#neither of us were aware of this person's actions before and do not condone their behaviour in any way shape or form

[maddymoreau]

With every fiber of my being, I did NOT want to self ship with Grant. Which is funny considering in the game, against your will, he kidnaps you with the intention of the two of you being the best couple ever.

Grant Turner Discussion:

While I call him lame (lovingly) Grant is actually competent. He was in the army and does NOT miss his time there.

He's even dated before. In the Q&A he was asked, “Grant is POV the first person you have become this “interested” in?”

Grant: “No I've had two or three . . . vanilla relationships before POV but they didn't work out. Likely because they were not POV.”

Grant is 100% aware he's a creep, but in his own words, “Mmmm . . . That I am dear. But only for you.”

Despite that he doesn't consider himself a horrible person or threat.

He may have a sadistic side, but he doesn't want to hurt the player. After taking the knife from the player: "I really don't want to have to stab you. So come quietly and neither one of us have to do something we don't want to."

However, while he doesn't want to, he will do it to obtain his goal: "Just cause I don't want to, doesn't mean I won't. You're likely to be easier to handle if you're wounded."

Which is complete control over the player to do whatever he wants. To live the domestic fantasy he's imagined with them.

Grant: "I'm going to take real good care of you. You don't have to work anymore. Or do anything. All you have to do, is love me. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm going to be real good to you."

He enjoys having power over the player.

He laughs at your terrified reaction when he cuts the power to your apartment. Even taunting you over the phone by asking, “What's the matter sweetheart? Don't like the dark?”

Grant is convinced he's in love with the player, but completely disregards their feelings or wishes.

He justifies any harm he does towards the player as consequences and punishment for fighting. He hates when you lie to him, do the rational thing like hang up the phone on him and expects the player to apologize for their “rude behavior”.

You just have to live up to his fantasies. That you're an easy person to talk to, sweet and don't have what it takes to stab someone. Depending on your choices in the game you can either confirm or deny this.

It's clear he desperately wants you to reciprocate his feelings. However, Grant is a dangerous man who mistakes obsession for love. He's an awful person whose actions I don't condone, but I do find interesting. Which is why I like expanding upon the story and the different ways things can play out.

[hanatiny]

[4:04] Heart Not Found

a/n // disclaimer: I’d like to make it clear that I neither condone nor endorse any of the behavior described in this fic. Each of the characters acknowledges that it is beyond unacceptable and unjustified; this is merely meant to be an experimental look at the psychological processes within a yandere’s mind. Furthermore, this work is purely fictional and I do not claim to personally know exactly how any of the ateez members behave.

a/n: If there’s anything potentially triggering that I have forgotten to list in the warnings, please let me know and I’ll fix my mistake asap!! thank you <3

pairing: yandere!San x genderneutral!reader x pianist!boyfriend!Hongjoong

genre: angst

word count: 2602

warnings: non-idol AU, murder, descriptions of injuries, mentions of blood and death, mentions of knives, San is highly obsessive in this, he threatens the reader but doesn’t actually hurt them, kidnapping, trespassing, swearing, I did my best to keep the violence as vague as possible

-----

It was around 3am and you had yet to return home, and to say San was unnerved about this fact would be a massive understatement.

It wasn’t unusual for you to get home when it was already dark outside but it was never after midnight, much less in the early morning hours it was approaching now.

San tapped his fingers against the glass of his window anxiously as he watched the streets below attentively. You had turned off your phone a while ago, or at least that was the conclusion he drew after he stopped getting a signal from the tracker he had secretly managed to install on your phone.

3:12... why weren't you home yet?

His jaw went tense when he finally caught sight of you a few excruciatingly long minutes later, and he absolutely fumed as he saw you holding hands with another man he had never seen before in his life- he paused.

He did recognize the man, as none other than the pianist Kim Hongjoong who had been gaining quite a bit of popularity in the recent months. Kim Hongjoong, who he had gone to high school with until the older dropped out to focus on his career instead.

San didn't care much for that though, because a pretty face and a talent like Hongjoong's didn't mean he could love and care for you like you deserved it.

San believed that only he could give you everything you needed and wanted, and everything beyond that. Which was exactly why he was seeing red, punching the wall next to himself angrily. It caused his knuckles to bleed from the force behind the action, but the rage he felt overshadowed his pain.

Why didn’t you realize you were destined to be his and his alone? That you shouldn’t go whoring yourself out to other men? That only he should be the one to hold you in his arms, the one to protect you from everyone and everything.

He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand why you couldn’t feel his attraction to you, why you insisted on turning a blind eye to him and found him “weird.” That’s what he assumed to be the case, at the very least.

San loved you, why was that so damn difficult for you to understand?

His narrowed eyes flickered over to the knife resting on his bedside table, and he had it clutched tightly in his bleeding hand within the blink of an eye.

He darted down the stairs without a second thought, blinded by the rage he felt deep within himself.

Meanwhile, outside, you were hugging your boyfriend goodbye for the night. His dark eyes shone innocently as he kissed your nose affectionately, causing you to giggle while still having your hands intertwined.

“So I’ll pick you up at 10 tomorrow for brunch, yeah?”

“Sounds good, Hongjoongie~ I’ll see you then.” You playfully blew him a kiss before he turned and walked off into the night, rounding the corner shortly after.

It was San’s time to strike, using your distracted state of mind to creep up behind you and tightly wrap an arm around your torso while he held the knife to your throat in warning.

You didn’t recognize his voice at first when he whispered into your ear, your brain much too clouded from the feeling of fear filling you, “If you make any sound at all, I’ll personally slit your throat and cut your vocal cords. You don’t want to lose an angelic voice such as yours, do you~?”

Realizing your situation was hopeless due to the unexpected amount of strength the man holding you possessed, you stopped trying to kick him and wrestle yourself free. This was the only answer he needed, starting to take slow and deliberate steps backwards from your house over to his. His hold on you remained tight, borderline suffocating even, just in case you would dare to get bold and try something.

He had left his door slightly ajar, kicking it shut behind him once he had finally brought you inside of his living space.

You still found yourself unable to figure out the identity of the man who had burst into your comfort zone out of nowhere but you didn’t want to find out what he was capable of doing to you if you attempted to resist whatever he was in the process of doing and pinpoint who he was, considering the amount of ease with which he snuck up and took hold of you just a few minutes ago.

Casually dropping his knife onto a nearby cupboard, he led you down the hallway of his house to a spacious bedroom. It was then a figurative lightbulb went off in your head and the fog clouding your mind cleared, upon seeing certain pieces of furniture he had placed in the room.

You had been here before. You had been in this house before when he had just moved in and his furniture was all over the place, he was the ‘cute neighbor’ who had offered you some coffee and invited you over to ‘get to know each other a little.’ Now all you needed to do was remember his name- it clicked. You remembered.

His grip on you (probably purposely) loosening, you whirled around and took a few steps away from him. San didn’t seem all too fazed by it though, simply grinning knowingly at you and crossing his arms while you did your best to subtly gain proper awareness of your surroundings.

It seemed like he noticed, however, because that was when he finally spoke up again.

“I was wondering how long it’d take you to recognize me, love. You know who I am, don’t you~?” His tone was so calm that it unsettled you to the point of having to avert your eyes, your head hanging low as you nodded hesitantly, hardly even noticing his use of the pet name.

“I knew it...~” San’s voice trailed off into a purr that you weren’t sure how to feel about, deciding that being wary was likely the smartest thing you could do in your current situation.

Too lost in thought, you didn’t realize he had stepped closer to you while you were internally debating with yourself, pleased that you seemed to remember what he said about speaking.

“Now, I have something to take care of for a little bit... I trust that you’ll be good and not leave this room.” Although a smile was painted on his features, it didn’t make his tone sound any less threatening. Not willing to find out what might happen if you didn’t react, you nodded once more.

“That’s my good dove~” All of it disgusted you - from the way he cooed at you, over the way his lips twitched upwards into a grin, to the way he looked at you like you were the only person in this twisted world.

You hated it and yet there you stood, in the middle of this sicko’s bedroom, frozen with uncertaintly and fear. You only scarcely resisted the urge to punch him in the face, watching closely as he left a few moments later and closed the door behind himself.

You heard him lock it as well, heaving a shaky sigh when you believed him to be out of earshot.

Your body shook with rage, how did he have the audacity to just kidnap you like that and walk away like he didn’t commit a goddamn felony? Your first instinct was to break something, and you figured that the window might be the first best thing - just in case it’d give you an opportunity to escape.

Looking around, you were quick to find a small hammer in a drawer. You swung it against the glass with every bit of force you could muster, only for the object in your hand to bounce back without leaving even so much as a crack. Dumbfounded by the fact that San had even reinforced his windows to keep you from leaving him, clearly having planned this for a while, you dropped the hammer next to you and sank to your knees.

You curled in on yourself, sobs wracking your body as you were forced to come to terms with the reality that you were trapped. Trapped in this room, trapped with your not-so-innocent-and-sweet neighbor.

Meanwhile, San’s steps were hurried as he sought out your boyfriend’s house, knife in hand while he occasionally glanced at his phone. It probably wasn’t very smart of Hongjoong to have his personal address publicized for fan mail purposes, considering how easily it could be exploited by people like San.

He should’ve been freezing out in the cold air at 3:35 in the very early morning, but the blood practically boiling in his veins kept him from being affected by it much. It was almost too easy for him to trespass onto the desired property when he finally reached it, breaking the lock on the door effortlessly with the blade of his knife.

Hongjoong had a habit of staying up as late as it was humanly possible, and it was rather common knowledge that he sometimes didn’t even sleep at all. As such, San was not the least bit surprised to faintly hear someone playing the piano when he stepped into the house as quietly as he could.

He followed the sound, eventually coming to a large room filled with a variety of instruments of different sizes. In the middle was, as San had to begrudgingly admit, a beautiful piano. Its seat was occupied by his very target, Hongjoong, who was aware of the younger man’s presence and let his fingers press against the black and white keys once more.

The sound the action produced was so disharmonious that it made San physically cringe as he stared the young pianist down, the latter of whom finally lifting his head with a deep, exasperated sigh.

“This is about y/n, isn’t it? I’ve noticed the way you look at-”

“You saw nothing! You know nothing! Do you have any fucking clue how painful it is to see the one you love with someone else, to not even have them spare you a single glance because of how little they care about you?” San was furious at this point, blinded by his rage, Hongjoong flinching and recoiling in his seat at the harsh tone employed by the other male as he continued, “I know you don’t. You were always the prodigy and excelled at what you did, got everything you wanted so easily... including the one thing I wanted too. I can’t live with that, and neither will you.”

“I-I didn’t- That’s not-” Hongjoong stammered, trying to defend himself before quickly realizing it was a futile endeavor when he saw San lunging at him with his knife clutched tightly in his hand. His reflexes were fast as he tried to reach for a nearby violin to whack the latter unconscious with but the crazed younger was, to his demise, much faster and pinned him to the surface of his piano while the keys beneath him produced another dissonant sound.

It didn’t exactly help that San was not only taller but also more muscular than Hongjoong, so the latter’s tries to wiggle and struggle free were for nothing. He groaned in pain as the wooden edges of his instrument forcefully dug into his skin; he clawed at it, but to no avail. He had no chance against San.

Despite knowing how hopeless it was for himself, Hongjoong refused to go down without a fight and proceeded kick and scream in San’s hold, “You’re making a huge m-mistake-”

His vision spun before going black, his pleas going silent while his body went limb. Everything stopped, except for San. He continued to stab and mutilate the older until he deemed it enough and was satisfied, stepping backwards after. He got what he came here for. Taking a quick picture with his phone to show to both you and the police what had taken place (although he’d come up with an alibi for the authorities, of course), he backtracked his steps and left the house as fast as his feet would take him.

Still under the safe and dark blanket of the night, he made his way back to his own house. Making sure to hide the bloody knife where no one would find it, he cleaned himself off briefly before he got an idea for how he could use the ‘souvenir’ he brought for you.

You jumped slightly in your spot on San’s bedroom, curled up and hiding your face behind your knees even now, when you heard him slam the front door shut which signalled you that he had returned from whatever he was out doing. You feared the worst as you listened carefully, presuming the noise he was making to be coming from his kitchen.

You looked up when the bedroom door clicked open and San entered, a smug and satisfied grin on his face as he moved to set a jar on the bedside table before crouching in front of you.

“I’m home, bunny. Did you miss me~?” His falsely innocent, sweet tone was still something you despised, although you felt genuine fear for what he could do to you simply by looking at the tiny smudge of blood lingering on his cheek, so you nodded obediently.

“Good. I just had to have a little chat with your pretty boy, and look what he gave me~!” San cheerfully nudged his head towards the bedside table, and the sight you were met with made you feel sick to your stomach.

What you assumed to be Hongjoong’s bloody heart. In a jar. You kept glancing back and forth between him and the object, gaping at him in both shock and disbelief of what he had done.

“What do you think of it, love? Pretty, isn’t it~? Go on, tell me.” He encouraged you softly, "You told him he had your heart right? Now you have his forever!” He chirped, and your voice was shaky as you spoke.

“Y-you monster!” You exclaimed, cursing yourself internally for your stuttering as you cursed at him, “You heartless bastard, you didn’t have to kill him!”

“I didn’t want to kill him,” he admitted softly, looking down as if he felt any sense of remorse for any of his actions within the last hour or so, “but he left me no choice. He refused to break up with you. He refused to let me love you without... all this.” He gestured vaguely, pulling out his phone to show you the photo he took, “He refused to let me have even one thing I wanted for myself, even though he always got whatever he wished for. Desperate times require desperate measures, I had no choice...”

San trailed off, your own face paling at the realization that Hongjoong had been murdered because of a petty rivalry of sorts from the past that San had yet to let go of.

Feeling lightheaded by the abundance of information swimming in your already aching head, you blacked out. When you came to your senses again, it appeared to be morning and San was making noise in another room.

Tears wet your face as you shakily reached for your phone, wishing you hadn’t because the very first notification you opened was a headline you had prayed wouldn��t be reality, accompanied by the very picture San had taken the previous night.

“Up and coming pianist Kim Hongjoong brutally murdered in his home last night; investigations still ongoing”

----- Taglist (tell me if you wanna be added):

@cometoceantrenches @ddeonghwva  @galaxteez @innosintsan @latte-fairytaekwoon @little-precious-baby @multidreams-and-desires @nightqueennyx​ @twancingyunhoe​  @vocalyunho @yunhoiseyecandy​

Network tag:

@8makes1teamnet​

[raymondebidochonlifechoices]

All fans are equal but some are more equal than others. NOT.

There’s been quite a few people in the fandom lately getting very stressed, feeling they’re obligated to constantly be on the defensive re: their fandom choices.

Apparently, whoever has a different opinion about a character or a ship must be said character’s/ship’s stan i.e. overzealous and/or obsessive, i.e. not an objective viewer. Even worse, they must be a dreadful person, who condones a number of moral offences that said character/ship perpetrated (or is thought to have perpetrated). Because, of course, the only acceptable reason for appreciating/enjoying a fictional character or dynamic is their morality. And, by that reasoning, fans who support the correct character/ship must be better fans and better people.

Nothing is more ridiculous than the notion of the objective fan. An “objective” fan is called a “viewer”. You and I, Riverdale friends, we are not just viewers. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have created blogs and dedicated hours of our lives to a fictional couple from an extremely mediocre show. We are still undoubtedly capable of critical thought and objective analysis but we are also aware of our own emotional investment in the show. (Or, at least, one hopes). As a fandom, we engage in activities that exist independently of the show. Fandom is a space of free expression. No one gets to play the higher moral card here. Needing to loudly tell everybody how wrong they are? That’s not the sign of an objective viewer. That’s the sign of a viewer who is also extremely invested, just for different reasons than I am.

Are we seriously holding the morality card over people’s heads for a show that used a poc woman’s pregnancy (Toni) as the means to retroactively establish trauma for a white male (Kevin), all the while touting it in every media possible as a woke response to the BLM movement?!

Are we seriously holding the canon card over people’s heads for a show that treats its 5th(!) season as a tabula rasa?! If the Lodges new backstory in 5x12 shows anything, it’s that s5 is not a time-jump. It’s a reboot.

There are so many people “enlightening” others on their inability to understand canon …

Seriously? That’s the hill you’re willing to die on? Canon Riverdale? You think that people don’t understand what they’re watching? That they’re interpreting canon incorrectly?

No, but seriously: canon for a TV show consists of what the characters say, what the characters do and how the actors portray them. Does this really apply to Riverdale?

Let’s take Donna for example.

Canon explicitly tells us Donna did what she did to avenge her grandmother. At the same time none of her canon actions were against the people who were actually responsible. So, riddle me this, fandom friends: why did Donna do what she did, as per canon?

Let’s try this another way:

Donna is a psycho bitch. Both in terms of Riverdale’s canon (the writers’ intention) and real-life criteria. To create a tag that reads “Bonna for ever uwu!” is deranged.

On the other hand, her character is (like a lot of Riverdale’s characters) an inconsistent caricature. Canon uses ridiculous dialogue and a lot of the Bonna scenes are cartoonishly enemies-to-lovers tropey. To create a tag that reads “Bonna for ever uwu!” is hilarious.

This doesn’t mean that Bonna is a canon couple. It does mean, however, that a Bonna crackship is based on Riverdale’s campy and over-the-top canonic writing.

A viewer who thinks Bonna is disgusting is not more “objective” or more “correct” or more “true to canon” than a viewer who thinks Bonna is funny. Nor are they a better person for it, and this cannot be stressed enough.

Similarly, who is canon Cheryl?

1. Cheryl is an absolute bitch: if a privileged student was calling an actual homeless boy a hobo in your real-life school, you would neither think her a queen nor use “hobo” affectionately in your tags, comments etc.

2. Cheryl is a deeply traumatized person: her father killed her brother, her mother killed half the town and forced her in conversion therapy, she attempted suicide and more.

(Note #1: this more does not mean more than the other Riverdale characters).

(Note #2: nor is it an excuse for her rudeness, affectionately called “mood for chaos” by the writers).

3. Cheryl is also a caricature of the archetypal mean girl who’s there for laughs and meta comments. She’s not to be taken seriously.

4. Cheryl is lgbtq+ representation …

5. … who canonically shits on other lgbtq+ characters.

6. Cheryl is one half of Choni, who are canonically presented as an uber couple.

7. Choni is also, as per canon, a couple with an acute power imbalance (cough!gaslighting!cough) that visually very clearly panders to the male gaze.

But most importantly:

8. Cheryl canonically is not the sum of her parts. The different facets of her character do not intermingle in any meaningful way.

Was Betty kissing Archie specifically a sore spot for Jughead?

Canonically no [2x14]. But, also, canonically yes [5x03, 5x10].

Are there seriously fans that are astonished that Betty is making some highly questionable choices while investigating?! Did they just discover Dark™Betty/Killer Genes Betty? That is canon Betty! Was it ok before because she was then smooching Jughead instead of giving him the cold shoulder? Honestly, the only newly outrageous part of s5Dark™Betty is the fact that she still believes in “killer genes” despite having spent 4 years at Yale …

As for liking/disliking Betty and morality …

Look, I’m going to be very honest: I am NOT particularly enjoying s5 Betty. And it’s not because of b*rchie.

S5 Betty has 99 problems but the sexcapades ain’t one.

For me, it’s the fact that she’s turned into s1 Alice 2.0. But surely that’s not news either? Ever since the first info about the time jump, everyone and their mother have been speculating about the teens becoming their parents …

Just because Jughead is better written (and written to be more likable), it doesn’t make him more worthy of redemption. Just because the writers are keeping Betty’s redemption “secret” (insert eye roll) for their big reveal in the season’s penultimate episode, it doesn’t mean she won’t have one.  

Simply put, the writers have made Jughead more likable. He’s still the underdog. He’s the only character in Riverdale actively trying to deal with his trauma, since the very first post-time jump episode (working at Pop’s explicitly to fend off the debt collectors). He has scenes with a new and extremely likable character (Tabitha). He has the only new plot line (the Mothman). Said plotline is narratively already tied to both his unknown past and the town’s destruction by Hiram. His behaviour is explicitly explained, even as his recent trauma remains unknown. He’s transparent.

In comparison, s5 Betty is traumatized but not the underdog. Her trauma (TBK killer) is both known to us and a repetition of previous storylines, which makes it narratively less exciting. She is completely disconnected from any other storylines. She comes out as being judgmental and self-interested: telling Tabitha Jughead’s not her business while previously accepting his help? Berating Polly for lying while not keeping in touch and lying about her own life (TBK)? Please note: I’m not saying there isn’t a reason behind her behaviour, just that it comes out in a negative way.

You don’t like Betty’s current behaviour? You don’t consider trauma a good enough excuse? Cool.

You feel sorry for what she’s going through? You consider trauma to be a valid explanation for her behaviour? Also cool.

Personally, I don’t give a flying fig, either for Betty’s trauma or Jughead’s. Because, even though Trauma™ is s5’s actual mystery plot, narratively speaking, trauma never affected the plot of the past 4 seasons, nor s5 trauma will affect future plots, once revealed. And you know what? That is also cool.

None of the above is better.

And just because I’m not enjoying Betty right now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want her to overcome her current situation or that I won’t cheer for Bughead like a River Vixen on fizzle rocks, once they reunite.

This thing though, where people are made to feel as if they owed anyone in the fandom an explanation about why they like the things they like, because, somehow, their preferences are a reflection on their character or their cognitive abilities to read a TV show? This is a joke.

There is no “wrong” way to consume any show, let alone Riverdale, with its fractured format, its short-term memory and its see-sawing characters.

Look, everybody’s here for their own reasons. For most people this is a place of escape. No one’s escaping better than the other, because of how they enjoy their teen TV show ... 

[izzyliker]

Hey, asking you this as nicely as I can but can you give the immediate victim blaming a break. The absolute lack of respect you have for the people tmc abused is genuinely disheartening. Yes, he’s a shitty person, you’re entitled to hate him but immediately going “well you should’ve seen it coming earlier lol we’ve been saying this” is just ASTONISHINGLY shortsighted and cruel. Have your opinions about him and the situation all you want I would just ask that you please keep it to yourself due to the many many people he’s hurt that are still on here and can see you disparaging them.

ok, that is not what i have been saying. "well you should've known" is not an accurate summary of my feelings on this matter but apologies if thats how it came across. i have been in an abusive relationship where the person did a lot of the same things and i, too, defended that person without considering how it impacted other people. i almost lost my best friend because of how i acted as a result of keeping him in my life while people around me kept telling me to get tf out. i know.

what i am is im frustrated and annoyed by how long people were willing to publicly and passionately defend this guy while apparently fully aware what kind of shit he was doing to other people, many of which is detailed in the callout itself, and how this is now being framed as news. before the document itself was published all me (or anyone) had to go off of was vague posts that amounted to a "callout trailer" and almost all of the information on it was shit that was 100% completely public knowledge. 20+ people being aware of all that goddamn stuff and not one of them publicly stopping associating with him is frustrating. it comes across as spineless and yes, like one anon told GD, gaslighty (although i have my own issues with this being used on a large scale instead of in interpersonal relationships but i understand where they were coming from). his lesbophobia, transphobia (strange that none of the transphobia towards trans men was mentioned?), and panphobia/aphobia/biphobia were widely documented and seeing that on a callout post as if it were news was extremely tiring.

ive since read the callout. the interpersonal actions seem to have been horrible but sadly im not surprised (by which i dont mean "and neither should you" but rather. my spidey senses for this sort of behavior are pretty accurate most of the time and i did see this coming. this isnt me saying im Better than these people or that they shouldve as well but rather that i have learned to identify people of this genre.) by any of them.

also im 75% sure this is tumblr user GD. hello. if not then apologies, its just that the typing here is very similar. if it is, i think you trying to both take accountability for this and process whatever it is youre processing at the same time on tumblr is a bad idea and going to just lead to people feeling hurt and betrayed because while i truly do see where the reaction is coming from (like, truly, i understand, believe me), if you say "i take responsibility for how i acted while being manipulated" but then when people voice their negative feelings you tell them theyre victim blaming you it is going to reflect poorly on you. i dont think you understand how many people were absolutely hurt by the enabling you and your large, massively popular group of friends did for him, including the MASSIVE defense rant you typed up in defense of him when someone sent an ask to the bi jon event about him being panphobic and aphobic. whether its fair for people to expect you to immediately go into depth about it is questionable but dont invite people to do this when you obviously cannot handle it (i dont mean this in a bad way like "oh you should handle it". i mean genuinely this is how you get burnt out and possibly worsen possible future trauma. by trying to immediately placate people without having the mental resources to do so.)

i think the "we dont condone these views and never did!" without ever specifying what they were or doing any other work there is a lazy fucking cop-out. your circle was/is massively popular and a lot of people took all of you as authorities on stuff like headcanons and respectful portrayals of certain characters or identities to the point of accepting your meta as canon (something you havent really dissuaded ever), and associating publicly with someone who would constantly do this kind of shit and then defending him publicly while also positing yourself as an authority isnt something you can just "oops! we never agreed with him!" yourself out of. GD & TF specifically, you are massive blogs. you are babys first TMA blog. people in your askbox hurt and betrayed by this shit are not necessarily there to victim blame you. they are there because they trusted your word when they said "hey seraf reblogged anti pan and anti ace and weird transphobic posts" and you said "seraf is one of my dearest friends and would never do any of those things and im personally offended youd even imply that." i think you dont understand the real life consequences of the massively popular posts and sentiments he made & published and that you helped spread (despite apparently knowing that he was being a massive hypocrite and bigoted towards those groups or identities in his personal life). obviously interpersonal abuse/conflict is going to be "worse" but dear god i hope you collectively understand that "oh btw we never endorsed his views" is a massive copout and a shit apology for the hurt this association and endorsement caused. tmc has been terrorizing this fucking fandom for months with his bullshit and bigotry and you have not been passive bystandars but active enablers.

anyways, hope everyone involved gets to uh, heal i suppose, but i think expecting the people who seraf suicide baited, the groups of trans men he misgendered, the people who he targeted and harassed, the genuine fucking long lasting dysphoria he caused real people to have over his shitty takes re: transness and dysphoria, and the general shit behavior he was allowed to keep up with zero pushback from anyone in his circle of the fandom to drop all the anger or frustration they have for the people who enabled him and defended him aggressively is... unrealistic. and makes you look bad. especially when the doc doesnt even clarify which opinions you still support.

[jiang-cheng-therapy]

Ah yes I finally stumbled upon a blog that seems dedicated to vilifying Jiang Cheng as an abuser, and saying that his and WWX relationship was just a matter of WWX finally cutting out the toxic people in his life

I didn't go looking for it by the way it popped up in the tag

If you have that interpretation of it I won't stop you, esp if you were an abuse victim and relate to WWX and what he went through. And I agree that in many ways, JC *was* toxic for WWX, and that trying to pretend everything is fine and dandy or that JC did nothing wrong ever in his life is...well, wrong.

But it's very much a step too far to say that anyone who relates to JC is complicit in abuse and that you hope other people don't have to interact with us JC stans.

JC is not a likable person. He also did a lot of terrible things that were fully his choice and that he's responsible for. He did mistreat and hurt WWX; whatever reasons he had for that aren't excuses for his behavior by any stretch of the imagination. But he does love his brother in the way he was taught to love. Just like WWX loves him in the way he was taught to love.

And WWX hurt JC as well. Neither of them are guiltless in this, and neither has more guilt than the other. Human relationships are messy, and theirs is a mess. Could they reconcile? Is that possible? Yes. Would they? That depends. Both of them would have to be willing to change quite a bit (esp JC because as a person he'sless open to change). It would be messy and difficult, and they wouldn't have the same relationship as they did before (they shouldn't, either - it wasn't healthy). But it's possible.

I think the problem is, strangely these days, people think in black and white more than ever. They think that empathizing with someone who has done bad things means you are a bad person, as if empathy means approval of someone's actions rather than simply empathy.

You can relate to, pity, feel bad for, and love people people who have done bad things, even who are toxic and abusive, without condoning their behavior or thinking (in the case of abusers) that their victims should forgive, reconcile with, or have any contact with them.

Even if we can't see it - even if we can't figure out how - redemption is possible for everyone. They have to grasp it, choose it, work for it - they have to accept it, and often it's difficult. But no man is an island. They can't do it on their own. Someone - not a single someone but many someones, often - has to make them aware redemption and change is possible. They have to be in an environment where they get the support for it.

Even then some people don't choose redemption. Sometimes even when they get all the help they need up to the point they have to choose - they don't. They turn away. And that's on them.

But have you never mourned for someone like that? It may be their own fault and choice but that never makes it any less tragic or sad. Is it often enraging as well? Certainly.

But no one gets to the point of choosing redemption without being extended mercy. Not license. Not forcing their victims, if they harmed people, to interact with them. Not letting them getting away with wallowibg in misery, or manipulating people.. But mercy, which is love acknowledging all the evil a person has done and offering a helping hand to pull them away because it knows that *if they choose to* they can be better and happier.

And JC isn't even that far along on the scale of "has done horrible terrifyingly dastardly evil, reveled in it, and chose this all intentionally."

So to simply call him an abuser; to insult people who like and/or relate to him; is both a gross oversimplification and a disservice to other humans.

Yes there are people who may oversimplify the other way, and that's entirely wrong! But people seem to think, again, in black and white- that if WWX is sympathetic and likable that JC cannot be and is an enemy and must be vilified as an unredeemable villain who did inhuman things; ignoring the fact that WWX did much the same. Complaining about JC choking WWX after escaping a burning Lotus Pier? What about WWX choking Wen Ning who said he'd help him? What about WWX snapping the neck of a young man in a fit of rage?

What about WWX torturing Wen Chao into *eating his own flesh*? What of *both* WWX AND JC torturing and killing Wen Chao? What, so WWX gets a pass for his heightened states of emotion - brought on, I might add, by his own choice to use demonic cultivation despite warnings from LWJ that all of this could happen? But JC doesn't because he's not WWX? give me a break.

And I don't hate WWX. I don't like a bunch of the stuff he does, but I like him as a character and as a person. Charming and intelligent dumbass that he is. Like Jiang Cheng, he's human and complex. And I don't have to agree with all of his actions to empathize with him! Imagine that.

Wow that got more ranty than I wanted. Oh well.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Hi! This is about some people saying alec was biphobic in cofa, I dont think it is true, I always thought he was being rude and lashing out basically because he was insecure and hurt and angry but not biphobic ! Even by its defination he was not being biphobic, I think he was being rude because of feeling insecure of magnus's amount of past lovers (not that I condone alec on this) but not because of the gender& neither was he looking down on him. Anyways , What do you think about this ? love you

Hello! 

I’ve discussed this before here. So, I'm just gonna repeat myself if that’s okay :)

So, basically - I got an asking saying Alec is biphobic and this was (part of) my response. 

I understand what you mean. I remember reading CoFA and being like “omg stop saying all those things!!!” because they were deeply disrespectful. And as a bi person, I think it must have been especially hurtful - to see a character you like say something like that.

In such situations - I urge you to be empathetic and sensible. I know we have discussed a lot about how Alec was insecure and jealous and all of that. And I am aware that it may come across as just a bunch of crazy fan girls being defensive or making up excuses. But if you really do think Alec’s actions were a result of biphobia - then I’d like to remind you of the following.

Alec is eighteen - that is not an excuse to be asshole, no. But it is a reason for us to be more lenient regarding this actions. I know I wasn’t the most empathetic person when I was that age. I also want to point out that Alec was new to lgbt culture in the TMI books. He didn’t know much about his own sexuality - much less someone else’s.

A little evidence from The Red Scrolls of Magic - “He had begun to learn that there was a whole world he had been entirely cut off from, words like “bisexual” and “pansexual” he’d never really known. It made him grimly sad to think now of his younger self, how desperately lonely he’d been, how he’d been sure he was the only one who’d ever had the feelings he did.”

I live in an extremely heteronormative culture (like the nephilims do) and so I wasn’t aware of the various sexualities and what it meant for a really long time either. I do not condone Alec’s actions - but I understand them. I would not love him as much as I do if he was biphobic as you claim. Despite saying and doing every he did, he apologized to Magnus. He realized his mistakes.

When we are trying to fight for acceptance, it’s important for us to be forgiving and understanding. Whether you a shadowhunter, downworlder or mundane, you are allowed to make mistakes. We are ALL learning about the world around us and the people that live in it.

So, yeah. that’s it. I’m happy talk more about this with you if you want to:

Love you for loving Alec <3

[witchcraftingboop]

Re: Jbird & RainS. (Briar) Discourse

Previously, I have spoken with the person who made very serious allegations against JBird, calling him a racist, that were then used by others to spread slander against him. They have since apologized and admitted that JBird isn't a racist, and I genuinely think there was a stark miscommunication that went on to prompt such a claim. I don't want to name them or involve them here, since I do believe they've already reflected enough on the situation at hand, and is still deeply considering the multi-faceted hornet's nest of problems they've stumbled upon.

However, in light of the blatant dismissal and refusal to submit actual proof against the two, I feel as if I should share the information I offered this person before.

If you are basing your arguments against Jbird and Briar off of the previous, separate Discord group discussions of Trio & co. - screenshots of which have been, and continue to be spread years later, by Prim - then I especially implore you to be open to what I have to say. As a third party to this continually and rapidly spiralling debacle, I feel like there's not much I can say or do to assist my friends in being heard, but I feel as if I ought to try. Prim's following is large and actively prepared to follow her "do not interact even to ask questions" policy, so I worry it may be too late already. But I am not without hope or faith.

Tumblr is, unfortunately, a place where hate spreads rapidly, and while I do love the broad community it fosters, I am also aware that, even with the best of folks, it is hard to see the side of someone you've already decided is guilty and not worth approaching for an explanation.

First and foremost, I believe in innocence until proven guilty.

Now then! Onto my offered commentary/input! (Sorry to prattle on so much.)

To start, thedesertgod, also known as Trio, did go through and look for her personal information, which is messed up. But that person has already apologized, if I'm remembering correctly, and left Tumblr. And the other main user who helped spread information about Prim being a race faker also admitted wrong and left. The others in the chat, particularly Mystic and Ronan appear to just be making jokes and stating factual informative summaries, respectively. E-muete also said "ok no" after the Dolezal comment, which is a common "no that's too far a comparison/joke/statement" substitute among their forums and chats and often means they don't actually agree with what they themselves said. Ruby also politely reminds Trio that it's impossible to tell someone's race off of their appearance alone. So what I see here is definitely problematic, but entirely on Trio's part. I'm not saying it's not screwed up to find pictures of someone's parents and debate their race, but the persons who did those things have already left the Tumblrsphere.

Unfortunately, the people you've pointed out don't have a good history with Prim even before the whole "Trio nitpicking her race" thing. Prim used to follow more than a few of them and use their posts to fuel her platform, oftentimes creating uninformed mish-mosh articles with a voice of authority that simply wasn't warranted. As I'm sure you're aware, it's hard enough dealing with people stealing your content word for word, but to attempt to steal your knowledge? Your initiations and rites of passage? And use them to sell yourself as a master of a breadth of practices? The tradcrafters of that particular circle decided to band together and block her from interacting with them directly for that very reason. And because of that, Prim started telling her followers that they are all racist and elitist and ableist and gatekeepers. These terms over the years have become almost like triggers in that once they're said, everyone seems to put on a blindfold and fall into a frenzied rage. And to be fair, Prim is far too quick, in my opinion, to bring up racism as the reason others disagree with her. Most times, I've noticed at least, that if she calls someone racist or says they're unsupportive of POC, she nearly immediately brings up BLM activism in her posts or reblogs. I'm not saying I necessarily support calling all of her activistic inclinations performative, but where the tradcradt group she calls racist is more than willing to talk of and show proof of their contribution, Prim never has and avoids it if asked. I can see both sides, really. But the fact remains that calling someone performative in their actions, does not a racist make. Neither, in my opinion, does interacting with people who are assumed (without real and concrete proof) to be racist.

I can appreciate where you're coming from; honestly, I can. People have grown accustomed to hearing the prefix trad- and preparing for the worst. Racism is a systematic and prevailing problem in the society all around us, so it makes sense to be on the lookout for it. You want to protect yourself and your community. I can understand your sentiments perfectly. But I cannot support "guilty by association" viewpoints. As a WOC who grew up in some rough areas, I have seen boys killed under that very same reasoning. Jbird is a good friend of mine, and I have never questioned his morals or ethics. I have seen no sign of my being looked down upon for the color of my skin, nor anyone else who runs in that very same circle.

What I see is what I see in a lot of faces on this hellsite: hurt. Before Trio and after Trio left, the tradcraft community has been slandered and ostracized. They have shut themselves off to outsiders for the very thing you've done to Jbird just yesterday. They hold their secrets closer than most other communities now because persecution is seemingly forever at their door. On Prim's end too, there has been struggle and pain and needless arguing and hurt. If those you approach seem prickly, it is often because the world has roughened their edges, not because they personally are against you.

I asked for a couple examples from the group and one person (I'll keep them anonymous because I didn't confirm they'd like their name here) said: she has talked about saint magic (trio), hadean pamphlet (trio), hubris (Ruby), fairies, trad craft shit (Mahigan among others), etc etc

From what I personally have seen, her most recent was the Witch Fire podcast. A few tradcraft blogs had a debate/discussion about Witch Fire and its traditional eurocentric foundations in witchcraft not that long ago, and then Prim decided to put out a podcast that was so uninformed, I'm still worried about how younger or newer witches might be hurt by it.

Unfortunately the tradcraft community is vulnerable to that kind of thing [being called names or falsely accused] and an easy target. That's why being called those kind of harsh words - like gatekeeping, elitist, racist, and ableist - are met with so much anger from them. I take it very seriously because I've seen the kind of whiplash it has, especially on such a closed off group.

[A Reply.] Yeah no, Prim "apologizes" by talking about how she's been previously given a hard time with interjections of "but please don't go around spreading hate" and never directly apologizes to the tradcrafter in such posts. Unfortunately, her "apology" did more harm than good. I was hoping she'd just ignore it but . . . This tends to happen too 🤦‍♀️

I think that if both sides were able to approach it as openmindedly as you have, there would be a lot less drama and in-fighting on this app 😩 I really did enjoy talking with you though!

That just about covers everything I'd like to say on the matter.

I do not condone spreading hate, just as I don't condone misinformation or blind allegiance to what one person says. So if you can respectfully and openmindedly address your questions/comments/concerns, I don't see why you can't interact with Briar, Jbird, or myself. I understand it's easy to get caught up in the first perspective you're given, but it is my hope that Witchblr as a whole can be more open to hearing both sides of the story. Blindly blocking and cancelling certain bloggers is something I don't support nor encourage. I understand Prim must be tired of addressing all of the drama that churns around her, so I won't speak as to what her reasoning could be for suggesting such a solution. I'm simply stating what I hope for the community as a whole.

| | Note: The statements above were written early (I think, my sense of time is off) yesterday, and as of yet, I have still seen no concrete evidence that Briar or Jbird have ever made racist comments. On Briar's part, I have seen her observation that activism on a performative platform such as Tumblr can come off as performative, but she never once said she doesn't know or see why Prim would support and promote BLM activism. Something I think was misconstrued and lumped all together to sound as if she thought Prim were faking her contributions altogether. | |

[sneakyboymerlin]

For the character thingy- Morgana

First Impression: Loved her. Wasn’t too in love with her, given the misogyny of the writers—in season 1, she doesn’t really do anything, ya know? Has the occasional prophetic vision, gets sick for everyone else to worry about, her apparent sexiness is emphasized… pretty much the definition of objectification there. But then season 2 comes around and you realize she’s textually gaining agency, so maybe that’s intentional? Hmm. Anyways, she’s making some morally grey choices in s2, but you can’t help sympathizing with her. Then season 3 comes around, and I’m left devastated by the fact that she’s just lost all the love that she had for her friends (Merlin, Gwen, and Arthur particularly). Understandable, with a full year of separation under Morgause’s tutelage, but very difficult to watch her become the enemy of my other faves. She has a point, though, as she’s fighting for her freedom under Uther. Then she becomes more and more unhinged and I’m enamored with that particular villain aesthetic she has going on. Tragic but fitting end—love how it’s played out so personally instead of a ginormous mid-battle scene.

Impression now: It’s pretty clear she was always intended to be the main villain of Uther’s creation, as the character of Morgana often is in adaptations of the Arthurian legend. I understand the point of her starting out very one-dimensionally good was 1) an effect of her lack of autonomy, before Merlin and Morgause teach her about her magic, and 2) to emphasize her downfall and the differences between the “old” her and the “new” her. I think the writers should have given her character a more nuanced exploration from the start; however, it’s easy to spot some instances in the first two seasons where her flaws probably spawned from. I’m also not a fan of narratives that tell you what to believe, so while it’s undeniable that Morgana became a villain, I wish it weren’t so “tell don’t show.” They could have conveyed a more compelling slide into villainy if the writing for it wasn’t so heavy-handed. Her actions are a little more nuanced than “fights for her freedom but in evil ways” imo, though I know this is an unpopular opinion amongst the fandom. It’s pretty obvious that she’s not fighting for the freedom of her people so much as trying to regain the privileges she had before finding out she has magic— she doesn’t necessarily fight for change unless it affects her in some way, or at least doesn’t take away her privileges. It’s always going to be easier to say “feed the poor” than to starve on the streets, and she shows her true colors when uses her higher status to threaten Merlin and Gwen. She’s the most protected person in Camelot, possibly all of Albion (barring Princess Vivian perhaps) but for the first time in her life, those privileges are conditional—she no longer has them just because she’s Uther’s ward. There’s real fear there, as she realizes she’ll likely be executed as a traitor, but she is also aware of her class privilege and Uther’s nepotism, which she’s not afraid to take advantage of. This wouldn’t be a problem if she extended her aim beyond restoring her own privileges, rather than leading armies against Camelot knowing that the poor and defenseless are the most vulnerable to her attacks, or trying to kill Gwen simply because she’s going to become queen. Morgana views the people as something disposable that she’s entitled to/can be used to accomplish her own goals. Basically she’s the face of white feminism and classism in a palatable package, whether the writers intended it or not.

Favorite moment: 2x03, where she’s returned to Camelot. There’s so much going on in this moment. For one, she has to pretend that she’s been rescued, and that Uther is her savior from her magical assailants, when it’s the exact opposite: the Druids rescued her, and she’s been essentially kidnapped back to Camelot to live under Uther again. She now has the knowledge to be well and truly terrified, but also to understand herself and deflect the internalized hatred of magic she’s learned her whole life. It’s a small moment, but it conveys so much about how her life is going to be from here on out.

Idea for a story: I’ve been meaning to write a fic about the year she was with Morgause between seasons 2 & 3, and how she became the person we saw in 3x01. Imo, Morgause gave her ultimatums and convinced Morgana it was the only way, and given her solitude and feelings of loss/betrayal, she was more susceptible to this form of manipulation. She may as well have joined a cult. I’d love to look into this period of her life, which the writers apparently thought wasn’t worth looking into.

Unpopular opinion: As stated above, Morgana’s goals were self-oriented. I don’t think she was ever inclined to do things for the greater good because it was mostly hypothetical from her place as Uther’s ward—nepotism is strong among the Pendragons. Any trait can, of course, be a good thing at times, but she takes it to the extreme in the wrong direction.

Favorite relationship: Merlin and Morgana. I love the angst of the friends to enemies, especially considering the secrets between them (the ones they do and don’t know about each other). It all makes for a very unique, compelling relationship, especially when one’s goals could easily benefit their enemy as well, but neither condones the other’s approach.

Favorite headcanon: The reason that she only tells Merlin (besides her physician) that she has magic is because she knows he rescued Mordred from certain death. This heightened the betrayal she felt in 2x12. Turning on Merlin had nothing to do with his feelings about magic, because she knew these were positive (in addition to Mordred, there was Will and the fact that he kept her magic a secret for about a year). It had everything to do with the fact that he was willing to sacrifice her life for the greater good. Morgause gave up on her plan for the Knights of Medhir and the fever-sleep spell to save Morgana because she never really cared about what happened to anyone besides herself and Morgana. Their mutual prioritization of each other is part of what drew them so close together.

[agentrouka-blog]

Jon and Ygritte - rotten moral code? Nah, just setting up Jonsa.

If there is one thing that had me uncertain if Jon is good enough for my Darling Angel Sansa, it’s this:

He could feel the throb of pain where her arrow had gone through the meat and muscle of his thigh. He remembered the old man's eyes too, and the black blood rushing from his throat as the storm cracked overhead. But he remembered the grotto best of all, the look of her naked in the torchlight, the taste of her mouth when it opened under his. Ygritte, stay away. Go south and raid, go hide in one of those roundtowers you liked so well. You'll find nothing here but death. (ASOS, Jon VII)

Gosh, it was sure bad when she murdered that innocent, unarmed old man. But wow, what a hottie. “Go south and raid”? Raid?? Seriously, you want her to kill even MORE innocent people because it’s such swell fun for her? What the hell is wrong with you??

Ygritte was much in his thoughts as well. He remembered the smell of her hair, the warmth of her body . . . and the look on her face as she slit the old man's throat. You were wrong to love her, a voice whispered. You were wrong to leave her, a different voice insisted. He wondered if his father had been torn the same way, when he'd left Jon's mother to return to Lady Catelyn. He was pledged to Lady Stark, and I am pledged to the Night's Watch. (ASOS, Jon VI)

Wrong to leave her. Hm. Yeah. If that’s your preferred lifestyle, Jon. By all means. 

And, dude, I get that your relationship with Catelyn was very painful and that you never even met your mother, but that comparison is just insulting to BOTH women. And Ned. By all the Seven, get a grip, Jon.

"Who is Ygritte?" Donal Noye asked pointedly.

"A woman of the free folk." How could he explain Ygritte to them? She's warm and smart and funny and she can kiss a man or slit his throat. "She's with Styr, but she's not . . . she's young, only a girl, in truth, wild, but she . . ." She killed an old man for building a fire. His tongue felt thick and clumsy. The milk of the poppy was clouding his wits. "I broke my vows with her. I never meant to, but . . ." It was wrong. Wrong to love her, wrong to leave her . . . "I wasn't strong enough. The Halfhand commanded me, ride with them, watch, I must not balk, I . . ." His head felt as if it were packed with wet wool. (ASOS, Jon VI)

This is one of the few things I find deeply, deeply disconcerting about Jon. This willingness to overlook the murder of an innocent man, to let it be overshadowed by the memory of, essentially, her naked chest. 

Jon Boy, I get that you were a love-starved little bastard weasel and you miss the intimacy of a relationship, but she is literally a cold-blooded killer. And she treated you like a possession. How are you justifying this. 

Seriously, the only saving grace here is that Jon is maybe 15 or 16 and emotionally starved and has zero experience with what a good relationship would be like. Ygritte was neither particularly warm, nor smart (AT ALL!) and I cannot judge the funny. But she most certainly was a violent, murdering invader. And Jon really really really wants to be in denial about that. 

At the worst, this tells us Jon is extremely superficial in his core values. A sham of a character. But that doesn’t gel with what we’ve seen of him elsewhere.

At best, however, this underlines how very very very much Jon longs to be loved, how much it will mean to him when he experiences it. This is the only interpretation that ameliorates his moral failure here just a little bit. This angle also gives us a glimpse into the future.

We already saw Jon mature a lot over the course of AFFC and ADWD. He does still refer to Ygritte in his head as a mentor. But the romantic relationship fades far into the background. He has better priorities, but that longing for love is likely not dead. 

GRRM is obviously setting up something to do with Dany, here. Violent invader open to romance… It’s Dany. GRRM either means to create plausible doubt about Jon’s true feelings if he wants to toy with the reader about political!Jon, OR to set up another bout of actual denial if Jon is bound to Dany on an honest, emotional level.

But. 

The first option will be tricky to pull off, without erasing Jon’s POV for far too long, so why bother for just one short-term surprise? It’d be as bad as the show. GRRM is better than that.

If it was the second option played straight, I would lose all my respect for Jon. And I would find it boring. It would mean that Jon has literally not grown, at all. It would mean that whatever relationship he develops with whatever Stark he encounters before Dany - Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Benjen, I don’t even care - would not have enough depth to outweigh whatever an emotionally stunted child woman (fascinating character arc, but really, she’s not that interesting on an interpersonal level) can offer him. He would be as ignorant about a proper relationship as he had been with Ygritte. As willing to compromise basic moral standards for emotional comfort and a good time between the sheets.

Or GRRM is simply setting up a contrast.

The fact THAT Jon was having these extremely questionable impulses of bargaining when it comes to Ygritte’s character back when he was a wee little stupid baby, actually makes me fairly confident that he won’t struggle so hard do the same with Dany when he encounters her as a “man grown”. 

Because there would be absolutely nothing interesting about Ygritte 2.0. with dragons. Murdering invader who looks good naked, yay! My family disapproves: what surprising, heart-rending tension. She kills people but she is so pretty: what inner turmoil. She is miraculously pregnant with the fruit of our incest, but I love her, it’s all good. Go south and raid, Dany Darling! I am aghast by your killings but, gosh, so torn because you are so full of.. um.. yeah. No.

But it would be very interesting to see Jon understand the difference between a good and a bad relationship. To track his actual growth by seeing him reevaluate what he thought he knew with what he learns. To see him struggle not with melodramatic denial but with guilt for an emotionally vulnerable monster, and with horror when he discovers she is possibly much cleverer and even more dangerous than he even thought. 

Basically, what would be much more interesting, would be Jon underestimating her, rather than being in denial. Being in denial about Dany’s nature, or bargaining over it, makes Jon a boring, repetitive fool. Underestimating how far she will go, while being fully aware of her nature, that’s the stuff of horrifying surprises.

But in order for Jon to mature emotionally to such a degree, he will first have to experience a relationship that is not abusive but nourishing, and feel loved and accepted. Not even necessarily romantic, but simply close, positive, trusting. And in order to do it in an interesting, non-redundant way that shows us something we have not seen before, it almost HAS to be Sansa. Which brings us back to how very very very much Jon craves just such a thing. So much he was willing to downplay the vile horror that is murdering innocent people because the person who did it had “loved” him and he wasn’t ready to let go of that.

Arya, Bran, Benjen, Rickon, all the Starks already love him. It’s Sansa who’s a mystery box in terms of interaction. Basically, their relationship, in order to set Jon up on a trajectory to stay interesting, has to be a very positive one. It doesn’t have to be perfect, obviously, but overall very positive. Warm, funny, smart. Life-affirming. Embracing.

And unless Jaime-Cersei-Brienne is supposed to be the apex of romantic tension in the books (Love Arianne, but she is not “big” enough to carry the books on her amazing shoulders.) then Jonsa is basically inevitable. 

There is simply not enough emotional tension in a platonic Stark family v. Targ family feud. Certainly not between the Starklings. Why have two Stark sisters unless Jon’s relationship with them is going to be markedly different? Especially with the level of importance weddings and babies have carried up to now. It is literally inevitable that romance will be central. Even if GRRM means to end it tragically, which I don’t think he will, Jonsa will have to be a thing, a BIG THING in order to provide emotional growth for Jon, a contrast to his relationships with Ygritte and Dany, a pay-off for all of Sansa’s romantic disasters and - obviously - for RLJ. Because only Jonsa is unlocked by the reveal of that secret. Because Jon’s main arc is not the road to Targaryen kingship. It’s the road to home and family. There is only one thing in that direction that RLJ makes possible: marry a Stark. And there is nothing to be gained by Jonrya, their love was already perfect. And he probably can’t continue the Stark line by marrying Bran. Just saying. 

In order for Jon’s questionable, immature thoughts about Ygritte’s murdering actions to lead anywhere at all, he will have to overcome them. The most interesting way for him to do that would be by experiencing an actual, positive love story, where he doesn’t have to be in denial about his lover’s vicious nature, and experience actual acceptance and tenderness. You know, that exotic stuff where you’re not threatened with violence, called stupid, angrily yelled at for disagreeing, being shown zero interest in the things you care about… You know, the kind where you don’t have to commit or condone murder in order to be loved. Where someone might actually, I don't know, try and pull you away from the murderous brink. 

So, out of the darkness of those horrifying Jon thoughts about Ygritte, I kind of draw a lot of hope for Jon’s future. 

[thetypedwriter]

Black Wings Beating Book Review

Black Wings Beating Book Review by Alex London 

Do you ever have to go to a work/school/mandatory meeting and then think to yourself an hour later...wow, that could have been summed up in an email?

Black Wings Beating by Alex London kind of felt like that to me. 

Black Wings Beating is a series that surrounds twin siblings, Brysen and Kylee, and the ornithological world that they live in. Ornithology, in case you don’t know, is the zoological study of birds. 

This book has so many birds. 

My god. The birds. 

And bird references, allusions, metaphors, and expressions. I didn’t even know that many bird-like turn-of-phrases existed until this book and now I am painfully aware. 

But these siblings live in a world that is dominated by the presence of birds, the training of birds, the selling and buying of birds, and the companionship of birds. Even the legends, myths, culture, civilization, and religion surround freaking birds. 

It didn’t bother me too much at the beginning, and all the little facets you learn about falconry and bird species was intriguing at first, but it was something that very quickly outgrew its welcome for me. 

In this world, Brysen wants to be a great bird-handler hero by catching the legendary Ghost Eagle, a feat that many have attempted and all have failed.

His sister simply just wants to live her life in peace and harmony while ignoring the special language deep inside of her that allows her to command birds (a gift that is largely ignored and mistrusted by her, but revered by everyone else who knows about it). 

Neither of them get what they want, as Brysen idiotically offers to go on a hunt to fetch the Ghost Eagle himself (without help, foresight, or experience) all in the name of love for a guy who obviously doesn’t give a shit about him, and Kylee, being the kind, good-natured sister that she is, follows him into this idiotic quest despite her obvious misgivings about it. 

This is then followed by another character named Nyall who then follows after her as he loves her and bam, you’ve got three teenagers up in the mountains attempting to catch a mythological bird creature that no one has even been able to catch before. 

That’s pretty much the book. 

You’ve got some confusing miscellaneous stuff thrown in there as well, like the leader of the Kartami-a new group that despises birds and believes in slaughtering all of them and the people that have anything to do with birds-which is um, everyone? 

So basically, a terrorist group out there to kill the whole world. 

You’ve got the Council of Forty, which is some government that doesn’t really make sense in some far-off place, you’ve got some random Kyrgs that don’t seem to accomplish much, and then you’ve got the ghostly Owl Mothers and their coven boys who also are somehow entangled with the political nonsense of the Council of Forty wanting the Ghost Eagle and that’s really about it. 

So. Why did this book feel like a two-hour long meeting when it could have been a succinct email?

Because nothing really happens. It does, but not really when you get into the meat and potatoes of it. 

The whole book is the trio climbing the mountains, facing off against the Owl Mothers, getting the Ghost Eagle, miraculously getting back in like three pages compared to the three-hundred it took to get them there, and then a sporadic and puzzling fight at the end for who gets to control the Ghost Eagle and how its powers could be utilized the best. 

This book was just...odd in terms of how it decided its pacing and its logic. 

I’ll start by saying that this isn’t a bad book and I did enjoy portions and aspects of the world that London created. However, I also was heartily annoyed by several of the things that occurred. 

The highlights of this book are definitely it’s world building, entertainment value, and relatively mindless experience. This isn’t a hard book to read and it comes across as a juicy novel with action and adventure if that’s what you’re looking for, especially if you adore birds. 

Now onto the laundry list of items that aggravated me. 

The birds were too much. It’s like they asked London to come back with a sprout and he brought back a forest. I would have enjoyed the world of Uztar and all its intricacies if the bird analogies and references weren’t shoved down my throat every other sentence in the most ludicrous of ways, most non sensibly being the dialogue. Aka, referring to others as fledgelings and eyas’ made me want to hurl every time it was used. 

The POV of this book swapped back and forth between Kylee and Brysen, and originally, I thought I’d favor Brysen as he was the cool gray-haired eager eyed rascal that runs off to fight for what he believes in, but Brysen was easily the most irritating thing about this whole experience.

 He’s stupid, impulsive, selfish, naive, and just...kind of a jerk? Especially to his sister that literally does nothing else but try to protect him and love him. 

Now, for those of you who have read this book, you might be screaming at me. But his father beat him! He is the way he is because Kylee didn’t protect him as a child! His mother is useless! He’s had a horrible life. All of this is true. 

As London likes to remind you EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH, Brysen was abused heavily by his father and their father was a horrible, despicable man without a single redeeming bone in his body. 

Now, I obviously don’t condone abuse and the effects of child abuse are varied and complex, but in this case, I felt like London used it often and debilitatingly as a crux for Brysen just to be a bad character. Bysen does something you don’t like? It’s because of his abuse. Brysen is being dumb? Because of his abuse. Brysen not thinking things through again? Obviously because of the abuse. 

Now, I’m not trying to be callous here, but abuse, especially child abuse, has been done in YA literature before and done well. Meaning that the effects of the abuse are varied, nuanced, and not the whole sum of the character’s personality.

 A great example of this is basically any character from Nora Sakavic’s The Foxhole Court. All of the characters from that series are influenced by abuses they’ve suffered, but it isn’t the totality of who they are as human beings and it also isn’t brought up every goddamn second in order for it to be weighty and important. 

I understand that child abuse is a hugely sensitive and important factor. You don’t need to remind me every other sentence in order for it to be treated as such, which is unfortunately how it plays out in the novel. 

Kylee, on the other hand, I thought was the far superior twin. She also had a troubling childhood, but it didn’t define her and she also didn’t use it to justify her good or bad qualities. I would have preferred if the whole book had been from her POV with lovesick Nyall following after her in the mountains. 

Another important thing to mention is the anticlimactic sequence of them actually catching the Ghost Eagle. For a mythological bird that has killed hundreds and is supposedly impossible to catch and contain, Brysen, Kylee, Nyall and a coven boy are able to do it with literal ease. 

I think it was a five page fight before Brysen was strapping the humongous bird onto his back like a lumberjack and skipping on back to the village. It was disappointing to say the least. 

Lastly, there are just some things in this book that if you think too hard about, don’t make any sense. 

How can four teenagers catch the Ghost Eagle of legend with a few kicks and punches where hundreds of trained men have been unable to do it before? 

According to London, it’s because they have love and because they’re operating as a group. I’m sorry, you’re telling me that not a single group has attempted it before? Why not make a huge expedition party if that was the case? It makes no sense. 

Another example is the ending scene. Why can’t Brysen go with Kylee to the Sky Castle? Well, according to the Owl Mother it’s because Brysen is too important to Kylee and it affects her ability to use the Hollow Tongue too much. 

Translation: London doesn’t want them together in the sequel for a variety of reasons so he made up this bullshit excuse that doesn’t have any levity. 

Again, on the surface, it’s fine, but then if you think deeper about it, a lot of the book's choices and so-called logic collapse in on itself like a deck of cards which makes for a frustrating reading experience and personally unsure if I’ll pick up the sequel or not (probably not). 

Recommendation: If you are a bird-enthusiast, want to become a bird, or need something to alleviate your Angry Bird obsession that has still somehow not died down, this book will have you frothing at the mouth.

 For everyone else, this book is average at best. Not the worst story, but certainly not the best. If you want a quick adventure story, then go for it. If you want complexity, nuance, and not to hate birds whenever you see them, I’d fly clear (sorry couldn’t help it, I’m sure London would be proud even if I’m internally screaming). 

Score: 4.5/10

[arthurjdrake]

[meta] What, if any, games, movies, books, tv shows, etc. have you drawn influence from for your character?

Hooooo boy, you opened a can of worms here. There’s a lot, mostly because the way I tend to build muses and characters is by taking facets of different and interesting medias concepts and then amalgamate them into one and even then they’re evolving based on situations. 

1. Floki - Vikings 

I knew from the outset when designing Aren/Arthur that I wanted his heritage and origins to be of Viking descent as it’s an area I’ve wanted to build into a character for such a long time and never had a chance to lean into that. I love to toy and play with history when building characters like this; weaving things into their narrative to explain certain nuances and aspects of their current persona. 

Floki is one of the most fascinating characters on the show Vikings imo, his primary goal is to find out his meaning/place in life, what his purpose is and how best he can serve his people/Ragnar during his lifetime. He’s an idealist and a perfectionist who drives himself hard in the goals he does set for himself. Aren/Arthur as a character is very similar in this regard - flexible and laid-back, until one of his values is violated - when their value system is under threat both characters become aggressive and stout defenders, fighting passionately for their cause even when neither is truly a seasoned or very proficient fighter. Both are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value, meaning and context in life. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through their value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help them define or refine their own path in life.

2. Professor Layton

While Aren’s heritage and origins are Danish, in this particular lifetime he was born and raised in England. Sherlock is very well known and seemed a bit on the nose as a choice so it got me thinking about other things that influence the choices I made and as a professor as well... There was no other character except Layton that exhibits the same degree of intrigue with mercurial mysteries. Calm and polite to most people, quiet and reserved in his emotions they both apply strong analytical and logical skills to situations they find themselves in. They both think through their approaches before enacting them and Arthur has gained these skills from lifetimes spent researching and studying in academia as both a scientist and a scholar.  

3. General Iroh / The Dragon of the West

Iroh is the epitome of ‘No one is inherently good or inherently evil.’ Another facet I lean into with Arthur; who has done some terrible things (namely murder and torture in the course of seeking revenge)  and justified them in his mind as an answer to wrongs done unto him by others. It doesn’t mean they were right or that he condones the things he did but at the time it made sense and was justified to him. He lives with the guilt of those acts, and it’s guilt he will always carry.  While this is mostly speculation from the countless times I’ve watched the show prior to Lu Ten’s death, Iroh imo acted largely out of what he believed his duty to be. He was the Crown Prince to the Fire Nation. He had a duty to honour his family and his country with victories. He fought in the war and battled so long and hard at Ba Sing Se because he believed that was his duty to his nation and to his people. He believed their cause to be justified in making the world better for everyone. A view that was dramatically altered, however, by his experience at the city of Ba Sing Se - confronted with what the Fire Nation had done to the world. He could see how and why the people feared them. A fact that didn’t hit home until Lu Ten was killed at which point Iroh was forced to reconcile his duty to his nation with his duty to his family, and having failed to protect his son, he could not.  Iroh forsake his duty to his country. At least, his duty to be a praised military leader. In its place, Iroh picked up his duty to his family, seeking to raise Zuko in a way that would bestow balance and honour upon the Fire Nation, once again.   Iroh was never inherently evil, nor was he inherently good. Instead, Iroh’s motivations were driven by what he saw as his duty. In his younger years, this duty was to the Fire Nation, to the honour of his family. In his later years, when tempered by Lu Ten’s death, his duty became to the world, which he fulfilled through Zuko’s proper rearing, his service to the White Lotus, and his kind spirit that saw no divisions between the elemental nations.

4. Lee Scoresby - His Dark Materials both the novel and the show.

Chapter 18 is perhaps one of the most pivotal moments and discussions Lee has. Lee Scoresby is symbol of free will, independence, and individual choice. Lee elaborates on this POV in his dialogue with the witch Serafina Pekkala: "I'm a simple aeronaut, and I'd like to end my days in comfort. Buy a little farm, a few head of cattle, some horses... Nothing grand, you notice. No palace or slaves or heaps of gold. Just the evening wind over the sage, and a ceegar, and a glass of bourbon whisky."  While he appears as a bit of a mercenary, Lee's desires have to do with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  While Serafina argues about the important role of fate in the conflict unfolding, Lee takes the other side of the debate. He insists that individuals should and do have a choice in what happens to them. "Seems to me a man should have a choice whether to take up arms or not." "We have no more choice in that than in whether or not to be born." "Oh, I like choice, though," he said. "I like choosing the jobs I take and the places I go and the food I eat and the companions I sit and yarn with. Don't you wish for a choice once in a while?" That’s a stance Arthur tends to take quite a lot when discussion the repercussions of decisions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The ramifications of those choices are every person’s own responsibility to step up and bare no matter how difficult that hardship might be. 

Not to mention Lee “go dad or go home” Scoresby full on adopting Lyra and I live for it. In the same way that’s happened with Evelyn and DEFINITELY with Nadia.

5. Jamie Fraser - Outlander

Amiable, intelligent, and stubborn. Jamie’s sense of duty and honour is strong, and he has never backed down from a fight or refused to do something he thought was his responsibility. In the face of many things, when Arthur’s made his mind up in a similar way getting this man to budge from where he’s planted himself is nigh on impossible.

Despite the years and trials they’ve been through, both still remain and choose to be kind and merciful unless given absolutely no other choice.

That said, when unchallenged both have a good sense of humour and social awareness and both are extremely loyal to family and loved ones going above and beyond when they are threatened or in perilous situations. 

TL;DR so yeah there’s a lot of different and similar things I’ve drawn in. There are probably plenty more but these are the main ones I’ve really keyed into with writing and portraying Arthur.

[tartareus]

Do you condone/ship incest? I was reading your rules and got confused about your sentence where you said if people are uncomfortable with fictional consensual incest this isn’t the blog for you. Except Incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction

hi there, friend, how do you do?

while i'm not particularly fond of anons (nex time you'd like to discuss something regarding my rules and/or character portrayal, i strongly encourage you to do so via ims - i don't bite, and if our points of view don't quite match? that's alright, i promise i'll leave you in peace :) ) for various reasons, i'm so glad you've read my rules (that probably makes you one of the few who follow me - at least i presume you do, idk - who has done so, so thank you so much!), i cannot stress enough how important they are to me. if i happen to follow you, rest assured that i have read yours (unless, ofc, i couldn't find one in your blog - in any case, if i happen to accidentally break one of yours, just hmu or gimme a nudge).

considering that you've asked more than one question, i'll answer to you in separate sections - needless to say that while i break it down your questions, the answer might become a little longer than usual (again, i'm sorry). i'll keep this tagged, in case any of my followers don't feel like reading about this. without further ado, let’s dive in.´

“do you condone/ship incest?”

short answer? nope. but that is not a black or white question i’m afraid. no, i – nox, the human behind this blog of fictional characters – personally do not condone incest , never have and never will, and  don’t ship it. i do, however, ship consanguinamory on rare occasions, and when i do happen to write it i never do it in a good light.

for those who are not familiar with the term, here’s a little bit of info about it x && x. in short, the key difference between them is: incest is usually linked abuse (a fictional example that can be used, taking in consideration one of my very own muses, in this case is margot verger – who was sadly abused by her brother in the hannibal books) while consanguinamory (the lannisters, for example, or even the sharpe siblings from crimson peak are examples of consanguineous relationships) is the consensual romantic and/or sexual relationship between members of the same family who are of consenting age.

[ personally, i find both of them gross as fuuck irl but when it comes to fictional works i may get over this first disgust and ponder more on that && take in consideration the characters arch, plot, thoughts and the whole world they are set in. ]

i suppose the turning point here is the consent. i never, never, condone any sort of abuse – not in fiction and neither in real life – and while it’s a subject that bothers me to no end in real life, when it comes to fiction i am less inclined to project into them. i may write dark and toxic relationships, but i obviously do not condone them. that’s the point here – people on this hellsite usually mix the two together (condoning something and shipping/writing it, that is) when in fact they shouldn’t even be in the same box to begin with.

let’s say you write a fictional serial killer – norman bates, tate langdon, hannibal lecter, catherine tramell (that chick from basic instinct), patrick bateman, mrs lovett and sweeney todd, kai anderson, bellatrix, grindelwald and voldemort (the list of plausible examples could go on forever…) – here and ship with them; does it mean that you, the writer, condone every single action and choice your muse does? if writing something purely fictional equals to condoning it in real life, well… the world is even more fucked up than i first thought.

you see, in this little exercise in imagination, you could’ve easily picked a good guy or gal to write, the hero; the goody two shoes. why didn’t you? well, it’s complicated to pin point why some are drawn to darker works of fiction and characters while others are not, i suppose each individual has their own reasons && i can only speak for myself when i say that i am drawn to these sort of fictional works because they the safest way to explore dark topics that pertain to human society. on my side, it’s nothing but raw curiosity.

there’s also the issue of how different cultures see these relationships. in case you haven’t noticed, i am not from the states but actually from brazil. especially in the rural area, it’s not uncommon for second cousins to date or even marry (ew, i know, pretty gross). that’s something that is luckily falling out of practice, but you can easily find it, more so in the poor rural areas that are really far from the cities.

you may have noticed that most of the sources for the terms come from a blog that advocates real life consanguinamory – but make no mistake, i don’t support it. these were the only places i’ve found as sources in a quick look online. i don’t support it irl, but whatever consenting adults are doing amongst themselves is no concern of mine – i have no say on the matter and all in all, i don’t give a damn. i just don’t like it. everything i’ve discussed here is related to fiction, consent and is only ever related to people of consenting age.

“i was reading your rules and got confused about your sentence where you said if people are uncomfortable with fictional consensual incest this isn’t the blog for you. except incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction”

to be honest with you, anon, i couldn’t possibly see how you’ve got confused with this. i thought i was pretty clear with that, but perhaps not. sorry, my english is not perfect. however, with the risk of sounding like a meme, i said what i said. if you personally feel uncomfortable or even triggered with fictional consensual incest otherwise known as consanguinamory, maybe my blog isn’t for you. not because i – as the mun –  condone it, but because i might mention it or even allude to it when i write certain characters. again, consent is the main thing here – you won’t ever see me writing that awful part of margot’s past, but i might mention it on some threads as it is part of her trauma but i will write jaime’s feelings regarding cersei and joanna’s love for tywin – and that should not be overlooked.

“except incest is incest regardless of if it’s fiction” 

so far so good, am i to assume that you also believe that “murder is murder, regardless of if it is fiction or not”? should we call the police on, idk, george rr martin for killing....hell knows how many characters...at this point i’m sure not even he knows. leaving my petty comment aside (it’s the arthritis, i’m always annoyed when in pain), i see where you’re coming from; fair enough.  but you missed a big point here – consensual. i do not write abuse, even to the muses who – in the canon source material – have done so    ( like jaime lannister himself – who’s in a consanguinamorous [therefore, falling under the category of fictional consensual incest] relationship with cersei – who abused his sister next to their son’s dead body [ yeah, jaime apologists, i’m out to get y’all...jokes aside, i do not acknowledge people claiming that cersei manipulated him into going to bed with her, while they are both shitty and toxic as fuck people, their relationship is mutually messed up – gag if you must but jaime lannister is far from innocent angel ] )     in the past. i. don’t. write. it. but i do write jaime’s feelings for cersei because they are canon and are also a big part of the character he became.

all of that, of course, has to do with my own position on the “war” between the people who believe fiction has a great power and influence over reality vs the ones who do not believe in that. personally, i find it hard to believe that fiction is a brainwashing tool rewiring people’s brains  - i find the idea itself ludicrous, the ones who strongly stand for that aren’t that different from flat-earthers and people who believe in reverse racism tbh – but i do acknowledge the influence media has on society. its not nearly enough to turn someone to the “dark side” alone by itself – those who claim that videogames, for example, made them violent most likely already had something different and perhaps wrong with them before the games triggered something. i don’t believe that media creates things on people, but brings buried things (fears, feelings, emotions, hopes) back to the surface. it’s all about the stimulus.

if you wanna be scared, watch an horror movie; if you wanna be happy, a comedy video.  wanna feel warm inside and live unrealistic romantic expectations vicariously through fictional characters? read a 50.000 words slow burn fluffy happy fanfic of your otp at 3 am even though you gotta wake up early in the following morning....

point is, they are not creating things, they are bringing forth responses from you that were already there in your brain (everybody has laughed before and felt fear, it’s part of human development). and how you react to certain content is entirely to you and your past. say, if you drowned as a kid on the sea - and had trauma from that - the idea of watching titanic is not so fun, is it?

it’s not my place to decide what you should do, that is entirely your own choice to make, just be aware that, as i’ve stated before countless times, i may write dark topics that may or may not be triggering to some.  i do so because it is my blog, and i don’t react so harshly to this content (in fact, i love horror, thriller and dark fictional stuff – meanwhile i dread the thought of rom coms, hell knows why??) for i am lucky to be able to separate fiction from reality. basically, whilst writing a villain, i myself do not become one in real life – that part remains in fiction only and doesn’t affect me.

that is not a constant, sure. i don’t just write dark shady stuff – there’s plenty of fluffy shit on my blog, but i like to warn people beforehand to make sure we are all on the same page. it’s for your own comfort, i suppose, because i may not understand certain points of view on fiction but i will always defend your right to be comfortable and safe.

so yes, if you aren’t feeling well at that notion, please unfollow and block me if you must – i never wish to cause any discomfort to anyone – however, before you do so (that is, if you do so) i beg you to just send me an im warning me beforehand, please? that way i can block you – and your other blogs as well – so the chances of me running into you again and causing you discomfort will be minimal. that way we’ll both be on own respective lanes and happy about it. i mass follow very often and don’t usually know which blogs belong to whom (uh, did that make sense? my latina ass is not used to using whom in a sentence....), i may follow another blog (or the revamped blog) of someone who has blocked me and never even realise it – that’s not me following you around and stalking like a total creep, that’s probably me not even remembering who you are. again, sorry – i don’t mean for this to come off rude or anything but???? its the truth? you know the drill, big following list, big followers list (well, big for me tbh, i cannot remember the name or alias of 600 people for the life of me, excuse me if my memory doesn’t serve me right), hard to keep track. there will be no witch hunts, at least on my part, because i deem them to be childish and way too dramatic for my taste. if you’d like to speak in private, adult to adult, i’m always game – i dread vague posting, i personally see it as a pathetic and weak trait. 

as long as you’re civil, so am i.

either way, do whatever makes you feel comfortable and safe on your blog – your  mental health is far more important (to me, and hopefully to you as well) than a hobby, than tumblr, rp or whatever fictional stuff someone’s writing or reading; you are responsible for your own online experience, and i am responsible for mine. that’s an empowering thing that should be reminded more often.

i truly hope i’ve managed to answer whatever doubts or questions you had in mind, if not my ims are always open and so is my discord. once again, thank you for reading my rules and stay safe!

edit; my dumb ass forgot to drop my disco handle, since i change often. it currently is   DOCTOR BITCHCRAFT !!! | 𝒏𝒐𝒙#1398

[i-can-get-extra-with-my-ships]

A Slice Of My Love. Chapter 7. Upstairs.

We’re on the bean bag again. I told you what’s happening in this chapter. (If you’re from Tumblr) You know about the roadblock that came up when I tried to start writing. My shipper is now growing impatient. Also, look at that! This chapter’s a new pov!! I’m evolving!! (Don’t tell anyone how much I wanted to do his perspective.) Let’s just get to it.

Pairings: the glasses gays, best friend mode prinxietea (but it’s toned down A LOT)

Tw: Cursing, minor death mention, spoilers for the movie Big Hero 6 if you still haven't watched it, fluff, Pat and Lo still being shippers, crappy writing, dumb jokes, you know, the usual.

Logan’s POV 

----

“Logan, just tell me. I don’t care if it’s all that important. I just need to know what went down whilst I was sleeping.”

Roman had been inquiring about what happened last night. Patton had missed out on a small portion of the events. I had already dubbed it unimportant, but Roman, on the other hand, wanted to know.

I hesitated for only a second or two. “If you so insist, Roman. Now, if I’m not mistaken, Virgil said that the supposed ‘guy’ that was sitting there’s name was Alonso.”

He stood there. He appeared to be trying to fully comprehend what I had just told him.

He turned around and asked Virgil a question.

“Virge, you ok buddy?”

Virgil looked at Roman like he was insane and then responded. “Like I told Patton last night, I’m never okay.”

I looked over at Patton who had been sitting next to me during this whole spectacle. He looked like he was about to go on a tangent.

“I WILL PHYSICALLY FIGHT YOU IF YOU KEEP SAYING THINGS LIKE THAT!!!” Patton was talking as if Virgil was from a different planet. Slowly, annunciating each syllable.

I put an arm around Patton’s shoulders and with my other hand I lifted his chin up.

“Someone still needs more sleep.”

Now, normally, I don’t endorse “sleeping in” as I’ve been informed by the others it’s called, but Patton had a really long night. We both knew that Virgil never went to bed. I know that if Virgil never went to bed, neither did Patton. However, Patton did not share my point of view on the matter of sleeping.

“No, I don’t!! I need to worry about my kiddo.” Patton yawned.

Patton, you’ve already worried enough!

“Patton, if Freakonomic is condoning sleeping in then, you need to sleep.” 

Roman, you must be joking. You’re going to insult me like this, NOW of all times?

Virgil didn’t look up from staring at the counter, he just joined our conversation.

“Yeah, I’m with Princey and Lo on this one.” He didn’t look at anyone of us. He just kept staring at the counter.

The words that came out of Roman’s mouth after that should not have.

“Hypocrites say what?” As always, Virgil fell for it.

“What?”

Patton and I gave Roman the look™. Roman looked like he was debating with himself in his head. He came to a sudden realization and changed the subject that he was well aware was coming.

“Umm, Logan! Doesn’t Patton need more sleep?”

It appears that I had gotten sidetracked.

“Ahh yes. He does. Come on Pattoncake. We need to get you,” I booped Patton’s nose “to bed.”

I only performed the action known as a boop, because it was Patton’s weakness apparently. 

“Fine!” he mumbled in a failed attempt to be mad at the fact that I was forcing him to go to bed.

I walked Patton up the stairs. Once we got to Patton’s door he opened it and walked inside. I waved and was about to turn around and go back downstairs when Patton beckoned me into his room. I hesitated but before I could make a decision, he grabbed my arm and dragged me into his room. That was a typical Patton outburst. I personally found them adorable. Patton always felt a little bad after them. 

Here is where feelings get messy and confusing because I feel terrible since Patton feels bad. It is one of the most metaphorically heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen. On the other hand, however, it’s also a good thing that Patton feels remorse. There could be a day where one of these outbursts affects someone who would much rather not be affected by it.

I still don’t understand why Patton seems to feel that bad after one of these said outbursts affects me.

“Oh my god!! I’m so sorry Logan!! I didn’t mean to do that!!” Patton buried his face in his hands.

Do you happen to recall when I said that Patton doing things similar to what he just did metaphorically breaks my heart?

I reached over and pulled him into a hug. I began to rub his back and I whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

“Patton there is no reason to apologize. To me at least.”

He hugged back tightly. I smiled and whispered, “I personally find it adorable when you do that.” I couldn’t see his face, as he had it tightly press against my chest, but I could feel his blush. I kept the same tone of whisper and asked him, “Patton, can you please tell me why you didn’t sleep earlier?”

There was no verbal response, he only hugged me tighter. I hugged back in a defensive manner. This always happens when Patton feels sad or upset. I get defensive. I have no clue why. There is no danger. (Logan sweetie, they’re called feelings.)

I kept whispering to him since in the past, using this tone of voice, or one similar helps to relax Patton and defuse the situation. “I promise you that I will not get mad. I only wish to help you, Patton.”

He mumbled something. I couldn’t hear what he said. I still whispered “What was that Patton? I couldn’t quite hear you.”

He looked up at me and started to list all the reasons as to why. Most of them were Virgil and his current mental state. I had a bit of an urge to silence him like I did the last time he was rambling, but I ignored it by deeming it inappropriate for this scenario.

I decided to hold up a finger to Patton’s lips. That silenced him. “Patton, I hate to inform you, but your health is more important than Virgil’s. You are more important than Virgil. You need to worry about yourself before you worry about other people.”

He looked like he was going to argue with me but he just rested his head on my chest once more. He started to mumble again, but I could hear him this time “Your always right Logy.” He hugged me extra tightly. I pet his hair. 

We stood there for 1 minute and 37.52, no 38.07 seconds. Just holding each other. It was nice. (That seems like it’s not a lot of emotion but normally he would’ve just thought that it was “rather enjoyable”) I would have preferred to have stayed there longer, but I was beginning to experience discomfort in my legs.

“Patton, if you don’t mind, could we please sit down?” Patton blushed again and said “Oh! Sure!!” He grabbed my arm, as if I didn’t know where I was going, and sat me down on his bed. (Get the filth out of here. If I can’t read smut how the hell would I be able to write the smut? Also, this is a PG-13 place.) 

He then turned on the television that he had, followed by setting up a movie. After he finished setting up he sat down and snuggled up close to me. I wrapped my arm around his waist. 

I knew why Patton chose the movie he did. We both knew. It wasn’t because it was my favorite Disney movie. It was because we’d both seen it several times. Why was that important?

Because we needed to talk about what to do with Virgil.

I already knew what we needed to do. We needed to send him to therapy. Now. Because of how delicate this subject is I couldn’t just flat out say “Patton we need to send Virgil to therapy.” without having Patton metaphorically “lose it”. So this is what I said alternatively “Patton?”

He hummed in response and looked up at me. I continued. “Can we talk?” He looked confused and he hesitated before he replied. “Uhh sure!! What about?”

It was my turn to hesitate. I needed to metaphorically “play my cards right”. “What we should exactly do about Virgil and his, there is no gentler term for this, sanity.”

His smile faded and was then replaced with a smirk. “You already know what we should do. Don’t you?”

I stared at him spellbound. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

“We need to send him to therapy.”

We looked at each other before laughing a little bit. Then the mood got darker again. 

Patton’s first question was, of course, “Do we have to send him to therapy?” I thought for a minute. I hadn’t thought about that. “I suppose that we could wait until further evaluation.”

He nodded. “And by that, you mean ‘until he loses it’?”

“Precisely.”

“How are we gonna tell Roman? He’s not gonna take it well. Neither will Virgil.”

“Going to. I d-” At that moment I was cut off by Roman and Virgil screech no, what they claim to be singing from downstairs. May I remind you that the door was shut too? “NO, IT’S FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!! REALLY FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!! GO BE FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!! AND I WANT MY PINK SHIRT!!!” I braced myself for what I knew was going to come next. “HE BROUGHT UP THE PINK SHIRT!! YOU KNOW SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN ONCE YOU BRING UP THE PINK SHIRT!!!” Then came the laughter. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

I looked over at Patton. He looked like he was about to scream “language”. He did not scream though. He only sharply exhaled and said “You know what? I don’t care. I ship them too much too care.” I smiled and snorted. “Patton I think that we “ship” those two more than the fandom does.” He laughed. “It’s so true.” Then we broke into laughter of our own.

We turned our focus to the movie again. The good news is that we were past the part were Tadashi dies. That part always makes Patton cry. I’d rather just not focus on Patton crying. If his apologizing for his outbursts isn’t metaphorically heartbreaking then Patton crying is. 

We sat there watching the movie and cuddling. Patton had rested his head on my chest. My arm was still wrapped around his waist. These kinds of moments with Patton were the best. Just enjoying each other's company.

However, that bliss did not last as long as I would have hoped.

We heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Patton looked at me confused. I did the same. Then Virgil kicked the door down we looked up at him in shock. 

I sat there flabbergasted.

Patton spoke first. “Virgil, please tell me why you just kicked down my door.”

He looked like he was overly excited. He moved to the side a little bit and pulled Roman forward. “RoMaN sAyS i’M nOt CrAzY!!!”

I looked at Roman with the dad look that I’ve seemed to get from Patton. 

“Roman, please explain.”

Roman looked down at his feet. “Well, do I have a story for you guys.”

Patton looked up at me and then he looked back at Roman. “And we have something important that you need to know Roman. Virgil? Could you go downstairs please?” 

Virgil looked confused. Still, he let go of Roman’s hand and walked back downstairs.

----

Holy McFricken. I did it!! I finished this chapter. I’m so sorry it’s late. I had a 3-day long writer's block. (Tuesday-Thursday) 

Also. We’ve hit 400 Tumblr children!!! OMG, I’m so happy!!! Watch my life go bad on Monday or something. 

But umm… This is the longest chapter. (Like 3 ½ pages) Also. I ALMOST WROTE AN ENTIRE CHAPTER WITHOUT CURSE WORDS!!! ARE YOU PROUD OF ME??? I know I’m proud of me.

Also, I love and hate writing Logan’s POV. I get to use some of my vast vocabulary, but I can’t use metaphors without having to be like “metaphorically” or “figuratively”. I know THAT would get annoying FAST.

                   Anywho, hope you enjoyed.

                                  -Em

----

Taglist (Please let me know if you’d like to be added/removed): @winterswishing-reblogs @just-some-gt-trash @thetomorrowshow @iixclementine

[fostersffff]

Complete Black Eagle (read: Edelgard and Rhea) Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally finished both Silver Snow and Crimson Flower, I feel like I can put all of these thoughts out without worrying about a last minute twist. It’s entirely possible based on how much I’ve seen people talk about route differences that once I play Golden Deer and Blue Lions I’ll have changed my opinions, but barring some really wild and extreme stuff, I can’t imagine changing all that much. A ton of text under the break:

Edelgard

There was a Korean poll that was published recently where Edelgard was voted the #1 most disliked character in Three Houses... and also the #2 most liked character in Three Houses (behind Lysithea). It’s not a surprising result to see considering that she is the inciting antagonist, and that you don’t really understand why she does any of it unless you happened to start with the Black Eagles, but even then, IntSys felt it necessary to split Black Eagles into two routes, just in case you still didn’t want to side with her. But that’s what I think I found to be the most compelling thing about Edelgard: that she is a decidedly morally gray character, and how you feel about her comes down to looking at all of the things she does and asking “is this worth it?”

Part of what makes her so compelling to me is that no one understands her role better than Edelgard herself. She has no delusions about what she’s doing, and she never even makes an attempt to sugarcoat it to anyone around her. I made a post back when I first started the game about how I thought it was weird that her first support with Byleth ends with her talking about how she’s prepared to go down in the history books as History’s Greatest Monster without any context, but as the blanks fill in and time passes, it’s clear that she’s completely and utterly true to her word. "The ends justify the means” is the best description of her philosophy, but unlike a lot of characters (and people) who use that to justify their actions, she doesn’t take any solace in it, or use it as a way to offset the responsibility for all of the lives lost in the war. The end may justify the means, but it doesn’t make the means any less horrific, and even if the end result is a better world, it’s a small comfort to the countless people who died for it.

I think something crucial to sympathizing with Edelgard is that as far as she is concerned, she didn’t “initiate” hostilities with the church. When she kills Dimitri in the Crimson Flower route, she says “if only we were born in a time of peace, you might have enjoyed a joyful life as a benevolent ruler”, which sounds comically hypocritical in isolation coming from the person who declared war in the first place. But it’s because as far as she’s concerned, the systemic oppression resulting from the Church of Seiros’s influence on every Fodlan society means that true peace simply hasn’t existed since long before any of them were ever born. To Edelgard, there’s been a cold war between the Church of Seiros and humanity for a thousand years, and she took it upon herself to finally make it hot.

“Cold war” might sound exaggerated, but there’s something to that idea going on the evidence we’re presented with. At best, the church is ignorant to and/or idle on the suffering of the common folk and the corruption of the nobility all across the continent that exists because they grants noble status and political power to families that happen to have Crests. At worst, the church is intentionally passive about those problems because preserving the status quo and their absolute control is more important, and to act in any way to try to fix those problems directly could threaten their status as the center of power in Fodlan. Speaking of their control: isn’t it odd that the Church of Seiros was involved in each war for independence, maintaining their foothold in the old nation while also branching out and ensuring they were the dominant religion in the new ones? That the only time the church acts on their own (outside of an immediate threat like bandits) is when they are made aware of heresies, however mild, at which point they act decisively and without any shred of mercy, sending a sign to anyone who would dare try to cross the church? That, with the exception of Seteth and Flayn, the most devout members of the Knights of Seiros and the church have a fanatical devotion to Rhea specifically, and not Sothis or the doctrine of the church? The most insidious thing is that even if someone with the power to pose a threat to the church wanted to fight against them, the only people who could realistically muster up enough military might to challenge the Knights of Seiros would be nobles, and the fall of the church would also mean there would be nobody to legitimize their claims to nobility. Nobody would be willing to risk their noble status, and all of the perks that come with it, like that.

Except Edelgard.

This is actually what I like most about Edelgard, and why I was right to compare her to my favorite Fire Emblem villain: Zephiel. Zephiel’s goal in Fire Emblem 6 is the complete eradication of humanity and giving the world over to dragonkind, because he believes that humanity is a blight. He never says “I will lead this new world of dragons” or “My followers and I will live on to see the world of dragons”, which always led me to believe that he would eventually turn his sword on himself*. Edelgard, like Zephiel, does not intend to just conquer Fodlan and then just enjoy the spoils- once all of her affairs are in order (dismantling the church and nobility, re-establishing the church and turning nobility into a meritocracy, eradicating the Tunnel Snakes**) she finds a suitable successor (read: not her child) and then retires into the sunset (at least in the ending where she marries Byleth). And, if you don’t like Edelgard- or even if you do- this happy ending might rub you the wrong way, because even though her resolve was unshaken and she walks her path to the very end, it was still an incredibly violent path. This leads to another question that I’m sure people can argue forever: does Edelgard deserve to have a happy ending?

I’ve seen Edelgard described with a lot of terms that I don’t really think apply to her- like, at all- but I’d never seriously argue that she did nothing wrong. She is a dictator, and a warmonger, and regardless of which route you chose a tragic amount of life is lost as a direct result of her actions. Her alliance with the Tunnel Snakes is an entire can of worms of its own, because despite the fact that she has no control over what they choose to do on their own time, she is effectively still condoning their actions by relying on their power. The worst of it, as far as I’m concerned, is lying to her own people about who caused the destruction of Arianrhod and the loss of life there to prevent an internal conflict. I think with all that in mind, there are a lot of people who are locked into the conclusion that no, she doesn’t deserve to have a happy ending. 

But! To create the world she envisioned, one where Rhea was no longer manipulating the world from behind the scenes, a world that would improve the quality of life for everyone in future generations, she was never going to have a choice in how she did things. Think of how openly and casually Rhea talks about how enemies of the church must be eliminated, without any room for discussion. Would a diplomatic call for the Church of Seiros to disavow the current system of nobility based on the possession of crests and for Rhea to step down as archbishop be met with anything other than hostility not only from the church, but from the Kingdom and Alliance as well? Even something as simple as publicly renouncing her own faith to try to motivate a cultural change just within the empire would’ve probably had Rhea dispatching Catherine to cut her down for heresy, just like she did for Lord Lonato. And the final, most passive alternative- returning to the empire after graduating from the academy, ascending her father to become the next puppet of the cabinet, hoping that she eventually bears a child with a major Crest or else watch her own children undergo the same torture she and her family went through. That’s just completely unacceptable, especially when that kind of self-sacrifice is only to the benefit of the nobles and the preservation of a rotten status quo that also only benefits those same nobles- and Rhea, of course. No matter what, she was going to have to sacrifice, and while what she chose would involve the most bloodshed, it also had the best chance of making things better for the greatest number of people when all was said and done, so her getting to have at least one ending where she is completely successful and is rewarded on a personal level doesn’t strike me as inappropriate at all.

A lot of what I’ve talked about with Edelgard has to do with the church, which is inescapable considering every single action she takes is motivated by the church. So ultimately, one of the most important questions to consider when asking “is all of this worth it” is “is Rhea really that bad?” Well...

Rhea

This bitch is fucking insane holy shit.

It’s kind of a nice feeling to feel suspicious of a character from their introduction, only for things to actually be way worse than you could’ve ever expected. For what it’s worth, this isn’t a case of me hating the character on a writing level, it’s just that I find everything about her character to be loathsome even under the best possible circumstances.

What makes Rhea so despicable is how simple and selfish her entire motivation is. Every single action she takes and emotion she expresses can all be traced to an obsession with her mother. It’s not that she believes she needs Sothis’s guidance to deal with a problem that neither she nor the whole of humanity can’t deal with on their own, or that the world will only be at peace if Sothis is around to protect it, it is literally just for her own sake. And on its face, I can deeply sympathize with going to crazy lengths to want to see your mother after she was tragically taken away from you. I also love my mom! But there’s a bunch of lines- both explicitly stated and implied- Rhea sprints past at an Olympic pace that I (and hopefully most other people) would not cross. These include:

Having twelve children*** and trying to turn all of them into your mother.

Having a grandchild and trying to turn them into your mother.

Maintaining direct control and influence over multiple sovereign nations over a span of a thousand years so you can continue to try to bring back your mother without anyone bothering you.

Keeping your closest friends/relatives/allies out of the loop on all of your completely unethical experimentation because deep down inside you either know how fucked up it is, or that they would try to stop you.

Ordering your subordinates to burn down the city full of innocent bystanders you are currently occupying to try to kill the grandchild who you put your mother into.

The one that disturbs me the most is what’s implied by the ending of Crimson Flower. In Silver Snow, Rhea tells Byleth that they were stillborn, and that their mother begged Rhea to put the Crest Stone into Byleth to give them a chance to live. But at the end of Crimson Flower, Rhea’s death causes the Crest Stone on Byleth’s heart to fade away, which should result in their death. But after a few moments, their heart starts up normally and they go on living as normal. They lose Sothis’s power in the process, but they’re just as healthy as they were before they obtained it. This leads me to believe that Byleth may have actually been born healthy and that, after their mother had passed from complications due to childbirth, Rhea placed the Crest Stone on their heart anyway. Or- it’s even possible that Rhea killed the mother herself, removing her Crest Stone heart after sensing that Byleth might be a better vessel because of their parentage. After all, Rhea is the only person who truly knew what happened in there. Jeralt had no idea about the exact nature of Byleth’s heart, only that they had no heartbeat, and Seteth and Flayn didn’t know about anything at all. Obviously, that’s all just speculation, as far as I’m concerned something like this is totally in line with Rhea’s character.

Now, to revisit the question of “is Rhea really that bad”, Edelgard doesn’t know about any of Rhea’s personal fucked up shit. What she knows about is what the church has done and what has happened under their watch and thus with their implicit blessing, that Rhea is actually The Immaculate One, and that she has been the sole driving power of the Church of Seiros since the church was initially founded. On a personal level, her own life and the lives of all of her family members were destroyed by the Church of Seiros’s influence on society via crests. And it should be noted that Edelgard’s not stupid; she’s very likely aware that the Tunnel Snakes are the ones who performed the blood reconstruction on her and her siblings at the behest and/or with the consent of the Empire’s cabinet and Lord Arundel, and she even addresses how awful they are and that she really wants no part of them when she approaches Jeralt and Byleth as the Flame Emperor. But, back when I first suspected that Edelgard was the Flame Emperor, I made a joke about how she has to deal with the fact that the Tunnel Snakes are dabbing on a mountain of corpses while Rhea is cripwalking on an even bigger mountain of corpses. But that wasn’t accurate- it’s not just that Rhea’s mountain is bigger, it’s also composed of people who are still alive, but suffered because of the Church of Seiros: Dorothea’s childhood spent as a wretch because she was born a commoner, the abuse Bernadetta endured from her father to make her noble wife material, Caspar and Sylvain’s brother being shunned from their families for the crime of being born without a Crest, Lysithea suffering the exact same procedure as Edelgard to increase her family’s noble standing, Hanneman’s sister dying from trying to bear a child with a Crest, to say nothing of the characters I haven’t seen the stories of yet. In the grand scheme of the game’s universe, this is only a sample of about 30 characters: what about the potential hundreds of thousands of other lives with stories similar to- or possibly worse than- the main cast? And what’s more, Rhea is not gloating about how big her pile is. She’s so utterly preoccupied with her mother that doesn’t even notice the mountain beneath her, and that might actually be worse.

Both

Finally, I want to briefly touch on the way both characters interact with Byleth, and how they handle things when they’re made into the villain. No matter what route the player chooses, Byleth does something for Edelgard that she has never experienced before: unconditional protection. She was prepared to fight the bandit, and she saw him coming from a mile away so I imagine she could’ve handled it, but Byleth still jumps in front of her to protect her. This is why Edelgard puts so much stock into Byleth, much to the chagrin of Hubert. It’s not that she doesn’t trust that Hubert and the rest of the Black Eagles are capable of helping her, but to them, she is Edelgard von Hresvelg, heir apparent of the Adrestian Empire. Even if their friendships with her would suggest otherwise, there is an ocean of difference between them because of their stations. But to Byleth, she was “simply Edelgard”. She has never experienced that kind of interaction in her entire life, and especially not when there was danger involved. This is so ingrained in her that even in the route where you most directly oppose her, after having spent a full year getting to know and understand her and still choosing to fight against her, her last words are “I wanted to walk with you.” Even that phrasing- that she wanted to walk with them, not that she wanted them to walk with her- says so much about how strongly she feels about Byleth. Is it waifubaiting? Oh baby is it ever, but it doesn’t make it less solid

On the flipside: something I really genuinely hate in games (and stories in general, but it crops up the most in games) is when people have unflinching, unwavering faith in the player character for no good reason. It’s why I think Persona 4 is a worse game than 3 despite being better in almost every other meaningful way. This almost certainly has to do with me not liking Rhea from the start: appropros of seemingly nothing, she is as dotting as any mother would be, she entrust you with an entire class of students lives with zero credentials, and in addition to that she is constantly assigning Byleth the most important tasks because she just has so much faith that they’re destined for greatness. Unlike the situation with Edelgard, helping fight off some bandits is not reasonable precedent for trusting someone this much. And the biggest reason I appreciate Rhea as a villain is because all of this turns out to be a ruse. All of this is in service of currying Byleth’s favor, to get them to trust her, to make them feel special, so that when she asks them to sit on the throne so Sothis can take over their body, they wouldn’t think anything of it. And you know it’s all been a ruse because of how unbelievably fast her turn is if you side with Edelgard. There’s no consistency between the Rhea who gently stroked your hair and sang you a lullaby when you were recovering from your trip to the shadow realm and the Rhea who calls you a failure and is going to rip your heart out of your chest.

*I’m extrapolating a lot of information about Zephiel and the world of FE6 in general because we just don’t have access to as much lore as we do in Three Houses, but I think what I’m saying are reasonable conclusions

**I call Those Who Slither In The Dark “Tunnel Snakes” for a number of reasons: it’s shorter, it functionally means the same thing, and it’s funny to me

***I refer to the vessels Rhea created as her children because that’s what I understood them to be when I first played Silver Snow, but upon rewatching the cutscene what she actually says is “I tried to bring her back by creating a body, and then burying a Crest Stone within it”. This could mean her own children that she bore, but it could also mean a number of other things, like vessels “created” from normal humans she acquired. For my own headcanon, the utter detachment she shows for Byleth when they side with Edelgard leads me to believe that they are, in fact, her biological children, but she refers to them so clinically because she felt nothing for them except disdain for not being able to house Sothis.

[scripttorture]

When creating torturer characters, does political party matter? They probably aren’t going to be discussing politics, but I’m curious about if you have any advice on how to handle that. Either how someone’s political party might encourage them or force them to think about torture differently. I realize this is broad. I hope it can be answered in some way.

Ithink that’s an interesting question and one that could definitelyuse further research.

I’mputting this answer together based on a sort of broad historicaloverview of cases where governments dominated by a particularpolitical party definitely had people tortured. This isn’t based onany statistical analysis or published papers. It’s me trying to puttogether an overall impression from the dozens of cases thissituation applies to.

Myinstinct is that political party doesmatter but not in the way you might think.

Isee a strong tendency in political discussions about torture to...tryand turn torture apologia into a left vs right issue. That is notbacked up by evidence.

Leftwing and right wing governments have both tortured and both supportedtorture.

Letme be clear that I am not talking about the ‘extreme’ ends here.I am not talking about dictators and invaders or people who believein torture as a matter of ‘principal’. I am talking aboutgovernments that are democratic and relatively moderate (or were fortheir time).

Aparty being left wing or right wing does not predict, in any way, itsattitude to torture. Or itsuse of it.

What’smore, so far as I can tell, left wing and right wing tortureapologists generally use the samearguments to justify torture.

Howeverpeople on the left and right seem to use different arguments whenopposingtorture.This is a general observation rather than a statistical analysis. Amore thorough analysis may refute this. But my general impression isthat right wing anti-torture activists are more likely to usereligious arguments and left wing anti-torture activists are morelikely to stress international law or the human rights act.

Ifeel like it’s important right now to stress that there have beenanti-torture activists on both sides of the political spectrum who’vemade important contributions to the global community.

Wedisagree over a lot of important things but treating torture as anissue on one political ‘side’ doesn’t help. Because eradicatingit (like eradicating slavery) will take concerted, cross-partypolitical will and effort.

Ithink that covers some of the assumptions that aren’t backed up byevidence but it doesn’t really back up my statement that party canstill matter.

Politicalparties can and do support policies that are likely to encouragetorture. Party members also sometimes use torture apologia as a wayof trying to garner support.

I’llgive some examples and talk about what I mean there but I think it’salso important to stress that ordinary individuals (and politicians)can sometimes respond to these tactics without being aware of whatthey’re encouraging. Not everyone is going to make a mental leapfrom ‘much longer detention time without charges’ to ‘possibilityof police torture being covered up’.

Somepeople willsupport apologist arguments and policies because, on some level, theysupport torture. But it’s perfectly possible to be ignorant of thelarger picture.

Someof the policies that encourage abuse are more obvious than others.

Puttinga lot of legal weight on confessions, allowing people to be detainedwithout access to legal assistance, detaining people for long periodswithout charge, overt differences in the law between differentcategories of people. (Not a complete list).

Butsome policies are more subtle. Eroding oversight for instance.Relaxing laws that protect workers. Encouraging police to prioritisecertain kinds of crime.

Idon’t think it’s necessarily about policies giving governmentgroups ‘too much power’. It’s power without oversight, withoutresponsibility, without consequences. Thatmore then anything else seems to be what encourages torture.

Ifeel like a couple of examples might be helpful.

SoJapan has an incredibly, scarily high conviction rate. Many of theseconvictions are based on confessions.

Likemany countries Japan tends to give lower sentences when peopleconfess. This is not particularly unusual.

However,suspects in Japan can be detained, without charge, for up to 23 dayswhile an investigation is still taking place. They can also bedetained repeatedly.This means that, with no evidence, someone can spend months indetention in Japan. So long as they’re briefly released andre-arrested after 23 days.

Thiscombination of features means there’s little to encourage police toactually investigate a crime. Torture and coercion end up beingencouraged by this kind of environment, whether that is the intentbehind the system or not.

Asanother example of how legal structures can result in abusivesituations let’s take a look at Singapore’s labour laws fordomestic service. (I’m picking this rather than Saudi, where I grewup, because Singapore is actually a less extreme example for thiskind of abusive structure).

Jobcontracts for maids in Singapore do not require them to be given daysoff. Technically there is the option for them to get 1-4 days off amonth but this is optional. There are no standard rights to overtimepay or limits on working hours. Until recently there was no minimumwage.

Toits credit Singapore has made a lot of progress tackling physicalabuse of maids. But they’ve done little to tackle the underlyinglegal structures that allow that abuse.

Neitherof these examples are recent changes to the law, they’reillustrations of an abusive status quo. A lot of people in both thesecountries support the system simply because it’s the way thingshave always been. Political parties might argue in favour of keepingthese systems by portraying changes to the detention system asundermining the police force or by portraying maids as doing the sameamount of work as everyone else yet asking for ‘extra’privileges.

Peoplewho support these policies don’t necessarily see themselves assupporting torture. They don’t necessarily mention torture orabuse. They may find the implication that they’re supporting abusehighly offensive.

Ithink that leaves the kind of rhetoric politicians can use toencourage and condone torture.

Someof this is rather obvious. The kind of broadcasts made in Rwanda inthe lead up to the genocide are not subtle about encouraging andcondoning violence.

Andsome of it, unfortunately, has broader appeal. For instance in thewake of some horrific, well publicised cases of rape and sexual abusein India some politicians said they believed men accused of rapeshould be tortured.

Inthe wake of well publicised crimes or a terrorist attack it’s notunusual for politicians to try and garner support by advocating a‘tougher’ stance on crime. Now obviously not allof these  suggestions support torture, either overtly or subtly. ButI’ve observed that when these conversations are happening on alarge scale across the political spectrum there is usually someonemaking the case ‘for’ torture.

Politiciansalso sometimes-

Inflametensions in a way that can lead to both attacks and torture incustody. This can be by dehumanising certain groups but it’s notalways so direct.

Oneof the examples that’s currently coming to mind is the uh- lobby tobuild a Hindu temple on the site of a historical mosque that wasdemolished. There was a mosque on the site for a considerable lengthof time and both Muslims and Hindus claim the site as sacred. Quite afew Indian politicians have taken sides in an attempt to gain votesfrom these religious communities. And the way some of them have goneabout this has certainly added to tensions between the communities.

Moreregularly politicians downplay the effects of torture or argueagainst the validity of particularly cases before they’ve gonethrough the courts. My impression is that this works in much the sameway as it does for accusations of sexual abuse.

Thelast thing I feel like I should mention is individual politicians’attitudes to the rule of law and things like the human rights act. Myobservation of politics in the UK since arriving has been thatpoliticians who routinely and regularly state opposition to humanrights are more likely to vote for policies which support torture. Isuspect the same holds true for individuals who feel that the lawshould only apply to certain kinds of people, or should only apply incertain circumstances.

Thatisn’t the same as saying the law is unjust or should be changed.Instead it’s the idea that the law should be selectivelyand unfairlyapplied that’s suspect.

PersonallyI believe that these factors seem to be more predictive of supportfor torture then broad political party. Though there have certainlybeen cases where political parties have selectively promoted peoplewho support torture and sideline or get rid of anti-tortureactivists.

Politicalparties and individual politicians influence our view of torture in anumber of different ways. Some are certainly intentional. Others arenot necessarily intentional.

Unlessyou’re writing a politically extreme group that is mostly made upof clear torture apologists- I’d caution against suggesting thattorture apologia is the sole realm of one particular party. Tortureapologists can be found in most political groups. As can people whoare firmly against torture. The proportions can change quite a bit.Parties can become worse or better through the concerted action (orsometimes inaction) of their members.

EssentiallyI would advise focusing on what politicians say and do over theirbroad political ‘side’ when you’re talking about torture.

Ihope that helps. :)

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[itsjustaphase-mom]

Luther Hargreeves

ok listen. i know he is certainly not a fan favourite and i absolutely hated him the first few times i watched ua. but this time, i rewatched it specifically to try to sympathize with luther and guys there are so many things at play here

he doesn’t realize the extent to which his siblings were abused. he brushes klaus off and doesn’t think twice about locking up vanya again because he just assumes they had the same experience. he’s not being an asshole (on purpose), he just never stopped to think about the fact that being Hargreeves’ favourite made life a lot easier for him.

similar to the first note, he never stopped to consider the implications of having powers that hurt to use. he has super strength, something that, compared to some of the other powers in the family, is nothing. he just doesnt realize what seeing corpses is like, which is why he doesnt get klaus’ addiction (and to be fair, neither do the rest of his siblings). Same with Vanya. He doesn’t think about what it’s like to learn you have powers after being told you’re horribly boring and average your whole life, nor what it’s like to find out your memory was erased. he had it a lot easier than his siblings, but he doesnt think about that. that leads to some poor decisions and awful seeming actions, but keep in mind that we know a lot more than he does about his siblings. we’ve seen their pain but he hasnt. no one in this damn family communicates, so he just doesnt get it. i wish hed stop to think about how other people feel every once in a while, but itd also help if they just straight up said “hey being high keeps the gory corpses out of my field of view, im not a fan of this either” to help him understand. he wasnt taught empathy, but he tries for the most part. honestly, the fact that he turned out that nice considering what he grew up with? kind of incredible

hes not just obsessed with the moon. and to be fair, he has a right to it? i mean i havent stopped talking about this show for 2 months and ive had other things happening in my life. he was alone up there for 4 years. that doesnt give you much conversation material. and also, bringing up the idea that the apocalypse could be caused by the moon makes sense because, yeah, he was sent up there by their dad who knew about the apocalypse (whether luther was aware of that or not). He was up there to look for threats, so its not that odd to consider that the threat he was watching for could have caused the apocalypse...oh speaking of which HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE MOON IT DID CAUSE THE APOCALYPSE

i think a lot of people like to ignore the fact that he was also abused. sure, it wasnt to the extent of klaus or vanya but he had a horrible childhood nonetheless which messed him up too. he wasnt taught a lot of the things we take for granted so like i said earlier, the fact that he’s not completely deranged is astonishing

also can we mention the horrible trauma he went through? like lmao monkey man but oh my gosh can you imagine? he almost died (in a horribly painful way) and woke up months later with a fucking gorilla body. he’ll never look like a normal person again. he probably will never be able to look in the mirror and like what he sees (you can find out first hand what its like to be me so GATHER ROU-) yes everything Klaus went through was horrible but Luther has lived through some fucked up shit too and i think we like to ignore that because he’s not very likeable

the scene with vanya. it hurts me every time i think about it. HOWEVER. i understand why he did it. do i think he made the right choice? fuck no. but i get why he did what he did. Vanya was extremely dangerous. She caused the apocalypse. she literally killed everyone on earth. these arent things we should brush over. (and yes i love vanya but that’s not what we’re talking about here) she very nearly killed Allison, and he doesn’t know her well enough to know if she’s here to genuinely apologize or finish the job. He just knows he has a responsibility not only to his family, but to the entire world. so he makes a tough decision. it hurts him too, look at his face. he doesnt want to do it but he doesnt think he has any other options.

about dismissing klaus: he has good reason (at least in his head). klaus is intoxicated constantly, and like i mentioned before, he doesnt realize its because of his powers. he just thinks klaus is trying to have a good time, and to be fair, klaus tries to hide his vulnerability (for the most part) so luther wouldnt know any better. in the end when he tells him to be a lookout? justified. the man is heavily suffering from withdrawal (or intoxicated, to luther’s knowledge? i cant remember if luther knows or not or whether he believes him for that matter) which is gonna impact his reaction time, and he doesnt have powers that can help anyway (as far as luther knows). yes, he was trained alongside them and allison is allowed to help despite also lacking usable powers; however, she is in a clearer state of mind and a lot healthier. She can physically fight. Klaus just kinda...jumps on people’s backs for the most part. Did you see her fight Cha Cha? *swoons* no but seriously, Allison is still highly skilled and in far better shape than Klaus. He’s a liability and staying outside is safer for everyone (again, as far as luther knows) all this being said, the way he treats klaus when hes drunk is Disgusting, Abhorrent, and Unacceptable. i understand that he doesnt realise his own power but thats inexcusable

luther x allison is gross, i agree HOWEVER they were not raised as adopted siblings, they were raised more closely akin to a boarding school. their dynamic had always been romantic; they never saw themselves as siblings. yes, i do find it very odd that literally everyone else considers each other siblings, but im just saying that their dynamic has always been different and technically it’s not really incestuous (im not condoning it, i hate it personally i just can see why its not the worst thing ever? its still pretty yikes though. also shipping literally any other characters IS fucking gross because the rest of them see each other as siblings and always have so gtfo with klaus x diego or klaus x ben g r o s s)

those are the main complaints ive seen (and voiced myself)... basically it all boils down to the facts that 1. he was abused, just like his siblings 2. he doesnt stop to think about how other people are thinking or feeling 3. hes just trying to do what is best for his family (and the world). I sympathize with monkey man. He deserved better. I really hope in the next season he’ll pause to consider things every once in a while (and that klaus will open up because he’s not useless but he’s not explaining to anyone why he does the things he does and he needs to!!) so yeah was this basically just me yelling at me from a week ago? yes. does anyone care? probably not but i felt it had to be done. anyway im done ranting for now....if i missed anything lemme know