#excuse me as i just go into my full out villain era

[reireichu]

i never met you. i didn't even know you. and you fucked me like a tied goat. turns out karma's a bigger bitch than i am. it's all good now.

[anonymouscheeses]

Even more and more of obvious shit I point out because I want an excuse to rant while not interacting with actual people in real life who also like this show because I'm masking 😍💜💜

BARELY STARTED AND BRO. YOU JUST LET HER DO THAT TO YOU, ME PERSONALLY-

HE'S PETTING KEE-KEE I LOVE HIM SMM

HER HOOVES. I LOVE IT. NOT LIKE THAT, IM JUST A FURRY-

*grabs pen*

ANGRY CHARLIE FOR THE WIN. I LOVE WHEN THE HAPPY CHARACTER GETS ANGSTY (Cough. Luz. Cough).

The people writing fanfics where she gets FURIOUS. Omg. That was something I read. I LOVE MY FELLOW FANFIC WRITERS BUT OH MY- YALL REALLY HAD CHARLIE M A D.

"Uh-"

I love his reaction lmao look at his goofy face.

HER BOW BECAME HORNS (my "redesign" is now 100% worse)

SAD VAGGIE. THE BOW. DROOPY.

Oh and the angel dust fellow back there 🤯

I LOVE ROSIE SO MUCH HUH

Tall.

No explanation needed. <3

PLEASE HELP???

CUTIE PATOOTIE. I LOVE HER SM UGGHHH

CHARLIE HATES OLD PEOPLE COMFIRMED YAY 😍😍💅💅

Hot

That's it.

IN SYNC. I LOVE THIS SONG AND THE ENTIRE SCENE. WHY IS IT RANKED SO LOW WITH SOME OF YALL?? Okay well-

I thought this song was gonna be a Charlie and Vaggie duet- tbh I still preferred that BUT I LOVE CARMILLA SO I KINDA DONT CARE.

BUT I WAS ROBBED OF AN ACTUAL FULL CHAGGIE DUET (REPRISE DOESNT COUNT) IF H*SKERDUST GETS A FULL ONE WHY CAN'T CHAGGIE? *SOB* uhh anyway-

Is that. Like. How she thinks actually 😰

I know there's been a lot of the lack of Vaggie's self-worth, which I wish was explored into more. I just think the Vaggie(3rd) episode just wasn't needed at all if it didn't even have an impact. Don't get me started on that episode, it was rushed, too early to have character arcs already, and overall not needed or even should have existed periodt.

I hope they explore it next season because GOD this woman needs TO LOVE HERSELF. OR ATLEAST CARE ABOUT HERSELF LIKE????

SWEET MAMA PLEASE. TAKE ME IN YOUR WINGS AAAAAAAAA

Charlie, sharing is caring <3

Out of all the people I thought Charlie would vent to I didn't think it would be ROSIE. It's a nice surprise tho I love her <3

bisexuality.

That's it.

HE'S DANCING. ALASTOR IS DANCING. THEY ARE SLAYING BESTIES. THE MAN IS DANCING. HELP.

Season 2 is going to be Charlie in her villain era and Alastor's reputation era 😍

I LOVE VAGGIE'S FACE. PRECIOUS BABY UGHH... THEN THE WINGS REPLACE THE BOW AND DROOP UGGHH I HOPE IN SEASON 2 WE SEE MORE OF HER WINGS. OR CUT HER HAIR SHORT SO WE CAN HAVE IT ALL THE TIME. Also so Husk and Vaggie can bond over both having wings. Sorry I love their potential friendship so much. AND LUCIFER AND VAGGIE TOO!! BOTH BEING FALLEN ANGELS OMG. UGH THE POTENTIAL OF VAGGIE'S RELATIONSHIPS WITH NOT JUST CHARLIE ARE SO GOOD AND I HAVE BEEN ROBBED OF SEEING HER AS AN ACTUALLY MORE FLESHED OUT CHARACTER. I AM SCREAMING AAAAAAAA.

I can't say how much I love them. It's too much. I cant- yay the teaser image before the show came out <3 they are so fucking adorable. UGH SOME1 END ME

Charlie loves the wings hehehe. Vaggie looks nervous about it. It's probably a reminder to her about when she used to be an exterminator. The healing from everything will take a long time but hopefully Charlie will be there for her the entire time. And vice versa

Ayo- 😰

CHARLIE. T H E PRECIOUS BABY.

Uh next one tomorrow cuz yeah 🤯

[artsyannierose]

Nene’s Dead Corpse and her ghost bf

randomly made a crap ton more sense to me

why?

fricking school (screw school I hate you (no not rly I’m just stressed))

Anyway I’m a biomed class where unit 1 is studying medical investigations forensic science style

and one of the things is like, what happens to a person after the body has been dead for a while (post mortem or sum, see im learning :D)

Things like algor mortis, livor mortis, I’ve heard of. In fact I’ve even studied the clouding of the corneas before, but it never got to me till today

maybe it’s cause I cannot for the life of me study forensics without my wild imagination giving me nightmares or just panicking when I’m alone but aNyWays

I tend to imagine characters associated with death in these scenarios so I don’t lose it in class💀

*cough* Nene *cough cough*

So as I was taking notes on the slideshow, some of the images of clouded corneas reminded me strangely of something familiar, but at that point I couldn’t tell. There’s something haunting about the eyes (or maybe it’s just my over-analytical brain loving small details like this) they’re GORGEOUS

LIKE

IDK THEYRE PRETTY

Maybe it’s ‘cause the true color of the iris is completely visible in all its glory, without the pupil obscuring it

(something like this?? A little vivid tho lol)

but like

there’s no

life

no reflection, no emotion…nothing (which is so hauntingly beautiful leave me alone I’m a sucker for this now)

it’s literally just an eye with nothing but color

and then it hit me…it’s exactly the look Nene had when Mirai fast-forwarded her time

you can see in the image it’s just her plain magenta eyes with a fuzzy de-saturated blob in the center…aka clouded corneas

And that honestly made me realize that in this scene she’s not—she’s not even unconscious

No she’s literally, physiologically dead

THAT IS A CORPSE HE IS HOLDING

she is literally a dead body this hits me so hard😭😭

and I can imagine algor mortis kicked in by then, her body was probably cold to the touch

so imagine how he felt, and I’m aware people have analyzed his emotions but just think about it

he’s always seen her so full of life and hope, and now all he has left is an empty shell of her, cold and dead with no life left inside

…just like him

the more I think about it Hanako is just an animated corpse

he has no reflection in his eyes most of the time because he is ✨dead✨

I mean Mei, Mitsuba, and Hanako don’t have a little white reflection dot like Nene and Kou

Or maybe I’m overthinking it and Nene’s eyes are just super reflective

even for someone who presumably took his own life, he probably never saw tsukasa’s body start postmortem and actually feel dead bc it looked extremely bloody ngl (I’m guessing he killed himself right after 💔)

and now he’s holding someone he cares about like this for the first time and I’ll bet that scarred him

and he figured out that never, never ever did he ever want to see his sweet assistant like this again, lifeless in his arms

and so after that, cue Hanako in his villain era who basically became a yandere the entire picture perfect lmao

and he was unbelievably adamant about it too

I mean honestly if I held anybody I knew lifeless like that I’d be scarred for life and crying for days

seeing the light drained from someone’s eyes is so interestingly sad to me

Look at the difference:

Happy

vs Sad/Determined

vs Depressed (ig??)

vs Dead

She still has so much emotion in her eyes

and then d e a d

literally looks like a porcelain doll

wait she looks so pale in the last image compared to the others now that I think about it

I love aidairo’s eye for detail it’s so fun to figure out

Well anyways thanks for coming to my Ted Talk essay atp-

IT’S PAST 1 AM AND I SHOULD BE STUDYING FOR SAID BIOMED CLASS AND HERE I AN GOING ON A TANGENT ABOUT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER’S EYES

send help

anyways excuse me while I grab a box of strawberries to munch on and cry my eyes out all over my homework before I sleep-

[indigoatari]

please explain to me what the deal is with chonny jash i am fascinated

oh my friend you have olled away the rock the tomb has been unsealed,

Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium is a cover album of Tally Hall songs, in the same way Everything Everywhere All At Once is about a woman trying to do her taxes. the full thing is available on youtube and spotify. even solely superficially, it's super interesting, because it's not like, karaoke over the song's musical track, it's like. Redone. new sounds. same song, same tune, but still completely reupholstered. if you like jhariah or will wood, this is like tally hall if you seasoned it to make it sound like them.

HOWEVER.

the instrumentals are NOT the only thing that changed-- he also REWRITES THE LYRICS. he's a VERY clever lyricist, even if hes still definitely drawing from the original. but in doing so he's creating an underlying story, and in tying it all together it starts becoming clear.

CCCC is about Chonny Jash, the artist in question, going through such a bad mental health episode that he manages to split his brain in three. be aware, it's not explicitly anything-- it could be about plurality, it could be about depersonalization, or it could just be a metaphor about self conflict. but the bottom line is, where there was once one there is now THREE, and none of them want to be here.

the bulk of the album is the three of them singing and songwriting and arguing with each other. Mind Electric is the left brain, the logical side, and the only one with a distinctive voice-- he has a distinctly robotic, modulated voice. he also talks like a disney villain.

his counterpart is Heart Acoustic! the right brain, the emotional side, and the most visually distinctive of the three-- he's the chap with the blindfold and the wings and he's a bit of a miserable mess. if mind is the voice in your head who berates you for not getting things done, heart is the voice in your head panicking about the long term impact.

that being said: neither of them are inherenty the Good Guy or the Bad Guy. they are equals, and they cannot lives without each other, and they are constantly committing war crimes. the first thiiiird? of the album is the two of them bitching and bitching and bitching and

number three is my favorite and he shows up in like the last half of the album: the Soul Eclectic. you can't really argue if Heart or Mind are id or superego, but Soul is unquestionably the ego in the triad. he moderates and also keeps Heart and Mind from killing each other. and plays guitar. he's skrunkly

that being said. it is about a depressive episode. all three of them kind of want to die. Soul is absolutely not opposed to it. they have explicitly discussed this. i cannot emphasize enough, the entire album is about an absolute mental low, and that's kind of what keeps it interesting. the three of them are one person at his absolute worst, and they are so filled with loathing for the Others that is really just kind of... loathing of the self. take all of that on top of the fact they are in a time loop.

the three of them are trapped in an infinite cycle of dissolution and reconstitution. they will always eventually synthesize and make it out of the misery pit only to fall back apart into the same patterns and arguments and PEOPLE. they cant catch a break man!!!!!!

i have SEVERE autism about it and so does my girlboybestie @julystruck. the full album is here, but if you're just trying to lean into it, i fully recommend the whole twelve minutes of The Mind Electric along with the lyrics analysis to get a grip on the characters, and then Mucka Blucka and The Bidding for basic dynamics. and feel free to ask me about literally anything and giving me an excuse to write an essay when i COULD be writing an essay about the progressive era,

[sekhithefops]

I liked FF7 Remake better than Persona 3 Reloaded Because of What They Changed

Welp, that should get half the internet blindingly furious, but here we go.

So as many of you are well aware, its been a big time for remakes lately. Resident Evil is getting the do-over treatment, Silent Hill 2 is currently getting the once over by Bloober Team (and we may one day forgive them for it,) Dead Space got a new shot of life, and of course Final Fantasy 7 and Persona 3 got the remake and reload respectively.

During the PS1/PS2 era I played both of these games from beginning to end and loved them both, I consider them focal points for my development as a gamer, writer, and yes even a person.

Final Fantasy 7 was my first experience as a young kid with a game that had a character I liked outright killed by the game's villain. (Yes I know that Tellah from FF4 got offed, but I never had an SNES as a kid.) The idea that my heroes weren't immortal and that the good guys didn't always win was a pretty big "holy shit" moment for me as a twelve year old kid in 1998.

Meanwhile Persona 3 was my first experience with truly dark storytelling and the idea of supernatural in a modern day setting (FF7 had modern tech, but it clearly wasn't Earth.) Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres and I place the blame for this solely at Persona's feet.

So of course when the remakes came out I snapped them both up. I blew through FF7 Remake and despite the mooing of the hardcore fans, I loved it.

Then I got Persona 3 Reload and... after I beat The Hanged Man shadow I just kinda lost interest.

Yeah, I just had no desire to keep going, and now I'm going to say why.

People complain that FF7 Remake changed a lot of the story, and to be fair it totally did. (SPOILER WARNING BY THE BY!)

New characters, a more nuanced look at life in Midgar, the idea that ShinRa knew full well that Avalanche wanted to blow up the reactors but actually helped them do so because they wanted to use the attacks as an excuse to frame Wu-Tai for the bombings to restart the war... which is just so damn perfect for an evil corporation I just have to applaud it. Excellent addition.

Persona 3 Reload however... well... beyond updated graphics, updated systems, and a few tweaks to the dialogue is the same damn game I played when I was a kid.

Unfortunately... thats the problem.

In Final Fantasy 7 Remake they made a lot of changes to the narrative yes, but that made it INTERESTING to me! It was like getting a new version of the story I already loved!

Whether it was something as fun, campy, and energetic as Cloud doing a dance number with the owner of the Honey Bee Inn to get a makeover to disguise him as a woman...

... or something as randomly silly as Cloud's gigantic sword getting stuck on a doorframe when he tries to attack a Sepheroth clone.

I even liked the Whispers as an addition. As soon as those knockoff dementors showed up I immediately wanted to know more about them.

The point is, Final Fantasy 7 for me was a mix of what I loved about the old version, and a bunch of new and interesting stuff in a new version!

Persona 3 Reload was... the old version, but a bit fancier with some new mechanics. Otherwise it was the exact same GAME.

Maybe I'm just weird among gamers, but I really am not huge on going back to retread old ground. Even as big a WoW fan as I am the only time I ever installed WoW Classic was to get the undead proto-dragon mount that they gave you for clearing the Death Knight starting area in Wrath Classic.

Once I complete a game's story or finish the main quest, I want to seek out new adventures. There are very VERY few games I'm okay with playing over and over and over and over and over and over again.

When it comes to Single Player RPGs like the majority of the Final Fantasy series and Persona however... yeah. By the midway point in Persona 3 Reload I realized I was reciting along with half the dialogue.

Its still a very good game, but its a game I played years ago and believe me that makes a big difference for me.

[justaredheadf1fan]

The Return of the Sprint Race

Hey, I know, I'm an idiot but I need to keep my sanity somehow nowadays 😂

So, today was the second Sprint Race of this season, plus we had FP2 first. FP2 wasn't really that entertaining or interesting today, but the Sprint was a pretty different story. Actually, everything worth mentioning about FP2 is.... absolutely nothing.

What I've found interesting though (to call it something), is something one of the Spanish commentators said today. They said that people are trying to find tensions between Carlos and Charles after the former's win at Silverstone when there's really nothing there.

It's funny they of all people say that because they've been going on and on about tensions between Lewis and George since the season started. They try to make George Lewis' biggest and toughest rival because they think he's trying to steal his place in Mercedes because he's better than Lewis. And now there's nothing going on at Ferrari related to their golden boy after they fucked over Charles once again and part of the team was pissed? Excuse me. Fucking ridiculous if you ask me. This is why I can't stand this commentators, where's Ted!?

The only good thing but from before FP2, was an interview by this girl from DAZN Spain (my dear friends again) to Mick 🥰 She asked him if Silverstone was a motivation boost and my baby clapped back by telling her that he was never unmotivated, which I think was a very smooth answer to correct someone who just assumes bullshit without anything to back it up for a living, instead of making questions or affirmations based on actual facts. There commentators, seriously. But my boy here's too good to fall for this crap.

Finally, the Sprint Race came, and not because Iw as eager to watch it, but because I was looking forward to be done for the day at work and go to Ibiza for the evening 😂 We got a few interesting things today during the Sprint.

Charles and Carlos fighting for P2 was a highlight, particularly because Charles is diving into his Reputation era, which I was really looking forward too. The only downside has been Max taking advantage of it but I'm still hoping for him to get a DNF tomorrow.

Also at the very start Pierre and Lewis hit but I'm not truly clear on how that was, because of the camera angle I have my doubts. It looked like Pierre squeezed Lewis a little too much, but I honestly can't judge. Albon did crash into almost everyone including my dear Seb. Zhou's car stopped at the first start, causing the restart right after. A shitshow, as usual.

Another highlight was Mick fighting and keeping Lewis in check. I mean, he did a hell of a job, he defended like a lion and did everything he could until the very end, which is impressive. That's for the idiots at the back saying he's not a good driver, in the words of my friend Kevin "Violence on Wheels" Magnussen, suck my balls.

Another Reputation era going around now is Mick's, because HE WAS PISSED. Like seriously pissed. This is the very start of the Schumacher War Crimes part 2, I can feel it. And honestly, I'M HOPING FOR IT. Can you imagine? You know it when you see Mick angry and looks exactly like his dad. Which is awesome.

The last thing I want to comment on is the fact that Seb has been fined by the FIA for walking out on the Friday driver's briefing. Look, think what you will, but if Sebastian Vettel of all people leaves just like that, there's 800% a good reason for it. This bunch of morons running the sport are just sinking it into the fucking ground, and I totally get why there's tension building between the FIA and Stewards and the drivers, because honestly this is just moronic at best.

I'm weary of what will happen tomorrow, I can't put my expectations in order this time because it's all getting a little out of hand right now. What I can and will say is that my 3 darlings going full on into their Villain eras is something I wasn't expecting so soon but my body's so ready to witness and enjoy.

Once again, it's over 2am and I can't find the strength to proofread this, I unfortunately have to work in the morning again. But I'll be back tomorrow with a sarcastic commentary if you wanna call it that, as per usual. At least I hope tomorrow I'l be able to go to bed a wee bit earlier at least, otherwise I'll be so fucked 😂

Peace out!

[augustheart]

tell me about the way they talk about henry heywood sr. in the jsa 2007 run. tell me your thoughts about it pls. i know what he did generally but unfortunately i haven't read all of the comics with the second steel (the grandson he forced into the hero life).

@scarabaebutch: WAIT WAIT I JUST SAW THAT ADDITION WHEN THE FUCK DID THE OLD GUARD JSA BEAT THE HELL OUT OF HENRY SR. WHEN AND WHY WHAT-

banging my hands on the walls over and over i am so mad all the time about this

so some backstory is that henry heywood iii aka hank aka my best pal my sweet cheese my good time boy was raised by henry sr after his father died. while the exact details of hank's origin story has changed over the course of dc retcons*, what stays the same is that henry, in an effort to make hank "perfect," forced brutal medical operations on him (often without anesthesia) in order to turn him into a superhero like him. he also forced hank to join the justice league of america during their ill-fated detroit era. being essentially experimented on by his grandfather left hank with a lifetime of chronic pain, trust and anger issues, and trauma. he explicitly calls henry mad for it.

during crisis, henry sr goes further off the deep end and, in a full supervillain phase, joins mekanique the all-star squadron villain and tricks infinity inc by telling them that the JLA is evil and corrupted his grandson so that they'll attack JLA and give him the chance to take hank back and give him more forced surgeries. when infinity inc realizes this is stupid they call the JSA (original earth-2 jsa, the members we specifically see are the flash, wonder woman, hawkman, doctor fate, and doctor mid-nite) who show up to beat the shit out of henry before mekanique shows up to help him escape. he and hank have a brawl where hank nearly kills him and barely manages to stop himself.

fast forward to 2007 (past things like hank being fatally injured and henry sr, for some reason, being put in charge of his life support and ultimately turning it off). with nate's introduction, things go off the fucking rails.

you're at least familiar with nate's character, but one thing you may not remember is that a lot of his first scenes are about him thinking about how henry heywood sr presented himself as a superhero to his family and how hank was equally exalted by them for choosing to have the surgeries that turned him into steel. this is fine to me. henry would definitely lie about that, and it took hank awhile to admit that what had happened to him was wrong. but surely when the jsa shows up they'll set him straight, right? i mean, jay is in this run. jay was also there when henry showed his true colors. he tried to fight him in the name of protecting hank, the jla, and infinity inc from him.

nope! henry is described as a hero and the fact that he violently medically abused the grandson left in his care from when he was a very young child to when he was around seventeen--hank is described at one point as not yet being a man--is never Fucking mentioned to nate or anybody. i cannot stress enough that this is an integral aspect to his character and was written by the same person who created him (conway).

tl;dr: for some reason, henry sr's superhero identity, the one he used as an excuse to torture his grandson, is forced onto another one of his grandsons who explicitly does not want to be a superhero and quits the first chance he gets. the fact that the people putting this identity on nate also fought henry for being a horrible person is not brought up. this is never once interrogated or questioned by anyone in-universe and is deeply fucked up.

(*what is specifically retconned is whether or not hank "needed" the surgeries to improve his health and henry just took it too far; originally this was not the case but some writers have implied it. additionally, jla: classified retconned it so that dale gunn, hank's only parental confidante and protector, was a part of the abuse he suffered. i ignore this because it's stupid and directly contradicts previous canon where dale talks to himself about how horrified he was when he found out what henry had done--after specifically sending dale away so he couldn't stop him. (additionally, dale has since been retconned to be a gay man, which... puts him and hank's father being "war buddies" in a new light.))

[cafecourage]

The moment they realized they loved you. (Isekai Au Edition) Part 1

Because this was my first time doing this I went a little crazy. If you want more information on this AU here is the Link!

Time:

- It had been welcomed with open arms.

- You two are literally the opposite but also very similar. Time is calm and stoic. You are chaotic and loud. But both of you are very cryptic.

- You’re the only person in the kingdom of hyrule currently that remembers what he had gone through. He feels like he can trust you with anything.

- It’s started with a slip up by wind and just spiraled out of control.

___________________________________

Time was discussing the groups inventory with Twilight and Wild when it happens. A small slip of the tongue followed by a laughter that could be mistaken as a fairy chime. He looked over to see your bright smile shining through under your hood. In front of you was the target of your amusement, the youngest link.

“That’s so cute!” You exclaimed to the horror of Wind, who was red in embarrassment. “Wait who’s dad?”

“Can we let this go?” The teen was covering his face now.

“It’s Time.” Four said without looking up from his book. Utter chaos broke loose in camp with just a few words. A chorus of any forms of agreement was making you laugh even harder. Time though covering up his true feelings about the situation was very lost. While yes, he acknowledged that he had slowly became the father figure of the group. That title didn’t involve you.

Unless…

“Time! I didn’t know we were married!” You bounced over to their leader looking at him with a playful smirk.

A life with you flashes in his head.

There could be a small cottage farm surrounded by the forest that reminding him of his old family and home. You could take care of the garden while he could take care the animals. In a few years the two of you might just have a few kids running around. Playing with each other without a care in the world. No more fighting. No more traveling. Just a simple lifestyle with a tight knit family. It looked peaceful. Everything he would want.

“You should have told me.” He was brought back to the present by your face looking up at him expectedly.

“I thought you knew.” He said super seriously. “We’ve got to raise nine children together already.”

“Hey! I raised you during the war old man!” Warriors called out from across camp.

“You’re the uncle then!” (Y/n) countered “I already say Twilight is our first born!” You declared pointing to Time’s flustered descendent. The rest of the conversation was tuned out as he went back to his thoughts once more.

Time lived longer than most of the heroes here by age 11. Yet not once did he stop to think about a future and family. He was so busy trying to keep out of hero work that it just slipped. Yet see you with the other heroes, knowing now that you were just as much a parental figure to the others as him. It made his softer just thinking about it and he welcomed that warm fuzzy feeling with open arms.

Reaching out he brush’s hair out of your face to kiss your temple. “I’ll propose to you properly later.” He said in a teasing tone to suggest he was only joking to hide the truth in that statement. Seeing your entire face flush red was really worth it.

“Gross Mom and Dad are flirting!”

___________________________________

- He’ll never once tell you straight if he liked you or was just playing along with the ongoing joke that the chain has.

- This time instead of you observing him. He wants to see how far he can go until confessing.

- It drives you crazy. Since you can’t get a read on him. You attempt to flirt back in retaliation. However, it always ends with you being the most flustered.

- Who knew the Old Man had it in him?

Twilight:

- It became a melancholic hopeless feeling that spiral out of control.

- He already had his heartbroken by someone before and he knows he shouldn’t get attached to you too.

- Yet he can’t stop himself from wanting to be near you. He heard you so clearly before.

- Now that he can actually speak to you directly, he wants to get to know his other travel companion more.

___________________________________

Being alone in the forest with you wasn’t what Twilight planned when dropped in a different Hyrule but here you two where. You offered to go on patrol with him when the others were setting up camp claiming it was too see if you could identify the era. It didn’t matter since Twilight enjoyed your company no matter what. The lack of conversation between the two of you didn’t bother him. If anything, it felt the most natural. Only a few words were needed for the two of you to understand each other. “Do you mind if I use my wolf form?” Twilight asked fiddling with the chain that attached to the shadow crystal around his neck.

You paused to think about it. “I mean you can. But be aware I will baby talk you.”

This got Twilight to stop walking. Maybe he lied. He doesn’t need a few words to understand your thought process. “Excuse me?”

“I can’t control myself around cute creatures.” You simply stated like it was the most obvious thing.

Instead, Twilight was burning up. You thought his wolf form was cute? Of all things you used that word? What did you think of human Twilight if you thought like that? Did he want to even know? He was searching for any way to take this conversation but it all lead to dead ends. “Cute?” Was all he could ask. His voice pitching up as he got flustered.

“Yeah?” You looked at him just as confused as he was. “Wolves are just like big dogs and to be honest you look more like a giant dog then a wolf.” Your explanation did not help at all with his situation. “If it makes you feel better you’re very handsome as a Hylian and also built like an go-“

Twilights brain was malfunctioning he couldn’t hear any more of what you had to say about him. He grabbed on to the shadow crystal, turning into his wolf form he ran. He didn’t hear you call out his name in surprise.

Hylia, what was wrong with him? You were just a friend. A very blunt yet gentle friend. Nothing more. Nothing less. Why was his heart racing so much? He had heard you shower him in complements before while on his first adventure. But hearing you say it to his face with no shame whatsoever was a different story.

Twilight knew what these feelings were and deep down he really wanted to act on them. But was it ok? Was his heart finally healing from his last love? Twilight was already aware this time that you had to leave at some point. He didn’t need to act on them despite wanting to. He could just be your friend and continue the relationship like that.

His heart was already breaking a second time.

Twilight was in love you and it was driving him crazy.

___________________________________

- Like Time, Twilight isn’t going to tell you about his feelings. Instead, he is going to forever pine for you.

- It’s going to be a slow process and you need to be aware that he will get hurt if you’re going to go back home.

- He’ll see you off with a smile, but as soon as your gone he will break.

Warriors:

- It was full of denial and fear.

- He went through the receiving end of someone’s obsessive love.

- And it doesn’t help that you’ve watched over their adventures. He vowed to not get that close to you.

- There was a need to destroy the endearing feeling he sees when you smile at him.

- Yet seeing you with a sad far out look on your face makes him scramble to your side to find out what’s wrong.

___________________________________

It was just the two of you. Weaving throughout the crowds of castle town. You were currently in Four’s Era and in the middle of the Picori festival. The group was long spilt up, leaving Warriors alone with the dimensional traveler. Soon even (Y/n) was walking away from him. He didn’t know why he followed, the argument in his head was telling him that it was so they didn’t get lost. Yet there was a part of him that knew that wasn’t it.

“Where are you going anyway?” He thought to finally ask as you reached a quieter area. “It’s going to be hard to spend time in the festival from here.”

“Yeah, that’s the point.” You were a bit snappy today, “shouldn’t you find someone else to hang out with?” Warriors just shrugged as you slowed your pace down to pause in front of the small river that ran through castle town. The silence now filled with the rushing of water as you sat on the bridge.

Against his better judgement Warriors sat next to you. Finally, he got to talk to you one on one but the normally impulsive and excitable person Warrior’s grew to expect had changed in that moment.

You looked so tired.

“Hey Link?” You finally called out to him “I know I shouldn’t ask you this but…” hesitation was new to your character. “How do I even start?” You rake a hand through your hair. Sweeping a part of your hair out of your eyes. “Was I ever helpful during your Adventure?”

Oh… Oh he really wasn’t the right person for this talk.

You look back you and towards the festival and he followed your gaze. From where they were he could only spot a few of his party members. Wind was with Legend and Hyrule playing some of the stall games. While Four was with his Zelda holding hands as she pulled him further into the crowd. “Last time I saw this festival it ended up destroyed by Vaati.” The wind mage was only brought up a few times by Four. All Warriors really knew was that the villain was supposed to be sealed away by the Four Sword, and that his power was connected by the dark mirror. “I found myself wondering if my presence even mattered.” Your shoulder slumped in defeat as you curled into yourself.

The instant need to comfort shot through Warriors. He wanted to reach out. He fought the urge to hold you. He bites his tongue when he started to think of embellished words to make you feel better.

What was wrong with him?

Warriors had to say something though. “I don’t know about Four or the others.” He didn’t even think about your presence in his adventure too much. If anything, he actively tried not to think about it. Here you were though a person and not a figment of in his imagination. “During the war, your voice and presence is what broke the tension. The moments that could have been my lowest, you were there saying things that I wanted to repeat out loud.” There was a fondness while he was looking back at the memories. From the moment he ran on the battle field foolishly as a trainee soldier. His pride grew upon hearing your praise and surprise when seeing him fight for the first time. To your excitement while meeting his friends from the other Eras. He shared your sentiments about Mask as you cooed over the child as Warriors fought by his side. Then your anger, disgust and pity towards Cia. While on his side, your empathetic nature had you morning during her passing. These where just the tip of the iceberg.

Just having someone voice out mutual thoughts on a situation helps when you can’t do it on your own. You feel crazy thinking the way you do. “With you there it’s like you always have someone by your side cheering you on and supporting you.” He paused to look at you. Conflicting emotions clashing together. You turn to look at him, your eyes only briefly visible through your bangs. Curiosity and guilt were swarming with in them. “I’m not the person to talk to about this.” He finally admitted out loud. “But I would be lying if I said your presence wasn’t important to us.”

The silence that followed was deafening. Was that not what he was supposed to say? Warriors tried to stay calm under your gaze.

You let out a huff of laughter covering your mouth and turning away from him a bit to calm down. “I didn’t think about it like that.” There was a pause where you looked back at the festive before turning back to smiling softly at him. “Thanks Cap.”

The smile that you had on your lips had Warriors stomach do back flips. A blush decorated his face as he turns away. “It’s something that should have been said a while ago.” He manages to say without stuttering.

You were really pretty.

The sound of a picto box followed by winds snickering, was ignored when the thought had just register in his head. He finally realized how far he fell for you.

___________________________________

- one by one his defenses lowered.

- With every smiled sent his way, with every laugh that he earned. He found himself wanting more.

- He slowly opens up, a slow process but it wasn’t as scary as he thought it was going to be.

- A teasing nickname here. A gentle touch there. He realizes he has gone too far.

(Part 2)

[sleeping-lilies]

robin era jason, dick, and babs headcanons because there’s too much comedic potential to ignore

- dick and babs were the ultimate gossip buddies. whenever dick was with the titans for long periods of time, babs always filled him in on everything

babs: dick you’ll never believe what hal said to bruce last night, i even have videos. dick, the look on his face please—

dick, immediately locking doors so his teammates don’t hear the mad shit about to be dropped on main: tell me everything

- vice versa too, dick filled babs in on everything going on with the titans and all they can say is thank god those lines are bat secured with no villains being able to listen in, imagine deathstroke hearing through bat gossip that joey’s dating who?!?! 😳

- batkids have been and always will be the holder of superhero gossip. it’s a business, you see, but we’re getting off topic 😡

- lmfao anyways this is literally how dick finds out about jason

babs: anyways, jason—

dick: who the fuck is jason

babs: ....

dick: barbara?!?!

babs: ok promise you won’t freak out

- babs and dick’s first reaction upon meeting jason being “why is he so small i wasnt that small” “dick you were literally nine when you were robin—“ “he’s tiny” it’s like those two share the same braincell

- i’m making it so that dick gave jason his number earlier because i feel like it 😡😡😡 (not that it changes much other than the fact that i want more gossip dropped in dm’s)

- when dick gave jason his number, he went to babs like “give me jason’s number” “didn’t you literally just give him your’s?” “ya but i’m gonna make sure he texts me” “ya ok that’s fair”

- whenever jason didn’t want to be in the manor (fight with bruce, boredom, etc) he went to wherever the fuck babs lived and they would facetime dick and talk mad shit. it was a thing.

- despite them all being able to drive, babs was the only one during this time with an actual, legitimate, legal license (jason was too young to have a license and dick is too lazy/busy/whatever-excuse-he-wants-to-use to take the permit and driving test) so babs drove them around everywhere and it was a mess™ consisting of a bunch of backseat drivers

- “dick omg look at this video i found from the batcave” “omg he said robin gives him magic” “robin gives him magic” they both cry about it for years to come

- babs sometimes kidnapped jason after school after telling the head of wayne manor (alfred) and took him to get ice cream, then to the library while she worked. jason was the greatest kid in the library, he even had his own throne special chair just for him whenever he came provided by library staff who adored this absolute angel.

- jason 🤝 babs 🤝 dick -> i believe in annoying yet endearing nicknames supremacy

- nicknames include (some used by some more than others or just one, or by both equally because they’re annoying pick and choose my good people)

little wing (iconic, we all know this one fellas and who uses it)

red (used for babs, absolutely fantastic, but in the future it gets confusing because some people with their goddamn hero names 😡)

boy wonder (classic, babs calls them both that)

barbie (for babs, jason uses this one and he’s the only one able to get away with it)

dickie (jason just really gets away with everything huh)

dickhead (jason’s lucky he’s cute)

baba black sheep (jeez i’m on a roll with babs’ nicknames she’s so nickname-able and that’s very cool and sexy of her)

jay z

jay allen

jay jay jay (shut up, dickhead—)

big bird

and a bunch more i’m too tired to look for them in canon or make new ones up, but you get the idea

- dick can totally bake, and babs and jason keep bugging him when he’s baking and add more chocolate chips while pretending to not notice that he can see them 😡😡😡

- headcanon that jason had hero worship for babs and dick because they’re so cool in and out of costume and it never really went away when he got older listen his older brother and pseudo sister are so cool and that’s not his fault but he’ll never admit it

- barbie movie marathons because barbie is an iconic legend and they all recognize it. they have the fucking “she’s the queen of the WA-A-A-AVES” song memorized along with all other barbie movie songs, they sing it on patrol.

- dick and jason’s sibling dynamic was and is basically “ur a little shit and i hate you but i will literally kill for you”

- dick had tension with bruce while jason was just a little shit who would totally cause drama for the sake of it, and people never take advantage of this absolute power duo for destroying bruce

- dick sending cryptid texts to jason through a burner phone because he’s dramatic jason totally knew it was him about things that drive bruce mad, like leaving the shower turned to the coldest setting before bruce got there, leaving the lights in the batcave on, etc. jason, a wise little child, totally took advantage of this. bruce came to accept his fate

- the gc names, guys the group chat names

- jason crashing into titans tower whenever he wants and dick doesn’t bat (hAH) an eye, occasionally he very sweetly asks babs to come with him and she agrees but only sometimes because some people have jobs, jason—wait dick is being flirted with by who?!?! i’ll leave it up to your imagination ;) and they totally crashed titans missions too

- one time bruce was busy with the league while alfred was on vacation and bruce absolutely could not dip (i’m imagining bruce getting a call from the headmaster during an honest to god fight and bruce just picking up while punching the daylights out of some asshole) (“mr wayne, what is that noise in the background?” “sorry, headmaster, the cat is having a seizure”), so when jason got into a “fight” (read: some jackass picking on jason before he snapped and yelled at him and the bitchass kid tried to punch him and jason’s no quitter) bruce called dick who was an adult and legally family (yes dick is adopted sometime after jason was, stay mad) like “son... son please” and dick was like “oh no need to plead with me, this is too good” but of course this bitchass doesn’t have an actual lisence yet and he was hanging out with babs anyways so he and babs rolled up to gotham academy and the kids stared at them like “holy shit they’re so cool” ya dick and babs are those power couple, whether romantic or not, that turn heads, they’re just that powerful strolled into the office, bailed jason out while intimidating the headmaster because the altercation was the result of school staff negligence of actual bullying like those cliche tropes, said “ayyy you got that brat good” and get him chili dogs or whatever the fandom made robin jason’s favorite food. omg i just made an entire fanfic in rough draft form someone please steal it and write it in full form and send me the link

- jason is very very tiny, you see. babs and dick pick him up and move him for any reason, whether because they want to sit on that chair or to just throw him out of harm’s way and take the bullet for themselves.

- jason and dick both get adorable blushes on their faces it’s genetic yes that’s how genetics work shut up meanwhile babs’ ears turn red when she’s embarrassed and all three of them clown each other for it

- i yelled about this to my mutual (cough cough @littlespaceboii) who also added to this absolute dogshit headcanon and then in the discord full of mutuals, but the basement of wayne manor is haunted. dick found it when he was a little gremlin (i stand by that dick was the original demon child) (“you see damian, before there was you there was me” the real reason he was good with damian lmfao) and was like “omg this is so cool” @littlespaceboii came up with that it was just alfred fucking with bruce and so when jason first came and dick was comfy around him he was like “so have you been in the basement” and jason was like “im literally robin i’ve been in the batcave?!?!” and dick goes “no the basement, the haunted one” and jason’s like “hAUNTED?!?!” cuz jason has at least some self preservations and knows not to fuck with the spookies until he too became a spooky and bruce was like “there’s no ghost it’s not haunted” because he’s a skeptic and a party pooper and babs is like “no go on let him finish” even though she knows full well there are no ghosts or does she? and uhhhh basically they becomes ghostbusters 2.0 but cooler and funnier

- this trio is basically baby pan/bisexual jason and two resident expert pan/bisexuals solidarity but that’s literally canon. they go to pride every year that jason’s alive what who said that?

- they all tease each other for their crushes like all siblings/family friends do, i don’t need to say it but it’s important that’s emphasized for my well being

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals who added onto this absolute train wreck too, but jason used to play baseball during his robin days, and dick never showed up to those games with being busy as an excuse, but babs always showed up with bruce and alfred and took pictures for dick so dick could be like “mlb players are jobless now that little wing is on the scene” babs (and sometimes bruce) always shouted loudest for jason whether he was in the field or in the dugout and jason would get this extremely adorable blush on his face (jason finds out in the future why dick never showed up (cough cough ptsd from two face’s massive baseball bat which led to everything that came after including being fired and veangance academy and nearly killing two face and omg that’s a ride) and is like oh my god my childhood is even more ruined—)

- remember when i said dick got adopted after jason did in this new absolutely fabulous canon i just created? bruce did that because “ahhh fuck that’s my kid and i want him to know i love him through every means possible since i have the ability to do so” i believe in good dad bruce supremacy and made a whole thing where he invited dick to dinner for like a week to work up the courage and bonding to ask him and show him the adoption papers and then everyone cried :) bruce decided to finally adopt dick after jason referred to dick as his brother and bruce was like “...oh” and alfred was like 👀

- dick, as the first child hero and one of the first heroes period like at least a year or two before babs, holds the “back in my day” card over literally everyone in the hero community in general and pulls it out to annoy babs and jason even tho babs literally joined the scene only a year or two after dick

jason, shaking in his panties: it’s so fucking cold

dick, standing strong in his tits out outfit, who had to wear the panties on his own decision: oh, you’re cold? back in my day—

babs, throwing her boot at his face: god shut the fuck up—

and then dick doesn’t give back her boot and it becomes a whole thing with lots of tackling and play fighting and someone nearly gets thrown off they rooftop for funsies but anyways

also on a side note, babs would take off her cape and wrap it around jason whenever she noticed his discomfort with the weather, or use the weather as an excuse whenever she saw him uneasy for whatever reason and they never mention it to each other

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals at some point too holy shit i have friends, but those three are team rocket. they went out as team rocket for halloween one year after bullying bruce to let jason out only jason because he can’t tell dick and babs what to do and jason is under his care and when they do convince him, dick and babs bully jason into being meowth. manifesting jason in a meowth onesie ARTISTS PLEASE—

- dick finally took his license seriously and took his driver’s test after babs became paralyzed.

- those were a rough few months for those three. and then another rough few months for those two

- yikes, sorry to throw angst at you (sorry (unfeeling)) anyways, in the future alfred finds those old photos and shows the rest of the fam, so dick and babs bully jason, 6’2 jason that towers way above both of them, and once again bullies him into being meowth “for tradition, little wing!” “shut up, dickhead” the rest of the batkids lose their shit over this, naturally. bruce and alfred stand in the back teary eyed reminiscing the old days when things were a little more simple.

- discowing walked so terrifying handsome squidward red hood helmet could run (even tho the ugly helmet tripped and fell and missed the mark because discowing wasn’t ugly and will always remain superior, i feel i have committed a terrible crime comparing the two)

dick: jason what the fuck is that

jason: it’s fashion

dick: it’s terrifying

jason: i’m only following in my older brother’s footsteps 😔

dick: listen here, you little shit strangles him haha just kidding that illegal wait theyre vigilantes they don’t follow the law—

- these three and cass refer to the rest of the batkids as “the kids” (if she’s older than jason, sometimes she is and sometimes she isn’t and i’m really confused but whatever)

- babs and dick’s relationship with jason pre death literally shaped how jason treats his siblings post pit madness like he literally goes “what would red and big bird do?!??” when he needs to go into big brother mode over the “little ones” (“little” because tim and steph are adults and duke is nearly an adult himself oh my god he’ll graduate from high school soon and jason never got to do that himself he’s totally going to the ceremony legally dead or not) 🥺

- holy trinity continue hanging out with each other, whether lunch or games or whatever, and just enjoy each other’s company after long, rough years

[nicanario]

this post is a product of its time

tw: discussion of racism, homophobia, misogyny and a short mention of sexual abuse.

ok, this is basically gonna be a very long rambling post about my not fully developed thoughts on the justification many people give to bigotry when talking about the past: "it was a product of its time"

it would be fair to say, with me being a raging SJW socialist scumbag, that I don't think this is a very good argument and is most of the time actually an excuse to not think about the problems inherent to our society, historical or not, and, by extension, the problems with ourselves. but I do think that sometimes, just sometimes, this can be a valid point, or at least one that raises some interesting questions.

I'm going to cite examples from several pieces of media, but fear not, I'll try to make this as accesible as I can.

so, let's take Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) as our first case study. this show has, correctly, been called progressive by everyone except for clueless people who don't know much about Star Trek's history, Star Trek's crew, Star Trek's cast, or, frankly, Star Trek. because if you ignore the clear, sometimes in-your-face political history and present of the franchise, I don't think you know much about it at all. I do think you can call yourself a fan if you like it, you may have watched every single episode for all I know. but lots of mental gymnastics are needed to ignore the political progressiveness Star Trek has had since its very beginning.

episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield are obviously anti-racist, at least in their intention. but the episode in question really is "a product of its time," and at the very end fails to uphold its ideals. the episode ends with the two aliens (who are LITERALLY. BLACK ON ONE SIDE. AND WHITE ON THE OTHER. BUT IN THE OPPOSITE SIDES.) fighting each other on their devastated planet, and the crew is like, "oh yeah if they both would give up on their hatred that they both share both of them equally" when it has been firmly established that one is the oppressor and the other one is the oppressed.

and that's a lot of Star Trek, not just TOS. even Discovery, one of the most recent series, has done Bury Your Gays (and Trans) TWICE (though both times literally rectified it, which is cool). there are episodes of the franchise that are overtly racist, or misogynistic, etc. TOS is lauded, mostly justifiably, as very progressive, especially for the standards of the time. they put a woman of colour as one of the senior staff, for fuck's sake. of course, when you analyse that same character, as with most of their intentions at being progressive, you'll see that she was relegated and sometimes even outright mistreated when she had the potential to be much more. but, at that time, it was a lot.

I had a friend (emphasis on "had") who, after I told him about TOS's both progressiveness and constant misogyny, told me something like "imagine feminists trying to complain about a show from the 60s." so, with unearned spite, he was, in some way, trying to make the argument that it was a product of its time.

you could say Star Trek, all of Star Trek, is "a product of its time" in the sense that it's not always perfect. uh, yes, I would agree. but that doesn't mean people have to accept it. well, I mean, the show is kinda over, you have to accept it's that way. but you don't have to accept that it's not wrong just because it was a product of its time.

H. P. Lovecraft, as another example, was a greatly influential writer whose works still shape a lot of people's ideas to this day. I have only ever read like one of his stories, so don't expect me to have an opinion on his works. but I can have an opinion on what I know about him as a person (he did have a life outside his writing, after all). and, yeah, he was a huge asshole. if you want to know more in depth about the subject, please watch Hbomberguy's video on him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8u8wZ0WvxI

but basically, he was incredibly racist & homophobic. some people might even say, "he was a product of his time." well, there are two possible rebuttals to that. the surface level one, and the one that examines why that argument is wrong to the core.

The Surface Level Response to "it was a product of its time": um, no it wasn't. Lovecraft was more racist than a lot of people even in his time. he wasn't just a guy who carried the racist beliefs of his society like everyone else, he was a reactionary who actively thought and discussed how racist he was, and how right he was for being that way. but that's only applicable to Lovecraft. one can't argue the same for Star Trek: TOS, because TOS did try to be more progressive and more anti-racist than the rest of its society. that leads us to the next response.

The Response that Actually Deals with the Fact that No Matter How Progressive You're Trying to Be, Your Failings Can Still be Criticized: the thing is, trying to excuse Lovecraft's or Star Trek's bigotry because they were "products of their times" misses the fact that racism is still wrong, and some people knew that in those times as well. people from these times weren't all naive or stupid or whatever. they had the capacity for rational thinking. they could stop and think, "hey, maybe what we're doing is wrong." and the fact is, some people did. not perfectly, not to our standars, but they did. everyone could have stopped and think. but most of them didn't, and we can criticize them for it. racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. HURT PEOPLE. horribly. massively.

also, even if you agree with the "it's a product of its time" argument, some people aren't criticising people's or work's bigotry: they're explaining why they don't want to experience it.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a 1977 Doctor Who serial, and it's one of the show's more racist stories. almost all the villains are Chinese, every single Chinese person is a villain. there's yellowface, slurs, stereotypes, the Doctor speaking nonsense words instead of actual Chinese, and a general belittling of Chinese culture.

note that I'm neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent. I have been searching for hours for a few posts I've read a while ago (some by people who are of Asian descent) about this episode and I can't find them. sorry.

suffice it to say, even though I love Jago & Litefoot (the audio series and the characters), it's not an acceptable episode at all. but it's also important to remark that, because of it, some people aren't going to want to watch it. sometimes, people aren't saying "the episode shouldn't be this way," which causes others to answer that it was "a product of its time." sometimes, people are just saying, "this is an episode that attacks real people. I don't want to see it. I don't care if it was common in that era to be racist, i don't want to experience it."

however, there is an interesting point to the "it's a product of its time" argument. after all, everything is influenced by its society, for better or worse. and we can't change it anymore. TOS sometimes didn't quite understand the political themes it wanted to explore. Lovecraft was a horrible bigot. Talons was racist towards Chinese folks. and that's that. I don't think we should change the episodes/stories or anything. edit them in any way. that would be, in a sense, changing history. and we wouldn't learn anything from it, about how we can do better.

I think there are two solutions to this:

1. warnings before starting the text: this was done with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. on Britbox, where you can watch Classic Who, this serial has a content warning before the start. that's good.

2. the removal as a whole of the text from some places: I think before applying this one, there should be a lot of thought put into each case. I don't think removing a whole serial of Doctor Who or Lovecraft's stories from anything would be, well, fair. especially on tv episodes a lot more people worked on those, not just the writers and the directors. Lovecraft's writing influenced thousands. we shouldn't erase them or anything. but sometimes, for some cases, we should.

those in the US might seen a Confederate statue being taken down. that is, in a way, a form of removal of a piece of history.

but that is a good removal. statues glorify. one sees a statue and probably thinks "this was a person worthy of admiration." they should be taken down, maybe even with a permanent mark of why this was done (a plaque that reads "a statue of X was here, but he didn't deserve it because of Y" could be put in place of the statues, for example).

another example is the removal from DVDs of the short episode A Fix with Sontarans, a Sixth Doctor minisode that featured Jimmy Savile, a presenter who was later found out to be sexually abusing children.

the removal of that minisode is good, actually. it's not a full episode (it's not even Doctor Who). some might say that's "erasing history" but, like, you can still find it online or information about it if you want. this minisode deserves removal from DVDs and Blu-Rays and whatever more than content warnings. it's not an important part of the show and it prominently features a horrible person who did horrible things during that time.

so, after all that, I have explained why I don't like the "it's a product of its time" argument. it is an interesting point that deserves to be examined, but it's not very good.

I have had this in Drafts for so long I've probably forgot some of the points I was going to make, but eh, what can you do? hope you enjoyed reading this.

bye

[makeste]

reading your meta, I feel like that's another reason (with protecting them) why Izuku didn't confide in any of his friends (apart from Katsuki, but that's his bf u know, hoes before bros) about OFA. if he feels like he has to save everyone in his faulted (but very human!) view, that makes sense. so, he will probably tell them after Katsuki (who doesn't like the secrecy as seen in the flashback) punches some sense into him. I would love Ochako, Iida and Shouto to also make him see he's not alone

I think that’s definitely part of it -- he didn’t want to burden them. Katsuki, as you said, was an exception, because Kacchan is always an exception for him. but yeah, if and when some sense-knocking does go down, I’m hoping one of the results will be Deku (and All Might) finally letting their guard down enough to let a few of the others in on the secret. actually I’m almost positive this is going to happen no matter what before much longer. there’s a lot building up to this.

first, there’s the practicality aspect of it all. Deku is reaching a tipping point (actually he might have already tipped right on over it lol) where feeble excuses like “oh wow, look at that, it must be a weird secondary aspect of my quirk that I never knew existed till now!” are simply not going to work anymore. no one is going to buy some half-assed “guess what guys, my super strength quirk slash spider-man energy web quirk randomly and spontaneously evolved on the spot to also include a floating quirk and an OH NO, DANGER!! quirk! how about that! fucking quirks, man!! wild!!” no, Deku. THAT LINE CAN ONLY GET YOU SO FAR.

second, there’s his increasingly trippy connection to AFO which is also going to become more and more difficult to hide as events wear on. it would not at all surprise me if he got up to some more AFOFA shenanigans in the OFA Astral Plane as soon as the very next chapter. plus people are going to start wondering why TomurAFO was/is after him.

and lastly, though he might not even realize it yet, with the downfall of first All Might and now Endeavor, and with AFO growing exponentially more powerful in that same span of time, Deku is pretty much on the fast track now to being the World’s Best And Possibly Only Hope. though it’s not just him, really. it’s all of the kids. but the simple fact that he’s the one with the quirk that’s been passed down through the ages for the sole purpose of defeating AFO means that he’s the one who’s going to be at the center of it all.

this last arc was a coming-of-age arc for all of the U.A. students. they found themselves on the front lines of probably the largest-scale battle in quirk-era history, and not only did they survive, they ended up being the ones who made the difference. Tokoyami confronted Dabi and saved Hawks. the Momosquad defeated Gigantofuckingmachia!! Ochako faced one of the strongest villains in the series solo, completely held her own, and still had enough left in the tank to go out and rescue god knows how many more people afterwards. and Shouto, Katsuki, and Deku took on literally the strongest villain of all time, held their own, and came this close to actually defeating him. and not only that, but managed to hold off Dabi as well. with only a year of training under their belts.

and the adults? what is there to say. sure, a handful of them made it out more or less unscathed, but now they’re dealing with a situation that is magnitudes past anything they’re capable of handling. the entire Billboard Top 10 is either dead or in critical condition. the number one hero is facing a political fallout that will probably end in his resignation. top-security inmates from six (or was it seven?? this part was very unclear??) of the most notorious prisons in the country broke free and are on the loose. and presumably there is still a mass-scale rescue and recovery operation underway at Jakku and all of those other cities, and the heroes who aren’t dealing with the prison breaks are probably occupied with that.

basically the short of it is that the torch has been passed on. I don’t know yet how they’re going to deal with that in the story, given the legal and ethical ramifications -- maybe the HPSC will just say “fuck it” and give them temporary full hero licenses, idk. but the inevitable controversy of that aside, this is clearly where the story is leading now. and so what that means, is that without Endeavor or All Might or any of the Old Guard left, it will inevitably fall to the kids to lead the charge for this last stretch of the story. Mirio, Momo, Ochako, Shouto, Katsuki, and all the rest. and Deku.

and that means Deku is going to have to step up. because this is what it’s all been building up to for him. OFA vs. AFO. and so at that point, he basically has to tell the others, because it’s going to be critical for them to understand. at that point it becomes a situation where the danger to them is greater if they don’t know about it, because whatever strategy they end up working out will ultimately need to hinge on OFA as their trump card. they have to know. he has to tell them.

so yeah, basically I’m expecting this to happen pretty soon! it’s past time for his other close friends to be let in on the secret, and it takes some of the pressure off of him and Katsuki as well. and aside from that, it’s basically just all about that trust, baby. Let Deku Have Everyone’s Back And Everyone Have His 2021. manifest that shit, lol.

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

So, I had this thought process

I've been thinking a lot about that Adam Sandler movie "Pixels", and I think I just wrote a summarized alternate plot for it in my head and I need to write it down.

Okay;

Let's start by brainstorming on writing better and more relatable protagonists. For many, this movie is very hard to watch because it almost feels like a bunch of middle-aged guy's writing in nice-guy self inserts of themselves to feel better about whatever mid-life crisis they're having. And maybe this wouldn't be too bad if their characters were just a bit more than "middle aged creep who lives in his mom's basement is secretly a romantic warrior when put in the right scenario".

At least for me, it's very hard to relate to that kind of protagonist; given how that character is usually the most developed out of all the characters in this type movie. I often find that it's hard to relate to nerdy nice guy characters who often get away with the lack of likeable qualities just because "life should have treated them better". It comes off more as a pity-party more than anything, and their unmotivated dynamic with the "out of their league" love interest, who always comes off as nothing more than a trophy and\or act as an excuse to get the climax rolling in the last 20 minutes after getting captured by the big bad.

So then, how would I write an 80's nostalgia themed adventure movie? What, say, would you think would be a practical way to write the main cast in a way that audiences new and old can relate? Easy; If your intention is to give your entire audience a wave of nostalgia, but to still keep it relatable, then why not make your main cast kids? (credit to Black Nerd Comedy for that idea) I would probably suggest between the age of 12 and 16, and maybe with the occasional big brother\sister type characters and some of their friends . Kids often have a ton of freedom, a large imagination, basic priorities, and a lot less worries than adults. Just about anyone should be able to relate to that, since everybody either was or is a kid at some point of time. And I'm not saying that you can't write for\relate to older protagonists, but you don't want to alienate your audience, especially when making something that might catch the eye of a younger crowd.

Not to mention that ever since the 80's, kids have always been a major player by the impact of technology. For some reason though, the plot of Pixels doesn't really have to do with technology. There's guns and contraptions that are specifically made to destroy the pixels, but it doesn't really go much father than that with the tech. The plot more focuses on going on the "alien invasion" route (which I would think would be more 60's sci-fi based than 80's, which was more experimental in cosmic horror with its alien media)(not including Space Invaders. Shush. That does not count). Honestly, I think 80's nostalgia can be replaced with just about anything when it comes to a "shape-shifting aliens who mimic earthly cultures" plot. It's very basic, yet it doesn't really fit in with the theme of arcade games. It just comes off as a poor excuse for pandering to 80's kids, instead of using that element to bring up interesting concepts and world-exploring in this universe.

So I have two solutions for this, either;

A. Do not do a time jump, and keep the story in the 80's. Make it an alternate universe where different forms of consoles and computers are being developed. Maybe the adult characters are very unfamiliar with these changes, but allowing for the kid characters to have more of an advantage because that stuff would be more relevant to them. Because this was before a time where kids often thought about becoming programmers, it will also work as a disadvantage to the kids because they won't have an excuse to suddenly know how the opposing side works.

Or B. It takes place in a modern era, with Virtual reality, game consoles, and laptops, but it doesn't overly modernize itself with teens on phones, saying outdated things like "lemmie just take a selfie" saying "hashtag" out loud, or any junk like that (Because guess what? Teens and kids don't usually act like that). Maybe make the environment time neutral by making it a mix between the 2010's, 2000's, 1990's, and 1980's. I don't really think it's relevant enough to work in a present setting.

And lastly, let's talk about the big bad of the movie.

Really in Pixels, it's more of a self-struggle either projected upon others, or manifested into it's own being for the protagonist to succeed. There's not really a lot of leg space for anyone else to develop other than the main character (and perhaps something happens occasionally to the comedic reliefs\mascot characters). I imagine maybe this version doesn't have just one central character\plot, kind of like Stranger Things. However, unlike Stranger Things, I would also like a compelling and intriguing villain. Sadly, Pixels doesn't really have that; i has Donkey Kong, but he's nothing more than an alien catering to the protagonist's inner struggles (and nostalgia). There's nothing really more to DK other than that, so there's not a lot of difference between him and any of his previous minions.

And there's nothing really compelling about DK; because at least in canon, he's just a scared circus animal. There's not a lot of reasoning behind his actions other than to just invade. It's basic alien stuff like I said before, it can basically be replaced with some other theme than arcade games.

So what would be a compelling antagonist? Foils to the main group of characters (such as an older school bully, or maybe twisted programmers), create conflict, but if we're keeping the theme of attack of the machines and videogame characters, there has to be a bigger bad than that.

Oh! If only there was an already established villain-coded, tech-based, 80's icon with the ability to control almost all technology!

....

Trust me, I'm onto something!

Max Headroom was always presented as an egotistical talking head. He had multiple shows in the 1980's, as well as guest starred on multiple shows. Perhaps Max survives off of his viewers, and constantly strives to expand his audience. Max does not tend to care about other's well beings, and just wishes to use them as a way to gain publicity for his shows. Max also has a tendency to step over whoever he needs to to gain popularity, including his own film crew.

Max also has multiple canon abilities such as:

Being able to transfer to any screen (including arcade games)

See and interact with the people watching him

Control more than one screen

Interact with himself from one screen to another (multitask)

Turn on and off lights (and likely other outlets as well)

Manipulate the visuals of the screen that he's controlling

All of these abilities can be expanded and explored enough to set him up as a powerful and unpredictable villain.

I've also came up with a couple motives as well;

A. If this is in a modern era, Max could be suffering from a long hiatus since he hasn't been that active since the 80's; causing Max to seek as much attention to thrive off of as possible. To do this, Max hijacks as many outlets as possible to air his show. He might also use this as a way to repel audiences away from all other media; making it easier to turn to him for entertainment.

B. This takes place in an alternate universe where Max Headroom became more popular than it originally was. He starts taking over half of ads and television shows on air, getting more power hungry with each channel he takes. However, in his media take-over, ratings take a slight drop due to uninterested children who have turned to other outlets like toys, videogames, and arcades. This inspires Max to take a full takeover over everything electrical, causing a full invasion of all things electrical.

(I also forgot to mention that Max very likely hates children, and has canonly protested the execution of all of them)

Bam! And there you have it. A slightly more efficient plot for Pixels.

This was rotting in my head for a while and I wanted to let it out. Sorry for the ramble.

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

This is such a random question and I don't know if anyone asked this before but what do you think of the whole "Mori is a sadistic doctor that experiments on people/Dazai for fun" thing?

I encounter it waay to often in fanfiction and from what I remember reading in the manga Mori isn't a person that would do such things?

I mean yeah it's mentioned pretty often that he is extremely calculating and keeps most things (people) out of either interest or because they are useful to him/the mafia but isn't that directly indicating that he wouldn't randomly harm them for his own amusement since he still needs these people for his plans? It generally doesn't make much sense to me?!?

It seems so out of character and stupid to me but it could be that I have missed something?

Hi anon! This was such a cool question, holy shit. Thanks for yeeting into my inbox and giving me something to think about ;)

So, lemme preface this by saying that I don't actually read a whole lot of BSD fanfic and so I can't say I have firsthand experience with the Mori interpretation you're talking about. But from what you've said, it sounds like an interesting take on his character that can be done well--and poorly--depending on what someone does with it.

I don't ever want to police what tropes and characterizations people write. So if someone thinks Batshit Crazy Doctor Mori is a fun thing for them to write, full power to them! Fuckin' go for it! I bet it'll be awesome!

I don't know if it's an interpretation I'd read, though, considering that trope is...ehhhh for me. It's great for standalone horror pieces but I'm not a fan of human experimentation horror in general, it kinda squicks me out.

But as for if it's strictly in-character, I'd say no. I've read the manga a bunch of times and I'd agree with your view on canon Mori. His most defining trait is that he's utilitarian. Not so much in the view of "for the greater good, always" but more that he views humans as pros and cons, always considering liabilities and risky investments. He treats people according to how much worth he's assigned them for a particular venture. Above all, Mori is deeply and terribly practical.

It's why he's a compelling villain. You can see his motivations and his thought process and you can see where you'd go "no, that shit hurts people, don't fucking do that." Because you're not an evil bastard. But Mori is an evil bastard who sees those places too, he just doesn't really give a shit.

This makes him an evil bastard, obviously, because he only considers human emotions and desires other than his own as either a lever for manipulation or a means to an end. He sacrifices Oda in Dark Era because it gets rid of several problems with only an unimportant casualty, he goes to war with the Guild because they're a threat, and he orders his men to help civilians during Q's Rampage because it's worth it to protect his turf.

Mori's a dick (affectionate) but he's not crazy. He doesn't hurt his people unnecessarily. If anything, Mori would experiment with expendables. With enemies. With prisoners. And not even then if experimentation might degrade their usefulness.

To put myself in his shoes (which I do often, considering I adore him and I adore writing him) I wouldn't experiment on my people. I want them slavishly devoted to the Port Mafia. And damn it, Mori's good at engendering loyalty--see Chuuya, Kouyou, manga Tachihara--and that's because he doesn't put his people in harm's way if he can help it. Even at the cost of his own wants and needs! Mori is a damn good leader and damn good leaders don't experiment on their people!

Just look at Cannibalism! He tells Fukuzawa, ostensibly a guy he likes even if it's in a tsundere way, that he should die. He's less important than Mori. Which, sure, you can argue that's him saving his own skin. But his logic is fucking sound. The PM would raze Yokohama to the ground if he died. The ADA would not. In the impossible situation with only two choices, having Fukuzawa die benefits the most people.

Mori is the type of person who considers this and picks it as the better option despite the fact that it means someone he likes has to die. That's how practical he is. And a person that practical cannot possibly be as batshit insane and impractical as a mad scientist who does unsanctioned experiments on his own followers.

So no, it's not in-character. But mad scientist Mori can definitely be played with and written well, as with most tropes and characterizations. If it ain't your thing, it ain't your thing, y'know? I just wouldn't say it's a thing he'd do in canon.

Anyway, those are my thoughts! Thanks again for giving me an excuse to ramble about one of my favorite BSD characters :D

[darkqueenofshadows85]

Sonic Generations (2011) Story Review

Disclaimer: I will be judging this game by the plot and writing, not the gameplay.

Introduction

Greetings, mortals! For today's review, we'll be looking at the big parade of fanservice and nostalgia pandering that is Sonic Generations.

This is part of a series of reviews in which I’ll be going into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the main series Sonic game storylines, and why I think they're either well written and engaging, or an absolute trainwreck (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on the character portrayals, visuals, soundtracks, voice actors, and what themes/messages they had to offer. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions!

Anyway, let us begin! ^^

Plot

Dr. Eggman finds the Time Eater and uses the power of time to trap Sonic and friends in a white void. Sonic finds his younger self and they team up against two Eggmen and the Time Eater to fix this mess.

Characters

Like most of the Meta Era games, Sonic is portrayed as a Gary Stu whose friends are completely dependent on him. And during the climax, he constantly brags about beating Eggman all the time. A textbook example of how not to keep your audience in suspense.

Classic Sonic doesn't really do much to contribute to the plot (if you can even call it that), but at least it actually makes sense for him to be there, considering this is the 20th anniversary special, and it does fit the context of the story. Also, why doesn't he talk? In the Classic Era, he was just as talkative as Modern Sonic, so why couldn't they have hired Jaleel White or Martin Burke to voice him? And if Classic Tails and Classic Eggman can talk, then there's no excuse why he can't.

Tails is somehow even more useless here than he was in Colors. He just spends most of the game tagging along with Sonic and providing exposition.

Eggman is still portrayed as a hapless dope. He's introduced in full late into the story, in the scene just before the climax, and he's already whining about losing to Sonic. This is supposed to be the main villain, by the way. During the climax, he spouts boring exposition, and he continues to talk non-stop in what is quite possibly the most lifeless, unexciting showdown in Sonic the Hedgehog history. After his defeat, we see him in ANOTHER unfunny post-credits scene that exists solely to make him look stupid. (seriously, where was the joke in this scene?)

The rest of the cast (Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Cream, the Chaotix, Silver and Blaze) have all been reduced to mere background characters who don't do anything in the story besides getting kidnapped by the Time Eater and cheerleading the two Sonics during the climax. Seriously, what's with this "you can win Sonic", "you can do it Sonic"... WHY NOT HELP?!

Visuals

I will admit that Generations did have the best visual presentation out of all the Meta Era games, but it seems to me like they're better at making flashier cutscenes than writing a good story nowadays.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is mainly just remixes of songs from previous Sonic games, nothing new.

Voice Acting

As I stated in my previous review, I do like most of the new voice actors, with the only exceptions being Cindy Robinson (Amy), Karen Strassman (Rouge) and Kirk Thornton (Shadow).

Theme/Message

The main theme of Generations is just nostalgia. That's it. I mean, it did accomplish what it set out to do, which is to essentially be "Nostalgia: The Video Game", but that still doesn't excuse the downgraded storytelling quality.

Conclusion

I'll give Generations some credit, at least it doesn't have as many cringe-worthy jokes as the other Meta Era games, and at least it does acknowledge the Dark Era titles like 06 and Unleashed as canon. However, my main issue with the plot is that it's bland and practically non-existent, with nostalgia being its biggest selling point. Don't get me wrong, nostalgia isn't a bad thing, but like a drug, it can be a bad thing with an overdose and that's Classic Sonic. Classic Sonic is like a drug for SEGA. Still, it wasn't quite as annoying as Colors and Lost World, and it didn't mislead audiences into thinking they were getting an action packed, grandiose storyline like Forces did. It was just bland, unremarkable and inoffensive at best. Overall, I would consider Generations to be the most tolerable of the four main Meta Era games.

"Hey Sonic! Enjoy your future! It's gonna be great!"

Until the Meta Era. Then it all goes down the drain.

My final score:

2.4/5 (Mediocre)

[orangedodge]

@dannybagpipesarecalling​ replied to your text post:

I didn't realize those were Destiny's diaries either. If you would be so kind, can you explain how Emma knows? Unfortunately I haven't read enough comics to know this backstory.

I am glad you asked about this, because it gives me an excuse to post about it while hopefully not sounding like a conspiracy blog. I've been slightly obsessed with this idea since Emma first turned up in House of X, so I'm rather excited that “maybe Destiny's Diaries still exist” isn't just my weird crack canon any longer.

Emma was, in short, the last person who can be established to have control over the whereabouts of the diaries. And as one of the top five telepaths in the world, who has expressly defended that secret from the likes of Exodus and Mr. Sinister, she is capable of preventing Professor X from just taking the information from her. So barring new retcons, if Moira has the diaries now, they had to have been obtained directly from Emma.

That's not enough to say that she turned them over to Moira specifically. She could have given them to Charles or Er—okay, no, she wouldn't give them to Charles. There could be a circumstance where she'd trust them to Erik though. But in that contingency, I think there's enough context to support Emma knowing why they'd want them and for who. To be clear though, I would be less confident about making that assertion if Emma hadn't just opened the “Dr. Moira MacTaggert Memorial Public Hospital” expressly to freak out Charles and Erik, and if HoxPox hadn't already linked them by showing Moira to be worried about what Emma was up to.

(This got kind of long so I thought it'd be helpful to say the important part up front before spiraling down the continuity rabbit hole)

The origins and resulting chain of custody for Destiny's Diaries are as follows: One January, decades ago, Destiny began recording visions of the future in a series of diaries. Filling one book per month, she continued writing for thirteen months. This process was described as auto-writing, and Destiny herself did not have a complete memory of what she had written, nor did she understand the meaning of much of what she wrote.

Nonetheless, the July diary contained a recording of the events leading up to the defeat of Apocalypse, and another diary contained information on the life of Hope Summers, so they've been very relevant to the events of the modern era. It's not explicit yet that Krakoa's founding is also in the diaries, but because we know Destiny had at least one separate vision of Krakoa, and because Moira is interested in reading them, it seems fairly likely that whatever Moira, Charles, and Erik have been doing behind the scenes is also in there.

In the decades since Destiny authored them, most of these diaries were lost, except for five that Mystique kept hold of, and a sixth that Irene hid away herself. After Mystique killed 'Moira,' she sent her five diaries to Professor X, hoping that the temptation of using them would consume his life and lead him toward a ruinous fate. Destiny meanwhile had entrusted the sixth diary to Shadowcat (who Destiny met in 1936, while she was time traveling and having an affair with Moira's grandfather don't worry about it), who eventually became so freaked out by something she read in it that she vanished on a mission, let her friends believe her dead for weeks, and had herself deleted from Cerebro, while leaving the diary to Rogue for safekeeping while she was away.

(That last chain of events isn't incredibly important, I just think it becomes kind of lol in light of current canon)

Rogue went on to take that diary and the research that had been done on it to Storm. Storm and Rogue then formed a splinter team of X-Men, to journey the world searching for the lost diaries, believing Professor X could not be trusted. Along the way a seventh book turned up with a treasure hunter named Vargas (don't worry about him), and an eighth was found by Gateway and given to Rogue in a dream. Eventually Storm tried to get Phoenix to collect Professor X's diaries for her, but they discovered that they had already been stolen (Shadowcat did it).

The rest of the diary hunt isn't really important, just that Kitty eventually ended up retrieving the full set, before she rejoined the X-Men, which only happened after Xavier had left Scott and Emma to run the school. This timeline is important for establishing that Xavier has never possessed the full set of diaries himself, and was not involved in collecting the lost books at any point, nor was he present at the time the diaries were brought to the school and fell under Emma's protection. This rules out the possibility that the set of diaries we've previously seen were somehow forged by Xavier.

Xavier would not return to the school until after losing his mutant powers, whereupon he departed for space on an adventure to another galaxy. He was unavailable, therefore, to have undertaken any telepathic shenanigans, so what happens next actually happened, and is not a psychic illusion. While Xavier was gone, Mr. Sinister recruited Exodus and Mystique, and began a campaign of hunting down precognitive psychics, time travelers, and any other sources of information on the future. Scott, Emma, and Kitty meanwhile predicted that they were going to be next, and came up with a bananas plan to keep the books safe.

X-Men volume 2 no. 203 by Mike Carey (Writer), Humberto Ramos (Penciler), Carlos Cuevas (Inker), Studio F’s Edgar Delgado (Colorist), Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit (Letterer), Will Panzo (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Editor), Joe Quesada (Editor in Chief), Dan Buckley (Publisher)

First they hid the diaries somewhere in parts unknown. Emma then altered the minds of “all of us” (everyone who lived at the mansion at that time) to perceive a bunch of decoy books as the real thing. She then erased Kitty's memory, and her own, so that no telepath would be able to extract the information by force, before they gave each other a series of post-hypnotic triggers so they could restore one another's memories if they ever needed the books again. When eventually Exodus attacked the school looking for the books, they restored their memories, and decided to send another team to the hidden location where they'd buried a mystery box. Emma gave this location to Sam and Bobby, who dug up the box, which was never opened, and which was destroyed by Gambit during a firefight with Sinister's forces before anyone could confirm its contents.

This was intended by author Mike Carey to be the end of Destiny's Diaries, a dropped plot from a previous creative run, that was vaguely useful at building up to the Messiah Complex crossover, but was a lot more trouble than it was worth to an author who was writing about the X-Men trying to avert a bad future. But there's a lot of room in the story he wrote for the diaries to have survived after all.

I think it's actually really suspicious that the box was accessible to Bobby and Sam at all. Why not drop it under a mountain? Why not bury it under the ocean? Why not keep it phased in a tree? And it's a big red box with a big red 'X' on it. I know the X-Men love their branding and all, but that's going pretty far.

No one actually opens the box before Gambit blows it up either. It could have contained more decoys, or nothing at all. 

And when talking among themselves, Emma and Kitty never actually say that they're sending the X-Men to retrieve the diaries. They say that they know where the diaries are, and then send the X-Men to a place where they've buried something. The intent of the author is clear, but there's room in the dialogue for a later writer to decide that this just was another plan to keep the books hidden.

So for the entire period of time between assembling the complete collection of thirteen diaries, and their seeming destruction, they are never unaccounted for. Only Emma and Kitty knew the full extent of what they did to hide them, and where they were hidden. If fakes were destroyed instead of the real thing, no one would have known.

We could just be in retcon territory, but I don't think so, because it's fine on its own without any direct changes to canon. And really, faking the destruction of the books to cover up their real location makes a lot more sense than believing Emma Frost actually sent Sam to retrieve the incredibly suspicious looking red box that contained the most important object in the world, while half the super villains on the planet were chasing him.

Believing the diaries weren't really destroyed just requires the reader to accept that Emma would lie to the other X-Men, and keep lying to them for years, and that she'd be willing to put Sam and Bobby's lives at risk to protect that lie. Which she was already doing in that story anyway. She was already lying to everyone when she changed everyone's memories. And she—and Scott and Kitty—was already fine with risking everyone's lives when setting up a decoy trap in a school. So that's why I think this works better as a continuation of the existing, known, story of the diaries, and not a direct retcon to what happened.

In conclusion I think Emma knows about Moira because Moira got the diaries from somewhere, and Emma is the person she could have gotten them from. Nothing proves a direct hand-off in, like, a formal standard of proof or anything, but Emma having access to the diaries for so long, and having been wrapped up in this whole weird plot thread—which involves Moira and most of the Quiet Council—is enough to imply the connection in a story sense.

(ETA - For completion’s sake, there is also a weird story I didn’t go into called Chaos War that was published in 2011 where Moira is resurrected and finds a book in the ruins of the Xavier School that may or may not be one of the diaries, and touching it causes her soul to merge with Destiny’s, who then possesses her and guides her through a quest to destroy an evil god. This was an odd story to place in continuity at the time, and has only gotten stranger, given  1. that couldn’t be the real Moira, 2. Destiny is not merged with her soul. If this is in continuity (it’s been suggested that Moira’s golem was the character in this event), and all of the characters are who they say they are, and if the book in question was actually one of the thirteen diaries (and not some other book that Irene also wrote), then it requires Emma to have deliberately left one of the thirteen books behind for “Moira” to find, which if anything only adds to the likelihood that she knows what’s up)

[shimmershae]

Season 11, Episode 13--Warlords

I didn’t set an alarm or sit up late for this one, lovelies, even with the welcome addition of my beloved, largely sidelined so far this season Lydia and I hate that because I really do adore her.  But I’m still not understanding why they had her throw her hat in with Maggie when Daryl, Carol, and Negan (and recently Aaron) are the characters she actually has some kind of bond with.  Like Lydia and Maggie don’t make sense to me.  The location—Hilltop being where she met Henry—I can kind of see.  But staying behind with Maggie of all people when Lydia has grown to care about Negan?  Just what are you trying to accomplish here, Angela.  Help me make sense of it.  

So yeah.  No Carol.  No Daryl.  More Maggie when we’ve already had an overabundance of her (IMHO) and there’s characters thrown together seemingly for the heck of it.  All of it has me less excited for an episode featuring one of my favorites than I really want to be and I hate feeling meh about anything Lydia because we’ve only gotten crumbs so far this season.  So yeah.  My expectations for enjoying this episode are pretty low.  Here’s hoping they can be exceeded.  

Anyway. Enough of my blithering.  On to the episode in 3-2-1.  

Five seconds in and I’m hoping AMC/TWD pay their snake wrangler a pretty penny because those hot mess express weeds look snaky as hell.  Sorry.  It’s the Southerner in me.  

 Elijah crushing on my baby girl.  Where TF did that come from?  Not that Lydia doesn’t deserve a community full of admirers but still.  Guess it’s like all of Kang’s “romances.”  It happened offscreen.  

 Speaking of that, how happy am I that this current regime wasn’t in charge during Caryl’s infancy because we would have seen them share a look once if at all and next thing you know, before they even truly started, they would have been over and divorced.  It’s almost like Kang can’t write characters meant to be together TOGETHER and I don’t just mean as a ship.  I mean the sweet, everyday (could be couple but are really) just human moments that make all the conflict she throws at these characters actually feel like part of their journeys and not just delay tactics.  

 Okay.  But random on his way to dead guy on horseback was kind of lowkey attractive, lol.  Shallow point, I know.  

 When you watch the opening credits and realize some random redshirt villains du jour and also starring characters have had more screen time this season than the show’s leading lady.  It’s a special kind of disgust you feel.  

 But hey.  At least Lydia’s already clocked almost as much screen time as she’s accumulated all season in the episode’s opening scene. I overexaggerate but gd.  This is a problem.  

 Sweet, sweet hug between Maggie and Hershel.  Poor kid, though.  Sounds like this happens to him a lot.  

 “Getting by is what I’ve been forced to do my whole life.  I was told that it makes you stronger and wiser but it doesn’t.  It hurts.”  Excuse me while I bawl my eyes out mourning Lydia’s lost childhood and innocence.  

 “Asked everyone what they wanted.  Instead of deciding for them.”  I mean, we know Maggie is right not to trust the CW but what Lydia’s proposing or intimating isn’t unfair because Maggie has been going about this in a Maggie Knows Best kinda way that echoes Rick.  

 Cassady McClincy? Where your awards at, girl?  

 “I just want things to be the same every day.”  My poor baby. She needs a hug but they’ve separated her from her Dirt Father, her Not the Mama, and her Asshole Uncle.  

 It’s bad enough having to cosplay Stormtroopers in real, breathing life but in death too? Poor bastards.  

 Aaron running down the highway gives me early ASZ era Rick vibes.  Whatever has my good man gotten himself into and wherefore art thou, Gracie?  

 ONE WEEK AGO—fucking great.  It’s the return of the time cards.  No wonder the show has been something of a hot mess this season.  All the time hops, skips, and jumps forwards and backwards probably have the damn storyboards looking like rope/string art.  

 “God has already prepared the way.  He’s just preparing you.”  M’kay. Father G, was that your work or?

 “…decadence and wild living.”  Okay, Father Savage.  I see you.

 I’m with Aaron, though.  I was expecting more fire and brimstone too.  

 So.  I’m confused.  Is Aaron seeking temporary reprieve at the CW while ASZ is being rebuilt or is he “visiting” Father G?  

 Nevermind. New Immigration Initiative.  Okay then, lol.  

 “They didn’t seem too keen on immigrants when we came in.”  See now.  That’s the kind of stuff we should have seen in 11A instead of all the Reaper nonsense.

 Western border of Virginia—40 people.  

 Question? How are they traveling so easily back and forth between states, lol, because they are falling into the soap opera trap of teleportation more and more lately?

 There’s the kid from the horse. Looks better bloody and I don’t know what that says about me, lol.  

 Aaron having a boss named Carlson.  I thought they said Carlton for a hot minute and pictured him doing the little dance, LMAO.

 Okay.  Carlson is weird AF and Father G is side-eyeing TF outta him with his good eye.  Aaron cringing hardcore has me giggling.  Only that poor clueless kid is like okay this is cool.

 “Yeah.  I’m not doing this.  Places like that usually have some old man with a shotgun just looking for an excuse to kill some dumbass who stepped on his front lawn.”  Father Savage got me about peeing myself, lol.  “Practically screams DO NOT DISTURB.”  

 “No. Because your plan is shit and I don’t want to die.”  LOL.

 Father G means business taking his collar off.  Carlson better watch himself.  

 The way Aaron has cycled back into his original job as recruiter makes me cry a little bit because he was so bright eyed and optimistic about people’s inherent goodness then.  Remember the applesauce?  And our two hot AF soulmates casing him after he was cold clocked?  Season 5 really was the good old days.  

 Oh wow. Look at this chick.

 What’s with all these so-called religious nuts this season?  

 Restaurants, two movie theaters?  WTF? LOL.  The CW people just really don’t know, do they?  

 Imagine Daryl’s semi-feral Dirt Daughter trying to acclimate.  She’d never but Angela really robbed us of the hilarity and poignancy of her trying.  Like she could be showing us the Grimes babies experiencing these things if not Lydia to make the hard stuff hit harder but nah.  She’s throwing more new groups at us every three episodes instead.  

 “Wanted you to see who I was before learning what I was.”  Father G really getting the best lines this episode.  

 This dude saying there has to be hookers, gambling, drugs.  Like yeah.  You know the CW be trying to hide this shit but it exists.  

 Aaron and his bag. He gonna have pictures of CW in there like he did ASZ?  That didn’t work out so well the first time.  

 He’s got a fucking IPhone.  WTF? Maybe that’s where Rick got his? The CRM has to be connected to the CM but how?  

 “An audition! Well, let me get my tap dancing shoes.” Once again, I am wondering why Angela would deprive us of the Oscar-worthy performance that had to be Carol’s audition.  LOL. Guess I’m gonna die mad about it.

 Raiders, murderers, rapists, and a few cannibals—hmm.

 I mean. This dude kind of has a point.  He’s just going to bat for his people.  

 I don’t think I was supposed to laugh so hard at this line:  “Because I got plenty of room on the shelf.  Right next to Billy.”  

 “Wolves. Dressed as sheep.  Speaking lies.”  Again. Can you really fault the distrust?

 “Exactly! What do you have that we would want? This place is a shithole.  Why would we want it?”  LMAO.  Father Savage this episode’s MVP.  

 “Meat.  You want the meat.”  LOLOL.  Especially at Aaron’s incredulous response.  “Cannibals that come in with prepackaged MREs?”  I’m howling.  

 “What a day.” Same, dude.  Same.  

 Carlson!  You asshole!  

 ONE WEEK AND ONE HOUR AGO—Okay.  What’s so important about that one hour?  

 Lance and Carlson in cahoots.  

 “That other thing.”  What is that other thing, hmm?  So Aaron and Gabe are part of Lance’s “surgical solution”?

 Carlson’s former CIA/assassin?  Didn’t see that coming.  

 “You tired of living, Lance?”  What was that weirdness on my screen?  Eww, lol.

 Guns and cargo for what?

 You can’t turn your back on Father Savage, Toby.  

 TWELVE HOURS AGO—DURING THE ATTACK—So Aaron didn’t give the kid the map.  That leaves who?  

 Negan!  I’m actually happy to see you, Man.  

 Okay, though. Negan sending that kid off to get Maggie’s help feels an awful lot like a setup for future shenanigans, i.e. spinoff. Hahaha.  

 Seriously, though. Are the tides really turning that fast on Negan’s feelings about Maggie?  

 NOW—75% of this season has occurred via flashback or time jump so NOW is actually quite refreshing.  

 I like this nameless lady.  I just wish the other characters we love and know weren’t absent so that we could watch her story unfold when it’s the last season.  It’s like introducing OC’s in the last chapter of a fucking tome when all I want to read about is the main characters getting the soft epilogue they’ve more than earned.  

 I can’t believe they have Maggie, Aaron, and Elijah coming to Negan’s rescue.  I understand it’s really Father G they’re trying to help but still, lol.  At least Lydia will be glad to see Negan.  

 Wait.  That was the end of the episode?  Pleasantly surprised by how engrossed I was.  When the preview started playing I was like what?

 Speaking of the preview, it actually looks GOOD.  My faves are returning.  

 Angela’s explanation points—here we go.  

 They’re using the generational divide excuse for Lydia and Maggie’s difference in opinion. I mean, I can see it but also, there’s some stubborn pride in Maggie not using all the tools available to her to keep her community afloat.  

 Maggie kept Hilltop’s door open after Michonne walled off ASZ?  I thought that was Tara because Maggie was already off and about with Georgie but I guess we’ve just forgotten all about her.

 Overall impressions?  

 The episode was much better than I expected.  I’m not saying it was peak TWD.  I think, regretfully, those days are behind us.  But it was toward the top half of the Season 11 heap in that it kept my interest and it felt like it was actually building toward SOMETHING.  

 Lydia has my heart.  I love her and want nothing but the best for her.  Stop making her hurt, Angela, because in hurting her (and Carol)?  You’re hurting me.  

 Gabriel and Aaron always surprise me with how much I enjoy them in episodes together.  

 I’m looking forward to the next episode.  Here’s hoping it surprises me in a good way, too.