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vizowrites · 3 years

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“We” vs “Me”| or “Why BlitzStrike Works So Well For Me But Stolitz [as of episode 6].....Doesn’t”

Alright my Loves, so I said that I was going to talk in further detail about my feelings regarding Stolas and the multi-layered portrayal of his relationship with Blitz in the new episode, and today’s the day where that happens!! First of all, though, before I really get into my feelings about things, I want to just make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I’m not trying to sway anyone from one side to the other, or trying to shame anyone for shipping two fictional characters. I’m fully in the boat that you are completely entitled to ship whoever you want, but I also think it’s wise to at least be able to recognize the faults and flaws in a pairing--and especially to be able to recognize them in the context of an IRL relationship. In this analysis in particular, I’m specifically focusing on these two relationships within the realm of the Helluva Boss universe [......Hell] and within the specific context of their characters as they’ve been portrayed in the show thus far. And, my biggest disclaimer of all: I’m doing this for no other reason than I felt like putting my jumbled thoughts together into a cohesive post so that they don’t have to stay bouncing and buzzing around in my head. Please keep that in mind that this is just pure personal opinion and interpretation before anyone comes at me with torches and pitchforks. <3 <3

SO WITH THAT LONG ASS DISCLAIMER OUT OF THE WAY

Let’s finally get to the good stuff. And the not so good stuff. :D

So I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone who follows me here that I’m a huge BlitzStrike fan. What I think fewer people know is that when I first entered the fandom a few months ago, I actually was on board the Stolitz train like so many others that I’ve met here in the fandom. Naturally Stolitz was the first major pairing I was introduced to, and I did find both the characters of Blitz and Stolas incredibly interesting and compelling in their own rights AND saw the potential in how they could really come to grow into one hell of a relationshp over time. I was honestly really excited to see it happen, too.

And then I watched Episode 5 [still my favorite episode, btw] for the first time and had this sudden question hit me like a truck that even now is still relentlessly burning in the back of my mind because I still haven’t found a legitimate answer for it: Why in the FUCK wasn’t Blitz falling head-over-heels in attraction to Striker throughout this fucking episode??

And I don’t mean that in a “They’re so hot and I ship them now why didn’t they get together?? DX DX” kind of way--I mean that in the genuinely perplexed “I don’t understand based on what has been presented to me thus far about Blitz as a character and the storyline overall why he’s reacting so nonchalantly to this whole thing”. To Note: This is me wondering this from the context of what’s in the show itself, not from any extra fan materials like the Instas or Twitter or just straight up knowing that the most likely answer is that there are people on the creative team that ship Stolitz really hard and realistically wouldn’t have probably written Blitz as being attracted to Striker because that would just be--to quote Jack Sparrow--blowing holes in their own ship. No, this is me disregarding ALL of that and trying to rationalize this with myself from the perspective of a fan whose entire knowledge of the show and its characters comes exclusively from what’s in the episodes themselves. .....And that’s where I just can’t find my answer, except for the Stolitz positive “He’s not attracted to Striker because he’s in love with Stolas” answer. Which really doesn’t even feel like a satisfying answer, because the entire vibe I’ve gotten from Stolitz in the show has just felt.....strangely.....off. Like, the framework is there and the elements are there, but I’d felt as though they had so far to go still that it would be entire SEASONS before they got there.

And THEN the new episode [Episode 6] came out and I’d heard a handful of fans going crazy because the show was finally addressing Stolitz in full, and I thought to myself, “Well, maybe if the show really is going to go with saying that the reason Blitz wasn’t interested in Striker is because he’s in love with Stolas.....sure. I’m curious to see how they finally establish it in an episode, especially since there’s only two more episodes left in the entire first season.” And then I watched the episode. And then it hit me why Stolitz just does not do a damn thing for me but BlitzStrike does despite the fact that we’ve had 4/6 episodes [5/7 if you count the Pilot] of Stolitz but only 1/6 [1/7] of potential--not even canonical--BlitzStrike:

When Striker talks about Blitz, or interacts with Blitz, he always talks about them as a “we”. As a team. A partnership. OR he just straight up puts the entire focus on Blitz and his accomplishments and keeps himself out of it entirely.

When Stolas talks about Blitz, he always talks about them within the context of “me”--of himself--of what Blitz does or should do for him. Even here in episode 6, in the most “selfless” instance we’ve seen yet, where he does ask about Blitz’s safety first BEFORE going right back into how Blitz’s actions affect him and what Blitz should be doing in response for him. Stolas’s focus is always automatically set to himself--and even when it comes to the people he supposedly loves the most.

To explain what I mean here, let me give some examples directly from the show itself, starting with the Stolas side of things:

Episode 1

Blitz, in the middle of trying to hide so much that he actually clamps both of his hands over his mouth just to muffle the sound of his own breathing, knowing damn well that this psychotic bitch who already shot him once won’t hesitate to do it again if she finds him.....gets a call from Stolas. Stolas, who we clearly see from his leisurely hang out time in his bubble bath, is literally watching this happen and is fully aware that calling Blitz right then was potentially putting him in danger. But what does he say when he gets Blitz on the phone? He offers--not help--but Blitz the use of his book in exchange for monthly sex. Stolas literally uses Blitz’s peril as leverage here--consciously or not, though given the fact that he knows the situation at hand, I’d find it very hard to argue that he didn’t do this on purpose--just to get him to agree to be his bootycall until further notice.

Stolas not only doesn’t lift a finger to help Blitz once in all of this--even at the moment where he and Millie are about to be shot in the face--but instead continues to stay on the phone talking about all of the things he wants for their upcoming future rendezvous. He already got exactly what he wanted out of this and he still just continues to go for more for himself.

Episode 2

.....There are honestly so many fucked up things that happen here as far as Stolas and his relationship with Blitz goes but honestly the thing I want to draw the MOST attention to is actually Stolas’s storyline with his daughter, Octavia. I know it’s a little left field, but bear with me--this is actually something I want to use as comparison for Stolas’s relationship to Blitz as we go along:

When Stolas first decides that he’s going to take his daughter to Loo Loo Land, he does so while completey setting aside the fact that she doesn’t want to go. He just offers her assurances that it’s going to be so much fun because he remembers that she loved it so much when she was a little girl--effectively putting his memory above her wishes even as she’s sitting right there and telling him that she doesn’t enjoy the idea of going now.

Stolas doesn’t actually notice just how uncomfortable he’s making Octavia throuhought their entire trip by spending his time sexually harassing paying more attention to Blitz than he is trying to cheer her up. This tells me that Stolas--though I do believe he genuinely wanted to do something to make her happy--still wasn’t able to completely overcome his own self-centered tendencies at first even when it’s for her. And this is the person that Stolas loves more than anyone or anything else in the entire world. It still wasn’t enough.

It’s only when Octavia runs off and completely breaks down that Stolas finally gets the much needed slap-to-the-face of reality to understand just what he’s putting his daughter through--and, for the first time in the entire show, he actually puts someone else’s needs and well being above himself. It’s the one solid honest display of love that we see from Stolas in the entire show--and it’s how we as the audience come to learn that that’s how Stolas shows that he loves someone: When he puts their needs above his own with no strings attached or expectations of something in return. A true selfless act just because he loves them. **Keep in mind the parallel of Stolas carrying Octavia out of Loo Loo Land at the end, and how it compares to Stolas carrying Blitz out of D.H.O.R.K.S headquarters.

Episode 5

The. Fucking. Cigarette. I had no idea that something so small and quick would be able to infuriate me as much as it did, but the fact that Blitz used the post sex cigarette to free Stolas from his wrist bondage but then Stolas turned around and put the cigarette out on Blitz’s horn which is literally a part of Blitz’s body just.....honestly it sums up exactly what I’m trying to get across in this entire huge ass post: Stolas only ever thinks of himself first and anything pertaining to anyone else just doesn’t cross his mind at all unless you blatantly put it there in front of his face. And the fact that he’s still at this point with Blitz all the way here in Episode 5 is not.....promising for their relationship.

The fact that Stolas literally cannot stop himself from calling Blitz “Blitzy” or talking to him in such a condescending way no matter how frustrated Blitz gets and how many times he asks him to stop. I just--how is that supposed to be interpreted as someone talking to a person that they love? There’s no respect or dignity given to Blitz at all on Stolas’s part, and the fact that it seems to be presented as a “Oh teehee it’s just their cute couple thing” is just.....I really, really don’t like that. It also doesn’t match with the Stolas in the very next episode which I quite frankly think is because the creators have been listening to the feedback from fans and were like “We need to SHOW THEM that Stolas actually does speak to Blitz respectfully!!” but that’s just my personal opinion there and, also, it still didn’t happen.

Episode 6

Keeping in mind that THIS is finally the episode where we see Stolas actually save Blitz from danger and demonstrate even the slightest inclination towards his well-being.....I think that honestly makes the next few things here even more fucked up

First and foremost: “WE”. The second after Stolas asks if Blitz is alright and gets the assurance that he is, he roughly grabs his cheek and points out that “If you get in trouble, I get in trouble! WE don’t want that”. The fact that this is the first time that Stolas ever talks about Blitz in the context of “we”--when really what he’s really saying is that him [Stolas] getting in trouble is going to be a bad thing for all of them--is just.....so, so disappointing. At least with this I could hope that perhaps the idea here is that Stolas is genuinely afraid that if he gets in trouble, he won’t be able to protect Blitz from the undoubtedly much worse trouble that he would be in as an imp, but still. The fact that Stolas immediately reverts back to his self-centered perspective so quickly after supposedly being so worried about Blitz’s wellbeing, really makes it seem as though it’s just his own ass that he’s trying to protect. And that.....isn’t exactly what I’d been expecting from “the episode that confirms Stolitz is canon” feedback I’d been hearing.

"Am I going to get ANY thank you for the rescue Bltizy?” This for me was kind of what actually lead to me having this whole epiphany over Stolas’s selfish perspective in the first place. I realized that even here--even when he’s just been the most “romantic” towards Blitz that he’s ever been in any previous episodes up until now [and yes this shift in his character was incredibly jarring for me because of that]--Stolas still goes right back to thinking about what he’s going to get out of this now that he knows Blitz is safe. Let’s take this back to that thing I was saying about Episode 2 and comparing how Stolas rescued Octavia and how he rescues Blitz. Obviously they’re going to be different because it’s Stolas’s daughter vs his hook up BUT just think about where the focus is for Stolas in both of these scenes. With Octavia, Stolas is entirely focused on making things up to her--taking her to do something she wants to do--even if it’s something that he himself doesn’t fully understand or isn’t fully into. That doesn’t matter though, because the entire point is that he’s doing something just for her. It doesn’t have to be about him. But now go back to the scene where Stolas is carrying Blitz out of the room. What does he do? Ask what Blitz is going to do for him. That just takes the idea that this scene was a confirmation of their love and throws it right out the window. Stolas--as we’ve been shown before--would never ask for something in return from someone that he actually loves.

Now let’s take a look at the one and only episode we have of Striker and Blitz interacting together, with an honorary shout out at hallucination!Striker’s appearance in Episode 6:

Episode 5:

Striker knows Blitz’s name.....and he uses it. He’s literally the ONLY other character that we’ve seen so far refer to Blitz as “Blitz” instead of “Blitzo” or “Blitzy” by someone who wasn’t a member of I.M.P.. Aka someone who wasn’t a member of Blitz’s family. He shows Blitz respect at that basest level, and only builds on that from there going forward.

Striker first recognizes Blitz for being “the bold imp that started his own killin’ biz”. Not his hotness, not his skills in the Harvest Moon games because at that point he hasn’t seen them yet.....but for his accomplishment in starting up his own successful business down in Hell. He treats it as an accomplishment. With the kind of respect that comes with acknowledging another person for their accomplishments. Right there, within two seconds of meeting him, Striker demonstrates more respect for Blitz than Stolas has yet to do in the entire show.

The Harvest Moon Festival Games. Now this is something I find fascinating to think about from Striker’s perspective in particular. We as the audience are shown pretty early on that Striker has a strong desire to be the one who comes out on top. He likes the idea of being superior and he openly relishes in the praise and attention he gets for being better than everybody else. ....Except Blitz. When they tie in the games, Striker doesn’t seem bothered with sharing the spotlight with him at all. If anything, he--again--respects just how skilled Blitz is in rightfully earning his place beside him on the stage. That, to me, is HUGE. I’m not going to go so far as to say that Striker necessarily sees them as equals because I think that might be going a bit too far for his ego but he does still fully acknowledge that Blitz is in the same general class as him: that is to say, better than most. Worthy of the same kind of acknowledgement and praise that Striker gets. I literally can’t get over just how big of a thing that is for what we’ve been shown of Striker’s character, and I think it’s unfortunately something that’s incredibly easy to miss or gloss over. :(

And now--for what I personally think is the most significant thing of all--we have: “We”. How many times does Striker suggest during that final scene between them that he really wants Blitz to join forces with him as equals? He never demands that Blitz join up with him, he doesn’t threaten him into joining up with him--Striker barely even hurts Blitz at all during their fight scene compared to how he tried to straight up murder Moxxie--and, most of all, Striker continues to acknowledge that Blitz deserves better than his current arrangement with Stolas. And he’s right. But instead of putting it as “I’M right and this is why you should do this”, he always puts his focus on Blitz himself, or the two of them together as a partnership: “You are so above sucking on a a digusting rich pompous Goetia” | “We could be the most dangerous beings in Hell, Blitz” | “You could partner up with me and klll the unkillable--starting with the one that treats you like a plaything”. It’s just--I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put together why Striker appeals so much more to me as a romantic interest for Blitz, but really breaking it down episode by episode and comparing the differences in wording between Striker and Stolas’s dialogue when it comes to Blitz is just.....holy shit.

Honorary ShoutOut of Episode 6:

The fact that the only thing hallucination Striker has to say to him is “But you don’t want to do things alone Blitzo!” is really, really interesting to me in the fact that he’s.....not......wrong?? Like, To be fair, Striker, RoboFizz, and Verosika all spill their harsh truths, but the thing is.....Striker’s is markedly different in that his wording really isn’t harsh or aggressive at all the way the other two are. He’s just kinda stating a fact in an overexaggerated way because tripping balls hallucination sequence. It’s very interesting to me that that’s the worst that Blitz can imagine him to say--as well as the fact that halluci!Striker calls him “Blitzo”, which is really weird considering that Striker’s never called him “Blitzo” once in the entire show. Makes me kinda wonder where that came from tbh.

Alright so, in conclusion of this very long and rambly styie post: I want to take things back to where I started by reiterating that this is not me trying to convince anyone that BlitzStrike is “right” and Stolitz is “wrong”, or that you should stop shipping what you’re shipping in the fandom. This was just me honestly getting way more excited than I should’ve been over having my “Eureka!” moment for realizing why this new episode didn’t put me back on the Stolitz train like it did for so many other people--and why, in fact, it actually made me think even more favorably of the idea of Blitz and Striker being together.

Thanks for sticking around with me for this very long read, I hope you found it interesting, and I really really hope that it didn’t piss anyone off or rub too many people the wrong way. Like I said at the beginning, ship who you want to ship!! That’s part of the fun of being in a fandom. I’m just hoping that this might help make it easier to understand at least one perspective on why Stolitz is seen as being so problematic as a ship [as of where they are right now].

Here’s to seeing where things go from here!!

#vizowritesthoughts #BlitzStrike #Stolitz #Helluva Boss #hahahahaha I've been dreading posting this because I know it's going to lead to shit even though it's all just personal opinion :'D #but since I went to the trouble of writing this entire thing up I figure what the hell #might as well post it now #anti Stolitz

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captnjacksparrow · 3 years

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I honestly agree with a lot of your opinions, and even when I don't, I think that your arguments are always well structure and respectful to other people.

But I have some questions (and I'm sorry if you have already answer them), (also sorry for some of my English, it's not my first language)

How do you feel about narusaku?

How do you feel about people changing certain aspects about Sakura to try to improve her character?

How would you improve Sakura?

How much do you think Sakura being a good character could affect the story?

What was the moment you really started to ship SNS? And what are you favorite moments?

(Sorry if there's ro many questions)

I honestly agree with a lot of your opinions, and even when I don't, I think that your arguments are always well structure and respectful to other people.

Aww!!!! Thank you, Anon. This made my day. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

I will start from my favourite question (The one in the last)

What was the moment you really started to ship SNS?

I never wore any shipping lens, Anon.

Literally, I started to ship SNS only after Episode 478 or Chapter 698. Before that, I always had these doubts in the back of my mind.

'Something seems to be very weird between these guys',

'Why are they behaving differently compared to other friends?',

'Why Sasuke is behaving totally different towards Naruto?',

'Why Sasuke agreed to honour Naruto's promise under the bridge, despite having no shred of affection towards his other former Team Members?',

'Why Naruto is so obsessed with Sasuke?',

'Why Sasuke felt Naruto's chakra in Konoha and bothered by it?',

'Why Sasuke is protecting Naruto like a precious treasure only to end up wanting to kill him?',

'Why Sasuke has this weird obsession that ONLY I CAN KILL NARUTO but not someone else?',

So, I had all these questions piling up one by one inside my mind as the series progressed and I can't simply jump into a conclusion because I don't know what Sasuke was thinking. I hate one-sided ship and I want reciprocation. So, I usually put all these questions on the back burner and started to focus on the story. Damn!!!, The story was equally captivating and emotionally daunting. When Sasuke finally confessed his feelings towards Naruto in Episode 478, I simply couldn't believe myself but ship them. Because, in no world, Friends would behave this way towards each other.

So, to answer your question, it's after Episode 478, I started to ship them. But if you want me to say when exactly I started to doubt their level of friendship??

It's this moment,

Now you may think, 'Yeah, you saw two boys in a close proximity and decided to ship together. It's nothing strange'.

I have to say, Close proximity was the last thing, I felt from this scene. My reason was those heart breaking scenes that happened before which led to this specific moment.

I will make it as short as possible. I'll start with this

God!! I wanted to punch Sasuke so badly when he said this with a deadpan expression. It looks like he was lying just to get power. I thought, 'Sasuke!!! What a lying piece of crap you are!! If you want to kill Naruto, Just do it. Why doing a fake confession? '.

It doesn't help as the fight progressed because Sasuke was really playing football with Naruto and when this happened,

I was shell-shocked because, the Sasuke we saw so far is no more. It even confirmed my thoughts about the fake confession. Which sane person will ram Chidori through his Close Friend's body?.

After many blows were exchanged, I simply wished for one thing. Naruto should win and Sasuke should be stopped no matter what. When the final Rasengan vs Chidori happened, I couldn't understand what was going on inside that power ball. Naruto and Sasuke look at each other with pained expression and we see the younger version of them smiling at each other.

And then finally we see a knocked out Naruto with Sasuke standing and looking at him without any expression and was about to say, 'Naruto.... I' which was interrupted by rain and when Sasuke felt a stinging pain in his arms and falls down on his knees. He coughs up blood and then this iconic scene happens.

That scene conveyed many things

Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto but couldn't.

Sasuke meant what he said. Naruto is his closest friend, it’s not a lie.

Sasuke couldn't severe his ties completely with Naruto.

Sasuke's pain of saying 'Goodbye' is greater than the stinging pain in his arms.

Sasuke deliberately, I repeat deliberately and not accidentally, came close to look at Naruto's face and experiencing something that, we, audience don't know.

So, you see, Anon. The emotional train wreck that led to this scene made me really doubt about their depth of feelings they had towards each other for the first time. That's when I thought, 'Something seems to be very weird between these guys, what is it?'

And what are you favorite (SNS) moments?

There are two moments which shows how Sasuke is playing an emotional battle within himself.

1. Sasuke, Susanoo, Naruto, Minato

This happens right after Sasuke said to Obito, “Not you.... The one who is going to sever the past is....me”.

In this moment, Sasuke can pretty much let Naruto to die, because nobody is trying to kill Naruto. Still, he saved him with a 3 layered protection. The best part is Sasuke acted quicker than Minato, the fastest shinobi, to protect Naruto. Surely Minato wouldn’t want to blow up near his Son, for whom he gave his life once. It’s just that Sasuke is extremely quicker at this moment.

2. For some reason, My Sharingan deactivated on it’s own

If only, Sasuke maintained his Sharingan, he could’ve traced Naruto’s movements and deflected his upper cut and would’ve successfully landed his Chidori through him. But he just couldn’t.

Both these scenes happens in a span of a day but Sasuke’s emotions fluctuates a lot when it comes to killing Naruto, protecting Naruto, can’t kill Naruto.

How much do you think Sakura being a good character could affect the story?

To be Honest Anon, Storywise ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Yes, I agree with her amazing performance in Gaara retrieval Arc where she tagged along with Granny Chiyo and almost killed Sasori.

After that ????

She did nothing in the Sasuke Reunion Arc. It was all about Naruto vs Orochimaru, Yamato’s Wood style jutsu, Sai’s betrayal towards Orochimaru. Geez!!! I liked her attitude in this arc but totally spoiled when she was standing simply like a wooden doll when Sasuke was about to stab Naruto. It was Sai who blocked Sasuke.... I was like, ‘Girl!!!! You said you will save Sasuke for Naruto when he went into 4 tails mode. What happened now??? Why are you not stopping him???’

She was just making Food Pills in the Rasen Shuriken Arc.

She was basically climbing from one tree to another in the Sasuke killing Orochimaru to Sasuke joining Akatsuki Arc. Even Naruto’s role was very minimal in that arc except he met Kabuto, Dead soul of Jiraiya, Itachi, a split second meeting with Sasuke where he got Chidori’ed and fought with Tobi.

She was just a spectator praying for Naruto in the Pain Arc. Yeah, she did healed few people and punched some monsters. But it just doesn’t matter. Even Konohamaru killed a Pain in that arc.

She turned into an Asshole by making a fake confession towards Naruto and decided to kill Sasuke in the Kage Summit Arc. I think, this is where Kishi decided to shit on her mercilessly by making her into someone who was going to hurt both of her team mates mentally and physically. Basically Kishi transformed a clever medical Ninja who can find an antidote in a matter of hours to an asshole who believed Naruto did everything for her and even more of an idiot by planning to kill Sasuke with just a poisoned Kunai. Isn’t she the one who told Kakashi that Sasuke was given forbidden drugs to improve his strength after their Reunion??? Can’t she put 2+2 together to know Sasuke would be immune to poisons because of his days spent with Orochimaru??? Yeah, she did impacted the story. But it was not for her development. Sakura’s foolishness made Naruto and Sasuke to meet each other again and made a promise. So, you see, she was just a tool that pushes the narrative development of other characters, not her own. Her development took a big blow in this arc.

She was non-existent in the Naruto-Killer Bee Training Arc.

She was just healing people and punched some zetsu during Powerful Edo-Tensei Shinobis vs Allied Shinobi forces Arc. I expected her to have a special fight. But Nope. Even Ino, Shikamaru and Choji fought Asuma, Kakuzu and Kinkaku, Ginkaku brothers.

She was non-existent in the Uchiha Madara vs 5 Kages mini arc

She was non-existent in Obito vs Naruto, Kakashi, Might Guy and Killer Bee mini arc.

She was non-existent in the Sasuke & Itachi vs Kabuto mini arc.

She was non-existent in the Edo Tensei’ed Hokages and Team Sasuke arc.

She was punching some Juubi Clones in the Official War Arc which will never make a difference to the story. At the same time, her character was transformed from an Asshole who hurted her teammates to an horny biasshhhh who wants only Sasuke’s D. She summoned Katsuyu and was healing soldiers. But there were an army of Medical Ninjas too. So her absence will not affect the story in a big way. She did Lip to Lip CPR for Naruto though. Again, that would never help Naruto in a major way unless he was helped by Obito by placing Bijuu inside him. Again, Kishi didn’t make her the sole saviour here. Instead, she was used as a medium to facilitate Obito’s transformation from a bad guy to good guy. Kishi made Obito as the Saviour here.

She was useless and was not able to destroy Obito’s rinnegan in the Reincarnation of Indra and Ashura vs Rikkudou Sennin Madara arc.

She was useless in the Kaguya arc. [Sorry, that punch won’t make any difference because Kaguya must be stupid to not use her 360 degree vision to see Sakura from behind. With Naruto and Sasuke has already become a demi god at this point, her clown show is incomparable].

She was useless in the final Naruto vs Sasuke arc.

So, you tell me Anon. Did she make any impact to the story that served as a major twist??

The story revolved around Naruto and Sasuke.

Itachi, Obito, Jiraiya, Madara, Hashirama and other Hokages were the game changers of this story. Meaning, their presence or death will change the story by a huuuuggge margin.

Tsunade, Orochimaru, Team Nagato, Kabuto helped our protagonists in a BIGGGG WAAYYYY.

Akatsuki were just amazing who gave us the sense of thrill as well as fun.

Even Sakura being good will never impact the story because she had no dedicated arc written for her.

But, if she were written as a good character, my viewing experience would have improved in a relaxing way so much so that I don’t have to press my fast forward button whenever she appears and I wouldn’t be writing this post explaining why I hate her.

How would you improve Sakura?

Simple, By writing her similar to Rin Nohara.

No obsession but a simple love towards Sasuke.

No toxicity but caring friendship towards Naruto.

That’s all.

How do you feel about people changing certain aspects about Sakura to try to improve her character?

Well, that means they would qualify as a fanfiction writers, aren’t they??.

Also, this inherently proves that she is a piss poor character and people wants to change certain aspects of her which they find annoying. But it will 100% end up being OOC. And I’m not into reading those OOC stuffs, Anon.

I always believe in accepting what the author has given rather than trying to fix their work. Because the author writes a character deliberately to make the readers feel what he intended in the first place. Kishi could write a redemption for even someone like Orochimaru towards the very end. Like, he literally made him to help Sasuke, not as a human predator, but as a former Master and an admirer. He wrote him to help Tsunade and other Kages. So in the end, Orochimaru was not hated like he was hated in part 1. If he can write something for Orochimaru, why not for Sakura???

You know how I can redeem Sakura in just 3 or 4 panels?

Let me tell you.

After that fake confession, Sakura could talk to Naruto,

“I am very Sorry, Naruto. I know you will never take things in your heart. But still I shouldn’t have used Love as a tool to make you not to do something. I was an Idiot to not realize how badly you want to save Sasuke. It wasn’t just for me. But it was for Sasuke and also for you, as his friend and also for us as Team 7. So, how about we go to Ichiraku, for a nice lunch??”

While confessing Sasuke for the second time,

“It seems you still want to go on to that dark path, isn’t it?. I am not the most powerful ninja in this world and I know I can’t trade blows with you. But still.... if you try to hurt my friend, Naruto and my master, Tsunade. I will fight with all my strength to kill you..... Even though I love you”

I am pretty sure, if Sakura confessed something along these lines, everyone would have admired her and it shows her emotional maturity as a Kunoichi who wants to do something to this world as well as a person who is ready to kill someone she loved in order to protect the people she holds dear.

In chapter 699. Before saying Goodbye to Sasuke,

“I am very Sorry, Sasuke. I never really understood what was going on inside your heart. And, I always forced myself on you because of my selfishness. I really feel bad for those things. I never really became your friend in the first place. How about we say farewell as ‘a good friends’, before your redemption journey??” (Shakes hands.... End of Scene)

How is this???

Is it pleasant to read?? Of course, Yes.

I am pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than 4 or 5 panels. Kishi could’ve easily did something like this. Am pretty sure readers would’ve been satisfied. Her fans too. Even I would’ve forgiven her mistakes.

But Kishi didn’t and I am very sure it’s deliberate. Because, this very same Kishimoto could able to write Konan, Tsunade who acts with so much maturity without whining like a little girl.

Which shows Kishi clearly hates this character and never wanted to redeem her.

So no matter how many people improve this character, it will never be believable.

How do you feel about narusaku?

Naruto always placed Sasuke as his priority, Anon. That’s always the case. So, apart from SNS, if you want me to say whether NaruSaku had any potential?

I would say, yes, NaruSaku had potential. I will not deny it. Naruto had some liking towards Sakura compared to the absolute indifference towards Hinata.

There are some moments Sakura genuinely cried for Naruto without anyone’s influence. I liked it. Say, the scene where she cried on hearing ‘A Jinchuriki without Bijuu will die” and with Yamato she told, “I can only do little things for Naruto”.

These are all coming from her own heart. No one instilled inside her.

[[[ That’s why I will not accept her realization of ‘Annoying, huh? So, this is how Naruto must have felt too. Maybe I should be a little nicer to him next time’ as genuine in Episode 3. Because she realized only after Sasuke roasted her. I want feelings to emerge subconsciously rather than instilled by someone. ]]]

Unlike the asshole Sakura she was in part 1, Sakura started out good in Shippuden. I was surprised with her development in Gaara Retrieval Arc and was not at all annoyed by her presence. (Except when she said she will save Naruto and Sasuke from Itachi.... Grrrrr.... Biashhhhh.... Do you know Itachi’s abilities first of all??? He can crush you like a meatball with his Susanoo)

I started to feel, ‘Wooow!!! She has improved a lot. Great!!!!’.

Even though, she was useless in Rasen Shuriken Arc, She still made an effort to make food pills for Naruto. She even hugged Naruto much to his surprise, before all the villagers and especially before, ahemmm Hinata after defeating Pain.

Despite all of these moments that had happened between them, I could only see them as a pair formed of mutual tragedies rather than mutual attraction, Anon. In their case, Losing Sasuke. I wasn’t 100% sure whether Sakura moved on from Sasuke or not. Because When Sakura was looking for Sasuke with Kakashi’s Tracking dogs, she was still in love with him. So Sakura fluctuates between her obsession with Sasuke and some genuine feelings towards Naruto.

Kage summit Arc is where everything changed and finalized. Sakura was crying like an annoying shit when she heard that Sasuke joined Akatsuki and was wanted by Raikage. This clearly shows her obsession has flared up again and ‘Poof’ all the development she had with Naruto was thrown into drain.

On top of it, the fake confession. Grrrrrr.......

Plus, Naruto officially closed the possibilities of this ship by saying, “Sasuke, I know the Truth of Itachi from a guy named Tobi. I don’t know whether it’s true or not. But whatever you’ve been doing so far (hunting Killer Bee, ruckus in Kage summit conference, trying to kill Sakura, Kakashi).... It’s all understandable”.

If Naruto truly, wholeheartedly, deeply loved Sakura, he wouldn’t have said something like, ‘It’s understandable why you tried to kill Sakura”. He should have beaten Sasuke into a pulp. Or atleast shown some intense anger. Instead, Naruto was talking to Sasuke and making promise by saying ‘We will die together’. It’s like Sakura playing cupid for Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto was okay with someone trying to kill Sakura whereas he was not okay with someone trying to kill Sasuke and even went to the extent of hyperventilating. This is why I feel any other ships are incomparable with SNS.

After that Sakura started to behave rabidly towards Sasuke in the War arc which I can’t help but feel disgusting. So, anything she did for Naruto in the War Arc was overshadowed by her crazy obsession towards Sasuke. That’s why her CPR doesn’t matter, Sakura healing Naruto doesn’t matter. [Naruto has his own regenerative abilities, so whatever she does will not matter much for him]

So, NaruSaku was closed officially by Naruto and Sakura. It couldn’t sail because of the presence of Sasuke.

At the end, I felt like Sakura used Naruto for getting her man back ready for romance rather than a killer mode Sasuke. I couldn’t feel the friendship they once had or any familiarity.

I just hate people who don’t value friendships, anon. Sakura was not even a good friend, first of all. Yeah she had her friendly moments here and there. But, at the end of the series, she was not. A war has just ended, many people lost their lives, her supposed ‘best friend’ Ino lost her father. Why can’t she help her out emotionally? Why can’t she do some fucking good stuffs for this Shinobi world like her other teammates?? Instead, what she did was ‘let’s go and persuade Sasuke-kun to lend me some D by going along with his journey. Because I am so horny’.

It not how you were in the beginning, It’s how you ended up being. She started this series as a worst friend and she ended up as a worst human being for me. How can I ship such a person with Naruto????

#ask #naruto analysis #anti narusaku #anti sakura #sasunaru #sasunarusasu #sns #naruto #sasuke

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nad-zeta · 3 years

Text

Arthur - Drive from hell

Fandom: Ikevamp

Pairings: Arthur x Reader

Genre: Fluffffff

Words: 1600

Warning: Learning to drive.... so yeah

Comments: Eeeeep, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANIIIII! Hope you have the best day! //dances around ❤❤ ❤Sending ya alll the hugs and yummo birthday cake! 😳🥺! 🥺😳❤🌈 @nuttytani

.*:・’ﾟ:｡.*:ﾟ･’ﾟﾟ:。’ .*:・’ﾟ:｡.*:ﾟ･’ﾟﾟ:。’･ﾟ｡.*:・’ﾟ: ｡.*:・’ﾟ:｡.*:ﾟ･’ﾟﾟ:

“You ready, duckling?” Arthur asked, full of beans, climbing from the driver’s seat and doing a light lil ol jogging around the car to open the passenger door for you.

Today was the day! You were now officially legal, and Arthur had taken it upon himself to teach you how to drive. To say you were nervous would be a gross understatement— you had barely, BARELY even passed your learners exam, and now here you were, about to be sat behind the wheel of arguably your greatest challenge yet, a 4x4 Hilux, a beast of a car in its own right.

You had already started regretting your life decisions when Arthur had to give you a hand up to get into the big beast of a car, never mind barely being tall enough to see over the steering wheel.

“Safety first, Luv,” he grinned from the passenger seat, reaching across you to help secure your seatbelt as you acclimated yourself to the change in position. How strange it was to be sitting on the other side, peddles below, massive wheel in front. And not to mention all the switches and buttons— so many little things that you had no idea what they were for or how they worked— and yet all so tempting to press and try out.

You looked over at Arthur, anxiety only growing as you had no idea where to even begin. “Alrighty, let’s get this show on the road,” he clapped his hands together, smiling broadly as he put on a pair of blue polka dot sunglasses.

Truly this man had far too much faith in you.

“Arthur, are you sure about this?” you asked one final time before placing your one foot on the clutch while the other pushed the brake—you know, just in case.

“Of course, what kind of rotten boyfriend would I be if I couldn’t even teach my lovely lady how to drive, now first things first, the safety checklist.”

He held up his gloved hand, counting off all the points to remember when driving, “Number one, make sure the car is in neutral before starting it. Number two, keep your foot on the clutch. Number three, turn the ignition all the way, and once you are ready to rumble, release the handbrake and slowly lift your foot from the clutch as you step on the gas. Got it?”

You nodded, half the instructions going completely over your head— you got this, you got this, you kept repeating to yourself like a mantra.

Your shaky hands reached for the keys, turning them until the car roared to life.

“I did it! I DID IT! Loook Arthur, look! I switched the car on!” you exclaimed, smiling brightly at Arthur, who clapped his hands together in praise.

Next, you slowly release the clutch forgetting all about the petrol and hand brake, causing the car to lurch forward and stall. You let go of a high pitched squeak, eyes going wide and knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel.

Clam as ever, Arthur patted you on the head, “Ah, it’s alright, Luv, see nothing to be afraid of; you simply forgot to step on the gas.”

It appeared as though Arthur had nerves of steel talking you through every instruction, patiently teaching you, and frankly, it wasn’t before long; you actually got the car moving. More than moving even, you were DRIVING!, no jerky movements, just girl vs the open road! Oh, the freedom and sense of independence were exhilarating, even at 20km per hour.

Meanwhile, Arthur was having a very different experience from the passenger seat.

Oh Lord Arthur was thankful he had taken you out to an abandoned field to learn how to drive, even more, grateful that you were driving an off-roader and not Vincent’s old fashioned bright yellow beetle, cause heaven knows death would be knocking otherwise.

Yes, despite his calm facade, he was desperately gripping the fear handle— an appropriate name, really, for what he felt in this moment was truly fear. “B-bird d-don’t you think you should slow down a little,” he stammered out; any chance of composure had been long gone as you drove at top speed (40km/h) across the planes of the field, launching the car into the air as you drove over yet another tiny hill.

“By Thunder, please, I beseech thee if there is a god I promise to live a wholesome life from this point onwards, please just spare meeee- ahhh,” he implored, sunglasses now halfway down his nose, revealing his wide shot eyes.

You drove without a care in the world, thoroughly enjoying the whole experience of driving over the small rolling hills. You rolled your eyes, one hand on the steering wheel, the other one giving Arthur’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Come on, Arthur, don’t be so dramatic, ooooh look another dip, hold on tight,” you quickly announced with a delighted squeal navigating the terrain like a self-proclaimed pro.

The car rattled and jerked,” F-f-f-udge,” Arthur yelled out, hand shooting forward to the glove box to steady himself and prepare for the impact.

“Whoooooohooo! This is great! Who knew driving could be this fun,” you exclaimed full of joy, eyes sparkling as you spotted the next mountain to go up and conquer.

Arthur’s panicked eyes followed your line of sight, and it certainly didn’t take a genius to know what you had planned. “My love, my darling, my heart and soul, for all that is good and holy, please I beg of you, please PLEASE STOP THE CAR”, he pleaded and prayed. It was not his birthday, but hells, he was making a birthday wish on your behalf—the wish to see another day.

You looked over at Arthur once more, and upon seeing the distress crossing his feature, you cut your bundu bashing adventure short. Although realization quickly dawned upon you, spending all this time driving across the mountainside, you had not really mastered the art of coming to a smooth stop. So, you did what any new learner would do when someone demands the vehicle to a standstill. Thrust both your feet forward at the same time and pull at the emergency brake.

Arthur launched forward as the car came to a screeching halt, dust being kicked up and settling around the car— the perfect execution of an emergency stop, you mused.

Heart hammering in his ears, Arthur let go of broken laughter, hands feeling himself in disbelief, “I’m alive? I’M ALIVE! GOD, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE.”

You rolled your eyes, looking over at him, completely unimpressed, “ohhh, come on, it was not that bad? Was it?”

“I think I might just need a change of underwear after that ‘thrilling experience’,” he exaggerated, throwing the car door open and dramatically flopping onto the ground.

Why he was so happy, he almost kissed the ground. He looked at you from his place on the dirt, “I am going to need a stiff drink. Blimey bird, that was nerve-wracking.”

You turned the car off, hopping from your seat and slinking up to Arthur to offer him a hand up, mischief glowing in your eyes, “I mean, but did you die tho?”

With a shake of the head and another thankful chuckle emanating from his chest, he placed his hand in yours, “And who taught you to be this cheeky, honestly Luv.”

Climbing into the driver seat, Arthur adjusted the mirrors and started the car, his usually charming grin once more gracing to his features. “Shall I show you how it is done,” he bragged, full of confidence, happy to be back in control of the mechanic stallion.

He started the car; however, as the saying goes, ‘pride before the fall’, he failed to give enough gas and stalled the vehicle upon pulling away.

‘Shit’, he thought, sparing you a sheepish glance only for you to burst out into full-blown laughter. “You are going to show me what now; perhaps I should be the one to teach you,” you smacked your knee snorting out.

Arthur pouted, a shade of pink coming to rest upon his cheeks in embarrassment. But before he could even answer, an unimpressed grunt could be heard coming from the back seat, “That’s it, both of you out! NOW!”

Two pairs of eyes snapped back to the source of the voice only to lock onto a very, VERY traumatized and unimpressed looking dutch. He stomped out of the car before dragging Arthur from the driver’s seat.

“That is the last time I EVER let either of you near my car,’ he scowled angrily, turning the ignition and putting the car into gear.

“Hmpf can’t believe I fell for the ‘let’s go and get some birthday pancakes’ trick,” he grumbled under his voice, making his way back to the main road.

“Why old goat, that is an excellent idea!” Arthur chimed in from the backseat, starting a chant that would inevitably lead to getting what he wanted.

You joined in, of course, chanting happily with an equally broad smile littered on your face, “birthday pancakes, birthday pancakes, birthday pancakes.”

With a scoff of irritation, Theo was helpless but to go along with the whims of the day; after all, he did love pancakes, and after that traumatizing experience, he would need some sugar to cleanse his soul.

“Hmpf fine, but only because it is this one’s birthday,” he finally barked out with a roll of the eyes, yet an unmissable smirk of excitement making its way onto his lips.

#arthur conan doyle x reader #arthur conan doyle #arthur fanfiction #arthur x reader #ikevam arthur #ikevamp arthur #ikemen vampire arthur #Eeeek happpy birthday tani!

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raviposting · 3 years

Text

Okay so I’ve seen a lot of conflicting responses to Buddie this episode, from it being clear to people that they’re getting together, to thinking the writers have unintentionally messed things up to thinking it’s purely queerbait.

And I get the different responses, I do - tbh I’m somehow in two camps, where I simultaneously believe it’s a slowburn but I also think it’s bait. And those are two very different opinions to have and it got me thinking about why we have these different responses as fans to the possibility of a queer ship (namely two men who would presumably be bi/pan) being canon.

While people talk about how it’s just people wanting two characters to kiss or entitled fans - sure, that’s existent in every fandom, but I think there’s also a very real fear from queer fans who don’t want to get their hopes up and I d on’t love how the conversation has shifted to calling queer fans stupid for having hope, so I kind of wanted to break it down into 3 aspects that I’ve noticed:

How writers portray bi characters and why that makes fans hesitant to have hope

What queerbait actually means as a concept

How much “slowburn” has changed in procedurals

1. How writers portray bi characters

Something I’ve thought about a lot are the bi characters I’ve seen on TV - Darryl (CEG), Sara Lance (Arrow), Lucifer (Lucifer), just to name a few. These are great characters imo and I think you’d have a fun time watching but a thing to note is that all these characters were established as bi within the first season of their respective shows and they all fairly quickly fell into a clear romantic ship as well (with the exception of Sara as she spanned multiple shows). It may have taken time for them to say the word bisexual, but it was still clear these characters were queer fairly quickly on. You could maybe argue that Lucifer was a slowburn, but then (while it does not take away from him being bi/pan so do not use this as an excuse to be shitty about him) it’s a m/f ship which is still not the point of my post, to find a m/m or f/f ship that has that same treatment.

Some writers have done it - like for Valencia in CEG, or Petra in JTV - when they saw that fans read them this way, but trying to find those characters were few and far between, and when I looked at popular queerbait ships (whether or not they actually are queerbait) it’s usually ships where the characters are largely viewed as bisexual. A lot of times this also comes with pushback from both straight and to be frank, other queer fans as well. Straight fans don’t always see the signs that queer fans do, so to them a queer character who hasn’t been explicitly clear from the start comes out of nowhere. And what I’ve seen from certain queer fans are concerns that people aren’t appreciating the canon queer characters in a show - and I think there is a conversation to be had about that, but I don’t think the response should also be about then demanding less representation for people either.

If we go back to 911, people talk a lot about how it has canon queer characters, which it definitely does - Michael, Hen, Josh, Karen, and David are all canonically gay/lesbian and that’s awesome, and we absolutely should talk about fans (white fans in particular) ignoring these characters. It also does not change the fact that none of these characters are bisexual and that is the representation people are looking for. Both of these things are true - these characters are often under appreciated in canon AND people deserve bisexual representation. They don’t contradict each other and to act like one negates the other does a huge disservice.

And even if a character was made bisexual in the canon text we don’t get that slowburn. This may be true for things like Leverage, or LOK, but there’s also a real fact of censorship that affected these shows and the fact that general audiences may not understand the queer text tjat the writers intended. It doesn’t make the writing any less wonderful or the ships any less poignant or beautiful or important, and there’s ofc shows like She Ra that made this more obvious (or the.....mess that was Supernatural that made it. Half true?) but these are still real things that should be acknowledged on why people are so hesitant to call it slowburn - because it’s something most queer fans haven’t SEEN DONE, because m/f ships will get that care for slowburn when it’s done but it’s not done for m/m or f/f ships in that same capacity.

2. What queerbait is

This one’s fun because I don’t think many people understand what it is, but queerbait is very dependent on the intentions of the writers/creators/etc. - which tbh can be hard to gauge, because a genuine intention that ended up not happening or someone baiting fans or someone trying to support all ships and not be rude all have very different intentions but to a fan who only sees bits and pieces of this person on social media, it can be hard to gauge.

Honestly with how much the 4th wall gets broken because of social media now I’d personally say we’ve probably moved into a different definition of queerbait - unintentional vs intentional - because we’re at a point where a show knows what ships are popular and at what level of excitement fans are for it - but that being said, there’s still a clear spectrum of intent. And imo? I don’t think 911 has that intent of queerbait - whether it’s a slowburn or they have a different vision for buddie that I (probably) won’t agree with remains to be seen, but this show usually treats its storylines with care. Are they perfect at it? No, definitely not, I definitely think that they’ve dropped the ball a few times (especially with just how many characters they have lmao), but they also clearly do their storylines with earnest and with genuine care for these characters.

Is 911 getting them together? I want to say yes. I don’t think this was always the plan, just something that they decided along the way, but I also don’t think that changes anything about the ship. A lot of people point to Tim Minear being vague about the ship, or the actors and their interpretations, but 1. We have no idea what they’ve been told about Buddie moving forward and 2. No show runner is going to spoil their show that much. 911 may be keeping quiet because they have a different plan for buddie, sure, but also maybe because they’re still figuring out how exactly they want to do this and/or they want to make this slowburn and don’t want to give it away.

3. Slowburn in procedurals

I feel like this is something that procedurals have started shying away from, but slowburns used to be very common - Bones, Castle, their ships didn’t get together for literal years, but that’s just not something that many shows do nowadays, even for m/f ships. Even things like Deckerstar will have the characters get together after ~3 seasons and explore the relationship onwards, whereas a few years ago, y ou’d pr obably be watching a sh ow and it’d take them 7 seasons to get together. My assumption for this is that shows are afraid of getting canceled, but there’s been a pretty big shift in getting a couple together after say, 6 seasons to now getting them together about halfway through the show. I don’t think either one is bad or good - in good writers’ hands, either can be amazing - but that shift has made it so that a lot of younger fans in particular, I think, don’t fully recognize slowburn when they see it.

911 as a show tends to run pretty fast - it kind of has to with its depth of characters they have - but when they do have slower running storylines they really do make use of that as well. Bobby’s addiction is something that’s always going to be present in his character, May’s suicide attempt was brought up again front and center after 3 seasons, even Chim’s dynamic with the Lees was brought up again and it was reinforced again that they’re his family. There are certain storylines that have to be continuous and aren’t a one and done type of thing, and that includes Buck and Eddie, especially if you want to establish them as queer to a general audience who doesn’t think about these things.

And honestly, despite my fears, I think they are laying groundwork there. We have Buck learning to be more confident in his relationships, we have Eddie ready to date and learning to follow his own heart, we have Buck and Eddie both establishing that Buck is family and will always be there for Christopher. These are pretty big steps to do for a ship and we’ll obviously have to see how the show goes forward but they’ve already insinuated Eddie and Ana are breaking up, I’m sure Taylor and Buck may last a season and be over, but we do have to see what this next season brings. Do I think they’d say this? No, definitely not.

tl;dr:

911 is a show with good viewership, but there’s always a possibility they can’t continue with their season and then their promises would feel like a lie. Or they may still be hammering out the details as this season hasn’t been written. Or they may just simply not want to spoil their show, or they don’t want people criticizing a story before it’s finished, all of these could be reasons. The showrunners, writers, actors, ultimately they owe nothing to us as a fandom to potentially spoil their series, or do something, change it or their schedule for it, and get accused of bait.

But it also doesn’t change why fans are wary of this storyline either, and I wish people would have more nuance and compassion for fans who are worried about queerbait (whether they think it’s not queerbait and dislike people worrying about it or if they do and are calling people idiots for believing it). There’s a lot of reasons why fans are wary and don’t want to have hope, and it’s not necessarily about 911 specifically as it is a pattern of writing seen in other pieces that have fans worried. These things can all coexist and I wish we as fandom in general could acknowledge that, because pretending that they don’t and criticizing each other/people’s intentions or knowledge when they have certain expectations also doesn’t do much to help.

#warning this is long so if you read this bless you #but also i wrote this forever so maybe give a read?#it gets into buddie more specifically at the end so bear with me lmao #buddie #911 fox #fandom #queerbait #janie overthinks media #buddie meta #911 on fox

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kaypeace21 · 4 years

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People seem to misinterpret what I’ve said in the past about mike “projecting his feelings for Will” on to El. So I’ll clarify.

When I say mike is “projecting his romantic feelings” for Will on to el. That doesn’t mean mike doesn’t care about El (at all) as a friend. Or sees El as Will (that’s not even how projection works -or what I’ve said). Although Mike isn’t perfect, he’s naturally empathetic and grateful for all El has done to help him and his friends. And he does see Will & El as 2 different people- despite the romantic projection. And unlike Will, he sees El in a more familial way- rather than romantic (despite him trying to force it to be romantic) .More on that later.Heck, Mike has already incorrectly projected his NON-ROMANTIC emotions on to 3 other characters other than El (it’s a pattern of his to project his feelings about one person on to another)- which yes I’ll also discuss.

I guess I have to specify what projection is -like i’ve already inferred in prior posts .There’s a difference between projecting “feelings” you have for one person on to another VS thinking those 2 people are literally the same person with no differences between those 2 people/or not acknowledging the unique personal relationships you have with both. This misconception is used as a popular counter-argument/strawman argument -rather than just debating the points i’ve made) . Ex) It’s like if you’re anger at your boss- but you can’t yell at them so you (subconscious or otherwise) are (unfairly) angry/irritable to your romantic partner later. It doesn’t mean you literally think your romantic partner and boss are 1 in the same - or there is no distinction between those 2 relationships. The same goes for how Mike views El and Will, despite “projecting” his “romantic feelings for Will” on to El (although Mike does so poorly).

Mike most likely projects his romantic feelings for Will on to El

In s3) he kisses El with a drawing of Will behind her head -that he can look at as he kisses her ... that should be an obvious hint he’s projecting (subconscious or otherwise) .

That’s Will -light brown hair/bowl cut, has fire powers like ‘Will the wise’.There’s also the fact that multiple characters in s1 mistook El for a boy (specifically Will) . Benny saying to El, “trying to steal from me boy?” Another man at Benny’s place mistook her for Will and said she could be “the byers boy... same height”. Hopper tracked El for most of s1 thinking it was Will. Homophobic Troy who harassed mike / talked about Will being gay said about El “ her head’s shaved she doesn’t even look like a girl”, officer callahan said “what’s Will doing with a shaved head?” The writers of ST are trying to tell you to pay attention to the fact el had a “ boyish /Will-like” appearance (and despite this- Mike was supposedly into her in s1). Then we had s2 byler parallel s3 mileven to show him fail to project his romantic feelings of Will on to el: Crazy together vs blank makes you crazy, , shed scenes: most important thing vs it was the best thing, Will & El calling for mike in the upsidedown (and mike coming for Will only), “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet” vs “welcome to my world”, Will having pics of Mike smiling on Halloween looking at him vs El having a pic of Mike glaring on Halloween, mileven paralleled to luke/leia & byler to king tristan/Han, byler paralleled to Venkman/Dana a ghost busters couple vs El just being a ghost and mike a ghost hunter, the s3 fight vs breakup and the various contrasts between all 3 (showing Will upset and El happy - and mike caring more about resolving his fight with Will than El- and never apologizing to El for lying ). I went into more detail here about the parallels between mileven/byer, mileven,stancy,Karen/ted , etc here.

And when he tells El “I can’t lose you again” It’s supposed to be ambiguous-cause Mileven like stobin is a straight bait. The fact is 2 prior times in season 2 (when mike was in the center of the group) he sadly watches Will as Will gets in a car and drives away.

Hinting to the viewer he’s actually thinking and worrying about losing Will (that 3rd time in s2 when he’s talking to El and seeing the cars with El/ Will drive away) . He once again is in the center of the group like the prior 2 scenes. And he already lost Will before and Will (like el) also had a fake d*ath. So yeah...we hear mike tell el that line and mike watches both El and Will leave in cars (and starts to cry) since mike knows that Will (unlike superpowered El) may d*e from his possession and he may never see him again. And it’s not like he can tell Will that line when he’s unconscious/possessed (especially in front of his friends) .

Just like in s2, when mike watches El and Will drive away .... he does so again in s3. And it’s similarly ‘ambiguous’, on who he’s upset seeing drive away. But, Mike turns to looks at the byers house, and tries to catchup with his friends (which has identically framing to an earlier scene in s3 of Will sadly turning to look at mike leave with El and then turning back to rush and catchup with the gang). Will turned around cause of Mike (not El) just like Mike turned around thinking of Will (not El). Just like s2,s3 uses earlier scenes in that particular season to give us hints about who he’s actually sad about driving away .

And in that moving away montage - it only pans to mike and Will .

And has Mike hug his mom in the same way he did in s1. Both represent moments representing him ‘losing Will’ (through his fake d*ath/moving away). Mike both times storms into the house and Karen rushes to him nervous and unsure why he’s upset , but goes into hug him when mike reaches for her (needing comfort). Unlike the mileven hug that’s outside and he doesn’t reach for her at all- she hugged him because she was worried (was he upset -sure but it’s not a parallel to the s3 hug). And they played “we can be heroes” for both hugs - cause both times mike lost Will.

And that s2 car scene where he talked to El (just like the prior s2 car scenes) was indicative of his fear of losing Will (not El). Which happened at the end of s3. It all ties together. Cause again , he was thinking of Will!

They even had several movies on the st list (altered states / children of paradise) have this concept of projecting romantic feelings of someone they’re in love with on to someone else. Altered states -has a guy just like Will hallucinate flashing to another dimension . People say about him and his wife “he’s crazy and she’s crazy about him”. And when they weren’t together she says she had to pretend everyone she dated was him (but that it only made her feel worse cause it wasn’t him) .And she says about doing so “’it’s crazy”. And her friend says “i think that’s how it’s supposed to be.” CAN THEY GET MORE CLEAR with the projection?

Heck, even El projects on to Mike. While mileven is separated between s1-2 she watches the soap opera (’all my children’) and pretends to be Erica kane (who in the episode El was watching) got into a rushed elopement to MIKE ROY (who was a writer).Aka she projected romance from soap operas/her possible crush of MIKE roy onto MIKE wheeler.And Erica/Mike weren’t endgame- even had a lot of st*liking after the break up (similar to El’s spying)

Mileven and Byler are very different- much to Mike’s annoyance. And Mike projects this anger of not being able to love El romantically on to Max,Will, & Hopper.

Mileven and byler are very different even if mike wishes he had romantic feelings for El (like he does for Will). Mileven is paralleled to hopper/el cause mike truly sees her in a familial way- both teach her the definitions of compromise vs promise (and make promises to her), say to eat “real food” and not eggos, keep her hidden away and safe. Both say her new look is “cool” and El in response to both says it’s “bitchin” and both say back “yeah bitchin”. Both claim someone is “corrupting” El (when trying to dictate her romantic decisions ) and Joyce/Max tell both guys they don’t respect El’s ability to make her own “decisions”. And El says to both of them “you lie” while Max says El should figure out what she likes and not simply listen to Hopper and Mike. Also similar to what she does with kali /Max (a sister/friend) El copies expressions from all 4 of them ( bitchin, i make my own rules , not stupid, mouth breather/friends don’t lie). Mileven is also paralleled to Luke/leia, and multiple people say El is like a “sister “ (lucas) and “cousin” (dustin) in s1. Even El asks before he first kisses her if Mike will he be “like (her) bother.”

In s2, Max (with the gang at Will’s house) asks how mike can still trust Will despite being possessed and in s3 max (with the gang at El’s house) calls out mike for not trusting El. “El has saved the world twice. And Mike still doesn’t trust her!”And instead of Mike admitting that truth -that he doesn’t trust El who he doesn’t know well (who spied on him) he projects all the blame/distrust wrongly on to max saying “you want to talk about trust ?REALLY?! After YOU made eleven spy on us!” And when max says it was el’s idea he yells exasperated into Max’s face “guess girlfriends don’t lie they spy!” He shows he’s aggravated with the fact El is so against lying but had no qualms with spying. But only yells at Max (not El) and he even tries (incorrectly) claiming Max is “corrupting” El and making her do things she didn’t want to do . Cause he’s still in denial and wants to fall in love with El- and doesn’t want to see any of El’s flaws that would make it harder to do so ( so he just projects that anger on to max instead).

And we know during the byler fight: Will calls El “stupid” but he was just projecting his own feelings about himself on to EL-since right after this he calls himself “stupid” 4x. So it’s likely when Mike yells back “El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” Like Will, It’s AGAIN Mike PROJECTING his insecurities about himself (aka not liking girls) and his relationship issues with El - on to Will. Rather than an actual statement on Will’s se*uality. Sort of like Mike lashing out and projecting his anger about his failing romantic relationship with El on to Max .

The simple fact is el is mike’s safe option (she physically resembles Will but is a girl and thus he’s allowed to be attracted to her- in conservative 80s America). However, we see the more El develops into her own person and differs from Will in personality (plus , the fact puberty is making the distinction between genders more apparent) the harder it is for Mike to fool himself and project.The writers in s3 make a telemarketing joke just to have mike say “el, no, not interested” (aka his true feelings).Mileven in s3 was called “b*llshit” like stancy (which have multiple parallels and weren’t in love ). And nancy admitted to Jonathan (a byers ) she wanted to be with him the whole time. But ,despite that, got back with Steve (and continued to kiss Steve all the time, and even lied saying she loved Steve for an entire year) essentially mileven. Karen /ted also is paralleled to Stancy & mileven- who were “never in love” . Then , Max says friends don’t lie but “boyfriends (mike) LIE all the time” (aka he’s lying about his romantic feelings), and when lucas asks WHY he lied to el -it pans to Will (the real reason he lies to El about his feelings for her). When El asks “why do you lie” (he just is silent and stares up guilty). Lucas says about mileven (right before Dustin says they’re “bullsh*t” that “they’re lying”.And when he tries confessing to El, he never apologizes for lying and just used the similar ‘crazy’ line he used on Will (in s2). Cause if he actually stopped lying - he couldn’t continue to use her as a beard and date her/try and get back together. Plus he also fought with Hopper in s2 (’about El’) in WILL’S ROOM . He wasn’t actually calling Hopper the liar he was PROJECTING and calling himself “a stupid disgusting liar”out of self hate . That scene was foreshadowing his lying to El in s3 (about his feelings for her). He blamed Hopper for his feelings for Will cause he told himself it wouldn’t have escalated if El had been around to ‘fix him’ . “I BLAME YOU! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK. YOU STUPID DISGUSTING liar, liar, liar, liar”.starts crying. And then it zooms to Mike’s crying face and pans to El (who he would lie to constantly the next season).

I also discussed in detail here how the bathroom stobin confession paralleled the mileven grocery confession- and again 1 in each of the couplets is gay. Heck, the “first i love you” plays only 2x in s3: when steve confesses to gay-robin and when el confessed to mike and kisses him and Mike doesn’t kiss back or say he loves her back. When she kisses Mike- it’s in WILL’S ROOM room AGAIN, Will’s old teddybear between them, as they kiss in front of Will open closet door) . in s2ep1 the lyrics are “just a little more time can open closing doors” (as Mike kisses El and it pans over the ‘Will the wise’ drawing & a rainbow-heart-Mike drawing, that blend together). But , In the same ep- when Will says he won’t fall in love the lyrics are “love that is new to you, you open up the door.” Later in the song it even mentions the “wheeler house”. So yes- after “a little more time” (3 months) mike and El kiss once again like ep 1- but it’s in front of Will’s open door and Mike is not feeling it- and it shows what is going to begin in s4 (byler). That after some time- despite the byler-doors appearing to ‘close’ they open up again after the mileven breakup/mike realizing the depth of his feelings and the fact he can’t ‘fix himself’ and be straight.El saying she loved him- and him not feeling any different after... was probably the catalyst for that realization.

Before this, we saw him project “his feelings” for Will on to El in romantic situations. But, he refused to integrate her into his friend group like his straight friends did with their gfs-unlike lucas with max, or how dustin tried to do so with Susie) . Cause he’s unfairly used El as a beard and wanted to compartmentalizes his friends and romance as much as possible (since faking it all the time not only with El-but with his friends would be exhausting).

Does he care about El- sure in his own flawed way. But, sorry (in my opinion) to act like mike” loves Will and El equally “ is kind of ludicrous . His actions show the opposite. And he’s only known El for 9 months as opposed to knowing Will for 9 years. And he’s known all of his other guy friends and the Byers much longer. What do they have in common?Are they friends ? Sure... technically but “friends don’t lie”. And mike has done plenty of that to her - so until they sort that out- and are honest to eachother- they can’t really have a strong foundation of friendship in my opinion. It’ll only improve once they start being honest and respect each other’s autonomy (aka stop dating and actually establish a friendship... and stop lying /spying on eachother). At the moment- Mike stunts El’s character growth and tries isolating her from the outside world, doesn’t respect her autonomy/ability to make decisions, doesn’t trust her in general, lies to her, and treats her like he’s her overly controlling dad. The relationship isn’t balanced or healthy (like byler or Mike and his other peers). In s1 he called her “a weapon” they could use to save Will (a lesson he appears to have learned from).But Max has to yell at Mike in s3 “she’s not yours! she’s her own person-fully capable of making her own decisions!” And EL says Mike treats her like “a pet” and “garbage”. So yeah... I don’t get people being ‘offended’ by me pointing out the romantic projection he does- and saying it supposedly ‘destroys’ the ‘beautiful relationship/friendship’ they have. Before I can consider mileven a “beautiful/loving friendship’: Mike needs to stop projecting and seeing El as a perfect beard to ‘fix him’- AND see El as her own person and NOT someone he needs to ‘take care of’ (cause he wrongly infantilizes her) . I think the 2 will eventually become good friends- and Mike will see he was wrong. But they’re not there yet- in my opinion.

#byler #byeler #anti mileven

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utilitycaster · 4 years

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@geekwiththeglasses sorry to turn what was probably a comment you were just making very normally on my post on why I like Beau’s arc as is into a wholly unasked for diatribe on my Grand Unified Theory of Fandom Discourse but I saw the comment during some downtime at work and had thoughts and also a long drive home during which they could percolate. Feel free to ignore because it’s long and only sort of responds what you’re saying, but I wanted to post it and credit you for sparking that thought.

(also just for anyone else reading this is under a cut because it’s very long, but also, spoilers for both CR campaigns).

Anyway, put simply: People like what they like, they don’t like what they don’t like, and will come up with rationalizations for why they are correct in liking or disliking something that they already liked or disliked for much more basic reasons. I fully include myself as guilty of this but anyway we’re all dealing with a different internal ruleset for what is “correct” to like, disagreement is inevitable, and that’s okay.

So: I like Fjord. I like paladins. I like vengeance plots. I like boats, which is a thing I did not realize was a thing I liked in rpgs until I looked at characters I was really enjoying and was like hmm whole lot of sailors in here. I like charisma casters and swords and the trope of What You Are In The Dark and people realizing they’re way in over their head and having to do the hard work to get out of it. So like, this is in general a plot that is going to appeal to me, and I have biases in that direction.

With that said I don’t see how it’s not integrated into the overall plot? To be fair this reminds me of a lot of things I’ve said, about how CR has always been a character game vs. TAZ which was much more clearly a story one. Actual play, especially with a fairly open world and especially truly live/unedited actual play, ends up having to be a character game by default because you’ve deliberately introduced a random element that you cannot cover up; you’re going to get unexpected deaths and victories that don’t totally seem earned. Which is something I think is a feature, not a bug; if I wanted something to fit a particular narrative there’s countless movies and books and TV shows that will do that.

But back to the idea of plot: The Mighty Nein is a group of seven people and they all have things going on; in Fjord’s story, this is the normal narrative: make a deal with an unknown being in a desperate moment, slowly learn about this being, eventually learn just how high the price is, reconsider, get punished, reject that being, find a new path, the being you betrayed is now your mortal enemy and will continue to be so until it gets what it wants or you kill it. This is a very straightforward redemption arc. It’s just that Fjord isn’t alone, and those encounters with the enemy he betrayed happen to occur while all of the group is on a boat going somewhere else.

The thing it’s this is how the vast majority of arcs are. In the middle of chasing down Yasha and the Angel of Irons cult the party went into an extraplanar space (from an item that popped up randomly thanks to a stowaway that happened in the middle of the pirate arc) to save Yussa, with absolutely no knowledge that said action would end up tying back into the Angel of Irons. And even then, there were clear points within that space where Caleb and Veth’s stories were the ones being served, rather than the party’s search for the Angel of Irons.

When do we decide something is integrated or not? Vax had his promise to the Raven Queen and the subsequent story of that interrupt the Chroma Conclave; while Vax is a fictional person I bet Vax would consider it a disruption. We split long-running actual play games into arcs, because it’s hard to refer to things otherwise, but life and stories are rarely just a series of tasks we complete and learn from and then are finished with, and “integrated” ends up meaning less “does it make sense from what has happened already, even if it’s not narratively pat” and more “is it what the viewer wants”, (ie, is it narratively pat).

I would also argue that Percy’s arc wasn’t any more or less integrated into the plot than anyone else’s. It was self-contained, because the story it was telling was about specific people who corrupted a specific space, (we can say the same about the Travelercon arc being about specific people in a specific space) but even then it wasn’t really. Ripley popped up when the party was chasing down leads for a vestige in Ank’Harel, and the Briarwoods ended up resurfacing for the final arc with Vecna. I mean, Percy himself told Vox Machina prior to everything going down they didn’t need to get involved! It’s not like the Chroma Conclave, when dragons attacked the party’s home! It was a choice! The party could have said “you know what? We’ll deal with the Briarwoods in Emon, but we’re not going to Whitestone.” But of course they didn’t, because what is D&D if not a story about found family, and what is a found family if you’re not part of each others’ stories?

Anyway the point is no one needs to have a logical reason why they’re frustrated by one character’s arc, or wish they had more content about another character, or like or don’t like certain characters/ships/plotlines, and honestly I find a lot of reasons people come up with involve twisting canon (the ruleset for ‘correct’ I tend to use) or cherrypicking or even just having wildly different interpretations of material to make that choice somehow justified when you are allowed to just...have preferences. Like people are allowed to just be tired of Fjord because it’s not what they want to watch right now, and that’s fine! I don’t agree, but I don’t think they’re wrong for having different preferences!

It also means that if someone comes into my inbox and gives a reason for why their dislike is valid and I don’t find the reason valid within canon, I’m going to dispute it because I’m generally argumentative and contrarian and pedantic and so on, but none of this changes the fact that they’re still allowed to dislike the thing and my opinion ultimately doesn’t matter.

#long post #i feel like this is the wordier and way stupider version of brennan lee mulligan's line about politics #like people come up with rationalizations after the fact for their impulses most of the time #that is it #critical role #critical role spoilers #vox machina spoilers #let me know if you need any other tags for this lumbering beast of a post #also this is a stealth vex'ahlia stan post

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fauzhee10069 · 4 years

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Caato’s potential role towards the end of JoJolion

Caato, Kyo Kei and Karera, the three women who are often missed by readers to have a role (once) again in JoJolion. Readers were also often used to joke that Araki forgot about them (hence “Araki forgot” lol).

However, in recent chapter (102), Holy’s daughter Kei makes her appearance once again. We'll see her in action soon at this climactic arc of “Wonder of You”.

This proves that Araki has not forgotten Nijimura Kei, the daughter of Holy Joestar.

This also makes readers (especially Caato’s fans) hope that Caato will also reappear and have a role.

Will Caato appear again?

I actually like Caato character as she looks promising and hoped that she would have an important role to play. However, the bad 'hypes' that keep emerging regarding this phenomenal character and how she is totally overrated eventually makes me uneasy with her ‘coming back’.

I'm just worried, her absence alone has led to wild theories about her and her fans are still pretty loud, what if she appears even just in a single panel?

At this point, I am increasingly convinced that Caato will not be 'the main villain' or 'true mastermind'. Tooru's appearances keep solidifying him as 'the big villain'. Tooru’s character continues to be developed, while the build-up for Caato as the 'big player' or 'hidden villain' remains nil.

Then, what role could Caato have?

Let’s forget that she is 'the mastermind', forget that she is connected to Damokan Group, forget that she is a rock-human, let’s throw away those crazy unproven theories for a moment!

Let's see Caato's actual role in JoJolion:

She is the divorced-wife of Norisuke IV, mother of Jobin (and his three other children).

She has been incarcerated for 15 years for 'murder'.

The real reason for ‘the murder’ was that she cured her son Jobin from hereditary rock-disease at the expense of another child's life using equivalent exchange on Higashikata's land.

She is 52 years old and no one thinks about her ‘supposed’ youthful look.

After her last appearance in the Blue Hawaii arc, so many things have happened.

The Higashikata family and Josuke's side have faced off against a bigger organization other than Damokan Group, The Head Doctor gang.

There was the struggle for The New Locacaca between factions of Josuke, Jobin, Ojiro and The HD gang.

The race of The New Locacaca and ‘Wonder of You’ arc have taken a lot of casualties, and among of them is Jobin's 'death'!

In order to estimate the role of certain character, it is very important to consider the relationship of that character with other characters.

How is Caato's relationship with the other characters?

She is not close to her family, she doesn't know Josuke's side (including Holy’s family), there is zero interaction between her and the rock-humans.

The only person remains close to her is Jobin, her eldest son. We don't even know about her relationship with her grandson Tsurugi (and I guess they are quite unfamiliar with each other). Tsurugi likely heard about Caato from Jobin.

I don't think getting jailed for 15 years will allow you to interact and experience much.

Therefore, the only way for Caato to get a role is through Jobin (anything related to her dearest son).

But what we know now is: that Jobin is dead!

Then with the death of Jobin, would not Caato's potential new role become vain?

I don't really think so, There are still many readers (including me) who wish that Jobin will ‘somehow’ survive as in surprise, a plot twist similar to The World!Diego in part 7 as the final boss.

Many readers are dismayed by Jobin's death, given how much the readers loved this antagonist. Jobin is a more familiar character than Tooru and Caato, readers enjoy his character arc, development, personality, flaws, and his rivalry with Josuke.

With the hope that Jobin will return as the 'final boss', there is also hope that Caato will have a role in this.

My theory on this is that Caato will 'revive' Jobin.

The question is whether Caato will sacrifice someone else again (and becomes Yoshihiro of part 8) or will we be faced with Caato's regret that she will make the 'right sacrifice'?

The first option is simpler, after Caato sacrifices someone else to ‘revive’ Jobin, she will assist Jobin to deal with Josuke's side. A battle similar to the final fight in part 4 with Josuke- Yasuho vs Jobin- Caato), perhaps we will be able to witness the ability of Caato's Stand further (and hopefully it’ll be named too).

Caato’s final sacrifice

The second option is for Caato to sacrifice her own life for Jobin, this one I have a feeling that Caato’s fanatic fans will be fiercely against this.

It's a shame, because thematically, this option has a potential to be deeper and more touching… a beautiful irony.

Because Caato in the past was selfish enough to sacrifice someone else to save Jobin, in the name of mother's love, she even emphasized that she never regretted her action.

Even though she had to sacrifice her lifetime during her 15 years in prison, Caato has insisted that she is not wrong and has no regrets. Why could she say that? Because in the end Jobin lives, grows up free from the rock-disease (and have his own family). That was Caato's main purpose behind the 'murder' incident.

She loves her son dearly, from where do you think she's just taking advantage of him, Caatofags?

But then, what is the purpose of Caato's sacrifice in the past if in the end her beloved son eventually dies?

Now she has to see her child she ever saved in a gravely condition, once again. It could be at this point that Caato reflects of what she had been done in the past in saving Jobin’s life is wrong, perhaps she will think of this as a karma/God’s punishment and finally decide to sacrifice her own life.

Whatever it is, Caato has a chance to reappear. It should also be noted that she (might) has the same advantage as Kei: that they are outside of the ‘calamity’ thanks for being MIA - not really though (chapter 104 spoiler).

The thing is… will Jobin really 'come back to life' and become 'the final boss'? Would Araki intend to do that?

Because even though many people think that Jobin's death is similar to Hot Pants (who is out-of-sudden being wasted), Jobin still gets his 'proper farewell' before he 'dies'.

His death still looks more planned than Hot Pants’.

Read also: the cacophony of the main villains in JoJolion.

#jojolion spoilers #kaato higashikata #jobin higashikata #jjba part 8 #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre prediction #my thoughts #caato #nijimura kei

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shaineybainey · 4 years

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“Noble Intentions”

Lab Rats [T]

The Lab Rats and Mighty Med teams face off with the greatest threat to humanity yet: The Incapacitator, a supervillain bent on becoming the most powerful in the planet. …Which makes things super awkward for Leo, considering that their newest nemesis is his father. AU. Lab Rats vs Mighty Med redux.

** DISCLAIMER: SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMER **

tagging: @vcnting @clockradio93 @breanadaveport-mendel @lettersandwhiteroses @serpent-princess @verified-dumbass @weareoutofmaplesyrupdave @aaaaahhhhh1234

IV: Disaster Med

Kaz flinches when Chase’s laser bo staff slams against Gray Granite’s staff. The superheroes are currently locked on a heated battle against the bionic trio, and while he knows this could result into someone getting hurt, he doesn’t feel inclined to clear out the misunderstanding that started it.

“We should tell them, Kaz,” Oliver says worriedly as they watch behind a pillar. “What if someone gets hurt?”

Leave it to his best friend to know exactly what he’s thinking of not doing. “Dude. Do you—”

They’re both knocked off their feet as Adam’s blast wave missed Tecton and hits their hiding place instead. Stars dance in front of his eyes as his left arm, exposed from the pillar, feels like it had been run over by a truck three times over.

He groans, struggling up to his feet. “You want to get in the middle of that?” he asks Oliver quietly as he pulls him up his feet.

Oliver says nothing, only winces as he retreats even more to safety.

They startle when Gamma Girl crashes against Tecton after Bree tackled her. The two superheroes are left dazed while the bionic teenager uses her free time to help Adam with Gray Granite.

Kaz grins. This is definitely a lot better than going to any comic book store in Amsterdam.

– Ϟ –

Leo knows he’s come just a tad bit too late. Running towards the quarters, he could hear his stepfather screaming as blasts boom at a regular rate inside. When he finally arrives, he sees he’s right: the place is a mess, his stepfather is on the floor looking up in fear at the superpowered trespasser, and The Incapacitator holds close the container bearing the energy transponder.

He frowns. He knows he really should be worried about other, more important things, but - has his father’s suit gotten tighter or is he just imagining things?

Noting his presence, Donald looks his way. “No,” he says fearfully, especially when The Incapacitator looks his way, too. “No. Leo, get out of here!”

Leo doesn’t move. He only stares at the supervillain defiantly. “Incapacitator,” he says neutrally – a greeting of sorts.

“The Incapacitator.”

He almost rolls his eyes. “Are we gonna be hung up on that ‘the’ the whole day, or…?”

The Incapacitator only chuckles.

He’s suddenly reminded of the fact that he lied to him. “Why are you here?” he says as he stares him in the eye.

“Mr. Davenport tells me that the only way to open this box is by getting past this retina scan,” The Incapacitator says. He sits the container on top of the overturned coffee table and grins superciliously. “I can’t decide: should I take an impression of his eye, or should I just take the whole eyeball out?”

“Please don’t.”

“Leo, don’t,” Donald orders, stopping him from coming any closer. “He’s not bionic. You can’t escape this like you escaped Marcus or Krane.”

Leo’s jaw locks then unlocks as he looks at his stepfather then his father. He was able to escape from Marcus due to a series of good opportunities that opened up and some quick thinking.

Krane, he didn’t escape.

The Incapacitator killed him.

He could see from his dad’s eyes that there’s no stopping him. From what he can piece together, he knows the energy transponder is necessary for whatever new plan he has. So, hating himself for what he has to suggest, he asks in resign, “If I open it for you, can you promise not to do any of those things?”

“It depends. Some people, I just can’t stand these days. I don’t know if I can promise.”

I don’t think you know how to promise either, Leo thinks bitterly as he makes a move towards the weapons case.

“No, Leo!” Donald stops him. “We can’t just give it to him. He’s going to drain the whole world of power. He can’t have it!”

Leo hesitates. It’s not his father’s first world domination plan, but it sounds a lot deadlier than the other ones.

The Incapacitator charges up energy in his right hand. “Tick tock,” he softly presses.

Leo glares at him. He said he would never put him in a spot where he had to choose between doing the right thing and making a decision as his son. “I feel like you’re breaking something here,” he says in disappointment.

The grin on The Incapacitator’s face remains, but a small spark of recognition has gone off in his eyes.

However, it doesn’t stay long. An idea comes to mind, and a new, wolfish grin comes up to his face. He constructs a lasso of green energy then throws it.

It wraps around Leo’s torso all too quickly and all too tightly. “What are you doing? Let me go!” he screams, struggling against it as he’s lifted up in the air.

“Please! Stop!” Donald asks, horrified.

“What about it, Mr. Davenport?” the supervillain says. “The energy transponder or the boy?”

“Big D, don’t!”

“I can take energy from other things around me, or I can take energy from him.”

When Donald hesitates, The Incapacitator pulls Leo closer until he’s hovering just above them.

Then Leo feels it, the energy lasso closing in tighter around him. It presses his arms against his body, the growing pressure squeezing out his breath slowly. His heart panics like a spooked bird in a cage.

Doubt suffocates him even more. His father is not going to kill him, right? He loves him, right?

“Okay, okay!” he hears his stepfather yell as dizziness has begun setting in. “I’ll open it. Just – just let go of my son.”

As the restraints eases and the sudden rush of oxygen makes his head swim, he sees an outline of movement towards the container. He’s slowly let down on the ground. Once the scanner emits a beep, the energy lasso vanishes altogether.

His stepfather crawls towards him. “Are you okay?” he asks.

Leo nods.

They watch helplessly as The Incapacitator holds the invention up as a test. Lights flicker and technology crackle all around the quarters as the transponder draws power. It keeps taking, taking, taking – siphoning too much power into the wrong hands.

Once he’s satisfied, The Incapacitator powers off the transponder and smirks at the device.

It’s then that they hear a rush from the hall. Not a moment later, the room fills with the very people Leo both wished he would and would never see. “Don’t move, Incapacitator,” orders Tecton.

“You’re too late, Tecton,” the supervillain says. “I already have what I need to make you and the entire world bow down at my feet.”

He draws a super charge of energy and encases Tecton, Gamma Girl, and Gray Granite within a sphere before they can act. With the powerful superheroes imprisoned, he sends them out through the roof.

Spackle and debris spray around them. As destruction lies all around, Leo realizes that for the second time in his life, he’s truly afraid of the darkness his father holds inside.

“That’s it,” Chase says, furious. “I got us into this mess. I’m going to get us out.”

“No! Chase,” he tells his brother, staggering up to his feet. “He’s too powerful!”

Fueled by a sense of duty, Chase activates the laser bo staff. Then, he comes at the supervillain.

The more experienced of the two, The Incapacitator blocks the attack easily. He overloads the bo staff with energy to anchor Chase in place.

Chase freezes, the surge of electricity locking him to vulnerability.

With this advantage, The Incapacitator charges a deathly blast of energy to finish him.

“No!” Leo screams. When the supervillain looks at him, he shakes his head pleadingly. “Please. Please not my brother.”

The Incapacitator considers it a moment. Then, he sets off an energy blast similar to Adam’s, knocking Chase out and knocking the others off their feet. “Nice doing business with you, Mr. Davenport,” he says, smiling at the inventor.

Donald only glares at him.

It surprises Leo when he grabs him by the arm. As he looks into his eyes - wearing that suit, knowing to what extent he’d go just to get what he wants, and seeing just how little he valued the lives of others, he realizes then that he doesn’t want to be like his father.

He doesn’t want to be a villain.

Before he could shake his hold, though, a surge of energy hits him. It overwhelms his brain for a long, agonizing second.

Then, everything fades to black.

– Ϟ –

“Leo!” Bree screams as The Incapacitator takes her little brother on his shoulder.

“Let him go!” Adam demands.

“You got the transponder already,” Donald says. “Let him go!”

The Incapacitator smirks. “I spared your kid,” he says. “This is only fair.”

“No!”

A neon green cloud swallows the supervillain and the teenager, and in a moment they are gone.

Bree feels as if her heart has fallen into a hole. She’s shaking with nervousness and adrenaline. Prompted by instinct, she staggers to her feet then comes to Chase’s side.

She checks his vitals, hoping for a beat, a breath, anything.

She sighs of relief when she feels a pulse. She tries to wake him, but to no avail. “Chase,” she persists, “you have to wake up.”

“Mr. Davenport…” Adam looks to their father as he sits beside her, the same look of urgency and loss on his face.

“He must have fried his whole infrastructure,” Donald says, rising to his feet. He shakes his head. “I don’t have the equipment here to fix it.”

“Chase…”

“Well, we can’t just let him die,” Adam protests.

“You don’t have to,” Oliver, now back up to his feet like Kaz, says. “Mighty Med. We have the equipment there. It’s a superhero hospital, and Kaz and I are doctors. We can help.”

Donald thinks it over a moment before nodding. “Okay. Adam, Bree, go with them. Make sure that Chase is okay,” he says. Then, to Oliver and Kaz he asks, “Please. Save my son.”

“We will,” Kaz says.

At that moment, Tecton flies into the room. He helps Gray Granite to the ground and asks, “Where’s Incapacitator?”

“Gone. He took the transponder with him,” Oliver reports. “Worse yet, he took their younger brother as hostage.”

“Hiding behind a child, huh?” Gamma Girl asks as she lands beside Gray Granite. The anger hidden under her unaffected expression is searing. “He must be desperate. He’s changed his MO.”

“I don’t like this,” says Tecton. “We need to find that kid.”

“I’ll call my brother and have him assist me,” Donald chimes in. “We can locate him faster if we have two sides searching. For the meantime…”

Oliver nods, taking out the wormhole transporter from his pocket. “We’ll do our best to get Chase back to you in good health.”

Donald nods appreciatively.

“Okay. Kaz? Everyone, hold on,” Oliver instructs.

Bree’s heart races as she holds onto Chase and Adam. They’ve dealt with many nightmares and many near-deaths before, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to them.

What gets to her this time is the uncertainty of where Leo is and what’s going to happen to him. Is he hurt? Will he be okay? Will he be able to come home?

Her chest aches as she realizes that she couldn’t even protect her little brothers.

“Bree.” Adam nods. “It’ll be okay.”

As the five of them vanish into a wormhole, Bree wonders if it really will be.

#fanfiction #Lab Rats #Mighty Med #chapter four #Noble Intentions #Kaz (Mighty Med)#Oliver (Mighty Med)#Tecton #Gamma Girl #Chase Davenport #Adam Davenport #Bree Davenport #Leo Dooley #Donald Davenport #The Incapacitator

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silvysartfulness · 4 years

Note

10, 14, 19, 41, 44!

Ahh, thank you very much for the Ask! :D

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Actually, I haven't really read fanfic in a very, very long time? I do love fanfic, I just haven't been invested enough in any fandom to gather spoons enough to read fiction in a long time. I've mostly lived in my own original storyverse Pangaea for the past three years or so.

I think the last fandom I actually read some fic for was the MCU in the early days of the first Avengers movie? I was relatively into frostiron for a while and helped my wife beta her fics Spiting The Sun and Do Ut Des, as well as reading some other fics I unfortunately can't recall the names of.

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

I love Wei Wuxian's and Wen Qing's dynamic! It's so so so rare to see a male-female friendship that isn't romance coded.

Literal bros with amazing dynamic would be Wei Wuxian and Jiang Chen, because who needs their heart anyway.

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Several, but it's a lot more to do with brain fatigue than aversion to the ships themselves!

I wish I had the energy and focus to read more XiYao, I really do love their chemistry a lot. (I may be on a slippery slope there, we'll see. Maybe I'll point back to this post in another month and laugh hollowly and say ”ahaha, guess I should have seen that obsession coming”. Or not. Who can tell? Not me. I just work here.)

I also... both kind of love and hate SongXiao? Like, I love their dynamic, but there seems to be a very black and white (ba-dum-tsh) view that they're the acceptable pure cinnamon pairing in opposition to the problematic clusterfuck that is XueXiao - and since I'm very much into XueXiao, I daren't look too deeply into SongXiao since there's almost always a very negative vibe regarding Xue Yang and Yi City there. But as two parts of the SongXueXiao disaster that I love, I definitely like them a ton.

SangChen? Is that the shipping name? One of those I can see would be fun, but am just not really feeling it.

To be honest though? I'm a thot for good writing and characterization and if something good enough pops under my nose, I'm very willing to give it a shot, no matter the pairing.

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I'm still very new in this fandom (hard to believe it's only been a bit more than a month since I jumped in!) and with my brain getting easily overworked, I actually haven't read all that much?

But let's see if I can scrape together 5 fics I read or have read!

1. Chopping Block. This has got to be one of my fave (Song?)XueXiao fics. The way the characters are handled is beautiful, and there have been several of those gut-punch ”oh.” moments where the hurt is so, so good. (The ”his hands get cold” scene, man. MAN.)

2. Red Azalea. This is another utterly charming (Song?)XueXiao fic, a delightful capricious post-Yi-City dance that will also deliver the occasional devastating emotional backhand.

3. My Erstwhile Dear. Aka the fic that decisively picked up my heart and rubbed it face-down into XiYao to the point I'm even on that slippery slope to start with. I find myself thinking about this fic a lot. Like. I probably get distracted thinking about it on an almost daily basis, hoping it'll update. The format of written letters delivers the hurt in such an elegant way, you just gasp for breath.

4. Rewritten. Found this because you rec'ed it! One of the very few modern au's on my list (nothing against modern au’s as such, just not my favourite trope, especially for this show) and damn. Hngh. One of the best openly SongXueXiao fics I've read. The character dynamics, the characterization, the whirl of the timeline layout and the background plot slowly creeping into view... Fucking masterpiece.

5. I'm not being creepy, I promise, but pretty much anything you've written for this fandom? Like, that is literally the last thing in my open fic tabs? Picking one single one is super-hard, but This Place Could Be Beautiful is the one I have bookmarked to browse your stuff, it actually had me literally tearing up reading it, and that's a very good thing? Lick Your Exit Wounds is another one I've re-read several times. Exposure Therapy for some good lighthearted fun (which, still, had me literally tearing up at the part where WWX just so quietly and resignedly asks if he's done something wrong, damn you) And tbh? I. Cannot. Wait. for the fucked up SongXue roadtrip. I cannot. Like. Its state of non-existence torments me. Torments me.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

All mine, of course. (insert ”those pairings were mine, those other OTPs were other people's”-joke here.) Seriously, I'd love for more well written, messy SongXueXiao. XueXiao is also very, very good. And since it seems I at least glance in its direction these days, why not, more XiYao.

And honestly? I have the largest soft spot for any interaction between Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang. Whether sexy or just snarking off doesn't matter (doing both is a bonus).

They are such absolute parallels, the sassy street kids who climbed their way up and through convergent evolution became founders and inventors in a whole new area of cultivation. Never really fitting in - but unlike, for example, Jin Guangyao, who lives and breathes propriety and etiquette to get to own be part of that society, they both just give the cultivation world a big middle finger and walk their respective single plank bridges into the dark. If not for their opposite stances when it comes to caring about other people, they could have been something amazing together. (The whole ”I suffered so I will make sure no-one else will” vs ”I suffered so why shouldn't they?” approach in action there.)

I’m very weak for this, okay, and my brain often tells me delightful stories where they just snark endlessly at each other and it’s beautiful.

#untamed artfulness #thank you so much!#i could flail about these disasters all day #veliseraptor

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tentacletherapissed · 5 years

Text

Public Callout: Paradox, Blue, Jay, Bird

This is a public callout post for users Paradox (@rushifaas -- previously @mournins ; @beliisms), Blue (@divinebetrayed ; @halcyonfought), Jay (@loyalbetrayed) and Bird (@soulsbetrayed). They are active in the fandoms Persona, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Danganronpa, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Sentai, Power Rangers, and Kamen Rider.

Never in my 15 years of roleplaying have I met a group of abusers and enablers so toxic, and this post is a PSA so that I can hopefully keep others from falling into their hands. Please blacklist them ALL for your own safety, however, DO NOT ENGAGE THEM WITH HARASSMENT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Keep in mind, Paradox’s actions are so egregious, he is already getting charges pressed against him by two different people he abused so far, and more may be on the horizon. The rest all enable this behavior and defend him despite all that he’s done to harm them and people they previously called friends. While this callout has snapshots of receipts proving our claims sprinkled in at the mention of them, for full transparency, the full comment chains will be uploaded at the end so that context for everything will be supplied, with censoring only provided for those who have nothing to do with the conflict and wish to be left out of it.

Strong trigger warning for mob mentality, mental and emotional manipulation, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, transphobia, pedophilia, ableism, and a lot more. Details under the cut. (7,300+ words, be mindful)

[Gdoc link in case Tumblr’s formatting is unreadable]

OPEN ALL LINKS AS NEW TABS, I’M SORRY TUMBLR SUCKS AT THIS

Note: Paradox claims to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, and claims to have many alters which are sometimes go by the names of Abel, Vic, Nikki, Hebel, Cain, and Ana in some of these screencaps. I will not be arguing the veracity of such claims in this callout, but for simplicity’s sake, I will be referring to everyone in his system solely by the name of “Paradox” since there is a considerable amount of confusion based on who said what and it’s not entirely clear who’s supposed to be talking in a lot of these screenshots. He also claims to have several other mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and BPD, but regardless of anyone’s mental illness, they should treat those around them with respect and kindness, which is why this callout has been made.

________________________________________________________________

MAIN EVENT - Early September 2018 / June 10th

Paradox is the ringleader of this little cult. A few months ago, he was dating my friend Nael (occasionally called Arin, Ciel, Naoya or Hevel in some of these screens). I first got alarmed about the health of their relationship during an incident in early September 2018 where Paradox threatened to commit suicide over a conflict having to do with RPing and prioritizing one blog over one he liked. [September Break Up: Singles] They broke up, but after a lot of guilt tripping from Paradox and others in his group, my friend Nael decided to get back together with him. Even though I had a lot of misgivings about the situation, I told Nael that I respected their decision and wouldn’t pressure them either way. [Scout and Nael: 12, 13]

Months went by, and I didn’t hear much due to specifically asking Nael not to tell me about their significant other and that group of friends, but things were going downhill. There were many more fights over roleplaying and shipping, some of which Blue and Jay expressed concern about privately, especially since it seemed Paradox himself was ignoring his other lover Kieran for Nael. [For Me: 13, 15, 16]

Paradox’s behavior continued worsening until it came to a head in mid March 2019. Blue and Nael were getting invested in an rp campaign I was running on a private server. When Nael showed off a picture they drew portraying their character, Paradox became extremely upset at them. After a solid week of enduring abuse from their lover [Abel Suicide: 1, 2, 6], it eventually culminated in Paradox apparently trying to take his own life after Nael attempted to break off their relationship. [Abel Suicide: 22, 23, 24] Nael was able to contact their mutual partner Kieran (sometimes called Kie or Vampy in screens) so that he could send the police to Paradox’s home and he would be rushed to the hospital. [Nael: 11]

Nael has multiple health issues that include heart disease and problems with their brain, and was so traumatized by the experience, they had to go to the hospital themselves [Nael: 19, 20 ; Before / After Suicide: 43]. Because I was terrified at the possibility of Nael dying from the escalating nature of their toxic relationship, I urged them to go through with the breakup. Nael decided to take my advice and broke up with Paradox and Kieran on a group chat while on a screenshared call with me and another friend who wishes to remain nameless. [Before / After Suicide: 46]

Blue was at first on board for the breakup and supportive of Nael’s decision [Blue Agrees: Singles] but at the persuasion of Jay decided to believe Paradox’s story when he said Nael had misrepresented what he said when he told Nael he would probably drop Blue due to the breakup. [Copy of Group DM: Full] Keep in mind, we have the FULL attempted suicide dropbox [Abel Suicide: Full], and the breakup conversation including Paradox’s abusive behavior before the attempted suicide attempt. [Before/After Suicide: Full] Much of what Paradox says are blatant falsehoods. In addition, Kieran (Vampy) no longer agrees with the things he has said to support Paradox’s argument and says he was pressured to agree with everything, even if it didn’t feel right.

So instead of making it clear to either of us that Blue no longer considered us friends, she instead gave us the silent treatment and leaked what I vented to her in confidence to Paradox behind my back. She only admitted to doing this when I confronted her after finding a vague post Paradox made that used the exact same wording. [Scout vs Blue: 1, 3, 4] I was extra furious with her because Paradox was making it sound as if it was Nael saying those words when in fact they had no idea what I said to her and was highly distraught when they found out about the vague post. Her excuse was that she didn’t think we would find out. [Scout vs Blue: 7, 9]

This is a common theme with their relationship that shows the extent of how complicit Blue is with Paradox’s abusive behavior. Due to her once close relationship with Nael, she often served as the “bait” to bring Nael back, agreeing that the relationship is unhealthy at first [With Blue: 12] only to go back to heaping abuse on Nael for leaving and trying to persuade them to come back [Nael’s Last Conversation with Blue: Full].

By then, Nael had already blocked everyone else in the cult-like group except Blue due to a promise they’d made to her, and she abused this trust right away by pulling Nael into a group chat so that everyone could yell at them. [Scout vs Blue: 10, 11] IF YOU BECOME A PART OF THIS GROUP, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO. If you do anything to provoke Paradox’s ire, you will be subjected to a firing squad full of people yelling at you for whatever you did. You will not have a chance to defend yourself, only grovel for forgiveness until they decide they’re through with you. Nael and other members of the group have been subjected to it many times.

Unfortunately, there are no surviving screencaps of this particular dispute, but I do have the one I was involved with. More on that later.

Eventually Nael left and blocked Blue so that they couldn’t be added back to get yelled at more. For the sake of our RP, we agreed upon a peaceable way to continue the server RP [Scout vs Blue: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16] but Blue eventually exited that too [Scout vs Blue: 17]. During the three or so weeks they were split apart, Paradox vagued continuously about us, copied our behavior and prior ships he had with Nael with others currently in his cult, and sent Nael threatening and unstable messages [“Goodbye, Nael”: Single]. While behind their back, he was privately making light of the situation and even made bets with his stooges about when Nael would return [Betting: Singles].

Here’s where I have to put an important disclaimer: During Nael’s time away from the main cult, we both would snoop on his and Blue’s blogs to see if they had mentioned us. Also, during the period immediately after Blue sold me out to Paradox, I became enraged and sent him a pretty angry message [Scout Loses Their Mind: Single], commented on one of his posts, and indirectly threatened them with my popularity compared to theirs in the community I was in. All of those things were the direct result of piss poor decision making and I apologize for my behavior, because it was simply not right to do, no matter who I thought I was defending. Though the blog snooping continued, I thankfully sent no more harassing messages to anyone from the group once Blue indicated she wanted a clean break from us, and no vaguing messages were made on either of our blogs.

Worse still, I privately speculated if this latest suicide attempt Paradox had gone through was “real” or not, which is totally unacceptable. Though I was just concerned about my friend and worried that this might have been another attempt to manipulate them, all threats of suicide should be treated seriously and the proper authorities contacted, PERIOD, regardless of how “serious” the threat might seem. I definitely agree with Nael’s decision to contact the authorities as it was happening, and I’m relieved to know another life wasn’t tragically lost, no matter what my situation is with Paradox after the fact.

Now, with that out of the way… Eventually, Paradox was able to get through to Nael by convincing them that I had lied about a certain mental disorder he was assumed to have. This is all despite me never having said he didn’t have it as I do NOT have the medical condition described and am NOT a medical professional. Paradox willingly passed medical records through a mutual friend [Consent: Single] that Nael initially found convincing but has recently come to doubt. Note: PLEASE NEVER DO THIS, OBVIOUSLY.

Paradox then convinced Nael to pretend to be my friend for a little longer so that he could lure me into a groupchat under the impression that I was defending him from all his former friends. Here is the entire chat almost in its entirety (a few glitches in captures results in a few repeats and nearly 4 minutes straight of lost content), with screenshots proudly taken by BLUE [Her Discord Drop: Single], who played an instrumental role in helping it happen. While I would encourage everyone to read it in its entirety, please be warned that the amount of abuse I endured is very troubling. [Scout Trap: Full]

Please note that Nael (Hevel), Kieran (Ghostie), and Dave have all come to me and personally apologized to me for their role participating in that group chat and we are friends now. But at the time due to this traumatic experience, my friendship with Nael was officially ended. Even though I was worried sick about them, I knew they couldn’t be saved until they saw Paradox’s abusive behavior for what it was on their own. And of course, after a brief honeymoon period, the abuse started again. (Keep in mind, I wasn’t in contact with Nael or anyone else for most of these, so I’m not as familiar about what happened and when.)

The first sign of trouble started on April 16th, not even two full weeks after I had been "defeated". Once again, it was over RP drama, where Paradox became upset at his two lovers Nael and Kieran for shipping with anyone besides him [Initial Ship Drama: 6], even though he usually continues multishipping on his blog with certain people when he pleases. [With Blue: 2] He complained about this endlessly. [Random Paradox Screen]

He continuously gaslit Kieran for about a week, cycling between saying he was going to leave forever [Initial Ship Drama: 9], telling the Kieran to take care of Nael [Initial Ship Drama: 10, 27], giving conflicting directions [Initial Ship Drama: 22, 38], putting himself down so Kieran would feel compelled to console him [Initial Ship Drama: 30, 41, 58], and asking them not to try to pursue romance with him [Initial Ship Drama: 12, 13, 32, 63], only to flip around and say that the idea of romancing them makes him feel “happy”, so he will [Initial Ship Drama: 45, 46], then become upset when either one of them indicated they might need space to either think or just live life like normal. [Initial Ship Drama: 53] Really, the entire thing has to be seen to be believed. [Initial Ship Drama: Full]

Eventually, Paradox’s behavior got so bad that once again, Blue expressed dissatisfaction with his behavior [With Blue: 4], but apparently it wasn’t enough to dissuade her from luring Nael into yet another trap to be yelled at barely a month later on May 17th. [May 17th: Full]

Confusingly, the reason behind this collective thrashing was that Nael actually overcorrected too much and tried to do more stuff with Paradox, only to be called clingy and possessive when they did. Then, when Paradox told Nael he didn’t want to RP with them anymore, Nael tried to respect his decision and not get involved with group RPs that Paradox was involved with so there would be no pressure either way. This was then held up as an example as to why they were “isolating” themselves from the group. Paradox showed the screencaps to others in the group with very little context to get them riled up and angry at Nael so that they’d be on board to yell at them, again showing his willingness to twist someone’s words to make them a convenient villain, no matter what they do to try to appease him.

Then on May 24th, there was the supposed “death” of the alter “Abel”, (who has since returned yet again). [Paradox: 2] The source of all this drama was that Blue simply mentioned a ship that she was continuing with Nael during a period of time Paradox wasn’t at all receptive to the idea of them interacting. Blue freely admitted to being the source of this conflict in private [With Blue: 21], but had no problem letting Nael take the brunt of the abuse. Once again, she is complicit for enabling actions she knows are wrong and hurtful, judging by the way she expresses concern about them, as long as she’s not the one in the eye of the storm.

Following this conflict, Nael started having serious second thoughts. After getting yelled at yet again about something they didn’t even cause, they had to go to the hospital for a near suicide attempt due to all the stress of being repeatedly attacked by someone they thought they could trust.

After they got out again, they were pulled into a smaller group chat with the newly formed “Paradox” alter as well as Jay, where it was demanded he answer for the wrongful death of an alter that has since returned. Multiple times, Paradox held up the incident from September, (which was over 9 months prior!) as to why Nael was to blame for Blue’s actions this time. [Paradox: 8, 10] Paradox even told Nael, someone who had been in the hospital just a few short hours ago [Paradox: 5], that their “suicide held no meaning to him”. [Paradox: 32] All of this despite the fact that they had talked about the very same ship on May 6th! [Proof Abel Knew: 10 total]

This was also supposed to serve as yet another “My heart is telling me not to get in a relationship with you” conversation -- a breakup convo, and one their third lover, Kieran, hadn’t even initially been invited to. [Paradox: 59] It was mostly just Paradox yelling at Nael with Jay usually only chiming in to agree with or heap praise on Paradox. [Paradox: 67] Several times, Paradox made confusing reversals, at one point musing “another alter might come and love you again” [Paradox: 49] to going back to insisting they could never be together again [Paradox: 70], then accusing Nael of saying they don’t love him [Paradox: 45, 46]. You might remember this erratic pattern from his conversation with Kieran back in April. This is gaslighting in its purest and ugliest form.

Clearly after this, Nael was rattled and eventually decided to leave. Instead of making any sort of formal goodbye, they just decided to delete their old Discord and make a clean break so there was no way they could be dragged into another group chat and yelled at. The group quickly fell into chaos once again. Paradox quickly began pumping out venting vague posts on his personal and RP blogs, sometimes pitying himself over the way Nael had apparently treated him [Single: Singles], and sometimes outright wishing death on them. [Paradox die: Single] Before long, he cracked and started sending desperate messages to Nael directly despite Nael obviously not wanting to talk. [Paradox Desperation: Singles] And when that didn’t work, of course Blue was deployed to try to persuade them to come back. [Last Convo w/ Blue: 22 pages] Luckily Dave warned them beforehand. [Thanks, Dave!: Single]

To try to convince others in the group that Nael was the bad guy and needed to be stopped, Paradox began feeding lies to his followers about bad stuff Nael was apparently doing. Paradox told Dave that Nael had been badmouthing him behind his back. But when Dave went to confront Nael about their behavior, Nael provided proof that was in fact Blue saying bad things about Dave. That’s when Dave decided to leave, too.

More chaos happened within the group. Soon after, Kieran the supposed third in their relationship got tired of Paradox constantly saying how Nael was “the only person he could ever love” as well as the constant torrent of irrational behavior and abuse. [Paradox Flipping Out: Single] So he left, as well. Aside from many, many more aggressive venting and vague posts, nothing much new has happened as far as group dynamics.

So far Paradox has been mostly fixated on Nael’s absence, but without the contributions of everyone who left, this callout wouldn’t be possible, and they should all be commended for their efforts and their courage for coming to me to apologize personally for their part in the abuse I and others have suffered.

As terrible as Paradox’s behavior has been in this retelling of events, mostly centered around Nael’s situation, it’s really only scratching the surface of how toxic this group is. There are many smaller details and other people he’s hurt that couldn’t fit in this brief recap, so here are a few more things you should know about that will hopefully keep you from this toxic group of friends.

First I’ll talk about the accounts of people who used to be in the group and go into detail about all the people who are still backing Paradox up despite everything he’s done.

________________________________________________________________

PARTIES INVOLVED

- Other victims -

Kieran:

While Nael took the lion’s share of the abuse from Paradox, it’s important to remember that he was involved with two different people and treated them both badly. Paradox is an outstanding example of what NOT to do when in a polyamorous relationship.

While there was a brief month long period where everything seemed fine after they started dating on October 23rd, Paradox began heavily playing favorites towards Nael, a pattern that only seemed to get worse over time. Kieran was subjected to long periods of neglect from his lover with Paradox only seeming to remember he existed when he was trying to use Kieran against Nael. Even Blue and Jay noticed this when the relationship was just starting out and rightfully called it out, though only in the safety of a private chat. [For Me: 13, 15, 16]

Several times during their relationship, when Nael would mess up or try to leave, Paradox would say that Nael was “the only person he could love” (he even wrote a diary about it!) [Copy of Journal: 2 pages] and break things off with Kieran as well. Most of the time without even telling him. However whenever he was trying to condemn Nael about something, he would hold up Kieran to say “What you’re doing is hurting US”, often without Kieran’s consent.

Of course, Kieran was still subjected to the same amount of lies, gaslighting, emotional blackmail, and mental instability from Paradox that Nael had to endure, but the fact is that he was also basically used as a weapon against someone he cared about by someone who was supposed to care about them both EQUALLY.

Ruby:

Ruby is someone who’s been fighting a personal battle with Paradox for years, starting with a dispute that happened, of course, because of an argument about a fictional character. For the past year and a half as of writing this (the harassment started Nov 2017, it is currently July 2019), Paradox has been stalking her blogs and harassing her over this perceived slight. He lied about her to all her friends in an attempt to alienate her from the public, and we have a confession from Nael that says not only was Paradox guilty of sending tons of anon hate towards Ruby even after they had each other blocked, he would send other people (Nael included) to send anon hate after her.

I briefly intervened during this dispute on Nael’s behalf in November 2018 because during that time we were both lead to believe that Ruby was targeting both Paradox and Nael. This is despite the fact that the post Paradox was upset about wasn’t even about him and she barely even knew Nael even existed. Thanks to my help, I was able to negotiate a brief ceasefire that lasted a few months up until Nael’s separation from Paradox in March.

The stalking and harassment started up again as soon as I had been branded an enemy, and eventually it got so bad that Ruby was the first (but not the only) one to announce she is going to try to press charges against everyone still remaining in the group. Although we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, and she’s done and said things that were unintentionally hurtful, she has been very receptive to feedback and has made great pains to change for the better. I support Ruby wholeheartedly in her endeavors to make the ones abusing her pay for what they’ve done. If you want to know a little more about her conflict with Paradox from her perspective, visit her page. [Ruby’s page of Receipts: Full]

- Part of Paradox’s group -

Blue:

Out of all the people on this list, Blue is the most disappointing aspect of all this, seeing as I considered her my friend even before Nael came along. We’d been friends for more than a year by the time the March Madness started, meeting somewhere around February 2018. She was the one who introduced me to Nael in the first place, and Nael was so close to her they called each other their long lost siblings.

Unfortunately for all of us, Blue can’t stand up to a bully who insults and abuses her friends, even if she knows what he’s doing is wrong. We have multiple screenshots showing instances where she admits that Paradox is in the wrong or being annoying or excessively guilt tripping others based on trivial matters. However, whenever she’s personally on the hook for getting targeted by the ones she calls her “friends”, she quickly falls into line.

The second Paradox asks her to jump, she asks “How high?” She’s been willingly used as bait to rope Nael back into situations she knows and has even admitted are super unhealthy for them, all because she’s too afraid of being the next one everyone turns on. The only time she shows any semblance of “courage” is when she’s backed up by the rest of the hivemind. She’s too afraid to speak for herself, often parroting what others have already written in a desperate attempt to show external strength and total fealty for her master.

I have to wonder what exactly it is that keeps bringing Blue back to him, even though we have an entire folder showing times where she has come to her own conclusions that Paradox is unhealthy to be around [With Blue: 24 total] and has a penchant for blaming her whenever his relationship with his two lovers ever took a downwards turn. [Paradox blaming Blue: Singles] It’s not my place to speculate, but it’s safe to say that with all the times she’s personally let me, Nael, and others in our group down, there’s no way in hell we’re giving her another chance. She has made her choice to stay with someone she knew to be an abuser and emotional manipulator -- someone who hurt her and her friends -- and she will have to live with that decision.

Bird:

Ruby’s situation with Bird is very much like my situation with Blue, made all the worse by the fact that they were actually dating at the time. Bird purposefully sold Ruby out to Paradox while claiming they weren’t in contact, all the while she was feeding all of Ruby’s words and private thoughts to him. This is a common theme with this group and why you can’t be friends with just one of them if you don’t want to be involved with the cult as a whole.

Eventually she was found out and hasn’t really bothered to hide the fact that she’s on Paradox’s team ever since. We also have screenshots of her calling Nael a brat and useless during conflicts Paradox started, like the shipping drama in September. [Misc Bird Folder: 9 total] [Ruby and Bird’s Breakup: 16 total]

Jay:

Now we get to the biggest sycophant of the entire group, Jay. She’s been the one by his side the longest -- for a whopping 4 years -- and one of his most ardent supporters and biggest enablers. While I didn’t know much about her at first, seeing as she was largely absent from what I affectionately call the “six-person beat down”, she’s an invaluable member of Paradox’s cult and basically functions as his right arm and messenger.

If you have a problem with Paradox and want to talk things over with him, he’ll usually insist upon bringing Jay as an “impartial judge”. Not surprisingly, she usually just ends up agreeing with whatever he says and pushing his narrative, all the while insisting she’s being unbiased. She will lie for him, rope cult members attempting to leave back with excuses for his inexcusable behavior, and always swallows whatever lie he has to say wholeheartedly. If he needs a message from Abel passed on to someone trying to persuade them to come back, she’ll deliver it gladly. But if you need her to send a message to him, she’ll curtly tell you not to have her “fight your battles.”

She tried to send an entire drop box of “evidence” to Dave attempting to prove Nael was manipulative and evidence of the alter “Hebel's” existence. In it, Paradox (or rather, his alter Hebel) admitted to trying to spur Nael to kill themselves so that “Hebel” could apparently take over and get Kieran all to himself. [Potential Manslaughter: Singles] All of this was sent as proof that NAEL was the bad guy BY Jay, which is truly mind boggling and shows how far gone she is with regards to him.

There is a woman in prison the very moment that I’m writing this for spurring her suicidal boyfriend to take his own life [Article], and yet Jay thinks this behavior is okay? And before anyone tries to say that Hebel is “technically” to blame for attempting to push Nael to suicide, this argument hasn’t worked in the courtroom since the 1970s! [Article] IF PARADOX’S ALTER IS A DANGER TO NAEL AND CAN’T BE CONTROLLED, PARADOX HIMSELF IS ALSO DANGEROUS. PERIOD.

This isn’t even mentioning the multiple times she’s seen Paradox himself or his other various "good" alters (everyone in the group has seen, in fact) tell Nael outright that he “wishes [they] would die” [Abel Vent: Single] and that their suicide “holds no meaning to him” [Paradox: 32]. Jay was supposed to be “mediating” the very conversation where Paradox -- not “Hebel” or anyone else -- said that to Nael! And she said NOTHING. Her silence is complicity and she should take the blame for being such an ardent supporter of his abusive behavior.

Amazingly, there’s even MORE awful things that this group (particularly, but not exclusively Paradox) that I didn’t have any space to discuss in the callout itself, but they can’t go unmentioned. I know this is already super long, so I’ll try to run through them all as quickly as possible, and then we can get to the large wealth of screenshots we have linked at the end, where everything is in context for you to browse at your convenience.

________________________________________________________________

OTHER OCCURENCES

Transphobia: Paradox is a terf, and there’s not much else to say. [For Me: 2] Ironically he said this in a group chat with one of the only two people who identify as trans in their group, his then-boyfriend Kieran. Here’s him heavily fetishizing a failed attempted Corrin muse that he described as intersex, too. [FE Abel Problems: 5 pages] (In parenthesis is a user attempting to check their work. He makes a bit of an error concerning outrealms and dragon gates and whatnot, but please forgive him for those small errors considering how much he had on his hands.)

Abuse victim blaming: Paradox would often tell his two lovers, who are survivors of various types of abuse, ranging from mental, physical, and even sexual, how it’s their fault for letting their past traumas affect them. [Victim Blaming: Singles] Please note that these screenshots were taken in May, nearly a month before they separated from him fully, so they would have no reason to lie to each other about the things he said or needlessly malign his character before they left.

Promoting infighting: Paradox enjoyed watching his underlings tear each other apart for his amusement or to influence their behavior by saying their actions affected “everyone” despite him using false pretenses to get them to fight in the first place. He lied to Dave about Nael comparing him to a user that he wasn’t fond of when it was really Paradox and Blue that had done it. He also lied to Kieran and the entire group to get them all to yell at Nael in a group chat about Nael trying to isolate themselves from everyone when it was really done to please Paradox.

Ableism: Nael is unwell and has brain conditions they don’t feel comfortable with sharing. Instead of being understanding and supportive of them occasionally not understanding things or forgetting things, Paradox would immediately use it as a weapon against them. When “Paradox” first surfaced, Nael claimed that it wasn’t fair to them that the “Abel” alter yelled at them for forgetting about their ship with Blue. Paradox immediately countered that he Nael would no longer be allowed to use the excuse that they forgot things to AVOID being yelled at for minor things. [Paradox: 21, 22] He would constantly do things like this while they were together.

Copying and stealing OCs: Besides stalking the people that left and that he’s grown to hate, Paradox also has a peculiar habit of copying their activities on his blog with the few remaining people in his circle. For example, back in March when Nael’s Grima muse began interacting with a Reyson rper I introduced them to, Paradox made Kieran pick up his abandoned Reyson muse so that he could ship him with his Robin. (This hasn’t been linked to protect the identity of the second Reyson.) Worse still, Paradox has even outright stolen characters and backstories from those that leave. Here Kieran tries to ask Jay to tell Paradox to stop using some of his stolen OCs and she questions why it “would matter” to Kieran before promptly telling him to basically take a hike and blocking him. [Jay: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Racism: This group seems to relish in their own ignorance when it comes to matters of race. Here are screenshots Dave took where he discussed Paradox saying that Japanese people are white. [No, seriously: Singles] (Please note the dates -- it was back in December, so he has no reason to lie.) Here’s Nael recounting a time Paradox told them that, because they were partially North African, they had to distance themselves from people of their race because other people would only see them as a terrorist. (No caps of that since it was in a call, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.) Here’s Blue telling me, a black fan, that unintentional racism in a game I enjoyed but was put off by “didn’t matter” and that there was no need for me to “get so salty about it”. [Scout vs Blue: 19, 20] While I don’t think they’re going to any Klan meetings over the weekend, it’s still a bit concerning and something POC muns should be aware of because they can be startlingly insensitive at times.

Pedophilia: Probably the hardest one to talk about for me personally, but definitely one of the most serious. While I must stress that we haven’t noticed any sort of untoward behavior with underaged USERS thus far, Paradox shows an almost unhealthy fascination with underage MUSES that might be off putting to some people and may spell danger. This actually isn’t the first callout someone has made about his behavior. In 2018 while he went by the name “Vic” and was in the Pokemon fandom, he wrote a disturbing post where a 14 year old girl was killed by a literal penis monster that was saying “penetrate” as it ran her through the middle.

Though the mun was fine with their muse dying, the obvious sexual connotations of the post left them feeling uneasy. When they went to approach him about this, instead of apologizing, he got defensive and said that because it was fictional, it didn’t matter. Later he made a bizarre case arguing that because the girl was 14 and thus had presumably experienced puberty, it couldn’t TECHNICALLY be considered pedophilia. [WTF: Single] Which, while correct on only the most technical of terms, flies in the face of all reason. Here’s the full PSA about him back then [Paradox PSA], and screenshots he was booted out of for his terrible behavior. [Paradox Booted: Singles] (His then-lover initially tried to defend him, but his abusive behavior eventually drove them away as well, so care was taken to keep them anonymous.)

Most disturbing of all, though, is a smut drabble that he made this year concerning one of his newer muses, Momo. On his blog, he describes Momo as someone who is “physically” 18 but “actually” seven due to the circumstances of his creation. That would be fine, except he will often portray Momo as also being mentally seven years old even though he continues to write him lewdly. In the smut drabble, he even goes a step further and constantly refers to him as a “child” and constantly fixates on his underdeveloped genitals.

DUE TO THE HIGHLY GRAPHIC AND POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING NATURE OF THIS DRABBLE, DO NO CLICK UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED. It’s honestly not for the faint of the heart and makes me queasy from the first sentence, but there’s no other way to describe the severity of his awful nature unless you experience it for yourself. [To Endure a Fiend’s Heat: full 6 page drabble]

While some would say it’s okay to experience triggering material in a safe environment to potentially help ease the pain of past trauma, Paradox has already shown himself to be unreliable when it comes to respecting the mental health and safety of others, and though we don’t have any screenshots of this, Nael has recounted several times where Paradox said he was sexually excited by RPing his childlike muses having sex with the adult muses of others in the cult. Here's him once again emphasizing the child like element with one and then drawing them in a suggestive "pin up" pose immediately after. [Vector: Singles]

________________________________________________________________

Finally we are at our end. Once again, my purpose behind this callout is not to shame anyone with a particular mental illness or unique set of challenges. Paradox is dangerous to any community he’s in because of his view of other people as simple playthings that he can use and throw away as he pleases. He treats life as an RP, living people as muses, and his apparent mental illnesses as an excuse to do away with any sort of accountability for his actions, and it is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE. Please protect yourself and others by reblogging this -- I feel as though Nael is very lucky to have escaped this situation with his life. Informing others might save another’s.

Complete, unedited list of references, roughly in the order of mention:

(Please note that anything labeled “Single(s)” will not have an entry here, as those are the only screenshots we have about them. We got better about capping things as time went on.)

[Scout and Nael Convo: 13 total] When Nael decided to get back together with Paradox the first time in September 2018, I let them know my concerns, but told them I respected their decision, no matter if I agreed with it or not. Looking back, parts of this conversation feel almost prophetic.

[Didn’t Feel Like…: 9 total] One of Kieran’s first conversations with Paradox. Watch closely how he characterizes the incident in September. He also mentions that his trauma and BPD makes him a sexual fiend, which… idk how others in the community would feel about that.

[For me: 16 total] A loose collection of screenshots Kieran took that shows quite a few odd moments during his time in the cult. That includes Paradox being a terf, Paradox insisting that Kieran to stay with Nael if they broke up (which is something he criticized Nael for suggesting in the March break up, even though Nael only said it once), and Jay and Blue expressing concern for Kieran when Paradox was starting to neglect him back in January. PLEASE MIND THE DATES! They vary page to page sometimes!

[Before/After Suicide: 88 total] A few screenshots showing the tumultuous times immediately before and after the Paradox suicide attempt in March 2019. Afterwards, Nael breaks up with both Paradox and Kieran in no uncertain terms due to the trauma he faced.

[Abel Suicide: 33 total] Paradox’s infamous suicide attempt.

[Nael: 34 total] Nael and Kieran talk as Paradox’s suicide attempt is in progress, and Nael tells Kieran to get the police. Sensitive information blotted out for obvious reasons.

[Scout vs Blue: 25 total] A collection of the conflicts I’ve dealt with in regards to Blue since the incident in March. Also includes her racial insensitivity and back when she agreed with me and Nael before Paradox lied to her.

[Initial Ship Drama: 93 total] Kieran endures like 5 days of nonstop gaslighting from Paradox. At the end (Around page 88) he manipulates Kieran into sparking a confrontation with Nael, telling him to “be assertive” about fixing a problem Paradox caused with his erratic behavior.

[Proof Abel Knew: 10 total] On May 6th, Nael discussed with Paradox or one of his alters about the ship that triggered the May 24th meltdown. Paradox also says that having any ships, including ones that he doesn’t even have to see is unacceptable simply because they exist. He then blames Nael for something Blue brought up. Again. While asking Nael not to blame him for something Blue has done.

[With Blue: 24 total] Kieran talks with Blue about the aforementioned shipping drama, and she immediately expresses frustration and anger with Paradox blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Later she also expresses annoyance with the May 24th incident of the alter “Abel” “dying” due to even more ship drama.

[May 17th: 13 total] Once again, Paradox whips his followers up into a frenzy over Nael, who’s really just trying to do what they were told and prioritize their lover. When they’re told the amount of attention Paradox literally asked for is stifling, they back off, only to be yelled at for it once again. It’s not shown here, but Blue once again acted as a lure to bring Nael into a public flogging.

[Paradox: 72 total] Nael is blamed for the “death” of an alter that has since returned because the alter “wasn’t around” for something they discussed on the 6th of May. This is the introduction to the “Paradox” alter, that I’m assuming now has assumed a fronting role. I don’t really care if that situation has changed since I started writing this.

[Jay: 12 total] Just some screens of Jay kind of being a jerk (mostly in the first set). She won’t tell Paradox to stop stealing someone else’s OCs and stop improperly using Nael’s last name, which is considered legitimate identity theft in France, where he lives! Mind the dates.

[Last Convo w/ Blue: 22 pages] Blue reprises her role as the bait to try to drag Nael back, but they’ve wised up to her game by now. It’s not going to ever work again.

[Jay’s “Evidence” Folder: 122 total] All of the things Jay sent to Dave in order to convince him that Nael was the bad guy. None of it accomplishes that goal. In it there’s a lot of doting between Nael’s alter “Naoya” and Paradox’s alter “Abel”, before Paradox showed the exact same abusive behavior and drove Naoya away as well. Then Paradox’s alter “Hebel” tries to explain his existence. He also admits to attempted manslaughter. So. (Please note: some of these are out of order, and we’re very sorry about this, but it’s not our doing, sorry!)

[Ruby and Bird’s Breakup: 16 total] Ruby tried to get Bird to intervene on her behalf to get Paradox to stop harassing her after she tried making an apology post. Bird totally flaked out, probably due to her dual loyalties to Paradox himself. This spurred a messy breakup between them both.

[Misc Bird Folder: 9 total] Some more random stuff showing Bird and Ruby’s relationship, including her take on Paradox and Nael’s September breakup, where she calls him a “brat”. The entire time during these screenshots, Bird was secretly feeding information to Paradox against Ruby’s will, breaking her trust when she found out. She even told Paradox, Ruby’s abuser, about the new blog Ruby made in order to escape him. That’s why she’s on this callout.

[Discord Server Chat with Blue: 23 pages] The complete chat about the Fire Emblem Heroes event that left me feeling upset about the handling of race in Book 2. While the rest in the server try to be respectful or change the subject, Blue insisted on devaluing my feelings and saying I was accusing her of racism, which was, of course, untrue at the time. Currently, I’m not feeling so generous. (Note: My apologies to fans of Heroes’ Nifl -- I say some strongly worded things here which may be unflattering, but I felt it was important to get the entire conversation down.)

BONUS: [Paradox Guilt Tripping on his birthday: 16 total] In case you needed more evidence of Paradox’s gaslighting behavior, here is him guilt tripping them because Nael, who is not a native English speaker, didn’t understand one video he sent. If this is all it takes to trigger a breakdown, he is probably not ready for a relationship.

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obviouslyelementary · 4 years

Text

Gates of Heaven

What happened after Selflessness vs Selfishness Redux!

Warnings: light angst; janus & remus friendship; talk about the others (can be seen as unsympathetic but I did not write it with that in mind its just a warning)

---------------------

Janus looked around his room a few more times, checking to see if he hadn't forgotten anything, before he sighed and sat down on his bed, feeling defeated. He looked at his suitcase, the snake surrounding it and smiled, petting her head gently and nodding when she hissed at him. Finally. Finally he was able to... do what he had been dreaming of for years and years and years... finally he was... right.

So why did it hurt so much?

He looked up when his door smashed open, a grinning Remus making his way inside in his strange dance, wiggling his arms around and making jazz hands at him.

"Guess who is the new nice side?! That's right, our friend Deceit! Claps to him everybody!" he said, his tentacles all clapping with him to sound like a weird, slimy crowd. Janus tried to smile at his friend silliness, but he ended up just sighing and shaking his head. Remus noticed it, frowning and letting his tentacles go back inside his back, before he walked closer to him. "It's... celebrating time?" he asked, unsure, and Janus shook his head.

"I don't think it is, Rem" he said, crossing his arms and looking away. Remus was confused, rightfully so, kneeling down in front of his friend and holding his ankle gently.

"Hey come on Dee... wasn't this what you had been wanting all your life? To be part of them?" he asked, smiling when Janus looked at him, but the smile fell down at the painful look in his friend's face. "Oh Janus what's wrong? I thought you would be happy about it."

"I... am" he said, before he looked away again. He felt his eyes burning but he refused to cry. "I mean I should be... but I feel... horrible" he whispered, rubbing his own arms as a way of comforting himself. Remus moved closer and pushed the suitcase and snake away, sitting next to him and facing him.

"Oh come on D, tell me what's wrong. We are friends, right?" he asked, smiling when Janus let out a wet chuckle.

"Yeah we are... not" he teased, and Remus laughed in the exaggerated way of his. Then he sighed again and looked down. "I... I am happy. I am so happy Thomas heard me, accepted me, but... I didn't mean it to be this way..."

"What way? With you beating their ass in a video game fight that honestly could have been much more gruesome if, you know, I was the one imagining it?" Remus grinned and Janus sighed.

"No... I mean yes but no. I... I didn't mean to upset anybody... I just wanted to be heard and in the process I think I hurt... everyone" he said, and Remus huffed.

"Are you talking about Roman? Come on you know how dramatic he can be, he will bounce back right away! You don't have to worry about him! He will be fine!" he said, but Janus shook his head.

"No Remus I don't think he will" he said, sighing and laying down, looking up at the ceiling, being imitated by the creative side. "I had never seen him so... defeated. I hurt him the worst, and I hurt Patton too... both of them emotionally... and I also hurt Logan physically and Virgil... hell I can't even think about what he will do when he sees me there... You know how much he hates me, he will never accept that I just hurt all his friends in the same night... I wanted to be heard and accepted, but not at this cost... they will never see me as one of them."

"So what?" Remus asked, and Janus looked at him a little confused.

"So what? Remus how am I going to be taken seriously, or rather, as an essential part of Thomas if they don't see me as one of them? They will always think I am this evil, malicious snake that wants the worst of them when that couldn't be farther away from the truth!"

"Janus, it doesn't matter!" Remus said, turning to his side so he could face his friend and smile at him. "It doesn't matter because Thomas accepted you! They don't need to accept you as one of them, you already are one of them, because Thomas said so! Who are they to go against what our host, our creator says?!"

"Ugh fine maybe" Janus said and looked away. "But what if... what if Roman is right? You know I have my evil tendencies and malicious intents-"

"Yes, I particularly loved how you suggested to hurt everyone in other to get a new callback, that was very astute of you."

"-thanks but yes you know I can act like that sometimes and what if I can't stop? What if I start doing things I think are good but are actually bad, all in name of Thomas' 'mental health'? What if all of them just decide to leave? To let me have full control? I don't know if I can make sure Thomas is a good person if he is only controlled by me!"

"Why are you worried about that?" Remus asked, and when Janus sent him a puzzled look, he sighed. "I hate when you make me be the smart one, you are the smart one, but whatever listen! If they don't like you, Janus, if they think you're evil and bad, then you don't have to worry about straying Thomas from the right path! You know why? Because the moment you start to do so they will rush out of their hiding spots and beat you up like a meat sack!" he said, and Janus made a pained face. "It's true! All they want is an excuse to show Thomas you are bad, so do you really think they will allow you to just take Thomas into a bad direction and do nothing about it? No way honey. They will prove to Thomas you are bad and come right for his aid. That's what they do."

"I... well that is not what I wanted to hear but you do have a point..." Janus said, and looked at Remus with a soft sigh and a sad smile. "I just really wish they liked me..."

"And they will" Remus said, smiling. "Didn't you hate me in the beginning? Didn't you treat me like shit because I was too chaotic and intense? You needed time and I didn't give up! I wanted to be your friend! So that's what you will do to them! Give them time and show them you are a side of Thomas that they need!"

"... thanks Remus... sometimes I forget you can be so... good at words" Janus said, sighing and closing his eyes. "I promise I will make sure they accept you."

"Oh no I don't need that, I don't want to be near them" he said, giggling and grinning when Janus looked at him. "Now get your ass up this bed and take that scaly body to the light side of the mind! It is where you belong now!"

"I promise I will come visit. I will not turn into the new Virgil" Janus said and Remus just shrugged.

"I do not care the slightest" he said with a honest grin and Janus couldn't help but smile and pull his friend of a hug.

"I won't ever forget how much you helped me... thanks Remus."

"You're welcome Jan! Now leave!" he said, giggling and pushing him off before disappearing in thin air.

Janus sighed shakily and picked up his suitcase, standing up and letting the snake come up his shoulders, before he made his way out of his room towards the light sides. He stared at the door and opened it, letting out a relieved sigh as he made his way through the forbidden entrance.

It felt just like entering paradise.

It didn't matter how the others would react, he was in the right place.

And he was going to make things right.

#my fanfic #dukeceit #friendship only #sanders sides #sanders sides spoilers #ts spoilers #selflessness vs selfishness redux #pos canon #can be seen as unsympathetc light sides #so i will tag it as such #unsympathetic light sides #janus sanders #deceit sanders #remus sanders #light angst #soft #open ending

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samclownchester · 4 years

Text

Supernatural Rewatch 01x01

Pilot

(Next Episode| Masterlist)

Just some scattered thoughts I wrote while watching the episode:

(not spoiler free, I have watched up to 15x13 and this is directed to an audience that has seen that far as well)

Oh my gosh this is so hard to watch actually. BABY SAM! Like a literally baby. Mary stay in bed. STAY IN BED MARY

This scene hits different knowing that Mary knew about monsters and demons and everything. Her terror at realizing there is something strange in the house is fueled by so much more than the fear of kidnappers.

Present day. PRESENT DAY. Lmao.

“I swore I was done hunting, for good” D: my bby

...

SAM “when I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet he gave me a .45”

DEAN “well what was he supposed to do?”

SAM “I was nine years old. He was supposed to say ‘don’t be afraid of the dark.’’

DEAN “Don’t be afraid of the dark? What, are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark, you know what’s out there.”

This is just making me think about their two different parenting styles. Obviously Sam isn’t trying to shield Jack from the truth of their lives, but when he can he does try to … soften the blow. To give him space to feel. Where as Dean is more likely to say it like it is, like when Jack didn’t have his powers and Dean just straight up called him weak.

I think this also shows a lot their 2 vs 8 personalities. Dean thinks people should know the truth even if it scares them so they can be prepared while Sam things that people should be protected emotionally.

DEAN “You just gonna live some normal apple pie life? Is that it?”

SAM “No, not normal, safe.”

DEAN “and that’s why you ran away?”

SAM “I was just going to college. It was dad who said if I was gonna run away I should stay gone.”

I’m curious to see all the lines about Sam leaving because I feel like there are some inconsistencies, which I actually love because often when families have big arguments every person remembers them differently.

…

DEAN “I can’t do this alone.”

SAM “Yes, you can.”

DEAN “Yeah, well, I don’t want to.”

My BOYS D:

…

SAM “Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?”

DEAN “I’m 26 dude.”

THEIR 2005 tech! I’m crying.

“In almost two years I’ve never bothered you, never asked you for a thing.”

So, someone pointed out that being 22, and having finished his undergrad program, Sam should have been gone for 4 years. This line makes that not make sense, unless Sam HAS been gone for 4 years but there was an incident about 2 years before this when Dean did bother him or ask him for something O.o

California? Lol they almost never go that far west anymore.

Oh my gosh this show is so dumb why is the woman in white so “sexy” lol this is horrible. 2005 spn was the worst. This idiot just acting like she’s not being super sketchy. This is why people die in horror movies (and in the first 5 minutes of supernatural)

“Breakfast” is like a bag of chips and bottle of soda. Mood. The fact that apparently they’ve been protected from “the small stuff” (like needing a good diet and going to the dentist) by Chuck because they’re his heroes is so apparent lol.

“it’s the greatest hits of mullet rock.” Oh my gosh Sam! Wish Dean let you listen to Celine Dion sometimes.

OH NO HE SAID THE LINE (I honestly don’t understand why some lines became memes. Anyway, shot-gun shuts his cakehole.)

“You know Sammy is a chubby 12 year-old, it’s Sam, ok?”

OH MY GOSH DEAN TRYING TO ACT ALL IMPRESSIVE LIKE HE’S NOT A BABY. you guys are not FBI you’re not fooling anyone.

This goth girl tho. 2005.

THEY HAVE TO USE LIBRARY COMPUTERS

“let me try.”

“I got it” [Sam pushes Dean out of the way and takes the keyboard and mouse.] “Dude, you’re such a control freak.”

(Not anymore. Sam stopped wanting to be in control at some point. Following was easier than leading. The guilt gets to him.)

DEAN “You think you’re just gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?”

SAM “Maybe, why not?”

DEAN “Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean does she know about the things you’ve done?”

SAM “No and she’s not ever going to know.”

DEAN “Well, that’s healthy. You can pretend all you want Sammy, but sooner or later you’re gonna have to face up to who you really are.”

SAM “And who’s that?”

DEAN “One of us”

SAM “No, I’m not like you, this is not going to be my life.”

DEAN “You have a responsibility –”

SAM “To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures, I wouldn’t even know what mom looks like. and what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.”

[Dean, in a rage, pushes Sam up against the bridge]

DEAN “Don’t talk about her like that.”

This scene establishes a lot about their characters, especially Sam. He spent the first few seasons, even until season 8, wanting a “safe” life, but he knew he would have to lie, keep secrets forever, if he was going to have it. Although Sam is very different from Dean and John (more emotional, more brain less brawn, etc) hunting is a part of him. This is what makes his later relationship with Eileen very different, she “gets the life.” she is also a hunter. Every other relationship Sam has ever tried to have has included keeping secrets. He never told Jessica about monsters, and he tried again in season 8 with Amelia, but in both cases he ended up choosing Dean, and hunting, because as much as he always denied it, this is a crucial part of who he is. It doesn’t fit him the way it’s always fit Dean, but he can’t push it aside and pretend it never happened or doesn’t exist.

(Sam’s little laugh after they almost get hit by a ghost car … he does kinda enjoy this life despite everything he says.)

“Hey Dean, what I said earlier, about mom and dad … I’m sorry”

NO HE SAID THE OTHER LINE [no chick-flick moments] (Ok but what in the world was 15x09 if not a freaking chick-flick moment lmao this show is so dumb)

They’re so cute though.

WAIT DID DEAN USED TO HAVE LONG HAIR. Oh my gosh in that picture of them as kids Dean’s hair is to his SHOULDERS WHAT?

(all I can think is “Could we ever really pick locks?” as Dean pulls the paper clip out to free himself from the handcuffs)

Sam isn’t an unfaithful man, so why is the woman in white targeting him? Maybe she can break her rules if it’s a hunter who is trying to fight her, because she didn’t wait for him to pull over either, but it’s still interesting.

“You can’t kill me. I’m not unfaithful. I’ve never been.” I’m cry, my sweet boy. Oh no she kiss him! That doesn’t count as being unfaithful, lady! That was a non consensual kiss!

But seriously, I do think it’s interesting that they chose for Sam to be the Woman in White’s target. Because although he’s never cheated on a girlfriend, he is being “unfaithful” in a way. Either you could argue that he has been unfaithful to his family for the past few years, leaving them to go to college and trying to forget about them and his “responsibility” as Dean calls it, or you could say that in this episode he is being unfaithful to Jess and the life that he wants to lead by leaving with Dean to hunt in the first place. It’s almost like returning to an ex; hunting, this life. He promised to leave it behind, he promised Jessica he would come home, but he can’t have both. He has to choose between college and hunting, and while he’s trying to have both he is being unfaithful.

Looking at this through what we now know about Chuck I feel like it might have been what Chuck wanted, to send that subliminal message to Sam.

#supernatural #1x01 #01x01 #pilot #rewatch #thoughts #my post #sam winchester #dean winchester #2005 #oh my gosh they are literal babies though #ok guys should I watch episode 2 next or follow the fast track and skip to episode 5?#I am torn #supernatural 1x01 #supernatural 01x01 #supernatural rewatch

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sometimesrosy · 6 years

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The 100 rewatch S5: Red Queen

I liked this episode. Even though I wanted to see Clarke and spacekru when it aired, it’s a good episode.

Fair warning. I always warn when I am anti someone. I am anti Kara Cooper. Honestly. That Biotch. I’ve got nothing redeemable for her except she’s fun to hate. If you’re a Kara Cooper fan be aware.

This one’s kinda long. Under the cut. I’m having problems with the tags so if these don’t notify you can you tell me? Something weird is going on with the formatting and I don’t know what is with the weird type. Funkiness. If you want me to tag you for the rest of the episodes, send me a note. :)

@captainwilldameron @kizo2703 . @levivlio . @kickthatassgirl . @jeanie205 . @starboybellamy . @ezraewrites . @alightinadarkland @emmyisgrey @irisouy @noodlesthehedgehog

46 days after praimfaya and Octavia and Miller are sparring and smiling. This always makes me feel like if things had been different in wonkru, if they hadn’t been unrepentant tribal warmongers, fighting each other, trying to take from the others, then Octavia could have healed and not become a monster. I mean she didn’t want to be the leader, but she didn’t have a choice. Indra wants to dress her up in the heda outfit though O doesn’t want to. She doesn’t look happy.

Oh hai Niylah. She found her Ovid to remind her of Bellamy reading to her. Wait. That means Niylah is literate. And Gaia. Gaia and Indra are fighting over the religious support. Indra says the real commanders would have let her burn.

Now they’re talking about killing people for stealing blankets. “What punishment does Oslea impose?”

“For stealing blankets? Give them back.” Honestly Octavia’s best line in 5 seasons.

OH they hear someone outside pounding on the door. Kane and Abby are dressed to go out. They haven’t spoken in a month. Abby knows it’s Clarke. “It’s a night blood that knows where we are. Who else could it be?”

BUT THE DOOR WON’T OPEN. “If the building’s collapsed…”

“She’s not getting in.”

“We’re not getting out.” BOOM OUT.

Kara runs the hydroponic farm like she did on the Ark. WELL SHE”S CRAP AT IT. If Monty were there none of this would have happened. He got that shit up and running in like THREE DAYS.

Jaha. Nice to see you Jaha. He looks better with the bald head. I like it. There are no vulnerabilities to the bunker they can’t dig out. And Kara is like, “oh yeah we’re going to die. We can’t feed everyone and it’s your fault Octavia for forcing your own people into that fire. YOU HAD NO RIGHT. Jaha found it. It belonged to us.” Tribalism. Don’t think the arkers aren’t just as tribalistic as the grounders. Dumbasses all. Kara’s father died in the culling on the ark and her husband didn’t make the cut in the second culling.

Indra Kane and Abby are like we have to set guards and have delegates and too many people. Octavia is like, “I’m the leader” They’ll go to half rations. At dinner, Abby is sitting with Jackson and Miller. Kane sits with Jaha and Ethan, because Abby won’t talk to him.

“We didn’t even know if it was Clarke.”

“What matters is not what we know but what we believe.” Jaha is spilling spiritual/political knowledge and Kane is like, yeah that’s not science. Lol But he’s still glad he talked him out of fighting Octavia for this place.

Oh Kara tries to keep Jaha in the cafeteria.

Jackson and Miller are being sweet. And Abby likes that. As she’s taking more pills. She says the headaches will stop but they don’t.

Oh distraction. Someone has a seizure and distracts the guards while someone locks the door and knocks out Kane. “We’re taking back what’s ours.” OH it was Kara faking the seizure. She started out a bitch and she never got better. If you’re a Kara Cooper fan, you’re not going to find a friend in me.

Kara has the plans. “We’re gonna live. And though it might be unfair, they’re not.” And she restrains Kane and Abby “because I don’t kill my own people. Even the one’s responsible for the deaths of my father and husband.” (Oh RLLY Kara Cooper? We’re gonna watch you kill your co-conspirators with a sword in a few minutes. So much for not killing your own.)

“Abby had nothing to do with that.’

“Abby opened the door. I wonder if you would have done that if he was already safe inside.” Incompetent. Bitter. And Vengeful.

Abby describes death by starvation to try and get Kara to open the door. “The first to die will be the lucky ones. They won’t have to fight the temptation to eat their friends.” Fine. Foreshadowing.

Jaha reading The Giving Tree. You know not everyone likes that story. Niylah does. Too late. Grounders attacking sky crew. Niylah hides with Ethan. Jaha fights. Octavia saves him.

Octavia didn’t want to kill them to punish them. Miller’s not in the cafeteria either. Miller takes Ethan away from Jaha . “I wantto stay with youuu.” Jeez. Tearjerker.

Octavia wants Jaha to be an engineer again. Open the door. I like Octavia here. She’s doing good. She had hope to heal and become better, but…

Niylah says hell is breaking loose. Gaia says it’s not hell it’s who we are. Octavia believes she’s wrong, they’re Wonkru. But Gaia says without a commander they are warring clans, that’s how it’s always been. Gaia you’re not helping.

Jaha though is the engineer and he does things. But he’s hurt. And ignores it. But he’s going to take the electricity and short out the lock. But he can’t get to level D because it’s no man’s land and they’ll kill him. So Jaha is going to get in in disguise. Octavia takes off the heda gear and says “on me they’re symbols not targets” and Gaia looks at her mom like I TOLD YOU SO. Octavia gets to be a hero. Like Murphy. She feels IMPORTANT as a hero. She’s not so good as a queen. She’s a knight, not a queen. Jaha won’t let her save the person being beaten. And she discovers he’s been stabbed. He’s going to sacrifice himself to open that door. Jaha ALSO likes being a hero, but he doesn’t mind being a king.

Even if you find a way to take the farm back, there’s still too many people in the bunker. Jaha says there always have been. WHY DIDN”T YOU ASSHOLES MAKE THE NUMBER SMALLER THEN?????

Abby and Kane are still chained up. No more half rations though. Jackson wants to fight back because Miller’s out there, she tells him no. “Imagine that. Wanting to save the person he loves.”

“You took away my choice.” But he says he made the right call because she was a doctor. “Really then why were you willing to float me on the ark?” Snarky.

Jaha is losing it.He’s going to give her wisdom. He’s sorry about how hard it was for her. Sure now that she’s valuable. “Like it or not, we are your people.”

He won’t connect the wires until Octavia promises to protect the sky people on the inside of the farm. When he has the word that she makes them stand down then he’ll open the door.

“I am not a leader. I’m a fighter. A warrior.

“And a warrior needs a war and an enemy. On the ark we made death the enemy. That’s how we survived. And anyone who did anything to push us closer to death was eliminated. You hate me because I floated your m other but when she broke the law she pushed us closer to death. So she made herself the enemy.”

Octavia doesn’t like that. “So now you know what it takes to lead.” THAT IS NOT WHAT IT MEANS TO LEAD. Stupid Arkers. Honestly, I know he’s generally well intentioned with his injustice, with the way he dismisses the unworthy, but I do not think that’s okay. Keeping order by oppressing those you deem inconsequential is NOT GOOD. It’s what caused the rebellion on the ark in the first place.

Someone is playing guitar as people sleep on the floor of the cafeteria. Kane, and Abby in withdrawal. Kane says,“I couldn’t bear to lose you. I’d just gotten you back. The world was ending before our very eyes and I thought I could weather any storm as long as you were by my side but you weren’t by my side because you decided you didn’t deserve what we had, you didn’t deserve to survive. How could you ever think that I would be able to carry you outside and shut the door. I’m sorry but I’m not that strong I would do the same thing a thousand times. Did you ever regret opening the door to save me.”

She can’t even speak just shakes her head.

Uh oh. Someone’s pounding on the door. Kara wants the dude to play louder and Jackson almost grabs Kara’s gun. Here’s Octavia.

“I can open the door.”

“The do it skairipa so we can rid ourselves of your honorless people once and for all.” You know. Those damn grounders have been blaming the sky people for existing since s1. They can save the grounders from destruction, defend themselves, defeat the grounders mortal enemies, prove their heroism, stop a computer from takin over their very minds, but the grounders will STILL blame them. SoMETIMES I wish Clarke had just stolen the damn thing. Look what ended up happening because the grounders AND the dumb skaikru couldn’t stop with their MY PEOPLE crap. I wish Clarke and Bellamy could just have scammed the bunker and told Niylah to find them some decent non combatants and they’d just snuck into the thing BUT NO they have to play by the stupid grounder rules which are actually BARBARIC. “Oh you think we’re savages.” YES ROAN YOU ARE SAVAGES. Trial by combat? DUMB. Children fighting to the death to become leaders? SAVAGES. Death for stealing blankets?? SAVAGES. They’re all dumb. Jasper was right. Gosh I hope Clarke and Bellamy can manage to good guys in season 6. Okay rant over.

Go kick some savage butt Octavia. Savage vs savage. You wanted savage? Get ready to bow down to your savage queen. Honestly, the sky people can beat you at that, too. Our delinquents go hard.

She’s making it wonkru, not just tribes. She starts fighting. Someone comes at her. She kills. Kills him. And him. You are WONKRU or you are the enemy of wonkru. Choose. Kill kill kill kill.

You are wonkru or you are the enemy of wonkru. CHOOSE> kill kill kill kill.

You are wonkru or you are the ENEMY OF WONKRU. Choose. Killl kill kill killl.

Heartbeat. You are wonkru. Or you are the enemy of wonkru. Choose…

They bow. Bow. Bow. Bow. Bow. Bow. All bow. Exeunt pursued by bear…. Or rather starvation, but you know. Jaha opens the door.

“Only the guilty.” Bye Kara. Oh no. She goes to shoot Kane, no she goes to shoot herself. But Octavia throws a knife into her gun hand. “It won’t be that easy.” (Hmmmm could that be foreshadowing of Octavia trying to get out of what she did by martyrdom?)

Now Jaha is dying. Abby goes to save him. Can’t. Remember the first time Abby had to save Jaha? Episode 1. Now his fight is over. He asks Octavia to take care of Ethan. “Take me home Marcus. Take me to my wife. Take me to Wells.” DAMN YOU I”VE GOT TEARS.

Travelers blessing. May we meet again.

Octavia crying, covered in blood. In comes Indra and Gaia. “Your people await justice.” Gaia doesn’t want her to be cleaned up. She doesn’t think Octavia is the commander, but she delivered them from praimfaya and from starvations, and she will deliver them back to the ground. (But who really does? I think it’s Bellamy. And delivered them to the ship. I’m still waiting for his mythic name to appear. We have Wanheda. Blodreina. What’s his?) The blood of our enemies IS her armor.

The first gladiator battle.

Jackson and Miller. “Nate I tried to stop it—“ “Shh. You’re a healer not a fighter. That’s why I love you.” So sweet.

Octavia commanding. Too many people in this bunker. “Each of you have committed crimes against wonkru and the punishment for this is death.” The boy is going to die for blankets after all. “This isn’t the ark and this isn’t the ground. There is no blood must have blood. In Rome the gladiators had the opportunity to fight for their freedom. So will you.

Who goes first? Kara. Farmer my ass. She kills everyone. Those are her people that she fought with, too.

Cut to a gladiator 6 years later. Kara is by Octavia’s side. Ethan is grown up. Gaia is blonde. Octavia is blodreina.

But if they fight and win the battle, why does Octavia get to say they are saved or not? Drama.

Oh here’s Kane. The combatant. Indra not happy.

#the 100 #rewatch #the 100 liveblog #liveblog #red queen #the 100 rewatch

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