#bittersweet plots

[enchantingepics]

Story Prompt 44

In a city cloaked in shadows and secrets, there existed a group of friends who danced on the edge of the law. They moved like shadows in the night, their laughter a blend of mischief and recklessness. But beneath their camaraderie lay a darker truth - a heinous crime committed on a fateful evening that would bind them together in ways they never imagined.

It was a night like any other, the air thick with anticipation and the streets alive with whispered promises. The friends gathered, their hearts pounding in unison as they embarked on a dangerous escapade. Among them stood a figure, the quiet observer who would unknowingly become the linchpin of their fate.

As they ventured deeper into the night, their actions spoke louder than words. They were rebels without a cause, seeking thrills in the darkness that threatened to consume them. And when the moment of reckoning came, it was the quiet one who found themselves behind the wheel, a silent accomplice to the chaos that ensued.

But as the sirens wailed and the handcuffs clicked into place, there was no protest, no defiance. For in the eyes of society, they were all guilty by association, bound by the threads of loyalty and betrayal.

The trial passed like a blur, the weight of their actions heavy upon their shoulders. Yet amidst the whispers of condemnation, there remained a sense of solidarity among them. They had chosen their path, and together they would face the consequences.

As they emerged from the courthouse, the world outside seemed to blur into a haze of flashing lights and probing questions. The quiet one, their gaze unwavering, met the glare of a journalist with a smirk.

"For our cause," they declared, their voice cutting through the chaos, "it was worth it."

And so, as they were ushered into the darkness of confinement, their journey had only just begun.

Years passed like grains of sand slipping through an hourglass, and the once-forgotten friends found themselves thrust into a world that bore little resemblance to the one they left behind. Technology had advanced, society had changed, and they were but relics of a bygone era.

Yet amidst the chaos, they found a glimmer of hope. For in the ashes of their past, they discovered a new purpose - to defy the very system that had cast them aside. And as they stood on the threshold of freedom once more, they knew that their journey was far from over.

"Looks like we're the villains now," one of them remarked, their voice tinged with bitter irony.

"But maybe," another replied, their gaze fixed on the horizon, "it's time for the villains to save the world."

[juniper-clan]

Moon 14: Birth of Venus

(AKA the twins!)

PREVIOUS l NEXT

[fujii-draws]

Thinking about a future arc pipeline with these two.

[thetopichot]

just a random idea

Sugarboo is being unusually quiet, staring out a window, and Seth worries that they’re upset about something when in reality they’re just deep in thought and zoning the heck out. Alphonse is used to this so he’s not worried.

Sugarboo is honestly so real for that. I do that shit ALOT & my friends & family look at me like "Hey, Lou? Ya good?" but I can totes imagine that. It would kinda go down like:

Seth looks at you worried as you stare out the window. He turns to Alphonse who's in the kitchen cleaning dishes. "Hey, Al?"

"Yeah?" Alphonse shouted from the kitchen.

"Is Sugar all right? Cuz they been staring at the window for 'bout an hour now. Are they mad?"

Alphonse finished up the dishes & approached Seth. He put a hand on his shoulder. "Nah, they're fine. They're just in deep thought, ya know? In the zone?"

Seth turns to Al & raises a eyebrow at him. "In the what now?"

"They're fine, Seth. They're just thinking."

"Hmm. 'Bout what though?" Alphonse shrugged to the question.

"The world may never know."

[pollyna]

5 times Mav chooses the sky because that's his home and he's free up there + 5 times he chooses the ground and he doesn't regret it.

[skania]

OnK Chapter 149

I know it doesn’t mean much coming from me because I’m always complaining about Aka’s writing, but…

And I mean it when I say that I expect nothing 😭 This was literally my first ever OnK-related reblog and its tags are more relevant than ever lmao

These, too:

#honestly I didn’t think too hard about any of this during my first read #because the romantic endgame seems so obvious that it kind of discourages guessing lmao #but re-reading these chapters has made me appreciate Aqua’s side of his bond with Akane a lot more

Back when I first got into OnK, I mentioned that Akane was the entire reason I kept reading the manga. I didn’t care about the romantic subplot, found Aqua/Kana extremely obvious and predictable, and Aqua plain boring.

It’s only during my second read that I paid close attention to Akane’s interactions with Aqua and I ended up playing myself into both, caring about Aqua and shipping him with Akane lol

This chapter has made me realize that despite everything, I'm not emotionally invested in whether they end up together or not. I’d prefer it, obviously, because Aqua truly is at his most interesting whenever he’s around Akane, and their dynamic has the best development in the manga (so far).

But it’s just like I said before: If they don’t end up together, that’s just Aka’s loss, not mine. I’m just here for Akane 😂

And as an Akane fan, I feel like the best thing for me to do right now is to just take a step back and watch things unfold, because Aka will do whatever he wants regardless of how any of us interpret his manga lol

So instead of posting the long post I originally wrote about this chapter when the leaks came out, I'll just share a a clown gif because in hindsight it was silly of me to expect Kana out of all people to have any sort of meaningful insight into Aqua 🤡

And a couple of things that caught my eye because I can't help myself:

Kana didn't even see Aqua and Akane have any sort of meaningful moment, just those two standing in each other's vicinity was enough to make her throw herself a pity party. How many more times is she going to pity herself and give up? How has Aka not tired of writing her this way? Where did her development from the Scandal arc go? 🤡

So Chapter 147 featured Kamiki thinking Ai doesn't love him and Kana thinking Aqua likes her. It even had a helpful "Cut 139: Misunderstanding" panel and everything. Will this mean something? Who knows!

Kana used guilt-trip! It was super effective!

Oh the irony! Poor Akane looks like she's been hard at work convincing herself that she's over Aqua. And you know what? I cheer for her and respect her energy 100%. I'd rather see her doing her mightiest to help him without any ulterior motives than to have her crying for him and hoping to get back with him every other chapter lol

Akane calling Kana out for her pity-party and for being cowardly was so cathartic that if I didn't already stan her, I'd have become a fan right now 😭 It also means that Aka is 100% aware of the way he writes Kana, so when will she finally be allowed to grow?

Kana's praise to Akane made me so sad though because yes, Akane is pretty and she's talented and she's kind. That's sweet of her to say. But that's not what made Akane someone special to Aqua: it was the way she understood him. The worst part is that Kana ends her praise by saying that Akane is a "goody-two-shoes" but... that's the opposite of how Akane views herself. She sees herself as someone who's not decent and not normal. So it's no wonder that while she gets flustered (it's her dear kana-chan praising her), she seems to get a bit sad/frustrated afterward. After all, for Akane it's probably the opposite. Men would prefer a decent, normal, bright girl like Kana - Aqua included.

I wish someone would tell Akane that she is too ignorant of her own charms and that she doesn't have to act like an adult all the time. Truly the pot calling the kettle black! Sadly, unlike Kana, Akane seems to have no one in her corner in this manga. Aqua was the only one there and the poor guy is barely even a character anymore lol

Overprotective mother or controlling ex-girlfriend? Take your pick!

The English translation left something pretty important out in these panels. Akane doesn't just say "if you have a girlfriend", she says "if you have a precious/important girlfriend". This distinction is very important because it goes to show that... as expected, Akane doesn't think she was an important girlfriend to Aqua. It's like she didn't count and Kana would be the real deal. Oh, Akane...

Which takes me to her very silly, very convoluted yet very predictable plan (in true Aka fashion).

When Akane thinks “I know exactly what you hate”, I imagine she means that Aqua hates hurting and endangering those he cares for. So I'm guessing Akane thinks that if she plays matchmaker and quite literally throws Kana at him, someone he has a soft spot, then Aqua won't be able to go through with his revenge because that would mean breaking Kana's very fragile heart.

In other words, it looks like Akane is going to try and use Aqua's guilt-complex against him and her weapon of choice is love. But not her love, obviously, because as far as she's concerned, her romantic love already failed to save him.

Granted, using Kana's romantic feelings to her advantage is kind of... well, wrong. To quote Akane herself, [Kana] is neither her pet nor her property, but a person. But I'm guessing that Akane may be falling victim to the same loophole she got caught in in Chapters 96 - 98. She thinks she knows what's best, so she's putting her own beliefs aside for the time being.

Kind of like Aqua, actually.

And, ironically, it's Aqua himself who first realized how easy Kana is to use.

So! All in all, I'm here for Mastermind!Akane but I hope that Aka will actually make it worth our while. Will Kana realize that she's about to be used as a chess piece in this Proxy War? Who knows, characters in this manga seem to walk in circles, only being allowed to grow when it fits the plot 😂

Last week we wondered whether Aka would subvert expectations or go the predictable route, and down the predictable route he went. His way of making it less predictable is by including a twist in the form of Akane's ulterior motives, but will this be enough to allow this ol' used trope to lead us someplace new? I guess we'll have to keep reading to find out, but given the quality of the writing lately, I'm not expecting much lol

[retroautomaton]

crazy casual

(comic previews! 💎💼)

[3416]

@nhleurope: Tiny mic…BIG questions! | 12.26.23

[thrwne]

So not the point but I’m obsessed with how small Mathias’s hoodie was on Erik. The sleeves didn’t even reach his hands 😭 oh I love me some height difference

Whaaat I thought the exact opposite! Erik was drowning in that hoodie and especially in those jeans

[mummer]

still sorting out how to feel about it but fuck ncuti was just insantly beyond all expectations. King

[teecupangel]

Hey, I’m back again with another idea. I know we already have Desmond in Alamut during the third crusades, but what if he went further back in time to the events of Mirage and trained with Basim and Roshan?

Desmond has no other plans whatsoever.

He has no idea why he had been thrown in this specific time period, so far from any of the people he knew.

Centuries apart from any of them.

It seemed like a cruel joke.

Or perhaps an attempt to save him gone horribly wrong.

Regardless, he had no other plans.

He had nothing.

He has nothing.

Coming to Alamut had simply been… a sorta ‘pit stop’.

His final destination had been Masyaf.

Even if he knew that the Brotherhood wasn’t there, wouldn’t exist for centuries…

He figured it would be better to stay somewhere he was familiar with.

Alamut had simply been on the way.

He needed a place to rest for the night and he was sorta-kinda familiar with Alamut thanks to what remains of his Bleed of Altaïr.

And then he saw the Assassin insignia.

No.

They call themselves Hidden Ones.

No one told him about the full history of the Assassins.

As much as Shaun enjoyed to talk, he never bothered to talk about the predecessors of the Assassins.

Even back in the Farm, history lessons were sparse.

His lessons had always been focused on the present and any information he might need to survive.

So he was caught off guard by the Hidden Ones’ presence in Alamut.

To learn that they were in charge of creating what would later be known as Alamut Castle?

Desmond was invited to join as a recruit since he showed promise and he did admit to having no real goal in life.

Desmond was sure their mentor was also trying to keep an eye on him.

The ‘promise’ he showed did involve Desmond being able to pin one of the Hidden Ones and pressing a dagger on his throat when he tried to sneak behind Desmond.

But Desmond humored them.

It was as he said…

He had no real goals.

So why not just…

Find out what else he didn’t know about the predecessors of the Brotherhood?

.

.

A year since he had been recruited…

Roshan returned to Alamut with a young man.

He introduces himself as Basim Ibn Ishaq.

Basim looked like he had seen hell at first and Desmond…

Well…

Desmond felt like the man could use a hand getting used to training and all that so he befriended him.

He ignored Nur telling him that both Basim and him needed a friend too with that big smile on his face.

Before long, he and Basim were… Desmond supposed they could be called close friends.

Basim was easy to get along with, after all.

And he was also a quick learner.

Soon enough, he and Basim were inducted to the Brotherhood and gifted eagles of their own.

Desmond knew, sooner or later, he would be ordered to go on a mission away from Alamut.

It was a bit annoying how he still couldn’t find a way to the temple underneath Alamut to leave a memory seal for Altaïr to find but there was time.

He didn’t expect Rayhan to order him to accompany Basim, Roshan and Fuladh to Baghdad though but he has no reason to say no.

So Desmond joins the three to find out what was happening in Baghdad.

(sidebar: Desmond’s eagle will be just as spoiled as Aquila is in EoA, that’s just a given XD)

[visenyaism]

for the next time you feel like doing a theory rubric:

i know you've talked abt lemongate before, but what do you think abt the idea of lemongate+dragon dream? like the house with the red door and the lemons simply hasn't happened YET

with how time and dragon dreams work in asoiaf i feel like this would be an interesting take on the 'if i look back i am lost' motif

i am such a believer in the idea that the house with the red door is sort of this made up composite memory for dany because the only past she can remember fondly not actually being real really hits thematically for me. like she literally cannot look back. this is a tragedy. but the idea of the dreams of the house with the red door and a lemon tree in braavos actually being premonitions of the life she could build for herself……wow🥲

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello. I've been binge reading your meta post an I loves all of it. I have one question, though I don't know if you had the same question or not. If you had I'm sorry feel free to ignore this but if you hadn't, this is my question. Many people said Adrien as sentimonster is a good plot and the other said it's also good metaphor for abuse children. But what do you think about the senti plot? Is it necessary? And what do you think the writer is trying to achieve with the plot if Adrien doesn't even allowed to know about what he is?

Thank you! I'm glad that you've been enjoying my rambles! I don't think I've touched on those aspects of the sentiplot, so here goes!

Is it Necessary/What's The Goal?

I don't think that the sentiplot is even remotely necessary. My two cents is that it reads like something that was added relatively last-minute in order to add some cheap drama to draw the plot out because they didn't have enough content to organically fill seven seasons. Part of the reason that I'm comfortable saying that is because we've seen the writers do this type of move many times before. I don't wanna get too into the weeds on this, but a good example is the love triangles with Luka and Kagami.

Luka and Kagami are never treated as real alternate love interests. They're just road blocks on the love square highway that allow for seasons three to end on a cliff hanger. The fact that season four opens on two episodes meant to reassure the audience that Lukanette and Adrigami are doomed to fail is proof of this. No one is actually supposed to ship those ships. There's no Team Luka vs Team Adrien. It's just cheap drama.

The other reason that I feel comfortable calling the sentiplot cheap shoehorned drama is because the sentiplot has no teeth. A big reason why I refused to believe that it was going to be a thing was because it's an extremely serious plot that has no place in a Y-7 show. The wielder of raw destruction can have his free will overwritten at any time! The show has made jewelry theft a common teenage past time! This is bad!

And yet, once it's introduced, it goes nowhere. Gabe gives the most lackluster commands humanly possible and Nathalie undoes every one of them before they have a chance to meaningfully impact the plot. The biggest fallout of the sentiplot was that the Adrienette kiss got delayed a bit. How terrifying.

If the sentiplot had the weight it deserved, then it would have destroyed Adrientte in a big, dramatic fashion. Gabriel would have commanded Adrien to date Kagami and Tomoe would have done the same for Kagami re Adrien. But that's too serious, so we don't even get Gabe telling Adrien to break up with Marinette. He just tells Adrien to not see her and Marinette never has any clue that something went wrong there because Nathalie undoes the command two minutes later.

The Sentiplot's and Emilie

You may have read the previous section and thought, "But wait, doesn't the sentiplot give an explanation for why Emilie used the peacock? Didn't we need that?"

No, we didn't. Felix's little play and Gabe's memory of the night they used the peacock both heavily imply that no one knew that the peacock would kill you. It's why Felix exists! His father did not willingly give his life to have a kid and neither did Emilie. It was an unknown side effect.

Imo, it would have actually been better if Emilie hadn't used the peacock for such obviously selfish reasons. I mean, is anyone really saying, "Oh no, the rich lady used forbidden magic (and possibly killed some people?) to get a designer baby, then faced unexpected consequences! How awful for her! She didn't deserve that!"

Wouldn't it have been a far more interesting and complex story if Emilie used the peacock because she wanted to help someone else? If she was an unambiguously good person who suffered for doing the right thing or even just a morally gray thing? Wouldn't that make Gabriel's quest feel more righteous and less like a temper tantrum by a rich, entitled white guy who used his wealth in a morally dubious manner and paid for it?

The Sentiplot as an Abuse Metephor

I don't think that the writers meant for the sentiplot to be an abuse metaphor. In fact, I sincerely hope they didn't because it's a terrible one! Or, at least, a depressing one.

Abuse - especially childhood abuse - is something that sticks with us. A lot of victims will be forever scared by what they went through. But just because they bare scares doesn't mean that they're trapped by their abuse and can never break free. This is true even if the abuse caused mental health issues like PTSD or CPTSD, conditions that can never be cured because you know what they can be? Controlled and mitigated to the point where the victim is no longer ruled by their condition.

There's also the fact that abuse victims - especially child abuse victims - can and often do reach a point where their abusers no longer have any power over them. I have personally seen a child abuse victim go thought the process of realizing that their parent is just another adult now. All the power that the parent once held is gone. The child doesn't depend on them for food and shelter anymore. If the abuse starts up again, then the child can just get up and walk away.

That's not true for a sentimonster. Sentimonsters don't grow up and get more agency/power. At any point, their abuser can get ahold of their amok and override their free will, taking away the sentimonster's freedom even if the sentimonster is on another continent! There is no means of true escape.

No abuse victim will ever be that powerless. Abuse victims can escape abuse and they do have true free will. Sentimonsters will always be sentimonsters.

Is the Sentiplot Good?

No. It's too serious for a kids show. In fact, now that it's canon, here's my two cents: all of the sentikids are massive liabilities to the team who need to give up their miraculouses immediately because they can never be truly trusted. Felix has shown us time and time again how easy it is to steal an amok and replace it with a fake, so we must always assume that the sentikids are compromised because to assume otherwise is to invite the miraculouses to fall into the wrong hands. It's just not worth the risk to trust a senti.

Along the same lines, the love square should never be canon unless Marinette gives up Guardianship because Adrien is a liability to the safety of the miraculouses even if he didn't wield on himself. The only way to get around this issue is to use the wish to make the sentikids human, but Gabe failed to even do that one kindness for his son, so here we are. Season six will either drive this point home by having Lila use the amoks to mess with Adrien or it will drop the sentiplot forever, proving just how cheap and poorly thought out it was.

Other issues I think I've already addressed in other posts, but that are still a problem that make the plot bad:

a sentimonster's creator defines the sentimonster's worth, thus there being no issue with Felix making sentimonsters and then killing them or the heroes destroying them, but it would somehow be wrong if we did the same thing to any of the sentikids

any command you give a sentimonster can be overwritten and sentimonsters can't resist even if they know they're being controlled, so there's truly no hope to free them

giving your leading lady anxiety issues and a boyfriend whose free will is constantly in jeopardy is cruel and unusual punishment

an insane number of lore issues like why is it impossible to destroy other sentimonsters, but Adrien can be destroyed in akuma fights? Cataclysms are pure destruction! It makes no sense that akumas can do what a cataclysm can't. And is Adrien able to die a natural death? What happens to his amok when he does? Will his children be able to be controlled by his amok too since they're part of him?

the lore around Gabe & Emilie finding the miraculous makes no sense and should not be possible. That's another rant, though.

[beanghostprincess]

To be saved from drowning (Shuggy Fic)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Category: M/M Fandom: One Piece (Anime & Manga) Relationship: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks/Buggy Characters: Buggy (One Piece)Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks Additional Tags: Drowning, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Cuddling, Protective Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks, Buggy-centric (One Piece), POV Buggy (One Piece), Character Study, hand-holding, Near Death Experiences, Young Shuggy

Words: 7,133

Summary:

Shanks buries his head deeper in Buggy’s back, legs tangled together. Praying, wishing, and begging for a closeness that could never happen because they reached it a long time ago, and Shanks just wants more. “I’m sorry.” His voice is completely shattered. Buggy wishes he could put him together again. He has never been good at that. He wants to ask why he is sorry. Is he sorry for the map? Is he sorry for ruining his only chance of escaping and having his own life? Is he sorry for making him unable to sail the seas on his own? For getting rid of the one piece of liberty he had left? Nothing Shanks says will ever fix it. Nothing Shanks says will ever be enough. Nothing Shanks says will ever make them go back in time. But he has saved him. And he was so– Fuck. Buggy doesn’t want to die just yet. Is that something so unfair to ask of the sea? To not kill him?

[AO3]

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

trying to imagine what a Welcome Home ending would look like (which is extremely stupid lmao considering we dont know shit about jack yet), and it's just... huh.

i doubt it's going to take the "the puppets are turned into humans and they join the real world" route (and if it does, then cool! that'd be sick as fuck!), so what would a happy ending look like for them? would they get a little sanctuary to live freely in? is there a secret world of living puppets out there somewhere?

what if its a tragic ending? the puppets either are repurposed for a new show, or stripped of their Awareness, or become inanimate objects - normal puppets? what if they just straight up fade away?

or a bittersweet ending? they renew the show in order to stay alive and together, but they're forced to return to their old lives & routines? or it's ambiguous and we don't actually see what happens after a certain point - where the ending for the audience comes before the puppet's real endgame; it's not for us to see/know, they get an unobserved close to the story.

its simultaneously fascinating and distressing to think about.

[disventure-rewrite-takes]

Connor still has his ankle broken during the motel and finale episodes.

this likely wont be my last take, but i heard you’re ending the blog soon, but i would just like to say that: thanks for opening this blog. It was really fun getting to see others takes and rewrites and submit our own takes. I also really like how you respond and talk about the takes as well! Wishing you the best! Ok maybe this was a little uncalled for but i wouldve forgotten to say this by the time it closes :/

yea i don't get why it healed so quickly 😭

and thank you so much for the kind words!!! i'm glad you enjoy the blog :) it is so fun to exchange ideas with others that agree how much wasted potential is in this series lol. i will definitely miss it