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destinygoldenstar · 2 years

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Which Love Triangle Is Worse? (Ninjago Vs Total Drama)

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Now, onto the post.

You know, this was easier to decide than I thought.

I know, it didn’t sound like it would at first.

Okay, lets think of a better intro...

Both of these cartoons means quite a bit to me.

I already talk about Total Drama on my blog quite a bit, to the point where I think some of my followers think I’m a TD blog. I’m not. There’s other stuff I talk about. In fact, there’s even more I could talk about with TD, and opinions I have yet to share.

However, it is an absolute CRIME in my head that I have not talked about Ninjago as much as I do with TD. I mean, I made a Skybound review awhile back, which holds up on my opinions, but that’s about it.

Why do I say this? Well because, I have the LAMEST childhood over. I did not grow up with Total Drama. I watched it when covid hit and I had nothing better to do. I didn’t even watch Avatar The Last Airbender until last year, which is NUTS.

I was more so into MLP as a kid, but I stopped watching it around Season 6, not through any puberty hit, but because my parents HATE me watching MLP. (For reasons I don’t get.) And I was also bullied heavily for liking MLP, so...

I also was obsessed with Minecraft Story Mode. (And I did make a few posts about it. They’re old, though.) It’s sad to me what happened to that series...

I also binge read the Sailor Moon manga, and I have all the books still. I watched the 90s show too, but... I honestly did not like it.

I would say, ‘what a surprise, the book is better’, but you’d be shocked to hear the Sailor Moon fandom say that the 90s anime is superior. For me... no.

Then I had one brief RWBY phase. And I mean BRIEF. In actuality, I don’t hardcore hate the show, but the one aspect of the show that prevents me from getting into it is it’s awful protagonists. I dunno, maybe I’ll make a post about that topic, because it’s astounding to me how bad their protagonists are.

And if you know me, I more so tend to have more to talk about when it comes to the flawed shows rather than shows with perfect writing. I said it over and over again, YES, I’ve watched ATLA, and Arcane. Those shows are amazing. Do you want me to praise those shows like the 7 billion other people on planet earth have?

Okay, I’m getting off track.

But there’s one show in my childhood that I distinctly remember being a part of my childhood more than any of these: That’s Ninjago.

I remember when I was around eight years old, and my sibling and I would tune in every week to watch an episode on Netflix. And I don’t even like the shows my sibling watch. But we both bonded with this show specifically. I think it has to do with this being the first show I’ve watched that wasn’t just one episode adventures. This was a show with substance, with story arcs that branch for multiple episodes, with characters to follow. Something I was not familiar with at the time.

Also Zane. Best boy. No I’m not taking criticism.

Before I even made my Tumblr account, I would write private essays talking about Ninjago. They’re terrible.

I have huge memories of this show. I WANTED to talk about this show for awhile, but couldn’t figure out what to talk about.

And then in my creative writing class, we were talking about tropes we hated.

My teacher said ‘the love triangle’. (I didn’t have that on my list, surprisingly)

It seemed like everyone, besides myself, hated the love triangle trope. And it seems very valid.

Like, just pick one love interest, darn it!

So that got me to make this post. Why a contest between these two shows?

Well they both have a love triangle that the majority of the fandom hates, they’re both known for destroying a relationship people liked, and they both take place in their Season Three.

And also, everyone hates these plotlines, so I wanted to ask myself, are they really that bad? More importantly, which is worse?

That’s what we’re here for.

Keep in mind, this is my POV on these plotlines. There’s obviously gonna be disagreement and I would love to hear your opinions when reblogging.

Also SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EITHER OF THESE SHOWS AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON’T CLICK ‘KEEP READING’. Watch the shows, and then come back.

But there’s one key factor that I think makes people lean to one argument:

Bias

My first claim is that it has to do with nostalgia of the show that springs our reactions.

When I watched the Ninjago love triangle as a kid, I was confused, cringing, and angry.

When I watched the Total Drama love triangle when I’m older, I was just like ‘okay, so we’re doing this.’

So obviously, there’s a great line of bias. As a kid, your brain hasn’t fully developed, so when bringing up a concept that isn’t black and white, and emotionally damaging, you’re gonna get heavy results.

It was the same for when Zane died in Season Three. I was a kid. I was TICKED.

Looking back now, that was an expertly built up scene and one of the best payoffs to a character arc in the show.

‘Animation is for babies’

And yet you have this:

“Are you working for Silco?”

“Fuck you”

-Arcane. (And that’s the LEAST adult thing in the show)

It’s the same thing with shipping.

Kids media are given the simplistic idea that romance is absolute. That you have one person destined for you and it will all work out.

A love triangle is... complicated, for kids heads.

So when another guy a character is in love with enters the picture, kids are gonna be confused and relatively act negative towards it. Despite the fact that love triangles... do actually exist in the real world?

Anyone remember Hamilton? Of course you do.

This is why we tend to hate Love Tringles in my eyes.

But I want to be as objective as possible with this, and discuss each storyline and their problems. So lets coin toss and decide which show we start with.

*Flips coin*

*Gets Heads*

Ninjago, it’s your lucky day.

I guess it’s fitting since I watched this show first.

Ninjago (Jay, Cole, and Nya Love Triangle)

Ninjago is a show produced by LEGO, which tells the story about a group of ninjas being assigned to face against the evils of the titular world. It’s also LEGOs biggest TV show to date.

This is more of an action superhero show than anything, and I think that’s gonna be the biggest difference here. Both shows I’m talking about have different priorities.

But I’m just focusing on the love triangle.

This plotline springs in its third season, Rebooted. It’s an eight episode long season, and the plotline gets introduced in the premiere briefly, and stays relevant all season between the three characters involved. It gets carried over to season four in that third episode, and it’s mentioned briefly in the premiere of season six. Then it ends.

People tend to hate this love triangle for a certain reason:

Why?

WHY was this love triangle needed?

I tried researching what was going on behind the scenes when the decision was made, but I could not find anything. I may be bad at research though.

My best guess is this:

Ninjago was originally supposed to end after Season Two: Legacy Of The Green Ninja. However, from the success of the show and insane toy sales, they made the decision to continue the story and make a third season. The task of continuing a story you designed to end is... daunting. For any writer.

So my biggest assumption on why they decided to do a love triangle was because they were still struggling to figure out what to do with the story of Ninjago from where they intended to end it.

I don’t hate Rebooted. Rebooted has its moments. But the season also carries a lot of lows, and this is one of them. It’s why I think most of the fandom sees this as a mid tier season overall, and pretty mixed.

So lets give context to the love before the season:

Right from the pilot episodes, one of the missions of the newly formed ninja team was to rescue the fire ninja Kai’s sister, Nya.

And the lightning ninja, Jay, says this:

“We’re saving a girl? Is she hot?”

Right off the bat, and before they even met, the writers implied that Jay was gonna have a thing for Nya, the most major girl character in the entire show.

Jay and Nya properly meet in the second pilot episode after Kai rescues her, and they exchange their favorite colors. It so happens to be blue. Flirting.

Right off the bat, there is no hate each other until they love each other bull, there is no will they or will they won’t, from the moment they met, these two have had a thing for each other.

In fact, we don’t even really do a ‘will they or will they won’t’ with them, because the flirting carries over in the proper first season of the show.

So much so that their big milestone in their relationship is in Episode 8.

Yeah. That’s quick. It’s almost impressive.

Basically, that episode has Jay trying to impress Nya, Kai tricking him into giving his sister an allergy (like the great brother he is), and despite this, Nya accepting his proposal to go on a date. Unfortunately, Jay gets his finger pricked on a snake fang, and it’s worse sounding than it sounds when you know the context of the show. Wacky hijinks ensue when their secrets of their identities clash, with Jay being a nobody from a junkyard, and Nya being a Samurai ally to the ninja and wanting to keep that a secret because of some sexist bull.

But by the end of the episode, they make up, confess their feelings, and become an official couple.

From there, there’s minimal drama between their relationship for the rest of Season One, and all of Season Two. It’s just been them flirting and praising each other, and being supportive.

There was also an episode where an evil clone of Jay kisses Nya, and tells the real Jay about it, which makes Jay so mad that he essentially MURDERS him.

Compared to Total Drama, and due to different show circumstances, this is actually a very tame thing to do.

So, Jay and Nya as a couple, pre-Rebooted, has had next to NO issues.

Now you might be wondering, if that’s the case, WHY IN THE NAME OF HECK did they decide to throw Cole into this? Where did he fit in all of this?

Well, I just rewatched all of Season One and Two for this post, and in terms of Cole and Nya interactions... there was nothing.

I’m not kidding. These two have not had ONE interaction with each other pre-Rebooted. The most is when Nya is talking to all the ninja, not Cole specifically.

So why would Nya suddenly have a thing for a guy she never talks to, when she has a good relationship with Jay?

And whatever you Total Drama people who haven’t watched Ninjago are thinking, it’s even dumber than that.

So in the premiere of Rebooted, they go to this sci-fi tour at the new Ninjago central tower... thing. The ninja are left doing plot stuff with Cyrus, and Nya is left to take care of kids and be a chaperon to a field trip. Little girls find this ‘perfect match’ machine, which is SUCH a real thing in the real world (sarcasm), and they make Nya try the machine.

And her perfect match is said to be Cole.

THAT is how Nya gets feelings for Cole.

Told you it was dumber than you think.

She did not gain feelings for Cole through any interaction with him, or other people pressuring the concept, or even her current boyfriend being any wrong to her.

No.

It’s a freaking. MACHINE.

So right at the next time Nya is focused on, she is flirting with Cole. She mistakes him referring to the students with their kids, she gives him the looks, and she’s also holding hands with him.

Yeah. Nya is essentially CHEATING ON HER BOYFRIEND.

And again, she’s only doing this because a MACHINE SAID SO.

It’s not like she’s even trying to hide it, as Jay catches them.

This makes Nya look horrendously unlikeable in the season, as you’d expect.

Why is this so OOC for her? Because there was ZERO prompting for this to happen. None.

At most, you could say that Jay’s ego made her feel lesser of relevance, but to Ninjago’s credit, they do address that... IN SEASON SIX.

So that’s not an excuse here. We’re talking about BEFORE Skybound.

Until Skybound, and I guess Tournament of Elements, Nya hasn’t had an issue with Jay’s ego. Again, in the episode where they hook up, she tells him that he doesn’t need to impress her. And they both agreed on such.

In the third episode of Rebooted, it’s revealed that PIXAL is the AI of the machine that did all of this. Not only does she not apologize or tell Nya that she should let her heart decide, but she encourages the cheating and to dump Jay.

To be fair, I don’t really hold PIXAL accountable for the love triangle. At this point in the story, she’s just a robot doing her job, and knows little about showing humanity. And she just woke up from a near death experience, so yeah, I think it’s safe to say that she was numb when she told Nya this. PIXAL is really not trying to harm anybody, or say anything personal, she’s just saying what the program of the machine told her to say.

However, Jay hears PIXAL claim that Cole is Nya’s perfect match, explaining that Nya was indeed cheating on her, and it absolutely ENRAGES Jay.

So much so that when an unexpected Cole walks into the room, Jay physically tries to beat him up.

They were friends before, and had some playful teasing in the first two seasons, but now it’s gone.

This is, deemed by many fans, one of the WORST scenes of the entire show.

I don’t blame them. I hate this scene too.

Even if you take the so called build up out, the scene is accompanied by awful dialogue and puns, so... there is NO ironically enjoying this either.

So from then on, Cole and Jay hate each other and spend the rest of the season fighting over Nya. To be fair, past this episode, it just turns into spiteful comments, and doesn’t escalate to any physical fighting until Season Four.

And it’s not like they’re trying to kill each other. Quite the opposite in fact. (Jay does oblige in saving Cole from getting lost in space, no hesitation)

So yeah, this season, because of the love triangle, assassinated all three characters involved. And mind you, I LOVE Ninjago’s protagonists. I LOVE these characters. So when I say they’re OOC here, I mean it.

I already talked about Nya and how this was out of character for her. Because the sexist BS is the biggest pet peeve I have with Nya. Otherwise, she’s very compassionate, assertive, and a girlboss with a very strong character arc throughout the entire show.

Jay does have a right to be angry. After all, he was cheated on. But I think he’s mad at the wrong person. He never blames Nya for this at all, and only pins it on Cole as a heartless monster. That’s odd to me, because Nya cheated, and he SAW THAT. I thought he would yell at her at least once, but no, instead he demands she picks him like an egotist. That’s what someone possessive would do, and Jay has NEVER done this before.

Besides, if you think about it, he’s only mad because PIXAL, an AI, said he was no good for Nya. In that case, he should be mad at PIXAL too. Sure, I said that PIXAL couldn’t help it, but if I were Jay, yelling at her would be warranted.

But nope. It’s all Cole’s fault, even though Cole was kind of a victim of circumstances.

Speaking of, why is Cole even into Nya?

Like I said, they haven’t talked before this. Cole has shown no signs of liking Nya, in fact, he seemed to support Jay and Nya as a couple. This is especially strange because Cole is the kind of character who knows exactly what he wants. If he was into Nya, he would’ve said so right away, especially before Jay even got with her.

The worst part is, the rest of the season only consists of Nya trying to decide who she likes, and the other two trying to fight for her affection. I don’t think they even mention the cheating after this. And again, it goes absolutely nowhere until Season Four, Episode Three.

In that episode, Jay and Cole are forced to fight each other by Clouse rigging the titular tournament. They’re actually not okay with this until Neuro, a guy who can read minds, escalates their rage. Then they’re okay with beating each other up with a ton of rage and grief towards each other.

Before the match, Lloyd tells them to remember who the real enemy is. He is referring to Chen. This is the driving force to the rest of the fight.

In a fight scene that is actually visually pleasing, ngl, Cole and Jay go all out until a random point in the middle where Cole decides, ‘hey, you’re not my enemy, and I never even liked Nya, so yeah, I’ll just sacrifice myself so you can stay in the game, symbolizing how you won this love triangle.’

And they make up.

Despite the little effort and prompting beforehand. Like I said, they only did this because Lloyd said so. So why are they making up now if they hate each other so much?

And then any love life plotline with Cole completely drops, and Cole is left with no love interest until Master of the Mountain. Cole and Nya have some scenes together after this, but it’s clear that they’re just friends and it never goes anywhere. And in Skybound, the love triangle is just treated as the plot device that broke up Jay and Nya, as they get back together.

So did the love triangle really amount to anything besides that?

No.

You can wipe out this plotline entirely, and not much changes. The villains don’t take advantage of that specifically, and they forget about it afterwards, with no build up beforehand.

Yeah you could argue Chen and Clouse took advantage of it, but they were after the ninja because they were spoiled the behind the scenes drama of their little game. They were threats, and an alliance, which their games try to discourage. So they would’ve set Cole and Jay up against each other anyway.

I fully understand why people hate this plotline, as it’s used for unnecessary drama. Unlike Total Drama, which uses titular DRAMA as a part of the plot’s torture, Ninjago has no reason for their drama to be unnecessary. This is not a torturous scenario Ninjago is living in, this is an action show!

I guess I can appreciate that Jay and Nya were able to recover from this and get back together. They even get married. My heart sings.

And at least in Ninjago, this plotline drama doesn’t seem to escalate, and people are able to forget about it.

Total Drama is a completely different story.

So lets talk about that.

Total Drama (Courtney, Gwen, and Duncan Love Triangle)

I talked about Total Drama quite a bit on my blog already, so I’ll be brief.

Total Drama is about a group of teenagers being scammed onto a game show to try and become celebrities. Torture ensues.

It’s far more treated like a reality show in cartoon form, I guess that’s the best way I can explain it.

Despite the fact that the love triangle here is HIGHLY loathed, even more so than Ninjago, and that I did headcanon posts of all three characters, I’ve avoided talking about the love triangle before this.

That fandom is THAT violent when it comes to this topic.

You will NEVER get the same POV about it.

So what I’m gonna say is guaranteed to tick off at least half of the people who read this.

PLEASE, just hear me out.

I don’t really ship either.

I haven’t been a hardcore Jaya fan either, but it’s the same mindset I gave to Duncney and Gwuncan. In the latter two’s case, it’s because they’re trapped under such awful circumstances, that being the show’s setting used to stress them out, screw up their heads, and torture them. And also the executives who forced this on the writers.

In the context of Total Drama’s writing staff, they didn’t want to do this either. They were forced to by the executives, who wanted to teach kids that breakups happen and you could end up with someone else.

That sounds like it has good intentions...

Until you find that the actual moral they delivered with the first breakup was that ‘If you break up with someone, the entire world will hate you. And you deserve it.’

I don’t think I need to tell you that’s a bad message.

To be fair, I’ve never been against either ship involved, so I don’t hate either.

But the canon circumstances?

OOF.

Let’s get this started:

So the first season of Total Drama is kind of a different story than with Ninjago.

Unlike Ninjago, which just had Jay and Nya as a couple and Cole was someone I assumed was ace (welcome to the club), all three people involved in the later love triangle had an established love interest and relationship.

Gwen, the third wheel and the Cole in this case, had a relationship with Trent, your typical guitar playing love interest and as generic of a love interest as you can get. But they get in a few shenanigans with Gwen being a stubborn loner, and Heather being Heather and doing one of my most hated story tropes, so they don’t get together until the end of the season.

And then in season two, Trent gets his character assassinated and becomes possessive over Gwen, OVERLY so, and it causes Gwen to break up with him because as I said in previous posts, Gwen doesn’t know how to deal with relationships.

And then the entire world treats Trent like a victim, that Gwen was the abusive one, and everyone hates Gwen.

And this is just the START of the Gwen social punching bag.

Then in season one, there was another relationship relevant to this topic: Duncan and Courtney.

They’re presented as your typical bad boy/good girl dynamic.

And they actually had fun chemistry. Ngl.

Duncan flirts with her, and Courtney tries to deny her feelings for him and masks it through lectures, claiming she hates his rude and rebellious behavior. Despite this, they keep having sexual tension, and they have a kiss in Episode 12.

You could say Ninjago has an advantage then, but keep in mind that Ninjago has 13 episodes in its season one, and Total Drama has 26 episodes. So I’d say they’re both impressive.

I would say that on an enjoyment standpoint, Duncan and Courtney, and Jay and Nya are very fun couples with fun chemistry. That’s why people liked them.

Jay and Nya however, barely had any drama going on in their relationship before Season Three.

Duncan and Courtney are a different story.

Like I said before, Courtney tried to deny her feelings for Duncan and masked it through lecturing her own love. It’s not until she finds out about Duncan’s more positive traits that she realizes she wants to be around him. Or rather, she can FIX him.

Yeah. Courtney is a fixer upper.

This is a trope in romance, and not a very good one if you ask me. Usually, I use the fixer upper to claim why a relationship would NOT work.

SHUT UP FROZEN.

And I don’t want to take this all out on Courtney and say she’s the problem. Duncan is a jerk as well. He’s a bully, he cares more about his image than being himself, and he also does stuff we’ll talk about in a minute. But in terms of the couple aspect, Courtney is the one raising the red flags in the beginning.

Now, I do think Courtney cares about Duncan and thinks she’s helping, but that is not the point. You can love your partner, and still abuse them.

Instead of these two working through their differences, Courtney just hands Duncan a list of things she wants to change about him, and is VERY strict about him following that. Prior to this, Duncan has annoyed her by trying to flirt with her, and she responds through lethal hits to the nuts, or physical punches, or mentally guilt tripping him. Prior to even that, she DITCHED him in his hour of her need for a million bucks.

Yeah, Total Drama LOVES romanticizing abusive relationships. That is a PROBLEM.

So Duncan, in his stress of the relationship, decides he doesn’t want anything to do with her anymore, and he votes her off the show, breaking them up.

And then he wins a million dollars, and they get back together.

“Now you’re saying that I’m a gold digger, but check my gleam up, hey go figure.” -Six

And then in Celebrity Manhunt, they publicly humiliate each other yet again, sue each other, and break up. So what was the point of them getting back together?

I heard people claim that in this same special, they have a kiss on the bus while bickering, so that means they’re back together.

If you want to see it that way?

Courtney did.

But let me ask you this: Where in this episode was that confirmed? Where did they agree to get back together?

Exactly.

Duncan never made it clear to Courtney that they weren’t back together in his mind. They had what you called a fling. Duncan does this. He is a horndog.

This is Duncan emotionally using Courtney for his own image. See, I told you Duncan wasn’t innocent in this.

Then there’s Gwen.

Unlike Cole and Nya, Duncan and Gwen actually DID have interactions pre-season three.

In season one, their dynamic started around the slasher episode, as they bonded over their shared enthusiasm for blood and gore in movies. They orchestrate the survival plan for the challenge, and betray each other, but I don’t think either of them took it that personally. They also helped each other/bickered in the castaway episode.

Their friendship properly starts in season two, where they have friendly interactions and help each other out in challenges. Gwen even picks Duncan first to be her teammate.

It gets to a point where Trent, Gwen’s girlfriend at the time, gets jealous and thinks Gwen is hitting on Duncan. Gwen denies it and claims they’re friends, but no one believes her. In fact, when Gwen is sent to the Aftermath show and broken up with Trent, everyone accuses Gwen of dumping Trent for Duncan. Another reason why the show wants you to hate Gwen and absolutely no one else.

That is frustrating.

In the Celebrity Manhunt special, it’s revealed that Gwen DOES indeed have a crush on Duncan and just doesn’t want it to surface because he’s with Courtney. When she hears they broke up, she becomes interested again.

This is a year after season two, so we don’t know what happened that made Gwen change her mind.

Did Gwen and Duncan bond off screen?

That’s an even bigger possibility in this show than in Ninjago given the circumstances, but they never establish that they did.

Duncan quits Season Three at the start, but the producers track him down anyway. Before he returns, Courtney talks about how she misses him, and wants him back.

GWEN IS IN THESE SCENES BTW.

There’s also this exchange between Alejandro and Courtney in episode two that I noticed upon rewatch that I find interesting:

“Such witty remarks from such fiercely intelligent women. I’m both humbled and intrigued.”

“Nice try. But I’m with Duncan.”

“And what pity it is that you should give yourself to a quitter, who doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s not-Duncan is-totally-you’re just- will someone hurry this camel up?!”

Obviously, Alejandro is playing her. He is the season’s bad guy after all. He’s taking advantage of the relationship strain.

But consider how Courtney stutters when trying to defend Duncan? She’s trying to dodge any notion that Duncan would leave her. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, and can’t fathom the idea that she’s done something wrong. She doesn’t WANT to believe they’re broken up.

I’m shocked no one brings up this scene, actually.

During this, Gwen and Courtney, being on the same team, become friends from their shared hatred of Heather. Really, I think they just became friends because they’re the only non-simps, non-insane, non-horrible people on their team.

Friendships come from very unlikely places sometimes.

They didn’t really have any interactions before this. Cole and Jay had two whole seasons being on a team.

And then we get THE SCENE.

Duncan comes back, and immediately, Courtney lectures him for leaving her, then embraces him. He says that every time he ran from the cops, he thought of HER.

He’s staring at GWEN.

GWEN REALIZES THIS.

It brings her in a spiral of question late at night, and she’s clearly not thinking clearly. Are Duncan and Courtney a thing? Are they not? Does Courtney deserve him? Is Courtney a bad influence? Does Duncan like Gwen? Is Duncan interested in her?

Duncan shuts out any questions by coming into the bathroom to kiss her.

Thus, he cheats on Courtney with Gwen.

This can be interpreted in a lot of ways, but I think there’s two we can bring up.

One is the nature of Duncan’s character.

He is a horndog who cares about his image. He wants to be seen as a bad boy and not his true self. He wants is bad boy persona to be his true self. He wants validation from the people around him, so anyone who finds interest in that persona, he will bang.

He’s not sweet good intended Nya. He’s quite the opposite.

But I don’t think it’s clear what his intention was. Was he trying to escape his situation with someone he trusts? Was he trying to spite Courtney? (I mean, All Stars implies that) Was he trying to start over with a new girl? Is he using Gwen? Does he actually love Gwen?

None of these questions get answered. We are given NO clear idea why Duncan did this. That’s why there’s such a division in perspective.

They could’ve at least had a confessional where Duncan explained his intent, whatever it was, but nope.

The other factor is the influence of the show.

This is the machine from Ninjago.

This is the PIXAL, if PIXAL was a sociopath.

The show fans assumed there was something going on with Duncan and Gwen, and they pressure them into trying to admit that being the truth. EVERYONE, throughout the year, pressure this. Geoff, Heather, fans, Chris, even Courtney herself.

I talked about this in other posts, so I’ll be brief. The show screws up the morality of SEVERAL characters, to the point where they will do nasty stuff you wouldn't see them do in season one, where they were pure.

It’s very easy to assume that Gwen would only have feelings for Duncan because the show is pulling her strings.

But they don’t establish that either. That’s just my interpretation of it to try and make sense of this writing.

So take all of this with a grain of salt.

Gwen regrets the kiss afterwards, somewhat, well, only because afterwards Courtney goes on and on about how Duncan’s her boyfriend. I think Courtney’s just rubbing this in because she knew Gwen was crushing, and wanted to keep her away from him.

I guess you could say Courtney is Total Drama’s Tsundre.

That makes a lot more sense in a minute.

Gwen and Duncan discuss the matter of Gwen kissing Courtney’s boyfriend in a song. Duncan sings he has no regrets, and Gwen reminds him of Courtney. They both agree that they should stop with the secrets and come clean. They know what will happen, so it’s better to just tell the truth.

Then Duncan gets mauled by a bear, so they have to wait until after the challenge.

But then Alejandro figured it out and outs it to Courtney, ruining it.

Courtney IMMEDIATELY becomes bloodthirsty on Gwen, and next to EVERYONE joins Courtney in berating Gwen. (Except Cody)

This scene, alongside the Jay and Cole scuffle, hurts to watch.

But I will confess, I prefer to watch the Total Drama fallout scene, because I think the voice acting in the scene is better. You can feel Courtney’s heartbreak as she screams at her nonstop, and the sinister craziness awakening in her. And Gwen CRYING?! REGRETTING what she did?!

Come on, there’s at least SOME value here besides Cody getting a dub.

Even if it is little value besides Cody getting a dub.

From here on out, EVERYONE on the plane (Again, except Cody) HATE Gwen’s guts. They will not let her forget what she did. They will never give her a single iota of grey area besides ‘You suck Gwen, we hate you, the entire world hates you, and you deserve to be hated. Go jump off a plane and die so we can have a party about it.’

Gwen and Duncan even try to apologize, but no one takes it.

This is like Cole and Jay, only it’s not just Jay berating Cole, it’s EVERYONE.

I think I would’ve stopped watching Ninjago for years if that was the case, because that would’ve been PAINFUL to watch.

Courtney is the key factor of this hate club, and rallies everyone up to hate on Gwen and Duncan and try to remove them. Sierra, Heather, Tyler, Alejandro, who the last one WANTED to happen as he’s now in control of her.

And unlike Jay, Courtney actually DOES berate the cheater for what they did. Deserved.

But then again, at least Jay doesn’t sing a song about trying to kill the other point of the triangle.

50/50.

To Courtney, this is all a serious betrayal. Gwen and Duncan were the only people Courtney allowed herself to open up to, and then they betray her. She has a right to be mad, but not a right to her actions driven by the madness.

For Gwen, Duncan is now the only person she can feel safe with. People tend to cling to the kindness in their life that’s the closest to them. This is why Gwen chooses to stay with Duncan and ignore all the hate she’s getting. She needs love in this moment.

And then Duncan tries to play Alejandro by pretending to still be into Courtney. It’s an act, but still.

We never see on screen if Duncan explained himself and apologized to Gwen.

Ninjago had a whole season and three episodes worth of love triangle drama.

Total Drama only has three episodes.

And then it abruptly ends unconcluded.

Courtney wanted to get revenge on Gwen by dumping her off the plane and making Duncan jealous of her.

Technically, she WON.

She gets Gwen out, and she, not intentionally, uses Scott to make Duncan jealous, which causes Gwen to leave him.

Sorry, getting ahead of myself.

Now lets address All Stars.

You could argue this focuses on the love triangle as well, and... kinda? But, All Stars seems to bail on EVERY plotline World Tour had. I have NO IDEA why this is, as unlike Rebooted, World Tour is a FAN FAVORITE SEASON. But they bailed on everything.

And it’s clear that the writers had no objective with giving the love triangle an ending.

The season is more so focused on Courtney finding a new boyfriend in Scott, that she plans to use, Duncan being thrusted into a heroes position and wanting to be a bad guy again, and Gwen, once again, being hated by everybody around her.

Duncan and Gwen have NO romantic scenes together, and Gwen constantly shuts him out in favor of trying to make things right with Courtney. The girl she BETRAYED.

She also claims that Duncan was not Courtney’s boyfriend at the time, thus she didn’t do anything wrong...

I’m ASSUMING Duncan told Gwen that story to get her on his side. THAT would make sense of this phrase. BUT the writers never establish that.

And again, Duncan only gets jealous because Gwen’s ignoring him when he’s trying to help, and Courtney’s finding a new slave to give her the win. My assumption is that he’s trying to strike up a conversation with Gwen, considering Gwen wanted to make things right with Courtney, but again, no establishment that this is Duncan’s motive.

So Gwen gets fed up with that, and dumps Duncan, shutting him out of her life.

This scene is SO QUICK, that it feels like an afterthought. There’s no blowout, there’s no prompting, there’s no remorse for the action later besides one Duncan confessional, it’s just ‘okay, they’re broken up now, Gwuncan haters can chill the F out.’

Is that the motive? What about the people who liked Gwuncan as a concept and wanted to see more of them?

Here’s a writing tip: If your fans don’t like an aspect of your story, DON’T bail out of it. WORK on it. MAKE IT BETTER.

In my series that I’m doing, Destiny’s Burden, a lot of my beta readers didn’t like one of my characters at first. They considered her insufferable, annoying, selfish, and stereotypical. But instead of writing that character out of the plot, I took the time to give that character development, and have them develop less of a spoiled personality. Now that character is a fan favorite among my beta readers.

THIS IS WHERE YOU DO THAT, BUT WITH THE LOVE TRIANGLE.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WRITE IT BETTER.

And then there’s the last part of this. Gwen and Courtney making up.

Unlike Tournament of Elements, which threw in the forgiveness at the last minute, Gwen actually puts in the effort beforehand to be friends with Courtney again. She tries REALLY hard actually.

Gosh, I CANNOT believe I’m saying ALL STARS did something better than THE TOURNMENT OF ELEMENTS. WHAT AM I ON?!

And, looking at the Cole and Jay tournament fight, and the Gwen and Courtney boxing match... this is the same scene.

This is literally the same scene, minus the sacrifice Ninjago had.

They duke it out, they beat each other, and they apologize in the middle, explaining that they never missed the girl/guy, they just missed each other, and they make up and become friends again.

I prefer the Ninjago scene though, because it’s way more visually pleasing, and the dialogue seems more sincere to me. Courtney and Gwen’s ‘apology’ is so corny I can’t-

So what is the ending of Total Drama’s love triangle? Courtney and Gwen become best friends in la la land, they trash over Duncan, and cheer when he’s thrown in jail.

And then Courtney betrays Gwen, making all the love and support Gwen got back meaningless. But hey, that’s not relevant to this topic.

Most people in the fandom claim that this was character assassination on all three characters. Just like I said with Ninjago.

Here’s the thing: Total Drama has more episodes around this time. Ninjago didn’t. I know NOW it’s not a contest on which show had more episodes, but looking at it, Ninjago, in four seasons, had 44 episodes, and Total Drama, in four seasons, had 91.

This is a double edge sword, as on one hand Total Drama has more to work with. On the other, Total Drama has more to work with.

After all, like I said, we are given no clear motive for why Duncan even cheated, or didn’t tell Courtney that they weren’t together anymore. Gwen was cheated on technically in season one, and here she is doing that same emotional betrayal in season three to Courtney. And again, the whole ‘he wasn’t your boyfriend’.

There’s multiple instances where literally ONE MORE SCENE of ANY part of this plotline could’ve helped it make more sense. But no. The writers just really did not want to write this. Again, they were forced to. It shows.

But I will say this, unlike with Ninjago’s love triangle, the Total Drama love triangle is SEVERELY plot relevant. You CAN’T write it out.

Everyone says they should’ve just written it out... how?

Every fanfic I’ve seen that’s written the love triangle out actively made the story less interesting, and gave the three characters involved nothing to do.

The villains, again, take advantage of the situation to give themselves plot armor. This is how Alejandro uses Courtney. She would’ve never helped him otherwise. This is what makes Heather jealous, prompting the last quarter of World Tour. This is what season two’s Gwen bashing has built up to. This is what makes Gwen the biggest social punching bag of the entire show. This is what spawns Gwen to become a villainous vulture. This is the start of Duncan’s downfall, and his mental distress getting him behind bars later.

You NEED the love triangle to be a thing for the story to make any sense.

I’m sorry, but that’s what I see.

Which is Worse?

Now to answer the money question.

Which plotline is worse?

This is REALLY subjective. So take it with a grain of salt.

Both of these plotlines have huge issues. They are both dampers to their season three.

Ninjago had a worse motive, a more pathetic fight, dragged on, and had no plot relevance whatsoever.

Total Drama had a more unlikeable cast participating, poor establishment of motive, ended way too quickly, and suffered from no ending.

I think we can both agree on the quality on both of these plotlines.

It really depends on which plotline I would prefer to watch a compilation of over and over again.

And in that sense...

I think I’d pick Total Drama as the better one.

This is for a few reasons:

One is that Total Drama is a far more morally grey show, so its characters are far more morally grey than with Ninjago. It’s more believable that the TD characters would do stuff so spiteful towards each other, than the Ninjago characters. This makes it so that you can see everyone’s point of view, and the plotline becomes welcome for multiple interpretations.

Two is that there was SOME build up to the cheating. You could say that it was bad build up, but at least it WAS build up. What build up was there in Ninjago? Oh yeah, none.

Three is that Total Drama’s plotline is actually plot relevant. If I have to watch the love triangle to watch World Tour, I’ll watch it. I won’t skip it. If I skip it, I know I’ll miss vital information for the rest of the story.

That said, though I say Ninjago is the worse plotline, it does have an advantage of having a better makeup scene, and an actual ending. And the characters were able to recover because of that.

Because, with all six of these characters, I DO like them all. I want the best for them (even if Duncan arguably doesn’t deserve it)

But let me know your thoughts. Would you agree? Disagree? Is there something I missed? Let me know.

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heyheydidjaknow · 1 year

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Hey missy, I think a lot of us would LIVE to read about your otome project <3

Your phrasing and sentence structure softly kisses my forehead and then slaps me in my face afterwards everytime and if I can get that specific brand of joy by viewing something you are passionate about then expect me to eat it up like leftover birthday cake in the fridge after a night of drinking.

Keep your pretty head up, queen <3

The project is, essentially, to give a comprehensive summary of Mystic Messenger (chat room by chat room, phone call by phone call, pm by pm and story mode by story mode) via slideshow. The main reason I don’t talk about it is because I lowkey become a monster when I get into things at the best of times, and with something like MM it gets way worse. I absolutely can talk about it, but I have very strong opinions about this lil game and its characters that don’t necessarily fit my usual format. I’ll offer a sample of what that would look like under the cut; if it’s the sort of thing y’all would be interested in feel free to lmk.

So I’m doing V’s route right now (against my desires— I spent the 100 hgs so I wouldn’t have to actually suck up to him) and it’s a lot of V telling us (MC, whoever) that we need to not tell people things. Ever since the Secret Endings I have been way less trusting of Seven’s judgement, but nothing has brought me greater frustration than this masochist telling me to not let anyone else in on what’s going on when it’s info that absolutely concerns them. I can smell a bad ending on the horizon because all my answers are essentially “V really should be keeping communication open” and honestly I am standing behind my anti secret policy. The reason he gives— which is a bullshit reason I’m sure— is that everyone else wouldn’t be able to handle the info, which is not only ridiculous and patronizing for them but incredibly frustrating as someone who has to play as this incredibly passive character. We’re supposed to just sit on our hands when we know such pertinent information as where Seven’s twin brother is, who’s behind this whole ordeal, that there’s a cult (?) in the mountains and that we’re being held against our will, etc. I, as someone who’s played the secret endings and the other routes, know that V is trying to keep us out of dodge in his own stupid way, but the idea of being someone who has been kept in a compound in the middle of nowhere and keeping quiet about it instead of trying our luck making a dash for the woods and telling the only people I can tell that I’m in a bad position is incredibly frustrating. When it was (Ray/Saeran)’s route it kinda made sense because we were sticking around for him specifically, but V has made a great escape and is allegedly doing just fine. The lack of agency regarding the MC is always frustrating, but in this route in particular I have a sneaking feeling my desire to actually do shit and try to leave as opposed to following master planner V’s plan is going to get me a bad ending and take another 100 hgs.

Anyways now I’ve got to figure out how to explain what a Medical Proxy/DPOA is in an articulate way because I finally finished the Secret Endings and even though I recognize just asking my audience member to Google it makes more sense I want to make this presentation informative to make up for the months worth of chat rooms my friend (who may very well not be my friend after what I’m sure will be at least an hour of talking about this stupid game) will need to sit through the summaries of. More accurately I need to make a slide to explain what a DPOA because currently the slide part of my slideshow presentation is seriously lacking. Also how do indicate, when a wound is barely on screen, how a shoulder wound miraculously migrated to the elbow. Will keep people posted and maybe, when I am done, I will post the speaker notes here.

#mystic messenger #MM Slideshow #(in case people do actually want updates and other people don’t

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fearofevrything · 5 months

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Okay, hot take but pokémon scarlet/violet weren’t that bad. they were fun games (ESPECIALLY the dlc). Were there some quite frankly extremely embarrassing visual and performance glitches? Yes absolutely, but I think that’s also part of a bigger issue of nintendo milking the switch for all it’s worth 7 years down the line. It’s aging hardware AND ridiculous time crunches and complacency on GF/Nintendo’s part. Idk I think we’re too harsh on the games, and as someone who’s been around since gen 3, I’ve seen this happen with literally every gen after. Hell, B/W were absolutely HATED when they first came out, and now over a decade later, they’re praised as the best in the series. New thing = bad and old thing = good and all that.

Not sure what I’m trying to say here other than that at the end of the day, these are games primarily designed for children, and I think a lot of us look past the most important part of video games- having FUN. Sure, competitive can be great but people take it WAY too seriously. Just have fun exploring a new region and meeting new pokémon.

Not to say they aren’t free from criticism, I for one was very disappointed with the lack of buildings to go inside of and npcs to just randomly talk to, and the fact that I get an average of around 15 fps in docked mode is really embarrassing. I just think it’s entirely unfair to condemn the whole generation or even the whole franchise based on mostly graphical glitches.

I’m not looking to argue, if you don’t like the games that’s totally understandable and a valid opinion. I’m just putting my stance out there after getting absolutely WRECKED last night in double battles against the DLC’s elite four. Like, I actually had to think and strategize outside of spamming type matchups? That’s actually wild to me, because the only time I can think of actually having to strategize like that in the main story or even postgame in the past is fighting Cynthia in the B/W postgame, (when i was 12 so that may have had something to do with the difficulty lmao).

#pokemon #not music #started replaying b/w early last month and now we’re here #it was meant to be a lighthearted break from p3r but now i’m back in the pokémon trenches

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strongmiral · 2 years

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Civilization revolution pc

CIVILIZATION REVOLUTION PC HOW TO

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On the whole, though, those are things I’m happy to overlook when the overall package is so much fun.

CIVILIZATION REVOLUTION PC HOW TO

And on a non-gameplay level, the game could stand to do a little more in terms of explaining some things to newcomers - case in point being the fact I never figured out how to transport anything across oceans, which made for a slightly long game when I found my starting city alone on an island, and I was forced to win over the world solely on the strength of my culture. When you get into a scenerio’s later stages, and the world is filling up with cities and soldiers and settlers, movements start to feel and look a little sluggish. Most obviously, there are times where the performance is a little suboptimal. Which isn’t to say that CivRev2+ is the best handheld game I’ve ever played, or that it’s flawless. If there’s any game more suited to handheld gaming, I don’t think I’ve yet discovered it. There are no plots or stories you need to keep track of. The controls - for the most part - are easy to pick up and remember, so you never have to worry about re acclimating yourself to the game.

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If pesky things like bus stops get in the way, you can just momentarily suspend your game, then pick it up again as soon as you get another free moment. You never need to worry about having to stop a particularly tough battle halfway through, since you can literally take it everywhere you go. In this respect, the game is pretty much perfect for the Vita. I don’t know how much this version took from the original version of CivRev2, but it clearly took enough that it can sink its claws into you and make it so that you forget everything else. I regularly found myself starting up a scenario as soon as I got on the bus for work, only to look up and realize I needed to hurriedly get up and rush to the doors so as to avoid missing my stop. I totally see how people could sink hours upon hours into it. Having said all that…my goodness, CivRev 2+ is fun. For another, it means that I almost certainly didn’t play the game to the absolute fullest extent that’s possible, on account of the fact I’m pretty sure I suck at it. For one thing, it means I can’t tell you exactly how faithfully the proper Civilization Revolution 2 experience is recreated on the Vita, since I have absolutely no idea. While the former didn’t bother me too much - I sank approximately 500 hours or so into MLB 10: The Show’s career mode, so I’m totally used to addictive repetition - the latter definitely gave me pause, seeing as my gaming strategies generally tend towards the “run in, guns ablazing, damn the consequences” school of thinking.īecause of that combination of unfamiliarity and lack of strategic thinking ability, you’ll probably want to take this review with at least a few pinches of salt. I’d never played any of the Civilization games before, but by reputation I knew them to be both insanely addictive and fairly hardcore in terms of strategy.

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I will keep an open mind because I respect your opinion, and will be hopeful.I approached Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 Plus with no small amount of apprehension. So time will tell if you are correct or not. After all thier actions speak for themselves. I hope I am wrong, I really do, but they have to prove history wrong, I don't have to believe what they say. Until I see it in game play, I am expecting a half arsed gamed and a very buggy release. One of those burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice shame on me.įiraxis has a history of fudging the truth. Sorry Sam, I respect you very much, but what devs say espically from Firaxis, they really can't be trusted. Every one of them has been mentioned specifically in interviews. After all what do you think $80 is going to get you? :P They've actually outright said it will have those. You really expecting that Civ VI is going to have religion, espoinage, cultrue, and great works? That is what the expansions are for.

#Civilization revolution pc

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tonkiwb · 2 years

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Copter royale.io

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Geneshift was super fun for me to play because it is strongly inspired by Grand Theft Auto 2, a game that I absolutely loved as a kid. No playable version of The Culling currently exists and will likely never be heard from again. The Culling: Origins has now been taken offline, just like its short lived sequel. Unfortunately for Xaviant, all of The Culling’s players had moved far past the franchise with so many other better battle royale games to choose from.

#Copter royale.io free#

The developers actually removed the game from Steam and replaced it with a day one version of the original The Culling and made it free to play, in an attempt to win back its original fan base. The CEO of the company posted a very emotional apology in response to the failed launch and actually pulled the game from release altogether. Instead of trying to recover through game updates, Xaviant (the game’s developer) created and launched a sequel (That you had to pay for) that was worse than the game that everyone had already abandoned. Shortly after launch, the game received a number of updates that pushed the playerbase away. Imagine if Jiggsaw from the Saw movies put together a battle royale set in a jungle and you’d be close to The Culling. The Culling took a very sadistic approach to battle royale, offering chainsaws, spears, swords and other non-conventional weapons in addition to firearms. The Culling launched way back in 2016, before the battle royale genre had really blossomed and actually received a fair amount of attention at launch. The story of The Culling is probably the most interesting videogame story on this list. There are few games on this list that I truly recommend that you should steer clear of but this is one of them, which is funny since the team behind the game advertises it as a game for more refined and mature audiences. While there is technically logic behind it (different tanks have different vulnerable spots and if you shoot them there, they take more damage), for the most part, I just found the game’s combat to be more frustrating than enjoyable. The game’s combat is slow, clunky and filled with rage inducing moments that make little to no sense. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the way the game looks, performs or plays, it just wasn’t fun whatsoever. My vendetta against this game is more personal than practical. Luckily for World of Tanks players, Steel Hunter is a limited time event mode that has been run multiple times, but hasn’t been included in the game’s permanent offerings. Some game had to be dead last and unfortunately it’s World of Tank’s Steel Hunter mode. This list details all 34 battle games that I’ve played and ranks from worst to best. I’ve played battle royales that are competitive, silly or packing unique traits. I’ve played the good ones, the bad ones and a handful that you probably never knew existed. This way, whenever a new battle royale game hits the scene, my community and viewers know that they can tune into my stream to find out about it and see how it stacks up to other games in the genre.Īfter more than a year of embarking on this battle royale quest, I have played 34 different battle royale games (not including mobile) and have won 32 of them. So what can I do to make myself unique? I decided to embark on a quest to play and win a round of every single battle royale game that ever gets released. I knew that I would never be as intense or cocky as Dr. I knew that my aim would never be as good as Shroud’s. I had recently fallen in love with the battle royale genre and found the “last man standing” concept to give a rush like no other. When I decided to start streaming and become a content creator, I had to decide what kind of creator that I wanted to be. Here is how they rank from best to worst. I’ve played 34 different battle royale games.

#Copter royale.io

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pyreo · 3 years

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It’s tough not to cringe when thinking about looking forward to Fallout 4 in 2015. But I did, and I prepurchased it, and six years later I’ve actually finished it.

I abandoned two playthroughs before starting a third last year, I played on survival mode, I did every quest, discovered every location, and finally experienced Far Harbor. I can only look at that 900 hours and think they would have been better spent on anything else.

And it’s not that it’s not fun, because they’ve worked very hard to convince you the world wants to be looted and there are bullets out there that need to be fired. But it’s just there, like an empty theme park where the rides are all free and there’s no one to talk to. Fallout 4′s bigness is a point of pride and having to spend that much time exploring, searching, and steeling oneself for inanity is time spent becoming acutely aware of its faults.

I enjoyed Far Harbor much more, because it is better made. The smaller space better ties it together, the atmosphere is fresh and scary. Multiple quest lines revolve around differrent takes on robots in funny hats, which were far and away the best aspects of the base game, so it’s playing to its strengths. It finally directs the story back to the aspect of toying with people’s memories that the Shaun Plot’s Memory Den introduced and did absolutely nothing with.

To Far Harbor’s credit, it does start asking questions, like is it enough that a synthetic person stays alive, if you erase their accumulated self-identity to do it? Is it worth doing reprehensible things for the greater good, if you have to edit those memories out of your mind so you can live with yourself? And if you’re a brain in a jar, and you swap your hat with someone else’s, can anybody really say it wasn’t always your hat?

I had to put thought into the ending I wanted, which came down to ruining an innocent person’s life to bring peace between factions, or taking DiMA to the harbor for justice (and unavoidable execution). I chose the first option because although DiMA’s horrifying actions are indefensible, I felt I couldn’t subject Nick to it, and just made my distaste clear to DiMA instead. Far Harbor is an extended trolley problem, showing you a guy who couldn’t handle the guilt of adjusting the tracks, then giving the lever to you.

It did something interesting, for sure. But I’m not fond of Trolley Problems, and I trudged to the ending with no strong conviction in my actions. Far Harbor’s plot has consequences to your choices, but in the same vein as the Fallout 4 binary, ‘blow everyone up or don’t’. In fact the only reason I chose not to explode the Children of Atom, whose fanaticism is actively leading to murders, was the unexplained ability of their members to become immune to radiation, and the implication therein that they might actually be onto something.

Although Far Harbor improved the game, I just thought it was unfortunate that after spending so, so many hours getting through the giant, bloated Fallout 4 experience that I could barely be enthused about it. I just needed this checked off my list.

My bobbleheads and final stats. As a series, Fallout tries to depict a clash between the human instict to build, and our propensity for destruction. Fallout 4′s genuinely interesting settlement building is narratively ignored to prevent any unwanted sense of change from rattling their carefully curated fishtank or recognisable Fallout branding. Characters exist simply to deliver plot twist lines that sounded great in the boardroom, each faction delicately misdirecting your attention as they speak vaguely about their visions for the future while commanding you to take, kill, and destroy. Searching for contextual meanings unearths nothing but constant excuses for the convictionless void that underpins the narratively static maze this game can only circle around in.

I can sum up Fallout 4 in the following screenshot:

#fallout 4 #fallout #hey bethesda look at me. bitch

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pastelpaperplanes · 3 years

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Big Ol Ask Post Pt. 3 I think

I haven’t drawn anything other than cursed or plain technical stuff w him 😔😔 have these for now but expect more soon!

anon a way back asked what he’d look like next to Overlord being already so big compared to Megs, that’s why you see Lordie if you’re wondering why he’s thrown in that line up!

by the way I have a voice claim for the big purple simp— Jenner from NIMH, he’s so awful but that suave baritone oh it fits too well >:] it’s the ‘humble servant’ line that got to me

Yep! Pharma is absolutely in this AU—as well as the CFau and Crack one too—and in all, he’s still an estranged medic long since booted from any legal work back on Cybertron.

He lost his credibility and more all those years ago when he found himself willing to do his fair share of cutting corners and hastily concealed malpractice to expedite his dream of getting his name down in the medical books—ultimately impressing his dear Mentor Ratchet, finally, in perfecting long-since banned risky experiments and surgeries—not to mention cruel and unusual temperament with the (supposedly) taboo practice of non-medicinal mnemosurgery.

His ambitions and aggression always got the bet of him, this hasn’t changed since he found himself working in freelance outposts. Light years away from Cybertron, he’s made a name for himself as a Good Doctor—but to his under-the-table black market part-dealing clients, he’s just about as bad as a Crooked Medic can get.

Bounty hunters and Arms Dealers like him for his business, a certain DJD member likes him for the occasional berth company and seemingly never ending supply of fresh T-Cogs—but no one actually likes him for his nasty temperamental personality, save for a young and naive Ratchet once upon a time.

Pharma is a roamer, as of recent he’s been a hard to reach mech—seems as if he’s found a little project to keep himself pretty occupied in the last few decades—something about a breakthrough for aiding the Decepticon Energon Crisis :] him and a small, horrifyingly cheerful surgeon are well on their way to completing their first trial batches, it’s safe to say that their little synthetic mixture will have it’s users sated and compliant.

they’ve got that amazing ‘new car smell’ those first few weeks, and instead of chittering like an Insecticons or vibrating their wings like a seeker—they beep and squeak, sometimes even honk a horn depending on the baseline altmode coding, to get their Creators’ attention before their vocalizer truly starts to kick online

It’s cute, but loud

Much like a seeker sparkling, they have to reach a certain ‘age’ (upgrade) to be able to transform completely, in between then they’re still able to rev those engines as a warning should they need it, as well as spin their wheels should they need a getaway HEELIES IF THEYRE LUCKY WOOHOOOOO—for seekers they can hover on their thrusters!

Crusade is actually pretty formal with Megatron. But yeah as a kid, Megs was always known as Carrier, but as Sadie got older and more aware of their surroundings—they definitely came to learn the true weight of that title and the fact that they were the progeny of the faction leader, a fact they should have really held onto with more pride. Not wanting to draw more attention to the already blatant favoritism (and nepotism) Crusade made a switch to addressing Megatron as Sir, My Lord, Lord Megatron, —ect. to better fit in with their fellow troops.

It bothers Megatron more than than he lets on. Crusade shouldn’t have to hide their high ranking as his child, the heir to the faction. Megs is their Carrier and can only order them around for so long, as their Leader however—pulling rank may just allow for their infuriatingly stubborn sparkling to listen to them should a day come where even a Carrier’s plea is dismissed.

Crusade does slip up every now and then and a ‘Carrier’ will slip—often hushed and annoyed though as Megs does like to tease every now and then, gotta remind them that they’re still his baby every once in a while :’)

Optimus however—whenever him and Crusade should truly reunite, will never be called Sire by Crusade, which they so heatedly established early on—Crusade never needed one and they don’t need one now, better to not let the title trigger those long-suppressed emotions. Sure enough though Optimus will get his moment.

actually no lmfao so you’re good! Eh, I haven’t mentioned much plot w them outside of them and Megs, plus bits of potential interactions with Optimus—so the rest of Team Prime is free game :D

For what I (hopefully will have) planned, their interactions with team Prime will be eh,,,interesting to each their own to say the least. Some more stressful than others BUT let’s not get into that until I’ve worked it out—for now I’ll just mention what they’re dynamics would be like when the drama of Oh Shit Boss Bot You’ve Been Hiding a Kid For HOW LONG has died down.

A usually touch-wary Crusade actually is the one to initiate a hug with Bulkhead, he’s the biggest and warmest and somehow is always happy to see them. Plus he tells cool recaps of Earth films and gifts them strange blobish paintings every now and then, all of which Crusade doesn’t exactly understand, but at least the colors are pretty.

Bee is annoying,,,which is what Crusade would say if confronted if they actually liked all the shenanigans Bee suggest they pull together, prank wars to the max, sparring for fun, video games?, DOUGHNUTS and RACES in the fortress halls??? Ahem. they are a super serious soldier, not a hooligan. But honestly, Bee is the one they seek out the most should they need an adventure, they missed out on a lot of this ‘fun’ growing up on the Nemesis—Bee seems to know how to balance a day of soldiering and dumbassery. sometimes.

Ratchet reminds them a bit too much of their Carrier than they’d care to admit. The medic is an old soul to his very core, perpetually tired but quick to snap into work mode, and sweet if you reallllllly squint. Sadie has been taught from day one to always respect medics, Ratchet obviously takes the cake on I’ve Seen Some Shit and for that alone Crusade both fears and admires Ratchet. Again, growing up on the Nemesis they didn’t have too many bots willing to talk much with them—but Ratchet (after he’s gone through his own lot of therapy, him AND Arcee. good lord) has a never ending pile of stories to share with them. Ratchet may throw in a few more colorful curses than necessary—which is SURPRISING bc Crusade thought they’d heard them all back home, but he’s entertaining and tells Crusade how it is, no sugarcoating. For that Crusade is grateful, there’s been too many half-truths thrown about to them in their recent years :’)

Ghost Prowl freaks them out—why does he deliberately have to be so sneaky?? Crusade has only met Prowl a fleeting handful of times (visits from the Allspark come with meaning, you know) and each time Crusade has been given nothing but odd riddles and poetic nonsense. Kidding. Prowl does like his wordplay’s but his given advice is always well meaning—the most firm and direct message Crusade has been passed though was probably most definitely “ Get those two cowards for mecha you call your Creator’s to stop fooling around with each other and SPEAK—at this rate it’s physically paining me that they haven’t begun Ritus and they’re not getting any younger”

Team Prime adores Sadie, they ask Megatron to see their sparkling photos every chance they catch him. And Crusade. hates it.

:) have

We’ve been here before, haven’t we?

#my art #cybertron’s legacy au #transformers #megop #lots to unpack #tarn is big and purple and very much a sip for megatron this has been established #simp*#also he’s HUUGE #Pharma has a nice role in this au but mostly it’s some other rouge cons #mostly dear Trepan and his big bully of a husband >:3 #WE GOT SOME HOMAGE TO TFP HELL YEAHHHHHHHH GET READY. it’s gonna be darker for sure but ohohoohohooo can’t wait #Sadie is to OLD to call their mom Carrier UGH.#very sad and very much not true #but the title is still there and every now and then a ‘Carrier’ will be thrown out #team prime all would love Sadie #it would take a min for Sadie to warm up but they’ll fit right in :) little band of misfits #and finally #a re draw of one of my fav megop peices ive done #look how far they’ve come 😭😭#tfa tarn #tfa Pharma #tfa trepan #tfa megop #transformers animated #tfa optimus prime #tfa megatron

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animeomegas · 3 years

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Visual Novels/Otome games recommendations

Here are some of my favourite games! I’ll include the name, price, some info, and where you can find it, along with my favourite routes and route recommendations!

1. Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (DEMO)

This is one of my all time favourite games. I’m not kidding when I say that if the full game came out tomorrow priced at like £150, I’d cut back on my food budget until I could afford it. There’s so much replayability, and although I’ve played countless hours again and again, I still occasionally find new secrets and dialogue.

You play as a delegate for a fictional country of your choice at an event in a neutral castle where you must find a marriage partner (political arrangement, love match or scandalous affair) and help mediate between opposing countries in a world on the brink of a war. Oh, and also survive. Yes, you can die in this game, but if you aren’t about that, you can play the story mode. You survive through your own skills and/or by making alliances.

There’s so much more to it than that, but I don’t want to spoil anything.

MC: Female by default, no artwork, but extremely customisable as far as traits, outfits, body type, skin colour, hair and backstory goes. There are multiple MCs to choose from, I believe it is currently 4-6 (?) with an extra 3 ish released when the full game comes out. You can play as any and every type of person with this game, it’s unbelievable!

PRICE: Free (full game will cost a fair amount if I remember what the creator said, but the demo is very long and completely free)

ROUTE RECS: Both male and female love interests! There are about 7/8 main love interests, some hidden, a couple of side romances and a couple of political matches too.

Duke Lyon is my all time favourite. He’s an incredibly intelligent but socially awkward duke who only agreed to turn up to make use of the extensive library and spends the rest of his time standing in the corner of parties being grumpy. With a strong moral code and the world’s most adorable blush (that’s easy to tease out of him) he’s absolutely my favourite.

But maybe you’d prefer the ever cheerful Earl Emmett, with a personality like sunshine and a love for travel and plants? Or Ana, the warrior princess who is very upset by the event’s ban on weaponry (although she makes do with using bread as a projectile). There’s so many to choose from!

There are also many friendship routes you can take which provide some of the best content!!

DOWNSIDES: The game is still not finished, so there are some grammar errors and the background art is a little lacking in some places, but honestly, it’s easy to ignore. I will say the major downside is how long the game is taking to complete. Although it’s still being developed and is in the final stages, the creator is active very rarely and I’ve been waiting for the game for half a decade now. It’s still really worth it though, and it’s not left on a cliff-hanger, so that’s good lol.

WHERE TO FIND: The extended demo is up until week 5 of the game and I know that the forums where this was hosted have been down for a while, but I actually have copies of the game files, both mac and pc, so send me a private message if you’re interested in the extended demo and I will share the files 😉

...

2. Ebon Light (Complete)

I followed the progress of this game very attentively as it was being developed. It has a very dark concept, and believe me, you will probably die at least a few dies, I certainly did.

You play as a poor woman living in the woods with her aunt, foraging for food, living that old timey life, when abruptly things take a turn and you end up on a hostile island full of very attractive but terrifying elves, most of who want to murder you for being human. But fear not, there are ways to keep your place, you just have to have the skills to pull them off without meeting a sticky end.

MC: Female by default but with multiple hairs, skin colours and eye colours.

PRICE: Free - the full game is completely free!

ROUTE RECS: Vadeyn is my favourite. He’s a competent soldier who wishes he lived anywhere but the militant country where he does. He is often bullied for being ‘soft’ for his pacifist tendencies. And he’s very pretty so....

But, maybe you’d prefer Haron, a cheeky and curious man who wants to learn more about humans. Or maybe his older brother Ernol, who is cold and withdrawn and in some serious denial about falling in love with a human? There are 5 love interests to choose from.

DOWNSIDES: The romance and gameplay is really good, but there is a side plot about magic that gets ignored as a result. The mystery of the magical poison is a bit blah, but if you’re here for the romance and the political intrigue/survival, then you probably won’t care. But it’s free so, yeah!

WHERE TO FIND: https://underbliss.itch.io/ebon-light

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3. Changeling (Complete)

I had been watching this game for some time but couldn’t afford to pay full price when I was a teenager, but luckily, it was added to the racial equality bundle on Itchi.io for $5, so I managed to snag it cheap, which is no longer an option. I played through all the routes in three days where I did nothing but play this lol.

You play as a high school girl who is moving back to her hometown for the end of school after having been living in the city for a while. But strange things start happening and she ends up in a club full of... interesting people. I don’t want to spoil anymore, but the game is seriously big!

When I first played, I thought that there was going to be a lot of overlap between routes which would ruin the replayability, but no! Apart from a very small prologue, every route is entirely different with different dialogue, different plots, different side characters. It’s crazy! That really helps justify the price I think, because the gameplay lasts a very long time.

MC: Female, name is customisable, but that’s it.

PRICE: $19.99

ROUTE RECS: William the human psychic is an easy pick for my favourite. He’s shy and spends a lot of time on his own, but he’s also dedicated and dealing with a lot in his life outside of school. He’s the sweetest character by far, and I love him :)

But I also really liked Corvin the blond clutz who couldn’t stay on his own two feet if his life depended on it, and Elliot, a not so secret hopeless romantic with a pretty awkward but hilarious sense of humour.

There are 6 (? ish) routes to play.

DOWNSIDES: Sometimes the main character can be frustrating but it’s definitely in character and makes sense for a high school student, so it’s not a plot hole, it’s just teenagers like this that refuse to ask for help are very annoying. The price is a big one too, obviously, it would be too much for some people. There isn’t a demo, so be careful about spending money on my recommendation, be sure you actually want it. But if you happened to be one of the many people who bought the racial equality bundle from itch.io, then you’ll already have this game! If that’s the case, give it a shot!

WHERE TO FIND: https://steamberry.itch.io/changeling

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4. The Letter

This is a visual novel, one with a horror theme! I loved this game so much, the way the game branched was so interesting! I remember thinking the game must have been super easy, because I kept the character alive the first time around, but a lot of my decisions were made on a whim with no real reason. I replayed it with opposite choices and oh boy. Turns out I was just lucky lmao.

I love love love the art for this game, and the deaths are really gruesome and impactful.

You play as the entire cast, going through the story of 7(?) ish people and unravelling the story in a non chronological, but easy to follow timeline. It’s a lot of reading and not much gameplay (emphasis the visual novel part) but the choices all have far reaching effects on the story. There are many times where I got caught up in the lives and dramas of the characters and then was completely caught of guard when I was suddenly having to press keys in the right order to escape a horrific monster that was slowly crawling towards me. Terrifying!

MC: None, you play as every character.

PRICE: £14.99

ROUTE RECS: None, there are no traditional routes, although there are romance subplots if you choose to get the characters together. There is also a huge walkthrough available if you’re interested in that.

DOWNSIDES: The voice acting is painful! Because it’s an entirely American cast trying to do a variety of accents. Some are good, for those who know her, AmaLee sings the opening and voices one of the characters, she’s really good. But hearing Americans do Scottish accents is really.... tough on the ears. Maybe if you aren’t British like me you could stomach it, but I played with the voices off. I didn’t find that took away from my experience though! Also, there is a lot of reading!

WHERE TO FIND: https://store.steampowered.com/app/460430/The_Letter__Horror_Visual_Novel/

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5. Tailor Tales (Some routes complete, others in progress)

This game is one where every route is a completely separate story, so even if the whole game isn't complete, your experience will be. I’ve actually only played one character, Dimitri, because he’s the only submissive love interest that’s out at the moment (although an even more explicit submissive character is in the works for some time over the next few years.)

My favourite part of this game, is that you can choose between king and fierce responses every time you have a choice. And the fierce responses aren’t mean, they’re just more forward, and I love that!

(Dimitri’s route) You play as an owner of a new boutique who bumps into her ex boyfriend’s little brother who is in desperate need for a place to stay. And you have a spare room and could use some help cooking and cleaning. Shenanigans ensue.

MC: Female, can’t choose backstory but I think I remember skin tone and hair and eye customisation.

PRICE: Free!! (The other submissive route I mentioned is going to be priced because of explicit content, but the current routes are free. You do have to play a mini game in between chapters to earn coins to get the next chaoter, but it doesn’t take long and isn’t that hard. If you want to skip that, and also get an extended epilogue and some extra nsfw content, you can buy the premium version, which costs £1.99.

ROUTE RECS: Dimitri, obviously haha. There are two other routes I think? I haven’t played them, because the LIs are a bit too dom for me, but you still get the kind vs fierce options, and I’ve heard that the MCs are still pretty good! I haven’t played them though.

DOWNSIDES: The mini games in-between chapters can be annoying, but it’s cheap to get rid of them. But, it’s free/cheap and really cute to fluster Dimitri!!

WHERE TO FIND: https://store.steampowered.com/app/939330/Tailor_Tales/

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6. When the Night Comes

This was one I really don’t remember paying for? But I looked it up and it costs money? Maybe I hallucinated it lmao.

Either way, I really enjoyed a couple of the routes for this game, and the general story was pretty good too! If I remember it correctly, there were two character that were switches, so you could choose to lead or be led. I loved that!

MC: Customizable pronouns, male and female romances (mostly male I think)

PRICE: $12.99

ROUTE RECS: I remember Ezra being my favourite by far, I definitely played the rest of them, but the story is the same each time, so I wasn’t as invested. I can’t remember much about anyone else haha.

DOWNSIDES: Limited replayability because main story is the same each time. I also don’t remember the game lasting that long. If you have the money, it’d probably be worth it, but I wouldn’t suggest you save up unless you’re very interested in it.

WHERE TO FIND: https://lunarisgames.itch.io/wtnc

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7. The Wayhaven Chronicles

This is an interactive story, not a visual novel or otome game, but I think it’s amazing and I’d love to recommend it!

This is a series of interactve novels, only two are out so far, but I believe there’s supposed to be like 7 or something crazy.

You play as a detective in a small town where mysterious things have started to happen. Then, an equally mysterious team of agents rolls in to help you solve the mystery.

As an interactive novel, everything is insanely customisable! I’m waiting for the third one right now and I’m so excited that it might be out this year!

MC: Customisable pronouns, height, hair, clothes, food tastes, interior design, familial relationships, personality etc. Everything! Love interests are also customisable as male or female or a mix of both. There are four love interests.

PRICE: I think it’s £3.99 per book? You can play the first few chapters for free though, to see if you like it!

ROUTE RECS: Nate! (Or Nat) is my favourite by far, I love him. He’s an intelligent, caring man who is a little oblivious at times. If you’re looking for some pain too, you can play a love triangle route too, which is full of pain! It’s great!

DOWNSIDES: Because of the rules of the website, you can’t save your progress until the next book is almost finished. So, you do end up having to replay the books sometimes to prepare for the new books.

WHERE TO FIND: https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/wayhaven-chronicles-1/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/800600/Wayhaven_Chronicles_Book_One/

...

Phew, I’ve definitely missed some off of there, but I don’t want to write any more haha. I’ll make another one some time soon maybe? If you have any questions about these games or have also played them and want to chat, or you have recs for me, let me know!! <3333

#recs #otome game recs #game recs #visual novels #recommendations

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pikapeppa · 2 years

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Oh hey it’s me again! I am one of the ones that had gushed about how amazing your Chamomile and Gwent series is. Little did I know… there were two more installments! I kid you not, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been religiously pacing it out, reading a little bit as a treat every time I need a break and I am just past the middle of the last installment! Once again, wow! Thanks for sharing this - there is something about the way you write Geralt that is somehow realistic and kind of believable for a ‘dreamboat guy’ if you know what I mean. And you know what? I finally downloaded Steam for Mac and got myself Witcher 3! I got to know about the Witcher through the Netflix series and as a past avid gamer, I wanted to dive into the game yet never did it for fear or losing oodles of time ahah. So now I have it, planning to play it in easy mode over the Xmas holidays - thanks to you! And I wish I had the time to read the whole book series cos once again - your work gives a wonderful glimpse at how complex and amazing the worldbuilding is - so I think these folks should pay you handsomely for your free marketing! Jokes aside, I feel your work makes fanfic stand out in all the best possible ways. Way to go! Have you ever thought of branching out on original stories, thinking of getting published? I’d buy your work! <3 <3 <3

This whole comment is JUST SO, SO INCREDIBLY NICE. First and foremost, just THANK YOU for taking the time to leave such wonderful words!!! You absolutely made my day! 😭❤❤❤🙏

I hope you love TW3!! I'm looking forward to the next-gen patch release so I can see his handsome face on my PS5, so maybe we'll be playing at the same time during December! 🥰 I also play on easy mode so I can enjoy the game without sweating or dying a million times LOL!

As for original fic: I honestly just love writing fanfic so much and I don't have any major interest in writing anything original! My fiance and I have talked about writing a sci-fi/romance together where he would basically provide the worldbuilding and plot bones while I deal with the romance and the actual writing, but it's always been more hypothetical than anything because I'm constantly busy writing fictional sex for other properties' fictional men 😂😂😂 I will throw it out there that I have a Kofi in case you want to throw me some money, but honestly, messages like this one are worth more than money to me 😂❤

Finally, assuming that it was also you who wrote to me about Brian K. Vaughan's Saga series? I had never heard of this! But it's mostly because I don't read a lot of graphic novels - The Watchmen is literally the only one, although now I'm reading the Sailor Moon manga and reliving my childhood in ways that my childhood self could NEVER have fully appreciated and having the time of my life LOL!

Thank you again for this wonderful message, and I hope this rambly reply does it justice! 🥰

For anyone who's curious, my Geralt/Reader series, Chamomile and Gwent, is here on AO3! 600k+ words, 3 fics, all NSFW.

-- tons of love from your friendly neighbourhood Pika! xoxo

#fanfic writer's life #pikapeppa writes #geralt of rivia #the witcher #the witcher 3 #tw3 #geralt x reader #geralt/reader #geralt/you #geralt x you #geralt x y/n #geralt smut

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zaharadessert · 2 years

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The Heart of the Saviour (7/12)

Rating: Mature to start with, some later chapters will probably end up being explicit.

Warnings: Abduction, Ransom, Mortal Peril.

Summary: One night, in every corner of every magical realm, every boy aged nine to seventeen disappeared. Not one remained. That was when Pan made himself known to the realms, and from that night the eve of every boy’s ninth birthday meant their disappearance, until finally the realms demanded to know what he wanted to return their children to them. Pan told them he wanted the saviour, and while most realms were confused Snow and David knew what he meant and confessed the role their daughter was supposed to have played in breaking the curse. The realms voted and agreed to Pan’s terms, and Pan stopped taking the realms sons, holding the children he’d currently taken as insurance of their compliance.

For the next fifteen years Emma’s birthday wasn’t a celebration, it was another tick on the countdown clock to the end of her freedom. Not that she was ever free in the first place, but to save every male child in the United Realms including her younger brother, Leo… She understood that she had a job to do, and she would do her duty with her head held high. What she didn’t count on was the sparkling blue eyes of the man Pan sends to escort her to Neverland in time for her twenty-first birthday.

Notes: Moving on from the last cliffhanger, I'd like to thank everyone who has commented and let me know what they think about the story so far. I've loved some of the theories about what Pan wants from Emma (some of which I never considered so that was fun!) but none of you are right so far! Thank you again to @kmomof4 for betaing this absolute monster... though I have to say how incredibly proud of myself I am for making you break out of your beta-head mode with hate for Pan. Ooops? Thanks to the @neverlandnewyear mods for running the event! Things are still pretty dire for the next couple of chapters, so please do be prepared for mind games and manipulation. Enjoy?! Link to AO3 is down there somewhere!

Tagging: @jrob64 @xhookswenchx @kmomof4 @wefoundloveunderthelight @superchocovian @lfh1226-linda @teamhook @jonesfandomfanatic @tiganasummertree @onceratheart18 @snowbellewells @karlyfr13s @itsfabianadocarmo @ouatpost @ultraluckycatnd @winterbaby89 @thepirateandhisson @xarandomdreamx @xsajx @captainswan21 @spaceconveyor @pirateprincessofpizza @sparlecorn93 @hollyethecurious @anmylica

As always, let me know if you’d like me to add you to my taglist for future fics :)

- - - - -

“I’m sorry, Tink,” he hissed, turning to look at her, seeing the tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry too, Hook,” she replied, and he could see the misery and regret in her eyes now, realising she’d been wearing a mask all these years, just like he had. “I should have told you to run while you had the chance.” She let out a cough, groaning as the vines tightened around her chest too.

“What, lass? Leave you here to deal with Pan on your own? Not bloody likely,” he told her with a groan.

“Who knew pirates could be sentimental,” Roland snarked, coughing as he did so.

“Who knew royal guards could be such upstart, insufferable whelps,” he growled back.

“Upstart?” Roland challenged.

“Aye, because apparently you have just as many regrets as we do…” Killian panted as the vine tightened even more.

“But I…” Roland ground out, his voice choked and strained. “I don’t…” he admitted and Killian, with a vine now around his neck restricting his movement, strained to look at the boy. “I may have made mistakes, but all of them got me here, doing everything I can to save Emma. How can I regret that?” he explained.

“Then fight you imbecile, you’re the only one who can!” Killian rasped breathlessly against the press of the vine at his neck.

Killian could feel Roland pulling against the vines, felt as if something in the magic holding them there started to give, and suddenly, the crushing pressure around his chest and neck was gone, and he could breathe.

He and Tink stumbled away from the tree. Killian caught himself on a nearby rock and coughed violently at the sudden influx of oxygen making his head swim. After a minute or so, Killian looked up at Roland who had recovered a hell of a lot quicker than either he or Tink.

“What are you waiting for? Up you go…” he said, gesturing at the tree with his empty brace.

“Uh, what am I looking for?” Roland asked as he started to plan his way up the enormous tree.

“Bright pink flower in a cluster of bright green leaves. Pick one and bring the whole thing down,” Tink told him.

“And you two are just going to sit here and wait?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at them.

“No, I’m going to look for my hook,” Killian replied testily. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that Roland was the only one of them who could get up the tree without the risk of being strangled by murderous vines, Killian would have wondered why the hell they’d brought him along.

He was sure Roland wasn’t a complete idiot, but he couldn’t help wondering exactly where his smarts lay for asking all of these bloody stupid questions.

He watched Roland for a moment, sitting on the rock with Tink next to him as they continued to catch their breath. Killian's arm was throbbing worse than before now, but he wasn’t going to admit it, not even to Tink who was looking at him almost knowingly.

“What it must be like to not have regrets,” she mused aloud.

“I don’t think I’ve ever not regretted anything,” he replied darkly, melancholy sinking into his bones.

Even after all this, even if they did manage to save Emma, she would still deserve better than him. He was nothing but a broken pirate with a drinking problem. Why would she want him when she could have someone healthy and whole and unburdened, like Roland?

With a scowl firmly set in his features, he pushed himself to his feet and started to comb the dirt and brush on the side of the clearing where Pan had so carelessly thrown his hook. They heard Roland whoop with victory from up the tree, and Killian rolled his eyes. Did he want to call Pan back here, letting him know they’d survived?

Roland was halfway back down the tree when Killian was finally locking the hook into its place in his brace with a relieved sigh. He was glad he’d found it. He’d felt incomplete without it there despite the fact that when he could see it, it only served to remind him of the myriad of mistakes that littered his past.

Roland’s boots hit the ground with a thud and he held out the flower to Tink with a smile.

“Good job, kid,” she said with a smile as she pulled a small cloth out of her pocket. She wrapped the flower up into a pouch secured with a strip of leather which she then put back in her pocket. “Okay, where to now?” she asked.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Tiger Lily?” Roland asked, but Killian shook his head.

“If we’re here, alive, when he brings her back, he’ll just try and stop us again. If we’re already gone, he’ll just try and be cryptic about it, like he planned for us to escape. And there’s always the chance we didn’t get what we came for…” he reasoned. Pan would be angry and they risked a swift death if they were here to face it.

“He’s right,” Tink offered. “We’d best get started. It’ll be dark soon and we’ll need to make camp and get some rest before long,” she added and turned to lead them back out of the pixie woods in the direction of Pan’s camp.

Killian couldn’t help but wonder what Pan had Tiger Lily doing, when she would find her way back to them, if she ever did. He just hoped that they weren’t heading in the wrong direction to find Emma, that Pan hadn’t decided to keep her somewhere other than his camp.

- - - - -

Read the rest on AO3

#cs ff #neverland new year #neverland au #ZaharaDessert writes #Heart of the Saviour #Captain Swan #killian jones #captain hook #emma swan #princess emma #captain swan fanfiction #cliffhangers galore #hate pan not me!#NLNY2022 #CSNLNY

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makeste · 3 years

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BnHA Chapter 313: Deku VS Lady Nagant

Previously on BnHA: Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai Lady Nagant showed up to fire a cupid’s arrow into my heart, and a bunch of literal bullets into my son. Deku was all “oh shit it’s Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai, what do I do, let me think back to Hawks’s advice for a sec.” Flashback!Hawks was all “anyway Deku so if my super-hot badass murder senpai ever shows up you’re basically screwed so you’d better abscond the fuck out of there.” Present!Deku was all “lol idek why I flashed back to that conversation since I’m just going to do the exact opposite of what Hawks said” and charged directly toward Nagant because WHY NOT. Overhaul was all “waah I need to get back to my boss who I put in a coma out of love” and Nagant was all “jesus christ why did I even bring you here” and had a flashback to AFO who was all “ILU NAGANT IMMA GIVE YOU AN EXTRA QUIRK SO PLEASE CAPTURE DEKU FOR ME PLEASE AND THANKS” and yeah. Shit is all over the place right now and I love it.

Today on BnHA: All Might gets attacked by a pair of discount assassins and is all “Call an ambulance! ...BUT NOT FOR ME” and it’s really badass but also I really wish he would stop tempting fate like this. Lady Nagant is all “[casually flies around town shooting shit]” and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t read an entire chapter of just that. Deku is all, “[gets shot (≥_<)]” and releases a giant Smokescreen which prompts En to show up. En is all, “( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) (⌣̀ Δ⌣́) ( •̀_•́ )σ (¬､¬) (눈_눈)” which I consider to be a high point of both the chapter and of my life. The chapter ends with Deku using the Third’s quirk to launch a bunch of random objects at Nagant so that he can jump up and grab her arm all sneaky-like, and I’m sure this is going to prompt another week’s worth of discourse that I don’t care about at all, but fuck it, I’m having a good time.

OH WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO ALL MIGHT WELL THAT’S NICE I GUESS. CONGRATS ON NOT BEING DEAD

you named your car??

you named it Hercules??

I love you so much??

please marry me you giant fucking dork???

lmao speaking of huge fucking dorks

who the fuck are you clowns. la dee da we’re gonna murder All Might with our synchronized spear attack!! I mean... they’re clearly trying their best... maybe I should just be nice and politely hype them up like All Might is so clearly trying to do

like okay, but we all agree that this is actually the least intimidating attack any of us has ever seen, right?? these guys zipped up their hoodies all serious-like and are trying to attack All Might and Hercules with their Walmart tiki torches, but just, no?? right?? like the only way this could possibly be effective is if they were trying to kill All Might with secondhand embarrassment

“those are assassins” this is a VERY generous assessment, All Might

OH MY GOD THE TIKI TORCHES ACTUALLY KILLED THE FUCK OUT OF HERCULES

[slaps roof of car] this baby can fit so many weaponized festive backyard lighting solutions in it

and yet, even after watching this with my own two eyes, I still can’t take these dudes seriously. idek what it is. anyways r.i.p. Hercules, I loved you a lot but I guess you weren’t actually a very good armored car were you

omg they didn’t know it was All Might??

okay 1) for a moment there I was like “oh hey maybe they’re not so bad after all” but then a moment later it was like “ah nope, they are.” like, that was an interesting .06 second emotional journey there. anyways 2) All Might you have my permission to kick their asses for this disrespect, and 3) anyone else all of a sudden getting “wouldn’t this be an interesting time for Stain to suddenly show up” vibes?? no?? just me???

(ETA: hmm tbh I’ve still got those vibes and they haven’t gone away lol. Stain?? you out there buddy?? do you want to be cool for just once in your life. ball’s in your court pal.)

OH SNAP ALL MIGHT ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DO IT ARE YOU GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES

PROTECTIVE DAD MODE ACTIVATED?? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, SO YEAH, FEEL FREE

omg he’s shouting at them about how much Deku has suffered lmao and they’re just like falling over from being scolded

so they have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about though, right? “SIR THIS IS A WENDY’S” well whatever, you killed his pet car so he’s in a bad mood now

OH MY GOD

LIKE, JUST SO WE’RE ALL CLEAR, THESE FOUR PAGES SO FAR HAVE MADE ALMOST ZERO SENSE. LIKE MAYBE 2% SENSE TOPS. BUT ASK ME IF I CARE. GO AHEAD AND ASK. I SAID GO AHEAD, IT’S OKAY. ...NO I DON’T CARE AT ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

(ETA: also, the more I look at this panel, the more I’m just like, why the hell would you phrase it like that though, sob. way to doubly tempt fate?? are you trying to give Horikoshi a challenge??)

and now back to Deku who is randomly bouncing around the city and narrating it to himself just in case he was confused about why he was doing this

who are you talking to Deku. but thanks we appreciate it

man you gotta love that overconfidence. the smartest guy in the world warned you away from this lady, so SURE, LET’S RUN RIGHT UP TO HER. “I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT, FLASHBACK!HAWKS, BUT I’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” well okay then!!

I think it would be funny if RHA.com put little Buzzfeed-style polls in between the chapter pages so they could survey people at random intervals as they read their way through the chapter. like, you finish this page and then there’s a little poll there asking “do you think Deku’s plan of catching up to Lady Nagant and finding out where Shigaraki is will work?”, and you click “no” just like everyone else and then nod as the results show that 97% of your fellow readers also picked “no”, and you chuckle to yourself wondering how many of the 3% accidentally clicked on the wrong option by mistake, and then you keep on reading

ANYWAY, SO

HOW’S THAT PLAN WORKING OUT FOR YOU SO FAR DEKU. nice kick, though!!

omggggggg

ouch

update: Deku’s plan not really working out. sources tell me my boy has been fucking shot. this is an ongoing story and we will keep you posted with the latest developments as they come in

wait what

feel free to explain to the rest of us what all of this “UNLESS...” and “THAT POSSIBILITY...” shit means anytime, Deku

oh lol did he realize she could fly??

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE, CNN’s John King reports that Deku is still fucked. eyewitness reports now coming in that Nagant is doing no-look shots and basically not even giving a fuck. sources described her mannerisms and expression as “sexy, but in like an effortless sort of way.” we will continue to bring you the latest

so now there’s basically an entire page of Deku being all “ah fuck so she’s basically closing in and she could already hit me with impossible accuracy even from Far Away, so if that’s the case then her being Up Close is probably going to be even worse!” making good use of that Big Hero Brain there, Deku

so now what, you’re doing some kind of spiraling kick thing?? how is that going to help

oh lol he’s using Smokescreen to create some cover. aww, good for you Deku you named one of your Smokescreen attacks

OH NO LADY DON’T TELL ME AFO DIDN’T EVEN FILL YOU IN ON THE BASICS

seriously, AFO?? you basically told her what Deku’s exact strategy was going to be but then couldn’t be assed to drop that little, small, barely notable piece of knowledge that Deku is rocking multiple quirks?? is it supposed to be a secret or something?? you dropped the ball here man

damn this is getting intense now

(ETA: the way En is poking Deku’s head in that first panel is fucking sending me, I love this guy so much omg.)

well then what are you planning, Deku?? I’m actually really curious!! I am genuinely starting to be invested in this fight scene not only in the “wanting to see who wins and how that impacts the plot” sense, but also in the “wanting to see how it happens because the choreography and strategy is actually pretty cool” sense, which honestly hasn’t happened for quite a while now! this is fun

anyway so what’s up Deku, are you going to use another quirk?? I’ve been speculating that he hasn’t actually unlocked the last two yet (since Two and Three didn’t exactly seem convinced when we last saw them), but maybe I’m about to be proven wrong

(ETA: well he clearly has Three’s obviously, but Two’s is still MIA, and that’s the one I am of course the most curious about. that’s the one we’re all curious about, let’s be real.)

OH SNAP???

AHHHH I’M HYPED LOL. ANOTHER SHINY NEW QUIRK LOL SHOULD I PUT UP THE USUAL DISCOURSE DISCLAIMER

(ETA: so yeah, after thinking on it, I’m not gonna say “please no Deku discourse on my blog” this week, but I probably will ignore any discourse that does come my way though, just because I don’t have much interest in getting involved in what would probably be a pretty repetitive discussion. like, I can just sum up my opinions (which is what they are) here instead. in fact here they are lol:

1) I like the SIXQUIRKS and I like seeing Deku be a badass.

2) I also don’t think Deku is too OP. more like he’s exactly as OP as he needs to be at the moment, given that we’re approaching the end of the series. I expect the other kids will also be pretty damn OP when we see them fight again. we’re just at that point now where they’re all badasses (as well they should be; they’ve grown a lot and they deserve it). it’s just that Deku’s the one we’re getting to see right now.

3) of course I miss Kacchan and the others, but for me this vibes much closer to the MVA arc where even though I missed them, I was still having a blast (as opposed to the dark days of the Basement arc where I was pretty much losing it lol). like, even though Kacchan’s my favorite, I still love Deku a lot and this arc has been amazing for him getting to shine on his own (for like the first time, really).

4) y’all know I love the OFA plot and I’ve never been shy about that lol. I like all of the Vestiges a lot. Banjou and his over the top personality; En and his “guy you thought would be serious and :| all the time but is actually hyper-animated and ALL OVER THE PLACE” energy; Shiro who actually is a :| sort of guy lol; Three who I still expect will be fleshed out in a more detailed flashback at some point; and of course Two, who, well. you know what I think about him lol. Bakuverse is still on the table and I’m still hyped. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we still have yet to see Two actually talk to Deku (as opposed to talking to the other Vestiges while Deku is distracted). did he lend him his power yet?? or is he still holding out?? either way it’s definitely going to be a Big Thing when it finally happens and I can’t wait to see it.

5) Lady Nagant is Everything and just because Deku grabbed her arm doesn’t mean the fight is over yet lol. Overhaul hasn’t come into play yet either. not to mention that even if the fight is over, the “where do we go from here” part still has me excited either way. her connection to Hawks and the HPSC is very intriguing and we’ve barely touched on that as of yet; she definitely has more of a role to play in this.

6) last but not least, I feel like every week the discussion is all about how much focus Deku’s getting, and how OP he is or isn’t, and OFA this and OFA that, but meanwhile I’m actually so invested in the character development here though?? the way Deku has distanced himself from everyone (except for the Vestiges, because of course they’re already dead so it’s not like they can die again lol)?? the way he’s pushing himself far too hard and we can see the shadows in and under his eyes, and the fact that he never smiles, and even All Might has remarked on how he isn’t taking care of himself at all?? the fact that he’s so single-mindedly obsessed with focused on stopping AFO?? the fact that he’s still the same sweet old Deku despite everything and was so kind to that fox lady with the umbrella, but there was also something so sad about that scene because it felt like a reminder of the type of hero that he wants to be, but that he’s not allowed to be right now?? because the stakes are too high and the world is falling apart?? and he feels like he’s the only one who can do something about it?? and that he has to be?? and that he is putting so much pressure on himself right now, and it’s absolutely too much pressure for any one person to bear, and I feel like no one is fucking talking about this lol goddammit.

anyway so yeah. I have feels about this, and every week that slow-burn angst is getting more and more intense behind the scenes, and I feel like it’s all going to hit a breaking point eventually. sooner rather than later. it really feels like a mirror of Katsuki’s post-Kamino arc. where all that angst was just churning below the surface for like twenty chapters and then it finally was like “okay it’s time” and it all came bursting out and we got the best five chapters of the fucking series (in my admittedly biased estimation lol).

basically, I know that most of fandom is billing this as either the “villain hunt” arc or the “solo Deku SIXQUIRKS fighting arc” or whatever. but for me, it’s always been and still is the Deku Angst arc lol. the cool fights are a sexy bonus (the worldbuilding less so because even though it’s interesting to see society at such a low point, it’s also very depressing and gets old pretty fast), but for me the thing that’s really keeping me engaged chapter after chapter is seeing Deku like we’ve never seen him before. seeing him all quiet and withdrawn and brooding and focused on AFO, AFO, AFO, and seeing that “he just doesn’t take himself into account” mentality taken to extremes. I am invested in that. I’m soaking up that angst each and every week, and I’m invested in seeing what comes of it. it’s a big picture thing. week to week this arc might just seem like a bunch of villain fight scenes, sure. but Deku’s emotional journey is the thread that’s going to carry this arc through from beginning to end, and for that I’m willing to be patient.

anyway that turned into a BIG OL’ RANT there but yeah! so those are my thoughts on the disk horse as it currently stands. and like I said, I’m open to discussion, but tbh I will probably just wind up repeating these same talking points endlessly so just a fair warning lol.)

anyway so Three says Deku has yet to use his quirk at ALL but now he’s trying to combine it with another quirk?? damn. also please check out En’s face here you guys

En launching a sneak attack up my favorite character list by the sheer power of his expressions alone. he really knows how to make the most of his screentime

OH DAMN DEKU

at this point the 3% from that hypothetical poll earlier are starting to feel prettttty damn smug, I’ll bet. well shit

what in the fuck

?? so like releasing his chi or whatnot?? isn’t that basically just like base OFA all over again?? also Deku did you seriously just apologize to Gran’s cape

update: Nagant has turned her eyeball into a gun

hm. hmmmmmmm. ...okay yep, still somehow sexy

anyway so she’s just floating up there building suspense, as one does. lord I sure hope she has good reflexes because something tells me she’s going to need them

OH SNAP HE THREW GRAN’S CAPE AS A DECOY WHAAAAT OKAY THAT’S SOME SMART SHIT DEKU

LOL SHE’S MAD NOW

JESUS CHRIST SHE JUST NEVER TAKES A GODDAMN BREAK FROM BEING AWESOME HUH

DEKU ARE YOU JUST THROWING EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR INVENTORY

but without the cape and the hood how will you continue to look like an enigmatic badass. you really can’t. which means we might finally be moving on from the wandering nomad part of this arc, stay tuned

LOL YOU MANIAC

I hope he went full Kacchan with the dialogue there. his face sure looks like it lol. popped out of a building all mad fdskljlkj omg

well this was fun, shit. I still have basically no idea what Three’s quirk does though lol. like, can he use it to charge up objects with kinetic energy or something?? but then what was all of that talk about combining it with one of the other quirks?? or was that just because he was using Smokescreen at the same time??

(ETA: having seen and read an additional half-dozen explanations of Three’s quirk, I can say with confidence that I still have basically no idea what it is or does.)

anyway so!! Deku is a badasssssss but something tells me not to count Nagant out just yet even so. also I really enjoy seeing Deku flip out on people like he doesn’t have a fucking hole in his torso because it reminds me of A CERTAIN SOMEONE and I always love to see him channeling that feral energy; I feel like it’s been a while

anyways good luck to you both!! I truly wish that both of you could win. but if not, then maybe you can at least become friends instead. you have so much in common, you both can fly and have multiple quirks and you’re both badasses, and plus it would just be really funny to see the look on Hawks’s face lmao

#bnha 313 #midoriya izuku #lady nagant #bnha meta #deku meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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arrantsnowdrop · 3 years

Text

To be a Jedi - Anakin Skywalker x Reader

Request: “anakin/female!reader getting together fic that involves reader crying because she’s feeling self-conscious about her appearance and feeling worthless and anakin comforting her and calming her down and then accidentally confessing to her?”

Tags: @lothloriien

Warnings: self-deprecation, insecurities, etc. (~2,500 words)

~~~~~

Being a Jedi really sucked sometimes.

Not all the time. In fact, you normally enjoyed the fast-paced, demanding lifestyle you led. Even as a youngling you had taken pride in the ritual and responsibility of being a Jedi, and now, as a Padawan on the verge of facing the Jedi trials, you were more confident than ever that the Force had led you down the right path.

But that didn’t mean you didn’t have bad days every once in a while.

Your Master had been called away on some highly classified mission in the Naboo system, so you’d been spending the week at the Jedi Temple working on some independent research and participating in training sessions with the other senior Padawans. Unfortunately, they were focusing on lightsaber combat this week - something you were definitely not as skilled at considering your specialization in negotiation and communications.

It wasn’t that you were unathletic - you were training to be a Jedi for crying out loud - but it was hard not to feel a little self-conscious about how much you were struggling with the training exercises, especially when your assigned training partner was none other than Anakin Skywalker.

It was just past midday - you’d been training for hours already and still had a few to go. The sun was blaring down on the courtyard where you and the other Padawans were sparring under Obi-Wan’s supervision.

You panted heavily, eyeing Anakin as the two of you circled each other slowly. There was no question as to which one of you would launch the next parry - Anakin had taken the offensive right out of the gate - so all you could do was try to catch your breath and prepare yourself for his next attack.

His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, a few beads of sweat dripping down his forehead and some of his hair sticking to his face. His eyes were following your every move, tracking you like you were some kind of prey.

You hated this.

Suddenly, Anakin lunged forward, blue lightsaber whirring loudly as he swung it towards you. You groaned, lifting your own lightsaber up at the last possible moment to deflect him.

“Such a slow reaction time,” Anakin teased, grinning as he stepped back to give himself a wider range of motion.

“I thought it would take you longer to catch your breath,” you replied, voice strained as you blocked another one of his strikes.

You’d been friends with Anakin since Obi-Wan took him as a Padawan years ago, offering to help him as he played “catch up” with the rest of you. The fact he’d become such a strong Force-user despite starting so late was something you deeply respected him for, though you were perfectly content simply watching him display these skills.

Being on the receiving end of a lightsaber attack from Anakin Skywalker was not something you would consider enjoyable. You’d spent the whole morning dodging and jumping and somehow still losing every match.

You flinched as Anakin’s lightsaber hit your torso, the sting of the “training mode” setting hurting far less than the sting of your own pride.

“Seven to one,” Obi-Wan called from where he was watching. You groaned, rubbing your temples with your free hand and turning your lightsaber off.

“Hey, you were definitely doing better than time,” Anakin said reassuringly, sensing your frustration. “Improvement is all Obi-Wan is looking for.”

“Improvement doesn’t take away from the fact I’ve lost seven matches today,” you seethed, bending down to re-tie the laces of your boots.

“Perhaps if you worked out a bit more you wouldn’t lose so often,” one of the other Padawans jested. Your head snapped up, face flushing as you sent them a pointed glare.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you asked curtly, watching them look between you and Anakin uncomfortably.

“It’s just-”

They didn’t get a chance to finish, letting out a small shriek as they dodged a rock flying through the air. You turned around to look at Anakin, his slightly raised hand indicating who’d been responsible for the rock. At least he was using his Force capabilities in your favor now.

“Thanks,” you muttered, reigniting your lightsaber, glancing at the clock above where Obi-Wan was sitting. All you wanted was for training to be over so you could retreat to your room.

“They don’t know what they’re talking about,” Anakin said, a somewhat angry look on his face as he took a fighting stance across from you. “You’re perfectly capable of wielding a lightsaber, and you’d definitely beat them if you’d been paired up.”

“Hopefully,” you corrected him, “hopefully I’d beat them.”

“Definitely,” Anakin insisted, you rolling your eyes as you lifted your lightsaber in front of you.

----

What sucked about getting older was how little you saw Obi-Wan and Anakin. Your Master was responsible for conducting multiple research projects for the Jedi Council off-world, and Obi-Wan and Anakin hardly ever stayed on Coruscant for longer than a few days, so it was unlikely that you’d find yourselves in the same place for a decent amount of time anymore.

Normally, you would’ve used this week as a great opportunity to catch up with one of your oldest friends. This damn lightsaber training was getting in the way.

It had been yet another long day of sweating the equivalent of your own bodyweight and paling in comparison to Anakin’s abilities. Obi-Wan had focused on lightsaber combat in precarious and compromising situations, with one of which resulting in you falling off a two story rock wall.

As you stood in front of the mirror in your room you couldn’t overlook the spattering of bruises covering your torso and arms, all varying hues of blue and purple culminating from the last few days. You sighed, grateful you were getting the extra training you so clearly needed and nervous about what that meant. Imagine you’d been confronted by some Sith fanatic in the last few weeks - who knows how long you would’ve lasted?

Perhaps you were overthinking. You did have an extremely over-skilled training partner who made most other Jedi look incompetent with a lightsaber.

That being said, you still couldn’t shake what that other Padawan had said about you yesterday. Had you really become unathletic? You didn’t think you’d ever really neglected your daily training exercises, but perhaps those weren’t enough.

You sat down on the edge of your bed slowly, shoulder slumped. Maybe you weren’t as capable as you thought. The bruises all over you and lack of any actual visible muscle certainly pointed towards that.

----

The next morning, you skipped breakfast, giving Obi-Wan some offhanded explanation as to why you’d be missing training and heading for the library. You weren’t really skipping for no reason, your Master had given you a list of different research topics for you to look up in the Jedi Archives. Did you really need the extra time to get this done? No, but it still gave you a good excuse to avoid the feeling of physical incapability that accompanied your training sessions.

Plus, you didn’t want to slow the entire group down. Tears pricked at your eyes as you remembered yesterday when Obi-Wan made you repeat some dumb exercise on a floating raft over and over again, even though everyone else had already done it to his satisfaction. It was humiliating.

At least here in the library, surrounded by stacks of holograms and books, you were in your element. Here you didn’t have to move fast or chop anyone’s limb off out of self-defense.

It was sometime in the late afternoon when Anakin stormed into the library, loud footsteps immediately shushed by a swarm of librarians. You couldn’t help but grin softly, eyes meeting his as he marched over to you much more quietly.

“Even the great Anakin Skywalker is no match for an angry librarian,” you teased, him scoffing as he plopped down in a chair next to you.

“And where were you today?” Anakin asked, a strange intensity behind his question. You gulped, gesturing to the pile of transcripts and notes in front of you.

“I was right here,” you replied meekly.

“Since this morning?” he asked, eyes widening in surprise. You nodded.

“What the heck, Y/N,” he groaned, leaning back in his chair. “Obi-Wan assigned me a different partner. Do you know how irritating every other Padawan is to train with?”

“No, I’ve only ever trained with you,” you said bluntly.

“Exactly!” Anakin responded a little too loudly, earning him a dramatic shush from the circulation desk.

“Shut up,” you chuckled, slapping his chest lightly. He rolled his eyes.

“What I mean is that I’ve only ever trained with you, too, so everyone else doesn’t live up to my expectations.”

“What expectations?” you asked quizzically, flipping one of your notebooks closed.

“Working hard but still having a good time,” he answered, waving his hand nonchalantly. “You never sacrifice good banter for anything, I value that.”

“Ah, I’m glad to know you only value me as a training partner for my humor,” you retorted dryly, gathering all your belongings into a pile and standing up. Anakin’s brows furrowed as he looked up at you, a confused look painted across his face.

“Hey, what?” he asked, standing up with you. “What happened?”

“Nothing, just makes sense that you only enjoy my conversation, not anything actually training-related.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, completely dumbfounded as you started walking away.

“See you tomorrow, Anakin,” you replied, refusing to shed any more tears until you reached your room.

----

The next morning you were too unmotivated to let Obi-Wan know you weren’t coming, deciding instead to stay in bed and do absolutely nothing. Well, you were reading, but what did that really matter to a Jedi? You were supposed to be able to do backflips through the air and take on five enemies at once, and yet here you were wrapped in two blankets feeling like absolute shit. Some Jedi you were.

You held your breath as someone began knocking furiously on the door, hoping desperately they would think you weren’t home.

“Y/N, I know you’re in there,” Anakin called. You groaned, turning around and smashing your face into the pillow.

“Y/N!” he called again.

“Don’t come in!” you shouted back, voice muffled through the pillow.

“I’m coming in.”

“Don’t-”

You never got the chance to finish, bolting upright in bed as the door flew open, Anakin stalking in. You rolled your eyes, just thankful he had kept the door on its hinges.

“What is wrong with you?” he demanded, cringing as you recoiled slightly at his harsh words.

“What do you mean?” you replied quietly, his face softening as he took a seat on the edge of your bed.

“I meant what’s wrong, not what’s wrong with you,” Anakin corrected, taking your hand in his own.

“Nothing’s wr-”

“Don’t give me that,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “Don’t even try, I know you better than anyone Y/N, what’s wrong?”

You kept quiet, focusing on the way his thumb was rubbing small circles on the back of your hand.

“You’ve been acting off since we started training together, is it something I did?” he tried again, genuinely concerned. You laughed dryly and shook your head.

“No, Anakin, you didn’t do anything,” you replied truthfully, looking at him. “You’re perfect, I promise you did nothing wrong.” He gave you a small smile, looking down to where he was still holding your hand. He didn’t let go, only gripped you a little tighter, urging you to continue. You bit your lip, debating whether or not to tell him.

“Do you remember when that Padawan told me I needed to exercise more?” you asked finally. His head snapped up, eyes meeting yours.

“I knew it,” he murmured, nostrils flaring as he tried (and failed) to conceal his budding anger. “I knew it.”

“Anakin it’s ok,” you said, reaching out and rubbing his forearm, his gaze following your hand. “I mean, they were right, if I-”

“No,” Anakin said. “No, they weren’t right. They have no idea how strong you are, how capable-”

“Anakin I’ve struggled this entire week,” you blurted, eyes stinging and face heating up. “I pale in comparison to you, and the other Padawans, at least physically. I thought whatever training I’d been doing had been enough but clearly it wasn’t, so they’re right. I need to exercise more, I need to train more, I’m incapable of defending myself with a lightsaber and I don’t even look like a proper Jedi.” You thrust your bruised arms out towards him. “Look at these, you don’t have them, no one else does. I’m the only one who struggles with every exercise and test.”

You realized you’d begun to cry, tears rolling down your face and breaths shallow.

“Y/N,” Anakin murmured, hurt in his eyes as he took your arms gingerly in his hands. “Y/N, no.”

Your eyes widened as Anakin bent over, slowly pressing his mouth to each bruise on your forearms. You gulped, feeling a little dizzy as Anakin glanced up at you. “You’re an amazing Jedi,” he started, sitting back up straight and pulling you closer to him. You tried to pull away, not wanting to stain his robes with your tears, but he held you firmly. “You’re already stronger than half the people in that group, I’ll have Obi-Wan reassign you so you can kick someone’s ass and everyone will realize it.”

“Anakin-”

He shushed you, resting his chin on the top of your head. You closed your eyes, reveling in the warmth of his body against yours.

“There’s more to being a Jedi than using a lightsaber, anyways,” he continued. “You’re the only person our age in this whole temple that can negotiate with warlords and thieves and murderers and still come back unscathed with five new friends.”

You chuckled, biting your lip as he pressed a kiss against your hair.

“You’re perfect, Y/N,” he insisted softly, you shifting in his arms to gaze up at him.

You were surprised by how nervous he looked, as if he didn’t know how you’d react to what he’d just said, what he’d just implied. You just smiled softly, leaning up to press a slow kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you, Anakin,” you mumbled against his face, grinning as you felt him smile.

Suddenly he pushed himself up, forcing you down onto the bed and collapsing on top of you. You shrieked, bursting into a fit of giggles as he began nestling himself in your hair.

“Shouldn’t you still be at training?” you asked, a wide smile on your face.

“I was sent here by Obi-Wan to fetch you,” he replied smugly.

“So shouldn’t we both be getting back then?”

He propped himself up on his elbows, gazing down at you with a cocky smile on his face.

“I never told him when I’d be coming back.”

You decided you could afford to skip training another day - Anakin probably needed the rest anyways - and pulled his face down to meet your own.

#anakin skywalker #anakin x reader #anakin imagine #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker x you #star wars fanfiction

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