#who looks like a kid and refuses to kill you and says this whole speech abt how not one person is to blame for jow the world is etc etc.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

i s2g if one more person asks kaneki "what happened to you" "what changed" HE GOT PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY TORTURED?!?!?! FOR LIKE A MONTH?!?!?! SORRY THAT CHANGES A GUY!?!?!?!?

[ashwhowrites]

here we go again, sadly it didn’t send

id really like to read about eddie x girlfriend!reader who gets leg, knee & feet pain when walking for too long, too far or stand for big a big amount of time. i struggle with that & would really like to read how eddie would handle that.

imagine that they’re on a walk/hike with the kids & steve etc & they have to sit down after some time & always take a little rest. at one point mike gets annoyed & eddie gives him a speech about how painful the pain can get for his girl. he even carry’s her on his back so she can rest a little longer.

Omg! My knees are the exact same way. I constantly have to sit down

Small little hiking blurb. Flufffffff

When Dustin said he wanted to go for a hike with the whole group, Y/N planned to skip out on it. She knew her legs wouldn't be able to handle that and she didn't want to hold the whole group back, or even just Eddie.

But Dustin begged and begged for her to come. He loved having her around and he didn't want to deal with a pouting Eddie if she wasn't there. Then Eddie gave her the puppy eyes and she could never say no to Eddie.

But as they walked up another hill, she regretted saying yes. They've been on the trail for around twenty minutes so far, and she needed a break ten minutes ago. But she kept quiet, she figured she could power through as much as she could.

"Need a break, baby?" Eddie whispered as he walked next to her. Her hands were on her hips as she breathed heavily.

"No." She said quickly, but the pain on her face told Eddie otherwise.

"Hey, one sec! I need a break!" Eddie said, dropping himself right where he stood. The group stopped walking and sat down as well. She felt thankful Eddie asked for the break. She slowly sat down and stretched out her legs. The slight relief she felt caused a smile on her face.

Eddie held her hand and gave her a wink. She smiled as a thank you. The group talked about random things as they relaxed.

~~~

They've been walking for another twenty minutes, her knees and feet killing her again. She walked slower, causing her and Eddie to fall behind.

"GUYS WAIT! THEY ARE STILL BACK THERE." Dustin screamed, stopping the group from walking as they looked behind them. The group didn't say anything, all waiting patiently as Y/N and Eddie walked up to them.

"Think we could rest here for a second?" Y/N asked. She knew she wouldn't be able to take another step without bursting into tears. She sat down, and the group followed. She heard an annoyed sigh come from Mike but she brushed it off.

~~~

The group had been walking for around forty minutes, and she felt bad to ask for a break again. She hated that she had to stop under an hour every time. The group was making progress but slowly.

"Lunch time!" Eddie announced, helping Y/N walk over to a big rock. She sat down and slowly drank out of Eddie's water bottle. The group all sat down and opened a few snacks.

"Is it? Or does Y/N need a break...again." Mike said, his tone was snarky and mean. He huffed and sat down. Yanking out a bag of pretzels. The group glared at him but Eddie stomped over to him.

"Eddie," Y/N warned but he didn't listen.

Eddie snatched Mike's pretzels, standing over him.

"Hey asswipe, has anyone taught you respect? She has leg problems and this is hard on her. She did this for Dustin and Dustin only. So if he doesn't have a problem, then shut it." Eddie snapped, throwing the bag of pretzels on Mike's lap.

Mike gulped and sat quietly. The rest of the group sat in silence. But Dustin sent Y/N a happy smile.

"I'm happy you're here and doing the best that you can. Breaks are nice." Dustin said.

She smiled gratefully at him.

"Thanks, Dusty."

Eddie glared at Mike the whole time they took a break. Y/N kept nudging him but he refused to look away. Mike kept avoiding eye contact. When half an hour passed, Steve stood up.

"Ready?" Steve asked, looking at Y/N.

"Yeah." Truthfully, she wasn't. Her legs were done for the day but she didn't want to annoy anyone again.

"Time to walk back, think you'll be okay?" Eddie asked, looking down at her as he helped her stand.

"I'm not sure." She whispered, and the group started walking towards the parking lot. She eyed Mike and Eddie figured she was scared to ask again.

"Jump on," Eddie said, bending down as he turned around. She looked at him confused as he squatted in the middle of the woods.

"huh?"

"My back, baby. I'll carry you the rest of the way."

"Eddie no! That'll tire you out." She argued but Eddie wasn't taking it.

"Now." He demanded. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

She braced herself and jumped on his back. His arms were under her knees. It took them a second to get adjusted. But she felt so much relief not to be on her feet. Her hands were together in front of his chest.

"Let's go!" He cheered, racing to catch up. Her laugh caught the attention of the group. All looked back as Eddie ran up to them.

"See! No more breaks, Mike." Eddie sneered, using his girlfriend's foot to smack Mike in the back.

"Munson!" Y/N gasped, scolding Eddie as the group continued to walk.

"Nah, he deserved it," Max said, winking to Y/N.

Tags!

@bmunson86 @mxcheese @ladymunson @michaelfuckinglangdon @z0mbie-blah @biittersweet @mirrorsstuff @somethingvicked @micheledawn1975 @ago-godance @magnificantmermaid @tlclick73 @hargrovesswifee @cityofidek @manyfandomsfanvergentreblogs @silky-luxe @lokiofasgard616 @loving-and-dreaming @eddiemunsonsbitch69 @thegemaqua @ashlynnkennedy @strangerthingsstories5255 @harringt8ns @pleasinghellfire @whoscamila @stusdollface93 @gretavankleep37

[moash]

i don’t want to do discourse about moash’s character, but i do want to talk about how the suicide baiting is used in the narrative

when moash confronts kaladin in roshone’s basement, this is expected to be the classic darth vader “luke, join me” moment, right? you’re expecting moash to say something like, join the dark side we can offer you more than the heroes can etc. but he doesn’t!!! to have moash stand there and say, “you can’t join us on the cool kid team, and since life sucks forever and you can’t join us where everything is awesome, you should kill yourself,” is wild!!! it throws you off!!! and it’s specifically so much harder for a hero to rebuff than “join me.” because “join me” is weak in this scenario, what can they really offer kaladin? nothing. it would be really abundantly easy to say no to. and from the writer’s perspective, join me is very Done, right? telling kaladin to kill himself and throwing back all of this personal information that kaladin told him in confidence when they were friends is a really cruel and unexpected twist that makes you feel the stakes so much more than if he’d just given kaladin the whole dark side spiel and called it a day.

it’s made even more interesting later on when you realize that moash is defying direct orders from odium to do this. odium DOES want moash to be giving the classic dark side spiel, and this is moash refusing to do that. and the reason he’s refusing to do that is because he hates what and where he is, and he loves kaladin, and he doesn’t want kaladin to be here, but the only other option in his broken mind is that kaladin dies. and when you learn all that and look back on the scene, it’s doubly interesting because now everything he’s saying about how life is worthless is him pushing all his own suicidal thoughts on kaladin. it’s moash who wants to kill himself, but he can’t.

to me this is all really fascinating for the peek into moash’s mental state, but also from a writing perspective as a novel twist on the villainous “join me” speech. it’s truly jarring to read the first time and succeeds on like every level as a piece of writing, personally, imo.

[pagannatural]

1.21 Salvation

-John finally, after some 22 years, lets his sons in on his plans and shows them everything he’s got on the demon that killed their mom and Jess.

-John is such a good character. I’m not really interested in liking or disliking him, I just love his part in this story. He reacted to an unimaginable situation in a human way. Who among us can say, really, how we would parent two small children if our wife was brutally murdered on the ceiling by a demon who then burned down our entire house? John truly thought the whole world was a war zone so he made his kids soldiers rather than getting them to safety. To understand John you have to understand that Safe and Normal as concepts were destroyed for him. He wanted to protect his boys so badly that he tried to prepare them and toughen them and train them but he also wanted to shield them so he hid as much as he could from them. He taught them that people were dying and they were responsible for stopping it. He put all of that on their way-too-young shoulders all while refusing to trust them or let them in.

Under all that pressure, Sam and Dean created their own world, their bubble of safety with each other. They give each what they need in the most vital and fundamental sense, nourishing each other in a hostile environment. They share something that no one else could ever understand.

So thanks, John.

-“It’s not your problem, it’s our problem” is an objectively kind and supportive thing to say so I’m proud of Dean for managing to shout it angrily at Sam. Such passion such energy

-Sam looks like a little kid this whole scene where Dean and John are arguing about parenting him. Dean stands up to John again and defends himself. He’s Sam’s daddy now (sorry)

-John tells Sam “I want you to go to school, I want Dean to have a home” which is hilarious to me because it implies that he thinks of Dean as a homeless man (which he is).

Dean glances at Sam when John says this and then hangs his head. Sam is his home. And he feels responsible for Sam leaving school (which he is).

-In the car Sam tells Dean “I want to thank you” but the you comes out as “ya”. This happens another time when Sam tells Dean “I still love you” (or something close to that) in s5e11. It’s unusual for Sam. He doesn’t ya his you’s regularly at the end of a sentence. Jared and Jensen both have typical midwestern accents on the show. Jared intentionally changes his speech pattern when he’s possessed, so that words like “wasn’t” or “doesn’t” are enunciated when normally Sam pronounces it like “wud’n” or “dud’n” with a very soft “d.”

Point being, something is causing Sam to shy off of saying these things and making them sound too serious so he says “I want to thank ya” which sounds more casual. When he’s lost in emotion (like later when he throws Dean against a wall and says “don’t you say that”), he enunciates his you’s. I think this is unintentional of Sam and intentional of Jared. Sam’s trying not to scare Dean off or sound too confessional- he’s seen how Dean reacts to that.

-Sam says “even when I couldn’t count on anyone”

Dean gave him consistency and safety and the knowledge that he was always loved. Dean’s his sanctuary.

-Dean says the house is “burning to the ground, it’s suicide”

“I don’t care” “I do”

Sam is reckless. He has a safe place to land, so he often acts without really thinking through the consequences, and Dean is always there for him. This is the THIRD house fire Dean has protected Sam from. Interesting that Sam asked Jessica, his Dean replacement, “what would I do without you?” in ep1 and she said “crash and burn.” Actually that’s what you would do without Dean :)

-Sam says killing the demon is “all we’ve ever cared about” he doesn’t realize that Dean has always cared more about him than about revenge or justice or whatever else. Dean would rather have Sam. Wild that Sam doesn’t know he’s Dean’s top priority yet. I wonder if he knew that pre-Stanford?

-Sam gets angry when Dean says they can’t bring Jessica or their mom back. It mirrors Dean slamming Sam against the wall in ep1 when he told Dean their mom is never coming back. Sam’s anger melts as soon as Dean speaks and he ends up just kind of grasping Dean’s shirt and pressing into him with this desperate look on his face. They look at each other’s mouths.

-Dean is accepting of Sam grabbing him and throwing him against a wall, just like Sam handles it in s2 when Dean punches him in the face. They have no normal way to express how intensely they feel about each other so it comes out as violence or care when one is injured. Love and need and pain are inextricable between them- they love each other in ways that are painful. So they just submit to each other like Yes, finally something that feels strong enough. It’s like it’s soothing to express and receive each other’s needs, even as pain. It has to come out somehow.

-Dean says that the three of them are all he has and “sometimes I feel like I’m barely holding it together” Dean doesn’t let himself fall apart, and he wants to fall apart with Sam here, begging Sam to be careful with his life, to understand that he needs Sam. He’s saying Please don’t get hurt, I need you, I’m falling apart.

Sam could kiss him right now. Dean’s not holding it together enough to try pushing Sam away or protecting him from their feelings.

-Dean says “without you and dad, I-” and I think that Dean obviously loves and cares about John but the real issue is that he couldn’t say “without you, I-” on network television because they would have just made out. The mention of their dad brings Sam back to himself. He turns away from Dean and lets go of him with what looks like some effort. Dean looks lost and he’s also still tilting his head up with his lips parted looking like Sam didn’t kiss him. Sam asks him to call John.

-This parallels when Dean told Sam to call Sarah in 1x19. Dean calls even though he’s still emotionally involved in the conversation with Sam and didn’t finish what he was saying. He’s just admitted something that was difficult for him, and Sam reacted by pulling away, distancing himself, exactly as Dean did when Sam admitted Jessica isn’t the main reason he’s not interested in anyone.

I’m a John-would-kill-Dean truther if he found out about anything untoward going on between his boys, so the mention of their Dad and the fact that he’s in danger would absolutely make Sam force himself away from Dean.

This specific dynamic of Sam pleading with Dean for something and Dean surrendering brokenly to Sam in a Please give it to me Please just take it loop where neither is willing to act makes me want to chew on my own ribcage.

[clownery-and-fuckery]

Alright buckle up here's my actual genuine reaction....

First episode:

First of all, I regret asking for more Hemlock, this was fantastically awful, I will not be recovering.

Second of all, that shaved clone has done things to me. Horrible, horrid things that made me actually pause it and look away. It made me physically ill, it was the worst. Great, but the worst.

The passage of time really did fucking get to me BUT HER LITTLE PONYTAIL UGH

crosshair..... I need a moment

EMERIE !!!! CANT STAND HER !!!!!!!!!!! SNITCH ASS BITCH

I literally don't care that she was allowed to keep the doll, btw. I dont give a shit. I hope Emerie dies in a fire.

nala se.... ew............

I think the whole episode was just pure horror, it was so fucking disgusting to watch, idk about you guys but watching the clone who had probably faced the true horror of SCI-FI warfare crying alone in his cell genuinely had me pausing the episode. Really great work there, Jennifer, I will be billing you for my therapy

Crosshair and Omega bonding !!! The little "What's your mission objective" was definitely a tactic he used on his brothers to have them pay attention, I refuse to acknowledge that he's the youngest, he just isn't. That's big brother keeping his little brother(s) on task behaviour.

Everything about Hemlock gave me chills. I love him. I hate him. I hope his guts cover the screen. I am fascinated by him.

I had a sneaking suspicion Emerie was taken under Hemlock's wing, and her undoing will be her endless loyalty to him... they did not have to say it as obviously as that, though. Glad they did.

Crosshair is sick. There is no way you show us all these sick, dying clones then Crosshair and expect us not to figure that out. He's going to die. His shaking is just the first symptom. I am not ready.

I definitely have more smaller notes I will make once I am not sobbing hysterically about it !!!!

Episode two!!:

This is the one that made me cry, actually.

Watching Wrecker and Hunter march in, quiet and covered in countless injuries, made me so sad. I couldnt recognise them. Those aren't my lads.

Wrecker begging hunter not to go because people didn't make it back.... hunter I get you're desperate, but you will NOT survive another brother being killed. I can't bear to watch him tear himself apart and neither can Wrecker.

WEEPED LIKE AN ACTUAL BABY WHEN I SAW THOSE CLONE BABIES.... THEYRE TOO YOUNG.

"99ers???" THERES FUCKING MORE ??????? I want to know the lore behind this line particularly.

Theyre so cute..... they're so CUTE ugh sedate me immediately

THE WAY HUNTER WAS LOST AT THE START BTW WITH THE TECH AND HE WAS GETTING FRUSTRATED AND HE IMMEDIATELY LOOKED TO OMEGAS STUFF AND LET HIS GRIP LOOSEN ON THE DATAPAD HE WSS THINKING OF HIS YOUNGEST TWO SIBLINGS I WILL NEVER FUCKING RECOVER DAVID AND JENNIFER LET THEM BE HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyways that little fucker who was good with tech..... I see you. I love you.

They were so used to letting Tech do his thing.... they immediately moved to cover fire....... for a second they forgot it wasnt him, I'm weak

THE CRATE FROM S1 YOU HORRIBLE BASTARDS WHEN WILL YOU LET ME DIE

wrecker playing with the kids..... laughing with them....... ohh i will not cope when he dies.

Hes going to die, btw. In case you didn't know. I know. I am aware. I am unprepared. I dont want to discuss it.

PABU..... THEYRE GOING TO PABU WHEN I TELL YOU I SOBBED. MY MOTHER HAD TO HOLD ME. I WAS INCONSOLABLE FOR FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES!!!!!!

i cannot express my feelings for this episode.

Episode three!!!!!!:

I want that man. Yes, i do mean that masked man we saw for two seconds, I want him.

The Emperor had me actually screaming. I was so hyped. He scares me so bad.

Hemlock!!!!!! Evil !!!!!!!! CUNT !!!!!!!!!!!!

nala se was so obvious about her "Get tf out" speech..... why don't you say it louder, the whole fucking room couldn't hear you

The fucking timer. Chills. CHILLS.

Crosshair and Omega !!!! He was so unserious I love that

....sorry to all the lovers tho, have to say i DIED laughing at his "gUaRdS"

And the SCREAM he scrumpt when the door opened, who allowed that 😭😭 it was so fucking funny whbeisbwiba

They were so messy this entire ep, they're everything to me......

"Of course he did" DO YOU WANT ME TO FUCKING DIE ?!?!?!? WHO FUCKING GAVE YOU THE RIGHT CAUSE IT WASNT FUCKING ME

Crosshairs trigger finger shaking so bad he gave his position away....... that's a major fucking problem, isn't it? That's gonna bite him in the ass.

I want more of Hemlock having a damn tantrum, that was fantastic. Him this season has me in a chokehold. I can't wait to write more of him.

This entire season so far is amazing. I can't wait to watch more, there are so many more points I wanna make, I'm freaked. I'm so happy, I'm still crying, I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Making more coherent thoughts about them soon <3

[whoishotteranimepolls]

hello, finn here, resident one piece "insane tag" writer.... im doing my duty to defend mr. smoker. smo-yan, if you will.

what are my credentials in commenting on this matter? Well. Glad you asked. I've been a onep fan for admittedly not that long, but in that time (like... 8-9 months?) i've messaged one of my close friends. hm. discord receipts.

681 times about him. also you know that one post? yeah from "smoker. smo-yan." to "i fucking love him good god" that's all me. glad we've established my expertise here

2. look at him. first of all, im raising my eyebrow at you anon because woahhhh looking 60 is fine for me. just perfect, actually. they grey/white hair is fucking wonderful to me personally considering i also love rayleigh and beckman.... also just like. every other part of him. he has huge boobs that he refuses to cover because he's allergic to shirts for some reason. he has leather gloves (would suck on any day). when also jacketless, he wears his jitte with a thick strap over his chest that is So droolworthy. he has a Fat Ass. search up stampede smoker because that's like his peak look. his face scar is endlessly sexy. the slicked back hair (more recently) and the more messy spiky look from earlier in the series both serve in contributing to his bad boy persona, which leads me to my second point: the dichotomy of personality.

3a. part a - the bad boy delinquent persona. if you only take him for his surface level actions and words, he seems a little bit mean. like every gruff, rough-around-the-edges mad dog delinquent type. just look at him as a marine cadet, head shaved and frowning. look at the illustration oda did of him as a kid, holding a nail-imbedded bat. he's loud and brash and commands a whole marine squad, he's big and always has a frown on his face and he's arguing and cursing and you just expect him to be unkind. but. But.

3b. But he's not. he's not unkind at all. He's not nice, maybe, but he's so kind. when tashigi has her crisis about justice vs the marines vs "doing the right thing" are often, actually, at odds with each other, smoker supports her in his own gruff way. tells her he'll be there to support her. and. the scene of all time;

4. la pièce de résistance - his character introduction. oda does character introduction SO well in general (see: mihawk, zoro, galley-la shipwrights, countless others) but the smoker intro is my top intro of all time, it's SO good. to recount to those who don't know, we basically see this big scary gruff guy - shirtless, obviously strong, all spiky hair and big stompy boots - and a kid bumps into him and spills their ice cream all over him. He obviously has a reputation as a powerful guy, because the villiagers around all beg him for forgiveness, ask him not to hurt the kid - and yknow what he does? He says to the kid "looks like my pants ate your ice cream," drops a few coin into their hand, and tells them to buy more scoops next time. that's the most attractive thing i've ever seen. he does masculinity like NO other. gods.

5. strong moral compass - doesn't often agree with general marine guidelines. he's pretty shit at being a marine, honestly. tells the brass to go fuck themselves often. follows his own sense of justice, and even though he hates pirates.... temporarily allying himself with them is not off the table, not if it means more justice (in his eyes). he doesn't like innocent people being killed. in stampede, even as everyone attempts to leave the island in light for abuster call, he stays because there must be something he can do. hina sighs and calls him stupid for it, but takes tashigi koby and helmeppo away anyways, showing that this has happened before, likely multiple times.

6. can he stub those cigars out on me. please. please. plea- [comically large piano falls on me, cutting off my speech]

For context, they are responding to this post about Smoker

It's always the last paragraph that pushes it into horny jail territory every time

And he does have one of the best intros. I hope they keep it in the live action

[alexjcrowley]

I am sorry but I need to say a couple of things about Brad Bakshi, even though I haven't finished season 3 yet. I am not attacking anyone's characterization, let your headcanons and interpretations thrive, but I want to share my take because sometimes it's like I watched a different show.

I either find takes that are "Brad is a lovey-dovey tsundere" or "Brad is a fuckboy, no attachment, he doesn't do feelings". And man, I do not agree with either. It's something in the middle for me.

First of all, Brad is way more caring than some people give him credit for and I will prove it.

He may be an asshole, but he is completely self-aware of it. Poppy, Ian, even David think they're good people, even whan they do or say very questionable things, Brad knows he is being a bastard. He never hides it, never tries to put up an "holier than thou" act, never tries to make people believe he is a good guy. He doesn't try hiding that is an asshole because deliberately acts like one. He wants to be seen as an asshole. He goes out of his fucking way to prove it.

Turning himself in at the end of season 2? "Oh, but it gave him street credi-" it's pretty convenient he wanted street credit when going to jail could also be beneficial to Jo. Otherwise he could have straight up done inside trading himself way before Jo put herslef in trouble.

The whole animal thing? The fact that he was a mouse? Let's pretend for a moment he actually filled it randomly, he happened to get mouse by mistake. Why do you care so much people do not associate you to a mouse? If you're an unforgiving asshole, it will show even if a random test (that people will probably soon forget about) gave you mouse. Look, let's say I make Donald Trump fill out this test and he comes out as a mouse. I will not stop thinking he is a piece of shit! If the test was so meaningless he filled it out randomly (or so he says), why does he care so much about Jo's opinion on it?

Brad is a performative asshole. He does his job in the less nice way possible, but he never sabotages others just because. He tries with that whole buscuit thing, but that's the most damage he causes to someone and it's thrashing a piece of biscuit and give an evil speech that just hans there. Rest of the show? He always ends up helping out people, if not out of kindness, out of understanding every cog needs to fuction properly for the whole Mythic Quest machine to work. He doesn't go out of his way to damage other people, the worst he does? Mean comments. It's performative. It's all performative.

And you know how I know that? Breaking Brad. The Kate story tells us one thing: Brad is a naturally caring person. Kate was a pig. Not a dog, not a cat, not a turtle, not even a fish, animals we are used to consider as pets. Kate was a pig, an animal considered dirty, ugly, ungraceful (fat, but I will not talk about Brad's ED here), the word "pig" is even used as an insult, plus the pig is famously known as the animal you can kill and not waste a single part of it.

A pig is the perfect animal to impart a lesson of cruelty. You don't feel sorry for a pig. And what does Brad do, with this wretched creature? He names her. Zack doesn't, Zack tells us he was on board with killing the pig, it's Brad who can't do it. Zack doesn't care and Brad cares too much, even when he knew Kate's fate was doomed from the start. Right there, you have a character who, despite being taught to be cruel, can't help but care.

"Oh, but this happened when Brad was a kid, he hardened as he grew up" okay, then how do you explain him begging Zack? The thing is, I do believe Brad wanted to get more out of Mythic Quest and was angry bis brother tried to destroy it, I am not saying "Brad is caring because he doesn't want to lose his job", that's fairly normal. The point is, Zack asks him to beg for it, and Brad does. I have seen characters in more desperate situations refuse to plea, but Brad does it. With less resistence than I would have imagined. Instead of being like "I would never beg you, I will not submit myself to this humiliation, I'll find another job", he grovels. He puts his pride second for a company which he will leave the moment his friend Jo (and if I say colleague instead of friend it's even crazier!) is in danger.

Quickly compare it to David asking a whole company to walk out when he gets fired.

Brad is a performative asshole. He didn't have it in him, he taught himself to act and speak like an asshole, and he learned the part well, but his heart is not in it. If you watch Succession, it's like Kendall, he is not a killer. He can pretend to be killer, but he is not.

So now it seems like I said people who view Brad a repressed lovey-dovey tsundere are right, but just wait, i haven't finished yet.

The thing about teaching yourself to be someone else is that first, some habits stick, second, what doesn't stick, you try harder to make it so.

What I mean is, precisely because Brad is a caring person, he tries very hard not to seem like it. It means that if someone shows him kindness, Brad will refuse to accept it twice as hard, because he is fighting towards a natural instinct to show kindness in return.

Someone finally lends Brad a helping hand? For the exact reason he feels like he wants to take it, he'll turn it down. It's not that he is not touched by that care, it's that he can't afford to show it. That's the whole point of the performative assholery, repressing his natural responses.

I see a lot of someone pays Brad a compliment and he blushes because he doesn't know how to take it, but to me is like no! He doesn't blush! The whole point of fighting his own instincts is that he doesn't show his feelings. It's not that he doesn't know what kindness is so he reacts to it like a caveman would react to a computer, he knows exactly what kindness, care and affection are and he deliberately avoids them.

To me Brad doesn't do feelings because he doesn't want to. Brad fights his natural instincts because they're very strong (so he is lovey-dovey on the inside), but, at the same time, that fight implies a lot of trained resistance to his nature (Brad doesn't want to do feelings).

Being an asshole doesn't come natural to Brad and that's why it's so difficult for him to act kind: because being an asshole is not a random trait of his personality he may be willing to change, it's a carefully crafted mask he doesn't want to get rid of.

It's the difference between explaining something to someone who doesn't understand it and someome who doesn't want to understand it.

And one last thing (because you kidded yourself if you thought this wasn't about Braddavid).

I get that, especially at first, especially to keep that mask on, even if Brad had feelings for David he would take a long time before admitting it and I can see him reluctant to put a label to the relationship, because that would be admitting that he cares.

But let me take you back to Brad begging his brother to leave Mythic Quest alone. The moment he senses David might slip up from his fingers (for whataver reason: David might have found somebody else more emotionally available, is growing tired/sad of Brad's emotional distance, etc.) Brad is Back On. Brad is putting the effort to verbalize his feelings, is putting a name on the relationship and, one day, he'd even be willing to put a ring on it. He is "Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it" coded and you can argue you with the wall.

(Plus, I feel like, exactly like his performative assholery mainly comes from mean comments, he may not be very affectionate when it comes to words of affirmation, but by his behaviour you can tell he cares. He is all about quality time, acts of service and gifts he diguises as not gifts. He tries to be subtle, but he can't help revealing in someway he cares about people).

If Brad could beg his brother, one the people he hates the most in the world, to let him have Mythic Quest for a while more, he could surely find the courage to tell the person he loves that he loves them. "But his pride-" he flushed his pride down the toilet when it became an obstacle to him. He came back to his old company as a janitor, which sadly many people do not considered to be a valuable job, especially since he used to be the Head of Monetization before. He had none of that "oh my God, this job is not well paid or respected enough for my previous standards" crap. He is way less prideful than a lot of people think. Getting where he wants to go, obtaining what he wants to gain is way more important to him than his pride.

Last note, this man in possessive. And I don't necessarily mean in a toxic, abusive way, but you can't deny that he is. He wants to own people, he probably rarely calls in favours from them because he gets high on how long he can own them. The "Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it" comes back into the play, this man is jealous. Again, of course this was about Braddavid, shame on you if you didn't catch it, but I have seen too many "David is too affectionate, Brad is aloof and cool" and I don't buy it.

Brad may not be into PDA, and he may not show it with words, but when he is in a committed relationship he is committed. He may say it's casual, but this is just like Kate. No matter how many times he tells himself he won't get attached to a person and that every relationship ends, at the end of the day, if he truly cares about that person, he won't be able to kill the relationship like it was nothing and go on with his life. I cannot imagine him breaking up with someone because "oh no, I am getting too involved", that's the whole point, he cannot do that, or he'd be a killer, he would have been able to kill Kate and let go of Mythic Quest and let Jo end up in jail. Even if he did break up with this person, it wouldn't come natural to him and he would an absolute wreck, haunted by the memory of this person like he is haunted by the memory of Kate.

It's the duality here! Brad's all about the duality, nature and (self) nurture fighting one against the other. And I have mainly found stuff in which this duality is not shown.

If you made it to this point, thank you for indulging me in overanalysing this character, have a wonderful day.

P.S. I forgot to mention, Brad totally watches those animal predators video for desensitization. Because he couldn't kill Kate so he teaches himself to be insensitive to animal cruelty. The kid who couldn't harm his pig is not watching animal on animal violence for kicks and giggles.

[love-killed-the-superstar]

The Last Ronin 2: Re-Evolution Issue #1 LIVEBLOG

SPOILERS ABOUND. I'M NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS IT'LL PROBABLY GET SUPER LONG

Okay so Casey Marie's muscles are something I'm never going to get over. SHE LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Her getup is feeling a little too reminiscent of a cape-wielding superhero for my tastes to be honest - I really loved the more practical outfits she wore in TLR Lost Years, especially in issue 4 when she was running the training mission for the kids. But ah well, I'm sure this will grow on me. It may not be practical (edna's law of no capes is coming to mind, also PLEASE TIE YOUR HAIR UP WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING GIRL!!!) but it's very cunty anyway which I appreciate

Straight up thought she killed this guy - what was that sound effect if he's still able to walk??? I fr thought she snapped his neck

IDK if we needed a whole 8 pages of punching and kicking to exposition dump what we kinda already knew from what's been shown in the lost years (esp the lost day special) but IT'S FINE IG... NOW ONTO THE BABIES

SORRY, SORRY. TEENAGERS NOW.

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET. We're ALREADY getting the leo-v-raph adjacent dynamic with these two and I'm living for it. if one of them drops a stone cold 'fearless leader' jab i will lose my shit

HI? HELLO, EXCUSE ME, MIND-TALKING? PICTURES IN HEAD? ARE WE A FAMILY THAT LUCID DREAMS OR SOMETHING?!?? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS BEING SOMETHING THEY COULD DO?? every new speech bubble here is like a punch to the gut, wdym telepathy wdym secret lair wdym honouring everything master splinter taught you???? (although i'm proud that when this panel dropped on news sites i was immediately like THAT ISN'T THE KITCHEN FROM LOST YEARS. turns out it was a Secret Lair TM)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Seance -- TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!!

not gonna screenshot the whole backstory but they're basically doing a telepathic puppet show explaining the backstory and it's pretty much the mirage origins with a bit of extra tlr flair. as always it HURTS ME seeing the turtles dying so thanks for that tlr2 :'')) icb these kids watch a mind movie of their uncles dying every fucking night. yall are messy

SOBBING AND CRYING,, I WISH YOU'D ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW HIM TOO!!!!!! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN TO KNOW ALL OF THEM!!!!! (tlr splinter doesnt count tho because hes a dick)

there was a cool sequence of them rooftop hopping n stuff but i wont cover it bc we already saw it in a bunch of news articles weeks ago

i just did the SHARPEST INHALE. casey marie you and your beautiful muscular arms have aged like the finest wine

YI NO!!!!!

lmaooo moja is JUDGING your taste in women u two

lots of text... blah blah blah jobs, crimerates, blah blah... jiro in pig uniform jumpscare.. casey marie i thought u were going to fix him :(((

YESSSSS KIDS ARE GOING ON A MISSION WITH THEIR MOM, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

MY BABIES ARE KICKING ASS!!!!!

....,.HUH

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY BABY BOY ODIE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DID THIS TO HIM!!!!!!???? WHAT??!???? HUH/1?!!? EXCUSE ME????

I'M . LIKE WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO THIS. IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE??? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

dude that first issue was wordy but the kids were ON POINT. they were so fun!! their dialogue is fun and they kick ass.

i loved yi announcing the punishment for casey while the others were like NOO SHE DIDNT MEAN THAT DONT LISTEN TO HER. we're getting more of their personalities and it's great!! it was a nice throwback to issue 2 of lost years when they were cleaning - yi refused to help because of how strictly she was following instructions. im picking up that she might be neurodivergent but i did get that from the lost years too - only doing things within strict instructions, getting frustrated at teaching odyn chess, not because of him playing horseys with the knights but that it was Against The Rules Of Chess - and now not picking up on some social cues. It's nice to see!! I love her very much, but it feels like besides rehashing the origin story she took a bit of a backseat to the other three.

i want to know more about why uno said being a rebel was moja's 'thing', since she didn't seem to be any more rebellious than the other three in this issue. we didn't get any unique interactions between her and casey marie which is what i felt was lacking from lost years but i wonder if this is hinting towards a more turbulent mother-daughter dynamic with them... I REALLY HOPE SO!! her and uno butting heads in a leo-raph way is very fun - i don't mind one or two prior group dynamics leaking into the new turtle siblings because they're all so different from the original 4.

uno seems to be taking on slightly more of a leader role than moja so i think he won the title of fearless leader. which is fine, i think it'll be fun to see and he's definitely less of an asshole now than when he was growing up in lost years. still picking on odyn a bit but seems to snipe at moja just as much. even when he was commenting on yi's storytelling he didn't make fun of her, though - i think she may have inherited the 2k3 don ability of being Completely Unbullyable.

i was really pleased that odyn felt more involved!! i feel like he took the backseat a few times in lost years - it was fun seeing more of his personality shine through! he and yi seem to get on the best, and i giggled at them rolling their eyes at moja and uno's raph-leo schtick. i didn't expect him to TURN TO FUCKING STONE THOUGH, so i'm nervous about that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHO DID THIS TO MY BOY? IS HE GOING TO TURN BACK NEXT CHAPTER OR IS HE OUT OF COMMISSION UNTIL THE END OF THE RUN??? (if it's the latter i'll be a bit annoyed - don't take odyn away from the equation please!!)

I do wonder if by introducing casually that they can PSYCHICALLY CONNECT, the turtles will use that as a technique to reach odyn's mind to make sure he's still in there and piece together what's happened to him. i mean, their casual telepathy has gotta be some sort of chekhov's gun right?

and shit.... april was so fucking mad casey took the babies out so she's going to EXPLODE when she finds out what happened to her baby boy, her beloved favourite, her baby odyn :''(( im giggling rubbing my hands together waiting for the fallout but also if she cries i might cry too. speaking of april, she seems to be working on a new project and i saw nano particles mentioned - are we going to have a roninverse version of nano in this run???? I NEED MY ROBOT SON

as always, casey marie... u have aged like fine wine. u are stunning. disappointed that ur still believing that jiro can do good as a cop when their entire police force and government is corrupt as fuck. just feels very naive of her. i'm excited to see her break down at the concept of losing odyn - in fact i need everyone to mourn this beautiful kid. they tell us so much that shes a super clingy helicopter mom and i am picking up on the strict part, but it would be nice to see more of her just... hugging her kids. holding them. i get why she didnt in this issue but id love more mama casey squishing their cheeks and kissing their foreheads.

i have zero fucking clue what's going on with odyn. im wondering if it's somehow related to nano, or to whatever project April is working on - she says it's to do with clearing the tunnels, but I''m not convinced. who knows, there might be some ulterior motive happening.

Anyway, that's the end of my liveblog!! thanks for reading all the way to the end... go read it wherever you read ur comics!!!

[sideprince]

Hey! Dunno if you do the asks game but I'd like to know your opinions on Severus based on 1, 2, 8, 12, 15 (if it's too much you can skip it or only do the questions that you find interesting

(btw, your blog is gold, I passed way too much time scrolling on your blog to find EVERY meta I could get my hands on)

Most of my meta posts are just me lurking on @raptured-night 's old meta posts and reblogging them, but I'm glad you had fun! You should check out their blog I think you'd love it...

1. Canon I outright reject

This is only technically HP canon because it's from Cursed Child and not the books: I refuse to believe Voldemort and Bellatrix slept together. I don't think it's in Voldemort's character to sleep with anyone, period. His core characteristic is his aversion to vulnerability; he operates in secrecy and alone and has no friends, nor as he ever had one. There isn't a single one of his Death Eaters he truly trusts. He has no understanding of love (which isn't necessary for sex) or of the value of or need to connect with another person. This is not a person who would expose any part of himself to another person, let alone a vulnerable and private one, and want to engage in something that, even if loveless, is ultimately still an intimate and vulnerable interaction. And you can't even say that it's because he wanted to secure Bellatrix's loyalty because he already had it. She was an absolute fanatic and fully devoted to him and would have continued to be so whether or not he slept with her, let alone had a child with her. And I don't buy the idea that he wanted a child either, because I don't think that would have made a difference to him in terms of trusting someone with his legacy. Not to mention that the guy whose main goal was immortality and who believed he had achieved it through his Horcruxes would not have made a backup plan in case he does die, let alone trust his child with anything purely because she's his offspring. He killed his own father, framed his uncle for it, and looked down on his mother – the idea of family being any kind reliable or worthwhile connection is not part of his world view. The whole thing makes no sense to me in the context of who Voldemort was set up to be as a character in the books but I'm also not a big fan of Cursed Child and don't personally consider it canon, so.

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

Snape comes from poverty in a slum of a Northern town in a very classist Britain and that informs a lot of who he is as a character. He may have the speech style and stiff demeanor to pass, but it's a form of masking and people like the Malfoys wouldn't have anything to do with him if it wasn't in their personal interest. He's not the refined, romanticized nobleman (or harlequin romance hero) some fans seem to want him to be and I don't like that interpretation because there's nothing wrong with his background or his lack of "breeding." I love that he's a genius kid who grows into a brilliant man and can hold his own against the best and worst of his society, exactly because of where he comes from. I sort of wish for him that he lived in a culture where he didn't have to suppress so much of himself.

8. Unpopular opinion about them

I think he both is and isn't ugly. What I mean is, he's not attractive by widely accepted beauty standards (with the caveat that he's described through Harry's perspective, which is biased). That being said, I don't believe in the idea of being ugly, at least not aesthetically. I don't really understand how you can separate someone's personality from their face. I've met people who I thought were ugly because they were unlikeable people (to me) but I've never met anyone who I thought was objectively unattractive. Facial expressions, personality, interests, judgments, etc., these are the things that show up on someone's face and make them attractive or unattractive. I may not be personally attracted to someone but that doesn't make them objectively unattractive. I've known people who have symmetrical faces with aesthetically pleasing features whose smiles were insincere or their eyes dead or they always looked annoyed or bored and nothing about them moved me. And then, where's that post about Miriam Margoyles talking about how she thinks of herself as beautiful? That. That's what I mean.

So I think that Snape is attractive on the page to people who find him intriguing, who see past the way his physical features are described because his personality and who he is are compelling. And at the same time, he has features a lot of people do find attractive: a prominent nose, the whole Trent Reznor long black hair/black goth clothes vibe etc. One person's "meh" is another person's "oooooh." And he's also described as greasy and pallid is a closed off, surly, antisocial guy. So it's a mixed bag in any case. But the same way I don't like the idea of him being represented as some kind of harlequin romance hero or refined nobleman, I reject the idea that to represent him in fan art as attractive he has to be chiseled with sharp cheeks and clean edges. He's messy. And he has a hooked nose. If I never see fan art of him with a straight, sharp nose I'll be happy (and people can draw what they want, I don't go around commenting on people's artwork or anything, I'm just answering an ask here).

12. Crack headcanon

Lily found out that it was Snape who told Dumbledore to hide her and her family and that he'd turned spy but didn't get a chance to thank him or rekindle their friendship before Voldemort killed her. Snape died thinking she never knew and still hated him. On a related note, I hate myself, apparently.

(Also I think it was Snape who made the potion Voldemort put in the basin in the cave to protect the locket Horcrux.)

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

Not look for a way out of being a Death Eater after the first time he participated in something that involved violence. And even then I have empathy for him because it would be traumatizing enough, let alone for someone young and raised in their own trauma. I do think, though, that trying to save Lily wasn't his sole motivation for defecting, it was his breaking point. Snape, like many others, was drawn to Voldemort for the reasons described in canon: his rhetoric about power and freedom. He didn't realize the violence and cruelty it would involve until it was too late to get out safely and there was a cowardice in his staying. Nevertheless, I can empathize with that kind of fear. That's not the same as condoning or supporting it, mind you, but in terms of the worst thing he's ever done I think it's everything he continued to be complicit or participatory in after the point where he realized what being a DE really meant.

[atopvisenyashill]

sidebar- listening to a podcast about this season of survivor w two former players (it was rob cesternino and cassidy clarke, if u watch survivor) and there’s a player on this season, venus, who’s been the outcast for a while, but last few weeks all her opps have walked out one by one and rob goes “i think she’s got kind of an arya stark arc going on” and before he could finish cassidy whispers into her mic “she’s no one” it was hilarious aksjd (he meant as in venus is going through her kill list and might get to the end alive) ANYWAYS-

some changes i’ve noticed

i feel like part of why the series stumbles is bc it doesn’t discuss lyanna as much as it should. having that added “we’ll talk about your mother when i return” scene right before robert & ned’s talk about jon snow’s mother And the targaryens was really good tho, narratively linking the two concepts.

HOWEVER i think like rhaegar & robert, d&d saw lyanna more as a puzzle than a person, but the whole point of lyanna is that she was a living breathing girl to ned and her death completely wrecks him in an irreparable way. so when they cut out his entire milk of the poppy dream sequence later on, it cuts out that she wasn’t just the answer to a riddle of “who was jon snow’s mother” but instead an integral part of the narrative whose absence defines the people ned and jon become. but i’m getting ahead of myself bc they haven’t actually changed anything here yet and the scene where ned and robert stop to talk is really good and more or less what happens in the book aksjdj.

i don't understand why they don't have catelyn thank summer for saving her and bran from the assassin. just another mind boggling decision and weird, unnecessary departure from cat's character

another unnecessary change is taking away ned’s fashionista tendencies smFh they don’t get nedcat at all

the way jaime is like oh ned is gonna be my bestie we’re gonna trade war stories we’re gonna flirt i’ll tell him about his brother’s gruesome death and he’ll be so grateful he’ll become MY best friend instead of robert’s and meanwhile ned is like, openly snarling the whole speech. the way ned’s mouth drops open at the GALL of jaime to say killing aerys felt like justice and jaime looks DEVASTATED and PERPLEXED that this man hates him so much when they’ve talked twice aksjdjd

okay first of all I DO IN FACT GET THE CHANGE of having bran say he had to have fallen whole robb insists he never falls, and we all know this scene lives forever in my mind but i also think it’s a) another weird departure from bran’s canon, very stubborn character and b) a PALE imitation of the talk in the dark between robb & bran where they say they’ll go on an adventure

that said, there’s something that Really fucks me up about the North having this culture wherein the sick and disabled are sent out in the winter to fight and die because they’re not like, worth feeding, but at the same time As A Disabled Person i guess finding it almost enticing to be given to the chance to like Die For A Reason ya know. you always have that out. And then here’s poor sweet Bran who it just never occurred to him that he would have to take that out and now it’s all he wants. anyways i’m crying ig

it’s the stubborn streak in him. he doesn’t want platitudes, he doesn’t want to be strong. his whole life has changed for the worse and he just needs to sit in it. it’s not fair and it all sucks and he’s just a kid!!!

the robert and barristan scene is another good one and it’s bc it plays into robert’s character, really elevates the elephant in the room of rhaenys & aegon, and the way barristan is just. disgusted. standing there consumed with loathing for everything he’s become, refusing to engage with being a driving force for why everything is this way. dragging jaime in to humiliate him in front of barristan, to humiliate barristan in front of jaime. the way barristan almost reaches out to jaime emotionally in a way he refuses to reach out to robert, but robert only gets angry and picks at them more.

“he said the same thing he’d been saying for hours. ‘burn them all.’” OH NOW ITS NOT SO FUN ANYMORE IS IT WISE GUY

gonna be honest i think the weapon talk between jorah and rakharo is one of the sexiest scenes in the show, listening to two dudes who are hit in REALLY different ways talk about their favorite ways of murdering people is really fun and hot to me also elyes gabel and amrita acharia were wasted on this show, they would have killed in later seasons smh

i don’t understand why they made the drogo storyline like a REAL TYPICAL sort of rape romance story. what was the point if they were just gonna be ~in love~ at the end anyway. such a weird choice.

do i love the change from “fear cuts deeper than swords” to “what do we say to the god of death”? like it’s fine. they should have kept both if they liked that line so much. the actor who plays syrio is so good tho he’s got such great chemistry with maisie, you really understand why syrio impacts her so much

that ending close up on ned’s trauma face is so good it’s such a shame they CUT THE DREAM SEQUENCE WHERE WE FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHY NED IS LOSING IT WATXGING ARYA GET FAKE STABBED IN THE GUT. ITS FINE. IM FINE.

general thoughts

“it’ll get easier” jorah is a useless binch just like aemon the dragonknight. what’s the point of your sword if you don’t kill your girl’s evil husband. go fall on it shithead.

i do love that jorah is like “ned is a little bitch for trying to behead me for slavery even tho it’s been illegal in westeros for like hundreds of years. but also maybe having a king that allows behavior like that is kinda crazy actually bc viserys is not right in the head. i’m not gonna reflect on that at all tho” iain glenn the actor that you are.

love the lannister breakfast scene. the way tyrion clearly knows but is pointedly talking around it. jaime thinks tyrion is the height of comedy and wants them to have a nice breakfast but cersei leaves haughtily halfway through even tho tommen & myrcella are having a good time. the Loaded Look jaime gives tyrion during the “life is full of possibilities” line, where he like,,,, Almost realizes Tyrion is saying something to him here emotionally about being disabled before he puts it aside to be self involved about the incest.

kit’s acting is always several degrees of magnitude better when he’s with other starklings. idk if he’s trying harder or if maisie sophie and isaac are so good they infect him with acting abilities.

there’s something fun about the cycles continuing bc joffrey gets drunk & belligerent like his father has a thousand times, but he doesn’t have half the skill or charm as his father and just gets his ass completely handed to him by a practical toddler with zero training. and he’s so embarrassed it helps snowball this situation into a war.

the kid who plays micah is real awkward. i'm not bullying i'm just saying.

“we all pray for prince joffrey’s full recovery” “pity you didn’t spare a prayer for the butcher’s boy” GET HIS ASS

have i mentioned how much i hate aiden’s acting. oh my god i’m not gonna get through this rewatch aksjsj

“war was easier than daughters” ned every emotion you’ve ever felt is harder to deal with than the war that’s why you’re so fucked in the head be so fucking fr with me rn lmao

septa mordane is a terrible guardian i think this can’t be understated

“she must take his side even when he is wrong” “but how could you let her marry someone like that?” GET HIS ASS

bran literally shivering with fear as nan talks my baby!!!!!!!!

“ah the starks. quick tempers. slow minds.” CAN WE SKIP THE EVIL VILLAIN MONOLOGUES TO THE CAMERA PLEASE

“i think we can outfox a ten year old” jaime you couldn’t even kill that ten year old correctly let’s walk before we run

nedcat giggling over ned throttling petyr and then making out in front of petyr’s establishment is amazing i’m literally so depressed right now i hope petyr cried into his pillow that night

the way both ned AND benjen just give the most ass goodbyes to jon for no good reason. are they TRYING to give him a complex oh my god

i think i’m on episode 4. once i get past season one i think it’ll be easier when the writing gets worse actually.

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 153

Chapter 153: "Coward"

I dunno why but I'm kinda bummed Norman's kill happened off-panel. Yeah it wouldn't feel right to see one one of the sweetest boys to take a life but that's exactly why it would work so well under his WM persona. And I just wanted to see Yverk perish, honestly. I don't like him. At least we got to see Norman attack Vylk in the second season, which is better than nothing, I suppose.

Norman would know that eradication is certainly not the only way to achieve peace if he would stop sounding like a broken record and listen to Emma's idea about the new promise and using the evil blood to save the demons. Also, I love how surprised the Lambda boys are upon hearing Emma rejecting Norman's orders/suggestion so easily. Her short & quick response is a nice callback to when she refused Ray's idea to leave all the GF kids behind back during ch4.

The WM facade that Norman is so confident with means nothing when our girl knows him so darn well, even to the point where he's lying to himself about his true feelings.

Gotta say that I prefer the anime's take on this panel much better as well. Definitely makes me feel sorry for this sad, terrified child more than a chessmaster with a god complex.

The manga does toss a whole bunch of flashbacks our way though so that does help pull some heartstrings here. I can also never remember that Norman & Vincent had the chance to meet casually while at Lambda. For a while I thought they only communicated via the rubix cube their entire time there. The Lambda staff should've never let these boys socialize.

They're both pretty stubborn when it comes to their own ideas but Norman has gotta know to yield once Emma has her heart set on something. You can't go against our leading lady. And how convenient that there's now a clear path between all the dead demons so she can march her way right up to him.

I love her so much for calling him out like this.

This trio is so darn precious with how much they care for each other and see each other as equals aaahh! Ray's words kinda remind me of ch178 when Norman said they would refuse to cross over to the human world if it means that Emma would have to sacrifice herself. And ch27 with Emma's famous speech about how they'll all live together and won't accept a future unless everyone is part of it. Look at that, all three of 'em having their own moments.

I don't even care if the anime switched up Ray's lines, it feels more personal to him when he draws on his own experiences and their relationship to remind Norman who he really is. I also love that someone is shown to be frustrated with Norman's actions. Emma is too, deep down somewhere I'm sure, but her voice is a lot more calming and hopeful during this scene, as usual.

Can't praise the anime for too long though since it doesn't include Ray offering his hand out to Norman like the manga does. (though perhaps it took inspiration from the following chapter since we don't see his hand there either when this moment is shown again.)

Anime also leaves Ray out of the hug for whatever reason. Maybe to match this chapter's extra page of Emma comforting a small, crying Norman, but c'mon, trio hugs are the best kind of hugs! (even though I personally prefer the hug shown next chapter a little bit more.) I can appreciate how the anime had Norman's hood fall down once Emma caught him as he fell to his knees, kinda like how his entire cape flew off here.

Favorite panel/moment:

Yeesss sweetie! Put that boy in his place!! I imagine she would've been just as angry if she had learned any sooner that Ray was sacrificing their siblings back at GF, so he's lucky all he got was a death glare in ch15.

Their faces are SO ADORABLE HERE!! HELP! I LOVE THEM!

[kurisus]

Noragami reread: Volume 21 & 22 thoughts

The closer we get to the final chapter drop, the bigger my feeling of dread grows, and the more I have to say in terms of thoughts. So, let's talk about this helping of pain.

I honestly can't figure out the deal with Fujisaki's sister and her kids. So, like, she puts the kids in her car and drives all the way to Tokyo to visit (? take care of??? they didn't really say why she was there) her missing brother, but she can't find him. Because he is missing. She leaves these young kids in the car and goes to look for him, but the kids get bored and wander off. They run into their uncle, who's chilling in a park nearby, and he's like "hey kiddos I have a really fun game for you. Play a prank on this kid that's gonna come by. Pretend you're lost [except they really are lost] and lure him into this tunnel it'll be funny." How did he know Yukine would be there either? Because Yukine was following him? Then the mother finds her kids and loads them back in the car...I guess to go back to the countryside...and doesn't believe her kids saying they met her brother. Like, the whole thing doesn't make sense. I guess Adachitoka just wanted to bring back the sister and kids, but the setup is so weird. If anyone else has an answer, please let me know, because this stumps me.

How I would rearrange this scene is that the sister is there to take care of Fujisaki and brought her kids, but while their mother is out shopping or whatever he takes the kids out without telling her, notices Yukine tailing him, and gets them to prank him. The mother finds them in the end and scolds her brother for taking off while he's sick. Since he's not really sick, she decides to go home the next day.

Moving on, Yukine's struggles really resonate. Poor kid thinks he has a loving family waiting for him, and doesn't understand why Yato refuses to tell him anything. Nora tries to tell him off, but he dismisses her too. So when he finds Yato with Kazuma, he realizes Yato was serious about cutting his lifeline. After all Yukine did to protect him in the previous arc, as well as Kazuma being there, this feels like a personal insult. Combined with his existing insecurities about being good enough, his PTSD from the box, and the agony of his past just out of reach, he just kind of...explodes. Just like how I want to explode reading this!

On a lighter note, obsessed with how angles and speech bubbles are used to disguise Kazuma's clothes while he argues with Yato, and then Yato points out those were the clothes he'd just changed out of. Hysterical. This goes well with the scene where Yato is wearing Hiyori's old uniform, but you don't see it till Yukine calls him out.

Okay, so, the thing with Hiyori. After Kazuma told her to fuck off, she tried to convince herself to stay home, but this resolution ends when she spots trash dad flying around and smiling. Thanks to this encounter, her cord is damaged, leading to it being broken later and enabling her to become a shinki. Upon the reread, I can see why it was important for her to be injured here--so that she doesn't run after Yato--but I'm still grumpy about the cord thing...and then she just runs after him the following volume anyway. Maybe if she was just injured, and the cord was intact...not sure. Like I said, grumpy.

Rereading volume 21 also made me realize another minor hangup I have with the ending is how much time we devote to Yato and Kazuma training together, and later fighting together, only for Kazuma to ultimately not to be the one to bring Father down. He weakened him, sure, but this partnership didn't amount to much outside of additional angst. I may adjust this feeling depending on how the remaining volumes go, but like I've said I don't like the Hiyori shinki thing so maybe Kazuma should've been the one to kill him. idk. He wronged Hiyori more, but [thrashes]

Nora saying to Yukine "your god is not your dad" pains me because he follows this by saying "if I was his actual kid, he wouldn't have left me" and then learning his parents DID abandon him--combined with projecting Yato as his father figure, this leads to him turning on Yato. His father is the one who leaves him, no matter who it is, no matter the reason.

There is also the fact that because of Nora (and Father telling her to), Yukine knows that gods know their pasts. Yato won't tell him anything--and hey, there's someone right here who's promising to do just that! Surrendering your name is fine, because the one who gave it to you betrayed you. The writing around this is so layered and complex and also I am deeply pained.

Switching gears to the Hiyori chapter. The conversation between her and her grandma takes on an interesting new context in light of recent events, and I wanna talk about it. The grandma is ready to die, but Hiyori doesn't want her to, because she'll never see her family again. Her grandma says that's a good point, but she'd rather be with the one she loves most, and urges Hiyori to do the same, before it's too late. But what's interesting is...Hiyori doesn't follow her advice. She does go off after Yato, because she knows her presence is needed to resolve things between him and Yukine, but what's crucial here is that at the funeral, seeing her crying mother reminds her that no matter what she has to come back home. So she's running off in a reckless move, but it's not because she has a death wish. She ALWAYS intended to come back, after helping with something very important. Plus, it was her grandma's time. Hiyori is young.

Overall, chapter 85 really highlights the foil between Hiyori and Nora. Here we have a "fake little girl" who was never given the chance to be a real human, and here is a real human girl who has a loving family, yet isn't doing things that most human girls do. The scary, scaly water creature is jealous of the ailing human girl, who is so unwell she can barely walk. Crying forever

Nora tells Hiyori that Yukine must have been killed before he was put in the fridge, because she has a more charitable view of his end, but Hiyori knows the truth--that he was buried alive. She puts it into words as we gaze at the empty coffin, and I just...god. god. Top 10 most gutting moments of Noragami.

In general reading about Yukine's past makes me want to die. The way his hope gets gradually crushed, all thanks to trash dad.

Discord reactions:

[In the last screenshot, the speech bubbles on the second panel read "So he leaves me masterless, or he throws me out. What's the difference?"]

[batstorm93672]

"Nightwing!"

Robin ended up sliding on his knees to get to Nightwing who was on the ground. Nightwing got hurt badly, an explosion to which he took most of the damage to protect Robin.

"Nightwing wake up"

He didn't respond, Robin pressed his ear against his chest. His heart was beating, it was subtle, but it was there. "Nightwing don't leave me" Robin raised his head and pressed his hands against Nightwing's chest as he pressed down over and over as to help him breath. "Nightwing don't leave me, come on wake up"

Nightwing groaned, still having difficulty "You can not, no. You will not die on me. I believed that you were dead and I had died. We managed to find each other once more, after being my Batman, you are not allowed to leave me! I refuse to lose you once more! Get up, say something sappy and dumb" Robin clicked on his link "Batman, Nightwing is in bad condition I request a retrieval"

"I'll be there"

Robin groaned and heaved Nightwing to hold him over his shoulder and dragging him away.

"Nightwing stay with me... please don't leave me. Not again... you can't leave me again"

"Robin..?"

"You are awake, good stay awake"

"Robin I'm sorry, I'm tired"

Nightwing slipped from his grasp and Robin dove to hold him up and helped him sit up against the brick wall. "Nightwing listen to me, if you leave I will find you and beat life back into you. So don't think of anything funny" "Robin... I'm tired. Please just... let me sleep" Robin slapped Nightwing in the face and Nightwing opened his eyes a bit more than before. "Ow" "Good! You stay awake and you don't close your eyes. If you do so I'll punch you"

Nightwing groaned "Alright I'm awake" "Good you best stay awake" "Did you... say a whole speech about how much you love me?" "No, if you don't shut it then I'll kick you" "So violent" "I am. I already called Batman, he'll be here soon"

"You're really something Robin, I'm happy I was your Batman"

"I said stop talking, focus on staying alive"

"No... let me talk, I wanted to say how pride I am of you. You've grown so much"

"Nightwing you have to stop talking"

"I'm happy we are brothers, you mean so much to me. More than you give yourself credit for"

"S-Stop... please"

"I love you"

Robin looked at Nightwing, his eyes were closed and Robin shouted "No! Wake up you can't leave me! Don't leave! I need you Richard, I need you to stay. I don't wanna be without my family again, I'm scared to be alone so don't go! Without you then our family will not be the same, I won't be the same! So God damn it if you don't wake up right now I'll kill you myself"

Wake up...

Wake up..!

Wake up!

"Wake up! You can't go Richard! Wake up right now or else... o-or else I'll... I'll--" His threats became sobs as he held Nightwing close. "Don't go... please don't go"

Like magic, the rumbling of the Batmobile made its way close.

"Robin, come on we have to get him in and back to the cave"

"Don't touch him..."

"Robin it's Batman"

"Father..? Please save him, I don't wanna lose my brother" Robin looked at Batman, the kid had tears down his face. "We will, we have to get home. Okay?" "Okay"

.

.

"Hey Dick"

"What happened..? Is Robin okay?"

"Here let me help"

Bruce helped Dick sit up straight as Dick rubbed his eyes "Where is Damian?" "He's in his room. He's been quiet since we got into the Batmobile. I'll tell him your awake"

A few minutes later Damian jumped down the stairs and tackled Dick.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you asshole how dare you! I'll kill you!"

"I love you too Damian"

Damian cried and held Dick's shirt tighter as tears ran down "I'm gonna kill you, I swear I'll kill you for real"

"I love you too Damian"

[besidesitstoowarm]

"The Voyage of the Damned" thoughts

put this off forever bc i didn't want to see it. in the end it was fine even if i keep mixing the title up with "planet of the dead"

ten slaying in his tux-with-converse look that had the 2007 girlies in a chokehold. troy bolton wears the same thing in high school musical 3 btw. if you even care. he gets interested in the angel statues that to me look like craghas "crabfeeder" drahar from hit hbo drama "house of the dragon". do you think the doctor would support the greens or the blacks

we meet max capricorn who is the most "john waters from wish" looking person i've ever seen. and max capricorn as a name sounds like a discount drag name. i like that everyone is wearing 10s-20s era clothing, the mix of titanic-era set dressing with typical sci-fi machinery actually blends really nicely. the two "low class" contest winners are in cowboy clothing which i also like since a lot of the nouveau riche around the turn of the century were oil millionaires from out west (in america anyway). they seem extremely nice and i would love to hang out at a buffet with them

the doctor flirts with kylie minogue, who actually does a really good job in the role, she's very wide-eyed and charming and the character felt fully realized. doctor who is really good at one-offs. he offers a "brand new sky" and she takes it and off to london where we meet WILFRED MOTT, MY GRANDDAD!!!! i completely forgot he was in this one. i screamed "GRANDDAD" when he appeared and scared my bf

the captain is on a suicide mission and apologizes to alonso. i have never seen alonso's actor in anything but he looks so familiar. the actor is gay btw. i loved the captain's "they promised me old men" speech, he's dying and needed the bribe money to take care of his family once he's gone but he was trying to limit the collateral damage to his crew ASTEROID ATTACK

we learn that the doctor is 903 years old. i think this is the first time his age is stated? nine had the whole "900 years of time and space" but i'd assumed he was just rounding. does he celebrate his birthday? i love the idea that he has no idea how old he is and is just guessing. the second doctor was canonically ~450. anyway they're trying to navigate the ship and the cowboy couple try to repair a broken angel bc they were like mechanics back home. i think it's interesting that in sci-fi, robots are stuff for poor people

cyborgs were recently granted rights and "can even get married" which is nice for them. the doctor says "you should see me in the morning" and astrid says "okay" and he looks like he stuck a fork in a socket. they're both sooo down bad this ep. i'd like to have seen her as a companion for a few episodes, adam-style except adam sucked and astrid is cool

max capricorn is a head in a jar. i'm not kidding that this is the exact same twist as the movie "prometheus" did ridley scott steal that from this episode?? it's the same goddamn thing. that movie was awful. i rejoiced when astrid killed him with a forklift, barbara-style (running over bad guys is always barbara-coded for me). the doctor brings the tour guide professor to london cause he's a millionaire on earth and he just like. cries with joy cause he can have a HOUSE with a DOOR and a GARDEN and DISHES and wow he's just like me fr. he refuses to take him with him cause he "travels alone" tenth doctor voice what kind of time lord takes a companion you can't fuck

this episode was in memory of verity lambert who had recently died when it was released. i had no idea who she was last time i saw this episode so i never noticed that. always famous to me verity <3

[nimbus-cloud-90]

Forgot about this for a hot minute.

Chapter Thirteen:

Percy Jackson Knockoff.

“Oh for fucks sake, look I already bought some cookies, now can you leave me alone so I can brood in peace?”

“Actually we’re here to negotiate the whole death thing.” Nile said for me while I was trying to find the strength to move my jaw. It got silent after that, and then everyone in the room laughed.

How dare they?!

He did so well!

Death sighed and said, “Sorry boys, but I haven’t heard negotiate before. I’ve heard, ‘I’m going to kill you’ and ‘You should step down and retire from your post’. I have never heard negotiate, but aren’t you a sweet boy? You know what, fine, I’ll humor you.” Death said and walked toward us. He clapped his hands and a bunch of skeletons brought a jeweled table and some rolly chairs, “Alright so, what’s your argument?” Death said as he sat down.

“Well, you not killing anyone is causing problems in the overworld.” I’m so glad Nile is with me, my sweet boy.

“I can see that, that’s why there’s no more deaths from now on!”

“But why?”

Death sighed, “Because I’m tired of being criticized instead of praised for the work I do. Humans praise the circle of life and all that, but when it comes to embracing death with open arms and hearts, that’s nowhere to be found. Humans don’t want to die and are in fact terrified of it. I should know I was afraid of that once too, but I eventually saw that death is just as crucial as life itself. And I came to embrace that fact early on in my life. I want to be appreciated for the work some gods are just too squeamish to do. I understand how the process should work and I’m tired of pretending that we as gods shouldn’t exist.” Then Death sighed after the speech that sounded like he’s been rehearsing to use that line for years, “Now boy, why do you think I should kill people again?”

It took Nile a while to answer, “Because everyone is miserable without it.” There’s another pause as Nile taps his fingers lightly on the table, “Beause there’s no such thing as living a full life without it. Because a lot of jobs consist on the death of things. Because I refuse to let ghostly beings that don’t want to be tied a world they don’t want to belong in. I want people to die and make the choice of wheher they go peacefully for cling onto whatever this world has to offer them! I REFUSE TO LET THEM SUFFER ON MY WATCH!” Nile said, getting angrier and more electrifying by the sentence.

So Nile can control electricity okay.

Oh gods Nile can control electricity…..

Even Death looked surprised by his outburst, “Shit kid, you’ve got guts coming into a god’s home and demanding that.”

Nile seemed to snap out of whatever that was and mumbled a ‘Sorry!’

Holy shit, I feel things about that…..

“No, no, no. don’t get me wrong, I like that spunk, haven’t gotten treated like a mortal being in millennia.”

“So, you’ll fix this?” I asked for Nile while he recovered from his outburst.

“I didn’t say that now did I? Although, I might be able to heed your request if you do me a favor…” Death trailed off at the end of that sentence.

Fuck not this again.

“What do you want me to do?” Nile said, not aware of the trouble he’s putting himself through.

“Well I’m glad you asked kid!” Death said and clapped his hands as skeletons brought him an old slide show projector, set it up, and turned it on, “Now, what do you see here?”

“A person.”

“Yes, but what you might not know about this person is that, she has nuclear weapons!”

“Oh boy.”

“Yep, and being the goddess of luck is going to do a lot of good for her, not everyone else."

“Who does she plan on using it on?” I asked.

“Who do you think, the gods dumbass.”

“Hey I wasn’t asking you!” I whispered.

“Anyway, she’s going to try and come in here and kill us all, and to be fair, she won’t kill anybody but it’ll hurt like hell! And she’ll probably destory important buildings in the process and that’s not what we want.”

“Is that why—”

“I’ve been putting off turning on the Death switch, yep.”

“I was going to say why it’s so cold in here, you know nuclear winter?” There was a long pause.

“Kid, you’re lucky you’re strong as shit.” Death said and leaned back in his chair.

“So, how do you want me to stop her?”

“Oh, that is entirely up to you kiddo! With words, violence, or words and violence, it’s your call on how to stop her.”

“Okay, well, you’ll keep up your end of the bargain right?” Nile said and raised an eyebrow.

“I swear on my brother’s grave.” He said and held out his hand, Nile took it and the deal was made.

“You now have the ability to travel to all afterlives, summon ghosts from ouija boards, request help from skeletons, and I mean request they are employees not slaves, and see ghosts, or if you can already see them, see them better than you originally had.”

“Gee thanks Mr. Death!”

“No problem kid, have fun!” Death said as we walked out.

Wait if Nile got special powers did I get any?

“You don’t go insane when you eat the flowers.”

“You know what, I’ll take it.”

“You better you Percy Jackson knockoff.”

[picklewednesday]

SHERF IS LITERALLY SO BABY THAT IS A LITTLE GUY LIKE HERE LET ME SHOW YOU

he he is such a guy a guy whos there such silly i cant I AM UNABLE TO MUTTER THE WORDS OF THE LORE SINC E THE GAME ISNT OUT YET BUT THIS IS A SKRUNKLE WHO WAS SO SILLY THEN BECAME A SHERRIFF HE IS SO BABY BTW HES A LITTLE GUY HES SO SILLY LOOK AT HOW SILLY HE IS

OH MY GOD THEYRE SO CUTE I AM IMMEDIATELY IN LOVE WITH HIM

anyways Kenny McCormick. let me tell you about this fucker

kenny is a (now) 11 year old boy who was. nine when the show first started I wanna say??? anyways, he is a part of the four main characters (though the writers are slowly erasing his silly guy rep and making him a secondary character) he dies in EVERY episode, thus the 'Oh my god!! They killed Kenny! You bastards!!' gag being born. this continues up until s6, where he becomes terminally ill and dies for the whole season, then being brought back in the last episode. this ability is explored much more with mysteripn but I'll talk about that later. in the 6th season, Stan Kyle and Cartman feel weird without a fourth member of their group, and instead befriend tweek, and later butters (MIGHT have been the other way round I havent gotten to rewatching s6 yet)

Kenny is shown to be one of, if not the most, lighthearted characters in the show despite his DISASTROUS life. not even exaggerating this poor (haha get it bc he lives in poverty) kid does not get a break ever. He makes sexual jokes more than any of the other kids in south park but despite this he's Butters' best friend (btw butters' real name is Leopold Stotch. motherfucker soooooo silly) and they can be seen hanging out together a LOT. in s6 when Kenny is hospitalized, butters draws the two of them in a plane and tells Kyle to tell him he can't wait for Kenny to come back to school.

His speech is muffled due to the orange parka he has been shown to have worn since he was a literal child. a TODDLER. the exact same parka

His family is so silly in the sense that only the kids are silly. Kenny's parents are unable to hold a job log enough to keep the family fed. There are broken windows and rats and holes in the walls everywhere. Stuart and Carol have a meth lab in the back garden (which is later shown to be where the Tweaks get the meth for their coffee) and in s15, get arrested for it. Kevin, Kenny's older brother is shown to fight with Stuart a LOT. So much that Kenny barely even notices it when it happens anymore. Karen (bless her sweet little heart <33 ): ) is his younger sister and their close, protective relationship is first shown in the episode in which their parents get arrested and the kids end up in the foster care system.

Which beings me to my NUMBER ONE SILLY MEISTER!!!! Mysterion. Mysterion is a superhero persona of Kenny's, though I REFUSE to talk about the other personas since cartman of course had to get racist with it. Mysterion is a much more calm, serious persona than regular Kenny, who is very expressive, easily angered and emotional. Mysterion is a skilled fighter who goes around south park after school and fights crime, usually for the benefit of others (there was one time when he beat the shit out of his parents and told them to stop beating each other up so much, be nicer to their kids and some other stuff.)

Mysterion has only laughed ONCE IN ALL PF THE TIMES HE'S SHOWED UP. and it was because he was pissing off cartman. and then there was one time when he saw a photo of his parents getting arrested at an earlier date and he broke the persona for a second (BLESS HIS HEART I LOVE HIS NORMAL VOICE SM)

The other superhero personas (aside from Bradley. that fucker) don't have powers unlike Kenny, who reveals his inability to die in one of the episodes to his friends. like I said earlier Mysterion doesn't get pissed off as much but when he revealed his curse to his friends and Kyle said "Let's say you're not crazy. I think not being able to die would be pretty cool!" he gets really upset and yells at him about how he's been shot, run over etc COUNTLESS times. and then he jur wakes up the next day and NONE OF THEM remember it.

but that act brings me to how cartman DOES know and it's brought up a few times but DURING THAT CONVERSATION WHERE HE REVEALED HIS CURSE CARTMAN WASN'T THERE?????? god. the instances where it's brought up is the episode where they were trapped on a bus and telling stories and in cartman's, kenny dies but it's corrected. then later he says "kenny dies all the time" and OUGHHGYSRE AQAHWHEVEBEBRJS4GXJGDHDHD

As Mysterion, he is SO protective of Karen, to the point she considers mysterion her guardian angel. Mysterion defends her after they get separated in the foster care system and a few girls start to bully her, and he swoops in from above and beats the shit out of the girls bullying her and tells them that "Karen McCormick is off-limits." He later says to Karen when she's crying about being all alone (bless her heart </3) he says that as long as he's alive, she'll never be alone or something along the lines of that. later on in the game Karen says to mysterion (after befriending the goth kids) that she wished she had more friends to play with, that Kenny is her best friend but he doesn't usually have time to play with her and he says he'll make sure to tell Kenny that and OUGGHGGGGSGDHDHDH IM GONNA CRY.

theres also princess kenny but I donr remember as much about them

anyways PICTURE TINE!!!

^that's Kevin, alongside Kenny comforting a cared Karen :(

^ mysterion my little meow neow

^ mysterion and karen in sp:tfbw when karen says she wishes her brother had the time to play with her:((((