#because honestly that's the real villain here

[oswalish]

rahhhh random rant because i’m angry hater mood i HATE HATE HATE people who think miss goldberg did anything to marvin. saw someone go “set those sails is a villain song and people need to accept miss goldberg is a bad person” i’m screaming and crying and clawing at the walls you don’t fucking understand it you don’t understand the goddamn musical.

in trousers is at its core about misogyny, that is its core theme, which is shown by how marvin hurts the women in his life, specifically his wife, his sweetheart, and miss goldberg. it would conflict the themes and narrative if miss goldberg hurt marvin, as this would diminish what marvin does to the other women. marvin does come up with excuses for his actions/ tries to garner sympathy in the musical (im talking 1979 vers here, i’m not as well versed on the 1985) he is immediately hit with trina shutting him down with her telling us how his actions have hurt her more than they’ve hurt him.

another thing is that the women are mostly not themselves, but rather versions of themselves that exist in marvin’s head. this doesn’t apply to trina, as she is the only woman in the musical who tells her own story. for example, your lips and me and its reprise tell us very specifically events that are happening in her life and how she’s feeling, she also tells her about her past. she also addresses marvin directly in breakfast over sugar.

whereas his sweetheart and miss goldberg do not have songs like this. “my highschool sweetheart” doesn’t tell us anything about his sweetheart other than that she’s his sweetheart, she’s a person, and that she wants marvin to pay attention to her more. but there honestly isn’t much in the musical to confirm that she actually is a person at all, she insists her own existence but marvin never pays attention to her or even addresses her existence, in childhood or adulthood.

miss goldberg is interesting. she doesn’t play into marvin’s fantasy and feels like more of a real person than his sweetheart, having her own personality and opinions. she also sings i am wearing a hat where she seems to tell part of a story that could be her own, though it doesn’t really get more specific than “i’m wearing a hat, i am unloved”. she never quite seems to behave like a schoolteacher either, within the story she seems to be more of a narrator, likely due to her importance in marvin’s story. she is the biggest case of marvin insisting his heterosexually, while also forcing him to realise he is gay. she is not actually herself within the musical, the real miss goldberg is probably nothing like her. this is an internalised version of her than marvin came up with, though it’s more authentic feeling than his sweetheart since her role is to pull marvin out of his fantasies, since she’s probably the only way marvin can actually be honest with himself and recognise his actions.

many people bring up the lines “you might tell me you’re a victim, you might get what you deserve, but i won’t excuse, boy i cant excuse, a boy who’s lost his nerve” which i will admit. do not sound great, incredibly suspicious even. but taken in the context that miss goldberg is not actually saying this to marvin, and actually it’s a version of miss goldberg that marvin has made up to make himself “behave properly” it starts to make sense.

marvin victimises himself a LOT. he’s self aware enough to recognise when he does wrong but tends to refuse to believe that it’s truly his fault, and that he’s the victim somehow. this is pretty obvious in falsettos but it’s also true in in trousers. he sings a lot of songs trying to portray himself as the victim, facing a lot of opposition from the women. this is shown in How Marvin Eats His Breakfast where he is sure that he’s in the right and is the victim because he’s not getting what he wants, and the women in the song directly oppose him by describing all the insane things he’s doing and even insulting him. it’s also shown in The Nausea Before the Game, where he’s lamenting about how his life is so hard, and how trying to live up to societies expectations is nauseating (this is a very simplified analysis of the song, i do actually thing marvin’s feelings in this song are valid but that’s an entirely different conversation). the song transitions into his wife singing about how she met him, how he ghosted her for weeks but then came back. that part of the song is much more tragic than marvin’s, essentially telling the listener that while his feelings are valid, he also seriously hurt and damaged this woman, and that that cannot be forgotten. the musical never ever lets us believe that marvin is the victim, despite his insistence.

and then every pony, is what i think the first line of that quote is referring to. how marvin is convinced that he is the victim, he is telling *himself* that. and the part of himself who knows that isn’t true manifests as miss goldberg to tell him that no, no you aren’t. no matter what marvin says, he will never be the victim, he is the one hurting others.

“you might get what you deserve” is slightly more difficult. i can’t really tell if it’s positive or negative. it could either refer to how he got what he deserved by being in a loveless marriage, or how he got what he deserved by leaving his wife and kids (and bird) to leave with whizzer. personally i think it’s the second, going with how marvin is convinced that he’s the victim, he’s convinced him leaving his wife for whizzer is what he deserves after going through so much. he thinks he deserves something good for once. and like yay bro for breaking out of your forced heterosexuality but did you have to destroy your wife’s entire life in the process? when i say marvin isn’t a victim i do mean in the context of the musical, marvin is very much a victim of society and heteronormativity, but he is NOT a victim of any of the women in the musical, which he likes to pretend he is. it’s easier to blame them than himself.

“but i won’t excuse, boy i can’t excuse, a boy who’s lost his nerve.” much simpler to understand, the miss goldberg inside marvin’s head is very much the voice of outside influence, aka wider society, the one that expects him to conform. she can’t excuse him “loosing his nerve” by deciding to cheat on his wife with a man and run away with said nerve.

anyway i hope this yap session help y’all understand that marvin was never harmed by miss goldberg (nor do i think he did anything to her, other than probably be off putting and creepy like an average 14 year old is) i doubt anyone will see this but i loooooove talking about this stupid musical so ask questions please please please or else i’ll post 5 MILLION of these because i can’t stop thinking about this musical

[kmze]

Thoughts on 7x01 - 7x12 welp the best way I can describe it so far is weird, this is the weirdest this show has ever felt for me. The biggest issue is the heretics and how the show tried to make them the main characters without putting any effort into making us care about them. They tried to do what they did with the originals but the difference with that was we were slowly introduced to that fam, this was basically six new characters at once! And it doesn't help that it's very obvious by episode 5 Valerie is getting the screen time Caroline usually would have. Whether that's because Candice was preggo (like she doesn't do much but walk, sit or stand around) or Dries' sabatoge I don't know but I didn't like it! I do give the writers some credit for at least trying something new with the FF but I just felt like I was watching a completely different show for most of these episodes. The good news is once we move onto the huntress and the phoenix stone it gets better, again all my bitching below and accompanying meta about the bane of my existence!

7x01

In retrospect EL OH EL that right after Stefan talked to Caroline on the bench he walked by Valerie.

“She’s going to want to know how Ric died of alcohol poisoning” don’t threaten me with a good time Bonnie!

The whole bomb idea is incredibly dumb but the scene where Caroline and Stefan talk about it is great. I love that Caroline just picks up the bomb and Stefan is like "what are you doing!" like those memes of all the brain cells leave my body when I'm around my man LMFAO

This episode just feels off, I can’t really explain it, it’s kind of like 4x01 like the writing for everyone is just weird. Some stuff just sounds soooo dramatic and I just want to roll my eyes, especially the diary voiceovers.

“What would Sheriff Forbes do” let Damon kill everyone!

I do love the “you make me happy” scene and the kiss is great but it’s cut up so weirdly it feels rushed and choppy, fucking Dries.

I think my biggest problem with the heretics is that it was too many at once. They should have only had like 2-3.

See this is why I don’t fuck with Enzo!

7x02

Yo Stefan walked in mad! I love how NOT HERE for Damon he was in this whole episode lol he was so pissed off as he should be!

Damon and Lily crack me up!

What Bonnie sees when she touches the phoenix stone looks like a scene from Event Horizon which is the scariest movie ever. So I agree with Bonnie! Like absolutely NOT! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!

"I'm just saying when a guy's willing to let another guy die so his girl can live, there's usually something cooking in the kitchen" that was 100% shade at Stefan letting Elena die so Matt could live, you can't convince me otherwise!

Why didn’t Damon just snap Enzo’s neck?

Who ever shot the scene of Stefan walking in to save Caroline, I hope you step on a lego.

The skin to skin contact joke was so cheesy, dork. I do love that Stefan is always teasing Caroline when he flirts with her, he's been doing it even before he realized he had feelings for her.

Bringing people back from the dead with a stone is just a line I would not cross. I know it’s a supernatural show but like nah, that’s too ominous to mess with. No thank you.

I agree with Matt this is all Damon’s fault!

There’s just no way I can believe Matt is letting Stefan and Damon live at the Lockwood mansion. I know it’s because of limited set pieces but there’s just no way!

I really love the “I don’t want to hear the name Stefan Salvatore EVER again” scene, like she is so mad! Then she walks away all dramatically until the moment she stops and catches her breath and breathes out to calm herself (like he taught her) and the look on her face where she thinks 'he came back' and all the emotion that hits her with that realization. So much credit goes to Candice on this scene too, she plays it to perfection.

7x03

Prime example of Dries weaponizing the FF, they had to have Stefan say the car line to Lily because he burned his car in the future (which why?) so he wouldn't say "tell those brats to stop torturing Caroline" first so it wouldn't hold as much weight. Hoe.

"So you know what it's like to have a completely unforgettable place in someone’s mind" I can't believe how much Val played herself with that line! Because she learned that Caroline had a completely unforgettable place in Stefan's mind (7x18).

I can’t believe they killed Oscar he was the only interesting one!

Stefan thinks showing a girl his mothers grave is romantic HE IS SO WEIRD!

You’re in trouble now Damon! Fuck Ric too! And furthermore why does ever Bamon scene have to have Ric there too!

They DEFINITELY hyped up the SV flashbacks lol. Apologies to the anon who said this and I couldn’t remember how OD the whole thing was, you were right. But it’s also so boring so it’s really hard to care as much they (Dries) wanted the audience to feel this. They tried to do what they did with the Stebekah flashbacks in 3x03 and it fell incredibly flat IMO.

Stefan and Caroline inadvertently worked together to get Caroline free by being honest with Lily. All the razzle dazzle of these flashbacks but the true team is still Steroline.

The fireplace scene is still one of my favs. I love how they each got zapped because they keep forgetting the spell because of their love language is touch. Lots of honesty in it and I really love that Stefan says "you're here and you're safe and you're with me" because that's the opposite of what's going on in the FF and it works as a full circle kind of thing that he gets that back in the finale.

7x04

LIZZIE AND JOSIE!!!

I remember I was so confused why Damon seemed so mad at Ric in the FF and now I realize he was just being proactive of his OTP!

Baroline you are both so adorable!

Stefan and Caroline’s other love language is shenanigans!

“Torture” this man wants sexy Caroline time SO BAD

VERVAIN NEEDLE AGAIN! CRYING

I am very here Stefan manipulating Mary Louise and being ready to kill her so he could have sex with Caroline! Then Caroline appears so we know it was their plan all along. The whole sequence too parallels with their no-humanity first time which was so important because it showed that their first time still had their essence. Like Steroline's relationship revolves around them being vampires, I always felt Caroline helped Stefan accept his vampire side more and that’s why the duo off arc was so great for them (and no other ship got that). This episode was so good for them.

Paul and Candice were so great in the scene where they burst into Caroline’s bedroom to have sex. Stefan sounds so out of breath lol and he’s smiling and so desperate like he needs to touch Caroline everywhere now! Candice does such an adorable look when Stefan says “I’m thinking about you” and like melts into his forehead. I love it, just wish the lighting wasn’t so dark, overall this season's lighting is super dark like S1 again.

7x05

Why does Ric think Bonnie is here to be his assistant GET AWAY FROM HER!

The morning after scene and even Damon barging in is all completely adorable and hilarious! Stefan teasing Caroline about how well he knows her, the kiss is super sexy and sweet. Damon picking up on Caroline’s ‘tude about Valerie and making Stefan more and more uncomfortable. The part where Stefan mouths “SHUT UP” at Damon clenching his fist then smiling up at Caroline! A+ comedy!

The lyrics to the song playing are “can’t forget the sex we had” this show is too much sometimes lol.

HA! Julian and Stefan both committed murder sprees on CHRISTMAS!

“Will you please just shut up” CRYING Stefan is ready to kill him!

Told you that stone was evil! The "who's soul is it really" was a cool plot.

The Bonenzo scenes in this episode were surprisingly good! I wish they had kept the momentum and not done Lily/Enzo. Then they could have teased Bonora too! This is how they shot themselves in the foot with the FF though, this show never operated on a structure of showing you what happens and building up to that. The timeline is always chaos, sometimes it’s a day between episodes sometimes it’s a week, hell the 2nd season was 3 months in total!

Valerie pretty much orchestrated all these dramatics so she could reveal the truth to Stefan and ruin his date with Caroline. She heard him making plans with her at the gas station and looked right over in jealousy so you know it affected her. And Stefan falls for it because he always has a weakness for a crazy bitch with a sob story. But I think there’s more nervousness over his kindness than when he would sympathize with Katherine or Rebekah because of the FF (and the sabotage against SC scenes). We know Caroline hates him but we don’t know why and we know he saved that journal.

Damon is diabolical! Do love this Bamon scene though and finally they get a scene without Ric!

7x06

The manipulation kiss scene reminds me of the scene in 6x19. The dopey lovesick face Stefan makes as Caroline puts her arms around him is so damn cute! Even though their scenes are too few and have been played down on purpose, it feels like them. I've liked every scene since the fireplace scene in the 3rd episode.

Stefan’s murder face!

Credit to Damon for figuring out his brother was an unhinged maniac with murder on his brain so fast.

“Wow that was a wonderful story Hemingway” CTFU

Matt working with unhinged Stefan! Plot twist!

Caroline so appalled at Valerie’s complete lack of tact lol.

Bonnie’s styling is at its best this season though so at least there’s that.

Beau’s character is… a choice… I S2G there’s never been more proof there’s no black people in the writers room than having a black character who can’t speak appear as a “servant” to a bunch of old white witchpires. The optics are HORRIBLE!

I do kind of dig Julian and Lily and that kiss was hot!

Really nice Defan scene where they talk about being Dads and Damon agrees to help Stefan commit murder.

Caroline’s scared BB face!

7x07

Still can’t believe after all that we never got to hear the broadcast!

I do not remember this plot with the people being compelled to sit around Mystic Falls on an IV.

Show why are we acting like vampires being “older” makes a god damn difference on this show now. As if 1000 year old Klaus wasn’t constantly being outsmarted by literal supernatural teenagers.

Stefan always has to do psychological torture with a theme, last season it was the B&B now it’s murder thanksgiving! I love how Damon just grabbed a plate ready to sit back and watch Stefan play his little mind games.

Matt’s face at pregnant vampire CRYING

Damon wasn’t really the best person to send to protect Lily Stefan LMFAO

Well Valerie you don’t make it easy to trust you!

Man this was some other Dries bullshit trying to fracture Matt and Bonnie’s friendship and for what!

This Defan scene is one of my favorites and Ian does such a fantastic job, I love how he says all three of them will never change. When he says “I don’t want to know the whole story!” CHILLS

I know everyone hates the baby plot but I really love that Caroline got to be a Mom and as someone who watched Legacies I love Lizzie and Josie and that the school and the girls were her endgame. So I’m just accepting the nonsense part of it because I do love what it gave to Caroline.

7x08

I find the huntress/stone plot line way more interesting than anything with the heretics. I also feel Defan/Lily wasn’t explored enough because so much time was wasted on them.

Oh here's an example of “Things Dries took from me” there was supposed to be a convo between Stefan and Caroline talking about the SV baby and it was cut because she’s the worst, and this goddamn scene was the perfect spot to put it in!

IDK why but this show just loved doing proposals in the final seasons lol. There’s been four so far and if my calculations are right there’s seven all together, Stefan had four alone!

Forever love how Julie retconned the greenhouse to be on the Salvatore plot instead of this random house in this random episode lol. This was a nice scene where Valerie tells everyone the truth, I honestly don’t hate Valerie at all she’s shady and crazy but she isn't annoying.

The Stefan and Lily scene warms my heart, it’s just so good! Stefan finally getting that one last day with his Mom and being able to ask her for advice about the girl he loves. And I always felt Lily’s words stayed with him about Caroline sacrificing everything for her girls, I thought it was a big part of why he sacrificed his relationship with her to keep the girls safe. Also LOL at Stefan being like “Damon give me the you’re dead to me look on a weekly basis” you get used to it.

The I love you phone call is great, I like that it was a subversion of what happened in 6x15, Stefan made sure to tell her in time.

My god it took Lily a long time to die due to plot contrivance!

7x09

Makes zero sense that Stefan wouldn’t take Valerie with him since she’s super powerful and all. So it was definitely because he didn’t want her there if he was going to get the chance to see Caroline again.

FUCK THIS SNOW SCENE! I will never not be bitter that Caroline didn’t go to Lily’s funeral for this shit. God they even parallel Stefan and Caroline with how they say goodbye to their mother with “I’ll make this all right” “I’m going to be alright” and how their choices after were anything but that FOREVER BITTER!

At least Damon makes me laugh.

God Mary Louise is the most insufferable of the heretics. We should have just had Valerie and Nora last past the 2nd episode.

BONORA SUCH SEXY WASTED POTENTIAL!

The theme of this episode is crazy vampire people who won't just sit and talk about their problems or feelings!

Caroline visiting her Mom's grave is so sad but I love that they're showing how conflicted Caroline is about the babies and what she feels for them. In her head she thinks it should be easy to give them up because their not hers but there's a part of her who feels something for them. I actually love the way Klaus phrased it as "it's okay to love something you can't explain" (it's a good line I cannot lie).

They needed to make it more obvious but Valerie was waiting for Stefan's call. Because in the next scene you see Caroline arrives at the boarding house because Stefan called Caroline instead after Damon was stabbed because he finally broke out of his revenge-fueled haze. He admits he should have let it go and Caroline assures him she knows what it's like to not be able to move on from your Mom's death. Really love the moment where Caroline touches Stefan's should and he has such a reaction to her touch, like he's been craving it to soothe him. That is at least back to the essence of who Steroline is, which was very much missing for most of these episodes, thank god it gets better after this. Eat shit Dries!

Honestly Stefan kinda needed to take a nap, in hell!

7x10

"They tell us to only send good news, but I cannot. The days grow darker in Mystic Falls, and my heart darker still." ADSFJSHBFEWGDG KILLS ME EVERYTIME! THE DRAMA!

See now THIS feels like the show I had been watching for 6 seasons, besides 7x04 this is the only episode that felt like the usual Mystic Falls shenanigans of yore. Neil Reynolds is the hero we needed this season.

The way Bonnie stood up ready to fight Stefan CTFU I told you she don't really fuck with him! Mama bear had to step in!

The groundhog day sequence is great, I am a sucker for that plot device.

The Defan scene with PS!Stefan is really great too, this is honestly a very good season for the brothers and their relationship and really dives into how off balance it is.

7x11

Caro with the vervain needle this time!

The whole derelict Mystic Falls taken over by Julian’s goons was not my favorite.

Two great parallels with 2x02 in this episode! One where Hallucination Damon almost stabs Caroline on the Steroline date is filmed like when he tried to stake her 2x02 (plus it’s literally brought up). Then the scene where Caroline takes Stefan into her room to calm him down mirrors when Stefan brought Caroline into the bathroom to calm her down in 2x02. Caroline even repeats some of his words like “you have to try” “it’s the only way” etc.

I cannot believe Damon killed Tyler. He deserved so much better.

Honestly I kinda dig watching Stefan and Damon go a little crazy pants this episode.

God this scene is so frustrating. Because I’m watching it and I’m like YES STEFAN YOU GET IT when he says he’ll never be happy until Damon is out of his life. And he makes so many god damn strides in doing that from the end of this season into next season and the finale just crushed all of that. Notice as well that Hallucination Damon keeps trying to kill Caroline because that’s Stefan’s happiness. This episode is a bright light in a sea of dark.

Ending FF with “you’re the easiest way to get to Stefan” while the whole episode the Phoenix stone was using Caroline being in danger to get him to learn the lesson. Good tie-in.

7x12

Bless this cute scene with Caroline eating fries and Stefan giving her heart eyes I haven’t seen the heart eyes since episode 4! It’s also very cute when he takes her hand and says she scared him for a minute.

Damon’s such a maniac lol.

You know what the Stefan Valerie coffee scene didn’t bother me I thought it did in the past. The Steroline coffee scenes were always about Stefan bringing a coffee to Caroline so doesn't feel the same.

Omg Julian never stops talking! Thank god Stefan kills him in this episode but like 3 episodes too late my lord.

The huntress stuff is truly interesting and I am enjoying Bonenzo way more than I did the first time I watched. I really like how front and center Bonnie is with that storyline (foreshadowing her becoming the huntress) and she’s getting dual attention from Nora and Enzo.

Oh wait the huntress was activated by Enzo I take it back he still sucks.

Again good FF tie in with Stefan not getting to Caroline in time both in the present and future.

Lines that made me laugh:

Damon: At which point, we kill said person, storm the castle and save your damsel (Stefan's right he was having so much fun at Stefan's expense it's so much better when they aren't in love with the same girl)

Damon: Bastard links his life to my mom's and then engages in a duel. What is this, Hamlet community theatre? (I love on the nose jokes!)

[basslinegrave]

[arsenicflame]

the thing is, right, if izzy WAS evil i would still absolutely love him. hes a fictional character, i don't care about his morals if hes compelling.

but the frustrating thing is that hes not evil, hes not even the antagonist anymore by a long stretch, hes arguably more liked by the crew than ed at the moment, but people still insist that we are reading the text of the show wrong and its going to completely 180 and turn him into a cartoon villain when there is absolutely no sign of that in the show, from the cast and crew, anything!!!

its so ridiculously annoying that i feel i have to defend my stance on a character because some people are so determined to cast him into the roll of a villain he is not, and think that we are the wrong ones for simply reading what the show is putting out

[hotpotatopotat]

Why I don't think Shigaraki or his legacy is over.

I don't normally do canon delves but I am compelled as a Tomura fan to dissect the final battle. This isn't a post on whether it's good or bad, but observations on what's been told.

Shigaraki's crux has always been that he feels like no one can possibly understand what he is trying to accomplish, that his message and suffering is pushed under the rug, and that society is so rotten there's nothing to be done. Deku's goal is to try and understand this.

When Deku breaks through in mha417, Tomura challenges him on this. What would even change if you saw what happened to me? What would you even DO about it? Deku declares to the one person that needs it most: To reach out and give you peace, and "that is why...I am here"

But... When given the chance to go back to a time when he was happy, Tenko chooses not to. "Nah." he says. I think this is often overlooked, but Tomura didn't WANT to leave behind everything he's done.

Tomura says, even if you got rid of my hatred, even if you succeed in "saving me", it doesn't change the fact that I still believe in the future I'm fighting for, to destroy. The villains need a hero, the suffering needs to end, and things need to change.

Hang on to that for a moment. All for One shows up. He mocks him, his dream, his goals, claiming that they weren't real, that they weren't his, that his heart doesn't matter, that none of it does. He's evil.

All for One does kill Tomura here... or at least he would have....

With Deku's final blow, he ignites any remaining embers, Shigaraki, included. They land the final blow to All for One. Without that spark, and without Nana having saved Tomura from fading away, he wouldn't have been able to do this. Tomura would have died before.

Tomura's vestige is still decaying away, and he laments the fact that maybe...he wasn't more than the crying kid Deku said he was. He couldn't do anything. He didn't even destroy Deku's hands. His dreams are over.

Izuku says that he wanted to stop the cycle of grief and suffering. Tomura gives him a soft "hah..." This is such a cathartic moment for them, because I believe that Tomura finally feels understood. He's actually quite relieved.

Strangely, Tomura is soft here. He's not decaying away anymore, he's solid, he's wearing his old shirt. He's NOT the same. He declares how he wants to be remembered, as the one who never stopped fighting to change the world. Izuku says, it's already been...but...

In mha424, Tomura instantly challenges this. With a giant smirk, he tells Deku that he better do his damn best to make sure that things change. It depends on the choices that he continues to make, not the conclusion of one battle.

424 feels like a giant wink wink nudge nudge for the reader. Deku is dissatisfied with not getting that instant gratification of "saving" Tenko, just like after a final battle, he won't get the instant gratification of changing the world. We don't get the gratification either.

But honestly, I really do believe that Deku will carry on Shigaraki's legacy and internalize it just like All Might's.

One final thing... You see his hair change textures. Left to right, It's decaying like in the final form, it's defined and stringy like in his early days, and it's airy and blocked like in his liberation days. This is such guardian angel energy, I swear.

I don't think this is the last we will see of him. And if it is, at least physically the last we see of him, I'm happy Deku will carry on what was truly in Tomura's heart.

[rae-writes]

part-time

N.M || 0.8k || some romcom for a man I don't even have any solid thoughts/feelings on but the inspo slapped me in the face. violently.

You would think that after attending Yuuei for three years now and being classmates for said three years with dumbasses like Denki Kaminari, Kirishima Eijiro, and Izuku Midoriya (yes, class 3-A’s golden boy. You just have to catch his dumbassery at the perfect time) that you would learn to…not engage in their ideas that lack common sense. 

But either you haven’t learned or you just don’t have any self preservation, because that’s exactly how you got here:

Pulling open the door to the infirmary, mumbling curses under your breath (still grinning, might you add— it had been funny as shit, even if you got a sprained arm for the trouble). Though, as you looked around, Recovery Girl didn’t seem to be around. 

But Neito Monoma was. 

“Oh, fuck no.” 

Listen, you honestly didn’t have a real problem with Monoma. He was just…

A prick. All because your class starts with an ‘A’ and had its fair share of spotlight encounters (mainly with villains— all of which were highly unwanted, thank you very much). 

“It’s so good to see you, too, Y/n.” Monoma’s annoyingly condescending voice managed to come out sickly sweet, immediately making you turn around and start to go right back out the door. 

But unfortunately, he’d caught sight of your swelled arm- which had started to bruise pretty badly- and stopped you from relieving yourself of his presence. 

“Now, now. I am here assisting our lovely Recovery Girl and I can’t just have you leaving while still injured, that would make me look like I’m not doing my job.” 

You deadpanned, reluctantly sitting on the edge of one of the beds. “No offense, and by that I mean full offense, but I’d rather just walk it off than let your lips come anywhere near me.” 

His copy quirk is what allowed him to help out as a healer in the first place— and Recovery Girl’s quirk healed by kisses. You’d be damned if you were letting him have the privilege of kissing even a sliver of your skin. 

“Oh my, so rude. You’re breaking my heart.” His grin was a little too smug, but Monoma couldn’t help it. He’s had a stupid crush on you since year one: this opportunity was just too perfect. 

Not that he would ever admit it. Especially the part where his heart was fucking racing faster than Iida could run right now. 

“Good. Perish.” you groaned, looking away with an apprehensive frown. Your arm was starting to hurt as the adrenaline slowly wore off and…you did come all the way to the infirmary to get healed…

Was it weird that your heart was thudding in your chest? You barely even knew Monoma, for fucks sake, he was just…an academic rival at best. 

‘And pretty.’ Your brain supplied. To which you promptly told it to shut up…which it didn’t, because Monoma’s pretty face was currently all up in your business. 

“That arm of yours looks painful. Are you really too prideful to be healed by me? That’s not a good heroic quality, you know.” 

He sincerely hoped you would cave before he just started begging— and the embarrassing part is, Monoma wouldn’t have to even think twice about it. That’s how..tightly you have him wrapped around your finger. 

“Shut up. You’re one to talk about pride, smug bastard.” Your words didn’t really have the bite that you intended- and you could feel your cheeks starting to burn- so with another colorful curse, you relented. 

“Fine.” 

Except no kiss came after your agreement. You’d even tensed up your arm in preparation for his touch but there was nothing. That was funny— he was so smug just a second ago and now he’s all quiet. 

“Monoma, are you gonna heal me or not-“ 

As soon as your head turned towards him, his lips pressed against yours. It was as shocking as seeing Bakugo Katsuki be nice, which was pretty damn high up on the ‘what the fuck is happening’ list. 

But it felt…good. 

Monoma himself was surprised, not at his actions, but at your own: the reciprocation of his kiss (when he was so sure you’d pull away and knock his block off), the way your hands- both of them now that your arm was healing- had cupped his jaw, pulling him closer. 

It was like the room was spinning, but..softly. With warmth being woven in, making you feel fuzzy starting from the tips of your toes and moving all the way to your fingertips. 

When the kiss finally broke, it was quiet, only unsure breaths filling the air. Oddly enough, he felt nervous and had to fight the urge to apologize. 

“Well? How was that for healing?” Is what came out of his mouth instead. 

And you didn’t even have a witty response to give back, too dazed and flustered to even care at that second. 

“Do it again…still hurts.” 

‘Academic rivals’ be damned.

inspo credits:

(I found the text post on Pinterest so I just screenshotted it because who knows how old it may be oasjihrugoajfk but their user is still the same: @energon-with-a-curly-straw)

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

Honestly? I despise Adam but I think it's heaven's fault that he turned out that way.

He was the first human on Earth. Angels fed him the delusion that he was superior to every creature in Eden, promising him everything to showcase their coolness. He couldn't know better than to believe them because he was the first man, he had no frame of reference. Then they gave him Lilith, so he wasn't lonely anymore, but she left because she didn't want to submit. That must have hurt; her rebellion must have shattered his whole worldview. And then they gave him Eve, and she also betrayed him. FOR THE SAME GUY! It's honestly tragic because he had no tools to deal with situation like this (mentally he was probably like a 10yo) and must have been horribly lonely for him. BUT instead of teaching him how to be a functioning person, saying sth like "look Adam, sweetie, people have free will, they can chose to not like you, you need to learn how to be likable and get some therapy", heaven was like, "Okay, our bad, your wives weren't our most successful projects, but here, have this army of angelic hotties that are infinitely loyal to you. Just don't doubt that we are always right and the best. And you can kill people in the realm of this guy that cucked you twice."

Are you seeing the analogy to the real-life man socialized in patriarchy who's entire villain origin story is discovering that women have free will???

[amnestria-the-elf]

So we're all just supposed to be fucking grateful that Larian gave us "new Wyll content" (evil ending for a man who is canonically incorruptible, what the fuck) and simultaneously broke him again (giving low approval greetings to a romanced PC, what the fuck).

I... I just... the simultaneous feelings of rage and utter hopelessness are overwhelming.

Listen, if you've read any of my posts you know I have a pretty clear "Don't yuck anyone's yum" policy. If you think an evil Wyll ending is interesting, fine. But here's why it falls flat for me.

First, like I said above, Wyll is canonically incorruptible. It's literally the entire basis of his character. He is a man who was coerced into making an infernal contract to save a city and had to pay a horrible price for doing so, then spent seven fucking years alone in the wilderness doing his damned best to protect the people of the Sword Coast, while all along telling his horrible, abusive patron to just fuck off already.

Now, could you argue that during the events of the game, Wyll develops a taste for evil? Sure. There are plenty of opportunities for his villain origin story to unfold. But they never do. His moral compass never wavers. Turned into a devil? He feels shame, because it's an outward sign that he was doing things for Mizora that were morally wrong, and he didn't see it before. His approval rating for the PC shoots through the roof if you save Karlach, a sure indicator of his true moral compass. His father kidnapped? Fuck that noise, we're gonna save him. Rescue Zariel's "asset"? Ugh, fine, but don't get distracted from the real reason we're here. His father gets tadpoled? Oh hells no, we're gonna take down these assholes and save the godsdamned world. His father accuses him of being an agent of a devil and is super pissy about it? "Everything I did, I did for the people of the Sword Coast."

For fuck's sake, he will leave the party if the PC gets too evil, even knowing it means he'll probably turn into a mindflayer immediately. Even if he's romancing the PC. Unwavering moral compass. So giving him an evil ending without also going back and changing everything about his character just feels like lazy writing to me.

Which brings me to the second reason all of this rubs the wrong way. Wyll deserves so much more content. More romanced greetings, more reactions to other characters' choices, a final boss battle that is actually about him, a default ending that actually makes fucking sense (I have another post cooking about the Avernus ending, so I will leave it for now.)

And please, spare me your "But Wyll was rewritten after early access" bullshit. That's Larian's problem. They chose to listen to feedback and do a late-stage rewrite. They then chose to implement it poorly and never fucking fix it. Other characters, who already have far more content than Wyll, have had even more added over the course of the seven released patches. Wyll, on the other hand, has been sitting around completely ignored until now when we get this evil ending.

Many have rightfully pointed out the inherent racism steeped in all of this. I want Larian to be better. But as Maya Angelou said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." I already didn't have much hope about Patch 7 for Wyll, but this... honestly, this is worse than him just being ignored again.

The thing that kills me the most is that this is just going to be more fodder for the fandom to completely mischaracterize Wyll, for those who already haven't bothered to think critically about his character at all to just be like, oh, cool, Wyll is evil now. Nope. You've completely missed the point.

I'm just... so tired. I've worked very hard to put this little bubble of Wyll enthusiasts around me (hi friends I love you all!) so that I can hold on to some shred of sanity in this fandom. The world needs heroes of color. Just let Wyll be the hero in peace.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Hades x Reader || Drabble

Plot: He's a villain; So you would- could never, ever fall in love with him.

'Sooner or later you're gonna want it. And the second- the second that happens, you know I'll sup in; have myself a real good day.' - Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

... But he'll still wait patiently, for you.

Warnings: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Mischaracterisation?

Tagging: @asperol-with-izzy , @disney-android-foundation , @lady-love88 , @marinerainbow , @miss_understood , and @yesthetrashbin .

The instant that you see the villain in your house, waiting for you again lounging on your bed, smoke spread all over the floor; you groan. "Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- "

Hades only shows a flicker or irritation by your obnoxiously drawn-out moan, before its snuffed out with a roll of his shoulders and he gets up from your bed. Now his head grazes the ceiling but he comes here so often, asking you on walks with him and bringing you dinner you couldn't have scrounged for yourself with a weeks pay despite how many time's you've told him no, never, so you're past the fear of him setting the house on fire. His yellow eyes glow in the dim room and, like always, it causes a little warmth to spready in the pit of your belly- you ignore it. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be gone in a sec, okay babe? I got places to be today, anyway. Just gimmie a minute, here."

"Why should I?"

"Uh- " This time real frustration passes over his face; settling for a few moments as he speaks. "Well you don't have that much of a choice, doya babe? So just shut up and listen, eh?"

Not-at-all scared, you just roll your eyes, setting your basket down on the side table and crossing your arms impatiently over your chest. "Fine. What do you want? I don't see any exotic fruits... another walk?"

Here, a smirk slips over his mouth; The flames atop his head give a happy crackle, and he gently shakes his head. "Not this time. Unless, I mean- you want to?? I can reschedule my meeting with the Fates, if you- " When he reads your expression, a familiar and cold 'hell no' written all over it, he sighs. Disappointed, but... not surprised at all, anymore. "Right. Right- uh, look babe. I just came here to let ya know, I... "

Hades? Lost for words?? That almost concerns you. Almost makes you lower your freezing cold exterior, and ask- ... but no. No. Instead, you tighten your arms over your chest and increase the impatient, expectant look in your eyes. Like, hurry up.

"... Okay. Look. I like you, (Full name). I might even go so far as to say I'm fallin' for ya- and thats new to me. I'm lost in some really unfamiliar waters, here," He chuckles, nervously, looking truly out of his depth for a moment. "Thats never happened to me before, this is new, and I- I- I'm tryin' to do it right. Sweep you off your feet; all that romantic jazz. Which I honestly think is kinda psychotic-... But uh... " His eyes lift from somewhere on the ground to your left, up to your eyes and he gives you another half-smirk. "I think we both know its not my thing."

... breaking your silence for a moment, you give a little tiny nod; not sure where this is going. "We do." You say quietly.

"Yea. Well, between you and me- its not workin' as well as you'd think, is it?"

"... no."

"Right, so," He rolls those broad shoulders again, giving his neck an uncomfortable stretch. "I'm uh- I'm gonna stop trying."

That gives you pause. " -What??"

"-not that I'm done here, exactly, no no no. I don't give up so easy, sweetheart. I'm gonna be here, or well- around. Waiting. And some day if... And someday when, you decide ya want me, then I'll come for ya. Just call."

Eyebrows furrowing, you suddenly remember something Hades said earlier. You'd almost forgotten it, because it seemed unimportant before, but now seems significant. "... Why are you going to meet with the fates?" Does he... know something? Is going to ask something?? What-

He just grins, infuriatingly. And his body begins to disappear into smoke, and your eyes widen- because- wait! "Remember what I just told you, babe. Keep it in mind, mull it over. I got nothin but time and I don't mind using it waiting on you. You're kinda worth it, eh?" -He didn't answer your question!

"But!- "

"Lookin' forward to your call, sweetheart."

"I'm not gonna call!- "

"Uhuh."

[theminecraftbee]

the summer before THE END...

(this fic contains @hotguycomiczine spoilers! go read it first! i'll wait!)

It’s midday. The sun is heavy and hot, bearing down against the asphalt and visibly making the air shimmer over the road. Summer in Hermitopia can be miserable, and frankly Cuteguy thinks it’s far more miserable than the bruises. The humidity makes his feathers stick together and itch in awkward ways, he’s sweaty twice over because he hadn’t had time to actually wash his costume between the last major villain attack, his recent part-time line cook job, and then this fight.

He’s in his early thirties and he’s becoming an old man, he thinks. His knees should not hurt this much, and yet here they are. Vigilantism is going to give him early arthritis.

They’ve driven off the villain. Didn’t manage to catch him, though. He wasn’t even from Hermitopia. That’s been happening more lately; people who see Hermitopia as some lawless wasteland where they can come visit, avoid drinking any water, and live out their dreams of being a comic book character, damn the consequences or collateral damage. It’s frustrating. Sometimes, deep in Cuteguy’s soul, he sort of thinks the Soup Group has a point in calling out all this bullshit.

Of course, they do all that murder about it. So. Not much better, really.

He leans against a building and tries to breathe. Normally he has a water bottle with his costume, but this guy had homemade napalm. Luckily, not real napalm! The water did work for putting out the fire! Unfortunately, it’s ninety-seven degrees and humid and Cuteguy has just done enough cardio that he’s honestly worried about the odds he passes out. 

Out on the street, Hotguy is chatting with every civilian he comes across. He’s grandstanding. He’s giving blow-by-blows. He’s acting like his sweat doesn’t stink like a mere mortal’s. He has a water bottle, and he’s taking sips of it between chats with reporters and posing for cameras. There are enough cars and civilians that Cuteguy isn’t all that worried about the TCG yet. Hotguy’s still pretty damn wanted, what with the whole possession thing that they don’t exactly have the means to prove to the public, so Cuteguy’s got to keep an eye out for them, but with this many cameras on him? The TCG isn’t about to arrest him on camera. Despite everything, he's still too charismatic; he'd still make them look too bad. 

Cuteguy wipes his forehead again. He does notice when someone starts approaching him; he might be exhausted, but he’s acting as Hotguy’s situational awareness while he’s busy playing up crowds. He can’t afford to be that exhausted, so he isn’t. That, and the woman approaching him is hardly as stealthy as the Bleeding Hart. Another thing he might have to give to the Soup Group were he willing to give them credit for anything: he’s never been able to fully stop noticing where everyone is around him. Hotguy had winced and called it “hypervigilance”. Cuteguy had said that he wasn’t any better, he just calls it a superpower. Hotguy had said it is hardly his fault his superpower promotes vigilance. Cuteguy had—

“Uh, good fight. Thanks,” says the woman.

“Oh, uh. You’re welcome,” Cuteguy says.

She’s tall and blonde. Also, she has four arms. Cuteguy should have probably noticed that first, but he didn’t, and that’s on him.

“Bit of a mess, especially in this weather. Hotter and they’d issue a heat advisory, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cuteguy says.

He is not good at post-battle smalltalk. That’s why it’s Hotguy’s job. He’s good at causing chaos if needed, but chaos is the opening the TCG would need to get to Hotguy. Cuteguy glances in his direction. He’s posing and signing autographs still. He can’t help but sigh. They’re going to be here all day.

The four-armed lady follows his gaze.

“You know, I’d always wondered why you stick to him,” she says.

“Sorry?” Cuteguy says.

“I just mean—I watched the fight. Yeah, he’s good, but you’re decent at range too. You can get enough height to really not need perfect accuracy because you’ll be hard to hit. Wings are, uh, a pretty overpowered combat tool, really, especially when most of your enemies are on the ground. But you’re good at close range, so, uh, inside isn’t awful for you either, really.”

“I mean, you’re right, I am pretty good,” Cuteguy says, interrupting her. “I don’t really get—”

“Look at him,” the woman says. “You ran around more than him and he took the water bottle.”

Cuteguy wants to defend Hotguy for that one; it’s hardly his fault that Cuteguy dumped his water bottle on napalm like it would do anything. It did, which is convenient, but still. Not Hotguy’s call. He doesn’t quite get the chance.

“Even after everything last month, he’s still grandstanding too. Sure, he’s stopped shooting people for not being grateful enough, or holding rescues hostage for cash, but look at him. Hardly any better, is he. Sure, he says he was possessed—”

“He was,” Cuteguy snaps.

“—but like, is the guy he is now actually all that different? Just saying.”

Cuteguy stares at the man trying to get extra photo ops out of a group of passing runners. They’re topless to account for the heat, which is probably why Hotguy wants photos with them. Cuteguy can just barely hear the man asking to trade phone numbers. Is it worse or better, Cuteguy wonders, that the phone number Hotguy gives out just goes straight to Cub’s inbox? Is that catfishing or just good sense?

“He’s trying to help,” Cuteguy says.

“He’s desperate for attention,” the four-armed woman says. “You know, you’d probably be better without him. After everything that happened, your reputation would be better too. A little more in the shadows, a little less associated with his crimes.”

“He’s…”

“I just want the real reason, really,” the woman says. 

“What do you…”

“Why would you stick with him when you’re so much better?”

Hotguy waves goodbye to the runners. He takes another sip of the water bottle. Really, there’s so much that Cuteguy can say here, watching that. He could say something about how, in the terrible days when the Soup Group had first come onto the scene, Hotguy had barely left Cuteguy’s side until Cuteguy started pushing him away. He could say that Hotguy is earnest, that he really does want to save people, despite the fact he also wants attention. He could say that he knows the man behind the mask now, and he’s seen his films, and frankly getting a little recognition as Hotguy kind of makes up for not getting recognition for his decent acting talent. He could say something about playing Mario Kart on the couch, or learning to aim a bow, or fights with Doc, or secrets shared that Cuteguy wants to make sure Hotguy never has an incentive to spread. He could say something about how dangerous fighting alone is. That’s probably the more sensible thing to say, actually; Cuteguy knows exactly how dangerous fighting alone is.

What Cuteguy says is this:

“He makes me happy.”

There is a long not-quite silence as sirens and cicadas fill the summer air.

“Huh,” the woman says.

Cuteguy doesn’t say anything else.

“Well. I mean. I don’t really know how to save you from that, so I guess I’ll just leave you to it,” the woman says. “Consider if he’s really worth it.”

She leaves. Cuteguy stares after her a moment before shaking his head and going back to scanning the crowd for any known TCG elements.

“Birdie!” Hotguy crows, running over from the reporters. “We’re on the 5 PM news!”

“Really? An out-of-towner with questionable pyrotechnics made it?” 

“I got it worked out,” Hotguy says confidently. “But, uh, with that said, you look like you need some AC and a drink. I have so much Gatorade in my fridge that it isn’t even funny. All the labels are pulled off because it’s for that one football movie I did, right? And for some reason they didn’t want to give Gatorade the product placement, so they made all these sports drinks without—”

“Not in-costume, Hotguy,” Cuteguy says, but he doesn’t put any heat into it.

“—oh, you know no one’s listening, lighten up! Anyway, so the movie ended up somehow ordering far too many bottles, and you know what they say about underpaid actors and free food—or, I’m not sure it’s actually an expression, but let me tell you, I have never turned it down. And with the number of ele… electo-mites? I think? You know, all the sweat we’re sweaty about—come on Cuteguy, I don’t want you passing out on the pavement, I really didn’t mean to get caught out that long!” Hotguy says, grabbing Cuteguy’s hand to take him back to his apartment.

Miserable heat or not, Cuteguy can’t help but smile slightly.

“I don’t want to pass out either, that’s why I’m not running, Hotguy,” he says, and he lets himself be tugged along in that man’s wake once more.

[spyret-the-shitposter]

and now it's time to play WOULD GRAVITY FALLS CHARACTERS RESPECT YOUR PRONOUNS (pre-weirdmageddon) (non gravity falls fans take this as a sign.)

DIPPER PINES - not sure he'd understand the concept immediately, but would catch on quick because he understands what it's like not being called something you want to be called

MABEL PINES - YES. no question about it. there's so many things i could say here. she'd correct herself for THINKING the wrong pronouns.

STANLEY PINES - understands and correctly genders you for all the wrong, crime-related reasons! bro is the king of preferred names. you say "hey i'm actually exam/ple" and he'll be like "AH. I GET IT. WINK. DO YOU ALSO WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN THE COPS ARE IN TOWN" like i cant overstate this. if you say hey i want to change my identity he will pull out a stack of fake IDs and have you pick one. he's a little confused but he got the spirit!

STANFORD PINES - if you ever need a guy to not grasp a modern-day concept, call this guy! he'd do his best, but only because he wants to be nice. he does Not understand. give him a little bit of systematic exposure and he'll get it! he will take a scientific approach! but he'll get it! somebody get this man 2024ccs of woke liberalism stat

SOOS RAMIREZ - calls you dude and bro. does not call you anything but dude and bro. he knows what you are and he respects that! but let's be real honest here.

WENDY CORDUROY - incredibly supportive and super chill. if you were still in the closet, she'd do the mouth zip motion thing. you get it. she's so awesome about you

WADDLES - oink?

GIDEON GLEEFUL - yes to your face! no behind closed doors. he'd probably call you "that queer" while villain monologuing in his room . i can hear it in his voice

BUD GLEEFUL - THE gravity falls homophobic youth pastor let's be for real he'd say "it's not too late to turn to God" as a christian trans person i'm pretty sure God thinks about lgbtq+ kids and fraudulent capitalists on two separate ends of a very long line

SHERIFF BLUBS & DEPUTY DURLAND - do i even have to say it. i'm gonna say it. solid top and DEAD SERIOUS bottom. they ARE the loud and proud gravity falls lgbtq+ community. if they're transphobic i'll eat my socks.

CANDY CHIU - i know what you guys are thinking . "oh candy's so sweet of course she'd respect your pronouns!" CANDY MOTHERFUCKING CHIU WILL NOT ONLY RESPECT YOUR PRONOUNS, BUT SHE WILL GO OUT OF HER WAY TO USE THEM AT ANY POSSIBLE MOMENT. if she sees somewhere to say your pronouns, she will DO it. because she LOVES YOU. and also she'd fight anyone who gets it wrong!

GRENDA GRENDINATOR - trans. she loves you. will help candy fight anybody who gets your pronouns wrong.

FIDDLEFORD MCGUCKET - honestly this is a hard one. he could ACKNOWLEDGE! your pronouns! but other than that i'm not sure. pre-memory wipe, i think he'd feel a little weird about it, but it would become nothing to him eventually

PACIFICA NORTHWEST - "ew. what the fuck." and then suddenly she's asking you how you figured that out. For No Reason

ROBBIE VALENTINO - calls you a faggot. is it because he is homophobic? because he is one? because he hates you specifically? the world will never know

BLENDIN BLANDIN - he lives in the year 207̃012. i find it hard to believe they haven't made respecting pronouns mandatory yet.

AGENTS POWERS & TRIGGER - are the pronouns on your legal documents????? it's not funny stop laughign

TYLER CUTEBIKER - gay. his pronouns are get/it. he will respect you (in his own ways)

LAZY SUSAN - forgets you had the wrong pronouns in the first place. she respects you by default

TIME BABY - does not refer to you

BILL CIPHER - he would call you your preferred pronouns but DON'T get it twisted. he does not respect you as a living thing. it isn't bigoted (that would be ironic considering that whole sixer thing) he just doesn't. maybe he'd make HEAVY fun of you for good measure but he's got to dig at somebody somehow. also were pronouns even real in his dimension anything could happen man ????

SHMEBULOCK - shmebulock

(did i forget anybody? let me know)

[hadesisqueer]

I know sometimes people who've read the Kyoshi novels wonder what would have happened if Yun had not gone dark, if they would have gotten together.

And to be honest, even if Yun had not gone full villain and they had gotten together, I really don't think they would have worked as a couple. Part of this comes from the fact that Yun honestly was never in love with Kyoshi.

Now, hear me out here, I'm not saying he didn't care about Kyoshi or that he didn't love her; he truly cared about her in a platonic way and at some point he did feel something else. But that was for the Kyoshi at Yokoya. Kyoshi the servant girl who picked up after him and was gentle to him. Not the Kyoshi we see later, the real Kyoshi. We see later that that Kyoshi —the one Kyoshi herself feels proud of being in the final fight against him— actually kind of disgusts him. He tries to infantilize her, strip her of her fans and the elements that feel foreign for him, to revert her back to the version of Kyoshi he liked instead of the actual version now: Avatar Kyoshi. And that's another thing here: dark or not, I don't think Yun would have gotten over that easily the fact that Kyoshi was the Avatar and not him. Even if he did eventually come to terms with it and they could have still been friends, I really don't think their relationship would have ever been the same.

People also do not take into consideration that by the beginning of Rise of Kyoshi, the crush Kyoshi had had on Yun had started fading a while ago —she still loved him, of course, but with time the romantic feelings were fading— and she already had started having feelings for Rangi, even if she herself didn't fully realize it until she was crashing through walls in Chameleon Bay thinking Rangi looked gorgeous while they running from the cops (which sure is a way to have your 'oh' moment). Yun himself realized it and knew there was something going on between them. Honestly, with her feelings for Rangi in the middle now, I don't think Kyoshi would have gotten together with Yun. I think Kyoshi would have ended with Rangi either way. They do seem more compatible as well, because while Yun only liked a particular version of Kyoshi —the one that was a gentle girl and him the stronger figure who was protective— Rangi loved Kyoshi. Every version of her, the servant girl and the daofei and the Avatar. Just Kyoshi.

[sharksandjays]

anybody else notice that lloyd is just having so much fun fighting in dragons rising? Of course, with the more serious villains like the Imperium and stuff like that he can become serious, but overall you see him smile a lot more while fighting.

And it's just super cool to me because it's sorta hinted throughout the seasons that the ninja think of certain villains as below them. Like uhh i forgot who but didn't kai or someone call the Mechanic a "third tier" villain in season 6, whereas nadakhan was first tier.

And it could be associated with arrogance but honestly? I just think the ninja know their jobs. Their jobs are to basically keep ninjago together and the citizens alive. Anyone that is a major threat can be handled by them, whereas anyone less than them will be handled by the police force.

But the thing is, the ninja LOVE fighting! They spar all the time, of course to keep their stamina up, but also because they find it fun! Cole was ITCHING to fight for half of the older seasons, and Kai always rushes into them. Even Jay seems to have fun with them. It makes sense that they would see low-level villains that they can easily beat as a game, as something amusing. And yes, there's probably an ego boost in there. Like "lol look at that guy that i just beat in 0.5 seconds while the police are struggling for a day to find and arrest him."

So I honestly just see Lloyd in Dragons Rising as having fun. Low level thugs like the guards in Imperium that he can just flaunt his skills to and maybe add a few flourishes to the fight that he'd never be able to use in a real fight...maybe a little flip that Jay had taught him, or a special spin that Kai showed him. And when he's fighting Wyldfire he's just!! Amused!!!

Ther''s also probably an added "PLEASE these ppl think they can beat ME?" to the mix. Again, it might look like arrogance...but think about this. It's deserved arrogance. Lloyd has literally beaten the master of evil itself. Twice. And here's this 15 year old Kai equivilant raving about killing him. It must be really amusing to him. He is very skilled, professional, and powerful. He knows his worth. Humility is hard to have when you were forced to carry the burden of the world at 9 years old.

[tossawary]

It's very ironic to get comments on "Scum Villain" fics that are essentially revenge fantasies against certain characters, given... uh... everything about "Proud Immortal Demon Way" and how the story of SVSSS interacts with that in-universe story.

Sometimes, it's mildly amusing. Sometimes, it's a little disturbing, depending on how violent and disproportionate the fantasy is, because even if I've written some villain as a real asshole, I don't want to open my inbox to people wishing death and gory violence on anyone. A couple times, it took me a hot second to figure out that the violent fantasy wasn't directed at ME specifically.

Thankfully, that extremism is quite rare, so it's more often people wishing milder physical pains or, uh, complete social humiliation on certain characters, sometimes just for the "crime" of being mild inconveniences or slightly unfriendly to the fic's protagonist. Most of the time, I assume this is some form of playful exaggeration on the commenter's part, a reader exorcising mild annoyance at a fictional antagonist and expressing some sympathy or compassion for the hurt protagonist. A reader mentioning they kind of want to see a character grovel pathetically for forgiveness only to get kicked in the face is not necessarily a reader who wants that revenge fantasy to actually happen in the story.

Sometimes, though, it is hard to tell if someone genuinely thinks that all of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect should be destroyed because Luo Binghe was abused or Shang Qinghua was overworked. Like, I sure hope this is just hyperbole! I sure hope that you don't honestly think that "an eye for an eye" or "I take two of your eyes and also your tongue because you took one of my eyes" are, like, reasonable justice policies! I sure hope that you don't sincerely think that collective punishment is in any way a good thing and that a random junior disciple on the tenth peak (who probably doesn't even know who Luo Binghe is) deserves to suffer because the original Shen Qingqiu was a really shitty person.

But revenge fantasies like "Proud Immortal Demon Way" are popular for a reason, so I can never quite be sure! In every fandom, you have Peerless Cucumbers demanding that villain characters be castrated or killed for being abusive pricks, who cheer on the fictional revenge fantasy of hurting someone ten times as much as they hurt you, and some fans would be absolutely horrified by that kind of "retribution" in real life and others would... cheer that real life "punishment" on as well.

I don't really have a strong point to make with this post! This post is too long to be a casual reminder: "Hey, I hope you're always keeping in mind that messages you send on the internet are being directly received by real people who 1) can't read your tone and 2) don't know your 'real life' opinions to immediately know if you're joking." And I'm focused more here on how amusingly ironic this type of commenting is in regards to SVSSS and PIDW specifically.

Like, it's fun sometimes to get a little "Peerless Cucumber" about our favorite protagonists! (Shen Yuan said a lot of shit on the internet about PIDW but apparently generally doesn't really want people in SVSSS to suffer.) But once your revenge fantasy starts getting a little too detailed in regards to public humiliation and social ruin, torture and dismemberment, arson and leaving someone to get eaten alive by fire ants, making everyone who ever mildly slighted you beg for their life at your feet... It's like, "Bro, I don't think this comment is even Peerless Cucumber levels anymore. You are straight-up getting into original Luo Binghe territory here."

[a0random0gal]

Yeah so Remember when Ryan Condal said Aegon and Sunfyre's bond was "Green propaganda" and everyone got understandably mad at him??

Take a look at what he said regarding b&c:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HOTDGreens/s/NabfGkmeWs

Bro...what the actual fuck did you just say?

Apparently blood and cheese was all green propaganda that Alicent spread to make saint Rhaenyra look bad. It was all a misunderstanding, there was no choice between Jaehaerys and Maelor, it was all made up.

Alicent just invented the most evil lie she could muster up to villainize the amazing blacks. What was shown onscreen is the real representation of what transpired.

Jesus Christ Condal i get that you hate book! Alicent (and Alicent in general) for some reason but can you stop blaming that poor woman, who had to watch her grandchild get beheaded, and not say she was lying out of her ass? Is that so hard?

"You were supposed to be rooting for blood and cheese and hope they didn't get caught!"

For the love of the Seven, if you don't want all the money you spent marketing this show to go down the drain Hbo please keep this man away from any interviews, I can't listen to him anymore without wanting to turn my phone off.

I genuinely can't fault many greens for deciding to stop watching because of this bs.

It's so embarrassing that a writer who is supposed to portray a civil war and keep both sides on equal ground pulls this type of shit. For me the next episode is coming out tomorrow and honestly I have no motivation to watch, absolutely no excitement.

I tried to deny it in the past, but now the writer's bias has become so blatant that my love for the show has taken a hit. Hotd truly is a high budget team black fanfic.

And here I thought without D&D in the picture we would be fine.

[blue-likethebird]

Reusing the memory system from botw for the tears of the dragon storyline in totk was such a terrible decision on so many different levels that it’s honestly kind of impressive.

While the botw memory system had flaws of its own, there was one small but significant thing that worked in its favour: botw’s memories were largely separate from the main plot in the past, and have absolutely no bearing on the story being told in the present. Aside from a few specific instances (ie the calamity striking, the ceremony, Link and Zelda becoming closer) the memories are all self-contained moments that emphasize character development over driving the story. Because there’s no major narrative throughline between them, it gives players more freedom to discover in any order regardless of how much they’ve progressed through the main quest without running the risk of stumbling across a memory that ruins something else later on in the game.

(This got long so the rest of my analysis is going under the cut.)

The biggest change between the memories from botw and the dragon’s tears from totk is definitely what kind of information these cutscenes relay to you as the player. Botw’s memories are primarily snapshots of small interpersonal moments that hold very little significance to the greater narrative taking place in the past. Totk’s memories are the greater narrative. With only one major exception -that I’ll touch on in a sec-, every cutscene in the dragon’s tears shows a crucial moment of story development with no time left to explore the characters driving that story forwards. There’s no organic moment revealing, say, a quirk of Rauru’s that Mineru finds annoying, or Sonia’s sense of humour, or any of our literal Main Villain Ganondorf’s motivations for going to war with Hyrule. If there’s any moments of character focus they only happen in ways that advance the plot (meaning the only real character focus is on the characters totk wants the entire universe to orbit around, namely Rauru and Zelda), and as such it’s harder to bring myself to care about what happens to anyone.

To illustrate the point I’m trying to make here, compare the memories of the champions Link regains during the divine beast quests to the conversations with the ancient sages at the end of each temple. The memories make passing mentions of the ongoing preparations for the calamity, but the real purpose of those scenes is to showcase who the champions were as people before their deaths and give us a reason to mourn them, even though we know at the start of our journey that they’re all long gone. In contrast, the conversations with the ancient sages are all about the events of the imprisoning war and their promise to Zelda that their descendants will come to Link’s aid in the future, very obviously copy pasted for each of the five times that cutscene is brought up (which is a particularly egregious moment of bad quest design but that’s a rant for another time) in such a way that none of the 5 incarnations of that cutscene reveal anything new about the ancient sages as characters, to the point where none of them even show their faces. I care about Daruk because the game shows me that he cares deeply about the wellbeing of his fellow champions and brings out the best in others. So why should I care about the nameless, faceless sage of water? What’s there to move me about their struggles if my only interactions with the sages are a series of exposition dumps? If the game can’t give me a reason to sincerely care about its main characters, the whole rest of the story is meaningless.

(As an aside, I get the feeling someone on the dev team caught on to the issue I’m describing here, because the tea party memory sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the dragon tear cutscenes. It’s such a jarring change of pace to have the otherwise plot-heavy dragon’s tears come screeching to a halt for a scene where Sonia sits down with Zelda to have a cute little tea party and talk about absolutely nothing of significance that the whole thing almost seems like it was hastily tacked on to the story later. Given that the next (chronological) memory sees Sonia fall victim to an unceremonious death by chiropractor, it feels like someone realized that Sonia really doesn’t do or say much in the scenes before she dies and threw together the tea party scene so players would have at least one moment to look back on fondly when she’s fridged. But I digress)

The story told in the dragon’s tears is a highly linear one. But the open-ended nature of botw’s memory system remains, meaning that these tears can be found and viewed in any order. At first this doesn’t seem so bad, since the first two tears you’re likely to find if you follow the game’s intended path are also the chronological first and second of the memories you can discover through these geoglyph tears. But after those first two, the game kinda gives up on guiding you towards these tears in a way that flows well with the story they wrote: the closest tear geographically to the two the game initially guides you towards correlates to one of the penultimate scenes of that entire storyline, while the next scene chronologically is found almost halfway across the map. As such, it’s all but guaranteed that you’ll spoil yourself in some way without using either a guide or the (somewhat unintuitive and never fully explained by the game) little map in the forgotten temple. Finding memories in order didn’t matter so much in botw because the scenes you could find still worked well as standalone scenes before you discovered every memory and pieced together the full picture, and the game is never trying to surprise me about the characters’ fates at the end of this storyline: hell the first memory you’re guided to shows the calamity striking. But in contrast, viewing a dragon’s tear at the wrong time can completely ruin the story they’re trying to tell in those cutscenes. During my playthrough, for example, the first tear I found after the game stopped guiding me to them showed Ganondorf removing Sonia’s stone from her dead body. At this point I had known Sonia existed for all of like an hour, so every subsequent appearance she made was ruined for me by the fact that I already knew she was nothing but cannon fodder to be killed off for the sake of another character’s pain (Rauru and Zelda a-fucking-gain). I expected to be pissed that it was so easy to spoil myself, or maybe sad in passing that a character with her potential was so underutilized, but instead I just felt… tired. I wasn’t even halfway to the first settlement and already I was completely numb to the story the game was trying to tell.

But the worst was yet to come. And oh boy was it ever a low point for storytelling in the Zelda series. Remember how I said up above that the memories in botw had no connection to the story in the present? Let’s just say the same cannot be said for the dragon’s tears.

It’s May 2023. I’ve just finished the sage of wind questline. I still have hope that the story the game is trying to tell will be good. Deciding that I’ll go to Goron city next, I head towards the Thyplo skyview tower to expand my map, catch a glimpse of a nearby geoglyph from the air, and glide over to check it out. This geoglyph shows me a memory that not only recaps the entire dragon tear storyline, but also ends on a bit of foreshadowing about Zelda’s fate that’s about as subtle as a brick to the fucking face. By exploring -the thing the game claims it prioritized above all else in the design of its world and quests- I’d once again been hit with spoilers for a major story detail.

My main objective in this game is to find Zelda. It’s the only driving factor behind my journey towards all these different regions. The current big mystery I’m supposed to solve is why Zelda’s causing so much hell for the people of Hyrule. I now knew exactly where she was and what the deal with her appearances in other parts of Hyrule was, and I’d found it completely by accident by doing something the game says over and over again that it wants me to do. Unlike with Sonia’s death, this time I was a mess of emotions. I was pissed the fuck off that this open-world game had punished me twice already for trying to explore. More than that, I was disappointed that a game I had been so excited to play, from a series I had so many fond memories of, had let me down like this. With every subsequent quest where the sages and I chased a Zelda I knew was fake to our next objective, and every NPC wondering where she was that I couldn’t tell the truth to, that disappointment grew. The entire rest of the main story was ruined for me before I had progressed past 1/4th of the regional quests and a third of the dragon’s tears. There was no more sense of anticipation or mystery. I finished the rest of the game with a bitter taste in my mouth and haven’t touched it again since.

Do I think this story could have been good? Honestly, I don’t know, and by now I don’t really care either (that’s a lie. I care so so much and that’s probably why I hate totk as much as I do). But it’s all irrelevant, because like Cinderella’s stepsister cutting off her own heel so she can cram her foot into a glass slipper that’s never going to fit, totk is sabotaged by the devs’ insistence that everything fit itself into a world they custom-made for botw. This isn’t a new formula that the series is following, it’s Nintendo slapping a new coat of paint on an existing skeleton, and I’m not optimistic to see what this particular approach has in store for the Zelda series. Especially not at the price they’re charging for it.