#(i was already born here tho so i was a us citizen)

[rivnedell]

I'm just fucking ashamed to be French, though I always was more proud to be European and identified as citizen of the world (well European proud now is questionable tho..) And I never felt like I was born in the right place, something always felt off. And fuck, tonight.. I feel so kxndkdkdokdjxf.

I love many things in France. But.. I think I hate more things that I love some.. I've always felt attracted to foreigners, talk to them, speak with them and exchange point of views.

I'm glad I was born here bc yeah, we have social security, we can vote, woman can proceed abortion, we are Free (well, les and less since Macaron 🥲, I know, we like to call him this way)..... And fuck things were bad before he arrived at the Elysée but since 2017......... It's H.E.L.L.

ALSO

My fellows foreign friends who would like to come to the Olympics in Paris PLEASE DO NOT COME !! It's going to be a shit show (I'm looking forward to seeing that shit happen tho so it will shut the fucking bureaucrats' nuts head).

Reasons not to come :

- They forced students to move out from they student lodging !! Like... Some are on the streets now ?? They encouraged renters to move their tenants so they could rent their apartment at crazy rates to tourists. (All of this in Paris.)

- They forced to move, like literally took them in buses, homeless refugees out of Paris and Ile-de-France (Paris region) to farer regions (invluding where I live), they left them there, without any care or home, the gov b just like... "Let's just move the "problem" but we don't make anything to help them" 😤 So where I live now there's countless men, hanging in the streets, helpless, homeless, drunk and cracked, and I'm scared, even walking during daytime. I have all the sympathy of the world regarding to their situation + how they were treated by the governement, but the lack of help makes them, in a righful title, more aggressive and defensive. (And this is how the gov keeps the vicious circle going, no help, defensiveness, aggressiveness, more police etc etc..)

- The metro tickets will go from 2€50 (WHICH IS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE ALREADY WTF) to 4€ YALL do not come and waist your money to the metro company please !!!

- The government/senate passed a law for "exceptional" video surveillance with AI for the Olympics, which Amnesty Internation did condemn bc it flirts with violation of Human Rights... Well Macaron activated it... A fucking year ago, yes in April 2023 and will last WAAAAY after the Olympics. And on top of it they didn't confirm that AI facial recognition will be totally prohibited. They didn't fucking confirm it's an absolute no, they reserved themselves the possibility to use it "just in case". They let the fog settle so they can sell and use citizens' private data. Bros are going to transform France into China, extra militarized and super aggressive police... For the universe's sake, I can't stand those jerks.

So the Olympics are clearly used as pretexts to pass laws and things that are NOT OKAY at all. I mentioned the main things of course but all of the organization is outraging for us here. And I pray the Universe Macaron will caught a cold when the atrocity of this will hit his nose in a great wave of cruel ice just as cruel and degrading he is.

Period.

[spotsupstuff]

I'VE COME TO RELIEVE YOU FROM THE HOARDE OF BEPPI LOVERS

this is your free ramble pass! feel free to use this ask as an excuse to ramble about whatever random crap you feel like rambling about

hmm..... how about... broadening the worldbuilding horizons a lil with some of the filler Iterators. here's the list of names that i'm slowly workin on to develop into enough of people for my tastes

most well defined of these rn are: Orion, Spore, Gem, Expiation, Rustle, NAE NAE BITCH (Embrace), Vapor and kind of Sadness

with Presence being... finished on account of literally being just IKEA memes the Iterator. that was sister's idea, not mine jglksdmcklsd he's a hippie during the day, creepy fuck during the night. one never knows what's goin on with him, but he's usually sweet n helpful. probably stands in dark hallways with a knife in hand right next to Notos tho. it also has a knife in hand

Orion's Pathway is slowly gaining on importance and characterization!

(quick concept doodle, very much subject to change yet but the mark is most likely gon stay)

he's the 3rd eldest Iterator of the Eo group, finished and brought online about 190 years (Or Honestly More, Fuckers Big n it is all very early on yet) after Boreas' construction. bein the Third means he actually got to socialize with Boreas' antisocial bum (and Zephyr too). all of the Iterator social business that Boreas doesn't wanna deal with he throws at This Kid until Euros comes around. then the two get to share Boreas' "i really don't wanna do this, here you kids go" shit

Orion might look all cool and stuff, but the idea of him wasn't actually even born out of the constellation/myth originally! the idea and also color palette all (will) come from the czech chocolate by the same name

fuckin Love this shit. and just like Orion Chocolate Shop's milk chocolate, Orion's Pathway is a sweet, soft kid that is just a delight to interact with. unlike Boreas, he's an actual angel without any blemishes. he's like the Prince Charming (cinderella 3) of the Iterators... he looks up to ol' Bee a lot <3 his voice claim is Ebucs as of rn

Orion is positioned here on the map (aaaand das Spore right under him <3):

which is Important cuz this darling fucker actually has lore that is very location specific

he serves as something of a physical border/something of a custom office(???) to the Frost's Promise group. works well with how much of a geographical choke point that there is. originally, this wasn't the case including his whole helmet look, but if u caught the whisper of that one war with Iterators in it that i mentioned, then this was it. that changed Orion from a regular Iterator to something of a border guard. the war was between the Ancients of the Eo group and the Frost's Promise group. it happened in the first quarter of Gen 2 ages, so Fish was already around but not Euros

he doesn't actually have a sword n a shield with his puppet, that is mostly mural and such stuff, but the helmet was added to make him look inspiring to his citizens n intimidating to the enemy whenever his image would be projected for whatever reason

he's also something of an old school Phone Operator and had the unofficial title of being the Chief of it just because of his age. after Euros shows up and gets the full hang of the communication systems + handling of the Aeolus Root, most of all Orion's Phone Operator privilages are stripped from him ("oh thank the void." he says, overworked and tired and so excited to get some time for himself. this little hyperactive red fuck is gonna handle it all Just Fine)

stuff for some other filler Iterators:

• Spore's whole thing was that she was originally meant to be one of the first medicine focused Iterator facilities. her placement in the shroom place was done on purpose because as we all know shrooms can get a lil funny in the RW universe. this went wrong though, when the spores of the shrooms got into her systems and started parasiting on her neurons similarly to cordyceps with ants. that is what those jellyfish lookin things stuck on her are!! parasitic neurons already tryin to take her over

a big part of Mission Self-preservation in her case was saving her from the fate that we see her succumbed to at the start of the Ascending Notos comic - her voice claim is something like... Fluttershy but with a Minion from Despicable Me effect/feel to it??? this is the real blorbo of the Eo group fuck everybody else • this is NAE. NAE is a bastard

often bitches about how stupid his name is. then two weeks after the Mass Ascension his arms just kinda Fall Off and he's like "OOOOOH. OOOOOOOOH. *OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!* WELL *SOME-FUCKING-BODY* IS GIGGLING FROM THE BOTTOM OF THEIR VOID STAINED BATHTUB, AREN'T THEY. MOTHER. **FUCKER.**" - he's Euros' neighbour and his Mechanic at that time came to help Sparrows out with the 1st Rot situation. Euros likes annoying him a lot • Gem in an Eye is going to be based off of a witch a lil, she's gonna do shit with ✨ crystals ✨ (she's an asshole) • Sordid Expiation will be based off of a nun and will be bitchily religious (unlike Fish who is funnily religious- he's like a conspiracy theorist while Expiation is all serious bleeeeegh boooooo 👎) - Gem and Expiation have a playful rivarly going on, crystals vs religion. with Spore in the friend group, medicine joins in, but when she gets worse with those parasitic shrooms she stops joining in on the play-arguments • Raspy Rustle's voice claim is AnnenMayKantereit and he is a Sweetheart. he and Reed get mistaken for each other often because of the initials n they might end up havin similar chat clrs too. both find it very funny • Vapor is based around the vaporwave aesthetic and is Notos' neighbour. so you have this goth bitch who doesn't care for attention and right next to it is this pastel neon chillax'd music star who cares a LOT for attention (like that one meme with the houses...). her mark is that vaporwave sun and it's splattered all over her face instead of just on the forehead • Sadness is based off of Sad Machine by Porter Robinson- her clr palette will be sampled from the album cover n her voice claim is That song as well. she's closeby to Fish and Likes Writing Poems :')

[rainyday-deer]

Things I have learned while living in Maritime Canada for the last 6 months, as a person who was born and raised in Arizona:

Fog makes things wet. One of my most shocking revelations tbh. It seems so obvious in retrospect, but somehow it never occurred to me at all.

Paying taxes as a US citizen when you’re NOT in the states is a huge pain in the ass. 0/10, do not recommend.

At least where I am, air conditioning seems to be hard to come by. Heaters are understandably more important (However I sleep warm, and thus was dying, and had to sleep with my window wide open all winter.)

There’s jellyfish this far up north! I’ve seen Sea Gooseberries and I was Astounded.

Buildings built in the 1800s (and some 1700s) still being used today is Super Normal Actually, and they even get a fancy lil plaque.

Boat parts just laying around.

GRASS GETS SO LONG????? SO LONG. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME GRASS GETS THAT LONG, AND SO FAST.

Spring is??? So slow???? It’s already May and the trees are only now budding, and flowers are only now blooming. In AZ it would already well be considered summer and most of the plants would be on their way to being shriveled husks.

DANDELIONS CLOSE AT NIGHT???? MOST FLOWERS DO???? I’ve only seen Desert Poppies do that.

sunset is around 8:30 right now. It used to go down at 5. The disparity confuses me.

Daylight Savings also confuses me and I Hate It

The most dangerous animals here aren’t venomous and are Also hard to come by. I will keep you all posted on any Moose Sightings.

Canada is REALLY patriotic. There’s jokes about the US leaning hard on the ‘made in America!’ thing, but Canada takes it even further I find. Maple leaves everywhere. ‘Canadian made/grown/raised’ on everything. The fast food joints have a maple leaf stuck gracefully somewhere in their logo so you know this is the CANADIAN version of that thing. A friend explained why to me but it’s still something I’m amused by.

The post office doesn’t close at 5. I am still shocked.

Bus tickets can also be used for Ferries, if your city has one!

Like Coffeemate creamer??? Good fucking luck finding that shit. And if you can, good luck finding a flavor besides Hazelnut or French Vanilla. (The After 8 flavor is good tho, if you can find it.)

Reddiwhip cannot be found anywhere and I miss it SO Much

I miss Target too.

Lots of stuff I miss, actually, that I didn’t realize Canada just Didn’t Have. RIP.

Canadian Shipping my Beloathed. Expensive + takes forever + more expensive if you get charged Duty on your items so That Sucks

Paper straws and resuable bags, yes, HOWEVER, also useless extra plastic in other ways, or taking away things in packaging that would ordinarily prevent using MORE plastic, only to use more of it anyway bc it’s gone. Very questionable.

I think I have more reusable shopping bags than I will ever need in my lifetime now.

I will presumably update my Canada Log™ at a later date, but for now thats all I can think of.

[tiodolma]

Morgana as an Insurrectionist, Merlin as a Failed Negotiator, and the Dehumanization of Radicalized Rebels

okay.

definition first

in·sur·rec·tion

The act or an instance of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government.

Morgana is an insurgent/insurrectionist, okay? She's basically a rebel in the "I will revolt against the government" kind of way.

Morgana is that bright smart self righteous and privileged kid that got whisked away by rebels into the mountains. One year in isolation with a loved one who has an Agenda is long and significant. That kind of thing brainwashes and radicalizes people.

Moreover Morgana have seen the injustices first hand and close to the source. She has been persecuted for it too.

So Its really not surprising that she came out as an absolutist/extremist and ready to overthrow the government with any means necessary.

It does get me thinking tho. Insurrectionists are usually people that have been deeply hurt by a country’s systemic injustice. These guys have seen no other solution to their problems other than to take up arms.

In my country, the govt offer amnesty to people like that to get them to stop. Insurrectionists are encouraged to surrender and lay down their weapons while the govt hears their demands and grievances and help them by

offering support and assistance (financial, legal, medical)

basic education, etc.

not jailing them

giving them freedom

forgiving past crimes as long as they dont go back to being insurgents

Bottomline is you don't expect people like these to just offer themselves up for the government or "good of all." There has to be a "give and take" agreement that will benefit both parties. The government has to make sure former insurgents' lives improve after they lay down their weapons. The government has to make sure that insurrectionist won't have reasons to take up arms again.

And it works! (this is from the official military report from my nation)

That’s what bothers me about Merlin and Morgana in their crypt scene in S3 Tears of Uther Pendragon Part 2. He was in the position to negotiate with her. His own previous choices propped himself up for that position. She is his responsibility now.

As I said, Merlin was in the position for peace talks/ to provide amnesty. The crypts were their negotiating table. REMEMBER He cannot bargain with an insurrectionist like Morgana and just tell her to “be good” while not offering something up in return. Negotiation is not a one way street .

Morgana's life was hell in Camelot, remember? She wanted a better life. She wanted a better Camelot. But Camelot was not ready for her.

MERLIN Morgana, please. I beg you. Women and children are dying. The city will fall.

MORGANA Good.

MERLIN No, you don't mean that.

MORGANA I have magic, Merlin. Uther hates me and everyone like me. Why should I feel any differently about him?

MERLIN You of all people could change Uther's mind, but doing this? Using magic like this will only harden his heart.

MORGANA You don't have magic, Merlin. How could you hope to understand?

MERLIN I do understand, believe me. If I had your gifts, I would harness them for good. That's what magic should be for. That's why you were born with these powers.

In that tense conversation with Merlin, Morgana already laid down all her cards on the negotiating table.

"I have magic Merlin"

"Uther hates me and my kind"

"Why should I care about the citizens of Camelot who will just want to see me killed?"

"They should just die because they'll only stand there and watch and agree if I get burned in the pyre"

"I am scared Merlin"

"Should I be executed for what I am? I am an outsider here! Yet this is my home!"

"I just wanted to live in freedom"

--> All valid arguments by the way. Remember, Morgana has been heavily radicalized. She is thinking in extremes. Yet!!!! she was being vulnerable here despite being on edge and on a war path.

Morgana still gave time for a diplomatic talk. She was willing to hear him out. this is important.

She asks Merlin

"You don't have magic, right?"

"How can you hope to understand?"

Merlin offers these to her in return:

"I do understand, believe me" the problem with this: ...dude was talking to a radicalized person. He cannot just use the words he said to her to get her to trust him in S1/S2 and leave it like that. She had already found someone else that she could trust better, Morgause, whom he knows that Morgana has been with for the whole year. This statement alone isn't enough.

"If I had your gifts, I would harness them for good. That's what magic should be for. That's why you were born with these powers." the problem with this: ...HEY MERLIN, The following uses of magic gets men, women and children SENTENCED TO DIE in camelot: 1)healing, 2)protection, 3)making life and work easier, 4)doing business with magic folk, 5)existing!

WHAT'S GOOD?

What's "good" to Merlin anyway?

is "good" continuously letting the tyrant king and his son live? is "good" being happy that arthur still doesnt understand the magical circumstances of his own birth? is "good" poisoning his own friend after she explicitly told him that she trusted him???

WE CAN SEE NOW JUST HOW UNCONVINCING MERLIN'S ARGUMENTS ARE.

We have to remember that what insurrectionists like Morgana want are concrete/tangible/workable solutions to their grievances. This was something Merlin could have given if he just had been braver and more decisive.

"Everything will be better once Arthur is King" won't cut it. There is no fixed timeline to this. Insurgents will not wait in patience and just watch as the system oppresses more people.

"We can find another way" WILL NOT CUT IT if he doesn't show what "the other way is." (if it exists)

JFC. They were already on the negotiating table, as negotiator, Merlin has to give everything he could offer as well.

I repeat, in order for a compromise to be achieved, both sides have to meet in the middle. Morgana was already doing this! She even warned him to run away while he still could! She had lain her truths, her vulnerabilities and grievances in front of him to be inspected and to be judged.

What does Merlin do? He still denies that he has magic. He refused to be vulnerable and admit the truth of himself to her. He wasn't meeting her on equal ground. He didn't want to compromise himself the way Morgana just did. That was the least he could do to be honest. He had to be accountable for his decisions and choices for Morgana to truly learn how to accept him back. The negotiation had become one-sided.

Let's be real despite his declaration of "We can find another way", Merlin never had an actual plan of action in order to bring magic back other than help Arthur be crowned as king. That's why he had nothing to offer to truly comfort Morgana other than the truth of his own self and a real apology from him.

Merlin refused to lay his cards on the table while Morgana had all of hers spread open. Merlin had backed down from his end of the bargain.

Understandably Morgana's response is "There is no other way"

Negotiations have broken. The initial peace talks have failed.

Edit 3/22/23: “everything will be better once arthur becomes king” may have worked for a bit IF Merlin actually laid solid groundwork for Arthur to accept magic (we know in s2 that this deffo didnt happen with how merlin lied to arthur about his birth in S2 Sins of the Father). In that case because his actions set him back, Merlin may have had to reveal to Morgana part of the beliefs of the magic-kind prophetic sect that he was working towards. That could have been “the other way” he was preaching to her about. Morgana would at least have understood him a little or at least seen his side of things. He never gave her that chance though. Moreover! If he had reveal this important information to her, he would still be on a time limit. This is important. Morgana would have demanded clear results on the soonest possible instance. Morgana would still have cause not to trust him fully, especially since to her, he is not a sorcerer like herself. With their history, Merlin would’ve still been on thin ice but it would’ve bought everyone more time. I repeat, well-trained, smart insurgents have a lot of gravitas already. They want concrete evidence that things will be better.

In my country when there is a failure in peace talks, the violence start again. Innocents are always the casualties when both sides never reach a compromise.

In the Adventures of Merlin world, Uther and Arthur's governments never stopped persecuting magic-folk, Everyone gets hurt when there are no changes in the system because insurrectionists will always use that as reason to take over the government.

Merlin was in prime position in the seat of government to inspire those changes within it. But since he hid his magic and his being The Lord Emrys, the injustice continues. This makes him complicit to the persecution. He has the power, you know? His magic could have been the ultimate bargaining tool. He could have done so much more if he stopped being a manservant and started showing his true self.

Hence why I think it was unfair for Merlin to keep expecting an insurrectionist like Morgana to return to "their side." It was unfair for him to expect that Morgana will not continue the fight that she deemed was Right.

They never reached a compromise after all. They never had other succeeding peace talks either. Morgana was an insurrectionist I repeat. A very Radicalized one. Negotiations should have been kept running. Peace talks should have been offered. Changes should have been made in the government. Both sides should hear each other out and offer something to the other.

BUT WHAT DOES MERLIN DO?

"IT'S HER CHOICE TO DO BAD THINGS. SHE'S BECOME EVIL SINCE SHE ISNT ON OUR SIDE. I WILL NEVER BE LIKE HER. SHE GAVE ME NO CHOICE."

DUDE. THIS IS THE PROBLEM The moment one puts people in categories such "good" and "evil" with no in-between, then they are turning absolutist. This is Merlin. He's completely become an extremist , albeit in the side of the government.

Morgana was an insurgent, i repeat A REBEL. She believes what she was doing was right. People should emphathise with that. Yes... put yourself in her place and i assure you, you'd probably want to kill everyone too. This is not genocide apologia, but genocides happen when people dehumanise others.

By the way. Morgana wasn't into genocide. She was an insurgent that used terrorism and government destabilization as response to the threat of genocide. She didnt really care who to hurt as long as lot of people got punished. She didn't care how as long as could take over the government. This is justice to her. "There is no other way"--> THIS IS WHAT EXTREMIST IDEALOGY teaches new recruits who have suffered under the injustice. THEY ARE VULNERABLE to ideas like these. Morgana's vulnerability had been effectively exploited by Morgause in that one long year in training with her.

I keep telling, you reader, Morgana's pain and choice of solutions did not come from nowhere. She demands justice. AS A BELOVED WARD OF THE KING (basically princess royal in all but name) she had begged, raged, pleaded with Uther, but nothing really happened, she even got punished and jailed for it! (“You of all people could change Uther’s mind”) Taking up arms is the only way she knows how now. Resetting the world where she rules over everyone is the only way she knows to fight now. This is what extremist idealogy looks like. This is what it does to those who are oppressed and most vulnerable.

The easy fix is to brand people like them as EVIL. They become the villains to society and must be eradicated, their kind is a stain to the perfect society and must be scrubbed. (doesnt this sound familiar? This is the normal reaction after all. Careful though, this can be used for propaganda as well. Fascist/Authoritarian governments always started with simple thoughts like this.)

The more honorable way to mitigate the conflict is to understand WHY THEY HAVE COME TO THAT SOLUTION and then WORK TOGETHER with the insurgent, not expect the insurgent to just return into the fold without question.

That's why no matter how awful a militant organization is, the government always try to negotiate and find ways to find compromise and offer diplomatic solutions. Sometimes governments seek the lower ranking members and offer peaceful solutions and amnesty directly to them (See opening paragraphs).

The essence of humanity is understanding the WHY.

I THINK THEREFORE I AM, descartes said.

What really happened in the show was that Merlin has given up on Morgana's Humanity. To him Morgana has been reduced mainly as "a threat to be eliminated."

He loved her once, man. He knew her inside out. She trusted him with her whole heart. But to him she had just become another head to be chopped off. He used her nightmares of Emrys against her. This was the woman he risked everything just to helped allay her fears once. I dont fucking get it. Morgana was nothing but a "shoot to kill order" to Merlin in S4. Merlin is supposed to be the paragon of Good. Well guess what. In the wake of his own extremist idealogy, he'll do atrocities, for the Greater Good, for Destiny.

I REPEAT

Insurgency isn't countered by dehumanizing the insurgents. When people strip radicalized rebels and even just dissenters, of their humanity, you'll end up with massacres sanctioned by the government. Please, I beg you. That kind of mindset will just create more insurgents (see Kara and Mordred). The cycle of oppression will never stop ("you will harden his heart"). Therefore the oppressive side must extend the olive branch of peace too. Negotiation is a two-way street.

But we know Merlin has become heavily radicalized himself. He's thinking in extremes. He firmly believes that he is on the side of Good/Right while Morgana is Evil/Wrong. He himself had discarded his own feelings just to do his Duty with Utmost Loyalty.

So NO. Morgana isn't more evil. In her head she is the on the "good side," while Merlin and co. are BAD. And she is justified in that mindset because she never got out of being Radicalized, nobody gave her the chance. Same as Merlin at the end.

If you give up on the humanity of another person, then you are just a monster yourself.

If you are in a position of power and continue to uphold the system that oppresses people/creates insurgents in the first place, then you are part of the problem yourself.

There was no hope for compromise any more. Peace talks would be impossible if either of the parties think the other is the Ultimate Wrong

WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

There was no end to the violence. Morgana kept attacking the system using so many methods of destabilization and Merlin kept defending the system by using equally sinister means.

They are both so powerful and destructive and good at what they do.

And they have so many dead bodies littered between them.

........

last thoughts. actually the adventures of merlin is such a good portrayal of how insurrection, destabilization and kingmaking works in a country. must be why i sympathise with morgana a lot. it's also why i enjoy watching merlin. this is the reality of the country that i live in.

kudos to the writers for these bits by the way.

[bluejay-in-flight]

I posted 14,608 times in 2022

That's 7,661 more posts than 2021!

122 posts created (1%)

14,486 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mayatuks-catastrophe

@polizwrites

@cptnvers

@whyamionlyabletouse32characters

@frost-pink

I tagged 760 of my posts in 2022

#unreality - 200 posts

#lot live blog - 60 posts

#my posts - 30 posts

#answered - 26 posts

#signal boost - 22 posts

#reblogged and added - 17 posts

#ask games - 16 posts

#goncharov - 14 posts

#writing references - 12 posts

#sk8 the infinity - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and not because ew gross but because these things make life harder than it already is for me and so just much anxiety for the future 😅😅😅

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Goncharov (1973)

Made some more matching icons for my favorite pairing!!! Katya/Sofia is honestly the best ship in that movie and doesn't get nearly enough attention 🥺😍

Please be respectful tho and Reblog/Like if you use!

19 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#4

10 Songs 10 People Tag Game

Tagged by: @residentdormouse

Rules: Shuffle your library and list 10 songs and tag 10 people

(I'm going with my Dryad’s Veil story playlist because I've been listening to it non stop recently haha)

Warpath - Tim Halperin and Hidden Citizens

Fearless - Kat Leon

I'm A Wanted Man - Royal Deluxe

Newton’s First - The Altogether (ahhh I'm not crying 😭)

Forest Fires - Lauren Aquilina

Champion - Tommee Profitt and Nicole Serrano

Breathe - Fleurie and Tommee Profitt

Not OK - Maria Mena (I have a really soft spot for this one)

Sharp Edges - Linkin Park (newly added)

Coffins - Bohnes

(love how the first three were hella intense which is definitely not the general vibe of this playlist haha)

Tagging if you wanna join in if you don't that's fine too 💙 (also if anyone not listed wants to join in the fun please do and tag me 😄)

@bisexualterror, @ipanicatmorethanjustthedisco, @oneirataxia-girl, @theroseunblown, @stridingseer, @privateerstudies, @avarhodes, @qu-ilinn, @emphasis-on-the-oopsie, @al-pomegranate-seeds, @deniedmysign, @vaguelyaperson, @waterloou, @heirsoflilith, @darknightfrombeyond

(also just realized I went way over ten people but oh well 😅🤣)

21 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#3

New Writing Sideblog! ✍🏽

So thank you to all of those who encouraged me to make a writing side blog!! It is now completed and I decided to be a little cheeky by calling it @bluejay-in-write 😋 I hope you all enjoy it! I have already shared my first post for one of my avatar the last Airbender ocs and there are many more of my other story posts to come 😄 I love you all and hope you have a wonderful day 💙 Here's a sneak peek of my first oc post!

25 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

#2

Katya's Curse of Indecision

Okay so is anyone else obsessing over the fact that Katya was struggling so hard to pick between Goncharov and Sofia, loving both strongly but in very different ways, and then she lost both of them... (also this isn't talking about whether either of them were healthy for her or not so if you're gonna come on my post to argue about that fuck off)

Sofia and Goncharov were different people who gave her different things and in the end Katya's inability to choose ruined what little time she had with either of them. Can you imagine how cursed she must feel, doomed to fall in love with two different people and then to lose them both before she could even decide which one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with (which would obviously be Sofia if Katya had made up her mind before Sofia died) Like I'm sure it was hard enough torn between two people, two futures, two versions of yourself, but then suddenly she had no one, an unhappy future, and only herself to blame.

Life held it's hands out to Katya, Sofia in one hand and Goncharov in the other, and told her to choose and as Katya reached out Life opened both of it's hands to reveal that they contained nothing.

31 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

56 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[arlecchno]

laughs in currently on summer break ,,,,,,

speaking of that tho , ive been busying myself by playing video games so much LMAO me and my silly visual novel names ( because im too lazy to play anything that needs me to put actual effort into it hahahhahahaha - )

SO THE STORY RIGHT - its a think me and my friend have been workin on since like the end of 2021 n its like set in a royal fantasy like au , fantasy monsters are something that havent been brought up in the discussion but we have cool magic stuff LOL . the most stuff thats defined is the very basic plot idea , the MCs r named Ashe Najimek ( prince , any pronouns ) , Rin Vasilios ( princess , she/her ) , and Kiole Soubaki ( king , he/him ) . dont question ANY of these last names because najimeks is just a keyboard smash and the rest were chosen by my friend they have no significant whatsoever LOL . aaaanyways , rin and ashe are basically from this mainland where all the kingdoms are secretly feuding with eachother but in order to maintain peace for the citizens they wont start an actual war . basically its every kingdom for themselves except for their silly trading systems . ashe and rins kingdoms are like at eachothers throats now since ashe and rin were born with the most magical power their lands have ever seen and its that trope where “child gets born into power and parents use them for own benefit causing child to rebel” yada yada but WUH OH WHATS THAT IS THAT 🫢🫢😨😱 GASP ANGST ?!?????!???? yeah lets go were tormenting our characters today baby ‼️‼️ the full book will go into the struggles of rin and ashe and how they end up as a result of how they take their circumstances . and how they become friends bc of those circumstances . lovely friendship . oh and theres two others that are their guards . Sio and Erza Eztli . theyre twins n stuff . THEY WILL GET DEVELOPMENT TOO WE JUST SHANT SPEAK OF IT NOW . im planning to make them long lost siblings tho lmao ! omg ive gone on such a long rant and i still havent talked about kiole . anyways so kiole is the token mentor character which i will not go into detail because SPOILERS MAYBE . he rules the edgy edgy kingdom of DEATH AND DARKNESS and all the other kingdoms have kinda outcasted his so nobody knows the fucker outside of whispers from the shadowed souls themselves MUAHAHAHAH - ahem anyways .

HERE ARE OUR MCSSS i love them awaaaaaaa

GOSH THO GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR SCHOOL STUFF THAT SOUNDS LIKE SO MUCH BYE 😭😭😭

i also JUST read chapter 5 recently and like …

( for context my friends name / nickname is roof )

ANYWAYS THATS IT FOR NOW CYA LATTEEEERRR !!!!

RAHHHHH HELLO TO YOUUUU!!!! hope you're enjoying your summer break 🫂

AND YOUR STORY TOO!!!!!!! that sounds so interesting already and ROYAL FANTASY AU⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️ SIGN ME TF UP BRO I LIVEEE FOR FANTASY AUS bro you got me hooked with the storyline and characters already and it's still in the works 🤞🤞 their last names are soooo creative too like even if they're a keyboard smash or whatever,,,, still so intriguing like yes sign me up AGAIN!!!! wish my keyboard makes up random and cool last names lmao

THE MCS...... please let me touch their hair i swear they've GOT to have the most silkiest hair in their kingdoms like excuse me let me bow down to them and ask them for tips and tricks 😞🙏

thank you hehe school is.... yeah whatever school's been the same for me but i thrive to live up to the day asphodelus finally ends LOL i need to get that series done before i'm even more burnt out

LMAO YOUR FRIEND'S NICKNAME BEING ROOF IS GOLD 😭 fun fact i was literally like brain dead trying to figure out some bad humour to insert in those lines but somehow ended up with that... (may or may not be a bit of a self insert because i totally don't stare at my own ceiling and wished i was the ceiling instead hahaha definitely haven't.... ever.....)

HOPE YOU'RE DOING WELL THESE DAYS AND I'LL CYA LATER TOOOO💌💌

[motionpicturesforcarrie]

no one in my family told me the circumstances of my birth and i literally put it all together by myself over the past few years and it hit me like a truck wow

[livingalifeofasimp]

☘️𝕲𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖓 𝕴𝖒𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖙

𝕴𝖓

🎀𝕴𝖘𝖊𝖐𝖆𝖎 𝕸𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖆🎀

You got teleported into a Novel called Love or Hate, where a villianess of an influencing family gets jealous of people around Crown Prince and tries to kill everyone especially his beloved and meets unfortunate death.

𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕕𝕦𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

𝕎𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕡𝕒𝕕 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥

Click on the link for more information, If the link doesn't work then please be kind enough to inform me, Thank you💮💮💮

🖤 𝓩𝓱𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓵𝓲

*:･ﾟ♛ ﾟ･:* On getting into the novel as Villianess and not being able to go back to your world you decided to stop going down the path of original Novel Plot but make your own and live a life in luxury away from all the characters. Your first step was to break the engagement with Crown Prince, who was surprised when he heard you say that to him, you were just so in love with him and then after being unconscious for almost a week you decided to break off the engagement.

*:･ﾟ♛ ﾟ･:* Zhongli could not understand why you would do such thing and you knew he will fall in love with the Heroine when she appears, you told your father to annual it, since you understood that the affection holds no value in Crown Prince's eyes, but Zhongli wasn't able to digest this piece of information, when he tries to approach you, you run away, avoid him at any cost, he realizes how important you are to him, so he rejects your request to annual the engagement even after you nearly begged him and promises you that he will cherish you now on, leaving you thinking what went wrong.

*:･ﾟ♛ ﾟ･:* You sat with pen and paper tried to sort everything out, although Crown Prince was trying to win your favor back by sending you gifts, letters and asks for your audience only to get ghosted by you, getting involved with him will give you nothing but a miserable fate, no matter how handsome the Characters are you refused to acknowledge them any further. Now it felt like Zhongli clingys to you more than anything.

💛𝓐𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻

ﾟ･:*༻*:･ﾟWhen your carriage stopped infront of your state you saw Aether was there waiting for you, he told you that he heard you were trying to annual the engagement, for a minute you forgot how fast news spread in this era, Aether had a happy glow on his face, he told you that you deserve better. At some point you knew that Aether grows distant from Villianess in Novel Plot but the case here was totally different now he invites you or comes to you uninvited.

ﾟ･:*༻*:･ﾟYou don't stop him tho, he became your bestfriend, he taught you horse riding, sword fighting and helped you in all those things you were interested in. Thanks to Aether your bad dancing got better, you always wondered how he never go tired dancing with you, when you step on his foot unintentionally during practices. Physical touches increases slightly, you don't doubt it since it's normal for friends to hug a second more right?

❤️𝓓𝓲𝓵𝓾𝓬

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ Since there was nothing better to do, you started to put your hands on family business and was sent to pay visit to the business partner. To your surprise when you saw Diluc, he looked just like the Novel described him to be, stern, stoic and cold. His presence was intimidating but you had to win this opportunity so you confidently placed your views even when your legs were shaking under the gown you were wearing, you put your hands together and pursued him.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ Diluc seemed so lonely, he had no one to worry about him, just him and his thoughts. So you decided to greet him with smile and ask about if he ate his meals properly because he skipped them for one or two days due to his loads of work, which was bad for his health, if he needed to fight with Crown Prince for Heroine then he should be healthy, so you took care of him while you were staying in his Mansion.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ At first he was wary of you but he eventually warmed up and when Diluc laughed in one of your jokes, you felt grateful to witness that because no one saw him smiling other than Heroine, he looked really beautiful. He said you were way too different than what the rumours described you to be, you were perfect. 

💚𝓧𝓲𝓪𝓸

✥ ۪۪۫۫◃ ✤◃ ۪۪۫۫✥ Bandits attached your Carriage, it was difficult to defeat them but with your escort and Aether's sword fighting training it became quite easy, even though you are not much of a sword fighter than Aether but you could protect yourself for once. When Crown Prince heard you were attacked he immediately assigned you his Loyal Knight who later becomes Imperial Knight respected by citizens, to which you obviously rejected but as persistent as he is you were made to accept the Knight for the time being since all the knights in your family are either afraid of you or not want to serve you and you had no fetish with working with someone who is not willing to be with you.

✥ ۪۪۫۫◃ ✤◃ ۪۪۫۫✥Xiao was very quite and skilled Knight so he was very attentive to your needs, and once caughted you, when you tripped on your gown while climbing staircase, due to which he got on his one knees and asked for your forgiveness. It left you speechless why would he do such thing? Ask for punishment instead of a thanks for saving your bones, you couldn't help but ask him, Xiao's answer made you clutch your fingers, he thought you, a noble lady would get disgusted by his touch since he is lowly born.

✥ ۪۪۫۫◃ ✤◃ ۪۪۫۫✥ You asked him to stand, Xiao is your favorite character who suffered so much and was never able to voice his love for Heroine, you holded his hands in yours, ignoring his body flinching and told him how he should not look down on himself, he is equal, everyone is equal since you all are humans and that you cherish him, he put his life to protect you. You said him all those things you wanted to when you read the Novel, not everything really but it left him blushing while you laughed walking ahead of him what a tsundere.

💙𝓚𝓪𝓮𝔂𝓪

☽༓✮･*˚ A handsome Mage Master kept on disturbing you, the smug looking guy who you meet in Local bars when you were out exploring about the Novel world, he helped you with your case to find out the solution to obtain the land for the project with Duke while giving you many riddles that exhausted you but seeing a worried Xiao was worth it when he says I don't care after nagging you for hours.

☽༓✮･*˚ You doubted if this guy was the one of the Male Leads who was owner of Mage tower because he was exceptional handsome, for a side Character to be so good looking is quite rare, but he debuted after the Grand ball so it couldn't be him, you debated. In Original Novel Plot they never described how he looked, but it was for sure he was popular among ladies. The guy introduced himself as Kaeya, who sometimes requests your presence in Mage tower, only VIP guest were allowed and when you asked him how he managed to get the permission he says it is one of his ways, suspicious enough.

☽༓✮･*˚ You eventually spend more time with him than required which sometimes anger Aether since your time with him reduced, of course you haven't told anything about him to anyone. To save himself, he once introduced you to the group of women flirting with him as his girlfriend. Kaeya sends his familiar in butterfly form for the most stupidest message through your window to which you react differently depending on your mood. 

"How are you my Lady?"

"Am I allowed to miss you?"

"When will you visit me?"

"Have you been using me all this time?, I am heart broken T_T Heal me!"

🧡𝓒𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓭𝓮

❀⑅*⋆༶⋆❀⑅* Strong hand holded you securely, as you danced with him, who was wearing black laced mask in Masquerade ball organized by King for a yearly festival which you were forced you to attend by your Father and Crown Prince. One of the guys asked for you to dance with him, as per tradition one cannot reject the another requesting party, otherwise you would have been eating the food served for guests, imperial food is on another level, Zhongli sometimes tries to lure you to spend time with him by making such excuses.

❀⑅*⋆༶⋆❀⑅* The stranger pulled you even more closer saying that you are looking much more prettier than before, your first meeting but you did not recognized him or so you thought, and he told you that you are known as the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom, neighboring Kingdoms takes interest in you. You do remember the guy who helped you in fighting with Bandits both of them have the same hair color and playfulness in their voice.

❀⑅*⋆༶⋆❀⑅* When you asked him about it, if he was the guy from before to which he replied maybe, leaving you in the middle of the dance and bended in the crowd, Mysterious as Childe you thought, whoever he was, you hoped for him to not bring more problems than you already have. A groaning voice of Crown Prince from behind made you turn around questioning you why you danced with other guys than your fiance, you never thought a composed man as Zhongli would whine to you for such a small thing.

[lifeexperience]

Maribat March 2021 - Half time

In my AO3 account I am also updating the 'A playboy billionaire, an ambassador and the secret love-child' title, and sometimes I add(ed) commentary why I write something the way I do.

Masterlist

From the last fifty days here is all the plus note:

First day

In Red Robin (2009-2011) comics Vicki Vale was a little bit too noisy for her own good, that's why I used her personal annoyance against Bruce Wayne in this story.

Third day

Vanessa Rios was an assistant district attorney in Gotham in the Robin (1993-2009) run. Here I am using her as the Wayne's legal team head. Tamara Fox, Lucius Fox's daughter, is friends with Tim Drake in Red Robin (2009-2011) comics and here too. Also she is an intern with the HR department who knows about the BatFam alteregos.

Fifth day

In the comics, Alfred always followed Bruce to his 'trips' (in 'Batman and Son' to London, 'Batman & Robin Annual' to an scavenger hunt, in 'Batman Inc.' to every country where they found representatives...) However because of Damian's unpredictable behaviour he stayed at the manor with the children in this story.

Sixth day

So Young Justice thing is a little complicated to me if I dare to say something about it. There was the 'Young Justice: The Secret' and its sequels. Then there were 'The New52' and 'DC Rebirth' era, plus the animation show. And they all are kind of okay..ish, furthermore I wanted to keep the principles like the main members (Tim Drake, Connor Kent, Bart Allen and Cassie Sandsmark), however I never liked their too childish behavior in some of the works (and the mixing with 'The Titans). So in this story, here, they are more adult..ish, but more relaxed and cheerful than 'The Titans' ever was (like in comics, not in the shows).

Eighth day

In the 'Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir' show they showed Lila as a manipulator without any remorse, which got me to think she has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). I am not a doctor but I had some basic lesson in psychology, and I have a natural curiosity about things so I always research everything. With diagnosed ASPD the person has to be older then 18, however I read its symptoms can show up in childhood, and it can lead to an earlier diagnosis like 14-15 years old early.

In the case of Lila she deceives people and uses them (✓). Don't makes long term plans or thinking through about her behavior (✓), however has a set on some goal she wants to achieve (✓). She has a sense of superiority above of her classmates and adults in her environment (✓), nevertheless does't have any remorse or guilt to mistreat them (✓). Uses charisma and her fake charming persona to get something or someone (✓), however didn't value them more than tools or prizes (✓).

I didn't see any real aggressive behavior from Lila beside akumatizations (✓), but on its own I think it's enough evidence, that she has this disorder (and not the many that she claimed). In normal aggressive way Lila didn't show herself (like physical violence, loud angry outbursts, big fits in front of everyone) yet, rather she uses Akumatization to hide that kind of behavior (when Adrien tried to stand up she became willingly Chameleon, or the Heroe's Day, or Oni-Chan). So her Akumatised forms and helping to Hawkmoth are the evidences that she has aggressive behavior, however they are not the classic forms (but we also can remember the threatening in the bathroom, but I think that was more intimidation and showing her superiority then pure aggressiveness).

And I wanted that recreate and strengthen this 'fact' a little bit so it would be more obvious than in the show.

Ninth day

In the comics there are so many take on Bruce Wayne it's kind of hard to count it. We could list the Batman persona, when he kind of let his children do what they want within his no-kill-rule (like living alone at fourteen with bunch of other teenager - 'Teen Titans' or 'Young Justice' or as it looks like to go rough - Robin, Red Hood). And there is the obvious martyr-parent take, when he has to know everything about his children, but he is always silent about the important things ('Death of the family' - 'Batman and Robin: Born to kill' - 'The Hunt for Robin'). And one of my favorites the worried-tired father take, when he is kind of showing his emotions and trying to love his kids ('Super Sons' - 'Robin Rises' - 'Prelude to the Wedding: Nightwing vs. Hush' ...).

And I decided to use the last with a more active take from the first (like he lets everyone do their thing but he is monitoring them within reasons). In the comics there are many accusations about being someones father (with Julie Madison or Mariah Shelley), and here in my take he is trying to be responsible (for the sake of his children, mainly for Damian and Jason) and checks every claim out personally (so they also can do DNS test).

Tenth day

Alya Césaire is a complicated someone in the show. At first she is portrayed as a fierce helper for the protagonist, Marinette. She is stubborn and reckless, but royal to her best friends.

Then came Lila and the makers sharpened her stubborn tunnel vision. This I saw it first at the 'Lady Wifi' episode, when she clearly didn't remember about the first day, when Ladybug saved Chloé (or ignored it). After that she always fixated on 'Adrienette' (or everything else if it's interesting - Dark Cupid) when the girl, herself had other things to do (Princess Fragrance, Puppeteer 2, Reflektdoll 2, Timebreaker). So it was not that big surprise when her tunnel vision turned to Lila, and she (and everybody in her class) forgot about that they all met Jagged Stone and with his crocodile already.

Yeah, it's all true, however unlike Lila, Alya didn't show any other big social flaw. And she is 14 years old and middle child, which is kind of important in someone personality. She has to be a mature figure and a little child at the same time in her sibling's eyes. She has to compete attention in their parents eyes and be smart about it.

Moreover if we look at the Collège Françoise Dupont's students, they are all spoiled, not just Chloé or Lila or Adrien. Yes, they are not that bad like the three, but they are all sheltered to a certain degree. Their family don't have financial problems (famous chef, designers, mayor, famous bakery, curator in the most famous museum, police officer, famous pantomime, ...), plus they are all in a prestigious school where they can't meet people with everyday problems (and rich spoiled kid is not an everyday occurrence in my country). And beside some vision problems (Max, Sabrina) they are all healthy and the first time to meet a disability is when Lila arrived. So it's natural if they don't really know how to interact right with her (putting aside that whole lie thing).

And I think they, especial Alya, need first a little life experience, before they could be called responsible about their acts. And here I am trying to write it this kind of way, where they are all flawed, but they can learn from it.

Human being can be shallow and not perfect. These children only heard one perspective from Lila, and another from Marinette. In the show the makers not exactly specified about how well the classmates know Marinette and how depth Marinette and Alya friendship is, so there is already some trust issue.

Like yeah all of they are going to concerts, cinema, each others, however they didn't show so far any serious conservation between them (maybe the only exception is Adrien-Marinette combo). Until this year when Adrien and Alya got transferred in the class, the classmates don't even help Marinette with Chloé bullying. And one year friendship - how beautiful is it tho - is not that depth and stable, especially with that many secrets they have. And Lila 'charming' personality came into this still fragile relationship at the right time to prove this.

I am not saying that the makers is doing good to simplifies the relationships. Because rather they missed so many ziccers for the sake of promote new hero designs and the overwritten romantic scene, it's physical hurting me. But they are right that we are talking sheltered-traumatized-too naive kids, who sometimes had unearned magic powers (looking at Chloé, Alya, Kim).

And I didn't ever going the length of mentioning the adult characters. It's an other kind of wormhole.

Marinette was the only one who openly disobeyed Lila's wants. She stands up against her lies in the public so she is a real obstacle for Lila. While Adrien is only trying in the background without any witness (I don't say it's bad, because with some case it's better, but not here), and the boy is too valuable to Lila.

Lila already showed in the series she didn't stop with the lies and she is brave enough to ruin someone carrier with them (Marinette - 'Ladybug', Nathalie and Gorilla - 'Oni-Chan', Alya - 'Volpina'). And Adrien watched all of it in the front seat, and he kind of knows that Lila's main target here to discredit and broke Marinette/Ladybug (and Adrien, himself also, but it's his perspective and he is very sheltered and naive about it).

And this story she got another one to ruin. Bruce Wayne, himself. And as her fake charming side melts away in her anger as she is focusing more and more on her targets.

Eleventh day

Speed Force is one of the Seven Forces of the Universe. It grants the power of the speedsters. And some of them merged with it (for example Barry Allen). Speed Force has a direct connection to the time flow and with the Multiverse (or now Omniverse). The biggest event of it is the Flashpoint (2011) which started the New52 era. And Batman doesn't want to mix this kind of force with a really mysterious ancient magic.

Nightrunner's first appearance was in 2011 in Detective Comics Annual #12. Within the Batman Incorporated line Bruce recruited Bilal Asselah, French-Algerian citizen to represent Batman in Paris. Here he is a mentor/background assistant to the Team Miraculous and a representative of Batman Inc.

Fourteenth day

Wang Fu is not the most mature character in the show and I think it says it all. Being an 186 years old is the Great Guardian after he accidentally destroyed the temple, he is kind of shameful and amateur. And if we contrasted him with Batman... yeah. Batman is NOT happy and takes the control from the old master.

Fifteenth day

I know Cyborg, alias Victor Stone is currently shown as a founding member of the Justice League (since 2011), however I am prefer him more in the Titans. And it's not just because of the animation show form 2003, but also in the comics he is more himself with the first Titans then with the -all mighty- Justice League. And I also wanted him to have a little cameo in this story because in the Super Sons (2017-) he was kind of like a babysitter for the boys. And to me it's kind of funny how many times the bats short circuited him (Robin Rises, Super Sons: Parent Trap, ...).

Sixteenth day

Damian Wayne is a complicated character. For ten years he was teached to kill. He only learnt about his mother at eight. He only learnt about his father at ten. Thalia used him for anything from power play to plotting someone death. Bruce loves him, but he is so moronic about his own emotions it's kind of painful to read sometimes. And there is the thing where Damian is never enough, his mother cloned him (Heretic), his father has other wards (mainly Red Robin). Dick Grayson went incognito spying when the boy had finally a healthier relationship (Grayson: The Superspy). His best friend, Jon Kent was suddenly older then him (2018 Superman #16). Alfred was killed in front of him (2016 Batman #77). Yeah, Damian is a jerk, but he has every right to be a jerk in my opinion. And I wanted that recreate here as Lila is a liar and threatening his 'only' position as a blood son. His only weapon to prevent it to have a fit and doing what was teached to him.

Fulltime

[letoscrawls]

What are your Extremely Italian Opinions? Anything from politics to pasta, drop some hot takes

mmmmm good question! even though i'm not a proud italian as i'm very critical of this country and i'd love to live abroad in the future, i do have typical italian opinions that i'm ready to die for. I’m sure these will be mainly about food, but let’s see:

-say whatever you want, but italian food is the best food in the entire world, not only it’s healthy but it’s also delicious and no nation can compare :) no you can’t change my mind :) every time i watch Ratatouille i cringe so bad at the beginning when they say that French cuisine is known to be the best in the world??? that’s so false and i don’t even find it funny, we italians take food so seriously and if you dare criticize something about our food we take it very personal, yes, IT IS THAT DEEP.

-idk if it's a take but i find it funny that we don't use ice that much?? like i was so shocked to learn that smoothies are made WITH ICE?? we almost never use it, we definitely don't put it in coffee and we have this strange belief that ice gives you stomachache, especially if you want to take a bath, we usually wait two or three hours before taking a bath after a meal, especially if there's ice in it somewhere lol i think it's a typical Italian Grandma Advice but we all follow it religiously. Even though i know it's bizarre i can't help but wait at least two hours after my meal before having any kind of contact with water

-No one dubs movies and cartoons like italians. Our voice actors are superior (but the italian Rebels dub is terrible, don’t watch Rebels in italian, everyone sounds very bad except for Thrawn, surprisingly his voice better than the original and i've already talked about this in my ig stories some time ago haha) and i often watch shows and movies in italian even tho it's "trendy" nowadays to watch everything in english. Tbh i think that  a country with a strong tradition of voice acting shouldn't neglect it in favor of the original language, just because something was made in english it doesn't make it better. For example, the prequel trilogy is insanely better in italian, while i love Hayden's performance as Anakin i think that sometimes...it lacks emotion? the italian dub makes up for those parts, i couldn't understand why international fans used to despise the PT so much at first, especially the acting. There isn't one single character in the prequels that sounds bad, really. Same thing goes for Disney classics, i find them 100% funnier in italian (the most memorable example is Emperor's New Groove, the main characters are voiced by some of the funniest comedians we have, they all did an amazing job), even tho some characters are voiced by celebrities who don't do voice acting on a regular basis the result is always phenomenal. Honorable mention to the Genie in Aladdin who is voiced by Gigi Proietti, an actor and comedian of immesurable talent who passed away a few days ago, his performance is on the same level of Robin Williams' imo. So yeah, i'm a huge fan of italian voice acting in case you didn't notice

-regarding politics, lots of people here say that we have the "best democracy in the world" or something like that.........eh, i highly doubt it. I hate this country because there is no meritocracy, you're most likely to succeed if you have good connections or a powerful family. The worst part is that this applies to EVERYTHING and it's terrible. Also there's a big imbalance between North Italy and South Italy, so it's hard to succeed and have access to a good education if you're born in the South and you're poor. And it's a shame. I was lucky enough to live near a very good university so i pay for taxes and nothing else, but only those who are born in wealthy families in the south can afford university in the north as universities in the south are not that good in general. it's really a shame bc south italy is freaking beautiful but the government doesn't spend the same amount of time, energy and money and that's also one of the reasons crime rates are so high there. truly every single issue in Italy could be resolved by funding our education system but most politicians don't give a flying fuck about it and it shows :/

-University in italy is considered a privilege, something that people do because they are too lazy to go to work and get "a real job". we have one of the lowest rates of student getting a degree in europe and yet a lot of people are expected to be jobless for years after graduating uni. it's crazy. there is no respect or consideration for university students since you're not obliged by law to attend one but it's your choice. university professors are terrible, they act like we don't have a personal life and in most cases will make everything so hard that you'll need to take an exam even 15 times before passing it. a friend of mine who is a prodigy in Math attended a really good university in Switzerland and he told me that you can take exams a max of 3 times there but you usually don't need to because they are much easier to pass?? also exams are so hard to pass, my degree is a living hell, you have to take multiple tests, do projects and assignments to pass one freaking exam, while the entire world has the paper system, so you basically write a paper and then the teacher grades it and guess what??? YOU LEARN STUFF ANYWAY. i hate that university in italy takes so much years, tears and mental energy to finish and this leads me to my next point

-healthcare. Italy has one of the best healthcare systems in the world because, well, it's free! You have some kind of bills to pay, but they are not as expensive as in the US, the country got a huge debt at some point in the 60s/70s (i guess??) to afford free healthcare but it was really worth it!! HOWEVER, i think it's pointless to have free healthcare for literally anything besides mental health. sadly, mental health is a tough topic here, if you suffer from a mental illness you're considered crazy, an attention seeker, incapable of being a normal citizen and stuff like that. therapists are super expensive and only wealthy people can afford them. personally, i can't afford one and i would love to since i suffer from anxiety and maybe other things (but i guess i'll never know since my country doesn't give a fuck lmao). and university students are most likely to have mental health issues due to the terrible conditions we live in, yet society ignores us, this results in very high suicide rates among students in their twenties. i honestly hate it so fucking much, especially because studying psychology is considered "easy" and you'll probably be jobless after your degree. psychologists are doctors, they deserve to be paid like any other doctor because they save lives, for real.

So uhm this was supposed to be funny but ended being very critical hahahaha

[secret-engima]

....I lied. If you’re still doing the title thing - if I go down gonna burn with the sun

I thought there was a few more title asks still lurking in here for me to answer. *cracks knuckles* RAMBLE TIME.

-Star Wars AU. Star Wars FFXV sorta-x-over AU where the Astrals decide that Aera and Ardyn deserve a chance at happiness, just not on Eos, and therefore go YEET. The Force, finding these two wayward and powerful souls is like- Sure okay and boom. Ardyn and Aera are reborn in a galaxy far, far away.

-Purely not coincidentally, far away, on different worlds and in different star systems, one Satine Kryze and one Obi-Wan Kenobi take their first breaths.

-Yes I’m serious.

-This would be- SUCH a chaotic fixit AU, both because Aera loves peace but she is NO pacifist and not about to let an entire Culture DIE just because some so called New Mandalorians cannot see the dangers of burying their own past. Two because- well.

-Ardyn has already BEEN a Chosen One and an Accursed, a Hero and a Villain. He has walked the path to salvation and damnation both and seen the worst sides of himself and humanity, and for all they look different, every species in the galaxy isn’t far different from humanity in those regards.

-Obi-Wan Kenobi grows up in the Jedi Temple and he is a Troublesome Child. Too quiet and too reckless by turns, a smile that could melt butter and a tongue that can strip flesh from the backs of whatever bully goes after him this time. The Jedi ... worry. He is Dark, they whisper, was born with shreds of Darkness in his soul. He is manipulative, they worry, he has a temper, they gossip.

-Ardyn hears them all and inside a part of him screams. Because of course he is Dark, they did not have their souls swallowed by a plague for others’ sake, were not consumed with madness until dying (being freed) at the hands of a nephew two thousand years removed. As for manipulation ... he doesn’t mean to. It’s just ... he’s so much OLDER than the other children mentally, older even than any Jedi there (even YODA), he can’t help it that he thinks rings around people sometimes, or that he is so in tune with the Force (with a galaxy-spanning magic that burns beneath his skin like a hundred newborn suns that he keeps buried so the Jedi will not sense it so clearly, will not know how strong and old he really is inside) that he can practically read minds and knows what to say to get the best outcome. He has a temper. Who doesn’t? You try being reborn after a lifetime of AGONY and see how patient you are with petty morons and small minded bullies.

-He says none of those things, and when his time grows near to be sent away without a Master, he does not fight it.

-He looks at the shadow of Qui Gon Jinn in the doorway and something in the Force ... sings. Sad and soft. It speaks of heartache and betrayal and a fear of being hurt again. Ardyn can almost FEEL the two paths branching away under his feet, one with Qui Gon in it, and one without, and he does not know which one will bring him less pain.

-Ardyn does not try to impress anyone in the sparring ring, but after he is done, he slips away. He finds Jinn in the garden, trying to meditate, and settles down across from him without invitation.

-Qui Gon opens his eyes in annoyance. He knows that the Council wants him to take a Padawan, and that this one is almost at the age of being moved to the Corps. He expects the boy to beg to become a Padawan, or to try to impress him somehow.

-Instead the boy just smiles, thin and sharp and knowing in a way that makes Qui Gon feel ... exposed. Like every thought and wound in his heart is on display for this child, “The Council wants you to take a Padawan. That’s why they keep making you watch us.” It’s a statement, not a question.

-Qui Gon raises an eyebrow, “And you think I should take you?”

-The boy shrugs, but his blue eyes are still sharp as knives behind his friendly mien and Qui Gon doesn’t like the feeling crawling up his spine, “That’s your choice to make and yours alone. There’s nothing I can say to change your mind one way or the other.”

-“Then why are you here?” He asks suspiciously.

-“Because you’re lonely, and it makes the Force feel sad.” The answer is so blunt, so sure of itself. Qui Gon feels his stomach twist, and old anger makes him snappish without meaning to be (he’s heard of this boy as well, he’s heard that he’s got a manipulative streak and a tendency to twist his Force empathy to his own ends, he’s heard many things).

-(Qui Gon forgets that it is not a good idea, to base judgement on rumors) “I am not, and if I was, I would not need your company to ease it.”

-Obi-Wan Kenobi, Initiate of the Jedi Temple Ardyn Lucis Caelum, Sage and Healer King and Accursed, tilts his head thoughtfully, then nods and stands up, “Then I will take my leave. Take care of yourself, Master Jinn.”

-Initiate Kenobi Ardyn the Accursed and Healer King walks away, and a breath later the Living Force twists, like the snapping of cables, and Qui Gon gets the fleeting, distinct impression that he has failed some kind of very important test.

-Ardyn is assigned to the AgraCorps. A life as a farmer for others awaits him.

-The day before he’s to be shipped off, he walks out one of the Temple’s side-entrances and into the underbelly of Coruscant with only the clothes on his back. He doesn’t look back even once. It takes until the next day for anyone (for his friends, if he can call them friends when they are so much YOUNGER and painfully more innocent than him) to miss him. It takes another day for the Jedi to realize Obi-Wan Kenobi is well and truly missing.

-Deep in Coruscant’s seedy side, at the dockyards manned by those who are less than concerned with legality, a boy in ratty (stolen) clothes asks to be taken aboard as a maintenance worker. He calls himself Ardyn Izunia, and there are no Force Sensitives close enough to feel the sunlike fire burning in his blood as he smiles.

-Skip forward several years and Satine Kryze (Aera) is on the run from Death Watch, civil war is on the horizon and her father asks for Jedi protection to keep her safe.

-The bounty hunter who calls himself Adagium finds her first.

-A sword that glitters like blood and cuts through metal like a lightsaber (that hums-hums-hums with magic none but a Force sensitive can see blazing like bloody fire down the ancient blade) finishes off the Death Watch assassin that Satine hadn’t had the chance to shoot yet, and under his hood, Adagium smiles. Satine stills, head tilted as if listening, then she collapses into the teenage bounty hunter’s arms in joyous tears. Adagium- Ardyn- holds her close and cries with her.

- “I finally found you, My Aera,” he breathes and for a moment he lets his magic loose and it burns like the sun through the Force, lancing through the growing shadows in the Force like they’re fragile paper and somewhere far away Sidious feels Doom™ crawl violently up his spine.

-Aka that Fixit AU where Aera is a Mand’alor that DOES want peace for her people but NOT at the cost of burning history to the ground (or being defenseless, she has died to the sword once already she will not go quietly into the night a second time, not if she has to paint the walls in blood to protect her life and the lives of her people), the Jedi are Confused™, and Ardyn is incredibly content to be Aera’s former bounty hunter trophy husband with a tendency to adopt strays (read: Anakin and Shmi who he frees as well as Anakin kthanks, and quite possibly Savage and Feral too tho no one is quite sure how) until the Clone Wars start and Ardyn takes one (1) look at the war and goes: ah. I know this plan. This is a stupid plan. And all of Sidious’s plans go fwoosh.

-Because I’m sorry but there is no way you can convince me that Ardyn wouldn’t EAT SIDIOUS ALIVE in any kind of fight, mental, physical, Force, or tactical. This man is 2k years old. It took Sidious until he was an old sack of bones to get his Empire and that was with GENERATIONS of Sith serving as his foundation, and then he got yote down a reactor shaft by his minion 19-25 years later. Ardyn was able to manipulate an entire Empire into engineering its destruction and fulfill ALL HIS REVENGE GOALS (giving Bahamut a headache, driving the world to darkness and ruin, and ending the line of Lucis Caelum INCLUDING HIMSELF) in like- 30-40 years. While MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY ILL thanks to the Scourge. Fully healthy and in control of himself and with people (Aera) to protect? Sidious would just be fresh meat.

-Also Ardyn adopts a bunch of the clones, possibly all the clones, on the excuse that since they were raised by Mandalorian trainers they count as Mandalorians and as genetic sons of Jango Fett that makes the Mandalorian CITIZENS by BIRTHRIGHT and the Republic can only watch in confusion as their army gets mass adopted by the Mand’alor’s trophy husband who also exposed their new Chancellor as a Sith. Bail Organa, the new Chancellor, may or may not be sweating quietly at the thought of accidentally gaining the ire of the so called Trophy Husband because he’s smarter than most and knows that Ardyn is Very Very Dangerous.

-Also also Qui Gon doesn’t die somehow because I do really like him and I think he’s a good Jedi, just not a good fit for Ardyn as a master.

[empty-dream]

Just watched Hellbound

The new K-drama in town that’s about quite a... different thing

Said sinners on earth get sentenced to death by an otherworldly being and executed by demonic creatures who then drag them to hell, as a new religion arises and citizens try to survive amidst all the chaos.

Do you know that scene in The Avengers where Hulk slams Loki multiple times inside the Stark tower? Now imagine you're Loki and there are 3 Hulk and they are not only slamming but also making you a punchbag. That's the gist of what happens in Hellbound.

The premise sounds like it's going to be a supernatural fantasy horror series but actually it focuses more to the mankind and how shit it is when it comes fanatical cults. You know, the whole 'mankind is its worst true enemy' kind of story. At least for season 1.

And truthfully, it's actually more horrifying to me because it's real. Fanatical cults, the 'me and my gang have the higher moral ground than other people different from us' mentality, and extremists committing atrocities (not that they’d call it ‘atrocities’) using the name of God and so called greater good, are very real phenomenons that happens everywhere in the world, maybe even in our own circle.

But still, there are people who know it is wrong and decides to be against such vile things. No matter if it’s by working in a covert large scale operation, or simply by sticking to common sense and be a decent person in daily life.

Many old people are getting beaten here and it's pretty disturbing to watch. Not that it's gory, but it psychologically gets me sick.

I like the pacing. Each episode is around 50 minutes, but I don't feel bored, even tho first and second episodes might be a bit slow. I even binged it all the way to episode 5, only stopped because it's midnight already. It never makes me feel like an episode is very slow and nothing happens, or like 40 minutes feels like eternity and then the last 10 minutes everything is on fire.

It's a webtoon adaptation (and I hear the creature doesn't look like that in the webtoon) so Im gonna check it out. I can't fucking wait for S2 what the fuck is going on.

TL;DR: When a triplet Hulk are born like demons and then they Hulk-Smash people to literal hell.

[dawniebb]

We named her Sandra

So, we’re perfectly aware of the issues  surrounding Evander at the moment but we had already created Sandra before that happened :’) AND WE’RE NOT YEETING HER FROM EXISTENCE SO, in case anyone cares, here’s the deal:

@healing-winston-pratt and I were trying to break our own hearts, when we decided Evander had a wife who was pregnant when he decided to die >:’) so, this is a small list about her because she’s basically an OC we made together.

This is the list where we explain Sandra’s existence:  https://dawniebb.tumblr.com/post/626798441916514304/canon-is-an-illusion-pt-2

@novadreamer95438, @idkimbadwithusernamesandstuff you know the drill <3

From here, I’m going to be calling her Sandy :’) so, welp, here we go:

Her full name is Sandra O’Brien. (She changed it to Wade when she got married to Evander)

She comes from a ridiculously rich family that, miraculously, didn’t go bankrupt during the Age of Anarchy, nor during the rise of the Renegades.

She has a mother and a step-dad, because her mom didn’t take shit from anybody and divorced the biological father the first time he showed violent behavior lmao; so she divorced him and took the children with her..

Then, she married Sandy’s step-dad, whom she loves very much.

@healing-winston-pratt  and I have agreed that, during their several attempts to take down the government, the Renegades received some donations for their cause, both from the citizens and wealthy families that liked their cause better than they liked the Anarchists’.

The O’Brien family was one of those families. But, like, they helped the Renegades a lot to the point they felt the moral obligation to pay them back once they took Ace down.

They would often joke about how, if they didn’t find any way to repay them, they would offer them Evander’s hand in marriage for one of their kids :)

But in the end Evander offered himself to them lmao

He met Sandy during the first Gala because the O’Brien family was invited, for sure. And they fooled around for a while, agreed to go on a date, dated for a while and got married.

At some point, Sandy became pregnant and we like to think that they both were EXTREMELY excited about it x’d

But then the Arena happened and Evander was gone x’d.

One thing we both have agreed on, is that Sandy didn’t learn Evander was dead until the cathedral disaster was over too. HOWEVER, she was very scared of labor pain, so the supernova gave her the power to heal physical pain.

Which turned out to be absolutely useless because she couldn’t use it on herself x’d

But anyway. She learned Evander was gone, but she decided she had to keep moving forward for her son.

Evander and her had agreed to name him Arthur, just because they liked it. But Sandy decided to call him Arthur Evander Wade.

She’s a very good mom :’)

As for Arthur :) we know you didn’t ask about Arthur but afsghja

He’s born a prodigy (duh). He has the power of cutting...as in, he can cut through everything, no matter how hard that surface is; though, he can’t do this with his body. More likely, he has the power to make even the mildest sharp objects (paper sheets, for example) cut through everything.

He has a signature knife that he always carries with him, but when it falls into somebody else’s hands is completely useless.

The only people who know about the knife being useless  are himself, Sandy, perhaps the Council, and his team, tho :)

Adrian mentions Evander was his favorite Council member, so he often babysits lil Arthur and tries not to break contact with Sandy :’)

 In the future, maybe Max will also take care of him bc he’s 10 years older. And, after all, it is mentioned that Adrian used to babysit Tamaya’s children.

[f-nodragonart]

Would it be cultural appropriation if a story's lore has an important character who's an eastern dragon, but the author isn't asian? Or are the long wingless dragons not that big a deal

well, there are a lot of different parts to this question

for one, long wingless dragons aren’t exclusive to Asia, and I’d recommend taking a gander over at @dragon-discourse for more ideas, if u wanna borrow from a specific culture. or if u just want that aesthetic, I think it’s possible to implement those two specific design elements (long + wingless) without it being strictly connected to any particular dragon lore

tho even that can get a lil bit messy. while I hold that a dragon that is simply long + wingless doesn’t automatically = Asian, you need to take care with what additional design elements and aesthetics you’re using. like, if you are literally copy-pasting an actual Chinese dragon design, then that character should still be Chinese with all the sociocultural perspective that entails, or you’ve just stolen an aesthetic without giving proper credit/respect to the culture it was borrowed from

now in terms of broad cultural appropriation, that can get a lil tricky to answer. first, is this aspect of culture something that’s open to sharing, or is it a closed aspect that should be respected as such by outsiders? and if it is open, are you confident you can represent this aspect respectfully, by doing proper research into what it means and how it should be used? what role does this character play in your narrative, and can you craft this role without falling into harmful stereotypes? for example, Western media doesn’t have the best track record with handling snakes and snake-like creatures/characters, especially those Asian-coded

and even then you’re gonna get different perspectives. like, a native Chinese citizen who is still in China and doesn’t have the experience of being a minority within China might have a different opinion from a Chinese-American, born and raised in America and experiencing the racism of being seen as “other” within their own country

at the very least, I think your broad use of Asian/Eastern here is already a sign that you’ll need to do more research, considering Asia is a goddamn MASSIVE continent with countless cultures and sub-cultures and subsequent dragon interpretations. Asian cultures aren’t homogenous, after all

that all said, I’m white so I can’t speak for other cultures, which is why I haven’t actually given you a solid answer yet. and dragons as a broad topic are difficult to google, when u want the answer to a question as subjective as this. tho I was able to find this quora answer that brings an interesting perspective to the broader problem of American/Western imperialism

so broadly speaking, I think you need to do some more thinking and research about what you actually want from this dragon design/character, and how you want to accomplish that. I know I didn’t rly answer ur question here, but I’m hoping I’ve at least given you some perspective how you might want to approach something that’s from a different cultural background

if anybody else, particularly from an Asian background, has more information here, please feel free to chime in!

-Mod Spiral

[tiodolma]

here are my thoughts.

in s1-s3 he would still had been politcally disadvantaged if he revealed himself. He would have been up against royalty/nobility and that upper echelon of society had majority of public sway. Sorcerers were still 2nd rate citizens especially with Uther, who was the symbol of persecution, still alive.

Nobility can just command armies and entire countries to turn tolerance to hate and paraonoia in a very short span of time.

Meanwhile for someone that is landless and poor as Merlin, outwardly subjecting people to his power and will can be the source of awe, inspiration as well fear... And ...Fear ...is the best weapon for authoritarian rulers. It will only take just one suggestion, just one insidious rumor, that Merlin/Emrys is doom/end of humankind to turn Merlin from a savior/hero to a designated villain.

Even if he was the most powerful warlock, he wouldn't be able to keep everyone he loved safe. Hunith and Gaius could have been easily used as bargaining chip against him.

People say he should've revealed himself to Morgana at these timeline. But with Morgana still in Camelot and Morgause alive, that would've backfired against him too easily. (it'd be cool if he still took the chance tho)

s4-s5 would have been the best time for a reveal. because his friend Arthur was already king. he could have challenged the nobility this time because he and Arthur were friends.

Unfortunately I think this is when Gaius's teachings have borne their fruit. The lies have gone far too deep. And unfortunately for everybody, Merlin has already completely tied his entire sense of self and ego to Arthur's approval and survival. So to me maybe he can't bear seeing Arthur get hurt over his betrayal. He'd rather kill himself than experience that. He'd rather die that see Arthur get killed. At least that was what I was thinking while watching the whole show.

Another thing I noticed was that Gaius adamantly wanted to use the secret as leverage against Morgana. Gaius led him to believe that everyone would be in danger if his secret got out.

My own guess though was that Gaius probably had a feeling that Morgana had grown in wisdom and technique compared to Merlin.

Gaius's persecution and disdain of black magic has backfired because it's starting to get used against them. He and Merlin will never be ready. If anything bad happened, Camelot would lose their only weapon against magic, who was Merlin.

If Merlin was the gifted prodigy, then Morgana was the hardworker who has surpassed him in technical know-how. Merlin would have been ill-prepared for anything that Morgana threw at him. Morgana is the one with actual proper and formal training in normal + dark magic after all. Merlin is basically like a recycler who just thrifted whatever spell he could pick up. That's why when Morgana finally found out who Emrys was, she got the counterattack ready at the soonest possible time. Gaius feared that most of all.

............

So for me it's three major things: He kept putting off the magic reveal / kept his secret to the point of murder because

He couldn't bear Arthur's disappointment in him. It would kill him, He wanted to do the reveal at least on his own terms;

He wanted to pull one over Morgana all the time. Morgana can never know because Morgana had the knowledge and means to incapacitate him, and without him, Arthur wouldn't be safe, if Arthur was harmed, he would failed his mission;

And he believes that is his Duty and that he's doing the Right Thing because that was what Gaius and Kilgharrah have told him to.

It doesn't matter if he's the most powerful warlock who can use himself as diplomatic tool. At this time, he has become so closed off and isolated from others. There's no one else who could tell him that there was another way. All he had were Kilgharrah and Gaius. Or maybe he had given up learning/looking for other ways because whenever he tried to defy the two old coots in S1-S3, something tragic usually happened. The fight in him is gone. The end result is that he was stuck in the idealogy to the point where he's thinking only in extremes most of the times.

Also if I'm not mistaken he was only aware that he was immortal when spiritBalinor talked to him in the Crystal Caves. He was only informed of his true nature in the last episode. (which is a waste because man, he couldve done so much more if he had understood earlier that he wont be able to die even if he wanted to.)

where is that meta of merlin having higher kill count than morgana (and arthur) oh god

the implications of it

but to everyone morgana is still evil-er.. and why? coz she killed senselessly?

as if merlin is any better bro. Merlin "u harmed gaius/the royals/the essence of my secret so therefore you must die, goodbye." Emrys

hhhhhhh

this merlin "where in my destiny does it say i have to murder people" emrys

son, that didnt age well. that didnt age well at all.

[codenamesazanka]

I think i fell into the trap of villains being more interesting than the heroes in bnha. I find tomura more entertaining. The kids in 1-a aside from bakugou and maybe todoroki are too nice? What are they’re flaws?

Hiya! Thanks for this cool question! I’m sorry, but you’ll be getting a looong essay from me! 

And yeah, same!! Though I don’t think its that the UA kids are boing/too nice/flawed. When I first started watching MHA, I was on the lookout for a favorite character to stan. Uraraka, Iida, Eraserhead, even Snipe(???)… I actually didn’t care for Shigaraki Tomura at first, tho I did like his creepy vibe. When I finally did take notice, it was a delight trying to figure him out because he’s so contradictory and still mysterious. Making sense of it all/using all of the pieces to discover a characterization that made sense, was just fun and rewarding. 

IDK exactly what changed to make me like him, but I think it was that I got interested in the worldbuilding, how exactly quirks and heroes and villains exist. Villains are a really cool perspective to look at the society from, and who better to use as an example than hand man? 

…Which is also the main flaw I perceive about MHA. 

(Everything here is my opinion! I’m a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan so that’s the angle I’m most interested in, and also I read the non-villain arcs like once and that information has largely been crowded out by the ever-expanding and all-consuming thoughts of the League of Villains, so I will get somethings wrong)

IMO, Worldbuilding is a bit weird, in that it’s not enough to establish the norms - which is hard enough - but often you must also establish the taboos. Figuring out how things function includes examining the dysfunctions. Sometimes you create a world only to tear it down. 

But that’s the heart of speculative fiction - imagining different ways of living, different ways the world could be, taking aspects from our world and dissecting it. “Fantasy — the fantastic, the imagination that I love so dearly and that I’ve used to try to construct my own work — is everything that helps to expose more clearly and more powerfully the reality that surrounds us,” Julio Cortazár said. The classic sci-fi stories of exploration and invasion, othering, transhumanism - all are already issues irl: colonialism, discrimination, disability. The lives and conflicts in those stories can exist because of the lives and conflicts of real people as sources to build upon. 

@dabistits​ has said this much more eloquently and comprehensively than I ever could, so go read her meta!!

It’s obvious Horikoshi has put a lot of thought into figuring out his world, with all sorts of details to flesh it out - he writes into it issues like the accommodation of bodies that deviate from the supposed norm; what if people had innate differences, some of which are seen as dangerous; discrimination; self-determination and the right to bear arms affecting the social contract. You can say, ‘Nal, you’re looking too deep into this, it’s a comic for 8-year-olds’, and it’s true! But the first words the begin the story are ‘People are not born equal’; I’m taking it as invitation to examine that. 

So we have a world with its many dysfunctions and flawed systems. Everything that happens hinges pretty much on quirks. I think a great way to explore that is using plot and characterization. It’s not characters being plopped into the world; the world produces the characters. Development occurs as a response to trying to live under these conditions, trying to grow and push the boundaries, or accept and pass it on. 

But I feel like Horikoshi haven’t done this with the UA kids? 

These students are in the contained environment of school and not really interacting with the people they are to protect and serve, and their goal is to get stronger and more powerful but that’s kinda indistinguishable from any other shonen manga and not Hero-specific. Instead of just ‘use my quirk to punch a bad guy and save the day’, I wanna see situations where the kids learn that they cannot use physical methods, I wanna see the moral dilemma of arresting a person who punched out someone discriminating against them, I wanna see them having to accept failure and death as part of the job, dealing with the compassion fatigue. The Hero-specific things. Also, we don’t get to enter the headspace and background of the rest of Class 1A. It’s not the kid’s flaws. 

So the questions Horikoshi brings up about society isn’t actually usually answered by the heroes (some of the exceptions are, as you point out, anon, Todoroki and Bakugou). They’re answered and navigated by the Villains. The Villains are the ‘failed’ products of the world, their grief and discontent is due to being unable to function in this specific society. Their motivations are specific to Hero-society and quirks. And I love that! I love that we get a better sense of the setting and society through their stories - Twice is the one who gets to show us the effect of All Might’s retirement, Spinner introduced us to mutant discrimination, Detnerat gave us some important info about the economy and quirk-usage rights. 

The Heroes don’t get that? Not really? At the beginning of the manga, we do, though! Todoroki and his family, Shinsou and his quirk, Tenya and his brother. But after that, iirc, an issue is brought up, then usually quickly resolved. Kouta hates heroes? Midoriya becomes his hero and Kouta has a change of heart. The media rightfully rips into UA for the camp fiasco and the public agrees? The AFO and All Might fight overshadows that. Aoyama and Midoriya share a moment over quirk-incompatibility, but nothing more than that. 

It’s not that I just side with the Villains completely. I love Vigilantes, and I love the characters that try to do good. Vigilantes explores the dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies. Doing good despite breaking the rules; the desire to use your quirk but having to suppress this innate part of yourself; questioning the Hero system but keeping the ideals.

Koichi, the main character, is very sweet, ‘too nice’ as you might describe, very mild-mannered, his adventures limited mostly to the streets of his neighborhood. He is not flashy like Shigaraki, but I like him a lot. His growth is in response to him learning to be a citizen of his world - what it means to do good, having to interact with the community and its people, finding a niche to make use of his quirk. Making a lasting effect on the every day of the streets. The ‘trigger drug’ storyline works really well because it’s both giving us some insights about how official investigation works and the legal definition of ‘Villain’ (Tsukauchi), the use of social media and Pop’s influence to detect the villains, the biological mechanism of quirks and things people use to enhance it, along with Knuckleduster’s history and developing the relationship between the vigilante trio. 

So yeah! I feel like the full potential of the story Horikoshi wants to tell - this world that’s still dealing with the consequences of quirks appearing, the law enforcement system that arose from having to govern millions of individual with a million different abilities and needs, all of who has to learn how ‘great power comes with great responsibilities’ applies to them, and villain created by these circumstances, who is fated to be in a century-old battle that came to be because of the advent of the extraordinary, a wild fantastical full circle - hasn’t been shown through the UA kids and heroes. Instead, it comes across better from the Villains, and that’s why imo I find them more interesting.