#in comparison to the girls group is so clear how important power is for the boys

[magicalgirlsasuke]

tw// sexual assault

i fully support anyone who wants to drop the show bcos of how dark things have gotten this season. i really wasn’t expecting it either and i’ve dropped many shows i’ve loved for including sa. what i’m going on to say is in no way trying to influence anyone to come back who was triggered by it’s inclusion or how things were handled. i’ve just seen a lot of people interpreting things in a way that i personally disagree with.

i’ve seen so many folk on twitter saying that seth was a closeted queer man and that is just so blatantly untrue and deeply homophobic. what seth done to josh was a show of dominance, he was in no way attracted to him, it was an act of sheer violence and torture with the sole purpose of showing josh how powerless he is in comparison.

i’ve also seen folk saying that it was solely included for shock value and i just have to disagree. they didn’t make up something horrific just to make us uncomfortable, they showed us the real darkest aspect of a patriarchal society. sa is something i have a really hard time hearing discussed even on tv so honestly if they pulled punches and decided to use a murder instead it would’ve been a relief to me, but i don’t think including it was out of place when the act itself along with the aftermath clearly showcased the insidious nature of toxic masculinity, which is the purpose of the boy group.

it would’ve been so so easy for the writers to have the characters fall into a half and half split of people who believed josh and people who believed seth, as an easy way of negatively presenting the boy group. but the characters were instead written in a way that was really realistic for modern teenage boys. i often didn’t agree with the characters’ behaviour in the aftermath but i was really impressed with the care taken to flesh things out and how it was utilised to open up discussions and show a different kind of implosion.

i found it so realistic how all the boys offered full support to josh up until he showed trauma reactions. first we see ivan who’s chronically online, get upset that josh isn’t appreciative of his kiddy glove handling of him. then ofc we have all the boys disgusted by josh starting to mimic kirin, even tho it makes absolute perfect sense for him to want to feel as powerful as the one person on the island who’s making him feel safe. josh lashing out at bo was nasty and uncalled for yeah, but no one other than kirin and bo recognised/cared it was a way of josh trying to establish any power he could. it should’ve been called out for sure but the other boys showed a complete lack of compassion by treating it with the same severity as sa.

raf’s reaction absolutely boiled my blood and i still can’t forgive him but it was such an accurate characterisation to include. seth made raf feel like he was seen and special, and as someone who wasn’t used to that type of companionship, he became very loyal to seth. he fully believed in seth right up until he learned that he was lying about his girlfriend (the commonality that seth initially used to bond with him) leading to him finally realising that seth’s friendly personality was all a fabrication. we see that as henry tries to placate raf - telling him that seth could be a nice person sometimes so it was understandable for him to fall for it, that raf doesn’t buy into it at all anymore. we see him fully come to understand that being nice doesn’t make someone trustable bcos abusers will act nice solely as a way of getting you to trust them.

i really didn’t read seth’s backstory as being in anyway sympathetic? with the story that’s being told we need to see what made seth this way bcos he himself is a product of the patriarchy. it isn’t as obvious as it should’ve been made but his need for people to like him is abandonment issues ofc, his need for power is due to him being tossed aside by women. men are raised to see women as a lesser type of person, only serving purpose as mothers and potential partners (even when they’re their friend), so for someone who views women in that way to learn so harshly that they themselves don’t matter to those women?? that they’re below even them?? that’s what resulted in his strong desire to assert dominance over others, especially ones he knows are weaker than him like josh and henry. just to be clear i’m in no way trying to excuse him, what he did is absolutely irredeemable even tho something lead him to become the way he was (i actually felt they gave him a much less drastic backstory than they could’ve for us to be in no way sympathetic). acts of violence are almost always rooted in the maintenance of misogyny within society and this just leads to an ever feeding cycle that can only end with its abolishment.

i hope this in no way sounds preachy or anything, i’ve just read a lot of folk rallying against the writers for including something so homophobic and unnecessary which is just untrue in my opinion??

[basketballanonsblog]

Posting this 3 days early because who cares about the schedule right? 🫠

Jeongyeon x Reader: soulmate AU

A sprinkle of Motzu at the beginning

Synopsis: You're slowly learning to love life again

Reason to love

"Tzuyu, relax. I'm sure Momo will love whatever you'll do for valentines day."

The youngest of the group sought out advice, going on a tangent about different ideas. She stopped pacing around and took a deep breath.

"You're right. What are your plans for y/n tomorrow?"

"Nothing extravagant, just a surprise picnic."

"Y/n unnie will love it nonetheless."

The maknae's words made Jeongyeon feel better than she'd like to admit.

-x-

You stretched your arms before opening your eyes. Looking left, your heart skipped a beat at the sight of the love of your life.

It was extraordinary. No matter how many tales you heard about what it's like to find your soulmate, it paled in comparison to the actual feeling.

You wouldn't complain if Jeongyeon was the only person you could look at for the rest of your life.

Seeing her barefaced and serene, you silently vowed to do everything in your power to protect her.

"I can feel you staring." She said without opening her eyes. You became bashful, leaning down to press kisses to her cheek until she squealed.

"How can I not stare? You're so beautiful."

"Even if I just woke up?"

"Yes."

"I'll only believe you if you kiss me."

You didn't hesitate to obey, and you felt her arms encircle your shoulders. For all you knew, an hour could've passed. But unfortunately, the real world was calling.

"I wish I could stay in bed with you, but I have to go to the office."

That was the first Jeongyeon was hearing of this.

"I thought you were free today?"

"Why?" She realised you were unaware it was valentines day.

"Nothing. Have fun at work." Was she disappointed? Definitely, but she understood that your job was important.

-x-

You chewed on the end of your pen whilst looking out of the window. The shift in Jeongyeon's demeanour bothered you.

Have you forgotten something? Your two month anniversary was all you could think of, but that was still over a week away.

Mina will know, you decided. Popping your head out the door you called to your friend.

"Mina! What's special about today?"

She was taken aback by your abruptness but recovered swiftly.

"Um...valentines day? Chaeyoung is taking me out to dinner tonight."

Oh.

"Thank you."

You practically slammed the door, and Mina laughed when you exclaimed "y/n you idiot!"

-x-

Jeongyeon walked towards your office with the picnic basket. She almost abandoned the idea since you were clueless about today's date. However, you sent her a text asking her to stop by because you've cleared out most of your afternoon schedules.

"Y/n didn't mean to forget." Mina said after they greeted each other.

"She's never celebrated valentines day before." Now that, Jeongyeon didn't know, making her frown.

"But, y/n is 219 years old."

"Yes. She detested the idea of celebrating many things alone, such as her birthday and valentines day. Over time, they became like any other day."

She was saddened to hear that. Anyone who loves as deeply as you do doesn't deserve to bear the weight of loneliness.

"Don't let me keep you. It's just her in there, so you can walk straight in." Mina snapped Jeongyeon out of her thoughts.

You were sitting on your desk when she entered, and you held her close once she was within reach.

"I'm sorry, my love. I'm still getting used to the fact that I finally found the person I can share my life with."

You rested your head against her chest. "Please be patient with me."

"Of course, baby." She combed her fingers through your hair while you basked in the comfort she exuded.

"I hope you don't mind, we have a visitor for lunch."

"Who?"

You stood upright, motioning for Jeongyeon to face the door.

"3, 2, 1..."

A little girl ran into the office, laughing.

"Hi Miss y/n!" She leapt into your chair, spinning around.

"Hey Eun-ji." She spun around for a couple of times before realising Jeongyeon was there too. Her eyes narrowed in curiosity causing Jeongyeon to waver slightly at her gaze.

Since when are children this intimidating?

"Hello, I'm -" She attempted to break the ice.

"You're Miss y/n's angel!"

Her what?

"Eh?"

Eun-ji picked up the photo of Jeongyeon you kept on your desk.

"I saw this, and Miss y/n said you're her angel."

"Did she now?" She smirked at you, making your ears turn red. You sheepishly rubbed your nape and cleared your throat.

"Lunch! Let's go, I'm hungry." You let Eun-ji jump on your back while you grabbed the picnic basket; avoiding eye contact with your girlfriend.

-x-

Jeongyeon slipped her hand in yours while the pair of you watched Eun-ji play in the park, the food long gone.

She knew you received your fair share of demons over the years, but she admired how you tried your best not to let them consume you.

"How did you meet her?"

"I shouldn't say too much, but something terrible happened to her, and I'm the prosecutor for this case. Trials can be hard enough to begin with, but it gets a whole lot more complicated when you add a child. It's my responsibility to make sure she's prepared, and despite being professional, she's somehow grown attached to me."

"Like you can't say the same." She teased.

"Perhaps." A hint of a smile appeared.

"It's understandable. I feel calm when I'm with you, and I'm guessing it's the same for her. No matter how aloof you try to act, there's just something inherently... warm about you."

The little girl reappeared, urging you to accompany her. You didn't resist as she pulled you to the playground.

Affection swelled within Jeongyeon as she watched Eun-ji, and you run around.

"There are those butterflies in my stomach again." She whispered to herself.

And if for a moment she imagined a future of you running around with a little one of your own, then she'd never tell.

Eun-ji joined her eventually, resting against her on the bench.

"Are you tired now?"

"A tiny bit, but I'm having fun with you and Miss y/n!" She tucked her hair behind the girl's ear and gave her a bottle of water.

"Jagiya!" You called out, catching both of their attention. "Watch this!"

You jumped, grabbing the monkey bars, before flipping your body around, making you hang upside down.

"Y/n unnie is silly." Eun-ji giggled at your antics.

"She is, isn't she? Stay here for a minute, sweetheart. " Jeongyeon made her way to you, bringing a smile to your face.

"Is Eun-ji okay?" The pair of you looked at the girl, who waved back.

"Yeah, she's just tired." Your girlfriend couldn't take you seriously as you were upside down.

"You know, it's hard to believe you're over two hundred years old when you're being playful like this."

"Be honest, honey, you love it." Her expression softened, and she couldn't resist leaning up slightly to kiss you.

"I do."

God...you'd never get tired of her kisses.

"You always make me feel lightheaded, my love."

"That's not me, silly. It's just the blood rushing to your head."

"I'll only get down for another kiss." You stuck your lips out, making Jeongyeon laugh.

"No chance!" She walked back to Eun-ji, leaving you upside down and pouting.

-x-

The sun was setting, and the little girl was asleep against your shoulder as you carried her. You looked to your girlfriend, whose hand was intertwined with yours.

It all felt a bit domestic, to be honest, but you didn't mind one bit.

"Jeongyeon, I'm sorry." You blurted out, causing her to face you so quickly, but you froze for a second, feeling nervous.

"What for honey?"

"I know this wasn't how you envisioned spending our first valentines day together. I'm trying my hardest to be better, to learn that I shouldn't constantly shut people out. Especially you. Jeongyeon, you have turned my world upside down, and I love you so much for that. Because of you, I'm beginning to find joy and love in the things I've ignored for so long. You're my reason to live, and I want to share every facet of my life with you."

Tears pricked the corner of her eyes during your mini heartfelt speech.

"Oh honey, I never doubted you. I see that you're trying your best, and I appreciate it more than you can imagine. You're right. This isn't how I imagined the day would go. But honestly? I wouldn't change a single thing about it."

"Really? So you were still... happy today?"

Jeongyeon stepped closer to you, being careful not to awake the girl before kissing your forehead.

"The happiest."

[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on . . . the Turbines, or 'Tekkadan done right'

In my notes on an act of unspeakable cruelty, I described the Turbines in Iron-Blooded Orphans as an example of having one's cake and eating it. Pun very much intended, I stand by this assessment: the Turbines are a great example of writing justifying a genre trope; to whit, an anime aimed at teenage boys featuring a group of attractive women in a relationship with a lone man.

Whether that's a worthwhile exercise or not will depend on the viewer's tastes. Personally, I think it would have worked fine without overtly 'cheesecake' designs, though I don't take that as an argument against including them when Tekkadan are walking around shirtless half the time.

And indeed, it's the wider comparisons between the two groups I want to talk about today. There's a clear parallel established throughout the series, which I summarised in that previous essay as 'the Turbines are a successful version of what Tekkadan aspire to be'.

So let's dig into that a little, with full spoilers as usual.

Who are the Turbines?

When they're introduced, we learn the Turbines are in charge of the transportation division of the Jupiter-based Teiwaz conglomerate – an organisation that provides the Japanese-Italian fusion mafia representation sorely lacking from much of popular sci-fi media. Teiwaz is a supposedly reputable enterprise, yet is widely known to be functionally yakuza. Likewise, while the Turbines are described in terms approximating an above-board logistics company, they know how to circumvent official shipping lanes via highly suspect detours.

Of course, this is hardly unusual for IBO, where fine and permeable lines between legal and illicit activities are a fact of life. The Turbines are as legitimate as most people get in this setting and can't reasonably be called criminals (not without being aggressively framed, anyway), yet they aren't wholly 'above-board' either. There is no such thing in the Post Disaster timeline.

Now, the most important detail I want to centre about the Turbines is that they have over 50,000 members. Fifty thousand. Teiwaz is not some nickel-and-dime set-up; they're one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) organisations in the outer-spheres and their transport subsidiary is correspondingly massive. We don't get the precise number until midway through Season 2 but we are told repeatedly what a huge deal it is for Tekkadan to be in cahoots with them; quantisation simply underlines the point. Naze's 'threat' to split the boys up such that they don't see one another again is far from idle.

This scale is the result of unifying a large number of individual shipping companies under one banner. Specifically, all-women groups that had previously been on the bottom rung of the solar system's transport ecosystem. The society Teiwaz exists in is depicted as a deeply sexist one. None of the high-ranking leaders are female and we are told outright that women forced from their homes have to turn to extremely dangerous work in order to survive. At least prior to the formation of the Turbines, this involved running cargo along pirate-infested routes, cheaply, with minimal defences.

Here is our first big parallel to Tekkadan. Like the child soldiers of the CGS, these women (and let's be realistic, girls) were rendered vulnerable by their social position and exploited for their labour as a result. I think it's commendable the writers chose to present their situation in this fashion: as easy – and correct – as it is to feel moral outrage about people being exploited for sex, this is a subset of the work dispossessed people are forced into. It would have been easy to give the Turbines a more lurid origin, particularly as this show is not shy about depicting actual sex-trafficking. To focus on something more 'mundane' reinforces that societies run on exploitation are literally that: even innocuous industries like freight haulage are driven by underpaid, under-protected workers.

It is into this situation that a young and ambitious Naze Turbine stepped and via him that at least some of these women found a better position in life.

A family business

We largely see the Turbines through the lens of their flagship, the Hammerhead, and its crew-slash-polygamous-family. When we talk about 'the Turbines', this is usually who we mean, rather than the wider transport company, which mostly exists in the background of the show's events.

The Hammerhead's pursuit of the Isaribi marks the arrival of the Turbines into the plot, first via Lafter's delight in the chase (in a scene leaning heavily on the overt sexualisation of her design) and then with Naze announcing himself to Tekkadan directly, initiating a brief battle between the two groups.

Naze's moral character is established in his reaction to Maruba dismissing Tekkadan as a bunch of 'space rats'. His disgust is aimed squarely at the perpetrator of the risky implantation surgery, setting him apart from the likes of Gaelio and, by extension, the Earth-based taboos against augmented people. We can assume Naze is familiar with both the Alaya-Vijnana system and the consequences of its use, and his ire switches immediately from what he had been told were a bunch of thieves to the man they've 'stolen' from.

With the conflict resolved and Naze willing to negotiate, we begin to learn about the Turbines as a group. Notably, while he refers to his crew as his harem, his agreement with Kudelia that they are his wives is a 'sure, let's go with that' kind of deal. The English dub states 'they are sworn to me' while the sub has him describing them as 'my women'. In either case, the legal status of the arrangement is left ambiguous. But the gist of the matter is that Naze openly presents his crew as a harem, in line with a playboy persona he presents to the world.

In Season 2, we jump back to see how this arrangement came to be. Amida describes him as a 'maverick trafficker' who hired her for protection on a dangerous gig (we never do find out what he was transporting). They got along well and fell into bed together, but Amida wouldn't make the arrangement permanent as she'd promised her services to an all-women freighter company tackling even more dangerous work – a choice implied to stem from having once in their situation. On hearing this, Naze asks the question that distinguishes him from his eventual blood brother, Orga: 'how can I help?'

Orga never asks this aloud, despite everything he does having the stated aim of helping his comrades. It's not hard to see why when his point of reference is Mikazuki, who places absolute faith in his ability to provide solutions to their problems. This fundamentally unfair expectation screws with Orga's sense of responsibility, especially once coupled to the top-down structure of a military unit and an absence of people pushing back against it.

But Naze and Amida meet as adults, not children. They've already grown-up and learned who they are. They engage from positions of mutual respect, each appreciating how the other's skills can help with their goals. Rather than declaring some nebulous, far-off dream, Naze offers assistance to solve a specific problem Amida was already working on. He provides the ability to make connections between disparate groups of exploited woman and a face to present to a misogynistic world.

On top of having the luxury of pre-existing social capital, he can afford to invest years of his time in growing the Turbines to the point where they bring something to Teiwaz's table. This slow, careful approach puts them in a much stronger position to deal with the big dogs, all while aiming for the same things Tekkadan will later rush to seize: security, legitimacy and respect.

This last item bears some scrutiny, because it illustrates the importance of being precise about your goals. We know nothing about Naze prior to meeting Amida, so we don't know why his sexism (because it is still that) eschews looking down on women in favour of elevating them above men. But he feels no shame about achieving business success via a women-only organisation, freely admitting to have gotten where he has thanks to them and holding Amida back from defending him from insults against his manhood that ensue. Naze knows who he needs to impress and it's not loud-mouths like Jasley Donomikols but men like McMurdo Barriston, who value results above all else. Where Tekkadan insist on making as big a noise as possible to establish their credentials, Naze can shrug off disparaging remarks. Why start a fight when he's gained the confidence of the most powerful man in the Jupiter-sphere?

Besides, he adores being where he is. He's actively unrepentant about having enough 'wives' to crew a spaceship and if this partly works to downplay his shrewdness, it's also just who he is. The narrative presents him in an entirely positive light for it, too. Of all the authority figures in Iron-Blooded Orphans, he's easily the kindest, going out of his way to support other people, often irrespective of personal gain.

Tekkadan's recruitment over the course of the series is characterised by radical acceptance. Human debris, repentant murderers, Teiwaz pen-pushers, ambitious college kids – they're all welcomed and placed on equal footing. In light of this, I find it significant that when we see Amida pre-Turbines, she's dressed in a rather understated manner, masking past wounds and presenting in a stereotypically 'professional' fashion – likely to offset the concerns her clients have about hiring a woman mercenary. After years living with Naze, however, she's adopted a much more revealing outfit and attitude, no longer hiding who she is in either words, actions or appearance.

Amida's design is one of the most cheesecaky of the set but it's positioned as a sign that she – like everyone in Naze's orbit – is loved scars and all.

A ship of wives

Gundam has a history of featuring men surrounded by a faithful cohort of women. Starting with Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam (a decidedly evil example, though oddly enough, also hailing from Jupiter), through Chibodee Crocket in Mobile Fight G Gundam (a much closer match to the Turbine's model), and all the way to Shaddiq Zenelli in Witch From Mercury (where, like a lot of G-Witch's secondary details, it feels like a call-back for the sake of itself), the 'harem' trope is one the franchise has made use of time and again. Rarely, however, has it been as explicit about dropping pretences as with the Turbines. To dip into crudity for the sake of succinctness: yeah, they're fucking.

We are left in no doubt over this. Not only do we see the many children that have resulted, Naze's wives make it clear they expect and enjoy him exercising his spousal responsibilities in the bedroom. And here is where I wheel out my media literacy soapbox because whatever you personally feel about this as a concept, the text presents it as consensual and as free of coercion as it can possibly be.

Yes, there is an inherent power imbalance with Naze being head of the organisation and, quite literally, the man who saved these women's lives. Yes, some of them were clearly recruited to the Turbines as teenagers (as we see in Lafter's backstory). And yes, it's a fantasy that often extends out of sexist perspectives, ones the presentation here does not work especially hard to refute.

However at no point is there any suggestion in the text that Naze pressures anyone into having sexual relations with him. The opposite, if anything. Amida is the only member of the Hammerhead's crew he initiates with – his partner, in every sense of the word. Lots of the others come on to him and he doesn't remotely discourage them, sure. But you've also got Azee, who explicitly choses not to act the same and is just as much part of this core family (while this doesn't rule out her being sexually involved with Naze, it shows there is no expectation of uniform behaviour). Furthermore, when Lafter starts developing romantic feelings for Akihiro – as contrasted with familial ones for the Turbines in general and sexual ones for Naze – literally everyone encourages her to follow them, treating it as perfectly natural and a sign of maturity.

(To head off a rather trite misread, Naze describing his wives as 'like his daughters' in some respects does not invoke literal fatherhood. His 'paternal' statements are in line with the attitude he takes to Orga as his 'little brother' – that of someone with more experience taking responsibility for a more naïve dependent – and I think it's really worth stressing that non-nuclear family dynamics do not map to those of nuclear families. Though unquestionably a patriarch figure, Naze is happy Lafter going to go get what she wants and proud of her choices. The literal opposite of infantilising her.)

Thanks to the Urdr Hunt mobile game, we get a canonical glimpse into how Naze interacts with members of the Turbines beyond the Hammerhead's crew as well. Tamami Rakou is leader of grey-ops team the 'Rakou Pirates', who handle missions it would be better weren't directly associated with the Turbines (yes, their flags is the Turbines' logo with a skull painted over it, why do you ask?). When she reports to Naze halfway through the game, their relationship is revealed as one of friendly mentorship; again not a million miles off his attitude towards Orga. Tamami explains to another character that the Turbines took her in as a hot-headed youth and trained her in business matters. She seeks to repay what she perceives as a debt, with the ultimate goal of sharing sakuzuki cups with her boss. Naze, by contrast, already firmly recognises her worth (that's why he put her in her current role) and cautions her against taking too many risks.

Naze and Amida gently rib the junior captain over the course of these scenes, while Tamami tries way too hard to impress them. The joke is that she's presenting herself with loud, military seriousness in the face of the couple's customary informality, and it hinges on her having nothing to worry about. Naze already values her and cares about her safety. They even end their meeting warning each other not to do anything to make Amida sad, indicating shared affection for Tamami's 'Big Sis'.

All this is positioned without any hint of lasciviousness. When Naze looks forward to hearing stories of Tamami's exploits over drinks later, there's apparently no expectation of anything more. I bring this up to highlight the boundaries in the Turbines' living arrangements. Naze expresses admiration for women as a category, but he's no skirt-chaser. The polygamy is not mandatory and his support and generosity are not predicated upon it.

Also, and I fully appreciate this is its own brand of male bravado, the sexual side of the Turbines is mostly described as Naze pleasing his wives rather than the other way around. The story goes out of its way to make clear how OK everyone is with the arrangement, including an obligatory 'harem strike' joke to underline that while Naze may have institutional power, they outnumber him.

It should scarcely need stating that Iron-Blooded Orphans is not depicting relationship dynamics one should aspire to. Then again, I'm posting this on the internet, where reductio ad absurdum is treated as winning, so let's state it outright: pretty much every relationship in this show is some level of borked. From Shino and Yamagi's teenage inability to communicate, to McGillis indulging Almiria's childish fantasies of adulthood within a marriage they've been forced into, to Mika and Orga's entire deal, everyone is doing the best they can while setting each other up for a lifetime of therapy they're not going to get.

The flip side of this is that those same relationships are a source of support and joy for characters experiencing extremely harsh, miserable lives. In almost every case, the toxicity is intertwined with genuine love, and for the Turbines, the toxicity gets firmly minimised, counteracted by Naze's personality and by how his wives interact with him.

I am not going to stand up and say the Turbines are a model of healthy polyamory. Being married to your boss is rarely a good thing in reality. Within the show, however. it's presented as wholly positive and supportive to a degree that the other entanglements can only aspire.

Sunset

Nothing lasts forever though. Isn't that the saying? Part reproach, part reassurance, it asserts that all is ultimately impermanent, no matter how much we might hope or fear otherwise. Orga sets his stall out in the name he gives his newly-liberated band of fighters: an iron flower, never wilting and never dying. Something impossible, that is ended prematurely by his rush to ensure its existence.

The Turbines are firmly established by the time they enter the story and as I've discussed, their rise is depicted as a cautious, time-consuming process. They have a fierce reputation – nobody messes with them, at least not without some high-ranking Earth bigwig offering plenty of money – but it's one tied to Teiwaz as a whole and that coupling of fortunes is both strength and weakness.

When the hammer comes down and Gjallarhorn begin interdicting Turbine ships, Naze wonders if McMurdo himself might be responsible. This suspicion comes after half a season of internal politics following Tekkadan's unexpectedly rapid ascent within Teiwaz. Their victories reflect well on Naze, since he brought them into the fold, but also cause the other high-ranking members to fear what they perceive to be his ambition. Things come to a head when Tekkadan align themselves with McGillis's attempt to seize power. With the youngest, upstart members of the organisation promised sovereignty of Mars (and its lucrative half-metal mining operations), a target is painted on Naze's back.

Of course, it isn't McMurdo who acts against him but Jasley, envious of Naze's position as the boss's favourite and wanting nothing more than to seize control of the transport division. There's no doubt he'd have sent the Turbines back to square one, exploiting them for his own gain. Jasley is very much in tune with the ambient misogyny and a conniving bastard to boot. He imagines by inciting Iok Kujan to destroy his rival, he will become next in line for control of Teiwaz itself.

He doesn't get away with it. The damage is done nevertheless.

When I say 'the Turbines are Tekkadan done right', it is a statement regarding success at their shared goals. Providing marginalised people with safety and security, enriching them through employment on their own terms, and establishing their long-term legitimacy – these represent the aims of both groups. The Turbines, however, achieve them at scale. Over 50,000 members! Operations from Jupiter to Venus! The ear of the head of Teiwaz! And, via groups like Tekkadan and Foundling (who Tamami is still mentoring at the point of writing; the survival chances of doofy gremlin children may go down as well as up), the opportunity to guide a new generation in a changing world.

But – and of course there's a 'but'; there was always going to be a 'but' – 'done right' does not mean 'perfect'. It does not mean 'forever'. For all the benefits the Turbines accrue for themselves, theirs is still a dangerous business. The risk may be reduced by solidarity but it doesn't go away. They still have to fight pirates and undertake jobs of dubious legality. Furthermore, as Jasley proves, they amass enemies as well as allies. Disruption to the social order creates ripples even – especially – when done with the best of intentions.

Above all, there's the question of whether their methods are sustainable. Throughout this piece, I have consciously centred Naze because that's what the Turbines' strategy is. Using him as a focal point around which to gather and an acceptable representative to men who wouldn't otherwise give them the time of day. While they might have achieved much simply by cooperating and are implied through Tamami to have retained considerable autonomy, it is Naze personally who allowed these women to escape the bottom of the heap.

This leaves them with a hideously dangerous vulnerability. The Turbines are inextricably tied to Naze's personal fortunes and those plummet in a second the instant Jasley shops him to Iok. By the rules of Teiwaz and his own sense of honour, Naze cuts ties with McMurdo to prevent Gjallarhorn pressing charges against the conglomerate. He expends all the good will he has accrued over the years to beg his now-former boss to take his people in. And then he and Amida sacrifice themselves in a nearly-vain attempt to safeguard their immediate family.

Worst of all, the catalyst for this is the very generosity of spirit that got Naze involved in the first place. He gives Tekkadan a chance and keeps doing so even as the cracks begin to show. He indulges Orga's ambitions out of the sense he's looking at his family's younger selves. As a result, he ties himself to them and is sent to his death by the wider consequences of their actions.

Amida describes Naze's love for her in terms of food: it is better to share a fine meal with others than to settle for average fare kept to yourself. That Naze was willing to share himself with so many people is laudable. But it is also his downfall and marks the harsh limitations of using the systems of the Post Disaster setting to imrpove a situation.

When you make deals with tigers, you have to remember what will happen should they get hungry.

A future even so?

Officially speaking, the Turbines end with Naze and Amida. The survivors are folded into what we might call Teiwaz-proper, directly under McMurdo's authority. When we next see them, they are clothed in drab black jackets, save for Azee who has traded her pink jumpsuit for a version of Naze's customary white suit. As the last remaining member of Amida's mobile suit squad, it seems leadership of this rebranded fleet has fallen to her, a position she uses – with McMurdo's blessing – to rescue Tekkadan's own dwindling numbers in their time of need.

Here we find the two groups paralleling one another once again. Lives are spared at the expense of identity. A leader who truly cared is lost and the outcome is decided by a pragmatist. We don't see much of what happens to the Turbines now they've been consumed by Teiwaz's male-dominated hierarchy. What we do know is that, in the short term at least, they have been forbidden from carrying weapons and doing the kind of escort work the Hammerhead excelled at. This alone marks a steep reduction in their power.

While McMurdo certainly looks favourably on his new subordinates, he is no replacement for the man who saw them as the sun. His decision to cast Jasley to the wolves was motivated as much by heading off a rival as by avenging his preferred 'son' – and he's clearly not getting any younger. One can only speculate where a few years might land everyone in this new arrangement (indeed, one has).

The Turbines' story contains remarkable achievements and at the same time showcases the fragility of any achievement made within an unjust society. It took Jasley a single phone-call to annihilate everything Naze and Amida built. Many good people died and the happiness Naze's wives found with him did not last. His children can hardly be considered orphaned but their fate is left up in the air, albeit weighted more kindly than their parents' lives began.

Which is something that should not be dismissed. Iron-Blooded Orphans reflects a lot of harsh, miserable realities about what happens to those unfavoured by the world's structures. But it refuses to downplay the steps they take towards a better future. Amida was already fighting to protect those left in the cold and Naze followed her lead. Even if the very things that enabled him to do so much eventually turned into a trap, it still matters that he did what he could. It still counts.

There may not actually be a way to 'do Tekkadan right'. Its context is flawed, harmful and frequently vile. In a just society, nobody would need the strategies the Turbines use to carve a place for themselves – there would be no ladder for anyone to fall to the bottom of. Yet in its absence, there are and have always been people who try their best to rebalance the scales, resisting the narratives they are fed in whatever ways they can. That needs to be valued. I'm glad IBO does so.

Because fleeting joy is joy all the same. Love exists under the toughest conditions. And, in the end, Azee and Eco follow the example of those who've gone before, stepping forward to ask:

How can we help?

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters [this one is mainly fanfic]

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

IBO reference notes on … assorted head-canons

IBO reference notes on … actual, proper original characters [explicit fanfic – as in, actually fanfic. None of them have turned up in the smut yet]

IBO reference notes on … the aesthetics of the mobile frame

IBO reference notes on … mobile suit designations

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 1)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 2)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 3)

[simmonshvidberg3]

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[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

a discussion of jabberwock with team interaction hcs + deeper nash analysis

for anon who asked "Can we get some headcanons for jabberwock members or like headcanons when they're together? (its okay if it was jason or nash only)" and made me realise it's about time i get these guys' personalities down

note before we start: cause i didn't know their names until i wrote this

zack is the bald one, allen is the one with a headband, nick is the other white guy apart from nash.

team hcs

nick gets bullied for being under 6ft, but not by jason

nah good old jason teases all of them for being short fucks, emphasising that they’re all 5ft tall in comparison to him

he 100% lifts things out of the others' reach and then laughs for ages after when they try get them

unfortunately though, they’re all used to this and now just ignore him. either that or nash stares at him so intensely jason actually repents and hands it back

zack’s another one with a very good glare, but he’s used it too often on jason and it’s since stopped working.

also jason gives me ‘straightens his back as much as possible when getting measured so he’ll measure in as 7ft’ vibes

oh and he thinks he could wrestle a gator and win. i’ve got no explanation for that except for the fact you can't tell me it's ooc.

allen’s very protective over his white headband - it’s his lucky item - but he’d never let anyone know that

he’s confident in his abilities like the rest of them, but there’s nothing wrong with wearing a headband just in case

(nash knows anyway)

they watch nba matches together and do not shut up once throughout the entire match - lots of jeering, booing each other if someone criticises a player they like, lots of “i could do that”, lots of “get your fucking hand out of my popcorn do you want me to punch you in the face” etc

they used to all live together, but nash has since moved out. he was sick and tired of trying to make people do chores, as the only one who kept their room clean.

yeah the others’ house looks like a heap of trash but also very much “where’s my toothbrush?” “it’s in the third coke can by the orange peel behind the sink” *silence* “yeah thanks” *a minute later* “who the fuck has been using my toothbrush”

they’re all “bro your dribbling sucks why are you on this team loser” to one another, but also very protective (aka arrogant for one another) if anyone else Dared to criticise one of their teammates

then again, what kind of person would criticise jabberwock

half of the time he spends with jabberwock, nash is a Single Mother TM trying to get a bunch of man children to behave; the other half of the time, he's just as bad as the rest of them

i talk about this a lot but i get the feeling nash is an exceptionally hard worker, but at least he gets to let his hair down around his teammates sometimes

nash is also the only person jason thought was truly ‘strong’ at first sight

and nash is also the only person who can beat jason in a fight, and also the only person who can get nash to train, and also the only person who can.. [etc. you see my point].

(n.b jason calls himself the ‘almighty me’, nash says that ‘even god can’t beat me’. point made.)

you know how jason silver’s motto is “I have never thought”

imagine him proudly stating that, before zack adds with a straight face, “yeah cause nash does it for you.”

in short, the team would fall apart without nash.

although the team’s communication and coordination is very fine tuned, nash is the guy who keeps everything in order off the court to prevent what is essentially a team of aces ('main characters', if you will) from falling apart

they hang out together a lot, but do all have other friend groups that do not overlap

team bbqs

unofficial rule not to criticise anchovies on pizza because the one time nick did, nash snapped

however pineapple on pizza is fair game, even though zack quite likes it

more than once, jason has brought a girl home and nick has stolen her attention away with effortless trick shots, funky ball manoeuvring etc

more than once nick has had to trek to nash’s place (with a black eye) at midnight to have somewhere to sleep

do you see a correlation?

oh and everyone in the team has been walked in on by nash when they were naked with some girl

nash has absolutely no shame

he apologises to the girl with a charming albeit insincere tone, and then remains standing in front of the bed/couch until his teammate does what he expected of them

usually it involves not having come to practice

allen learnt a few (emphasis on ‘few’) words of japanese before they travelled to japan and was disappointed that he never got to use them

that said, one of those words was hentai

and now a quick analysis of some panels

a) so there's at least one player who wasn't underestimating vorpal swords. if i were to overanalyse, i'd add that nick's wearing a hoodie (possibly athletic wear) whilst nash has a 'fancy' shirt on; perhaps nick wasn't expecting them to be going to host clubs instead of chilling/training?

b) i know what you're thinking: "how can you say nash is a hard worker when he didn't want to practice for the match". i reckon he was still pretty high on the complete and utter success of their previous match, that plus being around girls, encouraged him to have a more 'jason-y' personality. (either that or fujimaki didn't want to add too much depth/realism into nash's character bc he's unequivocally the villain, right? and obviously this helps with the plot and the jabberwock bad geniuses gom good geniuses rhetoric.)

earlier, i mentioned how nash is the only one that could keep the team together, and is thus the undeniable head of the team; here's a clear example. you can see both jason and zack have no interest in continuing - if anything, there's disgust in their faces, kinda just saying "we spat on all of japan, now we can go home". whereas nash won't allow for the slightest of possibilities that there might exist a team stronger than them, and hence agrees to the match. the key thing here is that the others do as he says without too much fuss.

another thing to note is nash's reference to harakiri. now what can we make of that, alongside his proficiency in japanese, in relation to his character? the way i see it, he's either a weeb or possibly has some japanese lineage. (you could spin that even further and say his mother was japanese, taught him the language, then abandoned him, and hence his almost excessive hatred/mockery of the japanese people.) (is that why he wanted to do another match in japan..?)

just a quick point. "thanks to him" - jason isn't so superior as to think that he could win this match effortlessly without nash's support. links pretty nicely with my earlier idea about how nash is the only person jason has always considered 100% strong.

yet another point about how nash is the strongest of the team in pretty much every way you can think of. you know how scary/powerful you have to be to shut jason up (after he's getting real pissed from being prevented from scoring?)

i personally think this is a pretty important panel, though i've never seen anyone mention it before. did nash grow up training in a professional basketball training situation, as opposed to growing up playing streetball like i suspect the others did? well, to answer that question, imma bring in another panel.

here we see visible rage on nick, zack and jason's faces - they can't accept their loss, which is fair enough. but i'd argue that nash's face seems to depict sadness more than it does anger like to rest of them, look at how downturned his mouth is - and he's looking away from the 'camera', as if hiding his shame.

when you combine that with what he says here, i have no doubt that this is someone who has experienced some proper lows in basketball - as would be expected from someone who's played 'properly'. he's possibly not even a prodigy like the rest of them - compare jason's motto with his. "i have never thought" versus "do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door".

there's various lines of thinking you could design with this - he might have been trained by alex (hence, himuro having heard of jabberwock, though he should have known of a team as popular of jabberwock regardless), he might have grown up with professional basketballer parents etc. but here's my own little theory:

nash received serious basketball training from early on - maybe because his parents were living vicariously through him, or maybe he always loved the sport and wanted to be no1. so there he was training away, but, as he grew older, it started getting all a bit too much.

he didn't want to dedicate his entire life to basketball. after all, his hobby is water sports and his speciality is boxing; that's a lot of different things to be keeping up with, whereas the pipeline for promising athletes demands people focus solely on basketball. as a result, nash become bitter: stopped attending practice regularly, got in trouble for trash talk of increasing severity, etc.

result was he was kicked out of the program.

only when he was no longer playing basketball again, did he realise how much he missed it. and hence he got into streetball, where he was tremendously successful as someone with so much training, 'elite skills', and the overly confident attitude to boot.

then, one fateful day, he met jason and the rest is history.

[sluttbuttsstuff]

For the prompts, 49 with doppio? >:3 Idk what it is about him I just look at him and think “oh you’re NEEDY needy, huh?”. Thank you so much, you’re a really good writer! :)

No problem buddy, thanks for the request! >:3

Warnings: not sfw, dubcon/noncon, abduction, dark themes, yandere, etc.

Also, my requests are still open, if anyone else is interested!

Enjoy!

Yandere prompt with Doppio, “You want me to fuck you…? Would that make you happy? Would it make you love me?” afab reader, dub/non con

All you wanted to do now was go home. You had had a long week at work, your parents were nagging you again, and to make things worse you had a headache that would not go away. After an exhausting day that began before the sun was out, and ended after the sun had set, you certainly deserved to do nothing more than go home, eat some junk food in your comfy pjs, listen to a podcast while you took a bath and pampered yourself, and maybe jerk off before bed. Unfortunately, you had a “girls night” tonight.

Your friends (your IRL friends at least) complained that you never went out with them anymore (nevermind that whenever you suggested doing something with them, or wanted to chat or text on the phone they were busy) and had forced you to go clubbing with them to celebrate the three-day weekend ahead. You weren’t much of a drinker, and really weren’t much of a dancer, so you had been given the purses to hold while you waited for them to be ready to go home.

You wrinkled your nose in frustration, glaring into the blurry screen of your phone looking at the late time: this was unfair. You were a hard worker, kind to a fault to those around you, and you deserved better than this. Sitting in a corner of a crowded club, everyone in the place having a great time except for you, tired and alone. At least in your apartment, you chose to be there, and at least no one actively ignored you: places like this just pointed out the flaws you hated about yourself more: you were bad with people, and easy to ignore.

Once one of your “friends” stumbled over to the group’s table, you left them with everyone's purse, mumbling you were going to the bathroom (you didn’t know if she heard you and you didn’t care) and left before anyone could stop you. You stumbled your way to the restroom in heels way too high for you to walk in, trying to clean yourself up and find a quiet place to text your goodbyes so your friends wouldn’t worry about your sudden disappearance. Leaning over the sink counter, you wiped a makeup smear off the corner of your lips, noticing a second too late someone behind you.

“Hey, there’s another sink-” You began to say to the blurred figure way too close to you, before a sudden eruption of pain hit the side of your head, and you were out in a flash…

The next time you regained consciousness was several hours later, but it was still dark when you opened your eyes, trying to remember what happened and where in the world you were. The stale cigarette smell, the unreasonably cold ac, the bedsheets starched so strongly that the sheets felt like plastic- this was definitely a motel. But where, and how long had you been here? As you began to sit up, you heard a surprised, timid voice.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re awake, I was beginning to worry about you! Hold on, don’t move so suddenly, i’ll help you sit up.

Sure enough, as you started moving, your head lit up with painful throbbing that made last night’s headache seem like nothing in comparison. You grit your teeth and clenched your eyes shut, trying not to groan in pain.

“What the hell happened to me last night?” you grunted through your teeth, rubbing your temple as gentle hands helped slowly sit you up propped against cushions.

“Haha, you had a lot of bad luck last night, running into my boss. He was waiting for...an employee in the restroom and thought you were sent after him. He’s a bit paranoid, and he may have...accidentally clobbered you.” The voice apologized, gentle as he handed you what felt like a glass of water.

You forced yourself to open your eyes; it was still dark, but you could tell it wasn’t because of the time of day but rather a lack of light and closed curtains. You looked at..you looked at the person in front of you. Like whoever had attacked you last night, they had long pink hair, braided and side parted. Their eyes were green and wide, and they looked particularly juvenile with a crop top and freckles. They were on the smaller side, perhaps even shorter than you (hard to tell from while on the bed) and their eyes were crinkled in apprehension, like he was afraid you were going to hurt him.

“Erm, don’t worry though, I talked him out of doing anything too..extreme, after all I'm his right hand man! Besides, you seem like a perfectly nice person, I'd hate to see anything bad happen to you. Sorry, I'm rambling! Umm, do you want something for your headache? You were groaning in your sleep, I'm sure it doesn’t feel so good right now-” He went on and on, pulling out some painkillers to take with your water.

After thanking him, you were about to swallow the pill before pausing, looking at the strange man who’d taken you to a remote hotel after his boss had nearly killed you. Sensing your suspicion, doppio exclaimed, “Oh, don’t worry, they’re safe, name brand painkillers! Um, hold on, lemme just-” And he made a show of popping some of the pills you were holding into his mouth and swallowing, sticking out his tongue and opening his mouth to show you he’d ingested it.

Satisfied, and more importantly in a lot of pain, you took some of the pills yourself, much to the relief of the pink haired man.

“Oh good, thank you for doing that! I was so worried watching you asleep, you’ll feel much better now! By the way, my name’s Doppio, it’s a pleasure to meet you! Oh! And I know your name’s y/n because you had your purse and ID on you! Haha, sorry for going through your purse, I was just hoping to find any info on you that might be, you know, important.” he sat on the bed, scooching closer and closer to you.

You cleared your throat, unsure of what to say, and the watchful eyes of Doppio doing nothing to make you feel better.

“Well, um, thank you, Doppio. I appreciate you, um, saving me? Sorry for any inconvenience, I'll just, um-” You try to get up to leave, only for Doppio to place a hand over your leg.

“Don’t go! What, I mean, what if you hurt yourself? You probably have a concussion, and also you haven’t had breakfast? We could eat together and-” Doppio stammered, grabbing your hand and stroking it with his sweaty, cold fingers.

You had to stop him, before things got out of hand.

“Thank you, Doppio, it really was very sweet of you to take such good care of me, but I-”

“Please! You don’t understand, I mean-” Doppio fumbled with his words, clearly trying to make you stay at all costs.

“Doppio, i can’t stay here forever, i need to go home. My friends are probably worried about me by now.” You tried to press on, you didn’t want to upset the man with a powerful boss, but you felt increasingly claustrophobic with Doppio pawing at you.

“You mean those mean girls who left you with their purses all night? Why would you care about what they-” Doppio covered his mouth with both hands quickly, realizing what he just said.

Your blood ran ice cold; how did he know so much about them? Had he been watching you before the “incident”

Using his moment of weakness, you got up from the bed and tried to reach the door; it was time for you to go home, if not call the cops.

Doppio yelped, Throwing himself in front of the door before you could make your escape.

“Please, don’t be scared y/n! I didn’t mean to upset you, I only meant that I can treat you much better than your friends can. I mean, look at how good I've been for you so far?? I didn’t make you dance with me at the club, even though I really wanted to. I didn’t just have my fun against your will in the bathroom stall like the boss told me to do.I saved you from a concussion, or worse! I got you your own hotel room for the night, and didn’t take advantage of you or touch you while you were asleep! I want our first time to be special, after all! Isn’t that what you want?” Doppio pleaded, eyes wild as he tried to smile, trying to calm you.

You were anything but calm however, this guy was clearly obsessed with you, and had been for longer than just one night. Even if at first he had merely seemed like a pathetic “nice guy” you no longer had any pity or time to give him.

“Doppio, get away from the door and let me leave, now.” you demanded in your best authoritative voice. Doppio whimpered, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go at all, you were supposed to love him!

“You can’t! Boss and I won’t let you!” He cried, covering the door with his body. With no other choice, you slid out of your shoes and charged at him full speed. You managed to give him a good blow on the head, and threw him out of the way of the door. He cried, crumpled on the ground. If not for the fact that he had kidnapped you, you might have felt bad for hurting him like this, but you had to think of yourself at this moment.

As you finally unlock and pull open the door, heading towards freedom, you hear the strangest noise behind you.

“RingRingRingRingRing!” Doppio calls after you, in an unnatural, high pitched tone. You try to ignore it, you literally don’t have time for this, but with strength he had not previously displayed, Doppio grabs one of your arms, twisting it behind your back and up to his ear, holding it like a telephone.

There’s a trickle of blood, and one of his eyes is rolled back in its socket, but he calmly says, “Hello, this is Doppio,” Into your hand, as if he was having a normal conversation on the phone.

You scream out, doubled over by the pain in your arm, Doppio silent as he “listens” to his “Phonecall” oblivious to your suffering. Where did all this power come from? He was acting like an entirely different person, and frankly scaring you. Doppio nodded, pulling your hand closer into his ear and intently listening to nothing but air before “Hanging up and pulling you back into the motel room.

He threw you on the bed ( his arms felt much stronger, and more muscular for some reason) before crawling on top of you and pinning you down. You were too stunned, and frankly too scared, to come up with any means of escape, just weakly struggling to throw him off of you to no avail.

“Doppio, please-” You whispered, eyes blurry with tears.

“I talked to the boss, and he helped me figure out what to do. He wants our relationship to succeed after all!” Doppio exclaimed, additude reverted to how he’d first spoken to you. You were confused, you’d neither seen nor heard anyone in or around the room, who was he talking to and how?

“Boss told me that people like you need some discipline in order to be obedient, or you’ll walk all over me. If I can do that, then I can make you love me, and we’ll be happy together, isn’t that what you want?” Doppio told you, stroking your cheek.

“This is not okay, Doppio!” you yell, thrashing against both arms, “Let me go or i’ll-”

...

Wait a minute, both arms?

Then how was he…?

You look over to one side in shock, only to see a floating metallic and red arm holding you down, one on either side. You screamed, overwhelmed by a stalker and strange supernatural forces you couldn’t understand.

“Oh, you can see King Crimson's arms? Interesting, perhaps because of your near death experience with Boss, you can see stands now? Although, it would be bad if you developed a stand, what to do?...” Doppio pondered to himself, speaking apparent babble.

You cried, trying to wake up from this obvious nightmare with no luck.

“Awww, hey y/n, it’s okay, i’m not gonna hurt you! Not if you be good for me and Boss.” Doppio cooed, kissing your cheeks and forehead. “I talked boss into keeping you with us- you’re always so lonely at home, and never have a good time with others, right? You don’t have to lie anymore, I've been watching you for a while. Nobody else seems to, though, they’re too self-absorbed and stupid to realize how incredible you are!” He continued, oblivious to his words not helping, but hurting you.

“You’re perfect for me and boss, we can take really good care of you. Forget this lousy motel, we have mansions and villas all over Italy that we can take holidays to. We have billions of Lira from work, you’ll never have to lift another finger and we’ll pamper you to death. And best of all? You’ll never have to see your awful friends or family again! Isn’t it awful how they treat you? We can get rid of them, so they can’t hurt you!” He finishes, grinning ear to ear, but his eyes hollow and lifeless, staring unblinkingly into yours.

This guy was sick, there was no other word to it. You might have had issues with your family, and yeah your friends could be assholes sometimes, but you didn’t want them killed! What good would that do you, or anyone for that matter?!

Doppio seemed to read your thoughts, “Look, I know it's a lot to take in at once, but trust me. Boss and I have planned this out for a while now, and we’re always going to do what’s best for us, ok? So don’t worry so much, and please stop struggling? Boss warned me if you got too unruly he’d take over and finish what he started last night.

A wave of nausea slithered through you as you remembered, thinking how close you were to dying. You gave up, lying limp on the bed, praying for this to end.

Doppio smiled again, this one almost seeming genuine, and gave you the softest kiss to your lips. It was childish, almost, and he clearly lacked experience, but he gained more confidence from your lack of struggling. With the mysterious hands holding you (stands? King crimson?) his own hands were free to touch you. He started With your cheeks, your face, your hair, your neck, stroking you with feather-light touches, his fingers tracing each curve, digit and flaw like he was trying to memorize it all.

“Finally… I finally get to touch you like this… I’ve been waiting for so long, y/n. Do you know how long I've wanted to hold you?” He whispered, wrapping his arms around your neck, cradling your cheek to his. You didn’t know, and you didn’t want to, but Doppio told you anyway.

“I’ve been watching, waiting...for so long. Following you home from work, listening into your calls, finding your online accounts. I’ve known since I first saw you that you were the one for me, and now I get to prove it to you. I get to show you all the things I've been meaning to do to you. You’ll never be lonely again, not with me around. We’ll never be lonely~”

He giggled the last part, giddy with excitement, as he slid his fingers down your ribcage, your sides, fiddling with the bottom of your shirt. You wriggled, trying to fight him off again, only to your dismay Doppio giggled even harder at your reactions-perhaps because he knew you could never overpower him.

“Ohhh~ still so shy? Don’t be so uptight, y/n, you need to live a little! I know how much you want this; you complain about it all the time on your personal blog-” You could feel the blush on your cheeks heating up your face, desperate to make him shut up, “ How you want someone to have their way with you, to make you forget everything else in life. You’re desperate for someone to truly cherish and understand you; mentally and physically. You want me to love you? You want me to fuck you…? Would that make you happy? Would it make you love me?” Doppio rambled on and on, ripping your shirt off with strength he hadn’t had before.

You yelped, goosebumps forming on your skin as Doppio cackled, rubbing his face on your stomach, and into your cleavage poking out from your bra.

“Yes, let go for me! Show me every emotion, everything you’ve been holding back from me for so long- i need it, I demand it!” He snarled, splitting your nicest bra in half, and biting down on your neck, hard.

You screamed, legs kicking uselessly as the pain blurred your mind and you were operating purely on instinct. Doppio didn’t seem bothered in the least by it, you could still feel his laughter against your sore neck, as he sucked down on it, trying to bruise and mark you. His hands couldn’t help but find their way to your breasts, toying with them and squeezing them with admittedly little expertise. But he was a quick learner, making note of each little gasp and twitch according to how he touched you, and improving his technique from there. He twisted your nipples a bit roughly, already hard from the chilly air and sensitive to touch- you couldn’t help but moan a little in satisfaction. It had been awhile.

Doppio’s moans echoed yours, as he kissed his way down the crevice of your breasts, and licked each nipple in turn. You squirmed, not in fear or anger but pleasure, angry at yourself for letting this strange man win your body over so easily. Doppio kept his eyes on you at all times, studying your face to see how you felt. He’d had to watch you for so long from so far away, alone in your bedroom, or so you thought… it was time to use the knowledge he’d gained to make your body crazy for him.

You jumped at Doppio’s hands, cupping your groin through your pants, trying not to buck into his hands . It was getting harder and harder to deny him, though, why couldn’t you just-?

Doppio pulled your pants down to your ankles, taking your panties with it. He groaned audibly at the sight- your pussy was so wet and dripping, there was still a trail connected to your underwear.

“No, don’t-” You cried, snapping your legs shut, visibly scared at what was taking place again. Doppio was losing patience, crouching down and prying your legs open,

“Stop fighting me, y/n, you clearly want this!” He cried, eye twitching in annoyance. He managed to open your legs again, and buried his face into your pussy. He moaned, licking up a wet stripe against your labia, warm and puffy and so wet for him- he knew you would be, he knew you loved him.

Tears streaked down the sides of your face, this was so much and so intense. Your thighs clamped down on Doppio’s cheeks and neck, squeezing him as hard as you could. Not hard enough, apparently, as he just started giggling again through a full mouth and busy tongue “Ssho good, y/n, why have you been hiding thissh from mee~?” he moaned, tongue circling your clit. You flung your head back into the pillow, gripping the mysterious hands that held you for any source of strength or comfort.

Watching you whimper so pitifully with his head between your legs, obviously blissed out after being so needy and alone for so long, just did things to doppio. He loved the pained, fucked out expression on your face- you couldn’t even keep your eyes open as he snuck one, two fingers into your aching pussy. You whimpered so cutely, and it was all for him and him alone. Finally~

“Y/n, please, i can only hold back for so long, let me make sure it’s not painful… be good for me, please?” Doppio begged, grinding his hips into the mattress before he could help himself. Begrudgingly, you moved your thighs back just enough for Doppio to push them away, when he got a wonderful idea. King crimson, or what Boss had lent him of his stand to use, sensed his thought, and grabbed both your hands in one arm. Doppio pushed your thighs back and up, effectively bending your knees into your chest and displaying your pussy in such a beautiful way. You cried out, surprised by the sudden movements and embarrassed by how exposed you were, but there was nothing you could do about it. Doppio was just too strong.

The other free hand floated down, spreading your lips apart to give Doppio a nice view before pummeling two of his thick, strong fingers inside of you. You screamed, crying as the fingers curled directly into your sweet spot, massaging with robotic-like precision and speed. The sounds you were making were wet, animalistic, and you were quickly brought close to the brink.

“Perfect, y/n! Just like that, let yourself go! It makes me happy to see a side of yourself you never show anyone else- and you never will to anyone but me! Remember, I'm the one making you feel this good, right y/n? You couldn’t possibly find anything half as wonderful from anyone else but me! Me, got it?!” Doppio exclaimed, his voice cracking and becoming much darker, scarier. For a second, you could swear he looked like a different person entirely, wild, angry and dangerous- but you blinked and Doppio was just as before.

Doppio licked his lips, sweating and anxious, this was good enough to make you love him, right? This was what he had to do to make you happy? Boss’s words from before appeared in his head though, and he remembered how Boss had always been right before. Doppio trusted him, and was determined to win you over. Doppio let go of one of your legs-you seemed adequately distracted and restrained to get away from him- and unzipped his fly. In truth, he would’ve preferred to get all the way naked with you for the first time, so you could see and feel the real him as well, but clearly the two of you were too desperate and impatient for him to get fully naked. This time.

You whimpered at the sound of a zipper, feeling the fingers pull out of you. You heard the crinkle of a wrapped, and the muffled groan as Doppio probably rolled a condom onto himself, but you were too afraid to look. The strong floating hand, still wet with your juices, gripped your cheek and forced you to look at Doppio, staring you down with much more restraint and calm than he had been. Doppio kissed your cheek, then your lip, and pushed his warm cock achingly slowly, gently, into your waiting pussy.

You couldn’t help yourself from moaning, grabbing at the hands that held you, thrusting yourself onto Doppio’s hard and hot cock. He bit his lip, feeling you twitch and squeeze around him; he was trying so hard to be gentle for you, why were you still making things so difficult. He chuckled to himself, and motioned for King Crimson to let you go; finally you were beginning to relax and enjoy yourself, and he wanted to enjoy every bit of it.

Without thinking, you wrapped your arms around Doppio, holding him close to you. Your mind was a mess, your body even messier, you didn’t know what to think or do about your abducter/rapist fucking you so tenderly, and you were tired of fighting. So you let him fuck you, slowly and gently and way way emotionally. Doppio wiped away new tears you hadn’t realized were there, shushing you, “It’s okay, my sweet y/n. Just relax and let me do the work. Don’t fight it any more, just let go.” He whispered, pressing kisses into your lips and cheeks far too sweetly.

So you did, you relaxed and sank into the mattress, pulling Doppio down with you. He let go of your thighs, and held you tightly to him as he fucked-no, made love to you. He gradually picked up the pace, huffing and whispering words of admiration to you about your body, or how much he adored you. You took it all limply, the fight having gone out of you and desperate for comfort. The floating arms, which you had forgotten about, reappeared and stimulated your nipples and clit, bringing you closer and closer to the edge.

Doppio sped up as well, he knew this would have to end, but he wanted to make it last as long as possible. This was your first time together, after all. He wanted to make it special. Your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper and closer into you. You could feel the spongy head of his dick rub your inside so sweetly, you were starting to get addicted to the feeling. Doppio buried his head into your neck, mumbling nonsense as he pushed in deeper and deeper, faster and faster, as his restraint gave way to passion.

“Y/n I- I don’t know how much longer I can last, but-” He kissed you, as the stroking of your clit sped up. You groaned loudly, you were so close, “Just a bit longer, please~” You begged, biting your lip. Doppio took a deep breath, steeling himself as he was determined to make you come first. He pounded into you, urging you closer and closer, four sets of hands circling your body and drawing out noises and gasps from you out of your control.

“Almost there, please, almost~!!!” You cried, throwing your head back with a final sigh as you came hard and fast, your core heating up and washing over you as Doppio helped you ride it out with clit rubs. Your walls fluttering around him, the face that you made as you came from him, for him, it was too much and he quickly filled his condom inside of you, moaning even louder than you had as he thrust without abandon into your wonderful, most precious place. He didn’t want to stop, thrusting almost to the point of overstimulation, before he had to stop, and collapsed on top of you. He cooed and kissed his praises and thanks into your shoulder and skin, before he noticed the soft sound of you snoring. Poor thing, he chuckled to himself, you’d really worked yourself up.

He reluctantly pulled out, after indulging in 5 minutes of cuddling your sleeping body and listening to your heartbeat. Doppio cleaned the two of you off, and tucked you into the covers of the motel- now would be a good time to set up moving you into your new home. After all, The whole reason you were in the motel is because the moving company Boss had hired to move your things into the main base would take several hours to complete their job, and Boss didn’t want anyone seeing you or Doppio at home. Doppio ruffled your hair as you slept, pulling out his cellphone to check in with Boss and give him the full update he’d requested.

Tonight was going to be very busy.

[wonderful-wells-writing]

Fanclub; Chapter 1

EoWells x Reader

Some of the STAR Labs employees have a secret fanclub where they discuss Harrison Wells and share pictures they take when they think he isn't looking. Problem is it's not quite as secret as they think it is. The man himself seems to have taken an interest in the the little group, finding it to be the perfect place to find willing partners to satisfy his needs. And you're his next pick.

Work is dying down for the evening at STAR Labs. Chemists are checking that all the storage units are set to the proper temperatures. Engineers are making sure that everything that needs to be powered down is. Lab techs are cleaning up their stations. But nearly everybody is discussing their plans for the weekend.

There is one worker who is not engaging in such conversations. You are currently crammed between two sections of machinery, determined to get this wiring finished before leaving for the day. That way, Monday, bright and early your team can start doing test runs.

You are not engaging in conversation with others but rather are talking to yourself as you work. “Some red over here, blue wire over there.” Your grin would light up the room if anybody could see it. “I just love when a color-coded array comes together.” There’s a buzz on your right butt-cheek, and you squeal in surprise.

“Everything alright in there?” One of the other scientists looks up from the desk.

“Yeah, Bri,” you extract yourself from the machine parts. “My phone just went off, and I thought something shocked me.”

“Girl, I can not tell you how often that happens to me,” Bri takes her purse from a drawer and a jacket off the chair. “So, what are your plans for the weekend. More number crunching?”

You pull your phone from your back pocket. “Actually my college roommate is having a bachelorette party tonight. So I said I would swing by the bar for a bit.”

“Sounds fun,” Bri gives a wave before heading to the door. “Don’t party too hard.”

She returns the wave before opening a group chat app on her phone to see what the notification is about.

KittyCat42; O.M.G did you see Dr. Wells today? a shirt THAT tight can not be workplace appropriate!!!

Attached is a photo taken from a smartphone at an angle in which the subject does not seem to be aware their picture is being taken. Dr. Harrison Wells is leaning over a desk, examining something on a monitor. Kitty is right; his shirt is very tight, his biceps bulge through the long black sleeves.

You grin, considering sending a reply, but another message comes in first.

YummyBitch73; Think he’s got plans? Looking that good, he’s got to be going out tonight.

Your thumbs move across the screen to type a quick response.

BabyDoll14; Maybe he has a date tonight?

KittyCat42; wonder who the lucky girl is?

You lean against a nearby workbench, smirking at the screen.

---

On the other side of the lab, somebody picks up their phone to check the barrage of notifications coming in. They chuckle before adding their own two cents.

Speedy22: Hey, who knows, it could be a lucky guy.

YummyBitch73: Oh you wish, he is a lady killer through and through

BabyDoll14: I mean, who are we to judge if it’s a lucky lady or gent. Maybe he swings one way, maybe he swings both ways. Who cares, we’re just here to talk about his ass behind his back.

“Speedy’ nods, almost respecting the woman on the other side of the screen for staying objective about objectifying her boss.

Speedy22: Speaking of ass, I got this one yesterday

He opens his gallery and scrolls until an ‘appropriate picture is found. A nice shot of Dr. Wells from behind; the quality is incredible for a smartphone shot. The man’s shirt is riding up, showing a nice strip of the skin of his back, even a bit of where his boxers rise above the waistband of his hands.

YummyBitch73: Damn Speedy, you always get the good ones. You’ll have to teach me some photography lessons sometime.

KittyCat42: what kind of camera are you using? The quality is so gooooood.

“Hey,” a woman’s voice draws his attention away from his device. “Are you staying late again tonight?”

Harrison Wells takes a breath to look her up and down, mentally running through his mind all the employees to try and remember who it is at his office door. “I’ll be headed out soon; I just have to wrap some things up.”

He recalls who she is when he sees the look she’s giving him. Brianna Masters, a specialist working down in Lab C. She would have had to go out of her way to get to his office before leaving. Self-proclaimed president of the Dr. Wells Fanclub, he had just been interacting with the group chat of; after the former president left with a job offer at Mercury Labs. She had been making goo-goo eyes at him since her interview three months ago.

“Well,” Bri twirls a curl of her hair, fluttering her eyelashes. “Harrison, you know I was wondering if you might like to take me out to get some drinks tonight?”

Dr. Wells tries to hide his displeasure at the thought. She wasn’t his type, physically, mentally, emotionally, “I have plans in the morning that require a clear head. Miss. Masters. Now is there anything of importance that you need?” The man was not adverse to flights of fancy to pass the time; he wouldn’t be keeping an eye on the little Fanclub of his if he wasn’t willing to look for ‘interested parties,’ but this particular woman has been of no real interest to him.

For reasons such as how she pouts at his response, “Well, having fun is important.” She mutters before wandering off down the hall, turning her attention to her phone.

YummyBitch73; holy Shit! He just asked me out for drinks. It sucks so much that I have to drive out to Coast City; I”d have taken him up in a heartbeat otherwise.

----

Back in Lab C, you finally finish with the maintenance on the machine. You check your phone once more while heading over to the desk and nearly cackle at what you’re reading. Everybody knows that Bri is full of shit, but there’s no point in calling it out and causing discourse.

You mute the phone to focus on your computer. While humming a quiet tune, you work on moving files to the USB stick plugged into the monitor.

“Fuck,” you whisper, seeing the download time in comparison to the clock on the screen. Of course, you could just leave it be, take the weekend off. It’s not like you get paid extra to run calculations at home.

17 minutes later

“Nonononono, wait, please!” You’re half running to the street as the bus pulls away, leaving you in the illuminated circle of a streetlamp, cursing yourself. That was going to be the last bus coming this way for the night. If you walk home, you’ll never make it in time to change for the party. You might not even make the event at all. You pace up and down the sidewalk, contemplating your options.

A car pulls up beside you, tinted window rolling down, “Need a lift?”

You stop, shocked, “Oh, no I…” you pause, looking through the window, “Dr. Wells, hi...hey.” You swallow your pride. “I would really love to get a ride on-with, with you.” Internally you cringe at how that came out, but figure he probably wouldn’t have heard such a minor slip.

The lock clicks open, and you reach for the door.

“Maple Apartments on South 11th street, right?” Harrison glances at you as you get in the car.

You pause before shutting the door, “do I want to know how you know that?”

He laughs, and you jump a bit at it, “I can see how that would sound a little suspicious.” His smile is reassuring, and his blue eyes are kind behind his glasses. “It was on your registration forms when you started. I enter new employee data myself. Total recall can be useful even for small matters.”

You breathe a sigh of relief, shutting the door and buckling in. “I really appreciate this Dr. Wells, I would have been so late tonight if I didn’t get home to change soon.”

“Bit plans tonight?” Harrison asks as he starts driving. Truth is he had suspected you’d be missing her bus. He had seen you running after the last bus or driven past you walking home numerous times out his way out. You had quite the habit of working until the absolute last moment.

You smile, twiddling your thumbs to keep your hands occupied. “Yeah, I’m meeting a friend at the new bar that opened down the street from my place. She’s getting married soon, and since I can’t make the wedding, I promised I would spend at least a couple hours at her bachelorette party.” You aren’t exactly sure why you’re volunteering this information to your boss. It would be inappropriate to be so casual with him; then again, it’s also inappropriate to be part of a Fanclub that secretly takes pictures of him and talks about how great his ass looks.

Harrison ‘hmms’ in thought. “Why can’t you make it to the wedding?” He glances at you out of the corner of his eye, taking a moment to take in the way you sit, act, look, before returning his eyes to the road.

“Oh, they scheduled it for a Wednesday, so,” you look towards him just moments after he looks away. The first thing you notice is his hair; whenever you’ve seen him in the morning, it’s perfectly combed and straight, but it seems like as the day went on, it began to take on a life of its own. While the back is still nice and neat, the front is sticking out in all kinds of directions.

“You could have asked for the day off,” Dr. Wells offers, “Am I such a terrible boss that you think I”d deny you some vacation after all your hard work?”

You feel a heat rise to your cheeks at what seems to be a compliment to her work ethic, “Oh no, I don’t think that at all. It’s just that, well, we have so much work to do. Every day we get a little closer to your dreams of the particle accelerator, and I want to contribute absolutely everything I can to that dream.” You smile. “You’re going to do such incredible things for the world of science Dr. Wells, and I don’t want to waste any time that could be spent helping you.”

The man is somewhat stunned by this. He’d attributed her long hours and determination to personal ambition. “What about you? Do you want history to remember you for your achievements?”

You bite your lower lip in thought at the question, “I mean sure, it would be nice to be recognized for my contribution, but,” she takes a deep breath, “I’m more concerned about how my work will impact the world, not so much if I’m remembered for it. Anyways you’re the true genius. I can tell that STAR Labs will make big changes and put humanity on a path towards the future. As long as I get to be a part of that, it’s all I really need.”

Harrison does a low chuckle at your sentiment, amused by the naivety. You speak with such hope and wonder and admiration. If you knew the truth, how horrified would you be? The realization of the end goal of the particle accelerator, the effects across history that your determination would wreak.

He grins, “Well, I am glad to have such a dedicated employee, but I do believe that one off day is not going to hurt our progress.”

You purse your lips, “You don’t come down to Lab C very often; you’d be surprised how off the rails things can go when I’m not there. Anyways I would rather work than go to a wedding. It’s not my kind of scene.”

He can sense that you are holding something back but doesn’t press the issue any further. He’s reached your apartment building anyways.

“If you change your mind, I’ll be more than happy to give you the time off,” he says as he parks.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” you reach for the door handle, “oh, and thank you so much for the ride. I really owe you one.”

Dr. Wells makes a mental note about cashing in that favor later. “You just stay safe and enjoy yourself tonight.” He smiles warmly at you as you wave goodbye, but when the door shuts, his grin turns a bit darker. He watches you walk away, eyes tracing the curve of your figure, resting on the beautiful shape of your rear, right up until you disappear into your building.

As he begins to drive away, he catches sight of himself in the rearview mirror. There is something about this form of his that seems to drive the ladies crazy, and he wasn’t opposed to taking advantage of that. While pulling back into the street and driving away, he thinks on his situation.

For 13 years now, Eobard Thawne has been trapped in this god-forsaken time period. For a while, he had focused solely on his mission, rarely interacting with others unless it served a greater purpose. But he was still a man, subject to desire. At first, it was almost enough to make him regret allowing Harrison Well’s wife to die, she could have filled his needs easily. But that woman had been intelligent; she’d have discovered his identity eventually, so allowing her to die had been for the best.

Still, after a few years of isolation, Thawne had found the need unbearable and began seeing ways to fill the hole that was forming in his chest. Little flings, one-off nights where he indulged his carnal side, allowed himself the pleasure of another’s body before quickly parting ways with them, when he discovered that a fanclub devoted to him had been formed amongst his employees, that made the whole thing easier.

Joining the group chat under a false name was easy enough. It inflated his ego every time he read them discussing how great they thought he looked, and he was more than happy to provide material for them to gush over. And with that, it was like he had been given a list of women who would fuck him with no questions asked. All he had to do was choose. Of course, he has to be wary of those who might get too clingy or go off telling other people. But it’s not that hard to week those types out of the pack.

Thawne notices magenta neon as he’s driving. A club with a grand opening sign out front. He smiles, knowing that now not only does he have a new prey lure in, but the perfect hunting ground as well.

[scarabky]

So.. my thoughts on The Grace Year below (obviously spoilers)

Here's the thing: I really liked this book. I just wish it was longer.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, the world building, the pace is incredible because it's slow and fast at the same time and it really draws the reader in. I liked Tierney and the rest of the girls and how the felt like girls, even Tierney, Gertrude, and Kiersten felt like teen girls which I love.

I do think there were too many girls. I could be missing some but I counted only 24 names out of 35, and some are named once only to never appear again. I understand that most girls are not meant to be individuals, rather this teen hysterical mob, and that there is a need to highlight how many women can't get married because there aren't enough husbands but I think something around twenty girls would've been enough. Especially considering that a big chunk of the book happens away from the girls. Tierney isn't making connections with them, we don't even know for sure who lived and who died. Again, for mob/groupthink purposes that's fine, and it doesn't matter who lives and who dies for this idea (except for Tierney, obviously, Kiersten, Gertie, and oddly enough Helen), HOWEVER when they come back to the county and the whole point is about this network of women and whatnot, I think it does matter who came back. Even in the campsite we know that each girl is important, each one is a story. They all cling to stories about girls like them and they all have names, and even when one person doesn't say, another will always supply the name of the girl they're talking about. So yeah, I think there were too many girls or too little time to know them a little bit more.

My Lord of the Flies is rusty, but Tierney is our Ralph and Kiersten is our Jack. That much is clear. Jenna and Jessica are probably the twins, though them being more like Roger would make sense too. In that case I think Martha and Nanette are the twins. I think Helen is Simon and Gertrude is Piggy, but it could be the other way around. That would mean that the dove is the pig. I know it's not a 1:1 retelling, but it's a very clear influence, from the epigraph. It's also a way to explain why Helen is so important.

Now the ending before I talk about the love storyline. I don't know if more pages would've solved the problem, but I felt like the last part and a half, from when Hans dies on, felt too fast for anything to settle. I'll be honest, I think there's too many twists too close together. Hans' storyline did surprised me, but everything else was relatively predicable, a matter of how, not if, sometimes not even when. The failed escape plot point was extremely formulaic and uncharacteristically lacking in ambiance. Maybe it was done like that so as to not give away the pregnancy card, but I didn't like it. It felt lackluster compared to the winter scenes in the treehouse. Everything happened too fast but not in a confusing middle-of-the-chase way. To use the Hunger Games comparison, I would've loved the failed escape to play out like the escape from the tunnels in Mockingjay: the narration is fast, the sense of urgency makes you want to read even faster, the details are there for when you go back but on first read they're blurry. Something akin to the climax of Shadow Kiss from the Vampire Academy series could have also worked.

As for the actual ending I have to say it was not what I was expecting. I like the ambiguity and the full-circle feeling but I wanted more interaction between the women at the county, more about the girls adjusting to life, about life adjusting to them. Because this was a weird grace year, they're not exactly like other girls who come back. Sure, the weight of normalcy and structure is very important and very realistic, but the women must know something's different. I just didn't feel like the story was finished at the birth. Again, maybe with a few more pages of life at the county before the birth we could've had a better sense of the sisterhood, how it works, who is in it, how much are they really affected by Tierney and the other girls' "rebellion".

On that same vein, I would've loved to see more about the next year's girls. I know the big moment is supposed so be Tierney's return and announcement and all of that but I think a better ending would've been seeing the first group of girls come back from the new campground. They're still just as scared, they believe in magic. Are they confused? Do they come back emboldened? Do they feel betrayed? When they don't feel the magic, what happens then? Do they come back healthy, strong, and close? Do they still die? What happens if there's no one to poach?

And that perfectly introduces the last thing I wanted to talk about: Ryker. I loved Ryker. Both as a character and as a love interest. I enjoyed the relationship and the build up, I liked the forbidden hurt/comfort love story and I loved how it allows us to get a better picture of society outside of the country.

I read a review that said that the poachers' "redemption" was showing that they're also victims of the patriarchy. I vehemently disagree. I think the storyline actually shows issues of class that intersect the problem of gender oppression. The poachers are part of the system to control and exploit the girls, but they're not the enforcers of it. They're victims not of the patriarchy but of capitalism and poverty that turns them into weapons to keep the patriarchal system in place. I think the relationship between Tierney and Ryker is meant to show that the girls and the poachers have more in common between them than they do with the men of the county. I think a key piece of this are the guards, who are explicitly branches of the county and the council (as opposed to covert branches like the poachers). With the guards there's the expectation that they live to keep the girls safe, but they don't care about them or their safety. We see this not only with how carelessly they let the girls die on the way to the campsite, but also with the revelation that the sense of safety from being an object of desire around the guards is a complete illusion.

I needed more time to warm up to Michael. Sure, it makes sense that he remains one of Tierney's very many blindspots until the very end, and I get the feeling that we're supposed to come out of the book thinking that he's a decent man, but still a man, and a powerful man at that. But none of those options gets enough development.

Anyway I liked the book and the story. I would love more of it to feel in the gaps, but I understand why we didn't get more. I think this is a solid 4/5 for me.

[vavuska]

Who changed Lola Bunny?

Malcolm D. Lee explained, “This is 2021. It’s important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters. … So we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. For us, it was, ‘Let’s ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others.'”

(See the complete interview here: X)

So, gone are her curves, thigh-high drawstring shorts and midriff-baring crop top. Instead, Lola Bunny now takes on a sportier look wearing a more standard basketball vest and leggings under her track shorts.

But, let's see more deeply what determinated this choice:

1. Being mad at a fan art is sad, people.

Before, a sad 50 yo guy starts complaing about how "cancel culture" or "politically correct" ruined his life - Really? Changing a cartoon bunny from a movie you didn't see for a decade ruined your life? Wow. Someone should really review the list of their priorities -, let's see how really Lola looked in the 1996 original Space Jam.

Here we have original Lola Bunny:

(Here you can see all Lola's scenes in Space Jam: X)

Yes, Lola walked in a sexy way that show off her curves, or at least she seemed to have curves (a little breast, tight waist, long legs, bootie), but those are not big as in the fan art you are seeing around, and Lola's curves are not evidenced during the match or when she played. Is more her attitude and posture that made her look sexy. However, althought her curves clearly changes every time she is doing something different, from action to action, there are some scenes in which she is purposely made sexy, with saxophone music as soundtrack and male-gaze sections that ends in the same way, Lola surrounded by a bunch of horny and howling cartoon guys.

That's appropriate with Jessica Rabbit: she is purposely made and designed as a parody of the femme fatale from old hard boiler movies, in which attractive, mysterious women were portrayed as evil and manipulative gals who hide criminal intentions. Jessica, with her intentionally exaggerated body, subverted the misogyny of 40s and 30s detective movies: she is kind-hearted, truly loves her naive and goofy husband Roger and uses her powers (beauty and cunning) to protect him. Her body too is used for comic sketches, while this not happens for Lola, that's just a serious and indipendent basketball player. So, the male obsession for her body is out of place, expecially because she reacted with anger at being misconsidered only for being an attractive female bunny. “Don't call me doll” is her catch phrase. So, it seems strange she didn't react at all at the very sexualized presentation at the final basketball match: Lola simply shows her basketball skills, ignoring or accepting passively the reaction of the honey crowd of wolves around her. (Please, notice the association: Lola “admirers” are wolves, predators, while Lola, their object of desire, is a rabbit, a prey)

This is the cartoon version of cat calling: they are like a group of men who sit on their porches and whistle at girls everyday when they walk in from of them. A normal girl or woman would pass over this thing, even if they are bothered, unconfortable or embarassed, because they are more scared by a possible violent reaction of this whistling horny guys at their legitimate anger objections. But here, we are talking of Lola, a strong Looney Tunes bunny, and she could smash that damn basket ball on wolves' face, breaking all their teeth. That would be very a Looney reaction. But Lola doesn't react at all at this situation. Here, on my opinion, screenplayers missed an opportunity, but probably they thought to have already did too much with Lola's personality and “girl power”.

Remember also that Lola is the only young cartoon female character we see in the whole movie. So we can't do a proper comparison with other female relevant characters' rapresentation. (See here for a deeper analysis of Lola's origin and development: X)

However, compared with Bugs, Lola looks more fit, more humanized than Bugs. Lola has clearly a definited breast and booty, but it looks like is more her posture that makes them relevant. Lola has clearly shoulders back to show the rack. Bugs is anthropomorphic but remains an animal, has no shoulders or pectorals more like a human and looks a bit over-weight (fat belly). And his posture don't keep that stomach in, chin up, and march forward.

Lola, on the other hand, has a more human structure. That's why I say she has curves. An example are Mickey and Minnie who are two beans in the same way it is not that Mickey is a bean and Minnie has small tits, they are structurally alike.

Lola's body remembers highly No-Ribs-Jasmine from Aladdin (see the gif for reference). That unrealistic Barbie-like waist that was so popular in the 90s and 80s. (See here for references: X and X)

Now, we are changed a lot from the past 24 years. Barbies didn't have that impossible, unrealistic waist-line anymore, Disney princess concept has changed (see Merida and Moana).

Lola concept is changed in 2012: her design for the new cartoons is totally different and her personality too. She wear a blue or violet dress, almost flat-chested and she was made annoying and silly, just to make a contrast with Bugs smarter. Just like Daffy Duck is dumb as hell and his new girlfriend, Tina Russo (no more dear old Melissa Duck), is way smarter than him. Tina is tough, street-smart, rebellious and feisty. But we will see this thing in the next point.

2. People on the upper floors hated Lola personality.

Lola Bunny had only few lines in Space Jam, but she definitely passed the first impression that she was draw only for make male characters fall in love. Lola was a good basketball player and show it off, in front of a skeptical and then astonish bunch of cartoon guys and also Michael Jordan. She also had a strong personality and said it clear to Bugs she didn't like being called "doll". Lola was beauty and curvy, but not a cheerleader. Lola was a basketball player. Remember this part, because we will talk about basketball in the next point.

If at the box office Space Jam was a success, at Warner Bros there were those who turn up their noses, and they are important people, from the upper floors, who accused the film with Michael Jordan of having completely distorted the philosophy of the Looney Tunes. They blamed Lola Bunny more than everything else. Producers of Warner Bros said she was too perfect for the moody group of Warner cartoons: she was too sensual, provocative and independent, totally alien to that core of crazy characters that act as an exaggeration of the vices of 'man.

And fans hated her too. Chuck Jones, creator of the Merrie Melodies said: "Lola Bunny is a character with no future, she’s a totally worthless character with no personality."

So, Lola Bunny was deleted. Lola would make only some brief apparitions in some comics edited by DC Comics, in Baby Looney Tunes, in which she was a toddler with a very similar personality and resemblance to Space Jam adult version, and also as playable character in some unsuccessful videogames.

Years passed and projects for a sequel of Space Jam never become reality, so in 2003 Warner Bros relased Looney Tunes Back in Action. But Lola wasn't here, because the movie purposely want to make a deep cut with what we saw in Space Jam, according to what said it's director Joe Dante. This movie was a totally failure, but it gave back to Looney Tunes their craziness.

Years passed again, but this time is 2011, 10th of May on Cartoon Network was relased the second episode of The Looney Tunes Show. The series aimed to strongly relaunch the Looney Tunes, long gone from the glories of the past, updating the stories of Bugs Bunny and associates in a sitcom key, with the rabbit sharing a house with Daffy Duck in a suburb of Los Angeles. All interspersed with sketches by Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner done in CGI and the updated return of the Merrie Melodies. But the big news of the second episode is that LOLA BUNNY RETURNED.

And Lola was a character with some relevance within the series, even if something didn't seem right with her. Lola looked different, she was no longer the rabbit version of the femme fatale seen in Space Jam: she was naive, talkative, with her head in the clouds, crazy to the point of becoming Bugs Bunny's stalker. Bugs after having fallen in love with her at first glance understands on the first date that he absolutely can't stand Lola. She is no longer the Lola we used to know, even if the appearance is similar and the name is the same. Lola is effectively a Looney Tunes now. And the fans like her, the public like her, Warner Bros like her.

(See Lola in The Looney Tunes Show here: X)

But this is a big walk in behind from the indipent character we used to know in Space Jam. Lola was turned into the stereotype of the crazy girlfriend for a while. And this is not a surprise, if we remember that in 2012 were popular the "overly attached girlfriend" meme template. (See here for references: X)

However, in The Looney Toons Show Lola has some very funny moments, while in Space Jam she was more serious and a little out of space among the other characters. (See here for references: X)

3. What women wear when they play basketball?

Women's National Basketball Association was only created in 1996. So, women's basketball were not considered - and still is not considered - as important as men's basketball at the time Space Jam was filmed.

In Space Jam 2 there will be WNBA players with a significant role, for example Diana Taurasi and Nneka Ogwumike.

Professional female athletes aren't that curvy because curves are determined by body fat and they have a little.

As a busty volleyball player, I can say, dear people, breats could be very annoying during sport activities: it could be a pain, when you run or jump. That's because a lot of women wear sport bra to compress and support their breast. Sports bra may also include layered cups or a high neck to keep everything in place and protect from painful hits, so women can be safe and comfortable during workouts.

Female basketball players didn't wear crop-tops and tight shorts to play. They wear exactly what Lola wears in the picture above: long sleeveless tees, large shorts and maybe protective gears such as knee pads, sleeves or braces to reduce chronic pain caused by the immense burden put on the knees in basketball, to prevent bruises caused by collisions and hard fall and to provide support after a significant knee injury like an ACL tear. They could wear also compressive arms sleeves to help muscles that are sore or overworked to recover faster. The sleeve enables your blood flow to circulate quicker to the heart, which helps you heal and recover quicker.

Wow. WNBA wears Exactly what wear NBA players. So surprising.

4. This is only a promotional character sketch, not what Lola would look in the movie.

Space Jam 2 would be developed in CGI and there are a little preview frames going around, included one showing Lola jumping and you can see her breast shape. But she totally looks like a comic cartoon character. It's not humanized. It's not designed to be the sexy love interest. She doesn't look out of space among the others anymore, expecially because seems that there would be also Tweety's Granny and Melissa Duck or Tina Russo as players too.

5. Reality.

Really? You want a human anthropomorphic rabbit? Well, Lola as a rabbit would have something like six nipples, but no human-like breast. And, also, real life girls have ribs. No one in real life is that thin. Oh, well, if you don't considered Pixee Fox, a model who had surgically removed six ribs and wears daily a compressive bust corset (yes, like the one that made Elizabeth Swan faint in the first movie of Pirate of the Caribbean) to look like a cartoon fairy (Tinkerbell, you are the one to blame for this).

(See here for references: X)

In conclusion, we can say that all this controversy is based only on a porny fan art and that Lola “new” graphic isn't change too much from the original Space Jam movie. It's just a little more cartoonish.

We can also firmly remeber that Space Jam 2 is going to be developed for children, to relunch Looney Tunes among new generations of children, who are the largest buyers of merchandising (including Happy Meals surprises) and consumers of new cartoons that surely would be developed, if Space Jam 2 would be a success.

However, we should admit that those kids probably know better the 2011 version of Lola than her original version and that 2011 version was more appreciated by fans and producers. Lola's voice actress, Kristen Wiin won BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2012 and was nominated for that prize also about three times in the following years. Also Rachel Ramras, Lola's voice actor was nominated for BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2016 for her role in Looney Tunes: Rabbit Run.

We don't know anything about Lola's personality in Space Jam 2, so we can't do a proper comparison or a prevision, but, according to what Malcolm D. Lee said, we can assume that original personality of Lola would be preserved.

The controversy is relevant only for Lola's body and not for her personality, and that's is highly rappresentative of what impressed more this bunch of grow-up kids. They grow up to be like the horny wolves and they are howling because their prey is not available anymore.

And, to be honest, being so obsessed with the breast and the body of a cartoon character (that is clearly made up for kids) it's not sane at all. Sorry to say that, but sometimes people need to drink from a bottle of truth.

[larrycherry04]

Hey Larry,

I want to know about something and I hope you can make me understand... Since you are an AOT fan, what do you think about Mikasa??? I am seeing lot of views where Mikasa was being compared to a character from Naruto, 'You know who I mean'...

I know for sure, there is no other character in any other media who can come close to **ahem ahem**...

But objectively speaking without making any comparison, Does Mikasa have a considerable role in AoT??? Since I know she is the main character, does she carry the same weight as Eren??

Hello, Sparrow!

Thanks for the ask. This is my first time receiving one so I'm a bit excited and nervous.

So, I investigated your question and it’s interesting. I didn’t know people were comparing Mikasa with…. She who must not be named. My guess for this reason is probably because of their romantic interest.

Now I haven't finished watching the AOT series. I just began watching the show, but so far, I can depict what's going on.

So, start off with this.

“Does Mikasa have a considerable role in AoT??? Since I know she is the main character, does she carry the same weight as Eren??”

In other words, “How important she is to the plot, does she have her own arc and since she is a Main Character, can she stand as an equal or little less than the other Main Characters in terms of power and plot development???”

Mikasa is the second important character in the series, with Eren being the first. She helps move the plot forward and contributes to the war. Like Sasuke, she’s the heroine of the story. Along with Eren, she puts her being into helping and saving others that are in need. Although her goal within the story is to protect Eren at all causes, she puts focus on the mission given.

With her being an ackerman, she possesses powers that enable her to kill many titans and defeat stronger opponents. This also allows her to be placed within the elites. She has the ability to have complete control over her body and stay extremely calm over dreadful situations. This is why she’s labeled as one of the best of her 104th group.

Now let's get to the important question.

“In Short, is she (Mikasa) a Sakura 2.0, as many fans claim to be???”

Even though I haven’t watched the entire series, I am certain that Mikasa is ABOVE Sakura.

Unlike Sakura, Mikasa cares about her friends and people she holds dear. She ensures Armin of her trust in him, which gives Armin confidence in making difficult decisions. She’s kind to her teammates and is cooperative to an extent. She even consoles Annie who is her rival. Despite jealousy, (Annie’s relationship with Eren), she kinda befriends Annie and shows sympathy when Annie expresses her pain. Like Eren, Mikasa is very protective of her friends, especially Eren. She tends to hold grudges over people that hurt her friends, and as mentioned, especially Eren. Levi happens to fall on the bad side of Mikasa. When Captain Levi beats Eren during the court scene, this enrages Mikasa. Even though this was plotted and Eren complied with Erwin and Levi’s plan, Mikasa still disliked Levi. However, over time, she starts to respect the captain and learns to understand him as a person.

Now it’s clear as glass that Mikasa is in love with Eren. A blind person can pinpoint Mikasa’s love for Eren. With that being said, is her attraction similar to S*kura’s attraction to Sasuke? No. Mikasa has a good reason to like Eren.

Mikasa had a traumatic upbringing. She used to be a cheerful, outgoing, and gentle young girl. However, after watching her parents get killed, being kidnapped, and almost sold off, she changed into a quiet, emotionless girl. With that being said, Eren is the reason Mikasa isn’t someone’s property. He saved her life AND awakened her powers that were dormant. Mikasa said that Eren made her strong. He helped Mikasa become a strong and fearless person. He opened her eyes to the dark cruel world they live in. Eren makes Mikasa realize that the key to surviving is fighting back. Do not give up or give in easily. In a way, Eren is Mikasa’s perseverance. One of Mikasa’s flaws is that she tends to give up easily. In the kidnapper’s hideout, Mikasa didn’t retaliate and waited to be sold. However, Eren helped break that veil of “giving up” and she fought with all she had. Since then, Mikasa keeps his words to her heart. After leaving their homeland, Mikasa vowed to protect Eren at any cost.

Now Mikasa takes this too far and becomes overprotective of Eren. She orders him to find her whenever the issue arises, so she can better protect him. This always angered Eren and I won’t lie, I was annoyed too. I understand Eren is the only person Mikasa strongly cares for, but it didn’t make her over-protectiveness less annoying. It comes across as she doesn’t trust Eren to make it on his own, and she’s kinda treating him like a baby sometimes. I’m aware that’s not the case but that’s what I’m seeing. Anyways, Mikasa is extremely protective of Eren. She will challenge and fight anyone who dares to harm Eren (ex: Levi).

Unlike Sakura, Mikasa isn't a doormat to Eren. Mikasa has knocked sense into Eren when he does wrong or takes things too far. She has punched Eren for insulting Armin back when they were kids. She threw Eren against the wall for attacking citizens who dare insult the military. Mikasa has no issue calling out Eren when he’s in the wrong or being irrational.

As far as fighting abilities go, Mikasa can hold her own. She doesn’t need or crave protection like Sakura. As mentioned, her ackerman abilities are worth 100 soldiers. She’s strong, flexible, a genius, and fast. She’s strong enough to lift men three times her size (why bullies were afraid of Mikasa and not Eren) and can lift heavy weapons as eight spears. While she carries the right spears, she’s also able to throw them above her head, aiming arcuately at her target.

Now let’s move on to Sakura.

I can’t with this girl. I know you’ve done posts of Sakura and I don’t know if you’re doing a post on “Why I hate Sakura”, so I won’t go into explicit detail.

While Sakura is strong (has the ability to punch holes in the ground), good medical ninjutsu (trained from Tsunade), and knows some ninja techniques (charaka control), she doesn’t really do anything with these. She is always shown sitting on her behind while crapping on Naruto and moaning over Sasuke who doesn’t care about her, during battle.

Sakura isn’t in love with Sasuke. The girl is obsessed with him. It’s an unhealthy obsession. She only likes Sasuke for his looks, cold, lone wolf, bad-boy demeanor, and him being a prodigy. She doesn’t know him personally nor does she try. She just wants to--like you mentioned “show him off” like a prize. Sasuke rejected her many times, in a nice AND mean form, and she takes it as “oh he’s just hard to get!” He's a reward to her. Nothing more. Sakura is also willing to change her morals, turn against her friends for Sasuke. Sakura brings up revenge not being the answer and when Sasuke doesn’t listen, she gives in to his plan. I believe she offered twice to help Sasuke with his plan, knowing that Sasuke isn’t joking and is willing to hurt others. She’s so weak, I can’t stand it! I wouldn’t be surprised if Sakura was willing to kill for the boy. Even though I don’t ship Mikasa and Eren (I look at them as siblings) I still am willing to accept that they’re a couple. I would rather take them over SasuSaku any day.

Lastly, Sakura is a self-centered person. She thinks about herself and her needs. That’s another reason I don’t like SasuSaku. It’s always about Sakura and never about Sasuke because we already know what Sasuke wants. Avenging his clan, suppressing Itachi, and *cough* Naruto *cough*. Sakura doesn’t give a damn about what Sasuke wants. That scene of Sasuke leaving the hidden leaf village proves my point. It’s “What about me” rather than “what about you?” She’s willing to ditch her family and friends over a boy who doesn't even consider her as a friend. Sakura compares her minuet issues with Sasuke’s clan being wiped out. Him leaving her behind is equivalent to his clan being destroyed in her small narrow mind. I can’t believe there are people defending this woman. I find that very insensitive and disrespectful. She claims she understands him but deep down she understands him like I understand physics. (I don't).

She broke up her friendship with Ino over Sasuke. Even though Sakura wanted to feel independent and not rely on Ino (I understand that), however; she could have remained her friend instead of looking at her as a foe. Even when Ino helped her, Sakura doesn’t help Ino back. She doesn’t even console Ino when her father died during, it was Shikamaru who comforted a mourning Ino. Sakura leaves behind her team to catch up to Sasuke and forgets to come back for them. If it wasn’t for Kakashi, her team would have been spotted and harmed by enemies, especially with being intoxicated and unconscious. (Correct me if I’m wrong on that part).

Sakura bullies and talks down on Naruto. Now I’m all for banter and a little quarrel here and there. Like a relationship like Kageyama and Hinata from “Haikyuu!!”. My relationship with my sister is kinda like thers, but I don’t say or do anything that’ll cause harm to her. Sakura is spiteful. She beats Naruto and hits him. She doesn’t need a reason, she just does it either because Sasuke rejected her, or he “annoys” her. She’s insensitive to him. She brings up her issues with her parents and scolds Naruto for being understanding of her parents, even going as far as to say, “Sasuke would understand”. Like um no he wouldn’t. In fact, he would have chewed you out like he did in season one for making fun of an orphan losing his parents. She only fault guilt because Sasuke was mad at her, not because she realized how hurtful that was toward Naruto. Lastly, she fakes confesses her feelings to Naruto so she wouldn’t lose her chance with Sasuke, not thinking how this would hurt Naruto if he believed that lie. She only cares about herself. I swear, Sakura doesn’t like Naruto and there are times when I feel she really wants to hurt him. I know I’m being a bit dramatic but the way she treats him is vile. Even when he saves her life, she doesn’t appreciate his help because it’s not from Sasuke. When he tried to give her CPR, she punched him for “being gross” but didn’t have an issue with Sasuke giving her CPR. Or when Naruto just wanted to take a piss, she hit him and kicked him out, but was all for seeing Sasuke’s penis. (Gross and creepy!)

I don’t understand why Mikasa is being compared to Sakura when they’re different people. At least Mikasa has a reason to like Eren, rather than focusing on his looks or skills. Mikasa can take care of her problems versus Sakura crying for Naruto to fight her battles or help him fight in battles. Not only that, Mikasa cares about her friends. Sure, she places Eren on a higher level, but she still cares for her friends and is willing to fight for and alongside them. Sakura will drop you on your ass if she finds out you like Sasuke.

As far as character, Sakura isn’t very valuable. Naruto and Sasuke can be just a pair and the series would be just as good. Probably better. Sakura doesn’t hold any weight. I thought the only weight she held was being dead-weight to both Naruto and Sasuke but even then, her weight isn’t as effective toward them.

So, is Mikasa another version of Sakura? Hell no.

I hope this answers your question. I’m sorry if I sounded repetitive. My writing and analysis aren’t as impressive as yours, so again I apologize for the unprofessionalism. Let me know how you feel in the comments or message me back! I would like some feedback, whether it's positive, neutral, or negative! If I get anything wrong on Mikasa, please let me know! Again, I just got into this fandom.

Have a Happy New Year! - Larry

[2am-theswifthour]

The 8 Theory-Folklore’s Commentary on Youth

Yesterday, I took note of @taylorswift​ and her careful attention to the number 8.

“Not a lot going on at the moment” had 8 words. The 8th track is “august,” which is also the 8th month in the year. She has 8 deluxe editions of her album. Many attributed this to Folklore being Taylor’s 8th album. I thought it meant either a.) we needed to pay very close attention to track #8 or b.) that 8 references infinity, a.k.a “forever and ever.”

To my surprise, I was actually selling Taylor Swift short.

When listening to the album, there’s a lot of back and forth in emotion and circumstance. I was confused about the order, especially when the strikingly sobering “hoax” followed the self-aware almost-tranquility of “peace.” Then it hit me. There are two schools of thought going on.

There are 16 tracks on Folklore (excluding the bonus track none of us have heard). 16/2=8. This means there are 2 equal emotional song threads on the album. In other words, you can get two drastically different lessons listening to each group of 8.

When you separate the even numbered tracks from the odd numbered tracks you get the following:

Odd

the 1

the last great american dynasty

my tears ricochet

seven

this is me trying

invisible string

epiphany

peace

Even

cardigan

exile

mirrorball

august

illicit affairs

mad woman

betty

hoax

Odd Interpretation:

Starting with “the 1” and “the last great american dynasty,” the lyrics are very upfront in showing that the protagonists are making fully intentioned mistakes. “the 1” says, “in my defense, I have none for never leaving well enough alone” (I see you “ME!” reference). In “the last great American dynasty” it says, “she had a marvelous time ruining everything.” These characters’ folly is their youth-induced selfishness. They’re casual in the harm they cause because they distance themselves from it. They’re fine with what they don’t look at closely. When you’re young, you make a mess of things in service of YOUR need. Your need for companionship. Your need for the thrill of danger. Your need to make your mark, to be somebody, to leave something behind. The marvel of the excitement and the chase and the very vitality of teens to 20-somethings’ shenanigans blinds us to the scale of our destruction…

…until you have no choice but to face the consequences of your recklessness.

The next track, “my tears ricochet” is not your average track 5. It functions as a pivoting point. Now our narrator is the hurt party, the one baring the brunt of callous treatment. Fickle mistreatment is no longer so casual. Now it’s a torment, and the tormentor learns the scale of their damage. So much so, that they get burned too. They learned their lesson at a terrible price, but what’s most important is that they learned.

“seven” is a long-overlooked memory revisited. In this picture of naïve innocence, the narrator tells of their childish belief in the impossible. Through magic and play pretend and fantasy they are invincible. They have all the control in the world to control the world they live in. Obviously, this is a flawed perspective that everyone eventually grows out of. Fairy tales don’t solve real problems. The point is that their sense of self-importance is in service of a stronger moral compass than the first two songs. If we accept our responsibility to others, to do what we can to ensure their welfare, are we not better and more satisfied people for it?

“this is me trying” hears that lesson and attempts to walk the walk. Part of being responsible to your fellow human is taking accountability when you fumble. The narrator doesn’t know what to say or how to make it right. What they do know is that they’re here, they’ve put the bottle down, and that they’re willing to try what’s necessary to heal what they’ve hurt.

“invisible string” gives us the reward we’ve been waiting for. The narrator says, “cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart, now I send their babies presents.” This is someone who has gone from lashing out in anger at a partner from a burned relationship to genuinely wishing them well in their next stage in life. It’s a powerful testament when you can recognize that youth drives us all to make hurtful decisions and that no one is immune to change if they truly want to change. When you let the anger and lies go, the strings that tied you to them fade away. All that’s left is the string you want to hold onto. The string tied to the one who matters, because you’ve made the conscious decision to deduce that their worth as a person should equal yours. It’s a painful path to traverse through, but when you do it’s all worthwhile. That’s why the narrator can say with confidence “hell was the journey but it brought me to heaven.”

In any other album, a song like “invisible string” would be the quintessential emotional payoff for this story arc. However, because this album is a masterpiece, we have a different payoff point in “epiphany.” “epiphany” takes us out of the world of a romantic relationship. We hear descriptions of war and nurses dealing with the despair of this international pandemic. This point in this emotional thread is that it powerfully declares it’s not enough to do no harm nor is it enough to just empathize with your romantic partner. You MUST show your responsibility to your fellow man. Stand beside them. Empathize with them. See them as whole human beings. Do good by them. In other words, it is our duty to do right by everyone, for everyone bleeds, loves, and dies.

The 8-song selection ends with “peace.” The song begins by saying that their, “coming-of-age” has come and gone.” I believe this (along with “invisible string”) to be the most overtly “Taylor Swift” track in perspective. This is her speaking as herself. She lets us know that she’s grown through taking her mistakes, and the mistakes she learned through folklore, into account. She is overly aware of her flaws and feels she pales in comparison to her partner. Rather than allow those insecurities to manifest in unchecked rage or resentment, she takes it as a challenge for herself to do better. She knows she can never give him complete peace (due to inside and outside factors), but she can make the choice to give him unselfish promises and embrace the entirety of her partner’s life. This is a person who has learned the value of selflessness in love and life, which makes this whole thread worth everything.

Even Interpretation:

“cardigan” foreshadows the eventual failure of the even path. The odd interpretation I just described culminated in the narrator finding their place with “the one” because they’ve left everything petty and casually cruel behind. In “cardigan” it says “chase two girls, lose the one.” On top of this directly referencing the first track, it also implies the partner’s self-destruction. By toying with two girls, James is losing “the one.” I don’t think losing “the one” means that you keep one of the two of them. I think it means that engaging in that kind of behavior makes you into a person that isn’t ready, or worthy, of “the one” that they are meant to be with forever. Meeting and keeping “the one” has to require each partner to love themselves and their partner wholly, truly, and selflessly. They can’t be a cardigan you pick up and only wear on the weekends. They must be a wholehearted commitment.

“exile” shows the blowout from “cardigan.” The two couldn’t stay together, and Bon Iver’s (character’s) toxicity comes out full force. He thinks her new man is lesser than him. He’s prepared to throw punches despite being at fault over a hundred times. He’s seen the film before, and he didn’t like the ending because it didn’t work out for him. He wants her under his thumb, not having learned from his prior relationships that that just can’t work. They leave out the side doors, neither fully ready to confront the problems head on.

“mirrorball” is daring in its shift of focus. While all of the tracks I’ve mentioned thus far have dealt, in some way, with the problems that result from a young person’s selfishness, this song doesn’t do that. This song illustrates an extreme that young people participate in at the opposite end of the spectrum; radical selflessness. To be selfless means that you should never allow something that harms someone else to happen just because it benefits you. Young people, girls in particular, are often groomed to interpret selflessness differently. Their definition is synonymous with accommodation. Change your looks, change your personality, don’t object, and embody what your partner wants so that they’re happy. That’s why the symbol is the mirrorball in the song. It reflects everything in the room but itself. By explicitly not factoring in their own sense of self-respect in a relationship, they are unknowingly and tragically enabling their partner’s mistreatment. To be clear, that doesn’t mean abuse is their fault if they have low self-esteem. It’s not, even remotely. But not having the capacity to defend your self-worth is what keeps so many drawn into toxic relationships there for so long. This radical selflessness manifests itself in the other woman too. In “august” it explicitly says that she was living on the, “hope of it all” and that she would cancel plans in the name of a potential hookup with someone who was never hers. The idea of radical selflessness culminates in “illicit affairs” when one of the women deals with their addictive compulsion toward someone who treats them like a cheap lay. Their relationship is a secret that leaves her feeling used in parking lots and as though any trace of her is gone. These three songs have taken the desperate hopelessness of “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind” to the extreme.

Many have speculated that “mad woman” is a commentary on the Taylor/Scooter conflict and I’m inclined to agree. However, if I were to assign an interpretation that goes with my theory, I would say that “mad woman” details the unforeseen consequences of a tormentor’s abuse. When a toxic partner performs bad behavior, their expectation is that they will always be found in the right. After all, Taylor noted on her previous album that for men, “everyone believes [them].” So in the face of lies about her character that everyone believes, she gets rightfully angry. Her anger is their affirmation. For many, a woman being angry on her own behalf is “crazy” and “irrational.” What kind of a society have we set up? A society that promotes women to lack self-worth and, should they find it, they’ll meet a whole other exile.

“betty” is our complete look into James’ perspective. On its own, it sounds like a big romantic gesture to get behind. However, this path is very clear to put “cardigan” first. “cardigan” says, “I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired and you’d be standin’ in my front porch light.” Lo and behold, in “betty” he shows up to her party when she doesn’t want to see him and asks if she would, “kiss [him] on the porch in front of all [her] stupid friends.” It’s an absolute punch in the gut. Betty knows in “cardigan” that he would come back after he had his fun with another girl, but that she would take him back when he saw momentary value in her again. James in “betty” claims he didn’t know anything, but that’s just an excuse. He knew what he was doing, he knew that he would be able to pick up her broken pieces with ease, he knew he could isolate her from her friends, and he knew that he could capture the imperfect “comfort” of that cardigan again.

This path ends in the final even-numbered song, “hoax.” In the odd numbers, “peace” shows a lesson learned. This even path shows what happens when we don’t learn. The seeds of youth-driven mistakes have led us here. The narrator wants nothing outside the pain of this faithless love. Without learning what it means to be selfless, the traumas of these young relationships create a never-ending cycle. The narrator knows that the “love” is a “hoax” but doesn’t care because that’s all they have. There’s no point to wanting anything else. Without the perspective of age, of truly going beyond that, they’re stuck in a truly dark place.

Final Thoughts:

Taylor Swift is an exceptional artist for a lot of reasons. No one makes albums this good this far into their career. Most artists teeter off after two or three because they retread. Their audience inevitably gets bored of them e same thing time and again. Repeating themselves is something that a lot of artists do because they want to go with the formula of what works. With Folklore, Taylor has done what few artists have dared to do. She’s allowed her discography as a place to uncompromisingly expand her worldview and challenge her listeners. She’s not reiterating previous lessons to make another quick sale. Instead, every album prior has been a steppingstone. As she said at the Time 100 Gala, she has truly turned her lessons into her legacy. From a variety of narrators, she has brought what I decree to be her best album to date. This wouldn’t happen for anyone else 8 albums into their career, but she’s done it by devoutly embracing age’s wisdom.

Learn from the highs and lows presented in these paths. As all good folklore does, it teaches us how to live better. It is our duty to live selflessly and with self-assured dignity. These writings, I have no doubt, will become integral to the legend that is Taylor Alison Swift.

[itsclydebitches]

I'm sorry, but as someone who can't stand how Yang acted for 80% of Atlas, saying "her feeling like she had to help raise Ruby is demeaning and unempathetic to Tai" is a HORRIBLE take. If Yang held it against Tai that'd be one thing, but she doesn't, least not as far as we've seen.

And "she decided he's an unfit parent"? That's literally just headcanon. Where is this stated or supported in any way? Literally everything, from the show to the comics to the manga, shows she absolutely values her father and his guidance. Her providing similar guidance to Ruby at some point doesn't change that, she's stated to be Ruby's mother figure, a woman in her life she could seek advice on in regards to things as well.

Like anon I get you're frustrated by how empathy and morality are handled in this show, I am too, but this just ain't it.

I have simillar feelings on the Weiss scene too but that's another story, you already kind of covered it.

Agreed, though I don't want to rag on the other anon. As said, I can very easily see how someone would come to that conclusion, especially given how often we discuss parts of the show without actually re-watching those scenes, leading to iffy interpretations down the line. A fandom pretty heavily focused on a "Tai is a bad dad" reading + Yang's unfair criticisms of others from Volumes 5-8 (notably her most recent characterization. The one fresh in everyone's mind) = an easy opportunity to mistakenly slam the two together. It happens. That's why I try, whenever possible, to re-watch moments, or at the very least re-read transcripts. I'm well aware of how easy it is to get sucked into how the fandom discusses scenes and take that interpretation at face value, when in fact what's canonical has gotten pretty warped across, in this case, six years of content and discussions.

But let's talk about Weiss a bit more! I think it's worth re-emphasizing that, yes, I'm well aware that she was the victim of that dinner party. My own criticism lies less in that specific moment and more the conceptualizing of our heroes as a whole, which leads to some missed opportunities in that moment, some quite important. For example, most classically heroic characters would be horrified at nearly hurting/killing someone, regardless of whether that was intentional or not. That's a crucial part of what makes them heroic: cherishing life and shouldering responsibility for others' safety, even when it's clear from the audience's more objective perspective that they weren't at fault. There's a happy middle ground here between acknowledging Weiss' horrific panic attack and acknowledging Weiss' responsibility moving forward to ensure that her trauma doesn't endanger others—given that her trauma is drawing on literal, combat techniques—highlighting her desire to do right by the people of Remnant, even when they're snobbish, rich assholes. Any reading that boils things down simply to "Weiss is the only victim in this situation and besides, why do we care if a racist Atlesian bites the dust 😒?" is a small representation of the much larger writing problems of Volumes 7 and 8: acting like Mantle is full of only good victims, Atlas only evil perpetrators, and a defense of the latter isn't worth anyone's time—certainly not the heroes who never, ever make mistakes with massive consequences. Weiss' near attack also carries with it the beginnings of a lot of themes that RWBY never capitalized on, but pretended were an important part of the story by the end of that Atlas arc, like Ironwood's supposed propaganda, or Whitley's question of whether power should be solely in the hands of a few, individual huntsmen. Weiss' situation might have been reframed into something that looks intentional: Here's not just a girl, but a Schnee girl, attacking a poor, defenseless civilian with her scary powers. Are we really going to leave the safety of our kingdom—the world—in the hands of people like her? You should be backing the army, people who have your real interests in mind, led by the man who saved that woman's life—General Ironwood! And the audience would rightly be going, Hey now wait a fucking minute. That's not what happened! It was an accident born of trauma and abuse. How can you manipulate the people into thinking otherwise? Into thinking Weiss is the enemy here? Like, if you're going to write Ironwood/Atlas as the awful, propaganda spewing antagonists... actually write that story.

So the party scene could have been the launching point for a lot of important work, both in terms of Weiss' characterization (a hero learning to balance flaws with her people's safety; taking responsibility for her mistakes, no matter the initial intention) and the world building (what does it mean for a Schnee to (mistakenly) attack a civilian when tensions are this high and faith in huntsmen is beginning to fail?) But for the purposes of what we actually got, that lack of reflection on Weiss' part, as said, reads badly when pit against her actions in Volumes 6-8. Because my brain is super focused on Star Wars atm, I think Anakin is a decent comparison to all this. Meaning, we know where he ends up—super scary Sith Lord who is going to do All The Bad Things Ever—and that will, naturally, color our reading of everything that happens in prequal material. When Anakin gets pissed and cuts the limbs off a Separatist, it produces a "Yikes" reaction in the audience because we know that anger, grief, frustration, and fear are going to lead him down an awful path. In contrast, when Obi-Wan is challenged about his no killing unarmed men policy and cheekily looks to Rex to kill him instead, we don't really go "Yikes" because we know Obi-Wan remains true to the Light for his entire run. All their actions have the primary reading of "They were justified that time/they made a mistake/they're allowed to be human/etc." But only Anakin has the secondary reading of, "That action is REALLY BAD—more bad than Obi-Wan's—because we know where it leads. It reads as setup for his inevitable fall." That's basically where the RWBY group is at the moment, provided you're unhappy with their lack of empathy in the later volumes. If the group had remained more compassionate then yeah, we'd continue to shrug off past moments that sorta imply otherwise because we know that's not who they really are. Weiss never grappled with nearly hurting someone only because, hell, RWBY doesn't let her grapple with anything! She didn't even get to respond to getting speared through the gut. But knowing where they end up—knowing that Weiss will be party to Ozpin's treatment, will help betray Ironwood, will accuse Marrow of abandoning her city only to do nothing for it in turn, will threaten her brother, will give the wish to destroy her entire kingdom and displace all its people, etc.—creates that "Yikes" response whenever we see something earlier that even somewhat aligns with her current characterization. It doesn't erase the 100% correct reading that Weiss was the victim and made a totally unintentional mistake in that moment. It doesn't erase the knowledge that RWBY rarely capitalizes on the implications of scenes like this anyway. It only adds another reading in the form of, "Well, knowing where she ends up... I can kinda see that future version in her here too."

[underthestarlitsky]

hello and welcome and today I will be discussing my boundless love for first-girl characters in kids tv shows

you know the ones i’m talking about. traditionally feminine, kind, are smart but in that ‘girls are booksmart’ kinda way, the ones you know for sure will end up with one of the First boys from the original group as the series moves along. you know, the one who wears blue and is paralleled against the brash tomboy girl who wears green who joins later on and the one that gets steadily more powerful but is often slept on in fandoms (or ridiculed for y’know, processing their family issues) - the ones that become the mom-figure and seen as annoying or unnecessary, you know. you do.

you know. katara. miss martian. they’re more often than not reduced to love interests by fans, their personal losses and victories unacknowledged, their traditionally feminine personalities vilified in comparison to their green counterparts. I have nothing against toph and artemis, by the way. i adore them both. i just...where is the love for my first-girl characters?

I mean...they're everything everyone wants in a female character. well fleshed out, no weaponized femininity, powers of their own, strong-willed and immensely powerful yet they choose to be kind. katara became a master waterbender at age fourteen without any kind of training except for a month with pakku? j'onn himself says m'gann is MUCH more powerful than he is. I've seen an uptick in love for katara, but miss martian seems to always get ignored in favour of artemis.

and like. it's really really sad to me, because these girls were the first time I saw myself on TV - normal girls, you know? femininity in a casual and fun way. they aren't Pink-and-Sparkly or Super-Tomboys or Mean-Emos or Stuck-Up-Fashionistas - they're just girls, doing and being things they want to do and be. M'gann bakes and does cheerleading, but she also has insecurities and anger issues and flaws that she tries to work on as the series progresses. Katara sews and mother-hens but she's also one of the most powerful benders of her time and she's snarky and snappy and doesn't hold back.

these girls were the first time I watched a cartoon and went wait- that could be me! they showed me that being a girl doesn't mean you have to fall into a stereotype, but there's nothing wrong with traditional femininity either. for so long girls that got to be the Cool Ones were the ones that were Not Like Other Girls and yet...younger me was like other girls. older me still is. girls in media that Don't Care How They Look (but still always look incredible) and Aren't Bothered With Girly Things always made me feel a little...less than. but my first girl characters...katara takes a spa day and puts on a bunch of makeup and tries on fashions and has crushes that go nowhere, and m'gann burns cookies and tries to be friends with every girl she meets and emulates tv personalities she's sees and it's all so authentic to being a girl.

and another thing: it cuts me to the bone that we don't get to see more sisterly friendships with the first girl characters. ofc we get (and I ADORE their relationship) katara and toph, but the katara and suki sisterhood is still rather lacking despite the fact that they'd fit incredibly well together considering they're both feminine badasses. we have early m'gann and artemis bonding, but then artemis and zatanna become super close and the only real relationship m'gann is left with superboy, despite her clear intentions to try and become closer with the two of them (especially season 3. do NOT get me started on s3 of yj I am going to SCREAM) idk man I'm just having a lot of feelings about this and just hurts a lot to see such good characters getting slept on

tl:dr : female characters who are powerful and yet casually traditionally feminine in a way that does not make it their central characteristic are Important and I wish we'd see more of that. once again, no hatred to toph/artemis type characters, but my heart just overflows with love for this type of girl character. thank you for coming to my tedtalk

[athyathye]

Yeah, that long vers still have a lot of holes that i purposely left it like that because if i really go into detail, it will be longer. Just to make it shorter and say the important bits. And i don't really want to bother anyone with a longer ask than the one that i sent, i mean it will be really long.

So about the reincarnated thing. Have you seen how fudge up some of their mentals are? (Looking at Mikey, Kazutora, and others) Not to mention, they don't seem to have a parental figure or someone to depend on to help them out. I made the fem!Reader to be reincarnated because she knows how to have a healthy mental state and work through some minor (maybe also major, but not needed-a-therapist major-problem) problem in life, in other words being more mature, healthy, and depenable (also having the braincells to keep them out of jail or juvie). Not to mention, how to have a more normal and healthy environment for growing child.

And about the previous good life, she already had and experienced that good healthy normal life with loving parents, so when she get thrown to the new life where her brother is a delinquent, (and she kinda got dragged or hanging out with delinquents and being friends with them) she have that thought like 'this is not normal' 'this is not what a child should do'. Have you seen Baji? How many kids do you know that burn cars when they are hungry? (I also saw one of the comments in tiktok how they would discipline their kids with belt or sending them to some facility if they do that along with always fighting in gang)

I do not meant that the Fem!Reader is arrogant for having that higher ground. But as someone who is mentally older, not physically, it makes her want to help the others. (I mean, if you see a lost child, you would want to help them right? It's the right thing to do. That is my comparison.)

I added the prophetic dream power because Takemichi have a time jump power, it's not that far fetched for her to have that power. There is no big reason or some plot twist from her having it (it kinda influence from me reading lots of reincarnated manhwa. I don't want her to be OP but i want her to have some leverage, call it compensation/a mistake from the universe for reincarnating her there. Giving her physical powers that rivals Mikey is too OP for me, do you really think a normal girl who never in a fight in her two lifes would suddenly know how to fight? She could kill someone with that kind of OP power. Also i am bored from the physically badass Reader, seem too far-fetched for me. I can fight, but not THAT good, my go to would be kicking them on the family jewels and run for my life, now THIS is believable. Or smacking them with bricks/dictionary which is hard covered)

With the Fem!Reader being reincarnated from when she died as a teenager, this mean she kinda get a little fudge up from that dying experience and got robbed from her loving family. I personally think, when she was little in her second life, she is more quiet and withdrawn from her Baji family, but then she accepted it, she got a new life, a new family who loves her, a second chance at living, she make peace that the old her died and now she will be living as a Baji in Japan. Although she probably mature more from that dying experience. About how life should be treasured and stuff.

But precisely because she died as a TEENAGER, that she can still have fun and not thinking of the adults world yet. Yes, she already picked her carreer choice and working to achieve said carreer (by doing excellent in school, not making a problem for the neighbourhood or family, and just be a good kid in general. Making Mama Baji proud of her.) but now she is a kid or a teenager, not that many responsibilities yet (except trying to making sure that her brother and friends grow up to be a good and functioning adult). She can still play, goofing off, and have fun.

So she is a mix of personality, what i'm trying to say. And yes, i try my best to make her likable. And the thing you said about her personality in your prior post is also true. She is definitely the mother of the group, but also simultaneously, the younger sister of the group. Just because someone is mature, doesn't mean that they can not get pissed off (reference to the nagging when she got stabbed). And can be selfish too (reluctant/not sharing her fav snacks) Yeah, just because you are mentally younger than Fem!Reader does not mean she will let go of all your wrongdoings (i am looking at Mikey who seems like will steal her snacks when they are younger... scratch that, he will also do it in their teenage years. She absolutely will admonish Baji for the car-burning incident. And will clearly tell Kazutora off if he ever cross a line)

Hope this will give some clarity. And i whole heartedly agree with you prior post. And thanks for the kind words.

- Belt Anon

HAHA! I love it sm~ that totally clears up a lot! Mc has her own personality that makes her standout, its really cute I must say lol 😆

I really see the thought and effort you put in making this~ I agree with a lot of what you said as well~

Though that does mean that she is mentally an adult then? I get the vibe that she'd be the therapist friend as well, or like that one friend who'd understand everybody's feelings~

Yup all in all your idea is very promising~ I like it very much! Thank you for sharing this with me♡♡

[microsuedemouse]

last night I had an Absolute Stranger pop up in my notes to be totally hostile out of nowhere about my interpretations of some fictional characters. I took the initiative to block them because they were engaging in bad faith and clearly had no interest in discussing the subject. now they don't have to see my content anymore and everyone wins! but I've been thinking about it ever since, and I wanted to share some thoughts here, with those of you who are reasonable and not just trying to start arguments with people you've never interacted with before. I know that at times I've collected large numbers of young, passionate followers, so I think this is a discussion worth having with anyone who's willing to converse in good faith!

one of the most fundamental truths of how human beings interact with fiction is that every single member of the audience is going to have a different take on the story. if you ask me, this is also one of the most beautiful and interesting things about engaging with other fans of something. everyone is bringing something different to the table when they sit down to read, watch, listen, play, or otherwise take in the tale. everyone is going to have their own context through which to understand the characters and events in the story. when you're dealing with literally anything that isn't expressly stated by the storytelling, you're dealing with interpretation, and there is never only one correct way to interpret a story or character. this just isn't how fiction works.

let me give you a good, clear example of what I mean. several years ago, in one of my university classes, I read Karen Russell's short story St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. the story is about a group of girls - maybe werewolves, maybe only feral children; it's left somewhat ambiguous - who are taken from their wolf families and re-educated by nuns to be proper young ladies. they're made to sit up straight and cut their wild hair and speak only in human languages, giving up the howling and growling they've used all their lives. it's difficult and unnatural for them. when my prof asked us what the story reminded us of, I was the one who brought up residential schools, and it seemed that a lot of my classmates agreed with me: the similarities were striking, even if Russell hadn't had that in mind. but an autistic classmate of mine had a different comparison to make - to her, the story was uncomfortably reminiscent of the treatment received by many autistic children, being forced to give up everything that comes naturally to them and conform to other people's expectations of their behaviour. both of these reads were completely legitimate.

you don't have to have an english or literature degree to understand this concept. think back to your early experiences writing essays in school, based on a book you'd been assigned to read. think about your teachers telling you: make a point, and then use evidence to convince me. this is one of the most basic ways that we engage with fiction on an academic level. and when it comes to fandom, we don't even have to go that far! while many fans love to put a lot of thought into their interpretations, headcanons, fanfics, meta, and other fanworks, many don't. there are a lot of reasons for this, from wanting to see yourself reflected in the characters you love to simply having fun shaking things up. you don't have to justify your interpretations (or your reinterpretations). you're allowed to play in the sandbox just because it's a good time.

a lot of us, when we really love a story or character, get incredibly passionate about our interpretations. that's normal and understandable. and so, naturally, we're also going to find people whose interpretations fly in the face of our own. but people who disagree with you are not inherently wrong. people are incredibly complex, which means two things: one, real people are going to have all kinds of complex factors affecting how they read a story, and two, there are virtually infinite ways to interpret fictional people when the information you're working with is necessarily limited. when they're working from the same baseline information, two people can have two wildly different understandings of a character and neither of them is objectively more correct than the other.

(this intersects a lot with conversations about coding and authorial intent. both of these are their own huge discussions that I'm not going to get into in detail here. both are important in their own ways, but when you cut down to the bone, the basic truth remains that audience interpretations are still going to go in all directions and that's still allowed. even when you're working exclusively with interpretations that aim to be entirely canon-compliant, neither coding nor authorial intent is the same thing as explicit canon. yes, it's still crappy to erase heavy queer-coding [for example] in media where that's the best representation that creators can offer us; that's a matter of social issues intersecting with fiction, which is another huge discussion of its own. but even what qualifies as 'heavy' coding is going to vary from one audience member to the next.)

for me, this incredible variety of interpretation is one of fandom's greatest strengths! I have made friends with people whose character interpretations are incredibly different from mine, or whose favourite ships are the ones I can't stand, or who hated stories I loved. I think trading these ideas, discussing the differences in our readings of the same subject matter, is so interesting. learning how someone reads a character or storyline, and why they read it that way, is always really illuminating for me! discussing our differing interpretations can be such an interesting way to learn about other people's points of view and broaden your own perspective. I so strongly encourage it. embrace the passion you share, rather than starting arguments about things that ultimately don't have much in the way of impact on your real-world existence. for sure, yeah, block the weirdo who romanticises an abusive ship that gives you the creeps. but when you meet someone who headcanons your favourite character to be a completely different sexuality than you do, or who ships your brotp romantically... there's huge potential there for some really engaging conversations.

this isn't a manifesto. the topic of fan interpretation is enormous, and includes so many smaller discussions, and intersects with so many other issues. I'm not claiming to have covered all the bases here. I just really encourage you all to accept that there are no Objectively Correct Opinions - that's not how opinions work! you know that, I know you do! and when you do come across work that's just so far from your interpretation that you can't stand it... just don't engage. scroll on past. block the poster if you want. no one is making you look at fanwork that you don't like. you are not obligated to interact with the people creating that work in any way. please, for the love of god, curate your own fandom experience. someone doodling fanart for a ship that doesn't jibe with you isn't hurting you. you have the power to remove it from in front of your eyes and go find something else you like better. go engage with things that do interest you!! you will be happier for it!!!

[yes-m-ray]

When you are around a group of extraordinary people —the kind that are better and more powerful than you— you feel a lil bit intimidated, but that’s fine i think. It helps you, they give you this need to be better.

When their stories and troubles are bigger than yours, you take a step back and listen. They’ve gone through stuff, heavy stuff. You haven’t. Your problems and traumas are small in comparison. 

Still, some days your past catches up, and those “small” traumas feel BIG to you. But no... They’ve gone through worse, your stuff is not really important right now.

You share some stuff, because you see them hurting. You share your loneliness when growing up with the girl who was also lonely. You share the story of your lost first love with the girl who went through something similar; hers was worst, you made that clear. Still, you are trying to connect, and those talks shape your relations with them. Sharing that feels good.

You drop some things here and there with the rest. How shitty your dad was. You cry a bit thinking about your hometown. You tell them you expected to be dead by 19. They don’t seem interested in picking that up. You understand; why should they? Their stuff is so big and much more important.

You don’t need to share. You were just a brat with a shitty dad and strong fists. You are not that important.

Right?