#and their relationship is so good to analyze

[taliesin-the-bored]

It was a musical, but...I am not beating the allegations.

I shall take this as an opportunity to ramble about Rómeó és Júlia, the subject of said allegations by @unstark, who may have created a monster (/j; thank you for doing so).

The first thing to know is that I haven't read Romeo and Juliet since middle school and liked it well enough then but wasn't really enthused because I liked the poetic elements but found the romance somewhat grating. However, I am a theater kid/opera nerd at heart, and looking at different versions of things and analyzing the connections, sometimes to an obsessive degree, is one of the things I live for (that's part of the lure of Arthuriana).

The second is that Rómeó és Júlia (ResJ) is fantastic, in large part because the cast is incredibly talented. I've seen all or a good portion of several different language versions of the musical, which originated in France as Roméo et Juliette (RetJ), and they all have good or decent but reasonably similar Juliets and mostly fine to mediocre Romeos. In addition to having a good Juliet, this Romeo, played by Dolhai Attila, was quite charming as an actor as well as a great singer so the rest have been mostly downhill. I am afraid, though, that like most of the people on ResJ/RetJ Tumblr, the characters I found most interesting were Mercutio and Tybalt, who both vary wildly from production to production. In ResJ, Mercutio (who fans call Zolicutio because he's played by Zoltán Bereczki) is a force of nature, and I did not properly appreciate that the first time I watched it. He sings, dances almost constantly, acts well, and raps in Magyar, and he never seems to stop or slack in energy until he dies. Tybalt, on the other hand, is a deeply tortured soul who's occasionally comedic in his melodrama (he does the Mr. Bean walk once) but has genuine pathos. I originally watched the first half without subtitles and did not realize the...ahem...concerning nature of his thoughts about Juliet, but that's in almost every version of the musical, and it is not as big a trigger warning as the obvious one, which is that Romeo and Juliet includes onstage suicide and murder, as well as references to sexual content. This is probably the first thing anyone learns about Romeo and Juliet, but I thought I should put that out there to be safe. Anyway, Szilveszter Szabó was vastly different than how I pictured Tybalt while reading the play, but he was excellent and brought a new perspective to the character. You love to see it. Also, ResJ Benvolio is a punk with the heart of a golden retriever, another far-from-the-play take which works in its context.

Now, the 2010 French version. I followed ResJ with the RetJ revival because John Eyzen's Mercutio is the second most popular Mercutio on Tumblr, after the inimitable Zolicutio, and I wanted to see what the hype was about. He is vastly, vastly different, both from how I imagined Mercutio and how Mercutio is in any other production. Eycutio alternates between stillness and over-the-top energy. He may or may not be bad mental illness rep. He may or may not be beholden to the madness-inducing entities of Chaos. Eyzen fully embraced the vibes of "La Follie" and the Queen Mab speech Mercutio has in Shakespeare to create a very unstable dude who revels in unpredictability and danger to a greater degree than Zolicutio and has probably won Best-Haired Veronese Man three years in a row. He has a love/hate relationship with Tybalt and flirts with him while fighting. (Zolicutio also flirts with Tybalt, but less in a I've-secretly-liked-you-since-we-were-twelve-but-also-hate-you-and-we-kissed-at-a-party-once-but-you-pretend-you-don't-remember-and-I'm-going-to-make-that-hard-for-you way than an I-bet-you're-into-me-and-also-that-you'll-hate-this-and-I-could-be-into-you-but-it's-not-clear-and-I-canonically-kissed-Romeo-but-didn't-seem-serious-about-it-and-I-rap-about-not-liking-romance-and-it-might-be-to-hide/drown/prevent-the-pain-or-I-might-be-aroallo-and-thriving way). Tim Ross's 2nd Tybalt looks and acts like the unlikely and maltreated test-tube child of George Michael and Cruella de Vil, and I'm going to leave it about that, because I have rambled too long without mentioning that Romeo's costume is exceptionally terrible in this one, that I really did not like Escalus, and that the Nurse was fantastic. All in all, what this one has to recommend it is the excellent Nurse, plus Tybalt and Mercutio's unevenly acted but ultimately interesting dynamic, which is the stuff of Fanlore pages.

I have not watched all of the 2001 French original, even though many people say Cécilia Cara is the best Juliet, because the other Juliets are also good and apparently a bald Mercutio is one thing I cannot take. (I could under certain conditions. If he were a young cancer patient, then that would add an urgency to his fervor for living life to the fullest, and a suspicion that he's going to die painfully soon whatever he does could influence his recklessness, but him being considerably older and more sophisticated than Romeo is weird). I might watch more of it, but it's low priority.

Apart from those, I've watched large parts of the Italian and Israeli ones, which I prefer to the French ones in acting but not in singing. The Italian one is a lot more dramatic than the Israeli one, which is maybe the least dramatic RetJ variant ever but pulls it off really well. The characters seem like normal people you would meet who try their best but get caught up in a tragedy bigger than they can understand. Of special note, as usual, is that ever-shifting scene, the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt, and this is the most original take on it I've seen. What sets it apart is that THEY DON'T EVEN DISLIKE EACH OTHER. You get the sense that they've had a lighthearted rivalry since they were kids but they're sort of friends and it's all a game to them. It's also the only version I've seen where those two actually have fencing swords, so the fight looks more realistic, emphasizing that they're playing with fire. When he realizes Mercutio is dying, Tybalt is visibly devastated and seems to lose the will to live. I don't usually cry at movies or shows, but that is the version which brought me the closest to crying.

I would like to watch the 2019 Toho version, since it comes highly recommended, but am not sure where to and might have to wait a while on that one. After I'm done with the Italian one, I intend to watch the Russian one, the German one, and the alternate cast recording of the Hungarian one. As for the English one...well, I've listened to a bit of it, and it was awful.

If you want to watch multiple versions at once or see which ones you might like, there is a great playlist on YouTube where someone edited together parts of the videos of different versions. If you want an incoherent-without-watching-the-full-thing but possibly still entertaining look into it, watch this compilation someone made, which is extremely funny if you've actually seen the full musical.

If you've read this entire semi-coherent ramble, you're a trooper. I hope it was vaguely interesting. Have a wonderful day!

it’s really easy to become obsessed with a shakespeare play you just have to watch one version of it and then read the play and then go mad trying to watch every possible version of it you can find and then study several centuries worth of performance history and controversy

[truefandemonium]

This is my attempt to analyze the Isha & Jinx dynamic. Because Arcane is my therapy. 😍

No, this is not me trying to trash talk Vi. This is me finally realizing how the pieces of season 1 fit together with the ones we get to see now.

I don’t agree withJinx’s relationship with Isha as “Jinx is being a good big sister because Vi was a bad one” etc etc. I prefer to see it as “Jinx is being the good big sister that was stolen from her.”

Vi didn’t abandon Powder the first time.

But she chose to not embrace “Jinx” when she had a chance to reconcile. Refusing to love this new version of herself was the breaking point for Jinx— she couldn’t come to terms with having her protector ripped away at such a young age, only to find what she feels is a colder version of her seven years later.

So when Jinx had the opportunity to protect a little girl just like she used to be, she wants nothing more than to be cold and distant just like how she feels Vi became.

But she can’t.

In the end, she breaks down and holds Isha close to her, protects her because that’s the kind of protection and love she misses.

The kind she wishes Vi still had for her.

[madlori]

A breakdown (no, not that kind)

So, in an effort to be clear-headed about the ship, I am here reporting a complete list of the scenes in which Tommy appears or is discussed in the context of his relationship with Buck. I'm not counting 7x03 as that was all pre-relationship (shoulder touch notwithstanding). Scenes in italics are ones in which Tommy is discussed or is present in the conversation but does not appear.

7x04

Buck visits Harbor Station

Sewer rescue (Eddie tells Buck about all the cool stuff he and Tommy have been doing)

Firehouse workout scene (Buck's angling to get an invite to basketball where he can see Tommy)

Basketball game

Tommy visits Buck's loft, first kiss

7x05

First date

Conversation with Maddie

Conversation with Eddie

Coffee date

7x06

Bachelor party

Hospital kiss

7x09

Medal ceremony

Conversation with Bobby (Tommy's good people)

7x10

Dinner scene

8x01

Birthday party scene

8x05

Tommy comes to the hospital for Buck's shoulder

Tommy and Buck at home before bed

Breakfast scene and discovering boils

Eddie comes over to look at the boils.

Waiting at the hospital for Denny

Cemetery

8x06

Miceli's anniversary date

Talking with Josh and Maddie

Final loft scene

Now.

This is not a lot of scenes. It's 24 scenes total. But what's even more telling is that 18 out of those 24 scenes are from the first two eps (when the relationship was being established) or the last two (when it was being dissolved, although that isn't apparent until the last scene).

So...six scenes in between. And that's counting one scene Tommy didn't appear in. Six scenes to carry the relationship between establishing it and breaking it down.

It felt like more, didn't it?

I can tell you why that is. Because the fandom took away from those scenes faaaaaar more than just the content of the scenes.

The birthday party scene was short, but from it the fandom inferred: Tommy is being incorporated into Eddie's life. He's maintaining contact with Chris and important enough to be included in this zoom call. He and Buck are relaxed and flirty with each other. There's some sexual sparks between them. Eddie's comfortable with the two of them.

The dinner scene was less than one minute, but from it the fandom inferred: They're cooking at home together. Buck's coming home to his person after a hard day. Tommy's opening up about his father, and their relationship isn't great. Tommy's asking about Buck and being concerned about his emotional state. Buck is listening intently to what Tommy's telling him. They have a close, settled rapport. Tommy's comfortable in Buck's kitchen. They're being flirty/naughty a bit and enjoying it. They have a healthy sexual relationship.

Tommy wasn't even there for Buck's conversation with Bobby, but from it the fandom inferred: Bobby approves of this relationship. He has seen how Buck has been while dating Tommy, and it's doing wonders for him. He hasn't had to talk about it with him or ask. He's used to seeing Buck to go Tommy overnight, motioning to the bag Buck is packing. He's happy they're dating and is all but giving his blessing for it to go on long term. Bobby is Buck's father figure, and Buck will take this as a confirmation that he's on the right path this time.

So these scenes are doing a lot of heavy lifting, but is the show doing that, or was it us?

Now, none of the inferences I just described are WRONG. Everything I just said is totally reasonable for the fandom to take from those scenes. But a casual viewer, or someone who didn't care about or like the relationship, wouldn't take that much from it. And how much we examined, analyzed and discusses every single scene in depth magnified its presence in our minds until the relationshp gains a weight in the storyline that really...isn't there as much as we thought it was.

It was NOT unreasonable or delusional of us to think this relationship was being positioned to be long term. If they had continued, if 8x06 had ended happily, that would be the first beat in the continuation. It wouldn't feel out of place that the intervening ten or so episodes only had like four scenes of them, because more would be coming, and for a potential LTR, it doesn't matter that much. So how much of that positioning was more about Tommy's identity as a character, his potential as a new member of the 118 firefam, his friendship with Eddie, him being a firefighter. The only one of those things that the show actually used was his friendship with Eddie.

It's a waste of potential. But I can't exactly call Buddie fans wrong when they say it was underdeveloped. It was developed GREAT...by us. It started real strong, trickled off, and then built up again just to end. 8x05 was by far their strongest episode, and if they'd done one or two more like that in the interim, with Tommy a much more present character, it would have been even clearer that he was to continue. But now...it just feels hollow.

I still don't know if they meant this to be a "starter" relationship all along (I still think you don't give the starter boyfriend the heroic rom-com hospital kiss, but it's clear by now I don't understand a lot of the writers' thinking) or if they were originally thinking long term and pivoted at some point. I'm frankly tired of theorizing about that. But it feels like season 7 was a lot more committed to the relationship than 8 was. The few scenes they had, had more import.

Anyway. I'm not casting any aspersions. If we read more into things than was intended, well, that's more or less the short definition of fandom.

It was fun while it lasted and I will always love the relationship, even if we never see it return.

[keepmycandleburning]

IDK if this little section of the internet is just uncharacteristically hateful and negative and miserable lately or what. I've been lurking for like a year and posting since like 2 months ago, and it seems recent. I don't really feel like inserting myself into it anymore because it's not fun.

I loved HP as a kid probably like 9-12 y/o, at which time I picked up on something between Bellatrix & Voldemort due to the be quiet, Bella and the no higher pleasure lines. I reread the series for the first time as an adult in Oct-Nov 2023, and I was astonished at how much more I am able to pull from this text now. I came away with a much greater understanding of several things I'd missed as a kid. One of these is that it was very clear to me that Bellatrix & Voldemort were written to be at least sleeping together. VERY CLEAR. It was AFTER this point that I started being part of the fandom, and way after that I've seen people claiming their relationship ISN'T in the books. To me, this is really surprising, because when I've read the books as an adult, it's quite clear. Once I got into the fandom, I found that there are a huge number of people that agree with this interpretation of the text and find is equally obvious as I do.

However, despite the fact that I've seen a number of claims that they DON'T have any relationship in the books, I don't see people using text evidence to support this interpretation. In my personal opinion, this is probably because this is a very difficult argument to make based on the text. But if you think it can be done, instead of submitting negative anon messages without any text support, why don't you write a meta? If anyone would like to make a post going through all of the things people say are text evidence for Bellatrix/Voldemort and explaining why they're not the case, I would gladly read that out of genuine interest. Or, simply going through all the excerpts on their interpersonal relationship and explaining based on the text what sort of relationship you think they DO have.

I have seen countless people over the years analyze sections of text, lines between different characters, their attitudes toward each other, their various actions, and so on, and explain why this adds up to Bellatrix & Voldemort having some sort of relationship. I have NEVER yet seen someone who DOESN'T believe they had a relationship write a text analysis of their opinion. So I sincerely invite you to go through all the bits of text that Bellamort shippers say are canon evidence and explain why they're not—in individual instances and in total. Explain why = not just 'this is my alternative interpretation without text analysis' but *how you justify this being the case based on the text*. How do you justify ignoring how countless bits of the text can be interpreted all in this one way (Bellamort) and instead interpreting them all different ways? How do you explain what JKR was intending to say about Bellatrix & Voldemort's interpersonal relationship considering all their interactions both on- & off-page? WHY are they written the way they are if they don't have an intimate relationship? Or if you believe they're not written that way, again how can you justify this based on the text? If you need a list of text moments and existing 'Bellamort is canon' metas I can compile one.

I'm curious to see what you come up with, because I've never once seen this done—and because, as I've said, it's not an opinion that I personally believe to be supported by the text. If you can explain why it is supported by the text please do that and I'll consume it in good faith.

[oll13v3r]

So uh yeah here he is. He's a silly guy, a scrunkle if you will.

He's a #humanexchangestudent (well ignore demon version that's a different universe yeah we'll say that)

His name is Oliver (haha who would've thunk it)

But yeah he did not in fact want to be there and didn't like anyone at the beginning. He grew to enjoy the presence of everyone though :]

Relationships with everyone:

Lucifer - Genuinely scared of him for a while because he's loud and mean, but found comfort in him later on

Mammon - was originally annoyed as fuck that Mammon was being rude to him, but when mammon started being nice and affectionate and stuff he quickly warmed dup to mammon. (Mammon is also #1 protector fr fr. This man can't defend himself for shit)

Levi - They're buddies!!! He dies get second hand embarrassment from the way he talks sometimes, but he very much enjoys anime as well so they get to nerd out about that stuff. He also will make Levi play horror games with him because it's silly fun.

Satan - He loves Satan. It took a while because of how abrasive he was, but once he calmed down and started being sweeter to Oliver he enjoyed his presence a lot more. He really enjoys analyzing things with Satan and snuggling with him while he reads. He also goes in Satan's room when everything else is too loud .

Asmo - Oliver was freaked the fuck out because why was he needlessly freaky??? He calmed down a bit after a while, and the two of them love doing cool outfits and makeup and such!! He always makes sure to compliment asmo and says he loves him as a person.

Beel - He's a silly guy idk what to tell you. It's not his fav to make more food than necessary when he's cooking for himself, but he still loves beel so he's willing to do so. He's also beels #1 hype man and occasionally works out with him.

Belphie - he hates him. That fact makes everyone upset. Genuinely don't know what they expected to happen.

Diavolo - Really liked him at first !! Thought he was so silly! But he started to not trust him after lesson 16 and really doesn't like the way he treats lucifer. To him it seems that lucifer is stuck there against his will to keep his brothers safe and not out of true friendship. Also he has a distrust towards government in general.

Barbatos - Mostly neutral towards him, but really enjoys his food. He also let's Oliver ramble so that's a plus.

Simeon !!! - Oliver's favorite (Don't tell mammon). Oliver didn't trust him at first because the idea of angels and heaven was really weird and corrupt to him, but when Simeon was nothing like that he clung to him. Oliver frequently visits purgatory hall to see him. He gets so much comfort from Simeon it's insane.

Solomon - He is a tad bit concerned but they're buddies. Refuses to eat his food whatsoever. Sorry pookie 💔

Luke - Little guy!!! Oliver doesn't tease him much and is just happy to help him learn and grow as a person. The two of them get up to silly shit. Loves showing him human world stuff.

Raphael - Mostly neutral. (He hasn't appeared very much in the amount of the game I've played)

Thirteen and Manifesto - Literally no clue lmao. I stopped playing during season 2 of the OG game because it's so difficult to actually get into and the writing isnt very good.

But yeah Oliver is a guy 👍

HEY

GUYS

plz comment or reblog this and talk abt your OM mc’s bc I love hearing about them and I rly rly wanna read abt peoples mc’s, and you should totally show me any art you’ve made of your mc,

or don’t that’s ok to

only if you wanna

plz

also I’d totally love to draw anyone’s sheep mc with my mc’s sheep version

they can have tea:)

[shaunashipman]

don't you feel stupid? i feel SO stupid. like i'm reading the others posts and they're saying that it was obvious that buck and tommy were going to break up and tbh i felt a little disappointed with how things were going but still i never thought this was going to happen, not like this. like all that tim&co said during s7 about handling this with care etc and then pivoting to this? i mut've missed something, this is making me feel like i was insane for believing in this

i feel stupid, but also i don't because the GA didn't see it coming either, and they're who the show is written for, so if you're confusing your intended audience and not in a good way, that's shitty writing and not on me.

i mostly feel stupid for letting the joy of bucktommy blind me to all the other problems with the show and oliver. that's something that i'm going to be upset about for a while because i thought i was better than that. i talk about analyzing the show and proper storytelling, and yeah the show fucked up in the storytelling of bucktommy with no foreshadowing, but it's fucked up a lot lately and i missed it.

but you're not insane for believing oliver and tim when they said they cared about the relationship and how it was handled. they either lied or just stopped caring at some point

[essayist-unexpectedly]

Love, Codependency, and the Accidental Toxicity of Mafuyu and Yuki

While Given is centred around Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s relationship, the lasting impacts of Mafuyu’s romance with Yuki are undeniable. The relationship between Yuki and Mafuyu was one from childhood that grew and evolved with them, eventually landing them in a romantic relationship. While some think that the two were made for each, one character being Hiiragi, a childhood friend who watched the duo evolve, however there can be another viewpoint to this. The other implication when reading Given can be the idea of codependency between Yuki and Mafuyu.

Codependency is defined as “excessive emotional or psychological reliance on a partner, typically one who requires support on account of an illness or addiction” by the Oxford Dictionary, as “a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person manifesting low self-esteem and a strong desire for approval has an unhealthy attachment to another person and places the needs of that person before his or her own” by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and finally as “a relationship is when each person involved is mentally, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually reliant on the other” by the VeryWell Mind website. While all varying, these definitions all seem to agree that codependency is an unhealthy/excessive psychological reliance on another person, often with negative reasons and consequences. Going forward with this definition created from the previous definitions, it could be seen that Mafuyu and Yuki were codependent on each other, rather than just a one sided codependency, like some people experience.

One of the first hints to Yuki and Mafuyu being codependent comes from their constant being together. From the moment that they meet up until they go to different high schools, Mafuyu and Yuki are known to always be together. Even if the two weren’t directly interacting, they are consistently within each other's radius, easily within sight of each other. When appropriate, the duo would also be touching, leaning on each other, or holding each other, really whatever touch could happen in the moment. While the constant togetherness and touch may not seem too serious, it is important to remember that codependency is reliance on another person. Their consistency and wanting to be together constantly is possibly a subtle but real sign of codependency.

The next sign is their general relationship with each other. The two were childhood friends to lovers, a trope that can be built on drama and love triangles, but in this case seemed to be a natural progression between the two characters. Yuki found Mafuyu when they were young children, likely around the age of 5, give or take a year. As the two grew up, they also grew together, becoming intertwined together, becoming inseparable. The duo were almost always together, and with that they also grew to have ‘complimentary’ personalities, as Mafuyu was a quiet and small presence while Yuki was a loud and massive personality. The duo seemed to mold themselves to fit into each other, creating a reliance for the other to be what they were not. One such way this would create a reliance is them needing each other to bounce off of. This is meant as in Mafuyu needing Yuki to speak for him and bring a sense of loudness, of life and excitement for him, while Yuki needed Mafuyu to provide a quiet and reliable space for him, someone to listen and be consistent. Not only do the two seem to have become what the other needed, but another part is their communication. The partners seem to have developed communication that didn’t always require speaking, at least when they were younger. The two seemed to be able to understand each other, understand what the other needed, and it made them even more suited for each other. Every factor of how the two were weaved together throughout their life contributed to the codependence that the two appear to share. It was the evolution from children to young teens together in such similar and at times lonely situations that caused them to grow so close, and likely so reliant on each other for a certain stability and love that they both needed, showcasing the psychological effects of codependency.

Another point towards their relationship being unhealthily dependent is Hiiragi’s view of their relationship. In some ways, Hiiragi seems to view the two as a perfect love story, perfect harmony, due to how they seem to compliment and grow with each other. In some ways, Hiiragi appears to consider Yuki and Mafuyu as perfect for each other. It was Hiiragi who, in the manga, called Yuki a “dominating and moody” person, while claiming Mafuyu to be “submissive and reserved” in terms of personality. It was observed by Hiiragi that Yuki seemed wholly and purely in love with Mafuyu. Through the chapters where Hiiragi narrates his own view on the two, there is a rose-tinted glasses look at the duo. Every character holds a bias when it comes to memories of Yuki as well as his relationship with Mafuyu, with mayhaps Shizusumi being the least biased of the old group. It is because of this bias though that Hiiragi’s view feels like he considers the two to be true love and harmony in romance, he idolised Yuki, and always cared for Mafuyu, making it difficult to point out any flaws in their relationship because of this care. It also seems that Hiiragi, likely accidentally, can be used to point out how close they were, and how reliant they were. Hiiragi stated that “Yuki needed Mafuyu, and Mafuyu needed Yuki” within episode 8 of the anime. The use of the word needed specifically is what matters so much. To claim that they needed each other, Hiiragi was admitting that it wasn’t as simple as them wanting to be together, it wasn’t as much of a choice or a want, but rather the word need has a more definitive feeling, they had to be together, never straying far or else they would suffer - which ended up being true. The truth of Hiiragi saying they needed each other was realised when Mafuyu went to a different high school and Yuki got a job, distancing them. And everything comes together during their fight, which Hiiragi and Shizusumi were witnesses to. This fight is another time where one can spot Hiiragi’s rose-tinted view of Mafuyu and Yuki’s relationship, as Hiiragi claims that the fight was a small, dumb fight, one that every couple experiences. The reason this is seen as optimistic at best is because it is clear to readers and watchers that the fight was big, it was yelling and it was mean - cemented by Mafuyu’s final sentence in the argument. Everything that Hiiragi says about Yuki and Mafuyu’s relationship feels like he was observing with rose-tinted glasses, keeping optimistic about it even as it became worse towards the end. The clear bias may mean this section shouldn’t exist, but it can also be seen as someone witnessing a codependent relationship and thinking all is perfect, when they are watching an active trainwreck. Hiiragi thinking about how the two were an opposites attract relationship, saying they needed each other, and downplaying their fight, all feels like him trying to make sense of what appeared to be his definition of a perfect relationship, and it was as if he himself could not see the codependency that someone reading or watching the series could see through him.

The fourth reason one can see them as codependent is Mafuyu's social life outside of Yuki. While yes, he also had Hiiragi and Shizusumi, it appears like he didn’t have anyone else, and even the other two were not as close to him as Yuki was. That statement isn’t meant to diminish Hiiragi, Shizusumi, and Mafuyu’s friendship, rather it is meant to lift the relationship between Yuki and Mafuyu as being on an entirely different level. It’s easily seen that Mafuyu does mainly socialise with Yuki and the other two, but more Yuki than anyone else. It feels like the two were together first, before anyone else could join, creating their little bubble of just Mafuyu and Yuki. Where this truly becomes a concern however is when one looks at Mafuyu’s social life outside of Yuki. As previously stated, at times it seems like Mafuyu felt a certain disconnect at times to Hiiragi and Shizusumi, and this suspicion is furthered by his complete shut down after Yuki’s death. While not everyone will be able to reach out and talk to others while going through grief, perhaps part of their cut off was not only Mafuyu’s depression but also him worrying that he was not close enough to the other two to be able to reach out. Ignoring that speculation, one can take into account the character page of Mafuyu, which states that he was never a part of any clubs or teams, meaning he never really branched out socially. While not much is explored about Mafuyu’s life before Uenoyama outside of what is with Yuki, this feels intentional to show that there wasn’t a lot for him outside of the other boy. The flashbacks seen in Mafuyu’s point of view are consistently with Yuki - their first meeting, their school days, dates, their fight, and finally, Yuki’s death. Nothing else seemed to truly exist, it was as if Mafuyu could ignore all others for Yuki, as he was his world. The lack of a social life can definitely be seen as a sense of reliance on Yuki, solidifying the idea of him being codependent on the other.

The second to last point within Strawberry Swing, specifically the fourth part being a supposed dream sequence that honestly feels like an actual connection to Yuki in the afterlife that Mafuyu has. This dream is where the two actually seem to say goodbye to each other, a certain feeling of peace and melancholy flowing from this section of the manga. Within part four of Strawberry Swing, Yuki and Mafuyu talk on a swing set, with Yuki telling Mafuyu that the redhead has to go, and Mafuyu then leaving. After this, Yuki states that there is a gaping hole within Mafuyu left behind from Yuki’s suicide, and while it may get smaller with time, it shall never be fully repaired, and Yuki would always reside in that hole, listening to Mafuyu as he sings. Overall, this section of the story is a beautiful look into Yuki’s mind on Mafuyu’s healing, and totally feels more like a spiritual encounter than just a dream thanks to the point of view appearing to be Yuki’s, and the outside look at Mafuyu and his grief. Its beauty is only enhanced by the tragedy that speaks within this section though, as it seems to admit that Mafuyu will never fully be able to move on from Yuki or heal from his death. That being said, grief is of course an extremely long process, and it isn’t a linear path to moving on or somehow getting rid of grief, that is simply not how it works. It is not the grief itself that is interesting in this section, but rather the way that Yuki swears to always be in Mafuyu’s heart. Even in death, Yuki will forever stay with Mafuyu, even if he isn’t alive or physically there. Not necessarily a sign of the two being codependent, but definitely an interesting aspect of the manga to consider when it comes to their relationship.

The final point is a line brought up in the Strawberry Swing story within Given. This line is said by Yuki’s mother, Saeko, who states that “Mafuyu… I selfishly believed… that you were that child’s anchor”. She believed that Mafuyu was Yuki’s anchor to the world, that he was the one who kept the other boy alive and stable, tethered to the world. There is also a line where she mentions how Yuki was “like his father”, who is either outright dead or at least implied to be dead, and this line also basically tells the audience it was suicide, and a mental disorder was likely passed down to Yuki from his father. It is made clear in Strawberry Swing that Saeko believed that Mafuyu would be able to keep Yuki alive and well, which isn’t something two children/teenagers should have to do for each other, which she even admits to, saying she was selfish in believing Mafuyu was his anchor and that it was wrong of her to think. This part screams of a mother who watched her son become extremely psychologically reliant on another boy, and only after his death is able to reflect and see how unhealthy it was for both of them. After all, the role of the anchor is extremely dangerous for both parties, as it puts so much pressure on the anchor to keep a good and stable presence, while it leaves the other person with one person who truly connects them to the world, rather than them feeling as though they have a full support system. These roles become even worse in the case of Mafuyu and Yuki, who are two teenage boys in love with mental health issues. They were not stable enough to be in the roles of anchor and tethered person, even if they wanted to be that for each other. So, while terrible for them, the anchor comment definitely implies that Yuki was extremely reliant on Mafuyu to keep him tethered to the world, keep him living, which is a sign of codependency.

In the end, there are codependent tendencies that seem to exist in Mafuyu and Yuki’s relationship. The two boys appeared to rely on each other mentally and socially, which can qualify people for a codependent relationship. While peers, especially Hiiragi, appeared to see them as two perfect halves of a whole, idolising the weaved together nature of Mafuyu and Yuki, it can easily be seen as a rose-tinted view to the duo’s relationship and end up revealing more negative than expected. The additional view of an adult, specifically Yuki’ mother, Saeko, seeing Mafuyu as an anchor for Yuki only enhances the idea of an imperfect and overly reliant relationship. Although it is painful to admit, there is little doubt that one can pick up on hints and read Yuki and Mafuyu as an accidentally toxic codependent relationship.

[wickmitz]

I decided to start talking about Wick and Rocky's relationship because I like their dynamics too, I like seeing Wick scared of Rocky and Rocky being aggressive with him, which is unusual because Rocky is rarely aggressive with anyone, but of course Wick is an exception to rule

Also my mini opinion about their possible relationship, I think that if Rocky didn't have to fight for his place, then he and Wick could become friends, or at least tolerate each other a little, I also see some superficial similarities, their gentlemanly and romantic natures, and their common love for explosions (remembering the quarrymen chapter), but this is my assumption, I think that I don't understand the characters' personalities well, so I can be wrong in this assumption, something like that. So, what do you think about their relationship?

for starters, i cannot thank you enough for this ask! as i’ve said previously, i have many thoughts on these two, so it’s nice to finally be able to share some of them. although given the extent to which i think about them, i apologize in advance if this is sloppy and sort of everywhere … while i’ll try to structure things the best i can, i cannot promise i’ll succeed! but hopefully this is an enjoyable reply nonetheless.

one of my favorite things about rocky and wick’s relationship is absolutely how aggressive rocky is towards the aristocrat ; he is prone to glares and cruel jokes and borderline hissing whenever the man is within his line of sight, or can be brought to a wailing-fit over the mere mention of his name from miss m’s mouth. there is a childishness to it, but a very prominent threat as well in spite of rocky’s usual incompetence. so he goes out of his way to posture around wick, readily lying and adorning himself with the gangster drapes he so badly wants to wear, in the hopes that it intimidates … will even badmouth wick’s family and make fun of his name and rock related obsession to mitzi, and so on so forth! yet all of this is very reminiscent of schoolyard bullying rather than anything too severe, though we as the audience understand rather quickly that rocky would bash wick’s head in with a tire iron if he could. ( translation : if it wouldn’t earn the tears or hate of a certain beloved mitzi may ) and it’s all very intense despite the absence of actual violence! and i understand why many fans see this as unusual for rocky and believe that it’s only wick who makes him act so aggressively, but i’d argue it isn’t really wick at all that prompts such scary reactions from him … and that rocky is a deeply angry character who’s a.) been boiling quietly for a long, long time and b.) has turned wick into a punching bag of sorts for this inner world of resentment and hurt. basically, when he’s judging the well-to-do or poking fun, his eyes don’t look at wick and actually acknowledge him as sedgewick sable ; instead this is a being, something vague and metaphorical, who threatens to upseat rocky’s permanence in the lackadaisy and steal away his savior, and he’s had a hand in the violinist’s misfortune for a long time.

obviously, rocky doesn’t think wick robbed him of his family twice over and made him homeless, but he is channeling the fear and anguish of those events into his loathing for wick, if that makes sense? it’s easier that way -- to finally have an outlet for everything bleeding inside of you, to be able to bite and claw at something without feeling conflicted or having to take personal accountability for your own mistakes … which is something that i think rocky does struggle with to a degree. he is sort of a finger pointer! his pain has to be worth something, it has to be for someone else ; spending years homeless and losing his last bit of family was for freckle, and the scrambling of his literal brain was for mitzi, and that means he can’t ever be angry with them! well, except that he is, somewhat, but he buries it deep down instead of feeling it. with freckle there is a sense of strain between them -- an air of ‘you owe me’ from rocky to freckle as he uses freckle to appease miss m, and he constantly pokes fun at his cousin too. it’s lighter than his jabs at wick, but there’s a constant pestering, a reminder of how good freckle has it : how he’s got the mom and the house and the job and the girl most notably. i don’t think rocky is intending to come across as mean, and to his credit he hardly does! but it’s rather clear to me that some part of him, some hidden and deeply hurt part, is rather indignant about taking the fall for freckle all those years ago. which he can’t understand, because how could he? he made that choice, he decided to take accountability for something he didn’t do because he loves freckle and knows it’d be so easy to believe this family tragedy was roark’s fault ; the devilish child he was, all troublesome and too broken to properly fit anywhere. so there is a disconnect born here, where rocky can’t comprehend that he’d be angry at freckle, so instead these not so great feelings are placed elsewhere and silently boil over time. and with mitzi … i don’t think he’s angry at her per se, but there is a frustrated and desperate chorus of : why him and why not me, when i’m the one out here dying for you? which is certainly unpleasant. of course, rather than allowing those feelings to be more aimed at miss m, whom he feels unloved by, he ( again! ) represses these emotions and allows them to fester into his greatest fears and fantastical complexes. i think there is a lot of other miscellaneous anger he could have towards others too … perhaps some part of him is sore upon seeing ivy’s normal lifestyle, watching her go to university and knowing that’s been taken from him. or an ache felt when hearing stories from zib and the band and how they used to travel successfully, living as nomads, and rocky is all too reminded of his similar lifestyle and how he couldn’t make it work as effortlessly. people with immense trauma are more prone to irrational anger and jealousy, to viewing everything around them as unfair and believing it’s even more unjust that so many people get to live comfortably while they’ve suffered. a situation that gets more messy when you’re someone like rocky, a man who’s willingly made choices that have harmed himself and wants to continue on with his smiling, bumbling fool of an act. he does not want to be angry, does not want to see it within himself, i think, which leads to an accidental increase of it.

all of this is to reiterate that wick is a scapegoat for rocky and nothing more. it’s why he’s rather hypocritical whenever it concerns the man. for example, it was stated by tracy that he looks down upon wick for his excessive presence at the bar, yet he appears to enjoy hanging out with zib -- who drinks just as often! he makes fun of how all wick ever talks about is rocks, when he himself is prone to poetry rambles that people find irritating or boring, and etc etc. this is also just a human nature thing, to critique someone you heavily dislike and even going as far as to belittle things you love or do in your own day to day because you just hate them that bad! but given rocky’s willingness to befriend anyone, it more so reeks of a dehumanization element. wick is every obstacle in his way, every divine force that threatens to send him packing again, so he is equal parts unnerved by wick’s presence and angry about it. it is mostly a fear response we are seeing, an emotion that’s morphed into long held resentment and anger. so his actions are extremely defensive, with him trying to push wick far away and keep him and mitzi separate, like some sort of animal attempting to ward off a threat that’s come too close to their home. despite the loaded animosity there, this hate has hardly reached its peak … but it shall only grow more intense as things continue onward i’m afraid, since as it stands ( in the comic at least ) rocky is at an all time low … and is ten times more desperate. i’d honestly say wick has become so warped in his mind’s eye that he can only strive towards ‘winning’ over the other man, because that’s all he can see anymore. i think mitzi implying that wick willingly helped her out, the intense head injury, and rocky’s fragile emotional state is exactly what pushes him towards premeditated murder in look-see. i don’t know how people perceive that arc, but to me it’s very clear that rocky actively sought to see the deaths of wes and fish that night. going as far as to lament that he’d be, “very disappointed if ( he ) dreamed them,” and purposefully luring the marigold duo away to have freckle pick them off. while you could argue that this was a smart move, in a gangster sort of sense, there’s still no denying that rocky is oddly chipper about the whole thing and is now seeking death out ; whereas before his methods of vengeance were just, well, ruining people’s livelihood but ultimately leaving them alive. this isn’t to discredit the fact that rocky is going through something! he is in a very muddled and dark place, mentally and physically, but even tracy has said that the head injury hasn’t changed rocky’s personality -- it’s only brought things to the surface.

source : q&a with tracy .

which, yeah! makes sense! head trauma can cause a person to become a wreck emotionally ( think mood swings, irritability, etc ) but it doesn’t completely morph someone either. personality changes may occur, but it’s not like you’re being rewritten entirely, you know? and given tracy’s old statement, it’s clear that ‘personality changes’ aren’t a side effect he’s suffering from. something that adds to my beginning statement, which is that rocky is a deeply angry and troubled person, more so than fans give him any credit for.

however, to touch upon your mini opinion about these two, i actually wholeheartedly agree that rocky and wick could become friends if circumstances were different. they do in fact have many superficial similarities, but one of the more prominent things they deeply share is never really belonging in the groups they frequent. this is more overt with rocky’s character, yet wick faces it too in subtle ways. the well-to-do crowd, seen through the investors, find the gentleman to be lacking in about every place imaginable ; to them he is an obsessive freak who cares too deeply for meager rocks, something they constantly mock him for, while he’s also being noticeably set apart from the rest of them … he seems younger than the investors, more excitable, passionate, and a little less experienced, and doesn’t seem to care for money or reputation as much as them either. there is a constant rubbing between him and them, where what he enjoys is seen as wrong, such as his love for the lackadaisy and his choice in paramor, a grieving widow with extremely dangerous ties. we also know that wick doesn’t have many friends at all, with the only two he has being lacy and church ( church is listed as such on his character profile, in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way ), both of whom work for or with him. they are obliged to hang around, and while they care in varying ways, they are prone to judging him just as much. honestly, it’s not shocking that wick seeks refuge at his chosen speakeasy! but even there he is rather distant from everyone else. he doesn’t speak to zib ever in the comics, nor seems all too close with viktor, ivy, or horatio … it is merely mitzi he is close to, even if he knows of the other people who work there. and, once again, wick very obviously doesn’t fit in. he is not gangster material, could never be an atlas may replacement, much less someone who could get his paws dirty in such an active way. so he has his feet in two different worlds and doesn’t know how to fit into either of them, or which one he actually wants to fit into more. i think in many ways rocky could relate -- these are two very lonely people who wish to belong somewhere and be accepted by some group or another but go about it in all the wrong ways. wick, who is too hesitant to fully commit to what he wants and is worse off for it, and then rocky, who obsessively throws himself against what he wants until he breaks every bone in his body. they also have explosives to bond over, lol, and other miscellaneous things like their taste in women i suppose … but this potential bond adds to the tragedy of lackadaisy, where we see two people who on every level should get along but we’re burdened with the knowledge that it’s an impossibility anyway, because there’s no removing the circumstance of which they’re in.

though i like to believe that despite wick’s fear of rocky, he maintains a kindness towards him regardless. i think his worries about rocky are rather surface level … he doesn’t know the boy at all, really, and thus can’t make heads or tails of him, hence him believing the lie in balderdash. so when i’m feeling particularly self indulgent, i like imagining a world where they’re forced together and sort of ‘stuck’ together ; to which rocky finally breaks and exposes his wounds to wick, in every sense of the word, and wick finally gets him. the aggression, the possessiveness of mitzi … it is all fear and desperation and a profound sadness, things he’d sympathize with. if rocky was able to explain that he loathes wick because if he saves the lackadaisy then mitzi won’t need him anymore and that it’s not fair that wick gets to so easily fix things when rocky would give his soul for his home, for her, and how wick could render every sacrifice he’s already made for naught by smoothing things over with some greenbacks and he can’t lose this, he just can’t --! … which, well, wick is too kind of a man to be able to do anything except feel awful, even though it’s not his fault at all. here we have two people who could coexist! and they should, since rocky logically can’t do every speakeasy job ( band member, rumrunner, mitzi’s shadow, also the guy who gets the money for the hooch ) by himself, just like how wick can’t save the lackadaisy with only his cash and limited booze stash. it’d be a joint cooperation, a collaboration between them, both equally important in the grand scheme of crime’s every turning wheel … but rocky’s rage and fear won’t let him see that, and likely never will. still, in scenarios where everything ends up alright for the lackadaisy and the people involved in it ( which is not how canon will go, by the way ), i fancy wick and rocky getting better within their relationship. rocky will always be prickly and quick to upset around the other man sadly, but perhaps he could see wick in a softer kind of light. or at least understand vaguely enough that he isn’t out to get rocky, so to speak. and then maybe wick learns that pancakes soothe rocky’s ire and poorly makes them anytime he wishes to talk to the man, and other fun things like that! but you should have more confidence in your character analysis skills, because you were spot on ( at least in my eyes ) about them potentially getting along if things were different. it’s certainly a fun aspect to play around with, and is important to note when discussing their relationship so you can fully understand just how warped rocky’s perspective on things are. and how unstable and traumatized he is too, of course </3 sidenote, but i also hope that throughout everything i’ve said here, or anything i’ve said before on my blog, that my love for rocky and my own sympathy for him comes across well enough. while he’s deeply flawed and i have no qualms discussing said flaws in depth, i also don’t think of him as some insane freak who’s evil at his core or anything like that. honestly, i adore analyzing him so much as a character because of how far down his issues go! he’s very well written, i’ll say, as is wick and many of the other characters, but i digress.

once more, thank you for the ask! i’ll end this here because i fear if i don’t i’ll start going in circles, since their relationship is so vast and very important for rocky in a character sense. hopefully i shed some more light on it though! i love these two to bits and pieces and i wouldn’t be half as invested in lackadaisy if their dynamic wasn’t so monumental -- at least to me.

[spacedlexi]

maybe if i just put these screenshots together youll understand why i think their relationship just Works so well as it pertains to the characters and themes of S4 in general

neither of them know what theyre doing, but theyre figuring it out Together. the old ways are dead. and together theyll build a new future thats worth fighting for

[ingravinoveritas]

So anna posted this picture just after the trailer the assembly got released abit it fairly obvious after the trailer showed the 1st question so is she trying to show ppl that michael happy in this photo like he smile like he happy or been made to look happy for the family photo

What ur thoughts on Al post

Ask from @kime11e, who also included a screenshot of the above comments:

(Grouping all of these together for ease of answering.)

So...whew. Of course this all had to happen on Wednesday as I was at one speaking engagement and traveling on the way to another one today. Let me just make sure I have the order of events down... - The trailer for The Assembly came out earlier in the day; - Anna then shared the above photos from the trip to Disneyland Paris; - An hour or so after that, she shared the trailer as an Insta story; - ...And then a few hours later we see that she's replied to the comment in the screenshot above.

Wow. It feels like an entire week (or month's) worth of content somehow happened in the space of a day. I will say that for me, again what this all comes down to is timing and/or PR. The trailer was released and soon all of social media was abuzz over that one particular question (It was rude! It was totally fine! Let's use this as another excuse to attack Michael! and so on...). Bear in mind that we (as of now) have no idea what Michael's answer is to that question, but that did not stop the almighty furor from the fans assuming that he must have been offended/uncomfortable/upset and so on, and this set off a wave of fresh speculation and discussion about Michael and AL's relationship.

...And just when all of this chatter is happening, AL posts the family photos. The reasons for this could be numerous, from damage control (again, without us knowing how he even responded to the question) to trying to (again) push the "happy family" image, to who knows what. Whatever the case may be, I really don't feel like the timing was a coincidence. Also again, I am baffled by her choice of caption: "We dragged him" immediately followed by the tag #itwashisidea. Two things that seem to contradict each other, leaving it unclear what the truth actually is. Was it actually Anna's idea, insisting on them going away on Michael's three days off, and using that tag as a deflection?

It becomes even more interesting when you realize that David and Georgia are currently in Disneyland as well (albeit in California, rather than Paris). Not long after AL posted the pictures, the discourse on social media immediately shifted to "Omg, are Michael and David and their families are on vacation together?" And just like that, the focus yet again shifted away from AL and back to Michael and David (as it always seems to do).

One other thing that is interesting about the caption is that one of my followers sent me the below screenshot via DM, which is of a tweet Michael wrote in 2020 for Lyra's birthday, and the similarities are quite striking:

The cadence of AL's caption and Michael's tweet could be a complete coincidence, but it's hard not to think that there is some PR aspect to this/that someone went to the trouble of echoing a previous tweet about the kids to reinforce a particular narrative.

In any case, I do think it is lovely to see Michael smiling, which he always does when the kids are there (in contrast, notably, to when we are talking about a picture of just him and AL). But what really struck me about all of this is the comment shown above, and Anna's response to it. The commenter added another response that is not shown, so I will include a screenshot of it now:

What's so interesting is that the commenter asked exactly the same question that Michael was asked in The Assembly trailer...and AL set a very specific tone in her response to that (and to this commenter).

I've been surprised to see people characterize her response as "chill," when there is really nothing chill about this at all. It's her typical passive-aggressive style, which we're all used to at this point, but it also reeks of insecurity. I have a hard time seeing how this makes her a "queen," as someone who is "unbothered" would not respond in the way that she did. Regardless of whether the commenter was asking sincerely or meant it as a dig, someone who genuinely felt confident and secure in their relationship wouldn't even respond to this comment at all. I'm also not sure what people expected her to say. Do we think she would be fully honest about her feelings or admit to any cracks in their relationship? Most people (famous and otherwise) would not, and certainly not on social media, either.

My feeling is that Anna was very bothered by this, and (again) tried to copy Georgia's snarky/quippy way of responding to comments, and likely did not at all expect that person to throw it right back at her. So why, then, bother responding at all? Why not just block the person, or ignore the comment entirely? Because from my perspective, it seems like all AL did was draw attention to it, and to the fact that it struck a nerve in her, which just does not seem to be a good look from any angle. And all of this coupled with the timing of the post directly after the release of the trailer really makes me wonder what, exactly, Michael said in his interview. We'll find out soon enough, though, since the show airs tomorrow.

That is my take on AL's post and all of the events of the past few days. As always, this is only my perspective, but I am glad to hear from my followers with your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree. Thanks for writing in! x

[transmascutena]

thinking about how akio sees his younger self in utena and wondering if there's any fondness there. doesn't change the horror of what he does to her obviously but i do wonder

[the-woker]

The whole Jason Todd is girl-coded debate thing admittedly just rubs me the wrong way.

I understand that there are people who consider gender as a concept and there are other people who consider gender to be something very real. Both are correct and very valid statements of expression, but someone who is genderless and has a heavy respect and fondness for the feminine and people with such experiences, I feel like what we are declaring 'girl-coded' should probably be a bit more analyzed and taken with more care.  

I have no ill-will to any of the people who post about this, they all seem like kind people, and everyone is entitled to their opinions and to posting them.  There is nothing wrong with projecting onto a character, identifying with their struggle and using that to cope with your trauma.  As someone who’s favorite character of all time is Jason Todd, and enjoys gender-weirdness,  and has been severely mistreated for being perceived as feminine before, I understand entirely. 

But there's a point when I can't help but feel uncomfortable with assigning being violent, a victim, “hysterical angry-like a girl”, expressing rage via screaming, and looking up to women in general as 'girl moments' and explicitly stating these as the reasons a male character is girl coded. And those have been the very specific points I have seen cited as what traits Jason has that make him "girl-coded."

I'm putting this all under a read more since this discussion is really not that deep, nor is it really relevant to the average Jason Todd tag surfer. It's just something I keep seeing talked about in the past few months.

Admittedly, just to begin with, the argument that what makes Jason ‘girl-coded’ is the fact that he is a victim in general, has strong connections with women, tends to like strong and muscular women, and has been vitriol in his screaming matches with other characters simply does not sit well with me as an explanation for what people are associating women with.  A female character can indeed do everything Jason did in a comic story, and I would enjoy it greatly, however staking these specific traits of his as the “feminine” ones is treading into a dangerous territory.

Especially since I’ve seen a few times now that people are claiming Jason and Batman’s fight in UTRH to be a Patriarchy metaphor and how Jason represents women’s struggles. The first problem I have with that claim, is very simply that Jason and Bruce’s fight is explicitly not about Bruce being a system that failed to protect Jason.

Nor is it about a pressure for Jason to return to conforming to Bruce and his rules.  Bruce wants him back with him, because Bruce loves Jason, but at no point does he attempt to force him to return to him, nor does he even force him to stop killing.  He certainly gets in the way and he prevents several of them, but when given the direct choice to either kill or force Jason to stop killing, he simply walks away and only intervenes after Jason attempts to kill Bruce himself. Calling this an analogy for women fighting against oppression by an organized system designed to exploit them, is not an apt metaphor, as likable and sympathetic as it is towards Jason, and I’d personally recommend avoiding it.

In general, on that topic.  The argument could be made for other male members of the Batfam (take Dick Grayson’s constant sexual harassment for being a ‘pretty boy’ for example.), but Jason is also simply just not a victim of the Patriarchy.

Unlike Stephanie Brown, Jason was accepted immediately by Bruce as Robin and as part of the family.  He was murdered by his mother for being an obstacle in her operation of stealing from starving people, and by a madman who killed him for being one of his nemeses.  His murder was upsetting but had nothing to do with him not presenting himself as society claimed he should, nor for not obeying said society's customs and arbitrary rules.

Under the Red Hood is a fascinating, engaging, philosophical, and extremely emotional piece of media and it’s a favorite for many people (including me) for a reason.  Highlighting Jason’s actions as being a ‘girl moment’ when he is intentionally trying to push past Bruce’s only boundary, however, is an uncomfortable idea to proclaim. Especially considering when and how Bruce tries to negotiate and reason with Jason. Jason quite literally holds their relationship, and his life, over Bruce in an attempt to get him to behave how he wants, claiming that he does so as an expression of femininity has horrible implications. Jason is entirely allowed to do what he wants (I enjoy it greatly. His violence is very sexy and honestly we should bring it back) but that is a gender neutral choice, and I wouldn’t say that this run nor his backstory have much in common with women’s struggles to label them as “clearly being such”.

Additionally, The narrative is also not portraying Jason as “hysterical”; this was his first proper return to comics after 20 years. The intention of the narrative is to challenge the morality of Batman and to open an in-universe line of discourse for a discussion that for years, has been, and still is relevant in the comic community.  

Jason’s death was notoriously the moment that Batman got closest to breaking his rule and so they brought Jason back to be the character who pushed him on why he maintained it.  They made Jason angry and violent to raise the stakes of what the Joker did to him, and to raise the question of if there was a crime so horrible that it was a moral failing to continue the pacifist approach to criminal reform.  Jason is being treated in a significantly kinder light than most of the characters we would traditionally see doing these actions.  We all agree Lock-up was a bad guy, we can agree that the League of Assassins is wrong, but we’re given a chance to take Jason at face value and are not immediately told how to feel despite the narrative showing us his violence in a raw and uncut way. Killing a bunch of drug dealers while rising in the ranks of the drug trade yourself is hardly a selfless act of good after all. 

Disclaimer 1:  I don’t think Jason is entirely wrong about many things.  But I simply do not believe Bruce “owes” him killing, and that it is wrong of Jason to demand this of him or anyone for that matter. Nobody owes you their innocence and you aren’t entitled to breaking anyone’s boundaries. 

Disclaimer 2:  I cannot stress enough how much I like Jason.  This post is not meant to make anyone feel bad, or make Jason seem like the “bad guy” of the fandom.  It’s simply a disservice to his character to write him off as nothing more than an angry victim and call it an expression of femininity, and a reminder to be a bit more careful when labeling and assigning traits. 

[namisweatheria]

I wish so badly that skypeia wasn't a nauseatingly racist narrative that purports the colonizer's fantasy whitewashed narrative of how they saved "savages" (THEY ACTUALLY USE THAT WORD!!!!!!!!) from themselves. The part where they bring CURES to disease instead of, you know, the intentional spread of it as biological warfare that actually happened, gets me so fucking mad every time. Or when the poor poor guilty old colonizer president feels so bad and tries to give some land back and they refuse because they're too mad. Something that has never ever happened anywhere ever. ITS UNBELIEVABLY CARTOONISHLY RACIST THE WHOLE THING.

Just like the million other offensive caricatures in one piece, they do not end up being as two dimensional as they originally appear, and they and their feelings are taken seriously by the narrative. An effective story that tugs on your heartstrings in it's culmination is eventually crafted, BUT HE HAS TO MAKE YOU SO SO MAD AND UNCOMFORTABLE FIRST. EVERY TIME. WHY.

[no-psi-nan]

The first chunk of this post addresses some of your points but to answer it more directly, you're confusing Teruhashi's canon character arc of ADMITTING she likes Saiki with a non-existent arc where she falls in love with who he truly is (which is impossible until he does a power reveal and starts being himself around her for real).

Teruhashi doesn't ever get to know the real Saiki, nor does anyone know him outside of the Psychickers and his family (relevant post).

She thinks he's a guy who sits quietly in the corner and only ever says "good grief". She doesn't know he's a sarcastic mfer who loves to talk back and snark, she doesn't know he spends his free time reading obscure books and playing shitty video games, she doesn't know he'd move heaven and earth to help a stranger and put his life on the line to help a friend.

Teruhashi actually hated the most "real" moment Saiki has been, when they're at the mall/arcade and Saiki smokes her at every single game mercilessly lmao (Saiki won't even let Kaido or Nendo win a game against him, he's extremely opposed to losing). Where's the evidence that Teruhashi would actually LIKE someone who backtalks her and challenges her assumptions? She sure was quick to put Imu in her place lol. And this issue even harkens back to Volume 0, where Saiki questions why girls keep falling in love with him when he's essentially masquerading as a lamp post.

I have a whole post about the karaoke scene specifically too and battled Tumblr to find it for you (I forgor how long ago I wrote this 😳)

So yeah, Teruhashi finally admits to herself that she's in love with a guy that she barely knows anything about, and yet in the final episodes she struggles to compliment him to his grandfather, which hurts his feelings hsfjdlshfks rip.

You'll have to excuse me for not thinking that this is the height of romance lol.

[marrfixated]

(More thoughts and drafting! Some weird formatting I know but it was all one block in my notes)

Emma is doing just fine. Average. It’s really not so bad.

She’s just been dealing with a lot of change. And with too many things not changing.

Which is… an odd thing to struggle with.

Because she likes change. Daunting challenges. The unpredictable. Doing new things every day and never being scared of them. And she likes independence.

She had thought so, at least.

After the show, she had been hit in the face with just how… isolated she was. She had only had two friends before the first season, but she had left them behind. Her mother wasn’t doing the best, and she didn’t have any nearby family.

She found herself laying in her bed in the middle of the day most of the time, scrolling through her contacts and old conversations.

Or scrolling through her comments on TikTok.

A few weeks ago, she had tried some stunt involving a motorcycle and an inflatable pool. She probably wouldn’t have messed it up if her hands weren’t trembling.

(She had forgot to check the breaks, and wasn’t sure if they were working.)

(They were.)

The blood dripping down her face and the gash in her lip didn’t sting as much as it did watching the video.

She looked ridiculous, and she probably always did. It was better when she had someone else to do it with. Maybe she was losing her touch.

She didn’t post the video.

She turned back to dancing instead, which did feel less embarassing, despite the constant mocking feedback. Sure, the jokes were “funny”, but she didn’t care about any of it. She didn’t feel the rush, she wasn’t planning every day, and she wasn’t known or loved for anything.

Except for what she lost.

And, the show, to an extent.

-Ugh, she misses the show. She shouldn’t, but as stupid as it sounds, she really did. She missed doing crazy things and talking to people. Having a chance of winning. Beating everyone. Being cheered on. It wasn’t always great, but at least it was something. She misses doing something.

And she really misses Bowie. She missed Bowie, but she knows better than anyone that she can’t go back to that. They just- have better things to do now. He probably does.

He’s got Raj- which is great! And she’s happy for him! She’s happy for everyone. For Wayne, however he’s doing, for Julia, despite everything.

And Caleb. For having Priya.

Emma is jealous that Bowie gets to have someone.

Emma is jealous that everyone else gets to have someone.

Emma is jealous that, unlike everyone else, winning the show probably wouldn’t have made her any happier.

She isn’t sure what would.

[musicawizard]

i swear

the good omens fandom is its own worst enemy

it doesn't matter if i've come across the cutest fanart that made me scream cry throw up and squeal, or read a headcanon/wip that made me giggle uncontrollably because of how cute it was

because the next post after that one is one of the most angst-filled, emotionally devastating, analytical dives into the plot and tragedy of the characters that makes me scream cry and throw up in utter defeat

(and don't even get me started on the angsty fanart. I am NOT strong enough to see so much pain and devastation yet still be completely enraptured by its beauty)