#i went into an essay there lmao

[ventruevitae]

Katerina's baby sister is a Lasombra? :0

indeed!

of course, she had no idea of this until Many years after the event had already taken place, but yeah, elissavet is still out there & survived despite the odds. she was embraced a short handful of years after kat was by a lasombra looking to gain a foothold within the camarilla. not exactly a mirror of apollonnio, but definitely not a person with her best interest at heart either. elissavet's sire is... 'friends' isn't the correct term, but they know apollonnio & had business dealings with him prior to either party embracing a childe. elissavet's embrace was actually suggested by him, knowing how much tragedy her family had experienced in recent years tragedy which totally completely had Nothing to do with his meddling, none at all & knowing how the lasombra typically went about scouting candidates, it made sense.

he also saw it as an opportunity for future potential plans, knowing there was a solid chance he would be able to use this to his advantage some way in the future. it didn't take a lot of manipulation on his end to convince elissavet that her older sister had intentionally fucked over their family and that definitely shouldn't waste her time reaching out to kat in any capacity. elissavet may or may not have been privy to at least some of the abhorrent treatment kat was receiving at the time, which makes for a very 'interesting' discussion in the years following the events of bloodlines.

basically just a lot of betrayal and hurt feelings between the two lmao :')

elissavet was the youngest of the five sisters, & being the oldest, kat basically raised her after they lost their mother young. i think at some point, elissavet realizes how much she was used and manipulated, but won't broach the topic herself because she's quite frankly Terrified of her sister's reaction. she also feels that kat would be completely justified in feeling any type of rage towards her, because she took everything apollonnio said at face value & ergo was complicit in kat's abuse. realistically, was that a fight she could have won, had she tried to rescue her sister? probably not, but at least kat would have seen that she still had people who cared about her.

& as for how kat feels about her sister presently, it's really complicated, tangled up in so much pain she doesn't even know where to start unravelling it. on one hand, she knows what her sire was like, so she's not surprised and even a bit forgiving about the whole thing. in her head, elissavet was a victim too, just in a different form. on the other hand, kat finds herself sitting with real genuine grief about it. she can't help but wonder just what it is about her that makes her so easy to leave behind, if it's somehow her fault, if she didn't take good enough care of her sisters, if she somehow deserved all of this. somehow it evolves into a nasty spiral of self loathing.

but she also knows that would still be a way of letting her sire win. whether that's true or not is debatable, but that's how it feels. he took her away from her family, made her old life disappear and made her stand by and watch as her father & sisters scrambled to pick up the pieces. she still hasn't visited her father's grave and doesn't know if she ever can. if she stays mad at elissavet, she's losing that one final fragment of who she used to be. apollonnio and his bullshit will have completely severed those ties, and that would be just one more thing he took away from her.

so she's kind of a pushover when it comes to her sister. elissavet struggles to put aside decades of being told that kat intentionally abandoned them all, selfishly fleeing once she got tired of playing caretaker at home. keep in mind, elissavet never really had another mother figure, but her siblings did, so they never felt as gutted when kat disappeared. she spent a long time convinced that taking care of her was what drove kat away. incidentally, their current relationship's status varies wildly from one week to the next. elissavet ends up accidentally hurting kat often, not really able to properly process the reality that kat never wanted to leave them & she was used as a pawn in someone else's fucked up mind game. kat keeps allowing it, not wanting to be abandoned or give the impression that she's leaving elissavet again, not wanting to let her sire take something else away from her.

elissavet is... conditionally allowed to be around the rest of kat's coterie, shall we say lmao. they tolerate her presence because kat wants to be close to her again so badly, it's kind of sad to watch her keep putting her neck out there time and time again, only to have it all crumble after a misplaced word or two. skelter is by far the most cordial, content to just let her sit there and mind her own business. elissavet is keenly aware of her status here, so she does what she can to not rock the boat. damsel's grudgingly tolerant, especially after she ends up friends with kat, because it's a favour for someone she's come to care about. still, she finds it frustratingly paradoxical that kat is the only person who seems to be able to openly express distaste with elissavet, even if she kind of gets it at the same time. (kat appreciates the great amount of effort it takes for her to bite her tongue, don't kid yourself.)

nines is also very much letting this happen for kat's sake. he does Not like elissavet, doesn't like the cowardice she's exhibited before, and definitely doesn't like her habit of stirring the pot & then leaving when things start to get too heated. he absolutely understands why kat will put herself through the ringer for her sister, and thinks that if the roles were reversed–if he suddenly found out that one of his siblings had suffered the same fate as him–he'd also be bending over backwards to keep them around. of course, he has the added benefit of knowing none of them would ever end up working with someone so openly fucking Vile like apollonnio, so it'd be easier in that respect. he genuinely can't wrap his head around how elissavet could just be a bystander for all of that. kat hasn't told him everything that she's been through, but the bits and pieces he's heard are enough. to him, it doesn't matter what lines she was being fed, elissavet shouldn't have fucking done that. if kat ever decided she was 100% done with her sister and never wanted her near the vicinity again, he'd make it happen without a second thought. for now, though, her just kind of hovers whenever she's around. elissavet isn't going to try anything, it's just more of a silent reminder for her to try not to say anything stupid.

mitchell is ambivalent about her, honestly. they've met a handful of times, with elissavet avoiding the malkavian more than anything. it's pretty clear that she doesn't like how insightful mitchell can be, or how easily she reads her. elissavet has always preferred keeping her cards close to her chest, so someone who has an uncanny ability to see right through that is unnerving at best. mitchell also seems to be the one person who can get away with telling kat that her sister is a horrible person (is this because kat expects it from her, or because mitchell is a more objective opinion? we may never know the truth).

none of kat's other immediate family found themselves as kindred, and elissavet lost track of their other three sisters as time went on. she knows for certain that none of them stayed in new york after losing two siblings and their remaining parent, but beyond that, not much else. it's very possible that kat has some neices and nephews out there, but she tries not to give that too much thought because the idea of being removed from that hurts. they each use falsified surnames and swap them out every few decades for the sake of upholding secrecy, though kat is a little more lax with the timing these days. kat is far more sentimental than her sister, and far less adverse to physical contact. elissavet likes to pretend that she's unaffected, but one of the things she missed the most after kat disappeared was the easy way she would offer hugs & brush her hair well past childhood. reflexively, she finds herself opening her mouth to get on kat for smoking so much, since she's never liked the habit, but stops herself when she remembers that the cigarettes won't hurt anything at this point. despite it all, she misses the sound of kat's laugh. they aren't at the point where she's had many opportunities to do it (tears are more common), but she remembers it enough to know it was a sound of comfort.

[14dayswithyou]

Sending [REDACTED] a kiss! ^^

but what if i gave u a kiss on da cheek instead /p

Did you happen to have any demon [REDACTED] thoughts to go with demon Ren? 👉👈 Or were they meant to be the same?

this is very out of season hehe

✦゜ANSWERED: WE ARE KISSIN AND SMOOCHIN AND HOLDING HANDS AND /p /silly

But!! [REDACTED] was Angel!Ren before he turned into Demon!Ren hehe :3c

[REDACTED] was once an angel alongside his mother and sister, but they all fell from grace when the pantheon of gods discovered that Ichika had been associating with a demon... and gave life to his children.

Now given the name "Ren", he was forced to live in the mortal world with his father for most of his childhood — and witnessing him do horrific acts to humans, his mother, and even himself was what inevitably triggered Ren into transforming into a demon.

Babey was so full of wickedness at the tender age of ten that his horns and tail started to grow early, so he fled into the forest and cried from all of da searing pain underneath his skin :(

But luckily a benevolent angel came and made a deal with him to take the pain away!! Unluckily, though, they didn't know he was a demon and that it was wrong for their kind to even touch one

But hey!! At least they had the unyielding protection of a demon until their time in the mortal world was up!

It wasn't until hundreds of years later that the pantheon of gods found out about this and punished the angel by making them fall from grace as well :(

They woke up in a strange village near the ocean and were taken in by a familiar stranger with pink hair and sleek, black horns... Now they live in his lil stone house that overlooks the sea — all while having this demon help regain their memories :3

[toskarin]

G-Witch guy wasn't even wrong. Any and all nuance over the earth/space conflict is immediately thrown out the window in season 2 and the show suffers for it (earth house characters couldn't even be bothered by the whole thing; dawn of fold raise some interesting arguments about the space peoples use of gundams only for them to immediately resort to terrorism to get their point across; etc.). Miorine and Suletta are a boring christian couple with an unusually small amount of screen-time together. Ones a hypocrite and the other one has little to no agency for most of the fucking show. It's the closest thing to an MCU film that any anime I ever watched has gotten and I hate it.

at this point I'm just gonna start screenshotting my posts where I was saying exactly this a year ago

[sofiaruelle]

“In order to get this, I had to survive this” trend on twitter.

10 years of hard work and im still cunty, bby.

[nomizombie]

what i would imagine me (an extrovert) would do to court könig (a socially anxious most likely introvert)

reference image: (totes didnt trace the rose because i HATE drawing flowers :33)

[musical-chick-13]

I think people who pick one character from AsoIaF/GoT to be The Protagonist are missing the point, because pretty much all of the characters think THEY are The Protagonist™ and that’s ultimately what screws them over.

(I also want to preface this by saying that that’s the reason I find these characters so interesting, and that this is not meant to insult any of them. I LOVE this story, and this is one of the many reasons why.)

Cersei thinks she’s the Villain Protagonist™ of a gritty drama. Even if it doesn’t make sense for things to work out for her, she assumes they will, seeing everyone around her as faceless idiots serving her narrative. Anyone and everyone will betray her because that’s what always happens in stories like this, so she won’t give them a chance to ever get there. People will move the way she assumes they will; everyone is predictable and stupid and shallow and cowardly. And as such, no one possesses the necessary skills to take her down. If she’s more ruthless and ambitious and paranoid than everyone else, she’ll get what she wants. But that’s not how life actually works, so all she does is alienate those around her, even necessary allies. People aren’t always predictable, not all of them are compliant or subservient or easily-frightened or incompetent. And if you prioritize ruthlessness and distrust, the people who aren’t those things aren’t going to see any reason to keep you around or give you aid.

Jaime thinks he’s a Cynical Misunderstood Antihero. He doesn’t need to work on bettering himself or de-internalizing his violent impulses, because he’s not the problem, it’s society, it’s people’s incorrect assessment of him. Look, he made a friend in Brienne, that must mean he’s not all bad, right? He thinks this story ends in a Public Image Rehabilitation, but he still conflates love with violence, and he still has a fucked up relationship with consent, he’s arrogant to a fault, he still insults Brienne (and just about everyone else) when the opportunity presents itself, and he never bothers trying to change that. And it’s all of this that prevents him from every truly becoming a good person. He’s so mired in this idea of being misunderstood that he doesn’t make a concerted effort to prove that he actually is. People think he’s an oath-breaker, that he has too big of an ego, that he doesn’t care about the people he swore to protect, and he thinks that simply going, “Yeah, but they don’t have the whole picture” is enough in and of itself to prove them wrong because, in a lot of stories, it is. But all his behavior does is cement his reputation as these things.

Dany thinks she’s The Chosen One, which means whatever she does is automatically the right decision. People will accept her rule because it’s hers, she deserves it, it’s morally right. All of her enemies are blanketedly wrong on all accounts in all cases. Her goals supersede anyone else’s because those goals are the way to a Happy Ending, and she doesn’t consider that other people might not see it that way. Many people’s gripes with her stem from gross places like misogyny or wanting to continue keeping slaves, but she forgets to acknowledge that some people’s issues with her might actually be valid. And that The Chosen One is actually a terrifying idea to people outside that person’s immediate personal context. She has three sentient WMDs, essentially. And if she thinks that using them is always morally correct, that the fallout from doing so can’t possibly be a problem because she’s using them and it’s for a noble cause, you end up with what happened in Astapor; and you end up with Drogon killing a child in Mereen and, eventually, her demise at the end of the show.

Sansa starts out thinking she’s an Optimistic Child Hero in a fairytale. This leads to her being held captive at court (she trusted that the authority figures were benevolent), writing a letter to her family that almost comes back to bite her to a deadly degree once her sister finds out in the show (she thought she could solve everything herself via a peaceful resolution), and to her trusting a complete monster of a boy until it’s too late (she thought he was Prince Charming). She thinks that being the Soft, Beautiful Heroine means people will love her and everything will end nicely and neatly, but sometimes instead of “love”, people just take advantage of you. And sometimes their reaction to your beauty isn’t innocent appreciation-sometimes you end up with Littlefinger. (Or Tyrion or The Hound who...let’s just leave it at “they have their own issues,” especially book-wise.) This morphs into assuming that a fairytale-esque betrayal will befall her with every new person she meets. It’s why she defends Petyr after his murder of Lysa, and it’s why she doesn’t leave with Brienne; if she’s going to be betrayed anyway, she might as well at least stick with a villain she understands.

Ned thinks he’s the Noble Hero in a typical fantasy series. He doesn’t consider everyone else’s capacity for cruelty or the idea that honor alone might not be enough. Sometimes there are no perfect choices, sometimes mercy does not give you the end goal you envisioned, and sometimes you can try your best and that can all be undone by one impulsive, unforeseeable action. You can’t honor your way out of ruthless political conflict.

Robb thinks he’s a Romantic War Hero, and thus everything will magically work out for him. His ideals and his marriage will conquer everything. But he broke a marriage promise to a powerful family, and that has consequences. The world won’t bend to his will, not even if he is doing the right thing or has noble goals, not even if he’s had war success, not even if the people at home love him, not even if he’s in love (show) or doing the most honorable thing he can (books). He thinks that being the hero means he can make it through Westeros without having to play the game, and he gets murdered for it.

Theon thinks he’s an Underdog Outcast Hero. He’ll come up from behind with an unsuspecting War Victory, and that will earn him respect, the love of his family, and a legacy he can look back on with pride. And that mindset leads him to murder two children, to drive away any allies and good grace he had at Winterfell, and the reason that the War Victory he imagined was so unexpected is because it’s completely untenable. He gets more and more desperate and it’s increasingly harder and harder to hold onto the control he’s managed to obtain. He has reasons for wanting this that make sense, and he’s been dealt a pretty bad hand in life, and he thinks that’s and his determination to overcome his personal identity struggles is enough to not only justify his actions, but ensure that those actions will be successful. And then his plan blows up in his face, he assumes he’s been miraculously saved (probably still having something to do with seeing himself as The Unexpected Hero), and ends up at Ramsay’s mercy.

Arya thinks she’s a Badass Heroine in the making, a skilled swordslady and Rebellious Princess who’s destined for more than this stuffy life of politics and dresses and formalities. But rebelling isn’t always enough. It doesn’t help with the Mycah situation, and she still needs to rely on others’ help in getting out of the city after Ned is executed. When she does try to embrace the “fully self-sufficient sword lady” idea while with the Faceless Men in Braavos, she is told to functionally discard her identity completely. She does an unauthorized kill because she, not her assassin-persona-in-training, wants to (though the victim’s identity differs in books and show), which leads to her being temporarily blinded and prevented from going on assassination missions, and outright forced to beg for food in the show. In the show, after being reinstated as an apprentice, she is tasked with killing an innocent person, refuses (rebels), and realizes that this life is one she can’t handle. She goes home, and her heading straight for her sword is one of the things that almost completely ruins her relationship with Sansa. In the upcoming Winds of Winter release, her chapter excerpt has her prioritizing revenge over her apprentice duties, and she remarks that her new identity is ruined with this rebellious action. When you rebel, there are consequences-this doesn’t change just because your intentions are good or because you are or think you are important.

Jon thinks, similarly to Ned, that he’s The Good Guy, that doing the right thing, that following The Code is paramount. He thinks that, because he’s The Good Guy, that doing the right thing with the maximum amount of good for everyone will always be a workable option, and that the heroic option will always yield the best result. This is why he thinks proclaiming his love to Ygritte in the show will end well (because love is good and conquers everything) and is, instead, shot by her several times. It’s why he doesn’t foresee a mutiny in either medium, which leads to his (temporary) death. (Let’s be real, he’s getting resurrected in the books, too, this is the one thing I’m sure of.) Because yes, everything is tense and he’s on bad terms with the Watch, but surely they wouldn’t go that far. It’s rough going, and he has to juggle the needs of several widely different groups of people, but he’s doing the right thing and that will win out; his conviction will protect him, at least for the time being while he tries to manage the bigger threat of the White Walkers. The real fight is with them, the mysterious overarching enemy, not within his own ranks. This is a story where everyone puts aside their differences to fight a greater threat-except for the times when it isn’t.

Even Catelyn isn’t immune, as she assumes that Petyr, since he’s her childhood friend, is invested in solving the mystery of what happened to Bran when he tells her the dagger used in the attack was Tyrion’s. Lysa is her sister, she can’t possibly be suspicious. She thinks the Lannisters are evil, her instincts tell her that they were behind everything, she’s the Protective Mother Heroine, so she must be right. But although she is to a certain extent correct, that’s not the complete picture. And this slightly-misplaced confidence leads her to arrest Tyrion, the retaliation of which is Tywin siccing his forces on her homeland, one of the major first steps in the upcoming political war. Then, her continued focus on saving her children-something that must take precedence because they are her children, and this is her story-leads her to taking Walder Frey’s supposed offer of a fix-it solution for Robb breaking his marital pledge at face value, despite House Frey’s reputation, and despite this neat resolution seeming far too good to be true. She’s so focused on the Lannisters-the Obvious Endgame Enemy-that she doesn’t consider the possibility of betrayal from the Freys. She thinks that the world is giving her a break-because she is so desperately looking for one, because she deserves one, because her family deserves one, and those are reasons enough for her to have one-that she doesn’t even bother to re-evaluate the situation until it’s too late.

Melisandre thinks she’s a Religious Hero, but she ends up burning a child alive and alienating one of her few remaining allies in the process (and Davos was barely an ally to begin with). She thinks she’s Doing What Needs To Be Done to serve her savior, but it hurts Stannis more than it helps him, and he just ends up being murdered by Brienne. This is obviously in the show only (at least at this point), and I don’t know if Stannis is going to burn Shireen in the books or not. Stannis thinks he’s the Lawful Hero, and thus, because according to law he’s the Rightful Ruler, anything he does is automatically excusable; he’s just righting a wrong. And in the process, he imprisons his closest friend, has a hand in murdering his brother (when kinslaying is one of the most universally hated breaches of conduct in this fictional universe), allies with a dangerous woman that much of his own court despises, and, in the show, murders his only child and drives away most of the rest of his remaining team.

They all think that, since they are the main characters of their own stories, that they’re the main character of the larger, overarching narrative. That having understandable reasons or sympathetic qualities or even just having a clear goal that they desperately want, that’s enough to cement their importance. And they think that means that they’re justified in everything they do, that everything will work out for them, that the consequences will be lesser for them than for others, because that’s what it’s like to be the main character. The whole point is that there is not A Protagonist™ and that maybe we should examine why a story needs A Protagonist™ in the first place and what that narrative tradition tells us. When GRRM said he turned down adaptation offers because they only wanted to focus on Jon and Dany, this is why.

[uncriticalbunny]

read the joanna article and no comment on the sydcarmy answer [lol]. the answer I found the most interesting was that they locked carmy in the freezer as this idea to punish him for experiencing joy but also to give sydney a chance to rise into power.

it's funny because they didn't accomplish that story beat well at all [on sydney's part]. they had her share that "'rise in power" with richie by making it seem like she couldn't handle the pressure without him stepping in. don't really give a fuck if it showed the evolution of their relationship or richie's growth if the purpose was to have sydney rise into power. they centered him as the main hero and quite literally relegated sydney to a supporting role.

[hella1975]

ive got an essay due at 3pm tomorrow and ive not even looked at it i am so so unserious about my degree and by the grace of some higher being i somehow keep managing to crawl through it's actually getting a bit funny

[honey-stalk]

In honor of merlin trending yesterday have this art I did for a final project a couple terms ago <3

[sygneth]

The confirmation that Harry's squad abandoning him is just poor writing just so the player can continue doing shit on their own is the fact that it never gets explained. Harry even tries to bring it up but kim just. Shuts him up about about it is so so sooooo absurd. Jean's inaction could also harm him but he just makes harry drop the subject? C'mon folk it could have not been more obvious that the writers simply did not come up with that part 💀 I wish people would just take things as they are: de is not really a detailed novel. It's a fuckin game. With excellent writing, excellent characters and worldbuilding, but still a game

I don't think there is much to add here anon. This is a very solid point.

EDIT: I figured it may be worth adding that this is about the posse leaving on the day of the mercenary tribunal, not before the events of the game

[legendarceus]

hey all i’m currently doing nothing and also am bored sooooo

anyone have any thoughts on amethio’s backstory whatever that may be ? or any headcanons on him in general. i would like to know people’s thoughts about him please 🙏

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Remember back in the fall during the SNL episode when they did the Sportscenter skit about Taylor and Travis and had the line about Joever where they were basically like “leave Joe alone, it was a deeply meaningful and special relationship” and I was like “see they’re all grownups and moving on, no need to rehash this anymore” and now we’re a fortnight (ha) away from an album likely about to blow the lid off what kind of shit was really happening 🥴

You ever think Taylor heard the skit that night and was like “ew no” lol I’M KIDDING but also not

[raiiny-bay]

it’s honestly kinda crazy to me that kel & co were literally the first OCs i ever made

[dullahandyke]

My fuckung godddd bubbles just threw up twice and the only undigested thing in it was the deli ham dad keeps feeding her and he still refuses to start giving her actual cat food... ugh I have to finish the essay but once I do I'm gonna go cry at him so he takes me seriously

[rollercoasterwords]

Have you ever wrote something that isn’t about the marauders?

yeah lol i've written many things that aren't about the marauders

if ur asking abt other fanfic/creative writing of mine i have a kenstewy fic on ao3 and a rewrite of the captive prince series from laurent's pov (but i do not recommend reading it unless you have already read + enjoyed the original series). i also have a substack specifically for bits of creative writing i like enough to share :•) and if ur looking for nonfiction i have 3 essays on my other substack, one about jegulus + identity formation + algorithmic social media; one about tiktok + harmful attitudes towards masculine lesbians, and one about 'female rage' + gender essentialism.

aside from substack + ao3, though, i likely won't ever share anything on here that i've written with my full name attached to it because i don't wanna doxx myself lol

[yappacadaver]

and it's like despite all the awful shit he's done and continues to do, like, i get it. he's employed like 24/7/365. he never got to live a life, despite spending a childhood clinging to the hope of having one someday. He knew companionship and love but lost it and can't ever get it back. His circumstances are so anomalous and gruesome that it completely isolates him from pretty much every other human being on the planet. he knows hell is real and he is basically guaranteed to go there if he can't break this demon curse thing.

like it doesn't make the kidnapping and spreading the curse around any better, but i do get it.