#no clue if this is like common knowledge and the fandom just doesn’t talk about it

[leaderofthetransfembobagenda]

I made a meme about a discovery I made recently

[all-pacas]

#he's good in a crisis ok#and a dumb whore everywhere else

I'm the anon that asked why you think Chase is generally stupid,except for some talents. Can you talk why do you think he's a dumb person with a single talent,instead of a generally smart person who lacks common sense at times?

I mean, the short version is I’m joking. Just like when I call Cameron insufferable. The show itself likes to call Chase a Dumb Whore.

But the fact of the matter is that Chase isn’t stupid. House doesn’t hire idiots, even if he calls his employees stupid roughly twice a week. We see in S4 that he will fire someone immediately (CIA chick) if they can’t pull their weight; Chase does.

He does, in show, have a bit of a reputation for being dumb and lazy, and I think both have their… moments? Lazy is easier to prove: Chase tends to be quieter in differentials than Cameron and Foreman. He’s the least likely to argue his points or insist he’s right. Time and time again, he also shows he’s a bit apathetic: in Safe he and Cameron discuss the teenage patient’s boyfriend. They need to test his sperm, and Cameron worries that they should tell the parents, who will not be pleased. Chase shrugs it off. They’ll find out when they get billed for the test. Cameron asks if he’s really okay with them finding out like that; he doesn’t even hesitate before confirming “pretty much.” He prefers to take the easier path.

The dumb is a little more… meta-textual, let’s say. First of all, Chase is an intensivist. Foreman and Cameron are top level experts in their fields of disease. Foreman always thinking neurological is practically a running joke; I’m not sure if fandom has pinged on the fact that Lupus is a running joke because Cameron keeps suggesting it, because she’s an immunologist. They both tend to brainstorm in their specialties, they know a lot of very specific illness and disease stuff for them. Same with House: he has a double specialty in infectious disease and kidney stuff. Chase doesn’t have that kind of background. He’s not an expert in any body part or type of sickness. He’s… good at keeping people alive. And that is not easy, and we see time and again that he’s really good at it. But he doesn’t have that same kind of knowledge specialty, and so in differentials he… contributes, for sure, but he doesn’t have the “it must be lupus!” “it must be neurological!” thing. House also doesn’t defer to him as much — House recognizes Foreman knows more about Brain Stuff than he does, so when it’s a brain thing, Foreman is expected to know. Chase doesn’t have that kind of niche, so he comes off as a little less… brainstorm-y. Cerebral.

There’s also moments here and there in the show where they outright joke or imply he’s a little dim. There’s the “dumb whore” bit and him choosing password as his password. Way back in episode two of the show, he’s doing a crossword puzzle with a medical clue and can’t figure it out; Foreman does instantly. We know about Foreman and Cameron’s very prestigious CV and schooling history (he went to one of the top schools in the US and had perfect grades; she interned at the mayo clinic). All we know about Chase until S7 is that his dad, apparently, got him the job. Also, because Chase is the dedicated Keep ‘Em Alive Guy, there’s a whole bunch of episodes where, say, Foreman and Cameron are trying to figure stuff out or searching the home while Chase is busily working on the patient, so he seems to do “less” than the other two. This is probably where the “Chase screwed up” running theme comes from too: he cuts people open more than the other two, so if there’s a physical procedure (and potential mistake), it’s him and not Cameron who probably made it.

But that all said, all jokes aside, I don’t think he’s dumb. I mean — he’s dumb, but he’s not stupid. He might not be a disease or organ specialist like the others, but he still is able to keep up. He’s very good at keeping people alive. He also has a real penchant for out of the box thinking and creativity that bumps his Solve Rate up higher than any of the other fellows. As early as the Pilot he’s able to come up with a creative solution to prove the patient has Ham Worms. He’s shown plenty of times that he is incredibly good at reading people; he’s a good manipulator and lowkey House’s default “schemes guy” in early seasons, when he needs to trick a patient (or scam money out of the S4 betting pools and Kutner). He’s able to completely see through House and Foreman multiple times; House even goes so far as to say it’s why Chase was hired.

I think if anything it’s laziness that’s Chase’s biggest issue. He’s shown plenty of times he can be brilliant and is observant and creative, he just rarely bothers or cares enough to try. He’s… kind of a spoiled rich kid. He doesn’t have to work hard for things, so he doesn’t. He’s passive and more than a little spineless, and finds it easier to go along than assert himself in early seasons. He might not be dumb, but people see him that way, and I really don’t think he minds. Because it’s easier, and because he doesn’t really care what Foreman (or whoever) thinks. The rare times he does go all out tend to be exceptions: he works his ass off to prove his father wrong in S1, and Treiber in S8, because he’s mad more than because he’s that worried about the case. He figures out the same thing as House in Control, why the patient is really sick, but only because he’s afraid he’s about to be fired. He’s lazy. He works well under pressure.

I’m going to be super pretentious here, but when I was younger I read the short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” The main character is a deeply unpleasant and vain older woman. When her life is threatened, however, she becomes desperate and kind and empathetic. One of the last lines is another character’s musing (and I've thought about this line nearly every day of my life since): 

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."

In a way, that’s Chase. He does great when he’s sufficiently motivated; it’s just that most of the time, he’s only motivated for personal reasons.

But he’s not stupid.

[edgelordtozier]

I find the fics where Steve doesn’t know what bisexuality is and has to use Robin as a sort of mentor are so fucking annoying but I tend to put up with it because it’s such a common trope in steddie fics (unfortunately)

I have so many issues but one of my main issues is the fact that Robin is used as Steve’s gay mentor, which is a terrible trope of lesbian character coaching their queer male friend and oftentimes it just feels like they’re infantilizing the male character and making the female character be like overly invested in her male friend’s identity or personal issues, as if they don’t have lives or issues of their own. It feels like the lesbian friend only exists to be her queer male friend’s mentor and nothing else

What’s even more annoying is that in half the fics Steve doesn’t even reach out to Robin with is issue, she just goes out of her way to tell him this information and for what? Because she “suspected” something? She might be his best friend but she would know that you just don’t do that when it comes to someone’s sexuality because it’s literally a form of outing them and forcing them to talk about it when they’re clearly not ready, abd that’s only IF you’re correct

Another thing that’s annoying is the way that people act like Robin is this fountain of wisdom and knowledge for the queer community when she’s a teenage girl in a small midwestern town in the 80s, like if anything, she would be just as clueless as Steve is in some of these fics

idk it just feels kind of sexist to infantilize Steve in such a away and have Robin (who is literally younger than him) solve these issues for him especially when it’s a common trope in multiple mlm focused fandom spaces

Sorry for the rant

you are so right!!!!!!!!!!!

i especially agree with your point about robin in a lot of fics essentially telling steve that he's some form of queer rather than letting him come to this realization and work through it on his own. it's such a huge reoccurring thing and it really irritates me. her not even asking most times but telling him this and basically outing him is not only just like awful but also super out of character for robin.

"It feels like the lesbian friend only exists to be her queer male friend’s mentor and nothing else" is sooo real. robin's role in a lot of steddie fics is almost always only serving as a way to force the story along through pushing steve full throttle towards some sort of self-realization that she does not need to be solely responsible for at all. nor would she be! it's crazy to make her one purpose be making a guess about her best friend's sexuality that then sends him into a whirlwind lmfao.

and about robin being a genius on queer culture; it's something that has bugged me for so! long! the fics where robin is explaining hanky code or whatever to steve like she'd have any fucking clue what that means either is so incredibly funny to me. like not only is she a teenager in 80s indiana but she's also not at all in that scene??? why would she know anything about it????

it's such an annoying little thing that shows up in so many fics and it's been driving me crazy lately i'm so glad you agree LMFAO

your ask is way more nicely put together than my input lmaooo you're a genius!!!

[mybg3notebook]

Gale: Manipulation, Lies, and Trust

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were written up to the game version v4.1.104.3536 (Early access). As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information. Written in June 2021.

Additional disclaimers about meta-knowledge and interpretations in this (post) while disclaimers about Context in this (one).

Before anything I strongly suggest reading this post about "Context, persuasion, and manipulation" to understand in a simplified way the meaning of the words we use, so despite not being related to bg3, it's related to communication and social issues. Since fandom loves to misuse them, I think it requires a proper explanation so we all know in which frame we are analysing these scenes. 

Due to the fact that this post ended up turning into a much longer one than I wanted to, I split it into four posts, each of them showing how many sides Gale has in those scenes, how much his actions are "manipulative", how many details related to lore he shares, and possible interpretations of his behaviour, since it's rather easy to lose his scenes because they have the lowest priority. In this post I will only make a summary and a compilation of the broad details explained in those posts, so pick what you want to read since all these posts may have overlap of information and repetitive concepts (they were written to be self-contained as much as possible).

'Stew'Scene

"Loss Scene"

"Party Scene" (with Revelation scene)

"Extra Scenes": Death Protocol and Comments on Dreams

I'm analysing these scenes in detail because I noticed that many players incorrectly paraphrase Gale's words, putting in his mouth words he never said, so for the sake of transparency, I transcribed many fragments of his dialogues, making these posts more lengthy than they should be.

The stew scene

The details are shown in the post of the "'Stew'Scene". In this scene, Gale shares a friendly introduction with the stew and with a list of good deeds done by Tav. This shows that he has begun to trust Tav so he can talk about this issue earlier than he wanted to (he will wait much longer in the neutral version). As a gesture of honesty, Gale sets an explicit boundary by telling Tav to refrain their curiosity and do not ask about the 'why' of the issue he is about to talk about (under no circumstance he is forcing Tav to agree with the delivery of artefacts before telling them 'what' he needs). He acknowledges that it may be unfair not to give the whole context, but he still can't speak in detail about this very personal issue. As an interesting detail, his trust in Tav at this moment of the conversation is so honest that he has not shielded his mind, so Tav can intrude with the tadpole without Gale knowing it—if Tav succeeds— . If Gale doesn't trust Tav even successful intrusions of the tadpole can be perceived by Gale's trained and cautious mind. For more detail read the post of "The Tadpole".

I personally interpret the stew scene as one of those moments in which one is developing a friendship with a stranger, and at some point, someone has to trust first. It's a rare occasion in which the act of trust is shared in equal measure by both members in a new relationship. Usually, one of them offers a bigger portion of trust, testing the other, seeing if it was not misplaced or if it will be honoured later. It's a normal asymmetry, and in this case, Gale is only explicitly asking for that asymmetry in his favour. 

Considering how Gale opens up later, Tav passed the test in his eyes. Helping him during his direst moment and accepting that temporal trust asymmetry made Tav “earn the respect of years” despite being a stranger he met a couple of days or weeks ago. But Gale will not be blind to that gesture. He will progressively honour that trust in the Weave, the Loss, and the Revelation scenes. And by the end of EA, if it is not bugged as usual, Gale's approval status can change to “best friend” (an information given as meta-knowledge, therefore very unlikely to be "a trap set by Gale". For more details read the post about "meta-knowledge").

It's pretty common for manipulative characters (whose trait of manipulation belongs to their personality, not characters who may have circumstantial manipulative actions) to expose their pain too soon with strangers as a tool to force empathy on the listener and "catch" them. Gale does exactly the opposite: he won't open up until having a solid ground where to place his trust. Nobody wants to share their pain in unsafe places, after all. 

Helping him with artefacts is deeply appreciated by him and a great boost of his approval for obvious reasons: people tend to place their trust on persons who helped them in their most desperate situations or in their survival. It has to do with the unique connection that often happens between survivors of extreme situations (war-like) who helped each other in surviving. The shared link is deep. One could expect this link to be built with any of Tav's companions since the Tadpole experience is traumatising and extreme. I think this has higher chances of happening with neutral and good aligned companions, since evil ones may have little scruples to not honour the trust received. 

Gale could have avoided Tav's questions and mistrust for this secrecy by just lying. However, Gale opts for an explicit enunciation of his limits and boundaries. And Tav is completely free to agree or not since Gale won't abandon the party if not. We know that, in that case, he will try to find another solution that he may find in Raphael's deal. Some players consider this situation of mutual agreement in the terms and conditions that the conversation will happen as a coercive one. What I see is diplomacy and negotiation rather than manipulation.

Gale's need for secrecy is related to two factors: 

Survival: He needs to be sure that Tav won't kill him out of fear (which we saw during the scene with Nettie; it's a common procedure in Faerûn: exterminate what's dangerous). Gale's case is even worse because killing him will only activate the devastation he is desperate to avoid: Gale wants to survive but also wants to avoid the massacre that the “orb” can cause.

Personal reasons: Which is the main reason at this point: Gale is unable to speak about the "why" of this condition because it's originated in Mystra's abandonment and the horror of the “orb”: such traumatising experience that turns the Tadpole experience into an inconvenience (this is why his attitude with the tadpole is more relaxed too, he has already passed through a much worse, terrifying situation). 

The Loss scene reinforces this concept when we see Gale—usually so verbose and impossible to shut up— can't speak or find the words to say what he lost and why. And only by the end of the scene, if Tav insisted with many checks, he managed to say something. It's worth noting that these checks tend to be strangely low for a character who is struggling with a personal secret. This is usually understood in DM-code as Gale wanting to share this info (setting a lower DC than the average). Gale is not finding the way to do it, and a Tav gently pushing him will do the trick. 

It is for this reason I personally think that Gale's secretive attitude is more like a series of obvious clues he purposely leaves in his conversations for Tav to draw their own conclusions before he could finally open up. If all Gale's scenes are triggered (which at this moment is very hard to do with his priority being always the lowest) and Tav pushes him to speak more than he is willing to, the player obtains a decent amount of information to conclude that Mystra and Gale had a deeper relationship, and that the “orb” is something dangerous not only for Gale. To be honest, the death protocol is a gigantic red flag pointing out that Gale's primary condition is not to be taken lightly and “many innocents” can die because of it. 

With a neutral or lower approval, Gale will not ask Tav to trust in him. He doesn't trust Tav either, and there is no promise to speak and disclose his condition later. Gale clearly is more mindful and caring with a medium or higher approval Tav who he is starting to see as a good companion/friend, while with a neutral or lower approval Tav he cares little about keeping the contact beyond what diplomacy demands.

It's not by chance that this Stew scene is meant to happen before the Weave scene. From a narrative, contextual point of view, the trust that Tav gave Gale during the Stew scene is afterwards paid with the Weave and the Loss scene. Let's remember that Gale would only ask for that trust if Tav is of medium or higher approval, so the Weave scene comes naturally (when not bugged). The neutral and low approval Tav is never asked for that trust and therefore the Weave scene never happens (if their approval keeps going down). In fact, Gale can leave permanently without any chance of convincing him to stay if he reaches very low approval. What I mean is that, from a narrative point of view, the Weave and the Loss scenes are Gale's way to return that trust that Tav gave him first during the stew scene and the first artefact consumption.

The Weave was not a premeditated scene. It happened by surprise, triggered by Gale's deep loneliness: Tav startled him when he was longing for Mystra while seeing her image in his incantation. He shares in that moment how important and vital magic is in his life, and only then, the previous actions done by Tav encourage him to share this experience. It's important to highlight that this is too personal for Gale, too important, and a bit painful too, since we know later (second dream) that every time he connects with the Weave, he meets with Mystra's disappointment: "What magic I can still weave is met only with undercurrents of disappointing silence." 

After a moment of rambling, Gale invites Tav to share this experience. Here is where all the branches about explicitly displaying Tav's romantic interests can be developed; a neutral option for a friendship path, or very aggressive and violent reactions can be picked as well. More details about this scene can be read in the post of "Gale Hypotheses- Part 2", section: "Proposition to Cheat". And again, for a char so guarded of his own privacy and personal issues, sharing the Weave can be clearly seen as the repayment of the trust that Gale received from Tav during the stew scene.

The Loss scene 

The Loss is a scene that starts with a mystery about Gale's incapacity to cast a spell. He keeps pushing Tav away, claiming that night to be of personal regrets. Tav knows already that something is dangerous in Gale's consumption of artefacts that can cause a catastrophe, so in this scene some links can be made between the two conditions.

If Tav gently pushes Gale to speak, we will notice that most DCs are rather low, meaning that Gale is not putting a strong resistance for the pushing: a friendly Tav pushing him can be interpreted as Gale wanting extra help to open up and speak (in the end he approves the caring despite his reserved persona). Gale gives many hints in this scene that suggest he was a Chosen of Mystra. The most relevant one is the Silver Fire reference. For more details about the Chosen's powers read the post about "Mystra and her Chosen ones".

We also see a reinforcement of Gale's pattern behaviour: He prefers to speak in this poetic way when he has to talk about painful topics (we see it after killing the druids that triggers “the barren oak” scene or during the goblin party scene). Talking in third person puts distance, but also the embellishment of his narration makes it easier for him to speak, after all he is a poet/storyteller as well. 

What's clear is that the verbose companion, who always has a lot to talk about, is basically speechless in this scene, stuck in his "loss" (literally, metaphorically, and psychologically speaking). Part of this behaviour can be understood a bit more in the post about "Gale Hypotheses- Part 1", section: "Grooming". Besides being a private person, Gale also has a perspective that talking about things that can't be changed is useless. He is so stuck in the loss, that talking about it means nothing to him, "the outcome" is always the same. 

After pushing Gale to share his burden, the presence of Mystra in Gale's life is undeniable for Tav. Gale sounds like a strong devotee that somehow lost Mystra. We know in this short description that he “did something” to impress his Goddess and earn her favour back, and in doing it, he failed, invoking death upon him. If Tav is sharp enough, knowing that Gale's consumption of artefacts is related to a “catastrophe” and a certain death of himself... maybe they can start connecting some dots and suspect that Gale's primary condition may be related to the loss of Mystra. My point is, even Tav has been informed quite a lot about Gale's “truth”. As we can see, the “Revelation” scene should not be such a shocking “revelation” as it was written, but more a “detailed description” of the situation.

The context seems clear so far: Gale knows he hides the details of his condition (which are not so hidden anymore), and knows that it's information that can cause a second abandonment (whether as a friend or a lover). Gale is at this point in his life very tired and lonely of struggling with the “orb” inside him too. He could use some emotional support, and this is why I believe he has less tough DCs that one should expect from a character who is actively holding information he doesn't want to share. We need to remember that Gale lives in a permanent anxiety mind-state, too focused on Artefacts and the disaster he can cause, increased with the dreadful, hungry feelings that the “orb” inspires with each passing day. He is getting fond of Tav at this point, and their abandonment would mean too much, even though he knows that he may deserve it. 

We know that Mystra abandoned him, but did not ban him from using the Weave. I personally speculate that maybe Gale's point of view of the situation of the “orb” and the following abandonment of Mystra is partial: Mystra may have abandoned him not on purpose but as a consequence of having that Weave-sucking power in his chest. As it was explained in the post of "Mystra and her Chosen ones", Chosen ones have a deeper connection with her, and they are able to use raw magic in the form of Silver Fire. This means that Chosen are part of Mystra herself (in Dead Masks, it's stated that Mystra leaves a bit of her own divinity in each of her Chosen), so Chosen ones are also part of the Weave, always connected to Mystra who is the Weave. If the “orb” inside Gale consumes Weave, and we all know that Weave IS Mystra, it's not too far to conclude that Mystra may have abandoned him as a safety measure since, if Gale remained as Chosen, his contact with her would be deeper and would expose her to the “orb”, destroying her eventually. But this, again, it's a mere personal speculation.

The party scene

Gale has finally reached a degree of trust in Tav that gives him enough courage to finally speak about the details of the "orb" (and I emphasise details because in broad aspects, he already shared what's most important: the “orb” in his chest is a dangerous thing. If Tav assisted in his death protocol, this is undeniable by now, unless Tav did not pushed him and respected his privacy).

If he is romanced, he promises much more: confessions in the art of conversation, pleasures in the art of the body, and, hopefully, acceptance. For Gale, acceptance is a big deal: I personally believe he shows a fair level of naivety on this matter. It seems (especially later, with his arguments in the morning) he thought he needed this level of intimacy to reach acceptance first (a process that this book guarantees to happen), so he could speak openly. He wants to have this night before any confession because he wants to acquire acceptance which, in his mind, would prevent the abandonment he viscerally fears.

Gale is so eager to spend the night with Tav first and confess later that the only way of not doing it is not romancing him at all or telling him that Tav is not in the mood. It's not clear in EA if this ends the romance; I think it doesn't since the disapproval is not big (there is no change in the approval status).

 Gale wants to be with Tav intimately so badly that he doesn't mind Tav having casual sex with other companions first as long as the "commitment" part would be established with him. This is reinforced by the fact that, if Tav never shared the Weave with Gale, there is no way to sleep with him: Gale is not a character for one-stand nights. He craves for deep connection, for commitment, in whatever fashion he can get it. Mystra taught him not to ask about exclusivity after all, and because of the ephemeral nature of his relationship with her, he craves for something meaningful and more committed.

Mystra was his first love. After her abandonment, he made the mistake of the “orb” that dragged all his energy into studying Netherese magic and possible solutions. I consider it fair to think that maybe Gale never had a relationship beyond the Goddess, and all what he learnt about romantic relationships was through books like the one he mentions or, as a poet, through novels or romantic poetry. He must have an idealisation of love (also proper of a poet) that made him believe that through sex “intimacy” there is a guarantee of acceptance. 

His pattern, in my opinion, says that he tends to make mistakes in his emotional state, which is mostly triggered by the “orb” and the potential of “abandonment”. Not so much with Mystra herself. He seems to be nostalgic, but more aware of what loving a God causes (his regret is explicit during the conversation about Karsus). He seems to be quite done with "her romantic love", but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to be forgiven nor he doesn't love her as the essence of Magic itself. More details in the post of "Mystra and her Chosen ones". 

Some players see the “Revelation” scene as manipulative. Although that's personal interpretation, if we analyse the kind of information withheld by Gale we found little new: the dangerous nature of the “orb” had been indirectly disclosed in all the previous scenes. Tav being surprised about the “orb” seems strange. And Gale sleeping with Mystra has little relevance: in a game for adults, why are past partners such a big deal? The scene is so confusingly written to make it sound as if Gale is still in love with Mystra, but previous scenes showed he has been working on getting over it. Despite loving Mystra as the embodiment of Magic herself, Gale showed to be very aware that all that love belonged to the past (second dream), to a younger self, and even though he is not certain if he loves her still, he is clear that nothing good comes from relationships between mortals and gods (comments on Karsus). He is very explicit about desiring her forgiveness (second dream). So, there is little withholding information at this point for a Tav who pushed him to speak. Now, Gale's attitude certainly has been tactless. Not the best decision to disclose a past lover with such a degree of fascination just after sharing a night with Tav. But it's understandable since in order to “disclose” the “orb”, Gale needed to provide the context of his young love for the Goddess.

The whole scene of the Revelation seems very, very unpolished, mixing tones and confusing information that was given before and presenting it as if it were a revelation when it's not the case. It jumps from one drama concept to another, and never sticks to one, and Tav's options tend to be extreme: or the player calls this disclosure a “great betrayal”, or makes it seem as if nothing has happened, giving little options of what Tav already knows, or if they want to show a moderate annoyance since most of the information has been disclosed already, but still Gale's timing is annoying. Part of this can also be written on purpose to show what a disaster Gale is when it comes to the potential of “another abandonment” in his life. Hard to tell in EA.

Tav's romantic options react as if Gale confessed to have cheated on them, while what he explains has a different degree of conflict: he confesses he is not sure he still loves Mystra, but his lines in previous scenes show he wants to get over it, without losing his magic/relationship with Mystra, because magic is too important in Gale's life. At times, Tav's options are meant for them to react with jealousy, other times as if this were a big betrayal, or as if Gale's romantic past should have been disclosed before the night, and in the last part of the scene, Larian remembered that the “orb” could be considered a conflict too, so Tav has some occasional options to react to the “orb” as if it were a big revelation (when it's not, because we had 3 scenes, four if we include the death protocol, stating its dangerous nature). So, I personally understand why every person has a completely radical interpretation of the situation: it has been written in a rush, and I see it as very inconsistent in tone and context. This all makes sense when one remembers Kevin VanOrd stream where he explained that Gale was meant to be in the second wave of companions, and not in EA. Gale's writing was rushed and it shows in the last of his scenes and his meeting scene. 

Some people may argue that talking about a previous lover right after sharing the first night is, at the least, a very bad taste. However, the player (not Tav) can understand the reason behind it: Gale started the story in order to explain in detail the "why" that has been left up in the air since the stew scene. That "why" can only be explained if Gale discloses Mystra's relationship as the origin of his mistake. So... on one hand, this disclosure right after the shared night is unfortunate for Tav (especially by picking the long version of the explanation in which Gale shares too much unnecessary detail). On the other hand, if he omits this relationship, it's harder to explain the context of why he got the “orb” in his chest. 

In general I think this scene has been handled poorly. The whole “conflict” portrayed here implies two aspects: He slept with Mystra, and he has an explosive “orb” in his chest. Neither of them are truly big arguments for the drama degree that this scene seemed to have been written because we already know, to a certain degree, about them. 

The “orb” is not truly “such a revelation” at this point. The stew scene alone gave Tav and the player a clear idea that something in Gale could cause a catastrophe without consuming artefacts. After the death protocol that certainty is clearer. So, these “revelations” are more like “extra details” of problems we already know about. Which is what he exactly says when introducing this scene: “Those are but the broad strokes. The time has come to paint you the true picture”. 

Having past lovers seems also a strange concept for a “betrayal”. Adults carry pasts. It's true that maybe speaking of a past lover in the same moment he awoke with a recent one is in a pretty bad taste; it's a bit more understandable when you finish the scene: the origin of the “orb” problem was Gale's love for Mystra, so it makes sense to start from her. However, I see the conflict of the conversation switching constantly in three directions: the fact that Gale had a lover that didn’t talk about the previous day, that “Gale is still in love with Mystra”, and that he has an “orb” that Tav “never” knew about it. A very inconsistent conversation.

It's true that Mystra is not a standard lover—she is a goddess—but she is quite known to have these affairs (at least for the player), especially during her past when her direct contact with any human was not banned. It should be more surprising that Mystra seemed to have broken that ban for Gale's case (since she only kept in direct contact with her chosen ones: Ao's decree). And it's also clear the scene tries to show that Gale is still “in love” with her, which is very confusing with what he spoke during the Loss and mainly, during the second dream. Again, I personally feel the scenes of the party and the romance are a mess from a cohesive narrative point of view, and they are the result, alongside Gale's first meeting, of his rushed introduction into EA.

This post was written in June 2021. → For more Gale: Analysis Series Index

[abybweisse]

🧐Hi! I have seen you often talk about Claudia and UT here so this is related. Sorry if my writing's a bit wonky, English isn't my first language.

As far as I know, the only family tree we have been shown was from the notebook of a reaper, so I would assume that specific version of the family tree would not be something that is known to humans, which means that the Cedric K. Ros- is Vincent's and Francis' biological father. (Idk if that makes sense, sorry 😅)

I have seen some of your posts mention how Francis simply doesn't want to be associated with UT and therefore avoids him, which I think mostly suggests that you believe Vincent and Francis knew UT was their father?? Don't wanna assume anything )))

But Claudia wasn't married, if she is a descendant of the Phantomhive family and not someone who was married into the family, she would have probably changed her surname. Which could be a good reason as to why she would hide who the father is from her children, and pretty much everyone. So basically what I'm getting at, I think her relationship with UT (if there was one) was completely secret.

Also based on hiw Francis reacts to UT, she doesn't seem to know him, obviously she is uncomfortable (but really, who isn't?) So either she just doesn't know him as family, or forgot.

Is there anything that you could correct in my thought process?

🤔 to discuss a specific theory

First of all, your English is pretty darn good.

I’d say you are correct that those German reapers are looking at a biological family tree that isn’t dependent upon marriages and is probably not common knowledge.

Yes, I’ve been on the fence about it in the past, but I do now think Frances/Francis knows Undertaker is her biological father, and I think she’s known this for a while, at least.

I agree that Claudia/Cloudia was probably never officially married, though we don’t know for sure. She could have married *someone* and never even had children with him, since that family tree only shows direct biological lineage. That’s why Frances/Francis isn’t showing, despite the canon fact she’s Vincent’s full-sibling. It could be that she never changed her name simply because she had to carry on the Phantomhive name, and it looks like her father was the previous earl of Phantomhive (looks like M— Phantomhive to me). Another reason we don’t know whether she married is because it looks as though only maiden names of women are shown on the family tree — which is quite common for family trees. Her mother’s maiden name appears to be something like Malone. Rachel isn’t shown, simply because she’s cut off the panel, but I expect that it would show her maiden name, not Phantomhive. Therefore, she has three potential reasons to not broadcast the name of her children’s father:

She might have never married. They would automatically be children out of wedlock.

She might have married a man who did not sire her two children, Vincent and Frances. That would also be children born out of wedlock.

Regardless of marriage, the father of her children is a reaper, and there are “people” who would not approve of this.

Her relationship with Cedric would probably have been secret, regardless of exactly who Cedric is, but that doesn’t mean Frances/Francis and Vincent didn’t find out, particularly if it was being kept secret from them and they wanted to know the truth. It’s also possible they went years not knowing, and Undertaker told them himself... after their mother was dead. If Undertaker needed proof, there might be tangible evidence. Least of which would be strong physical similarities between himself and Frances/Francis. These similarities would also be seen between himself and the Midford children, Edward and... to some extent... Lizzie.

You see Frances/Francis as uncomfortable and creeped out by Undertaker because of unfamiliarity and his innate creepiness. I see her as uncomfortable because she is more familiar with him than she wants to be, and she’s trying to hide it from her husband, Alexis, who I’m assuming has no clue. She might also be trying to keep the truth from her nephew, the real Ciel. To me, and to several others in the fandom, she’s terrified that Undertaker is about to do more than reference the fact he recalls her birth. Not simply that time passes differently for him, though that’s also a topic she would rather avoid, but that he was there. He either personally witnessed her birth... or he was waiting in another room at the manor, just like Vincent was waiting in another room while the twins were being delivered. So, I interpret it as: she knows he is family... and she would love to forget. But Undertaker likes to remind her.

Idk that I can exactly correct your thought process here. It’s really a matter of different interpretations of what we are reading/seeing. Seems to me that this is intentional on Yana-san’s part. She wants the readers to question what’s going on... until she’s ready to spell it out for us.

[hideous-little-structure]

I think it's so interesting that one of the main reasons I've stayed on Tumblr this long is that the Nancy Drew games fandom is really robust here and I've met very few people irl who know the games or love them as much as I do, and yet here we are.

I joined the "clue crew" many many years ago after looking up a walkthrough for SCK because my weenie-hut-juniors ass was way to scared to finish the game after I blew up the diner by accident but I wanted to know how it ended. That was my first Arglefumph video and after that, I was hooked. I only owned SCK and HAU and the DVD version of CUR, but his channel let me experience every single game and I really loved watching the videos.

When I was around 15 I think, I was making my own little youtube videos and learning how to edit video. Michael's channel was still relatively small but he was gaining popularity and his videos started getting more ambitious. So, I reached out and told him I was a fan and looking to get more editing practice in, and that I'd love to edit for him. He said yes, and I made a couple of videos for him (a section of Everything Wrong With SCK and then the entirety of EWW CUR and CLK) and had a blast doing it. I asked to do them for free because I didn't need the money.

Afterwards, Michael and I became friends on Facebook and through him I met Paul Franzen of "Oh, a Rock" game studios. I made the trailer for the first Cat President game for Paul, a picture of my cat is in the second one, and I (as well as Michael) played a character in Internet Court which just came out on Tuesday. I was paid for all of these gigs at the insistence of Paul. I loved doing these as well and definitely would work with either of them again if they asked.

I'm transgender (non-binary sapphic) and started my transition at around the same time as I started working with Michael and Paul. Both of them have been friends with me throughout the entire process of me having top surgery, changing my name, and starting HRT. They have both been great friends and supporters of my transition. I have always felt safe with both of them.

I saw a post earlier today of some people upset that Her Interactive was promoting one of Michael's speedruns and had totally ignored a fan effort to raise money for charity. I don't know a ton of the details, but it's definitely common knowledge that being a part of the fandom entails a lot of ragging on Her Interactive, especially recently, as they have a track record of not being in touch with the fanbase. But people took it out on Michael, and as a friend of his, that bummed me out. I commented on it and someone messaged me and accused Michael of being racist and homophobic, as well as cheating on a speedrun. I told them about my relationship with Michael and that I didn't like that such strong claims were being made against him (I also looked into the speedrun thing, and to my knowledge he discovered an existing exploit in a game and Her asked him to take down his video because they didn't want the exploit to become widely known. I don't know the whole story though) especially because I know him personally.

Someone else screenshotted my comment and explained that their beef isn't with Michael on this one, which I appreciated, but someone else linked to a "your fave is problematic" Google doc about him. This frustrates me a lot. Here's the doc if you want to read it for yourself. I'm not gonna try and hide it because I've read through it and I'm not ashamed to be friends with this guy.

I don't know if he talks about it often anymore, but Michael used to be studying to be a Catholic priest. He's religious. But in my experience, he's always been kind about it and has never tried to force his beliefs on others. You can actually see in the doc that he treads pretty lightly. He's also a cishet white man with two daughters who just enjoys the Nancy Drew games and likes to share that joy with others. He was one of the first people to consistently make ND content and it seems like he was the intro to the fandom for a lot of people, so he's kind of become a cornerstone of the community.

There's a section of the doc about underpaying an artist, and I do feel for that person, but they didn't communicate about how they felt the work was worth more (I get it, I have social anxiety, I hate asking for more money, but I also understand that nobody can read my mind, especially not someone who isn't an artist or in touch with the artist community).

Michael is not a racist, or a homophobe, or a transphobe. He is a pretty nice catholic guy who tries to be considerate of other people and sometimes is uneducated but I've never seen him be intentionally malicious.

It's really hard to see someone you've known for years get thrown under the bus because he's just a guy who doesn't spend all his time trying to woke. His blog might have some stuff that I don't agree with, but he's the type of person to extend a hand to anyone who needs it, regardless of their situation or opinions.

I hope Her Interactive gets better about engaging with the fans and supporting all the really cool stuff that members of the community do, but I'm sorry, if you come for my friend like that, I'm not gonna sit there and take it.

[the-queer-observer]

The TOXICITY of straight dating culture: Do you even realize what you teach?

A few months ago, a straight teenage girl explained her crush to me with the sentence “He’s so toxic.”

I know a 17-year-old girl with a little to no clue of how a non-toxic relationship should look like.

I started noticing a certain pattern online and in my real life too.

Now it’s a time for my first disclaimer: I am not straight myself. Nope. Not at all. Perhaps that’s why I see through it.

To this point, all I have done about this is that I have complained to some friends, got over it and went on with my life.

Today, a girl, no older than twelve, has told me about her crush on a “bad boy” and we talked about him for a second. He really did seem like what the definition of a bad boy is for tweens.

I snapped.

And here I am, writing my first tumblr post ever on this very topic.

I want to make clear, this is not an attack on those girls. This is an attack on the society, what it taught them and what it failed to teach.

The youngest girl and me, we talked about music. She said she liked “dramatic” songs and played me some of her favorites.

Disclaimer number two: I did know both the artists, but I don’t actually listen to them. The closest to mainstream music my playlists get is Take me to church by Hozier, the rest being a wide range of songs, interprets and genres from pop punk to death metal and everything in between.

I was actually surprised. One of the two artists she played for me was Billie Eilish. The beginning of the song went:

Don't be cautious, don't be kind

You committed, I'm your crime

Push my button anytime

You got your finger on the trigger

But your trigger finger's mine

The second song was by Maroon 5.

It was even worse:

So what you trying to do to me

It's like we can't stop, we're enemies

But we get along when I'm inside you, eh

You're like a drug that's killing me

I cut you out entirely

But I get so high when I'm inside you

Yeah you can start over you can run free

You can find other fish in the sea

You can pretend it's meant to be

But you can't stay away from me

I can still hear you making that sound

Taking me down rolling on the ground

You can pretend that it was me

But no, oh

I am not going to argue about whether it’s appropriate or whether she understands the lyrics the way I do. It doesn’t even matter. She understands the drama in the song. She understands it enough for me to be concerned.

There are other songs like that. There is a whole culture teaching pre-teen and teenage girls, that “they can’t get away”, romanticizing toxic people and toxic relationships, blurring the lines of consent and guess what? The girls believe it’s the way it’s supposed to be.

I texted my girlfriend and we spent some time looking for straight love-songs, celebrating healthy relationships. None of them were mainstream, but we found things like:

That the world is ugly

But you're beautiful to me

Are you thinking of me

Like I'm thinking of you

I would say I'm sorry, though

Though I really need to go

I just wanted you to know

I wanted you to know

I wanted you to know

I'm thinking of you every night, every day

(My Chemical romance)

And

Desperate for changing

Starving for truth

I'm closer to where I started

I'm chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you

Letting go of all I've held on to

I'm standing here until you make me move

I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Forgetting all I'm lacking

Completely incomplete

I'll take your invitation

You take all of me now

(Lifehouse)

First of all: Those are 4 extracts of songs, chosen by me to demonstrate my point and they may or may not reflect the reality, you (the reader) see: those two songs might be just an exception, but in that case this post is still not canceled, because there is enough of other correlations and causation for me to have a reason to write this.

Those songs are “dramatic”, but the drama shifts from the relationship itself and its toxicity to the circumstances and environment. My girlfriend even recommended a punk song called Ne touche pas moi (Do not touch me), which is entirely about consent.

I am not explicitly saying that the songs she played for me are bad. It’s not for me to decide.

But all Billie Eilish’ fans I ever met were in the age range between eleven and fourteen, so I am supposing that’s her target audience. As for Maroon 5, I have no idea. However, music influences us. The girl is old enough to know what kind of music she likes and wants to listen to and with the peer pressure going on there, her parents do not really have a say in what she listens to and they are not to be blamed for this.

It’s the culture.

Toxicity is not a positive trait to look for in a potential partner. Even if he is a good looking one.

Enough of music.

Do you know who the toxic crush was?

Draco Malfoy.

One of the most famous of all characters in media, famously portrayed by Tom Felton in the Harry Potter film series.

Disclaimer number four: I have a problem with the books and movies and I also have some issues with the author.

Still, I see a fandom celebrating the love of Severus Snape for Lilly Evans Potter. Except it’s not love and it’s not a crush either. It’s an obsession. One that has become so iconic, the word “Always” is one of the main symbols of Harry Potter.

It shouldn’t be.

It should have never happened.

Draco Malfoy is quite the same thing. He is a racist, a bully. He is raised to be one, sure... That’s not an excuse. He doesn’t actually have a canonical redemption arch (not counting the deleted scene from the last movie and the Cursed child). If he came up to Hermione, acknowledging his mistakes, apologizing for his behavior, then maybe. Perhaps... That’s another story though. My point is, Rowling fails to actually depict problematic characters as actually problematic, they are romanticized by her, the filmmakers, the fandom and the wider audience.

Girls are taught to be the ones to make the redemption arch happen, irl or in fiction. They are supposed to date whoever is into them, regardless of whether they like the person back, and it’s unbelievably often I see them crushing on villains and problematic people like Draco Malfoy, because they are taught, he would change for them or that they could change him.

Toxicity is not a positive trait to look for in a potential partner. Even if he is a good looking one.

Those together result in a complete lack of knowledge of how a healthy relationship should look like. That’s the case of the third girl I mentioned. Being best friends with both her and her current boyfriend, I had three points of view on their relationship. It’s only been the past few weeks, not more than two month it has shifted to a more positive, healthy relationship.

It’s not the girl’s fault. They learn what a healthy relationship is the hard way, mostly after going through a toxic one(s).

WHY?

The sentence: “I always fall for the bad guys.” lacks the essential: “because the society taught me to” part.

It’s so common.

It’s too common.

It’s not even that we wouldn’t talk about it: we do. But you celebrate it. And that is not okay and that is the reason I am typing this.

Disclaimer number 5: The gender roles in this post are based off of my observations. I do acknowledge the fact that girls can be and sometimes are the toxic person in the relationship and that the lesson boys are thought is no way better (more freeing perhaps, but not right either) . It might not be specific to the straight culture either, but again, my observations were.

I was about thirteen, when I figured out I was gay and I had to learn everything on my own. How the relationships should work out, what is healthy and what is not... I had to learn on my own because the society failed to teach me anything. I am yet to decide whether that’s better or worse than teaching the wrong one.

[rayofspades]

How to Write a Horror Story: The Magnus Archives

This post is kinda weird since most tumblr fandom content is based on the assumption that Everyone Has Seen The Thing, but since this is a transcript of a video essay, it’s more broad. 

I might link the video in a reblog since, you know, tumblr doesn’t like links.

Anyways, here’s the post:

Hello Jon, apologies for the decep-

I’ve seen a lot of mystery shows in my day, and some supernatural shows, and the common thread between them is that they kind of...fall apart as they go on. 

Obviously, this is a generalization and I haven’t seen every mystery show or every paranormal show, but it’s a pretty common problem. 

At this point in pop culture criticism, it’s basically common knowledge that these shows fall apart due to a lack of planning. If a mystery series is making shit up as it goes along while trying to surprise the audience, it’s going to stop making sense at some point. And if an episodic paranormal show is constantly trying to up the stakes, eventually it’s going to become absolutely ridiculous and stretch the audience’s suspension of disbelief past a breaking point. 

Other people have already talked about this stuff to death, but today I want to talk about a paranormal mystery show that actually succeeds at what it set out to do.  

The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonny Sims and directed by Alexander J. Newall. It ran from 2016 to 2021 and it’s...really really good. It’s an episodic horror story, taking place at the fictional Magnus Institute where the head archivist reads various statements about people’s encounters with supernatural entities. It’s got it all; scary stories, mystery, an overarching plot, office comedy, office romance, office tragedy, a villain that’s making straight men everywhere question their sexuality, and an overall really solid structure. 

If you listen to the Q+As put out by the writer and director, you’ll hear them talk about how they planned the series from the beginning, setting up the layout for each season. Some things were definitely changed throughout the actual writing process; that’s just inevitable and necessary when you’re working on a long running show, but in a general sense, they knew where they were going. But, writing a good story doesn’t just involve knowing where you’re going; it’s about executing whatever plan you have effectively. And I think the execution of The Magnus Archives is pretty brilliant, so I want to talk about it. 

And for the record, I said “brilliant,” not “perfect.” I do have a lot of criticisms of this show, and I’m definitely going to talk about those too, because honestly? Even the problems with this show are interesting in their own right. 

Ok, let’s go. 

Oh, spoilers by the way. For the whole plot. Whole thing. 

Part 1: Horror and Mystery 

Ok, so The Magnus Archives has two separate plots going on: the episodic stories that can be listened to individually, and the underlying meta plot. The former is where most of the mystery storytelling takes place, and it’s a really engaging mystery. It’s starts off slow, and almost undetectable at first. The main character, Jon, also known as The Archivist, is just reading out old scary stories that people have delivered to the Magnus Institute. Stuff like; a college student sees a ghostly inhuman figure asking for a cigarette, a woman’s fiancé dies and she finds herself trapped in an empty graveyard, there’s this goth kid who apparently murdered his mother and then skinned her? But she’s kind of still alive? What the f*ck? Hope we never see that kid again. Also, this “Jurgen Lietner” guy wrote a bunch of cursed books and Jon knows about this? Are more books gonna come up? And then you’re like, wait is the goth kid who killed that burn victim the same goth kid who killed his mom like 8 episodes ago? Holy shit the family of that girl’s dead fiancé FUNDS THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE? Did this famous youtuber meet one of the missing people from episode one? The goth kid is back and he’s looking for Leitner books? The name “Michael” has come up like 6 times? Are they all the same guy? I just—who the f*ck is Jurgen Leitner? 

So yeah, as you can see, a lot of these stories connect in cool ways, and I’ve only mentioned like, 0.2 percent of all of those connections. Furthermore, these stories are told out of chronological order, and sometimes the same scenario appears in more than one statement, told from different perspectives. This asymmetrical storytelling and odd doling out of information creates a mystery that’s really interesting. It also makes for a great re-listen, since you can retroactively see what elements were set up before you even realized that they were going to come back.  

The audio format contributes to this too; you can’t just see that the table from episode three matches the pattern on the box in episode eight. You have to pick up on clues that were mentioned and pay attention to what people are describing, and it’s highly rewarding when the pieces all start to fit together. 

There is a bit of a downside to this though. Technically The Magnus Archives is a horror story first and a mystery second, and these two elements can mesh in weird ways. 

The horror is element is really strong. Each story is completely different, sometimes focusing on psychological horror, body horror, or supernatural versions of more primal fears like heights, darkness, enclosed spaces, etc. Basically, if you’re afraid of anything, there will be at least one episode of The Magnus Archives that gets under your skin. 

Jonny Sims can really sell his stories through both his writing and acting. He plays Jon, by the way, and plagiarized his own birth certificate for the character name. (For future reference, Jonny is the actor, Jon is the character). Overall, he’s really good at writing prose, and each narrator has a very distinct voice even though the large majority of the stories are being read by one character/actor.  

Obviously not every episode is a bull’s eye. Sometimes it’s due to the subjectivity when it comes to what you as an audience member are scared of, and occasionally it’s just weird writing decisions. I’m thinking specifically of episode 21 where the line “the sky ate him” is said, and it is the worst line in the entire show. The whole goddamn show. That’s it. That’s the number one worst line. 

But still, overall, the horror storytelling is incredibly solid, and some episodes even gave me brand new fears, like the unholy isolation of being in space, or the concept that someone you love could be replaced by someone completely different without you noticing.  

But here’s the thing; 

A lot of good horror is based on the absence of explanation. Most of the episodes that gave me the most visceral reactions of genuine terror come from the first two seasons, because that’s when the audience has the least amount of information. 

For example, in episode two, a really terrifying coffin is introduced. It’s creepy, it reacts very strangely to water for some reason, and appears to compel people to try opening it. By the end of the episode, the audience never finds out what’s in that coffin and that is a good thing. That is a huge part of what made that episode so unnerving.  

And then a few seasons later, we do find out what’s in the coffin, and to be fair the answer is both very creative and very scary, but it also takes a lot of the punch out of episode two. 

 No matter how f*cked up your thing is, it’s not going to compare to whatever the audience can conjure up in their own mind after such a creepy set up. This problem isn’t just stuck in this one scenario either; there are a lot of early episodes that, while still good, seem a lot less creepy in hindsight after you learn more about the scenario. 

I don’t think it’s bad writing, but I do think it’s a double-edged sword. Jonny Sims even mentions this sort of issue in the first Q+A. 

But yeah, to sum up; the narration is good, the ideas are creative, and seeing the mystery unfurl itself is deeply compelling. And for the record, the mystery elements aren’t of the Sherlock Holmes variety. It’s less about finding out who did the thing, and more about discovering how all of these individual points are intricately connected, pulling on each other as they move. Woven together like a... oh shit what’s the word? Gah, it’s on the tip of my tongue. Ah, whatever, I’m sure it’s not like a running motif or anything.  

Part 2: Stakes 

One of the main reasons I stopped watching Supernatural is that it devolves into complete f*cking nonsense. At the end of season five, the boys literally defeat the devil, and then the show...keeps going? Which would be fine. It’s also, largely, an episodic show, so if they have more creative ideas, they could definitely keep going with it. In fact, there are some post season five episodes that I thought were pretty good. But as they kept trying to outdo themselves with Bigger Bads, it got kind of difficult to suspend my disbelief. And the final nail in the coffin for me was the end of season nine, when Crowly basically points out to the audience that the main characters keep dying and coming back to life, so there are no stakes. The most-badest bad guy can always be defeated because some new Thing can just come out of left-field, and dying isn’t even on the table as a threat since people have tons of ways of coming back to life. 

The Magnus Archives, while being a show based in the supernatural, notably doesn’t bring anyone back to life, even though some very beloved characters die. I say “notably,” because in the season three Q+A, Jonny even says, “We make a point not to bring people back from the dead in Magnus, I know it sometimes feels like that, but we are very careful to never actually resurrect anyone.” 

Upon listening to this I said “oh my god, these guys are the only writers left who at least kind of know what they’re doing.”  

Also, as far as plot progression goes, The Magnus Archives is lowkey structurally perfect in the way the threats escalate in the underlying plot; both in terms of destruction and power and in terms of emotional consequences. Season one starts off with one major threat that’s dealt with by the end of the season, season two reveals the main villain, season three lays out the grander forces at play, season four ends the world, and season five is about un-ending the world. The difference between season one and season five is vast, but how we got there makes perfect sense. 

As for the emotional stakes, let’s talk about themes and characters. 

Part 3: Themes and Characters 

At the very end of season two, it’s revealed that the supernatural happenings in the Magnus universe are the result of entities far beyond our understanding. Since their existence is so fundamentally different from what we can comprehend, they interact with the world through cursed items, creatures, and humans who have dedicated themselves to an entity.  

A lot of people read this as a metaphor for late-stage capitalism, and I am one of those people. A bunch of faceless entities exploiting humans through means of dehumanization and causing people to suffer because it feeds them seems like an appropriate metaphor. 

While we’re on this topic, I do want to talk about Elias, since he’s the main villain of the entire series and also one of my favorite villains of all time. The Magnus Archives is a series that deals with a lot of moral questions and has a lot of characters who do morally questionable things, so one might assume that the villain of said series is, you know, morally ambiguous and sympathetic to some extent despite being “the bad guy.” 

Nope! No stops, full bastard. It’s great. 

He falls under what I’ve deemed the “unbeatable boss” archetype. He just doesn’t tolerate insubordination or resistance, and that combined with his lack of empathy means that anyone who crosses him is either killed or brought to heel. His power set is cool too. On the surface the ability to see out of any eye and read minds sounds useful, but not deal breaking, but the way he uses that power to manipulate people and anticipate threats...yeah, it makes him kind of impossible to beat.  

He’s just...so evil and he loves being evil and every single f*cking thing he does pisses me off and makes me want to kill him. It’s. Great. 

Anyways, I think Elias’s role as the central antagonist is what makes the capitalist reading so common. He’s the head of the institute, he’s wealthy, he’s powerful, and he dehumanizes people in ways that are both brutal and chillingly indifferent. He seems like an appropriate stand in through that lens. 

I also love how voice actor Ben Meredith plays him like’s he’s trying to seduce the audience.  

With all of that said, I wouldn’t call this the critique of capitalism a direct allegory or anything; in much looser terms, this could be a metaphor for any power structure that exploits humans. Organized religion or cults might be even more on the nose, considering there’s a lot of mentions of rituals and worship within the show. 

But if we boil it down to its barest aspects and focus on the avatar characters, The Magnus Archives is a series about people becoming monsters. Or, at the very least, becoming worse versions of themselves. That can mean a lot of things to different people in a metaphorical sense; the tense relationship between desperation and morality, the eagerness to please at the cost of one’s own mental health, the psychological traumas that lead people down dark paths, and how personal choices can still be dictated and manipulated by outside influences. It’s kind of heavy stuff, but put into a digestible package through the show’s abstractions. 

Well, for the most part.  

There’s some debate as to whether or not Daisy’s arc was handled tastefully. While her demise and Basira’s character arc were clearly meant to condemn police brutality and the deeply corrupt system that allows it to foster, it’s still a weird subject to discuss in such a fantastical context, and there is a strange sympathy for the devil angle that can get kind of uncomfortable for some listeners.  

Okay, stepping back from that for a bit, let’s talk about Jon and how he fits into this whole “people becoming corrupted” thing. 

Jon has one of my favourite brands of character arc, which is one based in deterioration alongside growth. The most obvious way this takes form is his departure from humanity as his relationship with the Eye drives him to psychologically harm others, and he finds himself sympathizing more and more with the people he was afraid of, stating in episode 152 that anyone listening to his recordings might compare him to the other avatars that have had their minds and morals twisted. 

Over the course of the series, he is repeatedly traumatized and the show makes a point that he is being both physically and emotionally scarred. These happenings are what drive his motivation for revenge in season five, and he even states that revenge is making him a worse person. As a character he’s constantly berating himself and his own monstrousness, much to Martin’s dismay.  

That’s why the finale destroys me in the best way. Upon seeing that Jon has betrayed him and basically given himself over to the Eye, Martin asks “how much of you is even left?” And when Jon tries to reassure him that he’s still himself, Martin’s response is “how would you even know?” This cuts through me every time. Up until this point, Martin had consistently stood up for Jon and Jon’s humanity, even in the face of Tim’s doubt, Basira’s mistrust, Elias being cryptic, and Jon’s own self-hatred. This is the ultimate breaking point, the point where even Martin, the love of Jon’s life, doesn’t really recognize him. It’s brutal. Because at the end of the day, Jon is still himself; he’s a deeply broken person trying to make the right decisions.  

We’ll come back to the finale later, but for now I want to talk about the romance. 

Jon’s emotional growth throughout the series is largely tied into Martin. Martin’s the first person that Jon really opens up to, and this later grows into trust which then turns into a genuine emotional connection.  On the flip side, Martin’s growth in season four is largely tied into Jon. Martin starts season four basically waiting to die, but Jon’s return gives him a reason to keep living, and he’s later able to recognize his own value outside of the pure utility of ‘you need to set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm.’ Both of them give each other reason to push onward despite everything becoming more and more hopeless.  

It’s a good romance. I wish the two had had a few more scenes together before the culmination, but it is built up over the course of four seasons and comes together in an utterly fantastic confession.  

And yeah, the scene with Martin and Jon in the Lonely is cheesy as hell, but it is the highest quality of cheese. These are some gourmet nachos.  

Umm, also kind of stating the obvious here, but it’s also pretty cool that the main character in this horror story falls in love with another man. You don’t see that a lot, and it’s cool that no one even makes a big deal out of it. It’s just a normal romance, but with two guys. It’s nice. 

So, they go to Scottland, they hang out, they’re in love, Jonalias starts the apocalypse through Jon, the world ends, and season five starts! 

...Let’s talk about season five! 

Part 4: Season 5 

At the very start of this post, I said that supernatural mysteries tend to get worse as they go along, and I am deeply sad to report that I don’t think that The Magnus Archives is an exception. It just goes downhill in a very different way than its ilk. 

And, so we’re clear, I don’t think season five totally tanks or becomes unlistenable, it’s just, in my opinion, notably worse than the rest of the show. 

As discussed earlier, it doesn’t fall apart due to a lack of planning; everything still makes sense, but the presentation has changed drastically. The episodic statements are no longer scary stories, but more like slam poems about the various hellscapes that Jon and Martin are trekking through. Honestly if these were published in a book of slam poetry, I would probably think they slapped pretty hard. I genuinely believe that Jonny Sims is a good writer, but as a podcast a lot of these statements just made me zone out. There’s at least four that I don’t even slightly remember. Myself and many others have noted that they just...aren’t scary, unless there’s a specific episode that really gets under your skin due to a certain fear or phobia. 

To quote my friend, “it’s harder to feel a solid impact when the setting is literally divorced from reality. People would either go numb or insane to the point where their fears become unrelatable.” 

And, to be honest, I think that this same surreal odyssey set up could have worked with a slight shift in narration. Two stand out episodes for me were “Strung Out” and “Wonderland.” Both of them show the tormented target actively trying to resist and interact with their tormenter, instead of just trying to escape or live through their situation. “Strung Out” is also more of character study; you learn about Francis’s life before the apocalypse through their interaction with the Web hellscape. Meanwhile “Wonderland” is just...f*cked, and you get to see Jon take the perspective of first-person Bad Guy throughout the whole thing, which is its own level of disturbing. 

But the majority of episodes feel so abstract that I kind of forget the people trapped in them are supposed to be characters and not just concepts, so it’s harder to feel their dread and pain. 

But I’m still here for the metaplot, the drama, and the romance. And when that’s good, it’s great! I think the final handful of episodes are really solid in that regard. 

Buuuuuuut... 

A decent chunk of season five is dedicated to the “kill bill” plot. Jon discovers he has the power to smite people, and while at first, he’s embarrassed about this, since he actively enjoyed killing Not!Sasha, Martin is super into it! He’s encouraging Jon to murder people.  

This is actually the set up for a really good arc. As Jon gets more and more into his own avenging angel persona, Martin could get more and more disturbed by it so by the time they get to London, Martin could be really upset that Jon is so willing to wreak his own divine justice by killing or torturing all of the avatars. 

And this does kind of happen. We do reach this end state, and it makes for a good final conflict, but the way we got here was borderline nonsense. Thematic gibberish, if you will. 

Throughout the journey, Martin is clearly motived by a sense of justice; these people are bad, and so they should die. Whereas Jon is clearly more motivated by revenge; he only goes after the avatars that hurt him personally. At one point, Jon admits that maybe all of this killing isn’t making anything better, but just making him worse. Martin apologizes for egging him on, Jon absolves him by saying he started it, and then Martin’s like “I’ll keep my apology then.” This is the second worst line in the entire series, right after “the sky ate him.” And it’s close. 

But it kind of feels like we’re back at square one. Jon is back to being ashamed of killing and Martin is still keen on his justice stance, but now just less pushy about it. The arc is basically half resolved at this point. 

But then it doesn’t matter, because Jon kills Helen anyway. So, Jon’s back on his revenge/justice thing. Then what was the point of his earlier revelation? Why have that if it’s not going to matter and the conflict that was escalating still culminates with Jon leaning into the avenging angel stuff, and Martin being disturbed by it? It just makes both of them look like huge hypocrites! I f*cking hate it when they’re in the tunnels and Martin says “you weren’t meant to enjoy it this much,” regarding Jon’s smiting. Where did this come from?! Why didn’t you say this earlier? Third worst line in the series. 

And yeah, I’ll say it; the boys fight too much in this season. I loved their romance up to season five, and their cute moments and more lowkey serious discussions are still good in this season, but God, they fight so much. And I’m not saying couples can’t have fights or tension, that’s just realistic and also stories need conflict to be interesting. Jonny Sims is on the record saying that balancing a healthy romance with the stress of a literal apocalypse was a priority, and I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s well balanced.  I’m just saying that sometimes it feels like they don’t even like each other and it really started to grate on me. 

Maybe it would have been better if the beginning of this season was dedicated to charming romance at first, so we as an audience could better appreciate how strong their love is and how it’s truly being tested. But obviously that was never on the table— 

ALEX NO. 

So, yeah, I have a lot of problems with season. I think it’s the worst one by far, even though there is a lot of it I still enjoy, including the ending. 

As I mentioned before, the moment where Martin confronts Jon in the panopticon absolutely kills me, and Jon’s reaction kills me even harder. Throughout the season, Jon had largely been motivated by revenge, martyrdom, and the subconscious call of the Eye, and all three of those factors led him to his position as the pupil. He’s getting revenge against the powers, sacrificing his humanity to get rid of the Fears, and taking his place as wearer of the watcher’s crown. But all of this gets thrown out the window when he realizes that Martin is going to die. And not only is Martin going to die, Martin is going to die specifically because he loves Jon and refuses to leave Jon alone to die horribly. Martin had always been an underlying motivation for Jon, his “reason” as stated in episode 167, but now love as a motivator has come to the forefront, and Jon can no longer go through with his plan because of it. But at this point in the series, they’re both utterly doomed, and Jon concludes that the only possible chance they have of surviving, however unlikely, would be to sever the pupil of the eye, technically killing Jon, but maybe, just maybe, allowing them to escape with the Fears. Whether that’s meant to be literal or more ethereal is left unclear. Hell, maybe Jon’s just making it up completely and creating his own potential happy ending. It’s a pretty potent ending in emotional terms; Jon has to release the Fears and Martin has to kill Jon, and those are the two things they were dead set on not doing.  

The Web, arguably the real main antagonist, basically won, and their manipulation of Jon worked. The destruction spread, and there is kind of a bleak underlying tone to that. 

But at least this ending has some semblance of hope to it. I’m not saying that releasing the Fears was objectively the correct moral decision; the entire point of the dilemma is that there was no objectively correct moral decision. But, while Jon’s solution does have merit, it was also the most hopeless. I think dramatically, any one of the choices on the table could have worked if the writing was well executed, but thematically this one seemed like the perfect combination of grim and optimistic. Like, all of the evils that plague humanity can’t just be defeated forever and things could get worse, but maybe not. Maybe everything works out... 

So yeah, The Magnus Archives...is a podcast. And it’s a really good podcast. Great, even. I can complain about season five all I want, but regardless of how that worked out, you can tell throughout the entire show that the people working on it were trying to tell a genuinely excellent story. 

It’s good. Go listen to it. Even though I spoiled the entire thing and if you’re still here, you’ve probably already listened to it. Listen to it again. 

[malereader-inserts]

Stressed Out

Fandom: The Vampire Diaries Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson & Son!Reader Summary: The world is a hectic place, sometimes you just want it to slow down. Word Count: 1,077 Request: @will-grammer  “Can I ask for Elijah Mikaelson and son male reader? Maybe his son is very stressed and tired and comes to him for comfort, asking if it would be okay if he stayed with him for a bit? Elijah put aside whatever else he was occupied with and holds him, talking to him, telling him about his day to keep his mind off whatever's eating at him or kissing the top of his head, telling him he can rest. Maybe reader falls asleep in his arms? Would this be alright? I missed your writings of him.”

You don’t deal with stress very well.

It’s common knowledge within the family, try not to overwhelm you with too many tasks on top of your studying at university and your part-time job. Sure, you don’t need a part-time job, Elijah has told you several times that you live with a rich family who can provide whatever you needed, but you like the sense of normality - it takes you away from vampires, werewolves and hybrids, given that you were half-witch and half-vampire.

Recently, you’ve been falling behind on your assignments with college. You quit your part-time job to try and sort your life out with homework, but it never seems to stop. 

You had a project, then three 2000 words essays, including a quick multiple-choice exam to fulfil at a certain time with time limits so you had to revise for that. You had to write up a practical report for your lab work from last week, including extra reading and the reading ahead for your course. Of course, your dad had sent you messages to accompany your family in their endeavours. Uncle Klaus likes to hang around you as you and he go out scouting around the nearby woods. You have to help Hope with her homework and tutor her on subjects she lacks the confidence in, also assisting her in her magic when aunt Freya wasn’t around. Hayley and Rebekah drag you around, go knows what you do half the time.

You’ve got responsibilities as well around the compound, sometimes, despite being one of the youngest in the family at the ripe ages of the early twenties. You often make dinner for your family, especially for Hope, Freya and Davina. If you’re not cooking, you’re cleaning up whatever messes your family does, luckily sometimes your dad waves you away so he does it or someone else in the family does it before you find the mess. 

By the end of two weeks, of you somehow disappearing at the compound, going in and out around the place. you showed your face to your dad.

Who was clueless to your stressed-out life, he had no clue that you were done with your job, how you just completed what seemed like fifty things for college and your chores around the house. You were burnt out, so burn out that you’ve started to crave blood to get your energy back up and that your witchy magic was too weak to even to work and if it did work, most often not - going spectacularly wrong.

“Dad,” You croaked out, rubbing your eyes as Elijah looked up from his work, “Can I hang out with for a bit?”

“By all means,” Elijah motioned to the nearby sofa in the office as you sighed thankfully, flopping down into comfort.

Your hand is over your face as you try not to think about the few last assignments you have due in the next couple of days. You needed a break, but in the distance, you can hear Freya asking for you so you can help her with some witch reading. Elijah looks up from his notes and sees you, placing his pen down carefully and zooming next to you. Bending down and placing a gentle hand on your knee.

“(Y/n)?” He softly grabs your attention, you move your hand, “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

Everyone hates that phrase, are you okay? It’s like a trigger as you burst into tears.

“Oh dear,” Elijah murmurs as he pulls you into a hug, you gripped hard.

But, Elijah knew the difference between the grip of a human and a grip of a half-vampire. Elijah holds you close to him, stroking your hair and noticing how some stands of your hair has slowly turned grey from stress. He sighs, witches have a tendency to do that to their hair, overwork to the point their magic tells feelings. 

“Your aunt Rebekah is coming back home today, how about I ask her if she can run you a relaxing bath and ask her to use one of her assortment of bath bombs?” Elijah asked as you chuckled at the way your dad says bath bombs.

“Your idiotic uncles have got themselves in trouble again, of course, your uncle Niklaus have tried to swoon young Caroline Forbes and your uncle Kol has tried to wing-man him.”

“Let me guess?” You asked, wiping your tears, “They failed miserably?”

“Is it a surprise at this point?” Elijah asked with a soft smile upon his face as you laugh, shaking your head, “Will you let me on the sofa?”

You adjusted yourself so Elijah was on the seating, holding you close to him as you comfortably felt safe in his arms. Your dad’s hand rubs you comfortingly as you sighed. For once, time seemed the slowdown, you feel like nothing could harm you nor get to you.

“You need to drink some blood, son,” Elijah murmurs, he could feel you tense, “I’m not a mind reader but I know you’re stressed. Your hair is turning grey and that shows there’s too much going on - you’ve worn yourself out.”

“Mhm,” You answered, “Maybe later, I just like being here as of now.”

You promised, Elijah could tell by the tone of your voice. He doesn’t argue with you at all as he feels you relax as Elijah nods.

“You can rest now, child,” Elijah soothes you, you had to bite back a laugh as you were twenty-something and your dad still calls you a child - he really does smoother you with parenting, “Everything will come to you in good health.”

As any good father would do, comfort their child. So, Elijah talks and he doesn’t stop. He talks about all the events that you have missed out due to your work, all the stupid things Klaus and Kol got into.

All the things your cousin got away with, what Davina and Freya have been doing. He rambles about how your uncles are really testing his nerves, he feels you chuckle under him. He doesn’t stop stroking your arm lovingly, but he hears your heartbeat steady, he hears your breathing evening out.

You’ve fallen asleep.

Elijah softly smiles to himself before kissing your forehead, moving you gently to lie on the sofa. He sits back at his desk to work, but occasionally looking up to check up on you.

You really are his son, sometimes it terrifies him - in a good way.

[basilflowers]

Basil’s Guide to being a good Beta Reader.

A Beta Reader is someone who reads an Author’s, usually unpublished, fan-fiction, or work of writing.

In the Harry Potter fandom community, these are usually unpaid fans. Not every Writer is a Beta Reader and not every Beta Reader is a Writer. There are many different ways to Beta Read and it is about finding what works for you and your Author.

To me, Beta Reading is about working with your Author to help them feel as though their work is the best it can be.

You’re offering an outside, Average Reader’s perspective which is incredibly useful in picking up plot holes, spelling and grammar mistakes, changes in tone or theme, and where a sentence structure may not be good.

Just as there are different types of writers, there are different types of Beta Readers.

I, myself, have very little clue when it comes to Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (or SPaG) so the Beta Readers I use are usually pretty good at that sort of stuff. At the same time though, I can manipulate dialogue and actions to express what the author wants to happen while also being in character. Everyone has a different skillset, and that is part of what makes fan-fiction writing so wonderful. Everything is different.

If you’re interested in becoming a Beta Reader then here are some things that may help you along the way:

Don’t Beta read ‘just for fun.’

While Beta reading is fun, please don’t be one of those people who offer to beta read just because of that. The first thing to know about Beta Reading is that it isn’t about you. That seems harsh, but at the end of the day, it is about helping the Author. While helping them is really fun, and a great way to build relationships with people, your main focus shouldn’t be on what you’re getting out of it, it should be about helping the Author put out the best work they can.

You’re allowed to say no.

This has its importance in every aspect of life, but here we’re talking about if someone asks you to Beta Read a fic for them. A simple ‘No, thank you,’ can save a world of trouble. You don’t have to have a reason, and you are under no obligation to share your reason if you have one. It is better to say no before you start than in the middle of looking into someone’s fic. While you can leave at any point you should never ghost an Author by just dropping out. It is always better to tell them you can’t do it anymore, Authors are lovely and understanding people (Or at least all the ones I have encountered).

Communication is so important!

I am a big fan of Google Docs! Even if you don’t usually use it for writing it is incredibly helpful for sharing, editing, suggesting, and communicating. There is a chat function on Docs, once there are two people (on desktop) in a Document, the chat function will be there in the top right of the screen. But if you and your writer don’t use Google Docs, you must have some other way of communicating. Discord is great; Whatsapp and Messenger work too if you are more familiar with your partner.

Be Open and Honest.

If you get squicked or triggered by certain things, or even if you just don’t like reading them, then let the Author know, because they know what is in their fic! While I know many people who have or do on a regular basis, it isn’t necessary to get squicked or triggered just to beta a fic for someone. If you tell your partner, it might only be one line, and they can block it out for you. If not, then you can move on to other projects.

Be honest about what you are and aren’t good at in terms of writing and editing. I always tell anyone who asks me to Beta for them that I am rubbish at picking up on SPaG errors. And it is okay that you aren’t good at everything, no one expects you to be, but it is expected that you know your own limits. Often Authors aren’t looking for a whole editing progress, just someone to go through it and tell them if it sounds alright.

Ask what the Author is looking for before you start reading. 

Is the Author asking you for knowledge on Canon? For SPaG? Tone? Brit Picking? Plot holes? Dialogue? Is the Author asking you if you think everything is in character? It is important to know what sort of advice/help/information they are after so you know what to look at more closely. 

If they explicitly tell you they aren’t after help with SPaG (or any other point) then don’t give it to them. Offering something like: ‘I noticed some spelling errors, would you like me to tell you about them?’ is perfectly fine, but if they ask you not to do something, then don’t.

It is also important to establish if this project has a time restraint. Many fests require Beta Readers and so an Author might have a due date enforced. Or they may simply prefer to get it posted as soon as possible. So ask how in-depth they want you to go; are they after accuracy or speed?

There are many different types of fics, and each is written differently so it is important to know what sort of fic theirs is. Crack? AU? Canon? You don’t want to be telling your Author all the Canon mistakes in an AU fic, and you don’t want to miss out telling them about Canon mistakes if you think the fic is supposed to be AU.

Some authors aren’t after a lot of robust and constructive criticism and instead are more looking for support and cheerleading. Also, I like to ask, if they haven’t finished the fic, whether they are looking for ideas on where to go next.

Suggest. Don’t Edit.

Never edit someone’s writing. That seems counter-intuitive, but what I mean is don’t write over what they have written. It is rude and a sure-fire way to make enemies.

I will say it again and again. I love Google Docs! You can change the setting to only make suggestions, so if you cut a word it only shows a strikethrough. Then that suggestion can be accepted or declined. This is great for editing and apart from that, it is also great as the author can pick up on mistakes they have made multiple times which helps them grow.

Commenting is excellent for giving ideas about specific sections, asking questions, and pointing out things you like and think work really well. If you don’t use Google Docs but are still editing on a word document then you have other options, but always ask the Author what they’d prefer. You can use [these handy brackets.] <These too.> You can change colors, or bolden your edits if there is no bold text in the rest of the document. Another alternative is to simply make a list, quote the unedited passage then list the changes that you think should be made, underneath.

If you think something major should be changed, explain why.

I like to do this with almost all my edits, to be honest. If I want to change the structure of a sentence, I explain: 'I think this makes it more readable', or 'I think this lends itself to the flow', or 'I think this allows for more descriptive language'.

From the Author’s perspective, it can be hard to see why you’re suggesting changes. If there is a plot hole then explaining where or why it doesn’t work is incredibly helpful!

The authors are under no obligation to accept any of your suggestions.

Please don’t get offended if the author doesn’t accept a suggestion you made. At the end of the day, it is their creation and they are the ones to decide what happens. I love my Beta readers so much because they’re always seeing things I don’t. Sometimes they give suggestions and I love them, but they also don’t always work with the tone, or they might have changed a bit of foreshadowing… or as is more usual in my writing, they may have wanted to change a very stupid line that I love because I think it is funny, despite literally no-one else ever thinking so.

Try not to change the tone of a piece of writing.

Similar to the last point, this is the Author’s work, they decide the tone of what they’ve written. I tend to write more light-hearted, funny fics than sad and angsty ones so when I beta I try to avoid Beta reading those sorts of fics as my edits just tend to lean more toward making the fic light-hearted. Seeing as I don’t really do Brit-picking or SPaG edits then the type of fic is one of the first things I ask the creator if they want me to Beta.

If an author asks you to leave, then do not argue. Just leave.

You wouldn’t like an argument if you said no to Beta Reading, and likewise, the author doesn’t want an argument for asking you to leave. There are many reasons you might be asked to leave. Life could have gotten in the way, they might feel self-conscious about writing when others can see, they may not like your suggestions, they might feel like they don’t need any more advice or they simply don’t feel like having a beta reader anymore. While it isn’t common for an Author to ask someone to leave, it is perfectly valid and should never garner argument. 

Talk to the Author about crediting you.

I only use AO3, so I am not sure about how things are on other sites. But often I will see in the ‘Author’s Notes’ a thank you to their Beta. This is lovely, I think. It lets the readers know that the writing has been Beta’d, it can make the Beta feel special, and it can work as advertising if the Beta is interested in other projects and wants to make a name for themself. There are also reasons why you may not like to be mentioned at all, if you prefer to stay anon, don’t want to be linked to the work or creator, or for no particular reason at all. So talking to the author about whether you want your name there if they decide to credit you is, I think, a good idea. 

%%%

I hope this was helpful to at least someone out there. While things change in every situation, the most important thing is being able to communicate, whether you’re a Beta or Author (or both).

Beta Readers are honestly some of the most appreciated people. Ever since I learned what a Beta Reader is, I have learned so much and am so thankful to have friends who are always willing to check out my writing. 

Special thanks to Streitkertoffel for helping me out Beta’ing my Beta Guide :P % Basil Flowers %

[bloodraven55]

We Need to Talk About Blake Belladonna

I’ve made a number of posts recently explaining how Adam successfully fooled parts of the fandom into thinking he was something he wasn’t, but now I want to talk about how he also successfully fooled parts of the fandom into thinking Blake is something she isn’t, because there are far too many people who seem to fundamentally misunderstand her character.

In order to make my point, I’m going to go through some of the words I’ve seen some of those people use to refer to Blake.

“emo”

This is one of the most common ones I see thrown around, and back at the beginning of the show I could see why. But it’s very telling when people continue to use “emo” to describe Blake even once we find out what Blake’s been through to make her into the person she is today, because it shifts the blame to her by dismissing her very real trauma she’s faced as just her being “emo.”

“shy”

This is the one that really clues me in that someone has zero clue who Blake actually is. Because you’d think that given her very first appearance is her sassing the hell out of Weiss, given the number of scalding roasts she’s delivered, given she openly brags about knowing how to disable military-grade security systems, and given when Weiss refers to her as the “quiet one” in V5 Blake literally corrects this very mistake herself, that people would realise that Blake isn’t shy. But I guess their desire to cling to their headcanons is stronger than their ability to pay attention to the show.

“quiet”/“passive”

This is the same woman who pointed out the persistence of Faunus inequality to Ozpin during her interview to get into Beacon, humiliated the school bully in the middle of a lesson in front of the entire class, set fire to her own house in order to win a fight, and tied up a racist asshole while threatening him with immense bodily harm and had to be held back by Velvet in After the Fall. Yes, she is so quiet and passive.

“privileged”/“entitled”/“pampered”

Lmao she grew up living rough on the road with her parents in the White Fang and has been attending marches, protests, etc. since she was a little child, not to mention they only got the big house after Ghira became the Chieftain of Menagerie meaning she wouldn’t even have lived in it hardly at all before she went home in V4 since she was once again living rough with Adam’s splinter group of the White Fang, so that doesn’t scan whatsoever.

“coward”

I saved the best until last, you’ll be pleased to know. Over the course of the show Blake has left her abuser on her own with no support system, signed up to risk her life protecting innocent people from the Grimm, chosen to try and stop the White Fang instead of staying out of the fight multiple times, put herself in danger by throwing herself between Yang and Adam and saving Yang’s life in the process, and faced her personal demon by herself on more than one occasion and gone toe to toe with him.

Those are not the actions of a coward, and falling back on an ingrained defence mechanism once because she saw someone she loved brutally maimed doesn’t make her a coward, especially not when she makes the decision to fix that mistake and stop running away.

Now we get to the main point, which is that if you consider for a moment, you’ll realise that almost all of those words are the kind of thing that Adam used to call Blake in order to put her down and dismiss her worth.

“Running away again? Is that what you've become, my love? A coward?”

“What you want is impossible!”

“Still too afraid to face me on your own.”

“Can you do anything besides run?!”

“But you're selfish! You're a coward!”

And several times in the show we see Blake parrot the same degradation that Adam used on her about herself. She calls herself a coward, consistently doubts her own judgement, and says that her Semblance is only good for running away, because Adam drilled those ideas into her head until she believed them herself.

The only reason that Blake is withdrawn and closed off at the start of the show is because she’s had to learn to be that way as a defence mechanism against Adam’s abuse. But it isn’t really who she is, and the countless glimpses we’ve seen of her true self from the very first episode of the show should have been enough for people to figure that out.

The whole point is that Adam is totally wrong in everything he says about Blake, and by extension she is totally wrong every time she beats herself up emotionally the same way he did because he made her question herself so much that she thought only his opinion of her was correct.

Anyone who took what Adam said and Blake then quoted about her character at face value and thought it was right either just missed huge swathes of the show and doesn’t have the faintest idea how to read between the lines, or just like Adam they want Blake to “behave” and so they use the same bullshit rhetoric and create faults in her that don’t exist to give them an excuse to hate her because she’ll never be the person they want and/or expect her to be.

To summarise for the Blake haters with the narrative comprehension of a turnip, here is a list of things that Blake is not and never has been:

emo

shy

quiet/passive

privileged/entitled/pampered

a coward

And here is a list of things that Blake is at least at the beginning of the show:

closed off

withdrawn

traumatised

No wonder y’all think her characterisation is “inconsistent” if you don’t even have the most basic understanding of what her core character traits actually are i.e. brave, compassionate, ambitious, and really goddamn dorky or the most basic knowledge of the effects that emotional abuse has on people in the first place.

[heartless-error]

Broken, not perfect, but together. - Chapter 4

Fandom: DC comics, Batman

Pairings: Jonathan Kent x Damian Wayne (JonDami) & Jason Todd x Timothy Drake (JayTim)

Rating: General, family feels, hurt/comfort, mental health issues, running away

Other(s) links: AO3

Broken.

The Batfamily was broken.

It was six years ago, and they had barely stood together since then, trying to stand up despite guilt and regret.

Damian was sure there was nothing to save, not after losing something that he didn’t know he cared about. But when a new opportunity to get back what they had lost appeared, he cannot help to doubt as his past decisions haunt him again.

If you love somebody, set them free. But you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Chapter 4

 6 years ago

 “Damian?” Jon asked quietly. “Are you there?”

 No answer.

 He didn’t expect it either, but the vague concern and suspicion that had led him fly away on a Tuesday evening to go to Gotham and see his partner increased in the back of his mind, along with his patience beginning to wear thin.

 He held on the window frame and peered silently into the room. The place seemed tidy and same as ever, Damian’s things were in their right place as he liked, and drawings materials with his current notebook were placed on the table, but as if they had not been used recently. That was weird, along with the fact that everything was where it had to be except the owner of the room, who was the person he had come looking for and could not see anywhere.

 This made Jon snort in exasperation. He knew Damian was here, he heard him, he felt him. He couldn’t see him, but that wasn’t necessary to find him. Robin couldn’t hide from him, not for long, and that was precisely what he had come to tell him. Because Damian had been avoiding him and thinks it’s for good reason.

 Yes. These past two days he had been ignoring him, and it might not be anything, but his instincts told him otherwise, so he fly away and now is upset in front of his window, debating whether to enter or not. But he knew that if he didn’t decide quickly Batman would probably catch him and scold him again for sneaking around Gotham without permission, or worse, Alfred would.

 Jon didn’t want to confront Alfred and had flown there for a reason, so taking a decision was very easy.

 “I’m going in.” He warned as he entered the room and closed the window and the curtains behind him, just in case.

 It was when he was inside and looking around that Jon was increasingly aware that he was here because of a very small and insignificant hunch. It had only been two days since Damian didn’t reply any texts, or calls, or give any signs of life in general. It wasn’t that long, it wasn’t even that much, he might be busy or on some mission, who knows?

But Jon was still irritated and worried. To be fair, that’s how he felt most of the time lately, because he was 13, Ktyptonian puberty was weird and he knew that wanting to talk to Damian and hear from him with such intensity wasn’t common. But he was already there, suspected something was wrong, warned before got in, had certain privileges for being his best friend and he only wanted answers. There was no turning back now.

 “Damian?” He asked again as he walked into the room, searching for him and being careful not to touch anything.

 As he flew there, he had been wondering how to ask him why hadn’t texted him these days, what his reasons might be, and why he cared so much. But now that Jon was there, those questions along with that part of him that had been worried and screaming in the background intensified as he confirmed part of his suspicions, realizing the unusual silence surrounding the manor, the sad atmosphere dominating the room and where Damian might actually be hiding.

 Something’s happened.

 He doesn’t know what, or if it’s very serious, but it’s enough for Bruce and his father to be on the phone for hours, for Clark being thoughtful and shocked after that, for break the fragile balance of the manor and for Damian to go to his usual hiding place when something went wrong.

And confirming it, makes the need to see him intensify.

 Sighing and approaching the bed, he felt how the unease began to dominate him, as well as the curiosity of wanting to know what happened, how could he help and why it had affected his partner so much. It had to be bad, because it meant Damian hadn’t contacted him because of whatever had happened in Gotham.

At least it hadn’t been because of he’d been dreading internally in silence, that thing about Damian meeting a pretty, wealthy girl of his same age and status in Gotham High, more interesting and adequate than Jon and the one who Damian could end up falling in love, going to prom, marrying and running into the sunset with their countless children to live together forever as he completely forget about him and the special and unique bond they share and… Enough.

 C’mon Jon, you’re not doing yourself any favor. And now it’s not the right moment, Jonathan, you have to help Damian.

 So, crouching down on the side of the mattress, he grabbed the sheet and lifted it up as he peeked under it.

There were two pairs of green eyes in the darkness under the bed, and only one of them looked at him while the other remained fixed on nothing.

 “Dami.” He called him softly.

 Whatever has happened has to be big or emotionally conflictive, because Damian only chooses to take refuge under his bed when he has big breakdowns. And right now, seeing how the current Robin is lying on his back on the ground, in silence, without any expression, looking at nothing in the dark and holding his cat on his chest without strength, it was clear that he was fighting with himself more than usual.

 “I’m going down there with you, okay?” He said kindly as before.

 If he didn’t want it that way, didn’t show any of it. He just stayed just quiet and still as Jon slid under the mattress and lay down, enough close to him so their shoulders brushed.

He wondered if his lack of reaction was because he was too deep in his own head to deny him the entry or because his best friend privileges allowed him to be there. Whatever, he knew Damian was well aware of his presence no matter how much he didn’t show it.

 The floor was clean, not cozy but this particular hideaway was always kept pretty decent. Damian never told him in detail, but he knew the reason he tended to hide here or in other tight places when was sad is because made him feel safe in a certain way. During his time in the league, he might have been treated like a prince, but should always be on guard, watching for his surroundings and ready to fight. But if he locked himself in a small place where no one could reach him, he had a moment of solitude and peace, because nobody could attack behind his back nor take him by surprise, he had the control and the security of being vulnerable for a single moment.

It’s also because once, after arguing with Tim over any nonsense that would affect him too much, he hid there. When the third Robin went looking for him he pretended not to find him, and Damian ended up sleeping. When he woke up a while later, he was in bed, tucked up and Tim sleeping next to him. They didn’t speak about it or apologize later, but they didn’t need to.

 However, unlike them, Jon need to speak with him now. To know what happened and why of his reaction. As much as the silent support he was used to give him was there, he feared that this time it wouldn’t be enough.

 He always feared not to be enough for Damian.

 After a few minutes of silence between them, Jon slowly raised his hand to caress Alfred the cat, who had not moved from his place or taken his eyes off him since he joined them, as if wondering what he was doing there, despite being used to his presence.

 However, while he was debating how to start the conversation -or whether to start it-, like a good cat he was, Alfred sniffed his hand, allowed him to pet him twice and then got tired, meowed in protest and quickly get off from Damian’s chest to ran away.

 Jon didn’t know if apologize to the cat for bothering him or to apologize to Damian for taking away the comfort his pet gave him. But instead he said nothing and lowered his hand again in disappointment, still unsure what to do.

 Damian still didn’t react, didn’t even seem sad for the cat’s disappearance, and his concern increased. But when he lowered his hand Jon could feel the touch of his, warm and close, so close, and easy to grab for comfort and to show him that he was still by his side. Would it be okay? How far he could press his luck today?

He was doubting again, almost panicking, when Damian’s voice finally broke the silence, revealing the cause of the entire disaster.

 “Todd and Drake are dating.”

 He said it in a monotonous and indifferent tone, which was clearly feigned. And at the revelation of that information, Jon tilted his head to stare at him, frowning but not saying anything now that Damian had begun to speak.

 “We found out two nights ago, nobody liked it.” He continued, still in that cold and analytical tone. “Grayson and Father argued with them in the cave. Drake ended up crying.”

 Jon frowned further and felt Damian’s hand shake lightly, as if he was holding back to clench his fist. He couldn’t blame him, Tim tends a lot to hold back his emotional responses and hide them carefully, everyone knows he has to be very affected and shaken to break like that. He doesn’t want to know what kinds of things could have been said in that fight to make Tim reach that limit, but the expectation causes him an agonizing and alarming discomfort.

 “They want them to break up.” Damian said. “Because it’s dangerous, risky and irresponsible.”

 This time was Jon who clenched his fist, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

 It was common knowledge that bats were very competent as detectives, they could catch rapist, drug dealers or killers with four clues or less. But when it comes to feelings, emotions, or relationships… Well, they had too many secrets, too many risks, and they are too compromised to the crusade to risk anything. They could even saw close friendships as dangerous in punctual moments.

 However, Tim and Jason were an even bigger complication, and now he was starting to understand Damian’s conflicts and why he was like this. Because not only was Tim’s civil identity as CEO of WE added to the above, if not also the fact that both had strayed too far from the family -or at least from Bruce- in recent years. The relationship was tense and although he didn’t know the details, resentment was palpable in their interactions, you could tell Batman didn’t like the “Red team” and even Jon was aware that the only reason they put a feet on the manor were Damian, Alfred and Batcow.

 Damian, who knew everything now, who had heard the fight and the same cruel words as them, who loved Tim and Jason as brothers more than ever since he started growing up by their side.

 Damian, who couldn’t be agreed with those statements because, with him, he knew how happy Tim and Jason could be together.

 “They can’t do that.” Jon answered, sighing uneasily. “They’ve been dating for three years already.”

 Finally, that was what made Damian look away from the mattress to him, their faces too close, but his eyes sparkling with curiosity and reproach. Silently asking how he knew such detail.

Jon hesitated, not knowing how to answer properly. It had been obvious to him, with the flirting, the looks, the stolen sweatshirts, the shared safe houses, and the close and angry surveillance Kon kept on Hood sometimes. But he chose to say the more obvious and important reason to him.

 “I know how a heart in love sounds like.” He replied, looking at the other intently.

 Yes, he knew it. Learning to control his super-hearing had helped him to identify those kinds of things over time. And he learned to say what was behind the hearts that skipped a beat when seeing that person, behind those that beat fast when being too close or those who rumbled with strength and vigor just by being together.

 He knew it because it was how his and Damian’s had always sounded.

 And for a moment they said nothing, they were quiet again, looking at each other in the dim darkness, in their hiding place. Too much to say, too much to feel, too much to talk about. Jon swallowed hard and Damian shuddered in his position.

 “They said it’s dangerous… Because Todd tried to kill Drake.” Damian ended up saying, lowering his voice and showing more uncertainty in his tone this time. “Because he was a killer, he was a criminal. And they can’t trust him.”

 And there, there, there was the real problem.

 The real reason Damian was in that state, hiding under his bed and not wanting to see anyone, not wanting to see him.

 Because Jason was a killer, he was a criminal and he tried to kill Tim, just like Damian. And Tim was the youngest prodigy son, estranged, but good at what he does and seen as vulnerable by the other, just like him.

And if Bruce, Dick, and even his own father comforting Bruce on the phone, all those who Damian admired and believed couldn’t trust Jason, couldn’t give him a chance despite knowing he had reformed, he had changed, he had grown up and he loved Tim…

 What will they say about them?

 Jon immediately moved his hand to grab Damian’s tightly, forgetting his previous doubts and fears, even those of weeks ago, and feeling the discomfort sink his chest.

None of that indicated that they were going to react in the same way to them, it’s different but at the same time there were similarities, the words that were spoken in the cave had to be harsh and the thought of Clark talking to Bruce on the phone as if someone had dead instead Tim and Jason dating made him want to throw up.

 “They think he’s going to hurt him.” Damian didn’t grab his hand back, he just said that looking at him still unsure and worried. “That he’s not appropriate, that they are better apart.”

 Jon wanted to scream. Because he knew Damian wasn’t just talking about Jason, and people thinking that about him, just like Damian believing that about himself, made him angry, it hurts.

 “Do you think that too?” He asked with a lump in his throat.

 Damian’s hand trembled in his, indecisively. They still hadn’t taken their eyes off each other.

 “No.” He answered then, completely sure. As if he didn’t have to ask anyone to find out the answer, and he didn’t. “I know he would rather die again than hurt him, and I know he will fight whatever it takes to be by his side, whether he’s worthy or not.”

 The grip on his hand was returned, much stronger and secure than ever. His green eyes shining with determination and courage, saying things that couldn’t yet in words, their hearts beating strongly together again.

 “That’s love.” Jon said, almost without breath.

 “It is.” Damian replied, lacing their fingers.

 Needless to say, they weren’t just talking about Tim and Jason.

[ficsandcatsandficsandcats]

All Is Found:Anastasia!AU

Part VII – One Hope Then Another

Fandom: The Witcher Word Count: 2,691 Rating: G Taglist: @heroics-and-heartbreak​ @whatevermonkey​ @jill-makes-art​ @mynamesoundslikesherlock​ @kemmastan​ @magic-multicolored-miracle​ @writingstudent​ @mlleecrivaine​ @coffee-and-stories​ @amirahiddleston​ @ultracolorfulnerdcollection​ @astouract​ @your-not-invisible-to-me​ @mycat-is-mylove a/n: A retelling of Don Bluth’s Anastasia (1997)

{prologue}{part i}{part ii}{part iii}{part iv}{part v}{part vi}

Lessons continued and your pace quickened after the night by the well. When you and Jaskier explained to Geralt what happened he spent his nights awake watching you to make sure you didn’t sleepwalk again. None of you really got any rest after that night, stealing naps throughout the day when you hopped onto a wagon for part of a journey here and there. Jaskier stayed close to you, closer than he had before, and though he said it was for your protection Geralt could see the growing fondness in his expression and the soft looks you gave each other when the other wasn’t looking. It worried him and he tried to find ways to speed up your reunion with your grandmother.

You were asleep, head lolled over onto Jaskier’s shoulder, his own head resting on yours, when Geralt shook you both awake.

“We’re getting off here,” he announced, reaching out for your hand by the edge of the slowing wagon.

“Are we in Cidaris?” you asked groggily, allowing Geralt to help lift you over the side and gently drop you off of it. Jaskier and Geralt jumped off soon after, the former stretching and checking that his lute hadn’t been scratched. You looked around for clues of where you were but beyond a picturesque flowing river you saw nothing to indicate a location.

“Geralt this isn’t Cidaris,” Jaskier said, confirming your suspicion.

“We’re in Brugge,” Geralt replied simply.

“Ah yes… why?” Jaskier asked. You walked up next to Jaskier, drawn to him as strongly as you were once repelled by him, and Geralt noticed the way your fingers threaded around each other’s. He wondered if you even realized you were doing it.

“We are meeting with your grandmother’s advisor and confidante,” he explained, directing his answer to you, “She is the first line of contact. When she knows that you aren’t a charlatan she will provide us with access to your grandmother.”

Your stomach lurched at the idea of being so close to family. Jaskier squeezed your hand comfortingly and fixed Geralt with a suspicious look.

“Who is her confidante, Geralt? How were you able to get in touch with them so quickly? When did you get in touch with them?” he asked. Geralt smiled and the wider his smile got the wider Jaskier’s eyes got and you looked between the two of them silently until Geralt turned and began walking away.

“What? Who is it?” you asked Jaskier whose mouth set into a grim line.

“I suspect it is a sorceress from my past. My never distant enough past,” he replied.

“Are they… bad?” you asked, worried about your unknown grandmother echoing the mistakes of your parents in trusting the wrong person. And secretly fearing that she hadn’t chosen the wrong person and instead was just a bad person herself. For all that Jaskier had told you about your family he had very little knowledge about who they were really. You didn’t know their values, though the treaties they passed gave you hope. But there was how people looked on paper and who they really were and you felt a chill of anxiety pass through you again as you realized that you had no idea who this person was. Hell, you barely knew who you were. Or at least who you had been.

“No,” Jaskier replied, almost begrudgingly, “She actually saved my life. But she doesn’t care for me and I can’t say the feeling isn’t mutual.”

He gave a heavy sigh and then shrugged, muttering ‘whatever it takes’ under his breath as he led you to catch up with Geralt who seemed quite intent on getting to this sorceress as quickly as possible.

-----

You knew the moment you waked into the tavern which of the patrons was the person you sought. She wasn’t wearing anything especially significant, an all-black attire that aided her in blending in to her environment, but she still stood out plainly. It wasn’t just the striking violet eyes, it was her presence overall. It was commanding and yet oddly approachable. This was the sort of person who should be a princess, you thought, with a little twinge of self-consciousness. She rose when your small group approached the table, eyes first sweeping over Geralt with a little smile that explained why Geralt had been so eager to see her. Then she glanced at Jaskier, a bemused smile playing about her lips.

“Jaskier,” she said.

“Yennefer,” he said in turn. Then her gaze fell to you and you tried not to shrink beneath it. It was assessing and you knew she was already judging whether you were the person Geralt and Jaskier claimed you to be.

“Let’s have a seat,” she said, and you all fell into step. You were seated across from her and as soon as you did she folded her hands in front of her and stared at you some more. A server brought over three cups of ale and you clutched yours quickly, happy to have something to hold onto while you waited for the interrogation.

“This is Y/N,” Geralt said, though he knew there was no real need for introduction, “Y/N, Yennefer is your grandmother’s advisor.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” you said.

“What do you remember of that night?” she asked, no further preamble offered and you were grateful for it, dreading what you’d thought would be a long bout of small talk where you all pretended it wasn’t leading to the decision that would change your life forever.

“Very little,” you admitted, “There have been… moments that came back to me here and there. Mostly in dreams though, so I haven’t known whether I could trust them or not.”

She considered what you said with an impassive expression and you felt Jaskier’s hand slide to your knee under the table. You slid a hand down to meet his, grateful for the comforting touch.

“You understand that many girls have come forward claiming that they are her granddaughter with absolutely no reason to think this,” Yennefer said.

“I didn’t believe it myself at first,” you admitted. She glanced at Geralt and gave him a look you couldn’t quite read.

“Oh?” she asked, “What convinced you?”

You told her about the many ways your stories lined up, from the name to the time you lost your memory to the music box which was produced to show the sorceress. You knew she would have heard all of this from Geralt but you didn’t know what else to say. She watched you with that same unreadable expression and you felt like you were failing a test you’d been assured you’d succeed at and it made you feel small.

“How did you get out of the palace?” she asked.

“She doesn’t remember,” Jaskier said quickly. She shot him a querulous look but he didn’t flinch away.

“Someone helped us,” you said, the words springing to your lips as soon as they came to your mind. You felt three pairs of eyes fall to you but you kept your eyes on the music box in your hand, tracing the filigree and trying to let the memory return. It was like a watercolor painting that was slowly sharpening into forms you could distinguish. The music box on the hot stone. And a boy shutting you into the darkness, eyes wide and scared but determined.

“There was a boy,” you continued, “He moved a painting aside and there was a secret passageway. There were rats and water and my grandmother’s hand held mine so tight it hurt but I kept trying to hold her tighter, afraid she’d slip away in the dark… I don’t… remember anything after that.”

You sighed in frustration and looked up.

Yennefer was smiling and the sight left you a little breathless. There was a softness in her expression you hadn’t expected, as well as one of satisfaction that told you that you’d somehow passed the test after all. Geralt was scanning the area around you, witcher senses trying to identify any threats as was common now since the latest attack. Jaskier stood up and walked out of the tavern before you could see his expression and though you turned to call after him he didn’t look back. Geralt rose as well.

“Stay here,” he said, “I’m sure Yennefer will have more questions.”

“I should…” your voice trailed off as you rose to follow after Geralt but you were stilled by the touch of Yennefer’s hand on yours, pulling you to turn back to her.

“Let Geralt talk with him,” she advised, “Make use of this time. I’ve been with your grandmother for some years now. What would you like to know?”

-----

Jaskier was sitting on a bench outside of the inn that was still damp from a recent rainstorm, a far off look in his eyes. Geralt approached quietly and stood in silence for a time, waiting for Jaskier to speak.

“It’s her, Geralt,” he said, eyes the color of the overcast sky above. Geralt nodded, no need to mention that he had known this for some time already. Jaskier shook his head and laughed a little incredulously.

“She remembers me,” he said.

“She remembers there was a boy,” Geralt corrected, moving to sit next to Jaskier.

“We’re really returning the princess,” Jaskier said, “She will be with her grandmother and she will take her place as heiress to the throne.”

His voice was soft and sad and Geralt sighed heavily. He could tell his friend that there was still a way that they may stay in touch, that perhaps he could settle down in Cidaris and they may still remain friends. But that was false hope. Royalty had little time for friends and no time for dalliances that didn’t lead to influential matches. Geralt knew that when they returned Y/N to her grandmother that would be it. She would stay in Cidaris and be married to someone who could keep her safe and keep the Toussaint line alive until such a time as they may rally enough allies to fight against Nilfgaard. There was no future for Y/N that included Jaskier and he didn’t need to say it, the pain in the bard’s eyes showed that he already knew.

“That was always the plan, Jaskier. This changes nothing,” the witcher said. Jaskier took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he exhaled, and when he opened them again the pain was still there but the steely resolve had returned as well.

“We’re close,” he noted, “How much longer do you think it will be before we can get an audience with her grandmother?”

“I will defer to Yennefer on that,” Geralt answered. His amber eyes shot up suddenly, scanning the trees, certain he had heard something but when Y/N walked out of the tavern a moment later he chalked it up to the sound of her approaching steps.

“Yennefer wants to see you,” you said to Geralt, a flush of excitement in your cheeks. Geralt took another look around the perimeter and then, seemingly satisfied, wordlessly walked inside, leaving you and Jaskier alone.

“Jaskier, can you believe it?” you exclaimed, “We’re so close! Yennefer’s been telling me all about her and I don’t remember her but it’s like I feel this way I can’t describe. I guess longing? It’s like my heart is heavy but excited but a little sad. It’s just a lot of things.”

“That sounds like longing,” he said quietly before finally raising his eyes to meet yours. You looked so happy. Happier than he’d see you possibly this entire time and it was because you were going to meet your family. He couldn’t be mad at you for it and he couldn’t be mad at your grandmother either. But he felt angry nonetheless. Angry that his life had to hold more farewells than hellos, a bit of his heart torn out with every person who left him behind, willingly or not. Sometimes he wondered how he had any heart left at all. In truth he hadn’t been sure he did, until you.

“What is it?” you asked, the long silence filling with a tension that cut through your excitement. He saw the happiness in your eyes waver and quickly righted himself. He couldn’t keep you, but he’d be damned if he tarnished your happiness even for a moment.

“I was just thinking,” he said, “We need to get you a dress. You can’t meet your grandmother looking like this.”

He gestured to the trousers and layered shirt and jacket you’d worn and you bristled a bit.

“You’ve never complained about the way I look before,” you replied, a haughty note to your voice. Ah yes, he thought, there she is. How did I never see her before?

“There is nothing wrong with the way you look,” he insisted, a flirtatious smirk playing about his lips, “But I am not the former Queen or your family and we would do well to help you look the part.”

Your smile faltered a little and your eyes fell to your hands.

“What is it?” he asked, a finger grazing your jawline, enticing you to look up and meet his gaze.

“It’s just… it’s not a role, is it? I mean… I suppose it is. But at the end of the day she’s going to get me. This me,” you said, gesturing to yourself, “And we can put me in dresses and we can grow my hair out and we can do all of the things to make me look like the girl in that portrait but… I’m still going to be me. And I’m scared that I’ve become someone that she won’t know or want anymore.”

“How could anyone not want you?” Jaskier mused, not realizing he’d spoken the words aloud til your eyes widened and finally looked up into his. The words were on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed them back. They were selfish and they would confuse you and he knew that they didn’t really matter anyhow.

“You are her granddaughter and she has been looking for you for such a long time,” he said, patting your hand comfortingly, “She already loves you. You have nothing to prove.”

You threw your arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug, in part out of gratitude but also to hide the tears that you felt rising in your eyes. His eyes squeezed tight as he wrapped his arms around you and held you close, trying to take in and memorize the smell of your hair and the warmth of your body and the feeling of your mouth curling into a smile against his neck.

“Thank you, Jaskier,” you muttered, words muffled but still audible. “I could never have done this without you.”

“Likely true,” he sighed. You smacked his arm and he laughed and when you pulled back your noses brushed against each other and you stopped, eyes falling to his lips. He licked them instinctively and felt your hands tighten around the collar of his shirt, anchoring yourself before moving in. But before you could do that the door to the inn opened and with the last bit of his self-restraint Jaskier gently moved apart, standing just as Geralt and Yennefer appeared.

“We leave for Cidaris in the morning,” Yennefer announced, “I’ll send word ahead.”

“No,” Geralt said quickly, “She’s being tracked. We haven’t seen signs of them for a while but I don’t trust sending messages.”

“Very well,” Yennefer replied, “But all the more reason to get an early start. Have you procured an inn yet? Nevermind don’t answer, I know you haven’t, I’m sure the one I’m staying at can accommodate you.”

She turned without another word and you all moved to follow. Your hand reached for Jaskier’s but he slid his lute to the front and began to play, a slow, sad melody but a pretty one nonetheless. You tucked one hand in your pocket and the other fiddled with the pendant, tracing the words that would soon turn from hopeless dream to stark, terrifying, thrilling reality.

[speechless-illusions]

Another chapter of: The Spanish official translation of Boku no hero makes me want to cry and every day I'm more glad that I can understand English and read the chapters in English because we don't realize how lucky we are that we have Caleb cook, an incredible, skilled and amazing translator.

So in previous chapters, making a comparison between the Spanish and English official translations I came to these conclusions:

The official Spanish translator of MangaPlus is not the same translator of the official Spanish physical volumes of bnha. He only translates for MangaPlus (Caleb translates both the digital chapters in MangaPlus/VIZ and the physical ones)

The Spanish translator doesn't have enough knowledge about bnha. It seems like he started translating when MangaPlus was released and hasn't maybe even read the previous chapters? He has a lack of knowledge of the story that is easily seen with his translations

He sometimes doesn't pay enough attention to the images and thinks the speech bubbles are for a character, and translates as if it's that character talking, but the speech bubbles are pointing at another character, and thus the translation doesn't make sense.

He has problems when translating certain Japanese expressions or idioms, because he doesn't catch the nuances, (but I'm not going to complain about this because everybody makes mistakes and Japanese is so difficult)

Everybody makes mistakes, but this man has a long story of making BIG mistakes (not mistakes about the translation but about the context/knowledge of the series) in the most important parts of the chapters with other manga he translates (because I've seen other fandoms get angry at him) and is in charge of some of the manga with more readers of JUMP right now

I don't want to complain about mistakes involving the difficulty of translating from Japanese to Spanish because as a student of Japanese myself I know it's incredibly difficult. But my problem comes when I start noticing things that make me think the big problem is that this man doesn't care about doing a proper job because he doesn't care about knowing the basics of bnha (for example, he didn't even realize Shigaraki was posing like all might in previous chapters). And there's a lot of possible reasons for this, including lack of time or motivation (in Spain jobs are usually badly paid and this could be a reason) but I start to think it's just because this person simply doesn't want to put the effort of knowing more of the story?

Today's chapter made me think this way. This man is the one in charge of translating all MangaPlus chapters, so he has translated all chapters of this arc so far. But today I realized he didn't even pay attention to the story he's translating.

When Todoroki appears, in the ENGLISH translation Shigaraki thinks "Back there, he was the one following them", and as we see in the images, he's thinking about when he used Search to find out where Deku was, and saw 2 people moving, and one person after them. This happened just some chapters ago.

Well, in the SPANISH translation, when Todoroki appears, Shigaraki thinks "He's the guy who was coming AFTER ME that time!"

AFTER ME. ME. SHIGARAKI?!?!

I'm sure that in the original Japanese sentence, the pronouns were omitted, which is common in Japanese, and the translator has to realize based on the context what are those pronouns.

But again, the Spanish translator messed it up. And I mean, it's a bit crazy because... He was the one who translated that chapter where Shigaraki uses Search. He has translated all the chapters. When did Todoroki go after Shigaraki in this arc? NEVER. Didn't he realize it didn't make sense? Didn't he realize that the images were referring to that Search chapter, to give the clue about what he was talking about?

There are not a lot more big mistakes in this chapter, because there's not a lot of dialogue either, but the fact that there's at least a couple big mistakes (I consider them big when it changes who is talking or who is something referred to) in each chapter...

It makes me a bit mad. I mean, I read them all in English and I admire Caleb cook a lot because he's absolutely fantastic and you can easily see how he is involved with every series he translates and he does an incredible extra-effort to know the series and be able to do a good job (and he doesn't do just a good job, he does an amazing job. I swear that man is the best translator I've ever seen and I wish I could become like him some day) so when I compare the English and Spanish translations... It makes me so sad because you can see the big difference in quality between them and thinking about the people who only read in Spanish... Well, the story must be a mess for them because nothing makes sense in the Spanish translation...

And I feel so so bad complaining about a translator because I know how difficult that job is but I know how my country is and... Well...

In Spain we have AMAZING and INCREDIBLY SKILLED people working in language fields, that can do an amazing job, but these fields are so bad treated in this country that a lot of times companies hire people not skilled on purpose to pay them less or prefer other things instead of quality... And those amazing skilled people don't get those jobs since other people with no enough knowledge gets them instead

I'll give an example so you know what I'm talking about: These past weeks in spanish social media there's a big topic of discussion. One of the best Spanish fantasy and young adult writer is releasing a Netflix series of her best selling books and everybody was anticipating it. It's an animated series and it's the first time she decides to do something like that (she always refused to adapt her books into series or movies) so she put an amazing effort and she decided who the voice actors of the show were going to be. Spain has AMAZING voice actors and she wanted the best voices for her characters. That's what she agreed with Netflix Spain.

But when the trailer of the series was released, we all were in shock. The voices were horrible. And she made a statement saying that those were not the voice actors she wanted. Netflix Spain decided to give up on the good and skilled voice actors the writer agreed with them, and instead chose some famous and popular young actors with no voice acting studies or preparation, but with lots of fans and followers in social media.

The result is horrible and the writer had to apologize because that's not what she wanted either. But that's how Spanish companies think: it's better to hire someone popular and famous (or just with connections, which is also something that happens too much in this country) even if they don't know how to do their work, than hiring people who have studied and spent years preparing for that job...

I don't want to think like this but... I don't know... I just sometimes have the feeling that something like this could be happening with the translations... Like, they prefer to hire people with X thing even if they do a poor job, than hiring one of the hundreds of amazing translators that I'm sure are in my country (that end up having to give up on their dreams or move to another country because they can't find a job here...)

It's just so so sad and makes me so mad...

[inactiive-shit]

Live A Little

Fandom: Sanders’ Sides

Title: Live A Little

Prompt: Ghost!side

Warnings: death, implied (past) murder, ghost, blood

Pairing: Platonic LAMP

Words: 2,213

@sanderssidescelebrations​ Chim-chim-churree, bucko. I tried for fluff and my brain kept trying to make me incorporate angst so this is kind of bittersweet. But I love my child. Here is the best I have:

This time of year was, objectively speaking, the best.

Logan was not biased, don’t think that he would ever let his current circumstances affect his opinion. It was a simple fact that fall was the best time of year. The beautiful trees and the pleasant chill in the air and the smell of crisp early mornings were, objectively, some of the best things in life.

And Logan would know that because he had lost his life. About twenty years ago, and he won’t go anymore exact than that because he still looks like a twenty-something college kid, but he would digress. Logan knows these are the best aspects of life because they are the things he misses the most and also the things that he can feel the best even after death.

His liking this time of year has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, or the thinning of the veil, or it being the only time of year he can be seen by everyone, or that he can feel things, or that people don’t run screaming from him when they see him. They actually congratulate him on such a realistic costume, and Logan has long since given up on trying to convince anyone he’s actually dead. They always think he’s inebriated or pulling some sort of prank. He doesn’t mind so much anymore. He’s just glad that he can hold any sort of conversation with someone who isn’t a particularly enlightened cat.

Things start to get fun every year around eight p.m. That’s when Logan becomes corporeal again, and also when he is finally able to be seen by the masses. So, as eight p.m. rolls around, Logan steps out of the stupid house he is confined to every other day of the year and begins walking.

His legs tingle like he’s been sitting cross-legged too long and now they’re coming awake again. He relishes in the feeling, even if it’s not pleasant. It’s something, and that’s a lot better than nothing. The wind batters his face and a beautifully orange leaf smack into the tacky blood pasting his hair down and sticks. He smiles, pulling it off and tossing it back to the elements. He watches as it whisks down the street in the first breeze he’s felt in a year. A few drops of rain land on his hand, so Logan tilts his head back and lets the rain sprinkle onto his face. After a year without even the slightest bit of liquid touching, the rain feels exquisite. He fights the insane urge to giggle and allows himself a few seconds of basking in the rain. Then he composes himself and continues walking. As much as he’d love to drink in all these sensations forever, he only gets twelve hours. There is so much more he wants to do before this night is over.

There is a house about four blocks away. It is more of a mansion than a house, and nobody owns it. Students from the local college flock to it every Halloween for the biggest party that anyone in the state has. Logan knows, because even back in his day it was an impressive party. The police have a long standing deal with the college students: it doesn’t get too loud and nothing gets destroyed, nobody gets arrested. This, too, has been in effect since Logan was as young as he looks. The students had, of course, been banned before, but they kept coming back. Now the truce has been in place for over two decades. Logan’s never been more happy that a law can be so casually broken.

Logan only went to a few parties in his life (nowhere near enough, if you ask him now. He loves the socialization more than anything else.) They were all good parties for the time, but now is a whole new ball game. There are amazing lights and decorations and types of food he’s never seen before. People bring their handheld cellular phones with them everywhere, and it’s a technology Logan had never imagined in his life. They contain cameras, make calls, send written messages, access the internet (something Logan wishes to high heaven that he’d had in college), and so much more that is far beyond his comprehension, given his limited time to interact with them.

Even with all of that, all the crazy things he can’t even fathom having existed before, he loves these parties. He can drink (though never get drunk), he can eat (though he is never hungry), he can talk (and be heard), and he can touch others. Logan never realized how much he took his senses for granted until they were revoked like some cosmic joke. But for now, he has them. He can stew about not having them once they’re gone again, and he’s back to being no more than a semi-famous news story and The Poltergeist of Auburn Street.

Logan walks into the party and the very first thing he does is grab a cookie. It’s a simple little pumpkin, and the gel-like icing is dripping off slightly, but it is delicious. He purposely bumps into a few people as he makes his way around the already packed room. It is not yet eight thirty, and already ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’ is blasting from the speakers. Strangers are making out in strange places, and Logan watches them for only a moment before turning away. He hadn’t really been a fan of such things when he was alive, either, and it is one societal expectation that he does not miss at all.

Logan mingles with the warm bodies around him until nine o’clock when he sees who he’s been waiting for: Patton Foster. Behind Patton walks Roman Prince, brandishing his smile like a weapon. The last person in, loitering in the door like a vampire, is Virgil Avery. They make the most interesting trio that Logan has ever seen, none of them have anything in common, and that probably has a lot to do with why he fits in with them so well.

“Lolo!” Patton cries and throws his arms around Logan’s neck as soon as he steps into his path. “How’ve you been? What have you been doing?” Patton is easily the most genuine person that Logan has ever met. When they met in Patton’s freshman year at this very party, Logan was just sitting on the stairs, watching. Patton had asked what was wrong like he’d known just from a glance, and they’d talked, and then he’d met the other two, and they all clicked together like puzzle pieces, separated years ago by an errant creator.

Somehow, it seemed fitting that Logan would make the best friends of his life after he died.

“Good, Patton. I’ve been good. Not doing much.” Logan wiggles out of Patton’s embrace, and Patton lets go quickly.

“Not doing much?” Virgil grumbles. “Wouldn’t you have seen the whole world by now, calculator watch?” Logan has no idea what that is supposed to mean - the nickname, not the sentence. What the cherry-covered fuck was a calculator watch?

“There is a lot more to the world than places, Virgil,” Logan says. They bump fists and then Roman drapes an arm around Logan’s shoulders.

“Where did you spend this year, again?” Roman asks, eyeing the crowd like a vulture. The first year Logan had met them, at the end of the night, all three of them had been devastated to find out that Logan didn’t go to their school. He told them he was traveling; all over the world. It was why he was never here longer than a night, and it was why they never saw him on campus.

“Australia,” Logan says. This is probably not where he told them he was going last year. He doesn’t remember where he told them going, only that it was far enough away they wouldn’t try to visit.

“What’s that like, kiddo?”

“Hot, dry. A surprising amount of deadly fauna, even knowing about it beforehand,” Logan says. He doesn’t want to be questioned about a place he’s never been, so  he asks, “What sorts of things have been going on for you?”

“Nothing good,” Virgil says, but he looks too happy in his skeleton costume for that to be true.

“Stormcloud passed his biology exam,” Roman proclaims, loudly, in Logan’s ear. Logan leans more into the sound and the heat.

“Barely,” Virgil says, but there’s no venom in the word.

“But you did pass,” Logan says. He pauses and adds, “I loved biology in high school. It’s a lot different in college though.” Logan can’t even begin to guess how far the field has come since his most recent knowledge of it. He had been majoring in biology; he loved the field work involved.

“That’s the spirit!” Patton says. Virgil and Roman laugh. Logan groans. A pun. A halloween pun. A Halloween pun that just so happens to hinge on the thing Logan is. How Patton manages it, Logan hasn’t found out. He may be a witch. He may be psychic and not know it. Whatever the case, he’s using his power for puns. It really is such a Patton thing to do.

“I starred in the school’s production of The Breakfast Club,” Roman says. He puffs out his chest. They reach the drink table and everyone picks up something.

“A wonderful movie,” Logan says. “I didn’t know there was a play based on it.” Roman stares at him with outright incomprehension.

“So you get my 80s movie references, but you’ve never seen an Avengers movie? Or Tangled? Or-or even something nerdy like Interstellar?”

“I have read the Marvel comics,” Logan suggests. Roman rolls his eyes, and Logan surmises that is not quite considered the same. “And I have been meaning to watch Interstellar since you told me about it last year. Though I have absolutely no clue what Tangled is supposed to be.” He grins as Roman goes off on a tangent about all things Disney. It’s endearing, if obnoxious, Logan thinks as he makes eye contact with Virgil and Patton. All three of them devolve into laughter, but Roman keeps going, undeterred.

“And Frozen! Elsa’s going to be a lesbian, and the Prince was the bad guy-that’s how you know he was never a real prince. A real prince like myself would never commit a betrayal like that! And what about The Princess and The Frog? An underrated masterpiece to be sure, but stunning! Everything about it was amazing! And there’s…” Logan’s not sure if Roman’s taken a breath since he started talking, and he’s only understanding about a third of the words he’s said.

Roman is the easiest to rile into such an impassioned state. He loves so much so fiercely that anything could set him off. Less often to see passionate is Patton. Not excited or even elated about something, but to see Patton with a bright gleam in his eye as he talks until there are no words left and you can feel his very own passion in your soul is beautiful. Least often to feel so strongly about something is Virgil. Logan has only provoked him into one passion-fueled rant (about caterpillars, of all things. Odd, but fitting.), but he is just as capable of feeling and expressing as either of the others.

Passion, Logan has found, is the heart and soul of life. Nothing quite compares to watching someone breathe life into something just from their sheer love of the subject.

But dancing comes close.

“Want to dance?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at Roman. Roman grins, takes a breath, and then extends a hand toward Patton.

“Padre? Would you do me this honor?” Patton giggles and jumps up.

“C’mon, Virge! It’ll be fun!” Patton and Roman are bouncing excitedly - in entirely different ways. Patton’s is a sort of rocking back forth from his heels to his toes over and over, as though he cannot possibly not move, even when he’s not walking. Roman’s is more of a jump, bending his knees slightly and then springing back up, so eager to get moving that he won’t wait for the time.

“I don’t know, guys.” Virgil withdraws into his hoodie slightly. Logan admires the patchwork design, something so lovingly hand-crafted that it could never really be replicated correctly. “Dancing’s not really my thing.”

“Come on, dark and stormy, nothing bad is going to happen,” Roman prods. He starts to pull closer to the other dancing people. Virgil doesn’t look completely convinced, and there’s only one thing Logan can advise here.

“Live a little,” he says, and he smiles because Patton would love the pun if he knew, and then he takes his own advice and for exactly one night, Logan lives. At the end of the night, he’ll tell his friends good-bye, regale them with ideas of the next far-off place he’s heading for, and then he’ll go back to his dilapidated house and come up with new ways to keep from going insane until next year’s Halloween party when he gets to see them all again. But until that happens, Logan won’t think about it. He takes Virgil’s hand, draws him into the crush of moving, breathing, living bodies, and they live.

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Chapter 263 Discussion

Hello, it is I back from my cave to finally get back into fandom discussion.

Sadly, I don't have too much to offer this time around except speculation, and most of it is dependent on assumptions and observations of the Heroes Rising movie, so if you haven't seen it this is unfortunately your stop, but when you do eventually see it go on ahead and send me an ask geeking out about it because almost everyone I've heard agrees if nothing else that it was hype and worth the price of admission!

All right, warning and disclaimer out of the way, let me lay the groundwork for how this post will go.

1. If you didn't know, the plot for Heroes Rising is a scrapped concept for the end of the series. Because it was scrapped it can't really be used to accurately predict how Horikoshi actually intends to end the story, but finding common plot lines and elements from what we're seeing now in the manga to the events in the movie might give us a clue to which lines he dropped and which he decided to keep. In the end it's a hunch, but it's a more informed guess than not having the clues.

2. I believe we're in the end stages of the story - or at least what is the beginning of the story in the same way Naruto was a precursor to Naruto Shippuden. Because of that, I don't feel like trying to predict things very far ahead and prefer to try to stick to interpretations of what's immediately going on since I feel we’ll get our answers fairly quickly anyway. I've made some lofty ideas of where the series is going before, but those are really better as overarching themes and end points for certain characters than necessarily an accurate prediction of events.

With that, let's jump into it.

The MLA/PLF is a front for the LOV

So to start, something I really wanted to address in the last chapter was the last page:

A lot of people are amazed Hawks seemed to go so deep into their ranks without ever raising suspicion, but I think this clarified, if not confirmed, a couple of points I've been hanging onto for a while.

The LOV never cared about these folks - that much has kind of been obvious from the get-go. They just threw themselves at Shiguraki as the second coming of Christ and offered him a free army. "...I mean, twist my arm, why don'tcha?" There were enough commonalities between the groups to seem like an obvious fit, but the League has always had different plans. Now, not only do they have a disposable army to fight the heroes and die for them but were a perfect opportunity to throw off the heroes to their main objective and draw out all the heroes at once in a fight to the death - all without practically lifting a finger. Shiguraki is a strategist, and a resource not utilized to the best of its potential is wasted even if using it well uses it up completely. These aren't their people, and they signed up for this fight to begin with. It would have made less sense to not effectively double-cross them like this.

I haven't been looking much for discussion regarding the movie, but a notable thing that immediately stood out to me when I saw it was the fact that Shiguraki was individually watching Hawks, and Hawks specifically - all alone and seemingly completely unprompted. A particularly overpowered aspect of Twice's quirk is the fact his doubles are SO close to the same thing they're in every way, down to the way they think and their core motivations, that they’re indistinguishable from the real thing, even to the original and doubles themselves. They really are perfect stand-ins for the actual people they copy. It's 100% possible that real Shiguraki could be powering up under the doctor's care, and - because he's not an idiot to leave himself completely vulnerable and out of control when he doesn't need to be - literally be running the show through a double, behind the scenes, in secret the entire time without the Heroes' or the MLA/PLF's knowledge. This also means that him personally spying on Hawks while he thinks Shiguraki has been out of commission is completely plausible as well.

These two frames have been circulating for good reason. While the army and organization honest-to-god have no idea what's going on, the OG League members seem to be taking it more like a stage cue - particularly with Dabi's obvious movement against the flow of the crowd rushing to battle. This very much feels like something they've planned for; but only them and their squad. They’re known to hold grudges against those that use them and abuse/hurt their core members, but none of that protective attitude has been directed towards this larger organization/movement.

"So what's got you so convinced about parallels to the movie? That's the only one you've brought up."

This was the first thing that stood out to me this chapter as I was reading through it fresh. In the climax of the movie each member of class 1-A had to strategically use their abilities to survive against Nine and his band. One of the abilities they had to counter was calling lightning down from the sky to which they used Kaminari as a lightning rod. Though it was played up for laughs a bit in the movie, it was still very much a life-saving tactic in the moment, and the concept clearly carried over into the final product.

A point of speculation we’ll be able to verify soon is a hunch I have that Tokoyami and Toga will clash one-on-one seeing as he’s also in the front-runner group. Slice very much felt like an easy stand-in for Toga, given the knowledge that those events are modified from the original ending concept, and it was thanks to Tokoyami losing control of Dark Shadow that he was able to beat her in the end. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks, and if it proves right I’ll be pulling more common threads to see if we can’t anticipate what’s going to happen next.

So, yup!

That's it!

Nothing left to see or talk about until next week!

*sigh........*

Ok.

Let's go over what we know for sure:

That’s clearly intent to kill in Hawks’ eyes: a lot of fans are aware of the practice of falconry, which is basically the same thing as a hunting dog but with a trained bird of prey instead; and it’s the image hammered into our heads about the way the Commission has treated Hawks and the way he personally deals with threats. Hawks considers Twice the single, greatest tool the League has in their belt - able to exponentially create duplicates and reinforcements which would turn a strategy-based battle into one of attrition, and the heroes would lose the latter easily. He clearly hasn’t killed Twice yet, and we don’t know why, but if he has to he’s prepared to do so without hesitation or remorse. This is a fight the Heroes CANNOT lose.

Hawks is done: This is more inference, but bear in mind he’s been on this case long before the Commission told him to infiltrate the League. He’s been at this in some capacity for almost a year and neck deep in recon as an undercover agent for months. He’s been walking on eggshells, keeping his eyes and ears open, relaying information, keeping up appearances on both sides, and watching the threat grow from a surprisingly capable group of guerrilla terrorists into an army capable of bringing all of Japan to its knees in a matter of days, tops. The stakes are too high, personally and otherwise, to not take this threat seriously.

This is Twice’s POV: Literally everything he thought he knew about this guy he considered his friend has been turned upside down. That whiteboard that was a catalyst for their friendship is thrown aside (symbolically along with all the memories and time they spent together), and here Jin is: knocked on his back, no longer looking into the friendly gaze of a great guy out to help a friend, but the murderous glare of a wild animal - a monster, even - having no idea how he got to this point and how fast it’s unraveling before his eyes. What we’re watching now could have happened in literally under two seconds. Hawks is that fast, and he’s been waiting for this to happen.

Considering the sudden tonal whiplash their relationship has just gone through - and the fact that it’s framed through Twice’s perspective, not Hawks’ - I don’t think we can make too many solid predictions about what’s going to happen right now. Hawks has been shown to be unpredictable to anyone but himself. When we’re not hearing his own internal monologue or seeing things directly from his point of view, everything we “learn” about him from a scene has to be taken with a grain of salt. He’s guarded, private, and keeps others at arms length so he can anticipate and respond to get the results he wants. It’s not just his fighting style, it’s his survival mechanism.

Twice himself is a grab bag of surprises, and being the heart of the League may yet find a way to appeal to his humanity, question his motives/actions, or any number of ways to bring him down to earth again; but there’s an equal opportunity that Hawks is beyond that at this point. His mission is almost done, and if he wavers now he could literally end up dead in a heartbeat. There are a lot of feathers trained on Twice, but not enough to bring his wings all the way down to stubs like we saw with High End. He’s set to fight not just Twice, but everyone in that compound.

In other words, this might be the point we finally see Hawks truly go apeshit, and I don’t think it’ll be a pretty sight to see. We’ll just have to wait and see where this leads from here.