#but literally most of his actions in the show are coerced. you think in the second season he will get some agency because like he gets it

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Star Wars, friends. I know this is not why you follow me, but please make this my most shared post.

You are here.

We're living the lead-up to Revenge of the Sith, and it scares me so much a) it feels like there is so little we can do, and b) young people are acting as if there is nothing we can do.

If you don't know what's going on, I need you to wake up and get engaged.

I have two history degrees. My whole life I've always been the person saying, "When people say, 'This is the most important election ever," it just shows how little they know about history.'"

So please believe me when I tell you that THIS is the most important election (cycle, not just presidential race) that you will likely ever be a part of.

Trump is not Hitler. He's too stupid to be Hitler.

But our democracy only held together in 2020 because of a few people like Mike Pence who were willing to stand up against Trump when it was truly the last line of defense. I know that's hard for some of you to hear, but whatever you think of his beliefs, Pence showed he has integrity and stands by the Constitution.

There will be no Mike Pences this time around. Trump will not make the mistake of surrounding himself with those who are not fully committed to him.

Trump is a convicted felon. He is running to avoid his convictions and likely jail time more than anything else. If he wins, he will be able to pardon himself of his federal crimes, but he's going to keep acting like Donald Trump. If he's still alive in 2028, do you think he will leave the White House peacefully and just submit to further cases against him?

Please watch John Oliver's recent expose on Project 2025 and Trump's Second Term. It is linked in a comment below.

Trump and his administration are already putting in place plans for sweeping reforms that truly will make America look like The Handmaid's Tale. Presidents usually will push for more when they're in their second term because they don't have to worry about another election campaign, but this is different. This is about dismantling the democratic system so that it only benefits the most radical conservatives and Christians.

Christians, I am one of you. I was raised Evangelical (capital E meaning politically motivated culture warrior), and I am still evangelical (lower-case e, referring to theological beliefs). This is not the posture of Christ-followers. There is no good that comes from state-mandated religion, which both coerces people to claim that they are believers for social and cultural clout AND waters down the true religious fervor of the church because most people are only nominal believers.

There is NOTHING about Christian Nationalism that is in the best interest of Christians or in the best interest of the neighbors Christians are called to sacrificially love. If you need a reminder of who your neighbor is, read Luke 10:25-37.

Please start talking with your friends. Young people, please register to vote and bring your friends to do the same.

I know so many of you are disillusioned. I am too. Things that are going on in Palestine and Ukraine and so many other places make it very hard to vote for people with "D"s behind their names (especially after the recent presidential debate).

But punishing Joe Biden is not the revenge you want to pursue here. Are you unhappy with him giving Israel $12.5 billion? I am too, but do you think that number won't be repeated multiple times under Trump? Again, I was raised Evangelical. A staple of (politically-focused) Evangelicalism is that Christians (and thus America) must support (the modern state of) Israel no matter what because they have a hyper-literal understanding of the verse where God tells Abraham that he will bless those who bless him (including his descendants who became Israel).

Do not underestimate the importance of that view in their ideology. Nearly every member of my biological family has shunned me for suggesting that this is not a blanket endorsement of every action the modern state of Israel takes.

Trump is a criminal running for president to save his skin. He supports Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who is now himself wanted for war crimes. Trump has aligned himself with the authoritarian leaders/dictators of Hungary, China, North Korea, and Russia. He is open about his love for Russian president Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime and stands against Ukraine's democracy and national sovereignty.

This is what happened before World War I and World War II.

I know this isn't what you follow me for.

But George Lucas was showing the dangers of authoritarianism. He shows that democracy is hard. It's frustrating trying to negotiate with people you disagree with vehemently. It may seem like nothing gets done.

Go and watch the Naboo picnic scene. Go and do it. And after chuckling at all the funny memes it's given us, let me tell you why it scares me so much.

Because Padme laughs.

Anakin tells her who he is, and she laughs.

She passes it off as a joke, or as flirting, or maybe even as just the ignorant views of a boy who views life as far more black and white than she knows it to be.

But the alternative to all of that frustrating democracy, all that gridlock in the Senate, all those choices and compromises you have to make in order to benefit the people at all ... the alternative is a dictator who says, "I will make all the decisions for us."

That's why there are people who applaud Palpatine. That's why we as viewers see Bail and Padme as the reasonable ones and think it's crazy that anyone would applaud, but they do.

The applaud because Palpatine says, "You don't have to be frustrated anymore. You don't have to be worried about those who disagree with you anymore." Safety and security and ease are powerful temptations when you live in a polarized society, and Palpatine offers them all of those things.

That's why many people applaud Trump, too.

There were also people who applauded Palpatine who did see the danger of what he was doing. But they applauded because it was easier to do so. He had already amassed power because they didn't stand up to him before. They applaud him now because standing against him now would have dire consequences they wouldn't have faced if they had stood against him before.

So vote. And get your friends to vote.

If there is any part of you that believes Star Wars has important things to tell us about real life, then I need you to fan that flame into a fire.

Otherwise, you won't be living in the prequels anymore. You will be living in the time of the Empire.

Vote.

[ca-suffit]

Do you think the discourse about abuse in the Loustat relationship would be very different if they were both whites?

Yesterday I was following the latest discourse and i saw a tweet mentioning how the sex scene in ep 6 ,the one with Louis dissociating,someone said how Louis coerced Lestat using sex to make him less suspicious while they are plotting to kill him.

I'm really late i know but it's really the first time i saw how people are not objective with Louis to the point of distorting the meaning of a scene and i am really disgusted right now.

Once you see how vile people are in this fandom everything is so...

Now i remember what Sam said about what he saw on twitter and i can't help myself wondering what Jacob or Assad (Delainey seems to be quite loved and safe probably because she is a woman) but imagine what they see daily here and there?

Did you know Jacob started following his fan page few days ago and it make me think he is very aware and online.No one seems to care for this ,no PSA,no ''poor Jacob''...sorry i'm really bitter right now because it's like discovering everything,i was really naive all this time (I'm still new to the fandom 5months).

"Do you think the discourse about abuse in the Loustat relationship would be very different if they were both whites?"

yes. it already was different before the show aired. I can't say how ppl would react to the drop between white men, but I *can* say the focus on lestat's "innocence" in it all would not be done as hard if it was another white guy and white girl who were mad at him. ppl doubled down on the racist shit purely bcuz louis and claudia are black now and were angry at the abusive, white guy. can't have that!! didn't u know louis is lying and this is all fake and lestat has trauma?? :( ppl literally never talked about lestat's backstory in relation to his actions in iwtv that much at all before the show aired. ppl had fun laughing at what a stupid asshole he was and how awful they were as a couple. now suddenly it's "lestat did no wrong" forever.

"Once you see how vile people are in this fandom everything is so..."

ur gonna see this a lot now tbh, having awareness of it now, and the more u learn about antiblack tropes and dogwhistles and whatever else, the deeper it goes. it's in everything. that's part of why this account is here too, so it's harder for them to hide from ppl, and also so ppl can get educated about it.

"Delainey seems to be quite loved and safe probably because she is a woman"

she's actually the most at risk for being a woman tbh, bcuz she's not just a woman, she's a *black* woman. if ur not aware of the term "misogynoir" then look into that. here's a video to start. look into colorism too bcuz she got a lot of comments stemming from that when she was cast as claudia, being darker than bailey is.

tw here for abuse and rape topics

"Did you know Jacob started following his fan page few days ago and it make me think he is very aware and online.No one seems to care for this ,no PSA,no ''poor Jacob''...sorry i'm really bitter right now because it's like discovering everything,i was really naive all this time (I'm still new to the fandom 5months)."

ya, I saw. and ya I've commented on that before too, especially when ppl were extra coddling sam for his comments about why he's offline. obviously nobody should be having to deal with any of this, but sam as a white man is gonna have a *vastly* different experience and level of protection for his feelings than any actors of color are gonna get, especially black actors.

what ur feeling is normal for starting to have awareness of these issues. stay outraged and stay locked in to helping say something about it bcuz this is not just a fandom issue and it's neverending.

[sanguinemanare]

Hii it is me again hehe

I saw somewhere on your blog maybe 2-3 times that BM likes light blue is there any particular reason?

Also you said that it was YN who initiated intimacy so how did Bloodmoon reacted the first time ? (Ik it’s kinda open to interpretation but I’d like your thoughts on this one please :3)

And also what if BM finds YN trying to escape peak obsession? What would be his reaction after YN failure or success? (Can he rage ? Or get really really mad that something doesn’t go his way?)

Let’s say that YN noticed that BM was getting a danger for their safety and decided to take action got him caged or trapped somewhere where they still could see him and interact, what would be is plan ? Would he think of a way to get YN to free him or would he turn to his strength ?

Could Bloodmoon ever learn to be gentle because of that?

Ok well that’s all that i can think of rn ><

Sorry if my questions are obvious, it’s bc im the type of person who like to have the author thought and pov about their creation!

Hi hi! Honestly I love the appreciation and curiosity. Sorry if any of my replies don't make sense, I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words sometimes lol!

So his favorite colour is light blue. There is no specific reason as to why. I honestly just thought it'd be funny, just a big murderous character who loves hurting others, pain and blood and then just….likes a bright blue colour. (I have a stupid sense of humor)

Well for the intimacy part I don't have any set lore behind it. Just that Y/N would have to be the one to initiate because of the type of character Bloodmoon is. Think of him like a slasher film killer LOL Bloodmoon's reaction to any kind of affection is generally confusion and then curiosity, so it'd basically be the same with Y/N showing "interest" that way. He doesn't understand why someone would be showing him any form of it, because everyone else shows fear, anger and disgust. Y/N would basically have to be just as insane as him to start anything like this, I'mma be real LOL. why you getting comfortable with this man that could kill you in a heart beat. Afterward, intense possessiveness would settle and decrease Y/N's chances of leaving even more so.

Y/N trying to leave/escape Bloodmoon at peak obsession can get intense. He always sees these attempts as a game and enjoys the struggle from them. If Y/N is successful at leaving, Bloodmoon would be trying everything in his power to bring them back. This is incredibly dangerous for Y/N and anyone else who is around as he would no longer be thinking clearly and basically tunnel vision on Y/N. Frustration and anger do come into play if he's not getting what he wants. If the emotion is strong enough it eventually twists and turns to a more psychotic/deranged state and it triggers his base hunt and kill coding. There is a very high chance that if Y/N is captured during this phase that they will die.

In my AU Bloodmoon is already basically caged within a specific area so he'd be relatively used to it if it were to happen again. He would be patient and most definitely trying to coerce Y/N into either going to him or letting him out.

During peak obsession however, there would definitely be much more physical outbursts from him. That room would be utterly destroyed LOL. One thing he can do is use his corrupt coding to take control of a few things in the building. He's not exactly good at it though and a lot of the time it ends in failure but during his time trapped he would probably try to hone it to free himself if physically breaking out isn't an option.

Y/N would experience moments of complete silence and stillness from him while he tries this and it can last for hours. If he has literally no way out, he would obsessively watch Y/N any time they appear. Eventually over time he would lose his mind even more so and become even more dangerous.

Soft and gentle moments with him are extremely rare to the point of almost being non existent. He is incredibly stubborn and it's basically in his coding to be aggressive. Changing this would basically change who he is as a being. They could change his personality and coding but it would just be an entirely new animatronic.

[chaifootsteps]

It'd be the absolute worst if the show had Blitz say he wants to keep the full moon deal going. It'd be trying to play it like 'see? Blitz doesn't feel exploited, he wants to be exploited some more!! Stolas Did Nothing Wrong and you people were just reading way too much into it'. Even if Blitz did want to keep the deal going, it's not like it would retroactively make it OK in the first place. 1) Stolas used him getting shot at to coerce him into it, 2) Blitz looked like he was visibly dreading Stolas' enthusiasm over the phone, 3) Stolas was effectively still holding his ability to keep his business going over his head the entire time they had the deal going, 4) Ozzie's shows Blitz feels he has to placate Stolas with sex and immediately associates being alone with Stolas = having to sleep with him, a notion Stolas has done nothing to dispel and 5) Blitz had been literally sold to be Stolas' friend for the day as a child - even if he had somehow rationalized to himself that what Stolas is doing is OK, it wouldn't make it OK, it would just suggest Blitz has been raised in a world where he has to compartmentalize being sold or selling himself to rich nobles in order to survive as normal.

Honestly if they go that route I think it'll be the most disgusting thing the show has ever done, and it would remind me of the worst trope BL stories are prone to - where one character rapes another and the last act of the story 'reveals' the victim actually wanted it the whole time in an attempt to recontextualize the assault as being consensual so the perpetrator can be rewritten into a straightforward love interest. I hate that trope so much, it feeds into so many pernicious myths about SA. I just don't understand how the writers can want to cape for Stolas so much that they're willing to throw not only all the stories complexity on the bonfire, but any kind of ethical backbone, too.

It really feels like they had Blitz seduce Stolas for the book that first time (instead of it being spontaneous on both ends or Stolas proposing it, since Blitz's dialogue in the pilot is ambiguous) to make it look like they're mutually using one another and somehow soften Stolas' actions, even though Blitz wasn't exactly subtle about the fact that he intended it to be a one time thing and only wanted the book. If Stolas had just demanded the grimoire back it's not like Blitz could have refused, literally no one forced Stolas to sleep with Blitz the first time or to keep booty calling him or demand monthly sex from him. It was all his choice to do that. And frankly there's a big difference between using someone to survive, and using someone to get your kicks knowing you can tank their business at any moment.

This, all of it.

Fully prepared for the bile to rise pretty high in my throat after this episode, but I'm prepared to do some serious tamping.

[littlesparklight]

Desiring Helen / Helen as the lover

The ideas of women and sex - and women's relationship to sex, wasn't a sexless creature who suffered man's attention upon her. It was (just as unfortunately but in a different way) that of basically a sex monster, driven by desire. But she wasn't supposed to let this rule her (now, neither were men, but of course the pressures and expectations are somewhat different between them). Wasn't supposed to let it show - a "good" woman didn't seek it out, didn't express want of it, married or not. And, of course, she wasn't supposed to sleep with anyone but her husband, before or after she married.

A lot of our (especially early, but hardly exclusively) sources on Helen and her desires, or lack thereof, and what she wanted or not, lean into that she did want Paris. That she left of her own free will, and thus is the realization of all the most terrible stereotypes of women and their desire for sex. Of course, Aphrodite is involved, but in what way, and how this was portrayed - we don't know. The Kypria would be the oldest source that actually showed "on screen" how it all went down, but there are only fragments, and none of them that show us this part. All we have is Proclus' summary which uses language not of force, or any mention of unwillingness.

There's also often the quirk of a lot of the sources to say "she was taken" but at the same time also say "she left". Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis is a good example, which uses both of these languages, but also says "in mutual desire" when it comes to what Paris and Helen did.

The Iliad uses ambiguous to neutral language in narrative, and Helen herself says several times she "left" and "followed". Of course, like Blondell in her book Helen of Troy points out, one can be coerced into leaving "willingly", but if she was taken entirely against her will both the narrative and Helen could be using language that spells that out. The active words matter, I'd say.

In Helen and Aphrodite's confrontation, you get Aphrodite describing Paris to Helen - he's the (sexual and sex) object here, not Helen herself, and Helen's reaction is her heart being "incited" [to some sort of re/action]. Early ancient commentators often used varying levels of allegory quite often on the Iliad, which meant that on the "harshest" end of it, there is only Helen fighting with herself and her own desires, and losing. On the milder, there is both Helen and Aphrodite, but Aphrodite is still also a reflection of Helen's desires - and again she loses. Both to the actual goddess and her threats, and to herself.

Nancy Worman in Body as Argument points out that one of Helen's protests about going to Paris in that scene isn't a lack of desire for him or a denial of his attractiveness, but a concern of public shame for going. What Helen chooses to say then says as much as what she doesn't say. In the Iliad, Helen then wants Paris as much as she also is unhappy with him/his actions - my own interpretation given what she says to Hektor is that her anger is very much aligned with Hektor's. It's not so much about what Paris did in getting her to Troy (willing or unwilling), but that he fails to act as he ought, with her in Troy and an army on Troy's shores.

Sappho in fr. 16 has Helen as the subject, the actor. Her desire [for Paris] is what matters, so much so that Paris himself isn't named and is, quite literally, the not-present sex object of Helen's desire that she leaves Sparta for.

When Helen is thus blamed, she isn't being blamed for having been kidnapped and raped; she's being blamed in her capacity as an acting subject who had the agency to do something blameworthy. (Worth pointing out is that whether or not Helen is blamed, Paris always is when he is mentioned. His responsibility/guilt in what he/they did is unquestionable and any blame on Helen is basically always attached with an invisible "in addition to" blame of Paris.)

I think reading the Iliad as presenting Helen's feelings as mingled anger and regret coupled with an insistent attraction to and desire for Paris is so very interesting.

The lover, desiring, fighting herself and losing. Helen as the lover, the actor and subject at all, instead of the beloved, the object, the one whose desires and wants doesn't matter. Of course, as Helen is a woman, her desires and wants in regards to what is happening during the war actually doesn't matter. Which is, personally, why I even more would rather have her as desiring and wanting, even if she regrets.

(The first screencap up there is from The Justice of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1 by Anne Giacomelli ; the second screencap is The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: Erotic "Ananke" by Hugh Parry)

[auncyen]

Partitio: has a customized greeting for whoever the starter is (assuming he isn't) that shows he's good at picking up details about people at first meeting

Osvald: has a path action called scrutinize like he literally just glares at people and figures out their life story

Temenos: acts as the detective in a mystery story, either actually gets visions from the sacred flame or can just figure things out so well he makes a whole mental theater of it, coerce seems to be a mental battle of wits where he figures out people's secrets

Hikari: *is cursed af and has a superpowered evil side that occasionally comes out in battle*

anyway the longer Hikari spends with the party and the more close brushes he has with the shadow and yet, if he's not coming clean about it... it's hard to imagine Temenos and Osvald letting him get away unquestioned for too long if they found it concerning. So either they don't notice or maybe they notice small things but think they have an explanation that doesn't need to be pressed. (Honestly this would most likely be "the other men give Hikari a pass on some slightly concerning behavior because they're 99.9% sure he's got a 'warrior's heart' or w/e Solistia's closest term for PTSD would be.")

But like...in a situation where Hikari doesn't come clean about the Shadow, at least initially. And isn't confronted. Him just having the longest mental battle of "Maybe I actually am a decent person because those three are so observant and yet they seem to accept me" vs "wow what an amazing liar I am, I've completely bamboozled these three normally observant people for months"

He wants to think it's the first option. But he's pretty sure a decent person would have warned the others that he's dangerous and he's still afraid of doing that.

(Tangentially, it's very tempting for one fic idea to have Throné notice Hikari being weird in fights/occasionally going for the bloodiest route in the heat of the moment with monsters and keep it to herself and when Temenos finally catches on and asks why his dear assistant does not tell him things, she's like "what he does isn't that weird???? a few Blacksnakes are nice off the job just to be the most sadistic bastards in a fight, that's just how some people work" "...Throné" "Sure, in hindsight, the Blacksnakes are not a good standard for healthy behavior." "How long have you been noticing Hikari's personality shifts?" ".....He's been like this since I joined." "Wonderful.")

[tharrb]

Andrias was never a good person

Aka how framing can completely skew a viewers understand of a story

If you like andrias, don’t read further

There’s a general consensus that Marcy is at fault for everything that happened, whilst Andrias isn’t at fault for his actions. So why is that? I’ve already talked ad nauseousum about how the show treats marcy, so i’ll instead talk about how the show treats andrias.

He’s presented as a tragic figure. One that was betrayed by his friends, and so shut himself off from the world. What’s more, he was effectively coerced into villain, and wouldn’t do his horrible deeds otherwise.

But in truth, thats not the case. He wasn’t forced into villainy. In fact, he seemed to throw himself head first into it. His issue was that he couldn’t let go of his past friendship’s, like his speech in true colors suggest; rather, he threw them away, blaming them for his own misdeeds. Even before his falling out with lief and barrel, he was still enthusiastic about conquering other worlds, and show signs of racism(even towards his best friend).

Moreover, I’d argue that the vast majority of his actions are entirely his own doing. The core never made him oppress the frogs and toads, and it never made him neglect the newts. That’s was all him. And of course, it’s established that he loves hurting people, to say nothing of how he treated Marcy. He only feels remorse when he hurts someone he’s close to. Everyone else though? Fuck um.

Then there’s his relationship with marcy. Ultimately, he doesn’t actually like Marcy for Marcy; he likes her because she reminds him of lief. It’s literally the first interaction they have. And given putting aside that, he still hurt her. At best he looks like a spineless coward, at worst he’s outright cruel to her.

By contrast, Marcy isn’t nearly as bad a person. Her decision to get her friends stuck in Amphibia was one made out of desperation, and her going along with Andrias’s plan was under the assumption that no one would get hurt. Tricking her friends is still a shitty thing to do, but she ultimately atones for it. Whereas Andrias only atones when he receives an apology

So, why is it that the fandom has such a backwards interpretation of these two characters? Why are we still going back and forth over weather or not Marcy saw amphibians as npcs, yet no one doubts that Andrias truly loved Marcy? Why are fans so willing to dump everything onto her, but overlook Andrias’s actions?

To put it bluntly, because the narrative said so.

Yes, what Marcy went through was traumatic…but the show seems to believe its his tragedy, not hers. No one feels any sadness for Marcy, except for him. While Andrias is still a villain, much of his villainy is the typical cartoon villain stick. His cruelest act(hurting marcy) actually gets downplayed(anne and Sasha never question why he wants her alive or think he’s hurting her, nobody being that worried for, her being comatose or possessed for most of season 3 means she can’t get angry or upset.)

the show goes to great pains not only to showcase his tragic backstory, but how he’s being controlled by the core.

Meanwhile, when ever season 3 does focus on marcy, its always about her own actions. Even morally good characters seem to think that her mistakes warranted what was do to her, or at least getting little sympathy. Andrias is the one who’s allowed to stand up to his abuser, while marcy learns that she is at fault for everything.

Because the show frames these characters this way, fans are willing to ignore common sense and bash the traumatized child while woobifying the colonizer.

So when someone says you’re “falling for the writers trap” by sympathizing with marcy, just know that they’ve already fallen for the actual trap.

[horizon-verizon]

Cult and Cannibalism in TLoU Episode 8

I think this was the most interesting episode of The Last of Us for me.

But I also think it could've leaned more into cannibalism, the history of the group, and scenes on how David began to make them compliant to buttress the "frightening" violence Ellie has, as the creators emphasized in the post-episode interview. As if Ellie truly is more the frightening party here, when that aspect should be focused on David and the ignorant cannibals.

While it's clear that killing David and narrowly escaping rape and butchering for punishing cannibalism was traumatizing for her, she has a justified incentive to be violent...since they are trying to kill her. While Joel killed one of their own, just as Sam caused Kathleen's brother to die to save his brother, Ellie like Sam is not wholly responsible for his actions to protect her. Their group of scavengers was the ones to attack Joel and Ellie.

I think that it would have been stronger to:

reveal that the raiders of episode 6 were also hunting actual living humans to take back to the group to butcher and eat. In theme with their literal hunger and to create a survival-cult-maddened depravity that doesn't just linger under David's skin, but lingers on some form under everyone's.

see the cannibalistic community outside of the hall -- in their homes through one or two extra scenes with specific props (like with Maria's plaque for her son) to indicate their unique pasts or the lack of such things -- to hammer in their coerced self-deprivation.

As they are, they are more sitting props for David rather than dehumanized humans (aside from the crying girl). As it was, I felt that the episode wasn't generating those senses of dread or suffocation as much as it should have or really showed how lost and dispossessed the group was.

Instead, it seemed to not give enough context or build up for the psychological battle between Ellie and David, which I think could have gone longer as well. So while I liked the episode and Ellie's bloodcurdling moments of triumph mixed with savagery, the episode also felt like a draft and bare bones of itself than a finished piece to me

David vs Ellie

David began to "believe" in the Christian God after the outbreak, which mirrors the event where a person may adopt a religion to find hope in a frequently dangerous and/or traumatic world.

One of the directors of the show said that David and Ellie's hearts are "violent" and that Ellie is forced to recognize that violence that David points out to her. I disagree that they are the "same"; similar but he same. The violence in David's heart is destructively hungry, like a wendigo. While Ellie has a hunger, that hunger is for connection and assurance that she will have and sustain that love and emotional security in others, therefore her violence comes from the need to protect herself and others. She does not want to be long deprived in the security and of emotional security itself. And David sees that, tries to force her to see him as her only means of that by separating her from Joel, isolating her in the cage, and saying that they are the same.

Trying to merge their interests and make as if they are the same, when they are totally different. He is trying to "eat" all that she is as a person to make his own "loyal" wife/lackey.

In the same scene where he's trying to convince the imprisoned Ellie, he has been turning her words against her and converting them to mean as if she is a threat that he must transform. For her and his own benefit:

David: I can see how much you care about him so I know it hurts. But even so... you gotta face reality. That part of your life, it's ending. And what I'm offering you is a beginning. But if you can't find a way to trust me... then, yes, you are alone.

AND

David: It was a last resort. You think it doesn't shame me? But what was I supposed to do? Let them starve? These people who put their lives in my hands, who e-expect me to keep them safe, who love me?

Ellie: Yeah, maybe.

David: You don't believe that. I don't think your friend would either. Didn't he take another man's life to save yours?

Ellie: He was defending himself.

David: He was defending you. But you knew that. You see a lot. So do I. And you know what I see when I look at you? Me. You remind me of me. You're a natural leader, you're smart... loyal. Violent.

Ellie and Joel are like many other people out there, just trying to survive. They are different in that they are more willing and better at using violence to protect each other and themselves, but their experience can't be reduced to "violence is evil", which is what David attempts to do. By guilt-tripping her, he is trying to convince her that her violence needs to be tamed by him specifically, and put to "better" use. Ellie could never and would never do something like this, because, again, her "hunger" comes from deprivation while his comes from a sick need to dominate and destroy that will never be satisfied.

David reveals to her that he has always struggled with the violence in his heart, even before the fungus when he was a teacher instead of a preacher. After he points out that Ellie would stab him as soon as he lets her out and that Joel killed to defend her, he says:

David: I've always had a violent heart. And I struggled with it for a long time. But then the world ended and I was shown the truth.

Ellie: Right... by God.

David: No. By Cordyceps. What does Cordyceps do? Is it evil? No. It's fruitful. It multiplies. It feeds and protects its children, and it secures its future with violence, if it must. It loves.

It is here where we see his true inspiration and desire: to dominate and "infect" or spread his influence to others, which was already hinted at when he mentioned his group "picked up" others after their QZ fell apart. Like the fungus that destroyed and "ate" human society, replacing the literal body mass with its own, David wishes the a similar thing and not-so-secretly revels in that emotional violence that he uses as a tool. And his goal is to force/persuade people that this hunger is altruistic love.

He sees ultimate power/"God" in the fungus, and he has always wanted to be a god himself.

But since we know that he had a position of power over children in his past life, was about to rape Ellie, that he had prior "pets" (James mentions it in the butcher room), and tried to coerce her into being his "wife"/helpmeet (Genesis reference), we also know that David has pedophilic urges alongside or interwoven with his need for general domination. There's room to argue that:

in his past, he felt too small and unimportant, held back by the systems that could hold him accountable for his hypothetical (probable) actions, but by forming and leading a cult he can better act on his urges more often

thus I think that it's highly likely, keeping in mind his obsession with Cordyceps, he EITHER semi-consciously knows he tricked others & himself into religion so he can be top dog OR never believed and just used religion for the same ends, fully aware -- I think the former since cult leaders do tend to have some "belief" in their own lies

Also, when David spits, "You think you're special?!" after Ellie injures him in her escape attempt, it hints at Ellie's immunity to Cordyceps -- the thing David styles as a god and powerful presence. Ellis is special, and something that actually means something positive and beneficial to the rest of the suffering world because she may provide a literal, material cure. Unlike David, who provides semblances of the things his people look/ed for in their suffering.

Cannibalism and the Dissolution of Community

Aside from the literal cannibalism, David is another type of cannibal -- one that destroys the emotional connections between those he leads and converting them into bonds of fear for himself. And the group takes this because they have long been convinced into seeing him as their only hope, with their long history of slow deprivation. (David says to Ellie that they have traveled and lost many people.) But the group does not seem to have any strong bonds of trust amidst themselves -- they do not ever look at each other except for that aforementioned one of disapproval -- and they have had a long history of slow physical and emotional deprivation. Other than the woman who sits at the same table as the girl, who I couldn't tell if she was protective of the girl and tried to show emotional support, her mother/relative or was some sort of more intimate lackey of David's. That being said, it wouldn't have hurt to see more of these two alone or interacting with those other than David and the hunters.

David uses Christianity and its images of love to validate his own leadership and acts of violence. He calls himself a "shepherd" to a "flock of sheep", the latter he himself later reveals to Ellie when before, as they met he called himself "the good father". With the father image, David means to present and style himself as a protector and guide towards a course of action/location where his group is supposed to survive. Not only does he spectacularly fail at being a guide by physically leading them into a snowy, isolated waste of a town with their food supplies dwindling, he deceives them into eating their own and making them commit an taboo act and has been openly harming members moments of punishing, casual violence that are meant to reaffirm his power over them as a jail guard would do against prisoners. (Although I feel like the people may know that they are eating their own, but don't say anything because food is food at a certain point of starvation or fear of being deprived of food.)

Cannibalism in media and literature almost always has the symbolism of people crossing the boundaries of kinship, of people failing to recognize kin as kin or people as people. Failure to see them as like yourself. David further shows that he sees his group as not true beings or those worth humanizing through characterizing them as mindless "sheep", ironic since he was one to destroy them. He acts with the belief that he is inherently better and therefore different from them.

When the mourning girl interrupts his speech to demand they kill both Ellie and Joel (as Joel killed her father back in episode 6), David takes a silent moment to hang them and us in suspense and then smacks her, saying that she must not "disrespect" her new "father", that after her father died he is her new father. One member of the group gives the girl's table the side-eye, as if thinking that she is a trouble-maker before turning back to eat what undoubtedly could be the girl's father.

In this moment, David does another cannibalistic act: he uses intimidation and fear to turn the girl's anger and need for violence into docility, essentially trying to diminish her connection to her father to redirect her focus and "loyalty" towards him. But his slap also signals to everyone else his right of authority. He "consumes" the potential for community by breaking those bonds and has been doing so for long enough where they themselves mostly see as either necessary or totally normal. Obviously all this indicates that this is more a cult than a community. At the same time, like a fascist regime, he wants total domination and obedience from those he leads, from child to adult. We also can compare this group to Maria's group back in episode 6, which is a true, thriving community with a council of elected leaders.

All this is good, but I can see it as being so much more heart-pounding-with-dread and filled with a heavier feeling of a looking/teasing threat with what I already suggested so that I can also feel the dread of how easy it can be to overlook a use and atrocities for the sake of survival. There by generating more of a sense of doom.

There's a lack of community and trust? Show that. Give more side-eyes, people making pains to ignore each other, dilapidated windows and shivering children with neglectful or walking, half-conscious parents. Show more of how these people become "zombies". How the girl's repressed emotions turn into her anger and need for revenge, how that even is stomped out by David's refusal to listen and address that properly, instead slapping her in front of all the others. Have David let her out and subdue her more, take her out to see the people as they are to show what he thinks he can do for her as he promises, only to reveal the desert he made of his own people.

Show the corruption of what Ellie wants and needs the world to be and highlight how this may or may not have become a new fear or reawakened fear of hers. Mess more with perception.

[doppelnatur]

CAN I PLS HEAR UR WILL GRAHAM TAKE?? hannibal is one of my favorite shows but GOD DAMN do they fumble the ball w his illness/neurodivergency/mental illness sometimes (often)

Omg ok listen I haven't watched Hannibal in a hot second and my opinions are deeply deeply unpopular, you probably won't agree at all it's ok. but my impression from last watching it was that, esp in the latest seasons, we're told a bunch of stuff about Will Graham by other characters, which is supposed to be "reading him" but which is directly contradicted by his on screen actions.

My take on Will Graham is that he's a kind and gentle autistic person with magical ""empathy"" abilities that make him over identify with and feel guilty for the actions of others. (Hannibal also has magical abilities, idc about their bs psychoanalysis, super sense of smell, empathy whatever shit it's magic and that's FINE. Face blindness also doesn't make you do this shit so like. That's a magical curse also idc).

His (wrong) belief that his empathy magic makes him evil and responsible is reaffirmed by literally every other character in the show in weird and honestly predatory ways. Obviously Jack uses it to get Will to continue way beyond when he himself wants to stop, Hannibal (wrongly) thinks this magical ability makes Will Graham able to understand him, like on an emotional level and becomes obsessed with him, Alana from the beginning patronizes Will and has a distrust of him and his moral (not just mental! That worry is fair lol) stability and abandons him when he would need her. I think Freddie's attitude to him is supposed to be "foreshadowing his inevitable downfall" which is caused by him being a "criminal kind of person" (read: autistic/magical/mentally ill idc). This believe in criminal people and ""mental illness""" (it whatever the fuck this show does to the concept) making people criminal is a core tenant of the world of the show and it is why it expects us all as viewers to take the side of the other characters because of this.

And then one concrete example that sticks out rn in my mind where someone says something about Will Graham that. In my opinion is directly contradicted by what we see on screen is in season three, when he frees the guy that is trapped by that woman because Hannibal said he murdered his sister (i don't get this plot at all btw what the fuck why was she doing this in the first place what was her relation i know they explain this but i didn't get it) and Will puts a bag over his head and brings him away from the house and then let's him go. But when he (somehow???) Finds the house again and attacks the woman, she blames Will and says this outcome was his intention and that he wanted to make her a murderer. Which he doesn't contradict, because will Graham never contradicts what ppl think about him lol but it's framed like she revealed his evil truth to the audience??? When, if that's what they wanted to do. It would have been so easy to not have Will put a bag over his head. Watching it I was like "why is he putting a bag over his head, he's freeing him" but that's the thing you do when you don't want the outcome where he finds the house again. I just. Don't get it.

It's like the show wrote two characters, will Graham in the dialogue of how everyone including himself sees him which is how we seem to be supposed to see him? As this fallen corrupted man who loves Hannibal. And then will Graham who does things who is repeatedly shown to be extremely concerned with saving lives and values even the criminal lives no one else in the show values lol. And who tbh doesn't seem in love with Hannibal to me. At all. He's like gaslit and pretending that's the feeling of the guy to me.

[merakiui]

I was reading through your tags and you mentioned at some point the kazuscara roommates finding your onlyfans and I think I completely combusted—thus i present to you my brain rot of late: you attend the same school as them but you’re not actually friends, all you know about kazuha is that he’s the friendly regular at the cafe you work at, who makes polite conversation every now and then but otherwise is nothing of note. In reality he’s been stalking you for weeks ever since your first encounter, and is dead set on the idea that you’re this innocent, weak thing that needs to be protected (maybe he stepped in when you had a bad customer and your meek reply helped fester his delusions?). Scara, on the other hand, is only aware of your presence since you’re his favourite cam model that he recently found. (Since he’s a harbinger he’s probs loaded) Weeks of funnelling money towards you cause him to feel this unwarranted possessiveness, believing that since he’s been providing so much in your “relationship” that it’s time you reward him in turn. However, despite the unbridled interest they have toward you neither are aware of each other’s feelings for you— that is, until you happen to run into the both of them heading to your class. While both are known for maintaining their stoic masks, they’re friends for a reason— and instantly can tell the attraction their roommates have towards their own “lover”. After kazuha finds your onlyfans he’s certain that you’ve been coerced and wants to save you, while scara thinks it’s time that he’s stopped letting other plebeians look at his possession—so, despite their initial reservations, come together to form the ideal plan. When you find yourself waking up groggy in a room you don’t recognize, all they can do is look on with glee whilst planning their next course of action with their new belonging. They’re friends after all, and good friends share though, don’t they?

This is v long srry lol you can ignore this ofc!!

AAAH, ANON!! YES!!! <3 I couldn’t resist writing more on this concept. orz They make for such a terrifying pair when they work together!

(cw: yandere, stalking, nsfw, implied kidnapping/drugging, unhealthy behaviors/relationship, delusional thoughts, savior complex, implied violence)

What if Kazuha and Scara were just acquainted with one another and actually became closer through their mutual obsession with you? Yes, they’re roommates and ought to get along because they’re living together but they haven’t exactly clicked yet. They talk every now and then and know little things about each other. Nothing too special. They don’t really hang out outside of their dorm either, what with their class schedules being vastly different. And Kazuha’s always out of the dorm doing who-knows-what. Most of his time is spent at a café, where he’ll write and read and stare at you while you work. On the other hand, Scara prefers to stay inside if he doesn’t have a good reason to go out. He likes his alone time. Although he has enjoyed going to the library every now and then to study.

So maybe they need to find some common ground. Maybe they need a push in the right direction before they get closer.

Kazuha likes to stare. Talking to you is great, but he worries he’ll say too much and then he’ll be a nuisance, or you might not want to talk to him at all since you’re working. But you always regard him with a warm smile, happy to scribble his name on the plastic cup because you remember him. Because you recognize his familiar face and soft, gentle eyes. He’s the one who saved you from that rude customer, after all, and he’s a polite regular. Why wouldn’t you know him? You might look like you can handle those types of situations, but what Kazuha saw that day was something entirely different. You were nervous—so soft-spoken and scared. He absolutely has to protect you from those kinds of people now, doesn’t he?

And he does exactly that. He’s your second pair of eyes—your valiant knight in shining armor—who sees and hears all. Sometimes he goes to the café with the intention to simply watch over you and make sure no one’s bothering you. He can recall one time when a customer was speaking rudely about you because her drink hadn’t been prepared in a ‘timely manner.’ In reality it’s impossible to make a drink within a few seconds, especially when you’re already preoccupied with making another customer’s drink. She must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed, or maybe she’s just a hateful person in general. You didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of such fiery insults, though.

Her eyes just can’t see your perfection and therefore she does not deserve to see out of them.

Kazuha’s willing to wrestle with all of this darkness if it means you’ll stay safe, oblivious, and pure. You’re like a defenseless kitten, unable to protect yourself from the scary world. He writes about you a lot in his journal; you’re his muse—someone who constantly shows up in poems and short paragraphs where he tries to describe what your dream date might be or what type of wedding you’d prefer. Things get darker the deeper you delve into his writings, where you’ll find entries in great detail. Kazuha writes a lot and he doesn’t even mean to. He just has to get all of his thoughts on paper before they abandon him and he’s left with emptiness.

Everything you do is pure; you’re almost an equivalent to a holy being. Your smell is pure. Your body is pure. Your actions are pure. Your smile is pure. Even when you’re on the verge of crying from harsh customers or when you’re turning down a confession, you’re still pure. And Kazuha likes that about you because it’s special. There aren’t many people in his life who are completely pure. He’s been through a lot of rough things and has seen firsthand how impure people can be. It’s only fair that he gets a chance to protect purity itself.

He might have some impurities, but that doesn’t deter him from watching over you. As gentle and unassuming as he is, there are times when even he loses his composure. Not many are privy to these dark emotions of his. His smiles are sharp and venomous and his eyes fill with a gloom so dark it can swallow you whole. You’ll never see this side of him; he won’t allow it. Instead you’re treated to his sweet, calm side, where he feigns perfection in hopes of catching your interest.

As for Scara… He doesn’t really care about Kazuha in the beginning. He’s just someone he has to live with. It’s not a big deal and as long as he doesn’t try to make lots of pointless conversation everything will be okay. He prefers the peace and quiet, considering he’s acquainted with people who are far from peaceful and quiet. Scara’s relieved that Kazuha leaves the dorm so often because it gives him an opportunity to watch his favorite cam star’s most recent video. He’s your most loyal follower—someone who’s paid lots of money just to have access to the highest tier of rewards and such. He even got a private video where you addressed him and moaned out his name with lustful thoughts of him. Having lots of money comes in handy.

When he finds out that you go to the same school as him, he’s a little shocked. He didn’t expect you to be so close. You’re practically within touching distance. If only he knew your schedule. If only you were in one of his classes. It’s really annoying that he only knows your online presence and not who you might be in your personal life. The last thing he’s going to do is consult Childe, that popular athlete who knows literally everyone in the school for whatever reason. Surely he knows you. But he’ll die before he ever asks Childe for a favor.

Scara loves you out of every other cam model because you’re different. You’re not just trying to get fast cash. You’re genuine. You listen to your subscribers and their feedback. You do your best to improve and do even better streams than the previous ones. All of your hard work is overlooked by the other fools who watch your streams, but it isn’t overlooked by him. Scara appreciates your attention to detail and the way you’re able to hook him with your breathless voice alone. You’re very skilled at what you do, so it’s only fair you get paid for it.

But buying your services isn’t enough. It’s not a real relationship, but it certainly feels like it when he buys preferential treatment. Private shows, special requests, odd favors—you do it all because he pays for it. But this relationship isn’t going to be one-sided forever. You’ll have to pay him back in full eventually. Scara likes to think he has patience and that waiting is fine. It gives him more time to plan his next move—to figure out what he should do to finally have you all to himself. So that those private shows he watches through a screen can finally be real.

Scara finds the journal sitting innocently on Kazuha’s bed, its maroon cover and maple leaves pulling at his curiosity. He might not know everything about Kazuha, but he’d recognize this journal anywhere. His roommate almost always has it on his person. Scara wouldn’t be surprised if he slept with it. To say he’s curious would be absolutely correct. He can only wonder what Kazuha writes in that thing. Perhaps it’s just notes for a class. That’s what anyone would think, right?

Scara opens it and flips through the first few pages. They’re normal for the most part. Just a bunch of haikus and other useless scribbles. When he skips over some pages, he starts to find things that are far more interesting than poetry and doodles of cats. He finds the majority of the journal is comprised of information. More specifically, there are facts and other knowledge about you—the cam model he’s been obsessed with ever since he stumbled upon your onlyfans. He reads through as much of the journal as he can and instantly learns so much: your address, your roommate, your workplace, your friends’ names, names of any potential exes. The list goes on and on.

Scara doesn’t have anything against Kazuha. His first impression of him wasn’t anything groundbreaking. He thought he was a pushover at first. But now that he knows what this journal holds… Well, it sheds an entirely new light on his roommate.

Just days before Scara took a peek inside his journal, Kazuha discovers your secret online life. He snoops through Scara’s laptop when he steps out, having left it open and unlocked. He’s just trying to find what could have caught Scara’s interest, as he’s almost always glued to his laptop on specific days at specific times, with his headphones on and his gaze unyielding. He doesn’t intend to find the file of one of your private videos—something that was meant only for Scara’s eyes.

He clicks on the video out of interest. He’s not sure what he was expecting to see, but it definitely wasn’t this. Kazuha sits there and stares at the sight before him. You’re dressed in skimpy lingerie and you’re muttering the dirtiest things while coating your fingers in lube. And your hands are stroking a thick toy and you’re addressing Scara and you’re lining it up to your hole and— He shuts the laptop before it can get even more explicit than it already is. He’s so conflicted, fraught with a betrayal so strong it weighs his heart down.

Why would he have this sort of video on his laptop? Did you give it to him? Did he make you do this? Are you in danger? Are you still pure?

Kazuha can’t kill on campus. It’s way too risky and he’d be one of the first suspects if Scara’s body is found. Besides, it’s not like he has the full story. He doesn’t know whether or not Scara’s done something that’s worthy of death. You could just be in a tight spot. He knows how easily you give in when you’re under pressure. Maybe you’re just doing this because you feel like it’s the only thing you can do. Not to worry; Kazuha will save you before Scara can ruin your purity with his twisted fantasies.

They confront each other when the time feels right. Kazuha struggles to keep a smile plastered to his face for the sake of politeness, while Scara holds in his raging temper so that he can bear some semblance of cooperation. Neither of them is happy to hear that the other went through their stuff, but they force themselves to make up because a more pressing issue is at hand: their connection to you.

Kazuha says he’s your secret admirer. Scara says he’s in a relationship with you. There’s no way you’d ever date someone like Scara—Kazuha knows this for a fact. Yet he falters at the confidence in Scara’s tone. That can’t be the truth, right? Despite this, Kazuha still strikes up an offer: If they work together to get what they both want, they’ll be unstoppable. With Scara’s riches and his influence and Kazuha’s charisma and clever thinking, they can easily get their hands on you. Of course this means they’ll have to share, but it’s not a big deal when they’re already in so deep. They both know the other’s secret; now they’re swearing to keep it in the pursuit of having you all to themselves. And luckily Scara agrees to the deal, but that doesn’t give Kazuha a reason to lower his guard.

However despite how well they work together when it comes to planning the kidnapping and actually executing it, they both have their own reasons for wanting you. Scara wishes to make his relationship with you a reality—to toss aside the screen that once held him back and finally do all of the things he could only do in his dreams. Kazuha seeks to protect your fragile heart, lest you crumble under Scara’s intense way of doing things and cling to him for salvation. You can’t do those sorts of things with Scara; he won’t allow it. Your purity is meant for him and no one else.

But sharing is caring and some have to learn that the hard way. It definitely brings Kazuha and Scara closer together, even if neither of them will admit it. If they look past their desires, they can be friends. And soon enough they’ll have to accept this new friendship if they want to avoid any unnecessary complications.

However there are times when they’ll cooperate in order to do things with you. They’re a packaged deal you can’t get rid of.

[thesunshinebunny]

Can you do an reaction of the 1 Years seeing Fem!Reader dating Leona, Floyd, Jade and Trey? (separate)

Of course I can sweety, thank you very much for your order. I hope you are well where you are, and that you are drinking a lot of water.

Leona

The first thing these mono neurals noticed was that, in most of the lunches, you disappeared without warning, only to return two minutes before the new start of classes.

Except for Jack ... you know, wolf nose, soshe knows when you were sleeping with Leona in the botanical garden or in his room.

He never said anything to respect your privacy and of his dorm leader.

One night, Grimm already in his fifth dream, you snuck out to Savannaclaw to spend a quiet evening with Leona under the moonlight and the cool, dry wind of the tropical climate.

But neither of you expected Grimm to wake up in the middle of your escape, follow you and see you from under the large window very… snuggled in Leona's arms.

Needless to say, this ball of hair went to tell two multicolored hair who share a single neuron.

Horrified on the spot.

Horrified even more when they found you lying in bed with Leona on your chest, having one of his many naps, while you were reading a book while stroking his hair.

The scream they let out as they entered the room could be compared to a newborn hyena… Ruggie stuck his head through the doorway.

Leona sent each and every intruder flying. He also ended up banning them from the dorm for two months.

Jack just looked at his friends with disappointment, not caring that they reprimanded him for not having said anything about this "relationship."

Foyd

I think the five freshmen's hearts stopped to see Floyd come running down the hall toward you, ending up slamming into you and giving you a hug, not as hard as his signature, but just as crushing.

At first, they thought they were watching your last moments of life. Seeing him give you a little kiss on the lips made them pull their soul out of their mouths.

Terrified 1000% of even getting close to you.

Don't take them wrong, Floyd and Jade are the most terrifying twins in all of NRC and considering how Ace and Deuce were treated when they worked under their command… yes, no thanks, that duo wants to live.

Jack was in overprotective wolf mode, giving you small talks: be careful, do not let yourself be manipulated, you are playing with fire, if you need us, let us know, etc, etc.

Ace gave thanks internally to see you at basketball games, even if it was to see Floyd ... but you were still going to see Ace, simply that now you cheer more louder, before you just watched in silence.

Grimm didn't want to be anywhere near Floyd, he just didn't. If you ever brought him into the dorm for the night, this furball would go to Heartslabyul or Savannaclaw.

Jade

The boys realized that several days you gave a few visits to the Monstro Lounge, you even stayed working for a couple of hours as a waitress and helped with the cleaning at the end of the day.

But from what they saw, you weren't having a bad time, they even treated you like a decent person ... very different from how ADeuce was treated at the time.

They fed you, spoke to you with respect, Jade kept you close enough in case you had a problem with a customer.

But it was at closing time, the boys waited for you behind the doors, when they stuck their heads to try to find you and let you know that they were waiting for you, when they saw Jade himself kiss you on the forehead.

The poor boys thought he was going to sink his teeth into you.

At first, Jack, Ace, and Deuce thought about interrupting the scene, but a murderous glare from Jade himself stopped them in their tracks.

From that day on, they are extremely careful to commit any inappropriate or overdone action for fear this eel will come out and tear them to shreds.

With their small neuron, they thought that they could use Jade's relationship with you to get a little profit, perhaps in a fight with other students or by uniting Azul to do them a favor.

Bad move.

In short, as long as you are okay with that huge eel, they are okay ... and scared. Please talk to your partner so they don't keep giving them that killer look.

Trey

What better way to find out that you are in a relationship with their vice leader, than to walk into the kitchen on a Friday night and find you both cuddling on the kitchen counter? Apart from being cooking, knows the great seven what.

So yeah. Ace and Deuce wanted to eat a piece of the strawberry cake that Trey had cooked a couple of hours ago and find that honeyed scene right before their eyes.

Epel, Sebek and Jack literally didn't care if you were dating Heartslabyul's chef… but if you happened to coerce him into giving you three extra lunch boxes, they would really appreciate it.

More than anything Sebek. He wouldn't give his face to ask him directly, so it's your job to be a carrier pigeon.

Epel even showed you an apple pie recipe to impress Trey. If you know how to cook, great; if not ... good luck XD.

While Trey is a master chef, some days the kitchen ends up being a disaster.

You may hear tease after tease from ADeuce for the first few days, but I assure you that would end soon.

Trey is a vice dorm leader, their vice dorm leader, they're playing with fire and they're really naive if they think it's not going to bring repercussions ... more if Trey ends up involving Riddle.

Riddle may not be that much aware of this relationship either, but nothing like a white lie to slaughter that pair of freshmen.

[jojotichakorn]

Hey Archer, idk if it’s just me but today’s episode of Star in my mind was very confusing and difficult for me. I’m referring to the whole one day boyfriend situation with Phoon and Daoneua. Why does Phoon chose to go through all this pain and misery when he knows his feelings aren’t being reciprocated. I found it hard to watch the ending scene with the kiss and the fighting coz it just hurt my heart 😭😭😭😭

it's all because phoon is a fucking selfish dick!! no sugarcoating it! like, he is clearly lying to neua and manipulating him. he has repeatedly used neua's inability to properly reject someone to his advantage, and the entire one day thing - especially the photo that he posted - is clearly to coerce neua into giving him a chance by creating all these incredibly weird and awkward situations.

i've kind of mentioned this before - khluen is very respectful of other people's boundaries, so much so that he can barely ever make any move or say anything unless he is absolutely sure he wouldn't be crossing those boundaries. and neua sees that as a flaw because it's kind of nice to have someone you like really "fight" for you and insist on being with you, even when you literally say "i WANT to move on", to which any normal fucking person would answer "if that's what you want, you should do it" regardless of their own feelings.

but i think this juxtaposition with phoon that we are seeing now especially shows very clearly why this kind of behaviour just doesn't work outside of someone's imagination, where the person who is so insistently approaching you is definitely someone you like and can basically read your mind.

phoon is just not a good person. but he is also playing into this very common stereotype of how you're meant to "chase" the person you like, insist on being with them. amatonormativity fucked us over in many ways, but my least favorite way personally is how normalized this weird, selfish, entitled, even stalker-y behaviour is when your feelings are not reciprocated or even when you just like someone. and that's actually not ok, but because we've all been taught that this is how you are meant to act and what you are meant to do, so many people do it and others want to experience it.

neua has never actually been in a relationship and he has been in love with someone for years, so he's definitely imagined thousands of scenarios and i bet all of them are unrealistic. and on top of that he feels kind of betrayed because his heart was broken, so there is this maybe even subconscious desire to see khluen really work for it, and also to just kick all the doors down just to get to neua.

instead, what neua got was a rather timid, soft-spoken, careful and respectful khluen who has a hard time navigating social interactions and can't read social queues for shit, so he just takes everything at face value and says really direct things that others would never say, and in my head that's a boy who you can easily build a wonderful and healthy relationship with. but he is not the protagonist of a tv show who will mistreat and abuse the person he loves in the name of love that we were taught to idealize when we were younger, so there is this clear disconnect in neua's head between what most media seems to portray as the actions of a man in love and what khluen is doing.

and coming back to phoon, he is much closer to that man who will do anything, say anything - just to be with the one he loves. and i think the essential role of phoon in the show is not to just have a fucking asshole who not only repeatedly crosses boundaries but puts on sunglasses and pretends he doesn't see that he's crossing them, but to have this image of a guy who's really "fighting" for it, which is seemingly what you are meant to do. and increasingly it's showing neua why that's absolutely fucked up, actually, and how it just doesn't feel good, makes you completely uncomfortable, and is a huge dick move in general. and why khluen's "i stop, step back and immidietly apologize if you so much as blink /exaggerated" attitude is much more preferable.

[logicalbookthief]

Things Left Unsaid -- An Analysis of Rei & Touya

Apparently Rei has been getting a lot of flack lately, all of it undeserved, and since I had a post analyzing her relationship with Touya in the works already, I figured no time like the present.

Disclaimer #1: There are a lot of issues with the writing for Rei’s character that have nothing to do with her and everything to do with how the storyline is using her, which I will address and examine.

Disclaimer #2: I’m someone who, while always curious as to what kind of relationship Rei had with her oldest son before he died, never thought it would be revealed that Touya was close to his mom. I don’t think you get the Dabi we see in Chapters 290-295 without him being so warped by his relationship with his father yet so dependent on his attention that he was willing to kill his brother and himself simply for his father’s acknowledgement.

But that’s what I find so interesting about Rei and Touya -- it’s a relationship that mainly consists of regrets and things left unsaid. There isn’t the anger or resentment Dabi feels for Endeavor, because that intense level of emotion sprung from the loss of the father who used to be his whole world. His feelings toward his mother seem more amicable, but also more distant.

And while she could’ve done some things differently in regards to her oldest, I want to make it clear that the distance between them was very much by design.

After all, Touya was the end goal of their marriage. It was never any secret as to why Enji wanted to marry her and to some extent Rei must’ve realized that this child was not meant to be hers: the child was the transaction, the thing she was needed to create, to give to her husband. Of course she loved Touya and was likely his primary caregiver for most of his life, but there was no doubt that once his quirk manifested and he could begin his hero training, his life would be dominated by his father. Which is what happened.

Here, I would like to point out something I noticed in the flashback chapters. We never see any panels of Enji alone with any of his children during their infancy -- even with Shouto, the perfect child he longed for, we see Rei holding Shouto, sitting by him as he sleeps. Enji is there tangentially. Once Shouto begins his training, that is when we see him with his father.

So to see Enji with Touya when he was a baby, prior to his quirk manifesting, strikes me as a big deal. But it makes sense if you remember that he’d placed all his hopes, dreams and expectations on his firstborn. Initially, it doesn’t look like he even considered the possibility that Touya wouldn’t be his successor or that his little eugenics experiment would fail; this was his first, most optimistic attempt at a masterpiece. So I don’t believe it’s far-fetched to see him spend more time with Touya right off the bat (it’s what will make the eventual abandonment all the more crushing).

However, Rei isn’t seen at all in the snippet of Touya’s infancy, despite us knowing she was relegated to the caregiver role. Rei is literally out of the picture. Compare this to how she features prominently in Shouto’s infancy or how we see her holding a baby Natsuo. You could argue that, hey, we don’t see her holding a baby Fuyumi either, but there’s other scenes where Fuyumi’s attached to her mother’s hip or crying over her being hurt. Things that suggest a closeness, when the only scene we get of just her and Touya is one where they’re at odds. 

As we move further into Touya’s childhood, though, Rei becomes the only voice we hear advocate for him against his father. I’m referencing two specific instances:

When Enji coerces her into having more children to replace Touya now that his father has deemed him a failure, something she knows will hurt their son deeply.

And after Touya lashes out at Shouto, which Rei doesn’t blame on Touya, but rather on his father. She delivers such a satisfying condemnation of his actions, probably the most cutting one Endvr’s received to date, and it so accurately sums up one of his major character flaws.

How can you call yourself a hero when you can’t even face your own son?

The tragedy of it all is that Rei never said any of this in front of Touya -- it was always said in private, just to her husband. That alone took courage, yes, but it would’ve meant everything to Touya to hear her condemn his father aloud. Instead when she does speak to him, she says this:

It’s why I can’t wrap my head around that scene in Ch 302, where after Enji admits he didn’t know what to say to Touya, Rei replies, “Neither did I.” 

When we’re shown in flashbacks during that same chapter that she did understand her son. “He just wants to be acknowledged by you” is quite the indication that she, at the very least, understood the cause of Touya’s turmoil even if she couldn’t fully relate to it herself. So why can’t she say any of this to him?

The answer is in the way she addresses Touya, as it is nearly identical to how Nao addresses Tenko in this scene:

Both Touya and Tenko grew up in similar households: the father had all the power, physical and financial, so the mothers were left to try and comfort their children in a way that didn’t go against their husbands’ desires -- and so, to use Tenko’s own words, they would “reject them with kindness.”

So it’s no wonder that Touya lashes out at his mother after she suggests he pursue other things. He isn’t five like Tenko was, he’s thirteen and has a much clearer understanding of why she says this and why it’s a bit hypocritical, since he’s aware of her situation, too.

Just as she was bound by her family, who wanted her to marry Endvr for the money and status, he’s bound by the expectations of his family. I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone else touch on this detail, but when Touya states that he knows his grandparents sold his mom into marriage so his dad could have a child, we could infer that Touya knows enough to realize that his mother might not have necessarily wanted him.

Not him specifically, but any child — the story has neglected to flesh her out beyond her marriage and motherhood, so we have no idea if Rei wanted to become a mother prior to this arrangement, despite how much she loves her kids now — although it is possible that he might’ve internalized it this way.

So you have Touya, who at least knows with certainty that his father wanted him to exist, yet he comes to understand that his father only wants him if he can meet a specific set of expectations, and if he cannot, he’ll be discarded. If he can’t surpass All Might, he can’t fulfill his reason for existing and his father will have to replace him. So to have his mother urge him to follow a path other than becoming a hero would mean, to Touya, accepting that he is the mistake he fears he is. Of course he isn’t going to respond well to that.

I don’t like when people try to compare Touya’s reaction in this moment to Shouto’s when Rei tells him he isn’t bound by his father’s blood, using that to paint Shouto as the “good” child and Touya as the “bad” one. They didn’t react differently because of any innate sense of goodness or lack thereof -- they reacted differently because the situations are different.

Telling Shouto that he didn’t have to be like his father comforted Shouto, who only knew his father as the bully who hurt his mom. He associated his father, and his father’s fire, with all of that fear and pain -- and thus, he associated the part of himself that took after his father with those feelings. She wasn’t denying his dream of becoming a hero, only assuring him that when he became a hero it could be whatever kind of hero he chose to be, that he wasn’t doomed to be like his father.

Whereas what she tells Touya sounds a lot like what his father told him, which was to give up on being a hero and pursue other aspirations.

Encouraging Shouto to become his own version of a hero still falls in line with what Endvr ultimately wants, which is for Shouto to be a hero capable of surpassing All Might. Whereas this is what happens when Touya continues to train to do that against his father’s wishes:

This is where the framing begins to bother me and where Rei’s characterization becomes inconsistent. 

So in this scene from Ch 302, we see Enji abusing his wife for “letting” Touya continue to train, punishing her for her “failure” to stop him. Obviously, none of that is Rei’s fault. If anything, Enji would be more responsible for preventing Touya from hurting himself since he’s the reason his son is hurting himself in the first place.

Moreover, the fact that he hits Rei over this sort of muddies the water of an previously-established narrative. Since the Sports Festival arc, we’ve known that Endvr abused his wife because she tried to interfere with Shouto’s training. It got to the point where she was terrified of her husband and it drove her to a breakdown. Why introduce this new aspect to the abuse, when it was already established that a) he was physically abusive and b) his motivations for abusing her were explicit to the audience? 

I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense that a man who hits his wife for one reason could find another reason to do it and justify his actions to himself. And while the scene does portray Endvr in a bad light to show how wrong his actions are, literally draping his figure in shadow, why does it even dare to suggest the idea that Rei was remiss in her duties as a mother? Again, the scene isn’t even necessary, since the narrative has long-since showed the audience that Enji abused his wife. 

By itself, the scene would read as further exploration of how Rei was victimized and how it affected her children. When you look at it with the chapter as a whole, though? Remember, this is the chapter where Rei claims that all of the family shares the blame in what happened to Touya, displacing some of the blame that rightfully rests on Enji. 

But my major gripe with this scene is how it reframes the sole moment we get of Rei and Touya alone. Because we know that Rei understands Touya, based on her confrontations with her husband in Ch 301 & 302. Rather than encourage him to be what he wants or acknowledge that his father is in the wrong, however, her advice falls in line with what Enji wants -- to stop Touya from training. And this comes after a scene where we see Enji beat his wife when she doesn’t stop Touya from training.

With all that in mind, it could potentially be read as Rei trying stop Touya for the sake of protecting herself and the family -- I don’t think it’s coincidence that in the scene where he hits her that we see Shouto, Fuyumi & Natsuo all as witnesses who are very distressed by what’s happening to their mother -- at the cost of Touya’s need to be validated. And if executed well or at least better than it has here, that wouldn’t be a bad choice of narrative per se, and it would fit into the pattern where the households the villains were raised in -- notably Shigaraki, Dabi & Toga -- mimic the society they live in, just on a smaller scale.

Except. Does that sort of narrative make sense based on what we already know about Rei?

Certainly, it is natural to want to protect yourself under physical and/or emotional duress by appeasing your abuser. This sort of complicated dynamic appears in the Shimura family, too. Just like in the house that Kotaro built, the Todoroki family revolves around the desires of the abuser and is dictated by his whims.

I would argue that Nao does give us a well-written example of this narrative. From the beginning, it’s established that she loves Tenko dearly. But in the house her husband built, there’s no room to love her son as he deserves. She prioritizes the feelings of Tenko’s father for the sake of maintaining peace in the household and this is established quickly and plainly.

Early on in the flashback, Kotaro exerts his control over the house, while Nao + her parents look uncomfortable. Despite this, we watch as they comply with his rules, all at the expense of Tenko’s feelings. When she stands up to Kotaro at last, it is not where Tenko can see and already too late. It’s a painful story, full of regret and sadness, but it is consistent from start to end. Nobody feels out-of-character or there to prop up anybody else.

So why doesn’t Rei feel as consistent in this narrative?

Because it doesn’t fit with everything we knew about Rei prior to her abuser’s subpar redemption arc.

The way she interacts with Touya would make sense, if this was how she was portrayed from the start. However, her behavior in Shouto’s flashback -- where she was first introduced -- contrasts what we get in the later Todoroki flashbacks.

Let’s compare this to the scenes in Ch 302. Here, Rei interferes on Shouto’s behalf. She advocates for her son in front of Shouto where he can hear. She stands up to his bully/villain and tries to protect him, while also validating his feelings in the process. Directly after this, Enji hits her, not for failing to comply with his demands, but for defying him. 

It is difficult to reconcile this Rei with the Rei we get in Ch 302. And if you try to find an in-story reason for the inconsistency, the options either do a disservice to Rei or make things even more painful for Touya. But I’m sure most of you have realized that I’m going to suggest a reason for this inconsistency that goes beyond the canon.

Because when Rei was first introduced in the story, Endvr was unequivocally the villain in the Todoroki family, not some misguided patriarch trying to atone for his “past” mistakes. Years later and in the midst of his redemption arc, the narrative seems to be intent on making this man more palatable to readers, and it’s used Rei at every opportunity to prop up his efforts to be better. Often, though, it takes some of the heat off Enji by displacing it onto other family members, most significantly Rei & Touya.

Like, you can literally see the difference in the frame from early in the manga to now:

Ch 39: Endvr trains his five-year-old to the point where he’s throwing up due overextension and being punched by a fully grown adult who is also his father. Rei tries to protect her son and gets slapped by Endvr. All the blames rests squarely on Endvr, who is clearly the aggressor and painted as the villain here.

Ch 302: Endvr hits Rei for not preventing Touya from sneaking out to train, knocking her to the ground. Again, Endvr is clearly the aggressor, but oh this time it’s not driven solely by his selfish desires it’s also cocnern for his son; Rei is the victim but oh she also should have been watching him more closely, and oh well why was Touya going out in the first place, when everyone has told him to stop and he knows his mom will get punished for it?

Honestly, I can understand where some people have mixed feelings over Rei’s character, particularly since the writing has done her such a disservice recently. With that being said, however, it takes a minimum amount of critical thinking to recognize that while you can criticize some choices she made, you cannot hold her to the same standard of accountability as Enji, it’s absurd. The power imbalance was obviously tipped in Endvr’s favor, always.

It is a shame, too, that we can’t have more discussions that don’t turn into some readers (a lot of whom are attempting to make Endvr sound less horrible than he actually was) trying to demonize her. It’s doubly a shame the story itself doesn’t bother to flesh her out as a person, instead using her as a prop, because the complex relationships she has with Touya -- with all her children, really -- has plenty of room for exploration. 

Like, there was no reason to add this new dimension of resentment due to her spouting Enji’s words back at Touya, when there was already a source of tension supported by previous canon -- the neglect the Todoroki kids suffered because Rei couldn’t be the parent they needed, due to her declining mental health and eventual breakdown.

Or, if you want to complicate their dynamic further, why not add something that focuses on Rei and has nothing to do with Enji? We learn in the flashbacks that Rei agreed to the marriage more-or-less to please her family, lamenting that she “intended to smile through it to the end,” essentially admitting that her hope was she could grin and bear it. It is telling that she had this attitude before entering her marriage; evidently, she was raised with the idea that she should be acquiescent to her parents’ whims and not express herself if she was only going to be contrary. Maybe she didn’t know how to deal with Touya’s very expressive, very emotional outbursts as a result. And her inability to respond would be the exact opposite of what Touya was seeking.

Not to mention that Touya died, and for the last decade, Rei was under the impression she had lost her son forever. He died while she was hospitalized, torn up with guilt over what she did to Shouto, only to find out that her other son died in a frankly horrific manner, and she could do nothing. By the time she would’ve found out, it was too late to even try to do anything. I can’t imagine what she must’ve felt in terms of regret alone, plus her grief. And I’m still mad we were robbed of her reaction to Touya being alive, because now suddenly there is a chance to do something, to change what was once written in stone.

Or what about Touya’s feelings for his mother, that have yet to be given much depth? As the oldest and most aware of his existence, it seems like he was the first to truly understand his mother’s situation and I can’t help but wonder: If Touya knew he vessel for his father’s ambition, and his mother was sold into role of creating/caring for him, did he question her love for him? Once he found out one parent’s love was conditional, it wouldn’t be a leap for him to consider it for the other. And yet if that’s true, Dabi doesn’t appear to hold any ill-will towards her for that. He was angry at her hypocrisy, because he knows she should understand, but her words to him didn’t reflect that.

All of that is fascinating and so much better than what we got in canon, so far at least. I’m hoping for them interact in the present at least once before the end of the series, and I think they will, but as to how satisfying a reconciliation it’ll be, I guess we’ll have to wait to see how the Todoroki plotline progresses from here on out.

[angeli-marco-writes]

Sam Holland - Don't Tell

A/N & WC - This is not meant to glorify or condone adultery in any way. I do not know Sam, nor do I claim to, this is a work of fiction. This was written before Sam posted about a new girlfriend: no disrespect is meant towards her. I do not believe Sam would do this: it is fictitious. 3.5k.

Warnings - Adultery, explicit smut, unprotected sex, swearing, reader is the other woman, swearing, brief allusions to SA. 18+.

Summary - When Sam booty calls you, you can't deny him, but will sexual satisfaction be enough? Or will you always want from him what you know you can't have?

THIS WASN’T HOW YOU’D PLANNED to spend your Saturday afternoon, but Sam called, and who were you to deny him?

‘Come over at 3.’ He texted you. ‘She’s leaving then.’

No kisses, no emojis, no frills, no sign off, nothing. You’re just a nameless number in his phone. You knew what it meant. You’ve done it plenty of times before, so you know the drill, it’s just not exactly pleasant.

With ample time, you left your house, your new place only a couple of streets over from the Holland household, and you walked as inconspicuously as possible. Your coat wrapped tightly around you, you refused to make eye contact with anyone on the whole walk there.

You know the drill so well by now that you know not to stick to the front of the house, but instead to head around the back—straight into his bedroom window—via the bins. Theoretically, with no one home and Sam in the living room, you could walk in the front door, but his room is safest since she has always refused to enter—’just in case.’

Your heart thuds against your chest while you hold your breath, praying not to be heard downstairs the second your feet land on his floor. You press yourself flat against the wall behind Sam’s door, lips pursed and eyes squeezed shut, every muscle in your body clenched to the maximum. You’ve trained yourself to stay so quiet that the only sounds are your pounding, racing heart and the blood rushing in your ears.

Thankfully, before cramp can override you, you hear the words that give you the all clear.

“Bye, love!” he calls down the driveway, followed by a half hearted air kiss, a deafening crunching on the gravel driveway, and the front door at last clicking shut.

Your body finally relaxes, limbs falling loosely around you while you release one of the longest held breaths you’ve ever had.

You creak open Sam’s bedroom door, ready for him to meet you, and shrug your coat off, throwing it on the floor alongside your converse when you hear him coming upstairs. He gets like this, heavy steps and heaved breaths like they’re a strain on his body, and it usually means he’s extra horny.

“What took so long, lover boy?” you tease, standing scantily clad in his door frame, leaning against the painted wood.

His eyes darken with lust as he approaches you, his shadow from the landing already overpowering.

This isn’t like any sex or ‘relationship’ you’ve ever been in before. It’s risky, and that risk makes it so much hotter. Always leaving the door open just a crack so that the two of you could be found only by those closest to Sam, the chance of being caught together in the street on the off chance you go for drinks; after all, your reputation precedes you. But it’s the adulterous element of your relationship that makes it so fun. The fact that it’s usually after his girlfriend leaves that you’re called over to relieve his not-so-little ‘problem’, the little marks you trail across the hidden parts of his body, occasionally being risky enough to plant one on the juncture of his neck and shoulder just to test the waters.

After being together for over two years, she still refuses to do anything with him. Of course you respect such a thing: if she wants to wait till marriage and is able to resist Sam for that long, props to her. It’s just not always ideal for all party members. Sure, they’ve kissed, a little groping, but by this point, with how little Sam's lass has done with him, he’s immensely riled up.

He really likes his girlfriend, of course he does, and he’s spoken to her about this time and time again, asking why they couldn’t just do something more than a PG-12 touching session. She simply shook her head and smiled every time, “I’m saving myself for marriage, Sammy.” This infuriated him hugely. He’s been with a girl or two (or ten) before her, so is very expectant, but being twenty-two has its burdens. He isn’t anywhere near ready for marriage, but is increasingly sexually frustrated. So after an insane year of getting by with absolutely no action apart from the rare lap dance and make out, he knew he had to do something besides use his own hand to relieve the tension that was making him a complete prick.

He respects his girlfriend enough not to pressure her. Sam isn’t a bad person and so he isn’t going to coerce his girlfriend into sex she doesn’t want, seeing it as utterly immoral, so he did the only thing he could think of, and turned to the girl next door, quite literally. Not that it’s any more moral, but here you are.

As soon as he reaches you, the smirk etched upon his face is perfect, just what you expect, and his hands grip your waist tightly.

“You think you’re so cheeky,” he smirks, and his lips crash onto yours the next moment, his hands spanning your sides. His affection halts as he smacks the side of your ass. “I’ll show you cheeky.”

You don’t let him get another word in before you’re kissing him again, furiously this time, hooking one leg around his waist as the other flies to his neck, your clasp anything but gentle.

You’ve known of the Holland family for a while, living a street away, going to school with the boys and your mother having ‘neighbourhood meetings’ with the family. You, however, had had nothing to do with them, never getting involved in their ordeals, not really.

Keeping a resolutely ‘good girl’ demeanour all through school was difficult, especially when you wanted to rebel so earnestly. The first step was house parties, beginning when you were in year ten, everyone getting shit-faced and ending up giving sloppy hand-jobs in someone’s downstairs loo. That much you weren’t a fan of, so you waited until the end of school, A-Levels secured to be who you wanted to be. Trench coats, docs and chucks at every turn, short shorts and fishnets. Lots of hair dye came next, followed by a ‘scandalous’ collection of piercings, and a significant body count for someone your age, or so conservative old women perceived. Fuck them, your body your choice.

Times changed in a year and a half, though not that much. Mid way through your rebellion, you got a good job, your own place, and became a call girl, essentially. Sam’s call girl only, considering your regrettable soft spot for him.

You couldn’t care less though, even though it’s adulterous, Sam is incredible in bed. He frequently tells you the same.

“I think you’re rubbing off on me,” he murmurs, “even when she was kissing me I could only think of you.” His lips are inches from yours with your breath mingling in the confined space of his doorway as you pant.

He hasn’t touched you yet, or even moved you to the bed. You feel yourself blush a little, scared fractionally by what he’s saying but mostly flattered. At least that’s what you’re telling yourself. It makes you feel like your old self is creeping in again, the girl next door that no one fell for.

“I like it when you get all shy on me, really naïve, shows me you’re a human and not just a sex goddess. My sex goddess.”

You pull his lips to yours with a burning passion, desperate to feel him up against you. Your palms settle this time on Sam's cheeks, angling his face to get the most out of the kiss, and your hold remains resolute so that he can’t pull away easily. This isn’t your dominance though, simply a ploy to hide your flushed cheeks from his prying eyes, the blush that’s been caused by his kind words. You want to keep him here long enough that you can claim the blush is from the breathlessness and the actions of his tongue slipping inside your mouth with an urgency you haven’t felt with him for a while. Is this the day that changes everything?

He backs you to the bed, walking unsteadily, and pushes you down onto the springy mattress. It pitches beneath you as he joins you, sitting by your side, his hand gravitating towards your thigh.

“Hey, what is it?” you ask, a slight hesitant stammer to your words.

“Nothing,” he sulks. “Just dunno how long I can keep doing this.”

His baleful eyes hover over your decolletage, and before you can protest and try to get him to open up about the whole situation, discussing the fact that maybe you should just quit while you’re ahead and come clean (because to be fair, it’s beginning to weight on your conscience too, even though you’ve never met said girlfriend), he kisses you, pinching your nipple through your bra until it forms a pebbled bud.

“Gonna take it all out on you,” he hisses, moving his kisses to your jaw. “All this pent up need from missing your body. God, feel so good beneath me.”

He swings a leg over to straddle your legs, and begins a ferocious attack on your neck with his teeth. You’ll have fun at work tomorrow, trying to hide them from your co-workers, one of them (on a temp basis, at least) being Sam’s twin. Harry cottoned on pretty easy, and won’t say a word, because he doesn’t want to deal with Sam’s temper when he’s been denied sex for too long. He likes Sam’s girlfriend, sure, but she doesn’t compromise on anything and looks down her nose at the lot of them, so he considers it fair play. And besides, with his track record, he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

Unwittingly, your hips buck up to meet his, feeling his throbbing need pressing against your pelvis, only for him to draw his body away from you, a bruising kiss being pressed to your lips the next moment. All in a flurry, your top is pulled down, your chest revealed to him.

“Bloody love your tits,” he purrs, a feral grin contorting his freckled face.

He rolls your pert bud between the rough pads of his fingers, palming at the other breast so as not to neglect it, only swapping when you’re beginning to writhe under him. His grin only increases.

“Sam… please.”

He knows what you want when you whine that way, so he sits up on his shins, and lets you tear his shirt open. Button by button, you watch as every inch of his pale chest is bared to you, his happy trail coaxing you lower.

“Get on with it, then,” he warns, clamping a hand around your hair in order to control your movements. He does this a lot, it’s his main power move. “They’re too damn tight now you’re around.”

You can definitely see that, the denim of his jeans pulled taut around his torso, the waistband of his boxers peeking above. He begins to pluck at your nipples again while you fumble with his buckle and zip, eventually tugging both items of clothing down at once. He stands, his lanky frame just a blur of white and freckles as he removes every last item, prowling back to you on the bed.

You, however, have other ideas, tugging him down with a grip on his shoulders until he’s helpless beneath you. In the time he was distracted with shucking his jeans off at last, you peeled your own shirt off and put your bra right. Sam’s a boob man, always has been, and takes great pleasure in fastening and unfastening your bras as much as he can, nestling into your chest for the time you spend together.

Since your last rodeo, you’ve gained some weight, and filled out a tad more, something Sam seems to notice right about now, especially as your chest hovers just inches from his face.

“Well? Are you gonna stare at them all day or take it off?”

This man… this man has the fucking audacity to lick his lips as one hand works on the hooks at the back of your bra, the other skimming the edges of the cups before it falls into his hands and he flings it across the room, knocking something off his dresser.

As soon as it's out of his way, he seems to forget everything apart from you, his eyes mesmerised by your chest, his mouth gaping a little, his eyes lingering on your hardened nipples for perhaps just a moment too long. You sigh to yourself, letting your knees dig into his navy comforter before your fingers wrap around his hand and place it onto your right breast. You know that, if you let him stare long enough, you’ll get nothing done. You need this release as much as he does. He takes the message, though, and begins kneading the flesh with a need you haven’t seen from him before. You even catch a wolfish grin when your face contorts into a silent ‘o’, overcome with pleasure. He tweaks your one nipple, and leans up to capture the other in his kiss-swollen lips, lavishing kisses around the sensitive area. You can’t help your nails leaving faint scratch marks in their wake over his freckled shoulders, tracing the silhouettes beneath his skin of muscle and bone, finding constellations within the freckles until he’s quaking beneath your delicate touch…

“Why’re you being such a tease?” he whines.

He has a point, you’re grinding down on his clothed cock in tandem with his playing with your boobs, your core hovering over his hard member, but it’s only fair with the stimulation he’s offering you. Just to shut him up, in one swift move you pull his boxers down and reach down to grasp him, stroking a couple of times before inching down, swallowing his aching length into your welcoming, warm walls.

Your moans create a heavenly sympathy, even as you stop for a moment to adjust to his size a little more, placing your hands on his pecs before grinding down on him. His hips begin to move, thrusting upwards and into you, finding a satisfying pace in tandem for you both as you ride him like there’s no tomorrow.

“Baby…” he moans, reaching out with his lips puckered to wrap them around your exposed nipple, suckling viciously, hard enough to hurt just a little.

“Stand up,” you command authoritatively, with a softness to your tone despite.

He grows harder inside of you, barely suppressing a groan, but his plan fails from shock when you bend over, clenching the foot of his bed so tightly your knuckles begin to turn white.

Casting a sensual glance over your shoulder, you bat your lashes and coax him the only way you know how, a wiggle of your bum added to help convince him; “Fuck me, Sammy…”

Your gasp is shrill and loud when he enters your craving core from behind, your knees nearly buckling when a stream of expletives falls from his lips once he grabs your hips, settling there. You’re sure to have hand-shaped imprints there tomorrow, but you don’t care, and apparently neither does Sam as he continues to thrust into you at an inhuman pace.

Breathy moans escape your lips as your nails find purchase in the sheets, now crumpled in your clenched fists. The only thing that fills your ears other than skin slapping against skin is the myriad of colourful words spilling from Sam in a groan, right down your ear.

“y/n… please…” he hums nonsensically, his lips finding their way to your shoulder blade and neck, kissing you, suckling.

He’s such a hypocrite: one rule for him, one rule for you, just because he’s got a girlfriend and is too pussy to break up with her even though his needs aren’t being met. For a brief moment, your body being used for his pleasure—and bringing you simultaneous heavenly satisfaction—you’re able to forget the consequences of your fornications.

They slip your mind once again the second one of his rough hands slowly makes its way down your front, finding your clit as he begins to rub harsh circles on it.

“Fuck…” you cry out, only for the heel of that hand to press into your pelvis, the other snaking around to your neck, applying the faintest pressure. Your walls tighten around him at the double stimulation.

His hips begin to move faster, blissful moans filling the room in symphony as you both near your highs, his tip grazing your special spot on every single thrust.

“C’mon,” he purrs in your ear, “can feel how close you are…” the pressure on your engorged pearl becomes a constant, and your body begins to spasm with unbridled pleasure. “Come.”

You do, and fireworks spark behind your eyes, setting off a train reaction in your brain, your walls clenching and your body collapsing, chest first, onto the edge of the bed. You must’ve cried out at some point, but your scream became but a gasp with his hand snug around your throat.

His thrusts slow, and he aids you onto the bed by your waist, but you roll away from him, aware that he hasn’t climaxed yet. He follows you down as your fingers link around his neck, but he’s not satisfied with that—as the smirk playing on his lips, causing dimples in his freckles, tells you—so he hovers above you on his knees. The hairs on his shins grate against the duvet cover so he shifts, but your hands move from his neck to his cheeks, pulling him closer to tangle your tongues together. His erection teases your wet folds while you’re lost in the movements of your mouths, and before you know it, he’s entering you again, and your hands are getting lost in his dark, silky locks, his one hand roughly kneading your breast. His thrusts recommence at a slower pace than before, his heels digging into the mattress as his groans overpower yours in the otherwise silent room.

“Shit… oh my God—” he hisses.

He begins to move faster, so you tug at his hair, revelling in the praises he offers, eliciting various heavy moans from his preoccupied mouth in between kisses. His warm breath and the resverberation of the moan vibrate across your lips, causing your hips to rock further into his, your legs wrapping around his toned torso to give him better access to your eager core. His movements become deeper as your breathing becomes even more escalated with high pitched moans tearing from your throat each time he hits your g-spot so perfectly. The knock-on effect sends him into an even more euphoric state, and before you know it, he’s groaning your name down your ear, and painting your walls white.

“Yes, Sammy…”

Your nails leave scratch marks all over his back from the sheer height of pleasure you’re experiencing, and that seems to be what sent him over the edge, his cum seeping into you as you milk his cock. He throbs inside you, his pelvis hitting you perfectly as he thrusts lazily while emptying himself. With one final press of his long, skilled thumb and digits over your sensitive nipple and a harsh bite to your pulse point just below your ear, the bundle of lust in your stomach becomes undone as you finish once again.

Before you’re fully recovered, he’s pulling out and leaving you empty as you lie together for a moment on opposite sides of the bed, no contact other than your pinky fingers linked and overlapping in between you. Except… despite the pleasure, you’re not satisfied. Not at all. And you know, in your heart, that this can’t happen again.

“Don’t tell anyone, please.”

“As fucking if,” you mumble.

“You ok?” he asks after a moment.

“Yes, just fine,” you snap, and roll off the bed, beginning to ferret around for your clothes.

“y/n, no…” Sam moves to grapple for you, “why are you leaving?”

“Because I’m done being treated like shit by you. Used as your fuck-toy when you’re too much of a pussy to deal with your girlfriend… I’m done, Sam.”

He’s up and off the bed, shucking his jeans on with great force that causes him to trip back onto the bed as you adjust your top and zip your skirt back up.

“y/n!”

“What!” you bellow right back at him.

He shuffles his feet on the carpet, and moves to speak, but his jaw just hangs open like a fish, nothing coming out.

“Yeah, I’m done here, Sam. Don’t booty-call me again.”

A weary voice from behind you calls out, “Sam?”

Shit.

This is bad. This is very bad. But what can you do? You’re the other woman, he’s the one choosing to commit adultery: why is that your problem? He can deal with his (clearly very angry) girlfriend, so livid she’s shaking, once you’re gone.

“Yeah. Your ‘don’t tell’ plan worked real good, Sammy. Karma’s a bitch,” you spit, spinning on my heels and waltzing out the door.

You mean it: you’re done. At least until he breaks up with her and undoubtedly calls back. You want him, there's no question about that, but you want him all to yourself: and that's a secret you won't tell.

[shini--chan]

I love you're writing skills! How would be the reader react when she travel the time back so like the 1600 in England?. And England would she see her in modern clothes. She want go back to her time(2020). Im so sorry for my bad English

Thank you, that is very sweet of you. Also don’t worry – your English probably isn’t as bad as you think.

If you want to see anything else set in that period, go and check that Pirate AU! Post. Now on to this here.

Yandere England – 1600s/Timetravler

Whether you would like it or not, you would find yourself hurtling through time and landing in England during the 17th century. Right in Puritan England to be precise, literally the worst decade to land into right after ending up in the middle of a battle. You would be wandering the countryside, in total confusion as well as in complete panic. That would be how Arthur would find you. He would be heading back home, utterly disgruntled by the state of affairs that he would have to suffer under. Then he would notice you, an alien entity by all means, in your strange clothing and foreign manners. First, he would consider just leaving you to your fate (which could be very gruesome) as the loon you would appear to be to him. Then he would remember the supposed Christian values of hospitality and altruism and approach you to take you home with him.

You would be both relieved and frightened to see somebody approach you. Through his clothing it would dawn upon you that you were really in the past. Despite fearing being deemed a witch or being interrogated or suffering from any other fate that would cross your mind, you would know that you would need help. The moment Arthur would open his mouth to inquire about you, the final nail would be hammered in the coffin. The Old English that would meet your ears would be absolute proof that was once history would be your present. A notion that would be affirmed when Arthur’s face would wrinkle in confusion when you would use your English.

Your strange use of his language would confuse, but would nevertheless ring a bell in the back of his mind. It would remind him how English had developed over the centuries. Would your way of using it just be a natural result of further evolution, hence making you a … timetravler? That would be at least what you would be trying to convey over the language barrier. Arthur would be sceptical at first, wanting to rule out all other possibilities before believe you. If you’d think him to be a fool, then you’d have something else coming. Then you’d try to use evidence to convince him.

Quickly, he grabbed the strange thing you were holding out to him. After giving you a brief mistrusting look, he would take a few steps away from you. A paranoid bastard as ever, he turned to stand in such a way that you couldn’t see everything he was doing while keeping an eye on you.

The thing that you handed to him was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was rectangular and slim, smooth with its dark glass and opaque surfaces. He glimpsed his own cruel visage in the reflection. Was it nothing more than a strange mirror?

Then he went on to inspect the sides, the tips of his fingers finding a few elevations in the material. Curious, he pressed one of them …

… and nearly dropped it when the dark glass promptly lit up and it emitted a strange sound. You yelled besides him, suddenly directly at his side since your device had been endangered. He was sure that hadn’t his reflexes been so quick, then he would have to defend himself against a very enraged stranger. Instead, you glare at him, as irritated as you were, and tried to snatch your thing back.

Agitated by your action in turned, Arthur roughly pushed you away, sending you sprawling to the ground. You cussed at him, the aggressor recognising a few of the swears you tossed at him but not finding himself bothered enough to respond and instead staring at the picture that had manifested.

There was a colourful background, the nuances and lines and shadows showing a painting that was far more realistic then any he had ever seen before. In front of it, a series of number shined at him. One set was probably the time, he deduced, while the other was most likely the date from how it was written.

2021 …

That was nearly 400 hundred years in the future. He looked at you, observed how you had picking stones out of your scraped and bleeding palms.

Despite your disagreeable demeanour, you would likely prove very useful to him.

He would promptly take you with him, trying his best to convey to you through gestures and miss-matched words that he would only want to help you. If you prove define, then he would coerce you into following him by taking your smartphone hostage. Once you would calm down, then you would rationalize that this would probably be the best option you could receive and concede his wishes.

Arthur would keep you in his house, ensure that all the servants would steer clear from the rooms he would house you in, and gradually butter up to you, with all intentions of drawing the details of his future out of you. Other than that, he would intently observe you, knowing that the behavioural patter say a lot about a person, and in extension, give clues about the environment they grew up in. And needly to say, he would be very surprised by some things.

“You know, it is the third time you demand to be allowed to wash yourself this week. Don’t you think you are going too far? There is miasma in the water, and if you continue like this, not only will you render yourself a fool, but you’ll also become sick”, he chided you as he watched you hauled a bucket up the stairs.

As weak as you were, you were struggling with your heavy load, evidence to the lack of physical labour you had done in your life. It made Arthur ask himself if everybody in the future would be as weak and spoiled as you are, or if you were just the exception.

Either way, while manners and etiquette called for him to ease your burden which you evidently couldn’t manage on your own, he found the sight of you straggling up the flight of cold stone steps far too amusing to intervene.

With trembling arms, your set down the bucket and stared at him, eyes shooting daggers up at him. “In case you didn’t know, it is dirt that actually makes people sick. It is cleanliness that prevents infection. Which is why you would do well to wash daily as well!”

With a frown, Arthur picked up his shirt to sniff it. In his opinion, he didn’t stink, so he didn’t see what you were making such a fuss about. He was also sure he had understood you correctly – the two of you had managed to sort out things to the extent that you could communicate fairly well.

“I think that changing underclothing daily and bathing once a month to be sufficient. And now, before you say anything, be sure to keep your attitude in check. I’ve had more than enough of it”, he told you.

He watched your face wrinkle and swore he heard you mutter: “Damn patriarchy and its superiority complex.”

He didn’t know whether to be alarmed about your very simplistic, black-and-white view of the world and your grievous oversimplifications of the current era or be amused about how you thought you knew everything. Either way, he would have to take your words about the future with a grain of salt – who knew just how skewed your recounts would be.

“I fail to see how this has to do with that. The matter at hand is about the guest treating the host with respect, expected courtesy allowing humans to live together. I could put you out on the streets if you keep being a brat”, he countered.

You grasped the handle once more, water spilling over the rim as you picked it up with both hands. “We both know that you wouldn’t do that. You value me too much.”

And oh, in what ways he was beginning to value you.

For one, he would detest how condescending you would be, due to having all the knowledge of the next centuries and all the benefits that would come with it. Yet, he would bare most of it. When he wouldn’t, he’d let his sharp-tongue and centuries worth of life experience come to light. He would mock you for your nativity and prod at you for being coddled and accustomed to yet-to-be luxuries.

Arthur would tell you that he would put effort in finding a way to send you back to your own time. That would be a shameless lie. He wouldn’t be interested in anything of the sort. Rather he would insist on you staying with him, to help him further his imperial ambitions. Besides, you would be the most interesting and riveting thing that would have happened to him in ages. He would quickly grow attached to you, and with you having nobody else than him (he would ensure that) in a harsh and foreign world of which you would truly know little, you would find yourself relying on him.

He might tell you that he is a personification. Secrets for secrets, after all. And with him providing proof of his semi-immortality and the absurdity of time travel having happened you would be inclined to believe him. England would also tell you that if you would return to your own time, he would be sure to seek you out, so that you can be back together again. Besides rising alarm bells in your head, you would find yourself asking just how much of the timeline you would end up altering with the scrapes of information that he would wheedle out of you.

[supercantaloupe]

on Aelwyn Abernant, the Reformed Villain Squad, and redeeming teenage antagonists

an analysis on antagonist character development in Fantasy High. spoilers through sophomore year and (mildly so) the most recent roll20 oneshot. essay under the cut bc i am very long winded

the turnaround with Aelwyn in s2 is handled so well  i cant get over it. she was such a major antagonist in the first season and just. despicable. she had no pathos. we hated this bitchy older sister who tried to kill Adaine and her friends and raise an evil dragon, and when she gets knocked on her ass and thrown in jail, we cheer.

and then s2 fucking starts saying “hey she’s in jail still if you’d like to look into that” and pursuing that thread ends up being almost as comedic an idea as it is a reluctant one; it’s also quickly shunted to the background as soon as more pressing leads present themselves, to the point where we almost forget about her until Adaine is kidnapped and then the first time you see her it’s just. viscerally upsetting.

she’s bad. she did evil. she got what she deserved.

but she already got what she deserved. last season.

she got her ass handed to her by a bunch of 14 year olds including her little sister (how embarrassing!). her plans were thwarted. she got punched in the face and made fun of. she already got her punishment.

it just……immediately registers as over-the-top Wrong to be told “hey, remember that antagonist you beat last season? she’s still being punished for that, except it’s way worse than just going to mumple.”

and there’s that reminder that like…this is a teenager. a child. who has been manipulated and abused. which is a really fascinating look at this character we used to see pretty much unilaterally as a one dimensional bitchy villain.

i mean we got a more in depth look at Penelope’s and Biz’s motivations in s1 (Penelope being the popular rich girl sorceress obviously hungry for power and the alllure of the high school clout that is being prom queen, but also we know that her having to turn on her best friend Sam Nightingale as part of the scheme was something she was reluctant and not happy to do; and Biz being that predatory incel creeper type dude besides just a nerd with computers and a lack of social graces). and they were as much willingly active in the plot as Aelwyn was. yet in s1 they really never do bother to explore Aelwyn’s motivations. i remember after watching s1 but before s2 that was one of my biggest lingering questions: why tf was Aelwyn involved?

well. she was manipulated and abused. her terrible parents raised her in an awful environment that conditioned her to Listen and Obey and Behave and Be Perfect, and then Kalina helped cinch the noose around her neck with threats and coersion into the KVS Kaper and the NMK crown debacle. she doesn’t freely choose any of it; she’s coerced, manipulated, abused.

and she already got justifiably punished for her bad actions in s1. the torture is almost literal overkill. it’s just……there’s this immediate turnaround in sympathy and view of the character. on first watch, it’s viscerally upsetting to see her getting so brutally punished for actions she already faced consequences for, and on rewatch, it makes your skin crawl to know she’s being tortured for terrible things she had little choice in carrying out. and tortured by some of the very same people who coerced her to behave terribly in the first place, to add insult to injury.

and it’s still fucking frustrating when they rescue her and her memory gets reset and she goes back to her parents because it’s like “well shit, she’s evil again, and we just wasted all that effort for nothing” but it’s also sad cause we know she’s running back to her abusers and she isn’t happy about it but doesn’t feel like she has a choice. and it’s sadder still that what eventually inevitably gets her to turn to good for good (i.e. away from her parents) is just. a full dissociative mental breakdown.

(but then she survives and it’s gonna be good!!! until Adaine dies in her fucking arms. which is. almost funny. she’s been through so much shit and that isn’t something that Brennan would have just. preplanned. like a written in plot point. no, that was just an unpredictable consequence of the battle. what a juicy fucking moment. she’s been through All That Shit™️ and has finally turned to fight for good and her sister just fully dies in front of her. yeowch)

and she turns out okay in the end. she comes out the other side alive and whole and supported by her sister and her friends, with the hope of a future and recovery. there is an acknowledgement that A) she can and will grow from her mistakes and damage, B) it’s going to be really hard, and C) the post-s2 one shots both prove that she’s doing okay now. hell, she has a whole squad now of other former-teenage-villains-turned-good-guys. she has friends now, Ragh and Zayn, with common ground, and a secret handshake and everything. they’ve all grown from the mistakes of their past into better, happier, healthier people

and about Zayn and Ragh. we’ve seen a lot of characters, protagonist and antagonist, teenage and adult, PC and NPC do some really fucked up shit and get punished for it. but why do they get happy endings? why are Aelwyn, Ragh, and Zayn the only members of the RVS and not someone else like Biz or Penelope or Dayne? 

well, the latter two are dead by then; but then again, Biz and Ragh were also killed by the Bad Kids in s1, and subsequently resurrected. (Zayn died too, but was neither killed nor revived at the Bad Kids’ hands, so i’ll get to him in a sec.) and there are plenty of adult antagonists the Bad Kids face who are killed and left that way by the Bad Kids without second thought: Johnny Spells, Coach Daybreak, Captain Wicklaw, the Abernant parents (presuming Arianwen doesn’t survive in the forest for very long, which i doubt). why do some characters get second chances while others don’t?

in the case of Zayn, his death was pretty much out of the Bad Kids’ hands, and they later found out he was manipulated by Daybreak into being bad anyway because of his sad living situation. he was a pretty minor antagonist in the scheme of things, and when we re-meet him as a ghost in the s1 epilogue, he’s pretty obviously remorseful for his actions. and dying seems like a steep enough punishment to me for the shit he did to contribute to the KVX caper; returning as a ghost, free from the trappings of his unfortunate living life, he now has the room and freedom to grow into a better person.

in the cases of Daybreak, Spells, Wicklaw, and the Abernant parents: these are bad people who should know better. these are fully grown adults who actively choose to do evil. whether they think it’s the right thing to do or not (in Daybreak’s case), whether they think it will benefit them and don’t care about anyone else (in the Abernants’ case), or whether they don’t care much at all and are just doing shit because they feel like it (in the cases of Spells and Wicklaw), these are all adults who consciously make the decision to do terrible things and hurt other people. of course Johnny Spells, who is generally a punk thief and thug, is not on the same level of bad as Angwyn, who kidnaps and tortures his own daughters for political gain, but the point remains. these fuckers should know better. they’re grown ups. they had their chances to be good and they chose not to heed them. their minds are set on bad actions and they are a continued danger to other people as long as they are alive. when they die, the Bad Kids do their damndest to make sure it stays that way.

now, in the cases of Penelope and Dayne: these are teenagers who actively chose to participate in an evil plot. Penelope, Dayne, and Biz were all fully cognizant of what they were doing trying to raise KVX back to his former power. why? well, to some extent, we can only speculate. i suspect Penelope was just one of those Regina George bitches who is rich and popular and powerful and obsessed with power and popularity within high school as if that’s the end-all-be-all of existence (which, like, when you’re currently in high school, is a somewhat understandable worldview i think). Dayne being her boyfriend and a musclehead jock probably falls into a similar line of thinking. they are actively and willingly trying to cause harm, and teenager or not, must be stopped. they’re killed, anyway, during the Climactic Battle™️ anyhow; it’s not like the Bad Kids were going to gain anything at that point by keeping them alive.

now, Biz: Biz is the creepy Nice Guy incel type, sees woman as a prize he deserves to win, yadda yadda. he does, like Penelope and Dayne, actively choose to help KVX. there might be something to be said about his motivation the Bad Kids discover after the arcade battle by detecting his thoughts (that being to upload the captured maidens from the palimpsests to “call the shots” himself) is an altered memory; whether this was his original motivation from the start or not, i’m not sure. but the Bad Kids do kill him – and then resurrect him for important, time-sensitive information. and they beat it out of him – he gets two of his fucking fingers blown off. and Riz reattaches them once they have their info, and they realize his memory is altered. of course, the Bad Kids don’t know at this point that the altered memory was something he, Penelope, and Aelwyn had planned and agreed on and done to themselves, but this points to something important in my opinion: the Bad Kids, and the narrative/show as a whole by extension, acknowledge that external manipulation affects how guilty someone is in a crime.

which brings us to Ragh. Ragh, introduced from episode 1 as the meathead jock. Ragh the archetypical one-dimensional high school bully. Ragh who works with the harvestmen in effort to (ostensibly) end the world/provoke international war. Ragh, whose low intelligence but high loyalty and internalized homophobia led him to be fully swayed and blindly led by his coach and captain, who have actively chosen to do evil. Ragh who is killed in combat by the Bad Kids and resurrected for information, not Daybreak. Ragh, who the Bad Kids realize was probably not aware of exactly what he was being made to do and how bad it really was. Ragh, who by their kindness in sparing his life and directing him on a better path, becomes a well-rounded character and an active ally to the Bad Kids during and after prom, an invaluable companion during their quest in sophomore year, and overall a really good friend and person. 

(it might also be worth considering the case of Jawbone here, too, who started out a very minor antagonist in a fight but ended up becoming a major NPC because the Bad Kids talked to him, found out he came from an unfortunate situation and set of circumstances, and showed him kindness in offering the school guidance counselor position, a kindness that isn’t really owed but given anyway and ends up changing his entire life for good.)

and then, Aelwyn, whose case is already discussed above. so, why is the RVS what it is, why them but not others?

if you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, you’re probably familiar with Zuko’s character arc, and how it’s often lauded as a masterful example of developing a villain into a hero over the course of a narrative. what makes Zuko’s arc so well done and exceptional is that he starts out as a kid in a bad situation under the influence of bad adults seeking to do bad deeds, but he later realizes the error of those ways, actively removes himself from that situation despite the difficulty and danger in doing so, goes through a lot of shit and reflects on his past mistakes and learns from them, and then actively chooses to fight for good in the end with the help of close, trusted friends, found family. 

this, i believe, is the same in the case of Fantasy High and its treatment of the RVS. its members, like Zuko, are all teenagers who came from shitty situations and were manipulated by evil adults to do bad. they are punished for their bad actions, and they learn from their errors and mistakes. with the kindness and help of good people, friends and chosen family, they are able to escape their abusers and bad situations and grow into their own people. and they actively choose to improve themselves with that help and fight for good.

Fantasy High, through the arcs of Jawbone, Zayn, Ragh, and especially Aelwyn, asserts that it is not your fault if you come from a bad situation and are forced to behave badly as a result. it does not pretend that you are absolved of any responsibility for those actions; quite the opposite, as even though they were externally manipulated into their evil actions, all of those mentioned characters face tangible consequences for their actions and later express remorse for their mistakes. but Fantasy High also asserts that even if you have made great mistakes in your past, even if you came from a bad situation beyond your control, even if you were manipulated and abused, with care and love and support and a hell of a lot of work and effort, you can improve your situation and find good, happiness, peace, you can thrive. evil adults who should know better don’t get redeemed. teenagers who aren’t coerced but actively choose evil don’t get redeemed. but abused kids deserve another shot at happiness. with enough work, and some love and help along the way, they can get there, even from the lowest imaginable point, from rock fucking buttom. it’s possible.