#I certainly don’t care

[42069memesfordays]

These four have me gripped by my heart, and I cannot help but imagine them in the funniest OT4 ever.

Three Saiyans and a Cerealian.

Brainrot ramblings beneath.

I have Fantasy AUs of them now; sometimes they’re all adventurers, sometimes they’re all knights, sometimes they’re all royalty from different kingdoms, or even the same kingdom. My primary take has Gine as a paladin, Fasha as a barbarian, Muezli as a rogue, and Nion as an alchemist, where they’re all reluctantly brought together and end up bonding over how similar they really are while also finding respect in each other’s differences.

I have modern day AUs where they’re just vibing and not being dead.

I have them as one of the central ships for my Transformers and Dragon Ball crossover on a Discord server I’m part of that’s been going since last April.

They get to be strong enough to do things like break canon MUI Goku from the Tournament of Power over their knees.

Goku has two whole brothers now; three, depending on how solid I am on headcanon Turles to be Nion’s kid somehow.

I’m already thinking of a new modern day AU where they’re all single moms who’d each been with Bardock before and meet up at his funeral; shenanigans happen from there, and there’d also be a B-Plot about their kids all having to learn to get along with each other.

They’d sit on a couch in a massive pile of blankets, sipping on hot chocolate as they watch one of those sappy Christmas movies that Gine picked up; Fasha, Muezli, and Nion probably wouldn’t be wholly into it, but seeing Gine’s smile throughout the whole thing is worth it.

The Transformers x Dragon Ball AU forces them through the worst self-hatred and imposter syndrome conceivable, but it’s all made worth it when they realize that they genuinely love each other in a way that can never be understated.

They try to have a small wedding with just their friends and family, but Bulma, being Bulma, gets way too invested and sends it over the top accordingly.

I have an AU where they’re just office workers and also single moms who find solace in each other as the days go by.

I have another AU where one of them’s just a mortal, the other’s their best friend with a major crush, and the last two are an angel and devil fighting over the former over something petty; it then slowly escalates into all of them genuinely being really into each other through loads of romcom and sitcom type shenanigans.

I have an AU where they’re in RWBY as a major hunter team.

I have an AU where they’re Cybertronians; sometimes they’re all Autobots, sometimes they’re all Decepticons, and sometimes it’s a mix of both, depending on my mood.

I’ve had thoughts about them in Mortal Kombat, where they either become new characters entirely or take the place of Scorpion, Harumi, Smoke, and Kuai Liang.

A Thomas the Tank Engine AU sees them being Gordon’s crew in the modern day, where they and the Number Four have to put up with each other after the latter gets off on the wrong foot with them; their growth comes during a tour across the mainland, where Gordon’s old crew are helping them to finish up the last of their training; this is also a proposal that I have in mind for a co-op project I’m working on in yet another Discord server.

All four of them died without much to them; Fasha and Muezli both did so for the sake of Bardock’s development. Gine and Nion just got wiped out on Planet Vegeta by Frieza.

They’re kinda nothing burgers, and yet I just can’t help but latch onto them like they’re life preservers in the middle of a cold, storm-ridden ocean.

I have many questions that only a select few seem to really care about, but not necessarily as deeply as I seem to; what exactly did Gine and Fasha think of each other? What would Muezli and Gine have thought of each other if they ever met? What would Nion think of any of them, and they think of Nion? What would they think of the others in general? Would it be respect, reluctant or not? Would it be contempt? Hatred? Who knows?

They are my Roman Empire.

They fundamentally mean way too much to me, given that they all died as either background characters, plot devices, or some mix of both.

I have a Star Wars AU with them where Gine is a Jedi, Fasha’s a Storm trooper, Muezli’s a bounty hunter, and Nion’s a scientist for the empire before Order 66 where they also get brought together through sheer circumstance and learn to bond with each other; they run away post Order 66 and then end up settling on some random little planet that’s out of the way.

They keep each other grounded.

They feel comfortable enough around each other to regularly poke fun and make jabs at each other, but so help you if you do the same to any of them while the others are in earshot.

Somewhere in the back of my head lies a Dragon Ball Z: Abridged version of my Transformers x Dragon Ball AU where one of their running jokes is that they���re all absolutely unhinged for each other without the other knowing; when they finally do get to know about what the other is like, those tendencies somehow get even worse.

I’m going mad, and it’s great.

[drunkonimagination]

*takes a deep breath* i’ll never get over the expression blitzø makes everytime stolas gets physically/emotionally hurt.

[castingpods]

“Average communications officer goes through 12 traumatic events a year” factoid is actually just a statistical error. average communications officer goes through 0 traumatic events per year. Trauma Doug, who orbits a star & faces a new horrible nightmare every day, is an outlier and should not have been counted

[insignificant457]

the fact that kaz and matthias are the only crows that have siblings does not get talked about enough. i mean, they are trying to pull off a high stakes group effort with four (4) only children in tow. no wonder the two of them are grumpy 24/7

[rystiel]

well that’s one way to come out i guess

[driftingballoons]

Contrary is a fantastic ability

[cripplepunkbarbarian]

I am so glad that the kid spectrals have such normal and caring spirits who will definitely not physically endanger and/or cruelly betray them in the midst of their lives already being destroyed by cults, monsters, and interpersonal drama. It’s so cool and nice 👍

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

Been a bit have some idiots

[yea-baiyi]

people on twitter are discoursing about whether xie lian’s chastity-based cultivation is a form of abuse (?????) which is so backward to me like huh???? yes jun wu’s thing about xie lian being a virgin is fucking creepy and weird and part of his overall obsession and desire to control him. but did they just completely miss the part where xie lian chose this method of cultivation bc the abstinence wasn’t an issue for him? he got hit by sex pollen and never once thought of sex? he didn’t even cultivate for 700 years and just never had sex because he never wanted to and as soon as he found a guy he wanted to fuck he just went for it? literally didn’t even pause to consider the cultivation thing at any point. if this were any other character it might have been used against him but the whole point is xie lian once again perfectly dodging jun wu’s manipulation attacks by just being a weird little guy with autism

[shorthaltsjester]

i contain multitudes and can say that i am a little :( about vex and percy being teammates with benefits because i think there’s something particularly heartbreaking about the dynamic that was neither of them ever said a thing even though they both were aware of it and it took losing percy for vex to finally admit it and Even Then, she couldn’t say it to percy’s face when they got him back, percy was the one who had to make the first move (that they were both alive for at least) and he was only able to do that because he’d heard her confession, because he never would’ve thought otherwise. to be clear, i also very much enjoy the story being told, i think i just wish they’d maybe committed more significantly to This Is A Campaign-Inspired Story Rather Than A Retelling sooner in the show so that maybe there would be a bit more grounding or set-up for the storylines the narrative is focusing on (and i understand why they wouldn’t), because i think they’re doing very well with percy’s arc for example, because they started with focusing on his and keeping his beats mostly the same and that seems to be much the same case as some of his second wave of meaty character stuff has arrived. but with vex they’ve aimed for the same character beats but it doesn’t always feel as earned or really feel like much character at all; i think saundor particularly was a bit of an :/, since in the campaign it was really a catalyst for vex interrogating her role in the party and her morality and something she struggled to get over and that haunted her far beyond the walls of that tree, but in the show it hasn’t really had a clear impact on vex beyond the scope of the episode itself — syldor certainly has, but the challenge that saundor presented didn’t really have much weight beyond its moment. and obviously a large part of that’s also probably just, 7 protagonists and wanting to expand the perspectives to antagonists and give more room for side characters is a lot of things to cover. and, i say with love, perhaps a bit too ambitious for a 12 episode per season, ~22 minute runtime show if they want their characters to have the kind of depth that really makes campaign 1 shine the way it does.

[halfratsalready]

Based on the comments I’ve read on the teaser on Instagram and YouTube, it seems to me that most people who like the idea of Jack being the Traveler’s son like it because of what it does to Wanderrose and not really because they think it’s actually a good plot point.

Like, I feel like people are so glad to see the ship sink that they just don’t care about all of the other reasons that it’s kind of a shitty plot twist. Barely anyone is talking about the implications for the Traveler as a character or for Night Swan’s motives, and it just seems odd to me to be so glad to see a ship you hate be ruined that you don’t really care that the thing that’s ruining it causes some weird timeline inconsistencies and potentially ruins the main villain’s cool motive.

Idk I don’t engage in the fandom anywhere but here so maybe the Wanderrose shippers are terrible over on those other platforms but like… why are people so happy to see a ship destroyed that they don’t really care about what the plot points do to the rest of the story?

[ssruis]

I personally really could not give less of a fuck about genderswapped ruikasa because first and foremost imo I think people just do it to get yuri warrior points instead of actually caring about female characters/wlw relationships. however I also dgaf because I think people do it in the most boring way possible without thinking about how tsukasa and rui’s personalities would impact how they present themselves as girls.

Tsukasa is so incredibly determined to be seen as a reliable mature older brother figure to the point where he dresses in an incredibly stuffy and boring way & has stripped his room of anything childish (& anything with personality). She would not dress super cute & girly. she would want to be taken seriously (& you should be able to be taken seriously wearing fashion like that but I’m not getting into that rn) & be viewed as anything but childish. She would not dress like Saki she would dress like she worked at a library or something. Her fashion would still be boring. Integral to the character.

I have less to say abt rui because I generally think less about what his fashion choices say about him (beyond hater of tight clothes #sensory issues king) but he is almost never in shorts and dresses in comfy loose fitting clothes he would also not be a hashtag girly girl wearing short skirts and bows either.

‘But I want to draw yuri and I want them in cute clothes’ draw emunene instead. Hope that helps.

[panstovoid]

Thank god for spider noir being in beyond the spiderverse because Peter b is going to need another adult to help out with his 6 kids. Especially since he’s going to have Gwen “I would break all rules just to see my favorite people in the world” Stacy, Hobie “Major InstigatorTM” Brown, Miles “I’m gonna do my own thing and it’s going to be chaotic and crazy” Morales, Pavitr “I am ready to go along with the ride so long as it’s against colonizers” Prabahakar, and Peter “I operate on cartoon logic” Porker all in one single group.

[safaridays]

“this post MUST be reblogged by EVERYONE!!”

[aceofthyme]

shit man i did not think november could get worse

[langfield]

do you think vinh was actually in love with safi? i know he starts doubting that he ever was in chapter 5, but if he wasn’t actually in love what do you think his true feelings for her were? emotional attachment maybe? on safi’s side, i think it’s interesting how even after knowing about vinh’s statement about maya she still decides to hook up with him for a time (only to eventually stop sometime prior to the game?? maybe they had another falling out idk). their relationship in general is just very fascinating to me lmao.

god, the safi-vinh dynamic is certainly one filled with intrigue because of all the intense emotions attached to the people within it ; aimed at each other and also at the bystanders whom haunted around their not so defined relationship. there’s just so much baggage attached to them, you know? mostly painful things and a general sense of betrayal or regret, creating a potion of this general wishy washy bullshit that’s hard to parse through … more so in safi’s case than vinh’s, but i’ll touch upon that later! as for your question about vinh and his true feelings, well.

maybe he was in love with safi once upon a time. maybe the fact he believed that he was in love with her is really all that matters. i suppose it depends on what your definition of romantic love and utter devotion is. it’s undeniable he cared fiercely for safi, enough so to become jealous of max ( safi’s object of obsession ), swear off serious relationships in hope she’d want him back, and to engage in a general meddling within her life to make sure she comes out of situations as unscathed as possible. i mean, he schemes to steal a cow skull and then proceeds to throw it through her windshield in an attempt to save yasmin’s and safi’s relationship … it is very extra of him to do, in fact it’s a literal crime, and the game has both max and safi acknowledge the intensity of said action in episode four. we see the memory of the hedgehog he proudly displays on his desk, the carelessness in which safi treats it, her ‘i’ll buy you another one if it breaks’, and how vinh simpers beneath that offer because he doen’t want a new one, he wants this one, the one safi gave him : a gift that was likely unprompted, some sort of surprise maybe, given to him on a whim and cherished better than any other possession he owns. we also see how he breaks it when she dies. then there’s photos upon photos of safi on his phone and it’s implied he takes pictures after they sleep together and -- that isn’t even touching upon how he practically gives up on himself after her death. the mask drops, he starts trying to branch out and find acting gigs elsewhere, wanting to leave caledon forever, and there’s a sense of raw anger and loneliness he feels when she’s gone. he stops hooking up and pushes everyone away besides max, whom he clings to, and it’s a lot, right? there’s love there. obsession, probably. in many ways he’s still the ‘puppy’ following safi around like gwen said, only without maya this time. he waits and stews and he wants, certainly, for her to love him … but was it purely romantic love? who’s to say!

i think vinh wanted safi as his girlfriend before, maybe when things weren’t so tense, and he still believed that fiercely even when he stopped wanting it. i don’t think he knew where his feelings started to dwindle into something less excited and more resigned, or when he started looking for someone else. his priority remained with safi and with yasmin and thus there wasn’t a lot of time to dissect his heart, a rather vulnerable act he already struggles with anyway. he’s a repressive sort of man. he doesn’t do a lot of introspection because he has an act to maintain, a reputation to follow. but i do believe that by the time double exposure takes place, vinh’s love for safi has indeed shifted because his attraction to max veers on something that isn’t purely sexual. there is an undeniable interest, both in dead and living world, that he’s either embracing or squirming away from … i do not think vinh had many crushes at all when he was in love with safi. i don’t think he allowed himself that luxury, because he didn’t want to move on from her, or put himself off the market in case she wanted him again, in bed or in some profound, loving sense. lots of waiting. lots of surrendering, ‘she’ll come around, we’ll make up’, and hoping despite himself. so his romance with max proves to me that vinh is somewhat right in saying ‘or i thought i was’ when talking about safi and being in love with her, because he was before, but he isn’t exactly in love with her now, if that makes sense? i’d say an emotional attachment is a good title for what they have by the time of the games events.

( i do not wish to diminish vinh’s feelings, but i also think there’s a case to be made that he was rather desperate when he thought himself in love with safi ; there was a lot of insecurity within him back when he was a student, weighed down by the fact he was poor and not your standard run-of-the-mill white man … as an adult he scoffs at his acting abilities and wields his power as head of abraxas with a rather tight fist, as though it’s the only control he’s ever had before. it’s rather clear his only two friends were safi and maya and that vinh hasn’t had any since them -- was desperate to stay on their heels despite the fact he was never really apart of whatever they had. it’s not a stretch to speculate that vinh was, perhaps, a cocktail mix of loneliness and desperation rather than strictly in love with safi. maybe confused his all-consuming need to be around her as desire, or maybe just enjoyed feeling wanted by safi enough to mix his wires. after all, why was it safi he was in love with and not maya? vinh also uses sex as a means of coping, as seen by his rather active sex life in game via hookup apps and reggie, so maybe his sex with safi was just that. coping. in it’s own way. regardless, he did love her, or so he thinks so, and to me i think that’s enough, speculation aside )

safiya’s side of things is much more difficult than vinh’s, who is more obvious about his feelings towards her than he thinks he is. there are some brief contradictions, like how it’s stated that safi doesn’t care for vinh ( which is true ) and yet she also acknowledges that when she split apart and lost herself, all that was left of her was moses, lucas, gwen, and vinh. we know that moses and gwen matter to safi, or mattered, and that at one point safi might’ve admired lucas … so where does that leave vinh? if she doesn’t hate him like gwen or lucas now, and if she doesn’t cherish him like moses or max, why is he still apart of her? what does that mean? is it just a metaphor for their times with maya, and how safi will always be connected to that past with vinh because of her love for the caledon’s personal dead girl? was her sleeping with vinh about maya too? or did she actually care for vinh once, albeit weakly and casually, and did that fleeting moment of affection count when she vanished into everyone who’s ever thoroughly affected her life? and, as you said, it’s so fascinating that she hooks up with vinh at all post maya death … it feels strange and odd and unlike her. even in their intimate picture together after fooling around she is nothing but angry, disinterested, her underwear and bra are already back on ( if they were ever off at all? ) and while that’s on account of safi just hating photos, i also think it’s a testament to how irritable she finds vinh’s presence when stuck in it. it’s not a happy photo really, even vinh’s expression is a little red-eyed, forced, like he was likely wasted the night prior. i wouldn’t be surprised if safi was only able to be with vinh if she was … you know … literally out of her mind drunk or high or what have you.

though, that’s just speculation of course. my vague take on things is that safi went to vinh whenever she was partied out or if she was feeling particularly destructive that day ; choked with self loathing over her mom or maya and so sex with vinh was a means for her to feel even worse. some sort of self harm, some sort of outlet where she could be particularly cruel and evil without consequence, because vinh would take it and roll over -- could even be her way of controlling things too, like vinh with abraxas, because we know vinh has no issues with being led around in the bedroom, so that’s some food for thought. i don’t think she thinks about it after or remembers it much … she really doesn’t think about vinh unless it suits her or if she needs to. i always notice how, in episode four, safiya immediately knows what max is talking about when she asks if safi’s ever transformed into amanda, gwen, or lucas. she owns up immediately, confesses, and understands intimately what situation max is referring to. but when max asks about vinh and the phone, there is a brief moment where safi just stares blankly at her -- like she’s thinking about it, like she doesn’t even remember, before it finally clicks after a beat. either she wears vinh’s metaphorical skin a lot ( which, to be fair, she does pretend to be vinh a lot in game ) or she literally thinks of him so little she’ll forget everything about him in minutes. both are likely! she doesn’t even recall what type of alcohol he likes, calling it bougie japanese brandy ‘or whatever’ … and can’t be assed to remember his phone’s pin number exactly, only vague details about a magician scientist that she clearly thought was boring and lame when vinh told her said story, if her hostility and complete forgetfulness is anything to go by. for me, it’s easy to get caught up in a ‘safi did care! she had to!’ angle about vinh, although the game repeatedly shows you over and over again that she does not. she doesn’t even care that max kissed him really, if anything, she’s more jealous of vinh being with max given some of her remarks :

( i know, technically, safi’s ‘come again?’ is more nervous than jealous per se … but there is a certain air to it, especially given the ‘i can be your new boyfriend’ comment as seen above lol. if she loves max and doesn’t care for vinh, i can only imagine how she’d feel about their romance in particular! )

and, of course, there’s that part in episode four where safi can disguise herself as vinh in order to tear lucas a new one. i enjoy that part for many reasons! seeing how safi feels so much more comfortable in someone else’s skin than her own is fascinating and makes for good foreshadowing … but there is also the reveal of her opinions on vinh, unabashed and shameless, when she is finally giving him an ounce of thought :

it’s interesting! she doesn’t care for him, really, doesn’t loathe him like lucas or gwen or her own mother, but there’s a level of vitriol regardless. she thinks him fake. she thinks him a coward. she thinks he’s scared of facing consequences and that he only acts in his own self interest and she hates every bit of that. while safi can confess to doing maya wrong and hating herself for it, she never allows vinh that same courtesy. even says as much to max, claiming that only she had the humanity to regret her choice while vinh apparently didn’t. and yet … she doesn’t hate him? doesn’t feel strongly towards him? he’s still apart of her, a large part, and she can get along with him fine on crosstalk if she so pleases and she can hate his guts but, when the raw truth is revealed, she apparently feels nothing towards him at all? it is fascinating to think about is all. how she doesn’t wish him dead but doesn’t care if he’s alive either despite everything they’ve been through, even though she hates gwen and lucas and her mother more. it’s rather mean, though that’s what makes it so complex and interesting. it shows that safi only ever cares ( and oh, does she care fiercely, obsessively ) for a very slim group of people, and that when push comes to shove, everyone else can fend for themselves for all she cares. she would protect moses and max in a heartbeat, without thought, and the piece of her within them tries valiantly to keep them safe by locking them away from the world ( another thing to dissect, certainly! ), but she doesn’t really extend such empathy towards the innocents caught in her crossfire. she may be tormenting lucas and gwen specifically, but everyone else was going to be collateral damage and safi was fine with that. at least a little bit. vinh falls in that category of inevitable damage, i think, despite their closeness and despite their history, and you can tell that’s what really wounds him at the end of things. safi couldn’t even torment him, didn’t have the want or energy to do so, he was valiantly apart of her and safi didn’t even care about that. very interesting! it’s also heartbreaking in many ways to see two people who should’ve been able to lean on each other, who should’ve loved one another, be nothing but strangers at the end of things. an example of how tragedy doesn’t always bring people closer. sometimes it drives you worlds apart from the one you should be grieving with, which can be seen in other life is strange games, most notably with chloe and joyce, i think.

anyway! tldr : it’s complicated and worth exploring. there are many ways you can interpret their relationship and i highly encourage everyone to find what angle is most interesting to them! and i don’t blame you for finding their dynamic fascinating because it’s easily one of my favorites in double exposure … i don’t think of it often, but it’s always lingering in the back of my mind. regardless, i hope this word vomit is helpful! if i brought up more questions than answers, i do apologize. but thank you so much for such a fun question <3 it was an absolute blast, and tickled my brain enough to pump this out asap.