#they aren't exactly doing great with their female characters

[voidartisan]

you know what screw it i'm gonna say it:

every time i come across a post claiming that andor is the only good live action star wars content we've gotten since 2005 it makes me want to fight someone. i'm ready to start throwing box sets of the hobbit lotr and the silm at people. i am going to Scream

[tavina-writes]

is it possible for a woman to inherit a sect or only sons?

Hi nonny!

I wrote about this a bit here, but traditionally to like, the wuxia genre: 1) this was (depending on the sect in question of course) mostly a meritocracy, so it's not strictly true that the daughters or sons of the former sect leader is inheriting the sect but also 2) the gender for many sects is entirely irrelevant, many prominent jianghu families in many many wuxia books aren't exactly like, desperate for sons even if they have (1) child and that child is a girl, like what will girl do? girl will learn martial arts. like it's hard?

In fact in classical wuxia it's actually quite...common to have female sect leaders (either of entirely female sects or of mixed gender sects) because sects are kind of, things you join rather than things you're born to and you inherit them because shifu said so, not due to biology.

For example, Huang Rong in Legend of the Condor Heroes and Return of the Condor Heroes, is the sect leader for the Beggar Clan, which is the largest and most powerful sect in the wulin instead of her husband Guo Jing, who was also a disciple of the previous sect leader.

Xiao Longnv from Return of the Condor Heroes comes from the Ancient Tomb Sect which, only accepts women btw, so all of their sect leaders have been women.

Yuan Ziyi's shifu, Baixiao Shenni, from Young Flying Fox was the sect leader of the Tianshan sect and a Buddhist Nun.

Dingxian from Xiao Ao Jiang Hu and her sisters, Dingjing and Dingyi, form a group called the "Three Elder Nuns" who are the leaders of the Northern Hengshan Sword Sect. Also from XAJH, Lan Fenghuang is the leader of the Five Immortal's Cult.

I'm not going to keep going down the list of like, female sect leaders in the traditional sense of the jianghu (for the record, all of the above books were written and published in the 1950s-1970s so it's not a recent phenomenon at all), but like, wuxia as a genre has in general, been surprisingly egalitarian on matters of gender. The fact of the matter is, this was the genre that first told me, at 7 or 8 years old that like, women can be powerful and intelligent and unhinged, whether they're villains or heroes or anywhere in between.

So uh, I think the reason you might not be aware of this Nonny (which is not a strike against you in any way!) is because danmei is primarily what's popular right now and danmei as a genre from what I've seen does not have uh, a great track record of bountiful female characters who are well rounded and extant or in positions of power.

[btsmosphere]

Supercharged | JJK

Chapter 4: We Aren't Heroes, Honey

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🗲summary: It starts with a blow to the chest that changes your life. When your city’s most celebrated hero pays a visit, it turns out the noble Bolt has no trouble tossing lives aside. Lives that won't be missed. Lives like yours. Seven mysterious and powerful men give you another chance – one that starts to feel more like a curse the moment you meet golden boy Jungkook. The boy who wants you as far from his brothers as he can get you. Is it you he hates, or the blue lightning that now runs through your veins? And could it be his golden light that illuminates your heart when darkness threatens?~ 🗲this chapter: A chaotic arrival turns everything on its head, and the boys are ready to let you in on their real game.

🗲pairing: jungkook x female reader, side established vmin 🗲word count: 5.9k 🗲genre: angst, action, eventual fluff, enemies to lovers, slow burn, superheroes/villains au, found family 🗲rating: pg15 🗲warnings: violence with superpowers, injury, blood, weapons

a/n: if you hadn't already noticed, vmin is a side pairing in this fic! I probably won't add that in every chapter description tho, since they don't really have a plot revolving around them, but they are together as side characters because I love them mwahahaha🤩while we will learn more about them, they have an entire backstory, one of the many things I know about this universe that never made it "on screen"👀 I also just want to say how thrilled I am that people are enjoying this fic! To those of you who have left me comments, reblogged with sweet and supportive tags or sent in asks, it means the absolute world and I love you all💜💜

(previously)

“I did exactly what I’m training to do.”

“Like scare him half to death?”

Dropping your head, you gazed at your hands, wishing anew that you didn’t have this complicated curse that drove people away. That made you into a danger.

But you didn’t have the words or the will to explain this to the obstinate Jungkook.

“See you at training,” you spoke flatly, and stepped away.

See him at training you did. Not that he was any more helpful than normal.

As always, you gritted your teeth and tried to run through the same actions, still getting used to them. Over the course of the next few sessions, you certainly noticed an improvement, your powers coming more and more naturally to you than you had thought possible at first.

Still, Jungkook clearly disagreed.

You stood in the centre of the training space, arm raised. Just as you had been doing for the past half hour, you shot a bolt, expecting to hear the rattle of the target when you met it. And beyond that, the same heavy silence that always filled your practises.

Instead, your training ‘partner’ stepped nonchalantly in front of the shot.

Eyes widening, you closed your fist, shutting off the flow of power as fast as possible. But as you gawped in outrage, Jungkook raised a hand, easily deflecting the jet of blue electricity that had escaped with a quick burst of his own gold lightning.

Lowering his hand as if he hadn’t just placed himself in front of something deadly, he stuffed it into his pocket and smirked.

“What are you-” you spluttered, “you- you should be careful!”

“If I’m really expected to babysit you, I would hope to see more improvement than that,” he replied easily, “I mean, great, you can shoot, but attacking isn’t what this is all about.”

You raised an eyebrow, watching as he slowly walked towards you.

“Imagine I was someone else,” he continued.

“I wish,” you muttered, adding in an exaggerated eye roll. Jungkook didn’t comment on that, but you saw his gaze harden.

“Someone without my powers,” he drawled, “I would be dead.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to walk across while I was training!”

“You’re not supposed to expect it,” he shot back.

“And when exactly do you forsee me shooting lightning bolts out in public?”

At last, he seemed surprised by your response. Really, he thought you were raring to go out and terrorise the streets? You scoffed, ready to return to your usual mutual silence, but he recovered himself.

“You should control them in here as well,” he spoke, though there was less malice behind it this time. “You’ve already scared V shitless once.”

Arms folded, he turned his back on you, abandoning the conversation.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” you muttered, not really caring whether he decided to pay attention or not, “I’m trying.”

But if his step faltered a little, you didn’t notice. He kept his back to you and walked away.

You had been doing a steady amount of work each day with your powers. It didn’t take long for the others to be proven right as you noticed it got easier both in and out of the training rooms as time stretched on. With your powers in use so frequently, they didn’t often try to break out when you least expected it anymore.

And though it hadn’t been long, you were getting a sense of the motions of this unconventional household.

On your way to training, you would pass the others at work, with or without their powers. It made sense that superheroes (it felt strange thinking of them as superheroes, but you supposed that was what you all were, in a way) needed to work out physically as well, to give them the upper hand in any fights.

Not that you could imagine them fighting... Most of the time. Sometimes you would see the power inherent in Jimin’s stance when he threw weights heavier than you could lift across the room with a flick of a finger. Or the deadly speed and precision as Hoseok darted around impossible obstacles.

But then they would huddle around the tv with you in the evening, cradling steaming bowls of food prepared by Jin or Yoongi, usually. The sight of V bundled in a fluffy blanket, laughing at Jimin more than the film, made it hard to believe he was some supernatural force of nature.

Namjoon, though. That, you could believe. He was the rarest sight in the house, even above the enigmatically quiet V.

However, if he caught you and Jungkook on your way out of practise, he would always beam like you were his children, ignoring the scowls that no doubt adorned your faces. Jin did the same, always clapping Jungkook on the shoulder in praise.

If only the others knew how Jungkook neglected the job they believed he was doing.

But as much as you wondered how different it would be if Namjoon had continued teaching you, you understood it couldn’t be that way. Not when he was constantly holed up in his office, or staring at a tablet and tugging his hands through his hair. His job seemed to be important, always moving with hurried purpose.

So then, with all the people and noise you were surrounded by now, it was a shock when things turned quiet.

Before this, you had lived on your own. Woken up each day just to head to work, Kuyang and the lab workers the only faces you saw before returning back to empty space.

So why was it this hard to get used to again?

Sometimes, the house emptied. Not totally, but since it was usually Jungkook that remained with you, it may as well have been. Each time you came from practice to find the house deserted, a scowl would etch itself into his face and he would retreat back to the gym, or somewhere. You never bothered to follow him.

When this happened, you kept your eyes on the news. If they were superheroes – which they must be, what other job could a bunch of powered people have? – then surely they would show up?

But without fail, the news stayed quiet. Either that, or heroes like Bolt or Monsoon (another worshipped figure in your city) instead had stamped out some threat and were being celebrated as always.

You weren’t sure what it was, but something made you shut off the tv when the rest returned, not wanting them to see what you had been looking for.

Generally, though, they didn’t leave you alone for too long, which was nice. You were nearly always in the communal spaces, since you had nothing to do in your room, bare as it was.

So it was when you heard hissed voices that you realised maybe you should let them have more time without you.

“She’s not more important! I don’t get why I have to, of all of us-“

Still hidden in the corridor, you froze when you heard Jungkook’s hushed voice in the living room.

“We’re fine to be down one, it’s not particularly risky,” someone replied.

“Please, can’t one of you stay for once? I already have to spend half my time with her!”

Gulping, you retreated the way you had come. You shouldn’t be hearing this, you knew that. Above all, you couldn’t stand the flicker of hurt that bled through you at the venomous words, though you ought to be used to them by now.

Sitting in your room, you idly played around, forming a ball of blue static that hovered above your palm. You sighed as you tossed it from hand to hand. This should be impressive, but you knew you were still incredibly clumsy with your powers compared to the others: Jungkook made sure you knew it.

But you stayed there, enjoying being able to use your powers without purpose or judgment.

After a while, a tap on your door heralded Yoongi calling you for dinner. Any tension you had sensed earlier when they didn’t know you were listening had dissipated.

Of course, Jungkook was ignoring you, but it was better that way. He was battling Hobi with chopsticks instead, trying to score a piece of meat from his plate as his opponent shrieked in protest. Jimin was falling onto the table with laughter, Yoongi groaning as he took a seat and slid a bowl to you.

Quietly thanking him, you began to eat without trying to muscle into the conversation. It was clear how comfortable these boys were together, having been arguing not long before and now joking around with the air free of bad feelings.

Even though you had never predicted your life going in this direction, you found yourself grateful. Despite the obvious Jungkook issue, having these vibrant people around you was such a stark contrast to your lonely state before Bolt had tried to kill you.

You were only reminded of the frosty conversation you had accidentally eavesdropped when, a few days later, you got the afternoon free of Jungkook.

As usual, that morning the two of you occupied the same room, training by yourselves. Today, Jungkook never offered so much as a word, and almost sprinted away after the hour was up. You couldn’t bring yourself to complain, instead taking the time to rest and return lazily upstairs at your own pace.

When you arrived, the unfortunately familiar sight of an empty apartment waited for you.

Funny, though. You hadn’t seen Jungkook come back downstairs as he normally did when the others went out.

Shrugging it off, you headed for the shower. It had almost slipped your mind by the time you emerged, but confusion instantly resurfaced when you were faced with the back of Jin’s head.

Stepping around the sofa and into the main space, you caught his attention.

“Ah, Y/N,” he greeted, turning away from the tv show he had quietly in the background.

“Jin,” you smiled, “where’s Jungkook?”

A smirk bloomed on his face before you had the chance to realise how that might have sounded.

“I didn’t realise you would miss him,” he teased.

Rolling your eyes, you sunk onto the other sofa.

“I’m not sorry to see him gone,” you quickly backpedalled, “but I just… thought you had all gone out again.”

“Well, Kook was feeling left out,” Jin explained, “I know you two aren’t exactly the best of friends but he’s still been helping you out, so we thought it was fair he doesn’t have to do that all the time and miss out on our… stuff.”

You nodded along as you understood the situation. As if to distract from his strangely vague ending statement, Jin jumped straight in again with a chipper voice.

“But I heard you’re getting much better! Jungkook says he can trust you to work independently, so maybe you won’t have to endure each other’s company as much!”

Now that made you laugh. Loudly. Jungkook had better trust you to work independently – he forced you to do it half the time anyway with his reluctance to teach you.

Jin seemed pleased with your reaction, and you two carried on chatting. It took you a while to even notice his quick glances at the door, the slight jittering leg, the distracted way he watched the show with glazed eyes, not fully taking it in.

When he suggested dinner, he all but sprang from the sofa. With a light frown, you followed him. What was giving him so much nervous energy?

Outside was dark by now, but that didn’t stop Jin’s eyes straying to the black sky visible through the window.

For once, you actually acquiesced to him rejecting your offer to help in the kitchen. He seemed pleased to have his hands busy, even if his knife occasionally clattered too loudly on the counter or oil splatted out of the slightly too-hot pan.

But all that was forgotten when a commotion suddenly shocked the air. The main door must be fully soundproof: that was the only explanation for the way it was silent one second, and the next raised voices were almost at the top of the stairs.

Whipping around to face the sudden interruption, Jin brandished his spatula in panic for a moment. You jumped from your seat.

Then Namjoon swept into the room, long coat swishing as he marched across the room, face set. Looking first at him in panic, your eyes returned to the others following him in and your jaw dropped.

Between Jimin and Jungkook, they were supporting V, whose head drooped alarmingly, legs barely making purchase on the floor. You were frozen on the spot as they hauled him past you. You hadn’t even noticed Yoongi come in until items were being shoved roughly from the counter to the floor to make space to lay V down there.

Swallowing, you staggered back a step, watching with wide eyes at his collapsed form. Sweat beaded on his furrowed brow, feverish spasms weakly shaking his body.

“What happened?” Jin exclaimed, panic shaking his voice.

A storminess brewed in Namjoon’s eyes, which glowed a little red though you weren’t sure if he noticed he was doing that. Turning to Jin with a serious expression, all he said was:

“Our suspicions were true.”

His words meant nothing to you, but the way Jin’s face paled struck fear through you.

Closest to the table, Jimin’s eyes glistened with tears as he clutched V’s hand, murmuring to him. You couldn’t hear him, but you had the feeling it wasn’t for you to hear and turned your eyes away.

Not a moment later, a harsh shove had you stumbling to the side, Jungkook barging past. You couldn’t even spite him for it. The panic spiralling through you at the state of your friend was painful enough, but these boys were his family. You couldn’t imagine the depth of their worry right now.

“What do we do?” Jungkook demanded, stopping in front of Namjoon and Jin. His frame was taught, nearly shaking as he looked to his hyungs for answers.

They always seemed to know what to do, but the uncertainty on Jin’s face as he stepped closer to the unconscious V was concerning.

“W-what happened?” he asked.

Hope was wringing his hands beside him, but spoke up.

“It was like we thought, when we showed up. We knew we had to get out, but B- he caught us, right at the end. We were just going, but V freaked, and-and then he- then- I don’t know what it was hyung, but he shot something…”

Hobi’s voice was bordering on hysterical, and as he trailed away, he leant forwards to pull V’s jacket aside. Jimin whimpered, turning his face away to bury it further against V’s arm.

There, on V’s torso, a section of his shirt was mangled, a bloodied shape seemingly etched into his side. Though the bloodstained shirt made it difficult to see, you couldn’t mistake that. It was no gunshot wound – you had seen something like this before.

The injury was fairly large, shaped something like a star. A familiar shape instantly sprung into your imagination, metal that spit sparks as it flew across the room, latching onto the wall at the other end.

Except, this time it had certainly not been used in lab conditions.

“I- I don’t know,” Jin was stuttering, “I’ve never seen something like this before…”

The silence was totally stifling, Jin’s admission met with disbelief. Namjoon ran hands roughly through his hair, biting at his cheek.

“We have to DO SOMETHING!”

Jungkook’s yell made you flinch a little. He moved forcefully, returning to the table with a handful of tea towels and thrusting one at Hope.

“Let’s just- stop the bleeding, at least-”

“He has powers, the bleeding isn’t the issue, Jungkook-”

“Do you have any better ideas?!”

His eyes flickered a blazing gold as he spun to yell at Jin, something he would never normally do. But right now, that was the least of his worries. He trembled from head to toe with tension, and you could see the shine of tears he was unable to will away from his eyes.

“Right, yes,” Jin swallowed, taking the towel and pressing it to the wound, as Hobi was already doing.

At the no doubt painful contact, though, V jerked a little, purple flame shooting from his hands. It was brief, but you all jumped back from the sudden heat.

“Why’s he doing that?” Jimin’s voice thrummed with underlying fear, “he hasn’t had an outburst in…”

The others only looked between themselves, equally lost.

After a moment, V hadn’t moved again, and Jimin was the first to gravitate back to his side.

Frowning at the ground, you willed your memory to work faster. Jimin’s heartbreaking calls for V, hand pressed desperately to his cheek though he was met with no response, had you racing through your memories.

Kuyang had had you in charge of all his safety files back at the lab, but right now you didn’t have access to the computer with them all stored on. It was at the tip of your tongue, just out of reach. You frantically grasped for any hint of memory about this particular weapon.

“Iodine,” you muttered. Your eyes widened as it dawned on you.

No one heard.

“Iodine,” you repeated, louder this time, “do you have iodine?”

Heads turned towards you, as if they had forgotten you were there at all. Jimin’s tearful face emerged, tentatively hopeful as you spoke.

“That wound is radioactive, it’s what’s messing with his powers. We need to give him some before it gets too far into his bloodstream.”

You spoke with a calm urgency, grateful you could keep your voice from wavering. Trusting your firm tone, Jin hurriedly nodded, darting away down the corridor without a look back.

As you watched him go, you caught Namjoon’s gaze. You stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do with yourself, and his piercing stare startled you. A frown tightened his features and you had the odd sensation that he was calculating you.

Still, he said nothing. But it seemed someone else was less afraid to breach the silence.

“Who put you in charge?”

Only Jungkook had the sense to question you, glaring from where he had taken over pressing on V’s wound.

“This weapon, it uses radiation-“ you began.

“How do you know?” He cut you off. “Isn’t iodine toxic? You’re trying to kill him-”

“It’s the only way-”

“I won’t let you touch him!”

Tentatively stepping forward, you fixed Jungkook with a level gaze. His eyes narrowed, distrustful.

“It’s only toxic if we give too much,” you explained, forcing your voice to stay calm, “he has powers, he should be able to take it. Like Jin said, with powers, you can withstand more bleeding than others. It’s the radiation poisoning that’s hurting him, not the wound.”

Though his teeth were gritted and his glare lost none of its ferocity, he kept quiet.

“We need to stop it,” you spoke with finality.

Just then, Jin dashed back into the room, bottles and packets nearly spilling from his arms before he deposited them on the counter. Rushing forwards to meet him, you spotted some other bottles too.

“Pentetic acid? Where did you get-“

“It helps, doesn’t it?” Jin supplied, and you left it at that. It was another agent Kuyang had had on the safety files as a radiation blocker, but you had never expected to see it outside a lab.

You didn’t complain, though. V needed all the help he could get.

Jin’s fingers fumbled with a small needle as he pulled it out and filled it, looking to you for confirmation.

Nodding, you hastily stepped out of his way, planting yourself beside Jungkook. He watched warily, though you were sure it helped that it was Jin applying the remedy and not you.

A stony silence fell once Jin pulled away. Of course, it wouldn’t work instantly, but you hoped with all your might that some change would be visible. These chemicals were dangerous, the cure to this weapon difficult to apply for good reason. It was a weapon after all.

The bin opened and closed, the room so quiet you could hear the used needle falling inside it.

Hope sunk weakly into a chair, eyes still fixed on his injured brother. Jimin remained close to V, gripping his hand despite the threat of the fire that could burst from them at any moment.

Your eyes slid to Jungkook at your side. Of course he didn’t look away from V.

It felt as if your heart was squeezing its way up your throat, the longer V remained motionless. He had been seriously hurt, and though you were confident in your cure, having learned it from the weapon’s creator, the nagging worry that you might have made it worse refused to go away.

V could be hurt. He could – you didn’t even dare to think it.

The others would never forgive you. Jungkook would never forgive you. You would never be able to forgive yourself if you caused something like this.

And beyond all that, your mind was running frantic laps trying to figure out how Kuyang’s prototypes had ended up being fired at your new friends. Kuyang may have been unhinged, and more than a little shady, but to commit such violence?

But there must have been a reason for him making the things he did in that lab…

The memory of his face the last time you saw him assaulted you then; the way his normally pleasant demeanour left no trace on his fearsome expression when he had found Bolt inside his lab.

Guilt sat heavily inside you as you gazed down at V.

“Taetae?”

Jimin’s voice was quiet, nervous, but still sweet. Despite the low volume, as the only sound in the room it caught everyone’s attention.

A laugh bubbled out of Jimin as the younger boy stirred with a low groan.

“Hey, can you hear me?” Jimin cooed, “you’re okay, we’re home, I’m here.”

Gently, him and Jin helped the boy to sit, and though he seemed tired, the flush had faded from his cheeks. He was no longer sweating and his breathing was even, but his hair was left sticking in places to his forehead.

Jimin took his hands.

“Can you feel your powers, baby? Are-are they there?”

Slowly, V nodded. Turning a hand over, he summoned a single flame, livid purple, to dance on his palm.

“Okay, okay,” Jin closed his fist, “don’t tire yourself out.”

But you could tell he was as relieved as the others that V could still control his powers. Even if you had only just learned what they were, you now understood Jungkook’s outburst when you had come across V at night before. If not controlled, fire was certainly a lethal force to have at your fingertips.

They left, disappearing to get V settled and cleaned up. Even though having powers gave you higher tolerance to injuries, it was still unwise to leave them untreated.

Casting your eyes across the rest of the room, you saw Jungkook duck away from your gaze.

You let him.

The remnants of adrenaline in your body were fizzling out and you understood the temptation to collapse into a seat.

However, as Yoongi moved across to the stove, you joined him without a word needing to be exchanged. The cold beginnings of Jin’s meal from earlier were sitting in pans and chopping boards, and you simply picked up where he left off.

The two of you cooked with minimal movement and noise, not disrupting the stillness of the kitchen as everyone soaked in what had just happened. At some point Namjoon had disappeared.

Though only four of you remained, you ate nonetheless and boxed the rest up. No one said much, and you didn’t try to change that. In fact, you hardly looked up from your plate, preferring to leave the others to their thoughts. They didn’t need you intruding right now.

Of course, that did nothing to stop the onslaught of questions filling your mind.

You still didn’t really know what the boys got up to on their mysterious excursions, and V coming home so badly injured – by one of your old boss’ experiments, no less – only made you more lost. And intrigued.

Still, you held your tongue.

It was only when you collected everyone’s plates that you caught Jungkook’s eyes boring into the side of your head. Looking up at last, you found him staring at you with a confused frown etched across his brow. He held your gaze though, the ever present intensity of his own making you shrink away towards the basin to distract yourself with washing up.

Just as you thought you would have to endure a silent room without the distraction of food to alleviate the tension, Namjoon returned.

At first, only seeing a shadowy figure in the hall, you thought perhaps V had come back, or at least Jin or Jimin to give an update. Perhaps that was entirely too optimistic. Nonetheless, even the stressed-looking Namjoon was a welcome distraction.

You had begun to scoop some more food into a bowl for him when he spoke. He hadn’t come any further into the room, still hovering in the shadows of the hallway.

“I’m sure you have questions.”

Pausing in your movements, you lifted your head. The others all turned their heads to you as well, leaving you like an animal stuck in headlights.

“Uh-” you stuttered once you eventually caught up with yourself, “I mean, I guess…”

Glancing around you, you found Yoongi and Hope looked a little nervous, some doubt in their faces. Jungkook, on the other hand, was smirking.

Not knowing what to make of that, you decided not to keep Namjoon waiting. He seemed fairly expectant, his not entering the room making it clear that you should follow, so you picked up some chopsticks and brought the food along with you.

Namjoon may have seemed a little surprised when you handed him his dinner, but he took it anyway. Once you were in his office, he started eating without complaint.

“Am I right to presume,” he began between mouthfuls, though he was preparing the next already, “that you knew about the weapon used on V because of your work for Kuyang?”

You quickly confirmed, but you could no longer hold back further questions.

“Yes, but how did it end up- I mean, why was it used? Did Kuyang-?”

Shaking his head, Namjoon cut you off with a wave of his chopsticks. He swallowed and continued perfectly calmly.

“It wasn’t Kuyang that used it.”

Already, your shoulders slumped in relief. But still-

“Then how…?”

Sighing, Namjoon set his cutlery down and sat back.

“Kuyang is one of our… associates,” he began to explain. “After the attack, he escaped, as you know, and went into hiding. Only, we found his lab totally empty soon after.”

At this he sighed, raking a hand through his hair as he always seemed to do without noticing. You could empathise with his stress; the news had you shuffling closer to the edge of your seat. The stuff Kuyang worked with was dangerous, it shouldn’t just… go missing.

“We weren’t sure what to think at first, and we investigated for a while. Other, similar cases have cropped up too, others among our allies being raided. It became too difficult to deny what we feared… Bolt was the only connection.”

Without noticing, your mouth was gaping open, eyes widening. You blinked as Namjoon’s words sunk in. But surely you were misunderstanding? It couldn’t be…

Slowly, you were able to form words.

“Bolt fired at V? At all of you?”

Namjoon nodded.

Shutting your mouth, you swallowed. Your mind may have been whirling at a hundred miles an hour, but nothing made it as far as to form a sentence. Fragments flitted past, telling a story you were afraid to believe.

Bolt was the city’s superhero… a hero… everyone knew that.

He protected the city from harm.

Yet he had shot you… and now V…

The silence stretched out, Namjoon pausing in his meal as he watched you. When you eventually spoke, your voice was small.

“You were fighting… against Bolt?”

A wry chuckle left his lips. Cocking his head, he clasped his hands.

“Villains, one might say. Many do.”

You simply blinked at him. Meanwhile, Namjoon stared evenly at you, gauging your reaction.

“What else has Bolt done?” you ventured.

Namjoon’s eyebrows raised.

“What do you mean?”

Stammering slightly, you tried to explain.

“Well, I already know Bolt isn’t exactly as… innocent, as most people think. He- I mean, at Kuyang’s- when Bolt was there, he had no reason to shoot me? But I hadn’t really thought about… why he was at Kuyang’s lab. What’s going on?”

As you spoke, a faint smile quirked Namjoon’s mouth. As you trailed off, he nodded. It seemed he was finally willing to indulge you.

“It’s true that Kuyang had set his latest experiment on Bolt already. To the media, it would simply seem that Bolt was retaliating, or eradicating the threat they perceive people like Kuyang to be. But today confirmed what we feared. Bolt is collecting.”

“He’s not destroying those weapons?”

Before Namjoon’s confirming shake of the head, you already knew the answer.

Though many of your questions had now been answered, it felt like you had opened up a whole new realm of possibilities that you couldn’t wrap your head around. But Namjoon didn’t allow you time to spiral into further confusion.

“I had hoped this would have to come later,” he spoke carefully, chewing on his cheek as he sat back once more. “we’ve taken in a few people before, helped them control their powers and then proceed to leave this life behind…

“You clearly know that this world isn’t as black and white as the city media wants us to think. But you should also know we aren’t many people’s idea of heroes. We fight against this society. We use violence, we support developers like Kuyang, who are…”

A wave of his hand was all that was needed. You both knew the kind of person it took to create the things Kuyang spent his time working on.

“People don’t agree with us,” he continued seriously, “which is why I’m offering you the chance to leave. As I said, we normally wait until someone has full control of their powers. Out there, the world isn’t exactly… kind to people like us. Bolt, Monsoon, heroes from tv – they’re the exceptions. People don’t like those who are different. They see our powers as a threat, and they do twisted things to gain power over people they fear. If you choose to go, we want you to at least be safe.”

Breathing deeply, you sat reeling.

Everything that had been presented to you should have flipped this whole thing on its head. Your new friends were by no means superheroes, as you previously thought. There was a reason you never saw their names in glowing lights on tv like Bolt.

But really… did it change anything?

Breaking through the silence, the click of the door handle. Since the new arrival hadn’t even knocked, you were certain who it was before they even entered your line of sight.

“Hey,” Jin spoke. Then he paused, looking between the two of you in the sombre silence. Cautiously raising a brow, he turned towards Namjoon. “You told her?”

Namjoon nodded.

“How’s V?” Namjoon then asked nearly straight away. That was a relief; you were wondering the same thing yourself.

Wiping his brow, Jin perched himself against the desk. Though his sigh was tired, he nodded.

“He’ll be fine. He’s already annoying poor Jiminie again, so that should tell you enough.” After a brief hesitation, he continued, eyes shifting to you. “That was a close one though… if Y/N hadn’t been there…”

With the room’s attention on you once again, you gulped. But somehow, what you said next didn’t take you much thought.

“I want to stay.”

Namjoon kept his infuriating poker face on as he appraised you, but Jin cracked a smile.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” he grinned, clapping you on the shoulder. Turning to Namjoon, he cried a smug “I told you!”

Encouraged, you nodded with more certainty.

“I agree with you guys – Bolt goes unquestioned, he’s practically worshipped. But whatever he’s doing, I want to help stop him. And he did try to kill me after all – you guys are the ones who've helped me. I trust you.”

“Good,” Namjoon spoke, digging back in to his food, “I wanted to offer you a position in the team, if you said yes. With Bolt on the move like this, we need all the power we can get-”

As a smile was just blooming on your face, it was halted by his next words.

“But. You aren’t ready just yet. I want you out there with us, so I’m willing to send you out sooner than I have with others before. These are unusual times, and you have to understand this will be more dangerous than I normally send rookies to. There’s work to do, with your powers, but also…

“As much as I appreciate your trust in us, I know it doesn’t extend fully. I need my team to be able to trust each other. Every single one.”

Fixing you with a hard stare to accompany his last words, he was effective in making you shrink in your seat. You knew exactly who he was talking about.

And that person was waiting for you right outside.

On leaving the office, you found Jungkook leaning up against the wall. Jin and Namjoon had hung back, leaving you alone as you emerged, and you instantly rolled your eyes. Determined not to be deterred, you kept walking down the corridor, trying to fix your eyes ahead – firmly away from the infuriating man that watched your approach.

“Scared yet?” his smirk bled through his words. You were almost upon him at this point, and he pushed away from the wall, blocking the way with his black-clad body.

Eyes flicking up to him, unimpressed, you tapped your foot.

“Why would I be scared?”

One corner of his mouth curved up, looking you in the eye as he leaned a little closer.

“We aren’t heroes, honey.”

“Thanks for spelling that out, Jungkook,” you drawled, making to step past him.

His laughter followed you while you started walking away.

“Need help packing?” he called.

“Hey, Jungkook,” Jin’s stern voice joined him, “no need. She’s not going anywhere.”

Jungkook’s silence spoke volumes.

Glancing back as you reached the end of the corridor, you were met with the livid expression that seemed so familiar. Jungkook’s eyes bulged with shock. You were sure that Jin’s hand on his shoulder was all that was holding him back.

Making the most of his eyes on you, you flashed a serene smile and walked away.

But though an (admittedly large) part of you took satisfaction in Jungkook’s shock and rage, you knew you would be expected to work with him. Properly work with him, not the frosty silence he currently counted as work.

With the impossibility of this steadily creeping over you, you climbed the stairs heavily.

As you returned to the wary stares of your friends and dispelled their trepidation, assuring them you were staying and trying to settle down to a relatively normal evening, it remained in the back of your mind.

But you could deal with Jungkook tomorrow. For now, you let yourself be reminded of the reasons you wanted to stay here with them.

Thank you for reading!!💜comments, questions etc. are always welcome! Fanfiction is all about community and if you wanted a sign that it's ok to participate, you are invited!!💞

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[moresinfulmockingbird]

Hope this isn’t too many people I’m requesting (if so just pick some!) but step mommy/sister Cocolia Kafka tingyun and pela and how they’re with trying to keep their forbidden love undercover! (Female reader please)

HOW TO KEEP IT HIDDEN | HSR Ladies

PAIRING: Cocolia, Pela, Tingyun, & Kafka x Afab!Reader

WARNINGS: Suggestive Content, Dom!Cocolia, Dom!Kafka, Sub!Pela, Sub!Tingyun, Stepcest, Not entirely explicit

AUTHORS NOTE: I usually allow people to request up to four different characters, so you have nothing to worry about!

✧ COCOLIA

• When Cocolia first married your parent, she hadn't exactly given you the time of day. She really just ignored you and payed attention to her spouse, not that you complained.

• But a few weeks into the marriage she finally really looked at you, and I mean really looked when she ended up walking in on you getting out of the shower.

• Since then her mind has been plagued with thoughts of you and your body.

• It was shameful to have these thoughts about her new stepdaughter, but she couldn't control them! She couldn't control how attracted she was to you...

• She'd try her hardest to hold herself back though, so she kept her feelings hidden.

• Though at some point she wasn't going to be able to hold herself back, especially when you so shamelessly walk around the house in a shirt and underwear.

• Oh how badly Cocolia wants to pin you to the kitchen counter and eat you out...

✧ PELA

• Poor Pela couldn't help the nasty thoughts flowing through her brain when she first met you.

• She had the immediate desire to kiss you, to see you naked and have you dominate her.

• But the fact that she was meeting you as her new stepsister quickly shattered her perverted thoughts and imagination.

• How unfortunate it was for her to be infatuated with a person that was her new sibling. So, Pela resorted to watching you from the sidelines instead, loving you in secret.

• It would start with her sneaking into your room and stealing your underwear for her gratification, but then that would evolve to watching you when your alone, watching the times you'd play with yourself.

• Pela was obsessed, she wanted you to be finger fucking her own pussy like you do to yours, she wanted to kiss you and gave you make her scream your name.

• But no, instead she'd wait and watch, at least until she had the courage to go further.

✧ TINGYUN

• Tingyun is the best at hiding her attraction for you, ever since the first time she met you at your parents wedding.

• She's best at just admiring you from afar, gazing at your beauty in more subtle ways than Pela could ever dream of doing.

• She's also not embarrassed of her desires to have you finger fucking her from behind, pushing her head into the pillows and ruining her.

• There were countless nights where she'd wake up sweating and having creamed in her underwear at the wet dreams she has of you. She desperately wants to crawl into your bed and hump herself against your leg while you sleep.

• But she has some surprising self restraint, and she's able to quench her thirsts the best she can, just to prevent her from doing anything forceful on you.

• She does like to lay in your bed when you aren't home, cuddled up in your sheets and having your pillow in between her legs as she humps it desperately while smelling your favorite shirt.

• But she's great at covering her tracks after she does those things, always leaving your bed and room as though nothing had happened.

✧ KAFKA

• Kafka found an immediate attraction to you after she married your parent.

• When meeting you at they're wedding, she couldn't stop the immediate filthy thoughts she had. Thoughts of what she wanted and could do to you.

• Out of these four, she's the least likely to try and keep her attraction for you, her stepdaughter, a secret. She can't begin to have to keep such feelings a secret.

• Instead of acting on them, even though she desperately wanted to, she stuck to small gestures.

• She'd brush her lips against your neck when fixing your hair, or running her hands across your waist when helping you try on clothes.

• She'd hug you a few seconds too long, and would hold a hand on the lower of your back a bit too low.

• Kafka is shameless about not hiding her attraction, but she won't make any more until you do, because she doesn't want to be at fault for starting an affair with her parents daughter.

ENDING NOTE: Someone give me more perverted Pela, I need her.

[hippiegoth97]

Cum On Feel the Noize: Eddie Munson x Reader

Collage by Me :)

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Description: Robin brings you to see Eddie's band play. His performance blows you away, in more ways than one. After the show, you and Eddie have some fun on your own...

Content Warning 18+ Only, Minors DNI: smut, swearing, female reader, fingering, praise/degradation, alcohol use, smoking, public sex, unprotected sex

Word Count: 4.6k

Divider by @strangergraphics

Cum On Feel the Noize

"So, what do you think? You wanna go to this tonight?" Robin says as she shoves a bright orange flier in your face. You take it from her grasp, looking it over. It reads: Corroded Coffin at the Hideout. 8pm 2nite. $5 cover. Be there, or fuck off! It also has some crudely drawn bats, skulls, and devils all around the border. A metal band. Great.

"You're sure this is how we should spend a perfectly good Saturday night? What happened to rewatching Sixteen Candles and stuffing our lonely faces?" You ask her. It's been your long-standing tradition every weekend to stick together in your singleness and lust over John Hughes characters.

"Yes! I think we need some variety in our friendship activities! Plus, the lead singer/guitarist is super cute. At least, for you he is. I'm still working on Vicki." She rubs her neck shyly at the last part. You take a moment to contemplate this idea. But all you come up with is more questions.

"Do you know him? Do I know him? And how cute are we talking?" You can't help but be a bit intrigued with whoever this mystery metalhead is that Robin wants to set you up with.

"His name is Eddie. He's really cool, I met him a while back and he's friends with a lot of my friends. And he's got long hair, tattoos, and he wears this nice, um, jean jacket." Your eyes go wide as Robin describes the man. You think you know exactly who she's talking about.

"You are NOT talking about Eddie Munson, are you? That creep, really? The one that always made a scene in the cafeteria? The DRUG DEALER? You think that's my type?" You toss the flier to the side, and cross your arms in defiance. You are sure there's nothing she can say to convince you to go to that stupid show to see that stupid band with that stupid man in it.

"Yes, I mean that Eddie. But he's not what you think! He's nice, and kind, and he's been a good friend to all of us. I can introduce you, and I swear you'll hit it off! It's guaranteed to happen! And besides, I've already told him we'd go and that he can talk to you and-" Robin explains herself, her words coming out in a manic fashion. You cut her off, you know she wouldn't babble on this way if she didn't fully believe in what she was saying.

"FINE! I'll go, dammit! Just shut up already! And there are NO promises that I won't smack him if he steps out of line!" You shout, crossing your arms stubbornly.

“Okay.” She nods in quiet agreement. 

"So, what the fuck does one wear to one of these things?" You ask as you go over to your closet. You and Robin spend the next couple hours perfecting your look. Teased hair, red lips, smudged eyeliner, check. Fishnets, a torn t-shirt, and a just-a-bit-too-short denim skirt, check. You debate on wearing heels as well, but decide on Converse as you'll be standing for a considerable amount of time. You want to potentially draw Eddie's attention, but you aren't going to wreck your feet for him. He has to prove himself worthy first.

Robin drives you both to the Hideout, a seedy little music venue on the edge of Hawkins. Old brick, holes in the roof, and a secondhand sound system, all pasted together by posters of rock shows past. Charming, you think to yourself as Robin puts the car in park. You both exit the vehicle, hearing the band has already begun their set. Robin curses you both being late. Oh well, this way Eddie can take notice of your arrival. You walk inside, giving the bulging man at the door the $5 cover. You make your way past some drunks clad in leather. You go to buy a couple beers at the bar, thankfully it's served in the bottle. You shudder to think what drinking from the glasses in this place might do to you. You pay, grab the bottles, and meet Robin at the back of the crowd. You hand her a one, which she quickly takes a swig of.

You both squish your way through sweating bodies and hairspray fumes, until you're smack dab in front of the stage. It's here that you see him in all his glory. And he's so much cuter than you remembered. The hair, the tats, the tight jeans and t-shirt. It worked so well on him back then, as much as you hate to admit it. And it sure as fuck works really well for him now. Robin was right, this was a good idea. He has yet to take notice of you, though.

Eddie's POV

You’ve taken small moments during the beginning of the set to search the crowd for Robin, and for Y/N. You’re a bit worried they won’t show up at all, as your band has played all your original songs already. You transition into the first of four covers you’d rehearsed for this evening, still waiting to see the girls. You figured Y/N would say no, telling Robin you were just the school freak. You’re nothing special to her. Oh well, you can just find some random chick to fuck later if you’re so inclined.

You almost set your sights on one when you see Robin push through the crowd and wave at you. You nod back as you continue to sing, at least she showed up for you. But then you see Y/N, breaching the sea of bodies behind her. Your breath stops for a moment, but you keep playing, not missing a single note. He has to keep his cool, but damn you've really dressed for the occasion. You look her up and down, smirking as her gaze meets yours. You drink in the sight of her, and that sexy outfit. That short skirt, the fishnets underneath, her bra strap peeking out from the top of her shirt. You want nothing more than to jump off the stage and run to her. You want to pull her close, and mess up all that pretty makeup of hers. Hell, you want to mess her up in general. And given how out of character she looks tonight, you know she'll be yours in an instant.

Y/N POV

Did he just check me out? You think to yourself. Of course he did, how could he not? You've dolled yourself all slutty for him, with the kind help of Robin. You just stare in his eyes, transfixed by him. He plays really well, but you wished you'd been here for the beginning of the show. He just keeps looking at you while he expertly plays on his guitar. His voice sounds sexy as hell, and he's singing the final song of the night to you now. It's like everyone else in the room disappears and it's just you and him all alone. You feel your cheeks heat up as Eddie's singing about sex while gazing into your eyes, winking at you. The words are so filthy, it’s having a very strong effect on you.

You suddenly feel so turned on, wanting to jump onto the stage and throw yourself at him. He seems to sense your arousal and proceeds to shred on a massive guitar solo. Every note he hits sends a shock to your core, you feel like he's put a spell on you. He's nearing the end of the song, going as hard as he can, and all you can do is watch him with wide eyes. You're almost panting, feeling the anticipation of the final note of the song building up. You have no idea how he's made you feel like this, it must be all in your head. Maybe you're just feeling the vibrations from the speakers, right? There's no way he can make you come undone by playing a song, that would be ridiculous. Or would it?

You squeeze your thighs together, unbearably close to losing control in front of everyone. He looks at you again, his smile so devilishly handsome. When he hits that final note, your knees buckle as you're rocked by an unexpected orgasm. You almost fall to the floor when Robin catches you.

Eddie’s POV

Holy shit, did I just make her cum? You think to yourself as Y/N falls to her knees once you hit the final note of your last song of the evening. Her eyes meet yours, wide and dilated with lust, Her mouth sits open as she rides out the orgasm you’ve given her. Your cock twitches inside your jeans, this has to be one of the hottest things you’ve ever seen. It’s taking every ounce of your willpower to not get an erection while you’re up here on the stage. “Thank you, everyone! We have been Corroded Coffin, have a good night!” You shout out to the crowd, before bringing your guitar strap over your head and setting the instrument down. You jog off the stage, letting the guys know you’ll be a minute. You make a beeline for the bathroom, pushing the paint-chipped door open. You go over to the sink, running some cold water to splash on your face. You’re soaked in sweat from performing, and extremely hot under the collar from what you just did to Y/N. You didn’t mean to, obviously, as attractive as it was. But you suppose there’s a first for everything. “Jesus christ, this night is gonna be interesting.” You say to your own reflection, smirking at the thought of actually speaking to her, picking her brain about how good it was…Slow down, you’re getting hard again. You exhale deeply, puffing your cheeks. You give your face a couple good smacks, and head for the door. You imagine your friends are waiting for you in the green room. But first, some celebratory beers.

Y/N’s POV

"Are you okay?" Robin asks, seemingly unaware of what just happened to you. "Was it too loud? I know it can be pretty intense." She's worried, she really has no idea.

"Yeah, I'm fine. More than fine. Just drank my beer too quickly." You lie, embarrassed about having an orgasm from goddamn metal music. You take a moment for it to pass, regaining composure. You look up to see Eddie again, but he’s already left the stage. You wonder where he went, hoping your little experience hasn’t scared him off. Even more so, you kind of hope he’s flattered.

"Okay well, we can go to the back and sit with the band if you want. And you can finally talk to Eddie!" She wags her eyebrows at you suggestively. You laugh lightly, temporarily forgetting about what Eddie made you do. Robin holds your hand as you both walk to the makeshift green room. You see most of the band putting their instruments into carrying cases. But their frontman has yet to make an appearance. "Hey guys! This is my friend, Y/N. It's actually her first metal show, so please play nice!" She says as you both make your way to a tattered leather couch in the middle of the room. You take a seat, sinking into the cushions.

"No promises, Robin. You know I like it a little rough." Eddie quips from the doorway. His hands are full of beer bottles, one for everybody. He introduces everyone briefly as he passes the beers around. He winks at you again as he hands you yours. "So, this is the famous Y/N I've been hearing about." He bows to you playfully, reaching out his hand. You place your hand into his, and he kisses it, causing your skin to burn with lust. You gasp slightly, and he looks into your eyes, and winks again. He lets your hand go, and slumps right beside you onto the couch. "So, how was it, princess?" He asks as you're taking a swig of your beer. His phrasing makes you choke on it. He chuckles lowly and puts his hand on your back, patting gently to help you. "Oh come now, I'm sure it isn't your first time." Your gaze snaps to him, eyes wide. He knows exactly what he did. "You have had a beer before, right?" He smirks, clarifying himself. But you know damn well that he meant something else.

"Obviously. It just went down the wrong pipe is all." You brush off his innuendo. You have half a mind to move his hand off your back, but it feels nice. Gentle, warm, but suggestive. "But to answer your first question, I actually really enjoyed it. It's not my typical taste, but you guys were great up there, really." You say, looking up at him through your eyelashes.

"Well it certainly means a lot, getting such a glowing review from you, Y/N. Who knew that Little Miss Priss from homeroom would turn out so fun, huh?" He teases, moving his hand from your back to your shoulder, shaking it playfully. The others snicker a bit at that. Robin stifles a giggle.

"Hey! I was not a priss! I was just...focused." You reply, playing up your annoyance. He isn't wrong, but does he need to be so smug about it?

"You were so!" He retorts. "A sexy priss, but a priss nonetheless. It's nice to see you've grown a bit since then." He leans in to whisper in your ear. "And it's nice to see you focused on something other than studying for once." He leans back to his original position, still smirking as he does. Your cheeks flare up again, your whole body has slowly been simmering with all his touches and teasing remarks. It seems the others in the room are sensing the heat as well.

"Jesus, Eddie. Take it outside."  Gareth pipes up. "We have actual work to do before Ol' Vick locks up the place. We'll meet you at the van." The others nod in agreement.

Robin stands, offering to help. "I'll meet you at the car, Y/N. Don't do anything I wouldn't do! On second thought, that doesn't eliminate much!" She jokes. You stand to give her a hug. You mouth 'thank you' to her as Eddie leads you by the hand to the back exit. Most of the crowd has headed off for the night. Eddie acknowledges the bartender, before pushing the heavy door open, moving to hold it for you. It shuts with a slam, and you're both standing under the lone street lamp in the alley. It's cooler outside, but you still feel like you're boiling. It's so quiet, save for a few drunks blasting their car radio in the parking lot. You don't know what to say now. And Eddie seems stumped as well.

"So, uh..." You decide to break the silence. "Are we gonna talk about what happened earlier?" You say quietly. Eddie's silence leaves you unsure that he heard you at all. He takes his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, putting one in his mouth. He motions the box at you, offering you one. You nod, taking it from the box, and placing it between your lips. He reaches forward and lights it for you, and lights his own after. You take in a puff, exhaling shakily. You don't smoke often, but enough to not cough and look dumb in front of Eddie.

"Jeez, she drinks, she smokes, she dresses like the girl from my wet dreams. What don't you do?" He laughs, almost in disbelief. It seems clear he wants you to say what happened.

His last remark emboldened you. "Well, I don't usually have an orgasm from live music in front of everybody. But there's a first time for everything, I guess." You take another drag, your head falling to look at your feet. 

"I don't see why you're embarrassed. It's actually pretty hot." He says, you look up to see him much closer to you now. He reaches a hand up to brush your hair behind your ear. You blush again. "To think I have that kind of effect on you when I haven't even touched you yet. Christ, I had to try my damndest not to go rock hard on stage." Your eyes meet, and you see a mutual fire of lust. He slowly brings his lips to yours. You kiss him back, softly. Your lips move in sync for a moment, every move feels so good but also like not enough. The kiss becomes rougher, you've both dropped your cigarettes and tangled your hands into each other's hair. You turn him around and push him against the brick wall. He groans slightly at this, letting your tongue go into his mouth. He breaks the kiss, and you see your lipstick smudged all over his face. You giggle at the sight. "What so funny, Y/N?" He cocks an eyebrow.

"Nothing. Just my lipstick is all over you now."

"It's all part of my plan, sweetheart." He smiles.

"And what plan is that?" You ask tentatively.

"To absolutely wreck you before the night is over." He pulls you back to him, smashing his lips on yours. His hands move down your back to your ass. He squeezes it roughly, making you moan. "I'm really glad you wore a skirt by the way. It'll make things much easier." He says breathily. "Not to mention, it looks very sexy on you." He flips you around so you're against the wall now. He starts kissing your neck, his lips and tongue and teeth working the skin perfectly to form plenty of hickeys. You moan his name many times while he does this, tugging slightly on his hair as he nips at your throat. He groans, letting you know he likes that. He massages your breasts over your shirt, kissing what he can of your chest. You reach down and start palming him through his jeans. He moans into your chest, and lifts his face to meet your eyes again. "You’re so needy for me, sweetheart. You want me to make you cum again?" His ringed hand slips under your skirt, squeezing your thigh. You want him to go higher, to touch you where you need him most. But he stays put. "You gotta tell me what you want, darling."

"Touch me, Eddie. Finger me. Fuck me. Wreck me." You almost whine, begging him to do something, anything.

"You got it, princess." His hand goes between your legs, rubbing your clothed heat. He can feel your arousal through the fabric, and he kisses you while smirking. "You're so wet for me, you little slut." You moan at his words. "You like when I call you that?" You simply nod, and he chuckles. "Damn, you really aren't a priss after all." He uses both hands now to pull your fishnet tights and panties down to your ankles. He starts rubbing your slick folds with two fingers, slowly making circles around your clit.

"Oh, fuck. Eddie, more. Please." You beg. Every touch he makes feels like hellfire. He obeys your wish, slipping a finger in, curling it just so to stroke your g spot with ease. Another moan escapes you, your head pressing back against the brick wall. He attacks your neck again, hoping to draw more noises and dirty confessions from your lips. You feel a knot building in your belly, Eddie's touches tightening it more and more. "Add another one, please." You plead, and he obliges. You're palming his length again, hoping to gain some reaction from him. But he's too focused on you. Your moans and curses fuel his fire. He keeps thrusting his fingers in and out of your pussy, his thumb begins rubbing circles on your clit. You almost scream at the combined sensations. "Eddie, oh fuck!" You feel the knot getting ready to snap, so close to the edge. Eddie stops and pulls his fingers from you. You glare at him, annoyed that he would deny you like this.

"Calm down, and open." He brings the hand from under your skirt to your lips. You open your mouth and he puts one of his fingers in. You suck it clean, moaning at the taste of yourself. He takes the other one in his own mouth, groaning at how sweet it is. "Fuck, you taste so good." He kisses you again, the taste of cigarettes and your cunt mixing together deliciously. You start fiddling with his belt, struggling to undo it on your own. He gently moves your hands and quickly gets it loose. He lets your hands return to position, you pull down the zipper, and slip your hand inside to grip his length over his boxers. He moans into your mouth, and you go under the boxers to truly feel him. You grasp him, pumping him inside his pants. He gasps slightly, breaking the kiss. "Jesus, Y/N. You're so hungry for my cock, aren't you?" He's breathing hard as you move your hand up and down, his forehead pressed against yours. You're both lightly slicked in sweat. You stop stroking him, giving him a chance to slightly lower his pants and boxers. His cock springs free, the head red and swollen. He's just as needy for you as you are for him.

You bend down slightly to pull one foot out of your shoe, pulling your panties and fishnets down. They dangle from your other foot, and you put your shoe back on. You pull Eddie by his jacket, crushing his lips with yours. He grips your waist roughly, his rings digging into your side. He lifts your skirt so the denim is bunched at your waist. He lifts you up slightly to wrap your legs around him, and you lace your arms around his neck to hold on. He strokes his cock through your folds slowly, mixing the wetness around. You both moan at this, but you want more. He needs to stop teasing you already. "Eddie, please. I'm ready for you, just fuck me. I need you." You whine. He grips your thighs firmly, and presses himself into you. Groans fall from both your lips as he slowly pushes his length in. He gives you a moment to adjust to his size, and peppers some gentle kisses on your neck. "You can move now, Eddie." You state simply. He starts to pump himself in and out of you slowly, savoring the feeling of your velvet walls around him. "Go faster. Please?" You look into his eyes, on the verge of tears from how good it all feels. But you want him to wreck you, and fast.

"Of course, Y/N. I'm at your mercy." He snaps his hips once, slamming himself into your g spot. You moan loudly. He repeats the action, loving the noises he can draw from you. "Fuck, those noises you make could make me cum all on their own. You look so pretty like this. A total mess, and all for me." Eddie picks up the pace, pounding into you over and over, slamming you against the brick. Your moans fill the air, but you don't care if anyone hears you. You want everyone to know who you belong to. And you belong to Eddie, at least in this moment.

"All yours." You moan out, tears pricking your eyes. It's all so much, his lips, his cock, his words. The knot is fully tightened at this point, waiting to snap. "I'm so close, Eddie. Please don't stop." Tears are running down your cheeks from pleasure, ruining your makeup. He stops assaulting your neck to look at you.

"Me too, darling. You feel so fucking fantastic. Cum with me." He moans, lowering a hand to rub your clit again. You feel yourself lose control, making you scream his name. Your pussy clamps down on him, setting off his orgasm. Your legs shake in his grip as he lets the thick white ropes fill you up. His thrusts slowly come to a stop as you ride out your highs. He just holds you for a moment, still inside you. You both look into each other's eyes. "Fuck, princess. I really did a number on you." He chuckles, wiping a tear from your cheek. He gently pulls out of you, your collective cum dripping out onto the pavement. You both moan slightly at the sight. He puts your legs down, but they feel like jelly so you almost fall. "Whoa, I got you." He catches you, helping you steady yourself. He puts his cock away, and closes his pants, refastening the belt. He helps you bring your tights and panties back up, smoothing your skirt down over them. He steps back, looking you over. He's unsure of what to say now. "Well, I had a nice time. I guess Robin's probably waiting for you." He says casually, hands clasped behind his back.

"So that's it then? You're just gonna fuck me and dismiss me?" You feel used now, dirty.

"No, that's not what I'm trying to do." He sighs, pulling his hands down his face in slight frustration. "I just figured, you know. You just wanted to play badass for a night. You'd have the best sex of your life and then go back to normal." Is that really what he thinks of you? You just wanted to use him for a little fun and then leave him in the dust? He couldn't be more wrong.

"I don't know what the fuck gave you that idea! Did I say that, or did you just assume?" You're genuinely pissed now. You stare at him, eyes blazing with anger. You cross your arms. "You know, for a minute there, I actually liked you. And then you go and say that?” You scoff. “You're an asshole, Eddie." You turn to walk away from him, eyes burning with fresh, angry tears. You just want to find Robin and go home. He grabs your arm to stop you, turning you to face him.

"Y/N, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just thought you wouldn't actually want to spend a lot of your spare time with a guy like me. You have a lot more going for you than I do. You're smart, and capable, you have the world at your feet. And I'm just an asshole who plays in a shitty rock band." He says, pleading at you with his eyes to understand. " Look, I shouldn't have assumed anything, that was wrong of me. That's just how this kind of thing usually turns out. One and done. But I'd really like to see you again, if I haven't already blown my chances. I really like you, I always have. I’d like to have a chance to really get to know you. But only if you let me." He takes your hands in his, stroking your fingers gently with his thumbs. It's so gentle and innocent. He really means what he's saying. You take a second to think it over, perhaps you've also judged him too quickly.

"I suppose I shouldn't have assumed you were just using me either. I really like you too. I guess I wouldn't be opposed to a real date." You say quietly. Your eyes meet again and you both smile at each other.

"Sounds like a plan, sweetheart." He smirks again, leaning in to kiss you. You meet him in the middle. The kiss is so much softer now, apprehensive almost. You're both a bit scared of what the future holds, but you're willing to take the risk if it means you'd have each other in it.

The end.

[arceespinkgun]

What do you think it is about Earthspark that makes it the target of more criticism than other media? I've only watched one episode myself

This is an interesting question... but a tough one to answer. I've wondered about why this is a lot. I think it might be that it's a show that centers people who are marginalized. Of course, there are people who are bigots and don't want marginalized people represented in a show in a positive light (e.g. all the reactionaries who threw a fit because Nightshade is a heroic non-binary transformer).

Then there are marginalized people watching the show who have super strong feelings about how every little thing is being depicted because they want to see themselves in media. Unfortunately, I've often noticed that people in this situation can get super attached to exactly how they want something to go in media even if it wouldn't be as good of a story, or get super anxious and or disappointed about the smallest details, and sometimes seem to have super bad faith takes out of fear. I've also often noticed that sometimes people forget that even people within the same group can have and enjoy different types of stories.

And then... okay, I feel like this take may be upsetting to some people, but I think it's part of what's happening and you asked, so... I'll say it. I think some people like to act like they want representation like the kind Earthspark has, but actually aren't interested in things like it or even potentially have some internalized biases they need to work through. And I think sometimes they would rather try to frame a show like Earthspark as somehow bad than admit they're just not into it and would rather have something else that might be way more problematic. I used to take people's opinions in good faith far more, but seeing how popular blatantly racist and sexist themes are in fanon, plus how so many people adore this upcoming film where it looks like there are only two major women who are pitted against each other, the comedic relief, bad guy, and guy who gave the heroes powers are voiced by Black people while the male and female leads are voiced by white people, there was that clip released of Bumblebee hitting on Elita-1 while she is irritated and ignores him... it's made me kinda cynical, I guess. Sometimes I even think it would be easy for people on here to not even realize Earthspark has real, actual positive queer representation in it, for example, but that this movie absolutely will not and the trailers and everything make it very clear it does not. Earthspark is a show with a very gender-balanced cast that is racially diverse, and it has themes of prison abolition and anti-colonialism, and to see it's attracted so much hate in contrast to literally every other piece of TF media bothers me.

Hey, was anyone in the Steven Universe fandom? Spoilers for that series below because I feel like how people reacted to that cartoon is so incredibly similar to how people reacted to Earthspark that I can't not mention it:

I saw all of SU as it came out but wasn't very aware of what fans thought of it. Eventually, though, I learned about how it had been relentlessly scrutinized in this exact same way and for I think similar reasons? A great example of how SU was treated by fans was that a huge number of them were infuriated when main character Steven didn't kill the authoritarian big bad villain White Diamond, but instead embarrassed her and convinced her to start to change her ways instead. Fans took this as him "forgiving" her and felt like the fact he hadn't just killed her was teaching kids imperialism is good... somehow. This became such a firestorm that the showrunner was asked about Steven forgiving her in interviews and had to literally say he had not, in fact, forgiven her... which was already obvious from the show!

Then the sequel series set after a timeskip came out. There, Steven reacts to all the trauma White Diamond had put him through by trying to murder her. He's horrified by this impulse in him and is full of self-hatred and feels like he's lost the innocence and goodness of his younger days for this and many other reasons, but eventually he gets help from his friends and family and starts working through his trauma. ...But this pissed off fans all over again because then they accused the show of saying "traumatized teenagers become murderers!" So they both wanted him to kill her... but also didn't want him to try and kill her?! And all I can think is that they wanted the villain to be killed by the hero, but in a way that was portrayed as an unequivocal moral good and not borne of trauma... even though part of what makes a villain is that they traumatize people. They just wanted punitive justice and hated seeing any alternative. It was so stupid and the show could never win. That's how people treat everything Earthspark does, too: "I think the show is too soft on Decepticons, no now it's not soft enough." "I wish there were Decepticon-aligned Terrans who actually fight their siblings, no, not like that." "This show taking a pro-immigration stance using Terrans as an example is somehow actually racist and anti-immigration."

[txttletale]

What's worm? I can't exactly google it bcs of the name but I'm intrigued

worm (2011-2013) is a web novel about superheroes by a canadian author who goes by wildbow. it was published serially over the course of two years and in that time managed to get well over a million words long. i think it's very good for a couple reasons:

it takes an approach to 'deconstructing the superhero genre' that i don't think i've ever actually seen--instead of something like the boys or watchmen it doesn't extrapolate forwards from 'what would superheroes be like if they were real', but instead extrapolates backwards from 'what real-life conditions would have to exist to lead to superheroes acting like they do in comics'. the world of worm is believable, well-drawn, and interesting to inhabit

it has incredible character writing. this might not be one of the first things most people associate with it but wildbow has an amazing capacity for giving characters, even side characters that appear for half a chapter, extremely intriguing personal and internal conflicts. sometimes wildbow will write a chapter from the perspective of a side character you never see again and it will leave you wishing they had their own novel series. also despite a lot of problems wildbow has with Some Demographics, most of these well-developed characters are the female ones, who get to dominate the emotional landscape and the plot in a way that's refreshing to see tbh

the protagonist is great. a lot of attention is paid by some fans to the fact that she's a smart problem-solver, and that is true--her power is 'controlling bugs' in a world where other people can fly and shoot lasers, so she has to get smart with it. but i like her mostly because she's an extremely traumatised freak making horrible decisions and justifying them to herself post-hoc constantly. it's fun and interesting to be in her head

worm gets away from a lot of the more reactionary undertones that the superhero genre often fails to escape by making powers an in-universe result of (and, on a narrative level, a pretty clear metaphor) trauma. they are essentially coping mechanisms exaggerated to the point of superpower--because of this it neatly avoids two genre pitfalls because 1. there is no 'some people are better and stronger from birth' angle and 2. it mostly takes a social view of crime--supervillains in worm aren't cartoonish forces of evil (mostly), they are people who are marginalized and desperate.

the powers are cool. this is lower down on my personal list of reasons i like worm than many people's but it's undeniable true. each character has a strictly defined powerset with certain inbuilt limitations that both work to say volumes about their personality but also make fight scenes fun and interesting to read because wildbow puts a lot of thought into how they interact

this is not intentional and worm is at times downright homophobic but i would be lying if i said this didn't play a part in how i and most people i know think about worm: a queer reading of the main character is very easy to make, and the intense and at times tempestuous relationship she has to the girls around her is damn compelling. don't go into it expecting 'representation' or anything, wildbow has insisted at length that the main character is straight. but fr shes gay af

now all this said: there's a lot of nasty stuff that happens in worm. there is a lot of body horror and a lot of insect horror. there are so many instances of bugs being forced into human orifices in this book i could have filled out this list with that instead. so if that turns you off give this one a miss. child abuse and violence against children in general is also something that comes up semi-regularly.

and to expand on something i said in the post that i assumed prompted this question--when these topics come up, worm does a very very poor job of handling race and a better but still not great job with gender and sexuality. the world outside north america is sketched with a looseness and a lack of research that borders on caricature (i can think of like five organizations/characters that were very clearly named through google translate). the pacing takes a huge hit after a certain event in the back half of the story, and it can be a little exhausting to read because it is both thematically and literally about constant crisis and escalation.

still, if none of that is a dealbreaker for you, i'd recommend it 100%. i'm definitely glad i've read it. it's a powerful story about trauma and authority and control that does reward the outrageous time commitment it demands. there's also a fanmade audiobook if that sweetens the deal for you. i haven't listened to it but i've heard that it's pretty decent for a volunteer effort.

[picturejasper20]

As a character, what are your thoughts on Sam Manson?

It's... complicated.

It isn't that i dislike her character, in fact i do like her but the way she is written in the show can be a mixed bag.

There are scenes she can be pretty fun like her interactions with Tucker in some episodes (Life Lessons for example). Their characters clash well with each other and they are funny.

Or when she says that she doesn't want to go to the school dance but later changes her mind once Danny (as Tucker) invites her to go in ¨Parental Bonding¨. Or when she helps Danny with fighting against Fright Knight.

She tends to have some funny delivery lines that usually come from her own sarcasm and she can be the voice of reason, more often than not the one that has common sense in the group.

The problem is when the show tries pushing this idea that she is this subversive ¨i'm not like the other girls¨ feminist icon that ends up being super weird in the way it is executed in episodes that explore this and her character arc as whole.

You have episodes like "Teacher of the Year" and "Beauty Marked" where Danny and Tucker act sexist towards her and other girls for some reason, something that we don't see in other episodes. With Tucker it does make more sense but with Danny it just feels out of place since it isn't exactly a flaw he presents in instances outside those plots.

And for someone who is intended to be this ¨feminist icon¨ Sam doesn't really get that much development nor evolution of character in spite of being a protagonist in the series. The closest we get to that is "Control Freaks" that explores her family and "Girls' Night Out" that develops her relationship with Jazz. In fact, other female characters have more development than she does like Jazz and Valerie- and they aren't treated as this subversive girl like Sam is. Jazz herself is pretty feminine and yet she has a lot of growth in the series.

Sam is usually more defined for her role of being ¨Danny's love interest¨ than anything else that gets worse in Season 3, when the series starts pushing this pair a lot more and Sam loses traits that made her interesting.

It is a contradiction on it itself. The show wants to make you believe that Sam is this great ¨feminist icon¨ but she doesn't get proper evolution as character, her flaws don't get addressed properly and she gets treated as Danny's love interest on the long run. It is a superficial attempt to be ¨woke¨ in a time other animated shows handled these topics better.

[emojellyace08]

Hiya been long time no ask and I am sure I gonna be gone for a long time since my college day gonna start on Monday huhuh but I still look and heart around in tumblr.

So here a requesti, since today update of lookism we been granted by ptj of Gun on with bath towel. "I just thought damn does abs and muscles". I am curious what is the headcannon of y/n being muscle enthusiasts.

Basically they are a character of (Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?) Name Souryuuin Akemi.

(Bet Gun recuirt her as his assistant and tracker of his health diet and muscle density lol)

Gun Park x Female! Reader (Do you want to see it closer?)

A/N: SHEESH This is actually a great idea xD. Since you asked for some somewhat spicy Gun x reader, I'm going to give you some and Idk if this can satisfy you but I hope you still like it and sorry for the late reply (good luck on your college day!) Genre: somewhere between fluff and slight lemon (not too explicit) Slight warnings: slight nsfw post reader is female (and is in an established relationship ; character x reader)

It's been months since you have seen your boyfriend. You tried to contact him but you've received voice mails instead which can be irritating for your part. You've been really worried about him getting into crazy shit again. No video calls, no messages, heck you haven't even received a single greeting like "hello" or "good morning". It really makes you worried a lot about Gun. You know he's strong. You know that he's a one man circle, but your girlfriend instincts always gets the better of you. You want to convince him to quit his job since it might put him more into potential danger in the future, but getting to know him better made you realize that even he is a masochist. He really has the passion and lust for fighting so you couldn't really stop him no matter how times you wanted to. It can also ignite a really bad argument so it's better if you just let him be. But he promised that he will take care of himself though.

It was 8 in the morning when you woke up early again in your gloomy and dark apartment. You encouraged yourself to slump yourself on the cozy and soft bed of yours. But no matter how many efforts you tried you thinking about that bastard again just makes you groan, you're craving for caffeine again.

Fixing the blinds, you winced as the sunlight made it's way to shine your eyes. It's not particularly sunny, but the sky and atmosphere is not too dreadful either. In fact it's the perfect weather for you. You got up to prepare and fix the coffee mixer and make your drink. It took minutes of you tapping your finger on the marble table humming your favorite song while you watch the machine, you being lost at your own thoughts. After minutes, you were mixing the hot drink on your mug before you heard the door open, you seeing your mentally exhausted boyfriend. Fucking bastard didn't even knocked on the door.

"Where have you been?" you asked in a concerned tone as he focuses his attention on you making eye contact. His black sclera were still intimidating to look at, but they weren't exactly too threatening. "Business" he bluntly replied not intentionally being rude, Gun was just like that all the time. You were about to ask more questions before he approached you while hugging you back and leaving wet pecks on your neck while caressingly touching your waist pulling you closer to him. "I'm sorry that I don't have time for you." "Hmm." you hummed as you drank the mix of sweet and bitter mixture. "You're not angry?" "Umm no? Why would I? It's your job to work for Charles." you playfully denied as he pulled you even closer, he knows that you're lying behind that pretty face but he understands and you have a point though. And hearing that old man's name really pisses him off at some point, but it coming from your pleasant voice makes him a bit calmer. "I'm going to take a shower" he mumbled as he buries his face on you even more. "Aren't you tired?" you asked as he chuckled, "Never have been."

Tapping your shoulder you watched him as he walked on the corridor and into your shared bedroom. It's his daily routine for him to go home and wash up first before cuddling and chatting with you on the bed. You went inside to prepare his clothes before seeing your half naked boyfriend, his scars showing up into his back but you couldn't care less. In your eyes, he's perfect.

"Looking at something?" you snapped at your own thoughts as you can see Gun's teasing grin as you laughed at him, your voice being gentle with a mix of tiredness on it. "Yeah" "You want to see it closer?" he teased you even more as you approached him as you hugged him from the back, you being obviously smaller than him. "You still look pretty even if you got lots of scars." "I know." he replied as you stayed like this, cuddling with him for a few minutes. He turned around to face you as he leaned in to give you a kiss, your tongue getting entangled from each other. The kiss wasn't really aggressive, but the way his tongue gently danced with yours is enough to make your underwear wet again. His hands were travelling to your face, slowly making it's way to your waist. Your clumsy ones are doing the same, it's playfully teasing his chest up into his abs. You weren't exactly that person who only relies on looks. But seeing your boyfriend properly taking care of his health makes you appreciate the effort he's doing to get stronger.

"Wow, you're getting more sturdy." you half joked as your eyes trailed down to his body. It wasn't necessarily in a lewd way, but it's just you being appreciative. And with this, Gun can't help but to be proud of himself. He managed to make himself physically pleasing so you also don't have to worry about his health. "Do you want to go to the gym tomorrow?" he asked as he leans closer to you with his hands still clinging on your waist. "Hmm... Sure, I got nothing else to do and it's best if we can check our BMI together." you liked his offer as both of your mouth curl into a smile as he pecks your soft cheeks making you chuckle. You got to enjoy your loves holding and kissing you like this.

A/N: Sorry if this is not up for your standards and it's so late (I'm doing my homework while procrastinating lol :)

[box-dwelling]

This is something that I think is handled with varying levels of tact but I find it interesting how often Starkid has their villainous characters framed through being predatory to the female cast, especially when they're teenagers.

Aladdin is a great example and honestly him and Jasmine are a really good example of the strategies groomers use on their victims. There its explicitly a theme and commented on. But it's also a thing they do often.

Then there's mouthface and McDoon which I remember being well done but it's been a hot minute since I watched TTO so I can't say with much certainty

Then in Hatchetfield there's Wilbur in BF and how he treats lex. I'm only just making my way through NT but the Blinky mascot and Alice is another example. These I feel are explored less well and feels a little more exploitive. But BF does explicitly talk about how capitalism uses hypersexualisation to make money at women's expense. I'm just starting WatcherWorld so they may comment on it further. But these ones feel a little more cheap. This guy's the bad guy and were going to show it through them learing at a teenager. Man in a hurry and Ted both also do this in TGWDLM and there its more complicated as neither of them are exactly good people, but they also aren't explicit villains.

Then there's NPMD, which is more complicated on this matter. The show is explicitly about outside forces interfering with teenage sexuality. The way Max acts towards grace at the beginning, as someone who was perceived as a woman during adolescence it was very familiar and made me very uncomfortable. But Grace is into it and has her own complicated relationship with sexuality. It makes Grace a more interesting and complex character and has them actually explore a woman's sexual desire which media often refuses to do, but kind of comes at the expense of making Max's harassment more justified. But at the end of the day, even with Max's more sympathetic elements, he's still the villain. He's explicitly making the lives of his peers a living hell. Nothing he did was ok. Through that lense it's a case of a bad thing being done to Grace that she has a complicated response to.

Now I haven't seen every show and there's a good number that I don't remember as well because I watched them years ago so there may well be more examples. I just think it's interested that they keep doing this and have kind of mixed feelings about it

[flower-boi16]

Given how underdeveloped Vaggie (Why was she named that), Charlie, Millie, and the majority of the female characters are, I won’t be suprised if Lilith turns out to be a one dimensional bitch who only exists to make Lucifer more sympathetic (I like Lucifer’s character but still)

....I disagree, Lilith could actually be a good, or even great antagonist for the show, possibly being one of, if not THE best villain in all of Hellaverse...

...if she's not being written by Viv. I've already talked about Velvette and why she's on of Viv's best antagonists before but she's relevant to my main point; Velvette is a character with an actually cunning, entertaining and well-developed personality that stands out from other antagonists in Hellaverse, making her feel like a breath of fresh air compared to all of Viv's one-dimensional assholes, being an actually good villain...she's also a female character whose episode she got a major focus on...wasn't written by Viv.

We all know Viv is incapable of writing antagonists let alone female antagonists, so, the reason why Velvette ended up being so great compared to Viv's other antagonists is BECAUSE she wasn't being written by Viv or Adam. Viv can't write antagonists or women, so when one of her female antagonists ends up being so great, it's because she's not being written by Viv, but rather, someone who knows how to write female characters.

In episode 2, the episode that IS written by Viv, and where Velvette makes her first appearance, she has a more typical fashionista personality compared to episode 3 (though tbf that's still more of a personality than 99% of Viv's other antagonists), and episode 3, the episode not written by Viv, she has a fully fleshed out personality that makes her a fun antagonist. I really don't think that's just a coincidence.

An guess what? This same thing happened AGAIN in episode 6 with Sera. Sera is the head seraphim and leader of Heaven, she greenlit the exterminations in order to protect Heaven but you get the feeling that she doesn't WANT to do this, that she doesn't feel great about letting Adam and his army murder people bellow. But she feels like she HAS TO in order to protect Heaven...and her sister, Emily.

Initially, in my post about Emily, I said she has no purpose or point as a character, and removing her changes nothing. I was wrong. Emily DOES have a purpose within the show; it's to be a main motivator for Sera, and Emily's existence adds depth to her character. Sera lets the exterminations happen because she also wants to protect Emily and deeply cares about her, she holds her sister close to her and wants to keep her safe.

Sera is a character with real nuances to her actions, she's not just a one-dimensional villain, she's not exactly good either, she's...an actually nuanced and morally grey character that can't be put in either good or evil? In a VIVZIEPOP show???? Like, not saying that Sera is a super deep or compelling character or anything, but like, she's an actually nuanced antagonist with real depth to her...

...and that's because the episode she's in was not written by Viv, just like with Velvette. The reason why Sera is an actually nuanced character is because she's not in an episode written by Viv.

The fact that this happened twice does not seem like a coincidence to me. The reason why Velvette and Sera can be actually decent or even good characters is because they are in episodes that aren't written by Viv or Adam, both of which in all of the episodes they write show the many problems with HH and HB's antagonists. And, ultimately, Velvette and Sera ended up being two of the BEST antagonists in all of Hellaverse because they weren't being written by Viv or Adam.

So, there COULD be a possibility that Lilith can be a good or at least decent antagonist if the episodes she gets a significant spotlight in aren't written by Viv or Adam. If they are...then well, ya, Lilith will probably just be Stella 2.0 or something.

But if she's being written by either of the two guys who did episodes 3 & 6, then she could end up being a good or even great character. The bare is very low for antagonists in these shows, but when they aren't being written by Viv or Adam...they can be kinda good.

[star-star-fall-inlove]

Salvation

Star-Star-Fall-inlove's NOTE

Dark content ahead

Yandere theme, blood, violence, sexual acts, r@pe , Female reader, Gore

Demon au

Introduction

☆ Summary: You were brought to the orphanage when you were just a toddler by your mother. You can't exactly remember what life was with her and you do not wish to know. All you know is that you've lived in the orphanage for the longest time. You enjoyed your time here, yeah at the beginning it wasn't so great. You were as rebellious as they can get! But that's over and done now. You were passing by an alley way on your way home when you caught the smell of blood coming from it. You stopped and stared at the alley for a while before stepping forward and walking down the alley The Father of a church you go to a lot has always warned you to never follow the smell of blood at night. But you felt as though you had to, what if that person was hurt? No, you're going to help them no matter what! But why was your hands shaking so much?

When you got closer to the smell what you saw horrified you to no end.

— — — — ☆ — — — —

Okay! Character background time!

Y/N

Age: 20

Race: Human

She was brought to a orphanage as a toddler and lived there ever since. She likes to cook and bake. She comes of as innocent and naive which is not true She knows about this world and the things they do, she prays that everything will get better everyday.

"When is my salvation going to come, lord?"

Heartslabyul

Riddle Rosehearts

Age: 239

Race: Noble Devil of wrath

A demon who values rules and order. He has a bit of temper and lashes out anything or anyone in his way. Cruel to the eye but broken in the heart.

"You went against a simple rule. Do you not understand the situation your in?"

Trey Clover

Age: 254

Race: Demon

A demon with human traits it's easy to be fooled by him, that's why he's dangerous. He'll sweeten you up and get close to you before he takes what he wants.

"You should have known that dear, you are in this house aren't you?"

Cater Diamond

Age: 248

Race: Incubus

Cater is incubus that doesn't seem like one! You would have thought they were Nothing but flirty beast who tries to get in your pants. Which is not wrong at all. He just doesn't talk about it as much. Anyway Cater is a manipulator so be careful because it doesn't mean he wouldn't try anything with you

"Why don't you stay a little longer~ it won't be that bad"

Ace Trappola

Age: 166

Race: Demon fox

A smart mouth demon who absolutely hates when people disrespect him. And you seem to love to do that the most.

"Didn't I tell you already to stop praying? Its annoying!"

Deuce Spade

Age: 166

Race: Grim reaper

A entity that leads the souls to the place they belong in heaven or hell. He likes to go to the human world and look around.

"Life is a beautiful thing..."

Savanaclaw

Leona Kingscholar

Age: 320

Race: Noble Devil Beast of Sloth

The Devil of Sloth, as the names says he a very lazy person who likes to sleep a lot. He doesn't care who he hurts as Long as he gets what he wants. If you wake him up from his nap you'll most definitely regret it

"Herbivore you got some nerve...I like it"

Ruggie Bucchi

Age: 247

Race: Demon Beast

A demon beast kinda like what Ace is except Ace gets his own title. Anyway he seems to always be by Leona's side. There were a few occasions where he wasn't. He's a little mischievous, He especially enjoys messing with you

"You smell delicious...you wouldn't mind if I had a bite right?"

Jack Howl

Age: 171

Race: Demon Beast

He's the eyes and nose of the group there is nothing he can't find. He has strong sense of justice and u find it weird since he's a demon and all- He's like the demon Hound except he's a wolf. It's really hard for him control himself around you. You always have this feeling like someone or something is watching you...how uncomfortable.

"Don't worry you'll be safe with me"

Octavinelle

Azul Ashengrotto

Age: 289

Race: Noble Devil of Greed

He wants it all. He want your body heart and soul so give it to him. You belong to him and he'll make sure you understand that. Other then that he's usually plotting not kidding. He also likes to give information to the others for money and if it's for free that means he's up to something. He wants nothing more than to see you trapped and stripped of all rights. Nothing but a doll....

"You've done this to yourself don't blame me"

Jade Leech

Age: 289

Race: Water spirit

He also likes to see you uncomfortable like no cap he would most definitely feed you weird mushrooms for sure. You'd be lying if you said you weren't scared of him. He's always smiling at you ..yeah no

"Hello Y/N good afternoon"

Floyd Leech

Age: 289

Race: Water spirit

He's weird...and his emotions always change, one moment he's nice and the next he's mean. It scares you, he would also hug you to tightly practically leaving bruises on your skin

"Aw..Are you done already?"

Scarabia

Kalim Al Asim

Age: 257

Race: Noble Devil of Gluttony

He's oddly nice to you? He makes you nervous but comfortable it's weird. But you got to comfortable around and started to spell things. You thought you could trust him...oh how you were wrong...

"I'm only doing this for your own good Y/N! Don't be at me...please.."

Jamil Viper

Age: 258

Race: Snake Demon

You don't trust him...He's always smiling around you but you know there is more to him, you were right. One day he just snapped, he broke you in many places. He's not like Kalim, he's much more cruel

"Shh shh it hurts me as much as it hurts you, now stay still"

Pomefiore

Vil Schoenheit

Age: 321

Race: Noble Incubus of Lust

He is famous for his looks, very popular among females. He seems to have this obsession with dressing you up and doing your make up and hair. Pretty much he wants to control your life and make you perfect.

"You look absolutely beautiful...so stop crying your going to ruin your makeup"

Rook Hunt

Age: 321

Race: Grim Reaper

He's literally watching you, he can hear you and knows things about you too. So it's impossible to escape on his watch at this point. But he enjoys give you hope and then taking it at the last minute

"Manquer, it's futile to escape us"

Epel Felmier

Age: 165

Race: Demon

How could such a small beautiful boy be so foul mouthed? You would have mistaken him for an angel. You may have mistaken him for a lady once...yeah not a good thing

"Shut up! Ughh I can't stand your yapping!"

Ignihyde

Idia Shroud

Age: 333

Race: Noble Fire Devil of Envy

He's always alone and he seems so sad. Even tho he's a demon you decided to talk to him...what a mistake

"Your the only one who cares for me....Your mine"

Ortho Shroud

Age:???

Race:???

He's a lot nicer to you then he's brother. But make sure you don't say any ill things around him about Idia, it won't be pretty if you did

"I'm sorry"

Diasonmia

Malleus Draconia

Age:???

Race: Noble Dragon Demon of Pride

Why is so overwhelming sweet with you? And he's awfully clingy now don't get me wrong at first we was cold with you. But he eventually got use to you and now he's attached to you...hm you may be able to use him to escape...we'll have to see

"I love you Y/N, Please say the same to me"

Lilia Vanrouge

Age: ???

Race: Bat Demon(Vampire)

He's the man who got you in this situation.. you should have never trusted him from the beginning..But he was so pitiful..Hahaha foolish little Y/N

"Your absolutely perfect, he'd enjoy you as much as I do"

Silver

Age: 226

Race: Fallen Angel

He was different.. he didn't treat you horrible in fact he didn't talk to you at all. He was mostly sleep tbh but when you guys did talk he would give you advice, you really should listen

"Don't go in that room, it's not something you would like to see"

Sebek Zigvolt

Age: 199

Race: Lightning Demon

He was horrible, there was never a day he would miss to curse the hell out of you. Mf would call you names at every second and yell at you at the tinest of things you did wrong def needs to take a chill pill. I'm not joking this guy hates you!! Like he can't understand why your so weak and have the guts to talk back???

"Shut up you weak filthy human! You know not a thing!!"

------------‐----------------☆

AYEEE ITS GOING TO BE DIABOLIK LOVERS ALL OVER AGAIN!!! SO PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE CRINGEE

I've actually been working on this since last year- but like i stopped and now I'm back at it lol (>v<)

[seyaryminamoto]

hello! I really like your meta about Zuko, and I'm so glad that I finally found a person who also thinks that Zuko in book 3 is a much worse person than he was in the book 1. I always thought that something was wrong with me, since literally no one sees this obvious fact for me! But I would like to ask you: What do you think about Katara in book 3? the fact is that she was my favorite character in books 1 and 2, and the way she was written in book 3 upset me a lot. it seems to me that they spoiled her character, but I can't explain why. Please share your thoughts!

Glad you've enjoyed my extensive meta on the fandom's fave, haha. I did write a lot about him, always nice to know my thoughts on the subject are still deemed relevant.

As for Katara... well, I have thoughts on her, too. My experience with her character is quite similar to yours, I'd say, because I too felt a lot better about her character in the first two seasons of the show compared with the third. I don't usually give this a ton of thought, but after your ask, I figured I'd try and figure out what exactly went down with her that made people like us feel so uncomfortable with Katara's portrayal at multiple points of Book 3...

For starters, I'll say I vibed with Katara a lot when I started the show for reasons beyond her being a great character or being written wonderfully: she could very well have been written mediocrely and I would have loved her anyway simply because I ran away from anime to ATLA in an era where anime kept shoehorning incest undertones into every sibling relationship, even in shows that didn't have that as a core subject. It happened at least twice that I can remember, I kept seeing people raving about shows where it WAS the core of it (I still do not understand the Oreimo deal, like, the minute I read that show's title I puked in my mouth and knew I'd never watch it), and I just needed... safety from that concept, I guess?

So when I went into ATLA, and the first sibling relationship you're exposed to is Sokka and Katara, two siblings who very much act like siblings? I was thriving. It was thrilling. I felt so refreshed that I think I didn't care much about the flaws of Book 1, despite my inability to sense direction for most of it, because thank the universe, it was a sibling relationship that made sense to me!

With that as an opening, I'd say that, initially, I thought Katara was fine for most of Book 1. In Book 2? She fell off the radar for me a bit simply because other characters are introduced that just appeal to me so much more than she does. I vibe better with characters like Azula, who tend to be the type of female character I just LOVE, and with characters like Toph, she's a tomboy, I was a tomboy (... was? x'D maybe I shouldn't use past tense...), so I gravitated much more towards those two by no real fault of Katara's core personality traits. Back in Book 1, there aren't as many main characters, so you don't have a lot of variety to choose faves from. It's not that strange, I think, that once the cast broadens, people's interest in certain characters can scatter too.

But then Book 3 happened, and I just couldn't enjoy Katara outside of episodes where she wasn't that important. The Katara-centric episode of Book 3 stand among my least favorite episodes of ATLA altogether, and among the least likely episodes I'd ever want to rewatch. I literally skipped over The Painted Lady in my first rewatches of the show, every bit as much as I skipped The Great Divide or Avatar Day, both of which annoy me a lot in the first two seasons. The Puppetmaster? Not even close to being an episode I could enjoy. Even the Runaway, that's supposed to be Toph-centric, ends up making me count down the minutes for it to end and I'm not even going to get started on The Southern Raiders and the absolute can of worms that episode is...

So, with all this being said, if we peel this particular cabbage open little by little...

After mulling it over, I've grown to suspect that Katara has major inconsistency issues since day one that most people don't particularly like to acknowledge, and that flew over most of our heads from the beginning of the show. She's pretty much portrayed to us as an empath, someone who has so much heart that she can't help but feel everyone's pain and suffer with them all the time. The fandom 100% acts like that's who she is (while also obsessively adultifying her unnecessarily, and forcing her into the mom!friend role, which... we'll talk about that later)

But this is also the same character who, when her brother banished Aang from the Southern Water Tribe as early as in episode 2, protested in a very particular way once Aang was gone. Which one of these statements sound more accurate to Katara's character, and a suitable protest for her to proclaim upon witnessing this injustice against Aang?

"Aang is alone! How could you send him away on his own? He could be in danger, Sokka! He's just a kid!"

"The Air Nomads are gone, Sokka! Where do you think he'll go? He doesn't have a home to go back to and you just sent him away!"

"You happy now? There goes my one chance at becoming a waterbender!"

If you ask the fandom? They'll most likely think that her reaction was either #1 or #2.

Surprise surprise: it was actually #3

I'm not saying she didn't show empathy towards Aang while Sokka was ranting at him, because she did. I'm not saying she wasn't willing to be banished along with Aang until Sokka asks if she'd choose pretty much a total stranger over their family and tribe, because she was. She absolutely did all those things.

... So why would she focus only on how he represented her one chance at becoming a waterbender once Aang is gone?

This feels off to me. I've never particularly liked that line. And you could absolutely say that Katara has every right to be mad at losing her chance to reclaim an aspect of her culture that she cannot connect to, but the way it was framed here? It absolutely makes Katara look more selfish than she actually was. The wording is not good. The show doesn't emphasize, at this point, that bending is such a core and crucial part of their culture and that Katara feels a major responsibility in being the ONLY person in the South Pole that can keep it alive. So it just comes off as a child's tantrum. Sokka's concerns were 100% valid too, even if he went about them while being a jerk (he is, indeed, an older brother...). He wasn't even wrong in the end about how dangerous Aang was to their tribe, since Aang's mishap with Katara on the ship gives away his position to Zuko, and it results in Zuko ramming a huge ship into their home and nearly killing people in the process. But you DON'T see the show fully framing it as though Katara and Aang did something wrong -- it was an honest mistake. We know it was. Sokka is framed as unreasonable for being so paranoid even though later events in the very episode prove he wasn't.

And that's... the crux of the issue with Katara's writing. If you ask me.

There are far too many instances where Katara makes mistakes that she's not held accountable for, that she doesn't apologize for, that run against the core logic and principles of her character and they either get shrugged off or overlooked. There are far too many situations where she acts out, and is a jerk at her jerk of a brother, even unprompted on occasion, and it's supposed to just be funny. One particularly stood out to me when I revisited it a few years ago, I can't really remember what for (maybe when I was writing Jeong Jeong's arc in Gladiator and I had a look at the fishing village...?), but it's the famous flashback episode in Book 1: The Storm.

The scene in question is... humorous. Supposedly. Katara is trying to buy fruit in the market but then realizes they have no money to pay for it. Not only does Katara piss off the vendor, but the vendor actually takes her rage out on Sokka once she realizes these kids won't give her any business: he gets kicked in the rear, as the transcript's description says. No one protests the woman's violent reaction, not even Sokka. Katara most certainly doesn't do it. But that's not all there is to it: Sokka doesn't hold what happened with the fruit vendor against Katara, they have a conversation on how they have no money and no food... and Katara offers him the golden ticket solution to their problems:

"You could get a job, smart guy."

Am I too feminist for thinking it's insane that Katara expects her brother alone to get the job? That she's not saying the THREE of them should get jobs? She and Aang are BENDERS! That's an asset most people aren't likely to find in any would-be employees in the central Earth Kingdom! So... wouldn't it be logical for all of them to do it? But no, instead, Sokka alone has to get the job?

And yes, I know, Sokka is the provider, Sokka is the protector, Sokka would do ANYTHING for his sister and the people he loves: you ask the fandom, though, and that's Katara instead of him. Moments like these simply do not exist in the fandom's eyes and, if they do, they're just excusable because Sokka is boring/weird/annoying/insert-demeaning-nonsense-here and Katara is a queen who can do whatever she wants.

Then, the consequences arrive once Sokka gets a dangerous job on a fishing boat and nearly gets killed in a storm. Aang is the one who shows concern about the potential storm when the fisherman's wife brings it up: from all I can see in the transcript, there's nothing from Katara. Sokka says they told him to get a job, so that's what he's doing, and there's no manifestation of concern from either of them about maybe joining him on this fishing trip to ensure he's safe. Instead, Aang is haunted by his past and Katara goes with him when he leaves, which, yes, is very important for context on the Air Nomads and Aang's life... and yet we don't really NEED for this scene to be Katara and Aang only. It could've included Sokka too. The plot of the second half of the episode would change? Likely. They could've come up with another idea, and not shown us a Katara who doesn't show concern for her brother's safety or any remorse when her unfair demands or expectations from him could result in catastrophic outcomes :') yes, she worries about Sokka's safety once the storm hits, but there's no sign of her feeling responsible for Sokka being out in the storm at all. No apology. Which is ironic, because Zuko apologizes to Iroh in that very same episode, hence, an apology from Katara to her brother could have mirrored that side of the story well, and they REALLY loved doing Zuko-Gaang parallel scenes like that, so it would have fit perfectly! Didn't happen, though.

Point being... Katara's compassion and empathy are not absolute. It's important to keep in mind is that they don't need to be! But precisely because she falters with them in moments where she REALLY shouldn't, with people as important to her as her own brother? It becomes very difficult to believe that she's the empath the fandom is convinced she is, and that the show's narrative tries to push her as.

The real reason why her failure to show compassion to Sokka in "humorous" situations feels so unnerving isn't because she's a typical little sister who takes her brother for granted (which is a perfectly logical/believable behavior!): it's because there are no consequences for it. Maybe at some point or another there were? But I for one can't remember many instances where Katara failed Sokka and it was framed as her fault and her responsibility. Let's look at other Book 1 instances that exemplify what I mean:

She freezes him to the deck of Zuko's ship, which puts Sokka in MAJOR danger, and she just tells him to hurry up as if it weren't her fault that he's frozen in the first place. We don't even see her making efforts to thaw him out of there when she IS the waterbender so it seems logical that she should be able to help with that (and if she's too inexperienced to do it? The least she can do to help her brother out of a dangerous situation is to TRY???). But apparently it's funny that she doesn't help him when it's her fault! So this is fine!

She endangers the entire group over the waterbending scroll, which, of course, the pirates had no right to have anyway and it's reasonable that she'd want it for herself... but she antagonized a group of fully adult, dangerous, potential murderous pirates, against Sokka's constant warnings that they shouldn't pick that particular fight. As far as I can remember? Her apologies on that episode are exclusively about how she hurt Aang's feelings by being jealous over his greater talents as a bender. Basically, nothing for Sokka, no apology for not listening to him about danger, making it worse when the very final moment features Katara proudly telling her brother that she won't steal things... unless it's from pirates. So lesson not learned because it's funny, again, to never acknowledge that Sokka has a point.

She actually cares about Sokka's fate in Jet! But the thing is... the narrative doesn't frame that as Katara's fault. Because it's not. Jet made his choices and he did awful things and he captured Sokka, lied and gaslit everyone, because he had a goal to fulfill and he used Katara to make that happen. As angry and upset as Katara is, it's not exactly shown that Katara is sorry for having trusted Jet when Sokka could have ended up paying a deadly price for it. She's angry at the betrayal, even in Book 2 it's constantly framed as though Katara is upset at him as an ex-girlfriend would be upset at her ex-boyfriend for lying to her rather than, you know, being pissed at him for nearly killing her brother + an entire village. My point is, the narrative framing never holds her responsible for Jet's choices. Which, again, she's not. But she IS responsible for her own choices... and one of those choices was disregarding Sokka's warnings about Jet. THAT was her fault, and her responsibility. She jumped to conclusions and assumed that Sokka was bitter and jealous that Jet was the charming cool leader Sokka could never be. There were no apologies to Sokka over that, either.

I could go on, and on, and on. The truth is, I bring all this up to show with solid evidence that Katara's writing was always a little... unstable. Weird. Disconnected from logic in many regards, I'd say. It's not logical/compatible to tell us that this character has the BIGGEST heart of the entire cast when she fails to show that heart to none other than her own brother, who is inarguably the person who she knows best and with whom she should share the closest relationship, even as her friendship with Aang grows and thrives. That makes no sense, thematically speaking.

Is it meant to be comedic? Yes, every bit as much as Iroh sexually harassing June was done for comedy's sake. That's not an excuse for characters behaving in ways that are thematically contrary to what they're supposed to be portraying... and along with that? No excuse for them facing zero consequences for that behavior. Which is, in fact, my main issue with these flaws from Katara: I have no issue with the writing choices in the scenes I listed just now! I take issue, however, with the lack of follow-up and consequences that you can BET, 100%, would have befallen Sokka if it had been him instead of Katara acting that way. He faced consequences even for things he didn't do, for comedy's sake: he wouldn't have gotten away with disregarding Katara's safety as often as Katara did with him, no chance at all.

Ultimately, these scenes in Book 1 are kind of ignorable in the larger scheme of things (or at least, that's how the fandom has always acted). Not a lot of people take any of this as major proof of characterization for Katara. You won't see a lot of fic writers showing her acting like this. Canon, though, often would go down this route for funsies, and the comics certainly did it plenty too, that I can remember. Part of the issue here is that, as funny as it is, it also makes Katara feel stale as a character, as does the Sokka-Katara dynamic, at large, because there's no progression for it. That's probably my greatest gripe with the Great Divide, believe it or not: it fakes being an episode where Sokka and Katara are going to be confronted over their conflictive tendencies, and the ONLY potential development in that basically-filler episode SHOULD HAVE BEEN Sokka and Katara learning to be a bit more harmonious and respectful of each other? ... And that's just not what happened at all. The status quo remains exactly the same after that episode, and it continues to be like that until the end of the show.

The real reason why Sokka and Katara are deemed the healthy siblings is because, of course, compared with the other main set of siblings in the show, these two appear to get along wonderfully. But the truth is, their relationship is not as dynamic as it deserved to be. And that's part of why Book 3 ends up failing in ways Book 1 might not have, while having similar flaws: Book 1 is when you're still getting to know these kids, and that's why I find its flaws far more forgivable than anything that comes later. When there's basically no development for that connection at all, Book 3 winds up falling flat with characters like Sokka and Katara and the bond between them.

All this being said... I'm not saying that Katara is terrible in Book 1. I still stand by the fact that I really enjoyed her character in many instances of this season, there absolutely are situations where she sasses Sokka that still make me crack a smile, and genuinely humorous situations that don't paint her in a questionable light over her lack of concern for her brother's safety. Her fight to earn the right to be trained as a waterbender is deeeeeply flawed but it's not her fault, it's more the misogyny of the writers/creators that decided that a betrothal necklace from his past would make Pakku unlearn all his sexism and get over his bullshit right after beating up a girl who was fighting tooth and nail to make him acknowledge her. That he only acknowledges her because he wanted to marry her grandmother is... uh... fuckboi behavior even when he's well over 70 years of age? XD

So, yeah, Book 1 still has my favorite Katara of the entire show even though I REALLY wish she wouldn't get away with things that other characters wouldn't get a pass for (... well... other than Zuko...). I can't enjoy her as much as I enjoy other characters because I really don't like it when characters aren't held accountable for serious mistakes they made.

Moving on to Book 2, though, and leaving behind my greatest gripe with Katara's Book 1 writing (lack of direct consequences/self-reflection on her part), Book 2's biggest sin when it comes to Katara is the beginning of the "mothering" trope. I honestly did not feel motherly vibes from Katara towards anyone in Book 1. Sokka is very often the one playing the responsible role, while Aang and Katara are seeing the world, practicing their bending, doing reckless and fun things. The entire thing about Katara being the mom friend started in Book 2 when she suddenly becomes the epitome of responsibility (well... kinda) when Toph joins the group. She still does sketchy stuff with zero consequences (I'll forever complain about how ice is not cold in this show, the kids she froze to the wall may have been dicks, but freezing someone alive that way should have resulted in serious health repercussions, just as ANY case of freezing someone alive should have, ffs, be it Zuko in Book 1's finale or Azula + Katara in Book 3's...), but once Toph is part of the group, she becomes the cool girl who's "one of the boys", and now Katara is "the mom". This dynamic gets forced into the story pretty much right after Toph joins the group. And after that? It doesn't really change for the better often. There are only a handful of instances where Katara wasn't acting wholesome and comforting and kind and compassionate in Book 2 (... particularly with Sokka, ofc), but the point where her dynamics, even with Aang, start to feel motherly is definitely Book 2.

And this adds to the issue, in the end: Katara's appeal as the main girl in the show is suddenly gone because Toph is here, and she's a way more unique character that the writers definitely were having fun working with, probably more fun than they had with Katara. So they had to find a new niche for her, I'd dare guess. Thus, instead of actually building up an awesome and solid friendship between Katara and Toph, they mostly just clash and collide. Toph is basically the ONLY character who gives Katara grief and isn't framed as in the wrong for it, which is its own set of issues (namely, Toph not being challenged enough by the narrative, which stunts her character growth), but among many things, we suddenly get shown that Katara is a girly girl who likes makeup and she ropes Toph into this when nothing we've seen so far suggests that Toph would be comfortable with that. Katara pushes her into doing things because they're the "girls of the group"... and it doesn't often look like Toph's feelings on anything are important when Katara is pushing her around for whatever purpose. I'm not saying Toph hated the spa day, she certainly had fun eventually, but even when the comics made a "Katara and Toph's day out" story, where Toph got to choose what to do for once, the story devolved into Katara's show anyway, and things concluded with Toph deciding they're better off doing girly things together when they want to hang out because Katara is just too intense for the things Toph would like to do.

This isn't even in the show, but it's basically a response to Tales of Ba Sing Se to try and even out Katara and Toph's one-sided dynamic, where Katara calls the shots of their entertainment... and even then, Toph doesn't really get what she's looking for. But Katara does get that out of Toph because all she wants is a girl to do girly things with and Toph provides that in the end, no matter how much of a tomboy she may be. Toph might just want a friend who loves the things she loves, and who knows, Katara could be that person! But the story never leads her in that direction so we never see that happen. And that's why that particular friendship never really... clicked for me. Their dynamics don't really feel enjoyable to me as they were written in the show, even though they very much could have been.

That's one thing I'll always give ATLA: the character potential and synergy they captured with that cast could be absolutely incredible. Team Avatar is so iconic because they really could work well off each other. A lot of teams in other media just aren't this good (... one of my main reasons to not enjoy Voltron and drop it in season 1 was my absolute failure to find any synergy between those characters, it felt like they all hated each other and I honestly did not enjoy their dynamics in the least), but Aang, Katara and Sokka have great synergy due to their different personalities in Book 1. Same when Toph joins them in Book 2. Zuko ABSOLUTELY could have been better in the group than he was if Book 3 hadn't devolved into the Zuko Woobifying Show by the second half, where the only writing priority was making him friends with everyone, and making them all feel sorry for him and have compassion towards him. But, broken down to his core traits, Zuko's personality would have resulted in solid chemistry with everyone else's if they'd gotten off that agenda anyway! So ultimately, ATLA has a big win in this respect that a lot of TV shows would LOVE to recreate but they simply haven't struck the right kind of balance in character traits.

Hence why the way they wrote Toph and Katara's dynamics kind of feels like a betrayal to me. Those two could have been a lot of fun, they have EVERYTHING it takes to be entertaining characters with not a ton of things in common and yet building a solid friendship that hinges on their differences. I've seen a fair few examples of that kind of dynamic in other media, and it absolutely would be possible with Toph and Katara. It's really unfair that they couldn't capture their dynamics in such a way that both characters would SHINE, rather than constantly resorting to conflicts between them that never seemed to truly be resolved.

So: Toph should not be a problem for Katara. She should enhance her character and doesn't because of writing failures. One of the core failures is "mom friend Katara", of course: there's nothing inherently wrong with Katara stepping up and taking care of people she loves, but there's something very wrong with it when she's suddenly portrayed as this motherly figure when she's doing things that Sokka had been doing just fine in Book 1. Main reason why this is the case? Sokka got dumbed down to full-time class clown for whatever reason in Book 2. While he has good moments, a lot of times they went WAY overboard with making him a source of comedy this season and that, too, contributes to mom friend Katara. Since Sokka is being so meh? We even feel relieved that Katara is there to keep things together because nobody can expect the other three to do it, right? But... Sokka was doing it in Book 1. And there's no real development to explain him NOT doing it anymore once Toph joins in besides "Katara is now the mom friend and Sokka is just here to be funny". It's not organic development: it's forcing tropes that just don't fit. And while Katara's mothering doesn't feel as unpleasant as it could here, it ultimately forces a new interpretation and portrayal of her character that honestly isn't all that interesting, most of all when the other characters are constantly portrayed as "more fun" while she's just here to keep them in line.

It just isn't the same Katara we met in Book 1, and it shows in spades. Book 1 Katara would have been hyped to join Aang and Toph in chaos while Sokka screams at them to behave themselves. Book 2 Katara is the one trying to keep the other three in line, and there's genuinely zero development that led things to that stage. It's not organic storytelling. There's no growth that leads to that, and so, it feels off.

But the core problem of all these flaws in Book 1 and Book 2 is that they roll together and snowball into something far greater that then proceeds to just... disrupt everything we thought we knew or understood about Katara. We've been told she's a kind person above all else, someone who cares about people close to her, someone who embodies hope and strength and love...!

... And then Book 3 starts, and we're actually facing a Katara who shifts into a wholly different person with the speed of a whiplash that we're left not knowing who tf this is anymore.

"Mom friend Katara" absolutely comes back in Book 3, why lie? She takes care of people, she tries to provide, she tries to be nice and sweet and then also enforces discipline on Toph (particularly) when she's being irresponsible!

But the reason why The Runaway is such an unpleasant episode is because Katara's behavior is dialed up to a thousand, and the conflict between her and Toph feels WAY too similar to what it was when they were barely getting to know each other in The Chase. Why are they STILL clashing over such things? There are occasional glimpses of friendliness there in The Runaway, sure! But they're not so strong that you actually feel like that friendship supersedes their conflicts and their propensity to bicker and argue and hurt each other. Toph blatantly calls her out on her mothering and fully canonically confirms that Katara is The Mom Friend™. Where Toph is annoyed but eventually complies with doing what Katara wants to do in Tales of Ba Sing Se, this time Katara makes a huuuuuge fuss over Toph's misbehavior and her scamming Fire Nation people. And you could argue that Toph has every right to do it, or that Katara is right to be worried, just like Sokka used to worry about such things in Book 1...

But what we get is a stale dynamic that repeats the same problems we saw in Book 2, as well as Katara coming off as rather hypocritical because she, too, did dangerous shit and picked dangerous fights where she shouldn't have, and ignored everyone who told her not to do it: she gave Toph that kind of grief over things Katara was willing to do back when Toph wasn't in the group (see the pirates thing), and she will try to stop Toph from having fun on her own terms when nobody has ever tried to stop Katara from doing that in hers. Of course, any Katara advocate would read this and go "you're missing the point: Katara was sad and upset that she was being LEFT OUT! That's why she was so mad about this!" Then the irony of the matter is that this argument STILL reflects poorly on Katara. She gave her friend a tough time, called her a wild child and a crazy person, went through her personal belongings because "she could tell Toph was hiding something from her", so she fully disregarded Toph's privacy... all because she couldn't say "Wait, you guys went scamming Fire Nation people? Damn, why didn't you wait for me! I would've gone too!", and there you go, problem solved! Katara's not left out anymore!

Yes, of course, that's not how it WORKS, people can struggle to identify what they feel...!

... And now it's my turn to say that that's not the point.

The point is that Katara said and did hurtful things to her friend. Things she eventually regrets, yes, but that she didn't have to do at all. This is the same person who fed Appa a bunch of food that made it look like he was sick, all be it to keep the group from leaving the Jang Hui river village so she could go out of her way to heal the injured and sick without telling anyone what she was doing. That, too, was a choice she made with no concern regarding how the rest of her team might feel about it: was she doing something nice? Sure! But it's not fundamentally different from Toph doing whatever she wants with zero regard as to Katara's feelings on the matter. Katara KNEW she was stalling their journey and that Sokka wanted them to move on: she didn't care about his feelings or priorities, and the story eventually frames Katara as being in the right for feeling that way. Here, she's in the inverse scenario, only it's with Toph rather than Sokka, and instead of realizing that she, too, has made choices that were irresponsible/dangerous/risky and STILL went all out with them, down to fighting whoever opposed her choices? Katara just doubles down until she, again, breaches boundaries and overhears Toph and Sokka's conversation, WHICH IS ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS DUE TO THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS FOLLOW-UP...

The thing is, Katara as a mom friend is not even a good thing. It's not conducive to fun or interesting storytelling, not in Book 2, not now. It doesn't make Katara a more interesting and dynamic character. The way she's portrayed isn't so she looks tragic for taking this role, it's all about forcing these kids into tropes that don't necessarily add up to who they have been so far. Katara's mom friend status is NOT treated with any compassion. It's not handled as a sore, difficult subject outside of the ONE conversation Sokka has with Toph that Katara overhears. And it's not centered on Katara's tragedy, on how she overcompensates for her mother's absence, it's centered on Sokka accepting her as a motherly person and encouraging Toph to do the same thing. The people who saw further depth in it probably haven't looked at the script itself in a long time: you CAN see more to it, but that's not the point of the scene. That's not where it's going. And the fact that such a tragic situation is what conduces Katara to take up the mom friend role actively makes it look like... she shouldn't have it. Why would she be the mom friend if she's just overcompensating for Kya's death? If she's taking up responsibility by thinking that no one else will (a blatant lie because, again, in Book 1 there's NO SIGN of this behavior and it's Sokka who's in a role of responsibility compared to her), it suggests that EVERYONE ELSE ought to step up and stop "relying" (and Sokka very much uses that word) on Katara being the mom friend. It's not a healthy thing. It's a coping mechanism that seems to be actively damaging Katara: and the story doesn't acknowledge it that way.

So... "mom friend Katara", dialed up to a thousand in Book 3, absolutely has a connection with why her character loses its sheen by this point in the story. There's no attempt to deconstruct this coping mechanism by Katara. No indication from the rest of the team that maybe Katara should get to be a kid just like them and stop being so uptight (even though VERY often she's not that uptight but the show very much tries to pretend she is). It's Katara's initiative to do a scam, it's not Toph or Sokka or Aang who think she needs to join in on the fun, she basically inserts herself in it. So basically, those three take the route of saying "that's what she's like, we just gotta bear with it", instead of actually helping her. If we'd seen that? Mom friend Katara would actually be a fun element to witness deconstructed by the story. And I'm not blaming either Katara or the other three for this:

This is EMINENTLY a writing problem.

Mom friend Katara is not a good trope. It could be if the point was to help her break free from it. It's not. It's simply weak writing that can't handle two girls with proactive, aggressive personalities and a ton of agency, a lack of creativity in realizing how much potential there could be in making Toph and Katara the absolute best of friends. It's seriously a disservice to the two of them that this trope literally blooms over Toph joining the show and then NEVER gets resolved or chased away. And when you have characters like Sokka or Aang kind of joining the bandwagon of "yeah, Katara's a mom!" when the two of them traveled with her in Book 1 and she WASN'T that at all? It makes matters infinitely worse.

So, if you ask me? This is the first thing that makes Katara feel more unpleasant than ever before in Book 3.

The second thing is even worse.

We return to accountability, as well as to illogical flow of thought when it comes to the writing of Katara: in Book 1, we see a hopeful girl who never speaks ill of her father or betrays any manner of displeasure or distrust towards him. No sign of her being conflicted by what Hakoda is doing: the focus is entirely on Sokka's feelings on the matter once it finally comes up in Bato of the Water Tribe, and Katara is a secondary matter, if even that.

This would be fine if Hakoda hadn't come up at all as a subject throughout Books 1 and 2. If Katara had never had the potential opportunity to see her father in any of these instances and had backed out from them for bigger reasons than... plot reasons.

For reference: she's excited, just as Sokka is, when Bato says he can bring the kids to meet their dad again. They're HYPED. We see no sign of Katara being upset at Hakoda for leaving at this point. The only portrayed reason why she and Sokka decide not to go see Hakoda is because they think Aang needs them more and they decide to forgive him for hiding the map. Katara, from the get-go, is not as angry at Aang for hiding the map as Sokka is. Clearly, Sokka wants to see Hakoda far more intensely than Katara does: even so, there's no sign anywhere here that implies that Katara harbors resentment or dissatisfaction towards Hakoda.

Book 2 gives us a similar situation: Katara declines going to see Hakoda and offers to be the one who stays in Ba Sing Se so Sokka can go see Hakoda himself. Sokka is soooo thrilled and thanks her and calls her the best sister ever and Katara very much says she is, indeed, the best. Which she's allowed to, worth noting, I'm not saying her reaction to Sokka's praises was bad, it's actually funny: but what I AM saying is that she knows how much this matters to Sokka and that's why she makes the offer she does. It's also VERY convenient! Because logic dictates that, if Sokka stays behind, he realizes the Kyoshi Warriors aren't themselves far faster than Katara does (even though, to be fair, Katara didn't really have much time to realize it at all), and we wouldn't have Aang suffering over Katara's imprisonment because the one in chains would be Sokka and then Aang might just go "oh okay it's just Sokka, I can go cosmic if it's not Katara"

... yeah I'm being sarcastic I actually don't think Aang wouldn't have saved Sokka, but they very clearly had Katara stay behind first and foremost for this specific purpose...

But Katara's acknowledgement that this is a good thing for her brother makes you REALLY wonder how much of a secret grudge she was supposed to feel towards her father at this stage of the story. The truth, in my opinion? She wasn't actually supposed to resent Hakoda as she did, let alone quite so harshly.

My sister personally told me that she thought Katara's anger at Hakoda was a fine storytelling choice when I told her I didn't like it. She told me Katara herself most likely didn't realize how hurt she had been by her father's leaving, that it wasn't until she was around Hakoda again that she understood she resented him at all, and that she had a lot more pent-up rage and frustrations than she had EVER acknowledged, and they burst out frequently in Book 3. Which, you know, is one possible explanation that tries to make this whole thing more palatable. From a human standpoint? This is valid.

... From a writing point? Not so much.

A Katara who struggles to understand her heart (which... is odd, tbh. As far as they portray her, Katara tends to know exactly what she's feeling, why she's feeling it, and she acts on her emotions rather than brains more often than not) would be portrayed as confused over her own rage at Hakoda. She would not have been written as a snappy teenager who hates her dad. She would have snapped at him and then apologized by reflex, unsure of what's come over her. We would see Sokka trying to mediate between them too, probably asking Katara what's her deal, and she would have no idea how to explain it. Katara would be avoiding Hakoda, knowing she loves him, not knowing why she seems to hate him now, afraid of saying things she shouldn't. Every time she snaps at him, she should worry about what she did, she should fear for Hakoda's feelings, she should reflect on what's going on inside her heart...!

... But that doesn't happen. And that knocks SO HARD on the concept of empath/compassionate Katara that it basically turns her into a whole different person.

As I've said countless times so far: it's not about Katara being perfect. I don't WANT her to be perfect. But I DO want the show to acknowledge that she's not. I want the flaws to REALLY read as flaws. I want other characters to react to those mishaps on Katara's part, and I want HER to reflect on what she's doing and realize she's messing up, just as she does when she hurts Aang's feelings in the Waterbending Scroll, which is most likely the best situation where Katara actually owns up to the exact mistake she made and feels genuine, palpable, obvious remorse for it. But when you feature Katara lashing out at Hakoda, and everyone just staying quiet because "uuuuh, awkwaaaard...", it feels off. Aang asks Katara, outright, what's her problem with her dad! And Katara goes "What? What problem?" She's acting like she's not even aware of the fact that her behavior is out of place, basically gaslighting Aang into pretending that she didn't do anything rude or mean to Hakoda. Aang literally saw it with his own eyes and is the ONLY person to bring it up.

To make matters worse? Katara has been with Hakoda for WEEKS. It's not like they just crossed paths two seconds before Aang opened his eyes. The implication is that she's been behaving like this, or her behavior has been deteriorating towards Hakoda with no one worrying about it or trying to make her reason with it. for that long. Sokka didn't do anything. Hakoda just took the teenage rants and left her alone because that's what she wants. And when the one person brings up that she's not acting like herself? Katara pretends nothing's wrong and acts like everything's fine and she's not acting any differently from herself. Whether she actually is just lying to Aang or ALSO lying to herself is a matter of debate... but what it suggests is she's unwilling to confront the gravity of her choices and how she can be hurting her father with them.

This is NOT to say that Katara has no right to be angry about Hakoda abandoning her in the Tribe. She has every right to be upset and feel forsaken. Their mother died, and Hakoda left with all the men of the tribe, and Sokka was left behind, tasked to protect everyone, and Katara apparently felt responsible for the whole village too: as valid as Hakoda's quest to fight in the war might be, it's not out of this world for Katara to harbor frustrations and resentment over what happened.

What IS out of this world, and particularly, not appropriate to her character, is that her way to convey those feelings was something she gave herself to, completely, only to reason with it once Aang was missing so that the episode would conflagrate her problems with Aang and Hakoda into the same thing.

This is basically a dark expansion of what we've seen in Katara's treatment of Sokka since Book 1: where it was typically "humorous" when she was a jerk to him and paid no price for it, this time it's not humorous. This time, you're supposed to see her being a jerk and then go "aaaaw, poor dear," even if you're not supposed to get mad at Hakoda because he is very much a decent dad. The show was trying to have its cake and eat it too with this situation, because Katara DOESN'T apologize to Hakoda for being unfair to him: HAKODA APOLOGIZES TO HER. Hakoda acknowledges the pain he caused Katara and the damage his leaving has wrought upon his children by apologizing and explaining how much he missed them... but Katara does not acknowledge the pain she inflicted on her father by acting out when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Is this teenager behavior? You could chalk it down to that, but that's precisely why teenagers can be a pain in the ass! And that's very much how Katara is being portrayed if she's unwilling to acknowledge she acted out and hurt someone she loves!

Her problems and resentment towards Hakoda magically go away after that single conversation. After this? She loves him. No hard feelings left. If her problems with Hakoda were this deep and difficult to navigate and work through, either she bottled them up in the rest of the show and stopped them from affecting her father... or she just got over it that quickly. Which would be very unrealistic because Hakoda apologizing for leaving doesn't change the damage Katara suffered through because he was gone. A single apology doesn't fix everything that people read into Katara's deep anguish in this scene and episode. And yet that's very much how the show portrays it: Katara is 100% fine in every single other interaction with Hakoda she gets past the first episode of Book 3. Does that make sense? Is that good writing? No, actually: it's literally digging up a problem, making it up last minute with zero lead-up to it, where the ONLY way to read "lead-up" is to pretend that Katara always had ulterior motives to avoid going to see Hakoda, even though we NEVER were shown that she was hiding anything, something that could be VERY easily shown in the story if they'd always had this in mind. The truth is that they didn't. They made it up for this episode, forced it in there, didn't even write it right because nobody reacts to Katara's behavior reasonably except Aang, and she gets away with it without even having to apologize. That's... not good form for any character, let alone Miss Responsibility and Empathy, is it?

This is why it's such a problem that Katara acted as she did towards her father. It's not because this is an unthinkable flaw: it's because there's very much no lead-up to it, kind of like there's none with Korrasami's big reveal in LOK's finale. It's because there's no follow-up to it either. It's because we don't see Katara living up to her supposed core character traits, where she should have a realization that her choices and actions and behavior have hurt someone else, someone she cares about. None of that happens.

And I will say: it's different when it comes to her clashes with Zuko and her reactions to him in the second half of Book 3. This is basically the MAIN thing the fandom gives her grief for and I hate them for it: she has every right and reason and justification to show no empathy or compassion towards a person who, as far as she could tell, took advantage of her compassion in Ba Sing Se, of Aang's compassion frequently across Book 1, and paid them back for all of it by joining forces with Azula and showing no concern to help Aang when Azula almost killed him. I am no fan of Iroh's... but Iroh jumped in to help Katara and Aang escape, at risk of being captured. Zuko stood beside Azula and did NOTHING to help those two leave. He showed zero concern for Aang's survival. He saw his sister potentially murder someone and had ZERO REACTION. So, no offense but full offense: Katara's unwillingness to trust Zuko is JUSTIFIED. Not only is it justified? It's CORRECT. It's the only writing choice that makes sense. Sokka getting over it relatively quickly feels off to me, no matter if the Boiling Rock adventure isn't as bad as others might be. Aang not holding a grudge for too long kind of fits because it is Aang... but Katara being that mad at Zuko? That's 100% fine. It fits. It works. And anyone pretending that what I said about Hakoda applies to how she treated Zuko is just completely biased in Zuko's favor.

Katara and Zuko do not have a secret magical powerful soulmates bond in canon. Their one instance of bonding comes after multiple instances of the exact opposite thing. Katara and Sokka were 100% down for leaving Zuko to freeze to death in the North Pole, and the ONLY reason why Zuko survives is because Aang can't let that happen to him. It's AANG'S compassion that saved Zuko. Katara felt none, AND SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO FEEL ANY. Let's not forget that!

Moving on to Book 2, Katara actually makes her first offer of kindness to Zuko and Iroh in the Chase when she offers to heal Iroh after Azula's attack. Zuko's reaction is to lash out violently and yell at her to leave: who, exactly, would feel inclined to think this poor beautiful sad boy just needs love when you OFFER HIM kindness and his reaction is, in a manner of speaking "go fuck yourself I'll handle this on my own"? And it's worth bringing it up because it feels like the fandom is hilariously misled into thinking the Gaang magically knows what Zuko is up to and how he's growing and evolving, as if they were part of the audience: they're not. The last time Katara saw Zuko before Ba Sing Se is literally when Zuko refuses her help. We're also talking about Fire Nation people: Katara has every right and every reason to believe that Zuko is refusing her help, not out of personal, internal strife he's dealing with and has no idea how to handle... she very much can read this as "inferior Water Tribe peasant, you will not heal my uncle with your wretched waterbending!" Because... let's be real, that's what Zuko looked like to Katara across Book 1. She has no real reason to think he's any better or different from that until their catacombs scene...

... And he stabs her in the back and joins Azula there. Right after "bonding" with her.

So let's be VERY clear on that respect: Katara has no real reason to forgive Zuko. She has no real reason to feel empathy outside of the show constantly trying to push that she's kind and compassionate with no boundaries, even if she forsakes that kindness and compassion at random whenever the plot requires it. But her death threats to Zuko? They're completely fine by me. I'd be pissed if she had acted any differently, and if anything I hate how easy Zuko had it to befriend everyone but Katara.

... Not to say I'm happy with how he befriended Katara either, but anyway...

As this isn't Zuko meta, we're not going to get into the true core glaring issues in The Southern Raiders, because ultimately, that episode paints Zuko in a disgusting light that his fans are constantly gaslighting themselves about. He was not beinga heroic good dude helping someone he connected profoundly with. His behavior leaves so much to be desired and proves he hasn't unlearned a lot of toxic things he had internalized. He didn't unlearn them in this episode, either. But the GREATEST sin Zuko commits in this episode, without a doubt, is bringing Katara on a journey that ultimately did NOTHING for her. The only person benefitting from it was Zuko himself. I've seen people pretend that Katara finally found closure: she did not do such thing. She learned what kind of scum killed her mother, but she did not forgive him nor did she kill him. Closure would mean peace. Katara did not find peace with the situation. She's shown troubled, sitting at that pier, miserable, when Aang talks with her, she's STILL angry. That's not closure. It never was.

What it was, however, was the journey where Katara thanked Zuko and forgave him because..! Uh... because...

... Why, exactly, did Katara forgive Zuko here?

He brought her to her mother's killer: she found no closure from it. In fact, she learned the VERY disturbing truth that she hadn't realized so far: HER MOTHER DIED SPECIFICALLY TO SAVE HER. Her mother sacrificed herself for Katara's sake. She CANNOT find peace with this reality in a single afternoon because holy shit, who would? Katara KNEW her mother had died. It's not until Yon Rha tells her what happened that she understands what happened in the igloo. Katara herself, her waterbending skills, and the target she painted on her own back because of something 100% out of her control, something that is NOT evil and that the Fire Nation was hellbent on destroying, are the reasons why Kya was murdered. This is DISTURBING SHIT to deal with. And the show completely sidelines this revelation and the dark impact it could have on Katara, which, seriously, is HUGE, way worse than what happened with Hakoda, because it very much could have triggered a profound self-hatred by Katara towards her own skills because how tf could her bending cause her mother's death?! Not to mention the obvious: who was that source? Who told the Southern Raiders that there was a waterbender? Who the hell is responsible, beyond the Fire Nation, for her mother's death?

There's A LOT to unpack here.

And none of it matters because Katara is just supposed to forgive Zuko for exacerbating and worsening her trauma regarding her mother's death :') funny how that works.

This IS the point where Katara should make a display of darker sides of herself that she didn't know or understand. THIS is where Katara turning dark like Aang did after Appa vanished would make PERFECT sense. With this revelation about Kya that's beyond disturbing: not with Hakoda... and certainly not with Sokka.

The cusp of Katara's worst is, by far, her behavior with her brother in the Southern Raiders. I know a million excuses have been made for this moment: my problem is NOT the fact that she lashed out at him as she did and said something DEEPLY hurtful. It's the fact that KNOWING, SEEING HE'S IN PAIN...

... does not matter to her one bit.

Instead of a trite scene with Zuko spouting shit he does NOT mean (aka "violence wasn't the answer... but lol go kill my father okay??"), we deserved a scene with Katara and Sokka talking this out. People pretend it's fine as it is: it's not. Katara has spent the ENTIRE show disregarding her brother's feelings in a myriad of ways: this time, it was way more painful and way more hurtful and SHE KNOWS IT. It's not funny. She's not amused. She's not being a shithead little sister. She's ANGRY. She's UPSET. She has every right to be! What she DOESN'T have a right to do is hurt her brother DELIBERATELY and then escape every consequence from doing that.

There's very much no way to spin that moment into making Katara a decent sister. There's no way she remains true to her core values of being empathetic, kind and wholesome when she will insidiously, vindictively hurt her brother this way. And what I said earlier about her overhearing Toph and Sokka in the Runaway? It actually gets a follow-up in this scene: Katara telling Sokka that he didn't love Kya as she did is basically her WEAPONIZING the information that was NOT meant for her as her alleged evidence that Sokka didn't care about Kya as much as she did. As if his inability to retrieve Kya's memory was NOT a manifestation of trauma, as if it were something he's FINE with! He's not! How guilty must he feel for that? Does that matter to Katara at all? Why... nope. Because all that matters at that point is her own rage, her own feelings, her own fury. Which is, then, entirely against the character we've been told she is.

The lack of apology or follow-up to this horrible moment will never stop being one of the absolute biggest misfires in one of the WORST written episodes of this show. Yes, I said it. The more I ponder The Southern Raiders, the more I realize it's an immensely flawed speedrun to establish a friendship that simply doesn't add up. Katara and Zuko becoming friends after this journey requires some wild, absurd leaps of imagination that, boiled down to basics, don't make any sense. There's no reason for Katara to decide she'll forgive Zuko after she regains enough clarity. Why does she forgive him? Because he proved he'd rather make her happy than defend his nation anymore? Ironically, at no point does Katara show any appreciation of the fact that Zuko is setting aside his firebending supremacist attitude completely for her sake. So maybe that's not it.

Ah... is it because of how he, and he alone, was ready to help her go on this journey of revenge...?! Why, ironically, the only reason why ONLY Zuko goes on this journey is incredibly artificial and fake: this IS intended as Katara's "field trip" with Zuko. None of the field trips make sense, from a logical standpoint, as duo journeys. I've mentioned it to a few people: Sokka and Zuko could have brought Toph with them to the Boiling Rock, a metal location where her abilities would be VERY useful, used her as a false prisoner and turned her in as a captured ally of the Avatar's, who 100% will bait him into coming here to rescue her so that the Fire Nation can get him next! A cover as strong as that one might actually get them further along on that rescue attempt than what they did in canon. But this CANNOT BE... because it was Sokka's field trip with Zuko so nobody else is invited, even if they're very much not doing anything else (as is the case with Toph). Aang? Why didn't everyone join the firebending discovery with Zuko and Aang? They weren't doing ANYTHING in the Western Air Temple at the time. They very much could have gone with them too. But they don't. And that's exactly why Katara's trip works exactly as it does: it's the solo journey with Katara and Zuko, and the ONLY way to make it work is to show Sokka and Aang completely opposed to the concept of finding Yon Rha. I'm not saying I think Sokka and Aang would have been on board if they're allowed to remain IC... but they could have wanted to go on this trip with Katara regardless of not agreeing with what she wanted to do. Hell, as is OBVIOUS: Kya is Sokka's mom too. His opinions, his feelings on this subject, should matter just as much as Katara's do, and fuck anyone who pretends otherwise. These two are NOT supposed to be the well-known unhealthy siblings Zuko and Azula, who each got one parent in their corner and therefore the other parent treated them like they were worthless or a monster. Hakoda and Kya were parents to BOTH their children, and any narrative or interpretation that attempts to say that ONLY Katara's opinion on Kya matters is immediately ruled out, for me, as absolute bullshit spouted by someone not worth listening to. Point blank.

Also, the fact that Zuko USES Sokka to gain this information about the southern raiders, and then doesn't even extend the chance to Sokka to join them? When Sokka is basically his new best buddy? That... does not make sense. It basically portrays Zuko as a disloyal asshole who takes advantage of his friends for his purposes and tosses them aside, disregarding their feelings whenever it suits him.

So Sokka's treatment at the hands of this episode is just deplorable. Both Zuko and Katara are HORRIBLE to him... but Katara is our focus here, she's actively hurts Sokka and then proceeds to not care. Because that's how she has operated so far, and that's how she always will.

Hence: we have a long, long tradition of Katara not treating Sokka fairly all across the show. The reasons why it's not a fair or balanced relationship at all is because Sokka typically pays the price for being a dick to Katara: either she inflicts the punishment herself, such as when he's disrespectful in the Drill and she smacks him with the slurry, or the narrative inflicts some magical punishment instead that CONSTANTLY proves that Sokka is not allowed to be a dick without facing consequences for it. Does he ALWAYS learn the lesson? Sure he doesn't! But the consequences for it NEVER stop. He doesn't get away with being a jerk to his sister. That's forbidden. But Katara? She's allowed to get away with it every single time! And the reason why it gets worse and worse is because we went from relatively silly/comedic things, in which Katara did not apologize because "it's funny that she didn't apologize", to NOT funny things at all, such as this scene in Southern Raiders. Even just a troubled glance at Sokka, or a slight hesitation after seeing how hurt he is, would be enough for me: there's NOTHING. She doubles down and keeps charging ahead. Zero thoughts or concerns given to her brother.

If this isn't why you have issues with Katara, well, I don't know why it might be the case in your case x'D But I absolutely attest that the combination of "mom friend", "selective compassion particularly when it comes to her brother" and "absolute imperviousness to consequences for her mistakes" are the things that fully caused my initial appreciation of her character to shift into ambivalence and then into full blown dislike once I reached Book 3.

Worth noting: THIS IS A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SHOW'S WRITING. Boiled down to basics, written by any more competent hands, I don't think Katara would have acted the way she did often, ESPECIALLY in episodes like The Awakening or The Southern Raiders. I categorically refuse to write Katara in my stories as someone who gets free passes for EVERYTHING she does. I also refuse to portray her as the mom friend, particularly in Gladiator. There's a lot of depth you can give this character! So much you can do, so much worth exploring... and canon just settled for stunting her and then only bringing her out to play in ways that make her unpleasant, not particularly bright and extremely resistant to character development even after allegedly learning lessons (see how her initial behavior around Hama, who shows red flags often, isn't all that different from how it was with Jet? There's only a handful of moments where it looks like Katara MIGHT be wary, and yet they're quickly overcome by her excitement, which Hama manipulates in her favor until she does the bloodbending reveal). So I'm NOT saying Katara had no potential... but I am saying the show itself failed her, big time, because of how she was written. A quick glance through the transcript of the Puppetmaster to confirm my memories that Katara shows no sign of concern over Hama when Sokka finds her suspicious reveals that, after Hama shows them her comb and that she's from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka, and Sokka alone, apologizes for suspecting her of being sketchy. Nothing from Aang, even though he was part of it too. Nothing from Toph, either. And certainly nothing from Katara. Only Sokka apologizes. As usual.

So... what does this tell you? What does this tell any of us? That Katara's development is... erratic, at best. That it's not linear isn't a bad thing, but that it contradicts itself non-stop, that her core traits come and go willy-nilly as the plot demands it, that her motivations to do things (like forgiving Zuko) don't add up to her experiences or to any lead-up we've witnessed, is most certainly not good.

If I were to rewrite ATLA, the main characters I'd want to rewrite into making a lot more sense than they do, and making their arcs actually logical, are Zuko and Katara. I'd definitely add a few rewrites for Iroh, particularly to make him WAY more accountable for shit than he ever was, and to show he's not universally loved and shouldn't be, since people would have very reasonable grievances with him. I'd also rewrite a handful of things with Aang, too. Toph, full-stop, deserves a growth arc of her own beyond getting stronger and getting used to having friends. Girl has the range. They just never let her explore it. And of course, I'd change a fair few elements of Azula's writing as well. But I feel like no characters would warrant a deeper intervention than Zuko and Katara, precisely because they constantly fail to live up to all the stuff people keep pretending they're flawless exhibits of.

And this is one more issue we've got going on with Katara:

The fandom ABSOLUTELY has been unfair to Katara. A lot of people hate her for no reason. A lot of people who potentially have unexamined racism making their hearts' choices for them and they despise her just because she dared not have fully-white skin. A lot of people pick completely ridiculous things to get angry at her, such as people who HATE HER because she's "rude to Zuko". Just, fuck off. That's about the stupidest reason to hate this character and stupid reasons for that have been heard plenty.

But Katara's fans have become... reactionary. They appear think that any criticism to her character NEEDS to be fought off with "she was right tho" or "she has every reason to act this way" or "she's HUMAN she's allowed to make mistakes you heathen!! That's what a flawed character is like!"

Here's the kicker, though: if you have justifications and excuses for every little unpleasant thing Katara EVER does? You're basically taking a dump on her character yourself and saying she IS flawless.

Flaws in characters are bad things that cannot be justified. They can be funny! They can be annoying. They can be infuriating. But they're things that inconvenience other characters, that hurt them, that show they're not above or beyond doing harmful things! All of what I listed in this crazy long post are Katara's flaws. The reason why I don't like the way these flaws were handled are all the things I already have talked about: no accountability for flaws is basically saying that these flaws don't matter. No follow-up, no lead-up, means Katara is allowed to be as much of an ass as she wants to be and nobody cares: THIS IS NOT FAIR. This is not how ANY character should be written. This is the core reason why I've spent years feuding with Zuko and Iroh: they get away with shit they should NOT get away with, EVER. They're not held accountable for so much they should be. This happens to Katara too. particularly in her dynamcis with her brother. And when people see those flaws and just start listing reasons why it's actually okay? All you're doing is dehumanizing these characters to pretend everything they EVER do is fine.

Also worth noting... character flaws are the way characters grow. If a character is DEEPLY flawed, you know what kind of work you have cut out for you as a writer. If you're writing a story heavily steeped on character development? Then those flaws are VITAL to the work you have to do in order to develop these characters!

But when Zuko is unnecessarily violent and you're told "it's because his culture and family are!", you rightfully assume that as he drifts away from Fire Nation ideology, Zuko WILL grow less violent. Then, you watch how he picks an unnecessary fight with Aang in the finale because everyone's being lazy, an EXTREMELY violent fight at that, and you contrast his earlier behavior with it and... where's the difference, exactly? How did he grow or learn better if violence is STILL his immediate reaction to anything he doesn't like?

Thus, when Katara's flaws get overlooked, ignored, disregarded? What kind of development does Katara get, if none of her flaws are addressed in a way that makes it look like she's genuinely learned any lessons? At least, none of the worst, biggest, glaring flaws were addressed. None of the things that she SHOULD be troubled by and that she shouldn't be happy with herself over, especially after seeing how she hurts people with her actions. This isn't cool. This isn't a fun way to write a character. And it's so glaringly unpleasant when you can so very easily contrast this with the well-known terrible flaw Sokka displays early on: sexism! And then he gets his ass kicked by Suki and he learns to respect the Kyoshi Warriors... and we never see him displaying that particular flaw again. THAT is what growth looks like! What can we point to with Katara that remotely compares to this? That she accepted Zuko? Yeah, no, that sincerely could not count any less. Her personal arc CANNOT be about Zuko. That she got over her mom's death? She didn't. So that's not it either. That she helped Aang save the world? So her personal arc was about Aang and not herself? Was her whole role in the story to play Aang's cheerleader, then? Because if that's it... she was doing that just fine at it since day one. She's the only person who faithfully believed the Avatar would return well before Aang turned up in her life, if the first episode's introduction is to be believed.

So... what, exactly, was Katara's arc? If it's just her waterbending skills, then she's as stunted as Toph, unexplored and underdeveloped and left to just strengthen her fighting skills while Aang and Zuko and Sokka are getting full character arcs, even if very lowkey but very much effective in Sokka's case, where they develop and grow (or they should) into the men they're supposed to be to end the war! Why don't Katara and Toph get similar arcs? Why aren't they challenged on a level that actually provides them with lasting, solid, provable growth, where you can look at them where they started out and see how they ended up and conclude their journey was beautiful?

I insist... writing. Weak writing. Failures to understand/develop characters properly. And of course, lack of accountability in storytelling. I wrote that one focusing mostly on Zuko... but it's very much applicable to every character who fails to own up to the things they should and deserve to face consequences for.

Anyway... this is what I'd say about Katara atm. I'm not 100% sure this is everything because I might have overlooked some stuff that also made Katara's character kind of backfire (while I'm no Kataang hater, I 100% agree that the ship should have been written better too, and after writing them whenever I have, it's honestly kind of ridiculous how such an easy ship could get fucked over so badly by weird writing choices...). Whether you agree with these assessments or not, ultimately, there are valid reasons to feel offput by Katara and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of all when you DID appreciate and cherish the character once before, but her fans just jump to the conclusion that you must be a mindless hater to think she's anything but flawless (this, while claiming they love that she's flawed, then they proceed to reveal they have no idea what a flaw is...).

(final note: SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER! Super lengthy answer to make up for it, I hope :((( sorry)

[typicalarkhamknight]

MK11 intros

warning: sexually implied, curse words, violence mentioned.

Doing a little Mortal kombat writing heheh.. also this is just fanfiction, not canon lol. You can drop Y/N ocs suggestions if you like!

character: Y/N is another Lin Kuei of the clan. Well, a samurai Lin Kuei. Before he were born, a Lin Kuei ninja married a female samurai from japan. The mother d!ed in childbirth, so the father used her katana as his own weapon, to serve Lin Kuei and to protect his son. When he fell in battle, the young Y/N inherited the blade. Kuai Liang raised Y/N as his own son, making him a better warrior fit to be the first Lin Kuei samurai in history. Y/N also has a deep connection with the katana, he always hears his mother's voice while wielding the blade. He has cryomancer abilties.. just not the same as everyone in his clan. Without his mother's katana, he can't do cryomancing abilities. When he does, the katana inherits cryomancing abilties, can be turned into a frost weapon much like Kuai Liang's frost sword in MKX. (He and Takeda also had a friendly rivalry. Like a resemblance of Sub-Zero vs Scorpion, but kombat kids).

PART 1.

CASSIE CAGE

Cassie Cage: I know you're useless without that magical sword of yours.

Y/N: (Smirked cockily) For me, it is quite the opposite.

Cassie Cage: Well run it, B*tch.

—

Y/N: Has anyone ever tell you you're a great leader?

Cassie Cage: (Chuckles) Well am I?

Y/N: No.

—

Cassie Cage: Aren't you the guy who's heart's supposed to be.. "cold"?

Y/N: Yet my heart burns when I see you.

Cassie Cage: Oh get a load of this guy..

—

Y/N: I seek Takeda Takahashi for a rematch with him.

Cassie Cage: Aw, couldn't you just spar with me instead?

Y/N: Later, woman.

—

Cassie Cage: Say hi to your mom for me!

Y/N: She says hi, mother. (The katana glows and makes a noise of appreciation)

Cassie Cage: Aw..

—

Y/N: You're father is getting a wrong idea of us, Cassandra.

Cassie Cage: Oh. Wait— so who are we, exactly?

Y/N: That's a question you must answer.

—

Y/N: Your mother told me about bob.

Cassie Cage: Ugh. First, tell her it's Dylan. And second, why do you care?

Y/N: I can treat you better..

JOHNNY CAGE

Johnny Cage: Are you sure you and Cassie aren't.. keeping a secret from us? (Raised brow and smirked)

Y/N: You've kept many of your porn tapes secret.

Johnny Cage: Ah. (nodded) Soooo.. does that mean you have a secret with her too?

—

Y/N: Look.. whatever you think it was, it's NOT what you think, Mr Cage.

Johnny Cage: You two are like Harry and Sally, brings a tear in my eye.

Y/N: ... Fucking cold winds of hell.

—

Johnny Cage: Marry Cassie and be hollywood royalty.

Y/N: I love the offer, but I don't need becoming "royalty" to prove I am the greatest.

Johnny Cage: Just trust me bro.

—

Y/N: Making new movies, Mr. Cage?

Johnny Cage: When I'm done with the sequel.. you, my friend, are V.I.P.

Y/N: That isn't so bad..

—

Johnny Cage: Y'know you remind me of Sonya. (Chuckles) you got her grumpiness.

Y/N: Is that good or bad..?

Johnny Cage: Well friend.. you tell me.

—

Y/N: Earthrealm's mightiest champion.

Johnny Cage: Mini-Blueberry ice.

Y/N: Another disgrace.

—

Johnny Cage: Tell your mom I said hi.

Y/N: He says hi, mother. (Katana glows a bit of energy, just not the same energy with Cassie)

Johnny Cage: Ah, she loves me.

SONYA BLADE

Sonya Blade: Johnny's having theories about you.

Y/N: And all of them aren't true.

Sonya Blade: I'll find out.

—

Y/N: You're the mother I never had.

Sonya Blade: I don't mind adopting a grown man.

Y/N: I know that meant "recruiting more young blood".

—

Sonya Blade: You fight your mother in your dreams?

Y/N: It is called "training".

Sonya Blade: Sounds like she and I are the same.

—

Y/N: You know, I have never felt so intimidated by a woman before..

Sonya Blade: Maybe because you haven't met one until now.

Y/N: A deservedly low blow, Mrs Blade.

—

Sonya Blade: You have potential of being a part of Special Forces.

Y/N: I belong to the Lin Kuei, they're my family.

Sonya Blade: Special Forces will be your family when you suck it up.

—

Y/N: Let me tell you, I've never had any mutual connections with your daughter.

Sonya Blade: She spends time with you more than she did with others, including her friends!

Y/N: To be fair, I AM far more superior than them.

—

Sonya Blade: Kuai Liang didn't teach you hard enough.

Y/N: What makes you think you're better than him?

Sonya Blade: Here's your first lesson, Y/N.

[dballzposting]

speak boy

Ok

I never understood it when people said that they liked Chichi but "disliked her writing." What does that even mean. She is a fictional character. She IS her writing.

I understand not liking the direction that her character and role was taken in. I understand not trusting the author's motivations, or finding them distasteful or uncreative ... But she's already been written and this is who she is so..?

Liking a character for the potential that you see in them I understand too. But multiple people have expressed to me some variation of "I like her I just hate her writing," as if this is a common thing to feel, like it is an ethical given. And well. I don't get it ....

ESPECIALLY for a character like Chichi. The criticisms that people have for Videl, that she was arbitrarily feminized / wifey-fied / mommy-fied, do not apply for a woman like Chichi. Her entire character was made specifically for this purpose. As a child in her debut, she was romance-obsessed and caught up in the fantasy of it. She specifically wanted to be a bride.

NONE of her personality traits have suffered or been played down ... She's still dramatic, idealistic, believing strongly in those ideals to a near-delusional degree, violent, swinging between having a victim complex to believing that she has the power to call the shots, ETC ETC . . . She's exactly as presented, always has been.

And she never left either. She's still relevant. She's Goku's wife for crying out loud. Sure, her being Princess of Fire Mountain isn't a thing anymore, but neither is the Ox King being a King, or literally MOST OF THE MAGIC-FANTASY FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAGON BALL.

So I don't get it. She's the written stereotype of the hysterical and overbearing mother, yeah, but that's ALL SHE'S EVER BEEN. It's consistent writing, and it doesn't feel like it's empty and dismissive. This is who she is, intentionally. The other women aren't like that. For all the latent and overt misogyny, I still hold that Dragon Ball has excellent female characters. Chichi included. She's nuts. It's realistic.

So I don't get it. I wouildn't want anything more from her. WELL. I would like to see her canonically watch telenovelas and then straight-up deny that she does becasue watching TV is a waste of time and she has better shit to do. But she's sneaking out of bed to watch them. Sitting on the edge of her seat. They're so exciting. She needs that in her life

Sorry this ask is from a few weeks ago when i was sort of Not Being Active and I saw this ask and it really made me chuckle I thought it was great. But then I never answered it. Rude of me. Well here it is. Thank you

[cosmicjoke]

i have been wondering about levis view on women etc taking into account that isayama is japanese and how their society is

as a polish woman i am interested into politics roght now because we just had elections and this made me thunk about levis views particularly on womens issues

i mean in poland we are still trying to change the definition of rape and rape is not really considered a serious crime and our definition is really outdated

but coming back to the topic isayama out of many mangakas is actually on of yhe best at portraying woman as human and just as normal characters they are not oversexualised and he is not scared to make them flawed so i wonder if you could say what you think about that sorry if this is kinda long

and i also wonder how womenare treated in aot universe in eldia and outside of it

because i jave a feeling that after the yeagerists took power over eldia things changed

again sorry for this being so long

Hi there, and no worries, it's not a long ask!

I definitely think Isayama does a good job of portraying his female characters. I've seen people try to criticize him on that front, and all it ever comes down to is nitpicking, like they get angry that Mikasa ends up apparently married and having children (like it's some great crime for a woman to marry a man and have kids, lol). But really, the two strongest and most proficient fighters in the AoT universe, outside of Levi, are Mikasa and Annie, two women. So this idea that Isayama doesn't give his female characters enough agency or strength is ridiculous. I think he treats them just as well as the male characters, with just as much complexity and respect.

It's hard to know exactly how society on Paradis changed after the Jagerists took over, other than it obviously becoming a nationalist, fascist state, very militarized and hostile toward outsiders. I wouldn't be surprised if it's attitude toward women became less accepting and less equal in terms of treatment.

Before that, we know women weren't really treated any differently than men in terms of their having positions of power, etc... We see Hange (and I know they're non-binary, but generally, I think they're viewed to be female) as a squad leader and then later as the commander of the SC. And I can't recall the name of the Scout from the beginning of the story who had the glasses, but as I recall, she lead her own squad too. Petra got placed on Levi's Special Operations squad, so her gender didn't affect her ability to be promoted to the elite squad of the SC.

If you're asking specifically about Levi's view on women, I think him choosing Petra is evidence enough of how much respect he has for them in general. We also don't see Levi ever treat any woman differently or as less capable than any of the men. He never expects less of them or thinks they aren't up to any, certain task. He trusts Mikasa and Sasha and Historia to accomplish whatever tasks they're given and to do their duty, as much as he does the boys in his squad. Given how Levi grew up too, with witnessing what happened to his mother and how she was treated, I think Levi would definitely be opposed to viewing women as sex objects or treating them as such.

So, yeah, just overall, I think AoT treats it's female characters wonderfully.