[ cw: violence mention / death mention / ]
Will never stop thinking about how Leo, all alone in an endless void and being beaten again and again and again by the only other living thing around, still finds comfort in that space. The situation he was in was completely hopeless, and in any other circumstances he would not have escaped, at least not fast enough to save him from permanent (or even fatal) damage, be it physical or mental.
And yet, despite the bleakness of his situation, despite the agony and helplessness, all he needs is one glance at a crumbled photograph, one glance to remember his family, and that’s enough of a reason for him to smile.
Maybe that’s why his powers center around manipulating space - because no matter how much space is between them, no matter how dire his own situation may be, just the thought of his family, alive and okay, is enough to give Leo hope.
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"Stede wanted to be a pirate and now he's not going to be one, which is bad."
Did he really want to be a pirate? Stede wanted to be a storybook pirate; he wanted to be the pirate in his games and his imagination, who had swashbuckling adventures. The entire first season deals with him learning what piracy really is. He sees what it has done to Ed, quite literally history's greatest pirate, within the first half hour of their meeting. Most of the fun he has, has nothing to do with actual piracy - it's playing games with his crew, going on treasure hunts with Ed, putting on plays. He likes making up plans, but he doesn't like actual piracy. When he accidentally kills a man, it horrifies him and haunts him, and continues to until the end of the season. He goes to therapy about it.
Into Season 2, the entire point of Stede's piracy is still not piracy. It's to get back to Ed. Stede's fantasy in the beginning is about being the storybook pirate who defeats the villain and runs across the beach to his one true love, who isn't mad at him and never was. It's a fairytale. And even there, reality is creeping in - dream-Izzy tells him, "I didn't make you leave him. You did that yourself." The reality is that Ed has gone into a suicidal spiral, and Stede finds him mostly dead.
The one time that Stede becomes a "real pirate" in the real world, it goes to his head, but it's not even because of his love of piracy. It's because he's suddenly popular. People are buying him drinks and clapping him on the back. No one's calling him "Steve." No one's making fun of him. And still, the only thing he wants to do when he does something cool is go tell Ed about it.
And even then...it's hollow. Everyone around him are sycophants. Ed has left him. His crew are suddenly leaving him. It all ends with him getting his ass kicked by a real pirate. He didn't even like doing the thing that made him popular; he kills Ned Low and runs off to hide. The whole sequence at Jackie'z is a mirror of the sequence at the pub when he goes home - everyone thinks he's cool, but for none of the reasons that are authentic to who he is or what he really wants.
Stede wanted a family who loved him. He wanted friends who liked him for him. He wanted someone to play with. He wanted to marry for love. And he has all those things at the end.
He's not a pirate. He's not having second thoughts.
I'm not sure why this is hard to see.
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toby stephens trending on tumblr in year of our lord 2024?! oh captain my captain you will always be famous
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Also ngl I kinda love the concept of Debling courting Penelope and Colin getting jealous because of it, not because I ship it (he’s barely a character) or because I’m part of the crowd that wants to see Colin ~suffer (though I’m not opposed to seeing him dramatically yearn), but because the reason Penelope specifically is going after this vegan man is so fascinating to me. Like, she obviously doesn’t love him. But she will marry him to protect LW… she’ll marry him to please Portia, that’s so funny.
Girl’s so desperate to escape her awful family life while at the same time keeping her secret, but she also wants her mother’s approval. And she’s so caught up in that toxic mindset that she completely misses the guy she’s been in love with since childhood making heart eyes at her from across the ballroom.
Pen only has her parents’ terrible marriage as a frame of reference, so she probably thinks it’s a bonus if her future husband is much older than her because that could make her a young widow. He’ll leave the country for the majority of the year to fuck off to Antarctica? Oh to be left alone by your own life partner!!!
Meanwhile Portia is enthusiastically nodding behind Penelope like yes, perhaps he’ll die at sea, and neither of them think there’s anything wrong with this outlook in life.
Hilarious.
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Legend turning into a rabbit or a merman in front of the rest of the Chain
It hadn't exactly been intentional, nor was it remotely desired, but when Wild had nearly drowned himself, Legend hadn't had much of a choice.
What he hadn't expected was Hyrule immediately pulling out a flute and playing a tune upon seeing him swim up the river with Wild in tow.
"What are you doing?" Legend asked, genuinely baffled.
Hyrule yelped. "This one talks!"
"Do shapeshifting merfolk usually talk?" Four asked nervously.
Sky squinted, his harp already pulled out, before he cocked his head to the side. "...Vet? Is that actually you?"
"Why wouldn't it be me?!" Legend threw his hands in the air, nearly letting go of Wild, who yelped. "Shapeshifting merfolk?? What kind of insanity have you guys run into?"
Warriors burst out laughing. "Aren't you the prettiest thing?"
Legend's face turned redder than his tail. "Shut up! This item comes in handy, thank you very much! We'd be down a cook if it weren't for me!"
Wild sank into the water so only his eyes were visible, the tips of his ears tinged pink in apologetic embarrassment.
"It's certainly a very useful item," Time commented with a smile.
"I'll stick to my Zora armor," Twilight muttered as he chuckled.
"Can I try it?" Wind asked eagerly, running towards the shore.
Legend sighed, dragging Wild to the others. "Sure."
Legend really should have known better. The tidal wave that crashed upon the entire group from Wind's splashing soaked everyone to the bone, and the ensuing water war caused such rivalries that it took a week before the war had settled.
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the thing about chip is that, to the outside world, he is so very unimportant. he said it himself, you have gillion who's the literal chosen one descended from sea gods, and then jay who's got fire in her blood like all the ferins. and then there's chip. he can do magic okay. he's a pretty good thief, con-artist and pirate. but that's the norm in mana. if not the norm then at least not extraordinary
yes he's important to the crew. yes he's important to the black rose pirates. but other than his family? the campaign often jokes about chip being less than the other two, with things like no one flirting with him and instead going after gill and jay (no one that he wants to flirt with anyway, and something terrible always happens to him. but like. that's his life. he's what started the riptide pirates to begin with but he's also, in the wider scheme of things, so forgettable
there were three people who saved canella. jay, the bird. gillion, the fish. and then... there was a third one wasn't there? we saw a baby didn't we? eh, good enough
chip is unimportant, forgettable, so much less powerful and extraordinary compared to the likes of gillion and jay. he's the odd one out and he knows it
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