#and it makes it hard to put together any kind of logical timeline

[spitinsideme]

hi sorry if this is weird and long but i know you love misty from yj and horny thoughts and i thought you might appreciate me dumping some super horny thoughts i have about misty here

one of my favorite things to think about with misty is inspired by the adult timeline where she watches nat have sex with the police guy through the owl she gifted her…like ohhh my god please give me a stuffed animal and watch me while i wreck myself unable to be satisfied without you !!!! i hope she sees me humping my pillow and thinking about making me hump her thigh and beg for her to finger meeee …. i hope we’re good friend and roommates who talk every day, play all kinds of games together, and we have a great agreed upon system for chores. i need misty to offer to do the laundry just for her to smell my underwear and get so fucking turned on by it and rub against it until it’s covered in her cum too !!!!! i need her to go through my search history for all my kinks so when the time comes she’ll already know what i like !!!! i need her to plan around all the kinky things i’m into especially the things i’m afraid to talk about (like i’ve had a weird teacher kink lately idk why) !!!! oh god that’d be even better for her to bring it up and i don’t know how she knows but she leans into it so hard and with such confidence that i short circuit and cream my pants and i call her my very sexy intelligent girlfriend for it

i’ve always had such a huge thing for like stalkers and yanderes…. but not like cold blooded psychopaths who only want you cuz you make them happy but like misty where they would earnestly want to do anything for you and your happiness and sometimes that means kidnapping you because they’re the only one who can make you happy !!!! to misty i think she would totally do something like that because her mind is that balance of logical emotion where “it makes sense for me to take you away from your house because you were unhappy there. and the only right way for me to guarantee you’ll be okay is if i do it myself!” (i mean in actual practice there’d be like pre-negotiated consent i don’t romanticize actual stalkers but technicalities also i forgive misty for everything anyways so)

need her to kidnap me and for me to be so happy about it like my crush kidnapping me??? like she’d threaten my mom or something and i’d be like “yay! i don’t care about her! btw what’s for dinner, babe?” and she’d be a little confused about it but super happy that someone sees her for who she is and is so excited about her!!! even when i’m tied up and supposed to be her victim!!!! the person she loves so much loves her too in her weirdness and stalker tendencies and adorable cat sweaters !!!!!

this would also tie into one of my favorite fantasies of misty tying me to a fucking machine and watching me through a camera on her phone as she goes to the grocery store oh my god me screaming her name and shaking from how strong the machine is but still missing misty so much and i’m begging her to come home as she quaintly contemplates how she will prepare the potatoes for tonight’s dish right before thinking about how hard she’s gonna fuck me for being so good and waiting for her and how she has to hurry home to take care of her loyal baby :((( like oh my god it’s torture but knowing misty is watching me in public, glued to her phone to see my pussy getting pounded by the machine and getting so wet from how i sound so needy and how i need her, i put on a show for her because i know it’ll be worth it once she gets home and gives me the strap so rough and deep until my cervix is broken and misty has a god complex for how many times i screamed god and i think i’m pregnant

holy shit okay so… do with this what you want …… analyze me or add on or scream with me about this…. i’d love to hear your thoughts because i’m so misty brained 24/7 and any thoughts you have would be very cool (as if i don’t constantly think about her already and have so many more thoughts horny and not about her)…. okay bye for now <333

i think im in love with you can we please kiss .. misty doesnr exist but i do and i can make all of that come true

your huge .. everything .. your such intricate and detailed and setting the scene of how its going to happen and whats going to happen and literlalyevery single thing ?? fucking dialoguse included ??? i am aftually in awe like i want you to know i read this aboit 7 times and ive given each paravraoh a subtitle and could pronbalg annoyaye it, i couks recite the whole thing y hesrt thatd how many tinmes ive read it and enjoyed it

how do you rven knlw im a misty fan ... i dont think i havr rver even talked about her but god fuck yes i am !!!! in tht when shes cannibalising jackie and blood os dripping down her chin my first thoifh was god that shpukd be her eating me out when im on my period ... i fucking LOVE unhinged women i donr desire her sexually like you do i just have romantic feelings towarss hrr but god . jesus fucking chrst . that wad beautoful ... you have such a ay with words ... i feel like yoid wrkte a script nefore sex .. if anyonr eve rolepkays woth you ad foreplay tjey will have ablast i mean rwally my GOD !!!

me personally i am actually number 1 the top ever laura leel lover so i understand the need and the horniness andthe desire because god the things id let laura lee do to me actually .. but nonetheless .. i thik i an in love with you and pleaplse, and i mean this wholeheartely and so sincere, PLEASE send me more asks of you being horny about any character. misty or whatever rlse. ineed to hesr more of this, i am so interwatrd in you and how badly you sant to be fucked and in so muxj detail its actually like im reading class literature

[strawberryjamsara]

HELLO

Idk if you've seen the ending where you choose all the red options but i wanna hear your thoughts abt it if you have...

Also because im going insane over it so i need to get my thoughts out somewhere (about the red option ending)

// spoilers below?

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Sara admitting that she doesn't make any new connections because she's afraid of dragging them into a world of darkness despite not having (to her) any credible evidence that such a thing will happen is so????

Does she subconsciously know something is up with her family?? I assume she's caught on that her family life is a lil off due to her having an option(s)? About her father going -> (Eg. When you tell joe "Don't laugh" she goes "Don't laugh at my father!!" And there's an option that says something about embarassment abt her dad)

Like???

AND THATS NOT EVEN MENTIONING THE DG APPEARANCE IN A MINISODE SET !!BEFORE!! THE TIMELINE OF THE GAMES??? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WHAT IS GOING ON??

(AND THE IMPLICATIONS THAT SARA DID SURVIVE THE DG AND IS NOW LIKE "I WONDER WHAT WOULDVE HAPPENED IF I DID THIS INSTEAD? WOULD IT BE DIFFERENT")

My brain will now be rotating this minisode like a microwave for months now 😭 goddamn nankidai's wild ride never ends

HI HI SO I FOUND OUT THE RED ENDING EXISTED AFTER I COMPLETED THE INITIAL STORY AND ITS. SOMETHING.

There’s so much to unpack with the red ending. In a sense the red ending changes so much of the perspective of the story. Part of me thinks maybe this story is Sara post logic, trying to piece together remnants of her memories of Joe. Who was he? A best friend? A crush? Something in between? She’s putting so many pieces together, and also starting to take notice of the “red flags” she had with her father. We’ve seen signs of her home life before but here they’re essentially playing on a loudspeaker what kind of father he was.

And also this ending shows so much self hatred from Sara. The idea she’s dark and unknowable and that she’s destined to drag others down with her if she makes friends (very Catholic of you Sara). And it feels like another thing she was subtly ‘taught’. Her dad just needed her to keep on with what he’s said about never holding back, and the guilt will be enough that she doesn’t form ‘real’ bonds. So she doesn’t really become attached to anyone, since she needs to have that trait if she’s going to be willing to kill.

But you know who else has that trait? That ‘I’m an awful person who will drag others down with me’ mentality that makes them form walls? Trick question it’s two people. Keiji and Kai.

Kai hating his ‘darkness’ being fine with Mr Chidouins love even as he’s essentially used as a servant and not allowed to speak to his family… While it probably didn’t start after he worked there, I can see Mr Chidouin nursing that feeling in him so he can be a better weapon. His way of getting him to be willing to die for the cause of rescuing his daughter. And won’t that just feed her feeling of dragging others down? The fact that someone she never even knew died for her, and she spent the whole time thinking he was some stalker? It’s just one thing to keep her feeling like she hurts whatever she touches, after the other guilt of her best friend dying.

And Keiji… Oh Keiji. It’s not really hard to see that the reason Keiji stops trying to manipulate Sara and grows a genuine attachment to her is because he sees himself in her. More precisely he’s afraid she’ll end up like him. And yet despite their hatred for attachments and belief that they will hurt other people, they form one of the strongest connections in the game. Maybe because of it. Because Keiji never really shows full vulnerability maybe Sara thought he was ‘safe’ to get close too. If he didn’t care all that much, and even he seemed fine with the darkness, she couldn’t cause him to get worse. And then they both caused each other to get better. Urrrgh I’m punching the ground:

[spicedfink]

Just finished rewatching the older Total Drama seasons and frankly I found it both more enjoyable and worse than I remembered at the same time.

Here are my general thoughts afterwards:

The characters were written extremely flat and continued to be flat in each new season, the more screen time they had the move you could fill in blanks and form a character. That's why it felt like certain characters had character development when they really didn't (the one dimensional characters would have worked fine if the series had a rotating cast from the start but that was probably a hard sell)

It's has a lot more misogyny then I remembered (among other questionable things) They really used Zeke as a scapegoat to make the others look better

It seemed like romance was a bigger part of the series then it actually was, most characters just get together and are pretty much set (outside of the dreaded love triangle)

Shipping is pretty hard between the flat personalities and the fact there is very little time for any character interactions for whatever reason (it won't stop me but I'm putting far more thought behind the possible ships then I would normally have to)

Honestly it's sad that they got rid of the Aftermath episodes after WT, it would have been fun seeing Geoff and Brigette talking to the new characters after they got booted

What even is the timeline!! Like tdi happens during summer break and tda happens mere days later is that still summer break or are they now skipping school? Then there is not a given time for between tda to tdwt and from tdwt to tdroti but we do know that a year passes between tdroti and tdas (Cody's birthday happens during tdwt so that means at least almost a year since tdi right??) Darn cartoon logic making them not change physically (outside of a few hair issues and the mutating for a select few) but it also treats them like they're 16 forever despite the original cast members probably being at least 18 by the time of All Stars

Unironically actually enjoyed Dramarama more than the original series (they're so precious) I still think Total Drama is something I enjoy but in a "I'm making up my own version of events" kind of way, meanwhile Dramarama is something I can enjoy at face value

[fairybond]

Droy

Name: Droyan Berge Nickname: Droy Age: 26 Magic: Plant Occupation: Assistant Head of Outdoor Maintenance for the Council (main verse), Fairy Tail mage (timeline dependent) Likes: nature and being outside, reading, puzzles/games, DIY projects and crafting, art, painting Dislikes: fickle people, disorganisation, 

History:

He grew up in a small mountainside town, happy with his peaceful life with his parents and older sister. They lived on the family farm, using magic to tend to the land and help it prosper. Droy himself, being only young, had only just begun to develop his skill with magic when the roaming bandits came to town. The rogue mages took every available resource and crop, destroying all buildings as they did so. They attacked anyone who fought back against them, including little Droy and his family.

Droy was badly injured in the event, and woke to find that the bandits had left and his family were dead (among many others). The community never recovered and Droy was sent to the nearest orphanage, in Magnolia.

It was there that he met Sarusuke (later to be known as Jet). He learnt that the same bandits that had attacked his town, had also attacked the other boy’s village. They shared their pain and bonded.

Upon learning that it was the Fairy Tail guild that had stopped the bandits later, the two boys became fascinated with it and with magic. They practiced their magic and were soon able to join Fairy Tail. They got along well with the other young members of the guild but mostly kept to themselves. They would go on jobs separately however, as they couldn’t seem to work well together when it came to requests. It wasn’t until they formed a team with Levy that they were able to get in sync and become a reliable group.

Personality:

Hardworking, even as a child assisting his parents, he is not someone who shies away from a difficult task. He can be quite the perfectionist, and hard on himself, but he gets satisfaction from completing a job well and through seeking order. He can be meticulous and persistent about the things he’s got a passion for – his plants and gardening tools especially.

He’s always been on the more serious side (particularly in comparison to Jet), and more introverted than his friends. To those who don’t know him well, he can appear almost aloof at first, but it generally doesn’t take him too long to warm up and show his kind, friendlier side. He enjoys a good joke and pun and has a generous nature that prompts him to share with others.

He is the realist to Jet’s optimist and tends to lean on logic and his own perceptive skills. A practical sort, he prefers a sensible approach to most things and would often get annoyed by Jet’s more frivolous behaviour at times. He enjoys working on projects and figuring out how to make things work better.

Reading is something he became interested in after becoming friends with Levy in their youth. He loves to learn and prefers to read non-fiction books.

Despite being rather sensible, he can be prone to great stubbornness. When he was younger, such stubbornness often put him at odds with Jet (which contributed to some of their difficulties in trying to work together pre-Levy).

(Romantic) Feelings for Levy:

He came to truly admire her when she joined the team with him and Jet, growing a great respect for her and her abilities. He did not, however, develop romantic feelings towards her and instead sees her as on of his closest friends, more like a sister.

Magic:

His primary gift with magic is the ability to manipulate plants, particularly in the acceleration of their growth. He is also able to enrich soils to promote growth, however it takes a fair bit of energy and concentration. He is able to rapidly grow any plant around him and bend them to his will, even granting them some abilities, however he found it was more convenient to imbue special seeds with different abilities beforehand and them carry with him, as it takes a fair amount of time and energy to change the property of a plant in the middle of a battle. By carrying seeds, he is able to pick the ones that are most suited to his needs at the time, throw them, and use his magic to grow them in an instant.

X784 – X791

He and Jet were beyond devastated upon learning that Levy and the others on Tenrou were gone. For a while, everything just seemed to stop. The guild was quiet. Eventually, however, they had to move on, had to try to continue to live. They took jobs together, using strategies Levy had come up with and worked with them on. They were able to help keep the guild afloat for a little while, but the bills and troubles began to pile up, even with the acting guildmaster, Macao, doing his best.

At times, he considered leaving the guild, abandoning the sinking ship, but the thought was barely formed before it was dismissed. Some people did leave the guild, but while there were still members remaining, he couldn’t bring himself to leave too.

The years were difficult, he struggled to find the same joy in his plants and gardens as he used to, they no longer offered as much comfort as they used to. He began to indulge in sweets and treats, finding some temporary happiness from them. However, before he fell too deep into an unhealthy habit with such treats, Jet stepped in. Droy then discovered an interest in art and in painting (helped along by Reedus), something with helped distract his mind and heart.

When Jet began a relationship, Droy was supportive. He dated a few women himself at different times during this period but was never able to commit. When Jet’s relationship ended after 2 years, Droy was once again supportive of him and understood how things went wrong.

As the Tenrou team returned, he began to hope that those Fairies who had remained in the guild would start to live life properly again.

Appearance

You may note that I’m not including his post-Tenrou physical appearance as canon. This is for several reasons –

1)     I don’t like how it was handled in canon, I think at one point it’s said he was eating emotionally (I can’t seem to find it), which would make sense given the emotional pain he and the others were going through in losing their friends, however, it’s then not mentioned again (I know he’s barely even a side character so would never get that kind of development or screentime but still). His weight, especially if coming from such a serious issue, should’ve have been dealt with/written better and given some sort of closure. Instead, he is made into a joke several times and his character is reduced to simply being that guy that’s always eating. It’s disrespectful and harmful, and while I could still write him as being his canon size and have it be something that is developed better, I’m choosing not to (aside from him almost heading down the path of such eating habits) because of the next point (in addition to the fact that food related issues are not something I feel comfortable writing about). I think the other explanation in canon might have been that he simply ‘discovered he enjoys food’ which I find to be lazy writing and still not handled well.

2)     The way I see Droy in my mind – his personality is more like his first appearances, he’s cool, he’s kinda brooding looking, he’s serious about his friends. For me, during the 7 years, he was dedicated to trying to help keep the guild afloat, so he had to maintain his fitness and skill as a mage in order to do his best and do what he could for the sake of everyone. He also is highly attuned to nature and plants due to his magic and is aware of (and highly enjoys) the benefits of fruit and vegetables, so he maintains a healthy diet and is a vegetarian – so no, he’s not going to be snacking on a fried chicken leg at every opportunity. The way I see Jet also comes into play here – he is a fitness freak, and while he loves a good treat every now and then, he’s more than happy to burn it off with extra exercise. He would not let one of his best friends enter into an unhealthy lifestyle for very long.

Fairy Tail’s Disbandment:

Having Levy with him and Jet during this time was some comfort. They stuck together for a while, living together as a group and doing small jobs where they could.

Eventually, they talked about their options. They didn’t have it in them to join a new guild, instead deciding to try something different. Levy applied for a job at the council and was accepted, and she encouraged them to pursue their dreams. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for Jet and Droy and they struggled to support themselves. While keeping in contact with Levy, they did their best to convince her they were fine and she didn’t need to worry. Droy didn’t want to be a burden on her.

Luckily, through her work with the council, Levy heard of a few job openings for which they would be perfect for. Jet became a specialised courier for the Council, while Droy went to work for their ‘Outdoor Maintenance’ Department.

Fairy Tail’s Revival:

He, along with Jet and Levy, returned for the reinstatement of Fairy Tail, glad for the chance to catch up with everyone. They were all tempted to rejoin, however, decided not to in the end as they felt their time as guild mages had passed and they enjoyed their current jobs. Droy, and Jet, did decide to spend some time with the revived Fairy Tail and consequently became involved with the war and fought alongside everyone.

Job:

He joined the Outdoor Maintenance Department of the Council at an entry level position. Essentially, this department is about gardening and landscaping – they tend to the vast Council gardens as well as the outdoor facilities, and this extends to any Council related building. They also, however, are responsible for helping to repair the land and habitats that have been affected negatively by mages or magic related disasters – i.e when the ground is torn up or exploded during a battle. Following the war, they have a lot to do.

Droy became a highly valued member of the department during his first year, quickly moving up to becoming the Assistant to the Head of Department. The job is one he enjoys immensely – loving being able to be outside, working with his hands, and making an improvement on the land, it’s very satisfying for him to see progress and to help set things right again. He has been working with a lot of Earth mages and working on learning some of their skills, as his family had a lot of Earth mages and it would be a great addition to his skillset.

[wild-aloof-rebel]

Hey, I often read that the timeline doesn't always makes sense in sc and now I'm curious! Do you have some examples??

oh absolutely. i’ve discussed it with various others in various posts across my blog, but let’s see if i can get most of the highlights in one post.

most of the confusion centers around the timeline of s4, including david’s birthday (and thus the start of his relationship with patrick), a couple throwaway comments about summer, and jocelyn’s pregnancy, so let’s start with that.

this discussion nearly always starts with david’s pin in “moira’s nudes” because he indicates that he uses his birthday as his pin. what he types into the atm is 1282, which would make his birthday either jan 2 1982 or feb 1 1982 depending on whether that’s month-day-year like in the u.s. or day-month-year like most of the rest of the world. HOWEVER, what he tells the teller is 7283, which would make his birthday either jul 2 1983 or feb 7 1983. she does tell him before that that he needs to pick a new pin, so you could assume that 7283 is the new pin and not his birthday, but after he says it out loud, johnny says “what about my birthday?” which implies that what david just said is indeed his own birthday. (plus, i trust a number written into the actual dialogue—and therefore officially part of the script—to be more accurate than whatever dan happened to punch into the machine while filming.) anyway, the point is that we’re already starting from a place of confusion, where we have four potential options for david’s birthdate. so which one is it?

we know from “grad night” that david’s birthday is on the same day as alexis’s high school graduation. in canada, the school year ends in late june, so it would then make sense for “grad night” to take place in late june/very early july. three of the options for david’s birthday are in january and february, which leaves us with july 2 as the only birthday option that makes sense to be on the same night as alexis’s graduation. okay, cool. that means david’s birthday–and thus david and patrick’s first date–is on july 2. we’re getting somewhere.

in “pregnancy test” jocelyn finds out she’s pregnant. it’s clearly been long enough for her to have noticed and thought she was maybe going through menopause instead. david and patrick have presumably been dating for at least a week or two at this point, though possibly a bit longer. either way, this is most likely still in july (or possibly very early august), and jocelyn is likely about 2 months pregnant at this point.

in “asbestos fest” alexis says “is this the number? it’s the middle of summer.” middle might be a stretch, but feasibly yes, this can certainly still be summer.

in “open mic” jocelyn and roland find out the sex of the baby, which typically happens around 4 to 5 months. that puts us about 2 to 3 months after “pregnancy test” which would mean that the open mic night is taking place in probably late september or into october. so far so good.

“the barbecue” rolls around, and it’s david and patrick’s four month anniversary. that makes it november. weird time of year for a barbecue, and they’re clearly having unseasonably warm weather, but alright, climate change etc etc. we can make this work at a very long stretch.

stevie says david waited “a full week to forgive [patrick]” which means “the olive branch” is a week after rachel shows up. however, stevie also says “you’re wearing a leather sweater in the dead of summer,” which… what?? that can’t be anywhere close to true.

after that is jocelyn’s baby shower, which is typically around the 6 to 8 month mark of a pregnancy. if she was 4 to 5 months in open mic, that puts us somewhere between november and january for the shower.

“singles week” rolls around and jocelyn goes into labor “a few days early” according to johnny. therefore it’s been pretty much a full nine months now. if “pregnancy test” was in july, that puts jocelyn giving birth in about february. which would be fine except…

roland jr. is clearly no more than a few months old in “merry christmas johnny rose.” this definitely can’t be the following christmas or he’d be closer to 10 months old (there’s no way the baby in the carrier is that old). but it also can’t be the preceding christmas because there’s no way he was born then. 

since that doesn’t work, let’s say we shift everything back to david having a january birthday instead, which pushes everything up by six months. that means roland jr. is born in august, which makes the christmas stuff work out a bit better. it also makes stevie’s comment about the leather sweater in the dead of summer better because now it would be taking place in may, when it could theoretically be hot enough out to be considered summer. but then you’ve got the issue of alexis somehow graduating in january, which doesn’t work at all, and you’ve got asbestos fest taking place in february or so, which is by no means “the middle of summer” as alexis says.

the only way that both asbestos fest and david’s olive branch can both take place in summer is if one is at the start of the summer and the other is at the end. if we say then that “the olive branch” takes place in august, that puts david’s birthday and his first date with patrick in april. that gives us roland jr being born around november, which works with the christmas special sort of okay. this is probably the timeline that works best, but it only works if you completely ignore the whole pin situation because NONE of those indicate that david’s birthday could be in april.

everything about the timeline works like this. you have to pick and choose what aspects of it to ignore to make the rest work. david can be born in july if you ignore stevie’s comment about summer in “the olive branch” and roland jr. somehow being born before christmas. david can be be born in january if you ignore asbestos fest taking place in summer and the timing of alexis’s graduation. david can be born in april if you ignore alexis’s graduation and “moira’s nudes” which means ofc assuming that he doesn’t know his own damn birthdate.

i think we’ve collectively mostly decided from that to stick with july 2 even though it causes issues (as all options do) because a) it’s the pin that david actually says aloud, b) it really is the only one that works with “grad night," and c) since it’s the one he actually says aloud, that means it’s [presumably] what was written into the script

that same principle applies elsewhere too. like moira’s career.

she says in “ronnie’s party” that she had a 6 ½ season television career.

in “wine and roses” johnny mentions her being on seasons 3, 4, and 5. that puts her on the show somewhere between seasons 1 and 9. if she started in s1, she was on it through part of s7; if she started in s3, she was on it through part of s9. (all of that is presuming that her seasons were consecutive, of course.)

in “rock on!” we see a training video that was clearly made in the 80s where moira is looking for a tape from s21 of sunrise bay. if we say the training video was made in ‘89 at the latest with s21 having aired that same year, that puts s1 as taking place in 1968 and thus moira having acted on the show somewhere between 1968 and 1977.

in “a whisper of desire” moira says she was cast in cabaret in 1979 at the age of 17 (david says she was not actually 17, and therefore she was probably at least a few years older). either way, this seems to be her first acting job (or at least before she hits it big in any way) as she says she was working at a gas station at the time. but if her big break came in 1979, she definitely couldn’t have been on sunrise bay prior to that. to compound on that, even if she was a few years older than 17 at that point, that would still make her a teenager during at least part of 1968 - 1977 and from what she’s said about the plots on sunrise bay, it seems unlikely that she was a teenager when she was filming it (she played her own father, for instance). that means she must have been on sunrise bay sometime after 1979, but then there’s no way that s21 would have happened sometime in 1989 or earlier OR moira was not on s3, s4, and s5. 

just to throw an extra wrench into all of it, in “rip moira rose” they also indicate that she was projected to be nominated for 12 daytime emmys, which doesn’t really work with only having been on the show for 6 ½ seasons. (some of those could be for guest star work on other shows perhaps, but that’s a whole lot of guest roles to be nominated for, especially since nothing else she’s ever said about her career indicates that she did that at all)

just like with all the stuff with david’s birthday and roland jr., you can make some of that work together, but you’re gonna have to pick and choose what to ignore in order to get there. that’s the kind of stuff we mean when we say the timeline is a mess. in the broadest of strokes, if you squint, it all kinda comes together. but when you start looking at the details of it, you can’t get all of it to fit neatly into place

[sakebytheriver]

This fandom had no problems shipping Willow with her lifelong bully Boscha, but the moment Willow is shipped with someone who respects and is clearly interested in her suddenly everyone and their mom are clutching their pearls crying about age gaps and trauma (nothing against bosch//low but all this discourse is really grinding my nerves)

Oh God, don't even get me started on B*schlow, remember those Notps I talked about?🤮 (tbh i could prolly write a pretty long rant post about that ship and my points would have a lot more logic in them than any of the antis in the Huntlow tag, but guess how many posts in the B*schlow tag you'll find written by me)

Tbh I think a lot of people see a gay ship and think that that automatically makes it somehow better and healthier than a m/f ship without even thinking about the dynamics or how the characters fit together. Like no doubt people have been making posts about how Huntlow isn't as good or subversive as B*shlow or H*ntric because it's an m/f ship instead of being gay without taking into account the fact that it's an interracial ship with a fat woc.

But also shipping and the romantic relationships the show makes canon are not about how many boxes you can check off to get diversity points. Huntlow is a ship that was clearly meant to have some more kind of depth and development to it from the little we can see from the show so far, like the parallels of them both being considered "Half-a-witch", the way their character developments basically start and end in the opposite directions, how they both came from a place where people put them down and belittled them for their shortcomings but they've both found people who help them find their greatest potential, the mutual respect and admiration they have for each other, it is clear to me that the writers are trying to speed up a ship timeline that was supposed to be a lot longer than the timeframe they're forced to work within, with the multitude of different ship dynamics they have clearly tried to inject into this couple with what little time they have left. There's a reason why B*schlow was never going to canon, the characters don't fit together the same way, the dynamic is one that was always meant to be one dimensional bully that serves more as a plot device for Willow's character development than the Lumity dynamic the fandom tried to push it towards, not to mention that if the ship was to become canon then Willow would be acting as Bosha's teacher and redeemer which she basically already had to do with Amity, but with Huntlow they're both meant to be fully fleshed out main characters that come together in a dynamic that strengthens their characters in a mutually beneficial way that serves both of them individually as well as a couple, they meet each other near the end of their original character developments meaning they meet at the right time to walk together towards their next character developments, because the two of them went through entire arcs individually learning to stand on their own, the next obvious step for their characters is them learning how to be their new selves while with another person

Tbh I just really don't get what the issue with Huntlow is here, like why is this the ship that broke the fandom? I mean, the obvious reasons are there, of course, the racism, the fatphobia, the general uproar that comes when the fandoms favorite white boy falls for a woc instead of the other pretty white boy or girl they wanted him to fall for, but like God I was not expecting to have to fight this hard for this ship when we've only got 3 more episodes left before this show ends for good. Like are there not more pressing things we could worry about other than a very cute, very nice, very healthy ship between two traumatized kids who have never been seen as anything worth looking at twice until the other person saw them

[dangermousie]

Hello !

I was wondering whether you could rate and tell us of your top 5 favourite webnovels/cnovels of all time ?! (Sorry if this has already been answered lol😅)

Thank you, stay safe and have a nice day🖤

Awww, thank you and that is such a lovely ask!!!

From n1 to n5, here they are (they happen to be all danmei.)

1. The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha) - my n1 forever and ever.

Taxian Jun, the horrific cultivation emperor of the world who razed cities and destroyed sects, is surrounded on his mountain. The righteous sects are terrified to confront him but tired of living, Taxian Jun consumes poison and dies by suicide at the age of 32. And opens his eyes as 16 year old Mo Ran, Mo Ran long before he became Taxian Jun, Mo Ran who is excited at a chance to save the one person he loved and lost. Oh, and to deal with his loathed shizun, the unapproachable and strict Chu Wanning, his past life’s biggest enemy.

I have no idea if it’s objectively the best on this list but it hits every trope I love, its bleak worldview (the world will change only incrementally but that’s enough, average person will not appreciate the sacrifice but it’s still worthwhile, and love is worth everything) mirrors mine, and the sheer complexity of the plot and cascade of plot twists each of which is insane and yet completely logical, is amazing (this is a rare novel where it’s even more fun to reread than read for the first time because you keep seeing all the hints and trail crumbs laid out that you did not see the first time.)

And the characters!!! I mean, this novel has multiple universes/timelines, a side trip to the Underworld AND the demon realm, a plot more twisted than a store’s worth of pretzels and yet the thing that hits me the most are the characters. Mo Ran is my favorite web novel character of all time and I love Chu Wanning so. All the secondary characters are wonderfully written (and some of them made me bawl) and they are all complex. My opinion of all of them changed many times over; the novel doesn’t make it easy to love some of them but then you do and it’s so worthwhile! That slow change is one of the delights of the novel - I started out disliking the unpleasant, superior Chu Wanning and cruel, callow Mo Ran and then I loved them so so hard and cried for them so so hard and was in awe of their heroism and sacrifice and selflessness and capacity to love.

Oh, and the fact that this novel does something almost impossible - it has its protagonist start out as so clearly irredeemable and then slowly and painfully and thoroughly redeems him (without ever letting the reader forget what it is he needs redemption for.)

Also, for a novel that made me cry so hard I felt ill, this book is just so damn funny with the most sarcastic sense of humor imaginable (the serious angst doesn’t even kick in until 90+ chapters!)

Anyway I should stop or I will write a dissertation. But this is the one web novel that I would put in my top 5 not just web novels but any novels in any shape or form. The plentiful trigger warnings are there for a reason so stay away if they are an issue, but if not, if anyone hasn’t read it yet, what are you doing with your life?!

2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - another novel by the author of 2ha. Clearly she just pushes all my buttons every time. This one is much shorter and has a plot that is twisty but less twisty than 2ha. Still, all that means is that intensity and the pain are more concentrated.

Aristocratic Mo Xi and former slave Gu Mang were both legendary generals of the empire and lovers. But Gu Mang betrayed the country and switched to the enemy. Now he is back as a peace offering by that country and Mo Xi has to deal with the fact that his feelings are as strong as ever.

This novel!!! So much pain and intensity!!! So many amazing plot twists and supporting characters. The same bleak world view, the same unjust society, the same protagonists doing right things despite the cost. Mo Xi’s intensity and inability to let go (he’s imprinted on Gu Mang and that’s it) is romantic, bone-shakingly intense, and tragic all at once. And oh Gu Mang! So many times I just wanted to reach into the book physically to protect him. The novel deals with unjust societies, memory versus personality, what it’s like to be good in a bad universe etc. And it both made me sob and giggle, repeatedly, and sold me on literally death-defying (but not honor-defying!) love.

Oh, and special shout out to the fact that like 2ha, you may start out hating some characters and end up a rabid fangirl (cough Murong Lian!)

3. Qiang Jin Jiu - a dense political tome that takes a while to get going but then it’s a runaway train.

In a fictional dynasty, Shen Zechuan, the only remaining son of a disgraced aristocratic family and Xiao Chiye, the younger son of a family of generals guarding the border join forces (and then something else) to get power and pull down the dysfunctional system.

This is so elegant and smart (a rare web novel I’d recommend to anyone who just loves solid period fiction) and you probably need a notebook to keep track of the politics and military strategy. These characters are very very smart not just because the author says so.

As to the characters, there is a large cast and I love many of them, but for me the novel is made by Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye. SZC is gorgeous and delicate and icy and can kill you before you have time to blink. Saddled with the sins of the family he had no pleasant interaction with, he claws his way out of hell (seeing the sinkhole he was trapped in, literally as well) to take down those who wronged him but also to amass power so all the tragedy and corruption won’t happen again and the whole rotten system comes crashing down. XCY is a military genius who is trapped as a hostage in the capital because the court doesn’t trust his family. He longs to return to the plains of home and to take his rightful place. The two men start out as bitter enemies, then reluctant and sniping allies, then as friends and eventually as one of the most gorgeous, tender, swoony OTPs.

Anyway this is one is a bona fide masterpiece, equal parts smart and emotionally intense.

4. Wu Chang Jie - are you an emotional vampire? I am and this novel is a banquet.

In a highly fantastical setting, we meet our protagonists - the sunny Xie Bian and the intense and surly Fan Wushe. Xie Bian is a human who assists his master in conveying souls to the underworld and making sure no mishaps happen. Bian is concentrated sunshine in human form and to meet him is to love him. When the novel opens, his drunk master brings back another human to be his shidi and assist with duties - said human is uncommunicative, intense and surly Wushe. Bian is excited to have a shidi but little does he know that a story dealing with the horrors of past lifetime is about to start.

Anyway, why WCJ? So many reasons. It has such a dark bleak worldview - this world is a horrifying system where powerful cannibalize each other’s cores for an impossible chance to ascend, where gods have sealed off their realm and all that’s left is neverending human misery and hell (the only way you’d see a deity is if they’d been sent down to suffer over and over and over), where even reincarnation doesn’t fix things and bad acts are often unpunished. And the novel then asks - is it worth being a good person in such a world? More, is it worth being a good person in such a world when nothing good has ever happened to you and you have been repeatedly betrayed due to your goodness? And the answer, on Bian’s part, is an uncompromising yes.

Ah yes, the other reason to love this novel - the protagonists and their fucked up fucked up relationship. Bian (who was Prince Ziheng in the past life) is so genuinely good. But he is that rare thing - good but not saintly, noble but not cloying. So much of the novel is his getting taken apart over and over and barely able to put himself back together every time but his soul is still as amazing as ever.

And then there is Wushe (who was Prince Zixiao in past life, Ziheng’s not-bio-related brother.) Wushe is not a good person. He is a monster. And he loves Bian/Ziheng more than his life and his soul and the entire world but he’s also the one who hurt him more than anyone else ever could and did it over and over. His love survived a literal century of torture in the worst kind of hell and refused the usual memory loss of new life. But it also humiliated and broke Ziheng down to his constituent parts.

One of the things that is so fascinating to me about this novel is the question of what can be forgiven/what should be forgiven/what kind of expiation is enough/can you ever love someone who you loved so much and then he hurt you so badly and is now repentant? And it never sweeps trauma under the rug or hand waves it away but deals with it head on.

If you want healthy relationships, you should stay far away from this novel but if intense insane ones with a feral barely human one capable of destroying the world leashed by love and guilt to the sane deeply good one is your bag, come right in.

There is also the world building and the fact that yes, the big fall out between Ziheng x Zixiao is based on not knowing all the facts but it’s not “why can’t you talk?! This is dumb!” But is totally in keeping with both events and their characters. It’s reasonable for Ziheng to do what he does and for Zixiao to misunderstand and decide Ziheng is now his biggest enemy (but still one he’s fixated on) and for Ziheng to never be able to clarify.

Anyway, once again this is trigger warning central so please heed those, but if they are no issue, this one is wonderful.

5. OK, this is hard and switches between Sha Po Lang, Heaven Official’s Blessing and The Golden Stage depending on my mood. So what the hell, I am gonna write about all of them.

Sha Po Lang - so smart and so much clever world building. There is enough politicking to satisfy a Qiang Jin Jiu fan, it’s steampunk, and our two protagonists - Gu Yun, the empire’s most powerful general, who’s loyal to the empire despite being badly wronged by it, and Chang Geng, a cursed prince with barbarian blood and horrifying childhood - are wonderful separately and together. This is a huge slow burn but it’s totally worth it! They fall in love with each other’s hearts and brains and ability as much as anything. (Yes, this is the one with the yifu thing. Gu Yun is made Chang Geng’s foster father when he rescues him and brings him back to the capital as a way to keep CG safe in imperial strife. They are 12 and 19 at the time so clearly it’s never a parental relationship.)

Heaven Official’s Blessing (TCGF) - I love it’s sprawling narrative and cast, I love its inventive setting and picaresque story. It’s hilarious and can make me cry. But the novel’s place on this list is due to Xie Lian who is part Kenshin part drama WWX part pure goodness wrapped in heartbreak and trauma wrapped in sunshine.

The Golden Stage - two smart and principled (yes, they both have principles different though they may be) men navigate their arranged marriage, their past friendship and their past break up, become a super couple (one of the healthiest danmei couples I’ve ever read and proves healthy doesn’t have to be boring), save the country and bring down the emperor or two and just generally this is my rainy day book.

I guess I didn’t write as much for the three n5 candidates as I did for 1-4 but my brain is beginning to curdle so...

[fictionalxreader-interactions]

Mobius x Reader (feat. Jealous!Mobius!) 

First and foremost...you couldn’t believe Renslayer allowed it. You were aware of how fond Renslayer was of Mobius, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. It may make you feel certain emotions you have to fight down because it wasn’t fitting of a TVA agent and far more of what you see in Variants. 

Second, you didn’t think it would go well. On one hand, you could see the logic after Mobius explained it a few times. But you still thought it too risky. Any given Loki was dangerous when facing in the field. Bringing the God of Mischief in a place whose sole purpose was to maintain order? That was asking for trouble. 

You spent plenty of hours trying to fathom all the reasons Renslayer gave to Mobius about why she wanted and should refuse his request. But more so trying to figure out the argument Mobius used to win. 

Seeing them in action...you kind of got it. 

Or at least became even more curious about this Variant. The amount of faith Mobius had in him made you worry. If anything went too wrong, what would happen to Mobius should the Time Keepers be too upset or become unamused by Loki’s mischief? 

Which is why and how you latched on to their cases. To help keep Mobius anchored before he sunk with that Loki’s troubles. 

Except...the Loki Variant was almost pleasant. Yes, he was everything his file said he was, but there was more to him as well. The less relevant facts that don’t make it onto the reports. The way his mind works is fascinating and you begin to see how and why Mobius managed it! 

Both you and Loki understand that Mobius is in charge. Loki also understands that you have more rank than him. So rather and always go to Mobius with an idea or theory, he begins to come to you first. Maybe he’s hoping you’re a little easier to manipulate, which you don’t put past him. But you’re very adamant that if it requires going anywhere or trying anything, you’ll be reporting to at least Mobius or Hunter B-15. He complies. 

Loki asks you questions. You answer in turn for stories about Asgard. Sure, you know of it, you’ve even visited a few times. But it was for a case and like many other places, it just blends in with the rest of the time line. You never really admired it’s beauty until you get lost in the stories Loki would tell about his childhood there. The moments that didn’t make it into the reel. Moments that mattered or impacted him in ways that the Time Keepers didn’t really care about. 

You begin to stick up for Loki more. It’s no longer just Mobius nearly pleading for everyone else to humor him. You do see the scared little boy Mobius did and you feel protective now. It still surprises you how much faith you have in Loki now, and you would love to bond about it with Mobius...if he wasn’t suddenly acting weird. 

It starts off small. With little comments you brush off at first. But it quickly escalates to him ditching you and not telling you about attempts to get the Variants killing the Minute Men. 

You could wait and see if it’ll fix itself...or you could confront Mobius. 

There really wasn’t much of a choice.

---

“What’s got your TimePad in a fritz?” You asked, crossing your arms and taking your stance.  “I don’t know what yo-” Mobius begins, trying to deny anything being the matter. You’re not sure if it was the look in your eye or whatever’s been eating him up winning after all. Rather than deny anything, he himself takes a stand and crosses his arms too. “You’ve never told me about (Insert you Jet Ski Equivalent Here ) before.” “Well...you never asked.” You reply with a small shrug. There’s a pause as you get lost for a moment, as if you had a thought on the tip of your tongue, but it flees just before you can recognize it. That feeling has been more present lately. Absentmindedly you add, “And I’ve never really given it much thought...”

“Until Loki?”  You nod, “He asks questions.” 

“I ask questions.” He commented. 

“You do. It’s how you got to your ranking, I’m sure. But it’s always been about the job...which is...what there is. What’s the point of me bringing up my interests in a moment on the timeline I can’t be a part of other than admiring it from far away?” You inquire. 

“The point is...you told Loki before telling me!” 

“Don’t you like Loki?” You asked with a raised, confused eyebrow.

“Do you like him?” He counters.

“I asked first.” 

“I ask..” He pauses to think of something to answer with, “with authority!” 

You scoff and roll your eyes, not completely believing you’re even having this conversation. You’re about to rebuttal, until it hits you. You pause and eye Mobius up and down before asking, “Are you jealous?”

His scoff came out with a fake laugh as he tried to play it off. You weren’t buying it anymore though, as all the moments of him behaving weirdly in the past couple of days now began to make more sense. 

“I...am just...worried!” 

“Worried?” You echo. 

“Yes! That Loki...has...manipulated you. Got into your head. That’s all.” He tries so hard to be nonchalant about it. 

“He hasn’t,” You assure him. You see his shoulders relax, and if he had been a bit more mature about this, maybe you wouldn’t have said your next line. But you did anyway, “I just let him into my bed.” 

As Mobius sputtered and struggled to get a response, you try to decide what happens next. 

You decide to put him out of his misery, and perhaps stop Loki from getting pruned, by saying, “I’m kidding! I doubt he could keep his mouth shut about it and I’d never live down B-15 or Renslayer’s look of ‘you could do so much better’.”

That seemed to quell him, if only slightly. He tries to readjust his tie but you’re sure Loki had already done so earlier in the morning. He asks, “How about you and I get together off of duty? Talk about Jet skis and (Insert Your Jet Ski Equivalent)?” 

“So you could manipulate yourself into my bed?” You ask with a playful smirk. 

He doesn’t deny it, instead he matches your smirk and says, “I’d rather call it wooing.”  

“Wooing?” You repeat, but smiling at him nonetheless.

“Yeah...unless you wanna invite Loki.” He chimes in childishly. 

“Let me see if your wooing’s any good before we get adventurous. You can ask him for tips if our first date is a complete disaster.” 

“Date? Like a date-date?”

“Make me regret it and I’ll shamelessly flirt with him the next mission.” You ‘threaten’. 

“His ego doesn’t need the boost and mine doesn’t need the hit.”

“There you two are! Enough love bird chitchat, I’ve got a new idea!” Loki declared as he found them. 

[lokitvsource]

You came into the show with the idea of Loki clashing with the TVA already in place. How exactly does this kind of arrangement work at Marvel? Michael Waldron: There was a creative brief that was 20 pages or so that basically said: “We want to do something about Loki running up against the TVA. Here’s some different avenues that might be cool to explore.” It was really serving it up for writers as a jumping off point for us to put together our pitches. Then I went off and really worked on the idea of Loki being brought in to hunt another Loki, and that becoming the heart of the show, and the Loki/Sylvie relationship. The big thing that I did in my pitch — even as early as pitching it to Kevin [Feige] — I really walked through the six episodes, kind of similar to what they were. I knew I wanted Episode 3, for instance, to be a little bit of a Before Sunrise, with Loki and this character walking across this apocalyptic moon. But Marvel had the initial, probably the most important spark of genius, which was just Loki and the TVA.

Where did the idea of the variant being a female Loki come from? That was one of my ideas, that we then confirmed in the writers room. Yeah, we knew from the get-go that it was going to be Loki falling for another version of himself.

Why was that appealing to you? I love writing any romance; it’s fun. Especially, it hasn’t been done a ton in the MCU. There’s an obviously self-reflective quality to it. And a show that’s quite literally about self-love; it is Loki getting to see parts of himself. At the start of the show, he kind of hates himself. He assesses himself to Mobius as a villain. And then he meets Sylvie, and he sees her as someone on a heroic crusade. He sees the good in her, and is able to see the good in himself.

Mobius suggests that, of course, Loki fell in love with his own variant, because he’s a narcissist. Do you think he’d be capable of falling in love with someone who is not a version of himself? [Laughs] I don’t know if he didn’t fall in love with himself first. Maybe after that, but the first time he falls, maybe this is what it had to be.

What’s the key to telling a time travel story that takes advantage of the concept without confusing the audience? I think it’s doing a lot of work that the audience never sees. It’s really understanding the logic of this thing, building out the TVA as a real organization that actually exists in our minds. Our writers room, we had a TVA handbook, encyclopedia, what they do and why they do it, a glossary of terms. And then you want to only give the audience the absolute bare minimum to understand the story, and to just get swept up in the emotional stakes of everything. If the sci-fi of it all, if the time travel logic of this show did not hold up week to week, then that would have distracted from the emotional journeys of the characters. So I’m glad that even though everyone had to take their medicine a little bit, along with Loki, in episode one, I’m glad it didn’t distract from the story we were telling. And we had the benefit of Loki being the audience’s eyes in. The audience is learning as he is.

There’s a funny scene in Avengers: Endgame where the Avengers start arguing about exactly how time travel works in the MCU. How much did you have to study what other Marvel movies had done with the idea to make sure your rules were consistent? Fortunately, Endgame was the main one, and that’s how they understand it. The TVA is an organization that understands time travel on a deeper level, probably more comprehensively than the Avengers do in Endgame. We wanted to make sure we were staying true to any rules that they laid out, but sort of establishing our own rules. It’s a time travel show. What was I thinking? A movie’s one thing, but a show is hard.

How many Loki variants did you have on the writers room whiteboard at various points? Hundreds. So many different Lokis. There was one Loki, actually maybe it was a version of Mobius that took off his glasses, and he just had really tiny eagle eyes, like he could see everything. There was stuff like that all over the white board. Tom Kauffman, who wrote that fifth episode, he’s an amazing comedy writer, and was on the first three seasons of Rick and Morty. His first draft of that episode was just bananas.

Was there a variant, or a crazy idea in general, that you really loved but couldn’t ultimately do? There was so much different stuff that we wanted to do in the Void. But the truth is, I don’t want to say any of it, because you never know. The ideas that I want to do the most may pop up elsewhere.

Okay, so let’s stick with a variant we did see. Was Alligator Loki actually a Loki, or just an alligator that happened to be wearing a Loki’s crown? A magician can’t reveal his tricks, man. That’s the great debate. Let it rage.

What was Alligator Loki‘s origin story on your side of things? Who pitched him and how was that initially received? That was maybe my very first meeting with the producers at Marvel, Kevin Wright and Stephen Broussard, talking about the show, and me saying, “When we’re doing this, you can encounter lots of different Lokis. You could have an alligator Loki. Why? Cause he’s green.” And us all laughing about how stupid that was. I think I made the point that it’s that energy of what we can do with the show. We can have something like that, but let’s play it straight. Alligator Loki, you get a laugh out of it, but by and large you try and play it straight. That was the fun tonal balance that we tried to strike in the show.

There’s been some conflicting information out there about whether the big bad was originally just going to be He Who Remains, who’s a different comics character altogether from Kang, and whether the casting of Jonathan Majors changed the plan. From your point of view, what happened? The character was always written as a version of Kang, as early as the first draft of the script, we knew in the writers room, relatively early on. He Who Remains, that’s the guy behind the curtain with the TVA, and we saw an opportunity to fuse that mythology with the Immortus mythology. And that was just really compelling. It was a way to elevate, it just felt right for Loki, because Loki was there in the first Avengers, he’s the one who brought the Avengers together, and here is directly related to the exploding of the multiverse, this event that will drive the events of Phase Four. Certainly, when Jonathan came in, it allowed us to step on the gas of just how eccentric and charismatic this character could be. I was inspired in the writing of He Who Remains by Tom Cruise’s character in Magnolia, trying to give it that Frank TJ Mackey energy a little bit. He captures that and then elevates it to something else that’s different and weird.

You just said how important the multiverse is going to be to Phase Four of the MCU. How challenging is it to have to set up this big thing for the larger Marvel endeavor while also serving the needs of the particular story you’re telling on this show? It’s a challenge in the sense that it’s all a relay race, and you’ve got the baton on this thing, and you want to do a great job. The name of the game over at Marvel is with each movie or TV show, make it the best it can possibly be. And they’re really supportive of that, and trust that it will organically fit into the larger blueprint of everything. We were excited about introducing a version of Kang, because yeah, to introduce this new big bad was cool for our show. I was aware, and cautious, of the thing I read in your review, that it might not be the most sound storytelling to introduce a new character at the very end that we’ve never seen before as the big bad of this thing. Obviously, we had the benefit that people know who Kang is, and there’s a meta thing where a portion of the audience knows Jonathan Majors is going to be playing Kang in Phase Four. But the finale was only ever going to work if He Who Remains, in a compelling way, serviced the Loki and Sylvie emotional story. That was the most important job that that character did in the finale: he laid out a very compelling conflict that ultimately drove the two of them apart.

There has also been some confusion as to exactly when you knew that there would be a second season, as opposed to you just making a limited series. Initially, in the writers room, we were not operating as though there would be a second season. And the whole way through was, this should be a story that should stand on its own. I referenced The Leftovers and Mad Men all the time. I think about those seasons, they pushed the overall stories forward, but you can pull any one of those seasons and look at it on its own as an individual story. I wanted that to be the case here, whether we did a second season or not. I think we always felt that we would want to propel Loki forward into the MCU after the conclusion of our season. The only question was, would that be in an appearance in a movie, or would that be in a second season. And it was only over the course of development that the stars aligned to make a second season.

But that end scene, where Mobius no longer recognizes Loki and the TVA is filled with Kang statues, wouldn’t have been a satisfying conclusion to a limited series. That is an ending that only works if there’s going to be a second season. So there is another conclusion to the story that I wrote that exists out there, that I guess is just for me. My own little play, that I perform with my action figures.

What was Sylvie’s original plan, before Loki hijacked her to that dying moon? It was to empty out the TVA. The entire bombing of the Sacred Timeline was to create a diversion. She’s not going to be able to create a multiverse from doing that. Ultimately, the TVA has the manpower to get out and take care of these events, but they’re going to have to scramble a lot of their minutemen teams, and it leaves the Time-Keepers significantly less guarded than they would have been otherwise. That was her plan.

You didn’t come into this as a big comic book nerd. So was there someone on staff who could tell you, “Well, there’s this giant cloud called Alioth that eats time,” or, “Well, one time Thanos had a helicopter,” or maybe someone assigned to you by Marvel? I’m constantly reading the comics but trying to not be so beholden to the and do our own thing. I charged our writers assistant, Ryan Kohler, with, “You’ve got to become the authority on all things TVA, all things Kang, and all that.” So he and my assistant, Sophie Miller, became a support staff who read a ton of these comics and became a wealth of knowledge for the writers to turn to. And then the Marvel producers, obviously are very well versed in the comics. It was Kevin Wright who came in one day and was like somebody throwing down a blueprint in an asteroid movie, going, “Alioth! Look at this!” And we were like, “Ohmigod, this is perfect!” The best thing about working on these comic book shows is that if it’s from the comics, it doesn’t matter how much of a deus ex machina it is, it’s just cool, like, “I can’t believe you pulled that from the comics.” Alioth, that was a big breakthrough that unlocked the last two episodes for us.

That is not a famous comic book that introduces Alioth. It’s an obscure Nineties miniseries, with really ugly art. But you look at it and see what it could be. You say, “If we do this, and it feels like Twister, it’s going to be really cool.”

Was Mobius’ love of jet skis there simply to illustrate his character, or did you have a grander idea in mind? I will come clean: I’m a jet ski guy. I’ve spent a good amount of time on jet skis in my day. I used to tow a jet ski to a lake and ride it in college. So it probably was me. Loki, I was just becoming a steward of that character. Mobius was a character I really felt I got to create from nothing. There’s not really anything to that character in the comics. So bits and pieces of me found their way in. I just think there’s something so poignant — here Mobius is, a guy who is literally fighting to preserve all of time in the multiverse, and yet his interests are maybe the most humble, human, terrestrial, unremarkable thing you can think of. Just a jet ski. And when you’ve got Owen Wilson playing him and it’s just that much better.

Will you be back in some capacity for Season Two? [long pause] Time will tell.

‘Loki’ Head Writer Michael Waldron — and ‘Rick and Morty’ Alum — on MCU, ‘Heels’ and More

[gunsforcait]

This has been explained many times since chapter 138 came out, but because even I am having a hard time processing it, I wanna talk about the many reasons why the dream wasn't only Mikasa's, and Eren has loved her for a long time.

The logical reasons: All the subtle hints that have been given through the series that Eren holds Mikasa dearly, and why he was obviously lying at the table scene. (He was an asshole for telling her all of those things but still)

Eren wouldn't lie to her like this if he really hated her, specially not this Eren, specially not after she'd given him the strength to keep fighting and not give up.

When he worried about her broken ribs in ch51, when he looked back at her and thought about getting back his home in rts, when he accepted her emotional support by opening grisha's books together, when he encouraged her to show her hizuru tattoo bc he knew it would be the best thing for her. Moments where he worried about her and supported her.

Then we have the chapter 123 scene. It would not make sense for Eren to ask that "what am I to you?" question if he wasn't seeking for a specific kind of answer. After all, it's been three years and by this point Eren was probably aware that what he felt for Mikasa wasn't just mere affection, and as a last resort before giving in to his future, he sought for something that wouldn't make him hate himself, even if it was just for a moment.

All because he knew that Mikasa cares for him a lot (even if his dense mind didn't know for sure that she loves him)

Then we get Eren and Zeke's conversation. Eren actively asked Zeke about her, wether the fact that she cared for him was something related to her bloodline or something else, because he doesn't believe he's worthy of being loved and cared for like Mikasa does.

Zeke answers that there's no such thing as an ackerbond and tells him that she probably just "likes you so much that she'd snap a titan's neck for you" but by that time, Eren knows it's too late for him, too late for them. So he shrugs it off and tells him he can't do anything about it bc he only has four years left.

This imo is another sign that he wants her to forget him bc he doesn't want to hurt her. He knows now that she loves him, but he cannot be selfish and have a future with her, so for her own sake, he tries his best to try to make her stop loving him or forget him.

It's been shown multiple times in the manga, with the table scene (sigh), when he told louise to throw the scarf away, and in their dream when they hugged and he told her to please forget him when he's gone, basically telling her to move on and live a long, happy life without him.

The memory shards. Normally I wouldn't have paid much attention to them, but the fact that Mikasa is in the biggest one's twice, and is the biggest focus on the third one isn't a coincidence.

(Also I'll just mention how they're shards of two of the most pivotal moments of their relationship but let's keep going)

This scene shows to me that he had a moment of weakness when he saw that innocent and beautiful moment between the two of them again, after so long. I think he understood fully why Mikasa clings so much to that moment for comfort.

And at last we get the shared dream, alternative universe, previous timeline or whatever it was. A different version of events where Mikasa told him she'd be happy by living the rest of his four years together in peace. He accepts her proposal and they run away together.

They spend the next four years getting closer and building their relationship, specially after knowing that they both share romantic feelings for the other. It gets to a point where they're so comfortable with each other that they're basically in a relationship, hence shown by the physical closeness that they show to each other in this dimension with that hug, and the way she held his head as he was about to die.

Which brings me to the main point of this post. This scenario was shared for one main reason: the very first time we see Eren and Mikasa together in the manga.

Not only Eren sees Mikasa saying goodbye to him in that au, but he realizes that her hair has grown longer compared to how it looked two minutes ago in that dream. He saw it. He was part of it.

Now, to Mikasa's pov. We don't know for sure what her headaches meant, but they're most likely related to that dream. Probably caused by Eren, trying to break through her Ackerman lineage to make her see this dream. It was heavily implied in 138.

In this very moment, Mikasa is finally seeing that dream too. She was able to remember everything that happened in it.

And I wanna put emphasis on the fact that this dream is fabricated by both Eren and Mikasa. Things happened the way they did in there because they were both free to choose the events of it, hence why Isayama said it was "Mikasa's ideal". Yes, her answer to his question in the refugee camp in that universe was her ideal. She has shown remorse about saying "you're family" to him. But that alternative answer was what she would've liked to say.

Eren, nevertheless, accepted that answer and ran away with her. He's the one leading their path in this panel which makes me think that he's the one who actually proposed to run away for real.

So, back to our reality in chapter 138, Mikasa has seen everything. Remembers everything. She's experienced four years of "married" life with Eren in seconds. And she knows that Eren has seen it, too. That he loves her back, and that he never hated her.

But she also knows that the Eren in this reality is too far gone. So she ends it. She kills him and ends it all, remembering the moment he died in their shared dream. She tells him "See you later, Eren" and then holds his head in her hands and kisses him goodbye.

She said goodbye to him in the exact same way that she did in their dream.

The Mikasa that hadn't experienced 4 years alone in a cabin with Eren would get nervous any time he got too close to her or get all red when he asked a romantically coded question. If she didn't have that closeness to him normalized, she would have never kissed him like that.

If Isayama had meant for that moment to be gruesome and hard to look at, he wouldn't have made Eren's expression look so peaceful when they kissed. He would've looked more like this.

We know Isayama isn't scared of showing impactful images like that, so if he had wanted to, he would have done it. But that wasn't what he was trying to convey.

In other words, eremika canon. Thanks for reading👍

[thefallenbibliophilequote]

If you’ll have me

Bucky x insecure!reader

Summary: my entry to “The Other Punk’s 500 Writing Challenge” by the lovely @buckys-other-punk I chose the prompt: “I want you to remember: you deserve this”

The reader moves to the avengers compound, she soon learns how easy it is to fall for a certain supersoldier and how easy it is to give into the lies your brain tells you, and how hard it is to see your own worth in a building full of superheroes.

Warning: panic attacks, self-image issues, anxiety, bad writing, fluff of course, all the themes from the 2012 avengers mindset, endgame!steve is non-existent and everyone is alive bc wow I changed the timeline!

Word count: 4,677

A/N: this prompt could have gone in a spideypool comic kinda way- sarcastic and witty and funny; Or in the direction that I took, I’m at a rough spot so I decided to write the kind of fic that I could use right now. This is the first time I’m sharing my writing, to anyone. So hopefully my nerves won’t be the death of me.

A/N 2: so, I planned this to be around 2k but it got out of hand and the characters did whatever they wanted, I had no control and so the plot is different than what I originally thought.

—

You can’t say no to Tony Stark, you learned that very early on in your friendship. It was absolutely impossible. So when he out of the blue showed up at your apartment at 2am with a request to move out of your house and into the Avengers compound… you knew there was no way out.

Unlike your best friend, you were more introverted, the thought of moving into a big compound full of superheroes and gods was scary for a civilian. But tony needed you, and you are nothing if not loyal to him.

Ever since the fight between tony and Steve, he told you how lonely he felt in the big tower, after they made peace and settled back into the tower- even though they talked it out and were understanding, tony wanted you around.

“It’s to ease the tension, you are easy to get along with, they will all love you. And you got me to talk about my emotions so maybe you could help them. A little normal in our chaotic life, it’s purely logical.” He said to you, but you could read him better than that. Yes, his argument was logical, but he just wanted a friend.

So of course, you agreed. Working for Pepper was so much better than your old stupid job, she was an angel compared to your mean boss. So a month later you moved into the compound and settled in with Pepper on your new job as her assistant.

When you first met the infamous Winter Soldier he was back from a visit to Wakanda just a few days after you moved in. You noticed his left arm was different from what you’ve seen on the news- it was now black and a little golden, no red star in sight.

He was laughing with The Falcon and ran his fingers through his short hair when tony walked with you into the common room his arm around your shoulder as you walked towards the two avengers. Tony told you everything, so you knew about their past and while he told you how they both decided to move on from that you where still a little nervous.

“Y/N meet: Birdie and Spiky.” Tony gestured forward as he took you to meet the two avengers “Guys, this is the incredible Y/N.”

“I’m Sam, pleasure to meet you.” He nodded to you and shook your hand “this is Spiky.”

“Spiky? Really Tony, you could do better than that, my hair is not that spiky.” He shook his head but you could hear the amusement in his voice. That was a good sign you thought, but that was before he looked at you and you saw his eyes, the blue piercing through your soul. “I’m Bucky.”

“Y/N” you raised your left hand to shake his, you could see a slight tension forming in his eyes as he raised his vibranium hand to meet yours, eyes studying you. You smiled at him.

He flashed you a smile that made your heart skip a bit. This is definitely going to be a problem.

“Are you a new recruit?” Sam had asked you then.

“Oh no, I’m just a friend.” You looked at tony with a smirk “apparently this guy can’t function without me so I decided to move here, for the sake of saving the world from the worst cook ever.”

“It was one time Y/N! I did not mean to blow up your microwave.” Tony looked betrayed as he looked at you.

“I present to you one of the world’s greatest mechanics ladies and gentlemen!” you waved your hands towards Tony. You could see the amusement in his eyes, giving in his failed look of annoyance.

“I already regret my decision,” he groaned and rolled his eyes at you. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Well, it was very nice to meet you Y/N,” Bucky redirected the conversation to you again, A sincere look on his face. “I hope we will see you around more then.”

“Unfortunately, we have to go, Cap is waiting for us.” Sam nodded towards you and Tony. You returned a goodbye before tony swept you away to show you his new project.

“What was it back there lover boy?” Sam teased Bucky when you were out of earshot. Bucky looked back at you and shook his head.

“Don’t know what you are talking about, Wilson.”

“Sure” Sam laughed at him but let it go.

As much as you hated to admit that tony was right, it didn’t take long for the team to warm up to you and take you as one of their own. Two weeks later and you found your place there. Natasha and you became quite close as you, Wanda, and Pepper occasionally had girls night.

Tony was smug all day long when one day at the lab Bruce told you that you’re very calming to have around. When Steve and Sam agreed and said it could have a good effect on the team Tony’s smugness somehow increased. It was very annoying. No one should ever let Tony be proved right.

Thor was the biggest puppy you have ever met, basically a Labrador. You found out his slight obsession with pop tarts, and you took it on yourself to educate him on some pop culture because let’s be honest who would turn down an opportunity to watch your favorite movies with someone who wouldn’t object to any of them. When you one time watched the Sherlock Holmes movie with Thor and Steve came in and said he didn’t watch it, you decided it is absolutely essential to have a movie night. You found Clint in the vents shouting an agreement to you.

Even though you managed to befriend Thor, Loki and you soon became good friends. He appreciated your skill of lie detecting and you two often sat and read books together.

Then there was Bucky, your friendship started to form when you joined in on a prank on Sam. You and Bucky ran so fast, dying of laughter, as Sam chased you around with his brand new sparkly pink wings.

From there you friendship blossomed, but to your dismay so did your little crush. It started from invitations to go on walks, to him coming to your door in the dead of the night in seek for comfort after a nightmare. You always let him in. you’d listen to him if he wanted you to, and you distracted him when he didn’t.

Your best friend never showed up to breakfast so you’d sit next to Bucky instead. In movie nights you found Bucky saving you a seat next to him every time until he didn’t have to, it was a silent agreement amongst the team.

You never would have expected the next development though: Bucky was a cuddler. It started small, a hand on the small of your back in the morning when he entered the kitchen. Then an arm in the dark around your shoulder, stroking your arm as you all sat and watched a movie.

“Can I just maybe lie down?” he asked one night. It was 3am and the dark circles under his eyes made your heart ache. You just nodded but were surprised at his actions. You assumed he meant to lie down on the bed rather than sitting against the headboard. He lowered himself on the bed and put his head on your thighs and began to talk to you. You got over your momentary shock to listen to what he wants to talk about, absentmindedly you found yourself stroking his short hair. It was soft and from his content sigh he seemed to enjoy it too.

Imagine the Fourth of July. Now, imagine it with a bit more… Tony. That’s exactly what happened to Steve’s birthday party. Tony told you all about what he was planning weeks before, and you two worked about it endlessly since then. You were a bit annoyed at first, it was way too extravagant to your taste but now that you’re standing at the entrance, looking down from the stairs at all the people there, you couldn’t help but feel proud. The people there varied, from the avengers to the agents you didn’t recognize and all sorts of people who you assumed were high profiled? Never the one to initiate a conversation with a stranger you went ahead to the bar to try and find Tony.

Instead, at the bar you found Natasha who sat there with a drink, scaring away anyone who tried to bother her, you of course she welcomed.

“I’m so glad you came! I know it’s not really your thing but this place looks amazing, so is your dress!” Natasha gashed at you.

“You look absolutely incredible Nat!” you took in her tight short stress and how well she looked in it, she was your friend but you could feel the discomfort start to grow. You smoothed down your skirt. “Do you know where tony is?”

“he is probably talking to some rich assholes who are leaning in to his every word” she joked with you, “I think I saw him with our birthday boy so maybe you should ask him.” She nodded to behind you.

“Steve! Happy birthday!” you rushed to hug him. “How do you like the party?”

“Well, tony sure has expensive taste, it’s lovely Y/N.” America’s golden boy smiled at you.

“Speaking of tony, have you seen him?”

“Yeah, he was actually looking for you earlier, he’s right there.” Steve pointed to the other side of the room where tony stood with Pepper, surrounded by a group of people.

With a short thank you, you attempted to make your way there, casting tens of apologies as you tried to shuffle through the dancing crowd. From the corner of your eye you spotted Bucky, sitting on the couch next to a girl who was basically sitting in his lap, you saw the smile on his face, you never saw that kind of smile on him before. In an attempt to ignore the twist in your stomach, you continued pushing people until you found Tony, surrounded by a whole new group now. When he noticed you and the look on your face, he whispered to Pepper who then diverted the conversation away from Tony- who slipped away towards you.

“Hey darling, I tried to find you earlier.” He told you as he gave you a hug.

“It took me a little longer to get ready I guess.” You looked behind you to see Bucky still with that girl, you adjusted your dress.

Tony took in your actions. He knew you too well.

“Do you want to go outside, a little bit of fresh air could help?”

“No, no you love these parties! I can’t take you away from that.” You dismissed it quickly.

“Well fine, if you want me to enjoy it so much then dance with me.” He dragged you to the DJ and you heard him ask for a couple of slower songs, and then dragged you to the middle of the dance floor. You heard your favorite song playing and tony enveloped you in his arms, immediately comforting you. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“There isn’t really much to talk about, you know how sometimes these parties can trigger me. Sometimes it can make a person like me feel a bit inadequate I guess.” You leaned your head on his chest.

“You’re better than all of these people sweetheart, you’re my best friend tell me who made you feel like this and I will personally give them a free ride to Antarctica.” You could see him doing that which made you laugh.

“With all the penguins? That sounds fun though.” You argued.

“Oh you’re right. I guess I’ll have to think of a different place then. Do you think Barnes would like the desert? I mean with that metal arm it must heat up-”

“Wait what? Why would you say Bucky?” that sneaky son of a bitch.

“Come on, I saw you look at him, did he make you feel bad?” tony looked you in the eyes this time, sincere.

“No,” you shrugged. “I just saw Nat and all these beautiful agents and then I saw him with one and I guess it just made me feel bad way too fast. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Some days were worse than others, some days it was just a few passing thoughts, some it was thunder and dark lingering clouds.

“Well, there isn’t a point in me telling you how gorgeous you are because you will never believe me, even though you are and I should probably get you an eye doctor, maybe schedule something with Dr. Cho. Anyway, if this is because of Barnes, then I can assure you he only has eyes for you.”

“I don’t need an eye doctor!” you hit his arm and laughed, before putting your head back on his chest. “And about the other thing, I doubt that. I think maybe he should be with someone more like him, which makes more sense.” You still looked around, not seeing Bucky anywhere.

“I don’t think you should make any sort of decision when you’re this anxious. I don’t think you’re capable of clear judgment in this situation darling.” He said to you quietly, worried overtones in his voice.

“I’m fine Tony, I’m not that anxious.”

“your hands are shaking Y/N…” as he told you that, you looked at the hand you put on his chest, his hand now cradled it as you saw it shaking. How did you not notice it? When tony saw as you realized what was happening he knew there was no room for argument. “I’m taking you away.”

You put up no fight as he quickly managed to take you away without drawing too much attention. You didn’t see Bucky searching for you in the crowd after that.

Bucky sat there on the couch, happy for his best friend as he enjoyed his party. He was smiling uncomfortably as the girl next to him scooted closer to him. His mental health got a lot better, and his confidence grew- he felt the man he once was but newer, most of the time. Big crowds still managed to get to him though. He nodded along to the girl next to him who refused to call him anything but James, he tried to be polite. He hated the crowds, you would know that. He thought. Then he heard your favorite song playing from the far side of the room, there he finally saw you, dancing with Tony. He knew tony was your best friend, but he still felt a tug at his heart as you put your head near his arc reactor.

He has been pondering on when to tell you about his feelings for you, confident that you wouldn’t turn him down. The two of you grew so close, you were an absolute angel to him. He saw you hit Tony’s arm and suddenly his smile turned genuine. He knew you felt the same way as him, it was hard to ignore. You seemed almost as happy as he is when the two of you are alone. Maybe he could tell you tonight.

“James? Are you even listening to me?” the girl called him.

“Yes, sorry, your name is August right?” she nodded at him. “Sorry but I have to go, I have a couple of things to do.” He got up then and went towards where he last saw you, but you where nowhere to be found.

The next day tony seemed to be stuck at your side, you tried to tell him that you’re fine but he insisted to “borrow you from Pepper because he needs an assistant.” Or so he claims. Apparently he needed an assistant to buy him ice cream in your favorite flavor or to cook him a meal which coincidentally happens to be your favorite desert- to give him credit he did try to help but he might have tried to mix the eggs with the flour and got it all over the counter. You burst into a fit of laughter and he told F.R.I.D.A.Y to order pizza. So, the two of you sat in the kitchen with your pizza, after cleaning the place.

“I might have to borrow you from Pepper more often, you are a great assistant.”

“Yeah, sure” you played along before setting your pizza down. “Thank you Tony.”

“Anytime” He smiled at you through a mouthful of pizza.

The kitchen door opened, and in stumbled Steve and Bucky, who for once slept in today.

“Well hello boys, what got you looking so bad?” Tony smirked at them.

“It’s all Thor’s fault, he brought the Asgardian mead.” Steve said, you laughed at his hangover state, it was rare but precious.

“Hey doll, I didn’t get to talk to you yesterday, couldn’t find you.” He smiled at you, his rough voice nearly killed you- you were certain. You looked over at tony as you stumbled over what to say.

“We left early, she claimed I was too drunk and should get some air.” He winked at you “isn’t she just the best Barnes?” he then looked at Bucky; you swear you hated him sometimes.

“An absolute angel,” Bucky replied, assessing tony. “But you seem okay enough.”

“Yes well I tried telling her, but she insisted.” Tony easily replied and matched Bucky’s stare.

“How did you manage to get him to actually listen to you Y/N? That’s impressive.” Steve commented, oblivious to the slight tension as he made coffee.

“Years of practice I guess, it is hard to accomplish because he sure can be an ass sometimes.” You kicked Tony under the table to look at you. He only smiled.

“Capcicle doesn’t like that kind of language Y/N.” you heard Steve groaning as he put a coffee cup in front of Bucky who was seated next to you, and sat in front of him next to tony.

“That happened years ago Tony!”

“Doll, I was wondering if you wanted to watch a movie later maybe?” Bucky leaned in to ask you, before you could answer though, Steve spoke up.

“Why is there flour on the counter?”

“On your ass too, you picked the wrong chair.” Tony helpfully chimed in “you know, those pants do nothing for your ass.”

“Tony messed up the kitchen, I guess we didn’t clean it all.” You said apologetically and got up. “I actually have a lot of things to do for Pepper today, since tony stole me, so I should probably go start on that.” You exited the room, looking forward to a distraction at work.

“Tony, you know you shouldn’t cook!” Steve patted the chair, and then sat on it again.

“Hey, I was only trying to help Y/N in baking a cake, I had good intentions!” tony defended.

“Why was she making a cake in the afternoon?”

“Relax Barnes, I asked her to bake me a cake but when it tragically somehow blew up we settled on pizza.” Tony lifted up his slice of pizza in proof. “Why do you care anyway?”

“What kind of question is that?” Bucky looked at him quizzically. “Tony, is there some sort of a problem?”

“I’m just asking, why do you care about her?” Steve noticed the change in the question but Bucky just looked confused.

“I care about her because she is my friend, just like the rest of you here!” Bucky was getting angry by the second, where was this all coming from?

“Yes, but do you care about her only as a friend?” tony asked and this time Bucky noticed the change and his anger all melted away.

“No.” he admitted, not bothering to hide it. “Were you just trying to get me to confess my feelings?”

“They learn things so fast, don’t they Steve?” he looked at an amused Steve who just nodded.

“Even I couldn’t get him to say something. Good job Tony.”

“Okay, I am leaving, this is clearly an ambush.” Bucky left the kitchen then.

Bucky was headed to his room to clear his head, hoping you won’t be as busy tomorrow. He was in the hallway when he passed your room, it was then that he heard your TV on; he recognized the theme song of Brooklyn Nine-Nine playing. Why were you watching TV when you said you’re working? Bucky went to his room and decided to let it go.

For the next week Bucky studied your moves carefully. You started to avoid going out with him, making excuses that he could easily read as lies. At night you accepted him with open arms to talk about his nightmares, but he noticed you smiled less now. When movie night came along he found the seat next to him empty as you sat next to tony, he wasn’t the only one to notice it. That was it for him.

“Nat,” he found Natasha the next day alone in the common room. “Do you know if Y/N is upset with me?”

“Probably, yes, I don’t know why though.” Natasha shrugged.

“I don’t know what I did, she is still nice to me but she avoids even being in the same room as me.” Bucky sat next to her. The assassin put her book down finally and paid attention to Bucky. “I don’t know what to do; I can’t accuse her of anything. I just feel something is wrong. We were really close.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing major, you should talk to her.” Natasha put her hand on his, to try and comfort her friend. She’s seen the way you looked at each other, it was impossible to miss the connection.

You entered the room, unaware of the conversation until you looked up and the two avengers stopped talking and looked at you, but you looked at the position they were in, you were clearly interrupting a private conversation.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were here. Sorry, I’ll leave you two alone.” You exited the room before Bucky even stood up, he came to seat back down but Nat kicked him.

“What are you doing? Go and talk to her!” she all but commanded him. He wasn’t going to fight Natasha, that’s just a lost cause.

You were safe in your room, it was all fine. Everything was fine. You couldn’t have expected that falling for an avenger would be a good idea. They are different from you, you’re just… you. They are superheroes. Everyone in the building is either a highly trained agent or one of the top scientists in the world. You were just Tony’s friend, here to support him and maybe bring some normalcy to the superheroes. How could you possibly compete with all that? Your lungs felt too tight, it’s like you could barely breathe.

“Miss Y/N I am recognizing symptoms of a possible panic attack, would you like me to call Mr. Stark?” F.R.I.D.A.Y called to you, snapping you out of your daze.

“No, don’t call tony, or anyone, can you just talk me through breathing?” the AI complied until you managed to calm down and get your breathing right. Bless Tony Stark, anxiety can fuck off.

“Miss, Sergeant Barnes is requesting to open the door; I have shut it alongside any outside noise, would you like me to lift it?”

“Yes F.R.I.D.A.Y, thank you.” You could handle it. You opened the door to see a frustrated Bucky. “Hi Bucky, what do you need?”

Bucky just stepped right into your room and shut the door behind him.

“I need you to tell me what did I do wrong?”

“What? You didn’t do anything wrong.” You were confused now.

“Then why the hell are you avoiding me? I thought you were happy, I thought you wanted me around.” Oh, how could you explain this to him without him taking pity on you?

“Of course I want you around Bucky, it’s okay it’s not that. I’m just giving you space. It’s alright.” You tried to assure him, while also hoping you could convince yourself.

“Giving me space? Doll I don’t want space away from you. Why are you pulling away from me?” he reached for your hand, his metal arm trying to bring you closer.

“Bucky, really it’s alright. Just let this go.” You pleaded him.

“No it’s not alright, I’m not alright. Because the woman I’m in love with is pushing me away and I don’t know what to do to bring her back to me!” He confessed to you, the frustration in his voice gave away to the longing look in his blue eyes.

“You- you what?” you stopped trying to resist him, your shock letting him pull you closer, he was holding both your arms now, keeping you close.

“I’m in love with you. Is it really that hard to believe?” He questions, his voice low now, as if someone might hear, and he wanted to keep this intimate moment just for the two of you.

“No.” you said before collecting yourself. “No, you can’t be in love with me.”

“Of course I can, it’s really easy to fall for you doll.” Bucky huffed a laugh. “I thought you felt the same way, do you?”

“I…” Could you really lie to a supersoldier? Would you lie to Bucky? “I do. Of course I do, but you don’t understand. Bucky, you’re a superhero, a supersoldier. I’m on the other hand just a girl with too much anxiety who happens to have the best friend in the world which is why I was even allowed to live here in the first place. You deserve so much better Bucky, you really do. And I- I don’t deserve you.” You hang your head low, if only he could realize that, it will hurt less. Your eyes were watering but you blinked them shut.

Bucky’s right hand came to your chin and held it up. You are an absolute idiot. Bucky mused at what you said.

“Doll, if there is one thing that I learned in therapy is that even after everything I did, I can still become the man I want to be and I deserve to get happiness. You make me so happy doll, you really do. But you deserve happiness too. Tell me, do I make you happy?”

“Yes, very much. But-”

“No. You deserve all the love and happiness in the world and if you’ll have me, I promise to keep you happy, always. I know I can’t solve anxiety, I have it too. But you help me with it, so I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

You looked into the sea in his eyes, trying to find any doubt, but all you found was determination to make you understand, to make you believe it. And for a moment you did. That was all it took.

“If you’ll have me, I promise to make you happy and make sure you are loved, always.” You whispered. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me, I just- I want you to remember, you deserve this. Whether it’s happiness with me or with someone else. You deserve to be loved by your friends, and if it’s here than this is your home and we’re your family. You deserve love and support and if it’s me then please, will you have me?”

“Yes. I don’t want anyone else.”

The next thing you knew, his lips crushed into yours, pouring out all of your emotion to the kiss. This feels right, this is right. Maybe you’re worthy of a happy ending after all. Maybe you’ll find it right here, in this compound, with Bucky.

Little did you know, in the far away land that is Tony’s messy lab, F.R.I.D.A.Y notified him per his request about your panic attack. Now, with the monitors turned on, he watched the two of you with a smile at his lips.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y? Tell Steve he owes me 20 bucks.”

[ninjago-bingo]

final month recap

wow, everyone.  we’re here.  we’ve made it.  we’re reached the end of our bingo time, and i’m absolutely floored by the sheer creative output that i’ve seen over these last four months.  everyone, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back!!!  no matter if you made 1 piece or 10, there’s now a work of art out there in the world that wasn’t there before.  and truly, that’s super heccing rad no matter how you look at it.

so let’s celebrate!  for this recap, we have a total of 20 new pieces, bringing the total amount of ninbingo pieces up to 50.  in the span of four months, this little event has created 50 individual works (five of them in the last day!)  holy cow ya’ll.

i’m putting out this recap now, but don’t worry, it’s not the end yet!  any submissions made to the end of the 30th still count and this post will be updated accordingly :D

fic:

all the things i’ve never done by @sa-you-na-ra. tumblr || prompts: competition and teasing

It’s always a funny thing when the ninja realize new things about each other. Even though living with each other meant they had to see each other all day, there were still small habits or actions that amused the others.

(mod comments: all these little interactions made me smile so much :D looking forward to the rest!)

error 404: answer not found by @m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: memories

Akita and Zane talk after the battle in ‘Awakenings’. The conversation… doesn’t go as either of them expect.

(mod comments: the nuances in this fic are fantastic!  also Akita is always a win :D)

Five times kai was a good brother by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: nightmare and brother

I'm writing kai centric stuff again.

(mod comments: kai IS the big bro of the team!!! i support him all the way!!)

How Garmadon became a chauffeur by @master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: driving

"um...Kai? Don't you think we should go Slower?" Garmadon asked nervously trying not to panick as they raced down the road at what had to be over the speed limit.

(mod comments: who let Kai drive?  no but honestly this is canon alskdfj)

little things by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: hugs and crying.

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things." -Kurt Vonnegut

Lloyd’s tired of being left behind. How is he meant to be the green ninja when he always has to work harder, train better, and wait longer to go on missions with his team? He wants nothing more than to be their equal.

At least, that’s what he thought he wanted.

(mod comments: a post-ep-18 resolution scene?  SIGN ME UP!)

Neither Snow Nor Rain by @fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: post-fight

After their return from the Never Realm and all its troubles, Zane is quiet and Nya is incredibly worried. A call to action to a peculiar sort of battle might be enough to change both of those things.

(mod comments: the concept of these two on their own mission together is just so good! excited to see how their dynamic plays out!!)

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: video games and chores

…what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

(mod comments: this is so in character that it’s frustrating lol.  also Pixal ftw!!)

oh take me back to the start by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: comfort and 3 am

The past should be left in the past. Or, at least, that’s what Jay keeps telling himself. Nadakhan is gone. It’s not logical to still be afraid. But he is, and now everything that he left behind suddenly feels like it’s never going to be the same again.

Cole isn’t so convinced.

(mod comments: Cole is truly the man we all deserve in our lives.)

On Our Own by @redefine-your-identity. tumblr || prompt: home

It’s been a few weeks since Kai and Nya’s parents disappeared without a trace. Needless to say, they’re struggling.

(mod comments: OU C H no poor babies 😭 the relationship dynamic here is great!)

orange and gold by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: cooking

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

(mod comments: I also always need more Vania content!! the puns in this were breadful!)

permafrost by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: loss of control and promise

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. It’s not like none of his teammates have ever suffered this kind of guilt and pain. It’s not like Zane himself hasn’t walked through hell before and come out the other side (mostly) in once piece.

Except, this time, it is. It shouldn’t be different, but it is.

(mod comments: super sweet moment between two ninja who deserve more interaction like seriously!!)

Precautionary Tale by @/fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Fighting is different now, and Zane doesn't know why. Yes, he is titanium now, but why should that change anything? It seems to be changing everything, although is all really as it seems?

(mod comments: a great start to a zane-centric fic!  interested to see where it goes next :D)

Star-Ninja! by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: siblings and competition 

What happens when the loveable gremlin the ninja adopted off of the streets introduces them to Starfarer comics?

Chaos ensues, of course.

stuck with you (through bright and blue) by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Kai only wants two things: to protect Lloyd, and to give him the best birthday ever. Unfortunately, Lloyd seems hell-bent on making that as difficult as possible. Kai’s always prided himself on achieving the impossible, but dealing with human emotions is much more complicated than beating up Garmadon’s generals or shooting enemies with fire, as he quickly learns. Movie!verse

(mod comments: happy birthday lloyd!! look at him getting the love he deserves uwu)

Take a walk in the rain. by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: rain

Cole had always loved the rain, the way it smelled, the way it felt on his skin, and especially the mud! Whenever it rained his Mother would put on his rain coat and boots And they'd both go out and splash around in the puddles and make mud cakes and do all sorts of things.

(mod comments: this fic made me smile a lot :D loved the way it was arranged!) 

the hues of an empty sky by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: crying

Missing memories, or having two of them for one moment - not quite the same, but if there’s one thing Jay’s leant over the last few weeks, it’s that literally nothing makes sense anymore.

Or, some Skybound aftermath, Zane actually expressing emotions about his memory switch being turned off for all those years, and what was supposed to be a ‘they tell everyone about the erased timeline’ fic, but it turned into a 'two characters who barely interact on screen talk at like one am in the morning, and don’t actually tell the other what exactly they’re alluding to the whole time’ fic that I wrote at like one am-

(mod comments: Skybound resolution? SIGN ME THE HECK UP YES)

The Make-Cole-Realize-How-Much-We-Love-Him Competition by @21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: bets and competition

Jay and Kai share a horrified look.  “He really doesn’t get it,” Jay says.

Kai shakes his head.  “We need to show him somehow.”

“Show me what?” Cole asks, exasperated again.  

“How much we love you!” Kai exclaims.  “Somehow, it’s not getting through your thick skull that we want to sit next to you because you’re you, so I’m gonna have to just prove it to you.”

(mod comments: a silly little movie fic!)

twitter was a mistake by @/21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: teasing and birthday

Kai 🔥 @flaminhotninja ☑

so who was gonna tell me that Jay used to be a game show host huh

🌺✨ the Gift of Jay ✨🌺 @zaptrap ☑

Replying to @flaminhotninja

NO WHO SHOWED YOU

(mod comments: twitter was a mistake)

two halves of a broken whole by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: scars and post-fight

The Sons of Garmadon have been defeated. Garmadon is in prison. The city has been saved.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nya is more than ready to take a much-needed break. But the life of a ninja is messy. Recovery is never that simple. Although the wounds may have healed, the scars still remain.

Zane’s scars seem to match up, though. And maybe together, they can begin to heal.

(mod comments: aggressive care is my jam, and this is it!)

wait by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: home and memories

Lloyd’s not so great at being patient. It’s not his fault though- maybe he would be better at it if waiting didn’t always end up being so disappointing- if people actually kept their promises. But this time’s going to be different, he knows it. His father will come back for him. And Lloyd’s going to wait.

As long as it takes.

(mod comments: baby.  baby boy.  baby.  protecc him plz.)

[wombathos]

another fun and fucked up three-way dynamic/potential threesome that I would like to see in it’s full glory without outside interference would be xue yang/jin guangyao/wei wuxian, on the basis that they’re all involved in vaguely parallel arcs of ‘perennial outsiders who are all pretty murder-happy with complicated relationships with society but end up choosing entirely different paths’ and indeed their parallel dynamics with various white-clothed do-gooders - and it would be fun to see how they interact when they’re exposed to each other for an extended period of time. in part because they are uniquely well-suited to understanding aspects of each other no one else really can, something that is again true of pretty much every side of that triangle. it doesn’t even have to be non-platonic, like just forcing them to go on some bizarre road trip with each other sounds ideal. I like each side of that triangle interacting as it is, but the sheer chaos of xy’s notice me senpai thing for wwx crashing into how much he enjoys messing with other people including jgy and well jgy also enjoys messing with wwx (guanyin temple’s fifty monologues say hello) and well if wwx is stuck with these two hellish people then he’s also perfectly content to prod at them and... idk the group dynamics would be very tricky to manage but also I imagine pretty funny

‘where would I put this in the timeline’ hahaha. well. for jgy and wwx in particular, it’s really their post timeskip dynamic that I’m obsessed with, but you’d have to go au pretty fast pretty hard (if you were actually trying to make this make any logical sense whatsoever which feels like a tall order) and that immediately throws up xy-related problems and little issues like ‘why the fuck would any of these people go on a road trip, they’re all a little busy’ and ‘how on earth would you separate wwx from lwj’ and ‘where would they even be going’ and my answer to this is *shrugs* except one angsty only semi-thought out thing I can come up with is. okay. xiao xingchen is dead, right, so what if lwj is dead too (not forever!!) in some yi city related catastrophe and then... then xy and wwx are like ‘no’ but for some highly contrived reason they need something from jgy to get something to undo yi city so they...... basically kidnap him?? and drag him along to wherever the hell they’re going and jgy is Not Thrilled while the other two are doing a fair bit of moping

the other possibly even funnier version is xy escaping from yi city and then ends up basically kidnapping wwx, demon cultivator extraordinaire, and jgy, aka ‘that other really smart guy I know’ and is like ‘okay here you go here are your raw materials now put your heads together and bring him back to life’ and they’re all just.... stuck in a cave or something

one more idea I can think of in my determination to get them alone in the same place is the vaguely post canon fugitive edition where xy once again escaped death in yi city, jgy has his crimes uncovered and has to flee (maybe without stopping for his mum’s corpse this time) and wwx... I guess the last stretch goes differently enough that no one is quite as willing to forgive the yiling patriarch and is also mad at the lan clan for sheltering him so he ditches lwj to try and protect them and makes a run for it? anyway at some point they all run into each other and they all kind of blame each other for shit going down the way it did and somehow circumstances stop them from just doing their best to murder each other. everybody’s pretty miserable in this au

okay last one I swear but one of the simpler ways to get them together is to just have wwx being captured by the jin clan shortly after his return and in his absence xy manages to not die at yi city and somehow instead ends up back at koi tower again. anyway xy won’t stop visiting wwx out of curiosity even though jgy very much would prefer him not to and jgy occasionally would like some helpful tips to figure out stuff like ‘hey who’s trying to bring about my downfall’ and bang there they are, in the same room and all

also since meng yao is jin guangyao at this point and wei wuxian has already started going down the murder flute path, anything in that post-sunshot pre-nightless massacre period would probably still have an appealing dynamic and be logistically considerably easier to manage

[ronsenburg]

Hi! I wanted to ask you something about Klapollo. What topic/argument do you think could possibly cause them to break up or take a break from the relationship? I live for the drama and was thinking about maybe writing a fic but like I dont want to make either of them assholes, like Apollo bringing Kristoph up to hurt Klavier, for example. I don't think he would do that but I struggle to come up with something else.

Oh boy, I hope you’re not upset about this, but I wrote you an essay. I’m sorry.

Overall, I really like the klapollo relationship timeline because, compared to, say, narumi/su they have a much more normal, organic story. They meet, flirt, share a mutual trauma, get together! Totally normal! But I also think that they would have a much harder time than narumi/su finding the balance you need in a serious relationship and I can see them calling it quits for perfectly practical reasons that aren’t really anything to do with one being a jerk, you know? Here are my top things that I think they would have to navigate and maybe struggle with before a real happily ever after:

1. Money. You’ve probably seen my post where I talk about Apollo feeling uncomfortable with displays of affluence. I don’t think that this is an easy one to get past. AA6 Spoilers, but Dhurke and Datz literally raised them in hiding on the run in the mountainous jungles of Khura’in. They sent Apollo to the states as a nine year old. We don’t know what he did when he got here, but my money’s always been on the foster system. That doesn’t typically breed a sense of stability, financial or otherwise. 

From my experience (so take it with a grain of salt), children who grow up with very little tend to behave in one of two ways when they reach financial stability and/or achieve wealth: first option, they’re really bad with it. They spend it nearly as fast as they make it on things they didn’t get to have or experience when they were growing up. Second option, they never spend it. They know what it’s like to be without, so they save as much of it as they can so they have the security of knowing, if something happens, they won’t have to go back to the way it was before. I will always put Apollo in the latter category. He works hard for what he has and what he gets and, I think, things that signify extravagance make him uncomfortable. On the other hand, I think that the Gavin’s have always had some sort of wealth. Klavier and Kristoph have very different aesthetics to their spaces that we get to experience (Klavier’s office and Kristoph’s cell) but they’re both pretty lavish. Now, we can assume they each made their money individually in their respective careers but, honestly, Kristoph’s cell is so gaudy. To me, it screams “this is what I’m used to and I refuse to accept any less” which is an attitude that I feel comes more from a lifetime of that treatment. 

So if we accept everything that I’ve said above as true, trying to put a person who saves every penny they get and feels bad treating themselves with a person who spends money freely because it’s been a constant throughout their life? It can go poorly. Casually dating, maybe it’s not such an issue once Apollo says “please no more presents and can we just get takeout for once?” but if you’re talking about something more serious, where you have to live in the same space and pay joint bills and be confronted with the other person’s spending habits constantly, it’s a whole other thing. Please take it from me as a person in a long term relationship who loves their partner tremendously—everyone fights about money. Everyone. It would be very difficult for Apollo to feel comfortable, even if he knew that finances were in good shape and there was savings, etc. Things happen, people leave. Nothing gold can stay. Changing that line of thinking takes work. It would also be easier said than done for Klavier to just do an about face on his own habits for Apollo’s comfort. Being a celebrity makes money, but it costs money, too. There is a certain amount of lushness that people expect. That can’t just go away. These are things that become bigger problems overtime, no matter how much you love each other. 

Anyway, I would be really surprised if—even if you’re writing them as really happily married—Apollo doesn’t have a ‘emergency fund’ that even Klavier doesn’t know about. It’s a ‘just in case’. Just in case Klavier leaves him. Just in case he needs to get away fast. Just in case the world ends. It’s not a logical thing, something that he sat down and rationalized doing, it’s just there because it feels better to have it than to not. But that can be kind of hurtful if the other person finds out about it, so. There you go, a whole minefield of money related drama.

2. Apollo’s Abandonment Issues. He’s got them! What do you call and orphan twice over who also lost his very best friend? I don’t know, but if capcom doesn’t stop picking on my boy I’m going to kick them in the teeth. I will still never get over AA6 for telling us that Dhurke took Apollo in when he was orphaned as a baby, then abandoned him in the USA, then came back for him and got his hopes up, and then was actually dead the whole time! Hahahaha! What a trip! 

Anyway, you don’t come back from that super easy. People who suffer this kind of trauma usually have a really hard time trusting others, which is understandable. They also can have unrealistic needs from their partners, become codependent, or even just self-sabotage their relationships, pulling away first to try and avoid the pain because they think the other person will leave them. I think that last one is most likely for Apollo, especially given the disparity in circumstances I mentioned above. If Apollo can’t trust that Klavier actually loves him, can’t trust that he won’t leave him like EVERYONE ELSE HAS, then they can’t have a healthy relationship. Drama.

3. Klavier’s Emotional Trauma. Kristoph is a pretty big jerk to Klavier in the last case of AA4. He criticizes and undermines Klavier, threatens and admits to manipulating him. In the anthology, Klavier shares an “lol so funny!” story about Kristoph accidentally breaking a window while he and Klavier are playing ball. In it, he convinces Klavier that it was his fault and that he should take the blame and apologize for breaking the window! And Klavier does! That’s gaslighting, baby, and since the Anthology is supposed to be canon, we can take that to mean it’s been happening since Klavier was a kid. Think about that. An entire life of gaslighting and manipulative behavior! You don’t come back from that easily, either. 

People who experience emotional abuse can, among other things, suffer from depression and low-self esteem. They need affirmation from their partners and can have a hard time with letting people in or being honest (though not from a malicious mindset—more a “I’m going to say what I think you want to hear because if you’re happy, bad things won’t happen!”). They can also always be waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. Sure things are good, but when will that end and the bad time start? It’s a self fulfilling prophecy: if all you can do is worry about things going wrong, then you aren’t actually enjoying when things are going right and you will cause the issues you’re so worried about. Drama.

4. Fame. Klavier has been in the spotlight since he was a literal child. If the Gavinners were already hits when Klavier was 17, they likely formed and starred their rise some time before then. A year, maybe two? Klavier spent his formative years in the spotlight. He quite literally doesn’t know any other way. Apollo, on the other hand, has never experienced the kind of scrutiny he’d be subject to when dating someone like Klavier. It can be really stressful and hurtful and just overall not a good time. And I’m not saying that Klavier wouldn’t be sympathetic, but I don’t think he would really understand how difficult it could be to have been thrust into that position out of nowhere, because he’s had years of dealing with it and was in a completely different place in life when it began for him. It’s not unreasonable to think that Apollo might not be able to take it. You can love someone and want to be with them but if you can’t adapt to their lifestyle, it’s not going to work. They could walk away rather than risk what might happen to Apollo if they kept it up. Drama.

5. Careers. They both have very demanding jobs. While sharing a similar profession can mean there’s a mutual understanding, it can also cause issues if you... never get to see each other? Schedules can be out of alignment (which could easily happen; their cases can’t always line up and they seem to require a lot of time investment outside of just normal hours). If Klavier goes back into music, that’s an additional time constraint. Why be in a relationship when you can only see the other person for moments here and there? What about the stress that comes with those jobs? That can cause drama.

6. Klavier looks like Kristoph. They are very different people, yes, but similar enough in some ways that it could cause tension. Maybe Klavier is tired and stressed and snaps at Apollo, and suddenly, all Apollo can see is Kristoph and all he can feel is the uncomfortable churning in his stomach that goes along with the memories of him. Someone he trusted, someone who let him down. That’s a difficult subject to broach, and it can fester like an infected wound if left intended. 

But Apollo sounds like Kristoph sometimes. We saw it in AA5, which is, of course, an extreme circumstance. But it can come out from time to time in other ways. A phrase that slips out, the way he intones certain words, the way he signs off in his emails—little things that are harmless, but can still act as triggers. 

Sometimes you need to get away from things that can remind you of your past in order to work on getting over them. If you are in love with someone who shares a similar trauma, who brings those issues from the past to light frequently just by being themselves, it might not be a healthy situation. I don’t think they would need to throw it in each other’s faces for it to become an issue. Drama.

There are more, but I probably took this more seriously than you intended. Whoops! Anyway, I hope that helps??? Maybe???? I hope you get them back together in the end because they deserve to be happy though!!!!!!!

[maxwell-grant]

Do you have any opinion on the Wold Newton universe or more generally the attempts to create a coherent universe based on massive crossover of victorian and/or pulp fictions ?

Fair warning to any and all of you who follow my blog and might think to yourselves "Wow, I want a Pulp Hero Cinematic Universe!". You don't. What you want is for these characters to thrive again and maybe kick ass together after reestablishing themselves as cool and popular and interesting characters in the pop culture eye, and I want that too, I've been working on ideas for years to try and bring some of that to reality, it's part of the whole point of this blog in the first place, and I must stress: Nothing, and I repeat, nothing, is going to put these characters six feet under faster than a botched attempt to follow in the MCU's footsteps. You don't want to watch these characters suffocate under the strain of a cinematic universe. I didn't like watching it happen with Marvel to begin with, as much as that clearly worked out for them.

If DC could only just barely catch up to the MCU's shadow and only started to thrive when they took a diametrically opposite approach, if the Monsterverse, despite the fact that it's characters were already in a cinematic universe together, only just barely limps on due to the popularity of it's central players, the pulp heroes don't have a chance in hell if they try and play by those rules. The Shadow and Doc Savage and Green Hornet can survive failed reboots, but not every character's got that kind of safety net, not every author can afford to take the risks necessary to commit to these properties, and some characters take a lot longer to crawl out of graves than others.

So with that said, let's talk about the WNU.

When I first started doing research on pulp heroes in general I spent a very long time going through all of the Wold Newton pages I could find, and I have a lot of them saved in case the websites get taken down one way or another. I still consult them frequently and I still consider them a pretty invaluable resource for anyone who wants to get acquainted with pulp characters, even if it must be prefaced that the WNU is basically fanfiction.

The Wold Newton Universe was a massive shared fanfiction universe before we had a proper name for this kind of thing and I do find it a little disheartening that, despite it predating or influencing works like LOEG and Incognito and Planetary, and how several current authors either got started writing articles for it or even professed their love of it, it's a currently dead project. I guess it ultimately wasn't supposed to even last as long as it did anyway, and much like the characters it's based on, it ultimately doesn't really die so much as it just lives on differently.

The big problem I have with the mainline WNU is, besides not liking Phillip Jose Farmer's writing, that much of it is basically crack fanfiction built on very, very flimsy family connections as an excuse to tie characters together, and already I think the premise that somehow, all of these characters are related, all of them are part of a special family tree connected by meteor-irradiated blood, to be extremely weak. A lot of the writing in many of the WNU pages is just not good and not workable, and it's hard to fault it as such considering this is fanfic, it's written by enthusiastic fans and not professional writers (although some of these people are, the Lofficiers have no excuse). But the great thing about the WNU is that, because it's a shared project with no ownership, everyone gets to play around and rewrite canon at will and bring their own angle to it.

There's WNU pages that are very hardline against the inclusion of superheroes, others don't have that restriction at all. There's WNU fan pages focusing exclusively on monsters and horror. Jess Nevins wrote a ton of pages digging out the really obscure characters only he knows about. There's Cool French Comics which is focused heavily on the European side of things, which is also where I discovered The Grey Claw's existence, and Tales of the Shadowmen is based a lot on these. I know for a fact that there used to be at least a couple of pages focusing on anime although the Wayback Machine doesn't have most of them archived. It's not so much a single shared universe or timeline so much as it's several, outright dozens, of them depending on who's writing the pages, and they were all free to either incorporate theories made by other authors or purposefully rewrite them. It’s a freedom afforded by the fact that these are non-profit fanfics, and the fact that over half of the characters in these webpages are public domain or in copyright purgatory to begin with.

Unlike with DC, who's got a hodgepodge of concepts that logically shouldn't work together but are still held together by the consistent ideal of the superhero and the Justice League and whatnot, and Marvel, who was a continuous crossover soap opera right from the start, the Pulp Heroes don't live in the same worlds, don't live in the same time periods, many of them weren't designed to do so, don't have a sliding timescale or rebooting timeline to keep them perpetually on the same level, they don't exist under unified copyright, don't operate by the same rules, and are less built to sacrifice their individuality and settings for the sake of costumed punch-ups with a bunch of randos. Superheroes are able to exist together by operating under a very strongly defined notion of what a superhero is and does, and if the Pulp Heroes had anything of the sort, I wouldn't have to make a chart in the first place trying to create a coherent explanation as to what defines them.

Before the MCU could sell people on the Avengers, it first had to sell them on all of it's other team players first, it needed to do the groundwork and rework all of it's existing characters to make sure they could reasonably be crammed on screen together. From the start, their universe was dictated by the need to have these characters team up. Be honest: Do you think this is gonna work for the Pulp Heroes? Characters whose greatest selling point, whose most enduring and unique traits, are the ways in which they are not like other heroes? Characters that currently struggle for newfound popularity because of the common notion that they are just superheroes, except old and racist and outdated. Do you think these characters aren't better off instead dispelling these preconceptions to rebel against the superhero dominance and thrive in different areas? The secret of their success in the first place was the ways in which they weren't like the Victorian Heroes that preceded them, and guess what, now they are on the same boat.

The concept is not unworkable, it's not impossible, some good stories have resulted out of mashing the icons big and small together, hell I have several Pulp Hero universe concepts I'm working on. But I must stress the need of approaching this from a different perspective. And that perspective starts with doing the groundwork on what works and what doesn't for them.

The only genuinely successful pulp hero universes to an extent I've seen were those that were built from the ground up based on an idea that these characters were supposed to interact and work together, or at least share a history together. The strongest one I've seen would definitely be The Chimera Brigade, because it's not preoccupied with mashing icons together but instead telling a story informed by the history of these characters, informed by it's central point: Namely, what does a pulp/superhero history look like from a French perspective. It's biggest names are used only sparingly, it's got a ton of original characters to make the world feel more seamless and real, it takes the routes less traveled to make the story stand more on it's own feet and not just based on the characters it's intended to reference. And in doing so, it's also allowed several of it's characters to thrive individually as well as collectively.

In that regard, I think the greatest thing the WNU has is that it provides a skeleton to work with. It provides not just one but several ideas of what you can do with these characters past their respective stories, either in personal canons, crossovers with other properties or even existing in shared universes. The ideas are there either for existing characters or original creations. What you do with those ideas is up to you.

[stxleslyds]

EVENT LEVIATHAN issues 2 and 3

EVENT LEVIATHAN BUT IT’S ONLY JASON TODD.

Oh, Anon, I am sorry it took me so long to answer your ask, to be honest with you, I had completely forgotten this book ever happened and when I went looking for it, I saw who was the writer for it and my brain disconnected completely.

Michael Brian Bendis, what a polarizing writer. I had forgotten why I didn’t like his work much but this book made me remember that his writing gives me headaches. I swear, every time I read his work I am left wondering if I missed an issue or a page, it’s like I always lack information even though he makes sure to write a lot in those “monologue boxes”.

But I am not here to complain about Bendis, let’s talk about why Jason appears in this book and how is he characterized in it.

If you don’t know what Event Leviathan was about, in the first issue we are told that a terrorist has been attacking places simultaneously. This person, known as Leviathan collected some of the people that survived the attacks (like Batgirl), and others he let escape (like Green Arrow). All of the attacks were on organizations (A.R.G.U.S, Spyral, D.O) that were the pillars of the world intelligence community.

Because the case is big and operating on a big scale, several detectives and heroes (Batman, Robin, The Question, Lois Lane, Plastic Man, and Manhunter) have come together to figure out who is behind Leviathan’s mask.

In the second issue, their main suspect is Jason Todd after Damian suggests that Jason’s “special war on crime” can be related to this worldwide level of terrorist activity.

Well, If you couldn’t tell by the way that I phrased that, I really believe that DC and Bendis had to do some weird changes to the narratives because Jason hadn’t been really at “war with crime” for a very long time, or at the very least, not on that level (against organizations selling/controlling intelligence). So, right of the bat, I am confused as all hell.

Jason at this point in time was working as the Ice Lunge’s owner, so this was after the events of RHatO (2016) #25 and after Roy Harper’s death. But before I get to explaining why Damian and the others thought that Jason was behind Leviathan’s terrorist attacks, let's talk about Jason’s characterization.

How to write about a character based only on “tropes” that the publisher of the book told you. A Guide by Michael Brian Bendis.

We find Red Hood in Seattle, already investigating Leviathan. So, yeah, to me it was kind of obvious that Bendis put Jason there to build up the reason as to why Jason was the main suspect of being Leviathan or working with them.

We are offered some very casual banter with Batman as well as the ever-present subplot of Jason caring for Barbara Gordon. I am not a fan of whatever DC was and is trying to do when it comes to Jason and his crush on a person that he barely knew and has rejected him before. Bendis was probably told to put that there, I really don’t see Jason going out of his way to ask if Barbara is final but oh well.

In that panel we also see Jason say this to Batman, “can we put away the stuff between us so we can work on the case?” to which Batman answers, “of course”.

What the hell was that? First Batman beats the living shit out of Jason (Jason even says that he never saw Bruce hit the Joker as hard as he was hitting him) and rips the bat-symbol of his suit saying that they no longer work together or whatever, then we have Bruce going to Jason to tell him that Roy is dead, he gives him a hug but then proceeds to tell Jason that he is still banned from Gotham.

DC really reduced all that to “stuff between us”, alright, all I am getting from that is that I was right when I said that DC lets Batman get away with his horrible treatment of his kids as if it just were a subplot. Lovely, I hate being right.

But that’s not really what I want to discuss, I want to discuss the level of detective/investigation skills that Jason has got going on for him in this issue. Suddenly Jason has information about what happens with organizations like Spyral, ARGUS, and DEO? And then Bruce asks Jason if he has been in contact with Talia recently?

I am not mad about those last things, don’t get me wrong, Jason being good at investigating and him being (possibly) in contact with Talia are great things BUT they don’t fit in his story anymore.

Where is this Jason coming from, it must not be from the narrative that Lobdell had going on, Jason never showed much interest in keeping up with that side of the world or in doing detective work. And his relationship with Talia was downgraded a lot, basically, all Talia had done was keep an eye on Jason since she first met him before he was robin (yeah, that was a thing that happened as told in RHatO (2011) #25) and that how she found out that he died, after he came back from the dead, she put him in a Lazarus Pit and then sent him to the All-Castle so he could become Ducra’s apprentice. That’s literally it.

Or are we working with a Jason that maintains his Lost Days origins? There isn’t time on the timeline for that to have happened so his involvement in this book and the way that they are writing him is very confusing to me.

Jason doesn’t say anything about Talia except that he pulls an Uno reverse card on Bruce and asks him if he has been in contact with Talia. But just like many things with Bendis as a writer we never really hear any of them say anything about Talia and they continue talking about something else.

Alright, back to sharing what they found it is! Jason has apparently investigated this very closely because he cannot stop bringing up the fact that the attacks leave no bodies behind. Either people escape or vanish from the attack site.

But here is where the so-awaited “Batfamily” mention comes in. After Bruce tells Jason that he is putting a team of Detectives together Jason asks this, “we can’t keep this in the Batfamily?” Gods, was DC on crack when they wrote this? The Batfamily? Honestly? Two of your best detectives are not around to help you and your so-called family left Dick Grayson all alone in Bludhaven!

What Batfamily are you talking about Jason? You, Bruce, and Damian? I can’t with DC pushing and pushing the wildest concept in their universe.

After all that Batman spends a lot of time explaining what has happened or what was supposed to happen, he talks to Jason about how the other detectives were getting closer to retrieve a body that they needed to study. In between what Batman is explaining the scene of Plastic Man talking with Leviathan happens and there Leviathan says that they know each other. So, that’s a clue, whoever is behind the mask is someone that Plastic Man has met before.

We find out that Batman was retelling that story to Jason, so Jason starts putting the pieces together. Batman already has a team, they know that Leviathan has been spearing some heroes’ lives, there is a cause for all the attacks (“a new world order”), and that the attacks leave no bodies. Jason even begins to put together the list of suspects but then Jason asks Batman if they have their number one suspect and Batman says, “Yes”, and it’s Jason!

This is so funny to me, like what? How did they come to that conclusion? Luckily Bendis “explains” the Detectives’ team’s reasoning, I guess? They take turns to ask Jason basic questions that Jason deflects from some reason? It is so dumb.

From this page the most important thing that I gathered is that Damian (the one who initially accused Jason of being Leviathan) says that he doesn’t “think that you (Jason) know you are doing any of this. I think it manifested itself out of grief”.

What? A terrorist that has some sort of technology that makes explosions that leaves no bodies and spares some people’s lives, is being manifested by Jason because Roy Harper died. Did I understand that correctly? That’s their big idea as to why Jason is their number one suspect?

Team of detectives, yeah, I don’t see it.

It makes zero sense! First of all, what “war with crime” was Jason having at the time, and they also say that that war was “a point of controversy for years”. Excuse me? Are they really calling Jason using guns (with rubber bullets) a SPECIAL war with crime? What are they referring to? Are they talking about the events of Under the Red Hood? Because Jason hasn’t been that version of himself in years! We don’t even know if those exact events happened in this continuity!

I am so lost; I actually don’t know why they are relating a terrorist attack to Jason. I don’t know, to me, Jason’s appearance here is unjustified and lacks logic.

Now, we find ourselves in the third issue, where an unnecessary amount of time jumping is done. First, we are in the present after both Batman and Robin let Jason run away. Listen, I know that they tried to paint it as Jason kicking both their asses but I saw those pages, they threw three punches and one of them connect with Jason’s jaw. Batman and Robin just stopped fighting Jason.

I don’t know, why they had to make Damian say that Batman let Jason get away when he was there too and did nothing.

And then they had Damian say this about Jason, “I have never been a member of his fan club but Jason Todd is one of the great master fighters of all time”. Okay, sure, Jason has had a lot of training and he has been immeasurably overpowered over the years but I still find Damian saying this a bit weird, like why would he say that? The fight that is shown after this look into the present is just like any other fight that any Bat-related hero has had. Dick has had more impressive fights than that one after the New 52 and he was immeasurably nerfed.

I love Jason getting recognition for the things that he does right and that he is good at but I need you to represent those moments better. The fight isn’t that grand and they clearly let him run away!

In the fight there all jumped off of a building, (Jason, Batman, Robin, Manhunter, Arrow, and Plastic Man) Jason shoots at everyone and they have a “fight” midair. Then Batman, Robin, and Jason fall through a glass roof and they continue fighting in a pool, this is where I say that they let Jason ran away, they showed us Damian kicking Jason in the face and Bruce punching Jason in the face. But then Jason electrifies both of them while they are in the pool? Listen, this is very nitpicky but Batman and Robin are wearing proper suits for vigilantism, if their suits aren’t prepared to receive some electric shots then wow, but also, the electricity does nothing to Jason even though he is also in the water? Jason’s Red Hood suit at the time was a pair of pants, a shirt, a vest with a hood, and some bandages on his arms… You are telling me that Jason was wearing a suit that protected him from that? Alright, I will believe it, after all, I am very dumb.

Then Jason fights Manhunter, a simple fight apparently, he doesn’t show much fighting skill because she looked like an easy target and then Jason stops fighting and decides to have a nice chat with Lois Lane.

“Why did you run?” I think he ran because a bunch of people accused him of being a terrorist and threw themselves at him at the edge of a building, what kind of question is that?

This page is just, I cannot describe how confusing it is. Lois finally asks that if it isn’t the Red Hood, then why would Leviathan try to set him up? To that Jason answers this, “I was thinking about that on the way down here. Because I am perfect. All this should be me” then he explains “I lose sleep running the numbers in my head, on how measured response to the criminals of the world brings nothing but more chaos. Batman knows this. If this Leviathan is making a big play to change the world, maybe it is the move the “crime-fighters” just don’t, will never have the guts to take. Maybe.”

What. Is. Going. On? Where did this version of Jason come from, this isn’t really in tune with UtRH Jason, RHatO Jason, or RHO Jason. This take on Jason is completely different, Jason doesn’t involve himself with threats on a worldwide scale, he doesn’t care how all heroes around the world operate, and he is not the only one that does things differently from Batman and other heroes that have similar morals.

What is this Jason saying really, is he suggesting that a global terrorist attack can lead to the reconstruction of how heroes work?

Why does Jason think that what Leviathan has going on is similar to things that Jason has done? What did Bendis read that I didn’t? How did Bendis come up with this characterization of Jason?

Because even though RHatO and RHO Jason went beyond Gotham he still fought for things that were directly aligned with his story, Ra’s al Ghul, the Untitled, Essence, all of that wasn’t on a global scale, why is he so suddenly aware of more than that, I just don’t think that his participation in this book is justified.

In these other panels he also comes off as way too aware of what is going on, and I understand that to a certain level all heroes might keep up with what going on a global scale but it seems like Jason knows way too much for someone that hasn’t been connected to those organizations and or people before.

Jason appears a little more after that but nothing of true importance is said anymore in this issue. After, Lois finishes her talk with Jason she reunites with the rest of the team and is like “It wasn’t Red Hood, let’s move on” and that’s that.

That was all Jason did in those two issues. A mix between nothing, knowing too much and him speculating about what a terrorist would want to do next.

Before I give my last thoughts about Jason and these issues, I want to share with you these panels from issue 5 of Event Leviathan.

There, Zatanna and the others confirmed it. Even though Lois listed the Red Hood as a suspect the other detectives told her that not only none of their suspects were Leviathan but that none of them were Leviathan adjacent.

OF COURSE, JASON HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH LEVIATHAN!

Here is what I think, Jason shouldn’t have been in this book, it makes less than zero sense for him to be there. Jason being set up by Leviathan had no logic whatsoever. Jason and Leviathan’s levels of “disruption” are on completely different levels.

I just don’t know why he was there.

Anon, once again I am sorry for taking so long to do this review, I hope you had fun reading this, and I hope that you have an awesome day!