#you clearly missed the point if you stopped reading just because you found the characters to be 'unlikeable'

[altbite]

MW2 x Russian Speaking! Reader *Headcanons*

Summary: Reader who can speak Russian (don’t have to be Russian necessarily) and mw2 characters reaction to finding out. 

Characters involved: Price, Soap, Ghost, Gaz, Konig, Alejandro

__

You had kept the fact you could speak Russian a secret, not intentionally though. You just didn’t speak it outside of your family. 141 found out before Konig and Alejandro did as you met them later on.

Price: When Price found out you could speak Russian, he was impressed. Both that you could and that you managed to keep it hidden from him. He is usually a know-it-all man when it comes to his recruits. Clearly he missed this. He used this information to send you out on missions that involved Russians, from gathering Russian intel to being a translator. He also started watching Russian war movies and made you sit and translate it for him. Or if he was watching any tv and there was someone speaking Russian, he would pause it and call you over to translate. You usually complained about the pronunciation and wrong grammar instead. 

Ghost: Ghost found out at the same time as Soap. You were on the phone to your family and they walked by and overheard you speaking. They both stood there, jaw dropped until you noticed and hung up. Ghost gave you shit for it, probably because there were missions where it could've been helpful. But he thought it was pretty cool nonetheless. Did the same thing as Price when it came to TV.

Soap: Soap was shook. He grabbed you and sat you down and forced you to teach him curse words. Of course it would be curse words. The man was a child. You did not teach him curse words just to annoy him. He eventually just asked you on how to say random ass things in your language. Varied from saying shit about members to how to say he’s the coolest dude ever. You did this on missions mostly, on the way to or back from them. It kept you guys entertained and busy from thinking about anything bad.

Gaz: Gaz was sweet when it came to finding out. He was like “That’s so cool wtf”. He didn’t nag you about it like Soap or Price. This made you choose him when it came to teaching curse words. Soap was not impressed when he found out Gaz could curse in Russian and tried to convince him to teach him one word at least. Soap begged on his hands and knees to you and Gaz and Ghost took a photo of it. Gaz picked up Russian a lot better than you expected.

Konig: This man was highly excited when he found out. Nothing really screamed Russian about you, so to have another person who spoke a different language was fun. You two sat together and taught each other your language. He would point at objects and ask you what the word for them would be. He started to mix German and Russian together when speaking to you. It was funny but it also helped you both learn and understand what was being said. It also scared half the recruits when they saw you talking because of how angry both languages sound. especially together.

Alejandro: The minute this man found out, he was wooed. He was in love. Okay, maybe not literally just yet. You would compliment this man in Russian but it sounded like you were pissed at him. This turned him on more?? Ghost and Soap stood there, watching you two, waiting for you to stop. When he would curse out enemies, you followed in Russian and then fist bumped. 

Bonus Alejandro + Konig:

If you and one of them could understand each other in each others language, you would talk to them in Russian and they would reply in theirs. It confused everyone because they didn’t understand what language you were speaking or whether or not you actually understood each other. It was the same in English. You would speak in Russian and they would reply in English or vice versa, so what anyone understood was just a one side of the conversation. It was fun to see the looks you received from recruits or even strangers passing by

_

Thank you for reading! I want to make a konig x russian speaking!reader and develop it more there so i might. Also i see you anon ;3

[redsparko]

Hopefully this reaches the right audience.

I’d like to talk about Maya Sokolov and her writing and the analysis of what Miss Rina Kent could’ve done with her character and her story. I know Rina said in one of her Insta stories that for sure Remi, Maya, Vaughn, and Gareth were not getting stories. I can be fine with Remi and Vaughn not getting stories (Remi not so much but I can live) while Maya and Gareth I can feel some potential with.

And I get it from Rina’s POV, miss girl has written like 35 books within 3-4 years. And if she feels no passion or connection with certain characters then she won’t write it. I understand and agree with that completely.

It doesn’t mean I won’t have any ideas about it yeah? Even if it’s not canon that’s what makes it fun.

Anyway back to the point, Maya Sokolov and her character

She falls under the lines of the Queen Bee, diva, bitch. Something like Silver, Nicole, and Reina. I absolutely love those three. Personally, Silver should’ve gotten the trilogy, Reina was done dirty lowkey, and Nicole’s story (Empire of Hate) left me with wanting more groveling. But out of the three I found I relate to Nicole more.

It’s the inferiority complex. I love that shit, I have it too, and I eat it up. And that’s clearly scene in Maya too. In the end of GOR it’s referenced/implied/canon that Maya was jealous of Mia and made a monkey’s paw type wish that came true.

There’s something so raw and sad and powerful in that that can and should be shown in Maya’s character (speaking from personal experience) feeling something so negative that it results in an act of hurting another person you REALLY care about because it comes from a place of deep sadness and insecurity.

Maya can act like the biggest girl boss and look at everyone like they’re the dirt beneath her feet (literal quote from GOR) but that does not disguise the fact she can only act like that because no one else will ever hate her more than how she hates herself.

And as readers we can really see it, and even theorize it from in between the lines. In GOF we read about Nikolai’s thoughts about the twins.

There are people saying that GOR ruined the relationship and wished it never happened. I can’t say the execution of it was done well but I can’t say it was a total trash fire either. It’s a 50/50 depending because there are good things I absolutely loved and things that could’ve been improved.

But mostly people are saying that the relationship between Maya and Mia was sabotaged and it would’ve been better if it never happened. I disagree, I prayed for times like this to come—kidding, but the layers of anger and frustration and love in the relationship between them makes the relationship deeper. But we never get to see that in its completion.

Think of Landon and Brandon in GOF. We love them so much because behind that ire and blockage from both sides they came through that and love prevailed. This is why I stand by Rina Kent MALE friendships/relationships. They’re much more complex and thought out than the female friendships which come off as somewhat shallow. I’ll make another rant abt that later.

What I wish was done better was mentioning the difference in Maya, Niko and Mia’s relationship. It’s clear that Niko likes Maya less than Mia. And Maya feels less than Mia because she’s seen that Mia is favored. It’s not Niko’s fault but it’s like an unconscious thing, he’s just closer with her because he sees that he is similar to Mia. It’s a common and natural thing, you’re just closer to people you feel like you can relate with. That checks out.

I feel like even both of Maya’s siblings only see her for what she pushes herself out to be, a shadow diva who sees herself as superior (obviously hiding an inferiority complex). They don’t stop to acknowledge that maybe she’s compensating for something? Especially Nikolai, in that quote saying that he and Mia would fuck up each other’s demons but what abt Maya? You can’t be close to her because she doesn’t have flaws or negative thoughts or demons either?

This feels less like a “it’s Nikolai’s personality” issue and more like a “Rina Kent wrote Maya to be nothing more than her character archetype”

Other than that, I also wanna mention Maya’s relationship with Ilya and how it could enhance her character and dynamics.

Ilya is down to earth, not egotistical like Landon, or notoriously violent or volatile like Nikolai, nor with the high status like Jeremy. He’s a perfect match for Maya.

It’s mentioned by GOR from Mia’s POV that Maya wants someone high status with lots of money (I agree, get it girl slay) but Ilya is not those things. He’s just a bodyguard and the money in comparison isn’t that good. But he can see Maya for who she truly is, someone who is hurt on the inside, insecure and needing some help.

It’s not what she wants but it’s what she needs. She needs someone who won’t isn’t already existing in the circle who prefers Mia to her.

Although I do wanna say that I love the angst in early chapters if Maya felt some jealousy and sadness from believing that Ilya prefers Mia to her (seeing as how Ilya doesn’t regard Maya with the same reverence as other boys do) and he’s actually friendly to Mia while he’s bitchier to Maya. It’s all part of the angst. But endgame wise he would choose Maya cause he sees right through her and is more interested in the true part of her that’s vulnerable and scared to love in fear that the one she loves will love Mia more.

[notedchampagne]

TLT progress update: Finally found the time to finish HtN and oh boy that was a Ride and a half. I'll be the first to admit that it's a difficult read, I don't think I've ever had a narrator be this unreliable before but it's was absolutely worth it. It really was a cool experience to wade through the river ((heh)) of confusing time and environment jumps, only for some small detail to be mentioned which basically picks up a flare gun and quite literally illuminates the surroundings for a moment ((the time they all checked in with their calls signs and Ortus said "G. P." was like someone had thrown a steel bar into the inlet of a massive turbine. I screeched to a halt for a solid ten seconds trying to figure out why that tripped me up before pulling GtN from the shelf and frantically flipping through to the note in the lab)).

Also, I'm still hung up on the whole Sleeper deal, especially the fact that the letters in the coffin room anagram to "Pyrrha". First thought naturally was that it is Pyrrha but it doesn't quite fit with the shuttle portrait I think. Excited to see where that one goes

I think what from a sheer style point endears me most to the series so far is the. Passive hostility towards the reader, I guess you could call it? There's clearly a massive amount of world building that's happened behind the scenes, but it's just that, behind the scenes. You're an outsider, you know nothing about the world. You get the full POV of a character in the world and you still don't really know anything at any point bc they're Land-of-Punt-ing you, there's next to no exposition about how this or that aspect of the world works because the character and everyone around them all know how it works already, so why waste thoughts on it? Idk I've read only a couple of stories that are written like that and it's absolutely a double edged sword ((bc at some point you have to throw the reader some bones or they will get frustrated and stop)) but here it's executed really well ((e.g. I'm not actually sure if it's ever actually explained what the Cohort is, but at some point you've gathered enough context clues to pretty reliably get the picture))

In conclusion: High hopes for NtN

LOVE your thoughts on this because you highlighted exactly why i love the tlt series so much: it hilariously takes on the perspective of the character least equipped to tell the story, offers you context that requires 1-2 rereads to understand and get to in full, and then right when youre about to feel lost it helps you up the stairs. perfect story for dumb bitches that love mystery like me. i had the EXACT same experience when i saw G+P and had to flip back to gtn to glance at the lab note LMFAOOOO

i has missed the coffin room anagram spelling pyrrha the first time but the sleeper is wake! i think her spelling out her name was just a funny and somewhat sick bit. like keying your name into your exes car

[ladykailitha]

Can Anybody See Me? Part 17

Fuck, guys, I don’t even know what this story is even doing at this point. I’m on part 18 and it does NOT want to wrap up. Like at all. It wants to go on forever and I don’t know how to stop it. It MIGHT be 20 parts. It might be 50 at this point. Who the hell knows? Not this poor belabored author that’s for sure.

Anyway...so this part is a little on the sad side. We get more of Eddie’s backstory. And a little bit of bitchy Steve to lighten it up at the end.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

*

It wasn’t until Steve was getting ready for school the next morning that he found he had left the comic at Eddie’s.

He was throwing homework in his bag when he realized it felt lighter than it should.

He unpacked it slowly and set everything out on his bed. He stood there looking at his stuff, hands on his hips for a moment before it dawned on him.

Shit.

The comic book. After he had finished all the pages he had painstakingly put them together in comic book form. He even designed the cover. Then took them to copying store and got it bound like a real comic book.

The kid at the shop was impressed with how well the pages were mapped out.

But it wasn’t in his stuff he had pulled from his bag. Which meant one thing. Eddie had it.

It was fine. No need to panic. He had written for Eddie. He was meant to read it.

So why was he freaking out?

Oh, only because Steve didn’t want him to read it until after the school play. Hell Steve’s nerves were already shot with the three additional performances Steve wasn’t planning on having to do. But adding Eddie knowing about the Upside Down? It made him vaguely ill.

Fuck what if he did throw up from nerves? He’d never done it before, but then again, he’d never performed in front other people before either. He was a literal mess.

He packed away all his things carefully and prayed to whatever supreme being that was out there for a merciful death on his way to school.

*

Eddie had stayed up the whole night reading Steve’s comic. Personally, he thought that the story was good, the characters were interesting and the monsters were frightening enough.

It wasn’t until he got the final page of the comic where Steve’s afterword was.

Unlike the rest of it where it was professionally done, the last page had a carefully glued on piece of paper. So this was clearly something that Steve didn’t want other people to see.

And Eddie would have respected that if it hadn’t been addressed to him directly.

“Eddie-

So there you have it. The start of my trauma. And yes this is only the start. The real story began with a missing boy and a cover up so large it frightens me. But that was never my story to tell. This is my story. This is where it truly began for me.

Well. That’s not quite true. It started with a girl and a swimming pool. A tragedy that should have been mine. But that night I was so intent on getting laid that I let it happen. Barb deserved better than me. She should have lived and I died.

I don’t know why I lived. Maybe it was because I was needed to protect those closest to me. That’s all I thought I was good for. Dying in a blaze of glory protecting those I hold most dear. And then I met you.

God, Eddie, you make me want to live. For the first time in my miserable existence I found people who like me for me. And not just because I was needed. To protect. To defend. To die. For them.

And then you came along and protected me. Defended me. I don’t think anyone has ever done that for me before.

Just do me one favor. Peel out this insert. Throw it away. Burn it. I don’t care. Just as long as you are the only one that sees it. I don’t want you in danger. But I needed you know this side of me.

The boy with the bat. The boy who never knew what love really was until he met you.

-Love Steve”

Eddie choked back tears and place a hand to his trembling lips. If Steve had really gone through all that. If even a fraction of it was true. Even if none of it was. That was still the most beautiful love letter he had ever seen. And it was addressed to him.

Shit.

Tears rolled down his face as he read the letter again and again. After the seventh or eighth read he finally did what Steve requested and peeled the letter out of the last page of the comic. He folded it carefully and crawled under his bed.

Buried underneath of the mess was a simple black lockbox. He set it gently on his bed and then went to his dresser. He slid out the bottom drawer and jiggled the bottom until a small key fell out onto the floor.

He picked the key up and sat on his bed. He unlocked the box and placed the key between his lips for safe keeping.

Inside the box were all the things Eddie didn’t want other people to see. The couple of birthday cards his dad had sent him from prison. His mom’s suicide note.

Not even Wayne had seen that one. No one knew but Eddie that she had taken her own life. He had seen her life insurance policy and knew it wouldn’t pay out if they thought it was intentional. So accidental overdose was what was on her death certificate.

Eddie had been her sole beneficiary and it was placed in trust until he turned twenty-one. He was going to use it fund the band and get the hell out of Hawkins. He just had to make that far.

The paperwork for the trust was in there too. Wayne had offered to hold on to it for him but at the time Eddie didn’t trust anyone and giving that up felt like too much.

His birth certificate was in here too. Well a copy of it anyway. Wayne had the original, but Eddie liked knowing he had a copy too. In case he needed to get away fast.

Also in here was a portion of the money he had made from dealing drugs. He told Reefer Rick, no meth and no cocaine. Mainly weed and mushrooms, with a small smattering of the harder drugs. He had set aside ten percent of his earnings as an emergency fund. In case he needed it.

The last thing that was in there was a picture of his mom. She’s sitting on the swings next to Eddie and smiling into the camera as Eddie laughs gleefully. Just out of frame was his dad who had been pushing him on the swing. It was the last moment of happiness Eddie had before Lawrence Munson got into selling and doing drugs. Had got his wife, Edie addicted. Before Larry had got himself arrested in Texas and Eddie was sent to go live with Wayne.

He placed the love letter on top and closed the box. He locked it back up and set everything to rights. He looked at the alarm clock and groaned when the bright red numbers glared back him. It was 4:57am.

Fuck.

Eddie was supposed to be up in an hour for school. Yeah. That wasn’t happening today. He flopped on the bed and threw his arms out. He thought about the comic and what was inside it. He remembered Steve telling him that he had changed it so unless you were there that day you wouldn’t recognize the events. But even with that it felt...well, it felt like he was being let in on secret if he was honest. A big one.

He looked over at the clock again and it was almost six. He sighed and got up. He grabbed the stuff he needed for his shower and ducked into the bathroom. The last thing he needed this morning was Wayne seeing him still in the clothes he wore the night before.

He showered quickly and got out before Wayne had even turned on the coffee pot. He was dressed and ready for school before the pot had finished brewing.

Wayne handed him a cup of coffee and raised an eyebrow at him.

“What do you want, old man?” Eddie groused. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk considering he was running on fumes.

“You were up all night reading that comic, weren’t you?” Wayne said and took a long sip of his coffee.

Eddie sighed. He should have known better than to think that Wayne wouldn’t catch him at it. After all this was the man who had been catching him reading books at three o’clock in the morning since he was twelve.

“It’s Steve’s.”

“I didn’t know he read comic books,” Wayne said almost an echo of what he said the night before.

“As in he wrote and drew it,” Eddie clarified.

Wayne’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a pretty talented boy you got there, Eddie.”

Eddie blushed. “I know. This was the story he was originally going to tell for his art class. Seniors in ART 4 had to do an eight page comic book for their winter finale. Steve started doing this one, but the teacher flipped out and threatened to call his parents because it was ‘too scary’ or some other dumb shit.”

“So he completed it anyway and turned in something else?” Wayne supposed.

Eddie nodded. “He told me he was going to finish it so that I could read it.”

Wayne hummed. “Do you think he left it here on purpose? So that you would read it without having to physically hand it to you?”

Eddie tilted his head and looked up thoughtfully. He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think Steve would have wanted to explain it to me.” He hung his head. “I shouldn’t have read it without that permission, but you know me.”

“I don’t think I would have been able to resist reading something that was meant for me either,” Wayne said, nodding.

Eddie drank the rest of his coffee and kissed his uncle on the cheek. “I’ll see you after school.”

“Bring that boy yours with you,” Wayne said. “I’m making my lasagna tonight, and I want him over for dinner.”

Eddie grinned. “You got it, old man.”

He was out the door and driving off before Wayne could even shake his head. Wayne loved that boy and if he was really lucky he would get another sweet boy out of this deal.

*

Steve was standing nervously at the door to the math hall because it was closest to the parking lot, chewing on his thumb nail. He knew he shouldn’t chew on his nails, but his nerves were shot to hell.

But the bell rang and there was still no sign of Eddie. So after a moment or so of indecision Steve gave up and went to class.

He spent this first class of the day fidgeting with his pencil, tapping against whatever surface was in reach. The desk, his book, his lips, his hand.

Finally the teacher had enough.

“Mr Harrington!” she barked.

Steve looked up at her in shock. “Yes, Miss Davis?”

“Do you have some hot date tonight that you’re nervous about or something?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest as she stared him down.

Steve looked at her blankly.

“Your pencil, Mr Harrington,” she explained tersely.

He looked down at the pencil. “No, Miss Davis. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I’ll stop.”

Miss Davis pursed her lips. “See that you do.”

Steve tried finding less obvious ways to work through his nerves and then it hit him. He pulled out his drawing pad and began to doodle.

“Mr Harrington,” Miss Davis called out again some time later. “Would you please pay attention in my class?”

Steve blinked up at her. “You were talking about the Spanish forced colonization of South America, weren’t you?”

A couple of the kids in the class giggled.

Miss Davis turned red from the embarrassment. “Carry on.”

Steve gave her his lop-sided goofy grin.

Part 18  Part 19  Part 20  Part 21

Tag List: @shrimply-a-menace @strangersteddierthings @throwbackthrowaway @novelnovella @cursedfoxteeth @babyblender @garden-of-gay @anaibis @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring @swimmingbirdrunningrock @steve-the-hairrington @winterbuckwild @spectrum-spectre @matchingbatbites   @thing-a-ling @fandemonium-takes-its-toll @artiststarme @sundead  @nelotegreitic @gregre369 @butterflysandpeppermint @thedragonsaunt @kodaik97 @messrs-weasley @scarletzgo @deadlydodos @renaissan-vvitch @evix-syne666 @emly03 @justforthedead89 @ashwinmeird @huniibee @phantypurple @stevesbipanic @shucks-yuckyuck @lovelyscot @awkwardgravity1 @bookbinderbitch @reportinglivefromsoda @jinxjinn @chasinggeese @be-the-spark-bitch @kohlraedirectioner @cr0w-culture @xjessicafaithx @whimsicalwitchm @jaywhohasthegay @estrellami-1 @dangdirtydemons @howincrediblysapphicofyou @the-redthread 

[bunnimew]

The World is a Cage

Rating: T  Fandom: Rise of the Guardians Relationship: Jack Frost/Pitch Black Tags: Dark!Jack, Lonely!Jack, Bitter!Pitch, Altho only as much as can be crammed into less than 2k Summary: For the @rotgsecretsanta 2023 prompt: Jack/Pitch with Dark Jack post ROTG when he continues to not fit in amongst the Guardians as the events with Pitch simmer down. Art or fic. Happy ever after only please.

When all you want in the world is to not be alone, wish fulfillment requires the cooperation of someone, literally anyone, else.

On AO3 here.

Here he was again.

Alone.

Jack sat on the edge of a skyscraper over looking New York City. It was beautiful up here, and it was cold. A little bit fun, and very, very dark. The city glittered far below him, the ambient sounds of life drifting up between the buildings to remind him bittersweetly that people were down there. Life kept on, the world continued to spin, humanity continued to thrive, even as it left Jack behind.

Jack picked at his nail polish as he admired the sights. It was black, with a white crackle coating. It reminded him of ice. It felt right. And, well, applying, removing, and reapplying nail polish gave him something to do with all the hours he didn’t spend with kids because…

He had nothing, and no one, else to fill those hours with.

Jack had been right from the beginning. The Guardian lifestyle wasn’t right for him. The kids were great. Jack had always loved the kids. But the endless work, the on-call schedule, the, and he didn’t care how much the others tried to deny it, bribing in exchange for belief?

It wasn’t for him. 

It never had been.

There had been a brief time, when Jack continued to pester and bother the others, insisting on making them notice him, pay attention to him, but it got exhausting. Jack had read enough books in the painful years between emerging from the lake and being chosen to know a relationship as one-sided as that wasn’t a real relationship at all.

Jack stopped pestering them. Jack waited for them to notice he was gone. They probably had noticed, but they hadn’t done anything about it. If Jack caught the baby teeth out and about, they might fawn over him for a minute, but then they left. And Tooth never showed up to say hi in their place. 

So that was that. No more to be said. Jack wasn’t really one of them. No more to be done. So Jack did nothing. 

He slid off the edge of the rooftop and let the winds carry him south.

Time and again, Jack found himself wondering what if. Jack hadn’t had to become a Guardian. There had existed at least one other path his life could have taken, and Jack knew it was stupid to wallow in the past, but he really, truly didn’t have anything better to do. Once he’d brought the snow day, once he’d made sure the kids had fun with it, his job was done and all Jack had left was to loiter by himself and think about it.

And his favorite place to do that was where his choice had been made.

Except…

Someone was already there. Pitch sat against an outcropping of ice, as if he needed to shelter from the frigid wind. It was strange to see him like that, curled up and slumped over. Or maybe it wasn’t strange, and Jack just remembered the times when he stood tall and towered with his spine straight and shoulders back the most clearly. Jack had seen Pitch laid low before. Multiple times throughout their fights. Pitch looking strange here said more about Jack, and what he chose to remember, than Pitch. 

There was no point in pretending they weren’t both here. Jack could turn and leave, but he didn’t want to. Pitch had probably noticed him already, what with the black hoodie surrounded by all this white ice. Jack would be hard to miss. And what would the Boogeyman think if Jack walked away now? Probably not anything true. Probably something self-deprecating and uncharitable of Jack’s character and there was no reason to let this remain the status quo between them. 

It took effort to walk up to Pitch. There were a lot of ways this conversation could go badly. Pitch’s gift was always knowing the worst thing he could say to someone. There were a handful of ways this conversation could go well, though, and on the off-chance Jack could spend a little time feeling slightly less lonely than he currently did, it might be worth it. 

“I admit I'm surprised to see you back here,” Pitch said when Jack stopped mere feet from him, soft voice barely audible even in the quiet of this place.

Jack decided to play along. “Not as surprised as me,” he said. “Weren’t you trapped?”

Pitch didn’t look at him, but his voice grew in volume as he got comfortable with speaking, as he eased into his monologue mode. “Only for a little while, Jack. Everything erodes over time. Even my own fear. It was always just a matter of time that I would break out again.”

It didn’t sound like Pitch was sharpening his words into blades, so Jack took another risk and sat down beside him. He didn’t feel safe, exactly, just… like the worst thing Pitch could do wouldn’t be as bad as being alone again. “Everything erodes, huh? I’m not so sure about that.”

Pitch tch’ed, but it was soft. Gentle mocking. Could be much worse. “If you’re about to preach about love lasting forever…”

Jack couldn’t help it. He laughed. “I mean, I wasn’t. But now that you brought it up…”

“Ugh,” Pitch groaned, shaking his head and turning away. “Optimism. Disgusting.”

“I don’t know,” Jack teased. “Calling your own escape inevitable seems like a pretty optimistic thing to do.”

Pitch waved his hand. “That’s fatalistic. It’s a different thing.”

“Who says it can’t be both?” Jack shot back. He was, despite everything, enjoying himself. Enjoying this verbal spar with Pitch. 

“It could be both,” Pitch reasoned, “but it isn’t. Being optimistic about my escape implies I thought my situation would be somehow bettered by it. However,” Pitch gestured at the desolate landscape around them, seemed to swipe right over and ignored their sculpture frozen in time. “As you can see, it was not. I am still powerless, I am still hated, and I am still without my nightmares. My cage has simply been expanded to include the rest of the world, Jack.”

Feeling trapped, even when you could go anywhere. Jack was sad to realize how similar their situations were. As horrible as Pitch had been, Jack wouldn’t wish this on anyone. And he wasn’t… hoping Pitch would rise again and terrorize the world, but he was in a place now where he totally understood Pitch giving the Guardians a taste of their own medicine. Where Jack might enjoy it if he saw it happening again. He loved kids, but… 

Kids were resilient. They would be okay without the Guardians bribing them for a little while. 

“Does it help to know I’m in here with you?” Jack asked tentatively. 

Pitch looked at Jack out of the corner of his eye. His expression wasn’t giving Jack a whole lot of hope, but he waited quietly for Pitch to answer anyway. “Are you really? You have believers now, Jack. You can do whatever you like.”

He couldn’t, though. What Jack wanted to do was belong somewhere, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t change that he didn’t belong anywhere. 

He could have some fun though.

“What would you say if I offered to help you rough them up some?” Jack said with the tone of changing the subject.

Pitch stared at him with wide eyes, silent for long seconds. Then his eyes narrowed. “You can’t mean what I think you mean.”

“I mean,” Jack said, “I don’t want to eliminate them. I like kids, Pitch, I don’t want them stuck with nothing but nightmares. But,” he emphasized with a playful little smirk, “I wouldn’t mind seeing Bunny all tiny and cute again for a while.”

Pitch scoffed and looked away, a grumpy hunch to his shoulders. “You’re only offering me half of what I want.”

“I’m offering you more than what you have.” More than what both of them had. A reprieve, if nothing else. It was worth a shot. It was worth Jack’s effort. He continued, putting weight behind his words. “I’m serious, Pitch. I want to see them struggle. I want to see them go for more than a day without belief. I want them to notice me again. To remember I’m fucking here!” 

Jack didn’t know when he’d started shouting, but he was. Jack panted as he stared out at the snow and ice around them. At the sculpture they left here so long ago. At… what they could do. 

Together. 

Jack turned back and found Pitch staring at him with wide eyes again. Speculative eyes that traced up and down his figure, his face. “You’ve changed.”

“I haven’t, really,” Jack said. “I tried playing it their way. It didn’t work. So it’s time to try yours. What do you say?”

Pitch seemed reluctant, like he didn’t trust that Jack was telling the truth. And honestly? Fair. Jack had played a significant part in fucking him up the first time, so it was only reasonable that Pitch wouldn’t believe him now. Jack would just have to convince him. 

Eventually, Pitch sighed and quirked an eyebrow. “Better than sitting on my ass out here, I suppose.”

Jack slapped his knee loudly and grinned. “That’s the spirit!”

Pitch turned that eyebrow on Jack. “What? Having nothing left to lose?”

Jack nodded readily. “And everything to gain.”

Pitch pressed himself up to sit with his back straight, his expression fluttering into one of focus and resolve, like the curtain of self-pity and yearning had been pulled back in a rush. “Alright, then. If you’re really serious, let’s make a plan.”

Jack eagerly spun in his seat, crossing his legs and dropping his staff in his lap. This was already the most Jack had talked to anyone in years, and now Pitch was gearing up to talk to him for hours yet. It was all Jack wanted, really, that and a little payback. If they could strike the perfect balance, then Jack would do everything in his power to keep this conversation, these plans, this partnership going for as long as they would exist as spirits.

Jack pushed his hands into his knees and leaned forward to smile at Pitch. “Let’s make some chaos.”

[olderthannetfic]

Having more fandom friends around my age/mindset (context: late 30s, rare fandoms, reads some nsfw but not the type to post about it a lot in my main account) might be nice. I ignored the fandom part of myself a long time due to my RL friends being shitty about it (I dumped the worst of them) and I'm trying to enjoy it more.

But I keep leaving comments on fic and art and don't get any reply, let alone a conversation or follow. When I do get a response, the person stops posting fic in that fandom shortly afterwards. In an earlier more active fandom, I would send requests to people (clearly open for requests!) and 99% of the time I'd be ignored, or they'd draw the request at a level clearly before their usual stuff then delete it because they didn't like it (their words).

I'm not writing anything inappropriate or critical? I try to make my comments more interesting than 'i love this write more thx', maybe they get too confusing and off-putting to read? It certainly isn't because my ship is too weird because even non-shippers ship my current OTP lmao

I am trying to be realistic about it, maybe they aren't replying because they don't have the energy, or they have a life and they can't reply to the comment immediately and forget to, or they moved on, or they think I'm a tit which is totally fine?

The issue is it keeps happening, it's depressing, and the follows I do get are people in the same fandom who only like the parts I'm not invested in at all, have really tired takes and are significantly younger to the point I'm concerned about looking like a creep if I interact with them at 100% of my full power. It feels very much like I'm wishing on a monkey paw.

I have a very small number of friends I can talk to about fandom stuff I will cling onto with both hands. I just wish there were more. This is mainly me venting but if anyone has any suggestions feel free.

--

Hmm... Well, I share your suspicion that if you're the common factor, you're at least somewhat contributing to this situation. It may not be that you're offputting but that you inherently like things most other fans don't like—not just rare ships but also rarer tropes.

Or it may not be rarity exactly but prompt style: while tons of people love found family and slice of life, a lot of prompts for those are so generic and boring that they inspire exactly zero new plotbunnies. Meanwhile filthy kink is not for everyone but often has the seeds of a specific fic in a prompt, so if you do like it, those prompts are super inspiring.

A lot of people are pretty terrible at responding to comments. I'm extremely hit or miss on AO3 myself. I'll respond to a zillion things on tumblr before I remember to actually answer comments on AO3. Partly, it's that I get said comments in my email inbox, not on AO3 itself, so I read them and appreciate them but am not in the space where I'd respond right at that moment.

Sadly, people making one fanwork and moving on just comes with the territory when you're in rare fandoms. It's much easier to make friends who like to vid Asian dramas or who are learning a language for fandomy reasons or who are doing fandom historical preservation than friends who share your exact current taste in blorbos and who will continue to do so.

In my case, I love rare things, but I also love to move from fandom to fandom rapidly, and I find it really stressful to have friends who end up resenting that.

I tend to befriend fans whose overall vibe I find compatible more than people I share ships with: people who will probably be in fandom for life, people who are loud and proud about it, people who are interested in fandom history and pan-fandom meta. I also tend to be drawn to accounts that are not only horny on main but horny for kinky shit that draws haters. It does a wonderful job of weeding out the whiny children and finding me fans with a spine. Hilariously, one of my closest offline fandom friends with whom I share the most character opinions doesn't even like sex scenes. But that's not somebody I'd have gotten to know online.

It's going to vary for the people you're approaching, but that may be one reason they're not as enticed by the sight of another fan of their current rare fandom: they may have totally different types of criteria for fandom friends.

It's hard to know how much of the problem is you without examining your internet presence more, but I get why going "here's my account, plz critique" is not attractive. This ask seems fine. No particular writing style red flags jump out at me.

I've definitely known people who were dicks about my tumblr popularity and wanted to know why I didn't reblog them... but it turns out they interacted with me only once every six months so I don't remember them or their tumblr is entirely shitposts or their writing style is incoherent or they sound angry all the time.

One problem you may be running into is that findable fans in their 30s and 40s are self-selected for Fandom For Life types who already have a bunch of close fandom friends. They're likely doing a lot of socializing in private with people they've known for ages. I like to think of it as people with very full dance cards. They tend to be the most attractive because they're living happy, fulfilling lives, but that same quality makes them too busy. Meanwhile, people who are sad and alone and desperate for friends are often less visible and less compelling. If someone figured out how to connect with them, they'd be a great friend, but fewer people are trying.

It's not that every compatible late 30s fan is too busy for new friends. It's that the fans who are visible enough that you know they exist and know their approximate age are a very specific slice of overall fandom.

As fans age, some of their fandom friends leave fandom or die, so there can be periods where people are going "Shit, I need new friends!" later on, not just in college and such. But I'd say late 30s is a tough-ish period. A lot of people are busy with young kids and/or haven't lost their inner circles from younger years yet.

In general, a lot of my closer fandom friends aren't actually looking for new friends and haven't been in quite a while. Some don't even post publicly anymore. I'm something of an exception because I'm both extremely friendly and always on the lookout for minions to convince to go to Escapade con or take up the banner of fandom preservation yadda yadda. I have a vested interest in remaining open to new people.

Thoughts, everyone? Have you gone through friend-seeking and full dance card phases?

[teddyqd]

POV 👀

YAAAAY YIPPEEEE this got so long but have 1.2k of Sam yelling at a fandom teen <3

POV — something that’s already happened, retold from another character’s perspective

Mr Crowe’s eyes rove over the lake of fans with this unplaceable emotion in them. It’s almost like he’s not all here, seeing something other than a group of people desperate to hang off his every word. I raise my hand a little higher, waving my immaculately crafted, one-of-a-kind replica of the intricate Redshifter above my head in hopes that it’ll catch his attention. There’s a moment where it seems like he’s going to point to me, when instead he indicates yet another scruffy-haired guy in a graphic tee. It isn’t even official merch. But it’s fine. It’s alright. There’s still plenty of Q&A time left. I lower the flashing rifle back onto my lap and try to pay attention. They’re talking about something to do with his short story collection from a couple of years ago. It’s interesting, but hard to hear, what with the awful mic that keeps popping in and out, and the rushing of blood in my ears.

Mister Crowe. Thank you for your work. I have a question about what inspires you. Why do you write? I rehearse the question over and over, so much so that I nearly miss when the current speaker sits down and they call out for questions again. I stand up almost too fast, whacking my knee on the chair in front of me. The mum sitting there (clearly dragged here by her kid) glares at me venomously as I mouth an apology and grimace before looking back up towards Mr Crowe and the host. As I stare up, scared to blink, the question morphs in my mind. I can barely keep a hold on it for a second. Mister Crowe. Thanks for all you’ve done. I wanted to ask about your inspirations. Why do you write? Mister Crowe, your work saved my life, thank you. My question’s about why you write. What inspired you to start? Mister Crowe, sometimes it feels like your work was made to invite people in. It feels like you wrote it for me to make a home in. How? Why? Mister Crowe, do you feel as at home in the worlds you create as I do?

“You,” his weird accent draws the word into two syllables, “In the Redlight cosplay.” That could be anyone. I’ve seen, like, five Redlights today, “Nice Redshifter.” I’m the only one with the Redshifter, though. Given its complex design, most people opted for the sleeker (if canon inaccurate) Greenshifter. A shock runs down my spine as the mic is passed down the row. I’m sure I look like a deer in the headlights as it drops into my hands.

“Hi.” Oh, god, my voice is loud. What the fuck was my question? All I can think is that I’m talking to Carrion Crowe, and I’m making a fool of myself in front of Carrion Crowe, and Oh god is that what my voice sounds like?

“Hi.” He’s looking right at me. Well, no, he’s looking at the top of my head, but I think that’s about as close as he gets to looking someone in the eyes, “What’s your name?”

“S- Skye!” I blurt, trying to will my cheeks not to burst into flames, “I’m Skye. I- I, uh, named myself after your character. My, my question is… I wanted to ask, because… It just feels like… Sorry. I’ll start again.” His eyes flick to the clock on the wall of the shop, then back to me, then away to another cosplayer. I take a deep breath and force my anxiety down. Just for 20 seconds, then I can shake it all out. I can do that much, “The thing is, your stories feel really real. Even though, of course, they’re not. It’s just that they’re like another actual world. Somewhere where me and, I think, a lot of people have found a home. And I was just wondering… Why do you write like that? Or, maybe it’s better to ask how?“

That gets his attention. He stops fidgeting, stills entirely actually, and looks at me with an expression I can’t read. There’s a long silence, and I’m sure I’ve somehow put my foot in my mouth and I’ll have to excommunicate myself from the fandom before I’m cancelled for bringing a downer on the first Q&A that Mister Crowe’s done since he was a debut author. I’m already mentally drafting my grovelling apology post when he finally speaks.

“It’s funny you say it’s not real. It is. To me, at least.” His voice wavers in a way it hasn’t for the other questions he’s answered. Gone is the flat affect machine-gun essayist speaking about Ga’al reproduction, and in its place is a flighty, airy voice and focused eyes, “You and I live in, ah, different realities. Our experiences, the ways in which our realities are shaped, are different. And so are our perceptions. Even if you came into my head, saw through my eyes, we’d still be seeing different things. Take colours, for example. It is impossible for us to know, beyond reasonable doubt, that what you and I call ‘red’ is broadly the same.” He’s speeding up, now. He stabs a finger at the poster behind him, at that iconic tricolour streak that blasts from the engines of the Galaxyhopper, “Most of the time, that doesn’t really matter. Your red is my blue, but we both know what to call each colour to communicate what we mean, so to speak. But… Sometimes it slips. I’ll describe red as, god, I don’t know, the colour of joy. And you’ll say, what, no, that’s the colour of sadness! And that’s the gap we can’t cross. I can’t describe to you in any real way what my red looks like, not in a way that you’ll be able to map onto your red and see the differences.”

Someone next to me coughs, and I can hear murmuring from further back rows. The mum in front of me has looked up from her phone to stare at Mr Crowe. The mic is cold in my hands as he continues to ramble.

“It’s not a perfect metaphor, I’ll admit to that much. What I’m- What I’m trying to say is that these books are my world, my reality, my attempt to translate the untranslatable. To transmit it from my mind to everyone else’s, and you need to understand that I will never do it right, okay? It will never be what I see, and you all,” and he’s looking directly at me now, his eyes wide and wild and angry, “Will never truly understand. Does- Does that answer it? What was the fucking question again?”

All of a sudden, all of that energy leaves him, and he looks like a deflated balloon. It’s only when the person next to me gently nudges me that I realise I’m still holding the mic to my mouth. I manage to eke out a thank you before shoving the mic into someone else’s hands and picking my way out of the audience, towards the exit. My heart hammers in my chest, and my head is filled with fog. The words replay in my mind, the way he was so possessive in calling it his world, the venom in his words as he told me I’d never understand it, not really. Fuck. Never meet your fucking heroes.

[kopfkino-o]

so i finally finished hofas. and don’t come for me, but this is officially my least favorite SJM book. spoilers and my thoughts below

this book was just so messy. it felt rushed, felt stuffed full of all these plot threads, and so many side characters were just shoved to the wayside. Like what was even the point of Sigrid? All home girl did was die so Ithan could become Prime. The story could have basically been the exact same without her character. Flynn and Declan largely felt interchangeable. Celestina, Naomi, and Isaiah could have also been left out and the story wouldn't have changed. Hypaxia was there, but we saw hardly any development on her arc or learned anything about her. And don't even get me started on Fury and Juniper (aka the glorified Uber drivers). There were too many characters and not enough time/focus on their development which left them feeling flat / useless.

As for Bryce…yikes. She came across as a discount Aelin with a cellphone and no regard for others trauma. I really don’t like the characterization of her in this book, which is a shame because I LOVED her in CC1. She came across as childish, petty, selfish, and brash. I found some of her "sassy one-liners" to be very cringey.

Lidia Cervos and Nesta Archeron deserve a fucking metal for carrying the entire book on their backs because miss Bryce certainly didn’t.

Now the world building…as a high fantasy girlie, the world building in this book was a treat. I loved all the lore, the history, the explanations we got, and the setup for the next ACOTAR book is truly impeccable (more to come on this later…). Howeverrr the plot of this book just fell a little flat for me. It felt messy, disjointed between all the POV switches, and I feel a lot of plot threads just went...nowhere (ie: the thunder birds, Viktoria the wraith, Ariadne and her dragon fire, the Viper Queen, etc).

I know SJM loves happy ever afters, but damn, she needs to stop with the fake-out deaths.

It really really cheapens the stakes and makes the entire story feel…underwhelming. Undeserved? Like am I truly supposed to be afraid of Asteri, the supposed Big Baddie™️ of the entire universe, if none of the main cast dies or truly suffers at their hands? Idk. Beating them felt…too easy. Too convenient for all the characters.

Also, I really disliked how there were no consequences for our characters.

Ruhn, Baxian, and Hunt are brutally tortured, yet they're back in the gym, thinking nothing of it, a few chapters later. We saw Nesta clearly struggle with the Mask yet both Bryce and Hunt used it as if it was a pair of cheap sunglasses. Tharion experienced no consequences from defecting the Viper Queen and don't even get me started about the River Queen. In exposition, he reflects on how she will 100% kill him, yet she's cool with him after he gives a few half-assed lines about "the right thing". Like mmmm okay babes I thought she wanted you dead dead, no questions asked. Everything was just too easy. Powerful objects were there when they were needed, former enemies turned allies without much of a fight, and the Asteri themselves were defeated rather easily in the end.

Overall? It was a 3.5 star read for me.

[vacantgodling]

alright time to once again kick a hornet’s nest, this time trope edition:

tl;dr this take is wrong lmao (imo)

let’s do my usual shtick and add a definition:

basically i just dislike the assertion that “enemies” always has to be someone you are actively stabbing. that it has to be a constant action packed physical altercation. i also dislike the assertion that enemies to lovers can’t be one sided on one character’s end because that’s like …. literally the entire plot of p&p — a lot of the emotions lizzie was experiencing and the hatred she had towards darcy for 1. meddling in her sister’s relationship 2. betraying wickham and 3. being condescending towards her 4. she just deadass states outright that she hates the man so…. that qualifies in my mind as enemies to lovers—on the side of lizzie. darcy not seeing it that way doesn’t make it Not enemies to lovers. but let me explain further:

(to me) enemies to lovers is when one or more characters in a proposed relationship follow more closely the actual definition of what an enemy is: people who are opposed or hostile to one another. the confines of their situation and universe will actually dictate how they are able to showcase their emotions or act out on their hatred but even the act of feeling it and feeling like enemies is fair game in calling something enemies to lovers.

in the case of lizzie and darcy: lizzie cannot be rude to darcy outright because he is of a higher social class than her and it would be unbecoming and bring shame to her family if she were to act out. so she opts for more subtle ways to show her displeasure, ie (and btw these are mostly taken from the 2005 movie cuz it was my special interest for years and i have the most on hand brain knowledge of it): the dig at the first ball where she overheard him saying poetry was shit and her interfering just to say she disagrees to undercut his prideful stance. the way that, when she was staying at merryton, she stopped reading when darcy acknowledged it as a good thing, she actively went out of her way to politely, but still pointedly disagree with near everything he said, etc. TO LIZZIE he is her enemy and adversary and the cause of the unhappiness in her life and she wants nothing to do with him. clearly, that’s not how darcy feels, but if we focus on lizzie, her storyline is an enemies to lovers. darcy was her enemy and she grew to love him.

he wasn’t “just” an annoyance to her like he legitimately fucked up parts of her life that were important to her—like jane’s feelings, or the injustice to wickham and the cruel view he had of her family.

also as an aside, you clearly don’t understand p&p if you think darcy for any moment disliked lizzie. like he literally didn’t and that is Also apart of his storyline but i digress.

circling back around the the physical altercation thing: not every character is going to want to put their hands on someone (for a variety of reasons, whatever those may be; be it character morals/values, the plot or story restraints — such as p&p it’s unbecoming for lizzie to put her hands on darcy even though i’m sure she wanted to strangle him after she found out about how he separated bingley and jane) and, more importantly even: not every character who puts their hands on each other are enemies.

let’s use a very generic example: (to me) two characters who are on opposite sides of a war aren’t always enemies. their factions may be enemies, and they may have to fight each other for their loyalty to said factions, but they themselves might not actually hate each other specifically. and i think what hinges on making a Good enemies to lovers dynamic is the actual personal dislike, distaste, and hatred the characters have for EACH OTHER.

final point i will make is tbh where do you draw the line in the sand from just disliking someone to actual enemies? if your only metric for deciding someone is an enemy of someone else is their propensity for physical violence then you’re missing out on a whole plethora of delicious ways that characters can hate each other and display it despite the confines of their situation. if all your thought process is is just yeah they aren’t killing each other so clearly they aren’t enemies then like idk! you’re just missing out! having reasons why these characters can’t fight each other or even Won’t fight each other is what makes an enemies to lovers dynamic so interesting, fascinating, and fun to play with. is it fun when characters beat the shit out of each other? absolutely. but is it also fun to see two people who clearly don’t like Anything about each other be forced to play civil? absolutely!!

tl;dr: tropes are tools not bibles let people have fun and if you don’t see more of what you want in the world then maybe make it yourself

[zalrb]

Hey so I marked out the username/icon of the commenters bc I didn’t want to seem like I was attacking them or calling them out specifically but I wanted to know your opinion on this take.

I don’t know how much I agree with it. I don’t think Tara was stupid I just think she got caught up with Jax just as he gets caught up with her. And I don’t think he ever stopped loving her or it ever became obligation but I think in season 6 (at the beginning at least) it was a little more rooted in habit than anything else. And that she didn’t “think she was better than everyone else”… she was and I think that was the whole point of her character was that even a doctor with higher moral grounds can lose her way in this lifestyle.

What do you think?

Well I say it in my first real analysis of SOA:

If you don't believe their love then pretty much everything regarding her decisions and a lot of Jax's decisions aren't going to make sense to you.

Because the issue I have with this take is why would kurt sutter build so much of his show around a relationship where from season 3 on Jax is only around out of obligation? That doesn't make sense. Jax's struggle is his love for Tara pit against his love for the club. That's literally the entire point. So this just seems like people creating reasons for things happening because they don't like the actual reasons why things happened. Saying Jax only stayed around because he found out Tara was pregnant and he felt bad she was kidnapped ... when Opie cheats on Lila with Ima and asks Jax how he got a pass he says Tara getting pregnant and kidnapped wiped the slate clean which actually means that Tara was the one who forgave his bullshit not the other way around.

Also saying that he pushed her away because he blamed her for Abel is wilful misinterpretation of what's happening. Jax was in a volatile mindset and things were just going to get more and more violent and he didn't want her there for that...he SAYS that to Opie. He's like if you could've saved Donna by acting like a dick wouldn't you? There is nothing to suggest in canon that Jax blamed Tara for what happened to Abel and if he did blame her then I think that would be apparent. He would just tell her. She brings it up at least twice. At the very least he could agree. What better way to push her away than to be like because of you my kid is missing. Gemma said it. Why wouldn't he? Because that wasn't the point.

In terms of the letters...the whole point was that Jax promised that he was going to get out of the Life and Tara feared that if she gave him the letters it would just throw him in deeper and she didn't want that to happen. I think that's pretty self-explanatory.

And again the reason why she stayed is because she loved Jax and believed he could save SAMCRO and then leave with her and their boys. You just have to believe it

In terms of Tara thinking that she's better than everyone else there are times when she shows a sense of superiority which is why Lila calls her a stuck up bitch but she never claims the moral high ground and she never claimed to know "so much" she just claimed that she was smarter than Gemma. Also when I read the interpretation that she didn't care to get out until she had her own kid I was like lmao Gemma is that you? That interpretation also doesn't make sense to me because she was pregnant with Thomas when she was kidnapped so if she only cared about her biological child or cared about her biological child more than Abel then she would've left then. Gemma nearly kills Thomas (and Abel) when she gets in a car wreck she could've left then if it was just about Thomas. The point was that Jax was clearly not getting out of the club and not turning the club around and when her career was jeopardized and she found herself in prison she realized that if she kept up with this life then her kids would be raised by Gemma and she didn't want that.

[cherrymoonvol6]

so... about lunter.

...i'll understand if you stop reading now, but i still have some meta to squeeze from this so tag along for that at least.

well. if you know me at all you'll know i have a thing for problematique pairings. i crave complex romantic dynamics that have a lot of narrative potential and explore every aspect of its characters and their development throughout (and after) the story. usually, that means being into stories that involve trauma and grief. think asgore and toriel in undertale.

this is not my first time keeping up with the owl house: to satisfy my curiosity, i would check the tumblr tag every time it trended [tumblr trending tab is my newspaper], but it never caught my attention beyond that. well, that's until i came to know about lunter. see, there's something about fandom hated pairings that just speaks to me - what is it that people are so outraged about? is it because the dynamic it's too complicated? well then give me it, i will chomp it down! anyways.

so, what's the verdict? before i go into that, let me talk about Luz and Hunter™.

BUT…. BUT, SIBLINGS!: i was well aware of this claim while watching the show and i was worried that i wouldn't be able to dispute it. look, i wouldn't jump ship either way (ha, get it?). i've survived dear ships of mine becoming incestuous through weird loops (vlr/ztd i am looking at you). it's fine. not the end of the world. but, to be honest, i don't necessarily think the sibling aspect is the point of hunter and luz's dynamic.

i think their dynamic is definitely playful, and i can see how people can say it's sibling-coded. tbh, i'm just tired of every platonic relationship between guy and girl being labeled as sibling-like: it's a trend that started as a response of the opposite case when people assume guy and girl getting along equals romance (along with the “dumb of ass & lesbian”), but lately it's plasted over EVERYTHING and i just miss when people would be like "you know guys and girls can be just friends, right?" my point is that both luz and hunter have other clearly defined sibling-like relationships: luz and king, and hunter with gus. although the later isn’t as clear-cut as the former (luz and king refer to each other as siblings a handful of times), i believe that’s what the point of the episode is when hunter consoles gus in his “room”. the mere domesticity of it, and the fact that hunter is the first in the show to breach gus’ space like that and encourage him is, IMO, enough imagery to justify that claim. if anything it’s way more explicit than what is done with luz and hunter. i am open, however, to revise the claims that might indicate that siblifying luz and hunter could be the show’s point. in my eyes, the evidence is:

the fact that hunter has a deeper connection with luz out of everyone in the group.

how hunter is neither witch nor demon nor human and he's up for "adoption".

i won’t count the family line because, found family, duh - it’s the whole point of camila taking care of the kids in TTT, and the only person who has a genuine parental link to camila besides luz is vee. previous to FTF’s release i was genuinely considering an ending where hunter would migrate to the human realm, in which case him staying with luz and camila could lead to the canonification of the sibling claims. however, a main point in that argument was about hunter not having magic - with the newfound knowledge that hunter does have powers due to flapjack’s sacrifice, i believe the chances for hunter ending in the human realm are significantly less, especially when we consider that it’s very likely that luz will stay in the boiling isles.

dynamic wise, i would take the playfulness claim a lot more seriously if that ever developed past their first (real) meeting in hunting palismen. i think playfulness is just something that is baked into luz - we see it when she sticks out her tongue at amity after she sees her belittle willow, for example. however, these instances are just meant to be humorous, as i believe that what their dynamic truly is (pre-hollow mind) is more of a commentary on hunter’s self-seriousness contrasted with luz’s carefree “i’m here to make friends” attitude. hunter expects her to be afraid of him and to treat him with respect, and the times that she doesn’t he either gets mad or retaliates back. to me, it proves a point about how young hunter actually is, something that is remarked a handful of times during hunting palismen - luz won’t treat him like that because she can see hunter is a kid, just like her. even the most sibling-like they get (smacking each other after the fake-kiss) is just meant to subvert expectations via using the trope of the waking up kiss and then turning it around where they act like siblings instead [it’s also a way to establish hunter as far as it can from being a love interest for luz]. again, those instances are not part of hunter and luz’s dynamic as it stands now. like, if someone could point out the supposed “playfulness” in their interactions in TTT… nah, you can’t. their friendship has evolved past that. and you know, you can interpret that however you want. but your reading of their dynamic as “sibling-like” is just that: a reading. therefore not supported by canon atm and i’ll take full advantage of that.

speaking of siblings… it’s time to talk about the wittebane brothers.

BUT THE PARALLELS!: i do think in the show there's a real attempt to parallel phillip and caleb to luz and hunter, but i wouldn't say it's with the intentions of siblifying them. in actuality the point of it is that it's "debunked" at the end of TTT, when hunter states that belos fools people - and breaks the cycle of the "you and i are very alike" villain speech that luz has internalized due to her guilt.

[side note: i love that such a strong realization for hunter is also so narratively sound for luz’s own guilt. a testament of how great both characters are.]

therefore, the parallels are subverted by the show itself. another part of it is the foreshadowing: the show wants to make it clear that belos continues to be a threat and that he'll appear by the third act of the episode, and that we'll get to see some background of the wittebros too. besides that, the parallels do NOTHING to establish luz and hunter as siblings. after all, the whole point is that phillip betrayed caleb and he chose to shatter their bond, which is absolutely not what happens with luz and hunter. the subversion is a huge part of that, and then there’s also other aspects like belos never making that connection when he reveals himself to the main group. he goes out of his way to identify flapjack as evelyn and hunter as caleb, yet he never projects onto luz, instead only indulging in her guilt. moreover, it’s an aspect that only lasts during this one episode - kinda how most of the playfulness dies in hunting palismen. even if it gets referenced in the last episode, the fact that the connection will only be made in two episodes makes it so it’s not strong enough.

and honestly, i don’t have a lot of reasons to believe luz and hunter will become “siblings” by the end of the show in the likes of king and luz’s dynamic. for starters, they barely interact in FTF, hammering the point that luz and hunter’s connection grew based on the secrets they were keeping from the others - and so they could only rely on each other. now that everyone knows that hunter is a grimwalker and that luz helped belos, there’s no real reason for them to be paired up, much less during the neck-braking pace that these last episodes have been forced to take. moreover, i believe at this point hunter and luz are headed for very different paths, and it wouldn’t make that much sense for hunter to either become eda’s protegee (he wants to study magic at hexside and eda is anything but a traditional “teacher”) or be adopted by the nocedas back in the human realm (so many hints that luz will decide to stay in the demon realm, and we’ll see what camila will choose then).

HOW THE FUCK DO PEOPLE THINK LUZ IS NOT EVELYN: at this point, with only one 45 minute episode left for the entirety of the show, it’s impossible that the writers could imply that luz and hunter have a romantic connection. i’ll take the L on that, don’t worry. but holy FUCK if it isn’t clear as day that luz and hunter mirror the story of caleb and evelyn.

i hate to not start chronologically but let’s look at hollow mind first: there are pointed parallels to the silhouettes of caleb and evelyn and luz and hunter running away from belos.

this becomes even more pointed when you realize that this is the first time that hunter unambiguously rejects belos, by taking luz’s hand.

i actually love that look belos gives hunter because my god. he’s once again seeing how caleb rejects him. he has to watch yet again as he runs away with a witch.

allow me some indulgence as i repeat this: the show is explicitly paralleling evelyn to luz. she’s the evelyn in that situation. the imagery is there and it’s clear as water.

but okay. by those standards, luz and hunter being paralleled to imagery of the wittebane bros would support the point that they’re uhhh sibling-endgame. you got me there. counterpoint: who is evelyn supposed to be in the story?

evelyn, as the story masha told says, is the witch that dazzled caleb with her magic and drew him away from philip and their witch hunting agenda. now, it’s important to note that this story is obviously told from belos’ perspective: we also see how masha is skeptical to the recounting, judging philip as a jealous brat. we’re meant to criticize the story because we know it comes from philip’s perspective. therefore, while the story portrays evelyn as a bad influence that took caleb down the wrong path with her temptations, it’s most likely that caleb had already changed his mind about witches and wild magic, and him falling for a witch is just further proof that, at that point, he didn’t see them as threats anymore. this would make sense taking into account how hunter behaves in the show: he’s eager to help belos and to do that he’s accumulated a lot of knowledge about everything concerning wild magic, but also it’s extremely clear that hunter is deeply interested by it. even when he’s convinced that wild magic decimated his family, he’s still fascinated by it. it is for that reason that is really important that the first time luz and hunter bond is through their knowledge and passion for magic.

this is because, in my eyes, that’s exactly how caleb and evelyn would have bonded all those years ago. evelyn doesn’t show him something new that caleb is entranced with: she’s part of a system that he’s already warmed to, that he probably studies in his own time. evelyn just happened to be the last straw that made caleb fully commit to abandoning witch-hunting.

and as we just revised in hollow mind, that’s exactly what happens between luz and hunter. she reaches out, and he accepts her.

luz is hunter’s first real connection to wild magic: it’s clear by the way he simply doesn’t contain his fascination and catches himself after the fact. up to that point, no one has filled that spot for him. not even flapjack!

it’s funny to me because of hunter’s little monologue at luz about her not planning ahead. at this point, he’s just projecting onto her: hunter clearly doesn’t know what to do about this revelation that he likes talking about magic with luz. he folds so easily the moment that she expresses her disappointment. and i love how flapjack is completely divorced from this moment: he clearly has no problems with belos feasting on palismen, even understanding how crucial it is for the emperor’s survival, and since flapjack is yet to choose him he doesn’t even have that connection to a palisman to understand the real horror of putting them in danger. no, he lets luz go because she’s the first person that he’s talked to about magic without mincing his words or expecting punishment. the fact that luz doesn’t consider him a friend is reason enough. and not only does he let her go: he reveals his real name to her. i wish this moment would’ve been given more weight by hunter like, not telling his name to every person who crosses his path from that episode onwards, but oh well. still it’s a real moment of connection and vulnerability that is absent from any other relationship hunter has in the show (especially fucking willow sdjfhdjsk like you could argue for gus, darius and even AMITY but NOT willow), especially during the time hunter was 100% still on belos’ side.

again let me bring up the imagery: hunter lets a wild witch go, during a mission where whatever she’s taking is key for the emperor’s survival. he makes that decision, and then he goes and makes that decision again when he takes luz’s hand in hollow mind. think about this moment compared to hunter’s behavior in eclipse lake: the moment he sets eye on the titan’s blood, he doesn’t rest until he takes it for himself, relentlessly fighting amity to do so. in hunting palismen, he deliberately avoids fighting luz - and even protects her from kikimora -, even when she’s proven that she’s capable enough to kick his ass in combat. not out of pity, just genuinely out of a desire to honor the connection that they now have.

flapjack is also pretty important in this whole equation. masha makes a point in using the imagery of flapjack (not any other bird: flapjack) to show the things evelyn used to “charm” caleb away.

if they’re drawing from philip’s notes to create the imagery for the story, then it’s almost guaranteed that flapjack used to be caleb’s palisman, and it checks out as flapjack suggests the name “caleb” when hunter is undercover in the flyer derby episode. if flapjack was able to find hunter now, then it’s really possible that he’s detected most of the other grimwalkers and even been a crucial piece to allow them to break free out of belos’ control. again, belos saying “goodbye, evelyn” when he mortally wounds flapjack also contributes to this.

it’s not my intention to draw significance away from flapjack’s connection with hunter. it’s clear to me that the writers want to highlight this dynamic and flapjack transferring his powers to hunter when he brings him back to life is their way to homage their link. however, flapjack seems to immediately take a liking to luz even before hunter arrives to take the palismen away. i hate not being able to draw a clear conclusion (aka, flapjack knew that hunter would be arriving soon, for some reason) because palismen behavior is uhhh kinda erratic? and i’ve felt this way since the palismen episode in S1. but still, as the palismen cower in fear when they’re kidnapped, flapjack confidently heads out along with luz to confront hunter. if anything, he might be the exception to the rule, having identified the fact that hunter was indeed coming in close contact during that night.

what i want to highlight in the hunting palismen episode is that flapjack sticks to luz first and foremost. again, coming back to the imagery used in TTT, it’s implied that evelyn either carved caleb’s palisman or gave him the tools to do so. likewise, it’s important that flapjack uses luz as a vehicle to get closer to hunter, and as it happens in the show, luz meeting hunter is what leads to flapjack becoming hunter’s palisman. and if we take into account what i discussed earlier about hollow mind, to me it’s abundantly clear that luz is hunter’s evelyn in that moment. and this is supported by the fact that flapjack allows luz to use him to get closer to hunter once he gets possessed by belos during TTT, after we see the story of the wittebanes.

furthermore, all these little hints take on a deeper meaning when you realize that none of these parallels are given to willow, ever. not even by showing that evelyn specialized in plant magic or something like that. even in TTT hunter’s crush on willow is inconsequential to the larger plot, as the show frames hunter with luz during the wittebros story.

OKAY. LUZ IS EVELYN. WHAT NOW?: well. not much else, unfortunately. even if caleb and evelyn are explicitly stated as having a romantic relationship, luz being paralleled to evelyn doesn’t have to mean that she gets to be hunter’s romantic partner. there’s intentionality in luz meeting hunter after she gets a crush on amity, which leads me to believe that hunter was absolutely never meant to be seen as a possible LI for luz (the “sibling-like” interactions also contribute to that) as canon stands right now. like i said, i’ll take the L on that.

however i still feel that this should’ve been pointed out in the show, since the imagery is purposeful in linking luz and evelyn together. like i said on my review of the show, i feel like an easy fix to the boring dynamic between hunter and willow should’ve been to make hunter crush on luz instead. IMO, that’s the easiest way of following through the parallels without putting luz into a dumb love triangle: let her have her endgame with amity as hunter grows out of his crush and considers luz as a loving platonic companion. that way, it avoids the problem of making hunter betray belos just because he’s crushing on a witch. but, y’know, there are options beyond what we can already do with canon.

so, what’s the verdict?

i’ll be completely honest with you and say i fell completely in love with luz and hunter’s dynamic and was actively seeking their [romantic] endgame. as i said in the beginning, i love me a great, narratively compelling pairing, and luz and hunter fill the quota to perfection. whereas eda and raine do nothing with their complicated backstory (read my review for more thoughts on them), luz and hunter connection is implemented really well in canon and there’s a very compelling back-and-forth as they figure themselves out. unlike amity, hunter is crucial in the plot (amity only gets her parents’ business, which is not even that impactful either). and unlike willow, luz has a very defined dynamic with hunter that has evolved as the plot progresses.

just… part of me wonders if luz and hunter not being together is yet again part of the trope deconstruction. you expect luz and hunter to get together? sike! they get other LIs that aren’t half as interesting as what they could be together. and what annoys me is that the show could’ve done the same with belos: imagine if the show found a quick replacement for belos as the new big bad that’s not even half as interesting as the emperor, just for the sake of subverting expectations. and before you tell me “ummm, the collector?”, by now it’s clear that belos continues to be the big bad, since he’s now back in action manipulating the collector once again.

i just really, genuinely wish the show was able to go through a main ship comparable to luz and hunter’s potential together. like, if the representation is so important in the story, then make hunter a girl! like, i don’t know. there’s just unlimited potential in lunter. they’re foils to each other (both believed they were put in roles by a greater force and great things were waiting for them, only to realize that was a lie/a fantasy); they’re both deeply integral to the plot; they’re characters that challenge each other and become better people because of that; their dynamic grows and transforms due to their connection to the larger story; they’re paralleled to the couple that kickstarted this whole conflict to begin with; extremely long etcetera.

as canon stands right now, i’m very unsatisfied with luz and hunter’s romantic endgames. that won’t stop me from appreciating and loving the potential of a lunter endgame. however, potential is the key word here. in a world where they were meant to end up together, this show would’ve been a lot better as a narrative. it’s a shame that it isn’t, and i will mourn that forever.

[also. luz and hunter have the delicious size difference that lumity is lacking :)]

[skaruresonic]

Here's a fun fact for you: the writer of this show, Warren Ellis, wiki broused to write it because he has never played the games and was never interested to do so, describing them as "games where you just make a bunch of pixels jump around"

This isn't even a secret, he repeatedly admitted it during interviews, also stating that the other team members were fans of the games and so would help him out which...yeah they seemed to be perfectly happy with his choices

This actually brought to a bunch of hilarious moments in hindsight:

for example there's an OC in the second season that he wanted to name Mathias because he had found the name on the wiki and liked it, but Konami presumably stepped in to tell him that he couldn't use it because that's Dracula's original human name in the games. This info is on his wiki page btw!

Imagine writing a Sonic adaptation and somehow missing that Robotnik is also Eggman's name when it's one of the first things his wiki page says

Also for your information Nocturne, the sequel show that's coming out at the end of this month, is going to have a native american vampire as one of its villains (he's technically a game character who wasn't native in the games and looked nothing like the guy in the trailers but creating OCs and giving them the names and backstories of canon characters is standard fare with the show)....and let's just say that, given the show's track record with the representation of racial minorities (especially two asian totally not twins in season 3) I'm not holding my breath for that one

the writer of this show, Warren Ellis, wiki broused to write it because he has never played the games and was never interested to do so, describing them as "games where you just make a bunch of pixels jump around"

God, fauxteurs piss me off. Go work in some other medium if you hate video games so much, yeah? When will we get creators who aren't crotchety boomers who thumb their noses at the medium? It's nearing 50 years old at this point, why are we still being subjected to Roger Ebert levels of "games aren't Real Art" cold takes? The other thing is that often what ends up happening is even though they're adapting well-known game franchises (which would imply they're well-known for a reason, but logic is seldom fauxteurs' strong suit), their Superior Vision(tm) rarely manages to match the source material's quality, let alone surpass it. Hence why all of their bluster gets really fucking annoying really fast. Their hubris is unearned, and yet they still have the nerve to thumb their nose at the source material, the reason they have work to begin with. Sit down, dude, you just made things worse with all of your fart-sniffing. And they never stop to consider that according to their own logic, it's almost like video games are still so poorly regarded by the mainstream that they know they wouldn't be able to get work in any other medium precisely because their work isn't up to snuff. It's like how David Cage keeps pumping out glorified QTEs as games because if he pitched his scripts as movies, he'd get laughed out of the room.

---

This isn't even a secret, he repeatedly admitted it during interviews, also stating that the other team members were fans of the games and so would help him out which...yeah they seemed to be perfectly happy with his choices Actually, I have certain fears that this will happen with Bloober Team and the SH2 remake, despite select members of 2's dev team working with them. I can so clearly picture Reddit in a few years going, "Team Silent approved of it, why are you complaining?"

Woodchipp and I have read excerpts from interviews that heavily imply Bloober Team is attempting to capture 2's vibes and relying on their, quote, "perfect memories" without actually playing it.

Creators will sometimes approve whatever just to make money or because they don't care. For example, Kikiyama, the creator of Yume Nikki, is an intensely private person, so private that some people believed they were dead for years. Kawakura Studios approached them with the idea for Dream Diary, a game that changes the fundamentals of the original's design and symbolism, and Kikiyama approved of it. So approval from creators doesn't inherently guarantee a quality product, or ensure that the new team knows what they're doing. Also, we all know how Sega approved Pontaff's scripts :)

---

for example there's an OC in the second season that he wanted to name Mathias because he had found the name on the wiki and liked it, but Konami presumably stepped in to tell him that he couldn't use it because that's Dracula's original human name in the games. This info is on his wiki page btw! ...That was literally the very first thing I learned when watching a Castlevania lore video. Am I now officially more knowledgeable than Ellis? ...that's sad lol. tfw you're such a peak writer that you can't even read the wiki. At least Pontaff READ Sonic and Eggman's Wikipedia pages. Jesus Christ the bar is in hell and fauxteurs keep finding ways to dig under it lol ---

Also for your information Nocturne, the sequel show that's coming out at the end of this month, is going to have a native american vampire as one of its villains (he's technically a game character who wasn't native in the games and looked nothing like the guy in the trailers but creating OCs and giving them the names and backstories of canon characters is standard fare with the show)

[thetimelordbatgirl]

...This post really is the definition off, “Writing your version of events and expecting everyone to believe them.”...which given how dedicated parts of Lily’s fanbase can be, will happen, but just...let’s see:

The whole thing with Rebecca Sugar is not only because of how Lily acted when being critical of the show, but also cause of how even in 2023, Lily still has an ongoing hatred for Rebecca simply cause Lily didn’t like Rebecca’s show and instead of moving on, similar to how she treats Dana Terrace (creator of The Owl House), Lily still drags Rebecca whenever she can, including insulting Rebecca’s talents in music and writing and art and it’s at that point that you start to wonder if its less ‘Rebecca made a show Lily didn’t like’ and more ‘does Lily just have a obsessive hatred for Rebecca?’ And the thing with Big Bang Theory and Harley Quinn was literally people seeing how convenient Lily will call out stuff in Steven Universe but if its shows Lily happens to like? Oh look at that, suddenly its being ignored, as Lily won’t ever dare call out stuff she likes. 

And Lily acting like she has to talk about anime is just...no one’s making her. She’s choosing to talk about it. To the point of starting a whole dubs vs subs discourse where its clear Lily prefers dubs and thinks its okay to censor Japanese culture and even acted like there wasn’t much difference between Japan and America, even implying in her version of history that Japan got destroyed by America and basically colonized their culture and from how Lily spoke, she seemed happy about that idea and seemed to imply you can easily replace Japanese with English and....oh, would you look at that- suddenly it becomes less about ‘oh you just hate I said your favorite anime is bad’ and more people literally have found her being racist towards Japanese people and she wants to try and make it about anime.  Something that adds to her racism when she can only ever discuss Anime when it comes to Japan and yet, thinks its more popular in America then its own home country. 

And oh god, the racism against black people accusations is far more then what Lily’s trying to paint them as: *She only ever writes black women ocs as nothing but violent and easy to anger, including Aliana whose easy to get pissed and will murder on a whim and throw someone across a room and also proceed to colonize planets and force them to follow Sith culture, while her Harry Potter OC basically used a torture spell on Vernon and it was made to seem cool when anyone whose read Harry Potter, knows who are shown using those spells in the books (hint: not the good guys).  *She also wrote Aliana’s mom as being a slave trafficker and Aliana as a result, being fine with that and even getting mad if someone insults her mom for that.  *When it comes to The Owl House, she has basically fetished the idea of Hunter being black (saying it’d make him interesting) and for some reason, wanted the backgrounder character, Skara, to be more focused on instead of characters like Hunter and Amity, and there’s also how she treats Luz as soon as Luz stopped being the character Lily expected her to be.  And there is likely stuff I’m missing from this, but its less ‘oh i mixed words up’ and actually just again, Lily burying stuff. 

And there’s a-lot of shit to unpack with her clearly proceed to slander someone throughout the rest of the post to try and make them the villain of her narrative, but the whole ‘Lily sends herself asks’ and ‘Lily lied about having cancer’ is literally because: *When one of the NSFW Art website accounts was exposed to be Lily’s, Lily suddenly and conveniently got an ask warning her that ‘someone is pretending to be her on the website’...when not much on that situation had even come out at the time, so basically Lily played herself there, and then there’s asks that Lily gets that basically looks to be Lily’s writing style that also allows Lily to rant or slander or deny anything/anyone she wants to at the time.  *The cancer thing is still on-going but Lily has slipped up constantly in her cancer lying and keeps adding to the lying, all because now her sister has called her (and the twos brother) out for pretty serious allegations including molestation. *And it should be noted that Lily also proceeded to slander her sister in response, trying to paint her sister as this mastermind villain. 

And her calling someone terfy is also ironic, given Lily has gotten into hot water for lore in her Star Wars OC fic where...her OC basically said that only women can become siths, and if they happen to come out as trans male or non-binary while a sith, its okay because...they still considered sith women to their fellow sith.

Yeah uh, suddenly not so much of a hate wagon/wanting to tear Lily down as Lily claims it is, huh? 

[glowyjellyfish]

Once the demo loaded for me, I only had about an hour and a half to play before I had to quit and go to bed, and I spent most of that time on the piano minigame.

Some thoughts:

Cloud is such a baby omg. Part of it is the obvious Zack dialogue blatantly coming from his mouth, of course. Loved the obvious swap where Secret-Cloud-Grunt (Ramirez, if you will) was clearly assigned the lines Zack said to Cloud. Cloud’s brain what are you doing.

Sephiroth will take some time to master, especially as I barely remember the controls. He looks like an idiot when I am controlling him, lol. Perfect acting on him and everyone really so far, A+.

I am going to miss so many climbable surfaces

the mountains are so spiky

NIBELHEIM PORK SANDWICH. Well there’s my themed meal! (May not actually do, but come on they threw that out for me a couple weeks in advance??)

I am gonna master every song on that piano dammit. I got very close to star rank tonight, only 2 Goods and the rest Great!

Pretty sure that on my first play through, I am going to do as much as possible and whatever feels right with regards to the affection system. I can’t not rifle through Tifa’s room, for one thing, and I’m never gonna say no to a side quest. Aerith or Tifa would be preferred for the date on my first playthrough, but if I wind up hanging with Cait Sith because I wanted to glean all available information on how he functions and whether Reeve is talking directly to me, so be it.

It’s possible I got some things right in my wild guessing since Remake—more likely character stuff than actual plot, I think—but honestly I am looking forward to being completely wrong about most things.

Also it warms my heart how much Cid and Vincent were in that trailer. Maybe Vincent won’t be spilling his major trauma immediately after we meet him?

Day 2:

Took me probably another hour to get star rank on the piano

Something about Obvious Zack Behavior is incredibly cute when it’s Cloud doing it

I feel like I may have missed a lot of crates and chests

The normal chit chat with Sephiroth and Cloud and Tifa? Omg

Trooper cloud saved Tifa’s life without her knowing!

Sephiroth saved Tifa’s life in the river and Zack saved Cloud’s life, poor nameless other guy but ❤️ Zack and boy must Tifa feel weird about that memory

I want to explore the whole Shinra mansion so badly, I found Vincent’s room and the tubes

I really like how rebirth made it a little clearer that Sephiroth snapped because Jenova started having influence on him once he reached her. Not that I’m trying to make her the villain and him the victim—pretty sure once he falls in the Lifestream, he’s running the show with all his own villainy going, Jenova’s basically The Thing—I just like that the flashes compared to flashes Cloud has had show her influence on him. I like that they didn’t go too hard in making him Evil; you can still see the underlying tragedy.

(I mean, we all know Hojo is the real villain and I think even Sephiroth would agree on that)

Also on multiple occasions I asked Sephiroth why he was so pretty

I REALLY like how those who are in the know about cloud and Zack can easily read between the lines and see what Actual Cloud did—not only showing us Random Trooper on the ground saying “Mo…” but also showing that Cloud’s memories match.

the struggle of having cloud drag himself along the ground while Sephiroth murdered people was AMAZING.

How dare they stop right there before the flashback is over. I know the point is to be tantalizing and they probably changed a thing or two but. Come onnnnnnn let Cloud deliver the cliffhanger.

(Oh, I did look at Tifa’s dresser but then said it was a joke, did not impress anybody lol. Should’ve stayed away!)

(I would like a screenshot of Cloud saying “hey Sephiroth, whatcha got there?” Sephiroth: A KNIFE

[havendance]

Infinite Crisis Thoughts

At long last, I am sitting down and writing these out. Under a cut because it's a big event and required lots of words.

Overall I had fun and I’m glad I read it. It was huge and sprawling and had a couple hundred tie-ins of varying relevance that doubled back on plot points. It felt like the embodiment of everything a comics event could be and it was epic for it. It’s got a scope to it! Crossover your entire universe! It’s the sort of thing you can do with comics and the interconnectedness of it all.

In terms of plots I read the OMAC project stuff and the Villains United stuff, and largely ignored/didn’t seek out the Rann-Thangar War and Day of Judgement plotlines

The Wonder Woman storyline was by far the standout. (Greg Rucka my beloved. I am looking forward to getting to his run in my Wonder Woman readthrough).

Something that I did think was interesting was the fact that it ends with Themiscyra gone, sealed away, and Diana left alone in Man’s World. Rucka pulls the same move in his rebirth Wonder Woman run. (Though that one was also doing some heavy duty work to retcon whatever was going on with the new 52 amazons. (I don’t know, I didn’t read it. But I can that it was bad from how much they had to retcon it away.)).

It is, I think, a very compelling place to put Diana in. At least, I find it compelling. And he was able to build off of the idea more in his rebirth run whereas I don’t know how it’s followed up on in post-crisis.

Anyway, if I had a nickel for every time…

The OMAC stuff was also fun (Thanks again Rucka.) We get more Sasha. We get Bruce ruining things for everyone.

Just the whole ‘Everything’s going wrong for everyone at once.’ that was going on the whole event. That’s what makes it a crisis! It was just really neat seeing how it built up bit by bit.

And then you also have the meta aspect with the earth two heroes and them watching everything go wrong and using that as their basis to rewrite everything ever.

Superboy prime is punching reality and there are clearly retcons going down in real time but sue me if I can’t figure out what any of them are.

Uhhh what else

RIP to Ratcatcher for being the first random person to get killed off in Infinite Crisis #1. No one’s going to miss you.

My favorite superman comic from the event was the one where got nuked and it did this thing I absolutely love where they put the in universe characters alongside the actual creators in the credits:

Of course it was written by Lois Lane… Rucka just gave her a voice…

I read exactly one Firestorm issues (#20). I found that I did not care about the new Firestorm (unsurprisingly) but this was also the first time I’d encountered Animal Man and I came out of the comic seized by the need to read more of his comics

Anyway I’m like 7 issues in Morrison’s Animal Man run and while I found his JLA run boring and have heard, uh, many things most of them poor about his Batman writing, his Animal Man writing is very fun so far!

Animal Man tangent over

I did not get around to reading the Green Arrow tie ins which I probably should’ve. Oh well, I’ll come back to that whenever I get around to reading Green Arrow Comics again.

I also skipped the Aquaman (some day I will figure out how to dip my toes in there) and Hawkman comics

And also probably others but those are the ones that come to mind

I also liked the teen titans Nightwing and Superboy team up issue.

I am confused as to what all went down with Bart and the Flash side of things but also maybe some day I will read flash comics

So many comics to read so little time

I am curious as to the logistics of the swapping out Kon to die for Nightwing thing that I know happened. Because in Infinite Crisis #6 Superboy directly stops superboy prime from killing Nightwing. But then Nightwing also jumps in front of Bruce to save him later which also could’ve been a prime moment for him to die. Don’t know if anyone knows anything about that.

But yeah! Infinite Crisis! Now it’s time for me to meander my way through one year later stuff.

[dearqueerdeers]

no wait actually as an avid reader English classes pissed me off so bad in high school. before high school I just found them vaguely annoying because it was super easy stuff— the author says in paragraph 3 that daisy is mad. Which of these word is a synonym for “mad”?— but in high school they really started to lean into analysis that was deeper than “surface level”. Here’s the thing. I’ve been writing fanfiction since I was 11. I know how to read between the lines. I know how to analyze shit. Been doing it forever. So I get to English classes where they’re asking me to do that and I go “great! this will be fun!”— only to be told that I am, in fact, wrong, in my interpretation of whatever current book we were reading.

This happened a lot for a lot of books (I am autistic lmao), but the one that infuriates me to this day is when we read Things Fall Apart in my senior year English class. Note that we did not read Heart of Darkness, which supposedly this book was a response to, so I could very well be missing a chunk of analysis here. It essentially followed a man living in Nigeria pre-colonialism and followed his life as European “missionaries” slowly started invading the surrounding area & eventually his home. According to my English teacher, Heart of Darkness portrayed the indigenous people in African in a very negative light and erased a lot of their culture, and Things Fall Apart was written as a rebuttal to showcase the rich culture and interior lives of the people portrayed as “savages” in Heart of Darkness.

And yes, the book did a wonderful job of showcasing the presence of a thriving culture and the personhood of those living in Nigeria! However. This teacher absolutely refused to hear any analysis that painted the main character in a bad light. If you pointed out that any of his actions were bad and suggested that he had personal growth to do, she’d shut you down immediately. I specifically was told “it’s a different culture and you can’t judge them based on our cultural standards.” My class was told the protagonist was a good guy trying his best, & that’s what the book was trying to showcase. If you listened to my English teacher without ever touching this book, you’d probably think it was about a guy doing his best and who therefore didn’t deserve the violence he experienced at the hands of the colonizers. (Disclaimer here that shouldn’t need to be said but I’m saying it anyways: You can’t “deserve” to be colonized. No culture or individual person should ever be forced to endure colonization. Full stop, period, end of story.)

Here’s the thing. This dude sucked balls, guys. He murders his adopted son. He hits his kids. He abuses his wives. & the whole time shows no learning from any of these actions. And those actions formed my analysis of the book! My analysis was that this guy sucked hard and the point of the book was that even when people suck, colonization is bad. My TEACHER’S analysis (and the only analysis she allowed us to discuss) was that this guy was a good guy and the point of the book was to make us feel bad that a good guy was the victim of colonization. I don’t even think I need to unpack why that’s totally bullshit, y’all have reading comprehension skills lmao.

To this day I still bitch about this book and this unit to my friends who were in that class. Not that any media analysis should ever be considered “right” or “wrong,” but to be told I was wrong in my analysis when I so very clearly was not was infuriating.