#also I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve shown a human character I drew

[teensy-weensy-octopus]

I saw this art trend(?) on Twitter about drawing your two biggest comfort characters as the Steven Universe meme, so I wanted to draw my share.

Here’s the original tweet btw

[nerdypatrolcollector-blog]

Human Connections in 23.5

This show has completely taken over my mind and I am incapable thinking of anything else. In this essay, I will��� no but seriously it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a shown affect me this hard in a long time so I had to write about it. None of my friends watch this show so I’m relaying my thoughts to (hopefully) kind internet strangers. 

At its core, 23.5 is a show about the craving and wanting of human connection. It’s such a beautifully written story full of nuance and consequences but ultimately is about the choices the characters make for the hopes of making a connection and keeping it. Let’s take a look at it through the lenses of our 3 main characters, ongsa, aylin, and sun (sorry Luna we don't know enough about you).

The easiest one is ongsa, this is her story and her journey through finding family, friends, and love. It is very much implied that before she moved to Bangkok, ongsa was a very lonely kid, having trouble finding friends. The more she missed out on these connections the more desperate she got and the lower her self esteem was. Maybe starting to think that it was something about her that made people not want to be associated with her. Moving to Bangkok was her chance to start over. And in the first episode we are shown how those experiences informed her view of the world, constantly blaming herself for the problems that she faced that day. And sure the show plays it off for the shits and giggles but there’s an inherent sadness to it. That desperate need for connection to sun makes her do stupid things. Of course she regrets the things she’s doing, she’s human after all, but the alternative is so much more scary so she doubles down and digs the hole even deeper. However, there’s a light at the end: tinh, chaoren, real sun, aylin. It’s only through the extension of a helping hand from tinh, chaoren, aylin and sun (people who are also craving more connections, we’ll come back to them later) that pulls her back in. And guess what? She didn’t have to change one bit. They accepted her just the way she is. Love, respect and acceptance will come but they will come to a version that is authentically us. The whole show is a journey of ongsa figuring out that lesson. 

Aylin, my favorite little alien, how long have you been screaming for someone to listen? At face value it seems like she’s the only character in the show that doesn’t care if she makes a connection with a human. With her constant insistence of “I don’t associate with human” and air of indifference. But that’s not really true. She is perhaps the most human character in the show. She spends countless hours of her life trying and desperately hoping that there is something out there that understands her. She was betrayed by her own kind and in her own desperation to find a connection she looked outside to something that might or might not exist but it’s the possibility that keeps her going. What’s more inherently human than that? We as a society spend millions on exploring outer space for the hope that we are not alone in the universe. Aylin just wants someone who is willing to sit with her and wait.

Ironically, ongsa and Aylin’s situations are mirrors of each other. They are just two people desperate to make a connection with someone else. They just adopted different ways to deal with that desperation. We are all searching for the same thing. The need and want for human connection. All of us are screaming into the endless void of the universe hoping to find someone who understands and responds. But unfortunately for so long, ongsa and aylin found out that sound doesn’t travel in space. The worst part is not only sitting alone in our own darkness and loneliness, but feel like we’re the only ones doomed to see it. 

Sun's need for connection is pretty straightforward and is mostly focused on romantic love. Sun is so desperate for a romantic connection that she feels like she's been lacking for so long. We are still unsure if Sun has ever had a crush on someone before, but she seemed pretty confused as to why she was reacting to ongsa's presence (ma'am that's called lesbianism). She thought she found that connection with Earth and in a desperate ploy to keep that connection she makes reckless decisions that only end up hurting her more.

This ended up WAYYY longer that I expected, but I just needed to get it out there. Not sure if anyone cares about my thoughts but I am throwing my opinion out there anyways.

[dynared]

“Characters in search of a plot” is a pretty good way of putting it. And you aren’t wrong about really weak villains. I think a lot of bigotry allegories tend to fall apart if you scratch them a bit but this one is particularly bad. Mostly I think I just don’t like how the war machines get treated with more leniency by the writing than any human it seems.

I’m pretty new to the franchise and was initially really interested in the IDW comics but the more I’ve heard about them the less enthused I am. I mostly gather wonky characterizations, a weirdly BNF-y trend to the fandom and poorly written space politics.

I also… may have spent a decent amount of time in a fandom with a weird amount of imperialism apologia because “well things had to change!” so I get really antsy if I feel any rumblings in that direction. Pity because I love Space Operas, I’m interested in Cybertronian worldbuilding and I’d like less focus on the humans but little of it sounds done well. I may try them at some point to at least form proper opinions but they sound like an incohesive mess, and not in the fun way.

I do hope that the people who enjoy them are having fun though. And despite my reservations and some issues I am quite enjoying the Skybound comics for the most part! Though time will tell if it stays that way.

There's a decent amount here, so let's go through it one step at a time since I don't want to come off as ignoring things:

One could argue that "characters in search of a plot" is probably a better conundrum than a plot where you just don't like the characters. I fully believe some of the Terrans might get another shot at being featured in something, even if it is with modified backstories not connected to the Maltos. Twitch is probably the most likely to get another crack at a big role, although I could see her being portrayed as just a regular Autobot in a subsequent production. Hashtag, despite a name that might make some cringe, actually seems to be the closest the brand has come to a proper Blaster replacement, and Jawbreaker as the Dinobots kid sibling would make a lot of sense and serve to humanize them in a future work. Unfortunately Thrash, who doesn't have much of a personality, and Nightshade, who has become a lightning rod of controversy, I'm less sure about.

That said, bigotry allegories are tough in the best of times. Even in good cases, they're often subject to bad faith readings, and in bad cases, like here? Forget it. It's an awkward, clunky mess that heavily contradicts the rest of the franchise, in particular the comic they're releasing right now where the Cons could not give a damn about anything other than themselves, and whose Starscream is a sadistic bully. But the writers here are clearly fans of the fanfic Cons, so in trying to make them as sympathetic as possible, their cruelty and issues are swept under the rug. It was worse in IDW admittedly since the Autobots were oftentimes just terrible people, so you were often let with no one to root for. For all its problems, the Autobots in Earthspark are more often than not ineffectual, not evil, which is probably because Hasbro pumped the brakes on having cash cows like Optimus Prime be shown as evil without say, brainwashing.

I would not recommend the IDW comics to anyone. The few gems of characterization and concepts cannot make up for the mountains of coal that was most of their run, and IDW2, the prequel that tries to establish a framework for the Great War? The damned thing was so slow and boring that no one mourned IDW losing the license. Not to mention if you're not REALLY familiar with these characters and why you should care about the variances in how they're portrayed, I find most people would just be completely lost, and if you don't like how the portrayals are altered, frustrated. It's simply put, not a fun comic unless you are in the market for a very specific portrayal.

The main issue with the humans (something the very first Transformers comic writer, Bob Budinansky noted was important) was that without that connection, the Transformers could be anything else. They could be humans with power armor, weird bug aliens, or freakish mutants. But it's that relationship and contrast with the humans that makes them special. That's not to say that there are versions of the story that significantly overdo the human element, because there assuredly are, but to have it be completely absent is to cut off part of why we invest in these characters.

Finally, while the Skybound Energon Universe is a little less than a year old, and there are definitely some concerns as well as plot holes that hopefully the narrative will fill in later, I argue that those comics have bought something that seemed to be missing from so much Transformers media as of late, a sense of actual fun. The writers get mecha and what makes them cool. They get the core of why these characters work. I can only hope that the quality stays high, especially with Daniel Warren Johnson, part of why I think the comics have been so good (no one in IDW would dare think of references pro wrestling or the 08th MS Team) phasing out of the book.

[aspoonofsugar]

hi!! i just came across your blog & am loving your bsd meta & analyses so much!!! :)

i was wondering if i could ask, in this post you say this about sskk:

The point is that Akutagawa represents everything Atsushi doesn’t want to accept about himself (the violence, the possibility of being left behind, how pathetic and wrong it is to let one’s worth being decided by others’ praise etc.). At the same time Atsushi is the same for Akutagawa.

…and i assume the same is true for skk (the soukoku curse… but also the very reason they work so well together). my opinion on what Chuuya sees mirrored in Dazai is something you talk about in this post (which is quite possibly my favorite bsd meta i’ve ever read… you put into words so well the ideas that have been circulating in my head for months!!)

…deep down Chuya wants to die…This is why he is so disturbed by Dazai's suicidal tendencies. He sees a dark mirror of himself in the other boy.

Chuuya “hates” Dazai because he sees his struggle staring back at him— the temptation he is constantly having to fight against, Dazai is pursuing. why does Chuuya fight it? because he is always trying to find an anchor for his humanity.

so i was wondering if you have any thoughts on what Dazai sees mirrored in Chuuya that makes him “hate” Chuuya (except they really just hate that part of themselves)

i have so many things from that second post that i’d love to ask you to expand on, but i’ve already made this way too long, sorry!! but lastly, do you believe that underneath the superficial annoyance, & the mirroring that rubs them the wrong way, Dazai and Chuuya really do care for each other? i’m not big into shipping, but i cannot accept that they are not genuinely friends bc while their words say one thing, their actions say another. thanks again for your analyses!! <3

Hi,

Thank you so much for this ask and your kind words! I would say that the answer to your first question is found in the same post you linked:

Dazai's skill is called No Longer Human because he feels inhuman:

"He's already dead," said Chuuya. "Quit shooting his corpse." Dazai was puzzled. His expression was bizarrely childlike- fit for a boy his age, yet unlike any he had shown before. His lips suddenly curled into a gloomy smile. "You're right. When you're right, you're right. That's the most common reaction to have." (...) His expression was back to how it usually was: lifeless and utterly disinterested. "Ha-ha. Normal. Ha-ha-ha." (Fifteen)

Dazai sees himself as wrong and thinks Chuya is far more normal than he is. Sure, he has an incredibly powerful skill, but deep down he is just another kid. This is why the reveal of Chuya's background leaves such an impact on Dazai:

Chuya: Arahabaki is me.

It forces him to look outside himself and to reconsider what it means to be human. The point of Dazai's character is that he thinks he is this impossible to read being, who stands above others. And yet, he is really a normal person. Not only that, but he is also pretty childish. He wants friends and grows attached to the few people who step into his loneliness (Mori, Chuya, Oda, Ango, Akutagawa, the ADA). And yet, he sucks at communicating with them out of fear, which leads to more problems than needed. In synthesis, the story of Dazai in Fifteen is really that of an emo kid, who discovers the jock has more reason than him to be emo.

This is why Chuya grows linked to the idea of humanity in Dazai's mind.

In short, Dazai reminds Chuya of his wish to die/live, while Chuya reminds Dazai of his monstrosity/humanity. Death/life and monster/human are the two themes that are intertwined in Chuya and Dazai's relationship. So, Dazai is both drown and envious of Chuya because Chuya is really a normal person, who is also a born monster. Dazai himself is instead human, but he feels a monster (no longer human) hence why he is lonely. To summarize:

Chuya is repulsed by Dazai because he embodies his own suicidal tendencies.

Dazai is envious of Chuya because he is a monster, who feels like a person more than Dazai.

As for your second question, yes, Chuya and Dazai definately care for each other:

Fifteen is the story of how Dazai and Chuya find a friend, basically. They both can't act their age because they are too different from their peers (too smart and too strong respectively). Still, they behave as kids with each other.

Storm Bringer shows Dazai risking the destruction of the whole city to prove Chuya is human. He is also clearly the person who believes in Chuya's humanity the most.

Dead Apple has Chuya risk his life to save Dazai's and he is clearly worried about Dazai when he is hurt by Lovecraft.

On another note, even if you said you are not into shipping... I really do think the subtext of Chuya and Dazai's relationship is meant to be read as romantic. Or at least as teasing... Two examples:

Dead Apple has Dazai play Snowhite and Chuya play the Prince

Storm Bringer parallels Chuya and Dazai's partnership with Verlaine and Rimbaudt, who have had a pretty famous love story

By this I don't mean they are canon or will be canon, but simply that there is the intended willingness to have people ship them. Anyway, Chuya and Dazai do care about each other, but they would never admit it!

Thank you for the ask!

[everlastingremorse-blog]

So I just finished watching season one of Overlord, and honestly, severely disappointed.

And to be fair, I’ve been pretty tired of shonen anime/manga with overpowered protagonists for awhile now, but it’s more than that.

In contrast, I really enjoyed That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime. Admittedly, I wasn’t tried of the overpowered mc, but I still enjoyed it significantly more than Overlord.

So let’s compare the first season (13 ep) of Overlord with the first 14 ep of TTRS (end of the orc invasion arc).

Now I did have fun with overlord. The key moments was when Ains was annoyed by the angel, when he crushed Clementine, and when he started equipping items in his fight with Shalltear, and any time Cocytus was in frame. That was pretty much it. Everything else was mediocre in my opinion.

Now it’s been awhile since I saw TTRS, but if I remember correctly, I had fun in these places: Rimuru’s interactions with Veldora, his fight against the dire wolves, his interaction with the dwarves king, his fight with ifrit, the death of Shizu, his fight with the ogres, that time Gobta fucked with Gabiru, any time Gabiru was on screen, orc cannibalism, and the defeat of Geld. Besides that, I was pretty amused when watching the rest of TTRS. I enjoyed the rest of it even if I thought it was stupid. I’ll get more into that later.

Now something significant is that I wasn’t as annoyed with TTRS as overlord, specifically with the fan service. I’m gay, so I’ve always found female fan service kind of annoying, but fuck off Overlord. Albedo and Shalltear’s rivalry was dumb and annoying whenever it was on screen, and starting the show off with some mild groping was barely bearable. And don’t get me wrong, the fan service in TTRS is also annoying. But Shuna and Shion suddenly getting bigger boobs isn’t as focused on (if I remember correctly) as shalltear’s underwear getting soaked. Seriously overlord, fuck off.

Now the fights in Overlord was boring and tedious to get through. I get it’s the trope of naming your abilities and stuff, but it really takes away any of the spectacle of their fights. Like even though I know both Ains and Rimuru are going to win, at least the fights in TTRS is interesting to watch. Overlord is basically just “I’ve got my shield that can block anything.” “Lol, it can’t block this,” over and over and over again. Even if Rimuru is just dodging and running fast, at least it’s something to watch.

The parts of Overlord I enjoyed was basically the “there’s a bigger fish moment.” I find it fun when the antagonist suddenly realizes they messed with the wrong person. But there was nothing else drawing me into Overlord.

As for TTRS, I actually cared about the characters and character drama. Like when Shalltear gets brainwashed in Overlord, I had NO reason to care about her. The only character trait she’s shown is that she’s horny for Ains. And unless you’re horny for her, SHE’S BORING TO WATCH! Unlike TTRS, where I can get invested in the Ogres as victims in political machinations. Sure, you can be horny for Shuna, or Shion, or think Benimaru and Souei are badass, but they have more to their characters than just aesthetic appeal.

So, like I said, even though TTRS felt stupid at parts, it never felt tedious. Gabiru’s hype squad: Dumb as shit, fun to watch. The king of the forest is a giant hamster: The joke is that it’s supposedly cute. Just dumb.

TTRS has some interesting themes about sentient beings treated as subhuman because they aren’t human.

Overlord hints to that with the Slane Theoceacy, but does nothing with it. I know season 2 deals with Lizardfolks, but I doubt I’m going to watch any more. And Overlord has some interesting monsters! Cocytus as an Isopod warrior is fucking cool! That rules! TTRS doesn’t have anything that isn’t vaguely human shaped, and all women have got to look sexy. That’s boring, that’s annoying! But at least they explore what that means in a way overlord doesn’t.

In conclusion, overlord is meh and TTRS is alright.

If anybody who likes Overlord can explain why/ if it improves, please do so.

[theredpharaoah]

Season 2 was both the best and worst season. It’s the season where we see all the characters come into their own, but it’s also the season that sets up the downfall of the show. It’s the Jahaerys Targaryen of The 100 seasons - Good on its own, but bad for the rest. As with the first season: there’s a very obvious graveyard of plot lines(Clarke being groomed as Lexa’s heir one of the most obvious). But Jason’s biggest mistake was what he did at the end. Lexa’s betrayal makes no sense politically or culturally. Grounder culture would’ve seen it as honorable for their ppl to die fighting an enemy that had terrorized them for so long. They also would’ve considered Lexa’s betrayal of Skaikru to be dishonorable. Especially after Ton DC, where members of Skaikru had fought and died beside the Grounders. When people like Octavia, Clarke, and Abby(as a healer) had earned the Grounder’s respect. The whole first half of the season was establishing how Skaikru and The Grounders had more in common than they realized. That while Skaikru might idolize past human life - which the mountain men imitated - they were in reality more like The Grounders. Skaikru may not have been raised as “warriors” from birth, but they were raised as survivors. They were used to going days without food and water, rationing, clothing that had been mended over a hundred times, people being killed for stealing food or the “crime” of having a second child.

The first half of season 2 showed Skaikru what they thought they wanted vs. who they really were. And after they thought about it, they found themselves identifying more with the Grounders than with the Mountain Men. Lexa committed political and social suicide at the mountain. And considering how politically savvy she was shown to be in the first half of the season, that switch made no sense. One might argue she did it to try and let go of her love for Clarke which she considered “weak”….but the previous 2 episodes were literally meant to show Lexa that love wasn’t weakness. Then they Mary Sue’d Clarke. Clarke could’ve already had the Wanheda title from what she did at the Drop ship, she didn’t need to be the one to do that at Mt. Weather. The logistics of the entirety of the Mt. Weather plot we will not be discussing. I’ve already talked about how the whole thing doesn’t make sense many times. Anyways, they should’ve let Jasper kill Cage. That would’ve been great growth for his character. Or even having Bellamy irradiate Mt. Weather to put him at an equal level to Clarke could’ve been good. Clarke and Octavia are my faves but they put so much into them that they robbed nearly every other character of growth. Raven and Sinclair’s father-daughter relationship should’ve been explored way more. As soon as they got close they killed him off. Jason kept on doing that. Killing off too many characters is as bad as killing off too little. The issue is that the odds were always in the realm of sci-fi realistic UNTIL it came to The 100. Any time they would’ve benefited, some unrealistic obstacle shows up and it’s just ridiculous.

The other issue with Season 2 is that Jason seemed to have written himself into a corner. This is why they had to go the Allie route and eventually Praimfaya and all that other stuff. Now I liked Allie and The Primes, but I really don’t think leaving the Earth was a good idea. Something vital to the spirit of the show was lost when they did that. Transcendence was horrible too. It wasn’t really any different than the City of Light, and I feel like it undermined the whole point of the show - there are no Good or Bad guys, just survival. Praimfaya really didn’t make any sense. I’m not extremely well read on the physics of nuclear reactors breaking down, but I’m pretty sure those would’ve exploded when the bombs went off too. Jason didn’t have a real villain after the Mountain Men were killed. He could’ve did something more with the 12 clans, but he killed Lexa off and he didn’t let Luna or Clarke become commander. That would’ve been interesting - maybe the lack of Nightbloods, Clarke’s closeness to Lexa, and her being Wanheda, would’ve allowed them to accept Clarke being an artificial nightblood. Her and Luna competing for the Throne of The Commanders could’ve been really fun and interesting. The Coalition breaking, and Skaikru having to carve a real name and identity out for themselves could’ve been cool too. Unknown Clans from the West or Overseas, Flamekeepers attempting to take over, a conglomerate of Mountain Men, the Primes being a mistake Becca made and trapped in Bunkers on the Earth, idk - there were so many different ways he could’ve taken it. And the biggest crime of the show was the lack of payoff: No Bellarke, no meeting loved ones again, no real closure.

[brucenorris007]

Hot take (granted it’s about a show almost 40 years old but I’ve never seen this come up anywhere else): Muten Roshi, the Kame Sen’nin, is one of the most traumatized characters in Dragon Ball. 

Yes. This dork.

Wait, wait, hear me out, I know his reputation, but bear with me...

I’m essentially expanding on thoughts I’ve had for a while and started putting into to words through an ask for @dragonballwish​ but I had another epiphany on the subject a few days ago and now it’s all boiling over. 

All right, everyone knows Roshi is the OG Dragon Ball sensei character, the one in the memes about perverted old men, who people probably like to laugh at but maybe not talk about at length. I’m not going to list instances of the sort of behavior that gave him this reputation, IYKYK and all, but what if Roshi had a reason for living isolated in the middle of the ocean, away from people, interacting more with animals and sea creatures than other human beings, who in all likelihood will die long before he does?

No, I’m not accusing Toriyama of doing anything other than his usual MO of flying by the seat of his pants, I’m just saying, the pieces are there for a pretty compelling narrative/character arc.

Roshi’s vague about his personal history. When Dragon Ball gets rolling with the Wuxia elements of the story, he’s iffy about taking on pupils; he primarily makes the initial offer to Goku because he’s Gohan’s grandson. He only takes on Kuririn after the boys bring Lunch back to Kame House for... let’s call it companionship. Despite his choice to live alone, one could infer that he’s actually truly lonely. Hell, his goofy perversions could easily be the result of extended isolation, which all of us know does weird things to the mind.

Wish actually brought up this point; his isolation likely started after seeing the results of his teachings in Ox-King and Son Gohan, one a pillager, a murderer and a hoarder of treasure, the other thankfully not violent but uninterested in interacting much with the world (seems like Gohan also had his own sad story.)

He takes great pains to keep Kuririn and Goku from getting swelled egos; perhaps not only for the sake of their growth, but so as to avoid the mistakes he made with his previous pupils, Son Gohan and Ox-King. 

He’s unfazed by most forms of threat to his life; Goku’s Ozaru form startles him, sure, yet he refuses to kill his student despite clearly being capable of doing so and chooses a far more drastic alternative instead. The Red Ribbon army showing up at his house only get taunts, a chuckle and a beating until someone takes Lunch hostage. Even then, he discourages her more violent persona from killing the soldier who threatened her; his appreciation for the sanctity of life could be part of his own disciplines, but it’s just as likely something shaped by his experiences.

He drops out of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, despite hints that he could’ve gone to the finals again if he’d continued; he plants seeds of altruism in Tien’s mind to sway him away from Shen’s violence and in his words, foster the growth of a new hero. 

We only learn anything of substance about Roshi’s past when 22nd Budokai arc ends and kicks off the start of the Piccolo Daimao saga. 

And it’s here that we see Roshi well and truly rattled for the first time. 

Roshi fought Piccolo Daimao alongside Mutaito and his fellow students; the battle cost him the lives of his friends and his master. Worst still, Shen, the only other martial artist shown to have survived the fight and the Kuririn to Roshi’s Goku, turned bitter; the last friendship Roshi had became so sour and resentful that neither of them could stand each other. 

When the time comes for Roshi, Tien and Chaozu to confront Piccolo, the old hermit refuses to let anyone else face him; for all he’s lived through, he wouldn’t survive fighting another doomed battle alongside friends.

Toriyama doesn’t show or explain anything else about Roshi’s past, but we can infer that, at some point in the intervening years before Goku’s story begins, Roshi established his reputation as the Kame Sen’nin, while Shen did the same as the Tsuru Sen’nin. 

In contrast to Shen, who garnered his reputation alongside his brother for taking the technique and skills he learned from Mutaito and twisting them for the purposes of torture, pain and assassination, Roshi must have gone to lengths to heal, at least somewhat, from the trauma and survivor’s guilt and grow stronger. Personally, I think to assuage his guilt, he would’ve traveled and helped people (maybe ‘twas in this time when he met and grappled with Korin) as something of a... hero.

I know it might feel like a stretch to see him that way, and I suspect he doesn’t feel much of a hero himself despite the somewhat flashy façade he puts on as Jackie Chun. But consider this fact: 

There was a time when Roshi could ride Kinto’un.

We don’t see it, nor is it explicitly stated (that I can remember) but both Roshi and Turtle are surprised when he falls through the magic cloud instead of landing on it when he passes Kinto’un on to Goku. So something that happened between his Master’s demise and the start of the story we’re shown that robbed his purity of heart, at least by Kinto’un’s definition. 

Again, was this traumatized survivor narrative what Toriyama intended for Roshi? Probably not.

I’m just saying, all the pieces are there.

[2309analysis]

Do you all remember Vice-Admiral Johnathan? Possibly the first ever „good” Vice-Admiral.

For a Marine, Vice-Admiral, husband and a chess-strategist he’s kinda humorous too. I’m not just saying that because I actually like his character. I’m saying it because he may have a busy plate, he has the time on his hands to strategize the moves of Luffy and his crew.

It’s a shame he’s supposedly non-canon and filler. He’s a really cool character. He has the wits and patience to go over a couple days to wait for the straw hats to come to him. It’s were the “battle of wits” part comes into play. Which interests me more, why you ask? It’s because he’s met Luffy already, and he knows that Luffy’s isn’t the best priotizer. You can understand that by a glance at him, trust me.

Instead of commanding others to barge into his office to arrest Luffy he actually patiently asks Luffy his intentions on why he’s at M-8. He knows forcing Luffy to tell him information will get nowhere and make it even more difficult to get the information he wants out of him. It’s even more cooler that he’s the type of Vice-Admiral who doesn’t assume the impossible and goes on a rant about his own accusations. Unlike most Cammonders/Captains of the Marines in One Piece.

Also, at this time between the episodes of their arrival (195 - 196) Johnathan takes it slowly and smoothly. He starts to strategize on a chess board. Obviously, Luffy’s the King, Sanji is the Brook, I assume Zoro is the Bishop, Nami is the Queen, Choppet is the Knight, while Robin’s the Rook, Ussop is mostly a pawn. Now, I have no idea Zoro and down are actually it or not. I only know about Sanji and Luffy. Yet, he not only appearently knew most of the straw hats strengths throughout their ship’s condition and disguises. He even knew that they would try to disguise themselves.

The first thing he said about them is, „pirates are always hungry.” He meant hunger as in food, so he wanted the marines to focus on the mess hall. Metaphorically speaking, «hungry» can mean a few things for him. Power, treasure, obviously, food, fame, all those what men are usually hungry for. I assume that was also meant to play a part in the line.

He’s a fair analyzer too. If I have to guess, he likes to write down his thoughts. He’s a fisher too, he especially fishes at night. A particular time. It also improves patience and wits. The two things his character is obviously been shown to have great deal of. He even stated that he knew that he was league’s ahead Luffy with wits. That was also after he met him.

You all know how Smoker was possibly the first ever introduction of a Marine that doesn’t seem inhumane? He actually treats people like people? He doesn’t get infuriated with every little mistake? He actually has a pretty soft and light-hearted scene with a kid?

That’s how I feel about Johnathan. He’s humane towards his subordinates. He’s patient and knows how to deal with a mess-up and work around it. He knows humans aren’t perfect and will accept the best he can get. His humor helps this too, since he’s always telling his lieutenant to basically become less uptight. He knows that everyone isn’t like him, and can deal with it. He prioritizes his health of his subordinates and makes sure they properly taken care of. Regardless, he doesn’t care how quickly his subordinates take care of the straw hats.

His humor? I’ve realized I’ve not gone into detail about it. It’s more of a dry type of humor that points out the obvious in nice ways. He tends to joke around the seriousness and starts to break it down through going through a good way to approach the problem. What I’m saying is, he makes sure that his subordinates aren’t overwhelmed. (Even though through the first half of this filler arc he left his subordinates under the impression that the Going Merry was at first a ghost ship) Althoigh, both the straw hats and Johnathan thought it go in their favor. So, I’m not surprised he let that happen. His humor is really the relief humor alongside with pointing out the obvious but in calming ways.

He’s also a people-pleaser. His wife, is the chef cook of the Marines in his front. In the filler there was two brothers who came over to basically show up his cooks who supposedly the better cooks are. He obviously was curious on their cooking. Yet, Sanji got there first, and as you know he’s a 5-star chef. Yet, his wife cooked the food for him this time. He starts by softly telling his wife that he would prefer to try Sanji’s cooking because it started to spread around that his food was amazing. His wife goes and tells him that he’s rather refuse the love and effort she put in his food, but there’s also a rude that you’re supposed to eat everything on your plate before seconds. Him, feeling guilty for making his wife mad starts just nervously eating her food. Then, finally he can try Sanji’s food. The food Sanji (unaware) made was meatballs. This is the scene where he meets Luffy for the first time. Yet, he pleases his wife by eating her food instead of demanding Sanji’s. He has the authority of it, but he knew his wife would be mad, he’d feel guilty and I’m sure Sanji’s food would’ve of tasted half as good as it did. He’s just that type of guy.

Seriously, he’s not only interesting, but he’s actually a good guy. He’s nice, charismatic, has a fresh character, smart, witty, and analytical. Like me, a people-pleaser. As I can tell, at least. He may have an intimidating look but he’s more wholesome. He also treats his subordinates as if they’re not questioning his authority and ability but comforts them.

His attitude towards them makes them respect him more. Notice how any Commanders who treat their subordinates like trash aren’t respected much, in comparison to those who do? Yeah, I believe Johnathan knows this. Not only knows this, but wants to make sure he seems friendly enough to earn the respect and trust of his subordinates. He also is authoring them too. He has that tone of comfort and friendly attitude but will not excuse the unqualified behavior. Like a teacher. I’m sure he knows this well; his attitude will reflect on his subordinates efforts and attitudes back. They all obviously respect him and treat him well too.

In this filler, we’re actually looking more into the Marines. I mean, yes, they’re background characters but their characters too. The Marines in here actually have personalities and they’re not acting like robots who just unwilling walk into battle without a thought. They have fears, questions, concerns, wits, doubts, humors, jokes, and smiles. They’re obviously comfortable in Johnathan’s command. They don’t fear him, they only fear the straw hats. They all trust their Vince-Admiral. It shows us that he had a healthy relationship and reputation among his subordinates.

He seemingly had a Haki too. Which means he could’ve taken on Luffy and probably defeat him at the time. Yet, he didn’t. He decided to let him and his alleys go. He made a promise with them, but they couldn’t keep it. It was an unfair promise in their defense. Since he was a filler character there’s no traces of his character anywhere else expect these episodes. So, it’s hard to remember such a character. He’s fresh and fun.

His character brings back some lighthearted vibes to the show. He what makes the filler arc so good and worth your watch. He’s the observant type. He’ll wait and watch his enemies with a smile and tiger’s eye. He analyzes every movement they make and treats it as if they’re playing a chess game. At least when he’s calm and relaxed.

His type of self-formality is the relaxed but still on the job. He doesn’t usually wear his uniform completely and takes off his hat and coat. It implies that he’s not just seeing his job as a job but a second home. He likes to be comfortable and tends to be care-free. His clothes and behavior shows that.

You also have to keep in mind the state of his mind. His maturity isn’t taken lightly, it shouldn’t. It’s one of those rare “learn from the mistakes of the past” maturities. He knows that making a good move takes time, patience, and good judgment of the people who he’s against. Which is why he allows the straw hats to move as freely as they could.

Why he tried to trap them in the jailhouse. He tried setting them up by allowing them to go to it so easily. Without Sanji’s observation himself him and Luffy would’ve, without a doubt been caught too. Or had to fight their way out and attract more attention. John knew he had that opportunity. Either way both Sanji and Luffy would end up being caught.

I like to imagine he puts himself through his enemies shoes before making a new move on them. Notice how he waits for new things before judging the next step? It implies that he knows how to play the game of wits. Making it almost impossible to beat him at it. He makes sure that his strategy and wits is at the top of their game before coming up with a plan.

He makes sure to keep the Marines on guard so when the unexpected happens they’ll be ready to take it on. He tries to come up with the best and most efficient way to make sure his subordinates are doing the best possible. He won’t give them stuff that they’re weak in; not for a serious situation. He might do it for training but he doesn’t care that much. He’s just grateful he has comprehensive subordinates.

I also like to talk about his introduction with Ussop. He lets Ussop go on his rant and denial of being caught. He allows him to try to act his way out of trouble without saying anything about it. It shows that he can already tell he is panicked and likes to wait it out. It shows that he preferably wants to keep up the banter of the straw hats assuming they can act their way out of the mess they’re in. Even after his act fails and he gets caught again he never stopped smiling genuinely. Instead, he moved on anticipating.

Even after one of his moves ends up being the successful he never gets egotistical he still remains sharp and observant. Even though he’s more easygoing than not, he knows how to slack off his job while being still analytical of the whole situation. Making sure that even while he’s drifting off from duty he doesn’t waver the priority.

I also like to think he prioritizes his mentality too. Simply over him being overworked. He likes to take way more breaks than the usual boss. He also is pretty laid-back with his commands and how he wants his subordinates to do them. He doesn’t really think much of things when it comes down to detail. He tends to go over the surface level and start analyzing from that.

Notice how he never takes anything for granted either? I assume he knew after Luffy served him his food that was made by Sanji that he wasn’t resting from the supposed brothers. Yet, he still ate it without a problem and even called it “outstanding.” He will still eat and compliment the food regardless who made the food. I don’t know if it’s coming from his wife constantly reminding him to take whatever he gets and don’t complain, but he never hated the thought of eating food made by a pirate.

I don’t think he hates pirates either. I think he judged based off action and intent. If the pirates don’t have all bad intentions he’ll be less forceful to them and more easygoing. We can tell by this by the way he treats Ussop and Luffy. He never forces his authority down their throats and tries being friendly but stern with them. He simply would like to know their reasons why they went to G-8 of all places.

I don’t think no matter how many times he’ll get “we fell from the sky!” He’ll always want to know more about the straw hats actual reasons as why they’re pirates and their intentions for their actions. He likes to know how the people work before trying to force them to talk.

Hence his over friendliness towards them. He wants to keep them off guard as much as possible. He makes sure that he allows himself to seem friendly and not wanting to hurt them. Obviously, he has the plan to capture and interrogate them too. Yet, he wants to do it in the least frightening way possible.

Noticeable how the only of the straw hats he met are still teenagers, kids. I think he favors kids more than adults and will try to dim down his questions to a more less intense level for kids. Especially for someone like Luffy and Ussop. The two immature/kids (including chopper) in the straw hats.

His actions are dependent on yours. He knows most attics that are going to be usually used against or for him. So if most people try to fight their way out of his grip he’ll be merciless. He’ll most likely have the upper hand too due to his Haki and you’re on his territory.

He’s also prepared of devil fruits. Considering the bars of his jailstails are made of sea prism stone. Since most “popular/modern” pirates are devil fruit users. He makes sure to be prepared for just about anything. So he allows others to brave right in and waiting for them to spring the trap he set for them.

I also like when he knows how to call it quits. He knows when his bare and subordinates have seen enough action and need to break from it. He prioritizes his subordinates and bases own well-being over capturing the straw hats. He knows they’re no ordinary foe so they can’t be taken lightly.

He may allow some casualties but he doesn’t let them overflow. He knows when to take the risk but also knows when to back off. In episode 201, he realizes that. His base has seen them crash through it and had many Marines get injured too.

He may be a great strategist and planner but since he never sees most of the action he has to assume the worst and hope the best. Unfortunately the worst for him usually happens.

It helps his favor that his subordinates do as they told no question. They not only do it, but they seem to have no problem with the ideas. They trust him enough to be able to let the planning and strategizing process to him and not question his judgment.

Instead of trying to capture them at wherever they may go. He then focuses on their goal of where to go. The dock 88, where the Going Merry is docked. He knows they all want to get out of there as fast as they can. While he still peruses them there. He tries to think ahead of them and make a move further than their current thinking.

He tries to stay one step ahead of his opponents. It what makes his strategies quite difficult to get across. They’re so effective because he allows his opponents to think they have the safer option than him. In reality, he traps them inside their own goals. Makes him a little manipulative.

Then, and then, oh I think this what makes him an even more beautiful character. He still keeps the bridge unguarded to allow the straw hats to pass, but he also has the lower part guarded. He wants to slow down the straw hats to get to dock 88 because it’ll his lieutenant more time than them to get there.

He wants to make sure that he stays one step ahead of Luffy. He does that by not only harming his own plan of action but makes sure that plan succeeds. They all do, but they also all fall apart due to Luffy’s unpredictabilities. Most because Sanji seems to be mostly on the same wavelength of him. Sanji seemingly knows what type of attack Johnathan goes for.

He decides to make the Marines watch. Something that he’s good at. The repetitiveness of him being observing rather than attacking shows us how much he’s willing to wait his enemy off. When it comes to patience he obviously has the advantage. Almost every straw hat are very impatient and impulsive when they’re stressed. He knows they’re stressed so he’s using it to his benefit.

I also think he knew that most of the straw hats aren’t the boxing type or don’t have much physical strength. So he sent ‘55 after them. He may be a little intimidated by them too, but he knew they’d be a match for the straw hats.

Did I mention now he won’t fault his subordinates for his mistakes? He takes the blame no matter how dire it seems. He knows that they were only following orders and that they were his and he’s the one who has to take the blame. Unlike most who just blame their incompetence on their efforts. Johnathan actually realistically believes in them. He knows that they can’t do the impossible and he won’t blame them for it.

His wife, Jessica is just as determined with her job as he is. She isn’t as tactical or strategic as him but she knows how to command just as well as him. They both share the same brute power of a good leader. They obviously take after each other. She’s uptight and forceful while he’s easygoing and laid-back.

They both correlate each other they fill up for each other’s flaws. They complete each other. They also both know how to make their men proud of them. They’re just as proud as their men are of them.

His anticipation is off the charts, dude. He knew that the straw hats would go after their gold after they realize it gotten confiscated. From the beginning of this filler arc he had this plan ready to roll. He knew that they think that the big giant vault would be a great place to hide gold so he set up the straw hats to go there and get ambushed.

Plus, he knew that the map was stolen which makes his plan even more rock solid. He did it, boys, he finally won a round against the straw hats. He also makes sure that he allows that to sink into the straw hats minds because of how heavily and in heavily guarded the ambush was. He wants to subtly attack the minds of his enemies.

His perception IS AMAZING. He knows that most of his plans failed and he allows the straw hats to still take their gold but the line „even if the baits gets stolen from the hook, there’s still more than one way to catch a fish. All fisherman needs to be is patient.” He even still goes after the straw hats with the same amount of patience as he has before. He knows he can wait it out and still patiently watch the game go on, no matter how close the straw hats are to winning.

I love how much Johnathan compares the straw hats to fish. Their playing a game he patiently waits by to watch what happens next. It’s the sole thing of his planning, his analysis, his entire perception of them.

It all comes from fishing! He allows them to escape multiple times just to be caught up again and set themselves free. So after the first few times they escape he plans another set-up so it won’t happen again. Just like a fisher would do after his fish has gotten away.

He’s a chess master, because of his anticipation skills. He can easily anticipate and adapt his strategy to the position of his enemy. He can treat the game as if he doesn’t care to win, but in reality he’s analyzing your move and determining his to yours. An average chess player, but he’s the master of it.

In conclusion; his character on the outside is pretty easygoing and carefree. In reality he’s strategic, persuasive, charismatic, adaptable, intelligent, witty, patient, analytical, tactical, perceptive, thoughtful and anticipatory. All what really makes a Vice-Admiral’s position something to respect but fear.

He’s also easy to please. He’ll be satisfied with what he’s given with regardless if it meets his standards or expectations or not. He’s accepting and laid-back with his subordinates and will treat them like real people. He only asks for what they can give. Nothing more.

He tries to stay one step ahead of his enemies regardless how it’s done. It’s mainly through trying to catch the fish on the hook with bait. His patience is his key attribute. He waits most things out before pursuing his enemy. He uses his anticipation skills to dictate which plan the straw hats are going to use next. He allows them to set it in gear before really pulling out his attack.

These is what makes his character stand out from the rest in my eyes. He’s more relaxed and humane than most Marines and tends to rage more breaks than actually work. He’s really good at prioritizing and multitasking. He’s due more credit than he gets.

@ 2023 — Saturn. Please do not repost this without my permission or consent. I’ll block you & report you.

[faustocosgrove]

and on the nineth day of reviewmas I, Fausto, give to thee:

9 instances this show reminded me of a better show

an 80s cult movie

7 lgbt main characters in an incredibly queer manga like holy shit

6 ye olde government agents

5/5 stars best movie of the decade easily. might be the best movie of all time

4 scantily clad teenaged girls (fbi open up! meme)

the 3rd time i read the same book about lawns maybe?

2 high school animes

and a ninja book

…from a guy who still thinks about the naruto series in the year 2024

In today’s episode of Fausto! Reviews! Things! we have a ye olde anime featuring an older than he looks long silver haired yellow slit eyed man with a magic sword who is half demon and half human and his two love interests, the older mature one and the younger one who is super jealous of the older mature one. There’s also a villain whose face is covered in bandages who has a co dependent relationship with the only human who takes care of them, who is a pretty girl who dies. Not sure which anime I’m talking about? I’ll give you a hint: It predates the Inuyasha manga by 3 years.

That’s right! I’m talking about Nightwalker! the first anime based off an eroge! and I in no way shape or form meant that little joke to imply that Inuyasha was ripping off this piece of trash, I just couldn’t fucking watch the moody silver haired guy brood about being half demon without thinking of Inuyasha.

This show is so bad, but it’s bad in like a fascinating way? Like the opening song is objectively bad and not fun to listen to but i watch it every time because the 90s animation is just so 90s that i can’t look away. The pacing is out of control bad because it was only supposed to be a 2-3 episode OVA but then people liked it and they made a bunch of money and churned out more episodes. So you get the big bad fight first then it’s just a lot of monster of the week shit. The Inuyasha clone is arguably bisexual, but he might just be homosexual because it’s shown that he had a relationship with a guy but now he makes all kinds of dirty jokes about women and presumably since this was a eroge he’s the guy doing the fucking (the wiki doesn’t say) but he was also clearly the bottom for his ex boyfriend so i mean… if he was also a capture target in the original game i wouldn’t be that surprised. kinda glad he doesn’t get with any of the girls in the anime, since of the three one is a teenager and another is a pixie. (i wrote this section before i finished the show RIP)

also episode 8 is like, literally the worst thing i’ve ever seen. so there’s a grandpa and a mom and 2 kids. the mom and 2 kids kill grandpa, then leave his fresh corpse in the car while they all go get dinner. and like that…. that’s it. that’s the worst thing i’ve ever seen. and like, i know what’s going on mechanically in the story that requires this to happen to move the plot along. but jesus fucking christ. they’re all so nonchalant about it too. it’s not even like gross or horrifying it’s just so over the top. i stopped the episode in the leaving the corpse in the parking lot of the restaurant to go get dinner scene and it took me weeks to come back to the series.

and then the next episode is like a prequel showing how the inuyasha clone and the pixie met and they go on a monster of the week adventure. except at the very last second it’s revealed that this is also the origin story of the cop lady. and like, i had taken so much of a break to get through episode 8 that i had forgotten what one of the main characters looks like and what her name was. so what a normal viewer would have known was that it’s an origin story the whole way through but to me it was a big reveal.

and then this show did it to me again in episode 10, where half the episode is a flashback but it’s not super clear that’s what’s going on. so half the time the gang is in tokyo, then next scene inuyasha clone has fucked off to the woods fighting another monster but his ex boyfriend who was killed in episode 3 is there? so i thought yeesh thought we killed this fucker already. then it’s more clear that that all was a flash back and it’s like whew okay so he is dead. then the teenager is all huffy about the inuyasha clone having had an ex girlfriend (he didn’t, this is just a misunderstanding) as if killing his ex boyfriend wasn’t what y’all did in episode 3. so she’s only jealous of girlfriends and not boy friends? okay. weird flex but okay. this fucking show GOD.

the worst part is, they couldn’t have just called the monsters “demons” or “yokai”. no. they’re called night breeds. but 90% of the time it’s shortened to “breeds” or “a breed” or mainly inuyasha clone groans “it’s a breed” as if his day is runied by finding the thing that the japanese government is paying him to kill. everytime inuyahsa clone says breed take a shot. would be a fun drinking game if the show wasn’t so bad that it were possible to tolerate watching more than only one episode at a time.

the last episode is so bad. i was screaming “that’s what you’re fucking doing?” and shit like that. but like, at the writers. it was a rushed ending with too much shit crammed into it, and i’m so disgusted by the ending but i’m not going to spoil it because if you actual watch this shit show and make it through episode 8 you’ll be battle hardened enough to handle episode 12. barely, maybe, i think.

also there’s teenager titties in like, episode 3. what’s with the ye olde animes and teenager titties? i mean i get this is based off an eroge and skipping the tits would have been weirder but like, the pixie is naked 24/7. like, why couldn’t we get to see the cop lady’s tits instead? why japan, why is it always the teenagers? can’t we milf fuckers get some fan service once in a while???

[thatonefandomjumper]

I feel like a big part of Heroes of Olympus was influenced by audience reaction. 

I don’t think I’m grasping at straws here. I genuinely just don’t get why some decisions were made if this wasn’t the case.

The plot of the books themselves has always felt very muddled to me and that’s why it always feels like it’s supposed to be a story about characters and relationships, but it just kind of isn’t. Sure, on a surface level, yes, and we get some very lovely character dynamics, but it also feels slightly artificial in a way? The plot was built first and the characters thrown into it, but there wasn’t much thought given too how the characters should be with each other. Even the romantic ones.

Though I feel that I could tie this idea into pretty much every part of the books, there are two things that I personally think of the most while discussing this idea.

For one, there’s Octavian’s entire character.

I have always been confused as to what exactly Riordan wanted from Octavian. He really feels like a plot device most times, made solely for the purpose of stirring conflict between the Greeks and Romans. He as an individual never really mattered. Now, there are some very cool people on this website that have managed to squeeze a decent character out of the scenes we got, but with the way he was written, that in itself is a challenge, as post SoN, it feels like the only intent behind his character was to make him as unlikable as possible. He really was a real character in SoN, despite weird decisions here and there (The killing Gwen scene for example was purely to establish that the doors of death weren't working, and to make Octavian unlikable, but Octavian himself really didn’t have any motive for the killing. It benefitted him in no way.)

In SoN, Octavian is manipulative and well spoken, but after that, he is portrayed as some sort of dim witted idiot, clouded by his desire for personal glory.

The only way I can rationalize this shift in character is in the truly visceral reaction the then fanbase had to his character. They loathed him, taking not a second to rationalize his actions, but simply hate. It also made it so Octavian became the but of a lot of jokes. Those jokes characterizing him as his idiot and megalomaniac that it he shown as in Mark of Athena, House of Hades and Blood of Olympus.

I always suspected Octavian was supposed to serve some sort of grander purpose, or his role in HoO was supposed to be at least a little more dignified or dare I say sympathetic, but there really was no turning back with how hated he was, making Riordan embrace it rather than giving him actual human qualities.

Then on the other hand, there’s also Leo and his relationship with romance in general.

I’ve touched upon it in my Caleo essay (That I kind of wanna redo with more points and evidence to back up my claims, because I am unhappy with certain aspects but I still stand by all I said) that Leo is a character that was written in such a way that getting a romantic partner before resolving certain things would actively detriment the development of his character, including healing from his trauma. The way he was written was just not meant for romance and I will take this to my grave. I’m not saying there was no room for romance, but the way they went about it was... very bad. (A girlfriend will fix my problems. That is his mindset. But he doesn’t grow out of it. Instead he gets a girlfriend. A girlfriend that he treats as a fix to his problems when she is not. A girlfriend that is bad to and for him in so many ways.)

But it is very interesting to note, that especially after Mark of Athena, the speculations and demands for Leo’s future girlfriend went absolutely crazy. I can’t speak from experience but from the tweets from Riordan and fanarts from that time that I've seen it was at least to the point that he took active notice of it. 

Besides Nico and Reyna, there weren’t really any other characters just lying around to pair Leo monogamously up with (I doubt Riordan be willing to make any characters besides Nico explicitly queer at the time and then in the next book he decided to pick up one of the background characters and said, you will do, when pairing Nico up with someone. )

There are many more examples I could go into. The universe suffered in many ways from this. Sure, it’s not the only problem that were detrimental. I believe Riordan had a plan from the beginning with all the main plot points of the series, but I feel he didn’t exactly know where he was going with the characters besides the basics. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the HoO characters. That is why I spend so much time talking and thinking about them, but the issues with the series and characters are so many that it’s borderline ridiculous.

[wordsinhaled]

you know what else i fucking love sandman and dreamling fandom for???

the other day i was reading “whensoever” by spqr and it kinda blew my mind because i realized—i was like, shit, this may actually be the first time i’ve REALLY read two characters navigating a sexual dynamic in which one of them carries trauma in a way that felt relatable and genuine and loving, and i’ve read a Lot of fic in my life

like. this fandom just Gets It you know??? i feel like these portrayals of dream have been some of the best and most lovingly rendered grey-ace rep i’ve seen

like... dream asks to keep his clothes on during sex and that’s Okay!!! and hob still fucking adores him. and then half an hour later dream wants to take the lead and that is Okay too and hob gives him the agency to own his body and his physicality and loves him any and every which way he is comfortable, and their sex is fun and amazing and lifechanging not because neither of them is without baggage and not Despite that baggage but because of their ability to acknowledge and love each other through it

i adore this fandom for the portrayals of dream acquainting or reacquainting himself with sex and with his bodily autonomy, and with the portrayals of dream sometimes getting triggered, even right in the middle of sex, and how that doesn’t have to ruin intimacy. i adore how dream is shown, for example, that to be cruelly forced to be naked and exposed in a glass cage is so vastly different from being naked and exposed under the eyes of your lover who thinks you’re beautiful and knows the pain you carry and doesn’t shrink away from it — even if sometimes those two experience carry the same bodily memories and can get all tangled up, and that’s Okay because your lover will catch you

i adore the portrayals of how dream handles his trauma as an immensely, ridiculously prideful person who doesn’t want to feel vulnerability, and how hob just makes all of that Okay, not because hob is magically healing or because the trauma is gone, but because hob is just so fucking consummately loving and so human

that’s beautiful

like. i’m pretty sure that healed something in me, personally

anyway all this to say thanks for being a++++ humans dreamling authors!

and on a related note even though it’s not dreamling, it’s no wonder ‘calliope’ is also the best trauma survivor story i’ve seen... like, sandman is just on another level when it comes to the portrayal of Humanity and i... simply am overcome

[distort-opia]

I love your Batman meta related posts, and I enjoy reading through them. I’ve noticed that a common theme in some of them revolve around Bruce being an abusive parent. I’m sorry if this is too much to ask, but may you please go over some examples of Bruce being abusive to the batfam, and how it’s not an OOC characterization for him?

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy my occasional Batman thoughts. Indeed, I've expressed more than once that I do believe Bruce is an abusive parent -- though I feel like others before me have articulated the reasons for it far better. Which is why I will offer some of my opinions below, but I will also redirect you to a couple of metas on this topic I myself agreed with and found interesting, which contain examples of Bruce being abusive (with comic receipts a lot of the time): here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here... look, pretty much go through the “Batman’s C+ parenting” tag of bitimdrake’s blog :)) Many bingeable good metas to read.

I think it's very important to note that abuse is a heavy and complicated topic. People perceive and deal with abuse very differently; and people become abusers in different ways. You can certainly encounter individuals who maliciously and intentionally use their power or privilege to abuse others, but more often than not it's not that simple. It's not that black and white. Sometimes, a parent might genuinely love their child, but they might have no idea how to express themselves healthily or raise them, and they might end up doing a lot of emotional damage to their child because of it. And in my opinion, Bruce falls in the second category. He doesn't intend to harm his children, emotionally or physically -- but he ends up doing it nonetheless, again and again. That’s not to say Bruce can’t be a good parent. He has been; he’s supported the Family, he’s praised them, he’s shown them he cares, and I’m pretty sure he’d die for them if he needed to. And that’s the most interesting part: he’s a realistic parent with abusive tendencies. He’s human. He’s fallible. He loves his children and he tries his best, and he’s learned a lot over time; but he also makes a lot of mistakes.

I’ll go into more detail on each type of abusive behavior he displays (so warning for that), and why I don’t consider it OOC, under the cut. Because I was like ‘haha I’ll just link some metas’ but then I got long again. Sigh.

It's a joke that's made a lot, how Batman is supposed to be a loner, and yet he has one of the most extensive Families and ally circles in DC. But once you get to know the character, it's not at all a contradiction. Bruce lost his family, and that trauma shaped him. It's the basis of Batman. It makes perfect sense that he'd yearn to create one of his own... but the problem is, his desire for connection is many times outweighed by his absolute, paralyzing fear of it. If he has a family, if he has people he cares about, then he can lose them. Bruce is terrified of loss, and this fear is one of the main roots of his pattern of emotional abuse.

This pattern tends to manifest in three forms. The first is neglect. He distances himself from his children, treats them as soldiers in his neverending war on crime, keeps them at arms length -- both because he wants it to hurt less if he loses them, and because he's never developed a healthy way of dealing with his own or others' emotions. In many ways, it's self-preservation, and not just towards the Family. In general, Bruce's repression, intellectualization, and emotional distancing is a way to avoid being hurt. This drives his belief that emotional attachments are, in the end, a weakness. He can't focus on the Mission if he's constantly worried about the people fighting alongside him... but he also needs them. And here one of Bruce's darker traits come in, too: his ruthlessness. He can't be everywhere all at once, he can't operate alone and be as efficient as when having a small army of trained soldiers at his side. For the sake of the Mission being fulfilled, and with the goal of protecting Gotham and saving as many people as possible, he allows the Batfamily to exist. Bruce is capable of 'turning off' his emotions and only acting in the interest of a higher goal, in a way that's hurt and pissed off his friends and Family multiple times. I'm not at all saying he doesn't love them, or care about them. That's the crux of the matter. He does care, and he's afraid of what happens when he cares, which again and again prompts him to act cold and distant and emotionally push them away. But, ironically enough, it's this exact same issue that leads him to display the third kind of emotionally abusive behavior: excessive control.

Bruce has been shown to be invasive and manipulative, wanting the Family to follow his orders and punishing them in various ways when they don’t -- because, if you're terrified of losing something, one way to ensure you're not going to lose it is to contain it, and never take your eyes off it. Carefully control it. See, he can't entirely cut all ties, both because he loves the Family and because he needs them from a utilitarian point of view. But he can try to emotionally protect himself by distancing, and he can try to protect them by controlling them... by knowing everything that goes on in their lives, and (sadly) trying to get them to make choices he would make. He’s got a bit of a thing when it comes to rewarding the Family for acting the same way he does. It’s a complicated mix of Bruce’s arrogance, God complex and that controlling overprotective streak I mentioned; it’s ‘I think of every worst-case scenario and prepare for everything and train for everything and essentially try to become God, so if you act the same way I do, you will be safer and less likely to get hurt.’

The third form of his emotionally abusive pattern is the expectation for others to prioritize and handle his emotions. This pretty much follows the other two kinds; Bruce does say very hurtful things, he pushes people away, he keeps secrets and refuses to ask for help or include his children in intimate aspects of his life; but he also expects them to not let him do it, and it's... this one is really tough. I don't think it's ever quite hit him, the realization of his egocentrism: the way he makes so many things about himself. His emotions and his state of being are the priority, for his kids, and they always watch out for Bruce's anger, for his self-destructive tendencies, for signs of him retreating so they can pull him back from the brink, and the thing is, that's not their job. The kid is not supposed to take care of the parent, it's supposed to be the other way around. But more often than not, it's not Bruce handling his childrens' emotions, it's them navigating his. Dick and Tim, especially, are subject to this. Hell, Tim basically became Robin because he saw how Bruce was spiralling and went 'is no one gonna take care of that??', stepping into the role himself when Dick refused to (and good for him). And thing is, while a huge part of why Bruce adopted and trained them is empathizing with their traumas and caring about them, another part of it is... a need for grounding himself. Bruce knows he's always walking the line. He knows he's got a lot of darkness that he's always fighting to keep contained, and he can't manage it alone. He keeps himself human through his connections, his attachments; his Family, most of all. And so, it's not surprising that his children end up having to chase Bruce and figure out his emotions and take care of him, make him socialize and act like a person -- it's part of why Bruce forged these relationships in the first place. But it's still not fair to any of them. And it's impacted them in various unhealthy ways. There's certainly an argument to be made that some of them began to base their value, and self-worth, in how useful they were to Bruce. Bruce's approval is something that's so deeply craved in the core Family circle, and it's... sigh. It's downright insidious, sometimes. Bruce does so many shitty things, but they keep coming back, often at token signs of apology from Bruce or barely any crumbs at all.

And if it were only that. But Bruce's grief and his fear of loss always turn to anger. Batman is fueled by that anger, and Bruce has... lots of issues in dealing with it and venting it in a healthy way (see the above general issues in handling his own emotions). And so, you have the pattern of physical abuse, and not just the emotional I described above. In his grief and his anger, Bruce has exploded and hit his children more than once. It's tough to say who suffered more from this: Dick or Jason. Maybe Jason, since Bruce's tremendous amount of guilt and self-hatred towards him just turns into more anger, and that translates into even more potential violence. Especially when Jason breaches Bruce's rules. He gets very angry when anyone breaches his imposed rules, especially the no-killing one, and here’s where his harmful need for absolute control and some of that arrogance come in. Bruce justifies this kind of behavior in various ways (and the narrative does too, because it has to -- Batman has to be the hero), the most prevalent excuse being his treatment of them as soldiers, or a downright refusal to admit he’s even viewed as a father figure by them. This is an overarching issue in itself, his reluctance to admit he’s wrong.

In the end, so much of this has roots in Bruce’s trauma, which is the main reason why I don’t see it as OOC. He tries to save everyone because he couldn’t save his parents back then. He’s so controlling because he cannot even conceive of ever being that helpless again; he’s terrified of losing the people he cares about and still so incandescently angry at the criminals that took them away. Needless to say, he’s plenty neurodivergent, too. And disappearing for over a decade and training for being Batman, being away from Alfred and having his parents taken away at such a young age... never afforded him the opportunity to learn healthy ways of emotionally regulating himself. Neither did it teach him to reach out to others in a healthy way. And all the resulting issues, that he’s never truly dealt with constructively, converge in all the ways Bruce has fallen into abusive behaviors as a parental figure.

Hope you’ve found this an interesting read! I tried to keep it as general as possible, seeing as the metas before I’ve linked are a lot more specific. I also want to assert that this is my personal assessment of Bruce’s character, and that (obviously) everyone is free to create their own interpretation; I take no issue with people who prefer to headcanon and write Bruce solely as a good parent. But the canon reality of him not being one does exist, and is still interesting to dissect.

[nikakistos]

The Perfect Closure of EreMika

The title is pure clickbait (as always), there will be lots of tags (as always) and this post will be huge. As always. So, let’s examine and evaluate the perfect conclusion of the most important relationship in Attack on Titan. We will analyze why this is the best conclusion they could have gotten and of course we are going to talk about what their scenes meant for their relationship, their feelings for each other and the themes of the story.

First, let’s ask the question: What was the purpose of this chapter? Ending the fight obviously, but also giving closure to the relationship between Eren and Mikasa. Now, there were 3 questions that needed to be answered in order for the two of them to have closure. 

Why did Eren say to Mikasa that he hated her?

What does Eren feel for Mikasa?

What would have happened if Mikasa had given Eren a different answer back in chapter 123?

Isayama answered all 3 of them in a spectacular way. Let’s see how he did it. The chapter literally starts with Isayama, via Mikasa, setting up the closure. This was achieved by having her wonder if this really was the end for her and Eren. Could it be that their last interaction ever ended with him saying that he hated her? 

Isayama answers that with a big, fat NO.

That’s the purpose of Mikasa’s vision. Mikasa’s vision is not there to introduce us to Alternate Universes or to portray her as a delusional fangirl that can’t cope with reality. It’s purpose is to answer the above 3 questions. And that it does.

Essentially, Mikasa’s vision is a “What if” scenario. If Mikasa had chosen the ideal for her answer back in chapter 123, Eren would have abandoned everything and lived with her. This means that Eren is also in love with her.  He said that he hated Mikasa, because he wanted her to forget him. That’s why he also asked her to throw away the scarf.

Mikasa though, being the truest representation of all major, positive themes in the series says no. She chooses to remember him. That’s essentially the meaning of life. That’s what Armin taught to Zeke back in chapter 137. Memories of everyday life. That’s the meaning of life. Back in Trost, Mikasa said that she couldn’t die, because she wouldn’t be able to remember Eren. Even back then, Mikasa always knew the true meaning of life. 

Afterall, the series heavily criticizes the usage of memory manipulation. Deleting memories or altering them have been methods empoyed by the Royal Family for years, hiding the truth from the people. One of the themes of the Survey Corps is remembering their fallen comrades and carrying on the torch. Mikasa forgetting Eren would be an insult to the themes of the story. As would be if Eren was revealed to have been sending fake memories and dreams to Mikasa out of pity for her. 

Finally, Mikasa decides to kill Eren. Not because he hated her or because he didn’t have romantic feelings for her. Because she had to save the world and because that’s exactly what Eren wanted. Back in chapter 133 Reiner foreshadowed Eren’s desires. He explained that it is very hard for Eren, mentally, to handle the murder of the entire human race. Through Reiner, Isayama reveals that Eren wants someone to end it all for him. That someone was Mikasa. That’s why Mikasa knew where to find Eren. His relieved face when he saw her swinging the blade said it all. That was Eren’s design and Mikasa delivered.

And so, the chapter that starts with Mikasa thinking that the only closure she would get with Eren was the “I’ve always hated you”, ends with the first and the last kiss between the two of them that puts all of her worries to rest.

Is Mikasa delusional?

I’ve seen this being thrown around, so i have to also tackle said point. No, Mikasa is not delusional. This wasn’t a fantasy that only she experienced. This dream of hers is the same dream that Eren had back in chapter 1. Eren experienced the exact same things she did in the dream. We even see him with his titan marks. It is clear as day that they shared these moments.

Also, i have to give credits to Isayama here for his usage of “itterasshai”. The word generally means “Go and come back safely” and is usually said to people leaving the house. For Mikasa, Eren is her home, but she is also home for him, as shown in the RtS arc:

These were the perfect parting words for the two of them. Nothing else could encapsulate their relationship better. Eren of course, won’t come back, but that’s the irony of the word here.

Moving on to the next point, Mikasa’s characterization in this final arc is about her seeing Eren for the person he truly is and stop ignoring his faults. It starts from the Marley arc and it concludes with chapter 123 where she realizes that this was simply part of Eren’s nature.

He always had it in him to become the monster that he became. However, he always had a different side to him. A side that had been shown to her a few times. At first, when he wrapped the scarf around her and later when he asked her “What am i to you”. Finally, it manifested as a desire to live quietly with her in their shared dream. It would contradict her development and characterization in the final arc, to have Mikasa start seeing an incomplete Eren again, after realizing earlier who he really was. Mikasa understood who Eren truly is and she accepted him and continued to love him anyway, even though she didn’t agree with his genocide. 

It is not out of character for Eren to run away with her either. At least not in that instance. The series highlights the moment that he asked Mikasa “What am i to you” as a pivotal one. Sure, under normal circumstances, Eren would have chosen to fight, but we saw him breaking down just moments earlier. The only person that could have saved him was Mikasa. Alas, that wasn’t meant to happen.

In any instance, the biggest indicator that Mikasa is not just a delusional girl who kissed the decapitated head of the man she loved, when he never really loved her in the same way, is Ymir’s face at the end of the chapter.

Ymir, as i have mentioned in previous posts, is a girl who never knew real love during her lifetime. She didn’t understand what she was looking at, when she first say a couple kissing with their friends cheering them on. And after that she was sentenced to a cruel life, with a man who never loved her and only viewed her as a tool. This girl, remembers longinly that scene of the couple kissing for 2000 years. She was waiting for 2000 years to see real love again.

She witnessed that through Eren and Mikasa. In a scene that would have otherwise been painted in a negative light, Ymir’s warm smile at the sight of the final act of love between two people who never got to be together the way they wanted to, clears any and all doubts regarding Eren’s feelings for Mikasa and the latter’s sanity. Eren reciprocates Mikasa’s feelings and he was alive for enough time to kiss her back, before completely fading away. Eren and Mikasa replaced the married couple and Ymir replaced the crowd that was cheering at them from 2000 years ago.

Of course, one might ask, could Eren really kiss her? Didn’t she just take advantage of him? No, he did kiss her. The way the scene was directed, it shows us that the events, which take place in their dream, mirror the events in real life. Just look at Eren’s lips one moment before Mikasa kissed him and compare them to the picture above, where they kiss. They are different.

 Also, you have to remeber that decapitation doesn’t kill immediately and does not immobilize facial muscles. That was the entire reason that Eren and Zeke managed to get the Coordinate. Eren survived long enough from Gabi’s shot to make contact with Zeke. Even his facial expression changes as you can see below:

More importantly, was there really any chance that Ymir would look at Mikasa beheading and kissing Eren, while also smiling in approval, if Mikasa was a delusional girl who was unable to understand Eren’s feelings for her up to the very end? Most of all, do you think she would have allowed him to die, without experiencing real love? She died in such a way and she stayed for 2000 years in the Paths waiting for someone to show her real love. Eren was her benefactor. Would she ever allow him to die in such a way, when she was being mistreated (sexually and in many other ways) by King Fritz? I doubt it. Actually no. I don’t doubt it. I’m sure this is not the way we are meant to interprete the scene.

Eren’s relationship with Mikasa, from the very start, is an allegory for the world of AoT. The world is cruel, but is also very beautiful. Eren’s story with Mikasa starts with him murdering in cold blood her kidnappers (cruelty) and then warmly and gently welcoming her to his family by wrapping a scarf around her (beauty). Their story ends with Mikasa decapitating him (cruelty) and kissing him (beauty).

Eren’s tendency for violence has always been portrayed as going hand in hand with his better side. That side has always been represented by Mikasa. It is only fitting for them to have their most beautiful moment happening almost at the same time as their most cruel one. This is how Isayama juxtaposes this duality:

If we interprete this scene as Mikasa being delusional and Eren not being in love with her we get a very disturbing and creepy scene, between an obsessed, psychosis-suffering girl who can’t understand the feelings of Eren, a genocidal maniac who never had any chance or willingness to live a normal life, even though there are hints of that, and a 2000 year old ghost who just happily smiled at the decapitation and forceful kissing of her emancipator. I am pretty sure this is not the message Isayama wants to send. Not simply, because it is a disservice to Mikasa as a character and to her relationship with Eren, which has been one of the most prominent and consistent part of the series from the very first chapter, but because it is also a huge disrespect to Eren as a character as well. Does anyone really think that Isayama would choose to write Eren’s death like that? Not a single important person in the entire story has gotten such an exit. Not even Floch. Even Zeke, who thought that his father never loved him and only used him as a tool, got to see that his father truly did love him, before finally dying. Of course Eren and Mikasa would get the same treatment.

What i mean to say is that Eren and Mikasa’s closure won’t be recontextualized in a way that will paint their feelings for one another and their relationship in a negative light. If anyone’s expecting that, he/she will be disappointed. Eren and Mikasa were confirmed as a canonical couple in chapter 138.

On the other hand, if anyone’s expecting that this wasn’t their real closure and that they will get an even happier ending, he/she is also coping hard. Eren died here in this chapter. There won’t be a scarf rewrap (i’m here to eat my words if it happens), because Isayama gave the couple a kiss. A kiss that was in the makings ever since chapter 50 dropped. And of course, there is not going to be a baby born to Eren and Mikasa. Like, no way it’s happening. Eren is not coming back to life as that would turnish the series and it’s ending.

In conclusion, Eren’s relationship with Mikasa ended in the same way it started. Violently and Beautifully. Tragically and Happily. They acted on their romantic feelings for each other the very moment they had to part ways forever. This is how Isayama hurts us. The essence of a bittersweet conclusion.

EDIT: EATING MY WORDS AS PROMISED. EREN DID REWRAP MIKASA’S SCARF. HE KEPT HIS PROMISE.

[lillianofliterature]

rant about this song i heard

sometimes i forget there are some extreme marauder fans that completely dismiss the bullying each of those characters did for years—and then suddenly i’m smacked with victim-blaming content that leaves me gobsmacked … a song popped up on my discover weekly on Spotify and i thought wow this sounds a lot like Lily and James, I’m gonna add it to my Harry playlist! It’s so pretty! and then I realized it was so much like them that there was no way it wasn’t written about them. I looked up the album and the artist, and when it was confirmed that it was about them, I also found out the whole album was about the Marauders. That’s cool! I love that people are making content about their fictional loves, I love that stories can influence so much creativity! So then I though oh! I wonder if there’s a song for Snape! I could add it to my Snape playlist!

Yeah, there’s a song about Snape. About anti-Snape-x-Lily (which is whatever, I’m not bashing people’s opinions, I myself don’t like the pairing either but for Snape’s sake). But it didn’t end there. The lyrics. The lyrics are literally so biased of a narrative against Snape that my stomach dropped. The kind of biased where people are ignoring or omitting the reality of the story and what actually happened just to be able to villainize a victim in that particular era of the story.

“Never wanted me around

Till I went ahead and planned my first date”

Wait. Uh—Snape literally wanted to be around Lily, all the time, because he loved her. She was his best friend, his only friend, the only human being that had ever shown him any sort of decency. (It’s never even stated it was romantic love, for all we know it was platonic love, which I think makes much more sense with Snape’s character and everything that happened. If I screwed up and my best friend chose my abuser over me because of that mistake, I would be devastated.)

Nevermind the fact that it’s making it out like Snape dismissed her entirely until she decided to date James, because he was so controlling and jealous that he only cared until someone else was about to get her. When did that happen? Snape cared about her consistently. he made mistakes and he admittedly did not know how to communicate well or manage a friendship (or any relationship, really) very well because he’s never effing had a positive back-and-forth with someone in his whole entire effing life. 

I’ve been jealous and self-sabotaging when my best friend started dating because I was terrified that I was going to lose the only person I wholly trusted to someone new, to someone I couldn’t compete with, especially if it was romantic. This is a human response, a very human experience. Are we going to then say that everyone whose ever felt that way is an awful, jealous, controlling ass? I hope not, because I’m pretty sure everyone’s experienced that kind of jealous, desperate fear, where we truly believe that we aren’t special enough or important enough to keep someone around. 

“With the guy you swore you hated

Turns out you're the worst and he's great and

I’m friends with all his friends”

HUH?????

I—…Do I even need to comment on this?

I understand if this song is giving us a version of Lily’s unreliable narrative, then it makes sense to an extent. But if we’re taking this as evidence of what’s totally accurate for the story and what was happening—then what the actual hell?

Turns out the victim whose only known abuse his entire life, the one who admittedly clung too hard to the only friend he’s ever known, who was bullied and tormented and assaulted, who was gas lighted and told to keep his abuse secret by the only adults in his life for the sake of his abusers, is “the worst”.

But the guy who did the bullying and the tormenting and the assaulting, and went so far to make someone miserable as to write it down in the form of a pledge to his little club of bullies just because this victim existed, and also blackmailed this girl into dating him or else the bullying would never cease or he might do worse—“he’s great”.

also fyi one of those friends sells you and mr. great out and gets you killed so great choice---

I’m—I don’t want to bully the artist or their opinions AT ALL, we are allowed our opinions and our creative freedom, and their music is BEAUTIFUL, it was just a shocking reminder that so many Marauder fans literally rewrite what happened in the Marauder era just to make Snape the absolute worst character ever.

And y’know, I thought, maybe it’s a dramatized, modernized take on it, and it’s not supposed to be exactly about Snape and Lily, but just sort of inspired by this one-sided narrative in a similar sort of relationship. But no, it’s confirmed it’s about them. It’s supposed to be about their relationship as friends, as if he was an abusive, controlling ex, when he was never even with her to begin with. 

Again, I’m not attacking the artist or their opinions and their favorites, or attacking Marauder fans, okay? People have the right to love who and what they love unapologetically and I support that. And in the same vein, I deserve to love who I love just as passionately. But my point is, I don’t understand why the whole reality of the story needs to be altered...maybe don’t change the narrative or the events that canonically took place to put your faves on a pedestal they don’t fit on?? 

And it’s not just about this song, but an overwhelming amount of hate and discourse I’ve seen since entering the HP fandom. 

But I’m just looking at this song like 👁👄👁 tf?

[kongkhoi]

back and forth

characters: scaramouche miniscule bitch boy, tartaglia triglyceride.

warnings: nsfw, harbinger reader.

a/n: oh boy this turned into sub scara whoops. also by no means do i simp for tortellini boy here, but the thought of blueballing him is enough to make my day

please how do you write smut because i’m aware this isn’t exactly smut

scaramouche:

you instantly have an unpleasant impression of scaramouche when you meet him. even if he’s acting nice with that persona of his, something feels wrong. it’s slightly unsettling

you don’t know what’s up in the beginning. unbeknownst to you, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what happens when you’re with him.

you get to know the man, realizing what he’s capable of. how he acts, and who gains his respect enough to treat them with an ounce of humanity. he’s sly and arrogant. not many things are worth his time, and you aren’t one of those things either.

your exchanges are witty and cleverly crafted, and when you’re not arguing, its passive aggressive insulted being hurled across the room. your conversations can easily escalate to you two trying to establish dominance over one another. at times, someone plays the “oh, you care about it that much? sad.” it never fails to piss either of you off.

but even with the unending bickering and hateful things you spew at each other, neither of you can deny the unmistakable tension between one another.

it’s been there from the start. the intrigue, the aggravation, the satisfaction. the confusion from said satisfaction. it’s been building and building and the air gets uncannily thin. but you’ve both been keeping your cool. as composed as you can get when you’re constantly at each other’s throats, besting each other in any way possible.

that is, until it can’t be dealt with anymore. it all spills over at one point, and the threshold for that has been more than met.

scaramouche has been patient. more so than usual, and for much longer than he’d usually allow. he’s a man of action, and one that doesn’t like to waste time. but you’ve been straining every ounce of patience he has, and not always in the way you’d expect.

your exchanges have always been carefully worded, and both of you are aware of it. the subtle innuendoes can’t me mistakes, can they? surely not from you. surely not from him, right?

so now you’re outside his current residence, and without even finishing the sentence, “i’d expect nothing less from you,” you’ve found yourself in a heated kiss with the man you were so foolishly insistent on abhorring mere seconds ago. his kisses are rough, and thus, so are yours. 

but you shouldn’t let yourself give into the sheer desire. not yet. you should make him seem like he wants something from you. control the situation, steer him to become the bitch craving sex. so you pull away from his face and chuckle.

“what’s that all about, hm?”

he’s breathing heavily with darkened eyes. “shouldn’t i be asking you that?”

“well if you ask me,” you trace a finger down his jawline and coo at him. “i’ve got you shut you up for once. it’s been far, far too long.”

he removes your hand from his face and snickers. “if we’re talking about waiting, i’ve been wanting to put you in your place for a very long while now.”

“well, i hate to break it to you, but we’ll have to see about that.” you trail your hands up the back of his head and lightly tug his hair, making him hiss. his head is tilted up and to the side, exposing his neck.

“you don’t seem to be stopping me,” you smirk as you lick the spot below his ear.

he fights back a shudder when you kiss and suck on his neck again, and before long, you’ve freed your hand from his hair to look at the entranced look on his face. but you’ve been shown no satisfaction. the moment you untangled your hand, he spun you around and trapped you between his arms. he grins.

“not so fast.”

you crash your lips into his before he gets to speak again, but he’s barely dazed. he’s more focused on the fact that you’re leaning into him so cutely with your back arched ever so slightly. he smirks into the kiss. his hands are on your back, gripping your hips slightly to gain just a bit more control.

upon your disadvantage, you drag your hands down from his neck, to his chest, to his crotch. you palm him through his shorts, knowing he can’t keep his hold on you if he wants to react properly to your ministrations.

he growls into the kiss and opens the door you’ve been pressed against, causing you to almost tumble into the room. he drives you onto the couch and pulls away from you, unbuckling his belt. you take this moment to pull him to your side and climb on top of his lap, straddling his now hard cock. he groans at the sudden pressure, gasping a little and the contact.

“put me in my place you said? you’ve got it confused.” you cup his face, making him grimace. “you’ve got the pretty face, but what comes out of your mouth ruins the image. what a shame.”

tartaglia:

nothing at work has been very interesting lately. stress is getting to you and things seem more and more tedious. you run into childe and he notices the evident.

“something the matter, comrade?”

“how would you like a duel? spar with me, let’s kill some time.”

you’re in an abandoned building with the eleventh harbinger. the space is restricted and well hidden. nobody would be able to disturb. so with him adamant that you make the first move, you advance towards him, displaying a faint mirage as a distraction. he doesn’t fall for it, expected from a fellow harbinger. but he doesn’t expect the speed of you attack from behind him.

“looks like i’ve underestimated you.”

you laugh. “i may be tired of the tsaritsa’s tedious assignments, but i’m not rusty yet. i’m still your senior. don’t miscalculate my abilities.”

a thrilling fight ensues. powerful attacks, cunning parries, quick evasions, solid blocks, he has it all. but so do you. the longer the battle goes on, the more you feel refreshed. the adrenaline rush of battle has you grinning like a madman.

yet you haven’t unleashed your most powerful attack. you need an opening.

its right after he slashes his electro sword. there.

you dispel a barrage of blows to him with one final shot. you’ve held back for the sake of fair game, so he isn’t injured too badly. he’s panting hard on the ground, defeated, but grinning. you hide your weapon away, bending down to grab the collar of his shirt. you know him pretty well to see what’s going on now.

“are you getting off on this?”

he doesn’t respond, which tells you more than you need to know. that certainly changes the mood.

you chuckle darkly, looking down on him. “oh tartaglia.” you crouch next to him and bring your face closer to his. “you certainly helped out with my.. problem. though i won’t be able to say the same for yours, unfortunately.”

you release your grip on him and walk away rejuvenated. watching you leave the building, he props himself back up smirking.

“well,” he hisses at the pain shooting up his arm. “you’re more than welcome.”

[witch-hazels-musings]

Okay okay, I’m super excited and nervous bc i’ve never requested anything but: can I request some headcanons of Dainsleif, Scaramouche and Tartaglia falling in love with a god? I’m the anon from that ask 😅

archons of my heart

this might have been the most different set of short little stories i’ve ever written - each character responds so differently to this scenario! (note: based on what we know about these characters, I stuck true to their values* - it might not be what you were intending, and I keep things true to their character) <3 

Warning -> angst (Dain), fluff (Childe), genera/fluff?(Scara - mention of long hair)

Character X GN Reader | Anthology 

Includes: Dainsleif, Scaramouche, Childe

Dain

Devastated, conflicted - these words have never resonated more in his mind than the day he found out about who you were, what you were 

What does he do … he dislikes, no hates the archons and yet … you were one of them - you’d always been one of them and the whole time you hid this fact from him knowing full well the feelings he had for them 

He couldn’t really hear as you desperately tried to explain to him why, he only heard the shattering of his heart as your face turned into something he no longer recognized 

He stood there, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides, eyes tracking your movement as you paced back and forth in front of him, your feet wearing down the grass with each passover. 

“I know you’ll never forgive them for what happened …” You begin, your voice somehow distorted now that he saw you for what you really were. He didn’t have words to respond, he felt out of his body. An observer rather than a participant, how he wished that were the case. 

You stepped closer to him, hands reaching for his arm - the arm that had been tainted for so long - and without noticing he recoiled from your outreach. It was the first time he had ever deliberately refused your touch and, although he understood the pain it caused you, it was clear from the reaction of your face, he couldn’t bear your hands on him. Not now, not when the whole world was crumbling down around him. 

You stood there, just the way you always did, incredible, perfect, beautiful and reverent in a way no-one ever looked before - he loved you, he thought he loved you 

You were so different than those gods that destroyed everything he ever knew, everything he ever cared for, fought for 

If only you hadn’t tried to save him then maybe he could have gone on living in the delusion of this relationship .. though, it was only a matter of time before he found out anyway - one day he’d notice how you never aged ... it was inevitable 

To love you, to love you so deeply and intensely; to love you after keeping his heart sealed up for so long, to love you with the passion that burns like the stars in the sky only to know this truth - he felt that light burn out in a painful flash 

An eye for an eye - he will maintain his beliefs  

“Dainsl…” 

“Do not …” His voice caught in his throat, it was the first time you’d heard him be taken over by his emotions, “ … do not speak my name.” 

“Please, I love you.” Your hands pressed against your chest, body bent forward as if to beg him, plead with him to reconsider. 

“I owe you nothing but the repayment of the life that you saved. I shall spare yours to conclude my debt.” For one final time he gazed upon your face, burning into memory the cheeks that he once touched, the eyes that held his breath, the lips that lingered against his skin and were capable of transforming into the most incredible smile. He looked, he lingered, he tried so hard to will the power in him that would whisk him as far from you as he could go but each time he tried he stalled, like a stubborn fool he hesitated. 

Your wet cheeks moved as you studied at him with a hopeful, supplicating smile, your head shook and your lips parted as if to call out to him and the power he lacked to leave you filled him suddenly. Like a flash of lightning in a storm he disappeared from your eyes. 

Citizens will often recall the days when it rained with an intensity of a woeful god, and can’t help but notice the mysterious man who would leave the room every time your name was mentioned. 

Scara

Cool -- cool, cool, cool - you’re a divine being - bet

It’s very likely that Scara will be excited about this revelation - he already thinks so highly of himself that knowing that he has captured the affection of a god only swells his pride more than it already did

He’s so smug when you tell him, when you spill to him what you are - he doesn't believe it either and will make you demonstrate that power to him and if you look back at him after your display, you’ll see him with a devious grin 

Be careful, he may manipulate you to act as an extension of his wishes -- and if he has any vengeance to enact on the people who harmed him, you’ll have to be very strong in your convictions (though, you can do whatever you’d like honestly, you a god) 

“Again.” Scara commands, his arms crossed over his chest, head tilted up so he can look at you from his perch on the rock and a smile stretched so far across his face you wonder how his lips don’t steam in pain. 

“I’ve already shown you multiple times. Do you still not believe me?” You huff, resting your hands on your hips, adamant that you won’t comply with his request. 

“Okay okay, I’m convinced.” He shrugs, hoping off of his stoop and walking toward you. “So how long have you been a god?” 

“I don’t know, it’s hard to keep track of the years … though I’d say around 500.” 

“Interesting. Can you make me a god?” 

“No, I don’t have that authority.” 

“Disappointing, but oh well.” He stopped just before you, he was shorter than you so you looked down at him, thankful that he removed his hat otherwise you’d have a hard time seeing his face. He reached for a strand of your long hair, his fingers twirling around it before sliding down the silky strands and repeating the process. “So, why did you decide to tell me this secret of yours?” 

“I …” Why did you tell him? You knew what kind of person he was, you knew the actions that would follow - his greed and selfishness would motivate him to use this information for his own advantage. “Against my better judgement, I told you because I love you.” You cover your face with your hand, embarrassed by the confession. It’s the first time you’ve ever fallen in love with a human before, Scara was your first and that notion electrified your skin. 

“You love me?” You didn’t need to see him to catch the cocky attitude spilling from him. 

“I do …” You replied with a sigh. 

“Who would have thought that?” “Listen, if you’re going to make fun of me then I’ll just …” Your voice was cut off by Scara pulling you toward him and pressing his lips against your own. Your knees nearly gave way at the contact and you reached to his arms to stabilize yourself. His lips are thin and the power he uses, the pressure of the kiss tells you what kind of man he is. 

“This is excellent news, don’t think I’ll let you get away from me now.”  He hummed, his lips dancing over your own as he spoke, his breath warming your skin. Was this really the best human that could have stolen your heart? Well, you were sure it wouldn’t be borning. 

Childe

He’s likely indifferent to your real status - to find out that you’re an archon or a god - he’s almost unsurprised by the news  

You wonder if he didn’t already know that you weren’t human, you wouldn’t put it past him to have done some digging on you and after being alive for so long it was bound to be suspicious that you knew things that many people didn’t anymore -- it was also suspicious that Zhongli seemed to recognize you pretty quickly, his eyes shining as if he saw an old friend  

“You could have just told me.” Childe emphasized, crossing his arms and leaning against the large pole behind him. 

“I know … but, well I wasn’t really planning on sticking around.” 

“Oh, so you’re one of those.” 

“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant.” For being of reverence, you always found yourself stumbling over your words when talking to Childe. “Ugh, I meant that I didn’t think that … well that I’d fall in love with a human.” You picked at your clothes and shook your head. 

“If there was ever a human for you to fall head over heels for, I am the best candidate for that.” You looked at him, laughing at the way he pointed his thumbs at his chest and grinned from his own joke. 

“I don’t know … maybe I made a mistake?” You express, rubbing your chin with your hands.

“Hey now!” 

“I’m joking of course … so, you really aren’t … upset?” 

“Why would I be upset?” He asked, eyes furrowing and head tilting to the side. 

“I don’t know … my timeline is different from yours for one.”

“So. That doesn’t matter to me.” 

“There will be a day when you’ll be old and I won’t have aged a day.” 

“Don’t care.” You huff and take a few steps away from him. He didn’t seem to grasp what it meant to be in love with a god. This was the reason you rarely took human companions, the guilt in your heart at watching them age and the pain of losing them was all a strain on your heart. 

“Childe …” You begin again but as you turn to face him you notice he’s moved from his place and is now standing in front of you. 

“I don’t care who you are, what you are, or what you’ve done.” He takes your hand and brings it to his lips, his breath of humanity filling your very soul. “I love you, and I don’t take that feeling lightly.” 

“I don’t want you to regret choosing a partner who cannot live a normal human life.” 

“If I wanted a normal life, I wouldn’t be where I am to begin with. What I want is you, and I’m pretty good at getting what I want.” He smirked and kissed each knuckle on your hand. How was it that a man could bring down a god so easily? 

“Now, the real question …” Childe’s tone shifted, his body extended to his full height which made you tilt your head to look at him. “Do you still have your divine powers or whatever?” 

“Like …?” 

“Like, can you summon lightning or manipulate the earth with a snap of your fingers?” 

“Haha, oh, I still have my abilities, yes. There were times I had to fight, so I’ve adapted them for those purposes.”

“Excellent.” He grabbed your wrist and pulled you along after him. “Let’s fight, don't hold back.” 

“Childe! That’s dangerous.”

“Even better.” He gave you a quick wink before dragging you to a place where the two of you could engage in the battle of his dreams.