Whatever I Like

This is 90% about Lin Beifong. You may also find general Legend of Korra stuff, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, Tamora Pierce, and whatever else strikes my fancy.  Fanfiction.net Profile: Cassandra147

[friendofthefellowshipsnerdblog]

Reblog if reading someone else’s fanfiction has helped you get through a hard day

[cassandra1447]

So many hard days.

[prokopetz]

Lesser appreciated varieties of shipping:

I ship it for the sake of narrative or thematic symmetry  

I ship the idea of them, but their actually getting together in canon would ruin it for me  

I don’t ship it myself, but one of the other characters clearly does, and I’m a fan of them shipping it  

I headcanon that they were an item in the past and it ended in disaster, thereby explaining their present dynamic   

I ship it mostly because them being together would annoy a third character so much  

I ship it because nobody else does  

I’m not emotionally invested in it, but the intellectual puzzle of figuring out what bizarre sequence of events would be needed to make it happen is fascinating  

I ship it exclusively as part of a self-indulgent matchmaking fantasy where I’m the one who gets them together  

The very idea of them together disgusts and repulses me, and I’m struggling with how to phrase “hey, your fic really pissed me off” as a compliment  

I ship the AU versions of them that exist in my head, but not their canon counterparts  

I ship it only and specifically if it’s unrequited  

I ship it to spite the author

[kilo-charlie7]

Pictured above: Tenzin and Lin blowing off a work meeting for some quality time.

[beyondtoast]

Just like old times

[autisticraptor]

headcanon: Lin really likes flying

she really REALLY likes swinging from her wires because it’s the closest she can get to flying 

[cassandra1447]

You don’t know how hard I headcanon that Lin has absolutely no fear of heights because Aang started taking her up as a toddler and then she would fly with Tenzin (glider or Oogi), and then she was like “Hey, maybe I could swing between buildings”

And every other earthbender legit thought she was insane. Toph included. 

A couple broken bones later - and Aang & Tenzin realizing that she was doing this whether or not they liked it, so I guess we’ll help you figure out how to adapt airbending and could you please not practice without us just in case you fall because we’d prefer you in one piece - and voila! 

Almost-flying Lin!

[hiraismomo-deactivated20231024]

LEVERAGE — THE FRENCH CONNECTION JOB

[spaceportfloozy]

The Nigerian Job.png

[juliawvicker]

[futureevilscientist]

Sophie Devereaux : [pretending to be a defense contractor]  My company’s focused on meeting Senators, but, um, I’m thinking Congressmen.

Charles Dufort : You know the great thing about Congressmen? 50, 100 grand well spent will get one elected. But then, once they’re in, the incumbency rate is over 95%! So you can get on an average 18, 20 years use out of one of them. In these uncertain times, buying a United States Congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make!

Alec Hardison : [listening in on surveillance]  Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I’m a professional criminal and I find that disturbing.

Leverage both did not mess around and was ahead of its time in pointing this shit out.

[cassandra1447]

And because there’s no Leverage to save us - get ready to vote:

https://www.betterknowaballot.com/ 

https://www.vote.org/

[honourablejester]

My youtube recommends just asked me if I would like to rewatch Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari inviting the Earth warships attacking her boo to come and have a fucking go:

And, honestly, what sort of silly question is that?

So I followed it up with shadow-enhanced Earth warships asking Susan Ivanova if she would like to come and have a go, and Susan going ‘you know what? yes please’:

… I miss Babylon 5

[anneapocalypse]

I Didn’t Think I Shipped It But The Fic Writers for This Ship Really Brought Their A Game: a memoir.

[biodead-on-the-biobed]

I Didn’t Know This Ship Existed Previously But Now I’m In Hell: the sequel

[liaragaming]

I Used To Hate This Ship, What Have You Done?!: the third installment

[greentrickster]

I Ruined Myself With This Ship And Now I’m Taking You All Down With Me: a memoir

[dragonfishdreams]

I Got Everyone Addicted And Then Hopped Fandoms On Them: the fifth installment

[prokopetz]

Thanks To Fanfic I Hardcore Ship Characters From Media I’ve Never Actually Consumed: A Cautionary Tale

[felicitous-one]

Is it Canon or Fanon that Tenzin cheated on Lin with Pema? Is it Canon or Fanon that Lin has had a miscarriage that was Tenzin's? I need answers.

[cassandra1447]

To the questions posed - I would say neither? Canon is not definite, and its vague enough that we’re left to decide the details on our own.

It's stated by Pema that she approached Tenzin while he was still in a relationship with Lin. 

Shortly thereafter, Tenzin & Lin's relationship ended - it's not clear exactly if Tenzin had started considering Pema romantically before or after he ended things with Lin. At the very least, he knew Pema was an option before he broke up with Lin. Anything between that and outright cheating is possible and headcanons vary.

The reason that Lin & Tenzin split up is implied to be that Lin either didn’t want or couldn’t have children. As far as I can remember, we don’t have a definite canon answer one way or the other. 

My personal headcanon is that Lin didn’t want kids. Partly because I find the “can’t have kids” a cliched ploy used with career women and because I would have expected to see more mixed emotions surrounding the break-up - more sadness & grief about it. 

And I also headcanon that there was no physical cheating prior to the break-up but that Tenzin did a half-hearted job at discouraging Pema’s pursuit. Something tipped the scales - I don’t have a consistent headcanon on what - maybe Lin found out that Tenzin was tacitly allowing Pema to continue, maybe Tenzin realized he couldn’t wait any longer - and boom!

It paints a much less rosy picture about Tenzin’s and Pema’s relationship than Pema does to Korra and her kids (she calls him her ‘soul mate’). Because it makes a large part of Tenzin choosing Pema to be less about her in specific and more about having kids period. 

The age gap doesn’t help: Pema is 35, Tenzin is 51, Jinora 10 in Book 1. So Pema was at most 24 when they got married (assuming Jinora was conceived afterwards and assuming she got pregnant pretty much immediately) while Tenzin was 40. A head of state marrying a significantly younger woman because of a need for heirs? Yeah...’soul mates’ suddenly sounds a lot more suspect. 

I am a Linzin shipper so I’m undoubtedly biased. Lin is also my favorite character, and - because partly Pema is so under-developed in canon - so IMO there had to be an extenuating factor in play for explaining why Tenzin would choose Pema over Lin. 

[avatar-state-kate]

Why is it impossible for little sisters to just apologize?

And yes this is a post about Suyin Beifong

[cassandra1447]

Lucifer 5A: Why the noir episode doesn’t work for me

Alright, apparently I wasn’t done ranting

I know a lot of people probably loved this episode but I’ve got a major problem with the way they used gender-bending to make a “balanced narrative” 

Rant under cut - please skip if you liked this episode

Allow me to pose the question: Why did they have to flip the genders in order to create a more gender-balanced narrative?

Why couldn’t the figures that Lauren/Chloe and Aimee/Ella play be women in the first place? 

Why did they have to be men that Lucifer retroactively changed to be women? 

I will grant you - female mob bosses and female detectives in the later 1940s would have been outliers. 

That didn’t mean they didn’t exist. 

A ten-minute Google session results in examples of women as private investigators or even detectives from even before 1940s (Kate Warne - Pinkertons 1850s, Maud West - London, early 1900s, Isabella Goodwin - NYC police detective, early 1900s). It does take a bit of sorting through the fictional ones but they definitely existed. 

And it’s even easier to find examples of female mobsters - many associated with a particular male mob leader - but not all.

Surely, they could have had some intern spend a few hours doing actual research and finding some real-life women to use as inspiration? 

So why not just have the private detective and the head mobster be genuinely female? 

Why imply that it is so unthinkable to have women in these roles that in order to have a gender-balanced narrative the only option was to take two men and have Lucifer pretend they were women?

I’m all in favor of having more women represented, but this seems to undermine the equality you’re supposedly going for. 

We already have a problem with the general version of history leaving women out. The solution isn’t to falsify the story so you can artificially add women to appear more equal. 

The solution is to tell the true story - the full story - and do the damn research to make sure you’re not accidentally leaving women out of the picture. 

I get that they wanted to use the same actors. I do. 

But they should have simply written the people played by Chloe/Lauren and Ella/Aimee in Lucifer’s story as female. 

Or - if they wanted to have one (or both) of the women be either passing as male to try to combat sexism or to be trans female-to-male or non-binary but who prefers to present themselves in a typically masculine fashion, then do that.

Don’t have Lucifer willy-nilly changing genders just to appease the need for a “balanced narrative”. 

And it’s not that I mind gender-bending as a concept. 

Fictional characters - sure, absolutely, I am on board

Alternative universe real person fiction - go ahead, would be interesting

Historical real person with evidence that they may have identified differently than was previously assumed or may have been deliberately obfuscating their gender - please do, but be prepared to explain your reasoning

But within the context of the Lucifer universe, Lucifer is telling the story as truth, as about real people who actually existed in this same universe/timeline. 

And for me, it feels like he’s misgendering real people and trying to use the dubious excuse of making it more “feminist”. To be very clear - I do not identify as LGBTQ+, I’m a cisgender woman, this is my perspective as someone who is not transgender or nonbinary - but this feels disrespectful. 

If someone in the future were to tell a story about me - and identifies me as male - that would be wrong. I would not like it. 

Not to mention, that Lucifer does not lie but in this episode he has to be lying - either he started the story with these two figures as men and they were always men (so he’s lying later) or they were actually women and he started off by portraying them as men.

Either way - he’s lying. 

I understand that the writers were attempting to draw parallels and so wanted the same characters. I get that there’s maybe some “men & women aren’t so different” message here. 

But the framework they picked is problematic. It feels like a gimmick, a “look we put Lauren & Aimee in suits, isn’t that neat?” ploy, a gratuitous attempt at being feminist for the sake of it without really considering what they were doing. 

If they hadn’t made it explicit that Lucifer did this intentionally for the purpose of creating a gender-balanced narrative that would not otherwise exist - I probably would have let it slide. 

If they had simply had Chloe/Lauren & Ella/Aimee turn up playing ostensibly male figures but said nothing about it in the script, I would have just gone “oh, I get it, they’re creating parallels and keeping faces we know rather than strangers, fine”. It would have maybe come off as more of an inside joke between the viewers and the creators (but not characters) and actors performing as a different gender (your mileage may vary on this). 

But they didn’t. They deliberately pointed out how “progressive” this is and made it an in-universe choice by Lucifer.

So...

[cassandra1447]

Lucifer 5A Thoughts

Lucifer season 4 was great. It had a nice solid plotline, it had great character development for pretty much everyone, I actually thought the Eve-Lucifer-Chloe triangle was done both purposefully and realistically with reasons why all three of them acted as they did, and just generally felt like a breath of fresh air after the mishmash that was season 3.

I had few complaints - a few but not many. 

I was super hopeful about season 5. Guess what I binge-watched this past weekend?

Me:

Cue rant (under cut b/c there are spoilers aplenty and if you liked this season - please keep scrolling)

To be fair: I have only watched season 5 once. 

Unfortunately, I have no desire to watch it again. 

First of all, the lack of creativity.

Maze betrays Lucifer (again for like the 10000th time)

Michael being a jerkass - I’ll grant them his fear mojo, but could you have reached for any other concept than Lucifer vs. Michael? Or give him something more interesting than an ego-problem to fuel his evilness?

Ella’s boyfriend - look, there’s foreshadowing and there’s eye-rolling, damn it really, this guy is clearly only here to serve a plot point and he’s either going to be the victim or the murderer

Ella deserves a genuine good person and good relationship - WTF did you have to do that to her? There’s no point besides hurting her

It would have been better - and more surprising - if he had been a truly decent person even if the relationship ended up not enduring

And then there’s Chloe...and oh dear...

“Being a gift” consternation

Okay, yes Chloe is allowed to be upset and to be struggling with the divine side of things - in fact, I actually liked how they depicted that in Season 4

But in Season 4, when Chloe’s reactions hurt Lucifer, there’s a clear consequence. It’s part of why he turned to Eve, and there are a couple of excellent moments - the part where he confronts Chloe about neither being an angel like she wants or the devil like Eve wants for instance - that showed Lucifer was coming to understand himself and to stand up for his own sense of self to a degree

This time round, we get a lot from Chloe but little from Lucifer aside from him desperately wanting to be with her and willing to do just about whatever she wants to have that 

And unfortunately, whereas by the end of season 4, we definitely get Chloe seeing past the divine bombshells and remembering that she cares about Lucifer for himself - that progress is completely nullified by the “you’re a miracle” bombshell and I didn’t need to see that again

Also - WTF does Amenadiel’s spiel to Chloe about seeing Lucifer truly work on her anxiety over being made for Lucifer? Did I miss something? Chloe’s upset over this seemed to me to be because of a lack of free will - not that she didn’t know who Lucifer was. Why - when free will is such a major deal for Lucifer - was that not discussed? Why did no one - Lucifer for example - come out and say “Humans have free will. Period. You can choose to walk away from me or tell me to go, and I will. I don’t give a damn what my Father did or wants or intends. It’s your choice.”

The “I love you”

I do not get why Chloe doesn’t know if Lucifer loves her. He may have not used the three words but he literally told her the prophecy (his first love) was about her not Eve. Or what about “I would do it again”? Or any of the many actions through which he’s demonstrated that he cares about her, that he values her, that he loves her. 

And okay, maybe she needs those three words to be 100%, absolutely sure, okay. Then just ask him. How do you feel about me? What do you want from this relationship? Where is this going? You know, normal adult questions.

I’m not expecting Chloe to do emotional labor for Lucifer but if she needs something from him, she needs to ask him. I think that’s fair.

It also highlights a problem with Chloe’s empathy for Lucifer IMO - it feels like she’s once again so caught up in her emotional turmoil, she’s incapable of even seeing his. This is someone who literally just returned from thousands of years in hell, who has a family  had cast him out and treated him like the worst, has been vilified by humanity for millennia, and because of all of this has a low sense of self-worth and has come to believe that he’s a monster - love is something Lucifer literally hasn’t been shown in millions (billions?) and until very recently hasn’t been in a position to express love in return - and you expect him to drop an “I love you” nonchalantly?

Again, it’s okay to have Chloe focus on her emotions rather than Lucifer’s. But if I say something hurtful to someone - even if I’m under duress - it’s still hurtful. I still owe them an apology. 

The “not in relationship” evasion

Despite the fact that Michael lying was such a key factor in Chloe knowing he wasn’t Lucifer and Chloe clinging to the fact Lucifer doesn’t, Chloe doesn’t seem to make the connection that telling the truth to Lucifer is essential

One unaddressed factor from last season - Chloe lied to Lucifer and allowed him to think that everything was fine and that she wanted a relationship with him...and then on what he happily thought was a date almost roofied him (at minimum, who knows what was really in that vial).  Lucifer subsequently found out about the plan - so there’s a historical basis for her to lie to him about how she feels (in order to betray him) -  Chloe, he already thinks he’s unworthy of you, he’s already used to people he loves hurting him - you need to be straightforward with him

This includes not evading (or lying) about being in a relationship with him. 

At least she does eventually tell Lucifer she needs time & space I suppose

Mojo switching

Why? Just why? It happened and then it stopped. What?

Various other characters:

Linda:

Why did we only have like 2 therapy sessions? Why did Linda not get to do her job this season? Her sessions with Lucifer did help him grow - why the hell didn’t she help Lucifer & Chloe work through some of their issues

I don’t like having her plot this season revolve around children. It’s a personal thing I know - but it’s such a default plot device to use with female characters. 

Amenadiel

IDK about the timing of filming for this season but it felt really off-key to have a black man depicted as thinking the best way to make the world safer for his son to be aggressively trying to work with the police. Season 4 had an episode that dealt with the endemic racism in our justice system - why in the hell was that not carried into this season? Why don’t we see Amenadiel protesting or volunteering with a local group trying to address the systematic racism? 

Where the hell did the “reflection” thing come from? I never saw Lucifer’s mojo as reflecting, more bringing to the surface what someone already felt/wanted/knew. And even if I buy that - Amenadiel never had people behaving as if he was reflecting love before. Oh and for Lucifer’s mojo, for it to have a visible impact, he generally has to be intending it to (except for when he’s in his devil form). There’s a few examples in earlier seasons where there’s an indication there’s a low level field continuously but nothing like what Amenadiel had happen in the convent. And doesn’t that give Amenadiel two powers (time + love mojo) while Lucifer and Michael only get mojo? 

Maze

Oh look, Maze betrayals Lucifer again. Never seen that before. 

1 freaking episode with Trixie!!! And it’s also the only episode with Lucifer & Trixie and Lucifer being adorable with Trixie and then - oh, it’s not that Trixie likes Lucifer, it’s that she’s being paid by Maze to get information  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

WTF does Maze believe Michael? He’s a lying liar who lies. I can’t believe Maze would be that stupid. 

God

Just no. 

Previous seasons seemed to be having the message that God isn’t responsible for your life, you are. Lucifer has a similar realization at the end of season 4. So why are you going to muck that up by making God an active participant???

Other things that bug me:

Lack of LGBTQ+ representation

The old-timey bit doesn’t count IMO - Lucifer gender-flipped characters at Trixie’s request so any LGBTQ+ moments aren’t genuine

Lucifer & Maze are attracted to men and women (no defined label - maybe bisexual or pansexual) but there are no moments where either of them actively show it (or someone of the same gender was obviously attracted to them); I think we get a single line about Lucifer having been with both men & women but that’s all I can recall

Is there a single non-hetero couple depicted on screen (that didn’t have to be gender-flipped)? Seriously. I’m asking. 

Ella’s treatment

Already talked about this - but it was blatantly obvious the boyfriend plot served no purpose for Ella herself, just was a way to get this character looped in for other plot purposes

Chloe’s horrible advice to ignore Ella’s internal alarm bells. I don’t - how - what - yeah, feeds into what I said earlier about Chloe being too wrapped up in her own turmoil to be able to see from even a impartial (let alone another’s perspective)

Azrael! Why do you not use this sweetheart of an angel who has an established relationship with Ella? If you had to do this terrible Ella + bad guy plot, then for heaven’s sake, at least give us Azrael to warn Ella? Or something? 

Lilith was good...but where is Eve? There’s not even a throwaway line of “Eve’s in Madagascar” or show some postcards she sent to Maze or have Lucifer check-in on her and say “Eve says hi” - does Eve still exist? It’s not like Eve understand about “being made for someone” and maybe help Chloe, right? 

The Mock-Lucifer show episode -

 if you have an episode in your show that’s parodying your show...it had better be because you work for a secret government agency and it’s being allowed b/c the government can claim anyone trying to blow the whistle got it from the TV show (Stargate fans out there?) - otherwise, no. 

I know Lucifer likes to use the case-of-the-week to mirror what’s going on with Lucifer and the rest outside of the case - but this is too blatant, to the point it feels condescending

I didn’t actually want to know the story of Lucifer’s ring. Officially at least. Leave me some mysteries please, something to speculate about with other fans, something to develop headcanons for, something to write fanfic about - the story itself was fine, but doesn’t seem necessary

Hell Repercussions

Despite Michael using it as an excuse why “Lucifer” was behaving weirdly, once Lucifer is back, there’s little to no indication of the impact Hell had on Lucifer - thousands of years, and he’s pretty much the same as the moment he left Earth

Could have had Lucifer regress somewhat because he no longer had any support structure, was among literal demons who aren’t good for socialization, and perhaps had to revert to a more violent and vicious version of himself

Could have had Lucifer return to being more hedonistic - which would have been a good point of tension with Chloe - because he was starved of anything good in hell and is now trying to soak in as much life as possible (music, drink, drugs, parties, maybe flirting/dancing)?

One thing I did like was Lucifer talking to a human in hell - could have done something with Lucifer trying to help humans who felt guilty for things which shouldn’t qualify for eternal torment - connecting with semi-decent humans in hell b/c he couldn’t go back to Earth and b/c he has more empathy for them now (although I would argue Lucifer has always been kinder towards humans than other angels - look at the very first episode and how he treated Deliah)

Did no one try to contact Lucifer in hell? Amenadiel could have visited, he could have brought letters or messages from the humans in the know...did no one think of that? To help ease Lucifer’s isolation even in the smallest way? It felt like - as soon as Lucifer left - everyone was just like ‘well, he’s in Hell now, that’s too bad.’

What I did like:

Dan

He’s struggling and he knows it, and he’s trying to be a better version of himself while knowing he’s deeply flawed

The scenes with Dan & Lucifer working a case together are some of my favorites 

While I do wish he had recognized Michael’s ploy - in light of his history of doing something morally questionable “for the greater good” and his current self-examination - his reaction makes sense to me. He’s terrified and he reacts very honestly and directly; I think Lucifer would far prefer Dan’s reaction of just shooting him to Chloe’s reaction that involved her lying to him and allowing him hope only to learn she planned on using his feelings for her to allow her to get close enough to use the poison (and send him back to hell). 

Lucifer & Trixie - loved it (up until the elevator scene at the end)

Lucifer’s very practical solution of marking Michael so they couldn’t be confused - brutal yes, but practical 

This turned out way longer than I thought it would. I could be wrong - I did only see it once so it’s entirely possible I’ve missed something or don’t remember something - and I know we’ve got more episodes to come that may improve the season.

But compared to season 4 which had a tight plot that worked in concert with the character arcs, my initial impression of season 5 is overwhelming disappointment. I expected better than I got. 

[mulderscully]

i’m still so frustrated by maze’s storyline in 5a. i think she has every right to be angry at and hurt by lucifer’s treatment, but literally everyone else was there for her. linda, amenadiel, and ella all had incredibly sweet, supportive scenes with her. chloe’s biggest offense was… pointing out that they were using their partnership to avoid addressing their abandonment issues and (completely reasonably) asking for a bit of space. i feel like the writers just don’t know what to do with her.

yeah, and it's just so repetitive and frustrating to watch. it happened for the first time in s2 and i was like okay very fair but it was a misunderstanding, then s3 it happened again, then s4 it looked like we were past it and now this same arc AGAIN? like??? do this arc once and do it well, don't KEEP doing it.

[cassandra1447]

Agreed - it’s like they get about halfway into the season and it’s “Let’s have Maze betray Lucifer” o’clock

And they like to use Lucifer saying something dumb and thoughtless as the trigger - which yeah, Lucifer can do that - but when you literally do it multiple times...grrrr

I wish they would either have let Maze go off and do her own thing, or have her and Lucifer be able to have a decent enough relationship to avoid this sort of nonsense. I feel like both of them have evolved enough (and have enough other people like Linda to help) where this isn’t the inevitable outcome.

At this point, it just feels lazy and unimaginative. 

[obsessedwithlinzin]

I have this feeling katara always preferred Lin over pema. She had to learn to like Pema while she didn’t have to do that with Lin. Obviously she’s glad for the new generation of air benders but she’d be even happier if they were Lin’s kids.

[cassandra1447]

Lin: Daughter of one of Katara’s best friends, someone Katara watched grow up, long-term relationship with her son (we’re talking well over a decade if not two), canonically got along famously with Aang, has the same protective instincts that Katara does and a similar sense of responsibility

Pema: Random acolyte who Tenzin got married to after like ten seconds

Let’s face it - when it comes to whatever gift-giving holiday gets celebrated in the Avatar universe, Pema gets the Bath & Body Works generic gift basket and Lin gets a hand-knitted, hand-dyed polar bear fur blanket in shades of green with the police department’s emblem worked in.