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#she works with civilians though because of all the conflict of interest with everyone else
spacedace · 1 year
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So I've seen a lot of "Jazz works as a therapist at Arkam" in the dp x dc fandom, and while I like the concept, I also feel like Jazz would take one look at the place and immediately be like "what the absolute fuck" at just the everything of the place.
Like, she either nopes out after the tour during the interview or quits not too long afterward starting there, not because she can't take it but because she's so appalled by what's going on there and can smell the corruption rolling off the place and knows no one sent to there is ever actually going to get the help they need.
So Jazz decides to open a private practice instead while still being absolutely determined to work with the various rogues in the city, she is here to help and nothing is going to stop her.
So she just starts showing up at known hangouts of rogues and during their heists/schemes/sprees, and even fights between them and the batfam, just like
"Hi! It’s so nice to meet you! My name is Dr. Jasmine Fenton/Nightingale/whatever last name she’s using and I was hoping we could talk!"
Casually kicks a baterang away without looking because she's being polite and professional!
"I understand that your experience with therapy through Arkam has been nothing but atrocious and that you are rightfully -"
Kicks Batman away without breaking eye contact or a sweat.
"Suspicious of attempting therapy again, and Idon't want to force anything on you, therapy should be on your terms after the experiences you've had but -"
Grabs Robin out of the air as he leaps at the rogue she's talking to and tucks him under her arm, ignoring his feral hissing and all attempts to break her hold.
"-I really think that you'd find it beneficial, even if I'm not the right therapist for you."
The rogue in question is having the time of their life and takes Jazz's business card - and a few extra to pass around - not really intending to actually ever book a therapy appointment with her but way too entertained and excited to share this madness with everyone else.
But then one of the rogues actually looks up Jazz's website and sees all the various safe guards she’s put in place to ensure that any villians that come to her will be protected while seeing her - soundproof therapy room, regular sweeps for listening and tracking devices, the most insane firewalls and protections anyone has ever seen on her network, and ooh she provides snacks and drinks!
So someone finally books an appointment with her, half convinced she's either going to turn them in or is a villain herself intent to experiment on them, but then it’s actually really nice??? And they feel a lot better afterwards?? She doesn't even say anything to indicate that she wants them to stop being villains, she just wants them to be okay??
So more and more rogues start going to her, and Batman was already losing his mind about this woman before - Oracle can't hack her system?!? And her background check shows a totally normal Psychiatrist?? - but now half of Gotham's heavy hitters and a dozen or so other minor league villains are seeing her regularly and every time he tries to get info on any plans the rogues might be scheme via her office it fails utterly. Nightwing got knocked out with something called a creep stick and when he tried to break in himself to get answers she just appeared out of no where and gave him the most scathing lecture about doctor-patient confidentiality before bullying him off her property and threatening to sick her brother on him if he tried again?
And because she's become such a figure in the Gotham underworld, she gets the attention of Joker.
And everyone, rogues and Bats alike, are terrified that she’s going to try and take him on as a patient like she has so many other villains in the city and that's just a recipe for tragedy.
But then the Joker is on his way to the hospital with two broken legs and the fear of god beat into him babbling about eldritch nightmares and whenever anyone asks Jazz what happened she just shrugs and just says things like "I refused him as a patient, he's not my problem." Or "My brother doesn't like clowns." And just, does not elaborate.
Batman is losing his mind over it all. Jazz is just happy to be able to actually help the rogues. Arkam is less happy about how she absolutely destroys their reputation.
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familyagrestefanblog · 6 months
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I can only hope the new Paris special won't force Marinette/ Toxinelle into the role of the "chaotic baddest bitch" for superficial praise and keeping Adrien/ Griffe Noire as nothing but her unconditional support again and the "good" one. Because literally from the way the powers of Ladybug and Chat Noir work that's bullshit and the MUCH weaker story premise character wise.
Toxinelle has no offensive powers. She can be as smart as she wants in this scenario her powers are needed for AFTER the Butterfly akumatized someone to save the city, so she can prevent said saving from happening.
Griffe Noire would be required to first nuke the city so the butterfly can react to something and that means alternative Adrien/ Griffe Noire would - the longer all that went on - have needed to let go of all morality he once had and agree to become the moster of the two so SHE can remain level headed and get the Butterfly from the hero.
That's still alot of pressure and burden on Toxinelle's shoulders, being the one who has to be the light at the end of the tunnel for both of them to get their happy ending in a better world. But for the love of God, Adrien throwing out his humanity and only holding onto her and his dead mother
If this is to be believed:
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Is ALOT worse and fitting as the conflict's heart piece.
I can only hope the special will be reasonable enough that Toxinelle will be the lesser evil of ShadyClaw and not waste so much story potential for another round of "Chloé the awful bitch". There is so much more interesting stuff you can do with Marinette than that, especially in the Toxinelle field.
Already as Ladybug Marinette showcases extremely dangerous anti-hero tendencies where she becomes so strategic that everyone involved stops being human beings or mattering in the moment because she needs to get something important done.
Most crucial examples are how Emilie Agreste's dead body was used as a mere inhuman tool by her in "Recreation" to defeat her insane husband, by cataclysming the lift and letting it crash down on Emilie to force Gabriel to stand still. Only though that Marinette then barely gave Gabriel enough time to throw the lift sideways and he only managed to save himself and Emilie from being crushed in the nick of time.
Or you know, all of Marinette's horrifying plan in "Destruction" that put several life in danger by sending Monarque to helpless civilians (even to ANNOY HIM) and Chat Noir was literally turned into a non-human object served on a silver plate to Monarque. He couldn't move an inch like a human is to be expected or even BREATH while Monarque went to grab for his throat while Marinette herself stood save and sound in the back because all she actually thought about in that plan were the Kwamis and herself (not even bringing up how fucked up it was to not even let Chat Noir know that her plan involves him having to possibly live with having cataclysmed a person.)
Everyone else MONARQUE had to keep save in her plan by not being the awful and sadistic monster they thought him to be. Tolerating all kinds of disrespectful bullshit and not using any Second chance or other miraculous powers besides voyage, or for the lols quartering Chat Noir's statue for example in a second's notice.
Marinette's plan in "Destruction" was horrifying and impossibly irresponsible in how she instinctively dehumanized everyone but herself and the Kwamis in it without noticing it and 100% relied on MONARQUE to be a decent and reasonable enough person underneath so she could get away with the insane endangerment and dehumanization of everyone but herself (especially Chat Noir).
Her final battle with Monarque had Marinette come back to this questionable morality when she pulled a low-blow anti hero move by dragging the dead spouse of the villain further into the fight, and risking to take any human dignity away from Emilie's remainings - who never wanted any of this being done in her name - by making it GABRIEL'S job to save and preserve her from Bug Noire.
Marinette 100% has some serious anti-hero tendencies in how she dehumanizes people sometimes as side-effect of her strategic mind and when she's either to caught up in her head or she thinks her goal justifies the means.
Jfc, quit the bullshit and let Toxinelle be the escalation of that side of Marinette because she and Adrien know their identities this time around - truly THEM against the world - and she's stuck in a position where Adrien was forced to let go of his humanity and other emotional attachments for their cause, is way too far gone by now and she has to make sure they actually win so all of this wasn't for nothing.
Give me a Marinette/ Toxinelle who made it out of her having been bullied alot worse and that's how she got into this, but by now she deep down fully regrets ever having started this and wished with every inch of her heart she could stop
but she knows she herself already hardly could live with herself after all this so she would never ask Adrien/ Griffe Noire to let go of the only hope he has at this point and live with the fact that he became an actual monster to preserve HER humanity, so she can save them both with the wish.
A Toxinelle who believes they already went too far to possibly go back and because of that she detaches herself from morality in the way it happened in "Recreation" with Emilie because in her (and Adrien's) mind they only have to win and everything will be okay again.
Adrien won't be a monster anymore and will return all together to the boy she once loved - and only still behaves like around Marinette or while thinking of his mother - and Paris, it's citizens, the entire world and THEMSELVES wont remember anymore what happened or that Toxinelle and Griffe Noire ever did any of this to them.
Give me TAHT Marinette/ Toxinelle please. For the love of GOD.
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birdy-the-tweet · 4 months
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Character Catalog
“Flint”
“Flint”, as she prefers to be called, is an informant and spy that joins the Nexo Knights in the middle of Season One. Though having no correlation to the realm’s chivalrous system of justice, her experiences as a nomad and civilian grant the team connections to lower places in the kingdom.
Family and History
As far as the knights are aware of, Flint isn’t her actual name but rather the name she chose for herself. She claims she lost her actual name at birth to the hands of a changeling and narrowly survived the effects of replacement. Everyone can agree it was a cruel fate for a child.
She, kind of like Dauntless, grew up nomadic and traveled with her family across the realm consistently in accordance with the changing seasons and flow of nature. Her loved ones would spend many nights in local towns and villages, then travel to the next over time. Because of their low status in society and the obscurity of their family name, they would develop many friendships and contacts with individuals who worked away from the eyes of monarch officials and noblemen, criminals and underground inventors alike. One of her favorite catchphrases is “I know a friend in a low place” or something along the lines of that. And eventually, when she was old enough, she left the guidance of her parents and sought out her own adventures across the kingdom.
The day she joined the team, she fled her current home south of Spittoon and begged for the assistance of the knights. She claimed the townspeople, including herself, had been inflicted with some sort of energy and endured nonstop hallucinations of their worst fears. The only way she was able to escape the grasp of the arcane curse was to run as far from the village as she could in hopes of finding someone to help. Determined to aid the civilians before the curse could bring physical harm to them or to others beyond the town, the knights accepted her plea and welcomed her into the Fortrex. She’s been a friend and informant to the group ever since.
Personality
Born with a quiet spirit, Flint doesn’t actively engage in social activities but isn’t afraid to speak when spoken to either. Her tolerance of conversation with strangers can be described as purely necessity to survive, something only people who’ve worked in customer service can relate to. She’s normally a wallflower, but as she spends more time with the knights, she becomes more open to adding her input into discussions and battle plans.
Her experience in street smarts and background as a traveler gives her unrivaled intelligence in the many historical highlights and conflicts of the world, and she can even recite stories about personal encounters with monsters once deemed only fiction. Only Dauntless competes with her knowledge, but the two share an equal interest in the realm’s past and commonly quiz each other. Everyone calls them both history nerds, something they take as a heartwarming compliment.
Flint has a mild adoration for dance, specifically performances that blend dance routines with combat styles. But you’ll never find her indulging in her interests in public, not even at academy dances or nights at the club. She’d rather keep to a wall and watch everyone else enjoy the night.
Trivia
• The name “Flint” is a reference to the tool “flint”. Flint, or flintstone, is a sedimentary rock usually used to make stone tools or start fires, key elements in survival.
• She is the shortest member of the team at 5’2” and weighs 153 lbs.
• Her arms appear to have severe burn scars, but the skin itself doesn’t show any physical signs of damage. After many analyses, Ava confirmed they were simply markings. The same goes for her facial markings.
• She is naturally born with partial heterochromia in her eyes. One eyes is forest green, and the other is a dull orange with a single green speck around the pupil.
• She wears a beautiful runic tattoo on the back of her neck. Nobody knows what it means if anything at all.
• You’ll always find her wrapped up in some sort of fabric or residing close to a fire to keep warm, for she can’t preserve heat well naturally. The hooded shawl she wears as her signature article of clothing is designed like a heated blanket for this reason alone.
• Ice cream is one of her favorite foods. Yes it’s a food, and yes it counts.
• Unlike Macy, she likes wearing dresses so long as they hide her stomach from view.
• The group once discussed what her crest would be if she had a knight’s shield. After much consideration, she chose the viper.
• During nights when she can’t sleep, she’ll visit the Fortrex’s library and read as many books as she can.
• She goes by she/they and is a lesbian.
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jenniferstolzer · 3 years
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Babylon 5 Rewatch ep 2.20 The Long, Twilight Struggle
Sheridan and Delenn receive an invitation to Epsilon III where Draal pledges the Great Machine to the campaign against the Shadows. Meanwhile Londo commits his Shadow allies to one more attack against the Narn, allowing the Centauri to commit war crimes and end the Narn conflict.
Things I like about The Long Twilight Struggle
1, An energy fluctuation happens on the planet and Corwin turns to his coworkers like “There’s something happening. Contact Commander Ivanova” then the camera drifts to a private quarters. A shower is running. We see the steam as we coast slowly toward the bathroom for a tasteful near nude shot of Claudia Chris—NOPE Bruce Boxleitner. I CACKLED.
2, Draal is great and I love him. It worked out that Sheridan is new here to get a refresher on who Draal is and what’s going on with the Great Machine. Also the Great Machine making him younger is a good way to explain why he’s Herman Munster now. I’m guessing he’ll stay young and vibrant until he disintegrates like the last guy.
3, I appreciate seeing Londo’s true colors in his conversation with Refa. He’s tired, both from the trip to Centauri Prime and of all the war and darkness he’s involved himself in. He’s also still mourning Ursa Jaddo from Knives which was a nice callback considering he had a significant moment of doubt and regret in that episode, and it’s good to be reminded that he’s not totally sold on what’s going on right now. It’s also nice that he’s against the mass drivers at the outset but is convinced to go with Refa’s plan because he considers the glorification of his people more important than himself or anything else. He talks himself into doing something truly horrendous, but it’s wrong and his face knows its wrong. And then Refa makes him watch, when he fully intended to hide from what he’s done. Gguhh the pain is wonderful.
4, Watching this in a rewatch hurts so bad. Like Franklin gives G’Kar a warning about the Centauri’s interest in homeworld. There’s the possibility he can stop it.
5, Delenn and Sheridan go down to Epsilon III she is acting super cocky and in control because she wants to impress her crush, even using clever colorful English phrases. Everyone remembers Abasfrigginlutely Damnit. Oh Delenn….
6, Sheridan looks at the inside of the Great Machine and is like  “Lord, I may not go home” and I laughed b/c it looks like Tron in there.
7. The jump-kicking Centauri.
8, The mass drivers really are the most disgusting move. To devastate a civilian population from space is the ultimate ranged weapon. What could they possibly do? Watching Londo watch it happen is peak drama because as disgusted as he is watching, you know he’s as disgusted with himself in facilitating it. The drama is there but also horror on a level few shows can communicate, that of self-horror. The moment earlier where it was established and Londo still had a concept of right and wrong even as he was dealing with the Shadows is pulling full weight here. At the beginning of this season he was a buffoon struggling to stay afloat, in the middle of the season he finds the power and respect he wanted but loses the trust and friendship of the station in the process, and here at the culmination of his choices he sees what he was really willing to sell his soul for. He could have remained powerless and kept his sense of self, but instead he chose advancement and learned to hate what he’s become. It’s just staggering.
9, G’Kar is also pulling full weight in this episode. He’s prepared to go back to Narn, be with his family, and die among his people but he is the only member of the Kha’Ri not on homeworld and being so, he is an in credibly valuable asset for the race now that surrender is unavoidable. The tears in his eyes when asking for sanctuary are soul crushing, and the horror and shame he’s feeling is an inversion of Londo’s… powerlessness and being suppressed despite knowing he could do more verses being powerful and regretting it.
10, The Centauri terms of surrender are so cruel. It’s the turn of a knife that’s already been plunged to the hilt and Sheridan coming in to yank the dagger back an inch like a badass is extremely galvanizing and give Delenn grounds to commit the Rangers to him later in the episode. Also something I want to note about this scene that I think is even more important than Sheridan being a hero, it’s G’Kar sitting in his normal spot in complete despair, enduring Londo’s terms. Londo is dressed in every decoration and medal he’s ever owned, screaming at the top of his lungs like being the loudest makes him the rightest, yet G’Kar is silent. Londo demands G’Kar be removed from the council chambers like an invader. Sheridan replies by recounting the request for sanctuary, resulting on the two fighting over G’Kar’s head, but no one calls the bailiff to come get him. No one except Londo tells him he needs to go. They give G’Kar the chance to move. Even Kosh waits to see what he’s going to do. Will he attack? Will he scream and cry? No. He stands and with every ounce of self control he contains, delivers one of the greatest axefalls in television history.
“No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once, we will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.”
11, AND THATS NOT EVEN THE END OF THE EPISODE! I can’t believe this wasn’t a two-parter with everything that’s happened in this one half an hour of screentime. Sheridan essentially tells G’Kar he’s on his side in this war. He offers G’Kar his hand as an ally, and G’Kar considers it saying; “The last time I offered someone my hand, we were at war 24 hrs later” He pauses to make you wonder if he’s lost the ability to trust, then shakes with Sheridan and the look on his face tells something completely different. He still believes he’ll be at war very shortly, but he’s hoping for it. He’s counting on it.
12, Finally we get the introduction of the Rangers and the only thing that can kind of fit on my “Liked less” list. I like this just fine, but there’s something about Delenn who is in charge of a secret sect of warrior monks pledged to side with the Vorlons against the Shadows, turning the control of those monks over to Sheridan without fully introducing him to their existence. To be fair, she gives him partial control and doesn’t hand it over to him, removing herself from the field and I know having watched the rest of the show that she still is the sole figure in charge of the Rangers and is more accurately pledging herself and those in her service to Sheridan’s cause… but the way they read in this episode it looks like she’s giving Sheridan the reins. The next episode is KIND OF dealing with this with the inquisitor, but in general I think we could have avoided a lot of nonsense if she just phrased her pledge more accurately.
13, And this leads me to a theory… that Babylon5 was labeled their best hope for piece, but really it was built specifically as a neutral ground for the staging of the Shadow war. It really is Babylon 5, as in a replacement for Babylon 4 which was used as a warbase. This is why the Minbari co-founded the station, this is why it ends in fire at the end of everything. It’s existence is specifically tied to the the return of the shadows and the drama and diplomacy of the Narns, Centauri, Telepaths, Earthdome, etc etc are events of the universe that happen to occur there. Wihtout the Shadow War, there’d be no Babylon 5, and without Babylon 5 the universe would not continue.
14.
Finally.
The ARMY OF LIGHT
I got teary-eyed
Things I liked Less about The Long Twilight Struggle
The Delenn thing. But we’ll get back to that next episode. And that’s it.
This episode is truly one of the greatest and most emotionally wrenching pieces of television ever created. It’s a silly scifi show with rubber masks that dares to delve deeper beneath the skin than anything else I’ve seen. We see the horror and depravity of war, but we also see the people turned inside out by it and what colors they are within. Ten out of ten. Thanks for breaking my heart. This is why I had to take pause on my rewatch to prepare.
oh by the way @gin-007 and I are resuming our rewatch from 2019.
and I’m putting all these eps up on @b5picanep as well if you want to go back to see previous episodes. 
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kisilinramblings · 3 years
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So a common take is that Marinette's inherently a terrible female protagonist because she has such a major and somewhat obsessive crush on Adrien which is heavily focused on. I don't like the idea of a girl being perceived as poorly written/viewed as pathetic just cause she's heavily infatuated with a guy but I wanted to hear your take on it. I know there's some boy-crazy girls in anime that are poorly written (Girls in Naruto), but Marinette never struck me as being like them.
That's because Marinette isn't just someone in love. She is friend with other characters and spends time with them. She helps her classmates when they are in need. She has family she cares about. She has interest in fashion. She is creative and talented. She is a leader. She is a superhero. She has obligations. 
Besides, there are several episodes in which Marinette's actions or main conflict of the episode aren't caused by her crush for Adrien. Or that at most, Adrien is just acting as little bonus that gets added to her main motivation. (I will even bold the episodes in which Adrien as a civilian could have not even interact with Marinette and the episode would have still worked anyway) 
S1 (18/26)  Pharaoh, Lady Wifi, Timebreaker, Mr Pigeon, Evillustrator, Rogercop, Darkblade, Mime, Kung Food*, Antibug, Puppeteer, Reflekta, Guitar Villain, Princess Fragrance, Simonsays*, Origins (part 1 and 2). 
S2 (18/25) Prime Queen, Befana, Robustus, Dark Owl, Sapotis, Gorizilla*, Zombizou, Syren, Frighteningale*, Troublemaker, Reverser, Style Queen, Queen Wasp, Malediktator*, Anansi, Sandboy*, Catalyst, Mayura. 
S3 (15/25)  Bakerix, Weredad, Silencer, Oblivio, , Reflekdoll*, Miraculer, Star Train, Kwamibuster, Feast, Timetagger, Gamer 2.0, Ladybug, Miracle Queen. 
So, up to end of S3, that makes 51 out of 79 episodes (including all 3 specials). That's 2 episodes out of 3 in which Marinette's feelings for Adrien aren't meddling with her judgment and actions. Not bad for a girl with an "obsessive crush", eh? And before someone replies "yeah but you’ve listed [x] episode when it shouldn't because she is interacting with Adrien", here’s my reason for including those episodes in the list anyway.
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Kung Food Marinette didn’t ask for Adrien to be her interpreter. It was Alya’s doing. And Marinette’s conflict was about communicating with her uncle. Her reactions around Adrien were even normal for the vast majority of the episode. 
Simonsays Marinette didn’t sneak out against her parents’ order because she wanted to see Adrien, but because there was an Akuma attack. And throughout her interactions with Adrien as Ladybug, she tried to remain professional though there were a few little slips up, but nothing consequential.
Gorizilla Marinette bumped into Adrien by accident and helped him not because she wanted to drag him, but because he has asked for her help or needed her help.
Frighteningale Marinette and cie went to the audition because they were big fans of Clara. Plus none knew Adrien was casted for the role of Chat Noir. And the only thing that motivated Marinette to play Ladybug role in the end was because she couldn’t stand Chloé to be casted as Ladybug. 
Malediktator Marinette stopped celebrating after hearing Adrien’s pov, yes, but it was not because he was her crush. Adrien shared to her a different opinion than everyone else and Marinette started to reflects about her biais and actions as she realized Chloé will indeed be missed by someone as she could be sometimes helpful to someone. 
Sandboy Marinette’s nightmare as a civilian could have been anything else if she wasn’t dreaming of Adrien, but that doesn’t alter any of her actions or reactions if it had been the case.
Reflekdoll Marinette didn’t ask Adrien to come help their amateur photoshoot session for her blog. It was Alya who decided for her and Marinette was opposed by the idea because she wouldn’t be able to manage. Same with replacing Juleka as a model. Marinette saw Juleka was uncomfortable and didn’t want to pressure her. And it was Alya again who suggested both Adrien and Marinette model together to illustrate that Marinette’s creations were gender neutral.  So there you go.
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EDIT : Messed up the numbers, sorry (that’s what I get for calculating mentally late at night). Now fixed!
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st-just · 3 years
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Semi-coherent Thoughts on the Poppy War Series
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(Because I really need to start forcing myself to write semi-consistently again)
So I’ll say outright that I actually liked the series quite a bit, which does mean I actually got engaged and invested enough to start turning it over and picking it apart in my head after I finished it. So, like, this is probably going to come across as more negative overall than my actual opinions of the books.
Anyway, first off I really do adore Rin as a protagonist (I’d say ‘heroine’, but, well, no). Now partially this is because I always love even minimally sympathetic morally grey (..grey like coal soot, in this case) protagonists. But she’s just also such a complete garbage fire of a person, it’s kind of endearing. Well, that’s a bit callous – her entire personality is more or less a conflict between different kinds of unhealthy responses to powerlessness and trauma. Be she’s also just such a mess, and when she really starts leaning into delusions of grandeur you can’t help but root for her and hope things do actually turn out okay, regardless of how many fivers of blood she’s currently fantasizing about creating.
A big part of that is just how thoroughly awful the entire setting is, and how terrible everyone in it are, of course. Like, there are basically exactly three developed character in the entire trilogy who are unambiguously at least mostly good people (Chen, probably Venka, specifically the amnesiac and semi-delusional version of Jiang, but that’s being generous), and the fact that they stick around with Rin right to the end kind of puts that into doubt, honestly. Beyond that – almost every family has negligent or abusive parents, and literally every political figure is a bloody-handed tyrant ruling through violence and fear. The Hesperians are racist imperialists convinced they have a divine mandate to conquer the world, the Mugenese are every horror story from the IJA during WW2 translated to a pre-industrial fantasy setting, the ruling elite of Nikara are so many racist, scheming, power-hungry snakes with no concerns except their own position....
And, part and parcel with how terrible the setting is, Kuang does an incredible job of making all the worst things Rin does (until the final act, anyway) incredibly cathartic and badass and fun-in-a-fucked-up-way to read. There’s a terrible sort of awe while she turns the main islands of not!Japan into a pyroclastic hellscape. And whenever she gets a chance to enact any of her numerous revenges on some of the many people who abused and betrayed her it’s always poetic, in a Count-of-Monte-Cristo sort of way, and so kind of sickly compelling, even beyond it being some of the only times Rin’s really hopeful and happy. (Also, there are fun villainous monologues and quippy post-murder one-liners!)
Also, all forms of love are a terrible idea 100% of the time and is only going to end in at least one of the parties dead, abused, or (more or less literally) killing themselves in order to keep up with the other/earn their approval/try to keep them together. (I mean, Rin mostly had horrible taste in men, but Chen wasn’t able to stay mad at her for longer than a few months even after the whole ‘genocide’ thing, which he’s just about the only person to react to with any horror whatsoever. And look at how that ended up working out for him, so-)
I’m sure comparing grimdark fantasy to A Song of Ice And Fire is thoroughly out of fashion by now, but the overall perspective really did strike me as incredibly similar to Martin’s, a lot of the time. ‘Legitimate’ power and ‘lawful’ authority are ultimately nothing but polite fictions maintained by violence, terror and brutal oppression. War is a hell suffered most keenly by civilians with the misfortune to live and die in the middle of it, and least of all by the people with the power who actually start and end them. A flawed and unequal peace is very often preferable to dragging everything to hell with you as you die for the sake of freedom. And so on.
Now, to start the nitpicking – this is entirely personal and aesthetic, but it was kind of annoying how each of the first two books ended in moments of megalomaniac grandeur and terrifying empowerment, and then the next book started with a timeskip of things having gone to shit and her back under someone else’s thumb, and then a solid majority of the text is spent getting manipulated, betrayed, and finally crawling and clawing her way back out to the same point (both emotionally and in terms of independence/vision) that she had been at the previous book’s climax.
This isn’t anything even close to unique to TPW, of course – everything going to shit between the end of one story and the start of the sequel is kind of endemic to a lot of genres, really. And it is frankly incredibly in character for Rin to go through cycles flipping between resentment at being manipulated and used, and desperately craving authority figures to tell her what she should do and give her validation as valuable or useful. Still a bit annoying to read, though.
I’m sure it’s more me than the books – not like they didn’t put in the effort – but I could just never get really invested in the whole enemies-to-almost-lovers-to-enemies-again-to-? Thing with Nezha. Like, he’s interesting in that you can do a 180 perspective flip and he’d clearly be just as suitable a protagonist as Rin is, and his life’s very sad and everything. But, like, we get a front row seat to Rin’s internal monologue, and she gets thirsty for plenty of terrible men (and one awful woman), the only thing that makes Nezha special is that he’s not at least twice her age. So I never really got nearly as emotionally invested in them as the books seemed to expect me to. Which does kind of hurt the whole final act of book three.
Speaking of – okay, the ending isn’t awful or anything, but it is kind of disappointing in being exactly what you would expect it to be, as far as Rin’s character arc goes? Which might be just because I was already primed to compare this to ASOIF and she just literally pulls a Daenerys (fire-aligned vengeance/justice character with revolutionary impulses and an autocratic sensibility is willing to burn down the world in the process of freeing it, goes mad with power and paranoia, needs to be put down for the good of the country), but still. Her reading Venka throwing her to the ground to avoid an assassination attempt as a betrayal and burning her to death before she realized what was happening was just really heavy handed, you know? Same with turning on Kitay, who at this point is her actual literal soulmate. (Also sad in a broader sense, because those two are like literally two of the only characters in the entire series I’d actually peg as worthy of/capable of being trusted with political power.)
The specifics aside, I’m a miserable enough person to appreciate how unsatisfying the actual resolution at the end of the book is – imperialism wins! Literally no choice but to sign those unequal treaties and hope you’re eventually able to grow strong enough to force them out! Everything is the same as before this forty-year cycle of wars except much, much worse! - but yeah, I really just don’t actually care about Nezha enough as a character for it to really land. Also Kitay and Venka deserved better, even if literally no one else did.
Anyway, yeah, good series. Would recommend if you like the genre and can stomach all the, well, everything.
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milknette · 4 years
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day 08 - secret dating
you secret's safe and no one, has to know i’m your getaway.
tumblr month: @auyeahaugust
links: ao3 | ff.net
IT happens gradually, then all at once.
First, it starts with Mylene and Ivan. Wholesome. And, Alya and Nino. Perfect. Then, Juleka and Rose. Adorable.
But afterwards, it somehow extends further; to people outside of their class. Nathaniel and Marc. Kim and Ondine. Sabrina and some boy in another class. Even Chloé had gotten a girlfriend over the summer, with Kagami finally accepting her after months of the former's wooing.
By the time they all return to class, Marinette, to her complete surprise (and in some parts, horror), finds that the apparent theme for their return to class is romance— and as far as everyone else is concerned, she's the exception.
(Except that Marinette's not. Not really— though she can't exactly yell that truth into the sky or anything.)
Instead, she huffs, braves through the lovey-dovey atmosphere, and takes a seat.
Only for Alya to rush right beside her, Nino in tow, to completely rub it in her face.
"Someone looks a little sour today," she smirks, eyes bright with amusement. "Not liking being back to school?"
"I just don't understand what happened to everyone after the break!" Marinette complains, waving her hands around in evident confusion. "What made everyone so weird!?"
"Love," Alya shrugs, saying it almost too simply. "Everyone spent their respective summer together, and dating just came as the most natural step." She turns to Marinette, shaking her head. "And if anything, you're the weird one here! Girl, you're the only single one left."
Well, she begged to differ.
Marinette shakes her head, then points at a pair at the other side of the room. "What about Max and Alix? They aren't dating anyone either!"
Alya rolls her eyes. "They're not interested in dating, remember?" She points out. "It's their choice to be single. You're single because you have no choice."
"That's not true, I—!"
"You…?"
Marinette pauses mid-sentence, and after an evident battle with herself, finally heaves a sigh of defeat. "Nothing," she finally grumbles, looking down.
God, the whole superhero-secret-identity thing was increasingly becoming a pain to deal with.
And the whole  superhero-dating-superhero  thing made it all  that much  more complicated.
"So I'm right," Alya decides to settle their conversation, crossing her arms over her chest. Marinette can't protest, and she only nods, though her expression shows anything but agreement.
"Fine," Marinette exhales, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "But it's not that easy to find someone to date! I'm busy, and I don't really know anyone else my age outside of here," she gestures at the school. "And as you said, they're all taken. So I guess I'll just have to wait!"
She hopes that's enough to get Alya off her case.
Her best friend did take more kindly to reasoning and logic rather than a straightforward I don't want to date (because I have a boyfriend), after all.
But to her soon-to-be-realized horror, Marinette's statement does the complete opposite.
Alya shares a glance with her boyfriend, who smiles and nods. "Glad that's the only reason you're not out dating!"
"... why?"
She slides a paper through the desk. The glaring letters, couples coupon!, instill in Marinette a feeling of dread she never felt even in previous battles with Hawkmoth and the akumas.
This can't be real.
"Because that means you can't say no," she grins.
This is a joke.
"Tomorrow afternoon, at the café we visited last weekend," she continues.
This is a misunderstanding.
"Nino's friend will meet you there."
This isn't what she thinks it'll be, of course.
"Have fun on your blind date!"
Damn it, Alya.
.
.
Ladybug stops outside Adrien's room, and knocks on the window.
He's barely awake when he walks over, but the sleep almost fades away immediately as they lock eyes. Instead, he beams and runs toward the window, unlocking it so she can enter.
"What are you doing, Milady?" He asks, eyes sparkling. "I thought we weren't patrolling tonight?"
"We need to talk," she instead says.
Adrien panics. "Wait," he begins to flounder. "If this is because you're disappointed that I'm me— that I'm Adrien Agreste, I promise that I can be better, please don't take my Miraculous, or even worse, break up with me, milady, I love you so, so, much and…"
"What? No," Ladybug's quick to shake her head. "I'm not breaking up with you."
She can almost hear the relieved exhale that escapes his mouth. "Oh, phew! That would've been a catastrophe…"
Ladybug feels a smile form on her face. "So, losing me is even worse than losing your Miraculous, huh?"
He's flustered. "I mean— I do take my job seriously! And I love being Chat Noir. It's just that… I can't lose you, either." Adrien walks toward her, then presses a kiss to her knuckles. "Milady, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
She flushes red, then looks away. "Same to you."
Adrien beams, then sits down, gesturing for her to sit next to him. "So what did you want to talk about?"
It's hard to decide what to say. So she decides to tell it to him straight.
"I'm going on a date with someone else tomorrow."
It's a terrible idea.
He panics, again. "Wait, so you're not breaking up with me, so… you want an open relationship?" Adrien looks almost scandalized. "I'm not sure how I feel about sharing you with anyone else…"
"No!" Ladybug interrupts, shaking her head vehemently. "It's just… for my civilian identity. My friend wants me to go on a blind date, and she can't know that about you, so…," She sighs, then looks down at her lap. "I had no choice, I'm sorry."
Ladybug's surprised when his hands come to hold her own. "Hey, as long as you know you're meowne," he smiles. "And I'm yours— I don't see a problem with it."
She's about to thank him, when he suddenly continues. "You know, this wouldn't be an issue if you just told me who you were…"
"You know I can't do that."
"But you know my true identity!" Adrien argues, gesturing to himself. "I don't understand why I can't know yours."
"I know because I'm the Guardian," Ladybug tries to reason with him. "That's the reason I know everyone else who holds it—"
"But I'm not like them." Adrien finally argues, sighing as the words leave his mouth. "We got our Miraculous together. We were partners, before we became a team of superheroes. I was here for you, with you, since the beginning. And… I thought you trusted me."
The last part comes almost as a whisper, but she can hear it loud and clear. Ladybug takes a deep breath and shifts, staring him in the eye. "I do trust you," she attempts to explain. "It's just… complicated."
"What is?!"
"I don't want you to be disappointed with me!" Ladybug finally shouts, shrinking back as her statement hangs in the air.
Adrien's at a loss for words, and before he can even attempt to respond, Ladybug tears her hands away and stands. When he gets his bearings, she's already one foot outside the window.
"I'm sorry," she only says. "I think I just… I just need to process everything." Ladybug smiles, though it's evidently conflicted. "I'll see you soon, Chat."
Then, without another word, she leaves.
.
.
Marinette paces in front of the cafe, thumbs twiddling together in apparent nervousness.
Her mind's full. She can't concentrate on the impending date at all— her conversation with Adrien, with Chat Noir, still as fresh in her memory, replaying in her mind as if it were a bad omen.
She yawns, a direct result of a dire lack of sleep. Marinette spent the majority of the night speaking with Tikki, seeking her advice on the matter; and her only response was, "listen to your heart".
Marinette knows what her heart says. What her heart yearns for.
She just doesn't know if she has the strength to say it.
When a stranger calls her, it takes three times for him to say her name until she notices.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"
That was probably her date, then.
Holding back the intense need to snap at him, Marinette takes a deep breath. She smiles, then turns toward him.
"Yes, that's me. You're Nino's friend, the—?"
She pauses.
Everything seems to slow down and fade away. The world stills. Her mind stops.
All she can see is him.
"I— uh," Adrien scratches his head. "Yeah, that's me. Sorry, I had no idea this was a date, Nino just told me I was meeting a friend until a few minutes ago, and…," he flounders.
Now that was familiar.
"I'm just in love with someone else, so I don't think I can go through with this, I'm so sorry I made you come all this way—"
"You always did apologize too much."
Adrien looks up, evidently confused. "I'm sorry, have we met before…?"
"So you love me, but you can't recognize me at all, huh?"
"No way��"
Marinette smiles, and it's a mix of nervousness and excitement and fear and love and everything else all at once. "Hi, kitty," she begins. "I hope this isn't too disappointing, but…"
She can't say another word, because suddenly she's being scooped up and carried as Adrien holds her in his arms. He's beaming, and his eyes are almost overflowing with joy.
Marinette feels her heart full. When he sets her down, his hands never leave her waist.
"Milady," he breathes, burying his nose into her neck. "I love you— so much."
"My chaton," Marinette replies, full of care. Full of joy. Full of admiration and awe that this was truly happening. That the fates had worked completely in their favor.
"I love you too."
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thecanadianowl · 3 years
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Justice league Snydercut review
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Wow talk about a long movie. Remember Mass Effect's 3 shit endings that were later improved (sorta) with DLCs. Well that is kinda how this movie is.
Before we start this, I just wanna say that I was very impartial throughout the whole snydercut movement. I wasn't part of it but I do see the good that they did in regards to some of their charities and with how the fandom itself has been painted in a negative light. So its good that they got what they have been demanding for quite some time. Snyder as director for me, I really am not the biggest fan of. His movies have some great cinematic moments that look amazing but the context around it is what muddles it for me.
Is it better than Whedon's JL? YES. To start I'll look at some of the things that I do like.
I do like how it was split into parts.  Gives it that miniseries/Comic book feel
Thank god they removed that stupid cringy flash landing on top of Diana's chest scene.
Darkseid looks good. I know some people have issues with it but I liked it. I mean looking at it first glance has me convinced its Darkseid. His voice isn't too bad either. Reminds me a bit of Injustice 2.
As much as I have issues with Darkseid being introduced so early I do like that he had a brief confrontation/glaredown with the League, foreshadowing a possible in person encounter and that the League needs to expand if they are going to fight against Darkseid.  
Steppenwolf's design has greatly improved and looks better than before.
Loved the scenes between Alfred and Diana.  Wish there was more of that.
I loved how the movie added Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash attempting to stop Superman from getting to Batman. I also liked how in this version,  Batman pleading to Clark's humanity telling him that world needs him and he needs to snap out of it.  Also bonus for taking out that scene of Batman on the ground groaning about how old he is getting.
Okay seeing Clark get the black suit and having the voiceovers of both his father's merge together works in terms of Clark's arc into becoming the person he was meant to be. Also like the use of Zimmerman's Ideal of Hope score wished they let it play out a little longer.  Probably my favourite moment in the film is where Superman just takes Steppenwolf's Axe like its nothing and freezes it.
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Now to go into some of the more critical stuff that bugged me when watching.
For a movie that is 4 hours long, pacing issues were bound to happen. I think the first example of this can be found in the opening with the Superman scream wave (which started to get a bit hilarious when his screams could be heard every now and then) hitting all three mother boxes. they are shown individually reacting to it and it takes time, where it could have just showed them together or an compilation of each of the motherboxes waking up. I know it Snyder's thing but tone down on the slow mo. Like some instances its fine (like with bullet time or Flash's scenes) but other instances I'm just like alright I get it.
The scene involving Cyborg transferring money into that single mother's bank account. Is he gonna do this for all the people suffering just like her? or just for that one person? I mean if you can hack into the world monetary system, you can solve a lot of financial issues affecting  the majoirty and not just one person. Did I miss the scene but why did Cyborg go from helping one poor person, suggesting the potential good he can do to change the world for the better  to "Fuck the world". Seems a bit inconsistent in character. Especially since he knows who Diana is (from what he says)  and that Parademons are after the motherbox. Maybe her offering help, you should take it? idk Vic. Also the whole Auto defense system malfunction, would it not be better if this was established beforehand where we see Vic struggling to maintain his body's autonomy leading up to the Superman confrontation? Prior to that it seemed he had it under control and his biggest conflict throughout the movie seemed more to be with him coming to terms with his new body. With that being said, Cyborg's character here is much more interesting and better than it was originally. I can see why Ray Fisher is so pissed (well that and the abuse he faced).  I am glad this was improved and gave the character a lot more to do.
The movie still has the same issue as before in regards to the whole motherbox plot and how convenient it was that all three are located on earth. You would think that with the involvement of Darkseid/Steppenwolf that separating them to distinct locations across space would make it more difficult to collect them. I mean we know that the Green Lanterns exist (we saw one get chomped), you'd think that they or the guardians would take one and secure it on Oa. The pushback to this would be "well there was only one green lantern and he died, so how could they retrieve the box?" which begs my question, why send only one? I mean it has been established that Darkseid is a known conqueror of worlds, you'd think the Guardians would be smart enough to send more than one Lantern to aid Earth in their fight.  Did they not think it would be a good idea to have the corps be more involved/keep an eye on earth since it is the only planet that was able to repel Darkseid's forces?
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Why is it that the best idea of security when it comes to humans is to bury it? Would it not be better in optics to look over it and know its location instead of dropping it somewhere on the off chance that someone might find it due to being  curious or the land changing/altering  making the box more easy to attain? A situation as dire/serious as this, you would think that the Amazons/Atlanteans would have been better prepped with armor/weapons for such an event. I mean you have the arrow of Artemis that shoots quite a distance to give Diana a message but not some kind of weapon that hurts/cripples Steppenwolf? Or better yet, how about the moment that the boxes started acting up after Superman's death, that Atlantis/Themiscarya would put aside any differences they had with one another and to the outside world to come together to secure the boxes?  How could Darkseid forget the name of the only planet that was able to force him to retreat? nor does he know that it harbors the anti life?
Did this movie break Aquaman's continuity? because from the dialogue between Mera and Arthur, its implied that Atlanna abandoned/left Arthur at Tom's doorsteps whereas in the movie,  we see Atlanna spend a couple of years with Tom and raising baby Arthur before she was forced to come back. You'd think Zack being a producer for the Aquaman  movie would have edited that line or made it more clear. Well that or James Wan F'ed up when making the movie.
"I've never seen a being as strong as Steppenwolf" Did Diana just forget Ares aka the god of war who killed the Greek Pantheon/Old gods and orchestrated the first World War? Hell from the looks of the flashback it seemed Ares (I'm assuming its Ares, if its Hades, my bad) was getting some good hits in on Darkseid, who is superior to Steppenwolf.  While we are on the topic of Diana, it's a bit odd that Snyder who  was a producer on WW84 where one of the biggest focuses on the movie that Patty Jenkins talked about was how Diana doesn't solve her problems with violence (even though her primary weapons in this movie are a sword and shield but okay. Then again New 52 hasn't done a good job in disproving that), yet in this movie we see her using her gauntlet smash to fucking kill the one remaining terorrist. Like sure you can argue that they were terrorists and deserve to die, but given how easy and quick it was for her to take out the previous guys, why do something that runs the risks of destroying the very building that you are in (with hostages). I mean from the look of the blast and how much debris fell from the building outside, and it was a miracle no one (but the terrorist) got hurt/killed.
Why did Steppenwolf  kidnap  them in the first place? Just use that mind extracting device you used on the Atlantean soldier to see if they know. Seems like a waste of time to collect them in one location only to interrogate them later.
Okay, I'm sorry but even in this cut I still don't like Miller's Barry Allen. He isn't as bad as he was in the theatrical cut but man does it stick out. When he is helping to escort the kidnapped civilians out, why doesn't he just grab them and transfer them to a safe distance? He even makes a comment about how slow they are going. Can I also just say how weird it is for Barry to take time saving Iris to caress her hair and look at her more creepily in slow mo? Like yeah its in slow mo but still I think your priority should be to get everyone to safety as quick as possible and check if anyone else could get hurt.  I will admit that Barry's speech as he is running so fast to reverse time at the end was really good. Tho the more I think about all the slow mo Flash scenes are good.
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They still kept the "Let's use the mother box to bring back Superman plot". Why? This is a piece of tech that you don't fully understand how it works and you are going on the whims of someone you just met. Especially if they come back as a different person/mindset all together.  If Superman 's death was the reason that allowed for the Mother box to call to Steppenwolf/Darkseid, what the hell were they doing prior to Superman's arrival on earth? I mean we've seen how easy it was for Steppenwolf to attain the two boxes even if they were guarded, so why the wait ?. I get that Batman is going through an arc and trying to change from the person he was but how does go from "1% chance of absolute certainty" to "let's go on a whim and have faith" when it comes to resurrecting Superman? 
Its gonna be awkward as to how Clark will explain his sudden return from the grave around the same time Superman came back.
I was wondering when the Knightmare scene will play out. Jared leto's Joker isn't over with me, it seems way too try-hard to be edgy. Other than that yeah, not much I can say about it. Tho do we seriously need another iteration where Superman (or someone with Superman like powers) is evil?
I also love how nonchalant Bruce is about J'onn appearing in front him. However the revelation that J'onn was that army general all the time breaks so much of continuity (and just why now did you decide to show up and help and not idk the time Zod invaded and nearly  terraformed earth, HELL WHY TF DIDN'T SHOW UP TO HELP THE LEAGUE IF YOU KNEW ABOUT DARKSEID, I'M SORRY TO RAG ON BUT REALLY THIS CAMEO JUST OPENS UP SO MANY QUESTIONS, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE AN "PALPATINE WAS BEHIND THIS ALL ALONG" KIND OF THING ).
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In terms of getting a sequel, I am not sure if WB is going to go through with it given that their current vision seems to be a different route than the one Snyder intended so who knows. Despite my criticisms I do believe this is Snyder's best DCEU film to date and probably one of his better films. You could tell that he put in a lot to make this. The movie itself does have issues mostly due to the plot surrounding the motherbox as well as pacing. I would say it's worth the watch at least once, though I think its best to watch it in doses rather than one sitting. Ultimately this is the version that we should have gotten and I can see why so many people who were supportive of Zack wanted or vouched for him to finish it. Regardless, I think the very least I am happy for Snyder. If you like Snyder's previous stuff, you will like this one, if you don't, your perception of the film won't change significantly other than some cool bits here and there.  
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Lucifer Morningstar is an introvert.  A very awkward and unusual introvert.
In an attempt to not create a bunch of random side-blogs, I’m just going to drop this here.  Sorry Doctor Who/Torchwood fans.
With the whole covid-19 thing, I’ve been trapped at home more than I had anticipated recently and I was looking for something a bit more fun and frivolous to watch so I finally gave Lucifer a go.
I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to get to this, my brother had watched it when it was on tv and had mentioned it in passing several times.  Suffice to say, once I finally gave into Netflix, I found it to be quite an enjoyable watch.
What really struck me in the serious is how it becomes obvious that Lucifer is an introverted character who is hurt.  Wait - what you are thinking?  He’s an introvert?  Oh man, he’s totally a huge introvert.
Let me walk you through why he’s clearly an introvert despite a quick glance at his outward actions.
1.) Hiding in plain sight. 
An interesting aspect to his personality is how he hides in plain sight.  When he moves to LA, he rents the building that houses Lux and his penthouse suite.  Lux is a place where he is surrounded by people, if he wants to partake in revelry all he needs to do is go downstairs and party with people in the club.  However, he can also retreat to his place easily which is surprisingly well stocked with books and another piano for him to play in private.  I doubt all of his books are for show, he frequently denies thinking deeply about things, but he always seems to be one step ahead of others which has always implied to me he plays the “I’m smarter than I look/act” card.  Early on in the show, he occasionally invited people up to his place to party but it wasn’t a common experience.  Think of the pizza delivery guy being invited to stay and party.
Despite his love of drinking, drug use and sex, he makes it quite clear that drinking and drug use rarely have an effect on him for long.  He is rarely hung over or wasted since his metabolism clears the alcohol too quickly for him to feel it and on multiple occasions he states he mainly drinks as he likes the taste.  One of the few times he was high was after he smoked a massive amount of pot at the teenage delinquent recovery farm as indicated by him sitting at the detective’s desk eating potato chips and dipping them in nutella realizing it was an amazing flavor combination.  For him, drugs seem to simply be something that is fun and a way to amuse himself and based on his drinking, it is mainly a way to meet and socialize with people.
As far as the sex, it is clear that he uses his casual hook-ups as a fun distraction.  To avoid any possible intimacy with others, he hides behind the fact that sex is a pleasurable act and by keeping his sex life 100% casual, no person in his or her right mind would even consider dating him.  He has made himself impossible to be seen as possible long term boyfriend in a steady relationship.  He likely struggles with his own angelic power to pull out people’s desires and his ability to seduce them.  Since his default is to have people literally throw themselves at him, he likely sees most of them acting in response to his powers and necessarily to him as a person.  As he wants people to follow their desires and free-will (as he simply removed the inhibitions that were present and did not create them) he gladly indulges them as well as himself.  If I were him, I’d be like “well why not?” an attractive person wants to sleep with me, sure do it, no harm, no foul.
I found it most telling based on how sensitive he is to his sexual reputation as well as his ability to meet his current sexual partner’s needs.  First off, when a random kid pretended to be him, he was incredibly upset that his imposter lacked his skills.  He’s Lucifer Morningstar, he has skills and a reputation associated with them.  Secondly, when the detective decided to interview his previous partners for the past 8 weeks (all 92 of them) two things were very obvious i.) he went to great lengths to make sure no matter what he did, that person had the most amazing sex of his or her life ii.) not a single person he slept with saw it as anything more than an amazing night of no strings attracted sex.  His actions did not inspire them to want more of a relationship from him.  How his facial expression become quite sad as all 92 of them stated it was just empty sex showed how alone he is. Another unusual trait is that he has been the most sexually responsible angel ever.  Granted, the vast majority of angels were never going to have sex in the first place, yet he has a much more responsible track record than Amenadiel.  It is clear that he has had sex with thousands upon thousands of humans over the years and he never once resulted in a human-angel pregnancy.  This may also be linked to the fact that Amenadiel by default, desires a ‘normal’ regular relationship while Lucifer has been avoiding having a “normal” relationship.  It would imply that if he found someone to have a kid with, he would be in a “normal” long term relationship with that person.
Overall, his first career on earth was to make sure he had an establishment that represented what he felt others perceived as his core personality, that as the devil, he would have to surround himself by partying and temptations.  Owning Lux is a way for him to keep up appearances and maintain his public persona as well as his persona that is seen by celestial beings.  Lucifer is a classic example of a character who is totally alone in a crowd.
2.) Few close friends
Another true introvert trait is to have a small tight knit group of friends.  Lucifer fits to this exactly.  He has excellent social skills, and again due to his former job and his nature, yet does many actions by smooth, polite and calculated actions - from a distance.  His job of granting favors is based on how he knows someone, who knows someone, forming a vast network he has to draw upon to make sure that the favors work out the way the person would like them to.  He doesn’t do the favors though because he cares for the person, more than he seems to do it to pass the time until he finds a job with more meaning.
It is starting his second job as a civilian consultant for the LAPD that his preference and need for a small friend group becomes obvious.  The most obvious one is his relationship with Chloe. 
Chloe Decker: He is first intrigued at why his powers do not work on her, his immediate physical attraction to her as well as seeing her as a kindred spirit also drew him to her. She is the outcast of the department and he knows all too well what it feels like to be the literal outcast.  As a result of their common situation and the fact he can’t sway her, the two of them can speak openly and honestly.  Granted, the biggest issue with his relationship with Chloe is the fact that she denies the obvious truth that he tells her even though she has seen enough evidence that he likely is not some random British guy living in LA running a high end nightclub.
As their relationship deepens he begins to find comfort in the fact that despite his inability to influence her, she still appreciates his company and values him as a friend and a work partner.  Even though he panics and holds her miracle status against her at first, he comes to realize she can’t be held responsible for something she has no control of and is unaware of.  Linda time and time again tries to get him to realize that he keeps her away due to his absolute fear that she would reject him.  Since she’s the only person who could accept him as is, it means her acceptance of him is the biggest risk to his own heart in regards to her. 
In part, his complicated relationship is tied to his fear that she would reject him, so him loving and caring for a single person as he does for her is too risky.  He’s a seriously hurt dude, he’s terrified of being hurt anymore by someone he cares for.  Chloe really takes a long time to realize how deeply he is hurt.  I get that she’s his opposite but I do felt out of all of the characters, she got short end of the stick in regards to character development.  Everyone else has had major changes and realizations yet she only sort of struggled with Lucifer’s identity in the first half of season 4 and she was off her “mark” when she was a bit preachy with him.  Thankfully, she stopped that bit and realized that he more needed her to listen to him and to support him.  It really got that concept that sometimes you need to just be there for someone and not try to fix it - since Chloe is a fixer. 
Mazikeen:  She is his right-hand woman.  The only demon to leave hell to follow him to earth, she first acted as his personal assistant, running the day to day operations of Lux and also working as a bartender.  Despite all of their conflicts, they care deeply for each other and have each other’s back.
The hardest part of growth in their relationship is when it went from master-servant/boss-assistant to more that of peers.  Even as he began to change in how he worked with humans, he keep their relationship as their default from hell.  He really hurt her feelings since she developed feelings and both of them are terrible at expressing them to others.  They have a relationship and work dynamic that they had for thousands and thousands of years - it is pretty impressive that they are learning and growing in a relatively short time period to respect each other and mature.
I found the most emotionally moving parts between them to be in season 3 when Chloe begins to get involved with Cain/Pierce and he expresses his worry that at least he has her and she’ll never leave him.  Maze interprets this as him being selfish and treating her as his number 2.  She lashes out at him and all he does is look back at her in return is hurt as he almost quivers.  Since she was his right hand woman in hell, she is the person with whom he has had the longest and most trusting relationship with since being cast into hell.  Did he phrase things in a way that helped in the situation - no.  But was he telling her his honest feelings that he really does feel like she is someone who is always there for him and supports him - yes.   When she goes behind his back to work with Cain/Pierce, he’s hurt and feels betrayed.  Sure, some of it is karmic payback for the times he’s hurt her, but after his failed experiment with Abel, he has every right to not just pop willy-nilly between earth and hell.
I have the vibe that they will eventually settle into a sibling like relationship treating each other the same way he interacts with his angel siblings like Amenadiel and Azrael.
Ella Lopez: So far Ella has been the only human friend that he has worked with with whom he hasn’t used his angelic charms on.  He was uncomfortable around her at first; she’s religious, she’s outwardly friendly and very much into giving hugs.  Ella “wastes” her time on what he would see as pointless pleasantries in the office.  Yes, Lucifer will lay on the pleasantries, but his always have a purpose - Ella’s are just her being nice.  He did like her opinion that the devil got a bad rap, but then she kept thinking he was a method actor in addition to being a nightclub owner.
Despite their obvious differences the two of them are both very straightforward people who have a strong sense of personal justice and are dedicated to solving the crimes.  He quickly begins to joke around with her and with her four older brothers, she finds no issue with dealing with his antics - it is more like par for the course. 
The fact that Azrael also couldn’t help but become friends with her seems to indicate she has some sort of personality that celestial beings really like, especially those who have the shittier jobs e.g. Lucifer running hell and punishing and Azrael being the angel of death dealing with, well, death.  The fact that she made sure Ella would become friends with Lucifer was really sweet and even though he was at first upset since he doesn’t like people trying to manipulate with him, he realized that Azrael’s action was in right place. She got her favorite brother and favorite human to become friends since she knew they would get along even if she couldn’t be with them - you know, having the whole angel of death as her day job.
His love of Ella as a friend though came out when her older brother Jay was in town and mixed up in the illegal diamond cleaning.  Yes, he brought his own feelings with his older brother into the mix, but he was correct.  Jay is not the absolutely perfect brother, he was involved in shady stuff.  I think when he confronted Jay was one of the best scenes in regards to him standing up for and protecting his friends.  He made it very clear that if Jay ever hurt Ella again he’d be in trouble as he knew how important it was to her to continue to see her brother in her own most positive light.
I really get the vibe that they feed off of each other being goofballs - Ella was a nerd and picked on as kid and had a lot of issues to deal with.  He’s the cast out son, they are both outcasts on the rebound and they like to have fun with each other.  This really comes to a head in season 4 when Lucifer, Chloe and Ella go to the nudist colony.   Chloe is a complete stick in the mud and by the time she turns around the two of them are naked and ready to go.  As adults on their own and away from their family and their former “teenage” issues they finally get to be who they want to be and I just think their dynamic duo antics are adorable.  She is the friend that will do silly things with him while Chloe remains too, well stoic. When Ella has her crisis of faith, Lucifer doesn’t fan the flames instead, he’s confused how to react so he doesn’t tell her what to think.
Trixie:   She immediately loved Lucifer from the moment she met him.  He is incredibly awkward with her.  He’s not sure to do with her little kid hugs, he tries to not hold her hand when they investigate the elite private school.  Yet, no matter how frequently he calls her a little urchin and doesn’t understand why she likes him, she grows on him.
I personally loved her bedroom sign in the first season - “Trixie’s room - no boys allowed - except for Lucifer.”
Trixie is a classic example of kid radar seeing people for who they are; she accepts Lucifer and Maze with no judgement, she just sees them as these rad adults whom she can play with. 
I really liked when he tried to buy her the new doll since she destroyed her old one - in a way he respected her kid logic - did it teach her a lesson - no.  But it was a logical extension as a means to an end.  He came from a background of illogical parenting so to speak.  He dealt with rules that didn’t always make sense it is clear he spent too much time pondering them thus leading to his current situation.
Does he like other children still? Not really, he still didn’t know what to do when he touched a kid’s head with a little pat as his backyard picnic with Cain as he wiped his hand on his sweater.   Yet, since he has gotten to know Trixie through his interactions with her it is clear that he likes her.
Dr. Linda Martin: Dr. Martin is my fav female character on the entire show as she is a compassionate, caring and intelligent individual and a secret badass.  Her relationship with Lucifer started how all of his interactions with people who desire him do - with her wanting to sleep with him.  Over time, she realizes that she can’t and shouldn’t be sleeping with him and he also begins to realize that he can work with her without having to pay her with his body and pay her the normal way - with money.  He learns to treat himself with more respect and not just give away himself to her.  Showing a bit of a shift in how he sees himself with those he actually knows.
I think she really was his first example of how to have a normal human transaction with well, a human.  She is incredibly patient with him and even when he reveals his true self to her, she is able to accept him with a little nudge from Maze.  Despite being overwhelmed due to his families odd demands on her and almost killed by his very upset and stressed out mother, she protects him as a client and as a friend. 
Sure, he always interprets her advice in interesting ways and she knows him well enough to realize that he avoids things and is in denial but she always still cares for him.  He also does frequently figure out what she wants him to realize - he just likes to make it more difficult for himself.  I wonder if the more that they got to know each other, his ability to influence her waned as she saw him as more than a playboy and he saw her as a doctor who could help him and later as a good and trusted friend.
Most importantly, she never gives up on him and truly believes in him despite all of his detours and distractions.  When he has his identity crisis in season 4, she is the first person he shows his devil wings to.  This comes from a place of deep trust in her and even though she can’t help him, she is there for him as a friend. 
I don’t think he’d ever admit it to her directly, but Lucifer likely understands that Linda’s friendship with Maze has helped Maze grow as a person - er demon - and her advice has helped him in how he interacts with her learning how to change his relationship with her from boss-assistant to more that of peers and friends.
Dan Espinoza: Oh yes, despite all of their stupid male ego headbutting, Lucifer is friends with Dan and he does care for the man.  When they first met, Dan was definitely a being a bit of a dick to Chloe; mainly by keeping his own secrets to protect her even though it drove her nuts.  If anything bothers Lucifer more it is people lying and hiding things from him.  Lucifer is almost pathological with telling the truth and not lying; and well Dan was not the most honest at the beginning.
So of course, he received full on Lucifer hazing; once the police admin punished him by demoting him for messing with evidence he slowly became more sympathetic to Dan.  He did use his skills to get Dan to admit that he wanted to correct his mistakes and when Dan started to lose it with Azrael’s blade, he saw that Dan was a stronger and more complicated man than he wanted him to be.  If Dan were a simple man, driven by simple desires and actions, Lucifer could write him off.  But Dan isn’t, his biggest change is when he realized he needed to stop calling him Detective Douche and actually call him Dan, in part due to Dan standing up to his teasing.  
Was it right for Lucifer to keep up his petty antics for so long?  Likely not, but Lucifer learned that some of Dan’s actions and personality traits are actually good things and his day shadowing Dan was annoying for poor Dan, but at least allowed him to realize that not everyone is the same.
Lucifer also has been more honest about his feelings in front of Dan than many others - when they went to get a favor from the Russian mob boss, he freely admitted his own hatred for himself and how he hurts everyone he cares about. If he said that in front of Chloe or Ella, both of them would rush to tell him it isn’t true and he’s being too hard on himself.  Instead, Dan kept his distance and realized that both of them think the grass is greener on their side of the fence.  Lucifer is secretly jealous of Dan’s more simple approach to things and Dan thinks Lucifer truly is careless and wishes he could be a flippant as he appears to be.
Dan really is a reminder how how Lucifer is unable to open up to others and make himself more vulnerable.  Unfortunately, this results in Dan frequently getting hurt and he makes epic bad decisions in season 4 out of grief over Charlotte’s death, blaming Lucifer for all of his pain.  But no matter what happens, it is clear that Lucifer would not wish for bad things to happen to Dan as he is a good guy and a capable detective.
Is their friendship a perfect one?  Far from it, but both of them really do try to care and support the other guy as long as they aren’t pissed off at each other.  It likely doesn’t help that Lucifer’s friendship with Dan is pretty much his only one with a normal human guy.  He’s got plenty of angelic brothers and Cain really isn’t normal by a long shot so it makes Dan even more important to have him in his circle of close friends.  As a 100% totally normal dude, Dan acts frequently as the ‘in’ to understanding (or really lack of understanding) what is happening.
Eve:  I just finished re-watching season 4.  I’m still not sure where I’d place Eve in all of this.  She’s only in season 4 so far and based on her actions, I’m not sure I’d call her one of his close friends. If anything she was pretty much an impediment to all of his relationships - albeit maybe not quite on purpose . . .  she’s a woman who still hasn’t figured out who she is despite realizing she needs to not define herself in the context of a relationship. 
Sorry for not having more thoughts on this, I need to ponder it more. 
What I will say is that their relationship issues stem from the fact that he is an introvert and she’s an extrovert.  He realized that Eve was a “bad” influence on him and he struggled to express his feelings to her.  The fact that it takes him shouting out at her that he “doesn’t like who he is when he’s with her” was painfully difficult for him to say.  It is clear that he cares about her deeply and he wants her to be happy.  Yet, he can’t and really doesn’t want to deliver on her actions or feelings.  The worst part is that it tears him up inside since in a way he saw her as a possible long term partner which was a big deal for him.
3.) Works either alone or in small groups. 
When it comes to his role with the LAPD, Lucifer’s modes of action are not that of a typical extrovert.  He is either working closely with his partner Chloe, or occasionally with Ella or Dan.  He is never part of a large group nor is he taking a typical leadership role.  Due to his need to protect others and his need to get answers as quickly and directly as possible, he frequently goes off on his own.  In part, this is so that he can take full advantage of his angelic powers and immortality, but also to protect those he cares about.  Sure, he walks into a Korean gang headquarters and tells them to come out, but he doesn’t try to chit chat or smooth things over with them.  He goes in, finds the head boss and pretty much strikes a deal with him that he can’t refuse.  When he wants an answer his methods are far too direct.  Find suspect/target/person and just question them or threaten them and then question them.  There is no charming and social games.  He can’t be bothered with banal pleasantries when he wants to know something.  If Lucifer were a true extrovert he would want to talk to others and feed off of the energy he gets from being with them - yet - he never has shown this.  He sees getting information as a task he needs to complete as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Even though he is hurt when Chloe and Cain become closer and begin to hang out or work cases without him, he still shows up and does work to help out with cases.  He also is good at working by himself and is able to work things out when he applies himself.
He also has an excellent sense of intuition when reading people.  Of course, one of the major aspects of the show is that he projects his own issues onto others.  This leads him off of what they are doing sometimes, so his read isn’t quite right.  But he is perceptive when he sees odd behaviors and is able to connect things without full information.  This is both what he did with Ella’s brother Jay and more importantly with Pierce/Cain.  He invites him for a drink and then stabs him with the knife.  He looks incredibly nervous after he kills him as he can’t kill a human as an angel - he keeps switching between trying to be calm and have a drink while he waits for him to wake up with a nervous sweat.  Did he know for sure Pierce was Cain?  No, hence the nervousness until his intuition was proven correct was his true feelings on his gamble.
Furthermore, when he does work with Chloe or others, he always has their back and will go to any length to work with them.  This to me indicates that he finds working with a select few people with whom he can trust is how he is most comfortable and he doesn’t need to be the center of attention and the one in charge like how he was in charge of hell. It is clear that by the end of season 4 even though he returned to hell it wasn’t because he enjoyed to or wanted to - it was because he had to protect everyone he cared about.  He also has a natural chemistry and ease working with Chloe where even in tough situations they instinctively know what to do and how to act.
4.) He expresses himself through actions. 
Lucifer is an incredibly hurt individual.  He was punished by having to take a job that he didn’t even want or even desire and most of his family abandoned him.  He’s terrified to open up and show his true feelings and pain to others as they would take advantage of it as a weakness to hurt him further. Honestly, I think he still doesn’t quite understand how his actions landed him in hell.  He was questioning the establishment and it is clear he thinks deeply about rules and how they influence others.  Anything he thinks is illogical he ignores as he can’t be bothered to care to follow those rules and conventions.  I think about how he made Chloe rethink the “swear jar” for Trixie - he pointed out rules without a clear basis don’t make sense.
Since he struggles to express his feelings in a way to help others. e.g. mainly in his denial/fear to tell Chloe he truth does two things; i.) he makes it about him or ii.) he tries to demonstrate through his actions.
The making it about him method, is a subtle way where he wants to know how to solve his own problem to help him understand or interact with others.  But since he doesn’t want to say for example “I need to figure out how Cain can die since I promised him and I am true to my word.” he instead hides behind the idea of “I need to find the author’s killer so I can read how she got over her writers block.”  By extension, since the manuscript is an instruction guide, he thinks he’ll learn something so that he can follow through on his promise.  It is a very obtuse way to act, but since he hides behind his narcissistic facade no one will understand he’s not doing it for himself.
As far as his actions, he really shows it when he reorganizes Chloe’s desk; he realizes that she deals with all the paperwork and since she is capable she gets even more paperwork piled on to her workload.  He cleans up her mess and anal retentively arranges her pencils and makes sure the right angles on the files are all lined up.  He also found a method of filing that makes more sense to him and it inadvertently helps her find the missing piece of evidence for their most recent case.  I liked how he color coded everything.  Did he need to add the picture of him in his underwear as her backdrop?  Hell no, but he figures out that since she likes him, what’s wrong with her seeing a part of him that she likely will never see.
This also gets him into trouble; again, buying the doll for Trixie, trying to out perform Cain in gifts for Chloe and always seeing things as a competition.  He wants to give people physical proof of his care for people without actually saying it.  Specifically he wants to express his care through a tangible amount of some sort of physical object.
5.) He hides behind his narcissistic behaviors. 
As Lucifer struggles to come to terms with himself and expressing his feelings he has hid behind his narcissism.  What is a great way to keep people away from you and keeping your distance from them?  Being completely self-absorbed with yourself that no one would ever want to be friends with you.  His narcissism is a HUGE turnoff for the vast majority of the population.
It is so clear that he wants to develop close relationships but he’s so afraid of hurting others and even more so hurting himself. He’s hid behind his hedonistic behaviors and his self-absorbed actions for thousands of years.  He really is a very particular person; he is constantly adjusting his sleeves under his suit coat, his shoes are always perfect, he moisturizes and his hair is styled elegantly.  He likes things arranged elegantly and it shows how important control is to him.  If he is 100% in control of everything, again he’s protected from being hurt.
As he works at the LAPD and forms his important friendships, his appearance changes.  In the first season, he wears black or dark grey suits, his shirts are white, black, dark purple, dark blue and grey, if I recall correctly.  He keeps his look simple and professional, almost cold.  His matching pocket squares are also basic and mainly a single solid color with few patterns.
Yet overtime, he becomes more adventurous in his appearance, he starts wearing more light blue shirts, he begins to add in more color with burgundy, forest green, and even a caramel colored suit.  His pocket squares become more interesting with patterns and more color combinations.  With the increase in color and variety he appears much more approachable and has more of an air of friendliness even though he still only cares for his small group of friends.
A case that was a real struggle for him was with the online dating app for “fabulous” people - Top Meet.  He wanted to continue to judge people based on superficial appearances, as it has been his own wall and it has served him well.  When they ultimately confront the killer, his own knowledge of nature and narcissists allows him to save the day by tossing the head sculpture at him and the detective can apprehend him.
His car serves as both another front and also shows how he longs for few intimate friendships or relationships.  He’s got that lovely little Corvette and it is a two-seater.  He doesn’t drive a giant, flashy car that can fit lots of people.  Instead, he has a small almost cute (I personally think it is cute) car that only another person can sit in.  He only wants to ride with one person at a time as he values his close relationships.  Yet, having a car that only can fit one other passenger shows a part of his narcissistic front - that only a person who he’d see as worthy would be able to ride with him.
Overall, by looking at how Lucifer chose to have a job on earth in a nightclub where he could simply hide was the first indication he’s an introverted character.  The longer he has been in LA, the more close friendships he has formed and they are very important to him as well as his oldest friendship with Maze.  When he realized that Maze was attracted to Eve, he noticed it, but hasn’t made mention of it yet (likely that will happen in season 5).  The fact that he noticed it meant he really has stopped seeing her as his right hand woman and more just as an individual with feelings.  His close friendships really show that he’s an introvert not an extrovert.  It is obvious that he gains meaning and connection from these close relationships in a way he never experienced before.  His preference for working either alone or in a small team also shows that he is much more comfortable as well as his preference to express himself through actions as opposed to using words since that is much harder and more uncomfortable.  Lastly, by hiding himself from all others behind a self-absorbed image he has been able to keep others away from him for thousands of years.
The major point about his character growth is learning that having a small support group of real friends and family he can find what he’s been looking for.  A place to belong and be accepted.
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Dobson’s favorite cartoon reviewed: The adventures of spandex girl in New York aka the Miraculous Ladybug movie
So THIS is not going to be about a Dobson comic, but rather with the lack of Dobson posting shit out here, I thought I give my opinion about something Dobson would have likely sperged out within the last few months. What could it be I want to talk about? The riots? The death of RBG? Cuties?
Are you insane? My brain may function better than Dobson’s, but even so I am not touching those subjects with a tong, seeing how I myself am lacking detailed knowledge on such subjects. No. I am talking about the cartoon that makes Dobson’s little brain (and dick) all tingly: Miraculous Ladybug.
For starters, let me just say that despite being an animation fan myself, I am not really into this show at all. For a magical girl show that goes on for over three seasons at this point, I just feel like nothing happens in it. Sure, A LOT of tokusatsu and magical girl shows run on repetitive monster of the week formulas, but overall they will still have some progression to themselves. Growing up with Sailor Moon, I always loved the first season and how it actually made me feel like things are increasingly at stake as the story progressed. Especially in the final episodes when the Senshis actually died protecting Sailor Moon and it was only thanks to a Deus ex machina everyone was reincarnated again. As melodramatic as Sailor Moon could be, at least each story arc had a beginning and ending that did not overstay its welcome. Ladybug meanwhile can be summed up as followed:
 Teenage girl is thirsty for obvious blond boy whose dad wants to get magic jewelry to necromance his comatose wife. Teenage girl gets magic jewelry and turns into heroine in ladybug mustered spandex suit that makes rule34 artists all tingly. Same goes for boy she has the hots for, only he becomes gimp catsuit shota bait. Bad guy transforms random citizens who feel down for some reason (often times connected to a blond whose family name Dobson can’t write) into action figure like super villains. Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat them, the damage is reseted, Ladybug and Cat Noir never figure out who the other one is despite things being so obvious Ray Charles could have seen that shit coming. Repeat not just for one, but ALL seasons so far and add as little as possible storywise to increase the roaster of characters, but not progress the plot.
 All that said, I can say that there are worse shows out there and for a show meant to sell toys to girls and be about a female hero, it is not THAT bad. But a) the creator is an asshole (think of functional Dobson) and b) there are still better shows to watch, even within the preteen magical girl genre, than this. Not to forget that this thing may be the indirect successor of Totally Spies and give certain people internet related fetishes within the next few years.
So, why am I believing Dobson would talk about the show at least for today more than he already tends to do on average? Because Ladybug actually got now a movie.
Well, it is called a movie, but in reality it is more of a 3 parter to start the fourth season if you really look into it. The thing is called Miraculous World: New York – United HeroeZ. It clocks in around 65 minutes and focuses on Marinette and Adrien in New York, teaming up with new heroes that are so unsubtlety promoted in this movie, I expect them to get their own spin off series by the end of next year so the showmakers can milk the cow even drier.
Let me try to elaborate in what is going to be a less than just a bit snarky summary with a few critical points and jokes at Dobson’s expense thrown in here. In other words, the typical biased youtube reaction channel/movie review.  Spoiler warnings are obvious and I promise than unlike certain pedos on youtube I am not going to focus on the assets of underaged French girls. I do warn however for increased levels of making a fool of myself by writing a multi page “mock summary” of this thing.
So because the movie is based on a children show, it has a very basic set up; Adrien and Marinette’s class is invited to spend one week in New York, because of a pointless international collaboration thing referred to as French-American Friendship week. The sheer existence of this showing that a) we needed any reason to get them there and b) this special was worked on LONG before COVID19 hit us all. And yes, I know animation takes its time to be done, I just think it is funny how in today’s international political climate and health situation this thing has become outdated already, when it is hitting the tv just now.
 At the same time, Adrien’s dad suspects that an artifact currently shown at a museum in New York may be a missing Miraculous that was owned by the Marquis de La Fayette and gifted to George Washington during the American Revolution. And yes, we are going there and you can guess what Hawkmoth’s goal this time is, while at the same time history gets fucked up the butt.
 But before we can get to any action in New York, we have to deal with the one thing Ladybug is known for best: Cringy shipping bait.
 Look, I know that shipping is a part of magical girl shows in general, but the shit going on in this cartoon is not only drawn out tediously even for children tv standards, I find it makes some characters outright dumb and unlikable. We get it Marinette, Adrien makes you tingle. But can you stop cringing your way through life around him in a manner that would make Tomoko Kuroki say that you are freaking pathetic?
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I don’t want anybody else. when I think about Adrien I...
 Just three minutes into this movie she essentially melts away at a poster of Adrien and throughout the first 15 minutes she just simps away in the big blue yonder. For example by asking Adrien’s dad to allow his son to travel with the others to New York, obviously stumbling upon her words when she needs to remind herself that she can only see Adrien now as a friend and not love interest (because this is supposedly set after season 3, when she decided to go for the second price in form of the guy who plays guitar), insisting that she is only “friends” to the point even her best friend Alya gets fed up. Or when Marinette gets more than just “a bit” nervous at the chance of sitting on her flight to New York next to Adrien, resulting in her fucking that chance up so badly, I felt an headache approaching. 
Not gonna lie, I had to pause a few times because it got so cringy for me, I wondered why Dobson makes primarily jokes on Adrien’s expense when Marinette herself is female thirst personified. Even the movie seems to point out how the two are so obvious to each other, when Alya has the following to say about them: I can’t decide if they are the most cutest people I know, or the most embarrassing.
Thankfully it is at 18 minutes into it, we FINALLY get something of a conflict. While still on the plane (And Adrien and Marinette watching a sunset through a window) a villain shows up, trying to steal the jet engine midflight.
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 Just roll with it
 Thankfully, before the plane can go down thanks to a Gremlin on the wing- I mean TECHNO PIRATE, the real stars of the movie show up.
 Wait, you thought this thing was going to be about Ladybug and Cat Noir being the primary heroes? WRONG!
 Okay, to put the summary on hold and explain what I mean: This “movie” introduces us to “United HeroeZ”, a group of American superheroes. Yeah, turns out Miraculous is essentially set in your average “Superheroes are everywhere, but primarily US dominated territory” world and this story is meant to introduce us to them and have Ladybug and Cat Noir team up in order to save the day. And while I don’t necessarily HATE the characters, I have to admit that I can’t help myself but snark quite a bit about them. Not only are they for the most part just expies of well known superheroes, the way how prominent two of them in particular are featured in this movie makes it very, VERY obvious that (As I stated earlier) this thing aims just to create a tie-in show for the creators to make more money of the property. Not just that, but their presence in a way reduces Adrien and Marinette’s importance as characters, even though the new ones at best would count as supportive characters overall. Which again makes me wonder, what does it say about Ladybug and Cat Noir’s “impact” in their own franchise when I actually find myself more interested in the side characters made to promote new toys, than the actual leads?
 Anyway, United HeroeZ defeats Techno Pirate and in doing so we are introduced to the main members of the group which are relevant for this movie:
So please, give an applause for…. MAJESTIA (aka actually decent Powergirl redesign/Non Superman)
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 SPARROW (Aka yet another Robin that may get hit by a crowbar)
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UNCANNEY VALLEY (aka The Shipper on Deck/Cleopatra in Tin Foil/Vision as your Waifu/the dumbest name you could have chosen for a character!)
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NIGHT OWL (aka Alan Moore is going to be pissed!/Oh look, it’s Batman!)
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You get where I am coming from when I call them expies, right?
 Anyway, with the plane safe the class finally gets to New York. Both Sparrow and Uncanney Valley get tasked to go undercover with the students and assure they are save during the trip, because plot reasons and New York is supposedly enough of a safe place that their services aren’t needed to fight bigger threats currently. Which confirms at the very least that a) this is not the Marvel Universe cause at this point the town may be ground zero yet again and b) a way more enjoyable version of the Big Apple than the real deal.
By the way, these are Uncanney (left) and Sparrow’s (right) civilian identities :
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I can now imagine Dobson wanting to proclaim how problematic the character is for being a native American who looks the way she does. But believe me. It gets kinda worse in all the right ways.
 Also, we are 28 minutes into the movie and we are introduced to the dumbest thing in the movie yet. The arch enemy of the Condiment King; Hot Dog Dan.
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A superhero hot dog vendor seller with a flying hot dog truck, whose hot dogs give you temporarily some random superpowers when you eat them. And it seems he uses hot dog tongs as weapons.
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I don’t know what the people making this show take, but I am torn between wanting some of that myself and putting them into rehab.
 I really bring the character just up because he is as a concept in itself so ridiculous that part of me thinks he is a fever dream of Dobson. Otherwise he has no real bearing on what is going to happen on the rest of the movie. He is just relevant for a three minute long scene of a house roof party during which Adrien and Marinette dance for a bit.
 Speaking of relevance, the next day the class finally gets to do something on the trip that leads into conflict for our heroes to face. During a visit of the museum where the La Fayette related Miraculous is hold, Uncanny and Sparrow decide to play shipper on deck by forcing Marinette and Adrien in a room and attempting to set a really stupid plot into motion (and no, I don’t mean they enforce a reenactment of Steven Universe or something). At the same time the villains finally do something, when Hawkmoth (now in New York) turns Techno Pirate into his latest minion and have him attack the museum to steal a saber by La Fayette as distraction, while he takes the charm he is out for. Long story short: Our heroes FINALLY transform and have to fight with Uncanney and Sparrow against Techno Pirate on the roofs of Manhattan.
 And while I don’t think it is all that great of a fight, it still means something aside of Marinette cringing her way through the plot is happening and the heroes are actually in decent peril. Plus during the fight the movie gives me one of the funniest moments possible. You want to know what it is?
 Well, while fighting the bad guy, Cat Noir and Ladybug obviously trigger their miraculouses. And what does Ladybugs miraculous turn into this time, to help her develop a strategy to defeat the villain and save the day?
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A bikepump.
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 ... yeah, I am going to give all of you now 5 minutes to laugh it off. Believe me, I needed them too.
Sure, it is a cartoon and I doubt anyone working on the show is even aware of our favorite uncare bear, but come on. At this point the universe itself is either mocking Dobson or tries to set up the perfect opportunity for an obvious joke from my side.
Not helped by the fact that once the bike pump shows up, the dialogue between characters that follows is, and I quote:
Cat: A bicycle pump? What are you going to do with that?
Ladybug: I may have an idea, but you wouldn’t like it
 Anyway, believe it or not, the fight actually ends with a surprising shock moment. Cat Noir, while having his cataclysm powers active (you know, the powers that make him decompose anything he touches), being thrown by Techno Pirate at Ladybug, resulting in Uncanney protecting her and being turned into scrap metal. Which in turn causes Techno Pirate to make the acquaintance with Majestia’s fist, as Uncanney is more or less her adopted daughter and I guess she has seen what was going on (but did not interfere because the plot says so) until now, pummeling him so hard he flies through a few buildings and causes at least three 9/11 to happen on this day in New York.
So, yeah. Uncanney is dead. The heroes experiencing their darkest hour in the movie.
… welp, can’t have that for long, so less than 2 minutes later Ladybug uses the Magical bikepump…
5 minutes of laughter later
Got it out of the system? Good. As I was saying; She uses the fetish toy to reset all the damage done by the akumatized villain and in doing so fixes Uncanney too.
Welp, that was a waste of tension. Guess someone watched the entire Lars dying thing from Steven Universe.
So, damage undone, but Majestia and Night Owl pretty pissed at what happened, want Ladybug and Cat Noir to give up their miraculouses (I assume that is the correct plural) until they leave New York. You would expect this to result in some dramatic chase scene or confrontation with the older heroes, but because this movie has just like 22 minutes left and we need to close act two now, our heroes instead flee and end up in the sewers of New York.
There they do NOT team up with a group of mutated reptiles, but have a heart to heart talk (I never thought I would agree with Dobson on something, but I have to agree on this: The show is kinda fixated on having important stuff happening in sewer channels) that is sort of an argument Cat Noir and Ladybug also had during the fight. You see, because those two idiots haven’t  figured out their respective civilian identities yet (something even Sailor Moon would have figured out AFTER THREE SEASONS!) Marinette assumed that Cat Noir would be in Paris while she is in New York to keep the city save. And Adrien/Noir was okay with making the promise of keeping the city initially save, because his dad only allowed him on the trip the day after he made the promise. So when the two transform out of sight of the other in New York and meet, instead of asking some logical questions (like “where is Marinette/Adrien and why is Cat/Ladybug here?”) they kinda argue wtf Cat is doing here while Paris may be in danger.
Long story short, she is angry at him, he feels guilty for having disappointed her and the thing with turning Uncanney into scrap, Paris was attacked by Hawkmoth’s secretary unleashing temporarily some monster clone because Hawkmoth thought that distracts the heroes in Paris (and really just results in damage that makes a city that experienced the destruction of Notre Dame the year prior just feel numb) and because this is the turning point in the plot, our hero needs to do something just a bit too melodramatic. Which is that Adrien gives up his powers and runs away.
… so, up to the final part in which things to care about start to happen.
Hawkmoth now has the Miraculous and unleashes its Kwami who is this eagle themed little thing referring to itself as the “Kwami of Freedom”.
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 … Yeah, this thing was NOT around for the last 200 years, wasn’t it?
 Anyway, it states that its powers are based on “freeing” people of limitations to achieve their full potential. What does that mean practically? It means that when Techno Pirate holds its powers on top of his regular powers increased by being akumatized, he can unleash some energy attack that removes moral inhibitions when getting hit by it.
… So it basically unleashes the Purge.
 Which is exactly what happens to Majestia and Night Owl, turning one into Man of Steel Superman causing nine additional 9/11s on top of the three prior (how the fuck did this movie manage to turn an American tragedy in a measuring unit?) and the other into All Star Batman.
Oh and it turns the President of the USA into a worse war monger than people accuse Trump of being.
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Oh, this is NOT going to sit well with anyone...
… Yeah, sidenote: The president of the USA in this movie is essentially Michelle Obama who ALSO is a superhero with an American flag theme and besties with Majestica and Night Owl, trying to protect the exchange students. Because supposedly NOTHING better needs to be done. Once she gets hit by the “Freedom Feathers” or whatever you want to call the Kwami power, she pulls out the Football and activates turrets all over the USA, ready to blow up anything that moves into smithereens. Including at least 10.000 such turrets on the roofs of New York and a nuclear missile in the bay near the Statue of Liberty.
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I’ll take it to the people with the eagle not the dove. If there is one thing that obedience is symptomatic of, it’s W-E-A-P-O-N-R-Y... WEAPONRY, from above!
(BTW, the rocket is animated like shit!)
I get the feeling someone on the production team is not the biggest fan of America.
 Anyway, with the heroes being useless and Marinette and Adrien mopping around for what happened during the battle (and Adrien being tricked by his dad to leave New York and get back on a plane cause this town is not save and Adrien can’t fucking stand up to his emotionally abusive father), Uncanney and Sparrow have to get the ball rolling so the day can be saved. Which means that Sparrow and Ladybug try to fight and distract people for time (off screen mostly), while Uncanney hijacks Adrien’s plane and brings him back to take up the gimp suit of Cat Noir again. Oh yeah, almost forgot, Uncanney, cause she is a robot, has figured out easily who Ladybug and Adrien really are cause scanning. Making our heroes literally dumber than a walking toaster.
 So the four finally together, fight Techno Pirate on the Statue of Liberty a second time (after some hijinx with another corrupted hero whose power is literally to create portals through doors, but he is irrelevant for anything so I skipped him up until now) and defeat him. He loses the Miraculous, Sparrow takes it on and becomes its next official owner, resulting in her costume turning into THIS
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 So now we have the native American girl turn into an eagle based superhero with a costume that looks like out of a western based Lego set.
Real talk here: Unlike Dobson I do not believe that everything is political or offensive or some other shit. In fact I hate his comic where he talks about “skin color changes” of the black characters in Ladybug, because he essentially tries to create a race issue and tension where there is none, just because he is a social justice moron. Which gets especially funny when his ideas for a progressive female results in characters like the black rat pirat who kicks you in the face for being hetero or infantilizing the characters of Patty to make them visually more appealing to Max Karson.
That said, in this day and age, doing a character like that… kinda yaiks.
Like, on one hand I think the girl has an enjoyable personality and the design of her hero outfit is okay for a kids cartoon. It’s not like she also talks in some cartoonishly native way or has suddenly a tomahawk as a weapon.
On the other hand, it is kinda stereotypical from multiple ankles and unfortunately there is nothing to the character past this point. Oh sure, Sparrow has now Miraculous powers, but really, all she does now is just use her powers to nullify Techno Pirates influence on the adult heroes before Majestia manages to reenact the bad ending for Majora’s mask and that is it.
Granted,  there is Hawkmoth also almost starting World War 3, but that is really just happening at the site and dealt with almost instantly. To be more specific, because Ladybug and Cat Noir did not hand over their Miraculous, he lets Techno Pirate launch one of the missiles near the Statue of Liberty (worse president than Trump, honestly) but before the thing can hit anything, Majestia sweeps it away and throws it into the sun.
You know, if the show writers want to make Adrien’s dad even remotely “sympathetic” or interesting/intelligent, they increasingly fail. Cause I don’t know about you, but causing World War 3 does not really feel like it will benefit in bringing your comatose wife back.
Bottom line: Nuke has been burned, Techno Pirate gets defeated, all the damage reseted, Sparrow is now the official owner of the latest Miraculous and renames herself Eagle, everyone is happy, there is a big celebration for the class and Hawkmoth is convinced there might be other missing Miraculous all over the globe he wants to get his hands on, meaning season 4 may have more globe trotting Miraculous “action” once it starts.
And also the last scene of the movie shows Eagle and Uncanney meeting some other guardian of the Miraculous box who wants the Eagle charm, but she seemingly convinces him to team up, solidifying that this one hour “movie” was really just a backdoor pilot for a tie in series about an American centered heroine that is so big, a freaking monster truck could pass through this backdoor.
 Yeah, if you can’t tell, I am not a big fan of what I saw.
Look, I will openly admit that my opinion on this is in large parts already tainted by me not being part of the demographic which enjoys the show. So this was never going to be considered “good” in my opinion. That said, I tried to be neutral to it for the sake of fairness. And I kinda failed.
Sorry, but I genuinely do not think this is a good “movie”. First, with barely 65 minutes I don’t really consider it a movie and more of a tv special meant to lead into the next season of the show. Second, I expect of a movie based on a tv show to have slightly higher stakes and presentation value to it than what you would expect from any average episode it has to offer. Which this thing doesn’t. Oh sure, the animation is slightly improved in some scenes, but overall just the same. And frankly, the writing is just still as “bad” as in the original show, if in parts not even worse. Aside of the typical stables, such as the cringy romance that does not move forward but is kinda on the forefront, the main heroes stumbling more or less into the situations instead of being more active in their duties, Hawkmoth not even in a movie having a genuine plan aside of “get this, see how it will help me defeat two kids and fail”, the movie also just never manages to induce a proper escalation of conflict to make it feel like something “special”. For example, we have a shitton of temporarily corrupted heroes. Do Ladybug and Cat Noir ever properly face them off at one point or have meaningful/fun interactions with Sparrow and Uncanney or each other outside of the first three minutes of the movie? Nope! I can name a few movies based on animated shows that gave me enjoyment, even those following basic shonen anime rules. But this one isn’t really among them. And taking into account that I consider at least the Steven Universe movie enjoyable in a dumb way, that says something.
 There is also just the fact that it takes away from Ladybug and Cat Noir too much. Sure, I don’t like the romance stuff with them because I think it plays out in some of the cringiest way possible. But I would have been okay with them or other already established sidecharacters doing other stuff and having to face some conflict that is centered more around them.
Instead the movie finds this bizarre disbalance where it focuses too much and yet too little on completely new characters, that feel shoehorned in to create a starting point for a spin off, making Cat Noir and Ladybug secondary characters in their own movie.
I mean sure, I have seen many shonen anime based movies where there is a set of “movie only” characters interacting with our heroes, but they don’t take too much away from the heroes being heroes. Say what you want about the 13th movie of any long running shonen anime, at least Luffy, Naruto, Son Goku etc. are still the central characters of their respective franchise affiliated flic. Here however we take too much away from Ladybug and Cat, while at the same time focusing also too much on their “struggle” as Marinette and Adrien (or rather just Marinette making a fool out of herself while Adrien is utterly obvious to her behavior) while the major heroics are reserved for the movie characters only, that this entire thing should just be renamed “The Adventures of Mummy Robot and Not Robin, also starring two underaged kids that Dobson is obsessed about!”
 All that said, I will give it a few things.
1) Uncanney and Sparrow/Eagle, despite my jabs, are kinda enjoyable in terms of personality. So are their partners/parents (Majestica and Night Owl are actually the (adoptive?) mothers of their sidekicks and also a couple openly caling themselves love, so yay, L(GBT) representation) and if the show would ever decide to focus also a few episodes on other characters aside of Ladybug and Cat Noir, I wouldn’t mind to see them. I just don’t think they are the most original characters out there and I think I may speak for some fans of the show when I say it sucks, that when it comes to the “action” within this “action adventure show”, they take up the spotlight from the actual main characters.
2) The fight scenes against Techno Pirate were okay overall. Nothing mind blowing animation wise but okay for the standards of this franchise.
3) Eagle’s costume design is not the worst despite my jabs at it being “stereotypical”, at least under consideration of cartoon designs (again, I can think of more offensive shit from the 90s or the Dobbear himself)
4) Well, it wasn’t for me, but I can say it was at least still on the same level of quality as the show. Make out of that comment however whatever you want.
My verdict: Three out of five Dobson’s would approve this movie. The other two would rant about stereotypes and be too busy incest shipping Majestia with Uncanney based on one shot of the movie. And none of them would acknowledge the flaws that make the “movie” a badly disguised jumping point for a spin off that makes the Equestria Girls look subtle.
 Hope you got some enjoyment out of this rant that ironically may have been overall more retarted and detailed than anything Dobson may ever say in regard of this movie.
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flightfoot · 4 years
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Justice for Alya (And Adrien. And The Rest Of The Class): enigmaticEditor's "Outfoxed"
AO3
(Spoilers for Chapter 1 of “Outfoxed”)
“Outfoxed” by enigmaticEditor (@captorations) stands out among “Lila Exposed” fics as being one of the few of that genre that douses Alya and Adrien in sugar while refraining from salting the class or anyone besides Lila and Gabriel.
It starts when the glamour around Lila breaks, when Lila makes a claim - or at least IMPLIES a claim - that Alya knows for a fact cannot be true. Lila ‘accidentally’ exposing a necklace that looks an awful lot like the Fox Miraculous and implying that SHE’S Rena Rouge.
And everything comes tumbling down. All the lies, all the deceptions, they all shatter like glass.
This isn’t an unusual way for Alya to discover Lila was lying. It’s everything that happens afterwards that make this fic stand out.
Immediately her mind starts racing, trying to figure out what magic was at work and how to break it, thinking of who she needs to recruit… and she remembers Marinette.
Alya both feels a little guilty because she didn’t believe Marinette and Marinette HAD tried to tell her the truth - again, not unusual - but she’s also a bit angry and upset at her which is particularly interesting.
Marinette had tried to tell Alya the truth about Lila, that was true - but she had better means at her disposal to force Alya to see that Lila was lying, to possibly break past her glamour. She’s well-connected and could’ve gotten, say, Jagged Stone himself to refute Lila’s lies. She had the power to bring all that crashing down and yet allowed the rest of the class to continue being duped by Lila.
Normally this accusation is leveled at Adrien in Chameleon saltfics - and that comes up in Outfoxed as well, but I’ll get to that later - not at Marinette, though it holds true for her as well (and moreso than Alya even knows, considering she’s Ladybug and one of Lila’s favorite lies is how close she is to Ladybug). It’s always been something that bugged me with saltfics - and heck, even with canon - so I loved seeing it addressed here.
Her reasoning made sense, especially considering the stress Marinette’s been under this whole time. She was terrified that Lila would become akumatized again and hurt people, hurt her, hurt Chat, hurt Adrien, hurt random civilians. 
Hurting Adrien was ESPECIALLY prevalent in her mind since Volpina had already fooled her into thinking she was gonna let Adrien fall before. And just… while Marinette agreed with Alya afterwards that it would’ve been better to try to do something about Lila, she was just too scared before, with having experienced Volpina going after someone she loved.
I really appreciate when authors have the characters maybe not make the absolute best, most ideal choice in a circumstance, not acting in the most ideal way when viewed as an impassive outsider, but for those characters to act and react in ways that make sense when taking into account their mindset and emotions at the time. Because that’s how people actually operate. 
And Alya just… she UNDERSTANDS! I especially like even before she finds out why Marinette hasn’t tried hard to expose Lila, when she still doesn’t know, and comes across Marinette curled into a ball crying. 
She knows what to do. Has done it before. Knows how to read Marinette and just focuses on calming her down first, prioritizes getting her to a better state before broaching the subject of Lila. With all the salt about Alya supposedly not being a good friend, it was nice to see displayed just why she’s an AWESOME friend to Marinette.
But what really gets to me is the sort-of pep talk Alya gave Marinette after finding out she was reluctant to try harder to expose her, but before she found out more details on WHY. Because while the speech she gave was good Marinette sugar, for the reader, it’s great Alya sugar as well.
The reason why it stung that Marinette was willing to just let Lila continue lying? Why it hurt Alya to see Marinette seemingly just… give up like that? Came down to the philosophy Alya first tried to impart to Marinette when she first met her, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing”, something which it seems like Marinette can’t make herself believe anymore. But Alya’s there to boost her up, to remind her of how far she’s come and what she’s capable of.
Alya’s hand moved to find Marinette’s. Once she did, she gave it a squeeze and didn’t let go. “You mean so much to me, girl, you know that? I was new here, that first day. I had no one, and not only were you willing to befriend the weirdo who wouldn’t shut up about superheroes, you believed in what I said. You let me inspire you, and you inspire me too. You always have. I know you’re scared of akumas. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you running to hide whenever one shows up, even if it’s nowhere near us. But you’ve been working past it, even taking charge sometimes in your own way! Darkblade, Syren, Captain Hardrock. I remember those too. I liked to think I was part of the reason for that. A part of you, as much as you’re a part of me.” (Chapter 1)
This was just… this was so good! Alya gives some of her fears and insecurities, with being the new girl and considering herself to be a weirdo, while also boosting herself up by being proud of her effect on Marinette. It gives off a sort of “teacher is proud of their student” vibe, since Alya helped start Marinette on the path to standing up for herself.
She also notes Marinette’s own insecurities here with her apparently being afraid of akumas, while using her growth past that to boost her up, much like she boosted herself earlier. Her glowing review of both herself and Marinette weaving together to make both more meaningful and influential than they would be in isolation.
On a personal note, I’ve always thought Alya’s role in Origins with her helping to defend Marinette, encourage her, and Marinette’s deep appreciation and respect for Alya because of that has been massively overlooked, with very few fics acknowledging how meaningful that was to Marinette, to the point that she pushed Tikki to go to Alya instead (though admittedly a lot of that was her own insecurities talking). Heck, both times she transformed in Origins were because Alya was in danger, and Alya’s encouragement helped persuade her to actually jump into the fight with Stoneheart! 
Alya continues encouraging Marinette by giving her own mindset as part of an inspiration.
Tears were beginning to streak down her best friend’s face again. Alya plowed ahead. “I can’t do much to help Ladybug-” God, she wanted so badly to tell Marinette about Rena Rouge, but she couldn’t endanger her. Not now, not ever. “-but I can’t do nothing. The Ladyblog lets me show people, more directly than any news channel ever will, that Ladybug and Chat Noir and everyone else are fighting for us. That they’re real people, brave and determined and wonderful, but in need of our support and understanding, too. Of course akuma-chasing is scary, I’ve probably died more times than anyone else in Paris, but I. Can’t. Do. Nothing.” (Chapter 1)
She’s leading by example, trying to show Marinette how and why she can and should stand up for what’s right. Acknowledging how scared she can be, that there’s a limit to what she can do, but still doing what she can to help. 
If Alya wasn’t scared at all and WAS able to do everything she wanted to do to help Ladybug the speech wouldn’t have been as effective. By showing how she tries anyway even though it’s difficult because the cause is so important to her, she shows Marinette how and why she should do the same. 
After Marinette agrees with Alya about trying to stop Lila they start going over what they know in order to come up with a plan to stop her, Marinette’s newfound determination shining through. She can have some major insecurities, as would be expected of anyone, especially a kid, but what makes her interesting and inspiring is how she works past it, compensates, or how other people help her if she can’t do something herself. 
And then Marinette tells Alya that she wasn’t the only one who knew - Adrien did too.
And that sets Alya storming off to find Adrien before Marinette can explain further.
Remember that Adrien salt I mentioned earlier? This is where it comes into play.
It starts with her thoughts on the situation before even meeting up with Adrien:
How dare Agreste leave his “friend” out to dry like that? It didn’t even make sense. She could understand Adrien wanting to avoid conflict. Nino had shared bits and pieces of Adrien’s home life, and it didn’t seem like the boy had ever had much success standing up for himself. Appeasement must be all he knew how to do. But this? This was something else entirely. He could have at least been there for Marinette. (Chapter 1)
The anger over Adrien supposedly leaving Marinette high and dry while Lila continued lying (and even targeting) Marinette is common in Chameleon-related Adrien salt. But even at this stage, even while angry at Adrien, she still acknowledges his perspective and why he might not do so.
Alya’s FURIOUS right now and it shows, not only in her actions (demanding Adrien follow her and slamming him against a wall) but even in the word choices of her thoughts, with her thinking he has “a backbone made of rubber” and commenting on his “stupid designer shirt”. That anger’s just generally clouding her thoughts right then, which is realistic even if it’s not entirely fair to Adrien; emotions are like that, they’re NOT always fair.
Luckily, Adrien DOES have an explanation.
“You knew what Lila was doing. This whole goddamn time. And you did nothing. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Lila wasn’t hurting anyone-”
“She was hurting Marinette,” snarled Alya. Some rational part of her was surprised she hadn’t been akumatized. Right now, she wasn’t sure who she’d go for first as a supervillain; the liar herself, or her pet enabler.
“-at first! At first, Alya! You didn’t let me finish! I know, okay? Why do you think Lila got Marinette expelled, and then immediately turned around and got her back in? I made her!” (Chapter 1)
I really like this. Adrien has a point - Lila WASN’T hurting anyone, not as far as he knew (and as far as Alya knows for that matter). There was speculation among the fanbase that Lila might promise things she couldn’t deliver on, depriving the class of legit opportunities in favor of made-up ones, but that doesn’t appear to have actually happened. It could be argued that her using her brainwashing magic is inherently harmful, but it’s not like anyone knew that’s what it was; he and Marinette just knew she was lying, and while that’s generally not something to approve of, it’s not the end of the world either. He and Marinette have done it quite a bit themselves, albeit for better reasons than Lila was (usually).
Something I like even better though? This takes into account Adrien’s actions AFTER Chameleon, him finding out that Lila was actively dangerous and malicious and protecting Marinette as best he knew how.
Meekly, Adrien explained the deal he’d made. Implicitly, before that horrible day, and explicitly, after it. He’d been using himself as a distraction almost since the beginning. Drawing fire for Marinette, sacrificing himself, like Chat Noir did so often for Ladybug. And he hadn’t said anything, not wanting anyone to worry about him.
Marinette’s words ran through Alya’s mind, and she checked them against her memories. While she hadn’t paid nearly as much attention to either Lila or Adrien… that bitch really had been all over him for months now. Alya knew Adrien didn’t like being touched unless he completely trusted the other person. The first time Nino had clapped him on the back unexpectedly, he’d nearly fled the room. Chloé was one thing; as despicable as she could be, she had been Adrien’s only friend for a long time. But Lila? Adrien clearly disliked Lila, but had let her do that to him, just to keep her from bothering his friend, and now had signed up to deal with an even worse version of it at his goddamn job to protect Marinette.
Alya was getting a headache. If in the next hour Nino did something to give her this kind of emotional whiplash, she’d shatter on the spot. Her heart was already in pieces, for Adrien as well as Marinette now. These idiots. (Chapter 1)
This whole thing is a really good response to all the “Adrien left Marinette to rot and even discouraged her from defending herself!” salt. Because no. He didn’t. Once he saw that Marinette was in danger he did everything in his power, everything he knew how to do to protect her, even though it meant enduring Lila’s harassment, having to deal with her when he wanted nothing to do with her. Most Chameleon-inspired Adrien salt conveniently ignores that. 
And Alya recognizes and appreciates it, can see what he’s been going through, and just wants to hug and protect her friends who’ve been through so much. 
There’s one last bit of this encounter I want to emphasize, something that Alya needs to knock into Adrien’s skull, something that he needed to hear and understand.
Then she pulled away and slapped him in the face. Not hard, but enough to get her point across. “You were still wrong, Adrien. Lila was harming someone right from the beginning. She was harming you. And you matter too.” (Chapter 1)
This is an important point. She WAS harming him from the beginning. Heck, her introduction, the very first glimpse of her we ever got, was her stroking her finger down Adrien’s chest while he looked VERY freaked out, then her dragging him away and lying to him, and she didn’t exactly improve in subsequent appearances.
She may have deliberately tried to hurt Marinette (as both Marinette and Ladybug, though she didn’t know that) the most, but she’s harmed Adrien a lot too, even though that was not her end goal - she was still fine with that outcome.
But Alya’s on the case. She’ll protect her friends.
I don’t want to go TOO in-depth on the rest of the story - I figure this’ll be more of a rec and review, so I don’t want to spoiler it a lot - but I will say this.
The romance here may not be the main point, but it helps to develop the characters a bit, and the Alyanette in particular serves to show off what an awesome person Alya is by letting Marinette show her faith in her, show why she loves, cares, and respects Alya so much, all while letting Alya demonstrate why that faith is well-placed and just letting Alya have a good time and have nice things.
And the Lila exposure? Puts Alya front and center, letting her do most of it (most of what we the reader see anyway), and letting her have fun along the way.
I’ve seen many Lila exposure fics. But none that shine the spotlight on Alya quite as well as this one does.
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darling-blurbs · 3 years
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The Cyro Archon is interesting so I’m developing her into my own character until I finish genshin impact. Let it be known when the Cyro Archon actually appears and her story comes to light, I’ll just fix the story a bit. Ok? Ok
So her name is going to be Esther since most of the gods use their vessels names even though Esther is actually her name before she became a god.
Her powers are like Elsa’s. She doesn’t have total control when she is overly emotional so when she was heartbroken, she hardened herself. Onto more of the story part of my character.
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“I’m the- was. I was the Love Archon but I was not meant to be that. How can someone be the Archon of something they can’t even do right?”
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The Archon War (I haven’t gotten to the reason for it so I’m making stuff up a bit here) was there. Esther hung out with a certain god for years before this. Ever since they were young. Esther was the daughter of the current Cyro Archon so when her father decided to leave for the war, she did as well. Leaving her palace in the sky to see her friend again only to see her crush falling for a mere mortal. She was fine with it for the moment thinking that it was only going to be fleeting but once the god took the boy as a vessel, she was furious and heartbroken to a point where her body started to grow ice patch’s to contain her fury. She had part of a fire in her. One of her parents had a Pyro vision so her power more was conflicting with each other to a point where she exploded.
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She killed many civilians that day and even her parents were killed in her rage. The archons ran while she withered in pain. She hated them but over the 500 years, she forgave them for their pieces. One she didn’t forgive was the bard. She still loved him. After all the Love Archon cannot stop loving the Archon of the one thing she wanted to have most of in the world. She turned cold though. Hateful. Her heart never opened up again other times few others. Childe, Hat Kid (as she called him) and the rest of the Harbringers were her confidents. She confided in them about her hate for the bard which translated to one of her female harbringers to almost murder him
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The lovely mondstadt festival. The one day in the year that both of the Archons think of their lost lover. For the Cyro Archon, she watched the bard from a distance and giggled when he did his love advice remembering when he used to listen intently when she talked about the concept. What she didn’t know was that the Anemo Archon knew she was there. Her aura was always familiar but he was too scared to find her and didn’t know who her vessel was. Later, in the end of the event if the traveler walks into the tavern after midnight there will be a cutscene. Venti is seen laughing with others and the traveler when someone walks in. No one notices other than paimon. The figure looks at the group under their hood and a smile crosses their face before putting a bag of mora on the table saying to pay the bards bill and it’s from an old friend. Once the figure is at the door, they turn around and puts their hand on the frame. Paimon can see their features. Icy blue eyes that seem In love with the said bard. Ice creeps up on the place where their hand was put before walking out of the door.
Immediately when the door closed, paimon starts to shake the traveler as the man working the bar shouts out. “Your mysterious friend bought your tab again Venti! You gotta tell her to stop someday!”
Venti seemed to sober up fast and run out the door. There stood the cloaked figure whose back is turned. The wind starts to pick up as it got more cold seem by how the townspeople started shivering and puffing out white clouds. The figure looked up at the moon before Venti spoke up.
“You don’t have to do that anymore.” The figure chuckles.
“The moon looks pretty tonight don’t you think...” she pauses before saying “Barbotos?”
She turned and her icy blues met his green eyes. His seemed lost and desperate while hers looked at him like one would look at a boy who slipped from their grasp.
Paimon gasped as they stared each other down. “Why would you do that Esther-“ “don’t call me that. You don’t deserve that title to call me by.” The figure stood her ground. “Did you make this festival to rub in the heartbreak?” She laughs under her breathe. “You even took the mortal’s skin! Is that how you wanted to turn me down? Say you didn’t want a relationship because you didn’t want the ties but fall for a mere mortal after fighting with them for a day?”
The air got worse with every passing second. The wind was slowing down with Venti’s sadness but the cold was getting unbearable. “I didn’t do that. I would never leave you!” Venti tried to contradict but was only met with more laughter.
“When my father died, you only cared about the well-being of everyone else! You didn’t even come and find me-“ “That’s because I didn’t know who your vessel was! This festival was going to be a gift for us but you decided to try and end the world!”
The figure’s feet was freezing the streets before she breathed. “This was a mistake. I should have never came back here.” She spun around and started to walk away. A portal opened up but Venti screamed wait.
She turned around. Her icy eyes steeled. The smile and anger gone from her features. Only the stoic female remained. “Don’t leave me again.”
“You left me,” she said before turning to the portal and abyss mages appeared as the portal closed.
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Kaeya watched her leave as well as the traveler come in the tavern dejected. “Im guessing Venti didn’t tell you anything and just said he wanted to sleep? Of course he is protecting her still. Sometimes I think their just both oblivious.”
“What happened? No better question. Who was that?” Paimon asked.
Kaeya chuckled. “The person you just met was Venti’s ex lover. Someone he was dumb enough to lose. The Cyro Archon.”
The traveler gasped as well as Paimon. “That’s the person trying to kill us? The world for that matter?”
Kaeya glared at the flying fairy. “Watch your mouth pixie. She is my- close friend. I do a lot of spying for the inside and everytime I’m there, I realize that heartbreak can do a lot to a person. If we would destroy the world for the person that held our hearts, what would one do if they shattered it and stomped on it?”
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Kaeya is actually part of the Cyro Archons army. He fell for the young goddess and actually is on both sides because he supports both side of the story.
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venus-says · 3 years
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Healin' Good Precure Episodes 21-30
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Hope you're comfortable and have your reading glasses on because I'm about to rant.
It has been a long time since I came here and bashed my thoughts on this show for young kids, but you know? It feels like just a couple of weeks have passed.
And I say this because to my surprise, and maybe disappointment, not a lot happened in these 10 episodes. Does it mean it was bad? Not necessarily. Excluding maybe 2 or 3 episodes, I had a great time binge-watching these last episodes in the past three days.
Usually, in a Precure season, the episodes that follow the debut of the mid-season Cure are used to insert the new character in the team, create connections with each member, make us feel like the newcomer belongs here. In Asumi's case, these episodes also had the function of building her as a character since she's someone who literally just appeared out of thin air. And these episodes haven't done either of those things, in my opinion. I came out of these 10 episodes with the same basic information I had from last time, she's clueless, she's obsessed with Rate, as a Cure she is gorgeous and cool as heck, but maybe a little too overpowered. I know nothing about Fuurin Asumi.
One can argue "well, she was just brought to existence, it's obvious you know nothing about her because there's nothing learn", but that doesn't mean that they couldn't build her character. They decided that her whole thing would be learning about human emotions(?) and they could've chosen some specific points that would help her to build her personality and her character, give her goals and ideals, a reason for her to be a main character in this story. And while we see evidence that she has learned the meaning of those words and she can recognize them on herself and in other people, this is not a personality is just a computer recognizing patterns.
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The feeling I had while watching these episodes was that she was a blank canvas just so that the writers could use her as a jack-of-all-trades for whatever situation they were trying to build in the episode. And this inconsistency with her is pretty evident, I mean in one episode she exhibits a lack of knowledge about basic human feelings, but then she suddenly knows what rap is even though we haven't seen a single instance of her having contact with it, and then later we see she giving Grace life advice.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed and had fun with Asumi in those isolated instances, it's because of them that even with all the problems I have I still like Asumi VERY MUCH, the thing is that this isn't an episodic show where each story is centered on itself and there's not a bigger picture to be seen, this is a continuous narrative so just isolated moments aren't enough. Imagine how much more meaningful it would have been if the words they decided to explain to Asumi were things that deeply connected with her, imagine how much more fun the rap gag would've been if we had seen before she going out on her own and meeting with random people on the street and we had a precedent of her knowing something that was weirdly very specific and seeing that being brought up in the future as her unique comedy gag, imagine how much more meaningful her words to grace in episode 29 would've been if we had seen her gain that level of understanding of human emotion in a way that wasn't by just explaining the definition of that word in a dictionary.
The reason why this "arc" feels so frustrating is that the basis for something great is all there, they just don't use it at it's fullest which makes her, who could've been the most interesting character the Precure franchise has ever seen, just another one, and that hurts. Because I freaking love this spirit lady and I wanted her to be more.
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Overall rant is done, let's talk about each individual episode, shall we?
I know it doesn't seem like it, because I've written around 600 words of how disappointed I was, but I had a great time doing this mini-marathon to catch up with the show. I don't know if it was because it had been so long since I watched something Precure related, or if it was because my expectations were low since even though I try to avoid seeing other opinions before I write my own reviews since it has been so long I couldn't really avoid that and those comments weren't really that positive, or if it was because I was live-tweeting my impressions instead of taking my usual notes. but overall my experience was great. Even in the episodes I didn't like or had major issues with, it wasn't to a point where it made me regret the decision of getting back to this show so most of these are going to be very positive.
Except for the final three episodes, I'm not doing these in the correct order so I decided to leave the episodes I disliked for last. I'm probably going to go overboard with the negativity in those ones so if you don't wanna any of that you can leave before me going in the mean territory.
Anyway, Episode 21. That was a very fun one, it had a good combination of comedy with endearing moments and even bigger picture stuff. It was still early on Asumi's journey so her cluelessness was very fun and endearing and I had some great laughs with that one (that moment where she struggles with the chopsticks was my favorite bit. I also liked seeing Nodoka work her way around to let Asumi stay at her house, I like how straight-forward it was and how the lie developed after it, I don't know how Nodoka's parents bought the story but I loved it. The theme for Asumi this time was learning about empathy (I think?) and she and Nodoka had some great exchanges in the episode. Getting more development with the Mega Parts was also good, there were interesting bits of information like how to harvest them and that they can be injected in the Mega Byougens by anyone, it doesn't need to be the one who began the infection. Also, the group roll call was very cute, I love Rate touching paws with each of the healing animals, and the new eyecatches are cute as hell!!!! I also liked the special intro bit with Nodoka and Asumi, I wish they did things like that more.
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Episode 22 was a bit weird. The lesson of the episode was about the word "like", but it was a bit confusing. It seemed that the point they were trying to make is that liking sometimes it's hard because is something you can't control, but it didn't connect very much with the conflict between Rate and Asumi? I think very valid and important points were raised throughout the entire episode, but in the end, to me, it felt more like a plot about empathy, because Asumi wasn't being considered of Rate's feelings and the resolution for the main conflict in the episode was about that, but I can also see the logic behind what they were doing it's just that they could've been more clear in that aspect. Regardless, this episode gave us the starting point for one of the relationships I enjoyed the most in this run that was Chiyuu and Asumi getting along so well, I honestly thought Asumi would be more connected to Nodoka and the animals, but she has a lot of chemistry with Chiyuu and it was a delightful surprise discovering this friendship.
Of the initial episodes to connect with each Cure, Episode 23 was probably the weakest. I think Hinata and Asumi didn't really click for me when they were together, and teaching her the concept of "cute" didn't seem all that useful to me, the impression it gave me was that they couldn't think of anything else meaningful Hinata could bestow on Asumi and they went with the easy route instead of putting in the work to make something bigger. With that being said, I really appreciate that in no moment of the episode the show tried to tailor Asumi for her to think that only one thing that follows a certain aesthetic pattern can be considered cute, I was very afraid of that happening and it was a huge relief to see that it hasn't happened. One curious thing about this episode was the Cures directly interacting with civilians, has that already happened and I just forgot about it? Or was this the first time? That got me really curious.
Episode 24 was a mixed bag, it introduced elements that I liked but it overall gets ruined by what I've mentioned at the start and also because it can be summed down to Spirit Lady Too OP. The thing I liked the most in this episode was seeing Asumi connect with another adult human, it was a nice interaction that I was really into it and that I hope keeps happening in Asumi episodes, to me it was an example of interesting interaction outside the Cures' circle that could be meaningful for building Asumi's character (if they were really concerned in building her one). I was also pretty excited for a new general and Nebusokku seemed to have enough to be a fun character, sadly he was defeated in the same episode which was kinda disappointing and it left me with the Batetemoda blues. There was also the portal stuff that was random and it never happened again and, I don't know, it just felt way too convenient. Spirit Lady is too OP and, sadly, that's a problem.
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Surprisingly enough, Episode 26 was one of my favorites. I know it's just a clip show, but you can see that they cared enough to make this feel like a genuine episode and not just something that you can skip if you want. Maybe they could've put a little more of care into it since they made the big mistake of saying Asumi wanted to do a Rate Diary but all the questions and recollections Asumi got were from everyone BUT Rate, but I still really enjoyed the episode. I really like the journey of Asumi not being scared in the cold opening, to the group deciding to make something that is nice to her but that will also surprise her, and the cute moment at the end was a really nice payoff. I also like how Asumi stumbled upon the information about the festival and seeing her actively wanting to be part of the team and her being sad for feeling like she was being left behind without making a big mess about it, like she was sad but she also (miss)understands what's going on and that just makes her even sadder. This recap episode gave up more characterization about Asumi than the episodes that were meant to do that and this is both impressive and sad.
Speaking of episodes that characterize Asumi, Episode 27 was another great one at it. Again, Asumi connecting with another adult being determined to help, feeling frustrated for the Hot-Air-Balloon Team loss and wanting to actively do something about it. It was really great seeing her so assertive, and seeing her feel so strong about something, and even better, something that wasn't related at all to Rate. She felt like a real character, a real human, and I really liked that. This was a very straight-forward episode but I think it works completely in favor of the episode, I like the plot, I like the characters of the day, I like that even Nodoka's father got some characterization since now we know he was a Hot-Air-Balloon nerd, we even got a new element bottle. It was simple and it was great.
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From this point on we're on Salty territory so read at your own discretion.
Going from the one I have the least to talk about, Episode 29 was boring I thought they were going to do something bigger, considering what episode 28 was, and if you disregard Cure Earth giving really mature advice about something she shouldn't have the know-how to talk about they had a nice bit of Nodoka going reckless and she realizing she shouldn't be so hard on herself, but that was pretty much the only thing this episode had going for it. I really couldn't care for anything else, the comedy felt very odd, and getting the final bottle for the shelf was very underwhelming.
Then we have episode 25, that feels disconnected from the rest of the storyline, and that is just here in the bottom list because of two factors. The first is the fact that is a very cliche plot and the show didn't bring in enough new elements to make it interesting, instead, they wanted to make it WAY TOO SAD for that little girl and it was just cruel to watch it because I knew all the time Pegitan would eventually leave her and I wanted that little kid to be happy because she seems like a good kid. My other problem, and my biggest one, is what started this whole plot. I hate the "I'm a boy, I'm not cute, I'm cool" line of thought, and while it makes sense that Pegitan, being as insecure as he is, would have a concern like that, I hate that the show makes Chiyuu feel guilty and blame herself for doing it, and I hate it even more that at the end the major message was "Yes, Pegitan, you're cool" instead of "It's okay for you, as a male, to be cute". From a franchise that two years ago was saying boys can be princesses, this feels like a step back and I hate it.
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Episode 30 was one of the most boring things I've watched in this season. To begin, what the hell were they thinking of making Hinata, of all girls, to be the one to not know tigers and cats are related? She lives in a veterinary clinic, both her dad and her brother should've mentioned that at some point, and I'm being gentle here and not considering this as common knowledge for 14-years-old kids. Then there's the thing that completely ruined the episode to me that was that little boy and his friend. I really didn't care for this random character with the most white straight male thought ever wanting all of their friends to be the same as him because he doesn't like to have their world views being challenged. If it wasn't for the eventual cute interactions between the girls this episode would've been the worst.
And there's an element in this episode that ties in with Episode 28 which is, without a doubt, my biggest problem with this series: the villains.
I hate the Healin' Good villains, all of them. Except for Batetemoda, but he's dead so he doesn't count. This is probably the most uninteresting set of generals of the entire franchise, and we live in a world where the Trio the Minor and the Mahou Tsukai villains exists. Guwaiaru is way too dumb, his dumbness is supposed to be played for laughs, but when you repeat the same joke of him adding more stuff to a bigger thing to make it stronger, or dirtier, or spicier, in the span of 10 episodes it doesn't become funny, it's just tiresome. Then there's Shindoine, who's flat-lined as hell. Her whole thing, her only thing, is her unhealthy obsession with King Byougen. She doesn't have anything else besides that, she doesn't do anything interesting, every time she's on-screen she's talking about King Byougen, and it's not fun, it's not interesting, it is a big pile of nothing. And you would think that after Anacondy, Papple, and Gelos, the creators of this show would know better and wouldn't make another general that is so in love with the leader of their organization to the point of doing dumb shit that could get them killed, but no. We gotta raise the stakes. And as cool as powered-up Shindoine looks, I can't get excited. Because she, just as her companions, doesn't change as characters. They are the regular "pick a stereotype and make a character out of it" gone to an extreme and in the most boring way possible.
Thanks, I hate it.
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And then, there's the biggest offender of them all. Daruizen. He is the "bored one" and that's enough to make him boring because he doesn't have anything to pique my curiosity to learn about him or see what he's capable of. In other circumstances, this would be fine, but her companions are just as boring, and the thing that maximizes this as a problem is that for some reason the creators of this show thought it was a great idea to pair him up with the main Cure. And when you do something like, to make sure your audience will be completely on board with you, you gotta make sure both characters are interesting enough to carry this on.
The catch is that Daruizen isn't interesting at all, the thing that makes Daruizen interesting is the thing that makes Nodoka/Grace less interesting, and that's not a good balance.
When Episode 28 decided to make canon that Daruizen is the result of a parasite that took residence in Nodoka's body they elevated his level of in the scale, now we have a very close connection that raises the bar for the rivalry these two have and it also drops answers for questions we didn't even know we had. But they couldn't leave it at that, they had to undermine their main character and probably the whole, show while at it too.
The thing that made Nodoka such a unique lead for this show was the fact that she is a sick kid, we never know what her disease is, and I understand the reasons why the show wouldn't want to pin-point and existence disease neither create a fake one, but we know her health isn't one of the best, we've seen her suffer because of it and the show wasn't shy of putting images of the main character in a hospital bed. And this is very important because, while the majority of the target audience most likely has never been in those conditions, I'm sure a lot of kids, and even adults, who unfortunately have been in hospitals for most of their lives watches this show for hope, for strength, for comfort, and having a main character similar to them is strong as fuck. But when you make Nodoka's disease to be something magical you devalue a lot of that. Yes, magical or not, Nodoka did experience her disease, that affected her, that changed her. But just how it magically came to her, it also magically left her body, and sadly that's not a luxury that we in the real world have... and that affects people. Of course, I'm working here just based on assumptions, thankfully I never had to be hospitalized and the closest my family got to that was when my aunt got her tubes tied and the period right before my father's death, so I may not be in my place to say, and I really hope I'm wrong in this, but I do believe this was a bad move for the representation.
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Even if I'm wrong (and I really do hope I am), this still isn't a good narrative move because it just turns this show into something very focused on the lead cure when this is supposed to be a show about a team. It makes it feel like this world spins around Nodoka, and not that Nodoka spins WITH the world she's in. This deep connection with one general, that isn't emulated with the other generals in parallel to the other Cures, makes it feel like she's the only one important and that nothing else matters, and this saddens me because makes it look like I hate Nodoka when I deeply care for her and this is the reason why I'm so mad about this mess. Now that I think about it, it's very similar to Kamen Rider EX:AID to a certain extent, and from all the aspects I could draw a parallel this is definitely the worst one to intersect. Well, at least they haven't made her be the be-all-end-all of the show (yet).
But just to not end this on a negative note, Episode 28 did gave us one of the most emotional scenes ever between Rabirin and Nodoka, and that crushed my heart, I had no emotional structure to sit through that without shading tears. It was an amazing scene. And Episode 30 did end on a good cliffhanger, it feels like we're entering the final arc that will lead us to the Christmas special and then the finale, and I'm very curious to see the path this show will take.
And that does it for me. I feel like I've written way much more than I should, and maybe I'll have to write more because I'm not necessarily sure if I should post this right now considering the US Elections, but regardless, whenever you get to read this share your thoughts with me, I feel like for this block of episodes more than any other else I'm really curious to see what people have to say about it. And considering the sheer length of this post, if you're someone who's reading this on tumblr, consider going over to the blog (the link should be in the sidebar if you're accessing it via pc) the comment section should allow for a better discussion that doesn't need to be broken down in several replies like here on tumblr. Without anything else to add, I think it's time to sign off. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so so so much for reading this insanely huge post, and until the next time. Healin’ Goodbye~
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u23art · 4 years
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A LOOK AT THE STARGATE FRANCHISE
A Look at the Stargate Franchise Stretching over the expanse of nearly 20 years, the Stargate franchise persevered as best it could, entertaining audiences with scifi/ military adventures with various SG teams across many planets. And by golly, over the last month, I took it upon myself to watch all the Stargates. Starting with the Stargate film, the adventure begins with the discovery of an artifact in Giza, covered in glyphs, experts suspected the portal like object to have originated by an intelligence earlier than the Ancient Egyptians. Nearly 80 years later, historian/ archeologist/ anthropologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is recruited by a military outfit and successfully deciphers the meaning of the glyphs and the artifact. Each glyph coordinates with a constellation, using 6 around a destination along with a point of origin creates a wormhole to travel along between two of these artifacts called Stargates. Joining up with a team lead by Col Jack O’neill, they set off to a distant planet, meet an ancient life form that nurtured Earth’s earliest cultures and liberate a desert people from the alien that named itself their god. This film, though overshadowed by the media that came afterwards, is an earnest adventure story that knew what it wanted and nailed the landing. The world building is solid and doesn’t interfere with the story progression and creates a sympatico relationship with the character Daniel Jackson. The character’s enthusiasm for understanding the culture validates the importance of the world and the world in turn gives Daniel Jackson a muse to let him flex his intelligence, giving audiences some engaging and thorough analysis to connect with. James Spader gives a stand out performance with this character and becomes the backbone of the film, with no disrespect towards Kurt Russell. Combined with effective special effects, the 1994 film cements itself as a science fiction must-see. Following up the movie, running ten years from 1997 to 2007, Stargate SG-1 was a prime contender on Showtime and the scifi channel.
Recasting O’neill and Jackson with Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks, the two form a team with Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and a former enemy soldier Teal’c (Christopher Judge). Expanding upon ideas set by the film, the galaxy is under the rule of another parasitic race known as the Goa’uld. This show was balanced and well cared for. Some charms of this show carry over from the movie, namely the relationship shared between each new world and Daniel Jackson, and this time this aspect is improved upon by the performance by Michael Shanks. He had fun with his character, his character loved exploring and that validated each new world the team visits. On top of this, the worlds aren’t just one and done, with each new season brings evolving politics, making the story well-constructed and leaving next to no added fluff. Regarding the new actors aside from Michael Shanks, Richard Dean Anderson portrays Jack O’neill with a calm yet playful demeanor, making him a comforting presence in any seemingly stressful situation. Teal’c is portrayed by Christopher Judge, giving a performance offering strength, sensitivity and breathtaking deadpan comedy. Samantha Carter however, played by Amanda Tapping, is a bit of a double edged sword. Sam Carter is stubbornly professional, meaning that she approaches problems with calm inquisition, but she doesn’t actually have a character arc. Despite getting her chops busted constantly by coworkers and villains alike, she responds to nearly every show of pigheadedness with “with all due respect”. I can’t think of many instances where she gives an aggressive or sarcastic response to rude behavior, and further still I don’t think there was a single point where she cracked a joke. But I digress, all in all SG-1 is a well-oiled machine and earns it’s good reputation. Next up is Atlantis. Running from 2004 to 2009, we find ourselves in a new galaxy with a new SG team led by Col John Sheppard. Lasting only 5 seasons, the show left behind a few ingredients that made it’s predecessors as engaging as it was, but still provided fun character interactions. The show is more action based, most stories depicting each new world as a new danger and resolving many conflics with hammers rather than scalpels. And the team this time around lacks a character like Daniel Jackson, removing the element of curiousity towards the worlds and in turn the worlds begin to lack appeal. The writing began to lean more on characters than world building, but regardless, John Sheppard and his crew provide fun, banter and action. And then came Stargate Universe. Thanks, I hate it. This show lasted only 2 seasons and a comic book mini series, and I couldn’t be happier. I can’t remember the last time I watched such an uncharismatic show, with an uncharismatic cast on an uncharismatic set. Lasting even less time than Atlanis, with only 2 seasons from 2009 to 2011, adventure is abandoned entirely and replaced with a survival story. Here we follow a group of civilians and SGC personnel, dragged along by the obsessive curiosity of the total sociopath; Dr. Rush. Deciphering a Stargate address with not 7 but 9 glyphs, Rush drags over 40 survivors of a base attack onto an abandoned, ancient ship called the Destiny. Several galaxies away from earth and unable to control the ship, Rush seeks to uncover the mission of the Destiny while everyone else just wants to get home. The funniest aspect of this show is that it’s structured like a reality tv show, take a bunch of irritated people, isolate them and watch the chaos ensue. There’s even a surprise pregnancy, and I totally watch scifi for that. As for world building, there is next to none. Each world is one and done, managing only to give the characters brief periods to have some shenanigans before moving on. There’s plenty of intrigue regarding the Destiny, from the get go it raises a number of questions; what was the ship’s purpose, why was it abandoned, where is it’s crew. Only one of these questions is truly answered; the purpose of the destiny was to track down and investigate an energy signature supposedly left behind from the birth of the universe, essentially a journey to find God in a sense. Story progression drags it’s feet and without proper focus. The main point of intrigue is the Destiny and it’s mission, then there are the ongoing problems of cabin fever among the civilians and then there’s the emotional turmoil of the SGC soldiers and their emotional instability. None of this is executed in a way that works, the characters certainly perform but none of what they do contributes to learning anything new about the Destiny, leaving me with total apathy towards scenes with most of the characters because they’re irrelevant to the main point of interest towards the show. I found myself just glazing over the characters problems because they don’t contribute substance in tandem to the main story. This is not helped by the fact that the characters wear dull, dark clothes on a dull, dark space ship, leaving no scene looking particularly remarkable. In addition to the problems on the Destiny, there is an issue of cloak and dagger espionage on Earth, this becomes more interesting by default because we join members of the original SG-1 team in well-lit locations with a clear problem and characters willing to solve said problem. The series ends unspectacularly and  was followed up by an unspectacular comic that still doesn’t resolve the ongoing problems. This show bears the name “Stargate” but lacks all the elements that made what came before it so entertaining. The show was cancelled due to issues of poor reviews and financial trouble and at present there’s no chance of a return, and I won’t lose sleep over this. Then after wrapping up my time with Universe, I ended my Stargate marathon with Stargate Infinity. Stargate Universe was a standard 26 episode animated series from 2002 to 2003, airing on the short lived Fox Box and produced by Dic animation. Set years ahead of SG-1, Gus Bonner and a rag tag SG team are framed and accused of treason, finding themselves banished by Stargate command and chased by an alien race called Tlak’kahn. It’s a show for young audiences, and made by an animation studio that pumped out a lot of budget cartoons. Though to this show’s credit, it was more bearable than Alienators: Evolution Continues, another Dic cartoon based off a science fiction property which displayed embarrassing writing like a badge of honor. The show is cheap, has passable animation, toy like character designs and barely taps into the ongoing conflict, making nearly every episode a contained story. Had I watched this before I watched Universe, I probably would have looked on this show with more scrutiny. However, this is not the case, and I can look on this show more favorably now that I’ve seen what Stargate can look like without most of it’s pieces. Despite the show’s faults, it still retains the idea of adventure and exploration, and it has episodes that lightly touch upon issues like living in poverty or dealing with addiction. And Gus Bonner had so many insightful things to say on issues of science and history, I found it rather wholesome. I even appreciate the colorful toy-like designs after several hours of next to no color at all during Stargate Universe. All in all, the show retains the Stargate identity and gives a decent enough show with what resources it has. There were several other pieces of media that came out for the Stargate franchise, such as books and games, but as of this time the Stargate Franchise is on ice for the foreseeable future. It was an underdog that had some bite to it, and that didn’t go unappreciated. It was refreshing getting to watch the shows and get a more complete perspective for the scattered episodes I’d seen when SG-1 was still on the air.
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vannahfanfics · 4 years
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Okay so for my last headcanon, I'm sorry couldnt think of anything specific but im a massive simp for Sokka so just some random headcanons you have for him post-cannon! I wish you the best of luck with all the requests and congrats on 200 followers! 🥳
Honestly if you’re not a simp for Sokka you need to get off my blog, because that is my B O Y. It’s been a hella long time since I’ve seen Korra and read the comics, so this may conflict with canon information, but oh well. 
Post-Canon Sokka Headcanons 
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After the events of the main series and North and South comics, Sokka, Katara, and Aang retired in the Southern Water Tribe, which, with the help of the North, had been restored to a power and culture landmark. Katara was elected as the official liaison between the North and South and often travels there for diplomatic meetings, and both Aang and Sokka traveled with her as head of her guard detail.
 As for Sokka himself, he commited himself again to his training and rose through the ranks to become a high-ranking officer in the Southern Water Tribe’s army. Sokka, though keeping trade secrets secret, worked closely with major military officials of the other nations, holding joint training camps and such. Sokka was also a huge proponent of establishing a scientific research division within the Southern Water Tribe that had a specialized unit specific to developing all kinds of military technology. At its height, it was world-renowned and so prestigious that researchers flocked there from all over the world for a chance to work there. However, Sokka ensured that the heart of the institute’s philosophy is researching ways to protect civilians and soldiers, not just designing weapons of mass destruction. Sokka often paid calls to check out the projects and offer his two sense; it wasn’t unoften that a meek little scientist called him up begging to pick his brain. The man has unparalleled tactical sense and everyone knows it. 
Sokka married Suki in their late twenties and they had several children. Sokka’s a total family man and never let his work take away from his family time; he was always home at six o’clock on the dot, takes weekends off for family ventures or helping Suki with chores, and his whole family went with him on any international travels. He wanted his kids to see the world like he did, especially now that it was safe. He trained all his children in the arts of combat but didn’t force them to choose the path he chose; he fostered all their interests and encouraged their future endeavors whole-heartedly, because more than anything he wanted them to be happy. He’s stupid proud that his brood yields a Kyoshi warrior and an officer in the Southern Water Tribe army, though. 
When his father Hakoda retired, Sokka took the helm as the leader of the Southern Water Tribe. By this time his children were grown and out on their own, so Sokka poured his whole heart into making his Tribe great, strong, and respected. He had great relationships with major officials and diplomats all over the world, and of course, the Fire Lord was his number-one homie. People joked that Zuko was his work wife (though they never dared say it in front of the firebender). 
Despite all his accomplishments, Sokka took two weeks out of every year to go on vacation. Sometimes he took his kids to a place from their adventures, sometimes he took them to hang out with Toph or Zuko, and sometimes they found somewhere new to explore. That sense of adventure never died in Sokka. Eventually he retired from his position and handed it off to someone else. Suki always said she wanted to go back to Kyoshi Village, so the two of them packed up and moved their for the final years of their lives. Suki oversaw the dojo there and Sokka implemented swordsmanship into their regimen, and they still practice it. 
Oh, and he went back and found his space sword, and Katara and Toph made damn sure he was buried with it.  
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Searching My Dreams for a Lifetime; Chapter One (Criminal Minds)
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                “A soul mate is… someone whose way of viewing life is not necessarily the same as yours but complements yours… there is not a compromise, there is a complement.”                 –Paul Robear
        Another day, another case, and this one seemed to be particularly bad. JJ had dropped the file in Hotch’s office, and when he took one look at the pictures of the victims, he knew they needed help. Before she could leave, he had her calling the list of people he knew could consult on the case. Given the late hour, they’d brief the team in the morning, and be able to get where they needed to go before the end of the day.
        Something about the case had Hotch thinking that it was going to be different from the rest, but he could only wait until morning before they knew anything.
        Morning came, and he was again one of the first people in the office. JJ had beat him there and was setting up at the round table for the briefing.
        “I put in the call, and our consultant should be here not too long after the rest of the team,” she told her boss by way of greeting “I think she’ll need to come with us on this one.”
        “I agree,” Hotch nodded “who on the list was available?”
        “First one I called,” she replied “Dr. Amell from the University of Virginia. She’s the best in the country, in this field, and she readily agreed to help us. It’s between semesters, anyway, so she didn’t have any scheduling conflicts.”
        “Good,” he took a look at the file again “here’s hoping she can help.”
        The name, title, and mention of a teaching position, as well as her reputation, it invoked the mental image of an older woman. Someone who would be seasoned enough to handle the gruesome nature of the murders. Thankfully there was a decent enough amount of time between kills that they could examine each crime scene without worrying about another body dropping just yet.
        As the rest of the team was filing in, Hotch prepared for their reactions to what they were going to see. They dealt with gruesome deaths all the time, but this one was definitely on the list of some of the worst they’d see.
        “The police in Grand Rapids, Minnesota need our help,” JJ started “over the last three months, six victims have been found, all dumped in the surrounding state forests.”
        “Due to the nature of how they were found and what the M.E. determined to be their cause of death, we’ve had to call in a little extra help with this case.” Hotch told them, seeing the team grow confused “I should warn you, this is pretty gruesome, even for us.”
        With that, the images of their latest victim appeared on the screen.
        “Oh my god,” Emily gasped, and the expressions of each other member of the team matched her sentiment “what the hell happened?”
        “Something highly ritualized,” a new voice rang out from the doorway “and incredibly specific. Whoever did this believed she did something to deserve it.”
        Everyone turned to see a young woman, early thirties, standing in the doorway with a bag in one hand and cane in the other. Dark brown hair and light blue eyes hidden behind glasses, the visitors badge showed she wasn’t from the Bureau.
        “Dr. Amell, thank you for coming so soon,” JJ walked over to greet the woman, shaking her hand before turning to make introductions “Everyone, this is Doctor Shira Amell, the country’s top expert on occult history and symbols.”
        “This M.O. is something you recognize, Doctor?” Rossi asked, watching as she studied the screen intently, cane tapping as she walked closer.
        “Would recognize it instantly,” she nodded, turning to JJ and the rest of the team “is there an image of the victim from straight above?”
        “What is it?” Emily wondered as JJ found the right picture.
        “This is an old method of execution from Norway,” Shira explained “from the time of the Vikings. It’s called the ‘blood eagle’, and you can see why here.” With the image up on screen, the entire team could see that it looked as though the victim had sprouted wings.
        “How is this done?” Reid asked.
        “They would restrain the victim, face down, and carve the shape of an eagle with its wings extended into their back.” Shira explained as best she could “Then, they’d hack the ribs until they detached from the spine. The ribs would be pulled out to create the illusion of protruding wings. While still alive and in agony, the victim’s lungs would be pulled from the gaping hole and set over their ‘wings.’  This would cause their wings to ‘flutter’ as they took their final breaths and died.”
        “This is done while the victim is still alive?” Derek’s face was schooled in mostly neutrality, but the shock of the moment was still evident in his eyes “what makes you think the unsub thinks their victims deserved this?”
        “It’s a form of execution, a sacrifice to the god Odin,” Shira explained “while they might be bastardizing it for their own means, execution is execution. These women have to either be doing something that your unsub sees as unforgivable and worthy of the death penalty, or they represent someone who the unsub thinks deserves punishment.”
        “You know something of profiling.” Rossi mused.
        “It was once my goal to join the FBI,” Shira replied, a small smile tugging at her lips “and as a historian, profiling is a tool we also use to figure out motivations for things we find at dig sites and in texts we find.”
        “We’ll go over victimology on the plane,” Hotch declared, speaking up for the first time since Shira entered the room “Doctor Amell will be coming with us, to see evidence at the crime scene and help in any way she can. Wheels up in thirty.”
        Shira watched as the rest of the team stood and gathered their things, going out the door. Clearly ‘wheels up in thirty’ was the sign they were done briefing. Agent Hotchner was the first to leave, but he stopped not too far from her.
        “You can ride with Agents Prentiss and Morgan, Doctor,” he told her “we’ll see you on the plane.”
        Just like that, he left, leaving Shira and some of the other agents looking surprised.
        “Well, that was interesting,” Rossi mused, before going over to the young woman and offering his hand to her “thank you for agreeing to help us, Doctor. We could use it.”
        “Glad to help,” she replied, shaking the older agent’s hand “just…quick question before we get started; is Agent Hotchner always so purposefully distant?”
        “It’s just how he gets when it’s such a violent case,” Rossi promised “don’t let it get to you. Once we get on the ground and get to work, it’ll get easier.”
        She nodded, concerned, but deciding to go along with it.
~
        The entire ride to the airport, Hotch played over and over in his head what had happened, analyzing it from all angles. Why had seeing her set something off in him?
        The instant that Shira Amell had walked into the conference room, something went….’ping’, in him. A small part of him waking up, recognizing her, even though he knew he’d never seen her before. It was like the tales he’d once heard, about what it was like to see your soulmate for the first time, even when you didn’t know it was them.
        Hayley hadn’t been gone that long, only a year, and he was working a case that was extremely violent. He had no time for this.
        So why was it that every time he was looking at Shira, he felt like he was home?
~
        The flight was only two and a half hours, but there was a lot to go through in that time. Shira stayed tucked away, in her corner, going over every bit of evidence that they had that she could look at. She was still a civilian, after all.
        Which was why she was surprised when Agent Rossi, he insisted she call him David, called over to her.
        “Doctor Amell,” he spoke up “in your professional opinion, what sort of person would use this method to kill someone?”
        Looking up and seeing all the agents staring at her, Shira stood and walked over, settling in the seat next to Hotch.
        “Well, I’m not as versed in profiling as you all,” she started “but from what I know of what I was seeing, whoever this is? He’s angry, and has been for a long time.  It takes a lot of strength to be able to do something like this and rage to want the victim to suffer so much, but also a clear head and planning in order to abduct his victims and do something so complicated.”
        Whatever Shira had said, she could see it had made sense to them.
        “Who would have access to information about it?” Derek asked.
        “Anyone with an internet connection, really,” Shira replied, shrugging “but it really isn’t something you just stumble across by accident. You’d have to be looking for something involving Norse rituals or sacrifices.”
        “Makes sense, given that Minnesota has one of the larger populations of Norwegian-Americans in the country.” Reid declared.
        “It’s one of the reasons the Minnesota NFL team is called the Vikings,” she agreed “it’s a major part of life in the state, that heritage. So, your unsub is likely someone intensely dedicated to researching it.”
        “Doesn’t exactly narrow down the pool of suspects.” Emily mused.
        “It’s still a start,” Hotch declared, still looking at his papers before looking up at his team “Dave, you take Reid and JJ to the station, I’ll go with Morgan and Prentiss to the latest crime scene.”
        There was silence for a moment as Shira looked to the other members of the team, missing the ‘look’ that Rossi gave Derek before subtly nodding at Hotch.
        “Doctor Amell, you should join us,” Derek spoke up, earning her and Hotch’s attention “if there’s something there that’s significant to the ritual, you’d spot it before we could.”
        “Or anything else specific to Viking rituals,” Emily added “you’d said earlier there was a possibility the unsub was using the blood eagle method for his own uses and not because of the historical significance, so any other things he might have cherry-picked might say something about him.”
        “It’d do some good to see the site first-hand,” Shira nodded “something’s bothering me about the runes that I can’t quite put my finger on, so seeing it in person might help figure it out.”
        With the plan in place, everyone settled back into what they were doing, so they could hit the ground running once they landed. In order to concentrate, taking a cue from Derek, Shira popped in her own headphones and turned on music.
~
        With half an hour left in the flight, Rossi decided it was as good a time as any to try and see what the hell Hotch’s problem was. Now, the older FBI agent wasn’t a blind man, he knew that Doctor Amell was a lovely young woman, but there was more to it than that, as far as Hotch and his attitude was concerned.
        “Okay, kid, be honest with me here,” Rossi quietly demanded, straight out of the gate and safely on the other side of the plane from the woman in question “what the hell’s going on?”
        “What are you talking about?” Hotch replied, quirking an eyebrow as he looked at his friend and coworker.
        “How you’re treating Doctor Amell,” the other man explained “like a damn teenager ignoring his crush or something. She IS here to help us, you know.”
        “I know that,” the younger agent snapped, immediately slightly glaring “I’m trying to keep things professional on a very violent case.”
        “And that involves not talking to her?” Rossi questioned, quirking an eyebrow before his tone softened “kid, what’s going on with you?”
        “I have no idea,” Hotch sighed, glancing over Rossi’s shoulder to where Shira was sitting, absorbed in music and the photos from each crime scene “I saw her come in and just….”
        “Okay, just try treating her like the lead detective on a case,” Rossi offered “or a new agent. Somewhat distant, but still in a way that she knows you don’t hate her?”
        Hotch didn’t say anything in reply, and Rossi wondered whether or not….no, did it actually happen? Had Hotch finally found his soul-mate in the young historian? It would explain everything. He’d have to observe and see how Hotch and Shira interacted, see what the chemistry between them was like.
        The rest of the team saw it, too, so maybe a betting pool to keep their minds off how bad the case was would come up. He’d have to suggest it.
        Though if Hotch found out about it, he’d kick all of their asses.
~
        The ride to the latest crime scene was, to say the least, one of the more awkward ones that Emily and Derek had been on. With Doctor Amell in the front with Hotch, both of them in the back, both Derek and Emily could feel the slight tension. They had a while before they’d reach the state park, and had agreed that the tension couldn’t last that long.
        “So, what got you interested in studying history, Doctor?” Emily asked, to break the silence “hell of a career you’ve made for yourself with it.”
        “I was a pretty active kid until my late teens,” Shira replied, looking in the rearview mirror to watch Emily “that’s when my hip, sight, and hypermobility problems started in earnest, and I knew I needed to change my career plans. History was always my best subject in school, so my teacher helped me plan out my studies, and how to pick a focus.”
        “No small feat, to get your doctorate before your thirties,” Derek declared, smiling at Shira’s grateful smile “lot of late nights?”
        “I think I’m still not caught up after all the all-nighters,” Shira laughed “it helps that I had a great mentor during my doctorate work. Going to digs wasn’t easy, but that just provided more motivation. I wasn’t going to let myself fall into the rut of thinking I couldn’t do anything an able-bodied person could.”
        “Did your doctors find the cause of your health problems?” Hotch asked, surprising Emily and Derek. Shira turned and gave Hotch a look of surprise, yet not in a negative fashion.
        “Not until I was in grad school, sadly,” she answered “I have EDS, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Brittle Cornea Syndrome subset.”
        “Genetic disorder affecting your joints and, with BCS, your sight,” he mused, giving her a glance “pretty rare. Explains why it took so long.”
        “Had to run quite a few tests,” Shira nodded “first in my family.”
        “No hypotonia reactions?” Hotch questioned, just to be sure.
        “Thankfully not unless I push myself too far,” she replied “which I’ve learned how to avoid.”
        “Hypotonia?” Emily asked, finally finding her voice and a moment to butt in.
        “Muscle weakness,” Shira explained “it means I lack muscle tone. I can’t do much exercise or exertion of any kind for long periods of time. Though I can go for a good while, walking or standing, now that I know how to operate within my limits.”
        “That’s damn impressive,” Derek added, surprise finally leaving his face “We’re lucky to have you.”
        “I’m just glad to help.” Shira replied, turning and giving him a small smile, before looking out to the road ahead.
        When silence fell on the car again, Emily and Derek looked at each other in wordless amazement. That conversation was the most that Hotch had spoken to Shira in the entire time she had been with them. Maybe there was something to what Rossi had told them, after all.
        There wasn’t time to dwell on it, though, as they found themselves at the state park soon enough. The dump site wasn’t too far from the entrance, but it was enough of a hike. As they all got out, Derek lingered behind to make sure that Shira was steady on her feet.
        “You gonna be alright with the hike?” he asked, earning an amused and exasperated glance.
        “I’ll be fine,” she replied, smiling “it’s not that far. I’ve walked further on campus getting from my office to my car. Thank you for the concern, though, Agent Morgan. It’s sweet of you.”
        Throwing her hair up in a quick half-bun for the hike and work ahead, she gave Derek another smile before walking over to join Hotch, and be introduced to the local PD.
        “There’s definitely something between them,” Emily mused quietly, walking up to stand next to Derek “can tell by their body language.”
        “She definitely became more comfortable around him when Hotch showed he knew about her condition,” Derek agreed, seeing just how close their boss was standing next to Shira “must be rare to find anyone who knows about it outside the medical community.”
        “Yet another tick in the ‘Rossi might be right’ box.” Emily teased, before they joined Hotch and Shira, and all started the hike to the dump site. It was short, compared to most others, and Emily and Derek hung back as Hotch spoke to the detective. Mainly listening, they also watched Hotch and Shira work together. As Hotch spoke, Shira walking beside him, they could see Hotch seem to hover closer to her, though resisting the urge to touch. Maybe he was resisting the urge to help her, with the revelation of her chronic illness. Maybe it was something else.
        As they arrived on scene, everyone split up to do their respective jobs, with Shira staying close to a detective. As the agents did their own work, she walked the perimeter, observing each tree that sigils had been painted onto. Having been given permission to take photos with a police camera, Shira became absorbed in her own investigation. Looking at the way the sigils were painted, trying to find how the strokes were done. she focused on everything as though she was looking at a dig site.
        “Look at spacing, details,” she muttered, side-stepping officers and evidence markers, making sure to note the distance between the center and each tree “nothing’s too small…”
        Looking closely at one of the sigils, Shira noticed something that seemed off. On closer examination, she could see that the tree itself was carved with the same shape before being painted over. Taking close-up shots immediately, her brain going through the different reasons it could happen, she turned while looking down at the camera. Looking up at the sound of footsteps, she narrowly avoided collision with an evidence technician.
        Twist, pivot, and the familiar sensation of a joint out of socket.
        She nearly went down, wincing in pain, before the technician caught her.
~
        The sound of a cane clattering on stone had Hotch whipping around. Seeing Shira in the hands of a technician, wincing in pain, he was over like a shot. Knowing what he did about her condition, he could only assume one of her joints started to act up.
        “Doctor Amell?” He asked, tone showing his concern as he took over offering her support.
        “Just get me somewhere where I’m sitting, please,” she muttered, one hand clutching the camera tight as the other went to her hip “I can take care of this.”
        A bit doubtful, Hotch did as she asked anyway, bringing her over to a tree stump and helping her sit down. As Derek and Emily came over to check on the situation, Shira was quick to adjust herself, hands coming to her thigh and hip as she got a hold of them.
        “Next part isn’t for the easily squeamish,” she warned, offering a wry smile as she stared at an unseen horizon point “though I know you guys aren’t, with what you see every day.”
        Derek was about to ask what she meant when, with a swift motion and grunt of pain, she put her femur joint back into her hip socket.
        “Okay, what the hell?” Derek muttered, watching Shira put her head between her knees and take some deep breaths “how often do you have to do that?”
        “Depends on the day,” she replied, relaxing a bit more as she felt a comforting hand on her back “or what happens. I’ll be okay. Got enough while walking around that I can sit and try to organize my thoughts.”
        Looking up, she saw that Hotch had been the one to put his hand on her back, and she offered him a small smile.
        “My hero,” she muttered after Derek and Emily had turned away “thanks for your help.”
        “Wasn’t about to let you hop over by yourself, though I’m sure you could have,” he replied, giving a small, wry smile “take your time. We’ll be here for a while.”
        Shira nodded, watching Hotch stand as he walked back over to where he had been. She thanked the technician who brought her cane over, before starting to look through the camera. 
        From a distance, Hotch watched her, marveling at the strength of the woman helping them. Smart, unfazed by violence, high tolerance for pain, and somehow able to get under his skin with even the smallest moments and words. Shira Amell was an awe-inspiring woman all her own, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t intimidated, and impressed.
        There was the case to focus on, but he knew he’d keep getting distracted, so he came to a decision.
        Stand by Shira, work with her, get to know her. With this case, she was the key to helping solve it. Yet she matched the victimology almost to the letter.
        She needed to be protected.
                “I feel like a part of my soul has loved you since the beginning of everything. Maybe we’re from the same star.”                 – Emery Allen
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