#But I see too many people saying things are confirmed when they’re just implied by a leak which may or may not be true

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I think leaks can be harmless if we use them as grounds for speculation, but oh boy, I see way too many people pick and choose the leaks they like and then say it’s literal “confirmation” of something. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. Like yes, Finn was filming in the week they were using the playground set, but that doesn’t mean it’s definitely about byler. It can be fun to speculate, but there are also many other reasons they could have used that set (like the Creel storyline, which they’ve been filming lately, and which the Wheelers could possibly be involved with).

Or some text leaks saying certain characters have scenes together (like I saw one about Will, Mike, Robin and Vickie). I do agree it’s a possibility, due to their filming schedules and who has been filming whom, but it’s not confirmed just because someone on twitter said it. It hurts the history student in me when I see the same people who will critically assess and be skeptical toward anti-byler leaks openly accept pro-byler leaks regardless of how reliable the source may be.

And I’m sorry, but same thing goes for Finn’s playlist. He didn’t literally confirm Mike is gay. I personally do think the playlist is an inspiration playlist about Mike’s season 5 arc (surely he’d know people would think it’s ST related with that title), but that’s still just one interpretation, and we’re still analysing the songs through our own perspective and biases. I don’t have byler doubt, and I do think the playlist is about the show, but to say he confirmed Mike is gay isn’t accurate, sorry. There could be other readings and interpretations of the songs.

All I’m saying is that I see a lot of bias, and while leaks are great if we want to speculate, we’re only setting ourselves up for disappointment if we take ones we like as actual confirmation

[ns-media]

Incredibly long analysis on Oda's thoughts on romance, way of portraying romance and LuNami in One Piece

Okay, so I want to make a LOOOOONG post about something interesting that's been on my mind for a while, about romance in One Piece. I was originally going to post it on Twitter but this post is way too long for that platform. I always preferred posting here, but not too many people are here nowadays. Anyway, onto the main topic here. I'll be talking about Oda's portrayal of and thoughts about romance, how he views it, why he puts a good chunk of it in "non-canon" material and so on. This post is to understand Oda's perspective on romance and why he goes about it the way he goes about it. I'm a LuNami fan, so this is also to make a point about how he decides to portray them.

Do not read this if you don’t want to see me express unfavorable opinions (and also factual information) about LuHan and other ships I just don't see working out, as they basically don’t fall in line with how romance works in Oda’s work. I'm not mean-spirited about it though. (Also I'll be bringing up SanPu for a bit too, in a favorable way) I am guaranteed to get at least one eyebrow raise or a "What the fuck are you talking about?" from any person reading this whole thing, but that's fine. I'll only tag LuNami because this is for LuNami fans.

Anyhow, in an interview with Aoyama back in 2022, Oda stated how he doesn’t want to include actual romance into his story and how he’s fine with one-sided stuff. His reason is because he fears he would lose certain fans for doing so. This is an interesting statement.

First, if you read this up here, it essentially confirms how Oda doesn’t see one-sided affection as romance so there’s no reason to think that Sanji or Boa’s affection are hints when they’re both for comedic effect.

The reason they're one-sided in the first place is not because he's teasing you with the idea that the other might return that affection one day, no he treats it as a joke, it's as straightforward as that. I don't understand how people try to act like it's not purely for humor. If he intended on making something like Boa and Luffy’s relationship as something to seriously consider being “romance” then Boa wouldn’t be so humorously delusional even after being rejected twice in back to back chapters, she’d be taken aback at the very least. But doesn’t. Why? It’s a joke.

I mean for heaven’s sake, whenever this gag is used with Nyon around, she’s the voice of reason, y’know, a woman who also experienced the same kind of delusional love once? Again it’s all a joke, the entire point of Boa’s gag is that it’s love that’s supposed unreciprocated.

Also, the second time he rejected her was him rejecting her before she even got to ask anything...

This lets us know that Luffy knows how persistent she in trying to get with him and also implying that Luffy is going to say no, no matter what, as he knows how desperate and persistent she is about it. Now that I think about it, Rayleigh left Luffy to train by himself for 6 months before the timeskip fully ended, Rayleigh's supervision made it to where Boa couldn't get to Luffy, but after he left, was fully capable of doing so. I mean just look at Boa down here:

Yeah she said she won't go and remain strong for Luffy's sake, but with her being the way she is, I wouldn't be surprised if Boa in those 6 months went to the island and was asking Luffy multiple times which was how he was able to reject her before even knowing. If what we saw in Chapter 598 was the first time he rejected her, he wouldn't be so quick to know that she was gonna ask it again when he rejected her the 2nd time on panel. We know that the Kuja girls KNEW that Rayleigh left half a year ago as well, meaning they must've gotten to the island itself if they found this out. Unless Rayleigh told them directly, which, to be fair, is likely, but if he didn't, this implies that Boa has been talking to Luffy on the island in those 6 months, and if so, would definitely have brought up marriage at least once, or a lot, honestly, thus explaining Luffy being able to shut down her marriage request before even knowing what she was going to say, because he already heard it THAT much in those 6 months. Now, I don't truly believe that Oda thought of it like that, but it does make logical sense so I figured "why not bring it up".

Also, in a 2014 interview with Fuji TV about the 3D2Y special, Oda's editor mentioned that not only Buggy but BOA bring in the comedic elements into the arc and how they're comic relief characters, again making it obvious that even his editors understand that Boa’s infatuation is a complete joke for the sake of comedy. Same with Sanji. Being a gentleman is part of his character but he tries to score every woman. Why? Jokes.

Even if you somehow use the argument of “Oh but this behavior of his is even stronger towards Nami specifically” I don’t see how any of that can be seen as a “shipping hint” and not a gag that’s exaggerated even further, cause he’s still hitting on every woman. Besides, the first time he actually got his heart broken by a woman was by Pudding, and never Nami, Robin and every other woman despite getting rejected a billion times by them. Why? Because the Nami/Robin affection is for comedy while the story between Sanji and Pudding is supposed to be taken seriously.

It's why Oda went out of his way for Sanji to write a dedicated story between the two, with Sanji getting genuinely sad when Pudding talked shit about him only for everything to turn around by the end where she actually likes him. THAT is a romance story with substance behind it, and Oda clearly wrote it like there is merit to it. There is obviously a story written here with a beginning to an end, Sanji acts no different towards Nami in Wano than in say, Punk Hazard. Beginning of Whole Cake vs end of Whole Cake Sanji is on entirely different terms with Pudding and she is on entirely different terms with him. There is development, a plot, a purpose that impacts the plot. Not just "Haha jokes".

Soooo yeah that’s the first thing I wanted to address regarding that statement.

Second, Oda saying “I don’t want to include romance because I don’t wanna lose fans” may seem like an odd thing for him to say at first given how Oda post-timeskip portrays actual romance in his story, and plenty of times, I might add. This was when Oden/Toki was relatively fresh too so there’s no way he forgot he did so. Because of that, Oda is referring to romance for specific characters rather than for the characters he’s already written romance stories about.

So this basically means that Oda’s fear of losing readers obviously doesn’t stem from the romance stories he has already written, it’s very clear from the interview that he’s hesitant to write romance out of fear of losing some of his readers. But of course as we know, he clearly has written blatant romance already, primarily with non-main characters like Rebecca’s parents, Rouge/Roger, etc. It makes plenty of sense for Oda to not be afraid or hesitant to write romance stories/romantic elements for those non-main characters.

Because well, those stories written are basically all backstories that are over in a few chapters (Senor Pink/Russian) or briefly talked about (like the aforementioned Rouge and Roger.) As such, there’s no long-term impact on the story.

Notice how in the only case of a STRAW HAT having a blatant romance story (Sanji/Pudding), it is a character who's most defining character trait is his lovey dovey/romantic behavior? Oda most likely felt more comfortable giving a romance story to Sanji specifically as that goes with his personality, and likely felt he would not be getting backlash for giving the LOVE cook a romantic story. (Because again keep in mind he clearly stated he's hesitant to include romance due to losing fans of the characters getting romantically involved)

But STILL, even with all of that, the impact of this love story from Sanji's perspective is just erased entirely as Pudding erased his memories, as if Oda is being particularly protective of the Straw Hats getting impacted by any obviously permanent romantic development. (Because as I said SanPu is on entirely different terms from the beginning to the end of WCI, so their romance plot had impact on the story.)

So, because of how romance in One Piece is basically all deceased/minor characters having short backstories or in the case of the one Straw Hat who got a blatant romance story, (I said blatant cause you could say Usopp/Kaya, but it’s not super obviously blatant the way SanPu is) erased from his brain, there’s no obvious long-term impact that romance seems to have in One Piece.

I very much think that this “obvious long-term impact” is what Oda wants to avoid so badly, particularly for the Straw Hats (the main characters of the story). This is because this long-term impact would make it apparent to his readers that romance has a fundamental and established role in the story of One Piece as something important, which goes against his target audience of boys, who, from his point of view, don’t like it.

This idea Oda has stems from how Jump used to be when he was a kid, as clearly stated in the interview with Aoyama. It’s his own experiences with how boys manga are “supposed” to be coupled with his insecurities about being embarrassed to write romance that makes him hesitant to do just that.

This is why I scoff at the idea of “No romance in the crew” being used as an actual argument. People use that argument as if Oda himself is completely against the idea of anybody in the crew getting together, despite the painfully crystal clear reason for “no romance in the crew” being to not alienate readers and lose said readers as he is under the impression that boys won’t like that because of how he thinks that everyone still has this idea that they should be segregated due to how it was when he was a kid himself. It's why he said "People are so supportive of couples!" all surprised in the interview with Aoyama, clearly being surprised about the positive reception it gets that he didn't think it would get. It has nothing to do with him hating the very concept of romance, it's him being under the wrong impression on what his young male readers would find acceptable or not.

There is a reason why almost every single time that he brings up or hints at any, ANY hesitance or opposition towards romance in the crew, he brings up his readers. ALMOST. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. He tries to please his target audience. “It’s a shounen manga” or “the readers” he keeps saying, despite not even being asked about his readers' opinion. "I don't think there will be any romance in that crew" is said clearly because "It's a shounen manga THEY won't be interested" not because "OMG WTF I HATE ROMANCE BETWEEN THEM GTFO!" the way people intentionally misconstrue this to be. He even says "Nami probably sees all the good aspects/qualities of those guys, BUT One Piece isn't a romance" So he LITERALLY says that his reason isn't "She does not like any of her crewmates in a romantic way!" but instead says "Well it's not a story about romance and I think only girls care so I won't show or depict it because I think my primary young male audience wouldn't give a shit". Nothing about himself. Legitimately nothing about his own opinions about supposedly being disgusted with nakama romance. Gotta love the made-up narrative being presented as a fact to the fandom at large.

Oda's "but" could have EASILY been followed up with something like this: "Nami probably sees all the good aspects/qualities of those guys, BUT she doesn't see them in a romantic way and I don't want it to be that way" or something, but instead essentially opted for "Nami probably sees all the good aspects/qualities of those guys, BUT think of my young male audience! They don't care about romance. They'd probably hate it if I decide to capitalize on Nami seeing their good qualities as romantic, right? After all, only girls want it! It must only be them for asking this!" What I am saying isn't even me grasping at straws, it's RIGHT THERE. "I don't think there will be romance in the crew cause boys will not like it". Bam, that's all it is. I know I am repeating myself but it seriously bears repeating because of how so many people see that one answer in particular as the ultimate evidence against Mugiwara romance. Oda seems like he's being evasive on purpose with that answer, talking about how concerned he is about the opinions of boys while not once talking about whether or not he would like to write it or not.

Also for the love of everything can we get someone who has the untranslated version of this answer? Given how Japanese language works I would not be surprised in the slightest if he's even more evasive than in VIZ's translation.

How people come to the conclusion that he’s disgusted by the very idea of a Mugiwara couple being a thing is beyond me when it’s as clear as day that he opens his mouth about “his readers” and “his audience” for a reason.

I mean hell, Strong World was originally going to be a movie about Nami’s past and the reason he changed it was because of how he kept his TARGET AUDIENCE in mind. He kept the young boys he appealed to in mind despite clearly wanting to write something else at first.

Him pleasing his audience doesn’t equal “I really don’t want this to be a thing”. If anything, he restricts his desires purely on the basis that he thinks whatever he wants to write is not what other people want, why the hell wouldn't you think this applies to the idea of "no romance in the crew" when he literally spoonfed us the reason being exactly that in the earlier photo of the Jump Fests '09 interview?

He clearly wants to avoid it because of this idea that his male audience will take issue with it and not because he doesn’t wanna do it himself. This why he said “Seriously!?” all surprised when Aoyama said he wouldn’t leave if he decided to implement romance into his story, and he was saying this to a man who writes romance and has already said “I love romantic comedies” 2 sentences ago. Oda is THAT unsure of himself and he's THAT much under the impression that males have no interest in romance. I rarely if ever see people bring this up.

There's a sense of insecurity Oda has on the topic of romance. When Aoyama said “I guess you have no interest in love comedies” Oda didn’t say yes or even imply that he's right about that being the case. He just said “I’m not confident I could draw those, it's a bit embarrassing” Again, he's insecure about it. Not AGAINST it. He basically spells it out for you. But many people still pretend as if he's saying all of this because he's supposedly disgusted by romance among the crew being a thing, only because that made up narrative supports what THEY want to be the case, instead of looking into the actual reason for as to why he's saying all these things.

As I said before, almost every single time he is hesitant to write romance he mentions his audience, but in the situations he doesn't bring up his audience, he instead mentions how he's embarrassed to do it. I mean when asked in a 2019 interview with Oda, he was embarrassed when asked if he incorporates arguments with his wife into how Nami argues, perhaps showcasing how he's embarrassed to talk about his wife (ya know, the person he loves) in other words, the person he's romantically attached to. This is definitely a stretch so I'm not saying that I seriously think that this is more proof on how he's embarrassed/insecure about romance, but I figured it was worth bringing up. But embarrassment aside, he also cares a lot about his manga keeping face to his boy audience.

This leads me to the next thing… Oda’s involvement with the movies. Notice how, every single time he’s involved with writing the plot there’s always some LuNami stuff he wants to throw in there?

Strong World obviously, as well as parts of Film: Gold. Now, at first things seem… odd. The LuNami hints between the two in those films are quite a bit more on the nose than anything Oda has written in the manga, like a oh-so clear parallel between Tesoro and Luffy. At first it puzzled me why Oda would relegate these stories and moments to movies. And then, if you read the Aoyama interview, things start to make sense why he approaches things this way.

Movies aren’t treated as a main part of the story by people, it’s not the manga. You have to go out of your way to see the movie. There's no need to watch the movie to understand One Piece's main manga story. Look at the contrast between Chapter 0 and Strong World itself. Chapter 0 is manga content and it seems so much more concerned with the action and hype the young boys are there for (obviously cause it takes place decades before the current canon but that was a deliberate choice, it could've easily been like how Glorious Island, being a prequel to Film Z, was contemporary to the story). While there still is a bunch of that hype/action in the movie itself, there are also romantic elements thrown in there. It's kind of like Oda's experimenting, testing the waters with those movies. It makes sense for him to approach it this way. People who so happen to hate the addition of (LuNami) romance are willing to let things slide and overlook it because said romance is in a movie they don't have to watch.

So basically a non-mandatory-to watch movie provides Oda with more leeway, or rather makes him more comfortable to add what he wants, allowing him to put just a little bit of obvious romantic themes revolving LuNami.

Although it’s just a BIT of leeway, as Oda still kept the young boys in mind as he, of course, changed the movie from what it was originally supposed to be from something darker to something more light-hearted.

Here's where we get to the main point of this long wall of text: After three seconds. See, this could have easily, EASILY been animated into the movie, it’s as simple as having a 1 minute scene of everyone hearing the final part of the message, it could have easily been the post-credits scene, heck 1 minute is probably a lot more than what was necessary to show after three seconds animated. So why did it not happen in the movie? Probably because Nami was blushing.

Blushing is the most cliché and obvious way to tell if someone is into someone else (unless it’s physical like kissing). Oda, likely due to him keeping his young male audience in mind, relegated it to something even MORE obscure than a movie you don't necessarily have to watch, instead of through said movie, it’s through… these pin things? I honestly don’t even know what the heck it’s supposed to be. I know that One Piece Color Walk 6 featured it...

...but I don’t know the origin of this or how it was distributed before the color walk. Was it given to people in theaters? Was this purchasable merch? Did it come with the DVD/Blu-Ray as an extra? There's so little information online on where in the world this came from, and that just goes to show how oddly obscure it is, as if Oda did this on purpose just so that as little people would find about it. As if he thinks “Okay my intentions will be too obvious if this gets put in the movie itself, let me try something else”. It makes sense given how he's clearly shy about the whole romance thing as I explained earlier. Of course in the movie proper Sanji still mentions the whole love message thing but without Nami explicitly blushing at Luffy hearing it, naysayers can easily just interpret it as one of Sanji's self-serving delusions as always, as Nami doesn't show explicit emotions (blushing) giving away that it's really a love message.

Yes, everything I am saying about this isn't some guaranteed factual info or whatever, but this makes WAY too much sense. He had no reason to make this featuring Nami blushing but he did anyway, like it’s a way for him to draw what he wanted without being overly concerned with his demographic at large getting to see this, you know. And it worked! For example, a lot of the LuNami naysayers point out how the message wasn't romantic and they all say it without the knowledge of After three seconds. Oda did a good job with keeping this art on the down low because let's be honest, who outside of the shipping community or people analyzing shipping to insane degrees (me right now) even know about after three seconds? Exactly.

And by the way, you can’t even say that Nami is blushing out of embarassment for everyone hearing it. In that artwork where she blushed, she knows damn well at that point that the only person on the ship who didn't hear the last part is Luffy, so she’s clearly blushing because of how LUFFY SPECIFICALLY heard it, she blushes once she’s realized that he heard it, it’s that straightforward. And Oda wrote Nami saying "It's embarrassing!" in reference to the message.

Oda is the same man who is embarrassed to write very on the nose romance. Not saying "Oh dude this totally means Oda is projecting how he feels writing after three seconds/the ending of Strong World onto Nami by making her say it's embarrassing meaning he sees this as romantic because HE is embarrassed about romance!" ....Well okay I totally AM saying that buuut I am not saying that it's actually true. I just wanted to bring it up lol.

Another perfect example of relegating obvious romantic things to obscure content is a certain sketch. And it’s in the heroine novel, obviously aimed at girls instead of boys, and oh would you look at that:

Oda does a complete 180 and features Nami with Luffy’s hat on with a HEART IN HER HAND… seriously, how more obvious can this sketch get? It can't! And it doesn't need to be subtle this time! Oda knows that on average more girls are going to care about romance so why be subtle here? In the past he said specifically that he thinks girl readers keep asking him questions related to romance, as I clearly said before, and this here novel is targeted at girls as opposed to boys. There’s no reason for Luffy’s hat to be on her, especially because, well, he has nothing to do with Nami's novel, it's not like he plays a role in it. Nami post-timeskip is pretty much never seen wearing his hat before this sketch, making it very peculiar for him to draw her like this here on something aimed towards girls, the demographic he keeps mentioning "loves romance and keeps asking me to include it in One Piece". Seriously, the ONE TIME to bring it back in like, a decade, and it’s done like this? It feels ridiculous to call people crazy for thinking it has to mean something given all the context I have provided.

I mean, notice how in the main manga storyline, Nami hasn’t had his since SKYPIEA??? Hell, even then, she has only had it on her head once in the main manga in Arlong Park, yet Oda made Nami wear the hat in color spreads, which are treated as not important at all by a lot of readers. Color spreads by casual or young readers are usually looked at like “Huh cool artwork I guess, not going to extensively think about it though”, again giving Oda a liiitttle bit more leeway than his main manga story. Why else do you think that Luffy and Nami are CONSISTENTLY portrayed as King and Queen in color spreads and not the main manga storyline? Because from Oda's perspective it gives naysayers or the boys who in his mind supposedly hate romance leeway to say "Oh it's just a color spread! Just fun little aesthetic stuff!", in other words, nothing to take seriously. If he wrote it into his main manga story he would have to explain why Luffy and Nami would dress up as King and Queen too, again making things a loooot more explicit depending on the way he goes about it, and he's already insecure about it, so.... I'm just saying.

Also come on, there has to be a reason why Oda has portrayed Nami with Luffy’s hat plenty of times after Skypiea yet none of those times were in the story proper, just like the movies he's involved in being heavily focused on Nami herself or LuNami. He himself wrote Tesoro and Stella's romance, he himself said that ROMANCE WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR FILM: GOLD yet is much more adamant about romance being included in his manga storyline and it was HIS idea to parallel the romance for Tesoro/Stella that he wrote with Luffy/Nami. Almost as if he is less concerned with a certain audience for the movies and side material than he his for his manga... Nah, that's ridiculous!

Isn’t it just weird how a lot of the side content Oda makes/is involved in is more on the nose with shipping hints? To me it seems like his thought process is “Okay! I can finally do something I want to! I want to make a movie about Luffy saving Nami with a few romantic undertones thrown in there… I could’ve easily made an arc like this in the manga but, can’t let my main audience be disappointed, can I?” Arlong Park and Skypiea are the only times in the manga in which Nami gets to be saved by Luffy. (Funnily enough they’re both are the only times in the main story where Luffy gives Nami his hat.) Both arcs were so long ago. It just seems to me like he wrote Strong World and the romance aspect of Film: Gold to scratch his “Nami gets saved by Luffy” itch. Even with the Zou hug being a thing, it is not something that Oda puts emphasis on at all, it’s pretty zoomed out in the manga, as if he is avoiding any overly direct intimacy that the readers he’s catering to would catch on to. It’s all too suspicious to me.

All this isn't to say that Oda doesn't do any LuNami stuff in the main manga storyline, it just that he's not mega obvious with it at all and doesn't plan to include said mega obvious hints as long as his concern with his boy audience remains there. So it doesn't invalidate any LuNami hints that people think happened in the manga like Nami blushing over the CPR Reiju gave (naysayers could easily say she was just shocked unlike Strong World where it's blatantly her blushing over Luffy hearing what Sanji called a "love message") or things that are more subtle like Nami's "I don't want to marry yet" in Thriller Bark, I'm just saying that cliché hints of romance is what he would like to avoid, something cliché enough that his shounen audience would figure out.

As a side note, Oda's "People seem so supportive of couples!" is also interesting as before his Aoyama interview he always knew/thought that girls are always the ones ask him for romance and as such of course he would know the female demographic would care more about it, so this surprise about people seeming supportive of couples may or may not be him realizing that it's not just girls who are interested, but perhaps boys too. Of course we all know that Oda drew Luffy and Nami together for Aoyama, the author he just talked about romance with. Now again not saying "Oh man this HAS to be a LuNami hint!" because they talked about much more than just romance, but still, something to consider!

Oda's "Ah, seriously!?" is still funny to me when Aoyama said he won't leave if One Piece were to include romance, despite Aoyama writing romance in Detective Conan, interesting reaction from Oda given how Aoyama literally said "I like love comedies" just earlier. As if to convince himself that Aoyama is writing the romance in his story to pander to his female audience instead of doing it because he likes doing it. Anyway I think I am digressing.

I think my theory may hold some water, but hey if you disagree, that’s totally fine. I’m not the best at articulating myself so the way I talked about some things here may just be seen as completely wrong, but hey, that’s okay! If you have something to add, you can do so. I know there will be people disagreeing with me, including even some LuNami fans, but again, I don't mind at all.

My verdict is this: Oda likes the idea of LuNami but due to his concern with his target audience, he won’t make any obvious advances that young boys would pick up on and as a result, tries to sneak in more obvious hints into supplementary/more obscure content like Movies, After three seconds, a sketch, etc. because people take those less seriously/not at face value like stuff that happens inside the manga's story, so only puts more subtle or non-cliché hints in his manga and the less subtle ones in secondary material. (I mean seriously dude, wearing Luffy's hat with a heart in your hand? A romance parallel in a movie? Blushing at the "love message" being heard? Come on, that so much more on the nose than anything in the entire manga)

I guess you can say there are layers to how far Oda is willing to go to show LuNami more explicitly lol. The more of a low profile he think he has from his boy readers, the more explicit it'll be. That is seriously a trend I have been noticing from him.

Honestly, with all this being said and done, I think the only way he will feel totally at ease with including explicit LuNami romance is if he is convinced that his boy audience doesn't mind romance at all and wouldn't leave in salt, bitterness and passive aggression.

I think One Piece will continue to be written like this without on the nose romance. The best we can hope for is a sudden LuNami ending once the story is over, because 1. By then he stops writing One Piece and doesn't need to be walking on eggshells to please his audience and 2. Romance not being written doesn't necessarily mean characters won't end up together as BF/GF, husband/wife. Portraying romance is simply showing us the way that lead to the BF/GF husband/wife relationship in the first place.

Keep in mind that the whole interpretation I have about Oda's portrayal romance and LuNami could be entirely wrong!

To talk about the "Boys don't like romance" thing, I'm a man, and look, I wrote all of this stupid shit. To me it's funny that he still is under the wrong impression that all, or at least most, boys don't like romance. I am not a shipper of everything in fiction myself, LuNami is one of the few ships I even care about. If your audience grows attached enough to a series they would get attached to the characters too, this attachment can lead to a desire of wanting to see these characters be more, that is how I started to love LuNami. I think a decent amount of male One Piece fans feel the same way, for guys like me liking a ship usually takes a slow burn, whereas, usually from what I observe, women ship things much quicker than guys. I also feel less willing at expressing my love for a ship, a big part of it being that many guys just "support" a ship instead of going balls to the wall insane for a ship with a million essays about how great the ship is, on top of that they almost always support the ships I think are lame where it's stupid one-sided love for 95% of the story (For example, men in the English-speaking community support LuHan so much more than LuNami on average it's not even funny) For a long time, many years, I was sitting in the back, keeping my interest in LuNami to myself. And what better way to "come out the shipping closet" I guess you can say, than to make... whatever the hell I wrote here? I don't know man at this point I'm so drained I'm starting to doubt that anything I even said here made any sense, I just flung all the things stored in brain at this post so it may be all over the place but whatever!

Hope you loved reading this regardless! See ya!

[randonwilmonfan]

I'd love to talk more about the locker room scene in S2 E2 of Young Royals, where Wilhelm tries to convince Simon to get back together with him, in the process (sadly) demonstrating that he believes his mother's feeble offer to "talk" about him possibly coming out when he's 18. This takes place after his almost-removal from Hillerska.

Plenty of people have already pointed out how Henry snitched on Wille and Felice’s kiss, but apparently didn’t choose to tell anyone (as far as we’re aware) about Wilhelm almost pleading with Simon to get back together with him during that post-almost-dragged-out-of-Hillerska conversation. And that's definitely an interesting thing to chew on. But there's more...

Here are a few other things that stand out to me too:

First -

I think it’s worth pointing out the obvious — Wilhelm clearly sees Simon in his future long-term (possibly for the rest of his life). The way he casually says to Simon “So, we’d only have to keep it a secret for 2 years” implies three things very clearly.

a) He immediately and easily sees himself together with Simon in 2 years and beyond. Actually, specifically, definitely beyond. Because his eye is on the prize: coming out and living openly with Simon *after* he turns 18 — implying his focus is entirely on the intended afterwards period. He doesn’t even blink at that idea; it’s obvious to him.

b) He also really doesn’t seem to think 2 years is a big deal. For a teenager who’s only lived 16 years on this planet (only approximately ~11-ish of them in a state where they’re forming conscious memories) to think 2 years is just a drop in the bucket is kind of wild. Even 6 months feels like forever to a kid. So Wilhelm — a child — viewing time from this perspective suggests he’s likely balancing 2 years out against a much longer expanse of time; hence why those 24 months would look so minuscule and shrug-worthy by comparison. In other words: he sees himself with Simon in the LONG long term. Two years is nothing if you’re imagining growing old with someone and spending the rest of your many decades on this Earth with them. (All of this is pretty much confirmed later on in S2, when Wilhelm offers to abdicate the throne for Simon.)

c) He also doesn’t seem to think Simon should be appalled by the idea of waiting for 2 years. Yes, sure, we can chalk part of that up to selfishness and lack of mentalization / empathy for Simon’s point of view. But I’m going to suggest it’s more than that. My takeaway is that he assumes Simon also sees them as endgame, and so naturally wouldn’t be bothered by waiting a bit longer in order to spend forever together. (Sadly the conversation does not play out that way for him; ouch. Though no shade to Simon: what he said in response was realistic and fair.)

Second -

I think we have to rewatch his interactions with Simon as Henry slams a door and slowly walks past them with a raised eyebrow. Because, in S1, that Wilhelm would have immediately jumped away from Simon to create distance and try to pretend there’s plausible deniability about what their relationship has been and could be again. That’s (one) part of the whole point of S1: Wilhelm is not ready to be brave enough to face a homophobic aristocratic world and take a bold stance to stand by Simon.

Instead, in S2 E2, he sits still. He stays right next to Simon. In fact, he *leaves his hand resting directly on Simon’s thigh.* And he knows someone is coming their way! He heard the door slam inside the locker room. Obviously he knows someone else is here. But he doesn’t jump. He actually doesn’t really stir much at all.

He sits there like it’s of no importance, and he doesn’t care who sees. Or, even, who overheard this very intimate, vulnerable, and pleading conversation. A conversation in which the future King of their country is almost on the verge of begging his ex to please be his again… not just for now, but for multiple years’ time. I mean we’re like 2 steps away from Wille practically offering Simon a “promise ring” (not sure if that concept holds up in Europe, but it’s basically a very pre-engagement type thing in the US; it’s not common though). (Their convo also makes it very clear Simon was the one who dumped him and that he’s having trouble accepting that and moving on.)

Yet he doesn’t seem perturbed or disturbed by Henry’s presence and overhearing and seeing them. He doesn’t seem embarrassed at all. He’s not ashamed of his love for Simon. Even more specifically, he’s not afraid of people (Henry) seeing him put his heart out on the line, and of them knowing that he wants Simon back - not for just a hook-up, but for a very long-term, serious, committed relationship. And he doesn’t make any moves to emotionally or physically distance himself from Simon, despite Henry’s clear witnessing of this private moment.

This is a subtle way to show that, even though Wille hasn't yet gone through his full S2 journey of self-awareness and self-growth, he has still already begun changing and growing after the end of S1. So he’s at least started to learn some of his lessons about what he needs to do differently.

Anyhoo, the whole point I’m trying to make is… gosh there were so many fascinating things happening in that scene. And they rush right past us in the blink of an eye! But there is so much meaning built into every small interaction and non-interaction there, and into every nonchalant assumption the characters casually voice.

I’m sure there’s more meaning and are more details I missed, too! What did you think? I’d love to learn more from others’ perspectives, too. :)

[astropookie]

Astro observations bc it turned into one ⭕️

Pinterest

I’m fucking trying to do a short post again but my overthinking powers are gaining me. I fucking hate myself, this post was supposed to be a family astro observation post and then I turned it into a moon sign post and then into an astro observation post, and you know what?! IT’S MARVELOUS OKAY

Disclaimer: we have to imagine everyone has a functional family 🤩

Taurus moon child tends to be the mommas kid. They just love the comfort in those hugs, it gives them peace or certainly a mom-son moment. They could (would) appreciate it daily. (sorry for those motherless taurus moons)

The Gemini moon kid ALWAYS have a mom that is not certain a mom, they don’t fit in the prototype of a traditional mom. The mom of these children are working, or hate doing stuff like buying school material for their children, they could not even listen to their kids when they’re talking…I don’t fucking know too specific I know I feel like the kid could have felt that the mom was in her own world, thinking and thinking, spacing out, that they couldn’t relay on them, sometimes.

Aquarius mercury 12H kid please just shut the fuck up. Well I mean, don’t but yes. First, yes because you have so many reasons to speak out. About the things that you perceive (too much bb, you’re like a sponge😭), the injustice, etc., also about the introspection you have done and the very strong emotional depth you have to deal with but you don’t want to and let almost nobody know about it blablabla … Everything is peaceful and harmonious until you decide that the best way to approach is to be taken by your impulses and the strong emotions you feel, to finally speak out. Aquarius mercuries always think they’re right, so stubborn, will think that their idea is better. It could be so hurtful to others, the words you say without thinking how it would affect them. Winning an argument is not always satisfactory. You have to know, I’m just saying 😟🤭 Please, take a deep breath and repeat with me: “I have the ability to control myself, open my mind and see that even if I’m suffering and feel TOO MUCH it hurts, it doesn’t mean I have the right to hurt others with my actions and CERTAINLY words. It’s important to prepare or think what I’m about to call out, because nobody it’s going to take me serious if I yell uncontrollably”. Poor parents (not true fuck them no lie no fuck them like yes but no), everything is injustice, the way they treat you, blablabla etc. (I’m not a fan of supporting parents) I was going to turn this into a child observation and I deviate from the topic. Kill me please. omfg I’m so dramatic.

People with Gemini rising are SO OVERTHINKERS, THEY THINK TOO MUCH. I know it’s too obvious okay? They’re so logical, they think twice, not twice, 462946 times before doing something “risky” (that’s not even risky, for me at least). If I said “Do it for the experience”, they’re not going to deny the idea at first, but they’re going to stay forever in their minds and think if it’s a good idea, the pros the cons, the people, environment, etc. everything you could imagine. They’re gonna be like “I don’t knooow”, and start making questions about the plan. They take their time. And the more they think the more pessimist they turn and finally they’re gonna decline. They are going to ghost you or take a pause or not going to confirm. But these implies only and most if you ask them out or on an event situation, something that has to do with changing environment or simply take them out of their house.

Not in the way Libras sun do, they meditate the idea to make the best decision -I’m not saying Gemini risings don’t do that-, and they could be so indecisive in routine questions, like if they ask them “what do you want? chocolate milk or normal milk?” or “Should I put these pants or these ones?” I’m the libra sun I DONT FUCKING KNOW OKAY? IM IN MY FUCKING MIND AND I HAVE TO DRESS THE WAY I FEEL AND THE OCCASION OF COURSE AND THE…😭PLEASE HELP ME

—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•

•This is based on my personal experience.

•English is not my first language.

•I’m not a profesional astrologer.

Thank youu. baibaiii🫣🫶🏼💋

Do not copy. Please give me credits.

[dragonsdendoodles]

hi! just wanted you to know that I love your art and you have some of the most correct Enoch hcs ever.

will you please provide some more?🥺🥺🥺

please?

Thank you so much!!! Absolutely I will, I will talk about that one all day if you let me

When he’s not around, Horace can be found with a homunculus chilling somewhere on him, usually in his hands, on his shoulder, or on his hat. Just so Enoch can keep an eye on him. Not that he’s worried or anything (that would imply he has feelings)

He gets along surprisingly well with Olive and Claire when he’s not actively trying to annoy them. They’ll follow him around and he’ll let them play with his homunculi or put on puppet shows for them, and if she asks he’ll carry Claire around and give her piggyback rides, though most of the time he’ll pretend he’s annoyed with her for asking.

He’s very good with kids in general, just completely subconsciously. He doesn’t have a clue how that happened. In his words, small children like him and he has no idea why.

He has a love-hate relationship with his scars from the end of TDODA. Some days he thinks they’re badass, but some days he also gets really insecure about them because of other people’s reactions to them. When that happens, he’ll refuse to leave the loop or even sometimes his room for the rest of the day.

Enoch is actually very shy when meeting new people. If an ymbryne-in-training or someone new or important comes to the loop to talk to Miss Peregrine, he’ll spy on them from outside or from another room, but if they try to actually talk to him he retreats to the basement and doesn’t come out until they’re gone.

He can play trombone. Notice I did not say he could do it well.

He can also play piano, but that’s less a headcanon and more something kinda confirmed by MOW when he’s stated to have used up six hearts teaching a skeleton to play piano.

He was bullied pretty badly by Abe in the short time they lived together, but none of the kids fully believed him when he said something. He doesn’t blame them—he was new, and when he was new he was even more prickly and defensive than usual, so they’d usually assume he started it and was upset Abe was finishing it when he almost never did. He never told anyone how bad it got until he vented about it to Horace almost a century later, who now completely resents Abe. He refuses to let anyone even mention it to Jacob for fear of tainting his grandfather’s image in his head.

Enoch is one of if not the pickiest eater in the entire house. He has lived weeks off of McDonald’s French fries from the present and Jacob’s retrieval of them for him because everything else sounded like poison.

Noor introduced him to Hot Wheels and he is obsessed. He has a collection of them in his room and Miss Peregrine had to make a rule within the first day that he can’t put mouse hearts in them and make them into homemade RC cars because they’re too small to see on the floor and Bronwyn nearly got a concussion from trying to dodge one thinking it was a bug.

If he has any pride merch from the present at all, regardless of orientation, he has pins and buttons. Nothing else. Enoch does not see the point of all the different flags and symbols but he does see the beauty in being able to chase Horace around the house trying to stab him. The fact that the pins haven’t been confiscated is a miracle.

He chews on things to stim. Favorite objects include every pencil he has ever owned, a lanyard Jacob gave him from a college he’s never heard of, his nails until they start tasting like formaldehyde, and Horace’s fingers. Horace has given up on trying to stop this.

I have many, MANY more should you want more. Mostly for Enoch and Horace but for any of the kids really I think about them A Lot

[leviadraws]

I’m just gonna splurge some thoughts about the survivors that I need to get out of my head, feel free to ignore this I just need to ramble about them. Obvs spoilers for all of DRA and SDRA2 under the cut (it's long btw).

Usual preface, just my thoughts, not canon confirmation of anything, you're all allowed to tell me I'm wrong/disagree yada yada yada

So one of the things I both love and hate about the DRA survivors in SDRA2 is how little we know about them since the events of DRA. All we get are little quotes let slip from Teruya's POV (and later Rei). And at least in Teruya’s case they’re said so nonchalantly but are also kinda telling of their experiences as adults trying to fight against despair, and how each of them are as adults. This is mostly about what Teruya tells us about Rei and Kinjo, as we do see a lot of Teruya's own personality through the course of the game.

Let’s take some things Teruya says when told that Rei is dead in chapter 2 for example. Not only does he not believe them, but he’s insistent that a) Rei will have contingencies for this and b) they will be rescued.

The way he says it implies that things go wrong in their work, and frequently at that. Rei needs to have plans b, c, and d as plan a rarely goes smoothly.

Also, while you could take his second comment as "Rei survived a killing game too she wouldn't die so easily", considering his spotty memory of his own killing game it's more likely that they've all come near death multiple times since starting the foundation. Which makes sense, put three kids in a war (two of which don't have combat experience) and quite frankly it's a miracle they're not dead yet.

Midori says something similar in the epilogue, so we can gather that people in the foundation do die often enough that it doesn't shock anymore. And by extension, the three of them have gotten injured or close to death themselves before.

I never noticed how calm he is about that statement about being rescued. He's confident. He's been captured before, perhaps a few of them have. And he has, at least, been rescued before.

I also find it kinda funny that at first when his memory of Kinjo is not all there he's still confident they'll be rescued. As time goes on and his memories of Kinjo return he loses hope. Just thinking on that.

Speaking of Kinjo, Teruya's comments of him are...interesting. When he doesn't fully remember him, he's kinda seen the same as Rei. He's confident in Kinjo and his ability to rescue them. But when he starts to get his memories back we get this wonderful snippet.

Oh boy Kinjo. I guess he doesn't believe in rehabilitation at least.

So I think it's important to stress that Teruya truly believes that Kinjo is his friend, and I think that speaks a lot about what Kinjo is like day to day. He's not always how he is in chapter 6, I really don't believe that either Rei or Teruya would stick around for however many years if he was, boss or not.

Especially Teruya, since in Kinjo's bad state he held a gun to Teruya's head and told him to pull the trigger.

It's kinda funny to think that both Rei and Kinjo have tried to kill Teruya. Rei ratted him out in chapter 4 solely to start a fight between him and Haru so they'd kill each other, and Kinjo obvs put a gun to his head. You need better friends /j

So Kinjo is probably relatively as he was in the foundation surrounded by good people (or just not criminals), and is much more ruthless out in the field. This is probably why Teruya and Rei scout on their own, perhaps they saw someone shot down who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

On a side note, I do wonder what Teruya is referring to here. There are a few things it could be tbh. Unlike the rest of the cast, he's not been reset in a past self so he knows that what he's seen is a memory, not a current thing. I think it's to do with his dad tbh, he's holding his scarf here after all (psst psst Linuj, when are you gonna tell us what happened there?)

Anyway, back on track. So Kinjo probably isn't crazy all of the time. I personally think that he has good days and bad days and that his physical state is an indication of his mental state, but that's my head cannon I can't prove that.

Man looking through chapter 4 is painful. Am I the only one that thinks Teruya's dark sprites look kinda sad? Like he doesn't really want to do what he's doing. Which kinda makes sense when you think he's being manipulated by Nikei and the entire tower seems entirely set up to trigger him in the worst way possible.

It's at this point that he no longer believes that he's going to be rescued, despite what he tells the others. He believes Rei is dead and doesn't believe that Kinjo will come for him, which leads into something Rei says in chapter 6.

Kinjo has left them for dead before, most likely both of them too. We know that Kinjo believes that the ends justifies any means and I think they have been on the receiving end of it.

But still, (I think) he wants to live, I've seen sometimes people say he's suicidal but I don't think that's the case. It's kinda telling that Yuki yelling "I'd rather die" triggers him enough to want to shoot him. It's only really later that he loses all hope and just kinda, snaps.

I know there's that one quote from chapter 6 he says, it always felt to me that he was just so cornered but still wanted to help, so he did the only thing he could. It does match something he says earlier in chapter 4

I think he values his ability to successfully help others over his continued survival. He's kinda taken Satsuki's words too much to heart, I don't think that she meant for him to carry that guilt all those years.

There's probably an entire thing about his mental state in that chapter that someone could write but that's for another day. All I will say is I'm not too keen on chapter 4 as I felt the whole thing a tad contrived in order for the shock value to keep ramping after chapters 2 and 3.

I guess the last thing we find out about Kinjo is he's changed in the last six months or so, and that was following him confronting his father. It's kinda implied that he's more distant from the other two since that event. Assuming that his contact with Syobai happened around this time, that explains why he would be distant from the other two, as he couldn't have anyone find out what he was doing.

That said, I have a head cannon that Teruya knew he was doing something fishy, but wanted to believe that he was doing it for the right reasons. You don't siphon off Syobai level fees from the company account without the accountant noticing. And considering Kinjo's attitude towards crime I can't imagine he's well versed in covering his tracks well enough to hide it from the ultimate merchant.

Also, that he seems to have trouble discerning the real Yuki from the one he met in the killing game. Despite that Yuki repeatedly telling him so and looking rather uncomfortable about it.

I hope that Linuj covers this in omake, it would be nice for him to have that closure.

I wanna say one last thing about Rei, since she's so underused this game it's actually criminal she doesn't get a lot of screen time or insight into her personality since DRA. We can tell that she's less curt, and more caring in her interactions in the prologue and chapter 6, and that in chapter 5 she's trying her absolute best to get Teruya out. But she still has her initial drive to survive above all else, which is why she keeps the exit code to herself.

But she's also still overconfident, she doesn't tell Teruya about the exit code because she's confident that she can get him out once she's out. And she definitely doesn't or he wouldn't react the way he does when she "dies".

"overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer"

And that's her downfall in the end, she's so confident that plan b, c, or d will work that she doesn't consider what will happen if she does fail.

Last bit while I was looking at other stuff, while she is blaming Kinjo here I think she's also talking to herself. After all, she's the one who left him there without a contingency plan. As we saw before, he's always relied on her in these kind of scenarios.

It's kinda funny, the only person Kinjo saved was Rei, and the only person Rei saved was Yoruko. One each, out of 32.

Damn now I'm sad. Anyway, if you've read this far congrats I guess? As I said before this is just some personal thoughts, you are free to disagree. I just really like it when things are left open to interpretation. I love these three a lot.

[cocogrrrl]

rendezvous

Chapter 5: After Hours / I Think We Have the Guy

during the few hours after the meetup, kyle gets a troubled tip from a mysterious text and yn gets a name.

wc: 1753 cw: implied alcohol + drug use, mental health stuff, details about the murders (graphic, but not totally detailed) check the series masterlist here! previous chapter

Kyle’s body sunk into his bed, the cold sheets enveloping his dazed state. Only the light from the moon illuminated his room as it gently hit his face. His gaze was pointed to the ceiling, mind full of worry. He didn’t even bother to change out of his clothes yet. He was too preoccupied and exhausted to do that.

At least today’s over with, right? He couldn’t help it, though, many conflicting sets of emotions washing over him.

He couldn’t sleep over the fact that he, like, almost attacked someone. It goes against what he even stands for. What the hell was that even that for? He knew he was going to deal with someone sick when he approached YN, but he didn’t think that he’d already get looped into the sick shit they did already.

Fuck. Does that mean that only worse was to come for him? He hoped not, but so far this mission seemed to not guarantee anything for him. Would he have to make the first move on YN once more? Is he going to see the borrower again? Would he have to do worse? It hasn’t even been six hours, yet he feels like things are only going to go for the worse.

It’s okay, though. This is all going to be worth it. This is all for the better good. Peace will be restored once he gets his evidence, and he might even get transferred to a better position if all goes well.

…Right?

All of a sudden, sweeping his thoughts off for a split moment, a ping from his phone could be heard. He checked to see what it was—a notification.

April 1, 1:11 AM

??? hi kyle. i’m sure you’re looking for the killer on the letter case, yes? well, you’ve actually already found your guy. it’s me. 

Just because this person messaged you at a time and date that involves angel numbers, does not mean this is your guy.

The letter case is the string of murders Kyle has been solving for the past few weeks. That’s what it was called by locals because each victim had a love letter (unsure if for them) placed somewhere at the crime scene. It makes it seem rather lighthearted when the actual murders were grisly and simply not for the faint of heart.

He was shocked, to say the least. He had to sit there for a few moments. This guy must be insane. He could technically track their location. At least in the morning. Yeah, that’s the first thing he’ll do once he gets to work.

Maybe he was a fake anyway. I mean, there are definitely some sick people out there who’d come out and say that they’re the murderer when they really aren’t—perhaps this guy was just one of them.

??? don’t just leave me on read!!! i know you’re reading this, you were just out a while ago you’re gonna make me reaaall sad if you don’t reply :(

How the hell does this kid know where Kyle’s been? Could it be YN? Maybe it was some who just really lucky at guessing things.

He rolled his eyes and sighed. I guess he had to reply. What would happen if he didn’t? Would another body show up tomorrow? There hasn’t been any indication that the timing of the murders seemed to be patterned. For all he knew, the killer may tend to strike whenever they’re upset.

I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to know whatever was happening anyway. This might just be some kid, but by the off chance that this is his guy, then score for him.

kyle how can i even confirm that you are the killer anyways?

??? i know things that most people don’t like i know that you’re the guy in charge of the case

kyle i’ve given statements to the news about the status of the culprit multiple times

??? the first victim is a bakery owner the second was her mentee/cousin the next one is a local idol lastly the most recent one is a seamstress

kyle i believe those details have been disclosed as well

??? stop being mean!!! hmph :<

kyle i’m not? i’m just simply stating that the information you’ve provided me with so far is all accessible by the public

??? you leave me with no choice then! i have photos of the bodies

The next thing Kyle received were photos of the bodies, some of them dissimilar to those recorded by the department. Maybe it was one of those journalists? He wasn’t sure.

A few photos seemed to stand out, though. Some of them were photos of the victims  unconcious in the places where their bodies were found. They hadn’t been mutilated yet, though. They were just knocked out.

Kyle didn’t want to put his trust in that person yet. Maybe it was edited? You’re gonna need one hell of an editor to do that, though.

 

kyle i’m gonna need more than that

??? so mean! i didn’t!!!

kyle  okay? look, if you’re some kid trying to be cool, please stop it it’s really disrespectful

??? i’m not a kid dipshit i do have proof clyde donovan is the son of the seamstress he said that he was likely targeted by the killer a few days before his death he was held at gunpoint by me and he said that i wanted to sew a football in his face he thought it was funny at first but after seeing how the dress his mother made was sewn onto her he didn’t find it that comedic anymore

The urge to throw his phone across the room out of fear was tense, almost palpable. Chills crawled up his spine. Why? It’s because the guy was correct.

Kyle had conducted a few interviews with people close to Betsy Donovan when her body was found at the local park. It was a place that she and her family frequented growing up.

Clyde, as mentioned, revealed exactly what the anonymous texter told Kyle. Honestly, if anything, this person seemed to know this situation better than Clyde did himself. The detail about the football thing wasn’t mentioned at all when he interviewed him, or at least he doesn’t remember anything like that. He might have to recheck the tapes later.

This information wasn’t released to the public at all for the sake of the family’s privacy. This fact, combined with the photos, likely meant one thing: he was actually talking to the culprit.

Who was this person exactly? Immediately his first thought is YN. I mean, he is pretty sure that it is her, and she did get his number earlier. Plus, he was just with her and this person just referenced knowing that he was out. Maybe she’s just messaging him through a burner phone. Knowing how much she gets from her borrowers, it doesn’t really seem like it would put a dent in her wallet to buy a few backup phones.

kyle why are you messaging me

??? i want to help you solve find out who i am

kyle aren’t you just endangering yourself then?

??? don’t you want some extra help on your case? i know how bad you wanna take me down

kyle yeah but not like this

??? that’s why i’ve devised a plan for you, detective you receive information from me about the murders and my identity if you follow my requests

kyle i’m not doing that

??? i’m not gonna have you rob a bank dude jeez i’m just gonna ask for small favors

kyle like what?

??? you’ll see do we have a deal though?

⋆｡˚ ✧ ˚ ༘ ⋆｡˚

The blinds were closed, and so your whole room was just barely lit up by your night light. Your body was drowning in the stiff cushions of your couch. Your senses were tingly, probably even hazy. You might’ve had an extra bottle of some cheap liquor to relax your senses.

You were tired, to say the least. Your body was absolutely drained, but your mind still ran endlessly—no matter how much you wanted it to stop. You just wanted to sleep, nothing more, nothing less. Dear, God.

You didn’t like your mind during hours like these. It’s when everything would hit you at once, the surge of emotions sending you to a wave of nothingness. You’d wish it’d be noisier sometimes, but you knew that you couldn’t handle loud things as well. Maybe the quiet is for you. It sounds funny, considering the type of life you find yourself living in, but it’s true.

Scratch that. You were lying to yourself. You’re pretty sure you had about two bottles and a shot in the thigh earlier. 

Your mind drifted off to places you didn’t want to, namely in the house of sympathy. Now that you were thinking about it, you kind of felt bad for Brad. I mean, maybe this is his first serious case, and you might’ve completely traumatized him already. The only “serious” problems this town had were probably as easy to solve as it is making your bed or something. 

Are you right for wanting to toy around with him? Definitely not. Is there anything good that is to be expected from you anyways? You’re not a good person at all. You’re the furthest thing from. You still can’t help but feel a little remorse after seeing the mortified look on his face earlier, though.

In retrospect, when you had to put him through the actual act of taunting the guy with a knife, you just felt awfully mean. You felt like those mean girls who force their “weirdo pet” friends to bully their friends just to see them suffer. How low of you.

What can you do now, though? The plan’s set in place, and whatever damage you have planned out has already been done. There’s no going back now.

You checked your phone idly, hoping to see something, anything to take your mind off of the barren hellscape that is your mind. A text from Bebe sent about two hours ago caught your eye.

April 1, 1:41 AM

bebe hey yn? i think we have the guy if anything i think we have heaps of information

You saw the message and smiled. It’s not that you’re going through this with this plan. It’s that you’re going through with this plan while enjoying it. You piece of shit.

bebe his name is kyle broflovski

next chapter.

[unsleepingtales]

Episode four! I missed the bad kid’s insanity so much <3

Episode four of every season they’re shy!

In space no one can feel you dying 💀

“What’s the drinking age?” “You guys have murdered SO many people”

Kalinaaaaaa

Hiiiii

Oh she’s an actual cat now!

She/they pronouns for Cassandra are back!

Kristen’s middle name is on her character page now!! Kristen Chilis Applebees!

Catchin me on my left foot hereeee gato.

Ooh they’ve got other offers

Why would you SAY that

That definitely circumvents the truth in a cool way……

When your only two followers fight :(

Just stop saying it pleaseeeeee

Say a n y t h i n g other than that

Hot.

Oooh the mall!

Why would you SAY THAT

So many of them have stars in their hats! And I have stars in my body! :D

I love Cassandra so so much

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa Kristen when you’re in the dark she’s there holding your hand. She gives you forehead kisses

KVX BANK????

Oh well that makes it all okay then!

:(

Oh my GOD

What the fuck Bill

CHUNGLEDOWNNNNN

God the fucking. D20 directly reflecting my life experiences.

Simeon du Vayne the new lunch lad. What’s your vibe

Ooh third eye is sick

I love that they’re never gonna say her name right

Scabby!!

Gorthalax! Hi!

On my first day of high school this guy yelled fresh meat at all of us and he continued to be a pain in the ass all fucking year

Fig. Fig no.

It does seem like the rat grinders might be direct foils to the bad kids. Let’s see how this goes!

Kipperlilly did not come at y’all nearly as hard as Kristen went aggro at her

Is it the sack of rats trick?? Is that where they got the name???

IT IS THE SACK OF RATS TRICK. FUCK.

I love how pissed they all are about this

THIS is what riz has never been more mad about ❤️

Girlie!!

The bad guy this season is just xp leveling 😭😭

God how high level are they????

Kindlesnap Whatsherface

Dome!!!!

He’s just a guy!

Please please nat 20

Crushing. That’s crushing

I love ripped jeans gorgug <3

That is SO much

Corsica Jones is HOT

Kristen and Riz dynamic duoooo

Riz Gukgak character of all time

FIG

Archaeologist Siobhan Thompson!!

Really emphasizing the ‘sorry what’ thing that post was talking about

Fig barbarian level!

That energy is more intense than anything fig tried to imply from goldenhoard

If the cig figs break up I’m gonna be fucking devastated

Oh yeah the junior year eggs. Okay.

Can I have some of your girlfriend’s hair? I need it for school.

I love that we all called the kill mum idea

She really should get paid for the elven oracle shit

Inclusive kinggggg

Ooh maybe I’ll wear my owlbears sweatshirt tomorrow. (Best holiday gift I got!

Ah the epic highs and lows of high school bloodrush

Max Durden!! He’s so cute.

Love that for him tbh

THIRTY FIVE

Who is this motherfucker

What the fuck are you doing

(Zac wheezing in excruciating pain)

Don’t align yourself with her Riz

What!

I love that everyone is going so aggro on the buttcrushers. Absolutely demolish their asses.

“You don’t have to call me coach” oh OUCH

Bucky Applebees!!!

Love the paladin repppppp

Oh kiddo

Oh Kiddo :(

I’m not trying to be cool I’m trying to be president

RATGRINDERS CLERIC IS HELIOIC

The BUTTFUCKERS? ALLY.

She’s had a lot of jobs but not that many of them were… legal.

Fabian’s so lonely :(

Bad kids study party!!! Real and confirmed!!!!

Aww I was so excited for Adaine to work at Basrar’s but the mall is fun too

Hmm. Sketchy!

German shepherd mode <3

Emily and Ally are having SO much fun with this

The procrastination is so fucking real

I’ve deeply missed you

WHAT what does that mean why is this the case

Oooh okay I’m really getting the sense that that blue mall battle set is the Synod

Sunglass kiosk. Palm tree. Mall things.

Ooh I just noticed seacaster manor in the background of the dome art

Strudel dimension, don’t put your hand in it. Don’t! Put your hand in it!

We don’t know if the strudel is infinite it just hasn’t ended yet.

I’m obsessed with this guy.

I’m so obsesssed

Mazey Phaedraaaaa

Oh my godddddddd

“I’m from hell” girly I love you to death but you are from downtown elmville

Ooohohohohoh she’s good at this

I love dnd mechanics manifesting as real elements of life within game

Awww

I don’t know as much about warlocks as I should really do this is great

That’s SO SICK I LOVE HER

Ragh!!!

Babe you cannot make student government cool. You just can’t.

Oooooof

What is this energy

Crab kinggggggg

We’re so fucking back

I’m Christian Delnore and I have Children!

OOP

Kristen’s energy is SO wild this year. She said she was trying to move past chaos and then came out the gate with This energy

Tracker’s dating the fucking Princess. Of course.

Messy high school relationships :)

That’s how it goes!

The intense side eye I am giving the whole situation

Kristen do you wanna fuck Kalina

What do you want with the president??? (To say hi)

Hell yeah gsa member Kristen Applebees

Torek with the button press!

I love them SO much I missed the bad kids SO FUCKING MUCH

Ohhhh this is the backstory of that button from the merch drop ok

They’re so unhinged

WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT

Torek Railgrinder Theater Kid!!

Oh noooo

WHAT

Oh fuck

Why would you volunteer ANY information

She was a fucking turncoatttt

The name keeps getting further and further from anything

Stone cold

So excited for the party

HOT

SHE’S SO HOT

Oh god

Zero separation of church and state

Oh FUCK

What oh no oh god please no

AAAAAAAAAAA okay I guess next weeks is the mall fight!

I am so scared and so excited.

It’s our time! It’s our year! It’s all gonna be okay!

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Ok I just want to put my thoughts on the whole Leon should be with someone “healthier” and “better” for him. &The thing with that is if Leon wanted that, Capcom had so many opportunities to do so. Not to say Leon didn’t try, but there was a 6 year period after RE2 that Ada wasn’t around, and within that period there was a point where Leon believed her to be dead and then finds out she’s alive. Hypothetically let’s say he did want to be with Claire, he had the time & opportunity to and still didn’t, clearly they’re just friends. But generally, that goes for anyone he could have formed a relationship with during that period. Especially for the period he didn’t believe her to be alive, bc I’ve seen people act like if Ada were to just disappear completely now, then all of a sudden he could just totally forget about her, will go running into the arms of someone “better”, and his trauma will be fixed 🤪. That scenario literally existed, he had the opportunities, and it STILL didn’t happen.

Now fast forward to after RE4 where Leon sees her again face to face alive and well, all the relationships he could’ve had 1 year after in Degeneration or 2 years after in Infinite Darkness also never stuck. (I don’t count the scene where Claire falls on top of Leon in Infinite Darkness bc Stephanie Panisello said it was her idea and asked the movie crew to add it for the Cleon shippers as it wasn’t in the original script). And then at some point after, it’s confirmed that in 2009 they spent time together, but who knows how long they’ve been in contact prior to that, I just think there must have been a lot of prior interaction that developed over time before jumping straight into “that night”. Like I know a lot if us can’t help on focus on the “that night” part but in the article where Shotaro Suga mentions romantic dinner/hotel/motel room night, but I’m over here thinking so much about the “romantic dinner” part lol bc it’s beyond just them wanting to sleep with each other, they actually cared to spend quality time together, like what did they eat, what did they wear, what did they talk about ?? I feel like they try to not mix work with pleasure (there’s just simply so much she cannot answer if he tries to even ask). Especially in the behind the scene of the video of the movie Suga says “He shows his real self when he gets in touch with a woman (Ada)”. Which is very important factor with his relationship with Ada vs his relationship with anyone else both romantic and not. We know Ada rarely shows her real self and her puts on a mask, but looks like Leon does too !

HELLO so i had to take my time to read this and formulate a response

i think with the remakes, it's implied that between 1998 and 2004, he was forced to work for the government and possible did not have time to date. during this time i believe he also does not see claire either. (correct me if i'm wrong) i think that the whole baby-girlfication on leon has really rotted into people's brains that think that he's not a man of agency and can literally go date someone if he wanted to. but even with re4r with the "i'm a one lady type of guy," and the complete removal of his flirting with literally any thing that breathes, it seems that capcom is pushing it into this direction as well. with leon not holding ashleys hand, and leon not flirting with hunnigan. it's just on his own it seems.

degeneration was the weirdest film also imo. and he did have a weird thing with angela but then he just never called her again lol. and he did that in front of claire too????

yeah i agree that the scene with leon and claire in infinite darkness was especially weird considering claire has like a face of visible disgust when she falls on him.

"that night" is also followed with the director saying that yes, they spent time outside of their jobs and their lives continued on in the background of re5. it would make sense that they saw each other some how and it lead up to "that night"

i firmly believe that leon thinks of ada as a strong woman, and someone that he doesn't need to protect or feel like he has to "baby" her. she's a woman with her own choices and decisions and he finds her challenging. it's almost like they can be partners that compliment each other and challenge each other.

leon saves the day every day- he doesn't want to do that in his personal life. he needs someone who can stand on level ground with him. someone who can really truly understand him. and im sorry but it's not gonna be self insert civilian here, that understands him.

leon's characterization changes from a bright eyed rookie cop to an agent who sees that the world is shades of grey and that no one is truly good or evil. that everyone has their own agendas and that the government that he works for isn't pure either. he struggles with knowing this and knowing that even though he tries to do the right thing, nothing gets better. we even see this with ada in re6, she has a breaking point

"we're beyond humanity"

also i firmly believe that re6 ada is extremely depressed and traumatized as her smile consistently drops whenever she's not looking at leon.

both of them have lived lives where they were used and abused. and both of them can understand each other in ways that others can not. they even showed this with infinite darkness with leon not only wanting to keep claire safe, but knowing that her line of thinking was going to get her killed or worse.

even then! both leon and ada have made mistakes and that's interesting! they both live with regrets, and god damnit it just want them to be happy together.

people say they don't deserve each other? nah, they do. they should just be together already

they can be true to each other, no facades, and just be themselves.

[straightbaittournament]

MAY THE BEST BAIT WIN! propaganda under the cut:

grace blackthorn and christopher lightwood:

Okay so basically in Shadowhunters there was this family tree, and on it it stated that Christopher and Grace got married and had a kid. And in the book series they were just good friends. Cassandra Clare (the author) has said it’s inaccurate. But like cmon you said they were going to get married 😭😭

kwan and win:

This is a Thai teen drama that focuses on many teens going through hardships and it's very dramatic and very fun I love it so much THESE TWO. They circled around each other for two whole seasons and the tension was there!! He was a bad boy, she was a good girl, every time they spoke there was something in the air. They were both arguably the leads of an ensemble cast and it really felt like they were being set up to get together but then it just... never happens. This show has been out for 10 years and I'm still mad about it. THE WASTED POTENTIAL OF IT ALL

neo, mew, and shin:

Before the show aired there was all this speculation over who Neo (a boy) was going to choose, Mew (a girl) or Shin (a boy). A lot of people suspected that Neo and Mew would get together and even though the trailers seemed to imply that there was something between Neo and Shin, that it wouldn't end well for them. Turns out the show went a completely different direction and ended up with polyamory with all three dating each other. This song from the show released before the show came out and there's a lot of comments from people before the show came out trying to figure out who's going to end up together (with some people saying that they hope it'll be poly but are sure that it probably won't be) https://youtu.be/5w-nDbr2fxY And here's the famous kiss scene (there's no subs in this clip but the general vibe is that they're telling Shin (the shorter guy) that even the two of them have feelings for each other, they care about him too) https://youtu.be/Gr4fTrXqL8k https://64.media.tumblr.com/80a1b4441645c65825f221a42d2e88ed/36e07bb804d7de75-59/s540x810/bd1bb49d299d904c8ffe9a26b970caf9567eaae3.pnj

fitzroy angursell and pali avramapul:

I’m pretty sure even the author thought they were straight and endgame when she started writing them. Although initially Pali is portrayed as the love of Fitzroy’s life so that you think you’re going to have to put up with this straight relationship, she’s later canonically confirmed aroace with a lot of subtext around two other women, while it becomes clear in later books that Fitzroy has a growing interest in another man. Tfw you are sure they’re going to kiss by the end of the book and then it turns out that previous marriage proposals were plausibly about friendship in the first place

naoko takahashi and shouta oohara:

this “show” is a 2 episode hentai so I can understand if this doesn’t get in the brackets lol (I would not recommend watching this hentai for the sex scenes, I just remember reading about Oohara getting cucked for a girl and thinking that I had to see this) So, it starts off with Takahashi being in love with Oohara and they do have ghost sex in the first part of the episode 1 but what happens is that even though they have the opportunity to be together as ghosts, Takahashi pretty much IMMEDIATELY forgets about Oohara because she becomes completely infatuated with this ghost girl named Sakurako to the point where even when Oohara turns into a tiny penis in episode 2 but Takahashi doesn’t give a fuck

the joker and harley quinn:

They were a thing. She left his toxic ass for a cool plant lady. Good for her.

good luck! now go vote!

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

Age Gaps, a Uniquely Adrestian Issue

This title might be a bit click baity because a lot of this requires making assumptions based on what characters say and can be interpreted in different ways but basically Dorothea’s backstory confirms there’s an issue with this in Adrestia and I wanted to look into how this issue appears in the different Fodlan countries.

So starting with the obvious, Dorothea’s story. The main thing that got me thinking about this was Dorothea talking about how a noble she suspects was her father flirted with her. Obviously there’s no way to know for sure how old this noble was, but considering most of the students at Garreg Mach (a prestigious academy that most nobles attend) are in their late teens and there are even a few in their early twenties, all with no kids, I think we can assume that most nobles wouldn’t start having kids until they’re at least in their mid twenties. So let’s say the noble was 25ish years older than Dorothea. This happened a few years before the main story so Dorothea was probably 16ish years old. Throughout this conversation Dorothea never makes a big fuss about the man’s age, leading me to think men of this age hitting on teenage girls is common in Adrestia (or at the very least in the opera company). It’s also heavily implied that Dorothea had to trade sexual (or, at the very least, romantic ones) favors with nobles to get enough money to attend the academy. None of the nobles faced any sort of repercussions for their flirting, hinting that there is probably no system in place to prevent people from preying on teens. While it is possible there actually is a system and Dorothea just didn’t bother to report it for whatever reason, Hanneman never asks her about if she reported these nobles or anything of the sort in their support, which I feel he would have done if there was a system in place for that.

The next story I want to focus on is Mercedes’s. While she is a Blue Lion, she originally lived in Adrestia with her adoptive father Baron Bartels. As I’m sure you know, Jeritza killed Mercedes’s father because he was planning on marrying her and forcing her to bear his children because her mother was too old to have another child. We must again make an assumption about the age of Mercedes’s father but let’s say he was in his 40s or 50s at this time (we know Mercedes’s mother was likely this age since she could no longer reproduce and we’re assuming her father was close to his age). The house was destroyed in 1176, meaning that would have been when Baron Bartels was pursuing Mercedes. This is four years before the main story, so Mercedes would have been 18 at the time. While that’s technically an adult at least by the standards of many modern countries (and I personally believe Fodlan considers you to be an adult earlier but that’s a separate discussion), it’s still very young and this man hadn’t seen Mercedes since she was 10. It also opens up some questions about how Adrestia would treat incest because, while they may not technically be related, he is her adoptive father. Anyways, it doesn’t seem as if Baron Bartels was at all concerned about how marrying his 18 year old adoptive daughter would impact his reputation, leading me to believe a relationship like that is at the very least accepted.

Finally for Adrestia, I want to look at Hanneman’s endings. He has two endings with Black Eagles, both of which seem to be romantic. Dorothea’s ending confirms that they get married and Edelgard’s ending says they had an “affectionate and fulfilling” relationship which definitely has romantic implications. Hopefully everyone can see why that’s a strange age gap. The thing that led me to think this might be an Adrestian cultural issue as opposed to an all of Fodlan issue. Hanneman also has endings with two Golden Deer girls and one Blue Lion girl, none of which have any hints of romance in their ending, so I thought it was kind of weird that he could only romance Black Eagle girls.

The first place I went to look for Faerghus was Ingrid. We know she has had to deal with suitors and I’ve definitely seen people headcanon that some of her suitors have been way to old for her, but is there any indication that that is actually how it was? I looked at her supports with Byleth and Seteth because I remembered those touching on these topics and didn’t feel like skimming through every support. Basically, I found no indication that she had gotten proposals from men significantly older than her (although there’s nothing to indicate she hadn’t so again, it’s open to interpretation). We know she was first engaged to Glenn, who I believe was around Sylvain’s age so not that much older than her. And also, in the letter we see from her dad in her support with Byleth says she’s probably found good prospects at Garreg Mach. The students there would all be fairly close to her age which could be taken as a hint that there is some sort of age limit for what Faerghus culture views as acceptable.

Finally, I wanted to look at Leicester. But then I had no idea where to look so I gave up. Honestly, I don’t think marriage is talked about that much among the Golden Deer. I guess its something Lorenz is focused on, but he’s pursuing other students who would be close to his age. He can end up married to Catherine or Manuela though which are definitely large age gaps. However, because the only place we see any large age gaps in Leicester (to my knowledge at least) is in end cards and not in the actual story, I interpret that as meaning large age gaps are less of an issue in Leicester than Adrestia.

[reluctantfarburgblog]

My Writing Journey

Late last year, I published my first book. Just recently, looking through my old documents, I have reason to believe that I wrote, scrapped, re-wrote, edited, and put literal sweat and tears into that book for ten years. I didn’t go to school to write, something I’m oddly self-conscious about. I still struggle to see myself as an “author.” However, I had a lot of help. I was blessed with a community of long-suffering victims willing to read, give feedback, and enjoy the manuscript. Happily, there was even a willing soul trained to edit the poor thing when it was done. 

So why did I write it? I enjoy books. (My wife can confirm this is an understatement.) I enjoy listening to and reading stories. Fiction or non-fiction, stories are amazing. With non-fiction stories, it’s important how you construct the narrative and the implied moral that often goes with it. With fiction, in my opinion, the storyteller has an even heavier burden. The details are there for you to make up, as are the purpose, the voice, and the point you’re trying to make. I struggle to believe that there are pointless stories. There may be stories out there strictly meant to entertain, even if they’re the literary equivalent of a fart joke, but at least they’re amusing if you’re into that sort of thing. However, there are damaging stories out there, and, in my opinion, there are far too many of them. 

I used to scoff at the idea that stories could be important. I could point out where I heard anthropologists and historians saying that cultures throughout the ages constructed myths to make sense of themselves and the world around them, but I could not understand why that was important. They didn’t have the scientific method or the standards we have for recording history like we have today, so they resorted to the next best thing they had: making stuff up. Modern man, I believed at the time, didn’t make stuff up. There would be a reckoning. Liars would be called out. This was prior to the year of our Lord 2016. I’ve grown a lot since then. A crucial point in that growth was that one day, I realized my life very much resembled the first line of the Inferno. “I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.” 

Or, less dramatically, I was dissatisfied with my life, and my depression had reached the point that the check engine light in my head was doing a scary blinking choreography. Now, the story about how I learned to take care of my mental health is its own tale, but to summarize it very quickly, I was telling myself the wrong stories. The internal monologue in my head was damaging me and everyone around me because, at that point, my inner storyteller was a toxic geyser perceiving the world wrong and interpreting it through a lens that was just as cracked. 

(I feel the need to put this disclaimer here: if you’re struggling emotionally or mentally, please find help from your support group and a professional. You’re worth it, but one guy on the Internet telling you to tell better stories about yourself isn’t a treatment, it’s merely an encouragement.)

I’m not suggesting we throw empirical data to the four winds and shut our minds to it. Our world is a much better place because people do the science, run the experiments, and repeat until we better understand our world. However, I know I’m foolish enough to be an unreliable narrator for my own life, and I’m not convinced enough people are. I firmly believe that, in some ways, all of us are still just cave people flailing about in the 21st-century fire we stole from the gods. We’re telling ourselves and those around us stories about our reality. All the while, we’re not thinking about the damage, or life, they bring. 

One of the best tools I learned on my mental health journey was the importance of getting new perspectives, challenging my own (usually flawed) assumptions, and re-framing conundrums. Now, I did hate how in one job I worked, corporate tried to re-frame “problems” as “opportunities,” but they weren’t entirely wrong. (Their major malfunction was ignoring the opportunity to take better care of their workers in a soul-crushing industry) Problems can indeed be challenging, but I fear we turn too many into roadblocks. We do not re-frame them into issues that can be solved. We do not let ourselves imagine tales where these giants are felled and, in turn, deprive ourselves of a better world. 

For ten years, I let myself imagine that maybe, just maybe, I could be an author with a book out in the world. Now, I’m letting myself play with that new-fangled thing of getting people excited about it and experiencing the joy of people telling me that, indeed, they did enjoy it. I’m enjoying the work and pain of writing a new draft and hoping that it, too, will be out in the world in the near future. I’m hoping that I can put some life-giving stories into the world, and it will inspire others to do the same. Most people will experience the dark forest, their lives having gone astray. My hope is that they will remember the good stories, the good narratives and that those will be a lantern to help them find their way back out. We do ourselves a disservice by filling our world and our souls with darkness when light can still be found in creation, our fellow men, and ourselves. 

[pkmnomegaverse]

The fool in me is looking at the “leaked ages” and trying to decide how many I want to adapt. Combo of I do like to use beta content, afterall! And most really do line up pretty well with my thoughts on the characters. Even the ones I’m scratching my head at, when I really look at the character, I can see it if I just tilt my head a bit. The ones that are pretty much impossible to adapt tho would be Trevor, Shauna, and Clemont (leaks say they’re 10, 12, 12 for ref). Most perplexed by this one since then say Tierno is 16, True reason Calem picks him to pursue. Only one close to his age! Even tho the same leeks say he and Serena are 14 (the bridge in the age gap of the friend group. Although the document these ages are from mention another girl who would have been part of the friend group. The cut friend. Since this is from an early early draft).

The Striaton Bros would be sooooooo baaaaaaaad the implications there are bleak (leaks say 14). But Ghetsis would (I say this, as I don’t already have it as a thing where Ghetsis is pursuing Cress once he’s 14. It’s already bleak). Although they are off the table as well purely because I really do like the Striaton Bros=Shadow Triad hc too much and that aspect works better if they’re older. Closer to N’s age. But pretty much anyone else is fair game since I kinda dislike coming up with ages anyway for a lot of the side cast. As I Do Not Care. Hell, there’s still quite a few characters I never pegged down an age for even though I’ve had this blog for years since I care that little. So sure, why not use a lot of it when it doesn’t directly contradict things. Or at least use them as a reference. Makes my job easier.

Now on to the NOTES FOR MYSELF section since some of the implications of the ages were funny to me, so making notes for future me to reread.

- Marlon as 30. Like it doesn’t even matter if I change Cress’s age or not, he’s still like a decade younger than this guy. Here I was thinking that was the one guy Cress is hooking up with who’s closer in age to him, but alas. Cress only likes older men confirmed. Ghetsis did too much of a number on him. Thus I feel I gotta use this one to continue that theme. - Maylene as 10. This one still seems a tad young but when I replayed the game recently, I noticed a random townie NPC has a line of dialogue that implies she’s pretty close to the protag’s age. So would have personally pegged her closer to 12 but the 10 is not actually surprising given that. Knew she had to be younger than Candice but didn’t realize it was quite that big of a gap. Since Candice as 16 tracks (can’t believe both these two and Trevor/Tierno were a duo of a 10 year old and a 16 year old as besties). This one I’ll need to debate a bit, but sure, whatever, not like I have either Dawn or Lucas making sensible choices regarding the ages of the people they’re getting with. The theme of Sinnoh.

- Ethan, Lyra, Dawn, and Lucas as 12. I will use any excuse I can to age up the protags so yeah, gonna add a year. Don’t even have to second guess this one.

- Cynthia as 28. A bit older than I expected. The Celestica genes already making her look young! But the point here is I’ve considered how Cyllene is perhaps the same age as Cyrus (27). It seems like that would maybe be a parallel with those two? No real reason to assume they’re not roughly the same age. So by that reasoning, would it not track that Volo is around Cynthia’s age. Thus 28? I truly have no idea how old that man is, since is he hella old due to the Celestica maybe immortal thing? Or is he legit somewhere in his 20s. Was leaning towards lower/mid 20s but it’s not like VoloRei isn’t dicey and problematic regardless so might as well just go all in on a wider age gap. Doesn’t make sense to base his age around that plot point alone. So sure, later 20s it is. He needs some time to put his plan in motion anyway. Inversely though, a fair amount of characters don’t actually seem to match the ages of their descendants. Obviously with the ambiguously aged adults looking characters it’s really hard to tell. But Kamado seems to be younger than Rowan so perhaps in that sense, Volo is not meant to be Cynthia age (basically he’s either 28 or very much not 28, vs off by only a little bit).

- Caitlin as 17 in Gen 4 while Darach is 25. Past me was almost spot on here with their age gap (had it as 7 years vs 8) but also had both a bit younger (was running Caitlin as 14 in DPP since I see that number thrown around a lot for her). But sure, probably should age her up to make that whole thing slightly less dicey. Also to better match the next point. Caitlin is noted as being mid 20s in BW which there’s roughly a 5 year gap between Gen 2/4 and BW for me. Which puts her at…22. Not mid 20s, but whatever, close enough. Can’t win em all and I’m pretty locked in on the timeline of when games happen. Moving any of those dominoes a lot of other things which aren’t worth changing on a whim.

- Diantha as 20 and Malva as 33. Not actually a problematic age gap since unlike my numerous other examples, as least the younger one isn't a teen. But I thought it was funny just how much of an age gap this gives them when originally I had assumed they would be pretty close in age. I just can't escape the villain of hero/villain ships being notably older than the hero.

[hyeque]

domestic birthday [sakusa kiyoomi]

synopsis: you and your daughters give kiyoomi a birthday worth remembering

notes: i know i said i wasn’t going to post but idk i just decided to bc i wanted to by the end of the day since it is his birthday. so i guess if you read this then i really appreciate it. i wrote this while sad (but when am i not sad?) so yeah anyways happy birthday to kiyoomi <3

warning: female!reader, implied past pregnancy, not for those who don’t like kids, a *speck* of suggestive content but nothing happens

word count: 1.4K

sakusa kiyoomi did not care about his birthday.

to him, his birthday was just another year where he was older. another year where he had to be annoyed with attention for an entire day. another year where he was closer to death.

but eventually, sakusa kiyoomi did not mind his birthdays.

he didn't mind them when you came along in his life. it is by pure coincidence that he meets you on his 22nd birthday, the sweetest person he ever met. smile brighter than the man himself, he swore he fell for you right there and then.

kiyoomi never told you that you had to go all out for his birthdays, but apparently it's a life mission for you to. but what he loves the most about you going all out, is that it isn't literally 'going all out'. birthday celebrations were small. they often consisted of you, his cousin, and of course his teammates (who he once complained were too rowdy and not needed, but you scolded him and told him not to be so rude).

without fail you would organize a get together that wouldn't be overwhelming and wouldn't be around very many people. how attentive you are to kiyoomi’s needs is part of why he loves you but there’s so much more.

small giggles disrupt kiyoomi's sleep and the man finds himself slowly coming to consciousness.

there's a voice—yours to be exact—giving a small scolding before the sound of tiny feet scurry out the room. he blinks and his sight clears to see a figure: you.

"i'm sorry, they weren't supposed to wake you up. i kept telling them to let you sleep in longer." you say apologetically, pushing him to lay back down.

you know that kiyoomi has been busier than usual as of lately. trainings been kicking his ass. he often comes home exhausted and more quiet than usual.

"no, it's okay." he sits up, stretching. his bare abdomen becomes exposed, showing the moles that decorate his skin. he rubs the sleep out of his eyes, messy curls adorn his head as he blinks at you bleary-eyed. "what's going on?"

you shake your head at your husbands cluelessness. he could never remember his own birthday. you smile planting a kiss atop his head. "happy birthday you silly, handsome man."

kiyoomi's eyes widen and he looks at you with a slight frown. "that's today? guess i forgot since it's not that important."

"of course it's important. it's a day where we celebrate you." you argue, cheeks puffed out slightly. if there's one thing you never let kiyoomi do, it's talk down about himself.

he chuckles, a smile gracing his handsome face. "if you say so, sweetheart." he pulls you in his arms, giving a chaste kiss before moving to the bathroom where he brushes his teeth and freshens up a bit.

the other part of why kiyoomi loves you races into the room, eager to see their dad. two girls grinning as they hold a tray of food, specially made for him. once it’s set down on the nightstand they don’t hesitate to tackle their father with hugs and kisses.

kiyoomi’s lean figure catches them both easily. “what’s this? what are my two troublemakers up to?” he asks, a smile—on reserved for them on his face.

“happy birthday, daddy! we made you breakfast! they’re all your favorites!” you daughter beams proudly.

"we hope you like it! we worked hard on it, didn't we mommy?" your other daughter grins at you while you hum in confirmation.

"well of course i'm going to love anything from my sweet girls." he coos, moving back to the bed. they follow their father.

a curse must've been placed on you. that's what many people would say to you jokingly. for nine months you carried your twin daughters and the result was that they both came out looking like the spitting image of their father. curly black hair, and skin peppered with moles. the only feature they have from you were your eyes and personality.

but to you it was a blessing. to have kids with kiyoomi meant that you always would have a reminder of the love you two share for each other. when you look at them, you see him. you remember the tears of joy that streaked his face when you told him, the man hugging your abdomen with the most gentle of touches and placing kisses to it.

it was probably why they both turned into daddy's girls. clinging to him when he was home, watching all of his games when he was away. they would always brag and boast about their father to everyone and anyone.

he pulls your daughters into his lap before they both ask if they can feed him his food.

the three of them look at you expectedly. they might follow daddy, but nothing ever starts without mommy. you join them and watch the three of them before speaking.

"i thought, and you can object if you want," you pause slightly, "that today would just be the four of us. unless you want-"

"that's perfect. why wouldn't i want that?" he opens his mouth for your daughter to feed him and his obsidian eyes bore into yours while he eats.

you blink, "i just wanted to be sure, i didn't know if you already had plans."

he huffs out a laugh. "you know better than anyone that i couldn't care less about being bothered by those idiots." he rolls his eyes and both of your daughters giggle, repeating the offending word. you raise a brow but brush off any curiosity.

"those 'idiots' are your teammates, you know." you sigh.

"who said i was talking about them?" he leans down slightly as your daughter feeds him again.

your other daughter stands up on the bed, blurting, "you didn't have to, daddy. you call uncle tsumu 'a real piece of work' and uncle bo 'a pain in the-"

"hey," he covers her mouth, an innocent smile appearing on his face as he tugs her down carefully, "i thought you and your sister agreed to keep that between us-"

"sakusa kiyoomi, what are you teaching my daughters?" you glare at him.

"nothing you need to be worried about." he nuzzles his face in your neck, "besides, don't be mean. it's my birthday."

you can't help but think about the irony in his statement. usually he's the mean one. "you didn't even remember until i told you."

"and that's why i'm lucky to have you, right? you keep me on track." he looks at your daughters and adds, "right girls? we'd be so lost without mommy, wouldn't we?"

you open your mouth to argue again, but are surprised when both of your daughters agree with him, opting to move out of his hold to yours.

"mommy’s the best! i love her food!”

“yeah, thank you for helping us making breakfast for daddy!”

"you're lucky you're all cute, but don't think i'm going to forget what we talked about." you say, smirking at the three of them. you hands gently running over your daughters’ hair.

after awhile when kiyoomi is done eating, you tell both twins to go freshen up so everything can get clean. kiyoomi tries to help clean, but you adamantly tell him to ‘not move an inch from the bed, or else’.

when you’re done, you make your way back to the bedroom, lean arms encase you out of surprise.

"thank you for all of this." he mumbles into your temple where his lips reside.

"but i didn't give you anything yet." you say, worried he saw his birthday present already.

"but you have, you've given me more than any man could ask for." he holds your face in his hands, staring at you with an expression that's reserved specifically for you.

"you've given me a home–not a place, but in the form of you and our daughters–full of so much love and greatness. and i thank you for that everyday." he presses his lips to yours softly and you reciprocate immediately. leaning into his touch you gasp when his large hands grab you by the waist, dragging you onto his lap.

he groans, his mouth moving feverishly over your skin, his teeth gently grazing the sensitive flesh. "o-omi..." you sigh, letting a small moan leave your lips.

"Later." he breathes, detaching his lips from your neck. He knows that if you two didn't stop now, he would have a hard time.

you feel your face burn from being flustered before pulling away. he stands up before holding out his hand to help you up. "I'm going to shower. Care to join me?"

you grab his hand and nod eagerly following him.

after the shower, the two of you dress each other in comfortable clothes before going to find your daughters. the four of you decide on a disney movie marathon (well really your twins).

he doesn't care about gifts or anything materialistic. he only cares about you and your two daughters. to spend time with all three of you is the most important thing to him. and he won't have it any other way.

kiyoomi loves his birthday now because he's reminded of how much he loves his family.

do not copy and or repost. likes, reblogs, and comments are appreciated though! (c) 2022 hyeque

taglist: @sabyss @boo-kugo @melianlmfao @ohtobiors @duckymcdoorknob @explicitlyfine @suckerforsugawara @little-nightowl @strqndedstones @tetsoda @jeansbabycake @lunaevangeline @pelicanpizza

[unwrittenlibrary]

i don’t wanna do this (i don’t wanna lose this)

eighteen plus blog minors dni

summary -> it’s all fake, every piece of it scripted and perfected for the camera, even the upcoming break-up you pretend doesn’t break your heart.

words -> 2.5k

warnings -> fake relationship, use of name (bucky calls the reader by her character’s name, lucia, once) nickname uses (baby, sweetheart) co-workers/friends to lovers, no smut, not beta’d

notes -> this is for the lovely maera’s ( @ambrosiase ) hotel indigo writing challenge i absolutely love this idea mae and am so appreciative that you created this challenge, it really pushed me out of my comfort zone and i got to explore an entirely new au.  

room & service -> business meets pleasure with celebrity bucky barnes -> bucky and reader are co-stars in a fake relationship in a hotel for their final comic-con together.

— ➶ —

Bucky has been doing interviews with Sam all day today. 

You’ve been working together for six seasons and have both been to too many comic-cons to count. Every single one of them you and Bucky had been paired up to do interviews and photo-ops together. 

A scripted piece of a scripted relationship. Agreed upon when your characters romance began to pick up popularity and designed to look perfect until the end.

Tomorrow an article with be released ‘leaking’ the details of your perfect break-up too. A source close to the both of you will comment that wrapping of the show and being forced to go long distance just wasn’t working for you two. The writer will supply photos of today, the two of you avoiding sitting near one another and not speaking. They’ll write that their source confirmed this convention is actually the first time you’ve seen each other in months. 

Even more articles have already been planted periodically questioning whether the two of you were still together, generating buzz around the show and what happens between your characters. It’s a brilliant job, honestly.

Except, you and Bucky had been in a fake relationship for so long, it had begun to feel real. This distance between you two felt purposeful in a way that hurt you more than it ever should have. 

Your assistant is supposed to go through your instagram soon and begin archiving posts and pieces of your fake life with Bucky. He’s been glaringly absent from your social media recently and it makes your heart ache at the idea of him being nonexistent.

Your fans have noticed too. You read comment after comment all asking the same thing; What happened to you and Bucky? 

“Oh, Lucia! My dear, Lucia.” You bite down a grin at the sound of Bucky’s voice through your door. His words were filtered by the wall between you and a little slurred from the drinks he had no doubt consumed at the hotel bar. “Open the door, please.” 

You lock your phone and lay it on the bed beside you. “I’m busy, Bucky! Go bother Sam.” You call back despite already walking towards the door. 

“Bother Sam? On our last night together?” You can see Bucky smile teasingly though the peephole. Despite his joking tone the words hurt. “Four years together and this is how things end? Through a hotel room door?” 

His fist comes up to bang against the door and a hand comes up to his heart. He’s putting on a show for you, fully away of your eye watching carefully through the peephole. “How much have you had to drink, Bucky Barnes?” You ask as the door remains closed. 

Bucky holds his fingers up in a pinch too small to be true. “Not much.” When his hand falls back to his side he smiles up at the peephole. “Let me in, sweetheart. I’ve missed you.” 

You melt, becoming putty in his hand as you quickly move to unlatch the door. “I’ve missed you too.” You admit to him, face to face, as you lean against the door jam. 

A smirk replaces Bucky’s sweet smile as his hands reach out to grip your hips. “This break-up is tough on me, baby.” He pushes you into the room, kicking the door shut behind him. “One more night. One last time. You and me.” 

“Shut up!” You force his hands off of you and turn towards the mini bar in your room. “You’re such a dweeb. I’m glad we’re breaking up.” You pull out the miniature bottle of wine and twist the top off. 

Bucky’s hand slams across his chest as he falls against the wall in dramatic fashion. “You’re… Glad? My frail heart can’t take it,” he falls to his knees, “Please. Tell my mother, I loved her.”

You watch, unamused, as Bucky falls to the floor in front of you. “You’re obnoxious.” A beaming smile breaks out onto Bucky’s face that makes you grin.

“I was serious, about missing you.” Bucky moves to sit up with his back against the edge of your bed. You move to sit beside him on the floor. “These junkets and photos just aren’t the same without you by my side, cracking jokes in my ear.”

You rest your head against his shoulder. “Me too. I love Wanda, but it’s just not the same.” You admit quietly.

There’s so much that you want to say to him. What if this wasn’t fake? What if we didn’t go through with the break-up plan? “Did they send you our social media plan?” Bucky asks quietly.

“Yeah,” You swallow thickly, “I have my assistant going through my account for me soon. We’re supposed to start untagging and deleting photos of each other this week.”

Bucky snorts. “How fucking sweet. Four years together and they have us untag each other to confirm a break up.” His fingers tap against his thigh as the two of you sit on the carpeted floor together.

“Has it really been four years?” You ask quietly. It’s more of a question to yourself, but Bucky answers it with a nod anyways.

“My longest relationship ever and it was fake.” Bucky’s awkward laugh makes the air tense as he stares down at his hands. “I’ve wasted so much of my life. So many chances gone.”

You know the words aren’t said with ill intent, but that doesn’t stop the crack from forming in your heart. You can’t fathom the idea of all your time together, fake or not, being a waste.

Your eyes cut away from him in embarrassment. “Was it really all a waste?” You ask quietly. The words are unintentional, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re out in the air.

“What?” You can feel his eyes settle on you in an attempt to read your face or body language, but a career in acting comes in handy. Your back is ramrod straight and your face turned away perfectly to hide the emotions in your eyes. “It was fake when we could have had something real with people we actually cared about.”

It’s a knife to your broken heart. “People we actually care about?”

“You know, like, other girls and guys who we wanted to pursue but couldn’t because of the contract.” Bucky reaches out to wrap a hand around yours, but you pull away. “I don’t understand what’s wrong here.”

You shake your head, the regret of your words settling over you. “Nothing. I’m just… It’s been a long day.” You use the edge of the bed to help you stand while Bucky remains on the floor, watching you in confusion. “I’m tired, you should go.”

“Woah. What’s this one-eighty?” Bucky stands too and follows you as you move around to gather your toothbrush and skincare. “Two seconds ago we were joking about a fake break-up and now you’re all quiet and weird? You expect me to just leave?”

“Please.” You plead. The last thing you want to do is dump all your feelings out to Bucky, on the last day you two were officially contracted to each other, and make him feel guilty for feeling free. “I just need to be alone, Buck.”

You move to push past him towards your bathroom, but Bucky’s hand wraps around your wrist. “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t do this closing yourself off thing.”

“I’m not.” You say stubbornly. “I’m tired.” You try again to move past him, but his grip only tightens as he forces you to actually face him. “Buck-“

“You can tell me, you know?” He says quietly as his grip slackens. Your eyes meet his, pools of blue staring back at you with something akin to hurt. “You can trust me. We’re best friends, right? You’re my-“

“You don’t have to lie to me, Bucky. Pretend to care. You can go back to the bar and…” You pull your hand from him and cross your arms over your chest. “And tomorrow we can start being with people we actually care about.”

Bucky’s eyes squeeze shut as his own words are repeated back and left out in the open between you two. “That’s not what I…”

“What did you mean then?” You cut him off. You want to sound angry, but your tone is sad and tired. “Enlighten me, please.”

“I just meant… I meant we could date who we wanted to date, I didn’t mean for it to sound so awful.” He answers quietly. “I care about you a lot. We’ve been friends for over half a decade, of course I care about you.”

You swallow thickly. “What if I don’t want to date anyone else?” You force yourself to ask. If not now, then when? Ten years from now at a reunion of your show? You couldn’t live with this what if.

“What?” Bucky’s hand falls from your wrist as he takes a step back like your words have burned him.

You push through the thundering of your heart and ringing in your ears to ask, “haven’t you ever thought about it? I mean, four years of just us, all those dates and premieres, was it really all just work for you?”

“I don’t know… I mean…” Bucky rubs a hand over his jaw as you stare at him expectantly. “Have you?”

“I asked the question I think that would imply…” You trail off as his answer weighs down on your mind. It feels like a no. No. No. No. It’s on repeat in your mind as you move to sit down on your bed. “After a while the dates and photos and sappy posts didn’t feel all that forced anymore.” You admit quietly.

Bucky paces silently in front of you. You’re unsure of what’s going through his mind as he does it and it’s all you can do to not tap anxiously as you watch.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He finally asks when he finally pauses in front of you. You look up at him unsure of what to say. “I mean… When did you start…” He trails off like he doesn’t want the answer.

You look down at your hands in your lap. Despite your worries in telling Bucky you guess you had never truly thought of this conversation ending up this way. All these questions felt like Bucky preparing for a gentle rejection.

“I don’t know. After our second anniversary?” You keep your answer to him vague despite you being fully aware of when you started seeing Bucky differently. “That post you wrote for me that day. All the ones after. All of those words were fake?”

Your mind drifts to his words that day. The sweet and short caption had made butterflies erupt as you scrolled through the photos he had posted with it. Despite you both being required to post something, the photos he had chosen had been entirely genuine.

Pictures the two of you had taken together on set, selfies during your fake dates, and even a sweet set of photo booth pictures from your first premiere together.

You had stared at the post far too long as emotions rushed through you. Your heart raced at the idea of Bucky taking his time to pick photos that meant something to the both of you.

“I think that..” You shake your head in an attempt to rid yourself of the painful reminders. “I think you should go.” You stand up suddenly, your hands pushing gently at his chest.

Bucky’s eyes widen as his hands come up grip your arms in an attempt to stop you. “Woah. Let’s talk about this. I’m just trying to figure everything out.”

“Figure it out? What is there to figure out, Bucky?” You cry out, shoving harder. “If you don’t know how you feel then you should figure it out on your own.” You move past him to open the door.

Bucky follows after you hastily. “Sweetheart, wait, please. I just need a moment.” You grip his forearms tightly using Bucky’s own momentum against him as you guide him to the hallway outside your room. “I wasn’t expecting this. We have articles and photos and interviews planned about a break-up tomorrow.”

“I shouldn’t have said anything, Bucky.” The two of you are back where your night began. Opposite sides of the door as you stare, unsure of what to say. “Let’s just pretend this never happened, okay? The article will be published and we’ll confirm it and life will move on.”

The door slams shut in his face without warning, not giving him a chance to say anything else. You stare blankly at the ugly, green shade its painted in silence as you remind yourself; It was all fake. A script you had been given and followed to a tee. One you had gotten too caught up in.

You’re feelings don’t change the ending.

There’s a slow knock on your door. You suck in a breath as you move to open it an apology on the tip of your tongue.

“Bucky.” You’re cut off as his hands come up to rest on your cheeks and he pulls you towards him. Anything you had to say dissipates as his lips meet yours in a bruising kiss.

Your hands come up to grip his t-shirt tightly as you kiss him back your tongue slipping into his mouth while he pulls you flush against his body.

An arm wraps around your waist and Bucky pushes you back into your room, his foot kicking your door closed harshly.

The back of your knees hit the edge of your bed and you finally pull away to look at Bucky, but he speaks before you can say anything.

“Of course I’ve thought about it.” He breathes out. His eyes are wide with nerves and his cheeks flushed red. The sight of it mixed with his kiss makes your heart pound. “I’ve thought about kissing you for real, not in a room filled with crew and cameras. About what it would be like to be on a date where paparazzi hasn’t been tipped off. Baby,” his hands rest on your cheeks again as he forces your eyes to meet his, “I’ve thought about it all. What it would be like to be with you, to really be with you in every way. Sometimes it’s all I think about when we’re together.”

You take pause, your eyes widening and hands freezing in place as you listen to what he’s saying. “Why didn’t you say anything then? Why’d you just pace and ask me all those questions?”

“Because I’m an idiot.” He smiles brightly when you giggle. “Because I couldn’t believe you actually felt the same way. I was in shock.” He presses a gentle kiss to your lips.

You smile up at him softly. “What do we do about the article tomorrow?” You whisper your question.

You feel giddy with excitement as Bucky’s hands land on your hips to hold you in place, flush against him. “We deny it.”

“What about our managers?” Your smile doesn’t fade even as stress over the situation arises. “And…And our separate interviews tomorrow?”

“What are they gonna do? Fire us?” Bucky smiles. “We’ll tell them all about how in love we still are. That the source in the article was a dud and we’ve just been private recently as the show wraps.”

“We will?” You ask quietly. Your heart racing at his words. “You want to say all that?”

Bucky nods his head. “I do.”

You don’t say anything else he leans in for another kiss, you could worry tomorrow.

Bonus -> The Next Day

liked by buckybarnes, samwilson and 134,759 others

yourinstagram the final season of our show premieres this weekend and we’re so excited for you all to see how it ends. the first photo is from tonight and the second from our first season! the past six years has brought me so much joy and i’m so grateful for everything this show has given me. most importantly though, i’m thankful for you, bucky barnes. my adrian to my lucia. my best friend. my lover. thanks for making this show so fun.

View all 15,398 comments

samwilson we made a great show. love you guys.

buckyfan thought y’all were a pr stunt lmao

yourinstagram apparently you’re not supposed to really fall in love for those to work…

buckybarnes i am most grateful for you. you made work worth it every god damn day.

yourfan my favorite couple on and off the screen.

— ➶ —

notes -> this is my first ever time joining a writing challenge, it really pushed me to work through block and focus on this instead of letting is die out like i have with other projects despite liking them so much!

(hoping you guys don’t hate the extra instagram idea, i just felt it fit in!)

hopefully you enjoyed and if you did, reblogs are greatly appreciated!

[shititbe]

Anyway, Peter Parker is Bi, and I Won’t Be Convinced Otherwise.

Firstly, we have to get our bases covered. What exactly is Bi-sexuality? What is sexuality? 

Sexuality is defined as a persons identity in relation to gender(s) they are attracted to. Why is this important? Peter’s sexuality has never been specifically stated in the comics, nor in any other form of media. It’s assumed that he is straight because of his popular relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the comics, and the movies. 

Now that we have a bases for what exactly sexuality is and how it’s defined, let’s go over Peter’s partners. 

Obviously Peter and Mary Jane are a piece of comic book history. They eventually get married, though sadly, during the events of Civil War II (I think, don’t quote me) Peter and Mary Jane sell their marriage to Mephisto in order to save Aunt May

They later had their memories of their marriage restored, they have yet to get back together and it’s been a few issues if I remember correctly. Next we have Peter’s first, and most unfortunate love, Gwen Stacy. 

They dated in high school where she later died. Of course, Peter has dated other people (namely, Black Cat, Betty Brant, Carol Danvers, Anna Maria, Cindy Moon, Lian Tang, and so on). Since we have his known history of heterosexuality out there, we need to move onto another important part of Peter’s Bi-sexuality. An important implication in any media, especially queer media though, and that is the homoerotic subtext. 

Homoerotic subtext is important part of queer culture, a lot of the time it’s used to portray a characters queerness without saying it out (see: Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild or Great Gatsby By Fitz). In current decade, homoerotic subtext is often used for queer baiting or creating more realistic male friendships. 

So what’s the difference between someone creating a health male friendship (or a character comfortable in their heterosexuality) and implying a character is queer? 

Here are some examples of a healthy male character, both with himself and his friendships.  

Clearly he’s just taking the shit, and messing around with Reed. He’s comfortable enough (or as I like to see it, so traumatized because good god this guy has been Spider-Man since he was 15 good god that’s awful. He probably doesn’t care anymore). Here are some examples of Peter a little more than just a straight man shooting the shit. 

This has three meanings. Two of which I will take, one of which is just deeply embarrassing. Despite Peter’s history with humiliating events, I don’t think he would get his own spunk in his eyes. Leaving the other two options, he has experience getting spunk of - some kind - in his eyes, and/or he’s taking the shit again. Which is very likely. 

Kissing a cop? For....no reason? A little not so hetero of you Peter. 

You can practically hear his disappointment in his voice. Also could be read as taking the shit, but why would you. 

Making out with The Thing? Gay. 

This one is the most important. Peter is clearly tired, annoyed by his teammates (see wolverine being wolverine in the corner). Shits on fire, its mid battle, and Peter has the audacity to mutter “I hate men” to himself. The only people I have every heard say this in that was are lgbt and straight women, and lgbt men. This kind of expression only comes from people who date, or deal with men in a completely different world than straight men. Straight men use this phrase as an endearment, “Oh have you seen Bill today, I hate that guy.” “Man Jerry can do so many push-ups, I hate that guy.” Very different language, and implications (I also, obviously don’t know how straight men speak). 

 Now that we’ve gone over our bases, and homoerotic subtext. How else could we gather that Peter Parker is Bi? There are many tropes in media - queer media - that allure to a characters queerness. Like homoerotic subtext, there are ways to tell an audience something without specifically saying it. 

This is a gay wedding Peter went to in the recent comics. I don’t know if any of you have been to a gay wedding recently, but Peters face (the first panel above the wedding) is the same exact face I made at my first gay wedding. It’s the face of excitement for not only the couple, but for yourself. The hope that maybe, you too can actually be in a same-sex relationship. 

I’m also going to allure to queer tropes as stated previously. Such as the real, and fictional trope of lgbt people sticking together. Thousands of years of belittlement and oppression will make groups of people not want to wonder out, and subconsciously look for others like them. 

Johnny Storm (and Wade Wilson since he comes in later but I couldn’t find a picture of the confirmation) is cannon Bi-sexual (Pan-sexual). 

Their friendship is deeply homoerotic as most queer friendships in media and real life are. Johnny flirts with Peter on many occasions (saying his ideal women is a female version of Peter, inviting him over to watch is sex tape, and so on) and of course oh my god they were roommates. 

Some other popular queer tropes are: Found Family, Soulmates, and Enemies to lovers. Because it’s superhero related, this includes the Identity Porn tag as well.  

Peter Parker and Wade Wilson have a famous Love/Hate relationship. I mean, how could you expect anything less when your first meeting with this known mercenary is him throwing your civilian persona out the window of a car. Now, Wade still doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man in the current run of comics, but that doesn’t make anything about them any less gay. 

For the Found Family Trope: 

Because it’s Peter and Wade, their whole development can be read as Enemies to Friends to Lovers, so I wont bother backing that up because, uh, it speaks for itself. One panel really does to add that cause though 

I’m not going to explain what a free-pass list is.

The Soulmates part I know I have to back up. 

For SoulMates:  

Now this panel requires a little explanation. Wade kills Peter, not knowing he’s Spider-Man. Weasel takes over for Peter (they don’t know its him) so no one suspects he’s dead. Deadpool begins to feel guilty he killed his best buds best bud, so he tries to bring Peter back to life. Losing his stunning good looks (switching back to how he looked before Weapon X making his wife Shiklah estranged (then she married Dracula but thats beside the point)). Spider-Man is Peter’s “true self” or patronus for Harry Potter fans. Wade is stupid and hasn’t connected the dots yet, effectively making him the biggest simp in history. Seriously, who destroys their marriage for the c h a n c e for getting some with their idol? A Simp, that’s who.

Peter forgives Wade for killing him (and for saving him from killing their genetic daughter itsy-bitsy). If someone killed me they better be hot as fuck before I even thing about forgiving them. Ignoring Peter’s super sexy forgiving nature, uh, he’s kinda simping. 

Died in each others arms. Nothing else is needed. 

They’re heartmates. From what I read, the feeling has to be mutual in order for it to work. The witches (long story, comics are hard to explain) that captured deadpool were expecting his wife so they could get the headmistress back. Instead, they got Peter. Basically Heartmates = soulmates but chosen for you instead of chosen by you. 

To conclude my point: 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.