#their whole lives is wrong? and what comes so naturally to them is so UNNATURAL to the jedi?

[aleksanderscult]

Analyzing Aleksander's reaction to Alina's loss of her power

(I'm so sick and tired of seeing people use his "You are nothing now" words as a way to justify how he didn't love her that I decided to create a whole ass post about it.)

First of all, let's see what the powers of a Grisha mean to a Grisha, shall we?

For a Grisha her powers is the same thing as the oxygen is for all humans. The constant beat of a person's heart.

Indispensable.

And in a way it's implied that a Grisha cannot live without it. Just like birds can naturally fly, just like a fish can naturally swim. It's part of their nature, part of their body and soul.

Now let's see Aleksander's reaction to Alina's loss of her power.

The moment he saw Alina being unable to summon, he froze. At first he's in denial of what he sees.

How can a Grisha not being able to use her power? A power that is always there no matter what? A power that "feeds" them and keeps them healthy and alive.

We see Aleksander being in a state of shock as he tries to comprehend what is happening with her:

He had never seen anything like that. A Grisha losing her powers is unheard of. Impossible.

He tries again and again to summon her light and bring it to the surface. The fact that he can't feel it causes him panic and pain. In a way, he can't find her soul.

And the very fact that she also lost her collar and feter is impossible too. When a Grisha claims an amplifier, a connection is made that can't be broken.

Another fatal loss for Alina and a disastrous blow for Aleksander and his knowledge, since he knows more than anyone else how amplifiers work and how a Grisha's power work. All the hundreds of years he had spent watching and studying the ways of the Small Science and of power, have gone to waste right now as he tries to understand what is going on with the woman he loves.

His near immortality and rare powers always made him seek someone else to connect with. Someone to understand him and be on the same level as him.

People say that he never actually wanted Alina to be his equal. Well, based on his words and reaction here, I would say he wanted to.

Right now there's no pretense, no tricks or a façade. We see him "naked" and exposed showing us his terror of Alina's loss and despair for his fate. Of being alone forever.

"You were meant to be like me."

Aleksander wanted her strong and confident. Unafraid to rise above the others and to stand right beside him.

"You're nothing now."

I know it sounds cruel but it is true.

If a bird lost its ability to fly or a fish its ability to swim, would you call that normal? If a person stopped breathing or her heart stopped beating, would you call her alive and whole?

Alina lost the very essence of her being, her soul and identity. What happened to her was something completely unnatural and just wrong. Aleksander has lived for centuries and knows more about the Grisha than anyone else (except of course his mother) so he knows that what happened to her, has crippled her. She's not the Alina she was. And she's never gonna be.

It's not a statement of disgust, apathy or scorn. They're words of pain and mourning. Shock and anger.

It's a complete ruin for Alina.

A devastation and tragedy for the unfortunate Grisha that experiences it for the first time in their history. And an equal devastation and sorrow for the Grisha that watched it happen to the person he cared most about.

And it's actually funny how Aleksander seems to be the only person that was devastated for what happened to her.

Everyone else was:

"Alina lost her powers"

"Okay cool".

In a way you can say that it was proof of how he was the one that truly cared about her fate while the rest of her friends didn't seem to give two flying fucks.

The Darkling just gave up.

All he had fought for, all the patience he had mastered for years waiting for his equal to come, went to dust right in front of him.

In a way he committed suicide and just let Alina kill him.

Now if he didn't love her as some people say, why did he do these things after she lost her powers?:

1) Called her to his side and searched for her hand to hold it.

2) Smiled at her and stroked her tears.

3) Entrusted her with his last wish because he'd seen her kindness and believed in it.

4) Asked her to say his name one more time so he could hear it from her one last time. A name that he had probably never said to anyone else for centuries.

5) Begged her to not leave him alone while he died because loneliness frightened him.

I'm sorry but if I was dying, I wouldn't want anyone at my side but the people that I loved the most. And Aleksander wanted the same too.

There's no way he felt disgust or anger towards Alina even after she stabbed him. Whatever she did, he forgave. And whatever happened to her in the end didn't stop him from loving her and wanting her presence at his side until his own end.

(didn't really love her, my ass)

[bestworstcase]

oh. hm. i wonder if dark made grimm by himself because light refused to participate in creating anything destructive again after the jabberwalker—certainly it seems telling that in the myth, light creates a vast monoculture lawn and then declares that dark’s contribution of a moon and new biomes and plate tectonics is “spoiling” it; the myth flows from light’s presentation of himself to ancient humans and if he saw any value in these things he would surely have claimed them as his own—and then there’s the brother-cult framing that humans were given the capacity for evil (destruction) and good (creation) and the free will to choose which path to walk, always with the underlying premise that if humankind chooses wrong then they will “destroy themselves” (by earning annihilation at the final judgment)

this is in stark contrast to the narrative treatment of destruction as hunger and as an agent of change, and creation-without-destruction as, well, a vast monoculture lawn. sterile, stagnant, artificial, unalive.

(<- not a euphemism for “dead” and i resent that the word has those connotations now.)

to create is to destroy; paint, for example, is destroyed by the act of painting. you can’t ever use it as paint again. eating a meal is destructive—both in the sense that something living has to be killed, whether plant or animal, and in the sense that the food itself is destroyed. but this is the basis of all life. one eats to stay alive, to grow.

so in light’s view grimm are evil abominations because his brother made them to be destructive; to dark the grimm are embodiments of natural forces whose churnings keep the world forever in motion and therefore alive. jabber came out wrong—brutal, but effective, the blacksmith says—because light’s misapprehension of destruction influenced his nature. the grimm, created by dark alone, turned out right.

are they good? are they bad? they just are. the tides, the mountains, the deserts, the storms, earthquakes and volcanoes, the grimm.

meanwhile humans were given destruction by darkness and creation by light—the separation and recombination into one being was probably necessary to avoid a repeat of what happened with jabber—and then taught, by light, to understand their natures as a moral conflict and a moral challenge to rise above ‘evil’, i.e. destruction.

this is, of course, why light is so set on the necessity of permanent death: in his afterlife the dead are unaware and unalive, existing in everlasting stasis, and so nothing can ever be destroyed. darkness, who has never feared destruction, allows salem to glimpse the truth that life and death are a circle. and then he burns it all down and leaves her alive in the ashes, the wellspring of primordial destruction there for her to do with it as she will. and she does, and that is how mankind returns to life and how the faunus come to be.

which is the whole point. the grimm represent and embody pure destruction, hunger and change, which the brothers’ humans were taught to abhor as unnatural, evil abominations. salem becomes grimm and in doing so stakes humanity’s claim on destruction as darkness understood it, rejecting the false moral dichotomy light imposed on her generation. remnant is set free, and humanity rises phoenix-like from the ashes, unbound by death.

the brothers’ humans rebelled in order to claim the powers of their creators and perfect their own design. and she did.

[goldenwoods]

I don't want to beat the dead horse of 'Harry Potter's depiction of enslaved house elves is disgusting' but...I simply can't help myself. It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I made this account to rant, after all.

So, I knew that Harry Potter never solved systemic slavery, nor even condemned it as a system. Treating house elves badly was a big no, but enslaving them in general? Debatable to say the least, says the narrative. But a recent conversation with a friend made me remember some details about just how bad it was.

First of all, though the freeing of elves via socks is a repeated element, information regarding how house elves are enslaved (or indeed, how they are born) are never shown. It's some nebulous 'bound by magic' thing and George said they come with old manors (huh?). The narrative deliberately presents all of them in an already enslaved state. Enslavement is, in the Harry Potter universe, the natural state of elves while freedom on the other hand is something that requires an external 'act', something unnatural. Elves are not shown to naturally possess autonomy which is thereafter systematically deprived, rather, they are born as part of a wizard family's property. This is pretty disturbing and sets the foundation for the narrative's whole "slavery is okay because house elves like it!' thing.

The second problem is Harry Potter himself. Harry is infuriatingly passive in front of disgusting acts of slavery. And it's not because he's a shy or apathetic character. Harry will stand up for people, is quite rash about it in fact, and even at his calmest will issue an appropriately scathing remark. But when Winky, someone who's whole kind has been enslaved and abused for who knows how long, sprouts of stuff she's been conditioned to believe like 'we're not paid, and Dobby wanting to be is unbecoming', or 'we're not supposed to have fun' or 'we do what we're told', Harry doesn't tell her 'No? You are entitled to individual autonomy, enslaving you is wrong.' but he's just like 'eh.....Dobby's cool, let him live his life.' and when Hermione complained about their oppression, the book states, literally, "Harry shook his head and applied himself to his scrambled eggs." and "True, both [Harry and Ron] had paid two Sickles for a S.P.E.W. badge, but they had only done it to keep her quiet." and regarding a professor using house elves to test for poison, Harry simply thought 'welp, guess Hermione's gonna be pissed about that, better not mention it'. (???) What the hell is going on with the good guys here, Rowling? Is this the approved attitude towards slavery?

Thirdly, of course, is the whole 'house elves love being enslaved' thing. Which...silly me for thinking Rowling was trying to critique systemic oppression...and not trying to shove it under the rug after using one poor oppressed elf to characterise bad guy Lucius. I mean, Hagrid's reasoning as to why we shouldn't free elves is absurd, he explains that it's 'in their nature to look after humans, that's what they like', they'd be unhappy to have their work taken away, and they'd be insulted if they got paid. Which is, first of all, a demonstrably untrue statement, because Dobby loved being paid. ('in their nature' generalisations proven to be inaccurate? What a shock!) But even putting that aside, how does this translate to slavery? You could...I don't know, free them and let them voluntarily be cooks, cleaners, servants, whatever, instead of keeping them under a 'magical bound' that makes coerced self-harm possible. They can...take care of you and be your servants if they really want to without being your property. What the hell.

Last but not least is how the only time the narrative made Ron Weasley ('good guy' who's exasperated by Hermione's house elves movement) openly consider the well-beings of house elves is when they wanted to set up Ron and Hermione's big romantic kiss. There's something so gross about Rowling trying to finalise her haphazardly-written romance with her poorly-written slaves, a group that she had, in the last few books, already mercilessly exploited for "comedy" via Hermione's unsuccessful activism. And it's...not even that significant. Ron: 'Hey, don't you think we shouldn't trap enslaved elves in a sieged castle that's about to become a death pit?' Hermione, and the narrative by extension: 'You're amazing, Ron! For showing them basic decency!' *aggressive kissing ensues*

And then Rowling made a whole crowd of house elves (along with a bunch of other systemically oppressed races that she couldn't bother writing properly) rush into battle on Harry/Hogwarts' behalf because wow, isn't he benevolent towards the enslaved? They love him! Like...no, Rowling, you didn't earn the 'all races unite' moment, rather you screwed it over so badly that your feel-good climax presents a picture of slaves rushing to defend their masters, who, I might add, just kind of forgot about them and decided that establishing nuclear families with a bunch of kids and no evil baddie anymore means 'all is well', systemic issues be damned.

[yonemurishiroku]

Sending all my blessing and prayers to the kid who'll play nico 🙏 may he be safe from the insane fans

Tbh, for all the development the internet has been going through, it's not a well-regulated place, as a whole. So, for better or worse, there will be negative comments. Like. It's nature. A given.

Ngl at this point maybe just take him/her off the Internet until the show dies down. It'd work better than hoping for the criticism to be civil.

And there will be disappointment. I guarantee you. Out of 10 live actions I'm aware of, 11 of them are disappointing. One Piece (Netflix), Gintama, Gambling Academy are the rarest of the rare to have made it to meet the readers' expectations, afaik. And even then: two of them are Japanese with highly skilled actors/actresses, the other (OP) involves Oda Eichiro himself as a strict supervisor. I don't watch it but I think Heartstopper did a good job too?

And we're talking about Disney? I, with all due respect (which is none), do not trust Disney. I don't have a reason and I don't need one Chances are they'll try to make some changes to it and it'll all be a bloodbath again smh.

For all it's worth, I know that a part of the readers/audience will be disappointed. And rightfully so. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I'm talking about general dislike, not straight-up death threats, harassment, doxxing and all the nasties.

Nico di Angelo, whilst just a deuteragonist/ side character/ plot device (?), has a widespread effect on a minor community. Many, many have considered him some sort of emotional anchor/support (i don't have the English capacity for this lmao). As in: his existence - and along with that, a certain image of him - matters to a number of readers. And though that's not how I connect to him, I do think the number is not small.

To have an image you've been holding dear replaced by another that might or might not be totally different? - Some can accept that. Some cannot. And that's not unnatural or unethical.

I have to say, though, the kid who takes up the role isn't at fault either. I'm sure they'd try their best to bring Nico to the screen, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with wishing to bring out the best in playing your character.

But there are many factors contributing here. Do you think the kid would be free from criticism as long as they do a good job at it? I don't think so. The kid does nothing wrong, but that doesn't mean all the audience has to like him. That's not how entertainment works, no matter what Twitter tells you (hell even in life you'd have someone/thing you dislike right?).

The moment one concludes that the kid is not the Nico they want to see, they will consider leaving, and they can.

What matters here, though, is that those who turn it down don't go online spilling nasty things about the kid, and the rest don't suddenly become SJWs and go around harassing anyone not liking the in-show Nico.

Anw this is getting long. So. What I'm trying to say is that:

I don't wish for harassment of the young actor/ actress (? who knows srsly) who would play Nico, though I won't be surprised if they don't meet a few's expectations. I hope they won't be disheartened or god forbid feel/be threatened by crazy fans. I hope no one gets threatened.

Tbh if I have it my way, Nico di Angelo would never made it into real life. But that's just me gatekeeping (or hating on Disney... that depends).

Who knows anw? Maybe the Internet will learn the etiquette by the time Nico comes on stage, I'll just be deemed a pessimistic shit and we'll all be happy watching/ not watching the show. 🤷‍♀️ God bless us rlly.

[nicklloydnow]

“When I thought of Jeremy and his talk about 'higher men' I wanted to laugh out loud. The life of the spirit was all very well—and Bach and Delius and Schopenhauer had been an incomparable enrichment to the world—but it was never supposed to be kept separate from the life of the body. Music and philosophy were like wine—they were intended to enhance the pleasure of being alive, not to replace it: What surprised me most was that I had starved my humanity for as long as I could remember, feeding it on a diet of ideas and mathematics—and yet I had not starved it to death, for here it was, as healthy as ever, revelling in the thought of Patricia's damp hand. The truth suddenly seemed very simple; life was supposed to be many-sided, and the happiest human being is he who succeeds in perceiving as many sides as possible. I had spent my whole life living with an error—that life is supposed to be dominated by one truth; and it had worried me that life has an aspect of violence as well as of order and reason. But the truth is that life has hundreds of aspects, and every philosophy represents only one of them.

And it was at that moment that I had my great idea; I still believe it is the most important idea that has ever come to me. If I thought about it for the next fifty years, I should not become aware of all its implications.

It was this. We take it for granted that a man can adjust his intellectual viewpoint as easily as he can adjust the range on a telescope. One day he can agree with Schopenhauer that the world is a death-trap and that the most sensible thing would be suicide, and the next day agree with Dr Pangloss that everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. He can take any one of a thousand points of view about life, from optimism to total pessimism. He can take up a dozen books in succession, from The Fifth Form at St Dominic's to The Brothers Karamazov, and see the world through the eyes of each author. We all take these intellectual quick-change acts for granted.

Why, in that case, does man accept his emotional states as somehow unchangeable? A man gets up early in the morning in a state of nervous tension, and feels depressed at the prospect of having to live through another day. Then he goes outside; it is a spring morning and the sun comes out; immediately he feels cheerful. His emotional climate has altered in a few seconds, yet he accepts this as a kind of natural accident, like the sun coming out—something beyond his control.

Admittedly, man knows a little about altering his emotions. If he likes music, then he will play a Tchaikovsky symphony when he feels a need for romantic emotion, Chopin when he feels melancholy, Wagner when he wants heroics, and so on. But he is still submitting himself to new experiences to change his emotions; he never asks himself why he should not have as much control over his emotions as over his ideas.

When I read what I have just written, I see that I have still not conveyed my central idea. Because I am not talking about mere emotional changes—from sadness to happiness, for example. We do not spend most of our lives in states of gloom or optimism or pity or excitement; we spend them in a state of emotional constipation—feeling nothing, or very little indeed. That is why the people in our office lived in such a state of dullness. They accepted this; they waited patiently for destiny to present them with some state of happiness or excitement. It never struck them that this state of emotional constipation was thoroughly unnatural—as unnatural as physical constipation.

It seemed to me that a person should be able to wake up and say: Now, how shall I feel this morning? Shall I wear my Tchaikovsky mood? Or my Bach mood? Or perhaps my Beethoven mood?' Obviously, certain moods would be unsuitable for a morning spent adding up figures, or doing the spring cleaning, or attending a parents' meeting at the school, just as a fur coat would be the wrong garment for a summer's day. If I woke up on a cold morning and found myself wearing a swimsuit, I would not feel bound to go to work in it. And yet we feel bound to accept the mood in which we wake up in the morning—or the complete lack of mood, which is more usual.

These ideas came to me as I sat in front of the fire, reading Vinogradoff; I still have the copy of Vinogradoff with the clean pages at the end (intended for calculations) covered with my handwriting. When I had written these ideas down, I remembered that I had promised to see Gerald Sutton, so I walked over. It was a clear cold night, and I looked at the sky and thought: Man is static because he has no reason to be anything else. No one teaches him any differently. Zoologists tell us that an animal takes three times as long to learn how to behave if it has no mother. Well, man has no mother and father; he is completely alone. One god, one god-like human being, would change the course of history by showing men how to behave . . . . ” - Colin Wilson, ‘The Violent World of Hugh Greene’ (1963) [p. 133 - 135]

[orphanheirs]

I'm coming for Tristan for the Pride ask game:

3, 8, 11

And then for you!

18 and 20!

If you still have feeling in your fingers after all that typing, I'll never turn down a 21.

Omg thank you!! 🤩

3) How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

Hmm I don't have a specific Moment in mind for him to realize he was different, at least not yet; I might come up with something. But I would say he knew from a very young age. He was enamored by the fashions his mother wore; her hair, her jewelry, the perfumes wafting off of her. Before he could even read fashion periodicals he pored over the fashion plates depicting the latest modes from Paris. When he was very young and perhaps didn't fully understand that these things were forbidden to him, he tried on his sister's dresses (he has a sister who's close in age to him), but when this was discovered by adults he very quickly learned that this was not acceptable behavior. Nevertheless, the yearning to participate in this presentation never left him, although he learned to be more secretive about it. He would wait till the others were out and sneak into his sisters' rooms and try their cosmetics, attempt to dress his own hair, etc. (having observed his sisters at their toilette extensively). He developed crushes on boys quite early on, as well--family friends, schoolmates of his brothers, servants. I don't know that he recognized the crushes as such early on, but I think by the time he's 12 he's made the connection that the feelings he's having are romantic in nature.

8) Have they had struggles with their identity, be it due to internal or external reasons?

Yeah. :( I'm setting my story in a historically accurate regency/late Georgian period, so culturally there's little to no outward acceptance of queer people. Any affinity he showed towards feminine things or attraction to boys in his home life got such a swift and harsh reaction from the adults around him that he understands this quite well despite his isolation from the greater world. He may have overheard adults gossiping in hushed tones about some person or other being exposed for "unnatural" behavior. He may have heard of such persons being sent to the pillory or even hung. Because of this, he unfortunately internalized that this is something that's "wrong" with him, and part of why he's "bad".

11) Is your oc open about their identity? Are they more lowkey or more blunt about it? Why or why not?

When he lived with his family, he was necessarily more clandestine about it, although he still engaged in eccentric gender nonconforming behaviors to whatever extent he could feasibly get away with. Once he's run away from home he takes full advantage of his new freedom and soon experiments with incorporating elements of feminine dress into his outfits, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. This is mostly done in situations where he's either by himself or in the company of non-humans. Eventually he wears full dresses /complete feminine outfits as well, and sometimes does so in public, simply going about his business as a girl. I'd say Tristan is lowkey open about it lol. He doesn't necessarily talk about it or acknowledge it, he kinda just does his thing. As I mentioned above, he thinks these behaviors are part and parcel of what makes him dark and twisted and evil and all the things he thinks he is (for other reasons as well). But he also thinks this is fundamentally who he is, and, since in other realms of life he strives to be utterly himself and fly in the face of convention, this aspect of himself is included in that. He leans into his strangeness in response to the rejection and fear he dealt with growing up. If he owns it and fulfills and exceeds the expectation for him to be "scary" or "weird" then the power is in his hands. In his diary he writes "I want to be the wickedest boy in the whole world!" and what wickeder thing can a boy do than not be a boy at all?

18) Do you prefer to give your ocs specific labels, or keep it unspecified? Why? If applicable, do you change their labels depending on circumstance?

I'm likely not giving Tristan a specific label in-story due to the time period. Our modern labels didn't exist at the time (or most of them at any rate), and the very concept of a person having a sexual or gender identity didn't even fully exist yet. The word "homosexual" hadn't even been coined yet (and wouldn't for another 50+ years). I'm pretty sure the behaviors a person engaged in had more emphasis, and the idea that these behaviors reflected a certain type of person was still developing. I'm not sure what Tristan would call himself if he was a modern character--only thing I'm sure of at this time is he's not cis. I'm just calling him queer for now. I think Tristan's still figuring it out himself over the course of the story, but if pressed he might call himself something like "part-woman" (part-girl as it were..).

20) Have your ocs helped you in self-discovery? How?

Well when I originally made Tristan up when I was 14 in the year of our lord 2007 I was a queer goth girl outcast terrified of anyone finding out I was secretly dating another girl so. I think I was subconsciously working through some things. Lol. Tristan's original incarnation was also unabashedly, defiantly himself, something I probably wished I could be. We liked a lot of the same things, still do. I grew up with him rolling around in my head and I like to think we influenced each other. Thinking of him now I feel such a strong affection because I see my younger self in him. I also think we're both similar flavors of feminine-in-a-queer-way.

21) Free ramble card wee

I guess I'll make a note about pronouns here..I'm using he/him for Tristan for now, as that's how he's referred to in-story in my writing so far. That may change as I develop more. Again, idk how he'd prefer things if he had the entire framework of modern labels at his disposal. I don't think he'd have a concept of they/them. It may be that by the end of the story he switches to she/her. We'll see. But yeah, in case you were wondering why I'm calling a not-boy character he/him..

[kassadeen]

season 6b could've been objectively impactful, yet it wasn't. the core idea of this season hit on a subject that was completely new and different from the other seasons. the main villain was human ourselves instead of a newly introduced supernatural being. people of beacon hills, including monroe, were rightfully scared and angry. their lives were constantly put in danger, these supernatural dangers that they didn't understand and no one was willing to explain. they were hurt and even killed. the authorities blamed bears and wolves but deep down, they all knew something else, something unnatural, was the guilty one.

the few who figured the supernatural world out, man, they were pissed, and so they did what they thought was right: hunt down what was hunting them. now, i'm not saying the genocide (yes, genocide, they just weren't successful) was right because hell it wasn't, but they thought so, or gerard and monroe led them to think so.

i know the anukite played a great part in this but i believe the story would be more impactful without it. putting the blame on the anukite felt like excusing the so-called hunters of their problematic choices, which leads to my point: the idea was good, but the execution was truly disappointing.

jd made some bad choices like he always does. the anukite was one. i think that storyline was genuinely unnecessary. it took away a whole layer of meaning from the story. "the hunters acted like that because of the affect of the anukite" was the main excuse but there was never a need for such an excuse. genocides have happened before (sometimes also because a group of people feels intimidated by another group) and although i have no idea whether it will happen again in real life or not, this is enough evidence to say that it is well within human nature to do such vicious thing to each other. there was no need for an anukite to push people over the edge, they could do that themselves. the real monster isn't something big; it is among us, around us, inside us. focusing on this aspect would give the season a whole new layer of meaning that would honestly be impactful.

at the same time, this human villain would still be completely different from previous human villains like gerard or peter. except for the ones in authority who actually knew what they were doing, the hunters as a whole weren't self-righteous, weren't born into opposition to the supernatural world, weren't doing this for their personal benefit. what they did came from the primal need for self protection. the show would instantly gain a new depth since the villain-protagonist relationship is no longer 2D. no side is completely right or wrong. the audience would've had a chance to really think about the show and truly carve out a place for the season in their minds.

the dubious sense of morality would also be a great chance for scott's humanity to thrive since being high and mighty was pretty much his cup of tea. instead of only having the eye poking scene to prove that scott was brave and scott was smart, wouldn't putting him in a mentally devastating situation where he has to question his own morality yet could still come up with a satisfying solution be much more interesting and convincing that scott deserved the title "true alpha" he was supposed to be according to jd?

the characters' victory against the villains was so anticlimactic i was shocked to find out that was the end of a 100 episode franchise. of course, we now know there is a movie coming but at the time, the end was the end. that was it, no more adventures and fights and victories, yet that was how things all ended? they stopped an entire genocide by throwing some powder at a monster? personally, i was a bit offended by the ending. setting the fact that they won the entire war simply by defeating 1 monster aside, how the anukite was killed was just ×#&&#*@ you're telling me that the good old mountain ash swept that godforsaken creature off of the face of the earth in 1 neat try while they had to do all those crazy shits to beat the villains in previous seasons? and monroe was still alive for fuck's sake! she never died! bitch walked out of the door fully intact! rumours had it that this was to leave space for more content to come but honestly, i think it was just another one of jd's very bad choices.

the two storylines happening at the same left very little space for anything outside of the war itself. the way the deaths, relationships between characters, and character development were handled was too rushed for any feeling to settle in while the audience was watching the show. i think jd wanted to do too many things that nothing reached its full potential of development. i couldn't really feel the suspense and stress that the anukite supposedly brought, there was barely any grief for brett and lori (i know they were side characters but still), and especially, what the hell was going on between liam and theo?? the tension wth?? the hints?? the blatant queerbaiting?? theo's reappearance wasn't any good too, i might add. he was homeless, it was a really big deal, yet nothing was done about that fact. it was introduced to ignite some sense of empathy for theo then when it fulfilled its purpose, it was completely abandoned.

what about the aftermath of all this? they can't just go back to normal and pretend that the entire town tried to hunt down a group of people with a very clear intention of genocide in mind, can they?

that's it for now, might add more in future edits. love yall <3

[aita-blorbos]

aita for beating someone up?

🐺😬 so i can recognize it

ok, look. i know the title sounds bad. i know. but you’ve gotta understand: this guy (150? idfk. he was born in like the 1850s or 60s i guess. who cares. he’s like in his late teens physically. im around 50 but physically a similar age if it matters) is literally a fucking freak of nature. not even trying to be human these days. he’s basically turned into a fucking guard dog for my ex and all their other friends living in a fucking CESSPIT of unnatural, immoral depravity. and look using their powers is one thing we all do that. we all have them. but they’re not even trying to pass as human, any of them. my friend is an angel and at LEAST she has the grace to bind her wings. she at least tries. and yet they’re out there in their shitty motel every day just lounging around. it’s disgusting. not a shred of humanity left in any of them. so anyway this bitch is going to town to get groceries for their little gang or whatever (i guess he’s the most normal looking these days which honestly says a lot. like i said, at least we try to minimize the corruption of our bodies. they don’t even care they’re happy to be freaks. no wonder regular people are scared shitless of the idea of magic). and we were passing through the area and ran into him. obviously i let him know he was a fucking freak, tossed some lighthearted shit his way. called him rover or whatever. well i guess that upset him because he was doing the whole growing fangs, claws coming out, that whole shtick. i was obviously terrified - what if he attacked me?? so i hit back first before he could hit me. long story short, i thought he was dead and we left him there. good riddance. we were doing the world a favor getting rid of a monster like that anyway. but……. turns out he wasnt dead. and this bitch shows up at our door all bandaged up with that goddamn nosey holier-than-thou ass angel and some bitch who melted my friend’s gun. idk. so now we’re like on the fucking run and these freaks are all ‘we’re gonna make you pay!!’ like for what 😭 he’s apparently not even dead and like i said i was scared he’d attack me.. it was self defense. plus he’s literally a monster so???? but like i do feel kinda bad because i put my friends in danger and maybe it would’ve been better to just leave him alone, keep a low profile… like don’t get me wrong he deserved it but i did kinda fuck up all our lives so. aita?

[nobodypunk]

Avatar Way of Water Jumbled Thoughts SPOILERS AHEAD

So initially, it was very pretty. Visually stunning. We all know that.

I was so happy to see Jake and Neytiri again, I was pumped to just to be on Pandora again. I’ve split up my opinions in sections:

This Family is a Fortress:

I loved seeing Jake and Neytiri’s family. I loved the song bead opening and the ending, that was a very nice round way to tell the story. The kids all had their own distinct personalities and stories to tell which I feel can be hard to portray in sequel films especially with more than one kid. I loved Jake’s balancing act of being a father, I love that Neytiri didn’t lose any of her grit while being a mother. I will say I felt it was very strange for them to leave the Ometikaya. The planet is under threat again, I know it’s personal, but I felt like them leaving the people we spent an entire film with to fend for themselves was unnatural. I would have been down for a whole clan relocation, but whatever. I do think their refugee angle was compelling and it offered that “whole new world” angle to it. Neteyam and L’oak’s relationship was very nice, very much early Prince of Egypt vibes, I could sense as we got closer to the end of the film that Neteyam was for sure going to die. But again it was very round and it was pretty well done. Kiri, my little nature girl, I love. I loved her vibes, I live for Sigourney, but I’ll get back to her later. Tuk was precious baby, in too many dangerous situations but I guess I’m not mad if it gave her more screen time. Aaaand Spider, I liked having a child raised by scientists involved with the tribal lifestyle of his peers. I wish that they had utilized that more. I’ll also get back to him.

The Colonel Debacle: Attack of the Clones:

Quaritch…. I am so mad about everything to do with his return and the “sky people” narrative in this film. First of all, in the first film they express that making an Avatar body is extremely expensive and a huge undertaking. They invited Jake in the first place because his DNA was compatible with his dead twin’s Avatar, so they wouldn’t just be pouring their money down the drain. And again, this was a mining endeavor, it wasn’t military. All the “military” we see are mercenaries. So why would a mining company put replicating their expendable mercenaries high on their spending list? They wouldn’t. Just like we saw, the new colonization attempt just brought in more military force, so why bring back a team of 9(?)mercenaries that died into specific Avatar bodies?(Also felt like there were a lot killed, but too many of them by the end of the film?) The plot tries to explain it away “to be bigger, stronger, to blend in with the natives” not once did they blend in though (THEY WERE BAREFOOT IN CAMO???), not once did being Avatars actually bring them the upperhand. AND just plugging in memories to the body, why didn't they do that with Grace? Or Jake’s twin for that matter? I also feel like Quaritch would be SO against cloning in general! “It’s not the real me” blah blah blah Let alone in an Avatar body! Also BALD SUNGLASSES GUY??? REALLY??? Sorry, I’ll die on this hill. What made Quaritch a good villain is that he was a weapon of mass destruction, evil and toxic masculine to the core and he just kept coming. His death was so satisfying in the first movie because of it. It feels like such a cop out to bring him back, all satisfaction lost and it really just looks like little Jamie C couldn’t write any other villain and that’s lazy.

Okay so they’re clones and they’re there. Now you have identity conflict, I feel like if they were going this route, have the clones have a moral and identity crisis to the CORE I would have loved that narrative of realizing that their original selves were wrong. But Quaritch, while we did see some struggle in identity, decided to have a vendetta against Jake Sully! It was interesting to see his interactions with Spider, still feel like OG Quaritch wouldn’t give two shits to learn the language (he didn’t in the first place) or about “becoming Navi”. And I’ll talk about some of my issues with Spider as well here. I felt like he needed to show more motivation about showing them to be Navi to grow their sympathy, but it felt like show and tell. I also felt like he should be more reactive and more upset at everything they were doing, it felt like he was just watching and strangely apathetic most of the time. Quaritch burning that village to the ground and deciding to go after the Tulkun instead of just murdering everyone felt out of character, but that can all be traced back to— this is a clone. Quaritch was a genocidal maniac and I expect him to just be exactly that. I don’t exactly want to go on a sympathetic redeem the villain story with him (even if his clone “didn’t do that”). I don’t hold it against Spider for saving the clone in the end but I am mad at Jamie C for keeping him around. I am so done with Quaritch’s story. I was more than done in the first movie, let alone this one.

SKY PEOPLE. So I felt that the threat of the sky people was FAR GREATER in this movie than the last because instead of just “we want the rocks you're sitting on” it’s just straight up old fashioned colonization!! They are coming for the planet!! I don’t understand why this film wasn’t about nipping THAT in the bud, you didn’t need Quaritch, that would have been compelling enough. The way they landed, cLEARING the forest with fire NEAR the Ometikaya homeland was HORRIFIC, but the plot treats it like whatever. Though it makes a little sense (ahem MARS) for Humans to want to settle here, I still think it doesn’t make sense? The air is toxic, the wildlife is huge and dangerous, I just don’t think Pandora is “the promised land” GO SETTLE ON TITAN OR SOMETHING. I can make room in my brain for a mining mission, but full colonization? No thanks. General Lady had smaller exoskeleton armor because Lady, was so fun and she was just there to explain stuff. I was expecting there to be some differences in the suits and technology too, given the time skip. Jamie C was like I LOVE SPIDERS AND 3D PRINTERS. And I still don’t understand the Avatar Marine’s mission. It just felt like a personal murder party??? Like no real orders???? I’m just generally mad about all of these decisions. They felt lazy and under-baked. I WAITED 12 YEARS FOR THIS?!?

Kiri is Avatar Jesus:

Kiri, Kiri, Kiri… While I love her… I have some issues with how she came about and her role. Kiri has come from an intubated version of Grace…. (though I do not remember Grace’s Avatar body dying. I can see if they put her in stasis but it seemed as though this was a clone) Clone gets pregnant…. So (iF this is Grace’s original Avatar) either Avatar Norm and Avatar Grace were messing around for science or Eywa was like guess what I’m not bringing you back to life but I’ll make your Avatar preggers with my spiritual baby ALA Bible style. OR if this is a clone, somebody was just messing around in the lab. Either way science immaculate conception needs to stop please. I would have almost preferred it if Grace meant so much to Jake and Neytiri that they implanted one of Grace’s eggs in Neytiri. (which is still weird but not as weird as space jesus ANAKIN ALREADY TOOK THAT SPOT) 

And Kiri’s Eywa powers. It’s really screaming white savior yet again. Kiri is born of an Avatar, not native and yet again Eywa has chosen an alien to be her chosen one. It’s just bad. It isn’t right. 

I also thought her Epilepsy was going to play a bigger role in the rest of the movie but it was just a plot device for Quaritch to find them?

The Metkayina:

THEY ARE SO COOL I’M ALL ABOUT THE EVOLUTIONARY CHANGES TO THEIR BODIES, I LOVE THEIR ARM FINS, TAILS, AND LARGE RIBS FOR BREATHING. On a sciency note, I found it interesting that they chose to make their tails swim left to right like a fish instead of up and down like an aquatic mammal. I loved the ocean, I loved the quiet moments we just got to explore and soak in the surroundings, I loved the sign language and the breathing. I was all about it. FREE WILLY SIGN ME UP, I WANNA TALK TO WHALES. The Tulkun were so charming and I loved them. THERE’S ALWAYS A BIGGER FISH. But yeah, big big fan. I wish that we got to see some female friendships? Jamie C is big sexist. Neytiri disappeared for much of this part. I wanted to see Kiri and Tsireya vibing, and Ronai and Neytiri finding common ground as Matriarchs. 

Ferngully 2: Whale Hunting Palooza Electric Boogaloo Payakan’s Revenge:

So the new colonizers are here for unobtanium 2.0 (even though they sound like they’ve been here for a while, even though the sky people were driven out???) We went for the forest in the last movie, now it’s time to go after the animals! We have the hunter that is here to be way too excited about poaching, and the scientist that has been a part of this the whole time but is Jamie C’s favorite trope of “sympathetic moral high ground scientist who has no accountability whatsoever because the big mean corporation is paying him to do it”. It’s just so tired. I hated unobtanium 2.0, magic gland fluid that stops human aging????? Like come on, I could get down for a stupid rock with a stupid name, but really????????  Payakan’s revenge was satisfying. I felt like the Metkayina disappeared randomly after that.. And with Quaritch going after the Tulkun, and ultimately attacking the sea people, it was still kinda Jake’s fault for endangering them. I feel like if they just lived on an island close but separate from the people, it would have worked out better??? Idk

James Cameron and casting problems:

Jamie C didn’t fix any of his writing issues with indigenous people. It was still white savior, take advantage of indigenous narratives, and sexualized native women. And at the end he was like “I directed Titanic, remember????” Man with everything he put Neytiri through I was surprised she didn’t turn to Jake and go “I want a divorce”. 

I also have major issues with the casting. I was fully expecting at least mixed boys playing Neteyam and L’oak but they were WHITE! And Kate Winslet is wonderful but she was playing an indigenous islander woman??? I just think it was a big mistake and honestly it kept taking me out of the movie. 

His action sequences are great but the plot was very convoluted and he definitely needs a wake up call to fix his narrative, work with native people, and cast people of color. Zoe’s back hurts from carrying both of these movies.

[bananahoard]

Whats Baalmon like in your fic? You said hes Neos partner?

Short answer: He's Bad.

Also. Eeegh, I mean. I mainly use the term "partner" loosly. Yes, they technically live together, & yes they may sometimes very casually fuck, but I am unsure to even call them anything else since their relationship is toxic to the core.

Long answer: Generally, there's not anyone around him that really knows what the fuck is going on in his head, & it didn't used to be this way. I note that early on that his partner (in crime) Skullsatamon has noted a concerning change in him, both in how he acts & something deeper in his code that wasn't there years ago, noted as a metaphorical sickness in him now. He swings back & fourth between what appears to be a calm, well-adjusted, highly intelligent & respected Digimon to those not in-the-know… to then swinging heedlessly of harming both himself & others, the likes that would make even Neodevimon flinch later. He has issues with self-medicating & paranoia, & strongly contrasts with Skullsatamon, who also lives with him & still stays with him due to his growing concern over him. I'll note that it's seen as highly, highly unusual that a Skullsatamon would live like this with others that are not his 'own kind', & it seems he owes him some sort of obligation. Additionally, Baalmon was the type who was initially suicidal due events (inability to get back home) & this eventually lead to self-destructive tendencies, to violence after frustration, & then basically viewing everything as a nail at the worst. Skullsatamon helped with SOME of it when they met, but… years eat away things.

As to why Baalmon GOT this way. He isn't from this world in my writing, & is basically stranded in this world similar to the deeper lore with Wizardmon in canon being from Witchelny. Curiously, Baalmon in canon lore has no direct ties to Witchelney besides possibly evolving from Wizardmon, somehow. Anyway. Problem is, he's seen too much of the "other side" so to speak, with the digital network & human's influence on the early Digital World in this setting (we're talking like, EARLY early, the first folder networks, Docks & old lore that never made it into the anime, here). I'll note that in this, he is seen as Very Old & has unnaturally prolonged his lifespan even past the likes of an undead like Skullsatamon. His lust for the Truth & more data is what forced his evolution into this being of violence & obsession to begin with. He believes humans to be the divine, & later gets a personal vendetta against this perceived divine which he believes has hurt him directly. In general, he wants OUT after years of that suffering in the trash whalefall that is his new home network, & later where Neodevimon ends up. Due to a misunderstanding of information that he cannot fully analyze, Baalmon wants out of this place with with his memories intact, which is something he normally can't achieve if he were to die & be reborn naturally. It's implied that there is something wrong with the server they are stuck on, given it seems to be at the bottom of what appears to be a funnel in the network as a whole, & may be affecting Digitama. Where Devimon comes into this, is that, for an undisclosed LONG time, Baalmon has been tampering with his own memory data & has been searching for proof of the 'divine' from Digimon who may have a shred of that in their code from their births on other servers/folders, prior to them ending up in the whalefall. As to why he wants this, I won't explain further as of now. I'll just say "attack & dethrone (what he believes to be) god." It eventually ends with him sacrificing all of the data he's amassed over the years in order to destroy something…

As Neodevimon's 'partner', well, they somehow work well together, but it's because they both bring out the absolute worst in each other. There's later a sort of mutual respect that both can tear each other's throats out (Baalmon having shaped him into his attack dog by that point, after all), as nothing at that point had rivaled Baalmon's abilities in his respective territory where they live, & Baalmon is later 'into' the Barely Under His Control energy that Neodevimon later brings to his murder polycule. As to why Neodevimon is Like That, it's due to something later being returned to him that has been tarnished by Baalmon in a way. And it's not by any coincidence that Neodevimon is a species said to be controlled by something else in lore. Not to mention a square peg later being shoved back into a round hole very much has left him a bit unstable (his memory core being tampered with by Baalmon earlier on).

[silvermoon-scrolls]

New Year’s Resolutions

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys/Xena: Warrior Princess

Wordcount: 1000 Rating: G, silly Warning: None, except that it's written in a very 90's fanfic kind of way

Timeline: Takes place shortly after the Christmas specials, A Star To Guide Them in H:TLJ and A Solstice Carol in X:WP, though that's not particularly important. Also on AO3

~

It was the night of New Year's Eve, and the light of the full moon fell upon a hill where four friends had gathered. Gabrielle took her eyes from the stars she'd been watching and turned to face the two men. "So, what have you guys been up to this past year?"

Iolaus shrugged. "You know, the usual."

"Like what?"

Hercules exchanged a knowing smile with his friend and decided to go first. "Well, I got to be a spirit for a day."

"And I got to be purple," the lighter man put in.

"I played a prince."

"And I a king."

"I almost got killed as I was swallowed by a sea-serpent, for the second time."

"And I did get killed, for the third time."

The younger woman exchanged a look with Xena. "A-ha, that 'usual'."

"How 'bout you, what have you been up to?" Iolaus asked, eyes dancing with mirth.

"Well, I don't wanna brag," the dark warrior said with a smug smile, "but we died, too."

"Really?! Your first?" Iolaus' voice revealed his somewhat unnatural excitement for the topic.

"Yeah. Hey, did you also feel that, hm..." the bard stopped to search for the right word, "-tingle? You know, just before that, uhm, ‘whooshing’ sensation?"

"Yes! I know exactly what you mean! I've been wondering-”

"A-hum, excuse me." Hercules tried to get the attention of the two enraptured blondes. "Can't we find a more pleasant subject to talk about?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Ha, you're just jealous 'cause you never died," Iolaus informed him with a wink.

Hercules rolled his eyes and ignored his friend. "Did you perhaps do anything else? Besides dying?"

Gabrielle tapped a finger against her lip. "We did became bacchaes for a while," she said after some thinking.

"And I'm only just recovered from a body-exchange with Callisto," Xena offered.

"Sounds like you've been kind of busy, you too," Iolaus stated with a grin.

There was a short silence while the foursome in good humor contemplated the nature of their unusual lives.

"Do you think it's a new year yet?" the bard asked after a while.

Iolaus looked up at the moon. "Hard to tell, but I guess now's as good a time as any."

They all exchanged warm smiles and in unison wished each other a happy new year.

"So, any New Year's resolutions?" Gabrielle wanted to know.

"Well, Herc and I decided to make up each other’s resolutions this year." Iolaus turned to his friend, beaming with excitement. "So, what do I got?"

Hercules smiled before answering. "To stay out of trouble."

"And you expect me to keep that?" The hunter sounded beyond doubtful.

"For a whole year? Of course not. But I was hoping for maybe a week or two."

"I'll do my best,” Iolaus snorted. Then his eyes lit up and he broke out into a broad grin. “And as for your resolution, you should flirt more." He winked at his friend. “No strings attached, just harmless flirting.” Putting his hand against his chest he added sagely, “It’s good for the soul you know.”

The demigod sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I can't believe I didn't see that one coming.”

“Oh c’mon, Hercules.” Gabrielle tried elbowing the demigod lightly in the ribs, which had about the same outcome as if she’d elbowed a stone wall. “It’s fun.” As if to demonstrate she did an exaggerated wink at Iolaus who grinned and waggled his eyebrows in return.

Ignoring the two blondes who seemed to have launched into a pantomime involving increasingly ridiculous and flirtatious behavior, Hercules turned to his more mature companion. “Xena, how 'bout you? Have you got any New Year's resolution?"

"No," she stated firmly, not taking her scowling eyes off the laughing blondes.

"I could be wrong, but I’m guessing Gabrielle's the one doing most of the household work, isn't she? Maybe you could promise to, I don't know, cook twice a week? Something like that," Hercules suggested, ever on the quest for a more fair and equal world.

The tall woman opened her mouth to reply, but her friend was faster. "I thought a New Year's resolution was supposed to do good, not food poison you."

Xena chose to ignore the younger woman. "I could promise to do the laundry more often, that's as far as I'll go."

"Actually, washing our clothes is the one thing you do help with, and you're not very good at it. I don't understand how you manage to shrink my top every single time."

"It's not that hard."

"What?"

"I said, neither do I."

Gabrielle looked suspiciously at the warrior princess, but the tall woman acted as if she didn't notice. "So, what's your resolution then?" she asked sweetly.

"I haven't been able to come up with anything good," the bard answered regrettably.

"You know, if you travel with Xena, you ought to learn how to defend yourself." Iolaus didn't see the two women exchange a private smile. "If you want to, I can teach you how to use that stick for more than walking," he offered.

"Thank you, I would love that,” Gabrielle answered somewhat exaggeratedly. “Hey, why don't we have our first lesson right now?"

"Sure, why not?" the blond man said with an oblivious smile as he followed the bard a few paces away from Xena and Hercules.

"I had this 'stick'," Gabrielle smiled at the word, "for some time now, and I already picked up a few things. Mind if I show you before we start?"

"Of course not. Go ahead."

The young woman started twirling the staff elegantly through the air around her. Iolaus just stared in shocked surprise. "You know, I think there's something I forgot to mention earlier when we discussed the previous year," she said with a soft voice.

"U-huh." Iolaus still couldn't believe his eyes. Suddenly he felt his feet being swept off the ground, and he landed on this back with a thud.

Gabrielle held her staff against the surprised man's throat. "I'm an amazon princess now."

The hunter called out to his friend, but his eyes never left the staff. "Herc, I think I just broke my New Year's resolution."

~The End

January 2002

[riddles-n-games]

The Art of War-V1

    I opened the text and the picture attached, and all of the blood drained from my face. In this photo, Emily Laughlin wasn’t laughing. She was smiling at the camera—a wicked little smile, like she was on the verge of a wink. Her makeup was natural, but her eyes looked unnaturally large, and her hair…

    Was exactly like mine.

    “What did you do?” I asked Thea again, more accusation this time than question. She’d invited herself along on my shopping trip. She was the one who’d suggested I wear green—just like Emily wore in this photo.

    Even my necklace was eerily like hers.

    I’d assumed, when the stylist had asked if I wanted to look like the picture, that Alisa was the one who’d supplied it. I’d assumed it was a photo of a model. Not a dead girl.

    “Why would you do this?” I asked Thea, amending my question.

    “It’s what Emily would have wanted.” Thea pulled a tube of lipstick out of her purse. “If it’s any consolation,” she said, once she was finished turning her lips a sparkling ruby red, “I didn’t do this to you.”

    She’d done it to them.

    “The Hawthornes didn’t kill Emily,” I spat. “Rebecca said that it was her heart.”

    Technically, she’d said that Grayson had said it was her heart.

    “How sure are you that the Hawthorne family isn’t trying to kill you?” Thea smiled. She had been there this morning. She’d been shaken. And now she was acting like this was all a joke. That seemed to be common with the Hawthornes and those involved with them, among other things. It was either avoidance and letting it build up inside till it transformed to anger, constantly keeping quiet about it, being tricky, sarcastic, and ironic with a taste for vengeance, or twisting words and turning everything into a game. I was seeing the pattern but frankly, I’d seen plenty and I had enough of it, too. My own mother had died and I mourned, grieved, went through the whole five stages of depression but even I didn’t pull shit like this. Even if I had been living as a rich kid at the time, I feel like even then, I wouldn’t act that way, that I would be more pulled together and have my behavior intact. 

    “Emily, it’s always Emily with you idiots. What is actually wrong with you? Why do you feel the need to do what Emily would have wanted, huh?” I asked mockingly. I started to move toward her, leaning forward as I forced her back and boy, was it satisfying to see the look of shock on her face. “Are you possessed by her, you want me to get you an exorcist? Because I’ll gladly do so and have them awaiting you in your room the moment that you come back from the gala. I’ll make sure they stay with you until her spirit is exorcized out of you, no matter how long that ritual is, be that an hour, a day, or a whole damn year. Even multiple rituals if needed so that you can finally get your flipping life together and get your shit straight.” I paused for a moment but stalked after her as she moved back to the wall, one sharp click of the heels after another. Her lipstick dropped onto the counter and rolled onto the floor but I didn’t avoid the open tube, instead I walked right over it, mushing it under the ball of my foot. I didn’t care in that moment that it would stain the bottom of my shoe or leave a smear on the marble squares, that was a problem for later. Right then, I was trying to prove a point. My eyes were narrowed and each word that came out of my mouth felt like it was dripping with spite. “Or I can completely kick you out of the house, get a restraining order against you, and call security on you if I ever get news that you’re trespassing on the property.”

  She actually trembled and her pupils were blown wide but I wasn’t going to let her breathe, to catch a single breath. That devious, I-won-this-match, Cheshire cat smile from before was nowhere to be seen; it was long gone. It was a sight to behold, Thea Calligaris looking, even for a second, anything close to resembling defeat. I stopped short of her and exhaled long, feeling like I had just fumed smoke into the air from my ears. Then, recomposing myself, I gave her a fake smile, making it as menacing as possible as my hands clasped together. “So, what’s it going to be, Thea?” My voice dropped low, trying to sound deadly and going in for the kill but I made sure to finish off in an overly sweet tone. This time, I knew I had her; there wasn’t going to be any more crossing me, at least for the rest of the night. I was tired of being used and messed with. Maybe Alisa wanted me to be seen by the media and the rest of the world over as a sweet, vulnerable, ordinary girl but no one said that when the cameras weren’t rolling and there was no audience, that I couldn’t show my claws and draw blood of my own. And that time was now.

    Thea lifted her chin, still clearly trying to stay defiant as if being anything else would be below her standard. “You haven’t answered me yet. So…What’s. It. Gonna. Be?” I repeated. “I don’t care that people are gonna be looking for us soon, I can wait here all night. I’m not sure if anyone’s told you yet but if you continue this, people will end up looking back, remembering you as just the girl who peaked in high school with a streak for revenge with the schizophrenic voices in her head. I’ve played the game of cat and mouse before and won. You seem to have never experienced what it’s like to lose so I’m courteously teaching you that lesson now. Take it down a notch and we’re cool, otherwise, beat it. I’m not your cat toy, you twisted psychopath. And leave the boys alone, too. They’ve done nothing to you and most definitely not to Emily. It’s quite plainly put, pathetic what you’re doing. Are you five because if not, as I’m sure you aren’t, have much better things to do like growing a pair. Get over yourself.”

    The din of silence was heavy in the bathroom and the only thing I could hear was the sound of my heavy breathing slowing down. I waited a minute and when I realized that I wasn’t going to get an answer, I decided to turn back to the mirror. My fingers tucked loose wisps behind my ear and I straightened my dress before walking to the door. Just as I was about to reach for the handle, I heard her murmur something but couldn’t quite make out what. 

    I only turned my head slightly in her direction. “What was that?”

    “They’ll ruin you,” she rasped. Her voice sounded dry and stuck somewhere deep in her throat. 

    “I’ll be the judge of that.”

    “You’ll end up just like her. They will break you, too, like everything else they touch; they always do. You won’t last the whole year there.”

    “We’ll see about that, Thea, we’ll see. I’ll bet you my entire inheritance on it.” As my hand grasped the handle, I let myself look at her one final time in her broken state, leaning against the wall, words on the tip of my tongue but decided against it. My mouth shut and I faced the door again, twisting the knob and pushing it open. I had a gala to attend. Tonight was my night, after all. But one thought lingered that made me smile in satisfaction. Who was the broken one now?

[scorbleeo]

TV Show Review: XO, Kitty

Source: Google Images

A new love story unfolds when teen matchmaker Kitty reunites with her long-distance boyfriend at the same boarding school attended by her late mother.

Source: Netflix (2023)

First We Had Emily in Paris, Now We Have Kitty in Seoul

If you are no stranger to the TV Show Emily in Paris, then you are going to find XO, Kitty very similar in terms of the colour palette, the way everything plays out and the incessant amount of drama in a simple 10-episode TV show.

Although that may have sounded like a complain, I did enjoy watching XO, Kitty. As someone who is bilingual, I liked the way this show incorporated both the English and Korean languages almost equally. This is how it should be, cast people who actually fluently speak the language(s) the characters were created to speak. Seriously, some shows make it seem like it's so hard to cast the right people...

Moving on, I loved that despite the fact that KISS is a private school, the writers did not do the cop out move of having just a handful of Asian students when KISS is a Korean school first and foremost. I think now it's safe to say that casting for XO, Kitty was marvellously done.

The writing on the other hand...extremely mediocre. Script was nothing fancy. And if you watch Korean dramas, especially heavy on the romance genre, you would more or less know slow-motion is the center of Korean dramas jokes. XO, Kitty is no stranger to that but goodness gracious, I was cringing more than I thought I would when they tried to do typical romantic Korean drama cues.

There were just too much unnecessary drama. First of all, we really did not need such a complicated love triangle/square/hexagon. I am all for Kitty having her gay awakening moment but the direct and indirect romance surrounding Kitty was redundant. That plotline of Florian and the finals were also...like what was the reason for introducing that obstacle? And then Kitty's final scene with Dae, I hope someone remind the writer(s) this is 2023, we live in the technology age, if there's a phone call from a contact we saved in our phones, we will more or less pick up the call. There's no need to do that whole run in the airport scene, especially since Dae was going to catch Kitty just before she goes in anyway. Last but not least, the final scene. Do I need to repeat myself again? We have enough drama already. Don't get me wrong, I'm for that direction but unfortunately, that last scene will bring forward friendship drama that I am against. All these unnecessary drama felt like it was written for/in the early 2000s, an amateur's job which should not have been because they are not amateurs.

Yes, the writing was atrocious. At least the acting kind of saved the show, the acting and the casting. Personally, I think Anna Cathcart needs to do better. Kitty is known for her sunny personality and sometimes it felt like Cathcart was coming off slightly over-the-top and unnatural. Our other four main leads though, so good. I want to specifically highlight the siblings' acting. Yuri and Minho are not hard to portray but considering this was the actors' first(?) big project, they practically aced it. If I never checked on Lee Sang Heon's filmography, I would not have known XO, Kitty was his first drama. I am not saying their acting was perfection, I'm just saying I get an awkward vibe very easily from actors when they do shows like XO, Kitty with characters like that, but they felt natural 90% of the show so that's a win for me.

Honestly speaking, who else was hoping for a LJ, Peter or even a Margot cameo? Even if it was just a video call, it would have been better than just Kitty mentioning them...

Yeah, sure I had a ton of complains but at the end of the day, I did enjoy XO, Kitty and am hoping for a season 2 with better writing, please.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

[malicemuffin]

I had chapters 1-10 all planned out, but now I'm looking at it again and everything needs to change.

I think I'll talk about my problems out loud on here, even if they are spoilers. Maybe it'll help me push into where I need to go?

This is going to go all over the place, it's mostly for me to think out loud and not for people to actually read lmao.

So I want the first 10 or so chapters to have only Nicoe and Remi in them-- Kaja (the third protag) doesn't show up until chapter 11ish and she is going to change their dynamic majorly. The number of chapters isn't set, it can change if needed.

I'm hoping that the first ten chapters will introduce the readers to the world and also to who Nicoe/Remi are as people.

For the world, I want to introduce:

The idea of the moon cult and how they work. Moon Cult is basically the enemy of arcs 1 and 2, so I'd like them to be introduced early on but not so introduced that they aren't still a mystery. I also want to make it clear by the end of the first encounter with them that the problem isn't the protag being too weak to fight them-- the problem is that the leader is abusing her own people and her people think that this leader is saving them. You can't solve that with fists.

I want to introduce the brewings of the celestial civil war. Orion (and maybe two other constellations) want to either take control or split with the celestial organization as a whole. I don't want to introduce everything going on and why they want to split just yet, but I do want the reader to know this is something happening in the background.

There should be mention of the wider issue with the Planets. It's Celestials versus Planets and the Planets have been winning for most of earth's history and we currently live in a very narrow range of time where it's celestials who finally have the upper hand. However, the Celestials are struggling and buckling over this, and the wars with the planets have also lead to a lot of mass death.

Other stuff:

I'd like the reader to see how Nicoe's powers work and their strengths and limitations.

The reader to see how other Celestials work and just how strong they are.

I don't think I need to introduce my mythology on how the sun, earth, and moon work? But I do want readers to know that the monsters/demons/shards are fragments of a dead moon god (with it sounding natural).

Introduce how infections and lunatics work.

what happens when a celestial's stargem/soulstone/whatever breaks.

I want it to be hinted at that Nicoe isn't a "normal" celestial and that something is clearly wrong with her. For example, it might be introduced at some point that celestials tend to awaken between ages 11-17, but if you do the math you'd realize that Nicoe awoke at the age of 23. Or every other celestial retains their unnatural eye coloring even when out of transformation, but Nicoe's go back to brown. Things that don't pop out but start to add up.

I want the reader to see that Nicoe hides her emotions beneath a veil of professionalism, and also that she has some suicidal tendencies that she masks as heroism. Her desire to be a perfect Celestial often leads her to overextending her limits, getting herself (and the people she wants to protect) into trouble. Her strongest aspect is her compassion and that compassion is often what wins people over.

Remi might seem like a good girlfriend at first but it starts to become clear that she also has like, passive suicidal tendencies, but unlike Nicoe she doesn't actually want to die, she just. Doesn't care about her life all that much. The way she sacrifices herself for Nicoe should come across as unnerving. It should be clear that she's hiding something big too.

--

Okay so like... Originally, this is how it was going to go: First chapter we meet Nicoe who defeats a monster and saves some idiot hikers who got cornered by the thing. Nicoe goes home and gets a letter that Remi and the reader don't get to read most of-- her demeaner will subtly change from excited to very very reserved. Last page will be a small snippet of the letter where we get the hook (?) that she's basically on Disciplinary Probation and if she doesn't clean her act up, she'll be put "back into the cycle". The reader might not know what exactly that means, but judging by Nicoe's reaction it's not good (It's a way of saying "die so that your next reincarnation isn't so terrible") (this sounds pretty harsh but death doesn't mean much to celestials when they just reincarnate all the time anyways).

I think? This is a good setup? The fact that she's hiding this information from her girlfriend, friends, and colleagues should help show her pessimistic attitude (Nicoe doesn't think it's worth trying to work past this because she assumes she's going to fail anyways). Kaja is the one to assess Nicoe later, so it helps to introduce why Kaja comes into play at all. I think also it gives a good mystery-- Nicoe has a month to get the things she wants to get done accomplished until this specific date and time, and hopefully the reader will want to see how she accomplishes everything beforehand.

My problem is that there are a couple of things that I want to do that don't really feel like they take advantage of the setup, but I want to accomplish them before Kaja comes into the picture.

For example-- the moon cult. Remi can't be in the same place as the moon cult for spoiler reasons, so if Nicoe interacts with them, she'll need to do it on her own. I have a storyline that would cover two chapters... But is this really a smart idea to do in the begining where this is like our only chance to see Nicoe and Remi be alone? Shouldn't I be taking advantage of having this dynamic as much as I can?

But I don't feel like I can do these two chapters anywhere else-- Kaja can't be involved, and I want the moon cult to be introduced early on before Kaja comes into play.

There's also the missing girl storyline (for Pandora) that I want to setup, but should Nicoe really be taking time out of her schedule to look at someone right now when she's so close to (what she thinks is) the end...?

...I think I might be able to solve that by making it personal to Nicoe. Pandora has two younger siblings who miss her, and Nicoe can relate to that as someone who watched her youngest sister die to cancer. I think actually it might be a good way to help hint some of that information in early without outright saying anything...

But yeah, basically I want to make sure I'm actually using my time wisely and I dunno if I am OTL

[gayhenrycreel]

a lot of horror writers are actually kinda shit at body horror. as the last post i reblogged said, something is not inherently scary if its got "too many eyes" or "too many legs", because not everyone has a natural fear reaction to spiders and millpedes. its better to emphasise the reaction your character has.

(spoilers for the southern reach trilogy)

take the Southern Reach trilogy for example. the moaning creature in the swamp is... well i suppose it could be described as a human that has had its form twisted into the shape of a crocodilian. The Biologist thinks the ecosystem of area x is beautiful. but then she sees the moaning creature, just as it begins to die. her view of it is influenced by her view of the rest of area xs lifeforms. of course this creature relies on uncanny valley for its full effect, but we experience it through The Biologist. she feels sorry for it. its a being that never should have been created. its body looks painful, even if it was previously in perfect health.

it wouldn't work as well if the Biologists reaction wasn't central to how the audience experiences the moaning creature. it makes me wonder; was the noises it made a trap, or were they screams of pain? was it aware that it was once human? screams of physical pain or screams of sorrow? the horror becomes less about this thing looking unnatural, and more about the situation its in.

another approach to body horror is The Deer Episode of Adventure Time. i cant remember the title but if you search "deer episode adventure time" you will find it. this whole episode is psychological horror with a body horror twist.

a deer runs wild throughout the candy kingdom. in the commotion, Finn and Jake get knocked out. Finn wakes up in a candy kingdom hospital. his legs are in casts. no one is around. no princess. no candy citizens. he finds a wheelchair and looks for the missing people. eventually he finds Jake, who has a bandage around his head and says its his birthday and he knows that the reason no ones around is because they are planning a surprise party. he says he and Finn have to pretend everything is normal or the surprise wont happen. he wont let Finn near a tunnel entrance.

Finn decides to investigate the tunnel. Jake wont let him go near it and gets very upset about it. Finn asks Jake how long hes been waiting.

6 months.

hes been waiting 6 months for a surprise party. Finn knows that something is definitely wrong. he breaks out of his casts and runs towards the hatch. he climbs down.....and the entire population of the candy kingdom is stuck to the walls, slowly liquifying. surely the only reason this was allowed to air is because theyre made of candy.

the deer appears out of an offshoot of the tunnel, and removes its front hooves, revealing humanlike hands. it picks up a candy citizen (peppermint butler if i recall correctly), and licks the dissolving sugar. Finn defeats the deer and frees the candy people, and a knock to the head makes Jake come to his senses.

this whole episode raises questions, some of which have terrifying implications; did Jake know about this? is that why he wouldn't let Finn near the tunnel? is there more than one deer? is this just a threat these people live with? why didn't they have proper defences? why does it have human hands? the fact that it had fake hooves to hide them implies that it planned the attack. the deer is smart. is Jake really that easy to manipulate?

the deer is a one-off character, and was so well done that i remember this episode vividly, all these years later. its rare for a one-off character to stick with me so clearly they did something right here. the deer looks just like any other deer, until it reveals its hands and stands on its back legs. even though its a cartoon, its really uncanny.

its a cool piece of world building too. perhaps Ooo has legends about this creature? princess Bubblegum seemed to have an idea of what it was, maybe this was not the first attack? (she suggested it was harvesting sugar). the deer could be a cryptid of sorts. it seems rare enough that most people wouldn't believe its real.

adventure time does the occasional horror episode, and does a really good job of it.

the best thing about the deer is, that it makes you think, its just an animal until its human in the wrong ways, and poses a real danger.

my favourite kind of horror is that which focuses on the characters reaction to the horrors (which adventure time also does), and horror where the Scary Thing could easily be mistaken for something innocent.

[welcome-to-the-nunyverse]

Symphonies & Stories on Saturdays!

Where I take songs I heavily relate to GAC and discuss it.

This week’s song: Machine Learning by J. Maya!

A song about feeling programmed wrong, somehow. Growing up not particularly fitting in. And, as a result, having to try really hard to actually conform to what people around you want.

And this relates a lot to the backstory of Charlotte Clarke.

[ID Start

Image 1: Cropped digital drawing of my character, Charlotte - a 13-year-old with black skin, brown eyes, brown curly hair braided into cornrows leading up to puffs with different colored ends (red tips on viewer's left and blue tips on viewer's right), and thin body. she wears a magenta hoodie with a white outline of a butterfly. She grins and talks to someone off-screen.

Image 2: Digital drawing. In the forefront, Charlotte rests on a tree, back turned to the audience. She wears a light green sweater with light jeans & light green boots. She stares off at a school campus past a green field. In dark yellow lettering is the words "Maybe I'm just not friend material..."

ID End]

Like the Espositos, Charlotte has a gift and a curse. Unlike the Espositos, Charlotte actually interacted with society growing up. She mingled with normal people, and she did not fit in with them. From her curse to her unnaturally colored ends to her own personality quirks—she was an outcast. And she does not know how to “fix” herself to fit in better.

She grew up bullied and ostracized because of it, a social pariah.

And this relates a lot to this song! With lyrics such as the intro:

Don’t stare at them for too long

Laugh some, but not too much

And sing the words to that song

But only the chorus

If someone says they want you

Don't flinch, just let them touch

It doesn't really matter what you want

And bridges such as:

Make social calculations

Know when you're supposed to cry

Fake real communication

Rehearse your scripted lines

Is living a performance?

Depends how it's defined

Forget that all your friends don't have to try

And:

Be just what they expected

Don't come as a surprise

They might take you for granted

That's just a part of life

If you stick with the program

Maybe one day you'll be

More than a machine learning how to please

They’re lyrics that showcase programming to adhere to what people want, to fit in with the majority. Charlotte, her whole life, tries to adhere to the norm around her, because she hates this bubble of loneliness she has around herself. The problem is, however, that all these rules are hard for her. It’s less like she’s actually interacting with the world, but following a script in a play that everyone else seems to already know the lines for, while she just got them.

And then there’s the general chorus:

I know you wanna be yourself

Like everyone else

But you've always needed help

Memorize the manual

You're hopeless on your own

If you make it look natural

Then nobody will know

The story of the robot

Who knows they'll never be

More than a machine learning how to please

This just reiterates the point of her attempting to fit in. Throughout her elementary and middle school career, she has been inflicted with harsh treatment by her peers and teachers. She’s always punished by teachers for things outside of her control, bullied by her peers for those same things, and finally in 7th grade absolutely humiliated for it.

She tries so hard to prove her humanity to people that already put a label on her of what she is. She wants so badly to have a human connection with someone.

And that’s when the closing for the song comes in, where it’s a softer & slightly different version of the chorus beforehand:

Just memorize the manual

You're hopeless on your own

If you make it look natural

Then nobody will know

The story of the robot

Who had a secret dream

To be more than a machine, more than a machine

To this, I imagine it’s that beginning part of book 1 of Gifted and Cursed, the meeting scene of Wolfgang and Charlotte from Charlotte’s POV. Where she sees a chance of human connection with the new boy at school, someone who has no pre-existing opinion of her. It’s a new opportunity of what she’s always wanted: where she can prove her humanity to at least one person.

And that’s it for this analysis! See ya next Saturday :3