#I know school probably taught you that the Hero's Journey

[lewiscarrolatemybrain]

One more time

A Positive Change Arc -- often called a Hero's Journey -- is one possible shape a story can take. It is not the only or the best character arc, it's just one option. In a Positive Change Arc, the protagonist begins the story believing the Thematic Lie, and must learn and embrace the Thematic Truth over the course of their journey.

TGCF and MDZS are not Positive-Change Arcs. They are Flat Arcs.

(I have not read SVSSS)

A Flat-Arc is a story where the protagonist begins already knowing the Thematic Truth, while the world around them believes the lie. In a Flat Arc, the protagonist will have their knowledge of the Truth challenged and tested, they will be tempted by the Lie, and they will ultimately use their conviction to inspire the world around them to also embrace the Truth.

Flat Arc characters do not need to learn the Thematic Truth. They already know it. They may be seduced by the lie, they may falter, but they will always rally back to the Truth in the end.

(If they ARE successfully converted to the lie, then that isn't a Flat Arc anymore, it's a Corruption Arc, and it's usually a tragedy.)

"But Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian learned--" Nothing they learned impacted the Thematic Truth. Did they learn things? Yes! That's how Being A Person works. Both of them DID change and grow as people from the start of the series to the end. But neither of them learned anything that impacted the Thematic Truth. Because they already knew it.

Xie Lian was already kind, he already wanted to help people, he already believed that common people should be protected and uplifted. His suffering at the hands of BWX did not teach him any deep or important lessons. He already knew the Truth. BWX tried to tempt him to embrace the lie -- that people are undeserving, that you should never do anything for anyone who won't grovel with gratitude, that caring for other people is a waste -- and failed, because Xie Lian knew the truth and even when he was at his lowest he was searching for confirmation that he was right. Xie Lian only needed one single act of kindness to reassure himself that he was right and BWX was wrong. He did not learn anything new, he reaffirmed what he already knew and understood.

Wei Wuxian is good, and righteous, and morally upright. He is a character who does the right thing regardless of the consequences he might face. The sects collectively wanted to destroy him because he refused to bow to them, not because he ever at any point actually did anything wrong. Even the vengefulness he showed while actively at war is narratively justified, and it's key that the sects did not care about the desecration of bodies while it served them. He did not learn any valuable or important lessons when the Sects raided the Burial Mounds. The fact that Lan Sizhui exists at all is proof for us as the audience that everything Wei Wuxian did was worth it. All of it mattered, and all of it was the right choice, because a-Yuan is alive. He doesn't come back to life having learned anything new, he already understood the Truth.

Obviously neither of them are Omnipotent. They learn that there's dudes in love with them, they solve the mysteries of their respective true Big Bads, they uncover some other stuff. But the Thematic Truth, the core theme of the story, is not a lesson either of them needs to learn. It is a lesson they teach others by refusing to bend to the Lie the rest of the world believes.

[co-mixed]

Fantastic Origin (Reed Sucks)

Let’s do it, let’s kick off the Fantastic Four review journey. 

The first ever run of Marvel’s first family aka the team I had been actively avoiding until recently. 

Most of Lee/Kirby books are extremely different from what we see in the comics today. You could easily attribute that to the days of yore or just the fact that these books have served as stepping stones towards bigger and more complex stories. Or you could take them for what they are.

Right away I will have to get misogyny out of the way. It’s there and it’s ugly. These books are filled with ridiculous stereotypes and absolutely unacceptable degrading behavior towards women. It’s all the more upsetting when you get to read fan letters from women, they hint at that constantly. 

I gotta say, it worked too because when Crystal became a part of the team, she was relatively badass and was treated with more respect than Sue. But dammit, poor Sue. You can try and convince me that Reed is a good husband but that won’t help a bit. In a world where literal supervillains exist, he is definitely not the worst human being but since he’s being portrayed as a hero, I’m gonna accept the fact that he’s trash. 

Of course, I see what the creators were going for: Reed was supposed to be a hyper-focused, single-minded, science-obsessed team leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was supposed to be flawed but sympathetic. 

Especially compared to his beloved Sue who was supposed to be a loving and caring homemaker with her invisibility power being a reflection of her relationship with Reed. As in he only sees her when she’s in danger. 

The way it looks now, 60 years after the cosmic rays incident, is very different.

Sue is a young woman, seemingly younger than Reed, who somehow stumbled into a relationship with a man who treats her as a status symbol. She’s a tag-along, something pretty to walk with, have at home, and look at when it pleases him. Because she’s younger (bear with me, I’m only assuming this based on the Lee/Kirby age), she is very susceptible to his influence and opinions, there’s a power misbalance and she doesn’t really know that things could or should be better. Which is kind of easy to assume, considering her mother was dead and her father was in jail. She also had a brother in high school to take care of and Reed was successful and rich. 

Then after she got powers, she kind of got permanently stuck with him, and that trauma bond became even more dysfunctional. She did assume the role she probably saw in the media at the time, overly caring about everyone but herself, and she accepts material substitutes for actual comfort, such as shopping, because that’s what’s been said and taught to her. 

Her relationship with Reed is passionless too, hence when Namor shows up, she entertains the idea of him. Although, let’s not forget that he keeps kidnapping her and trying to convince her to become his queen of the seas or whatever. Maybe if he was less straightforward and didn’t try to kill her brother in the process… who knows?

But he does, meanwhile, Reed is putting that good-for-nothing brother of hers through school, so she chooses Reed. She even marries him, entrapping herself in a loveless marriage. And after two years of horrible home life with barely any time to get to know whatever she’s been wed to, she gets pregnant. All in all, at this point, at that time, it’s over for her. And as a reader you know she doesn’t escape that. It’s pretty tragic. 

Reed is a scumbag. Yelling at Susan is just part of it, he also acts like he’s the boss of everyone (which I do get when it comes to Johnny and Ben, who are let’s just say irresponsible.) 

He constantly sticks his nose into things like the negative zone, causing meanies like Annihilus to show up. He keeps using Ben or The Thing when he needs and then swears he’ll turn him back. It gets repetitive and no one can really trust him. He pretends to act like a hero after causing a problem and keeps trying to sacrifice himself forgetting his wife and eventually son. Bro, you got responsibilities over there!

I believe that’s the intention but Reed is not that different from Doom, except Doom actually has a sob story to explain his obsession with science and the occult. Reed… at this point in the run we don’t know if he does or where his assholery comes from. All we do know is he’s an equally terrible leader, husband, and friend. Bet he’s not much of a father either. 

But hey, at least he’s putting that good-for-nothing Johnny through school. 

Ben is irritating. We’ve discussed it at length with several people, how so many people can relate to him and consider him their favorite character. But Ben Grimm is awful. You know what? I think the unstable version of him that was around for a brief moment when he could switch into The Thing and back, that version is the real Ben Grimm. If anything, his insecurity is holding him back in that anger. When he gets both strength and his human appearance, that’s when you gotta run for the hills and summon the Hulk to put him down. 

Ben went from petty, insecure, and angry to overcompensating and calling himself pretty and lovable. All the while his paranoia regarding Alicia and her love for him is growing more and more bizarre. He really doesn’t trust her when she says that she likes him as The Thing, he claims he wants to be Ben for her but hey, she’s pretty uncomfortable with Ben so there’s that. 

He did act better than Reed would’ve when he thought Alicia had chosen Silver Surfer but then he ghosted her and threw a tantrum every time Surfer popped up. Have some self-respect, Ben. 

What pissed me off the most is the way he treated Franklin seconds before he found out his middle name was Benjamin. Like, seriously? You’re taking it out on a baby? Besides, neither Sue nor Reed owes you anything. Well, maybe Reed does. But it doesn’t help that Ben keeps getting into fights with that good-for-nothing Johnny.

Johnny is good for nothing. He’s an ok kid I suppose but he doesn’t attend school and somehow ends up in a university (which even managed to piss off one fan! Seriously, don’t ignore the fan mail if it’s there!) Then he spends exactly one semester, meets a friend who participates in his whacky adventures for like a week, and forgets this friend exists. He also forgets the school exists. 

Johnny is either acting out at home, fixing his car, or chasing after girls. Until he meets Crystal and immediately becomes obsessed with her, which no one really cares about. Then Crystal gets stuck under a dome with her merry Inhuman family, and he broods and throws tantrums. They are torn apart and brought back together, and then are torn apart and then brought together, it’s a whole X-men level soap. I actually liked that.

And out of all the villains I’m only gonna focus on Doom. Don’t get me wrong, Galactus is forever the star, but let’s talk Doom. 

He’s an interesting fellow but I don’t get the massive fan base. Dude’s a literal dictator of the worst kind. He experienced dictatorship on his own skin since childhood and he grew up and enslaved his whole country. I would understand if he brought prosperity and happiness to them but that? I was actually pretty impressed by the Latverian arc, in which the FF went to Latveria and were depowered and treated like Doom’s dear guests. It was a creative way to draw a little image of what this kinda system is and how it functions from within. Doom rules by fear and they experienced that fear, they even almost lost hope. I would’ve done this arc a little differently but hey, I’m here 60 years later. 

But at least Doom hadn’t killed that good-for-nothing Johnny.

The Stories

That’s what we’re really here for –  the silly early villains and the bizarre tactics that save the day. We obviously have some baddies that stood the test of time and a few that didn’t. But Reed’s approach throughout everything is pretty much “let’s throw them into space and hope they don’t come back.” They do, Doom’s been to space twice and even made a trip to the microverse. He’s well-traveled now.

In the beginning, it’s a very repetitive scheme: one issue = one arc, Ben argues with that good-for-nothing Johnny, Sue is there, Reed saves the day. But the arcs stretch to two and more issues and the stories become more and more entertaining. At some point, even Sue gets to save a few hours. Not the day though. 

Crystal gets her shining moments, and like I said before, she does very well and almost without Reed’s misogynistic crap. 

There are a few stories I liked, Galactus, of course (behold!), the would-be gamer The Thinker, Latveria visit, and the arc in which whatshisface scientist turned himself into The Thing. That’s pretty much the first time in this run when a one-issue baddie realized the error of his ways and made the ultimate sacrifice. Before that, the antihero role was pretty much Namor’s. Speaking of Namor, how’s his “movie” career? That arc was truly wild and smelled a lot like Golden Age comics.

Now if you’re thinking you’d like to read this run, do. But if you just want to know the origins and main encounters, just watch the 90’s show. Not only it covers most of the pivotal stories, but season one has a fantastic! intro song. You’re gonna love it and if you don’t, it’s gonna haunt you till you do.

I’m positive the stories are gonna get better. I was promised they’re gonna get better but I have a hell of a road ahead of me, 300 issues before I get to more modern days, and even more after that. I’m all in.

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

All this time I thought that this:

https://twitter.com/iamnearlyhome/status/1689368895906316288?t=JGvx5Hs5UYlEcBoodgT1zA&s=19

Was referring to/ or related to something about a bridge and zvzc = zero voltage, zero current. But what would 'oh' mean then? It doesn't make much sense.

However now that you mentioned the greek word 'nostos' (νόστος) and its meaning (I speak Greek and I've studied Ancient Greek in school, how come I never realized it idk lol) it makes a lot more sense. Nost + oh = Nostoh, but the 'h' would be silent so the word ends up being 'Nosto'.

You were right about the meaning of the word. I Googled the origin of the word in Greek, so here's a bit more info about it: it comes from the verb 'νέομαι' (pronounced: neome) which means 《I return》, 《I'm returning to my homeland》. From the word 'νόστος' (nostos) also come the word 'νόστιμος' (pronounced: nostimos) (meaning: delicious) and the word 'νοσταλγία' (pronounced: nostalgia) (meaning: nostalgia, homesickness), which means the mental pain ('άλγος' (algos) = pain) that is birthed from expectations, the desire/yearning/ craving/ longing to return to your homeland. The one who was alienated dreams of the journey of his return home (this journey is called 'nostos' of course, and as you mentioned it's the theme in the Odyssey. Here it's explained a bit how the word ties in Ancient Greek: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostos). And at last, at a certain moment comes the blessed day of that return home which is referred to as 'νόστιμον ήμαρ' (pronounced: nostimon imar).

A little observation: In evermore (the song) TS says: 'And when I was shipwrecked, I thought of you, in the cracks of light, I dreamed of you'. On Wikipedia nostos is also explained as: This journey is usually very extensive and includes being shipwrecked in an unknown location and going through certain trials that test the hero. Also in this tweet from two days ago: https://twitter.com/iamnearlyhome/status/1695929395733565893?t=WS5ZEw9EFCbJlJ51-ZlAiw&s=19 , probably a coincidence, but it mentions cracks. Evermore being tied with Exile and telling that the other person is not your homeland anymore is fitting with everything else.

It also reminds me of the Adore You music video where Harry sails off on a ship and there was supposed to be a part 2, but recently they got that scene in the end out of the music video for some reason.

Could zvzc actually mean zero voltage, zero current? (Something like, water current maybe? Travelling home by ship on water?) As far as I know, current doesn't exist without voltage and if you have 0 volts, then you don't have voltage and therefore no current. There's no flow, so there's no movement? I never liked Electricity, or really understood it, so it could mean anything really, I'm just guessing here.

Maybe the tweet means that he is not on his return home at this point in time lol. It also fits with the theme of the account, so it makes sense to be talking about nostos.

This is amazing, anon, and I didn’t want it to get lost in the craziness of today.

Here’s the tweet:

And our recent discussion:

Our intrepid duo DO use nautical imagery a lot, as you cited in evermore, and in Gold Rush (and in Fool’s Gold), and the whole Adore you video where what the “fish” taught him—to use all the stuff inside him to be the wind in his sails (a metaphor for *songwriting* aka “a power that is strong enough to bring sun to the darkest days”)—allows him to sail to other shores. That ship tattoo really set them on a particular course!

And the “I am returning to my homeland” yet being thwarted and the longing? And trials that test the hero? Oooof. Like: it is going to happen but not yet.

I have no idea about the last part, though. An acronym? Something with zeta? Shrouded in mystery, it remains.

I am so thankful for your Greek knowledge, anon, because my limited Koine for NT study did not help here, lol.

I really have the best anons. 😘

[lunarsilkscreen]

Influences on Zelda: Miyamoto Musashi

Ronin are a big part of Japanese culture post feudal Japan, and being a Ronin creates an easy entry point into the Hero' Journey story archetype. And for the west, Ronin creates a unique perspective that *kind of* mirrors European Knights or American Gunslingers, but in a completely different way.

Unlike Knights, who are royalty who have no choice but work as officers. And unlike Guns for Hire (Mercenaries), Ronin can be either Samurai, who are more similar to the European knight (who lost power when their lords fell, and might rise to Lord themselves) or they might be the Foot soldier. Trained from a very young age, and know much about the ways of warfare.

They might have sworn fealty, and been devoted to the cause. But after your Lord drops you entirely, or is defeated, or you otherwise find yourself lord-less. You are now Ronin.

The Ronin could've been anybody before they became Ronin, and post being a Ronin they have nothing. No allegiance, no ties, and in some cases we're expected to perform harakiri because they were a failure.

A living Ronin in that regard is open defiance to the social order. A warrior of any experience level who should be dead, but is not. Who had a cause to fight for, but now does not. And randomly appears where their skill is needed.

Otherwise, they're considered nothing but a bum. Who nobody will hire unless it's menial labor below their ability. Or, unless you're Link, who technically doesn't even exist in society's standards.

And either shows up to break pots, or save people's lives. Depending on how he feels that day.

Miyamoto Musashi was a swordsman (I'd say "no relation to Miyamoto Shigeru" but nobody knows that except him.) Not just a swordsman, A legendary one known as a "Kensai". If going by the modern day "belt system" of martial arts, he probably wouldn't even register on the scale.

Miyamoto Musashi wrote the book "The Five Rings". Which was a bare bones explanation of his martial art. Understanding that there were many schools in which to learn the sword, or other Martial Arts, Musashi instead wrote about that bits that all the schools share instead of focusing on sharing his own personal school of martial art that was common in masters of the time.

It's so broad in scope, despite being a bare bones manual, even entrepreneurs use the "Five Rings" as a manual in which to do business.

Musashi has four names by the way; which includes: Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, and Niten Dōraku.

(theory: Niten-Dō, Nitendo, Nintendo) at the very least, Fusajiro Yamauchi (Founder of Nintendo) may have been inspired by Miyamoto Musashi.

Who knows for sure; perhaps the Spirit of Niten haunts and protects Nintendo.

The story Behind The Three Godsesses in Z64 are tightly bound to the fundamentals in this book. And the opening might sound similar to the Bible.

The first chapter is Earth; In the beginning there was the earth.

The second chapter is Water; And the (Goddess Nayru) Flooded the Earth

The third chapter is Fire; And the (Goddess Din) said "let their be light"

The fourth chapter is Wind; And the (Goddess Nayru) brought life (creatures) to the earth.

5678.

After that is "Void". It is described as "esoteric musings", but last I read it, it was Musashi trying to explain what it's like to understand that which does not yet exist. Or the inner workings of a thing you don't know how it works. Trying to explain to students, not just to learn what is taught, but to learn what cannot be taught.

In modern day parlance; trying to figure out how the "black box" works.

This is depicted in all sorts of ways, fighting the shadow, fending off death, learning and creating new things. Life, etc... not just relying on the "same old" but accepting the new things that replace the old.

The autumn that gives way to spring.

The Miyamoto Niten that gave way to Miyamoto and Ninten. (I'll see myself out.)

[scrambledeggsforella]

Exhibit X Darcy Baker Andy Gayle Tyler Moletta c/o R. R. Music Management New York, NY. Ella Carmichael Lucas, KS.

Tuesday August 29th, 2006. Hello Exhibit X,

My name is Ella Carmichael. I am seventeen years old, and a senior at Lincoln High School in Kansas. By the time you receive this letter, you will have probably already received a letter from my baby brother, Elliot Carmichael, and his best friend James "Bruiser" Laframboise. They went to our local library yesterday after school to find your mailing address and type it up and then went directly to the post office, so I'm drafting my own letter under the assumption that theirs has likely already begun its journey to New York City via the U.S. Postal Service and will arrive before mine.

I'm writing to you to provide the context that I know my brother's letter lacks. I want to tell you how much your band's music really means to him, because it means a great deal. I hope I will be able to accurately do justice to his feelings in this brief summary and explanation.

We live in Kansas with our dad, mum, and younger sister who is just a baby. Before she was born, when I was small, we also lived in New York City, in the Bronx specifically. Our mum grew up there. Our dad worked in the rail yards until Elliot became extremely ill as a newborn due to our living conditions, and our parents made the difficult decision to move as far away as possible from everything they'd ever known. My brother survived, though his growth was ultimately stunted by the severity of his illness and other health troubles persisted, including asthma and type 1 diabetes.

Your band's music has filled our house for years. It has been a constant source of happiness and strength for my brother. There were many days when we were young that he was too sick to go to school. On those days, he couldn't do much but lie on the couch in our family's living room with the nebulizer, where we kept the television on for him. I remember him watching your music videos, learning all the parts. While his struggles were influencing my interest in pursuing medical studies, you were inspiring him creatively. Eventually, our parents bought him a drum set and a guitar, both of which he taught himself to play.

If you write back to Elliot, please don't tell him that I sent you this letter. He has too much pride to admit any weakness to his heroes. It is the sort of pride that develops from having been very sick from a very young age for a very long time. He has earned every right to that pride and I would never want anyone to crush it. I just needed you to know what he would never tell you otherwise. He knows every single one of your songs and our entire family has come to enjoy your music because of what it means to Elliot. He is not your biggest fan in stature, but I swear he is your biggest fan by heart.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this letter. If your mail is forwarded to you, I hope the international leg of your world tour is going well. If your mail is not forwarded to you, then I hope the international leg of your tour went well. I'm sure my brother told you in his own letter that he would like to see Exhibit X play in Kansas someday. I will close my letter by echoing that sentiment. There are no music venues here in Lucas, but we would drive him anywhere if it meant he would get to hear your music live. Sincerely, Ella Carmichael

[louve-garoue]

I'm glad you're liking it so far :D ! I was worried I was boring you eheh. Ok back to where we left it, Raditz !

So to be able to sneak and rob everything he can when Vegeta is away, he needs to know when Vegeta is away. Thus he starts monitoring him and ChiChi from afar with the DB equivalent of a drone. That's how he learnt about the Dragon Balls.

ChiChi and Vegeta were talking, well more like ChiChi was talking and Vegeta acted as if he was forced to listen against his will xD, about the wish she would like. Of course that lead her to ask what wish Vegeta wanted so bad that he would start a whole journey to have it (especially since he already seems to have everything). Vegeta just smirks and tell her it's a secret.

The truth is, he has 0 wish in mind. He just wanted to get out of his house for the summer. His dad is just like him, personnality wise you see. Except, 10 times worse. Even Vegeta (Third of his name) can't stand it xD. So he found the first pretext he could find to get away from his house and didn't look back.

Ok once again back to Raditz. I guess I should get into his backstory here : he is still Goku's brother, but he is fully human (or full Anthropo Monkey, whichever suits you best). Now after the birth and then the giving up of Goku, his life started to suck actually. His home was full of tension and reminder of what was missing. At school and outside people didn't forget that he have an hybrid brother somewhere and he was the victim of jabs for it. Even more well-meaning people (relatively speaking) sometimes made him uncomfortable because they would, with various level of discretion, search for anything "monkey-like" about it. He has comment if people thinks he's too hairy or that his ears are too big, etc...

So one day (probably at like, 15 or older), he just say "fuck all this actually" and left... Only to realize he had 0 skills for himself except the fighting his dad and the bullies too kind of taught him. So Bandit it was then ! And now he just live like this.

So when he heard about the Dragon Ball from spying on Vegeta and understood it could grant a wish (hard to believe but if Vegeta does then it must be true), he just went woah. With this I could completely erase that stupid stigma from history and our family could have been happy !

And yeah that's his wish, and it's sweet :). What is less sweet is the numbers of underhanded, dirty and cowardly plans he immediately went to create after that realization hit him xD. Things Yamcha would have never dreamed of doing. Of course he will never have any opportunity to actually act on them. And they would have all failed anyway since Raditz have not once interacted with our main duo and thus has not the shade of a clue on who ChiChi is and how crazy strong she is xp. But I feel it was important to precise that he did have them and would have gone for it in the right circumstances. For his character *nods gravely to myself*

Anyway next time our hero finally reaches another Dragon Ball ! Will they actually get it this time ? Wait and find out in next episode ;D

Hello would you like a rant about one of those :

_An AU I have where Goku is an earthling and ChiChi a saiyan (Og DB version and/or DBZ version)

_An AU where Vegeta was sent to Earth instead of Goku, but Goku is still very much the Main Character (beside I hyperfocus a lot on the Son Family so the Au is mainly on how, against all odds, this family still managed to find each other)

_About a song that I think would fit GoChi pretty well :D (the song in question being "Je te Donne" by Jean-Jacques Goldman but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't know it since most of it is in french and it is pretty old :(, I'll do a translation if you do want to hear about it :) )

_About how Goku was a smart kid, it's not his fault confused "stupid" and "was taught very little basic knowledge" :((

_About how, while I like the first telefilm on Bardock and prefer the personality they gave him, I largely prefer DB Minus as the story on how Goku got sent to Earth and my frustration with the telefilm being mostly used as the reference (though I can downplay that last part if you want). As a bonus I can also expand on how and why I also prefer the manga version of DB Minus over what they did in the DB Super Broly movie

?

I just discovered your blog and I love it :DDD. I am also very glad to found another person who like Og Dragon Ball more than Dbz :DD. You're amazing and I hope you're having a good day/night :]

Yes but I’m bad at making choices so any one you want lol

[luminnara]

alpha!erasermic x pregnant!reader | ABO fluff

Request:  Hiya! i’m wondering if you can do an alpha! erasermic x pregnant! omega! reader? maybe when both alphas leave their lunch at home and she goes to bring it to them. the reader and both alphas collectively have custody of hitoshi and eri, and the reader is heavily pregnant. preferably a female reader please, and none of class 1-a have met her. this is my first time requesting stuff so i hope i did okay! 😅

You did wonderfully! I love writing cute fluffy stuff like this, and it’s my first time writing any kind of erasermic thing even though I love them so much, so hopefully I did okay! Idk where exactly this sits timeline-wise, don’t worry about it, it’s omegaverse and I can do what I want lol. I took this prompt and sort of RAN with it, too

*also Mirio has his quirk back in this because it’s fun, and the reader has kind of a dodgy past because i wanted to add a little SPICE*

Warnings: a/b/o, pregnancy, the implications of Aizawa’s scarf and all of its uses

You sighed, resting a hand on your swollen belly. “Those two...”

You had only just gotten Eri out of bed, and, upon heading into the kitchen to fix her some breakfast, you saw two lovingly-prepared bento boxes sitting on the counter. Shota and Hizashi must have forgotten them in their hurry to get to UA earlier that morning, and while you knew they could very easily grab something to eat in the cafeteria, you hated the thought of these meals going to waste.

Besides, your inner omega was a bit miffed that they hadn’t taken your home cooked food to work with them. Was Lunch Rush’s food so much better than yours that your alphas would rather eat at school? You refused to believe that, even if his quirk was cooking. There was no way that he could make your alphas a meal that could compare to the kind you always cooked for them, and maybe it was the pregnancy hormones making you extra bristly about it, but you were determined to march right on over to UA and bring them their proper lunches.��

Even if you were heavily, heavily pregnant. They’d probably have something to say about you leaving the house and waddling around Musutafu with only Eri as company, but you were tough enough to fend for yourself. And besides, it was only a quick train ride to the station outside the school, and if you did get yourself into any kind of trouble, the city was chock full of pro heroes and their sidekicks, many of whom you were on a first name basis with. 

“Eri!” you called, grabbing a bag to carry the boxes in. “Are you dressed yet? We’re going to visit UA!”

You could heard a thump, followed by the sound of little feet thudding as she ran to meet you. When she appeared in the doorway, her eyes were wide with excitement, her long hair falling around her shoulders messily. “Yes!”

“Go brush your hair and then we’ll go,” you laughed, ushering her towards the bathroom. 

“Why are we going?” the little girl called. 

“Hizashi and Shota left their lunches,” you explained. “We’re bringing them so that the food doesn’t go to waste.”

“Can we visit Deku and Togata?”

You paused to think. You hadn’t actually met any of Shota and Hizashi’s students before, your alphas always preferring that you stay home and away from the sometimes dangerous school they taught at. Well, you knew Hitoshi, of course, and since he had yet to move into the dorms on campus, he still lived at home with the rest of the family. At least he had remembered to grab his lunch. Would your adopted son be embarrassed to see you appearing at his school? Hitoshi always carried himself in a very collected manner, and the thought of being able to show up and pinch his cheeks and coo at him made you laugh. 

And you knew that everyone in Class 1-A would be over the moon to see Eri. The little girl that had been rescued from Overhaul was popular amongst the young heroes-in-training, from what you’d heard, and if you were going to go all the way to UA, you’d be damned if you didn’t let her see her friends there. 

“Of course we can,” you said with a smile as she came running back in, her hair significantly less tangled. “Ready?”

“Ready!” she beamed up at you.

“Do me a favor and carry this?” you offered her the tote you’d tucked the bento boxes into and she took it from you eagerly, bouncing towards the door. 

You grabbed your purse, made sure your keys were inside, and followed her out, taking her free hand. Together, the two of you made your way to the nearest train station, a few neighbors waving hello as you passed. There were no villains to be seen or head of, and the pros you saw out on patrol all looked happy and relaxed. They all knew who you were, some of the betas and omegas approaching to chat about your pregnancy and ask how things were going. The alphas hung back, calling greetings or offering waves, none of them wanting to get too close to a pregnant, mated omega and risk the wrath of your alphas if their scents happened to cling to you. 

The journey went smoothly, Eri sticking close to your side the entire way. You were both excited to be going to visit UA--Eri, because she would get to see Deku and Mirio, and you because you hadn’t been to the school in years--and as you stepped off the train and the gates finally came into view, you let out a happy laugh. 

“Ready?” you asked Eri, leading her towards the entrance. 

“Mhm!” she nodded eagerly, pulling you forward. “Let’s go! Let’s go let’s go let’s go--”

“Hang on, hang on,” you waddled after her as quickly as you could, fishing around in your purse. When you finally found what you were looking for, you pulled out an ID card, holding it up towards the sensor atop the UA Barrier gate. “You have your card?”

“Yep!” Eri said, grabbing the card hanging from the lanyard around her neck and mimicking you. 

“Special ID accepted,” a robotic voice chimed. “Welcome to UA High, (y/n) and Eri.”

The gate opened and you led Eri through it, the big school looming just past it. The special ID cards you both had were a result of Shota insisting that you be able to get to UA if you ever needed to. With the upgraded security measures, and so many of the students living in the dorms, it wasn’t easy getting onto the campus without either a student or guest card. You probably technically weren’t even supposed to have one, but no one was going to argue with Aizawa and Yamada when it came to ensuring their omega would be able to get to them in case of emergency.

This wasn’t exactly an emergency, but it was still an important mission, so you had absolutely no qualms about using your special ID privileges today. You just hoped nobody else would be mad about it.

 “Hey, is that Eri I see?” a voice called. 

You turned to see a blond haired, blue eyed boy jogging towards you and recognized him as Togata. He was dressed in a PE uniform, and as he stopped in front of you, you could see that he was panting. 

Eri immediately set the bag down and rushed toward him, running into his open arms. “Lemillion!”

Mirio laughed as he scooped her into a hug. “What are you doing here? Aizawa didn’t mention anything about a visit!”

“Aizawa forgot his lunch today,” you said, nodding towards the bag Eri had dropped. “So we thought we’d bring it and visit.”

Mirio straightened up a bit when he realized you were there. You had to be absolutely covered in your alphas’ scents, and even if they never told any of the students about you, there was no way that Mirio hadn’t figured it out by now. Besides...your bond marks were very big and very visible, one on each side of your neck just below your scent glands. There was no way Mirio didn’t know what that all added up to. 

You had never officially met him, but you’d heard plenty about all of UA’s Big Three, and after he and Deku saved Eri from the Shie Hassaikai, you’d heard even more about him. He was selfless, going so far as to sacrifice his own quirk to keep Eri safe and get her away from Overhaul, and for that, you’d always feel a little indebted to him. He’d luckily been able to get it back, but Aizawa had told you that there had been a long period in which nobody was sure it could even be returned to him. 

“Oh, s-sorry!” he bowed to you. “I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced! I’m Togata Mirio, I was there at the Shie Hassaikai raid--”

“I’ve heard plenty about you,” you laughed as he straightened up again. “I’m (y/n). I’m the stay at home omega that keeps Shota and Hizashi from starving all the time.”

Mirio’s laugh was probably one of the most raucously happy sounds you had ever heard. “We’re all grateful for that! As for me, personally, I’m really glad Eri has such a great mom now, too. And you’ve got more on the way!”

“Sure do,” you groaned, a hand on your lower back as you tried to lean and stretch it out some. “Due date’s in just a couple weeks. Can’t wait to get ‘em outta here.”

“Well, at least you already know how to do the parenting part!” Mirio was still all smiles as Eri grabbed for his hand and he took it, picking up the tote bag as well. “Come on, it’s my free period so I’ll take you to 1-A’s classroom.”

“Thank you, Togata,” you said, hand on your belly as you followed him into the school. 

“It’s no problem!” he beamed at you over his shoulder as he led the way. “It’s almost lunch, too. Perfect timing!”

“Is it really?” you glanced up at a clock on the wall, and sure enough, it was nearly noon. “Wow. Guess we took longer than I thought. But...ugh, I didn’t bring any food for myself or Eri...”

“That’s no problem! Lunch Rush always has tons of options in the Grand Mess Hall.” at your slight glare, Mirio added, “...But I’m sure even his best cooking is no substitute for a homemade meal!”

“That’s right,” you growled, waddling along down the hall. 

When the three of you reached the 1-A door, Mirio used his permeation quirk to stick his head straight through it rather than knocking, and judging by the resounding scream of surprise that nearly shattered the windows, he had scared Hizashi half to death.

Mirio pulled back and opened the door, revealing a room full of groaning students, all clutching their ears. Hizashi was the only one who seemed unbothered by the sheer volume of the scream he had let out, clutching his chest instead. 

“Why can’t you knock like a normal person, dumbass?” a blond boy snarled. 

“Bakugou! You shouldn’t swear in front of esteemed upperclassmen!” a black-haired boy with glasses said. 

“It’s not just me you’re swearing in front of!” Mirio said, still smiling, like always. With a nod of his head, he tugged Eri into the room.

Everyone lit up, and you even caught Bakugou’s harsh expression softening some at the sight of her. 

“Eri!” a freckly, green haired boy exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. 

“Deku!” the little girl yelled happily, letting go of Mirio’s hand to run towards him.

You watched as he knelt down to greet her, the rest of the class all getting up, or at the very least leaning over in their seats to say hello. All except Hitoshi, who looked up, made eye contact with you, started to roll his eyes, and then sighed. 

Oh, you were so going to embarrass him today. 

Hizashi was still trying to catch his breath, but now, with the students all distracted by Eri, he finally had a chance to notice you. You could see his nostrils flare as he recognized your scent, his head whipping around to spot you standing there in the door.

“BABE!” he rushed toward you, pulling you into a hug. 

“Hi, Hizashi,” you laughed into his shoulder, clinging to his jacket as he rubbed his scent gland over your hair. 

He immediately pulled back, holding you at arm’s length as he looked you over. “What’re you doing here? Everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” you chuckled. When he glanced down at your swollen belly, you added, “we’re fine.”

He let out a relieved breath. “Okay. Okay, good. Had me worried there for a sec.”

“They came to bring you lunch!” Mirio said, holding up the bag he had carried in for you. “I ran into her and Eri outside while I was out for my daily jog.”

“Togata here was very helpful,” you said. “He even carried that bag for us.”

“Gotta help everyone who needs it, whenever I can!” the teenager gave you a thumbs up. 

“Thanks, Mirio.” Hizashi said, putting an arm around your shoulders and pulling you up against his side. “Means a lot to me that my family stays safe.”

“Family?”

You turned to see all of Class 1-A staring at you. 

Hizashi cleared his throat, the sound practically echoing. “Everybody, this is my mate.”

The room suddenly erupted. 

“Who is she?”

“Is she a pro?”

“Can’t believe anybody would put up with him...”

“Bakugou, quiet! Don’t be rude!”

“But, wait...” Deku said, still kneeling with Eri. “I thought Eri’s been living with Mr. Aizawa..?”

The students all glanced to each other before their eyes swiveled to you and Hizashi. 

“Oh, Hizashi,” you teased. “You never told them?”

“I, uh...” a slight pink tinged his cheeks as he blushed.  

Luckily, before he had the chance to stumble over his words any longer, he was saved by the appearance of a very tired, very disgruntled, Eraserhead. 

“What the hell is going on and why the hell are you screaming in my classroom?” he growled from the doorway. 

Hizashi turned the two of you to face him, and you saw the anger immediately drain from Aizawa’s face. 

“...What are you doing here?” he asked, his bloodshot eyes full of concern. “Everything okay?”

“Hi, Papa!” Eri chimed from her spot next to Deku. 

“...Hello, Eri. Why are you also here?”

“You both forgot your lunches,” you said, practically scolding them. “I worked hard on those!”

“So you came all the way here just to bring us lunch? You realize we have an entire cafeteria here, right?”

“Don’t even think about it,” you growled. 

“You shouldn’t be walking across Musutafu without at least Hitoshi with you. It’s too dangerous.”

At the mention of his name, everyone’s heads swiveled to look at Shinso. He sighed, slumping back in his chair and dragging a hand down his face. 

“You know, if you wouldn’t forget the lunches that I so lovingly put all that hard work into, I wouldn’t even have to go all the way across Musutafu to bring them to you.” you said haughtily, nose up in the air as you stared your alpha down. “And besides...you know better than anyone that I can take care of myself, and Eri, no matter how pregnant I am.”

Aizawa sighed. He knew there was no arguing with you when you got in a mood like this, and besides...you were already there. 

And you were right.

Before he could even come up with something to say, the bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch, and soon, you were walking down the hall between your two alphas, Eri riding on Deku’s shoulders as Class 1-A flooded out along with you. 

You ended up sitting in the mess hall with the students, sandwiched between Hizashi and Shota. Shota didn’t seem entirely pleased with it, mentioning several times that he’d much rather be in the teachers’ lounge where it was quieter, but Eri was far too happy to be with Class 1-A for him to actually tear her away from them. She was across from you, sitting next to Deku and a brown haired girl you learned was named Ochako. Mirio had left to go find his own friends, the other two members of The Big Three, and you could see him just a few tables over, laughing loudly with a blue haired girl with a boy with pointy ears looked like he was trying to will himself out of existence next to them. 

“It’s so exciting that Mr. Aizawa has a whole family!” Ochako said. 

“And with Present Mic, too,” Tsu, the frog girl, said from her spot next to her. 

“How long have you been together?” the pink girl, Mina, asked.

“Don’t ask so many personal questions! We should respect their privacy.” Iida said, in true class rep fashion. 

When Shota only offered a grunt in reply, too focused on his lunch to actually talk with his homeroom class, and with Hizashi already stuffing his face, you took it upon yourself to chat. 

“Oh, I don’t mind the questions!” you said with a good natured laugh. “I met Hizashi and Shota when we all went to school together. Then we lost touch, because I...well, I sort of...chose a different life path than they did.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Hizashi slurped up his soba. 

“Here.” you looked up to see Hitoshi had brought you and Eri each a tray of food, setting them down in front of the two of you. 

“You’re so good to your mother,” you cooed, reaching up to grab his cheek. 

He dodged you expertly, ducking out of the way and going to sit with Bakugou and his friends on Deku’s other side. You narrowed your eyes at him, making sure he knew that he couldn’t run forever, and as Denki watched the exchange, he spoke up. 

“...Wait. You didn’t become a pro hero?” he asked. 

“I took the hero course here at UA.” you explained, grabbing your chopsticks. “I ended up dropping out before graduation. This is actually my first time back since then.”

“So...” Deku seemed nervous. “Were you, uh...”

“A villain?” you asked. 

When he nodded quickly, you laughed and offered a nod of your own. 

“Yeah, I suppose I was. My quirk used to be wild, and hard to control...I got so frustrated when I wasn’t making any progress with it that I decided to just leave school. I was mad at everyone, and I fell in with people who felt the same way. One thing leads to another, and next thing you know, I’m running from the loudest, most obnoxious pro hero in the city.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Hizashi, who was doing his best not to choke on his lunch. 

“And he never caught me,” you said adoringly, leaning against his shoulder. 

“I never caught you on my own,” he corrected. 

“Made my ears bleed a few times, I think.”

“Yes, and I don’t regret that.” he pressed a cute, fluttery little kiss against the tip of your nose. “You were absolutely going to kill me.”

“Not absolutely!” you protested. 

“I had to rescue him.” Aizawa spoke up, his voice gruff and tired, like always. “Had to cancel your quirk and keep you tied down until the others could get to us.”

You smirked at your first memory of his scarf and what it could do, and as you did so, he realized that he had just admitted to tying you up with it in front of his idiot students.

“And that’s when I fell in looooove,” you grabbed his arm, batting your lashes at him obnoxiously. 

“Not another word.” he growled. 

The students were all staring at you with wide eyes. All except Hitoshi, who was rolling his. 

“I guess you could say I was reformed,” you said, grabbing some noodles. “Then one thing led to another, and...here we are.” You patted your belly. 

“That’s so romantic,” Mina sighed, leaning her chin on her hand. 

“What’s your quirk?” Ochako asked. 

“I could show you!” you said eagerly, moving to stand.

“Absolutely not.” Shota held onto your arm and forced you to sit down again. “You are due in two weeks. No nonsense until after the pups are born.”

It was your turn to roll your eyes now. 

“Fine,” you mumbled with a sigh. “I never get to have fun anymore.”

“But pups are so exciting!” the invisible girl, Hagakure, said. 

“Yeah!” Mina agreed. 

Then, the rest of the girls bombarded you with questions. 

“How many are you having?”

“What day are they coming?!”

“Can we meet them?”

“Mr. Aizawa, please can you bring them in to the dorms??”

“--But Mr. Aizawa, this is the safest place in Japan. There’s no way anything bad would happen to them--”

“--And besides, (y/n) has a super strong quirk, right? She said so!”

“Come on, just let us see the brats when they’re old enough to travel.”

The sound of Bakugou’s voice had everyone staring at the blond boy. 

“...What?” he bristled. “It’s not like I care, I just want the girls to shut up.”

“Uh huh. Sure, Bakugou.” Kirishima snorted. 

“...maybe.” Aizawa relented, eager to shut them all up. 

That was enough for the girls, and they immediately began talking chattering about the cutest baby clothes, the best toys, and then the differences between their own upbringings. You enjoyed listening to them throughout the rest of lunch, and by the time the hour had ended, you were sad to be leaving. 

“Hang on, hang on,” Hizashi said as you took Eri’s hand to leave. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” you furrowed your brow. “Why?”

“We told you,” Shota said, standing with his hands in his pockets. “We don’t want you wandering around the city.”

“And I told you, I’m fine--”

“Just stay here for the rest of the day.”

“...What?”

“We’ll all go home together later.” Hizashi smiled. “You and Eri can hang out in the lounge. I bet Midnight would love to pester you about the bump, too.”

You smiled, walking towards your alphas. “Alright. Alright, yeah. That sounds nice.”

As Class 1-A lingered at the end of the hall, watching for as long as they could get away with, Denki elbowed Hitoshi in the side. 

“Dude, your mom is--”

“Don’t you dare say hot.” Shinso growled. 

“Actually, I was gonna say badass, but that too--”

The purple haired boy glared at him. “Shut up, Denki.”

“What? It’s a compliment!”

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

I just read the two “What Have We Done” fics back to back and I love your writing style and how you’re handling the themes of the story. I also want to take the time to gush about the Reader because i have headcanons/theories based on what you’ve given so far in the story.

My main Headcanon about the Reader is mostly that she probably didn’t really interact with people that much before joining YJ, like she was never really bullied but she was mostly treated as an afterthought for most of her life. Because of this, she’s super accommodating to the point where she has very little boundaries. Her accommodating nature mostly stems from her avoiding conflicts that would make people not want to be friends anymore (hence not asserting herself more about her magic, not burning the candle Conner complained about, not coming out of her room for dinner w/o an invitation (which I think is seriously messed up because I get the impression the reader is used to staying locked away during dinner. Seriously, who hurt this poor girl, I just wanna talk...), and staying in her room for her birthday). In addition to being accommodating, she probably doesn’t have the social eptitud or self confidence to make friends on her own. I got this idea due to the fact that she legit had no one else to possibly celebrate her birthday with other than the team. She also could’ve gone out by herself on her birthday to have some fun, get her mind off things, make some friends, etc., but she probably didn’t see that as a valid option at the time. (I might have to re-read the story again, but how did the Reader end up in YJ? )

On a more personal note: when I read how the Team went in the Reader’s room and looked through everything, I had mixed feelings about it. As a private person, I don’t like the idea anyone going through my stuff (so I actually would’ve gotten angrier, but that’s just me 😆). On the other hand, I liked it for the story because amongst the heroes, it seems to be the more you know about a person (whether through conventional means or otherwise), the more of a bond you have, if that makes sense.

Overall, your writing is stunning and I can’t wait to see where you take this story! P.S. sorry for the nonsensical, over-analytical rambles

Fuck my heart did I loop when I saw this in my inbox

First of all, thank you so much! I love you anon!

Second of all, in my head the reader is a kind of person who is alone when she doesn’t have her mask on.

The idea that I had in my head for the reader was that she never knew about her magic and things like that when she was born. This is how I assume the reader’s backstory.

Her birth parents sent her to the human world for her safety, kind of like a whole superman situation, and her adoptive (?) parents were spelled into believing that she was their child and taking her in. At this point, reader has no idea what she is or how to perform magic. She was taught her ancient language and sometimes uses it but her parents just think she’s speaking in some childish made up language.

Now, her relationship with her parents is a little strained because they were never really around because of work but they send her to a private school where she makes a lot of friends. But that's not to say that they didn't have good times together.

A few years later, she figures out she has magic, and finds a bunch of old spell books that were written in her language and she finds a term that loosely translate to blood binder which she figures out is what she is.

She’s still young and reveals herself to her parents because she thinks they’ll be accepting but when they figure out she’s not their real daughter, they pull her out of the private school, hence loses all her friends and her relationship with her parents gets even worse.

Until one day she’s using magic and they completely freak out and she runs away.

Now here’s where her journey with the team begins. Superman is the one who finds her in Metropolis after he hears her cast a spell. He brings her to the team in the disconnected way that he does and Conner already doesn’t like her.

Zatanna is already part of the team and reader has no idea about the different classes of magic and stuff like that because she’s mostly self taught so she tries to become friends with Zatanna but when she realizes their magic isn’t the same, Zatanna becomes kind of cold.

Here begins her almighty journey of trying to gain their approval. For whatever reasons, she just isn’t able to connect with the rest of the team since they’re already a well oiled machine and she feels out of place. The team doesn’t try to include her in stuff either.

She usually hangs out in her room mostly because it’s awkward. I mean, I would totally relate if there were these people who were just lounging around in the living room, I’d try to join in but if it’s awkward then I would just haul my ass back to my bed and spend time with myself. So, while she’s holed up in her room, someone in the living room would be like ‘hey do you want to get some pizza’ and then they’re all getting pizza and they forgot to invite her.

In reader’s head it’s not like the team doesn’t like her, it’s just that they haven’t really gotten a opportunity to bond so she keeps waiting for the moment but is also too scared to ask because she’s scared of rejection.

She doesn’t feel at home.

It’s like when you’re living at someone else's house. If they told you to stop burning a candle cuz they didn’t like it then you would stop doing it. She doesn’t want to be a bad guest, even though it’s supposed to be her home. Totally trying to gain their approval.

She doesn’t get enough opportunity to prove herself because she isn’t the best at anything. She can’t fight and can only do magic but there isn’t anyone to teach her that either. Since she’s practically a beginner in training, she trains separately too with Dinah.

Smiling depression. People really can’t tell that she’s depressed because she’s always putting others needs ahead of herself.

‘Oh you ate all the food? No problem I wasn’t even hungry.’ Even though she hasn’t eaten all day and no one gives her allowance so she can’t go out and buy it so she has to wait until Batman restocks the kitchen because she doesn’t want to tell him and cause inconvenience.

‘Oh you all want to pair up and leave me to go solo and leave me as backup in the bioship even though this is my first mission? Sure, I could watch the pros in action.’ And then sits all alone in the ship for hours and they forgot to include her in the mental link and she doesn’t want to call them on comms to tell them that and distract them

Seconds guesses everything she does.

And doesn’t do what she wants in case it would disturb someone else.

‘Like, oh this innocent banana which is just sitting on the counter? I can’t eat that. What if someone else wanted to eat it?’

Hence why she buys snacks with whatever small allowance she gets and hides it in her desk. Eats it sparingly though because she’s the type of person who will think ‘Oh I don’t need to eat it now. What if I really really need it later and then there’s nothing to eat.’

Type to get deliriously happy if anything small happens and it amuses the JLA cuz they just think that she’s cute and smol and gets excited but it’s really because she never gets anything so when she does get something she wants to make sure you knew she’s grateful.

Takes pics at each mission because she enjoys the short time she feels like an equal. Writes notes on the back of each pic that the others didn’t see when they came inside her room.

‘Wally and I did a combo move and took out a couple of people.’ ‘Robin said nice throw to me’ ‘Aqualad said we did a nice job and he looked at me too’ ‘Artemis and Conner protected me’

Touch starved

As to why she didn’t go out on her own and celebrate her birthday. She wasn’t going to treat her birthday as a special day. Was just gonna go about it without telling anyone cuz why would she want to seem selfish and tell them and seem like she was trying to fish for some gifts or something like that?

So when she sees the party she’s like ‘omfg people actually care about me? All of my insecurities and fears and nightmares that I thought might be true isn’t? They actually care about me? They care about me enough to hang up décor and bake a cake? I would’ve been over the moon if they just wished me a happy birthday! are those presents? omg are those for me? seriously?’

Ready to cry tears of joy then and there

And then they break her heart because it’s just for Zatanna.

And again she puts their happiness of her own because she doesn’t want to cause inconvenience. Doesn’t want to yell and have a fight because she’s scared of them. Feels as though she isn’t their equal.

Until Klarion comes and tells her he has everything she’s ever wanted waiting right in her reach if she just takes a step towards him. She just needs to show him that this is what she wants and he’ll handle everything. And she’ll be loved and cared for and her worth will finally be noticed.

It isn’t about spite or showing the team who really is the best.

It’s about finally wanting to be seen and loved and accepted.

All she has to do is sacrifice her morals. Just a little bit. And she’d finally have everything she’s ever wanted.

And everything from the past months comes to her mind, being rejected by her parents, her old friends, her team. Finally someone is asking her to be with him. And she wants that so badly.

And she wants the team to know that this isn’t about revenge or anger. So she tells them to see the security footage. So they can see that she just wants to be loved. Not because she wants power.

So....here’s my hot take! Hope you liked it!

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

"I have some problems with [Luke] as a character)" was mentioned in your Reylo response post. Very interested in what your thoughts are on Luke! 👀

Do you want me to get murdered?! Well, if I didn’t get lynched for calling Sirius Black a Stephen King villain I can surely do no worse here.

Let’s do this.

Caveat that, as usual, I am wearing a heretic hat and expect no one to agree with what I’m saying.

Luke Skywalker, much like Harry Potter, is not the character the authors and vast majority of the audience seem to think he is. Luke is seen as the true coming of the Jedi, the light side of the Force incarnate, and someone so innately good he was able to redeem his father, restore peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order.

I disagree with all of this.

I think this is what Luke thinks he did but the truth is far sadder and, well, in general worse.

First, let’s start off with Luke’s hero’s journey throughout the saga.

Luke starts your ordinary guy, he’s not bad by any means, but he’s not particularly good either. He lives in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, part of a relatively well off family, and set to inherit the world’s most boring business: moisture farming. He has dreams of going out, seeing the world, and becoming a great pilot.

Important to remember but what most people gloss over: Luke starts if not pro-empire then neutral towards it. Luke wants to attend flight school, given his desire for glory and adventure, he probably wants to join the empire’s military. He might not like Storm Troopers all that much but the fire of revolution doesn’t burn in his heart the way it does Leia’s.

Now, personally, I like this about Luke. It makes sense to me. Given where and how Luke grows up, given all he’s ever known, I think this makes perfect sense for his viewpoint. He might get hassled by stormtroopers now and then but the empire really doesn’t interfere with his life except in a) propaganda b) offering an escape from his dull existence. What would someone like Luke know about the Rebel Alliance?

The movie however... sort of goes out of its way not to acknowledge this, and this is where I start having problems with Luke. Luke gets Leia’s message about Obi-Wan Kenobi, sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in his life, and gets to embark on this amazing adventure. The story sort of takes it for granted that he then agrees with old hermit, Obi-Wan, that the empire is evil. This is helped because Luke does too.

In other words, Luke’s opinions are very shallow and lack any introspection. Finding himself in the company of Jedi, smugglers, and hot rebel princesses, Luke suddenly goes, “Ah, yeah, I hate the empire!” We never really see him change his mind by reflecting over what the Death Star means/the destruction of Alderaan, the death of his relatives, or his meeting with Darth Vader. Luke seems to be won over... Honestly, it feels like it’s because the Rebel Alliance let him fly a plane before the Empire did.

Then he blows up the Death Star, is a galactic hero/enemy number one of the empire, and he’s full on board resistance man and the next Jedi.

Which brings us to point number two, Luke legitimately thinks he’s a Jedi.

Obi-Wan gives him half a word of advice for maybe half of a day, watching Luke swing a sword around and get shot at by a robot. Yoda trains Luke in a swamp for, generously, maybe a week or so before Luke ditches him (against his advice even) to go save his friends. Luke has 0 training (beat out only by Rey, who wasn’t trained at all). More, he lives in a world where everything he knows of the Jedi is colored by Palpatine’s propaganda and old legends. The Jedi temples have been ransacked and presumably next to nothing of the Jedi culture remains, I can imagine Palpatine as being nothing but thorough in his elimination of the Jedi religion. The Jedi survived in Obi-Wan, Yoda, and in some sense Anakin Skywalker.

They do not survive in Luke. Luke puts on some quasi-Jedi robes, slashes his sword around a few times to save Leia from Jabba, and he says, “Now I am a Jedi!” Luke is that kid, LARPing, yelling “firebolt, firebolt, firebolt!” Only, that is, if the LARPing consisted of him representing a massacred culture thinking he’s it’s sole legitimate heir. So... Luke is playing Cowboy and Indians, and he’s the Indian.

In my opinion, Vader wasn’t so much redeemed as he always had a very high priority in finding his son and keeping him alive. The obvious way to do this would be to take Luke as an apprentice and, eventually, murder Palpatine. Well, that didn’t pan out, and eventually Anakin chooses murder-suicide to save his son’s life. It’s very touching, I’m not knocking the moment, but I do think a lot of that was Anakin vice the inherent goodness of Luke.

Anyways, Luke and pals save the day, they start a new republic and then they learn life is complicated. The new republic fails within decades, worse, it’s feeble and likely torn apart by civil war, strife, and constant infighting. It is utterly powerless, to the point where the First Order easily rises to replace the Empire and take over its vast resources (with Palpatine building a secret sith army on the side no less). That Leia rather than lead an army through the new republic in the sequels is leading her own private resistance army is very telling.

Fitting in with this, Luke starts a Jedi Academy. The prequels, and yes go ahead and slander them all you like but they’re better than many admit, taught us a few things but one of them is that it is hard to be a Jedi. To walk the path of a Jedi is to open yourself up to great temptation to use the dark side, and the dark side isn’t just some strange quirk or sense of duality, it is the equivalent of selling your soul. It is an unnatural action that leads to unnatural abilities. 

You get a bunch of Force Sensitive kids in a room: you better know what you’re doing.

Luke doesn’t. He collects a handful of the remaining Jedi artifacts that Palpatine somehow didn’t destroy, opens up his Jedi School (even teaching his nephew), and within maybe five years the place is burned to the ground, his students murdered by his nephew, and his nephew runs off to join a Sith Lord who appeared out of nowhere (Luke not realizing that this was just immortal cockroach Palpatine). 

Luke then becomes a grumpy old man who just can’t deal, sits on a rock drinking blue milk, and whines that for how shitty of a teach he was that Obi-Wan guy was worse for messing up with his father. Which, frankly, is very in character for Luke.

Luke has never really failed in his life, or at least, never had to recognize his own failure. So, when he does, he a) doesn’t realize what went wrong b) blames everyone but himself c) sits on a rock and waits to die.

So yeah, that’s Luke for you.

A whiney, shallow, stupid, somewhat narcissistic, hero. I... don’t dislike the concept of his character, played more straight I’d love his character, but I dislike that people talk about him like he’s the most noble creature to ever grace the planet and has this inherent understanding of a murdered people that the murdered people themselves never had. 

(All the Jedi were doing it wrong! Luke made the real Jedi Order! Is something I see a lot and... well... say what you will about their philosophies, but this kid who was not a part of that culture “doing it better”... That’s real problematic folks, real problematic.)

[hot-wiings]

Leave An Ask Or Comment To Be Added To A Specific Characters Taglist.

Requested By: Anonymous

Edited: 11-5-2020 

Katsuki Bakugou fidgeted with his hands as he sat on his couch. He was nervous, a foreign feeling for him. He didn't get nervous, he didn't get scared. Katsuki was confident. Confident and bold. Yet, here he was, acting like a nervous little baby.

“Kacchan...?” 

Your voice called out to him from across the house. Your voice was soft and sweet, a reminder to Katsuki how nervous he should be for what he was about to ask of you. It was big, it was huge, something you both promised to never ask for. 

You made your way over to him and knelt in front of the brown couch. With a concerned look on your face, you grabbed your boyfriend's rough, fidgeting hands. You had never seen Katsuki so nervous and you'd been with Katsuki for a long time. You had been there with him for every fight and stress since the beginning of UA high. You had been there for every struggle on his journey as a hero. It was you two against the world. 

“Babe, what's wrong?”

“I- I want a baby.”

As if his words had burned your skin, you immediately let go of his hands and stood up. You soon began pacing the room nervously. Betrayal and hurt ran through your veins as you turned to him and threw your arms up in the air. 

“You can’t just spring that on me. You never even hinted at the thought of a family.” 

“I thought the feeling would pass... But every time I see a child, I realize how much I want one.”

“We can't raise a child katsuki. We wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner. We barely even have the time to make one! Children, they require a lot of attention.”

He knew that. He knew they required care. He knew they needed attention. But he wanted one so bad. He wanted one with you. He wanted to be a father. He wanted a mini-him, someone to look up to him. Someone he could teach right and wrong.

“I know. I know they need attention, and I know we promised each other kids would never be in the books for us... But I want one, so bad.”

Your hard gaze on Katsuki softened as you took a spot on the couch next to him. You slipped your hand into his warm one and squeezed it. 

“Look, I'm not ready for a baby. I'm not saying never, just not right now. Maybe in a couple of years, maybe once we're married.”

A deep frown made way to Katsuki's face. You weren't ready for children and you wouldn't ever be. You weren't a kid type of person, you hated them. You would never be happy with children, you would force your self to have them for Katsuki's sake, but you would grow to resent and hate him. 

With a deep sigh, Katsuki squeezed your hand then withdrew it from your grasp. There was only one thing he could do in this predicament. 

“We should break up. I received an offer to work in America and I'm gonna accept it.”

“What the fuck Katsuki? What about us? You don't even wanna try long distance?”

“As far as you're concerned, there's nothing holding me back here anymore.”

He didn't want to hurt you. He hated himself as he saw the tears dribble down his face. He felt sick and disgusted with himself, but this was the only way you'd let go of him. 

With a loud clinking sound, you slammed down a shot glass you had previously downed onto the bar top. Quickly, you waved over the bartender and yelled to get their attention.

"Another one! Please and thank you!"

The barman immediately hobbles over and pours you a new glass. In all honestly, he probably should have cut you off, you were loud and obnoxious, not to mention so wobbly and unstable it was a surprise you were still sitting on the barstool. It was good publicity to have a hero of your caliber in his bar, you'd also been his best customer all night. In fact, you'd been his best customer all week.

You'd been crying over Katsuki for the last two months. During the first month, you were sad. He had started staying at Deku's place and you were sure he'd finally get fed up with his old friend and come back. You were so sure he'd change his mind about leaving. That he'd change his mind about leaving both the country and you, but he didn't. As his plans progressed, he slowly moved more things out of your once shared apartment. During the second month, all you did was cry and drink. Or drink and cry. He was leaving you, he was really leaving you tomorrow. He was at his mother's tonight, and he was heading straight for the airport in the morning.

You down the shot and you're about to flag over the bartender again but you're distracted by the back of someone's head. Dark green hair, even in your drunken state you'd know him anywhere, Izuku Midoriua was in the same bar as you.

"Deku!"

He turned at the sound of his name and smiled as he walked over to you. You both stumble as you walked closer to each other, it looked like he was as drunk as you. Izuku was usually so responsible, guess there really is a first time for everything.

"Hey! I saw on snap chat that you were here, figured you could use a drinking buddy."

His words were slightly slurred but you understood him. It was a surprise Deku was this drunk. While he liked getting a drink after work, he never, never, ever, got plastered. Although you weren't surprised, Kacchan was leaving. His childhood friend was leaving. Though they acted like enemies, they still had their friend moments, they worked in the same agency, they seen each other every day.

However, Izuku was not drunk for the reasons you thought. He was angry and upset, both at himself and Katsuki. He had been the one who introduced you to Katsuki in the first place. Deku had strong feelings for you back then – he still did. He had feelings for you, but you and Katsuki hit it off. He trusted his friend with you, but to see him so callously hurt your heart pained him.

He put you both together, but here you were crying your heart out, the same way he did when you and Katsuki first got together.

Izuku is about to take a seat and buy you a drink when the bartender turns him away.

"You're both drunk off your asses and I'm not properly equipped to deal with a bar fight with a prohero like him in it."

Girl heroes were often underestimated. You surely weren't coming back to this bar or paying your tab.

Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the fact he's been thinking of you for years. Maybe it was the wanting feelings he had stored up since the day he brought you to Katsuki. Izuku grabbed your hand and gently tugged you towards him a huge smile on his face.

"You want me to call you an Uber? Or take you somewhere else?"

He offered you an Uber. Even drunk, Izuku was still a hero who cared about civilian safety.

"How about we go back to your place?"

It was an innocent question to a friend, but it was a bad idea. You were both drunk, and things were bound to happen. You were both tipsy and weren't thinking straight. Yet you both entertain the thought and walked out together, hand in hand, like a drunk couple.

Katsuki didn't cross your mind as Izuku took off your clothes. Katsuki didn't cross your mind one bit as you let Izuku fuck you. All that you thought about was the way Izuku grabbed, held, and pounded into you. Katsuki certainly didn't cross your mind the next morning either when you woke up with a naked fucked mess next to Izuku.

Despite the hangover, one thing was for sure. Izuku could fuck.

"So we..."

"Yeah..."

You both had blushes among your cheeks. It wasn't every day you woke up naked with you coworker and friend.

"Do... Do you regret it? I'm sorry, I'm not much of a hero am I? I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable, I should've never gotten drunk."

"No, you're a great hero Izuku! It's not like I said no... I didn't push you away, we both wanted that."

You grabbed Izuku’s hand and intertwined your fingers.

"I'm undecided on if I regret it, but I definitely did enjoy it... I hope you did too..."

"I did... Maybe we can in sick to the agency, we could spend the day together. You know, to decide if last night was worth regretting?"

"I'd very much like that."

You looked up at Izuku and smiled at him. It felt good and domestic. You in his bed with a shining smile. It felt like you were his. Like he never lost you to Katsuki. He was determined not to lose you to anybody again.

Katsuki Bakugo maneuvered around people as he looked for you. It had been five years since he last saw you. Five years since he broke your heart and ran away to America. He was back now, and you were the first person he wanted to see. He didn't just want to see you, he needed to see you. 

He had hurt himself as much as he hurt you that day. He thought it would be better to break up, but five years in America taught him that he would never find another person like you. He would never find another woman that could measure up to you. You were so perfect, and in return, he was so shitty. 

All for what? Because he wanted a family and he didn't think you'd be happy giving him one? It didn't matter now. He didn't need a family. He didn't need kids. He just needed you. He didn't have to have kids if it meant he couldn't have you.

Seeing as he doesn't have an apartment, Katsuki had been staying with Eijirou since he got back. They had immediately fallen back into a bromance as if they hadn't been apart for five years. That was how Katsuki got to where he was now, discreetly standing in your home. Eijirou had told him about how you were having a house warming party, despite their friendship, Eijirou couldn't tell Katsuki about the truths and secrets he wasn't privy to in America. All Eijirou could do was stare in sympathy as Katsuki got ecstatic at the idea of seeing you again.   

Katsuki had been there for about fifteen minutes and he still hadn’t found you. With every person he passed, he got annoyed. Most of them were people he knew, Denki Kaminari, Mina Ashido, Ochako Uraraka. People he used to work with, people he went to school with. They all gave him weird, sympathetic looks as they said hi and stopped him to catch up. It was as if they were all apart of some big elaborate secret. Although, he supposed five years apart will do that.   

Katsuki excused himself from a conversation with Denki, who practically begged him to go out for drinks with him sometime. Apparently, he had developed an American accent and Japanese chicks dig that, Denki hadn't changed much. With one swift turn, Katsuki stumbled into a little kid. 

“I-I'm sorry, sir. I was looking for my dad he said he was going to the bathroom and he'd be right back but there are so many people and me- I- I-”

Katsuki could tell the kid was on the verge of a panic attack so he crouched down to the kid's height to speak to him. He had green hair and freckles, for a second Katsuki was taken back to that wanting need for children. He wanted one so bad, but he was prepared to give it up for you. 

“Don't worry about it kid, how about I help you find him?”

Katsuki took the kid's hand. While he didn't want to deviate from his search for you, he couldn't leave this little kid on his own. Although most of the people here were heroes, he couldn't be too safe.

Katsuki had thoroughly searched the downstairs of the house already on his endeavor for you and he hadn't seen a bathroom. He had no choice but to look upstairs, maybe he could find you and the kid's father. Two birds with one stone.

While holding the kid's hand, Katsuki guided him upstairs. He made sure not to pull or yank the kid, he had to go his pace.  

Katsuki couldn't help but look at your house. It was nice and pristine. He felt remorseful for breaking up with you. If he hadn't you two would just be at home, chilling together in the old apartment you used to share.

Katsuki reached the upstairs floor and made his way to the nearest door. He knew it was rude to open random doors and pillage throughout your house but he hadn't a clue which room was the bathroom.

Katsuki turned the nob and pushed the door open. It wasn't the bathroom, however, Katsuki wished he hadn't come in.

This room appeared to be your bedroom. You were inside leaning against your dresser and in front of you was a man. Not just any man, but Katsuki's old childhood friend, Izuku Midoriya. He had his hands on your hips and his face was in your neck, leaving little kisses and whispers into your ear. Worst of all, you were laughing and smiling as he let his damn hands wander over you.

"Dad!"

The little kid rushes over to you and Izuku with relief laced in his voice. Izuku breaks away from you and crouches down to the kid's level. The kid immediately grabs onto Izuku as if his life is hanging in the balance. You crouch down to and rub the child's back soothingly. The way Katsuki remembered you rubbing his back when he was sick and puking his guts up.

"What's wrong buddy? Are you hurt? Are you okay?"

"I- I couldn't find you and there were a bunch of people! This house is so big, I wanna go back to grandma Inko's."

The child buried his face in Izuku's chest and you were both so enamored with him. Worry and concern dripped from your voices. Katsuki didn't know how he didn't notice earlier. This child was obviously Izuku's kid, but he just couldn't believe that he was yours. He couldn't believe it. He refused to believe it.

"Bud, we were only staying with Grandma while we finished moving, you'll get used to the big house, I promise."

"Once all the guests leave you'll feel right at home. Besides... You know me and daddy will always protect you, right?"

With his sniffling and tears now coming to a stop, the kid rubs his face and nods at you.

"I know."

It was then that you looked up and saw Katsuki. He hadn't aged much these five years. He wore the saddest face as he watched you and Izuku interact with your child. His heart was breaking and yours broke with it. Of course, it did. He was your first love. He was what led up to the events of your pregnancy.

"Katsuki?"

Izuku's head craned up at the mention of his old friend's name and he frowned. Truthfully, he felt bad for Katsuki. He had what Katsuki wanted, a family. Not just any family, but one with you.

"Hey bud, let's find you some food while mommy talks with her friend."

Izuku picked his son up and carried him out of the room to give you two privacy. He knew how loud Katsuki could get when he was upset, and he did not want his innocent son to experience that. While Izuku didn't want to leave you alone with your ex-boyfriend, he knew you and Katsuki needed to talk. You were each other's first love. There was deep history there, along with deep hurt.

"What are you doing here? It's been five years."

"I missed home... I missed you."

"You broke my heart five years ago. You hurt me, you left me."

The feelings you had for Katsuki were gone, but you still had the urge to cry. He was your everything, you would've married him, but he broke your heart and ran away to America. If it wasn't for Izuku, you would be a drunken hero. If Izuku hadn't been at that bar that night, if you hadn't slept together, if you hadn't gotten pregnant, you would've continued down your path of destructive behavior.

"You broke my heart, you broke me. You don't get the right to come back five years later acting like everything is fine."

"I know that! I know I hurt you, I know I broke you. I can fix it, let me fix it. Leaving you was such a mistake. I never should've done it.

Tears were brimming your eyes as you twisted the gold wedding band around your finger. Katsuki hadn't noticed the band before. He had no choice now but to believe the kid really is yours. Yours and Izuku's.

"You can't fix what's already been mended."

"You married him."

You smiled over at your former lover as you talked about your new one. Katsuki was seething on the inside. Once again, Katsuki had lost to Deku. He was the world's greatest hero, and now he had you.

"I did... One drunken night after you left led to a pregnancy. [Son's Name] wasn't even intentional, he was an accident but Izuku stuck by me. He stayed by my side, he's made me feel loved and safe."

He would beg you. Beg, and beg for you to be with him. Fuck, he wouldn't even care if he had to be a stepfather and share your kid with Deku. He would do it because he wanted a kid, a kid with you. But he couldn't. It was too late. You and Izuku were married, you had a family now. Maybe, had Katsuki stuck around and waited for you to be ready, maybe you'd be a family with him, but he didn't wait. He left. He broke you and left.

With deep regret, Katsuki smiles at you and pulls you into a big hug. He missed the way it felt. The way your body felt against his. He knew he'd never feel it again after this, so he pulled tight and did what he never did. He apologized.

"I'm sorry for hurting you."

Katsuki pulled away from you and walked to the door.

"The kids cute, I'm happy for you."

[prince-toffee]

Sasha and Redemption

So I’ve said this before, but Sasha is an interesting character when it comes to redemption, because we all know she’ll get one. In my opinion she is quite a difficult individual to redeem, because Sasha enjoys control and power. A redemption usually begins with the villain stating that they didn’t want power, that they wanted approval, or what not, thinking about the most famous example that being Zuko. He didn’t want to turn the world into hell, or eat babies, or recreate the universe in his own image. No, the kid just wanted his dad to love and appreciate him.

Now, Sasha, the thing about Sasha is that she wants power, she enjoys control, and it’s not because of some dramatic turn, she was always like this, even before she entered this magical world she enjoyed commanding people and ruling over others. Sasha is just not a good person in general. Probably best exampled in The Battle of the Bands. Sasha reworks Anne’s entire song and makes it her own, and when Anne stands up to her, the important thing is, Sasha doesn’t apologise or try to understand Anne’s side. She just leaves. She doesn’t improve or change, because the thing about Sasha is she won’t admit she’s wrong. Because her greatest strength is persistence. And this is fascinating because the unstoppable force, the warrior that never gives up, is a great quality for a hero, but what happens when you give that quality to a villain, especially a villain that doesn’t believe she is the villain. Poor Sasha, all she ever wanted was to be a hero, from when she was a little kid, and in the end she ends up the villain. But the hero is always in charge, the centre of the attention, the hero leads an army or a... rebellion... huh? yeah? Sasha truly sees herself as right. Because she’s persistent she never gives up, she refuses to change her outlook, she refuses to change, she said so herself. She enjoys power, and isn’t willing to give it up. Soooo how does one redeem a mess that is Sasha.

For the answer, we need to look to Anne. The moral compass of the group, the heart. Anne’s entire season one character arc with the villagers and her new family is unlearning what Sasha taught her. Sasha’s behaviour rubbed off on her. Side note this is why it annoyed me when The Owl House premiered and some assholes rolled their eyes and were like ‘ugh another weird girl that doesn’t fit in, so tired of this in modern Disney shows’ like first of all, that’s always a good message and lesson to teach kids, so fuck you. But also they probably meant Anne when saying ‘another’, since Amphibia was coming out around the same time. But Anne isn’t a nerd or geek who struggles to fit in, Anne is friends with the most popular girl in school, she’s into all the mainstream dumb TV trash, and even at the start of the show she acts like an asshole, manipulative and self-centred like Sasha, teaching Sprig the wrong things about ‘friendship’. And then as she spends more time in Amphibia she unlearns all that and becomes a better person.

So how do we redeem Sasha? Make her a better person? We set her on a journey similar to Anne’s. And judging by the screenshot of season 3 it indicates that that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Sasha will follow Anne as she’s the moral compass of the group. She’ll feel bad for failing Anne, as we see the doubt already forming in the throne scene in True Colours between her and Grime, which will lead her to that redemptive journey in Wartwood. I’ve been rambling for too long, I gotta go.

[hyliandude]

Learning Music Log - Day 1:

I am someone that has never played an instrument, never been part of band, never even known how to start. For the past year I’ve been fascinated with Lo-Fi music, so I figured I’d try making some myself. Again, with no experience in anything myself, I figured I’d need some tools to make electronic music. An old friend of mine from high school had some songs signed and sold through Beatport, and I remember him using FL Studio at home. Just messing around with the tools was interesting to watch, but the interface and process always intimidated me.

Another artist I follow on my art blog, Artem Solop, is also big into making his own electronic music and beats. Although I do not know him personally, I have always liked his style. The unique thing about his method, is that he utilizes his Nintendo DS and Switch as instruments. Synths, Compressors, and Drum Machines have always intrigued me, but I could never tell one thing from the other, and here was this guy using them from his Nintendo consoles to make something sounds good. Cables routed from one system to another – how does he do it?

I figured I’d plunge in headfirst – well, as “headfirst” as I could while still adhering to baby steps…I know the hobby can be expensive if left unchecked.

I bought KORG Gadget for Nintendo Switch about 2 weeks ago to start this journey – an inexpensive grab through Amazon for just 30$. I have no idea what it is, but it’s what Artem seems to use in his videos. The tool is described as such:

-Robust music composition/production tools in a compact cartridge

-Simple to use and easy to understand; anyone can create music anywhere and everywhere

-16 different synthesizer and drum machine gadgets with additional DLC gadgets available

-Gadgets have retro-inspired tactile control knobs that you can turn by rotating the Joy-Con controllers

And to be honest, it did not disappoint. It was a great way to wrap my mind around the synths, tracks, and “scenes” as they are laid out in the simple to use interface. I was determined to begin this journey in a self-taught, but organized manner. I had googled a few things before starting anything:

1. Simple music theory – I had no idea that notes/scales determine how well something sounds. A lot of you may think that that’s obvious, but again, my music knowledge started in 4th grade with a mandatory recorder recital and ended with the 5 colors on the guitar hero guitar. At the most basic level, I learned that scales could be set (C Major, A minor, etc.) and most tools used to create music (a digital audio workstation, or DAW for short) had a setting to allow “helpers” that would highlight keys in any given scale. From there on, I figured out that experimenting and playing randomly sounded better if I followed the scale guidelines.

2. How different chords on a piano/keyboard evoke different emotions depending on what scale you’re in. Major chord happy. Minor chord sad.

3. After talking to my fiancé (a former band geek that played flute!) I also learned that the concept of “chords” did not apply to the flute, so I also realized how different instruments were from one another…

Aside from those few things, I didn’t really look into anything else before attempting to ‘craft’ a song on the Switch.

Immediately, I could tell that the different synth gadgets varied and specialized in different things. The Marseille gadget had some great piano, electric piano, and orchestral instrument presets; the Helsinki gadget was great at ambient/relaxing sounds; the London drum gadget was great at…well…drum sounds and beats! Each of the city inspired gadgets brought something unique to the table. The Switch’s controls were intuitive. Copying and pasting, moving notes, playing tracks vs. just playing scenes was something that I was able to pick up in around 30 minutes without even ‘sniffing’ the user guide. By messing around I actually learned more about notes, half beats, and chord progressions all on my own.

Before I knew it, I had crafted a song that was about 3 minutes long. Deep, ambient intro, catchy simple melody, and the typical ‘lo-fi’ drums set to 79 BPM. I was impressed at how good it sounded. I knew there were things I was messing up, or could probably do better, but I was still proud of it.

Hopping on to YouTube I found a TON of tutorials covering music theory, lo-fi beat making lessons, “dos and don’ts”, best plugins for DAWs and more. Before long, I invested in an AKAI Professional MPK Mini Play USB MIDI Keyboard controller (hastily, as it seems like the Arturia Minilab might have been a better grab? Lmk), got set up with a subscription to Melodics HQ to learn the basics of playing a keyboard, and installed FL Studio on my computer. After a week of using the Korg Gadget on Switch, I found that FL Studio had a bunch of the same principals in its interface, and I found myself digging in with minimal research into how to use the tool.

By purchasing the Korg Gadgets online, I was able to continue using the same tools I was already familiar with on the Switch inside of FL Studio’s more robust interface.

I was able to recreate the song I made on the Switch in FL Studio. This was a great way to familiarize myself with the tool in an almost step-by-step tutorial I had already made for myself.

After I had gotten a grip with using FL Studio at a basic level, I decided to try mirroring some Lo-fi beat YouTube tutorial videos. To my surprise, I found myself not really liking the final product, even after following the instructor’s guidelines. I don’t think I am a fan of “oh you NEED to do this and this for it to be a good song”. I do think that a basic understanding of music theory is key before even starting, but I don’t know how I feel about new and upcoming musicians following strict rules about how something should sound when it’s literally an art form used for expression and fun.

I was happier with the first song I made just messing around on my Switch than the song I made trying to emulate a Lo-fi beat guided by a professional producer on YouTube… and it got me thinking…I think Giorgio Moroder was right in that one Daft Punk song:

“Once you free your mind about a concept of

Harmony and of music being correct

You can do whatever you want

So nobody told me what to do

And there was no preconception of what to do”

I’m looking forward to learning more – after all, it’s only been a few days!

-Franco

[stark-tony]

most recent bookmarks (5/8/21)

bnha

5 Times Midoriya Taught Class 1A about Memes and 1 Time they Found a Villain that Understood Them by MaddCatter (1.2k, G, gen) After being diagnosed as quirkless, Midoriya gets into pre-guirk media and finds memes. He shares them with Class 1A. Aizawa doesn't get paid enough for this.

a glimpse of tomorrow (looking back) by achievingelysium (7.9k, T, gen, bullying)  Subject: Aldera Time Capsule Ceremony Forwarded Message— This year marks ten years for the Aldera Middle School graduating class of 20XX.To celebrate, we would like to invite pro heroes Kingpin and Deku, Aldera alumni, to participate in a public time-capsule opening. We are incredibly proud to have helped them on their journeys to becoming heroes, and would be most honored to receive them as guests and for them to speak at the ceremony. [...]"Well," Deku says, leaning over to turn the monitor towards him. His eyes flick over the contents of the email one more time. "If they haven't changed, then I guess we could return the favor."Ten years down the line, Bakugou and Midoriya are invited to a time capsule ceremony at their middle school to read letters from their past selves, and look back on their past and how it shaped their future. For anyone else, it would have been a celebration.For the two of them, it's an opportunity.A look into Bakugou and Midoriya's past—through a future neither of them imagined—as pro heroes, agency partners, and friends. (Written for NWA: Prompts for All Event.)

Watch The World Burn by Quisanne (33k, T, gen, bullying)  Shouta and Toshinori were successful in their attempt to gather evidence about the wrongdoings of Aldera Middle School. It doesn't take long, though, to realize that there are many more things out there in hero society that need fixing. Fixing as in throwing a feral Yagi Toshinori at the problem and hoping everything turns out fine, that is.

Razzmatazz by xylophones (168.5k, T, gen) Izuku has plans for everything.He plans out what to say to the cashier when ordering coffee, he plans out his homework before even opening his textbook. He has a whole ten-year plan for how he’s going to get into UA’s hero course and get his hero license fully quirkless. He plans for every wild, unlikely scenario he can think of because his anxiety gets so bad if he doesn’t go through every possible outcome, every way his life could landslide into disaster–– but Izuku never planned for this.For once, he doesn’t have a plan and he doesn’t have time to think of one. All he can see is Yagi-san’s lined, kind face looking resigned as he stares down the villain in his shop. Yagi-san, who is the closest thing to a father figure Izuku has ever had.Izuku doesn’t think. He just moves.(Or: Izuku saves the number one hero, gets a hero license way earlier than anyone wanted, realizes that maybe hero society isn’t as great as he thought it was, and everything just kind of falls apart from there.) 

almost never losing by blueh (4.6k, T, gen) It’s been five years since Izuku has last stepped foot there, but the words Aldera Middle School still bring him an unprecedented amount of dread. It’s accompanied by middle school reunion scribbled underneath which has the added bonus of making Izuku want to go hide under Iida’s desk and not come out.He puts the letter, unopened, on his desk and resolves not to think about it.“You’re just going to let them win?”… Izuku resolves to not think about it for the two seconds that Kacchan allows him not to think about it.or: Two year after graduating UA, Aldera Middle School hosts its first middle school reunion in honor of not one, but two former students graduating and becoming pros.Izuku’s not quite sure he even wants to go, until suddenly he does.

Putting Infinity into Words by redrobin1989 (8.3k, G, gen)  Soul Mates have evolved with quirks to become Soul Bonds in which one feels the entire emotional spectrum and a fact about their future relationship. Or so Izuku had heard, he'd only ever two Soul Bonds and they both caused him pain. Until All Might and Yuuei and he finally learned what it was like to have a loving, thriving Bond.

an old friend or two by neon_air (8.3k, G, gen) When Midoriya Izuku began hearing whispers in his head after gaining One for All, he didn't think much of it. When the whispering escalated to full thoughts, suggestions, and that somehow escalated to a couple of ghosts tailing him around, then he began to think much of it.Or, how Midoriya Izuku and the vestiges of One for All become one big mish-mash of a family.

New Discoveries by deafmic (826, G, erasermic) Eri has never seen a cat in her life and when coming home for the first time, is terrified of Aizawa's.

Father's Day by Fallende (2.7k, G, gen)  “T-this is for you!” His successor says. "For me?" Toshinori Yagi asks. "What's the occasion?" "No occasion!" The boy insists. It's a lie.

One Step by GEMoore990 (5.2k, T, gen) Doctors and Izuku don’t mix.Which was why it felt like the floor fell under him when Aizawa-sensei announced they would be going to the hospital for checkups.Or just because Izuku has a quirk now doesn’t mean that his body physically isn’t quirkless anymore.

possession is only one-ninth of a quirk by PachiiRiisu (9.2k, T, gen) “You’re right on the money; to be more accurate, I’m in Midoriya’s body. In truth, I’m… one of the previous holders,” The words “of One For All” are left unsaid.What.“What the fuck,” Katsuki eloquently says. He can already feel a headache forming, if it hadn’t begun already.Or: 5 times Bakugou covers for Deku’s weird quirk, and 1 time he doesn't.

hp 

Official by BeeDaily (1k, T, jily) James is caught eavesdropping in the library.

mcu

the little things by crowkag (4.2k, T, gen, kidnapping) Minutes tick away, and by the time Tony finishes the three emails Pepper had copied him into, Peter is a snoring ball in his lap. Shutting his laptop, he carefully leans forward to place it on the coffee table, drawing back with the forgotten can of root beer in his hands. Peter prefers his sodas flat when he drinks them—probably because he’s weird and has no sense of taste—so Tony pops the tab open with a soft hiss and settles it on the side table.Tipping his head back on the couch, he lowers his fingers to run absentminded tracks through Peter’s curls.He’s my weird kid, though, he thinks with a smile, already drifting into sleep himself.(or: Ten little instances of love between Tony and Peter.)

i know who his dad is (it's you) by imeanthatsprettysnazzy (3.6k, gen, spideychelle)  “Spider-Man, as in the guy that stops robberies in Queens?” Pepper asked slowly. “That kid — that little tiny baby kid — is Spider-Man?”“Yeah…” Tony stared at her, still not really understanding what the hell was happening here. “As far as I can tell. All signs point to yes, and all that. Who did you think he was?”Pepper blinked again, slower. She shook her head hurriedly. “No, I — I thought he was your kid.”“What?”“Well, what else was I meant to think?” Pepper exclaimed, looking at him like he was insane. “You’re sitting there, very clearly pretending like you’re okay, with information on a kid that was born during the middle of your crazy years!” [People think that Peter is Tony's kid.]

atla   

Three-Body Problem by JustGettingBy (6.3k, T, gen) In this world, the war ends early.Events ripple out from there.AKA The Hakoda and Zuko arranged marriage turned adoption au

[yourwildsimp]

Feathers

Haha! So, you know how I promised some Aizawa fluff? That’s still on its way, so have some pain in the meantime. 

includes: Keigo, Tokoyami, Aizawa

warnings: Angst

length: 670 words

Keigo was never taught how to cope with the death of a hero.

He was always told that murdering a villain was justified and that it strengthened heroes. That's what the Hero Commission has drilled into him since the first day of training. How would he know any better?

An exhausted huff rocked Keigo's body while he climbed to his feet. Stepping over a piece of rubble, he looked across the settling battlefield. Most of the fires had been put out, and the rescue squad had just now begun their search, despite starting incredibly slow.

The hero didn't blame them though. He didn’t have the right to. The League's attack happened out of nowhere, so no one was prepared. Though, they could stand to work a bit faster.

Most of his feathers had been lost in the fight, Dabi's flames being the main cause. Some were crushed while moving injured civilians to safety, and a few were scorched by Endeavor’s overzealous attacks. He never did receive an apology, but he cheered up by telling himself the man would say sorry later on. 

Oh! That reminded him- He owed Tokoyami cold Yaki Soba for suddenly dragging him into a massive fight.

Where was Keigo’s little apprentice anyway?

Hawks ignored how he swayed and faltered as he walked up a large pile of rubble. He refused to acknowledge the stream of blood running from a gash on his hairline and over his left eye as well. 

From across the destroyed lot, Aizawa found it ironic that Hawks was perched like a bird. The teacher wanted nothing but to flop over and take a week-long nap, but there was still work to be done. Nothing Aizawa could see from this spot could explain why Hawks had stopped working, that fact holding his attention and making him curious.

What was left of Hawks’ wings suddenly gave a powerful flap, sending him dive-bombing towards whatever he had found below. Aizawa decided to investigate, starting his long journey through the wreckage.

Keigo pushed through how lightheaded he felt as his feet touched down on probably the only solid piece of concrete around. He crouched down, knees to his chest and wings folded against his back.

“Feathers?” Keigo’s voice had a questionable lift to it as he addressed Tokoyami.

The high school student was laying on his stomach, one arm stretched out like he was reaching for something, the other limp at his hip. Keigo noticed a small streak of blood leaking from his intern’s beak. Other than the fact that the kid wasn’t moving, Hawks didn’t see any issues. Not that he could see well with all the blood in his eyes.

“Feathers, get up you lazy ass-” Keigo cut himself off briefly with a chuckle. “Sorry, kid, I meant lazy bones. Forgot to watch my mouth, as always”

There was no reply, not even a movement from the limp body. 

“Look, kid, I’m sorry for swearing. Just get up already,” Keigo grumbled, the hero’s arms wrapping around his knees as he leaned in a bit.

“Hey…” Hawks swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Hey, Feathers. You’re starting to freak me out a bit,” A nervous chuckle left Hawks. One of the only fully intact feathers he had left started nudging the boy. “C’mon, get up.”

As the feather continued to nudge Tokoyami, Keigo noticed that the red he was seeing didn’t all belong to him. Tokoyami was laying in a pool of his blood.

Keigo’s eyes widened, pupils practically turning into slits as he flipped the unresponsive boy onto his back. 

“Th-That’s not right... Hey, kid, what happened?” His voice trembled more than his body as he stared at the gaping hole in Tokoyami’s side. 

It was one of the most gruesome things Keigo has seen, and that’s saying something considering all he’s been through. Streaks of pearly white ribs contrasting against the sea of varying shades of red, clumps of organs unnaturally curved around the large rock buried into his flesh and bone.

“You can’t be dead- Heroes don’t die. They just can’t,” Keigo wore a frantic smile as he shook what was left of the teenager’s right arm. “You gotta get up, Feathers. We won… W-We kicked their asses, so- so wake up.” 

Keigo’s voice cracked as he spoke, shaking arms holding Tokoyami’s mangled body close to his chest. “C’mon, kid,” A broken laugh weighed Keigo’s chest down more than the boy he was holding. “Scold me for cursing, like you always do. Call me immature and then apologize f-for being disrespectful. You gotta..! You got to do something- anything!”

“Hawks,” Aizawa’s voice cut through his panic, the teacher’s voice sharp but shaky.

Keigo didn’t realize how loud he was getting before broken eyes looked up at Aizawa. Hell, Hawks didn’t even realize he was sobbing until he was torn from his trance. 

“Eraser,” Hawks pleaded, shuffling on his knees to be closer to the other, the kid being dragged along. “He’s not dead, right? This is all just another test from the Commission, r-right? Yeah,” A broken laugh tumbled from Keigo’s lips as Aizawa fell to his knees. “Just another test for me to pass. Like- Like always.”

Keigo buried his face into Tokoyami’s hardly intact chest, shaking like a leaf in a wind storm. “You can stop now,” He begged, too caught up in his head to notice how Aizawa gripped his black hair so tight it threatened to rip out of his skull. “You can stop the test, kid.”

 The teacher had lost a student- one of his students. The kid wasn’t even 18 yet. He hasn’t lived- and he would never get the chance to. A scream ripped through Aizawa’s throat, emotional agony swallowing him up until it felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“Please… Make it stop, Feathers.”

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2019 Long Shows

Dear Lord. This is where all the good shows went.

2019 was absolutely awful on a season-by-season basis (except for Summer, anyway), but that’s mostly because most of the best shows ran longer than what has become the industry norm of a single season. And indeed, heading into the new decade, we seem to be seeing a major renaissance for two- or split-cour shows, given the massive success seen by shows like My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Haikyuu!!..particularly in comparison to the new perpetual-runners Black Clover (which, despite running for over two straight years now, is still not the most popular show of Fall 2017 by viewer count on MAL, and sits at a ‘meh’ 7.2), and even worse, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which is faring even worse on both counts even though it premiered two whole seasons earlier and the fact that it is the sequel to Naruto.

As a reminder of my rules, the shows on this list may or may not have premiered in 2019, but they finished airing this year. The split-cour rule (stating that I judge any show that “finishes” and then premieres a “new season” within six months) didn’t come into play for any 2018 shows, but it will for Ascendance of a Bookworm and Food Wars this year, at the very least.

With that being said! 25 shows running longer than thirteen episodes finished airing this year after being simulcast, and of those…

I skipped 6:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part V: Golden Wind, Fairy Tail Final Series, A Certain Magical Index III, Ace Attorney Season 2 and Cardfight Vanguard (2018) because I either dropped or have not finished their previous (also long-running) seasons.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS because the simulcast started late and also it was bad.

I Dropped 8:

Worst Long Show of 2019: The Rising of the Shield Hero

It’s always fun to see that a show you hated from its first episode only gets more and more distasteful afterwards, but it’s less fun when a service you have to promote because they’re the legal option is forced to shove it down your throat because they had a hand in making it and it became a massive hit that your friends don’t see any issue with because the author wrote a story that justifies its hero’s patronage of the slave industry. This is my punishment for watching the whole first season of The Asterisk War before I knew better.

YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world

A confusing mess from the word go, this ill-fated adaptation of a visual novel from the nineties seems like it was mostly made to cash in on the popularity of the Science Adventure series, but failed to present itself in a way that made an ounce of sense or looked remotely interesting.

Fairy Gone

Am I really the only one that saw potential here? I mean yes, it ended up a boring slog that didn’t care to move its plot in a meaningful direction, but the first episode was at least cool. I guess Izetta: The Last Witch should have taught me better.

We Never Learn

I know that I’m in the minority in terms of the male demographic for shows like this, but honestly, how are bland harem shows still this easy to market? A copy-pasted protagonist with copy-pasted waifus drag down what could be an interesting setup for a story. 

Karakuri Circus

The first episode of this one had me excited, the second and third left me bored to tears and wondering if it would continue to look uglier by the minute. I haven’t seen a three-cour show look this janky since Knight in the Area.

Radiant

Having heard good things about this show from my cohorts, I do feel bad for saying I’ll probably never return to Radiant, but when you have a show that’s notably written by a European author...and it turns out to be a frustratingly standard shounen affair with middling production values, well, you can see my earlier annoyance with Cannon Busters.

Ensemble Stars

This one still gets to me. It almost looked like a male-idol show I would finally be able to get behind, what with its rebellious attitude and oddball setting...that is, until the setting got to be too unbelievable and the show began drowning its audience in side-characters because they had to squeeze every husbando from the mobile game into the story, and it all began to resemble UtaPri a little too much...but without the production value.

Boogiepop and Others

This was a hard drop, honestly. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I felt four episodes in, before concluding that I was bored and not particularly invested, two things that should never describe the experience of watching a Madhouse show. The fact that this was the project responsible for ruining One Punch Man only made it worse. There’s a slow burn, and then there’s walking away without turning the stove on.

And I Finished 11 (holy crap that’s like three hundred episodes just on their own).

That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime (5/10 & 1/10)

I’ll be honest, I had forgotten just how livid I was with the ending (and especially the sad excuse of a recap episode) of Slimesekai, and reading back through my write-up of it, it’s certainly coming back to me. While this year had bigger demons to fight (Shield Hero), the bad taste that Slime left me with hasn’t really faded, and the wasted premise bugs me to this day.

Hinomaru Sumo (7/10)

What Hinomaru lacked in production value, it happily made up for in good execution and earnest heart. I can’t believe this came from the same studio as Conception, Try Knights and 7Seeds, but if they can only get out one good show a year, I’m glad that we got one bringing attention to a sport that many will joke about but few understand, respect and appreciate.

Kono Oto Tomare (7/10)

Speaking of giving love to traditional Japanese culture, here’s a decent-if-unoriginal show about a local high school koto club down on their luck, and the troubled teens coming together under a scrappy protagonist to bring it back to life. Kono Oto Tomare doesn’t have much that you haven’t seen before, but a decently-executed club drama with Your Lie In April-inspired musical performances is more than enough to keep me interested, and since Forest of Piano kinda crashed and burned under the weight of its own self-importance this year, it was nice to have an alternative.

MIX: Meisei Story (8/10)

It’s hard to judge MIX next to the other shows on this list because it’s almost too old-school for its own good, revelling in an eighties storytelling style that didn’t end up jiving with a wide audience this year. But at the same time, its fun character dynamics (and a very good dub from Funimation, despite them saying they’d never touch sports anime again) were very entertaining to watch, even if it didn’t focus as much on the sport it was supposedly about as much as I’d have liked.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (8/10)

I fully admit that I’m very salty about the fact that this won Show of the Decade in Funimation’s poll while it was still on and I thought there were hundreds of more deserving shows, but I can’t deny that Demon Slayer was a very enjoyable experience, albeit one that I had notable problems with. That’s not gonna stop me from getting mad when it sweeps the Anime Awards in a few weeks, though.

Fire Force (8/10)

I was very afraid that David Productions wouldn’t be able to match the energy of Studio Bones’ adaptation of Ohkubo’s previous work, Soul Eater, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Even if the last few episodes contained a bit too much infodumping, it was all sandwiched between jaw-dropping fight scenes that proved that the people who make Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure can still handle the reins of a more traditional action show.

Fruits Basket 1st Season (8/10)

I know that my score for this one is a bit lower than others, but I think that Fruits Basket did pretty well in its first season, considering that it was largely spent setting up future storylines and adapting the part of the manga we’d all seen before, but with much higher production value. I’ve been familiar with this part of the story for over a decade, and the scene with Tohru and Kyo (you know the one) still made me cry. Now, we get the real plot going.

Dr Stone (9/10)

A great start to a totally new spin on shounen, Dr Stone gives me hope for survival in the post-Shokugeki world in which we’ll soon live, as a show that wears its research on its sleeve. A complex plot weaving interesting characters in and out of a narrative surrounding a philosophical battle where both sides actually do have fair points (even if one of them is going about it in a pretty cruel manner). More please.

Vinland Saga (9/10)

Once again, a great start to what will hopefully be years of quality storytelling, Vinland Saga made it seem like it was dragging in the middle only to reveal just what its slow burn had been leading up to, with twist-heavy storytelling and a fantastic cast to match the high visual quality of its brutal battles.

Run With the Wind (9/10)

It’s not often that Production I.G. gets to make a complete, fully-realized show anymore, and this one was a glorious reminder of the potential of the studio in the TV space, and a great rebound for the director of Joker Game. It’s gorgeous to look at, the cast is wonderful, and the story is both realistic and idealistic in a satisfying balance. It’s a miserable process to get to the finish line in real life, but sitting back and watching this was nothing but a treat. At least, until a minor fumble at the end.

Best Long Show of 2019: Dororo (9/10)

Speaking of complete stories, Tezuka Productions and MAPPA teamed up for a breathtaking adaptation of an underappreciated Tezuka classic that expands upon the story in exactly the right way to create a thrilling, savage, beautiful masterpiece that focuses a laser-sharp eye into the relationship between two characters in their journey to, literally and figuratively, become complete people. Also, that opening was killer.

And that’s it! That’s the fun list. Next comes the painful one. Stay tuned for the trash heap.

[cosplayswitzerlandaskblog]

Unlike last time Hetalia got a new season, the response has not been particularly positive, and I’m seeing a lot of twisted feelings towards the show and the fandom to a point where it seems long time content creators are stepping away from it. I know anyone still active who follows me either are or were fans of Hetalia, so it should be relevant for all y’all.

As a fan who never fell out of the show, I find the response sad though healthy, and even if I know I ghosted you all on tumblr (sorry) because of time constraints and mental health, I still make the occasional CMVs. Fact is, I do not let go of special interests very easily. It seems a lot of you all started watching the show at 10-14 years old, where I myself was a bit older – 17 – and had grown a bit more. Long story short, my Naruto phase was your Hetalia phase, and no, it’s not pretty. You’re young and stupid and don’t know much critical thinking and make mistakes, and you have to forgive yourself for those mistakes, especially when the content you consume is associated with the real world in a sensitive subject.

But after seeing all these posts explaining all the bad we see from Hetalia, I wanted to make a post explaining what I learned from it – all the good that can come with a show like this if you stay aware of perspective. I am not excusing all the bad that came with it, for WWII is a serious event in history that should never be forgotten nor made fun of, but here goes:

I went from a ‘war-is-cool’ history buff to one who truly delved in and learned the intricacies of history, being fascinated with the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ as well as getting an excuse to look at the histories of nations which I’d never otherwise be interested in, and I know a lot of other people in the fandom did the same. This is how history should be known, as that is how we can truly apply it to the real world.

I learned to separate people from their countries. To give an example that’ll hit close to much of tumblr, when I started Hetalia I hated Americans with a passion because of the road “you” had put the world on, and I considered all y’all dumb and bad as a cause of it. Getting that excuse to take an ACTUAL look at how your nation functioned and what communities truly hid behind the borders, I learned instead that your government is corrupt as shit, your society is rigged against you and you have been forced to stand by and watch as chaos happens. It got applied to the world as a whole, where I considered other nations being as dynamic as my own, with people both good and bad, and the actions of the nation is even less of a reflection of the people in the cases of corrupt democracies or dictatorships.

I separated from Colonial world views. I was never actively racist, brought up in a proper home, and already before Hetalia I fiercely protected the rights of Muslims who are often mistreated in my nation and tried to hear them out when possible. But I was a Westerner, and even if the nation I came from had barely participated in invasions, I had learned to consider my culture ‘correct’ and native and African cultures ‘primitive’. While the journey was long, a step wise process of realizing things like there was nothing inherently ethically wrong eating dogs or partially incubated duck eggs, only in how the animals were acquired, that cultural progress is heavily dependent on perspective and that fucking genocide of native peoples still happen in this damn century, Hetalia was the stepping stone which gave me the interest in other nations to expand my world view. I probably ain’t done here – I have a whole life of outside influences to unlearn – but I’m further than most people I know in my near surroundings, and I’ve even managed to move my parents who originally taught me to respect people of all kinds in the first place.

I learned Nazis were people. This is a conversation which often comes up here on tumblr, and the demonization Nazi Germany and its government directly allows actual Nazis and fascists like Richard Spencer a free pass because they look groomed and proper. Until then, I’d simply assumed no one was ‘stupid enough to be a Nazi’ because of the atrocities of WWII and therefore looked at the world naively. Realizing how little true support Nazis had during WWII and similarly anyone could end down that pungent rabbit hole, I became careful of what I excused on social media and allowed myself to doubt seemingly normal people if their behaviour was alarming – such as the police man who is supposed to be a damn ‘hero’ of society.

I learned how to deal with material sensitive to others. A common problem in the fandom has always been the cosplaying and portrayal of Nazis, especially at cons and the like, and in a similar vein – I did blackface once because of Hetalia. The horrible thing about this is that blackface is immensely common in Europe – at least my own country – and blackface frequently happens at schools during ‘international’ events, where whole classrooms are assigned to portray a designated country. A whole of two times – in 6th grade as well as 2nd grade of high school – I was exposed to blackface as my class was given an African nation to portray – Somalia the first time, Kenya the second. No one, adult, teen or child, are aware of the history of race imitation in my country, but by the second time I was supposed to participate in dressing up as an African tribe, I’d understood the issue – thanks to Hetalia. My friend group of white, privileged, European teens discussed what symbolism was appropriate at cons or in videos – could we wear the Iron Cross? The Nazi flag? What if we burned it during the video? These thoughts are not usually a part of the mind of European youth, and I consider that a grave problem which leads to people making fun of ‘triggers’, downplaying racial issues and the like.

It offered me a means to make history personal. The biggest struggle for good history teachers and the reason we are often made to read and write letters from the periods we study is to make it seem real and get a emotional connection to these past, lost peoples. Hetalia offered puppets for me to place into historical contexts to make them truly real – the main driver pushing me away from mere fascination of war, since I suddenly felt the horrors of warfare through the characters that I loved. Things like Elizabeth I’s court, the conquests of Rome, the dissolution of the Kalmar Union, the battlefield of Somme, the invasion of America, damn slavery becomes different when something you already know is a part of it and you can see them in there. Hearing of people of the past should in itself be enough, and for the closest parts of history (WWII and afterwards) it always was for me, but we are human. We cannot understand the size of a billion, and we struggle understanding the lives of those living centuries before us, unless we are offered context.

I’m not blind to the issues of the fandom or the show. I was here for ‘the r*pist, the pervert and the p*dophile’, I know of South Korean and Chinese issues with the show, and I heard the gassing joke in the show’s dub and got nauseous from discomfort and anger. I’ve always been in the fringe of the fandom due to my social disabilities, so I don’t know everything that happened, but I’ve seen many racist OCs and disrespecting of historical sites. It’s not pretty, but I will believe these people, who were likely young, likely learned in time. And I may have been able to learn these things by other means, but not in the same way, and not through personal interest and research that’s helped me become sceptical and analysing of the world around me.

At its core, Hetalia is about watching a normal, nerdy guy learn how to draw, using stereotypic country personifications mainly from the perspective of Japan. It’s natural he chooses Japan, since he’s Japanese, and WWII is unfortunately the automatic historical event for most common people to focus on – but Hetalia doesn’t even solely focus on that, but is an amalgamation of vaguely correct historical situations played out by the characters, and often it is with the intent of comedy rather than the grimness often associated with historical settings which allows a wider audience than merely history nerds.

What I want you all to do is learn from your mistakes and forgive your younger selves for not knowing better. Maybe reflect on what you got from the show, rather than what you lost. A new generation of young Hetalians is likely coming with the new season, and us old timers might be able to help them avoid pitfalls if we stay around to teach them. The best of the show is compassion towards the people of the world combined and love of history, as I believe Hima wanted it – the worst is Nazi apologetics and racial stereotyping. We decide in what direction we take it, and what lessons we bring into the future.

TL;DR: As a lot of media intended for older audiences, Hetalia is a show which has to be watched critically, which makes it dangerous for young people to watch unhinged, but it also opens up for interest in the world beyond the borders you live within. We should be aware of the issues and learn from them, but in and of itself the show has a lot of good to offer in learning compassion for other nations and cultural groups.