seen death, knows what it is, but when he's faced with it on a personal level it's not something he can process.

But on the other hand, I wanted more of the mean-spirited troublemaker we saw at first. So once things calm down, we could get a glimpse of him being more like that again. I feel like being around Belos would have a more... Lasting impact on his personality. Once he calms down, he starts to show these pretty concerning lacks of morality and even somewhat sadistic sides that he learned from Belos.

I'm just so upset cause I like the concept of Collector and his siblings a lot, but since the show was getting cancelled we lost our on a lot of possibilities.

Like many things the show has, the Collector is good in concept but the execution was lacking; we essentially have two different characters in Season 2 and 3 and people have been bending over backwards to justify or explain it.

The simplest answer I think is that the creators liked this character but did not want him to be a major antagonist so they stripped him of any cruelty or malice, shifted any wrongdoing onto other unseen characters, and butchered his characterization to the point that he doesn't even make any sense anymore.

I've seen a lot of people point to Belos as the main reason the Collector is so malicious in the previous season but for me this raises two problems: one, it relies on Belos once again being the cause of all things evil in the isles when that concept is already stale and boring and actually kneecaps your world building and characters because you have to rely on ONE character to actually drive the plot and everyone in it. Two, the Collector is implied to be thousands of years old (or at least older than 400), and yet I'm expected to believe that Belos was the one who had the greatest influence on him in all that time? If so, then the Collector should be trying to appease Belos all the time for the fear that he may go back on his word (because you know Belos would use that to keep him in line). Instead, the Collector openly mocks him and acts like the two are equals.

As you said, a better characterization for him would be a proper blend between the two versions we see; instead of scribbling over the Archivists' genocidal plans, have him be casual about it.

"Yeah, my siblings like to play this game where they set the world on fire but it's been done so many times before!"

Have him get a genuine kick out of people being hurt because his concept of morality is so different from our own and it is the kind that Belos reinforced instead of planted. And if you've had that mindset for eons, completely blind to the fact that you've been hurting innocent people, then that would be a difficult mindset to break out of.

Obviously, the show has zero time to get into all this so they decided to retcon his character and make him an 8 year old with god powers.

It's just another waste of what could have been a great antagonist.

[staycalmandhugaclone]

The Vacation (1/4)

I shared a sexy blurg the other day, but felt it really needed a bit of before and after, so here's how that vacation starts. This is a section from a much, much longer fic that may or may not be fully shared, but the important info is that Crosshair went off on his own after season 1, and the OC (Alya) used to be with Hunter, but after getting captured by the Empire, she was pretty messed up and couldn't stay with him, thus began traveling with Crosshair. By this time, they've been working together for about a year, purely platonic (they share a bed for nightmare reasons and because I like cuddles).

Pairing: Crosshair x Female Original Character (Alya)

WC: 5.4k

Summary: After a perilous mission, Crosshair surprises Alya with a vacation, and Alya surprises Crosshair with feelings.

Rating: Explicit 18+, language, vague references to negative experiences in past relationship (kinda?)

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI. So much smut, fingering, some overstimulation, a touch of self-deprecation . Reference to negative previous relationship, but it's pretty vague. Even a bit of aftercare. It's a smut chapter to start more smut chapters. Seriously.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I’d only just finished unpacking my supplies when I felt the ship rumble to life. The several weeks this job had granted us the use of an actual house had been… different. So many years had passed since that was a normal part of life. It was bittersweet to have had that again for such a short amount of time, but returning to the familiar rooms of the ship was its own comfort. The Event Horizon had become synonymous with home, and, despite the lingering desire to return to a life comforted by the routine of waking to the same atmosphere, the same view of sprawling hills or cozy neighborhoods, I knew none of it was worth trading the life I’d created here.

At the subtle lurch of entering hyperspace, I turned my attention down the hall toward the cockpit, just able to see a glimpse of pale hair around the headrest of the pilot’s chair. Last time we left before refueling, it was because I’d been recognized, forcing us to flee. The last job had been wrought with near disaster, but I didn’t think there was any threat of being reported, but the mere possibility set my heart racing.

“You… didn’t want to stock up first?” I felt the hesitation in my voice, testing his response before risking any theories.

“No.” He said nothing more, despite the several seconds of silence that followed.

“O..kay…” I muttered, studying him, searching for any hint of his motives. “Got us in lightspeed pretty quickly… Do you… already have a destination in mind, or”

“Yes.” He interrupted. Again, I waited, but his façade remained perfectly emotionless.

“Crosshair.” I finally grumbled, patience dwindling. Finally, the edges of his lips hinted at the beginnings of a smirk, and I let out a huff of breath. No danger – he was just toying with me. “Fine. Don’t tell me.” I stated indifferently and turned to leave the cockpit. His hand instantly darted back to catch my wrist, eyes rolling before nodding to the nav screen. My impatience instantly fled beneath the confusion.

“Alderaan?” The name left my lips in a question. “You found a job on Alderaan?” For the briefest moment, doubt touched those steadfast eyes and he turned back to the streams of passing stars dancing beyond the viewport, hand tightened briefly around my wrist before letting go.

“Figured we’d… ‘take some time’.” The way he said the words made me pause. Familiar. Why did… My lips parted in a silent gasp, heat flooding my chest. The planet of beauty. How many months – years – had passed since I’d asked him that – if he ever took time to enjoy the beauty of visiting foreign lands? “Unless you’ve had your fill of that planet. Just figured we hadn’t really stopped to… how did you put it? ‘Appreciate’ things like that.” I was silent a moment longer; stunned. “Or we’ll just”

“No-no!” I finally sputtered, lips pulling in a wide grin. “That… sounds perfect, Cross… Thank you.” I watched the back of his neck flush as he let out a small grunt. Forcing myself to ignore the flood of affection at the mere sight if it, I dropped lightly into the copilot’s seat, smile still plastered over my lips.

“I was only there for a few days – barely saw anything more than snow. Have you already chosen a place?” Knees tucking to my chest, I turned to find him watching me from the corner of his eyes, smirk once more just touching his lips.

“You could say that.” He nearly purred, and a quiet laughter escaped me.

“Mr Tough Guy vying for a vacation.” I teased, nose crinkling slightly.

“Figured we earned it after that.” He dismissed. My smile almost fell, but I forced it back. I wouldn’t let the memory of what had almost happened darken my excitement.

“How long were you thinking?” I asked, voice quieting slightly. He seemed to hesitate before answering.

“Figure we can leave if we get bored sooner, but… I booked a place for a month.” There was an uncertainty in his voice that I’d focus on soon, but… a month. He shifted slightly beneath my stare. “Never had more than a few days between missions,” He explained stiffly, “Thought I’d see what the fuss was about.” A month. No jobs, no fights. Just a month on Alderaan. With him. I thought my heart was going to tear through my chest.

“And what if it spoils you?” I asked coyly, a cheeky grin stretching across my lips. He cocked an eyebrow and glanced sideways at me. “What if you find you like that life so much, you never want to go back?”

“Then I’ll extend the rental.” He replied blankly, earning a fresh huff of laughter from me. I let myself lean back, gaze turning blindly to the blurs of hyperspace before me.

-

The breath caught in my throat as his hand crept up my side, fire seeping through my flesh in the wake of his lingering touch. I could taste the heat of him filling the air between us and let myself reach for him, fingers roaming up the sweeping planes of his tone chest, over the taut ridges of muscled shoulders, core igniting at the heat of bare skin pressing against mine. Letting one arm lock around my hips, holding me tightly against him, his other hand slid up my neck, clawing into my hair. I felt the eagerness of him, heard the tension in his faltering breaths as he strained for control; felt the paltry breadth of distance between us as I felt myself stretching up to find him, breath catching in a whimper as I breathed his name, and I burned beneath him. I needed to feel him against me; my hands on his chest, my legs around his hips.

Alya. My name on his lips. Alya, come on… open your eyes. His lips on

“Need to wake up.” My eyes flew open, chest trembling beneath rushed breaths, skin damp with sweat, and, when I saw him, when those weary golden eyes met mine in the darkness, I couldn’t help but gasp, shying further into the arm wrapped around my shoulder as though those few inches would erase the lingering heat from that dream. Instantly, he pulled away, straining to create some hint of distance between us.

“Just a nightmare, Alya.” He murmured, all weariness fleeing him. Lip caught between my teeth, I had to turn away, the memory of his touch still echoing over my skin, straining to force myself under control, to breathe. “Alya?” I couldn’t help but flinch, too eager to hear my name on his lips again… but the horror that stole over him left me floundering.

“Was it… was it about me?” He barely managed to whisper the words. I don’t think I’d ever seen that kind of raw hurt in his eyes before… not without a careful layer of anger, disinterest. No, this was just hurt. “I…” His lips shifted wordlessly, pulling even further from me, and my heart dropped.

“N- wait… wait.” I pleaded, letting myself turn into him. He didn’t move, body so impossibly still as he waited for me to touch him. I tried to speak, tried to form the words as my hands trembled in the miniscule space between us.

“It… was…” My fingers slipped over his jaw. “It was… about you.” I finally breathed, gaze locked on his as confusion settled over his face. My thumb trailed over the ridge of his cheekbone. “But it wasn’t a nightmare.” His frown deepened, struggling to make sense of my words, before his expression finally went blank. He didn’t move; didn’t speak, eyes burring into mine.

“Cross?” I felt so small suddenly, his name slipping from my lips in something too near a whimper, body trembling ever so faintly as I waited for some manner of response… some sign of what he was thinking.

Slowly, so impossibly slowly, his hands crept over mine, gaze never fleeing mine. Without a word, he leaned forward, and when his lips finally danced against mine I felt my heart lurch into my chest, fire tearing through me with such force, it wrenched a near silent sob of relief from my throat. So slowly, he kissed me, as though waiting for me to pull away, certain I’d refuse him if he but breathed too quickly, but I couldn’t think how to reassure him, body alight and stunned and desperate for every second of his touch.

His fingers slipped through mine, clutching my hands against him as his body swelled with a slow, deep breath, and I couldn’t silence the wisp of a moan from catching in my throat. As though that tiny sound had finally given him permission, he let himself reach for me, hands sliding up my arms, around my shoulders, tugging me closer to him. My fingers slipped through the soft velvet of his hair, lips parting as I begged him to kiss me deeper. Without hesitation, he slid his tongue against mine, wrenching another moan from me as that heat burst through my core.

I let my hands drag down his chest, savoring every shift of those powerful muscles as he pulled me closer, one arm looping beneath my head while his other locked around my back. My touch trailed lower, feeling the coiled muscles over his ribs seize with each stolen breath, fingers dancing against his spine as he slowly leaned over me, thrilled to find me all too eager to feel his weight press me into the mattress. Lower. I tugged impatiently at the bottom of his shirt, desperate for the heat of his skin against mine.

Panting, he pulled back, gazing at me drunkenly as his mouth worked silently over unspoken words for several seconds before letting his tongue dart over his lips. I felt myself reach for him, abs tensing to taste those lips once more, but forced myself to wait.

“Is this what you want?” He finally gasped. Jaw going taut as soon as the question escaped him. I could have sobbed from the warmth that shot through my chest. Nodding, I let myself lean up, lips locked into a smile as I kissed him. The air left him in something near a growl, movements growing almost frantic for the few seconds he let himself kiss me back before pressing his forehead to mine, forcing some whisper of air between us.

“Say it.” He nearly growled, pulling back enough to find my eyes once more. His hand reached up to brush over my cheek as I fought to remember how to speak, and I couldn’t help but melt into his touch.

“Yes.” I finally breathed. “Crosshair… yes… yes… I want this – I want you.” Instantly, his lips crashed against mine, tongue hot and desperate and torturous, forcing a whimper from me as I pulled once more at his shirt. That growl caught in his throat as he leaned back onto his knees just long enough to wrench his shirt over his head, launching it thoughtlessly across the room before he was on me again.

That split second I saw him, the way his muscles rippled from that simple, rushed movement left me writhing, legs shifting eagerly beneath him as a desperate moan caught in my throat, vanishing against his lips. My hands roamed greedily over his exposed skin, delighting in the scolding heat burning against me.

“Wanna see you.” He snarled, hand dragging down my side, pausing against my hip to let his thumb slip under my shirt. The fresh burst of desperation from his touch wrenched a fresh moan from me, and I had to remember how to nod; how to breathe.

“Please… fuck, Cross, please.” I gasped, hands clinging to him for a moment longer before reaching for my shirt, but he was already pulling at the buttons with an impatience I knew too well. Scowling, he glanced down for a mere heartbeat before wrenching it open, deaf to the clatter of metal scattering to the floor. And I couldn’t help but laugh, torso arching up against him, eagerly hunting his lips before letting my kiss trail down to his jaw as he focused on guiding my arms from the sleeve; his neck, savoring the feel of his pulse beneath my tongue, my teeth, body nearly caving from the low grown that rippled through his chest. He wrenched me against him, arms pulling me up to kneel before him as he wrestled with the fabric. A gasp tore through me from the flush of lust violently twisting and churning in me anew at the feel of his bare torso against mine.

Shirt abandoned to some nonexistent corner, he let his hands slide up my hips, my stomach and ribs, back around my shoulders until they tangled into my hair, forcing my lips back to his. I didn’t hesitate as he eased me back once more, body all too eager to obey his every hinted desire as he laid me down against the mattress. He didn’t wait before letting his lips roam, taking his time to press soft kisses against my cheek, my forehead, hands cradling my jaw, lips following down my hair line. I nearly cried out as his teeth snapped so carefully at the soft skin just beneath my ear, desperation growing, hands clawing at his back as shuttered breaths caught between my teeth.

“Tell me you want this.” He ordered again, voice almost hoarse. A moan sobbed from me as his tongue dragged against my throat before he sucked the skin gently between his teeth.

“I want this.” I whimpered. “Fuck, I want you, Cross… Please… ple” His hips ground against me, wrenching the air from my lungs in a desperate cry, arms locking around his shoulders as my back arched into him. Again, his teeth snapped at me, harder, nearly breaking me as every gasp left in a whimper, begging for him. I wanted to sob when his mouth abandoned my neck, kissing down my chest as his hands encircled my waist.

“Fu- ah… Cross…” The heat of his mouth hovered over my nipple, just letting his heavy breaths wash over it as he looked up at me, my arms locked around his head. His lips only just twitched up in a smirk as his tongue finally slid against that eager flesh, ruining me as I trapped him against my chest, head slamming back into the mattress, as my back arched, heels dragging absently atop the sheets. The instant I felt his hands shift to ease the fabric from my waist, I eager raised my hips to help him.

“Good girl.” He murmured against me, eyes dark as they took in how easily I came undone beneath his touch, tongue returning to torture my breast for just a moment longer before shifting to taste my ribs, my stomach as he pulled the shorts down my hips, my thighs, revealing just how desperate I was for him. He left one more kiss along the crest of my hip before pulling away. He dropped my shorts thoughtless as he stepped back, eyes devouring my exposed form.

Jaw parted, torso rocking with desperate breaths, I could only stare at him. Even in the dark, the play of muscles beneath lightly marred skin as he stood over me left me throbbing, begging for him to touch me as I looked up into the rich honey of his eyes to find him staring right back at me.

“So fucking beautiful.” The words sighed almost silently from him. Still, it washed over me like silk and, when his hand finally reached for me, when that feather-light touch finally whispered over my hip, up my stomach, fingers sliding between my breasts, up my throat; my jaw; when he held me like that, like I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen, it left me breathless. His thumb brushed against my lower lip like I was made of glass, half-lidded eyes studying my every movement, jaw tensing in anticipation as I opened my mouth, shifting just enough to hide the tip behind my lips, tongue sliding against his skin. His teeth snapped together, air fleeing him in a sharp, muffled groan.

I let my fingers whisper around his wrist, holding him against me as I slowly pushed myself up, slipping from the mattress to stand just in front of him as I sucked his thumb deeper into my mouth, eyes never leaving his. Scowl twitching over his lips, he slid his hands into my hair, drawing my lips back to his. I welcomed the kiss; needed it as though it were the only thing keeping my heart beating, savoring his taste even as my hands slid down the dancing muscles of his stomach before grasping at his pants. His kiss didn’t waver as I tugged at the fabric, effortlessly releasing the clasp with one hand, the other already pushing the fabric from his hips.

The growl that tore through his chest when I first touched him sent an inferno raging through every fiber of my being; burning, desperate. Wrist twisting slightly, I wrapped my hand around him, let my fingers treasure the heat of velvet skin around the throbbing length, memorizing that look on his face, head craning back as he merely allowed himself to become a slave to the sensations, expression twisted into something so near pain, hands clutching onto me; my hair; my shoulder, chest jolting beneath broken gasps.

The need in his eyes when he finally looked back at me left my knees weak. That growl still rumbling from his chest, he threw himself back at my lips, pushing me back until I collapsed against the bed once more, releasing him in that split second of falling. Before I could think to reach for him again, his fingers slid up my thigh, and nothing existed beyond that touch. His mouth slid back against my throat. He slowed just before he reached me, wrenching a desperate whimper from my lips.

“Please… Cross-Crosshair, please,” I begged, one hand locked around his shoulder while the other clawed through his hair. I could feel the smile on his lips as he finally touched me. A violent, desperate moan tore from my throat, mind vanishing beyond the gentle movement of those fingers as he toyed with me, sliding just between my lips. Slowly dragging over that impossibly sensitive mound before continuing along the throbbing flesh, skin already slick with my need as he worked his way back up to rub gently against my clit.

“Look at me.” He growled, movements never slowing. Body nearly shivering beneath his touch, I forced myself to open my eyes, to search for him. As soon as I found those eyes, saw the hunger in them, the lust, he slipped a finger inside me, and I sobbed beneath the violent wave of relief and need and pleasure that rippled up my core, gooseflesh dancing across my skin. I couldn’t help but writhe against him, thighs locking around his wrist even as every muscle begged for more. He toyed with me for mere seconds before slipping another finger in, and I collapsed to the mattress, pleasure bursting through me in waves.

“Look at me.” He ordered again, emphasizing it with a flick of his thumb over my clit and wrenching a sharp cry from me. Again, I forced my eyes open, instantly finding him. He began pumping into me, thumb continuing to work over that wretched bundle of nerves, sending a delicious need through me.

“Good.” He praised as I struggled to keep my gaze locked on him. Faster.

“Crosshair.” I whimpered, body growing violently desperate, nerves beginning to panic.

“You know how fucking good my name sounds on your lips?” He snarled, forcing himself even faster. My feet scraped against the mattress, back arching, coiled, pressure locking my muscles.

“Cro-Crosshair, I can’t… I… fuck, I can’t,” Words, whimpers, pleas gasped from me, “Cro-Crosshair!” His name screamed from my lips as that tension finally boiled over, rippling up my body in ecstasy even as I strained to escape him. His mouth locked over mine, devouring my whimpers as I seized against him; against the now gentle, slow thrusting of his hand, each careful movement just enough to reignite that mind-consuming dance of fire beneath my skin, until I was trembling, gasping against him, and he finally stilled.

“Do you still want this?” He asked, face hidden against my neck. Wrong. Something about how he asked felt wrong. Limbs still shaking, I reached for him, hands sliding over his cheeks to ease his gaze back to mine.

“You.” I corrected before even realizing what that wrongness was. “I want you.” Something in him seemed to quiet, and there was something so perfectly right about it. “I want you, Crosshair.” Without giving him a change to respond, I pulled him back against me, moaning eagerly at his taste. I leaned back, easing him down with me. He didn’t hesitate, hand slipping from between my legs as he rolled overtop of me.

I felt the dew of sweat beading against his chest, felt the incredible care governing his every movement as my thighs tightened eagerly around his hips. And, when he finally touched me, head just brushing against me, my back arched with a fresh whimper, hands almost clawing at him as my hips tilted desperately to meet him.

“Please,” I whispered between kisses, “Please, Crosshair,” words tangling between gasped breaths, “fuck, I need you… please.” He pulled back enough to look in my eyes, to see the raw truth in my words, and he slowly pushed into me. My jaw fell open in a gasp, that burst of nerves again rippling through every inch of my body. My teeth clicked together against a twinge of pain, flesh stretching around him, and he froze.

“Alya?” The worry in his voice, how gently he called me… I wasn’t expecting that, heart bursting as I looked up at him, emotions roiling from the ecstasy still coursing through my veins, I couldn’t but stare, tears burning as they pooled in my eyes. Something like horror crossed his face and he started to pull back, sending a surge of panic through me.

“Wait!” I gasped, hands darting to his jaw, fingers whispering over his cheeks. “It’s alright… I’m alright.” I promised, a soft smile pulling at my lips. “It’s alright.” I whispered again, already desperate to taste him once more. “Cross,” I breathed against his lips, “Crosshair, don’t stop.” I sighed, begging him to kiss me. Muscles seizing, he lost himself in my lips, hesitating only until another moaned “please” escaped me before pushing against me once more. My body shook with a violent gasp, nerves alighting from the perfect fullness.

Panting, he hid against my neck, clinging to me in his desperate attempt to maintain some degree of restraint as he slowly pulled out before burying himself even deeper inside me, movements slow, precise. Still, my back arched into him, whimper choking in my throat, hand burying itself in his hair. Again, he paused, face nuzzling against me, lips kissing absently against that sensitive skin.

“Please,” I sobbed, “Cross, please don’t stop… don’t stop…” His chest bucked and his lips found mine, only whispering against me.

“Don’t want to hurt you.” He breathed, hiding from the very threat of the words as he kissed me with a tenderness that left me reeling. Thumb brushing along his cheekbone, I tried to guide his gaze to mine, but, brows knit together, he turned purposefully away, jaw taut.

“Hey.” I whispered, taking the opportunity to lay my lips against his forehead, his cheeks, his lips until he finally looked at me. “I’m alright.” I promised once more. “I’ll tell you if I need you to stop.” My thumb trailed over his lips. “So please… Crosshair, please… I want you.” I started to kiss him again but held myself back.

“Don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you ask for it.” He murmured, and I couldn’t help but beam at him. Movements still slow, controlled, he pulled out again, eyes once more studying me before pushing back into me. Gasping, I let my head sink against his neck. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, holding me against him as he fell into a tantalizingly slow rhythm, each thrust getting slightly deeper. Deeper. I could feel the nerves panicking. My hand locked around his hip terrified he’d stop even as I found myself terrified that he’d keep going; that he’d tear right through me.

“F… f-fuck…” I whimpered, spine arching into him. A grunt caught in his throat, and I felt that control finally begin to slip, getting just that much faster. My other hand darted to the sheets, fingers clinging to the soft fabric, hips rocking up to meet him even as that fear told me to run, that I couldn’t handle it; that it was too much, but that fear only made the promise of pleasure so much more potent. His hand found mine, untangling my fingers from the sheets to twine them through his own before locking my hand above my head.

“Cross!” His name tore from me in a gasp as he ground just that much deeper, thighs locking around his hips.

“Fuck, Alya… Keep saying my name.” He growled, hand tightening almost painfully around mine. My nails dug into his waist, nerves coiling, tightening from his every thrust.

“C-Crosshair, don’t… don’t stop,” I gasped. “Please… please don’t s…” I whimpered. Tighter. “Cross, I c- I can’t…” Sensing the panic seething through frantic nerves, he suddenly doubled his pace, each thrust sending bursts of fire up my spine, hips finally slamming fully into mine as he forced the entirety of his length into me. Abandoning his waist, my arm darted around his shoulder, desperate for something solid as my body seized on the verge of shattering beneath him, every gasp leaving in a rabid cry. Tighter. I was going to break.

“Cross, I can’t, I-fuck, fuck!” I sobbed. A violent cry erupted from me as I finally snapped, arms going numb, fingertips tingling as that wave of fire poured through me. Abandoning my hand, he gripped my hip with enough force to leave bruises, movements growing desperate as he rocked me even harder against him. My chest slammed into him, back arching violently, body panicking beneath screaming nerves even as my arms locked him against me begging for more. His movements grew desperate, face tucked into my neck as something like a whimper of his own caught in his throat. My hands clawed through his hair, every thrust forcing a fresh cry from my lips; too much. Too much. Nearly sobbing, I cried his name, begging for something I couldn’t name.

With a sharp, almost pained gasp, he wrenched himself out of me, body seizing for a few seconds longer before going still beyond the unsteady, shuttered gasps. Chest bucking beneath lungs starving for some taste of air, I could only hide beneath him, arms still clinging to his shoulders as my muscles tried to remember how to loosen. Hand slowly shifting from my hip, he pushed himself up onto his elbow, just lessening the weight of him against me. With only the sound of uneven breaths filling the room, he touched his cheek to mine, pausing a moment before he pressed his lips to the sensitive skin just beneath my ear, shifting almost lazily along my jaw, up my cheeks, delicately touching both of my eyelids, my forehead, before finally claiming my lips once more.

Even through the exhaustion weighing down on me, I lit up beneath that touch, hands eagerly reaching to cup his cheeks, fingers just whispering into his hair before sliding down his jaw as though that might keep him against me for just a moment longer before he finally pulled back, forehead resting gently against mine.

“Are you alright?” He breathed, refusing to look at me once more.

“Mhm.” I hummed absently with a weak nod, wanting nothing more than to sink into the mattress, hidden against his warmth, but that wasn’t enough. He slid his arm from behind my head and carefully caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting my gaze to his.

“Are you alright?” He asked again, and again I found myself smiling, fingers absently roaming over the sharp planes of his face for the sheer joy of touch.

“I’m fine, Cross.” I whispered, a small chuckle catching in my throat. His thumb shifted to wipe at the line of tears that had fallen from my eyes, and my grin grew. Without another word, I leaned up to steal just one more kiss before letting myself slip boneless to the mattress. When I looked back up at him, my heart skipped at the sight of that tiny smile on his lips. With a sigh, he settled beside me, arms absently pulling me to his chest as he buried his face in my hair. Warm. Safe. Like nothing else could possibly matter. Bliss. I felt bliss as I laid against him.

“We should clean up.” He sighed against my scalp, and I couldn’t help but pout slightly. The instant I heard that quiet chuckle ripple through his chest, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do to hear him laugh forever. “Come on.” He pressed, propping himself up on an elbow once more. “Think you can stand?” I pretended to debate it a moment before peaking at that still smirking face, and unable to fight back the grin, shook my head. He let out a forced sigh and slipped out from under me.

"Suit yourself." He called over his shoulder, started toward the door.

“Hey!” I tried to shout, but the effect was lost in the laughter I couldn’t quite bite back. Before I’d begun to push myself up, however, his arms slipped beneath me, hoisting me to his chest. That laughter escaped me anew, hands eagerly sliding around his shoulders and neck as he carried me through the ship. I scattered kisses absently over his neck and cheek as he walked, occasionally catching another taste of his lips until we finally stood in the shower.

Arm tightening around my shoulders, he gently set my legs down. I held my own weight for barely a second before my knees tried to cave. Instantly, he wrenched me against his chest, hesitating at the lingering giggle as I tried to convince the muscles to work. He let out a quiet scoff, lips resting briefly against my hair before letting me stand on my own as he turned on the water.

Neither of us said a word as the hot water washed over us. Twice, he lost himself against me, arms eagerly holding my bare form flush against him as he tasted my lips, and I readily gave in each time, nearly willing to take him once more despite the lingering ache, but he merely kissed me before turning back to guiding soap over my body. I kissed him as I worked his shampoo into a lather, hands incapable of leaving his body for more than a few seconds before searching for him again.

“Need to swap the sheets.” He mumbled against my lips as the water stopped. I hummed absently, sinking back into his touch thoughtless. That chuckle rumbled through his chest, and I felt the tremble it sent shooting down my spine. “Finish up. Then you can join me.” He added with a final kiss. I briefly tried to follow him but paused. Reluctantly, I spent a few more needed minutes in the privy before allowing myself to retreat back to his warmth.

The room appeared as though nothing had happened, but, if I looked for it, I could still catch the feral scent. Shooting him a shy grin, I slipped beneath the covers, perfectly aware that he’d stared at my exposed body the entire time. Warm. Instantly, I sank back into that perfect bliss as he pulled me to his chest. Heart flooding with affection, I nuzzled gently against him before settling in to sleep.

Click here or message me if you'd like to be added to a taglist!

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[ungrateful-cyborg-moved]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags

Basic rules: choose 10 fandoms that you are part of/support, and choose a favorite character from each of those. Then, tag ten folks!

Tagged by: @miqojak! Ty! It didn't even take me half a year to get around it this time XD

In no particular order, except for the first one ever since I'm 16. Also finding 10 fandoms is kinda hard because I'm def not that active, or even a passive participant, in so many fandoms so you'll get a glimpse of my younger self instead :'D

And long post ahead so thank you in advance if you've taken the time to go through this list!

Kanon, from Saint Seiya

Look, this is the blorbo and if you see similarities between his backstory and Kazan's, no you don't. Mentioning either him or the manga is enough to get my friends to sigh and groan as they await the inevitable gushing/rant that'll follow (which reminds me that I haven't, actually, gushed about him or ranted about the manga in quite a while now). Which is to say, I love lonely sad villains/antiheroes and if you've ever seen me mentioning the forbidden blorbo, now you know who I'm talking about.

Emet-Selch, from FFXIV

At this point I feel like I should mention that I do not stand in favor of manipulating or killing people as a form of therapy :'D

A bit more seriously though, I think he's the first character I felt so viscerally about in the game? Like I never agreed with his views but going through ShB I really hoped we'd managed to bring him to our side. My tragedy-loving ass won't complain about how ShB ended for him, mind you, but still.

Honorable mention for Thancred too, whom I feel more and more attached to as times passes, and also Y'shtola but in her case it's perhaps more the fact that she's, in terms of behavior, very much My Type.

Madi, from Black Sails

There are many great characters in that TV show and if you haven't seen it, I can only recommend it to you. But really, Madi is my favourite of the lot and definitely the inspiration for Inge if I had to pick one.

Between her cleverness, her dignity, her integrity, her charisma, her dedication to her people and her cause and her curiosity about others, what's not to love about her?

Varric Tethras, from Dragon Age 2 / DA:I

I was hesitating between Isabela and Cullen, but then I remembered the Best Companion Ever and how could I not put Hawke's most loyal friend on the list? I love him, love his loyalty, how he stays compassionate despite all he goes through, his sense of humor, his honesty... Only wish we could have romanced him in DA:I, but on the other end I like his story with Bianca so I'm not too sad about not being able to.

Byakuya Kuchiki, from Bleach

In the spirit of this dash game I'll respect the rules and make a choice, but if I'd filled this list any other day, I might have put Grimmjow there instead :'D

Anyway. I love a stubborn man with a stick up his ass and too many (conflicting) principles despite a rebellious heart who needs to be almost killed to start thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, he could have handle a Situation better.

And I love this character development past that point.

He wasn't an inspiration for Wolfe, but they're very much alike in several aspect. Byakuya is, however, a lot better at keeping a straight face.

Lois Habiba, from Torchwood S3

I haven't watched Torchwood in a long time but I remember her. In fact I remember Lois better than I remember some of the main cast.

She was just a normal young woman who had managed to get a really good job and risked everything to do the right thing and idk. She was just a really solid character that deserved better recognition.

Dean Winchester. Do I need to say from where?

Look, I loved all five seasons of Supernatural. A shame they didn't add more later!

And with Dean it's a bit personal so I'm not gonna go deep in details about it, but let's just say that there's quite a bit of me that I recognized in him and I just want to give that man a hug.

Donna Noble, from Doctor Who

I'm not up to date with the new seasons/episodes so no spoilers please!

But hm, yeah. I think what I loved the most about how Russel T. Davies was directing the show was how real his everyday people turned companion felt, and while I preferred Rose when I was younger, the older I get, the more appreciation I have for Donna.

She's just so full of life and character, so brave and so unapologetic about being herself despite her self-esteem issues, but I think what I love above all else about her is how she always acted as an equal to the Doctor.

I'm gonna repeat myself but really, the older I get, the more I love her. And I really need to catch up :'D

Cain Hargreaves, from the Cain saga

Honestly I don't expect anyone to remember this manga XD It's an old one I read when I was a teenager and one of the few I kept despite not having re-read it in 10+ years. I don't remember that much from it but I do remember the ending quite well.

Anyways. Cain's a young earl with a tragic past, a strong sense of justice, more money than common sense, a love for poisons and a fear of commitment. Truly, what could go wrong with such a character?

Also:

"Have I ever failed a promise to you? - Yes, all the time." after his sister made him swear he'd come back to her alive is just perfect.

Spike, from BtVS

He's devoted, he's cruel, he's romantic, he's brave, he's pathetic, he's capable of taking responsibility for his actions... I love a multifaceted character and I've had a soft spot for Spike ever since I've watched the series for the first time.

I rewatched it not too long ago and it didn't age that well imo, or maybe I'm just more critical than I used to be, but I still think Spike is an awesome character and I love that it was in spite of Whedon's intentions for him.

---

And I believe that brings me at 10 characters for 10 fandoms! It strangely feels more like undressing in front of strangers than actually undressing in front of strangers :'D So obviously I'm gonna tag a few people to do it too:

@under-the-blood-moonlight @merlwybs-wife @voidtekarc @alannah-corvaine @ashenbun @zhauric @biff-adventurer @tea-and-conspiracy and @confusedtia! And frankly anyone else who wants to!

[bourbon-ontherocks]

… il était bizarre ce chapitre de PQENCEL… (as far as I’m concerned the newbie’s full name is timothée daniel paul guichard, now. also I think he has grounds to get morgane fired for sexual harassment) but jarring similarities aside, I barely have anything to say about 303, tbh? it was ok. the blorbos didn’t break me this time, I won’t need 5-10 business days to recover 😅 the most emotion I felt was when gilles expressed his hurt, moh 🥲 though roxane clearly was the star of the show this time (and I’m glad it inspired you fic-wise, hehe). I wonder when she’s gonna pull the "your colleague kissed you and you forgot to mention it?" card 😏 by the way… anyone else felt something in the air when she saved morgane’s life? no? just me? 👀

star #2 was SOFIANE 💓😍💖💘🥰 our prayers have been answered!!!!! 🫶 he managed to be snarky in a total of 2 lines. hope he comes back for much more! glad they brought bonnemain back too 😄 in a way the cast-related excitement made up for the lukewarm plot. speaking of, what’s more unlikely: a teenager channeling early 00’s energy by choosing "bledigirl" for a stage name, or the fact she didn’t figure out "princesse" was autobiographical because the name of her cousin is literally the title of the song? je veux bien qu’elle ait pas la réf à un film des années 1970 mais le coup du prénom, quoi 😭

gotta say I loved the beard running gag, lol. there’s something terribly wrong with le commandant’s face, mais quoi… 😂 (+ it has a tiny backstory! unexpected) love daphné’s inability to hide her digust. as well as her willingness to lend her new responsibilities to morgane’s scheming. AND (she was so good in this ep) "on peut mieux faire" re: women murderers… daph, never change 🤣💛 she must be so proud of their own statistics!

surprised adam was the one saying the episode title this time. ushering in a new trend, perhaps? it was entertaining to see him bear with morgane’s passive-agressivity. (now that I think about it, the tension throughout this ep probs felt surface-level because we didn’t get a glimpse into the characters’ feelings… et qu’est-ce qu’un chapitre de PQENCEL sans débrief ?) did like the phone cord thread; look at morgane letting him back into her life by stealing his charger! oui j’ai décidé que c’était symbolique. 😂 thank you for your patience and see you on thursday! 👻❣️

Oh my gosh, anon!! So let me just start by saying that I felt TOUT PAREIL the first time I watched that ep! It was even one of my least faves ever. But full disclaimer: this episode grew on me A LOT through the rewatches.

And the more I've thought about it, the more I believe that this ep isn't odd in itself, but it definitely feels so when lined up with the previous two. There's a real and quite unexplained tone shift here, which I think is tied with the whole comedy/dramedy switch and the fact that eps 1 and 2 were shot in July so probs still in the spirit of season 2 (due to the early shooting date, we can assume they were written at the same time as late S2 eps, and the writing of the rest of S3 probs resumed a couple of months later) while ep 3 inaugurates a darker mood for the season. Now let's dive into the specifics.

I wasn't joking when I said that Parce qu'entre nous predicted the season. Targeted home attack? Subsequent police protection? Banging the said protection barely two nights in? I SCREAMED (although while I'm all for Morgane getting some good time this season bc she clearly deserved it, couldn't they at least give her somebody enticing to look at? My guy Paul/Daniel/whatever his name emotes like wet bread. Ew.)(also yeah, I'm kinda bummed with the obvious lack of consent here, not in itself since it narratively and character-wise makes sense, but in the fact that the whole thing is filmed under a ~comedy angle while it would have been completely inappropriate to do so had the genders been reversed. Something something equality works both ways you know? Yikes)

Gilles expressing his hurt and preaching for forgiving to the people who hurt you has to be one of my favourite scenes in the ep and the season (don't get me started on it because I'll start to tear up and word-vomit a non-coherent rant), but I'm surprised it was the most emotion you got from ep 3? I'll get back to the other emotional scenes that I found worth noticing later though, otherwise this post is gonna be all over the place. So Gilles. GILLES, my baby, my love. The thing is, I love Morgane, but she tends to be extremely toxic to everyone around her, she uses people, she doesn't apologize, she ghosts them, she doesn't care about their feelings. And the fact that someone gets to tell her exactly that, that she HURTS people, the people who actually love her and care about her enough to get her out of jail, and the fact that of all people it's Gilles who gets to tell her that, well it made my heart swell. Because Gilles is the nicest person who has ever lived and that makes his speech way more impactful than if it had been Céline's or Adam's.

Also his words are literally the reason why Morgane finally reopens the door to Adam a little at the end of the episode, but again, I'll get to that later.

Let me just tell you that I absolutely love Roxane's arc this season and the way she no longer takes bullshit from anyone. I personally don't think that she bought Morgane's lies on who kissed who, and I do believe she already knows it was entirely Adam's initiative, although that's a personal headcanon of course. Not sure I felt any vibe between her and Morgane though but you know, I can get onboard that train pretty easily!

Now as for Sofiane, I must say I was glad he's back, and true he manages to be snarky in two lines, but my problem is that he ONLY got two lines?? Like... What was the point of calling him back just for this???? 😭 I need moar. Also Bonnemain wasn't gone, he was here in 301 if I remember correctly?

The implausible parts of the case didn't particularly hit me but also I haven't been a teenager in a looooong time now, so I didn't exactly notice the vintage vibes of bledigirl although it's quite obvious now that you pointed it out (I'm having skyblogs war flashbacks now, thank you very much 😂). And as for Sarah's name I'm not sure to see where you're heading at? Cause if it's Princess Sarah then I wouldn't have had the ref either (while I did get the Peau d'Âne one lol), but again, my teenage years are far ago.

Now Daphné. I juste LOVE how we get to see more of her in the season (not saying more but... yea) and the unexpected development of having her as the new workplace discrimination referee was a GENIUS move. The "on peut mieux faire" line has to be one of my absolute faves in the ENTIRE show (je crois qu'elle a même détrôné "excusez-moi de m'intéresser" c'est dire), and her reaction to Adam's glabre face was priceless (as was the whole shaved-his-beard thread, at least we got a consolation prize for losing beardie 🥲).

I actually never noticed that it was Morgane who'd usually say out loud the eps titles? Wasn't it Bonnemain who said Phyllobates Terribilis? Or Gilles who said 55 kilos first? To me the titles always refer to one of the clues that get Morgane to solve the puzzle but it never occurred to me she was the one saying them haha.

Mais bon en vrai on s'en fout parce que c'était juste pour introduire la partie sur Adam et... Okay.

"the tension throughout this ep probs felt surface-level because we didn’t get a glimpse into the characters’ feelings"

So this is exactly the part that grew on me with subsequent rewatches. I guess I was perhaps expecting too much, or was too used to writing myself what was happening in the blorbos' heads, to really get into what happens here on my first watch. But there's actually so much going on, blorbos-wise it is now one of my fave eps in the season!! (There's also some mildly annoying borderline ooc stuff happening but I'll get to that). Morgane is hurting so badly in this episode it's honestly heart-wrenching.

Obviously she's not going to show it eagerly, but it's visible at first in the way she flinches when Théa asks her if she's ready to work with Adam again (which also makes me wonder how much exactly Théa knows about what happened but that's a topic for another day). Then she goes full-on passive-aggressive mode with Adam, which says a lot, it all culminates in the cringiest song ever (I pasted the full lyrics in the end if you're curious), and then Adam does what??

He confronts her! Il essaye de communiquer !! Il veut crever l'abcès 🥹 And she cannot say it. She's the one who always comes up with angry punchlines but right now she's hurting so much she doesn't even have it in her to SAY IT 😭😭😭 and storms out instead. cue my first death in this episode.

BUT. She might be hurting and angry, she'll still lie to Roxane to protect his relationship. While she could very understandably retaliate by tanking it. 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 Cue my second death, obviously.

Now we're getting to the part I honestly didn't like so much, because Morgane just got out of prison, and then she escapes a murder attempt, and nobody gives a shit about it? They can be mad at her all they want, and Adam can be shocked to find Roxane at Morgane's place, what happened to "je tiens à vous" huh? I didn't write "j'ai droit à un câlin à chaque fois que je frôle la mort ?" for nothing, and also I need to check that bingo box, thank you very much 😠😭 So I get that Adam is in the quite delicate situation of "oh shit, looks like wifey and mistress are hanging out behind my back", mais franchement ça lui arracherait une molaire de demander à Morgane comment elle va ?

Biggest OOC move from him as far as I'm concerned. 🔪🔪🔪

Now...

Actually wait no, I'm still angry, give me a minute.

...

Where was I? The show sort of made up for it after that because Adam being in charge of her protection!! While he's mad at her because he's thinking she ratted him out to Roxane!! And she's mad at him because, well, you know!! She physically cannot stand to be in the same room as he is and they are forced to hang out?? And he gets it? And he tries to talk to her but then the pressure explodes? And she FINALLY says it out loud? And exposes her feelings in a clearer way than she's ever done before? Because what else putting Adam at the same level as [redacted] means but "I was in love with you too"???? Cue my third and final death right here.

And finally, for me the phone charger thread as a symbol is not a theory, it's a fact! The way they insisted on how she refuses to use it at first to not owe him anything, for her to eventually steal it after Gilles' speech about forgiveness is pretty transparent, and so is her final joke about his beard. And the way she delivers this final line? This was absolutely not what she intended to tell him. She just didn't master the courage to say out loud "I forgive you", so she settled for something much safer but the meaning remains. Cue my undefined stare at the ceiling 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Honorable mentions to:

Jérôme's burnout? How? When? I need answers 😂

Céline yelling TIMOTHÉE ?! in the precinct

The cats

THE ELEVATOR STARE 😱😱😱😱😱😱 I didn't include it to the blorbos' emotional journey because it wasn't painful but my! God! the! absolute! tension! here!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Cue my actual death

And the lyrics to Morgane's song if anyone's interested:

C'est l'histoire d'un amant Qui s'est pris pour un Don Juan T'as cru qu'il était ti-gen Parce que le gars mettait ses gants Il t'a fait nan-nan-nan Chérie tu te méprends

C'est l'histoire d'un condé Qu'a voulu jouer les BG Il s'est pris pour Superman Mais il bouffe trop de kouign amann J'ai fait miam miam miam Par ici le croque-madame

J'fais monter la mayo (x3) Pour le poulet... (suite incompréhensible)

T'as cru qu'il était gentil Parce qu'il portait un képi Mais c'était que du mépris Il t'a tej comme un débris

[ladyluscinia]

Idk if it's just a coincidence, but all of the sudden I keep seeing those "Izzy stans are so obsessed with this random white guy that they ignore or flatten every other character (especially poc)" takes all over and it's annoying me so much. So:

First, I'm going to link bromelads most recent attempt to get some actually constructive dialogue going about fandom racism because it has a whole section on this point. Technically two sections if you count the linked drive file as separate.

And then I'm going to ask all my fellow Izzy Hands lovers to add on to this post their favorite deep thoughts / burning questions / fun headcanons / etc. about your favorite non-Izzy characters. I know you all have a bunch of them. Bonus points for other side characters instead of Edward or Stede.

I'll start.

---

So I'm fascinated by the glimpses we get of pirate culture / the Queen Anne / the general environment that Edward is coming from and still half enmeshed in because I personally find the narrative push and pull there a lot more interesting than the whole running from one world to another that Stede (and to a lesser extent his crew) has going on. Which naturally leads to me finding Fang and Ivan so fucking interesting.

(Mandatory moment of sadness that Ivan won't be in season 2, because I was really hoping to see where his story was going 😭)

Not sure if I can really hypothesize many "hidden" depths to Fang because the show openly hit a pretty wide range. He cries over his dog and nude models for Lucius, but also skins a man with a snail fork and seems shockingly chill about Edward making an abrupt 180 to "maroon all your new friends to die". He's an obedient henchman in 1x02 and 1x04, but he also takes basically no prompting to go for the jugular on humiliating gossip the moment Edward seems disinclined to enforce Izzy's authority. The man contains multitudes already, minimal sleuthing required.

I am really looking forward to how S2 addresses his loyalty to Edward over the crew. Like at the end of 1x10 Fang and Ivan don't even really look that conflicted??? They were buddy buddy with these guys yesterday - moreso Fang than Ivan - but also seemed fully aware that Blackbeard could decide he was done playing around at any moment and then he did. Whoo boy. I mean, one genre of fic I'm usually not interested in is "Lucius in the walls" fic (I know he's alive, I just don't really care for that approach), but I will make an exception if it really explores Fang specifically hiding him because that's a big thing given he is openly afraid of defying Edward.

Like... Fang is a pretty friendly dude, and I can't imagine someone to fool around with was that impossible to find on Blackbeard's leatherman express. So it's really cool that despite very much not being, like, his true love or whatever, Lucius is apparently offering Fang something novel on the acceptance and connection front but maybe not something that wildly diverges from what he's had before. And I do think it's interesting to rotate how that tension could be playing out in his mind. He's got to be used to the whole flow of making and losing connections - that's just pirate life, nbd - except this time it's supposed to just be whatever, only... it's not? He actually misses Lucius and those other fun guys??? Maybe even enough to stand up to Edward over it?!

And Ivan! Man, Ivan has all kinds of potential stuff going on that I feel like people could talk about. I would probably talk about it more, only with the news he won't be in S2 it always makes me wonder how they are going to get rid of him and what that's going to imply about him (which might be contradictory to what they were intending). Which makes me sad.

Probably the biggest thing is like... I don't think Ivan actually likes Stede or the Revenge crew much? I mean on a personal level. Like, his only real friendship bond appears to be Fang, he's not noticeably trying to make new ones, and he's kinda fed up with Stede's people a few times? I'm thinking of rooting to kill them after 1x02, and scoffing at them during the raid in 1x05. And to me this is a really cool trait. I love it when "good" side characters have independent personalities enough to find the protagonist mildly annoying or something, instead of every single one of them perfectly correlating "good person" and "protagonist's friend". It prevents protagonist POV from becoming tunnel vision and accidentally making them seem like the center of the universe. (This is part of why the spn fandom loves Kevin.)

Not liking Stede isn't a character flaw, you know? And if you analyze Ivan's POV with just kinda not being impressed with these guys as an option, that leads to some really interesting places. Because in 1x06 he's actively encouraging Edward to just kill Stede like he said he would, not just following Izzy's lead, and then in 1x07 and 1x08 Ivan and Fang disappear. They don't show up again until Izzy does, but they also aren't seen leaving with Izzy or showing up in scenes like Jackie's bar like you would expect if they were just his loyal henchmen or whatever. So what are they doing in that gap???

I've said before that the adventures of Fang and Ivan is a completely wild story squeezed into the background and gaps of this show with two fascinatingly insane guys at the center of it, and I still think that's true. Fang goes right into becoming besties with the crew while still definitely thinking Edward is going to have him murder all of them in a few weeks. Ivan watches Izzy get banished, sleeps on it, and then fucking bounces with his buddy to go meet up with him... And then they praise Edward's punch and mutiny Izzy later! It's fun to think about!

...but I suppose my interest in Fang and Ivan does connect back up with my Izzyposting fairly often (since I like analyzing how characters interact and relate, and these two interact with Izzy), so how about another character?

Oluwande.

Now obviously the well trodden path here is TealOranges thoughts and feels. Plenty of drama, development, struggles, etc. But actually what I most want to know about Oluwande is how he and Spanish Jackie know each other???

Like what was up with that??? 👀👀👀

Their interaction gives off sorta inner circle vibes to me. Jackie clearly suspects / knows he betrayed her, but she calls him over to chat like old friends and Oluwande is expected to play along to act normal. So like... Was that normal? Did he regularly sit at Jackie's table and chat about life with her? Jackie does not have the time of day for her own husbands' problems most of the time - she seems to reprimand Geraldo for expecting more attention than the others - but immediately asking after Oluwande's life doesn't ping "oh she's definitely onto us" for him???

I don't think he's a husband (feels like it would have been addressed) and them being related seems unlikely. He's got a good head on his shoulders but he's clearly not some notorious pirate or outlaw of great skill. Like Oluwande is just some guy! But also some guy that Jackie was personally invested in!

And then bringing Jim into this... So Oluwande is just some guy in Jackie's inner circle, finds out the new barmaid is out to kill Jackie's favorite husband, and just helps them out??? My dude??? He doesn't even get whirlwind romance privileges. He did all that for a mysterious yet compelling stranger and no shit is this man crazy enough for the Revenge.

My headcanon re: the murder is that Alfeo was universally loathed and literally only Jackie and his gang liked him. So when people (and let's be honest Jim is not the most subtle of assassins so probably more than just Oluwande) realized someone was legit after him, they pretty much shrugged and sent them good thoughts. Also I think Oluwande and Jim had a solid plan to get away with killing Alfeo that went completely sideways, which is how they ended up hiding on a pirate ship pretending they knew how to sail. Oluwande didn't actually intend to completely ruin his status with Jackie and he does lowkey regret it in some ways, so he's gonna be thrilled when Jim tells him all about how they are cool with Jackie now and he can go back to the bar to hang next time they are in Nassau.

Anyway that's another big thing I want from S2 Jackie is Oluwande backstory, because that would be such a treat.