#yes i'm aware that this leaves out a lot of nuance but i'm not getting into it rn i'm just having post-high thoughts

[onyxodyssey]

i think what confuses the fuck out of me is "they refuse to change themselves or work around others" can be both a very good thing that people want to see and also a very very bad thing and it's up to me to figure out which instance is which

[i-heart-hxh]

Is Killua friends with Kurapika and Leorio? Or are they just acquaintances? I feel as if Killua only cares about Gon the most.

Hello!

To get the obvious out of the way first, yes, Gon is clearly Killua's priority and primary focus, and the one he gravitates towards from the beginning. I'd even say that through most of the Hunter Exam, Killua does just see Leorio and Kurapika as acquaintances/Gon's friends rather than his own, and at that point he doesn't particularly care what happens to them. He's quite dismissive towards them initially.

I think this begins to change in the scene where Leorio tells Killua that Gon is already his friend (when Killua is up against Illumi at the end of the Hunter Exam). That assurance surely meant a lot to Killua, even if he wasn't able to express it at that time. It's even arguable Killua killing Bodoro may have been at least somewhat for Leorio's benefit, in a twisted way. (Though at the time of course Killua wasn't mentally well, so it's hard to say for sure whether he was thinking clearly enough to even consider that aspect or not.)

I think it also meant a great deal to him that Leorio and Kurapika then accompanied Gon to retrieve Killua from the Zoldyck Manor. In the scene where he's reunited with them (and Gon), Killua hesitates before saying Kurapika's name and gets Leorio's name wrong, but I think he might have just been messing around with them (especially Leorio), because that's a very Killua kind of thing to do. :p Even if he didn't fully commit their names to memory at that point, I'm sure it still meant a lot that they came for him.

We actually see Killua showing that he cares about both Kurapika and Leorio multiple times throughout the series. Here's just a few examples:

Being actively mad that Kurapika won't consider he and Gon friends/equals in Yorknew. His main objective at this point may have been funds for Greed Island for Gon via collecting bounties on the Phantom Troupe, but I do think he's legitimately frustrated about this regardless.

He's quite reluctant about it (largely because of the danger it puts Gon in), but even after the bounty has been rescinded for the Phantom Troupe, Killua does agree to help with Kurapika's mission--and ultimately even offers that he would accept Kurapika giving him a nen restriction along with Gon and Leorio.

It's somewhat vague, but there's this scene with Senritsu as well that sticks out to me. The original Japanese dialogue where "Oh yeah?" goes is more like a "Is that so?" from Senritsu. Look at her knowing smile, she's well aware this isn't true.

In Greed Island, Killua goes through the effort to leave Greed Island (a process that takes a few hours) in order to warn Kurapika that Chrollo's nen restriction might be removed by a nen exorcist. He doesn't love Kurapika's response, but it's telling he was willing to do that, and even went about bringing it up and doing it himself rather than expecting Gon to deal with it.

In Election Arc, Killua was prepared to put trust in Leorio as far as making arrangements to heal Gon. Ultimately Morel takes over this role because he has the connections and temperament to help with this more easily, but I still think there's meaning in Killua being willing to include Leorio in this plan and the sensitive information that comes with it, especially when the stakes are as high as they could possibly be for Killua (Gon's life and Alluka/Nanika's safety).

Killua talks to Kurapika over the phone at some point prior to the Succession War arc, and Killua recommends contacting Bisky as a colleague, and he even gives Kurapika tips on buttering her up.

Killua's attitude towards Kurapika and Leorio is indicative in general of his opening up as a person throughout the series. His affection towards both of them isn't straightforward most of the time, it's more nuanced than his adoration for Gon or his later friendships with Ikalgo and even Palm, but rather it's something that gradually builds as he changes and spends more time around them.

I do think he's fond of them and cares about them at this point in the series, and he considers them both friends and allies. I hope in the future we'll get to see more main four (and Killua with Kurapika and Leorio, individually or together) interactions. I actually think Killua's relationship with both of them is especially fun to observe because his friendship with them has been more complex. He can be a bit prickly and bratty towards them at times, but ultimately his care for them and trust in them shines through nonetheless.

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

Okay, we've got a lot happening here.

First, why do people demonize Obi-Wan keeping the truth about Anakin's identity from Luke. I'm probably not the right person to ask given that I'm not one of those people who demonizes him, so I can't speak to that mindset very well, but a lot of just feels like basic bad faith interpretations of Obi-Wan's motivations. Some of it might be the assumption that, if Obi-Wan or Yoda had just told him the truth, then Luke wouldn't have had to be told by Anakin himself and had that particular bombshell dropped in the worst possible way. Which, you know, MAYBE. But we also don't know precisely how Luke would've reacted to learning that information when he was younger or how that would've impacted his Jedi training, something both Obi-Wan and Yoda were fairly worried and cautious about. They're presumably TRYING to give Luke his best chance here. Of course then you have people claiming that Obi-Wan and Yoda lie because they don't CARE about Luke himself and only care about raising Luke as their personal weapon to take down Anakin and Palpatine, which is obviously ridiculous.

It's also just ignoring how much Obi-Wan DOES tell Luke. He explains a lot about what "Vader" did, how he was once a Jedi, how he betrayed them, etc. But he also talks about "Anakin" who he describes positively. He gives Luke the most complete and nuanced picture of Anakin that he can. Imagine Luke being told straight-up in this moment that his father is Vader. He'd likely never give Anakin a chance to be good at all because that information would, for good and obvious reasons, override anything positive Obi-Wan might have to say about it. But leaving that piece of information out allows Luke to continue remembering Anakin as a good person for a while longer, even after he meets "Vader" in person, so by the time he has to face this particular truth, he's in a better place to consider the ENTIRE truth rather than just get stuck on his first reaction.

And like you said, Luke himself clearly gets it. He's clearly not HAPPY about being lied to or the revelation itself, but he's not all that angry either and he gives both Obi-Wan and Yoda multiple chances to explain why they did it and their perspective on the situation without getting particularly accusatory.

So I dunno, maybe some people feel like Luke SHOULD be more angry than he is at Obi-Wan and Yoda and just project the way THEY would feel about the issue onto Luke himself. I can't say I don't do similar things myself. I often feel like people should be more angry at ANAKIN than they are in canon and like to just project that onto the characters when I can (like Obi-Wan, or Ahsoka, or Rex), so that I can explore the situation from that perspective. But, you know, Obi-Wan lies a tiny bit with the best of intentions and Anakin commits multiple genocides and enslaves multiple entire populations for several decades in a row, so I feel like one of these is more justified than the other lol.

I THINK what you're saying next here is that Obi-Wan might genuinely believe Anakin is dead, which... is likely only true for a certain amount of time. As per Disney canon, he discovers this 10 years after ROTS. Within Lucas canon, Obi-Wan is clearly perfectly aware that Anakin is still alive and out there since he discusses Vader pretty candidly as the person who betrayed him, so he knows that Vader and Anakin are the same person when we meet him in ANH. What isn't clear (if we don't take the Kenobi show into account) is precisely WHEN he finds this out, but he knows it by the time he's talking to Luke about it all. This isn't just a genuine misunderstanding on Obi-Wan's part.

As for whether I think things would've been better if he'd killed Anakin on Mustafar, I mean... yes? Kinda, yes. The thing about prophecies in Star Wars is that they tend to be kind-of nebulous things. Anakin IS the Chosen One, he absolutely is, but that doesn't mean he has no choice in his own fate. Anakin could, theoretically, defy that prophecy until the day he dies. Choice is really important in Star Wars, it's a major theme that Lucas chose to put in there, and so the prophecy is not DICTATING what Anakin ends up doing. Anakin was not always going to fall to darkness, the Republic falling to the Sith was not "meant to be" and neither was the destruction of the Jedi (if you've seen the Ahsoka show, you'll know that Filoni doesn't believe this and he's peddling a different story, so this is primarily within Lucas canon and the better shows like the Kenobi show). That prophecy isn't going to kill Palpatine, it isn't a guarantee of his eventual demise that the galaxy just has to wait long enough for. AT BEST, I think the prophecy is a guarantee that if ANAKIN tries to kill Palpatine, he will succeed. That's it. And I think he also has to be killing Palpatine FOR THE RIGHT REASONS or it won't work (for example if he's trying to kill Palpatine so he can become the Sith Master, he'll fail; it HAS to be done out of selflessness or the prophecy doesn't kick in). This also means that Palpatine could, theoretically, be killed by someone or something else. It's not IMPOSSIBLE for it to happen, just immensely more difficult and extremely unlikely.

All of this is to say that if Obi-Wan had killed Anakin on Mustafar, it doesn't like... doom the galaxy to be ruled by the Sith forever necessarily just because the Chosen One is now dead. It won't slow Palpatine down much, he'll still have the stormtroopers and the Inquisitors and people like Tarkin and he's still working on the Death Star. But it takes Vader out of commission, it's one less weapon of mass destruction on Palpatine's belt that he can deploy as desired upon the people of the galaxy. And it's one less threat aimed at the Force sensitive people of the galaxy. Palpatine can always pick another Sith apprentice, but they'd never be the same level of power as Anakin. So there's a lot of positives to Anakin being removed from the playing board a lot earlier, even if it means taking out Palpatine himself potentially becomes a lot more difficult.

That being said, it's a lot easier than when Vader is standing between Palpatine and the galaxy, so, you know, pros and cons there too. Not a single person is actually counting on the prophecy anyway at this point, so the changes are all fairly positive as far as the galaxy is concerned. But whether Palpatine would've actually ended up killed or not is entirely up to speculation. It could go either way, with Palpatine being more vulnerable and so he gets killed earlier, or with Palpatine being able to rule even longer than he does in canon. I like to think that Palpatine could be taken out by other means, even with Anakin out of the game entirely, that he's not incapable of being killed.

Also, there's nothing saying that if Anakin fails as a child of prophecy that the Force and the midichlorians couldn't just... try again and pick/create a new Chosen One as a reaction to Anakin's death.

[imahyperfixatedbitch]

Not sure if you’ve done this before, but would you release your until Dawn character ranking? Who’s your favorite and why?

UNTIL DAWN SPOILERS !!

Heyy thank you so much for the ask I love getting them 🫶🫶

It was really hard to do this rank. To be honest, I like all of Until Dawn's characters, I even like the last character on the list, so:

1. Josh: I hate a lot of the things he says (especially about Ashley and Jessica even if he said them to motivate Chris and anger Mike) and a lot of things he did. But I do think he's a great character because he's the most interesting one to analyse, in my opinion. He's a really nuanced character, and he's really sympathetic. Like in the end you can't help but feel bad for him because you know none of it was his fault, everything is so unfair to him and as someone with younger siblings, I can definitely understand why he'd want revenge. And I could keep going about how he deserved better... Aside from that, he has some really iconic lines and moments. Especially as the psycho, I'm pretty sure I love all of the psycho scenes. Also, Rami Malek's acting is perfect he really made a difference. Josh just brought the drama, and honestly, his reveal made my jaw drop. He's iconic.

2. Chris: so chris is my second favourite because he's just so likeable to me. I feel like he reacted quite well to the events of the night (if you don't make the worst choices), yes he was in denial sometimes but who wouldn't? And he is a bit corny but it was 2015. He's a good friend to Josh and Sam, a good (potentially) boyfriend to Ashley. He has cool lines and he just seems like a cool dude. His monk prank nearly gave me a heart attack so props to him.

3. So Sam is also really likeable. She literally does nothing wrong! She's smart, beautiful, friendly, brave... But that's also a problem. She's too perfect. Not morally grey enough to me. I wish she just reacted more to things. I wish she was meaner to Mike, and I wish she stayed with Mike and Josh in the mines. Her leaving was so random, and it's less interesting than her staying. What I really like about her development is how she seems like she will be way less pacific and friendly after all of this when you see her in the credit scenes. She just seems so changed (understandable). Sadly, we will never see this side of her. I also wish we could see more of the relationship she had with Josh while dealing with the disappearance of his sisters since we know they bonded a lot over this. But hey, we can always imagine!

4. Emily: Yes, I am aware she's really hated, and I actually used to hate her too. But then I analysed her character, and I realised she's not a bad person. Sure, she has an attitude problem, and she uses Matt as a rebound (it doesn't necessarily make her a bad person, it's "just" unhealthy) while treating him badly sometimes (this is something that I hate about her tho); But everytime she got mad it was honestly valid: Hannah trying to get with Mike? Valid. (She did, however, overreact, and the others had no business joining in the prank) Jessica who was supposedly her best friend coming up with an awful prank to pretend she's helping her out, while she actually has a crush on her bf, then dating Mike after 2 of their friends disappeared because of the prank Jessica came up with since "she wanted Mike and Emily to stay happy together"? Valid!!!! Ashley and Mike threatening her with a gun?? Valid af! So yeah she never gets mad for no reason, plus she's a very capable woman and iconic (understand the palm of my hand bitch). The fandom is unfair (and misogynistic let's be honest) towards her.

5. Mike: So Mike is both an asshole and a hero, which kind of makes him interesting to me. Like he has funny moments and reactions, but he did really fucked up stuff. Like pranking his friend who has a crush on him!? It's so cruel for no reason. Potentially kill Emily too. But he can also be quite heroic, like when he runs after Hannah when she's dragging Jess away. Or how he tries to keep everyone together and just get everyone out of here. He has great survival and leadership skills. So I'm pretty mixed on him. I do think he had a bit too much alone screentime (we needed more from Jess and Matt). I do feel like he gets away with a lot of things.

6. Matt: So I really wanna root for the guy you know? Like I want him to get out of his relationship with Emily (even tho she can truly start loving him by the end), I want him to be happy. He's a good guy. And I really like that his character development starts if you stand up to Emily. But he didn't have enough screentime. So I can't rate him higher. I will give him props for traumatising me with his telescope jumpscare.

7. Jessica: So she's an asshole to me. But she's a bimbo and she's just so silly and goofy. I just can't hate her. She also went through a lot on the night, which makes me feel sympathy for her. But I can't rate her higher because 1. She's an asshole towards Hannah and Emily. 2. Not enough screentime.

8. Ashley: I know it's gonna be controversial. I DO like her, but I just don't understand her. She's a super interesting character to analyse. She's so morally grey, but sometimes I have a hard time feeling bad for her. I do think her freaking out was completely normal, tho. I don't understand the people who hate her because of that. I just feel like she rarely feels bad for people. She's a bit egoistic. Her letting Chris die was not fair to me. Yes, of course, it's normal to hate Chris if she shoots her. But he did it because he thought he had no choice. He was under the influence of fear. He would never kill her if he didn't have to. He thought his own life was at risk. But her not opening the door was not under the influence of fear. She did it out of pettiness. She was not risking her life by opening the door. And even if she actually did it because of fear, she would look terrified while Chris is getting killed. But she was just staring. She almost seemed to enjoy it. She also wanted Mike to shoot Emily. It seems like she completely loses control when she's on stressful situations (understandable) and shows no sympathy to others. So, it makes it hard for me to connect with her. I still think she's a good character and very interesting. And she brought cool moments to the game (like letting Chris die was kind of shocking/funny and cool because it's a great butterfly effect). Forgot to mention how her honesty goes down if she shows remorse for the prank which is icky to me 😬

Anyways, thank you for the ask. Don't hesitate to debate with me and send more asks. Love y'all 🫶 I'm not checking the writing. Sorry for the typos, English is not my first language.

[stupidphototricks]

Missing the moment (Aziraphale in S2E6)

I don't think I've seen this exact take before (apologies if it's out there and I missed it), but it's my interpretation so I thought I'd post it here to make my so-called blog less empty.

The thing is, not only does Aziraphale not officially say yes to the Metatron, he also doesn't actually say no to Crowley. He's confused and distracted throughout the proposal. Worried that the Metatron is about to walk in and see that Crowley isn't showing the excitement and gratitude that (he thinks) the Metatron might expect of a fallen angel who gets a second chance. Half-listening and mentally composing his argument while waiting for his turn to speak again, because he's sure that he can convince Crowley if he just explains it the right way. He doesn't seem to entirely tune into what's going on until Crowley puts his sunglasses back on, says "Good luck," and starts to leave.

It seems fairly well accepted that Aziraphale has some things in common with neurodivergent humans. Highly intelligent, lacking in social awareness, has a hard time adjusting to new ideas. To be clear, I'm 100% on Crowley's side in this episode, but I don't think he's literal enough here for an Aziraphale who already has too much on his mind right now to deal with nuance. Crowley never says, "If you take this job, if you go to Heaven, we're done." He doesn't say, "I love you. If you love me, come with me." Instead, he (sadly) calls Aziraphale an idiot and (angrily) kisses him, and at this point Aziraphale's brain is so scrambled that it's a wonder he can talk at all. He manages to say "I forgive you" (angrily, in response to Crowley's anger, which he probably won't entirely understand until he has more time to process), and then Crowley is gone and he's missed his chance to say anything else.

I sympathize with Aziraphale here, because I'm familiar with the sensation of life moving ahead faster than I can interpret it. Too often by the time I can analyze the context of one moment and decide what to do in it, the moment and the opportunity are gone. Inaction makes the decision for me, and I end up kind of pretending that what happened was what I intended all along. Not sure whether this is a neurodivergent thing or just a not-good-at-life thing, but I think Aziraphale has it too, at least in this extreme situation. Events are spinning out of control, there's a lot of astounding new information, and he can't figure out what it all means and what exactly he should do, what he wants to do, right on the spot. One entity assumes that his non-response means no, and the other one assumes that it means yes (or takes advantage and bulldozes ahead regardless), and Aziraphale is swept along in the current with no way of getting back to the moment when he could have made a real choice.

[vickyvicarious]

So while Seward is not hearing the whoosh sound over his head and thinks that Mina's good health at Noon is Good News, and reacts to Jonathan's behavior with a descriptive fantasy of him cutting vampire head off, what do we think about Van Helsing? Does he clock that this is all worrying?

kjflsdfjsl yeah, let's leave Jack to his fantasy hour and talk business, shall we?

I just was thinking about this a moment ago for the last ask I answered. We know everyone's read at least up through around the end of September, and that Van Helsing went off to study all the documents before their big meeting on the 30th. Which makes sense, he'd been out of the country and hadn't gotten to read Jack's account at all until then. But I also think he would definitely be one to keep returning to the collected stuff, studying it over and looking for what information from his outside research is supported by other points, or possible important details he may have missed before.... I suspect the Professor's copy of Dracula Daily is full of scribbles. Ye Olde Victorian sticky notes and highlighter equivalent, lots of bookmarks, et cetera.

And while Jonathan and Mina gathered up everything until 4 October, and the meeting on the 5th was written up specifically to keep a record (as well as the 11th and Jack's latest entries), I'm not sure if they shared all of it with everyone else. Like, Jonathan's journal on 3 October has some stuff that would certainly provoke a raised eyebrow at the least. And Jack's last couple entries have private conversations between the doctors which aren't meant for other eyes. That said, I don't feel like the suitor squad (including Jack) would be seeking out/rereading the documentation anyway. They've got time to kill but they also know the basics of vampires by now and have a plan in motion, and a lot of the account is extremely emotionally devastating, so I could easily see them all avoiding it. If anyone other than the Harkers has read as much, I'd say it would be Van Helsing. This could mean that he is very aware of the possible danger from Jonathan should things with Mina not go smoothly, and isn't mentioning it because he doesn't want to sow discord/knows Jack wouldn't be able to keep calm and quiet about it if he realized.

And a similar thing could easily be going on here with Mina. I think if Van Helsing recognizes the suspicious timing, and other signs like today's fog, he may be keeping quiet about it until he can speak more confidently about what they mean. That's certainly something he has done in the past! And if he is aware that Jonathan is super tense and ready to protect Mina then holding off on saying anything to contradict Mina's current not-actively-harmful behavior (all she's done is get a bit worked up then sleep, all she's said is that the ship is still moving on the water) and suggest she is possessed or lying... well, it could make sense. He has zero proof to contradict Mina or evidence to ensure she was affected - just reason to suspect. And there isn't really anything actionable about it if he does bring it up. They could stop hypnotizing Mina, but that would just be depriving themselves of a bit more information. She's already being left out of all discussion. They can't hunt down the ship any more than they already are, and Arthur's network of informants is still there to act as confirmation wherever it may be. There's not really a benefit to mentioning any suspicions he has right now; all it would do is add stress to a situation they want to keep as calm as possible.

He's been exchanging significant looks with Jack, though. And maybe he thinks that Dr. Seward is also aware of the nuance here, and is expecting that to go into the record he wants him to keep (if so it wouldn't be the first time that he expected him to make further connections than he did). Maybe not. All we hear of him in private is that he was worried over her noon lethargy. Perhaps his agreement that the sleep was good for her was a conversation happening in front of others who he didn't want to tell everything just yet. Or even if it was private with Jack, that was still more to him keeping mum on his own suspicions for now.

[redbelles]

author interview

tagged by: @starrybouquet and @sluttyhenley; i'm love you both 💖

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

49 + 1 currently unrevealed work

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

240,810

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i never truly abandon old fandoms, but recently been it's house of the dragon, elden ring, stranger things, gilmore girls, and some niche fandoms like berserk and [redacted]

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

like a heartbeat drives you mad

the dreadful need in the devotee

and my body found the wind

stuck in colder weather

all the love you need

5. do you respond to comments?

yes! it may take me eighty-four years, but i love and appreciate every comment i receive, and i will get around to responding to them eventually! i swear!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

lmao uh. probably either the clouds will form a crown or in the violence of our dreams, both of which just provide nuance around the canon endings of robert baratheon and judas, respectively

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmmm. this is a self drag, but i feel like i rarely do out and out straightforwardly happy endings? i feel like the answer is either the mercy wheel, which fixes dany's atrocious season eight character arc, or tongue's talkin' riddles (sticky sweet), which gives chrissy and eddie a mostly happy future together instead of horrible deaths in deeply cursed hawkins

8. do you get hate on fics?

nope

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

unfortunately, i do in fact write sex. most of it very explicit, even! i'm a big believer in sex as an emotionally-charged vehicle for character development

also sometimes you just wanna see two characters bone, you know?

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

i have a lot of fun throwing crossover spaghetti at the wall in various dms, but i have never actually written a crossover

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, no

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had a couple requests to translate my fics, but i unfortunately had to say no because the translators wanted to host the translations outside of AO3, which is not something i'm comfortable with

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have indeed! keep calling me home is a really fun little round robin fic i wrote with three other authors a couple years ago

14. what’s your all time favorite ship?

you want me to choose? come back with a warrant.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

shut UP leave me ALONE i am GOING to finish all my wips!!!!!!!

16. what are your writing strengths?

emotion! imagery! themes!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

l m a o it's plot. also: humor.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

unless you speak the language, it gets real dicey real fast. i personally avoid it unless a) it’s a canonical term/phrase, like all the faux-russian bullshit in the grisha trilogy, or b) i can check the grammar/usage with a native speaker or someone who is solidly fluent

19. first fandom you wrote for?

[redacted] way back ages ago on [redacted]

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

oh man, this is tough! i think right now it's something in the night, because i got to dig in to one of my all-time favorite characters by having him froth at the mouth about my all-time favorite musician, and i'm really pleased with how it turned out

(jess mariano: absolutely unhinged about bruce springsteen! just like me!)

tagging: @littlelindentree @hyperphonic @windowsandfeelings @ninzied @carry-the-sky @majicmarker @woodswit @ladywaffles @jacyevans @thatworldinverted @scoopsgf and anyone else who wants a go ✨

[chaos0pikachu]

did you see the little look away porsche does when vegas lets him go and the neutral look he gives him when he starts to take his shirt? he suddenly seemed a lot less drunk than he was acting with vegas before

Personally I'm in camp "Porsche was playing honey pot to Vegas" and I'm sticking to that until proven otherwise.

Porsche makes that side glance like you said, he's actively resisting, the previous set-up is him being constantly suspious of Vegas especially when Vegas drops the knowledge of Porsche wanting to own a bar, and even the bit where Porsche gets "drunk" is played up different. It's filmed differently than previous scenes in ep02 and ep03. It feels false and fake and way to centered, far away, distant.

After Kinn has everyone leave Porsche is really lucid as well, we've seen Porsche intoxicated/tispy/drunk, we know how he acts - ep02 when he fails to stop the hot ass lady assassin, and when he falls on Kinn, plus his behavior at the pier - Apo's done the work to build some very clear-cut mannerisms that we do not see in this scene.

When Kinn makes everyone leave, Porsche isn't just lucid, he's active, he's firm, and he's aware. In my reading of the episode Porsche is constantly suspicious of Vegas, especially in that last scene, the problem is no one has given Porsche concrete reasons to be wary of Vegas - yes Porsche saw Vegas torture a person but is that Vegas or is that The Mafia? It's gruesome, but so is murdering an entire group of Italians - other than Kinn's declaration of competition between the main and minor families. Kinn has told Porsche to be wary of Vegas, to stay away from Vegas, but Vegas actively trying to recruit Porsche is the first verbal action of Vegas (combined with him knowing unknowable information) doing what Kinn said he always does - "Vegas always wants what's mine".

So I'm in the camp of Porsche was trying to game Vegas, to get some more information out of him, and he wasn't trying to blow his cover, nor cause more strife between the main and minor family by drop kicking Vegas when he kissed him.

Knowing that Pete investigates the minor family makes me wonder if Porsche and Kinn make the joint decision to send Pete in (or rather make the joint decision that they need to be investigated and Pete volunteers).

All this said, I think the scene could have been clearer in that regard but Kinnporsche is a show where context is given in greater detail every episode. Like, everyone's mad (justifiably) at Kinn yelling at Porsche calling him loose/a whore when it's clear (to me) that Kinn said that as retaliation for Porsche bringing up Tawan. Since we don't have much information on Tawan except what was revealed in this episode it's way easier to sympathize with Porsche's hurt than Kinn's*. I think on rewatch after seeing who Tawan was to Kinn, and more importantly, what their relationship was and what Tawan's betrayal of Kinn/Kinn's family was we'll view that scene with more nuance. Because we'll know the reason why Kinn reacted the way he did. Again, that's not a justification but just saying it'll provide more context.

**sidenote: I am NOT saying Porsche didn't have the right to be hurt by Kinn calling him a whore btw, that was fucked up, and Porsche deserved that apology, I'm just saying it was clear retaliation of Kinn feeling hurt/attacked by Porsche's accusation in re: to Tawan. An accusation where Porsche is only working off the information he's been given, since it's clearly a point of trauma for Kinn that he doesn't want to discuss, but one that Porsche is left in the dark about. So I'm not "blaming" Porsche in any way, his reaction is justified and understandable, I just think with more context we, the audience, will better understand Kinn's reaction better as well when we are also privy to more context and information.

Nuance folks.

[sol-consort]

So Liam was my first ever andromeda romance (listen, he was cute and friendly and passionate about what he did, I couldn't resist), and I think what a lot of people dislike about him is he usually takes risks first and only tells others about them when they either blow up in his face or work out. Which isn't ideal in the current situation where communication is key to survival. He is used to making quick, potentially risky decisions on his own due to his background in crisis response and rescue, which, as i mentioned, doesn't really work on a crisis this big. Also, he clashes with Vetra, but given their different upbringing and views on life, it can be understandable, but a lot of people dislike him for it. I do feel like he is a little stuck in the way he handles the world around him, but he isn't as bad as some of the fandom makes him out to be, since he does show willingness to grow. So, overall, not my favourite character, but he isn't as bad as some of the fandom makes him out to be. In my opinion. I am a little iffy on Cora's general personnality, but that's because I don't know her very well and never really take her anywhere since I feel like our personalities wouldn't mesh well. The way she handles some things irritates me (same with Liam), but she has more nuance than she is usually given credit for, from what i can tell. -blue anon

I think it's Andromeda writing and pacing that's not giving him justice.

Mass effect writting was always corny in a way, campy more accurately. Cliche but fondly so and the pacing was just right. Most importantly, it was self aware. The writers knew the tropes they were leaning into and it clearly showed. That's why it hits so hard when a twist comes since you get used to expecting to know what comes next.

In Andromeda the pacing is thrown out the window since it's an open world game. Making scenes with Liam either feel too rushed or too spaced out depending on your playstyle and how many times you talk to him. Sometimes it felt like he's moving too fast, other times like he's giving me the cold shoulder.

Even his speech feels...rushed? It's bite sized scenes. Not giving him enough time to fully talk and express his thoughts. Compare any of his scenes at the start with that one scene with Kaidan where he awkwardly explains his backstory at jump zero.

Was it convoluted and painstakingly long? Yes but it gave him time to shine. Players who cared about him enjoyed the exposition a lot, especially with how much he was opening up. He spoke in details and stuttered a lot because it is true to his character.

Meanwhile when liam talks about himself, it feels chopped and out of place because of his writing. Like I know chopped, and the way his speech jumps from point A to Z immediately without any letter in between just makes it feel like a fever dream. It's like you're speaking with someone who's trying to say many things at once and you end up leaving not sure what the fuck the two of you were even talking about.

A lot of Andromeda writting suffers from trying to be hip and cool while being corny? Like you can't be camp if you desperately attempt to be genuinely cool and modern, these things contrast. Liam is a character that was clearly ment to represent a casual chill guy with a chaotic side and modern tones. Not too wild like Peebee but not too non-human like Cora, he's new but not new new.

So he ends up being written like what a kid imagines a cool guy to be and it doesn't work in his favour at all.

You have to look past a lot of bad writing to see his genuine traits and core ideas shine through is what I'm saying. There this muddy fog between you and the character he was meant to be.

Because he's exactly like you described! But only after you have all the pieces to his personality and be able to filter him from the horrible game writing.

Liamn was very interesting to me at the start. Like you immediately focus on him after creating your character because he is directly opposite from you during the scene and you can't help but stare at him. It was organic and so beautifully done how he was seamlessly introduced, catching your attention.

But man it is downhill after that. There is just....nothing below the surface, a thousand yards empty stare. Kaidan and Ashley felt like actual people most of the time while Liam and Cora always felt like characters in a videogame.

Like of course you'll say that, you're a character in a videogame. They were never immersive and never gave their tropes any rest. Delivering their roles of being characters perfectly and making you aware you're playing a game.

I am giving him more chances, since your ask, I've started taking him with Vetra along on missions just to hear their dialogue because nothing makes characters shine like conflict.

And it's...tame. fine. Okay.

Mild.

Boring.

Delivered like a first time stand up comedian on a stage who keeps shuffling their cards loudly before reading from them.

I wish they actually made them hate each other like Ashley used to do with other companions. I wish they gave him some claws or gave Vetra a spine. I wish they revealed anything interesting besides vague comments about vague past events with vague characters we never mention by name because fuck making commitment and actually developing character backstories huh?

They never commit, never reveal much. Just vagueness.

I love Jaal but he too is becoming very boring. I mean fumbling an interesting character like him that's basically the curent closest thing to an actual alien ingame is almost impressive for Andromeda.

I liked Jaal and Liam interactions but it never went anywhere. Liam is supposed to be this risktaker, act now think later and the personification of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back" and yet he can't actually do any risk taking with the game constantly holding him back.

A fucking movie night is the biggest thing he can manage? I expected strip poker with alcohol energy drinks potion mixing from this guy and we just get movie night??? That gets delayed back????

I love the guy but I am disappointed.

So I get you. The way you see him is for who his character was supposed to be, the way I wish he was given justice in his portrayal. But not what he currently is ingame.

Because this is the Liam we have ingame

[caparrucia]

17 and/or 18 for the writing ask meme, please?

Under a cut, because spoilers for the Regis/Aulea/Titus fic and a LONG ramble about the puppyverse.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Right now I'm wrapping up a +20K one-shot revolving around the formation of the Regis/Aulea/Titus triad in the puppyverse, which is like. The conclusion of a solid ~20 years of pining and slowburning from Titus and Regis and a closer look at who Aulea is, as a character.

This is a story that I, regretfully, knew I had to cut out from the main story of the puppyverse. For those who don't know, the puppyverse is my fanfic equivalent of "hold my beer and watch me" story that's 100% self-indulgent and written primarily for my own amusement. It's a collection of disparate AU prompts floating around the XV fandom over the years and my sincerest attempts at writing them all at once coherently.

It's also fundamentally a story about people figuring out their own definition of humanity and personhood. Through love, yes, in some cases, not not necessarily romantically or sexually. The story revolves around the five main "inhuman" co-protagonists, with the main plot broken up in two clear arcs: Arc 1 introduces the setting and the first few AU premises, which sort of stack on each other. It's primarily driven by the CorNyx (non)relationship (it's complicated) and takes advantage of the fact both of them are outsiders in their own way: Cor has extensive knowledge of the past and the things that have caused the current state of the world, having played a (very traumatic) role in the events that precipitate the setting: ie, Mors yeeting the Scourge and the Astrals into the shadow realm. Nyx is a foreigner who views everything and everyone with a layer of cynicism that only really gets challenged by Cor's shameless sincerity about everything. There's other POVs in the story, particularly to setup things that neither Cor nor Nyx would have been privy to, but arc 1 is mostly about THEM and the war and what they've become, throughout the course of it. Act 2 is when the plot itself picks up and things start actively changing, as a result of all the setups from act 1 and the backstory. The dominos are in place and now we get to tip them off and watch the pretty patterns they make, so to speak.

So as much as I love the Regis/Aulea/Titus story and their character development and the nuances of their interactions, it very clearly did not fit within the framework of the main fic. I've written tidbits here and there, about them, to scratch the itch, but I genuinely love this ship. They're a fantastic power triad and I really wanted to tell their stories, so I decided I was going to, for my birthday. Which I missed, but it doesn't matter, it's getting done now.

This is a story about politically savvy adults who are also stubborn and set in their ways, forced into a situation that forces them to be sincere about their feelings. And boy, they have A LOT of feelings. It's a get-together story where things are simultaneously too fast and too easy and too hard and too slow. They're keenly aware of the consequences of their actions and the weight of their decisions and the fact the world doesn't really CARE about them, as individuals.

It's also a story I stubbornly chose to write from Titus' POV. Because Titus is disabled and he's good at masking, and because he's mostly seen from the outside, people don't really get the weight of Titus being disabled, to what extent and what it means, for himself and his relationships. This is a Titus that isn't a traitor for the very simple reason that Mors removed the reason he would have had to be a traitor: there was no scourge to destroy his home and leave him bitter and furious at the kingdom that did nothing to protect his people. He's still a bitter, snarky, snarly shit whose primary running gag is serving as Regis' moral measuring stick and threaten treason if Regis proves to be inept as a ruler. But Regis is not a bad ruler. He is in fact a very competent ruler that Titus personally admires (and more, but he's not an idiot, he refuses to acknowledge any of those feelings because they would be inappropriate, and Regis is not emotionally available for any of that, so what's the point, cough, cough, this is why they've been dancing around each other for over a decade). Titus is crippled when he's poisoned, and this is mentioned in passing in the main story: the reality of it is far more significant than what the many unreliable narrators of the puppyverse might notice. Titus is poisoned and only saved because Cor intervenes, but while they manage to save his life, the poison has left him with chronic, degenerative nerve damage. He goes from a General that fights in the frontlines, carrying out Regis' defensive war with the Empire in the open, to not being able to stand unassisted more than half an hour, maybe an hour and a half with a cane. And because Titus has compartmentalized what happened to him as being part of the war, he sees what happened to him as being on the same level to what happens to soldiers that get crippled in action. He's not bitter about it! (He is absolutely bitter and frustrated about it.) He's so busy not being bitter about it that he doesn't really bring attention to the fact Regis lost his fucking mind about it.

See, one of the most sobering moments in the puppyverse is the purge that Clarus Amicitia leads in the wake of discovering it was Regis' cousin who was sabotaging the war efforts because she'd bartered with the Empire to let them put her son in charge once Regis was out of the picture. It's a very gut-wrenching moment, because it shatters the idea that "Lucians = Good" that the story had been peddling until then, and kinda shifts it more towards "War=Bad", which is a recurrent theme. But the incident is very colored by Cor's traumatic response to it, and the fact Ignis is caught up on it and being treated as a traitor for his associations with his mentor, Regis' cousin.

Here's the thing that none of these characters mention, in the corresponding chapter of the puppyverse: The reason Clarus did this? The reason they figured out it was Sylvia who'd betrayed them? The reason Clarus freaked out and ordered wholesale slaughter of people?

Clarus was trying to swiftly resolve the issue to try and keep Regis from going on a murderous rampage, because Regis was very much pissed when he found out Titus had been poisoned. See, Clarus is the one person who knows: a), how fucking ridiculously magically powerful Regis is, and b), how very FUCKED the entire continent would be, if Regis decided to go on a murderous rampage. How do you even begin to stop someone who commands that amount of magic? You don't, really. You can only appeal to his better nature. To his reason. The purge is Clarus hoping he can keep Regis from going full on rage monster by assuring him that while, yes, Titus got caught in the crossfire, it has been taken care of. Thoroughly. No loose ends left for Regis to gnaw on like that. Because yes, Clarus is a competent Shield and a good friend, he is 100% aware that Regis is despondently in love with Titus and refusing to act on it, because he's also, at the time, mourning for his wife. (Remember, until Aulea crashlands the party, as far as Regis and Clarus knew, she was dead. And Regis has been mourning accordingly ever since.) Regis lost his shit so badly at Titus being poisoned, that he ordered Titus to be treated in the Royal Quarters, by his own royal medic team. He also might have threatened to kill them all if Titus didn't survive it. It's not a subtle thing, is my point.

But it's also not the kind of thing Cor or Nyx or the kids would know about or notice, because the people involved are politically savvy enough to keep their feelings to themselves.

And yes, Interregnum brings up the fact the triad got together, but it didn't really go into the details, again focusing on the outside perspective (Noctis: He's fucking my parents.) and the consequences that ripple off from it, without directly acknowledging the inner workings of that relationship.

And it's a fucking fun relationship. Fullstop. They're silly and principled and fucking insane, in their own way, but they balance each other out so well! Like cogs falling into place. I'm excited to show it to you, guys.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

From the one-shot in question:

“Is that how you say hello?” Titus asked dryly, darkly amused by the way Regis’ face flushed with equal amounts rage and embarrassment.

“Knocking, Titus, have you heard of it?” Regis said, and then shattered Titus’ smirk in one swipe: “You have to know better than to sneak on someone under constant death threats. You’re not this stupid.”

“What death threats?” Titus asked, eyes narrowed, and reached out a hand to hold Regis’ throat so he could tilt his head up and force him to look at him in the eye.

That was a thing he’d just so very recently discovered: Regis lost his ability to lie convincingly, if forced to hold eye contact like that. It did a number on his ability to enunciate words with more than three syllables, too, but Titus was okay with getting the small words version of this.

“Two fifths of my court and a solid three fourths of all known foreign governments right now,” Regis replied, trying for blithe but barely scratching the surface of morose instead. He scoffed, but didn’t pull away from Titus’ hold. “You know better than most how many would rejoice if I dropped dead tomorrow. You used to threaten to join them twice a day if I annoyed you enough.”

Titus considered tightening his grip until he heard cartilage snap under his fingers and instead tugged Regis forward so he could kiss him. Was that wise? There, in the Citadel? In plain view of at least one camera? Probably not. But he felt like it, and given the fact Regis immediately kissed back, hands reaching out to claw at Titus’ clothes, it wasn’t unwanted. Untoward.

“I came to give you good news,” Titus said, not quite pulling away, basking in that moment when they were breathing the same air. “Now all I want is to discipline your Saboteur Corp.”

“Would I still have a Saboteur Corp. after you’re done?” Regis asked, and grinned when Titus bit him for the cheek of it. “Tell me the good news, I could use them today.”

This is a very interesting moment, because there's a gap in Titus' narrative. He's a very meandering narrator. He goes on tangents, thinks about details, puts them in context. He's well read and he's got a flair for the poetic. He's got a ton of very eloquent tangents and even more witticisms to deliver. He's devastatingly well spoken, and utterly ruthless about it. And yet, between them "getting together" as it where, and then dealing with the fallout of it, there's a distinct gap in Titus' POV. He laughs at himself and mocks his own sentimentality, he's very mean-spirited to himself, in places, but he doesn't SHOW us, his thought process about this relationship. About letting himself fall head first into a sort of relationship that's not just (definitely) sexual - they've had sex a few times by now - but also... romantic? Emotional? It's hard to pin it down.

There's just... this very sharp change, before and after, in the level of physicality that he allows himself, with them. It goes unexplored and that in itself highlights it. Or at least that's the intent. Clarus makes a comment, in a scene prior to this, but after Titus falls in bed with them, that amounts to mocking Titus for fucking a dragon and not realizing the implications of it. That Regis and Aulea have staked a claim on him, and Titus is a fool if he thinks he can make them forsake that easily.

The thing is, Titus has staked a claim of his own, but because he's the narrator and he's a very unreliable narrator, like all narrators in the puppyverse, he doesn't see fit to examine that claim in depth. It's a fun scene, both for what they discuss and what it means for their relationship, but also... because it represents the new status quo. The fact that Titus isn't going to dance around this and be cautious about it. He likes to pretend he's the sensible one, but he's the one fucking the literal fucking ruling royalty. So who's the sensible one, really?

(None of them. The answer is none of them. It's great.)

[homolobotomized]

Hi! Do you think denji and Sanji r similar characters at least irt their inherent dislike/distrust of men and their trust of women? Anyway I just wanted to say I rly love your blog! I hope you have a good day

hellooo :3 sorry for the delayed response i was fighting for my life trying to figure out how to say what i wanted to say. thank you for the kind words also!! it means a lot >_< i hope ure having a good day too 🫂🫂🫂

short answer: yes! there absolutely are parallels between denji and sanji! the most glaring being their male-inflicted trauma and how they put women on a pedestal even when its to their detriment.

longer answer: i am hesitant to call them similar characters exactly? it's more that they just share traits than anything else imo. the biggest differences to me are that

sanji is ultimately a compassionate person; denji is not

sanji has positive experiences with both men (zeff & co) and women (sora & to an extent reiju); denji only really has a lack of negative experiences with women. at least that we are aware of

sanji's attitude is not treated as something that needs to change by the narrative (and is used as a gag to an unbearable degree); denji's attitude IS something that needs to be changed - though he is still struggling with it

the intent behind their dispositions is also worth noting, but that can get a bit speculative (particularly on oda's end and i am not exactly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt) so i've elected to leave that alone

would love to hear other people's thoughts on this too! i was originally gonna write an Essay about this but i could not get my thoughts organized in a way that was coherent so i'm being p concise and sorta lacking nuance here. and again i apologize for how long it took me to answer this i may have a problem <3

[fairymint]

💗💝💓🥰💌

💗 - How long does it take your muse to fall in love?

This depends on how you define the type of love! crushes, squishes, aesthetic and sensual attraction? easy. Sometimes almost at first sight! sexual attraction is probably slightly harder- this might need a more solid interaction, a bid for intent- one does have to actually 'try' or put in some sort of unrelated effort. this has to be asked for a total stranger or aquaintence, rather than just observed, simply put.

But Felix himself is self-aware enough that deeper love is different. He doesn't 'give' himself romantic love based on shallower moments, so has to trust a little, first.

I think as a whole, other muses here don't have this sort of nuance- lots of them either fall hard as soon as they crush, or don't crush until they fall hard.

💝 - What's their love language?

definitely a touch man hiding behind verbal, for politeness sake.

💓 - What are some signs your muse has fallen for someone?

Actually smiling. You might not want to count coincidental smiling at jokes, or maybe you do, if it matters to you. But smiling unprompted simply isn't a habit with Felix; his tone of voice carries him far enough in most situations that 'call for' a smile. A genuine one is a sure sign of something good.

🥰 - Is your muse good at telling when others have feelings for them?

Realistically speaking, Yes. Due to being emotionally hypervigilant, I've never missed a beat IRL. There are many, many nonverbal context clues to body language and tone of voice that give people away. However, to be perfectly fucking blunt, the vast majority of us as writers need to practice writing shit like this. So I'm not sure if it's as easy to tell online. Hence the need to usually communicate, not even counting 4th wall meta shit, or muses having powers of suppression/deception. But even those of us who're good at it forget it sometimes, I think.

Back on subject though, yes, these sort of things should be painfully obvious to him, at least in the broad sense. But the human body has so many tells that I've had pre-transition partners who were so obvious that it was terrifying. These days it still gives me small butterflies now that I'm less dysphoric. He can get a really good read on people, which is....usually the problem.

💌 - How would they confess to their love interest? Would they wait on a confession?

Felix prefers customized confession, so it may take a while. Figure out the best moment to tell them, in a way that fits the person. This doesn't mean it can't be spontaneous or slip out in conversation; and it can be grilled out of him too; it's not a hill he's willing to die on the least bit.

But it's entirely feasible to beat him to it. Especially unintentionally, if he's busy with other things. I have had certain muses almost get a confession, for the mun to leave the rpc ooc, so. RIP. That's the main reason i won't do exclusives, lmao.

[carmensandiego-dreams-collection]

i saw you posted about making a video essay and i'm genuinely pretty excited! i would love to know your thoughts on season 4 and the finale. personally i did not really like it. a lot of my dissatisfaction for it comes from the pacing (which i can't really blame the show for as much as netflix itself for not giving them enough episodes) but the end of the finale just sucked imo. the majority of the show built up 'family is not who you're raised by but who you choose' SO heavily, and the finale backtracked on all of it and went 'lol yeah these guys were just coworkers they don't hang out anymore at all'

Oh man! This is honestly the catalyst for my video, and I could genuinely go on for pages about this (as I already have on this end).

I felt like the whole season was just....really not great, to put it mildly. Like, there's definitely some parts of it that, while still part of a terrible whole, were at least interesting? For instance, I want to write a separate post/essay about how Grey's scenes flirt with some really interesting ideas, like how Carmen may not be a reliable narrator, how violence is often cyclical, and how VILE manipulates people like a real cult would. Even though his arc sucked, it was probably the only part of the finale that at least acknowledged how sad and bleak it all was, whereas Carmen/Zack/Ivy/Shadowsan's bits all tried to put a positive spin on Carmen never learning to open up or get over her past, while leaving all her friends behind. But the rest of it? I think completely destroyed everything the show had been trying to accomplish. Unfortunately I'm probably not going to get into it too much here, because it's a layered issue that's best talked about in a structured essay, but in a nutshell, yes! It absolutely sucks that the narrative puts all the importance on Carmen finding her birth family, and completely ignores how her found family could help her move on with her life. That choice really feels symbolic of the story wanting a "magic" solution that depends completely on her Mother (who she doesn't know) fixing everything that she's struggled with emotionally offscreen, instead of taking the "hard" route that embraces that recovery actually involves work, time, being honest about your flaws, and acknowledging your pain. The only way Carmen is going to actually improve her mental health is by actually being vulnerable around people like Zack and Ivy, who, despite not coming from Carmen or Shadowsan's background, have given up a lot for her and have always been there for her. But if I'm being honest, the story, under no circumstances, wanted to show that. It wanted Carmen to be a broody, hypercompetent, #girlpower action hero, and for Zack and Ivy to just be silly sidekicks that have no real importance in the serious stuff. Sure, she can get beat up every week and it can show how she struggles to get over it, but sometimes being vulnerable involves more than that. Sometimes it involves admitting you made a mistake, acted badly because you were struggling, or admitting you can't do something, which I think the writers were deathly afraid to have Carmen be-- wrong or incapable. It's more #girlpower for Carmen to be thrown endlessly against problem after problem, beat up, treated terribly, almost killed, kidnapped, and brainwashed, than for her to admit that she needs help from someone or made a mistake. To put it bluntly, I just don't think the writers had enough nuance or knowledge to handle this kind of story. They genuinely believed that Carmen was the most hypercompetent person alive, instead of someone clearly suffering the effects of a traumatic adolecence who needed room to heal, not constantly get thrown back into worse and worse situations with no break. This is coming from the same people who also, with no self-awareness whatsoever, stated clearly that VILE preyed on the disadvantaged, while, in the same breath, proceeded to condemn pretty much everyone in it to jail or being hunted down by police.

And as for the pacing? I actually think that was almost entirely their fault, I'm sorry lmao. Like, yeah, 8 episodes isn't as many as 10, but they still had room! Yet they chose to fill up that room with as many irrelevant sideplots as possible that did nothing to build up to what happened in the finale! What do robots have to do with this? What does gold have to do with this?? What does treasure have to do with this??? If you don't have the time or money, cut that stuff out!! Utilize your time wisely! Make room for important stuff!! GAH. I wrote an essay! And I said I wasn't gonna!!!!! Oh well.

[itsclydebitches]

hello! loved your tbb meta posts (10/10 analyses of the batch and their respective characterizations), but since it wasn't explicitly mentioned -- did you catch the post-s1 interview with jennifer corbett (head writer) and brad rau (exec producer)? their answers about crosshair's chip being out were Interesting (tm) but fairly definitive-sounding, so I'm wondering what your thoughts on it might've been.

Hey there, anon! Thank you—I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them :D

I’ve heard this info second-hand and ran into one written interview on the topic (idk if it’s the same one you’re thinking of), but my first response is… arguably a reach lol. Not to start off with a tin hat on, but it’s always possible that the writers are lying. Which yes, yes, we have a knee-jerk reaction against the idea of anyone lying for any reason, but in this case, it would be in service of both the writer’s plans and the audience’s enjoyment. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Crosshair’s chip is definitely still in and the entire point of this setup is a double twist: first the reveal that his chip is gone, then the real reveal that it’s actually still in and Crosshair was lied to (among other possibilities). How can the writers discuss him during hiatus without revealing that twist? By playing the current knowledge straight, despite the fact that they know otherwise. Yup, Crosshair’s chip is out. Yup, he chose this 100% willingly. Nothing else to see here, folks! To do otherwise would be to reveal the twist way too early. Even refusing to answer the question, dodging it, would give it all away. Imagine if during a season finale we’re meant to believe that a character is dead and then during hiatus an interviewer asks how the cast will mourn them. If the writer refuses to answer, every fan will realize that Something Is Up and what’s the main possibility here? That they’re not actually dead! Twist spoiled… unless the writer pretends that what the audience currently knows is definitely the truth here.

Taking my tin hat off now, these interviews are one of the main reasons why I’m worried about the writing moving forward. Because despite the paragraph above, I’m by no means convinced that the writers are skillfully keeping up a lie to avoid spoilers. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but it’s not necessarily likely either. Which leaves us taking their words at face value and that’s… a problem. Because as so many fans have already pointed out, the writing is setting up a twist that, according to these interviews, doesn’t exist. That doesn’t say good things about their intentions for the show vs. what actually ends up on screen and that kind of disconnect becomes frustrating for viewers very quickly. Take the headaches, for example. I’ve seen a couple of fans explain Crosshair’s away using the engine accident: “His face got burned up, of course his head still hurts. You’re reading too much into this.” But imagine for a moment if I’d tried to do the same thing for Wrecker prior to “Battle Scars”: “He gets thrown around and hits his head nearly every episode, of course it hurts. You’re reading too much into this.” Other fans would have—quite rightfully—explained to me how television works and that this repetitive problem is functioning as foreshadowing of a larger problem. With a side of the fact that this is an action show where the characters consistently shrug off their injuries. We’re not supposed to take Wrecker getting thrown around seriously. He’s the brawn of the group, meant to withstand a lot of damage, with any injuries being presented as either #cool (Wrecker shrugs off Fennec’s hits to go after Omega, yeah!) or #funny (Wrecker treats Crosshair shooting him like a badge of honor lol), not something he’s going to have to grapple with in a serious manner. So the audience recognizes the question, what’s more likely? That Wrecker’s headaches are a deliberate visual cue on the part of the writers to tell us that something important is happening, or that suddenly how the genre treats injuries has drastically changed?

It's precisely the same with Crosshair. He’s not the brawn like Wrecker is, but he’s still the action (anti)hero who shrugs off injuries because this is a show interested in more fun, explosive plot, not a deep dive into recovery. (See also: the story doing nothing with Echo’s trauma.) When Crosshair is injured, he’s immediately fighting to get back into a ship and when we next see him he’s passed the recovery stage entirely. There’s only a scar to show that this happened at all. We don’t watch him getting bacta skin grafts, or worrying about his eyesight, or struggling to eat, etc. The point is that he was injured for the purposes of that episode and now he’s not. So why would we think his headaches are a long-term symptom when the show is otherwise not at all interested in writing long-term symptoms? What’s more likely, that this familiar visual cue is being repeated to tell us that this is the chip, just like it was with Wrecker, or that the story is randomly interested in something it never was interested in before?

The audience is right to think that there’s more going on because the show has been written to say, "Something more is going on." The headaches, Crosshair’s refusal to give concrete information, the group conveniently not using Tech’s scanner, the burn scar hiding where the chip’s scar would be, a lack of motivation for the Empire removing the chip, not seeing its removal when the show did include its power being amplified… all of these are deliberate writing choices to set up another reveal. But, if we take the interview at face value and learn that these weren’t deliberate details… then what? The writers are making mistakes? Throwing in “clues” for the hell of it that they never intend to cache in on? Unless there’s some amazing answer here that allows for both these inconsistencies' explanations and the writers’ hard stance—something I personally can’t think up—then we’re left with is a pretty serious flaw in the show. A flaw that’s going to undermine the audience’s trust in everything we get from here on out. The next time we see something that feels like a cool setup/reveal, half the fandom will be going, “Yes! It totally means that ___ is going to happen!!” while the other half will be going, “… does it? Because we thought things were happening with Crosshair and that went nowhere.” Writers have to tackle the implications of what they’ve put on screen. Otherwise, the story falls apart.

So yeah, I’m aware of those hard “His chip is out and this is his choice” statements and, frankly, they make me nervous for season two. Because what the show needs is to engage with what we actually got in the finale: an ambiguous state of Crosshair’s chip, a number of hints that it might still be in there, and an ethical dilemma that, so far, hasn’t acknowledged how much of an influence the group’s decisions have had on Crosshair’s. I tackled most of this in the first analysis, but something I didn’t unpack there was the “choice” of not leaving with them. I mean yes, by all exact definitions—and if we accept that the chip really isn’t there—then Crosshair absolutely had free will in that moment to do as he pleased. But life is way more complicated than that. Imagine for a moment that I put two candy bars in front of you. “You can have whichever one you’d like,” I say. You reach for the one on the left and I glare, hard. I scoff at you. I mutter about your choices, your personality, your flaws, and your mistakes. So you reach for the one on the right instead and I’m… neutral. Okay then. Right candy bar it is. “They could have chosen the one on the left” someone watching claims. “Nothing was stopping them. No one put a gun to their head!” And yeah, the concept of “stopping them” was never that extreme… but the more compassionate, nuanced look acknowledge that some measure of “stopping them” did exist. Insults. Cruelty. A clear indication that one choice was wrong and the other was right. That’s one hell of an influence, even if it's not as formidable as a gun or a chip.

And that’s what Crosshair is dealing with. Yes, joining the Empire is clearly wrong and yes, a non-chipped Crosshair has free will to walk away from it… but walking towards TBB was never presented as a real option for him. He saw that through their inaction when they never came back for him. Then in Hunter’s refusal to admit that they’d made a mistake in leaving him behind. Wrecker putting all responsibility on his shoulders, despite knowing what the chip does to someone. Tech backing him up and framing this situation as stemming solely from Crosshair’s base personality—“severe and unyielding.” It’s seen in the always-loving Omega walking away from him in the barracks, in Crosshair’s hesitation to follow them to safer ground (and boy oh boy, do I have sad headcanons about that), and most especially, in their reactions to him saving Omega. What Crosshair learns in that moment is that they honestly believe that he, not the Empire's chip, but he would shoot Hunter and that saving their little sister is not a point in his favor. It's met only with glares and a need to disarm himself. They don’t trust him and actions that should produce trust are outright ignored, so… where can they go from here? Nowhere, according to TBB’s actions. They’re not giving Crosshair any wiggle room, any hope that these relationships can be repaired, or any acknowledgement that they had a hand in things getting this bad. So when they offer to let Crosshair come with them—which is very significantly presented as an obligation, not something they want—he knows that offer is BS. Whatever their real feelings might be (because the found family show obviously wants us to believe that everyone loves each other), their actions have said loud and clear that they don’t want him. That yes, he could technically walk onto that ship… but that it would be the “wrong” decision accompanied by more insults, scoffs, and pressure to do otherwise. That once he's there, he'll be treated only as a threat with any good deeds ignored. It's an awful offer outside of it being the morally correct decision when it comes to leaving the Empire... so Crosshair reaches for the right candy bar instead.

That very long tangent out of the way, THIS is what season two has to grapple with, along with all that ambiguity and the existence of these "The chip is still here" hints. But the interviews don’t seem to acknowledge that all of this exists, instead framing things as if we’d ended the finale knowing for sure that the chip is out and had watched a season where Crosshair is 100% responsible for everything that’s happened, no Empire or TBB influence involved. The way the interviews frame things doesn’t match up with the text, so I can only hope this is an example of bad communication, or the writers keeping a spoiler under wraps, because otherwise… season two might be frustrating to watch, with fans continually going, “Why are you ignoring that this happened? Why are you pretending that all of this is simpler than it actually is?”

[ellariasand]

Hi! I've been going through some of your asoiaf posts and fic and it made me wonder, why do you think Oberyn never married Ellaria in canon? I've seen someone speculate it was because she was too lowborn, but I'm not sure if Oberyn is someone who would be held back by that considering how much of his life was unconventional. I would love to hear your take. Thank you!

Hi! Thank you so much for your question — I’m glad my work could inspire that kind of thought for you!

Before I get into what my take on Oberyn and Ellaria’s relationship is, I’d like to issue a disclaimer: I know very little about the Martells as it relates to the ASOIAF books. My exposure to them is almost exclusively through the Games of Thrones show and what I’ve read in summaries and articles about them, so I’m well aware that my understanding of their position within Dorne, Westeros, and their own families as a whole is most likely missing key information. This take is most likely going to lack the appropriate amount of nuance, and be mostly based in feeling rather than fact, so I highly recommend checking out @sunontherhoyne for a more in-depth examination of the Martells’ lives and legacies!

That being said: if we’re talking my own personal take on why Oberyn didn’t marry Ellaria….it’s complicated. It’s not out of any lack of love for her, nor is it someone else forcing outside pressure onto him. Personally, I think it’s genuinely just a casualty of the rampant misogyny present in ASOIAF as a whole — the same reason Elia was a victim of rape and murder, the same reason the Sand Snakes are brutally eliminated. GRRM does not care for his female characters, particularly women of color. They have little value to him — yes, even characters like Sansa or Aria. My guess is that he didn’t think it really mattered whether Ellaria was anything more than Oberyn’s lover, and it reads as more salacious if they had daughters out of wedlock, so he just left it.

But if we’re talking specifically in canon, typical fantasy misogyny aside? I think part of it, ultimately, is the fact that, no matter what way you spin it, Ellaria is illegitimate. While her father is head of House Uller, that doesn’t mean anything, and to marry her would be to cause uproar in Dorne, and spark rumors everywhere else. (And the man already has enough of those floating around him as it is, with his lifestyle.) Oberyn doesn’t care for his convention, but he also doesn’t care so little for his family and for Dorne that he’d be willing to send the entire monarchy into chaos. While Oberyn is not Dorne’s ruler, he cares for Doran, who is. He clearly has respect for convention and order, even though he may not respect those who make the orders. And while Dorne is suggested to be a lot more liberal in its culture than the other regions of Westeros — and that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not going to get into — this is still a medieval-inspired fantasy world. Illegitimacy is a running theme through the ASOIAF books, from what little I’ve gathered. (See: Jon Snow.)

And I think, to some extent, everyone in ASOIAF is ruled by those kinds of conventions and constructs, because it’s what they know. To them, the idea of not being able to marry because of a difference in status is just how things are. That does not stop Oberyn from loving Ellaria with everything in him, nor does it stop him giving her privileges usually given to a wife, but it is the law of the land, and a law that Oberyn doesn’t have the power to change. It’s not dissimilar to England’s King George VIII abdicating to be with Wallace Simpson — to marry a non-royal, particularly an illegitimate child, would mean stepping away from all his royal duties and leaving himself, Ellaria, and his daughters all defenseless. And with Doran as frail as he is — which is why Oberyn ends up in Cersei’s court in the first place, as a Royal ambassador — forsaking his royal status when he can just as easily be Ellaria’s husband in all but name feels a foolish choice, even for him.

Oberyn Martell is not as reckless and swashbuckling as people make him out to be. He is noble, and has a flair for the dramatic, and at his end was blinded by rage and emotion, but he is not a stupid man. Not to say that any of that is what you implied with your question at all, but I get the distinct impression that most fans of Oberyn specifically — not ASOIAF in general — think he’s some kind of sex-crazed, Byronic hero who openly gives the finger to everyone and everything that displeases him. He is cunning, and in every step of the way uses the systems placed before him to his advantage. With the complex web of the monarchy presented to him, and the already complex lineage of his daughters, whatever advantages being married to Ellaria might offer clearly do not outweigh the disadvantages for him.

And who’s to say Oberyn really even needs a wife? Dorne is a matriarchy. His brother is on the throne, Arianne is next in line, not him. So, I think, in a way, you’re right — Oberyn and Ellaria live enough of an unconventional life that they see no reason to bother. With all the red tape surrounding it, a wedding is just a formality Oberyn most likely has no desire to bother with, when he can provide all the love and support Ellaria could ever need or want just the way he is now. They know that they love each other, and that’s good enough for them.

[kitkatopinions]

I'm aware of the cross tagging from FNDM in rwde since sometimes I look in it at times, but I think what irks me is about Adam.

The guy is already dead and FNDM just can't let go that anyone that are fans of him just have to shove in there face "See? See? He's ALWAYS been emotional abusive since the beginning, you guys are abuse apologist!" He was charismatic in a degree because he had a lot of loyal followers, and if I remember correctly didn't he not give a shit Blake was in Beacon? Why is the FNDM so keen on people that don't agree with them? It's such a waste of time.

The Adam topic is honestly a... Hard one, with a lot of layers. I fully believe he was always meant to be Blake’s abuser and a plain straight villain. But he used to be a much more nuanced character, who let her go and focused on his own goals. He got coerced - yes, full on coerced - into joining Cinder’s plan, but seemed to lean into it and wanted to use it to his advantage. In season three, he delved into much worse territory, stabbing Blake, trying to cut off her head, and maiming Yang. This obviously ought to be considered evil. But he still let Blake run away and continued doing his job rather than chasing her down and killing her and Yang, clearly implying that he cared about a lot more than just Blake.

The treatment of the faunus/racism allegory really damages all of their Faunus characters in the first five season minus maybe Velvet. Adam was no exception to this. He should’ve been a very different character than what we got even in seasons 1-3 because he was a strong voice in their only pro-Faunus rights activist group, and seemingly a leader of one of the branches. CRWBY never should’ve made the only pro-Faunus rights activist group in their story a violent terrorist group that wanted to destroy peace and take out white people non faunus. And one of the leaders of that group being an abuser and a total monster? Not a cute look. That feels like straight up propaganda. Especially after revealing Adam’s brand mark, and dropping details about him being a slave in songs and outside content.

And then the writing staff decided to take a character who seemed to care for his cause and care for his people (he rejected Cinder’s offer for him to join them because it would do nothing for the Faunus, and then only agreed when she threatened his people,) and they stripped him of those two good traits and made him act as though he’d only ever been using the White Fang for power and to get at Blake. He stalked her for days (when he’d willingly let her get away without following two times before,) and he turned into nothing more than an abusive ex. I got tripped up enough on RT’s terrible to choice to make him such a monster in the first place, but stripping him of the few good points he did have just to... Make Blake sadder, maybe? Make him seem less sympathetic? That sucked. And if they were going for trying to make Adam less sympathetic, they shouldn’t have freaking showed us the SDC logo burned into his face! There’s nothing satisfying about watching an oppressed former child slave and allegory to people of color, with a company logo branded onto his face, get murdered due to no real fault from the heroes and die alone after having his character reduced to ‘abusive ex’ by careless white writers who just last season had been shoving ‘people of color should stop hurting themselves and just prove they’ll defend white people from other people of color and then they’ll earn respect’ into their narrative. 

Honestly, I’m not an Adam stan. His character didn’t get a lot (and his voice acting wasn’t the best tbh,) and the character he did have was largely unlikable to me personally. The reason for that is the writers’ miserable failure of an allegory that came across as very propaganda-ish and white comfort driven, but I’ve just never really... Liked him all that much. However, a lot of people saw potential in Adam, and liked who he could’ve been a lot. And there were other people who liked Adam as a villain. Both of those things are perfectly valid. I don’t know much about the Adam stan community, but I personally have never once seen anyone in the RWDE tags excusing Adam’s actions in the show or trying to say they were alright. What I have seen is people acknowledging that Adam’s character was severely mishandled, or writing their own, new versions of Adam’s character where they try to handle him well or treat the topics at hand with more respect than the writers did. Other people literally just acknowledge Adam’s pain, and that’s totally valid too.

I’ve dealt with crosstagging in other fandoms and pro tags getting lots of anti people invading and trying to pick fights. And even main character tags, people should realize are going to be used by people who enjoy the character, and attacking them for it or commenting on their posts to try and get a reaction is mad annoying. Antis should use filterable tags. RWBY megafans are always getting mad at RWDE posters if they so much as use the main tag even if they have a drove of filterables, but they refuse to use any proper tags themselves. It can be so frustrating when you’re just trying to share content about a character you like with other people who like that character, and you get people coming into your comments going ‘you know they did A right?’ ‘you know they’re a bad person, right?’ ‘Oh so you love (insert immoral thing here)?!?!’

It’s honestly toxic. Adam - the character - did horrible things no one should excuse. But A. He did those things because he was written to do them, and people ought to be able to look at that writing and see how it’s harmful. And B. Liking a character is not approval of all of their actions. People can stan villains. There are Joker stans and Tom Riddle stans and freaking Moriarty from Sherlock lovers, I think RWBY fans should be able to get past Adam stans. And C. Softening characters for your own personal headcanons is a-okay, and shouldn’t be something you get attacked for. This is especially important to remember in characters that you look at and say ‘this should’ve been done differently because the character they did give us is insulting or a bad portrayal.’ It’s easy to become attached to characters you think were done dirty by their clearly biased writers. I have a long string of characters I just write different in fan fiction, because I got mad at how they were handled, for all sorts of fandoms. People need to understand that not everyone is going to see RWBY and the RWBY characters exactly how they see them. People have different favorites and different interpretations, and even if that interpretation isn’t one hundred percent right in canon, well guess what? Canon isn’t king, people have every right to headcanon whatever they want.

You got me ranting. XD But yeah, I personally think RWBY fans should leave Adam fans alone, so long as they aren’t hurting anyone. Obviously, I don’t know all the details, but yeah. I’m a firm believer in the benefits of ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ tags for character content. I’ve been trying to use ‘pro Ironwood’ for instance in mine. I know it wouldn’t get rid of all the antis, but it’s worth a shot.

And the amount of RWBY megafans who literally go to the RWDE tag and look at posts specifically tagged and marked as anti rwby eight ways to sunday just to pick fights... Astronomical. People who don’t like to see it should filter it out and make their (and our!) experiences much better.

So... Those are my thoughts on that.