#at the same time it made me so sad because main plot aside

[noturmuse]

Man idk what they’re putting in these episodes but it’s definitely stronger than coke cuz I am beyond addicted I mean every episode is a masterpiece and I love the little changes they’ve been doing along the way it has made the show so special thus far

[madcatlad]

Aaron Needs Friends

Having him be aloof and mysterious was cool for the first few adventures, but for the amount of time that Aaron was traveling with Aph he should have been making SOME sort of relationship with her squad. This man was present since BEFORE Garroth was lost to the Irene Dimension. Yet all anyone had to say about him was "I didn't know much about him" "he was a good man". The group didn't even need to know him all that well, or be super close. He didn't need to expose all his secrets or be particularly socialable. But you're telling me that during the span of time that Aaron was around the same people, all the time, risking their lives...and he didn't interact with them on a more personal level? He ONLY interacts with Aphmau. That just isn't human nature.

I vaguely remember multiple characters getting shamed or dismissed for being concerned about his intentions. But looking back that is completely valid! From Aph's perspective, Aaron is a good guy who had proved himself, and doesn't need to explain himself ever. From everyone else's perspective, he is a complete stranger, with vague intentions and questionable goals, who they have know for at least a year in close proximity but goes out of his way (quite literally every single time) to interact with NO ONE but Aphmau.

Suspicious Behavior. That or he seems rude. But their distrust of that kind of put out is not unbased. Especially when his past comes to light, yet he is still no more than a stranger, and shown to be purposefully secretive. Suspicious Behavior. But the cast is supposed to ignore all that because...? "He's a good guy" how would anyone else know that?

I mean he doesn't have to open up to them in great lengths and cry about his tragic life, but by time he died he should have had a surface level relationship with the main gang. More than never knowing jack about him as a person. Training/mentoring with Laurence, amicable acknowledgement with Garroth, maybe teasing flusterable Katelyn. A joke or two outside of Aphmau. Just any amount of relationship outside of Aphmau. Please.

Otherwise his mysteriousness becomes an archetype instead of characterization. And it became more of a hindrance to the story, especially later on.

Having Aaron never build relationships with anyone BUT Aphmau sets him aside in a way that is very odd. Aaron is essentially NOT a character, but a plot point. He only exists to advance the plot, add suspense, or subvert the plot. But he himself had no character- other than grief.

And it especially took away from the significance of his DEATH! When he died the only person really grieving HIM was Aphmau. Everyone was sad for HER. It made so Aph could be sad but - "oh nobody else understands my grief". While Aph was grieving nobody could really grieve with her. It isolated her in a way so jarring and disconnected from the story it felt more like a plot diversion than a plot point. And everyone just continued with their respective plots, yet the STORY had to come to a screeching HALT after Aaron's death because aph was mouring and she is quite literally OUR EYES.

There in lies the problem. NOBODY could mourn for Aaron, because he was a stranger. But HE DIED! He died without ever getting to grow or build new relationships as his story was clearly building up to do. HE DIED with no mourners! What kind of depressing precedent is that?!? "You don't need to grow past your grief, and build new relationships after great lost! You just need to be HOT and (somehow impregnate) the main character! Plot 😃".

What a Lackluster death for a character!! A main character!!! To be mourned by no one. It should have been Aaron's death that brought the story to a halt, the fact that they had lost HIM. Not that Aphmau had lost him.

Aaron's death should have affected the entire cast, or at least the main one who had traveled with him so long! Yet everyone else is allow to move on as they would because essentially they lost nothing.

Yeah, we were all sad when Aaron died as kids. Because Aphmau was sad (that scream was something else). And, yes, Aaron's death was sad. But imagine how devastating it would be if EVERYBODY knew him- to some capacity- if everyone mourned his passing. Imagine how much more significance it would bring to his SACRIFICE.

Aaron was a man with nothing to lose from DAY ONE. BUT HE STAYED THAT WAY! He never grew! What kind of sacrifice is it for a man with nothing to live for, no mortal ties, to sacrifice his life.

It dumbs down his death to in essence, achieve his ONLY goal in life: revenge, and make his girlfriend-not-girlfriend happy.

He A STRANGER. Not because HE necessarily wanted Garroth back, but because Aphmau wanted Garroth back. It doesn't work well. Aaron should have sacrificed himself for Garroth because HE wanted to, because HE cared for Garroth.

It objectified him in a sense. His decisions- his world revolves around Aphmau, and only her? (And Zane strangely enough). He has free will but his choices like agency, desire, depth. He's a means to and end, hardly a character. He experienced no growth, no change, no discomfort.

He only experienced pain and Aphmau. Tragic.

[randomnameless]

Land 3 and 4 done!

Elves and furries!

Or the worst double standard with Alcina's tragick backstory while Gary eats scraps, and Reimann puts devoted Fodlan fans to shame with his bias against subhumans!

Elheim was...

Very green compared to Drakengard lol, however the interactions between the characters felt... stale.

I mean, compared to the constant back and forth + exposition from Virginia about how cities are different from Cornia, who is Gilbert, the people living in the desert and all, for the first part of the plot, we just follow Rosalinde, a dark elf, to meet her sister so she we can save her from the bad guys, and ask her where is the second magic mc Guffin ring.

Sure, we rescue some villages and characters along the way, but they aren't, imo, as integrated in their setting as the Drakengard ones. Still, we find former thieves/brigands/bandits Alain decided to spare in Cornia - and apparently they want to turn over a new leaf, so when their old gang wants to sell elf ladies (young and not so young) as slaves, they rebel and we deal with them.

I guess the difference in setting/atmosphere is due to Drakengard, well, being conquered by the bad guys, but it feels like they just conquered it and left it there, not really caring about it.

In Elheim, they're still around - it can be sort of explained by the fact that Drakengard was conquered 6 years ago (Cornia, Alain's home was done in 10 years and Bastorias was subjugated 8 years ago) when the conquest of Elheim is supposed to be more recent? - but I guess it plays/is due to the main boss of this area's agenda -

Unlike Cornia and the small villages here and there, or Drakengard and the large cities sprawled on mountainsides, here the cities are located kind of far from each other, with a lot of forests/green/lakes/small mountains around - it makes for long maps without a lot of stuff to seize, but at the same time, it means you have to check your stamina more frequently so it's different enough to be a regional difference compared to the previous setting.

The units are... something - all jokes aside, having units deal both magic and physical damage was a nightmare for my poor 0 res armors lol, but I reckon they can be kind of useful with the proper setup, too bad the "proper setup" was something I never found and actually, I like how the game still gives you "human classes" enemies too (from the evil empire, like a red loldier) so you're not only fighting against elves, but also against the same kind of enemies (albeit promoted) than you did before, and they use mixed teams like ones with elves and humans, to make you sure have to still rethink your strategies and can't send the same team you used in the former land and expect the same results.

The BGM though... is sort of there - a bit disappointing compared to Drakengard's but I got a newfound appreciation after hearing the final boss' theme The Witch's World, it's not the banger Heir of the Dragonlands was but the fantasy/dream TWW conveys made me realise what Elheim was all about (hell those titles have a meaning lol) :

Drakengard's final theme is all about Gilbert reclaiming his castle and being the true heir of his country, not by birthright but when push came to shove, he stood up and restored the country. Which is why Drakengard had some exposition and character drama centered on Gilbert, his family and helping him.

Elheim is, as sad as it is... all about Alcina's fantasy/dream, her downfall and a sense of tragedy, both because of what she used to be, and what she actually did for the sake of her dream.

Regarding Alcina, I'll try to keep the sodium levels to minimum but :

@megafan1993 I know your comment wasn't under an Unicorn Overlord post lol, but this is basically my feelings regarding Alcina, and the comparison with the boss of the following arc stings even more, all things considered.

Who is Alcina?

A witch who acted as the court witch/mage of Cornia (MC's land!) who has the "uses magic to not grow old too fast but will eventually" syndrome, and was around during the time of MC's grandpa, a dude named Gerard.

King Gerard knew how to use his sword very well - to the point of being called a sword saint! - and liked to use it "for the good of the people", but he was the kind of guy who didn't like doing King work, found his coronation a nice distraction and didn't like when his PM modified his bills/papers etc etc. Pissed with the life of a King, especially since he felt like he couldn't do what he wanted, he left the land, without warning anyone, to explore "Cornia" and see what her people needs, only taking Alcina with him : effectively ditching the country - but no worries, his father was still around !

Exploring the land, Gerard finds himself in an ambush/skirmish against Drakengard - the neighoubing nations with whom Cornia has had border issues/problems for centuries - and takes an arrow meant for Alcina, thus dies unceremonously.

Alcina returns to Cornia and people are starting rumours, like how she had been the king's "favourite" and how the situation sucks, because now Gerard left his kid daughter* (whom he never mentionned even once in all of his voiced lines) Ilenia (MC's mom) alone to assume the role of the ruler of Cornia**.

Now, Alcina was pretty much in luf with King Gerard, so much that when Ilenia faces a rebellion (aka the prologue) and asks for her help, Alcina accepts to help her, because Ilenia is King Gerard's daughter.

Then...

Ilenia is supposedly "dead", Cornia has fallen and the Gharnef-like Baltro tells her (or she deduces it herself?) that his magic doesn't turn people crazy, but use people as mediums to put foreign/other souls inside them and take control of the bodies. It's more like a channeling magic.

Seeing the possibility to be reunited with her Gerard-poo again, Alcina switches sides and joins with the evil Zenoiran Empire, but she has her own agenda you see?

Alain lived peacefully on a small island because Alcina, who knew where he was, never told anything to the evil Zenoiran Empire people. It's not out of the goodness of her heart, hell no. Alcina had an interest in keeping Alain alive... because she planned to use him/his body to channel Gerard's soul inside - with the added bonus that Alain is a pallet swap of his grandpa.

She knew Gerard would most likely despise her for using his grandson as a medium to bring him back (from the lines we got spoken by the guy, I doubt it, he never mentions his kid!children not even once, why would he suddenly care about his grandson?) but she just wanted to hear/see him one last time sad uwus

(which raises a fucking giant red flag, Alcina who knows this and knows Ilenia's body isn't around, would obviously have guessed she was too, used as a medium for a Zenoiran soul much like Renault and Hodrick! So, with that knowledge, she wouldn't have tried to find a way to save her? Especially since she came to her in her "direst time of need" in the first place! I guess seeing Gerard >>> saving his daughter, after all the man himself never gave a fuck about said daughter...)

I don't have the exact timeline, but Alcina then accepts to march on Elheim - which resisted the Empire because they elves protect their land with a magical forest, and only taught a select few humans they are friendly with and trust a lot how to cross it, but could never have guessed that Alcina would later turn on them! - and leads the evil empire there with a dude named Gary, the land is conquered and while Eltrinde, the current elf leader (the eng/european script comes up with a lot of "exclusive" elven words, in the script she's called a turenos (??) but the jp!audio just has her be a "miko", I guess mikos don't sound elvish enough to the western lolcalisers and of course they couldn't translate her title by the word "sibyl", aka her class name :/) surrendering to avoid casualties...

Nothing is heard about her, save for Rosalinde (Eltrinde's twin sister!) who worries about her, and we believe when we face her that she's also possessed like the other people we used to fight against (by, and it'll later be revealed, ancient Zenoiran souls channeled by Baltro's magic in those bodies) but no, Eltrinde was possessed by... Alcina herself!

"But why would she need an elven body? She already has hers!"

Apparently, given some clues here and there (Yana - Alcina's apprentice - rapport conversation with Rosalinde), we can surmise that Alcina wanted an elven body to get a longer lifespan without needing to use the dangerous "rejuvenation aka turning from a dried old fig to a stripper" spell.

Tl;Dr : Alcina wanted to have her romance/spend time with Gerard again, using Alain and Eltrinde's bodies as mediums, even if it means dooming the elven kingdom and the world in general -

And oh boy do we see the elves being doomed, because while the two other human countries had a suspicious "plague" going on, here Baltro - like our beloved Riev - drops any sort of subtelty behind his title as a necromancer, and revives elves he previously killed to fight the party, which enrages both Eltrinde and Rosalinde (a feat, because so far their plot mandated interactions where very lackluster, their reunion scene had no pathos or similarity to the Drakengard brothers or even Virginia reuniting with her long lost cousin!) and they swear to take him - and Alcina - down.

Ultimately, after Baltro rewarps away like the good dark mage he is, we fight Alcina - who saved both Alain and Eltrinde from Baltro and prevented a game over lol because she still wants their bodies for her uwu ritual - and both the map song (witch's world) + her various FB's and ultimately Yana asking her to rest in peace after she's killed participate in selling us the "tragic/doomed by love" vibe about Alcina, like, the tragedy is about her, this arc is about her, hell, the entire Elheim plot is about her.

I guess I already let some salt flow lol, but even if this isn't as hamfisted as Hresvelg Grey, I felt like this was a disappointment and a bit of a letdown compared to Drakengard's story.

Double-standard hour : I was loitering on redshit to find some stuff and I saw so many people trashtalk some dude called "Gailey" that I wanted to know what was his story and...

(FR-wise at least, "Gailey" is Gary lol.)

So, Gary was Unicorn Overlord's take on FE8's Carlyle, without the sympathy he had for Joshua.

Gary was very devoted to Queen Ilenia and part of her guard, when she "died" - pretty sure that if Alcina knew, she would never told him the truth - to him Cornia died, because there's no Cornia without Ilenia as its ruler.

So Gary accepts to work with Zenoira because his queen is dead, apparently he does this conquering stuff well enough to be distinguished during the Drakengard campaign, and is sent to Elheim with Alcina.

Alcina however is the main villain while Gary is a sidekick, and is relegated as such which pisses him - and he knows she is the one possessing Eltrinde! - but our party arrives, and he wants to take our head.

It doesn't work, apparently Galvius (the evil emperor who conquered everything and is the red emperor !) doesn't like it when his troops lose and Gary knows that if he returns to him, he'll be executed, but also can't remain in Elheim else the rebels will kill him and can't escape from that land due to the magic forest surrounding it (the one no one could cross save for elves and their trusted friends!).

To get rid of the magic forest, Gary thus decides to burn the "super magic tree" that gives power to the forest and fairies living inside who are also the source of power for the elves.

Alain's party finds Gary and kills him... or at least planned to do so, because he runs away after we rekt him and is actually killed by one of his soldiers (who wanted to bring his head to Galvius and explain that if the rebels got them, it's only because Gary was incompetent!). He has last words not to Alain, but to Jeigan Joseph and the other former members of Cornia's knights - they ask Gary why he betrayed and it's here that he tells them that he never betrayed Cornia, because Cornia died when Ilenia did, thus he had/felt no attachment/reason to fight for Alain.

He has the last word to Joseph though - who pulled a Finn when he escaped with kid!Alain while Ilenia fought (apparently to her death) to give him an opening - saying Joseph has no right to judge him, because when Ilenia was fighting for her life (and apparently died), Gary was by her side until the end (he was in her team) fighting for and with her, while Joseph ran away.

And we know - after Virginia's sidequest - that Joseph still feels guilty about having left Ilenia and escaped with Alain, wondering if their places couldn't have been reversed and if she should be the one alive, but he listened to her orders back then (something he doesn't reveal to Gary!).

In a nutshell, Gary had most likely unrequited feelings for his queen, did his best to save/protect her and fought with her, but when she died he felt like his world did and from that point dgaf about the world or what it was supposed to become.

Alcina... most likely had (unrequited ?) feelings for her king, felt like trash when he died and she couldn't save him, thus abandonned her job and while she did help his daughter at one time, in the end she was willing to see the world and her king's family burn to get another chance to live her love story with him.

They are pretty similar, but somehow treated differently when both did horrible stuff, however only Alcina gets the "tragedy sad uwus" framing when Gary dies unceremonously.

Yeah :/

Not find of that plot arc.

In their rapport conversations, the elves are more interesting than what their plot interaction led to believe and I liked the devs adding maybe like 70% of the elven npcs around being sort of assholish and quite biased because Alain'n'pals are "humans" and have a huge superiority complex regarding the rest of the continent (watermelon time for that one NPC who calls Bestrals "unclean" or "corrupted" like dude, what do you have against bunnies?).

-------

I heard Vanillaware rushed the ending of the game because they had a money problem or something, and well, Bastorias shows it lol.

We have maybe 5 plot quests - sidequests you are supposed to unlock way way later lol - and a cast of 3 characters who talk in turn, but don't really exchange or interact with the NPCs or the rest of the cast found there.

So yeah, I can see where the rush was lol

And yet, I still prefered the Bastorias arc -

First because while the maps are also as empty as the Elheim ones in cities and all, well I sort of prefer the "vast snowfields" vibe to the "large forests" one, even if I confess I really liked seeing/talking to the various people around - even if it was only for a sidequest (tfw a dude wants to sell Laguz slaves).

Second, because the BGM is both relaxing and yet foreboding/mysterious enough to keep you focused, even if I confess, I pressed + during some fights when wereowls were busy giving each other blue points lol

Oh, and werefoxes were... I won't judge people based on their kinks, but personnally, I was kind of weirded out by their sprites, like when I can crack jokes at F!Elven Fencers like "if they fall on their back they can't stand anymore like turtles if you flap them over", werefoxes are just... uh yeah. Not my cup of tea.

Plot-wise, Alain wants to get rid of Zenoira in this region too so it will diminish their forces (ludonarrative point : if you don't do Bastorias and go to the final map, Reimann pops us as a reinforcement unit with the feral plot characters you're supposed to meet in Bastorias, aka feral!Ramona and feral!Morad :( I guess Yunifi died alone, I hope she wasn't killed by her adoptive parents !) but everyone realises that there's some "illness" or stuff that makes some Bestral go mad/feral (does this remind you of something?) and while some pop up as yellow units who attack everything on sight, through the plot we later learn that it's not "illness" at all!

Much like the best Gharnef out there (sorry for your poll @crushednugget, but I believe science should have won!), Reimann - a former Cornian noble who was part of the band of traitors who sided against Ilenia in the prologue - uses his science + a magic rock to turn the animal people in feral versions of themselves to control them, and calls himself a genius while also revealing that this magic rock that those lowly subhumans only thought was a shiny rock that belonged to the lion (thus royal) tribe was actually the magic rock that makes people able to control the Bestrals (the subhumans).

We even have one rapport conversation from Joseph, that suggests that Reimann might have been involved in trafficking/enslaving/experimenting on subhumans before the game's events, as he was already trying to get his hands on Bestrals during Ilenia's reign!

Unlike Izuka though.... Reimann is betrayed by one of his "allies" - much like Gary! - who was... under his suit of armor... a bestral himself!

(Cucumber lolcalisation point : Eligor, when first met is talking to this place's Batta the Beast and at one point is pissed/haughty/upset and calls Batta a human - but in the jp!audio, I didn't hear any "ningen" mention at all. Eligor blows his cover in the us/eu script, but not in the jp version!)

Eligor is a rat bestral, and Bastorias has some sort of hierarchy/class system based on which kind of Bestral you are - cats are fishermen, owls are the "wise mayors", bears, foxes and wolves are fighters (but polar bears are selling weapons!) goats are innkeepers etc etc.

While it's upsetting that we never hear anything from the numerous NPCs around about the "rat tribe", given how Bastorias is presented we it's not that farfetched that rats were indeed seen as lesser or not as important/valuable as lion bestrals.

The Rat Tribe was captured by Baltro who used them for experiments to make them sturdier/stronger, everyone lost their mind save for Eligor who seems to be thankful to Baltro-sama to give him the means to reach his dream : become the King of Bastorias even if he is a member of the rat tribe.

As Morad (a lion!) tells him though, while his dream and ideals about making Bastorias a place for everyone to live with pride etc etc, he still tells Eligor that he resorted to stupid/ridiculous methods (aka mind controlling and sending hundred of bestrals to death fighting against each other and being a fucking member of Zenoira!) and would have prefered if they worked together, to which Eligor tells him that he dgaf, because even if it only lasted for the duration of the final battle, he finally got what he wanted being the King of Bastorias and commanding people thanks to the shiny magic rock.

No uwu sobest for Eligor unlike the gallons of tea we had to drink for Alcina though, maybe that's why i can appreciate this arc more lol

I think the nod to the reveal about Eligor being a rat and this arc wasn't the lolcalisation adding shit, but the sidequest with the... Rock Rats - former bandits Alain spared in Cornia lol - when you recruit/want to recruit the leader who's basically Robin Hood, he tells you that even if Alain started his quest with 5 people and thus isn't like the other evil Nobles (tm), you should always worry about someone who started from scratch and managed to become a leader, because they will cling to power and forget why they wanted it in the first place.

...That's basically Eligor's story, as told by another, metaphorical, rat!

Battle theme a Fleeting Dream is the general Bastorias overworld theme, with imo, the earlier feelign of something ominous being played/schemed and its climax - it's the same mystery/foreboding feeling we got in the overworld map, but with a feeling that "something is going on". A good catch for Eligor's plot and this arc in general, even if it was rushed.

Anyways after his death, more plot reveals - Morad the friendly (uhh) lion we met who acted as one of the main characters from this arc was actually a human changed in a lion with the power of the shiny magic rock, and the human girl, Yunifi, who was adopted by Ramona (owl mom) and Morad (lion dad) is very heavily implied to have been a lion princess herself, but turned in a human!

Nod to Fodlan discourse : upon finding Reimann's notes and researches about how to use the shiny magic rock to control bestrals - everyone in the cast agrees with Ramona's suggestion to burn those notes!

No "uwu censorship BaD" or "creature masquerading as a human is attempting to hide knowledge to keep humans ignorant!" -> those "researches" are basically some "how to perform mindcontrol and turn people against each other in 5 steps" lessons, so they are destroyed for the sake of everyone, the shiny magic rock will forever remain a shiny magic rock, and not a tool to control the minds of anyone else.

Gameplay wise :

The Bestrals have a gimmick where they are more powerful/get more mobility during nighttime, but some of their classes are more similar to the human ones than the elven ones.

I still have to use/play around the werefoxes and the werewolves, so far I only used the lion, the bear and the owl and while I know Yunifi has an unique class and can be built in a certain way to be completely broken...

I don't have enough medals to make more than 3 teams of 5 characters rofl - but I'll definitely try to play with some builds!

----

Oh and in general, I guess i forgot to mention in the "this was rushed" part, but while we can see the rush - I still am flabbergasted at some details the devs added like, hm, the fact that when you use a skill that summons rain in Bastorias - aka tundra land - you don't get rain but snow!

Or the completely random stuff I just noticed today (tfw after 50h you still notice and learn something knew), when you pick a squad captain, the sigil/banner for that squad in the "battle screen" is the one of the "captain" of that squad!

So yeah, even if they're fighting in Alain's Liberation army, some characters still retain their identity and banners - Gilbert's team has the Drakengard sigil, Eltrinde/Rosalinde has the Elheim one and... Travis has the Tricorns (his bandit/merc group!) one lol

*Given how Virginia is Alain's cousin and Ilenia's niece, it means Gerard must have had two kids, assuming primogeniture works, Virginia's parent, must have been younger than Ilenia which means Gerard basically left his two children and role/duties as a king behind him because he was upset that people were disappointed in him/kept on meddling with his duties as a king.

**Through various supports and lines popping up here and there, we learn that while some people loved Ilenia and thought she ruled wisely and justly, some other people were very critical of her, given how she became Queen young and wasn't as battle-hungry as her dad before her : Tl;Dr, dying like a moron after ditching his throne, Gerard abandoned his daughter who had to face the same adversities - if not more - than he did, but she pulled through. I'll have to check the audio when I'll reach that moment to see if there's hidden salt, but she has a line to Alain in the True Ending where she's basically all "I'm not going to miss my son's coronation" and, well, with the knowledge that Gerard was crap, I wonder if Ilenia resented him a bit lol

[meowthefluffy]

An update on my unfinished au’s!

I have over the last few months fallen deeply out of love with the Sanders Sides series and as a result I have not updated any of my projects in some time. At the current point I am at I am only planning to do the final two installments in the cupid au (because I pretty much lost my affection for the ts series right before the big finale of the project!!) and the lust Roman au (as it is my longest running work to date and I want to comple the project as a show of dedication to my younger self) although it will most likely be on a much quicker time scale than I was intending originally! (Instead of the 11 more parts I was hoping to produce it will probably be closer to 5 and I will most likely skip a few parts of the story that weren’t as important)

I feel a lot of affection for the work I have created but not a lot for the actual series so I’m trying to find a way to rework the stories I’ve created for the au’s to become independent creations that I will enjoy continuing to make! (Aside from the Lust au which I feel is mostly a story I don’t feel the need to come back to/rework since it relies so heavily on the source material) Most of my au’s function as stories mostly separate from canon material except for the characters archetypes present in each, so I’ll be working on retooling/reskinning said work to be more original and workable as long term projects! (Since u guys were really invest in my plots which had almost nothing to do with the canon characterization)

I’m currently working on retooling the Zombie au (Which I used as heavy inspiration for my oc Sophia I sometimes post about and her girlfriend) the Cupid au (I’m putting together more creative designs for the characters so that I can hopefully redo the comic- since I’m super in love with the concept) The sleeping beauty au (since it functions entirely the same as a stand alone story- and I could use the designs of my princess characters from that comic I made a long time ago for Valentine’s Day ) and the Super hero au! (Which I never properly defined and thus have a lot of incomplete ideas for, and my only struggle is coming up with better super hero names for them)

The only one of my main au’s I probably won’t rework is the Evil king au- just because I’m not sure how I could retool it to not just be a story about abuse(I feel more comfortable creating a story where everything is horrible and bad and the people involved are just bad for eachother when it’s an au- because there is other work of those characters where they aren’t that way to balance it out- but if it were my own new characters I feel as though it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to read or write)

This is a series of decisions I’ve been trying to wait on for a long time because I have been hoping something sanders Sides related would come out soon that would re spark my interest but nothing so far has happened- and with the way the story is going I don’t think it’s something that is going to happen. I still love all the work I have created for this fandom and I am so proud of all the collaborative projects I have been able to create with you all! I will happily re-read your asks and comments on my comics and I am still really proud of the community I’ve been able to create!

I’m sad to let this part of my life go (it’s taken up a solid 4th of my lifetime) and I understand that a lot of you all won’t follow me to my new projects- because I understand you guys didn’t come here for random oc projects- or original comics. And Altho it breaks my heart to see some of you move on and leave my notifications I am happy I the time with you all that I did!

Thank you all for everything- and I’ll see you soon 💖

[balanceoflightanddark]

Expendable

This guy right here is responsible for one of the pivotal plot points in ATLA. Zuko protests his plan to pointlessly sacrifice a regiment of new guys to get the enemy in a better position which earns him an Agni Kai with his father. His first red flag about how brutal the Fire Nation is in their pursuit of victory.

Thing is...Bujing here is NOT an isolated incident.

Sad fact is that the Fire Nation is full of generals and leaders who are willing to throw their own people under the bus just for a chance at personal glory. Bujing here is one of the most notable examples since he's tied in with Zuko's arc. But he's not the only one.

Admiral Zhao is another example of this. He practically had the Siege of the North won and closed up a front for the Fire Nation as a whole. Chances are he would've been heralded as a hero by everyone.

But that wasn't enough. He decided to kill the Moon Spirit, and directly threaten every man under his command for even more glory. Even if Aang didn't fuse with the Ocean Spirit to wipe out the fleet, everyone in the Fire Nation would've been screwed. All because Zhao wanted even more glory.

And then we get to Iroh...

Yes, even Iroh is guilty of this. He was in charge of the 600 Day Siege of Ba Sing Se, an apt name for a veritable meat grinder that caused numerous casualties on both sides of the battle. Mind you his main driving force was that he saw a vision of him conquering Ba Sing Se, and believed it was his destiny. AKA, a word often used by the Fire Nation to justify their goals of conquest.

He only relented because his son died. Not because of the nightmarish losses. But because of a personal loss. Regardless of how Iroh felt about it afterwards (and whether or not he actually made up for it), he was still indicative of that thinking. That the lower ranking soldiers were expendable in the pursuit of glory.

And that also extends to his dear old brother.

Ozai. Putting his treatment of Azula aside (trust me, we'll get to that in a minute), his ultimate goal was to literally burn down the entire Earth Kingdom to ashes. You know. That huge chunk of land the Fire Nation just spent a literal century trying to conquer? And that also has stationed Fire Nation troops and civilians on the ground that would also get caught up in the inferno?

All just to stroke his own ego and declare himself the Phoenix King. Not Fire Lord. The Phoenix King. A title he made up to basically outshine everyone else around him.

When you get right down to it, the Fire Nation is full of these guys. Ruthless warlords willing to throw their subordinates' lives into the meat grinder just for a chance at glory. It practically goes hand in hand with their obsession with personal honor (or at least their version of honor at the time of the war). Sure, they talk about honor and destiny and whatnot, but they're willing to sacrifice lives just to prop themselves up.

So if the populace of the Fire Nation are expendable in the eyes of their leaders...how does it look from the other way around?

Azula gives us a bit of a clue.

I often argue that Azula is at her most..."heroic" (from the Fire Nation's point of view) during the Day of the Black Sun. Mainly, she's putting herself in a vulnerable position to act as bait and to hold off the Gaang long enough for the eclipse to finish and for firebending to be restored. AKA: safeguarding her nation from an enemy invasion.

But let's think about that for a minute. As stated before, I do believe Azula has a sort of black-and-white outlook on the world. That the enemy would not pull any punches and are almost always out for blood. She has no reason to believe that the Gaang wouldn't kill her on the spot.

And she's doing this also to safeguard her father, the Fire Lord. The same person who effectively conditioned her to be a living weapon and obey only him saw fit to use her as a decoy and a sacrifice to save his own skin.

Azula? ...she had no problem with it. No questioning of how effed up that was, nor did she expect any gratitude for her efforts. On the contrary, she got left behind in a worthless position while Ozai hogged all the glory for burning down the Earth Kingdom. And when she tried to call him out on it...

Yes, it's from the novel. But it's a pretty good indicator of what was going through Azula's mind when Ozai snapped at her. And I could imagine the same couuld be said for most of the Fire Nation since loyalty to the Fire Lord was paramount above all others.

So if the Fire Lord tells you to jump off the bridge for his own glory, you better well damn do so.

It's practically within their own propaganda. In the play by the Ember Island Players, Actress!Azula gets consumed by flame while Actor!Ozai poses in victory. No acknowledgment of her contributions. Everyone just cheers on Ozai, Azula apparently having been forgotten.

To me at least, this is evidence of the Fire Nation populace being indoctrinated to the point that the main belief, that the highest aspiration is to die on the field of battle in service to the Fire Lord. Something that is a natural extension when you have a warlike culture. In essence, being expendable might be a common core belief in the Fire Nation during the war.

And considering the consequences of disobeying an authority figure and refusing to fight or throw away your life...

You all saw what happened to Zuko when he didn't fight Ozai.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s4 ep2: The Gift

Kes's last episode- even though Kes hasn't been one of my favorites for a long time, it still makes me cry buckets of tears.

The fact that half of Kes's last episode is about Seven of Nine is kind of indicative of how much they didn't care about Kes anymore, but at least the scenes with Seven were character driven stuff that tried to flesh her out more. Jeri Ryan did a great job showing Seven's Borg confidence eroding and her descent into panicking like a trapped rat as she realized Janeway wasn't going to take her back to the Borg. She and Kate Mulgrew played off each other well, with Janeway in full tough love Space Mom mode, which even a Borg would be foolish to underestimate.

I'm glad they didn't try to stick any space anomaly or alien plot into this ep, since it didn't need it at all. One character becoming un-Borged, and another character turning into some sort of magical noncorporeal being is enough drama for any episode, and I wish Star Trek trusted it's audience enough to dispense with those outside peril plots and focus on the character driven drama more often, since the characters are what we care about, and why we watch.

The little moments they give to Kes and her closest friends here aren't explicitly goodbyes, but they end up being little buttons on the end of those relationships- telling the Doctor she'd like to stay and help in sickbay today, because she hasn't seen him much lately and misses him; doing her guided meditations with Tuvok; having a glass of champagne with Neelix, for old times sake- they have a very sweet, kind of sad conversation that shows the deep bond between them, and I wish they'd have let him be kind to her like that when they were a couple, it could have been so much better. All of these are so poignant because the audience and the actors know they're the last, even if the characters don't. They have such a strong sense of family about them, and it just sucks to have Kes have to leave all that behind. They at least made her excited about ascending into some kind of magical being, and tried to spin it as a positive change, but it still hurts to have a character you've gotten to know over a few years be basically shoved aside without much buildup or fanfare.

The scene between Janeway and Kes, when Kes tells her she's leaving, is one of the ones that always makes me cry. When Janeway cries, it always sets me off, but this one had a particular weight to it, since it wasn't just Kes and Janeway saying goodbye in the scenes, it was Jennifer Lien and Kate Mulgrew saying goodbye in real life as well. Their tears are very real, and it hurts, but it's the one scene that provides real closure for Kes's departure. They so beautifully conveyed the mother-daugher relationship that Janeway and Kes have, and the moment when a parent realizes their child is grown up, and grown up right, and is ready to go on their own way. It was a nice counterpoint to Janeway's struggles with Seven of Nine, as Seven childishly lashes out, and tells Janeway how bad she is for forcing her to be human, and not giving her her freedom- meanwhile, at the same time, Janeway is letting Kes have her freedom, and letting her go become whatever she needs to be, even if it takes her away from Voyager. Though Seven can't see it from where she is then, Janeway absolutely does want to give her that freedom, one day when she's ready. Seven, never having known love since the childhood she can't remember, can't grasp that Janeway has just adopted her, just like she did with Kes, and every member of her crew.

As much as I have criticisms about both Kes and Seven of Nine as characters, for various reasons, I still do wish Kes could have stayed, and been allowed to grow beyond a space waif ingenue. I think it actually would have been extremely interesting for Kes and Seven to have gotten to know eachother, considering how opposite they are in almost every way. But four female main characters in one show would have been too revolutionary, I guess. (It never ceases to amaze me that some men still complain about Voyager being 'mostly women', when the majority of the main cast was still men. 6 to 3 isn't even a half and half split!)

It seemed pretty stupid to let Seven have access to any ship systems when she's clearly still bent on going back to the Borg, but I guess they have to make stupid decisions for there to be a plot. After saving Seven's life with her telekinetic powers in the beginning of the episode, Kes uses her powers to stop Seven from contacting the Borg. Then Kes starts phasing in and out of reality, and explosions start happening around her, and she has to leave Voyager for the safety of the crew. Janeway and Tuvok manage to get her off the ship and into a shuttle before she destabilizes the whole ship, and we only get a brief shot of the bridge crew realizing Kes is leaving them for good before it happens. Before she totally dematerializes from our reality, she throws Voyager clear of Borg space, and 10 years closer to home.

From there, we go to the cargo bay, where Seven has had most of her Borg implants removed, and she's standing there looking like a Barbie doll in her high heels, blonde hair, and shiny corseted catsuit. (Which apparently the Doctor designed. Oh my god, literally why?? We already had him creeping on Kes, do we need him creeping on a new young blonde when Kes has barely been gone for a day?! He's just all chipper and pleased with himself about Seven's new Barbie look, and not even a bit sad that Kes is gone forever?! What???) Seven's incredibly dark storyline is so cheapened by objectifying her body so much- this character went through unimaginable horrors in her life, and is only now becoming human enough to realize it, and will soon have to confront that trauma, and yet they're trying to make her into Jessica Rabbit??? It's fucking insulting, my dudes. Put her in a uniform, you sexist pigs!!!

I wish instead of Seven's Barbie reveal, we'd have gotten a scene of the crew gathering to say a farewell toast to Kes, who'd been part of their family for three years, and is suddenly gone forever- that's got to be a big deal, every time they lose someone in such a small crew, and since Kes was a main character, I think the audience deserved that much. But as it is, the only glimpse we get of any of the crew mourning the loss of Kes is a bittersweet shot of Tuvok lighting his meditation lamp for her, and putting it in his window as he looks out at the stars. It's a beautiful shot, as it pulls back from his window until it's a tiny dot on the hull of the ship, as it heads off into the next star system, and the next adventure.

This one is such a mixed bag of emotions for me. I can't really love or hate it, it's a transitional episode that has some amazing moments, but it's very sad, on a lot of levels. I've never been truly satisfied with Kes or Seven's storylines in the show, so I'm always caught up in a lot what ifs and if onlys when watching either of them. I wanted better for both of them, but I know I'll never get it, so I guess I'll always be trying to make peace with the potential we never saw realized.

Tl;dr: An important episode featuring Kes's departure and the start of Seven's journey back to being human. It definitely goes for the jugular in terms of making you feel all kinds of emotions that are not comfortable, but maybe it's better for that. Not perfect, but an important character piece for Kes, Seven, and Janeway.

[nono-bunny]

I loooove how the magic festival and the wild hunt are both revisiting the ideas from Enchated Parade! It and the first movie are both brilliant and I personally never neglect to watch them alongside the series, but... Yeah, they sorta follow a different canon because LWA was never meant to get a full series initially, and even though I could've sworn they used to be on Netflix alongside the show, they aren't available there anymore. Despite being the originators, they seem to have become sorta harder to find, which really is a shame because of how great they are, but!! The series truly does a magnificent job at re-presenting the battle visuals, the red trio's friendship crisis, and in furthee developing the green trio-aside from Jasminka, my girl was ROBBED!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS UP WITH HER STOMACH DEMON??? She's still the best though and I love her a bunch

Anyway the wild hunt is such a cute episode, it's somehow always both surprising and makes complete sense that Akko is a complete nerd even in matters unrelated to Chariot.

Tbh I do really wish we got an episode focusing on Constanze and Croix, because even without this episode to hint at an unseen mentorship between those two they feel like a no-brainer duo I would've LOVED to see interact. Like, Constanze is literally ALL ABOUT modern magic, there's just no way she doesn't idolize Croix and that she in turn doesn't take her under her wing- Constanze is incredibly gifted in Croix' exact field, and I can so easily see a version of the story where Constanze becomes her unwitting apprentice, it would've been so interesting to see her coming to terms with what she helped with, and have Croix later repent by propely helping and teaching her!!!! I GET why it's important that Croix fools Akko, and like, girl, same, I get it, she's hot- but fr I can't help but feel that it's a shame that other characters aside from Diana weren't more integrated with the main plot, even when it would have made sense for them to be. As much as I love all of their individual focus episodes (again, everyone except for my girl Jasminka) I feel like there was also room for them to be a bit more involved.

LWA had so many great ideas, and even though it actually got a relatively big amount of episodes to flesh them out in for a modern original anime (ESPECIALLY for a shoujo) I kinda can't help but be a bit sad sometimes when thinking about it because? There was so much stuff left a bit open ended, and so many ideas and concepts that weren't ever explored to their fullest potential, and like? If there ever was a show that ended perfectly while still leaving plenty of room for a sequel, LWA is definitely it. Every time I come to Cavendish I get a little sad and apprehensive about keeping on watching, because I never want it to end, and to me that episode signifies the beginning of the end of the show, and like. Sure, it's been six years... But by god, an announcement for a new season of this show would NEVER feel too late or out of place.

LWA academia is like, the one shoujo I didn't even have to try to convince my guy friends to watch, because as soon as one of them found it, he loved it and soon after all of them were watching it... And they still love it to this day! Legit, everyone I ever knew who watched this show loved it, because it has such a broad appeal and so much charm, and!! Fr istg so many people would love to see another season, even those who maybe only ever watched it once ages ago, as well as all of those who haven't watched it yet and might give it a shot in the hype of a new season

[footballshowrot]

season 3 ted lasso, just pissing some thoughts after watching the finale. talkin about things they fumbled unbelievably hardcore this season jsyk.

- the unrelenting force of forgiveness and tying everything up with a pretty bow extending to both the sam's restaurant being destroyed storyline and the james tarttt sr storyline. just wooooooof... Terrible. sam and jamie i'm literally gonna get u out of there.......

- keeley's plot this season was So disappointing. she used to be a driving force and here she felt like an afterthought, and i don't know if it was because KJPR was separate from the club, but she was just so disconnected. they dropped shandy, they dropped jack, hard. thank god for barbara because i liked a lot of her and keeley's scenes [snow globe :)]. and then in the finale relegated keeley to role of object of affection for jamie and roy to fight over👍awesome😐 love triangle plotlines suck ass majority of the time, and maybe jamie and roy in the finale could have been played funny for me [sorry to royjamie brain it for a sec, but they alone still are. intricate rituals and all that. that ripped shirt, bloody nose combo etc etc lmaoooo] but because the show has continually fucked keeley over this season it leaves a bit of a bitter taste. her kicking them out her house like yesssss literally. get their asses outta here. idk, romantic relationships aside, it just felt shit that for keeley's last episode she didn't even get to reap any positives of the platonic relationships she has with roy or jamie. [at least we have rebecca. society if keeley kissed rebecca in the finale] lol not really but u knooow. just after the shoddy love bombing plotline with jack, and the way her relationship with jack concluded and this in the finale, i hope she stays single for a while, and i think the show settled on that at least which okay.👍 she's literally keeley fuckin jones waaaaoough....

- the fucking locker room information PSA's........ maaaan i Know the show is cheesy feelgood tv but season 1 was not just morality lesson central with characters talking like npcs delivering do good greeting card messages one after another.

- ted's marriage plotline was dogshit 👍 just yaaaaaaawns all round idk. rewatching scenes from season 1 and bein like? this dude used to make me chuckle! what happened..... thank god they didn't fumble the bag on sending him back to kansas to be with henry. [henry having the same strip number as jamie was a nice touch]. i just wonder that if this season had some more jamie ted scenes [that weren't him telling jamie to forgive his father 😐] that it might have strengthened that ache to get back to his son even more, as opposed to reopening a perfectly concluded plotline with michelle because oh no....she's... dating?

- naaaaaaaate. my guy nate waaaaaaahh. they sidelined you so fucking hard. did not know what to make of nate's plot this season with jade. i think they had sweet scenes together but concerning the actual footie of the show [the football show in question] they made nate a fucking afterthought too. some episodes it was like and uhhhh... yeah... quickly !! show the west ham building and get a reaction shot from nate!! we forgot we set him up at the end of season 2 as an antagonistic force for richmond to go against. like come onnn man. think that international break was nate's strongest episode outta the whole season, what with his depression slump, attic rummaging, family photo album reminiscing, violin playing, father reconciliation, will apology with lavender, just a really solid nate episode all round. its just sad it came so late in the season.

yeah that's the main thoughts spinning right now i guess lol. BOSH.

[vaicomcas]

Thank you so much for you comliments.you have really been a great inspiration for me to start my own story

so you said that you agreed with someone else's post that you woulden't mind cas suffering if the story was about him, and I agree in fact I wouldn't mind if cas's suffering was actually doing anything for the plot, some times he suffered and it did not make any sense like in s12 we had two episodes 10 and 12 if I am not wrong and they did not discuss it any further. so where they even for?

the one with Lily gave a really good look at cas's past but a lot of people use it villanise cas and it angers me so much

SPN writers used all of their side characters as plot devices, I still haven't understood why crowely had to go.

Yeah, first of all I have never understood the desire for "happy ending" (but I know others such as my own husband who cannot fathom the appreciation or even tolerance of sad endings). That personal preference aside, any compelling character goes through hardship and suffering, just like in life everybody experiences pain and humiliation. The problem with the show is what extreme trauma they put Castiel through was not used to charactrize and develop his character and often not even acknowledged. For those of us who see Castiel as the main character, we experience him being pushed aside and used as a tool in his own story.

I actually really like the Lily Sunder episode, even though there is a lot in it that bothers me (the disrespect Dean showed both to Cas and to his angel buddies, the way they as always set Cas up to have to chose between his angel identity and the Winchesters, by making the angels evil of course, and did I mention Dean's assholery?), it is actually one of the few episodes that was all about Castiel, about who he is. I am glad I never saw those posts that villainize him for this episode (how? never mind don't tell me), I would be angered too.

I am not too sure about the point of "stuck in the middle with you" either. I think part of it is to up the ante on the Mary's "betrayal" arc, so they need some serious consequence that viewers would care about . The whole s12 is very depressing-- all about Castiel being down on himself but also his complete dedication to the Winchesters at the same time (this one, and later killing of Billie). Did they intend to show Castiel's dedication to Winchesters as part of him losing his agency? Because that would actually be refreshing, and would be consistent with the choosing Kelly/Jack part ("I've been so lost. I am not lost anymore"). But then as soon as he stopped being lost they killed him, and then it's back to him being sidekick again. They are kind of all over the place arent they? They neither developed the de*tiel thing (which was very palpable in s12) nor developed Castiel as his own character.

One of the worst example for me was when we learned that he got mind wiped over and over for at least thousands of years. It is so horrific but all they used that for was to set up first the "simulated killing of Dean" and then the crypt scene so they get that fake conflict arc with Dean. (It does seem like the show was promoting de*tiel here) Then, it was no longer mentioned ever again, and they immediately turn Naomi, the one who violated and tortured him over thousands of years, the one who murdered a restaurant full of innocent people in cold blood a few episodes ago, into a "good guy" who cares about people and wanted to reconcile with Castiel , and made him seem foolish for not trusting her on the spot, by making Dean wisely believing Naomi in contrast. It makes zero sense all around. Even later when they brought Naomi back she still gets to be some noble figure and Castiel doesn't even get to be mad at her for more than five seconds.

Later they make him go into Dean's mind and marvel "there is so much trauma". While Castiel's trauma, far exceeding any human could possibly imagine, was only used to build up Dean Winchester.

[wicked-berry]

ke

You know what...back in 2018, a year after orphan black had ended we were introduced to a new series called ‘killing eve’ by the same network. I was one of the few people who had watched the series from the very 1st ep without spoilers and without a single clue of how exactly they would move the plot forward. Because of that i was genuinely caught off guard with every twist and turn of a masterfully crafted script, an abundant production and of course those stellar performances of sandra and jodie we got to witness the past 4 years. By the end of 1x05 i was hooked and then came 1x08, which really proved KE to be a ‘never been done before’,one kind of a show to me. Really it was nothing like what i had watched before. It subverted all expectations and set the standard very high right from the beginning. All the while a 2nd season was already approved by then, which means they knew they had successful material on their hands (S1 was impeccable, really faultless for me, praise PWB). As of the 2nd season, and after PWB had left, production changed the lead writer every season and as it was expected that has impacted the series a lot. PWB or not they shouldn't had changed the lead writer EVERY season, given that everyone has a different picture in their head of how this could go. The fast pace has always been an absolute advantage of KE that didn't allow you to take your eyes off the screen because you could lose important scenes and clues. Then they added all those dull characters and subplots that took almost half of the screen time and most importantly kept the main characters apart for most of the time and that took half the edge from the show. Season 3 had some good moments but they definitely wasted much time.

      FINALE and s4

I felt from the start they wouldn’t go with more than 5 seasons and that was ok with me, cause i knew they would have wanted to end the show on a high and not stretch it. After the pandemic and the news of a last s4 i was so sure that the time wouldn’t be enough to take care of all the loose ends and my expectations dropped but i was hopeful that after how s3 ended, with villaneve together, they were all set to wrap everything up. S4 started to unfold and i was taken aback by the inexplicable separation of eve and v, the non existant reunion after THE WHOLE SEASON, the infinite amount of lost time combined with the forced plot of the 12. Following all that, came the worst ending i could have hoped for. When it came to the finale of KE i was always prepared for death and destruction and i would definitely take 2 deaths as a dramatic and well thought “bad” ending. If anyone, 4 years ago, would tell me how badly written, executed and butchered the epilogue would be, i would have laughed just as i laughed when the title ‘THE END’ dropped.I am sorry but that was so insulting to all the viewers who actually cared about the series and paid attention to the details. They kind of turned it into a parody. Aside from

the dramatic and depressing scenes, from a narrative standpoint, the writing choices were insane. Not connected, not a single question answered, full of plot holes and rushed. I am still not able to comprehend the thought process they followed that led to this. Its not even the sad part and the last minutes but the complete abandonment of all reason. At last, nothing made sense, i’m in denial and i don't want to believe they chose deliberately this awful ending (at least without the pressure of the production) that literally noone could justify, let alone acknowledge it as “skillful writing”. A degrading end for an exceptional series truly.

[jazzythursday]

I’m about to go into another very long Marvel rant/dissertation here— mostly for myself— that I started writing soon after the Loki Series finale so please feel free to just scroll past this, because honestly I think I kinda overdid this one. It’s jaded and overly dramatic even for me. You have been warned:

The last 4 Marvel movies/shows I’ve watched left me feeling so completely depressed and unsatisfied and hopeless about the future of popular entertainment and story telling in general, and I know I’m not the only one. The fact that fans are going into these experiences hoping for a good story and character arcs that make sense with prior characterization, and leaving feeling… empty is a very clear sign that their approach leaves a lot to be desired.

Infinite War had some valid reasons to end the way it did, because by having our heroes fall so much harder than ever before, it built up the tension and high stakes for the next film. But what does that do when Endgame leaves us feeling even worse? I wanted them to triumph and finally come together to be better. I expected there would be losses of course but not enough to negate the wins. Instead the characters were subjugated for plot, characterization was watered down, and we lost all the original Avengers besides Thor and Bruce (who was no longer even Bruce). Peter loses Tony, Thor’s previous loses are permanent, and so many other things that, in spite of loving a lot of the movie, mean I haven’t been able to stop being sad about it for literal years. And the amount of thoughtless destruction that seems to be at an all time high when it comes to character’s lives and disregard for properly exploring emotions just doesn’t leave much to be expected at this point. Far From Home was good. It was. I liked it a lot. The acting was wonderful and there were some really interesting themes they grappled with but I still walked out of the theater feeling like there was still so much detachment surrounding a lot of the decisions, a little too much thoughtlessness (that, and the gaping hole of Tony). I’m not going to talk about WandaVistion but I’ll say that I was invested until the start of episode 8, and finished episode 9 feeling drained and tired and sad.

Then we get to Loki, a show which has plagued far too many of my thoughts since I started watching it, and has crushed my hopes for ever truly being happy with a Marvel project ever again. Loki is a character who’s ostensibly felt alienated and unseen for most of his life, and that’s before finding out about his parentage. His first movie ends with his suicide attempt and subsequent fall into the void. His second takes place a year into working under Thanos and ends with him being taken away in chains (yes I know he’s the villain he’s done bad things etc. etc. but for the purposes of this I’m only focusing on his pov). Then his third involves his solitary imprisonment, his mother’s death, and his near-death (considering the likelihood that he was actually stabbed), although it does end on a lighter note with his acquisition of the throne. Then we get his redemption and reconciliation with Thor in Ragnarok, immediately followed by the utter tragedy that is the first 10 minutes of Infinite War, which I don’t think I need to explain.

So what I suppose I’m saying here (very very inadequately) is that after all of that, I can’t believe the proper story to tell in his first chance at being a main protagonist was one where he’s constantly degraded and beat up, convicted of things he didn’t actually do, given no focus on backstory or implied/established motivations, and labeled as a clown and a narcissist! His powers are weakened, he displays almost no recognizable mannerisms or competence, he’s held to a higher moral standard than every other character, shown no respect, and ultimately loses EVEN MORE. We’ve seen him lose and lose and lose and lose again. We’ve seen him die THREE TIMES, we’ve seen him redeemed TWICE. So who in their right mind thinks that the most compelling story to tell after all of that was to see him LOSE AGAIN?! And not only lose, but lose without any real triumph, dignity, or acknowledgment beforehand. Death to the author aside, reading the utter nonsense the team behind it have spread, it’s so clear that it wasn’t made in good faith. Whether in ignorance or true maliciousness, they just don’t care. They didn’t research. They didn’t try and see things from his point of view. They didn’t truly sympathize with him as a person while writing. They didn’t understand. And they truly, truly wanted him to fail.

I’m tired of feeling hopeless at the end of everything, of leaving the theater or turning off the TV wondering why I even bothered, why I even care when I’m just being strung along with as little consideration as an audience as my favorite characters. I wanted to actively see him strive to be better, not just be told he could be. I wanted to see him triumph over his demons, not forget them. I wanted to see him be the “master of magic” that every other damn movie has alluded to, and to use his powers effectively. I wanted him to be powerful. I wanted him to, if not win, then win on a personal level at least. I wanted to see him take agency in his life and PROVE EVERYONE WRONG! And, though it’s now bafflingly controversial to say, I wanted it to be told by an experienced and competent writing and directing team that knew and understood his character and were passionate about telling his story.

I would ascribe to the notion of “don’t like it, don’t watch” if I could but I care to much to not be affected by this obvious decline in quality and awareness. And I’m a relatively recent fan. I haven’t been waiting for Loki to get his moment in the sun for 10 years. I’M NEW HERE, and my heart breaks so much for fans of the original movies who have lost their love of Marvel or Loki because of the way it’s been handled. No one should fall further than they can climb up from, and I’m tired of watching loss after loss and never getting the release of gaining enough of it back. What’s the point of caring about these characters if the writers won’t? Of investing in a connecting cinematic universe if it lacks continuity? Of looking for clues and foreshadowing when there isn’t any and the only twists are random and pander to shock value? The way these pieces/characters are being created and interpreted is reductive and incompetent, and for once I’d like to watch something that feels crafted, inspiring, and gratifying to see to the end.

If some people like the Loki show we got, I have no argument against that, because my own opinion is just as subjective as theirs. Though, I’d like to think that if what I want is for the show to be better out of love for the same character, then what they enjoyed from the show can coexist in that. If anyone’s actually read up to this point, I have to admit I’ve forgotten mine. Mostly I just wanted to express my frustrations over how unfeeling and stale most entertainment, specifically from Marvel as of late, has been.

TL;DR: I care too much, waaay too much, Marvel cares too little, Disney doesn’t care at all, and I don’t know how to accept that.

[cephy-the-squid]

Okay, so this is admittedly a rant (and it is a long one) so feel free to skip it if you are not interested in hearing my grievances with Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2.

But if you do want to know my thoughts:

I really don’t think the show came through on any of their plot lines, especially the ones that involved queer characters.

They didn’t follow through on Vickie. Making her basically the same person as Robin would be a bad move anyway (after all queer characters deserve romantic relationships and love interests as complicated as the straight ones, and the straight relationships in the show that receive focus are not even close to as surface level). But then not giving any indication that Vickie was wlw makes me wonder why they even bothered to include her at all aside from the obvious queer baiting. Like even if she is bi, the fact that they did nothing to confirm that feel purposeful.

The way they killed Eddie also annoyed me. I suspected they were going to kill him, which is fine I suppose, but the way they did it felt rushed and superficial. They didn’t even have him die in a helpful way. He died for literally no reason. Like the bats were following them anyway. He didn’t save anyone. The way they killed him felt like they only did it so that they could have a sad death in the season finale and I am honestly pissed about that. Like that is just fucked up. I wouldn’t be pissed if he died in a plot significant way or saving someone, but it was such an afterthought. It felt like they only killed him because they didn’t want to kill a previously established main character. Literally any other character’s death would have made more sense and meant more. They didn’t even clear Eddies name in the end. (Also the way that they did quite a lot of queer coding with him too is very reminiscent of the way they hint at the queerness of other characters like Will but then never confirm it)

Johnathan is still lying to Nancy and they are still together (so that whole plot line also means nothing because nothing changed).

Will still hasn’t confessed his feelings to Mike, but he also hasn’t talked about it to anyone (maintaining the ability of homophobic fans to still pretend he is straight like they’ve been doing the whole time). His wistful gazes but with no confirmation are really starting to feel like queer baiting. They also implied that Mike was not into Eleven, but then had him tell her he loves her in a super rushed way, which also honestly felt like queer baiting and also just really poorly done in general. Even Will’s painting is then used to help the straight romance, which is annoying because I am sick of gay characters being used as plot devices to benefit straight characters and their relationships.

They didn’t actually kill Max even though it would have made more sense and been more impactful. It felt like the only reason she didn’t die is because she was a main character, which is not a good reason to keep a character alive.

They really said “I’m going to wrap up every plot line in the most unsatisfying way possible”.

Why add all these plot lines if they weren’t going to do anything with them? What is the point of any of this?

It all feels like they spent a whole season just trying to get the characters back in the same place solely so that they can have another season.

The last episode felt super rushed. I mean the whole idea that he needed 4 deaths wasn’t revealed until the last episode, and that was really the only plot line they committed to.

I’m very frustrated with the ending of this season.

[moviemunchies]

I probably should have seen this earlier, but I finally got around to it and so let’s talk about. And I have to find something to say other than “It’s a bit like Highlander but not.”

Adapted from a comic book, The Old Guard tells the story of a group of immortal mercenaries - Andi, Booker, Nicky, and Joe - who find themselves betrayed by people who want to figure out how their immortality works. After all, if you can crack the secret to immortality, you can solve all kinds of world problems. At the same time, a new immortal’s just awakened to her new powers, and is very confused about what’s going on. So they’ve got to recruit the noob, kill their betrayer, and wipe out all trace of their existence.

One of the things that bugs me regarding stories about immortals is that so many of them are about how the main characters are so sad that they live forever and would like to die for once. It gets really, really old after a while. This isn’t that. There is the notion that at least a couple of the immortals are growing weary of their lives, and we see the fates that might befall them if they get captured, and it’s not thrilling, but it’s not a story about how being mortal is so much better and I like that.

Really, the internal conflict that bothers Andi more is that she feels like the world is doomed. She feels like she’s spent so much of her immortal life trying to make the world a better place, and she doesn’t have much evidence that it’s worked. If anything, it feels like it’s worse. And so she’s jaded and cynical about people because of it.

Another thing that bugs me about fictional immortals? They’re almost all from, like, the last two or three hundred years in what they’ve done or where they’ve been. Andi is short for ‘Andromache’, a warrior from ancient Scythia, and she’s older than the other immortals in the group by over a thousand years. Until Nile comes along, only the youngest immortal is from the past couple hundred years (that’s Booker, and he was a soldier under Napoleon). 

Plot-wise I don’t think this movie’s going to throw you for any loops–it’s not like there’s a massive twist that makes you question everything you think you know, or anything like that. It’s pretty straightforward in its Plot, and you can spot who the villains are from a mile off if you know how movies work. But that doesn’t mean it’s not well-constructed and entertaining. Because it is! It’s a delightful action movie if you’re into this sort of thing.

This movie gives us some delightful fight scenes. Because our main group of heroes is made up of immortals, they have had a lot of practice in fighting, and so that means we get pretty good fight choreography! I have to say I appreciate this recent trend I’m seeing of fight scenes that don’t suck? In big budget movies?

The cast is all pretty likable, at least on the heroes’ side. I think, aside from Andi and Nile, they don’t get quite enough characterization. Not that Booker, Jo, and Nicky have no character development at all–they’re quite distinctive and memorable personalities in their own right, but I would have liked to see more of them and what they were doing in different parts of history. I don’t complain too much because we still get a very good idea of what they’re like as people, but they’re still out of focus. Maybe that’s how it has to be, considering how movies work and they’re not main characters, whatevs.

Our villain’s pretty much an irredeemable douchebag, which is what you’d expect from the guy in charge of a large corporation in a film like this. Also he’s Dudley Dursley? Last time I saw him in something was in the BBC Merlin in which he wasn’t a bad guy so it’s a bit odd seeing him here. Copley’s more interesting and complex, although kind of idiot? He assumes that by betraying the team, things will still turn out for the best, just a mild inconvenience. It’s like the man doesn’t realize that corporations run by evil Brits won’t approach things in an ethical manner and purposefully make things painful if it turns a profit!

And there are no bad romance storylines! It’s great. Usually you’d feel as if a movie like this would have an awkward romance subplot or a sex scene as bad fanservice. Neither Andi nor Nile even get a love interest. If there’s a romantic arc in the movie, it’s between Joe and Nicky, and I wouldn’t call that an arc, as they’ve been together for centuries at this point, and have already worked out what their relationship is a long time ago.

It’s a pretty good action movie, it’s fun, it’s got good action scenes, there are guns, swords, and axes, and it’s got fun characters who are entertaining to watch on screen. You need a fun action movie based on a comic book that’s not DC or Marvel? Check out The Old Guard. It won’t blow your mind, but it’ll be a pretty good time.

[wordsnstuff]

20 Mistakes To Avoid in Enemies To Lovers

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Weak Conflict

There should always be a strong, compelling source of tension between two people who are considered enemies. Even if their rivalry stems from external sources, such as bad blood between families or competing for a number one spot, there should always be a concrete reason why they hate each other.

Not Explaining Forgiveness

When one of these conflicts subsides, or a tense moment resolves, it should be justified. Tension and emotions shouldn’t disappear because you’re trying to stuff romantic moments in here and there. If one of your characters crosses a line and the other character chooses to forgive them, there needs to be a clear and understandable reason. It doesn’t always have to sit well with the reader. Your character can make a blatantly stupid decision, but it needs to serve the plot. 

No Tension To Be Found

If your characters have to verbally or physically assault each other to demonstrate the tension between them, you’re doing it wrong. If they have to kiss for the reader to see that they like each other, you’re doing it wrong. Tension is in the little things. It’s in the instances that most people would overlook, but your characters zero-in on because the subtext is too thick to gloss over. Tension is the most important plot device in enemies-to-lovers stories, so it requires a lot of time and attention to minute details. 

Conflict Solved Too Easily

If the rivalry between your characters is one misstep after another, with immediate forgiveness following, the tension won’t build correctly. You’re working your way up to a boiling over moment. A moment where everything comes out and then, once resolved, makes way for the romantic feelings to enter. If the conflicts don’t slowly build on each other, that boiling moment will come out of nowhere and be less satisfying to read. Don’t let your characters off that easily. Enemies aren’t constantly letting things slide. 

Characters Changing For One Another

People don’t need to be exactly the same to see attractive qualities in one another. It’s true that relationships shift your perspective and that it occasionally results in outward changes in behavior, but one or both characters shouldn’t mold their personality around their partner. 

Stupid Potion

If one of your characters has to become oblivious or avoid critical thought to maintain a relationship with that character, you haven’t made the two characters compatible enough. This is especially true when one or both of your character’s identity revolves around a higher intelligence. They should have enough in common that there doesn’t have to be a giant shift in one or both personalities to work as a couple. 

The Relationship Brings Them Down

The thing about enemies to lovers stories is that the happy endings are usually an indication of the author’s view of what is and is not forgivable in a potential partner. The acceptance of someone’s past mistakes, current flaws, and future struggles. When a love story ends with a couple that repeatedly lower each other or hurt each other, that sends a bad message, and that is your responsibility to avoid. It doesn’t need a happy ending, but it should never have a destructive one. 

Writing Abuse Instead of Rivalry

There is a big difference between writing two equals who have a rivalry slowly falling in love and putting aside their differences, and writing an abusive, predatory love interest who repeatedly hurts, manipulates, and gaslights the main character. Just because you can imagine the character forgiving them doesn’t mean they’re a good partner. Cheating, physical abuse, isolation, passive aggression, and manipulation are not character flaws. They’re not “mistakes” that the character needs to forgive in order to save their relationship. It’s abuse, and when you write a story between an abuser and a victim that has a happy ending, that has consequences. 

Revealing Feelings In A Cliché Way

This is very subjective, however, there are also a plethora of tropes to choose from and an infinite amount of alterations you can apply to make them your own. The objective, however, is to build up to it in a way that creates a satisfying payoff, and an interesting moment that serves all of the work you’ve done to build to it. There’s nothing worse than reading chapters and chapters of build up, anticipating a big moment where sparks fly, and then having all of that tension result in a sad sputter of mediocrity.

Instant Trust

Trust is difficult to build between two people, especially when they have a complicated past. Trust is earned, no matter who you are or what you’ve been through, it’s always a process. It’s never inherent. When two characters have a history of betrayal or hurt, trust is going to be even harder to develop between them, and that process is an opportunity for more tension, character development, conflict, and eventually a satisfying resolution. Trust development is a major plot device, and I recommend you take advantage of it. It’s also a huge opportunity for building romantic tension amongst the angst of trials and tribulations. 

Why Do They Hate Each Other, Though?

There’s a thin line between love and hate, and that line is infatuation; obsession. So, what put the two of them on the bad side of that line? This reason is the main conflict. The overarching plot begins with the point where that rivalry either begins or is challenged after a long while of stagnation, and it ends with the two characters crossing over that line into love. You need to make that beginning point very clear.

Rivalry Shouldn’t Just Dissolve

There needs to be a transitionary period that is tense and awkward with scattered moments that make the effort worth it to both of them. There should be a “Well, we hated each other last week and then they did some really sweet things and now I’m not so sure. Maybe we’re starting to become friends now? I feel really excited when I see them, so I must not hate them anymore, right?” period. 

Complete Opposites

Yes, opposites can attract. Yes, completely different people can fit together very well and have a happy relationship, but this is a cliché and is, in most cases, poorly thought out with little to no originality. 

Love With No Reason

Just like your characters need a reason to hate each other, they need a reason to love each other. There has to be something that makes them work. Not just a common hobby or characteristic or exterior aspect they share, but something that makes them fit together. If they love each other because... they can, your reader will feel like they’re watching two stupid, lonely people tolerate each other’s flaws in the interest of sex or companionship for 100 pages. 

No Actual Conflict Resolution

Relationships are built through conflict resolution. Communication, empathy, effort, and understanding between two people who work to make each other happy. Hollow forgiveness is not apart of that process, and if that’s all there is, you’re not developing a realistic relationship between compatible people, you’re depicting a toxic relationship that, in the case of these origins, can be abusive. 

Underusing Sexual Tension

Sexual tension is great. It’s easy to develop, it has a satisfying payoff, and it doesn’t take up a lot of space on the pages. It doesn’t have to result in x-rated material, especially if you’re writing for a young adult audience, but it’s simple and effective. 

No Awkward Transition Period

A large chunk of the plot should be awkward and uncomfortable to watch. The transition should be organic and make sense for your characters, but all organic movement contains struggle. Nobody goes from hating each other to loving each other overnight, and relationships are complicated and require hard work. Show this.

Catalogue Characters

There are enough stories out there with cardboard characters and self-insert protagonists, especially in romance. Make your protagonists unique and individual. Make your characters diverse and interesting to read about. Readers should have a bit of wiggle room for imagination, but that doesn’t mean they should be filling in the blanks like your characters are Mad Libs. Don’t close your eyes and point at character archetypes to form your cast. It’s obvious and lazy. 

Stagnant Tone

The tone of these stories often falls flat because in the interest of building tension, writers ignore purposeful tone shifting, scene-to-scene. Change it up, make it potent, and make a lasting impact during important moments. Suspense and anticipation shouldn’t just build during the climax and resolution. 

Bad Pacing

When your readers spend hours reading a story that promises a romantic payoff, they expect to see some of it. I think that a three act structure is really effective with this type of arc, with the first third being devoted to building rival tensions, the middle third being the shift from rivals to friends, and the last third building that romantic tension and ending with a happy resolution. 

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[the-knight-of-the-stars]

Finally Reading Heroes of Olympus

The Lost Hero first reading thoughts:

- It took me forever to finish this book, omg. I was very busy with school and honestly, I didn't expect this one to be longer.

- First of all, I loved all the mystery around the plot, the villain, and what the heck was going on with the roman and greek versions of the gods. I was very confused at the beginning honestly, I thought we were in some kind of parallel dimension or something.

- Actually, I like that it took its time to explain that whole thing with the gods, it was a seemingly very abstract concept and in the end, it felt much clear and made a lot of sense for the worldbuilding.

- I did start to guess the villain could be Gaia, but geez I didn't think we would dive into primordial gods. But at the same time, I like the high stakes, the whole mission seemed impossible, and is only the first book, I was stressed.

- I really loved the new characters, It was very exciting to see the children of other gods as main characters, and the abilities it gave them.

- Loved Piper, and Jason, but especially Leo.

- You guys the way I got excited to see a latino in this series, I was praying for the first few pages for him to not get put aside. Loved Leo and all his perks, he was such an interesting character and loved to see how he used his intelligence to get out of situations.

- Love to see Annabeth, my beloved.

- Oh! and I loved to see the new cabins for the children of minor gods, wish we could have seen more of it, is so interesting to see how much this world can expand.

- Was not expecting Hera to be so involved with all this, again the gods being anything but practical and clear. Also pretty creepy (and weirdy accurate to mythology) that Jason was “a gift” to her and the whole thing with her like babysitting Leo as a kid wtf.

- They have a METAL DRAGON. How cool is that?? Very steampunk of them, 10/10, I was just as sad as Leo when it got destroyed.

- Zeus didn't even make an appearance and he was being a dick anyways, wow.

- Also really enjoyed seeing Aphrodite and Hephestus again, so interesting to see them from this new perspective, the interactions with Piper and Leo were very engaging to read, and surprisingly touching.

- Also, can NOT believe we never got a joke or something about the fact that Aphrodite and Hephestus are married, and therefore Piper and Leo are divine step-siblings. Missed opportunity.

- Also on that note, we see Aphrodite again and Eros is again not mentioned at all, are we ignoring him on purpose now Riordan?? No, like really, I would love to see him, please he is my favorite greek god and has such interesting concepts around him... (sorry needed to get that out).

- Anyways, the whole thing with the dead coming back was soo interesting, it was great to see Minos and Medea and Lycaon, and I am really curious to where all that leads.

- I was so happy when Thalia showed up, I thought I would never get to see her again. She and Jason being separated like that felt so tragic and unfair, them reuniting was def one of my favorite parts. 

-I love how many new gods we are exploring.

- The final battles were pretty cool, again, I am not sure what it is, but the stakes feel so much higher now.

- Piper my girl I already want to see more of her, I loved the relationship with her dad and her powers are so cool, and I love how reflexive her pov was. (

- Jason I felt was more on the side, probably because of the whole stolen memories thing, but it was still very cool to see his personality define itself subtly as he regained his memories, and he is just such a nice noble guy, and I get attached very easily to that kind of characters.

- In general, I love how different the three of them are and the dynamic they develop, they are so wholesome and fun, I am already dying to see more of them.

- Wait, are we really going to Greece now???!!

- The whole book I spend stressed for the well-being of Percy, and audibly gasped when I understood what the exchange meant... omg what a way to end the book, I am beyond excited to see more!

-Overall I really really loved this book, I love the feeling on it, just warm 2000s fantasy, reminded me of how old animated movies felt when I was a kid, I think that is the best I can describe it hahah. I dont know, it gave me a timeless chilhood feel I really enjoyed, I must say this narration was more on my line than the one in Percy Jackson.

-Anyways, excited to keep reading, hope it wont take as long to read the next one!

[damn-stark]

La vie en rose pt.2

Pietro Maximoff x reader

Requested by anon “I think this is a good idea. So Pietro didn’t die in Age Of Ultron but dies in endgame so afterwards reader has same powers as wanda btw makes her own reality sorta like wandavision and they live in the town together and it’s basically just wandavision plot and jimmy woo and darcy are trying to get in meanwhile. I really hope this isn’t to long for you! Maybe you could do 2 parts if you’d like that? I just had this idea for a while thanks! 🤍”

Warning- Angst, sadness and fluff

———-

“We can get married.”

“Huh?”

Pietro turns his head to meet your bewildered expression and he smirks and leans closer to talk in a softer voice so others around wouldn’t hear. “Think about it, we’ve known each other ever since we got our powers and we’ve been together since we joined the Avengers, it’s been long a time and we’ve gone through a lot. We should just get married.”

You narrow your gaze on him and try to hold back from getting lost in those deep blue eyes of his as you try to comprehend what he was proposing, as you tried to figure out if this was some joke, because the way he just said it out of the blue seemed like it.

“And,” Pietro continues nonchalantly as he looks at the horizon ahead, “we can get married in Las Vegas, just like this couple did in one of Wandas sitcoms. It seems like a lot of fun.”

“Hmm,” you nod slowly and tear your gaze away from him, feeling your mind spin with many different thoughts; one of the main ones being that this man couldn’t be serious. “And you want to do this while we’re on the run?”

“Yes,” Pietro nods as he pops a grape into his mouth, “I mean do you have a better idea? I don’t see ourselves being free people anytime soon.”

Yeah, right. You look down at your hands and delicately begin to twist the silver bracelet around your wrist, feeling a wave of sadness wash over you.

Was this really going to be your life? Running away and hiding? Not being able to have a stable home, or a taste of a normal life anymore? All because you didn’t want people controlling what you can’t, or can do with your own abilities?

It was stupid and unfair.

“Do you really think we’ll always be on the run?”

Pietro looks at you again and puts the fruit cup that he had in his hand down, turning more serious than he was expressing himself before. “Not always, there will come a time when we’ll be free again, where we won’t have to hide. The world—or should I say universe is a messed up place, the people will need our help again and we’ll be there to save them, that’s when we’ll be free.” Pietro wraps his arm around your shoulders and pulls you closer to him. “So don’t worry your pretty head about that.”

You lift your gaze to meet his and you can’t contain the soft smile that spreads on your lips, he kisses the side of your head and his smile turns into a mischievous smirk again. “So about my plan, what do you say?”

Once again you narrow your gaze on him and drop your smile, pushing him aside and twisting your body to land on the pier and begin to walk back to the others, hearing Pietro follow quickly behind you and continue insisting on his “plan”. Which you just turned down, “no.”

“No, what? You won’t get married to me? Why? Do you not love me?”

You shove your hands in your (his) hoodie pocket and watch the perplexity in his eyes as he tried to solve what you had said.

It was an amusing sight, seeing him so lost, it made you want to let him figure it out on his own, but you couldn’t stand it. Instead you did a little jog to get in front of him and continue to walk backwards as you explain yourself in a relatively joking manner, perfectly copying his accent and his expression. “We can get married. Just like those people on tv. I won’t give my girlfriend that I love with all my heart a good proposal, I’ll just throw it at her all nonchalantly and not have a hint of romance behind it.”

“What are you talking about? It was romantic.” He plays along, mocking your own accent. “You're wearing my sweater and we’re on this pier that overlooks the ocean. It’s plenty romantic.”

You grin and go back to using your normal voice before shrugging and commenting, “no ring?”

Pietro narrows his gaze on you and his smirk widens as he digs his hand in his pants pocket to pull out a small simple, yet beautiful ring. “Oh this? I didn’t think you’d want it, so I didn’t offer it to you.”

“Aha, I see what you’re doing.”

Pietro shoots you a flashy smile and expresses a cocky expression, “you thought I forgot didn’t you, my little witch? Like I could ever. Plus Wanda and Natasha would’ve killed me if I did.”

You turn around and fall back to his side, grinning like a love struck idiot and hooking your arm around his while he continued. “So what do you say? Yes?”

——

“What do you two want?” You ask in a threatening voice as you block their path and stay glued at the entrance of your home.

“We just want to talk,” Agent Woo explained, “to you about what you’re doing here—”

“I’m not doing anything,” you defend yourself. “I’m not causing anyone any trouble, I’m here living my life in peace.”

“That’s what you want to believe, but what you’re doing here is wrong, y/n. You’re holding people hostage—”

“No,” you cut him off sharply as you tighten your grip around the doorknob and feel faint sparks of your magic emerging from your hands. “These people here are fine, they’re in peace, they’re living the lives they want. I am not causing them any type of pain. So if you both may please leave my property that will be great.” You narrow your gaze on them and feel the doorknob under your hand bend as your grip around it tightens when you try to push the door forward to close it. Finding that before you could shut it, Doctor Darcy stopped it and shoved it back to continue with this talk and look at you with a more serious look.

“You know after knowing what you went through, after finding out your history with Pietro, I understand why you’re doing this, keeping up with this facade. But it’s not right, all the people you’re keeping here are in pain—”

“I’m warning you,” you spat out, “stop before I actually try to hurt someone.”

“What’s going on here?”

You look over your shoulder at the sound of a new voice and see Wanda with an upset look already painted on her face. Pietro not understanding what was happening comes up behind you and begins to investigate for his sister. “What do you two want?”

“We just need to talk to your wife and sister,” Agent Woo answers, lifting the badge on his chest and showing it to Pietro. “I’m FBI. We just have a couple things we need to go over.”

Pietros hand on your shoulder tightens and the curiosity that he contained was gone, he doesn’t ask for an explanation from you, nor his sister and just instantly gets on your defense. “Well she has no right to talk to you if she doesn’t want to, neither of them have done anything wrong.”

“You may not see it, but they are. This, you it’s all—”

“That’s enough,” Wanda cuts him off while she joins Pietro and you by the front door, “I’ll tell you two this just once. Leave before I force you to leave.”

Agent Woo scoffs, “I came here to do my job, and I won’t leave until I see it through.”

“Fine,” you deadpan while you let the doorknob go and open the door wider. “I’ve had enough. I’m giving you five minutes to talk.”

Doctor Darcy blinks and raises her eyebrows in surprise. “Wow, okay, unexpected.”

They try to come in, but you step up and block their path. “No. Not here. Outside.”

From the corner of your eye you see Wanda take a step after you, but before she could take another one, you look back and offer her an assuring look. “It’s okay, I’ve got this, wait for me here.”

“Are you sure?” She probes with concern.

You nod and smile, “I’m sure.” You look to Pietro and share a short lingering gaze that contains unspoken words. You knew he was itching to follow, but he trusted you more than anything and stayed behind with his sister while you walked with the two unexpected and unwelcome visitors.

“How did you get here? Inside?” You ask them once you’re at a good distance from your home.

“It’s a long story so we won’t bother.” Doctor Darcy replies, “all we will explain is that we know you’re not a bad person, y/n, we know you don’t want to hurt these people, moving on and accepting what happened is normal—”

“I’m not hurting them,” you repeat in a grumble, “they’re at peace, Wanda assured that.”

“You may think that but they feel your pain, your grief,” Agent Woo explains making you grow stiff and stop dead in your tracks to look at them with a narrowed and puzzled gaze. Something sparks in your brain, but you can’t and won’t comprehend what he really meant, you look down at your ring around your finger and sigh, clenching your fist and turning cold.

“Have either of you ever had a dream?” You interject as you look up at them with that same cold glare.

“I mean yes,” Doctor Darcy chuckles, “everyone does. But I don’t understand why you’re saying this because it doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re talking about.”

You tilt your head slightly and feel your lips tug into a mischievous smile, “I can help achieve those dreams, you could live here and live the life you’ve always wanted, you’ll be happy, at peace. Just like these people, Wanda and I.”

“No. It’s not right.” Agent Woo protested as he took one cautious step towards you. “Understand before someone else forces you to understand.”

You sigh and clench your fists tighter. “Is that a threat?”

“No. But if you don’t stop this it might as well will be. You don’t understand what we’re going through so they don’t see you as the villain, so they don’t come attack you, or throw you in jail. And you wouldn’t want to share a cell with your father now would you?”

You scoff, “I’m not the villain of this story, I was never the villain of this story! But people don’t understand that! For as long as I had my powers I’ve fought against people like Hayward, people who try to keep me under lock and key, who try to cast me out and kill me!” You exclaim, feeling your power re-emerge from your hand and engulf your whole hand, causing a yellow hue to bask your face and your eyes. “You don’t understand, none of you have ever understood! All I’m trying to do is save the people I love and keep them safe, just like my father was before people like you took him away because he was a “threat”.”

“Your father killed—”

“No!” You growl sharply, “my father didn’t kill anyone, his actions were a by-product of what Stark weapons did, our family died because of his inventions. My father was never the villain, just like I’m not.” You raise both of your hands and elegantly wave your hand to change back to your suit, lifting yourself off the ground and looking down at them this time seeing the fear in their eyes and ignoring it. “I gave you a chance, now I’m giving you a warning, leave and don’t come again because if any of you do, I’ll become the villain you want me to be.”

Using your powers, you lift them both off the ground with ease and swiftly throw them out of town with no remorse, watching them fly out until you couldn’t see the hue of your powers anymore to gently land back on the ground, changing back to the same dress Pietro gave you with a flick of your wrist and quietly returning home. Stopping however at the entrance of your front door to look down at your silver bracelet and stroking the design engraved on it gently with the pad of your thumb. You let out a shaky sigh and feel your eyesight blur with the tears that were quick to emerge.

You swallow back the thick lump that formed in your throat though and kept yourself from giving in to such actions. Instead you draw in a deep breath and slowly exhale it out to open the door and greet Pietro with an assuring smile. When he saw you, he rushed to you and instantly as you predicted began to ask about the mysterious visitors. “What wrong, what did they want?”

“Just questions about my father,” you reassure him, discreetly using your powers to freeze him and join Wanda in the dining room with a gloomier expression set on your face.

“Let me guess, they want to get to you to make me stop this? To threaten you?” Wanda suggests in a bitter tone, whilst she takes a seat on the couch and rests her head in her hands. “This is not the first time they’ve tried to stop us, tried to kill us; first that woman and then they shot that missile.”

Slowly you join her on the couch and express a deep sigh. “We don’t want anything from them, we’re not threatening them, I don’t understand why they can’t leave us alone.”

“Because they’re afraid,” Wanda points out what you already knew but didn’t want to admit. “But this is our home, y/n, we can’t let them scare us, or let them take advantage of us. We have to protect our home.”

You meet her gaze and smile, “you’re right, they can’t take this from us. Not this.”

Wanda stands up and you don’t falter behind, standing up a couple seconds later and feeling more confident than before, feeling inspired and strong. Even more so with her words. “We’re going to fight for our home and our families.”

A smirk tugs on your lips and you offer her a nod, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Goodnight, y/n,” Wanda smiles at you before she heads to the door, looking back at you and smiling wider, “you look beautiful by the way.”

“Thank you.”

With one last smile, Wanda finally heads back to her own home and you’re left in the center of your living room, alone, watching Pietro's frozen figure, for some reason not instantly letting him go. Instead just taking in the silence and recalling what those two from before had told you.

Were they really in pain? All these people? Wanda said they weren’t and you trusted her more than you trusted them.

Yet why were you so bothered and confused.

What were you even doing?

You glance back at your wrist and then turn back to Pietro, releasing another sigh before going to him and releasing him from the frozen state he was in, also erasing the memory of what had just happened, only letting him remember what was happening before you got interrupted.

“Right,” Pietro speaks up happily, “so where were we?”

“Our date,” you remind him with a beaming grin, extending your hand out to him so he would gladly take it and pull you back to the table.

“So I was thinking,” Pietro begins mischievously, “we should have a kid of our own.”

“Huh?”

“Just think about it, we could give Billy and Tommy a cousin and a play date.”

You lick your lips and set down your utensils that you had just picked up. “You want a child? I thought you wanted to live life in the fast lane? Live life like if we were always in a vacation?”

Pietro shrugs, “we can do that with a kid. A little girl? We’re not on the run anymore, y/n, we have a nice home, it’s what you wanted no? I think we’re ready.”

A grin spreads on your lips and you feel an excitement wash over you and erase the stress you had gone under. You pick up your utensils again and take a bite out of your food that until this moment had been left untouched, leaving him in a small, tense waiting period until you swallowed and gave him your answer. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. Good,” Pietro nodded, taking a bite out of his food and then continuing quite impatiently, “but don’t think about it too long.”

You chuckle and roll your eyes. “Fine. I’ll give you my answer by tomorrow.”

“Morning?” He finished for you.

“Mhmm, maybe.”

Pietro groans, “fine, fine.” He takes another bite of his food and just as you saw he was going to add something else, another knock sounds on your door. “Who could that be at this time?”

You shrug and this time feel yourself turn more nervous that you had gotten before. You hesitate to answer, but when you see Pietro move to open the door you get up faster. “I’ll open it.”

Before he could argue against it, you head to the door and swing it open, freezing completely at who was standing out the door this time.

He was familiar yet unfamiliar. He had the same white hair but that’s about it, his face was different and his body was built different. You should’ve been confused at his sudden appearance, but it just automatically made sense.

“Pietro?”

Said man out the door smiles and waves, “hello, little witch, you’re not going to let me in?”