#but why kill the emotional impact of the ending by having some dude close out the season

[olliepurples]

potential bsd s5 endings by most -> least interesting

1) some of main cast survive, others die

2) all main cast die

3) all main cast survive individually

4) all main cast survive through a single event (eg. page)

5) all main cast survive through a single event, spongebob timeskip to random flying dude to close out the season

[egg-emperor]

Dunno if you’ve talked about this, but which iteration of eggman was your favorite?

Personally I really liked both Satam eggman and adventure eggman. They both seem like genuine threats who could destroy the entire world,

I like SATam due to how terrifying he was to me as a kid. He took over the world, he’s already made the bad end, and he’s not afraid to kill if he really needs too. Also I hold onto this version of eggman for the nostalgia

I just like adventure a little more cuz they somehow made eggman feel more human during the arc, and I think it helps make him more… terrifying in my opinion cuz he isn’t just some crazy dude, he’s a dude with aspirations and ideals, he’s had a life and feels closer then any villain who feels so far away. Eggman isn’t just eggman, he’s human. And the idea that a human could be like him is horrifying, because we are just so close to them biologically enough that we feel disturbed.

Idk I like thinking about stuff like that hehehehehe-

Oh geez this ask is long lmao.

I have a very simple answer, for me it's game canon Eggman in his entirety, classic and modern, before anything else. Just every game because he's consistent and is the better part of the writing in some games because of it. I'm very lucky to have him as my favorite. They've always known exactly who they want him to be, what he wants to do, and how they want to present him and do it well and find ways to put him in many fun interesting situations while staying true to it. He's the perfect character for both darker and serious and more light hearted funny moments and stories and when both sides are balanced, it's even better.

I do agree that the Adventure games are a highlight for his character with the amount of focus on the great evil he's capable of, his sly cunning ability, and how he's a serious threat in ways nobody can deny but I love all of him before and after too. He's consistently evil and a great threat, regardless of the amount of focus on it and the humor, though it seems he could do with more because people try to deny he's still as evil as he used to be. But I do love how he can be funny too and how it can emphasize and add impact to the great evil he's capable of because he reminds you he's not a joke, he's still a very serious threat.

That's something I love too, how he's human. He's a unique looking cartoony one that's extremely intelligent and capable of amazing out of this world things, but human. I love how he isn't a cyborg/robot/etc, doesn't look generically evil, and has human feelings and passions. You don't have to be nice and empathic to be "human" and I don't know why people think so. He already is just by species lol and if we're talking characterization, he has moments of depth and personal insight without changing his entire being because personality wise, he's already an accurate narcissistic evil bastard.

He's a great representation of how humans can indeed be very evil, selfish, and capable of very terrible things. Eggman has done very evil things that make him a monster but there are also aspects that remind us he's still human just like us, like how he's very passionate about things he enjoys and has dreams and goals he wishes to accomplish, also his determination and confidence to work hard and fight for what he wants. But while those things can be done in harmless and innocent ways, Eggman is deeply selfish and evil and wants to accomplish it through doing terrible things, which isn't unrealistic.

Humans can be monsters and do terrible things and in many ways, he reflects that well in realistic ways, while also being able to go beyond what's possible in real life in fiction, so he can do even more. He can be relatable in terms of species and certain aspects of his interests/hobbies, hopes and dreams, and emotions but he's also capable of terrible things that only the worst people comparable to monsters could want to do, not just without a care or remorse but even enjoying it at times. And both sides are realistic regardless of personal relatability of the audience and that makes him all the more terrifying.

I love thinking about it too, it's a part of what makes him so interesting. He's earned the title of monster with all the worst things he's done but it doesn't revoke his humanity, it is realistic, and it adds impact. It's fantastic! That's why being 100% human, regardless of his differences and his evil, which other people can also really be like even if we don't personally relate, is very appealing over being nonhuman. And instead of the idea that because he's human he must have empathy and goodness (which isn't even true for everyone irl), the way he's human like us and reminds us we're capable of horrible things is gloriously messed up and exciting to me. XD 💜

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 313: Deku VS Lady Nagant

Previously on BnHA: Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai Lady Nagant showed up to fire a cupid’s arrow into my heart, and a bunch of literal bullets into my son. Deku was all “oh shit it’s Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai, what do I do, let me think back to Hawks’s advice for a sec.” Flashback!Hawks was all “anyway Deku so if my super-hot badass murder senpai ever shows up you’re basically screwed so you’d better abscond the fuck out of there.” Present!Deku was all “lol idek why I flashed back to that conversation since I’m just going to do the exact opposite of what Hawks said” and charged directly toward Nagant because WHY NOT. Overhaul was all “waah I need to get back to my boss who I put in a coma out of love” and Nagant was all “jesus christ why did I even bring you here” and had a flashback to AFO who was all “ILU NAGANT IMMA GIVE YOU AN EXTRA QUIRK SO PLEASE CAPTURE DEKU FOR ME PLEASE AND THANKS” and yeah. Shit is all over the place right now and I love it.

Today on BnHA: All Might gets attacked by a pair of discount assassins and is all “Call an ambulance! ...BUT NOT FOR ME” and it’s really badass but also I really wish he would stop tempting fate like this. Lady Nagant is all “[casually flies around town shooting shit]” and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t read an entire chapter of just that. Deku is all, “[gets shot (≥_<)]” and releases a giant Smokescreen which prompts En to show up. En is all, “( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) (⌣̀ Δ⌣́) ( •̀_•́ )σ (¬､¬) (눈_눈)” which I consider to be a high point of both the chapter and of my life. The chapter ends with Deku using the Third’s quirk to launch a bunch of random objects at Nagant so that he can jump up and grab her arm all sneaky-like, and I’m sure this is going to prompt another week’s worth of discourse that I don’t care about at all, but fuck it, I’m having a good time.

OH WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO ALL MIGHT WELL THAT’S NICE I GUESS. CONGRATS ON NOT BEING DEAD

you named your car??

you named it Hercules??

I love you so much??

please marry me you giant fucking dork???

lmao speaking of huge fucking dorks

who the fuck are you clowns. la dee da we’re gonna murder All Might with our synchronized spear attack!! I mean... they’re clearly trying their best... maybe I should just be nice and politely hype them up like All Might is so clearly trying to do

like okay, but we all agree that this is actually the least intimidating attack any of us has ever seen, right?? these guys zipped up their hoodies all serious-like and are trying to attack All Might and Hercules with their Walmart tiki torches, but just, no?? right?? like the only way this could possibly be effective is if they were trying to kill All Might with secondhand embarrassment

“those are assassins” this is a VERY generous assessment, All Might

OH MY GOD THE TIKI TORCHES ACTUALLY KILLED THE FUCK OUT OF HERCULES

[slaps roof of car] this baby can fit so many weaponized festive backyard lighting solutions in it

and yet, even after watching this with my own two eyes, I still can’t take these dudes seriously. idek what it is. anyways r.i.p. Hercules, I loved you a lot but I guess you weren’t actually a very good armored car were you

omg they didn’t know it was All Might??

okay 1) for a moment there I was like “oh hey maybe they’re not so bad after all” but then a moment later it was like “ah nope, they are.” like, that was an interesting .06 second emotional journey there. anyways 2) All Might you have my permission to kick their asses for this disrespect, and 3) anyone else all of a sudden getting “wouldn’t this be an interesting time for Stain to suddenly show up” vibes?? no?? just me???

(ETA: hmm tbh I’ve still got those vibes and they haven’t gone away lol. Stain?? you out there buddy?? do you want to be cool for just once in your life. ball’s in your court pal.)

OH SNAP ALL MIGHT ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DO IT ARE YOU GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES

PROTECTIVE DAD MODE ACTIVATED?? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, SO YEAH, FEEL FREE

omg he’s shouting at them about how much Deku has suffered lmao and they’re just like falling over from being scolded

so they have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about though, right? “SIR THIS IS A WENDY’S” well whatever, you killed his pet car so he’s in a bad mood now

OH MY GOD

LIKE, JUST SO WE’RE ALL CLEAR, THESE FOUR PAGES SO FAR HAVE MADE ALMOST ZERO SENSE. LIKE MAYBE 2% SENSE TOPS. BUT ASK ME IF I CARE. GO AHEAD AND ASK. I SAID GO AHEAD, IT’S OKAY. ...NO I DON’T CARE AT ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

(ETA: also, the more I look at this panel, the more I’m just like, why the hell would you phrase it like that though, sob. way to doubly tempt fate?? are you trying to give Horikoshi a challenge??)

and now back to Deku who is randomly bouncing around the city and narrating it to himself just in case he was confused about why he was doing this

who are you talking to Deku. but thanks we appreciate it

man you gotta love that overconfidence. the smartest guy in the world warned you away from this lady, so SURE, LET’S RUN RIGHT UP TO HER. “I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT, FLASHBACK!HAWKS, BUT I’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” well okay then!!

I think it would be funny if RHA.com put little Buzzfeed-style polls in between the chapter pages so they could survey people at random intervals as they read their way through the chapter. like, you finish this page and then there’s a little poll there asking “do you think Deku’s plan of catching up to Lady Nagant and finding out where Shigaraki is will work?”, and you click “no” just like everyone else and then nod as the results show that 97% of your fellow readers also picked “no”, and you chuckle to yourself wondering how many of the 3% accidentally clicked on the wrong option by mistake, and then you keep on reading

ANYWAY, SO

HOW’S THAT PLAN WORKING OUT FOR YOU SO FAR DEKU. nice kick, though!!

omggggggg

ouch

update: Deku’s plan not really working out. sources tell me my boy has been fucking shot. this is an ongoing story and we will keep you posted with the latest developments as they come in

wait what

feel free to explain to the rest of us what all of this “UNLESS...” and “THAT POSSIBILITY...” shit means anytime, Deku

oh lol did he realize she could fly??

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE, CNN’s John King reports that Deku is still fucked. eyewitness reports now coming in that Nagant is doing no-look shots and basically not even giving a fuck. sources described her mannerisms and expression as “sexy, but in like an effortless sort of way.” we will continue to bring you the latest

so now there’s basically an entire page of Deku being all “ah fuck so she’s basically closing in and she could already hit me with impossible accuracy even from Far Away, so if that’s the case then her being Up Close is probably going to be even worse!” making good use of that Big Hero Brain there, Deku

so now what, you’re doing some kind of spiraling kick thing?? how is that going to help

oh lol he’s using Smokescreen to create some cover. aww, good for you Deku you named one of your Smokescreen attacks

OH NO LADY DON’T TELL ME AFO DIDN’T EVEN FILL YOU IN ON THE BASICS

seriously, AFO?? you basically told her what Deku’s exact strategy was going to be but then couldn’t be assed to drop that little, small, barely notable piece of knowledge that Deku is rocking multiple quirks?? is it supposed to be a secret or something?? you dropped the ball here man

damn this is getting intense now

(ETA: the way En is poking Deku’s head in that first panel is fucking sending me, I love this guy so much omg.)

well then what are you planning, Deku?? I’m actually really curious!! I am genuinely starting to be invested in this fight scene not only in the “wanting to see who wins and how that impacts the plot” sense, but also in the “wanting to see how it happens because the choreography and strategy is actually pretty cool” sense, which honestly hasn’t happened for quite a while now! this is fun

anyway so what’s up Deku, are you going to use another quirk?? I’ve been speculating that he hasn’t actually unlocked the last two yet (since Two and Three didn’t exactly seem convinced when we last saw them), but maybe I’m about to be proven wrong

(ETA: well he clearly has Three’s obviously, but Two’s is still MIA, and that’s the one I am of course the most curious about. that’s the one we’re all curious about, let’s be real.)

OH SNAP???

AHHHH I’M HYPED LOL. ANOTHER SHINY NEW QUIRK LOL SHOULD I PUT UP THE USUAL DISCOURSE DISCLAIMER

(ETA: so yeah, after thinking on it, I’m not gonna say “please no Deku discourse on my blog” this week, but I probably will ignore any discourse that does come my way though, just because I don’t have much interest in getting involved in what would probably be a pretty repetitive discussion. like, I can just sum up my opinions (which is what they are) here instead. in fact here they are lol:

1) I like the SIXQUIRKS and I like seeing Deku be a badass.

2) I also don’t think Deku is too OP. more like he’s exactly as OP as he needs to be at the moment, given that we’re approaching the end of the series. I expect the other kids will also be pretty damn OP when we see them fight again. we’re just at that point now where they’re all badasses (as well they should be; they’ve grown a lot and they deserve it). it’s just that Deku’s the one we’re getting to see right now.

3) of course I miss Kacchan and the others, but for me this vibes much closer to the MVA arc where even though I missed them, I was still having a blast (as opposed to the dark days of the Basement arc where I was pretty much losing it lol). like, even though Kacchan’s my favorite, I still love Deku a lot and this arc has been amazing for him getting to shine on his own (for like the first time, really).

4) y’all know I love the OFA plot and I’ve never been shy about that lol. I like all of the Vestiges a lot. Banjou and his over the top personality; En and his “guy you thought would be serious and :| all the time but is actually hyper-animated and ALL OVER THE PLACE” energy; Shiro who actually is a :| sort of guy lol; Three who I still expect will be fleshed out in a more detailed flashback at some point; and of course Two, who, well. you know what I think about him lol. Bakuverse is still on the table and I’m still hyped. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we still have yet to see Two actually talk to Deku (as opposed to talking to the other Vestiges while Deku is distracted). did he lend him his power yet?? or is he still holding out?? either way it’s definitely going to be a Big Thing when it finally happens and I can’t wait to see it.

5) Lady Nagant is Everything and just because Deku grabbed her arm doesn’t mean the fight is over yet lol. Overhaul hasn’t come into play yet either. not to mention that even if the fight is over, the “where do we go from here” part still has me excited either way. her connection to Hawks and the HPSC is very intriguing and we’ve barely touched on that as of yet; she definitely has more of a role to play in this.

6) last but not least, I feel like every week the discussion is all about how much focus Deku’s getting, and how OP he is or isn’t, and OFA this and OFA that, but meanwhile I’m actually so invested in the character development here though?? the way Deku has distanced himself from everyone (except for the Vestiges, because of course they’re already dead so it’s not like they can die again lol)?? the way he’s pushing himself far too hard and we can see the shadows in and under his eyes, and the fact that he never smiles, and even All Might has remarked on how he isn’t taking care of himself at all?? the fact that he’s so single-mindedly obsessed with focused on stopping AFO?? the fact that he’s still the same sweet old Deku despite everything and was so kind to that fox lady with the umbrella, but there was also something so sad about that scene because it felt like a reminder of the type of hero that he wants to be, but that he’s not allowed to be right now?? because the stakes are too high and the world is falling apart?? and he feels like he’s the only one who can do something about it?? and that he has to be?? and that he is putting so much pressure on himself right now, and it’s absolutely too much pressure for any one person to bear, and I feel like no one is fucking talking about this lol goddammit.

anyway so yeah. I have feels about this, and every week that slow-burn angst is getting more and more intense behind the scenes, and I feel like it’s all going to hit a breaking point eventually. sooner rather than later. it really feels like a mirror of Katsuki’s post-Kamino arc. where all that angst was just churning below the surface for like twenty chapters and then it finally was like “okay it’s time” and it all came bursting out and we got the best five chapters of the fucking series (in my admittedly biased estimation lol).

basically, I know that most of fandom is billing this as either the “villain hunt” arc or the “solo Deku SIXQUIRKS fighting arc” or whatever. but for me, it’s always been and still is the Deku Angst arc lol. the cool fights are a sexy bonus (the worldbuilding less so because even though it’s interesting to see society at such a low point, it’s also very depressing and gets old pretty fast), but for me the thing that’s really keeping me engaged chapter after chapter is seeing Deku like we’ve never seen him before. seeing him all quiet and withdrawn and brooding and focused on AFO, AFO, AFO, and seeing that “he just doesn’t take himself into account” mentality taken to extremes. I am invested in that. I’m soaking up that angst each and every week, and I’m invested in seeing what comes of it. it’s a big picture thing. week to week this arc might just seem like a bunch of villain fight scenes, sure. but Deku’s emotional journey is the thread that’s going to carry this arc through from beginning to end, and for that I’m willing to be patient.

anyway that turned into a BIG OL’ RANT there but yeah! so those are my thoughts on the disk horse as it currently stands. and like I said, I’m open to discussion, but tbh I will probably just wind up repeating these same talking points endlessly so just a fair warning lol.)

anyway so Three says Deku has yet to use his quirk at ALL but now he’s trying to combine it with another quirk?? damn. also please check out En’s face here you guys

En launching a sneak attack up my favorite character list by the sheer power of his expressions alone. he really knows how to make the most of his screentime

OH DAMN DEKU

at this point the 3% from that hypothetical poll earlier are starting to feel prettttty damn smug, I’ll bet. well shit

what in the fuck

?? so like releasing his chi or whatnot?? isn’t that basically just like base OFA all over again?? also Deku did you seriously just apologize to Gran’s cape

update: Nagant has turned her eyeball into a gun

hm. hmmmmmmm. ...okay yep, still somehow sexy

anyway so she’s just floating up there building suspense, as one does. lord I sure hope she has good reflexes because something tells me she’s going to need them

OH SNAP HE THREW GRAN’S CAPE AS A DECOY WHAAAAT OKAY THAT’S SOME SMART SHIT DEKU

LOL SHE’S MAD NOW

JESUS CHRIST SHE JUST NEVER TAKES A GODDAMN BREAK FROM BEING AWESOME HUH

DEKU ARE YOU JUST THROWING EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR INVENTORY

but without the cape and the hood how will you continue to look like an enigmatic badass. you really can’t. which means we might finally be moving on from the wandering nomad part of this arc, stay tuned

LOL YOU MANIAC

I hope he went full Kacchan with the dialogue there. his face sure looks like it lol. popped out of a building all mad fdskljlkj omg

well this was fun, shit. I still have basically no idea what Three’s quirk does though lol. like, can he use it to charge up objects with kinetic energy or something?? but then what was all of that talk about combining it with one of the other quirks?? or was that just because he was using Smokescreen at the same time??

(ETA: having seen and read an additional half-dozen explanations of Three’s quirk, I can say with confidence that I still have basically no idea what it is or does.)

anyway so!! Deku is a badasssssss but something tells me not to count Nagant out just yet even so. also I really enjoy seeing Deku flip out on people like he doesn’t have a fucking hole in his torso because it reminds me of A CERTAIN SOMEONE and I always love to see him channeling that feral energy; I feel like it’s been a while

anyways good luck to you both!! I truly wish that both of you could win. but if not, then maybe you can at least become friends instead. you have so much in common, you both can fly and have multiple quirks and you’re both badasses, and plus it would just be really funny to see the look on Hawks’s face lmao

[chihomichannel]

the different flavors of lollipops

| pairing: choso x gender neutral! reader | genre: fluff | warnings: slight manga spoilers  (ㅅ´ ˘ `) | word count: 2676 words

| a/n: hi! this is clem! this is my first jjk fic that i posted. this is  a 3 part series and i hope you guys like it!  (๑•ᴗ•๑)

| next ►

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The first time you met Choso, you had been trying to kill each other. With the other siding with opposing sides, the two of you started off in the wrong foot. You saw him as a cursed spirit raving havoc with his little group of misfits, and he saw you as the friend of the people who killed his brothers. What started as an equal fight of power ended up with you writhing out in pain as the poison of his blood manipulation coursed through your veins. He left you to die as you bled out on the underground station of Shibuya.

The next time you met him, he was no longer an enemy but rather an ally. But of course, you didn’t trust him. He did side with those who killed your friends and even if he was “manipulated” and turned out to be Itadori’s brother, you still did not find the nerve to trust him. He hasn’t earned it yet and he did try to kill you once. To say that you held a grudge against the guy was an understandment.

When he saw you alive, he was surprised to see you survived. He did poison you after all. Every now and then, his eyes would fall upon the gash on the left side of your face just beside your ear. He would be reminded that it was his fault it was there. It is a scar you earned from fighting him. And he would feel bad whenever his eyes landed on it.

You found yourself spending more time with him than you wanted. Being a level 1 sorcerer, you were assigned to keep an eye on him. Whenever you explain something to him and be met with his impassive face, you would feel your blood boil. You didn’t trust the man and being a sorcerer yourself, it took every nerve in your body not to exorcise him. You have been exorcising cursed spirits your entire life and having to suddenly baby sit one was appalling.

He was nice though, you thought. And you did admire his love and devotion to his brothers. In times when he would talk about them, you would find yourself thinking about your family. It had been years since you last saw them. They were a sacrifice you were willing to take in order to separate them from your life where death followed you everywhere. You wondered if he would turn against all of you if Itadori ended up not being his brother after all. But he was so sure you almost believed it too.

One time, it was night and everyone was fast asleep and you found yourself outside of the hideout. It was only you, Choso, Itadori, Yuta and Megumi left and Yuki and Maki left to go to Tokyo Jujutsu High. They were coming back in the morning and everyone found themselves some place for the night. Unable to sleep, you climbed on a tree and sat in peace with the moon your only source of light. You sighed, staring at the forest that laid in front of you. Soft breeze hit your bare skin, making you shiver. You fished out a lollipop from your pocket and propped it in your mouth. Savoring the fresh air, your peace was soon interrupted when you felt a presence behind your back.

“Choso?!” You shrieked at the man who stared at you with his ever deadpan face. His overall dark demeanor made him look more creepy. “You ought to stop sneaking up on people like that!” He moved to sit beside you, his eyes still on you “Sorry, I thought it was suspicious of you to go out on the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep”

“You’re the suspicious one here, dude” You scoffed at him and propped the lollipop back in your lips. His gaze felt heavy and you looked back at him, uncomfortable “Why are you still staring at me?”

“What’s that?” He asked, pointing at your lollipop. Letting out a “hmm”, you took one last lick of your orange flavored lollipop and replied “A lollipop, it’s a sweet. Want one?” You offered, reaching for your pockets and pulling one out “Try it” You handed him a lemon lime flavored one and he stared at it confusedly before putting it in his mouth.

“No! You need to take off the wrapper first, Choso” You chuckled, pulling his hand down to remove the lollipop from his mouth. He stared at you confusedly “Here, do what I do, okay?” You unwrapped one more lollipop and watched as he tried to do the same. You laughed at his attempts and Choso blushed lightly but not enough for you to see. He put the lollipop in his mouth as he pouted. This caused you to laugh harder. At times like these, the walls you’ve built between you and him began to crumble down. But you never noticed as you felt yourself unconsciously begin to trust the cursed spirit. You learned he could be soft the longer you were with him.

“I’m sorry” Choso began “Huh?” You looked at him perplexedly. Choso nibbled on his lollipop as he kept his eyes straight to the forest “Your scar-” Your hand traced the scar on your left cheek “-I’m sorry for giving you that scar”

“Oh…” was all you could say. You didn’t expect him to be conscious about it. A few seconds of silence passed by as you racked your brain of what to say. You glanced at him in the corner of your eye and nibbled on your orange lollipop “Heh, it’s fine. It was a different situation back then”

You pursed your lips when Choso didn’t say anything after that. It was quiet, only the faint chirps of the crickets echoed through the night. Having had enough of the cold, you stood up and told Choso you’d be going back and sleep when he slipped a hand on your arm, stopping you in your tracks “Do you still have some lollipop?” You handed him a cherry flavored one.

You watched as he discarded the stick of his former lollipop and propped the cherry one to his mouth. His shoulders slumped and Choso let out a sigh. His gaze turned to you and he smiled softly, his cheeks flushed pink “It’s sweet” That was the first time you saw him in a different light.

After that night, Choso took a liking to lollipops often asking you for more. This lead you to buying a whole packet when you found yourself near a convenience store. His obsession on the sweet deeply amused you. You had never once thought a cursed spirit could taste food until Choso came into your life. This made you wonder if they also needed to eat to survive. When you saw the way his eyes lit up at the sight of the packet of lollipops, you couldn’t help but smile. The longer you spent time with him, the more you found yourself warming up to him.

You built a camaraderie with the man, learning to trust and coordinate with him when you found yourselves fighting for your life. The two of you found common ground on protecting Itadori. Once, you were so beaten up after an attack that you would’ve been in much worse condition if Choso hadn’t come in time to swoop you away from the scene. It frustrated you to no end how weak you’ve become. Or maybe you have always been weak, just a tad bit better than your peers. Choso would notice when these kinds of thoughts cloud your mind and would pull out a lollipop from his pockets and give it to you.

You stared at him, he reminded you of a parent handing his upset child a candy to lighten their mood. You almost felt offended but he looked so genuinely concerned it warmed your heart instead. You muttered a low “Thanks” and put the sweet into your mouth. He watched you as you did so, scanning your demeanor and feeling relieved to see your mood lightened. He patted your head causing you to stiffen. You ogled at him as he continued to caress your hair “You did great” He said and you felt your heart lighten from your worries.

Cranberry, it was the taste of the lollipop Choso handed you. Cranberries symbolize abundance and gratitude and gratitude is what Choso felt for you. Choso found himself protective of you as he is of his brothers. But not quite in the same way, he just couldn’t put his finger around it. On the other hand, you found yourself hot and bothered with Choso’s new attitude around you. You found yourself flustered whenever he’s around and it bothered you to no end. You often reprimand yourself for being flustered in the first place ‘He’s a cursed spirit!’ You remind yourself ‘A cursed spirit!’

But Choso made it much harder for you. At times when you thought your passing feelings for the man had subsided, Choso would make it his goal to remind you of those feelings. Not like he’s aware he does so. Choso did not understand the concept of attraction. Being locked away for more than a century, the only love he knew is the one he held for his brothers. And so when he found himself feeling a certain way for you, Choso mistook it as the same he felt for his brothers. Care, that was what he felt for you.

But when he saw you chatting animatedly with Megumi, he hated how you laughed and how close you sat next to the boy. Choso’s eyes shot daggers at the poor boy who remained unaware of the looming darkness behind him. But Choso remained in his seat, and looked begrudgingly at you and Megumi. That was the first time Choso felt jealousy, not that he knew what that feeling was exactly. He realized, ever since he met you, he’s had a whirlwind of emotions he never knew existed. And it irked Choso just how much power you held over him.

The next time you were alone with him, he sat opposite from you, maintaining a distance as he gazed suspiciously at you. You noticed his behaviour and gave him a questioning look but was only met with a huff for a response. You frowned, confused. Tapping your foot on the ground, you met Choso’s gaze and held it like you two have a staring contest. The other wouldn’t budge and it bugged you that Choso wouldn’t speak. Just as you were about to give up, Choso stood up and dashed to your side.

You bounced on the impact of him plopping down next to you. Facing you, Choso’s eyebrows scrunched together as he stared at you intensely “Is this like your technique or something?” He asked, confusing you even more “Huh?”

“This!” He motioned between you two “-you hate me don’t you? This is why you’re doing your cursed technique and making me feel this way”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-t” You did not understand a word he said ‘What the hell is he talking about?!’ You thought ‘Technique? Hate him?!’

“Why would you think I hate you?” You asked, your voice cracking slightly by the end. It’s true you didn’t trust him in the beginning and sure, you did hate him before he became an ally. But now that you know him, you couldn’t comprehend as to why he would think like that. Had you been mean to him? Had you been unconsciously mean to him?! You panicked at the thought. You consider him a friend at this point, you thought he felt the same way. Or at least knew you were fine with him. Like, geez, he had been making you blush. What is up with him?

“You make me feel weird” Now he lost you “Huh?”

“You make me feel nervous! I don’t get nervous easily! At least not when I’m in a fight” “Okay-” “And you also make me happy! Just being around you makes me happy” “Wait, what-” “And earlier! I had this nasty feeling. Like something is gnawing at my stomach, my ears, my heart, my entire being!”

“HUH?” You held your cheeks with your hands, face now flushed red “I really hated it when you sat so close to that black haired kid and I wish it was me you were laughing with-” You collapsed at this point “-In short, you make me feel really weird!”

Your eyes refused to look at him, trying to hide your reddened face away from him “Hey, say something” Choso cooed, planting his hand on your wrist making you jerk “Umh-Ah-a-H-Ch-A” You stammered, unable to make out words. You had never felt so flustered in your entire life. Concern replaced Choso’s fury and he held your shoulders, calling out your name.

“Huh, am I interrupting something?” You and Choso turned your head towards the sound and found Itadori standing by the doorway “ITADORI!” You cried out “What’s wrong with her?” Choso asked at the same time. Maki appeared behind Itadori and the two looked at each other knowingly before giving you guys an amused look “Get your hands off her or she’ll probably die” Maki said making Choso let go of you instantly “Why?!”

Maki laughed as she went to the both of you and grabbed a hold of your body to take you away. Itadori could only chuckle “Choso, you’re impossible”

That night, Choso sneaked out of Itadori’s watchful eyes to pay you a visit. He had confided in Itadori about his concerns but was left frustrated when Yuuji only laughed at his face saying that Choso is “in love” with you. But “in love” like how? 

“As in ‘in love’ romantically” Itadori explained  “But what the hell do you mean by romantically?” Choso walked out when Itadori howled in laughter, no longer saying anything comprehensible.

Knocking, Choso gained your attention. You had been laying on the couch thinking back to Choso’s words to you. When you calmed down, the absurdity of the situation dawned on you. You realized that Choso didn’t understand his feelings and having him feel that way towards you made your heart flutter. It made you feel special that someone like him, who did not even understand what it’s like to be in love with someone, somehow fell for you. And seeing him now looking at you worriedly made you come to terms that you needed to talk to him.

“Hey” You called him softly. You sat up and patted the space next to you, and Choso made himself comfortable beside you. Silence engulfed the both of you and you felt yourself flush under the heavy atmosphere. You racked your brain for words to say but your thoughts were interrupted when Choso began “I can’t really say that I’m sure about what I feel and from what I have gathered, I think understand what it is now” Your blush deepened, your eyes unmoving from his figure “-all my life, this is the only time I have ever truly lived. And even now, I’m still in hiding. I don’t know much about life and I don’t really know anything other than Jujutsu but-” he turned to look at you

“-being by your side these past few months, I have learned a lot of things” Choso put a hand on his head, scratching his hair. He glanced at you, a faint smile on his lips “-and I want to keep on living the rest of my life with you by my side”

You almost choked but managed to compose yourself. Your face hurt from the amount of heat his words made you feel. Unable to say anything else, you shoved a lollipop on his hand. The butterflies in your stomach burst into flames when you felt his hand enveloped yours “Okay” You squeaked out, the warmth of his hand still present in yours even when he pulled away.  He smiled, the taste of bubblegum melting in his mouth “Okay”

[tgfangirl4eva]

Treading Water One-Shot: Water Deprivation

Danny hadn't gone swimming in 3 weeks and it showed.

He looked terrible. He seemed paler, sicker, and was much more emotional than usual.

"Danny, I think that we should try Sam's pool. Sam convinced her mom that she should host a special meeting outside this weekend. We got the opening we need here." Tucker said, extremely worried at how bad Danny seemed.

The Casper High pool had been closed after some football players got drunk and ended up vomiting in the pool, so Danny couldn't go swimming like he normally did. Danny also seemed to be a lot more overwhelmed by water in general, and had almost burst into tears near his house once when Tucker asked him why he couldn't try out the ocean instead.

"You don't get it man. I can't go there or he'll kill me." Danny said, seeming utterly distraught.

"What? Who would do that?" Tucker said, clearly incredulous.

"Skulker. Remember that headhunter? He can track me as long as I'm in the ocean. I can't go in or I put myself at the risk of becoming his next hunting trophy." Danny mumbled, clearly worried.

"That's horrible! Is he with Vlad?" Tucker said, wondering about how to keep Danny in safer waters.

"No, he's Merfolk Empire like Birghid, Daru, and Kaima." Danny said, clearly apprehensive.

"What? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up, how does that work?" Tucker asked, a mixture of worry and morbid curiosity seemingly bubbling up out of nowhere inside him.

"Well, I'm basically seen as a monster among the merfolk. What happened to me was unnatural, so they're worried about more humans becoming like me. You have to remember that Vlad was the first human that the merfolk met, so he spoiled the general view merfolk have of humanity. That, overfishing, and ocean pollution doesn't paint a pretty picture of humanity." Danny replied, clearly tired and longingly staring at the ocean as if it held the answers to all his problems.

Considering how tired he seemed, it probably did. Tucker noticed that Danny just seemed better after swimming. He couldn't entirely pin it down, but Danny's skin seemed clearer and smoother after swimming, his mood just seemed more optimistic, and he was very energetic in the water jumping in after a long and tiring day at school.

Now, looking at Danny go without any swimming for a month, and Tucker wondered what exactly Kaima did to Danny that made him like this.

Tucker used to envy Danny's hydrokinesis and how it gave him power that Tucker really couldn't match, but seeing how Danny wilted without water made Tucker feel terrible about his previous jealousy. Tucker had masked his jealousy with enthusiasm, trying to be happy for Danny despite a small part of Tucker being utterly envious that he couldn't get in on the merfolk action.

But now? Seeing Danny so pained by going dry made Tucker want to punch Kaima for how she impacted Danny's life. Tucker knew that without Kaima, Danny wouldn't be alive, but still. Whatever Kaima did to Danny, that was something Danny would have to deal with for the rest of his life now.

"Hey man, cheer up. Sam said her parents were worried about the merfolk and she persuaded them to hold a second meeting with your parents and Vlad in attendance. We have a shot at getting you a safe swimming space for today. And it's not just that. Sam is even looking up ways to reserve lakes and rivers from the public just to keep people away from the next swimming space you could have after we graduate Casper High. You can't go swim in the high school pool forever dude." Tucker said, trying to stay upbeat.

"Okay, Tucker, you have a point. I can't wait to go swimming, I will have you and Sam both eating my bubbles." Danny said, clearly perking up.

"Okay man, mind if I run to my house for a quick second? I will need a speedo if I go swimming with you both this time." Tucker said.

Author’s Notes:

I mean, Kaima is baby, but I was trying to get into Tucker's mind here.

I wrote this shot for @breynekai-tfc as a way to explore how water deprivation could impact Danny. I have Ideas regarding how this AU could go, but maybe I will be able to dump everything here later or just make a new tumblr blog for DP stuff.

[stellocchia]

So, since we got that revival stream there are A LOT of takes that I’ve been seeing popping up regarding c!Wilbur. From straight up wrong takes like “he was worse then Dream” and “he manipulated Dream and made him a villain” to some more understandable but still very much wrong takes like: “Willbur was never a villain” and “Wilbur’s mental health spiral means we cannot identify him as a villain”

Since I’ve already spoken on other posts of mine about the first kind of statement, I want to focus on the second today. 

Let me preface this by saying that c!Wilbur is most definitely not an irredeemable character (a redemption arc for him is most definitely POSSIBLE, though we’ve gotten quite a lot of clues by now that that’s not the route cc!Wilbur seems to want to go down). I honestly think that the only TRULY irredeemable character in the smp ic c!Dream and that’s because of a mix between the level of harm he caused and his reaction and motivation for it. 

BUT he was a villain. A sympathetic one for sure, but a villain nonetheless. Being redeemable doesn’t make him any less of one, just like having understandable motivations or his harmful actions being a response to trauma or mental health related problems doesn’t make his actions and their consequences any less severe.

I mean I don’t see anyone out here having a problem with calling c!Jack a villain even if the harmful actions he tried to do or did are responses to isolation and trauma, why is Wilbur different when he’s caused much more harm? 

Same with Niki: we all recognized that her planning and trying to kill a child in cold blood was most definitely villanous even with her being extremely sympathetic. And, once again, she suffered from similar conditions to those Wilbur was in: a lack of a system of support, loosing her country, isolation in a base underground and we can add loosing a dear friend to that for her. So why don’t we give her a pass for everything? Why isn’t (well, wasn’t, she seems to be better off now that she is with the syndacate) she JUST a tragic charact but ALSO a villainous one?

Well it all comes down to the goal and the impact of someone’s actions. While the declining mental health of a character is important to keep in mind when deciding if they’re sympathetic and to understand what motivate their actions, it’s irrelevant to establish if they’re a villain. 

Let’s take c!Jack again as an example: he griefed multiple buildings trying to pit Dream and Tommy against each other, pre Tommy’s exile, and cause an all out war between them because Tommy’s actions had caused (in Jack’s mind of course, as what Dream did is entirely Dream’s responsability and in no way the fault of Tommy) Dream to burn down part of Manifold Land. He was angry at both of them in an understandable way, but his goals and actions were both immoral. And his actions didn’t cause harm ONLY because Tommy had already been exiled, otherwise they could have been taken by Dream as a reason to exile him either way later on. 

Now, for another example, c!Quackity: his announced goal with him torturing c!Dream is taking away the power that grants him the ability to harm others while still within Pandor’a Vault. But, truth be told, he IS mostly doing it for selfish reasons, either be it because he lost a bet to Schlatt or because this IS part of the bet it’s still a completely callous reason for torturing someone. The person he is harming is undeniably a villain who’s hurt a lot of people, but that’s irrelevant when judging the morality of Quackity’s action. 

Now let’s talk about Wilbur’s actions:

- He abused and manipulated Tommy, there is no way around it. He was extremely verbally abusive towards him. He tried to isolate him from everyone else and he tried to control Tommy’s emotional responses. He’s still doing that as a matter of fact by straight up dismissing any emotional response Tommy has that doesn’t suit him (by, for example, ignoring his clear signs of dicomfort back during their conversation post season 2 finale and by ignoring and making fun of his panic attack in their discussion in the afterlife). We know this caused long term trauma for Tommy causing him to have night terrorse about him and being terrified of ever becoming anything like Wilbur. Trying to find a way to avoid Wilbur’s path was basically Tommy’s whole arc in season 2. 

- He retained vital informations from Techno (retaining information from him about his allies, and from his allies about him). This one is a bit more up for discussion to be honest, but Ive seen quite a few people make the point that Wilbur made sure that the info he gave Techno was the only one he had about Pogtopia’s intetions. He also was the only one who knew about Techno’s withers and about his anarchists ideals and he never revealed them to ther allies, which definitely helped in causing the rift later on.

- He mistreated Tubbo quite a lot as well (the whole scene at the festival is just painful). But, basically, he had him spy for them and basically treated him as a pawn. He described him, to his face, as just a “yes man” with no free will of his own. Then he used his death just to bring forth discord and violence between his allies. He also pushed on him all the pressure to decide on wether to blow up the country or not. 

- He kept keeping L’Manburg hostage to his allies, increasing the already incredible pressure on them immensely. When Schlatt said he moved the tnt to Pogtopia he started doing the same with that place by constantly clicking all the random buttons while they were all trying to plan. That is blackmail my dudes. Blackmail done to an extreme.

- There is the whole pit scene that deserves a point on it’s own where he literally kept spurring on both Techno and Tommy (all the while blatantly putting down Tommy in an extremely manipulative way) to beat each other to death (albeit non-canonically). Re-watch that one and pay close attention to him if you have any doubt about him being abusive towards Tommy.

- And, for last, he also did blow up L’Manburg and he had fully intended to do it also as a last slight towards Tommy, just to add on to how much of a d*ck he was to him.

It’s true that he needed help and that he had spirald. He had become self-destructive and paranoid, but that DOESN’T erase what he has done, nor what that paint him as. His actions were all done with the spcific goal of being harmful to others and have all had long lasting effects. He hurt A LOT of people. He is, by all intents and purposes, a villain. 

Also I want to add that if they do give him a redemtion arc it will have to be done carefully to be done well. And also none of the people he hurt with his actions should be forced to forgive him. As a matter of fact I’ll go further and say that Tommy in particular shouldn’t even be forced to TALK to him as he has already expressed extreme concern about ending up being manipulated again. No matter what he went through and what his mental state was, none of his victims owe him any understanding either.

[animeyanderelover]

Can we get Yandere Mafia Levi going after the naive Starbucks barista?

Mafia Levi? Alright, modern AU then.

Tw: Yandere themes, stalking, possessiveness, obsessiveness, threatening, manipulating, killing, kidnapping

Mafia Levi going after the naive Starbucks barista s/o

⚔️Do you ever notice the handsome man who keeps visiting your shop? You might, who doesn’t notice a handsome man with sharp features. But besides that, do you ever notice the other things? Do you notice how he always only seems to come when it’s your shift? Do you ever question yourself why he only gives you a huge tip? That he always stares at you? And this scary and intense look he gives everyone who touches you or flirts with you? And do you ever notice that all of them only shortly after either get in huge financial problems or die due to an “accident”. Do you notice how he keeps squeezing himself in your life?

⚔️First of all, who is this man even? It’s Levi Ackerman, the man who is feared in the whole country and worldwide known. A face and name who only very few people saw and heard and even less who came out alive after seeing him. He has a huge number of pawns working under him even though most of them don’t even know his real face. Only the most loyal people, people he trusts know under him, also known as his personal squad. He’s known to be merciless to his enemies, brutal and vicious to everyone who stands in his way. But is that true?

⚔️Whilst many call him a “devil”, there are also some who label him as a modern “Robin Hood”. Because what many don’t know is that Levi donates on a daily base a huge amount of money to poor cities and people who were left behind by society. He himself was abandoned by the rich, often had to beg in order to get at least a bit of money. But in the end he couldn’t save his mother, dying from starvation and terrible hygiene, drinking dirty water and often eating thrown away food. He knows how these people feel, living in such a modern world and still having to suffer like this. And he wants to help such people because he knows that no one else will. Despite being a mafia there are also many things he doesn’t want to interact with, leading to many criminals calling him a honorable man. He witnessed the impact of drugs back in his childhood, how it ruined people and decided to never do business involving this slow killer. Whilst very cruel with police men and every task force going after him, he also always tries to not get too many innocent involved because he also knows that not all people are bad, back in the day remembering that some people bought for him and his mother food, some more than just once.

⚔️He also, despite being very harsh, also made sure that people who worked under him, most likely people who had gone to similar shit in their pasts like him, were taken care of as well as their families, making him desired, many people wanting to work for him. But there were special conditions that someone had to fulfill. No drugs, body hygiene and undying loyalty. Because if you betrayed him, he would finish you off mercilessly and stop caring for your family. That was the dark side of him.

⚔️So how managed Levi, a man who had the blood of tons of people on his hands, to fall for you, a rather naive Starbucks barista? Call him crazy because you most likely don’t remember, but you two actually met before back in childhood. You were one of those people who often bought him stuff, be that pastries, sweets or other take away food, letting him choose what he wanted and paying with your own money. Levi never forgot such a kind act, especially not since at that time it was so rare for him to experience friendliness. He never forgot your name, having asked personally for it. And whilst he admitted that he didn’t recognize you at first when one day walking just in the shop, the lightbulb went on in his head when hearing one of the co-workers calling your name, the nagging suspicion that he had seen you somewhere before suddenly making sense. So you were that child from back then!

⚔️Levi wanted to thank you, but couldn’t. There was no guarantee that you even remembered him and there was also the danger that if people would find out that you knew him they would be after you, meaning troubles for him and that would made you a threat he would have to remove, something he didn’t want to do. So instead of thanking you, he just set for transferring a not small amount of money to your account as a kind of payback for your kindness.

⚔️But there was also this certain curiosity in him. Had you changed during all this time? Or were you still the same? You were the first person he had ever met who he still remembered so clearly. It was supposed to be just another small visit to observe you a bit, that was all it should have been.

⚔️So the next time he visited, he sat down, planning to stay for a bit longer and to observe you a bit closer. And in a way he felt relieved that you still were such a unaffected and innocent person, of course a bit too naive, but still the same. In a way Levi was impressed that you really hadn’t changed a bit, still this same childlike grin and more bouncy personality.

⚔️Everything went well, it was just supposed to be a small visit. And that’s all it had been to Levi. That was until he planned to go, but just about as he was to go, you suddenly called after him to wait and give you a moment of his time. At first he was a bit confused to why you wanted to talk to him, but turned around nevertheless, asking you confused what you wanted. And that’s when you said something that shocked him. You asked if you knew him from somewhere, after rubbing your head embarrassed admitting that you reminded him of a kid back then, he might look healthier and have more weight than the child you were referring to, but there were still a lot of similarities. You had never forgotten about that child and just wanted to know if he was by now alright or not, knowing that he had lived under poor conditions.

⚔️For a short second Levi was too shocked to reply, not believing that you still remembered him before mentally slapping himself and declining your offer, telling you that you must confuse him with someone, making you laugh embarrassed and apologize for the sudden interruption, storming back to the store. And Levi watched you for a while longer before continuing his own way, but his mind was in that moment by you. You remembered him! Remembered an insignificant kid for whom many person hadn’t given a care. But after so many years you still remembered and you still cared, making a warm and fuzzy feeling erupt in Levi’s chest. Maybe another visit wouldn’t be too bad?

⚔️One more visit became two, two became three, three became four and very soon he was referred to you as your “loyal guest” since he always came when you were working, Levi having gotten access to your work plans in no time. You two often chatted a bit with each other, Levi often coming when you were about to close to walk a bit with you and get to know you better before having to go his separate way. And you never failed to make his heart flutter, Levi found himself often stunned by how childish you really had remained, often throwing childish tantrums and pouting and sulking when something didn’t go your way. It led Levi to often scolding you slightly that you should start acting like a grownup when in reality he actually liked this behavior of yours. It gave him a feeling of ease, to know that you hadn’t changed at all.

⚔️Levi knew that he wasn’t supposed to enjoy this as much as he did, knew that if the wrong people would find out that you had a connection to him, you would get in huge danger. And he had tried one time before to stop, he really had. But two things had changed his mind. First of all his mind had killed him, his emotions screaming at him to go back. And when he had come back you had nudged him playfully and afterwards poured, saying in a hurt tone that you had missed him. You really were feeding his dark desires, weren’t you? Did you even know who he really was? That he could turn your whole life upside down?

⚔️The more Levi was pulled into this sinister rabbit hole called obsession, the more possessive and stricter he got with you. He started showing his dislike when he saw other people talking to you, walked you now home and even started telling you that you should stay away from certain persons since he got a bad feeling about them. Secretly he felt bad for manipulating you like this, but he couldn’t help. You were his! He wouldn’t let anyone else have you!

⚔️Of course there were moments where he couldn’t be with you due to personal business, but in such moments one it two of his most talented and trusted members were always watching you, knowing too well about their boss’s obsession with you since it was always their job to collect information about you plus they had seen the happiness and love in Levi’s eyes whenever he had spent time with you.

⚔️Levi knows that you two are like lion and mouse, he’s dangerous for you and found endanger your whole life. So at first he would try to start a normal relationship with you, removing every potential rival and gaining all informations on your likings and how to properly court you, even going as far as setting scenarios up where he’ll save you from dangerous situations and make himself look like a hero and if you fall naturally for him, at least at first nothing might look wrong.

⚔️But there are a couple of possibilities to why he could kidnap you. If someone on who’s bad dude he got finds out about you, if you yourself figure it out, reject him or when his possessiveness and paranoia that something might happen to you even after you were willing to start a relationship with him. There will come a time where Levi will take you away from your safe and secure home. He knows that isn’t right, he knows that he shouldn’t do this. But if he would leave you behind and something might happen to you, he would make the world burn.

⚔️If you already know that he’s a mafia, Levi would also tell you that he actually lied to you and is the kid from back then, shattering most likely all your trust in him and causing you to not believe that the small and helpless boy turned into such a powerful and cruel man, even you having heard from this famous and mysterious mafia.

⚔️Levi would never leave your side and if he does, he always has some members of his squad with you which would be the only ones who are allowed to know about your existence. He has a couple of trackers on you, so small that the human eye can’t see them, but deadly affective. He will find you, no matter how far away you are.

⚔️Prepare yourself to often move around, the life of the mafia including to change destination quite often, Levi always making sure to keep a tight security around you. He’s more understanding if you should distance yourself from him after finding out the truth, accepting it to give you more space and let you calm down. But do remember that he hasn’t the best string of patience and at one point will become more aggressive with his behavior. You brat want to act like a child? Fine then, he’ll treat you like one!

⚔️Despite all of this you would be his biggest weakness, his soft spot which can and will break him if you would die. Because Levi would be totally devastated, bottling his emotions up before exploding at one point. It’s better if no one even dares to hurt his darling because Levi will not only strangle this person barehanded, but also wipe out every single person they loved. Only so they know how he would feel if someone would take you away from him.

[imasimpforshanks]

hiii, how are you? may i ask angst alphabet for Ace? thank you ❤️

Angst Alphabet - Portgas D. Ace

a/n: hi hi!! here you go! OMG angst is still really hard LOL I don’t want to think about their rough life 😔😔😔😔😔 ANYWHOOOOO thank you for requesting and I hope you enjoy<3

warnings: on the letter S there is mention of self harm

A-Accident (would they blame themselves if you died in an accident?)

Ace would definitely blame himself. He’s always thought he was a no-good demon child, son of a criminal that didn’t deserve to be alive (despite finding people that truly cared and loved him). You dying in an accident and him not being able to do anything about it would just reinforce what he already thinks of himself.

Regardless of your cause of death he is likely to attribute it to your association with himself, and because of that he will think it is entirely his fault, even if he wasn’t present at the time of your death.

B-Break up (How would they break up with you?)

His lessons with Makino really helped him develop manners and just a general sense of acceptable behaviour. So, Ace would just be clear and up front, no mixed messages, no miscommunication. He would take you some place quiet and away from others, and then he would be as honest and vulnerable as possible – it’s the least you deserve. The break-up would be very civil, you would definitely end on good terms (doesn’t make it any less sad though).

C-Crying (how would they make you cry?)

Sometimes Ace can take his teasing a little too far. Usually you can handle it, but there are just some days where his words cut deeper than ever intended (even if they have no malice behind them). It’s not his fault you’re having a bad day, or not realizing you are having a bad day. It’s just one of those things that happens sometimes. As soon as you start to cry though, he apologizes and reassures you so much, to make sure you known he doesn’t mean it and he’s only playing around.

D-Death (how would they react to your death?)

It would start out with a lot of confusion, like “what t-that must be some kind of a sick joke. H-how… w-what… they wouldn’t just die like that.” After it really sinks in that you have in fact died, Ace will just get angry. I don’t see him as much of a crier (spoiler alert – we only see him truly allow himself to cry on two occasions 1) when luffy got crazy hurt as a child and 2) when ace was on deaths door), so I believe he would react with anger.

Regardless of your cause of death (natural causes, accident, died in battle etc.) Ace would be unbelievably angry with himself, the world and you. He would be angry at himself for being unable to save you, someone he cares about and loves deeply. He would be angry at the world and whatever higher being there may be for choosing now to be your time. There are so many horrible, horrible people in the world, yet you had to die? It makes no sense. Lastly, he would be angry at you. Not a genuine anger but more so a “how could you just leave me like this? We were meant to be together forever.”

E-Emotion (what is one emotion they would try to hide the most and how would they do it?)

I think Ace tends to try his sadness. He tries to put on a brave face, not wanting anyone to see him cry as he doesn’t want to be viewed as weak or be even more of a burden on others.

F-Fight (how often do you fight? What do you fight about? Do you fight often? Etc.)

Fights with Ace, although they don’t happen often, can quickly get out of hand. He’s stubborn and his inability to accept that he’s not always right can cause a minor disagreement to escalate into an all-out fight. On a few occasions you have argued about him never turning his back on an opponent.

Your fights tend to be followed by cooldown time. Things can get quite heated (no pun intended) so you need some alone time and space to breathe. After that though, you comeback together and apologize.

G-Guilt (what is the biggest thing they feel guilty about?)

For his entire life, Ace has lived with the guilt of simply existing. He doesn’t think himself worthy of being alive. Can you blame him? It’s all anyone ever told him growing up. Despite eventually finding people who loved him for him, those feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness still remain and continue to plague his mind.

H-Heartbreak (what would cause them pain in the relationship? How would they deal during a break-up?)

During a break-up Ace is quiet. He doesn’t want to be around anyone or anything. He wants to be left completely alone so he can sort out his thoughts and feelings. He’d be quite devasted because he’s had so few people in his life love him on as deep a level as you did.

I-Injured (how would they react if you are badly injured?)

Ace would absolutely lose it if you were injured. He’d be concerned, upset, and angry all at once. First things first, he needs to know if you are going to be ok. Once that’s been established, he’ll be upset at himself for allowing this to happen. This will be replaced by the pure anger he feels at whoever, or whatever, caused this.

J-Jealousy (what do they do if they are jealous?)

When he gets jealous he turns into such a man child. He’s pouting and moping around while mumbling to himself. He develops quite a petty attitude. If you were to ask him “want to go get something to eat?” he’d respond with “why don’t you just go and ask ____ for some food.” But, as soon as you begin commenting on how jealous he’s acting he’s going to deny it to the end of his days.

K-Kill (would they kill for revenge?)

Ace literally hunted down Blackbeard so he could get revenge on him for killing Thatch. It’s not certain whether or not Ace had the intention of killing Blackbeard, however, he definitely had both the spirit and anger to go through with killing him. So, it is possible that Ace would kill for revenge. However, for the most part, he would prefer to just beat them senseless.

L-Loss (what is their greatest loss?)

Either Sabo or his mother’s death, would be considered Ace’s greatest loss. His mother died when he was a new-born, so he doesn’t particularly remember, or know, anything about her other than the fact that she was a kind wonderful woman. However, the loss of Sabo is something he remembers vividly. Losing Sabo had a major impact on Ace. It was an unfortunate wake up call as to how awful the world truly is.

M-Mistake (what is the worst mistake they ever made with you?)

One night, after a particularly bad day filled with a horrible series of events, Ace was letting off some steam (quite literally I suppose). Messing with his devil fruit power, throwing some flames around. He hadn’t noticed your presence and so his flames nearly burnt you. He was horrified, and he only felt worse after he noticed the pure terror in your eyes.

N-Nightmares (how often do they have them? What are they about? How do they deal with it?

Ace has nightmares frequently, they vary, but they all have the same underlying theme, that is, the people in his life don’t actually care about him and only view him the same way everyone else views the son of the pirate kind – a worthless devil with no right to life. He wakes up from his dreams in a sweat and finds himself in desperate need of fresh air (ya know to try and clear his mind). He ends up just sitting out on the deck of the Moby Dick looking up at the sky trying to tell himself it was all a dream. But his insecurity and self-doubt begin to resurface and soon he can’t discern imagination from reality. However, the moment someone else on the crew even speaks to Ace with something as simple as a “morning dude” he’s brought back down to earth and thinks to himself “no that’s right…. They love me… I wouldn’t be here right now if they didn’t.”

It’s a vicious cycle, but in the end, he manages to remember (even if it’s just for a little bit) that he is cherished.

O-Outrage (how and why would they get mad at you?)

When you continuously tell him there’s no need to stay and fight every single opponent. It’s okay to turn and runaway – in fact it’s safer to do that. When you say that he feels as though you don’t understand him. He’s not some careless, impulsive child who’s just looking for a fight (okay maybe he is a little bit). So he doesn’t really get super angry, it’s more so that he is frustrated and a little upset that you don’t try to see it from his perspective.

P-Past (what has happened in your relationship that changed the way you saw each other?)

It’s the same as the worst mistake he’s ever made with you – nearly burning you with his devil fruit. It made you realize that Ace can actually be quite dangerous (although you know he would NEVER hurt you intentionally). It made Ace realize that he needs to be more careful, the look of pure terror in your eyes has stayed with him ever since that incident, serving as a reminder.

Q-Quality (what is their most dangerous/toxic quality?)

His tendency to not back down from a fight is simultaneously his most endearing and toxic trait. He constantly places himself in dangerous situations with minimal concern for his own safety.

R-Rejection (how would they react to you rejecting their confession (or the other way around))

Having his confession rejected by you was definitely a blow to his self-esteem, but he respected and accepted your feelings. Instead of moping around about it he decides to laugh it off, trying to make light of a slightly disappointing situation.

S-Scars (battle or self-inflicted)

Ace does not have any scars, battle related or self-inflicted.

TW self-harm: I do think ace got worryingly close to self-harming, but Sabo and Luffy made him rethink it all.

T-Trust (have they ever broken your trust?)

The one and only time Ace broke your trust was after Blackbeards betrayal. You made him promise to take you with him when he left to hunt down Blackbeard because you didn’t want him to go alone. He promised but he had no intention of keeping that promise.

U-Urge (how badly do they want to see you after you guys separated?)

For a while Ace manages to get by by keeping himself preoccupied. But as soon as he lets up for even a minute, he realizes how much he misses you and is beyond tempted to just sail on back to wherever you are and tackle you to the ground plastering your face in lil kisses. When he’s not distracted, he really does miss you a lot. He hyper-fixates on what you could be doing at this very moment, whether or not you miss him too etc.

V-Vicious (what do they do when they lash out on you?)

When ace gets mad, he tends to get very loud. He raises his voice quite a lot and it becomes very, very frightening. He would never physically hurt you, but the anger and frustration in his voice is more than another to scare the shit out of you.

W-Weak (what makes them feel weak how do they try to avoid it?)

Constantly being reminded or associated with the Pirate King. Maybe it doesn’t make him feel weak, but it makes him feel horrible inside and stirs up a lot of feelings and remarks people would make when he was younger. Unfortunately, once word gets out there isn’t much Ace can do to stop this from happening, however, before this, Ace avoided this by not telling ANYONE. He only told Luffy and Sabo, with a very small handful of others knowing (i.e Garp).

X-X-ray (what do they hate and show it most obviously?)

He hates turning his back on a fight or turning his back on people that talk shit about those he cares about. This is seen during the Marineford arc. He doesn’t let Akainus words about Whitebeard slide. He doesn’t runaway. He has no tolerance for that shit.

Y-Yearn (what is one thing that they want but can’t have?)

Ok this may be dark as hell but, Ace just wants to not feel like a burden to the world. He wants to be viewed as something different/separate from his father, but he can’t change history.

Z-Zero (what do they do/say in your dying moments?)

He doesn’t let you go. He’ll hold on to you until he is forcefully separated from your body. He just starts to spout a lot of nonsense – things don’t make sense at all, but he can’t help it right now. He can’t think properly when you’re about to leave him. He just wants you to stay.

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

My complicated opinion on Keith Kogane

Keith Kogane is definitely one of the more popular characters in the VLD fandom. People love brooding emo bad boys.

My feelings on Keith are... complicated. I definitely don’t hate him. I have a lot of problems with the character but I don’t think I could ever bring myself to actually hate him. Mainly because I kinda relate to him. We both have problems controlling our emotions, interacting with people, and making friends.

And we both have trouble believing there are people who truly have our best interests at heart and won’t abandon us because we’re a burden.

What I do hate is the way his character was written and the way it negatively impacted the characters around him.

There are definitely a lot of factors that contributed to VLD ending up the way it did. But to me, Keith and the writers insistence on pushing him to the forefront was the poison that killed the show.

Ok, before we get into this whole rant I feel like I should talk about the things I do like about Keith.

I like the premise of Keith’s character. He’s half Galra and never really fit in on Earth. He didn’t act like the other “normal” kids so kids made fun of him and adults didn’t want to deal with him. So in order to protect himself from the pain of rejection he would put up a tough angry facade and push people away and reject them before they could reject him.

This is something that really resonates with me personally having grown up neurodivergent. It’s awful growing up in a world that isn’t made for people like you and not knowing how to interact with or connect with your peers. Especially when you don’t know why you’re like that.

You learn to avoid social interaction because it always ends up negative. You put up walls because you don’t feel like anybody understands you or what you’re going through.

I know the writers probably didn’t intend to code Keith as neurodivergent. They just wanted Keith to be a hothead with abandonment issues, but nonetheless, this interpretation means a lot to me.

I also really like his relationship with Shiro. Keith is so used to being left behind and abandoned that when he meets someone like Shiro who’s patient and genuinely cares it’s new and strange. He’s so ready for Shiro to abandon him, even telling Shiro to send him back to the home, but Shiro refuses to leave him and tells Keith ethat he’s never going to give up on him.

It’s also interesting to see how their relationship develops over time. It’s clear Keith trusts Shiro, but you can tell that that fear of abandonment is still there deep down. In S2, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him, and then in season 6, he takes the extra step and tells Shiro that he IS his brother and that he loves him. And for someone like Keith, telling their friend they love them is a big scary thing.

And also it’s just great to see a platonic “I love you,” especially between two guys. Don’t be afraid to tell your bros you love them!!!

Now let’s talk about the stuff I didn’t like.

Keith doesn’t have much going for him in terms of personality. He’s just sorta brooding and serious all the time. He does make jokes occasionally but it’s rare. The writers were more focused on making him cool and badass rather than fun.

I always loved the idea of Keith as a cocky carefree asshole who doesn’t give a shit about rules/laws and is kinda rude/aggressive but has a heart of gold deep down and would do anything for the people he cares about. (Just like a cat.)

I would also make him more alien esc. In terms of design I like the idea of Keith having red eyes with narrow pupils and fangs. And also just small things like the way he walks and holds himself. He growls and bears his teeth when he’s angry, his hair puffs up when scared, he’s fast and agile, disappearing and reappearing without making much noise, small things.

Then you have his race and sexuality. I have no doubt in my mind that Keith was intended to be a straight white dude. A lot of people see him as gay and Asian but there’s no evidence for this in canon. Acxa was originally intended to be his love interest and his race was never mentioned in canon. His name isn’t even Kogane in canon. (And the race of the voice actor doesn’t equal the race of the character. If that was the case Shiro, Hunk, and Lance would be white.)

They should’ve totally made Keith Japanese like he was in the original. It would’ve been so easy! Just canonize Kogane as his last name and have the book say he’s half Japanese half Galra. They could’ve also done what they did with Shiro and keep his og GoLion name. Just have him be Akira Kogane. Definitely cooler than “Keith.”

And as for his sexuality, I definitely think they should’ve had Keith be gay. But well get to that Later...

I also don’t like how they handled the whole Krolia thing. Not only was it crazy rushed, but it completely goes against the shows theme of found family.

Keith’s arc should’ve been about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to accept the paladins as family. But instead they just get rid of the abandonment issues by just giving him his mom back.

I know a lot of people love Krolia but I don’t feel like she should’ve been introduced in anything other than flashbacks. Because Keith’s mom isn’t really that important. The show is about found family and friendship, not blood relation.

You can definitely have Keith learn about his mom and his family, but I feel like giving him his mom back was too much.

Personally, I always headcanoned that Kolivan was Keith’s grandfather or just a close friend of Krolia’s, and when Keith showed up at the Blade’s base Kolivan recognized the blade as his Krolia’s. Keith could learn about his mom through Kolivan telling him about her, how she was a great person and warrior who died fighting to make the universe a safer place for her son.

Another thing I didn’t like was the whole Keith leaving the team for the Blades thing. I know why he did it, he felt like the team was gonna reject him, he wanted to be more useful, and wanted to learn about his family, but I feel like you could’ve touched on all that without having him abandon his team.

One of the biggest problems with the show is that they did a bad job at establishing the paladins as friends, they feel like coworkers more than anything, and I feel like Keith being absent for two seasons contributed to that.

And his absence is hardly addressed. The team forms Voltron perfectly without him and no one ever says they miss him. Keith doesn’t even seem like he missed them after being gone for two years.

And a lot of the weight was taken out of that Keith v Kuron fight by the fact that Keith and Kuron hardly interacted.

That whole thing amounted to four things, Keith meeting Krolia (which I don’t think should’ve happened), them finding the colony (which was a dumb plot I don’t think should’ve happened), Keith aging up two years (which was weird and unnecessary), and Keith meeting Kosmo (which is... complicated).

I don’t think this plot was necessary. Keith should’ve stayed with his team.

Then you have his relationship with Lance. I know people are very sensitive about this topic. People have very strong opinions about whether or not Keith and Lance were intended to be romantically coded.

Personally, I do like Klance but I don’t believe they were romantically coded. I think if you want them to get together some things would have to go differently.

For example, the bonding moment. In canon, Lance tells Keith, “we make a good team.” I don’t see this as referring to him and Keith. I think he was talking about the whole team. If you want it to be about the two of them, I feel like it should be Lance telling Keith something like, “ya know, you’re not so bad after all,” and then Keith smiles and responds, “you’re not so bad yourself.”

Another example could be the scene where Lance comes to Keith with his insecurities. (Whether it’s as a leader or a friend.) This scene was weird in canon, Lance comes to Keith for advice and Keith basically tells him to just stop thinking about it.

I would prefer if Lance brought up to Keith how he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough or that he doesn’t have, “a thing,” and Keith is completely dumbfounded like, “what are you even talking about?” He goes on about all the good shit about Lance. Talks about how Blue chose him, how he’s a great shot, how he’s good at dealing with people, meanwhile Lance is standing there in shock as Keith says all these nice things about him.

Over all you would just have to develop their relationship more. More meaningful interactions. And if you want the relationship to be romantic you would have to establish that early on. Establish that one or both has romantic feelings for the other in like S1/S2 because if you wait too long it’s gonna feel forced/out of no where.

And then... you have the Black Paladin arc... I’m gonna be real with y’all, this is the arc that killed the show for me, for a few reasons.

One, even ignoring the whole quintessence bond thing, it makes no sense for Keith to be the bp. He doesn’t fit the role. I adore Shiro but choosing Keith as his successor was a dumb move. I get that he saw potential in Keith but they’re are fighting a war, there’s no room for favoritism.

Shiro should’ve chosen Allura as his successor. Not only does she have actual leadership experience, but you would only have one paladin in a new Lion instead of three.

If a lifeguard breaks his leg and can’t work, he should choose an experienced swimmers to take his place, not his little bro that’s still in water wings in the hopes that it’ll teach him to swim.

Two, Keith being the bp doesn’t help his arc. Keith’s arc is about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to be a team player, he doesn’t need to be the leader for that.

VLD should’ve been about the paladins growing into the best versions of themselves they could be. Their development shown by unlocking new abilities in their respective lions, new forms for their bayards, and new Voltron bayard power ups. They shouldn’t have to change lions and themselves.

Keith and Red have a strong bond and work great together. Keith and Red are both temperamental, unpredictable, and have issues with trust. Keith having to fight to get Red to trust and open up to him mirrors how others have to fight to earn Keith’s trust and get him to let down his walls.

It would’ve been interesting to see them grow together. Keith has no emotional connection with Black.

We never even get to see them bond. Keith just suddenly becomes the “perfect” bp/leader because he got over his mommy issues

Three, it’s a MASSIVE disservice to Shiro’s character. Shiro put all the work in earning his position as the bp, he literally fits fought Zarkon on the astral plane to earn her trust, yet Keith is the true bp? What?

It sucks. Sendak told Shiro that a monster like him could never be a paladin and the writers went and proved him right. Hell Shiro didn’t even get to kill Sendak, Keith got that too.

And don’t tell me, “but he got the Atlas!” REALLY!? A massive Deus ex machina that required absolutely no effort from him to acquire!? Filled with a bunch of rando background characters no one gives a shit about!? You’re totally right, that 100% makes up for it.

I could go on and on about how the treatment of Shiro in this show (and fandom) is blatantly ableist but that’s a rant for another time.

It sucks. I want to like Keith! He had the potential to be an amazing character but the writers just kept on trying to turn him into something he wasn’t and it ruined him for me.

They kept trying to turn Keith into the main character and ignored that ALL the paladins are the main characters. It’s an ensemble cast! You don’t have to have everything come back to one guy.

[the-redeemed-anon]

Welp, since we got Wilbur back, let’s take a look at Eight

As a disclaimer, I’ll talk about the character, and if I mention the CC, I will label his name accordingly.

Okay, since the pog thing that happened on the 29th of April, and a couple of bad takes have already started to pop up Jesus Christ guys why do you want the dude that just got back to life after being trapped in limbo for over a decade to get beaten up violently- I think it’s appropriate to bring attention to the thing that gave me my pseudonym and my belief that we may get a redemption/healing arc for Wilbur: the song Eight, by Sleeping at Last.

Why this song matters, you may wonder. Well, it’s a song that we have confirmation to have been CC!Wilbur’s personal inspiration for his character, as said by CC!Wilbur himself. Not only does that give us insight into how and why Wilbur acted in certain ways in Season 1, but it also gives us the opportunity to see the inner turmoil he went through and still will.

Now keep in mind that this is just my interpretation of the song, other people may see the song differently, but overall looking at this song and looking for meaning into it I think is very useful if you plan to analyse Wilbur or even write about him. It truly gives you a lot of insight and context for how he was. Here is a link to it for you to listen to it, before I dive into the analysis.

First, let’s see what Eight is about, as a song. The song is about Type Eight of the Enneagram of Personality, which is basically a system that defines 9 different personality types. Sleeping at Last made a song for each Enneagram, actually, but we’re here to talk about Type 8 (also bear in mind I am not an expert in psychology, so I am not here to comment on the validity of this system. I’m here just to analyze a song lol).

What is Type 8 (aka a bit of analysis on Wilbur outside of the song)

Type 8 is often called the Challenger or the Protector. This type is characterized by a want to not show vulnerability, to have power. Their deepest fear is to not be in control of themselves, to be harmed, to be vulnerable, and their desire is to be in control of themselves, their life/destiny. They want respect over status, value loyalty and they want to make an impact on the world. You can start to see some core characteristics of Wilbur in this description.

We also have levels, from healthy to unhealthy, with which we can see what a Type 8 person can behave like.

Healthy Type 8 people act like a protector for others, they are the strong leaders, the challengers of oppression, the people who don’t stand for injustice in their communities. You can say they are the natural leader type, and I think you can start to see inklings of Wilbur’s personality from early Season 1 here. He started L’Manberg to challenge what he saw as tyranny. When Wilbur described the reasons he cared about L’Manberg, we can also notice that the values he lists align with the core desires of a Type 8: the desire to have control over their life, and not allow others to control them. By making L’Manberg to “stick it to the man“, Wilbur is very stereotypically a Type 8.

Average Type 8 people aren’t as open as someone on the healthy level is. Showing weakness is unacceptable. They may see relationships as the next challenge they need to surpass, and can come easily off as intimidating and ambitious to peers. To me, this sounds a bit like Wilbur after the War, before the announcement of the Festival. He was more closed off around that time, and you could argue that the Elections were a part of his ambition to prove that people respect him, that he can do this, rule a country. The new revelation that Wilbur was lying in his letters to Phil, about the Elections and the formation of Pogtopia also shows that he didn’t want to show weakness, to disappoint or worry his father.

Unhealthy Type 8 people become so closed off that they are intimidating and can appear tyrannical from the outside, often disregarding the feelings of others. They pursue power, and when someone stands in their way, they are cold and become quite antagonistic. They may issue empty threats in their pursuit for power, and their already existing relationships are turned into tests, where the only option is to pass or to fail, with no in-between. This can result in them being abandoned, and them accepting this as being better this way, to be alone. They can force themselves into loneliness.

If this sounds terribly familiar and recent, well... Wilbur, ever since the “Then let’s be the bad guys“ speech, has exhibited the traits of an unhealthy Type 8. Even now, post-resurrection, while he is trying to improve on himself, a lot of his traits remain or have worsened, due to staying in limbo for 13 years. He still has a persona under which he hides his issues, and as I have said in another post, he’s the emotional equivalent of a snail, you poke him gently and he completely retreats in his shell. Wilbur has actively driven people away from him for being so confrontational, and this can be seen again with Ranboo. All in all, Wilbur is definitely cozy in that section of the Type for now.

I also want to talk separately about three things:

1. The Pit

I won’t lie, the Pit is probably the most extreme thing Wilbur did to this date. It’s Wilbur at his lowest point morally and mentally, reveling in his brother figure fighting a much tougher opponent and losing. I won’t sit here and say he was right, nor am I gonna condemn you for your opinion on the Pit, but, when you look at Wilbur’s enneagram, the Pit and why it happened makes sense. What happened right before? The Festival. The Festival was meant to be the time Wilbur either blew up Manberg or left it be, based on Tubbo’s call. Wilbur prepared for those two scenarios, and felt in control of the situation... then it all went horribly wrong. The situation spiraled wildly out of Wilbur’s grasp and it ended with the death of Tubbo and the possibility of Techno being on Schlatt’s side.

This started a breakdown fueled by paranoia that led to the Pit, to Wilbur goading Techno and Tommy to fight. The question is, why? Why do that?

To regain control. Wilbur, in my opinion, did that in an attempt to regain control, after the Festival slipped so hard from his grasp, no matter his effort to keep control of it. That was his urge, that was his need in the moment, no matter how messed up it was, he may have felt like this was necessary. Remember, the core fear of Eights is to not be in control of their own life and destiny, to be puppeteered by someone else. This is why the Pit happened, when you acknowledge the fact that Wilbur was unstable mentally, and he is the type of person to want control.

2. The want to protect others

This is a quality of healthy Eights that still shines through with Wilbur, but it’s sadly overshadowed by his more antagonistic or morally darker actions and quotes.

Wilbur was naturally a protective person. Because Eights challenge authority, this makes them see the world as being inhabited by those who are strong and those who are weak, and not in a bad way. Eights consider themselves part of the strong ones, because they stand up for themselves, but because they see the world also inhabited by the weak, they have the urge to protect them. They also stand up for whom they think can’t stand up for themselves on their own, they think they are responsible for the protection of others.

And when you look at Wilbur, this shines through. He made himself President, and while no one protested, he did it because he felt he was the one fit for the role. Even at the time this scene happened, you can see why Wilbur would have perceived Tommy, Tubbo and Fundy as weaker than him: Fundy was his son, and Tommy and Tubbo, no matter the age intended at the time, were always viewed as younger than him, not to say, Tommy had just lost 2 lives back-to-back. Therefore, Wilbur put himself in charge and with the duty to protect the nation and its people, as the President.

Wilbur even says this in the flashback from Quackity’s stream:

[“What has made you do everything you’ve done up to this point?” (Quackity)

“That’s a- That’s a big question. Um. I guess it’s just protection for my people. I mean, I- I- I just want to see them thrive, and I want to see them safe.” (Alivebur) - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:03:02, 12th Apr)]

It’s clear, Wilbur has a desire to protect his nation, and, by extension, his people, his friends, especially with the following quote once Quackity replies: [“Your aspirations of optimism are not going to be subject to my nation’s security I’m afraid. I- I completely disagree with everything you’ve said.” - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:05:18, 12th Apr)] He keeps hammering in the idea that he did what he did to protect and offer safety to his friends. That’s why he needed power: [“If you want to really help people, you’re gonna need power, Quackity.” - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:05:42, 12th Apr)]

And again, this happens even after the “Then let’s be the bad guys“ speech. Even though he initially says he wants to kill everyone at the Festival, when confronted with this on the day of the event, he second-guesses himself. He doesn’t want to hurt his friends, he doesn’t want to hurt people weaker than him. He distrusts Tubbo, but the moment Techno fires the first rocket, he’s shocked, appalled and moves to go to the button, while urging Tommy to act. When Schlatt wants to kill Niki, he steps out and offers himself to be killed and no one else be harmed.

Even the act of pushing the button himself, there are Wilbur analysts who have pointed out that Wilbur may have wanted to be stopped. And even then, the explosion created no casualties, thanks to all of them wearing armor.

In the Void, Wilbur talks about how he’s evil, how the server is better off without him. He recognizes himself as a hazard, and while that is a part of his self-loathing and hatred, you can also see his care for others shine through: he didn’t want to come back at the time, because he thought he would bring back conflict, suffering [“Here’s the thing, I genuinely think, if it weren’t for me and you dying right, the server would be in shambles. I know for a fact that if I come back, or if I’m brought back to life in some way it’s definitely gonna just go [shit again]” “I know what I’m like, that’s the issue.” - (Tommy’s am i dead?: 10:29, 4th March)]. By staying dead, at this point, he was continuing to prevent weaker people from being harmed.

Even now, post-resurrection, we can see this, but, well...

3. Opinion on Dream

I have looked at this before, from the angle of Wilbur’s mentality. We all know his opinion on Dream so far, that he would have killed him on the spot for what happened to Tommy in the Exile, but Wilbur still considers him his hero. While I said at the time that it may be a subtle way for Wilbur to cloak his self-loathing and self-hatred, but now I want to look at the first part again, from the perspective of Type 8:

Wilbur, by having the urge to kill Dream on the spot, for what he did to Tommy in Exile (and, keep in mind, Ghostbur wasn’t there for all of it, so Wilbur did not see the destruction of Logsted and why it happened, or how Tommy was completely isolated from everyone after the party, and Tommy referred to Dream as his owner to Mexican Dream), no matter what he says after about Dream, proves that he still has the quality to want to protect the weak.

Dream, as always, is one of the strong people of the server. He’s the owner, he has a lot of items and good gear, and in general, everyone recognizes him with a level of danger he presents, and power. Tommy, on the other hand, is one of the weaker ones.

While Tommy has valuable traits, like his loyalty, his fierce determination and the will to keep moving despite how low life kicks him at times, one can’t deny that, in general, Tommy is viewed as one of the weak. He doesn’t have that many powerful items, he isn’t physically that strong, people constantly pick on him, and he is one of the minors of the server, the youngest of them, in fact. Add to that the humiliation of Exile and the treatment he was put through, Tommy was not only at his weakest then, but also at his most vulnerable.

Why would it be a surprise then for Wilbur to want to gut Dream, considering the above? Tommy and Wilbur were very close. As Wilbur acknowledged in the latest stream: [“We were a family, Tommy. We were…” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 27:26, 5th May)], they were once so close they could have been brothers. Tommy stuck with Wilbur as a right hand man, he was the only one who didn’t give up on him in Pogtopia, no matter if he thought his choices were right or wrong, and Wilbur confided in Tommy a lot. Now take this little brother figure he had in Tommy, and put him through Exile.

Of course Wilbur would want to gut Dream, Tommy may as well be part of his family, and Wilbur doesn’t strike me as the kind to want his loved ones in pain, genuinely. He may dismiss the feelings Tommy has sometimes, but his reaction to Exile shows that he isn’t blind to suffering. He saw it and recognized as harmful and damaging to Tommy, unprompted by anyone else.

He even makes a comment that I think may be important in the future: [“Tommy, I’m not, I’m not- I wasn’t blind, I saw what he was doing to you, Tommy. I saw. I saw what he was doing to Tubbo. I saw what he did to me.” - (Wilbur’s resurrected gentleman of L'manburg: 21:08, 5th May)]. Remember, Wilbur right now is deeply conflicted, I don’t think he’s properly sorted his feelings on Dream yet. He, in this quote, recognizes he saw how Dream treated Tommy, Tubbo and himself. While Eights want to protect the weak, their core fear is being controlled or harmed by others. I am very curious what will happen if, or, when, Wilbur will decide that Dream is also a hazard to himself, or if Dream will try to use Wilbur for his own plans. But, this is starting to deviate from the purpose of this post so, with that out of the way...

The lyrics:

I remember the minute It was like a switch was flipped I was just a kid who grew up strong enough To pick this armor up And suddenly it fit

Here, Wilbur’s arc and story begins. The lyric recount the moment Wilbur’s spiral began: the Final Control Room. He remembers that betrayal up to his death, still calling Eret a traitor and quoting him, with the same quote he used: “It was never meant to be”. This moment is what will define and shape Wilbur throughout Season 1, and even now. The switch mentioned is the button pressed, the moment everything changed. “I was just a kid” is Wilbur recognizing that he was not ready for the role of President, sentiment reflected by the rest of the lyrics: “who grew up strong enough/To pick this armor up”. Wilbur forced himself to bear the title of president, like a suit of armor, something that protects you, and helps you to fight for others, until “suddenly it fit”.

God, that was so long ago, long ago, long ago I was little, I was weak and perfectly naive And I grew up too quick

Here Wilbur internally recognizes that time passed, his ideology changed, as evident the quotes from Quackity’s stream: [“You say, you say everyone has a good side, Quackity. And you’re right, you’re right, everyone has a good side, but that good side is only there to help themselves. If you want to really help people, you’re gonna need power, Quackity. You can make a movement, you can make a resistance, right, you can go out and you can come back, and they’ll give you a ticker tape parade. They’ll cheer for you in the streets, but you will change nothing. If you have a revolution, everyone will hate you, you will sacrifice everything, and you will lose everything you’ve ever had, but you’ll come back and everything will be changed. And Quackity, if you want to change things, you’re gonna need power. That’s what you want, really, isn’t it? Look at me. And power isn’t gaining from diplomacy, and bureaucracy, and giant courthouses suspended in the sky, blah blah blah. It’s gained from swords, Quackity. It’s gained from blades, it’s gained from steel, iron. Even if everyone has this good side that you’re talking about, then anyone who wants to prove it, has to show their dark side first. You’re going to have to kill, you’re going to have to torture, you’re going to have to maim.” - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:06:34, 12th Apr)]. Yet, even if this happened so “long ago, long ago, long ago”, he “grew up too quick”, because the change was too sudden, and it didn’t occur naturally.

Now you won't see all that I have to lose And all I've lost in the fight to protect it I won't let you in, I swore never again I can't afford, no, I refuse to be rejected

I think this verse refers to the Election and its fallout. He quite literally loses a lot on that day, not only his country and his second life, but seemingly, his son, because Fundy takes down the walls. Wilbur also lost a lot in the Independence War, as he lost his first life in there, his son and allies lost their lives too, and this created the perfect environment for paranoia around trust to form. Wilbur, at this point, swears to not let himself be vulnerable with anyone again, or to fully trust people, because of what happened in the Final Control Room and at the Elections. The last line is Wilbur deciding to go ahead and start Pogtopia, to reclaim his nation. As you may remember, the Election was held so that Wilbur could legitimize his presidency, because he felt people started to not listen to him anymore, and an election, in his mind, would have fixed that. Due to his paranoia, and depression, Wilbur couldn’t afford to lose, because the presidency was one of the things that gave him happiness and helped him function. Once he lost and was banished, he decided to strike back and take back the country, or, as the lyrics say, “I refuse to be rejected”.

I want to break these bones 'til they're better I want to break them right and feel alive You were wrong, you were wrong, you were wrong My healing needed more than time

People who’ve broken a bone before may be familiar with this, but there is a possibility for a broken bone to heal incorrectly, so, when that happens, the bone is broken again and you try again. What that lyric means is that Wilbur was not healing properly, and he was constantly damaging himself again, to restart the process, to make his bones stronger, to make himself better. The “feel alive“ part, in my opinion, goes hand in hand with the fact that Wilbur was... not in the best place mentally in that time. We all know how he died, and, to be honest, a lot of the morally bad things Wilbur did could be argued to have been done to give him something to live, be it thrill or satisfaction. The last two lyrics, I feel, are directed to Tommy; Wilbur needed more than just time to “come back around“, and we know how Season 1 ended.

Now, this may be a controversial take, but... This is the end of Wilbur’s Season 1 arc. I think this is as far as Wilbur’s parallel to Eight went in Season 1, it’s the Pogtopia Era, up to November 16th. You may say that it’s his unfinished son- *gunshots*

Okay, okay, but what does that mean for the rest of the song? Well... It could be that either CC!Wilbur will stop with the Eight parallels here, or, the version I like, it means that the rest of the song is a hint for insight into how Wilbur feels and how his character will change in the future.

When I see fragile things, helpless things, broken things I see the familiar I was little, I was weak, I was perfect, too Now I'm a broken mirror

This is Wilbur recognizing that he is not okay, internally, which we know is a thing in canon, because of this quote from the Resurrection stream: [”Are you trying to- Are you trying to make me- Tommy, are you trying to make me- You remember that time in the cave? Are you trying- Are you trying do- Are you trying to make me feel like I did back then, in Pogtopia? Are you trying to- Are you trying to make me feel as bad as I did back then? ‘Cause it’s not gonna work!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 59:06, 29th Apr)] It’s a great step for Wilbur, afterall, healing starts when you recognize you have a problem, so you can begin fixing it, but, as we know...

But I can't let you see all that I have to lose All I've lost in the fight to protect it I can't let you in, I swore never again I can't afford to let myself be blindsided

Wilbur is the emotional equivalent of a snail. Here we see “Snailbur” doing a reprise of the third paragraph, which I linked to him in the Election Era and its fallout. From the way the lyrics are worded, we can see the how similar they are, but there is a difference: reluctance. Wilbur knows he’s not okay, but he can’t reach out for help, because then, he’ll be showing weakness, but he wants to open up. “Now” becomes “but”, “I won’t let you in” becomes “I can’t let you in”. Now he’s not afraid of rejection, he doesn’t want to be blindsided, which I didn’t know at first what it meant, because my native language is not English, but when I looked it up I came across this definition: “to surprise someone, usually with harmful results”. This shows us something important: Wilbur is hiding his true feelings because he’s afraid to not be hurt again. He doesn’t want another Final Control Room or Election to happen to him.

I'm standing guard, I'm falling apart And all I want is to trust you Show me how to lay my sword down For long enough to let you through

This set confirms it, Wilbur is on the defense now, he’s defending from potential hurt, and the second part of the first lyric is hinting at what a lot of Wilbur analysts have pointed out and we are prepping for: Wilbur having a big crash from the high he’s experiencing from getting resurrected, he’ll be “falling apart“, he’ll be vulnerable, and open to hurt, or... Redemption. This is it. This is the section that made me insist and theorize about a redemption/healing arc: that second lyric, continuing with the rest: Wilbur is reaching out to someone or some people, that he can put his trust to. Wilbur doesn’t just need someone willing to redeem him, because we had that in Pogtopia, with Tommy, no, Wilbur also needs himself to open up, trust people and ask for help. And that is exactly what happens in the last two lyrics: Wilbur is asking for help to open up and let people help him.

Here I am, pry me open What do you want to know? I'm just a kid who grew up scared enough To hold the door shut And bury my innocence But here's a map, here's a shovel Here's my Achilles' heel

And here we have it. Wilbur opening up. Wilbur finally letting someone in, admitting he’s scared, he’s scared of hurting again, comparing himself to a kid. This one I find very symbolic, because if he, at the beginning, was a kid, then by admitting he is a kid at this stage, he’s the same person he was at the beginning, with the good he had, with the flaws he had, what he did and the trauma he gained will never erase that. The innocence in this part of the song, I think is Ghostbur. People forget, but while Ghostbur seems to be a separate entity, he’s still very much a version of Wilbur. He has a lot of his memories, his happy ones. Wilbur and Ghostbur are the two sides of the same coin, different, yet so much alike. You need both to understand the other. Wilbur has the capacity to be innocent, to be kind, good, he just... buried these qualities, and someone has to help him dig them up, when he is ready to open up. I don’t think I need to explain the meaning of someone showing you their Achilles’ heel, beside the fact that it means they trust you with their life. Wilbur needs to find someone to trust.

I'm all in, palms out I'm at your mercy now and I'm ready to begin I am strong, I am strong, I am strong enough to let you in

Here, I think we see Wilbur accepting the consequences of his actions, of the hurt he caused, because, while he’s not irredeemable, he did hurt people, and he needs to be open to them not forgiving them, but, as the song says, just then he’ll be “ready to begin” his healing and redemption. And right at the end there, “I am strong” is repeated thrice, he’s ready to heal, to be vulnerable with someone. It’s the redemption in full swing from here to the end.

I'ma shake the ground with all my might And I will pull my whole heart up to the surface For the innocent, for the vulnerable And I'll show up on the front lines with a purpose

Remember what I said, about healthy Eights? Champions of the people, natural leaders, challengers of oppression and protectors of the weak? This is what Wilbur should become at the end of the redemption, if we are to follow the song. He’s gonna put all of his strength into fighting for what’s right, and he’ll open up, he will heal. We’ll be back to fighting for “the innocent, for the vulnerable”, he’ll have a purpose to fulfill. L’Manberg was deeply tied to both Wilbur and Ghostbur, and Wilbur himself admitted to caring about L’Manberg because what it stood for. Now, L’Manberg is gone, but those ideals aren’t. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll fight in the future to protect those ideals.

And, finally:

And I'll give all I have, I'll give my blood, give my sweat An ocean of tears will spill for what is broken I'm shattered porcelain, glued back together again Invincible like I've never been

I really like the end here. Because, it’s not only reinforcing the idea that Wilbur will be redeemed, but that penultimate lyric always stood out for me: “I'm shattered porcelain, glued back together again”. Porcelain is, while very fragile, a beautiful material. When I think of the word, I think of beautiful vases, handcrafted with skill and care. It’s a shame when a porcelain vase breaks. But, just because something is broken, it doesn’t mean it can’t be repaired. And when I think of repaired porcelain, I think of the Japanese art of kintsugi - a technique with which broken pottery is glued in such a way that the cracks aren’t hidden, but celebrated as a part of the object’s history, by filling them in with gold. I like to think that at the end of his healing arc, Wilbur will be similar, he was broken, he healed, but the scars are still there, and, even then, he’ll be thriving again. It’ll be an experience that, overall, helped him become better. And the final lyric: “Invincible like I've never been“, I like to think that this will be him at his peak: healed, happy, ready to take life by the horns, like he wasn’t before. It’s a hopeful, happy note to finish the song and his story on.

And that is my analysis on the song and the enneagram, I guess (Jesus this got waaay longer than I expected). I really hope Wilbur will get a redemption arc, it’s already wonderful that we have him back AND he wants to live (it’s honestly the first time I see, in any media, a suicide victim that not only is brought back to life, but they are happy to be back). Hopefully this is useful to people, and, as always, thanks to @kateis-cakeis for compiling Wilbur’s/Ghostbur’s quotes in a masterlist with timestamps and anything you’d want to know about them. It’s a goldmine of analyzing Wilbur and I highly encourage you to check it out.

[yusei-clownington]

...challenge accepted.

Yusei fudo.

Yuuuuseeeeiiii fuuuuuudooooooo.

Crab haired vroom vroom babyman fella

Everyone’s beloved.

Let us talk about him.

How do you explain Yusei?

Well, rua, my child. Listen closely.

Yusei fudo, whose name autocorrect keeps changing to ease food, is a gift sent down to us from heaven. He’s the embodiment of all that is good.

So let’s start with how Yusei was introduced/ Established.

We started off with very little info about him and his past, of course, but we knew this:

-Yusei was from somewhere called satellite, which seems to be a place people down at the main city aren’t very….fond of.

-He looks like the badboy type

-Really loves D-wheels (from that interaction with Jack)

-Had a card he adores, stardust dragon, stolen/taken from him by Jack atlas, some douche.

Now with that little info, presumptuous as I am, I assumed he’d be your average cool ass edgy boy, beats the rich guy, takes some sort of revenge and bam we get a setup for like… the ultimate chad. Like from his duel with Ushio i was getting badass main boy vibes.

BuT THEN Yusei tALKS to jack. Opens his adorable lil mouth. And the calmest, softest fricking tone comes out of that. And then… we realise…hE’S NOT EVEN FUCKING MAD AT JACK? He just wants his dragon back??? No grudge nothing??? What?? Is he not….edgy??

….And then it hits us all. Yusei is a cinnamon roll. But not just any cinnamon roll. A cinnamon roll that can kill you, your family, and the entire fucking neighborhood you live in if he wanted to………but just doesn’t.

So now what do we know about Yusei?

Yusei can throw hands.

Yusei can build D-wheels from like…anything at this point.

Yusei can make like ten friends by just…existing in the same area as them.

Yusei can, and will, protect everything and everyone. NOT EVEN JUST THOSE HE CARES ABOUT. NAH NAH NAH. EVERYTHING. HE PROTECTS ALL.

Yusei can defeat three fucking guys with under 2000 life points in one go.

Yusei can DETONATE THREE GODS.

Yusei can make everyone instantly feel like marrying him by just like…looking at them. just ask Kiryuu, jack, bruno, prison guy, Akiza, Random team unicorn dude, all of the members of team ragnarok, me, the fandom, humanity, god. You know I’m right.

Yusei will defeat you after you try and murder him, and then run to see if you’re okay.

Yusei loves children and children love yusei

Yusei is unstoppable, and it never gets obnoxious.

Yusei’s gay as shit

LOOK I CAN GO ON FOR LIKE AN HOUR TRUST ME.

Not even once have I gone “Ugh, there we go, won again…” nope. Langa should learn a few things from this guy.

I literally cannot even begin to tell you why Yusei’s the fricking best.

But I will anyway.

He’s practically the glue that holds everyone in this show together, the ROOT OF MOST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Like do I even need to mention the Aki situation? The jack situation? THE LITERALLY-ANYONE-HE-MEETS SITUATION?

So how can I explain Yusei? Well, I can’t. what? did you think I'd say yes?....loser. Yusei is not meant to be explained. He's meant to be admired.

Observe.

Yusei Fudo is the breaking of so many stereotypes all at once. His appearance contradicts with his gentle personality, but his eyes still manage to reflect it anyway. Because who needs badass eyes when you can have puppy eyes?

Unlike the past two protagonists, I can’t help but feel Yusei’s a little more insecure ? Not in a fatal way. But he seems to have more little moments of doubt than Atem and Judai did.That being said, he is confident in his abilities, and his friends abilities even more. When in doubt, a friend’s words, no matter how little, can send his morale up to the roof.

He’s got charisma like atem, and the general charm like Judai, without actually being directly like either of them.

He’s a very open, caring guy with too many emotions that his face just never manages to express— something i deeply adore about his design.

Still, because of how impactful he is, you can always get what he’s feeling, and so can his friends. He still keeps certain things to himself every now and then, but usually ends up saying them anyway, like that one time in the dark signers arc.

He’s seriously soft and adorable…yet very capable of defending himself and others.

If you wrong him, he’ll probably forgive you. If you wrong his friends he’s going to rip your rib cage out. Then ask if you’re okay and send you to a hospital, paying the full expenses because he’s like that isn’t he.

Literally no one has ever regretted being around Yusei or caring for him. And that’s for good reason.

Also look at him

…I may have a problem.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “The Final Word”

Well, we made it to the finale, everyone, and if you're reading this it seems you've survived the watching of it too. Barely. To say that some questionable choices were made across these 20 minutes is... an understatement.

But before we delve into the episode, I want you to cast your mind back to November 7th, 2020. A horrible year that heralded a horrible RWBY volume. There, coming off the shaky writing of Volume 7, I posed a number of questions and concerns that the show needed to tackle, with the promise that we would return to these expectations in four months time. Now, here we are! Let's refresh everyone's memory, yeah?

Taken directly from that recap, what RWBY promised us, through various teasers and Q&As, included:

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

And you know what? They did all this. In the spirit of being fair and honest to this show, RWBY succeeded in delivering on everything they promised... it was just our foolishness that expected that these ideas would be delivered well. Ruby's leadership took center stage in the form of her hiding for multiple episodes and then others telling her she's still The Best before the plot dropped a solution into her lap... one she could have used at any point prior to this. Summer's death certainly has an impact, though it's an impact born of a crazy reveal that Summer likely isn't dead, but turned into a horrifying grimm monster. Ren and Nora both delve into their flaws, but heaven forbid either grow from that reflection. Ren learns that if he pushes past his primary flaw of keeping his emotions buried and actually expresses his doubts for once, he'll be yelled at and ignored until he admits how wrong he was. The "real" flaw is being a bad friend, with "bad friend" equaling "Not agreeing with Ruby 100%." Meanwhile, Nora considers that maybe she shouldn't rush in recklessly and hit things with her hammer... which is why she rushes in recklessly, hits something with her hammer, gets grievously injured, and is told that this is just who she truly is. No growth there, not unless we count her sudden desire to figure out who she is without Ren... but that exploration hasn't started yet. Too bad she wasn't the teammate separated at the end of the volume!

Meanwhile, May did indeed have a larger role to play, one I quite liked, it's just that this role — like all the others — inevitably circled back to realizing how wonderful Ruby is. May challenges Ruby to make a decision, but instead of being the catalyst for Ruby's growth, May becomes another forgotten side character who does a sudden about-turn regarding her perspective, leaving the group with the contradictory message that Ruby is actually doing her best, she's just a kid, no need to try any harder... everyone who claimed otherwise up until now was mistaken. May is another Cordovin. She's another Qrow. She's another Maria.

Fun fact: we don't even know if Maria is alive right now. That's how little she means to the show!

Actually, wait... anyone remember this nonsense from Volume 7? 

I was too lazy to change the date.

Moving on, Ozpin's cane turned out to be a stakes obliterating bomb that came out of nowhere, makes no sense logistically — how do battles store energy that only hurts grimm? — yet nevertheless seems to have killed Hazel? It's a disaster of unanswered questions. Similar to the disaster of our two day timeline when, I'm fairly sure, we've had an unnatural number of sunrises and sunsets. I'll have to take a look back at the volume as a whole now that it's complete to be sure of that though. As for our themes... did we really explore the idea of respecting someone even if you disagree with them? Because Ironwood wasn't shown any respect. Ren wasn't shown respect. I think the closest we got was Oscar calmly validating Yang's worry about getting buddy-buddy with Emerald, but the whole point there was that Yang was wrong. She wasn't wrong, but that's what the text would have you believe. She is indeed "very suspicious and distrustful," but that's hardly unjustified in these circumstances. I'm still boggling at the fact that it took the group three volumes for forgive Ozpin, even while he was actively working to assist them, yet I-helped-destroy-Beacon-and-tried-to-kill-everyone-you-love Emerald is the group's new BFF after she... ran away with Oscar? She didn't save him, she just went along for the ride. At the very least we might have gotten a scene where Penny was like, "Hey, why are you all laughing with the woman who just tried to kill my dad?"

But oh yeah, the story doesn't remember Pietro exists either. His daughter is DEAD and he hasn't been on screen since Episode Five, let alone there when she passes.

I had my own list going in, including such expectations as "Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this" and "Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake." Obviously these needs were not met.

So what, given this mess of expectations, did we end up with?

Our finale — for some reason — breaks the one word title trend with "The Final Word." It's an expression that refers to the final word in an argument or a discussion, the idea of winning by making a last, devastating point. It can also refer to making the final decision on something, which is the best way I'm able to apply the title to this episode (outside of any “final” comparisons). Penny's death is certainly all about choice and making some kind of decision... but on the whole, this title doesn't feel like it fits well. Not like "Worthy" or "Creation" or "Risk." The two latter titles had obvious connections to the episode in question through dialogue and plot, while the former was a deliberate callback to Watts' speech. "The Final Word" feels... less obvious in what it’s trying to say.

That's a minor nitpick though. Let's get into the meat of the episode.

We open on the grimm whale still disappearing, which is weird. I get that it's massively bigger than any other grimm we've seen, but they all turned to dust near instantaneously and it's been, what? At least an hour since Oscar blew it up? Likely longer when we factor in their walk back to the manor, the fight with Ironwood, fixing Penny, and this entire evacuation. It certainly makes for a nice visual, but like so many details in RWBY, it raises unnecessary questions along the way.

The important bit though is that amidst the whale carcass a blob of evil is swirling about. Salem, obviously. 

She’s not reforming in time to actually do anything though, don't worry.

Instead, we cut to the Ironwood vs. Winter fight and there's at least some dialogue this time. Ironwood yells that he's sacrificed everything to keep Remnant safe. Winter yells back that he actually sacrificed everyone else. Obviously, Ironwood should be called out for things like, you know, his unprompted murders, but instead they have Winter listing stuff that she was never shown to have a problem with before. The embargo? "Squeezed Mantle until it broke?" She, as Ironwood's second hand, understood and supported both the decision to close the border and the need to collect resources for a plan designed to take out Salem. I hate that no only did she turn without an ounce of hesitation or grief, but now they're having her act as if Ironwood forced these decisions on everyone, rather than everyone supporting him through them. We all remember Volume 7 when Ruby pressured him to finish Amity, right? And in trust RWBY fashion, most of these words are meaningless. Mantle "broke"? What does that mean? The class disparity did not come about through Ironwood: that's been in the works for generations. The lack of resources made things harder, yes, but when they were reclaimed by Robyn nothing improved. Watts is the one who turned off the heat and Salem attacked Atlas, leaving Mantle alone. Now, all the citizens have escaped through magical portals. So how is Mantle "broken" exactly? More importantly, why is Winter upset over this vague, nonsensical dilemma when she could be yelling about Ironwood wanting to bomb Mantle?

Again: this woman watched Ironwood shoot the councilman, shrugged, and continued to believe in him up until she realized his bomb threat was real. That was one of the main reasons why I thought the councilman might be alive, with Ironwood only shooting a warning shot past him. Because this is how you react to a good person unexpectedly killing someone else

whereas this is what we got from Winter and Harriet.

Hell, Weiss has more of a reaction to Yang telling Ruby things aren't super great right now.

So either Ironwood didn't do something that bad, thereby justifying these tame reactions (unlikely, given where his character ended up), or we should believe based on the animation that everyone was super chill with him killing an unarmed civilian. Which is then directly contradicted when they're like, "You're going to shoot Marrow? Bomb a city?? How could you do such horrible things??? 😲" Friends, buddies, fictional pals... you already watched him murder a dude.

The point is, there's a lot for Winter to be upset about, but she's not upset about that. There's a lot that Winter herself believed in, but the writing has forgotten that. This entire arc went off the rails a volume ago.

Also, why is Ironwood fighting with that giant gun? This is his final battle, presumably ever, and he's wielding this awkward, sluggish weapon we saw him randomly pick up two episodes ago? Let him use his regular guns! Give us a fantastic battle like he had with Watts! Instead, RWBY's final showdown consists of him using this no-name weapon as a unwieldy club in some of the most boring choreography we've seen to date. It doesn't help that this fight needs to share time with three others. Instead of an epic showdown, we're given glimpses of the battle before continually cutting away from it. 

During that first cut we return to the Team RWBY battle where Penny, doing her best to stay out of Cinder's reach, is whisked away on Weiss' wasp.

Too bad she didn't do that for Yang...

Jaune and Nora watch this horror unfold until Jaune says, "Priority one!" and they split. Except... what is priority one exactly? Helping the civilians? I guess, because they don't enter the fight until the very end of it, when everyone else seems to have made it to Vacuo. And you know what, I like that. For once it feels like the group — or at least the B Team — is acting like huntsmen, putting the needs of the people over their own, personal desires. I'm sure Nora wants to help the group after Yang's (presumed) demise and that Jaune would like nothing more than to get his hands on Cinder, but they put those grievances aside to do the work they signed up for. Good job!

My only real gripe is that we don't really see this struggling in the animation, I'm just assuming it's there. In particular, there's a moment when Jaune sends Nora through the portal for reinforcements — not knowing they can't return — and they seem a little too jovial when, by this point, three friends have died.

There's letting your cast be supportive, and then there's having them ignore that three teammates have perished in an abyss. It really doesn't help to sell the idea that Yang, Ruby, and Blake are in any danger here.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Penny tells Weiss that since Cinder is really just after the Maiden powers, she can buy the rest of the group time to escape. Weiss, obviously, isn't fond of this idea... and then the both of them are blasted off the wasp by Cinder's fire. Which they deserve, frankly. They're just having this casual conversation about sacrifice while in the middle of a battle. Did they somehow forget that Cinder can fly too?

Note that multiple attacks from Cinder, another blast, and a hard landing on the pathway gives their auras a knock, but doesn't break them. The primary defense for Yang's aura shattering in a single, simple hit was that everyone is exhausted and running on little to no power... yet here the rest of the cast is, tanking multiple hits as we've come to expect. There is no explanation for Yang's defeat except that the writers chose to ignore the rules of their world for a dramatic death scene... even though that drama was erased a week later as half our team falls into the void too.

We'll get to that though. For now, Cinder corrects Penny's belief with "I want it all" and proceeds to try to finish them off, only for Blake to arrive, having made her choice from last episode about who to help. It's a legitimately nice attack, but I happened to pause at the bEST MOMENT

Anyway.

We leave that fight to return to Qrow and Harriet who have, off screen, started an entirely different battle. What I mean is, last we saw Qrow had broken through the windshield of the airship, roughly pinned Harriet, and was taunting her about getting the fight she wanted. Now, suddenly, he's going “You’re making a mistake, Harriet, what happened to Clover—” as if he's been trying to talk her down this whole time. It's jarring, especially when we consider that Qrow had a volume long "kill Ironwood" arc that was dropped because... Robyn reminded him that murder is bad? RWBY feels like a storytelling pinball machine. Characters bounce from one personality to the next, one perspective and another, round and round until you don't know where they'll end up.

Harriet screams for Qrow to just shut up already and honestly? Same. I love Qrow, he's one of my favorites, but I can't deny that he's been done dirty like so many others since Volume 6. I love who Qrow was, not the mess RWBY has created the last few years.

Time to delve back into fic after recapping!

Sadly though, this strange dialogue wasn't the only "wtf" moment. Harriet is still trying to drop the bomb — which is its own mess of confusing motivations — when Vine and Elm show up on Harriet's ship. Elm begs Harriet not to do this "because you’re our friend!”

Am I glad that they finally acknowledged that the Ace Ops have always been friends? Sure, but why did we spend two volumes claiming otherwise? They were friends, a fantastic team, then Harriet announces that's a lie and we get a bunch of "Team RWBY is superior because they're actually friends" messages. Except this entire time we're still watching the Ace Ops be kind and playful with one another. But they're not friends, the story says. Not friends as they fight these battles. Not friends as they grieve for Clover. Definitely not friends as they react in horror at Ironwood nearly shooting Marrow. No, there's nothing there... until Elm claims there is! Then Harriet reacts in shock. I have friends?

Except Elm was labeled the one "just following orders" by Yang. Elm is the one who shook off Vine after the whale exploded. This isn't the story of one character, Harriet, thinking she was alone and then realizing that people do care for her, this is a story that, seemingly at random, had this group being BFFs or acting like they hated each other — and at each point the visuals are contradicted by the story's message. When they act like friends, we're told they're not friends. When they don't act like friends, we're told they really have been this whole time. I mean, do any of them even care that Marrow teamed up with Qrow and Robyn to take them out five minutes ago? All three were going along with Ironwood's scheme until they were physically stopped, but now Elm is convinced this is a bad decision she needs to talk Harriet down from with the power of friendship?

None of these characters are characters, they're just slapped together reactions based on whatever the plot needs. Who is Elm? I've got no clue. Her personality changes every episode.

Also, love that Qrow moves to stop the bomb from dropping and Harriet screams at him to "Get out of the way!" rather than just... attacking him? She even throws her hands out like she's having a temper tantrum. This feels like schoolyard bickering, not a life or death struggle.

Even though, you know, the audience is aware that the people of Mantle have already been evacuated and Qrow's group is aware that Atlas is falling on top of Mantle as they speak, so... why does the bomb matter? It's going to, what? Destroy the city thirty seconds before Atlas does? Oh no, the horror.

Things then, if you can believe it, get even worse. The bomb is still about to drop, so instead of doing anything to stop it — I mean seriously, we know it takes four people to shoulder the bomb's weight, but you're telling me Qrow and a reformed Harriet can't snag it in a pinch? — Qrow sits there, looks at Clover's pin... and the bomb careens towards the side of the airship instead, stopping.

Because I guess Qrow has good luck now? Or always did and somehow never noticed it? Or his semblance evolved?? Again, we don't know, but it's a bad moment any way you slice it, imo. Qrow has always been defined as the guy with a bad luck semblance and, much like Penny's android struggles, the allure was in watching him overcome those challenges, not having the show erase the challenge entirely. Especially when we don't even understand how it was erased. Qrow just... stops drinking, stops caring for Ironwood, stops wanting to kill Ironwood, stops causing bad luck, I guess. RWBY takes major character traits and flips them off like a light switch, leaving the audience with no emotional tether. We didn't watch Qrow overcome his drinking, or realize he can't bear to kill Ironwood, or discover a way to live life with the horrible hand he was dealt, he just blinks one day and those things are gone. Why? No one is sure. Not even the writers, I'd wager, because otherwise they would have written explanations into the text.

Many in the fandom insist that any basic information provided by the story amounts to "hand holding" when in fact there is a massive difference between the sort of unnecessary exposition that bogs down a tale, and having facts enough for the audience in its entirety to be on the same page about what is actually happening. For example, recently someone argued strongly that the "Penny is human" take is incorrect because Penny isn't human, she has an inhuman body made entirely of aura... yet where in the world does this exist in the story? Ambrosius may have been unsure about what Penny would be prior to removing her robotic parts, but that ambiguity is gone once her body forms, the equivalent of worrying about that gun only for a flag with 'BANG' to appear instead of a bullet. Worrying about something doesn't mean that something actually occurred. Penny appears human, expresses human sentiments, and then, this episode, dies as a human. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and succumbs to the mortal peril that all ducks face... it's probably a duck. As I said in a recent ask, I implore the fandom to stop writing RWBY's scripts for them. Or rather, do so in some amazing fanfics. Don't do it on critical posts as a means of insisting that your revision is canon.

So Qrow has good luck now, maybe, but this character change doesn't amount to anything because Watts remotely starts the bomb's countdown.

At least he’s entertaining and competent. We had that for a time. 

Back to the main battle, Neo is kicking Ruby's ass. Why? Because there's no consistency in power levels in this show. The ancient woman who hasn't fought in decades dances circles around Neo, highlighting how weak she supposedly is, yet now Neo dances circles around our main character. None of us should expect fights to follow the logic of the world, only what drama the plot wants to stir up. Ruby is eventually knocked down from a hard hit — yet her aura's intact! — and is saved at the last second by Weiss tossing Neo into one of the portals. 

Far more of a problem than the power leveling is that Ruby gives no indication here that Neo just murdered her sister. Again, that's what the characters are meant to believe, yet Ruby is as stoic as she would be fighting a bunch of White Fang grunts. If you showed this scene to a RWBY fan on its own and asked, "What do you think happened prior to this?" the answer would be, "Uh... nothing? Ruby is just fighting Neo like she did on the airship in Volume 3." Nothing about this scene — from dialogue to animation — sells the idea that Ruby just lost the person most important to her in the world.

When we do finally mention Yang, it's Weiss who goes, “Come on, we have to do this for Yang” and the delivery is... meh. Honestly, I normally don't pay much attention to the voice acting, but I had a problem with most of Weiss' lines this episode. The "Leave her alone!" during this fight and later a "Get back!" as she attacks Cinder both fell really flat for me. Given the devastation and charged emotion that's supposed to be here, we can't give her anything better than generic cries that, again, she’d throw at any grunt? In that later scene the animation absolutely helps sell Weiss' distress, but the dialogue is common and the delivery has no emotional punch, leaving it feeling like Yang is just hanging out in Vacuo and they promised they'd beat the baddies before catching up with her. No one but Blake is acting like Yang died.

In fact, we see more emotion from Ruby when Weiss shoves her back, taking the brunt of Cinder's blast.

Weiss' aura breaks, not that that's a danger or anything. Everyone falls before they're injured, Winter gets the Maiden powers, Ren barely has to fight. Losing aura in this show used to be a moment of peril, where just last volume Winter was bruised, bleeding, and now needs an assistive device because she had to continue a battle with no aura. Now it's a joke. Aura breaks left and right across the volume with no repercussions attached to that.

We see a bit of the Blake and Penny vs. Cinder fight where Cinder blasts Blake off the edge. Penny rushes after her because at least one character remembered that they can fly.

Ruby, meanwhile, remembers that she can fly when it benefits her. After getting hit down onto a lower level and watching Crescent Rose plummet, she taunts Neo into an attack with a move that's actually quite good. I like the confidence with which Ruby riles her up and I like the strategy of darting behind Neo to knock her off the path instead. “Whatever you wanted, I hope it was worth it."

The only thing I don't like is that this speed and ingenuity had to disappear to justify Yang falling.

Cinder breaks Ruby's aura from behind though, sending her over too and grabbing onto Neo's leg. In an obvious moment born of the trope, it looks as if Cinder is reaching to help Neo, only for her to snag the Relic instead. “You should have never threatened me," she tells Neo and to Ruby: "you should have never been born.” 

Love that they erased all that cool growth from last episode! And by "love" I mean "hate." As I said last recap, I'm not going to pretend that Cinder's character isn't riddled with problems, but realizing she was stronger by teaming up with Neo and Watts was one of the best things they've ever done for her. It made Cinder dangerous again and showed Watts' speech having a clear impact. It also made her more entertaining, creating a new dynamic among the three villains. Now though, Cinder is just... Cinder. The same boring, stupid Cinder we've had since Volume 4. She betrays Neo and then later betrays Watts.

So Cinder kicks Neo and Ruby both over the edge because why would we want to make her interesting? Neo falls, but Ruby has friends there to catch her! Unlike Yang. Jk. Weiss’ aura is gone and Blake actually tried both times, so major kudos for her. Using momentum supplied by Penny, she snags Ruby and hooks her weapon into one of the pathways... only for Cinder to cut the ribbon. Both plummet and once again Penny has a more believable reaction to all this, just like she did last week

Speaking of reactions, does anyone else find it weird that Cinder finally succeeded in killing Ruby and... doesn’t seem to care? 

No? Just me? 

At least we get that good animation with Weiss I was talking about before, even if the dialogue is lacking. I love that she snagged Blake's weapon and uses it to try and take out Cinder, shaking the whole time. Those are some great details. 

Back to the bomb, Qrow is trying to escape, but Harriet says there isn't enough time to get out of the blast range. "I've killed us all." Vine has the solution though, using his semblance to wrap up the airship, thus containing the blast when it goes off. His final words are to reassure Elm that he can give his life, "if it means saving all of my friends." Just in case you missed the part about the Ace Ops being super close this whole time. Even though they also weren’t. Trying to eat your cake too, RWBY? 

Frankly, I didn't feel much of anything during this scene, not when Vine made the sacrifice, nor when Elm and Harriet look on sadly while Robyn pilots them away (that's her contribution this episode). 

All I can say is, good on RWBY for not killing one of the three dark skinned characters, or just murdering the Ace Ops as a whole. What the story is going to do with them though, who knows.

Jaune and Nora have that ‘You can do it!’ moment after three of their friends have presumably been killed. I swear, about 80% of Jaune's scenes do not work tonally and oh boy, things only get worse from here.

First though, I like his entrance. He slams into the fight against Cinder and lines up with Penny and Weiss, who is still dual-wielding her and Blake's weapons. That's an epic shot.  

It looks as if they stand a decent chance against Cinder — Weiss' lost aura notwithstanding — except then Cinder's arm starts going crazy and she gleefully announces that Salem has returned.

Working on a time limit now, Cinder unleashes a volley of attacks that Penny steps in to protect the other two from. It's here that Cinder grabs hold with her grimm arm.

It's here that Penny dies. Again.

For the third time.

Friends, I am tired. This moment honestly deserves the most epic of rants, but that, in turn, requires energy. Energy? In this economy? Ha! That's hilarious. Taking this seriously though, the problem here can — as usual — be boiled down to a single question: What was the point?

Penny died in a horrible attack that shook the cast and audience both to their core.

That emotional impact was erased through her resurrection.

The resurrection did not create a new emotional impact for our heroes to grapple with.

Penny is given the Maiden powers, solidifying the fact that she's always been a "real girl."

That lesson was erased when the story decided to make her human for unexplained reasons (because no, she never needed to be human to survive the virus).

Penny then dies, passing the power to Winter... who was set to get the power in the first place.

We have, once again, come full circle. You can take Penny out of the story and nothing changes. Does Ruby lose any lessons or emotional growth? No. Does anyone survive who would have otherwise died? No. Does her getting the powers lead to someone unexpected snagging them upon her death? No. Penny's existence was filler. She was put in the story to take up time and, that done, was removed from the story once again. It's a choice that wouldn't be half as horrible if that filler hadn't done so much damage along the way.

First is the obvious: that Penny didn't deserve this. As a character, she didn't deserve to be brought back just to be killed off again, seemingly without narrative purpose, serving only to draw in viewers who RT knew loved the character. Second, keeping her in the story led to her entire arc unraveling. Initially, Penny died as an android in the world's eyes, but those who actually knew her — Ruby and Pietro — mourned the girl she really was. Now we have this horrible message that being a machine isn't real enough, so she has to die as a human being. It's a disservice to her character and, as an allegory for many minorities, downright insulting to the audience. Third, this offensive 'better to die as a human than live as a robot' message is wrapped up in the claim that Penny finally gets to choose something — “Let me choose this one thing. Trust me” — but she already did that when she chose to take the Maiden powers. We already had the better written version of this last volume!

And the fourth issue...well.  

Fourth and fifth are the real kickers. Fourth is that Penny's death was an assisted suicide. She explicitly asks Jaune to kill her so she can ensure she's thinking of the right person when she passes (never mind that her thoughts would probably be on Jaune while this is happening) and that's... pretty horrible. Look, I'm no purist. I like a great deal of dark, gritty stories whose plot exists to make us uncomfortable. That's a valuable emotion that fiction can generate. The problem is not that RWBY is tackling a sensitive topic, but that they aren’t tackling it well. Yes, they put in a content warning and (from what I've heard) a suicide helpline as well, but providing the already necessary resources is not the same thing as writing that kind of scene with respect and care. All of the above tells us that, no matter what RT may have intended, that respect and care weren't communicated to the audience. Like Yang, they didn't even bother to keep Penny's death within the rules of their world. Jaune is right there ready to heal her and Penny says no, there's supposedly not time.

Um... since when?

Jaune's aura boost is instantaneous. The second he amplifies aura is the same second the healing starts and their talk could have been spent saving Penny. There was certainly time to save Weiss in Volume 5. To have a character go, 'Nah, it's too late' when the solution is right there is the ultimate cop-out. Suddenly announcing that the solution will no longer work For Reasons is not a legitimate limitation and it's made doubly insulting that RT didn't simply use the limitations already available to them. Jaune has been running low on aura since the whale. He then expended a great deal of aura boosting Penny to keep the virus in check. Every other ally has had their aura broken in this fight so, there. That's your solution. Have Jaune take a few hard hits from Cinder, his aura breaks, and then when Penny is mortally wounded he no longer has a semblance to heal her. It's that easy! Yet instead they had Penny reject help so that she could ask to die. That's what's offensive here.

Finally, reason number five... why is this moment given to Jaune? That's another easy solution: Jaune has gone through the portal and can't get back to heal Penny. There. Done. But logistics aside, this scene should have gone to any other character. Who is Jaune to Penny? Or Penny to Jaune? No one! They don't have a relationship. I get that the writers didn't want any of the girls at her side because then it would be hard to justify Penny not passing the power to them (which I get: making one team member a Maiden changes the show drastically), but you know who should be there instead of Jaune?

Pietro.

Pietro, who built Penny as a weapon and who was never given the chance to apologize for that. Pietro, who told Ruby he could only rebuild her once more, setting up an expectation that he'd sacrifice himself for his daughter (despite the complicated racial issues that would bring up). Pietro, who watched Penny plummet and has no idea what happened to her, let alone that she's been made into a human girl. Pietro should have been at her side, saying goodbye to his child and helping her complete her last wish.

And it would be so very easy to pull off. All it takes is a single line where Penny remembers that her father exists, asking Ruby to ensure a portal opens up in Amity. There's a quick reunion along the pathways before Cinder attacks. We hear a cry of despair as Penny falls and she looks, seeing her father racing towards her, though she thought he'd already made it out. There, you’re done. We open ourselves up to a lot of attacks whenever we say, "Why didn't RWBY just do ____?" because those who vehemently defend the writing like to go, "Oh, you think you could write RWBY better?" and no, I don't. I struggle with long-form storytelling and massive casts. I don't think I could do justice to the sort of show RWBY wants to be, but I do think I'm a decent enough writer to spot when there are major problems like this. The question of "Why doesn't Penny remember that her beloved dad exists?" and "Why, out of that massive cast, is Jaune the one to do this deed?" are both things that a newbie writer can spot, and a sometimes okay writer can figure out how to fix them both simultaneously. A good writer will start thinking about themes — what might it mean for Pietro to kill the creation he made? — and a great writer will find a way to pull that off without having that insulting, discomforting feeling pop up. At this point, our RWBY crew feels less like new writers making mistakes (because they're not new, not at all), but rather just writers who haven't bothered to learn from their mistakes after eight years. That's a lot harder to watch.

Because putting Jaune here doesn't just mess with RWBY's internal rules (not using his semblance) and it's not just useless in terms of Penny's development (she doesn't know him outside of "dude who boosted my aura for an hour"), but it also falls back into a pattern I thought RWBY had finally broken from: making Jaune the story's emotional center. This is not the JAUNE show. It's the RWBY show. Yet here, once again, we have Jaune in the spotlight. Why, after a whole volume of Ruby avoiding making decisions, does Jaune finally make the hard call? Why, after a scene where Penny asked Ruby to kill her, does Jaune do that deed? Why, after a divisive arc where all the grief for Pyrrha went to Jaune, is Jaune now set to shoulder the grief of Penny? At least Jaune had a relationship with Pyrrha, even if Nora and Ren did too. Yet with Penny he seems to be there solely because the writers can't bear to keep him out of that center spot for long. All of Team JNOR make it through to Vacuo... except Jaune. Jaune falls into the abyss too because, if the show goes this route, we apparently can’t have a volume just about Team RWBY, the main characters. The main characters are separated from the rest of the team and it's Jaune, not Oscar and Ozpin with a connection to the lore, not Nora or Ren whose development now hinges on them learning who they are without the other, it's Jaune who follows the title characters into a new dimension. 

The issue is not whether Jaune deserves to grieve over the truly traumatic thing he just did now that he’s done it. He obviously does. The issue is the writers setting up a scenario where Jaune is situated to do that emotional work in the first place. 

I like Jaune as a character. I don't like how the writing uses him as a character. RWBY is built on the idea that these four girls are the heroes of this tale, not the expected blond, blue-eyed, sword wielding guy we’ve seen in so many other stories. So why does that guy get the most important scene of the finale? Yes, Jaune had much less screen time this volume than he did in the past, that’s a good thing given the number of important characters RWBY has to balance, but that hasn't erased the problem of him being given significant moments that should be going to title characters. Does Ruby’s team rescue Oscar and take on Salem? No, Jaune's team does. Does Ruby's team save Penny? No, Jaune's semblance keeps her grounded and then holds the virus off. Not everything is a problem — we've also got good choices like having Ruby defeat the Hound and Ruby's team take on Cinder for the majority of the fight — but that doesn't erase that Penny’s death wasn’t something Jaune should have been a part of. Not unless he was going to heal her. Doing better than they have in the past doesn't mean that RT isn't still slipping when it comes to giving him undeserved focus.

They took one of the most controversial characters, controversial because of how much emotional focus he's gotten in the past, and had him help a fan favorite commit suicide while he cried about it, showing more emotion for a near stranger than our title character showed for her sister. This is a character who, up until two or three episodes ago, had no connection to the victim and still has no reason to thematically be the one committing this act. That is why the fandom goes, “The crew loves Jaune and does everything they can to put him in the center of the action.” Ruby, as main character and Penny’s first friend, is the obvious choice here. Pietro, as Penny's father, would be a good choice too. Hell, Nora is a better option given their moment in the Schnee manor this volume. Or Winter given their moments in Volume 7! Have her escape Ironwood, find Penny, receive the powers, and then finish him off. Literally anyone would be better than Jaune, not because Jaune is a bad character, but because Jaune has no emotional stakes here and putting him in a position where he could heal Penny but doesn’t is massively stupid. No one should be surprised that a lot of the fandom is upset about this. It was one hell of a reach to give him this moment and, since Jaune's problem has always been getting too much screen time and emotional nuance compared to our main cast, it's no wonder this act brought up a lot of bad memories. RT fell back into an old pattern after two volumes of improvement and they did so at the worst possible time. 

The tl;dr is that Penny's third death is a writing travesty, just like her second. I shouldn't be surprised, given that this is the same volume that tortured a kid and the only thing they did with it was have him blindly trust his torturer... yet I find myself surprised nonetheless. Because Penny had such potential as an android Maiden and, as much as I personally hated it, potential as a former android learning to be human too. But why explore any of that when you can kill her off instead? Again.

As a final, far smaller note about this scene, we have the continuing problem of what purpose Cinder's arm is serving. If everyone recalls, its threat comes primarily from the fact that she can "siphon off" power from other Maidens.

She did it to Penny during the Amity battle and now she does it again, a great deal of green energy absorbed into Cinder. So what's left to give to Winter? Why doesn't Cinder become noticeably stronger with each successful theft? Like so much else in RWBY, we're told it exists without actually seeing the impact of that. Winter isn't a weaker Maiden for having lost power and Cinder isn't a stronger Maiden for having snagged it. It's just.. there, hanging out and looking vaguely menacing, I guess.

Outside of this unnatural not-transfer, we get to see how the power normally passes as Penny meets with Winter in some in-between place. It's a soft, heartfelt scene... with the exception that Winter says, “You were always the real Maiden at heart. I was just the machine. Just following orders."

I don't know how any viewer can doubt that RT now believes machinery = evil. Penny's machine body is magicked away so she can be a real-real girl. Yang announces that the arm she worked hard to make a part of herself is just "extra." The man with half a metal body is made this volume's villain and losing his second arm is, by the authors' own admission, a symbol of his lost humanity. Mercury with two metal legs remains a bad guy while Emerald and Hazel are hastily redeemed. Tyrian with his cybernetic tail is the most devoted crazy of the bunch. Maria, blind and in need of assistive lenses, is so forgotten by the story she was left in the tundra nine episode ago and won't be mentioned again until next volume (if then). Pietro, the guy in the wheelchair, is forgotten too, despite it being his daughter who dies on screen.

Now Winter, also bearing an assistive device, says that she's the real "machine" here and tells Penny, now human, that she was always the "real Maiden." I don't know what happened to make RT do a 180 lately, but the disability rep is no longer what it was.

Penny reassures Winter that she'll always be a part of her and then passes on, for good this time.

The rest of the episode feels lackluster, if I'm being honest. Images of Cinder beating Weiss are intercut with Ironwood beating Winter, getting her to a point where her aura breaks. 

But then the powers appear and, as we'd expect, she easily turns the tide. 

Gorgeous animation there. 

But RT once again rewrites earlier scenes by having Ironwood claim that the "destiny" he chose for Winter has finally arrived — isn't that Cinder's MO? — and Winter shoots back that he chose nothing, this was a "gift." Except, it was never about destiny or orders? This was why Weiss' anger in Volume 7 was ridiculous. She acted like Ironwood forced Winter to accept the powers and Winter told her point blank she chose this. Ironwood didn't decide anything, he offered and Winter chose... kind of like how Penny is choosing now. I hate how nearly all of Ironwood's character has been ignored or, during times like this, outright lied about to make him seem super duper evil. He tried to bomb a city! You don't need to make him seem evil anymore, that job is done! Like their sudden change regarding disability, RT now seems to be allergic to nuance. Heaven forbid Ironwood be allowed to have valid points like he did in Volume 3. No, if you've got an antagonist every single thing they've ever said must be twisted into a display of their evilness.

Unless you're Hazel, who Oscar trusts for #reasons. Unless you're Emerald, who the group immediately embraces. Unless you're Cinder, who gets to cry on a rooftop and secures the trust of her allies long enough to betray them again.

But Ironwood? Nah, screw that guy.

Salt aside, the fight is pretty boring. Winter literally just throws up a wall of ice and Ironwood's blast rebounds, taking him out.

Winter flies through the portal and we return to Jaune. His sword is broken by Cinder, so weapons should be quite the problem in Volume 9. 

There's a bit of sword vs. sword Maiden battling — this episode really pulled heavily from both Volume 3 and 5's finales — before Cinder gets smart again and attacks Weiss, currently trying to escape with Jaune. Weiss goes right off the edge and Winter isn't able to reach her in time. That's the entirety of Team RWBY, lost to the magical void.

Kudos to Winter's VA and the writing here though. This feels like an appropriate reaction to losing a sister. Screaming, sobbing, falling to her knees and beating the floor... Ruby, take notes.

A roar sounds through all the portals though, the sort of roar a pissed off witch might give. Jaune convinces Winter they need to leave Cinder behind, but before they can escape Cinder... makes a new wish?

Look, it works on all the major fronts. Cinder has the staff, check. We've basically established that Ambrosius can make an unlimited number of things per era, check. We know the previous thing disappears when a new wish is made, check. My only question is the timing. In all honesty, I'll have to re-watch the scene to be sure, but at the time it felt like the portals began disappearing almost the second Cinder left. Did she really have time to summon Ambrosius, deal with his explanatory nonsense, and get him to make a new wish without any fiddly concerns? Sure, fire is just fire, but it still felt like way too much happening too fast off screen.

Either way, the portals are gone and Winter makes it through in time, but Jaune does not. He falls through the void along with Team RWBY. And Neo.

Neo is the only addition I'm looking forward to here.

We get a few shots of our other characters as Winter arrives, saving the day by taking her grief out on the grimm. So glad something came of Ren breaking his aura again! Maybe they'll be more fighting at the beginning of Volume 9? If we see any of this group outside of 9's finale. My worst fear right now is that we'll spend an entire season away from the main action — remember how I said it would be stupid for Team RWBY to go on a side adventure while Salem is attacking the world? — and when they return there will have been some major time skip. Salem has destroyed most of Remnant, only pockets of survivors remain, it's all dark and dystopian... and oh look, every bit of character development happened off screen. How did Nora discover who she is without Ren? She did it while Team RWBY was gone. That merge we've been teasing for five years? That happened while you were gone too and, btw, Ozpin has ceased to exist. So sad, right? Not that anyone will actually mourn. Just take comfort in the fact that his last line was an "Oh no" about Ambrosius and his last major scene was apologizing for how the group treated him. Emerald's redemption? Off screen. Winter's grief? Off screen. Any and every one of these challenging beats to tackle can be waved away with, "We went through that arc while you were lost in the magical realm. Just get to know our new, improved selves now!"

Please, oh writing gods, don't let that happen.

Though I do worry because my last prediction came true.

But we all knew we’d end up here. My current theory? The portal should still be open at the vault. Winter will fight Ironwood, escape through it, and it will close right before he escapes too. He’ll fall with Atlas and everyone will act as if it’s some beautiful, poetic justice for him to perish with the city. 

Ironwood didn't make a break for the portal — too busy being unconscious — but we got everything else. Winter left him, he falls with Atlas, and this is some poetic justice, I guess. Really, it's just an undignified death. I'd hoped for a sympathetic kill, something that showed the characters still cared about him even if they knew Ironwood had to be stopped. Baring that, I'd hoped for an epic battle that took him out with style. Instead, no one even bothers to kill him. Ironwood is now beneath the entire cast, not even worth finishing off. Winter casually tosses his blast back at him and leaves. Cinder throws out a "that's checkmate" and leaves. I don't think Salem even looks at him. Ironwood (presumably) dies with no one and nothing, just a casualty of the city Team RWBY made fall. And I say "presumably" because the audience isn't even given the satisfaction of being sure he's passed on. Like Hazel, Ironwood's death is this weird, ambiguous moment that, based on the other character reactions, isn’t meant to be ambiguous. Is he dead? Most likely. Is it possible, based on what we've seen, that he'll pop up two volumes later like

Yes and, memes aside, that sucks. I don't want to be wondering for the next couple years if Ironwood survived and if they'll bring him back just to drag his character through the mud again. Move on.

But no, we don't even get that.

I've spoken at great deal about Ironwood both in these recaps and on my blog more generally. Last week, I said I'd covered it all and there was no need to rehash it all again. I stand by that, so let me just conclude this travesty with a final note: if your bad guy's final moment is using the last of his strength to point a gun at the actual villain of this story, and you don't realize the problem of how this image contrasts everything else the story has insisted about his character? … I just don't know what to do with that.

Oh, actually, final-final note: Ironwood’s semblance is officially a Schrodinger's semblance. It is both canonical and noncanonical simultaneously. Wooo. 

Cinder tells Salem she used her wish to "add more flames to the first of Atlas" and we cut to Watts, trapped in a roaring fire, unsuccessfully trying to break his way out. Wow, I hate that too! Next to Tyrian, Watts was our last remaining, entertaining villain. He carried a lot of the last two volumes and, I had hoped, was going to add some bright spots to the coming volumes as well. Apparently not.

Just another waste.

In addition to this casual, second murder of her ally, Cinder successfully convinces Salem that Neo killed Ruby and Ruby used the Lamp's last question, but she's back in her good graces since she snagged the Relics anyway. “You’ve done well, Cinder. Our work here is done" and they leave, blasting off like a less cool Team Rocket as Atlas plummets into Mantle.

Let's spend a second to tally things up then, shall we? What happens if Ruby, instead of throwing a moral fit, says, "You're right and we never should have lied to you, or betrayed you. But we want to help now. You get the Relics and the Maiden to safety in Atlas, if you can, we'll defend the people of Mantle"?

Well, they can still tell the world about Salem and call for help, much more easily now since Ironwood would likely just give them the code rather than them needing to spend an episode stealing it.

The Staff at least may not have ended up in Salem's hands and the group could have actually focused on getting the Lamp back (also solved if they'd been smart and just put it in the vault to begin with).

Mantle would still have been safe because Salem was never interested in Mantle to begin with.

Atlas wouldn't have fallen.

Ironwood wouldn't have died.

Penny wouldn't have died.

Even Vine wouldn't have died!

Our heroes unambiguously made the situation worse. Rather than banding together with their allies to fight the real enemy, Salem, they pushed until they made enemies of Ironwood and the Ace Ops both. Then they asked for help — which a pinch of logic said would never arrive — and twiddled their thumbs waiting for it. When it was clear none would come they...did nothing. They sat around, upset that the people were in danger, but not willing to do anything about it. It's only when one of their own, Penny, is threatened that they kick into high gear, hitting on a solution that they could have posed to Ironwood from the very start if no one liked the fly away plan. Yet instead of taking a few minutes to brainstorm other ideas — doing anything other than denouncing Ironwood to the rest of the group and attacking the Ace Ops — they spent two days sitting around, fixing minor messes they’d helped to create, then rushed through the portal plan, messing up the wish and stranding an entire kingdom in a sandstorm, with only Winter now to protect them from grimm.

Fantastically done, team. 

The villains won, yes, but not because the villains were smart and compelling. Watts' hack on Penny and the heat petered out to nothing and Salem... well, she sat around for the whole volume, expending energy only to torture Oscar and try to (unsuccessfully) stop some escapees. Neo and, miraculously, Cinder did the most damage, but only in the final hour, with this "damage" being that our characters fall into a void that we now know looks remarkably like a paradise! Everything bad that happened was a result of our heroes being stupid and stubborn. That's a compelling story to tell... but RT isn't trying to tell it. Our heroes caused so much damage, yet that damage goes unacknowledged — or worse, ignored into silence like with Ren — and everything else is waved away with the magic wand the series claims isn't there. The cold doesn't kill anyone. Oscar has no problems walking off the torture. Nora hops back out of bed. Ruby one-shots the Hound. The civilians lost to the void must have survived too. The entire kingdom successfully makes it to Vacuo... unless you count the massive army we never saw making use of the portals, but who cares about them, right?

The villains won, there was indeed something resembling consequences, but none of it was emotionally satisfying. Not even when the series tries so hard to insist that emotion is there.

Qrow watches Atlas fall, mouthing Ruby and Yang's names, but it's too little, too late. Where was this care for his nieces when he was obsessed with killing Ironwood? When did they care about him? Was it when Ruby shrugged at his arrest, when neither cared that he was missing, or when they were designing an escape plan that didn't include putting a portal where Qrow could reach? RWBY markets itself around the found family-ness of its cast, but they're done a poor job in recent volumes (not others) of convincing me that most of these characters care for one another. We went from Ruby denouncing all adults, to Ruby pulling an Ozpin with Ironwood, to Ruby watching blandly as her sister falls to her presumed death. This is my hero? This is the simple soul we're supposed to rally behind? Ruby doesn't feel like a character who cares about other people anymore and, given that she leads the charge, neither do most of her friends. Or, when that emotion appears, it's jarring and undeserved. Jaune cries over Penny's death? That's tonally and characteristically backwards.

This volume was the culmination of so many mistakes over the past two years. No, Covid couldn't have made things any easier for the crew — the fact that they got a volume out at all is amazing — but the pandemic isn't to blame for the problems in the story. These seeds have existed since Volume 5, with some (like Jaune) going back even farther. I don't think we're ever going to get that flawed, but emotionally fulfilling RWBY back. The show has dug too deep and unless it somehow manages to create a clean slate — those time travel ideas get more and more alluring! — there's nothing they can do but keep on digging. At this point, I can only hope that the series does wrap up within the next two volumes, rather than dragging RWBY to a Supernatural-esque length.

Our final shot of the episode proper feels fitting for what this volume has been. Atlas and Mantle flood rather than exploding, something that makes a certain amount of sense, sure, but definitely wasn't what I was expecting. And after all these shocking images — Penny dying, the grimm attacking, our main characters disappearing in a puff of gold dust — we end it all with bits of random debris. It's strange and underwhelming. Out of everything you could have done with the options you had, you choose to do this?

Of course, RWBY always has an after-credits scene (RIP Raven's, still amounting to nothing). Here, the sounds of water return to show us a beach. Crescent Rose imbedded in the sand, mirroring its classic pose in the snow.  

There's a tree. It's a very different kind of tree from what we saw in Volume 6, but the height and shape is nevertheless reminiscent of Light's domain.

A tree of life, anyone? After all, the group has fallen into a dimension created by a Relic, the gift of Light himself. It certainly seems as if RWBY is heading towards another encounter with the Gods, though what that will look like and how narratively satisfying it will be remains to be seen.

As for our bingo board, RWBY certainly pulled its weight! Only three squares got gold stars: Watts and Jacques didn't manage another team up because both are dead, Oscar didn't apologize for getting shot because he was too busy being tortured, and Qrow didn't drink likely because he didn't have access to any alcohol across the whole volume. Can't say that's a stellar result. The final image is something to behold though lol.

What a mess.

And on that less than exciting note... we’re done. This has been the volume of desertion, with a large number of fans telling me that they will no longer watch RWBY, but baring something entirely unexpected in my future, I'll be back next volume, for whatever that's worth. It never ceases to amaze me that even one person would give these nonsense recaps the time of day, so in all seriousness: thank you for reading. You rock.

Now go forth and fill the hiatus with great RWBY content!

✌️

[jbuffyangel]

Something To Live For: Arrow 1x10 Review (Burned)

I’m back! 

There’s a significant time difference between my 1x09 review and this review. No, I did not take a six year long holiday break. It just became too difficult to complete the Season 1 reviews the summer prior to Season 4. So, I decided to complete Season 1 and Season 2 reviews once Arrow was off air.

This means I have not watched 1x10-1x23 in eight years. I nearly forgot everything. Is L*urel still in this show?

She sure is.

“Burned” is the first real snoozer of Season 1, which kind of sets up the tradition of episode 10-15 slumps Arrow suffered nearly every season.  This has less to do with Arrow and more to do with it being a twenty three episode series. There’s gonna be some filler.

This episode still holds significant meaning to me though because it contains the SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR speech. This is my favorite John Diggle speech, which is why I named my blog after it. It is also the first time Arrow declares their mission statement.

Let’s dig in...

Oliver and Diggle

The bad guy plot is the worst part of “Burned,” so let’s just cut to the chase. There was a terrible fire in Starling City years ago. The fire chief recalled his unit but one of his men, Garfield Lynns, insisted the building could be saved. The chief refused to send in any more men and as a result Lynns died. Except, this is Arrow and nobody stays dead. Lynns is alive, ticked, insane and burning firefighters, which leads to Joanna’s brother (a firefighter) getting killed.

Cool? Cool. Moving on.

Oliver is having difficulty coping with the fact the Dark Archer kicked his ass all the way back to the stone age. It was a somewhat embarrassing loss and Oliver’s body wasn’t the only thing bruised. We are gifted a very lovely training sequences of a half naked and very sweaty Oliver Queen to show he is recovered, so his hesitancy isn’t physical. It is mental.

Source: @olivergifs​

Oliver is having a crisis of confidence and is avoiding suiting up like the plague.

Diggle: This guy, the other archer, he got in your head. He took something from you … he took whatever’s in your heart that lets you jump off buildings and take down bad guys.

Oliver worked for every skill he has. It was not gifted by a bolt of lightning. He does not come from an alien planet. Oliver is a weapon honed over time, which includes his superpower. 

Oliver Queen does not fear dying. 

That’s the “whatever” in his heart which gives him the confidence to jump off buildings. This superpower was honed after five years of fighting for survival. Oliver almost died so many times he’s built some kind of emotional immunity to it. It doesn’t freak him out like it would the rest of us.

The darker side of this superpower is Oliver doesn’t care if he lives or dies. Season 1 Oliver Queen is very fatalistic. He’s not suicidal, but he’s accepted death is the price he may have to pay in order to complete his mission. More importantly, he is drowning in guilt and believes death is the ending he deserves.

There’s rigidity in everything about Oliver – from his beliefs to even the way he moves. His posture is rod iron straight and there’s very little movement in his upper body and arms. It’s a physical manifestation of his PTSD. It’s like he’s encased in a brick wall, a tomb of suffering, which makes it difficult to breathe or move. It’s like the act of living is physically painful.

The problem is - Oliver came home and it is having an unexpected emotional impacted on him. He’s been laser focused on this mission, but bit by bit, the feelings he’s long since buried are resurfacing.  Moira, Thea, Tommy, Diggle, Laurel (AND FELICITY) are chipping away at this brick wall. Oliver didn’t adopt this machine like persona because he doesn’t feel anything. It’s because he feels so much, which means even the small holes in this wall are having a profound impact on him.

This all leads to the greatest John Diggle speech in history! Yes, I say that knowing full well Diggle has spectacular speeches throughout the series, but this will always be my favorite because it’s such a universal theme. 

We all must have something that makes life worth living.  This “something” is not limited to romantic love. It can be family, or work or a cause – basically whatever makes you get out of bed every day. It doesn’t have to be just one thing either. In fact, I hope you find many things/people to live for because that means you are living a full and connected life. By that same token, if you don’t have something to live for then you’re not really living. You just exist.

Or in Oliver’s case - survive. He’s known nothing but survival for the last five years. I think he absolutely cares for Yao Fei, Shado and Slade, but that’s exactly why Oliver shut down. He did care for people and it led to nothing but heartache, betrayal and loss. So, Oliver decided to be done with all that and has worked very hard to keep his loved ones at a distance ever since returning home.

He’s been extremely successful at it in many ways because Oliver refuses to share who he really is with anyone outside of John Diggle. So, that’s why it had to be John Diggle to tell him that it was okay to feel again.

Oliver: I’ve been close to death on the island more times than I can remember and I never feared it. Because I had nothing to lose. But when that archer almost killed me, when I stared death in the face then, I thought about all the people I’ve let into my life since I’ve been back – my family, Laurel, Tommy. And that made me afraid. Afraid of what would happen to those people if they lost me. Again. And for the first time in so long I had something to lose.

Oliver may not fear death, but he does fear what his death will mean to those who love him. Like I said earlier - Oliver is not suicidal. If that was true he wouldn’t have fought so hard to survive the island, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to live. He’s far from it. But this is the first time in a long time Oliver cared whether or not he died. And that scares him.  

Diggle: Maybe you’ve got it backwards Oliver. You think the people you’ve let in have taken your edge. I think it gives you one. Maybe a stronger one even. You can stare down death with something to live for or not. SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR is better.

That’s endgame folks. Oliver’s story is about a man learning to live again. He will collect more and more people/things that he cares about as he walks this road, which means there is more to lose. Losing his life is far preferable than losing someone he loves again.  Oliver can tolerate a great deal of physical pain. It’s the emotional pain that scares the crap out of him. This is why he fights tooth and nail to keep emotions at a distance. It just hurts too much.

Opening our heart to others often means opening our hearts to pain, but that’s not the only side of love. It brings happiness and contentment too. You take the good with the bad. Diggle is trying to open Oliver’s heart to the good.

Is Oliver alive? Or is he just breathing? The answers to those questions make all the difference in the world. A difference Diggle knows will make Oliver an unbeatable weapon.

Lynns: I'm not afraid to die

Oliver: I know. You're afraid to live.

COULD IT BE A PARALLEL?

Methinks yes. It’s interesting “Burned” revolves around fire. Fire is where Oliver’s story began. Lian Yu was about purification, but it was also a rebirth. 

A rebirth we see expanding as Oliver opens up his heart. A fire is lit from within our hero and it’s growing beyond penance, justice and retribution to hope, passion and enlightenment. Oliver Queen is finding reasons to live again. And it will make all the difference for his survival.

L*urel L*nce

If you sense I have less patience with L*urel’s character in Seasons 1 and Season 2 than I did in Season 3 and Season 4 then you’d be right. My opinions on this character changed radically so I’m coming into Season 1 and Season 2 reviews with a Season 8 perspective on L*urel.

Tommy wants a drawer. That’s all. A drawer. Tommy Merlyn is a simple man. Doesn’t take a lot to make him happy. He even wrote a list explaining all the reasons he deserves and needs a drawer. We never see the list, but I’d imagine it looks something like this:

I AM HUMAN PERFECTION.

I did not sleep with your sister.

I am asking for a drawer rather than run screaming to the North China Sea with above referenced sister.

I make you omelets.

I make your character moderately tolerable which is a miracle in of itself.

I could continue, but you get the idea. What’s absolutely ludicrous is OLIVER gives L*UREL relationship advice.

Oliver: Well we're friends.

Me: Oliver, my son, NO YOU ARE NOT. 

At least she had the common sense to scoff at Oliver’s friendly attempt to intervene on Tommy’s behalf. (Seriously, dude just stay out of it. This is wildly inappropriate.)

L*urel was ready to move in with Oliver (even though she knew he cheated on her regularly), but freaks at faithful Tommy requesting armoire access. JFC this woman is a dating disaster zone.

L*urel: I don’t take things slow remember? I close my eyes and I jump just like you. 

My initial reaction to this speech is to call it nonsense. 

I thought this was a case of Arrow telling rather than showing with L*urel’s character. However, upon further contemplation I have reversed my opinion.

L*urel may be a pragmatic attorney on the surface, but we have watched her run the gamut of human emotions week to week. So much so it’s difficult to get a read on the character the writers are trying to construct. (Spoiler alert: they don’t know what kind of character they are trying to construct). One week she loves Oliver. The next week she’s condemning him to hell. L*urel L*nce’s feelings definitely control her.

She has been reckless too, working outside the law, by contacting the vigilante for assistance. A relationship she resumes after telling her father in 1x09 that The Hood is a killer with no remorse. See what I’m saying about the ever changing emotional spectrum?

I’m not saying L*urel having emotions and expressing them is bad. That’s a healthier reaction than what Oliver is doing, but she has been all over the map. It’s less about who L*urel is as a character and more about the writers needing her to react a certain way to make the episode work.

Oliver likes to present himself as a cool cucumber, but he has a rather unpleasant temper too. It may seem like he’s emotionless, but that is just a façade. It’s a cover for the torrent of emotions he keeps at bay.

Laurel: I think that’s why we spooked each other. Our feelings, our fears, they control us. Not the other way around.

L*urel’s “spooking each other” statement is a big line of bull, which we’ll find out later in the season. L*urel was not spooked by Oliver. She was the furthest thing from spooked, which is why she asked him to move in with her.

Oliver wasn’t spooked either. Anytime I reflect on L*uriver I’m reminded of a scene from Sex in the City. Oliver isn’t freaked out by his feelings. He’s just not that into you, L*urel.

The process in which we get OLIVER to realize this and admit it to himself will take much longer, but I can be patient. It’s time will come.

But do I think these two characters are similar? YES. They are too similar in fact. It’s one of the main reasons they don’t work as a couple. This is exactly why Tommy and Felicity are perfect for L*urel and Oliver.  They need someone steady to temper their emotions. 

They need someone happy to balance out their anger. They need someone with a bright light in order to find their own.

It’s also worth noting that Tommy was ready to run into a burning building to save Oliver so GIVE HIM A DAMN DRAWER L*UREL.

Stray Thoughts

Flashbacks were kind of boring. Fyers kidnaps Yao Fei. Oliver saves his own life by accident. Meh

Thea calling Moira out was long overdue. This kid needs a parent ASAP.

Everyone's fall clothing is really adorable.

JUST UNBUTTON THE FRACKIN BUTTON OLLIE.

Merlyn kidnapped Walter right? Or Moira? I seriously don't remember. I don’t think I care either. lol

L*urel: I am not the best example of healthy grieving.

LL has a rare moment of self awareness, which is lovely.

Oliver: I heard what you said to your father. That I'm a killer with no remorse.

L*urel: Do you?

Me: You impertinent little snot.

I like Joanna much better than L*urel and I wished she stayed, but removing Joanna from the show is the first step the writers took to limit L*urel's role. The shift is upon us.

  Not to be unsympathetic, but Moira is starting to rack up the dead husbands.

Thea fantasizing that Walter is cheating on Moira with a stewardess as the hopeful pitch is YIKES. Goodness this show could be dark.

Musings of the Kiddo  

Kiddo: Yeah! He's actually putting his family first!

Me: Settle down. It doesn't last long.

Kiddo: I thought L*urel was gonna find out.

Me: Oh my sweet summer child.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[imanonymousfanfic]

Kid's Lipstick (2/2)

I enter the kitchen, head throbbing like I’ve split my skull open. I’m sluggish, barely able to stand like a bag of bricks in water. The smell of burning cigarettes and fried food sickens me, making me regret coming in already. I crawl into a chair, letting my heavy head fall onto the table with a loud thud. The impact rattles my skull sending a wave of pain through my head. I throw myself back, groaning out in agony as the throbbing increases. The others chuckle. They’re talking amongst themselves but I’m too destroyed to bother absorbing their conversations. I look over to Killer, who is cooking breakfast, staring directly at me as he blindly chops food.

“Water,” I ask him in a pained tone. He nods , grabbing a glass from the cabinet. I bury my face into my arms. All the bright sun shining through the windows is killing me. It’s unbearable. Heat cracks a joke about me, this I notice, making the rest of them laugh as they chomp down on their meals. Someone pokes at my arm, I peek, seeing it was Wire sat beside me doing it.

“Stop laughing, it’s not funny.” I mumble, my voice echoing from my folded arms.

“You were really drinking hard last night.” Haikei proceeds to tease. I sit up, looking at the man directly in his black circular shades. I snatch the cigarette sitting between his fingers and smush its lit tip into the table.

“Hey!”

“Your smoking is going to make me more sick than I already feel! Kid said no smoking in the kitchen anyway.” I hiss, flicking the crushed cigarette back at him. An arm appears in front of me, placing a glass of water down. My dry mouth looks at the liquid hungrily, wanting to inhale an entire sea’s worth. I begin chugging its contents back hurriedly, feeling as though nothing will be able to quench my thirst at this rate. Before I can finish, I reach for the jug sitting in the middle of the table, lifting it to the glass without putting it down on the table. I keep filling myself until my stomach reaches its limit. I smack the empty cup down on the table, gasping viciously for air.

I burp loudly the sound of my greedy behavior echoing loudly through the room, shortly followed with an apology. I laze myself down on the table again, whimpering quietly to myself. Everyone gathered around the table is staring, eyes wide as they fork their breakfast into their mouths.

“What? Why are you staring?” I grouch at them. Oscar and Wire pull their gaze away. Silence fills the room with nothing but the sound sizzling food, which reminds me that I’m both famished and nauseated, a combination I hate more than anything. I know that my hangover won't end until I replenish my body, but the word food alone makes me want to regurgitate my own organs.

The door swings open and in comes Noe, grinning widely, seeming as fresh and energetic as ever. “Hey guys!” He greets. His eyes fall to me, peeking briefly from beneath his bucket hat. He chuckles amusedly. “Woah, you look like shit dude!”

“Fuck you Noe,” I spit, he brushes off the harsh response, patting my back as he walks past me and slides into one of the free chairs. The boys greet him, throwing in a couple jokes as they do.

“Well, I like the lipstick, it suits you.”

The room falls silent. I look to the others, who were all nervously exchanging glances, mostly between Noe, Killer and I. I look at the glass to see the burgundy print faintly along its rim. I rub at my lip, hard, seeing a minor shade red transfer onto my finger. I look back up at the guys to see they were staring at me as if I knew what was happening. I drop the glass and jump out of the chair in panic, fumbling over my words. I rush to the door, slamming it behind me in panic.

I rush to the medbay, hoping to catch Senior, he might know something. I throw open the door to see Kid sitting on a cot, clutching his temples with a pained expression. He and Senior both look over to me, Senior seeming caught off guard. My eyes meet Kids then Senior again. A smirk spreads across his lips. He already knows. My words stumble again, making a random jumble of sounds but no words come out. I throw the door closed and dart towards the sleeping quarters, the only place left that I can be safe.

I catch my reflection in one of the windows. I come to a hard stop, gliding on the freshly washed deck, nearly tumbling to the floor as I do. I study my reflection, seeing the familiar shade of lipstick staining my lips and the area surrounding them. It’s not a clown's job, that’s for sure..

Oh god... Oh god.

I take off once again, running down to my hammock and throwing myself into it, wrapping myself into a tightly enclosed cocoon. I pull my pillow to my face, screaming loudly into it, straining my throat as I do. As my voice dies out, I fall silent. I’m aching and frustrated and don’t remember anything.

“You know when we had that talk last night I was anticipating the situation to be resolved.” Killer's voice cuts the silence. Of course.

“I don’t remember a single thing after we talked.”

“That was obvious the second you entered the kitchen.” He retorts, seemingly monotoned. He’s not the least bit impressed with me.

I stir angrily. The shock in my system is fading but my heart is still pumping hard, mercilessly attacking my head.

“Are you here to make me miserable or do you have a point to make?”

“Hm,” he hums, “you can figure this one out on your own.” His tone harsh, different from usual. Instead of sounding like the heartless pirate he is, it almost sounds spiteful to my response. He turns, making his way out of the room shutting the door behind him, leaving me to sit in silence.

I really need to sleep some more.

More steps come and the door cracks open. Now frustrated,  I peel open my hammock and look over to see Noe walking over to me with a mug in his hand. The smell of coffee fills the room.

“What happened man?” He questions, plopping down against the wall next to me. He hands me the mug. I shake my head.

“I’m just really embarrassed.”

“Why? It’s not like you stripped and danced naked in front of us, although, that would have been fun.” Noe chuckled. I would have smacked him if he was in arms reach. I roll my eyes and plop my head down in my pillow again. He lightly sways my hammock, sitting silently in my company.

“How am I ever supposed to come back from wearing the captain's lipstick? This will haunt me for the rest of my days on this ship.”

“Stop being such a drama queen,” Noe shrugs, slurping his coffee loudly.

“Go fuck yourself Noe,” I mumble turning away from him, “you’re shit at offering comfort.”

“Sleep off the alcohol. We can talk when you’re less miserable.”

“Yeah hopefully then I’ll have the energy to bruise your face.”

The door to the sleeping quarters shuts.

***

I break from my deep slumber to loud stomping approach the room, the door slams open, almost falling off its hinges. The sudden commotion makes me jump and squirm in the hammock before falling out, landing fast first on the ground.

I groan loudly. “I don’t want to exist today,” I mumble, with my face still pressed into the ground, already feeling the bruise forming on my forehead. My head is still reminding me of my poor choices from last night. The extra sleep helped, but god I’m being punished for it. I roll myself over and look up to the silhouette blocking the light shining from the door. I can faintly make out Kids face. He’s pissed.

“I’m on watch duty aren’t I?”

“You were, I let you sleep in.” The captain growls down at me. For once he’s a little merciful. What the hell happened to make everyone act so weird?

He kneels down in front of me, lifting my head back and swiping his finger over my lips roughly. “There’s an enemy not too far ahead, we’re gonna them.”

I swat his hand away, tugging my head back from his hand. “Okay, I’ll get to the infirmary… and stop touching me.”

He narrows his eyes at me, making me freeze. I frown at him, what is happening? I scoot back a little bit and shakily stand myself up. Kid follows my actions, staring me down like I was hiding something from him. I know something is going on, and it's just hanging in the air, but I can’t deal with this now.

I bundle my hair up and tie it into a high ponytail, giving him the side eye as I turn to my trunk, kicking its side making the lid bust open. I tear off my crop top from last night and replace it with my work t-shirt, it still has a couple blood stains, but they match its icy blue color. Next is the gun Kid gave me, I load it, counting the bullets I have. He told me only to use it when someone attacks me while tending to someone. I’ve only had to use it a couple times.  I’m not supposed to fight, most of the time at least.

I fill the pockets of baggy pants with the bullets and slip my blade into my boot. Firmly sticking the cover inside so it doesn’t fall out. I throw my supply belt over my shoulder, tightly locking it over my chest and between my boobs. I catch him staring but his eyes quickly divert, his emotions making it hard to think about anything else. He remains still with his rage silently building as I continue to ignore the elephant in the room. I avoid look again, catching his gaze is typically the tipping point when he’s angry. I kick the trunk again and the lid falls closed. I make my way towards the door, spotting Killer strolling past, eyeing us down casually before disappearing again.

“You think you can just act like nothing happened.” Kid calls out to me. I come to a halt, nearly at the door and turn on my heels to face him again, almost jumping when I see his chest right in front of me. I look up to see his angered expression has softened slightly. I kick the door closed, unable to concentrate on him with the crew outside barking orders as they try to prepare for a fight.

I’m too tired to have this conversation now. Why now?

I sigh out. “Kid, I need to prepare the medical supplies. Seniors foot is broken, I have to work twice as hard.” My body itches. The curiosity in me is begging for answers but it feels more troublesome than rewarding at this rate. Everyone is acting off, and this is the last thing I need is to be messing up because of last night. “I don’t remember and I don’t want to try to right now.”

His eyes grow cold again, appearing angrier than before. Huffing out, he storms past, throwing me off balance as he does on his way out. I shouldn't have said that, in that way. It’s bothering me more than anything that he’s staying so calm about it. I spot the blond again by the door frame, silently watching me with his arms crossed, pretending to be casually hanging about.

“Yeah, yeah, I get the fucking message.” I huff out on my way out.

I beeline straight to the infirmary, helping only a couple men with ropes on the way when they needed me to. I open the door to see Senior sitting at his deck, leg propped up in his large cast. He’s reading that damn medicine book that's impossibly heavy with insanely tiny writing. He tilts the book at angle to give a look through his reading glasses, followed by a cocked brow.

“So.” He begins, just as I was hoping he wouldn't. I throw my head back, irked by his insistence to talk about Kid and I. He’s not the only one. It’s almost like the crew wants to be involved with this pointless drama. You would think as pirates they’d be too busy to worry about that.

“Not today, please.” I whine at him, grabbing one of the mouth rinses from one of the cupboards.

“That’s for mouth injuries.” Senior reminds me, without even looking up from his book. I often wonder if he has a third eye.

“Yes, well, I can’t get the taste of alcohol out of my mouth despite brushing my teeth twice today.” I throw the medicine back into my mouth, swirling the gross medicinal liquid around my mouth, making sure it’s coating my mouth entirely before spitting it out in a bucket.

“Maybe don’t get drunk.”

“I can break your other foot for you.” I snarkily respond slapping his casted foot. He hisses in response, giving me the stink eye. I wink at him, chuckling softly as I begin to  carefully pocket the medical supplies on my belt, organizing them by level of emergencies.

“Are you going to be alright on your own?” Senior questions me, now taking his feet off the table.

I adjust the belt over my shoulder, huffing annoyedly. “I don’t have a choice. I just hope none of the heavier boys need me to carry them.” Senior chuckles in response, clearly amused at the image.

“If it comes to it I’ll be out in a matter of seconds. You’ll be fine, it’s not an Emperor.”

I hum in response, thinking to myself quietly about last night. There’s not much I remember, just Kids eyes angrily staring me down as I make my way into his room. I drank almost half a bottle of whiskey on top of all that lager. Damn...no wonder my head feels like a balloon ready to burst.

I pop a pain killer in my mouth, chugging the glass of water on Seniors desk. “I’d usually kill you for that, but in your state I’ll forgive it.”

“You’re so merciful,” I sarcastically retort with an eyeroll, making my way back to the door. It swings open right as my hand reaches the handle and there stands his large figure. The light from outside burns my eyes, making me squint painfully as I stare up at him.

“Give us some privacy.”

I swallow the ball growing in my throat and step back, letting Senior step out on his crotches. Kid slams the door behind him, making me jump. His eyes are dark, filled with rage that I only ever see when he’s fighting. The ball in my throat drops, now pitting in my stomach instead.

He’s always been hard on me, snapping orders and reprimanding me when I’m wrong, but he’s never looked at me the way he does now. His nose crinkles as he snarls at me, bearing his teeth, ready to bite at any second. I look to his arm, seeing the veins in his arms bulging from his fist constantly balling up. He’s fighting with himself to stay calm. I can't look into his eyes, his gaze feral and ready to bite like a pack of hungry wolves. The anticipation for him to speak pains me. I continue to back up, stopping as my back hits one of the cots. I bite down on the inside of my lip, feeling my face wanting to show my fear, but that will only make this worse. I keep my eyes down to my boots, awkwardly looking down as I wait for his yelling to start.

“How dare you think you can talk to me that way.” Kid hisses at me through clenched teeth.

“Don't get mad at me if I can't remember what happened, stop humiliating me!” I bark back at him, my emotions finally getting the best of me. My spiteful cold attitude has held up so far but hearing the aggression in his voice breaks me.

His demeanour switches suddenly, and laughs tauntingly. “Can I remind you, you’re the one who went to bed wearing my lipstick.” His cruel teasing finally breaks me. I fold my arms over my chest, chewing hard on my bottom lip as I fight the tears pricking in my eyes. He waits for my response but nothing comes. I stare at the wall, angrily sulking, eyes watering and nose burning, viciously blinking the blurry vision in my eyes. .

He nods simply, his eyes boring into me. He’s quiet, meaning for once he’s thinking his actions through. He’s such a cruel man and I can’t stand being a victim of his merciless ways. He flashes me a dissatisfied grin. He turns away to the door, attempting to put an end to this conversation for now. If I leave it like this I will be in more trouble.

“Exactly as I thought from last night, you’re just talk.” He writes me off, waving his hand over his shoulder like I’m useless.

Asshole. I snatch the nearest item to me, a therapy ball sitting by my feet and launch the firm object at him. It smacks into his head with a loud thump before ricocheting across the room. Kid turns on his heels slowly, his eyes catching mine. His face contorted into a terrifying expression resembling what a demon would appear as in the skin of a human. His eyes pierce what little armor I have left. All my rage slips away, melting into panic.

My jaw clenches with my hands now shaking vigorously as I try to keep calm. I suck in air between my teeth, standing tall on the ground I decided to cross. “You cannot come in here mocking me and dehumanizing me for something I don’t even remember doing, you asshole!”

“You’re telling me how I can act?” Kid questions me, stepping towards me.

My words stutter uncontrollably, cursing the gutsiness my rage gave me. “I-I” Never once have I raised my voice at him and now I already regret it.

He kneels before me. I tear my gaze away, but he turns my face back to him. “What? So now the cats caught your tongue? Do I need to cut it off?” He laughs, now seeming more amused than angry at this rate. For the first time I’m struggling to understand what is happening inside of his head and I can’t stand it.

“So you’re embarrassed of kissing me?”  His question takes me off guard. My eyes widen as thoughts jumble in my head. Oh god. My exaggerated confidence has deflated completely, leaving me defenseless

“N-No!”

He turns to the door, I release the air held in my lungs, hoping this is the end. He locks it, forcing every muscle in my body to tense. My goddamn luck betrays me everyday, but who am I kidding, this is Kid.

“So tell me why you came into my room last night telling me that I gross you out and I’d be the worst person to love, yet you still only think about kissing me?”

The air in my throat hitched, almost making me choke. Parts of the distance memory faintly come to mind. I don’t remember it, but I remember doing it. The blood in my face collects, turns my cheeks into an overheated mess, turning my knees to jelly. The incoherent words hang off my lips in a jumbled mess once more.

“So, you’re just too embarrassed to say you like me?” Kid asks me smirking even more now. Why is he smiling?

I dip away from his hand trying to grab me, his fingers brushing over my shoulder. The suppressed anger in him is building a tension in the room I can’t bear to face. He hasn’t been merciful, he hasn’t been kind, it’s so obvious now that since this morning it’s all been calculated. He wants me to confess.

“No, that’s not it at all!” I hiss in return. I dodge his grasp again, jumping away from his hand as it reaches for me. He turns to face me properly, slowly approaching as I calmly back myself away, feeling the walls as I go until I hit a corner. He leans down to me, his golden eyes flicking between both of mine, face sitting inches away. He hums amusedly, with his cool breath lightly fanning over my face.

“You can’t be embarrassed of your Captain.”

“I’m not,”

“Oh?” Kid sadistically smirked, “but you wanted to hide when everyone saw the lipstick on your lips.”

The words in my mouth stumble into a chaotic mix of sounds that mean nothing again. Kid laughs at me, before pulling out a lipstick from his pocket, brandishing it to me as he opens it to apply a fresh layer, covering his lips in the dark burgundy, watching me as he slides the make up across his lips. Once done he closes it, placing it back in his pocket, while his other hand wipes away the corners that he over-lined. He flashes me a toothy grin, running his tongue along his teeth, purposely torturing me with anticipation. He leans down closer to my face, the smirk fixed on his lips. All of my breath leaves my lips. He can’t be serious, not now.

“I enjoy seeing people suffer, you know that right?” I nod hesitantly in response. “Good,” he hums approvingly, wrapping his fingers around the belt on my chest. My heart stops, awaiting his next move. For once I can’t predict him and completely at his mercy.

He tugs on the belt, making me crash into him. Both of his hands cup my face, pressing his lips onto mine, holding me tight as he exhales the brewing emotions in him. He pulls away, parting the aggressive kiss, letting me breathe in finally. Completely overwhelmed and paralyzed by his actions, I stare at him with shallow lungs as I struggle to relax. I’m nauseated fromm my stomach nervously flipping. Why did he kiss me if he’s so angry?

“You came into my room last night yelling at me, telling me I’m the asshole for saying I liked you.”

“You are,” I quietly croak.

“Yeah,” he tuts back, an evil smirking spreading on his lips. My eyes grow wide, he’s planning something. He drags his finger over my bottom lip. “You’re not allowed to yell at your captain, throw bottles at his door, or-” The ball in my throat grows and regret fills me. I don’t want to drink ever again. “Be embarrassed of your captain.”

“I’m not!”

“You’re not allowed to lie either!” Just as I go to open my mouth again he kisses me, pulling me over his now kneeling leg, running one hand through my hair while the other pulls the hair tie out. My hands run over his shoulder grasping onto him as we deepen the kiss.

“You’ve fallen for my trap.” He laughs out, breaking the kiss. I tug my head back seeing the devious glint in his eyes. The panic sets in and I begin to struggle away from him as hauls me up and pins me to the ground. I push against his hands, quickly realizing my defeat. I whimper out, begging him to stop as he starts to cover me in kisses, planting his lipstick all over me, the creamy makeup covering me from my chest up to my forehead. I can’t help but giggle, but curse at him, infuriated by this. He pulls away, looking down at me with pride, appreciating his work.

“You can’t wash it off until the end of the day.”

“WHAT?” I yell, now trying to kick myself away from him.

“Discipline for your bad behavior.”

I hum angrily, eyes burning holes into him. I would be angrier if it wasn’t he wasn’t kissing me moments before. He picks me up from the floor, giving me the hair tie back. I snarkily sneer at him, tying my hair back up once again. He smirks at me again, headed for the door with me following shortly behind. I’m not ready for all the mockery I’ll be enduring for the rest of my life on this ship.

“Do I have permission to kick anyone’s ass who pisses me off?” I ask him.

He gives me a quick glance, smiling widely. “Only if they can handle it.” A smile creeps on my lips, I know I’m a bright crimson by now, but it’s all out of the way. Maybe my drinking helped me make better decisions than I thought. Part 1

[volleychumps]

An Accidental Kind of Love (Iwaizumi Hajime x Reader)

Episode 10- Fading Nightmares 

Text Below the Cut:) 

Prev; Next; Masterlist 

I feel this needs to be described in vivid detail...

--------------------------------------------

“What...is this that abandoned school? Isn’t it set to be demolished soon?” Futakuchi mumbles in disbelief, closing the car door quietly. Kuroo claps Iwaizumi on the shoulder, shaking him slightly. 

“As much as I know you want to kill that piece of shit-” 

Iwaizumi glances at Kuroo’s hand on his shoulder, shaking it off. “I know. The end goal is to just get her the hell out of there.” 

“The minute it gets too dangerous, we leave and wait for the police.” Futakuchi warns as Kuroo begins to stretch his arm muscles out, Iwaizumi pulling his denim sleeves up to his elbow, both serious as ever. Iwa nods once, walking ahead with trembling fists at how hard he was clenching them. 

“Ready to beat the shit out of some fuckers?” Kuroo lazily grins at the uptight Futakuchi, a dangerous glint in his eye as Futakuchi sighs, releasing the pressure in his chest. Kuroo smirks, knowing the lengths of how far Kenji would go for (y/n) than any other person. Even if he knew she would never see him the way he did her. 

Futakuchi and Kuroo both break into a jog to meet at Iwa’s side, fire on their heels. “Let’s do it.”

----

“Just how much is he paying you to watch me?” You blink at the scary-looking dude who was sitting criss-cross in front of you as you deal the cards, eyebrow quirked at the situation you were in. Kidnapped by your ex, playing go-fish with a gangster in the middle of an old classroom. Now, you’ve been in lots of weird shit before, but this?

This was new. 

“I’m not supposed to talk to you.” 

“Yet here you are, playing go-fish with me. Got any eights?” 

“...Go fish.” 

You roll your eyes slightly, surprised at the calmness in your chest at what was happening. It had been two days. Two days of staying in the same old classroom, and you’re shitty ex had only shown himself to you twice. The first time you spat at him, refusing to accept anything from him in fear that he was trying to drug you. You cried your eyes out the first night of sleeping on cold concrete, ankle chained to the wall. 

The second time he introduced you to your new “bodyguard” who was meant to keep you “safe”. By the second day, you had somehow managed to rope him in to playing a game of cards after a few hesitant conversations. You had learned about why he was the way he was and why he did what he did. Sure, you empathized with him a little. Mostly because he was no Toby. 

“I don’t agree with this, you know.” Puffy (as you named him) frowns. You remain silent, allowing him to speak his mind. “The boss told me to follow this kid. He paid enough money, apparently. It’s just to keep you here, but...it’s still not right. He seems a little sick in the head.” 

You scoff, about to reply in agreement until a new voice sounds throughout the room, sending chills down your spine and a lump into your throat. 

“Sick in the head? Is that any way to talk about your employer?” 

Puffy drops his cards, standing immediately as his scary eyes cast you a sorry stare. 

“Leave us.” 

Puffy hesitates, and walks out of the room as you refuse to tear your eyes away from the cards in your hand. Toby smirks, taking Puffy’s place in front of you as he begins to pick up the scattered cards. 

“Enjoying your time here?” 

You stay silent, pressing your lips tightly closed as your heart pounds in your chest. 

Fingers grip at your cheeks, forcing you to look up into the eyes of a monster. 

“I asked you a question.” 

----

“Ouch. That’s gonna leave a bruise.” 

Futakuchi glances worriedly over at Kuroo before kicking the thug who came at him in the stomach as he laid on his side on the floor, ignoring his groan of pain as he ensures he can’t get back up.   

Kuroo throws another thug by the shirt into the wall, wiping sweat from his brow as he glances at his best friend.  “Oh. Not me. Him.” 

The two boys share a freaked-out glance at how savagely Iwaizumi fought, taking down two of the four thugs all on his own. He ignores their stares, clicking his tongue as he slips his denim pullover off, leaving him in a black sleeveless shirt that exposed his arms as his free hand rubs at the cuts on his knuckles.

“Show-off.” Kuroo smirks as the three restart their jog farther into the school.  “They’re weaklings.” The air Iwaizumi gave off was dangerous and harsh, a promise of death in his eyes as each step he took was filled with a single purpose.

Saving you. 

----

“Yes, Toby, I am enjoying my time here.” A fake smile stretches its’ way onto your face, feeling soreness in your cheeks at how hard his thumb and forefinger were pressing into them. “I love being kidnapped by my psychopath ex that I was kind enough to take pity on.” 

Those weren’t the right words. 

He flings his wrist to the side, jutting your head to that direction as an unstable laugh slips his mouth. 

“You just never learn, do you?” 

“A real man doesn’t hit a woman.” You manage out, feeling the intensity in your ex rise. “But I guess in your case, that doesn’t matter. You monster.” 

“Monster? No, don’t get me wrong-I’m no monster.” 

You tremble as his fingers ghost under your chin, a sickingly-sweet tone seeping into his words. 

“I’m yours.” 

You clench your eyes shut when his face nears yours, fingers tilting your chin up. In a panic, you swing with your free arm, the slap echoing throughout the room as your fingers tremble at what you had just done. 

Toby freezes, head jutted out to the side. The laugh spills out of his throat, and the fear makes you shiver as his gaze falls on you maniacally. 

“So is this how you felt?” 

You shut your eyes, waiting for the impact as soon as he raises his arm. 

But it never came. 

----

“She’s in here.” 

The three blink suspiciously as the scariest-looking thug they’ve encountered motions to the door. Iwaizumi takes another step cautiously, dark eyes calculating. 

“Why would we believe that?” 

The sirens around the building begin to ring as Puffy laughs humorlessly. “I...shouldn’t live my life this way. She helped me realize that. Just...please. Save her.”

The three wasted no time, Futakuchi suspiciously accepting the key from the criminal as he begins to work the lock. Kuroo scratches the back of his neck awkwardly starting to make conversation with the criminal until a sound makes all their blood chill cold. 

A slap. 

And then Iwaizumi’s foot was inside the door. 

----

“Get the FUCK away from her if you know what’s good for you.” 

A relieved gasp makes its’ way out of your mouth as Iwaizumi’s face comes into view, black sleeveless shirt torn with a spill of blood out of the corner of his lips. But he still looked more goregous than ever as he threw the monster that haunted both your dreams and life against the wall in one solid swoop. 

Tears brim your eyes when Kuroo and Futakuchi rush up to you, looking roughed up themselves as your weak arms widen to allow both of them to hug you at once. 

“Y-You guys...” 

“Hey. You don’t have to say anything.” Futakuchi was gentle as he cupped your face, Kuroo’s arms tightening around you as he breathes out all the worry that had placed itself on his chest. 

“You’re safe. Thank God you’re safe.”

And then Kuroo was gone, running to pull Iwaizumi off a half-concious Toby. You see him spit out a tooth, crazy eyes glaring at you as Kuroo presses him up against the wall by the shirt. You rub your ankle as Iwaizumi undoes the chain with the key he had taken from Toby’s pocket. 

“You BITCH! You called all your other fuck-buddies didn’t you? I got someone to fuck with your phone, how-?!”  Kuroo hisses as his fist connects with Toby’s face, knocking him out like a light as Kuroo allows him to drop to the floor from his position up on the wall. Kuroo examines the cut on his knuckle, looking satisfied with himself.

“Man, I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” 

Futakuchi rolls his eyes as he walks over to your ex’s unconcious body, hoisting him up with a groan. You don’t see the sadness in his eyes when Iwaizumi embraces you as he casts you a smile. 

“Hey. We’ll bring him down to the police. See you outside.” 

“I love you guys, you know that?” You say with emotion packed in your throat as Kuroo and Futakuchi leave the room with the unconcious body. Kuroo lets out a low whistle when they make it halfway down the hall. 

“You sure you’re okay with this?” 

“Yeah.” Futakuchi smiles slightly. “She looked happy.” 

----

“I...” 

“Don’t. Just...hold me.” 

Iwaizumi’s arms are gentle as you sob quietly into his neck, ignoring the terrible state you were in as his bruised hand runs through your tangled hair.

“T-Thank you...I’m so dumb, I didn’t know-” 

“Don’t speak.”

“W-what-?” 

So, in the middle of an abandoned classroom, with tear stained cheeks and bruised arms- Iwaizumi kissed you. A cut up hand resting on your cheek with the most softest touch he had used that day. You deepen the kiss for a second before pulling away, and he rests his forehead on yours, dark eyes staring into yours as your heart returns to a steady rhythm. 

“Iwa?”  “Hm?” 

“Can we try and go on another coffee run?” 

“Yes. Idiot.” Iwa’s busted lip forms a smile as your dry throat laughs a little bit, the room spinning around you as your body faces a round of fatigue from all the previous events. 

“Be here when I wake up?” 

“That’s a given.” 

And then the room stopped spinning as your body fell into a slump, eyes fluttering shut as Iwa’s half-smile is the last thing you see. 

----

It’s not over yet, folks! It will go back to standard social media AU in the next episode<33

taglist<3:  @krxstynnn @neologyro @fernthefangirl @imconfusedanditsok @wthyuta @angsty-microwave @svtbitch @hitoshi-s-stupid-bitch  @givesoup @the-pastel-badger  @soumynonasstuff @hot-emotional–mess  @shinsvu-talks @its-onepiece @giuliana-seraphinaxx @yuiicorn @zoppzoop @bridgehampton @i-would-die-for-this @adoring-obi-wan @thenextjennaration @jiyong-kwon-881808 @bubbleteaa @bobothecircusclown @kasandrafaye @teamnicedynabitch @verysadsimp @fait-de-fleurs​ @animefan7420​ @samanthaa-leanne​

[stray-tori]

TPN S02E09 - Initial Thoughts (anime-only)

[ Reaction video w/ captions/subs ] we collectively have a breakdown about the pen, please enjoy it pff-

.

... hmmm... yeah I... ain’t feeling it. I think my tpn feelings overall are carrying this more than anything pff. I didn’t hate it, it was just...... mediocre... like if this wasn’t tpn, I probably would have dropped it at this point.

BUT IT IS TPN SO LET’S GIVE SOME THOUGHTS.

.

. Random thoughts I don’t want to re-arrange

when Emma was like “share your pain with us!!”, I liked how Norman turned to Ray like “Ray. help. tell her I’m right” kind of like Ray did in s1 pfff-

Norman cried the words he didn’t allow himself to say in s1 :( I’M EMOTIONAL. it might not be the icing on the cake execution wise but GOD MY HEART. And knowing he’s going to die to it’s just- (well not if the pen has something to say about it but more about that later)

where- wheres my trio hug :((( RAY HUG THE CHILD NOW

it’s interesting that while Emma got the entire emotional speech spotlight, only Ray got a reaction shot to “I won’t live long”?? equivalent.... exchange...?

I thought Norman had a seizure when he broke down in front of Emma and Ray and I kinda wish he had because while it’s good to have him say it outright (a win for communicationnn), imagine THE ANGST. “I want to live with yo- *coughs up fountains of blood*”.

So. yknow that hideout Cislo or Vincent referenced when talking to Emma and Ray. Yknow where Norman hid the children they stole from farms, making it look like demons did it? ... w-what about them? will we see them? Are they getting left behind? it would have worked for Norman’s plan, since all they had to do was stay put and wait for demons to be yeeted. But now... he’d have to take them all too. But... I doubt we’re gonna introduce a bunch of new designs and characters? Or are we? Who knows. I don’t. I have unreasonably amount of protecc feelings for those children I’ve never even seen haha- WHERE ARE THEY. I mean... the plan rn is to immediately use the gate right? or is the plan to eradicte the GF farm staff and higher ups? I guess if thats the plan it might work. Or I guess the plan is to save Phil for now???

the idea of Sonju just... slicing his arm and throwing it at demons in a loop sounds so funny to me please someone make that.

I liked that Mujika turned to the lambda kids after giving a cup to the demon children but then we didn’t see their reaction or anything and then it cuts to the temple??? that was weird. was there sth missing there? confusion.

I also like Isabella remarking "[a radio] was supposed to be there" regarding the shelter, because it further heavily implies they know of the shelters and just let them be. Which further confirms that they should have just reframed the shelter and had the kids escape from it quickly but oH WELL.

I really liked demon Emma apologizing and Norman's reaction to that. it was a sweet little moment and like, the realization of apologizing for something that she didn't do but is aware of and all that. Cycle of hatred and all that shiz hell ye. Ik the anime won't rly delve into that but I kind of relish in the angst potential of the village - sure it was undone but some were still eaten and died and transforming people back won't bring those back. So, that’s some hella terrifying implications for families; and I'm assuming Norman is aware of those so. guilt time! not that he wasn't aware it was bad but yeah- I teared up at that moment :<<

I feel like this season really does its best when it’s doing the whole two worlds/species angle. Mujika and Sonju, the village, demon and human Emma... all that stuff.

I wish we had gotten more time (god this is really the season’s downfall) thought to see Vylk talk to the GF kids more often. it’s implied he told them not to hang out there before but I would have liked to have him show up a few more times before that but yeah. Runtime very RIP.

I also feel like CW is bending over backwards to put cliffhangers at the end of episodes. that was already a problem in s1 when they had Phil come in when Don and Gilda were in Isabella's room. it was obvious it'd be a copout but they still did it. I'm just wondering why we had to have Vincent disagree with the group to this extend (and if the shock value might play a part in that). we have 2 more episodes, why are they introducing more plot threads? Just streamline it you dofuses. I just don't know what good can come of it unless it's like an ultra big brain move to help them?? (and then we're back with the forcing cliffhangers thing) - if it's actual conflict, this'll just make things more confusing and clustered, and we don't have time for that right now imo. But who knows maybe it plays into something I just don't understand yet and it'll work out somehow

.

. Animation flow kinda dead.

I felt like this episode was kind of... awkwardly executed whenever something that was a slightly dynamic movement happened?

The whole bit while Emma is walking up to Norman could have been better, but it’s passable, except that a lot is spelled out for us.

But then she takes his hand really weirdly in a far away shot with bad inbetween timing?? what is that haha-

Or him collapsing is cut really weirdly. you barely really see it, you just kinda piece it together from Emma’s reaction and her catching him.

Most facial expressions are good though, which is arguably the more important part in this scene. I feel like a better execution just would have elevated it even more.

The only one I felt was really awkward in its entirety is Barbara’s scene with the children demons. I felt like that was in particular kind of stiff and the cut between the child and her was too sudden and felt jarring. TPN anime doesn’t really do that sort of stuff a lot, so imo it’s kind of “??” when they do it. With Norman it was too, but that at least had a good transition over to it (with bg and fg panning) and nice animation. Barbara’s just kind of switched. Tbh don’t switch it out, and as the child screams, switch over to her facial expression as her own voice fades into the scream? I think that would have done it too and also be low effort.

I think it’s moreso the flow of the shots than the actual shots though? it’s a bit too fast paced and sometimes missing inbetweens (like the wild demon eating sonju’s hand is literally just 2 frames) - it’s very weird. It’s jarring, but I can’t really explain why.

I’m sorry for the staff, I’m sure the production hasn’t been easy. maybe with the bluray release we’ll get some updated animations/inbetweens.

Some appreciation though:

as mentioned, most of the facial expressions, even if the body language was a bit stiff.

the cut from the trio talking to the eye-transition of the demon and the following breath animation looked nice. Also his arm regenerating!

Sonju smirking as he cuts his arm off, what a bastard

they didn’t have to show Vylk’s arm regenerating casually while they’re talking but they did.

.

. the lambda crew

If only I cared about you guys. Hahhh it’s just... introducing characters so close to the end is just. A mess. A recipe for disaster.

Where has the anime’s “show off the younger kids” angle gone? I thought they were always pretty good at that. but they haven’t really contributed anything since the whole tidbit about the older children always eating less for them. And even then it was just Lani and Thoma.

Potentially, what segments we saw in the shelter will come back for the GF raid thematically but I’m just... EH?

.

. the cure pen

at this point, just stick a syringe part at the end of the stick and just inject it and it’s gonna solve everything probably.

I just don’t understand why that needed to happen. Assuming they go to the human world, it’d be perfectly acceptable for me for medicine to be so advanced that it’d be able to like, lessen their symptoms and significantly improve their lifespan.

Don’t just... REMOVE their struggles. It’s okay to not be normal and cured. it’s okay for their lives to be impacted by it going forward. In fact, I’d much prefer that.

(added in later) OH wait they literally spell out why the cure being in the pen is meaningful - because it opens up a path where they can live through not having annihilated all the demons - it's essentially the moral "reward" for not killing them. Since they probably wouldn't have gotten it if they did that. I still think it wasn't needed and the blueprint on its own would suffice for another pen-convinience moment but I kind of get what they're going for, I just don't think it's worth it . In their case, going to the human world (while they don't know it) means having more medical expertise at their disposal which they can then use to survive. UNLESS they're actually not welcome over there and have to hide or something, in that case... that might be hard, true. I guess I'll come back to think about this once it's over. For now, it feels kind of unearned and it wouldn’t even have to be this way in my eyes which makes it somewhat worse.

But good, let’s say in-universe you need it NOW, then at least don’t put??? the medicine??? recipe??? INTO the hologram.

What if they just checked the GF blueprint and Norman goes “hey, Vincent... do you think this [database/archive room] could have some data on our experiments?” - Norman said he tried to develop a drug to help them but the supporters who had that data were purged. but... they had Smee to help them too. But SOMEHOW, a dude from 15 years ago just HAS the cure??? (at least let Norman develop it himself and have the data be just THE DATA and not the recipe).

It might still check out somewhat??

15+ years ago, James Ratri was assumingly still the gatekeeper since the switch to Peter seems somewhat recent considering his big "era of James has ended" speech.

I guess the implication is that just like Smee => Krone => Norman, a supporter all that time ago gave random person the pen when they escaped.

When Vylk found him, he also had just the data medium of the pen (not the entire pen), so maybe the farm thought they eliminated it and that’s why they didn’t change their methods to not work with those drugs anymore? It's still a bit curious that their experimentation hasn't changed at all in 15 years but maybe that's because they keep killing the smart people instead of making them scientists to research for them :D

Somewhere since those 15 years, Smee gave Krone the pen (probably a few years before she got to GF?), which means that at that point the gate the keyword "future" sent them to, was still in tact when Smee gave Krone the pen. Maybe WM wasn't discovered yet at that point?

then WM got discovered, James was chased. He made that phonecall update and was probably eventually killed, along with the human location (and likely bunkers since they knew a radio was supposed to be there, begs the question why they didn't remove it) being discovered (the one with the future keyword) and the gate there being destroyed.

The problem is just that it can make sense when you think about it for way too long and assume things in good-faith, but it still feels unearned.

Maybe I would care more or this would feel a little more earned if we knew ANYTHING about that person? They seemed fairly young, so it’s probably not Minerva/James Ratri. The “hope” talk reminded me of the book in the shelter, but I’m not sure if that checks out either? The cookies were rotten but not completely. I know cookies hold out relatively long, but would they rly not be completely rotten after 15 years? I MEAN. Maybe not. Who knows. I tried to google it but didn’t find anything. 

But anyway. That tidbit is going into my “shelter kids OC project” I guess.

But even if the worldbuilding makes sense, I think the data set in itself makes little sense?? How did they find that pen part? Did a supporter give it to them? Why do they have the cure? Clearly their group of escapees wasn’t doing too hot (#help) and they seemed relatively young too so they probably couldn’t have worked in the farm.

Were the shelter escapees lambda escapees? but if that was the case, wouldn’t the WM group have secured the cure information more properly than in just one pen (maybe it was and those were just destroyed, to be fair) - it’s just WEIRD to put the cure for Lambda experiments on the same blueprint as the GF layout??? that makes so little sense.

Plus, why would you send them to GF, when it’s so secured and all that, and not just send them to the human support place our GF kids were sent with the “future” keyword, which had a gate. Maybe it didn’t exist 15 years ago (that the humans had control over it, that is), but even then it seems weird to me to imply to send them to GF instead of one of the other gates that existed. I mean. The “future” location’s gate wasn’t destroyed when Krone got the pen right?

I’m guessing maybe it was meant as help for escaping? But then again, why the cure? I guess if they met lambda experiments? I’m just confused.

Also: do we just accept that the layout of GUARDS and SECURITY MEASURES has not changed in 15 years???

.

*sigh* welp. Still looking forward to seeing some stuff with Isabella hopefully. Time... is not on their side and it shows. Neither run-time wise nor production wise.