#the fact hes telling this story from the perspective of the whole town

[phaedraismyusername]

I'm halfway through Bear Town by Fredrik Backman and oof I'm having a *time* with this book. The people in it (yes I said people and not characters) are so shockingly well realised and written that it not only blows my mind but is absolutely breaking my heart lol.

One thing I will say if you're planning on reading it is don't read the description and assume the author will pull his punches like I did. I assumed the assault would be more ambiguously portrayed but its not it *is* violent and it happens on the page and it is very unpleasant to read BUT the whole story is handled and crafted so carefully that it doesn't feel exploitative or anything like that, it's just a thing that happens that everyone has to deal with the consequences of.

[1863-project]

One of the things I really like about the Teal Mask DLC for Scarlet and Violet is that it's all about examining your biases, learning the truth, and not just going on first impressions.

Spoilers to follow.

There's both a blatantly obvious and less obvious way the DLC does this, and I actually really like how it was handled from a storytelling perspective.

The obvious case is Ogerpon. When the player first gets to Kitakami and starts learning about Mossui Town's ogre story, it's playing the Momotaro fairy tale straight - the signs feature a young human figure, a dog, a pheasant, and a monkey chasing out an ogre. But by the end of things, the player - and by extension the entire town - has learned the truth about Ogerpon and how she was framed (species is 100% female). She was the victim in this scenario, and the so-called "Loyal Three" were actually the perpetrators. We don't even know what happened to her human companion or if he even survived their attack. By the end of the DLC, we've helped Ogerpon find acceptance in the town that formerly shunned her, and she's decided to travel with the player, whom she's bonded with. It's a much more typical story about acceptance, truth, and getting the facts straight. Ogerpon deserves reparations.

Less obvious, however, is the player's relationship with Carmine and Kieran, and this is where it's really important to dig a little deeper.

When the player first walks into town, Carmine challenges them immediately. She's looking for a fight and for someone to put down, and she wants to prove her superiority over the new visitors. She's surprised to lose to the player, and runs off when the caretaker arrives. The entire time, she's keeping Kieran under her thumb, barely allowing him to speak. It's not a good first impression at all, and you come away from that interaction thinking she's just a run of the mill bully.

Your first interactions with Kieran are the opposite. He seems to like the player quite a bit, and is really shy about it but really excited to have an actual friend. He's in awe of the player's skill, and he constantly puts himself down, saying he could never compare even though Carmine herself says he's almost as good as she is. You feel bad for him, and you want to look after him, especially since his own sister is constantly snapping at him. He relates to the outcast ogre from the story, and he dreams of meeting it someday.

Once you and Carmine meet Ogerpon by chance at the festival, however, things start to shift. Carmine doesn't want her brother to be upset that he missed the ogre he loves so much, so she hides it from him, even though this causes more grief in the long run. She does actually care about his feelings on some level, even if she's terrible at showing that and still actively puts him down all the time. When she and the player learn the truth about Ogerpon from her grandfather, she's righteously infuriated on Ogerpon's behalf, and she immediately wants to set things right. You and Carmine agree to respect the grandfather's wishes about not telling Kieran yet, but Kieran has been listening in the whole time, and he deems this a betrayal.

From Kieran's point of view, of course it feels like a betrayal - he was bonding with you, and it feels like now his sister has stolen you from him and you're both lying to him about Ogerpon, even if it's to protect him instead of make fun of him, as he wrongfully assumes. He starts avoiding the player and Carmine more because he's emotionally hurt, as most people would be in his situation, and because of this, it ends up being you and Carmine who start to bond with each other - going to get the supplies to repair the mask. When Kieran steals the mask, he's doing it out of pure jealousy - this was supposed to be something he did, not you and his sister. That jealousy unfortunately awakens the covetous spirits of the "Loyal" Three, who come back to life.

After confronting the alleged "Loyal" Three for the first time and collecting information in town, you and Carmine go off to fight them with Ogerpon in tow as Kieran stays behind to tell the townspeople the truth. This is important, because you and Carmine are now actively bonding with Ogerpon, and Kieran isn't even though he's helping her out. By the end of things, once everything is set right with the townspeople and Ogerpon has all her masks back, she indicates that she wants to team up with the player, who's been the one directly interacting with her. Kieran's jealousy gets the better of him again, and he challenges the player for the right to be Ogerpon's trainer, even as Carmine tells him he needs to consider Ogerpon's feelings, too. The player ends up with Ogerpon, of course, and Kieran doesn't take it well.

At the end of things, when they have to go back to school, Carmine is cheerily saying goodbye to everyone, and she reveals that she was being so standoffish because she didn't feel comfortable welcoming outsiders into her hometown. She states she's glad to have gotten to know everyone and hopes to see the player again. Kieran, on the other hand, doesn't even show up, and is locked in his bedroom at his house, swearing that he's going to become stronger than the player and getting a somewhat malicious-looking smile on his face. Things have been completely flipped from how they were at the start.

By the time that "To be continued..." screen hits, you've got much more mixed perspectives on both Carmine and Kieran, and they're both much more morally grey than they seemed at first glance. Carmine is constantly putting her brother down at the beginning, but she does make it clear she worries about him and his feelings, and she does care about him. She becomes nicer to the player once she warms up to them, and she knows what happened to Ogerpon was wrong and gets angry over it. Kieran seems like a beleaguered younger sibling at first, constantly at the mercy of his sister, but he has a fierce streak of jealousy that causes active problems for his hometown and damages his relationship with the player even more than the secret-keeping does. Both kids clearly have issues to work through that are affecting their ability to relate well to others and form bonds, and it's tough to see - even the Mossui Town locals say things about them that make it clear they're considered outsiders in their own home to a degree, and not just because they're descended from the mask maker.

I'm curious to see how things go for them in The Indigo Disk.

[sugar-glaze-donut]

Hiiiii i loveeee your writing sooo much.

Can i request a headcanon of Aruji-sama who is always seen completely shut their eyes.

because they feels their eyes was weird or something like that,turns out they have very beautiful eyes when they accidentally opened their eyes

maybe their eyes was like Athanasia de Alger Obelia from who Made me a princess :D

Sorry if my grammar is strange, English is not my first language:')

Hello anon! I absolutely love your idea! I don't read manhwa very often, but I understand where you're going :D

Aruji-sama always has their eyes closed (like our beloved doctor, Lucas 🍷) was actually an idea I had in mind a while ago, so I'm really happy someone has the same thoughts as me!

Also don't worry about your grammar! I admire the fact that you're trying your best to learn English as a second language <3

Unfortunately, I don't read manhwa so I don't know who Athanasia is, so I hope it's ok if Aruji-sama in this world has ruby red eyes like Muu! (They also wear colour contacts on some occasions!)

Now without further ado, let me show you my headcanons of an Aruji-sama who is insecure of their eyes~

⚠️Warnings!⚠️- Probably OOC Berrien, Angst near the end with fluff and a whole ass fanfic at the end written by yours truly :3 {headcanons + mini story under the cut!}

Arrival

When you first came to the palace, everyone thought it was weird that you always had your eyes closed.

Sure, they have Lucas, but it's not like he has his eyes closed when he does his experiments or when he's fighting angels.

The butlers didn't question you, of course, thinking it might be something related to your family traditions or culture from your world.

But Muu... oh yes, our beloved cat butler asked you. He couldn't help it! His curiosity got the best of him, and he wanted to do anything to help you.

By the first few chapters of Episode 1, only Muu knows your insecurities and troubles about your eyes (or so you thought). He knows that you constantly want to open your eyes to see the beauty of the world, but you struggle to get past your insecurities and in the end, fail to do so.

From that moment on, Muu decided that he would be your trusty guide feline! Whenever you go to parties or town, imagine him walking by your side hissing at any stranger who seems to have ill intentions to you.

Or just carry him around like how the evil stepmother from Cinderella does and he'll tell you directions.

🐾 ▪️ 💍 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 💍 ▪️ 🐾

Random townsfolk 🧍: Hey! Master of the Devil Butlers! Come here-

Muu 🐾: *insert snarling sounds* GRR >:(

Random townsfolk🧍: EEEEEKKKKK! GET YOUR FUCKING CAT YOU-

Aruji-sama ❤️: *eyes closed with a soft smile* Don't worry, Muu doesn't bite (๑^ᗜ^๑)

Muu 🐾: *snarls even more*

Random townsfolk🧍: YES HE DOES!

🐾 ▪️ 💍 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 💍 ▪️ 🐾

From your perspective

Your first instinct was to tightly shut your eyes when you heard Berrien's voice when waking up. (he saw your eyes but he didn't question it, since colourful eyes are pretty common in the Akuneko world)

You don't remember putting your colour contacts in, so you had to rely on your hearing and "Instincts" to know what's happening. Taking small peeks at the butler's clothes and listening carefully to their voices wasn't much of a hassle. You were used to it after all.

You weren't able to see any of the butler's faces though. As it would mean making eye contact with them, and you don't want to do that for now - (This is important later near the end of this post! <3)

Everything went smoothly until Muu decided to ask about your eyes. It was to be expected, so you told him. And WOWZA, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! MUU ALSO HAS UNIQUE EYES!

Now you and Muu bond over the fact that you both have the same eye colour.

Like in the "Arrival" paragraph above, Muu will be your guide feline and you carry him around everywhere at parties like another set of eyes.

🌹 ▪️ 🎀 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 🎀 ▪️ 🌹

A servant at the party🤵🏻: Pardon me, but this party does not allow pets

Aruji-sama❤️: Oh? Oh no, Muu is my other pair of eyes.

Servant🤵🏻: huh-

Aruji-sama❤️: I cannot see without my eyes... so I have Muu as a replacement for my eyes *places a hand on their forehead like a damsel in distress*

Servant🤵🏻: ...why is every noble I meet so weird?

(you and Muu have a lot of fun creeping out the nobles)

🌹 ▪️ 🎀 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 🎀 ▪️ 🌹

Reveal

...and of course, time for the big reveal! Hurray!

At this point, let's say that you were able to retrieve your colour contacts from your world, and started using them in the Akuenko world.

It could end up in one of these two scenarios. Both depending whether or not you have your colour contacts on.

The first one is when you DO have your colour contacts on. A scenario where Berrien confronts you about your eyes. Since he was the first person to "see" your eyes without the colour contacts when you first arrived (as said in the "From your perspective" headcanons above). He probably thought it was weird that your eyes were a completely different colour than it was before.

The second scenario is when you DON'T have your colour contacts. This is when you and some other butlers run into some angels or are ambushed by townsfolk. You need to open your eyes to dodge, don't you? Or to even express your emotions!

Imagine the butlers (apart from Berrien if he accompanies you, but that'll lead to the first scenario) being confused as hell!

(in this part, I will only do the first scenario. I might do the second scenario if someone wants me to do it ;))

✨ ▪️ 💎 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 💎 ▪️ ✨

Scenario 1 - Answers & Acceptance

"Pardon me, Aruji-sama..." You turned around to see Berrien at the doorway of your room carrying a tea set for 2, and some pastries. He walked further into the room, his head low and facial features slightly tense. "I hope you don't mind me intruding but, I would like to ask you something."

You blinked a couple of times before tilting your head, welcoming Berrien to sit down on the chair next to you (But he obviously refused, due to "complicated butler and master boundary manners").

"Is something the matter? If something's troubling you I'll try my best to help." You felt the air becoming tenser, especially when the only sound was Berrien pouring tea into your teacup.

"Oh no, it's none of that Aruji-sama." Berrien passed you your teacup filled with hot tea. "Please don't take any offence to this but..."

He hesitated. Was this truly the best time to ask? He was curious about the fact that your eyes once shone a beautiful ruby red, turned into an entirely different colour. He was curious about why you constantly had your eyes closed on the first few weeks of arriving at the mansion. He was curious about why Muu suddenly became protective over you.

He was simply curious.

'No Berrien. It's just a simple question! Surely Aruji-sama will forgive me...' Berrien thought as he gripped his gloved hands tightly behind his back. 'But... there must be a reason, no? I shouldn't over-cross Aruji-sama's boundaries! They should tell us of their condition when they're comfortable-..."

He eventually gave in to his curiosity.

"...were your eyes always this colour?"

You flinched at that, which wasn't Berrien's expected reaction from you.

"O-oh my, what do you mean?" you craned your neck to look at your teacup to avoid Berrien's gaze. The reflection of your eyes... no, your colour contacts stared back at you in the shimmering liquid.

"I- It's not that your eyes aren't beautiful! Believe me, your eyes are magnificent!" Berrien felt saddened even by looking at your guilt-ridden face. "I just... remember seeing your eyes in a beautiful shade of red when you first came to the palace."

...

Beautiful. That was a word you heard often.

But it never paired up with the word "eyes"

A monstrosity, they used to call you. A monster, a demon, a villain. All because of your ruby red eyes.

They would all say

"A villain like you should never have a happy ending."

If only you could change your eye colour...

And so you did. By wearing colour contacts with the colour society deemed "normal", you were able to blend in perfectly.

Not up until... now

Long story short, you wore a suspicious ring, got yeeted into another world, got into a mess of Angels V.S. Devils V.S. Townsfolk, and found a newly acquired friend where you bonded over having the same eye colour.

For once, you genuinely felt like you lit in.

After a while, you were able to return to your world. You frantically searched for your colour contacts and rushed to return to the other world.

The moment you stepped into the palace with your newly acquired colour contacts to surprise your butlers, you saw them.

Their beautiful, vibrant eyes. Each of them has different colours. Amber, soft pink, heck some of them had mixed eye colours!

It made you jealous really. Being able to show your eyes without being judged...

If only you knew about their colourful eyes, you would've shown up one day with your eyes fully open.

But now you can't. You lied to them about your eyes. You don't want them to hate you for lying.

But as of the moment now...

"I just... remember seeing your eyes in a beautiful shade of red when you first came to the palace."

What is this feeling? Sadness? Guilt? Shock?

No, no... this must be relief, a feeling you've longed for all these years...

...

"You... you think my eyes are... beautiful?" your voice wavered, and tears threatened to spill into your tea

"Aruji-sama?" Berrien squeaked in surprise and rushed beside you. "Please don't cry! There's no need to be ashamed of them, I think they are beautiful!"

"really...?"

"I am very sure, and I believe the others will love them too."

Your sniffles stopped, but not completely as you looked up.

"You're not mad that I lied to you?"

"Oh stars, I will never be mad at you Aruji-sama. It is our job to make you feel welcome here in the palace. No matter what form you take, we butlers will forever love you"

You started to cry again, but this time, you didn't seem sad.

"Thank you" you managed to say between sobs, and gave Berrien a big smile.

✨ ▪️ 💎 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 💎 ▪️ ✨

🍩Side note for anon: Hii anon! Sorry that it took me so long to complete this. (THIS REQUEST WAS FROM LAST YEAR AND I STILL HAVE SOME REQUEST PILED UP IN MY INBOX 😭). I hope you liked the little story I added at the end :3🍩

Last edited - March 4th 2024 {Please let me know if there are any typos in this post, and I will fix them right away!}

✦ Want to read more of my works? Come and take a look at my Masterlist! Have a nice day, toodles! ✦

[jamboreeofsurprises]

wow I totally forgot to post the fantastic dream i had this morning. I was having a really good Sparks dream and then got a phonecall from my aunt telling me extended family were coming over and being the only person home i needed to be the host, so it ended possibly before it ever even got to the meat and potatoes. but as it was...

I was with my family in our old family van, which is technically my car now, but back then it was the family van. anyway, here comes a recurring theme from many past Sparks dreams: the boys were set to play a venue close to my old hometown, so we needed to give them a lift for some reason, although I guess Russell already got to the venue so Ron was riding with us.

We got tremendously lost. I meant to tell my mom to circle around to a different parking lot to redirect us and instead we drove to like...a whale exhibit (?) and the whales were huge and splashing overhead with no glass or anything while we walked up a ramp to get to the next part of town. didn't make much sense but ron liked the whales. It was really surreal seeing him just sitting upright in a carseat i'd sat in many times, completely blasé to the whole situation as if he were just a random man we picked off the street. i always look at him then look away quickly in my dreams. he would sometimes reply to situations in a very drab and matter of fact way that we found amusing.

anyway, guess what our mystery venue was? my childhood church, although as is typically the case in dreams, it looked nothing like the real thing, yet by dream logic nothing seemed different. Russell plus the band's entourage were there setting up equipment, i think russell was kind of like "what took you so long?" as there were a lot of mishaps along the way (including us accidentally hitting a kid on his bike while parking but don't worry he was fine). I asked ron if he ever considered reversing their roles and doing the singing while russell played the keyboards. he said he could probably sing but russell only knows how to play one note on the keyboard. they both snickered at this. I do not know what this means.

in the church auditorium with my family + the audience, there was an opening act of a magic show that involved. eggs? it went on for too long and impressed nobody. And then there was like...a free-for-all act where we voted on Simpsons characters. I don't know either. this briefly fused into a family guy segment before we were like "its 11pm can we please get Sparks onstage" so we did. but i don't remember anything about the show and i'm not even sure there was a show, because for all the talk of playing and equipment, apparently tonight's event that we reserved tickets for was actually the premiere of a brand new sparks BIOPIC.

it opened with 70s-esque footage of a teenage girl talking into the camera from her bedroom reminiscing about the band from her perspective until "amateur hour" kicks in and pretty decent-looking actors portraying the boys are shown playing onstage during the 70s. i'm thinking, this is pretty cool, i always wondered if a movie like this would happen. and then...

through some sort of stylized shot transition, the band are being played by kittens, singing and prancing around onstage. russell doing all his usual movements but in feline form. Haha what a funny and oddly stylish bit, i'm thinking to myself. what a fun way of depicting their personalities. but it just...continues like that? punk russell in 1976 singing "i wanna be like everybody else" while twirling around with the microphone but as a kitten, thrashing about? everyone is laughing. it's so good.

the movie truly does continue on in this fashion yet for as confounding as its sudden shift in direction is, we become oddly immersed in its storytelling enough not to even notice the boys are still being played by kittens, in a stroke of auteuristic magic a la todd haynes' superstar: the karen carpenter story. a sequence depicting "girl chasing" in their younger years in the form of kittens climbing onto the legs of girls who are walking away from them up some stairs while they mew desperately has the audience both cackling and aww'ing. another scene that stands out is a roadie saying "you guys don't eat enough!" and putting both ron and russell kittens in a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy.

I was under the impression ron and russ were really proud of the film and likely had direct involvement themselves, but had kept it so tightly under wraps that no one knew what was coming. I wish I could tell you more but then i got that phonecall.

[coraniaid]

(Answering @badwolfwho1's questions for this character ask game; three of four.)

Cordelia

5 What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

...yeah, this is just because of that scene in The Puppet Show, sorry. But I do think it's kind of arc-appropriate that Buffy's Shadow Self Cordelia sings a song about not wanting to live in anybody's shadow and then (eventually) leaves town.

12 What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Not exactly original to me but I think I am increasingly an ace Cordy truther. 

I know there are other explanations for some of the way she’s written in Buffy and that, in the high school years in particular, the writers really don’t seem to like to suggest that any of the women on the show might have any interest in sex as such (which is probably the real reason Xander spends more time talking about how physically attractive Willow’s boyfriend Oz is than Willow herself ever manages, tempting as it is to think of that as deliberate bisexual Xander / lesbian Willow foreshadowing).  

But Cordelia especially seems particularly confused (and occasionally actively repulsed) by the mere idea of sexual desire (“does looking at guns really make girls want to have sex?” she asks Xander in Innocence, while surrounded by guns herself, “That’s scary.”; “I get it!” she announces while Faith is talking to Buffy about the side-effects of Slaying, before quickly clarifying “Not the horny thing.  Yuck.”) despite the show also being clear that Cordelia has definitely had sex (among other things, there’s the story she tells about “a friend, not me” who had sex in her car and “kicked the gearshift”  in the health class in Bad Eggs). The general impression is, I feel, pretty striking (but, yeah, absolutely unintentional).

20 Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

In canon I really like Cordelia’s emergent friendship with Angel. No offense meant to the Cangel shippers, I just don’t really see the appeal of their relationship being romantic (and, for other reasons, I don't like the seasons where it's suggested that it might be, so it's not a take I'm normally exposed to much).  I said in a recent post that Angel doesn’t really exist in Buffy except as Buffy’s boyfriend (sometimes Cordelia or Faith might express some interest in him, but they are very clearly only doing so because he is Buffy’s boyfriend).  So it’s nice that Angel gets to be something more like a real person in his own show, and to form relationships with people that don’t have anything to do with Buffy anymore.  

(I know that many people on here like to suggest that Buffy and Cordelia would have remained friends after Cordelia left Sunnydale, but canon doesn’t really support that at all and I don’t think I see it either – I think post-high school Buffy and Cordelia would both see each other as representative of an old life they’re trying to move beyond and probably not make any effort to stay in touch -- it's noteworthty that when either of them talk about each other post-Graduation Day, which almost never happens, they do so fairly dismissively.)

Beyond canon, I think Anya and Cordelia would have gotten on well and I think it’s a shame (and slightly hard to explain in any in-universe way) that they never interact after The Wish.  Surely Cordelia is (from Anya’s perspective) the whole reason Anya is a human!  From her perspective, she’s the first person in a thousand years whose wish she was unable to grant, and trying to do so cost her her powers.  The only reason Anya can have for not being slightly obsessed about her is the fact she knows Cordelia is going to be written out of the show soon.  And equally Cordelia, post-Lovers Walk, is very clearly badly in need of a friend: that's why she starts talking to and hanging out with Anya in the first place!  And yet, after The Wish, nothing.  Feels like a wasted opportunity.

[jess-the-vampire]

I see all people talking about Belos problems only, and make no mistake I will talk about it too. There’s many things you can say about what character he is and how show plays with him. But let’s talk about other things for a moment.

Am I the only one who thinks that the whole Collectors vs Titans thing is just stupid? Okay, maybe stupid is too much, but it’s just very strange.

In WaD Collector tells us that he and his siblings were doing they cosmic stuff, then his siblings find out about Titans and that they can fight off their magic, they send Collector to little titans, he played with them, then his siblings came and took them all(despite the fact that Collector’s magic doesn’t work on Titan, which didn’t stop him from cast illusions on King somehow), Collector, for some reason didn’t follow them, and then Papa Tita Lyn came, looked around, didn’t saw his kids, saw the Collector and immediately thought that “Well there’s no one here so I guess you did something to my children, so I will put in a space dish.”. And they just left in on that. I thought “okay, it’s collector’s perspective, let’s hear what will Titan say.”, and then Titan is just “Whoops! I attacked the wrong person!”.

Excuse me, what? So he literally just attacked poor kid because there was no one else around to attack? And when exactly he realised he attacked wrong guy? They show that Titan sits in In Between Realm and in season 2 they showed us that Collector was there too. Did they like talked there and Titan was like “Oh, you DIDN’T do anything with my kids, it was your evil relatives? Well that’s pretty awkward now, that I put you in a space dish. But I’m dead now so I can’t pull you out. Sorry!”.

The most baffling thing is that expect us to just accept that he make a mistake and we must forgive him, because at least he was genuine in his desire to protect his kids. The kids that were already taken away.

ok, so i have mixed opinions on the titan and collectors storyline.

now, i do think the concept as far as worldbuilding goes, is really cool. It implies a larger world outside of the titan the show resides on and i adore the designs of both creatures within this universe. I think having this battle among gods that happened eons ago and led to the world in which the isles resides in is something that does add to some of the characters. I love the collector cult, i love that eda's owl beast was a victim of this war who carries resentment to this day about it, i don't even mind king being tied into it.

I think the show set all this up, pretty neat in s2.

But i think it fell off for me in s3.

Like you can kinda tell collector was not supposed to be in the show because really, you could of removed him and changed a few things around and the story could work just fine, king realizing he's a titan can still be used....but this battle among gods really is something that feels a lot more last minute and his relationship with collector wasn't vital to his character that it NEEDED to be there.

it's not like the wittebane story were most of the characters feel ingrained into it, with parallels, and carrying mementos that belonged to them, and living in the same towns, and most of them being distantly related to them.

And i was invested enough in the titan and collector drama, but i really don't think they stuck the landing for me.

WAD especially felt like a mess of a lot of weird inconsistencies and character actions, and it's probably why i sadly didn't automatically click with it like most of the fans seemed to. And while i've talked about belos regarding that, collector and titan dad are probably the other characters that i would say are a mess in this finale.

Now see, i can accept using magic ON titans, i think the assumption is that they only repel collector magic with magic, so if king isn't using magic he's more vulnerable. Granted, i think titan dad's existence has made titan magic more confusing and a lot more overpowered that if we DO get more toh content, we might run into more issues.

i don't wanna drag this post TOO long tho, so if you want me to list all the confusing details that aren't clear or consistent with titan magic you can ask later.

point being, i have less an issue that the collectors got them as much as that this scenario happened and that despite this, and despite knowing the cult, and also being sad about king talking about the titans being wiped out....that the show then says he doesn't understand the concept of death? Like for his arc in WAD to work, you have to believe he doesn't know how death works, but then he has moments like these were you have to ask how? If he thinks they can be saved you think he'd have a different reaction, you'd think he'd try to revive them, why would he feel guilty over them being "Wiped out" if he has no idea what that means and he knows it can be fixed in his head. His whole arc rests on this detail and a lot sorta bungles it.

Like they have this whole scene where collector is supposed to think king is out to get him (As kinda pointless as it was really), but like....if collector doesn't get death....what does he think king means by "Permanent solution" that he gets so upset about it? Cause he heard king say no imprisonment so like....?????

not to mention the chapter about genocide he scribbled out, like what does he think genocide is if he doesn't get death? why does he get so upset about it?

you can totally have this story about an immortal god who learns about death, but with all these extra details it becomes harder to understand why collector doesn't get it and it becomes a bit hard to believe. Is he meant to be in denial? it doesn't seem like that was the intent?

collector also is the point where you notice the trend for redeeming characters in this show tends to be revealing they were just manipulated the whole time, making them a lovable goofball, and them being in the gang. It was fine when it's just a couple times, but it does wear out it's welcome when you realize a lot of them don't get too really account for their actions all to much.

Collector does apologize, but really that's the extent of it outside of turning people back, he just kinda leaves everyone to deal with part of his mess. it would of been nice to have one villian who admits they are at fault without it being blamed on someone else and gets screentime to repent. (Lilith is the closest but she is mostly gone after s1)

now, in PT's case, we never see the scene itself to know how it came off, and i think the intention is for him to come off flawed so him attacking collector in rage could kinda work. But it also is contrasted by his scenes treating him as objectively right outside of this one thing, so even tho the attempt was to turn him into just a dude capable of mistakes, the show kinda still ended up leaning on him being a bit too perfect still for me.

Which doubly is weird because yeah, him being in the inbetween opens a WHOLE can of worms, like how come he doesn't use those cubes ever to talk to anyone on the show? If he has control over showing glyphs, why did ne never do it to anyone besides luz? is it just because of king because he didn't do it for eda? Also how come the other dead titans aren't there with him? Like is this an adult titan thing because some of the skulls looked like they could be from some adults?

The whole thing makes it sound like he didn't care to help until his son was involved, and even then, when he found someone he liked to ask to help.

and hey, i could be cool with the idea the titan is a bit selfish and just cares about who she cares about, and not most other citizens of the isles, but it doesn't come off like that was the intent either.

and yeah, it does raise the question why the titan never just....talked to collector in his prison? like how much power does he have in that place? am i supposed to believe she can't move from that spot? Can he not use the cubes to talk to collector? there's no clear concept of the limits in this episode so you just ask why TD doesn't do certain things the show never proves he can't do.

introducing a figure in this way recontextualizes the whole show now, so now you have to think back and wonder more things like this knowing this info.

i think had we seen titan dad do it in a flashback, and maybe it was a moment of anger and non thinking it could work actually, but we don't get that so that leaves us to think many different things and those all can give us different opinions on her character.

so i think we both have issues, but different kinds of issues.

[theotherstephencobert]

Personal Inventory - What the hell happened over the last 7 years?

I have been contemplating it ever since I first became aware it was going on, and I am going to share a few insights into what I think happened. I am not sure even now that I completely understand why it happened, but maybe my putting it down into my Tumblr blog will allow me to see it in perspective.

What I'm talking about is this: I started a health, fitness and weight loss journey back in the summer of 2013. No formal diet, just get in some good exercise and eat healthy foods, lay off the fast food and carbonated drinks, make it a lifestyle change instead of a diet or a quick fix. For four years it worked: I went from a weight of 290 (almost certainly more than that before I started weighing myself weekly) to weight in the neighborhood of 215-225 lbs. I got fit enough to take bicycle trips to small towns 20-25 miles distant. In the scheme of things I added running to my journey and completed a number of sanctioned 10K's. 2017 started out as a banner year for my continued progress. And the, midway through the year, it turned downhill. My weight went up into the 220's then the 230's and then the 240's in the space of just four months. I still rode my bike and ran regularly, but all the progress I'd made with my weight loss just kept reversing itself. I found myself giving the whine of so many people in weight loss programs, "But I'm doing the same thing I've been doing for months [in my case,years], how come all of a sudden it's not working anymore???"

I had been through so much in those four years. I was enrolled in my local YMCA in 2014, and when I reported that I'd lost 45 lbs in the course of the year they did a blurb about me for their online newsletter, "Another Y Success Story". In the summer of 2015 I rode my bike to the small town of Clearwater, KS, some 17 miles from Wichita (a feat that my granddaughter Savannah was quite proud to tell her friends about). Just before Christmas of 2015 a car ran into my left leg in the Walmart parking lot; I had to take time off to heal but then got right back into the journey. Three months later a lowlife jerk ran over my left leg while getting away after robbing me of my change purse (with all of $6 in it). Again, some time to heal and then I was back in the swing of things. I rode my bikes hard and long, and rode them until they fell apart or were trashed. My response was to go buy another bike and get right back onto the road.

So what could have happened in mid 2017 that would make me lose all that progress and then eventaully put the whole journey on hiatus?

I am pretty sure this is at least part of it.

On June 2, 2017, near the end of a bike ride, my mother called me to tell me my father had died. This was the day before I had planned to run the 10K River Run, an official part of the Wichita River Festival, and (ironically) the day before what would have been Mom and Dad's 65th wedding anniversary. Dad had been in failing health, so the fact that he would die soon should not have been a surprise, but the news was still a shock to me. I told the desk clerk on duty at the hotel I manage; she was pretty good friends with my son Travis and called to tell him, and he suggested to his son Jordon that maybe Grandpa needed someone to be with tonight. So that evening Jordon joined me at the hotel and we were together that night and in the morning.

I have detailed the 2017 River Run on this blog and also on my Facebook page, and I will come clean about something here that I did not say on either site: I was wracked with guilt over the whole thing. I wrote about how Dad was very much a family man (which he was) and how I was honoring his memory by taking part in the River Run and River Festival with my grandson. The truth was, I was trying to cover up my feelings of, "My Dad is dead and my Mom just lost her husband of 65 years and I'm galavanting through downtown Wichita with my grandson playing Soccer Ball Billiards and chowing down on overpriced pizza and lemonade." I had been a notorious no-show at family get-togethers and holidays; part of that was I was so busy at the hotel that I didn't take time off for anything, but another part was Wichita is pretty near 1000 miles away from Knoxville by the preferred roads of travel and I was too broke (or too cheap) to afford the air fare or even the bus fare.

The next weekend I went to Knoxville to join my brother David and his two adult sons to visit Mom; it was the first time any of them had seen me in person since my sister Carol's wedding in 1993, and in fact David's sons were 2 and 4 years old then. A running gag was that every hour or so my phone would ring, I would look at the caller ID and roll my eyes and everyone else would laugh. The people at the hotel were blowing up my phne because it was the first time in over a decade I wasn't there to put out the fires and answer questions: "Steve, where do we keep the light bulbs for those new lamps James bought?" "Steve, this guy has a reservation for two nights but he only wants to stay one night. What do I do?" (The laughs were a lot quieter when I got a call from an irate guest at 1:30 in the morning.)

I discussed my feelings of guilt with my sister Carol later on. She confessed that, the weekend I got together with Mom she was scheduled to take her recent high school graduate daughter Rachel to Colorado to apply at the Air Force Academy (not the sort of thing you can bail on or reschedule) and she was wracked with guilt that she didn't join us to visit Mom in her time of mourning.

Anyway… In 2006 I responded to my 27-year-old daughter's death by throwing myself into my work. I was salaried then and so I worked ridiculous long hours, at least once working over 1/2 the total hours in the two-week work cycle. I was running on fumes and fighting off exhaustion. So in 2017, in response to my father's death, I made the (I see now) stupid decision to just go on with my life like nothing had happened… "life goes on" and all that.

I made the mistake of not dealing with my father's death. The problem was, I had no idea how the hell to deal with his death. What was I to do? Sit down and talk with a friend or counselor about my feelings, maybe regularly over time? Go to a rock quarry with a sledgehammer and smash a lot of rocks? I suspect (it didin't seem this way at the time but I am very good at deceiving myself) that I self-medicated with food a lot more than I realized. Remember that "whine" I mentioned at the end of the second paragraph of this post? Truth was I was slipping back into my old habits of eating at fast food places and hydrating with fizz.

My father's death was just the start: Two years later my mother died, almost two years to the day of Dad's passing. I got the call from Carol the morning of July 1 as I was preparing to run the 2019 River Run 10K.) Of course 2020 was the year that damn COVID-19 shut down the world. Then in October of 2021 my ex-wife Teresa (with whom I'd been on good terms since our divorce) died of COVID. And then in February of 2022 my son Travis joined his sister and mother in death. I'd like to say he died of liver failure, but the plain truth is he died of too much whiskey. (As his mom's next of kin he had to tell the hospital not to resuscitate Teresa, and even though that was what his mother had told him her wishes were, he was despondent with guilt over it and medicated with alcohol.)

I was still exercising with the bicycle, but in the time after Mom's passing my weight climbed into the 250's and then into the 260's to 270's where they stayed for a couple of years. Then in mid 2022 my weight went over 280, was consistently there until the start of September when I for some reasom lost interest in recording my weight anymore.

It's been a year and a half since then. My bicycle had two flat tires and a rusted out drive train. My finances (or maybe I should say my priorities) wouldm't allow me to get another bike until just recently. My weight is now in the mid 260's… maybe I did something right between the Fall of 2022 and now.

But I still have to ask: Was the death of my father, and the deaths of other family members, the real reason my health and fitness journey was sidetracked? And if it was, have I REALLY dealt with it? Or like a chiming electric clock that no one replaces the batteries to, has the issue just grown fainter and fainter with time 'til it's at the point I just don't notice it now?

To anyone who took the time to read all of this: I welcome any insights or advice into what might really be going on here and how I might effectively deal with it.

[gildedmuse]

[And with that single line, Kuina had more characterization than every other woman in her extended family combine.]

2. Let Me Guess, It Was Very Tragic & Character Defining

(aka Every-Mom Story)

Now, I know a lot of people are going to say, "To be fair, Mina/Muse, it makes SENSE that Zoro's parents were dead! Otherwise they would have to let their son walk around challenging dojos whenever he wanted, and no sane person let a child with Zoro's sense of direction just go town to town on his own like that! Plus, if you actually think about Zoro's whole -"

First off, love the engagement Fictional Tumblr Surfer. I also adore discussing media and hearing different perspectives but before you go any further: trust me, I have thought about Zoro. I have had all the thoughts about Zoro.

Also, this idea that Zoro's parents HAD to be dead seems to be based entirely on, "or else he wouldn't be wandering the countryside looking for dojos". The problem with that line of logic is, well, it doesn't make sense. Look what Luffy was getting up to, he'd got family. Hell, Franky had both his parents and you know what they did? Tossed him into the sea. Parents being alive is not a guarantee of anything. It says she died of an illness but for all we know, she passed away when Zoro was 15. All those Kuina scenes? His mom was just kicking back at the house, doing her own thing. "Oh, yeah, no worries, go hang in out with your little sword clubs. Just remember: what's the one rule when we go out?"

*sigh* "I'm allowed to take shortcuts or whatever pass I please as long as it doesn't involve getting on a boat." *Grumble* "I'm six years old, I know my shortcut through the mountains already! Geeze mom!"

"Yeah, well you just do what your old lady says, since she does feed you and everything. Take all the mountain shortcuts you want, kiddo. No boats."

"No boats."

"See ya in a few weeks honey. REMEMBER, BEATING BAD GUYS UP FOR FOOD DOESN'T COUNT."

"I know! You always say that! I know how bounties work!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to make sure you're staying healthy, Kiddo. And if they're criminals, the Marines can't arrest you for beating them up. Call the home den den mushi if you need anything. Love you!"

"Bye!"

(I understand exactly where Oda was going with giving his mom three traits: she was raised by criminals/thieves/bad guys, married a samurai and died from illness. I see the storyline being set. But, listen, I dare anyone to step and tell me there is absolutely no part of them - not even the smallest silver - that wouldn't rejoice at seeing THIS Zoro's relationship with his still living mom, rather than the inevitable build up to Corazon/Bellamere/Sora/Otohime/Toki & Oden/Yusie Part Du....Di-Diez)

Which brings me around to my point: why kill Zoro's mom!? What is the point other than ensuring you don't have to do the work of having to come up with a whole other character? How does the story benefit from murdering everyone's parents!? Is this a theme of the work or just a personal kink!?

Sorry, let me pull that back.

The thing about Zoro's parents is: no one cares. Don't get me, fans care very much about Zoro. Their curios what was going on, but we've been with this character for years at this point, he's never once brought them up. There aren't even shades of it.

Viewed through a certain lens, the fact they're both dead is somehow WORSE. Because you realize the number of situations the Strawhats have come into where a key component is Illness Related, Evil Pirates Murdering Folks, Parents Suffering/Dying For Their Children, and People Who Lost Parents Looking For Revenge and sometimes nearly all of those things at once! And yet Zoro has never once been emotional triggered by these situations the way Nami is with children in trouble or Sanji is with mistreated women or Chopper is when he is unable to help someone....

Or Zoro is. With Tashigi.

No one dare try and tell, "Zoro isn't the kind to react to someone just because their situation reminds him of something tragic in his own past" because that is LITERALLY his entire DEAL with Tashigi. She has a shallow, surface appearance that is similar to his best friend who died and so even just seeing her brings that up despite Tashigi being entirely unrelated and also, really only Zoro's approximation of what Kuina might have looked like a decade in the future.

So the idea that Zoro lost both his parents in tragic situations which left him homeless and with no one to take him in and his sole emotional response was apparently shrugging off and going to get his walking shoes, he got some dojos to find doesn't speak particularly well for those family dynamics.

And the thing is, this doesn't inform Zoro's character, it doesn't build or explain anything, it's just what Oda appears to do when he needs characters to have a connection to or a history with something. Fine a parental figure. Have them murdered. And with Zoro he could have done something new and different, because Zoro doesn't NEED this history in order to help establish his motivations or explain his thinking, he doesn't need this to be emotionally invested, it doesn't raise any stakes or change his path. Zoro doesn't need any of that; boy figured that all out himself before he was ten, and the parts he missed, Luffy brought with him! Anything that could be added through knowing more of Zoro's history, all it does is add another layer to something he'd already gone and established himself.

With that in mind, why NOT mix it up? Since we've been watching the crew for years and he hasn't spoken a single about his family, you could as easily pull an Ace situation. This is my family, that I have never mentioned before.

I mean have fun with it. Go wild! "Where was she? Why wasn't she looking after her kid? Who would let a child just go off for weeks like that."

"To be fair, Zoro had beaten all the local kids and was really bored. And she did pack him a few lunches. Hey, he's a kid, if he wants to go running off to find another dojo, let him! He's having fun, what's the big deal?" And obviously when he told her his plan to leave the island to hunt down bounties and eventually face off against a warlord, well he was 15, he was an adult and if that's what he wanted to do.

You could have just made her Silvers Rayleigh but a mom. It would have been amazing.

But, no... No, of COURSE she was ill.

And I'll bet she was an absolutely lovely woman too, so sweet, so caring, someone who worked hard doing housework for others in order to feed her family after her husband was tragically killed fending off pirates from raiding the island. Oh, but lately work has been harder to get because her sickness leaves her just so small and frail. I'll bet she often tried to hide just how bad it was by praising little Zoro whenever he carried the groceries or brought in the water or did some physical chore. Like, "look how strong you are, carrying that bag all by yourself. Are you sure you don't want me to help? Zozozo, I think you're just using it as an excuse to train and show off how big you're growing!" Bet he feels so proud of himself, and aren't they just the cutest little household?

I feel like I know her already. I get the sense Ter would be the kind of mother who would tease that it wasn't right how HE was always protecting HER when SHE was supposed to be the one looking out for HIM. Her fearless little tiger! (I mean, sure, she's physically killing herself working keeping food on his plate and a roof over his head, but there was that on time when she was so sick during that big storm that Zoro did all the chores and she hadn't even asked! And that other night walking back from the market when a wolf had come out at woods and starting to growl at them and she'd been terrified they would have to drop the grocery and run when she'd worked so, so hard to get money to buy enough food for the next few days but Zoro wouldn't let it get their food and eventually the thing ran off like a scared little puppy. Such a brave boy!)

Which is good because he'll need, I'm 90% sure she said, while on her death bed. She'd probably surprised to a single down tear running down his little cheeks because she doesn't remember Zoro crying, not even as a baby, and she'd hate that she would be the reason that her strong boy cried for the first time, and she'd end up telling him all about how she used to cry all the time when he was baby. She was all alone and she knew she didn't have long left and he looked so helpless in arm. She couldn't stop worrying about what could happen to him when she was no longer there to feed and protect and help him.

And Zoro would be upset he has made his mom cry so much and she'd just laugh - Zozozo - it's been years since she cried like that. She doesn't have to anymore, seeing what a strong and brave person Zoro has become over the years, she no longer worries. He is so fearless and determined and she knows he will be okay, she believes in him. And with that last breath she'll make him give her his word, promise her he'd always remember how strong he was, that he would never stop getting strong. That way, no matter what, she can rest knowing he will always.

Is that the goal? A cheap emotional underpunch that probably would make cry but also... kind of undermines a lot of Zoro's character. And also raises a lot of questions about some of the stories internal paradox but also it's just so conveniently, predictably heartbreaking that probably that no one will notice.

We've been here, we've done this!

It's just such a boring answer. It's a safety answer. I can promise you, this was not part of the plan when he first tied Zoro to a pole in a marine courtyard. This is very much after the fact, and that's FINE. There are very, very, VERY few writers creating and sort of weekly/monthly/continuous series media that go in there with a full plan, entirely story laid out in detail and every single one followed through to the letter. That is actually a scientifically accurate way to diagnose someone who has signed a contract with a demon lord. The ability to continue to build your story while maintaining a mostly accurate canon while also half making it up on the fly because, oh, wow you hadn't expected that thing to go that way. Wait, what even was your original plan? I mean it's an amazing skill¹ to be able to put out serialized content keeping the story on track, the lore mostly without contradiction, and most importantly, still having a clear way forward even though it almost definitely not the path you cleared originally. It's not easy to do and I applaud and recognize when they have that skill, I have no problem with the idea that Zoro's parents had not really been solidified as characters until relatively recently.

But seeing as there has been over a decade to think on that one, it's amazing it ended up being... Exactly what you have guessed based on every other set of parents in One Piece. But again, it's a safe answer.

Look, this way no one expects to make an appearance, he doesn't have to maybe possibly change anything he'd already decided.

Ah, they never came because they're dead and we're never going to flash back to then so.... Great. Finished with that, job done. And he didn't even have to think about Zoro's backstory and risk accidentally developing.

But! If he ever needs to shove something into Zoro's backstory with absolutely no foreshadowing, he has now created emergency backups.

He could just... Pull a Vinesmoke Sanji, or close enough. He's given a Wano connection, absolutely no characterization and luckily only introduced plot points that would be incredibly useful when attempting to emotionally manipulate the audience so they fail to notice the giant new "Well, THIS is brand new!" Product, and it has to be accepted as valid because it happened in the past. That means it helped define Zoro!

[zalrb]

The tvd movie would be a romance with the twist of vampires. *a better twilight

ok the original ask:

Anonymous asked:

If tvd s1 was a movie what parts of stelenas story would you have kept for it to still feel as profound as s1.

well assuming that there are multiple movies, i would stop at 1x17 and make it a cliffhanger, where the movie ends with elena giving stefan her blood and he saves her and it's all fine and they're lovey dovey but the last shot is of him ravenously drinking from blood bags. if the movie is done right then that ending would be gut-wrenching.

to streamline everything instead of the tomb vampires kind of just being around and then kidnapping stefan to torture him etc. etc. the final act would be the tomb vampires about to devour the town, stefan/elena and friends are going to stop them, stefan gets merked in the midst of the fight and elena feeds him her blood.

i'm thinking of this as less what i would cut from stelena and more what would i cut from the other things that happen in season 1 that would reduce stelena's time and the first thing would be delena.

damon can still come back to revive katherine and the tomb vampires and kill people all over town and he and stefan can still have history over katherine but he doesn't have to be "falling" for elena. if we want to give him depth so he's not just a cardboard villain it would be through making his story with katherine stronger.

katherine and elena also don't have to look alike so we can skip the whole elena leaves/damon kidnaps her/stefan worrying georgia thing. if we want to keep that stefan had watched elena before coming to mf then i would keep it as stefan saved elena's life and bounced then he checked in to see if she was doing OK and then wanted to meet her.

elena being adopted can also go, so isobel doesn't need to be a storyline either.

there doesn't have to be elena/matt tension which is barely there anyway. in fact matt doesn't have to be there at all. neither does tyler. unless you want the sequel to include werewolves. idk.

i think it's also about streamlining things. stefan saving elena's life wouldn't be a reveal to the audience anyway, it would have to be incorporated from the very beginning where it would, like, start with elena dreaming about the car crash in quick flashes and then her just waking up in the hospital and then stefan's perspective a bit later on, maybe he's on the bridge and it's a quick flashback to the same night where he hears a car crash and vamp speeds and it can happen in bits and pieces until stefan tells elena what happened and he would tell her because damon, who would be bitter about stefan finding love while katherine is still in the tomb and bitter about what went down with katherine in 1864, would twist it to make it seem like something else and she confronts him about it as opposed to her being like why do i look like katherine etc. etc.

i would also have to streamline the breakup because it's "i can't be with you stefan" and then stefan kills vicki for elena and she's still 'i can't be with you but i can't lose how i feel about you' and then lexi shows up and lexi is like yeah you're totally into him then damon kills her then it's elena is all talk to me then stefan's like you were right to stay away from me then he saves bonnie then she's like i can be with you then he's like i can't be with you i'm leaving town then she's like i love you and that would take too much time

so i would have to combine it: stefan is like i can't do this, elena does a mini speech about how there is a part of her that wishes etc. etc. but she can't lose how she feels about him, he says no it's too dangerous.

this can go different places, this can happen at the end of the second act/beginning of the third and there's a period of separation shown through MONTAGE

tomb vampire war breaks out, elena is in trouble, stefan has to save her, gets merked, blood scene.

or it can be an attempted breakup before they have sex so they never actually have a period of separation in this movie.

i also think things like the vampirism reveal would be like elena does see things that she can't explain but she knows that he's a vampire when he saves a life in front of her so we can get to the heart of what kind of person/vampire stefan is quicker.

[olreid]

just found your blog and I LOVE finding someone who understands and enjoys discussing riverdale for what it is, and who analyses it from a similar pov as I do(rare). I found your description from a previous post fascinating “jason is not a person or even really a character; he is a myth, an amalgamation of conflicting testimonies, a memory and therefore a mirror.” I’ve always seen jason as a symbol of sorts, rvd’s inciting incident, the uncovering of its shadows. I’m curious about your take on jason as a myth, the meaning of him and his death. essentially I find your take/description a lot more thoughtful than mine, and would love you to expand on it?! (sorry if you’ve answered this before, and I would love a link to that post!).

ty! i dont think ive talked about jason much on this blog but the jason tag from my liveblog might be of interest! i can say some more about him by way of summarizing my basic thoughts, under a cut because it got long lol

re: the description of jason you quote, everything about my reading of him stems from the fact that he is dead before the story begins. the show, whether intentionally or not, supports this reading by rarely flashing back to jason. in the few short flashbacks we do get, it's always because someone else is narrating their version of events leading up to his murder. in those scenes, he rarely acts, he does not emote; he never speaks, even when people are asking him a direct question, as cheryl does at sweetwater river: "are you afraid?" (i will say in fairness that this is consistent with how riverdale tends to approach flashbacks overall; usually the people in the scene don't talk because someone else is narrating. HOWEVER imo it does really stand out in jason's portrayal in particular.) all of this makes it hard for the viewer to get any information about jason for themselves, because our usual technologies of omniscience don't seem to apply when it comes to jason; the very format of the story prevents us from being able to meaningfully access him in the time before his death.

because of this lack, all we have to go on are the words of those who knew him, which may or may not be truthful and which produce a conflicting portrait of the person he was before he died. according to polly, he was a saint; according to alice and hal, he was the devil incarnate. we're told he would never hurt polly only to be shown that he cited her as a sexual conquest; we're told he was a model of perfect behavior only to discover he dealt drugs. these reversals are reversed; the drug deal which at first is cited as evidence of his dangerous character is later framed as the last resort of a boy attempting to escape his controlling parents. ultimately everyone has something different to say about jason, such that their testimony tells us more about them than about jason himself. that's what i meant by jason as mirror; people look at him and see what they want to see. they use his story for their own ends, to push their own agendas and ideas about what kind of town riverdale is and what kinds of people live in it.

this leads us to jason as myth; jason's murder ruptures the previously dominant collective myth about riverdale, namely that it was an innocent and picturesque small town. of course there were people whose experiences proved this to be false even before jason was killed, but by and large the governing structures in riverdale managed to marginalize and suppress those perspectives in order to preserve the idea that riverdale was fundamentally and essentially a happy, good, and safe place to live. after jason's death, the town as a whole has to find a new story to tell about itself; they have to find a way to incorporate this atrocity into their collective history and also retain the ability to go on living in riverdale. in trying to fix the events of jason's death in place, in order to find or create a story about what happened that everyone can agree on, the town is scrambling to recuperate its own image, to stabilize its identity.

the story that emerges from this struggle is that jason's death corrupted riverdale. this allows the town to preserve untarnished the image of innocent, wholesome pre-s1 riverdale that it held so dearly and allows the residents to sustain the hope that there might be some way to return riverdale to that innocent state, if only they can figure out how. after all, if riverdale WAS truly innocent at one point, even if it's innocent no longer, than surely it can be so again. some residents earnestly believe this to be true; some are more jaded about riverdale's redemptive potential and simply use this narrative as a means to their own ends (see hal terrorizing betty via the ostensible project of cleansing the town of sinners & hiram and hermione consolidating power while framing it as a return to a safer riverdale).

however, whether sincere or not, none of these efforts have anything to do with jason as a person; none of it is about honoring his memory or remembering his life. for the town's purposes, he is nothing more than the crisis of collective identity and reckoning sparked by his death. as ive already said, this is repeatedly reinforced by cinematic choices made throughout the show, by the fact that we arrive after jason is gone and are never allowed to meet him or hear his account of the story. even when he furnishes the clue that solves his own murder, via a zip drive discovered in his letterman jacket, he does so through a video that proves to be a clip in which jason never speaks and is positioned so that he faced away from the camera. his only movement is the result of clifford's shot, his head falling forward onto his chest. his own accusal of his murderer is wordless, motionless, and does not give us access to any interiority; it does not help us to know him better. ultimately, we can make no judgements about his character, because there is no character to speak of. within the context of the show, he is what others say about him and do to him, and nothing more.

[sunnymusingsao3]

Hello comic fandom fanfic writers! PSA Time (SA/rape mention warning):

Stop using the "hero breaks up a shady alleyway almost-rape" trope as a device for plot or characterization, when the plot does not center around the victim, or when the character focused on is the hero, and once again not the victim.

The threat of sexual violence is not and should never be a throwaway plot device to give your hero something to do that shows off their abilities or heart.

In addition to that: it perpetuates the myth that most rapes are performed by a stranger in a shady back alley (note: the fact that it always happens in a "sketchy part of town" is classist, and the hero asking the victim why they were walking alone in that neighborhood is victim blaming, regardless of the tone of the question).

Look. I get it. Sexual violence is a real plague on our society, and it's extremely common. It makes sense that someone like Batman, for example, might come across it in his line of work. In fact, in canon, he has, though I admit I don't know exact issue numbers off the top of my head. I can also point to a more substantial instance, in that Green Arrow has most definitely encountered a survivor of CSA in his line of work, given his connection to Mia Dearden (a fantastic character, btw). We know this comes up.

I am not asking you to erase the topic altogether. In fact, I'd prefer we didn't ignore sexual violence on the whole, since it is something that needs to be given awareness, in order to create understanding and help aid in prevention.

What I am saying is that, if you decide to breach the subject in your works, do your research and address it in full. Do not use it as a throwaway plot. Do not leave it untagged. Do not give your hero angst feelings about it ("what if I hadn't been fast enough...") that overshadow the victim's feelings, and most importantly: do not leave the victim's voice out of it. In fact, the victim's voice should be the primary voice that we hear in reference to the event, to how they would like to seek justice and healing, and how the experience has made them feel. This is not to say that you can't write about it from the perspective of the hero who stopped it, but if you do that, then make sure that the hero gives up story space to the victim to listen to them speak.

Sexual assault should be discussed in stories. It is good to raise awareness and I, like many survivors, like having the option to read and write about this topic as a form of catharsis, release, or comfort. Telling these stories can be good, when done in such a way that lifts the voices of the survivors and centers them as the focal point or authority on the experiences that they faced.

When survivors are not centered in the story, we immediately face further harm and silencing. It hurts the entire community when rape, almost-rape, or any other type of sexual violence and assault, is treated like it's just a device to further someone else's narrative.

Stop discarding your almost-rape victims in the alleyway that they were attacked in.

[beanie-twink]

So since you wanted some ianthony song recs... And I am also currently working on creating a playlist for them. I figured you wouldn't mind if I ramble about some of my favourite choices so far! :D

For now the playlist is still pretty TS heavy , since I went through her albums first to look for songs. So here are some of my top choices (aside from midnight rain) for them there:

- forever winter

"he spends most of his nights wishing it was how it used to be" "all this time I didn't know you were breaking down. I'd fall to pieces on the floor, if you weren't around"

- 'tis the damn season

"if I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone I would have asked you" "so we could call it even [...] I'm staying at my parent's house and the road not taken looks real good now" "and I always leads to you, in my hometown" "so I'll go back to LA [...] And wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I'm fakin'"

- and then of course the corresponding "Dorothea"

- closure (this song hits even more since we know about the letter that Anthony wrote)

(tho I'm glad that the song doesn't actually apply to them irl anymore; it just feels like Smth for the in between phase)

- both happiness and evermore also fit pretty well for that time

Especially with "sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury. You haven't met the new me yet" "now I get fake niceties. No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him too"

And

"motion capture put me in a bad light" "writing letters addressed to the fire" "I rewind the tape but all it does is pause on the very moment all was lost"

- also "right where you left me" for Ian Vs "it's time to go" for anthony

- I almost do

Literally the whole song fits so well here idk what else to say (works from both perspectives imo)

- Breathe

"Cause none of us thought that it was gonna end this way. Ppl are ppl and sometimes we change our minds. But it's killing me to see you go after all this time" "you're the only thing I know like the back of my hand" "It's 2:00 am feeling like I just lost a friend. Hope you know it's not easy for me"

- That's when

Just really reminds me of that time when they were still apart and when asked if there are any plans of Anthony coming back one day or Smth like that and said Smth along the lines of "the door is always open"

- the story of us

Again, literally the whole song istg

But especially "now I'm standing alone in a crowded room and we're not speaking. And I'm dying to know: is it killing you like it's killing me?"

- from folkore I think both "the 1" and "exile" fit pretty well

Especially "and it took you 5 whole minutes to pack us up and leave me with it" and the whole bridge with "you didn't even here me out. You never gave a warning sign/I gave so many signs"

- also "this is me trying"

With "I didn't know if you care if I came back. I have a lot of regrets about that." "But I'm here in your doorway. I just wanted you to know, that this is me trying" (Anthony)

"and it's hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound. It's hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you. You're a flashback in a film real on the one screen in my town"

- you're loosing me (right before the Anthony left smosh)

"do I throw out everything we built or keep it?" "my face was gray but you wouldn't admit that we were sick"

- New Year's Day (hurts during the "break-up" era, but also feels very healing atm tbh)

"don't read the last page. But I stay when it's hard, or it's wrong, or we're making mistakes"

"hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you"

"Please don't ever become a stranger, whose laugh I could recognize anywhere"

Honourable mentions:

- I wish you would

- you are in love

- long live

- the very first night

- hits different

Sorry this was way longer than intended lmao.

And mostly angsty

Hope you enjoy some of them tho! :D

ANOTHER IANTHONY SWIFTIE BLESSED DAY

[brunettemermaid]

folklore tells different stories with different characters, it tells Rebekah Harkness story, Augustine story, but to me it tells mainly Betty and James’s love story.

The song Exile explains the end of their relationship. I’m not quite sure if they were actually a couple because of the lines playing hide and seek in cardigan. It feels more like they were in the beggining of something, in the pre-relationship phase. Betty and James lived in the same town, and went to the same school, therefore I assume they have known each other their whole lifes, maybe they were kind of best friends since they were little. folklore picks up their story when they are seventeen. Seven talks about two childhood friends, and one of them tells the other: your dad is always mad and what if seven is from James’s perspective. We know for a fact that Betty has a complicated relationship with his father and that James drew stars around her scars...

James watched Betty dance with another guy, maybe an ex of Betty’s, at the school’s gym, and if it is Betty’s ex I can see James thinking I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending, I’ve been left behind before and she chose him not me, maybe she doesn’t choose me now. So, James left before he got left, just like Betty said: Peter leaving Wendy. Wendy left Peter, not the other way around so that’s why he tried to change his fate. Betty saw James and she saw in his eyes that he wasn’t sure of their relationship, that he was already thinking she had gotten back with her ex if that was the case or that she just simply had found another guy. James was a deeply insecure person, he was so different from Betty who was confident about herself and about him, she knew him when he didn’t even know himself yet. He didn’t know anything, as he himself says in Betty but he knew he loved her, howewer, he didn’t believe she loved him back. That night at the dance was just as taylor said the insult to the already existing injury.

Their relationship ended because despite she gave so many signs, he didn’t see them. I think it makes more sense that they were broken up, or that they were never really together as I said before, than the whole cheating thing. Plus, Taylor never said he cheated, it’s not even official. She refers as Augustine as the girl James spent the summer with, not the girl he cheated on Betty with. Also, in cardigan Betty never said anything about cheating, she just said chase two girls, which could also mean than she and James weren’t even a real consolidated thing and they were obviously not together because they spent the summer appart. The thing is he didn’t cheat but it was still wrong. He gave up on the hard relationship, the one he had to put effort and work on, the one he truly wanted to be in though, and went to Augustine. Augustine seemed like the safe choice, the person who wasn’t gonna hurt him cause he didn’t have any real feelings for her. Let’s say she couldn’t see the smiles he was faking and his heart wasn’t breaking cause he didn’t feel anything at all (okay... enough). August was a classmate at school, maybe even Betty’s friend at school and she was very in love with James. She jumped into a relationship with him just living for the hope of it all but she knew deep in her heart, he was never her’s, he was Betty’s.  August is the third person in every love triangle, she loves him and James cares about her and he will try to lie to himself and tell himself he’s alright but he’s not, he will always love Betty. However, when summer was over and they had to face each other again, James didn’t know how to talk to Betty, after she had known thanks to Inez that he had spent the summer with some other girl, that soon, without even trying to work on them. So him, a 17 year old stupid (affectionate, but yeah he was) boy spent days fantasizing about showing up at her party and about everything going back to the way it was.

The one picks up the story years later from Betty's perspective. Betty is an adult now, she’s moved on and she’s supposedly happy with life. However, she can’t help but wonder what could her life have been if something had been different, if James would have showed up at her party just like James wanted to but he never did as we get to know in Betty.  I also belive hoax is the continuation to the one. She sings I don’t want no other shade of blue but you. She rathers holding onto the what ifs and remember him and their story than let him go forever and and get him out of her heart.

The story goes on and on in cardigan. We know that Betty KNEW he’d come back, she didn’t know when but she knew he eventually would. She knew he would come back not only to her, but to the town. In cardigan Betty talks about leaving, running and stepping on the last train, and I belive she doesn’t only talk about that cruel summer but also about him leaving for good later on. And this leads us to this is me trying, James's song. this is me trying is James’s cardigan, his 17 year old has Betty but he’s 30 something has this is me trying. James didn’t know if Betty still loved him: I didn't know if you'd care if I came back but he sure did still love her and he regrets what happened, how their relationship ended, how he left her. Because that’s what he did, he left Betty and that’s what Betty cursed for the longest time. He now says that although he doesn’t know what to say he’s there on her doorway, just like Betty knew when she was young. James is not fantazasing anymore about being there, like he did in Betty, he is now confirming he’s there indeed. To him Betty is a flashback in his town, she is his town, BETTY= TOWN. James even calls her his town in exile too: You were MY TOWN. He can’t go anywhere but there cause all he wants is her. And that links to My tears ricochet (I don’t think this song is about them but some parts fit) cause he can go anywhere he wants to just not home and as I said before Betty=town=home.

Now, the songs that puts an ending to this love story are peace (James’s pov) and invisible string (Betty’s pov) Peace takes place after James and Betty had gotten back together and it starts with our coming of age has come and gone, see they’re not teenagers anymore. James has grown and he is now a mature person, the person Betty knew he could be. He has finally learn to communicate and to be honest and open with Betty, to tell her his insecurities like you’re integrity makes me feel small. Finally, in invisible string (I know it’s about Taylor and Joe but I like this ending to their story) Betty, an overthinker and a person who believed in fate, remember I knew you’d come back to me, replays what they have gotten through in their life and how all along there was some invisible string tying them together. It is so satisfactory that they end up together in the end.

[asteria7fics]

The Brainrot ™ has become too much to bear, so I fear it’s time for Grandma Asteria to go on a rant.

Today’s topic: Songs that give ✨STYLE✨

These are from my personal collection of brainrot tracks. Maybe give ‘em a listen? Or whatevah.

#1: Navy Blue by Nightly

I can’t really explain this one, so I definitely shouldn’t be starting with it, but here we are! This song is truly pure vibes, and honestly it feels like the kind of song Stan would write when he’s mad pining but doesn’t want it to seem obvious. The irony? I hear it more from Kyle’s perspective (because duh, blue is Stan’s representative color so of course???) Idk man there’s just something about it that feels simple and sweet, but somehow a little sad, too? Yah feel me?

Yeah I can’t really justify this one with words. The girls that get it, get it.

#2: Anything For You by Ludo

Don’t talk to me about Ludo. I fucking LOVE LUDO. So slept on. This song in particular feels so Stan coded. Just listing all the things he’d do for his SBF. So fucking sweet and dorky, and feels so true to the lengths that Stan has gone to for Kyle. And the final lines of the chorus; ‘But the best story that I could tell is the one where I’m growing old with you’ UM HELLO??? SOULMATES??? UGH. Honestly the whole song is a masterpiece and deserves to be heard by more people.

#3: Bang The Doldrums by Fall Out Boy

I’d be remiss not to include FOB on this list, considering they were all I listened to while writing TSOB. This song in particular really fucks with the chorus, but y’all already knew that. I’m not the first person to associate this song with Style and I hope to God I won’t be the last. So so so good. I could literally talk for hours about how FOB just GETS IT. It is a love song, in their own way.

Seriously though guys listen to Fall Out Boy they’re really good and they aren’t just for recovering millennial emos I swear HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING-

#4: 0X1=LOVESONG (I know I love you) by TXT ft. Seori

I know, it’s Korean. I’M SORRY but Tomorrow by Together absolutely FUCKS with this one I fear. The way Taehyun hits us with his ‘I KNOW IT’S REAL I CAN FEEL IT’ sends me into the stratosphere, and though I loved this song before getting into SP/Style (it’s co-written by my favorite member of BTS so of course I love it), it really shines in the context of Style angst. The gut wrenching ‘I know I love you’???? ‘Use me like a drug’?????? TXT fucking gets it, and they deserve so much love for giving me this banger to cry to while writing some depressing ass shit.

#5: Cold Cold Man by Saint Motel

Another massively under appreciated band, Saint Motel always hits. This song? Upbeat bop. Sunshine shot directly into my veins. The chorus feels like a warm hug, and I can just see those fucking DORKS serenading one another in the kitchen with it, living their sweet domestic life and just loving each other like God intended. Maybe the most perfect love song in history, so of course I’m gonna associate it with the most perfect Super Butt Fuckers. Obsessed.

#6: Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

I cannot be the only person that knows this song is MEANT FOR THEM. The quintessential best friend song, growing up together in a small town and knowing every inch of the other’s life. Shit gets complicated as they get older, but of course they always come back together because they’re SOUL!!!!MATES!!!! ‘This could be the end of everything, so why don’t we go somewhere only we know?’ Don’t speak to me. The fact that this song is NEVER utilized for Style angst on TikTok is my Roman Empire. I need old man yaoi set to this song IMMEDIATELY. Or some real angsty apocalyptic shit. I’m actually begging you guys, seriously.

PHEW! That’s all for now. I’ve compiled these songs into a playlist that you can listen to here, but every song is individually linked, too. I’ll eventually add more songs, so suggestions are welcome!

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[0nemorestranger]

an in-depth, spoiler-free review of flight of icarus

despite eddie being written from a pre-joe quinn perspective, there was enough "accuracy" to where i could see him become the loveable goofball two years down the road. "he would never say that" moments were few and far between and i could say the same for the rest of the characters we already know too. the problem was the new guys. ronnie, paige, and al were so one-dimensional! i could tell what caitlin was trying to go for with ronnie and eddie's dynamic, and with everyone hyping it up i was ready for a good time. unfortunately it just read as a wannabe bastardized platonic stobin to me. paige, for being a love interest, had little to offer -- we aren't even told what she looks like, aside from the fact that she has freckles and a wavy bob. and then there's al. i was interested at first, but the more i saw of him the more repetitive his scenes got, to the point where i was like "okay i get it" and skimming most of the parts that he was in. you'd think that caitlin schneiderhan, being a writer for the show, would be good at creating new people out of thin air. but as far as the st novels go, these newbies were the most forgettable.

as far as genre, i wasn't expecting something akin to a cheesy 80s action movie. imo, there's a reason action movies work; trying to capture that tone on paper just feels manic and juvenile, and again, led to me skimming the parts with al in them. i'm wondering if the "bigger" tone of s4 inspired this, but honestly, what drew me to st (el notwithstanding) was the down-home nature of it. i loved the balance between average suburban kids on the cusp of coming-of-age in their mundane lives vs government experiments and abuse of power. it felt real. this just felt like die hard? more like try-hard.

i will say this was the first time i've seen an eighteen-year-old portrayed semi-accurately in a ya book. eddie had the arrogance and i-know-better attitude most boys his age have, especially most edgy boys involved in a not-society-friendly subculture. but at the same time, all he really wanted was to know his dad would stick around. it was heartbreaking. unfortunately it goes back to the repitition and surface-level approach; with trauma having been a buzzword online (where a lot of teens hang out these days) for the past few years, you'd have thought schneiderhan would've approached it with some... care? nuance? understanding? instead it just rang hollow because it was basically the same issue presented in the exact same way, over and over again.

and speaking of the same issue over and over again, can we please get rid of the "character goes through trauma after trauma only to die when things start looking up" trope? the fun of eddie being a one-season character was, yes, we could theorize and create headcanons about his backstory. like i said, i love the idea of just a regular, slice-of-life kid who feels like an outsider in his close-minded small town, but at least he has his guitar and a great relationship with his uncle and friends who love him. but no. this story kinda shit all over that, and knowing his fate made it that much tougher of a pill to swallow.

my biggest dilemma is the ending, inasmuch as it saved this whole thing from being painfully average. the author did a good job of giving us just a glimpse of who eddie would become, and honestly i cried a little bit. that said, the issue is, now i don't know if i have the heart to get rid of the book lol

[zvahl]

thoughts on rebirth?

I liked rebirth a lot! I'm sad it was discontinued:[

I feel like it's a perfect idea in concept, remaking at the very least the beginning half of the series and removing any of the earlier Let's Play/Minecraft Mechanic-y elements that were ultimately discordant with what the series became. As far as story goes, I mostly enjoyed Aphmau's whole thing: I remember the 'waking up in the forest' part was a popular headcanon back then (anyone remember that Proxy Comics animation?), so it's kinda funny to see it became Canon - i mean, it is basically what happens everytime you start a Minecraft world isn't it?

I loved the Jury set-up. I think the Jury should have gotten more time in s1 and should not have been disbanded by s2 (but thats a separate post...) But I'm so happy they got more attention, even if the series never panned out fully.

I loved that early NPCs got some more character and were fleshed out a bit. Vischer, Donna, Brendan, etc etc. but ESPECIALLY Zenix. I'm glad they gave him Mystreet Zenix's personality because OG Zenix was a little... lacking in that department. I loveeeee Rebirth Zenix (& Garroth).

As far as criticism I have two main ones I can think of rn:

1. I really, really do not like the opening scene. I feel like it trivializes two of the og series' main reveals. It all but tells you Garroths whole Thing before you've even met him, and I don't like that we actually see Vylad put down the staff. One of my favorite scenes in the OG Diaries is when Hyria is telling her story and Vylad interjects revealing He put all the events of the past two seasons in motions. I think the delivery of that scene is really, really good and *Goddamn* is it such good payoff on the mysteries surrounding both Vylad and Aphmau's characters at that point. It makes me giddy everytime I watch it. I think the opening would have been fine if we just see the staff by itself doing it's thing, or just see it from Aphmau's perspective waking up.

2. I don't really care for the fact that Aphmau has her Irene Powers right off the bat. I think it should have focused entirely on her more... 'human' contributions to the town like when she's helping Brendan, etc. I've always imagined Irene, before being reborn, put all of her power into the relic in her Dimension as basically a last resort just in case shit went sideways and her incarnation needed it, but that she was never really intending on it needing to be accessed again. It goes to her automatically solely to keep it out of Zane's hands - kind of like the legend of Chang'e, where her absorbing the relic is definitely the better option but it's still treated as a tragic and unfortunate occurrence. I always liked that s2 was building off of s1's characterization of Aph as someone who loves to help out, but through the lense of her just being some Lady who has been abruptly forced to contend with her now extremely confused identity as someone now tied to Irene (even before she knows she *is* irene). and the struggle with those new expectations she experiences both from others who witness her accidental shows of power and herself, who wants to be doing More but doesn't really enjoy this newfound ability. her non-magical work seems almost inadequate now when she can literally bring people back from the dead and banish demons that have been unstoppable for centuries.

other than that I do genuinely enjoy rebirth. it's fun. it's nostalgic. even if it never got finished I do love that MCD at least got some update since the cancelling of S3.