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sleepyditto · 2 years

Note

Welcome in the collei simp club. I have gone bankrupt and can't give u a 19$ fortnite care, so have a request instead /hj.

Would you write Collei, Beidou and Sara with a reader that's super interested in their Jobs and wants to learn/help as much as possible?

If not feel free to ignore and have a nice day/night!

Them with a reader who takes interest in their jobs and wants to learn more + help out (Request)

A/n: Dw man,I've got you covered, well to the best of my writing abilities that is, you could tell I wrote considerably more for Collei but I tried to not go overboard. Anyways here’s your request for you and hope you enjoy!!

Also here’s your $19 Fortnite card:

Collei

As someone who was originally super interested as well in taking up Tighnari’s role as a forest ranger after being taken in, she somewhat understood your curiosity in the role of being a forest ranger and being her s/o, was willing to guide and mentor you on the knowledge and duties a forest ranger had to the best of her abilities, although she may recommend you find Master Tighnari instead for a more in-depth and proper guide to being a forest ranger given how she still views herself as his student after all.

She usually finds time to attempt mentoring you when she is free and Master Tighnari is away on expedition off in the forest. Would probably educate you on the basics of forest survival and care such as types of poisonous fungi to look out for, keeping track of wildlife that grow out in the forest or places to avoid like Withering Zones if you had no vision. Her memory isn’t the best, so at times she can struggle to convey some parts out to you and gets flustered when she does, but your presence and encouragement is able to calm her back quicker than usual and her experience on mentoring you probably even made her more confident in herself as well.

“So uh…just remember to be on the lookout for these types of fungi, since they can be quite aggressive and it would land you a few days in the bed if you get attacked by them..yeah.” Collei spoke and she was finishing off on a lecture she was giving on the types of fungi in the forest and which ones to avoid. It was quite subtle but you noticed her unconsciously giving a sigh of relief once she had concluded her lesson.

“Collei, are you doing alright?” you asked in concern to which Collei appeared startled for a brief moment before composing herself to face towards you.

“Oh don’t worry about me,I’m fine..well mostly.” Collei responded back. “It’s just that despite having teaching you for quite a while now. I..uh still find it difficult to recall certain details that are crucial for being a knowledgeable forest ranger. Sorry, I just wanted to give you the best of my learning that I can possibly can since you’re my partner after all and I want to become the best for you.” she admitted.

“But Collei,” you rebutted “You’re already the best forest ranger to me, with your determination to become one and now hear doing your best to go out of your comfort zone to teach me, I think that already makes you an amazing forest ranger yourself.” Your encouraging words making Collei a little less nervous and feel a bit better about herself.

“I.. thank you for your kind words, even if I may not be the best out there for you yet hehe. There’s still a lot that I need to learn from Master Tighnari about being a forest ranger but maybe when you are better in your skills we can both go out on expeditions together so you can actively help out!” she spoke with a hopeful expression on her face.

Beidou

Given that the Crux Fleet and the pirate lifestyle was Beidou’s pride and her everything, Beidou was more than delighted to show her partner the life of a pirate and offer than a position that will offer a hands-on experience of living and working aboard the Crux.

Be it above or below deck, the Crux definitely has a place best suited to your abilities to become an efficient sailor on aboard. As her s/o however, on the occasion she might give you a brief special privilege on being beside her on board.

“Yo, Y/n!! We’re about to approach Gunyun Stone Forest soon, how about you come up here and I can offer you a better view?” Beidou chimed towards you as you were carrying out your duties on board.

Expressing your interest in becoming a member of the Crux Fleet as well was possibly one of the most life-changing decisions you could have possibly made, experiencing an unconventional lifestyle and your s/o being the captain herself giving you the best insight into it.

Beidou was more than willing to let you help out on board, everyone regardless of their status had an important role to play in the Crux, especially you, while Beidou gave a tad bit more privileges to than she usually would to others though.

“Coming Beidou!!” you replied back as you snapped out of your thoughts back to reality. The captain herself was indulging in the view in front of her on the captain’s deck as you appaorched her.

“So y/n, what do ya think? Life on board the Crux Fleet is pretty awesome right?” Beidou proudly inquired. And with a smile on your face and leaning on her shoulder, you answered, “It certainly is, Beidou.”

Kujou Sara

The Tenryou Commission General regarded her position to be one of utmost importance given to serve the Shogun to her fullest. So when you expressed interest in her occupation, she could not be more satisfied that her partner shared the same aspirations on serving the Shogun as her.

She would proudly show you,her partner,the duties of serving in the Shogunate,but might refrain you from pitching in at first before she decided you were adequately taught enough to do so.

You were finishing off paperwork in the Tenryou Commission for the day, eagerly anticipating the completion of the stacks. Sure it may have been mundane and repetitive work but Sara had mentioned how work under the Shogunate should be carried out to its best regardless of its nature, so you went ahead with it.

“Ah, you have finished the entire stack assigned for you today, excellent.” the booming voice of your girlfriend echoed down the hall as you looked up to make eye contact with her.

“It’s getting late now, leave the rest of the reviewing to tomorrow, for now let us proceed to make sure everything is left as it was before we leave.” Sara mentioned, her meticulous nature showed at its finest when it came to serving under the Shogunate.

Frankly speaking, you may not have personally enjoyed the dull lifestyle that a position in the Shogunate had despite its prestige. But the fact that Sara was also counting on you to ensure the Shogun was best served had spurred you on.

“Don’t worry, I will ensure as you have ordered.” you responded back, with Sara giving an approving nod. You secretly wished however that she could bring you outside sometime to witness the more exciting stuff such as archery training, but everything has its own time.

Remember to share and reblog if you liked it!!

#collei #collei x reader #kujou sara x reader #beidou x reader #genshin x reader

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starglitterz · 3 years

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Hello, this is my first time asking but, can I request a Kazuha headcanon with gender neutral reader? I haven't thought of any scenerios though

hi !!

i made into a oneshot instead, i hope that's alright !! headcanon was kinda vague T_T

one order of an ice-cream coming right up ! i hope you enjoy it, and ty for ordering from quill’s dessert cafe 🍧

please reblog! it helps a lot :)

kazuha.

the sun has just begun to dip below the horizon, the last of its warm rays splashing gold hues across the pastel sky. a gentle summer breeze whistles softly, curling around you like a the familiar warmth of a hug from your lover. you're standing at the docks of liyue, gazing absently at the ships, or more specifically the crux, the magnificent fleet captained by none other than beidou, and also the fleet that your boyfriend, kazuha will be leaving on today.

the feeling of an arm wrapping around your waist jolts you out of your thoughts, and you tilt your head up to be met with kazuha's lips curved into a sad smile. you turn around, burying your head in his chest, unsure of how to convey what you're feeling. in the end you settle for asking, "do you really have to leave?" kazuha sighs, lifting your knuckles to kiss them, "i wish i didn't have to. but i don't want you to get hurt. if i stay here for too long, the inazuma guards might find me, and they might take you too."

you know he's right, but it doesn't make his departure ache any less. what's worse is that you don't know when he'll come back, or if he even will. the ocean obeys no one, not even the formidable captain beidou, and storms can wreck even the strongest of ships in a second by dashing them on razor sharp rocks or pulling them down into the darkest depths where they'll never be seen again. you're terrified that kazuha will just disappear, swallowed up by a monster of the sea.

kazuha rubs comforting circles on the small of your back as he nuzzles into your neck, inhaling your scent and memorising it to revisit while he's away. "oi, kaedehara! get over here, we're about to leave soon. captain's orders," a voice yells from aboard the ship, smashing through your quiet tryst. you're gripping onto kazuha's shirt, silently begging him not to leave, and his pale crimson eyes, almost the same colour as the coppery bloodstains on the floor he has seen from his time at inazuma, fill with longing. he wants so desperately to stay, but this is for the both of you and the future he wants to build with you someday.

"hey, look at me," he murmurs, caressing your cheek while you lean into his touch as your brain scrambles to ingrain this in your mind forever. parting really is such sweet sorrow, you idly think. kazuha peels your hand off his shirt and drops something into your open palm before folding your fingers to close on it, "take care of this for me, alright?" pressing a final kiss on your forehead, kazuha quickly boards the ship waiting for him, and you bid him goodbye with as much encouragement as you can muster.

"i love you!" you shout into the distance, cupping your hands around your mouth to amplify your volume. you imagine your boyfriend smiling as he hears it, and suddenly recall the item he slipped into your hands. unclasping your fingers, you glance downwards, only to be met with a single maple leaf, the same shade as the streak running through kazuha's snowy hair. you're more grateful than words can express for the simple gift which almost feels like a part of him left in your caring hands, and vow to keep it safe.

and as stars begin to blanket the navy quilt of the night sky, you offer up a prayer to the archons to protect kazuha, clutching the leaf to your heart.

quill speaks !

hi ! sorry for going so off the rails from what u requested, but i hope u still liked it :)

are u guys going to pull for kazuha or for klee?

i hope you enjoy your stay at quill’s dessert cafe, and do check out the menu if you'd like ! 🍭

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legionofpotatoes · 3 years

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alright here’s ma thoughts on that flick I mentioned

we hatewatched a*my of the dead because we were CONVINCED “zombies in las vegas” would be an impossible concept to screw up, but in so assuming we obviously invoked a holy wager with the universe and got reminded, once again, that hoping for improvement from someone who’s dependably put out bad art is never a wise choice 😐

but we were honestly kinda roped in by the marketing??? and expected a goofy fast-paced flick with the odd traditional undead metaphor thrown in, framing some sort of relationship drama maybe or hell even nothing at all! we’d have taken pure indulgent storytelling, idk italian job with zombies in las vegas, I don’t know fucking anything but??? whatever this was???? spoilers below for it is time for One Of My Rants

I mean the main reason I really want to write all this and complain. this film here probably has the most unappealing cinematography I have ever experienced in my life and that is saying something. who the fuck signed off on that CONSTANT shallow-ass depth of field that imprisons your eyeline and turns every shot into bokeh paste???? and I mean every shot almost!!!! I promise if you think I am overreacting just throw a dart at the seek bar and watch twenty seconds from wherever it lands. it is horrifying to look at. at least it gave my girlfriend a good visual shorthand for what it’s like when I lose my glasses

why was sean spicer in this movie. did they pay him to be here. was sean spicer paid hollywood money for his scene in this film because fuck everyone who was involved in that decision

the legitimately baffling hints at the extraterrestrial origins of the infection that went absolutely nowhere and had no dramatic or plot-level bearing. we love to see the franchise sprouts fellas

yet another big budget waste of everything hiroyuki sanada has to offer. and bautista too I guess? I like him but man was this an odd career move

what was the crux of his conflict/resolution with his daughter btw. I understand it was rooted in miscommunication over their forms of grief irt mom but uhh… it was all rather clunky and didn’t land for me. I tried I really tried to buy in but something was wrong fundamentally with the groundwork there, it did not click and their catharsis felt unearned. I know there’s massive amounts of tragic baggage being projected there from the author so I’m not slapping any judgment down really;

but again it would be an easy thing to wave off if they just had a vibrant cast of lovable simpletons with good chemistry and the kinetic sense of plotting the trailers promised (and this premise never discounts good drama, either). but instead it was just two and a half (!) hours of meandering into situations the filmmaking instincts had no idea how to flow in and out of

to wit. I know talking about “bad pacing” is associated with armchair bullshit but consider the example of the scene were dieter does an out of nowhere little dance after childishly screaming but then still-killing a zombie, with the film framing this as a micro character triumph, and not a second later the bg soundtrack instantly fades into an orchestral score dramatizing a nearby mcguffin reveal, completely 180 degreeing the tone without a semblance of deft insert shot stitching or even I dont know a fucking jump cut maybe. now imagine this whiplash for 2.5 hrs uninterrupted

I will keep complaining about the length yeah because this was not a story requiring this much real estate to be told. Uhh in my humble and personal opinion, of course

[man sees zombie tiger] “this is crossing the line!” you can in fact write dialogue that is not utter nonsense that falls apart once you drill down its single fickle layer of referential meta winking. what line are you talking about. you have rules in this insane situation you’re in? total nitpick moment I know but it got burned in my brain for some reason. like a microcosm of the mismanaged dramatic instincts paired with weird writing that dots this movie. I am sure the director calls this either satire or genre deconstruction. I am SO sure

tumblr domino meme that goes from “dude getting sucked off while driving” to “entire las vegas literally nuked”

tig notaro is always great to see but once you know she’s been filmed as a separate greenscreen plate months after photography wrapped - cause she had to apparently replace some abusive asshole but that’s a whole other pig not worth fucking - it becomes impossible to unsee her odd detachment from everyone else in the movie lmao. it doesn’t really “ruin” anything on its lonesome but it is hard to unsee

why. was. sean. spicer. in. this. movie

a very simple key ingredient missing from fully turning lip service sympathy for main uruk hai dude into actual empathy that would generate meaningful conflict with hero family would be to spend a bit more time articulating what he internally wanted the most. because he was obviously trying to do something here with pointed agenda. a family, to have kids, build a caste system, save his wife’s head, return to his planet??? all of these could represent the bigger context in his psychology that spurred his vengeance but none of them are dramatically emphasized long enough for you to cheer him on. I’m not asking too much I promise. Articulating interiority of a mute character is pretty doable with deft cinema language, just gotta linger and hold a shot here and there for a few seconds, frame as his POV, donezo. I know this is also one of those like. “who cares” moments but the movie does, very evidently so, in making this guy an actual character. you can kinda piece it together and create a framework of sympathy for him, sure, but then again he ultimately becomes a foil to be killed and not defeated, so. Ehh whatever

quarantine zone stuff was not a wildly childish covid allegory quarantine zone stuff was not a wildly childish covid allegory quarantine zone stuff was n

the rooftop helicopter fakout at the end was such an ass-backwards, manufactured moment of what could be a simple setup/payoff it just pissed me off??? you gain nothing by giving sad dad five seconds of pointless crisis that flips right back to previous status quo ANYWAY, except for a weaksauce waste of runtime, which could be used instead to get inside notaro’s head and actually SHOW the remorse form as she took off, literally maybe even a frown playing on her face as she’s headed for safety right before we cut back to drax and the kid. just a simple-ass, minimal, momentary setup for what is the most basic filmmaking trick of creating macro catharsis moments. Just???? g o d if you can’t even land that shit why are you even doing any of this

that lil run final pam did was very very charming and super choreographed in a way that was the tiiiniest bit overdone

the whole intro with the simul-backstories and posing with family photos was just… oddly motivated. what was the goal? “here’s what we’re fighting for” vignettes? why? it’s not a functional setup in that vein. what was all that

also I am sorry if this is insensitive but the reasons most characters end up articulating to justify going back into the hell that destroyed their lives makes them sound seriously insane

I dont like complaining about CGI (honestly) but so much of it in modern movies can achieve higher fidelity if the animation is simply subdued. Do not overengineer and over-apply 2D cell methodologies and kinematics to each tiny twitch and movement in a hyper 3D model and I promise you. it will look a thousand times more natural. look at thanos in those last two movies. your rendering and detail are absolutely perfect with the tiger you just have to let stuff sit instead of constantly simulating swaying hair strands and firing off all facial muscles at once. great moment at one point where makeup zombie horse and CG zombie tiger are both in one shot together and just by unnecessary amounts of movement alone you can tell who doesn’t belong. again; detail, rendering, compositing, lighting, all picture-perfect; but y’all just gotta let the animation breathe sometimes, and chill it out

plot holes don’t really matter to me but it was kinda funny how lilly decided not to mention the enormous wrinkle in intel pertaining to an actual territorial tribe of intelligent zombies that require human offerings to let you pass, just so that reveal could play out in real time through the joyous punishment of the cartoonishly misogynistic dude

total chad move for mister uruk hai and final pam to rule from a rusted swimming pool complex

the ending with vanderohe oh my god. with the. cash stacks at the airport register. and specifically them working in his favor. that is literally something you do to get arrested under suspicion of theft. it was almost played for laughs and I respect that. coulda been goofier. make these movies goofy ya dorks

anyway, weird, weird movie. bad marketing. message unclear (something something sins of the father???), baffling editing instincts, literal worst-looking cinematography I ever laid eyes upon. Confidently dying on that last hill

#text #long post #aotd spoilers #aotd critical

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pynkhues · 5 years

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Since you're a writer, I'm hoping you can shed some light on this. IMO the writers were chasing viewers in S2 and trying not to get canceled. Personally, I hate when writers toy with their audience, it means they don't have a clear picture of their characters and narrative. How do you feel about writers making it up as they go?

Ah, this post got really long, anon! Since you asked me as a writer, I’m answering as one (I hope you don’t mind! I also hope this doesnt come out as too Creative Writing 101 for people either. This is just lessons I’ve learned and use in my own practice, so I’m applying them here.)

(Also I have drawn horrible diagrams on my very pink notebook paper - I am so sorry, haha)

So first thing’s first - no. I don’t think the writers were chasing viewers (at least not beyond the way any writer is wanting an audience), and I don’t think they were making it up as they go really, but I can understand why you would think that way!

It won’t be a surprise to anyone that I love this show a lot, but coming from it as both a writer and editor - this show does have narrative problems, and the biggest ones, particularly in s2, are in execution, escalation and pacing.

I think heading into the season they had certain character arcs they wanted to follow which married well with the story they wanted to tell. In particular, I actually think the writers have a very strong handle on the girls (I will say that I’ve had a few asks telling me Beth’s characterisation is all over the place, which I’m curious about, just because I personally find her very consistent, and when I’ve asked for clarification, I’ve never gotten any reply, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

I mean, look at their s2 arcs on paper, right?

Ruby tries to negotiate Stan’s lowered opinion of her after the reveal of what she’s done, then has to negotiate him telling her to turn Beth and Annie in. She manages the situation painfully but pulls them through and they’re close again as Ruby navigates the increasingly lower depths of their crime life. When Stan acts to save Beth for Ruby and is arrested, it only escalates – the case on him driving Ruby to extremes to try and save him, including robbing a Quick Cash and using counterfeit money to bribe a lawyer. On top of that, she’s being targeted by an FBI agent who’s after her best friend who she gives up and then saves and then who tries to sacrifice herself for them. Ruby finishes the season the most morally compromised she’s ever been.

Annie gets back together with her ex only to find out that he’s gotten his not-quite-separated-wife pregnant. She splits up with him, but is heartbroken and it’s only amplified by the fact that they’ve been given a job by their Crime Boss to murder a man who tried to rape her but who’s grandmother she has a relationship with. Her sister can’t kill him, and Annie doesn’t get the chance as MP beats her to it. Upon disposing of the body though she endures a whole lot of pain as a result of both her ex’s new family and knowing she’s robbed a woman of her own. Annie goes on a guilt tour – tells her son, helps Marion, helps Nancy only to eventually find an absolver of her guilt in Noah, who builds her up and tells her she’s more than what life has given her. She lets herself have it for a while, before realising he’s FBI and there to trap her, and Annie tries to use him only to realise she can’t, and she finishes the season in a lot more hurt than she started it.

Beth struggles with guilt after getting Dean shot, gets the job to kill Boomer from Rio, can’t do it, gets support and encouragement from him (in various states of animosity), but in the end doesn’t have to find out if she can do it because MP does it instead. She’s rewarded by Rio in a way she probably never has been by anyone, her husband further subjugates her, so she has sex with Rio, starts to entertain a future with him, but he undermines her, so she seizes control from him. They work together. Dean forces her to break up with him due to jealousy, she struggles, goes back, but Rio’s stung, so unhelpful, and they play a little cat and mouse before he bails then kidnaps her and she shoots him.

With the exception of that very last sentence, I think all of those are narratively really strong pathways to have explored. Like I said above though, the issue is in execution, escalation and pacing.

But to talk about those things, I think I probably need to talk about story.

SO!

Stories have a shape.

Kurt Vonnegut talks extensively about this, and while he’ll talk about a few different types of story shapes, they really all boil down to this bad boy here:

Look at this guy.

What a beautiful thing.

He’s a story.

It doesn’t matter if you’re reading Dr Seuss or Charles Dickens, when you read a story – when you strip away its words and its characters and its settings – this is what it looks like.

Or, well.

Not quite.

Really, it’s this guy:

But we’ll talk about him in a sec.

Right now, let’s talk about that first little inch:

The Beginning

The fact that stories have a beginning is not a surprise to anyone. Stories need them. In some ways, they’re the most important part of your story. After all, the job of the beginning is to set up the world your protagonist is about to leave behind. That is essential in grounding a reader / viewer – orienting them to the world that they’re in, and getting them invested in the story you’re about to tell, if not the protagonist.

Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones are all excellent example of this (and frequently used in teaching) because in each of these cases it’s literal. Frodo leaves Bag End, Harry leave Privet Drive, Luke leaves Tatooine, the Starks leave Winterfell. There is a literal departure from the world before the crux of the story, and that departure is what signifies the start of the ‘hero journey’ aka the main part of your narrative.

Of course, it’s not always literal – in fact, it’s usually not. Usually that world is symbolic – it’s the single, uncertain world before the Bingley’s buy the house next door in Pride and Prejudice or the dry domestic sphere of Breaking Bad before Walt decides to make meth. It’s a marked shift, whether that’s internal or external.

In Good Girls, it’s internal.

The beginning is actually pretty perfect. The world it sets up that we’re about to (try to) depart is one of struggle and invisibility.

Beth’s in a loveless marriage promptly discovering that her husband is not only cheating but about to leave them destitute, Ruby’s getting ignored by the healthcare system and can’t afford to pay for her daughter’s wellbeing, and Annie is in a dead end job about to lose custody of her child.

Writing-wise – as a beginning, I honestly think 1.01 is close to perfect.

It sets up who these characters are, their personal conflicts, and the story world they share together, and the worlds they have on their own i.e. Ruby at the hospital and the diner, Annie at Fine and Frugal, Beth with Dean and Boland Motors.

Then:

BOOM

Inciting Incident.

The inciting incident is also often called The Point of No Return.

When I’m teaching, I personally like to call it the “You’re a wizard!” moment.

It’s when something happens that means everything set up in the beginning will be changed forever. It’s Romeo meeting Juliet, it’s Katniss volunteering for Prim, it’s Frodo deciding to take the ring to Mordor, it’s Jaimie pushing a child out a window, it’s Beth – deciding to take her little sister’s joke seriously and rob a grocery store.

(Again, I like to use Harry Potter because it’s literal – there is no return for Harry after hearing Hagrid tell him he’s a wizard. Everything is changed forever).

Inciting incidents are probably the most singularly important narrative moment, because they’re what everything else tumbles out of. Pretty much everything that happens in the story should be a direct or indirect result of the inciting incident. The inciting incident is ultimately the key of the story and what should unlock the overall arc.

When it comes to a series – whether that be a TV series, movie series or book series, each individual instalment (see: season of a show) should have its own inciting incident which – preferably – builds off the one established in the first instalment.

The Hunger Games does this really well. Katniss and Peeta being brought back into the games in Catching Fire is both an imitation inciting incident which allows the author to explore the story world further in an exciting way, and also an inciting incident that’s directly borne out of the first book / film – aka Katniss pissed enough people off during the first games that they’re going to try and kill her for real this time, which in turn gives us the opportunity to explore Katniss’ trauma, the ramifications of her actions in the first book on the broader story world, and to generate a new, compelling chapter based off of both.

Good Girls has a terrific inciting incident in s1 – which is Beth realising she’s about to lose everything.

That is our narrative point of no return.

And it works on a lot of levels – it establishes Beth as the driving engine of the story, fuelled by the chorus motivations of Annie and Ruby, rounding off both their collective and individual stakes, it sets us up for a strong narrative spine and solid characterisations.

Good Girls actually also has a terrific inciting incident in s2, which operates strongly on its own while also building firmly off the character arcs of s1.

The s2 inciting incident is Rio showing up on that park bench with Marcus, a gun and an order.

The story pivots here – giving Rio a lot of narrative thrust (get your minds out of the gutter kids), and making him a sort of secondary story engine. The core engine is still Beth, but her life is different now. She’s been traumatised and she’s exhausted, but Rio revealing his son to the girls (and tying their motivations up together in a neat little package) while forcing her to act, re-establishes her as the person who’s decisions are going to be the driving force of the narrative.

Ruby and Annie are, of course, story engines in their own right too, but they fall into line behind Beth usually, and their narrative push is actually usually away from the story throughline, but we’ll talk about that in a sec.

Rising Tension / The Middle

Okay, this is where things get a little tricky.

Do you remember this guy?

When we talk about stories, rising tension / the middle is the big guy. It’s the bulk of your narrative. It’s Where Things Happen. It’s where all the ugly stuff set up in your beginning and exploded by your inciting incident just - - grows a life of it’s own.

Or - -

Well.

Maybe not.

Forget about this guy.

Rising tension is this:

Rising tension is a series of ‘mini climaxes’ on the way to the main climax that raises the stakes, lets you know characters better, and pushes your characters onwards to the main climax.

Each of these little climaxes should be followed by a ‘narrative rest’. (that’s the dip after each spike)

Which - - I don’t know, might sound weird? I know when I started writing I was like ?? but it’s true! The closer you get to a big narrative climax, the more important rests are! Rests are – I personally think – one of the most important components of storytelling, because they re-ground an audience, remind them of what’s at stake, before thrusting everyone back into danger.

Again, Harry Potter is a gift in this sense because this is all really clearly paced out. Think about the first instalment – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s / Sorcerer’s Stone.

Harry and Ron save Hermione and Ron from the troll!!!

Then they become friends and enjoy school and quidditch.

Harry loses control of his broom during a quidditch game!!!!

He’s okay and then it’s Christmas and Harry gets the invisibility cloak and feels connected to his parents for perhaps the first time in his life.

Harry, Hermione and Ron go through the trapdoor to get the philosopher’s stone!!!

And - - okay, you get the point.

Each mini climax ups the stakes, but we feel those stakes upped because of the time we spend with characters during the ‘narrative rest’. For instance, while Harry and Ron saving Hermione from the troll might have sparked an interest in her, it’s the narrative rest scenes between that and her setting Snape on fire during the quidditch game that makes us invest in her as a character.

This is where things get a bit hairy with Good Girls. Good Girls does a tremendous job of giving us both great climaxes and wonderful moments of narrative rest. The issue, for me at least, is that it’s not always the best at balancing them. When I talk about escalation and pacing, this is a big part of what I mean.

Remember how I said this was the shape of a story?

Well, I think Good Girls s2 looked more like this:

We had a lot of solid movement in the first half of the season that sort of flattened out into a lower stakes, more meandering middle (which gave us 2.08 through 2.12). Which - -

Look.

The story changed gear, and it didn’t work.

Think of it this way:

2.01 – mostly character-based fallout from s1 + inciting incident of Rio handing them the gun

2.02 – almost entirely rising tension culminating with the girls bribing Boomer and Beth lying to Rio

2.03 – which thrusts us straight back into rising tension with the girls trying to kill Boomer and ‘succeeding’ via Mary Pat

2.04 – which gives us a very satisfying narrative rest as we explore Rio and Beth’s relationship outside of an overall narrative thrust – he gives her a key, she shies away from him, only to fall entirely back into him culminating in sex which itself brings about a new climax (no pun intended!) in the scene with Beth, Rio and Dean at the dealership. It’s also a strong character episode in closing certain plot threads – ending Annie and Greg’s relationship + ending Ruby lying to Stan about what they’re doing – while establishing major new threads – i.e. really colliding Turner and Mary Pat.

2.05 – and after the rest, we’re back to almost entirely satisfying rising tension! Building off of the threat of finding Boomer’s body and the new tensions that Rio and Beth’s intimacy brings.

2.06 – a mix episode! Very much building to the strong climax of Beth seizing power, but also an episode that plays around with character, has a lot of strong ‘rest’ moments i.e. the girls sorting pills and talking which gives us a lot of information as to state of minds, etc.

2.07 – again, very strong mixed episode which is focused on one single, extreme climax – Jane being missing, but building a very character-centric episode around it. Also introduces Noah though? Which is a mistake. He should have been introduced - I think, in 2.05, but that feels like a whole other post.

2.08 – narratively speaking the same as 2.07 in the sense of a single climax (the girls failing to get the money back / the Beth-Ruby confrontation), but has the added bonus of flashbacks.

2.09 – we have a slight narrative thrust with the robbery of the Quick Cash but it proves very quickly to be low stakes. This is an alllll emotional stakes episode, which means narrative tension is slowing.

2.10 – again, a character-focused, narrative rest episode devoted to Beth struggling with getting square. A few small climaxes – Annie and Ruby in Canada and Turner at the dealership being the big ones, but both quickly prove toothless. The heft / strength of the episode again is in character moments, not narrative thrust. Again - slowing it down.

2.11 – oh, what do we have here? Another character-focused, narrative rest episode? I love this episode – it’s one of my favourites of the show, but it’s intensely character focused. Very much centred in waving away the smoke around both Noah and Rio for Annie and Beth respectively. No dramatic climaxes. Slowing the story down even further.

2.12 – another narrative rest episode. A lot of slow exposition of Mary Pat and Jeff, which is good to know, but I’d argue placed badly in the season. This season’s already been slowing down despite the narrative timeline tightening, but this episode only further pushes on the brakes for Dean’s new job, Beth and Dean’s divorce, Beth and Rio’s break up. Two very small climaxes - the lawyer telling Ruby he knows about the money and the Boomer reveal but - in the context of the season - actually pretty low stakes. Again. Slowing down the narrative.

2.13 – A BIG CLIMAX EPISODE WHAT IS GOING ON???

What I’m saying in this is that the pacing in the back half of the season was, to me at least, fundamentally off. They hadn’t steered a strong enough narrative spine to take us through the season, and got heavily invested in character moments and not-entirely-thought-out-fallout in the back half of the season – it didn’t understand it’s own narrative thrust well enough to get us through. It also established a certain pacing with us in the first half of the season and shifted gears halfway through.

You can’t have your first three or six episodes be high-stakes-high-action, and then make the back end of your season same-stakes-low-action and top it all off with an explosive, poorly built-up finale in the way that they did.

There wasn’t enough thrust to push us through to the scene in Rio’s loft – neither narratively or in a character sense, and as a result, those last few episodes fall apart. Even beyond that though, the season escalated quickly then - - didn’t really know what to do with those escalations? It plateaued, which is indicative of bad pacing across the season.

I actually do think it’d be a relatively easy fix? I’d bring the Noah arc forwards and actually fiddle with the Beth and Rio break ups - get one even closer the tinale and make it more painful. Make it a climax in itself.

But anyway, haha:

The Resolution

All stories have a resolution too of course.

The resolution can be 30 seconds or 30 minutes – it’s a time to tie up loose ends and to reassure your audience that the journey they’ve been on is worthwhile.

(After all – you’ll notice the story diagram is not symmetrical – we never finish where we began).

I’m not going to talk too much about resolutions because at the end of the day – resolutions should fall fairly naturally out of your beginning, your inciting incident, your rising tension. It should tumble out like the double wedding at the end of Pride and Prejudice, but I will say that the s2 resolution was...err, not good. In no small part because it didn’t fall out of what we’d been told all season. They’d established a certain throughline and then taken it back, and that was nagl to be honest.

On the plus side though - it wasn’t a finale, so I have my fingers crossed they can fix it!

But yes, back to your ask, anon.

No, I don’t think that the writers were pandering. I think they went in with a sketched outline and that they probably got lost in the back end of the season and weren’t quite sure how to drum up the final act, which meant that final act didn’t work.

Ah, this post got so long! I hope it wasn’t boring or too self-indulgent or silly, and that you got something out of it! I am, of course, always happy to answer writing questions, and I hope you liked reading my story ramblings ;-)

#writing posts #gg season 2 #welcome to my ama

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xsecretblastsx · 4 years

Text

1x09 - Blair Waldorf must pie!

Once again this took way longer than I wanted to. I guess it has a lot to do that this part of S1 is full of episodes that I loved and also are kind of important so I just feel that I have to be really in the mood to watch them with my full attention.

Anyway, enough about me, here’s the recap for this one after the break.

Thoughts I had while watching the episode

Loving the flashback of Serena in her wild days and Blair looking after her.

This flashback kind of messes up the timeline though. Because we’re told Serena was gone for a year, but that’s clearly not the case here.

Dan get’s to be Serena’s knight in shiny armor, great. To bad for him she was wasted.

How long ago was it that Blair’s dad been gone? Probs like quite a few months and he hasn’t come to visit her?

I mean I get that Dan is pissed with his mom, but that guilt comment was harsh

Harold Waldorf’s pumpkin pie, I don’t know if anyone has read as much fanfic as I have but this pie, is quite the celebrity.

The oh so casual mention that Blair takes Lexapro :/

Serena trying (and failing) to be casual when asking what Chuck’s doing today.

I think this is the first time that Serena (and later Nate) point out that Chuck and Blair are friends, considering they all were, this must mean that they were somehow closer friends.

This fight is such a clear example of how Blair and Serena go from besties to enemies in 5 seconds flat.

This one though is kind of funny to me in the way Serena’s like “I won’t judge” and then does exactly that.

Somehow Blair I don’t believe you when you say you don’t like Chuck’s natural musk, just a hunch.

I kind of feel Serena’s way of aproaching this topic was not the best, though to be fair Blair’s also really hard to approach.

Lilly how much I missed you last episode

Seeing Llily, Eric and Serena in Chinatown is giving me life for some reason

So by thanksgiving sophomore year Blair was already in recovery from her ED, she was really young when she started then.

Wow, “not this one Harold, we have to go together” this line implies so much and I can’t believe I never noticed before

Blair sending Nate to deal with Serena it’s interesting, because I wouldn’t imagine her being naive enough to not noticed Nate’s interest in Serena, granted she trusted them, but still

I love Dorota, always there for Blair, always loyal.

The mood at Nate’s thanksgiving dinner is so misserable.

Lily, Allison’s and Rufus faces are priceless. Let the drama begin!

“Oh the blond you stalk at school” really they told us and we didn’t listen!!!

Not that didn’t earned herself the harsh comment but, “he didn’t left us, he left you” kind of made me feel bad for Eleanor

Forget it, she was really insentive, and Blair’s face when she grabbed that pie is just heartbreaking.

I can’t believe I forgot about her throwing up incident after that dinner with Nate in the pilot... like wow.

Do you need to go with her? sorry Allison

This dinner is hilariously akward. Sorry Jenny, but I don’t think that song was about your mom.

This is one of my favorite Serante scenes, it’s so them.

Honestly this show needed more flashblacks. I love knowing more about their friendship pre series.

Nate thinking of calling Blair and then Serena, and realizing he can’t is the first time I think he truly gets how he really messed it up

It’s so weird now to see Blai’rs bathroom with the door conecting it to the other room.

Allison calling her character in a play Milly in reference to Lily sheds a bit of ligh in Dan’s abbilities in naming characters.

The captain reached rock bottom, poor Nate.

I wonder though if Anne was the one with the money, and yet Nate’s last name is prestigious, does that mean The Captain family had lost their money at some point and the only thing that remain was their last name?

I should have mentioned it before but Blair looks incredibly pretty this episode, and the dress is one of my all time favorites.

“But we’re not related” give it time Dan, give it time

Hi Cedric.

“Only a woman that had satisfied her sexual appetite in her youth could have married some of your step fathers” auch

And so Rufly ends... for now

Eleanor talking about the divorce paper and how she feels and how she acted because of it, reminded of a certain scene in S5. Blair’s truly her mother daughter.

The end of that flashback felt so much like this is why they say ignorance is Bliss. Except for Serena things are better for her now.

The New York setting makes this show even more awsome, that shot with the Bridge and the Manhattan skyline in the background while Dan’s family is having a merry old time is gorgeous.

So this episode was so good, it gave a lot of background information and added much more depth to some of the main characters, particularly Blair. But also Nate. I was really suprised by the amount of stuff I didn’t remember about this particular episode, so in that sense this feel like this is the episode I’ve enjoyed the most during my rewatch.

Having a flashback was easily the best part of this episode in the sense that it gives us a clear idea of how things were before the series and how disaster was brewing just beneath the surface. What a diference a year makes.The previous thanksgiving was at the height of Serena’s wild days, and it’s sad to see how her life was pretty much a never ending haze of parties and alcohol, she may be acting goofy but it’s an empty happiness and it let’s you feeling like this is the only way she can deal with her life. And always looking after her is Blair.

The Blair of a year before seems really happy, she’s on the road of recovery from her eating disorder, her parents are together, her mother is showing actually some concern for her, and Nate is still a loving boyfriend. And yet in many ways this is all a lie. Her parent’s marriage is just a charade, Eleanor’s comment asking Harold not to go after Roman, is so telling and it makes me wonder how long did Eleanor knew her husband was gay? that must have been such a burden for her, and it’s probably the reason why she was so focused in her work and wanted everything else to be perfect, in some ways it also explains her treating of Blair, wrong as it was.

Also the timing of this makes me kind of mad at Harold, he’s always comes across as the nice good parent, but this episode makes it really obvius how much his absence hurt Blair. Think about it. When the show starts it’s established that a few months before Harold had left his wife and the country in favor for a life in Paris with another man. So considering that november the previous year (only a year before the current episode) is the first time Harold hears about Roman this means he decided to leave his family for a guy he had just meth a few months before, I guess he must have really fallen in love and really quickly, and I understand his need to live a free life, but what a shock it must have been for Blair and how unloved she must have felt that his father was leaving her in New York with a mother that was incredibly hard on her, for a guy he just met. And this at a time when she was still recovering.

There’s also the Nate-Serena-Blair issue. At some poing after Thanksgiving, the Shepperd Wedding happened, which means like I mentioned before that Serena was gone less than a year, and the way Blair encouraged Nate to help her with Serena means that even if she may have suspect Nate’s interest in Serena she still believed that Nate did love her and that Serena would never do that to her and therefore she wasn’t worried about it. Blair doesn’t trust easily and in this case she did and it end ups with her being betrayed, and yet it was a long time coming. Just as I mentioned in previous recaps that there was lowkey something to Blair and Chuck’s friendship, the same can be said about Nate and Serena, I don’t like to mention at least not much future events in these recaps but really compare this scene of Nate and Serena goofing around in the bathroom with any of their scenes in the second half of S3 and they’re really similar, same vibe and chemistry. Nate and Blair goodbye at the end of the flashback even if he gaves her a kiss and calls her sweetheart, seems so lacking in comparison to his previous moment with Serena, and yet Blair smiles and it’s really happy about her life.

So all of this shows how much she had been hurting at the start of the show, her father gone, her best friend gone and a distant boyfriend who by this point couldn’t hide his interest in Serena coming across by how afected he was by her absence, and when the show starts it gets even worse. All the flashbacks of Blair dealing with food and even throwing up once when she was trying to forgive Nate his infidelity show us the depth of her problems and suffering and helps us to understand her so much more and feel for her. And in her moment of weakness she calls Serena, the fight at the star of the episode was a way of letting us know that in some ways Blair hasn’t let go completely of her betreyal and yet how easily their dissagrements go out of the picture the moment they really need each other, is such a deep friendhip, and yet how conflicting it must be for Blair to love and need so much a person who in many ways is a reminder of how things have gone wrong in the last year.

That is the crux about their friendship, they’re both there for each other when it really matters but it’s undenaible that they have hurt each other deeply, even without meaning too, Serena is a the root of some of Blair self steem issues, is not her fault but it has done Blair incredibly damage, at the same time Blair may be always there for Serena looking after her, but she’s frequently incredible cruel with her at times without a real reason beyond a missplaced sense of hurting her too, which causes scenes like their fight this episode where Serena tries to be a friend, becomes a little judgy and Blair overreacts and Serena understandably fights back... it’s a really complex relationship, and one of the aspects of the show that make’s it stand out.

Lastly, this episode is a good reminder of how ultimetly Ruflly and Derena can’t really function at the same time without it being weird for everyone involved, it also establishes the similitudes between both relationships, a warning of how things could end for Dan and Serena if they’re not careful, and this is only the start. Nate’s storyline this episode was super sad, last episode had him standing up to his parents, this one finally gets him to have some honest conversations with them, and while it hurts is nice to see him finally get to that moment. It’s a moment of real growth for him. It also gives some interesting background to his family history, about how Anne’s family (the Vanderbilts) are the real force behind his family life, the house, his father job... everything was given by the Vanderbilts. It makes me wonder a lot about the Captain’s family, and his history with Anne: did the captain came from a family with a prestigious Last name but that had lost their money at some point?, or was he an upstart? I can’t see snobish Anne falling in love with a nobody, but who nows.

Also, not that noticible at this point of the show beyond the paralles between Dan & Serena and Rufus and Lily, but in the last two episode some scenes of Eleanor and the captain had reminded me of future scenes and situations and Nate and Blair having similar reactions. Anyway I love this episode, the then and now, and how much more there is to these characters.

Random bits:

This is the first direct mention of Blair having an eating dissorder (not sure though, this is why I wanted to be faster with these recaps, so I don’t forget details)

Dorota’s wearing a themed apron, how cute

First mention of the Snowflake Ball, I like consistency hahaha.

Nate’s house look lovely, not sure if these are the real interiors of the house, probably not, but I did read somewhere the house used to be on rental? can’t remember.

There was a picture behind Jenny while they were having dinner of a kid wearing a suit, I know the cast used some actual photos of the cast as kids, so I don’t know if the kid is Penn but god the kid is so cute.

I’m not a New Yorker, but that place where Dan and his family are playing it’s really changed now isn’t it? There’s this guy called Action Kid in youtube and he was amazing videos about New York, and of this location in particular if my memory serves me right.

And because we rarely got to see Serena in her wild days, I feel I should end this post with just that.

#gossip girl #gossip girl recap #gossip girl rewatch #1x09 #blair waldorf must pie

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shizekarnstein · 5 years

Note

Could you share your thoughts on Kagura? I'm already so tired of seeing Kagura hate everywhere I go (here on tumblr, on MAL, on YT etc.)

How can anyone hate on that sweetie?????? I SMELL SALTY SHIPPERS BEHIND THIS.

Ok Id like to do include some manga panels but Im procrastinating during my class break so this will have to do.

When I started to read the manga Kagura took me by surprise. At first I just thought of her as the typical violent tsundere girl that was such a common trope in the nineties. Theres was nothing inheretely wrong with her but I felt she lacked depth and a story beyond her apparent obsessive onesided feelings toward Kyou.

Anon I was so wrong.

Just as the rest of the zodiacs, Kagura was upset about her curse. She knew she was well loved by her parents but at the same time very aware of what her curse meant for them: never get close with anyone of the opposite sex, be careful about keeping it a secret, the stress her situation caused to her parents, etc. She was a little girl and she was miserable and mad about being the boar. Surely nobody could have it worse than her? Kagura seriously thought she was the most miserable soul to wander the earth. I can't blame her, she was just a little girl.

And then she meets Kyou.

Just like the others, the existence of the cat allowed her to breathe. Even if she was a disgusting person who could turn into an animal... the cat had it worse. Kagura was miserable but at least she wasn't the cat. Comforted by that reality and out of curiosity she approachs Kyou, a little kid so isolated and loathed by the clan that his only means of entertainment were to draw fried eggs on the ground, all by himself. Surely being a zodiac was at least better than that!

Kagura was selfish when she extended her hand to him. She didn't do it for Kyou, but for herself. Being close to the hated cat reminded her that at least her own life wasn't so bad after all. Playing with him make her feel good about herself, and Kyou followed her every word, bc he had never have someone willing to spend time with him. I don't judge her for it: in the first place she was just a kid, and I relate too much to what she felt: sometimes we do things to feel better about ourselves. Second Kagura herself eventually recognises that what she did was selfish and even cruel.

The turning point for her was when she forced Kyou to remove his beads out of curiosity. When faced with the cats revolting apparence, she ran away screaming in fright and revulsion, leaving little Kyou all by himself, alone, hurt and scared out of his mind.

Kagura felt incredible guilty and ashamed by what she did that day. And out of that guilt decided to make ammends by trying to be a better friend, eventually convincing herself that she was in love with him. All that explosive affection was born out of her regret about how she treated him.

But then those feelings changed. Even if at first Kagura told herself she loved him as a method to cope with her guilt, in the end she really devolped feelings for him.

The point is that not only those feelings were onesided, but also mixed on her part with her own selfloathing and shame. In order to make it up to him, she bombarded him affection. But also bc she felt bad about herself.

After meeting Tohru, at first she just considered her a potential rival. It's Rin who called her out about what else was hidden underneath all that love. And when she witness Tohru chasing after Kyou in the TFA, doing the very thing she was incapable of doing even now, she realises that her dream of loving him is nothing more than a fantasy of her own invention. Because no matter how much she tells herself and the world that she loves all of Kyou, even his cursed form... that's nothing more than a lie. She can't even make herself look at it, even after all these years.

Kagura accepts that reality: Tohru really loves Kyou more than she could ever will. And with that in mind decides to invite Kyou on that fateful date to clear things up. What's interesting about what she says it's not only her admission of her guilt, but also how even now the crux of the matter isn't her love for him, which is very very real, but her shame. How sorry she is for seeking him out to feel better about herself, how she left him all alone after forcing him to show his cursed form, how she was a horrible person for using him like that. Kagura only saw herself in the worst light imaginable.

But then Kyou says: even if it was for selfish reasons, that you played with me made me very happy.

I cried with her: because Kyou was right. It wasn't only about her. Even in her selfishness, she gave him happiness by spending time with him. For all his grumpiness Kyou was so very gentle and forgiving with her: he's used to being loathed, so even if Kagura wasn't just motivated by pure intentions... she still played with him.

That goodbye between them had me sobbing until the end. Because even if Kyou is ready to let all that in the past, and Kagura was able to finally voice out all those feelings pestering inside her heart... she still loved him. She learned to love him as best as she could. She tried to love him more and be better... but it wasn't meant to be.

But even if she couldn't love him as Kyou deserved, her feelings were real. And it's because in the end she really did love him that she leaves him alone to seek his own happiness. That's love y'all. Kagura grew as a person and I never expected to not only relate so much to her, but to cry so bitterly with her.

Kagura is a great character and Id fight anyone who says otherwise.

Thanks for the ask anon.

#anon replies #fruits basket spoilers #furuba spoilers #kagura sohma #i love kagura with all my heart

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inkbun · 6 years

Note

So what about Dva's S/o is is slightly famous but is feeling insecure about themselves becauses they think all of their followers are just because they are dating Dva

Ayyy, my first D.Va prompt. Keep ‘em coming y'all, I’m loving all these specific jump-off points. This one was hella easy since I stream too (not regularly or on a schedule anymore bc I’m trying to finish this damn book, but hey). Enjoy! 🐰

D.Va

Words: 1,481

Genre: Hurt & Comfort

“Who’s next in the queue?” you asked, picture-perfect grin on your face.

You glanced at your stream stats on the monitor: 103 concurrent viewers, 2 hours uptime, 88 new followers.

An explosion of “ME!,” Kappas, and emotes flooded your chat.

Stream had gone swimmingly the past few weeks—you were easing into Starcraft II after Hana suggested you try something more competitive. You were more of a Stardew Valley type, but damned if it didn’t help to let off a little steam via a realtime strat game.

You took to it like a fish in pixelated, alien-riddled water, and your follower count was skyrocketing.

Whether that was because of your gameplay or your girlfriend was yet to be seen. To their credit, most of your followers were chill about your love life. But that didn’t mean you avoided her rabid fans.

Yes, you were dating Hana Song, better known to anyone with an ounce of pop culture awareness as D.Va. Yes, you also loved gaming and junk food. Yes, you know she was the best gamer to hit the SC2 comp scene.

Yes, you knew how lucky you were.

Hell, you were once one of those people without an ounce of pop culture awareness. You and Hana met in a convenience store in Tokyo. She was on vacation from the MEKA program back home in Korea, and you were abroad with your friends. While they ooh'd and ahh’d over all the foreign snacks, you were too struck by the pretty girl with the neko headphones and scowl on her face to notice.

You wandered down the shrimp chip aisle, pretending to look at all the different flavors. When she was close enough you took your shot.

“Hey, do you know anything about these garlic parsley chips? It’s my first time trying them and—”

“I don’t have any autographs or goodies on me, okay?” she quipped, ducking her head into the crux of her baggy grey hoodie. “Please, I’m just trying to enjoy some time off.”

Bewildered, you apologized. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother. It’s my first time so far from home and I was hoping for some guidance on what’s good here…I’ll just ask the clerk.”

Hana glared at you with narrowed eyes, looking between you and the package in your hand.

“Wait, you mean you didn’t pick them up because they’re Bunny Approved?”

“Am I supposed to know what that means?” you asked, looking at the pink-and-white bunny sprite in the top corner.

Aside from its cutesy scowl, it had no significance to you. Sure, you’d noticed it on energy drinks, donuts, and other junk food, but you just thought it was a quirky cartoon character.

Here this gorgeous, albeit pissed woman was, staring at you like were from Mars. Cautiously, she held a hand out to you.

“I’m Hana, Hana Song.”

“I’m, ________. Nice to meet you.”

You shook her hand, ignoring the flutter in your chest, or the scent of bubblegum that accompanied her words. She smiled at you, pink whiskers on her cheeks molding around her dimples.

“Wanna grab some boba?” she said, hand still wrapped around yours. All you could do was nod.

Fast forward a year, and the two of you were inseparable. You’d packed up, moved to Seoul, and taken up streaming in-between your shifts as a mech technician.

In the time since you’d learned about your girlfriend’s fame and adapted to the unending swirl of fan attention it generated.

Which is exactly why you kept your love life separate from your hobbies. Your stream name was different than any of your other accounts, and you went to great lengths to keep all D.Va or MEKA-related inquiries confined to Hana’s Q&A with fans or other designated appearances.

You loved your girlfriend very much and wholly respected her prowess as both protector and master entertainer. Still, you were fiercely independent and wanted to carve out a name for yourself on your own, not just as “D.Va’s Significant Other.”

All of that went out the window when she started popping into your stream room mid-broadcast. At first, it was accidental.

The visor on her mech had cracked during a mission and she needed a quick-seal before deploying for sentry duty that night. You were streaming Stardew, chatting with your regulars before you saw the chorus of messages.

OMG is that DVA?!?

______, you didn’t tell us you were dating her!!1

MEKA: activated. Bunny hop: on.

Can she say hi???

You looked behind you to see a Pepto-pink MEKA looming in the oversized doorway. To her credit, Hana handled it well, ejecting from the seat to apologize for barging in. Aside from the wet kiss and little wink she gave the camera, she kept the cutesy antics to a minimum, happy to let you be the star of your own show.

Then it started happening with greater frequency. It became customary for her to hang out for a few, answer some questions from your viewers, and join you for stream sign-off.

For the most part you didn’t mind, glad to have your girlfriend by your side. She wasn’t overbearing, and the two of you got to spend some rare downtime in the hour or so after.

Once the secret was out, you saw your stream stats go up until you were a starlet of your own regard. Still, it unnerved you at times, the idea that people only hung around to get a glimpse of the famous D.Va.

You made it through 3 hours of queued games tonight before she showed up, sending your chat into a frenzy once more.

She was beat-up from combat, sections of her bodysuit singed with plasma ash and face smudged with dirt. Despite the exhaustion from a long day at work, her face lit up when she saw you.

Plopping in your lap, she gave you a big hug and kiss.

“I’m home!” she announced.

You pushed away from the keyboard, shifted her hips against the armrest to get comfortable. “I see that.”

No matter how much the media tried to paint her as a teenage darling, you saw the weight and sadness being in the MEKA program placed on her.

Though barely 20, Hana was no longer a burgeoning mech pilot. She was a damned war veteran who chose everyday to plaster a smile on her face and emerge as D.Va, the Pink Ray of Hope.

I know better.

“You still live?” said Hana, glancing at the blue light on your webcam.

“Yeah.” You could sense the urgency in her words, the glisten in her big brown eyes. She was breaking.

“Sign off.”

You did, making your excuses and ignoring the whinging from folks who didn’t get to see their “daily dose of D.Va.”

Choosing to ignore how grossly objectifying that sounded, you hit the “Stop Streaming” button. Once the light went dark and your offline screen popped up, you twined your fingers in her hair.

“What happened today?”

“We went to Oasis,_____. I saw things there—terrible things the Omnics did, the experiments they conducted on children to give them powers. I just thought, ‘if I’d decided to go to school there instead of joining the MEKA pilots,’ I could’ve been one of them!”

You pulled away to see the depth of horror on her face. You’d heard of Oasis, knew the supposed “advancements” they made bordered on inhumane in their methods of discovery. Still, you never knew Hana had been invited to study there.

“Well you’re not, and you’re fighting evil which is all that matters,” you said, cradling her against your chest.

She cried, hot tears wetting your shirt. You shushed her, rocking slightly and petting her hair.

It was times like this she felt fragile, liable to break under all the expectations the world hefted on her. You’d gone live tonight expecting to have an audience without Hana, hoping she’d forget to show at the end of stream.

Petty as it was, you wanted to have something all your own, felt insecure at times about the truth of your own growing community and their intentions.

If tonight proved anything to you, it was the power of your love. Sure, your community and your growing “fame” were cool—you’d be remiss to deny that. And sure, some of that clout might be bolstered by you dating one of the world’s top professional gamers.

But all of that meant nothing if your girl wasn’t okay. Watching her cheery, bright facade crack from the sheer volume of suffering, combat, and violence she was subjected to served as a grim reminder.

Your community may come and go, your fame may grow or wane, but Hana was your everything.

Nuzzling her neck with soft kisses, you whispered in her ear: “You and me, love? We’re gonna save the world.”

Her teary grin and hiccup laugh lanced your chest—god, you loved this woman.

“Damn right.”

#sabbry26 #dva x reader #d.va x reader #hana song x reader #hana song #dva #d.va #dva overwatch #d.va overwatch #overwatch imagines #overwatch imagine #ovw imagines #ovw fic #ow imagine #ow imagines #overwatch #ovw #owimagines

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wiseabsol · 6 years

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WA Reviews “Dominion” by Aurelia le, Chapter 7: Redirecting Lightning

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6383825/7/Dominion

Summary: For the Fire Nation royal siblings, love has always warred with hate. But neither the outward accomplishment of peace nor Azula’s defeat have brought the respite Zuko expected. Will his sister’s plans answer this, or only destroy them both?

Content Warnings: This story contains discussions and depictions of child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and incest. This story also explores the idea that Zuko’s redemption arc (and his unlearning of abuse) is not as complete as the show suggested, and that Azula is not a sociopath (with the story having a lot of sympathy for her). If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I would strongly recommend steering clear of this story and my reviews of it.

Note: Because these were originally posted as chapter reviews/commentaries, I will often be talking to the author in them (though sometimes I will also snarkily address the characters). While I’ve also tried not to spoil later events in the story in these reviews, I would strongly recommend reading through chapter 28 before reading these, just to be safe.

Now on to chapter 7!

CHAPTER 7: REDIRECTING LIGHTNING

Alright, this is it. I have hit chapter seven. I have hit the first benchmark chapter in this story; the one that makes or breaks “Dominion” for readers. Because this is the chapter where Zuko rapes Azula. And I am going to stand by and defend that interpretation, because regardless of how ambiguous the situation seemed to Zuko, I think the authorial intent here is clear if the reader is paying attention. So expect this to be a lengthy review, because I plan to go into depth with that. As for the rating of this story—you upped it to an M rating a long time ago, which I think was appropriate, given that “Dominion,” due to what it’s exploring, really is more of a story for adults than for young teenagers. And you’re completely right about the decision to depict what happens in this chapter, rather than tell us what happened later. No one would have believed it otherwise. Also, I’m curious, but what tropes specifically are you deconstructing where Azula redemption fics are concerned? I haven’t read enough of them to be knowledgeable about that. But onwards with the chapter itself. So Zuko and Azula are facing each other after four years of separation. Zuko notices that Azula has grown up to look like Ursa, which I love, even though this passage is incredibly creepy: “It was that resemblance that struck him most, to see Azula standing there in his mother’s robe. He recognized the elegant swirls embroidered at the neck, the hem she was too short to keep from dragging in the dust. And even if she inherited their father’s sharp chin and slanted eyes, she had Ursa’s hair and painted mouth, and lined her eyes with kohl. It barely occurred to him to wonder where she found cosmetics, when Azula hadn’t stayed here since she was a little girl. His mother’s robe, his mother’s paints…. How in eight years had he never noticed, that she tinted her lips the very same shade?” Let’s unpack that. So the least creepy interpretation of Azula using the same makeup as her mother is that their hair/skin/eye colors are the same, so Ursa’s paints are the ideal shades for Azula to use as well. However, this is clearly meant to unsettle readers, so I do have to wonder if Azula was encouraged to use the same makeup as Ursa by Ozai (or perhaps by Lo and Li) to make her a mini-Ursa in appearance. That or Azula did it unconsciously to emulate her mother/to appeal to her father’s tastes (gags). On the flip side of this, Zuko’s…interest…in Azula looking like Ursa feels Oedipal, which makes something already disturbing even worse. “‘You…came to see me?’ she spoke slower, almost tentatively. ‘Why?’”—Oh baby you’re so hopeful that Zuko came to visit you because he cares about you. “‘I hardly think that /matters/ now, after what you’ve /done/!’ Zuko reproached her, angry not just at her escape anymore, but something he couldn’t even name….”—I don’t know, is it maybe because she grew up to look like your mom and you’re weirdly turned on by that? “‘It matters to me,’ she said simply. And looked sincere as she always did, when she lied.”—Maybe because she’s not lying to you, dumdum. They argue about whether he was helping her or not by putting her into the asylum (he wasn’t), and she definitely wouldn’t have left there if not for her own cunning. Zuko liked having her under his control too much. Zuko then starts patronizing her, telling her she’s dangerous to herself and to other people, which he really isn’t in any position to be saying, since he didn’t see her for years and has no idea what kind of progress she’s made. “He blinked once at her defiance, reminded uncomfortably of another confrontation, one he stood on the other side of.”—You’re more like Ozai than you know, Zuko. Okay, it’s amazing that Azula “banished” her hallucinations. I love how you borrow dialogue from the show and use the repetition for effect like this. I noticed it in “The Road” and in the most recent chapter of “Dominion,” too, where Iroh was concerned. “And suddenly, her letters made a little more sense. Not much, but a little more. ‘You really think,’ he said slowly [ . . . ] ‘I’d keep her from you?’”—You’ve given her no evidence to the contrary, Zuko. “‘You’ll see what you want to see. You always have.’”—Azula’s got your measure, Zuko. Then Azula reveals that she wants to find Ursa, because she thinks that will help her get better (there are strategic reasons for this, too, which we’ll learn later), to which Zuko thinks in response, “And [he] had to make a conscious effort to crush the hope that surged like fire in his veins. The tiny voice of truth that said if anyone could do the impossible, it was Azula.”—Just let her go, Zuko. What do you have to lose from this plan besides Azula? Oh wait. “‘You /hated/ her! You didn’t even /care/ when Dad sent her away!’”—Zuko, did you ever ask how your sister felt about your missing mom? Or did you get so caught up in your own grief that you didn’t? I’d bet money that the latter option is what happened. “Zuko advanced on her in growing anger, but she held her ground. ‘You’re in no position to make demands!’ he reminded her, with a sweep of his hand for added emphasis. ‘A /disgraced/ princess with nothing but an /empty/ title to her name! No money, no power, no friends—’”—Be more of an ass, Zuko, why don’t you? Also Ty Lee exists, in case you’ve forgotten. Azula has a friend in her, even if she has nothing else. “‘It doesn’t /work/ like that anymore!’ he said hotly, fists clenched to match her own. Zuko was nearly close enough to lay hands on her now, and two steps away from trying it. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, /I’m/ not the one who landed in an /asylum/!”—Zuko’s hostility is starting to edge uncomfortably close to violence, in part because he feels like he’s losing his control over the situation. “But the thought of apologizing to Azula was as foreign to him as bending water. He didn’t owe her anything.”—Given later events, this may be the crux of Zuko’s character development: learning to tell Azula that he’s sorry for how he’s treated her and thanking her for the things she’s done for him over the years. Because she has helped him, at risk to herself. “‘So much better to be cruel than crazy, isn’t it?’ she whispered, close enough that Zuko could just glimpse something sad and secret behind her eyes. ‘I should know.’”—Oh baby, you need so many hugs from Ty Lee. So Azula makes a break for it and Zuko thinks, “He made a promise to Mai. And he was a father now, he forced himself to recall.”—It’s interesting to me how detached Zuko is from Lu Ten emotionally at points, while he later desires to have a certain child with him. It occurs to me that his feelings aren’t dissimilar to Ozai’s in that respect. “‘That’s not what you came here for,’ she chided, a familiar promise written in the arch of her brows.”—Well that’s not creepy at all. “‘You never should have turned you back on me.”—Channel Scar more, Azula, why don’t you? Also, I think Zuko misinterprets what she said here—he takes it as more of a threat than it probably is. Azula then asks him why he’s here. “‘To bring you to justice,’ Zuko replied automatically, because he’d said it to himself and other people enough times that that must make it true.”—That’s not how the truth works, Zuko. “‘You need to be tried for your crimes in the war,’ he insisted, ignoring how her teeth ground at the suggestion that what she’d done was wrong. ‘And as soon as you’re sane, you will be.’” Alright, so I looked up what our society defines as war crimes for this. Azula has done the following: “Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial,” “Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer,” and “taking hostages” where the Kyoshi Warriors and the head of Dai Li are concerned. Now here’s what Zuko has done: “Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property,” “directing attacks against civilians,” and “taking hostages.” Azula’s crimes probably wouldn’t be considered unlawful during the time that ATLA takes place—capturing and imprisoning enemy combatants happened on both sides of the war. In addition to this, none of her victims died (presumably the Kyoshi Warriors were hurt, but that happened in combat). Zuko, on the other hand, destroyed peoples’ homes and probably did hurt civilians in the process. It’s little wonder that Azula grits her teeth when Zuko suggests that what she did was worse than what he did. “‘Well if /that/ isn’t an incentive to recover, I don’t know what is.’”—I laughed. “‘Our nation owes it to the world to hold people like /you/ to account.’ ‘People like me….’”—Yeah, I’d be disappointed in my brother, too, if I was Azula. “her voice low and silky”—Azula, this is what people mean about you talking to men in an inappropriate way. I realize you don’t know any better, but this is dangerous for you to be doing, especially to someone who is being aggressive towards you. “And Azula smiled. It was not a nice smile. ‘Five points for good parenting, Zuzu,’ she condescended, turning quite casually to leave. ‘Kids are scared enough of imaginary monsters at that age.’ Her voice fell as she moved off down the hall. ‘How soundly would he sleep, if he knew about /me/?”—So I think she actually felt hurt that Zuko hadn’t told Lu Ten about her yet. His decision to do so probably makes her feel even more isolated from their family. Her trotting out the comparison of herself to a monster is also something Azula tends to do when she’s having moments of insecurity and self-hatred. “her back to him like an invitation”—An invitation to what? Hit her? You’re so gross, Zuko. “‘So why don’t we make a deal? [ . . . ] Leave me alone to find Mother, and I will have nothing more to do with you. Or yours.’”—Take that deal, Zuko. It’s the best offer from her you’re going to get, and at this point, it’s probably the healthiest option for both of you psychologically.

"'If the best I can expect from you is /neglect/'"—It's telling that Azula uses the word "if" here, because it suggests that she would be open to having a better relationship with him, if he was willing to be a better brother to her. "'the best you can expect from me is neglect. Not quite as nice as having me under your /thumb/, to be sure [ . . . ] but don't pretend you wouldn't rather I was gone.'"—She both understands his desires here and doesn't. Zuko wants her close, but he wants her close on his terms. Zuko, in any case, shuts this conversation down by calling her crazy and rejecting her offer, which sets off the fighting between them. "Zuko had the advantage here. And the black look Azula gave him said she knew that he knew."—Let's keep this in mind as we get farther into this altercation. "Azula tumbled painfully end over end through the dust, her short, sharp cries punctuated by the dull thuds of her repeatedly striking the gray stone floor."—And Zuko claims that he doesn't want to hurt her? You'd think the pained noises she's making would pull him up short if that was the case. "'Of course you do'"—See, Azula agrees with me. "'You just don't want to admit that you /can't/!'"—Azula, I get that you're trying to get him to slip up, but if you goad him like this, he could seriously hurt you. "She wanted to knock him unconscious? he considered."—Her plans don't work if you're dead, Zuko. And I don't think she actually wants you dead, either. "Could she mean to take him hostage? [ . . . ] She had to know he would never go along with that."—Because hostages totally get a say in their captivity. Zuko thinks that Azula has a "near-perfect memory," which may be true when she's lucid, but I can't imagine it's true when she's not. "[He] thought back to that one time he'd searched her room"—for hints to where their mother had gone? Then they collide. This is where their fight starts to go off the rails. First, we get the "hug" that isn't a hug, keying us into the fact that something isn't right about the physical contact between them. Then it keeps buildings: "lifting her head so the tip of her nose just brushed his chin." "He stiffened at her closeness. Her body was pressed right against him, leaving little to the imagination. He was probably about to die. So he really should be thinking of anything other than how very thin her robe was." "Her voice was low and almost seductive, her breath hot in his ear."—In short, Zuko is very turned on by this. Random note: Azula is left-handed. I love it. "And Zuko struck her hard across the face."*—Remember when I said I had a theory I was going to get into in this chapter? This is a part of it. Also, Zuko, you are a terrible human being. "Zuko stared in horror first at her and then at the hand he still held before him, as if he suspected it of acting against his will. He hadn't meant to do—How could he—/Why couldn't she just be/ normal? the old resentment drowned out his shock."—Zuko deflects the blame for his violence towards Azula onto her, with the implication being that she deserves this for not being exactly what he wants her to be. This is classic victim-blaming from the abuser. "Zuko grabbed her wrist to jerk her back, and didn't know he burned her until he felt the heat beneath his fingers [ . . . ] and Azula fell against him with a sharp cry that choked off too quickly, as if she were afraid to make a sound."*—We're starting to get hints here at how Azula has been conditioned to respond to abuse. "He barely had time to register this, his hand still gripped her hot and blistered skin"—OUCH!—"when Azula pressed a soft kiss against the side of his neck"*—(Horrified moan.) "His stomach lurched like he stepped off the edge of a precipice, fallen into the gap between who he was before she did this, and now."—Great line. "He still stood in that attitude when her free hand slid under the crossed collar of his crimson shirt. Her fingertips on his skin were electric, and Zuko exhaled a shuddering breath when he remembered to breathe again. She was—Why was she—/What/? [ . . . ] he leaned into her next kiss, and her teeth pulled at the soft skin where his neck joined his shoulder. Her nails began to scratch, he could feel her tense against him…."—She's being physically intimate with him, but her body is tense and she isn't making any verbal indications that she wants this. "/No./ The word cut like morning light through the fog that settled on his mind. He gripped her arms hard to throw her off."—Zuko could have asked her what she was doing here. He doesn't. "If he could catch her gaze, he would know why—He would know what to do. But her eyes were tightly closed as a child's who pretends to be invisible, just because she cannot see. Tears struggled at the corners of them, and she turned her face away when Zuko brought his mouth too close to hers."—SHE IS NOT INTO THIS. SHE IS IN DISTRESS. STOP! But Zuko doesn't stop. "/Such a fucking tease,/ the ugly thought burst into his mind like a damn breaking."—Please excuse me while I throw up at how disgusting that is. "There was nothing she could hide from him, whatever she thought."—Zuko thinks this as he strips her, and I can't help but think that he's never sounded more like Ozai. "Her fingers grasped his collar, and she pressed closer, as if to hide herself against him"*—Again, she's not into this. She's scared. "But Zuko refused her, tore the shirt impatiently from his shoulders and cast it to the gray stone floor, like throwing down a gauntlet."—Another great line. Zuko demands that she look at him (probably like his father has) and this happens: "But Zuko stopped at the face she showed him. Her dark brows drew low over amber eyes that were impenetrable as two stones. The curve of her mouth was as fixed as a painted smile on a porcelain face. She didn't feel anything. /She never did/."—Azula is deep into a dissociative episode at this point. Instead of realizing that something is wrong with her mental state, though, Zuko persists in his belief that something is fundamentally wrong with Azula /as a person/, which dehumanizes her. His lack of empathy for her contributes to what he does next. "Zuko hated that smirk at once, wanted nothing so much as to see it gone. It was wrong, as wrong as everything about her. That was the only motive he could think of to explain why he pressed his mouth to hers."—No. You're doing it because you're turned on. "But the only thought that broke through his haste was that she tasted like blood."—This adds to the association of violence with their intimacy. "He grabbed her arm reflexively and pulled her along, vowing she would not escape him."—We see possessiveness on Zuko's part again. When they actually start to have sex, we also get Zuko's creepy line, "to hold so much power in his hands…," which adds to that feeling of possessiveness and to his objectification of Azula. "He felt her whole body tense up around him, her arms closed about his neck to pull him into the closest thing to a hug they'd shared since there were children."—First, this body language is still screaming that she's not okay with this. Second, that is so, /so wrong/! "Something coiled in his chest and threatened to break, when her breath came so hard and fast he thought she might be having a panic attack."—It's interesting to me that while you noticed this, Zuko, you still didn't STOP OR SAY ANYTHING TO HER! You could have done both of those things, and probably would if you were with anyone but Azula.

"Azula looked over his shoulder, her face turned into the headboard so he couldn't see the awful concentration in it, her breathing strictly controlled. As if she were performing some complicated kata. Her eyes were closed, her mouth set in a pained grimace."—Ugh, "performing some complicated kata" is right. That /is/ how she would think of it. But again, what we're getting here is a conditioned response from her, rather than something she genuinely wants to be doing. Also, as far as her…"performance"…goes, I feel like most people would realize that she's forcing herself through this. She's not acting like she's enjoying it, which I feel would be necessary for Ozai's "honeypot" plan to work. I'm surprised he wouldn't have been more critical of her lack of "passion"…or maybe he was. Azula does think that he was "demanding" in their "training," so maybe he was trying to make her more convincing in the act. That definitely isn't coming across here, though, since she's clearly in pain. "He thought he saw his own anguish in her mouth drawn tight."—What are you talking about, "your anguish," Zuko? "They were the same. They were the same…."—No you are fucking not, Zuko! "'Now you've taken everything from me,' she whispered harshly. 'Is it enough? Will it ever be?'"—So she's snapped out the disassociation for the time being. "'Never,' Zuko breathed."—God, he's such a terrible person. They start struggling again, and we get this incredibly telling passage: "He moved hastily to pin her down, grabbing her arms to restrain her [ . . . ] Without time even for conscious thought, he crushed his mouth against hers, and stole her breath before she could ignite. Azula jolted with surprise and a frantic noise of protest that died in her throat, without voice. Zuko only deepened the kiss, and she wrenched in his grasp, arched beneath him in a last desperate attempt at escape. But he clamped an arm around her waist and gripped the damp hair at the nape of her neck, holding her so tightly against him he left her no room to move."—She's protesting and trying to get away from him. He won't let her. "As if this had been a signal*, she shuddered once and went still, without explanation. If felt enough like surrender that Zuko broke from her, breathing hard, and laid his head against hers, his harsh exhalations stirring dust from the faded covers. He could feel her heart beat much too fast behind her ribs, like a bird breaking itself on the bars of its cage. Zuko wondered, distantly, if there was even more wrong with her than he knew."—First, yes, there is something very wrong with Azula that you aren't aware of at this point, Zuko. Second and much more importantly, /this is where Zuko could have stopped/. Azula is no longer fighting. He could have pulled back and tried to assess the situation. He could have tried to say something to her or tied her up, to capture her like he'd intended. I could almost forgive him for the first rape (you know, despite the fact that he knows what a healthy sexual relationship looks like and should have realized that something was wrong with how Azula was acting), but then this happens: "It was the last coherent thought he managed, before he found himself again in her midst." He rapes her a second time. And he realizes that that what's he's doing, too, even if he doesn't call it rape: "She cried out once, and his stomach twisted with guilt"—he knows what he's doing is wrong—"but he didn't stop, couldn't make out what she screamed before she strangled the sound in her throat, as if she were scared of getting caught."—He keeps going anyway. "She didn't speak again and only held tighter, as certain as Zuko, it seemed, that letting go would mean her death…."*—That has to be one of the most depressing things I've ever read. She felt that way about Ozai too, didn't she? "Her eyes were empty of recognition. Her lips moved silently, forming the same word over and over again. But he couldn't read it."—We know from future chapters that she's saying "father" here. "A deep and visceral horror filled him. She was never this bad before. He did this, he /did/ this…."—Yeah, people don't tend to respond well to being raped, Zuko. So this next section is arguably where Azula rapes Zuko: "Her vacant gaze lit with a predatory gleam, a look he'd seen her wear before, but one he caught more often from his father." "'Aaah-ah! Ngh…' was all the objection Zuko could manage, when she thrust herself aggressively against him. It was too much. He had nothing left to give, and she was hurting him."—He's not into this anymore. He's in physical pain. At the same time, though, I don't think Azula has any control over what she's doing. Her dialogue heavily suggests that she's in another dissociative episode and reliving an encounter she had with Ozai: "'You're mine. You'll /stay/ mine,' she breathed, and her voice sent a shiver down his spine. She didn't even sound like herself. 'You will /bend/ for me, you will /obey/ me.' She punctuated each command with a thrust of her hips, and Zuko's hands on them did little to deter her. 'You'll never tell. /You'll never tell./ And even if you tried,' she faltered here, and had to choke out, 'who would believe you?' Her tears fell on his chest, so hot they almost scalded, when she whispered haltingly, 'Azula always lies. /Azula always/—lies…'"* I'm going to get back to this dialogue in a minute. I'm going to cover the rest of this chapter before I discuss my theory about this. "Frozen with the shock of realization, she looked down on him as if she'd just woken from a nightmare, to find it followed her into the waking world. 'No…' she whispered brokenly, her voice edged with panic."—Yeah, she absolutely wasn't in control of herself the third time they had sex. "But she tore [her hands] from his fingers, her teeth clenched in disgust." "The rest of her trembled with rage."—So here's the thing. While Zucest happens in "Dominion," I don't think that Azula feels any sexual or romantic desire for Zuko. I don't even think that Zuko feels romantic desire for her either (sexual desire, though, absolutely). What they've done obviously disgusts Azula, and Zuko even acknowledges later that what they did was an act of hate. It was also an act of dominance, with both of them, but mostly Zuko, taking the dominant role at different points. But Zuko—who wasn't drugged and who wasn't disassociating—bears more of the responsibility for what happened. Azula wasn't cognizant of her behavior. Zuko was. Which isn't to dismiss the trauma Zuko will feel from this incident later, but I am much less inclined to sympathize with him than with Azula, given the above. And as far as the blame for this encounter goes…while it ultimately leads back to Ozai's abuse of both of his children, I don't feel comfortable saying Zuko that had no agency in this. He made choices here—and one of them was the choice to have sex with his sister when the opportunity arose. And since Azula didn't want him when it happened, that makes Zuko a rapist. "'I missed you,' he offered weakly, too exhausted to realize this was the first time he had admitted it to anyone. Even himself."—That might be one of the saddest things I've ever read.

Zuko falls asleep after this, but Azula does not. This is technically our first scene from Azula's perspective and it is /heartbreaking/: "Azula took five halting steps into the dusty room before she succeeded in tying the sash of her robe with shaking hands, so tightly she could barely breathe. It wasn't nearly tight enough."—She feels violated from what happened. "She had done worse than this, she reminded herself. She had done worse, and lived. She would survive this too."—This makes me wonder just how extensive Ozai's "training" was and I don't think I actually want to know the answer. "Her mouth bent into something resembling a grimace, and her sight blurred with tears. She clenched her hands into fists to forget how Zuko tried to hold them, when she panicked. He was just trying to save his own worthless life, she told herself, bitterly. /It had nothing to do with you. It never did./ Azula had to look down before she realized she had drawn her fists to her chest, as if to shield herself from a blow."—Oh baby I am so, so sorry. I wish I could give you a hug. "The dagger their uncle gave Zuko from his abortive conquest of Ba Sing Se. How much she coveted this once, Azula recalled. But he never meant it for her. And she contemplated putting it to a use he never intended."—I'm pretty sure no jury would convict her if she killed Zuko here. I'm not even sure I would, given the extent of the violence he inflicted on her. But of course, I also know that she won't do it, because, A.) Azula isn't keen on the whole murder thing, B.) The note she wrote was obviously meant for him, and C.) That would end the story too soon. So Zuko gets to keep breathing and I get to keep glaring at him through my computer screen. Alright, so now to get to that theory I've been listing *s for. Here are the specific points again: "And Zuko struck her hard across the face." "Zuko grabbed her wrist to jerk her back, and didn't know he burned her until he felt the heat beneath his fingers [ . . . ] and Azula fell against him with a sharp cry that choked off too quickly, as if she were afraid to make a sound." "He barely has time to register this, his hand still gripped her hot and blistered skin, when Azula pressed a soft kiss against the side of his neck." "Her fingers grasped his collar, and she pressed closer, as if to hide herself against him." "But he clamped an arm around her waist and gripped the damp hair at the nape of her neck, holding her so tightly against him he left her no room to move. As if this had been a signal, she shuddered once and went still, without explanation." "She didn't speak again and only held tighter, as certain as Zuko, it seemed, that letting go would mean her death…." And most importantly: "'You're mine. You'll /stay/ mine,' she breathed, and her voice sent a shiver down his spine. She didn't even sound like herself. 'You will /bend/ for me, you will /obey/ me.' She punctuated each command with a thrust of her hips, and Zuko's hands on them did little to deter her. 'You'll never tell. /You'll never tell./ And even if you tried,' she faltered here, and had to choke out, 'who would believe you?' Her tears fell on his chest, so hot they almost scalded, when she whispered haltingly, 'Azula always lies. /Azula always/—lies….'" I'll start with the dialogue. When I was first reading "Dominion," I thought that this was something that Ozai had said to Azula while he was "training" her. Then I realized just how hostile this dialogue was. "You're mine. You'll /stay/ mine."—This implies that when this was happening, there was a question about whether or not Azula would try to break away from him. Her loyalty, in short, was under question. "You will /bend/ for me, you will /obey/ me."—Azula's obedience was also under question. But what's most telling to me is this: "You'll never tell. /You'll never tell./ And even if you tried, who would believe you?" This, combined with the predatory expression and the aggressive thrusting, gives me the distinct impression that this sexual encounter wasn't "normal" by Ozai and Azula's standards. "You'll never tell" indicates that it's something that Ozai knows Azula will want to do afterwards. As far as the timing goes, this means that there was someone around who she could potentially turn to, which suggests that this happened either before Mai and Ty Lee left originally, or after the trio were reunited. And then there's the /purpose/ behind this—because if Ozai is addressing the possibility that Azula will want to tell someone about what happened afterwards, then he is also acknowledging that what he is doing to her is wrong. Which means that the intent behind this encounter wasn't to "train" Azula—it was to /hurt her./ Why else would he taunt her that there was no one she could go to for help, because no one would believe her? So this is my theory: what we're seeing here isn't a general episode of abuse, but how Ozai punished Azula after Zuko defected. For lying to him, he struck her in the face and split her lip, then burned her. Then the violence turned sexual in nature, though it's unclear who initiated it—it could have been Azula doing it as a defense mechanism, or Ozai doing it to enforce his power/control over her, or a mixture of both. Azula definitely obeyed him, in part due to her conditioning—the grip on the back of her neck is a trigger to get her to comply—and in part due to her genuinely fearing for her life during this encounter. That is what Ozai meant when he said he "made sure [Azula lying to him/disobeying him] would never happen again" and what Azula keeps alluding to when she thinks about the aftermath of Zuko's defection. It also, I suspect, was a contributing factor to the deterioration of her mental state in the last few episodes of the show, because her father not only assaulted her (without any ambiguity about that being was what he was doing, unlike during the other parts of their "training"), but then abandoned her not long afterwards. And here's thing: I only realized the significance of this exchange recently. It's not obvious on the first read through what is happening here, and it's not obvious the fifth time either. Which suggests to me that you, as a writer, were purposefully trying to obscure the contents of Azula's flashback to the readers. The fact that Ozai and Azula alike both avoid going into detail about it later on only adds to this deflection. Which suggests to me that you're planning to reveal the aftermath of Zuko's defection in full later—and that if there is one scene you include that depicts Ozai raping Azula, that scene is going to be it. And why/when would it come up? When Azula is finally being confronted about what Ozai did to her. She will try to defend their "training," but I think this assault will be in the back of her mind, arguing that there was actually something deeply wrong and evil about what Ozai did to her. And as far as your writing style goes, its inclusion would also further your use of "echoing" scenes and dialogue, deepening the impact of chapter seven upon re-read.

Now I'm of mixed feelings where showing Ozai raping Azula is concerned, if it in fact happens. On the one hand, you have never shied away from depicting disturbing material before in "Dominion," and it feels as if not seeing that abuse from Azula's perspective would be a notable absence. On the other hand, showing the aftermath of the abuse is much more important than showing the abuse itself, and showing it risks feeding into reader voyeurism as well. Ultimately, it's up to the writer to decide how much to show or only allude to, but I trust you whichever way you go with this. Now if it turns out I'm wrong about this theory, I'll feel both surprised and embarrassed. I /am/ confident that my interpretations of the sex scenes in this chapter are correct, though. I've been wanting to dissect those scenes for a while now, because there are readers who find the issue of consent in them to be ambiguous (I'm thinking mostly of icewhisker21's discussions of "Dominion," which seem colored by Zucest shipping googles). However, I think it's clear that there was no mutual or positive consent where the sex between Zuko and Azula is concerned, and as such, Azula's later claims that Zuko raped her are completely justified. So that's my lengthy analysis of chapter seven. This will probably be where I leave off until the summer, unless my homework load lightens and I get some time before May. As always, though, thank you for the read! Sincerely, WiseAbsol

#WiseAbsol #Azula #avatar: the last airbender #Dominion by Aurelia le #Fanfiction #Review

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scripttorture · 6 years

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Hi (sorry if you're not taking asks right now)! I know that torture can't force someone to comply or obey their captors, but I'm assuming torturers still try this (if not please correct me). If they don't, what other methods do they use to get information? I have a character who is captured and tortured for information, but he doesn't give anything up. Why would torturers bother with it if they're going to be unsuccessful?

Torturers do still try thisand they often claim that what theydo is effective.

The question of whether they actually believe that or not is aninteresting one.

I get the impression that a lot of the time they do honestly andgenuinely believe torture is effective. They are….more than a little delusionaland tend to be rather convinced of their own importance.

But- I think one of the things we need to understand in order topractically tackle torture in the real world is that information really isn’t the point. If it was then torturewould have been abandoned completely a very long time ago.

The point is usually power. Kicking someone lower down the peckingorder. ‘Revenge’ for perceived societal level slights.

How dare those homeless peoplewander into a nice neighbourhood. How darethose minorities ask for the same opportunities as everyone else.

And so on.

Italked a little bit about the reasons torture continues in an ask here.

As you’ll probably be able to tell if you read through the ask the wholething makes me very very angry. Because it isso very pointless and preventable.

So there are ‘reasons’ poor asthey are, even if torturers know they won’t get any information. And generally most torturers do seem tobelieve what they say that torture is ‘effective’.

The extent to which they believe that doesn’t change the facts.

As for how people get information- well that depends on whether you meaninvestigators or torturers.

Torturers generally don’t tryanything that isn’t torture. I’ll talk more about that in a moment but I’d liketo cover genuine investigation first.

Genuine investigators usually won’t put much stock ininterviews/interrogation, talking to suspects isn’t a particularly good way to get information.

Igo into more detail on genuine investigation here but the crux of it isthat people willingly volunteering information is the backbone of police workand without it policing systems can’t function. Systematic forensicinvestigation also makes asignificant contribution. Watching people, mapping their routine and contacts,going through their documents, emails, phone records and so forth. Those areall possibilities for getting good, accurate information.

Torturers don’t do any of thosethings.

They tend to suffer from something Rejali called ‘deskilling’. Inessence when they start to torture they stopdoing everything else. And that means they gradually lose the skills theylearnt previously. They’re out of practice. They miss blindingly obviousthings.

As an example Rejali quotes a case where a particular police departmentarrested a suspected terrorist. They confiscated his phone and computer. Theystarted torturing him. They tortured him for days without realising the information they wanted was on his computer.No body checked, they didn’t eventurn the damn thing on.

That’s typical of how torturers operate.

They also have a toxic and corrosive effect on any organisation they’repart of.

They tend to basically split an organisation into torturers and peoplewho follow the rules. A group of people who shouldbe working together in order to achieve a goal, such as a police departmenttrying to get information, gets divided in two. The two groups spend most oftheir time trying to get around each other.

Sometimes it gets so bad that the group fractures completely and the twofactions start killing each other. That’s not an exaggeration, (it happened inBrazil and Rejaligoes into it in some depth if you’re interested).

The presence of torturers effectively hampers the investigative abilityof any organisation they’re part of. Both by having large numbers of people whoare torturing rather than working and by the strong negative effect torturershave on the people around them who actually areworking.

In addition to this the presence of torturers makes people much lesslikely to volunteer information. That cuts off a major source of informationand hampers investigations further.

So- basically torturers don’tuse methods of investigation and their presence in an organisation hamperspeople around them who do.

But there’s nothing about the scenario that you’ve outlined that’simplausible.

What you have is a good andrealistic use of torture in fiction.

If you feel more motivation is necessary for some or all of yourtorturers then I do have a couple of masterposts that might help, as well asthe ask I linked to earlier.So this one here is how Rejali classifies torture in democratic countries,it talks a bit about the systems that encourage torture and stated motivations.

I think you might also get something from some of the little studies Idid of torture being used for different ‘reasons’. I came up with this divisionto help writers so it’s a pretty different approach to Rejali. I think the poston Syria,focused on humiliating victims, the post on the Mau-Mau,focused on maiming victims and the post on Haitiand the slave trade, where torture was used to terrorise a large section ofthe population, would all be helpful for you.

Honestly though? I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about.

I hope this helps. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #ways torture fails #torturers #behaviour of torturers #effect of torturers on organisations #interrogation #investigation #motivations for torture #Rejali's three systems #just-a-human

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emiyaseraph · 7 years

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My Thoughts on Sun Wukong : Why he's starting to annoy me

So what’s my problem with Sun ? Almost Everything even his ship with Blake is problematic in my eyes since he lacks consistency. Which is a shame because Sun was introduced on such a good and funny note. Add on that his voice actor is Micheal Jones whom I love as a person and in general. I feel like his character had a lot of potential but it was sadly wasted.

Sun Wukong—this little monkey boy has been plaguing me ever since volume 1, and it has taken me years to finally comprehend why. If it wasn’t obvious, I don’t have anymore love for him or his team of misfits. Perhaps it may not seem notable at first, but there also appears to be a line that segregates the community when discussing him.

Character and Development

Sun was introduced in chapter 15 of volume 1, and he was admittedly given a fairly minimal amount of screen time compared to the other character that we met in the same episode—Penny Polendina. In fact, Penny gets three times the screen presence than Sun (I know, I timed it). And while this doesn’t prove anything, it gives very little time to process that Sun even existed before having a more interesting character put in front of the audience.

However, chapter 16 is where we get to experience Sun in all his glory. Plus, we are told quite a bit from Blake concerning her background in the White Fang, giving reason to her actions in the previous episode. Keep this in mind, as this event is a very important detail that I’ll bring up later on.

To summarize his presence in the chapter, he comes off as a conceited, ignorant, light–hearted monkey faunus with tendencies for theft. If you think that’s being harsh, I can promise you that I am being generous in his description, giving him the benefit of the doubt like I did when I first watched the episode. Oh, and he has abs. This carries the same importance as Yang’s midriff… Which is none at all.

Moving on to volume 2—after the initial reintroduction of Sun and the premiere of Neptune (whom we will get to later), the pair are brought along on team RWBY’s secret mission. If I could ever find a good way to explain how shoehorned SSSN is, this would be it. I’ll give you a moment to let you remember the events of the next few episodes. Can you see where I might be going with this yet ?

To give a quick rundown without making you look at Wikipedia—Sun goes with Blake and Neptune goes with Yang; Ruby and Weiss are independent of the following events until later on. The purpose of their inclusion is unknown since both Neptune and Sun fail to contribute to the progression of these episodes. If you don’t believe me, then rewatch Chapter 4: ‘Painting the Town…’ for yourself and come back.

Sun says something quite notable in the first few minutes : “I don’t get it. If you believe what you’re doing is right, why hide who you are ?”

Again, I want you to keep this little interaction between Sun and Blake in mind, since it will become very important as we proceed. I promise, all of this will become relevant and culminate in your understanding of my stance on the matter.

Blake and Yang go about their task as they had planned, dragging Sun and Neptune around like dead weight. At most, the two contribute comedy to the episode, and I have no qualms with that act alone. It is the fact that it is ALL that they do. Can you see it yet ?

Even after everything goes down and Roman starts chasing after Blake and company in a prototype Paladin, both Sun and Neptune completely disappear for the rest of the chapter. Team RWBY then fights Roman and loses him after Cinder and Neo’s rescue. Where were the other two skilled huntsmen, you ask ? Eating noodles. Perhaps that was for the best.

I’ll skip to the end of this volume, since the whole school dance is irrelevant. There is no mention of team SSSN until the final episode of the second volume. To which they (again) are the butt of a joke and overshadowed by other characters—team CFVY.

Two down, two to go. I’ll be faster for these, for your sake and mine.

Volume 3 has the entirety of team SSSN, and it makes sure to show them off in the fight against team NDGO. They present Scarlet and Sage’s fighting styles, a swashbuckler and Monster Hunter Greatsword user respectively, and make more jokes. If it wasn’t obvious by this point, Sun and Neptune exist only for comedy. When there are no hijinks to be had, they aren’t accounted for.

Only in the last episode—I’m starting to see a pattern here—does Sun show any sort of character growth. He acts like a mature person, though only saying about three lines before being set aside for the real characters of volume 3 to do their thing.

In volume 4, Sun serves much of the same purpose (at least at the time of writing). Sun helps Blake fight the Sea Dragon, shows more of his ignorance to how the people around him function, acts all cute when he buddies up with Blake, and makes dem jokes. Seriously, I don’t have a problem with a character being funny (like Yang), but when your whole personality revolves around it. Well, I just don’t find you interesting.

And if you wanted to consider his bromance with Neptune as character development, you can include that too, but I would merely consider it a “Beavis and Butthead” situation; they’re both just stupid, regardless of their relationship.

Thus sums up the development and character of Sun… NEXT!

A Catalyst

So far, I’ve had you remember certain interactions between Blake and Sun. Well, this is where I use all of those things together. But, fear not, there is still another section after this one. Sorry, I know you wanted it to be over.

Throughout every volume and most episodes, Sun has been paired up with Blake. This has been a good thing… for Blake. See, back in volume 1 Sun was there to help Blake’s feeling of being alone when she thought that she couldn’t trust her team. In volume 2, there was the dance (which was irrelevant). In volume 3… well, not much. However, volume 4 is where the crux lies.

Blake left to do her own thing in volume four, abandoning her team and life at Beacon. Now, we can speculate the reasons all we want, but the fact is that she didn’t do it to track down Adam. Blake is a very mysterious person, and she often has a very self-destructive pattern in her actions. If you remember in volume two, she overworked herself to the point of exhaustion. This is where Sun comes into play.

In the series so far, we can conclude with evidence that Yang and Blake are extremely close friends, more so than any other combination of team RWBY. Whether you want to take that and run with it or dismiss it in favor of the monkey boy crush is irrelevant. Yang has kept Blake in check but is no longer with her in this volume. Sun is required.

The problem with the setup is this—Blake can play off of Sun, but Sun cannot play off of Blake. If you want my reasoning, recall the things that I asked you to remember. Blake’s character grew and matured through Sun and his attributes, but Sun has not changed at all. This is what we call a “static character”. But—in this case—he is simply a catalyst for Blake.

Team SSSN

I’ve spent the better part of the month trying to find people’s opinions on team SSSN, whether that be through places like Reddit, Tumblr, or even going so far as to seek out fanfics with Sun as a character so that I could ask the author some questions. I’m not entirely happy about that, but I was desperate for information. Surprisingly, it wasn’t often that I got a straight answer.

See, in this respect, team SSSN is an anomaly. Their presence throughout the series has been constant, making several appearances in multiple episodes across every volume; however, their presence in the community is comparable to team ABRN. Yes we talk about them, but we don’t have a lot to say… Here’s a quote : ”No human ever has become interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.“ ~Chris Hardwick

Of course you could say, “Sun is a fictional character and doesn’t exist; therefore, it’s okay.” But at that point, I think you’re missing the purpose what what Chris is trying to get at. Anyway, I doubt that most of you are saying this, so I’ll move on.

I believe that this quote accurately represents what it is that I am trying to prove—team SSSN sucks. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that is as simple as I can break it down without removing the meaning. Oh, and before we really get into it, you should know that I am NOT telling you that you cannot like these characters. Opinion is opinion, and you are reading mine; if you disagree, please let me know.

Depth of Puddle

This section will pertain to team SSSN as a whole. While the quote I gave you only somewhat applies to Scarlet and Sage, they both must be looked at since they’re a part of the team.

Can you tell me a time where Sun was told “no“ ? Perhaps you bring up when he was denied the dance with Blake. However, he was able to go with her anyway. What about the times when he broke the law ? He never faced any repercussions. Has Sun ever been beaten in combat ? Not even once.

Sun is a living representation of a joke character with the attributes of a Mary Sue being forced into a role where he must not be any of those things. His character is so underdeveloped and flat that—at the current moment—having him with Blake actively works against him.

Look, I want Sun to be a better character for the sake of the show. I want him to be interesting and great, but I believe giving Sun the role that he now possesses without him ever showing any form of dynamism is a horrible mistake. And you can make the argument that he will grow as a character later on in the volume, but I have had three years to watch him make no progress.

His character is being given the role of an ocean while Sun only has the depth of a puddle. Speaking of water, Neptune is a person that exists !

Because of his nature, I don’t have as much to say about him as I do with Sun. He’s an egocentric but has redeeming qualities that tend to outweigh his faults (unlike Sun). He’s a flat character used for jokes, yet his quirks make him at least a little bit likable. And the fact that they haven’t used him in volume four (please let it stay that way) is a good thing.

Scarlet and Sage are much the same, though they’re less used for comedy. Still, they’re flat and uninteresting, but that is through no fault of their own. They played their part and didn’t come back, and that makes them neutral in my book.

My problem with BlackSun as a ship

So, like I said earlier Sun as a character only exist to further Blake’s character but only does so in volume 1 and 4. This is bad character writing Sun is either comedic relief or a catalyst for Blake’s character development and sometimes even fails as both of those. I was hoping they would explore him more in volume 4, but they didn’t which is saddening. Volume 1, he serves as a Faunus that Blake can open up to only to be forgotten in ch16 because Blake should be opening up to her friends not a random guy. Volume 2 Sun is useless and serves as a punching bag of disinterest that Blake continuously uses. She goes with Sun to the dance because I guess Sun asked so why not that’s my best explanation cause Blake sure didn’t show any interest in him beforehand. Mind you Yang also had to convince her not Sun. Don’t worry though that’s not the only time Yang does something that Sun the person who is in love with Blake could and should be doing.

Sun’s Disinterest

Does Sun even know who Adam is ? Why doesn’t Sun the person who loves Blake go out looking for her ? Why wasn’t it Sun who saw Adam instead of Yang ? Sun was pretty useless in the mech fight. Hell the students that were there were already enough to handle it especially after Weiss summoned. Soooo ? Sun ? You’re love interest ? They legit shoved Bumblebee in our faces by showing that Yang cares about Blake way more than Sun does considering he never even asked about her. Remember that wonderful scene that Bumblebee defenders always bring up where Blake grabs Yangs hand and cries and says “I’m sorry” ? Did you guys know that Sun was pretty much right behind them when this was happening ? Cause he was. Don’t comfort you’re love interest who just got stabbed and is now laying on the floor crying next to her unconscious teammate. This could have been a Bumblebee AND Blacksun moment but Sun literally didn’t do anything. She’s on the floor CRYING !!! Ruby and Weiss couldn’t do it cause they had to go save Pyrrha and Jaune. Ren and Nora were injured. So Sun why can’t you comfort her ?

God forbid you comfort her

It infuriates me that he didn’t do anything especially since he’s shown to not care about personal space considering all he does is stalk Blake but when a Grimm out break happens you don’t stop and wonder “Hey where’s that girl that I constantly stalk ?” It makes Blacksun look like such a stupid ship when the guy who’s supposed to love Blake fails to love Blake and what makes it worst is that’s his only job in the series so he’s failing as a character by not stalking Blake. Note that he also has a scroll so he could have just called Blake. By the way Yang remembered to call Blake and yes, she did call Blake cause Blake takes her scroll out of her pocket and talks to Yang immediately. Again Yang does things that Sun the person who loves Blake should be doing. This is why there are some many Bumblebee shippers cause Sun failed to stalk Blake at the most important time.

Sun is Easily Replaceable

This is gonna come across as me supporting Bumblebee but this really can be applied to a lot of ships with Blake that involve her with a human girl It’s just that Bumblebee has the most things backing it up than say Ladybug. So let’s look at the positives of Bumblebee and assume it happens. What do we get out of it ? Well at the current state of the show we can expect BOTH characters to develop from it. Mainly Blake but Yang too which is a department that Sun fails at he develops Blake but can’t develop himself. It can tackle interracial and homosexuality at the same time which could make for some really nice plots if done correctly. Sun has so far been such a useless character in this series that It’s like why even have him. Or if we are gonna have him WHY CANT HE BE GOOD AT LOVING SOMEONE ?

Yang and Blake together can bring way more than Blacksun because of how they have handled Blacksun so far which is horribly. It feels forced on Blacksun’s part because of how much Blake goes from hating Sun and slapping him to downright showing affection for him. Don’t get me wrong I actually really liked the talk between Sun and Blake in volume 4 it was really well done. BUT you wanna know who else could have delivered that speech just as good ? The girl who lost an arm for Blake. Or Blake’s father who was about to give Blake some valuable advice about friendship before Sun stalked his way into the conversation. Also I feel like Blake’s overall attitude would have been better without Sun which is something that I see a lot of people complaining about. Yang never angers Blake and they get along well consistently throughout the series until Blake leaves her, in fear of Yang getting hurt. Even then It’s less jarring than Blake hating Sun because Sun is invading her personal space almost all the time.

This is so accurate that it’s sad

In The End

Sun is funny and charming….in the first and second volume. Afterwards he becomes infuriating which is sad cause he had potential. They try to make Blacksun look like a possibility but fail by not having Sun care for Blake in crucial moments. He has been shown to infuriate Blake more than he has had her show affection. Then when his job which is to further Blake’s plot fails he’s just left there looking like useless. So many people turned on Sun this volume because of this. HE FAILED to further Blake as a character she would have been better off without him in volume 4 because he did nothing but take the conversation that she could have had with her dad and then the other thing he did was just flat out anger her throughout the volume. I’m not gonna say Sun is what was wrong with Blake’s arc in V4 cause he wasn’t but he was one of the factors that made it bad. Blake’s arc in V4 was BAD with little things that made it good and I feel comfortable in saying that it was the worst arc in volume 4 without a doubt in my mind. Sun tacked on to the already existing problems.

Sun almost ruining the family portrait

After reading this, I hope you can understand why there may be somewhat of a divide in the community when on the topic of team SSSN. Half of the team is lifeless and flat, while the other two are often used for comedy yet also forced to be characters that they aren’t. Sun is—from my experience and questioning—more of a problem than Neptune in many regards.

Sun and Neptune felt shoehorned into most things that happened at Beacon. Their presence contributed more than a laugh or two, but their characters never grew out of the “we’re just comedy relief” phase. It’s a problem that seems to be mirrored by the many people that I’ve talked to in the fandom.

The truth is the BB shippers who hate Sun for things like these are so vocal about it everyone thinks we’re all like this, but in reality, most of us are not. Personnally, I am a Bumblebee shipper and I personally like him… well I used to like him but he’s starting to annoy me. My main problem with him is the same anyone (shipper or not) has, and it’s been adressed by other users here: his lack of development or even character. I’ve never hated him, I just want him to become himself, and not some faunus-love-interest who serves as nothing else as that and comic relief.

I’ve hope he may get at least some development (and maybe mature a bit?) in this new volume, because if that’s not the case, it will only make many of us dislike him. Which I don’t want because again, when he’s himself and is around Neptune, for example, I like him.

The poor guy basically suffers from being a comic relief who can be very nice but whose biggest trait is… having great abs. And wanting to smooch with one of the Main Characters. And you need more than that to be actually liked. I only don’t like Sun X Blake because to me, it is incredibly boring. The 2 main Faunus that we have seen and they end up getting together seems incredibly cliché to me and not that cool, really.

If you’re reading this—and you haven’t just skipped to the end—then I sincerely thank you for going through all of it. I want to know what YOU think in the comments, and if all you have to say is “I agree/disagree with you” then that is already more than I could ever want. The whole point of writing these is to start discussion in the community. And if there isn’t any discussion, then I have no reason to keep making more.

Again, I hope you’ve enjoyed ! Thanks for reading !

#rwby #sun wukong #bumbleby #bumblebee #rwby characters #team sssn

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ptw30 · 7 years

Text

Stunning art by @xblackpaladin

Fic: Broken Blade - Part One/Part Two/Part Three/Part Four

A part of the Blade!Shiro series

Summary: Shiro learns the cost of awakening a blade.

Author’s Notes: Please see this post for triggers and warnings.

Pre-Voltron

The inky, black void of the cosmos reminded Shiro of a siren, its brilliant stars and majesty beauty luring him into its unfathomable depth. He struggled against its beckon and feared what would happened if he surrendered completely. Would he cease to exist, or would you finally become what the universe professed? And whatever that was, would it be worth the cost?

Shiro didn’t think he wanted to find out. Instead, he huddled upon the couch of his treehouse, staring at the viewer screen upon the far wall and trying to lose himself in the natural beauty of the cosmos. When the door opened behind him, the flash of light projected the silhouette of a tall but lithe frame, and without turning, Shiro knew to whom it belonged.

He waited until Kolivan came to stand behind him, his proximity a gift in its own right, yet Shiro still couldn’t raise his voice louder than a whisper. “…I don’t understand. I barely knew him.”

Kolivan’s heavy claw rested in the crux of Shiro’s shoulder, his thumb brushing along the younger blade’s nape. “There is no great mystery, Taka. Sanrik wished to protect you, so he did.”

“But why?” Shiro threw his arms wide; his legs dropped to the floor. “We spoke a few times over the annuals. We went on maybe a handful of missions together. That’s no reason for him to give his life for me.”

“He gave his life for the Blade, not specifically for you.”

Shiro shot to his feet and spun to confront Kolivan, ignoring the tears that stung his eyes. “It was my mission. That blast was meant for me.”

“And he stepped in front of it.”

“That – That makes no sense. The mission’s most important, not me. Maybe because I’m a paladin? He thought he should give is life for – ”

“Stop,” Kolivan growled, hands tight, eyes furious. “No one but the pack knows you are a member of the Voltron Force. It would be too dangerous for anyone else to carry that knowledge.”

“But then why – ”

Kolivan appeared at a loss, hands rising open and encouraging, though a tiny tremble stole Shiro’s breath. “I thought we made progress. I thought you finally understood.”

“Understood what?”

“You are worth the sacrifice, Taka.”

Shiro couldn’t accept that. He couldn’t believe that his life meant more to Sanrik or that he deserved to be standing there instead of his fellow blade. He should have taken that hit. After all, he was the Son of the Blade and the field commander of that mission. If anyone should have not returned to the base, it should have been he.

Kolivan came about the couch to clasp Shiro’s shoulders. Shiro wanted to remain strong, wanted to fight the tears threatening to overtake him, but he eventually lost the battle, collapsing into Kolivan’s cradling embrace. Though he’d lost warriors in battle before, none had actually sacrificed themselves for Shiro.

Except Moira.

Thoughts of his stepmother made Shiro wince, and when he pulled away from Kolivan’s chest, the leader let him.

“Kolivan, you – you’ve spoken to my mom, right?”

Kolivan studied him before relenting with a hesitant nod. “A few times over the years. Why do you ask?”

“If she’s part of the Blade, why doesn’t she ever come to the headquarters?” It had been more than a decafeeb since he’d last saw her, and after his last mission, he wanted to see her one more time, in case… “Ulaz and Thace have positions in the empire, too, but they come back all the time.”

If anything, his question seemed to upset Kolivan, whose expression hardened again. “Your mother is not welcome here anymore. She is no longer part of the Blade.”

Shiro stiffened. “What! Why?”

Kolivan’s glower remained neutral, and his face gave away none of the truth. “I do not believe now is the time to discuss this issue.”

“Are you kidding me?” Shiro snorted. “I’ve known you for seven annuals! You never thought to tell me in all that time that my mom –”

Kolivan’s voice remained steady, as if he forced the truth from his lips, “When another awakens a Blade, it is a sign that the bond of secrecy and trust has been broken. The original member is no longer welcome among us.”

Shiro silenced. It was his fault his mother was no longer a member of the Blades? Because he awakened her blade, she could no longer return to place she’d called home?

Kolivan refused to allow him to suffer. “Moira gave you her blade because she wanted this for you, Takashi. She wanted you to join the fight alongside us, so do not mourn her loss. Instead, honor her sacrifice by carrying on, by fighting the Galra as one of us.”

Shiro wanted to listen to Kolivan and believe him, but he couldn’t, not with the weight of the blade against his back and the searing ache deep within his chest. Now, he cried not for one loss but for two.

Post Zarkon Command System Attack

The campfire brightened the small area of the desert planet and afforded the gasping Shiro just enough light to make out his brother's worries features. Shiro wished he could ease Keith's fears, but the burning, glowing wound upon his torso worsened by the moment. If Coran and Allura didn't find them soon, Shiro held no doubts about his eventual end.

"Keith...if I don't make it out of here - "

"Don't talk like that,” Keith snapped. “You're going to make it."

"...I want you to lead Vol - "

"No!” Keith lunged to grip Shiro by the shoulders but stopped when Shiro flinched and hissed. “You’re bonded with the Black Lion. It chose you to lead us – "

"I know, Keith." Ancients, why couldn't his little brother just accept the truth for what it was? "But I'm not going to make it out of this – "

"You made it out of Drule Central, and you survived a year in the empire."

"Keith, please…this isn’t the same thing."

"Kolivan chose you to be his successor, and he wouldn't have done that – "

"He did it because he didn't want me to be a paladin. He wanted to give me another option – "

"Is that why we haven't gone home since you escaped?" Keith asked, those amber eyes wide, eyebrows lifted. “Because you chose to be a paladin over the Blade – ”

He couldn’t do this now. “No, Keith. Look. Gasp! What happened between Kolivan and me – it doesn’t have anything to do Gasp! with – ”

“You didn’t see him, Takashi,” Keith pressed. “The way he came back to the headquarters. The way he refused to speak to anyone about it, even me and Antok. He just –”

Not. Now. "Keith!" Shiro's side burned, and he hissed every word through clenched teeth. "...it's not like I don't want to go home...it's just...” Ancients, it hurt to admit. “I'm – I’m not sure I’d be welcome if I did."

Keith's tail fell limp; his ears twitched. "What do you mean?"

Gasp! "...I cost Ulaz his position in the empire, and...I – I compromised the Blades' mission. No other member in its last ten thousand years has caused so much damage to its agenda."

"But you also helped us find Voltron,” Keith said. “You helped free the Balmera, and behind you, we're going to defeat Zarkon."

"...If I live that long."

Keith's tail slithered about Shiro's wrist and tightened in wordless comfort.

They sat like that for a long time, the campfire crackling and casting shadows upon the barren landscape. Shiro tipped his head back against the rock, inhaling through his mouth as his wound stung something fierce. Keith sat by his side the entire time, tail never wavering in its strength, eyes continuously watching him, and though Shiro hated to think it, he could die here, having saved Allura and knowing his little brother would live. He’d done his part, brought Voltron together and readied the Paladins to fight for the universe. The rest was up to them.

Keith would have nothing of it. "Look, I promise to take over as team leader – though you’re going to make it – ”

Shiro snorted and clutched his glowing alien wound.

“— if you promise once we get out of here, we'll go home."

Shit. When did his kid brother start drawing hard bargains? In the back of his mind, Black mewled in support of Keith’s decision, and Shiro found the energy to shoot back, Traitor.

Sucking in a deep breath, Shiro let out a pained, "Kid – "

"No.” Keith refused to be dismissed. “We don’t have to fight this war alone, Takashi. You know that. We wouldn't have escaped Zarkon's Central Command if Thace hadn't stepped in."

"We don't know it was Thace."

"You know it was."

Damnit, he did.

"Takashi." The tail tightened about his wrist, frightened, pleading. "We can’t fight this war alone."

And they couldn't. Keith was right, no matter how much Shiro didn't want to admit it.

With a shuddering hand, Shiro petted the warm curl of his brother’s tail as he sighed. It didn’t matter anyway. It wasn’t like he was ever going to have to face Kolivan again.

"Fine, fine,” he relented. “If the team saves us, we'll make our next mission to rendezvous with Ulaz. We'll see if he's talked to Kolivan and if the Blade is willing to accept our assistance. In return, you have to promise to watch over Black and the team if I don’t make it out. Deal?"

Keith shifted a bit closer, though his tail remained a constant warmth upon Shiro's arm. "You’re getting off this planet if I have drag your sorry tail, but...deal."

Of course, that was the moment a wormhole exploded in the clouds, and the Green Lion soared through.

Quiznak.

“I do not like this,” Allura affirmed, less than two days later after Shiro emerged from the cyropod. “The Galra – they are not to be trusted.”

“Your father must have trusted them once,” Shiro insisted, typing coordinates he knew by heart into the computer. “Zarkon was the original Black Paladin.”

Lance started. “Wait. What?”

Allura’s shoulders tense as she reared back, mouth agape, though Keith interjected for her, “Didn’t you see how Zarkon stole the Black Lion right out from underneath Takashi or how he could do all that cool stuff with his bayard? Takashi’s bayard? You know, the black one?”

“I wanted to save you from the dark history of the paladins, so you could have a chance to bond with your lions on your – wait a tick.” Allura’s eyes narrowed in an accusatory glare. “You knew Zarkon was the original Black Paladin.”

Takashi didn’t need to turn to know her eyes bore into the back of his head. “Yes. It is why we must meet up with the Blade of Marmora. We can’t win this war alone.”

This time, Allura remained silent. He was, after all, right. (Thanks, Keith.)

“Besides, you said you wanted me to show you the Galrans you remember, the same people who inhabited Daibazaal all those years ago. Allow me to do that now.”

For a long moment, Allura debated, her stern glare never wavering as she glowered at Shiro. Then, her eyes flicked to Keith, as if to remind Shiro she’d already met a Galran who represented the old planet, but she refrained. Instead, she let out a brief sigh and straightened her shoulders.

“Shiro – the Galra, they’ve done…terrible things. They took my family, but in time, I’ve grown to see you and the Paladins as my family now. I – I cannot let anything happen to any one of you, and trusting the Galra again – it is unconscionable.”

“But you trust me.” Perhaps he should have phrased it as a question, but it wasn’t one.

Though it was slow in coming, Allura agreed with a nod.

“Then when I say I would die before I let anything happen to any member of our pride, know it’s the truth.” He motioned toward his shoulder and the inkling that lay underneath his long sleeve. “I cannot fathom what happened to you or Altea, but with the Blades’ help, perhaps we can stop Zarkon once and for all.”

Once he received approval from Allura, Coran brought the Castle of Lions to life. Lance came to his sister’s side, folding his fingers with hers, while Keith bookended her on the opposite hip, his tail encircling her trembling wrist. She smiled not at Lance but at Keith, brushing her fingers along the tuff of his tail.

Not even Allura’s cold disposition could survive the tender warmth of Keith’s adorable purrs.

Her hostile temperament returned, however, when the alarms went off on the bridge about a varga after the team arrived in the Thaldycon System.

“I knew it was a mistake coming here!” Allura bellowed as her hands swiped across the transparent screens, bringing up the castle’s cameras. “There is he! Level five.”

Shiro recognized the lithe build of the intruding Blade and fought against the emotions that threatened to constrict his voice. “Everyone, suit up!”

Shiro snagged Keith before they left the armory and made a quick plan. Ulaz would never suspect that Shiro would use his precious baby brother as a decoy, and if he only admitted it to himself, Shiro wanted to see just how far Keith had progressed in his Blade training. He was not disappointed.

Despite Lance, Hunk, and Pidge’s efforts, they were still untested in battle. The few victories they wedged out came from sheer luck and relentless perseverance, but neither would work against a trained operative like Ulaz.

Though Keith still couldn’t battle Ulaz to a standstill, he worked in tandem with Pidge and then continued to attack, refusing to give their pack member a moment of reprieve. His swift, continuous strikes distracted Ulaz enough to allow Shiro to sneak up behind the Blade, and though Ulaz noticed him almost immediately, the damage had been done.

One swift movement by both, and Shiro sucked in a swift inhale, Ulaz’s blade mere inches from his face. Shiro’s weaponized hand hovered just under his surrogate father’s chin.

Shiro feared. Would Ulaz shun him? Did Kolivan explain to Ulaz what hadn’t known about Shiro’s capture? Would Ulaz hate him for surrendering, for giving into his status as a lower lifeform and mate to Sendak, rather than dying at the hands of the empire’s most powerful commander? Did he understand Shiro’s position now, an outsider who had lost the simple luxury of a place to call home?

But after a moment, Ulaz stepped back, dropping his weapon and dissolving his mask. The Galran’s calm but joyous smile dismissed all of Shiro’s misguided apprehension, and the Blade opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

Before Shiro could fold into the circle of them, Allura slammed Ulaz against the wall with a single hand on Ulaz’s chest plate, her colossal strength impressive before and frightening now.

“Who are you?” she demanded, but Shiro instantly rushed to her side, hands up in a surrender position. “Stop! This is the Galran who saved Keith and me all those years ago in Drule Central.”

Despite Allura’s painful grip upon him, Ulaz’s eyes never diverted from Shiro’s gaze. “You’ve come,” he murmured.

They retired to the lounge for their discussion, Allura not wanting a Galran – any Galran – on the bridge of her ship. Shiro managed to convince Allura that Ulaz didn’t need to be restrained, only for Ulaz to mutter, “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.”

Shiro wiped a hand down his face. “Not helping.”

“Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?”

“I’m not trying to win your trust.” He already had Shiro’s and Keith’s. “I’m trying to win a war, and because of Shiro, we are closer than we ever have been.”

Keith’s tail knocked into Shiro’s side, and he wished he could feel the surge of pride that always came from Ulaz’s compliments. Instead, all he felt was cold dread. “Ulaz, do you think you could send a message to Kolivan? We need to find out if the Blade would be willing to form an alliance with us.”

Utter confusion swept across Ulaz’s expression. “I don’t understand your hesitation, Shiro. Why don’t you reach out to Kolivan directly?”

“I’m – I’m not quite sure if Kolivan would be willing to listen to any request I make. I’m hoping if the request comes from you, he might be more apt to –”

“Waitaminute!” Lance interrupted, hands falling to his hips. “Nononono. We did not come all the way out here to the middle of space nowhere just to speak with your space ninja mom because you’re afraid to call your space ninja dad!”

Shiro was the Black Paladin, the decisive head of Voltron. He needed to maintain a certain level of decorum in order to expect the other four paladins to listen to his –

“Yup.” Keith thumbed his way. “Apparently, something happened between Takashi and Kolivan on the mission, and Takashi was captured by the empire – ”

“Keith!”

“What? It’s true.” He motioned toward Ulaz, eyes glimmering as he crossed his arms. “You did come all the way out here to speak with Ulaz because you’re afraid of Kolivan.”

“I’m not afraid, Keith.” Ancients, he didn’t want to talk about this now, especially in front of everyone.

“Then what did happen, Shiro?” Ulaz’s hand came to rest upon his shoulder, comforting and unnerving at the same time. “What has you refusing to speak to Kolivan or returning to the headquarters? It is your – ”

“ – it’s not my home, not anymore.” With a disparaging sigh, Shiro struggled to meet Ulaz’s gaze and ended up staring at the taller Galran’s shoulder. “It was my blade Keith awakened during his trials. I’m no longer a member of the Blade of Marmora.”

To Be Continued…