#I make real lovers

[cakepoppresent]

Luna spent the night at Daisuke's place.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dead beat down

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[symphonyofsilence]

What drives me even more insane about this scene is how you'd expect Gojo to imagine High school era! Geto in the crowd. Or at least not the cult leader, worst of all the curse users Geto Suguru. But no, it's the cult leader Geto. It's Geto as Gojo last remembered him. As Geto last was. Whatever choices Geto made, wherever his choices led him and them, however he was, whoever he was, traumas and messed up ideas and bad choices and ill reputations and scorns and all. Gojo wanted Geto Suguru there. Not any ideal version. Not any "what if" version. Not any "at some point in time before things went downhill" version. Not any "when your hands weren't stained with innocent blood" version. He knew very well what he wanted. And he wanted it all the same. He wanted Geto Suguru. However he was. He just wanted him to be there. He just wanted him to be.

And he didn't want him to help him, he didn't want him to fight with him even if they were strongest together and always fought together for a while. He just wanted him to be there in the crowd and cheer him on. He just wanted him to stand there and give him one of his sweet, heartwarming smiles that shaped his eyes into crescent moons. He just wanted him to be. Then even if Gojo had died in the end anyway, he would have been satisfied. It would have been worth it. Only if Geto was there.

[shorthaltsjester]

love (loath) this version of ‘empathy’ for characters that exists in fandoms that somehow means taking any articulation of the fact that x character is given responsibility and context by the story and that their poor choices lead to poor outcomes is actually a slight against the character (and implicitly somehow whatever oppressed group which they belong to or are alleged to belong to by sections of fandom)

to be clear this is something i’ve noticed in several fandoms which is why the beginning of this is general language but the pertinent example to my current frustration is liliana temult and the defence of her that lays on a claim that those who enjoy the narrative showing her poor actions leading to poor outcomes for her have somehow failed the empathy test is beyond incomprehensible to me. like even ignoring the very basic level understanding that fiction is a place to experience satisfaction in narratives that we cannot fulfil in non-narrative reality, it’s also like… holy fuck do I not want the kind of empathy that tells me it will all work out no matter what choice I make. it is actually imperative to human life that the choices we make have substance in the outcomes we arrive in, otherwise we would’ve long given up on the notion of free will. and to look at a narrative, particularly one built in the context of a ttrpg. a game notably influenced by the choices that players-as-characters make. and then see sections of an audience find it compelling and enjoyable that a character who has made categorically poor choices that have caused immeasurable harm to others is now dealing with the very obvious face-eating panthers consequences… idk man. if you see that as a lack of empathy i implore you to consider what role empathy is playing in your world.

like. if empathy to you is about comfort and stagnancy and not about growth and community, then sure i can understand how it might not be empathetic in your view to notice patterns and see their obvious outcome and acknowledge that . but as someone who has been in the position of making horrible choices with obvious outcomes, far more essential to my personhood was those who looked at me with careful but critical eyes than those who nearly babyed me into my grave. that’s actually why i love imogen’s choice to insist that liliana make her own choice and then quasi-encouraging her to stay, because it was a clear reminded to liliana that her choices have consequences, and one of those is that the terrible things she’s down in the name of her daughter have led to that daughter not being able to easily trust her.

and i think another thing that’s related that gets misconstrued with liliana (and as always unfortunately many such cases) is that the satisfaction of seeing her absorbed isn’t that it’s retributive harm done or some sort of punishment (at least not for me, skill issue if people in your fandom spaces are that cop-minded but, yknow, what can you expect from the thought-crimes capital of fandom spaces). the satisfaction is in the analogue (that i’ve seen well memed) to the face-eating panthers joke that liliana’s actions which have pushed an agenda that’s depended on the consumption and threat to her child and the children she specifically has aided in placing in danger via her choices, has led to situations where a) she’s ‘burdened’ by her care for imogen and the children (both of which she has played a hand in inviting into the context of danger) b) she is now the person in danger of being consumed after spending weeks simply shrugging off concerns about what might be consumed in the name of ludinus’ Just World™. like it’s not just ‘liliana does bad things, must be punished’ it’s ‘liliana has played a hand in creating a situation that is threatening to many including herself, it is narratively satisfying and engages in Common Narrative Tool: Irony to have that create situation negatively impact her directly.’

to that end that’s why the ‘if you’re like this about liliana you should also be like this about essek’ takes are beyond missing the point (without getting into the horribly built scarecrow that it is, understand that it’s actually undermining decades of feminist’s philosophical and political development to see a critique of a female character and go ‘well actually if she were a man you wouldn’t be saying that’ when it’s a provable fact that people Would be (and have been) saying that if she were a man. so not the feminist slay you think it is). like, as someone who Was just as interested in essek’s story having consequences as I am in liliana’s, there very much WERE consequences for essek that, just like liliana, were well contextualized and suited to the specific choices he made. they are ones that should be obvious even to the most surface read of the campaigns given that essek still appears in disguise years after the end of c2, should also probably be obvious in the rebuilding of relationships essek had to do with mn after they discovered his betrayal. like the notable difference between liliana and essek is not their gender, it’s that we’ve seen the end of essek’s story (in the sense of like. campaign containment, obviously his Story™ is ongoing) and have yet to see liliana’s— it’s entirely possible that liliana does get saved and goes on to repair her relationship with imogen (or goes on and is unable to repair it) or she just dies and part of imogen’s story is dealing with it; all of those are narratively satisfying. what wouldn’t have been satisfying, in the sense that would leave liliana feeling like a non-agent in a story dependent on her agency, is if her role was entirely dictated by imogen’s interest in reconciliation. because sure if you want to look very microscopically the current threat to liliana that exists is 1-to-1 caused by the fact that she’s been helping imogen, but taking seriously the story, the consequences bloom from all the choices that liliana has made leading to ludinus’ decision to trust her however far he does that made liliana’s choice a betrayal and affirmed ludinus’ strength and position so that he can do something like siphon someone’s life force away.

further the ‘why does liliana deserve to be funnelled and relvin gets off easy’ relvin doesn’t get off easy. once again the satisfaction of his narrative is that he did his best and it was insufficient and that cost him a relationship with imogen they both clearly wish for but neither can rectify. the consequence for relvin is that he’s in an empty house that is no longer home to the woman he loved or the daughter he was left to raise alone. surely i don’t need to unpack why i think someone who tried but wasn’t well equipped to raise a daughter with superpowers doesn’t need to evoke as ‘drastic’ consequences in their story as the stated right hand of the campaign’s bbeg for their story to feel complete.

and idk at least for me that’s the salient point; that the consequences that are happening feel like a plausible and suitable conclusion to the story we’ve seen of liliana even if she perishes at ludinus’ hand. it will be sad but it’ll be satisfying, and maybe i should have realized seeing the frequency with which parts of fandom have been campaigning to undo maybe the most weighty and narratively satisfying choices & consequence of vox machina’s story, but it’s truly confounding to me the amount of people treating the presence of any complex and non-traditional happy ending notion in a story set in a world defined by pyrrhic victories. like, empathy for vax isn’t saying he’s the puppet of a god that manipulated him into service, it’s acknowledging that he made a choice that he knew would have consequences and acknowledging that the consequences he demanded with that choice were pretty severe ones. that doesn’t mean i’m watching the end of cr1 seeing the characters destroyed by the loss of vax being like ‘dumbasses, they knew this was coming, vax chose this, these are his consequences’ it means that when i’m crying watching the end of cr1 it’s paired with my deep love for a story that takes seriously the weight of the character’s choices in the determination of their lives. idk man. maybe interrogate how much of your notion of empathy is dependent on individualism to the point of near complete alienation and get back to me on how empathetic it is to look at someone who has caused unarguable pain with their choices and say ‘no no it’s fine you didn’t mean to + you’re a woman :/‘ while the victims of those choices rot in their graves

[chancheols]

"I feel like I had nothing to hide. I didn't feel like I had to show you my good side. I feel like I can be myself around you."

[yet-another-haven-of-dollya]

The long-awaited school break

Idea from Blue Archive short dj

[inhiswildestdream]

[vaguely-concerned]

just had the thought 'in the end the most important thing varric taught rook was how to make a home for, with, and in other people' and then I had to go lie down on the floor and clutch at my head in unceasing agony for a few hours, as you may well imagine. hawke and the kirkwall crew........ in the end you kind of saved the world a bit in the most characteristically indirect and chaotic of ways. not by anything in particular that you did or achieved or accomplished (lmao imagine!), but just by -- having existed, and by the love that was always there, despite it all, in all its imperfections, even when no one was saved by it in the end. you're not here right now and you're not quite haunting the narrative but I hear your voices bickering and arguing and laughing from the other room. (and so, I think, does varric. all the time.)

'did you think you mattered, hawke? did you think anything you ever did mattered?' yeah actually, varric says with da2 and keeps saying through the series. you were here. and I loved you. and as it turns out that mattered more than almost anything in the world, no matter how long it lasted or how fucked up it was at the time or what else happens, because varric manages to pass that feeling, that intangible... home, that echo of you all as you were together, that love, hopefully the best parts of it, on to someone else for them to bring with them on their journey, with their family. and maybe the world will be kinder this time. you never know. merrill's line of 'Everything affects everything. We were born, a bunch of things happened, and now we're in a mess with our friends.' varric's greatest fear of becoming his parents. even through the wreck and the ruin of the world, ghosts upon ghosts upon ghosts of love -- malcolm hawke, who we never even see, but his life touched hawke's and hawke's touched varric's and varric's touched rook's and rook is passing it on to the family they're creating. the unbroken legacy of love shines through in ways that are stronger and stranger than any magic. help

[waitingtobreatheagain]

You know what I hate real real bad?

How people mischaracterize Colin (they do the same to Pen but I am going to make that a separate post for her) when we have proof that directly goes against their claims.

"Colin did not see Pen as worthy"

"Colin did not have love for/care for Pen/or pay attention to her until season 3"

"Colin does not truly love her it's only lust"

I understand having your own opinion but there are times when the opinion is OBJECTIVELY WRONG. I also don't like how folks have chosen to do this to likely the kindest male lead we'll have who expressed his love for his partner CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY.

Those aren't the only things I've heard or seen but they are among the biggest misconceptions. Outside of not realizing the extent of his feelings for Pen until a catalyst (the first kiss, while we also see in the first two episodes moments that are also leading up to the realization), it is and has never been that he sees Pen as unworthy he sees HIMSELF as unworthy. WE see this even after he knows that she returns his feelings which he did not even know until the carriage. After the carriage and even while he is working through the LW reveal, he still does not feel worthy of her which is a big part of Pen reminding him in words and actions that being him makes him more than worthy. We see how worthy he sees her when he tells her to never forget that SHE is Penelope Featherington. We also see it when he is absolutely puzzled during the first kiss scene at the fact that Pen sees herself in such a self-deprecating way. He can not even imagine a life for her that is not reflecting the very best.

Next, Colin is arguably the main person we see show a genuine interest in Pen as well as truly treasuring her in his life. From dancing with her in a protective fashion after Cressida through a drink at her, having conversation together where they are the only people who get what they are saying and what it means, getting involved with Jack's plot in order to protect Pen and by extension the Featheringtons because that is Pen's family, writing to her and seeing her correspondence as his most treasured, laughing with each other on multiple occasions, seeking her out for either conversation or a dance no matter what whenever they come across each other at a social gathering. I could go on and that's just in the first two seasons. Not showing romantic interest does not mean that he did not deeply love and care for her. Colin and Pen mutually made each other feel seen and understood in a way in no one else did...is that not an expression of love? If Colin had not already treated Pen in the way he had she likely would not have fallen so deeply in love with him. Colin being so loving, caring, kind, understanding, interested in Pen and what she had going on, and much more also plays a role in why she is able to forgive him for his thoughtless comment last season. He reflects the character we have known him to be towards the end of S3 E1 when we see a genuine apology where he takes accountability tells Pen how much she means to him and seeks out how he can make up for his mistake.

Lastly, the Colin does not love her and only lusts for her is just not even kind of true. We are talking about the same man who has expressed his love (whether via 'i love yous', in his words, actions, looks, closeness, etc.) for his partner so so so often and in such a way we likely will never see with another pairing. This the man who would prefer sleep than to be awake because in his dreams they were in love and together. The same man where his whole world was topsy turvy following his realization of those same feelings. The same man whose dream about Pen that STARTED with Pen returning his feelings of love for her then led to a hot makeout. The same man who put it all on the floor and said societal rules be damned (as he always did with her) because even if it was unrequited he was going to let Pen know just how much he loved her and wanted to be with her...to show her that one person in her life would be willing to fight her no matter the opponent or cost because she would always be worth it. The same man who stood up to her mother to show that she would no longer be allowed to treat the love of his life in such an ugly way. The same man who expresses his love for Pen without ceasing and even when we did not hear the expressions as much (while working through the LW reveal and his own insecurities). The same man who turned his fianceé around so that she could only day see and believe everything he loved about her for herself. The same man who put so much intention into their first time so that it reflected something they were doing together. The same man who was so in love enamored and joyful to be with the love of his life that it felt like his first time. The same man who even when never considered not marrying Pen even at his most heartbroken and angriest DUE to how much he loved her and knowing and believing that she felt the same. The same man who when he sees her come down the aisle he forgets everything else and only thinks about how lucky he is to marry his favorite person, his best friend, and the love of his life. The same man who has given us arguably the most touching love confession that will be so hard to beat because he expresses not only how much loves and admires Pen; he expresses what he was struggling with (how he overcame it and reframed it) and how he realized that his ultimate joy and privilege in this one life he gets to live is to be able to love and be loved by her. The love is on display in countless ways. While we also know that they match each other's freak real bad and have palpable passion and desire for each other...the love is and has always been the center even before they knew the love was requited.

I don't know which Colin Bridgerton alot of folks saw but it was not the one we have seen from season 1, 2, or 3. Do you have to love Colin/Pen/Polin/or their story with your whole heart like me? Of course not. I can't allow the blatant and incorrect character assassination though. Turn your brains on, I beg.

[ddruxyart]

At this point the bully has become the bullied but he keeps coming back for more??

[aherosoup]

a logicality doodle for the starving masses

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Also the "I'm having his baby no I'm not" in but daddy I love him and then the revelation that the former lover promised a baby and didn't follow through, how that heartbreak is still so clear in the ways she goes manic and deranged while she spirals.

[arsenicflame]

Bootblacking is my favourite kink to give Izzy, because of course this guy would get his rocks off doing precise, repetitive, manual labour. OF COURSE he gets off on what is essentially just another chore on his list.

[batsplat]

random throwback to fabio's response to casey saying he should've been black flagged for the whole open leathers situation

[h-doodles]

And our love is here || A webweave studying MC's part in Miranda/MC themes :)

[purrvaire]

black sails + shitpost I have on my phone (pt. 4/?)

3