#and it's interesting how suffering in this show pushes characters in different directions

[etoilesombre]

[amelikos]

I wonder if Clavell will eventually know that Sango and Onyx are part of a shady organization at the end of chapter 3 (and perhaps feel guilty over not paying enough attention to his students).

(Something about Sango and Onyx shown interacting with older figures like Hamber and Clavell, and Clavell encouraging their growth and to make friends with Liko and the others, while Hamber's interactions with them were different, etc).

[renshengs]

beyond evil (2021) occupies a very interesting space in the larger expanse of crime shows. like, it is a Cop Show. it is undeniably a Cop Show even if the two main characters, who are both cops for very different reasons, are handled with significantly greater awareness and intention than usual.

it is also, impressively, a show that pierces the real ugly rot of 1) police corruption and its overlap with capitalism 2) atrocious real-life lawmaking 3) the poor handling of femicide in stories. i cannot express how abruptly shocked i was to discover that i did not hate the way this show was carrying itself, despite its crime drama genre, narrative about two homoerotic cops, and its murder mystery premise featuring a plot about a serial killer with solely female victims. here is a story that understands its purpose and is so clear-eyed about it that i did in fact tentatively suspend all my wariness about Cop Shows to watch it—and what i got was a scathing response to every serial killer and true crime documentary out there. a narrative that said: enough. enough. look at the way grief rots people from the inside out. look at the way loss ruins lives. do not forget the sufferings of the innocent.

far too many crime dramas possess an incredibly dehumanizing analytical tone to them that goes, “what if these poor women died in brutal gruesome tragic ways? anyway, look at these men and their heroic journey for justice!” it’s why i can’t fucking stand to watch them for the sake of my blood pressure. while beyond evil is not exempt from using such gruesomeness as a part of its horror aspect, the women in this show, particularly the women who were murdered, occupy such a heavy weight over the narrative that it is impossible to reduce them to what they’re usually reduced to: numbers in files, or cold cases. and because the purpose of beyond evil is to examine the ways grief and loss bring about destruction to people’s lives and communities, these women cannot be seen as numbers. they need to be vivid and real; the audience needs to feel their loss as deeply and gnawingly as the townspeople do. as we would in real life.

personally i’m still surprised at myself for liking a Cop Show this much—because the law enforcement sympathy is unavoidable in a cop show—but then i’m also shocked at how immediately this show establishes its awareness of police power. i don’t mean it gives a passing nod, like a brief disclaimer. i mean that you watch until the end and you’re like: oh! the entire fucking show is about police power and its consequences! this entire goddamn show is about cops’ potential for harm and how it destroys lives! the main character only ever became a cop out of desperation because he realized it would protect him from suffering further at the hands of the police. because he realized it was the only way for him to get access to both the information and the legal power needed to take his own steps to solve his sister’s murder. it’s not radical—it’s a cop show. but it is novel. a cop whose relationship with his own occupation is bitterly resigned at best and traumatic at worst.

this is far from an original thought, but truly i think what makes beyond evil worth watching is that it is so incredibly careful with itself. its meta awareness of its own genre heightens it to a tier above other crime dramas—it knows and rejects voyeuristic perspectives into the lives of people who’ve suffered real loss and tragedy, and so it makes the loss inescapable. every direction you look, someone’s life has been irrevocably altered by the murders you learn about in the story. it gives you no space to push away the murder—no, you need to sit directly in its field of impact. all the fucking time. you are not watching the town suffer, you’re suffering with the town. the story sucks you in and makes you live alongside the rest of them; it's why the first watch hurts so raw. because the story refuses to let you take a true-crime approach. because it refuses to prioritize the narratives of perpetrators over human lives. you are there, and you are hurting.

man. really, if you're going to watch anything, watch this.

[bonefall]

What are your thoughts on Crowfeather's Trial? I already know how you feel about my other least favorite super editions so I'm curious about your opinions on this one lol

I think at best it's just okay. Like...it feels like they're going "see!! We're holding him accountable!!" But then they just kinda...dont?? Like I didn't feel any differently about Crowfeather by the end than I did when I started. There's parts I like about it but overall it just fell flat for me

Like how am I supposed to like this guy when he's just constantly a dick?? he can't stand Harespring for some reason, there's a moment where he's like "I wish my son was dead" and when Nightcloud goes missing he barely gives a damn and doesn't bother to even try and look for her

Anyways I'll forever be mad that they gave this guy a whole super edition and he'll probably have the most dramatic death ever while Leafpool suffered her entire life (and afterlife) and got killed off screen. Hoping he gets jumped by rats and dies from infection

I'm not a big fan of it. It's one of the better written SEs and has a clear goal in mind, but every time I have to encounter it, it feels like it's sidelining the characters who actually deserve to be explored in favor of Crowfeather Sadboy Whinging.

Breezepelt has 12 books detailing how being mistreated by Crowfeather is making him worse, and showing that social alienation is pushing him towards the Dark Forest. Nightcloud was demonized by the old team even though they wrote Crowfeather deflecting all the blame of Breeze's behavior onto her, giving the new team a great opportunity to correct the mistakes of the old writers... and they decided to focus on Crowfeather instead.

And, mind you, they conveniently leave out massive details about how BADLY Crowfeather was abusing his child.

There's this one part of the book where he learns that Breezepelt broke his leg as a kid and he feels like shit for not remembering it, and it's supposed to be a big moment where Crowfeather realizes he was apathetic and careless. But he WASN'T just apathetic and careless. We see him TEACHING his child xenophobia in order to mock and offend Leafpool, smacking Breezepaw around for being 'rude' (the way Crowf always is), and screeching at him for having basic needs like hunger or rest.

Crowfeather WASN'T just a sad, sad boy who didn't pay attention to his kid because he was too busy pining over Dead Wife. What he did to Breezepelt wasn't just neglect; it was physical and emotional abuse.

The book DOES ultimately hold him responsible for how Breezepelt turned out, yes. But it doesn't properly focus on WHAT made Breeze come out the way he did. It wasn't genes, it wasn't Daddy Not Smile At Me. I can only assume the reason why they didn't address how ghoulish Crowfeather actually was is because they knew that being honest and direct about him abusing his child would make him unsympathetic.

Which is a problem, because, y'know, you can just make it Breezepelt's Trial and NOT have to thread that needle??

And furthermore... the book is trying to show Crowfeather addressing that he's kind of an asshole and moving on from it, earning deputyship as a reward for his growth, but what the book really demonstrates to me is that Crowfeather is a dickhead who actually shouldn't have ANY power at all. I don't understand why people would trust him or want him as their leader. I don't see any reason to think that he would be responsible with the lives of an entire Clan of people.

Before I hear clown shoes; if you think that means I "just don't like" that he would be an ""interesting leader,"" pile yourself back into the car with your 30 other jesters and drive away. I mean that it feels completely wrong that any character in-universe would look at the person who exists in Crowfeather's Trial, and say, "this is a person who would help me effectively rule."

What he does, all-book-long, is show that he's an emotionally unstable loose canon borderline incapable of self-reflection. Other characters have to directly tell him "you should try being less of an asshole" and "maybe be nice to your family sometimes?" while he comes up with bullshit reasons to seethe at every character who wanders into his line of sight.

I massively resent the fact that even Leafpool has to mommy his baby ass towards the end of the book. After he spends a good part of Po3 and OotS finding roundabout ways to snipe at her for not giving him exactly what he wanted. It falls on HER to be the one he can ask for advice on how to fix the family he treated like shit his whole life.

no that's not hyperbole she literally. textually. is compared to his mother.

and he can't even be gracious about it, he's instantly all huffy and offended, completely proving her point. Why the hell would anyone make this guy a deputy? The man needs TWO motherly figures giving him the exact same basic advice and a dedicated super edition before he adjusts his behavior even slightly.

(watch him get Boring Leader Syndrome the minute he inevitably becomes Crowstar, too)

Sooo, in a nutshell;

It's one of the better SEs. unfortunately.

Crowfeather is held accountable for being the problem in his own relationships, thank god

but it doesn't fully hold the actions we SAW in the main series books accountable, seemingly purposefully leaving out the worst things he did.

Another WC book where a male character gets an insane amount of sympathy and rewarding that female characters are NEVER deigned deserving of.

Should have been Breezepelt's story. I strongly dislike how Breeze's "redemption" was based on his shitty dad saying sorry. He deserved an actual character arc struggling with ever trusting WindClan again after they took his dad's judgement about him at face value.

Absolutely awful that Leafpool is killed between books and given a trial where they consider sending her to hell when they finally DO get around to showing how she died, while Crowfeather gets an SE about the whole world holding his hand so he can fix the family he broke in 5 easy steps.

Its biggest problem is that it is about a character whose actions you can go and read about. It doesn't deliver on the setup of 12 books of Crowfeather being an absolute git; it's a good story for the version of Crowfeather the new team seems to have created in their heads.

Doesn't stop me from manifesting him getting an infection and having a Sandstorm-tier disrespectful death in the upcoming series, lmao.

[arceespinkgun]

Thoughts on the Earthspark episode synopses because I am very excited:

So Starscream is this arc's main villain? That's awesome, I'm really hoping this will lean into the idea of him being competent and a worthy option for Decepticon leadership. It would be an interesting contrast to the Starscream from the Skybound comics whose portrayal leans into the cruel and pathetic elements way more.

Also, given Starscream seems to be the main villain of this arc and we know at the very least that Shockwave's working for him, it is so them to be like, "Ah, those Terrans are actually great. Time to make some Terrans that are also Decepticons" LMAO Also, Starscream and Shockwave, but Starscream's in charge! Yay, I loved their dynamic in the Marvel comics!

It sounds like my hope for an episode all about Hashtag picking a new alt-mode and what that means about identity will be realized! I'm especially excited for this one. I feel like the episodes about Nightshade and Jawbreaker and their identities were some of the best of the first season, and it could be a good followup to how Hashtag pushed Jawbreaker to get an alt-mode earlier and really quickly picked her own the first time around.

There had better be a Cosmic Carnival reference in the episode about the fair!

I'm not certain, but I have a feeling the direction this show is heading in is saying that Autobots and Decepticons are both flawed and oppressed by Quintessons and continuing to suffer because of what was put in place by them. Given that GHOST is now gone, this would make sense for a new direction. Dreamwave-ish maybe? Definitely curious about how Mo and Thrash will interact with the Quintesson Executioner, too. That could go in a lot of different directions.

It will be interesting to see Twitch grappling with somebody having the same kind of body as her. Especially from a lore perspective because of course this has always been totally normal for transformers, but for the Terrans that would a totally new experience?

I'm also curious about the combining—it sounds like an amplification of the Cyber-sleeves allowing the Maltos to feel each other's feelings. There's a lot of exploration of the mentalities of combiners that hasn't been tapped into yet, so I'm excited to see how this will be handled from a thematic perspective.

The episode about Optimus's trailer—I can't wait to find out if this is a lighter, more fun episode after how dark and intense every single episode at the end of season one felt, or if it sounds like it'll be fun but be another horrifying episode like the one with the bear in the first season LMAO

Prowl was confirmed to be in the show by character designer Nick Roche, who said the design on toy boxart will be used. Roche also mentioned he might not be characterized like the one in the IDW comics (good, that would be ridiculous and awful). But Prowl isn't mentioned in these synopses. Maybe it's like with Grimlock, where there's an episode focused on the character but that's not until another batch of the season?

[starrysharks]

ive sent like 20 asks to you atp but i really love ur art soooo so so so much like ur like my biggest inspiration fr like seriously i could blab all day abt how much i love your art and your arts almost singlehandedly motivated me to start working on shape language more bc i think thats like the key part of your art (to me at least) and youre like the true embodiment of "same face syndrome fears me" but like fr because all your ocs are so distinct and unique

do you have any tips on creating unique silhouettes / just general character design tips?? also id love to hear abt how your use of shapes and shape language evolved over time if ur fine sharing that!!

ok this is literally the sweetest ask ever like first off thank you so much ;_; i'm glad i was able 2 inspire you!!!

for me if you look at my old art there's little to no focus on shape language cuz i wanted to express a 'pointy' animeish style. examples are from 2020, 2021 respectively

as you can see i did NOT flip my canvas and my art was samey as hell,,, but in 2021 i started going for softer colors and shapes rather than points and spikes and brighter shapes. but, if you were to look through all of my art from either era, you'd see it's identical cuz i didn't care for shape language. this went on for quite a while :,)

then i discovered worlds end club in late 2021 and everything changed !!! i watched playthroughs cuz i didn't have a means to play at the time, and decided on making my artstyle a blend of cartoony and animeish - which ended up in choosing more expensive silhouettes and faces in turn

honestly i'm too tired to actually chronicle my artstyle change so i'll just skip to late 2022 in this timeline, sorry 😭

so by now has my artstyle evolved into aomwthing super cool n expressive ? no actually i think my art got worse in late 2022

as you can see, my colors got super washed out and i didn't really take risks, i guess? but i was finally starting to come into my own in terms of artstyle and was finally acknowledging shape language a little bit.

very early 2023 is the same, so let's skip to the one thing that changed my artstyle - the big 8 lineups

suddenly everybody was like 'wow your shapes are so good!!!' this was because i had tried to challenge myself with character design in these drawings. so i tried to emphasise interesting shapes more - using a technique where i'd just take an interesting shape or line that corresponded with a character's personality and repeating it as much as i could across the design.

like this deep cut art, where i tried to 'dial up'their already exaggerated shapes and design aspects (such as making frye's pants sag more or changing up shiv's hair. big man is perfect and needs no changes)

but this journey is still not over because a few months ago i rewatched all of panty and stocking and watched clone high for the first time, and both of these shows emphasise shapes a LOT in their designs, and i picked those up. here's art from a few months ago - in short, i tried to find the 'focal point' of the design, something that set it apart from other designs with similar body types or clothing, and built around that, if it makes sense? here's some art that i think expresses that well

comparing the new quintet art to the old one, i think you can also see that i started to try and use different body shapes and shapes in general (such as clyde having a more triangular build ig) . and tumblr doesn't let me add more pictures so this is where the overview ends !

my advice is - watch and rewatch anything that might inspire you, because it has the ability to push you in the right direction. for technical tips, id say -

draw different body types and age ranges (often times same face syndrome is born from only drawing the same age range, usually 15-20 for most sufferers)

play around with style - do you want a more western inspired style or something more akin to modern anime ? maybe something entirely different! try drawing in different styles that you like and see which ones stick

research fashion if only a little bit - it can help understand visually pleasing silhouettes (such as the famous big jacket or big pants silhouettes)

speaking of big jacket or big pants, contrast is key !!! top or bottom heavy designs are an easy way to express personality and an expressive silhouette ig

ummm thaz it ithink. once again thank you for your kind words and remember to take advice from multiple artists im just one guy!! i hope anything in here helped or was at least interesting to read

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

Just say you hate Eleven don’t beat around the bush with listing all the reasons Will deserves a prize. “deserves the boy he loves” right and where does Mikes feelings coming into that exactly? So far I’ve learned there two sets of fans the ones who fancy finn and want to see him kiss boys as some weird fantasy and the others who adore Will and feel he deserves what he wants without thinking of the other party.

Only in the ST fandom can someone take a reasonable sentence like, “After four seasons of trauma, Will deserves a happy ending” and utterly twist it to mean, “I hate El and want her to be alone and miserable grrr.” It’s also wild how you can glean “Will deserves a prize” from my words when that’s not at all what I said. I don’t see Mike as a “prize” for Will. That’d be ridiculous. I see them as equals- because that’s what they are: lifelong best friends who’ve been through so much, consistently put each other first, and have made multiple beautiful promises to each other.

“But you said, ‘Will has suffered so much and deserves a happy ending with the boy he loves.’ How is that not proving my point?” Yes, I did say that, and I would say it again in a heartbeat. Will has suffered so much. Here’s a refresher on just some of his trauma. Given the context of everything, given the significance of Will’s sexuality to both his coming-of-age journey and the 80s, it would be genuinely cruel to not give him a happy ending. And it’s not Byler shippers on the Internet, but the show itself, that has consistently tied this happy ending to Mike. It’s been reinforced in every season, and the writers and filmmakers doubled-down on it in Season 4 through the van scene and through aggressively inserting Will into every Milkvan scene so that he’s always on your mind. S3 brought up their hypothetical question of the future through the rain fight, and it also had Will very specifically saying, “I’m not gonna fall in love.” This was not placed in the show so he could be proven right in S5 when Mike iNeViTaBlY rejects him. Be serious.

As I said in my post, this has nothing to do with thinking unreciprocated storylines don’t serve a purpose in media. Obviously they do! Stranger Things has given us a few: Dustin and Max, Steve and Robin, and Steve and Nancy (after they broke up). It is also given us another which I will talk about in a second, although this one comes with a twist. Dustin was crushing on the attractive new girl in school, as was Lucas. Max chose Lucas and fell for him. Dustin was sad about it, sure. The Snowball dance emphasized his general sadness as well as his unluckiness with girls at the time. Narratively, dancing with Nancy was the healing moment he needed to move on. It propelled his character to his Season 3 glow up, where he surprises his friends with news that he is dating Suzie. Dustin liked Max, but he wasn’t in love with Max, built upon a lifelong friendship. The situation is just structurally different.

Steve and Robin? Well, you know the story. Steve developed feelings for Robin (after Dustin pushed him in that direction, I might add) over the course of S3. But Robin was like, “Psyche! I’m a lesbian. Let’s be best friends,” and platonic Stobin was born. Notice there was no grief on Steve’s part. Steve was shocked, sure, but he wasn’t heartbroken. He bounced back in a heartbeat and fully accepted her sexuality. And then the season ends with their friendship shenanigans at the video store. Again, this was a crush. And it had a very interesting plot twist at the end of it. And it served a very specific purpose in Steve’s journey.

In terms of Steve and Nancy, there was more heartbreak involved, since they were actually dating. And in S4, it’s clear that Steve has never fully gotten over Nancy, or at least he thinks he hasn’t gotten over her. But narratively, this just serves a fundamentally different purpose than the situation between Mike and Will. Steve believes he needs romantic love to be happy, so his arc is accepting that he doesn’t. Also, as a presumed straight character (even though I love the bi Steve HCs), he doesn’t have the same kind of existential crisis that Will, a sad gay boy in the 80s, does.

The fourth unreciprocated storyline is an interesting one cause it’s not actually unreciprocated at all. It just seems that way. And of course, I’m talking about Robin and Vickie. Robin has feelings for Vickie, but when she sees Vickie with her boyfriend Dan, she assumes all hope is lost. But alas, all hope is not lost! Vickie is queer too and has feelings for Robin as well. You just have to take off your heteronormative glasses to recognize it. Sound similar to something else?

I bring this up because while Byler shares surface-level similarities to these other unrequited storylines, it visually parallels the situation with Robin and Vickie. So don’t be surprised when Mike, like Vickie, turns out not to be straight. And character wise, it’s deeper than all the other examples by miles. Dustin got over Max, Steve got over Robin, Steve is just looking for any girlfriend tbh, and S4 showed Robin getting over Vickie before the plot twist. Will and Mike are lifelong best friends, and a slow-burn rejection arc would not only make no sense, in-universe it would structurally derail Byler’s powerful connection and interrupt key plots already in motion during the apocalypse.

You forget that these aren’t real people. They are characters. In real life, sure, sometimes you don’t get what you want. Sometimes gay kids fall in love with their lifelong straight best friends, get gently rejected, and then life goes on eventually. In real life, saying, “But I have suffered, so you must love me back,” would be insane. And Will agrees. The homewrecker allegations need to stop. In the context of the show, Will doesn’t think that Mike loves him back. He doesn’t think love can be for boys like him. It rips him apart and tears him inside for sure, but all throughout S4 he’s the one trying to repair his bestie’s relationship while being madly in love with him. Will thinks he will be forever alone, and your argument is that he should be proven right?

Of course, I adore Will. He’s my favorite character, and I’m a proud member of the Willuminati. The shoe fits, and I will wear it. But I saw this Tweet today that I had to screenshot, and it applies directly to the subtext of your ask:

No one should find it strange or delusional or creepy that people ship Will with the boy he’s into. Calling it a “weird fantasy” in any context is inherently homophobic and weird behavior. You simply would not say that about any other ship in the show. Admit that you find queerness icky. Don’t hide behind faux concern for El.

Lastly, I must directly respond to your question,“Where do Mike’s feelings come into that exactly? Why do Bylers feel Will deserves what he wants without thinking of the other party?”

What are you even saying? Accusing Bylers of not thinking about Mike is the strangest accusation considering there are 50 essays per day posted on this app diving into the psychology of Mike. Mike’s feelings are powerful. Mike’s feelings are important. I could just as easily have written a post that said, “After everything Mike has been through, he deserves a happy ending with the boy he loves” because Mike clearly loves Will. It is overflowing out of him. If you analyze and “think of the other party” as you put it, it becomes crystal-clear where Mike’s feelings come into play and what his happy ending is. Hint: it’s not with the girl he can’t even write ILY to.

I could have written about Mike, but my post was about Will, who is canonically gay, deeply traumatized, and whose sexuality is not in doubt. Will deserves a happy ending. “But El is also traumatized, and she deserves a happy ending as well.” Agreed, but her happy ending and the overall trajectory of her character arc simply do not center Mike. El’s arc is rooted in her independence, and I could do a deep-dive analysis comparing and contrasting Will and El and explaining why romantic love is central to Will’s endgame but not to El’s. But I’m sure there are fifty of those already on this platform. I want Mike, Will, and El to all have happy endings.

Anyway, Byler endgame.

[moodymisty]

Hello, this is a request only if you are interested, I understand if you don't wanna do it. It's really hurt/comfort stuff with the intention of softness and comfort at the end. It's meant to be a Samael x s/o drabble. So basically, Lilith kidnapps s/o (seeing them as the horsemen's pet) and winds up torturing them so she can give them as a gift to Samael, not knowing how he really feels about s/o. (You don't have to be descriptive of what Lilith does, the overall premise is blood, pain, tears, and stuff. She's a mean bitch). Samael is given his s/o in really bad shape (not dead). It's up to you how it plays out, but I imagined he shows s/o a gentleness that's only for them as he tries to help them and take care of and assess their injuries. Lilith meanwhile is either jealous or disgusted by the show of mercy, (not what she expected). Maybe Samael flies into a rage upon seeing the human in such a pitiful way or he plays it cool and waits for an opening to be alone with them so he can help. It's up to you, I just wanna see Samael be all soft and gentle and show he cares about s/o. Thank you again for your generosity. I also have a different more smutty idea if you don't wanna do this one. Completely separate from this one.

Author's Note: I've never actually written for Samael at all before, I love his character but I'd never considered it, so this was a fun exercise. This is my first time writing Samael, so please excuse anything that may seem a little OOC while I get the hang of his character.

Summary: Samael saves his little songbird from the mouth of a cat.

Relationships: Samael/Fem!Reader

Warnings: Canon typical violence, Bruises, illuding to torture but no actual torture, Stockholm syndrome??? I guess, Fluff, Some brief references towards the Darksiders book 'The Abomination Vault' which is good go read it,

"Well now,"

His voice carries through the stone laden room, a booming deepness that even when he's only speaking casually, sounds almost as if he's addressing a group.

Samael.

You know the name; Lilith has mentioned it more than once when she talks to her servants and lesser demons. Those few snippets pale in comparison to seeing him, seeing how he towers larger than almost every other demon you've seen; Though still maintains a humanoid-esque shape.

You were apparently- in a way- his gift.

Lilith had cooed it to you more than once before, though she'd mostly been talking at you, as if an ornament. Rarely does she give things that don't amuse her the time of day; And simply chattering to a being she considers far inferior without inflicting some sort of suffering doesn't qualify.

It's the better of many other potential outcomes, at least. You'll take it. It isn't as if there's a choice anyhow.

Samael briefly glances in your direction, one large finger presses on the bottom of the cage that confines you as if to stop it's slow swaying, before his eyes turn back to Lilith. You've noticed her watching with intent, clearly focused on his reaction. If you had to guess, she wants something, and is hoping this will be the ticket towards pulling that favor.

"Where did you get this?"

The links of her chain belt 'tink' against each other, as she walks closer, glancing up towards the larger demon for but a moment.

"Just a little bit of sport; I know you've always been interested in Humanities, goings on."

Lilith finds it all dreadfully boring; At least anything that doesn't benefit or at least amuse her in one way or another. The demon lord takes another glance in your direction, the sharp points of the teeth visible behind his just barely parted lips.

Samael would've been quite interested in knowing how she managed such a feat, especially around the Council's watch, but Lilith seems too disinterested in the human she's captured to answer. She's much more interested in his reaction, or whatever she can get out of it. Even as boundary pushing as Samael can be, he isn't too eager to have the Council hot on his back. As well as the Horsemen; They are quite eager to keep Humanity protected, and are more than willing to obliterate anyone who goes against The Council's rulings.

Samael isn't too eager to deal with the mess of that; Particularly if it involves the youngest.

"You can do whatever you wish with it," Lilith says, her tone lightening and stringing the second half of her sentence with an almost singing tone. "Consider it a gift."

Her eyes move from the large openings in the wall revealing the dreadful hellish sky, an unreadable expression on her face. One might assume it's sultry, and that wouldn't be entirely wrong, but there is far more there; And it goes far deeper.

"You should come by more often. I have far more interesting pets than little humans." Samael's gaze turns from you to her.

"That, I am already well aware of." She seems unhappy with his response, though it seems positive on pure words alone. Maybe there's an undertone that exists only between them.

When she's departed, it's impossible not to feel the way your heart drops in your chest when you see Samael's full attention turn to you. It's just his head turned your way at first, before he fully turns and with loud, thundering steps against broken cobblestone, does he make his way towards you. The cuts and scrapes on your hands hurt as you support your weight, but the pain pushed to the back of your mind in place of fear.

The last time you had a demon's full attention was Lilith, and she isn't one who's attention you want.

"Tell me,"

You don't miss the way his tone of voice seems to change a bit now that he's speaking directly to you; Though it's easy to just assume it's purely manipulative.

"Do you sing, little songbird?"

You don't answer, mouth and throat dry. Fear is a permeant emotion to you now, and you feel it rising up more and more as you feel his glowing eyes focus on you. The way your heart hammers on your collarbone, breath short and ragged. Your jaw hurts from how tense it's been for ages, lips split and cracked.

Samael gives the cage a soft 'bonk' with one knuckle, just enough to send it shaking back and forth. It wobbles and forces you to hang on, watching him as he watches you stumble about. He can see the perpetual fear in your eyes, the way your body is slowly giving away to the amount of hazards it's been through. He's not sure how long you've been here, but it couldn't be that long, if you still have your wits about you.

Lilith always did enjoying playing with her toys until they broke.

Samael has never really made sense of it. In all of his centuries he's always operated with a goal in mind, doing whatever he could to get to it. Lilith's motives sometimes seem, short-sighted. Maybe even a little dull.

But this, now this is interesting.

Samael hasn't seen a human in many years, and while the clothing you wear is different, humanity still maintains the form the Creator originally shaped them in.

That form is, soft.

He can see the tops of your hands and wrists are dirty, covered in small bruises, the same sort running along your neck and cheeks. Your eyes are wide, darting over every inch of him in fear.

Samael stops.

Maybe it's boredom. Maybe it's the desire for something a little bit different.

Samael is old. Far older than your realm, and anything that's been built on it. But in all of those years, Earth has remained a tantalizingly forbidden fruit. The Council forbade access centuries ago, and as such, Samael has been restricted to hearing of Humanity's accomplishments and fumbling through stolen artifacts and hushed whispers.

So he's, curious.

Everything he's ever heard of humanity has been what they lack in strength they make up for in ingenuity, and creativity. And depravity; Depending on the demon you ask.

The long, clawed hand that had just rapped against the cage's bars now holds the lock, fiddling with it before he snaps it between his fingers. When the shattered pieces fall to the ground, the cage's door slowly creaks open. You eye the giant demon, as he seems look at you expectantly. There's no shortage of amusement on his face, either.

"What, you think I won't try to run?" Samael laughs, a deep baritone you can feel in your chest.

"By all means, go right ahead. Whatever you run into out there will be far less inviting than myself." He can see the thought run through your little head, until you make a choice.

You move closer towards him, hedging a bet that he'll be better than Lilith, and whatever she had in store for you.

You've seen that throne of Lilith, and her pets. Her creativity knows no bounds. Whatever end you might meet with Samael, is far better than that.

You let the larger demon take you, leaving one unknown for another.

It might've been easy for someone to scold you on not hearing him coming up behind you, but in your defense, it's easy to miss; Especially when one is distracted.

His footfall is softer than one might expect, though one probably wouldn't exactly call it soft at all. It's his voice you end up hearing first anyways, looking over your shoulder the minute it hits your ears.

"So this is where you've been off to."

You turn around, looking up as Samael approaches. His wings are casually half-folded, watching as you fiddle with a large decorative vase.

Samael's palace is huge. Enough so that it's quite easy to get completely lost.

Far better than a cage; At least in your opinion.

You don't know exactly how long it's been since you left Lilith, but it's not been enough time. The improvement has been astronomical, and you no longer feel the constant, heart pounding fear that had been permanent for so long.

Samael is, oddly nice. You'd expected it to be mostly a ploy, but while you know he's a demon, one capable many, many things, he hasn't tried anything yet.

And so you find yourself almost enjoying his company, and the idea of leaving him now almost seems like a negative. You'd miss him.

"I just wanted to take a look around."

You don't think it would qualify as a 'treasure room', but the large open space is littered with a variety of things; From broken weapons to odd pieces of art that seem clearly inhuman. Most seem to be stolen from battlefields judging by the overall wear and tear, but it' hard to be sure. Some seems like it almost hails from Hell itself, much to your surprise.

Who would've thought demons would be so artistic.

"There is far more worth seeing than whatever rubbish you were throwing around. Let me show you." He kneels just enough to gesture towards you with his hand, and you know what he's asking you to do.

As step closer Samael's eyes rake over your body, taking note of the way most of the bruises and cuts have faded away. What's left is a much more fresh face, one that isn't battered and showing of fear and fatigue.

He lets you up onto his shoulders with a gentle boost, and you take roost quickly. He can feel the gentle touch of your hands on his scale-like skin, as you hold on. He'll show you sights that Humanity has yet to see, or hasn't in millennia.

Glancing up towards you he sees the way you're eagerly waiting, and begins walking.

[oddlittlestories]

So one of the things about TUA that I find so interesting is how each of the characters reacts to the abuse of Hargreeves in a different way. It’s very close to an exploration of the full spectrum of reactions. (Season 1 in particular is a kind of study of this but I’m not going to go into Leonard here. I’m also not going to go into Lila or the abusive relationship employment of the Commission, but I have thought about those things as well.)

Edit: Kind of long so more under the cut. Slipped and marked it mature by accident >.<

Luther

Luther isn’t the leader, like he thinks. He’s the enforcer. And he’s the enforcer because he is so convinced that the failure is with him, with them, and not their father. When he can no longer follow his father’s will in s2, he finds a new powerful man to enforce for—in a very literal way.

Luther, especially in s1-2, is a difficult character to like. He’s an ass, he’s always convinced he’s right, and he’s always wheedling to be heard, to be obeyed, to be listened to. And he is the cause of much of his siblings’ suffering.

It’s quite sad from another angle, though. He seeks out another powerful man in s2 because he very much does not have any internalized framework of his own—of right and wrong, or even really of likes and dislikes.

Once he sets that need for control down, he’s mostly just this goofy, slouchy guy. He doesn’t know what’s happening, going to happen, or what’s right. He just takes things as they come.

As a comparison to a character many of us find much more appealing, Dean Winchester is also an enforcer. The difference is, one of John’s directives is to protect Sammy, and his own reaction is in that same direction, like many abused kids. Protect your sibling. Which creates this deeply codependent dynamic that we see throughout the show. (They also have a bit of golden child / scapegoat going on, which we’ll come back around to.)

Ben

The one who dies. I’m not going to say too much about this beyond sometimes that, too, is a consequence of abuse.

Allison

The one who perpetuates the cycle. I really like this because I don’t fully like the adage ‘hurt people hurt people.’ Hargreeves is an abuser because he feels justified in his abuse.

Allison does it because she didn’t grow up with any other skills, and because it feels safe. Her first acts of abuse are with her daughter, because she is a frustrated and overwhelmed parent with no other skills to manage her own emotions. But she does well in therapy, and we see her leveraging those skills to push back against ingrained family dynamics.

But whenever she is lost and afraid in the world, she resorts to abuse to get what she wants. And more and more through the story, we see her abandoning compassion and emotional regulation in favor of taking her feelings out on others. Because she decides it’s justified.

Five

The runaway. Five rebels to escape the abuse, and gets re-traumatized out in the world. But he also steals his autonomy back and crafts his own completely-formed identity. Look. That’s not to say that the dude doesn’t have issues in spades. But he can talk to Hargreeves, interact with him at any stage in the game, and not have it shake his identity to the core. Both the trauma that he chooses and his own choice for responsibility and autonomy determines who Five becomes.

Diego

There’s a sequence from House, MD that I feel like sums up Diego’s reaction to the abuse quite nicely. House is late to his dad’s funeral and he explains to Wilson how punishing his (abusive) father was about punctuality. He explains that he is deliberately careless around time because he didn’t want to make his father’s issues HIS issues. And Wilson, incredulous, shoots back with, “Thereby MAKING it your issue!”

Yeah. That’s Diego. He defines himself in opposition to Hargreeves. And he even says so explicitly. He’s all about fighting crime, “the right way.” But he defines himself so in opposition to authority (and to people in general) that he gets kicked out of the police force and burns his first romantic relationship to ashes. He just can’t stop fighting.

Klaus

The addict. Addiction is a common response to abuse. And Klaus is a full-blown addict. A thief, willing to do anything and everything for his next score. He’ll injure himself, terrorize others, go dumpster diving, steal, defraud. Really there are no limits to what he’ll do. And yet we always feel he’s a sunshiney sweetheart right from the start. Even so, the “anything to score to escape my demons” is a keen literalization of the addiction response to abuse.

Viktor

The scapegoat

“Everything is always your fault.” This is the one who gets blamed for the family’s problems, who gets punished and punished and ignored. This is the one who is always in the wrong. And Viktor is such a great character in season 1 & 2 for this because he’s both reactions to that. He is the explosive anger, the rage and indignity. And he’s the one broken by any means necessary, heaped with family blame, with no sense of what he wants or who he is. And also, in s1, exceptionally vulnerable to an abuser masquerading as everything he ever wanted.

I just. It’s so multifaceted. It’s such a good exploration of abuse and this is only one sliver of that. TUA has its flaws, and I thought s3 was such a mixed bag, but this is one piece they just NAILED.

[irenespring]

I have seen some posts about an ideal House MD crossover and I would like to submit ER for consideration.

I want to see Kerry Weaver and Gregory House interact.

Both are disabled and suffer from chronic pain, both are autistic, both come off very poorly to people (Kerry unintentionally, House as a defense mechanism), both are queer (Kerry canonically) but closeted for at least a large portion of the show, both Need Therapy. But yet they have wildly conflicting personalities and priorities.

For example, Kerry cares about what everyone thinks about her, desperately wants to be liked by her coworkers, and tries so hard that it backfires. She wants to work her way up the system and play by the rules so she can prove herself to herself and to others. Unlike the social scene at ER which confuses her and rejects her, The Rules are simple, and when she follows them authority figures like her. Better, when she follows The Rules and proves she's smart, she gets promoted. When she is promoted, she assumes people have to respect her, because they too should follow The Rules and thus respect their superiors the way she does. When this interpersonal approach also fails, she has the consolation of even when people reject her for ableist or homophobic reasons, she still has some power.

House only cares what Wilson (and maybe Cuddy) thinks of him, but tries to push them away to see what they do and to prove to himself solitude is inevitable/misery is unavoidable. While Kerry uses ambition to cover for insecurity, House uses surface-level cruelty. This is a problem, and why I can never decide how I feel about his character, because his depression and pain does not justify his behavior (not that I still don't enjoy his character when watching the show, just from a serious analysis perspective). He has given up on interpersonal connection in a way that Kerry has not. Through isolating himself, he makes himself the source of his misery. He maintains the idea that if he wanted to, he could be liked, and thus he has control over his life.

Both of these responses are reactions to pain and rejection, but in different directions. Both characters are implied to be in constant pain, and there is evidence both were mistreated before the Problem Behaviors arose. Kerry's response is to say "well I'm your boss, so you have to respect me no matter my identity" and craves power. House's response is "well if I'm such an asshole, you hate me because of something I did, and thus it's my decision you reject me, not something forced on me" and craves control over relationships.

I would like to see them interact, especially beyond the inevitable initial angry argument. I think it could be interesting. Friends is a stretch (I don't think Kerry could brush off House's offensive comments because of how much similar things hurt her in canon) but they would grow to understand each other over time.

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

Dual Destinies: Cleared.

So... I feel like I should give some closing remarks here. Alright, how about we do it case-by-case? Only seems fitting!

Case 5-1: What a muddled start... the best way I can describe this is that it plants some interesting seeds that bear some of the story's sweetest fruits in very poor and smelly soil. Any problems you have with DD are going to be the most apparent and frustrating right out the gate and it is NOT shy about showing it's worst traits here. That being said, Ted Tonate is one of my favourite characters. I can't knock the man!

Case 5-2: Tantilising introduction to Simon Blackquill and Bobby Fulbright. Apollo and Athena hit off just fine with enough differences from Nick and Maya's dynamic to get me on-board. Damien and Jinxie Tenma are alright, the former being hilarious and the latter being a good neurodivergent nugget of a character. Still mad they had such good Apollo and Trucy moments from the start only to ditch her.

Case 5-DLC: Best case in the game. Or at least the one with the least blemishes. The Aquarium characters? Great. Athena and Nick's dynamic? Love it. Simon and Bobby? Hilarious. The culprit? One of the best in the series! DePlume's treatment by the writers and Nick's badge are my main grumbles, and I do wish they dug a little more into the latter's doubts about getting his old job back. Furthermore, Apollo suffered.

Case 5-3: Aristotle Means, you are THIS CLOSE to getting detention, mister! Athena and Simon's dynamic, along with the Themis quadro, CARRY this segment. Nick's at his most fun here as a mentor navigating a troubled student. But Means... good god, does he come close to ruining this case. And poor Klavier, he really deserved more than this... at least the parts that are most important get by well enough to earn this case a gold star! We uh, don't talk about Robin Newman's testimony...

Case 5-4: More of a prelude than a full-on case, but man does it push your buttons in the right ways. Athena, Apollo, Simon, and Bobby are all nudged in directions that are so uncomfortable for each character and they are all the better for it. The GYAXA staff range from noble and sympathetic to pompous to the point of unironic enjoyment. And Aura Blackquill. Who scares me. A lot.

Case 5-5: SO CLOSE to being the best of the best! For everything it pays off with aplomb and catharsis, it takes a step or two back with a decision that makes me groan in annoyance. The former does outweigh the latter in most cases, however. The only parts it doesn't are probably Trucy and... the final culprit. I'll talk about them in more detail another time, but in brief: fun and unsettling at first, kind of loses a lot of steam near the end. That last reveal of his took a lot of wind out of my sails and not in a good way.

Overall then? It's a slow-roller with plenty of bumps in the road. Those bumps get less noticable when it gets up and going, and BOY does it go, though they are still present. Thankfully, I don't think they completely ruin the most important bits. It's just frustrating that said issues don't have to exist, but do for stupid reasons only a CAPCOM business executive would gel with.

A major theme of the game is trust, the effects of suspicion run rampant, and how a healthy balance of both are necessary to build strong connections and fight that which threatens to break said trust.

What is faith without doubt? Blind. Foolish. Naive. The reason why the main villain almost got away with it all.

And in the end, while it's so drilled into my head, the ends truly did justify the means.

In any case, I'm ready to hand down my verdict.

I hereby declare Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies...

GUILTY

...but I believe it has a lot more to offer than criticism would let on. There's no reason it can't be seen as one of Ace Attorney's best if given a thoughtful revision.

I'm very glad to know you, strange 3D lawyer game. I'll be here a long while still!

[lucienne-thee-librarian]

For the choose violence ask game: 3,4, and 7 for The Sandman

Thanks nonny! I see how hard people lit up for the Choose Violence ask game and I'm like...you know what I gotta give the people the salt we've all clearly been craving 🤣

3 and 4 (worst take you've ever seen on tumblr/what was the last strae that made you block someone) I'm combining into one cause I fortunately haven't dealt with anyone actually harassing me on here, over fandom drama specifically anyway (yet). OKAY so you all are going to hear about the cold take I saw that lives in my brain rent free that made me unfollow and block a mutual in a fit of rage and bafflement.

Picture being me, a month or two ago. I'd recently followed someone on the spot cause they'd had such a good meta about queer!Rose headcanons. They followed me back. Cool. Everything's Gucci. And then I realize how much of their blog is Dreamling. Okay, I can tag filter or unfollow if it bothers me.

And then I saw them dead ass go into the part of the comics where Ishtar is talking to Dream in Brief Lives, and she says "You really don't like women, do you?"

(Which, ouch, but given his previous behavior, not at all an unfair comment.)

And this person's takeaway was, I shitteth you not, a rambling diatribe about how maybe the reason all Dream's relationships keep failing meanwhile he's friends with Hob Gadling, is that maybe...he's not that Into Women!!

Yeah. Seriously. Definitely not the emotional problems, lack of consistent communication and ability to maintain a relationship long term for various reasons, Definitely not the pride and anger problem that got him to send Nada to hell, which literally the entire arc of Season of Mists involved him trying to fix, no, all this can be waved away with what might as well have been a longer-winded version of that corny ass 2000s era meme "Sometimes a man...hurts a woman...because his soulmate is a man!!" And before you ask - no, this person didn't appear to be joking. I seriously wanted to believe it was satire but NOPE. So now you all have to suffer the knowledge that some people (because it was being just reblogged uncritically to praise) seriously think like this. I swear I lost braincells that day.

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but the way the fandom acts about them? Well...oh you know. Hobert Gadling. Easy.

Look, I was never His Biggest Fan for. Obvious reasons stated below, but he's interesting when you look at him as a direct parallel and contrast to Dream - both of these men/man-shaped beings are immortal and have done absolutely horrendous, unforgivable things to others in their long lives, between Dream's sending a woman he supposedly loved to Hell for breaking it off with him, and Hob's participation in the slave trade. And now, the question is...what do they do with this? How do you live with yourselves, having done things you can never make up for? DO you choose to go on living? Then again the critical difference between them among others - Hob has the ability to choose to maintain his immortality, or not. Dream doesn't - or doesn't feel he can safely choose to abandon the role he was born into.

But the sheer SCALE to which the fandom has constantly, utterly erased the worst of this man's atrocities, like flat out refuses to acknowledge they even exist in both show and comics (it would be one thing entirely if they cut that bit out of the show I'd understand people going feral over show Hob then, but. They did not so where's people's excuse) so they can push him and Morpheus into the mold of their ship is...honestly kind of amazing (derogatory) and has driven me to wanting to grind my teeth every time I saw the ship and eventually, him, until I recently finally wised up and filtered tags. And what also irks me - that they've taken OVER the fandom to the point where it's getting genuinely hard to impossible to go into the tags of any other characters including Rose and Lucienne especially without MOST OF IT being about them being sidelined as cheerleaders in some way for this ship. And if you tag filter and block then that just means their tags are suddenly vastly diminished or full of "this post has filtered tags" "this post has filtered tags" "this post-" ughhhhhh.

[princeescaluswords]

At this point, you should just compile everything you know about Teen Wolf (especially if my bby boy Scott is in the spotlight) into one BIG FILE OF GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER and give them a link since they keep repeating the same thing over and over and over again.

And hey, I don't mind helping you compiling the stuff like same repeating/similar sounding asks, your old responses, transcripts and screenshot of proofs if you eventually do it. I feel bad for you and other Scott Defenders since I've followed you for a loooooong time and facepalming at the TW asks every now and then

Thank you for your compliments and your very kind offer, but I have actually been playing around with putting all the writing about Teen Wolf to a different use. I am in the "can I do this? should I do this?" phase, but I'm thinking of writing something off Tumblr for publication, using the work I've done here as a basis.

The book -- if it is a book and not an article or some other format and if it ever gets written -- will have three premises, which may or may not be sustained by the evidence I can gather.

Teen Wolf, its reception, and its fandom is an artifact of modern white culture (and not in a positive way). Foucauldian power dynamics and United-States-inspired consumerism have combined to empower and provide cover for a racist audience response that was hostile to a narrative focusing on a character of color over the course of the series and the movie.

The show's treatment is an example of how fandom culture has been enabled by Internet sites such as Tumblr, Twitter, AO3, and YouTube to somehow disguise their aggressive pursuit of decadent bourgeois values as revolutionary freedom from those same exact values. "Transformational fandom" has become all about making things palatable for a mainstream white culture that likes to flirt with the forbidden.

For the production, the fandom's hostility and its aggressive behavior turned out not to be a bug, but a feature. In other words, certain choices in casting and plot may have been not just simple fan service, but fan service designed to provoke fandom racism in a way that would maintain interest in the production. After all, any sort of attention is better than none.

Of course, this whole idea of mine is in its earliest stages of writing. The thing about non-fiction writing is sometimes a great hypothesis turns out to be wrong. It will require research and a publisher. But that's where I'm at right now.

As an aside, it was inspired by three things. First, was the incredible hostility to the movie by the fandom before the movie even premiered. The intensity of that hatred for a follow-up movie for a television show which hadn't been on for five years is unique and worth exploring. Second, there was a quote from Tyler Posey about how, when they first started filming Teen Wolf, Jeff Davis told him how his ethnicity would help the production. The quote didn't contain any further elaboration, but, obviously, from the result, Davis wasn't counting on what rightists would call "woke points." Finally, there was a direct quote from Jeff Davis about how the writer's room had determined Mason Hewitt was "too good" to suffer consequences of being host for the Beast. I've always hated that statement for its obvious intersection with racism and ableism.

It does occur to me that perhaps this wasn't just a confluence of random events that created this specific fandom phenomenon. Perhaps Jeff Davis and the production staff noted this aspect of fandom culture and had a strategy for integrating it into the show. I would never say that they meant for the hostile interpretation of characters of color to be taken as true -- it's obviously not -- but I might want to explore if they didn't promote the hostility in a way designed to enhanced the show's reception.

Again, I'm at the very beginning of the process. Your question pushed me farther down the road.

[ladymorghul]

I am finding this fandom’s fanfic collection to be pretty disappointing but I’m not surprised.

The amount of misogyny directed towards Alicent speaks volumes on how fake Team Black are about their so called “equality for all” rhetoric. Which is not surprising since Rhaenyra is the embodiment of white woman feminism but it’s still disappointing to see.

I also find it hilarious how these fic writers make characters like Aegon, Aemond or Helena switch sides towards Team Black to spread this “Rhaenyra good sister” trope or whatever. It’s worsened when either character blames Alicent, and Alicent alone, for their shitty upbringings. Somehow the martial rape victim who was a teenager when she had these children is the real villain here.

It’s an interesting observation, I’ll admit that much. I just wonder how their minds work to end up thinking like this. So very strange.

this also angers me 

it’s always “alicent never allowed rhaenyra to be a sister to her siblings”... uhmmm point me where that happens in the show where she speaks ZERO words to her siblings outside of antagonizing her 10 year old brother and trying to get him interrogated as he sits there severly wounded? 

and aemond and helaena switching sides.... look, i think you can write whatever you want in your fic as long as you’re not gonna be a misgonyst just for the sake of it with no literary purpose, because people should write fics about whatever they want, but i do have to say that i hate the idea that they call helaena a “prisoner” of the greens or that she would turn her back on her family and leave them to suffer and die? i mean even if you look beyond the show, helaena in the books is described as a happy girl before team black do what they do to her and her children. 

in fact it is the show that made her seem often upset and that’s because she’s a dreamer that no one seems to understand that she is one, including the targaryens in her family and including her father who supposedly held dreamer in higher regard than dragonriders (and helaena is both), and she probably foresees terrible things. and it’s also because they’ve given her character so little and basically made her a plot device despite her being the queen and playing a pretty important part in the dance. 

and aemond.... alicent is the only person who stood up for him. it was her and her children cornered in a room. rhaenyra wanted him interrogated as he stood there, already badly wounded by her sons. she wanted his mother implicated in high treason and it was all so bad that it made aegon be the one to stand up and take all the fire. 

i admit, in retrospect, when i forget a little about what rhaenyra has done in that scene in particular, i too would like to see what it would be like if things had been different and they had gotten along, but i will never push alicent out of the picture for it. 

but again: i do think people should write (mostly) whatever they want and obviously no one can stop them, but i do think this theme can be awful when it is written with so much hate for alicent.

[quirkwizard]

Looking over your post explaining the Quirk Singularity, I find that the only real examples of the singularity in canon are Dabi, Tomura and Eri. But when I think of what the Quirk Singularity given how it was described… the only characters I can really think of are Flect Turn and Nine. Both of whom I think embody the idea of what a “Quirk Singularity Doomsday” would actually look like. And even their canonicity is debatable.

While I don't consider either story canon, it is interesting ways to look at them. Nine's Quirks take a massive toll on his body while Flect's own power literally pushed everyone away from him since he couldn't control it.

The lack of major examples for the theory is always something that has bugged me. You can have it be part of the world and have characters talk about it, but you need to show us more if you want to develop it. Maybe if we were given more examples of Quirks growing in direct comparison to the parent Quirks, then it'd be easier to buy into the theory. What we have is more dubious, at least to me. Tomura and Eri are, by their very natures, aberrations. How their Quirks came about and how they function are intrinsically different from everything else we have seen in the setting. And, out of all the Quirk users, they are the only known examples of deviations, making it seem more like a fluke than a forewarning of things to come. We could use the Todorokis and the Bakugous as examples, as we have some information on their Quirks, but I'm not sure about them either. You could use Bakugou as an example, since his Quirk is way more powerful than either parent's powers and hurts himself to use it, but he always seems like the perfect storm given the two parents Quirks he had. As for the Todoroki's Ignoring Natsuo and Fuyumi, who both got direct inheritors, we got Dabi and Shoto. They both have powerful Quirks and Dabi certainly suffers more from his power, but again, both of them were the result of a very specific combination. Heck, Shoto has a powerful Quirk that he has total control over and a drawback that is more of an inconvenience, which goes against the whole idea of this theory. So what we’re left feels like a bunch of outliers.

[becauseimanicequeen]

RANDOM THOUGHTS: We Best Love: Fighting Mr. 2nd ep. 1 (rewatch)

(These are my random thoughts from my rewatch on the 30th of March 2024)

Since my rewatches may contain spoilers, I’m putting my random thoughts after the “Read More” link.

I’m going to be totally honest from the start. The side story of Pei Shou Yi (Shi De’s cousin, the doctor from the first season) and Zhen Xuan is not my favorite part of this season. In fact, I rank the Zhe Yu and Bing Wei crumbs, as well as Shu Yi’s dad’s shenanigans higher than their side story.

I can’t quite pinpoint why that story never appealed to me (because I usually like characters that are different and those who deal with real-life problems, which both of these characters do). Perhaps it was their chemistry (or lack thereof) that didn’t quite pull me in.

So, if my random thoughts are filled with the other characters and events rather than Pei Shou Yi and Zhen Xuan’s story, this is why.

Anyway, let’s get into the first episode and bask in Shu Yi’s anger. It’s going to be glorious!

The fact that Shi De, already from the first scene he appears in, wears the couple bracelet he bought for himself and Shu Yi… He’s never given up on Shu Yi, never stopped loving him, and never stopped being devoted (though you could question his methods, but that’s another story).

Zhe Yu and Bing Wei are walking in there like they own the place. I approve.

Shi De knew exactly who was coming when he was told they had visitors. You can see it on his face.

As I wrote in my random thoughts of the last episode of the first season, that slap was personal. It was called for. And I approve.

Side note: Even though I know Shu Yi’s dad is the reason for Shi De’s long absence, I still want Shu Yi to grill Shi De and make him suffer (because I know that Shu Yi is going to take the truth of Shi De’s deal with Shu Yi’s dad as an indication that Shi De never believed Shu Yi would stand by Shi De’s side to fight his dad together). I want (and need) him to get his anger out. All those years of not knowing anything, of being held in the dark (without knowing it), years of Shi De handling this on his own when Shu Yi would’ve been more than willing to fight his dad side-by-side with Shi De (I mean, Shu Yi is nothing if not loyal), only to have Shi De show up all of a sudden and out of nowhere… Then we can always discuss where that anger should be directed. But if we look at it from Shi De’s perspective, he would rather have Shu Yi be angry and lash out at him than potentially destroy the relationship between Shu Yi and his dad (who’s actually the culprit behind it all).

Just like their colors in most of the first season, here Shi De is wearing lighter colors while Shu Yi is wearing a dark suit.

I love that Shu Yi starts by setting boundaries. This is just business, nothing else. It won’t last very long, but still.

Btw, I love that Zhe Yu, who used to have feelings for Shi De, is now on Shu Yi’s side. He probably hopped on that train as soon as he fell in love with Bing Wei.

I love how petty Shu Yi is, telling some bullshit story that he has a girlfriend just to hurt Shi De’s feelings. 

I also love Shi De’s continuous devotion to Shu Yi. No matter how far Shu Yi will run, Shi De will search for him until he finds him again.

Shi De really has his work cut out for him if he’s going to get back on Shu Yi’s good side.

Shirtless Shi De!

Shi De is wearing a darker suit now, the day after that altercation at Shu Yi’s house (which definitely didn’t go as Shi De had planned or wished for).

How to tell others you are boyfriends without telling them you are boyfriends: match your tie to your boyfriend's suit. That’s exactly what Bing Wei and Zhe Yu do, more than once.

That scene at the end has so much to unpack. What’s interesting to me, though, is that Shu Yi suggests they sleep together as a way to push Shi De away rather than as a way to reconcile. I’m pretty sure he suggests sex because he thinks Shi De will reject the offer, which means Shu Yi would have no reason to forgive Shi De.

Or, it might’ve been a way for Shu Yi to figure out how hooked Shi De still is on him. Considering the plan Shu Yi will come up with in the next episode (if I remember correctly), where he aims at getting close to Shi De again only to dump him when he’s the happiest, that plan might’ve been a result of this scene in Shi De’s office where it was clear that he would do anything to make Shu Yi forgive him.

A mix of yearning, love, and hurt feelings can be a dramatic concoction of emotions. And both of them have this concoction.

This was a great first episode. I love the heartache and the yearning, so I loved every second of it.