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#also remember that guy talking about the intentionality of god designs and how he used artemis vs hachiman
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you know i was going to let [games company] off the hook for being Horny with ishtar but... shes fun! love that she’s tall lol
(and yeah im a hater whatever etc etc but she could’ve been more cunt. i still really like her BUT so many fan concepts have big flowing hair and that could’ve been a good way to set her apart from the others)
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starsomens · 9 months
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this is for my ✨ bilingual girlies ✨ I am one which is why this can be grammatically incorrect but whatever
Noah finds your accent ADORABLE. and HOT of course. like, he can listen to you for hours noticing how certain words and/or syllables here and there in your speach sound different from what he's used to hear and it hits the right spot for him;
with that being said, he still jockingly mocks you from time to time trying to do impressions of the way you speak. he never takes it to far though, so it's just an ongoing banter which you gladly paticipate in, intentionally making your accent sound harsher from how you "normally" speak;
and you and Jolly cooperate in making Noah lose his mind with your accents. Hoah goes like "guys, human throats are not designed to reproduce such insane sounds, what planet are you both from?"
you melt when he lovingly says "you're so special, you're out of this world" only to roll your eyes three seconds later when he continues "seriuosly, you're a fucking alien, the more you talk the more I'm sure of it. I won't turn you in though, you're mine now";
he also makes fun of you when you misspell in your texts to him. "darling, are you okay? is everything alright or you having a stroke? should we call an ambulance or an English teacher?":
also, did you know your voice sounds not the same when you speak different languages? no? oh, trust me, HE KNOWS. it never stops to amuse him how suddenly your voice switches to softer and huskier or goes higher and cuter depending of the language. to him it's basically the same kind of "magic" (you call it that) he uses when he sings switching registers, so yeah, your voice is music to his ears. and he loves that more than anything;
sometimes you forget certain words or mix them up and it makes you feel awkward and embarressed. you're afraid that you speak gibberish instead of proper English. especially in front of Noah with his sophisticated way of expressing his thoughts. but not only he ALWAYS knows what you're trying to say, he also makes you feel less in your head about it. for example, he makes up silly stories about him saying the wrong words at the wrong circumstances and embarrassing the heck out of himself (and you're sure it never happened, but he wants to cheer you up so you play along) or he turns your mistakes into something special for the two of you, like an inside joke or a secret code (remember that cringy "I wolf you" line from You? yep, that's what I'm talking about). so when he shows you his new song which is his personal love anthem to you and the greatest thing he's ever written to this day and you say it's terrible instead of terrific, he looks as proud as he only can be and jokingly says he tried his best to make it the worst song in the history of music. from now on all of his song are "terrible". and all about you, of course;
remember when he said that Jolly comes up with the greatest lyrics without realizing it because he thinks in Swedish? same applies to you. it truly fascinates Noah to hear you saying the most beautiful genius things based on some sayings in your first language. he takes inspiration from that and includes it in his lyrics without saying that and you realize it afterwards when you hear him singing it;
he's for sure secretly learning your language just to surprise you all of the sudden. like, you two have a movie night date on your big comfy couch, he brushes his fingers through you hair and says "I love you" in your language and you automatically reply back the same way and then go "wait, did you just..?" and he sits there smiling from ear to ear and being so hella proud of himself, throwing at you one compliment in your mother tongue after another. and you have no idea when or how he managed to learn it all but it makes you love him even more;
which is why the next thing he'll learn from you will be the dirty talk. oh god, help us all lol
ANON SHIT UP RN
COME TO MY HOUSE SO I CAN GIVE U KISSES STOOPPPPPPP OMG MY HEART
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So I was born here, but I want to say that, technically my first language was Spanish. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and I had heard from someone that the way you express your emotions, whatever language you use is your first language, which I thought was a very cool concept. And a lot of times there are words that I don’t know in English so I just resort to Spanish but oh my God literally made me smell so big I’m at work and the noise I let out was crazyOMMGGGGG
I was going to write a small story on this, but you beat me to the punch, but I’m not complaining. I will add onto this later on thank you thank you thank you thank you again.🩷🩷🩷🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
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hyperdemona · 2 years
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Hi, could you talk more about how you got out of christianity? I’m struggling with it as a radfem and lesbian which has caused me to internalize so so much homophobia and misogyny. I guess my main concern is about that god being the “one true god” and about revelations. There are some guys (wendigoon for example) who say that god has been helping women at that time (one that comes to mind is Leviticus 27:6, where god supposedly set a women’s value lower so it would be easier to reach because they were given little to no money back then). Honestly I’m still struggling with this whole religion and faith thing, I’ve gone back and forth dozens of times and I just want it to end.
For me, it went like this - I didn't just "leave" Christianity, I matured away from it once I left for grad school. It couldn't have happened anyway.
I was raised in a very traditional South Indian Christian home. I grew up reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, which I found myself reading a lot as a young girl because my parents couldn't always buy me books, and I was a kid who loved to read. By age 9-10, I'd read most of the Old Testament, and I remember the extremely misogynistic laws of Deutoronomy and Leviticus often incensed me. It's odd that as a young girl, I recognised the sexism in religion and religious texts much more than I would in my teenage and young adult days. I don't think I am the only one either, this is very likely a female experience, as young, unhindered, children we have a much clearer view of the misogyny of religion, but we grow up to accept it as the truth by adolescence and adulthood, unless circumstances arise that make us start to question it. This was how it was for me. All the guilt and insecurity of adolescence and the repression of Malayali culture made me "turn to Jesus" and start taking my faith very seriously, to the point of OCD. I also loved conspiracy theories and stuff like Rapture theology and Young Earth theory, which I read about in the American Evangelical and right-wing websites I trawled from my home in Kerala. I was hooked on that shit. Things got better in my late teens as I stopped spending as much time on religious shit and went to college, but it wasn't until I was 22-23 that I really looked back faced all of that head-on and started realising that I didn't need any of it, and moreover, it's doing me a lot of harm, as well as making me a hypocrite.
Once you realise that there is no way Christianity (or any religion) is true, you just get used to the idea of there not being a God. You also realise that you were right as a child - God and religion are extremely sexist, and are intentionally so. Patriarchal religion is designed to function as a system of mental slavery for women. Getting us to accept it will make us more compliant in a male-supremacist society. Everything that you do - be it reading a book that opens your eyes and mind to women's rights and realities, spending a nice afternoon with your girlfriend and having sex with her because you love her, getting an education, bettering yourself, making a nice life worth living for yourself, perhaps with a wife or gf, all of that you do DESPITE what the Bible tells you to. This shitty religion will never accept you or let you be happy, and that's because it's not for you, it was made for the benefit of your future husband (which it says you are supposed to have btw and shame if you don't). At some point you gotta rid yourself of this toxicity and walk away.
Also the "One true God" is a flaccid clown who's always cartoonishly angry and vengeful because of various unreasonable things. Women don't need religion, religion needs women, to silently comply with it. The God of the Bible for me is really starting to look, speak, and act like an abusive, entitled husband trying to claim ownership of things he never created. I don't think he created shit, he's merely a liar, and an imaginary construct of male religion to usurp women's role in creating and bringing forth life. Religions are always anti-reality and doesn't accept natural phenomena like homosexuality, or especially death. It reflects male nature, men can't accept death because they can't create life like we can. So they try making up stories where a male God created everything, while all God does is claim that he created things that already existed in the Universe. Just like men claim the ownership of children that women birthed.
There is no God, prophet, or Messiah that will survive if women refuse to believe. If we walk out they gonna freak out lmaooo. Try it, and get your girlfriends, daughters, and female friends and relatives to try it too. ;)
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moonbaby26 · 3 years
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(gif from Jason Passaro’s youtube edit here)
Title: One Shitty Friday Night (Part 1)
Pairings: Peter Maximoff x Fem!Reader, Colossus x Shadowcat
Summary: Set after the events of Deadpool 2, you and your boyfriend Peter are on a double date downtown with your fellow X-Men Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) and Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) when Deadpool and Russell arrive unexpectedly. Chaos and violence naturally ensues, including taking down mafia henchmen, dealing with news media and paparazzi who circle in with the action, and a jealous Peter. This will be concluded in Part 2 with the mixed reactions of Logan, Charles, and Erik when you all bring Wade and Russell back home, etc. 😄
Notes: For simplicity’s sake as Piotr R. is normally called “Peter” as well, he’ll just be referred to as Colossus here.
Warnings: Some alcohol use. And it’s Deadpool, so a lot of cursing and irreverent jokes of course. This started out as just crack!fic that became actual fic that had to be split into two parts because it hit post limit. Holy cow.
Peter Maximoff x Reader Masterlist
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Kitty all but snorted, trying to put her drink back down on the table before it could end up fully sideways instead as her laughter left her trembling.
Colossus sighed quietly, but you could still see the warmth in his eyes as he looked down at her before helping dab up some of her errant wine off the table with a thick cloth napkin.
It was late Friday night, and save for your semi disapproving, large and very Russian designated driver, the other three of you were now several drinks deep and a bit too loudly enjoying Peter’s retelling of the Led Zeppelin cover band debacle. You’d been there with him that night, but it never got old the way Peter told it.
“I shit you not, and this guy still keeps hitting on Jean.” Peter continued, his third nearly empty glass of craft beer still in hand. “Scott’s about to fry the dude. They’re playing Immigrant Song, and these lasers start up. All dudebros in the club go wild, and Scott tries to sneak off a warning shot. Freaking air balls it! I have to move like forty people and it still blows a damn hole in the wall. But nobody even noticed! Fake Robert Plant is screaming his heart out and everybody is just eating it up. I swear my Dad could have flown in there, cape billowing and they still would have thought it was part of the show!”
You were at risk of being elbowed in this small restaurant booth, with how animated Peter was as he spoke beside you. But you didn’t mind. The lighting was dim, possibly verging on romantic, the smell of good food from the kitchen reminded you of what was to come, and you were just enjoying time with some of your favorite people.
When Peter did finally drop his hand again though, the not so subtle movements of it then up your thigh also promised something much more personal later tonight. Maybe it was the warmth from the mixed drinks you were also nursing, but you shifted your leg a little, pushing even more into his touch under the table. Your movement just signaled your silent agreement to him that tonight would be a perfect night to be throwing clothes on the floor as soon as you got back to your shared room at the mansion.
It’d been a long, tiring week after all. Helping teach classes during the day and training your ass off in the danger room every night, you didn’t think it was unreasonable to cut loose a bit now.
Even Colossus was chuckling a little at last, but the big guy was always softest around Kitty. You in particular had been one of her biggest supporters when she’d first confessed her attraction towards him. You’d noticed his bashfulness with her as well, and all the little glances he’d given her long before she’d ever worked up the courage to ask him out.
But that seemed so long ago now, it was hard to really remember a time when they weren’t together. Almost as long as you and Peter really.
You glanced up as the waiter came back by to check on you all, saying your food would be out in a few more minutes and asking if anyone needed more drinks.
“Oh gosh, we’re really running up the tab right?” Kitty smiled.
You could see the little bit of relief in Colossus’ expression as she waved the waiter off though, her current wine glass still nearly full. “I’m fine for now, thank you.”
Peter glanced at you and you nodded as well. A buzz was fine, but you didn’t want to be climbing the mansion stairs full on drunk tonight. “I’m good.”
As the waiter left, your conversation got a little more subdued. You leaned into Peter somewhat, hip to hip in the booth as he put his arm around your waist.
Kitty was now talking about a movie she thought you should all go see next weekend if you could. You were just in the process of agreeing as you’d wanted to see it too, when Colossus suddenly went stock still, a look of real surprise on his face.
Kitty evidently noticed as soon as you did, you both staring up at him in unison.
“Do not turn around,” He instructed to you and Peter, eyes locked on something behind you.
Of course when told to do one thing, it would take everything in Peter’s willpower to not do the opposite. But to his credit he actually did hesitate. “Do we need to be dodging something? I mean, I can move us if I need to, man. You just gotta let me know.” Peter stated.
“I don’t think he’s seen us yet. Please do not draw attention.” Colossus responded, still frustratingly vague to the rest of you.
But he hadn’t metaled up yet, his skin still entirely human looking. So on the plus side, it couldn’t be someone he thought an immediate physical threat.
You glanced to Kitty for some hope of explanation as she was seated beside Colossus and facing the same direction. But she was too short in comparison to him, and couldn’t see all the way across the booth dividers as easily as he could. “Well who is it?” Kitty demanded quietly.
But you heard an impatient voice carry over clearly from the nearby restaurant entrance.
“Look, you know he’s here. I know he’s here. Don’t make me leave you guys a bad Yelp review. I will totally Karen that shit up. I’m just here for him.” A pause. “...And some of the cannolis. God, I love those things. You went a little scarce on the filling last time though. Don’t make me add that to the Yelp review.”
You heard the hostess stutter, fear evidently building. “Sir, firearms are not allowed in this restaurant. The owner, he, I...I can’t.”
There was a loud sigh from the man, the distinct sound of a gun cocking, and then all hell broke loose.
“WADE!” Colossus screamed, your entire table flipping as he stood up, metal now encasing him in this even larger form.
Abruptly you were now standing back by the entrance yourself. Peter had one arm around you, and the other around Kitty as he let you both go just as instantly, having just brought you there before he disappeared again.
That little flare up of vertigo from the speed and sudden stop didn’t mix well with the alcohol, and she and you both stood there another moment, queasy as Peter appeared again with an armful of guns.
It would have been comical as he clearly had no idea where to put them now, but everyone else that had still been in the restaurant was already screaming and running for the doors in a panic.
The owner of the multiple guns couldn’t care less about the crowd however, only turning his full focus to the lot of you then in exasperation.
“Oh my God, you anti second amendment, mother fuckers. I’m in the middle of a job here!”
“You can’t just point guns at innocent people, Wade! We have talked about this many times!” Colossus retorted, all seven foot of him now standing over Deadpool with paternal like annoyance.
“For fuck’s sake, it’s called a threat. I wasn’t going to kill her you overprotective, asshat! Now Giovanni is probably holed up in some pussy ass panic room, or he’s already ghosted me out the back door! And yes, I know that is such a stereotypical mob boss name and totally sounds like the Pokemon villain. Fuck him and his always trying to take Pikachu! He had a talking cat the whole time who just wanted his love, but no, got to have the electric rat. Fuck!”
“Language, Wade!” Colossus scolded. “There is still a child present!”
And honestly in all this insanity, that was the first time you actually noticed Russell also still standing there. Everyone else in the room had now fled out into the street.
“I’m fucking fourteen,” The boy replied defiantly. “And yeah, we were working!”
“Daddy and angrier metal daddy are just talking, hon.” Deadpool commented, waving a hand.
There was a small gust of air beside you and you looked to Peter knowingly. Wade’s guns were now all on a table, though intentionally still distant from your current position. “So I just made a couple laps.” Peter spoke up. “The cops are already coming, and there’s still a bunch of guys in the basement. They were opening some crates, probably getting weapons? I didn’t know if we were taking them out yet though. I didn’t touch anything. But is Giovanni like a big dude with gold rings and all?”
“I’m telling you besides the drug and human trafficking, it’s practically more criminal how much he sets back Italian-American stereotypes. They are an honest, manicotti making people goddamn it.” Deadpool answered.
You really were starting to regret the amount of drinks you’d had. If you’d known tonight was going to be anything like this, you would have gladly stuck to water. Your head was already trying to throb a little as you finally spoke. “So, does this guy actually have warrants out on him? If the cops come, they’re all going to end up shooting each other most likely. Can we just defuse this by giving him up to them?”
“I would say we assist to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, if that is the case, yes. I’m sure the Professor would prefer that.” Colossus agreed.
“Freaking goody two shoes, all of you.” Wade sighed. “But he has to get arrested or dead okay? I don’t get paid otherwise.” He paused though, then looking back up to Colossus before suddenly elbowing him. As if he’d even really feel that. “And hello rudeness, are you not going to introduce me to your little girls night out club here before we go bust some heads in a gratuitous X-Force/X-Men hotties crossover?”
“X-Force?” Kitty asked, sounding as already over this as could be.
“Well, we are a little empty on the roster at the moment. Some...unfortunate parachuting incidents. Wind advisory that day. You know how it goes.” Deadpool shrugged.
By her expression, no. She did not know how it went.
But the sooner you started, the sooner this could be over. Colossus motioned to each of you in turn, “Peter, (Y/N), and Kitty. These are my teammates and friends.” He nodded back to Deadpool, “And this is Wade.” And then to the boy. “And Russell.”
Of course you already knew who they both were. It’d been a bit of a scandal really, with the whole Essex House fiasco and the deaths that had occurred there. Fair or not, a lot of the blame had ended up on Juggernaut the second time around though you thought. Which is why Charles hadn’t had to deal with too much bad press in the aftermath.
You could not let this become another Essex House situation for the X-Men though. You were about to speak up about heading to the basement together and Deadpool staying out of your way so you all could neutralize everyone without any fatal hits, when he gasped dramatically, making you freeze again.
“Kitty!? Like an actual girl named Kitty? Oh my God, this whole time I thought you were his cat!” He hit his own leg, laughing. “I’m thinking, holy shit this guy loves his goddamn cat, but who am I to judge you know? I had a dog named Mr. Shuggums. Cutest little fucker.” He took a breath. “I miss him.”
“Wade.” Colossus groaned. “We do not have all night.”
Okay, so there was still something sweet about Colossus gushing about his girlfriend even to this manic mercenary. But no kidding, this show really needed to get on the road here.
“Guys, why don’t we just let Peter disarm them all, Colossus, you grab Giovanni, and Kitty and I deal with anyone who still resists? No one has to get hurt, and then it’s all done, easy.”
“And then we go find somewhere else to eat. Killing me here. I wanted that damn calzone and tiramisu.” Peter sighed, pulling his goggles back down over his eyes again. “More guns coming up.”
He disappeared at once, but when he didn’t return immediately as you were so accustomed to, you and Kitty exchanged a nervous look.
And after only another few seconds, your instincts told you something had definitely gone wrong.
“Is the basement directly beneath us?” You asked Deadpool sharply, already reaching out a hand to Kitty. Your adrenaline was starting, all good feelings gone as it was now time to act.
But you’d worked together long enough now, you didn’t have to explain your plan to her or Colossus.
Yet when the previously mouthy merc had no instant response, just staring at you in thought, it was clear he hadn’t done any recon beforehand at all. He’d literally just walked in here and expected everything to work out.
“Perfect.” Kitty said sarcastically, glancing quickly to Colossus as she took your hand. “You’re our backup, dear, in case our vertical entrance doesn’t work out. Come find us.”
“Always.” He said, already turning, his weight shaking the floor as he ran to look for any stairway downward while you and Kitty dropped straight through the floor.
It was surely a risk of its own to use her phasing ability so blindly as this. You could end up in a too small crawlspace, in underground piping, a sewer system, anything really. She’d make sure not to go solid until it was safe, as to not impale or bury you alive of course. But if Peter were in trouble, there was no time to waste by ending up at a dead end and having to go back up and try again.
You’d held your breath, as there was no way for you to process oxygen either as your lungs and every other part of you shifted through the other matter. It was darkness and insulation, pipes, and conduit that flashed by at first. But in the fractions of seconds that it took to fall, you had already powered up. The white light of your energy field overtaking your body, shielding you both as you did fall into a larger open area.
It was even darker than the restaurant above, all concrete and dampness. The glow from your body was the brightest thing there as much more men than you’d expected all turned in surprise. You saw the glint of multiple gun barrels now, but the thing you wanted to see most was Peter’s silver hair as you’d scanned the area for him instantly.
There was a stairwell in the distance. He was laying near the bottom of it. But you had no time to be shocked or afraid, only anger swelled as you released Kitty’s hand, making you solid again. “I’ll get him.” Was all you said. Letting her know to protect herself as you flew to him. Bullets couldn’t hurt her if she was ready for them. But Peter would be defenseless without one of you now, and by means of your power of flight you were the faster of you and her.
The man closest to Peter had a different kind of gun though you realized. Something you didn’t recognize at all as he aimed at you. You splayed your palms to create an energy shield in front of you as he pulled the trigger.
It didn’t make a sound though. But everything around you instantly distorted as pain exploded through you. You saw five or six of him now, as your feet hit the ground, unable to concentrate enough to fly then. But even as you stumbled, realizing your shielding wasn’t fully stopping whatever that weapon was doing, you were still able to expand your shield rapidly, hitting the man with the force of a car in your pain and sending him flying into a nearby wall, the weapon clattering to the ground lightly against his now limp body.
But you still felt like you were going to puke.
“Kill them you idiots!” Someone screamed.
You dropped yourself, laying over Peter just as quickly, grateful to feel him breathing as you focused through the pain to extend a shield around you both as the gunfire started.
“Bitch!” Another man yelled as Kitty just walked unharmed through all the flying bullets towards you.
“Shadowcat actually,” She said, skilled enough in her powers to choose what was solid and what wasn’t. Just the outside of her fist being all she needed to crush his nose in one punch with a squirt of blood, and only the end of her foot used as she swept her leg after to knock his own right out from under him.
Even among your own team, sometimes people could forget that that petite Jewish girl was about as skilled a martial artist as anyone could be.
“Babe?” You heard against your ear though, glancing back down to Peter. There was real relief even in the chaos as you saw him smile up at you.
He talked back against your ear in the noise as Kitty continued to utterly wreck the guys around you. “I fucked up a little, right? That gun...they already had it going, aimed at the door when I came back, a trap...I think I hit every stair on the way down...I still see like three of you right now.”
“Ditto.” You breathed.
And then there was another even louder noise as the remnants of a door also came flying down the stairs. Colossus barreled in behind it like a stampeding elephant, Deadpool right behind him as they leapt over the both of you and joined the fray.
“We found the basement!” Deadpool announced gleefully, swords swinging. “Don’t think they’d even locked the door back actually, but fuck if big Russki doesn’t love a dramatic entrance!”
For a moment you thought all your words about at least trying not to kill had been for nothing, thinking Deadpool was going to chop these men into literal pieces. But even as blood sprayed left and right, you realized he was just cutting tendons. The men then unable to hold their guns, unable to stand at all as he crippled each he reached in succession.
It was still completely horrific, but hell, how much could you really ask for from someone like him? Especially when you yourself had slammed that one man into a concrete wall as if he were a ragdoll. You glanced over anxiously for a moment, glad to see him shifting a little, but still crumpled exactly where you’d thrown him. He was alive, a small relief at least.
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Obviously the other gunmen hadn’t had a prayer either though once you’d all been down there together.
Colossus already had a still cursing Giovanni slung over one shoulder as you were now helping Peter back up and trying not to step in all the blood as you all walked over to Kitty.
“What a mess...very interesting weapon though,” She spoke of that odd gun that’d been used on you and Peter, it now in her hands as she turned it one way and then another examining it. “I’m bringing this back with us. The police don’t need anything like this. Hank and I can figure out how it works. And how to defend against it hopefully before we run into another one of these out in the field.”
“It seems this Giovanni was more a threat than expected,” Colossus said, giving the still squirming man an unhappy look, before looking back to you all. “Are you alright, Peter?”
“I’m still hungry.” Peter grumbled, an arm over your shoulder to still help stabilize him as his other hand went to his head as if it were pounding. He also had some bruising starting on his face, no doubt from his tumble down the stairs. “I wouldn’t have drank so damn much if I’d known we weren’t going to eat...”
With the speed of his metabolism, that alcohol likely was hitting him pretty hard now on his already empty stomach.
“We should turn this guy over and get out of here.” You agreed. Though you didn’t feel so hot yourself. Still a little nauseous from whatever that weapon did to your senses. But at least you weren’t seeing triple of everything anymore.
“Hold it, girl scouts!” Deadpool piped up, chipper as ever as he grabbed something at Giovanni’s neck before any of you could think to stop him.
The man choked just a moment though, before a piece of metal snapped off into Wade’s hands. It was a necklace, with a symbol of some sort. You saw just a glimpse of it before Deadpool pocketed it. “No proof of finishing the job, no payday for DP. No payday, then no liquor, no coke, no hookers. Am I right?”
It was too difficult to tell when if ever he was serious, and you all chose to ignore his comment, starting back up the stairs. The odd sounds of bullet fragments falling back down the stairwell caught Peter’s attention though as he gave a grossed out look to Wade for a moment.
The now impact deformed bullets were starting to work themselves back out of all the bloody holes in Deadpool’s costume. You knew where you’d seen that before of course, but Peter was the only one that actually said it aloud.
“Damn, you and Logan would be a pair.”
There was a pause, and you could swear even with the mask, you thought you saw Wade’s cheekbones move in a way that signaled he was outright grinning from ear to ear. “At least someone gets it. He still won’t return my calls though. Such a diva lately.”
Once you did get to the top of the stairs, you only found a very agitated Russell standing there, Wade’s guns in his arms. “You took long enough, the cops are outside you know. I’m not going back to jail for you!”
“Cool your tater tots, kid.” Deadpool responded lazily, in no hurry, but grabbing the weapons back to holster them all regardless.
“I could have finished this faster! I would have fried their asses!” Russell argued.
“You would have been shot. Fire does not stop bullets.” Colossus only answered matter of factly.
Russell made a face, but Wade cut him off before he could say any more.
“Now now, listen to metal daddy. No sass. And actually, I think there’s something we should talk about, champ. X-Force is way more badass and all, but we don’t exactly have a training and junior member tier yet. Maybe later. You might want to think about riding home with these guys and checking their setup out. I don’t have any powers myself to relate to you like that, except me being very shootable, devastatingly charming, sexy, smart, and a competitive level Skee-Ball player...”
Deadpool sighed, continuing. “But these guys have a Danger Room. Which is totally not a sex dungeon, yeah I was bummed about that too. But they could let you unleash that school shooter level teenage angst and burn all the shit you wanted until you really figure out your powers.”
Russel bristled. “I’m not a school shooter you prick! And you always said the X-Men were neutered dweebs and-”
Wade coughed loudly, ushering Russell forward suddenly as you all continued to walk. “Hah, kids. Such darlings. Mishear everything don’t they?”
Colossus only answered without offense though. “The offer is still open, Russell. Though you have said no before. The Professor would never turn down a young mutant in need.”
It was Peter who surprised you a little, a smirk on his face as he contributed. “Freaking sweet house too, man. Xavier’s loaded. Big screen TV, a pool, basketball court, your own room, supersonic jet. Bunch of cute girls as well, or cute boys, you know whatever you’re into.”
“I’m not gay.” Russell huffed, but actually looked to be listening now as he didn’t immediately spit back with a sarcastic retort.
Though you gave Peter a weird look and he just grinned. “What? I stayed for you didn’t I, babe? Just saying. I wasn’t exactly on board with the whole team thing before that either. I know where he’s coming from is all.”
“It’s up to you, Russell.” Kitty said more diplomatically, before returning to the matter at hand. “We’re parked at that parking garage two blocks south. Everyone meet back there, Colossus and I will hand this guy over to the cops out front. The rest of you, I’m sure there’s got to be some emergency exit you can sneak out of. Probably better to split up actually. Less attention.”
—————————
Just as Kitty had suggested, Deadpool and Russell went out one way, and you and Peter another. You came out onto another street behind the restaurant. And you’d just finally started to relax again, Peter taking your hand in his own and walking away like an honest to God normal couple for once, just out on the town together before you noticed an oddly placed white van with distinct lettering on it.
Peter saw it too just as the light from a camera hit you both.
“Hell,” You breathed.
“Want to run?” He asked seriously.
“Too late, they’d just film us ditching, and say we had something to hide.”
Your headache was returning in full force you thought as you steeled yourself, seeing the reporter now in a full sprint towards you.
“It’s Quicksilver! And (your codename)! The X-Men are here!” A woman shouted.
As you walked closer to the news van, the camera flashes only increased. It looked like a small group of paparazzi had also camped out here, hoping for this exact result. How did word travel so damn fast?
“Marcia Fletcher, WAFN nightly news!” She introduced herself at once, her camera man there just as quickly, huffing a little from the run as he got you both in focus.
You could see the lights on on his camera as she shoved her microphone in front of you and Peter. “You’re on live coverage of the Ruffiano’s restaurant shootings with WAFN. Is it true that Giovani Marcello was apprehended here tonight by the X-Men? And how did you know he was here when he’s been on Interpol’s most wanted list for four years?”
You knew without looking at him that Peter was happily deferring the speaking role to you now as you tried not to look rattled. You attempted to think of what Charles would and wouldn’t want you to say, even with the pain in your head and lingering nausea. “We didn’t know who was here. We were in the area and saw people running and went to help, that’s all.” You lied.
“But the reports of gunshots, witnesses also said Deadpool had drawn a gun on a restaurant employee and Colossus was seen inside. Is Deadpool now affiliated with the X-Men again? Did he shoot anyone?”
“Deadpool is not affiliated with the X-Men. Colossus was here tonight, but he only would have been defending anyone he thought in danger. Deadpool did not shoot anyone.” You tried to keep to short truths that time.
“But then why was Deadpool there? Should people really believe it would be a coincidence that the X-Men and Deadpool would be at the same incidence at one time if not working together?”
“Well you’re here aren’t you? Are you affiliated with us?” You replied before you could stop yourself, though still restraining the annoyance you really wanted to put into that statement. “Trouble attracts a crowd.”
Peter made a sound, a restrained laugh you knew. But before the reporter could blurt out another question, one of the now growing number of paparazzi called out, “(Your codename), hey look here! Is it true you and Quicksilver are still dating!?”
You knew better than to be baited, humoring any of them just made it worse. They were like piranhas. But Peter couldn’t help it, turning to look as so many cameras flashed. His arm slid around you protectively. “Why wouldn’t we be, dude?” He called back.
“Are you saying the photos of (your codename) and Gambit were before you two reconciling?”
It took every ounce of your self control to not respond, but oh God did you want to. It was the mission in Tanzania. You knew it. You, Storm, and Gambit. Peter had stayed in the U.S. for that one as it’d been the holidays and his Mom had wanted both he and Wanda over for some time together.
After the mission was over, the three of you had ended up on one of the beautiful Tanzanian beaches for a single day. Just a single day to yourselves.
You’d had the audacity to wear a revealing bathing suit though and you and Remy had been photographed together, him shirtless of course because it was a goddamn beach. And laughing and smiling because, surprise, you were friends! And they’d cropped Ororo out in all the closeups for complete loss of context.
It’d been a thing in some of the tabloids for a while, but you really thought that had finally blown over. Of course if anyone asked Remy, he liked to play coy on the whole subject to keep up his God’s gift to all men and women sex symbol status.
“Peter, let’s just go,” You whispered in his ear, sure anything else said would only make things worse.
But you could read him all too well, and when he turned his face to look back at you, you already knew what he was going to do. You didn’t try to stop him, because never would you humiliate him on live television with any type of rejection, but oh, you would never live this one down. Never.
He kissed you hard. And there was nothing fake about it, honestly the kind of kiss usually reserved for your bedroom as you felt heat rising up in you. The camera flashes clicking over and over as you could still taste the alcohol he’d drank before.
When he finally released you again, you gasped a little. He gave the photographers a ‘fuck you’ look, before speaking just to you. “Now we can go.”
“Fly or run?” You breathed.
“Fly please. I’m still about half out of it.” He admitted.
You powered up to some surprised and excited sounds from the crowd. Your whole body glowing white again in the energy you emitted.
“Wait, aren’t you going to stay and talk to the police!?” The reporter shouted.
“They know where to find us if they need us.” You answered, extending your energy field around Peter, before you took off vertically, making sure to get sideways over the rooftops as soon as you could though to breakup their camera angles and finally give you privacy again at last.
You landed gently atop the parking garage only a few moments later, letting him go again as you powered back down.
“Are you mad at me?” He asked, just taking your hand again though.
“No.” You said truthfully. “But, I have no idea what we’ve really just done. We still have to go home...home where the Professor always watches the 10:00 news with his late night tea.”
Peter sighed, only half joking. “We could always go stay with my Mom for a while?”
You just moved in closer, pulling him against you as you laid your head on his shoulder. “We’ll survive, babe. Somehow we always do.”
“I think that says more about you than me though. Pretty sure I’d be face down in a ditch somewhere already if it weren’t for you.”
You chuckled, wrapping your arms around his neck then before raising your head back up to kiss him once more. Much softer this time, and even longer than his jealous little display a few minutes ago.
He made one of his little noises of contentment, hands sliding down to squeeze your butt through the thin pants you were wearing. As he pulled your hips tighter against him, he broke the kiss enough to speak regretfully. “I really was hoping to get lucky tonight...”
“Same.” You smiled. It had been a while. Mostly from you both being so tired by the time you finally got in bed. Passing out on each other had more been the norm the past couple weeks. “We get some food in you, and see where things go?”
“Gross! Get a room!”
You startled at the sudden shouting, having wholly thought yourselves alone up here in the moonlight.
Peter rolled his eyes, yelling back at Russell, “Kid, we have one! And we’d already be back there by now if it wasn’t for your little mafia hunting shenanigans!”
You looked over to see Deadpool and Russell both standing in the doorway to the parking garage stairs.
Wade whistled, leaning back against the doorframe. “Way to take down that Marcia Fletcher a notch! I always found her too uppity to be honest. I think she’s still butt hurt that they didn’t give her the lead anchor spot when Carl Sanderson moved to the early bird morning show. Tanya Meyer on the 5:00 news though, that’s my girl.”
You blinked. “How...how do you know-” It was literally minutes ago, it would have taken them just this long to walk here.
Deadpool lifted up his cell phone. “Facebook live, bitches. Don’t you follow WAFN? The recipes they post from Saturday morning cooking with Pat are always delish.” He looked back down at the phone though, happily reading. “Hah! Peggy Fredrickson from Brewster, New York thinks Marcia’s contouring and drawn on eyebrows are getting worse. Fire your makeup person, Marcia.” He tapped something on the screen. “Like comment! Oh, and Michael Morris from Ridgefield says who wouldn’t do Remy LeBeau. Damn, Michael, all out and proud on main.”
Peter let go of you, taking an annoyed breath. But then looking back to you. “Please let me at least prank Remy, something, anything.”
“But he didn’t do anything.” You replied, though only more stressed now that this was already blowing up on social media.
“Exactly! He should have at least denied it! But no, Mr. cool Cajun can’t admit that you’d actually choose me over him.”
“Hey now, I think you’re looking at this the wrong way, Quickie.” Deadpool interjected. “There’s always the ménage à trois option. I mean he’s French right? And Michael from Ridgefield is just spitting truth. Who wouldn’t want to do Remy LeBeau? He could shuffle my cards anytime.”
“You guys are so fucking weird.” Russell groaned. “Can we go find your damn car now?”
But you didn’t move yet, still looking fully at Peter. “Wade’s just trying to get under your skin. We all know how Remy is. He’d flirt with a piece of cardboard if it suited him. It doesn’t mean anything to him.” You recognized that Gambit was physically attractive of course, you had eyes too after all. But that was the only extent of it. You loved Peter. Not to mention you wouldn’t at all want to get on Rogue’s bad side. She and Gambit were tumultuous enough without someone else being added to the mix.
“This is adorable, really. But I did bring ‘good job team for sending a little girl selling, gentrification funding, pencil dick mob boss to butt fucking federal prison’ cannolis. Want some?” Deadpool offered, lifting up a large takeout box you somehow hadn’t noticed before.
Peter’s shoulders dropped a little, still heavily annoyed though eyeing the box. “So does this mean you’re coming back with us too?”
Wade shrugged, “The kid doesn’t know you guys. What kind of daddy would I be if I didn’t at least go and make sure he actually wanted to stay in your little mutant commune before I ditch him there?”
“You aren’t my damned dad.” Russell said, though almost sounding too tired to argue further at this point. He reached up, taking a cannoli from the box and biting into it as he started to walk back down the stairwell. “What floor is the car on?”
“Just one down from here, you already passed it. Black SUV,” you answered. Colossus and Kitty must not have been here yet if Wade and Russell had made it all the way to the top deck without finding them.
Peter grabbed your hand again, walking with you to the doorway as he grabbed three cannolis out the box begrudgingly with his other hand. He passed one off to you, before biting into the other two in quick succession.
And you only had a moment to see all the thick scarring under Wade’s mask as he lifted it just enough to start eating one himself, before turning to follow you both out and down the stairwell.
———————————
(Concluded in Part 2 here)
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adhd-wifi · 4 years
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Madam Yu is an Amazing Character, Here's Why
What's up guys it's been 57 years but I finally have another meta lmao. Shoutout to those who helped me decide on this one, and for those who wanted the Yi City analysis? Don't worry that's coming soon lol.
So Madam Yu is a really important character in MDZS, and here’s a whole meta post about why I think she’s (in my opinion) the best-written minor character in the entire story. Quick note though, this meta is going to focus on the animation specifically, because that’s my favourite version of Madam Yu (though design-wise, Audio Drama Madam Yu is best lmao). The novel and CQL versions will be mentioned, but I don’t quite remember all the novel details and I don’t really like CQL-Madam Yu, so yeah. ^^; Also, this is talking about her character writing, not her morality as a person if she were real. Feel free to disagree with the post, but here's my take on her and why I love her despite not liking her as a person.
Anyways let's goooooooo. Warning: This is pretty long cuz I have a lot of feelings about Madam Yu ZiYuan. 
Madam Yu is a very well written character, easily the best written female and minor character in my opinion. From her very first appearance, we are shown much of her personality in very little time. In the novel, we are told of her fearsome reputation and why she goes by Madam Yu instead of Madam Jiang, followed by her verbal abuse towards Jiang Cheng in front of the other disciples. In the animation, she is shown talking down to the struggling disciples and scowling as soon as she sees Wei WuXian, despite smiling at Jiang YanLi moments earlier. In CQL, she is shown with a commanding authority over her husband and children, and in all three versions we’re shown how much she hates Wei WuXian. We also see her verbally abusing Jiang Cheng (Wei WuXian in the animation) in her introduction scenes, but also some degree of motherly love showed by how she adjusts Jiang Cheng’s clothes (or showing a kind smile to Jiang YanLi in the animation). 
Her introduction scenes alone tell us the core important traits of her character: That she’s a fierce and prideful woman, that she is a powerful cultivator with a frightening reputation (the animation and CQL also make a point to show ZiDian in her hands in her introductions), and that she is an abusive mother despite having love for her children (but not Wei WuXian). We also instantly understand that SHE is the reason why Jiang Cheng is so uptight about saving face for the Jiang Sect when Wei WuXian never seemed to give a fuck about it (he does, but you know, teen Wei Ying lol), berating Jiang Cheng constantly about how he doesn’t seem to be doing well enough despite being the future Sect Leader. She’s kind of the epitome of the “It’s for your own good” brand of abusive parent. 
There’s a scene in the animation, Episode 6, that strongly shows the discord between her and Jiang FengMian. This scene, though hard to watch cuz my favourite character is Wei Ying, is one of my absolute favourite character building scenes in the whole adaption, which makes me sad that it’s not in the other mediums (that I’m aware of). If you haven’t seen the animation, PLEASE go watch it because gods that’s my favourite version of Madam Yu. 
In this scene, Madam Yu is relaxing alone in one of the pavilions late at night, and Jiang FengMian joins her. She’s civil at first, speaking without any real hostility as she asks what he was doing out so late. He offers her a gift in the form of a jade hairpin, and says he bought it because he thought it was beautiful when she asked why he bought “such a useless thing”. Jiang FengMian then tells her of Jiang YanLi and Jin ZiXuan’s arranged marriage being called off, and while she’s obviously annoyed, she still doesn’t speak with the same fierceness or hostility as she did previously. 
That is, until Jiang FengMian makes a comment about how the children should not be forced into a marriage without love between them.
This is clearly a sore spot for Madam Yu, who immediately becomes hostile. Even the gentle music takes a darker turn for the shift in tone. She then makes a comment about how “Wei Ying always causes trouble”, and subtly looks back to gauge Jiang FengMian’s reaction. As soon as her husband defends Wei WuXian, she lashes out. She accuses Jiang FengMian of treating Wei WuXian better than his own son, and goes as far as to say that if Jiang Cheng had started the fight with Jin ZiXuan, Jiang FengMian wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to help him. In Madam Yu’s defense for this accusation, it’s not completely an unfair assumption, as Jiang FengMian does canonically treat Wei WuXian better, and the fact that he didn’t even try to deny Madam Yu’s accusation is very telling. Madam Yu then laughs bitterly about how Sect Leader Jiang will always be there to clean up Wei Ying’s messes before she walks away without a word, and the scene cuts to Wei WuXian watching them forlornly in the distance. 
I really really love this scene as character building, because from this scene we are very quickly shown Madam Yu’s personal problems, and how she resents her unhappy marriage and blames it on the child she believes took it from her, but the scene also doesn’t hold back on showing that she’s the one being unreasonable and unwilling to talk things out because she lets anger, pride and resentment control her. We see how she was fine and willing to try and talk at first, trying to reason with Jiang FengMian about why the marriage should be carried out, because their daughter does like Jin ZiXuan, and she also wants the Jiang Sect to have good relations to the Jin Sect like the Meishan Yu Sect does due to her close friendship with Madam Jin. This shows that she does care about her daughter’s feelings and that she’s doing what she can to help the Jiang Sect. But as soon as the sore topic of the loveless marriage is brought up, she blames Wei WuXian for it and starts the argument. 
From this scene, we also learn the extent of Jiang FengMian’s favouritism and how it hurt Madam Yu as well as their son, and having Wei WuXian watching their argument creates a nice transition into the next scene where he apologies to Jiang YanLi for ruining the marriage, showing that he feels guilty about the situation and most likely, the discord between his adoptive parents in general. 
As the story goes on, we see that Madam Yu’s problem is basically based ENTIRELY around Wei WuXian. She gets mad at Jiang YanLi for peeling lotus seeds for him. She gets mad at Jiang FengMian for giving Wei WuXian a choice to go or not to go to the Wen doctrine. She gets mad at Jiang Cheng for trying to calm her down and berates him for not being as good as Wei WuXian. As the audience, we are more sympathetic to Wei WuXian’s point of view, and so far Madam Yu comes off as an abusive bitch who hates him for no reason. 
Then after the whole XuanWu incident, we get the scene where Madam Yu storms in on Wei WuXian’s conversation with Jiang FengMian and Jiang Cheng. And holy fuck does it make her seem even more unredeemable than she already was. She comes in right as Jiang FengMian is scolding Jiang Cheng for not upholding the family values, refusing to recognize Wei WuXian’s accomplishment and saying he was bound to bring ruin to the Jiang Sect sooner or later. When Jiang FengMian asks her why she was there, after all it’s common knowledge that she doesn’t care about Wei WuXian’s injuries, she intentionally aggravates him by literally grabbing and shoving Jiang Cheng into her husband’s face, forcefully reminding him that Jiang Cheng was their “true son”. She accuses him of disliking Jiang Cheng because she was the mother, then accuses him of actually being Wei WuXian’s real father. And with that, we instantly know what he whole fucking problem is. 
It’s jealousy. She had been jealous of Jiang FengMian’s feelings for CangSe Sanren this whole time, and took it out on an innocent child who lost his family at a young age. All that unreasonable, misguided resentment, all directed towards a dead woman’s son. A dead woman her husband was most likely in love with, who hadn’t even returned those feelings. 
Personally, when this scene showed up, I decided, “Yup, I fucking hate this bitch.” But I will say this, this scene was also such a good character building scene. It amplified the drama, always necessary in ancient Chinese stories, and was a catalyst that led to a very important plot point: Wei WuXian’s promise to Jiang Cheng. 
Time to talk about how Madam Yu actually functions as a plot-driving character! 
As I just said, this scene drove Wei WuXian to make the promise of becoming Jiang Cheng’s right-hand man in the future, and it was a promise he had fully intended to keep. Madam Yu, and to a lesser extent also Jiang FengMian, were the driving force behind that decision. By now, we as the audience fully understand the core factors of Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng’s insecurities. Wei WuXian feels like he doesn’t have a proper place in the Jiang Family because of Madam Yu, and Jiang Cheng feels like he’s never doing enough to please either of his parents. The abuse from Madam Yu and the neglect from Jiang FengMian weighs down on Jiang Cheng’s shoulders constantly as he feels unloved by both parents, meanwhile Wei WuXian believes he is what ruined the love for the family just by being alive. 
To me, Madam Yu is the strongest catalyst character in the story because she drives the story’s two central characters, Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng, in a way that both explains and exploits their insecurities and the decisions they make because of those problems. She is legitimately the primary reason why both boys are so messed up (though Jiang FengMian played no small part in that too), and we feel the effects of her actions on the two of them long after she's dead. Which brings us to the big topic of her death. 
Now, let's be real, Madam Yu was still kind of a fridged woman like Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi. However, in my opinion she was at the very least a fridged woman done right. The reason for this is that both Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi were overall much weaker characters (especially in the novel) and essentially both died for no real reason except to cause more tragedy and pain for Wei WuXian to push him to his death. They both only died to set up Wei Ying's death, which is why I'm furious about that, but that's for another post (let me know if y'all want it lol). But Madam Yu's death? Her death was far, far more significant and there's a huge reason why a lot of fans, regardless of which adaptation they follow, agree that Madam Yu's last scenes were her best ones. 
Now, onto the analysis of the massacre of Lotus Pier. It started with Wang LingJiao’s pompous ass waltzing in and demanding that they chop off Wei WuXian’s hand and submit to the Wen Sect, even after Madam Yu violently lashed out at Wei WuXian with ZiDian to the point where he shouldn’t have been able to move for days (the animation doesn't agree though cuz they wanted a cool fight scene lmao). This scene is very interesting for Madam Yu’s character, because you can interpret it in two ways; one that makes Madam Yu seem to hold SOME sympathy for Wei WuXian as a member of the Jiang Sect, or another that shows her tactical insight as well as her pride for her Sect and status, or even both. Later in the story, Wen Qing reveals that Madam Yu hadn’t actually hurt Wei WuXian as badly as she claimed, and we can interpret this as either her not truly wanting to cause lasting damage to Wei WuXian, or that she knew there would be a fight regardless and made sure Wei WuXian would be able to fight the Wens off along with her and Jiang Cheng. Madam Yu has previously made it clear that she believes in Wei WuXian’s skills in combat and cultivation, shown in her berating comparison of him and Jiang Cheng, so it would make sense for her to keep one of the Jiang Sect’s strongest fighters on his feet while putting on a show for Wang LingJiao in case it was enough to satisfy the Wens into leaving them alone for the time being (while probably finally having an excuse to act violently against the poor kid she hates maybe). Personally, I do think it is more of the latter, but I also don’t think Madam Yu is one to turn to physical abuse too much. Yes, she slapped Jiang Cheng in the shoulder in the novel introduction and shoves him around when she’s angry, but aside from that we have no reason to believe she actively and frequently engages in physical abuse against them as they never seem to be scared of her in that way, and Jiang Cheng was particularly horrified and scared when she did hit Wei WuXian in that scene with Wang LingJiao, so I lean towards believing it was a rare occurrence (not that emotional abuse really any better, but you know.) 
Quick bonus point, I love how in CQL she just nods at JinZhu and YinZhu and they immediately know what to do, and also when she trusted them to hold Wen ZhuLiu off while she escaped with the boys. It really shows how close the three of them are despite being mistress and servants, having grown up and trained together. JinZhu and YinZhu are criminally under-utilised and I will be forever bitter about it.
In the scene that follows, the animation has my whole heart once again. Mostly because it was the best fight scene don’t @ me, but also because it showed her fighting side by side with Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian. Madam Yu took the frontline first, taking out the large group headed towards them before letting the boys rush forward ahead of her to fight, only taking over the main fight when Wen ZhuLiu entered the fray. During their battle, Wen ZhuLiu used the body of a dead Wen to block her attack, blinding her with blood as she paused in shock at the unexpected action. Realizing she could not win the unfair fight, Madam Yu quickly switched tactics and escaped, aiming to make sure that the Jiang heir survived. I really liked seeing her fight alongside them, even though it doesn’t totally make sense with Wei WuXian’s injury, because it does give a better look into them being able to function as combat partners. It is implied that Madam Yu trained them more than Jiang FengMian did and that'sthe headcanon I go for myself, so I enjoyed that scene a lot. Then comes her biggest defining moment, her final scene with Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian. Please note: This is 100% the animation and why anime-Madam Yu is best Madam Yu.
Madam Yu shoves Wei WuXian into a boat, screaming that this was all his fault. She knows it’s over, that there’s no chance of winning this fight, so she gives ZiDian to Jiang Cheng, and tells him, in the softest voice we’ve ever heard from her, to leave. When Jiang Cheng starts begging her to escape with them, she gives into her emotions and pulls her son in for a hug, telling him he’s a good child. Jiang Cheng is shocked, likely never having received her affection like this before. Here, Madam Yu has no reason to hide her feelings anymore, because she knows she's going to die, and she knows she cannot bear to flee Lotus Pier as she is the Jiang Matriarch and has her pride. She spares Wei WuXian, but I don't think it's because she wants him to live. I think she spared him to ensure her hot-headed son will have someone to protect him, because she knows that Jiang Cheng will absolutely try to save her, and because she fully believes that Wei WuXian absolutely will fulfill that promise. She knows Wei WuXian is loyal to the Sect, and more importantly, to Jiang Cheng. She knows that while Wei WuXian is more reckless and impulsive, Jiang Cheng is the one who reacts more emotionally. Just like herself. When demanding that Wei WuXian give his life to protect Jiang Cheng, she’s not simply giving him an order as a master to a servant. She was telling him, in her own way, that she cannot protect Jiang Cheng as she believed she was doing any longer, and entrusts that task to Wei WuXian, because he’s the only person who can do so. In this very moment, she knows she’s walking to her death, and she knows she would never see her children again, and doesn’t know if her husband would even return for her, because she genuinely believes she’s unloved by him. So, she gives her family to Wei WuXian in the worst way possible, and we see her biggest flaw of her unyielding pride also being her greatest strength as she fights to protect her family and home one last time.
This scene, this GODDAMN scene, is Madam Yu’s most defining moment as a catalyst character, because now her character has served its full purpose. It’s the moment both we as the audience, AND Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng, see that she is more than an abusive, jealous mother. She is more than just prideful and fierce. She’s also a “real” person with emotions and problems she never managed to work out, but did truly love her son, her family, her sect. But she was also never going to be redeemed, because she refused to face her own demons even to the very end. She was such a prideful and stubborn person, that she died upright, holding on to her sword in a refusal to kneel to the Wens. And for Jiang Cheng, to see the proudest, most powerful person he knew, dead and disrespected by Wen Chao and Wang LingJiao, well, can you blame him for snapping? 
Madam Yu’s presence in the story was primarily to set up the conflict between Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian. Her problems, her abuse, caused them to develop insecurities that became their worst flaws, with Jiang Cheng always feeling inferior because she always told him he was inferior, and with Wei WuXian’s guilt and tendency to blame himself for anything that goes wrong around him. Jiang FengMian’s lousy parenting and neglect (y'all want an analysis on him too cuz he's honestly a really interesting take on a bad parent imo), which is also a form of emotional abuse by the way, shouldn’t be ignored, but Madam Yu is simply the better and more impactful character. We see how her starting arguments with Jiang FengMian push the boys into heartfelt talks, leading to the promise between them before Lotus Pier fell. We see how she set up Wei WuXian’s feeling of owing an unpayable debt to the Jiang Sect, and to her for sparing his life to protect her son. But she also wasn’t simply a plot-device-abusive character type. She is fully shown to have her own motivations, her own problems unique to her, and her own strengths and flaws in ways that a lot of other minor characters don’t get, especially in the animation. Hell, not even Jiang YanLi, a character supposedly being more significant than her, got such an in-depth character. Madam Yu isn’t a developed character by any means, but she has a lot of depth, and the impact she left on both the audience and the canon characters is felt long after she’s dead. When Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian break things off, Jiang Cheng talks about how Wei WuXian is the perfect disciple of the Jiang Sect, and that leads to Wei WuXian leaving so he “doesn’t cause them any more trouble”. Wei WuXian cannot abandon the ideals of the man who took him in all those years ago, but he also felt that he had given his all to Jiang Cheng already in his golden core, and thus he felt that he should respect Madam Yu’s presumed wishes and stop causing more problems for them. Even far, far later on, Wei WuXian still feels guilt towards her and Jiang FengMian’s death and wishes to pay respects, but doesn’t argue with Jiang Cheng when he’s told that he doesn’t deserve even that. And honestly, we also just know who’s fault that unreasonable guilt really is. 
I say Madam Yu is the best minor character, and a fridged character done right, because she genuinely felt like an actual person, an actual abusive mother but also a human being with her own complex feelings while also being an overall bad person who (arguably) needed to be out of the protagonist's life. To get a little personal for a moment, Madam Yu strongly reminds me of my own mother, who is quite emotionally abusive, though not as extreme, which might have made me feel more realism from her than most other minor characters and definitely made me think that MXTX has some personal experiences herself. The animation is the best at this, because her tones and expressions change drastically here and there when it’s needed, plus her voice actress does such an outstanding job conveying her emotions instead of just shouting everything like the novel and CQL presents it, but she maintains her pride, the most defining trait, both her greatest strength and greatest flaw, until she was no longer needed in the story. A lot of stories with such a character tend to give them an emotional breakdown before they end their arc, but Madam Yu had none of that (...except...in CQL...I guess...yeah that’s why I don’t like that one). Her death was to push the story and the motivations of two male characters forward, and I agree that it’s not fantastic given that most other women died within the same story for male plot progress, but her death actually felt, to me at least, like it also had a genuine purpose to her own character as well as the plot. Wen Qing’s death was heartbreaking to me because I love her and she is my QUEEN, but narratively pointless especially since Wen Ning came back and in the end she was only really there to perform the golden core transfer. Jiang YanLi’s death was just...utterly unnecessary man pain. I have made no secret of hating how her death was handled. 
With Madam Yu, I personally really liked that she essentially was an irredeemable person that would never change herself out of pride so she almost needed to die, but was still human nonetheless. And going by MDZS’s heavy theme of grey morality, she fits the theme perfectly. And that’s why, while Madam Yu may be an abusive and terrible person, she’s easily one of the strongest characters in the whole story, right up there with Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng, and Jin GuangYao in my opinion. 
I hope y’all enjoyed this monster of a post of me rambling about the angry purple lady.
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Apartment AU Masterpost:
-Everyone lives in an apartment complex.
-Xisuma as landlord? Or just a really well looked up to person in the complex. Whichever works for you!
-Pranks all the time. Everyone's constantly pranking each other.
-Everyone has 'normal people jobs.' Perhaps Joe is an English teacher? (Cleo's also a teacher. (Irl.) Omg, what if they teach at the same school?) Maybe Bdubs is a professional interior designer? Maybe Cub builds computers? Go nuts, get creative.
-Actually, screw it. Bdubs works at IKEA.
-Everyone meets up every Friday night to go to the pub or go bowling or just do something together.
-They have a discord server because of course they do.
-European Hermits are early-birds, American hermits are night-owls. (This is the only way I can think to portray timezones and waking hours when everyone's living in the same building.)
-They all still love minecraft, don't worry.
-Keralis has so many books his flat is basically a library. He lets people come in and borrow books for a small fee.
-Tinfoilchef is a bit of a shut in but everyone makes an effort to include him.
-Etho would also be a cryptid like Xisuma. Like, we've seen Xisuma's whole body other than his face but the best we know about Etho is that: 1. He exists and 2. From the, like, one single real life photo he's shared, he broke a headset. Also, 3. Allegedly, he's buff. Otherwise; Beef and Etho invite Pause (who lives elsewhere,) over at random intervals to [play ctm maps] and do god knows what. Bdoubs works at IKEA but is the person to make the room displays, y'know.
-Scar sells dice and other tabletop rpg supplies that he designs. His shop is magiccrystals. com
-Cub and Scar made business with the guy who runs the fight club. They get half of the profits and everyone’s always wondering how those two can always afford the most expensive Christmas gifts for everyone.
-Mumbo could be an engineer or work on a STEM field, and he works on some really important and impressive projects and that would explain his polish person, Exept, when it comes to helping another hermit to change a lightbulb or fix a microwave he is an absolute disaster.
-Grian owns a parrot that knows everyones' names and faces and greets them when they come in.
-Scar's apartment has a balcony filled with plants and he has to bring them inside for the winter. (I'm assuming that all 4 seasons happen) Even without the balcony plants, his place is still full of indoor plants including his favorite venus flytrap. There is always a plant knocked over from Jellie's shenanigans. Jellie is supposed to stay in his apartment, however she keeps on getting out somehow, even getting to Xisuma's apartment occasionally.
-There's a grassy patch out back that acts as a backyard, but Stress has effectively taken it over. Perfect for flowers of all colors in the spring and summer, and during the winter you KNOW she’s building an ice castle from which to throw snowball at all her friends.
-Beef and, when he’s visiting, Pause get a lot of questions about Etho (since unlike X who gets one tightlipped visitor in shape of his brother Etho gets two that are willing to be vague) however they charge a fee for people to guess. They’d never actually sell him out but the guesses are always something technical related so there’s not much of a risk, he actually works as a botanist/gardener.
-Iskall is extremely good at ice hockey and, as resident Canadians, Etho and Beef have played with him. However Iskall only knows that he’s played with Beef because both beef and etho refuse to tell him who in the rink was Etho when they played.
-The only person who’s seen Xisuma's face is Keralis.
-Nobody knows what Grian does for a job. Like, when they think they've figured it out what he does, they're thrown through a loop again because he does a lot of odd jobs. Need help with a pet? Grian can help! Rip on your clothes? Don't worry, Grian knows how to fix it! Ect.
-Grian's an assassin. Iskall will make assassin jokes and Grian, without looking up from his coffee will go: "that's not how that works!" And then go back to being quiet. Everyone's like ????
-I love the idea of Grian knowing all these cool facts and when anyone acts he says 'it's because of his job,' and they still can't figure out what he does. He keeps correcting Iskall on assassin facts but they're all just like 'oh Grian sure must love those types of movies, huh.'
-Cleo teaches Joe's kid. (That means she teaches either year 2 or year 3? // 1st grade or 2nd grade?)
-Grian's family is in the mafia but he mostly just vibes. Sure, he works with the mafia, but he keeps his regular life away from work and none of the hermits (besides False because she saved the Mafia boss) know. Imagine boss looking at False and going, 'oh hey, you're already protected.' False is confused and says 'what?' But the Mafia Boss has already left.
-Etho is always in full kakashi cosplay.
-Honorary hermits apartment au: zloy and pixl have a radio show but also act as private investigators. Falsie hires them to investigate how she got the protection of the mafia. On their investigation they start asking Elybeat (that lives on a building right next to the hermits) about weird behaviors that he might have seen. Ely just goes ‘all of what they do is weird. I’ve recorded weird stuff they say and remixed it. They though it was funny and put the remixes as their elevator music.'
-Everyone thinks Etho is an assassin, but really, he's a horticulturist/botanist. He doesn't bother to correct them cause it means he doesn't get pranked, (or, as often.) Maybe someone finds out eventually? I don't know who. Maybe Doc and they keep it hush hush cause they think it's funny or something. || Maybe Bdubs finds out, (because I think he's seen Naruto?? Swear I saw a Twitter post where he recognized a Naruto joke) and he's the only one that recognizes that Etho's dressed like Kakashi and NOT an assassin. (That's lowkey a joke though.)
-Someone warns Grian against parking euro because they think Etho's an assassin and Grian just kinda goes: "alright then." Knowing that there's no way Etho is an assassin, but also realising how the hermits view that profession, he most likely starts feeling kinda bad.
-Beef used to be a car photographer and Mumbo takes photographs as a sideline when he was in college. They would occasionally chat about their past experience in the photography field and sometimes gush about cars.
-Hermit Challenges was actually a truth or dare game among the hermits. Mumbo was basically delirious from lack of sleep to explain his absolute gremlin energy. Mumbo dares Grian to steal front doors before passing out and everyone decided that was the end of that game. No one thought Grian would do the dare. A week later, everyone but Etho and Xisuma were missing their front doors (including Grian.) He stuck them in his bathroom so no one immediately saw the doors.
-As already established, Joe constantly hangs at Keralis's library. Let's say he also has a hobby for writing, and one time he was asking to himself how *insert really specific murder scene* would work in real life. Grian or Doc then overheard him and answers him in a also very specific way, he thanks them with 0 concerns and continues with his writing.
-Etho has been an assassin but it was many years ago, and retired to care for plants. (As you do.) He got hired by The Goatfather but intentionally botched the killings because, 'hey now those two are friends >:(' He and Bdubs still have the endrod game but it involves the whole apartment building and several discord messages going "located" or "flashlight on the move.'
-Stress paints all the hermit's door and puts their names on them. (-🌿)
-The organisization Grian works for is called "The Watchers!" They text him in riddles of what his missions are. This is so that if anyone peaks at his phone, they don't understand immediately!
-What if in YHS happen because of grian family and Sam is from an other family who does not support the grain family. So grian will not bring up high school and school and when joe and Cleo talk about there student grian sometimes cringes remember what happened in high school. (-🌿)
-Grian and Mumbo's hobbits holes were two cupboards they found on their respective apartments and decided to make a room out of them and named them their hobbit holes after they found out they both had them (-🐿️)
-What if it's a really old apartment and the 'hobbit holes' actually connect to each others apartment. (-🐺)
-Mumbo has these periods when he overworks like crazy and when they're over - he sleeps for like 24-36 hours straight. Everybody knows about this and help him if he falls asleep in random plaxes around the apartment. Mumbo once fell asleep right before his door and Grian tried to help him get inside while mumbling. Guess which remix were aded to the elevator music next week.
-Whenever anyone is annoyed or upset, grian sometimes pops his head up from his book and goes "who do I need to kill?" No one takes him seriously though he *would* kill for any of his friends.
-People who have left the server work nearby but have moved to new apartments. (For example, Welsknight works at a nearby food truck) (-☘️)
-With the Grian being a spy you get several oints where he thinks he's been found out but no one puts the and two together. They're all like: "Grian just likes action movies I guess."
-Scar's "wizard robe" is a bathrobe he owns. One day he forgets to change and just walks out in a bathrobe and no pants.
-Since Cleo teaches Joe's kid, maybe that extends to all the hermits' kids? Like the ones that have them, like not at the same time but at some point you know?
-I don't think I saw any regarding headgames, but I could've missed it. Anyways, what if Cleo wanted to make a big Scrapbook in her free time of all her friends, so she asks everybody to try and get pictures. So the PVP heads are candid photos, and the tradeable one are like selfies or group pictures. The other heads could just be a requirement for the picture like have a sheep in the picture. And maybe she gives the winners dinner payed by her or something.
-On the head cannon that hermits that aren’t on the server work nearby, Biffa is the actual mayor.
-Are mobs (and half mobs by extension) still a thing in apartment au? Cause if not I propose that Jevin just has cloob blue dyed hair and a bunch of blue tattoos.
-XB bakes a lot and always shares the food he makes with the others. They adore his cookies. Scar really wants to make some cookies in the shapes of disney characters with him, but he's too shy to ask. (-nameless anon)
-Perhaps Mumbo and Iskall are also protected by the mafia because of grian (perhaps scar is too) They and False have a 'we are protected and have no idea why' group (-Frost Anon)
-Imagine the hermits want to throw a nice party but X and Etho were kinda like “yeah no i’ll pass” so they make it a masquerade so that they can come- and then the whole night no one knows who anyone really is, but still has a really good time.
-Grian wanted a pet parrot, but felt like he would be terrible at taking care of one so he has toy parrots instead, those that have pre made phrases and such, and he is proud of his toy parrot pets. (-🐿️)
-Xisuma hosts a podcast! That's where all of his Xisuma speaks content ends up coming from. (-🇵🇭)
-Etho has a secret food blog called "Cooking With Etho" (based on the actual cooking with Etho segment in usually his modded stuff.) He also knows that there's hermits that either: have no idea how to cook properly or can't cook real meals due to their work. To help with this, sometimes he leaves finished meals or recipes with them (outside their doors or somehow in their fridge) and no one knows who does it prompting the theory of a self care ghost haunting the building.
(All of those in red were from Anons!)
-Joe works as a LAMP Developer.
-False has an assortment of swords, knives, etc. She even had a bow! She also has a dummy to practice fighting on.
(-@unpredictable-pancake.)
-Stress is a wedding designer. (-@the-angry-numel.)
-Iskall also works at IKEA with Bdubs. (-@mandatedempathy.)
-There's a local club that's basically fight club a few people are in. False, Iskall and a couple others are in.
-Hypno is kind of a bit of a loner. Everyone on the floor considers him a friend but he doesn't really have a best friend. He just does his own thing and people usually let him do that. He's fine with it.
-XB and Joe spend a lot of time at Keralis' library house just reading the books. Keralis usually charges every except those two because 1. They're there so often and 2. They're basically his room mates at this point. (-@tomcatacaphe.)
-Ren works at a bar as a bartender or musician. (-@friendlyneighbourhoodpieceoftrash.)
-Building on the last thing with Ren as a musician or working at a bar, he works at a bar as a server but does live music on weekends. It's the bar/pub/restaurant that the hermits sometimes hang out at together.
-I can see Grian working at a pet shop but also on the side of the mafia because of YHS. Or at least he used to be involved with the mafia.
-Beef once had to cart Etho off to the hospital for a chemical burn and explain to the other tenants that the explosion heard suspiciously close by wasn’t mafia activity. Etho is just an idiot with a hobby of making homemade fireworks.
-(-@limelocked.)
-False is the chief of police for the town they live in. Iskall is a hired assassin who normally gets employed by the mysterious figure GOATfather. Doc is the GOATfather, head of the mafia. Falsie is trying to hunt down these two as well as any others associated with them. The nHo is part of the mafia. Falsie has no idea any of them are in the mafia and they refuse to kill her because she has become such a close friend to them.
-Maybe Grian is a spy instead of an assassin? The group the Watchers is a government policing organization bent on trying to crack down on mob activity in the area.
(-@creator0fchaos.)
-The elevator music is hermitgang and remixes. -(@lookitsspacekween.)
-Zedaph is a game show host. Tango makes cartoons. (-@aphion-and-on.)
-Come on, let Iskall play ice hockey! Maybe not professionally if it doesn't work for the AU but he's v good at least. (-@automnalsaffron.)
-Grian maybe works at an animal shelter or an animal rehabilitation center. So everyone who has a pet usually comes to him for help if their pet is sick or injured. (-@vahco.)
-Grian has a safe full of guns, all the Hermits know about it but think they're fake. (-@xxpzmistxx)
-X never comes out of his room so no one’s seen his face. The only way he communicates is via text, Discord, and an intercom right by his door. He almost always gets groceries whenever the hermits are busy and therefore have no time to go out- but the hermits know he’s a real person because sometimes they hear guitar solos coming from his room.
-Hypno is a voice actor!
-Joe and Cleo often go home at the same time, and all the way it's almost always Cleo complaining about her students being bratty and the likes (Bonus points if Joe carpools with Cleo, who owns a car.)
-False unknowingly helps the boss of the mafia after seeing him wounded on a street one day, earning her their protection.
-As a callback to Season 6, Stress became a cat lady for a bit while False became a dog lady. As an added bonus: Cleo became nuts when Cub decided to gift her with spiders for her birthday or some other event.
-Mumbo still sidelines as a cameraman/film director for short documentaries and comedy sketches where he often invites Zed and his buddy Jack to act maybe?
-The first time X was proven to be an actual person was when the girls temporarily kicked the boys out to have the apartment all to themselves for a girls’ night which prompted the boys to have their own boys’ night. X was wearing his grey helmet that night so his face was still obscured tho, and from that day forward they always had a weekly girls’ night and boys’ night alternating on which group gets to have the apartment to themselves.
-False may seem like she can take a shot or two, but in reality she’s very lightweight and easily drunk, and is always the first one wasted. She becomes a flirty drunk who flirts with everyone and everything when she’s tipsy, an angry drunk the more she drinks and eventually a sad drunk before passing out. Cleo and Stress, her drinking buddies, always find amusement in this.
-As a callback to Xb living a thousand blocks away from society in s7, maybe he lives at the highest floor where not many (if not no one) occupies?
(-@heyitsroby.)
-Civil War started because they used to get groceries delivered to their doors and Grian started stealing them when they were left in the doorstep. Everyone stole each others groceries until one day they went into teamss of one side vs the other side of the corridor to the other until Grian stole so many groceries Dic was like 'Dammit!' He started going to the store to get groceries instead of getting them delivered to his door after that. (-@sayeshaa1108.)
-Regarding apartment au: Zedaph is similar to miu iruma from danganronpa: making the weirdest inventions and coaxing the other hermits into doing weird things for science. (-@oh-hecc-im-stupid.)
-Idk if Doc has a profession yet in the apartment au, but it just struck me- what if he owned a private casino?? Cause of s7? Just a thought! (-@853dragons.)
-Cleo really enjoys doing miniature diorama scenes. Like the tiny dudes from "Night at The Museum". She's like crazy good at it, and Joe will sometimes base his poems and stories off of her dioramas. Also maybe Joe has published a book of poems and short stories? (-@lynxes15.)
-Doc works as a social engineer and part time mafia boss. He rarely shows up for game nights. However, when he does, nobody else stands a chance.
-Tango, Impulse and Zedaph go over to each other's rooms so often they practically live together in an apartment room 3X bigger than everyone else.
(-@trashedeggnog.)
LINK TO NEXT POST: https://hermitcraftheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/617640752709861376/apartmentau-masterpost-2-link-to-previous-the
Posts with TW:
Guns, Gangs, Getting Shot. Don't read if you can't handle this topics.
-Everyone finds out Grian is an assassin/mafia boss because someone from a different gang (*cough cough* sam gladiator *cough cough*) found out where he lives and tried to murder him. Queue epic gun fight scene. If you want some angst, Grian gets shot a couple of times in the fight but didn’t realize it because of the adrenaline and passes out. (-Anon.)
-Imagine someone like, finding Grian's guns and weapons and just being :0 and Grian is a little nervous. But then the other hermit just think the guns are cool (it's probably either etho or doc) and they're just gushing over how cool the guns are. Grian is relieved. (-Anon.)
-iJevin owns at least one gun. He's not in the mafia or a cop or anything, it's just cool and legal so he as one. He's the constant counter for the other gun owning hermits who have them for more mafia related purposes (context: jevin owns at least one gun irl) (-Anon.)
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benevolent-savage · 4 years
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this is what happens when u enable me lets go
(spoilers ahoy)
Firstly, here’s some somewhat miscellaneous reasons that don’t contribute to any sort of narrative analysis but are still parts of the character I like.
His boss fight is my favorite in the game thus far. It’s not super hard, but it isn’t super easy either, and I even managed to solo it on my Balance after a few practice rounds. Sufficiently challenging without feeling unfair.
His boss fight music. It is a bop and a half, go give it a listen, my soul ascends from my body a few centimeters every time I hear it start up.
His voice. I’m sure it’s processed at least a little but gotdamn his voice is so deep and spooky it startled me when I first heard it. Very curious who his actor is; I think he and Inyanga Whitestripes share the same one. Either way, very well voiced and acted.
His design is very good. It’s the perfect mix of innocuous but also spooky sorcerer fella who knows some shit. And I was afraid that the designers would try and make him like. Handsome? Under the hood? To try and make him more sympathetic? But they didn’t and I’m glad for it.
With those out of the way, the next thing to establish, I guess: I don’t interpret Old Cob to be the main villain of arc 3, nor do I interpret Raven as such. They’re definitely antagonists, but they’re not the ultimate problem; the ultimate problem is their divorce, and how they keep dragging people into their bs. It’s established the Aethyr is a physical manifestation of their anger towards each other, and as it thins, communication between them becomes possible, as Sparck puts it in this thinly veiled metaphor toward the start of Empyrea part 2.
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But Cob’s still an antagonist and I love him so I’m gonna talk about that. Most of this is going to be talking about his motivations for doing what he does, since I don’t see him quite as the ‘likes to watch the world burn for the hell of it’ archetype that others might.
One of the reasons that drew me to his character is how legit his gripe is, when put in perspective. Old Cob- or Grandfather Spider, if you prefer- is not a mortal like the other antagonists of previous arcs, which establishes he has a different thought process right off the bat. This new universe was built on his suffering and he has a grudge against the ex wife who made it, so as a god, it makes some sense he’d try to destroy it and build one he would like better. He’s fully aware that what he is doing will hurt people but decidedly doesn’t care, and I appreciate that so much. He’s chaotic as fuck and he owns it, along with his superiority complex that’s as wide as the day is long.
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Yet his reasoning is like. Weirdly understandable? Like, if my ex-whatever put me in jail for a lifetime sentence and stole my kidney to pay for a new house or something, I too would go apeshit and want my fuckin kidney back. That’s mostly how I interpret his situation. He’s not doing this for hell of it, he’s doing it because he wants to get back at his ex because he’s bitter and petty and for the most part he knows this but he feels justified in doing do because she ripped out his goddamn kidney- I mean heart, and he wants that back.
And then, even after all that, he and his magic are treated as if they’re inherently evil. While, sure, Shadow is a ‘dark magic’, its actual properties aren’t anything malicious by itself. It is described as “a magic that changes reality,” and that’s it. Incredibly exploitable and you should practice caution while handling it, but used correctly it is powerful and helpful; this is likely alluding to the backlash mechanic, where likes decrease the percent of damage you take, dislikes increase the percent, and I imagine the person meant to be the literal embodiment of the magic in question to be similar in nature: not inherently harmful and lashes out if he feels he’s been mistreated.
Going off that, I’m not sure he ever wanted the FirstWorld to be destroyed, and therefore believes his incarceration to be entirely unjust; he doesn’t deny that he instigated the fight between the Titans, but when it comes to being accused of its actual destruction, he gets angry.
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...Okay the written text doesn’t really display how mad he got here, but he was like. Big Angy. Super offended. Honestly, a big part of why I love and analyze the hell out of his character comes from how his VA delivers his lines and his voice in general. If you haven’t heard it for some reason, I recommend looking it up. Anyway, here he’s basically saying he didn’t destroy the First World, and even if he did, he’s suffered enough punishment because of it, to my interpretation. The only one I remember blaming him for it is Raven; Bartleby was there, and I don’t recall him blaming anything other than the Titans for it. This is of course not accounting for the various changes made to the lore since he was introduced, but they could have easily thrown in a line like ‘And now Spider plans to destroy the Spiral the way he destroyed the FirstWorld!’ or something to make it clear it was done intentionally.
And this may very well be straying into headcanon territory here, but I think he holds positive relationships very closely to him, even if things went sour in the end; he clearly still has some remaining affection for the Titans, calling them ‘the children’ and being incredibly angry at Raven for forcing one of them to destroy his Heart.
When Rat loses in Polaris he shows up to praises his efforts and even comfort him, in his own weird way. He reprimanded Scorpion in Mirage, but it’s because Scorpion wasn’t doing what his dad asked him to and got his ass kicked as a result. As for Bat, every time they’re in the same room together he pays him some sort of compliment.
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Bat claims that he and his brothers are meant to be his tools, and to some extent that’s true, but he also genuinely cares about them, and it’s really interesting to see a villain defect from the usual ‘not caring about anyone other than themselves’ and openly show affection for his kids while still managing to be an incredible asshole.
In line with this is his relationship with the Wizard. There is, of course, a foundation of manipulation to their dynamic, at least to some degree. I thoroughly believe that Spider was overshadowing Coleridge, at least partly, so our character could bust him out of prison.
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And while this is happening, he regains some of his spent power and removes threats to it as well, namely Morganthe, using the Wizard’s help. In fact, I have very little doubt that he was at least partially responsible for her fall; his timing on that two-liner was too on the nose.
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But even with that, I think he genuinely treasures the Wizard’s help and company, which is why he attempts on four different occasions to either sway them to his side, or warn them away from what he’s doing.
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Boy, I want that vacation, but it’s your fault I’m here.
And then, of course, his relationship with Raven, something that is basically a summation of his character arc. Laden with baggage and tragic in concept, it is my belief that most of what he’s doing isn’t because he genuinely hates the Spiral or he wants to get back at her, but because he loved her and treasured their relationship; so upon her mistreating him, he lashed out at everything she’d made and detested it as a result. But only because he felt betrayed and hurt so he has to inflict that on other people because he is, as aforementioned, a petty and bitter old fuck.
Moving off that line of thinking, an admirable quality he possesses is how smart he is. This guy has so many wrinkles in his brain it must look like a raisin. Well, perhaps not ‘smart’ exactly, but how good he is at manipulating certain situations to his advantage. Like in Mirage; you just know that he was fully expecting Mellori to be there and fully planned to use her as a back up plan, or you could even argue that the whole debacle in Mirage was a ploy to get his hands on her, while having the added possible benefit of things actually working out.
Actually his scheme in Mirage was really interesting now that I think about it. His aim was to turn back time to when the FirstWorld was whole, further implying that he never wanted its destruction in the first place. It would also, of course, be a time where he had his Heart and would have the ability to avoid having it ripped out again. This would involve not having the Titans fight each other again, or at least not starting it and suffering the consequences. It would be everything he wanted to achieve knocked out in one go with minimal muss or fuss, compared to other methods. It’s probably a part of why he shows up personally to bargain with Eerkala and the Cabal, and why he directly intervenes in our Wizard’s efforts to stop him; it was too important to trust to any of his kids, so knowing Scorpion probably wouldn’t have been able to execute it anyway, he used his kid as a distraction for the most part.
I also like looking into the fact that his element, besides Shadow, is Storm, as opposed to pure Shadow or Death, as most major antagonists are. Storm is a school based on invention, experimentation and improvement. This is something that interests me for two reasons: one, the magic of major antagonists is always a part of their character, Malistaire the most blatantly, and two, because of this line he says in Mirage.
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To my interpretation, this would imply that he sees the Spiral as something that could be improved. And as a god, he would of course find it his obligation to try and fix this flaw. When he made the barter with the Cabal, I don’t doubt he was being at least partially honest about restoring the FirstWorld; it would certainly fix the flaw it has in the context of stealing his internal organs, but he would also probably seek to improve it, make it more suited to Shadow or something.
Something else I find intriguing is how weirdly honest he is; I don’t recall him ever lying to us once, unless you count omitting certain facts as lying. But that’s absolutely something I can see him using against people, like “I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you, your fault for not asking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .” As said before, he;s really good at manipulating people and he weaponizes whatever he can; @that-wizard-oki​ made a really great post about how he uses conflicts- his fault or not- to his advantage, and does his own thing in the background without interruption, Mirage and Neumia probably being the best example of this, with Scorpion and the Cabal serving as distractions while he either carries out things himself or gives instructions.
To pull all of this together narratively, I think it’s important to consider this line from Mellori during one of their confrontations:
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He feels powerless, so he puffs up his god status. He has little power to fight with, compared to before, so he mostly manipulates and creates back-up plans while causing conflicts to serve as distractions. His love hurt him, so he lashes out at others and drags them into his problems.
You may ask, “But Sam, these are all bad qualities, why should we like him because of this?” And I would respond “Because it makes him a complex and interesting antagonist.” The kind of character that executes his shitty actions in such a way that you can’t help but respect- even just for the level of dramatics put in to it- while also having a motive that makes you stop and consider that maybe he has a point but is very much handling the situation the wrong way.
Like, c’mon, he ticks so many villain boxes. Tragic backstory? Check. Blatant thespian who owns it? Check. Gets his hands dirty before the climax of the story? Check. Smart/ manipulative/ has back-up plans? Check. Understandable, strong motives? Check.
He’s got layers. Like onion. I felt like there was always something new to discover about him, and for that I can assert my opinion that he’s one of the best characters in Wizard101.
lmao if you read this far into my simp-for-shithead post congrats. feel free to shoot me more asks on the subject bc i cant write persuasive-essay-esque format anymore my brain is rotting. if you will excuse me, im off to listen to the chronoverge combat track for the 82937487734th time
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officialinuyasha · 4 years
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The Yashahime Trailer premiered on August 1st. I was able to witness it first hand and live streamed it to our Facebook Group. The animation is the same from the Final Act, as the animator who worked on it is making a return for Yashahime. The animator Sachi. When the livestream first started on Otakon they had technical difficulties and we were on hold for about 3 minutes, this happened two or three times during the viewing. The video we saw seemed laggy but also could have been in short frames before the animation is fully polished for a final trailer. Here I will look over every frame in the trailer. For the first time ever in the world we get to see a glimpse of Yashahime - The trailer starts, the first thing we see is the sacred tree - it's the Feudal Era at night while raining and then shows a hut. Inside the house, we see a glimpse of Towa BUT she's wearing a patterned robe which is not what she is seen wearing in her regular character design. The person that abducted her must have put that on her.  Towa is sitting down with her hands tied behind her back. The view moves up, and we see Towa's head tilted down. What caught my attention at this moment was the flowers in the background. There is three spider lilys. Spider lilys were shown in the first ending of InuYasha Season 1. Spider lilies are associated with final goodbyes, and legend has it that these flowers grow wherever people part ways for good. In old Buddhist writings, the red spider lily is said to guide the dead through samsara, the cycle of rebirth. I'm going to read more off what I found from Medium.com "A legend is said that there were two elves were assigned to watch over the red spider lily. Manju guarded the flower, and Saka guarded the leaves. Out of curiosity they defied their fate to watch over the flower and met each other. They immediately fell in love, but God was angry at them because they abandoned their duties. He separated the unfortunate couple and laid a curse on them. The flowers of Manju shall never again meet the leaves of Saka. After both of them died and met again in the Otherworld they made a promise to meet again after reincarnation. However, neither of them could keep their word. Thus the meaning of this sorrowful flower is abandonment, never to meet again. It’s often used in funerals and you can see it growing near cemeteries. People say that it’s Hell’s flower and it guides the dead into the next reincarnation." Source - https://medium.com/@TiffanyR/hanakotoba-the-japanese-language-of-flowers-9410aa14d7b5 If you remember Kikyou was snapping the Spider lilies in the Season 1 Ending, as if denying death through being undead. I do believe that this is an intentional nod, especially in that first frame of the flowers that there were three of them. Just like the three main characters. In the next shot Towa appears to have waken up, the robe has fallen off her shoulders and shes talking to a man. Behind her you can see the wall is filled with spider lily patterns. Perhaps he woke her up. We see his face, and one of my members pointed out that he believes it could be Rikichi who was one of Kaede's helpers. It could even be an older Kohaku if we think back on how their dad looked like. But I feel that Rikichi could make sense if we remember how Kaede and her village first acted when Kagome went to the Feudal Era. They captured her the same way they did to Towa here - This could be Towa's first return to the Feudal Era since she was last there when she was four years old. Her appearance in a modern day uniform could have startled the villagers like Kagome first did. Towa and the man continue to look at eachother. Another character appears, it is an older man wearing a hat. He says a few words to Towa. Towa reacts as if she's saying "Oh really? Is that what you think? Now's our chance!" Maybe they had set up a plan. The scene changes to Moroha, she has her arms around her head - A good resemblance. She turns. It shows Setsuna, looking just like her father she then turns and has her eyes closed. They could have intentionally been using Towa as bait to drag the old man out so they could fight him. The old man's facial reaction is telling me "Oh crap! Darn those meddling kids, they found out!" Not sure why. But this old man is giving me serious Dragon vibes, especially with those whiskers that are called Barbels that are seen on Dragons and fish. Moroha takes out her sword and charges towards the old man. However in this frame we can see they already knocked out a guy in the background meaning that this trailer is skipping around on whats happening here like how trailers usually do. Even one of the panels is already damaged. Setsuna swings her Naginata at the old man however he's already vanished. Perhaps a demon in disguise or a monk. Notice the background with the scroll that has artwork on it. This must be a palace. Perhaps this old man was decieving the lord. You can see Moroha jumping in as well. There was some kind of small tree or plant that was behind where the older man was. You can see after his clothes start to fall. Moroha holds up her sword, you can see the dragon detail on her blade - it then glows red as if she was going to do her Koryuha attack or perhaps just showing off. Now that I think about it, if he was a Dragon - Could her sword have absorbed him? That would have been cool and would make sense since Tessaiga has been known to do the same in order to get stronger and gain new forms. She stops what she's doing - Towa says something that caught her attention. It shows all three of the girls. Moroha and Setsuna are both looking out the door- and you can still see the knocked out man in the background. Moroha says something as if "Let's go after them before they get away!" as if they want to go after this villain. Moroha and Setsuna then run outside into the rain while Towa is just standing there watching as the other two run off. Towa then turns to look at the screen. You can see in the background where Moroha and Setsuna probably broke into the building. It is still night and raining outside. Towa then speaks as if she's talking to the viewer. She holds up a book, it's Japanese Kanji says "History". I imagined her saying something like "Good thing I've been taking history class." The trailer ends.
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ziracona · 4 years
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hey zira, what are your hot takes on all of the fo4 companions?
Haha, I don’t know how hot they are, but I can give you a speed run! (Also I am very excited to get this. FO4 was the first open world game I ever played and just the concept of that and the hugeness of the world and branching story & sudden feeling changes towards me in companion characters totally blew my mind, & it still lives rent free in my heart).
Ada, Old Longfellow, and Strong I /still/ haven’t maxed despite having too many hundred hours to want to list on this game—the former bc they were DLC, Strong because honest to god I left him at a nice settlement and then completely forgot about him and remembering that I am the energy in this Ryan O’Flanagan video but abt leaving my super mutant in a tiny settlement alone. I will get there! To max affinity I mean. But anyway, I don’t truly know those three, so my takes are incomplete. So far though, I really like Ada. She is a good girl just trying her best. Fucks me up I can tell her to self destruct. Even though I feel sure she would ignore me, I cannot imagine ever saying that to her. It was really sweet she was willing to forgive the Mechanist and move on with her life. A good girl. Longfellow I am maxing rn (was last time I played anyhow). I enjoy him. Gruff grumpy old man but he seems quite decent and I like his idle banter and when he sings to himself a lot. Seems like he’s had it rough. Strong I liked. He’s wild, and I loved how insane meeting him was, and am worried about him eventually understanding poetry and how that might mess up his sense of world understanding. But he’s a chill dude in his own way and I am glad they gave us at least one nice super mutant.
For the companions I actually do know like the back of my hand, the speedrun:
Nick Valentine: Best man on earth. One of two fictional characters I ever called husband. I would die kill or live for him. I want to be 1/4th the man Nick Valentine is. One of the best characters ever period and I adore literally everything about him. It fucked me up early in game where right after he offered to basically risk destroying his mind to help a stranger look for her son, he asked me how I was doing. First character in the entire game to do that. His first companion dialogue is abt how you’re doing TuT. The man is very kind and forgiving and fair, but knows when the draw the line and take no shit. Emotionally mature, kind, caring, longsuffering. Incredibly damaged and broken by life, but holding on and living kindly and to help others anyway. One of the four most marryablen fictional men I’ve ever seen.
Preston Garvey: Brave, kind, sweet man. I would defend him with my life. He really just wants so bad to make the world better and life has been so hard, but he’s still trying. A beautiful and underrated companion and I would throw hands for him on sight. I adore how he whistles. A true and gentle and loyal friend. Take him to Quincy and let him get his justice it’s what he deserves. People who hate him because he tries to get help helping civilians in that game are weak. I love him so much... please give him enough time to reach max affinity he’s so worth it.
Deacon: *To the tune of You Are My Dad* You are my friiiiend! You’re my friend! (Boogie woogie woogie). Initially, he pissed me off bc he lies all the god damn time, but after we got close enough he actually trusted me, he stole my heart and I would also die for Deacon. He’s a really good person who thinks he’s shit because of who he was on his past. Also him 🤝 Preston: massive survivor’s guilt. They should be friends. Poor Deacon has been the last member of the Railroad like four times, and it’s awful. Help him. Give him love and support. He’s one of my all time faves. Also, Railroad hands down best faction and if you kill them for any reason other than like a walkthrough route video and I ever get the chance I would 100% clock you in the face as hard as I can, like going for losing teeth, and feel no guilt. I know it’s a game and that’s wrong, and I’d be wrong, but I’d still do it. Also, Ryan Alosio (his VA) saw me do cosplay for Deacon once and told me it was great and it filled me with even more love. Anyway Deacon is great. Also, his whole “There are other organisations out there. And, in time, I'm sure they're going to spoon-feed you their own patented form of bullshit. Ignore the verbage and look at what they're doing. What they're asking you to do. What sort of world they'd have you build and how they're going to pay for it.” Is one of the like, two most iconic quotes in all of FO4 & just super good in general.
Hancock: Hardcore badass man but also a good dude and a champion for the people. Man really puts his money where his mouth is and you gotta respect that; another favorite companion for sure. Big fan of the way he stabs a guy for you upon meeting, and is a cool leader who organized his crime and does a decent job actually leading. He works hard to help people and bites back hard. Social justice advocate, dangerous man about town, not afraid to cosplay a revolutionary war hero 24/7 & u gotta respect the no fucks given attitude. A chill dude. Like that he fights the institute, hates the Brotherhood, helps the Railroad, and is friends with Nick. He’s legit af. Also, his VA gives a different answer every time someone asks him about the voice he did for hancock and they’re funny af.
Piper Wright: A cool spunky lady. Lois Lane on the case, kicking butt, and taking name. She’s nice but also hardcore and smart, supportive, fun. A good person. You always get points if you like Nick (which most companions do), and they’re good friends. She’s funny and I love her. A good heart.
Codsworth: He’s great. He’s family. He’s like my...weird brother. Getting to max affinity is heartwarming and also makes my heart go :’-] . Great early-game companion bc he kicks ass and doesn’t need stims to heal. I love getting called by my name and think that was a great feature (well, my PC’s name). He’s a wonderful funky little robot dude and I am so glad he likes me.
Dogmeat: Amazing. A good boy. Doggo of the year. His actor deserved the game award she won. Cute, full of love, and plays with a teddy bear if you give him one. 100/10z
Cait: I like her a lot. She’s been through so much shit, and it makes sense she is how she is. I like they actually gave her an emaciated and messy (though still pretty) design, since she is a drug addict. And that they make her main quest about taking that seriously and wanting to get help, and that she’ll call out the player if they fuck around and do drugs in front of her after she gets rehabilitated. Her relationship to the PC if good is really sweet, and I am a fan. I like that while she’s not sympathetic to synths and thinks they aren’t people, she forgets that every time Nick walks into a room and is like “Oh hey Nicky : )”. She’s a good girl who has been through a lot and still needs time to heal and find herself, but she’s making great strides.
Robert Joseph MacCready: Human disaster (loving). Homeboy a goddamn /mess/ but I love him. He tries so hard to be cool. I love he makes you pay him to come with, then chickens out and gives it back lol. A fool ball of anxiety and bad decisions and what he thinks brovado is. I wish he, Preston, and Deacon would quit fighting, bc I am always like “ :’-] </3 Boys Please” when they swap out, but I love them just the same. He’s doing his best, he’s just stupid and a fool. Like Philip J Fry. Keeping his goddamn soldier toy, which somehow is listed as junk instead of sent to Misc with quest items where it would be fine, safe?parylizes me with fear. I’ve lost 2 hours of gameplay reloading an old save bc I accidentally lost it.
X6-88: A more complex one to answer about. He’s bad, but like, I’m pretty sympathetic to how he got that way. He was created in a lab and had his emotions mostly dragged out of him in intense psychologically damaging training so he would be a weapon and view himself as an object. I was relieved he chose me over the institute even if he wasn’t a fan of the chocie, and think that means there’s a lot of hope for him. Wish he’d chill the fuck out and quit intimidating civilians for 6 god damn seconds, but I like him. I bring him fancy lad snack cakes home from travels all the time, bc Synths are supposed to like them. Really like that he’s the /most/ sympathetic companion towards Danse in Blind Betrayal, even though he should not be programmed for that, and Danse hated him and made it clear any time they interacted.
(EDIT) Curie: I FORGOT HER BABY IM SO SORRY. I like Curie a lot, despite the fact I temporarily forgot she existed. I stg I thought she was in here. Uhhh, okay. Curie: like her character and personality, HUGE un-fan of both the way her desire to get a synth body is to be ‘more real,’ as if Codsworth isn’t a fully realized person while the same robot type she is, instead of just like. Because it would make her happy. ALSO hate how much of a Born Sexy Yesterday she is, even intentionally in not-determinate affinity talks. It’s gross. But her herself, I like a lot. She’s my daughter and I will protect her. She works at The Castle right now as their on-site medic.
Paladin Danse: I know I’m gonna take heat for this but honestly? He didn’t do much for me. I like that he looks and sounds kinda like Buzz Lightyear, and that’s fun, but idk at all why people think he’s so hot. He’s very boring & generic looking to me. Like you’re valid! Taste all be different. But he doesn’t do it for me personally in looks or personality. I don’t at all like, hate him. Or even dislike. Tbh I am fairly neutral on him. It was funny making affinity with him though. Every other companion I had maxed, I liked more and more with each affinity talk. They’d be like “So my dad was a minuteman and died and I want to honor him” or “I just want to really feel like I’m a person, for real, myself, and I am glad I met you, because the good we have achieved together is ours, even if I can’t be sure of anything else,” or “My brother threw the cultural minorities out of our city for clout bc the rich citizens were all racist, and I tried to help—I snuck them food to the unsafe ruins they set up in for weeks, but eventually, they just vanished, and I still bear immense guilt and self-hatred over not having stopped that.” And Danae’s would be like “One time a buddy of mine got kidnapped by super mutants. They turned him into one of them, and they’re all abominations, so I killed him and it made me really sad.” And I was just like “...Oh danse. I really wanted to like you more. But what the fuck.” His relationship to Haylen is sweet though. And ofc I saved him in Blind Betrayal. I blew up the Prydwin so he’s safe now too, and he lives in the garden by my house and tells me how glad he is we’re friends, and I’m p into that. Overall, my feelings on him are not strong at all though.
Porter Gage: Not a fan. Like, I appreciated he helped me kill the old boss, sure. And bc I owed him for that, I went to max affinity to see what there was to him as a person. And like, as far as raiders go, he was okay. But he wasn’t deeply sympathetic, and he’s a slaver, and if you try to liberate the slaves he and the others own, he /will/ turn on and attempt to murder you immediately, no matter how close you were, so he made his choice, and it was to be a bad person and an asshole to the last. Really enjoyed the VA’s work a lot on him tho.
And there you have it 👈👈😎. Thanks for asking!
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cadomoisspokenfor · 3 years
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Legion Rewatch Notes,
Chapter 5:
Everything You Wanna Be
Pre-amble: Farouk’s showing David how to use (and how he thinks he should be using) his powers. There’s a lot of self-absorbed moments from David, and as we know from future episodes Farouk desire is for David to have the same God complex he does. It’s likely he’s attempting to push him down that path all throughout the ep. It even culminates with him attacking Amy just like he did in s2. Only he doesn’t actually end up killing Amy here, though if I had to guess... he would’ve if the others weren’t on their way. Farouk sees killing Amy as “setting David free.” He’s trying to make David hate her (hence forcing Amy to reveal her secrets) so that he’ll start to see the world the way Farouk does. Hypocrites, liars, cheats. “The world will never respect us, therefore we deserve to be as selfish as we want.” Sound familiar? I think David’s actions are explained by Farouk trying to gradually instill these thoughts throughout the episode.
(Post ep addition, pretty sure I was right)
His actions here could be interpreted as more attempts to be helpful, just poorly approached. He tells Melanie he met her husband. His face looks smug, but he could also be smiling cause he thinks she’ll be happy about it. He does look confused when she walks away, as if he’s not sure what he said wrong. Alternatively, Farouk encouraged him to be callous, but after he said it his empathy kicked in and he wondered if maybe it was too mean.
David seems more at piece here than at any other point in the show, and this despite just getting Kerry shot by targeting the wrong person.
Syd seems very concerned about Kerry. The first thing she tells David is that they stopped the bleeding. David then cuts her off from going into what they discovered on their mission.
Small addition: what was Syd gonna tell David about the mission? What was she gonna say they may know now?
“I’m The Magic Man.” Very Shadow King of David to give himself a prestigious nickname.
Another moment of David trying to overcome Syds condition for his own desires. It’s still possible he thinks Syd wants this too. And if the latter’s the case, then it’s also another incident of David trying to be helpful and coming off as creepy unintentionally. From his perspective, he can finally give everyone what they want. What he thinks they want (And they’re all gonna owe him for it).
“It’s all an illusion. I see that now. Why’d I fight so hard?” “They’re signals, that’s all. Impulses sent from nerve endings. Electricity in the brain. Real, fake, it’s all the same.” ~Is that what one has to believe to properly understand the astral plane? Is there no way around solipsism for powerful psychics? Or is it just Farouk’s influence?
Syd is the first one to go in for the mouth to mouth kiss.
Cary seems to mistrust David a little bit this episode. Or at least be apprehensive about him. When Melanie says he could bring Oliver back he stays quiet and looks to Kerry. Melanie also looks to Kerry and seemingly understands his apprehension. Kerry getting shot happened specifically because David intervened. At least, that’s my interpretation of the subtle acting there.
Cary also told Melanie the episode before not to get her hopes up. That could also be what his look meant.
David’s stated multiple times he cares more about Amy than anything. Now he’s confident in his powers and Melanie’s STILL trying to keep him from going. That might be why the David side of this mind-meld goes along with the coming cruelty.
I think David’s definitely a little mad at Melanie for still telling him he can’t save his sister. I guess the connection is they both have someone they want saved, and if Melanie won’t let him save Amy, then he’s not exactly motivated to save Oliver.
Syd makes fun of Melanie's sadness about Oliver. “How long has he been in there? The astral- whatever 🤔🙄😴?” She was more empathetic when she wasn’t around David.
When Melanie says Oliver’s been lost for “21 years” Syd’s disposition changes. It looks like she maybe reconsiders her mean girls approach, a pang of guilt probably.
David seems to also be making fun of her a bit. I guess thinking about it, Lenny does always tell David not to trust them. The whole of Summerland I mean. Maybe David’s taking her advice on them since she did help get him out the astral plane. Or maybe Lenny’s just exerting more control in those moments.
Everyone in the room picked up on Davids hostile stance. I think... perhaps David’s reviling in the sense of power he feels right now. He no longer feels the need to listen to anyone but himself. With his powers, he can do whatever he wants. This is all by design, Farouk wants him to experience this specific feeling. It all go towards his goal of turning David into someone like him. A power broker with a God complex.
Despite Kerry being the protector in their relationship, Cary always end up taking on her wounds anyways.
The first “Who teaches us to be normal when we’re one of a kind.” Followed by “Promise me if you get lost, we get lost together.”
She says the latter fresh off of hearing Melanie's story about Oliver, who got lost and left Melanie alone. She also says it off the heels of discovering Davids past and his previous violent incidents. All throughout her journey last episode Ptonomy was trying to convince her that David was mentally unwell. Therefore “lost” in this since could mean both literally lost as in lost in the astral plane, and metaphorically lost as in losing your mind. And in combination with “who teaches us to be normal”, Syd’s essentially saying, “I’m no stranger to regretful past incidents. Just take me with you if the cookies start to crumble.” David would not end up taking her with him. Not that she wanted to go by that point anyways.
Additional note: This is the first recounting of Syd’s big mistake. Though, based on her tone, it seems like she knows what she did? Later in the series she’ll justify it more and twist it to place herself in more of a victim role. But here... the story is framed like an admittance.
David doesn’t want to leave without the others, Lenny convinces him otherwise.
It’s unclear when Lenny full takes over David. David’s had maniacal moments before that point, but not that bad. And the personality he shows in the D3 raid seems closer to his personality when talking to Amy in their old house later. That is to say... not his personality. He’s fully taken over by Farouk in the house, and scared out of his mind. Though... it’s still possible he just doesn’t want Amy to be hurt. Even before he and Farouk started merging, David was no stranger to remorseless killing. In ep 1 a D3 guy grabs him by the neck, the camera pans, a loud SNAP is heard, and suddenly David’s further down the path. No D3 guy in sight. And as pointed out in my notes for previous episodes, he does compulsively keep secrets even before s2. All-in-all, it being ambiguous is definitely the point.
David intentionally left earlier than he said he would. Summerland was clearly preparing for the raid, but Lenny convinced him to leave them behind. Everyone’s trying to help David, but Lenny keeps isolating him, and encouraging him to be cruel. And because of the situation with Amy, he’s more inclined to listen to Lenny than anyone at Summerland.
BIG NOTICE: Ptonomy says, “You don’t think I have a sister. Or a girlfriend. Or a mom?” Because of the next episode, we know he lost his mom when he was little. If he’s stretching the truth about her, maybe he’s stretching the truth about the girlfriend and the sister. He might just be frustrated with all the trouble around David and is putting forth any and all arguments to try and get the others to see reason, whether or not it’s relevant to his actual life. Like Devils advocate.
Ptonomy gets real harsh this scene. “This war is bigger than some guy named David and his sister” is probably relevant for future episodes. But making fun of Melanie's Oliver grief? It’s starting to feel like everyone’s doing it at this point. And she’s very offended by it.
Syd very sweetly says, “He found a way for us to be together. A place.” It meant a lot to her. Remembering the white room puts Syd in a certain mood, as discussed below.
Syd’s been acting like this all episode, or post-white room at least. She’s “love drunk.” “All animals need physical contact to feel love.” While that’s not exactly accurate, Syd’s first experience with non-power-activating touch is very impactful. But even despite this she’s not completely impenetrable. After the couch scene earlier, the affects started to wear off. She seemed worried looking at David as he flanked Melanie like a predator. And she pulled back on her cruelty after hearing how long Oliver had been lost. But this scene is after she’s had another hit. And similarly to the couch scene, she pulls back after hearing Melanie’s concern. This pattern will continue in later seasons of the show.
ALSO ALSO, as noted in the previous episode, David’s life falling apart pre-clockworks was in part because of bad influence from his friend “Benny.” And now in the present he’s making tons of dangerous decisions again because of the bad influence of his friend “Lenny.” In both cases Davids actions will be considered his own, regardless of who influenced him. I’ll just leave it at that.
Syd can’t think of a retort to Melanie’s statement. David’s acting completely differently than the David she knew before. She doesn’t know what to think of him right now.
Everyone’s been doubting David’s capability all episode, but now for the first time they see the absolute power he wields. And it’s horrifying. It wasn’t just doable for David, it was easy. It was too easy. It’s starting to become clear why Ptonomy asked David, “What are you?”
Everyone they meet in D3 is a potential enemy, even prisoners like Kissinger. This mindset makes them seem very unheroic.
The first attack we see David do in the security footage is that bright light pulse attack. It doesn’t turn them to shadows, but it definitely instakills them.
If Farouk wasn’t fully in control... why would he show up on the infrared? He normally hides himself inside David’s head, no?
Cary hears scary Farouk generated noises even when David’s not physically around. It seems like Farouk’s hauntings naturally infect people, like a virus.
I think Cary may have left the room when Farouk started fully messing with David. That’s probably why he hadn’t seen this footage before.
David leveled their entire forces in ways never before seen, all to get Amy back. “This war is bigger than some guy named David and his sister.” Evidently not. David is the most powerful being on Earth. And because of that, he’s the most important too. Or at least... that’s what the show repeatedly implies.
David is once again implied to be inhuman (not the actual marvel classification, just... un-human). In this case we could attribute it to them seeing The Devil With Yellow Eyes come towards them on infrared. But it will still be reapplied to David later on.
Through the discovery of Farouk, David’s previous actions are all forgiven. This mutant parasite has been the one rewriting his memories and influencing his actions for as long as David’s been alive. Ptonomy has a look of understanding, as do Melanie, Syd, and Rudy. It all clicks now, every little action. So now all they have to do is get Farouk out of his head, and everything will be hunky dory. I’m trying to say, the goal is clear for the first time.
A very disturbing scene. David’s lost control completely, and all his nightmares are guarding the exits to his mind. The situation may be clear, but that doesn’t mean this will be easy, or harbor no long lasting affects.
Amy fully admits she knew and was too scared to say anything. Knowing that Farouk later kills her for Davids sake makes this all the more dreadful.
When “David” says “You know something about me,” Amy shakes her head at first.
Farouk scares Amy into spilling the truth. “My whole life is a lie. I just need to know... who am I?” After Amy says it, “You were adopted,” Farouk allows the real David to come forward again. He wants him to feel this for himself. The feeling of betrayal, never being told his real origins. An outsider in every way imaginable. His ideas about himself all have different context now. His fondest memories throughout the series were with his parents and sister as a little kid. And now he’s not biologically related to them. He understands what Farouk meant now. His “whole life is a lie.” Amy knew this and kept it from him for decades. His adoptive parents never told him. Everyone’s in on it except him.
Syd is thinking of the white room on her way to see David.
“I don’t have an illness!” Farouk is succeeding in his goal of making David rethink his relationship with Amy. Perhaps in the moment... he no longer feels much compassion for his sister. She didn’t just hide the adoption after all, she also contributed to the societal gaslighting around his powers. I’m starting to see why she’s portrayed the way she is in the next episode...
“He’s not crazy, this is much, much worse.” What once were thought of as delusions are now being validated as completely real. David is no doubt traumatized, but he doesn’t have paranoid schizophrenia (according to the show at the moment). What he does have is a mutant-ghost that needs busting.
With David’s relationship with Amy permanently changed, Farouk moves on to messing with his Summerland friends. The goal, again, is to isolate David and convince him of his philosophy. “We are Gods. Gods make rules, they don’t follow them.”
Syd sheds a tear out of fear after being jump-scared by The Angriest Boy. She’s scared as all get out, but keeps moving forward for David’s sake. Syd is once again willing to risk everything for David. Or... is she just risking it for the idea of him? What’s the difference?
Walters abilities are still unclear to me.
Cary almost played charades with Melanie to tell her about the crown (or halo in this iteration?)
Kerry can either summon or just store weapons inside of Cary.
David’s very upset that he can’t stop Lenny. And he still thinks Lenny is a part of himself. We know better. But it does seem clear hear that David didn’t want any of the things that happened that day to happen. I think I feel comfortable clearing him on all charges for the D3 raid. For now...
David’s the one that first puts him and Syd in the astral plane. Farouk just seizes the opportunity takes control of the simulation. No doubt to multiple ends.
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rabidfirefoxfan · 4 years
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Thor (1966) - Vol 193 - Loki Comic Read Through
aClassic Loki Masterpost:    Rating: Mod (Great)
Plot: Balder Summons the Silver Surfer to help Thor fight the Demolisher.
Notes:
1. Loki Looks like Frolo throughout this entire Issue.
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2. Sif
So, in these early Comics Sif is either an Awesome Warrior who is Epic enough to keep up with Balder and the Warriors’ Three or .... She’s a Damsel in Distress that Thor needs to save who just mostly pretty and sits there. This issue is the later option. Her design also reflects this. In early Thor issues she was dressed like a warrior and now, like how much more skin could she show. She could literally be replaced with a Body Pillow or a Lamp and nothing would change. My head-cannon in this Issue is that she is Thor’s Teddy bear, because it’s about how useful she is to the plot. Besides, it’s funnier to think Loki is talking to Thor’s stuffed bear and trying to play keep away with Thor. 
Favorite Moments:
Balder tries to convince the Silver Surfer to help Thor but because of the Silver Surfer’s history with Loki he’s really reluctant. Balder says he’d give his life for Thor, which pisses Karnilla off and Karnilla attacks Balder.
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(Karnilla is a really Toxic Girlfriend huh). The Silver Surfer makes Karnilla stop and saves Balder while Karnilla reflects that maybe that wasn’t a great thing to do to “The Love of her Life.” (Bitch, you toxic as eff. Balder deserves better). Somehow this Domestic Violence convinces the Silver Surfer to help Thor out.
what a great and inspiring lesson everyone. just get attack by your toxic girlfriend and a space man will help you friend. what a classic.
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So I think that Karnilla tried to talk to Balder about their “fight” but Balder seems more worried about Thor. Well, at least almost dying didn’t phase Balder. Must happen pretty regularly for him.
Thor and the Demolisher continue to fight but Thor can’t seem to get any hits onto him. Eventually they move into the sewers where the Demolisher stuns Thor using high voltage cables (Thor is the God of Thunder, why does Electricity stun him?). The Silver Surfer shows up and uses his Board to keep Demolisher busy but is worried that Thor is dead.
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Thor’s hair is no longer Fabulous, the outrage. Oh, and he might be dead, how will he have 200 more issues.
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Back at Loki’s Palace, Loki is bragging to Sif about how awesome he is and trying to convince Sif to Marry him. (Why? He doesn’t even like Sif. Must be another way to get at Thor.) Still I love Loki posing here.
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Loki continues to brag until he realizes the “Crap, Balder and Karnilla could stop his evil plans” then blames Sif for knowing their Plans. Loki, just use Space Skype to figure out what Balder and Karnilla are doing.
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Good Boy.
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Then Loki complains that Karnilla betrayed him and that’s unforgivable. Loki, They are Your friends. You both betrayed each other at the drop of a hat. Your friends have the trustworthiness of “Among Us” or “TTT” friends. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s want to hang out next week to help you out with your Next Evil Scheme. (Dammit Loki’s eyes are now yellow, what happened to the Green/ Blue)
Loki confronts Balder and Karnilla but they deny that they Summoned the Silver Surfer.
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Loki gets pissed and turns Balder into a ... Globin?
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And into order for Loki to really cement that he is a badass, Loki uses the Odin Ring to make a Statue of Himself made entirely of Gold. Wouldn’t except anything less out of Loki. And just because Loki is really nice he lifts the curse off of Balder. What a Nice Villain.
Back on Earth, the Silver Surfer uses Comic Rays to bring Thor back to life. The Silver Surfer tells Thor to return to Asgard and deal with Loki while the Silver Surfer fights with Demolisher.
Thor returns to Asgard, but Heimdal tells him that because Loki is now the ruler of Asgard, Loki as order Thor not to return. In order for Thor to enter Asgard, he has to fight through Heimdal. You know, this happens enough that Heimdel should just find a convent way to begin “defeated” so he doesn’t have to get punched in the face again. Like “Oh No I stepped on the Pebble, I am defeated. Sure Thor go ahead.” However, Thor is too strong and pushes Heimdal off of the bridge and is worried that he may let his rage take control of him just like how Rage takes control of Loki.
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Maybe it’s just me, but fighting someone on a bridge and throwing them off because of the heat of battle feels different than begin pissed off for 10 years and planing to take over Asgard. But at least Thor gets some character development so yay.
Then Thor remembers that he can FLY and goes to save Heimdal. Thor continues to Asgard where Loki’s Troll Minions block his path.
The Silver Surfer continues to fight the Demonlisher when the Demonlisher grabs hold of the board allowing the Silver Surfer to fly away.
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The Silver Surfer plans to take the Demonlisher to space, the the Demonlisher grabs hold of the Washington Monument. (Good Job Silver Surfer. When trying to take someone to space, make sure to drive by all the tall building first)
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This allows the Demonlisher to continue to fight, overcome the Surfer and break his board.
However, due to the Silver Surfer’s powers, he’s able to reassemble his board and continue to fight the Demonlisher
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(who is now in the middle of a battle field. Where are they?)
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To defeat the Demonlisher, the Silver Surfer spins really, really fast around the planet, traveling to the Future where Humanity is long since dead. A place where the Silver Surfer can leave Demonlisher that the Demonlisher can’t hurt anyone.
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Back on Asgard, Thor fights Loki’s Giants. (I love this shot of his hammer returning to him) Thor goes and finds Sif.
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I think this dress speaks for itself. Loki has interesting tastes. (The design is a little on the nose their guys. Maybe redesign Thor’s outfit with nipples too, I’m sure that go over well.)
oh no, poor me, save me thor. Loki is sooo horrible.  (sigh)
Thor tries to attack Loki for trying to marry Sif but the Giants defeat him and knock him unconscious. Loki then sentences him to death with the Giants coming in. Will be able to defeat them, find out next issue.
Thoughts on Comic:
I just have to say the fights with the Demonlisher are just great fun. They just find great ways for building up the tension and how they defeat him, while dumb, at least seams reasonable. Thor fighting Heimdal and the Storm Giants is also great. Overall, this Comic is pretty awesome.
However, I absolutely hate Sif in this. When I said she could be replaced with a body pillow, I meant it. In Early Issues and the Movies Sif was a capable warrior. Maybe not Thor levels, but she could at least keep up with Balder. Here, she has no personality, no agency, no drive. She is only an object for Loki to covet and for Thor to fight over and that’s it. Just replace her with a Teddy Bear or a Puppy, that way it makes Loki and Thor fight look more cute and ridiculous.
Karnilla is a Evil, Soft Women Villain but at least she can drive the plot, however slightly ,which is leagues better than Sif.
Loki is an alright Evil Villain in this issue. Again, I preferred when he is a scheming mastermind or trying to intentionally piss Thor off, but he does get a couple of great moments in this where his prancing and showing off.
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myhockeyworld87 · 5 years
Text
Nervous Regrets - Tyler Seguin - Part 27
Word Count: 5,831
POV: Reader
Warnings: Total fluff, language
Notes: Here we are at Part 27, never thought this story would get this far, but here we are. These two are finally getting hitched. It’s not the big wedding, but that will come. Hope you guys enjoy. Happy Reading.
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The sun was out and the birds were chirping, or maybe that’s just how you were viewing the world on New Year’s day knowing that you were marrying Tyler in just two short days. He was still sleeping when you slipped out of the bedroom, to survey the damage from the party. It was about ten in the morning and you saw a few stray pairs of shoes lying around, so you made sure not to make too much noise for anyone who had decided to stay. The house was relatively clean all things considered, which was more than likely due to your best friend. You picked up your phone, hoping that it wasn’t too early to call her.
“Hello.” Her voice sounded a bit groggy and you realized that you’d woken her up.
“Shit, Jenna, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s ok. What’s up?” It was just like her, to put you first.
“It’s nothing, I just need to ask you something. Call me when you’re actually wake.” Maybe you should go back to bed yourself. You hadn’t got that much sleep, but you were bursting with excitement and just couldn’t lay there anymore.
“I’m awake now, so just hit me with it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Ugh, (Y/N) you are killing me here. Just tell me already.” She was whispering all be it harshly at you.
“Are you with Jamie right now?” The fact that both yours and Tyler’s best friends were together, was sending you on cuteness overload.
“Yes.” You could almost see her blushing. “So please, stop leaving me in suspense.”
“Alright, alright, sorry. First off, you and Jamie are amazing for cleaning this place up. Thank you guys so much.” They really were the greatest.
“It really wasn’t anything, but you’re welcome. Please tell me that’s not the only reason you called and woke me up.”
“No, it’s not. So what are you doing on Thursday?”
“Like this Thursday? Umm..I’m not one hundred percent sure. I mean I have work of course, but I don’t think anything after that. Why what do you need?”
“Well do you think you could get out of work early?” Before she could answer you, you continued. “Because I kind of need you to be my maid of honor.”
“Why are we going dress shopping? Cause I think you should wait until after the baby for that. Did you guys even set a date? I mean like I know it’s this summer but…”
She tried to say more, but you stopped her. “Actually we’re getting married that day.”
“What!!!” She practically screamed in the phone, and you knew she probably had just woken up Jamie. “Did you just say you’re getting married?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Oh my god!” In the background, you could hear Jamie mumbling. “Are your parents coming up? What about Tyler’s? Oh my god, you need a dress!”
Her mind was running a mile a minute kind of like yours. It was so great that she shared your excitement. "No, we’re not telling anyone, including our parents.”
“What? Why?”
“Well we talked about things last night, and Tyler really wants us to be married before the baby comes. And well really, there’s no time like the present. We’re still going to do the big wedding this summer, so you are not getting out of maid of honor duties there. We just want this to be us and well you and Jamie.”
“Oh my god, that’s so freaking sweet of you. I’m so honored. But you’re really not telling your parents?”
“Well…umm…we think they might be upset because we didn’t invite them. We just really want to do this for us.” You lowered your tone as you revealed the next part. “Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it much but Tyler really wants the baby’s birth certificate to read Tyler and (Y/N) Seguin. And I have to agree with him that it would be nice.” You started to tear up just thinking about it. Never in a million years did you think something like that would bother him. “So please don’t tell anyone. I mean, of course, tell Jamie; though I’m sure Tyler will call him when he gets up.”
“Of course I won’t say anything. Though I’ll have to tell Jamie, since he’s laying here just waiting for me to get off the phone, now that I woke him up.”
“Oh! Tell him I’m sorry and thanks for cleaning up last night.”
“Will do. I’ll call you later and we can figure out where to go shopping for a dress for you.”
You hadn’t really thought about that part, but you supposed you couldn’t wear legging to your wedding. “Ok sounds like a plan. Talk to you later.”
“Bye Mrs. Seguin.” It felt so weird for someone to call you that, but damn if it didn’t have a nice ring to it. There was so much nervous energy inside you that you decided to finish cleaning up the house. Within the hour, you had the house mostly cleaned up, except for the bedrooms and movie room where a couple people still slept.
Tyler stumbled out of your bedroom shortly after. “Babe, did you seriously do all this already? I was totally going to help you.”
“I know, but I couldn’t sleep.” You also thought you were experiencing a little bit of nesting that came along in the later stages of pregnancy. Which is why you were slightly panicking when you thought about the nursery being done, though you’d push that thought aside knowing everything was well in hand with the designer.
“Is anyone still here?”
“Yeah, I tiptoed upstairs and there are probably about seven or eight people up there. Could be more, I wasn’t going to intrude.” A door or two was closed and you were not about to go checking on those rooms. As long as no one was doing anything in your nursery, they could do anything else in the other rooms. You’d be sure to have all the sheets cleaned after last night anyhow.
Tyler came over and planted a kiss on your lips, before sitting down at the island after grabbing a drink. “I’m sorry about that. I thought they’d all be gone by now.”
“It’s no biggie, babe. I’d rather see people stay here than drink and drive. Besides, people used to stay here all the time when we had parties before. So what’s the big deal.”
He shrugged his shoulders before answering. “I don’t know. I mean our lives are just sort of different now.”
“True and they’re about to get even more different than they are now.” So, maybe he had a point, but you doubted you’d be throwing parties like this next year with the baby here; so why not enjoy it now while you could.
He grabbed your hips and pulled you close. “Yes they are, and I for one am extremely happy about it.”
“Really? You’re not going to miss all the late-night partying and drinking?” It was a fear that you never gave voice to, but one that you carried around all the same.
“No, not at all. Not when I have you two. You guys are the best thing to ever happen to me.” You leaned down and kissed him, letting your mouth linger there for an extended time.
When you pulled back suddenly, he frowned at you. “Oh, I almost forgot. I called Jenna, she and Jamie are on board for Thursday.”
“You told Jamie?”
“Well not intentionally, and I said you were still going to call him. Jenna was with him when I called, and when I told her the news; she kind of woke him up.” You chuckled remembering the conversation. “Needless to say, I caught her by surprise. Don’t worry I told her not to say anything to anyone.”
“I’m not worried. I already told you I want the world to know you’re my wife, but maybe not before we tell our families.”
You went about making breakfast for the two of you, as slowly the rest of your houseguests woke up. Most of them were hungover and headed out of the house as soon as they got up. A couple of the single players on the team stayed to watch the Winter Classic which was coming on in a few hours. Tyler snuck off and called Jamie, giving him a few details about your trip to city hall. When he mentioned the guys were still at the house, he and Jenna headed over to join everyone. It was almost like a mini party.
The boys were all gathered around the tv, while you and Jenna made shopping plans and talked about the baby. Jenna was your Lamaze partner when Tyler wasn’t in town and she always double-checked the schedule with you, in order not to miss a class. You were thankful to have your best friend at your side, as you were deathly afraid you were going to go into labor when Tyler was on a road trip. March sixth was your due date, and as it stood now, Tyler would be home; but you could never be too cautious. Especially since they said your first baby usually came late.
The two of you were absorbed in conversation, not really paying attention to the guys in the living room. Until you heard them start to cheer. There were ‘hell ya’s’ and  ‘are you fucking kidding’ and of course ‘holy shit.’ You assumed at first it was some sort of call, that was either missed or something that happened in the game, but when you looked on the screen it was the NHL commissioner being interviewed. “Babe, did you hear that?” Tyler’s voice broke through the commotion.
“No, what happened?”
It was Jamie who answered. “We got the Winter Classic. It’s going to be in Dallas next year.” It was sort of unbelievable news given you lived in Texas, which was not really a place you thought of when you were going to hold an outdoor hockey game.
“Oh my god, that’s amazing.” You truly meant that it was an incredible opportunity for the team and you could see the excitement in all their faces.
Tyler moved from the living room, into the kitchen then. “Babe do you know what this means?”
Was it too obvious to say that they would be playing outside? Instead, you opted to say, “No?”
“We’ll be able to skate with the baby outside at the family skate.” The excitement on his face was contagious. He was literally grinning from ear to ear. “I mean, of course, it won’t be our kid’s first time on the ice and all. But they could be skating by then, ya know?” He must have seen you frown or something because before you could say anything, he added. “Of course it won’t be by themselves. I’ll hold their little hands and stuff.” His hands were cradling your bump as if he could will the child to come out with skates on or something. “This is going to be even better than the family skate at Christmas.”
Reaching up, you kissed him quickly. “Slow down hun. We gotta get this little one born first, then you can take the baby shopping for skates.” You didn’t want to admit it, but you could just see Tyler skating with your little one outside on the ice; the thought warmed your heart.
“I gotta say, Tyler’s right. It would be amazing to skate with your baby in a game like that.” You hadn’t realized Jamie had come into the kitchen and had his arms wrapped around Jenna. Mentally, you had your fingers crossed that the two would still be together next year.
“See babe, it’s not just me.”
“Oh, I agree with you, Ty. It’s going to be amazing. I’m just taking it one step at a time here.”
It was his turn to kiss you. This time a little more passionately than you had him. “Oh I know babe, and trust me I can’t wait for all the first with this little one. Including the first time we get to see him or her.” The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the game and then making dinner for everyone. It was totally impromptu, but no one really cared about what you served; until everyone decided to call it a night.
The following day, you and Jenna set out to find something to wear for your wedding. There weren’t a ton of maternity clothing stores that sold white dresses, big surprise there. Somehow Jenna convinced you to stop into a bridal store. They too didn’t have a ton of maternity dresses, but they did have a cute short white off the shoulder dress which was made partially from some form of spandex. It fit pretty tight across your bump, but Jenna insisted that it looked adorable on you and that a bouquet of flowers would cover anything up for photos. You couldn’t really argue with that point and after a couple hours of shopping, you weren’t sure you were going to find anything else on this short of notice. So you paid for the dress and headed home.
The whole shopping experience had left you exhausted; especially when you didn’t really have options. The only good thing that came of the whole thing was that you decided you wanted to do a maternity shoot, both with Tyler and without him. Thankfully, another one of your friends was a photographer, so you had an in there, but you totally wanted to do some shots when you were in Cabo on the beach. The only answer to your problem was to invite her, but you wanted to run it by Tyler first.
When he woke up from his nap, you decided to hit him with the idea; not knowing if he would go for it. “Ty, can I ask you a question?” You asked, lying down on the bed with him, as he pulled you in to cuddle with him.
“Babe, you know you can ask me anything?”
“So I saw this idea when we were shopping. There were some cards for photographers at the maternity shops, stating that they would do a pre-baby photo shoot. So like one, are you interested in that?” You paused waiting for him to answer.
“Yeah babe, I’m totally down for that.”
“And you’re ok with being in some of the pictures too?” You pulled back hoping to read his face.
“Of course. Babe, I want to document every step of this.”
“Great! So, I have this idea.” He side-eyed you before you could even get anything else out. “It’s not like that. I just thought we could get some really great pictures in Cabo, but I obviously don’t know any photographers there. So I thought maybe we could have Anna go with us. There’s an extra room at the house isn’t there?”
“There’s actually a couple since it’s only Brett and Liv and Jamie and Jenna coming now. So yeah go ahead invite her and her boyfriend to come along.”
Leaning into him, you kissed him hard. “Thanks, babe, you’re literally the best boyfriend in the whole world.”
He pressed you against his body, before saying. “That’s going to be the best husband in twenty-four hours.” Just thinking that the two of you would be married tomorrow, brought a huge smile to your face. “So did you find something to wear, or should I have the JP come here to marry us so you don’t have to wear anything.” He didn’t hide the fact that he found that idea appealing.
“Tyler!” You said while swatting at him at the same time. “Thankfully, I found one so we don’t have to go with that plan.”
“Damn, I thought that it was perfect. I could just throw you on the bed as soon as you say I do and consummate our marriage right away.”
Rolling your eyes at him, you told him. “I don’t think consummating a marriage is a thing anymore.”
“Oh, it’s going to be a thing for us. In fact, I think we should practice right now.” Over the next hour, he proceeded to show you what his definition of consummate was. The only reason it wasn’t longer, was because he had to get ready for the game. Tyler played one of the best games he’d had all season that night, scoring two goals. Jamie, of course, chirped him as the four of you made your way out to the car, saying that maybe he shouldn’t get married since he was on a streak.
Tyler didn’t want to hear any of it. “I only had a good game, because my soon-to-be wife and I were practicing for once we’re married.”
“Tyler!” You swore you turned about ten different shades of red.
“What, it’s not like they don’t know.” All you could do was just shake your head at the man. “In fact, I bet I have a better game after we’re married.”
“Gonna pull a hat trick, eh Seggy?” Chubbs taunted back.
“You never know man.”
“Alright you two, that’s enough.” Jenna chastised them. “We have actual shit that needs to be done before tomorrow.” She grabbed your hand and pulled you towards her car.
“Where are you guys going?” Tyler inquired.
“To my place,” Jenna stated as if this was common knowledge. “Unless you’re planning on staying at Jamie’s tonight.”
Tyler furrowed his brow in confusion, before asking. “And why would I stay at Jamie’s?”
“Because it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.” She held up her hand before he could say anything more. “And considering your fiancé is pregnant, you really should be staying with Jamie tonight, so that she can sleep in her own bed. I can sleep in the spare room, as long as the sheets are clean from New Year’s Eve.”
“Wait, why am I being punished?” This time it was Jamie who voiced his displeasure about the sleeping arrangements.
“You’ll survive.” Was Jenna’s quick answer before kissing her newly acquired boyfriend.
This was the first time you’d heard of Jenna’s plan as well, and while you were sure that nothing bad would happen if you stayed with Tyler tonight; there was a part of you that loved the idea of this little tradition. “I still don’t see why (Y/N) and I can’t just stay at the house and then meet you guys at the courthouse tomorrow.”
“Do you really want to tempt fate?” It was a bit of an excessive threat from your best friend, but she was not having any of it from Tyler at the moment.
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to be a runaway groom or anything.”
“True, nor do I think (Y/N) will leave you standing at the courtroom, per se. But what if she goes into labor before you can be married?” Well shit, she didn’t need to go to that extreme; you were sure everything would be fine with the baby. “I’m telling you, we need to at least follow some kind of a tradition for this wedding.”
“God, you really know how to guilt a man, don’t you?” Tyler answered her, a hint of distress in his voice. He set his bag on the ground and immediately grabbed you, more to reassure himself that everything was fine with the baby than anything else.
“Ty, we’re fine.” You said hoping to comfort him. “Though I would like to have a little bit of tradition at this wedding. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to stay with Jenna tonight. I just have to stop at the house and get my things.”
He sighed heavily. “No, you guys stay at the house. I’ll stay at Jamie’s.” He kissed you on the nose then. “Why don’t you two follow us to the house, so I can at least have a car ride home with my girl, then I’ll grab what I need and head over to Jamie’s.”
“Sounds good. We’ll see you shortly.” Jenna answered as she and Jamie headed to their car.
“Have I told you, that you need a new best friend.”
“I heard that.” She shouted back.
“You were meant to.” God, sometimes you felt like you were dealing with two-year-olds, which you supposed would help when your little one hit that age. He leaned his forehead against yours. “Are you sure you want to spend the night apart?”
“I don’t want to spend the night without you, but…I do want to have a little tradition in our marriage. We’ve already broken the whole, get married then have a baby thing.”
“No, we haven’t, this little one isn't here yet.” He said with a wink. “But I get it.” His lips caressed yours then, before pulling apart way too soon. “Alright, we better get going before the bridesmaidzilla gets to the house before us.” You chuckled softly as the two of you broke apart to get in the car. His hand remained in yours throughout the whole drive, twisting your engagement ring every now and then. It suddenly hit you, that while you would be exchanging vows; you wouldn’t be placing a wedding band on his finger. You’d only get to do that in a few months when you had the big ceremony. It was probably for the best considering that you were trying to keep things quiet, and it would make your summer wedding a bit more special for you and Tyler.
Before you could give thought to anything else, you were pulling in the driveway. “Having second thoughts yet?”
“About our wedding?” You asked Tyler, knowing that’s not what he meant when he asked that question.
“That’s not what I meant.” Worried etched across his face. “But tell me you’re not.”
You burst out in a fit of giggles. “No silly, I was just teasing you.”
“Oh thank god. You had me worried there for a split second.”
You went up on your toes to cup his cheek and look deep into his dark brown eyes. “There is not a single doubt in my mind that I want to be your wife. I love you so much, Tyler Seguin.” His mouth came down on yours in a crushing kiss. It stole your breath away and told you without words how much he loved you in return.
“God, I love you. I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
You broke away from him and swatted his ass. “Then go get your stuff. The sooner we fall asleep, the quicker tomorrow comes.” He had most of his things gathered by the time Jamie and Jenna got to your place. Jenna obviously knew he was going to give in to you staying at the house, as she had her dress and a bag with her. The three of you chatted about nothing of consequence until Tyler was finally ready. He tossed his garment bag over the sofa, before coming up and grabbing you around your ever-expanding waist. “We should order something to eat or something before we go.”
“Quit postponing the inevitable Seguin. You’ll see her in just a few short hours.” Jamie teased him.
“You’re just as ruthless as she is.” He said motioning to Jenna. “You two deserve each other.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Jamie replied back, as he pressed Jenna close to his body.
“Ok babe, time for you to go, so I can get some beauty sleep.” You said turning in Tyler’s arms so you could kiss him goodbye. Of course, it lasted longer than intended, until Jamie not so discreetly coughed, drawing both yours and Tyler’s attention.
“I should’ve asked Rad’s to stand up for me instead of you.”
“Ty, be nice.” You told your fiancé, for he couldn’t ask for a better friend than Jamie.
“It’s alright (Y/N) I can take it, from this asshat. I’m just going to make him sleep on the couch.” You knew Jamie was kidding, but Tyler still scowled at him. “Alright loverboy, let’s get going.”
Tyler just held you a little tighter, instead of letting go. “I’m gonna miss you baby.”
“I’ll miss you too, but I’ll see you in a few hours.” Pecking his lips, you added. “Now get out of here.”
“Bossy already and I haven’t even said I do.” He grabbed his bag, then kissed you one more time for good measure. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you too. See you tomorrow.”
“See you soon Mrs. Seguin.”
Jenna and you both headed to bed shortly after the guys left, so you were up ontime to get ready for the ceremony. Jenna scooted out to go with pick up your bouquet of flowers, while you started on your hair and makeup. The morning flew, and soon you were headed to the courthouse. Nervous excitement bubbled up inside of you, as Jenna drove downtown, and before you knew it you were pulling in the parking garage.
“Do you think they’re here yet?” You asked Jenna, as you debated about getting out of the car.
“Knowing them, they’ll probably be late.”
“True.” You were fidgeting with your engagement ring, just twirling it up and down your finger.
“Come on, let’s get you inside and married before you twist your finger off.” A soft chuckle escaped your lips as you opened the car door. The air was crisp, but the sun was shining; you couldn’t ask for a more perfect wedding day. The sound of heels clicking on the tiled floor, echoed as you made your way to the judge's chambers, but as you rounded the corner Tyler was standing there waiting for you. He was dressed in a charcoal grey double-breasted suit, with a pristine white shirt, accentuated by a black tie. You’d never seen him look more handsome then he did at that moment. “Ugh, you’re not supposed to see each other before the ceremony.”
Vaguely you heard Jamie answer her. “The way he’s looking at her; I don’t think you need to worry.”  He had yet to see you fully, as you had on a long winter coat, but he still hadn’t taken his eyes off you, the most brilliant smile you’d ever seen graced his face.
“You look…” You started to say more, but he cut you off.
“It’s nothing compared to you. You’re so beautiful (Y/N).” Your throat went dry at his praise and you swallowed hard against all the emotions threatening to come to the surface at that moment.
“You haven’t even seen my dress yet.”
“I don’t need to. You could literally wear a brown bag right now and still be the most gorgeous woman in the world.” A blush rose to your cheeks, but before you could say anything the door to judge’s room opened.
“Mr. Seguin, the judge is ready for you.” The four of you walked into the chamber, where you quickly removed your coat, placing it on a nearby chair for later, then Jenna handed you over your bouquet. It was simple, a gathering of all white roses with a smattering of greens here and there.
When you turned you saw Tyler’s jaw literally drop. You knew what he saw, long hair loosely curled, so it framed perfectly around your face. Soft subtle makeup, just to accentuate your natural features. The white off the shoulder dress, flowed across your bosom, just skating against the top of your breasts. Its tight-fitting bodice told everyone that your child was growing inside of you, but to you, it was only a reminder of the love you and Tyler shared. When he finally recovered, Tyler said. “You literally just took my breath away.”
He took a step towards you then, his intentions clear as he leaned into you. “Well, shall we get this wedding started. Oh, I see the groom is getting an early start.” The judge’s voice halted his progress and made you turn about fifteen different shades of red.
Tyler, of course, recovered easily turning to the judge and saying. “Can you blame me, sir? She’s absolutely gorgeous.”
“Yes indeed, you’re a very lucky man.” The Judge looked to be about in his seventies, and as he grabbed a binder from his desk, he motioned you all forward. “Ok if you could just stand here off to my left Miss (Y/LN) and Mr. Seguin, yes right there would be great and your witnesses beside you. Yes, that’s perfect. Now let’s begin.” He adjusted his glasses, then opened the folder in his hands. “Marriage is an institution not to be entered into lightly. So I ask you both, that as you enter into this union to always treat each other with respect and love. Give your marriage the tenderness, gentleness and caring that each of you deserves. When times, become rough, as they always do, remember to focus on your love and the road that brought you here today. And may this day be only the beginning of the joy that you will share together for the rest of your lives.”
Tyler’s eyes were solely focused on you and yours on his, as the judge continued on with his words. “Tyler Seguin, I ask you, will you take this woman to be your wedded wife? Will you love and comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”
Tyler had a hold of your free hand, and he gently squeezed it, before saying. “I will.”
“(Y/F/L/N), I ask you, will you take this man to be your wedded husband? Will you love and comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health and forsaking all others keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?
A smile crossed your face, as your voice rang out. “I will.” Both of you were beaming at each other, as the first part of your vows were done.
The judge's voice continued, “Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, I ask that you join your right hands and before these witnesses declare your love for one another.” You handed Jenna your bouquet then joined hands with Tyler. “Ok now repeat after me.” He said the words and Tyler repeated them.
“I, Tyler Seguin, take you (Y/F/L/N) to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.” Tears trickled down your face, as you couldn’t hold your emotions at bay any longer. Your voice wobbled a little, solely from all the emotions you were feeling when it was your turn to repeat the words back to Tyler. His eyes welled up, and a tear slid down his cheek as you said.
"I, (Y/F/L/N), take you Tyler Seguin to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live." As soon as you said the last word, you smiled brilliantly at Tyler.
“And now for the rings.” The judge’s asked.
“Oh but we don’t…” You started to say. But the next thing you knew Jamie, was handing over two rings to the judge. “Where did you..”
Tyler could see the confusion on your face, for you didn’t think the two of you would be doing this part of the ceremony. He leaned in to whisper, “I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Ok, Tyler please take the ring and place it on (Y/N)’s finger and repeat these words.” The judge announced, breaking through your thoughts.  
Tyler took the ring in his hand, you could see the band was slim, with tiny diamonds all around it. The perfect compliment to your engagement ring. He slowly placed it on your left hand saying. “(Y/N) take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you.”
It was your turn again, as the judge handed you a dark band Tyler must have picked out for himself. “Tyler, take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you.”
After you exchanged rings, the judge proceeded. “Tyler and (Y/N) in so much as the two of you have agreed to live in matrimony, have promised your commitment to each other by these vows, and the joining of your hands and the giving of these rings, by the authority vested in me by the State of Texas, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. Not that I need to tell you this but, you may kiss your bride.”
Tyler gave you one last loving look before his lips were on yours. He molded his mouth to yours, the kiss sweet and loving mimicking the vows you had just spoken. You felt as if it could’ve gone on forever, but yet you both broke apart all too soon given your surroundings. The judge’s final words were, “It is my honor to present to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler Seguin.” Jamie and Jenna clapped and cheered for you. And as the well wishes died down, it was back to business. “Now if I can get you both to sign here and here.” You and Tyler signed where the Judge indicted. Then Jamie and Jenna stepped forward. “Ok, you two are here and here.” After everyone signed, the Judge handed the papers over to Tyler. “And now it’s official on January 3, 2019, you are officially a married couple.” He moved to shake Tyler’s hand, then came over and hugged you. “Congratulations Mrs. Seguin.” A smile covered your face and you had a feeling it wouldn’t be going away for a long, long time.
Jenna snapped a few pictures of you and Tyler with the Judge, then just the two of you. The judge’s assistant came in and took pictures of all of you before the four of you headed back outside to go to dinner and celebrate. You joined Tyler in his car, as Jamie and Jenna took the other promising to meet you at the restaurant shortly. The whole walk to the car, Tyler never let go of your hand, and when you got there, he twirled you into his arms. “Are you happy Mrs. Seguin?”
Bringing your hands around his neck, you brought his face close to yours. “This is literally the happiest day of my life. And what about you Mr. Seguin, are you good with being a married man now?”
“Oh babe, I’m better than good. I’m ecstatic!” He planted a kiss on your lips, one that showed you just how elated he really was. “Now, let’s go have this celebration dinner, so I can take you home and truly make you my wife.”
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cavehags · 4 years
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1) do you think liam is supposed to be as unlikable as he is in s1? they definitely try to push for sympathy in later seasons but i couldn't really figure out if he's insufferable to be ~relatable~ or if he's just designed to make me hate him. 2) rate lauren's love interests from terrible to even more terrible. 3) which plotline(s) would you most like to scrap if given a chance to rework the show?
All great questions! Thanks!
1) This question has mystified me since the show first aired. Despite Liam’s completely unsympathetic behavior, we get numerous key shots from his POV early in season 1. For instance, when he is trying to have sex with Karma in the car during Homecoming in 1x01, and Karma decides she’s no longer into it and leaves, we cut to Liam checking his breath. This is meant to humanize him. It’s odd, because moments ago he said he’s wanted to have sex with a lesbian for as long as he can remember--a transparently rape-culture-y statement that is never fully interrogated. It’s supposed to be a somewhat relatable joke when we see that Liam thought his breath was to blame and not the creepiness of the sentiment he just expressed. The best I can say is that this was the gay male writers’ best attempt to craft a believable teenage boy, and they simply could not conceive of one who was not creepily misogynistic from the start. Though Liam’s worldview should horrify any women watching, I guess we’re supposed to believe that the writers did not understand just how damaging his behavior really is, and downplayed it accordingly. 
Interestingly, Liam is told off for his actions a few times throughout the show, but never for his fetishization of Karma. For instance, in 2x02, Liam throws a bit of a temper tantrum when he learns that Shane knew Amy and Karma were faking and never spoke up. Shane scolds Liam for this overreaction and points out that he’s being myopic and can’t really understand what it’s like for a gay kid who’s just coming out. This is fair game: like every other character on the show, Liam should be learning from his mistakes. So if the writers really wanted to create a sympathetic character arc for a young man like this, they really needed to have someone--probably Lauren, as a girl removed from the situation--explain to him how violent and degrading it is that he’s so hung up on the fantasy of “converting” a woman to desiring him. But they never do, so I guess they just never meant for him to be that bad.  
2) God, this is so hard because Liam’s love interests are all so bad. Tommy is an idiot and ignorant about intersex people, but at least he’s Erick Lopez and he’s cute. Liam is a piece of shit, but at least while dating Lauren he’s subjected to the kind of bullying he fully deserves. Theo/Anthony is a cop, and specifically a narc, and worst of all he’s a 20-year-old dating a high school sophomore. So I’m gonna have to go (best to worst) Tommy-->Liam-->Theo/Anthony. Wish I could include Amy in this love interest ranking but the show wasn’t galaxy brain enough :( 
3) Oh this is really fun and I wrote a horrifying amount omfg.
First things first, we have to go through the show with a fine-toothed comb and clean up the nastiness toward bi people. Shane makes a lot of biphobic comments that we can just throw away. And Karma’s mom, who currently we learn is bisexual at the end of season two, instead can describe herself as bisexual in season one in a cringey moment when she’s trying to bond with Karma. In a touch of realism, everyone assumes Amy and Karma are “queer” rather than “lesbians” (gotta update this with the times) which explains no one sees any issue with Karma, a queer girl, having a thing for Liam, a guy. I don’t see a way to rehabilitate Liam this way, though, so Liam still fetishizes Karma as a “lesbian,” even though she never uses that word and intentionally keeps it vague.
The character of Reagan is thrown out. Instead, Amy’s first girlfriend is more like that girl Jasmine, whom she met on the dating app Syzzr in season one. Jasmine is a girl from another high school in Austin who also just got over a crush on a best friend. She’s charismatic and mature and does a lot of the initiating in the relationship with Amy, prodding her to assert herself with her mom and embrace feminism more in “Zen and the Art of Pageantry” (we’ll keep that storyline mostly unchanged). Notably absent from her arc is a nastiness toward bi girls. Instead, she’s generous and goal-oriented. She helps Amy establish an identity outside of Karma, but bristles at times when Amy regresses. However, it’s crucial that she’s not jealous of Amy’s bond with Karma; she just wants Amy to be older and wiser than she really is. This highlights the flaw in their relationship: that Amy is still struggling with her self-identity (not her sexual identity!!) and feels like she is always letting her girlfriend down. Amy is the one who decides to break up and she does it because she doesn’t want to feel like a disappointment. They stay in touch, though, and Jasmine/Reagan remains a mentor for Amy throughout the show. 
For instance, when Amy finds herself unattracted to Felix (more on him later), Amy goes to Jasmine/Reagan about it, as well as Shane. She can’t figure out why she sometimes feels drawn toward guys even though she knows she doesn’t really like them. Shane thinks Amy is probably bi or pan. Jasmine/Reagan introduces some split attraction model that gives Amy an instant headache. Amy doesn’t think either of those are right. It’s actually a conversation with Lauren and Farrah that helps clarify things for her. Through chatting with her mom and Lauren, Amy is reminded that girls are pretty much trained from birth that their job is to impress and appeal to boys. She realizes there’s a good chance she’s been acting on inertia (this is the way the show simplifies comp het). She settles it once and for all when she goes out and meets a group of other lesbians -- maybe a support group or like an organized social club meetup kind of thing. In the company of these cool and inspiring other women, she realizes that she feels really comfortable with the label “lesbian” after all. Maybe MTV even lets her say the word dyke :) 
The episode where the kids have to label themselves, however, is thrown firmly in the trash. 
Also in the trash: Amy and Liam sleeping together. Garbage. I think they get angry-drunk together instead and talk about Karma and maybe the tension for season 2a is that they did something more external to hurt her that night, like out her as straight to her parents. 
Theo/Anthony is not a cop and there is no mystery surrounding his character. Instead, he’s like a pick-up artist type and plays intentional mind games like negging that Lauren sees through after a while. She dumps him and Shane and Amy help her get revenge on him. At that point, he is fully gone and does not come back. 
Duke is also a respectable age. Not much else to do there. 
And then the Karmy of it all! We need to see more signs from Karma’s perspective starting in season 2b (after the arrest) that Karma has a real crush on Amy that she’s ignoring. The character of Felix helps with this. He and Amy still go to prom together but Amy concludes that it doesn’t feel right and nothing more happens between them. However, on prom night, Karma finds herself feeling more than just empathy for Felix’s situation - she feels jealous of someone on that date. With Amy’s reluctant blessing, Karma asks Felix out and they start to date, but she finds herself annoyed by his quirks and has no interest in having sex with him. Felix winds up asking Amy what the deal is with Karma and sex. In the meantime, Karma catches herself having the occasional dream about Amy. Amy, who is with Sabrina at this point (I haven’t decided yet if I want to rewrite the Sabrina stuff since I haven’t rewatched s3 yet so let’s go with no for now), is mostly happy to see Karma and Felix together... but when she hears that Karma isn’t sleeping with him, she can’t help but feel hope that whatever motivated Karma to kiss her in the pool that night in 2b might be the reason she doesn’t want to commit to Felix. Karma doesn’t want to admit her confusion to Amy or Shane so has no one to talk to about her feelings except Liam, and miracle of miracles, he is the one who actually nudges her to consider that maybe she’s had a thing for Amy for a while now. She denies that that could be possible, but she’s just not happy with Felix, and at the end of season 3, she tearfully breaks up with him. When Amy comes over to comfort her, we see Amy through Karma’s eyes in a new way. Karma finally has her moment of clarity. End s3. 
In season 4, Karma sort of awkwardly tries to court Amy without being obvious about what she’s doing, which has the odd impact of making Amy feel hurt -- is Karma trying to bait her into having feelings again? This results in a fight, and during the fight Karma admits the truth -- that she’s having feelings for Amy and didn’t know how to express them without potentially hurting Amy because of their past. Amy is taken aback, and she’s still with Sabrina, so she does the old “I have to go” routine. But then she talks to either Lauren or Shane or both about what just happened and they prompt her to do a romantic about-face. She races back to Karma and they have a really cinematic first real kiss. The rest of the season that follows is the two of them as girlfriends, trying to navigate being their real selves and also their romantic selves at the same time. They do a lot of cliche romantic things and annoy the crap out of all their friends. They’re also really really happy. In the series finale, Amy and Karma and Lauren and Shane and Shane’s boyfriend all go to Pride or Queer Liberation March or whatever they call it in Austin. Also Liam leaves town for military school :)
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clouds-of-wings · 5 years
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I wrote this like 3 weeks ago and actually got over it since but @tardigradedeathposture wanted to read it, so here’s the lightly edited rant.
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I was going to not write about how crap I thought the Witcher TV show was but it keeps bugging me and whatever here’s my rant.
So as my followers might know, I played the games (yes even the first) and mostly liked them, especially the second, which I think is a great game and actually better than the third, which I still enjoyed. The first, well, had its moments. I’ve read the first book about 5 years ago after playing the second game for the second time but couldn’t really get into it, I watched the old Polish TV adaptation and found it sort of quaint but nothing special. So of course I was skeptical of the prospect of a TV show but also sort of interested.
Well good things first. I thought Henry Cavill played Geralt pretty well actually. People hated him when he was first introduced but I think most were won over by his performance. He isn’t quite like the Geralt I know, but that might be due to the script. Second good thing, Jaskier isn’t quite as incredibly annoying as he is in the games, though still annoying. But at least he isn’t a pimp here. Third good thing, Chireadan, because Elves <3
But apart from these aspects, I think I haven’t watched such a stupid show since Once upon a time (which was so terrible that it caused my gallbladder to ache non-stop, so I had to stop after the first half of season 1. Witcher didn’t do that, so I guess it wasn’t quite as bad as OUAT). I know the series follows the story laid out in the books, and actually my problem isn’t even what happens, but how it’s presented, in that story and characterization manage to be tepid and tropey and also illogical and self-contradictory.
Take Yennefer for example, because her character annoyed me the most.
Now I’m not a fan of her in the third game either but at least she has a consistent (terrible) personality and a will of her own there. I read that she’s a better character in the books, so okay. Maybe they butchered her on the show. I honestly don’t remember the book I read very well anymore, as I said, I couldn’t get into it.
She is explicitly said and shown to do very badly during her mage training and to be bad at court politics, she’s barely even shown doing magic before the last episode, but she gets to “ascend”, whatever that means, while the other (far more deserving?) students get turned into eels. Later her teacher says she was the best student she’d ever had (?? when? where?) and gives her trust and responsibility for zero reason and Yennefer goes on to save the day, sort of.
She gets, in one of the most unrealistic scenes on the show, cosmetic surgery that involves an extensive spinal operation and the removal of her uterus WITHOUT NARCOTICS and half an hour later she wows everyone at the prom ball. IIRC, in the books and the games the sorceresses and sorcerers alter their appearance using, uh, magic instead of having some guy rip out their spine. And the sorceresses explicitly make themselves beautiful because “that’s what their clients expect”, just like the sorcerers make themselves appear as “venerable” old men - because it’s the pre-conception their clients have. It’s subversive, John-Karen, because the mages somewhat cynically show themselves to be genre-savvy by exploiting the... why am I explaining this. It’s obvious to everyone except the idiots who wrote the show. The point is, it’s not about their personal empowerment, but they could have done something with Yennefer’s “ugly to beautiful” transformation and they didn’t, so that sucks too.
From the whole way she’s presented, it becomes clear that she would be a terrible mother (”happy childhoods make for boring conversation”), yet we’re supposed to feel sympathy for her quest for fertility. And she’s constantly bitter about her lack of it - when the surgeon told her very clearly that she’d be losing her fertility as a side-effect of the operation and she explicitly agreed to it. This wasn’t something that was forced upon her yet she acts like it was.
Just like in the game, she has zero concern for other people’s wishes or boundaries. I mean she cast magic upon a bunch of people and made them sexually assault each other, and the show just frames it as “sexy lady hosts an orgy”. Then she accuses Geralt of not paying attention to other people’s boundaries because he made a wish she doesn’t even know the specifics of (lol).
Yennefer is a pretty terrible person, which would be fine in terms of character, if she were actually presented as terrible. Yennefer actually has pretty exactly the personality of Cersei Lannister, but Cersei was intentionally portrayed as vicious, power-hungry, dishonest and irrational. We weren’t supposed to see her as a good person and that made her a great character. Watching Cersei was fun and interesting. Watching Yennefer is grating because in any sane universe, a woman like that would not be the hero. That’s also why I think it’s absolutely false to call TW “the new GoT”. TW is worse than even late seasons GoT.
However, the show loves her so much that it randomly gives her super-powers whenever it suits. In the fight in front of the dragon cave, she’s as good with a sword as Geralt, even though she has no training and no muscles and he’s literally been mutated to become a better fighter. In the last episode, she easily deters the attack by Nilfgaard and then destroys their camp (??) with magic when up until then she was only ever shown to be very bad at magic. (Unleash *~the chaos inside you~* god who wrote that script?)
But in the end, almost her whole story is determined by the effect she has on men. Despite all her qualities that we’re supposed to blindly believe she has, it’s her looks and the fact that some men like her constant pointless insults that determines what happens to her. The archeologist guy in the beginning is the only one who stops her from totally failing at mage training. The king she wows with her good looks and her early 21st century dress becomes her employer. Geralt and the Elf guy falling for her. The knight guy she manipulates into going to dragon mountain with her. Her only skill that she is somewhat consistently proven to actually possess is the ability to charm and seduce men with her beauty and her sparkling personality.
Unfortunately, this characterization is somewhat common among “strong female characters”. All the important female characters on American Gods are that way as well. Wonder Woman is (in the film, I haven’t read the comics) close to it as well. Random pointless superpowers, but her story is actually determines by everyone being head over heels for her because she’s pretty. I don’t really know why this counts as “feminist”, but for the media industry apparently it does. I think it’s rather the opposite.
But, god, Yennefer wasn’t the only terrible character. I also hated the way they portrayed what were apparently supposed to be Scoia’tael adjacent Elves in the first episode. Can you imagine Iorveth or Yaevinn make common cause with those planless caricatures? I absolutely love the clearheadedness and ruthlessness of the Scoia’tael in the games. They rebel against human oppression with the decisiveness of people with nothing left to lose. The Elves are portrayed as a mentally somewhat superior race who see themselves as the rightful owners of the land and are absolutely furious at humans using brute force to disinherit them. I love the absolute lack of moral high ground and of “virtuous victimhood”. I love the elitism turned to bitterness. I love the way they frame things like telling Elvish legends as acts of resistance (which is something that has plenty of real-life parallels). I love (since it’s fictional and all) the vicious treatment of human civilians, since, you know, from the Elves’ perspectives there are no civilians among the humans. In the games, you’re clearly made to understand that both the Scoia’tael and their opponents have committed terrible acts, and then, because this is war, you’re expected to pick a side anyway. Which was both easy and fun for me as a huge Elf stan in general, but I love that it’s not supposed to be an easy choice.
So I’m just talking about a short scene in the first or second episode, because that was the only time we see Elves who have Elf-specific problems, but I just hated that scene, because it steps into exactly the tropes that the games avoided. They complain, act irrationally and are portrayed as helpless, morally pure victims who won’t actually do anything that will do more than just slightly inconvenience humans. Toothless! Exactly as Hollywood would like oppressed peoples to be, righteous in their suffering, maybe stealing some bread but that’s all they will do.
Another thing that really bothered me was how unpolished it was. Hahaha! Terrible pun alert. They took everything Polish out of the story, see what I did there? I would have loved to see those houses with the flowers painted on them for example that are based on a real Polish village. What we got was just a bland Medieval(TM) world that could be anywhere and had no discernible features. It also obliterated the charm of the costume design. I found myself longing even for King Henselt’s unbelievably stupid belt because at least it had some character. And the weird and awesome creature design as well. None of it was on the show. Can you imagine that in a million years creatures like the three Crones from TW3 would show up on the show? Of course not, because a female character who won’t give the viewer a boner is obviously not worth showing.
And I don’t even understand how they managed to include Geralt being aware of his outsider status and thinking about it and to somehow make it boring anyway. But I’m really tired of writing and thinking about this now, so this is the end of my rant about like... half the things that annoyed me about the show.
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startofamoment · 6 years
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please come in and just sit here for a while ♥
Jake’s laughing so hard, Amy’s sure he’s going to wheeze himself into a poorly-timed asthma attack. The last thing they need right now is to have to call for backup while he fumbles with his inhaler.
“Alright, alright,” she grumbles, her cheeks warm with embarrassment. “So a double date with a young Al Gore at the Louvre isn’t the most plausible. But you asked for my dream date– you didn’t specify it had to be realistic!”
He snorts, but she shoves him in the shoulder before he can devolve into another laughing fit.
“Aw, you gotta give yourself some credit, Santiago. A date like that could totally happen.” He pauses, amusement clear on his face. “Just remind me to tell your future boyfriend to invest in a time machine.”
He ducks before she can shove him again, and just like that he’s doubled over and full-on giggling once more.
“Like your dream date is any less ridiculous,” she huffs.
He swipes at his eyes and coughs, taking a moment to settle his breathing. “Oh, I’ll have you know my ideal date is plenty realistic but dare-I-say still very romantic? The Jake Peralta boyfriend experience is quite intoxicating, thank you very much.”
She raises an eyebrow but nods for him to go on. For sheer curiosity’s sake, if nothing else.
“I’m a simple guy. I don’t have to go to a fancy museum or whatnot to have a good time. All I need is a few fluffy blankets, chairs and stuff for structure, way too many pillows, maybe some of those fairy lights to set the mood… You following me here, Santiago? I’m talking me, my boo, and the most epic pillow fort you’ve ever seen. We’ll sneak a laptop computer into the fort and put Die Hard on, duh, and then it’ll be candy and cuddles from there on out.”
She hums, vaguely impressed but not at all ready to admit that that does sound like a respectable stay-at-home date idea. (She’s even further away from acknowledging that she maybe also thinks all of that with Jake specifically sounds more than ideal.) “Movie night in a pillow fort, huh? Never took you for someone into textbook rom com dates, Peralta.”
“Hey, I like cuddles and warm blankets! They make me feel safe,” he shrugs, then shifts to smirking and waggling his eyebrows at her. “Besides, a pillow fort is the perfect place for a good ol’ make out sesh. Seriously, by the end credits, my date and I would totally be–”
“Okay, I’m going to go ahead and stop you there before this gets wildly inappropriate. Still technically work hours, Romeo.”
He sends her another cheeky grin before raising his binoculars and redirecting his attention to the warehouse they’ve been monitoring. She refocuses as well, filing this new fact about her partner somewhere in the back of her head – to be compartmentalized and hopefully forgotten, along with her mental catalogues of Weirdly Cute Things Jake Has Done and Shirts Jake Has Worn That Make His Arms Look Good.
“Are your eyes covered?” She asks, glancing behind her to triple check before unlocking her apartment door. “No peeking until I say so, okay?”
Jake scoffs but keeps his hands over his eyes. “Ames, if this is your way of easing me into blindfolds and bondage, let me tell you–”
“Oh, hush. I told you, I just need to make sure everything’s ready.”
They step into her entryway, with Jake following closely behind her then staying put when she tells him to.
Amy makes quick work of depositing her bag and shoes in their designated places, hanging up her coat, and running to get the string of lights plugged in. (She’d made sure the whole setup was prepped even before going to bed the night before, but she’d intentionally left the fairy lights off lest she be schooled by fire marshal Boone of all people.)
She surveys her living room – or what used to be her living room and what now is an organized mess of sheets strewn over dining chairs and pillows lain on every available surface – one last time before taking a steadying breath and turning back to her boyfriend. “Okay, Jake, you can look now.”
He drops his hands to his sides, and Amy watches as his expression morphs from confusion to wonder.
“Oh my god. Is this– It’s– Holy shit, it’s a pillow fort!”
He sheds his jacket and toes his shoes off as fast as possible, tripping over his socked feet to scramble into the makeshift entrance, half-squealing and half-rambling like an excited child the whole way. Amy laughs, already starting to feel pleased with herself as she crawls in after him.
“Amy, this is amazing! Did you put all of this together on your own?” He’s beaming, eyes shining with unbridled joy. In the few seconds it’s taken her to settle in against a strategically-arranged pile of pillows, he’s managed to wrap himself up in one of the three fleece blankets she’d prepared for them to use. (She’s going to have to do so much laundry this weekend.)
“Mhm,” she nods, hoping she’s coming off cool when actually she’s buzzing with giddiness from the inside out. “Do you like it?”
“Like it? I love it!” He falls back onto the thick floral comforter lining the floor beneath them, closing his eyes and making a satisfied hum before looking at her again. “Not to be weird, but you are making teenage Jake so happy right now. Like, I for realz would spend hours trying to imagine how my fort would look like and this– yeah, this is pretty darn close. The only thing it needs is–”
“Snacks? Check under that couch cushion.” She smiles, pointing to the spot beside his arm.
He sits back up then lifts the pillow in question, gasping loudly. “Gummy bears? Fruit Roll-Ups? One, two, three… seven types of chocolate, and even the Mexican candy from the bodega near the precinct? Amy, I–” His face shifts to something between bewilderment and awe, sending another surge of nerves through her. “I don’t know what to say… This is literally my dream date. How did you know?”
“Well, it’s... kind of a weird story. You’re going to laugh.” She stops, looking down and tucking her hair behind her ears while she searches for the right words to say. She’d known, logically, that it was much more likely he’d forgotten about their random conversation way back when, but a part of her had just hoped he’d remember so she wouldn’t have to explain herself like this.
“Come on, Ames. I promise I won’t laugh,” he says gently, nudging her leg with his foot. “I swear I really only want to know how you somehow read my mind. I mean, I know my school counselor said I should’ve kept daily diaries back then but I absolutely did not, so there’s no way you broke into one of those. Did I drunkenly blurt out my mushy teenage fantasies at Shaw’s the other week?”
She shakes her head, fiddling with the hem on the nearest pillowcase. “Not last week or at Shaw’s. I don’t expect you to remember this because it was at a stakeout a few years ago, but we’d talked about our ideal dates and you’d mentioned movie night in a pillow fort, so…” Her voice trails off as she digs underneath yet another blanket for her laptop and DVD copy of Die Hard.
She almost cringes when he doesn’t respond immediately, and it takes all her courage to get herself to look up from the loading screen.
He’s got that boyish grin on his face, of course. (It’s not fair that she still finds him ridiculously attractive, even when he’s obviously over the moon at her expense.)  
“You said you wouldn’t laugh,” she says, pouting.
“I’m not! I’m just–” His grin widens into a smirk. “ So, so glad I finally have proof you’ve liked me for ages. Wow, Ames. You’ve been holding onto this piece of info for years, just waiting until you could finally put it to use, huh? That had to have been at least three years ago by now, right? Gosh, Amy, I had no idea–”
“Shut up and eat your candy,” she grumbles, throwing a packet of fruit leather his way.
He snickers but doesn’t say anything more as he tears into the plastic and bites into the chewy candy. The tips of her ears burn just the same, with her lack of an outright denial loud and clear in the air between them.
“It’s okay, babe,” he says brightly, laying a sticky kiss on her flushed cheek. (The brand new pet name isn’t lost on her at all, but she’ll unpack her feelings about that another time.) “I’ve most definitely liked you for way too long, so at least we’re even.”
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fantroll-purgatory · 5 years
Text
Here he is, the meme himself
And what a wonderful meme concept. However, this profile is pretty bare bones. If you’re gonna do a parody, you have to go whole hog, whether it’s a loving parody is an actual criticism of the culture around something. One of the hardest parts of parody is really knowing what you’re talking about and so you Might know a lot about Tiktok, but I wouldn’t be able to guess that from this profile. So we’re gonna just go through and try to nudge that up a little.  
Alternia or Beforus or some type of AU?
Alternia
Name (preferably include how you came up with it and why):
Tiktok Badapp
It explains itself
It sure does. I know your intent is to be very obvious and goofy right out the gate, so we won’t fuss around with this. 
Age:
8 Sweeps or 16 years old
Theme:
Tik tok “badass” users with light up items
The light up and gas mask and stuff strays a little into like, cybergoth/rave aes territory, which I think is actually fun and something you could expand upon to add to his character. Like you know those videos that used to go viral of tons of goth kids swinging their arms under bridges to wild music? He could do that for the meme, but, like, intentionally.
Tik tok also has a pretty wide userbase of like, video gamd and anime fans, so trickling a little bit of that into the themeing of the character might be a good idea.  
Goal:
No particular goal in life
This is meant for you, not for your character. I’m guessing you just wanted a general overview of this guy. 
Strife Specibus:
Psionics my dude
Psionics usually aren’t the exclusive weapon a character uses! Sollux, for example, has throwing stars. 
Maybe you could give him like… Light Sticks 
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It fits that glowing aes he has going on, so it fulfills a utility need for him (looking cool). 
Fetch Modus:
:^/
Try to pick a popular tiktok meme. I know Pretend Instruments was a big thing on there in 2018, maybe he could have to have a Mime Modus where he has to pretend to use the item he wants in order to retrieve it? 
Blood color:
Gold
Symbol and meaning:
Gemus (Prospit + Breath)
Sign of the Alert
Trolltag:
\^:
God I’m trying to think of stupid tiktok jokes for here too. misslessMatesprit, as a reference to the Hit Or Miss meme. terrible just terrible. You could also do fluorescentTastemaker.  
Quirk:
Shortns evry wrd dwn to a bsic set of letrs
Special Abilities (if any):
Psionics
Lusus:
Hummingbird fruit fly hybrid
Remember that outside of special cases (tinkerbull being a wing mutation reference), winged lusii don’t really start until Jade. Now, Tiktok is a breath player, so I could allow it, but also… There was a meme last year about trying to pat your cat to the beat of Flamingo and I just think a Wingless Flamingo Cat is such a funny idea. Enough to consider, at least. 
Personality:
Phone addict, constantly texting or on a alternian tik tok equivalent, sees himself higher online, offline not so much, tries to act like at cool badass, he would be if he would fall at after single tap lmao
We gotta pull this in a little more. First of all you should probably name your Alternian tiktok equivalent. But other than that, he’s a breath player, so you know he’s gonna be like, a leader of the pack type. Is he an influencer? Does he start a lot of memes? Does he do a lot of dumb shit for fun and accidentally end up influencing other teens to do the same? Is he kind of irresponsible like a lot of online personalities? Does he also run an alternian youtube channel where he vlogs every moment of his life? These are the kinds of things you’ve gotta consider. 
Interests:
Alternian tik tok, light up clothing items, v a l i d a t i o n
As I said up above, I think maybe expanding on these interests is a good idea. Does he like video games, maybe? Does he like goth/rave/etc aesthetics? Does he like to party? Maybe he could like Cosplay, since that’s a big thing on Tiktok, people running cosplay accounts. 
Title:
Somethin Of Breath
I am honestly kinda waffling between Witch and Mage for him. Something active… But he’s not a creator, destroyer, or thief. I’d probably lean witch. 
Land:
Land of Drift and Nectar
Dream Planet:
Prospit
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Design notes: Trolls below jade don’t usually wear patterned clothing, so the checkered shoes would probably have to go in favor of some solid block colors or like a Single stripe of black or white across an otherwise solid color. You should also remember he needs his symbol on him. Otherwise this is solid! 
-CD
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