#and I'm sorry but I disagree

[bixels]

tarpit site.

[luna-loveboop]

Wars and Wild as knights in Lu

They have issues.

I have a lot of thoughts on Wild and Wars and their relationship (Order of this post is talking about saluting, Wild and Wars' different perspectives, memory issues, and fire) Rant time.

No saluting!!

So Wild took a formal- almost/awkwardly saluting pose when Wars confronted him in 'Entrance pt.2'

It's similar to the first time Wild addressed Wars as 'captain'. His left hand is up from where a salute should be, and his overall posture is awkward, with his shoulders and right hand raised, but it's clear he's trying to do a salute in the presence of a fellow knight.

In the second example his hand is behind his head, but his posture is very straight and his right arm stiff- he's again attempting a formal saluting position. Which is still awkward

It is less clear but his changes in posture clued me in. He goes from like a deer in the headlights to visibly sweating to straight backed and looking up at Wars- looking at the changes in his body language

Side note but I literally love how Jojo draws the champions tunic so much-

We can't see the action of Wild's body language in a comic, just the positions he went to. But he visibly leaned away from Wars before switching to a straight backed saluting-like posture. He's clearly freaked out, hence Twilight's face: >:(

I think that Wild taking somewhat military poses around Wars is important to their relationship issues because it comes from his struggle with memory and identity

.

So like. All of them have different perspectives

Wars

I adore Wars. He is baby and I love him. I think it is also important to acknowledge that he would not speak to any of the others this way.

And the scarf man cmon it's so pretty they are so cute-

Why is Wars talking to Wild like this? He's called him out and reprimanded him multiple times in front of the others. Wild has taken it well but tbh if it was Legend I think he would be on fire.

To some extent I think he is in captain mode. I think that he has trouble seeing Wild as not a knight. Wars gives Wild respect as a knight who sacrificed for his kingdom, but now it seems he's taking it away as a knight who's not doing well enough since he 'disregarded the plan'

At least I think that's the outside (or Wild's) view of it. But Wars internally really cares about Wild and he saw him run up to a giant and lose it. Different ways of showing concern perhaps?

Who wouldn't want to keep Wild from getting more scars?

I just. Don't doubt for a second Wars really cares about Wild- even if the way he's acting still isn't cool. He has no right to treat him like a soldier any more than the rest of the chain, and right now I think Wild is acting as the more mature person.

Wild

I adore Wild. He is baby and I love him. I think it is also important to acknowledge that although he is clearly making efforts after Twilight's injury, Wild has ignored Wars for the majority of Lu, by not speaking to him much, and not thanking or acknowledging Wars when he directly helped him. (Small example being walking with Hyrule not Wars when injured and not directly responding to Wars)

Wars cares about and respects Wild, but it seems Wild wants nothing to do with him, and he's been cold towards Wars for the majority of Lu. To Wild, Wars reminds him of his perceived failure. Which is valid feelings, but still not fair. And I think that ask is talking about these two.

The thing I love about this is each of them are right and wrong in some ways, leading to the tension between them. So fully blaming either of them is not logical

The rest of the chain is just vibing. Except twilight who's mad and wants them to just grow up, but. Heros of courage not wisdom @uniquevoidflowers ;)

And that ask- '''Are any of the Links ever jealous of another Link for adventures that were less difficult/life threatening?'' ''When you hear Wild say he 'hates' someone you'll have your answer.''' somewhat leads to my next point-

Wild's identity and memory issues exacerbate all of this

In Entrance, Twilight is being stressed and defensive, that's ok. What concerns me most is that Twilight has talked with Wild through stuff like this in his rough moments

Wild has tried to be formal several times- he is not very good at it

Four's face I can't didnwidkekfjej

Wild isn't and can't be 'him'- the same 'perfect' (<actually has crippling anxiety) knight he was before, and Twilight knows this. And I agree with him a bit, I think, that Wars is making things worse in Wild's mind by being that perfect soldier, and seemingly holding Wild to a standard he isn't

Wild's attempts at saluting is symbolic of that- Wars makes him feel like a failure trying to be the person he should be. But Wild shouldn't be anyone but himself.

Anyways. Fire.

Wars and Wild have issues, and I want them to work through all their relationship drama so they can reach their PEAK dynamic, which is obviously this

I mean like. We need these two to be friends

Anyways. Wild is in this constant state of identity crisis, and being around Wars has not been beneficial- neither of them is or has been showing the other the respect they deserve. Not as knights, but as people and brothers. They need a get along shirt.

All this Art is by Jojo @linkeduniverse au!

:)

[dragon-ascent]

Hey uh... *tugs at your shirt* my mother said that you can tell me about how Morax/Zhongli is mischaracterised with attributes from a western dragon and what attributes he'd actually have as an eastern dragon if it's fine with yours... (please say yes I love hearing people yap)

Tell your mother she brought you to the right place! Keep in mind I'm not the messiah of dragon mythology; but everything is nonetheless based on medium-levels of research & informal conversations with Chinese friends of mine. Still, feel free to take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Let's start with traits belonging to many Western dragons, which people tend to mistakenly attribute to Zhongli when it comes to his portrayal in fan work or even discourse:

Cruel & domineering: I see this a LOT especially with like, Morax/Rex Lapis portrayals where he's this arrogant man asserting his dominance over his nation (or even his partner!!!) in quite forceful ways, even taking human sacrifices in exchange for peace. Pls guys, he wishes not for dominion, but he cannot watch the common folk suffer. Also, there's a difference between being dominant and being domineering! Yes, he's established his dominance, but with absolutely no arrogance or cruelty.

Brutish: I know Venti seems to say that he's a blundering, brutish buffoon in his voicelines, but in CN he simply says the Geo lord is a blockhead who doesn't understand human emotion - which at the time is fair! Zhongli was still learning about the intricacies of humanity, learning while ruling. More importantly, there is no mention of him being a brute in the original line, and nothing in the in-game text pertaining to Liyue history supports the claim. So, if you see someone claim he doesn't care for humanity, kindly punt them on my behalf.

Self-centered: A pet peeve of mine, really. Although many Western dragons are seen as selfish and greedy, putting their wants above all, we see that Zhongli is the exact opposite. He puts his people before himself, always focusing on protecting the land, even if it means he will have to make choices that will hurt him, such as having to seal his close companion Azhdaha (and possibly even slaying Guizhong with his own hands, but that's another can of worms which I won't get into because canon has not touched upon this yet).

Now, there are some characteristics of Western dragons that can be applied to him since they're common traits in Eastern dragons as well:

Being unforgiving: Western ones might be more vicious in this regard, but it's mellowed into his duty as the God of Contracts. We know that there is no mercy for people who breach contracts, regardless of whether they are friend or foe. In this regard specifically, we can say that he is indeed unforgiving.

Cunning tactician: Yes! Zhongli is a master strategist, outwitting foes and coming out on top. Yes, we hear about his sheer strength warding off adversaries, but he also uses his wit to his advantage. You can read one such story of his in the teapot furnishing description for the item "Dainty Fists."

Now let me highlight some Eastern dragon traits, some of which are canon to Zhongli's personality, and some of which I feel should be more popular when it comes to creating fan content of our beloved Li:

Wise: Even at baseline, I think we can all tell that Zhongli is a wise and philosophical individual. His wisdom is the result of the accumulation of millennia galore, and most of his appearances in-game involve imparting valuable advice or knowledge to other people. Besides this, it's important to note that before his 'death,' he was responsible for carrying out administrative tasks for the nation (as mentioned by Keqing). He provided commercial & fiscal suggestions every year during the Rite of Descension based on his own observations throughout the year, analyzing the best way forward for the next year to ensure a thriving nation.

Possessive of art & knowledge: While Western dragons are often portrayed hoarding gold and other worldly things, Eastern dragons have an appreciation for art & literature, collecting precious stories and tasteful artifacts that reflect civilization's progress. This is something Zhongli does, too, purchasing wonderfully-crafted items made by the people he's nurtured for centuries, and listening to stories.

Love of humanity: Eastern dragons LOVE humankind, as opposed to their Western counterparts. They even transform into humans of different cultures to try and understand them firsthand. Zhongli is known to shapeshift - I hope to write some pieces soon where he briefly assimilates into other nations' cultures to get closer to them! But other than that, it's safe to say he's taken on various human forms within Liyue itself to get to know his people on a deeper, more personal level.

Bonding with the special someone: Now here's where I get a bit more self-indulgent. Eastern dragons, when they find a human they really really like, will introduce this lovely soul to their vast aforementioned collection of art. The dragon may like to share stories with this beloved person, and even calligraph new ones together. Zhongli loves telling stories of course, but just think how wonderful it would be to sit with him, brush in hand, as he tenderly guides you to create a narrative together on carefully-maintained parchment saved for this very occasion - perhaps outlining anecdotes of his, or even adventures of yours. Things he'd like to immortalize on paper. This sharing of art is a very special thing for dragons to do, so it's practically a once-in-a-millennium activity for them!

[the-elusive-soleil]

My new favorite Halenthir idea:

Haleth does battle, meets Caranthir, feels some feelings, heads west per canon and eventually reaches Brethil...and becomes acquainted with Finrod Nom Felagund as he tries to talk his kinsman into letting the Haladin settle in the area.

At some point, Haleth and Finrod are talking and he compliments her on her mastery of elvish languages, and she's like "oh yeah, the lord of Thargelion and his people taught us". (Note: this is not the AU where Caranthir only teaches them Quenya.) And Finrod's like, "hey, that's my annoying grumpy cousin!"

And they chat about Caranthir a bit, because Haleth also thinks Caranthir is annoying and grumpy and is willing to joke back and forth with Finrod on the subject, but she's not willing to go along with it once she feels that Caranthir is being insulted/mocked. And somewhere along the line Finrod clocks that "oh, there's something going on here".

Which is confirmed when, at one point, she mentions that Caranthir wanted her to stay and as good as proposed marriage.

She's about to reel off her usual list of rationalizations for why she couldn't possibly have, but Finrod gets there first with "oh, but of course it was for the best in the end that you left him, elves and Men are just too [dramatic gesture] metaphysically different to ever be together, it's always destined to end in tragedy", and basically tries to Athrabeth her.

Except that Haleth doesn't particularly care to be Athrabethed. Like, yes, she made the choice to do what needed to be done for her people instead of what she maybekindasorta wanted, but that was her choice. She's not really into this smarmy know-it-all elf patiently explaining to her like she's a child that she can't have Caranthir because ~*Fate*~ said so.

And, well, her people have a safe home now. Her sister-in-law will make a good enough peacetime leader until her nephew is grown up.

So she gathers the Haladin, explains what she's going to do. Most of them, naturally, opt to stay in Brethil, but a few adventurous or Thingol-averse sorts join her on the trip she ends up making back to Thargelion.

Where she marches up to Caranthir and essentially says, "I'm going to marry you to spite your irritating blond cousin."

Which is the best reason Caranthir has ever heard of for doing anything.

(They're married for like seventy years and ridiculously happy and in this one, Caranthir's brothers find out fairly early on because he won't stop sending smug letters to Finrod every year with updates on his marriage to his amazing adaneth wife and sketched peredhel baby pictures and so forth.)

[aroacenezhaanddainsleif]

again, aroace and not much of a shipper so my opinion is biased, but seeing people do polls and stuff of like "what's the best LMK ship" always seems so har-

it's Free Noodles. the answer is Free Noodles.

look, Shadowpeach is great, but those bitches are way too goddamn emo for this, and all Traffic Light Trio ships are just chaos incarnate.

look at Pigsy and Tang. look at the old gay guys. they're so dumb. they've been together 20 years. i love them.

(and also Sandy rocks.)

[rings-of-power-realm]

Thank you Robert Aramayo for being a better person than the entire internet. It was a beautiful scene and you and Morfydd handled it perfectly 💚

[cripplecharacters]

I know we (disabled people) aren't a monolith and all that, we'll all have different opinions on what is and is not offensive, but I want to ask if you can explain your opinion on cosplaying a disabled character a little more, because I don't really understand how portraying a character accurately, disabilities included within reason, would be offensive. I could see the use of an aid that other people could be actually making use of being harmful, and I can see not treating the disability in a respectful manner by making a joke of them being harmful, but as far as the inclusion of scar to cosplay a canonically scarred character goes, I feel like excluding them seems more offensive to me, it feels like erasure of the character's disability. If for example someone cosplayed a character I made that I was using to portray my own disabilities, and the cosplayer didn't include those disabilities when they could do so, I'd find that really insulting and hurtful. I guess it feels like too nuanced of a topic for a blanket This Is Good or This Is Bad answer if that makes sense? Sorry if this comes across as antagonistic or hostile, I'm not trying to pick a fight, I just want to understand your perspective.

Hi, I'm fully aware that there is a lot of opinions going either way (from "literally everything is fine" to "abled people shouldn't cosplay disabled characters at all no matter what"). I did a longer reply about the same thing in this ask that maybe will explain some of it better. There are also opinions of other mods on this in our #cripping up tag.

I don't consider not including a character's disability in cosplay as erasure, since to me it's just dressing up as a character with your own body and all. I think everyone should be able to cosplay everyone regardless of what their "factory settings" are, just don't pretend to be a minority that you aren't a part of in your normal life. I see pretending to have a disability for "character accuracy" as more offensive, your canvas for cosplay is yourself and if you don't have that disability then you just don't and that's completely fine. For the sake of not being accidentally insensitive I won't be making comparisons to other kinds of "pretending to be a minority for cosplay", especially since most other examples would be much worse anyway. To me, this whole practice is just... unnecessary. Work with what you have the same way disabled cosplayers shouldn't cover their disabilities when cosplaying abled characters.

I see your example of a potential cosplayer not including the disability in a character that you have made. I make disabled characters too, a lot of them even (probably granted for a mod on this blog). Some of them share my disabilities. And I think that we just have fundamentally different opinions because I'd vastly prefer for someone without my disability to just omit it rather than pretend parts of their face don't move or aren't symmetric. It'd feel like mockery to me, I don't want anyone to pretend to have a facial difference for any reason. If someone tried to dress up as literally me, I'd have the same opinion - do the clothes and goatee, but leave my gait disorder and half-moving mouth out of this. Obviously these things are part of my identity to an extent, and they make me who I am, but pretending to have them to imitate me feels more akin to bullying than authenticity. To be clear I get why you have that opinion, I just feel completely differently about it. And I don't think either of us are wrong or not wrong, it's just a different view of the same thing.

At the end of the day though I don't really care about how people cosplay their blorbos if all they do is dress up and take some photos like most cosplayers do. I just answer questions when directly asked rather than go out of my way to talk about this since in comparison to a lot of other issues this doesn't have big enough of an impact on me to be too bothered by it (if I had to do a list of ableist things I'm annoyed by I can't imagine a world where cosplay would make the list). I'm guessing that most askers don't know any handy person with an FD they can ask that so they come here, and I try to be helpful to the best of my ability.

I think the smartest thing a person can do is read a few opinions of different people and make a decision for themself. There is no one convenient consensus to follow (that I know of?), so it is what it is. If there is a potential cosplayer who is reading this ask and thinks that the asker's opinion makes more sense to them, then that's what they should probably do. The only thing I insist on is that they have fun cosplaying (rather than stressing over what person on the internet is right) because otherwise what's the point...

What I do consider important personally is the original thing I brought up, which is how abled people use facial difference as a costume in order to scare or disgust others. That is insensitive, offensive, and always in poor taste, it spreads misinformation about visibly disabled people and creates a negative image about a whole group of people, a lot of whom dread this time of the year (as mentioned in the article). Talking about this is in my opinion way more important than any Comic Con cosplay of a fictional character will ever be or has ever been, which probably influences my opinion on cosplay. When I think "fake facial differences", I'm reminded of horror villains with make-up that tries and fails to imitate how visibly disabled people look like. I associate fake scars and fake burns and fake skull shapes with this problem strongly, and as you can guess I don't like it at all. I find the authenticity argument hard to believe for myself when what is usually originally portrayed is an abomination of VFX designed to make us look scary; for most of these characters there is nothing good coming out of their "FD representation" anyway. If Freddy Krueger magically started to be shown as abled I'd be glad, not mad that the character who genuinely horribly affected how people from my community are seen is no longer doing that. This might be a radical take, but most existing characters with facial differences literally shouldn't have them. The way they are portrayed shapes how people are seen for the worse and if I had a "disability erasure" button for all the Scars and Voldemorts out there I'd make them as abled as possible.

Is this how all people with facial differences feel? I don't think I can go and ask each of them but definitely no, it's just the opinion of A Guy on the Internet (many such cases!) and rather than anything else I just want to share my view on stuff, so askers can hopefully make a more informed decision - whether that's writing, drawing, cosplay, etc. If someone reads my take and decides that they want to do the opposite, at least they have a bit of context on how some people might feel about it, and I think that's still valuable.

This is my opinion on this and I hope this clears it up more,

mod Sasza

[walkingstackofbooks]

Wish wish wishhhh we'd seen the reactions of Julian's friends to the enhancements reveal. Miles' was lovely, ofc, but we got like, a slice of Sisko and then crickets.

And obviously Garak's reaction would have been priceless, but also what about Jadzia? And Kira? And Odo? And and and... I just feel so robbed every time I remember we didn't see it :(

[dukeofthomas]

My understanding of Jason Todd's age;

Jason dies when he's 15, 4 months before his 16th birthday. He is dead for any number of time; it doesn't count towards his age.

He's resurrected; he is in a coma for 1 year, then catatonic for another. He is then put into a Lazarus Pit. (These 2 years are practically useless, as he doesn't remember them and they contribute very little to the story. They could be condensed to 2 months and it would change basically nothing.)

He trains for about a year. You can then give him 1-12 months of prep and planning time before his debut as the Red Hood, and the story of UT(R)H, at which point he would be mentally 16-17, physically 18-19, and it would be (--) years after his birth.

[godlygivenanxiety]

look, not to be a hater but the whole ekko/jinx alternate universe situation only proves that jinx was only ever loved entirely and completely by silco, that's kinda the point of how tragic jinx really is as a character,

vi either only sees her little sister out of guilt/sense of duty mixed with a desperate need to come back to something or as consequences to her own actions(taking away agency from jinx in the process);

ekko sees her through the eyes of an idealist which is exactly what he is and that's not bad by itself, but it makes her either A Problem or Someone That Needs Saving, that's what's going on in his head after that AU he transported to. he's comparing jinx to powder and he likes powder much better, so he wants jinx to be powder or to reignite the powder in her - basically, he thinks how vi used to think;

isha is a complicated matter because she did show kindness and affection towards jinx that wasn't equal to anyone else's, it was pure and idolizing, she loved what she knew of jinx.

the people of zaun don't love her, not by a long shot. she became a symbol to some(as we can notice in the reunion by vander's statue) and overall the assumption that she would get involved more after her attack and silco's death is a fair one; that doesn't mean they like her,

sevika maintains a connection to jinx through grief and a sense of helplessness along with familiarity, silco's death affected jinx's psyche but it also affected sevika's dream of zaun, they feel left behind by him;

vander... well, he only got to see powder and warwick quite literally just had the memories,

the ONLY character we see that meets her as powder and stays with her as jinx is silco; yes, he isn't a good guy and he does cause the whole separation, he sharpened her edges to make her into a weapon, he lied to her and manipulated her at times, none of these things exclude the fact he does love her so strongly, with zero conditions.

she fucks up in missions, she does as she pleases around zaun, she kills their people, she stabs him in the eye, has psychotic episodes and breakdowns, she kidnaps him, ties him down, SHOOTS HIM, she doubts him and his love, keeps running after the past when he's done everything to strengthen her and she was, at a point, the only thing keeping him from his dream of an independent zaun - none of these perceived sins and flaws made him wish for anyone other than her, as she is.

all silco wanted was to keep her, while everyone else either wants another version of her or none at all. that's the tragic part, even if she suddenly decided to be good, she would feel like a burden for not being entirely like people want her to be.

[edgepunk]

yeahhh I know people dog on mShep's voice acting and the reason is that Bioware initially wanted Shepard to sound neutral regardless of which dialogue option the player picks (which didn't work out as they intended) - but his voice acting gets so much better throughout the trilogy and he peaks during ME3. honestly I prefer mShep's "The best." in the Citadel DLC.

I always headcanoned that the reason mShep sounds more stoic in ME1 is because he's more of a Scout Boy, trying to hold his emotions back and come off as cool and collected, but as the story progresses his mask starts cracking and by ME3 he's too tired to keep up the Cool and Collected Marine facade, so he lets his emotions out. yeah I know my imagination plays a big part, but it's fun to me!!!

also Mark Meer played such a big part in the aliens' voice effects, and a lot of the Volus, Hanar and Batarians are voiced by him we love Mark Meer in this house

[onesidedradiostatic]

I feel like I can just never go right with radiostatic takes in this fandom like one half sees alastor caring 0% and the other half sees alastor caring 100%

I disagree with both, I think alastor cares like 50% while vox cares 100%. like I do not agree with alastor never cared about vox takes and I do think alastor is more bothered by vox than he lets on but I just cannot see the mutual obsession takes at all. it is imbalanced to me, alastor is nowhere NEAR as obsessed as vox is with him but he definitely enjoys messing with him, enjoys their rivalry and pays more attention to him than some of the fandom may give him credit for.

[neutrinotempest]

not to be a hater but all these "verna is the devil" "verna is death" "verna is a demon" no verna is the raven, the hot hot raven

[t-allyitup]

core traits

edd:

dark trait is manipulation (hear me out) i really do think one of edd's biggest dark area traits is that he ultimately wants everyone to get along to the point of destruction, i did post about this a bit ago in relation to my fic but i feel like this desire would lead him to bending his morals and sacrificing his own sanity/peace for everyone to get along. i feel like he could easily go down the road of either 1. manipulating, blackmailing, etc etc people into staying on good terms/keeping the peace or 2. letting himself get walked all over or used or something in order to keep tension at a stasis point

as for light traits definitely his humanism, he genuinely cares about his friends and people on the cul de sac and in multiple episodes despite his participation (and sometimes masterminding) the scams he tends to prioritize safety and comfort initially, even if the sentiment is lost during the actual scam

grey traits in my opinion would be his unquestioning loyalty/blindness to failure in authority figures (his parents mainly, this isn't necessarily a bad thing it can just become very stressful and dangerous) and obsessive/compulsive nature (can be a good thing when he's concerned about safety, can be a bad thing when it drives him to be controlling (containing vs restraining))

ed:

ed's dark trait is spitefulness. hear me out! again! ed rarely shows negative emotion outside of sadness, but when he does get angry or upset, he tends to get that way as a reaction to the behavior of others. he went back and forth with double d calling him "stinky hat" when double d wanted to take his cheese, and when he got that rock in his shoe he tried to annihilate eddy because eddy was fed up and insulting him. ed reacts out of spite, not always, but it's a pretty clear trait.

light trait is his acceptance of others and openness to experience, which combine with each other well. he has a broad emotional pool and is seen "communicating" (acting responsively) to plank in a few episodes. he is validating of his friend's choices and participates in their scams/activities

grey area is his response to change. he clearly harbors some kind of difficulties with this, just various comments throughout the show and some inferences shows that he seems uncomfortable with it (cheese episode again but he would not let go of that mf)

eddy:

dark traits with eddy is a where do i even start situation. he shows lots of the qualities of machiavellianism, egoism, self interest, and spitefullness. i think in my opinion his trait is self interest. i think eddy does feel bad about what he does to the other cul de sac kids but self interest is his obsessive desire and he has a massive preoccupation with his need to fit in/feel seen so self interest is the one.

light trait is, as you probably guessed, his charisma. it is one of his most magnetic qualities and occasionally the only redeeming quality about him in general. he is compelling and direct in his approaches, genuine or not, and he channels his charisma effectively even if he uses it for evil sometimes

grey area would have to be his seeming emotional detachment from things. could lean to psychopathy, could lean to a trauma-informed response to his situations in the past. either way it creates a lower level of empathy but a higher level of protection for himself so maybe it's a grey area trait

[xenogaby]

Astarion's hair was always white.

If you want to headcanon they were another color, that's absolutely fine, but stop trying to bully/convince others that they're wrong for saying he always had white hair.

The "Astarion's hair turned white due to stress, torture, etc" argument can be disproved by the fact that Cazador still has black hair. Besides, stress wouldn't turn his hair like that, nor his eyebrows.

Cazador went through a VERY similar experience as Astarion when he was a spawn, yet HIS hair never turned white. Same with the other spawns.

Astarion is the only one, excepting Dalyria, to have white/silver hair.

When he says he doesn't remember what he looked liked, he only mentions his eyes and his teeth. Not his hair. He's also fully aware of his hair color, because he says to Durge "...I will wed you with a delicate veil of blood blooming over your white curls' kind of day?".

I will also re-clarify: I'm NOT saying you're not allowed to imagine another color, that is perfectly ok. I'm just saying that Astarion canonically had white hair pre-vampirism and NOTHING in game proves otherwise.

He was most likely a moon elf, although white hair for any elf is pretty normal.

[wouldtheybecomeafearavatar]

Can I ask—what’s the difference between “by coercion” and “unawareness/conditioning”?

Yeah, sometimes I wonder if the wording is a bit confusing. As it's put in the intro post:

Yes, by coercion: they would go through with it, but only if threatened with a loved one's life or something along those lines.

Yes, by unawareness or conditioning: they wouldn't realize until it's too late or would be raised to be an avatar, unaware their way of existence is not normal.

To explain a bit further (spoilers for several character arcs in TMA):

Coercion means the character would be forced or manipulated into it by someone or something. It requires a degree of awareness of what is happening (otherwise they'd go under unawareness).

Robert Montauk being forced to work for The People's Church of the Divine Host to get his wife back could be an example, though I'm not sure he ever achieved full Dark avatar status.

Basira would have ended up in this category if she'd continued to work for the institute long enough to become an Eye avatar, as Elias forced her to sign the contract under threat of Daisy's life.

I'd probably put Martin in the coercion category too, since he was going along with Peter Lukas and The Lonely to potentially save Jon.

Conditioning means that the character was groomed into it by someone from a young age, or born to be an avatar. It should be noted that this only applies to people or beings who under other circumstances could have made a different choice. A being that came into existence as an expression of a Fear would be manifestation instead.

Agnes Montague is kind of the defining example of this category, though members of the Lukas family being raised into it also count.

I think Gerry Keay could be another example of this. Eye avatarhood specifically wasn't a foregone conclusion for him, but he never really had a chance at a normal life. Willingly may be more accurate; he didn't choose to get involved with the Fears, but he did choose The Eye.

Unawareness is pretty self-explanatory, though I would point out this doesn't mean that the character never realises they are transforming. That (strictly speaking) wouldn't actually work, since becoming an avatar does require an active choice at some point. In this case it's more that the character doesn't realise until they're at the point of no return and the choice they are making is between death or becoming an avatar. If they refuse once they realise it'd be "go along but stop before transformation".

Jon is an example. Coercion could also be argued, given that Elias was definitely pushing him to go further and further using the (false) threat of the Unknowing, but I think Jon was too unaware of how he was being manipulated to go in coercion.

I think Michael Shelley would also go into this category. He was manipulated into it by Gertrude, but he had no idea what was going to happen. His case is a bit of a strange one in general though, I'm not sure he even had any affinity for The Distortion to start with.

At the end of the day, these are just my opinions and you can vote however you want, but I hope this helps answer your question! (Sorry for the essay)