#but like regarding their dynamic it’s so important to me because you wouldn’t think they’re close at all but little moments you’re kind of

[bamboozled-distress]

obsessed with the tomorrowverse superbat because we’re seeing them in the eyes of the rest of the JL because why is the one person Superman thinks about when hes about to die that creepy looking cryptic, batman??? how and why do they know each others identity???? HOW are they this close??? why do they listen to each other so easily??? why is bruce getting princess treatment in warworld???

[dandylions101]

Poly Xianle Quartet Dynamics Headcanons/Thoughts

Okay so first we have our main big ships: Hualian and Fengqing

Xie Lian x Hua Cheng: our star-crossed lovers duo. Constant heart eyes. We know them. We love them. It’s very important to me that they both love each other the same intense amount tho.

Feng Xin x Mu Qing: Rivals to lovers type. I think they both definitely had a crush on each other when they were younger, a bit of a “fuck this guy but also he’s kinda pretty wait what-“. I think post-canon they finally try and do get over their general angst and bad communication and become a duo that really make a fantastic team when they can. Like. Not kill each other enough to actually listen. The Martial Gods of the South. They’ve been at each other’s side (and at each other’s throats) almost always since they’ve met, and I think that fact really is the foundation of their dynamic.

Alright, now the more fun stuff.

Xie Lian x Feng Xin: ‘Body Guard x Royal’ dynamic my beloved. I think they’re very much childhood friends to lovers too. Like saw each other in diapers type. I think Feng Xin was born to a noble family (with a strong martial background) that was mostly dead by the time the kingdom fell, and therefore was one of the few people deemed high ranked enough to be friends with the Crown Prince. Which makes him like. The person Xie Lian knew the longest. Intensely loyal, especially post-canon once they get over their angst. Honestly I think they may be a little bit codependent for a bit, but they ease out once they’ve settled into their relationship again. There’s definitely more to say here but I’ll leave it at that for now.

Xie Lian x Mu Qing: Ah yes, it’s the Unrequited Love complex they both nurtured for me. I read It’s In Your Warmth, I Feel The Coldest, by PeacefulDiscord on ao3 (it’s great you should check it out). And they wrote a line which really pinned down their relationship for me; “I always thought of you as my beauty,” Xie Lian says. His gaze is firm even as his hand gentles where he’s still holding Mu Qing. “My jade. My love for you drove me mad, it made me too harsh when I believed you to have discarded me so easily.” And that right there has to be the crux of their relationship. I think they both crushed on each other when they were younger, and they found each other’s differences fascinating. But that difference in class made it so difficult for them to actually understand each other. I think post-canon, once they both have lived closer to the contexts of each other’s childhoods, they both have a much better understanding of the other person. They both had strong insecurities when it came to each other, a balancing act when they never knew what the other might take the wrong way. And the power imbalance that Mu Qing was always intensely aware of and that Xie Lian never even considered. Which made them lash out the minute they felt unsure. Assumptions galore. I think after a long chat post-canon, they settle into a sweet and close relationship again, and I think their experiences after they parted lent them a new understanding of each other they bask in now. The intense admiration (and love) they have for each other goes unshadowed now.

Alright, now probably the most juicy dynamics (at least in my opinion):

Hua Cheng x Mu Qing: I headcanon that they knew each other, when they were kids. Same impoverished neighbourhood type. I’m not sure how close that relationship was, but I think they definitely had one, even if it was just Mu Qing lying about Hong Hong’er’s whereabouts when his family or some other kids try to hurt him. They have lots of animosity to get through, especially regarding the whole Xie Lian stuff. And I think because their childhoods were similar, it made Hua Cheng even less inclined to forgive Mu Qing for what he viewed as his abandoning Xie Lian (especially cause I wouldn’t have done that, he thinks to himself). I think Hu Cheng also envies him the relationship he had with Xie Lian when they were younger, thinking him undeserving. I think any headway they make happens after an explosive verbal fight, which is probably how their other two lovers learned they knew each other when they were young. Once they actually talk out the resentment, I think their relationship eases a bit. The spark of admiration they had for each other when young erupts into a whole forest fire pretty quickly after that. (Mu Qing was definitely Hua Cheng’s gay awakening when they were younger, and Xie Lian was Feng Xin’s. Mu Qing’s was Feng Xin, to his eternal despair and Feng Xin’s eternal smugness. And Xie Lian’s was obviously his San Lang, it was almost Feng Xin tho, but he was too oblivious). They turn that lingering animosity into gossiping and judging people together, it’s their favourite bonding activity. I think their shared background eventually makes Hua Cheng the person that can read Mu Qing the easiest, and Mu Qing the person that catches Hua Cheng’s insecurities the easiest too. Their relationship is surprisingly soft. Theres is a slow burn.

Hua Cheng x Feng Xin: These two bitches might actually be enemies to lovers. Hate at first sight. Hate for a long while after. They have no basis for a relationship outside of their assumptions about each other, and the early post-canon years consist of snide remarks and actual fist fights sometimes. Their own unique relationship with Xie Lian means they have no qualms about throwing him at each other’s face, and it wasn’t until they almost made him cry doing that they finally calmed down a little. Still. Lots of animosity that doesn’t get solved until some sort of mission together forces them to actually exist around each other enough to not try to explode each other with their brains. They realise, after a fraught silence, that they’re both quite similar. Especially with loved ones. Especially when it’s loyalty. And they both, respectfully, hate this new understanding of each other. “What do you mean I can’t get mad at him for doing the most for someone he believes and is loyal to?!” “What do you mean I can’t hate him for leaving our shared lover because he proved more loyal when being asked to leave?!”. Unfortunately for them, this does prove to be the ice breaker for their relationship. They end up bonding over their shared drive to keep their loved ones safe, and they understand each other’s intense more than anyone else. It’s a slow surprise to both of them when that starts to include each other as well. But they find it’s nice to be the object of someone’s intense for once too.

Alright that’s all for now. I clearly had more thoughts than I assumed.

[alezangona]

A Little Salaar Rant:

Rewatched Salaar again for the nth time and am just so curious as to how the sequel is going to go.

Like number one, a part of me believes that Aadhya is a misdirect as a love interest because in the nicest way, Deva and Varadha are too into each other to care about anyone else. I really don’t think that anything Aadhya says or does can make Deva prioritize her over Varadha (when it comes to matters of safety- like if someone was holding a gun to both of their heads, he’d be picking Varadha no doubt). Even in their interview where they were describing what they take away from their characters:

• Prithvi talked about how Varadha feels incomplete without Deva.

• Prabhas talked about how Deva’s priority is Varadha first, then his mother, and now Aadhya.

• Shruthi talked about how Aadhya doesn’t even belong here and how she just accidentally wandered in and how her character is important in driving the plot forward.

I feel like in the end, they’re just gonna make her a love interest because that’s usually how these films go. But that feels so weird in the context of this movie because it wouldn’t really fit into the character dynamics that have been established. A part of me hopes that she can just be a friend at the end of it all, especially since her and Deva will probably have a side quest as they deal with the asthikalu. But anything more than that wouldn’t really feel just to the story at hand. In my opinion anyway.

And number two, the plot of the next movie will concentrate on the war between Deva and Varadha. I’m so interested about how they’re going to play that out because I cannot picture either of these two wanting to actually hurt each other. It even feels like in Prithvi’s entry scene, Varadha doesn’t look excited by the fact they’ve found Deva. Instead, he kind of just looks tired/done/like there’s a burden on his shoulders. Most probably because he doesn’t want to actually kill or hurt Deva. I feel like he’d rather just turn a blind eye to his location than actually hurt him.

In terms of how the movie ends too, I know Prashant talked about how the last scene of the movie will be the same as the first scene in the movie. Which makes me think that it might end with Deva dying, because what happens in the first scene is Deva doing what he has to in order to protect Varadha. Like maybe the movie will end with the current pole! But that would be so sad… like I need both of them to survive and live out their lives together. Or, if one goes, the other goes with because with how intertwined their souls are, I don’t think either can really survive with the other being completely gone.

I think a big part of me is just hoping that they’ll end up together at the end of it all because their actions showcase nothing but love and regard for the other. It’s something that goes beyond friendship (every interaction that happened between them has literally happened before in other movies with straight couples). I don’t think I have enough faith in Indian cinema at this point in this to truly believe they’ll let Varadha and Deva become a couple.

But I really wish they would because it’s about time. Also, you can’t have a story this big and dramatic, rooted in the story of these two characters who would literally do anything for each other in a setting as bloodthirsty as Khansar, and think that it isn’t a story about love. Ya know?

Also random, but a part of was also thinking about the conflict that happened in Khansar that led to Deva and his mom having to leave a second time. Like post that is when Amma probably really got scared of the power of her son and truly realized what he was capable of in the hands of Varadha. Especially because from my perspective, whatever blood bath occurred that led to Deva feeling guilty (cuz blood on his hands) has to have occurred because he needed to protect Varadha. So even though what happened probably wasn’t directly Varadha’s fault, I kinda of want to see Varadha and Amma being able to meet each other in 2017 and there be a tension in their relationship too. Where Amma probably is wary of Varadha since she knows the power he has over her son and where Varadha probably just feels this sense of unease because how do you confront someone who was like a mother to you?

In general, this is just a rant as I watch and rewatch and try to process my own thoughts. I feel like I know mostly how the plot is going to go and what to expect out of the second film. But there’s also the bigger part of me that hopes that instead of taking the generic way out (the way most series and movies seem to be doing now) the creators will take the time to do justice to the film and to the characters by allowing it to be what it is, rather than fitting into some mold of their own expectations.

[sophiethewitch1]

Hey! I just wanted to say that I love the WWW series so much that I've literally read it like 4 times over. SO! I have several questions + observations about it that have been bugging me a little, if you don’t mind answering + talking about them.

Everyone’s ages are something that I've been curious about. I know that it’s stated that Damian and the Reader-insert are 3 years apart in age, 19 and 21 respectively. I’m assuming that they’re more like 2 1/2 years apart based on the ages we’ve been given.

Do they follow canon ages? For example, is Tim still around 7 years older than Damian???

Because i’m picturing the lineup looking something like this:

Bruce: 47

Dick: 33

Jason: 28

Tim: 26

Reader-insert: 21

Damian: 19

I was just curious because picturing everyone’s relative age is something that is really important to me when regarding the dynamics between characters.

Another thing that I noticed was how in the Reader-insert’s  original reality/world, her entire family died on the same day that Jason did. (“Your lives had both technically ended the same day, in the same grand calamity.”). Does that remain the same in this new world?

Because that would mean that the Reader-insert’s  counterpart would have known Jason at some point, which I think is SUPER interesting. Lots of implications.

That’s supported by something that Tim says in his 1st pov: “Your family had died, Bruce’s new wife had died, and all the siblings he never really got the opportunity to meet, gone in a brilliant flash.”

THAT has a few implications that I think are really interesting. It supports the idea that her family did die on the same day in this reality, and that she would have known and been living with Jason at the time (Well, before his death.)

Tim would have most likely only seen them at galas or something similar by that time…leading to his statement about how he “never really got the opportunity to meet” them.

This would mean that Jason knew her counterpart when the Reader-insert met him for the first time. 

Now, going off of all of those assumptions, I can only begin to guess what her and Dicks relationship was like before her family's death. I picture it like this:

Dick had only left the manor around 3 years TOPS before Bruce had remarried, bringing a whole nother family into the fold. Now, we don’t know too much about Dick in this story yet, (I'm SO excited to see more of him in the next chapter BTW) but I can assume that this would feel pretty upsetting. Leaving your home, and your adoptive? father only for him to marry into a whole new family not long after?

I’d be pretty bitter if it was me in his situation. I wouldn’t really want to have any kind of relationship with the new children he had taken in. MEANING that Dick and the counterpart didn’t have too much of a relationship before her family's death.

And between their death and Jason’s, Dick would probably consider the counterpart as some kind of chance to actually build a relationship with his siblings in the light of what he lost. Obviously, the counterpart didn’t appreciate the attempt.

Uhhh there’s probably a lot more that I'm forgetting to mention, but I think the way you write is super compelling, and the Reader-Insert has been the only one that I’ve ever read that I can relate to so well!

So TYSM for writing, it literally makes my day!! 🩷🩷🩷🫂🫂🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

(And I’m really bad at conveying my tone in text, so if I seem overly critical or anything then I’m really sorry!!! I don’t mean it like that!!!)

Sorry this took so long to answer I have been in sickly victorian woman mode. I'll answer these questions to the best that I can, but also I don't have everything planned and even if I did I regularly forget shit if I don't write it down <3 <3

First of all the ages- I aged both the younger Waynes up and the older ones down a bit, because I'm personally not into the super huge age gaps but also. Imagine them however you want, even if they come up later in continuity still just insert your personal preferences if you want. Like it really doesn't matter lmao they're relationship has bigger issues than the age gaps. Anyway here are how I had them written down but I might change my mind I am a fluid being

Reader: 21, Damian: 19, Tim: 22, Jason: 25, Dick: 29, Bruce: 45, Alfred: 67, Molly: Also 21, Cass: 25, Stephanie: 23, Barbara: 30, Duke: 20

Also yes, reader's family died the exact same day in both universes, and first world reader like... knew about the waynes but wasn't particularly interested in them till their own family was ripped away, then she started obsessing. in second world, reader and the batfam were like... sort of involved? she lived with them, and she was getting to know them, but wouldn't you be kind of weirded out if your mum married like. jeff bezos or something. and reader is sort of introvert coded, even if they don't read that way. it's just because she's trying so hard not to be, because she's so starved for attention. other world reader like,,, didn't seem to react the same way to what happened to her. but she might've, in the newest chapter it seems like she was talking to bruce after the disaster, and then stopped. But yeah you're right they never knew each other because not much effort was made to do so, and the Waynes are always SUPER busy.

Also about the Dick thing, he was actually pretty happy about the new family! But like you said he still didn't know other reader till the disaster. He just didn't have time to get to know her. He was obviously very upset with Bruce because he left to fuck off to Bludhaven for a while, but he's always loved how the Wayne family kept growing. Even when it was just him Jason, Babs and the weird kid who followed them around with a camera. Then he like decided he was going to treat her like a project because he has a savior complex that comes out especially so when he's having a hard time (oh damn my brothers dead). Not your best moment Dickie. I mean other reader definitely did need help but... as if she'd accept it from a guy like Dick. Imagine your entire family dies and you have to deal with the most beautiful guy on earth trying to comfort you while you look like a creature that crawled out of the sewers. And he tries to make you go outside because you're genuinely very mentally sick. I'd kill him tbh. Anyway this is all still technically up in the air and I might go back and edit the fic later because I'm like... very bad at timelines I just can never remember them properly which creates a lot of issues and inconsistencies.

Anyways thank you for sending in your questions/theories and enjoying my work so much! I'm glad you can relate to reader so well, she's like, one of the strangest characters I've ever written who refuses to behave in any concrete mannerisms because she's stubborn and has intimacy issues. But I think we're all a little bit like that lmao. And thank YOU for reading my stuff, I wouldn't still be doing it if it weren't for folks like you :P (also also you didn't come across as critical at all, you were very polite!!!)

[ncfan-1]

I have a few wants for Mae’s story next season, with the hope that she gets her memory back relatively quickly being a pretty important one, but it’s not the only want I have for the way things go for Mae that I consider important. There’s something else that feels even more important: namely, that Mae find people in her life that deeply love and prioritize her.

There’s something very pointed going on in Season 1. “Everyone seems to want you,” Qimir says to Osha, but by comparison, nobody ever seems to want Mae. When they’re children, Sol professes a connection to Osha, and Mae is little more than an afterthought; as an adult, Sol ultimately leaves nothing for her but the worst parts of himself. Qimir is visibly fascinated with Osha from first sight, and ultimately doesn’t seem to have thought much of Mae even before she attempted to desert his side; he seems to brush her off the way you’d brush a speck of dust off of you.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Osha should have chosen to stay with Mae in Episode 8. It doesn’t make sense from a storytelling standpoint, not at this juncture. This is the culmination of Mae’s character arc this season, where she is finally able to stop clinging to Osha, to accept that what she wants more than anything is for Osha to be happy, even if she isn’t with her. For Osha to choose to stay with Mae at that point would feel wrong, for Mae has to prove to the audience that she has reached this kind of peace regarding her relationship with her sister by accepting that Osha doesn’t want to stay with her without bitterness. As for Osha, this is the culmination of her character arc this season, which has been about taking her life and her power into her own hands, and it would be strange for her to stay with Mae when Qimir has offered to help her do what she wants. It wouldn’t feel right from a storytelling standpoint; for things to make sense, they have to part ways at the end of Season 1.

But even if Osha frames it as making sure that Mae is safe from any reprisals on Qimir’s part, and even if it’s what make sense from a storytelling perspective, what it ultimately amounts to is that Osha doesn’t choose Mae, either. Nobody ever chooses Mae.

And it’s so uneven. I’m not saying I want Osha to be this alone, too—I don’t. But it’s wrenching to watch this woman who has nothing and no one at the beginning of the season still have nothing and no one at the end of the season, because even the memory of Osha forgiving her and loving her again has been taken away from her. Even her memory of the one person she had left who actually loved her has been taken away from her. She had nothing then, and she has nothing now.

Like I said, it feels pointed, the way Mae is never chosen, and what I’m hoping is that this means that it won’t be the case anymore in Season 2. Vernestra, you say, and yeah, I have high hopes for that dynamic, but no matter how things shake out between Mae and Vernestra, that is never going to be a relationship of equals, and I don’t think it’s ultimately going to be the kind of relationship where Vernestra would choose Mae, not meaningfully. Not over every other option.

That’s what I want for Mae, really. Someone who will love her deeply and choose her over everyone else, every time. With her memories and without. Knowing what she’s done, the good and the bad, knowing what she’s capable of, the good and the bad, knowing her past, knowing her faults and knowing that those faults aren’t all of who she is. Someone who would choose her without a second thought.

Because I feel like there’s going to be a scene like the one in Episode 8, where this time, it’s Mae who chooses. But Osha had more than one option. Either Qimir or Mae were viable options. Osha had a solid foundation to rely on, whatever she decided to do. But as it stands, Mae only has Osha. Osha is all Mae has. And if we do get a moment like that in Season 2, where this time it’s Osha asking Mae what she wants, if she wants to go with her or not, if Mae’s options are still “Osha” or “be completely alone,” then it's not the meaningful choice that Osha had, is it? My point is, I want Mae, whatever she decides, to have actually had a meaningful choice. To not be completely dependent on Osha for love and acceptance. To have someone else she could turn to if she decided that she didn’t want to go with Osha. To not have her choices be: Osha—or no one.

[serial-serializednovelreader]

Nova’s Notes - North and South Weekly - Wk 1

So, today was the first entry of North and South and because of the Droughtula, I’m glad to have a beast of an entry to analyze! Also, as a note, I’m probably not going to quote as much of this, since there is so much of it — I’ll just refer to the part I’m talking about. One more thing: this is my first time reading this book. Feel free to share your responses, but no spoilers please! (I know this is a 100+ year-old book though, so I’ll probably filter tags)

Reading the first long paragraph, we can already get a glimpse of Margaret and Edith’s dynamic. They’re cousins and raised together from childhood and Edith is called pretty by all — except Margaret. But now, Margaret is starting to see her better qualities, since Edith is about to leave her and get married and Margaret is going home to live with her father.

What does that tell me? They may not be on the best of terms (at least on Margaret’s side), but even so, Margaret can’t help but feel sad at the upcoming “loss” of her cousin. There’s more evidence to support this: in later paragraphs, she’s referred to as “spoiled” and weak-willed, though it’s unclear whether that’s Margaret’s opinion or Gaskell’s omniscient opinion (which I think is something to watch out for). Then again, she also refers to her as “dear” and observes that Edith would stay with her fiancé even if someone came along with more money and comfort (since she’s so spoiled). Needless to say, I think Margaret has some complicated feelings.

I believe Margaret sees her for what she is — as spoiled and a bit of a child (which we’ll get to later) — but she’s still her cousin and can only see her as more dear. I love that Gaskell writes about this feeling of idealizing a person more when you know they’re about to leave (moving, marriage, etc.) because, as someone’s who been through this, I can very much relate and I appreciate her writing about this. Even if you’re not on the best of terms, you find yourself missing their annoying mannerisms too (unless they’re like, super bad or something lol)!

Moving on, Margaret overhears her aunt — Mrs. Shaw — talking to her friends about Edith’s marriage and her own marriage. What’s interesting here is that her main concern was making sure a) Edith married someone within her age range (unlike her own marriage) and b) love is of the utmost importance. Obviously, this is something pretty common in today’s society — in fact, it’s encouraged — but I do wonder how this was taken when it was first published. Was the aunt seen as frivolous and privileged, or revolutionary and modern? I did some research and it turns out by the time this was published (1854), this was already a well-established belief. So I guess she was simply echoing what most of society was already thinking!

What does stand out to me is that the aunt does talk about the age difference in her own marriage being a “drawback”. I don’t think I need to discuss how our society views age-gap relationships today (let’s just say it’s a hot topic), but I do find it interesting how very relevant this conversation from Mrs. Shaw still resonates with me so many years later.

However, Gaskell doesn’t seem to hold Mrs. Shaw in the highest regard, either. She describes her as “considering herself a victim to an uncongenial marriage” and now that her husband is dead, tries to find something else to be anxious about. Furthermore, she only does things because someone else wants to (and complains about it) while “all the time she was in reality doing just what she liked”. While these aren’t the worst things ever, I wouldn’t call this a glowing character review either. I would almost compare this to Mr. Woodhouse from Jane Austen’s Emma, who bemoans every little illness and thing that befalls him when he is actually pretty healthy.

Not that she’s seen to be a horrible aunt or mother to Margaret or Edith — it’s pretty evident that she cares for both of them by the way she dotes on Edith and how she took Margaret in as a child (I’m not entirely sure why — I think it was to teach her how to be a lady?). I like that Gaskell is already showing a lot of different sides to these characters!

Margaret is asked to model Edith’s wedding shawls, since she is currently down for a nap. She goes up to the nursery and reflects on when she first came to this house as a child. She was considered a wild thing — playing in the forest and all that. On the first night there, her new nurse already seemed intimidating and the nursery itself more akin to a prison. Poor little Margaret began to cry, but the nurse demands her to stop so as to not “disturb Miss Edith”. Then, she was all the quieter when her father and aunt went to check on her later, since she felt bad for being upset. I can well imagine a child of nine fostering a bit of resentment for her cousin after an introduction like that — not a big one, because I don’t think she’s that kind of character, but just a little one. How would you feel if you were thrust into an unwelcoming environment and told your emotions were a problem? It’s not Edith’s fault, but it’s not Margaret’s either. The upside is their relationship remarkably improved after that and she can look upon the nursery with fondness.

Honestly it gives me the same vibes as Charlotte Brontë’s Villete, which was published almost around the same time (though the roles are reversed in this case). At the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Lucy Snowe, is visiting her godmother but they have a new visitor: Polly. Tensions clash when they both have to stay in the nursery and Lucy sees Polly as a spoiled brat, while Polly sees Lucy as unfeeling and unkind to her. Obviously, not the same situation, but I think it’s a little peek into what this kind of dynamic is like!

Moving on, Margaret models the wedding shawls and they actually seem to fit her better than Edith (she has the height for it). The key point here is that “no one thought about it” though: they don’t seem to notice or appreciate Margaret’s beauty. While Gaskell remarks that Edith is known for her prettiness, the same attention does not seem to be applied to Margaret. I wonder if this will be a running theme? What I do appreciate is that when Margaret looks at herself in the mirror, she smiles and poses — she seems to know her own beauty and be somewhat self-confident, even if others don’t tell her. Or at least, she’s having fun dressing up like a princess, which is super cute and I love that for her!!! Why shouldn’t she have fun with this?

Enter Henry Lennox, Edith’s fiancé’s brother — a mouthful. He, understandably, causes a stir amongst everyone and even Edith wakes up from her nap as if she feels the vibes that her future in-law has arrived (to paraphrase the author, lol). While they ask him questions, a very interesting line pops up about Edith’s soon-to-be sister-in-law that I wanted to share and had to do some research on to figure out the meaning of:

“[Edith] had a multitude of questions to ask about dear Janet, the future, unseen sister-in-law, for whom she professed so much affection, that if Margaret had not been very proud she might have almost felt jealous of the mushroom rival…”

After googling what a mushroom rival was (because, what????), the consensus I found was that it means “an unimportant rival”. It was also a way to jab at the “nouveau riche” who found themselves in upper-class circles, but came from lower-class origins. I think ultimately what Gaskell is saying here is that Margaret sees her cousin’s sister-in-law as someone that may try to “steal” her cousin’s affections, but in the end there’s not much to worry about, since Margaret has established affection with Edith (almost like people with generational wealth) and Janet doesn’t have much to compete with because she is too new to Edith’s acquaintance (thus making her like the nouveau riche). Just my interpretation, though, please feel free to sound off in the comments!

Henry goes to sit next to Margaret after Edith’s questioning and Margaret seems very happy to seem him. Not shy at all! Their conversation is interesting. First he starts off with (kind of) mocking her and the ladies “playing with shawls” and how it’s “very different” compared to his “real true law business”. So yeah, not winning any points with me right off the bat, but let’s see where it goes, I guess? I mean, it could be just a joke, right?

He comments on how he’s noticed her doing all the hard work for the wedding and how he hopes she gets a break from that soon. She tries to deflect and mention Edith as also working hard, but he sticks by his assertion that she has been the one doing all the planning work for his brother and Edith’s wedding, which she can’t really deny. Even if she has not done all the work (I imagine Mrs. Shaw has taken up some of the heavy-lifting), it seems that the emotional toil of all the planning is what has made an impact on Margaret.

She wonders if a wedding must always be this way and even suggests that she would like her wedding to be more calm without all of the extra fluff Edith’s has (a bit of a controversial topic in those days I think — in my research I found that Victorian marriages were modeled after Queen Victoria’s ceremony, which included many traditions we still see today). That leads to this passage:

“‘The idea of stately simplicity accords well with your character.’

Margaret did not quite like this speech; she winced away from it more, from remembering former occasions on which he had tried to lead her into a discussion (in which [Henry] took the complimentary part) about her own character and ways of going on. She cut the speech short…”

I find this interesting — that Henry being complimentary is inherently distasteful to her and she immediately turns him away from it. I’m not sure if it’s because a) his compliments suck (who calls someone’s character simplistic — I don’t think that’s the compliment you think it is buddy) b) that’s her future relative-in-law and she thinks it’s weird for him to compliment her or c) she’s just not good at taking compliments in general. I’m actually not sure which it is — I need to see more of her character — but I do know the conversation does not improve from here on out.

She makes a rebuttal to his compliment by saying she is only thinking of her home in Helstone and it’s not a character trait. He tries to get her to talk more about it, but she will not be drawn in. At least not completely. She converses, but also gets quickly annoyed with him. You kind of have to read along to get what I mean, but their conversation is like two steps forward and one back.

Finally, he says, “You are rather severe to-night, Margaret.” And she seems kind of surprised by this because she didn’t realize she was being “severe”: she genuinely could not describe her home as he wants her to. Her justification is basically you can only understand it if you’ve been there, which she did kind of say before this point.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a good banter session, but this one just feels different in a negative way. I also feel like this back-and-forth banter is a set-up. This is how Margaret interacts with the people around her now, because they don’t seem to quite understand her. They think she’s being “uncooperative” or difficult — I don’t think she is. Or perhaps she is, but it’s also Henry’s fault for not changing the subject when she made it clear that she didn’t want to talk about her home and couldn’t describe it!!! I believe her change of scene will help her find people who do get her and maybe she will have a similar form of banter, but this time it will be different and she will be understood. That’s just my speculation, though!

He continues to talk to her, but they hit a roadblock yet again because he asks her “what she does to occupy herself in the country” and when she doesn’t have a good answer, goes to the point of saying:

“I see, you won’t tell me anything. You will only tell me that you are not going to do this and that. Before the vacation ends, I think I shall pay you a call, and see what you really do employ yourself in.”

Idk if someone told me this, even jokingly, I would not like it. This would be my response:

Like why does he need to know her every move?!?!?! I just feel like he’s not asking the right questions and he definitely seems to be making light of her “quaint” living (which I think she’s playing into just so he’ll leave her be). The problem is, he’s just filling in the blanks for her by describing what she does in her current home and then asks “oh so what will you do at Helstone? Archery, parties? Oh, you’re too poor for that? I see you won’t tell me anything.” He sounds exhausting to talk to!!!! Just be a good listener!!!!! Maybe that’s just me and I’m reading too much into it though. I don’t know how much we’ll see of him since he probably won’t be living where Margaret is going, but I honestly hope it’s not much. Or maybe I do — I want to know why he is this way, I’m nosey. 😂😂😂😂

Honestly, it kind of feels like when a neurotypical person and neurodivergent person have a conversation and it just…doesn’t go that well because both people have a different way of communicating and its frustrating for both sides. I know I’m being hard on Henry and whether he deserves that or not is up for debate (I’ll wait for final judgement), but it could just be a case of that. I’m also not saying people of different neurotypes can’t have a satisfying conversation — they definitely can — but it takes understanding from both sides and I do feel like both sides here are not trying to understand the other’s perspective. Just like I could be misunderstanding this whole conversation, I really don’t know!

Also, I’m pretty sure Henry is romantically interested in Margaret, but I don’t know if she returns the feeling. While she was initially was happy to seem him, she seems more annoyed by his conversation than happy (never a good sign). If he is flirting, I think it needs some workshopping because…uh…that ain’t it, pal.

I also notice that when Henry takes his leave, he remarks that “besides, Aunt Shaw won’t like us to talk.” Ok…what does THAT mean???? That nugget of lore is fascinating, but hard to glean much from. Is it because their conversations are always like this and Mrs. Shaw is just tired of hearing the back-and-forth? *Or* is part of the reason they have back-and-forth like this BECAUSE of Mrs. Shaw? Hopefully I’ll find out!

Enter Edith’s fiancé and that’s when the real stir begins! Edith is so excited she runs out of the room just to walk in with him (we love a dramatic entrance lol). We get the chance to observe both brothers while they observe Edith and Margaret in turn. Compared to the captain (and the whole family) it seems that Henry is the “plain one”, but on the whole seems “intelligent” and “keen”. But his interest in watching both women seems to be “slightly sarcastic” — which, what does mean?????? Henry, you’re so confusing!!!!!

Edith decides to show off how good she is at being a soldier’s wife by doing everything herself! Can you guess how well that goes? Yeah, she immediately can’t carry the tea-kettle because it’s too heavy for her and it gets all over her dress. She shows this to her fiancé “like a hurt child” and her fiancé either hugs her or does a relatable “kiss it better” thing — lol (shoutout to a special user in the comments section for helping me figure out what “the remedy was the same in both cases” meant :D). The chapter mostly ends with discussing how they made the tea and then “all was bustle until the wedding was over.”

I think it’s interesting that we don’t get a clear picture of the aforementioned fiancé — now husband. The only thing I can really mention is that he’s obviously affectionate with Edith and seems to humor her childish moods.

As for Margaret, I avoided talking too much about her character, specifically because I think we get it through the way she interacts with others. This is already long so I’ll make a quick list of what I think we can glean from her character so far, in no particular order:

Reflective

Understanding — for the most part (not with Henry)

Playful (to herself)

Doesn’t like too much attention

Determined

Not afraid of conflict

Speaks her mind

Loves her home

Loves her family, but knows their faults

Values tranquility

Helpful

Observant

Self-confident

I think that’s it! I’m excited to read more and hope you enjoyed my ramblings :)

[pippin-katz]

just letting you know this ask will contain sensitive issues regarding Jewish identity and negative criticism that I’ve seen about rwrb. So I understand if you don’t want to answer at all - but I just wanted to see what your thoughts were about this (as I haven’t read the book but absolutely adore the movie) - if you want to make a separate post or something.

I saw a post on my “for you” feed (can’t find it anymore) that apparently Matthew’s decision to conflate and change Nora and June’s characters is antisemitic and bi-erasure? I only skimmed through it because it was very accusatory and the comments were also very negative.

I can understand being upset about losing some characters and the criticism about Nora’s bi-identity. I can’t really speak about the antisemitism as I’m not fully aware of that aspect from the book. But I was thinking - if they did make Nora bi and she still ended up being with Percy/Pez, would those critics be happy? Or would they still be mad because June wasn’t there for the polyamorous relationship that was hinted in the books?

They’re mad about Richards, Rafael Luna, Liam, divorce-free Claremont-Diaz household, no Queen Mary, no Princess Catherine, no this, no that. And they said it’s not a true rom-com because it doesn’t flesh out the romance between Alex and Henry? I just don’t understand what it takes for them to be satisfied. Casey said themself that if everything was done 100% from the books, fans still wouldn’t be happy with it. I mostly ignore the loud ones who hate the movie with all their being but when it comes up it’s so jarring. I don’t want the hype of this movie to lose out to the noise of the haters and bashers. This movie, and Alex and Henry’s love story has become so important to many people and we want more!

Funny you should bring that up to me of all people, seeing as I happen to be Jewish!

I think I may have seen posts like that in the past and immediately blocked the poster because I knew that if I wrote a response to them it would spiral out of control, and there were too many people in the replies to try and explain this to.

Post Writing Note: Buckle up for this one cause I definitely went on a tangent about Jewish culture, but I felt like it would help people understand, or at least be interesting.

The short version of this is that they are self centered idiots who have their heads up their ass.

Casey is 100% correct that even if they were completely true to the book, they wouldn’t be satisfied. They will always find something to complain about.

They also simply don’t want to like it, or understand it. All of those major changes were made for a reason, and make complete sense/were the right call for what Matthew was trying to accomplish with the film. But they don’t want to hear or accept that.

As for Nora and June, once again, they are being idiots.

Matthew has explained several times that the decision to cut June was a logical director’s decision.

With the limited time the film has, side characters simply can’t have as much detail or development as they have in the book. In the case of June and Nora, he explained that he essentially would’ve been giving half of a character to the two actresses. They would’ve been fighting for screen time, and would’ve felt unsatisfied with the roles. Therefore, he essentially combined the two into one full character to give to a single actress. It makes complete sense, and was the right choice.

Did that remove the polycule dynamic? Yes, but that was a side effect of the decision, not part of the reason. Matthew does not seem like the kind of person to remove something like that for no reason, or purely because it might "make the straights uncomfortable". It was just the way things happened.

Now, let me address Nora.

The thing that drives me a bit crazy about this is their determination to call her intentional erasure.

Just because those traits weren’t brought up in the film does not make them untrue. There is no reason to assume that she isn’t bisexual or Jewish just because they didn’t bring it up. They did not say anything that counters those details, therefore I don’t see them as being changed.

They are also exaggerating a lot.

Now, I’m saying all this as a Jewish person who would love to see more representation of Judaism casually included in characters.

Nora’s Jewish identity is completely irrelevant to the plot and is only mentioned in the book. When Alex wants to call someone on Christmas after his parents fight, he briefly says that she’s busy celebrating Chanukah. That is the only moment in the entire book that Nora being Jewish is brought up, as far as I can remember from the last time I went through to look for it, when I first saw a post about this. I checked again while writing this. Other book readers can correct me if I’m wrong about that, but I know for a fact that it is not something that’s regularly mentioned or relevant to the plot.

Again, I say this as a Jewish person with love, it was not important. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until I fucking die: the book had no time limit.

The novel is not a massive one, but it is absolutely stuffed cover-to-cover with content. It’s a book told through Alex’s point of view, giving direct access into his thoughts and feelings through text.

When Alex offhandedly mentions in his head facts like that, the translation to the screen would be constructing a situation where bringing that up out loud is relevant. The other option is to put clues in the environment to indicate it.

The thing about those options though is that Nora does not have any scenes during the holiday portion of the movie. In fact, there is not even a mention of Christmas at all; the only reason we know is because of the decorations around the White House, but no one mentions it. There is only one scene that even takes place around Christmas in the film: Alex’s conversation with Zahra. From there, it’s straight to New Year’s.

Some may be thinking, “But those are so close together, it would still be relevant!” and I hate to tell you that you’re wrong, but there’s an 85% chance you’re wrong.

Chanukah shifts dates from year to year because it’s determined by the Jewish calendar, and that doesn’t match the normal calendar. As someone grew up celebrating it, and still does celebrate it, I can tell you from personal knowledge that most of the time, it happens before Christmas. Yes, sometimes it overlaps with it, or happens afterwards, but I can safely tell you that most of the time, it happens before; for example, this year Chanukah starts Dec. 8th and ends at sunset Dec. 15th. It starts and ends a whole week before Christmas.

Now, I have to also say, and I say this with as much love and respect as I can for all the normal Christians/Catholics out there, we don’t really… shove our holiday in everyone’s faces?

I know that sounds rude, and it might be, but I mean that everyone knows when Christmas is. Everything closes down for Christmas. Whether you celebrate it or not, you’re most likely going to be off-work or off-school for it. No one looks around and goes, “what day is Christmas again?” And most people know the basic gist of why it’s celebrated.

I’m pretty sure that at minimum 65% of the people who read this had no idea when Chanukah was, and have zero clue why it’s celebrated.

That’s not really their fault, it’s just a simple truth about Western society (especially American) that people don’t get educated on Judaism, even indirectly the way they do for Christmas. The same can be said for all of the religious minorities. I’m by no means innocent of being uninformed on the basics of other minority religions. I’m just bringing it up because it’s somewhat relevant.

When it’s Christmas, you know it’s Christmas. Everyone is talking about it and there’s decorations everywhere. And while there’s sometimes a few decorations for Chanukah and maybe Kwanzaa, it’s not common; especially given the unfortunate reality that said decorations are a beacon for hate crimes.

Circling back to Nora, the easiest way to provide indications that she is Jewish is through decorations in her office/apparel choices. I just explained why she would be unlikely to have decorations in her office for Chanukah, but what about non-holiday specific decor?

Well, in my experience as a reformed Jewish person, there's not a lot of decor that's not very obvious or specifically religious in its representation. I say "specifically religious" because Judaism is a culture as well as a religion. I'm a Jewish person, but I don't regularly attend Temple or practice daily prayer. My experience with Judaism stems more from how we celebrate the major holidays, the kinds of food we eat, clothing we wear, and stuff like that, not passages of the Torah.

We also just don't really have as much physical decoration options as Christians/Catholics, at least for Jews who are not devoutly religious.

Judaism is practices aniconism.

Don't be alarmed, most people don't know what that word means; I only know because I learned about it briefly in an art history course a few years ago. Aniconism is the absence of artistic representations of certain figures in religions. Judaism is generally "anti-iconic", meaning it's strongly discouraged to create imagery, specifically human imagery, of God or other saint-like figures from the Torah. It's not completely unheard of, but think about how frequently you see imagery of Jesus in Christianity/Catholicism, or all the famous imagery of God, and depictions of scenes of the Bible and the saints, etc. etc. etc. Jews just don't do that, at least not nearly to the extent or as commonly as Christians/Catholics.

Jews instead have focused artistry into the form of ceremonial objects, i.e. the menorah, Kiddush goblets, etc.

In fact, my Jewish heritage comes from my father's side, so my grandfather on that side has always been a practicing Jew, and my grandmother converted back when they married. They're not super religious, but more so than my parents and how I was raised.

Thinking back to their home, I'm realizing that all of their Jewish "decor" was fine dishware sort of like this they kept in a China cabinet, like this:

Nora's not going to keep fine China in her office.

The only piece of "decor" that I have in my parents' home is not even really decor. This is a super common thing to find in Jewish households. It's call a mezuzah:

It's a little container that keeps a scroll with two prayers from the Torah written in Hebrew by a calligraphist. They are a symbol of connection and protection amongst the Jewish community. They are an ancient tradition. Nora would definitely have one.

However, these go on the doorframes of the entrance to a home. They're not hung up anywhere to look nice. She wouldn't have one on her office doorway, which is glass anyway.

So I've eliminated physical decorations, so how about jewelry?

This is where I'm sure a bunch of those people will shake their fists at me. The easiest and simplest way to imply a Jewish character (especially a female one) is the same as a Christian/Catholic character: a necklace.

Obviously, it is common practice for crosses to be worn on necklaces. Wearing the Star of David on a necklace is also common, but not nearly as common as the cross. I've noticed over the course of my life an increase in seeing them, but they're still uncommon.

And incredibly recently, I actively chose to stop wearing mine because we are at a point of actual danger in the US right now, specifically Florida, where I happen to be so lucky to live.

Regardless, it's debatable on how likely it would be for Nora to be wearing one. I feel like it's pretty split on how much of the Jewish population does and doesn't. So let's take a look at her style then:

The only outfit I couldn't find a clear still image of was the one in the jeep, but there are GIFs of that:

Note: I swear, if this fandom doesn't start posting more content of the side characters, I'm going to throw something; y'all are making it very hard to write my essays!! 😂

Out of her seven outfits, she is only wearing a neck accessory in ONE. More notably, she's not wearing a necklace in either of her formal outfits: the wedding and the party dresses. If she were going to wear a necklace, a fancier outfit usually makes it more likely. She seems to like wearing earrings more. Earrings with the Star of David exist, but I've personally never seen someone wearing them.

So based on everything I've been talking about, and Nora's personality, and her characterization in the book, and everything else, it's probably unlikely that she would wear a religious necklace, if not because she's not heavily religious, then because she just doesn't wear necklaces.

Could you ignore all that and complain that they could've given her a necklace or something anyway? Yeah, you could, but you are just being annoying and overreacting. She's still a Jewish character. People who haven't read the book may not know that, but tons of people who have read the book didn't even remember that. It's not an intentional decision made to erase her Jewish heritage. It is purely a side effect of having very limited time to cover way too much content.

The same can be said for her being bisexual. There's no reason to assume she's not. Hell, we've been joking about the face she makes when she meets Bea since we saw it:

This look alone is enough to make non-book readers go, "oh ship! ship! ship!". She's not straight just because they don't address her sexuality. Again, it was not an intentional decision made to erase her bisexuality.

Look, I'm not saying you have to like it, but for the love of god, stop acting like Matthew is the devil incarnate who made every change and cut out of spite, and to hurt you specifically.

As for the comment about not fleshing out Alex and Henry's relationship? I... I have no fucking words. That's a lie, I have so many fucking words, but I've been writing this for too long, so I'll speed run this:

First of all, if you don't think the romance between Alex and Henry is "fleshed out" in the film, I cannot say anything else than you are a fucking idiot. I don't like rom-coms, but this one is so fucking genuine, emotional, and sweet that even my cold dark soul feels warmth while watching it.

Second of all, how the fuck are you going to make the claim that they didn't flesh out Alex and Henry's romance, while simultaneously bitching about 3+ hours of book content that didn't make it? Do you not have any logical reasoning skills or common sense, at all??

I WILL SAY IT AGAIN: THE BOOK HAD NO TIME LIMIT. THE MOVIE DID.

Alright, that's enough of all that; I have an essay that I wrote the day after the movie originally dropped that went more in detail about that last one, so I'm not going to get super into that here. That's the short version of that, and if you want to hear the long version, go read this.

I hope that cleared some stuff up for you Anon! Sorry for the rambling lmfao

Thanks for reading!! If you enjoyed this essay & would like to support me, you can give me a tip on my Ko-Fi! ☺️

[mha-quotes-and-such]

TW: MENTIONS OF ABUSE

What do you personally think of Endeavor x Hawks? I think it's an interesting ship because it explores further the idea of Endeavor improving as a person, and it can help explore the idea of Hawks finally letting down his barriers and being truly honest with someone. A lot of people call it unhealthy because it's an abuser and an abuse victim but I think considering Endeavors current atonement arc it could instead lead to a past abuser learning how to be gentle with a survivor and a abuse victim learning to let go of the pain by seeing first hand that A) They can be loved, and B) That an abuser won't always be an abuser if that makes sense. The age gap is really dependent on your views, in fiction I don't care as long as they're both adults but in reality that's a hard no. I also think it could explore the topic of Idol x Fan and how that can impact a relationship. Sorry for rambling I just like odd ships and I think there's more to this ship than people will allow. Ships like this allow discussions about abuse and idol worship to be had in a way that doesn't make it gossip about real people while also having a respectful discussion.

Before I get into this, I’m just gonna make a few things clear. 1. As long as a relationship is between consenting adults, whatever I dont care. Age/age gaps wouldn’t typically effect my opinion on a relationship as long as theyre adults and have been for the duration of the relationship. 2. Its important for people, regardless of their previous actions, to attempt to grow and change, and its important for there to be encouragement of this growth

That being said, I’m really not a fan of the ship. I think idol worship, age gaps, and the power dynamics that come with them are something super important to talk about, and can be done well in regards to Endeavor and Hawks. You definitely can do this in a shipping way, but personally I don’t like the approach. I think sometimes we (collective, internet wide) feel the need to explore all one-on-one relationships in the context of shipping, as thats the popular culture at the moment. Sometimes though, that can skew or downplay some of the important (and frankly, often more interesting) aspects of a relationship. If you’ve ever seen that popular post that says (paraphrasing here) ““Shipping and blorbofication are not inherently at odds with understanding a story” and “a lot of people can’t understand a story because they only know how to engage with it in terms of shipping and blorbofication” are two statements that can and do coexist”, thats kinda what I’m trying to get at. Unfortunately a lot of nuance is often lost when its put in the context of shipping

I also think that a lot of their personal growth (overcoming trauma and rectifying past abuse) is kind of… trivialized? if they’re shipped. It’s definitely possible to do it in a respectful, meaningful way, but I think for me personally its just not a satisfying conclusion. Especially in the case of Endeavor, he shouldn’t be attempting to make up for past behavior in order to get something. If he’s apologizing to his children in order to get a relationship with Hawks, its not actually “redemption” so much as it is just continuing to behave in a particular way for his own gain

Tldr: Its cool if you ship it, I just think that the most important parts of their dynamic, which really need to be addressed, are often downplayed for the purpose of shipping. I also feel its just not a satisfying end goal for their character arcs

[wild-lavender-rose]

Hi, can I beg you for the 11 doctor x nonbinary reader? About maybe how the doctor helps them with their dysphoria and/or family issues (makes them comfortable or something like that)? I would seriously appreciate it because I need something like that right now....

Hey! So I will say that I struggled with how to write this one and finally decided to do a “would include” type fic for your request. I hope this helps <3 

The 11th Doctor coming with you to family events would include...

Warning: toxic family dynamics, degradation

- You would be trying to prepare him for weeks, explaining your family dynamics, assuring him that the things he might witness were totally normal.

- The doctor never quite seemed to understand why all this information was important. “Yes, yes, yes, I’ve got it. Aunt Ruby is a bore, cousin Albert thinks he’s the best thing to walk the earth and your mom is nosier than me. Why should all this matter? You’re grown up enough, aren’t you?” He would stop and think about it, looking at you. “You are grown up enough, right? I won’t be charged with kidnapping or something, will I?” 

- You took hold of his jacket and looked him in the eye. “Just don’t, say anything. All right?” 

- He just regarded you. “Never seen you this worked up before.” 

- You didn’t answer him. You never did. You just kept trying to prepare him for the inevitable. 

- When the day of the event came, you and the doctor got all dressed up and walked in only a few minutes late. 

- Which was when it all began. 

- “So, your mother told me you ran off to be a tramp or something. Who’s this?” 

- “Didn’t think I’d see you here, sweetheart. Where did you get those clothes, the thrift store?” 

- “I see you’re still not married. If I were you, I’d settle down with the doctor here. Before it’s too late.” 

- “How are your studies coming along? Your mother told me you were traveling with the doctor here. Wouldn’t you say it’s time to return to the real world and focus on what matters?”

- The questions and comments went on for three hours. 

- True to his word, and much to your surprise, the doctor stayed silent. 

- He would give a thin smile and an occasional nod, but would otherwise offer no comment in any of the conversations. 

- The doctor never stopped holding your hand, sometimes squeezing it so tightly that it would have hurt had you not been squeezing back just as much. 

- As awful as the event was, him beside you was like having a lifeline in the middle of a hurricane. 

- But once it was all over and the two of you were back in the Tardis, then, and only then, did the doctor release everything he had held in. 

- “Can you believe it, them calling you a failure! You perfect, beautiful little human, a failure. That’s absurd. That’s it! We’re leaving. I’m taking you back to your family’s ancestral ape tribe. Hopefully we’ll be able to prevent whatever rock slide landed on their heads and preserve at least a little bit of intelligence to be carried down through the generations!”

- That’s about when the doctor would notice that you had sunk down to the floor panels sobbing. 

- The Tardis hummed sympathetically as he walked around to find you like that. 

- “Darling, come here.” The doctor would sit down on the floor beside you and pull you into his arms. “It’s all right, love. It’s over.” His fingers would card through your hair, rubbing your back, rocking you gently. “You’re never going through that again.” 

- “I have to,” you cried, face buried in his shoulder. “They’re my family.” 

- “And what does that mean, hmm?” The doctor shifted to look you in the eye, brushing the tears from your cheek. “No one, absolutely no one, should talk to you like that love. You are too good for that, for them.” 

- You’d nod, a fresh wave of tears blurring your vision. “I love you.” 

- “Ugh, mushy.” The doctor would make a face for a moment before shaking out of it. “Sorry. Habit.” 

- He’d smirk when you laughed at him, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I love you too. So very very much.” 

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[ecoterrorist-katara]

The West has been notorious in viewing and treating indigenous and Asian cultures as a monolith. Due to that, the idea of handpicking various aspects from those particular cultures seems to come from the result of a Western ethnocentric worldview. And due to how it does not acknowledge the differences in these various Asian and indigenous cultures….it’s hard to argue that it’s not orientalist. Especially since they combine these different aspects of those cultures in a simplistic manner to a western audience.

Whether the work encourages you to identify with the characters or not doesn’t matter in regards to if it is orientalist or not.

And I would suggest you research this show and Tibetan monks. If you don’t agree with their being orientalist aspects of the show, then fine, but that one aspect, in how they handled it, is orientalist.

Why specifically only Asian and indigenous cultures? what could two American Caucasian men find in those cultures that they think they can pick and choose certain things from them, and it end up being cohesive?

Whether a show encourages you to identify with its characters matters a whole lot in whether the show is Orientalist, because the whole point of Orientalism is making the Oriental Other look bad! If a work encourages you to identify with these “Others,” it’s actually breaking down the Orient-Occident binary.

To be clear, ATLA not being Orientalist doesn’t preclude it from being culturally appropriative. The important things to me are whether ATLA is harmful to 1) the cultures that inspired it or 2) the people from those cultures, and the answer to both questions is no. ATLA is not claiming to represent anything, and therefore it’s not spreading misinformation or stereotypes — with the exception of, again, Guru Pathik which I think was in poor taste.

I do take issue with how easy it is for fans to take the Air Nomads as representation of Tibetan Buddhist monks. I think Bryke should have gone further to incorporate more influences to get away from the impression that Air Nomads are Tibetan Buddhist monks (or Buddhists in general), because people now moralize about the Air Nomads using the plight of Tibetans, and the oppression of Tibetans — like the oppression of all real-life people — should not be shoehorned into a cartoon. Still, a child fan of ATLA wouldn’t think the Air Nomads are Tibetan Buddhist monks unless someone in their life tells them so, because the inspiration is not explicit in the text. It’s fans who draw asinine conclusions like Fire Nation = Japan / Air Nomads = Tibetans or Buddhist monks / Earth Kingdom = China / SWT = Inuit, and then interpret ATLA according to corresponding real-life dynamics, who inadvertently spread misinformation. I have never seen such ridiculous takes on Buddhism as I have in the ATLA fandom. Nobody with an iota of knowledge of South Asian or Southeast Asian politics would claim that Buddhists are always non-violent. Nobody who knows about monks would think monks can get married. But I can’t even fault the text; I fault people who take their information about Buddhism from a cartoon that never even mentioned the word Buddhism.

Fundamentally I think this conversation is about whether it’s okay for white Americans to take aesthetic inspiration from non-white cultures to create their fantasy worlds, and to what extent they’re responsible for the ways in which their fans interpret the sources of their inspiration. I’m fine with people taking aesthetic inspiration from my culture (beyond sacred and religious cultural practices, which I generally don’t think should be aestheticized by people who don’t understand them). I don’t know why Bryke chose to take inspo from Asian and northern Indigenous cultures; people can certainly say it’s culturally appropriative and decide not to watch it.

[vitos-ordination-song]

For this retrospective, I’m not going to discuss any of Butler’s short stories. I’m leaving those as little treats to read down the line. I’ve read “Bloodchild” and really liked it, and a lot of what I say about her novels definitely applies to it.

Butler had very specific interests. Her Patternist series and Xenogenesis series have a lot of overlap, as do Fledgling and even Kindred. The Parable series is stand out among all of her works for not playing into some of her usual themes, though there’s overlap there too. Kindred also stands out for its subject matter and approach.

Butler’s most common themes are parasitism/symbiosis, seduction, hybridity, reproduction/sexuality, pragmatism, unequal power dynamics, human cruelty, and the interplay between free will and external forces. Her writing style is frank and rarely embellished. Her characters are strong, determined, intelligent, and often brutal. Her stories are unique, strange, and twisted; most do not go where she does.

It was a bit difficult to finish completing her novels because the ones that aren’t as good are so similar to the better ones that I didn’t get much out of them. I would not recommend anyone read the Patternist series. It has some good moments, and I can’t think of any other books so centered on raw power struggles, situated in both the realms of family and species survival. However, they aren’t as interesting as her other works, and they aren’t very emotionally involving. I also wouldn’t recommend Fledgling. It’s probably the most poorly written and least exciting of her books; it starts out interesting but has too many characters and too few reasons to care about the narrative.

Fledgling, the Patternist books, and Xenogenesis are all broadly about the same thing: non-human (or greater than human) lifeforms rendering humans into their symbionts (or parasitic hosts). What exactly this means does vary from book to book, but there’s a lot of commonalities: in (almost) all cases, the life-forms grant humans longer, healthier, stronger lives, but it comes at a cost, typically one of domination and exploitation. The only exception to this are the Patternists themselves; a mutation of humanity, they take advantage of their weaker counterparts, often with no regard to their well-being, and give them nothing in return. Alien intelligences, however, are a little bit nicer. Or maybe it’s better to say they’re not cruel, only self-interested.

The best of this flavor of Butler is certainly the Xenogenesis series. I would recommend it to anyone who can appreciate it. To be honest, I love it so much and have so many thoughts on it that I’m going to find it difficult to talk about. Some day I’ll do more of a retrospective on this series in particular. For now, I’ll say a couple brief things and try to leave it at that. Firstly, the series has the best worldbuilding of any of her works. It is also the most emotionally gripping of her writing with a possible exception of Kindred. I loved Dawn, but Adulthood Rites is my favorite book Butler wrote hands down. Imago, I didn’t like as much, but it’s still important in the arc of the series, bringing it all full circle. Xenogenesis is Butler as her most transgressive—I LIKE weird sex stuff, but I can still feel Lilith’s horror on realizing what the Oankali wanted from her. Speaking of the Oankali, by creating them, Butler gave me something I’ve wanted for years: real aliens! Aliens which are truly different from humanity, from all life on earth, but so believable you feel you could touch them! Xenogenesis is the purest of science fiction for its reliance on speculative biology to create an authentic alien species, and guess what, they’re fucking freaks who want to have sex with you. The series also has the grandest ideas of any Butler novel, essentially serving as a treatise on human nature. As a final note, I’ll say that Akin is my favorite character Butler created.

The Parable series is the first thing I read by her. It’s dystopian fiction, full of unending misery barely balanced out by the main character’s sheer determination. Both books are enjoyable as survival stories and also offer dire warnings about the future, many of which have come true since the series was written in the 90s. The second book is stronger than the first, more complicated for introducing a second narrator. The strained relationship between Lauren, her daughter, and her brother is some of Butler’s most compelling character writing. There were a lot of truly harrowing moments; the books are definitely not for the faint of heart. Probably the most interesting aspect is the Earthseed religion, which the reader gets to see grow from its infancy to the stars. I ended up really feeling for Lauren and cried on finishing the series. I would recommend the books, though I don’t think they’re quite as good as Xenogenesis.

I’ll talk about Kindred last. It stands out among all Butler’s novels by not having a science fiction element at all. Like Fledgling, it could be called fantasy, but it has no real supernatural elements beyond inexplicable time travel, which is then used for grounded historical fiction. Butler’s purpose with the novel is very clear and very well executed. Modern people (in her time and now) have lost touch with the reality of slavery. Kindred works to make it very real. I think it’s a must-read for anyone interested in her writing or in the history of American slavery. Butler shows a deft hand at bringing Dana, and thus the reader, back to the 1800s. The story is unique; I suppose it could be compared to Butler’s Wild Seed, which is the best of the Patternist series. Both books focus on complicated relationships between abusive men and women who have to put up with them/begrudgingly like them. However, Kindred has a much more satisfying conclusion and is really unlike any other time travel story or slave narrative. The set up creates complicated relationships and difficult choices for the main character. Rufus Weylin is a fascinating and disgusting character, one of the most layered Butler created. I’m really glad I read this one.

Butler’s harsh worlds and twisted vision spoke to me, as did her stories of human determination and liberation. I wish she’d been given more of a chance, because she was a clear talent. People often compare her to Le Guin, but they really have nothing in common. However, consider that Le Guin was decades older than Butler and died more than a decade after. She was from a well-off academic family, while Butler was raised by a single mother who worked as a maid. I’m not trying to speak down to Butler, who was a formidable person regardless circumstances. I just wish she’d had more time and hadn’t had as many constraints as she did. I can only imagine the strange places she would have taken me, because one thing’s for certain: nothing short of death was going to make that woman stop writing.

[beccascribbles]

Could you maybe do a scenario where bokuto has a childhood omega friend and(ik this probably wouldn't happen irl in this type of situation, but...) bokuto decides that the omega would be great to have as a roomate along with the atsumu, sakusa, and hinata(the four of them would probably be alphas).You can just explain what that would be platonically, or you can throw in some 🌶✨spice✨🌶 if you want like maybe someone goes into heat or a rut or starts catching feels.But it's your choice :) <3

a/n - kind of only did the moving in day to establish what the dynamics might be between them, but, if you want to see more of this let me know! (not sure if it’s good enough to warrant more though haha) enjoy!

LIVING WITH THE BLACK JACKALS, an omegaverse au

Moving In Day

"Are you sure it's okay?" you asked, gnawing on your bottom lip as you watched Bokuto lift one of your suitcases from the boot of the car. He glanced over at you, placing the suitcase at the floor. His hand came down to rest on your shoulder, giving it an affectionate squeeze.

"I wouldn't have asked you to move in if I wasn't sure," reassured Bokuto. You moved closer to him, wrapping your arms around his waist and pressing your face into his chest. Breathing in deeply, you let his scent sooth you. He wrapped his arm around your body, squeezing you tightly before releasing you. He reached into the boot, removing the final bag and turning to face you once again. "Come on."

Bokuto held out his hand for you, and you took it, picking up a bag with your other hand. Once more, you glanced up at Bokuto, finding comfort in his amber eyes. His hand gave yours a squeeze, a gentle reminder that he was there. As you stepped up to the door it was flung open, and a head of ginger hair came barrelling towards you.

"y/n!" cheered Hinata, wrapping his arms around you and crushing you to his chest. Even as he held you, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, struggling to contain his excitement at seeing you again. You let your bag drop to the floor, released Bokuto's hand, and wrapped your arms around Hinata's neck. He let out a pleased purr, pressing a kiss to your cheek as he pulled away and picking up the bag you dropped on the ground. He rambled away to you. "I'm so glad you decided to move in. Bokuto was saying he was asking you for ages. Just between you and me, we're all really happy. Ignore Sakusa's grumpy face. I overheard him talking to Komori yesterday and he was definitely pleased."

"Um, okay, Shoyo," you said, following him into the house, Bokuto behind you. He dropped your bags to the floor, turning to shut the front door behind him.

"Tsum Tsum!" he called as Hinata led the way into the living room. “Omi!”

His shout was accompanied by the sound of feet rushing down the stairs and a figure skidding around the corner, a head of bleached blonde hair barrelling towards you at a startling speed. Instinct told you to move to the side, taking refuge behind Bokuto as Atsumu attempted to stop moving, digging his heels in just before he made contact with the wall. Atsumu turned to you with a pout.

“No need to sidestep me,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. You grinned up at him sheepishly. “Sheesh. I’m not some scary alpha comin’ to claim ya or shit like that. Relax, y/n.”

Feeling the heat rise to your cheeks, you pressed your forehead against Bokuto’s back, taking in another deep breath. His reassuring scent eased you, and you finally lifted your head up to be greeted by Atsumu’s outstretched arms.

“Now come here and give ya favourite alpha a hug,” he grinned, wrapping his arms around you and crushing you against his chest. You returned his hug as well as you could considering he had pinned your arms to your side. From behind you, you were aware of Bokuto letting out a grumble.

“I’m obviously their favourite,” he grumbled, resisting the urge to pull you away from Atsumu, who was taking far too long to greet you. Hinata, sensing the growing tension, spoke up.

“Sakusa’s here,” he declared, the statement enough for Atsumu to release you. You turned around, shooting the final alpha a warm smile, holding out your hand in greeting.

“Nice to see you again, Kiyoomi,” you greeted, feeling his warm hand close around yours, holding your hand in a firm grip. Sakusa nodded, hesitating for only a moment before he tugged you forward, his free arm wrapping around your waist as he gave you a brief squeeze.

“I didn’t think Bokuto would manage to win you over,” he admitted, gaze falling on Atsumu, as if your hesitation was due to him rather than the fact that living with four alphas was daunting at the best of times, let alone when the time came for their ruts. “Heaven knows they need the influence of an omega to tidy up their shit.”

You let out a snigger, knowing how messy Bokuto could be. It wasn’t that he was unable to clean or that he didn’t know how to. Honestly, Bokuto was just forgetful, too easily distracted for cleaning to be something he viewed with any importance. The alpha struggled to do his taxes, after all. Weakly, you defended, “I’m sure they’re not that bad.”

“Atsumu leaves his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor,” Sakusa reeled off. “Hinata struggles to understand that you need to clean up after making dinner. Bokuto leaves his boxers all over the house. I can go on.”

Bokuto flushed furiously at his words, protesting, “No, I don’t.”

“I do clean up,” Hinata insisted. “Last night, I washed up after eating.”

“Because I told you to,” sighed Sakusa, regarding Hinata coolly. “None of you do anything without being told.”

Atsumu, notably, stayed quiet. There was no arguing with what Sakusa had said. The proof was waiting to be discovered upstairs. He froze, shooting a panicked look up the stairs.

“Excuse me for a minute,” he said, sprinting up the stairs and leaving you all (excluding Sakusa) standing there a bit confused. Instead, a smirk pulled at the corners of his lips.

“He had a shower when Bokuto went to collect you,” Sakusa explained. “Now, he’s moving his clothes from the bathroom floor because he doesn’t want to leave a bad impression of him as a roommate on you.”

“Oh,” you breathed. “I really don’t mind though. We should just buy a clothes basket and leave it in the bathroom. It would be useful for all of us.”

“And this is why you moving in with us was a good idea,” grinned Bokuto. “Told you I was right.”

You smiled over at your best friend as Hinata grabbed one of your bags from the floor. Hinata spoke, ignoring the sound of Atsumu’s feet pounding on the stairs as he ran down, “Shall we get you moved in then?”

You nodded in agreement, reaching down to grab another bag and letting Hinata lead the way as Bokuto reached down to grab the remainder. Atsumu, whose sudden reappearance almost resulted in Hinata being knocked onto the floor, grabbed the majority of the bags, shooting Bokuto a teasing grin.

“You’re not the only muscle-bound athlete, Bo.”

“He is more muscular than you though, Tsumu,” admitted Hinata, glancing over his shoulder to watch Atsumu’s face twist. He let out an indignant splutter.

“Take that back, Shoyo.”

“He beat you in an arm wrestle yesterday, Atsumu,” sighed Sakusa. “Just carry the bags upstairs before you hurt your ego even more.”

A snicker escaped your mouth as you watched the interaction, your eyes immediately darting away from Atsumu when he made eye contact with you. You cleared your throat, “I thought we were showing me where my room is?”

“Right,” said Hinata, focusing on the task at hand once again. He took it upon himself to give you a quick tour as you walked down the corridor towards the room which was soon to be yours. “So, that door closest to the stairs is Omi’s, and beside it is the bathroom. Opposite the bathroom is my room. Tsumu’s room is beside yours and Bokuto is opposite you.”

You nodded along, attempting to process the information being given to you at speed. Already, you knew you were probably going to get the doors confused at first. They were all the same, with little to distinguish them from the other.

“No getting pissed off if I accidentally walk into your room instead of the bathroom,” you said, finger raised in a threatening manner. Atsumu hid a snigger behind the suitcases he was holding, while Bokuto’s lips stretched upwards in a smile.

“None of us would get mad if you walked into our rooms,” he said, giving you a slight nudge with his elbow, the action comforting. “My room will always be open for you if you need me.”

“Mine too,” piped up Hinata, Atsumu quickly nodding in the affirmative. Sakusa let out a grunt.

“I suppose, if you ever need to talk to me, you can,” he mumbled. “Though I don’t know why you would need to come to me.”

“Maybe if the others are being dickheads,” you teased, shooting Atsumu a smirk that had him giving you a playful glare in reply.

“Ya know I’m only a dickhead if I like you,” he grinned, giving your hair an affection ruffle. He dropped your bags down on the floor outside your room, Bokuto placing the ones he was carrying with far more care. “I’ll leave you to settle in. If ya need anythin’, just knock on my door.”

“Me and Bokuto are going to be watching the Adlers game that’s live now downstairs so come and join us when you’re finished,” said Hinata, already walking towards the stairs. Bokuto looked after him, then turned to look at you, trying to sense if you wanted him to stay. You gave his arm a squeeze, turning him around and pushing him in Hinata’s direction.

“Go watch the game, Kou,” you said, voice firm. “I know you want to. Besides, I’ll be fine. If I need help, I’ll just rope Atsumu in.”

“Okay!” he beamed, jogging after Hinata and leaving you alone with Sakusa.

Awkwardly, Sakusa ran a hand through his hair, fingers catching in his curls as he yanked them through his hair. “I did clean your room before you came today but if you want to give it another clean, I can give you some supplies.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kiyoomi,” you said, voice soft and full of gratitude. “I trust you.”

He turned away, hiding the rising blush on his cheeks at the way your scent grew sweeter at his words. In that moment, he could tell you were truly happy. Your earlier hesitation seemed to have vanished. He cleared his throat. “I’ll tell Bokuto you’re settling in okay. We’re going to order takeaway for dinner as a welcome meal so make sure you tell Atsumu what you want. He’s going to order it because he insists he’s more likely to get free food or money off. Not that we need money off, considering how much we make.”

“I will,” you said. “Thank you.”

Sakusa gave a nod, spinning on his heels and walking down the corridor, entering his room at the same time that you pushed open the door of yours.

[wordsnstuff]

Guide to Creating Magic Systems

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Decide What is “Good” and “Evil”

This is a big decision, because it’s going to impact the way your characters use magic, and the overall theme/tone of the story. You must decide where the moral limitations of magic stand, in addition to the practical limitations. You must also decide who can/does overstep those moral or societal boundaries. This is a great place where you can find conflict and establish the themes of your story.

Establish Clear Limits

All quality magic systems have clear limits in their reality. Sometimes time travel is possible, sometimes it isn’t. More “powerful” spells, or spells with greater physical implications, will require greater sacrifices, like death, loss, or pain.  Deciding these limits are a key task you must accomplish early in the process of designing a magic system, because it can impact the conflict, plot points, character motivations, and more.

Establish Consequences

Arguably, magic systems aren’t interesting or engaging unless the reader is aware that any use of magic will have some consequence. Not always an epic consequence, because some magic systems are designed to be fun and full of wonder, and therefore some magic should be available to serve that purpose without being overshadowed by impending consequence. However, if magic plays a major part in your conflict or conflict resolution, it would benefit your story to establish a system of consequences or effects that come as a result of using various amounts or levels or types of magic that exist in your universe.

Diversity in Magic (Powers & Users)

One of the more contemporary grievances about magic systems is that it’s very one-size-fits-all, or bland in terms of who can/does use magic and how they do so. It’s worth your time to explore the idea of including multiple groups or species who can use magic and determining how the way they use it can differ. Regional characteristics of magic users and habits/idiosyncrasies that differ depending on class/race/social status/location. It can also be an interesting point of contention in your story/world to think about how different groups or individuals influence the methodology or views on magic. Do some view it as a sacred gift that is only to be used according to ancient tradition? Does this conflict with more modern views of younger users who view it as a tool that should be used whenever to make life easier?

Establish a Source & Theory

On a lot of occasions, this development is mostly for your own sake as the writer. However, it’s immensely helpful to know where magic came from or how it came to be available/wielded, and how that affects its value or role in your world. This is typically the kind of information authors put a lot of thought into and then end up stuffing as much of it into the preliminary drafts as possible, only to cut 90% of it out later, but even if it’s never explicitly stated in the text, writing the story with that context in mind can considerably enrich the story.

Common Struggles

~ How do I establish magic is a thematic element as well as a world building one?... Make your magic mean something. Using magic systems as a decoration is a staple of the fantasy genre, so you must establish the intrigue of your magic system through who uses it, and how they choose to do so. Use magic as a tool to explore the themes of the story. It doesn’t have to be a metaphor itself, but it can do wonders in delivering subtle nudges toward the overall point of the story. Think of it as a thematic tool, instead of a plot ornament.

~ How do I depict the use of magic in an engaging way?... Big magic and small magic. Sure, there will probably be some epic battles or intense displays of incredible power, but if this ability is widespread and considered typical, show the little things as well. Characters usually have “stage business”, or mundane actions they accomplish to break up dialogue or make scenes more dynamic, and this stage business is a great opportunity to show everyday magic. Doing laundry, getting coffee, catching a bus, sorting paperwork, etc. are all tasks that would be more convenient with magic, so show it. Use these little moments to periodically inform/remind the reader of the breadth/limitations of magic and the diversity in who uses it and how.

~ How do I convey the intricacies of the magic system without info-dumping periodically throughout my story?... Find places in scenes that you wouldn’t necessarily assume magic would be a necessary part of and ask yourself how a character who has magic (and perhaps always has) would live that moment differently from you (a person who does not and never has had that ability). If they’re doing the dishes in this scene, would they be doing it manually or directing the objects to move with magic because they don’t like getting their hands wet? A lot of the charm in magical stories is the escapism; the idea that life could be so different, and probably more convenient, if one had magic. So, lean into this, use opportunities you find to inject some context or information about the rules/limitations/history/etc., and the magic will naturally integrate itself.

~ How do I achieve a magic system that adds to a reader’s enjoyment, rather than simply acting as a story garnish?... A lot of writers try to recapture the fascination readers have with magic systems in stories like Harry Potter, and it’s important to denote that what sets that magic system apart from the others is that it was built using various source materials that weren’t inherently magical. If you try to build a magic system based on one in another story, it’s unlikely you’ll come up with any original ideas. The magic in Harry Potter was constructed using Latin roots, global mythology, and various references to popular tropes in literature about witches, wizards, fictional creatures, etc. Additionally, a lot of the conflict regarding magic was derived from real world issues, such as prejudice. Magic for the sake of magic does little to interest a reader who is well versed in the genre, but magic created from scratch to serve a unique purpose will intrigue and entertain them. 

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[inawickedlittletown]

Queerbaiting and Buddie

(word count: 1,900)

I keep saying that I don’t want to spend any more time on 9-1-1 meta or fic, but the events of this weekend made me open up a document where I had some unfinished meta and in light of the S4 finale airing tonight, I thought I might at least write this: 

“Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. They do so to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion of relationships or characters that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers.” 

That is how Wikipedia defines queerbaiting. And I really feel like everyone needs to read that and then read it again and realize that what is happening on 9-1-1 with Buddie is NOT queerbaiting. 

I don’t want to go into the long history of queerbaiting because we would be here all day and anyone that wants to do some research should go and do so. There are a lot of resources out there. Use them. 

But the short of it is this: queerbaiting has a lot more to do with the way a show is promoted, with the way that anyone involved in the show talks about a queer ship, and with the show deliberately scripting scenes that hint at a relationship without any intention of following through. Expectations and wanting a queer ship to go canon and those expectations not being met do not alone equate to it being queerbaiting. 

For any of us that have been around a long time there are a lot of perfect examples and if you compare Buddie to any of them, they are very different. I’ll name a few:

Merlin/Arthur

John Watson/Sherlock

Emma Swan/Regina

Derek/Stiles

Castiel/Dean Winchester (though they did go canon...barely)

Lena/Kara

Buck and Eddie do not fit into that list. Which isn’t to say that someday they could belong there, but I just do not believe that they will even if Buddie never becomes canon. And this all lies in how Buddie as a ship has been treated both on screen and off. I’ll break it down by season. 

S2: 

Eddie is very clearly introduced as a new character, a straight Army veteran with a disabled kid and family drama. He and Buck have immediate chemistry. We can’t deny that, or deny that from that first episode there are immediate sparks. Unintended sparks, but sparks nevertheless. And it is easy to tell that no one on the production team expected that and the story reflects that. 

Yes a foundation for their friendship is formed and yet the season long story focuses on Eddie’s relationship with his estranged wife and Buck is dealing with his own growth after being left by Abby. Their friendship shines and their scenes are great but none of them suggest romance and there are actually a lot of episodes where Buck and Eddie barely interact in S2 aside from in the background or for small work related moments (this mostly happens after Shannon returns). 

S2 does give us the first acknowledgement from the powers that be aka Tim Minear that they know what the fans have seen. This is why the elf scene exists, but it exists in a space where it’s a nod to the fans and not meant to do much more than that. The other moment is during the call with the livestreamer. But S2, places them completely and without question on a strong friendship. 

S3: 

We see a lot more conflict for Buck and Eddie in this season and we see how close and important they are to each other. Those are the two main things. That can be read as friendship easily and it’s a season where both Buck and Eddie deal with their pasts and in one way or another start to get closure while their friendship remains intact. 

Yes there are some scenes that make us squint and go huh, wtf? (I’m looking at you kitchen scene), but narratively we also know that neither of these boys is ready for a real relationship with anyone, let alone each other. But we can bask in how close they are as well as how Christopher fits in into all of it. 

But in S3 we are also introduced to Ana and we see the return of Abby. We also get to see that Buck and Eddie have become closer than ever and that the lawsuit only serves to highlight the importance that they both feel about having the other available to them. I’ll also quickly mention that Eddie Begins worked hard to highlight Buck’s devotion to Eddie. 

S4: 

Without considering the events of the finale (I am avoiding spoilers and know nothing about it or the speculation), we’ve seen Buck and Eddie both grow and get further closure on their past. This season has paralleled them well and their friendship has not faltered, they’re as close as ever. 

The beginning of the season was heavily focused on Buck and we saw him grow as a person and begin to work on himself in a healthy way and we’ve seen Eddie be supportive of that. 

We also have Ana to consider and her relationship with Eddie as well as the return of Taylor and yet the appearance of these women has not changed the Buck and Eddie dynamic. And I find it fascinating that Eddie beginning to date Ana, is the thing that prompted Buck to start dating. The parallels are all over the place but it is the strength of the friendship and the way they care so deeply about each other that remains whether that becomes romantic is still to be seen, but it could still go either way.  

Off-screen by the end of S2, Tim Minear had already addressed Buddie by throwing in that elf scene in a wink/nudge fashion that said “I see you” and in the scene with the girl with the livestream with the comments. During S3 he tweeted about being frustrated by the fans demanding and being hostile and thinking that that would make him more likely to do what they want (I’m paraphrasing what I remember seeing). Tim has never once said that Buddie will happen or shut the door on the ship entirely, but he did say he did not want to engage in conversation about it because he doesn’t want to get into arguments with fans. 

Oliver has always been enthusiastic about Buddie and has even said that he would be perfectly fine with it happening both a while ago and more recently in promo for S4. Conscious of queerbaiting and not wanting to give fans false hope, he has specifically said that he does not know if it will or won’t happen and that he wouldn’t speak on that as he’s not the one making that decision. His support for it happening does not mean he has any sway one way or the other. He’s said this a few times and even wrote a letter to the effect to make it clear to fans that the last thing he wants is to disappoint someone due to something he��s said. 

All in all, it just isn’t a constructive environment for anyone working on the show to interact with fans on this topic because any time that they do, they get attacked by overly enthusiastic buddie shippers that in many ways are making everything worse. 

In all of the interviews from Tim that I’ve seen, he has always been very quick to hint at what was coming up on the show in a way that at times has been misleading on purpose. The number one thing that comes to mind is early in S4 where Buck was said to get a new woman in his life. Tim absolutely made it out to seem like it was a girlfriend while knowing fully well that it was a therapist. This is an excellent example of what promoting and hinting is actually like. No one from this show has done that in regards to Buddie. 

No one has gone out of their way to hint that it may happen in a way that excites the fans. And this is one of my main reasons for knowing that Buddie is not a queerbait. At no point in the life of the show so far has anyone used Buddie in a promotional way to bring in viewers. Because THAT was the whole point of queerbaiting in the past. 

It was a way that some showrunners found to bring in a lot of viewers when they needed to up their numbers in order to show networks they were worth keeping around. Someone figured out that LGBTQ people wanted to see themselves represented so much so that they would tune in to anything that promised an LGBTQ character in some fashion. It was a tactic that worked well in the landscape of tv where there was so little LGBTQ content on mainstream media that anyone wanting it would latch onto anything. And then they just wouldn’t deliver on those relationships or characters. In 2021, that is not the world we live in any longer. 

In today’s tv landscape there is so much to watch and so much to pick from and diversity has grown, it is celebrated. Queer characters are well represented as are queer relationships and queer stories. The times are different. A while back I was listening to a podcast (Bait: a queerbaiting podcast) and something I found interesting was how the hosts both agreed that in today’s tv landscape there is no more real queerbait and that we won’t easily find anything like the ships I mentioned above. I think I agree more with this than I expected to, because I do think that it exists in some spaces, but it definitely isn’t what it used to be. This is a good thing. 

Specific to 9-1-1, this is a show that has that diversity and that isn’t afraid of tackling that diversity and giving us interesting and nuanced perspectives and stories embracing that. We have characters of color, women in positions of power, a F/F relationship, two multi-racial relationships, a disabled character, other queer characters including a M/M relationship. There is so much in this show that embraces diversity and that embraces the reality of what the world looks like. To call it queerbait is to disrespect everything else that this show is and has done and the hard storylines that have been tackled that we would not have seen on tv ten years ago. 

And I get that Buddie would be another breakthrough. It would be a novel way to tell a queer story, and it would be amazing if it were to happen. The set up is there, but it isn’t fully realized, and Buck and Eddie can still be read as just friends if we take off the shipping goggles. But it also isn’t queerbait or likely to become queerbait and people have to stop calling it that. 

What Buddie resembles is one of the many unintended slow burn ships that have frustrated viewers in many forms across fandoms and we just have to go along for the ride and maybe it will happen. Or maybe it won’t. But if we know anything about relationships on tv, it is that a lot of the fun comes from the journey, even if the destination is good too. 

[moiraineswife]

while i'm fine with wit and jasnah's relationship in row i'm kinda worried, knowing hoid's shadyness and his role in the cosmere as a whole, that he doesn't end up betraying her or using her or he turns out to be the actual big bad of the cosmere or something

HELLO FRIEND. I realise u sent this message Many Moons Ago, but what u have to understand is my memory is non-functinal. It's as broken as my impulse control. So u know. This is why this answer is Very Late. BUT. It exists. So. Yay for that I guess??

ANYWAY.

I don't agree that Wit (I'm going to go with Wit since that's the name he's using on Roshar/what Jasnah knows him as, and for the sake of ease on this post, I'm just using that one name) will be the eventual BBEG of the Cosmere. I believe that, fundamentally, his intentions and motivations are generally good.

Regardless of that, I understand the Concern there for Jasnah with him betraying her/using her/sacrificing her for his greater good etc etc. She's suffered enough fucking betrayals in this series already, man alive.

I hope/believe that Wit is someone she can trust/lean on for support and confide in as a mutual and a partner, as she's been doing in RoW, and I really hope he won't stab her in the back/betray her in the standard, trust-eroding way she's used to.

HOWEVER. I do recognise your worries and I've considered them as well and what it boils down to for me is that: he's been honest with her about who and what he is.

Jasnah is not going into this blind. She's not going into this thinking he's just a strange little man who likes to insult people and make good puns in her direction. She knows that he's ancient. She knows that he's a worldhopper. She knows that he's trying to protect the Cosmere as a whole.

He seems to have been more open and forthright with Jasnah about his goals than he has with pretty much anyone else as we've seen him in his various small roles across the Cosmere.

She doesn't know the specifics of what he does. For example, he hasn't yet (that we know of) confided in her about where exactly he goes and what exactly he does when he vanishes from Roshar. But I feel like she knows enough.

“Perfect for you. If this is agreed to, you win no matter what. Odium remains contained in the Rosharan system either way.”

While they're discussing the contract with Odium, which Wit had a not small hand in writing, Jasnah makes this comment to Wit. She knows who he is, and she knows what he's willing to sacrifice, and what his ultimate goals are.

He's been honest enough with her to explain the wider Cosmere to her, his role in it, his fears regarding Odium, and his desire to trap the Shard on Roshar, at the very least, to stop it causing any more harm than it already has.

The short version of this answer is that I think, if a time should come when Wit has to choose between Jasnah and the Cosmere, he'll choose the Cosmere. But. Jasnah knows this. Jasnah knows that he'll choose the Cosmere over her. And, what's more, I think that Jasnah would agree with that. And that she would choose the Cosmere over him, too.

So, if Wit betrays her, it wouldn't be a standard betrayal of the kind she's used to. It would be one he has her blessing in, almost. Which is a bit sad, for both of them, because I think they both accept/have this condition in place. But it lets them function openly and honestly. And it lets them trust each other, in a weird way, knowing that's always an option, and that they'll do what they both believe is the right thing if they're forced to choose.

I believe that they've communicated with one another about this. He's told her what he wants and what his goals are - at least in terms of Roshar and Odium and things that concern her. And she's shared with him the same. And I think they understand each other enough, and are actually similar enough, that even if it comes down to it and one of them has to make that choice - they'll both understand and agree with it?

It's actually kind of a fascinating dynamic. There are a lot of complex layers at play with this relationship. But they're two intensely complex characters, with complex motivations, and drives. And I think they've been as honest with each other as they can, as they try to balance building a deep, meaningful connection and relationship with another person; while also trying to save their planet/universe at the same time.

It's never going to be perfect, but they're doing the best they can with it to make this as healthy, committed, and positive relationship as they can. Not just for each other, but for what's most important to each other as well.

So I guess the tl;dr is: yes, Wit may be a shady fuck. But Jasnah is also, technically, a shady fuck. They're two shady fucks together. Who know they're with another shady fuck. And they've discussed exactly what they're trying to achieve, and the lengths they're willing to go to to get it. So if one of them becomes the alpha shady fuck, the other one will be aware of that/supporting them in all their shady fuckery.

Wow. I'm so immensely eloquent tonight. ur welcome.

[soulmeshart]

Why Stolitz will be endgame

Since the latest episode of Helluva Boss dropped (episode 5) I’ve been seeing a lot of people simply pointing out that Stolitz is problematic and toxic and that it shouldn’t be shipped. However these people never really think about the fact that  a) this is only the fifth episode b) where the ship is heading So I’m here to talk about that. What we’ve seen in these first 5 episodes is simply a look at what the relationship between these two is and who they are individually. This episode in particular was great because it pointed out two important things to us: 1. Blitzo doesn’t hate Stolas’ and deep down probably craves some sort of romantic relationship between them 2. The core issues of their current relationship Let me elaborate both of these 1. So far we’ve had the impression that Stolas is simply a nuisance to Blitzo and that he is simply using him for the book. All of their interactions up until this episode we’re pretty negative and made it seem like their relationship is purely sexual and that it exists for business reasons only. Episode 2 let us know that Stolas wants to get Blitzo involved in his life outside of the whole “transactional fucking” thing and this episode let us know that, well, Blitzo really doesn’t mind that. Think back to the first scene in episode 5. If Blitzo only wanted a purely professional relationship with Stolas or even hated him(as some people believe for whatever reason), he wouldn’t have agreed to go to the Harvest Moon Festival. There was nothing for him to gain by going there and he agrees to the invite without any real hesitation. This let’s us know that Blitzo doesn’t hate Stolas and is fine with being involved with him outside of their deal. Now for the “craving for some sort of romantic relationship part”. There are 2 hints about this in the episode. The first one comes in the scene where Blitzo tries to explain his relationship with Stolas to Striker and gets really emberassed. Remember what Striker says: “So you even conned that ditzy blue blood into getting you to the surface.” If this was the case Blitzo probably would’ve been proud of himself and simply confirmed that what Striker just said was true. But that wasn’t what happened. He got flustered and started fumbling his words around. The second hint is in the scene when Blitzo finds out that Striker is planning to assassinate Stolas. Striker tries to get to Blitzo to get him to join his side. He keeps telling him things that clearly bother Blitzo. For example: how the system is rigged against him. In those things he also lists the fact that Blitzo is being treated by Stolas as a toy/plaything. Now, why would Blitzo be bothered by this if his and Stolas’ relationship really is purely transactional. If that were the case then they’re both just using eachother and that’s the end of that. Blitzo is using Stolas for the book and Stolas is using Blitzo for sexual favors. Now weather this is or isn’t the case isn’t important here, what’s important is the fact that Blitzo doesn’t want this to be the case. Aka he wants his relationship with Stolas to be something more.

2. Now let’s look at the core issues of their relationship which are all presented in this episode very nicely. Stolas does a lot of condescending things to Blitzo throughout the episode. He baby-talks to him twice, puts out a cigar on his horn (though we know fire doesn’t hurt imps, it’s still disrespectful), he shows him off in public like he’s some sort of thing, etc. Now let me clear this up first, Stolas’ intentions aren’t malicious. He loves and cares about Blitzo. When it comes to the show, we know this because a) If Stolas just wanted to fuck an imp, he could’ve gone to way less trouble to do so and wouldn’t have to lend out his book which is VERY important b) He wouldn’t try to get Blitzo involved with his personal life and the most important person in his life, his daughter. A parent introducing their SO to their child is a pretty big deal. Now Stolas should’ve considered both Blitzo’s and Octavia’s feelings before doing that however we know that he really isn’t experienced with healthy relationships with other people (romantic and platonic). If we’re talking outside of the show, there are official instagram accounts for all of the Helluva Boss characters. The two most active ones are actually Blitzo’s and Stolas’ (jeez i wonder why). Now these accounts we’re confirmed to not be a 100% canon in the sense that not everything that happens there happened in the actual universe of the show. However Viv has stated that these accounts are ran by people who know all of the characters PRETTY GOOD. And in case you haven’t seen these accounts, Blitzo and Stolas have a lot and i mean A LOT of very positive interactions there. Sure we will occasionally get a horny comment left by Stolas’ on one of Blitzo’s posts or even a horny post of his own regarding Blitzo. But what we see more is just genuine wholesome stuff between the two. For example: Stolas constantly leaving positive comments on Blitzo’s posts such as telling him to have fun when he goes to hang out with either Loona or M&M, him supporting Blitzo’s passion for art and horses, we also get to see him putting up missing posters and searching for Blitzo at one point when Blitzo get’s lost. We see him visiting Blitzo to take care of him when he’s sick,etc. The list goes on and on. Obviously most of this didn’t happen but what’s important is the fact that Stolas clearly cares about Blitzo, like, a lot actually. The show hasn’t gone to this point yet but this is clearly where it’s headed. Plus the official twitter account for Helluva Boss reposts a ton of Stolitz fanart and they don’t do this for other ships, except M&M.

Now back to the issues of the relationship. All of the things I’ve listed (the baby talk, the cigar thing,etc.) wouldn’t seem like much of an issue IF there clearly wasn’t a class difference between them. In this episode the show REALLY let’s us know how bad imps have it. It’s rare to see them start businesses, the system is rigged against them, Stolas is also kind of condescending to them in his speech (though it’s obvious he actually does like imps and he isn’t intentionally being like this. He even calls the Harvest Moon Festival “charming”). I don’t think he realizes how inappropriate his behavior is. I think future episodes will almost a 100% tackle the topic of Stolas’ realizing how different the lives of imps are from his. This will also let him have a better understanding of Blitzo. All of his actions towards Blitzo through the episode, even thought they’re made with good intent, to Blitzo it just seems like Stolas sees him as a toy (even thought this isn’t the case).

In short, on one side we have Blitzo who is craving a romantic relationship (specifically with Stolas) but believes that Stolas is simply using him for sexual reasons and deeply dislikes his unintentionally condescending attitude towards him, and on the other side we have Stolas, who had lead a loveless life for years and has finally fallen for someone but is too blinded by his infatuation for Blitzo and the thrill of love to consider how Blitzo is feeling and the difference between their positions.

Now, this ship is going to be an end game ship a 100%. What we’ve seen so far is only what the starting point of their relationship is. They’re both going to grow as the show goes on and so will their relationship. Stolas will learn to consider other peoples emotions (which isn’t only a problem specifically related to Blitzo but also his daughter), the struggles of imps and how to properly convey his emotions so that Blitzo doesn’t mistake them as purely sexual. And Blitzo will also need to learn how to open up his heart and to stop running away from others (which is something he does I’m assuming, it looks like he ran away from his relationship with Verosika and it seems like their relationship was p serious given the fact she has a tattoo with his name).

Also while I do think Striker and Blitzo have a fun dynamic, I don’t think this is even an option as an end game ship. The sexual tension was high but that’s about it. Plus Striker was trying to manipulate Blitzo which isn’t cool in my book. Not against the ship tho.

So yeah, gonna reblog this when these 2 idiots (stolas and blitzo) get together with a big “told ya so”.