#she is trying to not be a plot device

[wolflover2426]

I honestly don’t get why people want Lila to be the Supreme in the alternate universe of Shadybug and Claw Noir when it doesn’t make sense at all from a canon standpoint. For one, she’s literally a teenage girl and have zero connection to the miraculous at all until like the season 5 finale. And second, I feel like people only shout about it because of their own misconception that Lila is this plotting mastermind when really, she just gets away with stuff due to bad writing and characterization.

Plus, it’s more obvious that the Supreme could either be Master Fu or the Order Of The Guardians because it makes sense why the Supreme have such an iron grip towards both Plagg and Tikki that prevents anyone from making a wish.

[fellhellion]

My spiderverse post for the day but I don’t see the point - in fact I think it’s counterintuitive to what the story is driving at - in twisting ourselves in knots arguing whether Miles is a definitive spiderman of his universe because he actually hits the canon checkboxes like his uncle dying etc and his universe hasn’t collapsed like. That’s still a validation operating by the parameters Miguel outlined, when the entire point is that those factors are meaningless to the identity of “spiderman” in isolation. What makes their hero mantle one of worth is the choice to always try save the little people, even when they don’t succeed, and becoming fixated on the loss and it’s supposed inevitability has put them all in a place of stagnation.

Even if Miles hadn’t had a single person die in his journey thus far he’d still be a worthy spiderman. <- a point literally crystallised in Pavitr.

[bennettmaximoff]

The first born witch thing was created to strictly make hope exist there's literally nothing there for them to make claims that makes them Superior over the Bennetts If there was Esther wouldn't have had to Harness magic from the Bennetts to even make her kids originals she would have done it with her family line if they was soo power which they ain't we seen in canon they haven't done anything to top what the Bennetts have accomplished bonnie herself could kill a original without the white Oak stake and make her own Dimensions how can they claim hope could top that when there's nothing she could do at this point that could

The writers tried so hard to discredit the Bennetts and their involvement in creating quite literally every major supernatural phenomenon. They had Hope sit there and claim Esther was the creator of dark magic when the spell she used to create Vamperism was a rip off of Qetsiyah’s immortality spell.

They wanted Hope to be this feared all powerful being born from equally powerful bloodlines, so their scapegoat was claiming that being born first from a witch bloodline is meaningful in some way. Even though Esther’s bloodline is shown to be significantly weaker in both shows and her only achievement is leeching off the Bennetts.

All this about Hope being the almighty tribrid who was a danger to the entire supernatural world, created nonsensical lore to hype up this idea, only for them to severely drop the ball and have Legacies be a complete and utter joke is what’s most funny to me. Out of all four seasons, not one moment made me think all that setup TO was worth it. Hope fans constantly compare her to Bonnie, yet when you ask them to list feats that are on par with Bonnie stopping hellfire, creating a dimension from a single scream, being able to control a seemingly uncontrollable power such as expression, almost killed an original, all they can do is shout how Hope is a tribrid and that automatically means she’s stronger.

[cheebuss]

"Oh, Maria, you think too much."

[starlightandmagic]

Listen, LISTEN, what makes Kanej such a compelling and unique ship is that they IN FACT don’t need skin on skin contact to love each other. They don’t need what other couples have to feel how they feel or to show their affection for each other. They have so much trauma and issues they have to deal with but that does not stop them from being willing to try to be together despite their struggles. They can barely hold hands but that does not erase the yearning and the love and devotion they so clearly feel for the other.

Kaz is willing to try to put himself together for her. He shows he cares by giving her everything she ever wanted: her freedom and her parents and a ship to hunt slavers.

And Inej canonically states she doesn’t think she could ever have a normal relationship with anybody else, she doesn’t want that, she’s not made for that life. What she wants is Kaz being willing to try to open up for her. The “I will have you without armor” is not about her wanting him to remove his gloves for her and give her physical affection. SHE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IF SHE COULD EVEN HANDLE THAT.

What she wants is Kaz being willing to try for her. If she was going to make herself vulnerable and open her heart to a relationship with him she needs him to meet her in the middle. She knows what she deserves and she was not going to try if Kaz was going to give her nothing but his usual emotionally repressed self.

That’s it. It’s not about skin on skin contact, it’s not about Inej needing a man without trauma to fulfill physical needs she cannot even handle just yet because she was the victim of human trafficking and repeated SA in the Menagerie. And I DESPISE the writers for completely erasing that aspect and daring to imply something between Inej and Tolya. Tolya who canonically states he has no interest in romance, who literally says his books and his poetry are more than enough! That one writer with their stupid IG post, I swear they don’t have even the most basic understanding of these characters and what make them so unique and special. LITERALLY NO ONE ASKED FOR A LOVE TRIANGLE WHERE ITS NOT NEEDED STOP THAT SHIT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!

[givehimthemedicine]

pool party. (a sorta elmax ficlet) (don't be alarmed by the second person, this is an El pov fic, not an x reader fic)

Mike's birthday is a pool party.

Max already had a bathing suit, but you did not, so she took you shopping for one. You are glad she must like shopping so much that she goes with you even when she does not buy anything.

At the store she held up something really small, two little pieces of cloth with strings hanging off, and you didn't understand what you were supposed to think about it. She laughed and explained that it was clothes. You laughed too, even though really you still did not understand.

The one you picked is the whole kind instead of the falling apart little pieces kind. It is striped.

Max's is red.

The pool is blue.

You like Mike, and parties are a fun thing, people say, and maybe it was on purpose you did not think about the pool part of this until you got to Mike's backyard.

The cement is hot under your feet. You stand there in the bright sun, staring down at the blue water, and you want to shiver.

Lucas and Max and Will are already in the water, splashing on a floating thing. Mike and Dustin are standing talking still dry. You try to remember if you have ever seen Dustin with no hat before right now.

The water makes you think of how metal smells. It looks like feeling heavy.

You touch the stomach of your new suit to make sure it is not the kind with weights on it.

It looks like you can see the bottom of the pool, but maybe there is more beneath that. The black water that's beyond the blue water, where it is dark and endless. A place where you could scream and nobody-

"What's wrong?"

Max is looking up at you from near your feet, her arms folded on the edge of the pool. Her hair looks smooth and dark. You did not notice her coming over.

How did she know anything was wrong? You must be acting wrong.

"You don't know how to swim," she guesses, and you realize you have not said anything back.

No. No, you guess you don't know how, not if swimming is what Lucas is doing right now at the far end, so you shake your head.

Max pushes up, climbing out of the water and making a big drippy trail over to where Mike is standing.

Now is your chance to go in the pool while nobody is paying attention.

You want to be like the others, and the others are not bothered about the things you are. Normal takes practice like everything else. Lots more, maybe.

This is a pool party, and that means everybody is going into the pool, and you have to go into the pool too or else it would not be a pool party. You are going to pretend that you are normal and you are just going to do it. It will just be done, and no one will know this is one more way you are not normal.

Right when you are about to convince your foot to move, Dustin runs and yells and jumps and hugs his knees and makes a big splash that startles you and makes you take a step backwards. He is laughing. He is smart, and he would not laugh if there was a dark place where he might get trapped.

Although maybe he just does not know. And if he did get trapped, if any of them did, you are the one who would have to help them.

You stare at a tile design at the bottom of the pool. Wavy wavy. Trying to judge its distance makes you feel a little like crying.

You look up at a noise and find Mike's face, and Max's next to it. If you think for a second, you can hear what he just said - "Here, El," and that his voice sounded like it maybe was not the first time he said it. "They're Holly's, but they'll fit you."

He is holding out two... things. Purple puffy plasticky things with little dolphins on them. You stare. Maybe they are clothes, but again, you do not understand how.

"They go on your arms. Like this. They help you float." Mike picks up your hand and puts one of the things on it, like a big puffy bracelet, that goes up and up high on your arm. It does not weigh anything.

Mike and Max are not wearing purple things with dolphins on them. You look around. Neither are Will or Dustin or Lucas.

"Nobody'll laugh," Max says. You know she would make sure.

"C'mon," Mike urges, putting the other one on your other arm. "I'll teach you how to swim."

"Do you even know how to swim?" Max asks.

"Uh? Yes?" Mike scrunches up his face at her. "Why wouldn't I know how to swim, cause I'm not from California?"

"Cause you spend your life in that fart dungeon playing board games and you look like you've never been outside before right now?"

"Bite me." Mike walks over to the edge and steps right off it and drops straight down into the water, and it makes something sharp happen in your chest, even when you see his head and shoulders still sticking out.

Mike's hand is reaching out. Yours is supposed to reach out and go in it, but it doesn't. He is squinting against the sun in a way that makes his teeth show without it being a smile. It makes you not recognize his face all the way. "Come on, El."

You hear yourself breathing. You stare at his hand. His fingers flex twice like waving you over.

"Orrr, you don't have to go in the water," Max's voice says behind you, and you look at her hopefully. You would love for it to be true. But.

"Pool party," you answer, pressing your teeth together hard and turning back to the water.

"Use the steps," Mike says, and his open hand turns into a pointing finger. "You don't have to jump in."

You make yourself step down onto the first step and feel the water wrap around your leg. You stand still for a minute, making sure that you are only imagining the step lowering you down into the water.

Something touches the small of your back.

"Hey, I'll be right next to you," Max says near your ear, kind of quiet, maybe so Mike does not hear, "and I'm actually a good swimmer, so don't worry."

And it makes you feel better, a little.

When you take another step down, the purple dolphin things go up and take your arms with them. This water is not cold but you shudder at the way it finds all your edges at once. You have always hated that moment.

"Stay by this side," Mike tells you. "If you go over by the middle it gets deeper, but over here you can stand up."

You look wide-eyed across the water, not sure where counts as the middle, and grab hard onto the ledge.

The water presses around you and it's harder than normal to breathe, and you do not like that feeling at all, and wherever you move you cannot wriggle out of it.

Max is close like she said she would be. She is standing between you and the middle, like she is guarding you from it. She smiles when you look at her face. You would like to smile back, but you don't think you are.

The boys are hollering and splashing.

Mike still wants your hand, but you need both to hang onto the edge, even though your feet are touching the bottom. You are not so sure you can trust them.

"Let go of the side, El, you can hang onto me," Mike says.

But if you let go, you might never find the edge again. All your friends might be gone. You might get shut in here by yourself in water with no edges.

The others come splashing over.

"Are you learning how to swim?"

"I thought she could already swim."

"Try floating on your back."

"Yeah, remember in the gym," Lucas says. "You did it easy."

You do not want to remember in the gym. The only good thing about in the gym is when it was over, and Will's mom put her arms around you. You wish this was over too, and for arms to be around you.

You can't imagine floating now like you did before. It was easy before. That water just held you. This water would drop you, you can tell. If you trusted it for a second it would swallow you.

"That was salt water."

"She's less buoyant-"

"You're less buoyant-"

Dustin and Mike push each other back and forth until Mike puts his hand on top of Dustin's head and pushes it down under the water.

Panic shoots through you and you spin to Max with wide eyes.

"We're not doing that," she says quickly. "Nobody is gonna dunk you, I promise."

"I wouldn't dunk you, El. I could dunk Max though," Mike grins, fending off Dustin who - "You're so dead!" - is trying to do the same thing back to him.

"Don't."

He makes a move toward Max and she sticks out a shielding arm.

"Mike, stop," Will says.

"Come on, you're making her nervous," Max says seriously, and Mike looks at you and stops. You are glad, because you were about one heartbeat away from stopping him yourself, and it would not have been very nice to do on his birthday.

It's still hard to breathe. Too many voices are saying things at once.

"Kick your legs like this-"

"You have to let go of-"

"Give her some space -"

"If you hold your breath-"

"This is called a doggy paddle-"

"Hang onto me-"

"Come on, just try-"

Mike's hand touches your hand and tries to pull it off of the side and you yank it away.

Your breath goes away and it is silent. Black. You scramble against the edge and it feels like smooth glass against your palms. You feel being locked alone in the dark with something you can not run from. You feel ice in "El?" your veins and screaming so loud in a tiny space that "El?" it makes your whole head ring like it will crack apart-

"El! Are you okay?"

It's so bright it hurts. The water is moving but everybody is still and quiet and looking at you, Mike and Max holding onto you with four hands and worried faces. Your head still rings and your throat hurts. Your lungs push hard against the water.

"Hey, you're okay," Mike says. "Just take a deep breath."

That is exactly what you can't do.

"That's enough," Max slides an arm around you. "We're getting out."

Out. Out yes out now please yes please out. You grab onto her shoulder.

"The steps are right-" but you are already using Max for a ladder. Getting straight out is not easy like when she did it, and you get stuck halfway, clinging to the side on your elbows until she gives you a heave up and you crawl out, knees hurting on the cement.

The boys are starting "Wait" and "Is she- ?" and "What hap-?" behind you, but there are not any words in you.

You don't know why you go straight to this spot like you already knew it existed, but your feet just take you around the side of Mike's house where it is shady, and you sit down on the grass against a big tree.

The air is easier over here.

Ten seconds behind you, Max comes and drapes a big towel around your shoulders. It feels nicer to have it around you. She sits down next to you.

Your palms are shaky and pink and scraped. You feel tired. Embarrassed.

Max is not talking. It does not seem like she is waiting for you to, either. But you like that she is there. She is just resting her head on the tree bark, looking up at the leaves moving in the breeze.

Her eyes are blue like the pool. It is funny you can fear a color in one place and trust it in another.

She is probably the one who likes swimming best, and she is sitting over here with you, looking at leaves instead. You are glad.

You lean just close enough for your shoulder to touch hers a little bit, hoping to sneak some comfort, but she gives it to you on purpose instead. She puts her arm around you and suddenly you are so close to crying that if she says one word, you will pop like a too full water balloon, so you wrap your arms around her and hide your face against her. She does not say one word, and she just lets you stay like that for a long time.

For a while all you hear is your own breathing. But then birds. Water noise and laughing. Cars driving by sometimes.

You let yourself slump back, but still with your shoulder leaning against hers.

"By my old house there were these trees," Max says after another long while, and you are surprised to hear her voice like you forgot talking was a thing. "Big fat trees all along the street with roots pushing up the sidewalk. It was way too cracked up to skate on. People were always tripping. I used to daydream about if I could just, like, poof, and make those roots disappear. Make the sidewalk all level, one square at a time."

You don't know why she told you this, but you do not wish she had stayed quiet instead.

"Would it help to tell me about it? It's not about drowning, exactly, is it."

You shake your head, even though she is not looking at you. She is looking at a brown leaf that she is twirling in her fingers.

It is not that you don't want her to know. You just don't know how to say, or what good it would do. She already saw how you feel about it.

"You coulda just told us you didn't wanna swim. We wouldn't have made you."

"I wanted to try." The breeze blows and you hug the towel around yourself. You do not like how your own cold wet hair feels.

That is the only thing you do not like about long hair. It stays wet long. When you had none, at least you would be dry right away.

"Okay, well.. if you ever wanna try again, I could help you. But you don't have to. And definitely not today. We could just, like, sit and work on our tans while those bozos try to drown each other. Or ditch 'em and go in, watch TV or something."

Going inside sounds nice. You do not really care about TV, but you would love to be somewhere warm and dry and soft and quiet and with Max.

Splashing sounds get your attention again.

"But Mike's birthday," you remind her.

You are all supposed to be having fun with him. People are special on their birthdays, Will said, and everyone does whatever they want. You wonder what you would want to do for your birthday, if you had one.

"It's more important for you to be comfortable. Mike would say so too," she says. "So what do you feel like doing?"

Closing your eyes is the real answer, and you do it instead of say it. But you can't rest here, not all the way, not wet and chilly and with tree bark sharp on your back.

"Inside," you answer, although your body doesn't want to obey you. It is tired and heavy. You wish one of your powers was making yourself be someplace else without moving.

"Okay." Max gets up and brushes grass off herself and offers you both of her hands. "C'mon."

You look up at her face. She smiles. Waiting.

Max is nice. It was a mistake not to be her friend sooner.

You smile back, a little one, and take her hands.

[warningsine]

[kumomist]

*lays facedown on the ground* what

[cuntservant]

most borderlands player characters (apart from the bl1 VHs) have little to no personality and minimal plot involment but they're still all my best friends. some like zer0 and maya have more screentime but do we get to know them. not really. yet still i know them personally. we don't know shit about salvador apart from like the 3 minutes of backstory from an audio log and a few random facts. and yet still this is salvador my good friend salvador. we go a way back

[itsclydebitches]

If I'm remembering correctly, I saw a AMA post on Reddit revealing Blake and Ruby were supposed to go into the whale and Nora was supposed to take Yang's place in the argument with Ren. I'm not sure why this change happened - it might have something to do with Penny and Ruby - but its very revealing the writers think their characters' roles in the story are interchangeable, which... I don't like. Regardless, this might explain why certain dialogue (or lack thereof) seems ooc - because it is.

Yeah, I heard something similar. Generally speaking I don't have a problem with the characters switching roles, only in the writers failing to change things as a result of that switch. As you say, they're treated as interchangeable. The problem isn't in the idea of, 'Yang should get mad at Ren and Ruby+Blake should stay at the mansion' (even if, honestly, giving the B Team more to do is a bit of an inherent problem imo) it's in failing to go, 'Okay, if these characters are now doing this, how does the plot and their dialogue change as a result?' To put it in extreme terms, RWBY's the kind of show where they'll originally have a character dress to the nines, then change the plot so that they wind up in grimy, scorched, utterly disgusting rags instead... and still have another character go, "Omg you look so good today!!" with complete seriousness because the change isn't allowed to have a ripple effect. Not even for creative purposes, but just for basic logic.

As a side-note, I'm intrigued by the idea of Nora getting mad at Ren instead. That hypothetically works better for me. 1. We remove some of the fuel that is Yang getting mad at everything all the time, 2. Ren is Nora's teammate and she has far more reason to be emotionally invested in his choices, 3. Having her stick up for Mantle/be anti-Ironwood again would have helped smooth over the odd choice to have her go to Atlas HQ, 4. Nora's whole arc this Volume is (supposedly) finding herself, so giving her a strong opinion/more personality in regards to serious issues is a good thing, 5. If his side was actually treated respectfully, having Ren's differing morals put a potential wedge in their relationship is FAR more compelling/believable to me than, 'You were a very bad friend and teammate off scree. I'm glad you learned to stop voicing your opinions -- that's the bad thing -- but I need space now,' and 6. Having an all JNR disagreement might add more weight and logic to Ren's "You cheated your way into Beacon!" accusation. Meaning, it all might flow better if the team were turning on each other, with Ren feeling ganged up on, so if Nora is going to start criticizing his ethics and potentially stupid choices, he'll do the same to Jaune.

With Yang I'm just like... You trusted Robyn blindly, betrayed the group as a result, are straight up lying right now about how well you've done, and are yelling at a guy you've barely spoken five words to in as many Volumes. I am not convinced by your ethical position here, Yang.

[relientlykrazie]

After seeing more response to the episodes, there's a question I want to ask, directly to the Betty stans, with no malice: why were you expecting more with Betty? Genuinely, because the og show never really did anything with her, I don't know why you'd expect more here.

[kingdomoftyto]

Rotating Simon Petrikov in my mind again...........

Right now I can only envision the F&C series ending in one of two ways for him:

Simon is persuaded to permanently move to Fionna's magic-free world--a chance to live the peaceful, scholarly life he was denied by the war and the Crown. We see that he can't relate to the humans in Ooo because they're so far removed from what humans were like back in his time that they might as well be aliens, but this alternate world would be just like he remembered his old life to be, and thus more comfortable for him to settle down in. Even if it meant leaving Marceline and the others behind in Ooo, I could see this being a real possibility if Betty somehow finds a way to go with him. It would require moving on irrevocably from one part of his life, but they'd get their simple, mundane--yet happy--ending.

Simon is forced to reconcile with the fact that reuniting with Betty is either impossible or not worth some terrible price. Maybe he realizes he's not willing to cut himself off from his Marceline and the little ragtag family they've built, even for a life with Betty. Or maybe accepting the mundane life for himself would also doom Fionna and Cake to a life of misery and broken dreams, and he can't bring himself to betray his new friends for such a selfish reward. Either way the result is that he returns to Ooo, to basically the same situation he was in at the start of the season, but finally free from all the regret and guilt and grief that was stopping him from moving forward and finally embracing the second chance that Betty gave him back in "Come Along with Me".

I honestly don't know which I think is more likely at this point OR necessarily which one I would prefer, because they both have pros and cons. I maybe lean toward the second one because I tend to hate "the magic is gone, and that's good!"-type endings, but depending on the buildup I could still see it working. Ultimately it'll depend on wherever Fionna and Cake themselves end up, and I have NO idea where that's going lmao

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about dream daddy again and god brian makes me so mad

[rainsnap]

What I badly want for the next arc is this setup:

This arc ending with:

Frostpaw becomes Froststar, leader of Riverclan

Leaving the clan without a medicine cat that can communicate with Starclan, adding more stress to Froststar.

Sunbeam and Nightheart expecting kits.

So then the POV characters for the next arc are:

Whistlepaw from Windclan

Graypaw from Riverclan (Frostpaw’s brother)

Unnamed Nightbeam kit from Thunderclan

The story would begin as such:

Graypaw and Whistlepaw grow closer together for Not So Forbidden Romance. Whistlepaw, still forbidden because medicine cat. The two want to be together but can’t because med cat relationships still illegal.

Meanwhile unnamed kit has visions of becoming the new Riverclan medicine cat apprentice

Graypaw and Whistlepaw are found out by Froststar, who starts pressuring the clans into changing the medicine cat no romance rule. But no one really wants to listen to her.

Then Harestar dies and Crowfeather becomes Crowstar and that guy immediately allows Whistlepaw and Graypaw to be together and refuses to listen to the other clans, stating that if such a time like this existed for him and Leafpool then there would have been less heartbreak and deaths (Leafpool/Hollyleaf)

—-

SO THEN the story would have an amazing parallel to Moth Flight as a Windclan med cat making the rule and then Whistlepaw being a Windclan med cat breaking it!

[girlblocker]

tabitha world forever and ever and ever

character of all time! its her world we're all just living in it

[allegorism]

why the fuck are they going like "i once met a woman slave to her destiny, i wanted to save her, but...." with cid, like i'm sorry, but what did that man even do for benedikta🧍‍♀️