#Personally don’t really have animal phobias except of course:

[driftingballoons]

I don’t think I have that phobia lol

[elysianslove]

Hiii! I loved your Iwa fluff headcanons and was wondering if you could do one with Suna? thanks <3

yesyesyes i would love to!!! iwaizumi’s version. 

↬ when suna was younger, he really, really wanted a pet bunny. like he really, really loved bunnies, and would beg his parents day and night for one. he even made a really badly edited powerpoint on bunnies and why he deserves one (aside the editing, it was a very persuasive powerpoint. they filmed him while he presented it and the video haunts him to this day). his parents were relentless, though, and didn’t get him his bunny. instead, though, they surprised him with a cat. a cat isn’t as high maintenance since they’re very independent creatures, but can also be very fun. they figured any pet would make him happy. they were wrong. suna hated her so much and would never interact with her. like to the point where he nicknamed her “bitch” and now she mainly answers to that instead of her name. but all that only worked against him, and the cat just kept getting more and more attached to him.

↬ suna now loves her so much, and she’s just as attached to him. like he would kill for her, honestly. it’s his cat >>> everyone else. he has an album on his phone dedicated to pictures and videos of only her, and her bed is in his room because she always ends up sleeping there anyways. he realized later on when he grew older that a cat was the perfect animal for him, and he’s not sure if it’s a parents thing and they really knew or they were just winging it and hoping for the best, but she’s his favorite ever and he would risk it all for her.

↬ his favorite sleeping position with her would be when he’s casually laying on his back scrolling through his phone and she comes and crawls along him to lay on his chest. the warmth he feels within his chest like he just gets so giddy.

↬ suna is crazy obsessed with serial killer documentaries, horror movies, unsolved mysteries, everything like that. his favorite pastime is watching and reading these things, but honestly, it’s not even a like, “wow that’s so cool,” and more of a, “suna what is wrong with you???” type of thing, because he’s the type to have like insidious 2 in the background as he does his homework or gets ready or something. it’s kind of scary how unfazed he is with things like that.

↬ but! yeah he’s extremely brave when it comes to horror movies, borderline unhinged, but his biggest fear? his phobia, if you will? spiders. insects in general, really. he will scream like a sixth grader that’s yet to hit puberty if he sees a spider crawling near him. once he was peeing in the miya twins’ bathroom and some kind of cockroach crawling on the wall and nearly fainted. thank god he was already peeing because he would’ve pissed his pants either way. it’s so embarrassing for him, so he’s so good at hiding it. he just freezes impossibly when he notices an insect and doesn’t take his eye off of it until someone else notices it and kills it. there was this instance when they were at a training camp and he kept feeling as if something was crawling on him, but assumed it was just really hot and his skin was tingling from that. something was crawling on him, though, and it was not just really hot. Top 10 Most Traumatic Moments of his life, especially because atsumu’s first instinct was to record the whole thing.

↬ suna is extremely, and i mean extremely, touch-starved. physical touch has always made him uncomfortable for a reason unknown to him, so he never really accepted hugs or kisses from his family, and would feel so icky if he was roped into a group hug b by his teammates. so when he met you, he thought you’d be so against the fact that he’s uncomfortable with it, because who would want a partner that doesn’t wanna touch or be touched? turns out he actually craves it, and needs it badly, he just needed to take his own time and pace approaching it, and with how understanding you were, he doubted he could ever figure this out without you. he just took it slow, you know? but the more he touched you — held your hand, pinched your cheek, rested his head on your shoulder, pecked your lips for a few seconds longer than last time — the more he wanted you.

↬ when suna became comfortable with the thought and idea that yeah, he actually craves physical touch so damn bad, he wouldn’t stop touching you every second he could. he became insanely clingy, no matter if you were in public or alone. just always has a hand on you at all times. when he’s alone with you, he’s always trying to cuddle with you. you wanna sit and chill on your phone and not really talk? sure, just come do it with your head on his chest. you wanna watch a movie and munch on some popcorn and possibly share a drink? of course he’d love to! just come sit between his legs with your popcorn on your lap so he can steal some and also offer you some sips from the drink. you don’t wanna hug him after a game cause he’s too sweaty? that’s too bad, he wasn’t asking for permission. so you see, suna is a clingy mf. like latches onto you like a koala clingy <3

↬ suna’s music taste is very diverse. his favorite genre is alternative and rock, like the neighborhood, arctic monkeys, etc, but he also loves, loves loves glitchcore music, but also will un-ironically listen to kpop, and rap, and hannah montana’s old music too because why not. he just doesn’t care. if a song is good, it’s good. so what if it caters to a bunch of 12 year olds and not him? who decides that anyways?

↬ suna is very good at hair. like so good. as his sister started to get older, and her hair grew longer, she would sometimes ask him to do it for her before school. at first he was terrible at it, except maybe ponytails cause his hair was long enough at some point to push back into a ponytail, but everything else like parting her hair for pigtails or doing braids or a bun… he was just awful. so, in response, he’d just practice. he’d watch videos as he’s doing his little sister’s hair and be so focused, with his tongue sticking out a little and his eyes squinting as he tries to get it accurate. eventually, he becomes a master at it! you find this out when one day, as you’re just over at his house, his sister comes into his room with a hair tie and a brush and he just carries her up onto his lap and braids her hair as he chats with you and it was so endearing and so impressive and you genuinely believe that was the moment you realized you were in love with him.

↬ he offers to do your hair for you all the time now!! especially if you’ve just showered and are too lazy to brush it and tie it in some way, so he does it for you. he’s actually so, very gentle when brushing your hair, you don’t even feel a thing. if anything, it makes you really sleepy.

↬ when he joined the national team and started to become more and more of a public figure, he’d send you really explicit fan art of him and other teammates he was shipped with just to piss you off. if he was feeling really bold, he’d send you smut written about him. he says he wants to make you jealous. he just wants to provoke you in every way possible, really. one time someone made an edit plot twisting you and him to him and like atsumu so he downloaded video star and made such a bad edit of you and him and posted it on his twitter and instagram and it went viral. like it was one of those edits of just pictures flipping and hearts flashing and lights spasming all over the screen it was so bad it made you cry with laughter. that was his way of telling the world, no one but this person for me, right here <3

↬ i think he’d be very good at doing chores and cleaning and all that, despite how lazy he is. i just think it’s a habit kind of thing, where he grew up doing laundry and making his bed and cleaning his room and washing the dishes that he genuinely doesn’t mind doing it cause it’s natural for him. and he’s learnt to enjoy it.

↬ suna’s favorite color was deep, deep purple at some point, but now it’s between green and black.

↬ he’s caught up with all seasons of keeping up with the kardashians. please don’t ask him why, he doesn’t even know.

↬ once when you were out with him you just gave him a rock that was on the floor and he’s kept that rock with him ever since. like it’s in the drawer next to his bed and sometimes he just takes it out and holds it in his hand while he’s doing homework or scrolling through his phone.

↬ he spams you a lot. like at any time time of the day he just sends you a million videos of him doing the most mundane things; he sends you a video of him eating some almonds and at the end it’s just him going, “i’s good,” or him lip-syncing a song you sent him to listen to, or him trying to do eyeliner because why not. or maybe it’s pictures of him and it’s always ridiculous: him exaggerating him thinking, and then captioning it “thinking,” or just a picture of him on the roof with a peace sign and a pretty smile, or a close up photo of his face saying, “miss u.”

↬ he also spams you with memes all the time. and there’s no set type, it’s just all kinds. really corny memes and really cursed memes, wholesome memes and also memes that bully you. it’s all about the versatility.

↬ suna loves to sleep, he really does, but before meeting you, the only place where he could properly fall into a deep sleep was his bed. after meeting you, anywhere where you were next to him was the perfect place to sleep. if he had your presence near him he could sleep, it didn’t matter, especially if he was resting on your lap or shoulder or gripping onto your hand or resting his legs on your lap. he just wants you close to him, you know? like he feels so safe and comfortable when you’re around, it kind of scares him if he’s honest.

[cqlfeels]

From the novel (and even the donghua) i understood that the demonic cultivation really altered Wei Wuxian's mind and screwed him. So it really harms. And because of it, i don't understand why Wei Wuxian in his second life keeps continuing to use it (though when he's forced to save others). I mean, if I was him, I would have a severe trauma because of that power that costs my sister's life, I would never use that fucking flute, ever again. Or at least I would have great fear before using it. Maybe I'm overestimating Wei Wuxian's trauma?

I don't think you're overestimating his trauma, I think you might be overestimating how comfortable he is with demonic cultivation in his second life. (Though with the character limit of an ask it's hard to tell 🤷‍♀️)

Let me take a detour for a moment. WWX before JFM takes him in. By all rights, he should be horribly traumatized, but except for his dog phobia (and a few lingering habits like his thing with food), he seems to have either consciously or subconsciously forgotten most of it by the time we meet him as a teenager. He's always going on about how his memory sucks, but he seems to mostly forget memories formed under horrible circumstances, or else memories that hurt him somehow - either because they're really bad memories or because they're things he can't have again (his parents, most notably, but I'd argue he seems to attempt to forget in his second life that JC was his brother.) That's not to say that every time WWX forgets something it's actually a trauma response! It's just that he seems to have leveraged his genuinely poor memory to come up with a coping mechanism for things he doesn't quite know how to process. What he can't remember, he can't dwell on - it can't hurt him.

In his first life (especially in the novel), WWX flaunted his Yiling Laozu prowess, just to show off (maybe a bit like an animal that tries to make itself bigger to fend off predators, but I digress.) Even though he of course can't do that as MXY, he still could undoubtedly solve problems much faster if he went full on demonic cultivation genius. Again and again, we see him rely on LWJ, WN and even the juniors (!!) to handle things for him. He's hardly hiding behind them for protection - he's involved in strategizing, in managing the situation, sometimes even in being human bait - but it's rare to see him actually do the fighting. It's usually only when it's clear that things won't end well if he doesn't use his skills OR if there's a skill only he has (Empathy, most noticeably) that he actually uses his powers. (I'm sure there are exceptions. I'm speaking of trends, or at least trends as I perceive them - other people might disagree.)

And the thing is, I think he very pointedly Does Not Think about the immense trigger this is to him. He focuses on doing what has to be done and then moving on asap, no time to dwell on any complicated feelings he might have. WWX has always been the person to do what has to be done without thinking about how that affects him, and I think that's an extension of that. Sometimes he needs to trigger his PTSD, what's he gonna do about it, whine that it's unfair? Nah. He'll give his core to JC because he was never supposed to be part of this family and that's an okay price to pay. What price is fair enough to get a second chance to live? Standing by and letting people get hurt when he can fix things is certainly not an okay way to spend his second life! He may not go out of his way to find people who need help, but if someone needs help right in front of him, when has WWX ever been able to say no?

All of this is to say that I'm pretty sure that he's not delighted to be able to use demonic cultivation again, but I think if asked, he'd say he has no choice but using it sometimes....... and therefore this particular trauma goes into the same box he puts all his other traumas, labeled "To be dealt with: NEVER" 🤷‍♀️

[orange-waterfalls]

Reader w/ wings headcanons(Markiplier Alter Egos)

ty @fancybootm​ for the request!

A/N: i just did all of them. every-all-everyone. Except Yandereplier, Silver Shepard, Ed Edgar... maybe others I’m not aware of at the moment... I tried to stick with a certain number of egos, but my hands just... they just kept moving. It is 11:00 pm when im writing this ya boy is TIRED. there are 1.6k words. It seems longer than it is bc bullet points. Bear with me. You can find the egos that you want easily. The reader is gender neutral. i am so sorry if this is not what you meant lol. on the bright side this is a good reference for all the egos i am open to writing for(also maybe others idk) so uh im keeping it enjoy. I’ll say... a T rating for cursing and also a bit of violence but literally like 20 words. mentions of injury. that’s it.

Requests are open!

Y/N(reader) with wings hcs

No one knows what the fuck you are, not even you

Ya got wings. That’s it.

Are you an angel? A faery? A phoenix? Who knows

You woke up one day in a forest remembering nothing

But you had wings

And then you got shot with an arrow

You ran away and hid in a cave

Darkiplier spends most of his time around you studying you

To see what you could possibly be

He still doesn’t know

He’s settled for calling you a “cryptid”

He’s slightly annoyed with the feathers you leave around the manor

He won’t tell you bc you can’t control that and it’d be rude

You read together in his study on occasion

You sit on the floor bc your wings get uncomfortable in chairs

In sympathy, he also sits on the floor

You think it’s sweet

You told him so and he sputtered out a “shut up and read your book”

He’s fairly fond of you

You’re good company to keep around

Wilford was the one who found you

He was walking through the forest, as one does, when he saw GIANT feathers

Naturally, he followed them

He found you in a cave with an arrow in your shoulder

He took you back to the manor and patched you up

He begged Dark to keep you there

He promised not to kill anybody for a month

He made it 15 days, which is a record

He’s very protective of you, not letting you out a lot since uh… hunters

You are his Sweet Little Songbird, light of his life, wind in his sails, 

if anything happens to you he will kill everyone in the manor and then himself

He helps you preen a lot

His hands are very gentle, surprisingly 

He spends the most time with you out of everyone

You play games, talk(well, he talks to you), and just hang out

He loves and adores you with his whole heart

Actor tolerates you, or so he says

He’s jealous of your wings

HE’S supposed to be the mysterious, sexy one!

But ok, yeah, you’re pretty interesting

He uses you in short films sometimes bc… well… wings

There are alot of things you can do with wings, surprisingly

He took you out into town one night

He shoved the wings under a thick jacket

You guys bought some clothes and food

He cut holes in the clothes for your wings, grumbling about a “waste of money” and “you never go out anyway” 

but he enjoyed spending a bit of time with you

Wilford nearly killed him(again) when he found out

He likes venting to you bc you just nod without really listening

As I said, you’re good company

Yancy thinks you’re nice

He felt a bit… threatened at first

Ya got WINGS, of course he’s cautious

But they are very pretty

And he likes to use you in choreography

People always comment on how realistic the wings are as Yancy leads you away

You don’t judge him for killing his parents, he likes that about you

You don’t know. You could’ve done something bad. You don’t remember

He likes cuddling bc you wrap your wings around him and he feels safe

He also helps you preen… sometimes… 

He’s… really bad at it...

You like listening to him sing

He sings you lullabies at night

You’re very close

Illinois is very fascinated with you

He’s convinced you’re a fairy

He’s seen quite a few of those

You tell him you don’t know, and he goes “a LiKeLy StOrY”

He likes drawing you

You’re very angelic

“Oh, maybe an angel then…” He says, like an idiot

He takes you with him on a few adventures to fly him over pits and stuff

He’d never admit it but he has a… THING about heights

It’s called a phobia, you egotistic maniac

You try to help him with it

You never get that far off the ground before he’s screaming to be put down

He appreciates the effort

He gives you things he finds on adventures that are pretty or remind him of you

He infodumps to you about curses, and archaeology, and adventuring, etc.

Magnum is uh… well, he’s Magnum

He figures you’d be useful out at sea

You can find nearby land, ships, or treasure by flying, of course

He didn’t take into account the fact that you don’t really… fly that often.

So it turned into you just stretching your wings instead of looking for loot

Once you fell overboard

Everyone was like “eh, they can fly, it’s fine”

Then they realized that you probably can’t since your wings might be wet

Magnum LEAPED into the fuckin water and THREW you back on

He doesn’t take you on the sea as much anymore

sometimes you talk about life, treasure, love, y'know the usual

He’s very Father Figure-ly

Bim isn’t sure how to feel about you

You are a person. With wings. What’s he supposed to do about that

He’s friends with Wil, so has to tolerate you at least.

He tries to make conversation, but it doesn’t always go as well as it could

You don’t have much to talk about, and some of his topics worry you

Mostly you two just kinda… exist in the same general area

Sometimes he’ll discuss what he should do on his show

You don’t have many ideas

But you’ve gotten an idea of what it is, and sometimes give a suggestion or two

He appreciates you for that

He tried to get you on the show once but Wilford refused

You kinda wanted to, but whatever

You’ll hang out sometimes too

He’s very entertaining, he has to be

Eric is kind of scared

Not that you’ll hurt him, that he’ll hurt you

That happens a lot to people he likes…

He eventually starts hanging out around you

You don’t ask bad questions, and you distract him from his dad

He talks about animals with you a lot, and how he wanted a farm

You bought a cowboy hat and gave it to him and he cried

You also gave him a stuffed cow one day

He hugged you for a long time

You two cuddle a lot bc the boy needs SAFETY and SECURITY

You wuv each other(platonically or otherwise)

Dr. Iplier doesn’t bother you, mostly

He appreciates that you keep to yourself

He has his work, that’s what he’s focused on

Sometimes he’ll see you when you try to find Wilford or get some food

He tries to get a good look at you without looking suspicious

It doesn’t work, he always falls over

He once gave you a “physical”

It was mostly to just figure out what you were

You seemed mostly human based on the results

But goddammit you had WINGS

They had their own function but were sort of like an add-on to your body

He was slightly disappointed you weren’t gonna… turn into a whole bird

You tolerate each other

Google fuckin’ hates you

He’s completely perplexed by you

Which he is never because he is the most intelligent being on the planet

So he assumed he could figure out what you were

Turns out google fucking sucks at figuring out things people don’t already know

So he hates you. Like a lot

He’s tried to kill you multiple times

But his objective is to destroy MANKIND

You are not included in that

BECAUSE HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE!!!

Also Wilford almost killed him for it

So yeah he just kinda hates you

You’ve tried to get along with him but he just wouldn’t

He finally talked to you when Bing called him a little bitch

Still hates you, but can tolerate your existence now

Bing fuckin’ adores you

You are just wonderful to him

You can FLY??!! You have WINGS???!!!!!

You don’t really care that he is an artificial BEING????!!!!!!!!

You’re perfect

He does Sick Tricks™ to try to impress you

They never do

You appreciate the effort

You don’t see him a lot, but when you to it’s very entertaining

He taught you how to skateboard

You kinda sucked but he’s very supportive

He likes just hanging around you

It’s the only time he ever chills the fuck out

Everyone’s thankful to you for that

Your entire dynamic is “what if... i put... my minecraft bed... next to yours? haha just kidding... unless?”

The Host doesn’t really care about the wings??

I mean, he can’t see them, so… what’s the big deal

You appreciate that

He still does the uh… narration thing… with real people…

The stories end better now

You convinced him to make the stories end better

You sat with him to make SURE the stories end better

He also started writing novels recently

You help with plot and character development

He appreciates that

The Jims… don’t really care about you

I mean you’re interesting, of course

But they physically Cannot get a clear picture of you

Even if you agree to sit still, it just doesn’t happen

It is always, ALWAYS blurry

They eventually give up and leave you alone

They do spend a bit of time with you

You help them with demon episodes sometimes

You don’t do much, but they like the emotional support

King of the Squirrels is… well, he’s him

He doesn’t… he doesn’t do much

He hangs out with his squirrels. That’s pretty much it.

You just started hanging out with him one day

He didn’t mind

You two feed the squirrels while sitting by a tree

He lets you wear his crown sometimes

He draws his squirrels, and lets you see the pictures

He teaches you how to draw them

You two don’t talk, really

You just sit. And hang out.

He doesn’t really smile, but you can tell when he’s happy with you

[ohnothewheatisonfire]

ok J&H Fandom, let’s talk:

“Popular” blog @thatsmyhyde​ is a prominent creator in the J&H Fandom. But here’s where the problem shows up: 

the content they make is concerning at least, and full of red flags at worst. 

DISCLAIMER: This is all information I have gathered through their tumblr blog - I am not aware of what other things they may be posting on other social medias or their written work.  ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Please be polite, I am a minor, and am just creating this post to ward off / warn other minors from following this person. If you are an adult interacting with this post and blog, be mindful of your actions and be responsible

Trigger warnings for: discussions of homophobia, discussions of p//phillia, fat-shaming, fat-phobia (?), etc. Just be on general edge for this post, we’re talking about a lot of weird stuff

I will be linking their posts as I am not going to take screenshots of their art.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the things they’ve done - these are the ones I could think of and was able to adress. If you have anything additional you want to add to this post (such as concerning things they may do on other social media), feel free to reblog and add on the things you need to say, just please don’t be dumb. 

Let’s start with the premise: Henry Jekyll creates an alter ego, Edward Hyde. They begin a relationship - an emotional and physical one. Their AU features Jekyde (A popular ship in the fandom, the name stands for Jekyll x Hyde), people have various views on this ship. 

So far so fine, right? Here are the problems:

1. Their Henry Jekyll is an awful person. Now, let’s start by saying that of course you can have bad people in your works, those are, after-all: villains. The problem is,Henry Jekyll is a harmful walking gay sterotype, and an outlet for Biscuit’s obvious fat fetish. But their relationship isn’t just toxic it’s romanticised in how toxic it is.

a. The harmful stereotype - Their Henry Jekyll has a “thing” for younger men, even though he is in his middle-ages, and Hyde looks like a young child. (Age gap relationships are their own thing - they come with their own burdens, and this is not the post to discuss them. This topic will lead into the Edward  Hyde section of this post.) But, it was a known homophobic scare-mongering tactic of straight parents to accuse everyone who is gay that they are ‘out to prey on your youths’. This is a stereotype that stigmatized the LGBT community, and still harmfully affects them to this day. 

b. The fat fetish: Jekyll is frequently seen with cake (as seen here, here, and here)  or being self-loathing, to the point of suicide. (click the link here to acess a list of suicide and other crisis hotlines! you matter to me!). Now, the self-loathing could be a symptom of depression or other mental illness, so I am not going to talk about it, as a person with mental illnesses.  But the self-loathing in addition to him being fat is not good. Media is drowning in the “self-loathing fat person” and as someone who isn’t thin i’m tired of seeing this. 

- The fetish aspect comes in him constantly being referred to “Chonky”, a term usually used for overweight/obese cats and being drawn obsessed with cake. It fetishises his weight and dehumanises him into something people call their animals. Also, here’s more of Jekyll eating food and being embarassed by it, though this time because it’s seen as “servant’s food”. 

- Biscuit admits to liking them “Big and chunky” in posts like this. 

[Photo id: A string of texts that says: tantok, frankenstein, twink lore, dorian slipped through the cracks and got himself sketched by yours truly the other day because he brought lord henry along, he and the slime didn’t have to fight to the death because they’ve both got their own chonky old toxic henries to focus on, but this blog still ain’t big enough for the two of ‘em. end id]

- They also talk about how they ‘prefer’ to draw fat (chonky) people. Image attatched above. the thing that should be noticed is that they say ‘chonky old toxic henries’ . they, once again, are making fat people a fetish. 

[Photo id: Anonymous asks: are you gonna make a victor design tho biscuit responds: Oh, man, anon, I hate to disappoint but.....probably not. Aside from my non-humanoids and hellspwans (slime gremlins, corpse creatures, and etcetera), I’m extremely uninterested in drawing young thin men. I really need middle-aged chonk to hold my attention. If poor Victor Frankenstein had only been 40-something and round when he made his great creation, then he’d definitely get a design from yours truly. As it is though, he’s not holding my attention enough to want to. end id] 

Biscuit once again talks about how he doesn’t want to draw ‘thin men’, because he is only interested in older ‘round’ people. He, is, once again, bringing to light his fetish for fat people. 

2. Edward Hyde is basically a child - Edward Hyde is drawn in boy’s school clothes, is taken in and raised like a child after Jekyll’s death, and is constantly cooed over by the creator, even earning a nickname of ‘slime’ from them. In addition, he also has ‘family photos’ taken with Utterson, has his toenails kept, is the height of a child, and teeths. This, paired with the fact that he is in a toxic, abusive, relationship with a man in his middle ages is concerning and should not be romanticised. 

[Photo id: the text reads: In his first year of existence, Hyde lost teeth and regrew them in a mildly similar fashion to a kid losing baby teeth - except it wasn’t all of his teeth (Just the canines and some random molars) and they weren’t replaced with a larger set, just with teeth exactly the same as the ones that had been lost. No one knows what was up with this. the teeth are still in Jekyll’s study in a little jar. end id]

a. Hyde is treated like a child after Jekyll’s death. Hyde teething is concerning because that’s something infants do. He also clings to utterson like a child. The idea that he gets taken in by Utterson, whisked away to an estate out in the country, despite both of them having romantic feelings for Jekyll is. how do I put this: WEIRD. (seriously, imagine your father/father-figure dating ur significant other / having a crush on them before you two got together and after). 

b. Hyde dresses like a child, whilst being sexually active and wearing lingerie. Now, on their own, these traits aren’t a problem - but together? They are very much a problem.  

- Hyde dressing as a child is concerning because he is also treated like a child at certain points in their “lore”. After Jekyll’s death, Hyde becomes a singular entity, and is taken away by Utterson. To care for, like a child. This post sums it up well: he wears both children’s clothes and lingerie. 

- Hyde has a very strange appearance - if you compare it to his early design (which was less cartoony and looked more like a man in his twenties), Hyde’s current design is concerning. Why does he have the height of a child? Why does he have eyes that take up a grand part of his face? Now, one could argue that ‘he is not human’ - but if he is treated like a human, whilst wearing children’s/youthful clothes, teeths, and his general enchanment with the world - he appears as human (and looks eerily similar to a child), which is why him being sexually active, wearing lingerie, and being friendly with prostitutes (one that gave him underwear and other articles of clothing)  is concerning. 

- That said, Utterson is directly talked about being ‘adopted into gremlin fatherhood’ (paraphrasing). 

[Photo id: the text reads: 59. Jekyll is irresitibly attracted to everything about Hyde, but if he could somehow be forced to list hte most attractive physical attributes of Edward Hyde in his opinion, aside from Hyde’s youthful appearance in general it would be his eyes, his overbite (Jekyll perceived the way Hyde’s-) the screenshot cuts of the rest of the paragraph. end id] 

- Jekyll has a ‘thing’ for younger men. This is to the point that the most attractive part about Hyde is that he is young. (or looks like it), Hyde looking very young is concerning because that would make their verison of Doctor Jekyll a p*dophille . This is something the artist has either not recognized, realised, or simply does not acknowledge. 

3. The toxic relationship (and how it’s romanticised) - The relationship in this ‘AU’ is: love comes first, toxic nature comes second. If you scroll through the blog you may see some reference of ‘Henry Jekyll is such a toxic person teehee’ and a lot of them kissing, being together, smiling, or enjoying life. Now, obviously, an artist - if they do not want to - should not draw characters being toxic to each other. But it is concerning when the above points come into a factor, that the toxic nature of their relationship comes second to the highs of their relationship, at least on their blog. 

Here is one of the only examples I’ve seen of Biscuit talk about the relationship in a detailed negative light. 

4. The fandom - Whilst Biscuit says it’s ok for minors to interact with his blog (in that blog he says that he tags nsfw - which is true.) he does not regularly mention that his jekyde is toxic - not in a concerete way. He romanticises it (despite acknowledging it’s flaws), and the only way it may or may not be (i would not know) acknowledged is his fic: which is mature and not meant for minors. He does not tag his posts with regular triggers for things like: alcohol, drugs, mental illnesses, or abuse (any variants). They’re not even in his blog’s description! If Biscuit had acknowledged it in his blog, something along the lines of: “Hey! This blog has <content warnings> be warned when interacting! But no, he does not. 

- A lot of the people who draw things, or generally interact with Biscuit are minors. Being exposed to such a thing may be harmful to my peers, and I am worried. To minors who are fans of Biscuit: if you’ve made it this far, thank you, I know you’re mature and responsible, but being exposed to content creators like Biscuit could lead you down a dangerous path of having this kind of thing normalised to you. Be careful with the content you consume, please! And thank you for making it this far, I’m sure you’re a lovely person :)!

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Stay safe, tell the people you love that you love them. 

[kanyniablue]

hws characters & belief in the supernatual

we’re not done yet w/ the headcanons

this is about interpreting the individual characters, not a statement on whether any real-life beliefs are true or not.

a.merica:  extremely superstitious but doesn’t believe he is.  every plane he’s ever flown, ship he’s ever sailed, and gun he’s ever carried has good luck charms.  his bomber jacket has lucky patches.  he wouldn’t let a rocket launch without first making sure the commander has lost a poker game.  and of course, no matter how secular he claims to be, he’s got religious--mostly protestant christian--imagery out the ass.  he’s got lucky rocks, lucky shoelaces, lucky underwear, lucky breakfast foods.  he particularly likes reverse-lucky things, saying black cats or the number 13 are actually good luck for him.  these are all “for fun”...except he would never go without them.  he half-believes in ghosts--moreso when he’s just watched a horror movie or it’s the middle of the night--but he’ll go on a ghost hunt at any time for any reason, just because it’s fun to believe (no i don’t believe he has a phobia of ghosts.  i think most of the things that cause him to feel real fear are too intense to be “fun,” so he likes horror movies and roller coasters and everything that can give him a thrill with no pressure).  he loves cryptids and gravity hills and the bermuda triangle, more for what they represent than what they actually are--finding bigfoot would just mean discovering a new species, which is great and all, but thinking bigfoot might be out there somewhere means you can go bigfoot-hunting or think you saw one in the background of a blurry photo.  his roommate is a literal space alien, but like, bro what if that was a ufo just now???

e.ngland:  he’s a sailor, of course he’s superstitious.  add into that how he can apparently see and talk to spirits, practices magic, and has sites like stonehenge across his land, he’s just going to outright tell you he’s not going to whistle on a boat and that he wants you to refer to macbeth as “the scottish play.”  he only gets upset about it, much like everything else he gets upset about, if you laugh at him.  the bigger question is, does he believe in the rest of the world’s superstitions or are they “silly legends and old wives’ tales” while his are real, and the answer i think is an “everyone else’s is fake until something happens right in front of me.”

f.rance:  he loves things like love locks on bridges (until they cause the fence to collapse) or visions from saints (esp jeanne d’arc), but he doesn’t necessarily believe they’re real.  more that it’s very romantic to think they’re real, and if something as strange as a Nation can exist, who’s to say other mystical things can’t exist too?

c.anada:  he has some old beliefs about where you don’t want to fuck around and find out--if you want a successful hunt you don’t insult the prey, if you don’t want to freeze to death you don’t talk back to general winter--but for the most part he doesn’t have that sort of belief system.  he’s a lot more about what’s directly in front of you and what it means in literal terms.

c.hina:  his grocery list always includes snacks for wandering spirits.  if he hears a strange noise in the house he talks to it like it’s a person, just in case it is.  he consults fortune tellers before buying a new cellphone.  his house is carefully organized for most harmonious energy flow right down to the color of paint on the walls.  yao lives by the rituals he’s made for himself, some of which are so ancient or personal to him that even the humans who study ancient chinese culture & mythology have never heard of them.  it’s not myth for him any more than tying your shoelaces to make sure you don’t trip is a myth--you do it because you know how these things work; you’d be foolish not to.

r.ussia:  he’d tell you no and furthermore any sort of supernatural belief is stupid, but don’t leave him alone in the middle of the woods where there might be...something.  this is mostly from after his revolution--in earlier days he’d have anything from good-luck hunting gear to lucky gambling dice.  he still has a lingering belief that talking about wolves makes them more likely to show up.  he couldn’t say why, except that it’s such an old fear even modernization couldn’t get rid of it.  he’d also never disrespect general winter, which is a theme with northern Nations.  (he’s also got his lucky rocket launch ritual, as mentioned in that ripley’s article i linked before...😒...)  much like alfred, he’s less scared/interested in a physical, literal being than he is in the concept--more afraid of being afraid than of dealing with an actual monster.

j.apan:  you’d be surprised; as someone who loves ritual and whose mythology is known the world over, kiku tends to disregard supernatural belief.  he’ll join in the activities surrounding holidays and ceremonies, but that’s more for the joy of participating than because he thinks it will actually change anything.  in his past he fully believed in all the things that caused those rituals to come into existence in the first place, but nowadays he considers them more “cute” or “fun” or “cultural” than “necessary.”  if one of the others comes over to his house looking for yōkai or something he’ll join in, but mostly in a mildly amused way.  not that he’d say that out loud, obviously; that’d just be impolite.  he is however sometimes outright rude to yao about his devotion to rituals, claiming he’s living in the past or holding up their business.  they’ve known each other long enough they don’t sugarcoat how they talk to each other.

north & south i.taly:  these two are super superstitious.  feli consults his horoscope for daily business and has good luck charms for everything from the weather to love to money to traffic.  he’s a gambler and a fisherman, he’s not taking chances.  lovi is a weird mix of catholicism-to-the-point-of-paganism and ancient roman rituals--not that he’s sacrificing animals to the gods, but it wouldn’t be unusual to see a miraculous medal and a roman god’s icon both hanging from his keychain.  they frequently swear by a broad selection of saints, they always eat lentils on new year’s, they’ve got a million idioms and hand gestures they themselves only half-remember the origins of.  they also get into arguments as to which of them is interpreting such-and-such sign or saint the ‘correct’ way.  feli also starts brushing off on kiku & ludwig when he hangs out with them; he’s just so into it they subconsciously start doing the same things he does.

g.ermany:  extremely no-nonsense, practical, matter-of-fact...except for how he’ll talk to his computer as if he can convince it to work better.  oh, and don’t take candy from strangers living in gingerbread houses or offering to take you to your grandmother’s house.  and much like alfred & ivan, he’s not scared of ghosts or monsters until he hears a bump in the night.

p.russia:  in his early years when he was devoutly religious, he was constantly praying, lighting candles, following his book of hours...usually after “smiting” a bunch of “heathens,” but like, it’s moral when he does it...but as time went on he became more interested in what could be scientifically proven.  even still early european science was a mix of magic, religious belief, and nature, and he basically did the same things as before except now he claimed it was all an experiment instead of all for the Glory Now And Forever Amen.  i firmly believe he lost his faith in any sort of religion by the end of WWI and nowadays he’d laugh off most of his past beliefs as ridiculous superstition.  since he ‘died’/got laid off from being a Nation he’s more interested on where the line between Nation and normal human exists, and where that goes past nature and into the supernatural--things he never really thought about when he could rely on his super-healing to keep himself alive and could feel his citizens’ emotions if they were strong enough.  those diaries he keeps have a lot of notes and observations along those lines nowadays.

[mitigatedchaos]

On predicting the “right side of history,”

gene control will be the new gun control once genes can be altered

I said this, but it’s just a provocation.

The general divide between Left and Right is about external locus of control vs internal locus of control, and “oppression” being the reason that things go wrong, vs “entropy” being the reason.

As an extrapolation of the direction of general attitudes, “Capital,” “Patriarchy,” “Society,” “Colonialism,” and so on are generally considered the causes of crimes like burglary by Progressive types, rather than a decision on the part of the burglar.  A lot of the impulse is that you aren’t supposed to judge the burglar, or attempt to solve the problem by capturing and physically isolating the burglar.

On the other hand, Progressive types are quick to condemn “gun violence” or knives - a matter of something you are, vs something you have.

Right now, of course, a gene is something you can’t change (except via risky experimental medical science), so it’s generally considered something you are.  Like let’s say you have red hair - the current Progressive perspective is that you are a redhead and not that you have red hair, and they would then seek to make you into a member of an interest group on that basis.

On the other hand, people can apply dyes to their hair to give them truly exotic hair colors, beyond even the level of anime characters.

But let’s say that I have a genetic treatment that can alter your hair color - red, blonde, brunette, black.  In fact, let’s go one more and assume a rainbow of colors are available, like it’s Second Life.  (Maroon hair can be a nice choice.)

Let’s suppose you were born into a world where genetically green hair was always a choice.  Is green hair still something you are, or is it something you have?

In the (extrapolated) Progressive view, external locus of control forces like “Society” are thought to be acting through the burglar as he commits burglary, rather than the burglar acting on his own.  (Guns and knives are tools of this force working through the burglar - this is why denying them is thought to reduce crime.)  Agency is assessed in consciously supporting or opposing the vast external locus of control forces.  Rather than no condemnation, you can be condemned for being X-ist or Y-phobic, with the belief that once X-ism or Y-phobia are gone, all the other problems will more or less solve themselves.

This is where the behavior of the Progressive movement, if it gets its hands on genetic alteration technologies, becomes undefined.

Suppose you have some kind of genetically-induced Glass Leg Disease (GLD), which you have a very high risk of transmitting to any children you might have.  Under current conditions, the only option to avoid passing it down is not the have children.  Applying this limitation is deemed unacceptable, a violation of human dignity, and so on.  (Should a state even be trusted with that much power?  Imagine the typical politician in congress deciding whether you get to have children.  I think not.)

Suppose we develop near-perfect robotic legs that can replace your own legs so well that you move as well as an able-bodied person.  These are distributed to you and installed for a modest fee.  Are you still the person with Glass Leg Disease, or is your identity now “cyborg”?  If the legs are good enough, do you even think about Glass Leg Disease anymore?

Alternatively, should “has Glass Leg Disease” be considered a “culture”?  Should you be prohibited from getting the cybernetic legs because it “erases” that “culture”?

Now from the other direction.

Suppose we don’t have good-quality robotic legs, so if you have a child, that child will suffer from the full effects of Glass Leg Disease. However, we do have embryo selection, and the state has agreed to supply it for a modest fee, well within your income.

If you refuse and your child suffers as a result, is that your fault?  After all, you wouldn’t have been prevented from having children - including children that are biologically yours - by using embryo selection.

Now, this is where it really gets interesting.

What -ism is that?

We had a large burst of anti-religious and particularly anti-Christianity sentiment during the Bush Administration.

In terms of ideological formation, an “-ism” or “-phobia” of this kind could be defined within decades.  For instance, it might be “bioconservatism” to unnecessarily refuse embryo selection and thus pass on ‘dangerous’ genes.

There is likely to be substantial opposition from religious groups, who are right-wing coded, and thus the process that managed to politically polarize Ebola might decide that the two sides are “genetic engineering is a Babel-like attempt to climb to heaven, and defaces Man, who was made in the image of God; it is the work of the Devil,” allied with “fuck you the second amendment guarantees my right to have as many ‘dangerous genes’ as I want!” versus “keep interrogating your intrinsic bioconservative biases until you adopt what we believe to be the correct package of genetic alterations” combined with “gene siloing favors those born with greater biological wealth - those who seek to preserve it are supremacists and will be the first against the wall during the revolution! Commence Operation: Gene Expropriation!”

However, it’s difficult to be sure.

[nophicas-ward]

OC Questions; Leauna Lindholm

Compiling twitter thread answers for this here! ❤

1| Leauna Lindholm, Lea for short! she's not picky about who calls her Lea, as long as you're not on her bad side 😅

2| She's Midlander Hyur/Elezen, her mother was Elezen and her father was Midlander 😊 Lea's a White Mage! she had always had a knack for nature related magic, even when she was young, and once she actually started training White Magic just came naturally to her.

3| striking feature, striking feature.....maybe her lil half Elezen ears?

4| don't have a well defined age, but she's about mid 20s, perhaps just getting into late 20s.

5| Lea's a bubbly person, friendly to pretty much everyone unless you give her a reason not be. then she will not hesitate to hit you with a chair throw a rock at you ahdgajd She has a bit of a mischievous streak at times. Lea's extremely kind, cares probably way too much about everyone, and is fiercely protective; she's definitely the kind of person who will do whatever it takes to help someone in need.

6| She generally dresses in earthy or neutral colors, greens, browns, off-white, black. she's not terribly picky as long as she can move. Flowy shirts tucked breeches or a skirt, tunics, cloaks, worn calf-length boots. does like to dress up when the occasion calls for it though. There's probably flowers in her hair.

7| She had a rather idyllic childhood, her family lived in a little cottage in the twelveswood and her parents were always supportive, kind, and caring. so much so that she was just fully oblivious to those who gave her family any side looks. Her family lived off the land and were rather self sufficient, they could often be found exploring or tending the garden together. Lea was also a curious child which led to a bit of mischief here and there but her parents were always good about making things teachable moments 😅

8| oh you know, keeping the world from ending ajdhsjdgs but non-wol goals....it would be little things like really nailing down every friends favorite tea blend (estinien she's coming for you). just, figuring out the little things that make the people she cares about happy.

9| Her family made lots of herbal remedies and would sell them around the twelveswood! never for much, and they would trade instead if gil wasn't an option for whoever needed it, eventually they were able to set up pop up stalls in the city states as well. Lea continued with it after her father died and her mother went missing, though now she does it more as a hobby and just to help folks out.

10| She's fond of foods like, pastries filled with meat and/or vegetables, stews with fresh bread, savory pies. she particularly loves honey muffins, as her family made them often and has a soft spot for hit chocolate on cold days.

11| big obvious worse fear would be not saving everyone, failing as the wol, losing more people she loves. she's not really afraid of a whole lot otherwise tbh, she's not a fan of super small spaces and overly loud noises but they're not really full phobias

12| Lea's an avid gardener (obvs), which she uses for her homemade tea blends and for baking, she definitely makes the eorzean equivalent of those fancy focaccia breads. she loves reading and dabbles in drawing but she's not super good at it, they're more just additions to brighten up her journals.

13| "I'm a healer but....." she will heal your wounds but also don't underestimate her because she can and will also throw violent forces of nature at you

14| She's always had an uncanny knack for anything nature related; things like knowing what's safe to eat, what's good for medicines, as well as having a way with animals. She just seemed to know, which would alarm her parents on occasion as she would often just pick up things like mushrooms off the forest floor and pop them into her mouth 😅

15| She is a native eorzean, born and raised in the twelveswood!

16| Her father, Alden, had been a part of the Wood Wailers and met her mother, Ophelie, when she was working as a waitress at the Carline Canopy. They fell in love and settled down in a cottage in the Twelveswood. Her father was called back to fight the Garlean forces during the Calamity and, like many others, lost his life. Her mother was taken by the Amalj'aa on a trip to sell wares in Ul'dah, was tempered, and ultimately died during the conflict with Ifrit.

17| Lea is an only child!

18| No other family either! except that found family of course

19| Romantic love, platonic love, both are extremely important to her. Her parents' love for each other set her standards pretty high for romantic love, but she's definitely not stingy about her love for her friends. She doesn't seek out romance though, she prefers it to evolve from a great friendship

20| She's not adverse to sex, but It's not something that's really on her mind, nor does she really seek it out. She prefers it to come from a deep personal connection.

21| Gil isn't terribly important to her, her family always had what they needed or were able to trade for it. As an adult she doesn't spend frivolously and is good about saving if she really, REALLY wants something special. Having seen what she has of the world now though, she's definitely not a fan of the negative effects it can have on people.

22| Like most natives of Gridania and the Twelveswood, her family worshiped Nophica. She's lost a lot of her faith on her wol journey, but she still occasionally recites Nophica's hymn, a comfort that reminds her of her childhood and of home.

23| If she has enemies other than the classic wol enemies, she doesn't know they are enemies 😅

24| Her parents were big role models for her, and Mother Miounne as well. A-Towa-Cant became a big inspiration once she really started on the White Mage path.

25|  She has plenty of fond memories, afternoons spent learning from her parents, tending the garden with them, foraging and exploring in the forest, and being read bedtime stories. Memories of first eating one of Mother Miounne's eel pies, and later how she took care of her when she was a fledgling adventurer. Nights spent with the Scions after a long day's work. She's good at finding remembering the small, good moments despite the hardships.

26| Something, something she just cares TOO MUCH. but more seriously I suppose she can be a bit naive at times, mostly out of the hope that the world is ultimately a good place. While she's become rather graceful in combat, she does have a clumsy streak in everyday life.

27| Lea believes in kindness and fairness and understanding. she believes in generosity, in hope. like previously mentioned this can lead to her being naive at times, but she's not willing to let hardships strip her of these beliefs.

28| it would be easy to hate the beast tribes, considering her mother's death, but she doesn't hate them. how could she hate the many for the actions of the few? she's definitely on y'shtola's side of the fence.

29| like fond memories, she has plenty of regrets too. every death weighs heavy. the most recent however, being that the cure for tempering was found too late to help her mother. she's ecstatic they found a cure at all, of course, but there's always a tinge of what if? then she feels bad for thinking it at all

30| can't really think of any secrets she has at the moment! she perhaps hides her more negative emotions as they arise, but she's getting better at not bottling them up.

[kenbunshokus]

this is a (super late) update to this fic rec post! i was planning to just keep editing and updating that post, but it’s been so old it no longer appears on tumblr search system and all, so here we are. be ready for some old school zosans in the mix

all complete

absolute favorites will be noted with a ♡

list will be updated as i find more

story count: 30 fics

last update: jan 5th 2020

CANON-VERSE

Goings On by clarify  ♡

Zoro and Sanji understand each other, and sometimes have a very similar sense of humor. Even though they're worlds ahead of most, sometimes they can't help but to act their age.

easily one of my favorites. zoro and sanji are completely in character, being themselves and comfortable in each other’s spaces. for anyone who thinks zoro and sanji can’t get along in canon, this fic can easily prove them wrong.

Part Timer by 8ball ♡♡

Sanji really, really doesn't want to give Zoro a job at his restaurant. Zoro doesn't really even want to work there in the first place, but, well, there’s this thing with Sanji, and this thing with feelings and the whole thing is pretty damn stupid all together.

Zeff just wants grandkids. He’s too old for this bullshit anyways.

a wonderful, heart-wrenching, roller coaster ride of a post-series fic. this fic is not just a mere fic — it’s a zosan magnum opus with guest appearances by so many other characters, lots of crew hijinks and a must-read for everyone who craves for a happy ending for these good boys.

Say It Again by 8ball

Zoro tells Sanji how he feels. And then again. And again. 

since we’re talking about 8ball i just want you to know i’d rec everything they’ve ever written, but special mention to say it again — a classic miscommunication trope fic done well where the miscommunication stems from fundamental misunderstanding of each other’s principles and views instead of just some plot-convenient coincidences. and soft zoro. god, he is soft.

The Wedding Night by cuethe-pulse (lj)

Zoro had never expected any of this.

major character death warning. don’t let the first few scenes fool you. note the warning; the last few lines were like a punch in the gut for me, except, you know, the good kind of punch. also, a quick rec of a drabble by the same author to soothe the pain after this one.

Roronoa Zoro: World’s Greatest Bug Killer by insaneidiot ♡

Sometimes, Zoro's life really sucks. He should've known better than to make fun of Sanji's bug phobia, though...

zoro’s internal monologue is hilarious  — until today, this author is still my go-to expert on zoro’s voice, especially his more sarcastic side.

Quitting’s Easy by insaneidiot

Sanji decides to quit smoking. This is not quite so easy as he thinks it will be. Also, his crewmates (excluding Robin and Nami, of course!) are assholes.

fun, fun strawhat hijinks and oblivious sanji. the crew dynamics and especially sanji’s voice are pitch perfect. there’s a hint of luffy/nami that you can easily scroll past if it’s not your thing.

I can’t stop thinking that i can’t stop thinking by hieiandshino ♡

In which Brook changes tactics and Zoro is not amused. Everyone else is, though.

holy shit is this fic hilarious. i love comedy fics that manage to slip in thoughtful observations and character study in between the hijinks, and this fic pulls that off with flying colors. 

The Walls See All by threesipsmore

Reiju hides a snail cam in her brother's room.

fun short fic from reiju’s pov. there’s never enough zosan set in whole cake island arc and this fic delivers.

Stormbird by Judin ♡

The Straw Hats' first landing in the New World is on Arashi Island, where it looks like they'll be spending a fun week attending the local festival and making new friends. Until they spot a strange pirate ship in the harbour, and Sanji starts behaving oddly. The Straw Hats become entangled with the mysterious Gently Pirates, a crew that harbour many secrets, and whose captain is a man out of Sanji's past who has the power to tear the Straw Hat crew apart. 

it cannot be overstated how wonderful this fic is, and how it could’ve fit into the canon just nicely, like a better-written one piece movie, except with zosan. not only are sanji and zoro in character, every strawhat gets a spotlight and has pitch-perfect voices. brook is especially lovely in this fic.

Unintended Consequence by itsmylifekay

A group of marines charge, Zoro slices through them, and in that instant Sanji feels his own eyes grow wide. Because there, on the arm now outstretched towards him, steel glinting in hand, is the stupid bracelet he’d given Zoro. The bastard is actually wearing it.

there’s a reason this is the most kudo-ed zosan fic on ao3 right now — it’s so soft without being ooc, and there’s a quiet undercurrent of affection laid throughout the fic that will warm you up from the insides.

Somewhere Between Sorrow and Bliss by srididdledeedee

Sanji has never cared for winter.

He can see himself, is the thing. There are bits and pieces that poke through, but it’s not all him. It’s like staring in a fractured mirror. He knows, intellectually, that the person staring back at him is himself, but his face is splintered and his shape is distorted and his body is wrong.

a fantastic character study on trans!sanji and how he comes to terms with his identity with the help of his crewmates. supportive strawhats are always a lovely addition to a zosan fic

Give In To Love by libbylune

Zoro knows better than to think about it too much, but between the rowdy festivals and ancient unexplained temples on this island, it's hard to forget about wanting Sanji.

i love how this fic puts as much focus on the boys after the confession as it does before the confession. a good case fic with its own unique island adventure and i’m always a sucker for soft!zoro

Laundry by libbylune

Dealing with Sanji makes Zoro develop a lot of opinions about clothes.

there’s absolutely nothing hotter than bi!sanji who’s completely comfortable with his gender identity and sexuality. also gay disaster zoro fumbling his words whenever sanji is around is 1) accurate 2) hilarious.

Language of Swords by HaveMyWeedCookies ♡

It took them for a while but finally, Zoro asked if Sanji wanted to hold his sword.

i love fics that explore zoro’s relationship with his craft and his swords, and adding zosan into the mix is something i didn’t know i needed. an interesting outsiders pov zosan in the pov of zoro’s swords.

Ghost of a Chance by sabershadowkat

“I know, for sure, that I didn’t expect to miss everyone so much, including you.” Sanji cut a glance at Zoro and rephrased correctly, “Especially you.”

this fic handles tropes that are usually associated with character death fics, but manages to end it with a happy ending. zoro’s devotion here is heart-wrenching.

Idiot Romance by sabershadowkat

"This has to be a joke," Sanji muttered, poking at the colored petals. Zoro couldn't have just given him flowers.

a classic  — this is literally the first zosan fic i’ve ever read — and a lovely one at that. sanji is oblivious and zoro attempts romance, not that zoro ever needed to.

festival night by thisislegit

“ANOTHER FEAT BY THE WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN, JORIRI.” The woman turned to Mr. Mohawk and with faux sympathy said, “Oh! Sorry, sir. Maybe next time. We can’t always beat the best, but we can do our best and that’s what matters. Do we have any other takers? ANY OTHER TAKERS READY FOR THE STRONG MAN CHALLENGE? HOW ABOUT YOU SIR? MADAM? YOU OVER THERE? ARE YOU INTERESTED?”

“What kind of shit name is Joriri,” said Zoro and Sanji in unison.

i’m an absolute sucker for fics that have zoro and sanji simply hanging out and enjoying each other’s company, comfortable in a way they couldn’t with their other crewmates, and this fic exemplifies that. just them being little shits and having fun with one another.

No Victory in Hesitation & the Past Has Its Lessons by EudaimonErisornae & vageege

Zoro has a lot of things he wants to say to Sanji, but he just needs one more day. || Zoro tries to fix a mistake he made in the past.

major character death warning. i died a little bit inside after reading this tbh. there are some devil fruits-explained time travel hijinks, but mostly it’s this looming, grim inevitability of death that’s written so pervasively throughout the fic that really got me.

Imperatives by dollcewrites

Zoro is confident in saying that Sanji is a man who doesn’t do what he’s told. Which is why, when a command accidentally slips from Zoro’s lips during foreplay, he is expecting to hear the cook’s scoff as he continues to do what he pleases.

i don’t tend to do pwp, but this isn’t just one — it’s a completely in-character piece about their relationship and dynamics.

when you say by bluewalk ♡

It's a long time in coming. Usopp can promise, but.

this fic is as much sanuso as it is zosan, and usopp here is — still very much usopp, but also a very beautiful take on his character as someone who spent a lot of time behind sanji’s back, and realizes that when he watches sanji’s back, he gets to see zoro’s, too.

a complete guide to falling in love by ThousandSunny

Sanji was trained in the Bridal Arts; this does not go unnoticed by the rest of his crew.

while the main ship is still zosan, the fic also focuses a lot on zoro and sanji’s relationship with the rest of the crew, and it’s one of those fics that really makes you realize how much of a family the strawhats is. a lovely read all around.

destructivity is a poison that run through our veins by wasteofmind

Zoro thinks that, someday, they are going to kill each other.

a dysfunctional take of their relationship. it’s fascinating in the same way a car crash is fascinating  — there’s an undercurrent of something violent, something visceral. this is one of the fics that inspired me to write migratory animals.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Ocean’s Child by 8ball  ♡

Here's the truth: Zoro couldn't swim. He fell in the water and sank like a stone because there had never been anyone to teach him how to move his arms. He forgot that if he screamed for help the water would get in his mouth, and he even opening his eyes hurt.

Here’s the other truth, the one that stays a secret: a mermaid saved him.

a fascinating retelling of the one piece canon with mermaid!sanji. it feels a lot like a love letter to the seas, and it’s mesmerizing how sanji’s mermaid backstory is seamlessly weaved into the one piece canon.

with you by Cirro

How to find your life partner in three easy steps: 1. Punch them in the face 2. Insult their cognitive abilities 3. Embarrass them so much they agree to marry you

a wholesome two-part modern au series. my personal favorite is the second part, where sanji brings zoro home to meet zeff — complete with the two of them teasing sanji in their own ways.

The Proper Reaction (or What To Do When Your Son Brings His Boyfriend Home by three_days_late

Holidays at the Baratie were always hectic, but it's nothing Zeff can't handle. Sanji's new boyfriend, on the other hand...

on the topic of meet-the-family: the only thing more fun than zoro meeting zeff is zoro meeting zeff and the entirety of baratie staff. also includes one of my favorite line about bi!sanji: “sanji loves nice girls and bad boys”.

Exclusive by cuethe-pulse

Zoro loves Sanji, Sanji loves Zoro. Zoro wants to be exclusive, so Sanji should, too. Right?

this is a circus/bakery au. yes, you read that right, and yes, it works. i went into this fic with a lot of doubts and came out very satisfied with how fleshed out everyone in this au is, and i’m forever in awe with how the author can set up an entirely separate, vivid universe with so few words.

Delivery by styx_in_the_mud

Sanji is stuck delivering pizzas when Patty is out of commission for a while. Zoro likes to order pizza after training. Both of them are sort of idiots, but Zoro can be smooth as fuck if he puts his mind to it.

a fun, in-character au with good ol’ banter and cute get-together.

The End of It All by xpiester333xx

Humans have been forced underground due to the effects of a chemical weapon that has made surface life impossible. Sanji lives in one of these underground colonies and though he dreams of bigger things his life has been mundane; spent following strict rules and obeying higher commands. Or it was, until a stranger shows up and changes everything.

the author labelled it as sci-fi au, but I personally think it’s more dystopian-like? either way, while this fic is on the long side, it manages to keep everyone in character until the very end, which is something that can’t be said for a lot of fics.

well, there we go! feel free to drop me an ask if you want to rec me fics or ask for a more specific/themed rec list; i’ll also update this post regularly !!

i also have an ao3 donutsandcoffee if you want to see my take on these dorks o/

[princess-mei]

Mei 美美 Qin – Character Sheet

it’s like everything you say is a sweet revelation / all i wanna do is get into your head / yeah we could stay alone, you and me and this temptation / sipping on your lips, hanging on by a thread, baby

late night watching television / but how’d we get in this position / it’s way too soon, i know this isn’t love (no) / but i need to tell you something

i really really really really really really like you / and i want you, do you want me, do you want me too?

Archetype — The Explorer Birthday — July 9th, 2002 Zodiac Sign — Year of the Horse, Rising Leo, Sun in Cancer, Moon in Cancer MBTI — ENFP Enneagram — 2, the Helper Temperament — Sanguine Hogwarts House — Gryffindor Moral Alignment — Chaotic Good Primary Vice — Lust Primary Virtue — Charity Element — Water/Fire (she’s a Water Horse, so she definitely identifies with that but in Western tradition she is Fire.)

Overview:

Mother — Tanya Qin Father — Peng Qin Mother’s Occupation — Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco Chronicle Father’s Occupation — financial diviner Family Finances — wealthy Birth Order — middle Brothers —  none Sisters — Ting-Ting (Gemma Chan, May 13, 1993), Su (January 22, 2003) Other Close Family — close to their mother’s side, father’s side lives in China, but they’ve taken trips to see them once or twice. do not have any cousins/aunts/uncles, but close to their grandparents. Best Friend — Daisy Zanetti, they grew up together. Met in school and were thick as thieves right away. Daisy is a half-fairy, so they both understood the whole “half” background thing. Other Friends — Lots and lots of friends~ Enemies — There was probably like one Mean Girl that Mei was always antagonizing and who was always antagonizing her. Pets — None. Home Life During Childhood — Relatively happy. Has nice, loving parents. Did a lot of Family Activities, since that was important. Mother was busy a lot with work, but her father was around a lot and Ting-Ting was always around (until she went to school.) Town or City Name(s) — San Francisco, CA What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — Posters everywhere! Very personalized and customized. Lots of reds and golds. Probably had like one of those net things around her bed. Always very messy, because Mei starts a project and then just jumps to the next. Lots of natural light too probably. Any Sports or Clubs — Dance and Gymnastics. Mei has kept up with both of these throughout the year. Does both ballet and hip hop. Her favorite gymnastics is rhythmics. Favorite Toy or Game — She wouldn’t consider it a toy or game, of course, but loves doing tarot and tea readings. Also enjoys a good board game, is very competitive though. Schooling — Public school. Favorite Subject — Physical Education ?? Maybe literature. Art classes… Popular or Loner — Decently popular. She wasn’t one of the people that everyone knew but she had a wide circle of friends. Important Experiences or Events — Discovering she had divination skills. Deciding her specialization. Moving to Swynlake! Nationality — American Culture — Chinese-American Religion and beliefs — Spiritual, borrowing from a spread of Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese folklore, and Confucianism.

Physical Appearance:

Face Claim — Cheng Xiao Complexion — Fair-skinned Hair Colour — Naturally a dark brown, but she dyes it a lot! Eye Colour — Dark brown. Height — 5’6 Build — Athletic, but slim. Tattoos — None. Piercings — Ears. Common Hairstyle — Likes to braid it or put it in two buns. Does a lot of half-up/half-down hairstyles. Clothing Style — Chic and trendy, lots of colors and patterns. Mannerisms — Very bouncy, doesn’t sit still much. Twirls her hair around her finger a lot. Usual Expression —

Health:

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — Pretty healthy! I’m sure this is due to Ting-Ting constantly balancing her Yin-Yang Physical Ailments — None. Neurological Conditions — None. Allergies — None! Grooming Habits — Rather good. Takes a lot of care with her appearance. Always makes sure to moisturize and exfoliate and change out of sweaty clothes. Sleeping Habits — Average. Eating Habits — Eats a lot because Su is constantly making things, but can forget meals if she is distracted or concentrating. Exercise Habits —  Exercises a lot! Does all sorts of things like pilates and swimming and jogging. Emotional Stability — I give her a 7/10, she loses points for being a stubborn, unreasonable teenager and for her temper, but otherwise is pretty even-keeled. Body Temperature — Average. Sociability — Very social! Loves surrounding herself with people. Addictions — Love? Drug Use — None, we will see. Alcohol Use — Has gone to parties where she’s drank before, but not often.

Your Character’s Character:

Bad Habits — Interrupting people, bouncing from topic to topic, meddling in things that she shouldn’t, talking back, being a general nuisance. Good Habits — Very kind, very caring. Wants to take care of all her people. Strong moral compass. Best Characteristic — Her certainty. Worst Characteristic — Her stubbornness. Worst Memory — Being told she would have to move to Swynlake. Best Memory — When her father told her that he was proud of her for completing her studies for being a sorcerer and accepting an apprenticeship. Proud of — Her magic, her family history, her looks, her sporting ability. Embarrassed by — Not much, probably the fact she isn’t very good at school. Driving Style — Probably was just learning how to drive. A speed demon, but surprisingly a good driver. Strong Points — Her moral center and her big heart. Temperament — Can be explosive, but general soft and sweet. Attitude — Generally positive. Weakness — Not knowing what she wants. Fears — Not knowing what she’s going to do with her life. Phobias — Anything unlucky, though I wouldn’t call it a phobia, more of a cautious regard. Secrets — None really? She doesn’t keep much from people. She’s very “This Is Who I am. Fight Me.” Regrets — Having to leave Swynlake. Feels Vulnerable When — People are angry or upset with her, she’s not following her heart. Pet Peeves — Being told she’s wrong, lol. Conflicts — Duty to Family v Duty to Heart Motivation — Following her heart. Short Term Goals and Hopes — Make friends and something out of her life in Swynlake. Long Term Goals and Hopes — Figure out what she wants to do with her life. Sexuality — As-is she is straight, but this can change. Day or Night Person — Day Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert. Optimist or Pessimist — Optimist except she can be really sour when things don’t go her way.

Likes and Styles:

Music — Oh, gosh–where to start? Mei loves love songs, of course. Big fan of Elton John, Elvis Presley, Celine Dion, etc etc. She also loves modern stuff, of course. Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ed Sheeran…if she’s really feeling it some Florence and the Machine. Loves KPop too. I’ll let Lauryl tell me who she stans. (Is that the phrase I feel like there is a phrase.) Anyway, anything that is love related, she’ll give it a listen. Books — Doesn’t actually like reading that much, tbh. Doesn’t hold her interest. Magazines — Do people read magazines anymore? Does Buzzfeed count as a magazine? Probably giggles over Cosmopolitan. Foods — Sweets! Chocolate is her favorite, but she likes licorice a lot too. Is one of those weird people that likes black licorice. Also, loves a good rice pudding. That’s probably her favorite dessert. She also loves chicken, any kind of chicken–she doesn’t care what you put it in or what you put on it. Isn’t much of a picky eater. Actually really enjoys being adventurous with her food. Drinks — Green tea, green tea, green tea! Mei loves tea, especially iced. She also surprisingly likes salt soda water–she goes back and forth on sweet and savory. Sometimes, she just really wants salt soda water because it is just crisp and refreshing and wakes her back-up and reorients her yin-yang when she needs it. Animals — Elephants! Mei loves elephants. She’s that girl that has like elephant shirts and an elephant backpack and an elephant stuffed animal probably. They have such a high emotional capacity and Mei really respects them for this. They are also just so cute with their floppy ears and their soft, sweet eyes! Loves birds too as most of them are symbols of good luck and good tidings–besides owls, which are harbingers of death. Sports — Gymnastics and dance. Social Issues — Magick Rights is the biggest one. Also feminism. Also all the “main” issues. Favorite Saying — “Better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness” - Chinese Proverb Color — Golds, yellows, reds, blues are her favourites. She loves gold because it is a Classy color. Most of her jewelry is gold. She loves yellow because it is bright and happy! Red is lucky in Chinese culture and it always reminds her of times like New Year’s! Also, it is the color of passion and love. Blues she likes because they are calming and gentle.  These are her lucky colors. She also loves pink, even though it is technically a color that she should avoid. Really hates white, because she doesn’t like what a blank slate it is. Also, hates brown because it is an icky boring color. As you can see, she has a lot of Opinions on colors. Clothing —Chic and trendy, lots of colors and patterns. Jewelry — Loves it! Wears mostly gold. Probably has a few staple pieces but then exchanges things depending on her mood. Websites — Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter etc etc TV Shows — CW shows and K/Cdramas Movies — All the great love classics: Gone with the Wind, the Titanic, When Harry Met Sally, Roman Holiday, all of Audrey Hepburn probably, the Notebook, Singing in the Rain…I could go on and on. She loves movies that tug at the heart strings and are full of that wild, amazing, passionate kind of love. They always make her swoon and if she is choosing a movie for movie night, you know it’s gonna be a romantic tearjerker. Though, she also likes romcoms. Doesn’t like action movies or horror movies or anything too intense, they freak her out Greatest Want — To figure out what to do with her life. Greatest Need — To grow up and learn things aren’t all about her, lmao.

Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:

Home — A three bedroom apartment with Ting-Ting and Su. Household furnishings — Rather plain at the moment, but will probably grow cozy as they settle in. Favorite Possession — Her pseudogrimoire where she writes down all the signs and stuff that she sees and puzzles out the meaning to. Most Cherished Possession — Her wand, which is a fan that was her mother’s, her mother gave it to her and her father and Ting-Ting help her imbibe it with magic. Neighborhood — Tortuga Place Married Before — No Significant Other Before — Non-serious boyfriends and Serious crushes Children — She iS a child Relationship with Family — Very close with her dad, even though he’s always yelling at her and being disappointed in her. They have a lot in common and she loves him. Her and her mother also get along more or less, she’s less stringent than her dad. Ting-Ting and her probably have the most contentious relationship, but even that hasn’t been that bad really. Mostly Mei being a nosy, annoying little sister. It will get more intense now that Ting-Ting is the authority figure and Mei is pissed about their situation. Su and Mei get along more or less well, they annoy each other, as sisters are wont to do, but Mei would def consider Su one of her best friends. Car — None. Career — Student Dream Career — She doesn’t know !! Dream Life — Married, with children, though she doesn’t know what she wants out of a career. Love Life — Nonexistant, which pisses her off. Talents or Skills — Excellent gymnast and very good with her magic. Intelligence Level — Decently intelligent, has street smarts, tbh. Very sharp in conversation. Finances — Wealthy

[michelleplayswithfire]

3: 3 Fears: flying, heights and being homeless

4: 3 things I love: music, true crime and the 80s

5: 4 turns on: new wave, george ezra, music, and hearing bass grooves

6: 4 turns off: manipulators, abusers, men and of course, men (and no, I'm not gay)

7: My best friend: @georgesparadise

8: Which part of the world are you from? USA

11: What do I miss? NYC

13: Favorite color? black and sometimes pink

14: Do I have a crush? George Ezra

15: Favorite quote? Roses are red, violets are blue, George Ezra's great, let's watch some kung fu

16: Favorite place: NYC

17: Favorite food? NYC pizza

18: Do I use sarcasm? Extremely

19: What am I listening to right now? Nothing

20: First thing I notice in new person? Great smile

24: Favorite style of clothing? Sports-like casual: something sporty spice would wear

25: Ever done a prank call? No

27: Meaning behind my URL? Because I'm a spitfire if you mess with me

28: Favorite movie? Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

29: Favorite song? The Politics of Dancing

30: Favorite band? Depeche Mode

31: How I feel right now? Good

32: Someone I love? George

33: My current relationship status? George

34: My relationship with my parents? My mom's dead

35: Favorite holiday? Halloween

36: Tattoos and piercing i have? None

37: Tattoos and piercing i want? a butterfly on my right shoulder, something on my thigh, but I'm not sure yet

38: The reason I joined Tumblr? Because I liked it. Actually it's a long story, goes back to 2012

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? I don't care

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? No :(

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? Ew no

42: When did I last hold hands? January :/

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? between 20 minutes to an hour

44: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? yes

45: Where am I right now? home

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? ????

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? loud with headphones on

49: Am I excited for anything? yes

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? my good friend from england

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? never

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? ???

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? I don't care! I told you, I don't like men!

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? what?

55: What is something I disliked about today? Men

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? George Ezra

57: What do I think about most? George Ezra

58: What’s my strangest talent? ???

59: Do I have any strange phobias? ???

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Both

61: What was the last lie I told? That I didn't eat my roommate's bags of chips

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? Neither lol

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Ghosts yes, aliens no

64: Do I believe in magic? Yes

65: Do I believe in luck? Yes

66: What's the weather like right now? Sunny but chilly

67: What was the last book I've read? Python programming book

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? Yes

69: Do I have any nicknames? Shelidee

70: What was the worst injury I've ever had? ????

71: Do I spend money or save it? Both

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? No

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? Strawberry lemonade

74: Favorite animal? black panther (see what i did there?)

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? sleeping

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? ?????

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? Anything that George Ezra puts out EXCEPT Shotgun

78: How can you win my heart? Buy me a trip to London

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? There in lies the girl who liked the 80s too much

80: What is my favorite word? syzygy

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr: @georgesparadise and 4 others

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? I want to meet George Ezra very badly

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? ????

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? I'm not... answering this one...

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? ????

86: What is my current desktop picture? anything rainbow-colored it changes every few minutes or so

87: Had sex? Men are stupid

88: Bought condoms? Men are stupid

89: Gotten pregnant? Men are stupid

90: Failed a class? Not in high school but in college, yes :(

91: Kissed a boy? Boys are stupid

92: Kissed a girl? Girls are worse (i'll explain later)

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? No

94: Had job? I just got hired

95: Left the house without my wallet? no

96: Bullied someone on the internet? yes

97: Had sex in public? men are stupid and probably gross

98: Played on a sports team? no

99: Smoked weed? no

100: Did drugs? no

101: Smoked cigarettes? no

102: Drank alcohol? yes

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? I respect them totally but no i am neither

104: Been overweight? yes

105: Been underweight? no

106: Been to a wedding? yes

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? yes

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? yes

109: Been outside my home country? yes

110: Gotten my heartbroken? men are soooo stupid but no

111: Been to a professional sports game? yes

112: Broken a bone? no

113: Cut myself? yes

114: Been to prom? yes

115: Been in an airplane? yes

116: Fly by helicopter? no

117: What concerts have I been to? Franz Ferdinand, The Specials, NIN, Gary Numan, Janet Jackson (twice)... I love concerts

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? yes but i'm not telling you who

119: Learned another language? Yes i'm semi-fluent in french

120: Wore make up? Yes

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18? Not answering this one

122: Had oral sex? Yes

123: Dyed my hair? Yes

124: Voted in a presidential election? Yes

125: Rode in an ambulance? Yes

126: Had a surgery? No

127: Met someone famous? It's... complicated

128: Stalked someone on a social network? Yes

129: Peed outside? No ew

130: Been fishing? Not really

131: Helped with charity? Yes

132: Been rejected by a crush? Yes :(

133: Broken a mirror? Yes

134: What do I want for birthday? George Ezra

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Toxel and Toxtricity

848: Toxel

Mmmmmm. I don't remember if I've ever said it in this review series, but I have a really bad repulsion to babies. Toxel isn't exactly being an exception here. Combination of the baby fat in the cheeks and lips and dumb little oversized head and its tongue and its bald-looking lightly misshapen head and AUGH. No sirree, Toxel had a snowball's chance in hell for falling into my good graces just from being so heavily baby-based alone.

It doesn't help that it has a diaper and... oh no... is that why it's Poison type? Please don't tell me that's why it's Poison type. Oh god I dreaded what this thing might turn into when it evolved, and I probably only would've evolved it because my own sister was insistent I keep this horrible little slime goblin around to see what it turns into.

Maybe, just MAYBE I'm being a little too harsh on Toxel, maybe not any of its features are inherently bad but that's just too bad for me I guess. I just had to be a kid in the 90s when a cartoon that was big at the time just happened to air an episode that highlighted all the gross things about babies all at once in a nightmarish context that gave me a goddang phobia of the friggin things as a child. While I don’t really have a crippling fear of them anymore I sure as hell don’t wanna go near one if I can help it. Maybe I'd be writing a very different review right now if a show like that didn't ruin babies forever for me but I guess we'll just never know. And I can’t say I’d ever be very affectionate to a Pokemon that instantly made me think of a scene that scared the ever-loving shit out of me as a kid thank you very much.

...Other than... ALL that... Toxel doesn't have anything going for it anyways. Poison/Electric is a neat typing that was feeling like it was going to waste because it's just some purple thing with a spark of electricity glued to its forehead I guess because they didn't think it looked “Electric” enough. I don't even like the grumpy face cause it's still very babyish. At least in this context... plant these grumpy eyes on literally anything else and I'd probably be all for it but euch. EUCH. The only advantage it really has going is that it’s fairly non-descript as an animal so it looks fairly solidly just-a-monster in a Gen 1 sorta way. But other than that...

Personal Score: 2/10

849: Toxtricity

...How the hell did one of my new least favorite Pokemon of all time suddenly become my top favorite in all of Galar???? Well, whatever. Be careful who you call ugly in preschool, I guess.

Gamefreak must've known they had a hit on their hands with this one, I'm surprised it was a Pokemon they kept secret until the game came out given how much it's skyrocketed into popularity (Striking number 2 in Gen 8 in the Pokemon of the Year polls, only just behind Galar's pseudo legendary). It's definitely at least pushed like one of the flagship Pokemon of Galar, with statues dedicated to it and its own G-Max form that they felt the need to keep further under wraps until very recently, only teasing its appearance as a hill figure. You're even handed a free Toxel at the Daycare. Frankly I'm alarmed no major character even has one on their team!

But this design in general totally is one of the stars of the show in Gen 8. While it definitely lifts aspects of salamanders and other amphibians into its design, it feels a lot like the classic “just a monster��� type design from Pokemon's early days. The way they anthropomorphize it is neat too. It has an overall comical body structure with a long neck, lanky long arms and amusingly tiny legs.

Its face is also great. The tired, dreary eyes are cool and it thankfully turned that badly implemented bolt feature from Toxel into a full on electric mohawk! The head spikes are also neat, especially at the angle it holds its head back in its default pose ingame, it sorta evokes the look of the head of an electric guitar.

And that right there's the whole aesthetic of Toxtricity, of course! They're punk rockers! All covered in spikes and everything, even right down to having spiked belt. The little wart-like bulges on its chest are also doubling as guitar strings! There's plenty animations where it strums them to rock out, mohawk lighting up and everything. It strums these warts to generate electricity and make a ton of noise while it does so. That's such a cool way to incorporate an object into a naturalistic element on an animal. I like my objectmon and monsters with on the nose object motifs quite a bit myself, but it's cool that Toxtricity managed to fit an element as specific as an electric guitar's strings into an animal that would normally have no business having such an element but it just works.

And I can understand not everybody digs that color scheme; fairly bright purple and yellow is brave, to say the least, but I'd say it works! Even if I'm oddly enough, kind of a fan of color schemes other people might consider garish, you could say it just works because Toxtricity as a punk rocker is all about tearing down the norms, man. It also helps to make it look far more lively than its more mellowed out cousin.

Which, by the way, Toxtricity has a form gimmick too. A pretty unique one at that, and now that they've had it happen I'm surprised it's only happened just now, but what form your Toxel becomes depends on what Nature it is. The more excitable, energetic sounding natures will become the Amped form above, while the more chill or relaxed sounding natures will become the “Low Key” form.

At first, you'd wonder what that has to do with punk rock and why Toxtricity out of all the band-themed Pokemon we've already had up to this point, but a closer inspection highlights that Low Key is more of a bass as opposed to Amped as a guitar. They even have bumps mirroring their respective instruments! Amped has six just like an electric guitar has six strings, while Low Key has four, just like an electric bass has four strings! Low Key even seems to have a slightly longer neck than Amped form does, again, just like how basses have longer necks compared to guitars! It really is so much fun how much mileage they're getting out of the visual theming here. It’s really cool how we got a Pokemon that imitates an inanimate object in a way that’s totally organic and natural-looking way.

To tie all the theming up in a nice bow, they have a unique ability called Punk Rock, which increases the damage their sound-based moves do while halving the damage they take from the same kind of moves. Given that there's some Pokemon that are outright deaf with the ability Soundproof, it's easy to assume that Toxtricity unfortunately suffers from hearing loss. They can still hear, just not as well. Indeed, right under natural aging, the number 2 cause of hearing loss is listening to music too loudly. Much like punks are one to do. Turn down your music, kids!

That said, if I had to pick just one, I'd easily pick Amped just because it generally looks cooler and has a bolder color scheme. The only thing I'm less than sure on for these two is their “tails”... which rather than being tails are now just stiff extra-large spikes jutting out of their butt. And since I used a Toxtricity on my team, thus was looking at the backside of one for most of the game, yeah, hard to not notice. I would've much preferred a more normal tail that could've also had some spikes around the tip of it if you must carry the punk theming that far.

Also I'm not a fan of their name. “Toxtricity” is just toxic and electricity clumsily mashed together and it doesn't really roll off the tongue. Like, was that really the best localization could come up with?? If I had to take a crack at naming it, I would've called it Punkture or something similar.

Personal Score: 10/10

G-Max Toxtricity:

The two Toxtricities share a G-Max form that incorporates elements from them both. And hmm... I'm not as much of a fan of this G-Max, sadly. It's still cool, don't get me wrong, but the tesla coil look to the tail feels out of place and a bit more “generic electric type” imagery to me compared to all the electric guitar/bass theming the previous two had.

It's also huddled down on all fours. I'm sure some are happy about that much, and it helps differentiate it from its normal-sized self, but I felt like being anthro was a little vital to the line's theming, given it needed some free hands to strum its bumps. The spark eyes are also neat but the tired look just looks more amusing to me. Eh. Just every feature here feels “It's neat and all but the basic forms did it better.”

Oh, wait, there is ONE thing!

Its attack animations sees it pulling a literal electric guitar out and smashing its opponents with it. Now THAT is wicked cool!!

Personal Score: 9.5/10

[Archive]

[sprnklersplashes]

a promise of ice cream

Karen really, really hates needles. But she really, really loves Janis. And ice cream. And the combination of the two of those might just convince her to go through with it. 

Trigger warning for needles+phobia of needles. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Janis chirps, her foot landing on Karen’s window seat as she pulls herself through the open window. “I know your mom doesn’t like me coming in through the window but I parked Sabrina round the side and I cleaned my boots before coming so I won’t get any mud on your seat. Again.” She jumps off the seat and hops over to Karen’s bed. “You know, my aunt dated this guy back in the 80s and she came in through his window at like, 3am. I read it in her diary-�� Her voice trails off. Karen is pressed far into the corner of her wall, hidden behind as many stuffed animals and cushions as she could get her hands on. She’s clutching her oldest and most precious one-the stuffed rabbit she got as a baby-close to her chest, and the giant floppy dog Janis won her at the carnival a few weeks ago is stretched across her lap like a barrier between her and the cruel outside world. Amidst the mountain of satin and fluff and wool, her face is pretty much the only thing that’s visible, her perfect white teeth biting into her pink lips nearly hard enough to draw blood and her face chalk white, dark smudges under her eyes she didn’t bother hiding with concealer.

She knows why she’s like this. Of course. There’s a reason she came in through the window bright-eyed and bushy tailed and full of enough joy for the both of them, even if cheer is normally Karen’s forte. Because today’s the day Karen’s getting a needle.

There was no getting around her mom. She had given Karen most of her shots as a baby and in school, but her dumb anti vax dad and stepmom (sweet lord, the stepmom) refused to let her get her ovarian cancer shot and hid the leaflet from her mom, distracting Karen and telling her it wasn’t that important anyway. Now her dad’s out of her life for good and Jen has checked Karen’s medical records and tried to break it to Karen as gently as possible that she needed another shot.

Apparently, it hadn’t been pretty. Apparently it had involved Karen screaming, really, truly screaming and crying, dropping to the ground and begging, begging her mom not to make her go through with it. But Jen refused, of course. Karen and her health mean absolutely everything and then some to her mom. Janis can relate, of course.

And Janis is the only reason Karen has agreed to go. That’s the deal; Karen will go to the Evil Doctor (her words, not Janis’) as long as Janis goes with her to hold her hand and they have snuggle time later (again, Karen’s words). Janis didn’t have any plans for today, but even if she did, she’d cancel them all in a heartbeat to be by Karen’s side.

“Come on, Kare-bear,” she says, reaching past her fortress of fabric to poke her cheek. “The sooner we go the sooner we can come back and cuddle.”

“No.”

“Karen,” she sighs. “I know you don’t want to. But it’s important. It’s so you don’t get sick.”

“Maybe I want to be sick,” she says, a feeble attempt at malice. “Maybe I like being sick. When I got sick last year you came over and watched movies with me.”

“Not this kind of sick, babe,” she tells her, stroking underneath her wide, fearful eyes. She dampens down the impatient flare she feels inside her and scoots up to be as close to Karen as she possibly can. Her heart aches for her, her girlfriend who normally has enough joy to power their school, pushing herself into the bedroom wall in an attempt to make herself disappear and curling in on herself. There’s another, unspoken reason why Karen’s mom allowed Janis to come with them and that’s because Janis is probably the only person able to talk Karen into coming. So she lowers her voice as much as she can, using the soft and gentle tone she reserves for Karen and Karen only. “It’ll only take five minutes and I’ll be right there the whole time, okay?”

“I don’t want to,” she says quietly, holding Bunny closer to her chest. “It’s gonna hurt.”

“I know, darling, I know,” she whispers. “But it’s only going to hurt for a little minute and then it’s all over. And then we can come back and cuddle all day long.” She frowns, her resolve weakening.

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise.” Janis holds out her little finger and Karen, breaking out into a smile, wraps her own baby finger around it.

“You can’t break pinky promises,” she says sternly. The smile drops as soon as it came and her lips roll into a thin line. She takes tight hold of Bunny and begins twisting him around, making Janis worry she might rip his little head off. “Can we get ice cream when we’re done?”

Janis takes a look outside the window; despite the sunshine, February seems reluctant to give way to spring. Grey clouds promise rain and the extra sweater Janis wears on top of her long sleeved shirt and beneath her heavy jacket proved wise. Still, if it makes Karen happy…

“Of course we can,” she promises, dropping a kiss to her nose. “So… are you coming?”

“Yeah.” She pushes her animals away and throws her cushions off her, littering her floor with them. They’ll deal with that when they come back. Her legs are unsteady as she stands and her hair flies off in every direction.

“Come here,” Janis laughs, lifting a comb from Karen’s table. She gently rakes it through her golden locks, running her hand down where she’d finished, and clips the front section back with a sparkly hairclip. She taps the tip of Karen’s nose with her finger. “Beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” she replies, slipping her hand into Janis’. It’s cold and stiff from trying not to shake, but Janis won’t press. Instead she looks back at Karen’s bed, at the abandoned teddies strewn across the covers.

“You know, you can bring Bunny with you,” she says. “I know he makes you feel safe.”

“No,” she says with surprising force. “I don’t need him.”

“You don’t?”

“Nu-uh.” She shakes her head, blonde hair moving to and fro. “Only babies take their toys to the doctor’s. And I’m not a baby.” She looks at Janis sheepishly. “Right?”

“Right,” she echoes, dropping a swift peck on her lips.

Downstairs, Jen paces the kitchen on the phone, regarding the two of them with a brief wave. If she was worried about Janis coming in through the window, she doesn’t show it, too invested in the phone call. By the looks of things, it’s isn’t good, and Janis instinctively pulls Karen closer, her thoughts immediately jumping to Karen’s dad. He may not have contacted them in over a year, but she knows that doesn’t mean he won’t try again.

“No I understand,” Jen says, shooting Janis an apologetic look. “Yes I know it’s important just… Karen’s got a doctor’s appointment now. In ten minutes.” Her voice trails off as the voice on the other end of the phone hammers on, chipping away at Jen’s resolve bit by bit.

“Everything okay Jen?” Janis asks.

“Fine,” she replies in a low voice, turning the phone into her shoulder. “Just emergency clients coming into the office and I didn’t expect to be called in today so I never requested today off and I can’t seem to get out of it-”

“So I don’t need to go!” Karen beams. “We can do it later.”

“Oh, you’re going,” Jen says, running a hand through her hair, the same shade as her daughter’s, but stopping just past her chin. “Maybe if I can push it back or-”

“I can take her,” Janis says, making Jen stop dead in her monologue.

“Janis, no!” Karen hisses in her ear, half-angry, half-desperate.

“Are you sure?” Jen asks.

“Completely. I have my truck so I can drive her.” Karen shakes her head and Janis tries to ignore the fury in her eyes. She’ll be paying for this later, no doubt. Jen on the other hand almost goes weak with relief and comes over to clap Janis on the shoulder.

“Janis Sarkisian,” she says. “Do you save the world every day or just on Saturdays?”

“Only when it’s important.” Beside her, Karen glares daggers at her. Daggers that are probably pink, sparkly and strawberry scented.

“I am not talking to you,” she announces in the truck. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she keeps her face forwards, looking out at the road.

“You just did.”

“Damn it!” she squeaks. “You tricked me.”

“No, no I didn’t.” Karen pouts, keeping her eyes off Janis, and she lets out a sigh, the smirk melting from her face. “Look, Karen, you need to get this shot. It’s important.”

“My dad said it wasn’t!”

“Your dad is an asshole!” Karen shifts in her seat, her eyes moving down to her lap.

“Maybe.”

“Definitely. So your mom needs you to get this shot because your dad didn’t get it for you. And I need you to get this shot because I want you to be healthy because I love you. Okay?” She doesn’t miss how the corners of her mouth turn up at her admission. But she also doesn’t miss how her hand moves seemingly subconsciously to her upper arm, or how her smile drops and her eyes grow wide and how her chest moves as she takes in a slow breath.

“I don’t like them,” she admits in a small voice. “I don’t like how it feels.”

“No one does, Kare-bear,” Janis replies softly. “But I’m going to be there the whole time, okay? You just hold my hand and look into my eyes and it’s over before you know it.” Karen stays quiet and Janis can see the cogs of her mind moving in the unique way they do, a way that’s uniquely Karen. People think she doesn’t understand, but Janis knows she does.

“Can we get ice cream when it’s over?”

“Of course.”

Despite the promise of ice cream, Karen freezes when they pull into the doctor’s office and her steps are slow and fragile as they cross the parking lot. Janis sits her down in the waiting room, slightly crushed at the fact that not even the fashion magazines or colouring books or bright rainbow abacus distracts her. She keeps looking back at her as she checks her in with the nurse. She’s like marble, so white and so still, except for the way her fingers fidget in her lap and for a second Janis actually does consider taking her home, lying to Jen and spending the day watching Karen laugh and hugging her.

She doesn’t, of course, but the temptation is there.

“Karen Smith?” Karen squawks a little at her name. “The nurse is ready for her.”

When Janis tugs on Karen’s hand, she finds it ice cold. She shakes her head, the movements minute, her mouth almost open, protests dying on her lips.

“Hey, hey,” she whispers, tilting Karen’s face to make her look at her. “Remember what I said? Just keep looking at me, just stay with me. It’s okay. Two minutes. One minute, even, okay?” Karen nods, if she could call it that, and rises with Janis, letting her take her down the hall to where the receptionist had guided them. Janis herself doesn’t like doctor’s offices; they’re unnaturally clean and the carpets are ugly and the posters freak her out. But she can handle them well enough, Karen less so. Her nails dig into the back of Janis’ hand, leaving little marks in the skin no matter how much Janis reassures her.

“Hi, Karen,” the nurse greets as they enter her office. That’s another thing Janis doesn’t like about doctors and hospitals; how fake the demeanours are. There’s a big juicy pay check behind every smile. “If you just want to come in here. Your friend can come in too.”

She doesn’t need to guess which one’s which, not with Janis whispering comforts into Karen’s ear and the other girl clinging to Janis like a lifeline.

“Girlfriend,” Karen corrects. Despite the terror leaking through her hand, she manages to puff out her chest a little, a proud smile on her pink lips. “She’s my girlfriend.”

“Coming for moral support?” the nurse teases, not unkindly.

“She promised me ice cream,” she replies, turning to Janis with a grin. It warms Janis to see it, however shaky it is.

“Lovely. So just pop yourself up on the table there for me.” Karen goes over, still mostly with Janis’ help, and lets Janis get her up on the blue table. She can feel the nurse working behind her and makes sure to keep Karen’s eyes on her. “And can you take your little jacket off for me honey?” Karen’s hand brushes over her jacket. Janis was there the day she bought it, cut off below her chest, dyed pink denim and little star-shaped buttons. Karen nearly died when she saw it on the rack.

“I like my jacket,” she replies, her voice cracking.

“I’m sure you do, hon,” the nurse replies, taking a break from preparing her stuff to look over at Karen. “But I just need you to take if off for a second so I can get at your arm, then you can put it back on, okay?”

The word ‘okay’ barely leaves Karen’s lips, but she does as she’s told and takes off the jacket, even if her movements are slow and robotic. Janis brushes her hair away from her shoulder, her arm brushing against her chest as she does so, and she feels the frantic thud of her heart and the shakiness of her shallow breathing. Her shoulders, her whole body is so tense Janis fears she may snap in half. She only has minutes and does what she can, kissing her forehead and telling her she’s okay and running her fingers down her hair, but nothing works.

Then the nurse brings her rickety little metal cart over and Karen dares to look, and she catches sight of the sinister silver tip, glinting in the artificial light.

And she snaps.

“No.” She shakes her head firmly, her shoulders wriggling under Janis’ grasp, her chin wobbling as she starts shaking her head. Her voice starts small, just a fraction of a whisper between her and Janis, but it builds. “No, no, no, no!”

“Hey, hey Karen, look at me.” Karen fights back and she’s pretty sure that if she didn’t have three layers of clothing on, there’d be scratches on her arms. Still, she’s stronger than she is, and manages to at least hold her in place, trapping her legs between hers and taking her shoulders firmly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know you hate it. Just one little pinch and it’s over.”

“I don’t want to,” she whines, tears forming in her eyes and running down her cheeks. Janis bites back some of her own. “I-I don’t want to.”

“I know.” She smooths away her hair. “I know, darling. But just one little pinch and then it’s all over. Remember what I said in the truck. Come on, what did I say?”

“You said… you said um… you said to just hold your hand and look in your eyes and it’ll be over.”

“That’s right. That’s right okay?” She grabs hold of Karen’s hand, trying to give her whatever strength she can. Karen’s eyes move to the side, to where the nurse is, but Janis takes her chin and moves it ever so slightly. “Hey, hey. Don’t look at her look at me, okay? Just look at me. Deep breaths come on. Remember how I taught Gretchen? In for eight, out for eight, okay?” Karen nods, matching her breaths to Janis’ as best she can. Janis rests her forehead against hers, bumping their noses together. “That’s my girl.” As subtlety as she can, she gives a nod to the nurse, who stands awkwardly behind Karen with the needle ready.

When Karen flinches as the nurse wipes down her arm, Janis kisses her forehead.

When Karen gasps when the nurse plunges the needle into her arm, Janis lets her hold her arm as tightly as she needs, breathing steadily against her as the nurse pushes the syringe down as quickly as she can, but not quick enough.

When the nurse presses a little cotton ball into Karen’s arm and fastens it with a little piece of tape, Janis tells Karen that it’s over, whispering how proud she is of her and that it’s over, it’s over, she’s okay.

And when the nurse leaves to let them have a moment of privacy, Janis lets Karen sob into her shoulder.

“I am never, ever doing that again,” Karen declares. They’re stretched out on Karen’s bed, Janis leaning up against the headboard and Karen’s head in her lap, Janis’ hand doing lazy circles on her stomach. On the way home, Janis called into the grocery store to make good on her promise; a pint of mint chip for herself, a pint of raspberry ruffle for Karen and a pint of honeycomb to share.

“Never again,” she agrees through a mouthful of ice cream. It’s not exactly the truth, but it’s the truth Karen needs to hear. “How’s the arm?”

“Hurts.”

“I’m sorry, love,” she says, kissing her fingertip and ghosting it over the spot where the needle had gone in. “Tell me if it gets too sore to move, okay?”

“Janis?”

“Mm-hm?”

“I’m sorry.” Janis sits up to attention, putting her ice cream down, hoping she doesn’t stain the pillow. Karen looks up at the ceiling with wide and guilty eyes, moving Bunny’s ears forwards and backwards.

“You’re sorry?” she asks. “What for?”

“For being scared.”

“Baby-”

“I shouldn’t be scared,” she says. Janis isn’t sure which one of them she’s talking to. “It’s stupid.”

“It is not stupid.” She shifts herself, pulling her legs up, and Karen sits up and crosses her legs, looking at her through a curtain of tangled blonde hair. Janis cups her cheek, trying to find the right words. “Karen… it’s okay to get scared.”

“You never get scared.”

“Yes I do. I’m scared of spiders. And I used to be scared of Regina, remember?” Karen nods and Janis wonders if she’s thinking of the same thing she is; twelve year old Janis hiding in bathrooms and Karen’s conflicted eyes watching her from the other side of the yard. She brushes it off, bringing herself to the here and now.

“You’re not now though. And you’re not scared of needles. Or your dad. Or your grades. Or the dark.” She flicks the star shaped night light mounted on her wall. “You’re always brave. I’m not. And I wish I was.”

“Okay, come here.” Janis pulls her into her arms, Karen finding her favourite spot, nestled into the crook of her neck. “Don’t worry about being brave, Kare bear. I’ll be brave enough for the two of us. Just like you’re happy enough for the two of us.” Karen laughs into her hair and presses kisses into her neck and on the underside of her jaw. “So when you need to be brave, I’ll be there. I’ll help you.”

“Just like when you need to be happy, I’ll be there to help you,” Karen says.

“Exactly.” She pulls away, ignoring Karen’s small noises of protests, and runs her hand through her hair. “Because you make me very, very happy Karen.”

“You make me happy too,” Karen says before moving in swiftly to kiss her. “I love you.”

“I love you twice,” she grins against her lips.

“Thank you for coming with me.”

“Always. Now, want to share that raspberry ruffle with me?”

Karen looks from the carton to Janis, pondering her decision, while Janis thinks about how lovely she looks when she’s thinking.

“Okay,” she says. “But only because you’re my favourite person ever.”

“You can have some of mine too,” she says, feeling a little dizzy. The good kind of dizzy. “Because you’re mine.”

Karen’s mom gets home a little after three, just before Janis is about to text her parents and let them know she’ll probably be at Karen’s all day. She pops her head around the door, finding Karen asleep in Janis’ lap, Janis stroking Karen’s hair with one hand and scrolling through photos on her phone with the other, and three tubs of ice cream on the dresser, each one a different level of demolished.

“She’s still alive then?” Jen asks fondly.

“Just about,” Janis answers, stroking her girlfriend’s cheek.

“Did she have too much trouble?” she asks.

“She handled it,” Janis decides to say, even though the memory of Karen shaking and sobbing makes her flinch.

“Thank you for taking her Janis,” Jen says.

“Of course,” she replies. “Any time.”

“Staying for dinner?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at that dresser. “If that ice cream hasn’t spoiled your appetite.”

“Oh, nothing could do that to your cooking,” Janis says, making Jen laugh. She looks a lot like Karen when she laughs. She nods and shuts the door with a gentle click.

“You’re staying for dinner?” Karen’s groggy voice asks. Her eyes are still closed, her hand closed around Bunny, her legs hanging off the bed.

“Yes I am, Kare,” she says softly, running her hand gently through her hair.

“Yay,” she whispers before falling silent again, her chest steady against Janis’ legs. Janis leans back against the wall, trying not to wake her as she laughs silently, her lips clamped together. “Thanks for taking care of me today.”

“Always will, darling,” she replies, not caring if Karen hears it or not. People think Karen doesn’t know a lot, but Janis will make sure that she knows how much she loves her.

[purplesurveys]

740

‘Does your best friend bother you more than anyone else? This is so weird. Someone wouldn’t be my best friend if all they did was annoy me. If one of my best friends did start to bother me with anything they’re doing, we’re close enough for me to comfortably call them out on it. Who is your best friend? Angela and Gab. Do you like someone right now? A lot more than that at this point. Do you even think you stand a chance with this person? I’ve been with them a handful of years now, so yes. Do you consider yourself truly happy? Not truly. I can generally keep myself happy but I’ll sometimes have days where I’m anxious, angry, hurt, confused, lost, or all of the above. It’s a work in progress.

How often do you cry? I want to say at least once a week; that's pretty accurate. Are you emotional? Yes. What is the worst thing you would do for 10 million dollars? I find these questions so stressful to think about lol. Just give me scenarios to do for $10 million and I’ll tell you if I’m willing to do it. Have you ever had/do you have an eating disorder? [trigger warning] No. But when my depression was at its roughest a part of me wanted to try adding self-starvation to the other methods I was already using to harm myself at the time. Didn’t really work out. Have you ever cut/burned yourself intentionally? Cut, yes. Burned, technically yes, but I didn’t know it would hurt me. When I was 7 I thought I had some sort of invincibility so I placed a finger on a clothes iron that was plugged in at the time. So I kinda did it on purpose, but not because I wanted to burn myself lol? If that makes sense? What do you think of people that do? Hope that they have people around them who care for them and can help them pull themselves out of that hole. What's your opinion on drugs? Have you ever done any? Scary, especially the hard drugs. I’ve seen Breaking Bad, Trainspotting, and Requiem for a Dream to know not to try them lol. I’ve only had milder ones like caffeine, nicotine, and painkillers. Have you ever noticed the hidden adut jokes inside of kid shows/movies? When I encounter the episodes these days, yeah I would notice them. When I was a kid they used to be just sentences that didn’t make sense to me. Do you want to be famous? Why? I’m not opposed to it. I wanna be able to travel places, get freebies, and afford a lot of nice clothes, but I’m also not willing to do absolutely anything or lose who I am just to get famous.

Do you sin often? I don’t really think of that anymore. What are your views on God? Nope. What do you think happens after you die? I go to sleep permanently, which for me is the most peaceful way to think of death. Sometimes if I’m feeling a little alone or helpless, it’s just as comforting to also think of the possibility of reuniting with my lost loved ones when I die, like my lolo or the great-grandparents I never met. Are you afraid to die? I’m afraid of dying painfully, if anything. Like I don’t want to be stuck in a burning room or have a ceiling collapse on me, you know? If you had the chance, would you want to know the date of your death? Yes. Have you ever felt that you weren't good enough? Of course. Do you have any siblings? If so, are you jealous of them? Yes. I’m not jealous/envious of Nina, but I do sometimes wish I had a talent that was as tangible and recognizable as hers – she’s an artist and an editor, and very good ones. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? Why or why not? I mean we don’t hate each other, but I wouldn’t go running to their arms if I had a problem. We have a more buddy-type relationship.

Are you always wanting more? Yep, I’m quite materialistic. Do you make good first impressions? You’d have to ask the people I’ve ever met. I hope I do, though. Do you feel bad for obese people, or do you just laugh? I am so unimpressed with this question.  What would you do if you were obese? Idk, it would depend on the mindset I have once I’m at that point. Are you ashamed of your past? Not ashamed. I just wish it had a lot more happier days. Do you miss your past? No. Do you have a song lyric that describes where you are in life right now? Ain’t it fuuuuun living in the real wooooorld ain’t it goooood being all alooooone Who are you closest to in your family? In my immediate family, it’s probably my sister. But generally speaking, it’s my eldest first cousin on my mom’s side. Do you ever open up to people? Yes, but I’m also private. Like I wouldn’t just share my life story with anyone - you have to ask about it and know which questions to ask. Do you consider yourself guarded? Why or why not? Sure. I’ve had shitty people come in and go out of my life throughout the years. Are you an honest person? I guess. Do you like animals? Love them, except cockroaches and flying cockroaches.

Do you think doctors prescribe medicine too often? I...don’t really have an opinion lol and I don’t know if I should. I don’t know the first thing about medical ethics. Are you a control freak? In a group setting, mostly yep. Do you enjoy getting drunk, or do you feel like you're losing all control? I like getting drunk but only until a certain point, i.e. when I feel giddy enough to socialize with strangers or start dancing. I’ve had a couple of bad experiences from drinking too much and it’s always so embarrassing the day after. What do you think happens when you go into a coma? I’ve read accounts on Reddit from people who used to be in one and the stories vary. Some stayed passed out through the whole thing, others dreamt in a lot of vibrant colors, others had dreams that they considered metaphors for dying, others were a little aware of what was happening or being said around them. Do you think the internet is dangerous? I know it is, lmao.

Name all the social networking sites you use: Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin. I re-installed Snapchat recently but I don’t use it for social media. Do you think anyone truly knows who you really are? My best friends do, in different ways. Have you ever given anyone the chance to really get to know you? Yes. Do you block people out of your life when they start to get too close? No. It’s very rare that that gets to happen so when it does, I keep them around. Who do you think has the most pressure to be good-looking; guys or girls? I think both experience a lot of pressure in very different ways. It’s not a contest. Do you care what impression you make on people? Kinda, especially if they make the wrong one lmao. Do you think TV is too much of an influence on today’s youth? If anything today’s TV has a lot of responsible representation from sexual consent and coming out and mental health to POCs, which gives off a suuuuper positive influence to kids and young teens these days who now feel like they can see themselves in the characters they meet and scenarios they see. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the other -isms and -phobias never get to fly by in this age anymore and that’s a great thing too. Just look at Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sex Education, Itaewon Class, and I wanna say The Good Place? but I’ve never seen it. What do you think people would do if all the computers crashed? I honestly think that would be the last straw that would break the camel’s back for people to start chaotically freaking out lol. There’s too much happening as it is. Honestly, do you say racist things? Filipinos in general are resentful towards mainland Chinese but that’s because they have bullied us for so long, they’ve literally shit on our historical parks, they keep buying our lands, they claim our seas, and they belittle and mistreat Filipinos, especially the ones who work as OFWs in China. We wouldn’t be as racist if most of them didn’t act like such assholes to begin with. Personally, I don’t verbally say racist stuff but I will judge mainland Chinese in my head if I come across them or hear another incident of them misbehaving. Do your parents put way too much pressure on you? No, which I’m quite grateful for. They just let me do my thing, they ask me what jobs I want without hinting what they want for me, they let me fantasize about my dream purchases once I have a salary without guilt-tripping me over letting them have a share of my money, that kind of stuff. Has anyone you loved ever died? Two big people in my life. Do you think people overreact when their pets die? Not at all. Pets are family, and everyone’s reactions are valid. I remember when Lorde’s dog died and people were either 1) making fun of her and called her overreacting when she said she was gonna be unable to release new music for the meantime, or 2) stoked that her new music is probably gonna be sad and emotional because of her dog’s death, and I thought both were terrible. Do you know who you are, or what you want to become? I’m getting there, don’t pressure me lmfao. Do you have your future mapped out? Or are you just taking it day by day? Day by day. I have a good big picture planned out, but I also like living in the now. What are you going to do now? I dunno if I want to take another survey or watch YouTube videos now. But directly after hitting post on this I’ll definitely take another sip of my coffee and give my dog cuddles for a few minutes since he just woke up from his nap.

[mcrmadness]

I was tagged by @cupcakecurl, thank you so much! I’ll try to remember to tag you whenever I am tagged the next time!

It’s a long post so I put it under the “keep reading” link.

1. Do you ever make your bed? No. I have a loft bed so no one can see to there (unless someone is like 2m tall but I barely have visitors and especially not that tall people lol. Or maybe bit shorter people too but since I’m very short, I can’t see there :D) so there’s no point in making the bed. Plus I tend to sweat a lot during some nights so I like to leave the bed “open” so it can dry properly.

2. What’s your favorite number? 13. But also 23 and 123.

3. What’s your job? Currently I’m on a sick leave but my “profession” is horse groom.

4. If you could go back to school, would you? Ummm, I’ve been to plenty of schools but with a bit bad success... I actually love studying and learning but I don’t like schools nor going to schools. So I’m constantly wanting to learn and study but every time I’ve been accepted into a school, I have asked myself "why tf did you have to do this again when you know you hate this all???” as every time I face the same concentration problems with essays etc.

5. Can you parallel park? Yes, but I prefer not to do that on a busy road since I start fucking up things when I feel like I have to hurry because I’m bothering other people. So only when there’s not other cars going everywhere I will do that, otherwise I’ll find another spot to park.

6.  A job you had that would surprise People? I haven’t really had that weird jobs, all of them have been about horses tbh. And I haven’t done a real job ever anyway, just work trainings and school related trainings. But I might say here that before I figured I want to work with horses, I was trying to study animal caretaking and that certain branch was focusing on farm animals. So I have actually been to a cowhouse with milk cows and I have been milking them and worked with cows and calves there a lot as it was a huge part of my school. I also know how to drive a tractor and how to reverse with a trailer attached because we did this A LOT at school and we had to do this again when I was studying in the horse school and it was one of the tests to reverse a tractor and the trailer had to go into an imagined “barn”.

7. Do you believe aliens are real? Yes. I mean, this universe is such a huge place, why the fuck not??? I actually had this thought from a very early on that there must be life out there somewhere and I’m pretty sure they are aware of us all but let’s be honest, if you was from an another galaxy and found out there’s a this small planet with some puny people on it, would you want to get to know us? No, I don’t think so. If we have to kill each other for stupid reasons, do you really think humans would suddenly agree being friends with aliens too? So I still believe they are out there and are aware of us but don’t really bother meeting us nor even letting us know about them because humans are the most idiotic animal on this planet. If you look at all these scifi movies already (witch a few exceptions) and how we always imagine the aliens: if they are hostile, they are unintelligent, can’t talk and will make monster noises and they will look like monsters. If they are friendly, they are super intelligent, can talk or use even telepathy to talk to us and they are humanoids, never monsters. I guess we’re just so scared of them we’re obsessed with this idea and we’re scared they would be more intelligent and still hostile at the same time...

8. Can you drive a manual car? Yup, I have only ever had a manual car and I actually have never driven an automatic car. I’ve no clue how they work :D In Finland you can choose between a driver’s licence to manual or automatic car and with manual you can drive them both, with automatic you can only drive automatic cars. (Do people say automatic car or should it be “with automatic gears”?)

9. What’s your guilty pleasure? I was thinking about this a lot and I think I will agree with the person who tagged me and also say male/male pairings and shipping. But I don’t want to give the same answer (I think there was a really good points!) so I think I’ll go with an easier one: this doesn’t happen that often anymore but when I was still studying and working 4-5 days/week.

We were always listening to radio at work and we usually used channels with music from the 70s and 80s, maybe also 90s and sometimes even older than that. Once one of the workers left the place, we all started using other channels cos everyone was so done with that one particular radio channel :D Anyway, my guilty pleasure was that some songs sometimes stuck in my head, often from old and really popular bands that I couldn’t even link to the band itself. And I really hate earworms when they are not music I normally like to listen to, so I often get really frustrated with them and I start my hunt for the songs so I can listen to them and maybe finally remove it from my head. And here comes my guilty pleasure: reading the youtube comments to some really old songs’ music videos. They are often just so damn hilarious I was often dying from laughter when I did that! And it’s bit sad too because I would have loved to share with them other people but either they would have not understood the youtube comment humour or if I brought it up to someone who actually liked the music, they would just get offended. So I actually realize only now how often this was happening with the songs and I’ve found some really hilarious comments from there too!

I also had several songs I kinda liked to listen to when they were playing. That is something fun too because I wouldn’t say they are guilty pleasure songs but more like... just something for myself you know? I’m often really open but sometimes I like it more when I can keep things only to myself. And it somehow cheered me up when I was driving my car or working in the stable and then heard one of those “guilty pleasure” songs that I could enjoy and at the same time enjoy of the fact no one knew I was enjoying them! I guess I like it because I’m often feeling like being way too visible and I’m afraid that I give away opinions and feels without saying them aloud and what I really want to keep to myself, so that makes me feel REALLY good when I know no one can read me!

10. Tattoos? No. And not gonna have either. I have a fear of needles and pain, I used to have one pair of earrings and even that was terrible enough. And painful.

11. Favorite color? Orange, almost like the neon orange; electric blue, and black.

12. Things people do that piss you off? Ohhh are we talking about pet peeves now? I usually am very calm and it’s hard to make me angry but I’d say that what REALLY pisses me off is when someone/people don’t listen to me. And I mean when they literally tell to my face they don’t care, they don’t want to hear, and that I should shut up. That is what makes me really furious even. One of those rare things that make me really feel like I need to start smashing things. Also people talking over and not listening overall is something a bit annoying but I can take it, but not when it’s intentional. Also I’m very stubborn and sometimes not getting what I want makes me angry too since I kinda got used to that as the oldest siblings, but at the same time I am aware of this and I don’t think I’m surperior or anything. Just some things I need to pay more attention to about myself.

13. Any phobias? Fire (pyrophobia), needles and sharp objects (aichmophobia) and social anxiety (social phobia), for the starters.

14. Favorite childhood sport? I had none. I liked badminton tho but just like... a few times in a summer and then I forgot about it again. And as a pre-teen I actually was horseback riding regularly for about half a year. Then a pony threw me down and it was my first time falling of a horse and of course I had to break my arm. Since that I have fallen just once but I don’t really like riding that much, driving is more of a my thing now.

15. Do you ever talk to yourself? Not really, I laugh aloud more often but I don’t really talk to myself. I don’t like hearing my voice when I’m alone, it triggers my depersonalization/dissociation.

16. What movie do you adore? Oh what movie I wouldn’t adore??? I watch so many movies and it’s almost impossible to say just one... I guess I’m gonna say my favorite one of them all: Beetlejuice by Tim Burton. I have always been really interested in all kinds of different imagines of death because I have always been a bit afraid of death and I just don’t like the thought of everything ending on that. I can basically imagine that emptiness and it’s really scary and something I don’t want to have. So I have always been really into anything that will show death as something else than emptiness or permanent. And I really love it what Burton did with Beetlejuice and I just love all the details in there! I have seen this movie millions of times and still I feel like whenever I watch it, I find something I did not see the last time because there’s just so much to see! And it’s also really funny and full of dark humour which is 110% my thing and I think that movie is a perfect example of Burton’s twisted, dark sense of humour. I feel like I understand his humour so well that every time I go to see a Burton movie in the theaters, I’m usually the only one to laugh at things I get as these weird jokes he likes to put there and everyone else is laughing at things that weren’t always even meant as that funny. It’s kinda weird, but it just shows that he’s my favorite move director for a reason :D And back to Beetlejuice (was that now the third time saying the name..?), Danny Elfman made the music to this one too and the theme is probably my favorite Danny Elfman score as well.

17. Do you like doing puzzles? Yeah! I like both types: jigsaw puzzles and the other puzzles and I really love when video games have lots of puzzles to solve as idk, somehow I just love that :D

18. What’s your favorite kind of music? Uh, this is gonna take a while to explain. Because it’s not that simple... I mean, in a way it is but it isn’t? :D I tend to like bands that basically are of the newer punk rock but don’t necessarily be punk itself, but they all either have roots in punk or their influences were mainly punk bands. And a while back I actually realized that most bands I listen to, actually have lots of the same bands behind there as their influences but all these bands (that I listen to) are all totally different from each other. So I like music that is based on punk rock but with a lot of new stuff added to them and I like music that is very diverse and offers a lot for the ears to hear, lots of layers and instruments etc. but so that on an album there isn’t 10 songs that are hard to tell apart ebcause they sound so alike, but more like 10 songs that are all different enough from each other but still similar enough that they sound like they belong into the same album. I’m very picky with music but the more I look back into what my music taste has been over the years, I still seem to always like the same things, and one of the things I like a lot with music is when there’s violins and/or pianos, I also like brass, but only when it’s there every now and there and not in every song. When not getting too much of something, it stays interesting, otherwise I’ll become very bored and start to look for “new” stuff to have enough stimuli.

So, many probably are already aware that my favorite band is Die Ärzte. And others, from the US: MCR, The Killers and Yellowcard. Rammstein from Germany and there’s some other German bands I might listen to too. From Finland I like bands like: Apulanta, Tehosekoitin, Klamydia, Häiriköt... And have to say here that as weird as it sounds, DÄ, MCR and Apulanta are quite different but all of them have lots of the same bands that influenced them! :D And Rammstein is probably the most different but hey, they also have punk roots! (And I like Feeling B too, btw. It’s very rare to me because I normally don’t like THAT regular punk but I really love the drums, escpecially when Schneider joined the band, and all the other instruments and the synth just made them to stand out!) And even The Killers share some influence bands with DÄ and MCR which is super interesting as there’s nothing punk in their style, but they’re still one of the most important bands from my teenage years. I was about 14 when I heard of them for the first time at school and since there was no Youtube yet, the hunt for the song, “Somebody Told Me”, was quite intense because only way to find it was to one day hear someone mention the song and band name on radio, but fortunately I did catch it! The album I found only 1-2 years later tho, when their 2nd album was released and I found both albums from a record store (R.I.P. record stores...) here.

So, that’s my favorite kind of music. Fast, interesting, lots of layers and instruments, good singing and it has to have lots of melody too. I live from songs with lots of melody.

19. Tea or coffee? Tea, and actually the only tea I drink is Earl Greay and I drink that on a daily basis. Usually just 1 cup/day but sometimes even 2. 3 starts to have bit too much caffeine already. And from here we get to the reason I don’t drink coffee: my head can’t stand caffeine and the only time I do drink coffee is because I need caffeine aka when I drive longer distances with a car, but it causes me exessive sweating and I need to pee 24/7 and increses my panic symptoms and worsens my concentration skills so I try to avoid caffeine as much as I can. Besides, coffee tastes bad. It’s one of the best smells in the world and I HATE how it does not taste like that!!! So whenever I drink coffee, it’s not really coffee, it’s milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee in it. And ice coffee tastes better than normal coffee and I usually buy these readymade ice coffees you get in Finland cos they don’t taste like coffee. More like... milk and sugar with coffee taste lol.

20. First thing you remember wanting to be when you grow up? Oh I think what I said was “I don’t know, probably something to do with animals.” I also am not exactly sure if I was one of those kids being like “I want to be a veterinatian!” or if I did NOT want to be a vet, and so when people would ask about being a vet then, I’d answer no, but more like just taking care of the animals. And I was not wrong, I am a qualified horse groom now.

I want to tag (what? me? tagging people? uncanny!) @stufenlosregelbar and hmmmm... @bleibimmerduselbst, since I haven’t seen this one on your blogs yet. Or at least not lately, not sure if you have already done this before and if so, I’m sorry, I normally do remember things I see but now for some reason I can’t remember that! And of course if someone out there wants to do this but hasn’t got tagged (I’d but I can’t read minds so idk who wants to be tagged I’m sorry!), then I’m also gonna tag YOU so please, steal this and tag yourself :D

[haleyreads4you]

No Laughing Matter

Why Gotham’s Crown Prince of Crime Doesn’t Deserve a Backstory

If you haven’t heard, DC is releasing a new live action movie entitled The Joker, scheduled to be released on October 4th later this year.  The movie is supposed to take us on a journey to see the beginning of this notorious villain, and hopefully give a better understanding on why he is the way he is. Usually this is fantastic! Villains, bad guys, antagonist, whatever you call them, are always so much more interesting when you get to see the reasoning behind their actions, and after all the Joker has done, who wouldn’t want to know. The short answer, is me. 

The longer answer, (which I’m about to give you,) is that honestly, no real DC or Batman fan should want to see a Joker backstory. Believe it or not, he actually has one already, and I promise you it’s not going to be the one you see in the movie. It simply isn’t that complex. If you can’t tell, I am a huge DC, (especially the Batfam,) fan, and if you’re not that’s okay! I’m honestly shocked if you read this far without being a DC fan. Nonetheless, I’m going to be giving as much background as I possibly can to flush out my points throughout this, so you don’t have to possess prior knowledge. Now, I will not claim to be an expert on DC, or Batman, and especially not on the Joker himself, but I do like to think I know quite a bit. That being said, if I miss something, or get the facts wrong, feel free to refute me! A huge point of all these dumb essays I’m writing is to get the conversation going! Now with all the logistics and introductions out of the way, here’s why I think the Joker doesn’t deserve his own movie (or back story.)

The Joker is arguably the most famous of Batman’s rogues. With countless reiterations, and big name stars playing him in adaptation after adaptation, it’s no wonder that he’s built up a name for himself. Not only that, but the Joker is one villain whose actions we simply can’t explain. We know Two-Face, AKA Harvey Dent, was seriously disfigured after a man he prosecuted threw acid on his face, destroying his lucky coin in the process. The incident made him crazy, and he wrecks havoc on the city with his destroyed coin asking people “heads or tails?” We know Mr. Freeze, AKA Victor Fries, became a criminal after a failed attempt to save his terminally ill wife left him with sub-zero body temperatures, forcing him to wear the cryo suit forever. His involvement with crime is him still attempting to raise funds to find a cure for her. We know one of my personal favorites, Scarecrow, AKA Dr. Jonathan Crane, an ex psychology professor at Gotham University remains obsessed with the idea of fear and phobias. He now uses the citizens of Gotham as his lab rats to test his ever evolving fear toxin. I could keep going on, (Batman has an impressive rogue gallery,) but the point is we know why all the villains do the things that they do. We don’t know that for the Joker, and out of all of Batman’s rogues, he’s the one that continues to commit the most heinous crimes of all. It leaves us all asking why? Why does he do the things he does? It even leaves Batman stumped. Heck, it leaves other villians stumped!! Ra’s Al Ghul, head of the League of Shadows, has said he doesn’t like working with the Joker, because he’s wild and unpredictable. According to this logic, the Joker should be first in line to get his own back story.

To find the reason why he shouldn’t we have to look pretty far back in this character’s history. When the Joker first appeared in the Batman comics, he never appeared simply as “the Joker.” Multiple iterations of this simplistic “backstory” have been done, and can also be seen as far back as Batman: Year One, (even though the “Joker” himself is not actually featured,) but each time the Joker always appears, it is always first as an unassuming lowlife calling himself “the Red Hood.” This is so freaking important to how the Joker impacts the characters around him, and I’ll tell you why soon, but I can almost guarantee you it is not going to be in the new Joker film. Not only is this Red Hood portion of the Joker’s career important for reasons to be later explained, but it’s also important that in multiple, though not all, iterations of the Joker’s introduction it’s Batman’s fault. Not inherently of course. Batman always catches the Red Hood in some kind of factory, (a popular location is a playing card factory,) and in an attempt to catch him, the Red Hood always ends up falling into a vat of acid. This is the vat of acid that of course warps his appearance, (the white skin, green hair, and red lips,) and what ultimately drives him mad. In how he actually gets in the vat, well sometimes he jumps on purpose, because he’s been cornered by the Bat, sometimes he just slips, and Bruce is too late to catch him, but either way it’s always something that weighs on Bruce. It’s another reason on top of Batman’s no kill policy that he can’t bring himself to end the Joker. Despite paralyzing Barbra Gordon as Batgirl and murdering his son, Bruce can’t end the Joker, because he partly feels like the Joker is his fault. It’s his mess that he made, and a mess that he has to fix.

This introduction of the Joker as the Red Hood and tying his creation to a young emerging Batman is so important to the characters’ relationships to each other throughout their still changing course of comic history, that to negate it with this upcoming movie is almost like recreating a brand new villain. It is also important to note that because the Joker started out as a masked criminal, he remains a John Doe to this very day in comic history. This is crucial to not understanding the Joker, (an important aspect of his character,) because any time a new rogue pops up, Bruce tries his damndest to learn their real identity. Identifying the person beneath the horror helps him better know what angle to work at when going up against them, as well as what to look for, and realizing that violence usually isn’t the best answer for dealing with them. By keeping the Joker a John Doe, it keeps not only us, the audience, in the dark about trying to understand this psychotic character, but the characters in universe in the dark as well. By not knowing the Joker’s past or intentions, it actually makes him scarier, because it leaves him unpredictable, and, in a sense, strips him of his humanity. By giving this character an actual identity, you destroy the mysterious unknown behind the character, make him human enough than an audience can relate to him, and almost, in a sense, strip him of what makes him a good villain in the first place.

Now my last, and what I personally view as one of the most important reasons, on why the Joker really shouldn’t have his own movie, is because it would destroy his tragically beautiful connection to Jason Todd. If you missed it earlier, I briefly mentioned that the Joker killed Bruce’s son, and that was because I planned to go more in depth now.

I need to stop referencing material that hasn’t been written yet. If you don’t know, Jason Todd is the second character to take on the mantle of Robin. Yes, there was more than one Robin. As of current day material, there are four officially recognized holders of the mantle, (sorry Stephanie,) in the order of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Timothy Drake, and the current only blood son of Burce, Damian Wayne. Jason was taken in by Bruce off of Crime Alley, after he was found trying to steal the cars off of the Batmobile. Officially adopting him as his own and taking him under his wing, Bruce soon hands the mantle of Robin to Jason as Dick had recently left, and the two take to the streets fighting crime and punching bad guys. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last very long, and Jason ends up beaten nearly to death by the Joker with a crowbar in an abandoned warehouse before the Joker blows it up, seconds before Bruce arrives. Oh no. (There’s a very iconic picture of Bruce holding Jason’s dead body, if you google “batman a death in the family.) This was an absolutely pivotal part to Bruce’s character. How Bruce acts after the death of Jason had been unseen before. He became violent and angry, and almost crossed the line he swore to himself he’d never cross. Jason’s death is a staple in DC comic lore.

That isn’t the important part here though. The important part is what comes after. See, 95% of the time, if a character dies in the DC Universe, it’s not for very long, because comics. A couple of years later, Jason is brought back to life via the Lazarus Pit with the help of the League of Assassins. As I’m writing this, it is one in the morning, and I am too tired to explain why the Shadows were involved. If you’re really interested, there’s a crap ton of information on it on wikis and stuff, so it won’t be hard to find. Anyways, Jason comes back to life really messed up and in a murderous rage. He heads back to Gotham to hunt down Bruce but this time not as Jason Todd, not as Robin, but as the Red Hood. It’s perfect cinematic poetry! Yes, cinematic!! Under the Red Hood is one of the most famous comic books about Jason Todd’s return, as well as arguably one of the best DC animated films of all time! But that’s not the point. The point is, that Jason Todd comes back from the dead, and the alias he takes up is the same alias that his killer once owned. Jason does eventually kind of come back to the “good side” as a sort of anti hero, but the parallels between him and the Joker are gorgeous. Both driven mad after being thrown into a vat of mysterious liquid, except for where it was the Joker’s before, it’s Jason’s after. The idea of a young boy being beaten to death, only to come back and take the name of his killer should shake you to your core. Not only that, but imagine Bruce’s horror when he realizes there’s another terror ripping through his city bearing the same name his arch nemesis first wore. And that’s before he even realizes it’s his resurrected son! You can’t dismiss writing like that, especially when it comes to comic books! DC especially, openly admitted that its story lines take place in the multiverse, which basically means anything goes. That’s where you get stories like The Flashpoint Paradox and Crisis on Two Earths. The fact that this idea of the Red Hood being passed down from the Joker to Jason seems to be a universal constant cannot be overlooked. By giving the Joker a more in depth backstory that strays from the one that currently exists, you rip that hard work out of the author’s hands, as well as destroy an impactful connection between some of the Batman Universe’s best and most complex characters.

This whole thing ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, so thank you if you made it to the end. All of this being said, I stand by my opinion that out of all that characters in the DC universe, the Joker should be at the end of the line to get his own movie. Will I still end up seeing it in theatres? The jury’s out right now. I’m a broke college kid living in New York; there are more things I want to see than a movie I don’t think should exist. I might watch it one day, as the assumption that all of these points won’t be made in the movie is made purely off of the trailers and not the content of the film itself. If I ever do watch it, y’all will be the first to know, but until then this is where I stand. Don’t let this ruin the film for you if you planned on going to go watch it. Like stated in the beginning, these are all my own opinions, and I prefer the comics to the movies. The movies can also be seen as existing in their own realm, and in that case none of my points stand at all. It’s up to you to make your own judgement.

But ask yourself this, as you sit down in the theatre with a large tub of popcorn. What do you think people will benefit from trying to see into the mind of the one of the world’s most famous psychopath?