#ive seen so many people get upset about 'their ship being attacked' but do the exact same to other people

[trans-buckleyy]

my fav thing about fandoms (/j) is when people act like an issue is specific to one group (an individual fandom, one ship in particular, whatever grouping they're choosing to talk about), I can guarantee you there are people being dumb on all "sides"

[asexualzoro]

list of reasons i find Brook ridiculous

for brook’s birthday, ive decided to follow up my other two posts of this genre by dragging yet another idiot swordsman. i have everybrook open on my phone next to me. here we go

- first and foremost his most ridiculous crime is existing. as he’s already so ridiculous as a character, im going to talk only about things hes done

- i want to know, did Brook make a conscious effort to change his laugh to sound like his favorite song? how long did it take? what was the in between period like? what did his crew have to say about this? the rumbar pirates were big on playful teasing, did they let Brook live this down? 

- ALTERNATIVELY: was brook’s laugh already like that? is that why bink’s sake is his favorite song? is that why it was York’s favorite-- oh we only made it two bullet points before i made myself sad

- relatedly i cannot make fun of anything Brook did in his backstory it will make me too sad. hes spared for now

- i DO want to say from a writing standpoint its so fucking ridiculous to me that he mentions twice being a convoy captain in the past and it never comes up again. oda?? why even bother to include something that cool if you weren't even going to do anything with it?? you could have said hes just always been a pirate but no. oda?? oda

- there was that bit where a bunch of people thought Brook was satan and addressed him as such (i think Satan-sama in the original, and the translation i read was like... Lord Satan or Lord Demon or something). not only did Brook never correct them, but he also ran with it and later used this case of mistaken identity as a reason to threaten to eat a man’s heart 

- also both men and women were showing him their underwear in that bit. bi rights

- those satanists let Brook get kidnapped while saying they would try to summon him back. do you think they're still at it

- Brook is older than... basically every old man in the series. Garp, Whitebeard, Rayleigh... all of them. something about that is so weird to me and i cannot place why

- Brook has seen and can prove the existence of an afterlife in One Piece canon and its then never addressed again

- Brook missed so many huge events while being dead. im looking at a timeline rn and these include the obvious, like, roger’s execution and subsequent effect on in-world culture and society and whatever. but also things like the destruction of ohara (which was in his home sea), the founding of the world power known as the revolutionary army (which was about 20yrs ago), and the births of every other member of his crew. wack

- he seems to know about stuff related to the pirate king post time skip, and i wonder if thats because someone told him or he’s just playing along now. maybe he just thinks Luffy made up the term pirate king cuz it sounds cool and he wants to support his captain’s interests

- if he DID ask though, like, who did he ask? his managers? did he pull aside some fan asking for an autograph at a concert like “hey, you look like a knowledgable young lad, mind helping me out?”

- i would love to be there when someone takes the time to explain roger, the pirate king, raffle, the One Piece.... and Brook asks them “what is the One Piece?”.... and someone has to look him in the eye (...or not) and tell him “i don't know” 

- Brook has technically died of fright (his soul left his body), like... at least once? it was luffy’s fault

- Brook was an urban legend on the florian triangle and i doubt he even knows that about himself

- when they're heading to fishmen island Brook gets all scared when they encounter a possible ghost ship and Usopp slaps him

- when captured by big mom he sleeps so godamn soundly and securely that he is harder to wake up than she is and this fact nearly gets a bunch of his crew killed

- Brook is the only character i can think of who has ever broken the fourth wall. he only did it once. maybe seeing the afterlife means he now knows hes in a manga. or maybe being isolated for 50 years just made his head be not screwed on right

- speaking of, there’s a bit in WCI at the wedding where Brook is decapitated. i don't know how it goes in the anime, but in the manga like... no one is shown to have decapitated him. his head just pops off. maybe he was just having fun

- also the bit where he rips the fake face off in wci. when someone calls him gross he cries

- there’s a bit in fishmen island where Brook is trying to ask Nami if he can see her panties (disgusting bastard) and he inadvertently protects her from being dehydrated by some guy they were fighting. except the panel setup reminds me a lot of / mimics ace protecting Luffy from Akainu, and it haunts me

- speaking of bits from fishmen island that haunt me, there's a page where it’s strongly implied Brook fucked a mermaid (maybe two). i will of course include the page here

- yeah. sorry. 

- when Brook first meets the strawhats he invites himself inside because “it’s cold out!” but he later admits in punk hazard that he cant feel cold. he was just lying

- no one introduces himself to Brook except Luffy for the entirety of thriller bark

- half related, Franky cradles Brook in his arms / carries Brook around for like a full scene in thriller bark 

- there's a link two second bit in film gold where the crew is just relaxing while they're planning for how they're going to get Zoro back and they're all shown eating burgers from pirate mcdonalds or whatever. and Brook is eating a burger and hes so messy that hes got burger on his forehead, and Franky is next to him just looking at him

- Brook also wears fake skin in that movie

- Brook has a running gag where he gets upset when things refuse to eat him and i was going to make a joke about it but im wondering if maybe hes just afraid of being left behind........ made myself sad again

- he cries when a dragon won't eat him tho

- Brook admits to reading monster hentai when talking to Sanji and Kin’emon and if i have to be burdened with knowing that so do you

- when hes trying to figure out the weakness of the zombies on thriller bark he overhears one ate a salted fish and lost its shadow and immediately assumes “oh, must have been the fish!” idiot man

- where does his sword cane go when hes not using it. it just appears. where does he store it

- there's a bit where the strawhats all use a combo attack at thriller bark and the first step is firing an electrically charged Brook in a slingshot through oars/oz. he ends up in a wall and no one ever pulls him out. i don't even think the manga shows how he got down

- enemies post time skip regularly assume Brook is dead when they manage to knock the crew out and it makes me wonder how popular of a rock star Brook actually was

- Brook goes on a mini rant to no one while they're descending to fisherman island where he wonders aloud how he sees without eyes and it makes me lose it

- this isn't Brook technically but Nekomamushi is based on a song Brook’s voice actor wrote about his cat.

- Brook literally doesn't have a brain. like i know we all know that but its so fucking funny. we make jokes about other strawhats only having one braincell or whatever but Brook straight up 100% just has a seashell where his brain is supposed to be 

-  why does he have rubber glove looking hands when hes haunting the castle at wano i fucking hate them

- relatedly, there’s a bit where Brook mentions he’s been, at kinemon’s interaction, sitting in a well for like... possibly days? is he okay

- honestly i love everything about Brook’s actions as a ghost in wano bc its so fucking funny but my FAVORITE fact is that Brook is in the wikipedia article about starving skeletons

im leaving you with that. appreciate ur local skeleton today

[lizallanapologist]

The problematic behavior of Tomdaya stans; a thread

Some of you might not be aware of the stalkerish problematic stuff tomdaya stans have done with Tom and Zendaya’s life but it’s gotten to the point where Tom’s own brothers protect with big scrutiny every single female in Tom’s life because they fear they’re going to get bullied or harassed. This is not OK and this has to stop so we’re exposing their toxic behavior. 

This is only to bring awareness and we do not condom any hate or death threats, don’t send hate to tomdaya accounts, either block them or report them but don’t bully them. Many of them might need professional help dealing with the fact that Tom and Z are not together due to the fact that they created an illusion in their heads for a long time but that doesn’t mean some of them aren’t plenty manipulative and love to get away with bullying and harassment. 

If you don’t know, Tom was recently seen with another woman on his instagram, not going to say the name and please don’t try to find out about her, the relevant information is in this post and all of the private information regarding her is being protected for the same reasons. Many stans decided to apply the same treatment to her as they did to Olivia. If you don’t know what happened last year, all information is here. The fact that this kind of bullying and harassment got overlooked is horrifying. 

This specific behavior doesn’t apply to all of the stans but the vast majority is on the same page. 

A big thanks to all the blogs who contributed with information and their writing in this post.

STALKING 

1. Tomdaya stans have made an entire thread/timeline of events in Tom and Zendaya's life that they manipulated so it can be seen as proof of them dating. They stalk every single part of their lives, from paying stalkerish apps to review their instagram activities daily to having a constant GPS to know their exact locations everyday. They ask twitter accs, owners of restaurants/stores, people close to them information about their whereabouts/the things they buy or eat/who they were with, etc.

They order their ‘’interactions’’ with specific dates and they even know information you shouldn’t know about them. 

They pay for apps that helps them stalk their every move. That’s right, they take every like as proof of them being together. 

They hide behind the pretext that they're celebrities and this is what they've signed up for but neither Tom nor Zendaya have signed up for constant daily harassment of their partners in life. 

HARASSMENT OF PARTNERS

Tom was seen last year with a blonde girl called Olivia, everyone speculated that was his girlfriend and that was something everyone should’ve respected since it’s Tom’s life and he’s in control of it, instead, many fans including Tom H. crazy fans and tomdaya stans, decided to stalk and harass Olivia to the point she had to make her account private. They started bullying her by publicly calling her names like ‘’Olive Oil’’, ‘’Ugly old woman’’, ‘’Ugly fake bitch’’ among other names. They continuously compare her with Zendaya and write on her friends and family members’ social media and ask them to tell Olivia nasty things. You really think this is ok? 

Same is happening with the girl Tom was seen with. Tom’s own brothers asked several people to take down and delete the video because they were disrupting her privacy. Many stans didn’t care and started all over again harassing the girl. (I’m not posting images or the identity of this new girl in hopes that this helps maintain a little big of privacy for her.) 

However here are some examples of them harassing Olivia:

’’I saw a troubling post on twitter about this fan dming another fan saying that they’d kill her (Olivia). That they’d find a way. So that “the fans can have him all to ourselves” - source

MANIPULATING THE NARRATIVE

Tomdaya stans and some Tom Holland crazy stans love to harass Tom Holland to the point that they tag family members and friends only because he decided to go out in public with Olivia. They call him cheater, manipulator, a dumbass, made fun of him because Tom is dyslexic calling him an illiterate, mocked him and tried to cancel him in every opportunity given by manipulating everyone into thinking some of these ‘’facts’’ are true. 

Many fans don’t know better and go to social media to frame Tom as a scumbag because many tomdaya stans have convinced the public of this.

This same issue occurs with Zendaya. Her known boyfriend; Jacob Elordi, is frequently called a cheater and is being investigated every five seconds on every social media, candid, interaction ever. Many fans are already calling him cheater, telling everyone Zendaya’s changed her behavior thanks to Jacob and that she needs help. 

Source

BULLYING

The definition of cyberbullying according to Stopbullying.gov:

“Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior. “

Examples of cyberbullying on Tumblr from good ole Toutdesuite360:

https://toutdesuite360.tumblr.com/post/190572803098/faces-haha-ive-heard-this-has-been-memed-when

Making fun of Jacob Elordi’s wealth… but that isn’t that only thing that the Tomdaya stans have done.

She basically implied that Olivia looked like an elderly lady, and she permitted her followers to humiliate her.

Funny, that a middle aged woman who has never revealed her face on her blog is bullying a young woman.

(She may have deleted the link to save her a** on the post with the Cher pictures, but thankfully @crazypeopleonfandom​ took screenshots of this post; I got most of my photos from them)

The next aren’t pertaining to the ‘innocent’ Toutdesuite360, just some random jerks from Twitter/Instagram. If you have the time, you can read through them.

See the pictures above and below for reference.

Labelling Zendya, Jacob E., Tom, and Olivia as cheaters, when there was no confirmed relationship between Tom and Z, and Jacob broke up with Cari already is plain disrespectful. These are type of claims are considered slander, and I’m surprised that the people who own these accounts haven’t been rightfully sued.

And remember when I talked about the repetition of people tagging Tom and Z’s family for their ‘thoughts’? Why are you tagging Nikki in your post?

Calling Olivia, once again, a vulgar word that shouldn’t be used for any woman.

This person and many other tomdayas are harassing Zendaya and Tom by tagging them repeatedly. Now we know why Tom stopped using Twitter, and why he may be taking breaks from social media.

And, as pointed out in another point on the thread: Tom has dyslexia! I easily ignore the posts that tease him about his lips, but when it comes to his disability, that crosses the line. It is unacceptable to bully someone just because your fantasy relationship doesn’t seem so real now.

Before I finish this point, I just want to remind people that celebrities are humans too. Everyone has feelings, and even if they haven’t seen these posts, it is still harmful to post this kind of information on your account. Fans who are young (or naive) may see these posts, thus making them believe that Tom actually cheated on Z, and that Z is really with Jacob as ‘payback’ to Tom. Bullying is still an ongoing issue, and maybe you should stop harassing/humiliating people on your platform.

DEATH THREATS

Olivia, Tom and his family, friends, Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, etc. They were sent death threats as a result of a fictional ship. This is truly upsetting and we’ve shown some proof of that above and it’s truly sickening how many of them really want to attack Olivia in public only because of a few photographs. 

DEBUNKING EVIDENCE

While we don’t know anything for sure, we need to trust and respect what Tom and Zendaya have said several times: they were never together and they were just friends. This is a topic that makes them feel uncomfortable and tomdaya stans decide to twist their words every time they want to clarify the situation, saying they’re hiding their relationship and that they’ve been hiding it for over 3 years. 

Stop believing everything SpideyParker on YouTube says, that person desperately wants them together so they’ll do anything in their power to make it seem like that they’re ’’still together’’. All of their evidence is also nothing but scraps. I can also make a video cropping out certain individuals from the frame to make it look like Tom is with someone or I can also investigate every tiny detail to a borderline degree to make it seem like Zendaya is dating someone. It’s really easy to manipulate the truth, so don’t fall for these things so easily. Check with the real sources, Tom and Zendaya. Trust and respect what they say it’s not your job to investigate and figure their lives out.

Their evidence of the relationship is ridiculous, stuff like them wearing the same clothes,

because obviously there’s no way this jacket is in any random store in the world...This is a unique jacket, made by Tom and Z specifically...And it’s not even the same jacket. If we’re going by their logic, then

More, more, more and more.

Source

Robert Downey Jr. and Tom have been in a relationship for a long time...

Angourie, Remy and Tom wearing the same jacket.

I have no idea what’s going on with the freaking necklace you swear with blood that Zendaya gave him but that’s hardly something special:

Matching necklace with Olivia.

Avengers necklace.

He likes necklaces, nothing special here.

'’Tom only goes to Zendaya’s home, and only goes out with her!’’

Tom Holland went to RDJ's house to watch Black Panther with him.

Tom and RDJ facetime daily.

Obviously, his only friend is Zendaya...

Look at him and Zendaya there, wow.

‘‘Tom looks at her with heart eyes and in a very special way!’‘

Excuse me, what is he supposed to do? Ignore Zendaya and look somewhere else every time she talks?  

MORE

He literally looks at everyone the same way.

‘‘He only does Spider-Man because he wants to be the Peter Parker to his Mary Jane, one of the most romantic comic book couples!’‘

I can’t believe I once read this as proof but I haven’t forgotten about it.

Interview with Tom and Laura:

“Is Zendaya’s character Mary Jane Watson?’’

Tom Holland: “No, no! This is one of those rumours, that like, we’ve all said it’s not true.

Laura Harrier: It’s not true!

Tom Holland: Like, we keep on… You guys keep building yourselves up for disappointment.

Laura Harrier: Unless we don’t know how this started? Because you guys are gonna see this movie and be like “…Ugh.” She’s Michelle!

Tom Holland: She’s a character called Michelle.

Laura Harrier: She’s playing Michelle.

Tom Holland: 100%. Hands down. Her character’s called Michelle. And she’s sort of this weird, quirky one in the friendship group that Peter has. She’s funny, but she’s super strange.

Laura Harrier: Yeah, super dry humour.

Tom Holland: She’s 100% not Mary Jane. It’s funny, everyone’s like “Is she Mary Jane?” and I’m like NO, I’M TELLING YOU! SHE’S NOT MARY JANE!

Source

‘‘He did the Will Smith thing with her, he loves her!’‘

‘’He only ever talks about her! He only praises her!’’

Angourie Rice.

Robert Downey Jr, 2, 3

Laura Harrier, 2

Elizabeth Olsen.

Jacob Batalon.

Chris Hemsworth.

Jake Gyllenhaal.

And the list goes on and on.

‘‘He always goes to her special events only! He only goes to her parties! He only goes to hospitals with her! He was on the set of Euphoria with her!’‘

How about, he goes out with her and everyone else in group and individually? He goes out with Harrison alone, with Jacob alone, with Laura alone, etc. I love how many of them love to leave out certain people to make everyone believe it’s only the two of them. And he doesn’t only goes to hospitals with her, he’s gone with many other people and he does it because he’s a good person, not because he’s on a date with Zendaya. 

Tom AND Jacob visit Zendaya on the set of the Greatest Showman.

Tom and friends celebrating Harrison’s birthday party.

Tom on a double date.

Tom going to Joe Russo’s restaurant to get an exclusive cooking lesson from Jessica Largey.

Tom on birthday parties.

Tom, Laura, Harrison and Harry out for dinner in Brazil.

Tom, Brie Larson, Tessa Thompson, and Zachary Levi in a club in Brazil.

Tom, Laura, Jacob, Harrison in a pool party.

RDJ & Tom Holland visit Jon’s restaurant and participate on his show.

Tom Holland visits Doctor Strange’s set.

Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo, Joe Russo visit haunted attraction.

He’s a good person and loves supporting his friends.

‘‘He only has chemistry with her!’‘

Tom and RDJ’s extraordinary chemistry.

Tom and Jake’s chemistry.

Tom and Jacob’s chemistry.

Tom and Laura’s chemistry.

Tom and Daisy’s chemistry.

Tom and Chris Pratt’s chemistry.

Also Will Smith, Chris Hemsworth, etc. 

Look below for Ciara and Tom’s chemistry.

Like I said before, maybe he’s a good actor and that’s it? 

‘‘Their FFH kiss was too real and magical!’‘

Spoiler alert for Cherry

Fan about witnessing Tom’s kiss with Ciara Bravo:

His reaction about kissing Laura Harrier:

‘‘He LOVES touching her’‘

I’m sorry, is he supposed to be scared of touching people?

This is it. This is the big touch they always talk about and the only times they’ve ever held hands is in manips or in FFH, but that doesn’t count, those are fictional characters. Well...

Maybe he’s a touchy person. Consider that.

’’She’s the only one that knows him well!’’

How well do Zendaya, Jacob, & Laura know Tom?

I’m sure Harrison, RDJ, his friends and others know him pretty well too. 

And only because he knows she likes ice cream doesn't mean she’s his ultimate soulmate or something blown out of proportion.

‘‘He’s only a gentleman with her!’‘

Tom saves Gina Rodriguez

Tom rescues fan

Karen Gillan

‘‘He looked way too in love with MJ to be fake’‘

Nope.

Nope 2

Nope 3

It’s called acting, pretty sure you guys know by now he’s good.

‘’They’re inseparable!’‘

Jacob, Tom and Harrison 

Also, why is it that every female in his life is his cousin, aunt, close childhood friend or ‘’he probably hates her’’ for you? 

They’ve said this multiple times but:

In an interview with Elle, Tom said he is not involved with anyone at the moment but is "definitely a relationship person." And when addressing the rumors, he says it’s uncomfortable and annoying when people ship him and Zendaya together. 

Zendaya also denied the claims, telling Variety Magazine that she and Tom were simply ‘just friends’. 

You can ship them if you want, as a bromance or cute chemistry, but not at the expense of someone else. Not when you violate their privacy, their lives and specially not when you bully, harass and stalk every detail of their lives.

Zendaya is clearly very happy with Jacob Elordi:

Let her have that. No, she doesn’t look miserable with him, no, he didn’t change her style or her personality. No, she doesn’t dress differently because of him. She is the same as always, she looks even happier. Let her be. This is good for her. She has every right to go out in public with her boyfriend. And for the love of god, stop commenting on her instagram posts ‘’warning’’ her that Jacob is going to cheat on her. Hopefully that won’t happen ever. 

And no, they’re not going to magically ’’get back together’’ when Spider-Man 3 starts filming, stop wishing bad luck on Zendaya and Jacob’s relationship. Tom is not going to magically realize how ‘’wrong’’ he was for ‘’leaving’’ Zendaya. He never left her, he’s her friend. 

All of this have gotten to the point where Tom can’t have a friendship with a female and he has to ‘’protect’’ them every time he wants to interact with them. Do you guys seriously think this is ok? Are you really a fan of his if this is how you want him to live? Controlling him all the time? 

Do you realize how wrong and unfair it is for the other partner every time you comment in every single picture on instagram, twitter, etc about how ‘’cute’’ Tom and Zendaya are? About how ‘’ugly’’ Olivia is? How about when you compare Zendaya and Olivia, or every single female in Tom’s life? Or when you comment on Zendaya’s instagram telling her she is different now and that you don’t like her now because she’s changed for Jacob? Telling her that Jacob is going to cheat on her? Stop sending death threats to the partners, stop tagging their families in your ‘’evidence/proof’’ posts/tweets. Just because they don’t voice these things doesn’t mean they don’t read them. 

Being sincere, if you all, as a collective; really, genuinely cared about Tom, this is the last thing you would wanna pull. In your endless obsession with thinking you have a right to dictate the life of a man simply because he's famous; actually stopped once to consider how this is possibly making Tom and Zendaya feel?? You are basically sending the message that nobody is enough, that him being happy isn't enough, that he won't ever be allowed to be happy until he gets with the person YOU think is best for him. Fucking abhorrent, how they don't have a choice on who they choose to fucking love. This is how you make a celebrity jaded. THIS is how you make a celebrity hate you. And he will, unless you stop your bullshit, and treat him; and whoever he decides to be with, like human beings.

When you focus only on two people it’s easy to believe anything, try and see the bigger picture. Allow Zendaya and Tom to enjoy their lives without harassing them and their partners.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

OOC - Summary of Moonlight Mist

Overview:

Moonlight Mist is a manga project that Koji Matsuba (Shinobu’s father) started a year after marrying Kotoha Marukichi, though he had been writing notes privately as a hobby since he was in high school.

The story begins with a class of middle schoolers taking a field trip into the nearby Forest of Mystery. While the trip is only supposed to last a day, five students wander away from the class and end up becoming lost in the woods: Aki Akakawa, Yukito Aotani, Haruka Midoriyama, Seitaro Kishima, and Mirabelle Champrose. As night falls, they make camp near a river and hope for rescue to come soon. However, a dense fog descends upon them as they sleep uneasily.

They awaken having been somehow transported to the Myst Continent, a world seemingly taken right out of their fantasies of dragons, elves, and magic. They learn that the land has been in turmoil for centuries. There had been a great war between various powers both mortal and divine, and in the dying breaths of a god the land was cursed. Time now stands still: Day and night never change, leaving different regions in perpetual light or darkness. The seasons have been frozen as well, wreaking havoc on the climate of the continent.

The populace has had centuries to adapt, but tensions still run high as factions fight over resources and territory. The lost students find themselves struggling to stay safe in an unfamiliar land riddled with both overt dangers like bandits and invaders, and more subtle political threats like a king’s iron rule.

But they have one defense against it all: An oracle declares them all the Divine Children foretold in a prophecy by the dying god. In legends passed on through the populace of Myst, it’s believe that heroes born from another world will appear in their land, ushering in an era of justice and mercy. Of course, interpretation of these legends can vary greatly. Some people take the “divine” and “justice” parts very seriously and believe they are demigods smiting the wicked, and some people resent the idea of foreigners upsetting the centuries-long status quo…

The lost children, ambushed by lowly soldiers of the corrupt King Albinus, are protected by the oracle who gives her life up for them. From this sacrifice materializes five jewel-empowered trinkets that awaken the students to magic powers of their own. They transform themselves into the heroes of legend, styling themselves after the heroes in their own stories back home, and fight off the attackers.

The adventure sees the students grappling with the duties that have been thrust upon them so suddenly, while also searching for a way back home. Their morals are often challenged throughout the journey: Is Yukito right when he says that their priority should be getting back to their world safely, or is Aki right in saying they should take long detours on errands and missions? Can Mirabelle give up a life of luxury living among dragons, do the right thing, and go back to save her classmates? Is there a way to make everyone happy when addressing centuries of multilayered strife between different people? And is everyone truly bound by the destiny assigned to them?

Several arcs in, there have been some major shake-ups in the story. First, Aki, Haruka, and their companion guide Kuromura manage to find a way back to Earth after a grand battle, but are separated from the rest of the party, with Yukito forced to take up leadership of the other group. Worse still, they find out that the fantastic creatures and people of Myst have also found their way to Earth and show every indication of wanting to conquer this land, too. Magic and mundane are now in war with each other, and the students find themselves fighting to be the saviors of two worlds.

After everyone is reunited, they learn of a royal commander who is actually a human girl from their world. In fact, she is the long-lost cousin of one of their own. Kikyo finds herself owing a life debt to Seitaro after he rescues her during a disaster, and this begins her own arc as her loyalties slowly begin changing. Ultimately, Kikyo joins the heroes as their sixth party member, and they stand united against her former king.

Currently, the story is in the middle of an arc that examines the heavy weight laying upon child heroes. They face scorn from people who see them as mere foolish children, or who hold them to the same responsibilities as hardened adult veterans. They’ve been so far away from their normal support networks that they don’t know what to do as normal teenage problems begin creeping up on them. And there are hints of strife between the students themselves: Kikyo has not been fully forgiven by everyone for the crimes she committed under the king’s orders, and Yukito is asserting himself as a more capable leader than Aki.

With the king now personally invested in seeing their entire group eradicated thanks to Kikyo’s betrayal, what will it take for these lost children to endure the trials ahead…?

- - -

Characters:

Aki Akakawa: The primary protagonist of the story. Like many shounen hero, he’s impulsive, hotheaded, and stubborn, yet ultimately brave even in the face of the highest odds. He is gifted a ruby pendant infused with a magical power that lets him become The Hero Crimson, who is designed after the typical warrior class in RPGs.

Yukito Aotani: A cold and aloof classmate that Aki has formed a sort of rivalry with. While in school it began as somewhat friendly competition over test scores (Yukito always won in everything except sports), the dire threats of their adventure brings their personality conflicts to the forefront, putting their friendship on the edge. With his sapphire bracelet, he becomes The Archer Indigo, filling out the ranger archetype, right down to having animal companions he seems to like better than people.

Haruka Midoriyama: Aki’s childhood friend. They used to be inseparable, but middle school saw them being sorted into different homerooms; Haruka’s time off was further devoted into her track team, and as a result they’ve started drifting apart. She is just as boisterous as Aki, but it comes tempered with her attempts to nurture her peers – whether they want her help or not. Her emerald ring lets her transform into The Thief Verdant, a dashing and nimble rogue. And, yes, her name is a reference to the Midoriyama of Sasuke fame, though this isn’t directly acknowledged in-universe.

Seitaro Kishima: One of Haruka’s classmates from her homeroom, who is a shy nerd with a lot of anxiety about being outside or in the middle of crowds. With his topaz brooch he becomes The Wizard Gold, keeping a safe distance from danger as he used mage powers to rain havoc upon foes. In recent issues, Seitaro has begun the reasons behind his anxieties, from the tragic disappearances of his relatives to his growing discomfort with the changes adolescence brings.

Mirabelle Champrose: An exchange student that’s quite popular in Aki’s year… among anyone that isn’t Aki himself. Or Yukito or Haruka or Seitaro. Mirabelle’s charming elegance goes hand-in-hand with a fussiness and an unwillingness to do physical labor, something that becomes a frequent problem during their adventure. Despite it all, she truly cares about the people around her and slowly learns how to get along with them, and as The Priestess Rose she dutifully heals their wounds, even when they’re feuding. She still fawns over the garnet earrings that empower her, though – girl’s gotta have her jewelry!

Kuromura: A fox-like creature that the oracle cared for as a stray animal. Despite that, Kuromura is very much sapient and can talk out loud, serving as a guide, a mentor, and a voice of reason as the students try to find their way through this unfamiliar world. Curiously, Kuromura has a black opal set into their head, but they cannot remember ever being able to cast magic…

Albinus Frost IV: The king of the Frostbitten Crown who continues his family’s bid to expand influence over all the land. Safely entrenched in the bitter-cold mountains to the north, he sends armies out to conquer their neighbors, steadily taking over town after town. Though he claims to be doing this all for the good of the citizens, refugees fleeing from the towns he takes say that he imposes strict control on them all, keeping villages under martial law as his guard closely monitor financial spending, food rations, and communications with other towns. Woe betide those who are vocal about their displeasure; reports suggest many dissidents have disappeared without a trace.

The Diva: First seen clad in full armor, the Diva is a commander of Albinus’s armies, using her music to enchant soldiers with strength and bravery. In time she is revealed to actually be a young human girl, and even later her true identity is revealed to be Kikyo Shimori, a cousin of Seitaro’s who went missing with her family eleven years ago during a hiking trip. In reality they accidentally wandered into the mist world, and Kikyo was somehow separated from her parents (who she assumes are dead) and raised instead as a bard-slash-spy for the Frostbitten Crown. After an arc in which Kikyo’s loyalties are called into question, she finally defects from Albinus and puts herself at great risk saving Seitaro’s life from his generals, resulting in the amethyst circlet materializing before her. With this, Kikyo awakens to her power as the Diva Violet, and thus proves herself a true ally of the team.

- - -

Trivia:

The most popular ships in the fandom are Aki x Haruka, Aki x Yukito, Yukito x Mirabelle, and Yukito x Kikyo. There is also significant support for Aki x Kikyo, Haruka x Mirabelle, and Seitaro x Mirabelle.

Shinobu happens to have a few advance spoilers in regards to canon ships: Aki x Yukito is endgame! The original intention was to make Aki x Haruka canon, but over the years both the in-character dynamics and Koji’s own feelings about his work have changed.

Shinobu also knows that future issues will, over time, make it clear that Seitaro is definitely not cis and is likely nonbinary. Koji started writing this arc as a way to try and connect with Shinobu, especially during some of the rockier month of their relationship when Shinobu was questioning if his parents even cared about what he wanted in life. At times he acts as a sort of consultant, helping his father understand what Seitaro might be feeling right now.

Haruka is another character based closely off Shinobu. At the beginning of the story she symbolized Shinobu the ace athlete: Always determined, always energetic, always ready to give 100% in any situation. As the reality of Shinobu’s life became clear to Koji, he’s since taken a more nuanced writing with Haruka, acknowledging the constant pressure that she faces as both and athlete and as the caretaker of the group. Much of her arc now is her and her teammates learning to accept that just because she’s their emotional pillar doesn’t mean that she’s invincible, and that’s okay.

An anime adaptation of the manga is in progress, and is currently in the earliest arcs, before the temporary group split.

[pinkykitten]

Safe and Sound

Marvel

Loki x female! reader

Warning: some violence, 1 curse word

Specifics: angst, romance, man vs man, based off of iw, race neutral reader

People: Loki, you, Brunnhilde, Tony Stark, Pepper Pots, Stephen Strange, Bruce Banner (mentioned), Thor (mentioned), Thanos (mentioned), other Asgardians, Valkyries (mentioned)

Words: 1,825

Requested: By @jinx-is-fire 😢 um so ive been pretty upset because of this so could I have something where Loki lives and goes with Hulk to earth and meets back with the reader and just something that will get me to stop crying everytime someone says Infinity War

Authors Note: i am so sorry that this took me so long to write（>﹏<）please forgive me! im kinda still trying to get all my requests done just pls everyone just be patient with me cuz I AM SO SLOW! i also took an idea of what (i think) the russo brothers said happened to Brunnhilde. i hope u guys like this its my first loki fic and i tried my hardest. so pls feedback is much appreciated, thnx and enjoy!

“No Loki...I won’t leave you,” tears streaming down your face. Your hands grasping on tightly to Loki, your significant other, shoulders.

Asgard was destroyed, but you and a couple of others had rescued the people of Asgard. As you all were heading to your new home, Earth, an unknown ship appeared. When you all figured out it was the most powerful enemy known to mankind, Thanos, the whole ship was chaos. Many Asgardians sending distress calls to anyone who would listen. Children scared and sobbing, afraid, mothers trying to soothe them, but you knew they were also in fear. Some wanted to fight, but you and almost everyone on that ship knew Thanos could kill everyone. Thor gave an idea that a few people, because of the only few mini ships they had, could escape, so that Thanos would not wipe out all of Asgard. Brunnhilde was the leader of helping some Asgardians escape. Ushering and sending orders.

“Y/n...listen to me. You need to get off this ship, if you stay you will die,” Loki whispered to you, he tried to sound strong but you noticed his hands were shaking. His hands were placed on your cheeks, wiping the tears away.

“I don’t want to leave without you. What if-,” you swallowed a sob. “What if you get killed, Loki? What will I do without you?”

Loki chuckled, “Love, you do realize who you are talking to, right?”

“Loki this isn’t a game! The most ruthless being is outside this ship as we speak and you want to joke about it!”

Just then a loud bang was heard, and all the Asgardians ran around panicking. Thor sent out a few warriors to go fight and see the commotion.

“They’re here,” you breathed.

“My darling...you need to leave now. Please, listen to me,” Loki raised his voice, pushing you to Brunnhilde’s side.

“NO! Loki, please, I can’t leave you. We are one! If you die so will I! I can’t let you fight by yourself.”

“My love...there is no other way. Remember our time together,” Loki gently lifted your hand and laced his fingers with yours. “Remember us laughing, remember us crying, remember our magnificent love. For if I was any good enough for a second chance, we shall meet in Valhalla.”

“I love you Loki,” you sob as you embrace him, and kiss him goodbye. You put your forehead together with his and whisper, “may we meet in Valhalla.”

Brunnhilde sprinted to your side and grabbed you by the shoulders, “Alright y/n, its time to get it.”

You walked side by side with her and looked back to see Loki. Loki looked lost as his puppy eyes stared at you. He looked as if he wanted to shout your name so as you could rejoin him. He looked as if he would never see you again, that all that he is about to fight for is for nothing. It was as if his heart was taken away, ripped right through his chest.

“Goodbye...my darling,” Loki whispered and ran the opposite direction.

You were led to a tight ship, filled with many Asgardians. The ship started and all of you blasted away to a destination. You sat next to Brunnhilde to help her pilot the ship. You turned around to see if maybe you could spot Loki but all you saw was destruction. More tears came out like a waterfall. Deep in your heart you knew that you were to never see Loki again.

You straighten your posture and put your focus to the space in front of you. “Where are we going now?”

“Earth,” Brunnhilde said, tears also coming out of her eyes. You could hear a slight sniffling coming from her. “We need to warn the midgardians about Thanos.”

“I think they might already know.”

As your rescue ship heads towards Earth, the Asgardian ship suddenly explodes.

“NO! No...this can’t be happening! Please tell me he’s okay, that he escaped,” you asked to everyone, searching for a reassuring answer that he was fine, that he did make it out. But everyone just gave you a saddened look, all hope vanished, sucked out of the room. All the tears you tried to keep in suddenly rushed out. Your sobs were the only noise in the ship. You could tell some felt bad for you. The floor was covered in your own depressing tears, all of life that moment was ripped out of you. The moment that Loki died a piece of you went with him.

You stood up, your hands turning into violent knuckles. Your nails digging harshly into your skin, blood being created from that. “I will avenge you Loki Odinson, god of mischief,” you paused to cry some more, “my...god...my...love...I will avenge your death. I will make sure all those who hurt you pay.”

Brunnhilde nodded and set the ship to Earth. After the enemy.

You all landed on Earth more towards the city and to Tony Stark to warn him about Thanos. You wanted to hear his plan and if he didn’t have one then you would discuss something with him. To save humanity.

“Thank you Brunnhilde. But just as Thor ordered you and trusted you to protect the Asgardians...I am going to go my own way-”

Brunnhilde interrupted, “Y/n, I understand you are sad and scared because...I am too. All my nightmares are coming true and I don’t know what to do-”

You brought her to you and hugged her tightly. The hug in your mind was from Thor, Bruce, and all those Valkyries who were watching her from Valhalla and cheering her on. Your tears fell on her shoulder.

“Yes...Brunnhilde...I am scared, in fact I have never been more frightened than this. But these people, now your people, are more scared. They trust you and you are their only hope. I trust you, girl, you got this. You are the most incredible fighter I have ever seen. Keep that in your heart and use it. Try to find a hide out and keep them,” you say as you point to the Asgardians. “Safe. Protect them with your life...my friend...Brunnhilde.”

She nodded, and announced to the others to follow her to safety.

“I do hope to see you again, y/n.”

You bid your goodbye and left.

You called Tony and met up with him. You felt so bad to interrupt his non-violent life for the time. He was trying you can tell to be normal to focus on his life rather than others.

“Hey Tony,” you waved and try to give a smile, but it backfired on you. Your face was written with worry. “I heard the famous Tony Stark has gotten engaged you chuckled. At least a little sunshine, a little good news came out of this reunion. “It was about dam* time. Wish I could of seen it.”

Tony gave you his millionaire smile seeing you, his long time friend. You were by his side since Loki tried to take down New York. “It's really good to see you too, y/n.”

You went to pepper and gave her a hug as well as Tony. “You guys look...happy…,” you said feeling guilty.

“Y/n, what's wrong,” Pepper asked panic setting in.

“Great y/n, you’re ruining their lives,” you thought to yourself.

“Oh, guys, I don’t even know where to start,” you began sobbing over again. Your knees meeting the soft green grass of the park. “Thor, and Loki, and the ship, and Brunnhilde, and Bruce. I tried, they’re gone, I was so scared, I just,” you realized you were currently have a panic attack. Everything now was starting to affect you mentally. You all were going to die. There was no way out of this. Your breathing was heavy and you felt you were being suffocated. The world was getting tinier, darker.

“Y/n,” Tony got down to you. “Y/n, you have to breathe for me. Come on breathe for me, please.”

You started to do breathing exercises with Tony. Those breathing exercises would come handy, you just knew it. Finally, you got control of yourself to be in a normal state.

“I’m sorry, its just. I feel so empty, and lost.”

Tony hugged you and suddenly Dr. Strange appeared. He told both you and Tony to go with him, because he had to show you two something.

You were more nervous to find out if this something that Stephen wanted to show you guys was another pile of bad news.

As you walked into the portal that Strange created with his string ring you saw Bruce.

“Bruce,” you shouted as you sprinted towards him. Greeting him with a rough embrace.

“Hey y/n, good to see you too. Are you okay?”

Your arms, still wrapped tightly around his shoulders, squeezed tighter, “No, I’m not okay. But I’m happy you’re alive, was there any chance that maybe…”

You stopped hugging Bruce and returned your hands to your sides. You knew that Loki would not be alive. It was just pointless asking.

“Now why the long face,” came a familiar soft voice.

You lifted your head and turned around seeing the one and only Loki.

“Loki!”

Running as fast as your legs could take you, you hopped right onto him. You and Loki fell back and you hugged him the hardest ever. You were like a snake, your arms were aching from all the strength you put. You were just so overjoyed to see him here, alive, with you.

“Oh my god, I thought I would never see you again. I was frightened Loki, I was so scared that you had died. But now you’re here, alive, its, it's a miracle my love!”

“Oh my dear sweet darling, I am terribly sorry to have you frightened. All I wanted to do was keep you safe and sound. My heart broke in two when I saw you weeping, I also weeped.”

You cried some more, having your bodies against each other. To hear and feel his heartbeat was incredibly comforting and in his arms you felt safe.

Loki wiped your tears away and kissed lightly your cheeks, “Oh my love, please don’t cry. I hate to see you in such a state.”

“Loki, I’m just so happy to see you alive. I thought you were gone and now my life, my world you’re here. I never want to be away from you again. We fight Loki...together,” you declared lacing your fingers with his pale white fingers.

“My job, love, is to always protect you. Without that what good am I?” “I will protect you as well Loki, with every fiber of my body I will protect you...I love you so much Loki,” you embraced him again.

“As do I love you, sweetheart. Forever,” Loki whispered as he kissed you. A passionate kiss that set your whole body in flames. Now you and Loki would have to prepare yourselves for the battle. The battle of Thanos.

[sweater--child]

The Voltron Thing

I don't often talk about Voltron. I think I only have the one post on it, and really the post more addresses the archetypal look for the moody character in basically everything (I'm talking about Nico di Angelo and Keith looking incredibly similar). I do watch Voltron, and for the most part enjoy it. I don't post about it because, to be completely honest, the majority of the fandom is very toxic and just kind of terrifying. If you want to disagree, I want to remind you that I was once told to kill myself for saying Keith was my favorite character (I've got a thing for broken boys with daddy issues, bite me) and have been repeatedly verbally abused for saying that I thought Pidge's gender was up for interpretation. I also once had a girl rant and scream at me (about how klance was superior after I mentioned that for the most part I'm a multishipper) until I literally had an anxiety attack. And of course, these are just some of the things I have personally experienced. That's not including the many shipping wars (which I've seen have included accusations of pedophilia, death threats, homophobic/transphobic remarks and accusations, etc.), the verbal abuse of actors and writers, the verbal abuse of other fans, death threats towards fandom creators and towards the original creators, and blackmail. Fucking blackmail. My point is I don't normally touch the Voltron fandom or go any where near it. BUT after watching the newest season and after repeated messages with /demands/ (not asking or requesting- but demanding) and several threats (like seriously? What the actual fuck guys, calm down its a cartoon), I will talk about some of the issues I have with the newest season.

Also- this thing is weird and rambly because I'm not gonna put more effort into this. I made this purely because it was demanded and to address some issues, not with the show but with everything going on around the show.

Spoilers, you've been warned.

We're gonna start with the thing that has broken flipping tumblr, Adam. To be honest, I stay away from most of the side content and promotional material and prefer to let the show speak for itself. However, the adashi/shadam ship blew up everywhere (seriously, I couldn't go on Instagram for weeks without seeing it) and I finally tracked down the information because I was major league confused on where nerdy boy appeared from. Adam's death wasn't what I was expecting, but it happened? Would I have loved to see him alive and have a happy Shiro for once? Yes. Am I going to attack the creators and accuse them of homophobia? No. To be honest: I'm holding my judgment on Adam and Shiro until after Season 8 (and yes, I do plan to watch season 8) BECAUSE we don't know what they have planned. Knowing the creators and the style of Voltron, I do think we will be getting more of Shiro and Adam's backstory and more of their relationship pre-Kerberos. I think the major thing I was disappointed by was the lack of confirmation from the show itself on the nature of Shiro and Adam's relationship, but again, I'm waiting for season 8 to make my conclusion on the adashi situation.

The thing that bothered me: the randomly thrown in hetero ships. Has there been teasing for klance? Yes, but to be honest, I never actually expected them to confirm it. I don't expect klance to become canon. And I'm okay with that, I'm a mature adult and I can enjoy my ships without them being canon. No need to blackmail people or harass them. No need to send pointed tweets or nasty emails. (Am I salty? Yes.) (And honestly, I'm more interested in Keith and Lance's individual chracter developments than their love lives.) Hell, I don't even care if they date other people. What bothered me was the thrown in ships. This is a thing a lot of shows do that I have complained about time and again. They kinda go 'oh shit, need love interest. Hey this persons single! They'll be perfect!' And then throw then together in the most awkward way. Acxa got the redemption she fucking deserved! And then they threw her and Keith together. Allura has been ignoring Lances flirty nature all this time, but oh no the show is ending soon and Lotors gone. I'm not gonna flip out though (it's a cartoon, not the end of the world). However, I will summarize my thoughts in this: If a show decides to disregard a hinted at queer couple in favor of 2 hetero couples, at least let them make sense and have actual tension. BUT I say this knowing that there is 1 more season and this relationships have not been fully confirmed. Do I think klance will be canon? Probably not. But I hope for a more open ended solution, without confirmed relationship in which the viewer what they believed happened.

Now this is where people are going to call me out and retaliate saying that I don't care about media representation- in which you would be wrong. I'm not going to sit and defend myself about this, because you probably don't know me and I owe you nothing. I would love for more queer representation- I would love for more queer couples. Yes, Adam died, but I don't think it was meant to be anything more than a tool for Shiro's growth and it falls in line with Shiro's story line. I do not believe it was meant to in any way be a message about lgbt couples or individuals. Adam was just meant to be a casualty of war to make the show more impactful.

Do I think there has been queer baiting? Yes and no. Klance has been hinted at and talked about and there was a lot of hype about Adam. Being fair- a lot of these came from the fandom? Shiro's given a boyfriend we know nothing about and the fandom blows up and dies. Every time Keith are seen together on screen or in promotional material people screech about Klance. Shiro is shown in promotional material with Adam because leaving Adam behind only to return and find him fucking dead is huge to his development- it's promotional material meant to draw you in so you wnat to know more. Keith and Lance are shown a lot. Well: 1. Most recognizable characters, 2. Have had major character development and have at times been the main driving plot of the show, 3. To someone who has some how been unaware of the Voltron disaster over the last couple years, showing them the shows 2 pretty boys is gonna draw them in. I don't think it has been purposeful 'queer baiting'.

And, if we're going to talk about the representation issues, let's talk about how the fandom represents themselves. Cause you know if I wasn't part of the queer community and didn't know a whole lot about the community and only saw queer kids harassing adults on social media, blackmailing companies, and sending threatening emails over a gay couple, I wouldn't be thinking too highly of the queer community. And then that puts creators in a bad position because if they give in? Theyre just catering to these people. If they don't? They're homophobic and enforcing heteronormativity. Like wtf did you expect? I constantly wonder what this show could have been if the creators weren't having to deal with such a toxic fandom. When you do these things you are representing yourself, your age group, the fandom, and the queer community. You are a representation worse than this show could ever be.

Which leads me to my biggest complaint: the fandom. Obviously, ive already touched on this (a lot), but my god, is it bad. I go on Twitter and see tweets to Lauren, and thw actors. I see people with pictures of long, threatening emails. I see kids, and yes I'm saying kids because everytime I look its someone between the ages of 13 and 16, making scathing remarks and accusing people of being homophobic. Not even talking about the crap that's happened in previous years and seasons, this fandom disgusts me. I woke up this morning to fucking messages with demands that I talk about this. I know and follow so many creators who refuse to create for the Voltron fandom because it's so endlessly toxic. I don't know if you think you're cool or powerful or whatever for accusing and threatening but you're not. You just look stupid for throwing a fit over a cartoon originally aimed at kids. Also like saying youre not gonna watch the last season because you didnt get the ending you wanted? Really?

I had more to say but I'm done. This whole post has put me in a bad mood but I'm going to leave with this: if you really cared about lgbt representation or lgbt rights, you wouldn't be complaining about a cartoon to a bunch of people just doing their jobs. You're just upset the show didn't go how you wanted, get over it. I'm sick of seeing people attacked for nothing. Y'all are toxic and need to learn some manners.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (3 of 6)

Carrying on with our series of reviews for episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, here’s a third instalment of episodes from the show’s fifth season.

Episode 11: Hero Worship

Plot (as given by me):

The Enterprise is sent to locate a research ship called the Vico and locates the vessel adrift just outside the Black Cluster, the region the Vico had been assigned to explore. The ship is heavily damaged, and Commander Riker leads Lt. Commanders Data and La Forge on an away mission to recover all logs from the ship’s computer. Having previously detected no life signs from the Enterprise, the away team is surprised when they find a young boy named Timothy is still alive aboard the Vico, albeit trapped by debris.

 As the debris and hull plating around the room where Timothy is trapped blocks transport, Data surmises that through his android strength, he can lift the debris to free the boy.  However, this would cause imminent structural collapse, so Riker and La Forge beam back first, giving Data the time and freedom to move the debris and get Timothy to the corridor.  The pair are beamed directly to sick bay, where Timothy claims the ship was attacked. Some initial evidence seems to support this, as the gravitational wave-fronts inside the Black Cluster would hamper sensor effectiveness, and the damage is consistent with disruptor-style weaponry and Breen combat tactics.

 However, La Forge notes the evidence is inconsistent with Timothy’s story about the ship being boarded, and Counsellor Troi suggests the boy could be repressing the true events due to trauma; as he processes what happens, he may volunteer the truth of his own accord.  Troi asks Data to help, as Timothy seems to have bonded with his rescuer. Data agrees, and when Timothy learns Data is incapable of feeling emotion, he begins to pretend he is also an android, emulating Data’s mannerisms and pretending to have no emotions either.  Troi explains to Captain Picard that Timothy will only assume the android persona until he feels emotionally strong enough to do without it, and that they should encourage it to help the boy along. Picard orders Data to help Timothy “be the best android he can possibly be.”

 As Data helps Timothy, the Enterprise enters the Black Cluster to investigate further what happened to the Vico. Sensor reflections and a refraction effect when the ship’s phasers are fired quickly reveals that the Vico could not have been attacked as Timothy described. The boy is brought to the Captain’s Ready Room, where he claims he’d caused the ship’s destruction by accidentally hitting a control panel. Picard, Data and Troi all explain that the control consoles on all starships are designed to require a user code before the controls can do anything. Because of this, Timothy could not have accidentally affected anything on the Vico, and as such the truth of what happened to that ship is still unexplained.

 The discussion is interrupted by the increasing gravitational waves, which are growing in intensity and battering the Enterprise. Timothy’s recollections of what happened on the Vico give Data an idea, and he swiftly determines the cause and solution of the problem. Data urges Picard to lower the shields, and Picard obeys, which causes the growing gravitational wavefronts to dissipate. Apparently, Timothy’s recollections enabled Data to theorise that both the Vico and the Enterprise experienced a harmonic amplification effect; the more power that each ship put into their shields, the worse the gravitational wavefronts became, resulting in the Vico’s destruction.  The Enterprise leaves the Black Cluster, and Timothy remains friends with Data even after abandoning his android persona.

Review:

For me, this episode is a very good episode, but it’s also very mis-titled.  When the boy Data rescues begins emulating him, that’s not an ‘oh wow, this guy is so cool, I want to be just like him’ reaction.  If it was, then the episode title would make sense.  What he’s actually doing is thinking ‘ok, I feel bad because my parents are dead and I think it’s my fault, so I’ll pretend to be this emotionless robotic being so I can avoid that pain.’  That’s not hero worship, that’s a form of demand avoidance, albeit in this case avoiding dealing the emotions of a traumatic event rather than an activity of some kind.  It’s an interesting idea to explore, don’t get me wrong, but I think the episode needed a title that was a bit more on-target; something like “trauma” or “mistaken guilt” would have worked better.  It’s also interesting to see Data be emulated rather than doing the emulating for once, while at the same time Troi gets a chance to do really well as ship’s counsellor and co-own this episode with Data.

 Timothy’s mistaken belief that he is responsible for what happens to his ship is also a great example of a fallacy of reasoning that was the title of an early episode of later drama series The West Wing. That flawed reasoning is post hoc, ergo proctor hoc, or translated to English, after it, therefore because of it. The reasoning assumes that if one event occurs after another event, it was cause by that preceding event. However, this reasoning is highly flawed, often because the true cause is often harder to find and overlooked. In this case, Timothy assumes that because his hand hit a control panel just before his ship was destroyed, he was responsible, but had he been more well-versed in starship operations, he would have known his actions couldn’t possibly have been responsible.

 It’s a method of reasoning politicians will often trick members of the public into using when those politicians have screwed something up and don’t want to take the blame.  Too much money going out in benefits?  Blame immigrants rather than the uber-wealthy who fail to cough up their fair share of tax money through loopholes in tax law.  Too much crime?  Blame addicts despite the fact that a) politicians cut spending on police forces, b) they also cut funds to education that could help steer young people away from gang and drug culture, and c) addiction is a medical issue and our NHS is also being targeted by cut-happy politicians.  As with the case of Timothy in this episode, such real-world examples of this kind of reasoning are counter-productive; only when you bother to look at the actual cause of a problem instead of the assumed cause and find an actual solution is the problem solved.  Too bad that in real-life, no one in charge of solving problems actually wants to do so.  For me, this episode gets 9 out of 10; with a better title, I’d have given it full marks.

Episode 12: Violations

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise conveys a delegation of Ullians to Calder IV. Tarmin, their leader, explains that Ullians are telepathic historians who conduct their research by retrieving long forgotten memories, and demonstrating this on volunteers by helping Keiko O'Brien recall a lost childhood memory, and revealing Dr Crusher is thinking about her first kiss. Tarmin continues to explain their abilities that require years of training, and his son Jev, also part of the delegation, has not yet reached his potential. Jev is upset at this implication and leaves. Counsellor Troi follows and talks to him, pointing out that her own mother is also quite overbearing. After finding a common bond, Troi leaves for her quarters. While there, she recalls a romantic interlude with Commander Riker, but as the memory gets more intense, Riker begins to assault Deanna, ignoring Deanna's screams of "No!". Suddenly, Riker is replaced by Jev. Troi screams out in pain and collapses, later to be found in a coma.

 Riker speaks to Jev as the last person seen talking to Troi, and asks if he would submit to medical tests to make sure the Ullians do not carry any harmful toxins or pathogens. Jev agrees, but later Riker suffers from a similar flashback and also collapses. Dr Crusher's tests reveal nothing, but her scans of Troi and Riker show an electropathic activity typical of a rare neurological disorder, Iresine Syndrome. However, the doctor rules this out as the disorder would produce a low histamine count, and the counts for Troi and Riker are normal. Captain Picard asks the Ullians if they would allow for further scanning, which Tarmin agrees to. None of the Ullians, nor any of their volunteers during the demonstration, show this disorder. Later, Dr Crusher succumbs to a similar flashback, and Picard asks Lt. Commanders Data and La Forge to continue the investigation. Following Dr Crusher's research, Geordi looks to other cases of Iresine Syndrome in Federation records, eventually discovering two that occurred on Hurada III while a Ullian delegation was present. Picard requests the Ullians to confine themselves to quarters until they resolve the issue.

 Troi wakes from her coma, and when news of this arrives to Jev, he requests to help probe Troi's mind to find out what happened. Picard allows it, and with Jev's help, Troi recounts the memory, ending with the replacement of Riker by Tarmin. Jev asserts that for his people, forcefully inserting oneself into a memory is a crime, and contacts his homeworld to let them know of Tarmin's crime. As they near their destination, Jev comes to say goodbye to Troi, apologizing for his father. When Troi offers sympathy, Jev engages another mind probe, causing the same memory to occur for Troi. Just then, security personnel arrive and take Jev into custody; Data and La Forge had discovered two additional instances of unexplained comas on Nel III, and that Tarmin was on his home planet at that time. As the Enterprise sets course for the Ullian homeworld, Tarmin is cleared, and Riker and Dr Crusher recover from their comas.

Review:

This is a much better stab at tackling the issue of rape than I’ve seen many shows do, and it certainly helps the show redeem the insensitivity with which the same issue is handled back in the second season opening episode “The Child”.  Granted, it’s all done psychically rather than physically, and one could perhaps argue that this makes the episode very strictly metaphoric, but I disagree.  Granted, in the real world telepathy does not exist, but through the application of various tools of mental manipulation in unethical manners, it could well be possible to trick victims into situations where they are subject to mental abuse that could be the psychological equivalent of rape.

 It’s also great to see that this episode acknowledges the act of rape for what it is, namely a form of violence.  Because rape is sometimes also known as sexual assault, many are given the misconception that rape is still somehow a sexual act.  It’s not; sex is about mutual pleasure, either for its own sake or as an expression of romantic love.  Rape is about violence, about the misapplication of a need for control/domination through the victimisation of others.  In addition, Riker’s taken down by this psychic rape analogue along with Troi and Crusher, which highlights that it’s not just women who can be rape victims, while at the same time still keeping women as the majority of the victims in line with the reality of the issue.

 The only real issue I have with the episode is that we as an audience know who the rapist is right from the teaser at the earliest, and from the first attack at the latest.  The look on Jev’s face just before the opening title sequence roles betrays the rapist lurking within, and his face shows up in every single memory invasion.  As a result, it’s hard to buy into Jev’s claim that his father is supposed to be the psychic rapist; the earlier scenes where Tarmin is being outwardly pushy aren’t enough for me to buy that alternate explanation, and the reveal is too soon within the run-time to be the solution.  Overall, I give this episode 8 out of 10.

Episode 13: The Masterpiece Society

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise has been assigned to the Moab sector to track a stellar core fragment from a disintegrated Neutron star. They find the fragment is due to pass near Moab IV, threatening a human colony on the planet. On contacting the colony to arrange for evacuation, its leader Aaron Conor refuses, though allows an away team down to discuss the matter. Conor explains that the colony was formed 200 years prior to create a perfect society using genetic engineering and selective breeding, and he and the other leaders feel that evacuation would destroy the perfect order they have achieved. They discuss other alternatives and Enterprise Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge is introduced to Hannah Bates, the colony’s lead scientist in theoretical physics. Bates proposes using a multi-phase tractor beam, powered by the Enterprise's warp core, to push the fragment from its path, which La Forge agrees would be a possible solution. After some deliberation, Bates is allowed to leave the colony to the Enterprise to oversee the process. Meanwhile, Deanna Troi and Conor start to develop a romantic attraction as they try to convince the other leaders that evacuation is the best option.

 Aboard the Enterprise, Bates' solution is found to be effective, but the equipment required is damaged too quickly to be used. La Forge recognizes her solution could be augmented with similar technology that enables his VISOR to operate, allowing the equipment to last long enough to manipulate the fragment safely away from Moab IV. La Forge comments that this solution wouldn't be possible in the current colony's manner of perfection as “imperfections” like blindness would have been outright eliminated. As they continue simulations, they find that the solution is not perfect, but La Forge suggests that they reinforce the colony's shielding during the fragment's passing, allowing the colony to survive the fragment's passage. Conor initially refuses as this would require more Enterprise personnel to transport to the colony, and he fears cultural contamination, but relents when Troi convinces him this is the only solution. The Enterprise is able to push the fragment far enough that the colony appears to be safe.

 As the other Enterprise crew return to the ship, La Forge and Bates check on the status of the colony shielding. Bates reports there are microfractures that will soon fail, and recommends full evacuation. La Forge, having not seen these on his VISOR, recognizes that Bates falsified the readings, as she wishes to leave with the Enterprise, recognizing that the colony has languished behind the technological improvements of the Federation. Admitting her lie, she requests asylum aboard the Enterprise. Several other colonists express their desire to leave. Troi brings Captain Picard to the colony to discuss the matter with Conor. Though Picard recognizes that the colony's society will be altered by agreeing to asylum, he cannot refuse this request as a fundamental right of human free will. Conor reluctantly agrees, and allows Bates and 22 other colonists to leave with the ship. As they leave orbit, Picard comments how this affair is a clear example of the necessity of the Prime Directive; the intervention of the Federation to save the colonists may have, in the end, proved just as dangerous to the colony as any core fragment could ever have been.

Review:

This is a good episode not only for exploring the issue of genetic engineering and Eugenics, but also for pointing out how fundamentally stupid the latter concept is.  One of the many things I remember from my science lessons in school were the words of Charles Darwin, that the strength of nature is in its diversity. The whole reason why Earth has such a variety of life, and why humans are in turn so diverse in and of ourselves, is to enable it to survive.  Wipe out a certain type of life form from the planet, and it wreaks havoc on all the other life.  Wipe out a given racial type from within humanity or any other species, take its number and its genetic diversity too low, and you risk the loss of certain antibodies, or even a lack of sufficient genetic diversity, either of which can result in endangerment or extinction.

 This is seen in the colony featured in this episode; the people and their environment have been made to depend on each other by design in a similar way to how life on Earth is inter-connected and inter-dependent.  Remove enough pieces from the design and the whole thing gets ruined.  In addition, it’s clear from how Benbeck behaves in general and how Bates initially treats Geordi that genetic engineering hasn’t ‘improved’ the people at all.  They’ve each just been pre-programmed to be good at one thing, and in the process, they’ve become anti-disability bigots.  If that’s what genetic engineering would do to humanity, I for one would want any scientist even theorising such changes to be shot, hung, electrocuted or otherwise executed.  As much as the idea of being to work what you’ll do with your life from an early age and then do it brilliantly has a slight appeal, I’d sooner keep hold of an aimless and often incompetent humanity than trade away any hope of humanity getting better at accepting those who aren’t regularly abled.

 Geordi’s line to Hannah is perfect in this regard; when she claims it was the wish of those who founded the colony that no one there should have to ‘suffer’ a life with disability, Geordi retorts “who gave them the right to decide whether or not I might have something to contribute?” This is exactly how everyone who is differently abled must feel at some time or another dealing with the regularly abled world, especially when they start talking about ‘curing’ us, like we’re some kind of disease.  We’re not a disease, we’re people, and being differently abled gives us unique perspectives that add to humanity’s potential and advancement, as Geordi proves when the technology of his visor ends up being what solves the whole problem. Just goes to show that the only people who ever truly blind are those who fail to see value in those of us who are different.

 The one thing spoiling the episode for me is Picard showing regret at mucking up the colony through their interference. While that does gain some plus-points in that it speaks to the idea that humanity needs to leave nature well enough alone more often than not, we’re talking about a colony of anti-disability bigots.  Far as I’m concerned, the Enterprise should muck it up one way or another, and since they didn’t leave well enough alone on the stellar core fragment, dragging these genetically engineered throwbacks out of their moronic ignorance serves just as well. Overall, I give this episode 8 out of 10.

Episode 14: Conundrum

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

After being scanned by an unknown alien spaceship, the Enterprise crew discover that their memories, along with those of the ship's computer, have been partially erased. Although they retain their practical knowledge and skills, none of the crew can remember who their crewmates are, and have forgotten their own identities. Mysteriously, during the scan, an additional crewmember, in an officer's uniform and with the rank of commander, has joined the group on the bridge.

 The bridge crew attempts to gain control of the situation, and Worf, wearing his baldric, assumes because he is decorated that he is the captain of the ship, and assumes command. Data, with the memory files identifying who he is unavailable, and based on where he was when the scan happened, assumes the job of bartender in Ten Forward.

 After considerable time, the ship's computer memory is finally reached, and La Forge brings up the manifest of the senior staff members. Among the bridge crew is listed the mysterious new member who is identified as Commander Kieran MacDuff, the executive officer. The computer also reveals what is apparently the Enterprise's mission: According to the orders, the Enterprise is part of a fleet of vessels fighting a decades-old war with the Lysians. Their current assignment is to destroy the Lysian central command headquarters, which they are to do while maintaining communications silence. Worf apologises to Picard for taking over but is assured he and the rest of the crew were simply doing their best.

 In the meantime, Ensign Ro concludes that she and Commander Riker are likely romantically connected, and pursues this relationship. The two had been bickering about rank and proper procedure prior to the memory loss. Meanwhile Deanna Troi also realizes she has feelings for the commander and finds evidence which supports their past relationship.

 Doctor Crusher works to restore the memories of the crew, a process complicated when it's found that the medical records for the crew have been destroyed. She tries an experimental procedure on MacDuff, who apparently reacts poorly to the treatments, but later smiles when Crusher turns away.

 Continuing toward the target, the Enterprise encounters a Lysian ship, which is easily destroyed. Picard becomes concerned with how mismatched the firepower of the Enterprise is compared to her supposed enemies. Picard complains to MacDuff that he feels as though he has been given a weapon, taken into a room and told to shoot a stranger. Ultimately, when faced with the Lysian central command, drastically incapable of fighting them off and with 15,311 people on board, Picard calls off the mission, stating that he does not fire on defenceless people. Angered by this action, MacDuff attempts to take control of the Enterprise throwing Lt Worf across the bridge when Worf attempts to restrain him. Riker then fires a phaser at MacDuff, revealing that MacDuff is some manner of alien. MacDuff struggles to activate the ship's weapons, but Riker and Worf defeat him by simultaneously firing their phasers at him causing him to collapse.

 D. Crusher is able to restore memories to the crew. The alien is identified as a Satarran, who are at war with the Lysians so they plotted to hijack the Enterprise and tilt the war in their favor.

 Riker remains uneasy when he encounters Troi and Ro in the Ten Forward bar. Troi claims his actions resulted from subconscious desires and curtly informs him that "if you're still confused tomorrow, you know where my office is."

Review:

Compared to “Future Imperfect” and “Clues”, this episode is a better use of the concept of amnesia to throw our characters a curve ball because it’s using it more extensively.  “Future Imperfect” didn’t really use amnesia per se; it was just an excuse to explain why Riker couldn’t remember an ideal-ish future that was actually a holodeck program of sorts.  Likewise, “Clues” only erased memories covering a very short space of time. In this episode, who the characters are gets shoved right out the mental airlock, and it’s fun to see how they try and work their way back to themselves.  The change in the Ro-Riker relationship that creates a love triangle between the two of them and Troi is probably the most amusing concept out of the lot, albeit a predictable use of the whole ‘sexual attraction disguised as antagonism’ cliché if you go by the pre-amnesia relationship between Riker and Ro.

 The biggest problem is the addition of the alien who claims to be Commander MacDuff; just by his presence alone combined with the amnesia, you know the two will be linked, and the solution is given away pretty much the moment the fake mission gets revealed.  There’s no climax or suspense, and most of the characters return to who they should be despite a lack of memories too quickly.  As a result, the more interesting use of amnesia is undermined by this less-than-brilliant execution.  For me, the episode only racks up an end score of 7 out of 10.

Episode 15: Power Play

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise approaches Mab-Bu VI, a moon covered in electromagnetic storms, from where it has detected a distress call. Lt. Commander Data discovers that the distress call is standard for Daedalus-class starships, which went out of service 172 years ago. He then finds that the USS Essex, a Daedalus-class ship, was lost in the region over 200 years ago. After concluding that visiting a ghost ship with an away team in such hazardous conditions is a waste of resources, Captain Picard decides to move on and report the whereabouts of the once-missing ship. However, Counsellor Troi indicates that she feels a living presence on the surface. Data announces that electromagnetic interference prevent the use of the transporter to the moon; Picard authorizes a shuttlecraft mission, manned by Commander Riker, Data, and Troi.

 As the shuttlecraft travels towards the moon's surface, the crew loses control, and makes a crash landing. By the time the shuttle lands, all communication with the Enterprise has been cut off by electromagnetic interference. Riker has a broken arm due to the crash landing and the three crew members emerge from the shuttlecraft to learn about their surroundings. They observe the front of a massive electrical storm. A tricorder scan indicates EM bursts across the entire spectrum.

 Back on the Enterprise, the crew discuss rescuing the crew of the shuttle. Ro Laren uses the descent angle of the shuttlecraft to approximate the landing site. Transporter chief Miles O'Brien proposes that he should transport to the surface and use a pattern-enhancing device to allow a reliable transport of the away team. Lt. Commander La Forge cautions Picard that O'Brien's chance of surviving the transport is about fifty-fifty. O'Brien acknowledges the risk and Picard grants permission. O'Brien safely transports to Mab-Bu VI and prepares the transport procedure. While doing this, the crew is struck by what appear to be bolts of electricity, incapacitating all four members. Three light sources enter the bodies of Data, Troi, and O'Brien, and Riker awakens to finish the pattern buffers. All four are then safely transported back to the Enterprise.

 When they awaken, Data, Troi, and O'Brien insist that the Enterprise conduct a survey of the southern polar region of the moon. The rest of the crew refuse. The three then stage a violent uprising and take command of the ship. They use hostages as leverage to force Picard to change course. Dr Crusher determines that Riker was not affected because the pain from his broken arm repelled whatever force possessed the others. Troi, the leader of the mutineers, then reveals that she is the captain of the Essex. She claims that their spirits were trapped in the electromagnetic fields of the moon and if the Enterprise transports their bones back to Earth, they can be set free. However, Picard is sceptical of her claim because of their violent actions.

 La Forge, Crusher, and Ro devise a plan to separate the possessive entities from the crew members' bodies by inducing pain, then containing them by flooding the area with a particle field. However, the plan fails when Data suddenly moves out of the attack area. After Data threatens to kill everyone in the room, Picard agrees to comply with their demands. He tells Riker to let Data, Troi, and O'Brien move safely to one of the cargo bays. Picard, Worf, and Keiko O'Brien accompany them as hostages. After they arrive, Picard challenges Troi about her claim to be captain of the Essex and she reveals that the moon is a penal colony. O'Brien uses the transporter to beam hundreds of other prisoner entities into the cargo bay. These prisoners are to take over additional crew members' bodies so they can commandeer the Enterprise and return to their home planet.

 The bridge crew activates the particle field, which sequesters the other prisoners. They then prepare to blow the cargo bay hatch, which would kill the six crew members in addition to all the prisoners. Picard, Worf, and Keiko each declare that they are willing to die, which forces the three prisoners to relinquish their hosts. Worf beams all prisoners back to the moon. Data apologizes to Worf for the way he acted when possessed by a prisoner, adding that Worf must have exercised extreme self-control to not fight back. O’Brien is joyfully reunited with his wife and baby daughter.

Review:

This episode stands out for being ‘that one where Marina Sirtis did her own stunt and broke her coccyx’, as well as being perhaps an early prototype for the ‘make O’Brien suffer’ episodes of DS9 fame. Him revealing that he’d have killed the entity possessing him if he could, taken in context with how much O’Brien hates the Cardassians for forcing him to kill when he had to fight in the Federation-Cardassian war, shows this couldn’t have been an easy experience for the character.  However, aside from that, it’s another example of ‘actors playing their characters weird for weirdness’ sake, and again the solution is given away early.  The weird energy going into Data, Troi and O’Brien practically screams possession by an alien consciousness, Data’s actions afterwards telegraph the mutiny ahead of time, and if the behaviour of the possessing entities didn’t scream desperate escaping prisoners, I don’t know what does. For me, this episode is only worth 5 out of 10.

[keith-against-sheith]

@educating-antis

can you send me receipts about that incident bc this is literally the first time i’m hearing about it. this post is the first time anyone has personally come to me (this side) to boost anything, you know, rather than use extreme cases to fearmonger and derail actual discussions (like..how i said..in the op..that we just get radio silence except when you shaladins come here to tell us we’re bullies). I dont check up on shaladin accounts (and most antis dont bc we tend to want to avoid you guys).

“Most shaladins actively campaign against hate that’s what their accounts exist to do” same for antis yet many of the asks/submissions/responses we get are hate! next

“How many posts exist that say along the lines of ‘antis should die?’ A very small amount” I’m just wondering how much content antis receive do you actually see bc this seems to be a very one-sided view lol. do you want like an exhaustive list of how much hate/harassment antis get cuz you’d be waiting a while lol. it’s not just posts but asks, submissions, dms, and I don’t get how you can say we DON’T receive the hate we do when you’re not an anti.

also WHO are the fandom moms you are talking about? bc the only ones ive seen are shaladins/non-antis. could you link to evidence of predatory ppl pls? so i can actually do something? instead of just talking on my post about how bad and awful we are? this is literally the most useless response ive ever gotten.

“You were attacking her, harassing her.” the minor who had an issue with bex wasn’t attacking her. people were rightfully upset that she joked about a pedophilic ship—a ship that she said herself she doesn’t support in canon because it would be an inappropriate relationship and “shiro is not a sexual predator” and is not in a relationship with any of them. that’s in her words btw. AND she encouraged a sexual homophobic comment about a minor as well. people had a right to be angry with her, and with her platform/celebrity status she should’ve known not to react the way she did. she doesn’t deserve to get called a pedophile and other antis as well as myself have made posts about that for our own community. but what she did was not okay, and even she knew that when she tried to apologize. but still because of her that minor was sent death threats and harassed off of tumblr by who? shaladins. bex was NOT abused jfc for people who love to say we don’t know pedophilia is this is a laughable response.

and now “I have never seen a pedophile shaladin” ??? your entire community is built off of “it’s just fiction” and “don’t like don’t read” content/content-creator shielding rhetoric. guess who that protects? lol here are some examples: x / x / x

plus EVERY shaladin who interacts w sexual content of the underaged characters (ESP where they look really young/younger compared to shiro, don’t ignore that), EVERY shaladin who makes the “age of consent is 15 in X country” argument, “fictional child porn is just fictional” argument, “my parents got together when one was 15 and the other was 20″ argument, “as long as they’re post-pubescent it’s fine” argument—that is ALL predatory rhetoric/behavior. you’re telling us we’re watering down the definition of pedophilia when countless shaladins like to say anyone who hits puberty is suddenly eligible so it’s fine if a teenager dates someone in their twenties??? nasty. you guys refuse to examine the danger in age gap relationships if one or more person involved is in their teens so don’t tell us we don’t care about minors or survivors.

“You actively ignore when someone brings to light a real life case of pedophilia.” where??????? link me please??? or hey remember when i mentioned above when a shaladin called a CSA defense firm (a firm that defends pedophiles for a living) to confirm that child erotica is not in fact illegal #DiscourseEnded :)

this is literally hilarious that you’re telling ME that antis put fictional arguments over real people. that second to last paragraph is just a bunch of bullshit. your whole community is a cesspool that aids pedophiles and abusers and makes it easier for them to feel safe grooming kids because fandom has been brainwashing everyone with this ridiculous mantra of There’s Nothing Wrong With This Abusive Relationship If It’s Fictional. where criticism of fictional content/fandom behavior is suddenly harassment and the Good Old Days of fandom were when everyone could do whatever the fuck they want (i.e be racist/homophobic/consume pedophilic content/ship incest/etc etc etc). do you not see how dangerous that is? nowhere am i saying the anti community is perfect but shaladins fit perfectly in this whole “fandom is not your safe space/it’s just fiction” shithole where people like lohkay and todokaras and jakeira thrive and call kids stupid for being uncomfortable with pedophilic/abusive/etc content.

“Stop pretending you’re doing what you do for the greater good because it’s been shown time and time again when that was put to the test that all you actively care about is your ships and your petty arguments regarding other people’s” literally shaladins are the ones who pull all this shit out of their asses for the sake of a fictional ship. how’d you get that backwards lol. come back after you acknowledge the predatory arguments your side uses.

and yeah im 21, I’ve had more time to unlearn the gross hive mindset of Dont Like Dont Read that fandom is currently trying to break out of. Me being against glorified pedophilia/abuse/incest/etc. isn’t the problem here and I hope you can realize that.

[pldubrahs]

anyway, this has been a While coming and now im back in new orleans so LOTS OF GUSHING ABOUT THE LIGHTNING THIEF MUSICAL, UNDER THE CUT

the ambiance of the theater, dim and filled with soft storm sounds

this show does really beautiful things with overlapping singing and w harmonys and its So low budget but still so good and the cast is small but amazing and literally everyone but chris is cast into several roles and its just amazing

if u dont wanna read this whole thing, just scroll down to the end for a Special Surprise

ACT 1

the Bitter, Angry, Sad music, ltm is truly the Emo Rock Musical we deserve

i seriously almost fell out of my chair when chris mccarrell came out. he honest to god was SUCH a good percy, so fidgety and all his expressions were ON POINT

“CHROOONOOOOOOOS”

ms dodds in General she was hilarious for the literal 3 minutes she was onstage

the pen to sword transformation is literally just: chris hides the pen and grabs the sword from somewhere else onstage. during my show, in the ms dodds fight scene, the sword was on the back of chirons wheelchair and it got stuck so he had to trip after the chair as chiron wheeled off and TUG it off to fight

DID I MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVED CHRIS MCCARRELL AND HOW AMAZING HIS VOICE WAS? BECAUSE I DO AND IT W A S

sally is a BLACK WOMAN 

just in general, this show was Amazing at raceblind casting

sally sprayed febreeze after smelly gabe, like he leaned to look in the fridge and she stood behind him spraying febreeze directly at him for like 30 seconds

“he was handsome and strong and before too long- you came!” percy was roasting marshmallows and looking out towards the audience and sally was rubbing up and down the sides of her body during this before “you came!” and it was v funny

Strong in general was Great bc WOW IM LOVE THE “NORMALCY IS A SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED MYTH” MESSAGE

grover and percy meeting outside camp

“oh look a goat” “percy!”

“he met a furie” “youre all furry! what happened to your legs”

the v cute friendship bickering, overlapping voices thing that percy and grover v often did. this was the grover and percy friendship that we always needed

during the weird dream when he sees annabeth and hes like “gee whiz shes the most beautiful girl ive ever seen”

and then when he officially meets her after hes not out of it, he says “youre my dream girl!” and then backpedals and its great

ANOTHER TERRIBLE DAY. DEFFS ONE OF THE TOP FIVE SONGS. MR D IN GENERAL WAS JUST AMAZING, GEORGE SALAZAR ROCKED IT

he kicked the chair over so much and then there was a part after his camp halfblood intern thing left so his chair didnt get reset behind him and so he kicked into the air, got frustrated, and put the chair up himself

“of course, who am i to give relationship advice, im literally the god of alcohol”

“you can hate it here, but i HATED IT FIRST”

so so so many Soft sex jokes and bc im a Child i loved them 

chiron is just a guy galloping with a horse tail its the cutest thing and everyone laughed bc like imagine a kid galloping w their legs high and w/e, but on an adult and slow motion

“you’ll get used to mr d. he can be a bit... well, he hates children”

luke was Very attractive and ALSO he had a lot of chemistry w percy and w annabeth and i, who remembered shipping percy and luke back in my Youth, was Living

annabeth deffs had a crush on luke dont @ me

also luke was Softly bitter. like he sounded like a modern kid, bitter and upset but saying it in a joking way; totally makes sense that no one suspects that he’d do anything w chronos bc all the kids are upset and he doesnt get dark until the very end of the show

“are you ever going to wear pants again?” “Nope!”

luke: “havent you ever played capture the flag?” percy, excitedly: “not with swords!” *makes swooshy lightsaber noises* annabeth, suffering, full of regret: “It’s not a lightsaber.”

“sexist much?” “no, i love girls” [muffled luke and grover cackling in the background]

CLARISSE, LOVE OF MY LIFE! her song was so so good

im sure everyone has mentioned this but the LEAF BLOWERS BLOWING TOILET PAPER TO REPRESENT WATER LITERALLY CHANGED MY LIFE

the campfire song

percys Soft concern for annabeths story about running away “wait is that true”

grover starting to cry during his part

“my father is chronos.... remember my lecture, he ate his children””....... chiron wins”

APHRODITE'S DAUGHTER’S STORY “godess of love, my moms aphrodite... i bring home a boy and shes there in her nightie! oh nooooo” “she steals my mascara and all of my dates!” wonderful

percy sings nicely about his mother and everyones like “hes doing it wrong”

“we dont care where our parents may be, as long as you are here with me!” FRIENDSHIP MAKES ME EMO

“havent you noticed that there arent any other little sea godlings running around? any sons of hades or daughters of zeus? the big three gods arent supposed to have kids!” i loved this tiny easter egg i love my big three kids

“look at the boy, hes clearly not a thief!” “oh, yeah no yeah yeah yeah no no yeah yeah no yeah no, youre right! you cant fake being that stupid unless youre a brilliant actor, but im also the god of drama, so i can tell you HES NOT”

“his lightning?” “yeah, we're not talking some crummy tin foil zig zag from some off broadway play!”

GOOD KID IS EVEN BETTER LIVE THAN IT WAS ON THE RECORDING IT RUINED MY LIFE

Killer Quest! is an amazing end of act song and v upbeat and cute

“so where is the underworld actually” “look for doa records” “its a record company? actually, im not surprised”

ACT 2

WE’RE LOST IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE IN NEW JERSEY AND WE’RE NEVER GONNA MAKE IT TO LA

“half bloods to monsters smell like mickey ds, like tacos or take out vietnamese”

“dude are you talking to the squirrel?” “satyr powers, be nice. this squirrel knows every corner of the woods, maybe he can help us” “really? because i think that seems kind of nuts” [silence] “you hurt his feelings. tell the squirrel youre sorry.”

medusa in general, what a Good scene

ensemble members shaking maracas to make snake noises for her

medusa cant say “nemesis”

“ive done everything to prove to the gods that im the best and you- i mean, you dont even know how to hold a sword” “yes i do!, yes... i do...” “no, hands here *adjusts percys grip*” “i didnt ask for any of this: gods, monsters, quests- oh, wow, that is a lot easier”

my grand plan is the most annabeth chase song ever and i love it its such a good look into her character and i love her so much

“when boys mess up they always get another chance”

“cause most girl never win if theyre polite”

THE COMMENTARY ON HOW WOMEN HAVE TO BE IN TODAYS SOCIETY IN ORDER TO BE TAKE SERIOUSLY HELL YEAH

“the gods will think we’re impertinent” “we are impertinent”

the squirrel gave them three amtrak tickets

DRIVE IS A COUNTRY SONG AND I FUCKING LOVE IT IM HONESTLY SHOOK

i hate country except for this One Song

ITS ONE FOOT FORWARD AT A TIME; DUST OFF ALL THAT GRIT AND GRIME; WE STILL GOT A LOT LEFT TO DOOOO, CAUSE PEOPLE ARE COUNTIN ON US AND IM COUNTIN ON YOU! DRIIIIIIIIVE JUST DRIIIIiiiiiiiiIIIIIIVE STAY AHEAD STAY AHEAD STAY ALIIIIIIIVE

“is that chihuahua?” “its a chimera!”

“maybe if you hadnt brought all those dam snacks” “uh it was the hoover dam and i was hungry!”

ares drives them to las vegas and when they get there he says “this is where i... get off” and its HILARIOUS i love lowkey sex jokes

gentle easter egg to bianca and nico re: may 1st 1939

“the oracle can can it ill save my mom and savE THE PLANET!” im love percy so much

tREE ON THE HILL IS ABOUT THALIA AND IT MADE ME CRY GOD WHAT A GOOD SONG and grover feels like a failure and annabeth is like “no u saved my life ur a good friend and a good guardian <3 friendship”

THE FERRYMAN TO THE UNDERWORLD FLIRTS WITH GROVER

“you wanna hear my demo?” “uh-” [loud music plays] “im sorry i couldnt hear you over this SWEET ASS RIFF”

YOURE IN THE D.O.A. AND YOURE HERE TO STAY YEAH YOURE STUCK FOREVER NEVER GET AWAY NO HOPE FOR SURVIVAL YOURE DEAD ON ARRIVAL

“oh! do you have any josh groban?” “we will.” I CACKLED

DJ CEBERUS W A COOL 3-HEADED DEADMAU5 ESQUE MASK

the ferryman also attacks them all like “youre not gonna save the planet, you wont protect your friends, you wont be remembered”

everyone says this but “i think this pit is tartarus” “LIKE THE FISH SAUCE?”

“why would chronus want my shoes?” “they were really cool shoes”

bitter, sad hades who just wants people to stop thinking that hes the bad guy and for his brothers to come visit him

“one does not simply walk out of the underworld”

W H A T  B E L O N G S  T O  T H E  S E A  C A N  A L W A Y S  R E T U R N

small reprise of good kid as he considers hades offer and then the melody cHANGES and percy realizes that the seashell, a gift from a god, can SAVE THEM and its beautiful because SON OF POSEIDON IS A GOOD SONG

“maybe my dad was a screwup too, his best laid plans always falling through... maybe he never knew how to care but hey, thats life, and life aint fair... but i think my dad mayve thrown me a line, and better late than never, ill finally get a sign!”

its a good song kids

the kids get to the oceans and they FIGHT ARES and ares and percy are both singing, percy singing The Son Of Poseidon chorus and ares singing Put You In Your Place and its b e a u t i f u l

THE TOILET PAPER THROW- basically they bring in like 6 leafblowers w toilet paper rolls attached and the first five rows get covered in toilet paper. as someone who was in the fifth row, it was amazing

poseidon comes in, they have a Heart To Heart, he brings sally back to life, he flirts with sally, its hilarious and awkward

“the gods are unfair but we’re not total dicks”

percys like “you dont have to stay w gabe anymore” and sallys like “smh boy u cant solve all my problems. you saved my life, now i have to figure out how to live it”

he gives her medusas head

“what is this” “its a... do it yourself scupture kit” “oh! *begins to open it*” “no no no its, um, medusas head”

“well, as my official protector, you can officially escort us back to camp” “and youre conscience this time!”

chiron is also cast as poseidon so like he runs into the camp scene after a quick change and says “i hoofed it here as quick as i could!” 

last day of summer happens and w/e its cute but whAT REALLY MATTERS IS LUKES BETRAYAL: okay so the music slows and goes into the minor key and percys like “we still dont know whos working w chronos :/” lukes like “yeah it sucks” and he starts singing about how he doesnt trust the gods and how the gods hate them and how they need to take over the world and put the gods in their place--he and percy do their handshake fist-to-the-chest thing and luke is serious and percy does it but hes v confused and it Hurts. this is the first time in the show that luke sounds just Bitter and Angry instead of jokingly deprecating and its quite the effect

THE DARK GOOD KID REPRISE 

“ill do anything, i dont care if i hurt anyone, it doesnt pay to be a good kid, a good kid, a good son" GOD IT HURTS luke has so much pain and i feel so bad for him like yeah hes evil but,,, hes had a hard life

annabeth comes in and DISARMS LUKE but PSYCH luke has a small switchblade and STABS PERCY IN THE BACK (bc they cant use scorpions onstage)

percybeth moment interrupted by clarisse’s loud coughing and grover

percys like “we cant just sit here and wait for our parents to fix things.”

“the gods will say we’re impertinent” “we are impertinent” goddamn that symmetry

“are we ever gonna once have it easy?” my poor poor kids

percy- “feeling ready” annabeth- “feeling stoked” grover- “feeling queasy”

THE SEA DOESNT LIKE TO BE RESTRAINED

bring on the monsters is just a Good song

also hey if you got to the end of this, congrats! i have a ltm audio and either in a message or in an off-anon ask and ill hook u up

[wavemaker9]

also all the angsty ship questions for rustralia!! all or whichever ones you want. you're going down with me

i accept this sacrifice

sorry mobile people

1. do they have a lot of arguments? if so, over what?

they argue pretty rarely. if they do, it’s usually over basic shit. gender roles have been i think the thing they’ve really argued over the most? at least the pink crayon time but i feel there was another time. oh one time kyle and gil teased ivan about his written language and ivan got genuinely upset so kyle had to backpedal real fast and he actually apologized instead of doing his “learn how to take a joke” thing like he does with ludwig/gil. they make up pretty quickly if they do find something to fight about because they’re both so worried about seriously angering and pushing away the other

2. who apologizes first? in what way? is it hard for either of them to apologize?

whoops accidentally partially answered above. usually whoever started it probably. the one who upset the other is so worried they apologize as quickly as possible once they know the other is genuinely mad. usually they just say they’re sorry and how they didn’t mean to upset the other and give a lot of praise to the other as they can. prob not hard at all because it’s harder for the other to stay mad at them

3. which one has more insecurities? over what?

they both have so many. i guess i picture kyle having slightly more. that may be because kyle assumes the same, but basically like since he’s younger and doesn’t express his issues as much as ivan does so they build up. kyle still hasn’t learned how to deal with a lot of the shit ivan has with his additional experience. it’s also a vicious cycle with the expressing himself because he feels bad hiding the feelings because they build up but he also feels bad not hiding them because kirkland raising and all that. he also has worse immediate influences in his life. his season is objectively way shittier to him and like actively harmful to himand he lives with a creature who is constantly talking shit about him while ivan just has a couple normal pets. idk there are a lotta things i guess. over what though? over like everything, lol

4. who gets more riled up? do they show their anger? 

not really by each other i think but kyle gets riled up more probably. ivan gets upset by more things and his anger is probably worse in that he’ll allow himself to act farther on it if he lets himself at all, but when arguments start with him, at least that i’ve seen, he does that smiley false (and sometimes genuine) joy thing a lot which gets the person he’s upset with angry which amuses ivan so it probably doesn’t build as much. he’s also backed off in teh past if he saw himself getting really mad like with the language thing. you push kyle and he gets aggressive argue-y/sarcastic and that makes things worse and that makes him angrier usually and he doesn’t recognize the need to back off. the angrier he gets, the harder he fights. one thing he learned from summer was accidentally making himself angry instead of his target. 

5. how do they hide their pain when they’re upset? do they try to hide their pain?

as mentioned above, kyle tries to hide the pain a lot more. mainly humor and liquor. ivan might hide it in the immediate panic denial way sometimes but he’ll cry way more easily about shit if given the chance. alcohol works for him too. can i say the big answer is alcohol?

6. who tries to make up first? does it work?

again, whoever fucked up first, they usually make the first move to try and patch up whatever issues they’re dealing with

7. would they hate-fuck if they were mad at one another? if they had a falling out?

i don’t think it’d be a full hate-fuck. mostly i picture that cliche angry yelling to confession/apology to making out shit. if they were /really/ mad about something serious, i don’t think they’d be in the mood. probably both of them are chill with hate-fucking. kyle at least isn’t. about that shit, like super into it, but he’s fine with it in concept. his emotions and relationships always cross over spectacularly so he could easily roll with it in certain relays, but he doesn’t really view their relationship like that. his relay with ivan is actually one of the more nice and caring ones he’s had and he’s kind of settled into that so like them getting to the angry stage of actual hate-fucking just instills panic and a need to fix it since love is their primary emotion tied to their relay and that anger is so different that, like i said, it’s more just worry about breaking up than sex atm. kyle frustratingly loves a lot of people but ivan is not one of them, he straight loves ivan and that’s it, no anger to be found. if they did already have a falling out… see it’d still be like anger to passion i think. hate-fuck’s, at least the way i’m picturing it, are way too aggressive for them. at least this version of them. first rp thing i wrote with kyle had him end up hate fucking ivan, that was def a thing. thatwhole. fucking rp was a Thing though not thanks to the ivan that’s more a side thing, but this kyle and ivan are too gooey in how much they love each other, i don’t see them having the history they standardly have and then hitting actually /hating/ each other but still being dtf. idk idk. 

8. do they hold grudges? is it hard for them to let go/forgive each other?

yeah. kyle’s like the most obvious grudge holder like ever? kid wears his feelings on his sleeves and i’ve already mentioned his grudge with arthur adn then ludwig in hetalr. against each other, though, nah. again, they will forgive each other at the drop of a hat for shit they really shouldn’t. 

9. is there something big that could potentially tear them apart if it was revealed

i think the only thing they’ve ever disagreed on to the point where it threatened their relay was an rp idea where basically ivan was willing to sacrifice someone else to save kyle and kyle was 100% against that. it didn’t really threaten their relay at the time but it’d be the closest thing that would. kyle is so self-sacrificial and ivan is so hardcore focused on protecting those he cares about and that can cause a clash when they contradict. if ivan sacrifices someone else who kyle would rather live instead of him, kyle. kyle understands, but he’s still furious because it a, dismisses kyle’s expressed wants for wanting to save the other person, and b, betrays how bad ivan’s morals can get for what he wants in a way that kyle can’t easily forgive without at least some time passing. that was also mentioned in the hp au with kyle being furious with mel for saving him during the attack on that famous quidditch game. kyle never wants to live at the expense of someone else and even if it’s another person’s choice, he’ll blame himself, but he’ll be mad immediately at that other person for forcing that onto him. especially with someone who knows him as well as ivan tends to; he expects ivan to know he’d never want that and respect that, ivan’s always so good otherwise about putting kyle’s wants first and now when that actually matters ot kyle he doesn’t. he’ll move past it and understand it to a point given enough time, but he may never forgive them. 

another thing would be ivan genuinely trying to contain kyle to keep him from leaving. they’ve brought it up and kyle laughs about it because he never really considers ivan being serious about it. both because he wouldn’t consider anyone would do that (Again the overly self sacrificing sde) and also like anyone would genuinely be that upset and resistant against losing him (+ he figures there’s no reason in the world he’d ever leave ivan by choice). ivan actually taking steps to control kyle and force him to stay either against his will or at least against his expressed plans (one idea was them having to split for political reasons despite neither of them wanting to) would be jarring because again, ivan puts kyle’s priorities first so commonly he doesn’t expect ivan to suddenly not do that in a way ivan should know is a /huge/ issue for kyle.

I read “if it was revealed” and idk if the above covers that. i guess just revealing that ivan is willing to cross lines kyle doesn’t fully realize he will?? idk. i have no idea if kyle could do anything to make ivan wanna break up with him. 

10. if something already happened to tear them apart, what would make them come back together? is it even possible?

literally every ‘could they ever get back together’ question is ‘probably if not definitely yes’. even the above could have ways of kyle managing to at least accept it and get back together with ivan. mainly him being lonely. both of tehm are so willing to put up with a lot of shit to be wiht the other because they’re so lonely and finally found someone they click with so well that they don’t feel lonely with anymore. 

11. what’s their favorite pass time when they’re upset?

kyle does the standards. working out, playing video games, drinking. less standard for everyone if he’s really upset is the whole. like. self-damaging shit. both unintentionally and intentionally dangerous and directly lethal shit, it’s a scale. ivan probably drinking too. i don’t remember if this was a joke or a genuine thing but i remember the idea came up of a dart board with people’s faces on it who he’s mad at and i honestly still love the idea. i remember ivan rants about things he’s mad or sad about in his journal, there was the pics of gil with his eyes crossed out. just hanging out together tends to brighten their moods together, but drinking together probably ups things or just cutesy romance/sex shit. idk probably other stuff idk

12. who do they confide in when shit hits the fan (besides each other)?

doug for kyle which is all bad. occasionally may discuss it with nz or human friends but less so, especially depending on the situation like can’t blab about work problems in detail to human friends. mostly just tries to bottle that shit up. i imagine ivan talks to family about shit but there’s def his journal that he again will happily express all his problems to with no filter even if sharing the information. oh also doesn’t he have a therapist he talks to too?

13. is it hard for them to talk about their feelings openly with each other? if so, is there any way that can be resolved, even in the slightest?

it’s always hard for kyle to talk about his feelings while ivan’s super chill with it. kyle’s slowly learning how to be more comfortable showing his more ‘negative’ emotions like sadness to ivan, but he’s still ~~ about it. they’re that ‘you wanna talk about your feelings?’ ‘no’ ‘i do’ ‘i know ___’ ‘i’m sad’ ‘i know ____’ vine. 

14. who grieves more when the other is away?

both are very bad at being alone. ivan probably low-key grieves teh whole time and kyle just high-key grieves during his mood dips when he can’t otherwise distract himself

15. who misses the other more, or really thinks about them more?

both miss each other so much again. they’re always trying to communicate with each other because they’re again so bad at beign alone. they’re tied, always missing the other always

16. do either of them have a special item (an article of clothing, a necklace, a book) that they use when they miss the other? if so, what is it? what do they do with it (read, wear, look at, smell)?

they each have gifts and clothes from the others they like. they’ll steal clothes they very clearly can’t wear just to have that smell and touch that’s familiar. kyle made a book once with like pictures and an audio thing to talk about how great ivan is and also gave him a bunch of sketches he did of ivan as a ‘you make my life so much better and i just want you to know how much i appreciate it’ thing. ivan gave him a translated journal of all his thoughts about kyle and how great he was. i’m 95% sure kyle’s admitted in hetalr canon to looking at that journal a lot when he hits a mood dip. it’s so important to him. also kyle at least saves a lot of messages from ivan to read back through. oh, i rmeember ivan does too cause he was able to back up a lot of messages when aus!kyle deleted them all.

17. who cries more? who gets more emotional in general?

ivan. ivan cries more. ivan gets more emotional in general, too, but kyle is a close second. they’re both very emotional but ivan expresses it and lets himself feel it way more. kyle lets himself flip between 3 emotions that he feels at max volume and the other ones he buries in his backyard. 

18. do either of them have the other’s stuff lying around their house?

see 16 pal

19. how about teasing? do they tease each other while in a fight (whether it be with themselves or just general teasing)?

their chiller fights they do. like the pink crayon fight eventually turned into kyle sending ivan ‘duuuun duuunnn’ messages like it was jaws. ivan especially probably, he’s all about that ‘i’m going to act really dismissive and unbothered to bother your anger because you get angrier then and god is it funny’ so if they were like playfully fighting ivan’d definitely tease kyle a lot especially since kyle does let that shit set him off more and he’s so funny when he’s non-seriously mad

20. do either of them have any vices?

both of them do, have you seen them?? they have like. all of them. they have all the vices.

21. what’s the thing they miss most about each other?

just general company. again, they’re both lonely and desperate for companionship and they just miss having the other’s company and the good warm feeling of being around the other. it’s prolly why they’re so touchy feely when htey are together. hate being apart, even just by feet or inches. 

22. what’s their go-to breakup/angst song?

any that really highlight how devastated the person is following the break up, especially if drinking is involved in the lyrics. OH OH OH! idk if it’s specifically for rustralia but the go-to song for kyle’s early views on relays is Love Is Hell. Again (friendly reminder that Again was for a relay where it was pretty much entirely the other person’s fault but kyle still managed to blame himself because of course he did) or Perfect I’ve tied to other breakups of kyle’s, does that count? Trying Not To Love You isn’t so much angst as a lot of the others since the end is brighter but i picture it with rustralia a lot. Get Stoned is another non-rustralia but other-kyle-relay song but that starting line “Just hear me out: If it’s not perfect I’ll perfect it to my heart explodes” is so good for kyle in any relay. fuck now i’m just connecting through recommended songs for the vids from get stoned and there are a few tha’s probably good for kyle. oh i bet that shitty bruno marz song about catching a grenade or whatever. fuck there’s probably lots but i do not feel like spending 40 minutes slowly scrolling through all my songs on my phone. honestly these double as both songs about shitty relays kyle has/has had/thinks he’ll have as well as songs kyle’d likely listen to. never forget he’d mainly a modern/pop rock kinda guy at this point in his life and he likes most of marz’ shit including that just. terrible song. 

i went to check kyle’s feelings blog to see if i reblogged any songs to it and i forgot he reblogged the wtnv quote ‘he grinned and everything about him was perfect and i fell in love instantly’ what a sappy idiot. 

23. who’s more jealous?

ivan, but mainly because he’ll act on it. ivan will get jealous and get angry. kyle will get jealous and get sad. kyle loves ivan, but isn’t past the ‘he can do better than me’ mindset so if he thought ivan was interested in someone else. like that. fucking sucks and he hates it and he’s devastated but it’s whatever makes ivan happy. he’s always worried about that and will get relatively prickly about the idea of someone else making a move on ivan, but if was clear ivan was into it, he’d back down, he values ivan’s happiness too much. ivan, on the other hand, loves kyle and also isn’t really past the ‘he can do better than me’ mindset but instead of just accepting it, he gets anxious or on edge or prickly or just generally overly protective just as bad but doesn’t let it go. kyle can’t be happy with someone else if ivan doesn’t let him find out he’d be happier with someone else

24. who is the first to forgive?

i’ve answered this like three times now my dude cmon, it depends on the person apologizing like almost every time because it’ll be the other person. if tehy’re both partially to blame…. kyle’s self-worth is low and he justifies behavior for people he likes so probably him? yeah, yeah, that sounds about right. not that ivan is far behind though, again, they both forgive so easily.

25. what’s the one deal breaker for either of them (lack of communication, fear of commitment, etc)?

i honestly don’t know what ivan’s deal break would be, but i already mentioned kyle’s tends to be cases where his own wants/needs/expectations are blatantly dismissed in ways that cross lines for him on moral grounds. basically even outside of this relay, if kyle gets to a point (and from past experience lemme tell you it often takes either a big event or a long time of little ones) where he realizes that he’s not happy because this other person doesn’t value him and his wants as much as he does them and he actually reaches a point where he can acknowledge being alone would be better than this, he’ll finally move on. man does it take him a while though and some really nasty shit, he’s put up with so fucking much in the past. look at him still dealing with doug. summer he’s had that once or twice but always goes back to her. the one rp he reached that point after just. the worst shit. this kid will put up with so much just to not be alone. 

26. who would take longer to let go? do they ever really “let go”?

ivan. ivan probably never lets go, the stubborn guy. again, kyle’s accepting of things. there was one rp with khep about what’d happen if kyle and gil had a relay and gil died and kyle was dating someone else by the time gil came back and remembered who he was and that he’d been involved with kyle and everything. kyle refused to break it off with the person he was dating even if he cared about gil more, but he also expected gil to start dating other people too and when gil countered he wasn’t going to do that because he still liked kyle and wasn’t ready to move on and while he could accept kyle not taking him back he wasn’t going to start dating someone just because kyle wanted him to, it fucking like blew kyle’s mind. he literally had an epiphany at realizing the concept of doing something you want because the alternative, while expected and the ‘more right’ option at a glance, won’t make anyone happier than the other option. kyle’s all about self-sacrifice where it’s literally an expectation for himself even when it’d be more practical for him not to. if he felt letting go of ivan was needed. it’d take forever and emotionally kill him in the meantime but he could at least pretend long enough where he could mostly buy the act. ivan would not pretend. if he didn’t want to let kyle go, he wouldn’t.  

27. which is more afraid of confrontation?

both (with each other. with others, both are fine with confrontations under certain circumstances. kyle likes to throw himself into fights and ivan likes to watch fights, it probably accidentally encourages kyle being a little shit)

28. who’s the first to distance themselves (if either)?

kyle, kyle always. kyle distances himself to avoid hurting himself as his first reaction to anything, it’s what happened when they first started semi-dating. kyle put off dating ivan seriously for at least 2 months and kind backed off just a bit when he realzed ivan was romantically interested in him instead of just platonically/sexually. same with after they got engaged and kyle got scared about that & then the 2p event, kyle backed off hard after that. really in comparison between austin and kyle, kyle tends to criticize austin when given the chance for being so emotionally distant, but you really can see the start of what austin will do in the 1p2p au with how kyle handles some relay shit now. 

29. who’s more patient? is it hard to break that patience?

both are pretty patient with each other but i think ivan is a little more with kyle? it doesn’t really fully break his patience but he makes a stronger point of calling kyle out when kyle talks shit about himself. 

30. who’s the first to blame themselves?

*clint mcelroy voice* HA! no but seriously it’s kyle hands fucking down my dude. kyle is always prepared and eager to take the blame 100%. even if it wasn’t his idea or fault or even if he wasn’t involved at all, if taking the blame will help in his eyes in any way shape or form, he’ll do it in a heart beat, martyr in the worst way

31. who’s more likely to do something out of spite?

i wanna say both? they’re both stubborn assholes when they wanna be and if they were really upset about something, i could see them doing something to get back at the other for that reason. 

32. who would be the first to say they hate the other? would they mean it?

kyle but probably not. it’d hurt and he’d probably cave and admit he didn’t mean it and take it back, but he’d probably say it as an attempt to get ivan to distance himself from kyle for whatever reason kyle has to cut ties. or i guess i don’t know if he’d say those words but a part of him might come close trying to draw them out of ivan. it’s easier to break things off if the other person hates you so you can say you’re doing the right thing for everyone. alternatively, him genuinely upset and blurting out that he hates ivan before stopping and backtracking no no i don’t. i could never hate you but i’m not fucking happy with you right now, fuck. 

this is of course ignoring those playful cases where one of them is being super gooey in a teasing way or like being a smart ass or something like that. kyle at least will playfully say shit then, but he does while like, leaning into him or giving him a cheek kiss or some sign to show ‘i’m not serious, i love you, you bastard.’ both know how unsure the other is so if they ever do tease about that, they’re like really really focused on making sure the other knows they’re not serious. 

33. who worries more?

ivan. kyle ‘no worries’ brown. jk, kyle worries too. they’re like tied but ivan a little more. both are so worried about losing the other but again, kyle’s more pessimistic and accepting in the end. if something happens that makes ivan leave him, that’s what’s best for ivan. it is the worst thing ever and will crush his heart, but ivan comes first. other over self and all that. + ivan doesn’t look in any political danger of losing his country, so he’s relatively sure ivan’s okay in that way as well. it’s unlikely kyle would lose his country to put him in danger as well, but ivan can lose kyle in other ways. and like even if he can’t lose kyle via death atm, he still worries about that. he was very on edge when captain attacked kyle even when kyle insisted he’d have been fine. of course, if it were reversed, kyle’d have worried too, but i don’t think quite as bad as ivan? not that he wouldn’t have been worried a fuck ton it’s just like. kyle is a 9.9 and ivan is a 10, you know what i mean? ivan’s concern is some high key shit. 

34. what scent reminds them of the other?

kyle’s scents are probably more earthy, warm earth and the salt of the sea and burnt wood. ivan’s are more cool and crisp, the air after a cold snow and the fresh smell of evergreens in a forest. oh also of course sunflowers yeah? yeah. vodka/beer is tied to them too probably. probably others too but that’s just off the top of the head. 

35. do they have any regrets (regarding the other, or just in general)?

besides standard solo and then nation regrets because boy are there a lot, kyle regrets taking so long to listen to ivan and start dating him seriously and trust him about all this. i have no idea what regrets ivan has about kyle. maybe the same? it’s okay that you needed your time and i’m fine with it but i kinda wish you’d listened to me earlier too. also sometimes they tend to regret gifts if like one of them gets a big thing for the other and the other gets smaller shit. both have had one or two times each where htey were like ‘i fucked up and should have done more’ i think. kyle has at least. 

36. who’s quicker to walk away if a situation gets heated?

ivan probably. i’ve seen him walk away from shit he was mad about like the language thing with gil and kyle. kyle makes heated shit build instead of trying to resolve it. 

37. who is more prone to anger?

both, but it’s different types. kyle is more of the expressive instigatory childish anger while ivan is more the smiley you can’t tell but i’m plotting how to end your life or at least burn a bunch of pictures of you later today in my backyard kind of anger. kyle’s a low key often kind of anger while ivan is more high key but he doesn’t try to keep up the angering shit like kyle does. 

38. who cries more in an argument? do either of them cry?

ivan. kyle tries very hard not to but will sometimes cry. ivan is way more open about hte tears. it doesn’t help that usually arguments set one/both of them in a panic if tehy get bad enough of losing the other as previously mentioned

39. does it take a lot for it to get to the point of yelling?

yeah def but they can deffo do it

40. who sleeps on the couch? can either of them sleep without the other?

they usually don’t stay mad at each other that long. i feel if they were, kyle’d just head out for the night, crash at a friend’s house. again, always ready to distance himself if need be. if he’s still mad enough that they need enough space to not be in teh same room, he’s mad enough that he figures it’ll just be better to just be in separate buildings for the night. kyle’s an extremes guy, all or nothing really. of course before he leaves still tells ivan he’ll be back in the morning, doesn’t want that worry even when mad. if ivan’s mad, kyle’d probably sleep on the couch/in the guest room then I guess unless it was a big enough thing where it’d be easier to stay with a friend until things cooled down. 

41. who’s more likely to protect the other?

ivan but both of them but ivan is more likely to do /anything/ necessary to do so. 

42. if one of them gets injured, who worries more?

again, both but ivan prolly but only slightly. if it’s a big thing, again it’s 9.9 vs 10. kyle worries so much all the time but ivan is just so anxious and !!! about some shit. admittedly with smaller shit, kyle gets injured a lot so like all his friends and fmaily kind of get used to it but ivan still puts a lot of effort into making sure he’s okay. if ivan got a smaller injury, kyle’d try to figure out what he needs but. well. again, with how often kyle deals with injuries on himself, little ones that can heal easily, even on others are chill. he asks if ivan needs pain killer, bandages, something to clean the wound. gets him what he needs but he’s a bit more calm about that. he hates seeing ivan hurt but he knows he’s going to be okay in a little bit and so he tries not ot let it get to him. it’s one of the few things kyle remembers to think logically about since it’s for injuries small enoguh where he doesn’t fly into a panic. one contradiction to this is like mild injuries that are caused by the other. ivan wants to make sure kyle’s okay of course, but he enjoys kyle being in pain to a point so he enjoys it when kyle lets him do things like cut him during sex. kyle knows ivan likes it when kyle hurts him in ways like that during sex, but he feels so guilty knowing he’s the reason ivan’s in pain like this. again, back to the hate-fucking thing, kyle could be about that in the right situations, but he’s not standardly into pain during sex so it takes a lot of reminding himself that this is making ivan happy, that he’s hurting ivan but ivan litearally asked him to and could & would stop him if ivan didn’t want this any longer. it still makes him a little uneasy. he’s happy to do it for ivan but he is definitely not about it.

43. who would be more afraid of the other’s death/harm?

both of them are so afraid of it all the time always. they both know it’s unlikely for the other but it’s still a possibility in very rare ways and the very thought of losing the other like that is so bad. 

44. who ends up yelling first? are they always yelling when arguing, or do neither of them yell at all?

kyle does first, an instinct from some question that pushed a little too hard. if he full on yelled, he’d apologize unless it was a really bad argument, but just like quiet yell probably gets ivan to raise his voice as well

45. who would be more likely to save who?

both of them???? i remember the post was like ‘this doesn’t have to be a romantic ships so i understand some of these questions but they feel so weird for ships like this where they both love and care about each other equally and think a lot a like. 

46. who stays up at night brooding?

kyle but he’s just as likely to brood as to check his phone for the memes

47. who has more dreams/nightmares about the other?

both????

48. who comforts who after a bad dream/event?

both????

49. do they think about each other a lot? does it affect their performance/schoolwork?

yes, and prolly. kyle def, but no more so than anything else. let’s not forget his government started taking his phone from him because he wouldn’t focus in meetings. this fucking child. this fucking adhd-as-hell child. also the times in rp where they each called the other for phone sex at work.

50. if one of them were to come back after a long time, who would come to who? would it go well? would the other person take them back?

ivan’d probably come back immediately. kyle’d be tempted to come back a lot laer on, but he can never go through with it completely. he’ll be on ivan’s doorstep, but can’t knock or ring the bell because he thinks ivan won’t take him back which is bullshit because of course ivan would kyle, cmon, it’s ivan. 

[wuackitys-has-moved]

I Had A Thought Dear - Part 2

Here’s part 2 of my Bassian fic! This chapter is really Cassian-centric, and what he’s been doing since Scarif. I’m still kind of world-building so hang in there with me.

Read it below the cut or on AO3.

No Warnings

Life hadn't really gotten easier for Cassian after the battle of Scarif. For one, he was injured. Badly. And now people were constantly surrounding him, asking him millions of questions about the battle, and Jyn, and what the Imperial base was like. Most of the time, K-2 would shoo them away or make up an excuse for him to leave. Cassian was thankful for that.

After the battle, most of the members of Rogue one kind of stuck together. They ate together and were almost around each other.

But those first few weeks back. They were brutal, to say the least. Half of them were in the med-bay, and the other half were waiting outside for those in the med-bay.

"Why won't they let us inside, Baze?" Cassian asked Baze one night. They were both sitting directly outside the doors, Jyn and K-2 having retired to sleeping and guarding, respectively.

"There is probably a practical reason having to do with sick people and not spreading viruses. But at the moment, I feel that those rules should not apply." Baze closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, looking slightly like Chirrut when he prayed.

"You and me both," Cassian sighed, thinking of Bodhi. Last time he had seen him, he was badly burned and barely conscious. Cassian had wanted to say so many things to him on the ship ride back to Yavin IV. But nothing seemed appropriate.

He leaned back against the wall and let his eyes shut, slowly drifting off into sleep.

"Cassian? Cassian!" Cassian sat straight up, awoken by K-2.

"What? What is it?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked up at the droid, then to his left. Baze had left, probably back to his room. The guy had a good idea, Cassian's back was killing him.

"I just wanted to inform you that they are allowing people into the med-bay to visit. I assumed you would want to see Bodhi Rook?" Cassian stood up quickly at that.

"They're letting people in?" He looked toward the door to find it open, and talking could be heard coming from inside. He looked back to K-2, then at the door again. "I have to..." He didn't wait for a response, just jogged through the open door.

He immediately saw Baze sitting next to a bed that Chirrut was lying in. They were both smiling broadly, with Chirrut sporting some batches of bacta on his head and arms. He nodded at them, and Chirrut seemed to look right into his soul. Baze chuckled and took Chirrut's hand, kissing it softly. Chirrut smiled.

A couple of beds down, Cassian found who he was looking for. Bodhi wasn't doing as well as Chirrut. Bacta covered most of his body, and he was still unconscious. He collapsed into the chair next to the bed, staring at his friend.

"You need not be worried, my friend." Cassian turned to see that Baze and Chirrut were looking at him. "The force is strong around him, he will pull through." Chirrut gestured at Bodhi, and Cassian sighed.

"But-" Cassian began, but was cut off.

"It would be in your best interest to just listen to him," Baze commented. "It keeps his ego up." He winked at Cassian and Chirrut laughed.

"Do I have an ego? I wasn't aware." Chirrut chuckled. Cassian smiled faintly and turned back to Bodhi. Baze and Chirrut returned to their own conversation. He though about what Chirrut had said and focused on the bed next to him.

He couldn't stop looking at Bodhi's burns. Even with the thick coating of bacta, it was clear how bad they were. Cassian figured that they were lucky to even get out of Scarif alive. They had managed to fly away right as the planet killer had arrived.

Bodhi was barely able to continue flying the ship when K-2 took over. Cassian had to force him to leave the cockpit. He was insisting that he could still pilot, that he was the pilot. It reminded him of the first time they had met, which wasn't reassuring.

Coming back to reality, he looked at Bodhi and saw a hero. He took his hand without a second thought, and didn't leave his side until he woke up.

The next week or two after that seemed to be going smooth. Everyone was trying to get used to their new surroundings, and people seemed to be buzzing with new hope for the rebellion.

But that seemed to quickly fall apart. It seemed that the longer Bodhi was at Yavin IV, the less time he spent out and about. Cassian would usually find him in his room, messing with a piece of machinery. He didn't want to ask why; he didn't want to push him away. Aside from K-2, Bodhi was really the only other true friend Cassian had.

And maybe he did like him a bit more than friends. But he could never tell him that. He couldn't risk losing as good of a friendship that they had.

So he let Bodhi keep his distance. And after a few months, Mon Mothma agreed to let them all start going on missions again. Cassian could tell that Bodhi was relieved when he heard the news, and the whole group went to the cafeteria to celebrate.

After an hour or two, Cassian could feel that Bodhi was uncomfortable from across the table. He was fidgeting with his goggles, as usual, and seemed to be avoiding eye contact with anyone. Cassian was about to move next to him when Bodhi stood up, making some vague excuse about being tired and needing to get rest for an upcoming mission he was going on. He watched as the pilot hurried through the door, head down.

Cassian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The bench he was on dipped, and he looked to his right to find Chirrut. "You're upset," he said calmly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cassian replied tartly.  He didn't feel like talking about it.

"You are not the reason he is avoiding socializing. I sense he is going through a conflict. He could benefit from a friend." He looked at the blind man in front of him and shook his head. Chirrut gazed at him for a little longer before standing up and making his way over to Baze.

Cassian thought about what he said. He knew what it was like to feel all alone, and that's probably how Bodhi felt. So he decided to go visit Bodhi at his room.

It wasn't that long of a walk. He knocked on the door lightly once he had arrived. He heard a soft "Come in," from inside and opened the door. Bodhi was sitting at his desk, focused on fixing what looked like a damaged blaster. He looked up to see who had come in, and his face immediately brightened. "Cassian! What are you...?"

"I came to see if you were alright." Bodhi's face became questioning. "You seemed a bit uncomfortable before you left and I wanted to make sure you were doing...fine." Cassian was rambling, which almost never happened. He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair.

"Yeah I'm just tired I guess," he shrugged. Cassian nodded and the room plunged into silence. Bodhi coughed, "I, uh. Mon Mothma told me that I have to leave tomorrow. On a mission, I mean. And then I'll have another one just after that, and so on and so forth."

Cassian nodded numbly, remembering when he had back to back missions like that. It sucked, and he remembered being dead tired after it all. "Oh," was all Cassian said in reply, and Bodhi smiled sadly.

"Cassian, I-" he took a deep breath and stood, "I'm sorry I've been kind of reclusve lately. Everything just happened so fast with defecting and Jedha City being destoryed and Scarif and recovering and-" Now Bodhi was rambling, and Cassian placed his hands on his shoulders.

"Woah, slow down. You don't have to apologize for anything. I understand. Things like that..... they change you." He smiled at his friend.

Bodhi nodded. A particularly bad burn on his neck started to throb, and he reached up and rubbed it. "Now, I really do have to sleep. Early day tomorrow, y'know?" He laughed softly. Cassian nodded and brought his hands back down to his sides.

Bodhi looked up into Cassian's eyes and moved in a bit closer. Cassian's eyes widened, and his heart immediately started beating faster. He took a step back. "Well, I guess I'll see you later...buddy?" He blurted out and quickly turned and left. Once outside, he started to calm down. "Did I really just call him buddy?" He asked himself, and softly banged his head against the wall. "I'm such a kriffing idiot."

Months passed, and it seemed like everyone was getting busier. An attack on the Death Star was being planned, which meant a mad scramble to be prepared. Cassian had barely seen anyone other than K-2 for a whole week once, which was really a low point.

But Cassian did get a free day every once in a while, and he was usually hanging out with Bodhi or playing Sabacc in the common area. But Bodhi had been away on a mission for two weeks, which really opened up his free time. He had already lost most of his credits gambling, it seemed he had learned nothing from watching Bodhi play.

Fortunately, Bodhi was set to return on one of Cassian's free days. Most of the time after returning to Yavin IV after an especially long trip, he could be found cleaning out his ship in one of the hangars. Bodhi was sort of a neat freak when it came to his ship, but that was about it. His room, on most occasions, was one of the messiest rooms he had seen.

So Cassian woke up early to meet Bodhi in the hangar and help him. He was walking a bit faster than normal, he noticed. He wrote it off in his head as a good night's sleep, and turned the corner into the hangar. He was about to call for Bodhi, but stopped when he saw the pilot.

He was almost nose to nose with another pilot: Aaron or something. "Hey do you wanna, I don't know, come back to my room or something? We could play a round of Sabacc?" Aaron Or Something asked. Cassian took a few steps back, finally turning around and walking out of the hangar.

Foolish. He had been totally foolish. He had felt that something had been growing between him and Bodhi over the past few months, but he was obviously wrong. He walked as fast as he could back the way he came. He thought he heard something behind him, but it was probably just Bodhi and Aaron Or Something talking.

Cassian almost barreled into K-2 when he turned a corner too quickly, and the droid startled him half to death.

"Kaytoo! You scared me," he said, looking up. K-2 tilted his head.

"I thought you were going to be helping Bodhi Rook unload his things today?" The droid asked. Cassian looked at the floor bitterly.

"No- he already has someone else to help him."

[bensoloredemptiontrain]

The Rise of Skywalker Teaser Trailer & Defense of Bendemption / Reylo

I was emailing with a friend and fellow Reylo, and she was concerned that Reylo might not happen and Ben might not be redeemed, based on the new trailer.  I wrote a lengthy response, and am posting a slightly edited version here:

~

These are my thoughts, in outline format:

The title, "The Rise of Skywalker" - does this mean Rey is related to Luke, and therefore to Kylo?

There are various possible other meanings.  It could mean that Rey is a symbolic Skywalker.  It could mean that Ben carries on the Skywalker legacy.  It could mean that the "Skywalker" rises in Ben, that he returns to the light and carries on Luke's legacy.  It could mean that Rey and Ben get together and carry on the Skywalker legacy together by teaching a new generation and making Skywalker babies.  It could mean that Luke's influence increases after his death.

There is no way Rey is a Skywalker by blood.  They've said that she's never seen Han or Leia or Luke or Kylo in person before The Force Awakens (TFA).   That rules out her being Leia's kid.  They could still theoretically have her be Luke or Han's kid (with an "unknown" mother), but remember this is Disney we're talking about.  Sexual purity and sex only in the context of marriage is a big thing.  This is a movie marketed for twelve-year-olds, and sex outside of marriage is NOT a kid-friendly topic.  I can't imagine Disney going that route.  Also, you think people were upset because The Last Jedi (TLJ) wasn't what people expected?   Imagine the backlash if they make it canon that Han cheated on Leia.   No.  Just... no.

They're not going to go the incest route again, or else they risk being labeled as the franchise that promotes romantic attraction between relatives.  (Again.  This is Disney.)  The attraction between Luke and Leia was mostly an accident; George Lucas did not plan on having them be related when he wrote IV; then during V he wasn't sure if Harrison Ford would sign for another movie (so Leia needed to have another option besides Han), so he kept the Luke/Leia option open until VI, when he could go full steam ahead with Han/Leia.   The overall arc of this series (VII-IX) was planned beforehand; you'd think that if Rian wrote the "smut hut" scene and they were related, someone would have gone, "NO NO NO NO NO, THEY'RE RELATED YOU CAN'T DO THAT."

Many Star Wars movie titles really only make sense after the movie, in the context of the movie.

Regarding the title, Kathleen Kennedy said, "It could mean a lot of different things. And I think that’s what was important to us. We didn’t want to have a title that felt like it was telling you the story."  i.e. the interpretation is not meant to be obvious, and the title is not meant to imply that Rey is related to Luke.

Is there still hope for Reylo?  The teaser looks like JJ might be pandering to the antis/fanboys.

YOU BET THERE'S STILL HOPE FOR REYLO!

The trailer needs to bring the fandom back together.  TLJ was really divisive.  If they make a Reylo teaser trailer, the antis won't even think about watching the movie.  They've had the whole basic story arc planned out even before TFA was released, and I believe JJ started writing The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) before TLJ came out.  They are NOT going to change the whole direction of the series because a few people are stupid and loud.  But they likely WILL make a trailer that appeals to everyone, so everyone will want to see the move.

The trailer for Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) focuses on Luke, Leia, and Han, so it makes sense (from a "throwback" perspective) to make this trailer focus on Rey, Finn, and Poe.

JJ Abrams liked TLJ.

There ABSOLUTELY is a romantic/sexual subplot between Ben and Rey - the bridal carry, "I can take whatever I want," "I can show you the ways of the Force," "you're not alone" / "neither are you," the hand-holding scene, the elevator scene, THE ENTIRE THRONE ROOM SCENE WHICH WAS BASICALLY A SEX SCENE FROM THE MOMENT BEN SUMMONS ANAKIN'S LIGHTSABER AND MAYBE EVEN BEFORE THAT, "please," etc., etc.  Rian says that the two fingers touching is "the closest thing to a sex scene that Star Wars will ever have."  Mark Hamill refers to the "romantic tension" between Rey and Ben (he starts to say "sexual tension" and then stops himself) and adds, "they never let ME touch a finger!"

The principle of "Chekhov's gun" - you only put something in a story if it's relevant.  (The Luke/Leia subplot doesn't count, see discussion above.)  Therefore, from a narrative perspective, the romance between Rey and Ben must be relevant to the story in some way.  It's not imagined or made up by fans.

Rey's story arc - the thing Rey wants most is belonging and a family.  Doesn't she deserve to get this?  Therefore for her to get HER happy ending, she needs to have a family.  The Resistance is a symbolic family, but I'm talking about more than that.  You could pair her with Poe or Finn, but that doesn't work as well.  Poe doesn't have the emotional depth that Rey does, and Finn has Rose.  I have a theory that one of the main reasons Rose was introduced was so that Finn would have somebody to love, because he's not getting Rey.  What would happen to Rose if Finn and Rey got together?  (We're sure Poe will be fine if he doesn't get Rey, the guy has chemistry with anything that stands still long enough.)

Again, heroine's journey.  Cue Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, etc.  The heroine of the "heroine's journey" story line ALWAYS falls in love and lives happily ever after (after her lover nearly dies).  The heroine ALWAYS falls in love with someone that is different from her in some way and who helps her grow as a person.  You CANNOT say this about Finn or Poe; you can ONLY say it about Kylo.

JJ was the one who STARTED Reylo.  TFA looks so much like a fairy tale, it's not even funny.  Rey's dressed in white, Ben looks like a dark prince (and his lightsaber looks like a knight's sword), their first and last meetings in the movie take place in FORESTS, the scene where Rey runs out of Maz's castle looks like the scene where Cinderella runs out of the king's castle, the scene where Ben says "I can show you the ways of the Force" sounds like the scene where Aladdin sings to Jasmine "I can show you the world," and the whole idea of a beautiful girl meeting a guy who seems and looks inhuman at first sounds an awful lot like Beauty and the Beast.  JJ's not stupid.  He knows how this comes across; he knew EXACTLY what he was doing.  Also, who carries someone bridal-style across a battlefield?!   That's literally the most romantic but also dumbest way to carry someone - he can't reach his lightsaber!  (Contrast this with when he captured Poe, he just had the stormtroopers drag him onto the ship.)

Kylo is repairing his mask, is fighting together with stormtroopers, and may be the one who attacks her in the beginning.  /  Is this a waste of Adam Driver's talent?

Take a good look at the hands repairing the mask.  They do NOT look like Kylo's hands.  They look kind of furry or hairy, so either this is a humanoid alien, or it's a human wearing some really hairy coat.  Also, look at the bracelets on the wrists.  I am almost 100% positive that this isn't Adam Driver.

He's fighting with stormtroopers.   Yes, it appears that way.  This could either take place before his redemption, OR there is a theory that either Hux will try to overthrow Kylo and the First Order will split into factions (so this could be Kylo's men against Hux's) OR there is another theory that Finn will help the stormtroopers rebel (so this could be Kylo on the light side leading the stormtroopers who are in rebellion).

When he strikes down the guy in the forest, his fighting style looks more sexy and assured, as opposed to the vicious and unstable fighting style that we've come to expect from TFA and TLJ, which might imply that his "soul" is healing.

Adam Driver knew where this was going from the beginning.  They told him his character's whole arc before he signed, because he didn't just want to play the token bad guy.  He wanted to play someone with emotional depth and challenges, so we can expect to see that continued in TROS.  When Adam is asked about Kylo's story arc, he ALWAYS gets this little secret smile on his face, even though he's trying to keep his face neutral.   It's adorable.  When he was asked what he liked best about his character's story arc in TROS, Adam said that he couldn't say, but that "we're working toward something in particular with that character" (and he followed this with another one of those secret, adorable smiles).

NO ONE INVOLVED WITH STAR WARS CALLS KYLO THE VILLAIN.  NO ONE.  Contrast this with Vader (who was redeemed) who was blatantly called the villain in the teaser trailer for ROTJ.  And, the teaser trailer for ROTJ had NO hint whatsoever that Vader was redeemable.  No one guessed it.  There weren't really hints elsewhere in A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back that Vader was redeemable, either.  (Contrast this with Ben.)

Maybe Kylo is the one who attacks her in the beginning.  Sure, maybe.  It looks like his gloves (although you don't see his face, so it might not be him).  But if this is a fight between them, it could easily be at the beginning of the movie, before he gets redeemed and before they fall in love.  Also, what if the trailer makes it look like he's attacking her, but really this takes place after he's redeemed and she's jumping into the cockpit to JOIN him?  We don't know.

She's not being shot at.  She's being chased, but we don't see her being shot at, which is interesting.  You could make the argument that maybe the guns on the TIE Silencer have jammed, but that doesn't seem likely, given that the ship looks pretty sleek and new and intact.

You don't make a legitimate villain this sexy.  You just don't.  (JJ has even gone on record saying that Ben looks like a "dark prince" when he removes his helmet during TFA.)

Rey seems to hang around just with Finn, Poe, etc. / Kylo does not seem to play a major part in all this.

Kylo has NEVER played a big role in the TEASER trailers... they've always focused mainly on Rey (and Finn and Poe).  In TFA teaser, we just see him from the back igniting his lightsaber in the forest.  In TLJ teaser, we just see a close-up shot of Kylo holding his lightsaber.  Kylo has NEVER had more than a brief cameo in a teaser trailer, but he's always had a bigger part in the regular trailer.  Actually, his role in this teaser trailer is bigger than in the other teaser trailers!

They could intentionally be cutting down his screen time in the trailers if he doesn't really have any "villain" scenes in the movie, to keep that a surprise for when people actually see the movie.

Trailers are great at leaving out important details.  The teaser trailer for TFA leaves out the fact that Rey has the Force.  The teaser trailer for TLJ trailer leaves out the Force bond between Rey and Ben.  (etc.)

Trailers are great at being misleading.  The regular trailer for TFA trailer implies that Luke would actually have a role in the movie.  The regular trailer for TLJ implies that Rey was talking to Ben when she says, "I need someone to show me my place in all of this."

Also, check out this picture of Ben in TROS!  That look on his face totally screams tall-dark-and-broody-guy-redeemed-from-the-dark-and-reuniting-with-his-true-love ;)  I don't think I've ever actually seen him look this at peace.

AND check out Daisy's reaction when asked about Rey and Kylo this weekend - the secret smile / trying-not-to-smile expression and the "we'll have to wait and see."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0diw4fAisQ (3:30-4:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5E6EbcAMRE (0:00-0:10)