#idk why the writers even made this an argument bc it makes no sense bc i feel like silver would ofc agree w madi?????

[butcharyastark]

god i just realized one of madi and silvers last conversations was half an argument..... hate. loathing. sadness.

[courtney-deserved-better]

After the last chapter is it okay if we ask for your take on the AA argument? Or AA in general? Emma and Courtney’s convo maybe made me geek out a bit and now I’m so curious because there’s so many angles to take.

absolutely i love talking ace attorney! i started off as a miego shipper but then became a lanamia shipper so i can see both sides to courtney and emma's convo lol. i think mia and diego have more basis in canon for being a couple and i like how diego was intertwined with the fey family drama. however he literally did not tell maya about this plot to kill her and instead did convoluted stuff to protect her which still involved killing her mother when he could've prevented all of that in the first place. though my memory of that case is fuzzy and i understand there needed to be a murder for there to even be a case in the first place. but i think the writing could've been better bc it's hard to sympathize with diego after all that. also i don't know for sure if his misogyny is due to faulty translation or if it was the original writers' intent. as for lana, while her existence was a retcon (if im remembering right) i love her and ema and that whole case. damon gant is a big orange power man and he's going to beat the shit out of everyone (pbnt my beloveds). that intellectually attracted line is incredibly lesbian of lana and mia. they definitely dated at some point. it's also really funny to think of maya and ema's older sisters dating idk why. vibes. but yeah i think emma would see this emotionally repressed older sister character trying to protect her younger sister from all this trauma while being taken advantage of by an older man, hear the "intellectually attracted" line, and be like "oh she ABSOLUTELY had a thing with this hot smart spunky lawyer lady" while not realizing in the slightest that she's projecting. while i feel like courtney is very much someone who goes by canon and tends to enjoy canon relationships and shipping fanon relationships doesn't really occur/make sense to her. i think she also likes diego because he'll throw coffee mugs at the defense and she wishes she could be that violent in court one day. though by that criteria franziska would be her fav character. but i also think it would be funny if she found franziska really annoying and did not see the irony in that at ALL.

ANYWAY i love talking about ace attorney i love talking about what td characters would think about ace attorney please feel free to send me more ace attorney asks. those games got me through the height of the pandemic (in addition to total drama)

[kuumara]

ok lets go

usually the original post is alright and its the comments that are weird, but not this time. bc i could say the exact same thing ab mcdonalds, that they would be disappointed crying pissing screaming etc when they see s5. i personally think more ronaldmcdonaldasses should be ok with a byler endgame, but if i said this they would all cry piss scream shit

--

yeah, he did say he's scared of losing her. but as the saying goes that you've prob seen from alot of other stuff, "if you love something you're not afraid to let it go". so idk ab u but mike saying that just confirms that the relationship is toxic and if it continues it might even turn into an emotionally abusive one, IMO (its a pattern- ur anxious the partner will leave, u start being more cautious around them; even turn into a whole another version of urself u think the partner will like more (mikes lenora drip), etc etc. very stressful for u (mike) and also ur partner (el)).

"he's clearly inlove with eleven" idk it wasnt really clear to me when she offensively side-eyed him at the cabin and then he rolled his eyes or wtvr that was, which was literally the last time they interacted. not really madly in love healthy relationship of them tbh. and its EL not goddamn eleven that alone speaks volumes ab how much they care ab her well-being or character arc or wtvr their other excuses are (they say mike leaving her would crush her, but so would if u called her eleven in her face)

"it would go against everything we've seen in the show" i agree with this one. except, byler not being canon would go against everything blablabla 🤓 like, we've seen this happen before with steve and robin, this would just be even more bombastic.

then, the show dunks on homophobes all the time so Macabre canon would go against that too; and yes, it would be homophobic to use a gay character's CONFESSION and FEELINGS THAT ARE ALREADY CAUSING HIM PAIN to uplift the straight couple, making them happy married with 17 kids while the gay character is in even more pain and like dies or smth

--

holy shit i thought yall were exaggerating when u said they actually think mleven is love at first sight.

1) the duffers wouldnt "suddenly scrap it", ppl have been finding subtext and set design clues since the beginning, since ep1. no its not delusions, its stuff for which there isnt any other actual explanation. it all makes sense, every subtext reference, every set design prop, every decoration on clothes- theres even an official st video on yt where the set design says she put triangles on robins clothes bc shes gay asf. Guess who else has triangles on his shirt (which he wears for majority of the show, might i add)? MIKE -but that just means he likes girls!! just like robin, to shut down any theories the fans made ab him liking guys!!! hes a lesbian😭😭😭

2) im assuming these are hard core fans, since theyre still in the subreddit and all that, and i dont doubt theyve seen the stranger things twitter account say they don't believe in love at first sight. so the writers=write the show. don't believe in love at first sight, it's just cheesy (infatuated) 12yr old shit. so, why would they include smth they think isn't real, unrealistic even? except if they're saying mike and els love isn't real-

--

alright final one. the classic "yall delusional" argument. Nothing else to say besides we are seeing patterns and we are recognizing them. not my fault ur not as observant and intelligent🙄

[sapphire-weapon]

I used to draw for other small/rare ships (apparently I'm drawn to those kind of ships lol), only one of them got huge enough after they were given some time alone in the manga which got the ship more talented and known creators and amazing fan art.

Unfortunately it also got more hate on since it was a ship that "got in the way" of other huge popular ships and going through the tag got annoying bc the haters tagged every post shitting on the previously rare pairing, plus if you reblogged or made content for it they would harass you. I just blocked everyone sending me hate lmao.

Lots of people now hate Leon/Ashley but I think this increased hatred also shows how the haters can see that it is a thing now unlike before. They see it as a real threat. You can see the insecurity in some of those antis, it's too obvious and also just sad imo. I don't get why antis take shipping too seriously like they're not even having fun anymore and that's supposed to be the point, no?

Truth is I've seen so many Leon/Ashley fans online and even irl, Reddit for example loves it and Remake Ashley is a fan favorite now. A lot of them are more casual fans that maybe don't engage that deeply with fanon (which tbh is the smart thing to do).

Finally I have to say your blog and the amazing fic writers have inspired me to go back to drawing fan art and just creating content for Ashley/Leon or EagleOne. :)

Since this is my new otp and the only thing I love shipping rn I'm also just creating a new blog for that purpose. I'm not an amazing artist I'm just an amateur but I'll try to do something soon when I'm less busy. I'll absolutely tag it as EagleOne. Hopefully I can motivate others to do the same.

anon what the fuCK i got all emotional reading this wyd 😭

i know that the antis are coming from a place of insecurity, which is why their arguments are so disingenuous (i finally found the "the devs went out of their way to make sure that leon and ashley weren't seen as romantic" tweet and hoo boy the desperation is stinky) -- and that's also why i don't engage with them. as easy and perhaps fun as it would be to just QRT it and be like "oh it makes sense now, you're all using text to speech because you don't actually know how to read" there's no point in doing that.

i said it a while ago, but i want to say it again for good measure -- i don't want us to become them. my humble goal for eagleone fandom is to be a haven for ppl. we've been the black sheep of this fandom for so long, and aeons are still accusing us of being predators or someshit (idk i'm only semi-fluent in delusional) that i feel like we all have an obligation to stay humble now that capcom's given us a fairy tale version of RE4 where our ship is the front-and-center romance and people are finally actually being drawn to the ship. no one knows how bad this fandom can get better than eagleone folk, so it's on us to not do unto others what has been done unto us.

idk maybe that's just my whole jewish "because you were slaves in egypt..." mindset coming out but

i want us to be a place where people can just come and hang out and make friends over our shared love for resident evil. i know that i have serennedy and cleon and chreon and metaltango people all following me, and i love all of them dearly and i'm happy that we've all found each other. i feel like that's what fandom should be.

that's why i don't fight with aeons out in the open. i don't want to become them. i'll swing back if they ever come here (though i hope valuable lessons were learned the last time someone tried to come in here swinging and i took them out in exactly two responses LMAO), but i don't want to go out picking fights and i don't want any of y'all to do it either.

so it makes me feel really warm and fuzzy and happy to hear that i've inspired you in some way. i know that our little corner of the fandom over here on tumblr is small, and i know that i don't exactly have the kind of welcoming personality that will give me any sort of real platform in this fandom (at least, not like the one i had back in the day when i was a fake ass bitch LMAO), but to know that i've made at least a little difference is everything for me.

[rollercoasterwords]

Yes yes yes to all of your points about jegulus and the capitalism of fandom as a whole. I find the whole thing so interesting in a mildly terrifying way lmao

One thing I’ve noticed with jegulus on TikTok that I’ve never really registered seeing with another ship (tho I could obviously be wrong, thx algorithm) is that people advertise their fics in a way I’ve not really seen before in forms of countdowns and trailers pre posting. And yes be proud of what you’ve created, I am the biggest supporter of tooting your own horn but sometimes it feels a little… off to me. Like almost like people are viewing fic writing as becoming ‘content creators’ and trying to go viral with these pieces of work in the same way that art and TikToks goes viral. And with the marauders and jegulus in particular being such a TikTok heavy fandom (as you pointed out in your essay) maybe that’s why it’s more apparent, because a lot more people interacting with this subsection of the fandom have been ‘raised’ (for lack of a better word) to view the internet as a place where the point is to go viral and become well known, so to create art for the sake of creation is an entirely alien concept. So why would you not make a trailer for your story and post it half a dozen times to TikTok?

And then pair that with jegulus having fewer works than bigger ships which means that the ‘bigger’ fics are known and read by the majority, which ultimately means that people have a better chance of going ‘viral’ if they post a story with that pairing compared to wolfstar where the competition is higher.

I’ve never really kept a track of these fics that are advertised and hyped up before chapters are posted, but I would be interested in how many are abandoned if and when the author doesn’t get a barrage of kudos and comments, and the subsequent serotonin boost with it.

Sorry this ask doesn’t really have much of a point or direction, (and I’m not even sure if it even made much sense ☠️) it’s just something I’ve been noticing with increasing frequency recently and I was wondering if you had any thoughts, as you write your points and arguments so well!!

anon i literally want to kiss u on the mouth u brought up sooooo many good points!! yes i have so so so many thoughts about this maybe i need to make a separate post bc like....ive talked so much about the way that like. people interact as readers with the like tiktok/social media/influencer mindset but ive definitely seen it crop up with people who write fanfic too. and the thing is bc there aren't really cleanly delineated boundaries between readers + writers of fanfic (like....most of the writers are also readers, and many of the readers are also writers) it definitely comes from both sides.

i think for anyone who has like. internalized this mentality that art must be validated by an audience to be worthwhile and that you can only be Seen by turning urself into content for consumption it's very easy to approach fanfiction with a mindset stuck in a consumer economy. and like. that isn't a moral failing, because we are literally all being conditioned to think of any creative pursuit as something that is only worthwhile if it can be turned into Profitable Content. but i DO think it's important to recognize when we're falling into that mindset, because fanfiction is so antithetical to it. and also just like....i don't think any of these people who are approaching fanfiction with this underlying idea that they need to curate an audience for validation will be able to find deep or lasting joy, because if your primary motivation in writing is just to get as many eyes on it as possible, then like....idk. it will never be enough. there will always be someone with a more popular story, with more people reading it.

and like. i actually mentioned this in my little tiktokification essay that escaped confinement, and i got a bunch of responses of people in the tags or reblogs going "there is NOTHING WRONG with wanting to share your work and wanting people to read it!!!" and i was like...i didn't say there was anything wrong with it?? i said if your primary motivation in creating art is just to get as many eyes on it as possible, you probably will not find lasting joy in the creation of that art. so :/

anyway now i think i want to write another essay so thank u for that anon lmao

[horizon-verizon]

What do you think of the accusation that Rhaenys is hypocritical when talking to Alicent, specifically the "service to men" line? I never saw it myself. I always saw it as a comment about the meaning or potential of "queenship" and independent power as it's a response to Alicent calling herself a true queen.

I personally read this scene as Rhaenys feeling Alicent out to see how really good of a queen she would be if she had both the mettle and the brains for it.

*EDITED (10/6/23)* I agree completely with what backjustforberena says HERE, in regards to what the writers wish to convey. I'm saying that this is the Watsonian reading. I just don't agree with the writers. Instead, it felt more like Rhaenys was just trying to mess with Alicent's head bc yes she is doing what Alicent does, let men rule her while discouraging Rhaenyra/a woman who can do more when she cannot.

Excerpt:

Rhaenys, during the course of the scene, is trying to see what Alicent is made of, trying figure her out and then, ultimately, trying to unbalance her. It’s a comparison of power, yes. It’s a comparison of position, yes. And a comparison of ambition - Rhaenys once imagined herself on the Iron Throne. Alicent never has because she doesn’t see it as possible for herself. But Rhaenys has spent so much time never really paying attention to Alicent, and this is the scene where Rhaenys sees Alicent as a player, as someone who understands the order of things (albeit not to subvert them, but that’s by-the-by) as someone who sees what Rhaenys’s true wishes would be in order to make that offer. She sees Alicent is wise. Now she needed to figure out what Alicent is going to do with that awareness.

That this is what the writers were going for.

*EDIT* 8/20/23: IDK about the definition of "wise" here, though. I don't think it is "wise" to usurp Rhaenyra, to try to conciliate with her using a page from their youth after harassing and endangering her kids lives for 10 years and the expecting to ever be truly civil much less friends. When said page is about Nymeria, the woman who basically established equal primogeniture through violence and war bc she wanted to conquer. Alicent is all like "stop the violence, and just accept Aegon's rule", and if the argument for why she chose Nymeria of all things from that book they read together as kids, she definitely show wrong, since though Nymeria used violence/waged wars in conquest, we cannot argue Dorne is worse for it not was it impossible to uproot years long traditions, much less "all the ceremonies" that legitimize Aegon's ascension. Alicent asking-demanding Rhaenyra stand down "for the realm" doesn't make sense, and her methods also do not make sense.

If anything, following the events and basic human psychology, Rhaenyra should have more reason to go after the greens after that damned page.

So no, Alicent was not wise, nor should Rhaenys believe that she was. Once more, no matter what Rhaenys thinks, Baela and Rhaena are both Daemon's children. Even if Baela wanted to sit out this war, Rhaena is with Daemon AND the greens are not going to give Driftmark to her by patriarchal male-over-women privilege. The same thing they are using to get Aegon to rule over Rhaenyra!

[initiumseries]

no no thats not what i meant i think i didnt word my ask properly.. i get that as a whole its racist mistreatment of bonnie and i also get that the reasons behind this particular incident on the writers part was also racist but thats not what i was talking ab which is what i meant by the first few lines lol i was trying to acknowledge it and not dismiss it

i mean like in the show itself, as in from the characters perspectives i guess? why would abby or bonnie be extremely upset about this if abby never really cared ab magic in the first place.

maybe my understanding of media/analysis is kinda rudimentary lol bc like we as viewers can spot the issues with the writing but within the show itself, like if these were real people why would they react the way they did. maybe i shouldnt be separating the two idk.

sorry if this doesn't make sense I'm not very good at articulating things

I think you're right in that last part, you can't really separate the two. I understood what you mean initially, and what I'm saying is that you cannot, in good faith, engage in that kind of discourse, because the issues with Bonnie's character, her racist mistreatment, and the SL with her mother are inextricably linked. I don't know that there's a need to try to "see it from the character's perspective", to still see the problems in a case like this, but for sake of argument, let's do that:

Consider it from Abby's perspective: now my memory around her very brief sl are fuzzy, but she wasn't able to use magic, which is why she didn't go back to Mystic Falls, she sealed Mikael and then lost her access to magic, but being around Bonnie, made her stronger, and able to actually help Bonnie (something something nature punishing her for abandoning her child). Abby abandoned her husband and child to start a new life, then Bonnie brings all this chaos to her doorstep. She tries to help, and then she's forcibly turned into a vampire, and it's clear, she doesn't want to be one, because that's the whole thing with witches right? They see vampires as unnatural, not belonging, and now she's completely cut off from magic and the spirits, which she'd only just reconnected with, along with her daughter.

Now Bonnie's perspective, she's mad her mother started a whole new life without her, and that's completely understandable. It hurts. She's dealt with the passing of her grandmother, and is obviously still grieving that (because you don't ever just stop). So then she finally sort of finds common ground with her mother, and then she betrays her by poisoning her and turning her over to the originals, to save this other guy, who is not her biological child. That's really terrible. Then she has to put that aside to do the spell, come to some sort of acceptance, and then, Damon, a character who has been terrorizing them for 3 seasons now, kills her, after being the reason her gramms is dead, and has tried to kill Bonnie before, forcibly turns her mother. Now, from where I'm sitting, it never made sense Gramms died for those white ass vampires. But it makes even LESS sense, that Bonnie let Damon live long enough to turn around and kill her mother, once again, something destructive he does in Elena's name. If I'm looking at it through Bonnie's perspective, I'd be really fucking sick and tired of being put through this shit, largely by Damon, while everyone stands around wringing their hands and watching.

So that brings me right back around, to our understanding of the show as viewers. The context is exactly that, context. It informs our understandings of scenes we see in the show, and like I said before, you cannot divorce the context from the moment and try to argue it. It's manipulation, intentional or not, and it's nor discussing in good faith. You HAVE to consider the context that Bonnie is deeply mistreated and Abby's character arc is another arm of that mistreatment, and I think the question that must be asked at this point, is why do you need to divorce the context from this moment to understand it or engage with it? Why does it have to live outside of Bonnie's treatment as a character? What is gained by doing that?

[olderthannetfic]

Any ideas how to heal from intense top/bottom discourses full of vitriol? Im *mostly* a fixed shipper and I was not ashamed to admit it thoigh I wouldnt have attacked someone for having a different preference (unless theyre being assholes first) and that have had people call me fetishizer, heteronormative, etc and it did affect me bc i dont like being seen as inferior. but right now im in a ship where the idea of them being both switch make the most absolute sense so im open to the idea. But idk i feel like a hypocrite now and i just dislike the feeling that i coukd feel superior by making my ship switch and then be like 'oh no sweetie thats so heteronormative :)', ' fixed shippers should b allowed to like whatever they want :)' i have felt like i sensed a lot of superiority complex in many people and now I just duslike having a preference at all. Also idk i wish i coukd switch just to shit on both sides. Idk now i operate on pure spite and dont like the feeling i wish i could go back to my positive sweet summer child. I feel like being way too involved in top bottom discourse radicalized me instead and i have escaped the fandom but i cant really fully let go of the mindset now and its driving me crazy bc now everytime i look at fan stuff i cant help but judging them and hates myself for it. I feel bad reading smut now and now i started to understand why fandom the way it is now.

Its just funny bc i never opposed to switch until people chose to attack me for what i liked and now all i feel is just bitterness. Hell i did not like being overtly too concerned with top/bottom myself but the discourses made me have to assert my stance and it opened me to attacks to my character and idk now just semtences like 'x is soft despite dressing this way' triggered me.

--

"X is soft despite dressing this way" makes me want to hurl, frankly.

A lot of preferences for ship dynamics are stereotypical, but I don't think we need to read too much into that. Horny preferences are often reactions to a lifetime of encountering stereotypes and aren't easy to sway.

Actual sex preferences in real people just do not work the way they do in porn. Some people have the most stereotypical tastes ever. Some have the opposite. Some don't know what they like. Nothing makes sense because it's real life.

In fiction, people like whatever the writer finds hottest or whatever makes the narrative work.

If you're writing a realistic book for teens about what it's actually like to be queer identity X, then I would not include "the girly one is the bottom" nonsense. But if you're writing erotica as a hobby, there is no reason to assume or demand that it will be ~good representation~. Hell, even if you're writing romance novels professionally, they're just not about that. There are levels of offensive stereotype that I find to be beyond the pale, but cliched top/bottom roles are something a lot of audiences like and that I expect to have to wade through to find what I prefer.

--

As for how to heal, I suppose it's like any scarring social experience.

Maybe encountering chiller people will make you feel less pressured to have an angry and absolutist stance. Maybe going and consuming some media from radically different communities will make you internalize the reality of how small and stupid these arguments are.

[brekker-by-brekkerr]

The writers basically blamed Nina for no stelena. Says if she had come back for more than the finale they would’ve got together

Yeah I've seen a lot about this, and i don't think it was necessarily Nina's fault or that the writers were trying to "blame" Nina per say, but it did put them in a rough spot not having her there and I do think it's why they decided not to go for a Stelena endgame. It's not to villainise her it's just hard to work on a ship when half of that relationship isn't there.

But they still could have made it work. They could have done more to set up Stelena before she was put in the coffin since they knew Nina was leaving, maybe even have tension between D*lena before she went into the sleep, not gone with St*roline (which would have been awesome bc that relationship did not work for either of them), have hints that Stefan still had feelings for Elena (which honestly the show kind of already does but they could have made it more purposeful), and it wouldn't have been great by any means but Elena could be like "when i was asleep the one person i kept thinking about was Stefan." Which to be fair I don't think any characters or relationships got a good ending in TVD, except maybe Matt with his freaking bench idk. But yeah I think they could have found a way, because even though their argument was that a rushed Stelena endgame wouldn't be satisfying even the D*lena endgame wasn't good. they look at each other for one second and then go their separate ways lol.

The Stelena scenes in the finale could literally be modified just a little, and it would work as an ending. They already tell each other they love each other and they look way more in love than st*roline and d*lena do in that finale (or in general), so you could nix Stefan whispering the comment about Caroline and add something that makes it clear Stefan and Elena are choosing each other and bam you have a more satisfying ending than the endings for any of the other ships lol.

So it wasn't entirely Nina's fault, because they could have made it work since they knew Stelena made more sense for the ending and they're writers it's their job to figure these things out, but her being gone did unfortunately play a part in everything.

[mlchaelwheeler]

The only way an I love you confession would even be semi realistic imo would be if he clarified that he loves her regardless of her powers and actually explains why he loves her rather than giving generic phrases like 'you mean the world to me.' But so far he hasn't had one moment of realization that even hints that this will happen. For it to make sense narratively in vol 2 we'd need to have moments that show how much he loves her romantically (even tho I don't think he does) that doesn't include her powers or her being a 'super hero', and he'd need to have a moment or two of realization. A big speech about how he loves her so much regardless of her powers without any kind of hints to that in vol 1 and 2 would feel super out of knowhere lol, especially because I'm not even sure if he understands that the argument wasn't just about him not telling her he loves her, it's also because El feels like he doesn't love her without her powers. At the rate we're going, I can see him telling her he loves her because that's what he thinks he should do (I feel like there have been enough hints at that), but El rejecting him especially with what Doctor brenner said about super hero's being of legends.

EXACTLY!!! i think if the storyline was building up to mike confessing his love to el for reals, this would've been the emphasis of his character in vol 1. instead, he doesn't seem to be seeing el in a new light or making any sign that he loves el more than ever. instead, he seems to be pulling further away from her and gravitating more towards will!

el's problem seems to be that she thinks having powers is the only reason why mike loves her. which </3 el my poor girl, powers shouldn't be a factor in whether people love you or not! i think that mike's biggest mistake during their fight was calling el a "superhero." this is a direct callback to her having powers, so for her to ask him if he still loves her and for him to tell her that she's a superhero, that cut a little too deep. bc el doesn't feel like a superhero, she feels like a nobody. she doesn't think that mike loves her anymore, so when the opportunity arises to get her powers back, of course she immediately agrees. she even tells mike that she's "gone to become a superhero" again, really nailing the point home that she equates worth with having powers.

i think that if the writers had wanted to salvage mi|even's plot and show that the story was building toward mike loving el regardless of powers, he shouldn't have thought up superheroes during their fight. instead, he should've said something like "el, i love you regardless of whether you have powers or not" or "your powers aren't the reason why i love you." yet the storyline did not include this, which makes me think that this truly is a fight they can't come back from.

i think that el figuring out that she's important with or without her powers is pivotal to her storyline, so once she realizes this, hopefully she and mike can come to an understanding that mike never really loved her in that way. idk, we'll have to see how vol 2 develops this

the time has passed imo for mike to salvage this fight. now that el does have her powers back, it would seem cheap if mike suddenly admitted he loved her regardless of powers. if this argument was to be made, it should've been done before el got her powers back, except that it didn't happen. so i think that's important to the overall development of this story line!

[herorps]

shadow and bone and racism

shadow and bone just came out so i can now finally break my silence bc holy shit do they go ham on the racism and me being me, i just have to tell you all about it. possible spoilers and triggers for anti-asian racism and microaggressions.

to preface, i was very privileged to receive a screener for the entire first season last month and i was actually excited to watch it bc i have friends who love the books and the show piqued my interest since it was announced. and i also have to say that i never read the books and i probably never will ( tho i’ve been told i would like soc ) but i did like the show overall. 

i think sab is a good adaptation and that the fans will like this show. i thoroughly enjoyed it and as someone who had very little to almost no knowledge about the books, i didn’t have trouble keeping up with the fantastical world. 

however that doesn’t mean i can’t be critical of it. 

i think the show can actually benefit from people being critical about it because so far, it feels like they took a very tone deaf direction and ran a marathon with it. 

what i’m talking about, is alina starkov being half-shu. 

now, i said before that my interest was piqued for this show when it was announced and one of the major reasons is the casting of biracial actress, jessie mei li, in the role of alina starkov. i can’t tell you how happy i was to see that a half-chinese actress was cast as the lead in a series based on such a beloved ip, especially since the creators of the show consciously changed alina’s ethnicity to be half-shu before casting calls were even sent out. ( for those of you who are also non-book readers, shu is the race of people from the country, shu han, and is based off primarily mongolian and chinese cultures ) 

so i was endeared with the idea that this character, that is coded white, was deliberately changed to be coded asian ( and coded mixed race to boot ) because the producers wanted to include diversity into the show. i commend that, i love that, i support that. but i believe the way they handled it, shouldn’t have been the way they handled it. and it’s because alina’s race is constantly brought up. 

obviously of course race is going to be brought up at some point. alina in the show is surrounded by white people when we first see her, and her home country of ravka does have a hostile history with shu han----i get it. racism is going to play a part in alina’s story. but it doesn’t necessarily need to go so far as to constantly remind the audience that she is shu in almost every interaction she has with someone she meets. 

and that’s a big part of the issue, is that nearly everyone she meets will bring up the fact that she’s part-shu. and a lot of the time, it’s said with hostility. now i’m not exactly sure if i’m just being particularly sensitive because of certain recent events, but the anti-asian racism hits differently these days. idk. 

because that’s what it is, at the end of the day. it’s racism. alina is often the target of very hostile racism and it seems to mainly be directed at her character and her character only. 

and honestly, on a surface level it makes sense, i sort of understand what the producers are trying to do. ravka has a turbulent history with shu han and were involved in wars with them and they’re often seen as the enemy so obviously that would affect a shu-mixed person growing up in ravka, a very white country. but on a deeper level, it reminds me a lot of the anti-japanese sentiments during wwii. the production team even created a banner that i felt called back to those anti-japanese propaganda of that era. ( mind you it was shown multiple times, in main focus, and acknowledged by characters that were coded shu ) 

but on the other hand, they’ve done a considerable job to diversify at least the ethnic makeup of ravka. there are black and brown grisha at the school and there are people of different cultures ( noted by costuming, etc. ) in ketterdam and there’s even a shu-appearing trainer that teaches the grisha to fight. so my question is, why is this very hostile treatment primarily geared toward shu people and geared toward alina specifically? it just doesn’t make sense to me. 

and when i say it’s specifically geared toward alina, i mean that it’s very apparent that they’re targeting her specifically, because mal  ( played by a possibly mixed-race archie renaux ) is also coded to be of mixed shu blood. while it is not explicitly stated that mal is shu, it is heavily implied that he is mixed, but he is never subject to the treatment that alina is, and the only times he is subject to racism is when alina is also present. in scenes where we see alina and mal as kids, they are often both referred to as “mutts” or “half-breeds”. but when they are older, only alina is continuously called those things. 

this isn’t even touching the microaggressions she faces after she’s at grisha school and this one line that made my gut wrench so viscerally i had to pause the episode and replay the part so i could confirm what i heard. [ episode 3 spoiler warning ] i’m trying to avoid posting screenshots or from spoiling parts of the show but there’s a scene where alina is being cleaned up and made presentable by servants and one of them says “I’d start by making her eyes less Shu.” [ end episode 3 spoiler ] i don’t think i have to explain to anyone how offensive that is. and i understand that the intention was to show how racist this servant is, that the entire point of of this weird racism plot is to show how the people of ravka can be racist and ignorant, but to have that line be written by a white writer, approved by a white showrunner and said by a white character to the face of an asian actor/character feels very tactless. it feels like another antagonist alina has to go against is racism itself. 

what also turns me off about this scene is that jessie mei li revealed that this scene is what actresses had to audition with. “...the sides that they sent for the audition, like Alina is talking to Genya and they’re talking about her eyes and they’re talking about her Shu ancestry.” having actresses of mixed-asian ancestry come in and act out that scene for white producers doesn’t really sit right with me. and i know that there’s an argument to be had about how it’s important to show the minutia of what it’s like to be ethnic in a world ruled by white supremacy and that it’s important to show how alina’s race affects her story, but i don’t think that going this far is necessary to the development of plot or character. 

and i don’t personally know jml, i don’t know how she feels about the show apart from what she’s probably briefed to talk about in interviews, but it is perfectly valid for me to feel iffy about the microaggressions while she feels that it’s necessary for character development ( again, this is just an example, i have no clue what she thinks of the racism ). our experiences are different, our upbringings are different, but we’re both happy to see representation and i’m happy that she’s happy to see an actual mixed-chinese character on screen as the lead. 

i’m glad that the producers were open to diversity and were open to making the lead a person of color, but it’s things like the treatment of shu characters and exchanges like “Tell her...Oh, I don’t know...good morning.” “I don’t actually speak Shu.” and “I didn’t know the Zemeni had such talent.” “She’s Suli.”  ( zemeni is a race of “dark-skinned” people and suli are coded south asian/mena/wena so this exchange is just white people mixing the brown people up )  that remind me the majority of the writers and producers are white. 

now i’m not saying that you should boycott the show or that this show is the most problematic thing to ever grace my retinas, because i really enjoyed watching it and i want to see what season 2 has in store ( more crows content please ). but, i want you all to please keep all of this in mind when you watch the series and think critically of what kinds of unconscious biases these producers had. you’re allowed to have nuanced opinions, you’re allowed to be critical of the media you enjoy so long as you understand where some people’s criticisms are coming from---where my criticisms are coming from. i just hope in future seasons the treatment of alina gets better and that she actually learns to love her shu side because otherwise it’s just going to be problematic as the show continues. 

[captain-hen]

See, that’s what i‘ve been saying. They made so many choices they didn’t have to make. I love that they did, but they didn’t need to. Eddie and Buck have been established as best friends, there was no need to reinforce their relationship if that’s all they are meant to be.They could have easily given that screentime spent on strengthening that particular family unit on idk, their canon love interest? Introducing a new possible love interest? Like, even if they didn’t want to focus on Ana or Taylor too hard because they are not meant to be endgame, there surely would have been a way to write this to be less…buddie-ish. I’m convinced the general audience wouldn’t have minded.

exactly! from a narrative, purely platonic standpoint, the amount of development given to the buckley-diaz family unit makes no sense. the argument that they're friends/brothers makes no sense either bc they don't follow the in-universe rules given to friendships and sibling relationships on the show, they're constantly paralleling the canon couples and each others previous relationships. even while introducing (or reintroducing ig) new love interests like taylor and ana, the real heavy, emotionally intimate scenes are given to buck and eddie. like...there is absolutely no reason to do this. why would the writers make things so much more harder for themselves like this? surely they must know at this point that no love interest they introduce for either buck and eddie at s3 onwards would ever be able to come close to the bond they have with each other

[phoebehalliwell]

i don't know if i'm the only one but i've often wondered exactly how hard it was to convince julian mcmahon to stick around for season five. they took his character, a feared powerful half demon and made him into the butt of the joke and the whole joke was basically ha ha look at this lovestruck fool obsessing and suicidal because he's got nothing to live with but can't die. ain't that funny? like how the fuck did the writers sell that to julian is my question

i find the entirety of season five just so goddamn insulting to cole's character. hell the fact that he got possessed by the source and this was treated as him turning evil instead of a shitty situation that got out of hand. like it wasn't bad enough he was villified for something that he wasn't even in control of half the time they couldn't even just vanquish the dude, they dragged it on and ridiculed him. i hate it here

lol. i mean. yeah. i really. like. it's like. like okay we all know cole was a fan favorite right and he & phoebe were really meant to like. be the sex appeal to the show no one else was really filling that role they were charmed's Sexy Couple tm. so like. in a sense i get the notion ab wanting to keep him around. because everyone loves him! he's bad boy! he adds this dangerous edge love balancing on a knife's point stuff like that. so like. that being said. u wanna keep him around. i just like Do Not Get how you opt to keep him around Like That. tbh. as w all things. i am blaming brad kern. i think it all really started to tank s4 (well, with mortal cole, but like) with source cole. that was bad, but i know it was part of the push to have like long form season drama character driven plots conflict between the sisters themselves it just like. sucked ass and balls imo. like i mean the fact they had to do the source as a possession just so they could get demon cole and lover cole,,, i mean it speaks to how stupid it was. the fact that u wanted cole to be a villain So Bad but the only way to do it was like. possession? sign that u should not do that like. like. like. i don't know how we're supposed to feel ab that.

and then. the vanquish. not sticking. i think like. i think they probably had the vague idea that cole having a mortal soul would not be able to be vanquished properly right? like. demons get destroyed into nothingness, but the human part of him lives, so i think they probably knew that was what they were going to do, that's what they sold to jmm and like. we sowed those seeds in the s4 finale w his ghost whispers and materialization. so i think like. they knew they wanted to Not Kill Him because he was such a fan favorite. maybe there was an intention to do a will they won't they variant of phole? and then. of course. there was the whole idea of paige cole, which, as the rumor goes, was meant to kick of in the s5 pilot, but both julian and rose shut it down. but i feel like. assuming that's true (which i 100% do assume that's true absolutely and i'm not endorsing it i don't think it would have been good or well written or whatever but like. 👀. you know?) but yeah. assuming that's true, i feel like that piece really speaks to what their designs for cole were: man meat. he was meant to be their male sex appeal and they weren't going to be picky about the narrative itself as long as he was still kicking.

but like honestly? i mean i shouldn't have to say this it's a given: it's not enough to just put your sexy man in front of a camera and call it a day like imo even a man who is not sexy can be made appealing through the power of the narrative. like, to level with you, i never really ever shipped phole nor found cole attractive at all like ever, but i can see like the fucking support beams you know i can see the infrastructure on which this whole thing can you know take on a life of its own in the earlier seasons because they very consciously put it there!! people shipped it for a reason n not just because they were two people standing next to each other on a tv screen i mean hello almost sinking a dagger in her heart but can't do it sends her away back to her sisters because he can't act out on his evil plan!! that's something!!!! that's so very something and they gave us Nothing they gave us nothing in the later seasons. and still expected it to fly. like. tbh julian was probably just like unwittingly duped like dragged along for the ride s5 which is likely why he was vanquished halfway through because i'd imagine roughly three episode in he went okay! um. what's this? guys? what's this? and then they said cole<3 you know he like knew he had to get the hell outta dodge.

anyways. if i were to resuscitate phole in s5. which like. to level w u. i wouldn’t. because they would need a lot of one-on-one screentime and we already spent so much of s4 splitting up the sisterhood in the name of phole i wouldn’t really want to continue with that per se But. if i were. this ask is getting long it’s under a cut 

something something demon of the week something something realms the point is cole is there when he very much shouldn’t be and like. he and phoebe get knocked into a different plane. so their bodies are fine and at the manor, but their minds are elsewhere and they need to solve whatever it is in order to get back. and we’ll say there’s a fuckin deadline because the girls need the power of three and right now they are sealed off from accessing it. and you know phoebe’s pretty fuckin pissed with cole because you know. he dragged her down to hell and she almost gave birth to the antichrist. actually source’s heir might be fun to keep around in this au idk. the point is phoebe’s pissed at cole and cole’s pissed at phoebe because phoebe’s pissed at him but he literally didn’t have control over himself in that era and he’s not getting the space he needs to justify himself because phoebe keeps stepping over him. but they gotta work together to get out of here. and were kinda doing enemies to lover 2.0 but like now they have History. of course we’ve gotta do a moment where cole has idk done something normal and phoebe’s so riled up that she does something rash and almost dies cole saves her like catches her bridal style or something faces inches apart breathing heavy and there’s a moment. like a we’re back in early s4 moment. which phoebe immediately breaks from and like walls going flying up but just for a moment there we see it it’s obvious: she’s still in love with cole. which then segues into an argument because like. cole wasn’t sure. right? he wasn’t sure if phoebe now just genuinely hated him. but now he knows right he knows better now so why are you acting like this? why are you taking every opportunity to shut me down to shut me out? why are you acting like you hate me when you know that’s not true right that whole thing to phoebe who gets the Classic because i do hate you. i hate you for what you did to me for what you did to my family and i hate you because i loved you so much and you destroyed me and i hate you because no matter how hard i try that love is still there and i know that for a second if i stop hating you i’m going to love you just like before and you can destroy me again and i hate myself because i’d let you because i love you. you know? big speech. big reveal. i have No Idea what piper and paige are up to right now. the point is. after this big confession we get the lull the cards are on the table what the fuck do we do now which is when cole Finally gets to opportunity to say he was actually possessed by the source and manipulated by the seer and the only thing that kept him holding on was his love for her and after she became queen of hell after he saw what the source had done to her he knew it had to end he doesn’t hold it against her for vanquishing him right this is where we exonerate all wrongs we’re just saying anything bad that has happened ever? scrub it. it’s the source’s fault. cole has no resentment against phoebe. he loves her a healthy, normal, non-possessive amount, so much so He Loves Her So Much he let her kill him and like honestly would probably do it again. idk and then they make out or something. and then they’re out of whatever plane they were in by the end of the episode. And Then we get a buddy cop episode with paige and cole where they bond and also sort through everything that happened there. slowly but surely. and then we do a real phole wedding a super small affair in the manor lowkey bc i hated their wedding episode it blowed we give them a good one. wallah <3

[janiedean]

if you ever wrote that rant about grrm making jon his chosen one deconstruction i'd be very happy to read it 👀

hello anon sorry for the lateness but here we go *deep breath*

sssooo, I had once ranted about it though not mentioning the thing I mentioned in those tags so lemme see if I can find the op and like... cp the main argument and amend it bc it was long, but okay so I found it, original anon asked me: why is Jon considered to be one of the most special characters grrm created? Why is he not the typical hero of fantasy books?, my original answer was here if anyone wants to go there but basically lemme just cp the first part making it shorter and then I'm adding:

first thing, the Typical Post-Tolkien Chosen One With A Shitty Life Before He Finds Out He Is Chosen™ character (I’m saying post-tolkien because every fantasy writer in existence who copies tolkien thinks that lotr went like that and instead it didn’t) usually goes through the following steps: his life sucks up until the beginning of the series, his family generally hates him/her or doesn’t appreciate them or abuses them or anyway doesn’t make their life easier and they’ve never known any different, but *something* never quite worked right and they always knew something was missing in their life, they just didn’t know why. suddenly someone who knows they were Chosen™ shows up and tells them that they’re actually Special because of this this and that and they have a quest to go on to save the world or something. our hero/heroine obviously is finally validated and while their quest is hard and full of hardships and maybe they lose a few friends along the way, finding out that they were Chosen gives their life meaning, they usually find love/friends/everything they didn’t have before until they fulfill the Prophecy™ and live more or less happily ever after, possibly after hooking up with the Person Of Their Dreams with whom they had UST up until the last twenty pages of the book. basically: being Chosen™ in regular fantasy novels is a good thing because suddenly you’re special and all the crap you suffered acquires a new meaning and in the end it made your life better.

jon snow is a complete overhaul of about everything in this sense because

instead of having a family who hates him he has a family who actually mostly loves him, and with ned it’s arguably so much that he risks royal treason by keeping him hidden from his *best friend* - sure, there’s cat and peripherally sansa, but his issues stem from the fact that he feels lesser because he’s a bastard (as far as he knows) and it’s a *class* issue, not a *my family hates me* issue not counting catelyn obv but that's what gives him freudian issues more on that in the emended part later

no one actually knows that he’s Chosen™ - like mel could get there and probably will and someone will put two and two together when his parentage comes out in the open, but he doesn’t have a gandalf or mentor who shows him The Way Towards His Quest

so instead of going from ‘my life sucks but I’m going on a quest which is gonna be a+’ he actively chooses to leave a fairly decent situation (a household he knows, siblings who love him - ned actually hoped he’d become robb’s counselor or right hand man or something from what we can gather) because he feels like he has to prove he’s better than his name and goes to the Crappiest Place In Westeros. like idk if people grasp it, but the wall is basically a prison and at the ripe age of fourteen he decides that it’s totally a good and honorable choice (his only choice actually) to go defend the realm in the freezing cold along with a bunch of criminals/derelicts/rejects of society

at which point he makes friends among said rejects and let’s remember that it’s the point where he actually has to do his first an only privilege when donal noye made him go like hey you were brought up with nobles these ppl are here because they stole bread, and that helps making him more into the person he is rn but like your tyopical fantasy hero who has had a shitty life doesn’t usually have to acknowledge that other people might have had it worse

then he goes on the Quest where he finds his first One True Love, and that’s where it turns even worse because usually the quest is where things start to go right for the Hero™, instead for jon they start to go wronger, because first he has to go undercover which pretty much tests most of his belief/code system, he falls in love with a girl he has to betray, half of his friends and his lord commander die along the way, while he’s off doing his thing winterfell gets taken/burned and robb dies when jon openly stated that he also was going to the wall to defend his family and keep them safe (yeaaah worked out real well), when he goes back to the wall he has to fight the people he lived with for months, the woman he loves dies in his arms and he can’t do anything about it and he’s aware it couldn’t have gone any other way, people put defending the wall on him and then put his loyalty in question, when stannis shows up with a legitimization (which is everything he ever wanted) he refuses because he doesn’t want to accidentally steal his siblings’s inheritance (which was what cat was so worried about hahaha) and actively chooses the crappy defending the realm life all over again. also in all this time his being Chosen™ hasn’t manifested or helped him in any way whatsoever - actually all his honor-moral code related baggage is what  moral dilemmas come from that. like, your usual chosen hero™ would always take the right decision and it all turns out good eventually, jon takes the morally right decision and it all turns SOUR eventually

at this point he finally gets elected LC, thanks to his friends also pitching in, which is about the one fantasy hero™ thing that’s happened for now. should be good, yes?

lol no, because he ends up with THAT hellish responsibility at sixteen, since he thinks that he has absolutely to be even better than that now and he has very specific notions about how you should lead and he knows he has to take unpopular decisions/decisions that he doesn’t necessarily like, he ends up either having to send his friends away forreal (sam) or detaching from them (pyp/grenn/the likes) and when as far as he knows he learns that his sister is married to ramsay he can’t do anything about it

never mind that it’s the same situation as when he had to pick the watch or robb in book one - he went there to defend his family and now being there actually prevents him from helping them in person. ops. meanwhile he’s trying to implement a new vision of things which is modern and smart and actually makes sense because why fighting the wildlings when you have ZOMBIES coming. your usual Chosen One™ would get people to approve just because he’s the Chosen One

instead jon gets stabbed to death - okay, that was also because he wanted to go get arya but it was the last straw, people were pissed over the wildlings plan first and foremost

so basically he’s gone through all the Chosen One™ steps but in reverse - he loses his family which did love him instead of finding another one that makes the first pale in comparison, he does find a new one who loves him but has to alienate most of its members for responsibility reasons as a consequence of what should have been the crowning achievement of his life choices (which eventually is NOT one), he falls in love and they don’t drag the UST forever but they never get a chance to be together without small print in between, he chooses the admittedly most masochistic life he could for his family as well and half of them die and he can’t do a thing for the other half, every other mentor-like figure he runs into after ned dies, instead of finding validation he ends up having to isolate himself and on top of everything HE STILL DOESN’T FUCKING KNOW HE’S THE CHOSEN ONE™

so instead of his life going better the more he learns stuff and matures as a person, he gets murdered. by the people he trusts and who were supposed to be his new family. haha?

never mind that when he finds out he’s the Chosen One™ it won’t bring him closure because all he ever wanted was being full stark like his father/siblings and then bam he’s going to find out his father’s actually targaryen and what does that even mean to him?

on top of that being AA will just be a pain because I don’t believe for a second he’s not going to get leftover ptsd and who the hell is gonna help him deal with it? or how is he ever getting over his *brothers* murdering him? and people are going to ask stuff of him all over again and he’s gonna have to go slay a mythical monster and if I know grrm it’s not gonna be fun, pretty or cathartic FOR HIM

on top of that, Chosen Hero™ fulfills the prophecy and gets a realm to rule and everyone lives happily ever after. money is that if jon does get that realm (and I think he is because he has the best claim if he's legitimate and most likely it'll turn out he was on the targ side but ROBB also legitimized him so he has double the legitimization), he’s going to hate every second of it and he’ll take it because a) duty, b) literally no one else is available, and like this guy didn’t want to rule a realm or be a king or anything he just wanted to be a stark, and instead he’s going to have to after all that shit thanks to Magical And Noble Heritage he hadn’t even known he had and probably didn’t even want up to that point because since when jon wanted to be a targ? yeah since never

obviously I hope he manages to be somewhat happy regardless because the alternative is too miserable, but basically being a Chosen Hero™ is what makes jon’s life worse rather than better and the fact that hew went through all the regular self-discovery journey for the fantasy hero list doesn’t mean he’s not flipping that over in his sl. the fact that he stayed a decent person more or less throughout it and that he hasn’t turned into a bitter asshole also doesn’t change the main point XD

tldr: jon snow is not a typical fantasy hero because he deconstructs that trope into tiny little bits same as robb deconstructed the arthurian flawless king hero trope

now ^^^^^ THAT was what I originally wrote for that meta but adding on to what I said in those tags

okay so... there is a certain tendency to also make the chosen one™ special in the sense that he's kind of goals - good looking, rich or set to inherit, gallant, takes the initiative, he's like.. social or anyway immediately makes friends etc and all that jazz which jon... doesn't really fit

like jon is an introvert who immediately makes friends just with outcasts and his siblings also bc he feels like one but he's hardly a social butterfly and charms everyone wherever he walks by

I mean ffs says all that the only person he charmed in that sense is stannis who is the literal only person in charge in the books who is more introvert than him and has worse communication issues and appreciates ppl going straight to the point

on top of that in the book he looks like ned.... and arya looks like ned and ned isn't described as being particularly handsome that was brandon so he's not even like... I mean kit h. is v. pretty and I think he was a good choice for the role and I'll die on the hill that he was born to play that character and he did it well but book!jon doesn't have that kinda pretty face so the concept that he's the HOT alternative to anyone to me is kind of iffy bc he's not

he's shit at social interactions and at PR which is why robb and him would have been a key winning ticket like he has a better idea of the larger picture but robb would have actually made sure ppl didn't turn against them bc he actually was good at that but like he doesn't go around rallying armies in his name does he

the one time he's been with a girl it was ygritte and like he courted her without realizing it and then she had to pursue him and he barely knew wtf to do on top of the fact that they slept with ghost in the middle of them like a sword which..... is.... I mean sleeping with the sword in the middle was a thing to make sure the maiden stayed a maiden and he's the one who is like i CAN'T HAVE SEX WITH HER EVEN IF I WANT TO BECAUSE I'M TECHNICALLY SPYING ON THEM like... he's not... gallant-knight coded

never mind that the moment they do the do she basically does everything until he decides to try the oral which I mean... isn't exactly alphadominatingmale out of jon which is not a given with the trope he's supposed to represent like he's not smooth he's not suave he's like WHAT THE FUCK when ygritte tells him he has a pretty face bc most likely no one else told him that and he like... doesn't pursue people like that in general which is also not exactly 100% what that trope usually goes for

we can add that he has a lot of passive-aggressive little shit sarcasm in him that they didn't let him go for in the show but like... usually chosen heroes™ don't think what he thinks about selyse in general

we can also add that he's not automatically above being better than his position like... he doesn't take winterfell bc ygritte is dead but he did think he'd have taken the deal sansa or not if stannis had said he could marry her and not val and if she wasn't dead, he basically went off the rails at the dude he was fighting with thinking about robb telling him that he couldn't be lord of wf because he was a bastard and he's absolutely not in the frame of mind of 'well I was born a bastard who cares it doesn't define me'

he's obsessed to the point of unhealthy with actually being defined by it which is why he was better off with the wildlings aka the only idiots in the realm who don't gaf about that

and that's like... I mean usually if chosen ones™ have parental issues it's like 'you were an orphan and raised by asses who weren't your parents but your parents loved you and you'll find out at some point and you'll be happier for it and make your own family', jon is like... he has the mommy freudian issues of the century bc of how cat treated him, on the other side he's obsessed with living up to ned's/his father's name and he hates that it makes him not-belonging or that he feels like he doesn't even if he does with his siblings, and at the same time when the truth about it comes out he's going to get the cold shower of the century bc like - he's spent all that time thinking BUT DID MY MOTHER WANT ME WHO WAS MY MOTHER and he's going to find out of who it was and how he was born and honestly considering that lyanna most likely did regret running with rhaegar the moment he finds that out and that she died birthing him how is he going to feel? - also he spends his life wanting to live up to his 'father's' name aka ned aka someone known to be honorable to a fault and then it turns out his bio father is... the dude who started that entire rebellion not doing a very honorable thing? - also if jon*erys is a thing idt that he'd take 'I fell in love with my aunt' so nonchalantly as he did in the show tldr: he's never gonna get over his parental issues in a short time and when that particular brick hits him in the face it won't be pretty

like the entire point of jon is that he goes through all the chosenone™ cursus honorum as we'd call it in high school when studying latin but each step that means smth good for the usual chosenone™ to him is something bad, being one is not going to make his life better and throughout the entire thing he does not fit that stereotype when it comes to look, personality, basic traits and familial history and like hell he's going to have the happy ending tied up with the bow - like I think he gets a bittersweet one and eventually goes off with the wildlings bc he belongs there after being jon snow first of his name (bc like hell he's not reclaiming his bastard background at the end of this entire mess I'm eating my hat if he doesn't) after splitting the seven realms and fixing things but that's hardly the neat happy ending the chosenone™ usually gets so that's my two cents

... christ this was long *raises hands*

[supercorp-hosie]

My thoughts for legacies 3x13: I’ll try to put the point chronologically

1. When Kaleb blew the candle, I’m so confused because the first thing that comes to my head is: he’s blowing that because is daytime, but why put it so far from Cleo? Why use a candle when you have electricity? And apparently I’m a fool, because that’s how the confinement spell works duh! I only recalled that when Alaric blew it in the end. I’m so dumb lol.

2. I love that Kaleb is the first to seek Cleo out, wanted answers and ready to accept them. When he tries to comfort Cleo in her memories, that’s me too! But apparently being the badass she is, she immediately come up with the idea of replacing her grandma to go with Malivore.

3. Poor Cleo! My heart sores when it started with a little girl, just like with Finch. She’s a hero! She’s so brave! She’s a queen! And weirdly she likes frogs(or toads?) very much. I wonder why. And although she tried to kill Hope last episode, I never see her as a villain. Never for a second. Instead I’m impressed. Tbh I didn’t understand why she is always playing with clay/mud since the beginning of this episode. But after her backstory, I just feel sad and proud at the same time. Sad because it’s shaped from her painful time of enslavement. Proud because she’s using the thing she learned from it against Malivore as her weapon despite the painfulness. I remember she talked about her sister dying, but nothing about that occurs in the memories. Did she lie before or it’s just another thing that the writers forgot?

4. ‘Jonch’ is horrible! I prefer Finsie as the ship name. Why is their moment always so cringy? I get this second embarrassment from them a lot, mostly from Josie tho. I always felt there’s something lacking in Finsie, just like what I felt when Handon started it’s kind of sudden. Maybe because of my perception, I really didn’t know why Josie think Finch is hot. I have to learn how to appreciate her beauty. But goof news, I actually appreciated Finsie first kiss, because I see why they haven’t kiss before, and why they finally kiss. It’s cute and the sparkling, haha. Tbh I start to appreciate Finch’s beauty from the kissing scene angle. But this episode, again, I still feel cringy in most of the Finsie scenes. I have to put my palm on my head. Anyway, I enjoy the “girlfriend” scene tho, like Finsie starting to grow on me(again, the first time is their first kiss, hopefully no more cringy afterwards). It’s really good to see Josie happy. Btw, since Finch decided to enrol, will she be the new alpha now that she defeated Jed? That’s good for her, she finally has a pack and no longer lonely.

5. Along with Finsie scenes, does anyone realise there’s actually other students there? And there are actually other witches at the school?? I remembered that there’s like only four witches? Because Josie was the only witch at the school when Berbelang!Hope happened? Annnndddd! To that! Does anyone remember there’s this girl Gaby/Gabby? She’s also a witch, and she loves dnd like Wade? They can’t tease us with Penelope using her then just let her disappear?

6. Oh great there’s actually other wolves at the school. I’m starting to think Jed is the only wolf left (of course there’s Hope, but she’s tribrid). As much as I enjoy Finch being badass that she can stand beside Josie, I felt so sorry for Jed and his actor. He’s been there for 3 seasons and yet Finch get a backstory before him. He has none! The actor is great, look at the siren episode! He hardly gets any decent lines and scenes now. Instead, they make him looked useless, hard to be respectable. Like anyone can just harm his alpha reputation. Justice for Jed please. Oh and the fact that Finch got a backstory before Kaleb too? It’s unacceptable. They deserve more. Jed doesn’t even have a last name, my god! Anyway that doesn’t change the fact that I want to hug baby Finch so much bc she’s adorable!

7. With MG gone, Kaleb looks like the only vampire left in the school. I miss MG. What about Ethan?

8. Josie and Cleo finally met! I’m glad that she’s learned something from her too. I think it’s true that other kids never felt as easy as Josie at the school. They finally addressed it.

9. I’m frustrated that Hope never wanted answers from Cleo. The only friend that helped her grieve. But hey maybe she’s too hurt to be able to bear Cleo in her sight. But then again there’s the Landon problem, so she’s off with Landon again. Only taking to Landon the whole episode, being the only one that only talk to one person in the whole episode. Feel bad for her about this. Poor Hope.

10. I really feel bad for Landon, because there’s a lot of hardships to make him like that. Someone please give him hugs and a therapist. The show is doing a full cycle by stating what he’d done is just like what Hope did when she returned from Malivore. I understand why he kept himself away, but weirdly, the way the let those words out, it feels like he wants to get back at Hope when I think he wanted Hope’s understanding. Maybe he wanted both?

12. Someone told me that every 13th episode is the episode where Landon’s power are explored. I kind of agree with it now. Because he’s finally having the fighting skills that he’s longing now. Finally he can achieve his desires to physically fight alongside Hope. For what though, I don’t know, because in the case of supercorp, Lena never needed it physically to be Supergirl’s partner in saving the world, or of course to protect Kara. Glad for him, anyway, bc that’s what’s he wants. And the blow to the head? It’s awesome.

11. I can’t believe Landon is blaming Hope for not coming to save him sooner?! What the hell? What happened to “I’m going to be the one that always fight to find Hope”, idk whether I quoted it precisely, but the meaning is there. I am furious. Is this some sick drama that the show wants Landon to think that Hope was not coming to him because she had a perfect version of him?? That aside, when I see that Handon is going to fight together physically, I actually think the scene is good and they will overcome the blaming thing, and going to be a power couple. Just when I have that thought, Landon have to fucking throw the artifact towards Malivore(whether it is Malivore I’ll discuss afterwards, it’s contradictory)!! That’s such a stupid move! Where’s your brain? And it’s broken, oh god. And the show have to show Hope being so weak during the fight. I mean why? She’s a badass, why do they have to make her weak to glorify Landon?? They made her look useless. These things just really kill the budding Handon spirit in me. The show really knows how to make people resent Handon and Landon. Just please change the show name.

12. Anyway to be fair, Landon do care for Hope and do love her. Before, though I don’t think they are endgame quality, I think that if they do improve, Handon endgame is tolerable, acceptable. But now, I’m not so sure of that anymore. Other than the above mentioned points, Landon did leave Hope for a solid third time. Why the show have to establish that for Handon when their fans desperately defended Landon that he wasn’t always leaving. I mean I’ve seen Handon shippers fought really hard against the “Landon is always leaving Hope” argument. What a way to make a couple being endgame. In Chinese proverbs, there’s a thing for a third time. Like the three strikes law, I think? It says not to do anything or tolerate anything undesirable that has happened more than three times. So please do not make Handon together ever again. It’s an insult to Hope too.

13. To see it differently, poor Hope will finally have time out of Landon to think of herself and her future. We need to see her having her own storyline. So maybe we can see Hosie eventually? Sorry Finsie for anticipating your break up in the future. But please enjoy yourselves when Hope grows on her own, because Josie deserves a decent relationship on screen too. Hosie didn’t interact this episode, I’m sad.

14. I just can’t help but wonder why Alaric oversee the artifact being destroyed so easily. And when Josie introduces Finch, she deserves a decent conversation with the headmaster, really. Oh he’s an adult, be a responsible and respectable one, especially you’re Josie dad. Help her with her impression with her crush. Alaric really need help, we need another adult figure. It’s okay that’s not Caroline.

15. I kind of thinking that Landon and Cleo are shippable too when I know that they are leaving at the same time. Cleo being the sole reason to Landon existence is one of the reasons to ship them. She’s the one that tell Malivore he can make vessels and create legacy, that leads to Landon existing. Not to mention she did literally made Golem Landon by hand (we all know the thing that Hope made doesn’t have a body, so Cleo must have made his torso and limps right). Or maybe we prefer wandon endgame? Wade is precious too, he’s the one that point out Landon is not himself.

16. I’m so confused by this episode Malivore. I thought Cleo trapped him inside that monster Handon defeated this episode. But if it was trapped this long? How did the pit, Clarke and Landon even exist? Did Malivore escape from it?? It must have escaped.

17. In the promo for the next episode, we’re seeing Lizzie and Hosie interaction! I’m excited! I think maybe Josie will be the one that bring Hope out of the cult’s enchantment. What will happen? Maybe they will realise something or develop something towards each other? Anything hosie that MAKE SENSE please. Oh and Hizzie friendship/banters, and Lizzie suddenly being and “angel” will be so fun to watch. Finally, the trio!

18. I know it’s irrelevant but since I mentioned Clarke, I miss Holarke. I have some shippable thoughts about Finch and Penelope too. P is the she-devil in good girl attire; F looks like a bad girl but she’s good hearted. They are both fiery, imagine what they’ll be like when they’re together, erupting volcanoes?

19. Applause to Aria’s acting skill, this is like the eleventh role he’s played in legacies? Original Landon, Hope’s (subconscious) Landon, Landon’s (subconscious) Landon, Josie’s SimuLandon, Hope’s therapy Landon, Malivore Landon, golem Landon, ptsd Landon, oni-possessed Landon, golem Landon micmicking Necromancer, Clarke-Landon. Keep up the good work!

[rollercoasterwords]

i started reading the hand that feeds last night and i’m already on chapter 38 i love it so so much. dorlene enemies to lovers is now my favourite trope it just makes sm sense.

here are some of my fav parts of the fic bc i need to talk about them

-marlene and dorcas both thinking the other has a master plan to annoy the other one and that’s the only reason why they can’t stop thinking about each other

-the marlene and sirius friendship dynamic owns my heart i love them sm

-lily’s reaction to when marlene asked if she was okay with her being queer and thinking that marlene was asking about her not going to dinner

-literally everyone thinking that marlene and sirius were dating and dorcas and regulus were also dating (including marlene and dorcas they were so clueless). it was a very funny parallel like what is it with assumptions about the black brothers and lesbians being together?? silly heteronormativity these people are all gay! (bar regulus i don’t think anything to do with his sexuality has been mentioned so idk about him)

-james telling sirius that liking blokes doesn’t make you gay

-the irish slang was so accurate too? like as an irish person i read the chapter where marlene is back home and was like wow cool this writer is irish!!! i was so surprised to see you asking about the slang in the end notes

-the conversation (is conversation the right word?? argument might be more accurate??) where they were both like ‘i’m not dating sirius/regulus i’m lesbian did you not realise that’ was so perfect i loved that chapter

-all of the yelling at each other and then making out immediately after moments omg, especially their first kiss

hello it's taken me a bit to respond to this but THANK U this message made my whole entire week i am kissing u over and over again on the forehead mwah mwah mwah 💋

ok let me respond

-marlene and dorcas both thinking the other has a master plan YES that was so fun to write lmao they are both so stubborn they were like "surely the only reason i could possibly be thinking this much about her is if she has some nefarious evil plot to make me obsessed with her. surely there is no other reason!!"

-marlene and sirius friendship dynamic yesssss i love them so so much to me marlene and sirius have a lot of overlap in their personalities that helps them sort of get each other in that specific way where....it's like a person who's not ur best friend but they know secrets about you that no one else knows. perhaps that is just the shared homosexuality tho lol

-lily's reaction STOP that part was so fun to write too haha even if it's not like the most realistic thing in the world i knew that i wanted to make marlene's friends supportive like i just didn't have the energy in me for a drawn out homophobia plot line so marlene being like so anxious about how they'd respond and lily having already moved past it and being like huh??? do i care if you skip dinner?? OH do i care if ur a lesbian lol no it's fine 💖 so special to me

-everyone thinking that sirius + marlene and dorcas + reg were dating ajskdjdkdk that bit was literally so self indulgent and just me having fun i simply love a sprinkle of miscommunication especially when it leads to angry love confessions 😍

-james telling sirius that liking blokes doesn't make you gay YES another one of my favorite scenes lmao there are like...2-3 scenes that i had entirely mapped out in my head before i even started writing the fic and that was one of them i just think it's so fucking funny

-the irish slang literally u have no idea how validating that is to hear i have never set foot in ireland so i was literally just googling like. "irish slang list" and sweating and shaking as i hoped for the best

-the 'i'm a lesbian argument' HELP they were both so impossible i loved that scene the way they were both like "i've been having sex with u for months?? how did u not know i was gay??" "well i've been having sex with YOU for months?? how did u not know I was gay???"

-all of the yelling and then immediately making out yessss hate sex my beloved ❤️ i just cannot get enough of it so i'm glad u enjoyed it too lol

anyway i hope u are continuing to enjoy the story sending u all the love in the world for taking the time to send this long message 💕 💞