#a female character is overpowered by several adult men

[mercyll]

Ranting about themes of sexism and patriarchy in JWQS because I can

(Major spoilers for JWQS and TW: Talks of sexual assault, violence against women, sexism)

Whenever I read JWQS I can't help but feel the commentary and criticism on sexuality, the treatment of women by society, and the distribution of power in gender dynamics is as much of a criticism and exploration of middle age as it is for the modern era.

This story really is able to breathe life into what life would have felt like in the Middle Ages and how complicated the social structures were.

A huge theme of the story is the caste system. How men and royals are at the top and how women are at the bottom, which is incredibly accurate to human history. Women were seen as something that was only meant to be married and birth children.

JWQS really explores these misogynistic ideas and goes hard to explore the thoughts and feelings of women enduring this. Their anger of being viewed as lesser and their autonomy being crushed because of it. And above anything else shows women overcoming these obstacles and overpowering them.

From the moment Nangong Jingnu was forced into a child marriage against her will she was expected to have been intimate with Qi Yan and produced an heir, and everyone pressured her and asked her why she had not birthed a son yet many times in the novel. Because she was born a woman she was not allowed to be involved in politics and yet she ends up becoming the powerful female emperor.

Nangong Jingnu ends up becoming the most favored child out of all of Nangong Rang's children to proceed in ruling the kingdom and ends up becoming strong. She reads and studies and is sharp and quick-witted proving herself to be both academic and skillful and worthy to take up the role of a diplomatic leader.

Before her father's illness, she took charge of involving herself in the politics of her country like when they visited the grave and the air was cold and she requested her father not have the commoners bow to them as they passed by.

Even at fifteen, she was able to take that initiative with the encouragement of Qi Yan.

As an adult, she attends the courts behind a screen to conceal her female identity, pretending to be her father because, and holds strong until she is the sole leader of China.

Qi Yan literally has to pretend to be a man her entire life to have any power in society. Even though Qi Yan has a lower status than the royals and court officials due to being of "commoner birth" she still has status above women and is allowed to be in the court just by living as a man.

(I would love to write so much about Qi Yan and her gender and the complexity JWQS explores gender identity but this post would be 5000x longer)

Nagsi Jiya is an example of a character who despite her social standing uses her sexuality, charm, and wit to gain power. She knows how to manipulate people and uses that in her favor, playing herself through the social system by using her sexuality against men. She is empowered by her sexuality. She literally sleeps with the most powerful man in all of China and becomes his most favored consort. If that isn't a massive power move I don't know what is.

By being empowered and strong-willed, Nagsi Jiya teaches Nangong Shunu that she can be the same.

Just like her younger sister, Nangong Shunu was forced into a marriage against her will. But unlike Nangong Jingnu, who ended up with someone who truly loved her, Nangong Shunu ended up with an abuser.

Nangong Shunu is assaulted on her wedding night and constantly tormented by Lu Zhongxing. He follows her around knowing full well she is afraid of him but does it to try and control her. Nangong Shunu takes long baths after she is assaulted and suffers from nightmares and panic attacks from the trauma of what he did to her.

Nagsi Jiya ends up taking sympathy upon her and does everything she can to empower Nangong Shunu, as well as protect her from Lu Zhongxing on several occasions.

It was Nagsi Jiya who told Nangong Shunu to stand up for herself.

Nagsi Jiya teaches her that she doesn't have to be restrained by the society she was born into or the social conditioning of the patriarchy, that she can be free, and that love doesn't know a gender.

The moment they rode the horse together out in the fields is symbolic of the freedom that Nagsi Jiya shows Nangong Shunu.

Horses in general are used as symbolism for freedom in JWQS.

From this relationship, even if Nagsi Jiya was just using her (for the most part), Nangong Shunu is able to overcome the control Lu Zhongxing has over her and her sexuality and is able to liberate herself and find her one true love.

Now, we have the most tragic character in the series, Xiao-Die. The series never tells us in detail what happened to her but it's clear that it was a very horrific, violent long-term abuse, both physical, emotional, and sexual.

When Qi Yan finds her she is malnourished, close to dead, and pregnant from a violent attack. Her mind is completely broken, and she lacks any lucidness from the extent of the trauma she has been through from the men who hurt her.

And despite all of the things she endured, Xiao-Die gets to be happy. Her mind and memories eventually recover and she falls in love.

Both Nangong Shunu and Xiao-Die are sexual assault survivors and despite what happened to them they were able to find someone who truly understood them and selflessly loved them.

All the female characters in this story find themselves trapped in an oppressive sexist society and how they are able to overcome every obstacle that comes their way and find their own freedom.

And so many of these themes are still relevant now when talking about sexism and oppressive social structures against women.

There are so many other themes in this series I want to rant about like discovering and coming to terms with your sexuality and queerness in general but maybe I'll save that for another time.

[crocworkships]

Reconnaissance Mission

(A/N: Part three to this and this little series. How is Illumi dealing with this weird Hunter woman? Not especially well! :D)

In the days after she snapped at him, Illumi found himself thinking more and more often of the strange Hunter that dared stand between himself and his dearest little brother. Her indignation and her stubborn drive to protect those children (even from things they needn’t be protected from, like their own family) stuck in his mind. It also bothered him that his Kill seemed to care for her as well.

He started keeping an eye on the Hunter once in awhile, in-between jobs. He told himself that he was simply watching over Kill at first, since she accompanied him and the other boy, Gon, fairly often, like a mother hen. Then he decided that he was watching the Hunter to figure out the opportune moment and way to get rid of her, so she would stop interfering with his family. Then, he simply watched her out of habit. She was so odd, in a completely different way than most other people he knew; she flipped constantly between maternal caring for the two young boys, to a sort of childlike giddiness whenever she talked to a friend (he observed that she spent a lot of time in a retired Hunter’s curio shop) about recent acquisitions as a Hunter, to that same pique she had showed him when she felt one of her own was threatened – though he also observed that this happened relatively infrequently.

Illumi was unaware how much he had been thinking of this Hunter, trying to establish a pattern in her behaviour and discover her combative prowess, until Hisoka brought it up to him, to his slight embarrassment.

“You look troubled, my friend. Thinking about that girl again?” Illumi could hear the smirk in the magician’s voice without needing to look.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I’ve seen how much you watch her. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think you were smitten,” Hisoka said, leaning in too close to Illumi’s face. He did things like this often, and Illumi immediately schooled his expression into one of smooth indifference perfected after years of practice.

“I need to know how to cleanly get rid of her. She is interfering with Zoldyck family business, but I don’t want my brother to be too upset when she disappears.” He said quietly, calmly. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Hisoka, but he knew his companion was always looking for cracks in everyone’s armor. This woman would not be one in his.

“I’m surprised you haven’t taken her out already,” Hisoka purred, “she isn’t a very experienced fighter. You could take her out easily. She can barely keep her aura under control with the intensity of her emotions.” His voice was right in Illumi’s ear, like a snake. Illumi finally deigned to look at Hisoka, turning his eyes, but not his head. He wasn’t sure what to say here; a part of him balked at the idea of killing the Hunter-woman, but he couldn’t articulate why.

“I know what I’m doing, Hisoka,” Illumi said, unsure if he were assuring the magician or himself, “don’t worry about it.”

Hisoka shrugged playfully, backing off. Illumi returned his gaze to a spot on the wall opposite him and concluded that he would have to do something about the Hunter before Hisoka did.

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Two weeks after that exchange, Illumi covertly followed the Hunter on one of her quests, as he had been doing increasingly often. He was not especially worried about her safety; the things she Hunted for she typically did not have to fight others to acquire. He watched her glide through forests, consulting ancient maps, and finally arrive at what looked like the ruins of a temple. His Hunter approached the ruins slowly, reverently, her eyes shining in awe. There was something fascinating about that, he thought. Seeing her eyes all wide and bright captivated him, somehow. Perhaps this is her nen style? Was she a Manipulator, like him?

Before he could ponder it too long, there was a sudden movement as five men leapt out of their hiding spots to surround his Hunter before she could reach the ruins. Illumi leaned forward, observing more closely now. He had been looking forward to this. He knew that his Hunter was being followed, and now he would have an opportunity to see how she fought. Then he would know how best to neutralize her, and she would not have her claws in his Kill anymore.

His Hunter jumped, frightened. She clearly had not known she was followed. Her first mistake.

Reacting quickly, she looked around for possible escapes. Apparently finding none (though Illumi could spot a few), she lowered her stance and said something to the brigand directly in front of her. Naïvely demanding answers or trying to buy herself time? Either way, a waste of precious time to fight or escape. Her second mistake.

Fortune must have been in her favour, though, because the apparent leader of the brigands laughed and began delivering what must have been some sort of monologue; the other four men politely waited for him to finish, rather than rushing her while she was distracted.

Suddenly, a shout: “ASĊUFE!” and the leader was sent flying back a few feet. His Hunter did not appear to have moved, but that was clearly a use of her nen. She must be an Emitter, then. That would account for her short temper. He leaned in closer, intent on learning exactly how she fought.

Not waiting for the leader to get back up, she rushed forward, aiming for the entrance of the ruined temple. But she was not quite quick enough as the leader grabbed her leg and dragged her down. Then the four other brigands rushed in, some recoiling with shouts of pain when she shouted another word, “Forseċe!” and as she inexpertly slashed at her attackers with a knife. But they were all larger than she, and clearly trained to fight together, and Illumi began to worry that she might not make it out of this fight.

No.

He dashed toward the melee, keeping himself concealed, and threw a needle at each brigand. With practiced effortlessness, he hit his mark each time and a round-headed needle embedded itself into the neck of four of the men, and the eye of the leader, still under his Hunter. Ignoring his screams, Illumi sat back in his hiding place in the forest canopy as he realized what he had just done. His Hunter rolled away in a panic and ducked for cover – that’s better, Illumi thought absently – and he tried to decide how to proceed from here.

Why had he done that? It was reflexive, he did it the moment his Hunter looked to be in real danger. Well, I need to be the one who kills her, I can’t let some nobody thugs do it before I’ve made her pay, he thought. But was that really the reason? Why did the idea of someone else hurting her twist his gut so unpleasantly? The only time they had spoken, she had snapped at him for talking to his own beloved little brother. Why was he being like this?

He didn’t understand this strange protectiveness. This Hunter had a dangerous hold on him now, not just his Kill. This was a problem he would need to give some serious thought to now. He needed to deal with her – the sooner the better.

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Trying to muffle her panicked breaths, the Hunter waited in her hiding spot for what felt like an eternity under the cover of the ruins, in case whatever had suddenly killed the mercs was still there. Eventually, when listening and searching for an aura still indicated that she was alone, she crawled slowly out of her hiding place and examined the nearest body, Mad Dog, the leader. There was something in his eye, and looked deep enough to have gotten to his brain. The screaming as he died had been horrible, and she had to turn away and take some deep breaths to keep herself from puking. Turning back to look again, she finally recognized what the weapon was: a needle, with a big, round, golden head. She had seen these once before, and she couldn’t imagine who else could use them to so effectively kill someone. An icy hand clenched around her heart.

Illumi’s been following me.

[toaarcan]

Scourge the Hedgehog: The Bad Fanfic Apotheosis

Y’all are gonna hate me for this one.

This is something of a followup to my previous post, Fiona Fox: Depth vs. Prominence, and inspired directly by the discussion I had with a friend in the comments section of the DA upload of it.

Part 1: Fanfic vs. Canon- Genesis of the Recolour Elements of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic have long been compared to a bad fanfiction, particularly the parts of the story written by Ken Penders, though other writers like Bollers, Chacon, and Flynn have drawn that label too. I'm one of the people that's done it, and that's largely because I hold fanfic and official material to very different standards. There are certain things you can do in fanfic that you can't do in official material, especially with franchises like Sonic, and especially with more niche parts of said franchise, like a comic series. Of course, there are also certain things you can do in both, but you probably shouldn't. And Scourge is one of them. What exactly the process behind Scourge's creation was is something that's been debated. For a lot of people, he's considered to be a parody of the then-rampant "Sonic Recolour" fad, wherein fans would take screenshots of Sonic X, and other official artwork, and then edit it in Microsoft Paint, or another similar program, to create their own characters and stories. Now, this was long decried by other fans, myself included, as incredibly lacking in creativity and originality. It also had an "Ew, cringe" reaction, due to the often-shoddy editing, text-to-speech voices, and usually some top-tier mid-2000s Nu Metal for the music. These days, it's much easier to look back and say "These were mostly made by kids who were just having fun, and it's completely harmless", and it becomes apparent that a lot of the people that were making fun of them and criticising them were grown men, at which point you kinda realise that this "internet fad" was basically just bullying a bunch of children for not being up to the creative standards of some adults. Everybody was looking for the next Chris-Chan, but Chris-Chan is a near-unique entity, as only one other person alive has ever managed to combine that sheer void of talent with a monumentally repulsive personality, and that person is Ken Penders. But Sonichu is the least interesting thing about Chris, and Chris became the laughingstock that he is because of his inability to avoid posting his entire life on the Internet, which was something of a rarity in those halcyon days before the rise of modern social media. Sonichu was a gateway to the actually interesting content also on his channels, whereas these recolour-creators didn't have anything like that, just endless Windows Movie Maker slideshows. And, like, Chris was in his 20s when he became the Internet's punching bag for the first time, and while he's a horrible person, so were the people that dedicated their time and effort to trolling him- His story is fascinating, but it has no heroes. And into this collective cocktail of grown men shitting on preteens, so Ian Flynn introduced Scourge the Hedgehog. Is Scourge a parody of Sonic recolours? I sincerely hope not. The reason for that is twofold, and I'll discuss how his portrayal generally doesn't seem to be mocking those tropes further down the page, but the second issue with the idea that he is a parody is best explained by Sir Terry.

Parody can never punch down, and as a then-24 year old man writing official canon for a franchise, mocking a bunch of 10 year olds on the Internet for making bad stories would definitely be punching down. And, as I said, nothing about the way Scourge is written is in any way poking fun at the tropes of these fancharacters and stories. It's pretty much all played completely straight. So not only do I hope Ian wasn't trying to mock these fancharacters, but there's also little reason to believe that he actually was.   He's not a parody, he is a send-up. And on the one hand, it's kinda nice to throw a bone to those kids. But on the other hand... is Scourge really the character you want to represent your part of the fandom in official material? A cruel, violent, abusive, vicious monster that spends his time palling around with a girlfriend that the writer reforged to be the most unlikable character in the entire comic? Yeah, can't say that's what I'd want if I were one of those people, but he seems to be popular enough, so maybe I'm in the minority there. But now we get to the meat of the problem. You see, the way Scourge is written is one of those things that you can do in fanfic, but you shouldn't do in canon. Part 2: What is a Mary-Sue? The term "Mary-Sue" gets thrown around a lot these days. It's gradually lost all meaning, and has slowly become a term for "Female character that I don't like," mainly used by whiny, easily-offended Broflake Youtubers, who get all pissy that Star Wars films aren't specifically catering to them, to the point that you only have to make a girl be good at something in a movie and these pissbabies lose their shit. I liked Episode VII and VIII more than I, II, or VI, get fucked. But what, then, is a Mary-Sue? And why is it relevant to Scourge? The answer to that first question is a lot more complicated than it might seem. Not just because there are now several different varieties of the trope, but also because the trope itself evolved as it began to be applied to non-fanworks, and additionally because the name itself is somewhat non-indicative. A male Mary-Sue can exist, though these are normally referred to as "Marty-Stue" or "Gary-Stue", or more cynically "The Protagonist". Check out the average Batman comic these days and you'll see what I mean. Originally, the term applied only to a self-insert character in a fanfic, that was an overly-idealised version of the author, dramatically overpowered, hugely popular, normally dating whichever member of the cast the author wanted to bone, or sometimes multiple partners at the same time, along with a few other traits. It's actually pre-Internet term, originating in a Star Trek fanzine when "Mary-Sue" was created as a parody of other fans' similar characters. Over time, the trope evolved to the point that, while the "author avatar" feature is still a pretty big indicator, it's not really necessary. So while there are probably plenty of people out there who want to be Batman, not every character that is a Mary-Sue is someone for the author to project themselves onto, and not every author avatar is a Mary-Sue. Generally, the important features of a Mary-Sue are now: 1) Receives a great deal of favouritism from the author 2) More powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity 3) Faces zero consequences for their actions. 4) Liked by characters that have no reason to do so 5) In a relationship with a character that has no reason to date them, previous relationships be damned. 6) Most importantly, the story will bend over backwards to give them easy wins, even in situations where they logically should struggle. You're probably starting to get where I'm going with this, and if you're not... Part 3: Creator's Pet Scourge is a Creator's Pet. He gets shown a fair bit of favouritism from Ian Flynn, primarily the guise of how much focus he gets. Scourge is the most prolific villain in Ian's run, aside from Eggman himself. While other, better villains like Mogul and Naugus were being imprisoned repeatedly until one retired and the other became a dog, and a huge chunk of the comic's remaining antagonists were being subsumed into the Eggman Empire, Scourge was only moving up, not only being the villain of Ian's first two issues on the book, but continuing to make sporadic appearances for the next twenty issues, before appearing as the new leader of the Destructix under Finitevus in the Enerjak Reborn arc, followed swiftly by a stint as the Big Bad in Bold New Moebius. Does he actually deserve this level of importance? You be the judge, but personally, I don't think so. Even within those stories, Scourge gets special treatment, the biggest and most obvious being Metal Scourge. Now, personally, I think Metal Scourge was a better character than Scourge himself, but the fact that, of all people, Scourge got a Metal counterpart before anyone else, including Knuckles, who had such a counterpart in the games for over a decade by that point.  Especially since, well... Metal and Mettle is a fun story, but it doesn't really do anything for Bold New Moebius as a whole, does it? It's basically pure filler, only really serving to add another dead Metal Sonic to Ian's list and stall the plot out for a bit longer. And, of course, the most clear indicator of Scourge's favouritism is that he was he first Archie character to receive his own Sonic Universe arc, and the only one to do so without needing two or three SEGA characters also making up the rest of the lead cast. "Lockdown" isn't a particularly good story, but its existence speaks to not just the insane popularity that such an unworthy character received, but also Archie's willingness to indulge that. Sonic Universe was largely intended to tell stories revolving around the members of the SEGA cast that, for whatever reason, weren't able to regularly appear in the main book. This... frequently got broken, with Sonic, Tails, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Amy all taking centre-stage in the book before obvious candidates like the Chaotix got a look in, some of them twice over, but Scourge was the only time they were willing to try a story based entirely around one of their characters, and they gave it to the already extremely prominent Scourge. It's pretty clear that Ian loved using this character, and did so as much as possible. YMMV on whether that's good or not. Part 4: Scourge OP plz nerf Let's be real, he's overpowered as fuck. Now, overpowered characters aren't necessarily bad, but it's significantly harder to write an OP character than an on-average one, and Scourge didn't work out so well. From the moment he turns green, he's basically unstoppable. The one time he actually seems to remotely struggle is actually in 161, where he looks ever-so-slightly winded after curbstomping Sonic and Shadow at the same time. From then on, while he does start to slowly even out with Sonic, he also continues to utterly demolish basically everyone else, especially his easy conquest of Moebius. It's been suggested that conquering Moebius should be easy, because the big threats are all good, kind people there, but that somewhat ignores that there are anti-versions of the heroes kicking about too. All the (Mostly) benevolent rulers of the Primeverse should be tyrannical despots there, and there are excessively powerful entities like the Anti-versions of Merlin and the Guardians, not to mention whatever horrors Anti-Gerald would've unleashed on the world, and that's without the Suppression Squad themselves. While the comic has generally treated Sonic as being able to stomp the entire rest of the FF, well, who says it has to be a fight? Why the fuck doesn't Patch just poison him? I mean, the obvious answer is "Because then Bold New Moebius won't have a main villain", and sometimes contractual villain immortality has to be a thing, but a good writer should be able to avoid putting the characters in that position. Following on from that, Scourge gets to fight basically the entire FF and Suppression Squad at the same time, (Sonic and Amy are absent and Fiona is on his side), and he's winning until Sonic shows up. Then directly after that is the hedgehog brawl, and despite Sonic managing to get everyone against Scourge, he easily manages to escape and break out his Super form. Even after spending his time in the No-Zone completely powerless, Scourge manages to break out the moment he gets his powers back, despite the prison being full of characters who should be equally or more powerful than him, and the police force that caught them all, basically unchallenged. Scourge never faces an actual challenge in the comic. He never struggles, and the one time he actually loses? Ian makes up some new lore on the spot, which is contradictory to SEGA lore from the same year, and then uses that to have Sonic trick Scourge into depowering himself. Not only does Scourge never struggle with anything, but he also never actually loses a fight. Part 5: When will you learn, that your actions have consequences?! Probably never, because Scourge's actions never have consequences. Throughout his entire run, Scourge gets to go wherever he wants, do what he wants, with or to whomever he wants, and he never has to deal with the fallout of the decisions he makes. Absorbs the energy of a matter world into his antimatter body? He's better than fine, it only made him stronger. Turns up in Knothole with his secret girlfriend's hated arch rival by his side? Never mentioned again. Blows Fiona's connection to him, costing Finitevus' operation a potential spy in Knothole, where Knuckles is? Not even considered a factor. Ditches Finitevus to go and make Moebius into an egopolis? Finitevus isn't bothered, and supports Fiona's efforts to rescue him later down the line after than plan backfired on him. Blinds Patch in one eye out of jealousy/spite? The guy that poisoned Armand and Max, took a torch to Antoine's personal life, took advantage of Sally's frayed mental state, emotionally damaged Bunnie, and tried to assassinate Elias to get what he wanted lets him get away with it. Openly announces that he's going to destroy both worlds? Conveniently does it when he's alone with Sonic so nobody can tell Fiona what she's letting herself in for. He eventually does get sent to jail, but he breaks out with ease the next time he turns up. Because, y'know, that's just what we want to see. Villains never having to deal with karma. Part 6: What does anyone see in him? Scourge doesn't quite get the "everyone loves him" treatment, but he still gets a whole lot more respect than he's ever earned. Both Sonic and Zobotnik are portrayed arbitrarily deciding that maybe there's a shred of good in this monster, and this is the part where I stress that he's abusive again. Maybe if I repeat that enough it'll sink in. Despite knowing full-well the sort of person Scourge is, Sonic's response to Scourge's crappy cribbing of the "One Bad Day" speech is to try and turn it around and claim that Scourge only needs a tiny bit of decency to be a good person, and this is outright untrue, and given what we see of Scourge later, I'm frankly disgusted that Ian tried to pull this with a character he'll pretty much unambiguously portray as an abuser. Zobotnik's case is even more baffling. We're introduced to the guy in the Lockdown arc, and it's implied that he's effectively a tyrannical warden, ruling over the No-Zone with an iron fist, taking an almost sadistic delight in punishing the inmates. But yet, for whatever reason, he decides that it's a good idea to try and rehabilitate Scourge, for no adequately established reason. Even on the other side of the morality line, we have Finitevus, who apparently respects Scourge enough to not just make him leader of the Destructix during the Enerjak Reborn arc, despite him very clearly not being a leader, and not being liked by any of his comrades except Fiona, but then when he promptly ditches the whole plan toward the end, Finitevus apparently decides that he not only wants to get him back, but is willing to go to great lengths and risk losing the only team of mercenaries dumb enough to work for a guy who is quite open about his intentions to "purify the world with Chaos fire" in order to do it. And speaking of, the most egregious case of this comes again in Lockdown, where the Destructix all end up siding with Scourge. Across the second half of the arc, Scourge learns his new team's backstories, and despite them clearly showing traits and beliefs that should make them respect him less, this somehow works in his favour, and he manages to wrest leadership of the team from Fiona. Especially galling is that it appears that Fiona loses their respect early on because of her faith in Scourge, who to them, looks pathetic, but then they end up supporting him anyway, despite doing nothing to earn it. But wait, one's missing... Looks like it's that time again. Part 7: Oh right, he's an abuser. It's time to talk about Fiona. Fiona's heel turn is really, really effective at selling you on the idea that Fiona is a vile, cruel, and selfish person. It's a dramatic, "big bang" moment that, in basically a single panel, got an entire fandom to hate a character. Now for some it was more of a "Love to hate" thing, but there are plenty of people out there who just really hate Fiona for this single moment. And when you're introducing a new major villain, maybe that's what you want to accomplish. What it doesn't do, however, is sell you on her motives for taking that course of action. Fiona, for the rest of her existence, mainly antagonises Sally, whom she has no worthwhile connection to on either side of her turn, other than being the evil  Sally to Scourge's Evil Sonic, and stands around or clings to Scourge's arm, looking smug about her abusive relationship. And yes, it is abusive, verbal abuse is still abuse, and the implications that he's physically abusive are present too. I know this is something that Scourge's fans don't really want to accept, but it's true, and we're going to get into that later. For now, what matters is that this character's run as a villain mainly consists of: Fiona: "Hey Sugar-Queen, look at how much my boyfriend yells at me and insults me, and probably beats me when he's angry. I make smart decisions and you suck." We never come to understand why this character, who is so motivated by her belief that everyone will eventually double-cross her that she has decided to start lashing out at people before they can turn on her, is willing to put her faith 100% in someone so repeatedly deceptive that he first approached her by pretending to be someone else. Like, in terms of bad first impressions, that's up there with arriving at a job interview in full clown regalia. The comic makes no effort to show why these characters like each other. Scourge allegedly likes her because she chooses to turn evil and join him, rather than being born evil, but this clashes with not only the fact that Fiona is a genuinely good person before this, who makes a solid effort to stay loyal to her friends first, and is lured into villainy by him, but also the fact that she blames everyone but herself for her current situation, but especially with the fact that all of the foreshadowing for Fiona turning evil consists of people not trusting her because she has a shady history. Scourge claims to appreciate that Fiona is a good person that chooses to be evil, but the narrative has a clear message of "If you started evil, it doesn't matter if you try to become good, you will always revert to type." Which isn't exactly a good message, Ian. In return, all we get from Fiona's side is that Scourge "has no expectations of her and just wants to have fun", which clashes entirely with how we see them interact in subsequent arcs, where Fiona frequently looks disturbed or apprehensive, or just bored, while Scourge yells at her and threatens her for not meeting his standards. Seriously, why do people ship this? But okay, okay. Scourge is a good liar, and Fiona's established paranoia and history do make her vulnerable to manipulators like him, so maybe she falls for his lies and gets taken for a ride. That could happen, sure. Doesn't really explain why she becomes a horrendous person all of a sudden, but whatever. Maybe he convinced her to do it as a sort of hazing, and a means of ensuring she couldn't go back. That fits with his abusive nature (You might also notice that this the explanation I used in Revival). But why does she stay? And why does she refuse every out she's given? Why, after everything that pulled her to his side has turned out to be bullshit, does she remain devoted to him? Now, you can argue that due to the abuse and the manipulation she's suffered, she believes she has to stay with him, and that's a fair shout, but her appearance in Journey to the East is kind of a stumbling block for that theory, because we're shown a Fiona who is fully capable of functioning without him, and even after making efforts to establish herself... the next time we see her she's gone back for him. And now... well, it's time to talk about that "A" word I've been bringing up a lot in this section. Scourge is abusive. I've frequently referenced that he verbally abuses Fiona every time she displeases him across the book, but the most telling scene is this one from Issue 190.

"You do not want to be sent back with me." Translation: "If I get sent back, and you're sent back too, I'm going to beat the shit out of you." Fiona (With her invisible left arm) isn't excluded from this threat. Fiona isn't surprised by this threat either. Nor does she not take the threat seriously. She looks like she's expecting to be struck. He beats her. And please, nobody say that "he's just angry", that's apologism. Now, I dunno if this was in the script, or if Fiona's face was something Yardley did on his own, but given that this arc ends with Super Scourge announcing his intention to destroy both Mobius and Moebius, simply because he can, regardless of the collateral, I'm willing to bet that this relationship wasn't a happy, stable one. But, unfortunately, this element was never made clear enough. Now, your mileage may vary on whether you think Sonic the Hedgehog comics are the appropriate place to discuss abusive relationships or not, but we've got one now, and Ian dropped the ball. This wasn't a Joker/Harley, where the pairing was clearly abusive but also sold DC/Warner millions of dollars worth of merch, this wasn't a RWBY, where Adam took three years to show up and had already won a huge number of fans from his admittedly cool design and powers, so people already liked him before they even knew what his personality was like. Ian had full control over this, no merch to worry about, and Scourge's prolific appearances gave him plenty of opportunity to make it clear that this was an ugly, repulsive thing that Fiona needed to get out of ASAP. And he didn't. Because panels like this, and all the yelling, clearly weren't enough for the fandom. No, you point this detail out to them and they'll make excuses, try to pretend it didn't happen, or just get offended, or worst of all, outright say they don't care and still ship it. We have fanartists who became real official artists creating stories where this garbage-fire pairing is used for sad feels, not because Fiona got stuck in a relationship with a controlling, violent monster, but because oh no they really loved each other and now Fiona's dead isn't it tragic don't you feel sorry for Scourge? No. No I don't. I feel sorry for the thousands of teenagers who support an abusive relationship because Ian was too cowardly to make it clear that the relationship in question was just that. Now, do I think that Ian is an intentional abuse apologist? No. Do I think he wimped out of taking the necessary steps to make it clear that this was bad because he didn't want people to dislike his shitty pet villain? Oh yeah, I do. Scourge's reputation was more important to Flynn than appropriately and sensitively portraying a destructive, damaging relationship between a woman and her monstrous partner. Well, I say "Woman", let's not forget that Fiona was meant to be sixteen, and realistically if you take her timeline into account she's more likely to be about fourteen. Real fucking classy. Part 8: Effort? What effort? So, now we get to our final criteria. And frankly, it's the easiest one to cover. From the moment, Scourge turns green, his life becomes a cakewalk. Everything he ever wants is handed to him with zero actual struggle on his part. Wants to be stronger than Sonic? He is. Zero side-effects to using a Chaos energy form from a mirror universe, or having a Super transformation interrupted, he just seemingly gets to be half-Super forever. Wants another leg-up on Sonic? Here's Fiona, sans personality. Sonic says he's just a lame ripoff of himself? He conquered a planet in a week, look at how cool he is. Also his team all roll over and make him their leader even though they hate him and they could easily kill him. He gets to walk through the entire FF/Squad teamup, and the Hedgehog teamup, and then when he gets to the No-Zone, Zobotnik, who has kept far smarter and more dangerous characters locked up for decades arbitrarily decides to reform him and gets completely suckered by him. The Destructix fully throw in with him, despite him never actually earning their respect. He never loses a fight where he wasn't depowered first. You know what the irony of this is? Ian has a character whom he is contractually obligated to never have lose for longer than an issue or two. And honestly, he wasn't awful at disguising that. Sonic gets a few wins that feel too easy, but for the most part, the issues with this rule mainly manifest in Sonic's limp responses to the tragedies happening around him, and a sprinkling of minor failures and pyrrhic victories ensure that the rule looks more like shoddy writing in a few places unless you're explicitly told about it. And even then, he still manages to make it look like Sonic struggles to attain those victories, that he has to actually put his back into it every time. He is challenged. Scourge isn't allowed to be challenged. That's the irony. Ian has a protagonist who he is not allowed to have lose, and Sonic still manages to be avoid looking like a boring invincible hero, while Scourge just never faces anything that can actually pose a threat to him. Powerful opponents crumple before him. Characters' personalities and development shift to suit his needs. The plot warps to benefit him. Because heaven forbid Scourge actually have to work for his wins. Who needs stakes when you can have the writer on your side! Part 9: In summation... I think you should've all twigged where this is going by now, so let's wrap up. 1) Does Scourge receive a great deal of favouritism from the author? Yes. 2) Is Scourge more powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity? Yes. 3) Does Scourge face zero consequences for his actions? Yes. 4) Is Scourge liked or respected by characters that have no reason to do so? Yes. 5) Is Scourge in a relationship with a character that has no reason to date him? Yes. 6) Most importantly, does the story will bend over backwards to give Scourge easy wins, even in situations where he logically should struggle? Yes. According to these criteria, Scourge the Hedgehog is almost a textbook example of a Mary-Sue. Which is probably why something as disgusting as him got away with so much. I guess, then, that his role in Revival, and a lot of the stuff before that, is the unfortunate reality of a Mary-Sue who suddenly has to deal with the fact that they're no longer getting that special treatment from the writer. That now their actions have consequences, that now the universe doesn't shape itself to their desires.

[pheacas]

I saw your discourse about the sexism in musical fandoms and although I can’t speak specifically for ships, I 100% agree with you. It’d be extremely ignorant for anyone to say that fandoms treat male characters equal to female characters... there is so much bias toward males just bc they’re perceived as cute and often fetishized; whereas strong, sensitive, interesting, IMPORTANT female characters are so much more overlooked (ex: deh, les mis, newsies, hamilton, etc)

Yeah, women not getting attention instead for the fixation on the soft boys™ of musical theatre is extremely sad, although, another main issue in the situation is that there’s just…  A severe lack of girls compared to guys in many of these male led shows, especially the ones you listed (minus Dear Evan Hansen, because it has 1:1 (including adults) compared to like Newsies with like 1:10).  This can most likely be attributed to that the writers of all of these musicals are men, so they’re more comfortable writing male characters and handling the strong emotions that men feel compared to women.

What do Dear Evan Hansen, Les Mis, Newsies, Hamilton, Be More Chill have in common?  They were written by only men.  This isn’t necessarily bad; they’re tackling what they’ve personally experience, to an extent, and focusing on their gender isn’t bad.  With particularly newer shows, we get to see truly vulnerable men who will cry and will show emotions that would typically be deemed as ‘unmanly’, which is an extremely good message I personally believe to send.  But, as a result, we lose the women because typically they aren’t written as well, particularly in older shows.  (Although to note Harvey Fierstein wrote the book for Newsies and he’s single-handedly the most important person in bringing LGBT+ to Broadway (a big claim but really he deserves it))

You look at shows written with leading ladies with strong emotions; Waitress, Fun Home, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, Six.  What do they have in common?  They all had a woman or multiple women working on the musical.  Women writing women.  They’re not only willing to show women as emotional, but they also show how strong they are and the general complexities beyond the love interest.  But, shows like this also suffer the inverse probably of male written musicals; they don’t have well written male characters as often (Fun Home 100% has an incredible LGBT+ man, but also Six doesn’t even have a male band member and spends its entire time shitting on King Henry VIII).  These are also shows I would say that have their women way overpower their male counterparts, but have never gotten the same popularity as their male counterparts for one reason or another, whether the writers themselves being newer to musical theatre or just not focusing on what the tumblr fandom wants to see (not that Les Mis is super Tumblr fandom friendly™ (unpopular opinion: I’m not a huge fan of Les Mis) but the rest are extremely teen friendly that you listed).  Six and I believe Fun Home were written by two new musical writers, and Legally Blonde and Mean Girls are sorta discredited because they’re based off movies, and Waitress is both based off of a movie and really not child friendly, although has star power to back it up.

But, with the rise of women in theatre, we are beginning to see hints and developments of musicals with better female leads with more complexity and detail to character.  Not that we still aren’t going to ever really get over the issue of men being preferred over women; Hadestown will be all about Orpheus, Alice By Heart (if it transfers) will be all about Alfred/The White Rabbit/The March Hare (although also probably the The Red Cross Nurse/Queen of Hearts), Jagged Little Pill will probably be Nick Healy.  It’s going to still be an issue, but with more women in theatre becoming more well-known there may be a change in how the fandom views the women in musicals, with stronger female-led musicals taking hold.

[ctxrover]

A collection of some of my favourite female comic book characters to celebrate International Women’s Day. (I use ‘female’ here because some are not yet grown up and thus can’t be called women)

1) Clea. Clea is the (still technically) wife of Doctor Stephen Strange. She is somewhat an anomaly as she has always been strong and powerful, going back to the sixties. She is the Sorcerer Supreme of her home dimension, the Dark Dimension, as well as its one time ruler after defeating her mother Umar, which her picture depicts. And she is a lot more powerful a magician than her (technically still) husband, Stephen due to her heritage. Clea is half Faltininan and half Mhuruuk, which gives her a natural magical aptitude. As a side note, Clea’s uncle is the Dread Dormammu.

2) Hellcat. The best friend of She-Hulk and formerly known as The Cat, Patsy Walker appeared in comic books drawn and written by her mother, which she is embarrassed by. Without any powers, she put on Greer Grant’s old costume and became a superhero. Then she went to space and got powers. Patsy got married a second time to Daimon Hellstrom, friend of Doctor Strange and the son of Satan. Then she died and went to hell, came back and became Hellcat. She is a longtime Avenger and Defender and can summon her costume by magic.

3) Ms Marvel. Kamala Khan began as a normal teenager, going to school, going to mosque, getting good grades. Then she underwent Terrigenesis as a result of the Terrigen Cloud passing over her hometown, Jersey City. She awoke with the power to shapeshift and stretch. As Carol Danvers was her hero, Kamala named herself Ms Marvel after her. She has fought such enemies as The Inventor, Doctor Faustus and gerrymandering. She has been a member of the Avengers and is currently a member of The Champions, alongside Viv Vision, Amadeus Cho, Teen Cyclops, Teen Nova and Miles Morales.

4) Sister Grimm. Nico Minoru was friends with other teens around her age, Chase Stein, Gert Yorkes and Karolina Dean among others. Surprise! Their parents were super villains in an evil organisation called The Pride. Not only that, but Nico found out she was a witch, able to wield her wand, the Staff of One, which hates repeat words and phrases, so to have a good vocabulary and knowledge of other languages is key to her using it. Of course besides that and the fact that Nico has to bleed to get the Staff (it’s stored in her chest), she doesn’t know how to use her powers properly anyway. Her best friend Gert died fighting their parents. On another occasion, Nico lost her arm and the Staff of One magically, partially turned itself into a prosthetic for her. Nico’s arm has somehow been restored, which has yet to be explained. Nico has served with both the Runaways and A-Force.

5) Hope. Wickedly overpowered and extremely violent, Hope is the adopted daughter of Nathan Summers, Cable. The first mutant born after M-Day, since the second she was born, her life has been one thing after another, despite Cable’s attempts to raise her as normally as he possibly could, while continually jumping into the future to escape Bishop. It’s a long story. Cable brought Hope back to the present when she turned sixteen, which sparked a war between the X-Men and Bastion, which resulted in several deaths and injuries among the X-Man, including the ‘death’ of Cable and the manifestation of her abilities. Afterwards, Hope put together a team of new mutants called the Lights. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to call Avengers vs X-Men Hope’s fault. She became the Phoenix Force’s avatar for a while. When she was seventeen, Cable came back to the present and they joined X-Force together, until Hope fired him and took control of the team. She is eighteen now and most recently, she aided Teen Jean, Adult Jean, Emma Frost, Quentin Quire and the Stepford Cuckoos in fighting the Phoenix Force.

6) Captain Marvel. Formerly Ms Marvel, Carol joined the US Air Force as soon as she turned eighteen. She also joined NASA years later, where she became involved in the Kree/Skull War. After befriending Kree soldier Mar-Vell, she was knocked into his Psyche Magnitron device during a battle, which led to her DNA becoming spliced with his-in effect, she became half Kree. Once she became aware of the changes in her body, she took the name Ms Marvel to Mar-Vell’s Captain Marvel and became a superhero. She joined the Avengers and then the X-Men, when Rogue absorbed her powers. While she was with the X-Man, the Brood experimented on her and gave her new cosmic superpowers and she took the name Binary. Later, she went back to Earth and rejoined the Avengers as Ms Marvel once again. After Avengers vs X-Men, Carol took the name Captain Marvel in honour of Mar-Vell, who had long died of cancer. Carol then had a brain tumour, which cost her her memories, but she largely recovered, went to space and joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. After returning from space, she became the leader of Alpha Flight before briefly becoming a fascist. Putting her friend Tony Stark in a coma made her regain her senses. She is still serving with Alpha Flight. Carol has also served with SHIELD, A-Force, the Ultimates and the Starjammers.

Other favourites include: *Thor, Jane Foster-formerly the girlfriend of Donald Blake/Thor. Formerly a nurse, later became a doctor. Even later, she got breast cancer and picked up Mjölnir after Thor became unworthy. She became the best Thor and I’m bummed her time is up. *Wasp, Janet Van Dyne-a fashion designer, but so much more than that. She is pretty much the Edna Mode of the Avengers as she designs superhero costumes too. Janet is the adoptive mother of Nadia, and she gave both the Avengers and the Vision their names. *Storm, Ororo Munroe-Badass. Hardass. She lost her powers in the 80s and still led the X-Men. She fought Scott Summers for leadership of the X-Men and won. I cannot express how powerful she is. With and without her powers, she’s a force to be reckoned with. *Jubilee-Yes, the fireworks girl. But she’s more than that. Anyone who served as Logan’s sidekick is bound to be more than a little badass. She’s also one of the only mainstream characters to have dyscalculia. Used to be a mutant, then wasn’t, then a vampire, then a teen mom, now a mutant again. *Singularity-A… pocket dimension. A sentient pocket dimension. Like Hope, there is almost nothing Singularity can’t do. Except talk properly. Singularity has a weird way of talking, but it works for her. She has served on A-Force. *Domino, Neena Thurman-Primarily known for her weird skin complexion (literal white skin with a literal black patch on her left eye), due to her ability to manipulate probability in her favour, she is one of the best mercenaries in the world. *She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters-Jen received a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce and she became a Hulk. But unlike Bruce, she loves being a Hulk to the point where she’s She-Hulk pretty much all the time. She’s also an accomplished lawyer. *Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy-Spider-Gwen. Comes from an alternate universe where she was bitten by a radioactive spider and Peter Parker was the one who died. She does her best to keep her city safe, while studying and playing drums in her rock band, the Mary Janes. *Oya, Idie Okonkwo-Has just about the coolest powers ever. In one hand she can manipulate fire and in the other, she can manipulate ice. Like at the same time. She is Nigerian and from the Igbo people and took her codename from the Yoruban deity. *Former Black Panther, Shuri-The biggest Slytherin there ever was. (coming from a Slytherin!), all Shuri wanted is to become a Black Panther. She was even going to challenge her uncle without finishing her training-but to her dismay, T’Challa got there first. She had her chance as Black Panther when T’Challa fell into a coma. Her time, in comic book time, as Black Panther lasted two years. *Colleen Wing-A master martial artist, occasional Hero For Hire and Daughter of the Dragon, she became best friends with Misty Knight and the two of them founded Knightwing Restorations, a private detective company. Colleen originally had no superpowers, but learned the K’un L’un martial arts and became able to focus her chi. *Misty Knight-Colleen Wing’s best friend and a former NYPD cop who lost her arm in an explosion. When Colleen encouraged Misty to be active again, the two founded Knightwing Restorations and their own superhero duo, Daughters of the Dragon. Misty is the fiancée of Danny Rand, the Iron Fist and she has also served as a Hero for Hire and on the Defenders. *Faiza Hussein-A trauma surgeon who gained superpowers during the Secret Invasion, thanks to an explosion and some Skrulls. The easiest way to describe her powers is that she can take people apart and put them back together again. She is also worthy of wielding Excalibur, the sword. She has served on MI:13, Excalibur and the Champions Of Europe, becoming one of Britain’s foremost superheroes. *Squirrel Girl, Doreen Green-the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Universe, she has defeated everyone from Thanos to Galactus to Doctor Doom to Deadpool and everyone in between. She is also a woman in STEM, she studies computer science at university. She has served with the USAvengers, SHIELD and the Great Lakes Avengers. *Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff-A former Russian spy who defected and later became an Avenger. She had a thing for Hawkeye, she knew the Winter Soldier from Russia and had a thing with him too. She also had a thing with Tony Stark. And Wolverine. And Daredevil. And Captain America-I think it’s just easier to list the men she hasn’t been with. But she isn’t defined by all the men she’s been with. She’s more defined by her fighting ability, her marksmanship and her excellent spying. *Moon Girl, Lunella Lafayette-from the most powerful in the Marvel universe, to the most intelligent. Lunella is the most intelligent for sure. I have read all the Moon Girl comics and I’m still unsure of her powers-she can switch bodies with Devil Dinosaur or something. I don’t know. But even though she’s a nine year old Inhuman, her intelligence was something she was born with. *Jean Grey-a powerful telekinetic and telepath bonded with the cosmic entity, the Phoenix Force, widowed, I guess, to Cyclops and technically genetically the mother, but actually the step-mother of Cable, Nathan Summers, who is much more than twice her age holy crap, I’m not going any further. You know who she is. *Crystal-the younger sister of Medusa, and arguably one of the most powerful Inhumans. She can manipulate all the elements-air, water, fire, earth. The former wife of Quicksilver and the mother to their daughter, Luna. Her frequent companion is the teleporting dog, Lockjaw, who is a good boy. *Medusa-the older sister of Crystal, Medusa is the queen of the Inhumans. Formerly married to Black Bolt, situation may change, she is also the mother to their son Ahura. Medusa has complete telepathic control of her hair, a power I would actually like to have. *Rogue, Anna Marie (alternate universes give the surname Darkholme)-the sister of Nightcrawler, raised by the shapeshifting Mystique and precognitive Destiny (women!) of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Rogue was once also a member, until she absorbed Carol Danvers’ powers and sought help from Professor X. Rogue has since become an X-Men member as well as a member of the Avengers. She is proud of her abilities and would not change them. *Quake, Daisy Johnson-previously believed to be a mutant, Daisy was actually an Inhuman, born to an Inhuman prostitute and the supervillain Mister Hyde, brought up in foster care under the name Cory Sutter. When her powers awoke, she was taken in by Nick Fury, who raised her through her teens and groomed her to be a SHIELD agent. She eventually became director, but was demoted when everyone realised how silly it was for a nineteen year old to be the director of a spy organisation. She went into space with the Winter Soldier and also served with the Avengers. *Kitty Pryde-former codenames include Ariel, Sprite, Shadowcat and Star Lord. Kitty is also a computer scientist and was even the computer science teacher at Xavier’s/Jean Grey’s school. Now she is the headmistress. Her fist major storyline was Days of Future Past in which the then-thirty years in the future (2013), Rachel Summers sent the consciousness of her adult self back into the body of her child self in the then-present day self (1983). Most of her love interests have been called Peter. *No-Girl, Martha Johansson-a disembodied brain in a jar, Martha is an extremely powerful telepath, capable of accessing the astral plane. Despite the stereotype of being a brain in a jar, Martha is also very intelligent and is always eager to learn. She is dating Eye Boy. *Mockingbird, Bobbi Morse-a genius scientist and agent of SHIELD, Bobbi is also a longtime Avenger, who had no real powers until she was injured and injected with a mix of the Infinity Formula and Super Soldier Serum. She was once married to Hawkeye, but his becoming deafened and unwillingness to move on damaged their relationship and Bobbi served him divorce papers on Valentine’s Day. She is in a relationship with Spider-Man. *Ms America, America Chavez-another overpowered girl, America has super strength and super speed, she can fly, she is totally invulnerable and she can open portals through time and space, among other things. She has served on the Young Avengers and the Ultimates and despite being a lesbian, she is platonically friends with Kate Bishop. *Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff-the twin sister of Quicksilver, former wife of Vision and I’m not even going to get into Billy and Tommy. She is a very powerful witch, trained by Agatha Harkness, on top of her abilities to manipulate reality. She is a good friend to Doctor Strange-a friendship that is platonic. She is also responsible for the House of M reality and the Decimation on M-Day. *Supergirl, Kara Zor El/Danvers-the cousin of Superman who was also sent from Krypton as a child and coincidentally also crash landed on Earth. She was adopted by the Danvers family and grew up to become Supergirl. *Oracle, Barbara Gordon-Babs was Batgirl until she was shot by the Joker and became a paraplegic. That only made her more powerful as she used her skills with computers to communicate with other superheroes to fight crime. She is now Batgirl again, but Oracle is her most powerful identity. She is also on and off with Dick Grayson. *Wonder Woman, Diana Prince-you know who she is.

[sakurarisen-a]

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻.

repost,  don’t reblog

basics !

FULL NAME.  Seraphina (Mayuzumi)

PRONUNCIATION.   Seh-rah-fee-nah Mai-yuu-zoo-me

NICKNAME.   Sera, Sakura (by a few people)

GENDER.   Female

HEIGHT.   5′3″

AGE.   21

ZODIAC.   Aries

SPOKEN LANGUAGES. Fluent in Japanese, somewhat so in English, dabbles in a few others when she gets to chance to learn from other native speakers

physical characteristics !

HAIR COLOR.   Strawberry blonde lightened by too much time in the sun

EYE COLOR.   Honey Brown

SKIN TONE.    Light peach

BODY TYPE.  Petite, small, slightly underweight

ACCENT.   None

VOICE.    Gentle, light

DOMINANT HAND.  Right

POSTURE.   Pretty straight; slouches when she’s relaxed, but for the most part she has pretty decent posture

SCARS.   Several littered about the tops and fronts of her shoulders, ranging in size with the largest being about half an inch in length

TATTOOS.    A large and colorful leaping koi spanning the majority of her back

BIRTHMARKS.   None

MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S).  If not her eyes, then perhaps her tattoo, though it;s usually hidden?

childhood !

PLACE OF BIRTH.   Refuses to reveal; it’s a relatively small town well outside of any major cities

HOMETOWN.    Refuses to reveal

BIRTH WEIGHT.   Average

BIRTH HEIGHT.    Average

MANNER OF BIRTH.   Natural

FIRST WORDS.  Cooo. She’d heard her siblings talking about cookies and been trying to mimic them, but how do say cookie-

SIBLINGS.   Thurston Mayuzumi (eldest brother), Takeru Mayuzumi (older brother; deceased), Ami Mayuzumi (older sister; deceased)

PARENTS.   Takeshi Mayuzumi, (unnamed mother)

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.   Fairly... Poor, though that’s an understatement. Her father came into a large sum of money just prior to Sera’s birth by winning the lottery, and the greed corrupted him into caring little for his children, especially after managing to also corrupt his wife through gifts and wealth. Her childhood under them was a nightmare and she’s actually thankful these days she was disowned and kicked out; it showed her just how corrupt money can make a person, and how to NOT be a parent.

adult life !

OCCUPATION.    Wandering traveler seeking to help anyone she can; oftentimes takes on odd jobs to help pay for things. In her YGO verses, she works varying odd jobs, and full time at a local homeless shelter as well.

CURRENT RESIDENCE.  Whatever random place to sleep she can find, most oftentimes a tree; A small home in Den City with her son (Vrains); A small apartment in Heartland (Zexal)

CLOSE FRIENDS. Zack Fair ( @honorisen ), Makoto Homura and Kiku Homura ( @sworntolight ) (Vrains), Yuma Tsukumo ( @duelrisen​ ) (Zexal)

RELATIONSHIP STATUS.   It’s kindda lowkey complicated, kindda dating, with Zack ( @honorisen​ )

FINANCIAL STATUS.  Poor

DRIVER’S LICENSE.   No

CRIMINAL RECORD.    None

VICES.  Does refusal to keep anything for herself, even food, count?

sex and romance !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION.   Demisexual, prefers men

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION.   Demiromantic, prefers men

PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE.    submissive  |  dominant  |  switch  

PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE.    submissive  |  dominant  |  switch

LIBIDO.   Average

TURN ON’S.     Having her neck kissed, nibbles of her ear, having a really light touch skimmed over her hips, her ears especially

TURN OFF’S.     Fighting, talking about the past, being rushed, being pinned without permission, having her wrists held (especially tightly or squeezed without giving her time to prepare)

LOVE LANGUAGE.  Kisses, touches, cuddles

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES.  Sera is prone to putting everything about herself aside for the sake of seeing her partner happy, including her own happiness. She wants to see them smiling as bright as they can - no matter what she has to do to ensure that (to a degree, of course, she won’t humiliate herself for them). She’s also prone to greeting with a kiss and spending evenings cuddled into them, if she’s allowed to, and sleeps at her best when wrapped up in their arms.

miscellaneous !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG.   If Everyone Cared - Nickelback

HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.   Helping people, watching the sea, going for a walk, baking, playing board games with her son (Vrains/Late FF7)

MENTAL ILLNESSES.  PTSD, Depression, mild anxiety

PHYSICAL ILLNESSES.   None

LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED.  All brained.

FEARS.  Losing control, being under the care of her birth family again, losing Zack, Losing Shayan, dying without making a difference, dying in general, thunderstorms, the impact her brother Thurston could be having wherever he is, being prevented from making her dream a reality, being held captive

SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.   Medium-low. She has confidence in her abilities and her dream, but not in herself, persay. That is, Sera may have plenty of confidence in her ability to help and make her dream a reality, but not so much in making and keeping bonds, or valuing herself; her life means little compared to others, and she’s not longer bothered really by people walking in and right back out of her life when they see how she lives - She’s not sure she can blame them for not wanting to be seen around a girl who willingly wears hole-filled dresses. Her self-confidence boosts later as her mentality about herself changes, but actually going above a moderate level at any point is... Difficult. She’s trying, though.

VULNERABILITIES. Due to having incredibly little schooling and barely leaving her childhood home until being disowned, Sera is easier to manipulate than most. She is aware of this and tries to prevent herself from being taken advantage of, but for all her wariness, she’s still easier to trick than one would think, albeit not often - She’s not going to just suddenly stop everything and believe everything you tell her, She’s ultimately easy to control by threatening her loved ones, and will do anything to protect and help those who need it; while admirable, it also means she’s quick to step in to help, and will protect them by any means nessecary - Especially her son and partner, and any found family she has.

She’s not all that physically strong and easily overpowered without training, and even then, her strength lies in speed, not physical prowess. Grabbing her wrists is also a pretty easy way to stop her, or put her near a thunderstorm, even remind her of things she doesn’t want to remember - Sera doesn’t like to admit to how much to a fragile girl lies underneath her smile, but there’s definitely one just barely hidden from the world’s view, scared and lonely.

TAGGED BY:   Stole from another of my blogs <3

TAGGING: @honorisen​ if you want~ <3 Otherwise, grab it ya’ll!

[tren-fraszka]

Chocolate Box Letter 2021

Dear creator,

Thank you for taking your time to check my requests. I know my requests can sound a bit tricky, but please don’t be discouraged. I wish you will have good time writing first and foremost!

My AO3 is Tren, if you wish to check it out.

Likes: comedy, casefics, canon compliants, AUs, time loops, bodyswaps, roleswaps, fantasy AU, urban fantasy AU, “being hoisted by your own petard” plotlines, snark, pettiness, rivals, enemies to friends to lovers, complicated relationship, violence, friendships, character bonding.

DNW: explicit sex (makeouts and fade to black is okay), A/B/O, mpreg, rape depicted as positive (so no “it’s okay, because the other person enjoyed it/it was what they truly wanted”), trans headcanons, soulmate AUs, stories ending with surrender to fate/destiny, fourth wall breaking in canons where that doesn’t occur, character has cancer or other real-life terminal disease AU, word “queerplatonic”.

Also, I included what ships I’m okay with in each fandom. Please do not include any ships that aren’t canon and I have not allowed in those sections (if you feel really strongly about a ship I haven’t mentioned, you can always ask through mods just in case).

Additionally, while I almost never request fanart as possible medium, because I prefer my main gift to be fic, I would be very okay with receiving fanart treats. On another note, feel free to use my old letters if you get your hands on them. I never stop being interested in fandoms, and if I requested something once I will still want it in the future.

                                           REQUESTS

FFF-CLASS TRASHERO| FFF급관심용사 (WEBCOMIC)

I’m caught to the current translation of webcomic. Feel free to include any new developments in webcomic, but please avoid spoilers for the original light novel.

Kang Han Soo/Nasus

Kang Han Soo is a terrible human being and I thrive on his sociopathy. I love the perfect mix of justification that we get for his action through his backstory and unrepentant self-serving attitude this webcomic has. I love that the elf prince is the only person Kang Han Soo seems to have any modicum of respect for and actually gets along with. At the same time Nasus is one of very few characters who seemingly saw through Kang Han Soo upon meeting, knowing exactly what to do to get him on his side. The way Nasus usurped throne with Kang Han Soo's help was great and I would love to see more of their teamwork. 

Maybe Kang Han Soo growing more and more fond of Nasus with each timeloop, because while the world is shit at least the overpowered elven prince seems to understand him a bit. I would love to see Kang Han Soo getting into compromising situations and being in utter denial about having a crush, because anything that doesn't fit his vision of the world can't be true. I can see him convincing himself that sharing long makeout sessions with elfish prince is totally a part of his strategy to get reputation points. He's just building a trust between the nations of elves and humans, okay?

On that note, I don't mind Kang Han Soo exhibiting internalized homophobia if you want to include it. I feel like it fits his character to be in denial about also being interested in men, but I'm also completely okay with different takes on that.

Feel free to abuse the reset mechanic to your hearts content. I love timeloops, so having one baked into the canon is just great. I would also love an AU where Nasus somehow becomes aware of the resets and also starts to retain his memories through them.

TALENTLESS NANA

I’m caught with manga up to chapter 56.

Hiiragi Nana/Tachibana Jin

I love that Jin is the first person on the island that actually has some understanding of Nana. I absolutely love their dynamic of Nana trying to kill him, but Jin always being one step ahead. There's just something fascinating in their back and forth, and constant mind games they have going on. Feel free to slip in any extra murder in between the canon to give them some extra opportunity to just be their terrible selves.

I would equally love some calmer moments between them. Maybe an AU where Nana starts to take care of cat!Jin and talks to him when no ones there to fight off the loneliness, since obviously a cat won't snitch on her. And well, he won't snitch, but not because he can't.

Or maybe Jin feels bored and promises to share some critical information with Nana if she goes on a date with him. And Nana is pretty sure he is just trolling her, but at the same time she has little to lose and everybody needs a day off from killing at some point. Bonus points for Jin constantly shapeshifting into Nana's classmates to hide his identity.

I would like to note that since we don't know Jin's true identity at this point, I'd prefer for it to be kept ambiguous for the purpose of this fic.

FATE/GRAND ORDER

I’m up to date with NA server. Please don’t include any spoilers for jp server.

Ryoma Sakamoto/Okada Izou

I love that the first we see of their relationship is Okada being absolutely pissed about Ryoma betraying him and leaving to die, and Ryoma being like "that's fair", and letting himself get stabbed because he has absolute confidence that Okada doesn't actually want to kill him. If that's not great ship material I don't know what is.

I love how thin the line between Ryoma caring about Okada and manipulating him into doing what he wants is. And that Okada is aware of it, but at same time he's completely unable to let go despite constantly proclaiming that he won't get tricked again. And yet he gets tricked. Every. Single. Time.

I would love both some shenanigans in Chaldea, as well as a look into their lives before they became Heroic Spirits. I'm not very versed in history of Japan though, so while I'd love a more history based story please assume you are telling it to someone who needs a quick history lesson at the same time. For Chaldea shenanigans I would enjoy Okada picking up fight with everyone who catches his attention and then inevitably getting his ass kicked, because he's used to being a big fish in small pond, while Ryoma tries to make sure he doesn't kill himself in the process. Or helps him get along with other Heroic Spirits. I would love to see Okada being pacified with some food. Maybe discovering liking for a dish he had never tried before.

Any mission gone wrong would also be fun. Maybe they Rayshift with Master (I'm fine with both male and female Master for this request) but end up stranded during the mission. Maybe they have to camp somewhere and it results in a lot of bickering. Or they very unsuccessfully try to stealth.

Inclusions of Oryou is welcome, and you are free to make it a threesome. Just please don't forget to include some flirty Ryoma and Okada interactions.

MAIRIMASHITA! IRUMA-KUN

I’m up to date with manga. Feel free to include any new developments.

Ami Kirio/Suzuki Iruma

There are many good ships with Iruma, but this one just has a lot things I like. I love enemy ships with both sides being way too emotionally invested into each other so this was inevitable. I love how this relationship starts as this really wholesome friendship and school festival preparation, except Kirio turns out to be a bit messed up and wants to blow up everyone. But then they both accept the outcome and go on with their lives still thinking about each other. Iruma goes through a lot of trouble to keep the club operating even though Kirio has been pretty much expelled. And then Kirio is now obsessed with Iruma as his anthitesis and perfect enemy. And probably wants to eat him. In which sense of the word is yet to be determined.

I’m okay with the potential story happening at any point in the canon. I would love both a story set before the festival while Kirio is still hiding his true colors or a story set after festival. Maybe Iruma runs into Kirio somewhere after he escapes prison and instead of calling an adult, he tries to stop Kirio from causing trouble on his own. Or maybe Iruma keeps accidentally preventing Kirio's terrorist plans without even realizing, while Kirio keeps pining and probably salivating from distance. As for pre-festival story. Maybe some upperclassmen steal important parts from the club and Iruma and Kirio set out to get them back.

I would definitely love an AU where rather than getting summoned to demon world, Iruma accidentally summons Kirio into the human world. Maybe Iruma’s parents try to use him as an offering, but instead he ends up bound to a demon. I would love to see Kirio excited to unleash suffering (even if his weak powers severely limit him in that regard) onto human world just to discover that he made contract with the biggest pacifist possible.

If you want to explore Kirio's hunger for Iruma I would prefer if it turned out to be that something got lost in translation through all those centuries and it's less about literal consumption and more about intense lust for humans.

TALES OF CRESTORIA

Velvet Crowe/Milla Maxwell

I thrive on the twisted codependency those two have in Crestoria. I will take both good, tragic and/or ambiguous ends for this relationship. Whether Velvet decides to forgive Milla or kill her it will be great. Give me all those twisted emotions, the hesitation, and pain both of them are carrying.

For straightforward approach, maybe the two of them stop in a town while chasing the last Incarnation and Milla decides to throw a party (because it's some sort of festival, or maybe she found out it's Velvet's or Laphicet's birthday and wants to make some amends however small). Or maybe one of them gets hurt during the fight with an Incarnation and the other ends up nursing them to health.

For some more levity, maybe Velvet and Milla ran out of money and pick up some side-job to have enough money for an inn. Maybe they work as waitresses and are both great and terrible at it at the same time. Or they have to take care of kids. Any other amusing job is also good.

Feel free to include other Tales characters. My faves are the cast of Xillia, Symphonia and Graces, but feel free to include others (I would appreciate proper introductions in that case, I still haven't played some of the games, so I might not recognize everyone just by their name).

[kittsasu13]

Hello, my intro my experience. My perspective.(dived into the abyss of Reylo)

Hi, my nickname is Kitt. I just go by Kitt. This is my private Tumblr. I don't have any friends here. I am hoping to make more with people of similar interests though. My first intentions for this Tumblr was to be completely filled up with Sexy couples of anime. Some of my favorites are characters from Inuyasha and Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. (Which reminds me of REYLO . Hehe)

My recent and most surprising ship I have ever shipped is the big one of topic here on Tumblr. The dynamic dual protagonists Ben and Rey making REYLO. Hehe, I always had intentions of watching a Star Wars film in theatres so seeing TLJ was just a common thing. I wasn't excited for anything, but open minded for a Star Wars film that I knew I would love because that is what I am. That is in my being. Loving Star Wars was an element of life for me. I could not even say I disliked any Star Wars film. I would simply not watch it on my own as much. That is how it is.

I cannot do the same for such amazing movies like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I just do not connect to them as personally as I do for Star Wars. It is how it is for me.

I have never actually explained to people my obsession.

When I was a young child. I would watch a New Hope, the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi countless times. Over and over again. I would watch all the way through. I would watch George Lucas talk about all the add-ons to the movies. I would rewind that VHS cassette so many flipping times. I was completely in love with the adventure .

My romantic take on it didn't start until the Phantom Menace came out. I was 6 years old when I saw it in theatres with my brother. 6 years old when I actually started wanting to paint my lips as Padme the Queen Amidala did. This new form of sexuality is where I was. It was not about sexual stuff .

Then when I was 9 the Attack of The Clones came out. There my sexual feelings were to Anakin. His eyes . He desired Padme. It was scary at times. It was wrong. It never occurred to me the feelings were wrong. They did marry. I knew they would. I knew who Anakin really was. I knew his future. His children. I knew he was bad and good when he started out. Making bad decisions. Being pulled and pushed around. In my eyes as a child I could see what I didn't want.

When I think back on those feelings. My feelings on the characters Han, Luke, Anakin, and Lando. These men are very handsome men to me. These men with different futures and goals. I knew who I wanted to be with in my fantasies.

At the time when I was little I wanted Luke. I longed for him and I loved him the most. Even now I still love him. Then there was Anakin. They showed his love for Padme. As twisted as it was they did. It was there. So strong and overpowering he lost himself to darkness in attempts to keep her. He reminds me of my first crush. I never ended up with. Then there was Lando who I really liked a lot and wished him the best on his journey. He had character development I wished that the main Characters did. I dated someone like him but it didn't work out. Then there was Han Solo the Smuggler.. Who my mother loved. She loved how he was the "bad boy" . His crooked smile and his deviousness. Sure they were appealing and he was funny and charming... however, he was still a bad guy... up until the end when his neglected son murdered him. You know up till the end. He finally realized he couldn't just keep dodging the past. (Leia wanted to change him but with her responsibilities and his pig headedness it was inevitable. Maybe if they stuck around each other 24/7 they could have influenced each other better..)

These were the relationships I was exposed to. The Han Solo marriage to Leia even crept into my personal life. Though my father was loving and bought me things. He was also cruel and singleminded. Projecting his values over others. Lying and making us broke all the time leaving my mom with a lot of debt. My mother ended her relationship with my father but the damage to my brother was so severe. Even to this day. My brother reminds me of Kylo Ren (an emotional wreck of good and evil)

I personally loved Luke the most as a kid. He saved his Father. With compassion and understanding. That was what I wanted out of relationships. It was what I craved. Though I was damaged by my father I was actually able to find a man that is a lot like Luke. It makes me so happy.

So to go on about REYLO I have to compare him to my brother. So deserving to find his equal. Someone to understand his pain. To grow with him. To teach him . To change his heart to make him want to try to succeed on his own. He is a spoiled brat who is emotionally suffering. Just like Ben Solo is. My brother is 24 and still hasn't found someone. It is ok because I don't have any kind of pressure on him.

Anyways. Now that you understand my life. Here is what I was trying to say about these movies. TFA and TLJ.

When I watched these movies I became an adult. I already have a lover and 2 children. Completely in a different state of mind already. Though I know plenty of people including my own brother and friends who are still struggling through life journeys. This movie is reaching out to those people. Those people and the new generations of kids out there. There is darkness and light in the world.

Rey is someone strong and I know there are men and women out there who wish in their hearts they could be like Rey. Or have a friend like her. She really is an amazing character. It is truly a struggle for me when people bring up hating on these movies because of the politics in them. This strong female is not all powerful. She exercises CONTROL a lot easier than these past men because honestly, in our hearts we deal with these emotions all the time. We aren't saying we are BETTER than you. We are saying WATCH HOW WE HANDLE THIS/WATCH WHAT WE DO .

Saving Ben is an adventure. There will always be heartbreak. No one can change so quickly.

The in-depth world of these past two Star Wars movies have hit home for me. Finally. I can see a real breakthrough on real world character development with fantasy scenarios. When is that EVER a bad thing? If you look at all the past Star Wars movies they always had conflict and inner turmoil. However, the time they spent changing was literally the time they spent away from the scenes. Or at least we just are suppose to accept their change and their actions. Yes actions speak louder than words... however, there are different kinds of people out there to get through to. That's what we get with Ben.

My long rambling tangent is not me butchering anything. I will always watch Star Wars Movies. It makes me happy to see that we have the potential for a complex character to change BEFORE OUR EYES FOR ONCE.

We got to see these installments over the last 3 or 4 years. We will see a new ending in 2 years.

Please don't give up on Star Wars.

Idk.. love and all that Jazz.

I really like Kylo Ren after seeing him in TLJ . I was so surprised to see how he was acting. It reminds me of my brother. Like did they watch my brother and write a story about him? Idk..

I wasn't even expecting a romance in Star Wars for the main character. FOR REAL. I didn't think it would happen. It didn't happen for Luke. It didn't really happen for Anakin because the ending for him was always going to be Darth Vader. The romance didn't occur to me in TFA. So I was happy :)

Thanks for letting me spill haha

I DID EDIT THIS AND ADD STUFF... THANKS FOR READING! I AM SUPER SURPRISED THAT THIS WAS ALL READ!

[tuxedogirlofdestiny-blog]

The 1959 Nancy Drew: How Sue is Miss Drew (Nancy Drew: The Secret of The Old Clock)

            The Nancy Drew series is one of the popular entries in the mystery genre, the Nancy Drew Mystery Series being the main of the franchise. The series was ghostwritten by numerous authors under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, even if that was the case it didn’t fail to inspire and fish people in to mystery novels. Nancy Drew was created as a female counterpart of the Hardy Boys series, this drew a lot of attention from female readers, aspiring writers, and of course feminists. The Secret of The Old Clock is the first title in the Mystery Series, the rewritten version placed Nancy Drew in the 1950’s society since the series adapts to it’s current era. Nancy is displayed as a curious, brave, intuitive, and independent young sleuth. She lives with her father and housekeeper who helped in taking care of her after her mother died. Throughout the series she had always been a strong female protagonist which inspired a lot of female readers even now.

 A synopsis of the story

           The Secret of The Old Clock has two editions the 1930, and the 1959; both versions are very different from each other which will be tackled later. This will focus on the 1959 version of the story since it is more popular but not exactly as good as the 1930 version. The 18 year-old Nancy Drew wants to help Crowley’s relative after encountering Judy, and her two guardians, the Turner sisters. After knowing their financial struggles and legal issues Nancy decides to help them and discovers that the initial “heirs” are undeserving of Crowley’s wealth. Nancy also encounters with a lot of other characters related to Crowley and the burglars that has the Crowley Clock which contained the key leading to the later will. The ending wherein the initial “heirs”, the Topham family gets disinherited of all their quick fortune and reveals a happy ending for Crowley’s relatives.

A criticism of the story

          On the surface the rewritten Nancy Drew book is a good read for pre-teen children in terms of readability. The first version published had a lot of adult themes like drinking, which was considered illegal in 1930. Both Nancy Drews even if these are ghostwritten by different authors have consistent character traits. Even with the societal differences, both are intelligent, curious, intuitive, charitable, and physically capable. She is considered to be a role model, a source of inspiration, but this might mean she is too perfect A lot of discussions online discuss of Nancy Drew is a Mary sue, a character who is limited or not limited to: being overpowered, too perfect, too beautiful, conflicting traits, and bad backstory. This critic will include several types of literary criticism and also character analysis of the teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.

           1930 Nancy Drew: The Secret of The Clock in appropriation to history is depicted with a lot of adult themes, since the Great Depression occurred. It basically made the whole year filled hard times for everybody. It made women work for more money and men becoming moonshiners, it was the birth of all vices, everybody yearned to relieve their stress after a long day at work. This gave an open opportunity to leisure businesses, in this case the focus is literature. Writers intend to focus on pre-Great Depression period and make their stories positive as much as possible. Nancy Drew being one of them acquired the traits every young sleuth has: courageous, smart, curious and charitable. This may seem perfect but her curiosity, although it is advantageous, it also brings her into trouble. This may be rebutted because in this version Nancy is only 16 years old. Still, Nancy is too competitive against the Topham sisters and literally wants to destroy them. She helps people but at the same time, strives to one-up the Topham sisters, this ruins her charitable trait.

           The post-war The Secret of The Clock had racist changes to its minor characters, since this was the rise of black and white people divisions and tensions in America. This is also the time where protagonists are role models to be looked upon, unless they are black. The cover illustration was matched with the current culture, same goes for the writing styles and a lot of scenes in the novel. Nancy in this version has almost the same traits as the 1930 Nancy Drew; brave, intelligent, intuitive, kind, and of course she is still curious. She takes the case of the Crowley kin’s disinherited fortune, because she is nice and helpful. This makes her a possible Mary sue, judging from her trait list but what happened within the novel states against it. She may be brave and curious but again, this also served as her downfall, she did work her way through it but that just suggested that she is not invulnerable.

            A lot had influenced this amazing series about a young detective named Nancy Drew. It is amazing how her traits barely changed throughout all these years and all the different authors that wrote with her. Although she might be almost perfect to the point where all versions of her can be considered a Mary sue, this just a product of being the protagonist. Superhero movies also feature these almost invulnerable heroes that fight for peace but it’s just well written. A character is only considered a Mary sue when at most of the story is just badly written.

[his-naughty-little-kitten]

Hi there! I have a genuine q. Why do you most kuro fans believe Seb and Ciel are in an intimate relationship (that's not shown explicitly to readers)? I get all the fanservice (fangirl over it tbh), but the kid -freaks- when others touch him. It's even happened with Sebastian. Yana sensei hints the cult assaulted him so all the 'don't touch me!' moments stem from that. With Ciel's visible trauma, I'm kinda scratching my head why so many people legitimately think Ciel wants to do his butler?

Hello, Anon ~

Wow, that’s a very interesting question! However, I’m afraid Icannot speak for the whole fandom, so I can only give you my personal opinion.

Definitely, one of the things that encourage theshipping is the fanservice. Yaoi fans are naturally attracted to series withtwo male leads, and shippers of any kind will always start shipping charactersthat spend a lot of time together, have a close relationship and make a lot ofphysical contact, as those are the things that lead to a strong bond (romanticor otherwise) in real life. So if you add some nearly sexual situations,suggestive comments and a certain amount of possessiveness, what you got is(something resembling) a relationship. It’s only natural that the fans ship it. Yet, I can seeyou’re hintingsomething deeper than a platonic relationship and, while I’m not one ofthose who believe that they fuck behind closed doors, there are severalin-canon reasons why such a thing wouldn’t be so unlikely.

1.- Sebastian’s character

Sebastianis portrayed in the manga as a very seductive human as well as a sinful demon.He’s what one would call a ‘lady-killer’, though it’s been made obvious throughthe manga that is not only ‘ladies’ that he’s interested in. We know he’s anexperienced seducer, but does he have any preferences?

Yana addressed this topic in a post she called “Sebastian’s favoritetype” (  http://akumadeenglish.tumblr.com/post/127400149717/sebastians-favourite-type ) and we were told that, when it comes to sex,Sebastian does not care about gender or age - a curious answerthat I believe is a subtle way of addressing the controversial topic aboutSebastian and Ciel age difference - and when having a long-term human partnerhe seeks an outstanding beauty as well as a high class soul, and the authormentions Ciel having those qualities. So we can deduce something from this;Sebastian likes Ciel. Maybe not romantically, as we know demons can’t love thesame way humans do, but there’s definitely some attraction beyond mere curiosity.Sebastian chose Ciel and he did so very carefully. This is not fanservice, butrather, a part of the character’s development, a confirmed canon fact.  

Apart from that, we’ve seen Sebastian caring for Ciel many times in a muchdeeper fashion than the mere “omg, I’ll lose my breakfast!” I can’t list all themoments in which this is shown because there are many, but another bloggeralready did something similar. (See it here - http://rabid-bunny.tumblr.com/post/144133678003/i-was-wondering-do-you-think-sebastian-and-ciel)

So, we have attraction + care. Maybe that isn’t enough tosay that he loves Ciel, but for a demon, I’d say it’s close enough, so the ‘Seba’ part ofSebciel is definitely not unrealistic. Now we only have to prove that Ciel isjust as willing as Sebastian is.

2.- Ciel’s character

Manga is a somewhat strict comic type. It followscertain guidelines and tropes that, while not mandatory, are to a certainextent what makes manga to be identified as manga. Those guidelines ofteninclude certain character archetypes. Think, for example, of a shonenprotagonist or a shojo heroine. And I’m sure that, when you think of other shonenprotagonists, Ciel seems kind of out of place. Well, that’s because Cielis a shota.

Shota is a manga genre that showcases underaged boysin sexual situations. And while it may seem controversial to the eyes of awestern reader, shota is a genre Yana is familiar with.

(Image - To the left, a shota boy as portrayed in one of Yana’s previous works, Glamorous Lip. To the right, Ciel in a famous manga scene.)

That alone is enough to justify the possible sexualinterpretations of many of the scenes she has drawn, as they are not innocentlydone. The author knows very well what she’s writing about and she purposely teases the reader.But, as you say, Ciel is a character that has never shown any sexualinclination through the series, be it due to a traumatic past experience orsimply to his young age.  

Ciel’s sexuality is a very interesting topic itself and I’d gladlydedicate a whole post to it alone, but I’ll summarize or this will be too long; Ciel isdefinitely knowledgeable about sex, whether he likes it or not. He isn’t innocent, asmany readers claim him to be. (“I’m already a ‘lady’” – vol. 02 ch. 07 – Ciel, when asked if he was tooyoung for “that pleasurable thing”.)

He’s also old enough in his universe, regardlessof realism on that matter, as other characters are already exposed to sexualityat his age or even younger (Siegleinde, Alois, Joan…) Yet he’s definitely notstraight.

Hehas expressed his disinterest in girls, women and marriage several times (“I don’thave time to associate with little girls”, vol. 01, ch. 02) and, while it maybe arguable that he has also refused his many male suitors (aka, asexuality),he didn’t hesitate when he had to use his ‘charm’ to seduce a man (ViscountDruitt, Edgard Redmond). He’s also been portrayed in many overly sexualizedscenes regarding men and, in fact, he also doesn’t get much female attention unlessthe eventual “aww, so cute…”, and the exception of Lizzy, his cousin, and Nina,the lesbian character, which suggests that the author is hinting the characteras homosexual. 

Butthis alone doesn’t solve the problem of his fear. Ciel was probably abused,most likely by men, and he fears intrusive adults and intimate touches. Yet hedoesn’t seem to fear Sebastian’s touch, however. Yes, there was a moment inwhich he did, confused as he was in his illness, mixing reality with hallucinations.It wasn’t Sebastian who he feared, but rather the man his eyes were seeing.

(Image - Hallucination vs reality; vol.19 ch. 90)

All the other times, he seems quite comfortable withit, including intimate touch. In fact, they initiate physical touch with eachother all the time. But, as for whether that’s enough to overcome Ciel’s phobia, that’s open for interpretation.

3.- The very own nature of demons and the contract

Thestory of Kuroshitsuji is a tale of lust. Sebastian lusts for Ciel. He desireshim. He’s possessive and doesn’t let anyone else threaten what’s his. (“The simple fact that someone other than I touches the Young Master disgusts me enough” - Sebastian in the 6th episode of the second anime season) He enjoys making him lookbeautiful (see “Sebastian’s favorite type” again). He takes delight fromripping off his clothes (refer to the CD Drama of pure, unadulteratedfanservice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9vTgzWL41U  ) And more than anything he seeks to defilethe boy in every possible way. The more the boys sins, the richer his soulbecomes. And it is also a matter of pride. Sebastian is a sinful creature. Andhe’s never refused. Or he wasn’t — That’s is, until he met Ciel. Becauseno matter what he does, he never gets his Master’s approval. He keeps getting rejected.But he is perfection, so why is this? 

Sometimes it looks like Ciel truly despises Sebastian.He belittles him, disrespects him and turns down any sign of affection. Onemight even think that they don’t even get along. But it’s not like it. Those around them can clearly see thatCiel trusts, needs and loves (romantically or not) Sebastian (vol 09, ch. 41)Still, the young earl is prideful and doesn’t show it. And Yana herself wrote yet anotherbeautiful post talking about this ( http://akumadeenglish.tumblr.com/post/110896308729/difference-between-alois-and-ciel-as-seen-by-yana ). It may not seem so interesting for those who don’t take theanime as canon, as it is a comparison between Ciel and Alois, but it definitelysheds some light to Sebastian and Ciel canon relationship, and it is indeed oneof Addiction vs Rejection.

“However manysweet candies ‘he’ gives me, Imust not be addicted to ‘him’.For 'he’ is not ahuman, but a beast.”

It shows Alois as the ‘weak’ part. The onewho surrenders, who falls into temptation. “Say that you love me” it’s one of hisquotes from the anime. It is very intense, in my opinion. Yet, that issomething we will never hear Ciel say to his demon, is it? That’s because Cielis portrayed as the one who doesn’t give in. He refuses temptation. He refusesSebastian. He will not let him be in control. But he does so only because hedoesn’t want thedemon to take advantage, not because he doesn’t enjoy it.

So, while I don’t believe that Ciel and Sebastian had ever had, sex, I’ll cite aquote that I like a lot, and it says “the Devil’s voice is sweet to hear”. So, those who believe that they did, are simplyassuming that Ciel gave in, that he surrendered to temptation. It is not aridiculous assumption, as such a thing is, in fact, a strong plot device ofKuroshitsuji. I can see how temptation could easily overpower fear. After all,Sebastian (or any other demon) is the incarnation of his Master’s desires. Hewould know what to say, where to touch… He would go asslowly as he needs, and whisper all the things Ciel yearns to hear. He wouldcomfort him, just like he always do when Ciel dreams about the things thathappened to him.

Somepeople believe that Sebastian and Ciel’s relationship would be one of abuse(well, what kind of relationship do you expect to have with a demon??), yetultimately it’s all to Ciel’s choice. Sebastian is just a dog on a leash.

So as to finally answer your question, I don’t believe thatCiel wants to do his butler, but rather, his butler wants to do him and it’s left to thereaders’ interpretation whether or not he will be able to do so.

[pamphletstoinspire]

What Is Pornography - Part 7 - What This Story Is All About - Part 26 - Part 1 of 2

Part 26 - Part 1 of 2

The posts relating to this story contained in parts 1 - 25; are about the myth that pornography is good and the many other falsehoods about pornography that many of us believe.

But before we examine the message conveyed by this story, a word about moths.

In 1869, in an attempt to spur a growing American silk industry, the entomologist Leopold Trouvelot made the big mistake of bringing the gypsy moth from Europe to Boston. Within ten years, swarms of gypsy moths were devastating forests with their voracious appetite. Attempts to eradicate this moth failed time and again, and for the next hundred years, it was an uncontrollable pest. Then, in the 1960's and ‘70's, scientists devised a new strategy. Biologists knew that the male gypsy moth found the female moth by following her scent —her pheromone. So scientists developed massive quantities of a synthetic version of this pheromone and scattered small pellets of it from the air over infested forests.

The effect was overpowering for the males. They were so overwhelmed by the highly concentrated pheromone that they either became confused and didn’t know where to turn to find the female or became desensitized to the lower levels of pheromone naturally produced by the female. Either way, the moths failed to reproduce themselves, and their population declined precipitously.

By way of analogy, this is what pornography is in our society: a synthetic, highly concentrated pheromone. Having been overexposed to it, many people are either confused about or disinterested in real sexual intimacy. As this story has shown, all over the globe, people are reporting the ill effects of pornography — even those who have no moral qualms with it. From the findings of neuroscience to the clinical investigations of psychologists to the couches of licensed counselors, there are widespread concerns about pornography’s impact on our minds and on our culture. Pornography, says neurosurgeon Donald Hilton, is “a visual pheromone, a powerful 100 billion dollar per year brain drug that is changing human sexuality”.

In a 2011 TED talk, psychologist Philip Zimbardo said that studies show a growing, widespread fear of intimacy and a social awkwardness among men — more and more men don’t know how to engage in face-to-face communication with women. Why? Zimbardo says this is caused by disproportionate Internet use in general and excessive new access to pornography in particular. “Boys’ brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way, for change, novelty, excitement.”

Perhaps these quotes sound like gross overstatements. Porn as a brain drug? Digitally rewiring the mind? Sure, we think, pornography has a seedy side. Sure, some people can get carried away with it. Sure, there are probably some unsavory characters out there using it and making it. But why all the fuss about it? Porn is just consenting adults watching consenting adults have sex. Right?

What Is Porn? (Just So We’re Clear)

Pornography can be notoriously difficult to define. Part of the reason for this is that different definitions of it have an impact on the sphere of lawmaking. If we define pornography too liberally, we might end up penalizing certain legitimate art forms. If we define pornography too narrowly, we might miss all the diversity in the pornographic landscape. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s now famous “I know it when I see it” definition, though humorously true to life, is not at all specific.

Perhaps a history lesson is in order here. The term “pornography” entered the English language in the mid-nineteenth century, meaning “writings or engravings of or about prostitutes”. In some sense, pornography is therefore an extension of prostitution. The producers of pornography intend for the consumer to interact with the material as one interacts with a prostitute — it is a product that serves an erotic function.

Pornography, therefore, consists of visual materials containing explicit displays of sexual organs or sexual activities, whether real or simulated, in order to arouse erotic rather than aesthetic sensations. Or more briefly, pornography is material that depicts erotic behavior intended to cause sexual arousal.

Big Porn, Big Business

In some ways, this story is about four or five decades too late. Sweeping cultural change is always possible, but given the current state of things, pornography is here to stay. Unless you’ve been living under a rock on a different planet, you probably already know that pornography use is common. And because it is so common, pornography is a huge industry, and it isn’t going to go away any time soon.

It’s hard to measure the revenue generated by porn. According to the Free Speech Coalition, mainstream news sources have tried to estimate gross income totals for the porn industry, but exact figures are simply not available. Still, we know that there’s big money being made in porn. The porn industry generates $13 billion each year in the United States. The old adage “sex sells” takes on an entirely new meaning when sex is your main product.

It is safe to say that porn is no longer the exception in entertainment but is the norm. In their exhaustive search of the one million most-trafficked websites in the world, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam found that 42,337 of these are sex-related sites. After their analysis of the top 400 million web searches, researchers concluded that about one in eight searches is for erotic content. Among millennials (18 - to 30 - year - old's), 63 percent of men and 21 percent of women say they view pornography at least several times a week — and that says nothing of those who view pornography somewhat less frequently.

Internet-safety advocate Donna Rice Hughes succinctly states, “Online pornography is the first consistently successful e-commerce product.” A key factor in the growth of pornography is the growth of Internet technologies, which, because of the apparent anonymity of the World Wide Web, have made it easier for people to access porn without being seen by others. Because porn consumers are a large market segment, this has accelerated the development of media technologies, from file-sharing networks to streaming video to mobile video. Blaise Cronin and Elisabeth Davenport, writing for Information Society, say that it is universally acknowledged by information-technology experts that the porn industry has been on the “leading edge” when it comes to building high-performance websites.

The porn industry’s big players are multimillion-dollar giants — not just household names such as Playboy and Hustler, but Time Warner, Hilton, and Rupert Murdoch. Pornography is no longer driven by a few business-savvy culture changers willing to risk jail time for their sexually liberal beliefs. Stephen Yagielowicz, senior editor for XBIZ, comments:

The corporatization of porn isn’t something that will happen or is happening, it is something that happened — and if you’re unaware of that fact then there truly is no longer a seat at the table for you. It’s Las Vegas all over again: the independent owners, the renegade mobsters and visionary entrepreneurs pushed aside by mega-corporations that saw a better way of doing things and brought the discipline needed to attain a whole new level of success to the remaining players.

To say pornography is big business is not to say it doesn’t experience its own recessions. In 2007, Bloomberg Businessweek estimated global porn revenues at $20 billion, about half of that in the United States. But only five years later, those revenues were estimated to have dropped by 50 percent, due to the easy accessibility of free pornography on the Internet. Porn provider Alec Helmy says, “Consumer psychology has changed due to free porn.” Customers are reluctant to pay for pornographic content when they can get it free. In other words, though porn profits are declining, this is not because pornography’s popularity is waning, but because the use of free pornography is ubiquitous.

This saturation of free porn in online spaces has required porn companies to get creative. Like any good marketers, “adult” businesses have a vested interest in studying the psychology of consumer behavior. Jack Morrison, writing for Adult Video News, says porn companies have sought the advice of clinicians who help people to overcome cyber-sex addictions on how to attract more customers to their websites. Companies that heed the advice have the potential to turn huge profits.

Pornography is no longer a black market enterprise. Andrew Edmond, CEO of Flying Crocodile, a $20 million Internet porn company, stated, “A lot of people [outside the porn industry] get distracted from the business model by [the sex]. It is just as sophisticated and multilayered as any other marketplace. We operate just like any Fortune 500 company.” Porn companies have their own investment firms; enter co-marketing initiatives with other corporations; organize trade shows; undergo mergers and acquisitions; hire managers, janitors, and secretaries; and raise capital as any mainstream business does.

Big Porn makes big money, and for good reason: it plays to our strong desire for sexual pleasure.