#and looking back I am baffled because- the hypocrisy????

[theasexual-jackson]

Am I the only one who have noticed that proshippers and related will always blame the person for stumbling upon bad content and getting upset because of it, until the person throws out an argument that makes them look bad? It goest like:

"Blud, I have the right to be upset, I literally came across gloryfied rape fanfiction."

"So? It's not our problem, you inflicted that upon yourself, don't whine about it."

"Nigga, I was literally 8 years old, how can you blame a fucking 8 year old for getting traumatized because of gloryfied rape?"

"Actually, I don't blame you, I blame your parents instead."

An I find that real fucking weird...

[sometimes-men-need-help-too]

Out of curiosity, why are you anti feminist? your whole set up here is kind of odd to me but this specifically baffles me (not out of hate or anything, just genuine ‘what is happening here’ energy). Feminism is just the supporting of gender equality so I don’t understand

-sincerely, some random feminist dude on the internet

Also, I hope your father is okay

Regarding my dad--thank you. The masses turned out not to be cancerous and he had his surgery and is all good now!

Onto the rest:

I'm curious what you mean by your whole set up here is kind of odd to me. Why is it odd?

Feminism is just the supporting of gender equality so I don’t understand

That may be what it technically means, but how people are upholding the movements makes me question it. And I'm not the only one. While I don't view all feminists negatively, I think quite a few have this distorted view of what equality is.

First off, I disagree that feminism as a movement cares about men's issues as much as they claim to. That's not to say that feminists as a whole don't care, because there are those that do and that's great. But they'll often say that feminism is for men too, that they've done more for men's rights than the men's rights movement has, etc. But then they'll immediately contradict this. Consider the reaction that you'll see if men's issues are brought up. If you don't have a problem with it, then you shouldn't be getting angry. But that's what happens. We're told that women suffer more on X issue (whether that is true or not, because sometimes the research is skewed) so they should be our priority. We're also told that it's not a woman's job to fix men and their issues. But that's not what majority of us, I'd say, are seeking. I know I want acknowledgment of these issues. I want there to be less hypocrisy and double standards. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

There's far too much pushback against criticism and questions. Now granted, this may not represent everyone's experiences and I get that. But it's been mine and it's something I've seen on various posts online. I understand that they probably get plenty of questions that are not in good faith, they probably get plenty of assumptions too. I get that. I've dealt with that as well. But there can't be this unwillingness to engage with people unless they agree with you. There can't be an unwillingness to answer questions because you* think it's not your job to educate them. You have to understand how that looks. It looks like you can't properly articulate your point, it looks like you don't have much of a point and it weakens your group and what you stand for.

There's a lack of accountability. I know that with a movement as big as this, it's not something that can be easily wrangled up and fixed. I'm not looking for perfection. What am I looking for more feminists to acknowledge the problems within the feminism movement. Oftentimes, this doesn't happen. I'm told that I simply do not understand feminism and what it's truly about. If I give an example of something that I find to be a problem, I'm usually told those aren't "real feminists." That just feels like a huge cop out. You can't just say that those people aren't feminists because it doesn't erase what's happening. It doesn't erase the terrible things they say. It doesn't erase what we're seeing on those social media pages. Those people will still see themselves as feminists. They'll still keep saying what they're saying while packaging it as feminism. Instead of trying to pretend that they're not part of the movement, there should be more effort in trying to combating that. Speak up. Speak up against the hypocrisy (example: body shaming is bad but penis shaming is different because with how you're acting, you probably have a small penis so it's okay. Or denying it altogether by claiming that only men care about their size).

I want to go back to my first point-I didn't want to make it too long. Men are told conflicting things about their own issues. They'll be told that if they want X issue to be discussed then they need to go make their own post instead of expecting feminists to do it. Okay, so they make their own post but suddenly that's not alright either. That's taken as a sign that they don't care about women's issues. For example, by talking about false accusations, you don't care about actual rape victims or you see all women as liars. That isn't true. And while I don't believe that false accusations occur as little as 2%, 2% isn't zero. There are still men that are suffering and having their lives turned upside down by those accusations. They don't simply cease to happen just because you don't talk about them. Talking about false accusations don't hurt rape victims. False accusations hurt rape victims.

I could go on. But I think this is enough. I hope this answers your question, though I can elaborate further if you wish

*I don't mean you. I just mean in general

[coexistentialism]

TW for C S A, nothing graphic, just the topic - I am spacing that out and not putting tags because the last time I put C S A tags on a post, I got an anon telling me I deserved to be SA'd, so no thanks. Nothing in here is graphic.

[Before anyone says it, and before you read, no, this is not about shipping discourse. I am not touching that shit with a 10 foot pole. Do not ask me about that shit, I barely know what it fuckin' means, I'm not talking about that, and if you think I am, no I am not.]

It really does baffle me that people seem to only be okay with vent art, so long as it's not extremely graphic. Especially, particularly, if it's extremely sexually graphic in terms of sexual abuse survivors. Like most people are in agreement that things like traumacore (which is a broad category of just overall trauma vent art in my own opinion and perception) and like general art to vent about other abuse and trauma, but suddenly because it's about extreme, graphic abuse and trauma, it's "STOP ROMANTICIZNG IT, IT'S UNHEALTHY!!!", "IT'S A BAD COPING SKILL, YOU'RE JUST AESTHETIZING IT AND ROMANTICIZING IT!!!" when people literally said, and still say, the exact same thing about self-harm vent art, depression vent art, anything like that. Like I have lived through those years of Tumblr era and online in general where people saw any kind of vent art that depicted self-harm, depression, abuse, etc. and people would get dogpiled and harassed and shamed for it and treated like they were romanticizing abuse, self-harm, etc. when they. Literally are just venting about their feelings, their trauma, their struggles??

Oh, and it's not just if it's C S A related, it's not just if it's related to more extreme abuse - it's just if the artwork/writing itself is extremely graphic and doesn't sugar coat anything. Like I'm not saying you have to enjoy looking at someone's extremely graphic vent art, but surely you see the hypocrisy here? Vent art is only okay if it is sanitized.

Once again, it always goes back to trauma survivors having to sanitize ourselves and sugar coat everything so that it doesn't make others violently and viscerally uncomfortable. And like, yeah, it is uncomfortable lmfao. Imagine how we feel.

Not to mention. Once again. Art therapy is a thing? That exists? That literally helps people? There are plenty of studies that talk about this. There are plenty of studies that even show that oftentimes drawings by children are some of the only ways they can tell what happened. Same for adults, especially if you have DID.

And even if that random stranger on the internet is somehow making artwork that is in some way only worsening their trauma or whatever, that's not your business. 🤷 Like maybe don't shame people for having maladaptive coping mechanisms that aren't to your tastes.

I've drawn extremely vile things. I've written extremely vile things. I have no idea what they mean, I have no idea if they are hinting at any kind of actual events I have actually experienced or anything, but you know what didn't help me? The amount of people who say you are a pedophile for even daring to make art that depicts such horrific, graphic, and vile sexually abusive things. I constantly feel terrified that I am secretly a pedophile and don't know it, don't realize it. I am constantly terrified that my artwork is just me being a sick, disgusting, vile freak, instead of. Y'know. The possibility that it really is just a manifestation of extreme fucking abuse.

This is where it gets a bit more graphic, but I am NOT describing specific C S A acts or anything, but it is graphic in a way.

I am going to speak about this as if I know for a fact that I experienced these things, even thought I don't know, just keep that in mind before I say this. I'm being extremely bold sharing all of this and I might edit this out later or delete this post altogether, but I have experienced C S A under the lens of believing it as a healthy, consensual, pleasurable experience. Most of my vent art and things I have written depicts this. They depict C S A as if it was normal, healthy, consensual sex. As a result, a lot of the artwork and things I've written could even be mistaken as literal erotica or "romanticizing sexual abuse." Other stuff I've drawn/written is just straight-up graphic and violent C S A, it's just not sugar-coated or sanitized and is extremely graphic.

Like are you sure that person is "romanticizing" or "aestheticizing" their trauma/abuse? Are you sure that person is exploring their trauma in an "unhealthy" way, or is their artwork/writing the only way they can express deep, personal feelings that you could not possibly understand? And in the case that one out of every whatever number of people IS just making art and writing things that is only making it worse for them, do you only think that about people who make artwork/writing that you find gross/vile/uncomfortable/too graphic/etc., or does that apply to other vent art as well? Because if not, you should rethink that thought process. And again, do you really think it would be okay to shame people for having maladaptive coping mechanisms?

[mark-of-chrysus]

#3

Forget politeness, Danny was just downright feral. Simply put, he had woken up and chosen violence.

He made his way to school like he owned the place. Bought himself at the Slave Auction like it was nobody's business and went off into the sunset with a baffled Jay in his arms, being held in bridal style. Then he came back because he had forgotten that he had to sing with Duke and put the blonde back down remorsefully before making him promise to watch his concert.

Somehow, and because the universe was a bitch he had once again ended up in the parking lot with Crystal and Gun staring at him. Before he could walk away the girl opened her mouth and began berating him for "judging people based on their looks".

"I'm gonna stop you right there" He cut her off, something no one had ever done before judging by her gobsmacked expression. "I don't know you, nor do I care to so you should keep your hypocritical view to yourself, okay miss?"

Unfortunately, Crystal managed to recover before he could book it out of there.

"Just who do you think you are? Calling me a hypocrite?"

Daniel regaled her with a thoroughly unimpressed stare before opening his mouth.

"Siri, could you please tell me the definition of hypocrisy?"

"a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel" The robotic voice came from his back pocket, echoing through the empty parking lot.

Gun had a mysterious coughing fit that ended with a pointed elbow in the ribs from the smaller girl, though even that didn't manage to wipe the grin off his face. He eyed the boy more closely, feeling suddenly intrigued about whether he had the skills to back his cheeky attitude.

"You judge people based on how they look. I saw how you looked at one of the other girls in the crowd." Crystal continued to press on stubbornly.

"And you don't?" He retorted without missing a beat. "Besides, the girl I was looking at was Lala Kim, and she's notorious for how badly she treats the dates she buys at the Slave Auction."

That at least seemed to have gotten his point across.

"But you still act like you are better than anyone else."

Spoken too soon.

"I am better than everyone else!" His cocky reply seemed to only infuriate the beautiful girl more.

"Prove it!"

"Sure!"

They were now shouting and so close to each other that it was just one shove away from ending up really awkwardly between them. Daniel didn't let his confidence waver when she suddenly revealed a sharp smile that promised pain and humiliation, instead, he gave her his own taunting smirk and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Gun, fight him."

If the command surprised the bodyguard, he didn't show it. In one swift move, he took off his sunglasses, revealing the black sclera of his eyes and plastered on his infamous insane grin. Crystal moved out of the way and Daniel squared his shoulders but didn't wipe off his mocking expression.

Before he could blink an all-too-familiar kick began heading his way and the boy slipped into his fighting mindset. He blacked the click with his own leg using a basic movement that made it seem ridiculously easy. Gun's eyes widened as well as his smirk.

"You're pretty interesting, huh?"

A fist flew towards his face.

"Uh, Daniel."

The boy in question dodged the blow and caught his attacker by the throat, lifting him in the air.

"Hm?" He hummed inquiringly, turning to see the cowering form of Jinho looking at him like he was a monster.

He let go of his opponent, whose body hit the pavement with a muffled thud and made his way toward his smaller classmate.

"Uh-uh, Duke's looking for you, he-he asked me to-to get you." Jinho stuttered, eyes glued on the predator before him and knees trembling.

"Oh right, the concert, I almost forgot!" It was like a switch had been flipped and Daniel's cold facade melted back into a friendly smile. "Thanks, Jinho."

The boy nodded so fast he almost knocked his glasses off his face and scurried back.

"Ah, sorry, we'll have to continue this another time." He told the pair who were still frozen in shock, either at his skill or his quick change in attitude, he found that he didn't care much either way.

Shooting them one final sharp grin Daniel jogged back to the school festival, ready to perform for the beautiful blonde who would be watching him. Once he was out of sight Gun's posture finally loosened and he leaned onto the side of the car, pulling out a cigarette. A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead and he absently brushed his fingers over the already-forming hand-shaped bruise on his neck.

"He could have broken my neck without breaking a sweat." He mumbled and Crystal blanched at the thought.

"That boy...", the fighting maniac took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke slowly, "could've killed me if he wanted to."

The pair shared no other words as they left, both slightly trembling, though due to different reasons. Daniel Park was a real beast and they were lucky he had been interrupted when he had. Gun massaged his neck again as he drove, an impossibly large smile on his face.

[eirikaanemo]

I was wondering is I could get a scenario where reader is actually a descendant of decarabian and is out to get revenge on barbatos and take back mondstat and barbatos’s gnosis so they can become the anemo archon. They are a spy in mondstat trying to gather information before they put their plan into full affect but end up falling in love with venti in the process and don’t know if they want to get revenge anymore so they tell venti everything.

Of course, I would be happy to! Thank you for being my first request! This is a little long, but I hope you like it!

Child of the Storm

Warnings: Some angst in the middle

Venti x GN!Reader

2.8k Words

Decarabian had many children. These children are known as storm sprites. Quite a few exist, though their numbers are greatly diminished now that he has fallen and Barbatos became the Anemo Archon. They’re mostly peaceful, but not all of them. Not you.

No, you want revenge. Barbatos took what was rightfully your father’s, the anemo gnosis and position as Archon. Decarabian had only been doing what he felt was right. He was protecting the people from the harsh and cruel colds of the outside world. And this was how he was rewarded?

It’s not like Barbatos is a good Archon anyway. He goes missing for centuries at a time, sleeping his time away. He doesn’t actively protect and guide his people. He is lazy and irresponsible. He does not deserve what is rightfully your father’s. And so, since your father cannot take the gnosis and rise to his rightful station, you will.

This is not something that is easily done. Even though he is the weakest of the Archons, Barbatos is still an Archon. There is an inherent power and ability that comes from simply holding a gnosis. So you must prepare.

To do so, you become a spy in Mondstadt. It takes a lot of power to create a human form. But using the remnants of your father’s power and what power you have in reserve, you manage it. You integrate yourself in the city by becoming a knight of favonius and making many friends. Kaeya in particular is rather fond of you.

Why a knight? You may as well protect your people in the meantime. Hypocrisy is not a good look on you. And having many friends will help you get more information and have a better cover. So your plan begins. You do not actively speak against Barbatos, but you do not speak or act in his favor either. Your friends come to know you as a sort of neutral party on religion.

It baffled you how everyone in the city seemed to love Barbatos. How could they love an absent Archon? How could they love someone who abandoned them and hate one who was always there for them? Nothing about it made sense.

Your plan works perfectly. It was slow at first, but you’ve started to get more and more information on the going ons of the city. Most of it is trustworthy, but don't sources, like gossiping with Kaeya, tend to have mixed results. Sometimes his information is factual and completely true. Sometimes it is something he seems to have made up off the top of his head.

One evening you were waiting for Kaeya to meet you at Angel’s Share for another one of your information sharing (read: gossiping) sessions. As you wait you take a moment to enjoy the music played by one of the many bards that play at the tavern. The music tonight is particularly good and played by a bard in green.

His teal tipped braids, dark hair, and flower in his cap compliment his fair complexion. The tips of his braids seem to almost glow in the dark. His slim fingers seem to dance across the strings of his lyre. It’s an enchanting sight and you may have just fallen a little in love. Just a little.

Vengeance is your whole purpose, you cannot allow something like a little infatuation to distract you from that. And yet you can’t help but return to the bar over and over just to see him play. You start to tip him anonymously with apples and wine. It’s not your fault, he’s just too good at what he does. This is just you giving him the reward he deserves.

He eventually catches on and finds out who’s leaving the tips, because Charles is a dirty traitor. But it would be easier to be mad if Venti wasn’t so grateful and happy to have figured out it’s you who’s leaving the tips. The two of you formally introduce yourselves to each other and strike up a good conversation. You end up spending a lot of time together with him after his performances. He seems to enjoy those nights as much as you do. And sometimes you catch him staring at you with a dreamy look out of the corner of your eye.

But you start noticing a couple odd things. He has an absolutely ridiculous alcohol tolerance with no sign of debilitating hangovers. While singing, he doesn’t seem to stop as often to breath as much as other bards. It could be passed off as him just being better a better bard, except for the fact that it’s by a superhuman margin.

When you spot him turning into a wind sprite to sleep in a small shelter in an alleyway, it explains a lot of things. However, some of your questions go unanswered until one night when you’re playing around as a storm sprite. You notice him sitting on the hands of the statue of Barbatos and get curious. He seems to be speaking, so you hide behind the statue and listen carefully to what he is saying.

“Oh, Himmel,” he sighs. “Am I doing the right thing? Everyone seems happy, but would they be happier if I was a better and more active Archon?” Your world stops. How is this possible? Why him? Why did it have to be him? Could you even do this anymore? What in the world would you do with yourself if not this? If you’re honest with yourself you have to admit that you have come to love him.

This is your life purpose! But you love him! How can you fulfill your purpose if it requires you to harm the one you have come to love? What would your father think? Nevermind, you know what your father would think. He would call you a weakling for not following through. But he’s dead. So does what he would say even matter anymore?

Your existential crisis lasts for a solid week. Venti notices how distant you’ve become and does ask about it, but leaves it be once he sees that you’re not ready to talk about it. One day it becomes too much. He deserves to know, you decide. It may be hard and may drive him away from you entirely.

But you can’t keep this from him. Doing so wouldn’t be right and he should know the truth before the two of you even consider having more of a relationship than you already have. So no matter how much it scares you and tears you up inside, you choose to tell him.

“Venti, could you meet me at Starsnatch cliff tomorrow?” You ask him, nervously. “I have something I need to tell you.” He seems surprised, but is agreeable to the idea. “Sure,” he replies. “I’ll see you then!” The smile he sends you kills you a little more inside.

“I need to go,” you tell him as you hurriedly got up, paid your bill, and left. “Was it something I said?” Venti wondered behind you. Shrugging, he takes another sip of his drink. “Well, I guess I can ask them tomorrow.”

Tomorrow comes too soon, after a sleepless night of tossing and turning in your bed. There is nothing you want to do less than go to Starsnatch cliff, but you promised. So you go. You take your time getting there before sitting down with your feet dangling off the edge of the cliff. The day is beautiful. Much too beautiful for a day that may just ruin your life forever.

Taking a deep breath, you notice some footsteps coming up behind you. “Hey there,” Venti says. “It took me a while to find you. Be a bit more specific next time, won’t you?” You nod absentmindedly and pat the ground next to you. After he sits down, you start.

“Once upon a time there was a storm sprite, a child of Decarabian. They were created near the end of his reign, too young to join in the effort to protect him and his cause: protecting the people of Mondstadt from the cold blizzards of the outside. This was before the snows were blown away, and blizzards were abundant. Decarabian had created a barrier to protect his people from almost certain death.

“Yet his people did not appreciate his protection. They rebelled against him and he fell before them. If Barbatos had not risen to power, the people would have faced almost certain death to the harsh winds of Boreas.

“But, in any case, there was only one storm sprite left in the area to hear his dying wish. He wished for vengeance, retribution for the injustice he received for fulfilling his duty to protect. And it became that storm sprite’s purpose for existence. Or so they thought.

“They spent many, many centuries plotting the downfall of Barbatos, growing in power slowly. Eventually they were able to create a human form and walk among the people of Mondstadt. And walk among the people they did, collecting information and preparing for the date they would finally find Barbatos and take back what was rightfully their father’s.”

You stop a moment for a chance to breathe and glance at him to see how he was taking the story. He looked thoughtful and he gazed out towards the horizon. So you take courage and continue.

“But then, something happened- something completely unplanned. The storm sprite fell in love. At first it was just infatuation but it grew and grew until it became something stronger and more pure. They truly loved, for the first time since their father had died. And there were signs that the one they loved might even feel the same.

“Then something happened. Something that made their whole world fall apart. They found out that the one they had grown to love was Lord Barbatos himself.” There was a moment of silence. You don’t dare look at him. You are absolutely terrified. After you take a deep breath to steady yourself, you keep talking.

“They didn’t know what to do. Their purpose was to destroy the man and everything he stood for. But their heart would never let them do it. Eventually they made a very difficult decision. They would tell him.

“This is my story, Venti. This is my life and my past. It’s not pretty and it’s not kind. You have every right to hate me, despise me. If you no longer want anything to do with me, I would understand. I just… like I said, I just felt that you deserve to know.”

There’s another moment of silence, slightly longer, heavier, and more awkward than the ones before. When you turned to look at him, drawing your knees up to your chest, you saw him looking at you, pensive. What did he see? You wonder. Does he see a monster who was plotting his demise? Does he see someone unforgivable and unwanted? Will he send me away from Mondstadt forever?

As you looked down at your shoes, a thousand more thoughts running through your mind, he finally spoke. “Well, I’ll admit that this is not what I thought you’d wanted to talk about today. I was expecting something more along the lines of a confession, honestly. And I suppose you did admit that you love me as part of your story, but part of me wishes that you had stopped there.”

If possible, your head drops lower as you press your forehead to your knees. “But,” he carried on. “I’m grateful that you told me this. It really would have messed things up more if you waited until we were in a relationship to tell me. For now, I’d say you should keep going on as you are. Live your life the best you can. I would really prefer if you found a new purpose, one that doesn’t end in my utter destruction, but you’re free to make that decision.

“I won’t chase you out, if that’s something you’re worried about. You’ve proven that you love Mondstadt and cherish it’s people. But I will ask for some space. It’s going to take some time for me to process all of this. I’m going to go now. I’ll approach you when I’m ready, please leave me be until then.”

“Okay,” you whisper loud enough for him to hear. Then he gets up and walks off. You cry until you can’t cry any more. You’re not sure why, you deserve this and were expecting this after all. But it still hurts. The close relationship the two of you had was gone. And you miss it already.

After some time you pull yourself together, clean yourself up best you can, and head back to Mondstadt. You follow his advice and keep going with your life. Your new purpose, you decide, is to serve and protect Mondstadt and all its people. Kaeya and your other friends notice something’s different and ask about it in concern.

Most lay off after you say you’re not ready to talk about it. But Kaeya, being the persuasive and stubborn guy he is, didn’t give up until you admitted that you’d done something that messed up your relationship with Venti. He knew how much Venti meant to you and made time to be with you more while Venti took his time deciding what he’d do about it.

Then Dvalin started attacking, a traveler came to visit, and fatui were more abundant. You would have loved to take action against all of these, but Venti was so closely entwined with all of these issues that you didn’t dare. Things seemed to be working out okay without you anyway.

But then you felt a disturbance. A fatui was approaching the cathedral. That was odd because while the fatui aren’t exactly subtle about not respecting Lord Barbatos, they were never as bold as to go near his cathedral. Something was wrong and you were determined to find out what.

You arrived just as La Signora tore his gnosis out. While you froze in shock for a moment, you burst into motion the minute she stopped for a moment to look at it. With the speed of a burst of lightning, you snatched the gnosis from her hand and disappeared. You only stopped when you reached Old Mondstadt, but you could still hear her scream of rage.

You stash the gnosis away, hidden in a satchel that you usually carry with you. As you’re heading home you run across Kaeya. After talking with him for a moment, you get an idea. “Kaeya, could you deliver a message to Venti for me?” You ask. “Sure,” he said, smirking a little. “Are you going to try and make it up to him?”

“In a way,” you respond. “Just tell him to meet me where we last spoke, okay?” After a moment of fake consideration and stroking his non-existent beard, he agreed and the two of you parted ways. He went on to Mondstadt and you headed to Starsnatch Cliff.

You didn’t wait long, a four pair of footsteps came quickly. From their pace you could tell that they’d run all the way there. Once they came to a stop you turn to greet them. They were guarded and wary, which was understandable, but it still hurt.

When you pull the gnosis out of your bag, you see looks of shock. “What?” You question. “Did you think I would claim it myself or something?” The traveler nodded, Diluc shrugged, Jean wobbled her head back and forth, while Venti looked a little ashamed of himself. You smile ruefully. “I guess I deserve that. But here,” you hand the gnosis over to Venti. “I believe this is yours.”

He looks at the gnosis, then at you, then the gnosis, and repeats the pattern a couple times, his eyes wide. Eventually his eyes settle on you as he absorbs the gnosis. When the shine of his transformation was still wearing off, you feel a pair of arms wrap around you and hug you to a chest.

“Thank you,” Venti murmurs in your ear. “I think you’ve more than proven yourself to me. I forgive you. How could I ever thank you for this?” You smile and hug him back. “Maybe you could consider joining me for lunch tomorrow?” You smile even wider when you feel him kiss your cheek. “I think I can do that,” he agrees.

When the two of you part, he un-transforms, and you both turn to look his companions. Diluc has one eyebrow raised. Jean seems to have gone into shock. Traveler’s face is bright red and Paimon is covering their eyes and glaring at you. You both laugh, making Paimon glare harder. Diluc actually cracks a smile. And Jean snaps out of her shock and laughs a little with you.

Your date the next day goes wonderfully, and neither of you can wait for the next one.

[darkhats]

my response to that one cookie run drama video from 2019

if u were in the fandom at around 2019 you'll remember this video. really a grand hallmark of its time. this is probably the most unecessary thing ill ever do but i see alot of recent comments from a month ago agreeing with this and i think thats extremely sad. im mostly doing this as a fun nostalgia trip and also i really want to justify me wasting 14 minutes watching this

first of all i want to say this video is fucking awful. just dreadful. like girl what the fuck are you even saying. i'd only recommend watching in full if you want to hear about the fandom in 2019 with a condesending voice talking down to you the whole time and even then you could probably do better just scrolling through the discourse tag

i suggest you pull up the video yourself as i'll be responding by timestamps. if i sound angry at some points its because i am

you can skip to 1:40 the rest is just intro stuff

1:47 | im really curious why you put this screenshot while saying "entitled fans" bc u never elaborated and i would really LOVE for you to explain whatever this one meant

1:50 | for the "huge amounts of hypocrisy" bit i have no idea what this is? this would be hypocrisy if the twitter acc in the previous screenshot and this tumblr blog r the same person but theyre not. we don't all think like a hivemind? this post is stupid in general stop infantilising asian ppl like they have no idea what a black person even is

2:02 | "gatekeeping what kind of ships you're allowed to like" with this screenshot u a proshitter or sumn🤨

the rest of the things they listed will be talked about later

2:51 | oh wow the "fixing art" thing. i dont think this is a thing anymore but it definitely was a big thing back in 2019! the thing is im quite neutral on it because a lot of artists dont like their work being edited but on the other hand if you dont like when people put the correct skintones on your art then maybe you should colour it right the first time

i will say though if you see cool art of like dark choco or espresso and its whitewashed and u wanna edit it so its not and u keep it to yourself then idc thats fine to me. the grey area is when it comes to characters like moonlight or alchemist, who's skintone is quite difficult to pull off in some artstyles. a lot of the examples in the video use people like cherry blossom or cotton candy who don't quite fit in the same category but are usually targets of this anyway

a very simple fix is to just use a different colour but to not make them significantly lighter from how they look in canon, which alot of the examples you showed don't do. they all look pale as shit compared to what they actually look like ingame and thats why people complained about them

also your marina video is fucking awful btw

3:53 |

4:56 | "so many people in the fandom hate the developers" im one of them hiii. i should probably use this time to explain why (please note that this was made in 2019 so a few of the points im bringing up here will probably be a bit too recent)

devsisters really love showcasing whitewashed art of their characters (they used to do it on their forums rarely but thats now gone) and recently they've been quite excited to dabble in the whitewashing themselves (keep in mind the others except from twizzly gummy don't really count as whitewashing but they're all significantly lighter than their regular appearance). its like a hobby or sumn. everytime they host a fanart contest i brace for god damn impact. and this has been a thing since FOREVER

speaking of race and ethnicity, lilacs costume (and redesign in general) is just... bad but i dont think they were even introduced at the time of this video. milk and yam WERE though and its extremely baffling to me how this went through an entire team/company and got greenlit. its insane how shit they are (if it was just yam on his own i wouldn't hate him as much, i still wouldn't like him tbh, but they decided to pair him up with a white saviour). would i call them racist though? ...idk? they've been moving funny recently cant lie

another thing is the valentines day video which pisses me off to even think about. in that vid theres alot of.. ships that definitely arent legal. and whitewashing ^_^ they still haven't addressed it btw if ur curious. but it happened this year and honestly i wouldnt blame them for not thinking devsisters would do something like that bc i sure didnt!

theres also the thing with nfts but no one couldve foresaw that one coming

i assume when you mention people saying devsis are transphobic that you're talking about characters like dark choco or cinnamon who weren't referred by any pronouns until they were magically given he/him pronouns later on. nonbinary people can use any pronouns they so damn please but i get why people would get annoyed about them both suddenly being referred as he/him. wouldn't call it transphobic though. other than idk, how tf am i meant to defend something when u dont even telling me what ur talking abt

and 5:29 is quite the bold claim if you have to say "do i have evidence for this asian hate? no.." when bringing it up again btw

now we're onto the "stories from a few people" section. the few people are actually just two, the first one just runs their mouth for way too long. dw they both suck. ignore how the creep art person is there its been addressed already in the description (which is funny because the creator remembers this video still? and they presumingly agree with it still..?)

7:00 | i would heavily recommend putting the video on like 1.75 speed and just reading the reply yourself because this person goes on for WAY too long. excuse me if the timestamps are wrong because of this but at this point i really just do not care

the first thing i want to address is the cuphead and cookie run fandom comparison, because its just as ridiculous as it sounds "i have no idea why its so focused on being sensitive about cookies sexualities, genders, and races, when other fandoms dont even take subjects like that as seriously. im pretty sure the cuphead fandom takes its bosses less seriously than the cr fandom does its cookies..." literally what the fuck are you on about? excuse me as im not a cuphead fandom connoisseur here but how are either fandoms connected?? they both got a vastly different audience, gameplay, artstyle and characters (+ character design). the only thing similar is that theyre both popular i GUESS. also maybe the cookie run fandom is so "sensitive" about cookies races bc they keep getting whitewashed every 5 seconds🤔? just a game theory tho🤔

7:25 | pisses me off ever so fucking much. the "ive never seen a fandom get so disrespectful over issues that i honestly dont think even exist" while talking about MILK COOKIE COOKIE RUN are u crazy are u dense im glad you can frollick along in ur flowerfields not having to ever deal with racism but I cannot. and if ur not talking abt him then you'd be talking about the "sensitive about sexualities/genders/races" thing and yeah man u right none of that is real. the LGBT disappeared suddenly in 1987. all humans were destroyed as they had race. we're all grey goo people

im not even sure what the complaint even is.. oh nooo someone did a milk redesigning the controversial parts of his design... how ever will we recover..?

8:15 | yeah as everyone knows i can make a character as pale as i want in fanart as long as i say these are my humanizations actually. garbage argument, most people dont draw the characters as actual cookies and most of the fanart does just fine with eyedropping the characters original skintone (oh im sorry, dough!!) so whats the excuse?

dont worry this person is done now we're almost at the end

11:18 | for the other reply, its the fiction doesnt equal reality shit do you really need me to go over this one? do you really. if they just cookies and its just fiction then why y'all feelings hurt so bad. also lumping in whitewashing with age and gender while ur talking about peoples headcanons is a bit weird btw

anyway the last thing i want to go over is the "cookie run fandom is soo obsessed with debating on whitewashing, ages, gender and sexualities!" thing thats so prevelent with these arguments. 2019 had this fun period where with every new cookie that came out there was some sort of controversy with them (millennial tree and raspberry mousse being he/him, roll cake and sorbet shark being a child or not, ect.)

whitewashing is obvious why so i'll move on. some characters can be seen as lesbian coded (white choco and rose for having majority girl fans, sea fairy in general) and there are a few characters that explicitly aren't referred to by any pronouns (dark choco before the guild adventures, peppermint, ect.) which u dont see everyday in games. so yeah.. people care about these things because they like representation. who would've thought?

now im gonna be fucking real. the arguments over cookies ages were always annoying - the reason why the fandom has arguments about ages so much is because devsis REFUSES to tell us canon ages. think about it, majority of the "canonially confirmed" children in the game are from a child event that happened in LINE. thats a completely different company running the game. because of how character-heavy the game is, ships are a very big part of the fandom. i sincerely doubt theres anyone in the fandom who doesnt like any ship and at the time rarepairs were rly common. so when you've got a fandom who really likes to ship and developers that dont ever mention ages then you get a fucking mess. i dont know what sorbet shark or roll cakes age is and its pointless to even debate it because id rather just have the devs confirm it themselves (not like they ever will). and even for the one singular time they did specify that one of the characters was a child, they still showcased fanart of said kid being shipped with an adult anyway

but that concludes the video and thus this response! i have wasted so much time on this i honestly could've showed you them ranting about how "cookies dont have skin colours" in the video or the part in the marina video where they complain about how people "think whitewashing is bad but make non-black characters black" and moved on but what else would i do on a sunday night?

[a-lil-perspective]

A Conundrum of Crimson and Confessions | Part II

A/N: Surprise! I never do anything by halves around here, so part II it is. :) Crosshair X Reader. I intregrated two requests courtesy of @kriffingunlucky for kissing prompts #48 and #50, alongside a request from @leonidas-banana-phone for kissing prompt #7 in reference to this list: https://a-lil-perspective.tumblr.com/post/617485639804469249/50-types-of-kisses-writing-prompts Feel free to send in your own! [Warnings: Swearing—in-universe terms and out] @shadow-hyder @starflyer-104 @thegoodbatch @obiorbenkenobi @karpasia @everyonehasanindividuality

▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️▪️♦️

You had to stand on the very tips of your toes in order to greet his lips with your own, but Crosshair quickly compensated for the height difference by hoisting you up to brace you against the wall with his torso.

You bit your lip and fisted his blacks to stifle the moan rising in the back of your throat in response to the way his mouth sinfully traced your jawline before dipping into the soft curve of flesh that is your pulsating neck.

A sharp nip following the dragging of his teeth in the crook forced a startled gasp of his name to escape; and Crosshair forced himself to disregard the way your whine of pleasure left him slightly lightheaded. He moved to slip his tongue inside your mouth, relishing in your stupefaction with the way he traced over each tooth in deliberation, as if memorizing the shapes, before sucking the air right from your lungs.

His incisors tugged possessively on your bottom lip before pulling away, drifting a hand down to teasingly hook his deft fingers around your waistband while the other held you in stasis.

All comprehension crumbled under the weight of apprehension, the latter who became your only companion alongside each stroke and grinding; your credence slowly diminishing with each trailing kiss. The sniper was in the midst of the removal of your top before your hand planted firmly to his chest in halting your stupor of drunken arousal, suddenly emerging from your trance.

What was actually happening?

“Y/N—just relax, would you? I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Not physically, you won’t.” You hated how vulnerable you sounded, voice barely audible and far more exposed than your body currently against the sniper.

Crosshair stiffened, intensely furrowing his brows as a frown tugged the corner of his lips. You became reacquainted with the ground, and he slowly released his grip on the hem of your top. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

You set your jaw, averting his gaze. “Nothing.”

Realization quickly dawned on his features, and he suddenly gripped your chin—a little more forcefully than he intended—tilting your face to acknowledge him. “You think I just want to fuck you? Is that it?”

He looked... downright offended.

“Look at me, Y/N.”

“How else am I supposed to take this, exactly?” You finally spat, the admission spewing like pretty venom and sinking deep into the sniper’s skin.

His eyes narrowed in solemnity as he willed the surface of his most convincing demeanor and inwardly scolded himself for his piss-poor portrayal of emotions. “That’s not the only thing happening here.”

“And because you say so, that somehow makes it true? You show up all of a sudden, prowling around in looking for a release, and expect me to believe there’s actually something more going on? Are you kidding?”

“Stop. Contrary to what you claim; I’m not out to just screw you over. That is the truth.” The sniper grit his teeth, wishing he was equipped with a toothpick to distract from his growing discomfort and spiraling agitation.

“Forgive me if your ‘indifferent demeanor full of lust’ claims anything different—your apathy isn’t fooling anyone, Crosshair. Especially me.”

Your words cut right through the sniper like the bitter cold, a sharp static pushing him over the edge with anything but pleasure.

“Damn it, Y/N. It’s just a facade and you know it—the same facade I keep everyone locked out with, the one that I despise just as much as you do—so don’t even go there with me,” his voice hissed in warning, his finger jabbed menacingly. He was pissed and felt his frustration giving way to a regrettable bout of reaction. “Stop acting like I don’t care about you when you know damn well that I do.”

Deathly silence. It’s thick swirl hung stagnant in the air, pernicious, seeking to blind and destroy. The only suitors who acknowledged the enveloping chaos were the frail emotions between two people, their hearts pounding amidst the fanfare of looming war within the silence.

A stray tear suddenly trickled down to seep between his fingers still cupping your face, silently prodding at the sniper, demanding an apology; a foreign language for the man, but it’s translation long overdue. Crosshair gently brushes the tear’s salty judgement away with full realization of the way he fired off too harshly, recognizing the way he wrongly took advantage of your overwhelmed state.

“Hey... I’m sorry.”

“I’m just tired.” You quiver, shaking your head in fervent dismissal of his apology. You inhale sharply through your nose and find yourself chewing the inside of your cheek to bite down your embarrassment. Your pain was simply a reflection; of the way fatigue weakened your emotional barrier and goaded it into allowing trepidations and deep insecurities to flourish there in the dark; haunting your thoughts, corroding your senses, eating away like acid.

The truth was dangerous.

Inwardly, you knew the man gently embracing you and stroking your back in his attempt at comfort was nothing if not candidly forthright, wholly unabashed in his opinions and predilections.

So would you rather him lie to you, that you receive justification for unnecessarily wallowing in self-pity? Why can’t you just be happy? What is it that you want?

“...I know what you need, Y/N. What you actually need.”

Sleep... Rest...

Any lingering arousal dissipated as Crosshair hunched slightly to tighten his grip around your frame, commanding gently. “Jump.”

You drape your arms around the back of his neck before hesitantly obeying with a slight spring upward, wrapping your legs around his waist as you felt yourself whisked off to... your bed, you realize; your back now enveloped within the soft furniture in being gently laid down.

“Y/N. Please. Don’t give me that look.” Firm contact with his reassuring lips briefly melted your crestfallen expression before Crosshair gently nudged you. “Scoot.”

“...I know damn well you aren’t the cuddle-type.” You sourly muse.

“There are many things you don’t know about me.” He answered coolly and carefully, settling in, pulling you close.

“Ah, there it is—it’s only been five minutes in passing since your last bout of cryptic statements, I was starting to get worried.” Crosshair cast you a sideways glare before rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“Your sarcasm is something else, Y/N.”

“Learned from the best.”

“Under different circumstances, I’d be flattered.” He leaned further back in taking you with him, and your rigid form became splayed atop his own. Your chin rested on his chest as he threaded his fingers through your hair. “But, I miss your smile. And I want to help.”

“Sure that’s the only thing?”

“Karking hell, I‘m not aiming to get in your pants, will you stop being so abrasive for one damn minute?”

You lift your head to meet his gaze. “Not so fun being on the receiving end, is it?”

He wasn’t even allotted time to register your derisive jab before you feign a pout and exaggeratedly roll off of him, your eyes to mimic the act of intense dramatization.

Crosshair clamped down on his inner cheek to quell a misplaced chortle threatening to effervesce at a very inappropriate time. He couldn’t help himself in finding your theatrics rather endearing.

However, in quickly moving to fully straddle you, Crosshair remembered he had far more pressing matters to attend to.

“Crosshair, kindly remove your lightweight ass off of me.”

“No.” To hell with your stubbornness. Crosshair deflected your shove by gently, but firmly, pinning both arms in place to rest on either side of your head. He gently thumbed at your soft forearms.

“Don’t shut me out.” It was both a command and a plea.

“Like you do to everyone else?”

You verbally strip the man, revealing his hypocrisy. He pursed his lips, contemplating, his form still hovering over yours while baffled on the prospect of how to obtain patience and reassure this stubborn, beautiful, resilient woman of his authenticity.

In that instant, his lips became the physical manifestation of his open invitation to you, countering your claims by lovingly radiating softness and warmth, beckoning; sucking out both your breath and the breadth of your insecurities while simultaneously smothering his own. A locked kiss, unabated, reflecting his inner passion for you where words failed to convey; signing silent confessions there within the sheets.

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty—

He finally pulled away, and your gasping for air following the break of suction became the only sound echoing the ambience of the room.

Melting. That was the only word you could conjure up to describe your hazy state. Your eyes had fluttered closed as the concept of time became foreign, tightly sealed within the kiss itself, ceasing to exist once enveloped in the taste of the man’s lips. A warmth spread through your muscles like fire, coaxing them into a slackened and total state of ease with the way he held you close; yet friction coursed through and caused your nerves to buzz with the mix of adrenaline and a sparked question:

What does it mean?

Crosshair became transfixed on the way your parted lips glistened with his salivated remnants that had dotted the velvet skin. He studied you, as he always did; now coaxing you through your spout of breathlessness by way of caresses to the sides of your face and through your unbound tresses, before a hand settled back to rest against your cheek in anticipation of your pending response.

“Nice way to be suffocated... Very nice.”

Crosshair noted the way your snark became laced with the contrast of words coated in something so soft and welcoming alongside the shift in your demeanor; signifying the way you had successfully decrypted the new weight of elucidation in his kiss. You were more lenient, and dare he say, relaxed.

Mission accomplished.

He shrugged, the corners of his lips twitching before turning upward in a smile. “Isn’t it? Figured it’s only fair, with the way you constantly steal my breath.”

“That was cheesy, and I thought you didn’t play ‘fair’?”

“That was sincere, and only for you.” He paused to mirror your smirk before continuing, his gaze boring into you with emphasis in his admission. “And I don’t kiss anyone that way. That’s the first thing you should know.”

“Next thing?”

“I dream of you.”

Peculiar of him.

“And...?”

“I live for you.”

“So... what are you saying, exactly?” Your quizzical expression disguised your intuition and racing heart. You knew.

Isn’t it obvious?

Three words...

A solidification, an unspoken utterance, a profound declaration indicative of a sacredness that dared not reveal itself. Not yet.

Crosshair wordlessly answered in the form of shifting his weight off of you, finally, before guiding you onto your side and pulling you tightly to his chest. His chin nestled just above your clavicle, perfectly positioned to whisper assurances and devotions into your ear.

“I’m here. With you. Only you.” He planted a light kiss to the shell of your ear; a promise.

“But—”

“Y/N. Trust me?”

You swallowed through thick words, and you pulled your lips into a tight line of pondering before opting for a distinct nod of affirmation.

“Let me hear you say it.” He murmured the encouragement against your temple.

“I trust you, Crosshair.”

“Good girl. Rest.”

In the quietude, Crosshair tangibly discerned the way all was undisturbed: in the atmosphere, amidst the base, within the durasteel walls, and between the two bodies intertwined in the sheets. The soft puffs of your even breath, signaling to Crosshair what he perceived to be your tranquil state of dormancy, effectively eased the sniper into his own; something akin to serenity. His hands wandered, his mind became lost in a haze of ‘what ifs’ and ‘what nexts’.

“Crosshair. Stop stroking me like I’m a damn Loth-Cat.”

His hand, inadvertently trailing down the soft expanse of your thigh in his state of bliss, suddenly gained consciousness at your prodding. He reached up to sweep the hair from your face and mumbled a half-hearted apology; surprisal of your roused state evident in his voice. “Go to sleep, Y/N.”

“What are you, my Superior?” You scoff in good-nature, and a low chuckle suddenly rumbles against the crook of your neck, the vibration and sultry syllables causing your skin to shiver.

“I prefer ‘Daddy’ or ‘Sir’.”

Testing the waters.

You needn’t actually see where the harsh flick of your finger landed; Crosshair’s grunt of surprise was all the confirmation you needed.

“Don’t push your luck, Ram’ser. You won’t be hearing either proceed from my lips.”

“Not tonight, no.” He smoothly agreed while briefly grazing his fingers over his mildly injured nose. “But, for future reference.” The backside of his hand slowly caressed the length of your arm, his addition of underlying suggestiveness leaving no room to argue.

Which was absolutely fine with you.

[haec-est-fides]

Filodox’s Trials of Apollo Reactions [Part I]

Welcome to part one of a reflective journey through Trials of Apollo ft. my original ebook annotations! I’ll be your host, 2020!filodox.

For this first episode, we’ll be going back to May 2016, the beginning of it all: The Hidden Oracle.

Annotations for this round are brought to you by 2016!filodox.

Is there anything we should know before we begin, 2016!me?

2016!filodox: I swore on the Styx never to read another Riordan book after he killed Octavian. And yet here we are.

... Alright then! Let’s get started.

But first, a more detailed overview on how this series will work: I will excerpt bits and pieces of the books based on what I highlighted / annotated on my first read. Beneath each quote, I will share what I wrote in the annotation. Below that, I will (occasionally) laugh at my past self, clarify the note, or say how my view has changed.

I encourage questions, comments, and concerns (of which there may be many), so go ahead and use that replies feature if you feel so inclined! However, these are just my opinions and (occasionally) emotional reactions, so no hate pls. <3 (Or, if you do send hate, pls make it funny.)

Now, diving right in with Riordan’s dedication!

To The Muse Calliope. This is long overdue. Please don’t hurt me.

2016!filodox: Hurt him. He didn’t even name the chapters.

As you can see, I had yet to experience Lester’s haiku and was already mad based on the table of contents alone. I went into this series very salty...

I inflicted a plague on the Greeks who besieged Troy.

2016!filodox: At least he did something right. Once.

I was just,,,extremely ready to die on Octavian’s hill. (Though I was a huge Troy / Aeneas stan before all this, just to be clear.)

Is anything sadder than the sound of a god hitting a pile of garbage bags?

2016!filodox: I actually find this particular god crashing into a dumpster quite amusing.

I also blamed Apollo for what happened to Octavian. I think that had a lot to do with how Apollo acted on Delos in Heroes of Olympus, basically disowning Octavian and whining about how some “creature” scammed him? That was bullshit. Apollo needed to own the fact that he blessed Octavian, but he just abandoned him and denied all the blame. TL;DR I had a grudge, okay?

My mind stewed in confusion, but one memory floated to the surface -- the voice of my father, Zeus: YOUR FAULT. YOUR PUNISHMENT.

2016!filodox: Wait, is this bc everyone blames Octavian and therefore Apollo? Bc lol but also no?

*cough* Octavian did nothing wrong 2k16 *cough*

Zeus will reconsider, I told myself. He’s just trying to scare me. Any moment, he will yank me back to Olympus and let me off with a warning.

“Yes...” My voice sounded hollow and desperate. “Yes, that’s it.”

2016!filodox: Apollo is a self centered frat boy, I forgot...but it is slightly...endearing? *narrows eyes*

Ah, how close I was to stanning Lester in the first chapter, when he was at his most “goddy”. You know, I actually made a rule for myself when I started reading Trials of Apollo that I would not under any circumstances stan Apollo. That was a naive goal, because it was never really a danger.

Regardless, Zeus had held me responsible for Octavian’s delusions of grandeur. Zeus seemed to consider egotism a trait the boy had inherited from me. Which is ridiculous. I am much too self-aware to be egotistical.

2016!filodox: I am going to Murder him.

*chef kiss* the hypocrisy ! the lack of self-awareness !

“I just...I assumed -- I hoped this would be taken care of by now.”

“You mean by demigods,” Percy said, “going on a big quest to reclaim the Oracle of Delphi?”

2016!filodox: That sounds like a decent quest, or you know, QUESTING FOR THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS

I’ve always said I can see the future but an inch to the left. Also, I don’t like Ella.

It warmed my heart that my children had the right priorities: their skills, their images, their views on YouTube. Say what you will about gods being absentee parents; our children inherit many of our finest personality traits.

2016!filodox: AND HE’S MAD ABOUT OCTAVIAN?!

I mean ?

Apollo, when Austin and Kayla show ambition: THEY GOT THAT FROM ME <3

Apollo, when Octavian (or Nero, or Caligula) shows ambition: srry i don’t know him ??

He had a weak jawline, an overlarge nose, and a beard that wrapped around his double chin like a helmet strap. His hair was curly and dark like mine, except not as fashionably tousled or luxuriant. His lips curled as if he smelled something unpleasant. Perhaps it was the burning seats of the bus.

2016!filodox: Nero ???

Not quite sure how to feel looking back at this moment. Call out post @ myself for instantly recognizing Nero, when afaik this scene was before we had any hints that Roman emperors were even a plot point? But here’s the thing: I don’t remember why I could recognize him so easily. I don’t remember where 2016!me obtained this ancient Rome knowledge. A mystery.

On another note entirely, did Nero really like,,,astral project into Apollo’s fever dream to address him directly? Because Rhea does. And sometimes Python does. But Nero? Can he do that?

The man laughed as flames licked at his purple sleeves. “You’re not sorry yet, but you will be. Find me the gates. Lead me to the Oracle. I’ll enjoy burning it down!”

2016!filodox: I too enjoy burning things down. # Nero confirmed

My only comment here is “oh you sweet summer child,,,”

Oh. Perhaps some of you are wondering how I felt seeing [Will] with a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend.

2016!filodox: No, actually. I wasn’t wondering. I was plotting how to kill you, them, and quite a few other people. Do you think I could trade you for Octavian?

Oh man, back at it again with the salt. XD

I could only remember my conversations with Octavian, the way he’d turned my head with his flattery and promises. That stupid boy...it was his fault I was here.

A voice whispered in the back of my mind. This time I thought it might be my conscience: Who was the stupid boy? It wasn’t Octavian.

2016!filodox: I can’t really...explain my emotions upon reading this. I’m still not quite okay, but this...it’s bittersweet in a way. I don’t know if this is a poor attempt at a proper closure, the author’s way of beating a dead horse, or just a way to make Apollo seem pitiable. Whatever it is... Octavian was important enough to remain in Apollo’s mortal memory. He somehow made promises to a god and had Apollo wrapped around his finger. And despite being so much like Apollo, the god blames him. Like everyone blames him. But Apollo also realizes, accepts on an infinitesimal scale, that “it wasn’t Octavian”. He wasn’t perfect, but neither is Apollo. Apollo is (at least) subconsciously admitting his own guilt in the whole affair.

...yeah. I will note that this bit isn’t meant to develop Octavian, but rather uses Octavian as a prop to support Apollo’s development? Which is why it still stings. Like thanks, I guess.

“Your judgement in the past has been...questionable. I wonder if you have chosen the right tools for this job. Have you learned from your past mistakes?”

2016!filodox: Nero has made plenty of mistakes to learn from

Love how I just assumed it was Nero back in chapter 10 and went with it, zero hesitation. Also love how I heard Python say Nero has made mistakes and went “oh absolutely”. In fact, here’s something funny in retrospect that will become more and more apparent: I did not like Nero in 2016. Or, at least, I thought I didn’t. There’s something really odd going on here that baffles me, looking back...

“A triumvirate is a ruling council of three,” I said. “At least, that’s what it meant in ancient Rome.”

“Which is interesting,” Rachel said, “because of this next shot.” She tapped her screen. The new photo zoomed in on the building’s penthouse terrace, where three shadowy figures stood talking together....

2016!filodox: Is it bad that I’m smirking? Because it’s getting interesting ~ *clear malicious intent*

Wow, edgy. Triumvirates are just a neat, Roman thing and I stanned.

“The last triumvirate I dealt with included Lepidus, Marc Antony, and my son, the original Octavian. A triumvirate is a very Roman concept...like patriotism, skullduggery, and assassination.”

2016!filodox: THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL EVERYONE. MODERN OCTAVIAN IS A VERY GOOD ANCIENT ROMAN. POLITICS, ESPECIALLY SHADY AF POLITICS AND POWERPLAYS, ARE QUINTESSENTIALLY ROMAN. Also, I’d like to note that it’s confirmed, in this universe’s canon, that Augustus was a son of Apollo.

Ohhhh, wait. I think I’d watched the HBO series Rome by 2016, which would at least partially explain my ancient Rome knowledge. (Amazing tv show btw!)

“He heard them talking in Latin.”

“Latin? Were they campers?”

Pete spread his hands. “I--I don’t think so. Paulie described them like they were adults. He said one of them was the leader. The other two addressed him as imperator.”

2016!filodox: !!!! (obligatory 💕)

I was such a simp for Latin in high school. And the Roman Empire. Still am, but hey.

“The Beast is planning some kind of attack on your camp. I don’t know what it is, but it’s going to be big.”

2016!filodox: Runs in the family I guess

The Octavian / Triumvirate parallels are everywhere... 👀

“The emperors made themselves gods. They had their own temples and altars. They encouraged the people to worship them.”

2016!filodox: # deify me

*smacking my past self with a stick* You stop that! Edgy child!

Anyway, a much better point here is like,,,the Imperial cult was huge in the ancient Roman world. Looking at Apollo’s explanation here, why did only the “worst” three emperors get to be immortal? Did famously “good” emperors like Augustus and Marcus Aurelius have the option of becoming minor gods, but they chose Elysium or something? Are there slightly less infamous emperors just hanging around anywhere as minor gods? A lot of Roman emperors live on in human memory is all I’m saying.

“Wait!” Will said as I reached the door. “Who is the Beast? Which emperor are we dealing with?”

“The worst of my descendants.” My fingers dug into the doorframe. “The Christians called him the Beast because he burned them alive. Our enemy is Emperor Nero.”

2016!filodox: I honestly can’t believe it took this long to reveal this? Was anyone surprised?

Nero’s reveal is rather late in the book compared to Commodus, Caligula, and even Tarquin iirc? But it makes sense, being the first book of the series. Also love how 16-year-old me was like “this reveal is silly because everyone, like me, recognizes Nero on sight” and didn’t question that assumption at all.

“Germani.” Instinctively, I moved in front of Meg. The elite imperial bodyguards had been cold-blooded death reapers in ancient Rome. I doubted they’d gotten any sweeter over the centuries.

2016!filodox: BITCH. See? This is why I love Rome. They knew what they were doing.

Ngl, as someone of Germanic heritage, I felt really represented by the Germani, which is hilarious on so many levels.

He tried to compensate for his ugliness with an expensive Italian suit of purple wool, his gray shirt open to display gold chains. His shoes were hand-tooled leather, not the sort of thing to wear while stomping around in an ant pile. Then again, Nero had always had expensive, impractical tastes.

2016!filodox: I don’t exactly like Nero, and actually think he was quite the shitty emperor, but I guess I mildly respect and “like” him on principle (in this book at least).

OH YOU SWEET SUMMER CHILD. I was so convinced that I didn’t actually like Nero, despite all of the lowkey evidence to the contrary? Who hurt you, past me? (Lmao, it was Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio.) My working theory is that I was too much of an Emperor Augustus stan at the time to admit liking Nero. It’s hysterical. Look at me equivocating like a champ.

I’d been so proud of my son, the original Octavian, later Caesar Augustus. After his death, his descendants became increasingly arrogant and unstable (which I blamed on their mortal DNA; they certainly didn’t get those qualities from me).

2016!filodox: I’m glad Apollo and I can agree on something. Augustus was amazing and those who came after him...significantly less so.

See! The propaganda really got to me, what can I say?

Nero clasped his hands as if in prayer. “Oh, my. It seems we’ve had a slight miscommunication. You see, Apollo, Meg brought you here, just as I asked her to. Well done, my sweet.”

2016!filodox: This was obvious but I still find it...gods, the only word I can think of is “delicious”

. . .

“The Beast killed my father. This is Nero. He’s -- he’s my stepfather.”

I could not fully grasp this before Nero spread his arms.

“That’s right, my darling,” he said. “And you’ve done a wonderful job. Come to Papa.”

2016!filodox: Okay, but we should have known this since it became apparent her weapons were Roman. Also, oof. Also also, WHY did Riordan feel the need to add that last line? Why?

ASDFGHJKL: I CAN’T

“After the fire, we’ll rebuild,” he said. “It will be glorious!”

2016!filodox: The amount of times I have used this very logic is worrying.

For (some) context, Firelord Ozai is my favorite character from AtLA. <3

The scene might have been funny except that the Germani were now back on their feet, five demigods and a geyser spirit were still tied to highly flammable posts, and Nero still had a box of matches.

2016!filodox: Oh, I find this plenty amusing!

The emperor stared at his empty hand. “Meg...?” His voice was as cold as an icicle.

2016!filodox: The various ways his tone / voice have been described throughout this conversation are just 💕

*looks at camera like I’m on The Office*

Seriously, though. Nero’s voice is like the central descriptive element of his character because he’s so manipulative. It’s really cool and a great use of detail.

[Meg] turned to Nero. “You told me never to lower myself to my enemies’ level.”

“No, indeed.” Nero’s tone had frayed like a weathered rope. “We are better. We are stronger. We will build a glorious new world. But these nonsense-spewing trees stand in our way, Meg. Like any invasive weeds, they must be burned. And the only way to do that is with a true conflagration -- flames stoked by blood.”

2016!filodox: Real 👏🏻 Gods 👏🏻 Require 👏🏻 Blood👏🏻

I was way too enthusiastic about this whole situation, wasn’t I?

Nero grinned. “Good-bye, Apollo. Only eleven more Olympians to go.”

2016!filodox: Wait, shit, WHAT

Having read Tower of Nero, this probably had something to do with Python interfering with the Fates, huh? But does that mean it’s more Python’s plan or Nero’s? If this was Nero’s plan (with his 12 kids literally replacing the Olympians) that’s,,,really fucking bold.

Then I heard the screaming from Camp Half-Blood.

2016!filodox: Music to my ears ~

I’m presenting every edgy detail of my annotations so I have a proper case file when I inevitably have to face the question “On a scale of one to ten, how relatable is Emperor Nero and why should you have realized it’s a ten sooner?”

In a flash of silver light, the camp’s magical barriers collapsed. The Colossus lurched forward and brought his foot down on the dining pavilion, smashing it to rubble like so many children’s blocks.

2016!filodox: Payback! Dear gods, I can’t stop smiling! I’m just like “YES!” I know this will all probably get fixed or whatever but I’M HAVING A MOMENT.

I’ve learned to appreciate the small wins. <3

Percy grabbed one of the crown’s sunray spikes. He sliced it off at the base, then jabbed it into the Colossus’ forehead.

2016!filodox: As much as Nero is FAR from my favorite, I really don’t like defacing ancient (or replicas of ancient) statues and art...

This is where I just start laughing at myself tbh. I was so insistent on not liking Nero. Like, I sound like I’m in denial. Peak equivocation. What happened to that heart emoji a few chapters back? Why did I suddenly make it about *checks notes* ancient art? Updated translation: nooo don’t ruin the Colossus Neronis it’s so sexy aha

Just as the [arrow] reached its apex and was about to fall back to earth, a gust of wind caught it...perhaps Zephyros looking kindly on my pitiful attempt. The arrow sailed into the Colossus’ ear canal and rattled in his head with a clink, clink, clink like a pachinko machine.

2016!filodox: HOW MANY EX MACHINAS IS THIS ?! The dryads, the arrow, Percy, the enchantment, and THIS ?

One of my criticisms of Trials of Apollo in general is just that the stakes are so much higher and Riordan usually solves that problem by having his heroes win on long odds. The chances of them succeeding at like,,,anything they attempt are astronomical, but of course they manage. It’s not surprising but it does get a little tiring.

“Yo, Nico,” Leo called, “please tell me that’s it for the physical abuse.”

“For now.” Nico smiled. “We’re still trying to get in touch with the West Coast. You’ll have a few dozen people out there who will definitely want to hit you.”

2016!filodox: Oh I’d love to hit him. With the flaming, Imperial gold payload of an onager. Preferably WITHOUT the Pontifex Maximus attached to it -- unless of course you mean the false pontifex, Jason Grace.

Leo was the salt in the wound for this one, ngl. He rekindled my undying ire over Octavian’s death. As I said at the beginning of this, I was extremely ready to die on Octavian’s hill after Heroes of Olympus. That sentiment sticks around for a while...

And we can call that a wrap!

Though it may seem like it, my annotations are not, in fact, a compilation of Nero’s greatest hits. There are a lot of scenes of his that I love (naturally) but I didn’t have anything to say about them when I first read the series. Maybe I’ll share those another time.

In any case, I hope you got something out of this ridiculously long post! Until next time! <3

[aelaer]

[1/2] Now this is an actual ask as in asking for help. 👀 I have a problem with Steve and Tony. I spent too much time too early on reading anti/not-friendly post-CW fics about 'Team Cap', and because of that I have been unable to see Tony as a flawed human or Steve as a good person. It's a pattern I've become too familiar with, and even recent stories are often going into that sense. I have been trying for some time now to do something about it, but either the method was bad, or I couldn't

(I tagged a couple people in this post – if you were tagged, the question directed to you is wayyyy at the bottom! Feel free to ignore of course.)

You really hit me with a doozy with this ask. I might offend someone for not thinking the exact same way as them with… everything this topic entails… Steve, Tony, anti-fics. Followers from last year know what happened last time I talked about poor and OOC characterization in fanfic, lmao. Beware The Easily Offended! This Is A Critical Thinking Of Your Hobby Zone! I Am Being Critical Of Specific Types of MCU Fanfic!

Please don’t click the read more button if you can’t handle an opinion that might not match yours. Really. I’m fine with discussing different opinions in a mature manner but if you have issues with people saying they don’t like a specific type of plot, this post is not for you. (The read more button doesn’t appear on the original post for followers using the mobile app, but it works on desktop and in all reblogs. If you don’t see a cut and don’t want to read, just skip it, please).

Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Can’t say folks weren’t warned.

I’ve had this in my drafts for several weeks because of the abuse I got the last time I wrote something critical about certain plot points used in fanfic. I was definitely a bit reluctant to look at this specific topic from an analytical and critical look as I remembered that, but hey, it’s really easy for a coward to use a sockpuppet account and throw abuse. It’s harder to be a minority voice with stark opinions contrasting the popular trend. I’m okay with having a minority opinion amongst the MCU fandom.

(PS - you’re welcome to disagree with my opinions, so long as you’re respectful about it. Remember there are individuals behind the screens!)

Concerning Character Flaws

So the thing about really well-written characters is that they are flawed in some manner. Anyone who thinks Tony or Steve exist without flaws – and I mean real flaws, like arrogance, believing they’re always right, short tempers, and other *real* character flaws that both of these characters have – well, if they don’t think they exist with these flaws, how well do they know the character?

You don’t have to know a character well to be a fan of said character – there’s no rules about that – but if you’re going to write fanfic, and that fanfic entails the character you love against a character you don’t particularly like, I’d say any writer looking to do anything resembling a good job would do their due diligence in figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of both characters before writing the characters themselves. These mental lists of characteristics should be equal for both characters. No, “good abs” is not a character strength if you have no physical aspects in the other character strength column. You don’t have to like a character to still write them well.

Even professionals don’t follow this rule when, say, shows get new writers or comics get different writers, so you might consider me silly expecting those dabbling in fan fiction. But yeah, if an author wants me to take a story seriously as something with quality, I expect the characters to resemble themselves in some manner.

(This level of resemblance varies when you purposefully choose for the protagonist to be evil, be in a completely different time period, etc, but authors who do this *well* still get core personality traits solid, even if morality is out the window or the profession is entirely different. I have a lot of examples from the Sherlock fandom of total AUs that pull this off well – haven’t read nearly enough AUs in the MCU to have a good collection here).

But a resemblance of character, of capturing the three-dimensionality of a character, is what anti-fics simply fail to achieve. The characters they’re anti against usually suffer cases of Flanderization, if they’re not completely out of character altogether in showing traits that were never displayed in the canon, ever. I don’t know why anyone would be interested in such stories, myself, and remain baffled at their popularity. Is there some sort of enjoyment in seeing such a 2D rendition of a character in what is otherwise meant as a serious work and provides absolutely no sense of proper conflict between two characters? Not for me; it immediately takes me out of the story and when it gets too much, I abandon the story. It’s just not enjoyable for me. Turning a canon protagonist into a strawman is just lazy writing and offers nothing to the writer’s favorite, preferred character.

Concerning Steve’s and Tony’s Flaws

Every real human being has some sort of personality flaw that is decidedly unattractive. Some people are really good at showing it very rarely (and are some of the best human beings), but with these two characters we see them at their greatest heights and lowest of lows. Ironically, they actually share a lot of the same flaws, but display them in different manners in canon:

Both men believe they are the best man for the job and will do it without consulting someone who could actually fight against it - or go completely against them. Tony with Ultron is the easy example here. He’s the smartest man in the world and can tackle the issue of protecting it on its own. Steve, same issue, and his job is “helping Bucky”. *He’s* the one who can handle Bucky, the only one who can handle him - big thing in both WS and CW. If both of them had utilized their friends and allies a lot more, a lot of issues could have been avoided.

Both men are sometimes hypocritical. Steve promotes teamwork in all his speeches but again with the Bucky situation. Just… everything Bucky, man. Tony signs the Accords and immediately goes against them with what he gives to Peter, who most assuredly did not sign them (tangent: if he HAD joined the Avengers at the end of Homecoming, I have no idea how that would have gone since Peter would have had to reveal his identity to the UN and then there’s the whole ‘still a minor’ thing, and yeah, Homecoming’s end scene just makes me go nuts). But anyway, their occasional hypocrisy is one of the most realistic aspects of them because most human beings are hypocritical sometimes.

Both men are sometimes arrogant. Tony’s self-explanatory with his genius-playboy-philanthropist-billionaire. One thing he does not suffer from is low self-esteem in regards to his abilities. His arrogance comes from his genius. Steve’s arrogance lies more in his deep-seeded belief that he is on the moral high ground – and one reason I think a lot of people dislike him so much, because moral superiority is very much a faux pas in this day and age for some millennials and many Gen Z folk. He has a very, very solid sense of what is right and what is wrong, and that rubs some folks the wrong way. Tony is more morally fluid – but he is not by any means immoral.

Both of them have a really solid list of strengths as well. As this ask specifically is looking to find the good in Steve, I specifically Googled pro-Steve articles for you to click at your leisure (and one with both). If you need to go back to canon, I highly recommend rewatching The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier, which introduces Steve brilliantly and then lets Steve grow further in the second film.

(Note: I actually prefer Tony to Steve in terms of personal favoritism, but how a very loud segment of Tony fans have treated other characters has led me to be more vocal about the strengths of others, especially Steve and Wanda. So Tony might be in my top 5, but mean-spirited Tony fans have moved me to be a champion of other characters, if only to show other fans that there are indeed Tony fans that do like the other characters and treat them – and their fans – with respect).

Bringing Balance (to the Universe…) Fanfic-Style

This addresses the second part of your ask in regards to the fanfics. And this is where I started running into trouble, too, mostly because, well, just how many Stephen and Steve fics are there? Yeah, exactly. Stephen’s my main guy. So I did some research, outsourcing, and reading.

Here’s two I knew of before cuz Stephen’s in them in some capacity:

Identity Theft by KitKat992 - it stars Peter and both Tony and Steve play integral parts from what I recall. Good story too, very engaging.

A Dysfunctional Senior Year (series) by ApolloLoki97 - this also stars Peter and has a large Team As Family aspect, so it shows the entire Avengers team as just decent people. My favorite part is naturally part 3 because Stephen comes in that one, haha.

And to find other stories, I went into the Anti-Accords tag. It was nice to find fics that didn’t have such a love of hypocritical authoritarianism. Aannyyyyway.

Making Sense of Chaos by SparkedtoLife - mind the tags. Seriously, it’s heavy duty. Yet another Peter fic because he’s way more popular than my favorite character, qq. Lots of Netflix Marvel characters too! Anyway, deals with not only Tony and Steve really well (and has a different dynamic with Tony that isn’t IronDad, so that was a nice change of pace), it also deals with the Accords situation very realistically. And none of those are even main plot points. If you can handle the very serious, sensitive subject that is the main plot point, I highly recommended it. It’s a very masterfully done work.

Atlas by nanasekei - Stony. Treats all characters with respect and both Tony and Steve as three-dimensional, flawed humans with some serious self doubts. Also highly agree with the author that Thaddeus Ross sucks and is basically one of the biggest people to blame for Everything Going To Shit.

Homecoming by an orphaned account - Some Stucky. This is a lovely one-shot of things I basically wanted to happen when the team got together again but didn’t. Sigggghhh. Everyone is definitely in character in this one, traumas and healing and all. And look, another person realizes that trusting Ross is a really horrible idea.

Locks Not Replaced by Riverdaughter - first this writer has a Tolkien-based username so yay. Anyway, the fic starts off by Tony realizing that he almost killed Steve during the fight with his repulsors, and it was only Bucky that stopped him. Do people seriously think he’d survive a shot to the face with that power? This is one reason the ‘Steve tried to kill Tony’ people piss me the fuck off. What do you think those repulsors shoot, fucking rainbows? Honestly, guys. Anyway, mini rant over. This fic is great. Author comes in with a Cap favoritism but treats Tony well, and honestly Tony turning a blind eye to everything and ignoring Ross is what I like to think happened in canon (he clearly dislikes the guy). And also I love the Robin Hood parallels. Love love love. I think this fic is my favorite of the ones listed in this section.

Meeting Your Heroes by Riverdaughter - naturally after reading that fic I went to explore more and found this gem. She’s not incorrect in saying Tony wasn’t a good mentor at the beginning - I think he had his own growth after Peter’s actions in Homecoming especially (though even through Homecoming he was trying, just… not always successfully lmao). Anyway love these two together. It’s great.

Photograph by slytherclaw420 - A scene we deserved in Endgame and didn’t get. Sigh. Definite IronDad feels here. Hopeful Steve, rebuilding of a friendship.

And uh, an honorable mention of sorts:

Balancing the Scales by MoonFire1 - I’m not recommending this fic for good characterization or plot. It really doesn’t have either. The fic was written in retaliation for the nasty Tony fans completely trashing Steve’s character. You should only read this if you want to see the argument from “the other side” and if you want to see an anti-Tony fic like you’ve seen anti-Steve fics. Don’t harass the author though. This is presented as a counterargument to anti-Steve fiction, for those interested to read the other sides arguments. I don’t like the nature of the fic, but I loathe that “not Steve friendly” has 30 fucking pages of works with tens of thousands of kudos, so one anti-Tony fic (with a comparatively small three pages under that tag) really doesn’t compare. Ugh. I hate the anti culture in this fandom so much. Loathe it. It’s such a nasty energy! Why would you indulge in such negativity? But as I’ve mentioned before, I appreciate authors aware enough to tag it so I can avoid it. I wish that part of fandom culture didn’t exist, but well, can’t change it. Just can criticize the fuck out of it on my blog. Maybe encourage people to think less one-sided in the process if I’m lucky.

But there’s probably more good characterization Steve fics to be found, so I am forcefully recruiting two people via tag:

If you’re looking to dabble into Stony fics with good-guy-Steve, if anyone would know of any, I’d imagine it’d be @babywarg.

You don’t know this person, but @cairistiona7 has actually known me the longest of anyone here on tumblr (half my life! HALF! She even knows my real name :P She betaed a LOTR work of mine a decade ago I ended up never fully publishing… thanks again for all your help there…). Anyway, she’s a big Bucky fan, and Bucky friendships is the best thing. So if anyone would know any wholesome Bucky and Steve stories, it’d be her. (Or really I’d take any of your recs, Cair, as I’ll probably enjoy them as well).

I hope this was helpful to you md, and that I didn’t piss off too many of my followers in the process of answering this lol.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

A (wind)blast from the past...

So.. lets talk about Dobson and anime.

No, I am not meaning in the way that I am going to dissect his biased spiteful opinions on Japanese animation and comic culture on general (believe me, we are going to get there one day) but in regard of something that even got me by surprise when I learnt of it the day before.

You know Rumiko Takahashi? Mangaka of work such as Ranma ½, One-Pound Gospel, Mermaid Saga and most famously Inuyasha? Not only is this woman one of the most popular and richest mangaka on the planet with multiple awards under her belt (including the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 2019) but if you know anything about Dobson at all, you know that she is one of his idols. Meaning of course he plagiarized her wacky tone of humor, certain characters and overall style in his earlier works, primarily Formera and Alex ze Pirate.

Honestly, growing up with Ranma ½ myself (and being disappointed in the ending even today, though the ride was entertaining) I can confirm just how much he was “inspired” by her. Be it by the fact that Perry the Pirate acts like Happosai if he had the genes of Brian Blessed halfway split into him, that most of the wacky sledgehammer humor his characters can engage in is way too similar to what Akane Tendo would do, to Altea being everything Miroku from Inuyasha would be, if you removed his redeeming qualities.

  Well, here is the thing: Although Dobson likes her work, for reasons he never elaborated on, he can’t stand Inuyasha.

Which I assume is related to the manga being less “wacky” than Takahashi’s previous work (though she did also write darker stories like Mermaid Saga before that) . I can’t however say so for certain. All I know is that the manga (in my opinion) ran for longer than was necessary and that Naraku got off easier in a way than he deserved, even if he was killed by the end of it all, which are like two major criticisms I can think of.

 That said, I would be lying if I said I did not adore Inuyasha back in the day and see why other people liked it too. It was one of the first manga I followed regularly and while I can look back at it and see all the cheese to it, I genuinely liked reading the adventure of Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Sango and Miroku, with Sesshoumaru, Jaken, Rin and Kouga as flavor adding side characters. I have fond memories of listening to “Change the World”, I still own the third movie on DVD cause I really like it and the anime and manga is always good for a read down memory lane. But I digress. This is not about me self indulging into my weaboo past, this is about Dobson potentially changing his opinion about Inuyasha soon.

Why? Because it gets the Korra/Boruto treatment now. In short, there is going to be a girl centered sequel.

To elaborate: Last month (May 2020) it was announced that Sunrise, the same studio that did the first Inuyasha anime adaptation, would release around autumn (though that is more or less an estimate) a new series by the title of “Hanyou no Yashahime”, which roughly translates into “Yashahime: Princess Half Demon”. And not just that, Rumiko Takahashi herself will work as character designer on it and anime scriptwriter Katsuyuki Sumisawa, who collaborated with Takahashi on the scripts of all Inuyasha movies and has credits on many other popular Shonen Anime of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, is in charge of scripts.

Here is a link describing a bit more about the show

And here is a description of the plot, courtecy of livechart The daughters of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha set out on a journey transcending time!

In Feudal Japan, Half-Demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family.

Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a Demon Slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister.

Joined by Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, the three young women travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past.

I am not gonna lie, I am baffled, excited and a bit concerned about this. Baffled because it has been over a decade since the manga ended and half a decade since the plot was also wrapped up in animated form. Add to that also the fact that this is the first time Takahashi actually does a sequel to one of her previous works and it is quite a surprise.

Then obviously, I am excited as someone who liked the original story and I kinda want to see where this is going, even if I was okay with the story ending in the first place. See, I am one of those people, I do not need endless continuations of some plots because I have nothing else going on in my life than one work of fiction I can never let go off and call others nazis if they do not agree with me mindlessly consuming it (*cough* Start Wars *cough*)

And Inuyasha is one of those things where I was overall still happy with the end. Ater all, Kagome and Inuyasha together, the villain defeated, Kohaku back to normal, Sango and Miroku busy being parents. YAY! So I do not need a sequel outright.

In addition, I am not necessarily a fan of the entire “sequel series about an offspring of character X” hook that Naruto for example went for with Boruto, because it feels like just doing the same shit over again with a new paint job instead of trying something slightly more original. That and quite often a sequel is only possible by the writer going for “happy end override” where the struggle our original heroes went for is essentially made pointless and their happy end taken away, so that a new conflict for the sequel can even happen. (again, Star Wars, or as one example in videogames that really stunk for me, Golden Sun for the DS).

Which are in the end the things I am actually worried about. That this sequel may turn the end of Inuyasha more tragic than it needed to be. But hey, we still have till autumn. So who knows, perhaps the show will be quite upbeat in its own way. Hopefully at least as “good” as the original. And if not, I can still perhaps enjoy it in a “so bad its good” way.

 But independent of how I may perceive it, I am curious if Dobson, that is, if he even hears of this thing existing, will be interested in it. may do so. After all, on one hand it would be a sequel to a work by his favorite mangaka, who he likes so much, he feels even guilty about inflating characters by her.

 On the other hand, he does not like Inuyasha for never really elaborated reasons.

Then again, this will be a sequel involving the offsprings of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. And knowing his boner for lesbians that went so far as to hint he looks regularly even on incestuous shipping art for the characters of Frozen…

 Who knows? Perhaps this will “cure him” of the notion that “homosexual shipping” in anime is creepy and he will join the group of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha shippers via offspring proxy (sarcasm).

After all, it is”less” creepy when they are cousins, aren’t they? And even if it is “incest” it would still be progressive because it would be two girls. And even if they are not going to kiss and cuddle like the precious tiny little lesbians Dobson likes to imagine a lot of women as, he can still ship them because there is nothing wrong about shipping, as long as he does it.

Can you tell that I am not a fan of his hypocrisy?

Look, in all honesty, I am curious what he would think of the show and how he would “perceive” it. Primarily because it may give additional insight in how far his hatred for anime as well as his lesbian obsession goes.

And on a geekier note to end on,, are Towa and Setsuna supposed to be Sesshoumaru’s daughters? Congratulations on getting busy, you old white haired pretty bo- Wait. They are half demons. Sesshoumaru mated with a human. But the only human he ever even showed a slight level of affection to was…

 Oh…. oh, no!

For the love of god, please let her have been aged up enough! I know she was already aged up in the last chapter of the manga, but considering he was like her father figure... well, that is if Rin is the mother, but... come on, who else?

[derekscorner]

Characters stick around too long

Even now I still stand by the notion that some of KH’s problems is the sheer refusal to leave a character be. Which isn’t the only reason but I do think it’s one of them.

When the only thing that invests people is their trios then you’ll do what you can to keep them invested. (even if it takes random new rules or convoluted schemes to keep them around)

Which is a bit ironic since they’ve done their best to erase Final Fantasy cameos as the series go on but that is a character attachment rant of my own and I’d like to avoid my own hypocrisy for this post.

Onto my tangent

Knowing how much attachment and headcanon people have for characters makes me skeptical this will be read beyond here but hopefully I’ll get a few responses. (cause I like to hear calm opinions)

I’ll be blunt, I think there’s a few major issues with writing decisions we all dislike. One is that KH only has one or two writers that even follow along with Nomura’s plans (including himself). Second is that nearly every member of the cast we have is a clone of another.

And most importantly, I feel another huge issue is fans and Nomura’s refusal to let a character just bow out. They keep dragging them back. And I understand that many have a very strong emotional attachment to some to these characters even if I dont know why. (since more traits are fan assigned headcanon or manga added)

This love isn’t an issue in of itself and, given how little the games will develop a person, you need these manga/novel traits or headcanons. However, this turns into an issue when they deter progression for other things or characters just to appease what is viewed as unfair.

Sure, many of these characters had unfair lives. That tragedy is a big (if not only imo) reason that they got such followings. I also dont think they should just be left, what I think is they needed resolution. And I will grant you, how I’d resolve some of them differently than many others.

I mean, think about it, how neglected was Roxas screentime in Days, Strelitzias everything, or Kairi’s time just to focus on something else? How many random rules did DDD add to “fix” something that already had a clear means in canon to be saved or resolved?

It’s hard not to sound like I”m hating on characters that, in truth, I feel nothing for at all but any form of opinion or critique these days is seen as “hate”. Gotta love the close minded nature of the internet amirite?

How many of you have sit down and asked the questions like; “would I even care about this character if their story wasnt’ sad?” “what purpose does this character serve now?”

LIke Roxas, Xion, Namine, or Axel. What purpose did they have beyond their initial focus? Axel’s keyblade felt forced, Roxas and Xion just kinda popped back in, and of the four, Namine did the most by contacting Terra. Of course, you can miss that last bit due to how missed Namine’s scene in KH3 is.

What purpose does it serve to put present characters in the KHUX’s story? I can see Luxu or the MoM reappearing in the future because they vanished prior to that war. It’s a bit lame KHUX was remolded to such relevance but that alone is annoying but passable.

But why does Ven have to be from the past? Or Marluxia and Larxene? What does this do? I know lots of people wanted the lives of some Org members explained...even if I can’t understand why.

At this point I know I’m rambling but I’m truly just baffled by it. It’s adding stuff to things that dont need it while ignoring things that could use it. Kairi is so neglected that anything they try to do now feels forced.

Strelitzia was the first new character in a while, a female at that, and she was killed off two weeks to the day of being introduced. What fucking purpose does that serve but to add to the intrigue of human Marluxia?

Hell, why did KHUX have to keep going? That initial run as a browser game was damn good. It was a self contained mystery story. It explained what a war was, it explained how Sora’s world even formed. Look at it now though, it’s a cycle apparently, there’s timelines all around, and it continues to drag in present cast into it’s fold to artificially grow.

Fuc it I am just rambling with no point now. I should wrap this up, I am sorry.

At the end of the day I am just horribly annoyed that things seem to happen for no reason or time is wasted to explain a revival and I’m horribly annoyed when someone is ignored to explore a character that’s lived beyond their point.

I believe in resolution and I think so much of KH would’ve flowed better if the story had it.

Edit: For fun, how would’ve resolved it? I’ll list my ramble below-

Chi/UX? That would’ve ended at the initial war. No time traveling, no present cast, that story would exist to explain Luxu, the MoM, and the war. If need be, you could even remake it as a console title but never artificially keep its story alive.

And dont tell me Chi kept going to answer unanswered questions cause we’re now on UX and still dont know anything.

Roxas, Namine, Xion, and Axel? These people had the perfect chance for resolution in DDD. Sora was in a realm that could manifest them. They could’ve been a great tool to show Sora’s darkness grow. Whether they lived on as dreams or Joshua reincarnated them, they should’ve stopped here.

TAV? I felt Aqua’s story should’ve resolved in KH3 or even the Secret Episode of BBS. I wouldn’t have kept Ven nor Vanitas around past BBS and I still would’ve had Terra (as the Lingering Will) help destroy Terranort. Whether he got his body back or died you can decide.

Xehanort? For the love of anything you deem holy, do not try to redeem him. He was developed ok for a villain till DDD turned him into Aizen and invalidated the series till then. He definitely didn’t need to be passed off as he was in KH3. Just let me end the fucker. I dont care about his wishywashy motives at this point.

And the nobodies? No, never, recompletion is a sad way to bypass death. I hate it and Xehanort (and at this point, Luxu) didn’t even need it to return. 

/rant

[kcwcommentary]

VLD6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

This is a long one.

This episode starts where the previous one left off. The music even makes it feel like the episode is starting in the middle of a scene, rather than starting a new episode, which is odd. Keith tells Coran that he’s “got incoming” and we see, I think, the hover bike/craft that the show’s used a couple of times functioning here like a standard transport pod. That’s a use that hasn’t been established before and feels forced to me. The clone’s body is aboard, and the bike/craft would have to be operating on autopilot, what with Keith in the Black Lion. Honestly, this feels like an add-on to the episode to explain how the upcoming fight can happen and Keith not have to worry about having the unconscious clone’s body with him in the Black Lion, like they realized after a lot of the episode was formalized and then tacked an extra two shots on to cover themselves.

Voltron and Sincline are still fighting. After the shoulder cannon proves too slow, Voltron forms sword, and Sincline counters with two swords. “Now we will see how Alfor’s legacy stands against the new Altean defender,” Lotor says. I actually really like this line. It’s well performed, and it continues some of Lotor’s new argument from last episode that he’s done more to try to preserve the Altean culture than Allura (and in some ways, he’s not wrong about that). I wish the validity of his work in trying to keep the Altean species from going extinct wasn’t lost in the show focusing so hard on the quintessence harvesting from the colony. Yes, there is something gross about his harvesting that quintessence, but because this is the end of Lotor’s story, and to justify this conflict the show focuses on this particular reprehensible thing he’s done (without fully explaining why he did it), the good that comes from him preserving the Alteans is ignored. Because the show wanted to get to the action fight scenes, Allura went almost instantly to yelling at Lotor over harvesting quintessence that she hasn’t had any reaction to knowing that there are a bunch of Alteans still alive in this universe, that she is not alone. That is a huge realization for her to have, and it feels like the show has totally skipped it.

I am quickly tired of seeing Lotor animated to have a maniacal smile on his face. That direction choice is so disrespectful of his character. It feels like the show is trying to say we can interpret him as villainous by way of insanity, and the equation of mental illness with villains being dangerous is both antiquated storytelling and an offensive trope. It’s also reductive characterization that severs the combat from the motivation. The external, physical fight should be a symbol of the internal, psychological argument between the protagonist and the antagonist. But by making Lotor the villain by way of insanity, the show deprives the fight of its necessary weight.

After an earlier moment of Voltron, from a distance, not being able to hit Sincline with the shoulder cannon specifically because it’s too slow and Sincline is too fast, Keith orders Hunk to again attack with the shoulder cannon. The blast is even animated really slowly (ships have been animated to physically move faster than the blaster beam is moving in this shot), and Sincline is just floating there not moving. Granted, Sincline sort of kind of teleports away right before the blast would hit, but even still. Why Keith suddenly thought the shoulder cannon would be effective when he had already deemed it to be ineffective, I don’t know. Nothing has changed in the combat to allow for a differentiation of circumstances to make the cannon now be effective.

Sincline pops out of a tear in space and slam into Voltron.

Coran puts the clone in a healing pod. It’s a super short scene, and it has no dialog. It’s a weird edit because there is no narrative transition that makes having this scene occur now have any meaning. Sometimes a show might cut to a different location for a slower scene in the midst of a larger action scene, and that’s almost always to manage the action’s tension, but this doesn’t do that because this scene is really short. It’s almost instantly cut back to the action scene. I wonder if this too, like the earlier two shots of the hover bike/craft, was added at a notably later stage of development for the episode.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight, Sincline teleporting through tears in space. Allura says that Sincline is “entering the quintessence field at will.” The show gives some characters a couple moments to display a lack of intelligence. Hunk responds, “Didn’t we blow up the gate?” The gate that was managing the exact same rift from 10,000 years ago, thus the gate was not creating the hole but supposed to manage access to it? “How is he entering without it?” Pidge asks. Because Sincline is made out of the “comet,” and that “comet” tore a hole in space all on its own. This doesn’t seem like it should be information/conclusions that they are baffled by at this point. Allura says that she gave Sincline the ability with her alchemy. Not really, but okay. Does this mean that we’re supposed to think that Allura created functional capacity and did not know she was doing it? Though if she did, that wouldn’t exactly be unheard of since Alfor apparently gave Voltron a ton of functionality that he never designed it to have, but that is a criticism I have about the show’s lore of the creation of Voltron. The idea that someone can accidentally create functionality in a system is ridiculous, but I guess at least there’s precedent.

Lotor references a “new Altean Empire,” which is an interesting choice of words that I really wish had a greater exploration within this moment. We’ve seen an Altean Empire before, one created by alternate-reality-Allura in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky.” This gets to something that I wish the show had spent more time on than it does: The setting of this story canonically has alternate realities, and we barely see any of them. The show doesn’t use the differentiation of comparison that alternate reality stories allow in order to explore the show’s main characters. Right now, because of Empress Allura in “Hole in the Sky,” our main character Allura could be hit by the realization that what she sees in Lotor that she considers evil right now is very much what she herself is capable of because of having seen that alternate reality.

Lotor enters back into the quintessence field. The Paladins start talking about how they need to go into the quintessence field and use the quintessence there to power their fight against Sincline. Since Lotor’s argument was that they need the power of the rift’s quintessence, and the Paladins fully rejected Lotor, it makes them hypocritical to now say that they need the power of the quintessence from the rift.

In response to the question of can Voltron access the rift, Allura says, “My father did it once before.” No, he did not. The show is forgetting the details of its own history. Alfor did not tear a hole through space, creating a portal into the rift. Alfor, as seen in 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” widened an existing tear in space that was created by the raw, unprocessed “comet.”

Everyone is “focus[ing their] energy,” which is nothing more than them clichédly sitting around with their eyes closed. There is a split-screen of half of Allura’s face and half of Voltron’s face, and their eyes glow. It’s very reminiscent of a similar split-screen with Shiro and the Black Lion back in season one. This split-screen moment with Allura and Voltron, because it’s so similar to Shiro and Black, unintentionally makes me think about how the show has now entered the next and final phase of taking Black away from Shiro, and it’s aggravating. Also, I can’t help but to think that this moment between Allura and Voltron would have worked so much better if she wasn’t a leg. If she were in the Black Lion, if she were the head of Voltron, it would have so much greater significance.

A point of light distant in space sparks, why, I have no idea. This does not match what Sincline was doing, which occurred locally, directly around it. Allura orders Voltron to form sword, which is how Alfor widened the rift in “The Legend Begins,” but again, that was an already existing rift. Allura/Voltron just created a rift by doing nothing but looking off into space, and the rift opened a significant distance from them. And the sword Voltron forms is the blazing sword, which is normally formed with an accompanying emotional beat showing the Paladins making it with their bayards, but not here. They zoom the distance to the hole in space and stab it with the sword. Everything glows.

They open their eyes to see themselves in the endless light of the rift, though now there is some dark bits of dust or cloud to help give visual texture to the environment. Pidge and Hunk ooo and aah over the energy of the quintessence. Keith says, “It’s more than that; can you hear your Lions talking to you? Voltron is capable of more than we’ve ever imagined.” Since the Paladins are supposed to be bonded to their Lions, they don’t need this quintessence in order to hear their Lions. They really are proving Zarkon’s, Honerva’s, and Lotor’s point about the rift. For all the previous rejection the show has had the protagonists make about sourcing the quintessence in the rift, they sure are fine with it now. I can’t help but be bothered by their hypocrisy.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight. The music during this moment is some of my absolute favorite music from this show.

The Paladins screaming as they fight is kind of disturbing, which I suppose is the point. Pidge yells, “See if you can dodge this,” and has the Green Lion detach its head and shoot off at Sincline. Since when can the Lions separate their heads from their bodies? Is this functionality ever seen again in this show because I don’t remember it whatsoever? Pidge is in the head, right? So, does that make the left arm of Voltron unable to function? It seems like it would be a dangerous thing for her to go off on her own and abandon the rest of the team like this. Lance yells, “Come and get some,” and blasts Sincline with energy from the sword.

Allura, gritting her teeth and breathing heavily, is angry, and she hears how the other Paladins are speaking angrily too. She then realizes that the quintessence is causing them to behave this way, and she says, “We have to get out of here.” I really wish the show had an explanation for this, but it doesn’t: Why does this quintessence cause people to react this way but the quintessence Allura uses all the time to power the Castle Ship, to revitalize the Balmera, to perform alchemy, to restore Lance’s health in 6x01 “Omega Shield,” none of that causes this aggressive behavior. The quintessence of each Paladin is what bonds them to their respective Lion, but it doesn’t cause them to turn hyper aggressive like this. If quintessence is life energy, then how does it cause a person to behave like this? Quintessence is just miscellaneously whatever the show wants it to be at any given time, even if different instances of quintessence contradict one another. And, as I’ve complained about before, if quintessence is life energy, where is it coming from in this rift? The only things that are shown to live in the rift are the weird blob creatures. What are they? What makes them so special beyond being, like quintessence itself, a nebulous whatever that the show writes them to be in any given moment?

Allura says, “This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster.” No, he was a monster before. He was always a horrible person. As I’ve said before, I do not accept the show’s attempt to absolve Zarkon and Honerva of their behavior by blaming it on an external influence, especially when we’ve seen what kind of people they were before they were poisoned by quintessence.

Lotor takes off his helmet, and the show has him become even more ridiculously maniacal. This is not an interesting antagonist! This is uninteresting 80s cliché villainy. And it’s a total disservice to how interesting Lotor’s character has been throughout most of his time in the show.

Hunk asks, “How do we stop this,” and Allura responds, “We give Lotor all the power he wants.” That’s another cliché. It also means the battle continues here in the rift, which they just finished saying that they cannot stay in because they were all becoming uncontrollably angry. Now, their uncontrollable anger is gone because the plot has moved on. They’re apparently not affected by the quintessence like they were just a few seconds earlier for no actual reason. It’s frustrating that the show will have a development like that – their recognition that they are being negatively affected by the quintessence – and act like it’s a big development only to immediately ignore it as the scene moves on to the next stage of the action sequence. Allura earlier said, “We have to get out of here,” but now they don’t. Rather than having Voltron work to leave the rift, the narrative just has them return to fighting.

So, Allura closes her eyes and the V-like shape on Voltron’s chest glows. Voltron blasts Sincline from its chest, with the ring of a wormhole circling the blast. Lotor continues to be depicted as ridiculously maniacal, and every time they have him scream, it offends me that they did this with his character. He tries to get Sincline to Voltron to attack, and just as he gets there, everything turns bright white. Afterward, Sincline is adrift.

Keith says, “Let’s grab Lotor and get out of here.” Pidge responds, “No, we can’t. We have to leave now” with a vocal quality that makes me think of every arrogant moment Pidge has ever had. The idea that they had to leave was introduced earlier, but then ignored, now it’s back again. It’s all just storytelling by whatever is convenient from moment to moment, not anything based on logic. Allura affirms Keith’s position, but Hunk concurs with Pidge. For some reason, Voltron is now in danger of being destroyed by all the quintessence, I guess. Whatever.

It’s so weird to see Allura act like she cares about Lotor here when she’s already declared him to be a “monster.” Voltron flies out of the rift, leaving Lotor inside. Outside, Allura says, “If we had stayed in the quintessence field, we would have kept fighting until we destroyed ourselves.” What additional fighting could they have done? Her comment sounds like one that would have been made if, the instant she first says they have to leave when they were all super angry, they then immediately left. But how would they have destroyed themselves by continuing to fight when they totally won the fight against Sincline/Lotor?

Coran reports that “all of Lotor’s jumping in and out of the quintessence field has created multiple growing rifts in the fabric of time and space.” Why? The previous rifts – the one in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” and the one on Daibazaal from 3x07 “The Legend Begins” all the way up until now – have not continued to expand. The one in “Hole in the Sky” actually closed all on its own. The one on Daibazaal remained as it was for 10,000 years. This sudden threat of expanding rifts is totally inconsistent with how this show has portrayed these entrances into the rift before. This is more of the show just doing whatever at any given moment without care about keeping its lore consistent. This doesn’t feel like a threat because the show hasn’t built it up as one. This being a threat is a negation of what the show has previously depicted and established about how this all works.

Pidge says, “Unless we do something fast, those tears will continue to expand until all existence as we know it has been destroyed.” That is not how these tears have ever behaved before.

“Scanning the rift for any strand refabrication possibilities,” Pidge says. What is “strand refabrication?” Meaningless words. Hunk adds, “I’m running a few different models now to see if there’s any chance it could close on its own.” One, if the show was consistent with how these rifts have been depicted in the past, yes, it should either close on its own or stay as is for ten millennia. Two, the ability to construct a computer model to conduct any of this “running a few different models” that Hunk speaks of would take time to set up, but the show just has it be instantaneous.

Allura was apparently taught on Oriande how to tear open rifts, but not to close them. “I just don’t possess that level of alchemic knowledge,” she says.

Pidge says that the only thing that could close the rift is “a source of gravity more powerful than a supermassive black hole.” Small black holes are differentiated from supermassive black holes solely by their mass, not by their gravity. Once you get past the event horizon of any blackhole, regardless of size, it’s all the same gravity. That’s kind of the point. A black hole is gravity that has reached a level that causes the center to mathematically become a singularity, a point of infinite density. Also, there is nothing conceptually that can be more gravity than literally so much gravity that everything becomes a singularity, becomes infinity. This show just can’t help itself but to get science fundamentally wrong.

Coran says the teludav will work because it “creates a brief flash of infinite mass.” Uh, why? It would require a huge amount of energy to create just a tiny amount of mass, so if they have access to the infinite energy that would be necessary to create “infinite mass,” then just use the energy. Also, if they have the infinite energy needed to create infinite mass, then they had all the energy they needed to give to Lotor for him to use to stop the Galra Empire from taking quintessence from living creatures.

Coran’s proposal will result in the destruction of the Castle. Hunk refers to it as their “home,” and that makes me wish we had gotten more moments of regular life aboard the Castle Ship to help it feel more like a home. For me, there has always been a kind of sterility to the interior of the Castle.

Coran speaks about the Castle, indicating how it is for him a connection to his grandfather and how it is “the last piece of the real Altea.” This is where the emotion for this moment is strongest. While the others have lived on the Castle for this series, this is the last bit of the past that Allura and Coran have of their destroyed world. Once again, Allura and Coran have to give up a part of their lives. Allura orders Coran to set things up and for everyone else to load everything they can into the Lions.

The music of the evacuation montage is really good. Krolia takes care of the clone’s healing pod. Pidge gets as much from her room as she can carry and a couple of floating fluff creatures from 2x01 “Across the Universe,” which I didn’t even remember they had because they’re a total non-entity in this show. Allura gets the mice and a small holographic display of her parents, which makes me whish this show had given us as much of her mother as it has of her father. It feels really patriarchal for Allura to have this big relationship with her father but none with her mother. Lance deals with Kaltenecker. Hunk loads up some boxes that I imagine are food, since it’s Hunk. Romelle is riding with Allura.

Coran says, “Goodbye, old friend,” to the Castle. The show almost exclusively gives humor to Coran, so this is a big difference for the performance of the character. The voice actor makes Coran’s voice sound really sad in this line, and it’s truly making me tear up as I watch it.

Everyone leaves the Castle as it enters into the giant light at the center of a swirling cloud. Even though Lotor created multiple tears, I guess they’ve expanded such that they’re all just one really big tear now.

The music continues to be amazing.

Coran stands beside Allura in her Lion.

The animation sequence of the various rooms we’ve seen of the Castle over the past six seasons is emotional.

Light explodes then shrinks then explodes again then shrinks again.

The rift is gone. Left behind though is a small crystal. Hunk says, “It’s a diamond. The pressure crushed the Castle of Lions into this little diamond.” Why “diamond?” A diamond is made out of carbon, which I doubt the Castle was made out of. Also, we today have the ability to synthesize diamonds, so it’s not exactly a difficult thing to do. Something as fantastically huge as this explosion creating a diamond is not awe-inducing. Also, how did this Castle-turned-diamond survive when it entered the rift? This is all totally contrived. Also, just in case anyone was curious, despite what a lot of people think, diamonds are not actually rare. We only think they are due to successful marketing campaigns and a really small number of suppliers controlling almost all of the diamond mines here on Earth. Those suppliers use artificial scarcity to affect the market-price for diamonds, which is commonly misinterpreted as high prices resulting from rarity. But no, diamonds are not rare.

“Well, we saved all realities everywhere,” Lance says. Say what now? This episode did not establish that the rift from this reality into the quintessence field threatened all realities. The tear in space being between this reality and the quintessence field would have nothing to do with other realities because they’re fully closed off from our reality. There are no tears in the space of the other realities into the quintessence field. So, if this reality can be safely sealed off from the quintessence field, then the other realities would remain safely sealed off from the quintessence field even if the tear between this reality and the field caused this reality to be consumed by the field. This is more of the show just making stuff up without thinking through what they’re actually saying.

Keith says they need to find somewhere to land so they can help Shiro. The Lions fly off toward a galaxy. Since this battle took place at Daibazaal, when did they leave the galaxy that Daibazaal was in in order to now be flying toward a galaxy?

The music again is wonderful.

Keith says, “This body’s barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive. It’s inside the Black Lion.” And here the show infuriates me by not wrestling with the reality that our heroes are taking the body of someone and giving it to another person. If all life has quintessence, then so too does this clone. It is unique. It is not empty. The clone has had his own, unique experiences that no one else has ever had. He is a person. And our supposed heroes only see him as a thing they can use.

It is my understanding that once confronted with this criticism, Joaquim Dos Santos and/or Lauren Montgomery tried to say that the spirits of the clone and Shiro combine here. Of course, the show does not depict that. Had the show shown that, maybe this wouldn’t feel so cruel. Just because the EPs made an extratextual proclamation doesn’t mean that it’s in the text. Keith’s specific phrasing – that the body is “barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive” – makes it such that their actions here are killing the clone so that Shiro can have his body. Keith is totally dismissive of the clone, “barely living” is still living. And the body has the chance to recover if they hadn’t taken it out of the healing pod.

Lance starts crying because he realizes now that Shiro’s spirit tried to talk to him in 5x03 “Postmortem.”

Allura walks over to the Black Lion, does the hand-touch-and-glow thing, taking Shiro’s spirit from Black. She walks over to the clone’s body, touches his head, and puts Shiro’s spirit in the clone’s body. This means that Shiro’s spirit was temporarily in Allura’s body. There is never any exploration of the significance of that, and there really, really should have been. That’s a huge deal. It would have been a story that could have allowed Allura and Shiro to have grown a lot closer as friends. They could have come to understand one another in a way that no one else ever could. But because Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery hated Shiro so much, hereafter, Shiro is more and more sidelined in the story. They didn’t want to explore Shiro’s character anymore, and they only brought him back because they had to.

Shiro’s hair turns all white (quintessence makes your hair white?). He opens his eyes and sits up but then slumps against Keith. The Lions all roar. I love the voice acting of Shiro saying to Keith, “You found me.” There’s an ache in his voice. Shiro looks at Keith the whole time as he closes his eyes. Their relationship is one of the best things in this show, whether you want to term it friendship or surrogate brothers (I would say potential romantic, but I don’t think the EPs and writers ever even remotely considered romantic to be a possibility between these two characters; I think they were oblivious to any potential romantic undertones the show has for Shiro and Keith). That is why it’s infuriating that in the last two seasons of the show, Shiro and Keith barely ever talk to each other. This relationship that is fundamentally important to both of them is mostly ignored for the rest of the show.

The characters now start wondering what they are going to do next. Out of nowhere, Pidge says that Coran gave Sam Holt a copy of the plans of the Castle of Lions. The show visually composes a group shot of Coran, Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Keith looking toward the camera, the camera pulling back away from them. Shiro is not included in this shot, nor is he visible in the reverse shot that includes Krolia and Romelle. I can’t help but feel like this is purposefully cutting Shiro out of the composition. His laying on the ground doesn’t matter: the camera could have tilted at an angle as it pulled away to have included him. The composition of the shot reveals a directorial decision that suggests a lack of inclusion of Shiro in the group.

The music the episode ends with is again excellent.

Thus, season six ends. It has been a frustrating season, a frustrating past four seasons. The specifics and implications of everything that has happened with Lotor and Shiro over how this middle third of the show is concluded are in so many ways hurtful. This show makes me ache for the storytelling to have been better than it is in a way that no other show has made me feel.  

[ransomedbard]

WIP: Peacekeeper

Category: Gen Rating: Teen

At the age of 39, Quatre has grown the Winner Corporation into one of the Earth Sphere’s most powerful businesses.  His life is entirely centered - some would say consumed - by his work, until an unexpected request from Dorothy shatters his routine.

The unexpected events of the past week had begun with a deceptively simple message from Dorothy Catalonia’s assistant: “It will not be long now.  D has asked for you.”

Quatre lingered over the scant dozen words, scanning them again and again for clues to help him understand this unprecedented request, but he found none.

It would be hard to classify his relationship with Dorothy. He found it difficult to use the word “friends”, because to him that evoked the deep and lasting bonds he had formed with those who were near to his heart. But surely he and Dorothy were more than mere “associates”. They moved in many of the same circles, and spoke at least several times a month.  Though in scale the company she headed was a fraction the size of his own, it was a major player in several key industries, and they found themselves bumping shoulders at charity galas and trade group conferences alike. More than that, they ended up having lunch or tea together fairly often; she instigated most of these, inviting him to meet so that she could relish informing him personally of some coup she had pulled off.

“Rivals” didn’t really fit either.  It took two to compete and while she was quite serious about scoring wins against him professionally and personally, he didn’t reciprocate. It wasn’t that he didn’t respect her; he simply didn’t see business as a zero-sum game, of winners and losers.

Over the years they had settled into a certain détente, a neutral metaphorical ground they could occupy without Dorothy sniping at him, one where she turned her considerable skill at exposing hypocrisy and flaws on their peers. He found that when he wasn’t the target of her roasting, he rather enjoyed it; could even see the underlying goad that drove her: frustration with the unfairness, ineptitude, and dumb cruelty of the world. She was a person of lofty ideals expressed via crude means.

To be challenged and held to account for his mistakes, to joust verbally on any and all topics, to enjoy the guilty pleasures of snark and the darker pull of schadenfreude - that was his relationship with Dorothy.

But that was the limit of the bond. Not once had she been candid, or shared her needs or her fears.  

And now - to ask for him, invite him into her presence when she was at her most vulnerable - never in all the years he had known her had she done that.  

So he had canceled everything on his schedule and raced to Earth, to the hospital where she would very soon be giving birth to her second child, a son. From the prenatal scans the doctors knew that he had a congenital deformity and would require immediate and drastic surgery, with no guarantee of success. Even with Quatre’s ability to leverage his corporation's resources to make the best possible speed, it took him the better part of a day and a half to arrive, and he came into port not knowing if he would be joining them in celebration or mourning.

Her assistant met him at the entrance to the hospital wing and efficiently brought him up to speed as they navigated the winding corridors. The baby had been born alive six hours before, and whisked directly into surgery, which had lasted four hours. He was now in the neonatal ICU; the next few days were critical. Dorothy was in her recovery room with her husband, David, and the situation was - well, he didn’t need a briefing for that, as the yelling was quite audible.

Quatre paused at the entrance to her private suite to straighten out his suit jacket and run a hand over his hair; then he swung the door open and stepped in.

David was sitting on a chair by her bedside, his face flush with anger. He looked up at the intrusion and upon recognizing Quatre looked entirely baffled for a moment, but recovered with a speed that did him credit - he was a diplomat by trade. He rose and strode towards Quatre, blocking the way. “Mr. Winner? My wife is indisposed at the moment—“

“Ms. Catalonia requested him,” supplied the assistant, who had followed him into the lion’s den (bless her.)  To this second assault on his expectations David did not rally; he was staggered, and turned back to Dorothy with trepidation. “My dear,” he began lamely, “do you want, ah, to see Mr.—“

“Of course I do, David,” she cut him off with relish. “He has come all this way.”

“Of- of course,” David mechanically replied. Quatre took pity on him and gestured back towards the door. “If I might impose on you, perhaps you could bring me up to speed?”  David nodded and let Quatre lead him out by the arm; the man was so exhausted that leaned on him heavily.

Quatre listened attentively as David explained what he already knew; the surgeons had done their best, but the newborn was still gravely ill. As he spoke, sympathy flooded Quatre’s heart - he did not know her husband well, but it was clear he was in despair and almost overwhelmed with grief.  When David was done, Quatre deftly turned the conversation to how it was a matter of waiting at this point, and assured him that he had done all that he could for now. “Your daughter is at the hotel? If you want to go back to her, I’ll sit up with Dorothy as long as she wants me to.  I’ll make sure that word will be sent to you the moment anything changes.”  Dorothy’s assistant chimed in that she needed to catch a few hours of sleep herself, and the two of them went off together.

With that sorted, Quatre turned and gave a rap with the back of his hand to the partially open suite door, through which he did not doubt Dorothy had heard everything. “May I come in?” He took her sound of irritation as a yes.

As soon as he sat down in the chair David had vacated Dorothy turned on him. It was a relief in a way; he hadn’t been able to guess what had possessed her to summon him, but now he thought he knew: she wanted a distraction. Thankfully it was a role he knew well, and he was willing to provide it - all the more so because he knew intimately how the frenetic struggle between hope and despair could bring out the worst in a person.

“Winner. I suppose you heard the fight on your way in and purposely interrupted it? How very like you to spoil a perfectly good argument,” she began, looking him levelly in the eye; hers were red and tear streaked, but he gave no indication of noticing.

“You can’t understand what we’re going through - but that’s your own fault. You’re nearly 40. Why aren’t you married with children yet?” At that he raised his eyebrows, genuinely caught off guard; she saw it and pressed. “Surely it’s not a lack of ambition; you’ve grown your damn company into a behemoth by acquisition. And you’re already an uncle to a brood of dozens, adding a few more of your own would hardly be noticeable.”

Quatre took a second to uncover the meaning behind the words. Why am I safe from the position you find yourself in, helpless to do more to protect your son, livid at the cruelty of fate? Ah, Dorothy, if you only knew. But that doesn’t matter now.

He reached out his hand near her own, offering; after a second she took it, squeezing hard.  He squeezed back.

“You’ve hit the nail on the head,” he said gamely. “The Winner name is rather stretched thin already, don’t you think? Between my sisters who didn’t marry or kept their last name, and all their offspring, there’s a good fifty at least. There are limits beyond which we cannot decently transgress - think of the poor genealogists.”

She warmed a bit to the faux argument. “Then follow their example and buck tradition. You can take your spouse’s name, or even better hyphenate - and then rename the company!” She managed a weak smirk. “Just think how much joy you would bring to sign-makers and stationers across the entire Sphere who would be put to work replacing every instance of ‘Winner Corporation’, from the tallest building to the humblest business card. I dare say you’d boost the economy.”

He grimaced in mock horror at the thought. “Why, it would take years—”

Down the corridor, a door suddenly slammed and an instant later Dorothy burst into tears. In that unguarded moment he caught the pulse of her fear; that any minute someone might come down that hallway to tell her that her child was dead.

She withdrew her hand from his and curled it into a fist as she struggled internally, but it seemed that the spell had been broken and she could no longer maintain the façade. Unable to stop, she let him see her cry, and he did not look away, because he sensed she would have hated that more.

When he thought she could speak again, he offered her his handkerchief and dared to ask a real question. “What will you name him?”

She took a hissing breath. “Damnit, Winner.”  But there was no real reproach in her voice.

“I rather thought you might...”

“Yes,” she said, and for once, they understood each other perfectly.  “Chilias. After my father.”

[voidsung-icefire]

Is shipping ok?

I’m sorry if this might evolve into something really different about half way through. I am very frustrated by things I have been seeing for a while now and I just want to get it out of the way.

So shipping. Yes. Taking fictional characters and imagining them in relationships of various sorts. There are so many different reasons to ship, from thinking that the pairing has a lot of potential in canon, to simply thinking the two characters look attractive and wanting to enjoy some spicy art of them. There are as many different reasons to ship as there are ships. So...is shipping ever a bad thing?

It can be. It can definitely be in certain situations. The first being using it to taunt someone. If the only reason for your ship is so you can shove it in the face of someone you know doesn’t like it, then this is wrong. An example of this would be some people who ship Tracer with Soldier76 only so they can “fight back” against the LGBT community by annoying them with their art work. These shippers are not good. The second situation is a bully shipper, a person that goes and imposes their ship as if it had supreme value over others. Attacking people with different ships online, going as far as to attack creators of the original work because they believe their ship is somehow more important than what the original creator of the characers feels. An example would be certain Lapidot shippers who bullied a Steven Universe writer over the internet relentlessly because the characters were shown to be only friends in an episode she had a hand in writing. These behaviours are unacceptable.

But are their ships the same?

No. Of course not. The reason behind these specific shippers shipping, and the behaviour they had towards others are wrong, cruel and entitled. But others may like these pairings for different reasons and behave in a well mannered, polite and kind way towards others. It is not wrong for them to like these things. It is not the ships that are bad in this case, it is the behaviour of the people that is wrong.

Overall, shipping is ok. It is not canon. It is a fan creation. One can recognize the canon, appreciate it, and still make art of a different ship on the side for a multitude of reasons. And that’s ok. Maybe a canon pairing wasn’t to your taste, like how Katara ended with Aang in the Last Airbender. Maybe you would have liked her to be with Zuko more. You know that Aang was the one to get the girl in canon. You respect that. You can still make art and AU fanfiction where Zuko gets her in the end.

What about McHanzo? Big Overwatch ship. Entirely non-canon. The two characters have never met. McCree displays a very seductive personality with several lines particularly directed towards women. And although he can be bi, he himself stated one of the reasons Ashe was never his type is because she’s rich. And Hanzo is very much rich. And even has that rich kid snooty attitude. Nowhere near a canon ship. But it’s everywhere. And it is allowed to be. People are not doing anything wrong by making their own worlds where these characters can be together.

Maybe Widowtracer? Widowmaker was brainwashed and no longer feels most emotions, including love. Tracer currently has a very lovely girlfriend in canon. So Widowtracer is very much non-canon. But it is still ok to ship these two. For a number of reasons. Some just find them hot. Some want a Widowmaker redemption and see Tracer as a way for her to move on from her past. Some want the three ladies together as an OT3. You can write up various scenarios where Emily leaves Tracer for various reasons, and that is completely fine because that’s what fanfiction is all about. It’s your take on the scenario presented for you.

Maybe Pharmercy? Ah. An interesting one. Also entirely non-canon, but for a reason some more..distasteful people...seem to ignore. We have a bit of a Lapidot situation here, because, you see, Mercy is intended to be with Genji in canon. The two write letters to each other in the Christmas comic (the same comic that revealed Tracer to be gay, first showed Torb’s wife Ingrid, had Jack holding a picture of his ex Vincent, showed Ana’s ex Sam, showed possibly Reyes’ daughter he had with his ex, showed Widowmaker at her late husband’s grave...) and were intended to get voicelines during Valentine’s Day where they would exchange chocolates. A very romantic gesture. Well...some Pharmercy shippers threw a fit, bullied the creators and now those voicelines have never been pushed to the live game. But they still exist. So these specific shippers had bad manners and are thus wrong, but Pharmercy as a ship is still completely fine. If you recognize the canon, respect it, but still want to make art of these two ladies together for a number of reasons, that is completely acceptable.

And what about intercanon pairings, pairings that go as far as to break the boundries of fictional universes to bring characters together. Like Jack Frost with Elsa, or Merida with Hiccup. Characters that will never meet because they are from different worlds made by entirely differnet companies. And those are also ok. Completely fine. Go express yourself. Make art.

Now here’s why I was upset enough to write this. I have long been witnessing immense levels of hypocrisy in the shipping community. Where some ships are put on holy pedestals and considered to have some sort of moral superiority. And all other ships are somehow inherently wrong and the people who ship them, terrible people.

So here’s the question: is it ok to ship a canon gay character in a straight relationship?

And to that I answer...is it ok to ship a canon straight character in a gay relationship?

If you answer no to one but yes to the other....why is that? Why is it okay for one way but not the other, when both are exactly the same. Yes, canon, breaking canon...most shipping is breaking canon. All fanwork is breaking canon in some way because only what the creators create and declare is canon is, well...canon. So why is some canon breaking considered ok when others are not?

I’ve heard the justification that you can’t ship a gay character in a straight ship because that is just a too important trait in a character to break. But why would the other way be ok then? Why is it ok to break the sexuality canon with straight characters but not gay ones? What about genderswaps? Would all rule63 fanart be inherently wrong because you’re breaking an important canon aspect?

What about all the reboots with different looking people in the lead? So let’s say...should Miles not exist because Spider-man was originally white? All the films that cast a woman to play a character that had always been established as male? These reboots have a right to exist. It’s artistic expression. It’s remix. It’s perfectly acceptable. Of course, there will be some backlash, there always is when you reinvent an established character that already has a sizeable fanbase. But ultimately, it is a matter of opinion on if someone likes the new version of the character or not. The new version its self is not right or wrong. It just...is. It just exists and does its own thing in its own way.

There are people who act like certain characters are inherently a certain way because a certain group somehow has....ownership...of the character. That Spider-man can only ever be white because he was white and belongs to white people. That’s not how that works. A character does not...belong to whatever arbitrary group because they have certain characteristics in common.

A character...is personality. It is actions. It is feelings. A character...is someone anyone could potentially relate to. That anyone can potentially like and dislike. It always just...baffles me when people act like they can only like and relate to a character if that character is an exact mirror of themselves. When I was a kid, I liked to watch Danny Phantom. And I thought he was cool. I liked how he had super powers. I liked how he fought the ghosts. I never once thought I couldn’t like him because he was a boy and I’m not. In Overwatch, I main Reaper. He’s an older latinx American man that I headcanon as bisexual. I am literally none of those things. He’s still my favorite. Soldier76 is gay. I’d say since most of the population is straight, it’s safe to assume most Soldier mains are straight. Should they stop playing this character because he’s gay and is somehow now off limits to straight people? No, of course not. Everyone can like or dislike any character.

Everyone can ship any character with any other character.

And some people don’t like that. Some people think...that certain groups...should have different sets of rules.

That’s not how it works. That’s not how equality works.

We are all human beings. If it works one way, it has to work the other way in return. A white character can be reimagined as black, a black character should be able to be reimagined as white. A male character can be rebooted as a female character, a female character can be rebooted as a male character. A straight character can be in a gay ship, a gay character should be able to be in a straight ship.

Some people think that certain groups should have different sets of rules. And that is unacceptable. You are not inherently better or more special or more important than others based on arbitrary traits you have had since birth.

If you think that certain people should have fewer rights based on the color of their skin, you are a racist. If you believe that certain people should have fewer rights based on their gender, you are a sexist. If you believe that certain people should have fewer rights based on their sexual orientation, then you are some form of bigot.

We are all human beings. We are all equal. We have the same rights, we play by the same rules. And if you advocate for something other than that, then you are not advocating for equality, so stop using that as your excuse.

Like the only group that should have special preferential treatment is people with disabilities because they simply cannot function properly if everything was left the same as it is for the majority of people. People in wheelchairs cannot use stairs. They need better access. That’s a given. But even they have the same laws, the same rights.

If you really still think that you deserve special treatment, that you should have additional freedoms, that certain people inherently deserve less than you and should have more restrictions placed on them, based on arbitrary traits they were born with and had no control over, then you are a terrible person. If you are going through a whole load of mental gymnastics and reaching out to find justifications for why you somehow deserve more than other people based on these traits, then you need to get out, talk to some real people and reevaluate certain things. If you can justify giving less freedom to others based on these arbitrary traits, you are opperating on the same mindset as genocidal tyrants.

And freakin read Animal Farm. If you haven’t, I’ll give you the TL:DR

Human farmer is an oppressor to the animals. The animals kick him out and establish equality. The pigs, after some convoluted stuff, decide that they deserve preferential treatment. The pigs thus become the oppressors over the other animals. The cycle continues, implying the pigs will be one day driven out and some other group will find some bs excuse for why they deserve more rights than the rest. Featuring the iconic line:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

[go-diane-winchester]

Why I detest Misha's stance as a liberal thinker

I have edited out this person's name for their own safety because they said something positive about me.  And the hellers are not going to be happy about that.  If Jensen can get threats from these people, then so can this individual. 

I can understand you resistance.  You probably spent ten years loving the man.  People cant just switch that off, especially when the guy champions something that the fan might find meaningful.  Women of color still remember Jensen's co-star Megalyn with fondness, as well as the eyebrow-raising sex scene between them.  Jared spoke favorably about Muslims, with Jensen nodding vigorously in agreement and Muslim fans found that meaningful.  When a trans fan takes pictures with a  beaming Jensen or Jared, other trans fans feel happy about it.  Everyone looks for something to love about an actor.  Then are also actors whom we might hate because of something they did that made them fall in our eyes. 

Maybe you are LGBT and Misha considers himself an LGBT champion.  You feel welcomed and included in his circle in a way that you don't, with J2.  I get it.  Maybe you are a woman, and feel like he is a feminist champion.  There are many reasons why anyone would like the guy.  If you have loved him for some many years, for those very reasons, some yahoo yelling her head off on Tumblr, is not going to change your mind.  I get it.  So if Misha is a nice guy, how come I still don't like him?  It is because I don't feel that man is genuine, that is why?

There are two kinds of problematic liberals:  The posers, and the bullies.  Misha is both of them.  I think there are nice liberals out there.  And once upon a time, liberalism was obviously a nice thing.  The idea sounds nice.  You want to not exclude people.  You want people to love as they wish.  You don't want hate governing your existence.  That is how liberals thought.  Now that has changed.  Misha, and people like him, are liberal bullies.  It seems to be the norm.  Liberal bullies don't work for change.  They want to enforce it aggressively.  And the worst thing is, they speak for everyone else.  There are LGBT fans that hate Misha and wish he would keep quiet.  There are women like me who think America has too many nasty women.  Why does it need more?  What hypocrisy though.  America needs nasty women, but destiel shippers are perverts.  So women aren't allowed to sexually express themselves without being seen as perverts and their art being reduced to porn.  That is Misha being a poser.  He is a champion for the LGBT but made a trans joke about Jensen's picture from his younger days.  Posers are hypocrites.      

Compared to him, Jensen is a proper liberal.  Jensen doesn't overtalk about ''how inclusive'' he is.  He doesn't brag, in other words.  Jensen considers inclusiveness about including everyone.  This includes the Christians.  He is friends with the Ducks, but his aunt is LGBT.  That is how to be a liberal.  You don't exclude people and then say you are including.  The first time Misha was asked about his role as an angel and about Christianity, he bashed the Bible.  I am a Muslim, but I was well and truly offended on behalf of the Christians in the audience.  I feel sorry for any Christian who paid to sit in that audience and get treated so horribly.  What a let down that must have been.  Jared did something similar once, regarding Christianity, on Twitter, but later amended his ways.  You make mistakes.  You learn.  It is what makes you human. Misha, as far as I know, hasn't done that.  But I would love to be corrected.

Jensen is a liberal where it counts.  He is not an activist, 24/7.  Jensen had a heart to heart with a trans fan once, and urged her to get out of the closet.  She promised that she would.  But if the same guy says no to destiel, he gets a death threat for being a bigot.  Why is that happening?  Because Misha has spent ten years, educating his younger fan base.  The millennials of today were teens back then.  And he has completely conditioned their thinking.  They have mini-Misha tendencies and feign offense at some really silly things, because they think it will benefit him.  Getting mock offended at everything that comes out of Jared's mouth is one such example.  Like him, they mock a situation or go straight into campaigning and activism.  His entire behavior with regards to Trump is faulty. 

Trump was the reason, I actually liked Misha.  Because Misha was vocally against Trump, I respected that.  I cant like a man who misplaces about a 1000 children at the border.  But then Misha didn't stop.  His tweets seemed to be more for attention than for the greater good.  That is liberal bully mode.  Liberal bullies tend to mock.  How is that going to help the children at the border?  How is it going to stop America from economic collapse?  He is not helping the situation.  He is not educating anyone.  There are gay men who hate the couple that sued the Christian bakery.  The couple were liberal bullies.  They said that they could find a liberal bakery but were ''making an example'' out of the bakery.  In other words, they were destroying the livelihood of an entire family to make a point.  The gay guys who were against them, were proper liberals.  They recognized that what this couple was doing, was unethical.  Of course, I lost respect for Misha's anti-Trump stance, when I realized he was in girl power mode and pushing for Hillary.  If somebody cant see anything wrong with Hillary, then they are blind.  Misha was urging people to vote for a vagina.  As a woman, I say, NO.  Affirmative action has no place in government...or anywhere else for that matter.  Vote for character and integrity, not girl power.

I am not young.  Maybe that is why my perspective of the world is different from yours.  Maybe you don't see what I see.  For now.  But one day you will grow a little older, and might see the world with some wisdom in your eyes, and then you might realize what I am saying.  Misha is a troublemaker and an influencer.  It took me eight years to realize this.  It might take you longer.  But I hope you see the light some day.  I once said I wouldn't speak about Misha's politics.  But since, I realized he is a hypocrite, I have changed my stance.  I am South African.  There are no liberals amongst us, but American politics is in tatters because of loud mouths like Misha, and its baffling to foreigners like myself to watch.  You don't even see the division. 

Please excuse the typos and thanks for reading.

[magnumversum]

Do Unto Others... Season 1 Episode 5: The Spud is bad at lying.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that fools will be fools. So let them be. They won’t change. They cannot change. Change is for the strong.

Lesson of The Day #1: Fools will be fools.

I was a fool once. Like the common people, I was a fool. Then I wasn’t. Then I felt a shift. I was asked by a news reporter at a press conference once, “What makes a boss a boss?”

I replied to that man, “A boss is defined by three things: perseverance, a strict lead, and a loyal following. While a leader is weak and gives in, a boss pushes on. While a leader is benevolent, a boss never forgives. A boss remembers the wrongdoings of his trespassers. While a leader is pursued by traitors and children, a boss is followed by honest women and men.”

The man replied, “Your leadership-”

I corrected, “My ‘position as boss.’”

“Your position as mafia boss is criticized by many as, ‘lenient and forgiving.’” he stated. “What are your thoughts on this?”

I said to him, and to the displeasure of the crowd. “I think the people who mock and berate me are idiots,” It was a fair criticism, what I called the defamers.

He went on, “You have been called a ‘poor excuse for a mafia boss’ and a ‘mother’s boy.’ What do you have to say to them?” I was baffled.

I retorted, “Critic. You know only to mock. To berate. I am not a ‘mother’s boy,’ nor a ‘poor excuse for a mafia boss.’ Only a foolish critic like you-”

“A foolish critic like me,” the reporter said again. “A foolish, ignorant critic… like myself. It’s ironic: you accuse us of bias, when the very foundation of the ethics for which you ‘valiantly stand’ is riddled with lies and false perceptions of the world around you. It’s ironic, truly ironic. Because if you really take your time and think about it- you are the foolish, ignorant critic- not me.”

“I admire your spirit,” I admitted to the reporter. “Sadly, spirit does not run the mafia. Money does. That’s why I paid these brutes to drag you off the scene in the most mocking, ridiculous fashion. Guards!” To the guards I shouted, “Take her away!” The guards: two of them, one grabbed each of his shoulders. I smiled as he was pulled further and further out of my eyeline. Then another posed a question.

“If you aren’t ‘lenient and forgiving as a mafia boss,’” the reporter asked me. “Then what are you?” I smiled at him, before posing my response.

“The hypocrisy in this room,” I muttered. “How respectable people are torn to shreds in this world by those who lack respect to begin with. Tell me this, mister reporter: where has your ‘not’ lenient and ‘not’ forgiving business gotten you? Allow me to remind you that your businesses are funded by the International Press Broadcasting And Communications, an arch enemy of mine in the news world.”

“The IP-BAC has received intel,” another reporter said aloud. “The tip comes from a man accusing you of a blackmailing scheme.”

The first reporter concluded, “You’re trying to blackmail Armand.”

”They ratted me out,” I said quietly, then shouting aloud, “They ratted me out.” I cleared through the gluttonous reporters and made my way to my lamborghini.The chauffeur escorted me to my mafia mansion. I rushed to the doorbell and knocked. My hired gun Maseel answered.

“What is it?” Maseel asked me.

“It’s terrible out there,” I said back. “They figured out my blackmail scheme. My whole plan is falling apart. We need Armani dead. We need him dead by tomorrow. Get on that quickly.” I pushed past him, ready to head inside, then whispered to him, “Find the one who did this.”

“Yes sir,” he replied. I ran up the stairs and barged into my private quarters. I ran through some drawers, quickly coming upon the file I needed within a matter of minutes. I headed downstairs, my fellow mafia compatriots looking at me like I was crazy.

“What’s up boss?” one of them asked.

“This is up,” I said aloud. “One of you exposed me.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” his friend murmured to another.

I demanded, “I want to know who did this. If I don’t have a solid answer within three days, heads start getting chopped.”

“So messed up,” another mumbled, quiet and reserved. I looked at him. He quivered, dreading the thought of us locking eyes. He didn’t look back.

“That’s what I thought,” I said, outing him on his actions. “I will head to my private quarters now. Don’t pull any wool on my eyes while I’m gone.” I looked at Maseel.

He asked me, “What sir?”

Not directly addressing him, I answered, “Don’t try to put a pillow on my face and strangle me either.” I hurried back to my quarters. Shutting the door, I took a deep breath.

A voice in me repeated the words, “Elf. Elf.” Quickly I reached for my mobile phone. I swiped open the screen and repeated the numbers as I dialed them in. “Two, three, one,” I said. “Two, three, two.” I dialed in the remaining numbers, muttering, “Four, five, two- and five.” I put the phone against my ear. “Pick up- pick up, please.”

“Hello?” a voice in the phone hollered. “Who’s there?”

“Hey Ronnie,” I whispered. “It’s me, The Boss. Tell The Spud I’m waiting for him. I have something important we need to discuss.”

“The Spud isn’t here right now,” Ronnie answered. “He’s at an important business meeting with some of his clients.”

Quietly I said to myself, “Why wasn’t I invited?” Then I replied to Ronnie, “I don’t believe you.”

“Well,” Ronnie said. “You gotta. The Spud is at a meeting, so you’ll have to wait.”

“I had a meeting scheduled for this time with The Spud,” I stated. “You can check the schedule for reservations.”

Ronnie mumbled back, “I checked it ten times over. Trust me pal: you aren’t there.” I wasn’t convinced. I was going to stomp over there and confront the boss if I had to.

Lesson of The Day #2: The Spud is a terrible liar.

I was at The Boss’ door. Impatient, I burst inward. The door shattered into a million pieces. His men, loaded with all sorts of artillery, were now directed towards me. Who would’ve thought? I darted under the table. Bullets flew overhead. I was paralyzed with fear. I could barely move. Instead of crawling to the other end, I stayed there, and for a moment, the gunfire stopped. I peeked to see who it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Archives Spy Korps, also known as TASK, had sent their best assassin, JRN22, also known as Joran, and indirectly saved my life.

I looked at Joran, who looked down at me. “I have to go,” he said.

“Thank the guys at TASK for me,” I said back.

“Will do, sir,” he mumbled. “Will do.” I jumped back under the table, and made my way to the other side.

“I need to be careful,” I thought. “That can’t happen again. Also- I need to find The Spud. We have unfinished business.” Then a hulking figure appeared on the side of the table I was crawling to. The Spud had arrived.

“Awaiting you,” he growled. He further spoke in short spurts. “Leave the desk.” I had never seen his face. Not until now. Not until I appeared from underneath to get a closer look. When the light shone upon him, I realized who The Spud really was: Keshin De Brosse.

“I knew it was you the whole time,” I said. “That’s the third lesson I learned today: Never trust The Spud.”

Lesson of The Day #3: Never trust The Spud.

I was in The Spud’s office. I sat one one side of the desk. He sat on the other. “Keshin De Brosse,” I said. “Nice surprise.”

“Sure is, isn’t it?” Keshin chuckled. “The guy you’re against and the guy you're working for- both the same guy.” He pronounced some of the syllables more thoroughly, lengthening the words.

“I was certainly impressed,” I replied. “Ripoff Palpatine.”

“Who’s Palpatine?” he asked.

I asked him, “You’ve never watched Star Wars before? He’s the bad guy. He controlled both sides of the war.”

“I’m no big bad or whatever,” he said jokingly. “I’m just an extra ordinary guy, living an extraordinary life.”

“I see the connection,” I realized. “You’re the link between the prisoner I met- and the IPBC- and my mafia. You’re why the news knows about my blackmail scheme.”

With dishonest pity, he said, “Poor you. You can’t tell a soul a thing.” He stepped towards me. “Because if you do, I’ll find out. Believe me, Henry. I have ears and eyes in all places.”

Lesson of The Day #4: The Spud is everywhere.

I hustled through the raging storm back to the mansion. I knocked on the door with brutal urgency. It swung open. I rushed to my quarters. I rifled through the drawers, and pulled out a file.

When I looked at the name, it said, “Operation Spud Senses,” I pulled it out and opened it. I flipped through the pages until I found the document I needed.

Quickly, I read, “Call the number below, should betrayal happen.” I called the number. Nobody answered on the other end. I rushed out of my quarters, out of the mansion, and to the much smaller house next to the mansion. I pounded on the door.

“Who is it now…” a voice inside said, barely a mumble.

“It’s me- Henry Edmundson Jones!” I shouted. “Let me in!” The door creaked open. Behind it, a rusty old man. My father. Henry Wilson.

“Son!” he cried. “Have you found it in your heart- to forgive your old dad-”

“No,” I said simply. “One of my files said to call you. You wouldn’t answer.”

My father asked, “So?”

“So,” I replied. “I’m here now. What do we do?”

“You’re prepared for everything,” he murmured, before saying to me, “Come inside.” I hurried inside. He closed the door behind me, and handed me a cup of tea. He went on, “In foresight and preparation for these events, you said in the case that Keshin and The Spud are one and the same, you have me retrieve our family heirloom.”

“The Amulet of Traitors,” I said. “Infamous.”

“Yep… if you wanna defeat Keshin-” He pointed to a picture of the amulet hanging on the wall. “That right there- that’s the key.”

“Isn’t the amulet- like-” I muttered. “Locked up in a vault?”

“The International Press Banking Corporation has it,” he said angrily. “They took it from me.”

“So my mission is to get this amulet and bring it to you?” I asked, confirming my objective.

He told me, “That’s about it,” He sniffled. “Remember: retrieve the amulet and bring it back to me.” I hadn’t dealt with the International Press Banking Corporation in a long time. This was sure to be a fun experience.

Lesson of The Day #5: Honesty means cooperation.

I was on my way to the bank in an SUV. I didn’t want to look too rich. I didn’t want to give myself away. I knew what to expect: a canine intercept wasn’t it. Rena leaped in front of my car.

“What a pleasant surprise-” I muttered. “Rena of Dmarani: renowned prideful wolf gang- I’ll run you over now.” I jerked my SUV backward, then forward, then back and forth over what was presumably Rena’s furry corpse. The plotting wolf dodged my attack though, and somehow appeared in my backseat.

“Miss me?” she asked sarcastically.

“Dang!” I cursed. “I left the window open!” I whipped around. At that point, I could only see that she’d gotten in through the mirror, but now I could truly admire her pretty fur. She whipped her tail in my face. I muffled her barks with a bag, and threw her into a trunk.

Lesson of The Day #6: It’s kidnapping- for canines!

Lesson of The Day #7: Don’t be a jerk to humans.