#<- we all know damn well this isn't unique to my fandoms

[indi-glo-archive]

me still being on tumblr is like. i think i got so used to suffering that i just do it for no reason now

The kinds of things the Heartstopper and Young Royals fandoms put me through as a child were genuinely so fucked, and the only reason I didn't bat an eye was because I'd already developed dissociative disorders from my other child abuse (shoutout to the person who told me it was obvious I'd never been bullied bc I sympathized with a fictional fellow victim!).

People called me woke trash, racist, and repeatedly accused me of being an abuse/rape apologist for pointing out flaws and being able to put myself in characters' shoes (AKA write good analysis?). I got hate asks on a regular basis, people coming into my inbox just to tell me how much they hated characters I related to, trying to convince me that these characters, that people like me, are the scum of the earth because our trauma responses aren't palatable enough for them.

These are people who straight up do not give a fuck about child abuse if the child doesn't respond to it in a way they're comfortable with. These are people who will demonize abuse victims and make joking death threats about teenagers whose lives are implied to be in active danger. These are people who dismissed every one of my attempts to bring up racism and ableism in these shows because they were so fucking fragile and terrified of acknowledging their own imperfections. They attacked me for noticing and added to the racism and ableism I had to deal with instead of sucking it up and learning something.

And I know that this had a real impact on people who weren't me and didn't have my kind of armor because I also had people in my inbox who related to them like I did. I had adults agreeing that if they'd encountered these fandoms when they were younger, it would've made them suicidal. I had teenagers who related to the characters saying that they had been similarly abused. I'm really glad I was able to be a safe person for them, and I'm disappointed that I was one of the only ones there to do it when there are so many so-called "allies" here.

There is something seriously fucking wrong with these fandoms, and you all should be ashamed of yourself for cyberbullying teenagers off the internet. You need to reflect on that shit and fix it if you want to consider yourself any kind of ally or empath or cool gay teacher or any kind of positive influence in the spaces you’re in

(P.S. I swear to fucking god if people respond to this post with "but he sexually assaulted someone" and ignore literally every other personality trait/experience he had that could've been relatable to a child abuse survivor and the way people mistreated me, a real human being, which Charlie is not by the way, I will start doing the things you wanted to do to Ben)

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

CH2-13 Thoughts + CH2-14 Predictions

Hello DRDT Fandom! CH2-13 came out about four or so days ago as I'm posting this, and I finally mustered up the energy and mental strength to write down my overall thoughts, and also general predictions for what I think is to come in the next episode. A lot happened in this episode and we have a lot to cover, so let's get started! Before we do though, I think I should give us a reminder of where we currently are in terms of the swear chart and the bingo card, as of CH2-12 Swear Statistics

Bingo Card

Just like the last post, I'll be separating my talking points into character categories, so let's jump straight in with the big man himself...

Levi

Quick Disclaimer: I myself am still trying to unlearn the mindset that having low or no empathy is in any way a moral failing. If I say anything wrong or rude, please politely correct me. Remember kids: Your feelings, thoughts, and emotions, what you feel and how you feel them if you do at all, do not have any moral weight, they are simply aspects of your brain and you cannot control your brain. The only thing that has moral weight is your actions.

So as we learned in the previous episode, Levi has the murderer secret! And as we learn in this episode, he apparently killed four people, one of which being his father. DRDT continues to take Danganronpa's standard tropes and incorporating them in unique ways, in this case Levi represents the trope of the Chapter 2 Serial Killer reveal (Genocide Jack, Peko, Maki). I love that DRDT keeps doing this and I hope it keeps it up You know what else is staying consistent, though?

(x) Levi: That incident happened when I was in my junior year of high school. Levi: My junior year was also the year that Hope's Peak scouted me as the Ultimate Personal Stylist. Levi: To my understanding, it would've reflected poorly on Hope's Peak to recruit a murderer, so they pressured the court into not pressing charges.

US-HPA being morally corrupt as all fuck, that's what! Like no, seriously, it makes more and more sense as for why Xander David and Mai were most likely forming a revolution against this damn place, cause wow. The choice to scout out Levi during his Junior Year, when he was still in high school, is...interesting. Given that this Hope's Peak takes in College-aged students, why not just wait until Levi has graduated high school? In fact, that probably would've been even better because by then Levi definitely would've perfected his skills in styling by then, and thus would further justify him being enrolled in the academy. We don't know whether or not Levi was scouted before or after his incident, but given how Levi explains the events, I'm willing to bet this was after. Which...makes thing especially strange. But I'm sure it's no big deal. I mean, it's not like we have any evidence of US-HPA preying on vulnerable childre--

(x) Min: The Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students was made for a very specific target audience. Min: Those children who had no talents, who would consider spending their entire lives preparing for one single test for even a chance to become an Ultimate...

Oh. Well isn't that funny, huh?

Part of Hope's Peak's branding in general is the promise of a better future, which is something that Levi clearly wants. So I can most definitely see why the idea of being enrolled in the academy appealed to him. Levi being a delinquent in his teenage years definitely tracks, given how we know that his family was full of bad influences (including himself more than likely). And I am absolutely not surprised that Levi ended up killing his father. I think a lot of us theorized for a while that the person he killed was linked to his family.

I'd absolutely adore to learn more about Levi's family situation and what exactly their relationship with each other was, because "We were bad influences on each other" can mean a lot of things. Given the fact that not even the police cared about the death of Levi's father, I'd be pretty willing to believe that Mr. Fontana is a wanted man who has done a lot of criminal harm to others. That might even be where Levi formed the mindset that people are defined by their actions. Maybe, that's my best guess and it doesn't even include his mother and brothers, lmao. Anyway, that's enough of Murder, Corruption, and Daddy Issues. Let's talk about the other thing that was revealed about Levi this episode, or more-so put into words. His low, if zero empathy. Firstly, those who are headcannoning Levi is ASPD, I see you and I love you. So much. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that my first thought upon watching this scene was "Levi is so Autismcoded" lmao But in all seriousness, I absolutely adore this side of his character. In general something I've always loved about Levi is the fact that he, to put it bluntly, does not know how to act. He's constantly seeing what others do and copying them, and asking them for guidance when he doesn't know what to do. His first appearance shows him using Xander and Teruko's appearances to wager what kind of person they are, which is more than likely how he got into styling in the first place. He's basically masking and trying to appear as what he views as normal because he's aware that his lack of empathy is not something most humans possess. And his actions reflect that of what he thinks a good person would do in these scenarios, whether that be your friends not inviting you to an event, or someone profusely bleeding from their neck. To put it in simple terms: He's masking. I love that. It really reminds me of the experiences had by my neurodivergent friends, and even though Levi is not canonically neurodivergent, the fact that so many people headcannon him with ASPD or Autism really goes to show how DT-Dev nailed that kind of experience, and how well they wrote Levi's low empathy in general. Well-done, DT-Dev :D ...Also I think it's safe to say that Accomplice!Levi is not happening. Damn it, I really liked that theory lmao.

Ace

[not even three minutes later]

...See, this is why I always believed Ace was telling the truth about David and Arei's conversation, because wow this man is competing with the former in the Shitty Liar Olympics.

If Ace's sense of security around Levi wasn't already shattered, it sure as hell is now. Which is very upsetting to see, but also very entertaining to me as an aficionado of toxic yaoi. I was never really an Acevi girl, it was just never something I was attracted to (probably because for a majority of CH2 Part 1's airing I really didn't like Ace lmao), but this combined with the Other Thing I'll talk about later has definitely sold me on it. I hope they get worse.

I can't remember what post it was, but I remember seeing someone talk about Ace very much projecting a friendship onto Levi that was never really there between them, and looking back, I absolutely agree. I mean, where the two of them really friends? I do think that Levi does, or did, genuinely like Ace. I don't think he would've been hanging around him in Chapter 1 if he didn't. But it was simply just that, he liked Ace. Ace loved Levi, and saw him as his lifeboat in the midst of this scary unfamiliar situation. Even if everyone else either was annoyed by or straight-up disliked Ace, even if he could die at any moment, he could still rely on Levi as a presence of safety and security, but that all came crumbling down.

ace can you please change your sprite

The fact that Ace, the man famous for jumping to conclusions, not thinking anything through or in depth, and switching his opinions on others on a dime, is even asking for Levi's defense at all, is proof enough to me that even after everything Ace still wanted to cling onto the fantasy of their friendship he had built up in his mind. But upon hearing that Levi never cared about what happened to him, he can no longer do so. ...And why do I think Ace got attached to Levi so quickly?

(x) Ace: I was totally right all along to burn our friendship--No, I can't even call it it "Friendship." Ace: There's only one person in my whole life who I've ever been able to call my friend. That I ever thought, even for just a short time, that you and I were "friends" is an insult to his memory.

Yeah it's time to talk about this.

So for those who are not in the know, DT-Dev confirmed in a now-deleted ask that this friend of Ace's is named Taylor Riley.

(thank you to @/nicohakobyan / weightedblankett on twitter for providing this screenshot)

We know very little about this man other than his name, his gender, the fact that he was Ace's friend, and that he's dead. We don't actually know that fourth one, but I think "insult to his memory" speaks for itself lmao. As such, we do not know the details of his relationship with Ace... But I've made more out of less before, so let's get to talking. Here's what I think:

I think that Taylor was a presence in Ace's life much similar to how Levi was to him in Chapter 1: A strong protective figure that helped to make the scared-of-everything Ace feel a sense of safety. And then some form of incident happened that resulted in Taylor's death, leaving Ace alone, heartbroken, bitter, and terrified. That sense of security he once had was ripped away from him, and without Taylor, he doesn't know what to do with himself anymore.

And then in the killing game, he meets Levi, who provides him with a similar feeling of safety. Immediately he begins to project the memory of Taylor onto Levi and as such becomes attached, quickly considering Levi a friend because of it. And I'm not entirely pulling this idea that Ace was projecting Taylor onto Levi out of my ass, either.

Ace: dark blue/purple (reasoning: refuses to provide reasoning)

When we first got this answer, most people assumed this was referring to Levi, but I honestly think it is more likely that this is referring to Taylor. But those colors are still part of Levi's design, which automatically sets up a parallel between both Levi and Taylor Ace projected his relationship and the memory of Taylor onto a man he barely knew, and when that man lost his patience with him, his fantasy was swiftly kicked with the steel-toed shoe of reality. Hell, Ace's reaction after Levi snapped at him may had been due to his illusion of safety crumbling beneath him, but going down the road of this theory, Levi snapping at him might've been the first time Ace truly saw Levi and not Taylor. He had been giving this man a script and a role to play, and Levi responded by tearing up the paper and telling him to fuck off. In a sense, you could say that in that moment, Ace lost Taylor a second time.

Since I don't think Ace is going to be the killer as he was knocked out and thus did not have any knowledge of the murder mechanism (at least not including the theory that he tried to kill himself, which... Is a possibility, but I don't think that's the case). And if he does live past his chapter, I honestly think Chapter 3 will mark his breaking point. Any fantasy of Levi that he was clinging onto with his pinky has now shattered into pieces ten times over, the person who tried to kill him is still alive and for all he knows, could do it again whenever the hell they want to and people will take their side over his own. Next to no one in the cast likes him and they make that explicitly clear, and worse of all, he will still be trapped in this godforsaken...whatever facility this place is meant to be. So to cap off this section that got way too long, Ace Trauma Dump is on my Chapter 3 bingo card, and if we get to see Taylor and his design includes dark blue and purple I will actually become spaghettified. Please survive Ace, you are finally starting to become not C-Tier

Hu and Veronika

Lumping these two together because I have about the same amount to say about both of them and their secrets were revealed together. Hu's secret is the Hopeless Child one, and Veronika's is the Self Harm one. I think after CH2 Part 1 most of us predicted as such, but it's still very satisfying to be right. What I'm more interested is this supposed pact that they made off-screen. I have to assume that Veronika went to Hu pretty quickly to reveal her secret to her given her general disinterest in topics of suicide and self harm. So I'd wager this pact was probably made at around CH2-5. Not that that really tells us much about the actual conversation, but it's nice to have a time-frame for reference.

I don't expect the actual conversation to be shown because from what we currently have it doesn't really add much of anything, but it would definitely be cool.

(x) Hu: I've been quite selfish this whole time, keeping my secret because I didn't want you all to think less of me...

I've said this before in this post, but I absolutely believe that David eventually coaxed and pressured Hu into revealing her secret to him, as well as why she kept it for so long. And I also think David implanted, or I guess more accurately watered the seed in Hu's head that she was inherently selfish for not sharing her secret. That, I think we would benefit from a flashback, but maybe I'm just biased because I desperately want Hu lore. Please DT-Dev, I'm on my knees Hmm... what else?

(x) Veronika: After all, my own so-called secret isn't even the worst thing I've done. Isn't that so utterly disappointing for this motive?

Oh yeah there's that. What the fuck, Veronika? Like, I feel like this is something I should've expected this, but for some reason I didn't. I'll be honest here, I really have nothing right now. But whatever Veronika is referring to here, I feel like it has something to do with her 'dearest friend' mentioned in the CH2 Q&A (who's name is Alyssa Belyaeva.) What Veronika actually did? I do not have the slightest clue, you can never know with this girl. But no matter what she did, I will probably love her even more for it. Glad that DT-Dev seems to agree with the precedence of supporting women's wrongs.

Teruko

...So I'm glad to see we're all in agreement that that is not her fucking secret. I mean, I'm sure it applies to her. She is an orphan, her parents are out of the picture, and though we don't know the whereabouts of her brother and neither does she, she most likely assumes he's dead as well. But honestly, given the fact that again this is not her fucking secret, I'm starting to wonder if that's really the case... Can Teacher Tawaki theory still live on? I'll save that for another post.

Anyway what was I talking about? Oh yeah, that is not her fucking secret.

And this little bitch knows that for a fact.

I won't go too deep into this because there have already been people discussing it better than I could, but this silent agreement the two of them have to not share Teruko's true secret is so palpable and interesting to me. David knows that Teruko's secret isn't that, but for whatever reason, he is keeping his mouth shut. And he just gives Teruko that shit-eating smirk. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Teruvid? I fucking love Teruvid. But yeah, I still think 100% that Teruko's secret is that the killing game is all her fault. It just does not make sense for Xander and Min's secrets to belong to anyone other than each other as they are dead. And in general it just makes sense for Teruko's character and her role in the story. And I can't help but feel like Teruko's actual secret will be revealed at the end of the Chapter.

Eden

... I mean. Do I really need to say more? I swear I made this exact joke in the previous thoughts post, but I can't help it. It applies perfectly to this CG. When this CG, this fucking JUMPSCARE of a CG, popped up on my screen, I'm pretty sure I ran around in a circle screaming in my room for a total of ten minutes. The first of two times I would do that during this masterfully crafted scene. I want to think of some kind of insightful analysis, but the truth is basically in your face. Eden was the one who gouged out Xander's eye. Why did she do it? Where does this fit into the overall lore? I DON'T FUCKING KNOW What the fuck am I supposed to say? This CG is basically all we have, and we'll definitely have to wait for more information. Especially since Eden is totally the culprit, but we'll get to that in the predictions section. (yeah if you can't tell my writing juice is starting to run out, but if I get this out any later than today I will kill myself)

David

(...for a scumbag, he's kinda cute.) So first of all, David is slowly becoming the funniest character in the cast in my opinion, which is a huge achievement in a cast full of very funny characters. And in general I think as a character he perfectly captures DRDT's general tone of half-and-half both silliness and angst, like yin and yang. Secondly though, the big thing that David did in this chapter (besides keeping Teruko's secret and being funny) is lying to Eden about the rest of the conversation he had with Arei. Ultimately, I think David himself saw that action as a good deed.

Think of it from his perspective: This is a man who has had hope and change presented to him on a silver platter multiple times, and then had it violently ripped away from him. And the most recent example of that, Arei, presented him with a better future and the possibility of change only to be killed upon trying to act on said change. If he told Eden that Arei still had hope, that she still wanted to change, it would aspire Eden with that same hope that in his eyes is destined to crash down on her. So instead of inflicting that same pain onto her, he instead chose to say nothing at all Maybe I'm giving David too much credit, what he did was still at the end of the day, incredibly dickish. But that interpretation is what makes the most sense to me personally. That's all I really have to say in regards to David... So, let's move onto what was, in my opinion, the star of this week's episode.

Arei

Arei Nageishi.... Ohhhh save me Arei Nageishi.... Arei was already one of my favorite characters in the cast due to her personality, design, voice acting, and most of all the character development she had throughout the course of Chapter 2. But this episode, this scene... It cemented her a well-earned spot in my top four, sitting only behind Whit, Teruko, and David.

The flashback scene of Arei and David in this episode is honestly up there with some of the best scenes in the whole show to me, almost solely because of how it caps off Arei as a character postmortem, and the story that she, along with Chapter 2 as a whole, is meant to tell. This whole chapter has been themed around the idea of what classifies a good person, and this flashback scene provides such a great payoff to that theme and it is everything I could've ever wished for. The message I got from Arei's story is that, ultimately, the idea of a "Good Person" and a "Bad Person" are nothing more than just that. Ideas. And in being ideas, they are above anything else, arbitrary, subjective, and at the end of the day, incredibly meaningless when it comes to discussing actual human beings. Insistence on categorizing yourself and the people around you into boxes of "pure saint that can do no wrong" and "irredeemable demon who will burn in the pits of hell" is a fast track to viewing a complicated, colorful world into a few shades of black and white. That's how David views the world, and has viewed the world probably for years. And I'm going to be honest and say that I think before being confronted with the truth of David's actions, Arei was heading right down the same path that he had headed.

(x) Arei: Of course I wanted to change myself. Who wants to be a grab-bag of negative personality traits? There's not even anything positive you could say about me. Arei: Still, for the longest time, I thought it was stupid to even try. I'm rotten to the core, and I might as well be a different species from saints like Eden and you. Arei: A pig never hopes to grow up into a human, because it knows that such a metamorphosis is impossible.

And this is the line that really, really makes me think that. She calls David and Eden saints because (up until this moment) she viewed both of them as the ideal of what makes a good person, similar to how David views Xander. And on the contrast, claims herself to be rotten to the core, ontologically evil with no redemption in sight. She's even performing David's habit of self-dehumanization, likening herself to a pig in the same way David likens himself to a cat in the LGI video, which goes to show how this mindset of black-and-white is, above all else, a dehumanizing view on the human race that relegates people into cardboard boxes with the flaps taped shut. If she didn't find out the truth of David's actions, I am confident that she would've done down the same path that he did, becoming convinced that she will be a terrible person until the day she dies because she cannot reach this worthless standard of a good person that she has set up in her head. But we know that's not how it goes. Arei does realize that the man she once thought of as a saint might be, in his words, a lying manipulative scumbaggy piece of shit. And upon realizing that, the second half of the message unlocks itself. There is no such thing as irredeemability.

Change is a part of being human. Humans are not built to run in a hamster wheel for the rest of their days, reliving their mistakes over and over again wallowing in their self-hatred and guilt. Eventually, they have to get off the wheel and start taking the steps necessary to grow, change, develop and flourish to properly better themselves. (This applies to yourself just as much as it applies to the worst, most depraved individual you know by the way) The alternative is living in a four-by-four black box of self-loathing and relentless stagnancy, which is not productive for the person or the people they've hurt. It is only when you reject these black-and-white categories of "Good Person" and "Bad Person" and accept that no matter what you've done, you're capable of becoming better, that you can achieve true growth and change. The way this message was executed, especially through a character that dies before the halfway point of the story, is something that I marvel at as an aspiring storyteller. DRDT's beating heart will always be its character writing, and this scene is one of the primary examples of that. Thank you, DT-Dev, for making Arei Nageishi and the rest of your amazing cast of characters. :D

Extra Thoughts !!! - FURUYA FANDOM (me) THE TRACK PLAYED LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO!!! - I am very excited to find out more about Nico's attempted murder given all of the questions surrounding it. If the method of murder really was replicated, and Nico wasn't the culprit themself, you guys should take a wild guess who that implicates. (this is probably obvious by this point, but I really don't believe in the theories that suggest that someone other than Nico was responsible for Ace's attempted demise, be it Hu or Ace himself. I feel like it doesn't line up with the current narrative direction that Nico seems to be going in, the physical evidence of them stealing the turpentine, and...I'm gonna be honest, I just don't like it lmao. I'm sure DT-Dev would do it well, but just as a premise I do not favor it. Nico's attempted murder + subsequent regret from it felt like such a big moment in the chapter's narrative in relation to the themes of All That Glitters and the cast revealing sides to themself that weren't as prevalent before, as well as the themes of change and moving on from the past littered all throughout the chapter. I think if Nico's attempted murder was responsible by anyone but Nico, it would just dampen the impact of their overall story for me. That's just me though.) - WE FINALLY GOT ANOTHER NONSTOP DEBATE LETS GO BOYS!!! Nonstop debates I MISSED you - "Hey why does Whit know so much about hangi--" Look. This man is so unbelievably suspicious in every single way that for the sake of my sanity, I'm just gonna assume DT-Dev chose a random character to give the hanging explanation. It is the only way I will survive this chapter - But hey, at least we got this

- As always, I adore the new sprites we got this episode, especially Ace's new ones. It's probably the first sprite of his that actually appears emotionally vulnerable when he's not bleeding profusely from the neck. And of course, I loved David's shit-eating grin towards Teruko, I hope he never changes. - Speaking of Teruko, us getting Tutor Teruko was lovely. She is perfect, she is a little bit of everything all of the time.

(x) Whit: If you're so inclined to complain, Sir Light Pollution, why don't you try and think of some good evidence? Charles: Light pollution? Whit: You know… Cuz he had stars, and now he doesn't, and light pollution makes stars disappear… or… or… something….. Charles: I am truly impressed…by how bad that was.

- I love these dorks so much. I can tell DT-Dev has a lot of fun writing them.

- Teronika Consent animation! I guess after Acevi's Soap Opera, DT-Dev decided to feed the yuri crowd as well. Love it when we get to see those little sprite animations, too.

Predictions for CH2-14 - The episode is 40 minutes long, the longest episode we have had so far. (40 minutes of DRDT content... I'm excited just thinking about it!) Because of that, I think I will just start with my biggest prediction: I think we're getting the culprit reveal this chapter. I don't think that just because of the length either. When you really look at it, we have basically used every piece of evidence at least once with the exception of three: - The conditions of the gym (which I assume will be discussed next) - The scuffs on the ground - The ball of starchy clothes All three of those pieces of evidence I think can definitely be cleared up in the span of 40 minutes, especially since full focus is now on the murder case. I don't necessarily think the trial will end in this episode, but I think we have at least one more trial episode to go before the post-trial + execution + ending of the chapter. - And as the culprit reveal is approaching, I have formulated a tier list of who I think is least - most likely to be Arei's culprit. I will provide my reasoning for each.

No. 17/16 - Xander Matthews + Min Jeung I mean, what it says on the tin. They're dead, and thus couldn't had committed the murder. No. 15/14 - MonoTV + Arei Nageishi There are explicit rules against them being the culprit. Rule 8 and Rule 11 in particular. No. 13 - Teruko Tawaki She is the protagonist. Didn't stop Kaede, but I highly doubt that's where DT-Dev is going. No. 12 - David Chiem Other than the previous five who I've all disqualified from being the culprit, David is probably the character I suspect the least. He has an alibi for the time of the murder, getting breakfast with J and Veronika, and thematically...well, he's basically being set up as the antagonist. I don't think we'll be rid of him this early lmao. No. 11 - Charles Cuevas Charles has a fear of blood and dead bodies, and though I wouldn't say that completely disqualifies him from becoming a culprit in the future, in a case like this with such a complicated mechanism like this where he'd have to be in very close proximity with the body at all times? I highly doubt it. He also has an alibi for the fish (He was with Whit). No. 10 - J Rosales J both has an alibi for the fish (Arturo following her around), and an alibi for the morning (getting breakfast with David and Veronika), and both of those alibis can be confirmed. I don't think she did this. No. 9 - Veronika Grebenshchikova I'll be honest, I really don't see Veronika committing a murder at all. She clearly wants to see this through to the end, and killing someone would come with the risk of her being executed, which I don't think she would see as a satisfying conclusion to her story. That, combined with the fact that she has an alibi for the fish (bothering Teruko) and an alibi for the murder (getting breakfast with David and J) makes me think she didn't do this. No. 8 - Nico Hakobyan You might think it's weird to place Nico this low on the overall tier-list despite them not having an alibi for the fishes, and their morning alibi being...somewhat flimsy but I'll get to that with Hu, but here's my logic. Nico was driven to attempt murder from very specific circumstances. That being, Ace's relentless bullying and abuse towards them. Nico has said before that they'd understand murder if the perpetrator didn't like the victim, and while I don't think they exactly liked Arei, I do not think they harbor the same animosity towards her as they did towards Ace. I truly believe that Nico would only ever resort to murder if they truly despised the person in question and saw no other solution. So that is why I feel comfortable placing Nico at eighth. No. 7 - Hu Jing Hu is also another character that I think some will be surprised to see so low, but I don't think this was her doing. She has an alibi for the fish (cleaning up with Eden), and though again her alibi in the morning is very flimsy (having tea with Nico in the morning,) I do believe she is telling the truth because if she was lying about her alibi, I think the brutally blunt Nico would call her out for it. I'm sorry, I just simply cannot imagine Nico letting that shit slide regardless of how many theories I read. Not to mention I can't really think of a motive for why she would kill Arei specifically when, if she really did want to kill someone, Ace is right there. No. 6 - Whit Young Whit is supremely fucking suspicious and a lot of his behavior in the trial is literal shenanigans, even more so given the fact that he doesn't have an alibi for the actual murder. But he does have an alibi for the fish (again, he was with Charles) which is the main sticking point of Whit!Culprit. His other sticking point is his lack of motive, both in terms of the secrets and Arei specifically. I don't know like- just look at this man, do you think he did this? /joke

No. 5 - Levi Fontana The number one suspect in the fandom for a while, and he's only at number five. He ultimately lacks an alibi for the morning, and his alibi for the fish was that he was doing his laundry... With no one else around. Shady as fuck. But I think given his principles discussed in this episode ("it is a good thing to make sure someone else doesn't die"), and the genuine desire to be helpful he has expressed throughout this trial, I think him being the culprit is unlikely. That's why I was adamant on him being an accomplice for a while because I still thought he had some role in the case, but oh well. No. 4 - Rose Lacroix I'll be honest, Rose is only this high because her alibi situation is worse than Whit's and Levi's combined. Both of her alibis are that she was sleeping in her room, which cannot be proven and can be very easily lied about. But other than that, I don't think she is the culprit. I think this case requires too many physical maneuvers for someone as lethargic as Rose to pull off successfully, and if she were the culprit I don't think she'd bring attention to the missing grippy tape at all. No. 3 - Arturo Giles Arturo does have an alibi for the fish (following J), but does not have an alibi for the morning. Unlike basically every other character here, something else that puts Arturo above them is that he was capable of overhearing Eden and Arei's conversation and forging the note. But there is also a discrepancy present that is also present with every character here, and that is the fact that Arturo did not witness Nico's attempted murder or the condition of Ace's body and the gym, so there was no way he could've replicated the murder method used for Ace on Arei. So though logistically he is a more likely possibility, I don't think it was him. No. 2 - Ace Markey Ace, to me anyway, is the second most likely candidate to being Arei's killer. He does not have an alibi for the fish and could've very easily grabbed them after David and Arei left the Relaxation Room, and he doesn't have an alibi for the morning either. He has a very clear motivation for taking a chance at killing someone, of "someone literally sliced my neck open not two days ago and I know I am not safe here I need to get the fuck out." If you choose to factor in strength, Ace is one of the strongest members of the cast and would be more than capable of the physical maneuvers made to kill Arei. Though I personally don't believe in this theory, if you think Ace attempted suicide instead of Nico trying to kill him, he has the murder method down lock too because he tried to commit it onto himself. He has been shown to be nosy, so it is not improbable that he listened in on Arei and Eden's conversation. And lastly, he is one of the only two suspects who was capable of stealing the grippy tape that was used in the murder. All of the evidence is practically stacked against him... But there are a couple of problems. One, if you believe that Nico did try to kill Ace, than the point about Ace knowing the exact method of death goes out the window. He was knocked out by the turpentine, and woke up in extreme pain in a blinding fury of rage and bloodlust, I don't think his surroundings would be the first thing on his mind. But a much bigger issue we have is the question of... Why would Ace take the tape? Following this theory, his murder plan wouldn't had started until the day after Nico's attempt on his life, it would make no sense for him to take the tape then. These two sticking points are why, though a likely candidate, I do not think Ace is the culprit. That award of main suspect goes to...

No. 1 - Eden Tobisa Yeah, if you've spent any time on this account you probably know I'm an Eden!Culprit truther. There are many well-written posts about this theory that I'm sure you've seen so I'll try to keep this short, but though the theory does have a few flaws to it, the big one being Eden's alibi for the fish that she was cleaning up with Hu, I think Eden being the culprit makes the most sense from an evidence, thematic, and motive standpoint. I know some people have dropped the theory upon the fork reveal, but DRDT is not unbeknownst to killing off characters with certain mysteries left unanswered. That is basically all for my predictions related to the culprit, but I still have some predictions for the overall episode. - Nico's gonna get placed in the hot-seat, obviously, which will definitely cause a reaction out of both Hu and Ace. And I honestly feel like the two of them are going to keep interrupting Nico until they eventually snap. And I hope that happens honestly because unless you count the "I'll kill you" line, we have yet to see or hear Nico when they're actually angry angry. Nico obviously doesn't like conflict, but they might have to get over that if they actually want to defend themself knowing the other two. - I'm still holding out hope we'll get a Random Guess segment lmao - And lastly: I need Whit to break the forth wall at least once I didn't put that on the bingo card for fucking NOTHING

Conclusion I'm gonna be completely honest, I do not have the energy to write anymore and I just want this out lmao. But overall, this was one of my favorite episodes in the whole series. I loved the Levi and Ace stuff, I like that we now have all the secrets, and like I said, the scene with Arei is probably one of my favorite scenes in the show. CH2-14 is going to be a wild ride I can already tell, and if we do find out who the killer is, you will see me screaming. Regardless of if it's Eden lmao.

UPDATED SWEAR STATISTICS CH2-13

UPDATED BINGO CARD

[genderliquid-witch]

What are the Bad Kids' favourite Death Grips projects? (Fantasy High)

I've been having a blast watching Fantasy High: Junior Year, and I have also been relistening to a lot of Death Grips' discography. So, like I do with most of the fandoms I'm in, I'm going to guess what I think each of the Bad Kids' favourite Death Grips project would be. I will give reasoning for each one, but be warned that they are almost completely arbitrary.

Adaine Abernant: n-ggas on the moon

While on one hand I feel like Adaine would find some of the band's heavier albums a bit startling, I think she'd love n-ggas on the moon. It's got this whimsical atmosphere that I think a wizard would really vibe with, and I can see drunk Adaine wilding out to the more high energy tracks like Have A Sad Cum BB and Billy Not Really. Not to mention she'd have a great time deciphering what are arguably Death Grips' most cryptic and mysterious lyrics. This is a party wizard album for sure.

Fabian Aramais Seacaster: Fashion Week

As we all know, Fabian indulges in the finer things in life, and I think his taste in experimental Sacramento-based hip hop would be no different. Fashion Week is the closest Death Grips has ever come to luxury and I'm sure that would attract a young Seacaster. He's totally the type to brag about how refined his taste in music is, evident by how he chooses one of the band's more obscure, instrumental projects over the mainstream slop that is The Money Store. As for the music itself, I feel it's perfect for some wild interpretive dance, and I think Fabian would agree. I can already picture him doing some crazy sheet dance to Runway E.

Fig Faeth: Jenny Death

Jenny Death is the heaviest album in Death Grips' discography, almost acting as fully fledged psychedelic, punk metal album, so I can't imagine why Fig wouldn't adore it. The loud, abrasive guitars, the hypnotic production, the drums that practically punch your ears; it all just screams Fig to me! I mean when I saw the band live the songs from Jenny Death were easily the ones that caused the crowd to go completely wild, and we all know Fig loves a wild crowd. Even the names of the songs are perfect for her: I Break Mirrors With My Face In the United States, Centuries of Damn, Beyond Alive, and The Powers That B all sound like they came right from the Archdevil's own mind.

Also yes, I'm aware I missed an opportunity to assign her Bottomless Pit, but these are the sacrifices I make for accuracy.

Gorgug Thistlespring: Exmilitary

For a barbarian drummer, I can see no better fit than the band's debut mixtape, Exmilitary. This mixtape is so raw and primal, I mean the drums sound like war drums. We already know that Gorgug loves heavy, intense music, so I think he'd totally rock with this. I also think that the tape's unique, grinding production would appeal to his artificer side; it's a perfect mix of rage and technology, and I can imagine him blasting something like Takyon or Guillotine as he hacks through some enemies.

Kristen Applebees: Government Plates

For someone who's constantly riddled with feelings of doubt and confusion while also maintaining a general aura of weirdness (affectionate), I think Government Plates is a good pick for Kristen. It's the kind of album that you have to sit down and listen to a couple times before you really vibe with it; it doesn't want to be understood, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying! Not to mention the pure emotional intensity of tracks like You Might Think He Loves You... (I'm not writing the full title.), Two Heavens, and Bootleg (Don't Need Your Help) suit Kristen very well imo. An underappreciated album for an underappreciated character.

Riz Gukgak: No Love Deep Web

And for everyone's favourite little weirdo is what I consider Death Grips' certified weirdo album (They're all weirdo albums, but this one especially so). Though my reason for choosing No Love Deep Web as Riz's favourite Death Grips project isn't because of the music itself, but rather the history surrounding this album. If you didn't know, this album was released through a secret Alternate Reality Game on the deep web where fans had to solve incredibly cryptic puzzles over a few days in order to gain access to a link that allowed them to torrent the album, and I think that Riz would be all over that shit; I can imagine him setting up a little cork board with all of the clues and whatnot strung up. I don't even know if he'd even like the music, I think he's just invested in the mystery!

[threebooksoneplot]

Question for G :)) how was your fanauthor workshop experience? I don't know if I should apply it sounds interesting but at the same time almost no reviews or whatsoever. Thank you!

well I ended up doing it a second time, so I'd say it was pretty damn good! I think the reason there are "no reviews" is mostly due to tumblr's format not really lending itself to that? @fanauthorworkshop isn't marketing itself as a product so much as a pedagogical (educational) extension of the existing fandom gift economy—an exchange where you both learn stuff and share/teach stuff!

this answer is mildly off-podcast-topic and it's gonna get super long and wordy, so it's under a cut lol you're welcome

my Fanauthor Workshop experience

personally, I found the FAW perfect for me. I was at the point in my fic writing where I was getting some lovely comments and glowing praise, but also wishing the world in general took fanfiction more seriously, as a craft to be practiced and discussed, something with both intrinsic and literary merit. @bettsfic's first episode as a guest on Fansplaining really resonated with me and kind of spoke to that desire (it's a must-listen for anyone on the fence about applying to the FAW!!)

but I had never studied creative writing at a university level, and barely knew what a crit letter was. I found the FAW was the perfect way to learn that sort of thing in a low-stress environment! I didn't struggle with feelings of burdensome obligation the way I had with schoolwork; rather I was excited to read everyone else's writing and see what it had to teach me. I also loved having an appropriate venue to air all my writing opinions, lol. I found I was so motivated that I managed to attend every FAW session even though it conflicted with family vacations two years in a row. I wrote crit letters from the lobby of a restaurant in a national park because it was the only place with wifi. I even Zoomed into one session from a random public library in Durango, where I managed to alarm everyone else in the irl vicinity with my enthusiastic discussion of fictional cannibalism (shoutout to the story we workshopped that day, it SLAPPED.)

personally, I approached the FAW with the very specific goal of Having Fun first and letting the writing stuff come second (ie, not putting too much pressure on myself when it came to choosing and polishing my own workshop pieces, and not worrying too much about how they were received.) I still ended up getting some AMAZING critiques and responses to my two (very different) pieces—I was deeply impressed by everyone's insights, how much they were able to pick up on, and how willing they were to meet me at my level. the other pieces we workshopped ranged all over the place in technical ability, from "giohvnsksbnf this writing is so good I'm gonna fucking eat glass" to "this person is clearly just starting out as a writer, but even if their prose has some technical mistakes, their story has Good Bones and their critiques and discussion observations have been spot on."

my big secondary goal was to Make Friends and there I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I now have SO many cool FAW mutuals, a few of which I have hung out with IRL and the rest of which I totally WOULD hang out with IRL if given the opportunity. they're all uniquely creative and clever people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise, so that's kind of the biggest Win for me. it's so cool knowing I have all these people I could DM out of the blue and be like "hey, would you mind looking over this short story/beta-ing this fic chapter?" and end up with some great insights. there's also an FAW Discord where anyone can kind of bring fandom- and writing-related questions to the floor, as well as share recs and self-promote projects (or in my case, recruit podcast guests who I know have been pre-screened for both their chill lack of pearl-clutching and their basic fiction-analyzing skills, lol.)

I would recommend the Fanauthor Workshop if:

you're a self-taught writer who's done most of your learning in the fanfiction space and you're curious about how writing is actually taught in academic settings

alternatively, you're a writer from an academic background who chafes at some of the more restrictive rules in traditional workshops/you're tired of the irl Guy in Your MFA -types who refuse to or can't engage with your work on its level

you're ok with doing some "homework" (writing two crit letters per week) on the honor system

you're down to read original work in a wide variety of genres/read fic from fandoms you're not in (maybe even fandoms/pairings/characters you don't personally like)

you like what you read in @oficmag

you wish fanfiction was taken more seriously as a craft

your favorite trad-published writers all seem to be workshop alumni (eg: I swear half of my favorite writers are Clarion grads)

you have work you'd like to publish and/or submit someday but you're not sure if it's ready/not sure where to start

you follow writing advice blogs or send them asks

you wish people would leave "concrit" (constructive criticism) on your fics

you wish people would leave concrit on your fics but you're worried they might be too mean or not "get" your work

you wish people would analyze your work and give critique without letting their personal value judgments get in the way (and you're ready to do the same in turn)

you worry your work is too niche, kinky, queer, romance-focused, or "weird" for a traditional workshop (note: but it doesn't have to be any of these things. people also workshopped gen and the equivalent of coffee shop AUs!)

you'd like to hear perspectives that don't come from cishet dudes

you enjoy Class Participation and discussions (or maybe you're no longer a student and miss that kind of thing!)

you think @bettsfic seems like a good teacher (spoiler: she REALLY is)

you like the idea of a creative writing class with no grades or possibility of "failure"

you'd like to meet people you probably wouldn't meet in any other setting, and make some cool friends from other fandoms

if even a couple of these bullet points sound like you, you'd probably get a lot out of the FAW!! I hope the next session of FAW-ers have a blast. I'll be lurkin the Discord rooting for y'all

[cephaloph0re]

um i guess this got long enough to put under a readmore. hi i'm alek this is my manifesto about the multitudes dazai osamu contains

(hi context i started thinking about painful interactions between dazai and akutagawa post defection and now we are here.)

i have zero complex feelings about akutagawa for the most part unless kyouka, but generally i think he's pretty well understood as someone who fundamentally is a kind person, someone who wants to protect others, but the trait became distorted by his childhood and then used and changed by dazai. and asagiri clearly shows the capacity for care and protection still exists within him intrinsically and he shows care in so many interactions, he just doesn't have ways to express it simply and without overjustification. and generally he isn't as involved in as nearly as many lives as dazai is-- kyouka, atsushi and higuchi are really the only people he affects and it's not at all close to the degree dazai affects others. he's not meant to be narrative set-up like dazai is-- he and atsushi are both the forward motion of it.

but when it comes to dazai it's just SO much more complicated. obviously partially because we don't know anything about the way he grew up, but i would assume any nurturing ability in him was largely made to be a controlling one. i don't think they're very separate concepts. the clearest observation one can make is that he is severely mentally ill. and i think his suicide shtick has kind of made larger fandom a little blind to the severity of that illness-- you kind of think, oh, obviously he's not right. literally every episode he's in he wants to kill himself. besides the fact that dazai making suicide his way of being almost comedic relief desensitizes both the people around him AND THE AUDIENCE to the real possibility, he's generally characterized as someone who is purely controlling, purely out to use and degrade others for his own gain or a forseen 'greater good,' or he's someone whose (fanon!!) arc of change is-- at least to me-- deeply unrealistic. someone whose malignant traits disappeared during those two years, or at least who figured out how to use them constructively for the agency's benefit. both of these ideas of dazai are, for me, really shallow. he's both and also he's other things! while i think it is true that he's begun using the talent for foresight and manipulation that he has for good, it's also true that he wouldn't have done that if not for oda. that's what beast shows us. dazai is generally a creature of habit, and is reluctant to change or move away from, maybe not a comfort zone, but a place where he does thrive. he needs somewhere to be where he feels valued somehow and if that need is met i think it's hard to rip him away. valued as a right-hand, as a genius, as a rival-- it gives him a unique sort of adaptability. it's dazai's way of feeling secure, even if that value doesn't provide any other fulfillment by nature (see his behavior in the mafia pre and post chuuya, and then in the agency pre and post atsushi). so really, it's not that he's fundamentally an evil and conniving person or that he went through some kind of dramatic personal change inspired by oda's death. it's that he is a sort of amphibian. the organs for breathing air and the organs for breathing water coexist-- they're not something he could will out of his personality. they're intrinsically a part of him. it just so happened that the catalyst for that environmental switch was oda's death. i wouldn't even say he was inspired by oda's words specifically to become a good person, which i think a lot of people believe was both their intent and effect. oda really only wanted dazai to see that life can be beautiful, grating personality be damned. that is the change dazai went through-- not personal, not mental, just a change in perspective. doesn't mean he's a good person and changed for the better, doesn't mean he deserves absolute hell for staying the way he was.

sorry that got away from me terribly but that leads into what i'm REALLY thinking about. which is why dazai remains the world's biggest asshole to a lot of the people he's hurt-- not only directly but on purpose! namely: chuuya and akutagawa (funnily enough two characters who are pretty stinkin similar in motivation but im not getting into that rn). people condemn his actions entirely as evil, selfish, unnecessarily cruel. i'm not going to disagree with them, it's a pretty objective observation. but there are also people who sort of bend over backward to justify it. i see it when i read a chuuya who finds it in himself to forgive a regretful dazai, or when a dazai takes it upon himself to apologize and explain that perhaps he saw himself and it scared him, or that he thought it was necessary but knows otherwise, or anything else to akutagawa. both i think are mischaracterized situations. dazai is fully aware of the way he treats certain people, i think. truthfully the only reasons he doesn't treat atsushi worse are that the agency cares and that any further abuse would only break atsushi, not reshape him into anything dazai finds useful. i think the reason akutagawa's training was so particularly harsh is that with the murder of his group of strays he'd become the perfect blank slate dazai could mold into really, whatever he wanted. he simply had to make someone who was not used to imposed discipline into someone who needed it. i do truly believe he does not hold remorse towards akutagawa now-- truthfully, the leash he put on akutagawa is the reason atsushi survived his initial encounter with fukuchi. it's dazai's letting the leash slack that makes him so furiously fascinated with atsushi. but i also can't find it in myself to completely abhorr dazai for his actions. i think they were absolutely cruel and absolutely a horrific thing to do to someone, but i can also so easily see the benefits that have come out of them. which is sort of a really weird thing to write out but i stand by it. akutagawa and atsushi might have just killed each other by now if dazai had no hand in both of their lives. there would be no reason for them to connect, or, at least i think it would feel a thousand times more forced.

even looking at chuuya! chuuya's own experiences being used by dazai (especially in 16 and in stormbringer) are often mistaken for complete and reciprocal trust. but it's not that-- or not just that. 16 sets a precedent for soukoku of true harmony between the two only being achieved in times of extreme danger. they work together, sure, they fight together. and they are a well oiled team that way! but soukoku doesn't truly shut up and get the job done unless something huge is at stake-- their lives, yokohama. i believe this isn't something dazai would miss. chuuya is a very protective person and he's made to care, violently. in those beginning years he doesn't care much about dazai-- any fascination is very one sided. so dazai pushes him into situations where he's destabilized and alone, and when that happens and the change dazai wants to see is taking place, he likes to offer himself for support. the trust they grow isn't fake for it, but it is set to wires and trained. i'm sure chuuya is aware of the way he's used, but not only accepts it as a part of his existence as arahabaki, he allows it to happen as he gets older. it's the rhythm of the relationship he has with dazai (this has been what i mean when i say people underestimate how toxic 16skk was). do i think eventually dazai makes it onto chuuya's list of his people? yeah. is it right? is it healthy? fuck no! a side tangent into romantic soukoku world: this is exactly why they are one of my favorite pairings. i don't think shippers should come to bsd world if they don't want to explore tilted, stunted and even toxic relationships. it's why i also tend not to read aus for this fandom, because it is each character's history, trauma, and effects on other characters that makes the relationships in bsd so interesting to explore, and that's demonstrated especially clearly to me in the ways soukoku interact, through a lens of (weird and definitely in no way healthy) love. okay back to normal meta world. despite all of that, i can still understand why dazai would act like this towards chuuya. it's not the same as shaping a tool for absolute loyalty, it's colored with an obsession of the lonely boy-god dazai sees chuuya as. i think 16 also establishes that dazai does genuinely respect chuuya. he views arahabaki with a reverent awe. but at the same time he believes someone so powerful shouldn't be relegated to the nanny of a handful of orphans, and for chuuya to allow himself to be caught and collared seems to dazai like pure insanity. so obviously he has to put chuuya somewhere he can use his power to thrive, to be a cut above the rest. i think it's pretty obvious he was expecting to take control of the port mafia with chuuya at his side, just as he did in beast. and remember that detail i mentioned a while ago, how the places dazai flourishes are not the sole providers of any will to stay alive? it was chuuya, first. dazai's utter fascination with chuuya is what kept him from trying serious avenues of suicide, mori aside. then, when chuuya wasn't around to be his object of obsession, i believe to some degree it shifted to atsushi. not in the same degree, but dazai saw someone, like chuuya, who was immensely powerful! and, like chuuya, who had something dazai believed was holding him back. atsushi had no idea he harbored the tiger, and when he did, he was terrified of it up until dead apple. atsushi's obstacle, to dazai, was that he felt absolutely zero pride or trust in his own skills and feared being bold, being without a crutch. and really, who better to teach him that than akutagawa, who'd had dependency and hesitance beaten out of him?

anyway. i think a lot of fandom's issues with dazai come from the fact he seems to be everywhere-- he's been orchestrating everything from behind the scenes since sixteen years old. and while i would say that part isn't on purpose, it's true that so much of the main narrative comes back to him. that's why i do think it's a little unfair to see his actions and immediately label him as a cruel and cold inhuman person-- if you do that, at least consider why. don't dismiss him. don't ignore his actions, either-- that serves nothing, and actively makes his and other characters shallower. dazai's influence is pervasive, and those shallower analyses can seriously detract from the integral nuance of bsd. grins

tdlr dazai osamu is an extremely mentally ill character and i think it's a bit unfair to dismiss him as fundamentally bad. there's more to it.

[tamelee]

Personally I don’t really get people who say they acknowledge Sasuke and Naruto’s romantic bond but still ship Sasuke with a woman… Like, they saw that he was gay (he’s shown to not be attracted to women so he’s not bi) but kinda don’t care?

Actually I don’t really understand the whole shipping culture, or even mainstream fandom culture… I don’t know, I just don’t see the point in just making up content for pre-existing characters while completely destroying what made the characters unique in the first place by ignoring canon entirely (like crack-shipping). I get why people wouldn’t like everything about canon, it’s my case too, but if they don’t like anything about canon… Why are they here in the first place?

Nooo now I sound grumpy. I must be bothering you I’m so sorry 😭😭

Anyway, you’re amazing and I hope you know it 🥰

You don't sound grumpy to me dw 🫶

Well, I don't believe such ships have much to do with Canon either way. And I doubt all of them hate Canon per se, though some change 'Canon' to like Canon, which is funny. "This is my Canon." Yeah, not how it works, but ok- have your Canon your way ofc ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

Side-note though, I don't think Sasuke even knows who Hinata is? 😆 It's as you say; crack-shipping. (I saw that giant/small-yaoi meme here on Tumblr again. No idea what it's called, and immediately thought; a yes, Sukuna and Levi. Kinda want to draw xD Makes no sense at all.) A lot of Headcanon is derived from personal... ideas/desires/inspiration or self-inserting reasons? (Isn't that exactly what 'x-reader' fics are?) Or even trend-posting. As much as characters are used to tell a story for the original author/creator (they're essentially tools), do fans use them to create new ideas. "Ah yes, we all know this character, let's create something around it simply because I want to." Which is completely fine, right? Look at rare pairs. And to be fair, a lot of content, fictional writing and art aren't even based on canon either. The closest thing through fan-work are Manga analyses or meta's, even panel redraws- stuff like that. People adapt 'canon' into fanwork through various degrees or sometimes ditch it altogether. Nsfw/spice is by default made up and entirely Headcanon :') (Though personality can be depicted in a way ig, through expression/behavior and whatnot.)

I totally get what you mean though, although I guess I'm caught up in fandom-culture now. Personally, I do like characters as 'canon' as possible, but it really depends. For some Animanga I don't really care. I think I ship pretty much all TR/BlueLock-characters for literally no reason, but I wouldn't claim it to be Canon in any way (˚☐˚! )/

However, I don't like it when Naruto and Sasuke's characters are butchered. Made-up context or not. The originals are so special to me and it's the reason why I'm a fan, though I don't mind too much in fics, depending on the story. I find it hard to feel the same when they've practically become someone's OC's with only the same name and design. I can't even read height/age-differences because I can't imagine it xD But anyway, this all includes "official" work made for financial/marketing reasons also- especially those damn novels. Those never have anything to do with canon, nor does it align with it. No matter how passionately people claim otherwise.

I'm only a tiny bit petty about it >< u&me grumpy 🤝 And aahhww I don't actually, you should see me sitting here in giant red Christmas socks and a glittery green sweater that's kinda itchy tbh. I don't really feel anything other than those glitters annoying me every 3 seconds... which reminds me I should change -.- anw thankyou <3

[themadsquirrel09]

Find you ☆ Chapter 2

👉 Click here to go to chapter 1! 🌌

👉 On AO3 chapter 5 is already out 👽

Fandom ☆ South Park

Ships ☆ KenMan ♡ KenEric (Eric Cartman x Kenny McCormick), Clybe (Bebe StevensxClyde Donovan) and Creek (Tweek TweakxCraig Tucker). There might be some glimpses of other ships.

Characters ☆ Kenny McCormick, Eric Cartman, Tweek Tweak.

Rating ☆ M

Warnings ☆ Swearing, violence, fluffiness. They are aged up here. It starts when they are 14 but happens mostly when they are 18, at the last year of school. 

Chapter summary ☆ At school, Kenny isn't feeling so good and Tweek stays with him; at night, he gets an unexpected call.

☆ 1013 words ☆

With love: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Stan

I have the first class with Tweek, which is nice because we have become close with the years.

“Hey man, are you feeling better?” He asks as the teacher goes on about who knows what.

“Not really, I feel worse… but don't say a word to Kyle!” He shakes a little harder than usual.

“You know I won't!”

“Yeah, sorry. It's just that I hate it when he tells me what to do.”

“I know, hanging out with him can be way too much pressure.” I smile. Fine choice of words. “Don't you want to go to the infirmary?”

“I'll be fine! What's your next class?”

“Chemist.”

“Oh, I have English. See you at lunch, then.” I walk away, but he catches up to me.

“I’ll just skip that, man. You don’t look so good.” We end up going to Stark's Pond.

“Are you sure about this, isn’t it too much pressure?” I say, mocking his motto, he flips me off and I snort. It is still funny that he got that from Craig.

“This is better than school,” says Tweek, looking at the nature.

“Damn right,” I lay down. “I’ll try to sleep, maybe that’s all I need.” Tweek takes a sweater out of his backpack and puts it over me.

“Aww, that’s sweet man. Thank you for staying with me.” He smiles. “If Craig ever gets too stupid, dump him and choose me instead.” I wink at him and he looks nervous for a second, just before he remembers I like to tease him like that.

“If you can joke around, then I guess you are not feeling that bad, right?” I feel like shit, but this cheers me up a bit.

I sleep for a couple of hours, until it starts getting too cold, so we go home. If I’m lucky, no one will be around. Inside the house, Cartman calls. That’s weird, he usually just texts or sends endless voice messages.

“How is it going?”

“Everything is so shitty today I want to kick myself in the nuts.” I laugh. He has his unique way to curse and I have grown fond of it. “But whatever, whatever! Soon it will be different. You’ll see, Kenny.”

“Oh, yeah?” But lately it feels like everything is out of control. Maybe it always was. “How so?”

“Don’t be an asshole, Kenny, if you push me I’ll tell you and you’ll ruin the surprise!”

“Ok then, I’ll hang up,” I say calmly.

“Don’t. Just tell me what’s new.”

“Well,” I have to think about something that doesn’t have to do with my shitty life. "Oh, right! Stan dumped Wendy."

“You mean that Wendy dumped Stan? That's not new!” He answers with a scoff, a grin grows on my face.

“No, idiot! I said Stan dumped Wendy! He did it.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

“That's fucking awesome.”

“Yes, I was sick of them. Stan gets all dark and goth,” I say, finally laying in bed.

"Screw that hippie bitch!”

“You are just pissed at her because you never got her to like you.” I hear him groan.

“Whatever, Kenny. How's Stan?” I guess it is that kind of stuff that makes me think he has changed.

“He was crying and laughing at the same time. It creeped me out! But I think he will be better soon.”

“He will find another hippie, if he doesn't then he still has his jew.” I hum. “Are you still sick?”

“Just a little.”

"God damn it Kenny, I told you not to stay out so late!” I chuckle.

"You can’t tell me what to do, but I will be fine. Don’t worry."  

“If I was there, I would just make you stay home for a while.”

“I’d like to see you try,” I purr, teasing and there's something delightful in his reply, between a scoff and a laugh.

"Kenny." The way he says it sends a shiver of satisfaction through me. “You flirty son of a bitch. What about you, are you dating someone new?”

“Not really. Got bored with the last one.”

“Weren’t you trying that polyamours crap?”

“Yes, I just. I don’t know. Maybe dating is not for me.” 

“And what about sex?”

“I’m too tired to think about that.”

“What. Is it Kenny the one I’m talking to? Did you die and got replaced by an evil clone?”

“Shut up, Cartman. You are being a fucking asshole.” He snickers.

“No, you are an asshole, Kenny. Get some rest and we will talk tomorrow, ok?” 

“Oh, ok.” I’m too tired anyway, so I fall asleep wondering what surprise is he talking about.

I wake up facing the window, the sun is shining and I feel better. I think about Cartman, and when I look at my cell phone, I see that he is calling. I pick up, but I can barely talk.

“Kenny! What the fuck?”

“Huh?”

“Are you still sick?”

“What. No. Better,” I mutter.

“You are late for school! Fucking run.” He hangs up. I look at the clock and shit! I’m half an hour late! I usually wouldn’t care, but I want to graduate this year, so I run as fast as I can, but when I’m getting to the classroom, I slide on a wet tile. I know my head is about to burst with a stair edge. I have died so many times, why is it still scary?

As I fall, my life goes through my eyes until I remember this morning call. 

Wait. 

How did Eric know I was late for school?

Something stops me right before the impact.

Prev ☆ Next

[imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper]

🎀💎🧿

AHHH Thank you for the ask, dear mutual! <3

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

Every once and a while amid a sea of stuff I threw on the page just because, there is a line that haunts me for years to come and that I find intensely impactful and quotable. I have no idea where they come from tbh LMAO And because I’m feeling generous: I think I’m alright at dialogue! I need to work on giving characters more unique voices but I do alright moving the plot with conversations and letting stuff flow. 

💎why is writing important to you?

I have a lot of stories in my head that won’t leave me alone and writing is the ONLY way to get them out. It is intensely painful 98.9999% of the time but somehow against all odds I also love it more than damn near anything. 

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

Meh. I’m gonna be honest it usually DOESN’T so I don’t really know what a “successful” posting experience looks like, I write for small fandoms and am very random and sparse with my posting, my stuff isn’t gonna get the traction most of us crave even if we won’t admit it. Even if the circumstances were better its ludicrous to think my stuff would blow up over anyone else’s. I don’t think the key is to prevent those feelings because I don’t think you really can. I know personally I pour SO MUCH of myself into my writing that it always stings a little to see it have so little traction. Give yourself room for that sting and bitterness. Let yourself be a little bitch baby about it for a while. I always tell myself you can cry in the shower as much as you like just don’t start posting about it and making it everyone else’s problem. In conclusion you nor I can prevent those feelings so just give yourself space to feel them. Just don’t give yourself so much space that you get caught up in your wallowing and forget to write the damn thing LOL. 

Thank you again!!

[prettypastelpetals]

Rant

I don't understand why everything in fandoms has to be "washed" in some way. Like did we watch the same show/movie or even read the same books?

There's a difference between your own vision of a character from a book that doesn't get much description and a character that has a fully canon description from the author. Like, theres a difference between a fancanon and what is actually canon.

Like, why is completely changing any character to another race/ethinicity/color ok when its a white-skinned character, but if they were anything else its wrong to make them white????

I'm sick of seeing it, especially for Harry Potter fanart, because they all make Harry Indian and super dark skinned and Hermione black. Like did we read the same books??? Almost all other character they draw look like the books or the movie actors but those two????

"Well Hermione has curly hair, so obv she's black!" ......Sooo only black people have curly hair???? Or "Harry's tan from playing quidditch".....did ya'll miss the character description of how he's practically snow white in the first book???? Harry has his mothers pale as hell skin, undoubtedly, from how damned sunburned he says he gets in the summer. (I do also have problems with the movies making Blaize Zabini black when he's Italian.....whats with everyone implying you can only be black if your tanned??? Italians have some beautiful olive tone skin, and sure every country has black people, but being "dark skinned" does not immediatly equate to being either indian or black???)(also, being white doesn't immediatly make you American or smth guys, caucasians are white my guys, they exist literally everywhere too.)

Don't even get me started on The Percy Jackson Tv Show, literally none of the characters are book accurate, its infuriating. "There's not enough diversity or inclusivity..." Then make new characters or bring in background ones and make them important too, don't just completely wipe away the characters many know and like that have important features that were numerously stated in the books.

I think to me, as a blonde haired girl who constantly only see's media where the blondes are dumb and airheaded, not ever get to see annabeth in her glory on the screen is devastating. I'm always the subject of dumb blonde jokes and it gets old really quick. do you know how many ACTUAL blondes are on screen? Not many. Annabeth was THE character for that, that was one of her strong points in the books. It was always referenced how smart she was, and how she fought to get rid of the dumb blonde stereotype. And Apparently that makes me racist, but I was also upset at the movies for making her brunette....... I've had people tell me that black women have terrible stereotypes and I agree, they do! But to completely change a character and rewrite them entirely doesn't help that community, it just makes people more angry and prone to rejecting the media.

There is NOTHING inclsuive about forcing diversity onto already established characters. Grow up and create new ones that can and will become just as loved by people for being a natural addition, not a massive change to an already beloved character.

There are plenty of ways to incorporate new characters into Tv shows and movies, even books! or even just bring in background characters, make them relevant and useful! I think the Percy Jackson TV show was wrong when they said it didn't have any diversity. Maybe it didn't in the first set of books, but thats like saying Piper, Reyna, Leo, Hazel, and Frank aren't good enough representations. It feels to me like they are saying those characters aren't good enough to count. each and everyone of those characters are unique and important, well loved and appreciated.

Please stop changing well known characters to fit political and societal agenda's, all it does is stir the pot and make people angry and it causes what could be good shows/movies to flop because it isn't faithful to the source material. and 9/10 times that piece of media will get dropped and probably never remade because its seen as not being popular enough.

Again, if you got down this far, i'm not hating these characters because their colored. I'm hating them because they have been changed from their source material, and they no longer feel like the character they are supposed to be because they look nothing like the character.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.....

[fragilefirstchance]

I actually have thoughts about this! I think Ford is a specific type of character.

First of all: Let's talk about fanon!

Something I think that a lot of us forget when we're doing fan analysis is just how caricaturized all blorbos are in canon. This is true of any work of media: the characters aren't real people, they're figments who only exist as we see them on-screen.

Fanon is kind of like those AI image sharpeners that take a blurred photo and make it look like a person's face: yeah, technically that is an accurate way you can interpret the blur, but there are hundreds of faces that would be just as accurate, and not only are they all very different from each other, they don't even agree on the most basic and obvious traits. The same blurry headshot could be a scowling white woman with a square jaw or a smiling black man with sharp features. In a similar way, when we see a character become stressed because they just saw a mouse in a cage, we could say they're scared of mice, or morally opposed to pets, or that they have cage-based trauma - any option that works is plausible.

I think that there are characters who are good characters, characters who are uniquely good subjects for fanon, and a ven diagram between the two. For example, a lot of kids' shows from the nineties are bad, but they managed to produce a really fun and rich fandom. Meanwhile, some really beautiful and culturally important stories don't leave a lot of room for fan works because they've already said what they need to say. I think the absolute best works for fandom are the ones that are objectively good stories, but have really simplified characters: Undertale might be the best example of this, because every single character suggests a rich and beautiful personality while only being on screen for a relatively short time.

So that leads me to part two: Ford!

I think Ford fills a particular fandom niche that was empty for a lot of us.

He's extremely traumatized, and the more we learn about him, the more traumatized he is. He's kind of pushing the limits of what's acceptable from a kids' show, to be honest.

He canonically has a lot of difficulty making friends; this is partly because he's quirky and seemingly neurodivergent, but partly because he has poor social skills. He's not a cartoony, Eeyore-style "has trouble making friends but we love him anyway" character, either; there are tangible, in-story examples of him failing to make friends.

He behaves badly sometimes. This is actually my favorite trait of his - anyone who reads my fanfiction knows how much I love giving people with real flaws a chance to find love and be treated with respect. Most characters have a flaw to overcome, but in his worst moments, Ford actually lashes out and hurts others in a tangible way and not just a child-friendly way. Showrunners don't always like to show that sort of thing.

It is very, very easy to read some severe mental health symptoms into his behavior. Bill is a literal character, but he's also a pretty good metaphor: you can use him to explain hallucinations, dissociative fugues, sudden mood swings, manic episodes, severe depression, paranoia - the list goes on and on.

(That last one is really important. There's a pretty damn big difference between a good metaphor for mental illness and a thoughtful portrayal of that mental illness in a story. It's kind of like how many of us were so starved for queer representation growing up that we read queer metaphors into everything. Well, there still isn't good mental illness representation in most media, so we'll take the metaphors we can get. Ford is a really good metaphor even as he's presented, and there are a lot of holes in his narrative where personality disorder symptoms, manic episodes, delusions, etc. can slot in easily.)

None of those traits make a good Disney character. They only really work because he spends so little time on-screen; the books were only possible because of Gravity Falls's massive commercial success. So, he's a very rare example of a character who's from a light-hearted, positive, optimistic show aimed at children, but who has all of the template features necessary for us to read him as deeply broken in some ways that aren't sanitized or socially acceptable.

So, there are dozens and dozens of Ford AUs in which we project very specific experiences, traumas, and symptom sets into this one man.

How many Ford AUs out there are reflections of our own insecurities, traumas, and just general unresolved issues? Is that, like, his whole purpose in the wider multiverse of alternate Gravity Falls characters? 'Cause I KNOW it isn't just me

[tetsunabouquet]

Unpopular opinion: Digital Art Is Lacking In Style

Alright, I might get a lot of people disagreeing with me, but it's been bothering me a while now with all the blazed posts. Let me get this straight, I don't think digital art isn't real art, that isn't what I am talking about as having tried myself I know it's damn hard too. What I'm talking about, is my preference for making traditional art and why I have it: Artists in the old days, generally had a unique style, or trademarks. An example of one of my trademarks is my love for pointilism and how I experiment with it. Originally, this style didn't blend colors, but I do blend and mix colors as with things like my mermaid painting, I think pointilism can capture scales in a way more exciting way then trying to make realistic looking scales, or alluding to them. To me, it's just an effect I like to incorporate, and it's way different then what digital artists mean with 'effect'. These are things I generally don't see digital artists do. I don't see them experimenting around with stylistic choices that traditional artists have made, there is nothing that really is specific to that kind of artist, I often see blazed posts going around, where I don't know if I've already seen art of that person before, because digital art is pretty and more cohesive looking but it's also way less unique looking which is why digital art generally feels more boring to me. And I know exactly why a lack of a personal style and art that is perfected to oblivion gets me feeling this way. It's a similar thing to all those YouTube videos with beautiful, realistic drawings of people or characters. It's beautiful, it's art, but it lacks personality and thus, soul. My writing textbooks says, 'Perfection is the death of creativity' just like one of my art teachers when studying illustration spoke out against perfected art pieces because it kills the soul. Digital art showcases this point well. I feel like, a part of this is that not every digital artist actually went to art school, which shows as the few people I did meet who went to art school do in generally have a bit more stylized digital art opposed to the ones without artistic education. I also noticed that art works for smaller fandoms also tends to contain more gems of digital artists who's style stands out like KNB fandom's @ni-kol-koru, you only need to take a look at the digital drawing she made of the Shutoku team with fruit earrings to see digital art with a personality, whereas for popular fandoms you have so many artists without a sense of style that I get too bored at scrolling through fanart to keep up the hope there's someone whose fanart feels unique. So if I want to look at nice fanart that doesn't feels perfected to the point of envoking no emotion whatsoever, I know I should be sticking to the niche ones. I myself was raised by a single mom who failed her illustration exam and would teach me some basics she learnt at illustration when I was a kid which is why I passed illustration myself with ease. She was also involved with the art community even before I was born, and actually was one of the unimportant staff who did Herman Brood's PR. She even had a drawing of his that he made for her during lunch break once which was amongst the things we lost when we moved from the countryside (she was a bit sulky about it when she realized it). I wonder if the young digital artist who doesn't has a solid background in traditional art even knows who people like Herman Brood are. When I scroll through digital art long enough, it tends to blurr and blend together and I don't remember what I saw five art pieces ago. But if I were to look online at art sites who do things like comprise lists in certain genres from various painters, and I barely get that feeling. And it's not like it's impossible. Like I mentioned, there are digital artists who know how to make their drawings stand out from the rest and have potential to really become masters of digital art. But the majority? Pretty stuff that's lifeless to me.

[goatchulu]

immortal! mammon x reincarnated! reader

Genre: angst then fluff in the end

Fandom: obey me!

Prompt: mammon is an immortal, but his lover isn't. destined to die and reincarnate into another form, mammon loathes all the suffering he has to go through for the sake of his mortal lover. he's quick to remind himself though, why you're worth it in the first place.

Warning(s): unedited and it's shit, cursing, sad mammon :((

the breeze blows serenely against the steady falling of rain; the grass swaying along the two, completing the tranquility of the scene. there in the middle of it all stands mammon, melancholic and desolated. he sports a sad smile, something rare to see on the usually moronic demon. his subject of sorrow is in front of him, his eyes following the raindrops that hang hopelessly into the identical tombstones.

the ends of his lips lift up just a tab bit higher, almost in an unnoticeable manner, as he reads the names engraved unto the tombstones. if you asked him to, he'd be able to recite the names in all ways one could name; all so unique and yet, still the same. atleast to him they were.

'what do you mean they all look similar? i really don't see it, they don't sound like each other at all!'

'i don't know! it's just that they have that kind of funk to them.' he had replied jokingly, back then.

'funk?'

'yeah.'

'you're an idiot.' he scrunched his eyebrows in offense, as if he was hurt by the statement. shortly after, he received a cheery laugh, seemingly, at the ridiculousness of his face. and damn, did the sound pluck his heartstings. he joined you in your giggling fit, the two of your laughs echoing from the coffee shop, melting the hearts of those who walked by.

if mammon listened carefully enough, he could still hear that breathtaking laugh. and if he focused solely on remembering, he could still see your angelic face; see the way your eyes scrunched up irresistibly, see the way your stomach rised and fell as you tried to catch your breath, see the way you looked at him.. like he was the only thing in the universe that ever deserved your attention.

a teardrop falls against his wrist, startling him awake from his daydreaming. his breath starts to quiver at his memories of you, it hurts him to know that they were all just memories. did life have to be this cruel? did he have to love you just to lose you everytime?

but he remembered, remembered the way your hand tightened on his as you let go of your last breath; remembered how you held him in your arms, comforting mammon when you were the one lying weakly on your deathbed; remembered how you reassured him that no matter what, you two would find each other again, and again, and again.

"for as long as eternity stretches."

if he could live everyday knowing that he had made every one of your lifetimes all the more meaningful, then he was satisfied. if it meant losing you to love you, then he was willing. if it meant that he woke up to the scent of your favorite flowers every morning, then he was happy.

because as long as he remembers the way you looked at him, the way you loved him, the way you called for him; he was complete.

"don't look so sad, asshole. i leave you alone here for one minute to buy a sandwich and i find you looking like i just died or something." bad joke, you thought, cringing at how ironic the statement was. it didn't matter for long though, as mammon still smiled at you with that stupid lovestruck smile.

"you were a merchant in one of your past lives, ya know that?" he asks you, crouching down to thumb on a name engrabed to one of the tombstones.

you hum at this, feeling a bit disappointed that you were born into the lower class at one point of your previous lives. "considering how hot i am, i'd expect myself to be a noble or a concubine of some sorts. but yeah, being a merchant is cool as well. ooh! did i steal from my customers? that'd be pretty badass of me." mammon chuckles at your proclamation, not finding the right words to answer.

"something like that." you observe mammon's figure, not liking how miserable the demon looked.

"hey, i'm here now and that's what matters." you reassure him, the sad demon not seeming to listen to anything you're saying. this causes you to nudge at his side with your foot, mammon in return, flinching at the sudden (and rough) contact.

"we should go now, your sandwich will get cold and soggy ─ you don't want to make the sandiwch sad, do you?" mammon only nods in agreement, standing up to place himself next to you. he feels your fingers wrap around his, and as he absorbs the warmth of your hand... he feels alive again.

inspired by reinary's immortal. give it a listen.

[niwolah]

My posted stories, part 2

After BL series, I discovered Twoset Violin thanks to my boyfriend and those two violinists Youtubers got me so hooked that I finally posted something after all those years.

I've got eight of them:

- Life with an aging backwards husband

Or:

Two times Eddy is happy Brett looks younger than he really is.

One time it makes him laugh hysterically after worrying.

And another time it actually fucking scares him but Brett expertly calms him.

Each time being longer than the previous one.

Inspo: @crazeymc's art

----

- To cheesy pick up line, cheesier rejection

Brett needs him so Eddy is happy to oblige. And if it leads to something special, so be it.

Inspo:

-----

- Guys with perfect pitch are so annoying

When a cute girl comes to Eddy, he isn't in the mood for a conversation. But when he hears her speaking about perfect pitch, he suddenly has something to say about it. And if Brett could help him, it would be better of course.

Inspo: Eddy's TikTok saying talking/joking about what the title say.

-----

- You're so quiet

Brett and Eddy have a unique way of holding meetings. Brett talks, Eddy listens and types. Everyone knows this and it never bothered anyone. Anyone until Daniel.

-----

- The broccoli proposal

Brett and Eddy go to the grocery store because they're normal people. They're also not normal people really so they act weird but honestly it feels right to act weird.

Inspo: A Twitter convo

-----

- Please, charge (me)

After a long walk, Brett and Eddy stop in a cute café to recover strength.

Also, Brett is a good observer and thinks too much.

Inspo:

-----

- Planning a date is all it takes

“So, when’s our date?”

What? A date? Aren’t they just friends?

I had to see them now. Just to be sure I wasn’t making this up, you know. I silently closed my book and looked around to find somewhere to hide and see them at the same time when I heard Brett’s breathy laugh and Eddy’s suggestive ‘hmm’.

What the heck is happening?!

I know I said I wasn’t nosy but guys, this was premium news! Anyway, it’s not like I’d tell everyone so… Also, we all know Eddy’s tendencies at turning everything sexual but damn, I was very curious now.

Inspo:

-----

- (Bubble tea) Flavour

Brett bought a new bubble tea without Eddy and it isn't well received.

Inspo: Someone on Twitter but I don't remember who and they deleted their tweet...

.

.

.

Aaand now I tell you I'm trying to write for another fandom as well. Yep. But I still have a few WIPs for Breddy and I absolutely want to finish them so... be patient!

[shoggoth-the-bitch]

Okay, I've got so many thoughts on this.

Apologies, this got very long, please feel free to ignore me.

I've talked before in other fandoms about my thoughts on the idea of an Eldritch horror falling in love with a human being. I think it's a unique kind of horror that not enough people actually consider horrifying. Because a god/cosmic entity cannot possibly love a human in a human way.

Think about it. Said entity may actually love the human but how does something that lacks a human understanding of the world actually express their love? What about other human emotions that come with love? What happens when a god gets jealous or they're rejected? What if they become lonely in their human's absence or they pine for them from afar? What happens when their favorite human becomes sick or dies? There's so much danger there, because what if the god becomes volatile and they don't know how to handle those kinds of very human emotions?

Greek myths often tell of mortals who actively flee or reject gods, because they know the dangers of a gods love. Many of those tales end in the mortals death or being turned monstrous. Whether it be Daphne turning into a tree to escape Apollo chasing her or Callisto be turned into a bear after Zeus wore his own daughter's face to trick and seduce her. In both stories the gods "honored" these women; Apollo used the tree as his symbol and wore its leaves as a laurel crown and Zeus turned the bear and the child he fathered with her into constellations. These, in their own skewed, godly ways were acts of love. We as people can clearly see that both of these acts were wrong but a god likely never could.

In modern media, Kayne loving Arthur may be one of the best examples I've ever seen of this. Kayne is absolutely obsessed with Arthur; he's constantly toying with him, watching literally every moment of his life, he likes when he's in pain just as much as he likes to watch him succeed. Kayne revels in the death that's plagued his life almost like he's glad he has to share him with as few people as possible, he kills the Butcher and sends Noel far away almost like he wants to isolate him from everyone but himself and John. He's looked at every possible version of this man and decided only his favorite is actually worth a damn but then still plays with all the rest however he pleases. Some of the other versions he even kills because they aren't good enough for him, they don't meet the standards of his Arthur.

None of that sounds like love to a normal person but Kayne isn't a person and for that reason he couldn't possibly understand love on a human level. But I can also still believe that he loves him, just in his own strange, twisted way. The thing is, him loving Arthur may very well be more dangerous than literally anything else he and John have encountered so far.

I can picture them succeeding and find the Black Stone, only for Kayne needing "just one more thing" from them. Because if he gives them their promised rewards, he has no more reason to see Arthur anymore and he simply couldn't allow that.

I'm firmly of the mind that Kayne's obsession with Arthur will eventually end in one or both of their deaths. I look forward to seeing which it will be.

Kayne loves Arthur, I just dont think we can comprehend how Kayne loves Arthur through a human lense.

I wouldn't say it's romantic, but I wouldn't say it can't be classified as a type of romantic love.

I think Kayne cannot in any way be presented through a humanly idea of emotion, so therefore trying to catergorize his emotions or feelings for Arthur would be an illogical concern.

Kayne loves Arthur, yes. It just can't really be put into words How.

[seyaryminamoto]

Do you think that Sokkla could ever become a thing post canon?

Well... there's several layers to this answer.

Do I, personally, believe that the showrunners and comic writers absolutely could write future content where Azula and Sokka not only interact more, but develop an interest in each other, whether strong enough to become each other's endgame pairing or just a temporary relationship? Why... yes. They absolutely could. Fic writers have been doing it for a while, and they've gone about it veeeery realistically, imo. I don't think it's remotely impossible, I don't even think you NEED Azula to already be redeemed to start a unique personal dynamic between them (there's a lot of story concepts that suggest Sokka could chase after Azula now that she's on the run, interesting things can happen between them in that situation). So, as far as narrative possibility goes, I would say an absolute, proud, completely confident yes.

But... do I think the showrunners and comic writers actually want to do this? :'D

That is, in fact, a whole different question.

My belief in the quality and value of my ship is pretty damn strong, I know it can be an amazing relationship and I've not only developed it several times myself in multiple timelines but I've also seen great fic writers writing them wonderfully, thus, I KNOW it can be done. But something being a possibility does not make it a guaranteed outcome: virtually every ship you can think of is a possibility and it isn't up to us to choose which one will become canon at any point in time. For as long as Avatar is helmed by Bryke and co., I sincerely don't expect them to ever give Sokkla the attention such an interesting ship deserves. The fact that Yang even had them interacting and developing a surprisingly personal rivalry in The Search was already astonishing for me, but as much as I may have rejoiced in it, I KNOW that he wasn't doing it with any intention to feature them as a potential romantic pairing. It's not impossible that the thought crossed their minds, no, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Which, I suppose, means I should elaborate on what I think they're going for? :'D

We have to think about the priorities when it comes to these sorts of media content: what do Bryke and co. want the most with ATLA's characters by now? LOK is, in fact, a rather easy way to find an answer to this question: Azula wasn't mentioned a single time, Sokka and Zuko got no confirmed endgame pairings, in Sokka's case not even any confirmed offspring, therefore, their futures are complete blurs. You can headcanon just about whatever you want, and that's what the fandom has been doing for ages. Why, exactly, did they do this? The answer is pretty simple: it keeps people invested. If you don't tell them, outright, that Sokka married Suki and that Zuko married Mai, people who want to believe that's what happened will be digging into every clue, every sign across ALL future content to hope that ATLA's three main ships stayed together forever. Likewise, people who ship those two with anyone other than Suki and Mai will be looking for clues to the opposite: why would we not see any indication that those two were their wives if it's as simple as that? Why no confirmation about Izumi's parentage through external sources, at least? Why break up Mai and Zuko in the comics unless it's for SOMETHING?

Alas... it's not even funny how easily they can manipulate a fanbase through vagueness. People spent ages taking a thousand guesses as to what happened to Ursa, and then The Search came along...

... And a preeeeetty big chunk of the fandom rejected the explanations because they liked the ones they'd come up with far better than what turned out to be canon.

The same is basically true to what would happen if Bryke and co. confirmed endgame ships for Sokka or Zuko, or for any characters they haven't confirmed endgame pairings for yet. If you tell the fanbase that Sokka married Suki, the fanbase that didn't want that to happen will riot, rage... and most importantly? They'll stop consuming the content they were desperately scavenging for breadcrumbs of their ships until then. It's not even a matter of storytelling as much as it is of business: keep people guessing, keep them baited, and they'll be right there, desperate for ANY kernel of information that suggests one thing or another, anything that makes them think their preferred outcome is what will happen. I honestly find this practice preeeeetty disgusting, to the point where I just haven't touched anything canon from ATLA since North and South #1 because I'm just BORED of the irrelevance of all the latest post-canon content they've released. It's going to bait, it's going to touch the surface of greatness and never really get into it, and it will keep everyone guessing because, as Mike himself admitted in his pretty ridiculous blog post about why The Search #1 had a great ending, when you're telling a story like this one, you just have to keep people on the edge of their seats! So... no, what they're doing in current times is not about telling the best story they can, it's about keeping people engaged, invested and guessing which ship is canon. The longer they keep up the mystery, the longer they can get away with people purchasing every post-canon comic in hopes of finding any sign that what they want for characters' futures will somehow come to pass.

My point is... Sokkla is, in my humble opinion, the absolute best ship to develop in ATLA. The storytelling potential is immense, I've never seen a ship whether involving either of them, or any other characters, that embodies remotely as much potential as they do. It can reach a point where, if you spend long enough falling in love with their love, you just forget that it isn't canon because it's just that GOOD! And even then, it's entirely possible Bryke don't even know that people ship those two and haven't even considered it a potential pairing to develop in future content well, tbh they probably do know it exists and just dismissed it, same as how they dismissed every non-Bryke sanctioned ship in that pretty infamous panel they did where, as far as I know, they didn't even get permission from fanartists to use their art for a slideshow where they ridiculed every non-canon ship they could feature... only to basically diss the fanarts they used, too? nooot a good look on them, no...

All I'm trying to get to is that Bryke's approval or disapproval doesn't really mean much to me anymore, at this point. I'm honestly pretty sure that they're not going for Sokkla, and it's great to be surprised by sudden things like Azula saving Sokka in The Search, or Azula calling him Socky in that panel from Suki, Alone, but I don't think that anything they've done so far is at all any manner of conscious build-up towards Sokkla becoming canon in the future.

And I'm okay with that. I really am. Like I said, I don't need their approval to love what I love. Sokkla becoming canon in the right way would be wonderful, and yet I know that, if it did, we'd have hordes upon hordes of haters claiming any potential version of the ship is abusive (even if it were developed properly and the romantic relationship itself depicted in a healthy manner), that it's racist or homophobic or what-have-you, and that the shippers are garbage for supporting something that is offensive to their existences because their minds are geared to interpret everything as a personal offense despite it has nothing to do with them. I'm not going to pretend I'd be particularly vexed by these stale takes, it would certainly be annoying, but I'd be happy to block them all x'D and yet my point is... the ship is already incredible as it is. I don't need Bryke's approval to know it. I've developed it for nearly 10 years now x'D I've been working with it for what feels like ages! And I have zero doubts that it's one of the greatest ships there ever were. If Bryke disagree or agree, that's irrelevant to the storytelling quality these two can embody: said quality is absolutely there, and I'll always enjoy developing and exploring it in my content, no matter if Sokkla is not canon and never becomes canon.

... And I know it may not be what you were hoping to read from me? But like I said, becoming canon just... isn't really my concern at this point. I don't think Bryke should be telling a story just because I want that story to be told: if they don't want to tell it, I will do it just fine via fanfiction and we'll all be happier for it. If they're not interested in exploring this amazing possibility, no doubt I'd think of it as their loss because I think their potential is absolutely incredible, but they don't owe me anything in those regards, much as I don't owe them the absolute obedience of only writing whatever canon ships they've chosen over everything else. I can create whatever I want to, and so can they. If, by some miracle, their interests end up aligning with mine, you can be sure that I'll cherish it, but if they don't? It's not up to me to decide the content they made sucks just because it's not catered to my personal tastes.

My criticism of Bryke and their choices is, as best as I can, a criticism of how they could have told their story better (as in, looking at their intent, analyzing and interpreting it, and identifying the issues in the execution of each concept in order to understand why it's not working quite as well as it could be). A lot of that criticism is in regards to Azula, Iroh and Zuko: I do feel that the writing is biased in many ways when it comes to these characters, and I feel the show could have benefitted from a different approach to writing each of them to achieve its goals for all three characters. Not once, though, have I said "this show would be better simply if my ship were canon". Speaking seriously, the truth is that the show lacks the narrative build-up necessary for Sokka and Azula to be in a proper romantic relationship. If they'd pulled this out of nowhere, with no build-up, upon finishing the story or so? I'd honestly be outraged over such a cop-out. If they did it correctly by gradually developing something of substance between them, yes, I'd be over the moon. But it's clear as day that this wasn't the intent of the writers and showrunners, and so, this wouldn't be a serious criticism to make: a lot of people love other ships that also don't have build-up, thus, they're in the same boat as we are. Whether you believe your own ship is better than the others is your business... but that doesn't make your ship entitled to "canon" status just because it's the one you like best. No matter how valid, no matter how complex and how much potential it may have, nobody is entitled to that.

Whatever ships they want to make canon for Sokka and Azula, if they even want to make any, had better be developed, fleshed out and built up properly. If it isn't Sokkla? No, I won't be particularly happy... but I won't feel entitled to rage at them on the basis that "my ship is better" or "how dare you not make my fanfic dreams canon". That's not an actual argument, storytelling-wise, to criticize ANYTHING.

Just... going a little deeper into the "my ship deserves to be canon" debate? I honestly have been in fandoms for ages and seen so many ship wars over "who gets to be canon" and "who's the true endgame couple" and "who should have been canon and got robbed"... and they're always a goddamn waste of time. All the time you waste debating with someone who disagrees with you regarding which ship will be canon will is time you could be spending creating actual content about whatever you're passionate about, or just talking with people who love what you love. Typically, these ship wars end up having a hilariously stupid effect on people: they become more passionate about hating the "rival" ship than about loving the one they support. Yes, I find that profoundly stupid. There's a fair share of ships out there that I dislike and I honestly prefer to spend as little time as possible thinking about them... but, heh, people going wild with ship wars apparently think they're on some religious crusade to prove their religion's superiority? And my god, it's already stupid when religions do it... but it's beyond idiotic to do it over fictional ships whose canoncity is 100% NOT in your control as a fan.

Thus, while I'm happy enough to see my ships becoming canon (surprisingly, it has happened a handful of times!), I'm really not invested in horse-race shipping, as in, placing bets obsessively on one horse/ship and screaming like a banshee over how canon it is, pretending that doing so will SOMEHOW make it more valid and inspire it to pull forward and win the race...! Honestly, I don't even know if cheers have any impact on how a horse runs in races xD but what I do know is that the best stories are NOT told that way. In fact, I can't think of a single situation where a fanbase demanding for a ship's canonicity did ANYTHING favorable for a TV show: see OUAT's ghastly, steep decline in narrative quality and all-around purpose once a certain "bad boy" started to be promoted as the one true love of the protagonist. See Supernatural's 15-season run, where people who loved the show actually dropped it around seasons 5-8 because it was clear that they'd run out of actual storytelling material, but the slash shippers of two of the protagonists were so devoted and giving them such high ratings that the show had enough momentum to carry on into irrelevance for FIFTEEN YEARS... only to make the aforementioned ship canon for 2 seconds before killing one half of the ship. And of course, see Voltron, altogether, and how the unbelievable toxicity of a fanon ship basically drove the fandom, the cast and staff, hell, the show itself, into sheer incoherence.

These three cases of VERY popular TV shows have one thing in common (or at least one) that saw their narrative sense and quality vanishing beyond repair: a horde of rabid shippers demanded to be pleased and the showrunners caved in, destroying their story if that's what it took to deliver something (or to not deliver it but allow fans to imagine it would happen in the future, as the case was in Voltron) that was not worth derailing their whole shows over. I'm not ever, EVER, going to pretend that showrunners and writers have the final say on their content, it's 100% likely that they don't see things the way fans do, and a common person could actually flesh out the content they overlooked (as seen through fanfiction) and develop it beautifully. But, see... sometimes, stories take life of their own and become better upon going off-course. What I'm describing here, however, is not giving stories life of their own: this is forcing stories to adequate to whatever will "sell more". And that concept is basically the annihilation of art as... well, art.

No, I'm not under any delusions that showrunners like Bryke create the stories they do out of nothing but the need to tell stories: these guys need to eat, as does everyone, and their creation of Avatar was a gold mine for them, a very lucky hit, one that they're still reaping benefits for, 17 years later. Clearly, if your story is being published or distributed by a major corporation, you're not a selfless soul sharing stories with the world for free because you think art should be for everyone... but that's nowhere close to the greed I'm talking about in the previous paragraph. You CAN tell a story, earn a wage, pay your dues and make profit WITHOUT sacrificing your integrity as an artist. The minute you start telling a story by looking into whatever is popular in your fanbase, the minute you lose sight of whatever goal you had in mind (if you had any) for your story just for the sake of earning more popularity, you're not making art. You're just making a product and looking to sell it, and it shows in how the quality of the story typically just dips and dies when this happens: I would NEVER want my ships to become canon if this is how it happens.

For me, this is the problem as seen from a broader perspective. If Bryke want to make this ship, or any ship, canon? They have to put in the work. They have to tell the story right. They can't just rely on fanbase thirst and desperation in order to tell a story through silences (which, I'll say, is something that CAN be done properly, but that's certainly not what they're doing with any ship so far) and then call a ship canon without proper, narrative build-up for it. Do I think that there's build-up in canon for Sokkla so far? Not at all. You did ask if I thought it possible for it to happen in the future, ergo, the build-up absolutely could happen going forward and then we could have a great depiction of their relationship. Ergo, I say of course it is possible... but I don't want it if it's going to be something they do at random, poorly developing it or, worse yet, turning it into a joke. The closest they ever came to exploring ANYTHING remotely similar to Sokkla was the horrific depiction of Bolin and Eska's relationship in Book 2... and that was, indeed, played for jokes. And not very good ones, I might add. If that's all they could do for Sokkla? I, frankly, don't want it. This ship has a ton of potential, soooo much of it, and the concept of Azula having Sokka whipped and him being a total himbo to her girlboss is such a light scratch on the surface of the ship that it doesn't really count for me as an exploration of it at all. The point where these two start to see each other as equals even if subconsciously, clash but develop a slow respect for each other, grow to feel affection for one another and to want to protect each other at all costs? That's what I'd love to see. And I sincerely don't think that's a story they care to tell so far.

If I sound defeatist, it's probably just because fandom culture has put suuuuch a ridiculous priority on "becoming canon" that not everyone would know what to make out of hearing someone say they love their ship but doesn't NEED it to be canon. The truth is, for a lot of us, shipping isn't a matter of choosing the winning horse. It's a matter of delving into what canon didn't, into looking for the kernels of brilliance that weren't explored as profoundly as we believe they could have been. And so, we explore them ourselves, or we look for content created by other people who also did that exploration. But we don't need a ship to be canon to love it, I certainly don't. I've loved a lot of ships that have been sunken in canon and it doesn't matter to me one bit that they're not canon: why? Because, to me, shipping just to be canon is just playing a roulette game. You're picking your favorite color, or your favorite number, and waiting for the universe to align so you can get a victory. But there are so many other possibilities, and it's completely possible that the roulette will land elsewhere: what are you going to do if that happens? Switch to the next table and try again? On and on until you get it right? Well, it's completely possible that you'll find yourself penniless by the end of the night without getting a single lucky hit... but oh, imagine you get one! And boy, oh boy, maybe you only doubled your money, but that still means profit! Maybe you got the jackpot!

... And then the roulette table gets cleared. And the next game starts. And that moment of triumph gave you whatever profit you'll be prompt to waste again on the next table, and the next, and the next, all looking for some profit that just won't get you anywhere but to the next table, in the end.

The satisfaction of seeing your ship becoming canon is fun and all... but that's really not all there is to shipping for me. I mean, I guess it was when I was very young and innocent, and then the Bleach fandom introduced me to crack pairings and my brain was blown away by the possibilities of testing random character pairings until you found one that worked PERFECTLY. And that the ship would never be canon didn't matter, because I'd find amazing fics to enjoy and maybe even the occasional fanart to be hyped over, and it's a much more lasting joy than simply waiting for the roulette to land where I wanted it to, or for the horse I bet on to win the race. Worse yet, maybe there's things worth enjoying in roulette spinning or horse racing... but the obsession with victory is so strong that whatever else there is of value in either contest just falls out of focus.

And that's seriously the way this sort of "shipping for canon" mentality feels for me. It's "destination over journey" mentality, too: "who cares how poorly my ship gets portrayed as long as I can say it's canon?!" Is a take I cannot believe is still happening to this day... but it is. I'm not trying to take a dump on canon ships in ATLA, but frankly, none of the three main canon ships in ATLA were realized to the best of their potential and I seldom see any of their vocal fans admitting as much. All of them could have been executed so much better and they weren't. Does that mean they shouldn't rejoice in being canon? Of course not, but being canon doesn't equal perfection, or any form of superiority, and yet that's what most canon shippers appear to believe (and boy have I seen this toxic attitude in waaaay worse ships than anything ATLA's fandom can offer). Worse yet, it's what a lot of non-canon shippers somehow believe too: "if my ship were canon everyone would be shipping it!" uuuh... but if you DON'T ship what's already canon, what makes you think there'd be an unanimous understanding between yourself and countless others simply if your ship had any form of canon validation? It's outright admitting you privilege canon above quality, and that doesn't say anything good about a person's criteria...

Okay, so... to summarize:

Yes, Sokkla could be canon in the future. Otherwise, I don't think so many fic writers would have had as much fun as we've had developing this incredibly engaging, complex and satisfactory relationship in our work.

But... I don't want it to be canon unless Bryke and their writers build it up appropriately and portray it as the complex, interesting ship it can be. If they play it exclusively for the laughs and turn it into Azula walking all over a bland and shallow version of Sokka? I simply don't care for it.

I don't need Sokkla to be canon to love it as much as I do. My participation in fandom has zero correlation with what's canon and what isn't. I work with the ships I work with because I think there's value in them, not because Bryke or their writers decided they were the only ones anyone's allowed to create content for (which, tbh, goes without saying because the only canon ship that has featured in my main story is Kataang and it's not even close to the central focus of the story).

Shipping for canonicity's sake is pointless to me. Too often canon will take a route that isn't the one you would prefer, whether by making other ships canon or by making yours canon without truly developing it in the best way possible. If the only thing that matters to someone in shipping is being able to declare that it's canon, their priorities are certainly not ones I share because canon =/= perfection, canon =/= superiority, canon =/= word of god. If I thought any of those things were true, believe me, I'd live a very miserable life right now and I wouldn't even have received your ask, since I'd likely have never become a relevant enough person in this fandom (and I don't think I'm that relevant, but I seriously don't think I'd even participate in fandom activities at all in this case) to be granted any sort of attention :')

Alas, there you have it. I rambled, as ever xD

[sitp-recs]

hey liv. hope you are doing well.

i have another type of ask? just looking for some advice, honestly. i been reading drarry fics for um 8 months now. so i'm new, but totally grabbed by it. I notice there is some kind of patter on the fics i like so, i was thinking of making a rec-list!

the thing is, i'm a fan that kinda hides on the bushes. I leave some comments here and there but usually i find fics late, so most of the time the author doesn't respond (witch is totally fine i'm just saying i am not very good at "keeping up") and i get overwhelmed with discord serves, they are not for me.

so yeah maybe it would be kind of weird of me just making this huge list praising my favs writers since my blog isn't even entirely fandom, and i certainly haven't read as much as someone thats been here for years now (i read people here saying they ship drarry since 2003. jesus christ. i was 3 years old back then 😅)

also, English is not my first language so i just keep thinking no one would like their fic getting recced with spelling or grammar mistakes lmao

anyways, thank you for your time 😘

Hi anon! Thanks for trusting me enough to send this ask, especially now I’m trying to figure out my role in the fandom, and on Tumblr. Funny how apart from the fact you’ve been reading Drarry for 8 months and I’ve been here since before 2003 (god💀) everything you said def applies to me. Before creating this blog I had always been a lurker, somewhat casual fan that didn’t interact much beyond a few incoherent comments, wasn’t up to date as I kept coming and going between fandoms, and didn’t feel very confident about my recs (and comments) at all, as I’m not a native English speaker either.

I still created the blog when I felt the urge to do so, and had a great time preparing and sharing those recs! I mostly did them for myself, an experiment to distract me during quarantine as I took a break from my old fandom. I didn’t have many followers back then, and was too shy to tag authors. I didn’t care about my stats (still don’t, tbh) and the lack of buzz actually felt comforting because that meant working in a low pressure environment. You don’t have to interact any more than what you want, or at all, if you become a reccer. You could make it as often or casual as you want, and solely focus on fics that have touched you in a special way.

Don’t worry about not having read as much as other people, or about grammar and spelling mistakes - the beauty of reccing is that it’s a selfless, generous act. We’re giving our time and energy to make authors feel appreciated, and to hopefully inspire other readers to check out their works and give them some love. It’s about feeling so moved by something you want everyone else to feel that exact same spark you felt, instead of keeping that story hidden from the rest of the world. You know how we keep saying authors shouldn’t worry about writing popular tropes again and again? In my opinion it’s the same with reccers. No matter how many times we mention the same beloved, popular fic, I truly believe that everyone has an unique voice and something important to bring to the table, as we’re all touched differently by the same things and have different world views and backgrounds. I’m sure any author would feel humbled and ecstatic to see their fics recced on your blog, grammar mistakes be damned :)

I hope this felt like a kind encouragement and support so you can do what you feel is right. Trust your instincts, be gentle to yourself, set the pace and the boundaries you wish to follow and curate your experience. And if it gets to be too much, there’s no shame in taking a step back and taking care of yourself. Good luck! 💜