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rachelbethhines · 3 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Be Very Afraid

This is the best story arc episode in season three and arguably the best written episode since The Great Tree, but it’s still season three so there are still issues with it.

Summary: When Zhan Tiri tells Cassandra she must destroy Rapunzel in order to wield the Moonstone's true power, Cassandra discovers that she can create, with fear, red rock spikes that cause fear and freeze their victims. Varian discovers the red rocks and teams up with Rapunzel to use his amber solution on them. Meanwhile, Eugene and Lance decide to throw a talent show to distract everyone from their fears.

Why Can’t Cassandra Control The Rocks?

The series never gives an actual explanation for this. She could control them just fine in Rapunzel’s Return, so what’s changed?

There is No Destiny!

There’s no prophecy, no oracle, no grand design nor master of fate to fight back against; the characters literally have no reason to do what they do. If you want destiny to be a goal then you have to establish what that destiny is first.

What does Cassandra want? How does this connect back to Gothel, Rapunzel, and the Moonstone? Why she just failing about like an idiot here? Did she not have a plan when she threw her life away for this stupid rock?

And of course Zhan Tiri is lying here, but why should Cassandra believe her? What does she gain by listening to a creepy ghost girl? This ‘destiny’ has not been established, so therefore there’s no hook nor bait for Zhan Tiri to trap her with.

Leading directly into “you should kill your bestie’ should logically put Cassandra off of Zhan Tiri’s advice for good because Zhan Tiri isn’t actually offering anything. Temptation requires the person to be, you know, tempted by what they want, but Cassandra doesn’t know what she wants so none of this makes sense.

The writing is desperately trying to make Cass sympathetic here, but all it winds up doing is making her look like a moron instead.

This Isn’t Consistent

Not only does this fail to explain why Cass could control the rocks previously but no longer can, but it’s also contradicted just a couple of episodes later with the incantation bullshit.

You need an established magic system in place in order for the character’s actions to make sense show!

This Ultimately Goes Nowhere

Ignoring how Varian should have been in season two and how translating the scroll should have led to freeing his father, which we’ve talked about previously; this subplot should have had more impact on the narrative than it actually did. Yes, Varian’s translation winds up driving the plot of Cassandra’s Revenge, but 90% of that episode winds up being utterly pointless, including the incantations themselves, so....

I Like This Sequence; Shame It Winds Up Being Undermined Later

Unlike the majority of dream sequences in this show, this nightmare has an actual point. It more firmly establishes Varian’s fears and gives the audience some insight into what happened to him back in season one. Something we were sorely lacking. It also becomes the core conflict and drive of Varian’s character development through out the episode.

Only for the episode to ignore Varian’s real issues and fail to adequately address anything. By series end this plot point will be completely forgotten. The show acts like bringing it up once and then never acknowledging it ever again just magically revolves Varian’s character arc. It doesn’t.

So How Come Quirin Isn’t Affected By the Rocks?

He’s right there next to them and he shows no reaction to them at all. You’re telling me the man who lost his home twice to these things, almost died to them, and nearly lost his only child because of them, is just not going to respond to new creepy red ones popping up?

Quirin would have a treasure trove of trauma to explore in his own right, that undoubtedly would connect back to Varian’s own issues, but we’re just going to ignore it and have Quirin off screen for the majority of the episode?

Are These New Character Models?

Are you shitting me!?

They built five new models just for a short two minute scene, one where none of the new characters are named nor given lines, only to never appear ever again!

What the fuck? Why did you waste time and money on this? What happened to all of the other background characters you already built? Did a bunch of season one models just get lost or deleted or something?

Also why are they all wearing green? Is it St. Paddy’s Day?

This Plot Point Wasn’t Established Enough Beforehand

Look, I’ll buy that there are people in Corona who still blame Varian for what happened in season one and for the Sapoiran take over. I mean they’re only getting half the story and were directly effected by his actions whether or not he intended harm to them. But we needed to see more of it beyond just this one scene.

No one was bullying him in Lost Treasure or The King and Queen of Hearts, so for all purposes he appeared to be integrated back into society, and now you’re telling me he’s not and that Rapunzel risked his well being by forcing him to interact with people who were hostile to him back in Lost Treasure?

And yeah you can’t really move Lost Treasure back any further than it already is cause that’d leave a giant hole in the wall of the throne room for over a year. Which also makes no sense either.

Or hey, maybe it’s just Feldspar being an asshole. In which case why should Varian or the audience care?

Eugene is Wasted

Look I understand that there’s only twenty five minutes to tell this story and that Eugene isn’t the focus of the episode. I also understand that the B-plot is meant to be comedic in order to relive tension from the A plot, but this wasn’t the best way to go about it.

The B plot swings too far wide in the other direction that it dilutes the tension too much. The A plot now has to work over time to keep the urgency going. I could understand it, if the show wanted start off with small fears first, but it needed to ramp up the drama as it got closer to the climax, not under cut it.

We never see Eugene freak out over anything other this this cowlick. In fact we never see him scared of anything else beyond this one scene, which undermines Rapunzel’s arc this episode as she’s suppose to be the only one bottling things in. What makes Eugene so special that he can keep a lid on it with out consequences, or are you telling me that a dumb cowlick is his only fear?

Either answer is stupid.

I Hope You Have Copies of the Map

You went through all that trouble to steal the journal for this very reason and now here you are prancing around without it like it’s not that big of deal. Way to undermined past story arcs.

It’s like the writers know that season one was their most successful season, and therefore try to make callbacks to it whenever they can, to make up for ignoring it in season two completely, but they still don’t want to actually acknowledge anything that happened during that season so they just refer to it in the laziest way possible, rendering the previous events pointless.

So Close and Yet So Far

I’m mainly posting this whole conversation so that you dear readers will have context for what I talk about next.

For you see, this scene starts out okay and it looks like we’re finally going to address the elephant in the room regarding Rapunzel’s involvement in Varian’s past trauma, only for the scene to immediately side step the issue all together and not resolve the conflict at all.

No! Don’t Interrupt; Listen!

Or at least go all the way and accept some of the blame yourself.

It may look like Rapunzel is comforting Varian here on a superficial level, but without her verballing acknowledging what she did wrong, this action just winds up taking the focus off of Varian and what he needs and places it upon Rapunzel, both narratively and physically.

So what happens is that, in universe, it comes across like she’s just consoling Varian for her own personal comfort rather than genuinely trying to help.

Why Would Varian Ever Think This?

Okay, first off this has nothing to do with what Varian was talking about previously. Why would he jump from discussing his trauma to praising Rapunzel? You know the woman who is responsible for said trauma?

Secondly, this switches the focus of the conflict off of Varian’s specific trauma and makes it about a generic “over coming fear” lesson mixed with an out of place validation issue. Which is not what’s actually needed for his character development; nor for Rapunzel’s for that matter.

Third, being the sundrop has nothing to do with Rapunzel as a person. Her being born with magical powers was an accident of fate, same as her being royalty. She’s not innately better than anybody else because of this and nobody has any narrative reason to assume otherwise. Especially since her powers are utterly disconnected from her actual personality, choices, and actions. All three of which have become unbearably unpleasant by the last season.

Finally, Varian, of all people should be the last person on earth to ever think so highly of Rapunzel. Them being friends again is already pushing believability. Him suddenly kissing her ass the same as everyone else this season is just flat out bad writing.

Varian knows better than anybody what an awful person Rapunzel is. He’s seen her at her worse. He’s seen her not live up to her hypocritical ideals. He knows the larger problems that steam from placing people in power on pedestals. As her former victim, Varian by all accounts should be the one person who can bring Rapunzel down to earth and poke holes into her ego, even while still being her friend. Especially while still being her friend. She needs that! Writing Varian as another blind Rapunzel stan is not only writing him out of character, but it also damages Rapunzel’s own development.

Also Varian hates magic. Why would he now worship someone just for having magic?

THIS AIN’T ABOUT YOU BITCH!!!

I literally yelled that at my tv screen when I first saw this scene. Those were my exact words upon the episode’s first airing. And believe it or not, I’m not one to usually scream obscenities at inanimate objects.

I understand what the writers were trying to accomplish here. They wanted Rapunzel to ease the tension by saying something funny and to make Varian laugh to distract him from his woes; thereby defusing the situation. But it doesn’t work because of season three’s tendency to make Rapunzel the most egotistical, smug, self-centered, abusive, self-righteous twat in the show.

It really boggles the mind just how unaware the writing is. Like, surely no one makes their protagonist this unlikable on accident. Clearly they meant for Rapunzel to be an ass on purpose right? They wanted Cass to have a reason to hate her so they decided to make her insufferable to the viewer in a misguided attempt to make Cass more sympathetic? Right?

Then where is the bloody comeuppance?

I genuinely thought this was all going to lead somewhere. That Rapunzel was going to learn to be a better person and I would have been fine by that. I would have applauded the show if they had turned her into an asshole intentionally so that they could teach a mature and nuanced lesson about morality.

But they didn’t, and here I am; still shaking my head in confusion over a year later.

Seriously what the fuck happened behind the scenes to cause this? How can processionals paid by the largest animation company in the world be so incompetent?

Having Trauma is Not the Same Thing as Having a Phobia

This is where Varian’s arc falls apart. Not only does the episode fail to have Rapunzel acknowledge her past wrongs for a second time, but it also completely mishandles Varian’s trauma because it equates it to being an irrational fear. One that can be overcome through pure force of will at that, same as Lance and everyone else’s fears in the episode.

Ok first off Varian’s fear isn’t irrational. He even just said so at the start of the conversation. Varian’s trauma is very real, it’s not a hypothetical unlike clown-spiders and cowlicks. Also has been given very little reassurance that it won't happen again. Varian has no reason to trust Rapunzel or anybody else in the show. They never owned up to abandoning him previously, and both he and the audience have little reason to believe that Rapunzel wouldn’t just neglect him again if it was convenient for her.

Secondly one does not simply ‘overcome’ trauma. Oh you can deal with trauma, you can manage it and learn to live with it. But it never goes away. It doesn’t magically disappear just because you ‘faced it’.

In fact confronting it head on is actually the opposite of what your suppose to do when going through something traumatic. Studies have shown that distracting your mind after a car crash or what have you actually helps with PTSD later on. And ‘dealing with it” doesn’t mean ignoring the problem out right, but rather learning how to function despite the pain.

But as the show acts like Varian’s trauma never even existed after this episode.

This Doesn’t Resolve Anything!

What does “being special” have to with fear? How does this help Varian with his trauma? Empty validation has nothing to with what we were just discussing.

Everyone gets afraid. Everyone has trauma of some sort. Are you telling me that my need for therapy some 20 years after being physically assaulted is just because I’m not special enough? Fuck you show!

Moreover, this doesn’t resolve the story arc from season one. Varian and Rapunzel’s conflict with each other has nothing to do with self esteem. It was about personal responsibility, conflicting needs, and abuse. Yes, self image and acceptance was a small factor in their motivations, but it was never the driving goal behind their decisions.

This is yet another broken narrative promise to the audience. There’s no closure to be had from this and leaves the viewer wanting, if not outright frustrated.

In order to justify this exchange fans have to ‘read between the lines’ and make shit up in order for any of this to make any sense. People who still defend season three do by doing all the heavy lifting that writers themselves should be doing.

If it’s not on screen, it doesn’t count.

If Rapunzel never apologizes on screen, then she never apologized. If Rapunzel never checked up on Varian on screen, then she neglected him outright. If Rapunzel never acknowledges her wrong doings on screen, then she’s never learned anything. The characters pretending like she has doesn’t make it so.

Why Does Cassandra Even Want a Destiny?

Yes, Zhan Tiri is lying, there is no destiny, but Zhan Tiri being a liar doesn’t absolve Cassandra of her own actions.

Cassandra herself believes in destiny and is looking for her’s, but why?

Why does she want a destiny? What is this destiny she’s after? Why does she believe such a thing exists? What does she believe it’ll gain her? Why is she willing to risk so much for such a vague goal? What does any of this have to do with the moonstone or her mother? How does this destiny connect back with her personal feud with Rapunzel?

It’s all disjointed and confused. Nothing lines up. It’s like the writers just had this dart board full of ideas for Cassandra’s villain arc, but couldn’t decide on which one to go with, so they just threw darts randomly each episode and went with whatever stuck for any given scene.

“Oh she want’s revenge for her mother during this scene, or wait no, she’s actually looking for destiny this episode?” “What destiny?” “Who knows. Now for this scene we need her to be sad because reasons...” “What reason?” “I don't care, make something up... Uuuuh, she’s sad cause she’s not a royal guard still” “But she became a guard during season one.” “Ignore that. Kids won’t remember. Now she needs to be angry and threating here” “Why?” “Because it’ll look cool.” “But why is she angry?” “Cause it looks cool Bob! Geez! Oh but she still needs to be sympathetic so give her a frowny face afterwards. Just have Zhan Tiri remind her how much she hates Rapunzel later, so as to egg her on and keep her doing stupid shit?” “But why does she hate Rapunzel?” “Do I have to think of everything BOB!!!???”

There, there’s my non-so-accurate behind the scene’s glimpse into the Tangled writer’s room when discussing Cassandra’s arc. I could be wrong. There could have been some intricate and complex plan thought out that just didn’t make it onto the screen for whatever reason, or maybe everyone involved was so far up their own ass that they just forgot to give their main villain an actual reason for being the villain. But regardless the over all effect is that Cassandra is handed the idiot ball for a whole freaken season in order to even have a conflict and that is never good writing; or rather she’s hit in the head with it repeatedly.

This Actually Goes Against Zhan Tiri’s Plan

Zhan Tiri’s short term goal is to be released from her dimensional prison and apparently she needs Cass and Raps to fight into order to do this. This was never established before hand and goes against her disciples pervious plans, but whatever. One could argue that this is just a lie in order to get them to fight later...

However, this lie jeopardizes her long term goal. She eventually wants to wield both the moonstone and the sundrop herself in order to destroy Corona, but Rapunzel is the sundrop and you can only take her power during an ellipse, supposedly, which means if Cass actually succeeds in killing Rapunzel before then, then Zhan Tiri is up a creek without a paddle. Also if Cassandra did manage to steal Raps’ power with or without an ellipse then Zhan Tiri would still be out of luck.

This was wholly unnecessary; you didn’t have to go from zero to sixty in one fell swoop. Have Zhan Tiri claim that fighting Rapunzel will award the power to the winner or something. There’s no need to bring up the ‘kill her’ option. That should logically just drive Cassandra away and puts Zhan Tiri’s plan at risk.

The series wants to act like Zhan Tiri is this master manipulator, a chess master like Zantos or Palpatine, but she couldn’t even tie their shoes. Her plans make no sense and often contradict one another. They only work because the rest of the cast are reduced to imbeciles in order for them to work.

This Plot Point Contradicts Season Two

His fear of spiders was establish early on, and I’ll accept the clown thing as there’s nothing to contradict it, but Lance has preformed numerous times before now and has never show stage fright. He’s a huge ham and back in Return of Quaid he mentioned how much loved acting and preforming and apparently been on stage before, so where does this fear of singing in public come from? Heck he sung in public just a few episodes ago in Rapunzel’s Return.

If you have to sacrifice established character into order to make your plot work then you need a new plot.

This Song is Nice; It Just Needed to Be in a Different Episode

I’m glad Lance got a solo. He deserved one and the song is good. However it breaks the tension of the climax and gives the episode tonal whiplash.

More than a song, Lance needed an actual focus episode in season three. One that was fully his. If anyone else shared it with him it needed to be Red and Angry, not Varian and Cass.

Just imagine if this song came during an episode where he had to watch the girls. Imagine if he was singing it just for them. How much more impactful would that have been?

Now imagine that we had a Rapunzel and Varian duet in it’s place here. That would have tied the episode together better and helped to further their own stories. Glenn Slater can write lyrics far better than Chris can write dialogue. I bet you a thousand to one Tangled the Series would have solved like half of it’s problems had Menken and Slater been allowed write and actual apology duet between Raps and Varian.

Such a duet was proposed during Rapunzel’s Return but it could have worked here too, and you could have placed Lance’s solo in Day of the Animals or something, just leave Rapunzel out of that episode all together.

Nothing honestly needed to be cut music wise, yet for some reason season three has less songs than the other seasons, even when counting the reprises, and they’re mostly shorter too.

That’s mismanagement right there. Plain and simple. Someone at the top didn’t know how to balance the budget or resources and didn’t know where to the throw the money at.

You Have a 70 Foot Shield Made of Magic Hair, Rapunzel

You couldn’t think to just block those rocks instead?

Giving your protagonist a big hero moment doesn’t work if they placed the person the have to save in jeopardy to begin with show.

I Do Not Care About Rapunzel Right Now, Show

Yes, she’s the main character. Yes, her feud with Cass is the main conflict of the season and kicked off the episode. That does not mean that I automatically care about her personal feelings at this moment in time.

Rapunzel has kept such a tight lid on her real feelings for the whole episode that this just comes out of nowhere. I was never waiting with baited breath for her to confess her deep dark secrets or whatever.

It’s not even an interesting reveal. It’s just “Oh, see Rapunzel’s human too. She’s gets scared just like everybody else.”. I already fucking knew that, thanks. And what she’s afraid of isn’t even that compelling either; it’s a just a rip off of the prophecy dreams she had back in season one. The same ones that had no explanation and never furthered the story, so why should I care about this one?

You have to earn the audience’s investment in your conflict. The character’s likability, as little as that may be currently, will only carry you so far, you have to establish shit first.

Varian’s conflict has been the focus of the entire episode so far, and it’s a conflict that was set all the way back in season one, so of course that is what I’m invested in seeing get resolved. Rapunzel is once again just butting in and making it all about her when it’s not actually her story.

And if you wanted it to be her story then you should have made her the actual focus to begin with and had her learn something by the end of it.

This is Poor Choice of Words, Writers

I could be generous here and pass this off as Rapunzel not fully believing in this prophecy. After all Corona’s destruction is still a hypothetical at this point and Cassandra really has left already. Since the episode is about fear, Rapunzel is of course more afraid of losing Cassandra’s friendship as it’s real tangible possibility.

More than a possibility even, Rapunzel’s been dumped. Season three is a classic break up story, right down to the poor plotting and tunnel vision, hence why it’s so gay baity.

However, this reading only carries so far. For starters this is Rapunzel’s what, fourth prophecy dream so far? Haven’t the past three already came true, so why would she think this one wouldn’t?

Secondly, all that good grace goes right out the window once it becomes clear that, yes, Cassandra is indeed a threat; a threat that Rapunzel refuses to take seriously because she cares more about her own personal validation than her kingdom.

Even as Cassandra does succeed in destroying Corona, and no doubt harms other people while at it, Rapunzel still is obsessed with ‘winning Cassandra back’. Oh and make no mistake, this is not because she actually cares about Cassandra as a person and her needs or feelings. Nope. Rapunzel just doesn’t like being dumped.

Why Does Varian Need to Shove His Feelings Aside for Rapunzel’s Bullshit?

Rapunzel’s ‘confession’ has fuck all to do with Varian’s current issues. They do not connect in any way.

Varian is dealing with real trauma, trauma that she helped cause, while Rapunzel is only dealing with a hypothetical prophecy and one very shallow, self-centered fear. There’s nothing to relate to here. Neither for Varian himself nor the audience.

Yet for some undefined reason this is what gets Varian to ignore his PTSD flashbacks? What?

This is once again break the narrative promise. I was promised closure for Varian’s story arc and instead of that the writers just brush it up under the rug.

From the outside looking in this doesn’t come across as Varian ‘overcoming’ his ‘fear’. It looks like an abuse victim using learned helplessness to placate his abusers.

And yes, for the last time Rapunzel is Varian’s abuser.

NEGLECT IS ABUSE!!!

And and even though he is no longer her ‘responsibility’, she is still neglecting him emotionally as his supposed friend.

Varian’s and Cassandra’s Stories Undermined Each Other’s

Varian stopped the rocks. Rapunzel had nothing to do with it. Zhan Tiri blaming Rapunzel for it steals agency away from both her and Cassandra.

However, if Rapunzel had used the hurt incantation to stop the rocks and Cassandra had felt it rom the other side, then you’d have something to back up Zhan Tiri’s claim and an actual point of real conflict to carry the rest of the season. Not to mention an actual tangible goal for Cassandra to work towards, survival.

Cassandra’s conflict with Rapunzel not only prevents the resolution to Varian’s arc from being satisfying, but Varian fulfilling his arc in turn winds up cutting off Cass’s story at the knees.

It didn’t have to be this way. Varian’s and Cassandra’s arcs should have complimented each other, but instead the creator decided to make them complete for screen time and relevance.

It is such an gratingly stupid and petty decision that winds up being a disservice for all the characters involved.

Cassandra’s motivation and goal should have been revealed back in season two. Varian should have been the sole focus of Rapunzel’s Return and gotten his big hero moment there along; with an actual ending to his conflict with Rapunzel that didn’t feel so lopsided and half assed. Then Rapunzel and Cassandra could have both been held accountable for their conflict in season three, instead of pretending like their shit smelled of roses the whole damn time.

Lance Got a Whole Crowd Cheering Him On For Singing a Song, Varian Just Gets One Asshole Giving Him a Single Line of Congratulations

Did I mention this show has an odd anti-Varian bias? Cause it does. For whatever reasons his own creators hate him and that’s just utterly baffling to me. Like why create a main character that you don’t like?

I look down on professional writers who treat characters they didn’t create poorly within their works, like with James Gunn and Scrappy Doo in the Scooby Doo Movie, Adric in the Doctor Who spin offs, or even the treatment of Doofus in Ducktales 2017. I don't care how much a character is liked or disliked by fandom, that shit is just tasteless and often unfunny. But at least I understand where they are coming from when they do it.

But I’ll never understand what compels a writer to sabotage their own work; one that they are getting paid to write no less. Especially when said character is super popular with their fans. And Chris knows this. He knows the ratings plummeted without Varian in season two. He knows the merch didn’t sell because there wasn’t enough Varian products. That’s why he hyped up Varian’s return a whole week before Season Three’s airing with a massive online campaign, but he wasn’t smart enough to treat the character decently afterwards?

I mean congrats, you convinced a just enough viewers to come back to season three to keep the show on the air I guess, but you left them all pissed off and have nothing to show for it to the higher ups a Disney.

And Chris wonders why he wasn’t asked back to work on new Disney princesses shows that are currently in the works.

That is Not Quirin. That is a Plank of Wood Pretending to be Quirin.

*Beep* *Boop*...*Dad Bot Is Proud. exe*

Quirin is such a pale shadow of his season one self that he might as well not exist. I genuinely don't know why the writers released from the amber so early if they weren’t actually going to use him until the season finale.

For the longest time I honestly thought that Rapunzel sucked out his soul with that decay incantation; what with that lyric about “setting the spirit free”. I genuinely thought that would be a later plot point, but nope, it’s just bad writing

Him just saying hi to son once and smiling blankly isn’t compelling and it’s isn’t fulfilling. It doesn’t actually resolve his arc. I mean he’s at least shown spending time with his son, but that’s not enough. We need to see him acknowledge past, we need to see him acknowledge his own flaws, and we need to see him being more attentive when Varian is in need. .

Season one Quirin would be trying to stop Varian from going near the red rocks, a post season one Quirin should logically go after his son to make sure he’s alright, even if he’s know longer trying to actively stop Varian like he once did.

There’s also that damn note and it’s secrets!

You know what? That’s it. That’s the problem. The focus is all wrong in season three. Episodes get pulled into to many directions trying to juggle too many characters rather than dedicating the needed time to each individual arc.

Season two’s finale should have been a three parter with Cass’s full motivation and goal laid bare before leaving.

Rapunzel’s Return should have been solely about Rapunzel and Varian’s conflict and resolving that arc fully

Either Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf or Day of the Animals should have been a Lance episode about him and the girl’s, no Rapunzel.

And this episode should have been about Quirin and Varian resolving their issues, with the Rapunzel and Cass stuff as the B plot not the stupid talent show

There, all fixed. You don't even have to cut much, just rework the focus and leave Rapunzel and Cassandra out of conflicts they have no business being in.

This Does Not Excuse Rapunzel’s Later Negligence Regarding Cassandra

Just because the red rocks was an accident doesn’t mean Cassandra should get a free pass for all the awful things she does later. Rapunzel uses this one interaction to excuse everything else Cassandra does in season three, as if she was just some poor lost baby and not a grown ass woman out to kill them.

In fact Cass showing hesitancy here actually makes her later actions even worse. This means that she fully acknowledges that what she’s about to do is wrong, but goes ahead and does anyway, even gleefully so at times. Then she has to gall to act baffled when people see her as a threat? 0.o

When fans say Cass isn’t redeemable or shouldn’t be redeemed, it’s not because he actions are so much worse than everybody else’s (even though they are), It’s because she doesn’t act like she wants to be redeemed half the time. The show doesn’t properly set up her ‘redemption’, instead it just lazily has Rapunzel yell at us how she’s ‘not lost’.

Like below for instance.

What Does Cass Need Saving From?

Cassandra is not in danger. She is the danger.

She made the conscious decision to leave taking a world endangering artifact with her, and she later makes the conscious decision to come back and be an asshole for no adequately defined reason.

She’s never shown to be in any physical danger from the rocks, the moonstone, or even Zhan Tiri herself. She apparently can take care of herself in the wild for over a year. She also has the capability of getting a job else where and just living out her life if she wanted to. Nothing is forcing her to listen to Zhan Tiri.

Heck, even her hurt arm, the one thing Rapunzel is responsible for and could potentially be a continued threat to Cass’s well being, is just completely forgotten about.

And no, mental illness and past trauma are not excuses as well. In fact it’s rather insulting to both people with mental heath problems and abusive survivors to suggest otherwise. We don't need ‘saving from ourselves’ and we aren’t automatically dangers to anybody. Nor do we get free passes if we hurt someone. A jerk who happens to have a mental illness is just a jerk who so happens to have a mental illness; coloration is not causation.

Conclusion

It’s better than Rapunzel’s Return, but this episode was still a disappointment. A small part of me whishes this was a two parter because it has so much untapped potential, but I know it’s just be wasted in Chris’s hands.

Anyways, I consider this to be the true mid-season finale of S3. Not only did the hiatus kick in after this episode, but it also clearly divides the season between the first half filler and the later Cass conflict. As such the next entry will be the mid-season recap. See ya, then.

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#anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #anti-casandra #varian #tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

205 notes · View notes

thistle-and-thorn · 3 years

Note

uncanny that this is on my desk as I read your answer to my ask & I am halfway through re-reading it after putting it away for a year!!

I think it’s a book that requires that bit of space, tbh; you need to get away from the sound and fury and the grinding relentless onward march of trauma and chaos and the little bits of kindness and light and apathy tangled amidst the bloody, blue-black, hopelessly tumbling shades of it—you need to get away from that, & look at it again through a slightly less-frantic lens and when you do it unfolds itself in a way that halts those lazy comparisons to Miller’s Circe, or the squabbles about the jarring effect of Barker’s use of 21st century slang/speech etc. etc.—& god it is a staggering book, esp the first half. pls make me stop rambling now sorry. ✨ x

AHHHHH WHAT A COINCIDENCE. Never stop rambling around here pls. This is definitely a book that I am reading to re-read?!? I can tell there’s so much that I’m missing.

I think reading this as anything other than a pointed response to Madeline Miller will leave you fundamentally disappointed in this book. I think Barker is taking, honestly, a more traditional approach in this novel by treating the Trojan War as an Every War. It’s a classical redux of her Regeneration series basically. And like—that works for me? The Trojan War IS a pointless war—a conflict controlled by gods, based on a pretty shaky and ever-changing premise, a military exercise run into the ground by Agamemnon that destroys an entire generation of men including the best of their respective societies in Achilles and Hector. The genius of men like Odysseus is wasted away solving conflicts he tried to prevent. Like how is that different from WWI? Or Vietnam? Or the invasion of Iraq? Decisions pushed by a military industrial complex no average person can understand, invasions based on false premises, entire generations lost, and extended occupations with no firm end dates, chaotic exits that leaves a trail of humanitarian crises in its wake. I’ve had a hard time with this partially because I volunteer in refugee resettlement and the experiences that I’m learning about from these new neighbors are eerily and graphically similar to what is described in the book. That’s the reason behind the modern language and slang—it’s a story that’s happening right now. Troy, Saigon, Kabul, and Kyiv are all the same place, actually.

And then there’s the women: the women who are abandoned like Penelope, who are abducted and abused like Cassandra and Briseus, who dehumanized/blamed/ deified like Helen. I read comments that said how frustrating it was that the women had no agency—and it’s like yeah, I imagine it is frustrating to have no agency. that’s the fucking point. It’s called The SILENCE of the Girls. It’s the title (😭😭😭), the LITERAL title. *screeches* the TITLE, the NAME. if this was on a03 it would be tagged “what it says on the tin.” The former preschool teacher in me is DYING. Like, that’s so BASIC. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is about…guess what? A CATERPILLAR THAT LIKES TO EAT. This is about..guess what? Women who are VOICELESS. I just. Anyway.

And when you think of it like this—some of the response demanding that the women have more agency or that it pass the Bechdel test (?) feel artificial and reductive and dismissive of the way that these women survive and keep their dignity in the face of physical, existential, and celestial horror.

I liked Circe a lot actually (I read song of Achilles in, like, high school so I don’t remember lol) but, I think, as a complete non-expert, TSOTG is actually in a way…truer and more sensitive to the traditions of the narrative role that women often inhabit in classical literature? As the memory keepers? The mourners? Like I’m not thinking of TSOA, I’m thinking of this as a prequel to Euripides’ Trojan Women.

Anyway, i should cut off MY rambling. I’ve had like so much caffeine this morning can u tell.

#asks #I feel so much rage about other people reading this book.#like I understand tumblr antis for the first time #Because sometimes people just Don’t Get It #Anyway how is everyone else’s Friday 👀

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vrishchikawrites · 3 years

Text

About YZY leaving YMJ/JFM with her kids Post-WWX Arrival

Dear Dee, feel free to delete or ignore this or post it, whatever floats your boat. This just stuck in my head after those posts and I had to blurt it all to someone. Thanks for taking the time to read my word vomit.

So I had to do this instead of an ask because it got long and I wasn't sure how many asks it'd need or how short I could cut it down without losing parts of the argument. And then other things came up as I was writing and, well. Well..... >_>;;;;

But you know, after that post/ask you had about YZY fics saying 'Fuck U' to YMJ/JFM & leaving both with her kids, I had a sarcastic 'yeah right' attitude about it. Mainly due to a lot of negation emotions to such an abusive (and delusional) bitch, partly due to how she wouldn't do that since it doesn't seem to be something her sort of character would consider either because she'd think of it as 'losing' (losing what, IDK, it's why I consider her type of person crazy) or she legit wouldn't think about such a viable action.

But then later, in the shower, I seriously went 'Wait, she can't fucking do that' and it wouldn't be about how MXTX uses her as a part of the narrative but entirely about the/their culture in the novel; the actions that have and would be taken in response; and her entire toxic personality as well.

1) We already know that the sects and the cultivation world in general is sexist, elitist and so Capital T 'Traditional' to the point that it's starting to petrify and any deviancy from this is an exception rather than the norm. YZY might be a madame of a great sect (for what that's worth considering how shit of a madame she's been and the titles she's chosen for herself) but she's still a woman even with her high rank and the things she's personally accomplished.

Even if she was in her rights to leave a 'bad' marriage, she'd be the one who'd get scolded more instead of JFM by her natal family, her former husband's family and by their entire society at large even if she had a few singular supporters. Because That's Not How Things Are Done in their society and I do believe that such a thing was rare even when it was accepted method by the upper echelons. Especially since it would have to be done by more than YZY simply deciding that She Wants Out and just- goes and Gets Out. With no serious allegations that would allow her to divorce or separate from YMJ/JFM without the input from her family, JFM's family and, I think, possibly some measure of compensation as well. And no, having or bringing in a 'bastard child' is not a serious enough offence for such a humongous decision. I think something more along the lines of treason or crimes against multiple, high-ranking parties would be more along the lines. Maybe.

And even if she does this, she'd be considered 'Used Goods' (such a terrible comment) and there'd be no other good/proper marriage prospects for a divorced woman with children let alone a woman like YZY with her entire abrasive personality and attitude put off even easy-going JFM.

(If she'd been widowed then it'd be more forgiven but I consider that a Real Bad End since, IMO, it would lead to the sudden and inevitable decline of YMJ either via mass exodus of disciples and/or residents of LP; being merged with another sect due to it's unstable leadership; or create an internal political war 'cause I bet you anything that the YMJ Elders/relatives (if they have any) Would Not Want YZY in charge of YMJ when she's already proven herself such a shit betrothed let alone madame.)

2) Speaking of families, while YMJ/JFM/LP as a whole might be glad to see YZY's back, I don't think her natal sect, MSY, will be glad to see her come storming back after all the effort they put into getting that particular marriage alliance with YMJ. And if she brings her children with her? Oh man, oh boy- mother or not, that could be considered as kidnapping or line theft (is that a thing?) especially if YZY is also seriously considering divorce proceedings and raising them as Yu and not Jiang. That could give leave to, for anyone more unforgiving and maybe JFM if he's pushed enough, disown both JYL and JWY from the Jiangs through no fault of their own (though I'm sure YZY would make it so as well as blame JFM for her own decisions and mistakes).

Therefore, any inheritance or benefits they might gain for being legitimised children of a great sect are forfeited. JYL will likely lose that betrothal with JZX because JGS will drop it like a hot potato and JWY won't be a sect heir because YZY literally decided to remove that by deciding to raise JWY as a Yu, no matter their blood relation to JFM. They leave him, they leave YMJ and everything attached with it. Which is if YMJ/JFM doesn't demand MSY to give back their heir/ess and to punish YZY for her actions. Or send all three of them back for the appropriate reactions/decisions.

Their society would demand no less in reaction because, to them, it would seem like YZY had gone mad and JFM would look weak (or weaker) and imply that YMJ is vulnerable and exploitable if JFM doesn't do something in response to her actions. That's not even getting into what the other smaller sects may try to do in an attempt to curry favour with YMJ or what LLJ or QSW would try in order to destroy or diminish YMJ. And whether JFM chooses to demand his children back or not, it may not change the fact that this may give him reason enough to choose a nephew or niece to be the new sect heir especially if, even after getting rid of YZY's poisonous influence, JWY grows up to be his mother's child more than his father's or even his own person.

Either way, such a thing would bring great backlash on YZY, and MSY as well as the collateral. No one would want to give face to her or her children because it would bring up some very uncomfortable questions and scenarios to the other sects- specifically, what would happen if the female members of their clans/sets decided to follow the footsteps of YZY and leave with their children and heirs. Especially if they use it as an excuse to leave for their own comfort and whims and not some legitimate wrongs and dangers. That would create some more restrictions on women thanks to YZY

3) And lastly, if any one of those idiot YZY stans think that she'd ever give up the status of being a madame of a great sect they'd be as crazy or crazier than her. YZY is all about status and power and face. Specifically, her status, power and face and how people in her reach reflect her or 'insult' her. She is a selfish, terrible, abusive and toxic person and can only see people in regards to how they would benefit her and the elevation of her and in no other way. Especially her family. They cannot be their own person, they can only be an extension of her and gods forbid they go against her.

We can see this in how she treats the people she supposedly loves. JFM? Arguments day in, day out along with accusations and slander of cheating, having one(1) supposed 'bastard' and being 'in love' with CSSR. Which all seems sus as hell. And that's when she's actually there and not out 'night hunting'. Even her 'training' seems to border on unhelpful rather then helpful if my vague recollections of juniors fainting from exhaustion can be relied upon (please call me out if they're not or find proof).

JYL? Berated by not being 'strong' but not helped at all to be 'strong'. It doesn't help that YZY seems to believe in the same standards strength in their society- that is, of martial masculine strength which does not and should not apply to JYL who has been said to be sickly. Which means h should have been learning a different way of cultivation/fighting anyway. If that was something she wanted and had been offered in the first place- which I doubt. That isn't even getting into her repeated generational trauma mess of a betrothal which was decided only by those 'sworn sisters', accepted by her as a way out of her terrible home life and puts her squarely within reach of JGS who we know to be a womaniser, rapist, predator and a possible ephebophile considering we don't know the exact age of his youngest 'conquest' or the age of MZY's mother when they met which could be anywhere from 14 to 21.

JWY? Gods, so much meta on him and his(non-) relationships with his parents that I don't think I can contribute more to it. It's been all said and done. Unless people want me to stir the pot by saying that, maybe, just maybe, YZY resents JWY as much as she 'loves' him.Either because he's her son and yet never manages to 'accomplish as much' as WWX or because he's a boy and therefore, more benefits and allowances than a girl/woman- more than anything that YZY ever got without either a fight or screaming at someone about. *shrug*

So, in conclusion to this sudden an unexpected essay that I wrote(I'm so sorry about that, I thought it would be shorter -.-;;;;), YZY leaving YMJ/JFM with her kids? Impossible. Not without some sort of personality transplant or a complete AU. She's too prideful, too bitter, too angry, too everything negative and little positive. She's a resentful product of the values and restraints of her society taken to the extreme negative with a willingness to inflict her pain on others to an abusive degree. But she's also too obsessed and reliant on those same values and restraints to keep up the image of her status. So her? Giving those up? You'd be more likely to see WRH as a doting grandfather than that.

---

Dee - All of this is true and yes YZY leaving YMJ is highly unlikely. While there will be consequences if she decides to leave, she does canonically lives separately from her husband. They seem to be in a situation where they are married but living separately, which was a common way to end a marriage (at least in spirit) back then. She essentially had all the perks of being Madam Jiang but fulfilled none of the responsibilities.

Afaik, her training the Jiang disciples is a donghua thing? I may be wrong but I recall she spent most of her time nighthunting.

As for taking her children along with her- that's completely impossible. At that point, children were the property of the father. She could leave but she would've never been allowed to take JC.

#submission

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angel-tries-to-write · 2 years

Text

Paint

Fandom: Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan Rating: Explicit Pairing: Jean Kirschtein x Marco Bodt Word count: 2157 Genre: smut

Marco loves to watch Jean paint. Why wouldn't he want to have a special portrait then? Tied to “The Name of Music”.

It was the first time in ages when Marco was able to leave his office earlier, no counting the times he was sick and his friends had to forcibly remove him from his own office, even though they were the one working for him. Since he was elected, he struggled a lot with self care. He was slowly turning into a people pleaser and worked hard to prove he deserved all the trust his voters put in him. But when Hitch pointed that out loud, he started wondering if he maybe pushed himself too hard. After all, people chose him for a reason and he felt he slowly started to lose his goal. And who was he without it? Just another politician, nothing special. So he decided to put more thought in taking care of himself and go back to his old habits of bringing everyone comfort. He started talking loud about the importance of mental health, about unrealistic goals and pressure people were putting on themselves and how it was destructive to both individuals and society. He decided to set new standards, to be a role model for people, and it worked so well. He gained even more love and even his opponents couldn't say much about it, because his narrative was clear: that system doesn't work, it's hurtful and it needs to be changed, because happier people were building a better society, worked more efficiently and were making the country prosper. It was hard to argue with that in a sensible way.

So he decided to take a break and cut his work hours to spend some time with his boyfriend. Jean came back from another tour just a few days ago and he was staying for a while. They should really use that time well, with their tight schedules it was difficult to make some time and long distance relationship could be tiring sometimes. Marco even started to have intrusive thoughts that maybe this wasn't what Jean wanted. On his way home, deep down he worried that maybe, since Jean didn't expect him to be back this early, Marco might catch him in their bed with a cute girl. He would never say it out loud to anyone, Jean once punched him for doubting his loyalty, but Marco knew that anxiety wasn't rational. It would create unreal scenarios and fixate on them, driving him crazy. So he tried to keep it down, to cling onto logic and explain to himself that it was only in his brain.

But only when he stepped through the doorstep of their apartment, he was able to chase away these thoughts. There was one particular thing that made him sure Jean was all alone, very busy, but alone: the omnipresent smell of paint. Jean was painting very rarely, he didn't have much time for that, but when he did, Marco loved to watch him create. So he quietly took his steps to Jean's workshop and the view took his breath away for a moment. His beloved boyfriend was there in his old sweatpants, his chest was bare, marked with paint. He was kneeling on the floor with paint brushes in his mouth, pallette in one hand and the currently used brush in the other, and he was just painting. Marco could watch him for hours, just stare and marvel at the act of creation. Sometimes Jean liked to work with his canvas lying horizontally, he claimed the paint was spreading better this way. He was completely focused on his work, unaware of Marco's presence. It was probably good, because he looked so hot, that Marco instantly felt his arousal rising. His clothes started to feel tight and uncomfortable, his mouth watered and an interesting idea came to his mind.

“Hey” he said quietly, drawing his boyfriend's attention.

“You're early” Jean said in response, looking up at his partner.

“Yeah, I decided to spend some time with you” Marco answered, loosing up his tie. “Unless you’re too busy.”

“No, actually I’ve just finished” Jean stood up and wiped his brushes. “It just has to dry. I’ll go shower and we can do whatever you would like to do.”

“Actually… I thought that maybe we could do something else.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’d like you to paint me.”

“That’s your idea? You know it’s boring, right?” Jean made sure his boyfriend knew what he was getting himself into.

“Don’t worry, watching you work is entertaining enough” Marco smiled, taking off his jacket and tie.

“Alright, if you really want to, you can even choose a pose” the artist said, preparing a new canvas. His partner approached the fancy chair Jean used sometimes as a prop, it was styled to resemble old furniture and quite comfortable, perfect for sitting for hours and posing. Then he started to unbutton his shirt, earning just a raised brow from Jean.

“What? Is there something you don’t like?” he asked teasingly, opening also his belt and pants.

“On the contrary, but I’m worried where you want to take it” Jean answered, trying to stay calm. It was the last thing he expected today, but not unwelcome. He got ready himself as Marco proceeded to strip off his clothes and put them away from paint. He felt himself getting nervous, but he had no idea why. He had seen Marco naked on multiple occasions, they were dating for quite a long time, but art had always been something extremely intimate to him, even more intimate than sex. And having his boyfriend there, in his private space where he could be vulnerable and stripped of all barriers and masks, where he was fully himself… it was something new. He obviously painted Marco before, but usually from a photo or his memory. Never like this. It was making him really nervous.

Marco experienced similar things. There was a difference between undressing in the bedroom, bathroom, or in some other places, and here, in this small atelier. But he had always wanted to do something like this, so after a moment of hesitation he slid down his boxers, remaining completely naked.

“Are you sure you want this?” Jean asked with concern and Marco smiled, feeling his nervousness melt away a little. Jean was always so kind, caring and thoughtful, it was one of the reasons he fell so hard for him.

“Positive” he turned around confidently and sat down on the chair, leaning comfortably on it. Jean took a sharp breath and bit his lower lip.

“Brush your hair” he directed with a husky tone. Marco smirked and lifted one of his hands to slowly ruffle his slicked back raven hair. Jean swallowed hard, watching his boyfriend sitting confidently on the chair with a sly smirk on his face, piercing gaze and that toned body. The lifted hand accentuated the muscles of his chest and stomach, as well as his nipples, hardened from the cold. The other hand rested on his thigh, his legs were spread comfortably and it was hard to miss the erected cock, standing proudly and shamelessly. This man was gorgeous, incredibly sexy and confident, there was no slightest shade of pink on his face, like he was completely fine with posing for such a portrait. Jean loved him so much.

“Like this?” Marco asked seductively, knowing fully well what he was doing to his partner.

“Perfect” Jean whispered, voice stuck in his throat. He prepared the canvas and looked at Marco again. “So this is the exact portrait you want to have?” he asked to make sure his boyfriend knew what he was doing.

“You don't like it?”

“I never said that. I just need to know if you really thought this through.”

“I wouldn't phrase it exactly this way, but why not? Besides, I can't help it, you look so hot when you paint.”

“Do you want me to paint you or fuck you, because now I'm confused.”

“We can do both.”

“No, we can't.”

“If you say so” Marco sighed with slight disappointment. “You can paint me and we can discuss the other suggestion later” he smirked. Jean shook his head and took his phone. He took a quick photo for a better reference and started to do what Marco asked for. If this was really what he wanted, Jean couldn't refuse him, so he got to work. He still wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, after all, painting was not a quick process and it was going to take at least several hours until it’s ready, but at least he needed Marco just for the basic sketch and later, for the details. Which meant he could use the remaining time in a better way. A smirk appeared on Jean’s lips when he came up with this idea. He did his best to do the right base for the rest of his painting, but it still took some time.

“Looks like you’re tired already” he said playfully, noticing that Marco looked quite uncomfortable. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea.

“I’m not tired” he protested. “But I admit, it’s getting uncomfortable. Maybe I should reconsider this. It’s a pleasure to watch you paint, of course, but I wonder how much time I have left until this starts to be painful” he said, pointing at his crotch.

“We can do something about that.”

“You said–”

“Yes, I did. But we’ll have to wait until the first layer of paint dries anyway. Painting is a long process and you don’t have to be present in every step of it. Once I’m done, I won’t need you here until I start to work on details. Which means we have some time for each other” Jean explained, not stopping painting. Marco didn’t say anything, just watched his boyfriend, thinking about what he said, but he decided to wait until the process was done, to see what he had in mind.

Finally Jean put his brushes away and took a rag to wipe his hands. The first layer was done and they had to wait until it dries to continue working on the painting. It meant they could at least have some fun in the meantime. With this in mind, he approached his model.

“Have you finished?” Marco asked, watching his boyfriend carefully.

“For now, yes. But it’s going to take even a few days until it’s finished and I don’t want you to see it when it’s not ready. So if you don’t mind, I kindly ask you to not look at this painting” Jean answered, standing between Marco’s legs and forcing him to tilt his head back and look up.

“I assume you know what we could do in the meantime?” he asked with a playful smirk.

“You can say that” Jean said and leaned down to support himself on the chair back, which made his lips end up just a few inches from Marco’s, who wasn’t wasting his time, he closed the distance and kissed his partner. They remained in this position for a while, until Jean moved with his kisses on Marco’s neck.

“Jean…”

“Mmm?”

“Don’t tease me too much, okay?”

“As you wish” Jean muttered against his skin and kept kissing him, leaving a wet trail of kisses until he knelt in front of the chair.

Marco bit his lip with anticipation and excitement, but then he immediately opened his mouth, gasping loudly when Jean licked his cock. Such a long lasting erection made him sensitive to the slightest touch. He put his hand on his partner’s head, moaning softly with every suck. Jean was really careful and gentle, fully aware that he might very easily hurt his boyfriend and he did best not to, after all his goal was to cause pleasure, not harm. It was funny, a few years prior he would be disgusted at the thought of even kissing another man and now he was on his knees for one, doing his best to make him happy. And he was thrilled to do so, he loved to watch Marco enjoy blowjobs this much. So even though initially reluctant, he embraced his sexuality and discovered there was nothing wrong with sucking dick, unlike he used to think. So he did his best to make his boyfriend feel good, and he knew that with every lick, suck, and the slightest movement, Marco was closer and closer to his climax. He could feel it by the tension of the muscles of his thighs, by his shallow, uneven breaths and by his fingers tightened firmly on Jean's hair. And it didn't take long for him to come with Jean’s name falling from his lips. He leaned back on the chair, breathing heavily.

“You were amazing as usual” he said, giving his partner a look of bliss and exhaustion.

“Want to move to bed and continue there?” Jean asked with a smile, satisfied with the result of his actions.

“I hoped you would ask.”

#shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #jeanmarco #jean kirschtein #marco bodt #my fic

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mexicancat-girl · 4 years

Text

Ok guys, I can't take it, I’m seriously at my limit here.

Uraraka vs Bakuboi was a sham of a fight and none of it makes any goddamn sense.

Uraraka deserved her win, for multiple reasons.

Shout out to @bnhasalt, who’s post reminded me how indignantly furious this arc makes me.

More under the cut over both how salty I am, and how Uraraka losing against Explodo Kills makes absolutely no sense, even narratively.

(Warning ahead for a discussion on sexism, misogyny, forced fanservice, the blatant favoritism towards That One Specific Character even if unearned in the narrative, and the general incompetence on how to write female characters.

I call B/kugo “Bakuboi” in this analysis bc I don’t want to write his Actual Name out and have it pop up in his character tags. Also, heads up, I’m sorry for how messy and long this rant is )

First, can I just say that Horikoshi is uhhhh Bad at writing female characters?

Which I’m sure many female fans already have an inkling about, but goddamn is it never more obvious than in the Sports Festival Arc. Because hey, at least the female characters are THERE and PARTICIPATING and have their own time to shine! This ISN’T one of those arcs that just stars THE BOYS, so that MUST mean this arc is equal opportunity! Right...?

God, I wish. I wish...

See, the girls are the minority of the Sports Fest in general. It shouldn’t be this way. And quite frankly, the fact that the classes (and UA in general) isn’t closer to being a 50/50 gender split also makes no sense, considering all children are raised in a society that values heroism EQUALLY and almost half the population is male and half female.

But, okay, let’s say I actually believe in the most illogical character ratio imagineable of there being a 2 boy to 1 girl, like this is another round of Naruto But It’s Superheroes So It’s Different I Swear.

We all know that there is going to be an emphasis on Izuku, since he’s the protagonist and he wants to make All Might proud during the Sports Festival.

Pre-Festival, there’s the reveal that Uraraka wants to do her best, with her main motivation of becoming a hero to give her parents a good life. Iida also wants to make his own family proud, specifically his brother, because of his family legacy.

Since these three are a trio, you’d think they’d all get some time to shine, right? Since they’re Izuku’s friends? And Izuku considers them his equals?

Yeah, no. Wrong.

This arc is dominated by Izuku, Shoto, and Bakuboi. That becomes clear very quickly.

I knew I shouldn’t expect much, since these three are powerhouses and also the most popular characters of the entire franchise (just look at the popularity polls) but still. I’d thought at least Uraraka would get a chance to shine! Since we get some character development and motivation revealed from her!

But the female characters in general get done so dirty this arc, despite it being first set up as a perfect arc to let the girls have just as much opportunity to participate as their male peers.

The most significant part of the female characters all getting an ‘equal time to shine’ is when He Who Must Not Be Mentioned and Kaminari trick the girls into dressing as scantily-clad cheerleaders. Which is both Tiring and Unncessary.

(This scheme also shouldn’t have worked because Momo is Vice Rep and she is an intelligent girl, top of her class. She would be smart enough to go to a teacher and actually double-check to see if Class 1-A girls really needed to cheer in the activities portion of the Sports Festival.

But noooo, Horikoshi can’t pass up a chance for FANSERVICE and forcing his underaged female characters to be uncomfortable for The Funnies! Thanks! I hate it!)

The female characters that move onto the final round of the Sports Festival, and thusly have the most attention, are: Uraraka, Mei Hatsume from Support, Momo, Mina, and Shiozaki from 1-B.

Wow, I sure wish these girls could like...show their worth. And maybe NOT get steamrolled and easily tossed aside in their matches because they’re facing Boys and Boys Have Strong Offense-based Quirks, That’s The Rules Folks.

(Before you come at me, I know that isn’t a rule that applies to every single male character in the series, but the strongest and offense-based Quirks tend to go to the male characters, while the female characters tend to get more support-based Quirks. It’s both sexist, but also an inherent trend in media in general. Please Just Let Women Punch Shit To Smithereens And Control The Elements.)

Yes, Mina and Shiozaki won their first rounds easily! And that’s great to see! But then we turn right around, and they're eliminated just as quickly in their second matches! Without even a fighting chance!

Good God, Shiozaki is literally PUSHED OUT OF THE RING. That’s it, that’s how she lost. Same thing with Momo in her match! And Mei straight-up forfeits because her character is based more on advertising her inventions/babies, so she doesn’t even fight.

So essentially, the female characters are shucked away if they’re not used to make the male characters look good, or there for fanservice, or there to show a shallow form of ~feminism~ so Horikoshi can pat himself on the back and say “See! Girls strong! I can write girls!”

And now we get to the meat of things: Uraraka.

Oh, poor Uraraka. Out of all the female characters, your potential was the greatest, and also the most squandered...

As a reminder, at the start of the arc, Uraraka speaks with both Izuku and Iida about how she wants to do well in the Sports Fest. They all promise to do their best. Izuku’s friends admit that they want to face him in later matches, because they want to be his equals.

Uraraka wanted to stand on the same level as Izuku and Iida, but she's the only one that doesn't move on past her first match!

And man, what an absolute bogus match it is.

Is it emotional? Yeah. Did I tear up when I watched it? Sure, every single time! But that's more because Uraraka is one of my favorite characters and I feel empathy for her and thought she deserved better.

The match gets to me because I also hate how Bakuboi is so fucking entitled and gets everything handed to him on a silver platter.

Bakuboi himself is written as, essentially, a Gary Stu. He always wins. ALWAYS. And even when he ‘loses’, he still manages to beat his opponents to the point that they need to be hospitalized (see Izuku vs Kacchan pt 1) or he makes his losses ALL ABOUT HIMSELF by twisting logic to fit his own narrative.

Remember how Bakuboi won against Todoroki in the final match? And was so pissed at him he was ready to Physically Assault Todoroki for him not being able to Get Over His Trauma to go 100% during their match? And even though Bakuboi LITERALLY won the entire Sports Festival, he’s so entitled that he demands a rematch because he feels like he “didn’t actually win”?

Not wanting a rematch for Todoroki’s sake, because Todoroki has been through a rough time and Bakuboi overheard Todo’s Tragic Abusive Backstory. Oh no, that would make too much sense and show too much character growth, we can’t have that! Bakuboi, even when winning the Sports Festival, demanded a rematch because he wanted to beat the shit out of Todoroki AGAIN to assert his dominance.

You see, Bakuboi is always rewarded in the narrative. Even when he loses it’s not seen as his fault. He’s never really punished for it, and he never learns any lessons from his losses.

Ah, and let’s not forget, Katsuki Bakuboi has the Best And Strongest Quirk Ever. Strong enough to even do the impossible and work to his advantage when it shouldn’t!

Like how he SOMEHOW manages to ‘beat the odds’ by breaking the laws of physics to win in Round 2. He manages to PUNCH THROUGH A QUIRK THAT CREATES A SOLID WALL from 1-B’s Tsuburaba in order to get back his team’s headband and move on to Round 3.

Or hey, his finishing move, Howlitzer Impact? Doesn’t make any sense either. It shouldn’t work as a...cyclone? Tornado? Drill thing?

Look, the logistics of it shouldn’t work. Yes, this is anime, but do you HONESTLY think that a teenager YEETING himself in a fast spiral will somehow accomplish anything more than spreading out some explosions in a circle around him? You honestly think any other character would be able to pull that bullshit off WITHOUT upchucking their entire lunch?

But because it’s Bakuboi, it works somehow. Because Bakuboi’s Quirk is The Shining Beacon Of Quirks.

Drawbacks? Sure, he SUPPOSEDLY has them. They’re noted in his character profile and everything. But very rarely do those supposed “drawbacks” ever actually come into play and actually, like, stop him. Or slow him down. Or, yknow, ACTUALLY WORK LIKE DRAWBACKS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK.

Because apparently, human limits don’t exist for Katsuki fucking Bakuboi, nope, not at all!

One of Bakuboi’s "drawbacks" is supposed to be that he can't overexert himself or he can fuck up his wrists/his forearms will start to ache.

Cool cool cool, except...This rarely slows him down or effects him at all.

It’s actually astounding he hasn’t given himself Carpel Tunnel, because that would be a natural consequence to over-using his Quirk. Hell, he should be fucking up his arms almost as much as Izuku does to his own arms with a destructive Quirk like OFA! Explosions are dangerous and cause massive destruction, and that should be fucking up his arms SOMEHOW!

But, nope. Bakuboi is as fresh as a goddamn daisy. He can Never Have A Weakness.

(Another drawback is cold weather/Winter season is supposed to weaken his Quirk. Makes sense, since heat would help him produce more nitroglycerin sweat, and the cold would make it hard to sweat. But that sure as hell didn’t stop him during the Joint Training Arc in the future, and he didn’t struggle whatsoever to almost singlehandedly win that for his team.)

Not ONCE does Bakuboi’s Quirk ever effect him negatively and forces him to weaken! He keeps using his Quirk like it's nothing!!

And that’s the crux of the entire problem with Uraraka vs Bakuboi’s match.

Bakuboi apparently has “drawbacks” and “limits”, but he keeps somehow managing to break them without a sweat (ha) and without consequence, essentially PULLING WINS OUT OF HIS ASS.

Bakuboi was using his Quirk LITERALLY NONSTOP during Round 1, and kept using it to throw himself around in Round 2. Logically, he should’ve fucked his arms up and been at the very least SLOWED DOWN by the third round of the Sports Fest because he went past what were SUPPOSED to be his Quirk’s canonical limitations and logic!

It would've taught Bakuboi that he can't fucking steamroll through all his problems! He has limits! There are consequences to over using his Quirk! He’s a human being and he doesn’t have endless stamina like some sort of God!

Hell, every other character has these limits very clearly shown and outlined with their Quirks! Uraraka throws up when she over-uses Zero Gravity. Shoto, before using his fire side, would get frostbite. Iida’s Engines will stall after using Recipro Burst.

The other characters have limitations to their Quirks that slows them down, shows consequences for their actions, but Bakuboi NEVER HAS ANY.

THIS is why he’s a Gary Stu. THIS is why he won his match against Uraraka.

Not because of any logic. Because HIS QUIRK HAS NO FLAWS. And on top of that, THE NARRATIVE KEEPS REWARDING HIM, EVEN WHEN HE HASN’T EARNED IT.

Bakuboi SHOULD have been weakened from using his Quirk non-stop. Bakuboi SHOULD NOT have managed to pull out that “one final big explosion” that ruined Uraraka’s final attack.

Bakuboi was literally hissing about his arms hurting earlier, before their match started. And Uraraka forced him to use his Quirk so much that she managed to amass a ton of debris to knock him out and win the match. HIS EXPLOSIONS SHOULD HAVE SPUTTERED OUT, AND NOT SAVED HIM WITH THAT LAST-SECOND ASSPULL.

Like, I’m preeeeetty sure the entire reason Horikoshi wrote Uraraka vs Bakuboi in the first place was because he was attempting at writing Feminism.

See, Bakuboi Hates Everyone Equally, he’s not a violent misogynist for beating up Uraraka! It’s a Match, he Respects Women And Sees Them As Equals! The Crowd of Pro Heroes are the ones being Misogynistic and Judging The Match Early!

And look at Uraraka, she’s a Strong Woman! She keeps getting back up! That’s the Shonen Spirit! And she’s smart, too! Look at her amazing plan to win--

Oh, wait. Wait, nope. She didn’t win at all! :) Because our shining beacon of perfection Katsuki Bakuboi never loses!! :)) Look at all her hopes and dreams being blown to literal smithereens, because of Bakuboi’s ass pull, even though he shouldn’t have had enough time, sweat, and strength to muster up that last explosion!!! :)))

Can ya’ll feel my incandescent fury right now?

Because Horikoshi can NEVER write Bakuboi losing, Uraraka COULDN’T HAVE WON, even if her winning makes THE MOST LOGICAL SENSE.

This scene was supposed to show Uraraka’s strength. But it feels like Uraraka is being literally spit in her face, for even DARING to TRY to win against Katsuki fucking Bakuboi.

How much more impactful would Uraraka’s breakdown have been, if she had moved onto the Second Round with Izuku and Iida? How she would feel ashamed that she couldn’t keep up with them, with how Powerful their Quirks are? Especially after seeing Izuku and Todoroki’s amazing match, and seen how destructive and close a match it had been?

How DEVASTATED she would have felt, beating BAKUBOI--one of the strongest of their class!--and then STILL managing to lose the Sports Festival?

That would have been SO much more interesting! And even SADDER!! C’mon!

Uraraka SHOULD have won her match! It would’ve provided both character development for herself, and for Bakuboi! Bakuboi would realize he has limits to his body and Quirk, and realize not to underestimate his opponents! Uraraka would realize that she’s strong in spite of her Quirk not being necessarily combat-oriented, but still has a long way to go in being a Pro Hero!

But, nooooo. We can’t have CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, can we? We ESPECIALLY can’t have THE FEMALE CHARACTERS IMPACTING THE PLOT IN SOME WAY, either! Or--what’s this? FEMALE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY HAVING THE SPOTLIGHT FOR ONCE? Perish the thought!

The only good parts about this godforsaken arc are 1) Mei Hatsume 2) Hitoshi Shinso and 3) Izuku vs Todoroki fight and Todoroki’s Tragic Backstory Reveal. Everything else is hit-or-miss, if not completely hot garbage.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED Talk, and for reading this entire thing! Four for you, reader. You go, reader.

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littlemixnet · 4 years

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Little Mix on what it takes to survive being the most bullied band in pop

Still teenagers when they were catapulted to fame, superstardom came at a price for Little Mix. They open up to Francesca Babb about the soaring highs and crashing lows of the past nine years. It is the end of our YOU cover shoot, and I am facing the lesser-spotted sight of a barefaced Little Mix. Wet wipes swipe back and forth across their faces and, as the foundation departs in a deluge of coffee-coloured tissues, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, both 29, and Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards, both 27, visibly relax into their tracksuits and boyfriend jeans, shoulders dropping as they settle into themselves. I’m so used to seeing them contoured and camera ready that I assumed full glamour was their happy place. But perhaps the real Little Mix are not the war-paint-and-leotard-clad pop stars we’ve spent almost ten years watching grow up, but rather the four women they have become behind the glare of the spotlight. It’s those four women that I’m intrigued to meet. Since winning The X Factor nine years ago, there have been highs – selling over 50 million records globally, a significant percentage of which were self-penned, and creating enough accompanying make-up lines and merchandise to keep them and their families comfortable for the foreseeable future (recent reports suggest they have earned a combined £28.5 million to date). But there have also been lows – perpetual picking apart by both the public and the press, bullying and vitriol from online trolls. The most extreme cases of which led Jesy to attempt suicide during Little Mix’s early days in 2013 (she regards a tweet from the controversial Katie Hopkins – ‘Packet Mix have still got a chubber in their ranks. Less Little Mix. More Pick n Mix’ – as the ‘pinnacle point’ for her depression) and pushed Perrie into an ongoing struggle with anxiety. Fame has changed them. In some ways they are still youthful and silly – dropping phrases into conversation that wouldn’t be out of place in a playground – yet, in others, they are wise beyond their years, diving headfirst into battles on feminism, race and mental health. They’re fun enough to be light relief, smart enough to inspire a generation struggling with the pressures of youth and social media even before a pandemic was thrown at them, and ballsy enough to leave Simon Cowell’s record label because they didn’t feel he had their best interests at heart. ‘It’s never really been a cruise, has it?’ Jade ponders, a copy of social activist Bell Hooks’ 2002 feminist theory Communion: The Female Search For Love in her hand (not for show, I might add; when I ask her about it, she is well versed in its content). ‘It’s either been a really big high, or a really big low.’ Jesy, who has found herself the target of some of the cruelest contempt from the world outside Little Mix, agrees: ‘Some of the best times, some of the worst times.’ Comments on her weight, her looks, her place in the band, comments that she should take her own life, all led her into a deep depression and the aforementioned suicide attempt. Her documentary last year, Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, revealed her journey through it all and, while harrowing, it is essential viewing on the realities of growing up in a world dominated by social media. ‘Before we got in the group, I never looked at myself and thought, “I don’t like that” – I don’t think any of us did. I never thought, “Oh god, I’m fat”, and then we got in the industry, and we all started wanting to change things about ourselves. It’s so sad. There are things [in the past] I definitely wish I hadn’t done,’ she says, referring to the suicide attempt, in which she took an overdose after a two-year battle with depression and an eating disorder. ‘But would I be the person I am today if I hadn’t gone through all of that?’ ‘There was a time when it was worse than it is now,’ adds Leigh-Anne, who has increasingly used her own Instagram channel to vocalise her experience of racism, both overt and underlying, throughout her time in the band. ‘I guess we’re taking steps forward, but I fear for my [future] daughters…’ ‘It makes me not want to have a kid,’ agrees Jesy. ‘Those insecurities that we all have now because of social media, imagine having that embedded in you as a child?’ Before you write them off as four very lucky girls ungratefully complaining about a lifestyle so many dream of, I should point out that they are fully aware of the paradox of their privilege. I suppose the point is, it’s not too much to ask to not be bullied to the point of hospitalisation as a by-product, is it? ‘Little Mix has changed our lives for the better, and our families’ lives, and we have achieved so much,’ says Perrie. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ agrees Jesy (a warning I will hear repeatedly throughout our hour together, perhaps thanks to almost a decade of their quotes being blasted out of context for click-bait). ‘I’m not going to sit here and say we’ve got a terrible life, because we haven’t, but I do think our innocence was taken from us.’ It’s a while since the girls last did any press. Lockdown saw a halt to any activity they had planned, including the launch of their new talent show, BBC1’s Little Mix: The Search (in which they, well, search for a new band to mentor and join them on tour). But the time apart has not diminished their ability to finish each other’s sentences and jump to each other’s aid. It has, it seems, been really rather good for them and allowed them to come back fired up for the release of their sixth album, Confetti, which came out this week. ‘It was needed,’ agrees Jesy. ‘We’re never not with each other and we’re always busy. Our mornings start early, we finish really late.’ Being at home has meant more time spent with their families, with Jade even starting her own show on MTV with her mum Norma. Called Served!, the self-filmed series saw the pair interview celebrity drag queens and challenge each other to cooking competitions. ‘I love drag culture,’ she says, ‘and me mam was by herself in lockdown, so I thought it’d be something nice to keep her entertained.’ ‘Your mum could be on Loose Women,’ Leigh-Anne muses. ‘Imagine our mams on a show!’ shrieks Jade. ‘Nobody else would get a word in edgeways with my mam,’ laughs Perrie. ‘Ooh, when Debbie goes off on Twitter,’ says Jade, of Perrie’s mum’s habit of weighing in on comments from haters. ‘My mam will text me, have you seen Debbie’s been going off on someone!’ It is interesting that all four talk frequently about their mums throughout our chat, and yet there is no mention of fathers. While their mums often appear on Instagram, a sighting of Perrie’s dad on her 23rd birthday was extremely rare. Perhaps the Little Mix dads’ absence in the narrative is because the four girls were predominantly raised by their mothers (all of their parents separated when they were younger), and another reason the group’s bond is so tight. Little Mix are each other’s wall of arms, their own personal bodyguards. Jesy, they unanimously agree, is Scary Mix (although I find her a delight), which is interesting given her own inability to bat off other people’s words. ‘When it’s you on your own dealing with something personally,’ Jesy says, ‘It’s completely different. You feel so vulnerable alone, but we are a force when we’re together.’ It’s not hard to see, in today’s social-media obsessed society where there is little retribution for cruelty, why four attractive, successful young women, with attractive, successful young boyfriends (two footballers – Perrie dates Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Leigh-Anne is engaged to Watford’s Andre Gray – while Jade is with Rizzle Kicks singer Jordan Stephens and Jesy is going out with Our Girl actor Sean Sagar), who seem to be living a dream life have found themselves at the heart of a whirlwind of vitriol. There was the infamous spat with Piers Morgan, in which he mocked them for posing naked but for the insults that have been hurled at them painted on their bodies. He accused them of using sex to sell records and called them ‘foul-mouthed, talentless, clothes-allergic little dimwits’, which is not how I find them to be. ‘I take Piers with a pinch of salt,’ Jesy says, rolling her eyes. ‘He does it to cause drama, so I take no notice. When we won The X Factor, we didn’t look like a generic girl band: we’re all different shapes and sizes, we didn’t dress sexy, so immediately everyone was, “What’s this?”’ ‘Usually, when you see a girl band, they’re perfection, they have six-packs – and we didn’t,’ continues Jesy. ‘People saw us as kids, so even though we’re now women, people still think of us that way, so when we come out on stage in leotards, they think, “That’s disgusting!”’ ‘One Direction didn’t get the s**t we get, because they’re men,’ states Leigh-Anne. ‘It’s like, “They’re four girls, let’s come at them”. As soon as it’s girls, they think, “Oh you slag.”’ ‘When it’s men, it’s celebrated, but the minute women sexualise themselves and feel powerful doing it, we’re told to rein it in,’ adds Jade. ‘We’re conditioned to think that women are there to be these innocent and pure beings and the minute you step out of that, it’s carnage.’ Little Mix, however, are not scared of embracing that carnage and of sparking a debate. For their show The Search, Jade describes how it was important for them to set the tone on respect when each new person auditioned. ‘Because we are small women, it’s important to show people that they need to respect us, that we know what we’re talking about and we need to be listened to,’ she says. ‘There’s no nastiness,’ continues Jesy about the show, which has been praised for modernising and freshening up the age-old TV format. ‘There’s no making anyone feel uncomfortable for entertainment.’ They also insisted a large part of their budget be dedicated to looking after the contestants’ mental health, understanding, first hand, the pitfalls of talent shows. The Search is not their first attempt at diversifying their talent. As a group, they have LMX make-up line and also a perfume, Style By Little Mix. Subsequently, they have become expert businesswomen, refusing to make the mistakes of pop groups past, so often left completely penniless at the end of their careers. ‘I remember walking into an early label meeting and saying, “This is who we want to be, this is the campaign we want, this is the imagery we want,”’ says Jade. ‘We knew our brand from the get go and we very much steered that ship.’ It’s a long way from their (as Jesy puts it) ‘working-class backgrounds’. Since joining the band, each one has bought their mum a house and, while their tale is not entirely rags to riches, the jump from Primark to Prada in recent years has certainly been significant. When it comes to business, Perrie describes herself and Leigh-Anne as the ones who will often seek a compromise in difficult situations, while they send Jesy and Jade in when deals need to be made. ‘Jesy’s the badass,’ Perrie laughs. ‘Whenever I’m scared, I’ll stand behind her. She’s the one who puts her foot down in a boardroom full of men and says, “It’s going to be this way.” But we pick our battles. We don’t just argue about every decision – it’s when we feel we have to.’ ‘Nobody could say that we are difficult, and if they do, they’re lying,’ says Leigh-Anne adamantly. Adds Jesy: ‘We know what we want, and we know what kids want.’ Little Mix have lived over a third of their lives in the spotlight. They’ve seen how things work, how things don’t, and they’ve learnt how to cope with it all. The lows may have been spectacularly low, but the highs have surpassed any of their expectations. Their story is not your classic fairytale, but it’s one they have learnt they can write their own ending for. If the Little Mix I meet today is anything to go by, I wouldn’t expect that ending to come any time soon. Little Mix’s new album Confetti is out now. Their movie LM5: The Tour Film will be in cinemas nationwide on 21 and 22 November.

#little mix #you magazine 2020 #article #2020 #confetti promo

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kallypsowrites · 4 years

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Ruin and Rising Thoughts

And so we come to the end of the journey. I’m going to give my thoughts on this third book and then my thoughts on the series as a whole since this is the end.

First off, the pacing of this one was WAY better than Siege and Storm. I was never bored. It kept me invested. I think occasionally she went too heavy on occasionally meaningless cliffhangers, but that’s a minor thing. This book is much more like Shadow and Bone in terms of pacing and its great.

I like the band of good guy characters. The little found family. Not all of the side characters were given much characterization, but those who did were great. Zoya, Genya, David, Tamar, Tolya--they all bounced off of each other in interesting ways. They were so different and that made the banter really funny.

I love Nikolai with all my heart and soul. He is a good boy and it was hard/excellent to see him suffer. Hard because, my poor baby, good because I love lowest points for confident characters. Regardless, he means the world.

Mal, to give credit, very rarely frustrated me in this book. He only had a few pieces of dialogue that got under my skin but for the most point he was supportive, said the right things, heroic etc. I wish this had come earlier in the series because its hard to switch to loving a character when you’ve spent the first two books being angry at him. But I can’t complain about him too much. The twist I can complain about, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Alina. My sunshine girl. She’s so powerful in this book. Owning her abilities. Really coming into her own. I love her and I’ll fight anyone in the book who implies she might become evil with power because that’s a dumb. fucking. trope. I’m not saying there’s not a path where Alina couldn’t go dark. hell I’d be very interested to write a story where she’s a little darker. But as she was in this, she didn’t deserve that speculation. She’s the best.

The Darkling. Aleksander. He both managed to be the most sinister and the most human in this book. So many soft moments but so many terrifying moments. I love his complicated messed up self and I was sad to see him die though I knew it needed to happen. If he was going to have a redemption arc, it needed to start in book 2 and the ending of that made clear this was going to be a tragic finish, so I accepted that.

Alina and the Darkling were on FIRE this book. Every scene full of tension. Every scene full of that push and pull. So much good dialogue and yet also the most vulnerability between them. There is nothing better than a couple that starts out with a power in difference that gradually changes to equals. The FLAVOR. He mourns the loss of her powers and even after killing him, she cries and she cares and she mourns him. Fuck me UP.

Now for the things I didn’t like.

The additional world building in this was kind of a mess. The Morozova backstory + the living amplifiers and what it meant and Mal being the amplifier. It felt rushed and clumsy and not natural. The rewriting of the mercy vs murder thing for claiming amplifiers felt like a cop out and then not killing Mal was an additional cop out.

As far as the endgame ship, its not that I didn’t think Leigh wrote it well at many points. Their culminating love scene was good on an objective level. And I think at the end of the day, I just have different taste in ships and stories because I wasn’t invested. I COULDN’T be invested, next to the other two ships I was given. I really do think it would have been more interesting if both mal and the Darkling died and Alina was left to pick up the pieces with Nikolai with a friendship love between them that could grow into more. Then at least I could have seen my girl in power.

Cause goddamn it I WANTED power for Alina. And I know people could make the argument that SHE didn’t want it but she did. Giving up her power wasn’t even a choice she got to make. It just happened. And personally I just want more narratives where strong female characters get to keep their magic powers and their power in society. We don’t get enough of it and so many times I see them go to ‘the simple life’. It’s not that simple life isn’t a valid need. But it didn’t feel like a proper culmination of her arc and it left things feeling hollow.

Much as I am a Darklina, I’m not saying she should have ended up with the Darkling. Not in this story at least. If I were going to have them end up together, it would require a very different story starting from the beginning of book two. It wouldn’t have worked to redeem him at the end of book 3. Leigh set it up that it had to end that way. And maybe a part of me wishes for an alternative story. Which, you know, is why I’m going to write a fanfic, but that’s for later.

I don’t think the series capitalizes fully on some of its themes. Especially the idea of the Grisha being oppressed and having to struggle to survive and the reasons behind why the Darkling does what he does. it’s brushed on. Discussed a bit. But it never REALLY delves which is a shame because that’s an interesting theme.

At the end of the day, this series has a lot of good moments, a lot of interesting themes. A lot of characters I love and adore. But I think the parts are stronger than the whole. Unlike Six of Crows which I think really sticks the landing on all fronts, this one stumbles a bit. But I still like it and I have a lot of hope for the show.

But I hope you all enjoyed this long liveblogging process. Feel free to share your thoughts here or via ask as well. i love chatting about the series since Shadow and Bone is my whole personality now!

#shadow and bone #the grishaverse #ruin and rising #r&r liveblog #darklina

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idkwhoiamanymorebutwtf · 4 years

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Amity absolutely in not going to choose the Emperor’s Coven over Luz.

I keep seeing it suggested that Amity’s ties to the Emperor’s Coven could become an issue. That she may decide supporting Luz isn’t as important as her ambitions related to the Coven. That she might chose to side with the Emperor’s Coven, causing a rift between her and Luz. However I don’t believe that for a second, and that’s for two reasons.

1.) Luz is, as of right now, the most important thing to Amity. It's always felt to me like Amity already chose Luz over everything else. Amity has sacrificed her own physical wellbeing, even putting her own life in danger, to help Luz in the past. There's no way Amity's parents approve of Luz so she's put her relationship with her parents, something she's worked desperately for, at risk just by liking Luz, but she continues to be around her. Amity was willing to throw out her social group for hurting Luz. Why wouldn't she follow the pattern and pick Luz over the Emperor's coven too? And I mean..she must know she'll have to. Amity knows that Luz is Eda's apprentice. She knows that Eda is wanted by the Emperor's Coven. She's gotta know that she'll have to pick between the two things eventually, right? And if her plan wasn't to eventually pick Luz when she had to make the choice, why would she have put Luz before her own physical wellbeing, before her social status, and before her abusive parents' wishes? Not to mention , Amity's greatest fear was being rejected by Luz. It wasn't her abusive family. It wasn't being denied by the Emperor's Coven. It was the idea that she could lose Luz. Which makes it pretty cut and dry what the most important thing to Amity is in the end. Amity has already been willing to put so much on the line for Luz. I feel like she isn't going to stop now. Especially since, tbh, it seems like Amity has never been happier than she is currently. Realistically if you were a normal person with a good strong support system and a healthy conviction to follow your dreams then you wouldn't be willing to risk your life and dream job for another person. However Amity isn't a very healthy person. Her family is abusive, her friends are cruel, etc. Amity made their goals for her into her own goals because she didn't feel like there was anything else out there for her, not becsuse she personally wants it. She wasn't happy. Until Luz was kind and optimistic and showed her the potential that there are good people out there. I mean, why do you think she latched onto Luz so quickly and has put her physical wellbeing, social status, and relationship with her family in jeopardy just through having feelings for Luz and standing by her so far? She's willing to do that because Luz is one of if not the only person in her life that isn't abusing her to some extent. She isn't going to act like a normal person with a good support system and healthy ambitions they care about because Amity isn't any of those things and right now Luz means so so so much to her by proxy of being the only person in her life who's good. I don't think she'd give that up for anything, speaking both from personal experience and from the behavior ive seen her exhibit as of late and how much she's already risked.

and

2.) Siding with the Emperor’s Coven would go against Amity’s strong sense of morality. Amity has been an incredible human being for her entire life. Every flashback we've seen of Amity has shown her as nothing but a good person. She was wrong to treat Willow the way she did, sure, but Amity did it all in an attempt to protect Willow and in the end how could anyone hate her for that? When she was told to befriend Boscha, Amity immediately refused, acknowledging that the other girl was mean, and for as long as the two were friends she never seemed to warm up to the cruel girl. When Amity accidentally got her Grudby teammates hurt she felt so horribly guilty that she quit playing forever. She's made mistakes cause she's a human being and people mess up sometimes, but I honestly think Amity has always been an admirable person. Why on earth would Amity ever support the Emperor’s Coven when she finds out what horrible things they’ve done? And some people suggest that while she’s not a bad person, her ambitions may make her do bad things. But Amity’s integrity has always come before her ambition. That much is made exceptionally clear back in Covention. Amity wasn’t willing to cheat in their magic duel. She refused to lie or cheat and that means that if Luz had really been better than her and won fairly, Amity would have taken the loss. She easily could have cheated. Everyone else did, it wouldn’t have been hard for Amity to do the same. But she didn’t, and she was extraordinarily upset that the other people involved did. Amity was horrified that Lilith cheated in her favor. Even if it helped her look good in front of the Emperor’s Coven, cheating was never even an option that crossed Amity’s mind and she was completed mortified that Lilith tricked her into it anyway. Her ambition was never as strong as her integrity back then, so why would it suddenly overwhelm her morals now? I mean, if cheating in a competition was a disgusting thought that she never considered for a second. Something that Amity screamed at Luz for doing and was completely ashamed when Lilith did it. Then how can anyone expect that Amity would support the Emperor’s Coven after all they’ve done? Even with all the pressure Amity’s under from society in general and her abusive parents, she hasn’t sacrificed her morals yet, and to suggest she might now is to completely disregard the strength of character she’s been shown to possess so far.

“But Wait!” I hear you say, “A clear parallel was drawn between the relationship of Luz and Amity vs the relationship of Eda and Lilith! That means Luz and Amity was likely to go down the same route and become enemies!”

And you are correct that there was a clear parallel drawn between these four in Covention. However i’d venture to suggest that this parallel will be used as a contrast rather than to show history repeating itself.

I’ll start by saying that I personally believe the “history repeats itself” trope is very hard to get right and is only really effective in certain situations, this not being one of them. Tell me, what, narritively, would be the positive effect of pushing Amity and Luz down the same route Lilith and Eda went down? I can’t see any good reason for it except the ~shock value~, and honestly anything you do with a character exclusively to shock or upset the audience rather than to develop the characters in their natural progression is a bad choice by default. There’s no reason Luz and Amity need to be like Eda and Lilith. And in fact, not only is the idea of their relationship being a foil the the Clawthorne sister’s relationship more interesting to me because it has an actual purpose (to show that the sister’s both screwed up their relationship and that if you communicate and try to be good people then you won’t end up in a fight to the death against someone you’re supposed to love and that both sister’s could have made steps to be better siblings but they didn’t and that’s on them), but it also seems to fit a lot more cohesively into the narrative knowing what we do about both the relationship between Lilith and Eda and the relationship between Amity and Luz.

I get the feeling Lilith was always jealous of Eda. That Eda was stronger. That Eda outshone her. It may not even have been fair a lot of the time, after all, Eda is known to cheat her way through things. And it also seems as if Eda, instead of supporting and reassuring her insecure sister, was proud of this and held it against Lilith that she was better. Well, when Luz and Amity first met, Luz outshone Amity too. Amity was angry and bitter and disliked Luz because it fucking hurt to have her achievements taken away from her unfairly. They easily could have gone down the same route Lilith and Eda did. With Luz sticking to her guns and insisting she was better, that she deserved the recognition more anyway and Amity acting like a jealous, vindictive child. But that didn’t happen. Luz tried her best to make it up to Amity and Amity, once Luz expressed her remorse and took steps to make amends, not only accepted it but reflected on her own behavior and admitted she herself could have been better too. How did Amity and Luz manage to overcome a conflict that’s still tearing two grown women apart? By overall being better than Eda and Lilith were. Luz felt terrible for hurting Amity. Eda was proud of outshining Lilith. Amity didn't let herself be overcome with bitterness or jealousy and instead reflected inwardly on how she could have been better too. Lilith just kept getting worse and worse and straying from the path of morality more and more. We can see it clearly in Covention. Lilith cheated. Amity on the other hand would never stray from her integrity even if she wanted to win and was mortified to find out what happened. Eda bragged and taunted and teased Lilith for cheating. Luz ran after Amity to comfort her. Overall Amity and Luz are better than Lilith and Eda and that's why I don't see them making the same mistakes. Another difference I see, Lilith let her desperation for power make her a bad person. Amity realized she was being colder than she'd like to and instantly ditched her cruel friends and tried to he better. Eda let's her wild nature make her inconsiderate (she's not just a criminal for not joining a coven, she does actual morally wrong crimes too) but Luz tries her best to be kind and to make people happy and he selfless in general. As I said before, they're both better than their mentors. Both Eda and Lilith made mistakes that lead them to where they are (although Lilith is objectively the worse of the two, she isn't necessarily the only one to blame for their relationship failing). Because Luz and Amity are a contrast to Eda and Lilith, not a repition of their story. Luz and Amity show what can happen when you communicate and try to understand and empathize with people and don't stray from your own morals no matter what other people may do to you.That's something it doesn't seem like the sister's ever learned how to do, and that's what tore them apart. But it's something Luz and Amity exhibit consistently. Communication, mercy, understanding. and that's why they aren't doomed to be like their mentors. Because as I said before, they contrast Lilith and Eda's dynamic in every way simply by being better friends to each other and people in general.

#the owl house #lilith clawthorne #edalyn clawthorne #eda clawthorne #amity blight #luz noceda

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junewild · 4 years

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tags masterpost

a couple of people have complimented me on my new tag system and a couple of people have asked me what tags go to what sort of content, so i thought i’d write up a little masterpost of what the tags mean, where they came from, and why they’re important to me! you’ll even get a sneak peek at a few tags that are very rare or have yet to be used 👀. this will be linked in my carrd when i get around to it. i’ve even tried to alphabetize them 😅 thanks for expressing interest, it’s very lovely of you all xoxo

#and i am close behind — home tag

a continuation of “the wild geese are heading home again” which is my nature tag. just for everything that makes me feel like i am coming home.

#and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart — quotes and words tag

from a poem by e.e. cummings. “and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart / i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)”. words are just hearts speaking to each other, after all.

#and i was like *screams* — space tag

from the jenny slate drunk history nasa episode, because she somehow manages to sum up fully 80% of my feelings about the universe in that one sentence

#angstposting — disordered thoughts tag

literally just stream-of-consciousness breakdown-posting. probably block this tag. i go back and clean it out after every breakdown.

#but they are all good stories — media analysis/literature critique tag

hilary mantel (whose work i have never read) wrote that “some of these things are true and some of them lies. but they are all good stories.” anyway, that’s how i feel about taking apart stories and narratives and looking at them from the outside.

#can you not hear the ocean in me — mental health and disorders tag

the non-breakdown version. from this poem, which i can’t find anyone but i think is a deleted inkskinned or caitlyn siehl one:

“i am alive;

can you not hear the ocean in me;

are you not aware of the war i am fighting ;

i am alive ;

you cannot take that from me”

#checkmate nihilism — crafts tag

higgsboshark wrote a lovely post about how knitting is a great treatment for existential dread & now that’s all i think about every time i’m crafting. checkmate, nihilism. look at this thing that i am making with my hands. it exists and it will change someone’s life.

#dumbposting — misc tag

for tag games and dumb comments and things that don’t fit in anywhere else.

#fashion is instant language — fashion/body art tag

okay. IS this a cliche prada quote? yes. but also, one of my first classes in college was about art & society & the first thing that we learned was that the human body is the first & most primal canvas. what you do with your body is a statement, a language you are sharing with the people around you. i get very emotional about it.

#felt rather than seen — poetry tag

YES i am a BASIC WHITE GIRL, thank you. the first half of the da vinci quote. “poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen / “

#fill your arms with the pink and white flowers — spring aesthetic tag

from one of mary oliver’s slightly less well known poems.

“do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, and softly

exclaiming of their dearness,

fill your arms with

the pink and white flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling, their eagerness

to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are nothing

forever”

#get in good trouble — activism/politics tag

are you really living if you aren’t making trouble for someone? write more letters. leave more voicemails. go to protests. join a mutual aid group. donate. there’s something you can do, even if it’s small.

#i am building a world that is worth living for — moral living tag

slightly different from the activism tag bc this is more about what you/i can do in everyday life to make the world a better place. these are my own words, reminding me that to stay alive i have to build my own life and live in it.

#i care to look on the outside like i do on the inside — gender/ sexuality tag

maggie stiefvater is a poet.

#i have a magpie mind — happy tag

laurie graham’s version of the quote goes “i have a magpie mind, by which i mean i see and hear little things - photos, fragments of conversation - and store them away for future use,” and that’s what this tag is. just a lot of lovely things that i want to look back on.

#i think i was a selkie in a past life — ocean/beach/selkie myth tag

someday i’m going to walk into the ocean and never come out again. j promised he would take me to a warm ocean where i can stand in chest-deep waves until i can’t stand any longer and i’ve never looked forward to anything so much in my life.

#i wrote my own deliverance — creation/writing tag

this is not an admission of guilt. hamilton has a lot of words in it and these happen to be very nice.

#it would be a merrier world — food tag

because tolkien was right.

#laughter for no cause — humor tag

funny things. half of a quote by louise glück.

#let the wilderness engulf us again — discourse tag

i believe this is by christa wolf. anyway this is how i feel when i read Discourse. let’s all just get swallowed by the wilderness. who needs civilization anyway.

#loveposting — affection tag

look, i’m just really gay and happy and i love my followers and my mutuals. let’s move on

#nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it — memory/emotion tag

yes, i have read everything ever written by l m montgomery, why do you ask?

#offspring of heaven firstborn — light tag

constantly debating about whether i should change this one. i just have too many quotes about light. and too many posts about light. and too much love for light. this one is by milton, from the third book of paradise lost, and i memorized the entire chapter as a teenager because my “history” “class” believed in memorization as a form of education.

#our bodies are meant to hold other bodies — sex/eros tag

from that little comic by grendelmenz (?). i KNOW it’s about cannibalism i DON’T care don’t @ me to love is to consume

#seen rather than felt — painting/visual art tag

and here’s the other half of the da vinci quote.

#she stood in desperate music wound — music and playlists tag

from “a crazed girl” by yeats. tbh i usually lie upside down in my bed in desperate music wound but this poem kept me going as a teenager

#simply because the world is beautiful — misc tag

i just think the world is lovely and i am glad to be alive in it. this is where the rest of the assorted content goes.

#someday you will be old enough to read fairytales again — fantasy/gaming/scifi tag

cs lewis got one thing right.

#stardust will turn into kindness — joy tag

okay. okay i am still weeping about this man and his chickens. this tag is for every small creature who brings me delight. https://everychickdeservesamother.com/2019/08/17/all-the-good-there-is/

#thank god for the months after may — summer aesthetic tag

i haven’t listened to ben rector since i was seventeen but this is a good quote anyway and summer flowers are the thing that keep me going through the winter.

#the first sign of civilization is a healed femur — civilization/altruism/kindness tag

paraphrase of the famous (possibly apocryphal) margaret meade quote. i saw a criticism of it by the green brothers, who were like “but lots of people/animals show altruism without any connection to civilization (eg buildings and cities and record keeping systems)” and i deeply disagree with them. civilization doesn’t require monuments, only people coming together to build (metaphorically) something bigger than they could have done as individuals. humans aren’t the only ones on that path, just the ones who’ve gotten the furthest down it.

#the great sweeping wind — autumn aesthetic

yes i am a shameless l m montgomery stan. anne of green gables is my kindred spirit.

#the quick and the dead — fungi tag

from the bible. you know. we all sin, we’re all alive or dead or both. fungi don’t care.

#the race that knows joseph — kindred spirit tag

haven’t gotten to use this one yet. looking forward to when i do.

#the wild geese are heading home again — nature tag

shortened version of mary oliver’s poem.

#there is a history in all men’s lives — history/natural history/anthropology tag

shakespeare knew how to use words. everything is history and i am excited about ALL of it. when will someone admit me into a grad school???

#we are the children of an indifferent universe — community/fandom tag

but, like colin meloy says, we are also the inheritors of a wonderful world. i think it’s amazing how we look at the universe around us and build communities and find meaning out of sheer spite. also i have got to refine this tag set better i can’t just shove ALL fandom content into one tag. stay tuned

#we don’t love this world without reason — awe/joy tag

from catadromously’s comic. this is for things that make me go “oh.” when i see them.

#we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us — architecture/interior design tag

churchill can have one right. architecture is one of my favorite art forms & interior design is something i love looking at and doing. someday i’ll even be able to afford it.

#we will be better than we were — recovery tag

from (yet another) caitlyn siehl poem that reads:

“love is quiet love whispers “it is okay, we will be better than we were” and we are. we are.”

and we are.

#within me; an invincible summer — winter aesthetic tag

albert camus wrote that: “in the midst of winter, i found there was, within me, an invincible summer. and that makes me happy. for it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” winters are hard for me, but i hang on anyway.

#you have no idea the joy that is coming — love tag

guess who this quote is by? if you guessed caitlyn siehl, you are correct.

#you pull out the wild in me - feral aesthetic

not feral, just… wild. i don’t know. i don’t think i made this quote up but i can’t find it anywhere else so maybe i did. i’m guessing it’s now-deleted inkskinned or bonemeadows.

#you’ve got to be kind — misc humans tag

kurt vonnegut. because yeah. we’ve got to be kind. that’s the only rule. we’re just humans and we have to be kind.

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iridescentides · 4 years

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spontaneity can be fun! and it's so sweet that you're starting traditions with your gf ❤️💚 this is probably warranting another Read More (which i love by the way and you shouldn't feel ashamed of) but i know how much lela from teen beach movie means to you and i wanted to hear why? 😊 - 🎅🎁🎄

hi again friend! sorry for responding so late but youre right this will be another read more! thanks for asking such good questions!

i think at the heart of it, lela is my favorite for the same reasons that i like a lot of my favorite characters: honesty, genuineness, and resilience. having the bravery to love openly, to explore, and to believe in yourself enough to keep going, even when other people may not support you.

lela is unwaveringly kind, caring, and loving. in the first movie, we watch her dance around blissfully, spread compliments and positivity like confetti, and welcome mack and brady into her world like long lost friends. she is unafraid to show care and compassion, and she loves like its the most natural thing in the world for her to do. we watch her confront a fear and begin to learn how to prioritize herself, but shes a little hesitant. she is ready to grow, but she needs a little help. in the second movie we get to see her take agency over her own life and her own narrative, putting herself and her interests first, without sacrificing the loving aspect of her character. she continues to support and uplift others as shes learning to uplift herself. she wears her enthusiasm proudly, and she grabs every opportunity she can.

the thing that sets lela apart from every other character for me is the way that she truly exemplifies confidence. to me, confidence is the most important thing in the world, the most crucial trait for a person to have, and lela came to me at a particularly impactful and influential time in my relationship with myself.

i was 16 when teen beach 2 came out. i hadnt really cared much about the first teen beach movie; i liked it, but i wasnt obsessed. when the second movie came out, i was right in the middle of a very transformative 2 years of my life, where i had decided that i was going to learn to love myself at all costs. i made conscious efforts to step outside of my comfort zone, i read a ton of self-help articles, i wrote myself affirmations, and i just generally reworked my entire brain to become a more confident person. i started to lean more into media, music, and friendships that made me feel good, and to unapologetically enjoy things. i was also learning a lot of new things about feminism and about society as a whole. and for the person i was at the time (and the person i wanted to become), lela came at the exact right moment.

i understand that some people may see lela as an embodiment of surface-level, hashtag girl power disney channel feminism (esp with the “girls can do anything boys can do” line in the first movie). i know that she may seem cheesy and maybe unrealistic to some people. i get that. but as a role model for some of the important changes i was trying to put into place in my own life at the time, she was absolutely perfect.

society teaches women specifically not to like themselves. to never be “too much.” to never be too smart, too loud, or too into themselves. thats misogyny 101. we learn to conflate confidence with arrogance, and to worry that if we’re nice to ourselves, if we think well about ourselves, then it MUST be arrogance at that point, which is a bad trait to have. we learn that if we express ourselves, embrace our ideas, and push to be heard, that thats selfishness, and we’re taking from other people when we take up space. this is simply untrue; a confident person coexists on an equal plane with others, giving themselves the same time, attention, and care that they would give to other people. i was working to internalize this idea at 16 when lela became the perfect example. in growing her confidence and her power in tb2, she never gives up the person she was in tbm. she doesnt negate all of her wonderful qualities, like passion and care and genuineness, when she chooses to have new experiences.

yes, she walked out of her movie and left the wet side story characters behind, but it wasnt for nothing. she left an environment that wasnt fulfilling for her anymore in pursuit of a fuller life. she still had lots of love to give, and she set out to find mack and transfer her love and energy into their relationship. (shes gay your honor!!! but the point is) she chose to live authentically and knew that she deserved to become her best self, and when she returned to the movie, she brought back the lessons that she had learned in the real world.

in the real world, she got to do calculus and chemistry, make new friends, wear new clothes, invent, create, and excel. she gained admiration for her skills and the content of her character, rather than for the role she played in other peoples lives. she can rebuild a motorcycle AND lead a musical number, and she learned those things could coexist. her femininity could be part of her strength, rather than being seen as a weak point or something that precludes her from going on the bigger adventures. i cannot stress how important it is to see her embrace all of these pieces of herself, unapologetically, in a positive light, and without losing the people close to her!!!

lela is a fictional character, but she has always been my role model for living an honest, passionate life full of love both for myself and for others. lela queen of the beach was a result of the positive impact she had on her world when she used her newfound power, skills, and self-assuredness to enact change. wet side story transformed from being an antiquated narrative that young people had never heard of and didnt enjoy, to being a movie (lela queen of the beach) that mobs of teenagers bought tickets to watch on the beach, passionately dancing along, unified, to the opening number. it became the movie that inspired girls like mack to surf, and girls like alyssa to talk to their crushes. it was subversive and progressive for its time period, making it a classic that remained prominent for 60 years. and all of that power and influence came from one young woman, who was inspired by another young woman. role modeling is a multilayered theme in the teen beach movies, and personally, lela provides motivation for me to give my all, unapologetically, in situations where i can exert a positive impact.

lela symbolizes beating your fears and doubts, stepping out of your comfort zone, creating your own power, and becoming independent, all while staying true to yourself and honest with others. for all those reasons, she will always be a source of warmth and comfort for me.

#bro tell me why i cried writing this #shes so important to me #thank you again for asking all the best questions!!!#this is really fun i love pouring my soul out under read mores #answered asks #anons #gcwca secret santa #Anonymous

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gloves94 · 4 years

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To Be So Lonely [Draco Malfoy] 28

Rating: M Pairings: Draco Malfoy/OC Chapter warnings: Drug use! SuicideMentions! SlightGore! Violence! Death! Depression!

CHAPTER MASTERLIST

MY MASTER-LIST

The dull oatmeal might as well have been sawmill dust. It was just one of those days that felt duller than the last. Lately for Nel it had kind of been like that. She shot a woeful look at the empty seats across from her where Tracey would usually be joking around and Daphne talking about her latest work of art. Letting out an exhausted sigh, she turned her attention to The Daily Prophet which was next to her breakfast. She didn’t care much for the articles but attempted to keep her mind busy from the fact both her best friends weren’t speaking to her and the horrible holiday she would have to spend with her cruel guardian, Cloelia Lestrange, and her psychotic adoptive brother.

“This has to stop,” A voice interrupted. Nel looked up to see Theodore quickly sit in front of her. He looked over his shoulder making sure his girlfriend wasn’t around to witness him threading with the ‘enemy.’ “Nel, this is absurd, just apologize for whatever you did and make up with Daphne and Trace. I can’t be looking over my shoulder like this every time I talk to you.”

For somebody who knew a lot about everything, Theodore didn’t know much about people.

“You know Daphne is upset because of what you did and well, I think Tracey is just hurt,” He expanded.

Her dark eyes fixed on him with no expression. Theo was acting worse than the girls. He was acting like a two-faced bitch. Sneaking around when interacting with the orphan girl so he wouldn’t upset Daphne. Nel didn’t know what was worse his cowardness or his willingness to do anything for his girlfriend. She secretly prayed never to be that pathetically whipped.

It was then that the rest of the Slytherin’s arrived and Theodore scampered away to take a seat with them. To make matter’s worse Pansy’s loud laughter and cheerier attitude at the new company she kept was the cherry on top. Part of the reason she didn’t want to speak to them was – yes, because of the whole telling Dumbledore her story, but the other half of it… The Dark Lord wanted to kill her. He had placed a bounty on her head. The Lestranges knew it, so did Mr. Malfoy, she eyed her friends from a distance. This time her gaze shifting into a suspicious one. Just how much did they really know? How much had they overheard during dinners with their families? Eyes moving across the room she looked at the Headmaster who seemed distracted in a hearty conversation. Dumbledore’s façade of being a kind, sweet, twinkly eyed, old man became more corrupt as time passed by and she saw the ugliness in him. He definitely knew. There was absolutely no way he didn’t.

Looking all the way across the Great Hall she saw the Gryffindor table. The House she initially wished she had been sorted into. She could see Harry half away struggling to keep his eyes open spilling some pumpkin juice on his uniform. Hermione lecturing from a thick book and Ron trying to help Harry stay awake. They were her friends, too right? They were nice to her, so were some of the other Weasleys. But what if they didn’t really like her? What if they only talked to her because they felt sorry for her? Anxiety pricked at her and her insecurities. They hadn’t spoken in a while, maybe they hated her too. Elowen was so engrossed in her own dark cloud of anxious thought that she didn’t realize the second boy that noticed the anxious look on her face from across the room and decided to join her for breakfast this morning taking a seat across from her.

He sat down confidently with an easy smile resting his elbows on the table and greeted her. “What are you doing?” She asked wide-eyed and surprised self-consciously turning to see the dozens of prying eyes that were staring at the two. “Everyone can see us!” She asked wide-eyed.

“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” Cedric let out a charming laugh. She looked greatly frustrated at his unannounced appearance. They were supposed to keep their partnership down and under the wraps, it simply made everything less complicated. “We haven’t discussed the Third Task yet. What are we going to do?” He leaned forward with interest, his elbows resting on the table.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” She admitted sincerely. “I haven’t really thought about anything lately,” She said miserably slumping her head on one of her palms. She hadn’t even been in the mood to have any sweets she might encounter. For some reason there had been a lot of pear tarts around her as of the late. However, she didn’t fancy them.

“You don’t look too excited,” He noted observing her obviously upset demeanor. She neither agreed nor disagreed with his statement. “Say, what do you want to be when you grow up?” He tried shifting the subject. “A menace to society,” Nel droned out numbly. Cedric couldn’t help but laugh, “You know, I’m going to be Ministry of Magic one day,” He boasted with pride. Being in a foul mood Nel fought the urge to roll her eyes of course the golden boy wanted to be Ministry of Magic. How could she have forgotten that?

She didn’t even hear what he said after that. Somehow the conversation quickly shifted back to the Tri-Wizard Tournament and the Third Task. “Meet me at the Room of Requirement tonight, I’ll see you there after prefect duty,” he leaned forward and whispered before leaving.

The school year was near its end. It was almost the Tri-Wizard tournament so the two really had to get cracking to find out what they were going up against and properly strategize. That meant Nel also had only a few weeks to make up with her friends. Turning her head, she hoped to meet Tracey’s brown eyes from across the dining table however, the Quidditch player seemed more focused on whatever Millicent was gossiping about.

Nel thought she hadn’t done anything wrong, she was sure, more than certain about it. She even hadn’t gone out of her way to make some elaborate plan for vengeance yet, despite this she felt the need to apologize. Even Theodore had advised her to apologize, but for what? She hadn’t done anything wrong. What would she apologize for? For not wanting to come forward to Dumbledore in fear of retaliation from the Lestrange family? For lying to the Headmaster? If anything they had done her wrong. They had gone and babbled her story. It was hard, but she had to remind herself she wasn’t the antagonist in this situation.

Once again looking forward across the room her eyes accidentally met an icy pair this time. She looked away quickly, if she had moved any faster her neck would’ve probably snapped. Suddenly, she couldn’t be in the same room as her attacker any longer. Quickly picking up her belongings she rushed to her first class of the day.

She rushed out of the Great Hall and was about to reach the stairs when a handheld her back, the grip stern, not gentle or too harsh. She already knew who it was.

“Hello Elowen,” She was pulled back and cornered trapped in between a body and the wall with a stretched arm. Keeping her eyes down her jaw clenched when she saw the bottom of a Beauxbaton eggshell blue uniform pants. Impulsively she pushed past him and tried to walk away but the long boy didn’t flinch at her violent shove.

“I want to speak to you,” He spoke in a smooth voice cornering her further into the small space he had created in between the wall. “I want to give you something.” He spoke suspiciously scratching the tip of his nose, no doubt from having been snorting dragonpuffs.

It was the type of interaction which was downright ugly. Snape had already confirmed the girl’s worst fears. Ellar was planning something vile. So was his mother. Now all she needed to do was prove it. Prove it and find a way to escape going to their home this summer. She knew the moment she crossed the door she was as good as dead, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Stay away from me!” She spat once again attempting to rush past him. “Elowen come on,” Again, he spoke in an unstrained and eerily calm voice. “I’m late for class,” She snapped ignoring him. “History of Magic can wait,” He said senselessly. Nel tried to catch the eye of anybody passing by. She hoped someone would see and help her get out of this trap. “How do you expect me to talk to you after everything you’ve done to me?”

“Everything I’ve done?” He let out a cool laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” He ran a hand through his shinny dark hair. “No ide-“ She coughed incredulously eyes widening in disbelief at what she was hearing. “You forced yourself on me, pushed me into the lake and tried to drown me!” She exclaimed, voice breaking at the admission. “You’re imagining things,” He didn’t bat an eyelash. “I didn’t do that,” He lied with terrifying ease.

“Yes, you did!” She spat back in a firm voice.

“You must be confused,” His eyes narrowed, and he looked at her as if she was the one acting insane. “We went down there just to talk, we started dancing-“ “Against my will,” She interrupted. He didn’t stop his manipulative narrative. “You fell in and I tried to get you out. In a moment of rush, I can understand how that can get confusing,” He smiled at her and even had the audacity to flick her nose in a playful manner. “Here, I got you something,” He said pulling up a small brown pastry box with a pear tart inside. She smacked his hand and the stupid tart away making it fall to the floor and looked at him furiously. “You could’ve killed me!” “Elowen,” He shook his head, ignoring the pastry she had rejected or her livid expression. She hated the way he said her name stretching it out like a long drawl he was too lazy to properly pronounce. “Stop twisting things,” He clicked his tongue remaining composed. “Do you hear yourself talk? I didn’t do that. You need help,” He let out a chilling laugh as he gaslight the hell out of the Fourth-Year girl.

She knew he was lying, but why did he sound so certain? There was no way somebody had used a Polyjuice potion to imitate him. There was no absolute way he had someone posing as him at Hogwarts. No way he was telling the truth. So, if she knew he was lying why did she find herself doubting her own memory? “And even then, it’s your fault for going down to the docks and falling in the water.”

“I didn’t fall-“ She stammered, deciding to stick to the facts she knew. “You pushed me.”

He flashed her an irritated look as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. Elowen was beginning to question herself. Was she actually imagining things?

The hallway was now empty and Nel was officially late for class. “Don’t be unhappy,” He lifted her chin up with a finger and she jerked her head away not wanting to meet his eyes. “Watch the Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with me.” This time she looked at him in the eye. “No. This is the last time I ask you. Leave me alone,” she warned him before giving him a hearty shove that made him stagger back on his feet. Ellar stood back racking his brain for any idea to once again seize an emotional grip of control over the girl. He had really messed up at the Yule Ball. He should’ve sucked it up and strung her along for the rest of the year. How could he get her to stop walking away from him? To once again succumb to his will and squeeze her under his thumb. He needed her to attend the Third Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with him. After all, it was all part of the plan. “I just asked you to go steady and you walk away from me?” He followed. To be clear he didn’t ask, it was just another of his demands. “Nobody’s going to want to go with you just like nobody wanted to go with you to the Yule Ball,” He didn’t stop there when she realized the brunette continued to ignore his calls. “And Malfoy?” He let a rueful laugh aiming for where he knew it would hurt. The mentioning of her friend’s name brought her to a sudden halt. Ears automatically perking at the mention of his surname. “You think he’d ever be interested in a nobody like you? An orphan girl with no past, present or future?” He laughed, this time cruelly. “Please, Elowen, he’s only toying with you,” He said rounding around her his hand touching her back and caressing around her arm and shoulder. “But you already knew that didn’t you?”

She didn’t want to think about that… “Then again, he did strike me like a muggle. That brute. Perhaps, vulgar really is his style,” he chuckled. She smacked his arm away from her body and held her books closer to her body as she shrunk her shoulders forward. He side stepped around her this time and stood in front of her blocking her way. She continued to shrink under his intense gaze.

“You’re not pretty, you’re not smart, not even darling or graceful in any way shape or form without an ounce of elegance-“ “I already told you to stay away from me,” Her jaw was beginning to hurt from clenching it so tightly. Eyes beginning to sting. Why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Why did he have to be so cruel? Why couldn’t she see past the fear and find the strength to attack him with all of her bloody rage? “Who told you to say that?” He spoke in a low voice. “Your friends? The ones who don’t even like you?”

She was at a loss of words.

“They don’t know what’ good for you,” He paused. “But I do,” he insisted. His voice dripping like a bittersweet honey, the type that lingers in flytraps ready to capture an innocent passing by fly. How can someone be so damn fucking twisted? Who did this guy think he was?

“God, Ellar, you’re such a-“ She couldn’t even manage to get the word out. “You’re such a-“ As much as she pondered on picking the perfect word only one word came to mind. Ellar didn’t have a moment to react little by little a headache he had been feeling evolved into a migraine as his head began to swell and grow larger and larger until it inflated into large balloon. “You’re such a fat head!” She stomped her foot down and whipping her wand out of the inside of her sleeve zapped his back as he scurried away spitting out a trail of curses. His small body tipping from side to side as he struggled to keep his bobble head up. She would have to deal with whatever his mother would do to her over the holiday when the time came. Frustrated she wiped the one tear that had managed to escape.

“Nel?”

‘Oh Merlin, really? Now what?’ Spinning on her heel she turned to face Harry Potter with her wand still held high and up. “Are you alright?” He asked with a confused look on his face. Shouldn’t he be in History of Magic? “Oh, er- yeah,” She lied wiping at the tip of her nose and slid her pale wand up her sleeve. “Was he bugging you?” By now Harry knew that Saintday kept these types of things to herself. The abuse, the bullying- He understood why, probably better than anybody else at Hogwarts and decided not to press about it today. However, things like this he couldn’t ignore. His green eyes remained looking in the direction in which Ellar had turned and vanished into. “I took care of him already,” She muttered looking down at her cheap black shoes. Suddenly she didn’t feel like going to class anymore.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Really?” Harry pressed. Why couldn’t she confide in him? Why didn’t she really trust him? She would rather be alone that reach out to him, Fred, George or anyone really. Of course, he had noticed the girl’s aloofness as of the late and what was that whole thing in the morning? Cedric Diggory having a word with her. “I think the question is, how are you Harry? I’m sure dealing with the Tri-Wizard Tournament has been bad enough as it is. Tell me,” She crossed her arms and approached him immediately switching the topic of conversation with ease. “What are you going to do with all that fame and glory?” She arched an eyebrow somewhat still bitter that Harry was allowed to enter the tournament and she hadn’t been. Harry frowned at her comment. He couldn’t tell if she was being spiteful or not. “I don’t care for either,” The Boy Who Lived admitted humbly. Funny, considering it would be something The Girl Who Died would kill for.

“Hm,” She pondered on that thought wishing she could be Harry. She didn’t know if to take him for a fool or appreciate his humility. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She teased cracking a false smile. Harry saw right through it. “You know,” He began. “We should go to Hogsmeade someday. As friends. I know you’re banned from the Three Broomsticks, but there’s other stuff to do. We can go to Zonko’s? Or Honeyduke’s?” He offered with a casual shrug.

So, Harry actually was her friend. She felt rather foolish for forgetting but with the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry and clouds of anxious thoughts it was easy to forget. “Hogsmeade sounds nice,” She smiled at him sincerely. Harry was about to respond when someone bumped into his back shoving him forward. Irritated he turned to see Malfoy swaggering down the steps standing next to him shooting daggers at him. His eyes seemed to shout, ‘Shove it!’ Without acknowledging Potter, Draco turned to look at the girl. Harry returned the death stare.

“I’ll-uh, see you later Harry,” Nel broke the tense silence between the three bidding the Gryffindor goodbye subtly asking him for some space. “Yeah,” Harry looked between them. “Maybe at Hogsmeade,” He said purposely knowing it would irritate Malfoy to no end. He waved at her before walking away in the direction of Professor Moody’s classroom.

“Hogsmeade?” Draco exclaimed. “I heard you were with bad company, but Potter? Out of all people,” He combed his hair away from his forehead and shook his head. “And you’re going to Hogsmeade with him?”

She didn’t answer and kept her arms crossed looking at him with an irritated expression. They were just going as friends but that was none of his business.

“I’ve been with worse company,” She shot at him remembering that the time the two had attended together.

Ouch.

Despite the jab he let out a throaty chuckle. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” He asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” She shot back irritated that her hostile comment hadn’t made him upset. “Seems hardly fair you get to skip while the rest of us have to deal with Binns incessant rambling?”

Touché. “What is it to you if I’m in class or not?” She sighed pessimistically before walking away towards the Slytherin dormitory. The morning had been way too long. She didn’t want to think about anything Ellar had said to her. The thought of crawling into bed and laying in a fetal position underneath the covers passing the day by doing nothing was very tempting. “Davis and Greengrass still giving you a hard time?” He changed the topic both of his eyebrows knitting, the edges of his mouth pulling down in a frown. He sounded genuinely concerned, but then again- did he really care? She wanted to block him out of her head, but Ellar’s hurtful words sounded back like an echo: “He’s only toying with you.” She remained quiet her answer was her silence.

“I’m waiting,” the blonde said impatiently.

Exasperated she didn’t mean to explode but she did. “What’s there to say?” She paced around the corridor walking back to him. “My best friends won’t even look at me- I get harassed by Lestrange first thing in the morning and now!” She didn’t’ mean to raise her voice. “Now youwon’t let me skip the most boring class at Hogwarts!”

“It’s not even noon and I just want today to be over with! I just want to lay down and die,” She shouted frustrated.

It took her a moment to compose herself from her loud tantrum and depressive statement. “Are you done?” He cocked an eyebrow up.

She felt her blood begin to boil. Why was he invalidating her emotions like that? She was about to push him away just like she had done to Ellar, like she did to everyone when he interrupted her in a surprisingly cool tone.

“I’ll take care of it,” He said cooly trying to reassure the girl. She was more than perplexed by his statement. Taken aback she looked at him oddly. Just what did he mean by that? “Just like I took care of Lestrange.” “Huh?” Slowly she could feel her anger begin to melt away. A mischievous smile grew on his face before he began to walk away. Purposely leaving her to wonder just what he had done.

“Draco?” She asked in awe. “What did you do?”

“Wouldn’t you love to know,” he let out a low laugh and walked away leaving a very confused Slytherin girl behind.

Xxx

Nel never apologized to Tracey or to Daphne. She knew that sometimes it was best to yield and bend a knee in these types of circumstances. However, this time she would not apologize. It was her story and they had taken that away from her.

It didn’t help that since she had been seen with Ellar that day some of the Slytherin girls began to call her nasty synonyms like victim, tease, and attention-seeker, slut was also on that list.

She tried not to let it bother her. Words hurt, even if she had sworn she didn’t care what anybody else thought. Not that any of them would ever say it to her face considering how scared they all were of her.

It was nearly the end of the year. After having spent all morning long packing her belongings and getting ready to return to her guardian, something which she had been terribly dreading, Nel decided to head to the Great Hall to have a late breakfast alone before going to the greenhouse to spend the rest of the day with Nathair. It wasn’t like she had much interest in bidding goodbye to anybody else. Maybe to Professor Snape and a few others, but it wasn’t urgent. Besides, everybody and their mother would be viewing the last task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

“Saintday!” A voice interrupted her alone time and her meal. “There you are the tournament is about to begin!” It was Professor Moody. It looked like he had been running around the castle. For some reason he looked more agitated than per usual.

“So?” She shot back rudely. Not caring if her attitude caused her some lost points for Slytherin or landed her in some detention. At this point she was beyond that.

“All students must attend the tournament,” He repeated again. The edge of his mouth twitching oddly. His eye unnervingly shaking as it focused on her deep frown. “That’s not true,” She mumbled taking a mouthful of cereal. “Professor Snape said I could stay in the castle,” She lied.

Not to mention the fact she was also avoiding bidding Cedric and Harry good luck. Not because she didn’t wish it upon them, but because she really didn’t know what to say to either of them. Sometimes words were, well, hard. “No students are allowed in the castle without supervision. Tournament now,” He leaned down to try and meet her eyes, but she ignored him. Before she knew it, he had aggressively lifted her by the arm and dragged her out of the empty Great Hall. The cereal spoon she had in her mouth dropping halfway as the two made way to the arena.

“Get your hands off me,” She whipped her arm back to her person. By now she had an idea that the retired Auror had more than unconventional, perhaps even unorthodox methods of teaching, but she drew the line when it came to physical boundaries.

He led her all the way to the arena and all the way there he complained about ungrateful, slimy orphans, or something amongst those lines. Arriving to the arena she realized that it was actually the Quidditch pitch which had been modified to resemble a massive auditorium with tall stands so that everyone could see the tournament. It seemed like the Third Task had not been what her and Cedric had been imagining. It was a massive maze of hedges that were at least 20 foot high. The maze was filled with dangers and traps and in the middle from the distance one could see a bright celestial glow – the Triwizard cup. The first to reach it would be the winner of the tournament. This was it – the moment her and Cedric had been waiting for all year.

It seemed like the Third Task hadn’t started yet.

She sat far away from everyone on Ravenclaws’ side. The students didn’t seem to mind her presence. Cedric’s girlfriend Cho was in the group and the two shared a friendly wave. Distracted by this, she didn’t notice the Slytherins watching her from the distance.

She sat in the top corner towards the end where she could hopefully be invisible for the time being. Little by little she was starting to understand Professor Snape more and more. She understood his aloofness, why he dressed and acted like a wet bat, always trying to camouflage every day. She looked at him from across the pitch, he was sitting with the Headmaster and other professors in a private box. “If we were up any higher, we’d have nosebleeds,” a voice interrupted her wish of being aloneand train of thoughts. Sulking Simon, she acknowledged the ghost boy. Maybe his company was more than appropriate.

“We?” She asked. “Simon, you don’t bleed,” She let out a humorous snort. Everything was fine until the ghost began ranting, moaning and sulking about his status as a lost soul in this cruel and very dull world. “I mean, I don’t even like Quidditch that much, and I’m stuck here. It makes me want to dieall over again.” Avoiding him, really not feeling charitable enough to help a poor soul cross to the other side Nel walked down the stands and instead took a seat next to a blonde girl that had a dazed look on her face and was eyeing a bird that was flying over the arena. She didn’t pay much mind to the bird. She was just grateful this girl didn’t talk. She sat pretending not to hear Simon calling at her from the highest stands in the seating area.

“Saintday,” Malfoy who had been watching her from the distance approached her. “Malfoy,” the other greeted emotionlessly. “Why on Earth are you sitting with the Ravenclaws?” He half sneered looking at his surroundings with disdain.

Nel shrugged. She just wanted to be alone. She was mourning her last hours of freedom before she had to return to La Maison de Lestrange. She also didn’t feel like sitting together with the Slytherins. What was the point? Why would she put herself through the martyrdom of attempting to capture her friend’s attention through pleading looks of pity?

“Come on,” Draco tossed his head back cooly.

“No, I think I’m okay, I’ll just sit here and cheer,” she said in the most uncheerful tone hoping he would go away, and she could simply return to her silence.

“It’s because of them, isn’t it?” He realized looking back at her friends.

Before Elowen had a chance to answer Malfoy grumbled a mysterious “I’ll be back,” before leaving.

Once he was gone, Nel let out a heavy sigh. She wasn’t expecting him to be back any time soon. And finally, it was silent. Nobody would speak to her. All she had to do was sit tight, watch the task and hope that Cedric came in first place.

“You know, it’s bad luck to see nightjars in the daylight,” The girl sitting next to her spoke in a soft voice. Nel ignored her hoping she would stop talking or go away. She didn’t.

“They’re an omen of death.” She continued with an eerie soothing tone that contrasted her morbid statement. Looking at her closely she realized who it was.

Great – Out of all people she had to end up sitting next to Looney Lovegood. Momentarily distraught, she didn’t feel the presence creep up behind her.

“Hello, Elowen,” The silky voice made her body turn stiff. With an abrupt flinch she slapped the owner of the voice by swatting her arm over her shoulder. She didn’t stop to see his reaction simply stood up and walked away.

“I’m glad you made it,” Ellar said strained trying to keep his temper in check, rubbing his wounded nose. He snorted and sniffed right afterwards cleaning his nostrils from any leftover substance.

“Bloody fuggin hell,” She exclaimed vulgarly her temper leaping from zero to hundred. “Merlin,” She growled out pulling out at the roots of her hair in stress. “Leave me alone!”

God all she wanted to do was be alone and stay alone in the stupid castle and marinate in the misery and little time that was left of her few hours of freedom. She noticed Moody standing near the exit of the stands. He had witnessed the entire interaction and hadn’t even flinched. Why hadn’t he come and jinxed Lestrange just like he had done to Malfoy earlier in the year? Frustrated she decided to head the opposite way, descending down the stairs of the stands heading down underneath them.

Walking underneath the stands she followed the trail which led to the Champion’s Tent. However, hearing a creak she stopped and turned, but didn’t see anyone behind.

It was suspicious. “Where are you going?” Simon suddenly appeared levitating besides her. “Away,” She grumbled pessimistically. “You know the champions’ tent is on the other side, right?” There was no use in avoiding it, but maybe there was just no going around it. She’d have to face Cedric and Harry eventually. “Thanks,” She said shortly, not lengthening the conversation but not dismissing him either. She walked a long way, he hovered slightly behind. Once outside of the champions’ tent she assumed the participants were probably being interviewed by the media and preparing for the task.

She stood outside anxiously fidgeting for a moment and took a huge breath.

“You know it’s for champions only, right?” Simon said. “rules are for fools,” She scoffed self-importantly suddenly feeling some of the nervousness melt away as she pushed the tarp away and stepped in. She ignored the “Champions only!” Shout that came from a blonde journalist in the back.

All four champions turned to look at the intruder. “Nel!” Harry was the first to approach her. He was wearing a sporty long sleeve maroon shirt that was half black. “What are you doing here?” He asked surprised. “Harry,” She exhaled the breath she had been holding. Her dark eyes darted from Harry’s green to meet her friend’s across on the other side of room. “I just came to wish you good luck.” She really did. Even if her money was running on Cedric. “If you get lost, remember to keep your hand to the right, and eventually you’ll find your way out,” She advised wisely.

“Thanks, good advice,” He nodded looking exhausted. “You’ll do great, I know it,” She slapped his arm stating the end of the brief conversation. She turned to Cedric. ‘Harry already had made a name for himself, fame, fortune… Why not give somebody else a chance? It would be selfish of him not to do so’, she thought to herself with bitter resentment.

“Nel, you came,” Cedric looked pleasantly surprised as he approached the two students. Harry looked between the Hufflepuff and the Slytherin peculiarly. He had only seen the two of them interact a handful of times. However, after seeing the two in the Great Hall he decided to keep a close eye on them using the Marauder’s Map. To his surprise he found the two would sometimes vanish off the map. Not only that but they also spent a conspicuous amount of time together. Alone.

‘But wasn’t Cedric with Cho?’

Harry looked at them, it didn’t look like that type of relationship to him. However, with Saintday- it was always hard to tell these kinds of things.

The Chosen one pretended to busy himself with warming up and stepped away from the two.

“I’ll admit,” She began timidly. “I wasn’t going to come,” She admitted with discomfort, “Yet, here I am.”

A normal person would’ve perhaps taken offense to this but not Cedric. Instead, he chuckled at this. It was one of the great things about him, one of the things that made him so cool and easy going in the eyes of well, practically everyone. “I can’t believe you weren’t going to come bid your favorite person good luck,” he shook his head still wearing an askew smile that was perfect on him. This time it was her turn to laugh. “You? My favorite person?” “It’s been a pleasure Diggory, but I’m afraid this has all been business, not personal,” She joked stretching out her hand to him like partners usually did at the end of a successful business deal. Both shared a laugh. “Good luck. You’ve got it in the bag!”

Cedric smiled back and stretched out his hand to shake hers. However, instead, he pulled her into a hug. The girl wasn’t surprised by the gesture, she welcomed it and hugged her friend back. “Whatever happens Nel,” Cedric said pulling away. “If I win or lose, we’ll still be friends, right?” She wanted to joke and say that hadn’t been a plan of their business deal but chose not to. She was in a lonely moment of time, scarce in friends, and Cedric was a very good one at that. “Why wouldn’t we be?” She arched an eyebrow acting perplexed at his question.

“Good,” He nodded. “Because I’m going to need some eyes and ears in Gringotts when you get there. Specially since I’ll be working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement starting this summer,” he boasted.

His friend couldn’t help but be genuinely happy for her. He was one step closer in the long way to accomplishing his goal as the next Ministry of Magic. She congratulated him and their moment was interrupted when a loud announcement was made indicating it was time for the champions to take their positions in their designated areas of the maze.

“Good luck everyone!” She said in general to all, including Viktor and Fleur. “I’ll see you on the other side!” Cedric waved as he began to walk away. “Oh, and Nel?” He paused on his step. “Be good?” He chuckled heartily before exiting the tent the opposite way.

To the Slytherin’s surprise Harry lingered behind.

“You’ll do fine,” She gave him a half side hug. “See you on the other side,” She exited the tent.

Walking out of the tent and underneath the tall stands she looked for Simon, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she saw Professor Moody approaching the tent. The scowl on his face was deeper than usual and his walk was rushed. He did not look pleased.

“Oh, the task is about to start,” She explained. “I was just returning to-“ She ducked barely dodging a nasty hex the professor had cast in her direction. Her shocked mind barely had time to register when he again tried to hex her.

“Immobulus,” He spat. “Protego!” She blocked with swiftness.

“Professor,” She was tongue tied. There was no time to ask questions. Mad-Eye was lashing all kinds of spells in her direction. The attacks weren’t calculated yet weren’t sporadic either.

Nel took what she had said in the beginning of the year. So far, they had had a mass murderer, an idiot and a werewolf as a professor. This was a surprise – she hadn’t dealt with a psychopath before.

Taking back steps, she looked up the tall ceiling where people were sitting down witnessing the tournament. All oblivious to the hell that was being raised literally underneath their noses. “Help!” She shouted loudly hoping anybody would see her, would hear her. She shouted again until she backed up to a wooden rod that held the stadium up.

She raised her wand ready to cast any spell to the ceiling of people. Maybe then somebody would- “Incarcerous!” Like serpents, thorny ropes magically appeared and crawled over her body binding her with knots. Collapsing to the side her heart began to pound, she spat at the dirt she bit when she fell and attempted to blow a strand of hair off her face. She could see Mad-Eye’s limp legs approaching her.

“Filthy brat,” He walked over to her. Kneeling down he grabbed a fistful of hair with his good hand he turned her to the side roughly, “Scum,” he grumbled pulling on her hair making the student wince. She wanted to ask what he wanted. What his vile intentions were but suddenly couldn’t find her voice. She was looking at the man with hatred when a sudden zip knocked him back. Only then did she hear “Plumbum rectio!”

‘What was that spell?’ She could hear the footsteps crunching the ground below. Eyes peeled, shocked she looked up to see a boy holding his wand out looking down at Moody with a sneer. “Crucio!” He cursed without mercy making the older man writhe in uncontrollable pain. The ropes around her loosened and wiggling out of them she staggered to her feet she looked down at the horrifying scene. Strings of saliva, bulging veins and a twitching tongue were all in an irrepressible spasm as the man groaned and grit his teeth in terrible ache at the torment.

This had to stop. “Stop it!” She shoved the boys arm roughly.

Without removing his eyes from the professor, still wearing a sickly-sweet smile, he shot a final spell at Professor Moody making his body twitch one last time before becoming stiff.

Elowen looked at him with disbelief.

“I told you to stick by my side, didn’t I?” Ellar said gruffly closing the space between them and wrapping an arm around her side leading her away.

Panic and fear ridden she took his side without question as they walked away in rushed strides. “We have to find a professor! We Have to tell Professor Snape!” She looked over her shoulder to see that Mad-Eye was still laying limp on the dirt. “No,” He snapped harshly reaching for her hand. “It’ll only make things worse,” he said before once again leading the way. “How do you know there’s not more like him around? How do you know Snape isn’t with him? Or Dumbledore for a matter of fact.” Her mind was still processing what had happened. He was right, what if there were more people like Moody around the school grounds holding a wicked intent. “I mean- you don’t even know what that man was going to do to you. Do you ever use your head Elowen? Do you ever think?” He snapped cruelly making the girl flinch away from him, but his grip on her shoulder remained tight. “I know what to do,” he spoke without emotion.

Maybe he was right. Maybe he did have the best intentions after all. He wouldn’t have saved her and attacked Moody if he didn’t, right? But then again – he had tried to drown her earlier in the year. Snape had even admitted to her that the Lestranges had some evil plan in the works. So why trust him? Glancing over her shoulder she caught sight of the professor’s silhouette still laying down in the distance.

“Elowen, listen to me,” His tone was threatening. She started to step away from him, but he closed the space between them. “The only safe way out of here is through the maze. It’s dangerous out there,” He reasoned with a flawed logic that seemed to only make sense to him.

Going into the maze? Was he insane?

“It’s the safest place,” He insisted. “Somebody will see us there. We can hide! We don’t know who else is coming-“ He hurried towards her side, trying to take her hand in his, but she would not allow it. Her gust twisted at the thought of following him. All of her instincts should at her not to follow the boy into the maze.

“You,” a third voice made the two students turn their heads back. Before them stood Simon his translucent eyes were wide. He looked struck, almost as if he had been split by lightning. Eyes wide, thin jaw slack, the ghost remained frozen. ‘What was wrong with him?’ Nel turned to look back at Ellar who wore a contrasting nasty grin on his face. Unlike the ghost, he seemed pleased. Almost as if he was enjoying this.

“Sulking Simon. Hufflepuff died a couple of years ago. Some say it was a Quidditch accident, others say there was more to it,” She remembered Draco had said to her once. "I used to be the Slytherins Seeker and there was an accident," She remembered Ellar sharing. "They were looking for a scapegoat and well, there I was," She could still remember the way he oh-so innocently claimed to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh! And the worst part is that she believed him! “I-It was you,” She looked at him horrified. “You killed him!” Slowly she began stepping away from him creating as much distance as she could between the two. She looked in between the two males. “Nothing about your death was an accident. Was it?” She asked Simon who was rendered speechless. Triggers and lost memories of the night he lost his life came flooding back to the ghoul.

“Big deal,” Lestrange broke the silence with a loud scoff. “I had to prove myself to him,” he began. “Alas, my range of devotion was limit due to my schooling so I did what I could best. I began cleansing Hogwarts of the impure. Filthy blood mixed among us not worth the teachings of Sacred Salazar!” He shouted. “You tricked me,” Fuming Simon finally snape. “You tricked me into coming to the pitch at night and then used me to play your sick little game with your friends!” He rolled up his sleeves showing his twisted limbs and fractured bones. “Eighty-six fractures in my body!” Nel winced at the horrific sight, she couldn’t even imagine what Ellar and his accomplices had put Simon through. It sounded like they got away scat free by making it seem like Simon had fallen off a broom. “And there’s nothing you or anyone can do to prove it,” He threatened with a smug smirk with his crooked wand raised.

Nel felt nauseous. How had he conned her so easily? How had he done it again and lured her to this place and almost inside of the maze? Lying was a part of Ellar’s nature, just like violence was, it was a weed that had long been ingrained into his core by the environment he was brought up in. Yet, he was beyond the point of saving. At this point, he had no remorse, no conscience. She didn’t want to stick around and find out why he wanted her to go into the maze with him. “Simon,” Nel mouthed, her movements calculated as she waited to attack or deflect. The ghost waited. “Get help.”

Simon left.

And just like that- like a coin he flipped. Wands raised at each other, Nel wasn’t fast enough to deflect the silent Imperio curse he cast upon her. Just like his mother, he didn’t need to vocalize it.

Ellar smirked, pleased when he saw Saintday’s body tremble against her will as she dragged her feet towards him slowly until she was standing before him. A cross look on her face as she appeared to be struggling to fight back the curse. It was useless.

“Y-You’re a murderer,” she spat through a stiff jaw.

More than pleased and feeling haughty he opened his palm for her to hand her wand to him. “See? That wasn’t too bad,” He smiled before brushing her lose hair over her shoulder. Being close enough she socked him square in the nose. He bent down in pain feeling the hot rush of blood coming down his nostrils. God, that felt good. “Sniff that!” She shouted.

Heaving, quickly ducking for her wand Nel ran as fast as she could hoping to reach the stairs at the end of the underneath the stands. Her pounding, mind racing, consistently looking over her shoulder on the offense. It didn’t take the Beauxbaton student to catch up. She could see flashes of red as he casted aggressive dark spells in her direction. This time she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

“They’re an omen of death,” She remembered Lovegood saying early. She cursed the omen, did this mean her time had come?

Again, looking over her shoulder, she was so close to reaching the stairs, so close- when she stumbled on a wooden block and collapsed face first into the ground. The friction of the rocky roughly scraping her skin.

Ellar was unstoppable. She winced turning around to feel a sharp pain shoot up her ankle. He was getting closer, so close he lunged at her and in her moment of fear casted the only spell that came to mind.

“Expecto Patronus!”

A manic grin grew on the boy’s lips. It was useless. Instead, he was not expecting the creature that came out of the wand to be dark. Dozens of night jars shaped orbs of darkness surrounded him engulfing the boy in a whirling haze of energy sucking entities which rendered him weak and made him collapse on the ground. Again, struggling to her feet, she didn’t dare stop to see if he was fine or not. Instead, she limped towards the end. The stairs were closer now. Where was help? Why wasn’t anyone coming? Where was Simon? Finally reaching the entrance of the stairs she stopped to catch her breath and attempt to fix her wounded ankle. Leaning against the frame’s entrance she was about to cast the charm when she was unable to move her hand.

Stunned, her petrified body collapsed in a full bind.

She fell to the floor stiff, helplessly trying to find her attacker and when she did, she saw Professor Moody straightening out his ragged coat licking his chapped lips.

“Now, you’re coming with me,” was all he said before everything turned black.

Xxx

Alastor Moody barged inside of the Defense Against Dark Art’s Office. He tossed the student that limped like a ragdoll on a chair in the corner of the room. Her head lolled to the side as she struggled to regain consciousness. A haze of dark blurs blinded her dazed vision.

“You got lucky, eh,” He said over his shoulder as he opened and closed several of his desk drawers shut as he scavenged for a powder. “Real, real, lucky.” Finding a small vial with white glittery powder he rushed back to the Slytherin’s side.

With a flick of his wand, a robust manilla rope magically appeared binding the girl’s arms and legs to the chair. Head still down as she struggled to remain conscious the man uncapped the small vial and waved the dust under her nostrils making the girls back straighten out like an arrow. Eyes wide, chest heaving, a full-on panic began to settle in as she racked her body from side to side in a struggle to escape the binds of the chair. From across the room, she could see her wand on Moody’s desk.

“It got late, real late,” Moody said flipping a small blade on his hand. “You’re of no use for the Dark Lord today.”

She was trembling like a leaf in the wind. Looking at him terrified. Her eyes glued to the knife the man was playing with.

“Let’s see now-“ He held on the blade tightly and leaned in close to her. His breath stunk of fluxweed, not alcohol like she had always imagined. His tongue poked out. “I want to taste your blood, your precious blood.”

The man before her suddenly began morphing. His face molded and disfigured before tightening into the one of a younger man. The all-seeing mechanical eye fell to the ground with a loud thud. A thin man with sharp face features whom Nel had never seen before towered over her. A compulsive twitch which made his tongue stick out of his mouth revealed his psychopathy and mental instability.

She could’ve wet herself with fear. She didn’t even realize the door opened and closed.

“Was the Crucio really necessary?” He turned to look at Ellar Lestrange who had shut the door behind him and locked it as he approached the two.

Of course, the two bastards were in it together. “Had to sell it,” The other shrugged an invisible speck of dust off his shoulder. Without much of a care he pulled out a small, thin vial from his pocket, popped it open and snorted a hit of whatever was inside. “Want a hit?” He asked the man, who ignored him. “So, what are we going to do?” Ellar asked. “We can’t get her in there now that the Tournament has started.” “We wouldn’t have this issue if you hadn’t been so coked up on dragonspuff done what I instructed you to do since the beginning!” The other snapped. “Didn’t you slip her the amortensia that I gave you?” “I did! But she didn’t take it!” “Then who did?”

Both exchanged a look before looking back at their hostage. It had collapsed to the floor that time he had tried to give her that pear pastry. Sitting in her seat, with adrenaline pulsing through her system she watched the two males carefully and attempted to remember and memorize every single word they said. Struggling was futile. If they wanted to kill her, they would’ve done it already. She sucked in a deep breath as if she were going to sink and held it. “What’chu starring at?” The man growled out raising his knife. “Wan’ me to poke an eye out?” He warned pressing the blade against the thin skin on the edge of her eye socket. She winced pressing her back against the top rail of the chair. “Hold her,” He ordered, and Ellar pinned down her left arm. The man she did now know was Barty Crouch Junior undid the bindings of her left arm and rolled her sleeve up over her elbow. She struggled coughing a “No,” as the breath she had been holding escaped. Screaming, trying to kick, or fend for herself she failed. The knife dug into her forearm and tore her flesh down vertically in a long line opening her skin to pouring red ribbons. She cried out in pain as the blood began to seep out. Trembling and in tears the horrified child was rendered silent.

Ellar simply watched, Crouch could’ve been muttering something to himself gibberish or Latin, it was hard to tell. Elowen thought the pain was over, but it wasn’t, she let out the loudest most horrifying scream when the man dove and with his long, filthy, and twitchy tongue licked her open wound.

A loud pop echoed the room as the light fixtures violently exploded making glass rain. The curtains caught on fire, windows cracked, and a moment latter shattered. Books began tumbling outside of their spaces in the bookshelf and the door blasted open.

The men remained undisturbed by all the chaos in the room. Instead, their eyes were pinned to the poor girl’s horrified expression. “Try whatever you want, you’re not getting out of here anytime soon,” Crouch laughed evilly licking and wiping some of the smeared blood that stained his bottom lip and chin. Undisturbed, perhaps too drugged and numb Lestrange chuckled and seemed to waltz around the room before standing before a large trunk. Crouch stuck an arm behind the chair and dragged it with her body still on it. He dumped her inside of the trunk without much care. As if she were waste. “And – into the trunk you go,” Ellar singsong as he slammed the opening locking her alone in the darkness.

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luxfurem · 3 years

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@treppenwitzz asked: i need all the deets about your bellatrix... ALSO ANJI i wanna know more about anji | MEME.

So... this ended up really long and therefore it’s under the cut! I sort of left out the “who they could get along with” part but I also feel like that really just depends on verses and such, so we can totally discuss that sometime 🥺🥺🥺

Bellatrix Lestrange

TW for mentions of alcohol, abuse, death and miscarriage

TROPES/ARCHETYPES: The Champion, Femme Fatale

Bellatrix is the very first muse that I officially wrote on indie, but also a muse that I’ve explored in the many group rps I’ve been in in the years before that. Because of that, she’s been through a lot of changing and tweaking over the years, but I like what I’ve got going for her now.

I’m absolutely a big fan of villain characters and I support the humanizing of them because in my mind, it is all the more terrifying that a villain could like the same things as you, could be like you, but be capable of such terrible things. I think it creates a frightening perspective that’s the quiet sort of terrifying, and it’s what I aim to do with Bella. I wanted to create a villainous woman who is powerful without being sorry for it.

I do want to stress that a villain doesn’t necessarily become worthy or deserving of pity or redemption because their story contains sad aspects. In the end, everyone encounters terrible and sad things in life, and it’s what you do with these experiences that matters. If you become bitter or vengeful, that is a decision, and the consequences of however you decide to treat the world after are not cancelled out because of the reason why you became this way.

On the one hand, she is this terrifyingly powerful witch who, despite her comparatively young age, climbed up the ranks of the death eaters to the position of lieutenant at Voldemort’s side, but on the other she is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s wife. I wanted to explore how these two aspects of her story intertwine, or, in some cases, clash.

My Bella is a bit canon-divergent in that I absolutely refuse to write a woman who’s completely submissive to a man, especially one that doesn’t deserve it. Of course, I don’t want to stray too far from her original arc in that I still believe she’s absolutely starstruck by Voldemort, but she is more interested in his abilities, his mind and his cunning than she is in him as a partner. It’s a different kind of infatuation, where she isn’t all too sure if she wants him or wants to BE him. In time, she settles with neither, and becomes his champion, instead. She’s a knight under his banner, a soldier under his command.

Much of Bella’s arc comes down to a dominant woman living in a society that doesn’t like dominant women. Pureblood circles are catered to the pureblood man, whereas the woman’s job, much like in societies of previous eras, is to bear a husband's children to continue the pureblood line. It’s a crude and sexist thing, and Bella wants none of it. From a young age, she rebels against her father’s firm beliefs in the way things are supposed to be, and rebels against her mother’s attempts to “guide” her back to how she’s supposed to be. She’s the feral child with the holes in her dresses, the scrapes on her legs from climbing trees and running too fast. Her long hair always tangled and messy. She knows that as a girl in the Black family, the highest achievement would have been to become matriarch, but even that wasn’t ever going to be enough for Bella.

When her mother dies, about two years after the birth of Narcissa, the matriarch of the Black family, Walburga, takes over the role for a short amount of time while her father drinks his grief away. After Sirius is born, however, even this steadiness falls away, as their aunt spends her full time caring for him and the second son, Regulus, born a year after. This leaves Bella to assume responsibility for her sisters at the age of 8. Her fights with her father, their temperaments going head to head resulting in situations I don’t really care to divulge about.

Once accepted into Hogwarts is where things start to divert. From one day to the next, her previously always messy hair is neatly combed back into a braid. Her clothes are pristine, not a spot in sight, and her sharp commentary is kept to a minimum. To all those around her, it seemed she had finally heeded her mother’s wishes, and embraced her place in society. But to those who knew her well enough, to her sisters and to her cousins, there was a stubborn fire burning behind those crow-black eyes, burning higher and brighter the more time passed. It was only a matter of time until the fire either consumed her, or consumed those around her.

It was at the age of 17, during her last year at Hogwarts, that Bellatrix was introduced to the Dark Lord. She’d seen him before, of course, but the Black family had stoically kept their stance on the matter of his campaign neutral, although this wouldn’t last. Her fiance-to-be, Rodolphus, who was a few years her senior, had already joined the ranks, and Voldemort’s actions could no longer be brushed off as a mere whim by the family. And Bella, who desired more than the life of a housewife, saw this as an opportunity to lift herself up.

I want to stress that I, as both a Tom Riddle and Bellatrix writer, don’t think their dynamic was of a romantic or lustful nature at all at this point in time, if ever. Voldemort saw the fire and the potential, and decided that he wanted both of these things for himself, for his ranks. She exceeded expectations and he decided that, if anyone was worthy to be his student, it was her. Over the course of the next two years, he trained her in the dark arts, eventually revealing her, at the age of nineteen, to be his new lieutenant. This was met with some resistance, of course. but Bella was quick to silence that. After all, she had risen above her station, and it had taken effort. She was not about to lose that to a bunch of butthurt men.

It’s also around this time that she marries Rodolphus, whom she puts through the ringer for months before and even post-marriage. She hated the idea of being passed from one man (her father) to another (her husband), as if she is nothing more than a possession. The marriage was arranged, and this bothered her, too, considering her lack of choice in the matter. And because she couldn’t exactly fight her father on it, she fought Rodolphus instead. On every turn, hoping he would be turned off and cancel it. After all, a man’s voice, even if he was only an heir, and not patriarch, still sounded louder than a woman’s voice ever would. But it only seemed to invigorate him, pulling closer the more she pushed. As if he were attracted to the fire, wanted to scorch himself just to stand in the light. He never forced her and he never would, even as she refused to let him into their marriage bed for months, even as she taunted him and ridiculed him. The marriage, in time, seemed to grant her a certain freedom that she never had as a daughter of house Black. She could go where she pleased, do as she pleased, pursue her position among the death eaters as she wanted to. She lost her wariness towards him, her anger. And eventually, she learned to love him.

Bellatrix used to be closest to her sister Andromeda. The two of them were, for a long time, practically inseparable, two halves of a whole. It was as if they should have been twins, and what one lacked, the other would possess. Where one went, you could soon expect the other to be. That was, of course, until Andromeda defected. When she did, Bella’s whole world collapsed. Her castle was captured from the inside, by sadness, by grief and by anger at the deceit. Because Andromeda hadn’t chosen her. Had chosen a “filthy mudblood” instead of her own sister, who had always cared for her, always been there for her. If Bella had had a mean streak, before, it was now full blown, a riptide that would destroy everything and everyone that didn’t get out of her way. She was devastated by the loss, and would never quite recover from it. This event had a huge impact on her view on muggleborns. Whereas before she allowed herself a certain tolerance, where she still viewed herself as holier than but limited her disdain to snooty looks and haughty comments, she now was actively hostile, threatening and garnering a reputation among the ranks of the death eaters for her ruthless, cruel actions.

During her marriage, Bella was pregnant exactly 4 times, but all 4 pregnancies ended up miscarriages fairly early on. It’s my belief that her problems stem from the inbreeding within the family and the English pureblood society in general. Contrary to her other beliefs on the woman in pureblood society, she was interested in being a mother and had the motherly instinct to go with it. Her not being capable of bearing children left her feeling devastated and hardened her heart. In AUs where she does have children, whether of her own or adopted, she develops a sort of caution, a knowledge that she isn’t just responsible for herself, but for this child as well. In these AUs, it keeps her out of Azkaban.

Speaking of Azkaban, I usually don’t write about her time there or really post-Azkaban, and this is mostly because I hate the narrative that she’s “crazy”, and I think it’s harmful towards people who have mental health problems. I believe, due to how Azkaban’s dementors suck the happiness out of people and how Azkaban looks like hell on earth, she suffers from a form of PTSD, but she is not “crazy”.

A few loose facts about her:

is bisexual but leans towards men

loves to write poetry, but she never shows it to anyone.

has a very low tolerance for alcohol and barely drinks.

loves coffee and can’t function without drinking it every morning

is obsessed with taking care of her hair. It’s long and dark and very well-maintained

loves to wear red lipstick

forced herself to learn to use her wand with both her left and her right hand

Anji Terryll

TROPES/ARCHETYPES: The Antihero, The Living Legend, The Reluctant Hero

Anji is actually one of my older muses, who doesn’t see the light of day often because I suppose the Skyrim fandom is sort of dead. On top of that, she’s a female oc. i don’t think i’ll need to explain this. Regardless of that and the lack of information I’ve put online about her ( which I actually seek to remedy by writing this ), she’s a quiet favorite who will never disappear from my roster.

I wanted to create a person who fate had been thrusted upon unwillingly. I wanted to create a woman who had never planned to do anything that didn’t benefit herself in life. Anji’s early life consisted of what was barely a life at the orphanage in Riften, where she watched the Thieves Guild lift jewelry from a man’s pocket with the man none the wiser. She never entertained the idea of being an honest worker, because she’d seen how the jarl treated honest workers. Of course, she knew that if she were to be caught thieving, the storm she’d call over herself would be worse, but that was only if she was going to be caught.

So she got herself into the Thieves’ Guild, worked her way up the ranks to Guild Master, before, near the border, she was caught stealing a horse and shipped off to Helgen, where the main story begins.

Anji is, from the start, reluctant about her supposed fate. She never believed in prophecies and rarely in Gods and now, everything was real, everything was true. And she was the main character of a legend. Thrust into a role she doesn’t think fit her. She isn’t who these people deserve, a thieving woman who serves only her own benefit. The people deserved a selfless knight, advocating for the survival of mankind, believing so wholly in oneself that they could overcome a legendary monster like Alduin the World-Eater. Someone who isn’t her. So she rejects her abilities, rejects her destiny, and pretends for months that she isn’t the one the Greybeards are calling from the Throat of the World.

And for a time, it works. For a time she can focus on the physical gain, the money she earns, the reputation. But in the back of her mind, the knowledge scratches at the door she keeps it behind. She sees the destruction the dragons are causing all over Skyrim, the terror of the people. The loss of morale. She tells herself that she decides to see what these Greybeards have to say, if only to tell them they’ll need to find someone else.

But she comes to learn that there is no one else. There is only her and her bow, and her lack of morale, against an ancient dragon.

Anji is the Reluctant Hero, the Unlikely Hero, not the woman you’d expect when one mentions the Dovahkiin. She’s slight and flighty, quick as a whip with her twin blades, relying on speed above strength. She prefers sneaking through the shadows instead of fighting her way through boldly and openly, and she never starts fights she can’t win. This doesn’t mean she won’t kill, and doesn’t mean she won’t use her powers, even for personal gain. She enjoys the power of the Voice and, as lore suggests, overtime grows more and more powerful (think: her voice can at some point burn the ice off a mountain), but she hates the responsibility that comes with it and will never fully accept it. She’s practical and quick-witted, more on the serious side of the spectrum, although she possesses a funny streak that only shows up in intimate settings ( think: close friends/guild/lovers ) or when she’s completely drunk. She observes each angle of a job or mission before proceeding, wanting to be ahead of each trap she might run into.

A few loose facts about her:

is bisexual but leans towards women

has absolutely no interest in bearing children, adopting is fine though

favors her bow over her twin blades

carries two daggers in each boot

In some verses she can be a werewolf for absolutely no other reason other than that i can

in modern verses she owns a martial arts school

Play smart not hard

#*✧･ﾟ OUT OF CHARACTER.#*✧･ﾟBELLATRIX LESTRANGE.#*✧･ﾟ ANJI TERRYLL.#treppenwitzz

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Under Raps

My feelings on this episode are pretty neutral. It’s not anything amazing, but it’s not the worst thing ever either. It’s just there, I guess.

Summary: During a love festival, Corona displays a book full of signatures of lovers in honor of an old ruler's falling in love with the leader of a rival kingdom. Cassandra suddenly turns very secretive; Rapunzel learns it's because she's been seeing a guy named Andrew. Cassandra doesn't want Rapunzel's meddling, but the princess suggests a double date and they all go off in a hot air balloon. However, Andrew turns out to be part of an old faction that didn't like the unification of Corona and wants to steal the book.

This Backstory Doesn’t Add Up

So we open up with Big Nose narrating about the history of a war between Corona and a group of people called the Saporians. This is important for two reasons. First, because the Saporians are reoccurring villains in the show, and secondly, because it reveals where the underground tunnels running between Old Corona and the Island Capital come from. These tunnels are a reoccurring plot device in the show, along with the book that maps them.

The problem is that what the story tells us doesn’t match the other information we are given. If it was only the Saporians who invaded then why does an Old Corona, with its own castle, exist to begin with? Why do the tunnels extend from both if King Herz Der Sonne made them? What purpose did they serve if he was only defending the island? Why are the Saporians led by a general and not a ruler? Why would marrying only a general unite the two kings and where was the Saporian kingdom to begin with? Why did they invade? Why are there still Saporians who haven’t accepted the merger centuries later and why do they live on the go outside the kingdom? If Herz Der Sonne is such a good guy then why did he curse his grave with a zombie apocalypse? Ect.

We keep getting hints throughout the show that Herz Der Sonne isn’t all he was cracked up to be, and you keep expecting a reveal that it was the Coronaians who started the war and oppressed the Saporians and then rewrote history, but it never comes. The show wants us to accept this very black and white conflict at face value even as it constantly undermines itself and muddies the waters.

Pointing Out That Something is Stupid in the Show Itself Doesn’t Make it Any Less Stupid

As I stated back during Rapunzel’s Enemy, the show has a real problem with tone. Constantly showing us festival and holiday after festival and holiday only undermines the more serious elements in the ongoing story and creates mood whiplash. Also anything that reminds me of Cinderella 2 is not a good thing.

Ahh Friedborg, You’re Such a Wasted Opportunity

So she actually first appeared in Cassandra V. Eugene but I forgot to bring her up there. My bad. Friedborg is something of a fan favorite in the TTS fandom, and I like her too, but she adds nothing. She’s a joke character in a tv show already oversaturated by joke characters. More over the joke is actually offensive on some level since it all hinges on her being less conventionally attractive then the other female characters and the mains finding her weird because she never talks.

The show tries to justify her existence by making her Big Nose’s girlfriend, but she’s not who he ended up with in the movie. And once again it’s kind of offensive to imply that only people who don’t match society’s contrived beauty standards can only find love with those that look like them. Thereby completely missing the point of Big Nose’s character arc.

I’ll say it right now, Friedborg should have been Zan Tiri, or Demantius. Take your pick. I think ZT makes more sense, but etheir way she should have been a setup for something more important to the plot rather then just be being a vauge oddity that just pops up from time to time.

I Miss This Version of Eugene

Throughout the first two seasons, Eugene and Cassandra were willing to point out Rapunzel’s BS. Forcing her to confront her flaws and re-examine her positions.I would argue that the show could have pushed this even further but at least it was there. By the final season no one was doing this. Rapunzel is allowed to be as awful as she wants to be without consequence. Meaning she never learns anything and stops growing as a character and the show acts like this a positive thing. It is not. In fact, it is the biggest flaw of the whole show as it fails to achieve the one thing it originally set out to do; which is to tell a coming of age story with Rapunzel.

It also has the added effect of making Eugene a doormat to Rapunzel’s bulling, thereby regressing his character as well and presenting an unhealthy relationship as a goal to be achieved to younger viewers. I can not stress enough to young girls and young men in particular, that Rapunzel and Eugene are not ‘relationship goals’ in this show. Not after season 3.

Xavier Doesn’t Get a Proper Introduction

So Xavier is actually pretty important to the ongoing plot. He’s more or less the exposition fairy for the show, but he’s not really established. He just suddenly appears here with no prior meeting and he just so happens to know what the main characters need to know with no explanation as to how he knows.

His part here is so forgettable that I legit forgot who he was when he reappeared in the mid-season finale. I had thought that the writers just threw in a random character for plot purposes. And to be fair they did. Just they did it here instead of in Queen for a Day.

If the showrunners wanted Xavier to be historian who knows everything and tells stories, then he should have been introduced as the narrator of the history of Hearts Day instead of Big Nose.

Another Lesson Not Learned

We get this big heart to heart moment of Raps and Cass coming to an understanding, with Rapunzel promising not to intrude and Cass promising to being more honest about her feelings. This is walked back on several times and made part of the core conflict of the last two seasons.

Once again, any problem that can be solved in less then five minutes of talking isn’t a strong enough conflict to drive multiple seasons. If this had been a show without an ongoing narrative, like say The Rescue Rangers or even Batman the Animated Series, then the repeated lessons wouldn’t be a problem. We expect characters to be static and to reset after each episode since they’re not shows that you watch in order.

But if you do go the overarching arc route for a story, then people expect lasting character development. Even in shows like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, where the change is more gradual and the characters do repeat mistakes occasionally, there’s still a marketed change by the end. One that indicates improvement by the characters, and the inter conflicts are never exactly the same each time with exactly the same lesson over and over again.

Oh Look, Cassandra Once Again Achieving her Goal of Validation

Cass is awarded a medal by her father for stopping Andrew. Don’t expect her or the show to remember this.

Also more Cass and Cap interaction that we don’t get to see.

Can We Not Imply That Cassandra Still has a Crush on the Guy Who Lied to Her and Then Almost Killed Her, and Can We Not Act Like This is a Good Thing?

So this flower was given to Cassandra by Andrew and her keeping it makes zero sense.

First off lets not have one of our few strong independent female characters crushing on the show’s stereotypical ‘nice guy’, okay? That’s all kinds of gross. Secondly, if the intention was to show that Cass was now more willing to open up about her feelings, then wouldn’t her keeping one of the gifts Raps made her earlier in the episode make more sense? After all, that’s the relationship that actually matters to Cassandra and is the basis of the whole show.

But this all boils down to the fact that the creator sees Cassandra as straight, always has, and thinks her crushing on the guy who manipulated her is somehow better than ‘no-homo’. Now you can headcanon Cass as whatever you want and ship her with whomever you want, as canon doesn’t matter. But I find it hilarious that most of the head showrunner’s biggest supporters are mainly Casspunzel fans and yet he’s the one who made them ‘sisters’ and sees them as such.

Like I hate to break it to you guys, but a Cass led spin-off headed by Chris won't be the lesbian rep that you’ve always dreamed of. You’re better off just watching the She-Ra reboot.

But things gets even worse when Rapunzel approves of this stupid ‘crush’ ...

Don’t Ever Tell Someone That You’re Proud of Them For Going On a Date

Dating is just something some people choose to do together and some people choose not to engage in that. It’s not an accomplishment and it shouldn’t be treated as such. This is insulting to both people who don’t date, for whatever reason, and to women who hate being being defined by their relationships, which is most of us.

Even if you’re being charitable and try to make this about Cassandra self esteem and her learning she’s worth ‘loving’, which is the reason some people have offered up for this scene, it still falls apart when it’s not established that Cassandra ever had such self esteem issues to begin with and was not looking for romance anyways. And if that is what the show is going for then it’s still problematic to suggest that being found as attractive by someone else is need for self esteem. In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of what self esteem is.

Conclusion

Overall this episode was ‘meh’. Like most season one episodes the problems stem from the ongoing narrative and lack of follow though in later seasons. However there’s enough stuff in here on it’s own to rub me just the wrong way that I can’t actually call it good either.

It doesn’t help that I don’t see the appeal of Andrew at all. Watching the character is just a cringefest for me. He’s too similar to real life men I’ve unfortunately met and therefore sends alarm bells ringing in my head. And I agree with Eugene; he’s not all that handsome.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #anti-rapunzel #anti-tangled #rapunzel #cassandra #andrew #anti-andrew #eugene

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