#he will literally say anything to keep him its that he is shown repeatedly to be a vicodin addict and that hes destroyed relationships over

[superhell]

house md is wild because house tells wilson that he’ll sacrifice many things but never himself and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he

[whathorselegs]

This is probably going to be controversial take (I mean no harm by it, and its not hate directed at anyone), but the reason Dazai shooting at Akutagawa in Dark Era is so shocking to people is because he did it to a character we've had time to get attached to.

If Dazai had shot/killed/wounded a random subordinate for messing up his plans, it would be in all the PM!Dazai remixes as one of his dark and cool moments. Like when he's repeatedly shooting that guy in fifteen. It's messed up, but it doesn't happen to a character we're attached to, it happens to an enemy, so we swallow Dazai doing it much easier. If Akutagawa had been a random subordinate, people might even say Dazai was right to do it because that subordinate did a dumb thing that led their investigation to a dead end. (This is theoretical example not my opinion, I don't agree with what Dazai did)

I'm not justifying what Dazai did, but it's the framing that makes this so much more "evil" and unforgivable for people than anything else PM!Dazai did. It's stated multiple times Dazai was terrible to his enemies AND his own subordinates. Akutagawa wasn't the exception, he was just the one we care about. (Q too, though I see less talk about that and we're not actually shown what happened to Q)

Yes, it is cruel, no denying that, he hurts Akutagawa to teach him a lesson, that what's the mafia life has taught Dazai is effective. I'd argue though, it's not anymore cruel than what Yosano does to Tanizaki and Kunikida. She literally tortures them, but it's fine because it's played off as a joke and they're healed in the end. When in reality it's Yosano taking out her trauma on her patients and friends, and she's enjoying it. She didn't need her patients to be half dead in the flashbacks, that came after the trauma. She hurts them to discourage them from getting hurt again in the future. (Again, no hate intended, I love Yosano and all her complexities)

Dazai hurt Akutagawa the same way. Except it's never told as a joke. It happens brutally because it is and the show wants you to feel it in those moments. There is plenty brutal things that Dazai does that are played off as not serious. What he does to Ango with the airbag in his car is brutal. Yet its framed as a dark but necessary action, we're supposed to agree with Dazai because it ultimately saves Kyouka and Dazai gets to have some vengeance. It's a framed as a victory over Ango that we're supposed to support.

Chuuya is constantly being brutal in fights. He kills those people in the woods when he goes to retrieve Q and it's not a gentle killing either. He enjoys the fight, he's happy to get his hands dirty, he likes throwing bullets at people. And we accept this because he does it to the "bad guys".

Yet when Chuuya murdered the guards at Meursault, people thought this was out of character for him. It wasn't. These characters simply seemed more like innocent bystanders to the audience so the reality of how vicious Chuuya's actions were, kicked back in.

So many characters do messed up things in BSD, to pin one as irredeemable because of them doesn't make sense when so many characters are guilty of similar actions. People put Oda up on a pedestal just like Dazai does, because he stopped killing and took in some kids, but he was still a murderer, he still shot and maimed people with ease, as long as they were breathing he was fine with hurting them.

Sure, you can certainly say, "I no longer like this character because of their actions." and that's perfectly fine. You have no obligation to like a character, your preferences are perfectly valid. I just don't believe there's meant to be such a thing as irredeemable or truly evil in BSD. Just people who choose to keep hurting others, and those who try to be better than who they once were.

Dazai has hurt literal hundreds of people during his mafia years but that's off screen and to nameless background characters, it's easier to dismiss. The way he treats Akutagawa is a reminder to the audience that all the characters' actions have consequences. That Atsushi's hero was another person's nightmare and that BSD has many characters like this.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Caine and kinger x reader with ADHD

Caine and Kinger x reader w/ ADHD

yahoo!! gonna knock out some requests today !! this is gonna be based off of my own experiences btw !! not much else i can think to put in this authors note so! ill just get on with it note from the future, little longer than i intended but thats mostly because admin started relating TOO much wuh-oh

CAINE:

caine is honestly really good about keeping you on track when theres a task at hand. i dont know about you, but i tend to wander about when im working on something; to check on something else repeatedly then coming back to what needs to be done and just go back and forth.(shit im even doing it now, the getting up and checking on things thing even though i know the thing is fine/complete) i like to think that caine would be pretty okay at making sure you get the thing you need/want to do done! i dont think theres meds in the digital world, i mean yeah sure you can ask for them but since theyre digital theyre not going to actually. do anything. but lets say in a hypothetical au where this all takes place in the real world and caine is a real person, he would make sure you take them consistently and on time. honestly this hc isnt really part of the ask but; i generally like to think that caine likes to follow routines and schedules as closely as he can... maybe its the ringmaster thing since hes tasked with keeping everything running but... shrugs

very supportive when you make a small mistake in something (like this is just a general thing, though) and isnt too obnoxious with trying to hold or regain your attention is something happens to the side and steals it away. very patient and polite with it, i think

last minute addition because it hit me like a sack of bricks. time blindness. fucking time blindness. you know how i mentioned that caine is good at keeping you on track? i think he would be good with helping you out with that, at least some of it. mostly logging your activities and him keeping an eye on the time (which he already does so its not like an extra habit he needs to pick up.. though if it werent he would pick it up in a heartbeat. literally anything for you, he loves you a lot)

KINGER:

honestly he might start to mimic your stims and fidgets! he doesnt mean to mock you, no i just think he would start to reflect your actions after spending most of his time around you to make sure you're okay! while caine keeps you on track, kinger is likely to go with you when you wander off to check/do something else. really unless its something time sensitive or really important is when hes going to start outwardly reassuring you that the other thing is fine. honestly, in an au with the real world i was originally going to say he would have a chance of forgetting to help remind you/ask if you took your meds (if you take them) but i think he would take stuff like that way too seriously to even DARE forget. like yeah sure you're not going to d1e if you forget to take them for a single day but still. he'd probably be like this with any meds tbh, so if you're prone to forgetting youll be fine as long as you have kinger around! gibes you pillows for fidget stuff, if you are feeling restless. or perhaps even goes on a walk with you around the circus grounds. like idk about yall, or if this is something completely unrelated, but my legs HURT when i sit too still. like down to the bone, if i dont get up every now and then its agony; sleeping is hell and on days its worse than others (like im talking sometimes i need to be in near constant movement) (also jerky arms and legs) (anyways)

also very polite with returning your attention to where it needs to be but honestly given that kinger himself is shown to space out at least twice in the pilot i think sometimes you guys both get side tracked and struggle to remember and/or get back into the flow of what you were originally doing

ponders

tldr; caine keeps you more on track with schedules whereas kinger embraces your flow a little more but both are respectful of things and dont really make you feel less than + remind you to take care of yourself

[shandycandy278]

shandy if u were anything but my friend id judge u harshly for liking incredibles 2 but since u are im just staring at u like an autism creature

OKAY BUT LIKE??? INCREDIBLES 2 WAS SO GOOD THOUGH?????

I understand some people have hold ups about it, especially when comparing it to the first one, but from a story telling stand point and all the little things added along side it with the details and the THOUGHT put into it it’s SO GOOD.

Small note: I decide if something is good or not not based on if I personally like it/enjoyed it, but that alongside the storytelling and writing that went behind it!

For example; Marvel movies are kinda just okay for me. There are so many people that enjoy it a lot and I understand the hype!! The ones I’ve seen were feet fun to watch!! But outside of Infinity War, Endgame, Doctor Strange, and Thor L&T, I can’t really say I personally enjoyed them.

On the other hand, the recent (but not most recent) Wonder Woman movie that I like for its story was really cool from a story standpoint! But I didn’t exactly enjoy watching it.

And on the final hand that I am holding with both hands is Into the Spiderverse because it’s so fun to watch AND it’s story is awesome!!!! So it’s like, up in my main favorites list. The other two are also in favorites lists, but for their own categories specifically. If that makes sense? Puss in Boots, The Last Wish is ALSO in both categories and in my special third category!

The Incredibles 2 falls more under the second Category with Wonder Woman, but I rather enjoyed watching it, too. Just not as much as some others on my third and most important favorites lists.

Another small note: I’m about to go on a ramble but it might not entirely be accurate because I haven’t seen it since it came out! If I get something wrong pls be easy lolllll

The thing I love the most about The Incredibles 2 is that it not only IMMEDIATELY started from the ending of the first movie, but that it also tackled the biggest plot hole of the first movie: Superheroes are still absolutely positively 100% illegal.

Like??? The end of the first one confused me SO MUCH as a kid!!! The whole theme throughout that first movie was that Bob wanted to be a hero again but legally couldn’t be what he wanted to be, and that Dash and Violet were struggling a bit, growing up with powers and unable to exercise them without getting in trouble. They were in hiding!!! It was this whole moral dilemma for Helen to go through!!!!

And they just ended the first movie with “YAY SUPERHEROES SAVE THE DAY ITS A HAPPY ENDING FOR ALL!!! LOOK THEY GET TO BE HEROES AGAIN!!!”

At first my little kid brain was like “YAY HAPPY ENDING”, but as I grew older (like a few years later tbh) I was watching it again and it just… confused me. So much.

What had happened with the law??? Were they in trouble and we just weren’t shown it??? Did the writers just forget that the law even existed by the end of the movie?????

And Incredibles 2 fixed that! It absolutely sucked that they got in trouble for trying to help, but the truth is that heroes are absolutely 100% still illegal. They aren’t allowed! I don’t know why they didn’t get in trouble the first time with Syndrome, but it showed the repercussions of their actions. Even if it’s an unfair law.

And then they find someone who wants to CHANGE the law. Like, who genuinely wants to help them. Who has the money AND means to do so.

Keep in mind; ever since going into hiding, Helen and Bob have had to move REPEATEDLY with the help of the agency and their agent. An agency that can’t even properly help them hide and live a normal life anymore, by the way (as shown in the second movie). The beginning of the first Incredibles movie literally starts with Helen celebrating “I finally unpacked the last box! Haha!” Because they’ve moved around so much because of the law.

They don’t have money from it either. Bob was at a job that doesn’t suit him and in a car he doesn’t fit in because that’s all they can afford. And he had been fired, too! It might not look like it, but they’re honestly? probably in poverty. Or at least, really flipping close to it. They lived always on that edge, always stressing about having to move again and about money. Even if they’re trying to make the most of it. Even if they had enough to get by after Syndrome and everything. They didn’t have enough to really live, just… survive.

And the guy who meets them not only wants to help repeal the law, but he wants to give them a LIFE. He gives them a house to live in, free of charge. He pays Helen (or at least pays for groceries and bills and the like) for them so that Bob, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack can live a comfortable life in a safe place for their powers to be used and practiced while Helen works to make life better not JUST for them, but for all super heroes.

It’s a wonderful offer. One that’s absolutely too good to be true! But the one who proposes it is so genuine with wanting it and literally his ONLY stipulation is that they work to help him change the law, starting with Elastagirl, and that Helen can’t be with her family for a little while. Not until the next phase of the plan arrives, anyway- but when that happens they’d all be able to live together again, no longer in hiding and living comfortably.

(We’re not including his sister’s motives in this, because the offer didn’t come from both of them. It genuinely came from HIM, and she just went along with it and used that to her advantage.)

And during this whole thing, Bob is struggling with the idea of himself. His self image is this hero who helps stand up for the weak!!! The one people count on and rely on!!! Heck, he literally took the first chance he could to get to BE a hero again, not even questioning the authenticity behind the robot and the island. Before that, he was showing up to robberies and other villainy shenanigans looking like a LITERAL BAD GUY just so that he could get a TASTE of that again!

And when a third chance shows up? He’s told he can’t do it. He’s told he has to stay at home and wait with the kids.

Bob was BORN to be the hero. It’s his life’s calling! What he lives for, what he strives to do! We see this all throughout the first movie, and for him to be told “not yet”, for him to be told to do the complete opposite absolutely destroys him.

What is he if not a hero??? What is he if not the guy who saves people in need???

He’s a father.

But he’s never really DONE that before. He was always out finding a job, out working. Helen was the one who stayed home.

Some people took this in the way that “he didn’t like the fact that Helen got to go out first because she should be “staying home with the kids””, but that is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE.

He and Helen are superhero partners! He didn’t tell her what was really going on in the first movie because he knew she’d say no and stop him. He knew she wouldn’t approve. Not because she shouldn’t be out in the field, but because he doesn’t want his chance taken from him.

Bob’s not upset because their roles are reversed, he’s upset because she’s out there and he’s not out there with her. He’s upset because in order for him to do his calling without ruining everything, he has to wait and leave her out there alone.

And he’s frustrated because while Helen is doing what she needs to do, he has to do something he’s never EVER done before. Bob doesn’t have the practice and experience Helen has at being a stay at home parent. His frustrations? All valid. He’s never had to before. He’s, quite literally, a fish out of water.

But he’s trying his best anyway! He doesn’t let his anger and frustration stop him from trying to be a good dad. He makes SO MANY MISTAKES, but he tries so hard.

Even as he’s sitting there thinking about fighting villains out on the street with his wife, even as he’s wishing he could be with her and jealous that he can’t be there. He struggles, but he learns. And that’s not something we often see with parental figures in media. He tries his best to keep his frustrations and struggles separate from raising his kids and being the parent they need.

Because he’s a good dad. Even if he’s not the best stay at home parent right away. Even if it’s a learning curve. He’s a good dad, and he’s trying his hardest to do his best. He even gets burnt out from it and has to reach out and ask for help with Jack-Jack, because he wants what’s best for them.

I’d expand on it more, but honestly those are just my favorite parts of the movie.

I could go on about the other supers and what their appearance means (both for the world/world building and to Helen specifically), about Evelyn and her brother’s different reactions to the parents (Evelyn’s older sibling needing to parent/guide the younger sibling mentality, their parents and the supers and everything that happened there in general), and Edna.

Because they’re all great!!! They’re all SOSOSOSO GOOD!!!!

But then we’d be here all night LOL!!!

[walks-the-ages]

Spoilers for Multiplication - I just need to vent about how disgusting the newest episode is with how Adrien REPEATEDLY tries to kiss Marinette even though she is clearly uncomfortable. Not only that but at one point Alya even holds down Marinette's arms to stop her from stopping Adrien (some friends her and Nino are huh?). I'm already seeing people romanticise and swoon over Adrien attempting to sexually assault Marinette. And its esp infuriating because the fanbase goes after Marinette for her crush but is fucking fine with Adrien pulling this shit which is FAR WORSE then anything she's done! I hate this show and this fandom and Adrien can go to hell.

Yep yep yep. Finally saw the episode for myself and people are literally still bending over backwards trying to defend and excuse his actions in this episode, saying he's "like a toddler" or saying he's neurodivergent and "socially closeted" because he "doesn't understand that violating people's consent is erong even though he's experienced it himself with Chloe and Lila's treatment of him"

Pretty much people are still bending over backwards to defend his actions and "blame the writers not the character!!!!"

Nope. Sorry. Can't separate the character from the writing, or say it's bad writing, when this is 100% in character for Adrien, the only thing that's changed is the target: he's targeting Marinette instead of Ladybug, and still hurting the same person who now has to deal with him on multiple fronts.

Adrien has shown himself over and over again to be more than happy pursuing Ladybug against her wishes, even when she's made it clear to him over and over again that she wants him to stop--

Now he's doing the same to Marinette, and just like when he was targeting "Ladybug", he doesn't give a single fuck about how Marinette feels.

He doesn't care if she's hurt by his actions, or how many times she tells him to stop, either verbally or by literally flinching away from him

He's going to keep on keeping on. Going to keep on trying to kiss her against her will, going to go out of his way to pursue her no matter what she feels about it-- because he doesn't care about what she feels.

He only cares about what he wants.

And the writers want you to be on his side.

[v-arbellanaris]

“anders is selfish! he selfishly went to the chantry to check whether karl was even really alive despite being an apostate himself, he selfishly offered to go with hawke to the deep roads which he repeatedly says that he hates, he selfishly heals people all across kirkwall for free without charge, he selfishly smuggles mages out of the gallows personally to avoid getting lobotomised/raped/beaten/killed, he selfishly allows himself to have friends and people he cares about while freedom fighting, he selfishly gets into a romance with you, the playable character who continues to pursue him, he’s selfish for saying he would become a martyr for the mages if you killed him because its not like he spent the entire game championing mage rights or anything”

“he’s selfish and EVIL and toxic for being jealous of hawke (experiencing a regular human emotion) even though he’s canonically written as being romantically interested in hawke from very early on”

“he’s awful because he’s the ONLY character to question you about your romance as though it’s any of his business. varric and aveline don’t count, because theyre fictional characters”

“in fact, anders is selfish for even thinking he should be killed/will be killed (potentially even by his own lover) for his actions in kirkwall, despite him and justice making it clear several times throughout the games that being killed in return for the lives he/they took is what he would consider justice for the people whose lives were taken”

“anders is toxic/emotionally manipulative because he allows you, the playable character who can choose out of 5 romances, to pursue him despite his personal fears of you coming to harm because of his life as an apostate, which is shown to be justified literally in his introduction quest when his lover was lobotomised for sending him letters”

“in fact anders, the npc character, is also selfish for allowing you, the playable character who can choose to back off multiple times, to romance him, even though he makes it clear multiple times that he has a cause and that’s his first priority and that he doesnt think this is a good idea for many reasons, but he also grew up in the circle which essentially forbids him from falling in love and weaponises his love for others to keep him obedient and in-line, as we see in his introduction quest, which may be responsible for a lot of his fears about how much harm could come to you for being with him”

“IN FACT, anders, the npc character, is EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATING you, the playable character who chose to pursue him as a romance, by telling you before you even get together that he takes this relationship seriously and has had (SERIOUS) feelings for you for three years and, in a city where people like him are routinely & legally being lobotomised, raped, beaten, locked in tiny cells for hours on end legally and without any repercussion, tells you that youre one of the few good things in his life and he’s lost so much he would do anything to protect you and this relationship, which he thinks will endanger you, but wants to keep”

“anders, the npc character, is overly clingy by choosing to rely on you and tell you that youre important to him too (not like there’s a possibility you might be confused or anything, it’s not like he spends all his free time healing people for free, on the run from the templars, and trying to get other mages out of the circle and generally peacefully standing up for mages and pushing for them to not be routinely lobotomised, raped, beaten, etc) and being vulnerable with you, when his whole life emotional vulnerability (to care about someone else) would be used against him or to punish the other person, by telling you that things are shit and he’s terrified for his future and that of all his people esp because no one seems to CARE what’s happening to the mages but youre the “one bright in light in kirkwall” (not his PERSONAL LIFE) because you stand up for mages and champion them when you dont need to be doing it (if youre not a mage hawke) or it could come at a great risk to yourself (if you are a mage hawke)”

“anders, the npc character who expects you to kill him [irrespective of whether you even want to or not] because his death would be restitution for the lives he and justice took in the chantry and specifically did not tell you about what he had planned or what he would do BECAUSE he was both terrified you’d try to stop him or WORSE try to help him and thus be complicit and therefore also deserving of the same justice he expects for himself, expects hawke to save him which is toxic”

“anders, the npc character, is toxic and unhealthy and claustrophobic for expecting you, the playable character who chooses to pursue a relationship with him out of all the romance options available, to support him emotionally when things are hard for him, to care about the things he cares about -- like oh idk his personal freedom? the suffering & attempted wholesale slaughter of his people? -- to allow him to care about you and be vulnerable with you in turn”

[onesheeptwosheepandachicken]

Why do you defend the writers so much? I’m not saying they deserve to be harassed, but criticizing them and their decisions shouldn’t be treated the same way as RWDE harassing fans of the show.

Eddy literally only cares about Qrow. He treats him like a self insert, just like Kerry and Monty treated Jaune in V1. Before V7 started Eddy said his favorite characters to wrote were Qrow and Weiss, but Weiss barely got anything in Atlas. Not to mention how during the Grimm Campaign he played Qrow and treated him like a celebrity. Then during an AMA after V8 he said that Qrow was his favorite, not mentioning Weiss at all, which to me says he doesn’t care about the main characters.

Noah? IT IS YOU.

You harassed me in DMs yesterday trash-talking the writers.

Now you spam my ask box as an Anonymous.

"Eddy literally only cares about Qrow. He treats him like a self insert, just like Kerry and Monty treated Jaune in V1."

1. Jaune repeatedly is shown being useless or unable to keep up with the female characters. 2. He loses nearly every 1 on 1 fight he's in, to where even Weiss gets more Wins against him. 3. He gets rejected by every woman.... 4. He does NOT have a relationship. 5. He has friendships he actually built by being genuinely helpful. 6. He is not cool or awesome. 7. Where everyone has cool stuff...he just has a sword... 8. Last, and I need you to pay attention? HE IS NOT A MAIN PROTAGONIST...that goes to Team RWBY.

Jaune is NOT Miles Luna's self-insert...he's YOUR self-insert when RWDE is making a shitty fanfic where Jaune is the main protagonist.

A self-insert gets most of the screentime...Jaune and Qrow BOTH get less screentime than the main characters who are the women...in fact, Qrow actually gets LESS screentime during v7 and v8 than he did in previous volumes...and Eddie was involved...so HOW is he a self-insert again?

Oh right, neither are self-inserts, but you keep throwing that word around because it feels right in your anti-CRWBY spewing mouth.

"Before V7 started Eddy said his favorite characters to wrote were Qrow and Weiss, but Weiss barely got anything in Atlas."

1. Weiss had multiple times the amount of screentime that Qrow had in Atlas both in V7 and V8....at least 1.5 hour+ of screentime. 2. She got Jacques arrested. 3. She defended Blake from a Racist. 4. Defeated Marrow of the Ace Ops one on 1. 5. Made up with her brother. 6. Helped Design the portals to evacuate Atlas. 7. Coordinated plans with Winter to defeat Ironwood. 8.Helped Ruby and Penny with Amity.

What did Qrow do?

1. Get and lose a male love interest.

2. Get into just two fights that he could not win one on one.

3. Talk to Ruby about Summer.

4. Have some screentime with Robyn, that was barely 15 minutes across 1 volume.

5. Fought the ace ops.

6. He barely had 30 minutes of screentime across two volumes.

"Then during an AMA after V8 he said that Qrow was his favorite, not mentioning Weiss at all, which to me says he doesn’t care about the main characters."

Context my dear hater? If we were to hear the actual question, and the actual answer, your hate would be picked apart faster than a conservative media outlet being called out on its BS. Didn't Eddie help with Writing Weiss, who continues to be Best Girl in V8, while Qrow barely was anything in v8. Dude...You are acting like a Fox News Journalist....

So...WHY do I defend the writers so much?

Because people like you make up so much bullshit about the writers, that it has to be debunked, piece by piece.

But seriously...WHY THE HELL did you say that RT should be held accountable for Vic Micnogna's actions?

THEY FIRED HIS ASS....and others too for those actions.

Then again, so did Funimation and Conventions...

But why aren’t you pursuing them?

Oh right...they’re not Rooster Teeth...so anything they do is Fair Game for somebody like you so obsessed with hating RT and CRWBY.

I pity your Wrath....and your refusal to educate yourself against being a hater....if you can even do that at all.

[eternalstargazer]

Back when episode 53 aired in Japan, a lot of people (on forums, YouTube, etc...) weren't happy with what they saw (Suicune being portrayed as weak, Goh capturing a legendary, and so on...), but for me, episode 53 is one of my favorite episodes of Pokémon Journeys because it's a really great episode for Goh's character and it also happens to have some standout Ash/Goh moments. With the dub episode having aired recently in some countries, now seems like as good of a time as any for me to give my thoughts on what makes this episode so memorable - at least for me! 🙂

Episodes that feature legendary Pokémon have the potential to be something special and this story surrounding Suicune doesn't disappoint. The stakes may not be as high as in some of the Pokémon movies involving legendaries, but that's fine - there isn't anything inherently wrong with stories that have a smaller scope. Not only do we get to see some of the lore surrounding Suicune explored, but we also get to see it in action, as well as how it cares for weaker, more vulnerable Pokémon, and how they, in turn, care for it.

Suicune is shown to be no more different than any other Pokémon. In the context of the anime, it's just another living, breathing creature with emotions. Yes, it's stronger than a lot of other Pokémon, but just because it's stronger and it's seen as a legendary doesn't mean it's an unstoppable force. I don't see its power having been purposely "nerfed" here by the Journeys writers just to give Goh an "easy catch" or handled in a manner to push a narrative that everything comes easy for Goh.

The episode establishes that the Pokémon hunters have been purposely polluting the lake for a period of time. Suicune having to repeatedly purify the lake (and remember, Suicune supposedly travels the world doing this, so we don't even know its energy level at the time the hunters are polluting this one lake), is going to weaken it. Goh points this out in dialogue, too. Suicune is already in a weakened state, but then it gets attacked by three different Pokémon and sustains multiple hits - and on top of that, is visibly poisoned. Legendary or not, if you're playing a Pokémon game and attack a Pokémon this much, its HP is going to drop, and inflicting a status condition - like poison - makes it easier to catch.

If Goh had just happened to stumble upon a seemingly healthy and strong Suicune and chucked a Poké Ball at it, capturing it without any resistance, then I could understand the arguments that Goh gets everything handed to him. That's not what happened though. Also, Goh is shown here to only catch Suicune as a means of saving it from the hunters. He wants to help it, and doesn't see any other option. He sees Suicune as a living creature that needs help, not just as another object for his collection or stepping stone toward his goal of capturing Mew.

A quick observation on character growth here - by the time events in this episode happen, Goh's attitude toward helping Pokémon had already changed, but just think how differently the Goh from episode 3 would've reacted here. Ash has had a very real impact on how Goh has grown as a character and that's one of the many reasons I love the pairing.

So Goh captures Suicune in a way and for reasons that I think makes sense and doesn't feel forced. It's obvious too that Suicune didn't "let" itself be captured willingly because later, when Goh trips and Suicune is accidentally released from the Poké Ball, it's visibly angry. The only reason the capture had been successful was because Suicune had been weakened sufficiently. Again, for all the complaints surrounding Goh capturing Pokémon without weakening them, everything that has happened here is in line with the core game mechanics. I'm sure plenty of players captured Suicune as far back as the Generation II games...

Moving on, as I said, this is a great episode for Goh's character. It reinforces how far he has come since episode 3, and now, much like Ash, he's not willing to just give up when things get tough. He won't abandoned Suicune, and it's his compassion and sincerity that wins over the forest Pokémon, and helps Suicune see that maybe, just maybe, he can be trusted. He sends out his Pokémon to keep a watchful eye on Suicune while he goes to collect berries - some of which are good for treating poison, and he has medicine on hand, all of which show just how knowledgeable and good at analyzing/being prepared for a situation he is. This isn't Goh being some Gary Stu type of character - these are established character traits that go back to episode 2.

Goh does all this because he wants to help and protect Suicune. Him doing this all the while not having any intention of keeping it, to me, is proof that Goh cares just as much about the wellbeing and happiness of Pokémon as any other character in the anime and when people try to frame him as being something else, I simply don't see that as being fair. When Suicune does make it clear to Goh - who is trying to release it at the end of the episode - that it wants to be his Pokémon, I feel it's because of everything Goh has done for Suicune. Suicune can see how pure Goh's heart and soul are and senses that he is genuinely a good person. This isn't handing Goh Suicune on a silver platter - Goh earned Suicune's trust. He cared for and healed Suicune and literally put himself in harms way to protect it. I don't at all see this as a cheap/ridiculous capture.

As I said (er... kinda awhile ago at this point...😅), this episode is not only a favorite of mine because of Suicune and Goh, but also because it really shows just how much Ash and Goh have come to trust/care about each other. Ash trusts Goh to take Suicune someplace safe (though Goh at first doesn't want to leave Ash behind). Goh worries about Ash's safety while running away. Later on, Ash yelling out Goh's name as he rushes to help him after the hunters overpower him. The two battling back to back (Goh's come a long way when it comes to battling, hasn't he? Some more character growth right there)... and then, this scene:

Goh chooses to push Ash out of the way, leaving himself and Cinderace open to Houndoom's attack. It's visible, imo, in how Goh's face is animated that he seemingly, for a split-second, thinks about what to do... and decides to go with trying to protect Ash over himself and/or Cinderace. It's obvious what conclusion I'm gonna draw since I love the pairing, but I do think it's interesting how this saga of the anime has shifted a bit more toward the human/human relationships. Here, I would've expected Goh to try and protect Cinderace over Ash, just like in this clip from episode 72, I would've expected Ash to call out Pikachu's name first/hug Pikachu after being separated from him, yet he says Goh's name first and they lock hands/eyes and smile at each other while Pikachu is kinda just... there, on Ash's shoulder. Just an observation!

As I'm sure you can see, I had a few thoughts on episode 53. 😄

[kitkatpancakestack]

The looming presence of Season 5 really has me in a meta state of mind. Special thanks to @emofrxnk who ALWAYS engages in 9-1-1 and buddie crackheadery with me. Her genius is kept offline but is nonetheless unmatched.

I'm doing my re-watch as one does, and noticed a fun little parallel between the bomb scene in 2.01 and the shooting scene + its preceding events in 4.14. There are some main points I want to cover here:

1. The importance of the vehicle used in the scene

2. The name "Charlie"

3. The point of the scene

4. The repercussions of the scene

Ambulance vs. Battalion

Okay, so this bit of genius is all @emofrxnk. We were discussing the obvious poignancy of the battalion car in 4.14 catching fire, because it was so deliberately referenced and repeatedly shown again going up in flames. She mentioned how the battalion car (which Buck and Eddie both arrive to the scene in) symbolizes the state of their relationship prior to the series of events that succeed it. As in, the car catches fire, and this represents (which we know to be true after watching the end of the episode) a change in the status quo of their relationship. What they had before is literally burned to the ground, gone, and something else will take its place.

In 2.01, Buck and Eddie are riding in the ambulance together to the hospital. Eddie finds the live round and the two of them do their whole bonding thing, and when it's all said and done, the ambulance literally explodes. Following the line of thought mentioned above, the ambulance can be paralleled to the battalion car in that it represents another significant change to the status quo of their relationship, being that their petty rivalry literally exploded in their faces and something else will take its place (and boy did it!)

The Name Charlie

Listen, I know coincidences happen and I know it's hard to keep up with every detail in a show, but you're telling me, out of all the millions of names they could have chosen, for this particular kid, they decided to recycle the name Charlie? Excuse my skepticism but I just have a hard time accepting this as an accident.

The scene in 2.01 and the scene in 4.14 are practically identical, but the first thing that drew my attention to the parallel between them was the name Charlie. I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to see the parallel without the repeated name, if I even realized it at all. In 2.01, Buck and Eddie work together to save the older Charlie's life. in 4.14, Buck and Eddie work together to save the younger Charlie's life. You cannot convince me there isn't something there.

The Point of the Scene

Let's talk about what happened in the scenes, as well as the Point of the scenes, or the supposed reason for including them in the sequence of events during the episodes. Both scenes to me feel like they painstakingly ensured Buck and Eddie would be together. I say this because Hen and Chim are literal paramedics. Would it not have made sense to have one of the with Eddie in the ambulance in 2.01? As for 4.14, Chim was with Buck when they talked to Eddie before the shooting scene. Chim really should have gone with him. Like, wtf is Buck doing there, y'know? This is a medical priority, Chim is the most experienced, he should have gone with Eddie. But this was intentional.

Both scenes also feature life or death situations for Buck and Eddie. In 2.01 it's a bomb, and the threat of being blown up. But they go through this together. In 4.14, rip all of our souls, it's the shooting. It's the framing and the blood splatter that draws both of them into the scene, so even though only Eddie got shot, it feels like both of them are stuck in this life or death situation together.

Essentially, the contrivances of these scenes are deliberate. We see what made it through five rounds of cuts and editing. They knew what they needed to show us and it needed to be delivered in those specific ways.

The Repercussions of the Scene

Maybe a hot take but I think these two moments in 2.01 and 4.14 are THE MOST important buddie moments, as far as their relationship development goes, and we haven't even witnessed the fallout from 4.14 yet.

I am cognizant of all the small and crucial moments we get between these scenes, but the overall significance cannot be matched. 2.01 is literally the catalyst of their relationship. It's the moment their enemies to friends speedrun crosses the finish line. It kickstarts everything. 4.14 also feels like the catalyst to something new, we just haven't had any material to confirm or deny this, yet. But as far as magnitude goes, Eddie makes Buck Christopher's legal guardian. He calls him Evan. He proves just how much he Knows and Sees him (and while we're at it, he's been seeing right through Evan Buckley since 2.01 and you can quote me on that).

These are both absolutely pivotal moments for their relationship, and these are the two moments that represent a palpable and disruptive shift in their dynamic.

I don't know if there's anything here or if I'm actually losing my mind, but I'm chucking more word vomit into the void. This hiatus is either pushing me further toward or further away from the truth. I lowkey make these analyses posts as documentation that will either be my ultimate vindication when buddie is endgame or my ultimate shame when they aren't, but either way, it is incredibly cathartic.

All I can say is, hold onto your butts, guys. Season 5 is coming for our lives, I can feel it.

[seraxphim]

Supernatural 15x18, the misinformation and the truth.

Hi, this is a little informative thingy for people who haven't seen the episode/season and want to know what's true and what isn't. 

This is probably late, but better late than never, right?

A Quick summary, TLDR:

Jensen Ackles ISN'T homophobic

Cas DIDN'T get sent to super mega hell for being gay

Cas DID sacrifice himself for Dean

Cas is PROBABLY not perma-dead

The script is VERY vague on the meaning of can't.

Here's a cut, although, I’d recommend you read this if you have not seen the episode or want some Cas revival proof. That is unless you don't want spoilers, then just go watch the episode/season.

1. Jensen Ackles is...

Not homophobic. Shocker, I know. He has repeatedly shown support towards the LGBTQ+ Community, in fundraisers, his family, and even cons (at photoshoots there are some lovely stories). The fact that people are joking about him saying slurs and being homophobic is really stupid, please stop being assholes towards him, he as no control over the plot, and he’s not a scriptwriter.

Also all y'all never heard of micro expressing, Dean was in shock and I *personally* think Jensen portrayed it very well.

2. Castiel's 'permadeath', is it bury your gays?

Its probably not permanent, they know there's no way they can get away with it.

I highly doubt we'll see him in 15x19 but there's almost a 100% he'll be in 15x20*, Misha's mysterious disappearance from the cast lists seems like a similar tactic that I've heard teen wolf pulled with Stiles, although I haven't watched that show so correct me if I'm wrong.

We should reserve our judgement for when 15x20 airs, not before.

*Theres an image of him with Robert Wisdom (Uriel’s Actor) who we know has a scene with Cas from a tweet Misha put out in February of this year.

3. Super-mega-hell?

Nope. Don't know where this one came from, but Cas does not go to hell for being a homo, stop saying that.

Already said spoilers before the cut but here's another warning just in case.

Castiel's godson, Jack, dies, so he goes to heaven to get him back. An Entity called The Empty wants Jack because he's a Nephilim (angel/human hybrid), and it keeps all the dead angels and demons, its not like heaven or hell, its just Empty.

However Castiel (who's met with The Empty before, it does not like him) doesn't want Jack to die, and trades his life for Jack's. Dean was never told about this, and obviously tried to process both this and Cas’ confession.

Now, the Empty didn't want Cas immediately, it wanted him to be happy when it took him, to make it even more painful. Hence him professing his love to Dean as to summon the Empty, which would take death, who was after Dean.

Off topic, the 'fire gifs' are really, really dumb and mis-informative. The Empty is an oily black oozy jacuzzi of eternal nothingness, Angels and Demons literally just sleep there, its all they do. From what I know the fire gif was from some movie.

4. Well, it's still queerbait, right?

Hm, not necessarily, no. While the leaked script does say 'Dean can't reciprocate', that's very very vague wording. Can't and Don't are two very different things, Don't typically would be an end all be all "I don't love you" for example. Can't, however, is another story, "I can't love you" implies a reason, it implies a want, and something stopping it, it has layers that 'don't' just doesn't have. Wording is everything in writing.

'Dean can't reciprocate' implies he wants to, or at the very least isn't fully opposed, but everything happens so quickly that he just can't. As well as this, Misha bringing back 'You're not crazy' and a tweet from a fan asking him if its canon via likes, in his liked tweets, is saying something, and knowing what we do about Misha, well, we'd be remiss to ignore this obvious sign.

Of course, that last paragraph can be ignored if you believe it was simply platonic, which is completely valid :)

.

If I've missed anything out, or got anything wrong, comment it and I'll add it in a reblog/ edit! I'm not trying to start a fight or anything lol, just informing those who haven't or won't see the episode.

[miraculouscontent]

Always.

“Truth” is just... I mean, I want to say “garbage” but that doesn’t even do how bad it is justice? Like, okay, I take four major issues with it (my followers be like: just four? :P):

First is the writing in general and the continuity of it all. This episode looks like it’s been through multiple drafts and the final product is an amalgamation of a bunch of them with no coherency between any of them. I already could kind of guess it from the Adrimi kiss that the finale removed, but it’s obvious that there were going to be Adrimi/Lukanette arcs in Season 4 but then stuff happened (i.e: the staff being cowards) and they got cut. It’s totally possible that the plot with Jagged Stone being the father and Marinette having to keep secrets from Luka were still the same episode even in the original draft, but I imagine it at least wasn’t episode one.

There are other, more subtle hints as well, like the episode giving no time to Luka learning that Jagged is his father (making the fandom wonder if Luka remembered when he was Truth) and Ladybug being shocked when she realizes that the akuma is Luka as if she didn’t already see him be akumatized. Juleka also gets weirdly sidelined in the episode despite being Luka’s twin (Astruc has stated that both Luka and Juleka are older and Juleka got held back, which is why she’s in Marinette’s grade but Luka isn’t), so she’s Jagged’s offspring as well. One might presume that Juleka just never cared at all but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to interact directly with the guy or have any involvement at all. All it would’ve taken is for Luka to mention that Juleka never cared about who their father was but he did, thereby implying that Juleka’s reaction to Jagged would probably be more like, “oh okay.”

You know, if they didn’t reduce her to incoherent mumbling.

Second is the timing of this episode. We had the New York special with Paris being destroyed, but it’s clearly fine here (so I guess it isn’t canon now; thank God honestly), and while it’s technically possible that enough time has passed (supported by the vague implication that Marinette having to miss out on dates with Luka has gone on for a while, given Tom and Sabine’s lack of reaction to them dating), it’s not supported by Marinette examining the Miracle Box as if she’s only just gotten it.

There’s also Shadow Moth, where we’re shown an extended version of the scene from the end of “Miracle Queen” where Gabriel repairs the peacock miraculous, giving the episode a “Volpina”->”The Collector” vibe but then why are the events lining up the way they do???

The narrative also does a really bad job at showing us why Marinette is so strapped for time. She has guardian duties now but you’d think it’d balance out with her not having to go to Fu anymore for guardian training (you know, that thing we never saw but was said to be happening or at least that it was Fu’s intent to have it happen). You could argue that maybe Shadow Moth is more active, but then Chat Noir should be affected by this too; Ladybug states outright that she’s been busy and Chat Noir responds with something akin to, “oh I know, because you’re guardian,” which implies that it’s her guardian duties keeping her busy and Shadow Moth is just interrupting her dates specifically.

But we don’t even see what responsibilities she has added on as guardian. I knew the writers would make it so her being guardian was a hassle, but it’s the first episode of the series and we’ve gotten next to no answers for what being guardian actually adds.

It’s almost like this was a rushed first episode to break up the only thing that unambiguously made Marinette happy for the sake of bringing the love square back and needlessly making her suffer because the writers think it’s hilarious.

Speaking of which, the third thing thing is the comedy because--just--I hate the comedy in this show.

Like, just to start, there’s the kwami, who clearly begin with their mob mentality from the later episode of “Furious Fu” and all proceed to act like children. No, I didn’t expect them to all be wise (I mean, Xuppu exists and is very much not that, having been implied to be a fit for Kim who is known for being a total himbo), but I don’t expect them to all scatter like they do. Kaalki in particular, who was shown to be more poised and refined, blatantly reveals herself to a bunch of civilians just for the sake of Marinette freaking out and needing to make up an excuse.

Same with Alya and her friends. Marinette is panicking because of the kwami and Alya “deduces” (while shading Marinette so blatantly that it’s insulting) that Adrien must be there in her house which--maybe don’t SAY THAT OUT LOUD in case Adrien is literally in her room???). Then Marinette gets a call from Luka, shouts his name, and the girls do a complete 180 in support of Lukentte. It’s not like I’m not for them supporting whatever Marinette wants to do, but the shift is so sudden (and contradicts “Frozer”) that it gave me whiplash and the entire scene ends up being pointless since the girls still go with the “Marinette is in love with Adrien” thing when Truth asks them what Marinette’s secret is. Like, we could’ve gotten small, stupid secrets that everyone thought only they knew about Marinette, but instead it’s just the same thing over and over again (which makes no sense since, by the time Alya blabs the secret - which Alya has already told Nino before anyway - it’s no longer a secret therefore making the answer invalid).

Heck, the whole “secret” thing could’ve even been the people Truth shoots finding ways of answering his questions in a way that is technically telling the truth but also not really, such as if Anarka had answered the, “Who’s my father?” question with, “someone you know/someone famous,” so as to avoid saying that it’s Jagged Stone. It’s just boring seeing characters answer with whatever the asker wants to hear instead of being able to find a way around it.

And then there’s Chat Noir, who’s just--ugh.

Like--okay, I’m going to be extremely petty for a moment and just go off because I hate Chat Noir’s role in this entire episode. The Season 3 finale went out of its way to have Chat Noir be all like, “I have a girlfriend,” when it was a lie, and then Season 4 just parkours around Ladybug telling him that she’s dating (Ladybug clearly took no issue with Chat Noir telling her he’s dating so it’s not like she’s worried about issues there; she’s gotten on his case before in episodes like “Startrain” so there are exceptions) because they want to keep having him flirt and not be sAd because this is Marinette’s episode of suffering and Chat Noir actually having to face the reality that Ladybug is dating (not just in love with someone else) would’ve actually been interesting. Chat Noir gets tons of unnecessary screentime in the episode - mostly for the show to shove in LadyNoir shipping fuel - and then actively avoids telling him the obvious thing because he would’ve actually been forced to grow/develop/stop flirting.

It would’ve been so cute and sweet to see him awkwardly trying to flirt without overstepping boundaries (so more like banter than flirt) or - you know - actually try to support Ladybug and want her to be able to finish her dates by him offering to keep akuma/sentimonsters busy, but no, he’s just left in the dark.

The finale had Chat Noir supporting her (terribly but I digress) and then doesn’t do anything with it at the start of Season 4, meaning his support of her was completely meaningless and just there.

His first appearance is him pranking Ladybug when she’s already overstressed and busy, which comes off as super poor taste and I’m both glad he got splatted into that window for it but also upset because it’s screentime completely gone to waste, and of course it’s just a lead up to him guilting her by being like, “nooo the only thing that hurts me is when you leave me alone during patrol!”

I know he’s teasing (...probably) but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because we know (well, I knew because I know how this show works) that Luka and Marinette were going to break up because of Marinette’s hectic schedule, so it just comes off as insensitive to joke about it, especially when Ladybug’s busy guardian status just serves as a reminder that Fu is gone.

Even when he’s protecting Ladybug from Truth’s questions by cutting in and asking a question of his own, of course he asks about himself to forcibly fish compliments out of Ladybug because she can’t lie to him, and of course they have Ladybug compliment his humor most of all as if that trait hasn’t nearly gotten them in danger multiple times and she’s been repeatedly annoyed when he decides to joke during the worst possible times. It’s as if the writers wanted to pat themselves on the back for their own comedy, so they had Ladybug be a mouthpiece to stroke Chat Noir’s ego.

He claims he won’t force a truth out of her and then literally forces her to say what her favorite things about him are. I acknowledge that this can be seen as me nitpicking but we went from the finale where Chat Noir actually stepped up and took charge (because Ladybug was stressed but I guess him doing anything useful is just whenever it serves the plot) to this where he’s back to flirting constantly and jamming in as much LadyNoir shipping fuel as physically possible. It’s not that he’s useless but he’s annoying and takes up space in an episode that’s supposed to be about Luka and Marinette.

And that leads us into the fourth thing, which is the break-up and just the treatment of Luka and Marinette in general. I could go on and on about how the Season 3 finale built up their relationship just to tear it down in the first episode of Season 4, but that’s not the main issue here.

Luka brought Marinette comfort. He made her happy. He never judged her. He was happy to just date her regardless of any conflicted feelings she might have because hey, who is he to complain if she wants to give him a try and who knows what’ll happen?

And the season couldn’t even give one moment of them being unambiguously happy without ruining or interrupting it. I was ready for the break-up and I was even ready for it to be the first episode but I wasn’t ready for it to be so bad.

Marinette’s Adrien pictures appear out of nowhere (again, makes no sense for the timeline) when they’ve been gone for basically all of Season 3 and even “The Puppeteer 2″ specifically which makes a direct reference to “Troublemaker,” the episode that purposefully overdid it with her pictures (”Truth” has more hanging up and clearly used “Troublemaker” as a reference, by the way). They’re just there for force the love square and Adrien into the episode as much as possible to remind the audience that Adrien breathes. There is literally no purpose to any mention of Adrien and bringing him up isn’t even relevant to Marinette and Luka’s break-up.

It’s just upsetting to know that the umbrella scene from “Origins” (which is already flawed in and of itself) kickstarts this whole thing. Adrien did basically nothing there except for clear up a misunderstanding and give Marinette an umbrella when his ride was a few meters away and Marinette’s house was just across the street, but that actives Marinette’s absolutely crippling crush on him that lasts for 3-4 seasons. Marinette is in this eternal struggle of not being allowed to grow and change because the writers think her stammering/crushing on Adrien is funny while actively punishing her for having this crush in the first place (again, like in the scene with Alya, which insults Marinette for her crush when she wasn’t even panicking over her crush).

It’s the same with Luka, and I can’t believe that it took me until this episode to realize that he and Marinette are both treated the same way: tormented by episodes for having a crush on someone. Episodes will go out of their way to forcibly insert Adrien into the plot to both humiliate Marinette and make Luka feel awkward when the episode isn’t supposed to be about Adrien at all. “Truth” is just “Desperada 2.0″ except Adrien is barely on screen at all and they still felt the need to name drop him constantly. The writers are so sensitive to the idea of people jumping onto another ship or forgetting that Adrien exists that they’ll find any possible way to include him.

“Silencer” knew better. “Silencer” knew that Marinette’s life didn’t have to revolve around the mere mention of Adrien’s name and that she had other interests/desires/traits outside of him. Adrien isn’t brought up once and it was great because the show didn’t feel the need (for once) to throw Adrien into an episode that he had nothing to do with.

Even if I was a love square shipper, I would feel insulted by “Truth” because one half of my ship kept getting name dropped and used as a tool to humiliate the other half, which makes it all the more eyeroll-worthy when the love square stans of the fandom praise this episode for breaking Lukanette up when--oh, wait, they didn’t even break up “because Adrien.”

And that ends up being the real thing here. The writers had to invent a reason for Marinette and Luka to break up. We already know that Jagged Stone being Luka’s dad is a retcon (not technically in the show’s canon but in information we heard about outside of it), so they shoved in Luka having issues about not knowing his father specifically so that he would be pushed over the edge when Marinette couldn’t tell him about her being Ladybug.

When Luka and Marinette were just together and hanging out, Adrien wasn’t mentioned once. Say whatever about the Adrien pictures being on the wall and Marinette’s stammering (she always says stupid stuff when she panics - especially stuff she doesn’t mean - so I’m not upset with her so much as the writing for having her mess up in that specific way), but the only time Marinette talks about Adrien at all in the episode is when someone else brings him up.

She goes on a date with Luka to the cinema and they were having a great time without Adrien involved at all. I know I already stressed this point in a previous post, but one of the reasons that I find Lukanette to be so amazing is because the show actually focuses on Marinette’s interests and doesn’t force her to be the writer’s mouthpiece for gushing about their sunshine boy a punching bag for comedy. In every Lukanette scene that doesn’t bring up Adrien/before Adrien shows up, Marinette is either praised, able to be happy, or is showing one of her interests that isn’t aDrIeN, and whereas Adrien being on-screen around Marinette usually just means that she’s gushing about/stammering around him with no development, Lukanette features us actually learning more about Luka or other characters.

“Captain Hardrock” - lets her bond with Luka over a shared interest in Jagged Stone, and Luka is established as a sort of empath who uses music as a way to speak for himself

“Frozer” - gets to practice ice skating with Luka, who is actually good at ice skating and also can tie laces despite not tying his own because he’s a rebel

“Desperada” - gets to try out guitar with Luka and we learn that Luka has been playing guitar for as long as he can remember

“Silencer” - showcases Marinette’s interest in fashion and properly introduces Kitty Section; has a plot featuring all of them together doing something not even remotely love-related and we get actual confirmation of Luka’s crush on Marinette, along with Marinette’s reaction (blushy+happy; just saying, idk how anyone could watch “Silencer” and not think that Marinette was crushing on Luka)

“Heart Hunter” - Marinette gets a song written for/about her and Luka is established to have a job

“Truth” - brings up Lukanette’s shared interest in Jagged Stone, features Marinette’s interest in fashion when she gives him a gift she made + had Jagged Stone sign, and shows her raising her voice but not being judged by Luka for it, who’s happy with her just the way he is

When the show focuses on Lukanette, it’s all about lifting Marinette up, praising her, and making her feel good. When Adrien is involved or it’s hyper-fixating on Marinette’s crush on him, it’s about bringing her down and making her feel bad for a crush they keep forcing her to hold onto and humiliating her for.

Point being, the writers had to force their way into getting Lukanette broken up because of their precious love square and the fact that Marinette and Luka being happy is the opposite of what they want.

It’s embarrassing to watch a team full of old white guys (I’m convinced at this point that they just hang their female writer on a coat hanger so they can point to her whenever someone says that their staff is too male-dominated) treat their female biracial lead with such disrespect, and I can only presume that the mistreatment of Luka is because he’s supportive of her and they don’t like that, meaning that the way she’s treated ends up rubbing off on him.

It doesn’t come off as a fun or interesting plot; it comes off as cruel. When Adrien is sad, he usually gets people rushing to comfort him (”Party Crasher,” “Gamer”), but “Truth” has Marinette in tears over the fact that she can’t have a boyfriend due to being Ladybug and the writing has the gall to crack jokes about Kaalki not knowing what tears are, and then Marinette has to ask for the kwami to hug her for comfort.

When Luka gets akumatized into Truth, the episode doesn’t even hesitate at bashing away at him, from everyone saying that Marinette’s secret is that she “loves Adrien” (which, as Truth points out, isn’t a secret, and they could’ve had this somehow lead up to a twist ending where Marinette actually isn’t into Adrien anymore and the Adrien pictures were genuinely for reference, but she stammered about it because it was embarrassing that her boyfriend got sent it with no context) to one of Luka’s favorite songs actually being about how Jagged abandoned him to go on tour. Luka has to deal with Marinette ditching him constantly (not that I blame her) and not knowing who his father is despite wanting to know, and the episode treats him like trash for... what? Having a crush on a girl who’s secretly Ladybug? Because that’s all it seems to come down to in the end.

I also have serious gripes with the fact that Marinette has this huge schedule established in “Gamer 2.0″ and they don’t even try to explain why she can’t use it to keep track of her obligations. The episode has her say (in a roundabout way but still) that she’s forgetting stuff constantly because of all of her emergencies (the emergencies of which are not stated and I hate the subtle implication that forgetting something means you don’t care about it when that’s clearly not how things work and also not what Marinette comes off as because - again - they establish that she’s overworked) but fails to properly explain it. The episode hammers away at Marinette having all these issues and even has Tikki chide Marinette by asking her about leaving Luka alone while apparently neglecting the fact that Marinette HAS to go be Ladybug right now and what else is there to even do??

Both Luka and Marinette are punished for just having a crush and wanting to be together and I hate that the episode forces a break-up instead of coming up with a solution to the problem. Instead of “Marinette isn’t ready for a romantic relationship,” it feels more like she’s just not allowed to be happy.

Long-distance relationships are a thing. Relationships where people don’t get to go on dates frequently are a thing. Instead of forcing a break-up, the episode could’ve had a lesson/development where Marinette is told that she’s allowed to pursue a relationship and just needs to plan accordingly. but they just didn’t want to.

For example: instead of planning dates, Marinette could wait until an akuma/sentimonster is defeated to call Luka and ask him out, because Hawk Moth usually doesn’t strike immediately after one is dealt with. I’m positive that Luka would happily take impromptu/sudden dates over planned-but-inconsclusive ones. Heck, they don’t even have to date specifically and can just stick to phone calls (kwami can’t be picked up on technology) or hanging out in Marinette’s room/on Marinette’s balcony while they do their thing.

Relationships are a commitment, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a burden, and the episode absolutely drags Marinette over it. The whole thing with the kwami being released and stressing her out when they’re not supposed to be able to just come out normally is explained away by, “oh, the new box must be like you, Marinette; full of surprises!” when the reality is just that the show wants to take away everything that’s sacred to Marinette. The Season 3 finale had Fu’s letter telling Marinette that “life doesn’t always give you what you want, but the real gift is life itself,” then proceeds to turn Marinette’s life into a living hell.

Her room? She has to say good-bye to her privacy because now the kwami are always going to be around. The first thing one of them (Trixx) did was start reading her diary, showing that they have absolutely no shame or regard for Marinette’s feelings.

Her schedule? Conveniently pops away into the realm of non-existence so she can look bad for ditching Chat Noir on patrol and neglecting dates with Luka due to her responsibilities/stress.

Her boyfriend, the one person in the entire show who loved her, respected her agency, never judged her, actually apologized when he made her sad, and who she was genuinely in love with rather than just having the equivalent of a celebrity crush for? She had to break up with him because plot and needing to force her to go back to fawning over the guy who has only made her life worse by her crushing on him.

When I say the universe hates Marinette, this is what I mean. It created random akuma to attack Paris all for the sake of forcing Marinette away from Luka, and apparently didn’t realize what they were doing in the scene where Marinette hurries back to the Liberty when Kitty Section and Adrien are playing together when Adrien is Chat Noir so he should’ve been late too.

(Oh, and Marinette completely ignores Adrien in favor of waving at Luka and even tells Luka outright that Adrien isn’t even a factor in their relationship issues, further proving the “multiple drafts smashed together” and “the Adrien name drops are pointless” points.)

The whole thing in “Backwarder” where it was basically outright stated that Marianne could’ve been Fu’s confidant had Marianne not been outed by Ladybug’s mistake? Completely forgotten and left to the wayside. Marinette could’ve told Luka that she was watching the Miracle Box in Ladybug’s place (for any number of reasons, really: either Ladybug thinks it’s too dangerous to keep with her, or if the public doesn’t know that Ladybug is guardian, then Marinette can just say that she’s guardian) and that she has to run off to keep guard of the Miracle Box when an akuma/sentimonster happens in case Ladybug needs a miraculous.

Boom, done, episode solved. Luka gets to help Marinette with the kwami, Marinette is less stressed because someone knows half of her secret, and Luka and Marinette continue to date but are able to plan around akuma attacks.

But no. That whole thing in “Backwarder” where guardians (or at least Fu) can have a confidant was just there so Marinette could feel guilty about screwing it all up, because she’s not able to take advantage of that perk herself.

How convenient.

[dreamii-yume]

So, in the event, Rook has shown that he just carries rope with him. You may do whatever you wish with that information 👀

This was an ask from a few...weeks ago? I don’t remember exactly how long this was sitting in my inbox because I was waiting for the perfect time to answer it (//∇//)

Rook had been a very kind and helpful senior to you this year. You’ll be lying if you say that you didn’t think he was a bit strange like the others, but he has that certain charm in him that makes it difficult for you to complete look away from his direction. Besides, it got to the point where you just got used to him and even thought his actions were somehow entertaining...If you were the spectator, rather than the target that is.

Rook is a very doting person as well, you are by no means an exception to this peculiarity of his. He’ll appear when you least expected it, often startling you out of your skin just by a mere greeting alone. He would always talk to you as if he’s reciting a poem ever so often, making you think that you may or may not have completely lost his point here, it’s almost like he’s talking in a different language. He always acts like this towards you, and to everyone else as well, you could never know what he’s thinking or what he wants in the first place. Part of you just thought that he may just have been built differently than others, but then again, Rook is an elusive individual to begin with so everything could all be an act in the first place.

Long store short; you were both fascinated and terrified of this man.

But as strange and conflicting your relationship with Rook is, you still respected the guy as your senior to some extent. Say what you want about the the Pomefiore Vice Dorm Leader but you can’t deny his wide range of capabilities. When you are at a lost for things that you think you can’t do, he was the one who provided you with the advices and help that you needed during those times. Before you knew it, you had already owe him in many ways and yet, Rook had never once asked for anything in return.

“Worry not, mon petite chérie. For I am only doing of what I must.” He would say to you as an excuse, often filling you with guilt sometimes. Especially whenever he would ever so gently pat your head, chuckling to himself as he towers down upon you. “Seeing the beauty in your smile is enough to make my own heart flutter in happiness. Oui, believe me when I say that it’s that marvelous.”

Huh...So, people who accepts things like that as payment still exists in this time and age too. Forgive yourself from being too suspicious of his behavior though, you just don’t think a single smile is worth all that trouble but you guessed this was just another “agree-to-disagree” kind of situation. Who knows? The two of you did grew up in two different upbringings. Or quite literally, two different worlds.

Anyways, although you respected his choices after all this time, you thought it was just common sense to at least provide him with a simple gift in his birthday. You saw how everyone else such as Epel, Vil, and Trey were preparing their own gifts, so you don’t think he’ll be able to reject yours this time. You made your way through the Pomefiore lounge where the party was being held, but was unable to see a single glimpse of your peculiar senior around. It was a lively party and he may be busy with the other dorm residents, so you felt a bit out of place and proceeded to ask people you personally knew about his whereabouts.

“Rook? I was talking to him earlier but now, I have no idea where he went.” Vil said with a sigh as he crossed his arms. “That guy is as elusive as always, even I wouldn’t know exactly what’s running through that mind of his. It puts me in an unsettling position actually.”

“But it’s his birthday for goodness sake, he’s the main protagonist of the day. He should be the one to at least entertain the guest out here, not hiding in plain shadows, seriously.” You laughed nervously as Vil ranted in irritation, huffing by the end. He then glanced at you and soon took notice of the gift you’re holding. “If that gift is for him then, just leave it at his room. It’s unlocked, I believe. We stacked the other gifts he got earlier there too so it wouldn’t clog up the lounge.”

“O-Oh, is that so...Thank you very much.” Thus, ended your conversation with the Dorm Leader with a bow, watching as he walked away saying how Epel had been consuming way too much sugar for the night. With no more leads to follow, you chose to go with Vil’s suggestion and headed out to his room, still at a lost for where your senior could be.

It was true, the moment you spotted the room and turned the doorknob around, it easily spun open. “...Pardon my intrusion...” You slowly said as you took a peak before entering, unsure if anyone was actually inside. There was no one, just some elagant room design as expected with the Pomefiore dorm, with neat furnitures decorated all around. You could feel your own heart cry when you compare to your own dorm which trademark lies within the ghost residents.

You felt slightly anxious, it was your first time visiting his room like this so you couldn’t help but to gawk at some things you’ve never seen before. This was your chance to explore another man’s room, albeit only for a few seconds and by the looks of it, it really hits different that of Ace or Deuce. It has the exact same smell as Rook and the sense of familiarity was somehow calming, probably because you’re so used to being in close proximity with him now. His belongings were all well-organized, the books are neatly stacked on the bookshelves, along with some...questionable collection of bows and arrows stuck on the wall. You also noticed a spare hat and a single telescope lying on his desk, you could ask what it was for, but you preferred to keep the question for yourself.

You shook your head eventually, quickly but carefully prancing inside to place your gift on his desk. Finally, your quest has been conquered, although looking around, the other presents that Vil mentioned was nowhere to be found. Maybe he has them already opened and kept at a certain storage of some sort? Anyways, that wasn’t your problem now, you did what you needed to do, it was your time to bounce out of this room, feeling as if you’re invading too much of his personal privacy. Rook did told you that he never liked that in a person.

...Until, something else caught your eye.

You stopped, eyes blinking repeatedly at the slight tear in the wallpaper near his bed. There was something hidden inside, no, it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to hide at all. It was deliberately placed in a place like that for everyone to see. So, like a cat overwhelmed by curiosity, you stepped close to inspect it, even going as far as stepping on the neatly draped bed sheets of his to get a closer look.

“Eh...?” It was a mass of pictures of almost everything and everyone you can think of upon coming to this school. It was stuck inside the wall like a collection of some sort and it took you a while to actually get what all of this meant. “There’s so many pictures...Pfft...!”

You ended up laughing at yourself for feeling so tense, you honestly felt stupid for the amount of suspense you gave yourself. Of course, this was definitely something that Rook Hunt will do, what did you think it was going to be? Sure, it is creepy to think that someone is keeping tabs at everyone and everything through photography but this is just normal in this school. At least, to those who knew Rook to some extent, it’s not really a big deal nowadays, especially at this school. Anyways, you calmed your laughter down and stared back at the pictures to actually admire them as despite it all, every one of them are all well-taken.

Humming throughout your exploration, you thought it would be interesting to see if you could spot yourself in one of these photos. You looked around and at first, it was tough since you weren’t anywhere in the photos that the wallpaper could reveal but after a while you found a glimpse of your own face at the very edge. However, the tear in the wallpaper stops there so it filled you with disappointment to not be able to see the photo he took of you. “That’s a bummer...” You pouted slightly.

However, combined with overwhelming curiosity, your mischievous side couldn’t help but to come out. You peaked through the small hole inside the wallpaper and confirmed that there is more, as you expected Rook would have, just not visible from your angle. You didn’t want to damage anything but you carefully slipped your fingers in the small opening, trying to get a better look of the picture. You were mainly trying to shine light on them, just a little bit more and you could make out of its content. It got your heart pumping somehow, eager to see what kind of photo you were in.

“Bonjour~”

Screaming almost immediately due to panic and shock, you made the mistake of instinctively gripping his wallpaper tight, dragging them down completely by accident. You turned around, face flushed and clutched your chest as your heart beats so fast that it feels like it could jump out at any moment. “R-Ro-Rook-san!?” You stammered out, your butt hitting the bed while your legs shook. “W-Wha-When...!?”

Rook only gave out a chuckle as you frantically try to calm your nerves, which was nearly impossible after the stunt that he just pulled. You knew he loved doing this and to think you’d be used to it by now, but this one felt so different than the other times you were startled by him. He was so close to you with that greeting, too close in fact. Just where the hell does he keep coming from, you didn’t even hear a single sound from your surroundings. Rook stood straight before glancing over at the mess you had realized you made when his expression turned that of worry.

You were still gripping onto the ruined wallpaper at this point so, you gasped and quickly turned around, preparing for any damage you may have caused. However, at that moment, you stopped once your eyes had finally caught what kind of picture were inside those wallpapers all along.

“Aah...To think mon chére fleur herself would be the one to unravel my collection! How embarrassing~!” Rook said, placing a hand on his slowly heating up his cheeks. He bats an eye to your direction, looking all embarrassed as you stared, unblinking at his work. He soon smirked and chuckled darkly, leaning in closer to you from behind, in which you shivered at. “...But how does it look in your perspective? Aren’t they all beautiful?”

Yes, they were harmless pictures, that’s all there is supposed to be on it. But these pictures striked a nerve in you, one such that you didn’t know could cause this much wave of alarming fear in your body.

They were harmless but they were not normal in the slightest. For almost all of what the wallpaper had revealed was all about you, and only you that it makes you sick to the stomach. Everything that you remember doing in your daily routine had been taken into consideration, from a picture of you yawning as you wake up in the morning, to a picture of you sleeping peacefully at night. Pictures of you seemingly eating, walking, talking, everything that you’ve been doing is pasted on the same wall before you, all taken in such high resolution. If that wasn’t enough, even a few photos of you in the nude was in there, bathing and changing, you unconsciously wrapped your hands around yourself as goosebumps quickly formed.

Rook had literally been watching your every movements, documenting your life with a camera and capturing everything, including things that hits way too close. Deeply disturbed, your eyes tried to glance everywhere but the pictures, only to find no escape to them. Some pictures had even been tampered with before taking the shot, like that one photo where his hands shows his hands deliberately spreading your legs for the camera as you slept. You shivered, unconsciously thinking about that other one where it was your breasts that was fully out for the world to see and oh, god...That one with your sleeping face covered with a suspicious white liquid, you almost gagged at the mental image.

“...W-What is this...” You slowly looked up at Rook with fear in your eyes, trembling like a leaf as the same guy looked down upon you with a chilling smile. It was honestly too nauseating that you instinctively brought a hand to your mouth, just in case something does come out.

“Beauty, my Love.” Rook purred closer to you, his eyes brimming with desire. “Your beauty.”

He caught your chin in a gentle yet tight grip. “I had it preserve in a memory that I would forever see. Just keeping them in my mind alone was not enough.” He said, closing in on you on his bed, preventing any possible escape routes. “...For I am a greedy man.”

And with that, you found yourself in his bind, pinning you down on the bed with your hands on each side of your head. “Now...The reason why you invaded my sanctuary was...?” Rook asked but he was not expecting you to answer at all. Instead, his eyes glanced to the side, eyeing the gift you left on his desk. “...Ah, of course. Vil must’ve given you permission to hand your gift in.”

You were as stiff as a rock, too tense to even act and move. The hands on your wrists doesn’t seem too tight but a feeling in your gut screams at you to not even try if you didn’t want to get hurt. You were left gulping down your own nervousness as Rook turned back to you with the same smile. “Merci. I’ll be sure to treasure whatever you have given me.” He whispered as he leaned closer, giving you a delicate kiss on the temple in which you squeaked at. “...But nonetheless, you trespassed on someone else’s territory, petite proie. A predator’s territory, on top of that.”

“I-I’m sor-“

“Non, an apology is not what I need. Someone as beautiful as you should not make that kind face.” Rook cuts you off, before suggestively licking his lips. He sat up, confident enough to let go of your wrist, knowing fully well that you wouldn’t have the guts to push him off. He straddled above your stomach, which left you confused and wary to wonder what he was planning to do. However, looking back at him, your eyes widened in caution as he suddenly pulled out a long and thick rope, one that would certainly burn your skin if you struggle too much. Where in the hell did he... “Lift your head up high and reap what you have sowed. That is the beauty that can justify your crimes.”

“Now...” You breathe heavily as he tightened his hold on the rope, biting his lip eagerly. You can’t even imagine how much he has planned inside his head. It made you visit the terrifying possibility that he was ready for this moment from the very beginning, curiated and planned. Your heart drops at the thought, if that is really the case, then...Just how much? How much further into the future did he plan exactly? “Allow me to indulge myself to this fine opportunity you gave me, beloved Trickster.

“...A fine opportunity, indeed. Beautifully so.”

Allow Yume to flex on her non-existing French skills along with her companion, Google Translate. i sincerely apologize to any French Darlings out there yume did not attend a single French class in her life lol

Someone teach me French so I can write more things about this sexy bitch.

[ranboo5]

whats 'the clip' and knifetrick?

Augh. Under the cut for shipping discourse and p/dophilia ment (nothing graphic or specific). Gets long bc I discuss my thoughts on DSMP shipping in general. You are setting me up fr anon

Some quick vocab -

intimacy here is used to refer to. Well. Any kind of intimacy between characters, of any sort, as an umbrella term /r, /p, and /qp here are used as shorteners to denote "romantic," "platonic," and "queerplatonic," both as adjectives And as verbs ("to /r" = "to portray romantically") shipping here is used to refer to any focused examination of intimacy between characters

And some clarity that Should follow from the essay next but may not - """anti-antis"""" and RPF writers delete forever

The Clip is from one of if not the? most recent Discord stage(s) Mr Live has done (which I missed when it was live RIP) wherein he issues a hard ban on shipping him ("do not ship me, in any way, with anyone!") which would less influence c!beeduo (which has been portrayed/stated to be romantic AND nonromantic both conflictingly for a while until being confirmed unconfirmed several months ago, that being the last was heard) without its direct invocation if he hadn't also cited for the reason as being underage ("'Cause, one, it's straight up pedophilia") which is! a) immediately applicable to At Least his DSMP character, Partially and b) while not Strictly True (should b obvious that portraying a relationship within the bounds of what it is in canon and in a nonsexual way is not That, and /r-ing c!beeduo etc was possible to do Appropriately again by remaining w/in the bounds of canon) is Clearly Indicative of the fact that baggage-wise it IS associated with people being fucking creeps

This Really complicates things bc like okay the apparent solution is "lol just don't /r it" but it's really like. A Worse issue than that bc like.

Okay the reason shipping in terms of fictional characters is a Different Bar is bc it's an examination of Intimacy and certain lines exist in certain dynamics of intimacy that Isn't Shown (which is the whole Within The Bounds Of Canon thing) which is important in a medium like DSMP because of the smaller gap + more personal relationship b/w character and streamer. Examining intimacy beyond th bounds of the consent that has been established in that regard is Weird at best and Violating And Creepy more often and, As Mentioned In Ranb's Stage, Literally Evil at worst

Which is why writing abt like. QPR or platonically intimate Techno and Philza (characters) is smth that is fine because that's smth that has been shown and repeatedly stated onscreen; it's in the bounds of canon n thus within th bounds of what the streamers've consented 2 be done with their characters. But writing T3chza making out or whatever is fucked up because it's smth that's beyond those consent barriers

And the thing is right

Slapping a /p on T3chza makeout doesn't. Make it less violating

Like what you CALL romantic is not the measure or whether it's past those barriers yk? And if it's indistinguishable, if it's in extrapolative territory that is Past The Bounds, it Does Not Matter how much you /p it EVEN IF IT IS TECHNICALLY PLATONIC y feel? Like at the end of the day placing a moratorium on some/all forms of shipping is placing a moratorium on certain examinings of intimacy

And okay 2 go back to Mr Live and his character. What it implies taken in context w/ older portrayals of c!beeduo and said by invoking smth that both evokes Really fucked up baggage (that does unfortunately exist btw I'm sorry if you didn't know that but People Really Do B Fucked Up Abt Beeduo) AND applies to his character is a revocation of consent to examining deep intimacies:tm: with his character, which is gonna apply regardless of the nature of that intimacy (even if nonromantic)

Like I don't /r c!beeduo myself, do not, never have, but I talk to people who have and have consumed content where they r background /r; I also don't think it matters. Like I don't Actively /r it and I don't Actively Not /r it because imho w/ the intimacy regarding c!beeduo that is plot relevant and character important whether that intimacy is /p /qp or /r doesn't really matter. I don't consider myself Less of a c!beeduo shipper than someone who /rs them because that would be dumb as hell and while none of the content I've made* is Intrinsically or Intentionally /r it certainly can be read tht way as much as it can be read /qp or /p. It's be dumb and hypocritical of me to like, dunk on ppl for /r-ing c!beeduo when I'm also invested in these two and my tonetags r not gonna suddenly Delete the picking apart I've done of the dynamic @ hand

Which Has Been. Within Bounds Of Canon. It's been what's been shown (sometimes to my great distress. There is a reason that the :canon_beeduo: emote looks the way it does) Directly Onscreen and in general keeping with the tone n intensity/directions of what they've Done With The Characters

HOWEVER

As mentioned up there. Revocation of consent

It makes. Full sense 2 me that Mr Live wants to place a moratorium or fullon ban on shipping his characters perhaps where he wouldn't have before because of the Unfortunately Very Extant trends of people being Fucking Weird about shipping his characters AND of using them as a Thinly Veiled Excuse to ship HIM, which. I should not have to explain why shipping real people is fucking abhorrent

THIS creates a problem which is a. Bit of a vacuum in interacting with what is a facet of c!Ranboo's arc, decision making, and character. Like you CAN have c!Ranboo w/o cbeeduo but you Can't Really have his plotline without examining c!beeduo. And as I mentioned earlier: even if your examination of c!beeduo is fully platonic, the significance of it To the plotline means that any examination of it and its relevance to the plotline and characters IS gonna be an examination of intimacy, which. Regardless of it's platonic, Is Still Shipping

Unless some HARD retconning happens it leaves this like. Hole in an aspect of c!Ranboo's arc and decisionmaking and it's very. Uncertain? God. Fucking months ago I was already kind of :huh. Does he know what the fuck he's doing: irt c!beeduo and desperately wishing for things to be cleared up and now it's only That Much Stronger

NOW. KNIFETRICK, FINALLY

Knifetrick (or, as it’s actually listed, Bishop’s Knife Trick) is a fic about "Ran and Jackie from The Pit TFTSMP" in a "canon-typical ambiguously romantic relationship." As you can tell from the scare quotes, especially if you've seen me vague, both of these are, to put it politely, Doubtful. I've read the fic; I will not be sharing my opinions because that would be neither productive nor responsible (I will just say I can't recommend it and leave it at that) but I WILL say the following that Is relevant to the conversation:

Ran's and Jackie's characterizations respectively have very little to do with characterizations from The Pit, and bear a dollar-store-version resemblance to tropes and personality motifs found in ESPECIALLY fanon c!beeduo, especially later in the fic. I would not go so far as to say they are Intentionally Literally Ranboo and Tubbo but they are transparent expies and were clearly written at LEAST unintentionally w/ c!beeduo in mind (esp since. Ran and Jackie barely interacted in The Pit), and for a readerbase that, as far as I can tell, is HUGELY dominated by /r c!beeduo shippers. Like. Sorry. This is off-brand c!beeduo.

The dynamic between the two is pretty unambiguously romantic, also; despite what the fic's white knights claim, romantic tropes and implications/motifs/imagery from at LEAST chapter two, and is very much explicitly romantic by the most recent chapter.

FROM CH1:

"And now, with raised eyebrows and a pursed lip, the newly named General Jackie observes Ran in such a way that makes the enderman’s skin crawl. Ran reminds himself that this kid, as short and harmless as he may look, is trained to kill. [...] Jackie narrows his eyes and tilts his head a little, as if he’s trying to read in between every one of Ran’s imperfect scales."

FROM CH2:

"It makes Ran’s skin itch with discomfort. [...] 'That actually doesn’t explain much of anything at all,' complains Jackie, and he pops a few croutons into his mouth with one hand. 'Tell me what you’re thinking, pretty-boy.'

"Ran feels his face flush, no doubt mildly glowing green.

"Yes, that was the other thing. The unnecessary compliments to his physical appearance.

"They don’t happen very often, and don’t seem to have very much meaning or intention behind them— Jackie often speaks like an unthinking kid— but when they do happen… they’re embarrassing. [...] It’s annoying how the rug is pulled out from under his feet in these moments when he’s 'embarrassed'. Like the conversation see-saw has temporarily shifted weight in the general’s favor."

I am not going to include excerpts from Chapter 6 because it's just the entire chapter.

I WILL SAY, HOWEVER, STEPPING ON THIS SCORPION BEFORE IT STINGS: they are not written in an RPFy manner and I don't think there's any grounds, including Vibes, of accusing Knifetrick of being like. Closet truthing or whatever. Also, while I think there's certainly Some Weirdness ESPECIALLY around the reaction, the romance itself is Not written in any way I'd call weird or problematic pre-clip; it's nothing inappropriate or like Weirdly Fetishy or whatever. Knifetrick is not #problematic or anything and I don't have beef with like the concept of liking it intrinsically; if I thought it was like. Abhorrent I wouldn't be sharing excerpts lmao dhjfnhdsbvdnfjh. Hence: if anyone uses this post or anyth like it to send harassment or bad faith ANYTHING to anyone involved with Knifetrick I will hunt you down in the fucking night even if it WAS #problematic that'd be the LITERAL OPPOSITE of productive and as it stands it's Literally Not. Essentially: Knifetrick is a (questionably-written /mean) fic using Ran and Jackie from The Pit as a vessel for a large chunk of the dynamics and headcanons of fanon /r c!beeduo in particular

And again, I would not call it problematic in any way (aside from the disingenuity of the insistence that it's TOTALLY UNRELATED TO BEEDUO and TOOOTALLY WASN'T INTENDED TO BE ROMANTIC GUYS like own your shit please)... IF it weren't for the advent of The Clip, which is calling in2 question the Entirety of the problem of /r-ing any variant of c!beeduo or any of Ranboo's characters at all

I really do not have an answer for this tbh. I genuinely wanna hear from the streamer on this more specifically because I like,,, I got no clue where 2 go from here? Do I just consider an arc retconned? Was it an issue of speaking abt a troubling subject kneejerk wise and I'm reading too much in2 it?

I just. I dunno

Tl;dr (AT LONG LAST)

- The Clip is a clip of a Discord stage where Ranboo (streamer) loudly explicitly decried shipping in a way that implicitly applies to characters he plays - This would be all well and good but is rendered complicated by the plot relevance of c!beeduo, which does not stop being shipping if it's /p'd due to it still necessarily being an examination of a particular intimacy in a way that is in canon hard to distinguish the /p, /qp, or /r nature of - Bishop's Knife Trick is an AO3 fic centered around using TFTSMP characters as /r c!beeduo expies which is not a bad thing in and of itself unless it also is covered under this moratorium - Things remain unclear until and unless we get clearer word from streamer, but considering Mr Live seems to be allergic to clarifying anything abt c!beeduo this is doubtful

*very little if any of the content I personally have made 4 c!beeduo has been posted publicly, for related reasons. You May have seen it if you're in servers w/ me, depending on Which Ones

[aceofspadegrass]

Superhero AU

Okay okay, listen. Imagine them being superheros/villains.

So Arisu, Karube, Chota, and Shibuki are regular adults doing normal adult things, nothing changes about that. Shibuki is a part of this because she can, she’s just pals with a group of dudes and doesn’t mind it at all because they’re all genuinely good people.

Anyways, because life wanted to fuck with them, something happens. Maybe it was a shady guy giving them weird drinks or jewelry or whatever, maybe it was a freak accident that gave them powers. Whatever the cause was, they receive powers out of their control at first and are now tasked with using said powers for the greater good of humanity.

Why? Well the city they’ve lived in all their lives has been terrorized by a villainous group, or maybe separate villains that just so happen to be in the area. Either way, the group is tasked with protecting the city or else terrible things will continue to happen. The city was already being protected by one group of heroes, but the villains are getting more and more frisky and dangerous.

So now it’s up to them to help. Yay.

Arisu and his friends do form their own mini superhero team, because there’s nothing better than fighting alongside your friends. :D

Arisu was tasked with the nice power of what can be counted as future sight and analytical planning. Basically he can track the future movements of anyone within a room as well as problem solve in case a problem has occurred. Example being that they are stuck in a rapidly flooding room with ninjas… or something like that. He’d be able to not only track the ninjas movements but also seek a way to escape the room before they all drown. When he does this time effectively stops for him, like a game where he has to make choices that appear in front of him and allow him time to think before acting.

Karube gets a sort of super strength ability. It thankfully isn’t one where he has it at full power all the time, or else some things may get a bit convoluted, but when he puts his mind to it he can punch and kick and shatter a spine if he really wanted to. He can manipulate it as well so it can fit more daily needs, like opening a tough pickle jar, so it’s handy.

Chota has the power to see through walls and record them, which can be handy in case there’s something the others needs to see but is obscured. He also can turn it off and on at will, and Shibuki makes sure he isn’t doing it for anything dirty (because this power can be used entirely for really bad intents). It at the very least makes his eyes like projectors when he shows the others the recording (which is as long as he can keep his eyes open. When he blinks it cut the recording there) and can only hold one recording at a time as the power overwrites it each time.

Shibuki gets the power of oral/written word manipulation. It’s like a super version of hypnosis really, where she can get anyone to follow her requests without much resistance. That is, unless the person has an immunity or high resistance to it. It in itself sounds like a weak power compared to the others, but words are powerful depending on what she says, and for her it doesn’t have to be in close contact or even spoken. Shibuki can induce her power into a written sentence or small paragraph and trick her victim into reading it. It all depends on her getting to her intended victim.

Together, they form a pretty formidable team together and protect the city, although they do have to work to make a name for themselves. Which gives the added bonus of villains gunning for them. How fun.

Of course they’re not the only superhero group in the city, just the newest ones. The other team, which had been previously keeping the villains at bay, end up hearing about this new team, and their leader gets interested in them.

So what ends up happening is that the leader and his right hand man meet Arisu and the others at the local coffee shop, because obviously this is super important and all important things happen in cafes or bars somehow.

The leader simply introduces himself as Hatter, and his right hand as Aguni. Arisu already knew about them from news articles, and occasionally fangames about them. Anyways, Hatter questions them on random things, mostly about their work ethics and how willing they are to put their lives into this city. Not everyone is prepared to have a whole population on their shoulders after all, and there’s always a loom of death over their heads at all times.

Of course Arisu falters for a bit, nobody wants to die an early death out of their control, but it was also for the greater good. So he (and the others) state that they were completely willing to help their community, because it meant other people can live their lives knowing that they can be safe from the threats that are outside normal human abilities.

Well Hatter loved their spunk, and he ends up inviting them to come join his little Hero Union so they could have a little less to worry about on their plates. After a bit of conversation the four end up agreeing, and Hatter takes them to an apartment building that he owns, which double as a superhero base for his (and now Arisu’s) team. The base serves as free housing and availability to weapons and immediate medical attention in case they need it. Hatter didn’t mind if they preferred their old homes instead, the offer always remains.

Especially the medical bay. Superhero business is tough work.

Arisu and his friends eventually meet up with Hatter’s team of heroes.

Hatter, the leader, has the power of what Arisu can only explain it as ‘The Power of Teamwork’. It basically works in two ways: A) Hatter can summon hordes of anything he puts his mind to, although only can keep one horde at a time, and the amount entirely depends on how many he can muster. The less energy he has, the smaller the horde. This is ridiculously powerful, but it drains a lot out of him so he can’t do this half too much. Plus he can’t control the horde that much, outside of one simple command which they will do until they perish. B) Hatter can boost his teammate’s powers. This one is much easier on his bones, but the boost again reflects on his own ability to muster it up. There’s no limit to how many people he can boost, but the more he does the less each person gets.

Aguni has plant manipulation (Mmm delicious Chlorokinesis….), and can therefore summon and control any plant in any way that he chooses. He can make them grow and move in any way that he wants them to, however he can only do so in sunlight, so he has to rely on natural strength or weapons at night. Aguni also can summon plants from his hands, although not trees, and it doesn’t hurt him as long as it isn’t a cactus. When he summons from his hand it simply undergoes a fast forwarded version of its growth, which looks cool as fuck.

Ann is the resident necromancer, as well as owning the ability to test any substance or object for origin or ownership on the spot just by touching it (It works through gloves don’t worry). She usually doesn’t act on her necromancy powers often, and when she does it doesn’t last long, only using it to temporarily gain information from the dead or heal dead tissue on a living person. Her superhero work mainly resides off-field, but she is still capable outside of it.

Chishiya has both invisibility and teleportation, which explains for itself. He can remain invisible for as long as he wishes, although is still tangible to others, and can still interact with objects. Teleportation can happen in any area as long as he is aware of the area existing. Chishiya can also teleport while invisible and remains as such, so the only thing keeping him from being a little shit for everyone’s privacy is his own morals. Anything he wears becomes invisible with him, but anything he carries does not, however will teleport with him.

Kuzuryuu has a power similar to Arisu’s future sight, however it works that he only sees a justifiable future depending on events that has been shown or described to him. Basically, he takes in what he’s given and sees what would be the best possible solution to take based on that information. It’s not perfect, as any new information given changes his future sight, even if the information is false. If he can’t disprove it he has to include it. He also can’t see any factors that he isn’t able to know.

Niragi has what basically is ‘Glitching in Real Life’. Basically any silly glitch or cheat mechanic that a game could have, he can do. It’s a bit of a broken power (literally), but it also can be dangerous if he isn’t careful because he isn’t in a game and is still human. Any object he interacts with can share the glitch ability, but only one at a time, and Niragi still has to comply with some rules of physics. So… he can’t breathe if he clips into anything solid. However it is extremely funny to watch him repeatedly jump and freeze objects in the air to stand on.

Mira has a power that counts as hypnosis, but convoluted. She basically makes everything a game, and the loser has to comply to the conditions set in place. Usually they are quick and simple games, but the conditions can be brutal depending on how she feels like. She of course is also liable to the conditions, so she finds it in her favour to win.

Last Boss gets sharp pointy summons. It’s exactly how it sounds, he gets to summon anything sharp (and by anything it means anything) and use it however he wants. It ranges from swords to glass shards to thumb tacks to just a very sharp spoon handle. Last Boss doesn’t even have to hold it, as he can summon them to shoot from the ground or specifically rain on a target.

Anyways, they have to get along and protect the city when they can. Hatter lets Arisu to continue protecting with his little group of friends, but also lets him borrow one of his people if he needs their help, with consent from the other party of course.

( Does Mira end up evil in this? No, thankfully. However every time she speaks about her past Arisu is low-key convinced she might have been a supervillain at one point and is just in retirement as a hero now)

Usagi is also a part of this, but she’s instead a solo hero who works on her own terms and slowly gets integrated into Arisu’s little friend group. She does help them on occasion, but prefers to just vibe and climb things instead of focusing all her time in hero work. Her powers are in the same vein, in that she can climb any surface she wants without risk of falling if she doesn’t want to fall.

No shame in that. She knows Arisu has all the help he needs and helps only when she needs to be. They can be friends outside of hero work.

Does she get kidnapped a few times in an attempt to be leverage for Arisu? Yeah. Does she manage to escape on her own terms a few times? Yeah. Usagi is simply trying to vibe and be supportive in this AU.

Kuina and Tatta are both normal civilians in this. Kuina is Chishiya’s friend and acts as his normalcy factor, because hero work takes a lot out of a person and even Chishiya deserves some time where he doesn’t have to think about being a hero for people he actually doesn’t emotionally feel for.

Tatta just works at the local coffee shop and occasionally as maintenance for the apartment base. He also acts as a sense of normalcy for everyone. Just a good friend all around.

[renaultmograine]

Regardless of the quality of the story: I think Shadowlands would work much better with Bolvar as the main antagonist in Sylvanas' place, and Mograine in Bolvar's place. Mograine, using the knowledge he'd gathered from all of his escapades in the alternate Draenor and other realms, he managed to create a means to teleport the champion wirh Koltira/Thassarian to guide them through the Maw and staying behind with (Horde or Alliance dependant).

With the reasoning of 'As a Horseman, I cannot lead you to the Maw without risking Bolvar's control'. (Not like Bolvar being corrupted was foreshadowed all over the place or anything. -.-)

There's too many variables to get into in a single ask, but if you ask me - BolvarAsSylvanas and MograineAsBolvar makes a lot more sense. Why 'Sylvanas' was so keen on Anduin in particular, make it from Bolvar's PoV and it could come as a twisted form of lingering paternal affection. And maybe Bolvar's own soul has been siphoned away and captured over his tenure as the Lich King, and when Zovaal returns it after the Sanctum of Domination, its the Bolvar we know from Classic.

Also lets Sylvanas remain a ruthless but ultimately self-serving faction aligned with Azshara for a far greater war than the paltry one that faced Azeroth.

Just a thought.

I actually had to think about an aspect of this for Young Men Dead, an AU where, by circumstance, Quel'thalas was never attacked in the Third War and therefore Sylvanas never died. The question with that is, well, how does Shadowlands happen then?

Could you imagine a Shadowlands where Sylvanas is driving the plot by being her ruthless and cunning self seeking to destroy the being that made her like this? The Jailer is the reason why she's dead, after all. She has as much reason to be against the Jailer as she did with the Lich King.

Maybe she realizes that Bolvar is the one thing standing in her way from throwing all the batshit champions at her enemy and so she tears open the way before the Ebon Blade can go and put Bolvar down, and then just sits back and, I don't know, steals the kill from us in 9.3? Maybe she pops in for quests, maybe we go hunt her down for a chain and she's like "you idiots, go get the big bad, not me" before flying away, but she's just always on the peripheral.

i've been saying for a while that bolvar shouldn't be in his plot position in general; he repeatedly makes poor decisions, we ride forth shows that he's actually a poor leader, he has no actual backbone, and it's really apparent that he's only there because blizz thought there would be an uproar if bolvar sat on a thrown for seven years before just dying (which, fair, i suppose? but there's uproar for everything).

Darion is repeatedly shown to be a good leader that cares about his knights, and he clearly cares about Bolvar retaining his sanity in We Ride Forth. With the added stake of Kel'thuzad working with the Jailer and quite literally having everything ripped from him during the Third War by the Jailer and his allies, why wouldn't he be leading the charge?

I'd say the grass is always greener to try and keep my perspective in check, but I've never played an expansion where I've actively sat back and thought of better stories used to execute the expansion and achieve the relatively same result.

[norsecoyote]

There's this one stupid internet argument I keep getting into even though I know I shouldn't.

I follow/participate in a forum thread about webcomics, which is a mixture of genuine appreciation for good ones and communal hate-reading of the really bad ones. One such Bad One is the inexplicably but wildly popular Lore Olympus.

Lore Olympus is a terrible fucking comic for so many reasons, all of which originate in the creator's stunning lack of talent for anything beyond creating a vaguely compelling aesthetic. Artistically, the characters are all literally indistinguishable from one another except that each one is colored different (by which I mean, their entire figure is colored, skin, hair, clothes, everything). All the women have identical figures and faces (although some have pointy ears). There are a whopping two types of men's bodies, "buff" and "willowy," but they all have the same noses. Oh, and all of these body shapes change wildly from panel to panel, with zero sense of proportion or scale between characters.

The writing is where the real deep problems start, though. The comic bills itself as a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone except this time Persephone has Agency™, which tbf is a great concept. The problem is that the author repeatedly goes miles out of her goddamn way to rob her of any possible agency in her situation. She is literally constantly being manipulated by the other gods, pushed into uncomfortable situations, entire jobs, relationships, etc. with zero chance to choose for herself. Even beyond the core plot details, though, her internal characterization is childish verging on infantilizing; we are constantly reminded how out-of-her-depth and naive she is about the big bad adult world of Mount Olympus.

Which is a segue into the really awful shit that this comic pulls, as it happens. See, in this weird-ass inconsistent interpretation of the mythos (don't even attempt to make sense of the worldbuilding, seriously), Hades and all of the other Olympians are ~2,000 years old. Persephone, meanwhile, is 18. Literally 18. Also, Hera assigns her (without any of Persephone's input) to work as Hades's intern (Hades here being the CEO of "Underworld Corp").

So we're already getting into rocky waters, since the comic has somehow conspired to make the power dynamics of this relationship even more unbalanced and one-sided than the original mythos, where Persephone was physically abducted and carried off. But the real damning thing is that, having established this titillatingly taboo relationship, the author makes a special point of establishing that what attracts Hades to Persephone is: her body. I wish I were joking, but there's literally zero time spent on what he likes about her as a person, versus whole episodes on his feelings of lust. Which is still better than Captain Agency, for whom we have actually ZERO sense of what she sees in the gangly blue asshole (Hades is blue, which is the only way to tell him apart from his brothers, who are yellow and green).

So the comic sucks, and that's not even getting into the ways that every single character who suggests that maybe it's not appropriate for Hades to romantically pursue his 1,982-years-younger employee is immediately thereafter shown to be hypocritical and/or sabotaging the relationship for their own selfish ends, or the way that Persephone begins to come to terms with having been raped (in an early scene) not through any actions or reflection of her own but via Eros using his magic fuck-detecting powers(?) to realize and exclaim out loud, with other people present, that she's not a virgin anymore(??!!!!) and pressuring her into telling him the whole story. The comic sucks in both concept and execution and I kind of hate that it's apparently popular enough to get optioned for an animated series.

None of that is the stupid argument I keep getting into, though.

The stupid argument is that many posters in the thread, when asked (say, by a newcomer) why Lore Olympus is so bad, will say something like "because it's about how a really toxic type of relationship" (i.e. one with an enormous age- and power-gap) "is Good, Actually."

And mostly I can just let this slide, but every once in a while I am compelled to say, "actually, it's not bad because it wants to tell a romance about a powerful older man falling for a younger woman, it's bad because it does a really bad job of telling that story, in a way that actively glorifies the imbalance and either glosses over or actively mocks all reasonable issues with it."

Because, IMO, you shouldn't say that art is bad because of its subject matter. Just because I think relationships in real life like the one depicted in Lore Olympus are highly likely to be toxic and dangerous to the weaker/younger half doesn't, itself, mean that LO is bad for trying to make a counterargument.

But the other posters say: yes, this kind of relationship is so toxic that there's no possible way to write positively about one without being Bad.

And I suggest, just because you disagree with art or find its themes repugnant does not, in itself, make that art Bad. Maybe there are some topics that are just so taboo they should never be touched, but I dunno, the universe of human relationships is vast and varied enough that I don't think this crosses the line. I can imagine there being a romance about a couple like this that has artistic merit.

And they say: I didn't realize "45 year olds shouldn't get romantically involved with a 19 year old under any circumstances" was a hot take.

And that's when I start to get Mad On The Internet and go crying into my tumblr.