#Write how you want obviously but if you wanna be realistic with the character development then let them take steps backwards

[cr0wqui11]

Guys. Shakes you. Everything doesn’t get automatically fixed bc Ocean had a little bit of character development. Improvement takes time. More than an hour and a half. She doesn’t just become perfect after one monologue. Everyone just doesn’t automatically forgive her. Also Constance is still depressed it doesn’t just go away completely after a catchy song. It’s a step in the right direction but she’s barely even had time to process the porta potty stuff. She also doesn’t have to immediately forgive Ocean!! Think of the angst possibilities!!

[periwinkla]

How Takumi writes romance - and narumitsu thoughts

I feel the way he writes it is.... dare I say realistic? If dramatic. Which is also very realistic honestly. To be fair all AA characters are kinda.. dramatic themselves so any couple that comes from that HAS to be dramatic. Anyway the point I want to make is that I honestly LOVE the way he writes romance, like come on LOOK at the canon ones: -the Delites (crazy in love and also in general <- perfect AA couple example) -Maggey and Gumshoe (not a canonical couple per-se but canonically down bad for each other and also both kinda wild, one in a way the other in another.... it's left to interpretation whether they get together after AA3, but it is fairly hinted) -Mia and Diego (very realistic? love can be tragic, also love leads you to make bad choices sometimes) -that one wild tgaa couple (don't wanna spoil) -actually multiple tgaa couples This is unironically peak romance to me. We never see the actual development of these couples here. Takumi shows they love each other, he doesn't simply tell you by making characters confess or have cute moments together. You see them do foolish things for each other, you see them care. You see them being illogical and that leads to them doing bad, messed up things sometimes. When I think about that one discussion going around Suekane telling Takumi he wasn't writing the narumitsu scene right so he better scrap the scene (which is honestly a bit of an ambiguous info to be taken with a pinch of salt imo, but let's analyze this anyway) I think the main problem is that that's just not how he writes. It's just not! He didn't write AA that way and it shouldn't be forced like that. It would feel out of place. Like, look at this (obviously just trilogy stuff because that's what Takumi wrote): -Miles' very odd conversation with Iris -generally every poetics Miles spews in the trilogy... -his agreeing to doing something so incredibly foolish at the drop of a hat such as donning a defense attorney badge? (after an harrowing hurried flight over in the middle of the night) He even suspends his disbelief and still resorts to using an artifact that reminds him of the ugliest event of his life? -Phoenix's depression after Miles disappears...? He already wasn't accepting any clients after 1-4 (Ema had to force him) which I think was a mix of things (Mia's death, Maya's departure, the fact that he had accomplished his goal with Miles but apparently they didn't keep in touch?) but then after Miles' note it just went even worse - if Maya wasn't there to basically drag him around, what would have happened? How was he paying rent? Groceries? He wasn't working. How was he planning to continue living exactly? -Phoenix's I-am-the-only-one-who-can-save-him obsession is similar to Godot's I-blame-myself-for-not-saving-her, who has it over someone he canonically loves... and they're both very pretentious about it as well. While these are definitely character flaws, they show as I said that love doesn't always lead to logical and healthy thoughts or choices and sometimes it leads to you doing very messed up things… This is all way more telling to me. And of course I don't believe in a million years the games will ever make it a canonical couple, but in my heart they care so much for the other that all I can discern from this is that at least they canonically love each other. Was it meant to come across that way? Who knows. But sometimes your own creation gets away from you (also it's not like Takumi made AA123 all by himself, other people were involved).

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Old Character Sheet, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

This isn’t really any new information about Eureka, in fact it’s something very old, but take a look at how far the game has come in the 3-ish years it’s been in development!

This is the old character sheet, from some time around late 2021, and I’m just going to copy-paste some designer commentary from a discussion about it in the A.N.I.M. Patreon Discord server.

“Haunt: What would eventually become the Composure system. I genuinely don't remember how it worked at the beginning but I remember it being rather clumsy. We eventually wanted to include the concept of different phenomena having different modifiers for each investigator, which would eventually become Tiers of Fear.

Obsession: An extremely early mechanic that would quickly vanish when, in the first campaign, it was clear it was too situational to track or use. The idea was that, the farther along to their goal an investigator got, the higher the bonus they could get from their Obsession, which could be applied when the investigator takes a very risky action to forward their goal. As you can tell, this was all very vague. This would eventually be replaced the much clearer Truth system.

Legal changed to Paperwork, just fit more situations better.

History skill: Too broad, so it was taken out. A good example of a write-in skill though, if given a specific area of history.

Rumors: Some sort of "word on the street" skill, but [sirobvious] raised a great point that that should just come from investigators using Personal Skills on NPCs to get that word themselves.

Weird -> ||Blacked Out Skill||

Improv: Honestly very difficult to describe, I think it was a Jackie Chan like thing of using various items around, but it was obviously too vague to use.

A lot of these changes came from [sirobvious joining the team], so big kudos to him!”

Another big change that came more recently was splitting the HP into Superficial and Penetrative, making the way that characters take damage in the kind of grounded, modern noir stories that Eureka is meant to tell a bit more realistic. Just having one type of HP works in most other TTRPGs, particularly ones where deadly weapons are going to be in play more often than not, but Eureka sees a lot of fistfighting.

You can take a look at the latest version of the character sheet in this post.

Check out our Kickstarter page for the best accumulation of info on what Eureka: investigative Urban Fantasy even is! The Kickstarter campaign launches April 10th 2024!

Check out our Patreon to get the whole prerelease rulebook + multiple adventure modules and pieces of short fiction for a subscription of only $5!

If you wanna try before you buy, check out our website for more information on Eureka as well as a download link to the free demo version!

Interested in actually playing this game, and many others, with the developers? Check out A.N.I.M.'s TTRPG Book Club, a club of nearly 100 members at the time of writing this where we regularly nominate, vote on, and then play indie TTRPGs! At the time of writing this, we are playing Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and sign-ups are closed for actually playing it, but you can still join in to pick up a PDF club copy of the rulebook to read and follow along with discussion, and sit in on and observe sessions! There is no schedule obligation for joining this club, as we keep things very flexible by assigning multiple GMs with different timeslots each round, to try and accomodate everyone! This round, we had over thirty people sign up, and were able to fit in all but one! Here is the invite link! See you there!

[imaginespazzi]

Nivi, just my two cents on how Stephanie (I'm just gonna go with the name for now - love it btw, she totally would name her after Steph - cause I don't wanna keep writing 'the kid' lmao) came to be:

Like totally agree with wanting P to step into a proper parent role, but in terms of Azzi either adopting or opting for a donor, I feel like that's obviously then a very conscious and purposeful decision on Azzi's part to have a kid. Which is totally fine ofc! But idk, I just feel like at that point in her life and career (what, she would have been 25/26? Based on the timeline you gave us), I just don’t see her making that decision already especially if she's gonna be a single parent? Again, not that she couldn't do it, it just feels like she wouldn't.

And I know one-night-stands kinda seem like a cop out or the easy way out of not having to introduce or have the other parent around but I don't think it would be that out of character? People have one night stands, and sometimes sex produces babies no matter how much protection you use ya know 😅. Also, yes I know that choosing to keep the baby is still a conscious decision to have a child but it's not like it was her intention to have a child going into it - am I making sense??

So I guess in that vain, adoption would make sense too, if it was certain circumstances that led to it, rather than her purposefully being like "ok I want to have a kid now and I wanna do it via adoption". Idek I'm sorry if I'm speaking total bullshit.

Again, just my thoughts! Totally ignore if you want!

Other thoughts:

Oooo ok so Stephanie and P have already met in previous games, yes ok I like this development haha. So much potential. I still stand by Tim being the instigator, like he'd go up to P to say hi whenever Azzi's team was playing P's and lil Steph would be hiding behind his leg. 😂 And one day (before P ends up on Azzi's team), P has like a lil toy ready to give to her at one of their games and Stephanie clings on to that toy from then on (despite Azzi's protests).

Hahah yeah I was thinking trade too - well I guess if we wanna be semi-realistic, it could just be that P requested a trade and you know whichever team she was on obvs had to seek the best value and Azzi's team just happened to be the ones to give it to them. And then I can just imagine when P gets the news about the trade going through and realises which team, she's like "oh fuck that's not what I meant" 😭

Also, those flashbacks to when they were together and the time they were apart are gonna hit, I already know (if you choose to incorporate them ofc). Oh my god, like when Azzi goes into labour (if we go the pregnancy route) and she's maybe wishing more than anything that P was there with her or just like moments where she's craving having another person to go through the journey of parenthood with and her subconscious always immediately thinks of P 🥲

And then on the flip side, everytime P comes across baby/kid stuff, she also prolly always ends up thinking of Azzi and lil Steph, even more so after she's met the kid.

I'm also assuming that similar to the UCLA fic, we're not having Azzi tear her ACL again and so they would have both declared for the 2025 draft? Were they already broken up by that point? Cause damn, that would have been a tense and heartbreaking draft night! Cause if they were broken up by then, their break up would potentially have happened in like the week or sum between the natty and draft night? So many possibilities.

I also just remembered that the Fudds have a dog named Curry - damn, Steph getting the dog AND child namesake. He deserves it, i reckon.

Also, some songs I was listening to earlier today that might or might not provide some inspo:

Someday we'll know by Mandy Moore (I was having my annual rewatch of A Walk To Remember and the "someday we'll know why I wasn't meant for you" to the "someday you'll know that I was the one for you" made me think of this fic)

Cardigan by Taylor (mainly the bridge/last verse? Yk the one haha)

Strange by Celeste (this is what made me think of the potentially very angsty draft night after they've just broken up)

I miss you, I'm sorry by Gracie ("you said forever and I almost bought it")

Goodnight and go by Ariana (this is kinda for when they're starting to interact more again - like the "why'd you have to be so cute, it's impossible to ignore you" from Azzi's pov)

But like for real Nivi, you never have to incorporate any of my suggestions, this is just me spitballing and hopefully helping you even if it's just to help you decide "oh ok well we're definitely NOT doing THAT" 😂

-🙋‍♀️

Yeah I've been calling her Stephanie, Stephie for short, in my head so I'm pretty sure that's her name now...

My inbox is currently just ask after ask about how they want/think Stephanie came to be (I swear I really would like to reply to everyone but it's just a liiiiitttle bit exhausting) and I'm just very amused but as always, you and I are on the same wavelength. Like I know some people really want sperm donor/adoption (I love y'all I promise), I just can't really see her at that age and at that time of her career, purposefully trying for a child. I think it's different if she decided to keep the child after a ONS because well it's already there? Idk if that makes sense cause I don't know how to say it really but there's just a difference in my head about that?

WAIT I LOVE THAT AWWWW. But yeah Stephie and P have definitely interacted before and even if it's only a couple of times a year, I think they'd already just a little bit enamored, so when P becomes her coach, it doesn't take long for them to become wrapped around each other (spoiler?)

As we all know, I do love my flashback so trust bestie, there will be plenty, some angsty, some fluffy but a lot of flashbacks!

I actually am gonna keep Azzi's injuries in this one cause I want to keep all of the UConn lore similar to reality (yes this is me just wanting to add a cruise scene again...) so they'd actually go to the draft in different years and this may or may not (I'm not even tryna tease I actually haven't decided) play a little bit of a part in the break up (how? idk we'll find out)

LMAO Steph is also an honorary Fudd atp and will absolutely be meeting Stephie at some point in this fic

AH I ALWAYS LOVE YOUR SONGS REC!! Babes have you already made a playslist?? I think my main song for this fic might end up being Last Kiss by Taylor Swift (yes another Taylor Swift song I know) because "so I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep" just feels very apt for them.

I love your suggestions as always babes and I hope you have more <3

[icecoffee90]

I finished reading If This Gets Out this morning (because who needs sleep before work!? Lol) and it only left me wanting to read more of the 4 friends' journey. So I'm sorry, but I have to talk about it at least for a bit.

This was the first book I finished in literal YEARS, so I really didn't expect to get sucked in so easily. I mean, I expected the theme would appeal to me otherwise I wouldn't have bought the book in the first place. But I really didn't think it would leave me wanting to do nothing more but continue reading all day..

First, the writing is so good! The story just flows nicely from the very beginning. I do love my boybands and knowing all the challenges mentioned in the book were realistic made the read all the more interesting and made me even more invested in the Saturday story every step of the way.

I really liked that from the start it was obvious that the boys were true friends and really cared for one another, too (which, as far as I know, actually isn't as common in boyband culture). Also, all of them are genuinely good people which makes you wanna root for them all the more to succeed.

Another bonus point for the quality writing - you know from the storytelling most of what's about to unfold.. yet somehow it makes wanna get to that particular plot even faster.

I have to admit, I initially had my doubts about where Jon's loyalty lied when it came to his father and his friends.. But by the time Ruben actually accused him of trying to resolve The Tension just for the band's sake, I was like "How can you say that!?", lol. Sorry I ever doubted you, honey!

I think my absolute favorite moment from the book was the hug Mrs. Phan gave Jon. Just a tiny little scene, yet it made me tear up.

I felt the romance between Ruben and Zach was developing at a nice pace as well. Although I can't even count the times I slammed the book against my forehead during The Tension.. 😅

Of course, I might be biased because Angel's my favorite character. What can I say!? I have a type - hilarious And cocky. I made my peace with that. Obviously, that's not the only reason why he's my favorite. But I really did love all of the boys and the order of favorites on the other positions kept changing constantly.

Okay, I would go into more detail but the post is already much longer than I anticipated and I have to get back to work anyway, lol.

Finally.. Was the book perfect? No. Was there any moment I thought was bad? Also no. So I can only recommend it.

One last thing, though. I will forever be bitter that Ruben unintentionally basically confirming ANJON in Rome was never mentioned again.. Not even a single tweet!? Really!? J/K

[smilesrobotlover]

A smile for smiles:

:D

I love the new love at twilight chapter!!! Fjskdkdi Kori and Amber playing was my favourite thing ever they're so cute TT. and I like Edmund! So far. Idk how his character is gonna develop and stuff, but when he was instantly gentle with Kori when he started crying I thought that was very sweet. And also he's good at thinking - instantly understanding that there's different races in hyrule as well as some mixes- obviously Kori's not exactly what he would expect but he was just like ah yes. Another species child who is a child and I will be nice to. I like him ok! Kinda nervous about him being in charge but. He's good with kids so that counts.

And Amber and Kori bonding over their complicated parent situations- they're two royal kids who's moms can't always be there. Which is sad but I'm glad they got to meet each other. And Amber got someone to play with and Edmund thanked Kori for it and they promised to write and-

Ahhh this is gonna sound weird and I might not say it right but... thank you for letting Kori cry. Like he was crying a lot whenever something emotional happened (which tbf a lot of stuff happened) and. I just don't see that? I don't get to see many stories with characters just getting to cry freely a lot and it means a lot to me that you let Kori do that. You let Kori cry and wanna play dress up with dolls and that makes me really happy. Excellent uhh child writing. That probably sounded weird if anything I say is offensive accidentally sorry

And when Kori didn't realise that Amber was a princess I gasped because!!! That's so cool like! Kid logic! Him knowing that Edmund was a king, and Amber was his daughter, but not connecting the dots to realise she was a princess was really cool for me- it was amazingly portrayed because you're writing how a child thinks so well and realistically

Shadow powers? 00 I'm very excited to see that :DD

I feel for Colin man- I would be so terrified of rusl and link showing up with two kids who are very much not supposed to be there.

I read the chapter when it first came out just hadn't gotten to message and rant about it yet This chapter ripped my heart out (in a good way). I think I might have cried but I don't remember lol. It's so good!! Thank you for sharing your writing with the world, it's so valuable and important

Extra smiles:

:))

Oh my goodness I was going to respond to this but forgot to 😭

Luna this is the sweeeetest message ever thank you so much for this 😭😭😭 I’m so glad you liked the last chapter! Edmund is meant to be a pompous prick, but deep down he has a heart of gold, so dw. A lot of fan fictions regarding tp always give Zelda an abusive husband and I almost went that route but… decided against it. He cares so much for his daughter and genuinely cares about Zelda. He just has a funny way of showing it :)

And yeah that was an accident but a happy accident! It gives amber and kori something to bond over! They just want their moms :(

And hfkebsksbskjsnk look if I went through what Kori went through at the ripe age of 10 I’d cry a lot too! He’s difficult to write but I try to remember how I thought around his age and it’s been a challenge, but I’m glad it’s going well :) I know a lot of things didn’t connect for me as a kid and so it’s fun to be like “he’s a kid! He wouldn’t understand that!” It was a fun detail to add for him not realizing that Amber was the princess. He has a lot on his mind too, poor things. But yeah kori is a sensitive soul so he will cry <3 also this was a thing that happened but Kori really loves fashion and clothes? So… yeah he’d be fascinated by dress up dolls :) he loves stuffed animals more tho

Anyways thank you so much this made me so happy when I received this 😭😭🧡🧡🧡

[ladyvlolypop]

Hey! I just wanna say your Kai headcannons are so spot on and realistic!! If you’re still taking requests can you delve a little deeper on how he would develop feelings for reader (pre or post merge which ever you want) it’s hard for me to think of how he’d go about it especially if they’d meet in the 94 prison world but like I said you write him so well I’d love to see what you think!! Thank you xx

AHHHHHH omg thank you! I've already made a post thanking you and I wanted to say thank you for waiting for so long for this post! I'm also super happy that my writing stays authentic to the character since I myself can't read anything were the character is super sugarcoated and acts nothing like the canon version.

This is going to be the PRE-MERGE KAI and I will make an post-merge Kai hc afterwards. I need to remind you before reading that Kai canonically has ASPD which is a personality disorder that I did not do in-depth research into. Also, for the sake of romance I will tone it down a little so that romance can actually work out. (I personally don't believe pre-merge Kai was looking for any relationship in which he would have to actively put effort in)

Kai Parker falling in love hc

Kai Parker x gn!reader Masterlist

(not my gif)

Now that we've got that out of the way, enjoy:

I'm going with the scenario that you woke up alone in the Prison World and that both Bonnie and Damon came back to life...just you..didn't.

Waking up in the forest you walked back into the city, thinking that you were in the real world

Quickly you realised you weren't. You continued exloring and just let it sink in.

While you were unaware, Kai picked up rather fast that he wasn't alone in the Prison World anymore

He was quietly watching you from a distance and let you roam free for a few weeks

Obviously he picked up on your habits and routines since he had nothing better to do than watch from a distance

You were pretty, he had to admit to himself

You decided to stay at the Salvatore Boarding House since the first day and made yourself feel at home. It's cozy afterall, you made lots of memories with your friends here and it's walls didn't suffocate you like your own home did.

After you woke up and did your morning routine you went downstairs to the kitchen. Just before you opened the door to the kitchen you could hear something on the other side. Cooking. Humming. A male voice? Humming? You tried to open the door sneakily but the old wood creaked loudly and you cursed the house quietly under your breath. Kai's head quickly whipped around to the door and smiled slyly. "Ah, my mystery guest! Come on in, I made your favorite breakfast!" He chimned and looked to the door excitedly. He couldn't wait to actually talk to you. You opened the door and looked around carefully before staring at him. What the fuck.

In the kitchen there was a tall man standing there full of expectation and a towel thrown over his shoulder. The shocked look on your face didn't go unnoticed. A few more moments of you just staring started to make him slightly nervous. "Well? Cat caught your tongue?", he said grinning.

You decided to not run away or fight. A decision that turned your cards completely.

Kai decided to go easy on you, he was prepared to run after you and tackle you down if you had decided to run away but the fact that you didn't, made him somewhat proud

Breakfast was awkward because the sudden invasion of your home killed your appetite.

"Are you eating that?", he said after stuffing his face full with his own plate. "No.", you said and sipped on your coffee, watching him intrigued, "Can I have it?" he asked. "Go ahead" you replied and watched him practically shoving the food down his throat.

Safe to say your appetite didn't come around till maybe noon after seeing him eat like a pig

He was practically talking throughout the whole meal and you listend to him, not really saying anything, because what is there to say? You're dead afterall.

He was bombarding you with questions like "How did you get here?", "Are you a witch?", "What did you do before you woke up here?" and stuff like that.

He also revealed that he had stalked you and you just nodded awkwardly. "Cool..", you said and tried to avoid eye contact. He seriously was so intrugued by your reaction.

You also found out that you weren't dead. "Wait so I'm not a ghost in a weird ghost world?" "What? No! Are you stupid? This is a Prison World"

The rest of the day was full of tension because you knew what a prison world meant. It meant that he must've done something so horrible that his coven decided he had no right for a place in the real world anymore. And he was very agitated because he knew you knew and he knew that stalking people is weird. He was weird, he knew that. He really didn't want you to suddenly disappear or run away because of it.

In the first week or so he did not sleep at the Boarding House with you, once you decided it was bed time, he would get up and leave. And then he'd be back before you even woke up.

You both started talking and got to know each other. He made some trauma jokes every once in a while and you'd laugh it off. But you certainly knew the seriousness of his trauma.

One day he'd ask to move in. You say yes. And a new Era was born.

You were pretty, obv,

He knew, you knew, he hadn't seen anyone in like 20 years let alone a woman!

He never did anything that made you uncomfortable

I think it all started when you went to the grocery store alone and came back, unpacked all of the groceries and handed him one of his favorite snacks.

"Wow, these are my favorite! How did you know?" "What do you mean "How did you know"? You literally give me the puppy eyes every time I wanna eat one myself" you replied chuckling

He started to really "like" you

His heart went fluttering every time you'd remember anything that he likes or finds interesting (Atleast he'd describe it as "fluttering")

He was "falling" harder when he opened up about his past and you weren't judging(but he'd never admit that)

He started memoriesing literally anything you told him about you. Oh that one friend's name and complete family history? Yeah ofc! If I know your childhood counting from the months? Yeah, duh, I listen to ya when you talk.

He felt so seen.

Every time you'd look him in the eyes when either of you were talking. When you'd be amazed with his knowledge about some random topic or when you'd praise him for his great cooking skills. All these things pulled the strings on his heart harder and made it harder for him to actually go after his blood lust.

Some part of him still wanted to hurt you or injure you but he knew better but it also scared him.

He started being dependent on someone.

The longer you spend time around each other the more he'd let his true self show.

And he was so happy someone was willing to accept him.

Though, he was no patient man and he got angry easily.

He had bad days where any little word could trigger a meltdown and he had good days in which he'd only give small warnings when you stepped out of line.

He has a lot of pent up anger and frustration inside of him that result in him screaming and yelling on top of his lungs or throwing around things and intentionally destroying stuff around the house.

He once threw a fit over an argument and ended up throwing a vase after you. He barely missed your head and you ended up running out of the house angrily.

He even cursed after you but not even after 5 minutes he realised what had actually happened and he wanted to run after you but you were gone.

Traceless, as if you had never existed. He ran into the city and called out your name. He searched for you through the town but by the end of the day he wasn't even finished combing through half of the city and you were still nowhere to be found.

Which triggered another meltdown of him just screaming and crying frustrated. You could see him from the top floor of a building and stayed hidden. You knew better than go down there just for him to blame all of it on you again.

That night he wondered if maybe he did go crazy and there actually was no "Y/N" afterall. That the past months were just hallucinations and he created some perfect partner for himself because his loneliness started catching up to him.

The following day you came back to the Boarding House and he tried to play down his happiness as much as possible but he couldn't.

He was convinced you were the love of his life. His soulmate.

Because who would come back after all the shitty things he had done?

He didn't mention he went out to look after you and you didn't mention that you watched him meltdown in the middle of the road and pass out from exhaustion and stress because of it.

The longer you spend time together, the more he wanted a relationship and it just got more and more clear to you too. He wanted to be loved. He needed your love.

And as much as he was anticipating breaking free of the Prison World with you, he dreaded it as well.

He knew there were better men outside for you. Maybe not in looks but certainly in feelings. He knew he can't love you like everybody else. He can't. He can pretend though, pretend and lie.

And he would hope every day that you would not figure out that he did not have the heart that he claimed you had in your hands.

Once you did get out, Kai was clinging to you like you were his only life source.

He tried to keep everything like it was in the Prison World and would get frustrated quickly when realising that that's simply not possible.

He may not love you but he certainly did kind of care for you.

Hope this isn't too long and actually makes sense lol

I liked writting this ;)

[lemontartyellow]

Uhhhh I feel like talking about Kristen Kringle so I’m gonna do it now.

This isn’t going to be very cohesive, I just felt like talking about my thoughts on her.

First of all, I want to say that she is nowhere near my favorite character. I felt completely neutral on her for all of Season 1, and started to like her in Season 2 before they killed her off. I can’t even say I understand why some people like her so much. But I will still defend her to my death because I firmly believe that woman did nothing wrong.

“But she was ableist to Ed!” I honestly think she didn’t like him not because of his autistic traits but because of how he acted around her. I say this as someone who heavily sympathizes towards S1 Ed, he was being incredibly creepy to her. He fucking sniffed her. Really, I think you could make stronger case for Harvey being ableist toward him (he literally told him that he needed help because he asked a riddle)

Plus, she literally apologized for how she thought of him even though she, in my very humble opinion, didn’t need to.

“But she gets in the way of Nygmobblepot!” Ignoring the fact that hating a female character because she “gets in the way” of a ship is misogynistic, how? Ed and Oswald are literally in the same room twice before she dies. I honestly didn’t think she would get this treatment from the fandom simply because she is such a non-factor in their relationship. If you wanna talk about Isabella, that’s a different story, but they’re two different characters.

I just genuinely don’t think there’s a valid reason to hate her, yknowwhatimsaying? Other then that, I don’t care about her that much. I liked her for the 3 episodes before she died, and her and Lee would’ve made a cute couple, but that’s about it. But I’m still side eying you very hard if you don’t like her.

Now I want to talk about her writing. It’s not a secret that Gotham does not write its women well, and Kristen Kringle is not an exception to the rule. She joins Isabella and Lee (strange how all the women Ed dated have the sake writing problems) in the “most of their character revolves around a man/men” category of misogynistic writing (well, Lee could hypothetically get better in Season 4 and maybe 5 since I haven’t watched them, but I don’t have faith).

Kristen doesn’t have much of a character outside of him. She has no existing plotlines, motivations, or goals. The closest thing she gets outside of him is her tendency to date jerks (Flass, Dougherty, Ed even counts technically).

Kristen does not have any scenes where Ed is not also in them. The closest she gets is a scene is Season 2 where she is talking to Lee and Ed isn’t in the same room as them. He is still in the scene though, he’s just overhearing them.

And then there’s her dying for Ed’s character development. Which is, for obvious reasons, not something you do to your female characters.

Now, I’m obviously not a professional writer, but I’ve thought about how they could’ve done her better. I’ve heard people throw out the idea of her becoming a villain herself, but that doesn’t really seem to make sense to me (interesting idea though). The best I can come up with is Ed almost killing her instead of actually killing her, have her help out Jim and Harvey sometimes, having her have a reaction to Isabella/Oswald/Lee, exploring her attraction to toxic men, and give her relationship with Lee more screen time (I’d say make them girlfriends but I’m trying to be a little realistic here). I think a weird and complex relationship between her and Ed could be cool,

I’ve never been good at conclusions, so just take the thing.

[adoringhaikyuu]

when their teammate has a crush on you | 2

characters: akaashi + kyoutani + osamu + tendou

request: aaaaaaa!! i was stalking your feed when i thought of something 👉🏻👈🏻so you did a "when their teammate has a crush on you" and i reaaaally loved it a lot🥺could you do it with tendou, akaashi, kyoutani, and osamu? if you want to!! • by @kalesugar​

warnings: osamu and tendou’s are suggestive

notes: since osamu’s and tendou’s are sexual, everyone is 18+ in those but in the others there is no smut + (i might write a fic about tendou’s bc i’ve been wanting to write a smut w them idk if people want that)

part one | part two

akaashi:

so bokuto might have had a little crush on you

and it’s not like he would actually do anything about it

he respected you and akaashi and your relationship way too much

he even rooted for you two to get together, he thought you were perfect for each other (you were)

but he couldn’t help the way his heart would beat faster when you were around sometimes, the way his eyes would immediately drift to you when you walked in a room, the way your smile made him feel all tingly inside

he was honestly just waiting the feelings out and tried to act normal around you

he told akaashi about his crush on you cause he didn’t want to hide anything from him

and your boyfriend understood why he would have a crush on you, he couldn’t blame him––but that doesn’t mean he was too happy about it

realistically he wasn’t going to ban him from seeing you or anything, you were allowed to interact

but part of him felt a little odd when bokuto would make jokes with you, a light blush on his cheeks that you most likely assumed was from his laughter 

bokuto sure was making you laugh a lot tonight. the three of you were hanging out at his place for your weekly hangout and it seemed he just had an endless amount of jokes. it’s not that akaashi didn’t like his jokes, it’s just that he didn’t like that it seemed as though his best friend was making the jokes for the sole purpose of making you laugh. 

he thought he was doing a good job at hiding his inner thoughts, but in reality, you had picked up on them almost immediately. you waited until you were in the comfort of akaashi’s home, where you were staying the night, to ask him about it when you noticed he wasn’t going to bring it up himself.

“is something bothering you? could tell you weren’t really here tonight.” 

he looked away and shrugged, and you stepped closer to him.

“is it...maybe because bokuto has a little crush on me?” 

he held his breath for a second in shock as he looked at you silently, blinking a few times. “you...you know?”

you shrugged, a small smile on your face. “i had a feeling. i mean, your facial expressions may be minimal but i can still decode them keiji.” he blushed and looked down, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “i could tell you were watching him a little more closely when he would talk to me.” 

“i...i trust him, i do.” he looked into your eyes, “and i trust you too. it’s just...it doesn’t really make me feel too good knowing that bokuto-san,” he muttered the next part, “with all his muscles and charm––has feelings for you.”

you shook your head and put your hands on his cheeks to look into his eyes earnestly. “you have nothing to worry about baby, i promise that. you’re the only man i have eyes for.”

his hands found their spot on your waist as he gave you a small, but grateful and loving smile. “i know. i love you.” he kissed you lightly and you smiled against his mouth. 

“love you too. so much.” 

kyoutani:

let’s say oikawa likes you––

well more-so that he finds you attractive and can’t help but flirt with you from time to time harmlessly

kyoutani doesn’t give a fuck sfkjdh he will growl at his captain

sometimes he’s not even in the mood, he’ll just take your hand or throw you over his shoulder while you’re talking to oikawa and just walk away 

meanwhile oikawa is just pouting and complaining to your boyfriend as he blatantly ignores him

“you know it’s not very nice to interrupt a conversation like that, mad-dog!” 

oikawa wouldn’t actually try to steal you away from your boyfriend, but he did have some genuine questions that were borderline offensive sdfjghs

like “how did mad-dog manage to get you?” 

“are you sure you’re not being held against your will?”

bottom line is, your boyfriend is not happy 

he will try to prevent you from even being in his captain’s line of sight

he’ll step in front of you or turn around and go another way 

when oikawa approached you after the game, strategically waiting for your boyfriend to go get his things so he’d have more time to talk to you, you knew it was only a matter of time before you were snatched away by a growling kyoutani. 

his plan kind of work, considering the conversation lasted about thirty seconds? longer than it normally did. the captain was leaning against the wall next to you, his arm above your head as you looked up at him, completely unaffected by his charming eyes––you appreciated the effort he took to talk to you, but you knew he was just a natural flirt at heart. 

he was mid-sentence when your boyfriend came storming up to the two of you and grabbed your hand, marching you away from the complaining boy. you just laughed and squeezed his hand, “you know i thought you would have gotten tired of doing that by now.” he grumbled in response and you tugged his hand and led him to a quiet corner.

he was looking down at the floor but you put a hand under his chin and made him look you in the eyes, your small smile making him calm down a bit. “you have to stop letting him get to you like this. you know i’d never entertain his flirting––i’m yours.”

he clenched his jaw and nodded, looking to the side when he heard his captain walking by. you turned his head to face you again and surprised him with a kiss and his hands came up to squeeze your waist. he groaned into your mouth and you pulled away to look at him.

“that’s a good way to calm me down.”

you smiled, “oh yeah?”

he nodded, “yeah” and put his lips back on yours. 

osamu:

so atsumu may or may not have had a crush on you

and yes you were dating his brother

no he wasn’t going to steal you (though he thinks he absolutely could if he wanted to), he respects you both and your relationship

and he loves how happy you make his brother

...but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t check you out sometimes or harmlessly flirt with you (he can’t help it, have you seen yourself?)

osamu would catch his brother ogling at you all the time, or hanging around in the room when you’re over for no reason

he’d usually just smack his head and tell him to fuck off

or he’d take a different approach––

you were really trying to pay attention to atsumu’s story, or whatever it is he was saying, but you couldn’t focus on anything but the feeling of osamu’s lips on your neck, and his hand running along your thigh, the other gripping your waist as you sat practically on him on the couch. 

the two of you were spending time together, alone, when atsumu came in, and decided to third-wheel. you didn’t really have a problem with it, but by the way your boyfriend soon pulled you into his lap to distract himself, and most certainly you as well––you could tell he was bothered. 

atsumu trailed off and scratched his neck awkwardly, laughing. “do you guys wanna get a room or something?” he joked and his brother barely lifted his head, hands pulling you even closer. 

“we did get a room, you came in here.”

atsumu rolled his eyes. “so how long are you planning on assaulting y/n’s neck for?” 

osamu lifted his head, annoyance radiating off of him and brought one hand up to tilt your head towards his, his lips grazing yours. “unless you want to see us fuck, you should leave.” 

atsumu blushed but smirked, “i mean...”

osamu glared at him. “get out.”

tendou:

so when you and tendou started dating, you obviously started hanging out with him more, but also ushijima

it’s not like ushijima was expecting to develop feelings for you 

he didn’t want to––he honestly even searched up how to stop a crush from progressing 

he always thought you were nice and good looking but after hanging out with you more, that’s when he realized he liked your personality too and that you were a good person

he waited a little longer before telling tendou––yeah he told him

but tendou had already figured it out, his eyes picking up on the way ushijima was a little more tense or aware of himself when you were around

the way he would smile and blush when you hugged him goodbye

if anything, tendou thought it was cute 

he got you on board with his idea and after you all graduated, you both put the plan in action

ushijima was sat at the edge of the bed, looking at you and his best friend in confusion, “i thought you said my graduation present was in here?”

your boyfriend stood behind you, arms circling around your waist as he peered over your shoulder, his eyes piercing and teasing as he stared at the boy on the bed. “well you see ushi, after you told me about your little crush––which i’m assuming you still have?”

he nodded unashamed, and unblinking as he looked at the two of you and you felt a tingle run down your body. 

tendou went on, “well after that, i figured you might want to have some fun with the two of us,” he kissed your neck teasingly and the brown-haired boy shifted a bit on the bed, clearly itching to touch you. “we both agreed that it was a great idea.” he brought his attention back to your neck and you figured that was your cue to take over.

“so what do you say, ushi?” you sighed softly when tendou sucked a mark onto your sweet spot and you noticed ushijima’s eyes darken. “do you want this graduation present?” 

he licked his lips and scooted forward, his hands squeezing his thighs almost painfully hard. “yes. please–”

[guardianspirits13]

I wanna talk about Natsuo Todoroki for a second here.

tw// mentions of abuse, self harm, and suicide

Natsuo visibly has the most emotional trauma out of anyone else in his family (Touya not included), and I really wanna talk about why that is.

For starters, we haven't seen him really smile since he was introduced in chapter 187. He's introduced as having a friendly, easygoing persona and it's easy to imagine this is how most people outside of his family know him. However, every time we see him appear since then, another layer of his trauma is revealed and expanded upon, and it cuts DEEP.

I think the main reason that Natsuo still seems so vulnerable compared to the rest of his family is different than what you'd assume. Fuyumi and Shouto both spend a lot of time around Endeavor, and have been in close proximity to his (relatively recent) decision to atone. They have seen his growth firsthand and come to terms with it. Rei has obviously taken a very different path to healing- not entirely voluntarily- but she has been working with doctors and therapists for years to change and recover and reconnect with herself and her children. Natsuo is off at college, and takes every opportunity he can to avoid Endeavor. He (understandably) wants nothing to do with him, and shows stagnant resistance to his attempts to atone.

The reason why Natsuo can't move on from the past is because his trauma didn't come from Endeavor. It came from Touya.

Now initially we were led to believe that it was simply Touya's untimely death that still bothers Natsuo, and it makes sense seeing how Endeavor drove him to the edge. Losing his best friend and brother as a young kid without parents to support him or any therapist to speak of can absolutely been the source of persistent emotional damage, but the more and more we learn about Touya's situation, the more evident it becomes that Natsuo's trauma is much much deeper than even grief.

Touya, as we know, was driven by an ambition instilled in him by his father and experienced extreme rejection sensitivity when those ambitions were no longer realistic. Touya's relationship with his parents could be described as insecure attachment, a psychological term primarily regarding how kids react and respond to their parents and other close relationships. As he was raised, Touya learned to equate his potential to be a hero with his personal worth and similarly confounded attention with love. The difference being, of course, that love is unconditional, but even attention was being continually directed away from him as a punishment for continuing to train and burn himself so he could once again become worthy in his fathers' eyes.

This is where Natsuo comes in. At first it was assumed that all of the Todoroki children were born out of Endeavor's strong-willed desire to have a child that could surpass All Might, but we learned that this isn't exactly the case. I'd argue that it was narratively poetic on Horikoshi's part once this was expanded upon. Fuyumi was born to support and encourage her brother, and that is the exact role she plays 23 years later, keeping her family together.

Natsuo's case is even more intersting.

It was bad enough if Natsuo was only born for the potential of his quirk, but it's even more sinister that the sole intent behind his birth was to discourage Touya from his ambitions. I'd say it was to replace him, but it was more to promote the idea that Touya was expendable than to raise aonther kid with the same ideals but the potential to actually achieve it, although that was definitely a secondary motivation.

The parallelism in this is how much Natsuo's life revolves around Touya. He was born because of Touya, he looked up to and took care of Touya as a kid, and the absence of Touya in the present continues to drive him and his decisions in life (but more on that later).

I continue to pray that we will eventually get more solid backstory on Natsuo and Touya's relationship as kids and where it cut off, wether on a bad note or not, but there are a few things we know for certain. One, Touya was mentally ill. Yes, he was rejected by his parents but he seems to have been particularly vulnerable to this compared to any of his siblings since he was the first of them and thus relied only on his parents for validation in his early years. He shows early signs of a variety of different mental disorders, particularly BPD, which I have previously written a whole analysis for on its own. Touya is shown self-harming both by the very nature of his quirk and even by very directly ripping his hair out. He was incredibly self-destructive.

This is why it is so much more concerning to me that Natsuo, who was AT LEAST four years younger than him, was his primary source of comfort. Natsuo was too young to have known anything more than 'my big brother is sad that daddy won't train him anymore' and he obviously wasn't equipped in any way to handle Touya's severe mental illness. Touya most definitely needed professional treaatment as his forms of coping were abnormal even for the neglect and rejection that he experienced. Natsuo comforted Touya through breakdown after breakdown, and more than that Touya relied on him and came to him voluntarily for support. Natsuo was the best option he had, and he took full advantage of that. The main source of Natsuo's trauma was Touya's reliance on him.

Not to say at all that this was in any way Touya's fault- he was mentally ill and desperately in need of some form of comfort to keep him sane; it was almost a survival method at this point since neither of his parents really acknowleged him at all anymore. Touya's instability hurt Natsuo more than parental neglect ever did, but it was the neglect that enabled it and striped Touya of the supportive atmosphere he would have needed at this point not only to prevent but to heal from the mental damage he had already suffered.

Natsuo dealt with this for years and you can see how much it hurt him to see Touya in so much pain, not only from Endeavor's rejection but from his own self harm as well. For Natuso to know that his brotherly love would never be the same as having loving parents; would neve be enough- but at least it was something so he continued to love and care about his brother for little in return- is indicative of the kind of character he is.

(Edit: After the events of chapter 302 we know that Natsuo's relationship with Touya wasn't perfect. I will elaborate more on this in a different post, but I just wanted to clarify that although we were shown a very high-tension scene between them, it is implied that this was a regular occurrence that Natsuo was usually more receptive too but tired out of, in addition to Touya's spiraling mental health. It fit with the natrative to show the tension Touya was feeling with his family from all directions, but Natsu and Touya clearly had a stronger relationship up to and before this point, evidenced by their sharing a room and playing together regularly.)

He is incredibly selfless, and it's interesting to note how many of his positive qualities as an adult stem from negative experiences as a kid. He never really felt love from his parents, so he relied on Touya (and likely also Fuyumi) for that as well. If he grew up learning he had to give love in order to recieve it back, it absolutely influenced who he became in the future, a solid example of this being the responsibility he feels to reach out and have a relationship with Shouto and further regrets that he wasn't able to help his abuse in the past either. Another aspect of his character that intruigues me is how gentle he is. Personality-wise he seems about as opposite as he could be from the awkward, stoic, emotionally-stunted person that is Endeavor.

There are a couple of reasons for this, beyond what I've already discussed.

One, he had little to no contact with elements of toxic masculinity growing up, especially not from Endeavor.

Two, most of the influence he did have growing up was from Fuyumi, who is established to have endlessly cared for him since he was a literal baby.

Three, he grew up in a household where almost everyone around him was in much more literal, immediate pain than he was so he developed a very strong sense of empathy that might also have been tied to early survivor's guilt.

Now I have one important distinction to make, and that's the temptation to label him as a 'softboy' or something of the like after seeing him caring for his family and more pointedly, watching him break down in tears during chapter 252. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with men being soft or vulnerable (on the contrary it's actually so so important and relevant that Hori is writing characters like this in a mainstream shounen manga but that's an essay for another time), it is unfair to label him as such based on a moment when his trauma is being exposed.

Because his truama stems from such a young age, there is a blurry line between just being born with more emotional intelligence and the situation he was in fostering those traits. You know, the classic nature/nurture thing. My point being, it's important to tread carefully when discussing the nature of his personality to avoid invalidating his trauma; I have no doubt that he is very strong for having survived these things, and the moments we see of him onscreen are definitely among his most vulnerable.

Another thing that people less familiar with Natsuo's character might assume is that he is hot-headed and argumentative. I thought that at first too- after all, he doesn't seem to shy away from yelling at Endeavor when given the opportunity. However, this doesn't seem to be the case at all.

The first real scene we see him in with Endeavor, the man walks into the room and Natsuo decides he can't handle it and goes to leave. However, Endeavor happens to be blocking the doorway. Endeavor physically stops him and provokes him to his face, asking him to say whatever is on him mind. While Natsuo is notably not confrontational, Endeavor is. I think it's fair to say that he felt at least uneasy at this gesture. Natsuo is very honest with his feelings, and it's obvious that he's pissed at the audacity of Endeavor to be so oblivious to his own son. This is presumably one of the first real interactions they've ever really had, and at this point Natsuo has been dealing with trauma (caused by Endeavor!) on his own for years, and Endeavor seems completely oblivious to his pain and dismmisive to the rest of the family's as well.

Again during the internship arc Natsuo tries to get along with Endeavor and this time he actually gives it a fleeting chance. Tensions are high, however, and the conversation very quickly becomes uncomfortable, at which point he leaves. It is continually implied that Natsuo is uncomfortable being around Endeavor because his very presence brings up painful thoughts and memories of a time when sharing the same space as him was a warning to run and hide. This is later directly confirmed by Natsuo as he says that every time he looks at Endeavor's face he remembers Touya and the pain he was in.

I feel like an important side note is that we have never seen Natsuo outside the context of his family, which is understandable, as the role he plays in the story directly relates to them. However, if you take a look at Shouto, even though his experiences have shaped him to become who he is, he definitely acts differently when Endeavor's not in the vicinity.

Back to Touya's death, it would be very rare that someone would mourn a death for an entire decade without finding closure unless there are other factors preventing it, and uncomfortably this seems to be the same thing for both Natsuo and Endeavor: guilt.

This is getting incredibly long already, but it's important to note that Natsuo probably felt an incredible responsibility to take care of Touya and protect him because of his empathetic nature. His love was never going to be the same as having loving parents. His encouragement was never going to be the same as having support from Endeavor. Even further than then neglect and abandonement, it was not being able to save Touya that really made Natsuo feel worthless.

He seems to try and remedy this inability to save Touya and diminish his guilt by doing everything he can to be better. He reaches out to Shouto to be a better brother, he consistently pushes his limits to entertain Fuyumi's notion of a happy family, and he's working hard towards a degree rhat will allow him to help people like Touya (and Rei) because he failed to do so in the past.

His bio mildly implies that he didn't have much of a direction he was heading in after high school, but Fuyumi's encouragement led him to seek out his current college career. This goes back to Natsuo's 'purpose' in a sense revolving arount Touya, from his birth to his relationship with him to his death, after which he lost his direction. They were always rather inseperable, so naturally their seperation hit Natsuo hard. He lost his direction in life so when Fuyumi encouraged him to rediscover it, he thought of helping people, because that's ultimately what he was born to do.

Thank you so, so much for reading this if you made it to the end! I clearly have a lot of thoughts on this. Let me know what you think about it as well, and hopefully we'll get more info on this soon in the manga :)

[work-of-waking-up]

In Defense of the Psychopath

Alright, wanna venture into my crazy ass brain? I’m going to start by saying one thing that will set the tone for everything else that follows: Villanelle is not a psychopath in the way that we currently understand them. Why am I even bothering to write about a fictional character, you ask? Because representation is important. Media portrayal of various mental and behavioral health topics (including ones that people might not think need to be discussed) is important and this show has a big audience. I also just want to contribute to the conversations that are taking place because I am seeing A LOT of them and the reason for that I believe boils down to the fact that Jodie makes Villanelle so relatable and people want to know what that means and looks like for them. Even those who felt they could relate to Sandra’s Eve, or the relationship between the two, maybe questioned what that meant the further they went down the path with them. “It’s probably a bad thing I relate to a psychopath, right? But she can’t be a psychopath because she cries and she feels things! Psychopaths don’t cry, which means she isn’t realistic so therefore it’s okay that I relate to her! Right? Or are my assumptions about psychopaths and people with antisocial personality disorder wrong? I relate to Eve but look what she is underneath it all...so does that mean I relate to that part of her too?” Not only is villanelles character relatable, but people see the freedom inherent within her, the freedom that Eve sees, and they realize that, at least on some level, they want it too. The show has (unintentionally I think) created a massive dialogue which is super cool and you can tell everyone involved on the show is aware of that now, I mean they have a consulting psychiatrist so I think that speaks for itself. This is less of a commentary on the character herself and whether or not she is a genuine psychopath, and more so a commentary on the conversations she has inspired and why... For the record, this is literally just my opinion sprinkled with a few facts, nothing else.

So, the term psychopath gets thrown around in the show, more so in the beginning, MI6 explicitly labels Villanelle this way, even going so far as to use her in a presentation about psychopaths, although I think that was more so to gauge Eve’s response than anything else. The reality of Villanelle, which we come to learn, is that nobody has been able to get close enough to really know the truth. Anna and Konstantin both got close but we never hear either of them use that word (Konstantin says it once but he clearly doesn’t mean it, it was more of an attempted manipulation tactic). They make it clear that she has, and can, and WILL cause damage, but that’s as far as they go. Eve is getting close and she tells Villanelle when they first meet that she knows Villanelle is a psychopath but it’s obvious from Eve's behavior and things she says later on that she truly doesn’t believe Villanelle is what everyone says she is. It’s easier to label her as a psychopath because that alienates and isolates her and her behavior completely. She is an outlier with behavioral anomalies and therefore it isn’t necessary to look any closer. For MI6 and others (not talking about the shows creators) to label Villanelle as a psychopath is easy, it’s lazy, it’s reductive, it serves a single purpose... a means to an end. They (anyone other than Eve basically) simply do not care about Villanelle’s truth. But as an audience we are lucky enough to see more of her with each episode. The psychopath label begins to fade and Oksana is what’s left. We know based on what she has said that she is aware that people think she is a psychopath, a monster, a person built to kill. It’s not always easy to decide that who you are is different from who you’ve always been told you are, especially given her history. Villanelle hasn’t told us yet if she thinks (or knows) that she is a psychopath, but it’s clear towards the end of last season that she no longer wants to be the person that they (meaning the twelve, Dasha, Konstantin, etc.) created. We see moments where she clearly has no remorse and clearly enjoys what she does, but then we have little moments sprinkled in between where she very obviously struggles, even if its short lived. And those moments are important. We have the moment where she struggles with the choice to shoot Konstantin, saying he is a good person, she thinks. This comes shortly after a conversation she had where Irina tells Villanelle she thinks she is a good person because she is sad, so we know she is thinking about it, we know the awareness is there, and it becomes more and more there as times goes on. I like to think of it in terms of having moments that are pure Villanelle (ie the way she killed Inga in the Russian prison), and then we have moments that are Oksana, vulnerable and emotional. Villanelle is a creation and a mask whereas oksana is the truth. Those moments are starting to really mean something. I'm not even going to start with her trip to find her family, that’s its own thing, but it's a Really Big Thing.

So. Villanelle is not a psychopath in the way that we currently understand and perceive them. Yes, she displays psychopathic traits, and yes, she absolutely has antisocial personality disorder. I read an article where the psychiatric consultant for the show (makes it pretty obvious how hard they worked to make Villanelle as realistic as possible) said that the Villanelle in Luke Jenning’s books scored a 32 on Hare’s psychiatric checklist, but I like to think (and I think a lot of people would agree) that number is a bit high, at least for Jodie’s Villanelle, maybe not even hitting 30 at all (close though, let’s be real lol). The max score is 40 which would be a fully blown primary psychopath. For reference, Ted Bundy scored 39. This checklist is flawed though, mostly created and based off the prison population. Which is why it isn’t used as a proper diagnostic tool. 32 is apparently extraordinarily high for a female (think Aileen Wuornos), which brings me to my next point which is that because it’s hard to measure a lot of the classic traits objectively, there is not a ton of solid data surrounding psychopathy, and even less of it is on female psychopaths. Like most things in life, psychopathy exists on a spectrum, there are levels and layers. It’s not black and white, there’s no definitive test (psychopathy isn’t even in the DSM-5 because as I said earlier it’s extremely hard to measure objectively) and it's important to distinguish between someone who exhibits psychopathic traits and someone who is actually an identifiable psychopath. Chances are high that someone you know displays at least one characteristic shared with psychopaths and this doesn’t make them one.

I think what’s important about this is that mental disorders (mental illness/personality disorders/etc.) of any kind are much more nuanced than a lot of people tend to think they are. That they exist less in black and white and more in shades of grey. Jodie Comer is absolutely remarkable for showcasing that through portraying the different layers of Villanelle. Her performance is a literal gift. We cannot keep thinking and acting like we know everything about how a person thinks, feels, and behaves based strictly and entirely on one label. The thing that has stuck out to me the most, the reason I decided to even write this bullshit babble, is that one of the most searched topics about the show is whether or not it’s realistic that Villanelle cries, and honestly how sad is that? That makes me sad for V. Is it more realistic for her to develop connections and cognitive empathy if she was made into a psychopath vs if she was born that way? Is there a legitimate difference between the two? And how do we even decide which one is applicable for someone? It’s important to add that antisocial personality disorder is not the same thing as psychopathy or sociopathy. You can have aspd and not be a psychopath. Research has shown that about only a third of those diagnosed with aspd would meet criteria to be considered a psychopath. Society is not doing a great job at getting people to understand this. But to be fair, understanding personality disorders specifically has been somewhat problematic, a lot of diagnostic confusion and overlap between disorders. A LOT of work needs to be done. But as far as portrayals go, society has strictly chosen to go the route of giving us psychopathic characters and having them be inherently violent, incapable of remorse, feelings, or change. Poverty of all emotions. Subhuman. They are made out to be so abnormal and unrelatable to the point where the character of Villanelle has sparked so much debate and fascination simply because she exists in a way that actually IS relatable...and layered and beautiful and thrilling. We thought she would be the bad guy and yet we root for her at every turn, we cry for her, we want good things for her! We see her darkness and without question or hesitation we forgive it. She makes us question what we’ve previously been shown. Questioning whether or not it’s realistic that she acts the way she does is less important than questioning our own personal assumptions and beliefs and where those come from. I think that’s awesome. Villanelle is truly a gift. She is hands down one of the most well written fictional characters, which is saying a lot considering when you put something, or someone, in a box it doesn’t leave tons of room for expansion. and I honestly don’t even really need to say this, but.. Jodie Comer.

[celestialsblues]

okay so @radiosandrecordings said I should make this post so here I am. I wanna talk about the tma fandom’s treatment of jon as a character. while I’m not super active in the fandom I thought I needed to share my two cents.

I think the tma fandom has an issue with treating jon as if he’s an oc and not an entire, very well written character. while projection can be fun and all, as oran said, he definitely is being transformed into a Relatable OC. rather than being a very realistic flawed character people reduce a lot of that to tropes and easily relatable hcs. many headcannons are completely out of character for him, making him seem like a blank slate when he’s not.

there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, people can have fun however they want. however I think it misses a lot of the points of having such realistic and interesting characters. I’m not saying that everything has to have a huge purpose and everything has to be like an english class, I’m just saying that taking more time to think about your consumption of media would be really helpful for everyone in the long run and could foster a lot of interesting conversations.

many people see this very flawed man, rife with trauma and struggling with addiction, and turn him into the next #Relatable Character. and I feel like that does a disservice to jonny and his writing. this is not to say that everything has to be serious, however I think more people should put thought into what they choose to consider “canon” or what they force onto jon as a character. jon is a very interesting character and to see him reduced down to essentially just tropes and stereotypes is honestly sad. while I’ve seen people talking about people doing this to characters like tim I haven’t seen anyone talk about how similar it seems to be with jon.

people will take simple aspects of his character and blow them out of proportion while also completely ignoring some of the key aspects of his development and growth over the show.

this reduction of his character is something I see a lot with fandoms, where instead of thinking critically or introspectively, people just do what they want with absolutely no consequences. I think the fandom would genuinely benefit from more people offering up their opinions on jon as a character rather than turning him into a blank slate that anyone can just force their hcs on. I feel that that would make some really interesting conversations! as well as interesting art/fanfics/etc.

some of my favorite works in this fandom have been ones that analyze these characters and use them in super interesting ways. and I don’t mean that you can’t do that while also writing fun fluffy fanfics! trust me, you can do both! I’ve seen it before. it doesn’t have to be super Deep and Interesting either, there just needs to be a little bit more thought put into it.

obviously fandom doesn’t need to be super serious and whatnot but I think a little more introspection on these characters would bring a lot of interesting things to the table. and again, this is not me saying that you all have to stop having fun and write an essay, this is just me saying to look more closely at the media you’re consuming

[tumblingclockwork]

HI LEAF IVE BEEN HYPERFIXATING ON MC STORY MODE AND ON STAMPYCAT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT STAMPYCAT BEING THE WHITE PUMPKIN IT SOUNDS SO COOL

HELLO HI YES I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO EXPLAIN

Before I start I wanna give a huge shout out to @mephones-declining-mental-health who was actually the first to point a lot of this out. We spent a lot of time putting this all together and she deserves a ton of credit for it. So go check them out.

ok so mcsm is an old game so quick refresher on episode 6: Jesse and his gang end up in another world and are put into a murder-mystery type situation. They’re trapped in the mansion due to zombies and have to survive until the day while the person who invited them all to the mansion (who goes by “The White Pumpkin”) kills them off one-by-one in order to obtain the Enchanted Flint And Steel. Which Jesse is also trying to get. Minus the main cast, everyone in this murder mystery is based off and voiced by famous minecraft YouTubers from the time. This was a pretty genius move on TellTale’s part because it meant the players were already going in with a certain level of attachment to these characters, allowing the game to kill them off in a way that would be emotionally impactful without effecting the plot of the overall story that much.

The people you meet in the mansion are the following youtubers: CaptainSparklez, TorqueDawg, StampyCat, TheDiamondMinecart, LDShadowLady, StacyPlays, and CassieRose

Multiple of these YouTubers are killed off (though some can be either saved or killed depending on your choices) and [spoiler warning] Cassie Rose is revealed to be the white pumpkin at the end. Her motivation being that she’s stuck away from her home world for and desperate to get back.

Now here’s the thing: that doesn’t make Any sense.

Cassie doesn’t have a single line or any piece of evidence that would necessarily point to her being the white pumpkin. The only real evidence that points to her feels so last minute and forced. And just completely disregards any other scene in which you were collecting evidence.

This would be less frustrating if there weren’t multiple other people that had far more evidence against them. But the one who has the most undeniable evidence against them? StampyCat.

Now I don’t know if they changed the story halfway through development or if the writers at TellTale are just bad at their jobs (equally likely but there is some evidence to suggest Cassie was not always the intended White Pumpkin) but Stampy has the most evidence, best motive, and would have just been a very interesting villain entirely.

Let’s go over everything.

So for starters. The first murder.

Spoiler alert! But the first murder is TorqueDawg. He stands under a dispenser that shoots him with a poison tipped arrow and he dies.

Now, tipped arrows were a relatively new thing at the time, and the game makes a point out of this. A lot of the characters in the mansion Don’t Know what a tipped arrow is. But a few do.

After the second murder (which we’ll address in a moment) you have the ability to interrogate three of the characters. LDShadowLady, TheDiamondMinecart, and StampyCat

Lizzie (LDShadowLady) is fully aware of the tipped arrows. Both Dan (TheDiamondMinecart) and Stampy point this out. When you ask her about it, she says she does know how to make them and taught others about it.

One of the people she talked about the tip arrows to is Cassie, aka the white pumpkin. So story-wise it does make sense. But Lizzie also states that Stampy had asked her about the tipped arrows, and specifically how to make them. So we know he has full knowledge of them.

But what does Stampy say when you ask him about the tipped arrows?

“I’ve never seen anything like it before”

This is Never addressed. Not once. Stampy blatantly lies about knowledge of a murder weapon when he seemingly has no reason to do so and he gets away with it.

So Stampy 1. Has the ability to create the weapon used for the murder and 2. Felt the need to hide this ability.

So that’s pretty suspicious right off the bat.

Now these interviews are caused by the second murder. So let’s talk about that.

Second murder: CaptainSparklez is pushed into a sand pit and suffocated by a very elaborate redstone trap. The trap is activated by one of the buttons on the table that they’re all sitting at.

Each of the buttons activates the trap, but only one of them was actually pressed. The connection we’re supposed to make here is that the White Pumpkin set up multiple buttons to keep suspicion off of themself.

The people sitting at the buttons were StampyCat, TheDiamondMinecart, LDShadowLady and Jesse’s friend Lucas.

Now you’ll notice that CassieRose, the actual White Pumpkin, is not on this list.

TheDiamondMinecart (Dan) is the one who presses the button. Dan is supposed to be a Red Herring here as he didn’t know what the button would do and pressed it anyway (though he’s a bad red herring. And we’ll discuss that in a moment). Even with the knowledge that it wasn’t the white pumpkin who pressed it, it doesn’t make any sense for her to have not been sitting at a seat with a button. And this is never really addressed either. Making this scene a complete waste of time, unless of course the original white pumpkin was intended to be one of those 4 people.

The interviews give us a lot of knowledge about the interpersonal relationships of the characters and what their skill levels are. Such as what I discussed earlier about the tipped arrows. But one thing that stays consistent is Jesse’s insistence that whoever the white pumpkin is, they must be good at redstone.

And he’s right. Every trap set by the white pumpkin at this point was redstone activated. Whoever made it must have been very skilled with it. And out of all the suspects there’s only one who has that level of ability. Stampy.

Both Dan and Lizzie make a point of saying that Stampy is a master of redstone and his skill is unmatched. But when Stampy is asked about this, his first instinct is to lie about it. When you catch him in this lie, he immediately back-tracks.

So Stampy

Has knowledge on how to build the first murder weapon (which wasn’t knowledge everyone had at the time)

Completely lies about this knowledge and is never called out for it

Was sitting at one of the buttons that caused the second murder

Is the only one with the redstone knowledge capable of creating the white pumpkins traps.

Lies about his redstone ability

So there you go! That’s a ton of evidence against him! And pretty much no evidence against Cassie other than the fact that she also knew about tipped arrows at the time.

In fact the dinner scene confirms Cassie can’t be a suspect unless we’re supposed to believe she just hoped someone else would do the job for her. Which considering she’s later characterized to be super paranoid and unwilling to leave things to chance, I doubt it.

While looking through secret tunnels you manage to find a secret conversation between Dan and Lizzie where Dan admits that he was the one who pushed the button on accident and that he feels super guilty about it. Jessie spots the white pumpkin looking through a painting at this moment. And considering he’s also seeing Dan and Lizzie, and he knows where Lucas is, out of all the people sitting near buttons, Stampy is the only one left. If the White Pumpkin was someone who was sitting at one of the buttons (which it should have been) it would have had to be Stampy

Now I do think having Dan push the button is realistic and fine. It’s a button. Everyone likes pushing buttons. But the fact that the white pumpkin would Bet On That Happening and not sit near a button at all feels like it couldn’t possibly be right, especially because everything else is so thought through and calculated. It feels out of character for Cassie to do. Cassie being the white pumpkin also means those interview scenes were an entire waste of time. They gave us no real information that could be used in the case and crossed off the real murderer as a possible suspect.

If *Stampy* was the murderer however, this would have made a lot more sense. As the interviews would have given us a lot of info about him and against him. Plus his relationship to the others. Even if Dan turned out to be the one who pressed the button, we still would have gotten that important info on Stampy. Not to mention that Dan just so happening to press the button before the White Pumpkin got a chance is a lot more believable than the White Pumpkin betting on that.

Now the way the story actually goes is that Stampy is revealed to have the enchanted flint and steel (even though before he claimed to not even want it) and as I’ve said, Cassie is revealed to be the white pumpkin.

We learn she’s the white pumpkin because she’s the only one who didn’t have a portrait of herself with a red X over it, which is a sign someone had died. Meaning she was never intended to die at all.

Now because the writing team didn’t put any actual evidence of her being guilty before this, they slip in a Not At All Subtle clue that she’s the white pumpkin.

The white pumpkin’s hide out is Filled with calico cats. The same cats as Winslow (the cat that Cassie had kept with her). And while this is obviously supposed to tell us it’s her, it doesn’t really make much sense as a clue. Considering Winslow is just one cat. A bunch of cats that look like him is sort of out-of-nowhere. She’s had no real evidence against her other than the final connection, meanwhile all signs seem to point to Stampy.

This doesn’t necessarily mean anything but I do think it’s worth mentioning that there is one character who Does have a ton of animals like the ones we see in the white pumpkin’s room. And that’s Stampy. He has a ton of dogs that could have easily taken the place of the cats. But anyway.

This last second Right At The End clue seems to almost indicate that there was some change in writing half way through the process. Before Stampy is revealed to have the flint and steel (which is something that any character could have confessed to and the story would be pretty much the same), the story makes a lot more sense with the idea that Stampy was originally intended to be the white pumpkin. We can also gather that it seems they intended the white pumpkin to be a man, as the protagonists refer to the white pumpkin by he/him pronouns and that assumption is never addressed when they learn the white pumpkin is a girl.

Either that or the writers are just. bad. Which is also very likely.

That’s all the evidence I have. So let’s talk about how story-wise it would have been so much more interesting to make Stampy the white pumpkin.

Cassie is great. But she didn’t get a lot of actual screen time in game until her villain reveal because she really never had any evidence against her. Stampy however got a lot of screen time and was generally the fan favorite when it came to the youtubers that were in episode 6. He was one of the most beloved youtubers at the time and the writers took that into account.

Whenever Stampy was accused of something, he’d play the innocent card. He’d say things like “it’s me! Stampy! I’m everyone’s friend!” In an attempt to get sympathy. Instead of defending himself, he played at the emotions of the people around him. He was played as the sweet innocent character who wouldn’t do anything wrong. I think this would have made him a Great twist villain. It would have made a lot more sense for the end scene as well, as the other youtubers defend Cassie, saying she would “never do something like that”. Which never really made sense considering they all knew one of them must have done it, and none of them had any real connection to her. Defending Stampy or being shocked would have made a lot more sense regarding the relationships of the characters.

His villain reveal would have been so much more surprising as well, as Cassie’s tone quickly shifts to much more malicious once she admits to being the White Pumpkin. And while I do believe shes a very good actor, I do believe the scene would have had an extra punch if the lines were delivered by someone who was previously set up to be the trustworthy friend who wouldn’t hurt a fly

But it’s Cassie’s motive specifically that I think would have fit So Well if Stampy had taken her place.

Cassie wants the flint and steel so that she can return to her home dimension. She’a been stuck here for a very long time and is willing to do anything to get back home. Specifically saying that she needs to get out of this “stupid world”.

Now this will only really make sense for those who are familiar with StampyCat outside of mcsm. But I’ll do my best to explain.

Stampy, as a YouTuber, was known for his “lovely world”. The minecraft world that he loved and cared about a lot. If the plot line was that Stampy specifically was separated from his lovely world, it would have been a great motive that he was desperate to get back it it.

So uh. Yeah! I think that’s all I got. I’m sure me and Worm aren’t the only people who have come to this conclusion but I’m just here to put it all into writing. I’m not sure if this was all a last minute change or sloppy writing but either way I think it’s interesting!

[lazarus-lazuli]

What are your opinions on people in The Magicians fandom being gatekeepy about Quentin’s relationships with Alice and Eliot. From the beginning Alice and Quentin were made for each other and so were Quentin and Eliot! Alice and Quentin had an intense relationship, they loved each other so much, and even in times they weren’t getting along the love never died. Quentin sacrificed so much to bring Alice back even though he knew it would damage their relationship! Same thing with Eliot and Quentin! From the beginning Eliot was such a supportive friend to Quentin while he was with Alice. And when Q and Alice broke up his relationship with Eliot started to blossom and they had a beautiful life (that we didn’t get to see unfortunately) together. Quentin spent an entire season trying to bring Eliot out of that possession! It’s obvious that Quentin was in love with Alice and was in love with Eliot too! I’m sick of people trying to pretend like Quentin was only in love with Alice or he he was only in love with Eliot. Bisexual men exist for fucks sake! What do you think?

I don’t think Alice was in love with Eliot per se (show canon wise), but I think they have a very interesting dynamic and it’s pretty garbage that it wasn’t explored more outside of that one episode in season 5 and a few interactions in season 1. The fact they both are in love Quentin is a good jumping off point but they never went much further than “Yep, we both love him, that much is true”. They could have been great friends but nope, we’re not allowed to eat good food in this house. Not after 4x10 aired, anyway (save for 5x05 and 5x06; I will die on my sword for those episodes). 

I think both relationships got the short end of the stick in regards to writing (in fact most of the relationships on The Magicians don’t really get a chance to flourish; the ones they established early on ended up crashing and burning and then the ones they established later on that were frankly really strange writing decisions without much thought/development that ended up being endgame... and I do say this despite my soft spot for Margosh). With Eliot it’s obviously way more egregious because he’s a gay character that never got a proper love story; even the one that was established with Quentin was taken out by the knees just when the writers confirmed that there were mutual feelings there. It was never a matter of queerbaiting, it was a matter of they WERE queer and they WERE in love and the writers decided to fucking take the plotline out back and shoot it anyway because they just HAD to kill the main white male lead despite the fact he was bisexual and mentally ill. If Jason wanted to leave/his contract was up and he didn’t renew it then whatever, his prerogative, but the writers could have done literally anything else to sideline Quentin. At the very least, they could have given him and Eliot some closure. But NOPE straight to Superhell for gay crimes. That’s how they decided to end his nearly completed arc.

However, I feel like his relationship with Alice got treated with the about the same amount of respect despite it being a “Straight” ship. I think that’s why people are pretty shit about it (that and some people are just highkey misogynistic and hate female characters, especially ones that “get in the way” of mlm ships); they just kind of dropped the ball and made it almost uncomfortable to watch. 

Their relationship was not nearly as healthy as the one between him and Eliot; in fact I would argue it was pretty toxic. But they still loved each other and still fought hard for each other, even to each others detriment (namely how pissed Alice was when Quentin made her human again).  I have no idea what the writers were going for when towards the end they threw him and Alice back together. Seriously, in my opinion they should have just been friends and supported each other because they do love each other very much, they just weren’t in the right place in their lives to work as a couple unfortunately. And honestly that would have been much more realistic than Alice running back into Quentin’s arms and Quentin taking her back. It’s like she wasn’t allowed to be an independent character outside of her relationship with him (but that’s a whole other discourse and I have enough to say about this aspect of it alone).

Then to add insult to injury he didn’t even so much as LOOK at Eliot when they brought him back, which makes absolutely NO sense considering how for the whole season up to that point he stood up to a God-powered entity that could have snapped his neck on a whim on behalf of the man he loved. Then the writers were like “lol cool, anyway we’re killing Quentin so he doesn’t get to have any meaningful relationships or even interactions with his love interests or even his best friends today” and threw it all out the window. Like, you wanna talk BAD finales... 

Sometimes I wish I was a fly on the wall in the writers’ room while they were working this shit out because honestly what level of brain rot do you need to have to take all these interesting characters and relationships and do the worst things possible to them? It’s like they WANTED everyone to ragequit the show. Long story short the more I think about the way certain relationships on the show are written the more I wanna slam my head through drywall. It was so good in so many ways but then they completely bungled within the span of like THREE EPISODES!

All that being said, I don’t blame some people for being weird and gatekeepy about certain ships because of the end of season four. However, I feel like everyone has a good dynamic (or at least a dynamic that was good at one point or another) and people have the right to ship who they want. SO much setup with so little payoff; if people wanna fix it via fanfiction or just straight up ship it anyway they’re allowed to. Like you said, Quentin is bisexual and he loves both Eliot and Alice; one love does not invalidate the other regardless of personal opinions on which should have been endgame/how well the respective relationships were handled writing wise.

PS while I personally prefer Marqueliot but Alice/Quentin/Eliot is valid too. 

[ceoofanticatradora]

We need more anti C//A who are Adora stans (like you seem to be) so that people can understand that C///A is bad for Adora. Heck C//A is bad for Catra too, but the shippers don't seem to realize it. If Catra had been able to let Adora go maybe she could have healed instead of her festering and the abuse may have ended instead of escalated.

Hello Dear, welcome on my Blog and a big thank you for your message! Firstly I wanna apologize that this response is reaching you more than three full days, almost four later. Just real life getting into the way of my online presence (at least I got my A-Levels admission!) but I assure you that replying to you was on my To Do List the entire time. And while I could've typed something quick, I thought you deserved a full length response just as much as the person before you received. That goes for anyone really to ask/write me anything in the future.

Adora is a character that has flaws, her own interests, things she struggles with/is insecure about etc. but she also still works on being better (up to Season 5). This makes her relatable, fleshed out and overall three dimensional. Overall for me that makes Adora very likeable. Which is funny because when I first watched the show I thought of her as too goofy and felt like she as a character was overall just flat. Her character design did not speak to me either, the ponytail with the weird hair poof and these pointy shoulders of her jacket just really were not my taste. Isn't it amazing how perceptions can change?

As you can guess from that description I did not always stan Adora and she's probably still not my favorite character but over the almost two years I've been in this fandom I've grown rather fond of her. Other important characters to me are Kyle (a very relatable comfort character of mine, he learned to stand up for himself and others and I support that, f*ck Season 5 for barely acknowledging his existence), Lonnie (apart from treating Kyle badly (which I really do NOT support or excuse) I really love her, man, some women just do me like that, I mean she really stood up to Catra like that), Entrapta (I'm autistic too! It's great to have some representation, seeing the ableism/treatment she experiences in the show is not so much though), Seahawk (I don't even know why, I have some issues with his behavior towards Mermista at times but overall I love this dork), Scorpia (she reminds me of myself so much and I really wanna give her hugs, I'm so glad she chose to no longer let Catra treat her like that even though I will be forever salty she just immediately forgave her), Peekablue (I can explain this even less than Seahawk, especially since it was not even really him in the end but his existence somehow helped me cope with Season 5, without him I probably would've left this fandom ... and also my favorite color is blue) and Double Trouble (now there's enough people already critcizing how they're not exactly great Non-binary representation but this dramatic lizard will forever be in my heart, that reality check they gave Catra, basically slapping her in the face with facts was satisfying as h*ck, also I like lizards overall).

Now there's plenty of characters I like, dislike (or even hate) or am simply indifferent about but after all this is not a tier list but me talking about Adora, Catra and Catradora. Adora started off as this girl that was so sure what she was doing is right but once she was taught differently she was willing to leave everything she knew (except Catra, because she valued her despite everything) behind. And not only that, she broke out of the abuse cycle that Catra tried so hard to keep upright. And that is exactly what makes Adora such a good role model. She teaches children (or people) that:

Your past doesn't define what/who you are or what/who you can become

-> Adora used to be a Horde soldier and did not know where she came from, but nonetheless she found herself a family and became a hero that saved thousands of people

You can always change your mind and start a new life if you feel disappointed in what you are doing/who you are as a person

-> Basically the exact same point, Adora started a new life as she saw what the Horde really was and changed her mind about who to fight for

You deserve love too, be it platonic or romantic (or se*ual???) (If you're aro and/or ace just ignore the part that does not work for you)

-> While Adora for various reasons thought her only use was to please others and meet their needs and expectations (mostly due to Shadow Weaver and Catra) she learned to accept that she too deserves love and validation (if the love aspect would not have been focused on it being romantic love so she could smooch Catra in the finale this would've been a billion times better because she got love from her friends that showed her her real value)

You can walk away from something/someone, that does not make you egoistic/selfish

-> Adora walked away from the Horde, after Catra stubbornly refused to come with her despite many offers (basically Catra broke the promise, not Adora) from her too and that did not make her a "traitor" or "selfish", h*ck, Adora in the end did this for a bigger purpose too, even if part of it was her not wanting to live with such wrong morals

Your opinions, feelings etc. about a person/something can change and that is perfectly fine and valid, being able to change is part of what makes someone human

-> Adora's views on many things changed throughout the show: The Horde and the Rebellion, the First Ones, Catra, being She-Ra, herself, her priorities and so on ... she actually makes use of her brain, which is why Catra saying "Don't you ge it?" or calling her an idiot and dumb never sat right with me, she's a realistic character for shifting with her thoughts, feelings etc. and sometimes just does not fully think things through

You don't have to let other people treat you like sh*t (just because they have some issues they never worked through does not give them any right to let it out on you)

-> This point is obviously centered mostly around Catra and her abusing Adora almost every chance she gets, which is why Adora standing up for herself and not letting Catra blame her for her own decisions and mistakes is so important, "You made your choice, now live with it" is one of the most powerful lines throughout all the five Seasons

Now I'm sure there is still more to Adora's character than what I just listed and unfortunately almost all the points basically got pushed aside, well, Adora as a character got pushed aside in Season 5. All her growth, the things that made me love her, see her as great role model for so many people robbed of their value for the sake of making everything revolve around Catra. That brings me to her and how you are absolutely right that Catradora is harmful to both characters. Of course Adora is affected most by it in the end but Catra too is obviously suffering under the fandoms obsession and just the overall idea of them being romantically involved.

Just like with Adora the stans make almost everything about Catra over her relationship with Adora. She too can barely exist outside of it and if she wasn't the fan favorite she'd most likely would too be mostly in Fanarts that include Adora and not just her (if you google "Catra Fanart" most content is still Catra and Catra only but here and there Catradora still peaks through). But for whatever reason the fandom still views her more as her own person as the other ones? Catrouble and Scorptra Shippers might actually still get less hate than Glimmadora Shippers (I'm not denying they don't get any, they most certaintly do) which is just plain hypocricy and favorism. Kinda like the: A woman needs to be loyal to her husband and her husband only but if the husband wants to be active with other women that is perfectly fine because "that is just how men are" or how i like to call it ... sexism. Now in this case they are both women so it's not sexism but yo do get my point.

But much more importantly, Catra has an unhealthy obsession with Adora. Signs of that are for example:

Constantly talking about Adora, even when said person is not around (to Shadow Weaver, Scorpia etc.)

Obsessing over having control over Adora like in that one Episode "Are you kidding? I finally got control over Adora, I'm not giving that up!"

Building her entire character and her actions around Adora "We need to take Adora down", "Adora left me", "I'd rather see the whole world end than see you win!", also shown in Season 5 where she states she does save Glimmer only for Adora and not for Glimmer or to do the right thing

Getting aggressive or very emotional over Adora like clawing the wall, having nightmares etc. (destructive behavior towards herself and others)

Having no or barely any characteristics outside of her relationship with Adora like, we don't know her interests or likes and dislikes outside of being evil, obsessed with Adora, being abused by Shadow Weaver ...

Trying to force Adora to meet her needs and expectations regardless of Adora's owns

Sacrificing her oppurtunity to be happy in the Crimson Waste for the sake of her Adora obsession and being better than her at all costs

So yes, you were very right with saying that not putting Catra in a relationship with Adora would've benefited both characters. Catra could've learned to exist on her own, develop interests and a life outside of Adora. Learn to accept herself and eventually come to terms with her childhood abuse. She could've been free and not "the abusive cat girl that ended up with the person she unhealthily obsessed over to the point of no return" she kinda is now. Even if we ignore the whole "dating your long term abuser" part from Adora's side and "being rewarded" for horrible behavior, Catra alone is not giving a good example to people watching. As much as I dislike Catra, disdain her even, an ending where she is dependent on Adora, unable to stand on her own two legs after she led armies in war is not what I would wish for her, even with a decent redemption arc (that she did not get).

[reyeslonestar]

Question what are some things you wanna see in season 3 of lone star? Character development, plots, anything

I want to see Tonya Kong write every episode. that's all. thanks for asking!

-

sadfkja I joke, I do have other ideas, but that is definitely high on my wish list! i'm gonna go through by character and talk about what I'd like to see for them, so this is gonna get quite long whoops...

the main thing that I'd like to see overall, though, would be evidence of an overarching season plan or arc - it doesnt necessarily have to be a plot that stretches through all the episodes or anything major, but I'd love them to have plotted out the season before they start. from watching this season and then reading interviews after the finale, they dont appear to plan many things from the start and end up throwing in ideas as they go along. if they plan it from the start they can foresee how theyre going to affect character development more, and they can have a bit more balance in the types of episodes they have, so that the season is less insane and more naturally ebb-and-flow with a few light episodes to break up the drama.

okay, onto the characters! just going to do this in billing order for simplicity's sake. customary reminder that these are just my own opinions and thoughts, and this is more of a wish list than a realistic expectation.

if you want to search for a specific character, ctrl F for one of these terms including the dash at the start:

-Owen

-Tommy

-TK

-Grace

-Judd

-Marjan

-Paul

-Carlos

-Mateo

-Nancy

press “j” to skip the whole post.

-Owen

okay so I'd love to see them actually develop his character. Owen has been given a lot of backstory with lots to play with development-wise, but to me it feels like the show never goes anywhere with it. he's got a lot going on what with 9/11, feeling responsible for the fates of his fellow firefighters, the codependence of his relationships etc. I'd like to see him go to therapy and see him grow some self awareness and seek to manage himself better, rather than all his screentime devoted to him being a hero when other characters have the situation handled. it would really show him as a good leader if he drew on the skills that his team has and refer to them for advice/ideas. realistically he is the main character, so I'd like them to develop him like one.

also, I kind of love the chief role for him? I think it would suit him really well. but it would drag him away from the 126 and split up the dynamics too much so it would make for bad tv and I wouldnt actually want to see that. good for his character though.

-Tommy

I love Tommy :) just wanted to say that.

so obviously Tommy's got a lot of grief to handle next season, and I don't want them to shy away from that. I want it acknowledged and processed. (I'd also like a little bit of seeing the twins' grief too, because they're also suffering a massive loss). maybe something with Judd helping Tommy learn to manage her grief with his own experience of losing the original 126, encourage her to go to therapy, plus Tommy, Grace and Judd all feeling the loss of Charles together. after all, Grace and Judd were his friends and they will be grieving too.

I'd also kind of like to see Tommy have something outside being a working mother. obviously we're going to need to deal with that a lot especially now that Charles is gone, but I feel like she's been assigned the Character TraitTM of being the working mum and I'd like to see them give her a hobby or something. idk. and give her a night off with Grace or something. give her something just for her.

-TK

okay so I think theres a fair likelihood that theyre going to return to looking at TK's addiction next season which im not averse to. I think him struggling with his sobriety would be worthwhile to see for his character and to show that its not a straightforward path, plus it makes sense with all the insane stuff they've thrown at them in s2. however, Id like to see it in the context of his friends and family rallying around to help and support him and show him that he's got people to rely on, and that he's allowed to rely on them, plus the support of his AA meetings and therapy. I also need them to lay the groundwork for him struggling, so putting in signs of him deteriorating so the situation makes sense. this storyline doesn't need surprises to be interesting or good, and frankly it shouldn't have any.

as for him and Carlos, I definitely want to see them househunting! I'd like to see the combination of househunting/Carlos with Tommy's kids/Grace and Judd having their baby have an impact on their perspectives regarding their future and spark that conversation (like, looking at houses with more rooms and thinking about kids, future, marriage etc). I think that maybe one of them, probably TK, or maybe both of them those boys have way too many parent issues having anxieties about being a dad could be an interesting way to add tension without being too drastic, and then that can be resolved in a way that reassures them of their relationship and reaffirms their strength as a couple. the talk about the future would also lay the groundwork towards a proposal at the end of s3.

-Grace

grace :) my love :)

I could watch episode after episode of Grace kicking ass and saving people over the phone. I'd love to see an episode set there? like, some kind of story within the call centre with all the handlers having to resolve that between them, but also tie in the first responders, so we see the fire team, the paramedics and Carlos all working but we only see the bits that Grace and the other call handlers hear, if that makes sense? also an actual Grace/Carlos team up where they are coming in from the different angles with different amounts of evidence and figuring out the best way to solve something together. plus I'd like to see her maybe get some recognition for being awesome at her job, maybe another handler coming to her for advice on how to solve something.

of course we've got the baby Ryder on the way, and I want that to go comfortably and smoothly for her. she deserves that. lots of wholesome excitement for her and Judd from the whole extended firefam, baby shower, gifts, the full works. pamper grace please.

-Judd

judd4captain2k22. please.

yeah I know its not gonna happen, but I loved judd stepping in as captain this season and I'd love to see that continued with him taking more leadership, and Owen deferring to him for advice/council in a work environment rather than personal life. maybe set up a long term idea about judd being a captain someday.

he's gonna be a dad :') so what are his anxieties about that? why were they putting it off before? was it related to his PTSD? he's got lots of people relying on him now, how does that make him feel? what if his kid loses him? id like to see him still using therapy as a tool to help himself deal with everything. lots of meaty questions to dig into there :D

-Marjan

I'd quite like to see more of her balancing her daredevil nature with the impact of that and realising how much danger she puts herself in sometimes. or on the flip side, maybe the team is dealing with a really dangerous situation and they utilise her fearlessness to save people. her relationship with social media could also come back? but bring in the development they gave her this season, and her Firefox presence is more serious, less flippant?

I think that theres now a space for her to explore her sexuality/romantic experience now that she hasn't got her engagement with Salim as a kind of failsafe. maybe she wants to put herself out there and date, but thats really daunting as shes never really had to do that before? personally I think this could tie in really well with a self discovery/exploration regarding her sexual orientation, but I doubt they’d go there with her, so thats just my headcanon.

-Paul

I want them to draw on Paul’s observational skills and perceptiveness more, especially on calls and in emergencies. I remember someone (sorry I cant remember who) pointed out that he would have been a great character to centre the arsonist plot around in terms of noticing the clues etc, so id love a storyline that revolves around him dealing with an emergency like that. I also really want a Carlos and Paul friendship so maybe them collaborating on a call to solve something, that’d be cool.

can we give Paul a girlfriend please. if im not complely insane, there was a reference to someone in like,, 2x04?? someone who put mayo in his sandwich? idk I havent checked (edit: it was aioli in his banh mi! thank you @meneatyoghurt), but if there is someone can we show him having a fun and loving relationship please. I dont need there to be any drama. just them having fun on a date or something.

-Carlos

so I know that some people are keen to see him in his police role more but I really don't need much of that. on calls with the 126 I'd like to see him be the officer in charge more, but I don't need police-exclusive storylines. I've talked about it here if you want to know why.

the only area that I'd like to see would be in the direction of reform/addressing the flaws of the system, and I think they can do that on a personal level for him, because he and Mitchell need a chat. if they'd gone with her decision in 2x08, he, Mitchell and the bank robber would all be dead, and I think thats gotta have some impact. also the fact that he was suspended for trying to preserve life. theres a lot they could work with there and maybe have him thinking about how he can do good and how he can effectively protect and serve. not to mention, the opportunity that would provide in terms of addressing his relationship with his dad and how he maybe sought approval by pursuing a police career?

also I’d like him to learn that he doesnt need to accept blame/preemptively put blame on himself and that he doesnt need to apologise when someone else hurt him. kind of want to send him to therapy. kind of want to send all the characters to therapy. but yeah, him learning that he can accept apologies and understand that he doesnt have to make people feel better for hurting him. hes allowed to be hurt and feel pained about it. and that can tie into his relationships with Mitchell, with TK and with his parents.

I think I mentioned most of the tarlos stuff in TK’s section, but I wouldn't mind at least one instance for them where we see it all from his perspective instead of TK’s.

finally ive mentioned above how i’d like a team up with Paul on a scene and both of them figuring it out together. I'd also like them having a friendship outside work, just the two of them, bonding over books and being relatively sane people compared to the rest of their friends.

-Mateo

Mateo is so sweet. I loved 2x14 and the recognition he got, more of that please! also theres still so much I want to know - one of the more consistent things they set up for him in s2 was his faith, so I want to know more about that. what's his relationship with religion and God? he's pretty isolated from his family so how does he feel about that? is his religion something that helps him feel connected to them? maybe the church helped him find a community when he first came to the states, before he got settled with the 126, and he finds reassurance in faith that God is looking after his family while he cant be there? I think maybe there's scope for a conversation between Marjan and Mateo about that, about that distance and caring for their families through faith and prayer.

also, if he's still with the horrible firehouse, I'd like to see the other firefighters being won round by his resilience and stepping up to look out for him, and someone backing him up against the captain. Mateo is used as the butt of the joke most of the time, but I'd also like to see a bit more acknowledgement of things like losing his house and the bullying hes going to get more of from this firehouse.

-Nancy

I think that her speech to Tommy in 2x14 was really telling, and I'd love to see them expand on that a bit more. first on the loss and fear of losing her friends and coworkers, but then also on her hopes and aspirations - she said she wants to be a paramedic captain so lets see her working to take her exams and qualifications, and showing initiative on scenes etc.

id like to see more of her being integrated into the 126 group. she and marjan turned up to the hangout together, so lets develop that relationship more. I would love it to be romantic but I'd also love to see that as a friendship. but also her forming bonds with others in the group as well as more of her and TK being a chaos duo. I love that they stole the ambulance, more of that insanity please!

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I think thats it? if youre still reading, youre insane and I appreciate you a lot! honestly im open to all sorts of things in s3, this isnt a prediction or anything, its just stuff I think would be interesting based on where the characters are now.