#today I learned that there are people who DON'T hate s3

[jonathanbyersphd]

.

[stellarred]

I remember the TNG episode Cause and Effect, and how every time they repeated the loop, they became a bit more aware of what had happened until the problem was fixed.

I am unfortunately struggling a bit today with that post-ending scene between Q and Jack. Why would Q only appear to Jack? What is Jack's role in Q's cosmic scheme? Why couldn't Q have reappeared to Picard?

Given the fact that Patrick Stewart, Terry Matalas, and Co may not do a fourth season of PIC, and that Jack has taken over JLP's place in Trekdom, I am upset and depressed to think Q won't come back to Picard onscreen again.

But, knowing the Qcard force is strong, and that Q will see JLP "out there", there's no convincing me that Picard and Q will never end up together in eternity. Q loves him too much to just let Picard go and die. They end up together no matter what happens, or who Picard marries along the way.

I hate myself for investing emotionally in character ships, because I hate what writers do to them. That's why I don't watch lots of television shows, or movie franchises because of that one special pair of characters.

But, Qcard is very, very special to me. It provided me with a valuable source of relief and served as a good distraction late at night for almost three years after I had gone through a very difficult time in my life. My heart had been horribly betrayed so badly by people that I moved to the other side of the world to get away and heal. I got a good job abroad and stayed active, but there were times when my heartache caught up with me. I struggled with frequent ruminations of what had happened, and this was especially true late at night. Then I found out that Qcard was being taken seriously by STP writers. It made me happy and excited enough that it gave my mind something to think about and enjoy when I began to feel stressed again. I'd shipped Qcard for many years before then, but now, my favorite couple was back with a vengeance!

According to canon in my house, Q "died" in S2, but not before sending himself into the future to S3 to work with Jack, so that he could eventually serve as a conduit to his father's heart. Perhaps if Jack could ascend eventually to be with he and Picard, they could be a family!

I have always believed that Q had created a time loop in case Picard was unable to ascend. For example, in S2's Fly Me to the Moon, Q told Soong about "In 17 seconds, you are going to take a seat. Right on the tick!"

My take is that Qcard goes through TNG, STP S1 and S2, and after Q dies, Picard's relationship with Laris crumbles, and alone in his chateau, he eventually feels haunted by Q's absence (dreams, hearing whispers in the dark...). Picard goes on to rescue Q from wherever he's been. They have a committed relationship, get married, and live years of adventures in the universe together.

But, through a series of circumstances, Q is devastated to learn that the Continuum won't allow Picard to ascend. His capitaine's not ready. Meanwhile, Picard is aging and going to die.

Q uses a time loop to take them back to Encounter at Farpoint, and like Cause and Effect, Q has to re-teach Picard his lessons, and Q has to woo Picard all over again. Q has only a vague memory of his previous journey to marriage with Picard, while Picard doesn't remember at all.

This is also why a few Tumblrs suggested that Q and Picard are like "exes", which I don't like because that implies they didn't get along.

But, with each loop from TNG to STP S2, and the years after during their marriage, Picard learns more and proves himself worthy to join Q in eternity at last at some point.

I know people have excitement about this Legacy series that Terry Matalas is so gung-ho for. But, as far as Qcard goes, we don't know where that is going. Patrick Stewart said that they'd left "a few doors open" after S3, but I am tired of speculation.

Therefore, until a Tumblr mutual tries to excite me with real Qcard upcoming news-- because I'm not scouring any more ST news sources to get my hopes up anymore, my multiseries time loop is my canon.

I was grateful that Terry Matalas didn't ignore Q altogether, but I refuse to pay attention to any new Q character arcs. I mean, knowing our luck, Q will then be romantically involved with Deanna Troi!

So, I'm done.

My onscreen Qcard story ends at S2's Farewell, but my personal story with Q has, I believe, a FAR richer continuation.

I will say though, that Q looks damn sexy in that red cape.

[cousticks]

what makes arthur rimbaud your favourite bsd character?

Alright this is the first of my set of asks I'm answering today. And also possibly my most fascinating. Rimbaud is a character I post a lot about, sure, but I'm really curious as to what makes you think he's my favorite? If anything, from my profile, I'd expect someone to assume its Verlaine.

Now, as to why he's a compelling character I like to write posts about? That I can certainly discuss. And its gonna be long, so I'll put a break in here.

Here's the thing. I don't anymore, but when I was first introduced to Rimbaud (when S3 came out) I absolutely hated him. This was back in 2019, but boy oh boy. That's the thing though, he still made me have a pretty strong emotional reaction, even then, before I'd even read the novel.

I want to detour for a second and talk about one of my favorite classes I've taken, with my favorite literature professor. The class itself doesn't matter here, but for it, we read Gone Girl. And if you've never read Gone Girl or seen the movie, all the context you need to know is that almost every single character in that sucks. They're all terrible people. And the next day I came into class literally stomping and screaming about how much I hated how it ended, and everything leading up to it. And my professor laughed and told the class about how after she'd seen the movie she was so mad about it she kicked a wall coming out of the theatre. She had the same reaction as me. And that's exactly why she taught that book. I still think about it often, because really, it was incredible how much emotion I got from it. I was downright pissed. And that's how I knew it was, in my opinion, well written, to get that much out of me.

Circling back to Rimbaud, I didn't really have as strong of a reaction as I did with that book, but he made me uncomfortable. I didn't like him. (I had similar progressions with Dazai, where I used to absolutely hate him, and with Verlaine as well after my first Stormbringer read.) A lot of the characters I originally despised are some of my favorites now. They get some emotion out of me, they give me a reaction, they catch my attention. Sometimes hate makes you think about something far more than more positive feelings do. (Even if that hate later converts into something kinder.)

Rimbaud... isn't my favorite, as far as which characters make me happy or so, but he's very very interesting to me and I do love to think about him. When you think about the grander scheme of BSD, we don't know the full backgrounds of a lot of characters, they just kind of show up as they are and we don't know much about their lives before the series. Rimbaud, we actually know a good deal, about how he had to give up his family and be presumed dead to work as a spy. He's also a little different, because we get a really interesting insight to his inner thoughts via his journal in Stormbringer. We don't get such an open, honest look into a character like that very often in this franchise. Between his lost, memory addled appearance in 15 and virtually his entire life fleshed out in Stormbringer, I didn't hate him anymore. He was interesting. There was so much to work with, and his own motivations and loyalties were fascinating. I made a post earlier about how sure, he tried to kill Chuuya (and Dazai in association) but really, both he and Chuuya were looking into Arahabaki for similar reasons, to unlock their past. All of the times we actually see Rimbaud, he's not that much different from a ghost, including at the end of Stormbringer when he's akin to an actual ghost, but we learn so much about him through his journals and Verlaine's memories.

He's lost, he's trying his best to figure out who he is based on what he could piece together, he's trying to find out what happened to the dear friend he thought he killed, he's likely been a spy during the Great War since his early teens, and he and Verlaine's entire story in the background of Stormbringer is such a special shade of tragic.

So, anon, I hope you kind of got your answer here about why I talk about Rimbaud so much. TL:DR, its hard not to when there's so much to talk about.

[crisalidaseason]

I was feeling a little silly and wanted some pain, so here we have strained eren/mikasa/armin relationship with lots of angst. Also not proofread at all because I have a fever

Content warning: the trio's relationship is not good, Mikasa and Armin are still besties though, Eren is being mean, so is Armin, Armin is angry, really angry and mean, Armin is a Mikasa protector, platonic Arumika, Eremin if you squint, Eren and Mikasa are siblings here (no romantic thing going on between them), no happy ending, canonverse, blank period between S3/S4

Song rec: I hate everything about you by Three Days Grace

A knock on his door distracted Armin from his papers.

"Come in" he said, already aware of who it was.

Mikasa entered the room quietly, closing the door and resting against it.

"Good evening" he said, turning on his chair and facing her.

She did not reply, which was her usual behavior. Instead both remained frozen, waiting for the woman's next move. Armin had known her long enough to not elicit anything from her, she would speak when ready.

"Do you want some tea? The kettle is still warm enough" he offered, already expecting the 'no'.

"Why is he like that? Why?"

Armin sighed. It always came down to him lately. Always Eren, Eren, Eren. He was tired of it.

"I know" Armin replied, pouring tea in his empty mug.

"He thinks he's being so smart!" she said, louder than usual but still lower than others would.

"If only he was smart" Armin commented "we would not be here right now, discussing how stupid he is"

"Does he really think that treating us badly will lessen any pain?"

It was a rant. Armin learned that Mikasa rarely wanted an actual conversation when she was agitated. He calculated that maybe a few minutes of venting was needed before she was actually ready to listen to any sort of argumentative points.

"He was so unecessarily rude to Sasha and Connie today, and also all the times he just ignores us whenever we want to talk with him"

Eren's behavior towards his comrades was becoming acid by the day. A slow change, started by long periods of isolation and silence, followed by his volatile temper that often resulted in rude comments.

"I am still fucking pissed at what he told you last meeting, I've been trying to make him apologize-"

"He won't and I also don't want it" Armin interrupted "Besides, he owes you more apologies than I can count"

She stopped ranting. Maybe, just maybe, Armin's sudden loud voice caught her off guard. He sighed again, whenever he was mentioned Armin had a tendency to let his anger show.

"Sorry" he said "didn't mean to be loud"

"No" she said "you should"

She walked towards him, leaning against the table.

"Maybe be loud at him next time, he tells you all those things and you just take it"

Oh no, he did not, but if Armin genuinely exposes his emotions, he will loose control. Whenever Eren disrespected someone, but specially his sister, Armin feared the urge he felt to hurt his childhood friend. In multiple occasions he wanted nothing more than break Eren's face, even if he knew the result would be himself being the one hurt.

"There is no use in arguing with him. He thinks being loud and angry means he's right, and I don't argue with people like that"

"I should have punched harder" she whispered.

It was a remarkable punch, Armin recalled. She was never one to hurt someone for the smallest reasons, but Eren was a victim of her fist a few times due to his tendencies of being...selfcentered.

"Being hurt never worked with Eren Jaeger" Armin laughs bitterly "sometimes I think he enjoys it"

"Something is wrong with him"

Armin did not have an answer. Eren was acting strange and nobody knew exactly why.

"if he is trying to push us away" Armin replied "the plan is working, I can't stand looking at him sometimes"

"He is still Eren, we can't just let him wander away"

"He is not the friend we supported all this time. Whoever that man is, he supressed the one we knew" Armin said.

___

"Can we speak?" the blond's voice was low.

He found Eren in one of the training squares rather early in the morning. The blond was preparing to pick his personal mail up in the city when he saw what was once his close friend. Eren did not aknowledge Armin, which was becoming usual of him.

"Mikasa is worried" Armin said again.

"Tell her to stop then" he replied.

"Meaningless answer, as always" Armin whispered loud enough so Eren could hear "I'll be quick. I'll tolerate your unreasonable behavior, but I won't tolerate if you direct it to Mikasa. Pretend to be civil around her and suck up whatever stupid shit goes in your head"

"So mean" Eren's voice was full of scorn.

Armin did not indulge him, knowing well how Eren communicated.

"I'm serious" Armin said "no amount of ackerbond will fix things if she lets you go, and I will support her if she decides to leave you"

"She can't do it, even if she wanted to. She is enslaved to this shit"

"Not for much longer, I hope. Our time is near, and yours is very close"

Armin would later regret his last sentence, knowing full well how Eren was still hurt over the 13-year limit. Unfortunately, Armin wanted to cause pain, he wanted to hurt Eren. It was horrible of him to do so, but he was hurting the same.

___

The blonde genuinely thought his conversation with Eren, if you could call it a conversation, did not work. He was convinced Eren would just ignore what Armin said, until he saw Eren speaking with her during dinner. He could not understand what they spoke off, both sitting in a distant table.

"Do you think he is apologizing?" Sasha asked Armin.

The two siblings were never known for having deep conversations. That was something they came to Armin for, but never to one another, prefering to use some sort of silent agreement. Armin could see some words being exchanged though.

"Probably not" the blond said "he was never good at it before all of this"

"He better" Jean said "I'm done with him making you and Mikasa walk on eggshells whenever he is near"

"Jean, leave it" Armin warned "let me and Mikasa handle it"

"He needs help" Sasha said "something is wrong and he is not well"

"I know, Sasha, but he makes it very difficult"

And I am too angry all the time to actually try, Armin bitterly thought.

___

"We need to talk"

Armin was very surprised. For months Eren never seeked Armin to talk, specially in private. To see the taller man on his door, eyes on the ground and anxious feet, was a sight to behold.

Now you wanna talk, Armin almost said.

Instead, the blond only motioned for him to enter and close the door. Armin turned back to his papers, not facing the other man. Eren had lost the right to speak to him face to face a while ago.

"Speak" he said.

Eren remained silent for a few minutes, long enough that the blonde wondered if he left the room.

"You were never like this" Eren said "angry"

"I'm not angry" Armin shot back a bit too fast.

Eren's laugh was bitter.

"I felt anger my entire life, Armin, you can't fool me on this" he said "you are angry, very angry"

"Do you even have a point with this?" Armin said.

"See? This is what I'm talking about"

Armin stood up quickly, pressing his knuckles on the table to hold his temper.

"Do you expect me to be happy or neutral about all of this? to not be livid at you?"

"I don't expect anything from anyone, I just..."

"Just what? My patience is running thin, Eren"

"None of you will ever understand what I see, what I dream about"

"Because you never cared to explain!" Armin turned to face Eren, voice already rising "You go around sulking, isolating yourself, acting strange out of nowehere. Of course we won't understand what you don't explain!"

"If I explain you will hate me!" Eren yelled.

"What makes you think I don't hate you already?"

Silence filled Armin's room. The blond was already regretting his words, but again, we was hurt, he wanted to hurt.

"You don't. Mikasa doesn't either" Eren said "You wouldn't spare me a thought if you did"

"Don't worry, it won't take too long if you keep the stupid behavior"

"It's easier this way, and you will understand that later. I promise"

The taller man turned to leave the blond's room, but before he could even open the door, Armin spoke.

"Eren"

He looked back at Armin, waiting.

"If that is your decision I won't stop you, and you still have my support for anything military related" he said.

Eren nodded, turning again.

"But don't hurt her, Eren" he said "If you do, there will be nothing but hate in my heart"

[stitchedfeather]

It’s 9 in the morning.

Ui Koori would call himself a distinguished man, one that had many titles and awards to be confident of. He was short tempered, sure, but everyone had their flaws. Ui followed the lines closely as he could, and as he grew older did his morals and maturity melt into one thing; a Queen bitch.

Now, this makes sense in a setting of high-school, and trust me, Ui was Regina in the Academy. Even if he didn't know it. Because rich people are never self aware.

So take a 28 year old investigator in a place of work with his ( very attractive ) partner tagging along, smiling and humming. Investigator Hairu was a bit odd and a bit air headed, but she was sweet, smart. Respectful with nothing but good intentions, and always smelled like vanilla somehow but he wouldn't know.

But she was obedient. She listened, she learned. That's what made her an excellent partner, one he was proud to train and work with. She was never too loud, and a perfect example ( despite the few flaws he scolds her for like being doe eyed at Arima during a meeting ) of a investigator.

Unlike —

"Ahh—! Are those my fucking best friends in the fucking world—?!"

Oh no. No.

It's 9 am, he hasn't had a cigarette and was barely running on coffee, and Hairu kept talking over and over ( god damn it ) about Arima, and he had a meeting ( Hairu don't ) —

It already happened. Like riling up a dog, Hairu immediately snapped around with enough speed it had Ui stepping back blinking.

There stood Raven, skipping away from the S3 squad as she waved her hand. Full of energy as always. What personality was it today, who knew—

But Ui had a feeling.

Hairu squealed, her grin widening more than Ui has seen her before as she practically skipped forward meeting the older woman before he could stop her.

"Raven-channn—! Good morning!"

"What's up, sugar." Raven smirked, throwing her hand out and like instinct the two were doing some...elaborate handshake that had investigator Ui squinting as he mouthed 'what the fuck' under his breath. Of course a distinguished investigator wouldn't curse aloud where his subordinates could hear.

"Girl, you're getting better at these."

"I learn from the best~! We need to go out again, last time was so fun! Oh, and we could do a sleepover with the others our age, and—"

It was interesting, scary, cute, and almost embarrassing to Ui as he watched his partner ramble like he's never seen before. She was loud sometimes granted, and spoke out sometimes but with Ui she was nothing but respectful. But here? She was passionate, and treating Investigator Raven like a old long time friend.

And it made him jealous.

He'd never admit it, and he knew that the — 'investigator' had no ill intentions ( or so she says ) but to him, it ached how she could get her to open up like that. Just— so easily. There was no small talk, or gently easing into a conversation. It was natural, as natural as they had met the first time.

The two didn't separate for the entire day, and the separate squads had to practically tear them apart and herd em somewhere else. But somehow, it wasn't just Hairu.

She just had it with everyone, even those who didn't seem to care or straight up felt vicious hate towards the ghoul. No self awareness, always loud, always wanting attention. It was sad. But inspiring.

Inspiring not to be like that.

"How you doing, Koori." Raven grinned with a lazy smile, Hairu giggling as she turned to glance at her partner who in turn narrowed his eyes as he felt his eye tick. Exactly. Disrespectful.

"That's special class to you, and don't call me by my first name. That's disrespectful. Were you not taught any manners at all—? I doubt Investigator Suzuya would certainly not let this behavior fly— what are you doing."

He said, walking forward as he saw the two giggling and whispering.

"Ah shit, he's bitching again."

"He hasn't had a cigarette."

"Ok—! Ok! Ok, we get it." Ui pressed his hands together, before putting them out as he tried to force a friendly thin lipped smile.

"Thank you for your time, investigator Raven but we have a important meeting to get to. So, if you don't mind." He said, pulling his partner away to her surprise as she tried to keep up with him. This left a blinking Raven, tilting her head as she watched the two walk off before giving a comical puppy eyed look. Pouting, Hairu would groan as she leaned her head back before looking back like a distressed widow as she reached her hand out.

Ravens hand reached out into mid air, whispering back like a soldier finding his reason to keep fighting. Or the guy from titanic.

“Never forget me, I'll always be— oh shit! A penny!"

[ultranos]

heyo, can you explain to me why most Azula writers dislike the Zuko is an awkward turtleduck tag? /gen

Personally, I don't hate the tag, really. But I find that it is often a flag at times for a certain kind of Zuko characterization that tends to show up in fics.

It's mostly a characterization that ignores at least 75% of Zuko's actual character in the show, specifically where he's a hot-headed, impulsive, angry young man full of grit and stubborn determination. And instead replaces it with only the boy who got hugged by his mom (and not the boy who threw bread at turtleducks or threatened to throw a knife at his sister when she mocked his aim, a threat that actually did shut her up) and the young man who's attempts at comfort are "that's rough, buddy".

(There's an additional unfortunate tendency I've seen in fics that further go down this path and go so far as to make me as a reader start seeing this "sympathetic" Zuko as someone with extreme amounts of learned helplessness and exploitative incompetence. The latter of which is straight up "so incompetent that everyone feels sorry for him and works to make things better/easier for the poor fluffy baby".

It's not a cute look normally. In a setting where the other characters who "feel sorry" are literally survivors of genocide perpetrated by the dude's family, it's especially egregious.)

Additionally, this characterization that ignores s1, s2, and most of s3 Zuko also warps the characterization of others. Which possibly reaches its nadir in characterizations that present Azulon as a good guy for liking Zuko but still ordering the genocide of the Southern Water Tribe and 50+ years of bloodshed over the entire Earth Kingdom.

This phenomenon of a characterization becoming popular isn't exactly new in fandom. If I had to guess, somewhere years or over a decade ago, some fanfic wrote a very sympathetic Zuko that made him a bit softer than canon. And this got wildly popular. So people copied the characterization, since hey, that must have been something good, right? Rinse, repeat, and things warp over time. What that original fic was, I have no idea. We possibly can never know, because it's incredibly likely that that original wouldn't get the "awkward turtleduck" tag today.

Am I against the characterization of Zuko as a horribly awkward young man with endearing moments? No, of course not. It's canon that the boy is terrible at social situations, and the only person worse at them is his sister. And I'm not against that tag on principle. It's just that the use of that particular tag now has the unfortunate connotation of flattening Zuko's character until all that's left is that.