#Let's make that a popular tag

[autobotmedic156]

please talk more in depth about trans robots

Did NOT expect my first couple posts to be talking about trans robots, but so is the way of Tumblr I guess.

I'm gonna tell y'all one of my Favorite Headcanons: RotB Mirage is trans. Why? Don't know, a vibe I guess.

I have no idea how in depth y'all want 'cause I will RAMBLE.

[hauntingsofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[unicornpopcorn14]

As much as I dislike characters getting revived after tragic/dramatic deaths, I'm so so happy that Adam got revived in Stormbringer, and Chuuya got to see that he got revived.

Chuuya's lost so much during his life. The sheep, the only people he called family. The flags, the only friends that considered him a kid and an equal. His humanity, slipped away at the hands of N. His free will, almost taken by Verlaine.

And Adam, despite being one of the least normal people he's associated with, somehow is the one whose relationship with Chuuya felt most normal and humanizing. But he gets taken away from him, too, and isn't that unsurprising? Chuuya is numb to it at this point: the grief, the longing for people he can never see again.

That's why Chuuya just... laughs at Adam in the end. It wasn't about the android joke, never was. It's that finally, one person he cares about is back, is here, with him. One person he hasn't forever lost without saying goodbye.

It's immensely relieving, and you know what? I wouldn't have been surprised if Chuuya's laughs slowly turned into sobs, the moment all of this dawned on him...

[rotisseries]

who wants to hear my absolutely stunning ideas for atla soap opera aus

[shithowdy]

realized a drawing i'm doing rn is almost identically posed to one i did 8.5 years ago of a different oc, except the old drawing was instantly tainted by one of the players featured messaging me asking if i could take it down because their abusive, possessive rp partner saw it and got jealous of them "roleplaying behind their back" and i said "nah" and it became a whole Thing that i should have walked away from at that exact moment but didn't and the 6 months that followed contained some of the most truly condensed batshit i have ever witnessed in an rp community already well-known for its batshittery.

... anyway i love my friends. so happy to accidentally redeem the pose.

[that-was-anticlimactic]

i will never understand how or why the httyd movies did the books such an injustice.

the movies aren't even an adaptation - they stole the name of the series, the name of some of the characters and places, and the general idea that there are dragons. honestly, i would be fine with the movies and maybe even like them if they didn't capitalize off of cressida cowell's incredible books that never get any credit.

the books are an amazing story about the cycle of violence and how vengeance and revenge is dangerous. hiccup says that the past is a ghost story, one we need to learn from to better ourselves. the books are about how everyone deserves freedom, how every creature, every being on the earth deserves to be free. we see that in the slavemark, with the dragons.

and like... hiccup is so different. they did him a severe injustice. he's scrawny and intelligent and learned to talk to dragons simply by observing them! he chooses kindness first above all else; instead of yelling at toothless to train him, he is kind. and in the end, that kindness is why toothless chose to save him. bc even toothless himself says that dragons are inherently selfish creatures who care only for their survival. hiccup is brave - his beliefs differ drastically from both the vikings and the world.

hiccup is a child who chose to do the right thing even at the expense of himself. he agreed to free the slaves on nobert's ship, and in return, they gave him the slavemark which is easy to give but cannot be removed. he was like twelve. and having the slavemark means he cannot be with his tribe or his family, it means he isn't considered a human being anymore. and he keeps it a secret for awhile until it's revealed and when it is everyone turns their backs on hiccup. his family, his tribe, his mentor, people he TRUSTED. everyone except fishlegs, and, once she got over the shock, camicazi. he was thirteen. and even when he lost his memories and was really injured, he persisted. he was told to go to tomorrow and to save the dragons and he did bc in his heart he knew it was right even though he didn't know who he was or how he got there.

and fishlegs,,, oh my god FISHLEGS!!! the did him SO DIRTY!!! fishlegs is hiccup's best friend, one of the main motivators for hiccup. he steals norbert's potato for the sake of fishlegs, he gives fishlegs his dragon and goes to retrieve another, he takes the blame for fishlegs. and fishlegs does the same for him. he takes the slavemark with pride. he refuses to turn. he gives hiccup his lobster claw necklace which is his most prized possession. he is brave for hiccup, he believes hiccup is alive. he fights for hiccup harder than anyone else ever has. he does not turn. his is loyal, has allergies, has asthma, has a squint and a limp, has glasses bc he's blind without them... and he's still a hero despite being a runt, despite everyone even the adults telling him he's hopeless, telling hiccup to leave him behind.

and they cut camicazi! i'm sorry, but astr*d is nothing compared to camicazi. camicazi is a tiny, feral child who can easily best hiccup, fishlegs, and pretty much anyone in a sword fight. she can bring a grown man to tears with her rudery and smack talk. she is recklessly brave and craves adventure and follows hiccup blindly bc she trusts him that much. she isn't in love with hiccup - in fact she doesn't care about romance and love. she gives up everything to help hiccup bc she has a strong sense of justice. she is the motivator, the cheerleader, she finds a positive in everything. she never gives up. literally never gives up. and that's one of the most inspiring things about her: she always has hope.

and toothless! god!!! toothless is *thought to be* a common or garden dragon. he is horrifically tiny, he is literally toothless, and is the biggest brat in the world. he will cause problems on purpose. he has a stutter, he's the most selfless selfish dragon around. he and hiccup can talk to each other. he masks his fear with singing and being annoying. his growth is remarkable. he starts off refusing to obey hiccup, doing the opposite of what he says, making life harder for literally everyone around him, and he's still somewhat like that. but he's also braver, more caring, more willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others. he's clever, which he needs to be to make up for his size and aggression. he protects hiccup with everything he has, therefore, he protects what hiccup cares about just as hard. he was the only dragon that didn't abandon the vikings in the first book bc he cared about hiccup.

and snotlout,,, god,,, i will never forgive the movies for butchering snotlout. hiccup's cousin, the bully character, the one who is horrifically jealous that hiccup's dad was born before his. the one who desperately wants to prove himself, to be worthy, to make people proud. and you hate him, you despise him. he betrays everyone many times bc of the nothing promised to him by alvin and his mom. he loses himself, turns his back on himself, all bc he wants to prove himself. all bc he wants to be better than hiccup. and hiccup still forgives him and gives him chances, sometimes out of pity, but also bc snotlout is his cousin. he can't just turn his back on him no matter how miserable snotlout made his life. and in the end, snotlout sacrifices himself for hiccup. he gives up his life for hiccup in one last attempt to set things right. his death and the events preceding it are one of my absolute favorite moments in the book. gives me chills. makes me cry.

that's the thing with the books - they're so realistic. there is no inherently happy ending where everything works out. the first book begins with "there were dragons when i was a boy", implying that they're gone now. the books show there are consequences to our actions. they enslaved the dragons, they fought against them during the dragon rebellion all bc alvin and his mom said to, and now they're gone bc a simple apology doesn't fix hundreds of years of enslavement. and the only way for the world to move forward was for the dragons to leave and heal on their own. and now they have to learn to live without them. and yeah i've heard the third movie ends like that but. it doesn't have the build up. it doesn't have "there were dragons when i was a boy". it doesn't have eleven books of development to back it up, to make it feel meaningful.

i know that the movies are really special to a lot of people. i know that, on their own, they're genuinely good movies. i can acknowledge that the soundtrack is amazing and the animation is beautiful. i just can't see past the way they butchered the world that i love, the world that i grew up with. i can't see past the way people yelled at me for saying i liked the books better, the way that people gave me weird looks when i showed them a picture of the original toothless, when i tell them that nightfuries aren't even a type of dragon. cressida cowell created hundreds of different dragons, and the movies couldn't even pick from that. i can't forgive the way that barely anyone knows there are books bc the movie barely gives credit to them. i cannot forgive the way they capitalized off the books and then shoved them aside. i know cressida thinks they're good movies and i know a lot of httyd book fans also like them. but i just... i cannot get over how much they changed and how they missed so much and ignored the books. also they got rid of camicazi so hiccup could have a love interest and that is unforgivable to me.

if you disagree, that is a-okay. we're all entitled to our own opinions. i just ask that you, perhaps, try the books out. give them a chance. bc they're amazing works of art and also just like. don't yell at people who don't like the movies? whether it's bc they prefer the books or just aren't into that kind of movie. and just remember that dreamworks didn't come up with the story; cressida cowell did.

[aithusarosekiller]

[philtatosbuck]

if you're new to a fandom in which there's a very popular mlm ship and one, god forbid two, of the men involved is white might i suggest getting out before you get in lest you somehow acquire brain worms that make you say queerbait unironically ten times a day while demonizing women for existing in the lives of these characters

[circusclowne]

remote is surrounded by evil women

[daydreamerwonderkid]

Some of y'all are having a really hard time comprehending that both these takes on the Batfam/Batkids are a completely normal and okay thing to enjoy simultaneously.

[twnj]

'Temari scoffed. “Oh, no fuck this,” she laughed, uncrossing her arms. She put her palm beside the door, grabbed the handle, and ripped it open. She shook her head. “I’m not doing this. I’m criticised enough as it is without standing here listening to you insulting—”

“Shut the door.”

She scowled but didn’t move.

“Shut the door, Temari,” Shikamaru repeated. There was a sharp edge to his voice that hadn’t been there the first time. A sharp edge unlike anything she’d heard from him before. “You won’t really leave. You’ll just stand in the doorway again and let all the heat out. Shut it.”

Grandmaster on ao3 by @notquitejiraiya

[greeenchrysanthemums]

Hey! I love the gg rivals au, it has been rolling around in my brain for a while (<-that’s positive). I was wondering what the relationship other characters have with the ranchers / the role they have.

Thank you and have a nice rest of your day/night! :D

Hello!

Jimmy is friends with Scott and knew him when they were both children, as mentioned in this post. Despite his relationship with Scott, he doesn't really have much of a relationship with either Impulse or Gem. He's met both of them maybe once or twice in his whole life.

He had actually never met Grian until the year that he and Tango joined the resistance. He and Grian don't get along very well, mostly because Grian finds it funny to mess with him and Jimmy finds it frustrating/annoying. However, Jimmy also finds the teasing endearing in a way, and he would most likely miss it if it ever stopped. Not that he would ever admit this, though.

He and Tango supply Bigb with flour and other products for his bakery, so they are pretty good friends with him; which was actually how Grian got into contact with Bigb as well.

Tango used to be friends with Skizz and Impulse. He grew up in the capital with them and trained alongside Skizz to be a medic, but they have grown apart over the years; mostly as a result of Tango disagreeing with their choice to work in the royal army and a lack of any time to hang out with each other. He hasn't spoken to them in years, despite the opportunity to do so due to Scott's connection with them.

Tango has sensed that there was something rotten within Wintertide since he was young. A dark aura that surrounded the kingdom and the castle which only brought suffering. He fully disagreed with the war and the constant fighting and was never silent about his distaste for either. In fact, he was quite vocal about it to the point that he almost got himself in trouble several times. That was how Grian found him. He was causing a ruckus in the town square, having a very loud argument with a Wintertide solider.

Grian pulled him away from the fight and told him all about the resistance and about how well he would fit in. It was only natural that he jumped at the opportunity to help when Grian offered him a place in the resistance.

I have said in the past that the ranchers mostly only help out with supplying food and the occasional intel, but that's only really true for Jimmy, to be entirely honest. Jimmy is a bit clumsy and easily injured, so he voluntarily chooses to stay away from active fighting and missions as much as possible. For Tango it is a bit different.

He's hot headed and quick to get himself in trouble, so Grian doesn't really let him participate in most things, despite heavy protest from Tango (this will cause problems). However, if they need another person for whatever reason, or need intel from somewhere they wouldn't be able to get it otherwise without being suspicious (say, from a shopkeeper who would know and talk to Tango but not them) then Tango is their go to.

Jimmy is happy with this arrangement. Tango is not.

Scott and Tango have a bit of an odd relationship. Tango doesn't like him very much by virtue of him being a Wintertide knight, but he knows that Scott is an important person to Jimmy so he keeps his mouth shut whenever Scott comes around for Jim's sake. Scott knows Tango dislikes him, but he also tries his best to keep the peace. They mostly sit in an awkward, slightly hostile, silence around each other.

Tango used to not like Etho and was very suspicious of his intentions, but they very slowly grew close over the years and bonded over a hate for the Wintertide army and its corruption, as well as a love for creation. Tango invents as a hobby and occasionally helps Etho and Mumbo out in their workshop.

You have a wonderful day/night as well!!💚💚

[sexynetra]

Got tagged by @junosjukebox to put my on repeat playlist on shuffle and post the first 10 songs that play <333 thanks for the tag! Songs below the cut

I’ll tag @aqpippin @thecollectionsof @myhusbandharryhamilton @adoordelano @sapphire-to-the-rain @sweetlikesunflowersandhoney and @mappingthesky :)

[kabukeo]

tonight's little doodles

[widevibratobitch]

in terror, four lieutenants; in t3m, four musketeers. Conclusion?

conclusion - same as always: destiny.

but wait oh christ okay. they even kinda fit...

you've got the og trio of

Wet Pathetic Loser

Deeply Religious Guy

Fancy Lad

which ig would make dundy... d'artagnan?? no. no oh god ok. listen. d'artagnan is jopson im afraid:

1. has a deeply homoerotic father/son relationship with a suicidal alcoholic

2. is actually kinda obsessed with him tbh

3. doesn't really start out as One Of Them, has to wait quite some time to get promoted

4. big part of the fandom actually ships him with little aka our athos

it makes sense you gotta believe me it does it does

[mochaxswirl]

im not giving up on you, lumi