#and TBH I'm really knowledgeable as well bc it's a special interest

[maraeffect]

i'm like 3/4 of the way thru my college degree; and now that i had a relapse of cancer, all i want in the whole wide world is to drop it and finally land a piercing apprenticeship ('''':

[astrxealis]

I ADORE GEN INFORMATION AND HISTORY STUFF SOOO MUCH ... and etc etc etc and and and :(( <3 god i love the plethora of information ik and. etc.

[devils-minion-cult]

Hey! I'm the girl from the other day (the autistic Armand truther or wtv lmfao) I'm kinda shy sorry hehe 🥹 but I wanted to respond so here I am! Hope I don't bother you with my messages and again sorry if the grammar is not really good, I'll try my best.

PS, this message is gonna be loooong lol sorry.

First of all, YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Like, how can you say Armand is not autistic after reading the Devil's Minion chapter? That man has some severe hyperfixations fr (same). Also his self-soothing behavior every time he's anxious or overstimulated, like the finger and shoulder rubbing? The eye contact avoiding? Omg.

I really appreciate you used a real life neurodivergent person to base Armand's behavior, honestly, I'm so tired of people thinking all autistics are the same. Like no we can be freaky and evil as well leave us alone 😞 And you're right, sometimes meltdowns can be low key scary specially for someone who doesn't have any knowledge on the topic (is that well explained? I'm always scared of my english being bad)

For me, Armand is a really important character, I love him and I understand him so so much. A year ago my ex dumped me and told me I was manipulative and mean. He also said I changed personalities sometimes. He also wanted to have sex like all the time (and let's just say it wasn't the sweetest sex lol) So I feel so connected with Armand, he is always blamed for everything and used for his body. Nobody asks him how he is, what his interests are, everyone is so mean towards him and I love Devil's Minion so much 'cause Daniel is literally the first person to see Armand as a person and not a body or something to possess and control. And I feel like Armand feels control in his life for the first time when he meets Daniel and that's why he obsessed so much over him. Armand was always Daniel's first and only choice ☹️

I honestly hated Louis so much when he said the "My daddy vampire groomed me into a little bitch" line, like, why would you say something like that? Especially after using your partners trauma as a fucked up fantasy and being shameless about it? The "Maître" thing is really sad to me, and the "Face down in the coffin" scene? It was NOT hot, tbh it was just uncomfortable. Armand was just trying to tell Louis something and talk about his day and he just cuts him like he doesn't even care :/ not cool and it's not something that should be romanticized. Armand's only way to feel powerful and in control is through sex, but Louis is always reminding him of his fucked up past and trauma like it's attractive. That's why I don't like Loumand AT ALL.

And now that you mentioned it, I do have a really cool idea to write abt! I think you would do such good work with my idea, but I don't wanna be annoying and it's also really specific 😭 but I would really love to share it with you bc I think you'd like it lots (It's your usual hurt/comfort freaky fucked up stuff so, yeah)

Anyway, love your fics and can't wait for the next The Dark Gifts chapter, it's sooo good. I'm always checking my email lol. You're one of my favs DM writers. Also can't wait for the bbygirl/daddy one shot! I'm so excited.

Bye! 🩷

Hi, friend! You are not bothering me AT ALL! And don't worry, your English is great!

Armand is so important to me and my healing journey, too. I love that we have our fucked up little gremlin! You're right when you say, "Daniel is literally the first person to see Armand as a person and not a body or something to possess and control."

I think I agree with another thing you said, too, but I think the translation might be a mistake. You said, "Armand's only way to feel powerful and in control is through sex, but Louis is always reminding him of his fucked up past and trauma like it's attractive." Armand is very submissive during sex, so I think "powerful" might not be the word you mean. Do you mean that sex makes Armand feel "safe" or "important" instead? If so, I totally agree!

"Maître" and "Face down in the coffin" make me uncomfortable, too. I am very (VERY) kink-friendly, but Armand's tendency to submit during sex is a trauma response. As someone who was groomed and abused as a child, I learned to be submissive because sex felt like the only thing I was good at and the only way to make people love me. That's NOT true or healthy!!

You can tell me your fic idea! I can't promise I'll use it, especially because I have so much going on right now, but I love hearing ideas! Maybe it'll inspire me!!

Again, thank you so much for all your kind words <3

P.S. Your ex sounds like an asshole, and I hate him. :)

[vilevampire]

ok. since I finished ina11, looong rant abt where I'm at w/ japanese right now + comparison w/ where I was at before I started

so when I started watching ina11 I only knew about 300 words and was just coming back to learning japanese after a year-long break.. tbh I didn't even make that much progress before the break, I studied only for 2 months or so before I quit. BUT it was a good headstart because I studied some kanji meanings and radicals, basics of grammar and basic vocabulary which gave me a solid foundation to build upon when I came back to studying again. I only studied around 200~ kanji before I was like "ok I don't give a shit actually" and started bruteforcing vocabulary and learning new kanji on the go instead of learning kanji separately out of context. it's definitely harder, but the foundation I had served me pretty well and the more kanji I learn the easier it is to learn even more. also I just feel so much more productive since I'm learning actual words instead of.. characters that make up words but don't help me to actually understand anything I read if I don't already know the word..

I was actually watching a diff anime before I switched to inazuma eleven but I was finding that one soo boring that it was hard to motivate myself to watch it without understanding much. looking back it was a great decision to switch to ina11. for one, I like it way more, so it was easy to motivate myself to watch it (even without understanding much !) and also the visual storytelling element in this anime is way stronger. this is why I don't reeeally get why ppl recommend beginner japanese learners start watching slice of life anime, where most developments happen mostly thru dialogue. bc like, if ur a beginner who only knows a couple hundred words then you're not gonna understand anything regardless if you're watching an easy slice of life anime aimed at teens or a super hard investigative drama for adults. I think it's BETTER to look for anime that focuses more on visual storytelling, like shounen anime. though ofc I am biased because shounen is my favorite genre of anime in general, but the point is that even when I wasn't understanding the words, I could always more or less follow the plot just from looking at the screen. mind you, I'm also a slice of life anime enjoyer, the anime I was watching before was one that I watched before and rmred enjoying and stuff. but without understanding most of the words it started to feel like such a drag to watch it, because most of the interesting STUFF was in the dialogue and character interactions that I WASN'T UNDERSTANDING !!

anw so switching to ina11 was a great decision and I definitely improved a lot after watching 127 episodes, though it's hard to quantify how much exactly. and ofc I kept studying vocabulary on the side too. I was also studying some grammar in the beginning but I find studying grammar really boring so after I studied enough to understand the most common types of sentences, basic conjugations etc. I was like "alright. enough of this shit" and quit. I didn't study grammar when I learned english and I'm not even good at it in my native language either soo I'm fine with doing it this way lol. I think my grammar knowledge naturally improved just from watching more ina11

and the way I was watching was really important! I would not have been able to get as much from it as I did if I wasn't watching it WITH JAPANESE SUBTITLES and a special video player. the subs help a lot, even if you can't read much from them. they remove a lot of ambiguity from the sounds and help me start associating kanji readings to their writings etc. also I made sure to install a special video player (it's called memento for those interested) that lets me hover words and look them up in the dictionary automatically, which was really useful. I learned the meaning of a couple words this way, and it was always very quick and effortless to do. the video player also let me keep the eng subtitles (they came already embedded in the videos that I downloaded) hidden at the top so if there were any lines that I did not understand shit of even after looking the words I didn't know in the dictionary, I could hover the top of the player to show the eng subs and clear my doubts. that stuff was all really useful but I used it sparingly because, since there's so many words that I don't know yet (most sentences had at least one or two) if I did that for every single line that had unknown words it would take me FOREVER to get through and it'd start feeling like a chore. so I only did all that when I really wanted to understand a line bc it felt important to the plot, or bc my fave character said it or w/e. for the most part I just watched it passively and let my brain soak in the words without obsessing over the little things that I couldn't understand

I feel like I actually understood a lot from the anime, all things considered. if you look up its vocabulary size, the first ina11 anime has 8.4k unique words in it, soo it doesn't seem like I should've been able to understand a lot but like I said since most developments happened visually, and even long expository dialogues usually had some kind of visual to aid in storytelling, I never reeally felt lost in what was going on. also, the most common words (which I've been learning first) get repeated a ton. so in reality when I heard most sentences they'd be something like "yeah so I went to the ---- and bought a ----- and afterwards I did ----, it was a lot of fun!" so even if I did not understand the details I still got the general gist of what was being said. it was very rare that someone would say something and I wouldn't understand anything yk. I always understood at least a little bit.

I'll say the best thing ina11 gave me was extra motivation to keep learning japanese. I was already motivated before of course, otherwise I wouldn't have even started, but it really gave me a specific goal to strive for. that goal being "I want to understand this stupid soccer anime that I ended up falling in love with". before I was even halfway through the thing I decided that I HAVE to re-watch it when I get better at japanese so I can fill in the gaps that I missed on my first watchthrough. I could also just re-watch it translated, be it one of the dubs or just subbed but.. ehh. I don't really wanna do that, it kinda feels like a waste of time. like if I'm going to be watching an anime or something then I better be watching it in japanese w/ only japanese subs or else what's the point?? I'm wasting time that I could be spending learning, yk. which is important because learning japanese is a massive journey. so yeah, now I'm really motivated to keep studying until I get good enough to re-watch this anime while understanding 90% or more (ideally I'd be understanding enough so that I can just look up everything that I don't understand without overwhelming myself) and AFTERWARDS I plan on watching/reading/playing/etc. the rest of ina11 stuff there is. cuz I know there's a sequel anime and spin-offs and also the games and shit, nvm all the fanworks I can engage with too so I'm pretty excited for that

I plan on watching gash bell next. hopefully I also find it fun but without getting OVERWHELMINGLY ATTACHED like I did w/ ina11 bc goddamn the emotional toll this anime had on me. I don't think I ever teared up so many times while watching anything except maybe one piece, but op is also 10x longer so it's hard to compare.

at this point I just hope I can keep going without quitting again lol

[zwei-rhunen]

Squeenix why do u do dis to me D:

Someone tell the lalafells that there's an untapped market to be had! Level 35-48 jewelry is the latest trend!

A once in a lifetime gil-gathering endeaver for your local, aspiring venture capitalist!!!!

.... in other news, I've been prepping myself for jewelery-crafting shenangians, which means clearing out my inventory LOL

But I got too invested and this time I took the time to research alot of the stuff that I've been hanging onto, and it turns out they're really easy to get later if i really wanted them back.

Most of it was either crafting materials (i thought they were turn-in tokens bc they looked special) or they were things that were fairly inexpensive to buy off other people if I wamted to do that in the future. I'd kept alot of things bc I wasn't as familiar with the UI/the game as i am now back when I tried downsizing in the past. Like I'd hold onto alot of junk bc for example, I'd research about this cool shiny item. and it'd start out so innocently lol.

I'd be like,

"oh I can use this to craft neat gear! Well I'll hold onto it bc i want to do that soon"

but then itd quickly spiral into

"oh, well I need a master crafting tome of X level, and to get that I need to collect these things. Okay that's doable. But wait, to do THAT, I first need to level up these 2 jobs so i can craft/gather the ingredients, alright.. (goes to level up the jobs) ...oh. i don't even have access to the zone that I need to collect those materials in, so then ACTUALLY I need to do the MSQ up to THIS point. Damn, thats kinda devastating bc I just spent all this time leveling lmao. Well, I got this far and i dont want to just toss these items, so ill just hang onto them for now

And then eventually I forgot about the details related to those items, but I remember how let down I felt while dealing with them so i just put it off and eventually they blurred into the clutter of the other stuff going on in my inv/I got invested into other goals lol

But now I've gotten better at asking the right things like "is this item rare? Where is it dropped? What is it used for, is it for crafting or a token or smth else? Also, does an NPC vendor ask for this in return for something cool? Could i buy this item on the MB later on?"

Whereas before, I'd just be like "okay. what can i use this for?? " And then I wouldn't see any crafting use for it, so I'd just toss it, and then 10 mins later id go to Mor Dhona and realize DANG IT was a TOKEN, i coulda traded that for smth interesting!! And it seems like a PITA for me to get again 😭 .....so thus began my hoarding :)

can't regret what you don't discard! lmfaooo

Also said screw it and sold off most of my food bc I realized by the time I worked thru all those edibles, id probably have a sub and would be able to buy HQ food really easily. Like, I'd been holding onto the food from when I had brute-force-leveled CUL to 50, and I'm still gonna have like ~200 hours worth of exp lmao.

I also actually, seriously reviewed the differences in food stats for once in my life (this deserves so much praise tbh bc I do not care for their details as long as I'm getting the exp buff lmao) and realized my level 15 HQ food is useless to hang onto bc my lvl 40 normal foods are still way better, and all this other info that's probably common knowledge lmao (and ik i CAN get more efficient with this if I prioritized food with stats that align with which jobs I'm gonna main for now but um. this is far as I care to go into the weeds with food details for now lmaooo like... no. stop thats too much to worry abt for me 😭😂😂 i mean like, i know (i think i know?) Strength and determination for tank, spell speed/piety for casters, skill speed for dps bc it just sounds like it makes sense lol. So like ill half-assedly try and pick the best stat buff food but its not really smth tht im overly concerned abt atm tbh. Maybe later at a higher level but for now everything seems to be okay without needing to suffer over the details)

So I sold off a buncha stuff off to an NPC and now i have a whole page and a half of space. I'm so excited!

I also reviewed the clutter in my chocobo sidebags and finally traded in the ancient gear drops to Rowena and sold off some faded maps that i realized are really common and can get again later lol

I'd have more space but i think I can use those few items up in the short term so it's just a waiting game for moar space uwu

But, yeah!!

✨️ A page and a half of inventory!! ✨️

I haven't had this much space ever since probably the MIDDLE of doing the main 2.0 MSQ!! xD

[motherstone]

OHOHO HMMM... HMMM IM HAVING THOUGHTS.

Ok I read this post and uh it intrigued me so much and it actually made me want to revise some fic ideas.

Look, I don't typically like Chosen One tropes. It reduces agency of the character and if done wrong, can be pretty lazy writing. I can accept how juicy it is sometimes if it's written like. Really, really well. Or if it ends in tragedy.

Mostly I dislike it because it forces a character into a situation because of the Specialness of Who They Are. Not because it's their choice nor at their own ability nor at their inherent goodness or whatnot. And tbh plotlines like that all I could think in my head would inevitably end in tragedy because forcing a character into a path that isn't their choice would not provide them the conviction to actually pull through it.

But that's just me. There's a lot of factors on why or why something befalls a character but that's my opinion and tbh explaining that sort of stuff requires a lot of discussion I don't have the brainpower nor knowledge to do yet.

Like, Emily and Trellis are very much characters who are Chosen Ones. Like book 6 implies on it but book 7-8 kind of? Kinda not? Dropped it.

THE INTERESTING PART ABOUT IT... Is that instead of Trellis embodying the Divine Right of Kings trope... Instead of turning him into an Utmost Specialest Boy... He actually suffers for it?

Ok but like I wanna talk about Emily first. In contrast to Emily, her connection to her grandfather results in her gaining allies and significant power and attention from both friends and enemies alike. Hell, Leon explicitly states she's special because of her blood. But at the same time she also gets unwanted responsibility (which Leon also points the tragedy of). Like we get a repeated reminder that Emily isn't doing this because she wants to. It's because she feels like she has no choice.

And to be honest at first, that is frustrating to me! Emily is barely given moments to be a heroic character, and is even rarer that she does those things by choice. It makes her difficult to root for because she lacks so much agency in her own plot bc of poor writing decisions.

But to be honest, I think that's why book 7 is so compelling to me, introduction of the alien bullcrap aside, is because of how tragic it is? Like that's the culmination of Emily's sorrow and anger at her helplessness from the very prologue of the series and revisitng it again, and in a subversion of her prior lack of agency, Emily was for the first time, is actually active in making choices. And those very choices led to her falling.

And that's amazing! That's fucking tragic! Because Emily despite being surrounded by people is very much a lonely person. She's honestly emotionally neglected. And that makes Supernova so goddamn frustrating because that shit came out of nowhere! She's been having issues for 7 straight books and gets resolved in one?? What!! And even then she's still doing I don't really have a choice but not really, because now I'm taking things to me own hands shtick like wwhaat... Kazu fucking commit to the tragedy pls.

Now on to Trellis. To be honest, Divine Right of Kings trope pisses me off full stop. It just plain fucking sucks. But here I think is where Trellis diverges from Zuko (who very much had power bc of his status, and also the terrible things happening to him isn't bc he's the prince nor is he bc of his blood connection to his father. It's usually due to his own poor choices or schemes of other people. And also his and aang's destiny/prophecy is just real done in general).

Trellis is compelling because instead of gaining great treatment because of it... The narrative actually seems to punish him for it.

And it makes us root for him, because it's well. It is reasonable on a surface level, people were hurt because of his father, but also unreasonable because it's not like he chose his dad. If anything, I don't think most characters In-Universe (except for the incredibly select few) expect him to do good things nor just being great in general. They probably wouldn't be surprised if he fell or if he backstabs everyone or just be pathetic in general. If anything the narrative does show instances that would compel him to do unethical choices.

So unlike Emily, who is expected to do great things, Trellis gets the odds and words stacked against him, and this in turn gives a good reason to have agency to actively work against those obstacles. Yes, he is cliche. Yes, we have kinda have the notion that his arc is gonna be similar to Zuko's but more knock-off. But at least it's there and it works. It's compelling. We root for him. Unlike Emily whose needed to be described but not exhibited, we can actually see Trellis's better nature in his actions and his words. It's not explicit. It's just shown.

Now, it kinda makes me wanna make a fic where Trellis actually rises and succeeds? Like, the narrative punished him enough. It kinda makes me regret making the Broken comic, but at the same time it doesn't (bc that's not the end of Trellis's journey in my head that was just the crux of it, so many chances for Trellis to redeem and rise up again)

Anyways I forgot what I was suppose to say as conclusion. But I think you guys got my point.

tl;dr: Emily feels compelling as a tragedy bc of her lack of agency, Trellis feels compelling as a Rising hero bc of his agency against his obstacles.

[lesbeet]

this might be a strange question but what goes into becoming a teacher? i've been thinking about becoming a teacher and i'm nervous even though it's something i really think i want to do and i'm curious as to how you go about becoming one like what courses/requirements do you need to take and how do you come up with a lesson plan and everything? and how did you know teaching was something you wanted to do or realize it was something you would be good at?

hm well i can only tell you about my own experience, which i would say is probably pretty unorthodox, but it’s been working really well for me! 

so i’ve been working on a masters in teaching for english/language arts grades 5-12 from western governors university, which is an (accredited) online program for aspiring teachers who need to be licensed as teachers in general as well as certified/endorsed in their particular subject areas. depending on what you want to teach, there are a couple of undergrad teaching degrees they offer (i believe it’s elementary ed, special ed, and a couple of different math and science programs), but to do like language arts or social studies etc, you’d need to have a bachelors degree to qualify -- though i also did my bachelors at wgu (in business management sdklfdjskdflsjd i hated it) so it doesnt need to be education-related or anything

if you wanna know more about my particular program let me know, bc it works fairly unusually but is a legitimate post-secondary educational institution and is also incredibly affordable, and idk what i’d be doing if i hadnt found out that it existed lmao

but so yeah idk what an education undergrad would consist of, but for my program in particular there were a lot of english content classes, obviously, like secondary disciplinary literacy, english pedagogy, secondary reading instruction and interventions, stuff like that

and then there were a lot of more generalized pedagogical courses, like educational assessment, foundational perspectives of education, classroom management, fundamentals of diversity and inclusion, principles of psychology: child and adolescent development, and stuff like that

again, this is just based on my own experience, but re: lesson plans, i actually just had some assignments for my courses where i had to write them and justify the thought process behind the decisions i made! like in my english pedagogy course, i had to write 3 essays (one for a literature-based lesson, one for a grammar-based lesson, and one for a writing-based lesson), and in each essay there was a section where i had to plan an entire lesson using their lesson plan format, and then explain and justify why i made each choice that i made. 

i’m starting student-teaching next semester, as soon as we get back from winter break, and i assume i’ll get more practice with lesson-planning through that, but basically it kind of comes down to like...figuring out the standards your students are supposed to reach, then figuring out how you’re going to break them down into a curriculum, and then for each lesson you figure out what objectives/goals you want your students to reach by the end, and you figure out how to present the material and then assess in some way whether or not the students understand it. once you know what the purpose of a lesson plan is (whether re: the idea of lesson plans in general, or a specific lesson plan you’re working on), the rest is just figuring out how to achieve that purpose. and it comes with practice! and trial and error, and figuring out what works and doesnt work with your own teaching style and in your classroom, etc. ik that’s super vague but so much of it depends of the parameters you’re given—like while i’m student-teaching i won’t be picking the books we read, so i’ll already have that requirement figured out for me, yknow?

as for your last question, my mom has been teaching my whole life, and my dad started teaching when i was about 10. my aunt is also a teacher, and my other aunt is a speech-language pathologist, so. i grew up around teachers kfjsldkfjs

i’ve just always liked explaining things to people and helping them understand them! i think really what it comes down to is that i just have a lot of passion and a lot of things to say sldfksjdkflj like i really do believe that english/language arts in particular is applicable in all parts of life, because all people communicate. i can’t speak for like. calculus or biology or whatever, but 99.9999% of people will need to do some sort of reading, and some sort of writing and/or speaking and/or communication of some type or another, and for all of the “the curtains are just blue!!!” whiners out there, it’s crucial to know how to communicate with others, and to understand what others are attempting to communicate to you, and i can’t think of a single scenario in which that isn’t the case. 

plus like, idk a single person who doesn’t like some form of story, whether through tv shows or movies or books or plays or podcasts or video games etc etc etc, and imo those can all be enhanced and made even better by having some sort of background knowledge of storytelling as an art, or as a process, or as an established medium with its own structures and intertextual lexicon etc! like the more i read about the art and history of storytelling, the more i enjoy movies and tv shows (which i already love and watch frequently), bc storytelling isn’t just a textual medium!

tbh part of the reason i think i’m good at explaining things is because i grew up in an emotionally abusive household, and i learned very early on how to anticipate the way another person (usually my dad lol) would interpret something i said to him, regardless of what i actually meant by it. so i subconsciously learned to apply that skill to other people, and now i’ve got sort of a knack for being able to cater my explanations to different people based on how i think they’ll best understand the information, and not just in a classroom setting—like i sometimes serve as a mediator/”interpreter” when my sister and my dad are having difficult conversations, because i know them both well enough, and the way they think well enough, that when one of them says something, i can usually understand both their intention AND how the other person is going to interpret it, and i can rephrase or explain things so miscommunication doesn’t end up making the problem worse

so in a classroom, i can explain things in several different ways, and if i’m working one-on-one with different kids i can usually figure out what isn’t clicking and can try another way to explain it. also bc my adhd brain processes information by making connections to other things i already know, i’m particularly good at coming up with (often unusual) metaphors or analogies for things, and people are like “oh wow ok that’s a weird way to explain it but i definitely get it now” and stuff

so basically i’ve learned bc of necessity how to communicate more effectively with others, and because i want everyone else to get the enjoyment out of language arts that i do, i’m drawn to teaching because i hope to help the students find at least some area of it that they’re interested in, and to show them that literature/storytelling/communication aren’t just about reading old boring books written by racist white dudes who hated women, but about learning to represent and interpret and take part in the human experience, because the foundation of any sort of society is communication, and that very basic desire to be understood by others

so even when i didnt actively Want To Be A Teacher it was always kinda in the back of my mind like “well if i dont find anything else i wanna do, i can always be an english teacher” bc most of my favorite teachers growing up were english teachers, and even at my absolute worst i did just fine in those classes, even when i hadnt read the books we were discussing (which was most of the time jsdklfsjd which is now kind of a problem for me as a teacher so i do think i shot myself in the foot there but oh well, i was 14)

anyway, as usual that got super long, but i hope it was helpful! lemme know if you have any other questions :)

[kippentrash]

(1/?)The fact that I thought them saying long distance was a metaphor for how the relationship is slowburn is probably far fetched right? I think Rachel will show up in 3x14, that would be some conflict possibly because Marty is shown running with Buffy :o If I'm gonna be honest I think Muffy will get together romantically but once I meet Rachel I'll either be like "love this new character!" or "i want to cry why are you this way" JUST LET THEM BE HAPPY DISNEY I BEG YOU

(2/?) Tyrus tangents always welcome! My heart broke for both of them. Cyrus is already insecure as we’ve seen and this can’t be good for his self esteem :( TJ is obviously going through something and I’m worried for what it is. Did Kira make him insecure? Or was it something different? Either way this emotional conflict (as you pointed out) feels almost bigger than the gun. Because Cyrus trusts Tj at this point, the gun situation was the thing to cement that

(3/3) Totally agree with being outsold like this episode, while hurtful in aspects was so GOOD. We’re seeing Jonah growth, Muffy and Tyrus growth and I am here for it!! Bexie not having a wedding I was actually okay with? Hopefully Andi’ll be okay too. My cats a Burmese! He just reached his 1st year yesterday :) you have a dog??? What breed? How old? Sorry I love dogs they are great animals -ghostie anon

So like this turned out pretty long bc I addressed pretty much everything you mentioned (most elaborately the buildup and teardown of Cyrus) plus more here and there. Like, I’ve typed a lot before, and I’ve put things under a cut before, but this is LONG. Like when I first got into the fandom and typed a weeks worth of responsed for the Andi Mack Month prompts long. SO UNDER A CUT IT GOES LOL (I’m sorry again for it being practically a 5 page essay ;w;)

To summarize: Rachel will definitely be an interesting aspect of the ep, the things showed of Cyrus’s insecurities plus the fact that somersaults are ‘their thing’ makes it all the more painful, I’m really excited to see what specifically they chose to do with TJ and his insecurities, Jonah’s doing better and I don’t want Jandi to ruin that, this episode has some cool parallels to 1x11, and this episode set up so much with each of the relationships I’m ready to see unfurl. Oh and rip Andi bigtime this episode.

Oh and so you don’t need to scroll all the way down, THAT’S SO CUTE MY FRIEND HAS A BURMESE TOO!!! He always looks like he’s constantly terrified lol I don’t think he likes me. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HIM!!! Doggos are amazing I have a yellow lab and I wub her sm

OKAY ONTO MY HELLA LONG RESPONSE TO YOUR ASKS I LOVE YOU AND IM REALLY SORRY IN ADVANCED 

Ooo that’s a cool thought! Maybe maybe! All I thought about the long distance thing is it was to show that Marty has changed a little during their time apart and that it was a plot device to show that Buffy’s competitiveness can cause her to get in over her head still, as well as you know the Marty worrying stuff. But that’s actually really interesting I hadn’t thought of it that way! I wonder how slow burn they can make it though considering how little is left for them to work with.

Pretty much anything Muffy related will cause conflict when it comes to Rachel tbh. Like just them standing next to one another with her knowledge will be something because of the sheer amount of sparks flying between them when they so much as look at each other LOL (You can see my Muffy stan jumping out). And I’m all for it! No offense Rachel, I know you probably make Marty happy and stuff but like… Muffy. I’m honestly kind of curious how Marty and Rachel’s relationship is going to be portrayed considering it’s going to be sunk FAST and I’m pretty sure Muffy will happen extremely soon after so. We’ll see how that goes. Because Muffy is definitely endgame at this point in my opinion, whether it be ambiguous because Rachel and Marty just broke up and they want to find security in the newly rebuilt relationship they have before starting anything or something they show with full confirmation and commitment on screen.

I’m trying my best to have NO expectations of Rachel so we’ll see what happens when I meet her lol. There’s no character in this show at this point I have ZERO opinion on I think (watch me remember some as soon as I finish posting this lol), so I’m pretty sure that I’ll definitely form some feeling about her in the single episode she’s in. But I’m kind of hoping they’re not that strong of feelings. So we’ll see how that goes I don’t want to feel bad for her but I also don’t want to just despise her for being a buffer between Muffy so. WE SHALL SEE WE SHALL SEE.

As for Tyrus, oh my GODS right? Looking at it from Cyrus’s perspective might pain me even more than looking at it in TJ’s. 

TJ’s the one person who’s constantly believed in him and never seems to be ashamed of Cyrus, and then this happens. He was the first one to tell Cyrus not to let anyone, even himself, tell him what he can’t do. Then take into account that somersault is one of those big moments in Cyrus’s life where TJ was there and believed in him and didn’t seem to be ashamed or put off by it, even though Cyrus and Andi had insisted it was something Cyrus was incapable of. Both him and his best friend tried to warn TJ against it, yet TJ didn’t give up on Cyrus and was so proud when he was able to do it. But now that same thing that TJ had once been proud of and shown no judgment towards and is something Cyrus considered to be their thing is what TJ winds up opting out of. 

It brings me back to s2 when Cyrus said “He wants to be friends with me. Who knows why.” And it makes me really want to cri everytiem. Like you said, the gun situation built up their friendship even more and established its solidarity, and you can tell they got even closer after it. He thought they were comfortable and that he was as important to TJ as TJ was to him (which he IS), especially after the whole “only person I can talk to like this” thing. So TJ not telling Cyrus something, along with that ‘something’ negatively having to do with something he thought was special to both of them, must be a real punch in the gut.  Maybe Cyrus is more secure in himself than I’m giving him credit for and is just feeling betrayed, but I think it’s more of both betrayal, humiliation, and questioning of their whole relationship (which I think I’ve posted about already lol). 

AND THEN if you take when he and Jonah were supposed to wear matching jackets together and compare that to him and TJ in this scenario, I’d think that this feels even worse. TJ was the one brought up doing a matching costume in comparison to him bringing up the jackets with Jonah, and instead of just being a jacket from a random sports game he didn’t care for, this was an inside joke that he emphasized was their thing. So it was bigger and more important. This may be me reading into it too much, but considering being ditched in a situation like this is now something that has happened to him before due to the Jonah thing, he might feel even worse about himself for letting it happen to him twice.

I’m putting a lot of emphasis on the fact that it’s their thing, because even though Cyrus and TJ both saying that in the episode was cute for the simple fact that they say they have a ‘thing’, I feel like by saying that it also draws attention to the importance of what the costume was in their relationship. It was them both being proud of having a ‘thing’ and ‘inside joke’ together. And I kinda keep in mind that Cyrus and TJ had been talking about the costume and its importance to two different people trying to stand their ground against two different costumes. They know both of them found the costume funny and was a cool joke between the two of them, but they didn’t necessarily know how much importance it held for the other. But one party backed out of something that actually holds importance and emotional value for someone they claimed they didn’t really hang out with much and with no warning at all. If it were me my anxiety would make me wonder whether it had actually been important to them at all or if it were all in my own head. ;=;

This scene just feels so built up from so many different times we’ve seen Cyrus feel insecure, and now that TJ’s become someone he doesn’t find himself feeling insecure around and someone he instead finds comfort in, having it all compound into TJ no longer being someone who he can feel he trusts makes it so much worse. Especially since it related to something he felt was important enough to them that he’d opted out of the GHC+Jonah costume.

And on TJ’s side I feel so bad that he feels like turning down Kira for Cyrus is something that wouldn’t normally be accepted, and I’m really curious what route they’re going to go in terms of which aspect of what she said had caused him to change his mind, because really there are a few different things they can go about using. They can draw it on the lines of peer pressure and social hierarchy, fear of being too obvious with how he treats Cyrus, make him question himself/his sexuality, etc. and whatever route they do take will essentially come back to TJ’s insecurity. 

But like I said, TJ’s never seemed to be ashamed of being close to Cyrus before and has never seemed to care about how being friends with Cyrus (or ‘a person like Cyrus’) might affect his image before, so I’m really interested to see what part of his insecurities caused him to ditch Cyrus. He’s in so much pain when he sees Cyrus (Luke OUTSOLD) that it makes me wonder what pushed him to even consider hurting both himself and Cyrus in the process. Especially when you consider the line from 3x7 where he talks about how if he knew Reed had a gun, he definitely wouldn’t have brought Cyrus. So yeah, I’m really curious and hope to see them actually specify what part of her threat caused him to decide to change his mind. They pretty much need to have him give some explanation to Cyrus in order for things to mend themselves.

I also wonder if TJ will feel bad enough about this to avoid Cyrus himself or if TJ’s insecurities will cause him to feel like he doesn’t have the right or can’t talk to Cyrus without it being risky, or if Cyrus will be avoiding him after this or anything. This seems like a big argument type of thing. No TJ next episode means no confrontation for at least a period of time in-universe, and I don’t think it’ll be Buffy and Andi policing Cyrus again this time. Cyrus is his own person, they know that and acknowledge that more than ever after the gun incident, and I think they know whatever he does in regards to TJ will be his own decision and will support his decision like the good friends they are. People are upset at them for jumping to conclusions about TJ ditching Cyrus but fact of the matter is their friend is extremely upset over something TJ caused, and they’re being protective. Sort of like when Amber had done some bad things to Andi, it took Cyrus and Buffy some time on their own to lower their defenses. Plus, looking at Cyrus’s face when he was about to cry after TJ leaves with Kira tells me that while the gun thing wasn’t that personal, this definitely was.

Please say that it’s not a plotline they shove offscreen for an episode like they did with Jonah and Libby before coming back to it. At least show Cyrus having some distress about it and talking about it with maybe Buffy or something. And please please please Andi Mack I beg of you stop hurting TJ like this he’s already gone through so much and he’s NOT EVEN A MAIN CHARACTER SALKDJASKLDJ Anytime he does something like this it will give me flashbacks to “classic TJ” and I DON’T WANT IT TO (okay yes I do because it shows it’s a powerful line and they’re using it to provoke me properly but you know what I mean)

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. This poor boy. He’s growing into his own person and becoming more understanding that while he should take others feelings into account he also needs to pay attention to himself instead of just always putting on a brave face which I love. But jfc he has the worst timing to make these decisions. Andi already had so many other things just crashing down around her, adding his anvil to the pile was definitely an oof.

I really hope that now that they’re emphasizing both how Andi does not want to be the next ex in the lineup as well as how Jonah finds being in a relationship too demanding that it’s actually building up to a single Jonah endgame, or at the very least an ambiguous endgame. They have it pretty set in stone at this point that Andi and Jonah are fine with their friendship and that Jonah’s been getting himself into relationships he is most definitely not ready for, so with so few episodes left I can’t see how they can turn that on its heel and result in Jandi endgame without some major logic gaps. 

For the love of EVERYTHING Jonah take some time to be single. Amber always needing a boyfriend pales in comparison to you always getting a girlfriend even though you don’t even seem to want one???

Also random but I really like how his decision to not partake in the group costume paralleled 1x11 where Andi decided to not just make decisions to make Jonah happy. I feel like this episode in general paralleled bits of 1x11 here and there tbh. Maybe I’m just reading into it too much but not just Jonah and Andi making their own decisions instead of making everyone happy, but the whole costume aspect vs the prison uniforms, Cyrus wanting to back out of Mt Rushmore vs wanting to change into his own outfit for picture day, Buffy helping Cyrus find an replacement vs Buffy helping Cyrus find a way to use the prison uniform well for his picture, and Jonah not participating in Mt Rushmore just for Andi vs Andi not giving up on her movement and taking off the uniform just for Jonah are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head! I haven’t seen anyone mention it and it’s not like its a big obvious parallel, but it’s just some things I started thinking about after comparing Jonah and Andi’s ‘were we ever’-esque speeches.

AND FINALLY MUFFY, TYRUS, AND BEXIE PLOTS OPENING. 

Like you said, I love the develpoment they’re giving Muffy and Tyrus! Muffy’s being given time to show that they fit like puzzle pieces even after not talking for awhile and that even after they haven’t talked for awhile and left on not the best of terms, they still clearly care for eachother whatever way that is at the moment, and I can’t wait to see how they add to that care and their dynamic as we get to see the rest of Marty’s episodes in the season. Tyrus getting angst specifically related to their relationship like Muffy’s ‘I want it to be real/I don’t want it to change’, Bexie’s proposal(s) and last name decision, and Jandi’s… well Jandi’s everything since pretty much it’s always something personal blown out of proportion for Jandi is something I didn’t expect and am actually excited for the more I think about it! Like yes it’s going to pain me until the show is back, but I’m not opposed to the angst itself lol. So I’m ready to see how they grow and to what extent they grow by the finale!

Bexie not having a wedding I’m actually okay with too. Like there’s really no rush to get married, if they decide later down the line they do want to have a wedding or just want to officiate it that’s fine. They’re engaged, and they’re committed to eachother, and that’s enough for them if they can be a family. Of course, eventually they’ll probably want to go through with at least something small in the future (if you think hypothetically not with the confirmation they’re gonna have a wedding in show) that’s fine too. Honestly, considering they didn’t even go through the process of beginning to date again before proposing, I sort of think it’d be good for them if they prolong the wedding. There’s no time frame a wedding needs to occur post engagement, right?

I do feel bad for Andi though, since she was so excited and working so hard with Cece to plan for the wedding, only for it to not happen since of course it’s not her wedding and she can’t make them get married if they don’t want to. This episode was just so mean to her oh my gosh, from her parents’ marriage to her group costume, they were things she was so excited for but had to rely on others which ultimately fell through and she just can’t do anything about it really. PLUS trying to work out a friends’ relationship and make it work for them even though it’s really not something she should need to get involved with must’ve exhausted her. Trust me, I know. I know the feeling for both the being excited for something but commitments fall through and the feeling of how tiring it is trying to help friends in a relationship understand their own relationship. Lmao.

I think that was about it in response to what you said. Sorry again that it’s so frEAKING long and if you read this far (whether you’re ghostie or you’re just a random passerby on this LONG ASS POST) you a real one and I love you

I should have applied to TyrusChat with this much commentary i stg SLKAJDLKSAJ except I was too socially anxious to apply and have such disorganized thoughts to dump. Whoops.

I hope this made sense. It took me like 2-3 hrs to type this all out while discording my friends (not related to Andi Mack), so yeah. Hope this was a fun read and is somewhat coherent since it’s 2am. No proofreading we die like… dead people.

OVERALL: As you put it best...

“JUST LET THEM BE HAPPY DISNEY I BEG YOU “

[moiraineswife]

Can you expand on the Geralt, Regis, and Philippa being autistic? I'm intrigued...

Yes friend. Yes I can. As it happens I’ve already talked about Phil at length here, but I got distracted by…Life before I could get to the boys. So I’ll do that now. Much like Phil’s this isn’t going to be very ordered….Or detailed, unfortunately, bc I can’t remember everything I wanted to say on the subjects, and I don’t have the spoons to go trawling through the books atm. 

This is all, also, entirely book based, because I’ve never played the games (I just occasionally reblog gifsets here bc a)- pretty, b)- CONTENT and c)- oh look nice visual representations of my children) but idk what’s going on there. 

Regis: 

Regis presents some potential vague problems with the autistic thing bc he’s not human…but as I’m not suggesting all higher vampires are automatically autistic, and because I love my dear awkward bean, I don’t really care and we’re pressing on with haste. 

-Okay, okay, the biggest/my favourite thing for this hc with Regis is his habit of infodumping/overexplaining EVERYTHING. He either just gets really into it/excited about Sharing His Knowledge, or else he can’t filter what of all the many things bouncing around in his brain are actually important (bc they are all important) so he just says everything meanwhile the hansa are all just ‘Regis pls we got the point ten minutes ago STOP TALKING’ And he knows he does this, and he’s tried so many times to get a hold on it and stop but it just…It’s not happening. 

-Regis having special interests in herbs/plants, particularly if they can be used for medicinal purposes…Or making moonshine. He’s had several lifetimes to Indulge this interest and he pretty much knows everything about everything. 

-He has a pretty distinctive pattern of speech. And I like the idea that his Extreme Authentic Regis-Flavoured Politeness that’s a fairly staple part of his character is something that’s developed over the years, first from a coping type mechanism bc the politer he was, the harder it was to accidentally say something wrong and offend someone, and eventually transitioned into an internal rule so this is now just the way he is/has to be. 

-Kind of a combination of the above point and the first: Regis explaining things in ways he thinks are very clear and explicit (while also maintaining the necessary politeness rules) but everyone around him is just ???? regis wut???? 

-Regis calling himself a coward when it comes to combat situations because he doesn’t know how else to explain the fact that he freezes up and panics in these situations (the dude basically cannot die, okay, this isn’t a mortality fear, but there’s something going on). The truth is, though, that battles are sensory hell, too much noise, too much feeling, too much visual stimulation too much and he can’t deal with it (sweet bean) 

-I like Regis being on the other end of the empathy spectrum to, say, Philippa, and being hyperempathetic (which I think fits him fairly well - I mean….The guy is an immensely powerful, centuries old higher vampire….and he spends his time chilling, making moonshine for passing strangers, and being a bloody barber surgeon and helping people with his vast wealth of Knowledge. And also the way he responds to, say, the girl in the village when he performs the whole fire miracle thing to save her, despite the fact it’ll expose him, because he just nope, not having this. And he feels things so deeply, he CARES so much, he’s such a good soul, this suits him well) 

-Okay but in contrast to that Regis is pretty fucking unflappable. He doesn’t really do big displays of emotion very well, and tends to approach most things with Logic. (See: that moment in LotL when Geralt is like ‘okay ppl we have a job we are LEAVING’ and the hansa just explodes into action and rushes off to hop to it. Meanwhile Regis sits there, chill as you please, just like…yes, okay Geralt, an explanation if you please, I require Reasons before I leap into action thank you very much) And he’s got that expected ‘comes across as pretty withdrawn/composed’ thing going on too.

Geralt: 

Geralt, like Regis, presents a few slightly thorny problems bc a lot of the things that read as traits for him are muddled up with the whole witcher mutations…but again…i Relate too much to care, and I’m too tired to get into a debate with myself concerning this, so onwards and upwards… 

-I feel like he’s somewhere in the middle of the empathy spectrum. Like you’ve got Phil who’s just…None and doesn’t give af, Regis that’s just like *feels everything so much and vibrates with it* and then Geralt’s in the middle where he….Can’t really read people’s emotions very well, but there’s also a fairly large heaping of compassionate empathy in there, in that he WANTS to help people he just…Doesn’t quite understand them very well? So he’s like…Trying His Best on the empathy front. (bless) 

-Geralt kind of going the opposite direction that Regis went with the talking/socialising thing. Where Regis is really polite/long-winded to kind of compensate and attempt to cover all bases, Geralt is just...To the point. Blunt. Says what he’s thinking/what he means. Doesn’t have time for anyone who does anything other than that. He gave up trying to riddle out manipulation/lies long ago. Either talk simply, or don’t talk at all. 

-Geralt repeatedly being like ‘what is this feeling I am experiencing?’ *prods it uncertainly* which has a name: alexithmiya, and is Great Fun btw. 

-Let’s be honest here, he’s really not the world’s biggest emoter. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t have emotions/doesn’t feel (ofc he does) he’s just really not very good at showing it. 

-Absolutely less than zero, well into negative figures here, interested in politics. There’s too much lying, too much manipulation, too many games, too many exhausting little factions and social rules and nuances to try and figure out and he is decidedly Too Old For This Shit. 

-Same vein: hates spies/spying. Can’t be doing this with all this under the table, betraying, two-faced bullshit. Wasn’t made for it, can’t be fucked with it, stop doing it, please and thank you. 

-Geralt transcending the typical autistic realms of same!clothes/same!food and heading into the territory of same!name: every horse I have ever, or will ever, own is called Roach. Nice and simple. 

-His witcher medallion ending up being a comfort object because of how constant/present it is. It’s a nice weight, and it probably doubles as a stim toy tbh because the spiky bits can get rubbed between fingers. 

-Geralt having very set Internal Rules/demonstrating black and white thinking. He’s very firm about these sorts of things in the games, things along the lines of not killing dragons/intelligent beasts etc, etc. But also his views on neutrality/not taking part/wanting to be removed from what’s happening (these do change slightly, but it takes a damn long time) 

-I can make an argument for Geralt being change resistant/struggling to adapt without too much trouble. He does the same thing day in day out and has done for years, and doesn’t seem in any great hurry to stop doing that. 

-Literally every speech Geralt makes to the hansa is just...Geralt. Child. Ur trying. But lead by action, okay? 

I could go on but...that’ll do for now. (also this took 16 years to answer and I apologise for that I hope your intrigue didn’t die in the intervening time D:) 

[bartsugsy]

Is it just me or is anyone else so offended by Rebecca's character because she is such a pale shadow of female representation? I'm outraged that in the 21st century a woman can be not even a set of character traits, but literally a walking (nice dressed) uterus who bends in the wind. No agency whatsoever. Deplorable! Rebecca makes me miss the 90s and the riot grrrl movement. She makes me want to daub myself in blood and put on a baby doll dress and scream into the abyss. What were they thinking?

ah anon, you know i can’tresist a good rebecca ask. it’s my weakness.

and like... you’re really not wrong.

i mean, i don’t know if it offends me - well, yes, it does, buti think rebecca was brought in for a few specific narrative purposes and iguess that’s ok in and of itself, but they’ve never fleshed her out into muchof a real character beyond those purposes so she exists in her currentiteration as a supporting character and they don’t seem to have any desire tochange that. which. just makes it uncomfortable, the more you think about it. andapparently I’ve thought about it a bunch.

i think the other thing is… those narrative purposes she has aremostly related to male characters. they’ve fleshed this out a little but mostlyshe’s been fairly irrelevant to every storyline - except one. there is onestoryline in which she is completely necessary in her function and it is clearly entirely the reason why she was brought in in the first place.

what i’m saying is that rebecca white literally exists todevelop robert sugden as a character and prop up his relationship with aaron.

(you could maybe argue that she is important to the whitestorylines but those have had very little long term affects beyond the waysthat link robert to the whites. i want to go into this more but i need toactually rewatch her white storyline stuff first, so maybe i’ll change my mind,but tbh it feels more like… her relationship with her family is a by-product ofbringing her in for her main purpose of affecting robert and robron. again,that’s for another post)

but that in turn leads to her being written like an inconsistentplot device. i think i’ve sort of developed enough of a fanwanky reasoningbehind her actions so far, but it doesn’t work as well as i’d like. it doesessentially boil down to her being in love with robert, though - she’s, ithink, actually a very tragic character and i have a lot of sympathy for her -but it takes a hell of a lot of mental gymnastics constantly to bring me backto that place, because the show doesn’t care enough to do it for us. and it’sannoying. because i do think they could make her story so compelling if theywanted to.

but ultimately they wouldn’t, because robert is in many ways avillain in her story and the story they want to tell is more robert being avillain in his own story (and again, that’s another post all on its own).they’re not telling rebecca’s story. not at all.

anyway! basically. female character essentially being the toolthe show uses to explore male character robert and his relationships. great. gr e a t.

and because what’s the point in making big sweeping contentiousstatements if you can’t back them up:

so the big thing the show has tried to drill into our headsrepeatedly is that robert was with chrissie for her money and her power,largely. he loved her in his own way, but he loved himself way more. he flirtedhis way up the company through lawrence, exploiting lawrence’s complicatedfeelings about his own sexuality and attraction to robert (see: the iconicscene close to the beginning of ryan!robert’s introduction where he saysexactly that to larry and suddenly we are given a window into why exactlylawrence hates robert so vehemently, to the point of faking a heart attack tostop his first attempt to marry chrissie). saw an opening and got with chrissieand then rebecca and then eventually chose chrissie, who undoubtedly has moreof a pull in the running of the company and more access to the money, as opposedto free-spirited rebecca, who we’ve seen is not at all competent at working inthe business and has very little overall experience with it.

we see robert repeatedly reaping the benefits of the whites’money and power - and the position that we know he is in fact very good at,thereby earning his own money on top of that (but again - in a position hefasttracked his way to via chrissie and lawrence).

anyways (you already know this is gonna be long af bc look howmuch im rambling) we see, particularly in the argument after chrissie finds outabout the home farm robbery and his reaction to almost dropping the cheque shegives him - and really everything robert does in that break up with chrissie,when he’s desperate to get his old life back, that robert ultimately cares moreabout the money than he does about his wife.

fast forward to robert post-coma, post-redemption arc and nowfully committed to being in a relationship with aaron. he still loves money andfights hard to make as much of it as possible, usually still somehow at theexpense of the whites, but we as an audience don’t have any solid proof thatrobert really cares more about aaron than he does about his og love, money.

we’ll come back to this in asecond, but the other thing we see in robert’s relationship with chrissie isthat he never exactly had any compunction to remain faithful to her. he says to aaronearly on (in the barn) that he has had a bunch of one night stands, but neveranything beyond that, which is the first indication to the audience that somehowaaron is different for robert. we later learn that he did in fact also sleepwith rebecca multiple times. according to robert, it was all before he andchrissie got serious, whatever that means in rob’s mind , at which pointhe stopped, although we also know that he and rebecca had sex at rob andchrissie’s engagement party (side note, my best guess - that was the last time they slepttogether and also when he knocked her up the first time).

anyways, outside of rebecca and later, aaron, robert had alsohad a bunch of one night stands and just… generally couldn’t keep it in hispants.

again, robert and aaron later become a real couple, long afterhe and chrissie are over for the last time and robert doesn’t seem to beinterested in anyone else (at all, he basically puts his life on hold tosupport aaron throughout the first part of 2016). but - equally, he’s never putin a situation where he’s had the chance.

bringing this back to rebecca - one of the first things she doesis show that she is working with robert to take down chrissie - she’s angry atchrissie for not telling her about lawrence getting shot, or anything that’sbeen going on (and - it’s chrissie that she wants to hurt, not larry or lucky,so we’re once again treated to two girls treating each other like shit for abit, joy of joys) and she wants to help robert get chrissie her comeuppance andalso protect her inheritance. robert brought her in and robert is the onlycharacter she’s not lying to, when she first comes to the village. her sceneswith her family all have the undertone of the fact that she is doing thisbecause robert convinced her to - it’s all about robert’s revenge, narrativelyspeaking.

to bring back my earlier points about robert’s love of money andinfidelity, a lot of her early scenes exist to set the stage for robertproposing in ssw and to show the audience that rob has, in fact, changed - sheoffers him all of home farm, all of that power back, and he says no. she triesto sleep with him repeatedly and he turns her down again and again.

and this pattern continues - she keeps pushing him and he flirtsback, kisses her even - his stupid way of keeping her inside so that they caneventually clear andy’s name, as he says to her when he finally shuts her downonce and for all outside the courthouse. the lines he says to her repeatedlyare things about how important aaron is to him - the show starts to build upthis picture that aaron is special to robert, but also robert is still hisrobert sugden-y self and isn’t above doing stupid things or pushing his stupidplans too far in order to get his way.

like. god i’m not going to list them all THIS IS LONG AND EXTRA TM ENOUGH but there are literallygifsets that exist of all the ways robert proclaims his love for aaron torebecca. so much of their scenes are used to both strengthen our knowledge ofhow much robert loves aaron and also to sow those seeds that robert does stupidand reckless things at the expense of that relationship sometimes - that heloves aaron but he sure as hell also loves money too.

but - again - in the narrative, we’ve been shown repeatedly thatwhen push comes to shove, robert always chooses aaron, that he doesn’t have anydesire to be unfaithful to aaron and he won’t choose money over hisrelationship. even when he was unfaithful, it was basically the product of an emotional breakdown as opposed to his apparent motivation of eh this person is hot and i’m bored why not when he was with chrissie.

and rebecca is the tool that leads the show to show us that so so often.similarly, rebecca is the catalyst for aaron’s jealousy and his eventual prisonstoryline.

everything since her entrance has slowly allowed the show tobuild up to aaron and robert breaking up. every one of their storylines hastied into that, or somehow been driven by her presence. every single one. andthe thing is… it’s nothing to do with who she even is - beyond that initialmanipulative streak she had which has disappeared entirely, it seems.

i know i’ve spoken a lot about her lack of agency as acharacter (and... just about her in general... here here here here here here here here and here are some casual examples... jfc...), so i don’t want to rehash that aspect but… it is more than that,isn’t it? it’s not just her lack of agency - it’s that, while she is absolutelyCRUCIAL to everything that has happened to robert and aaron and the constantcatalyst for every bad decision they’ve made, to showing us the ways thatthey’re not working, it’s not about who she is. who she is is irrelevant. theonly thing she ever needed to be was in love with robert and passive enough tokeep getting pulled back into his orbit and to help him do his bidding,regardless of how he has treated her. she never needed to be more than that andshe really… isn’t, in all honesty. again, i spoke earlier this week about herlack of core characteristics and that plays into that. more than that, eventhough she is the character that has been driving robert and aaron into Troublewith a capital T over and over, none of it has ever really been about her.

mostly - mostly it’s been about showcasing problems that alreadyexisted between them, working towards potentially resolving those issues, or atleast highlighting that they exist.

one argument to the above - recently it has become more abouther in the sense that aaron says that robert sleeping with rebecca inparticular, as his ex and as the catalyst for aaron’s initial jealousy - androbert being tied to her in particular with a baby, was so much more painfuland untenable to him than it might have been, had rob instead slept with arandom.

(it would never have been a random though because as the showtold us, even robert and rebecca sleeping together wasn’t about rebecca - itwas about robert in pain and wanting to hurt aaron. rebecca was an easy targetfor robert - the only thing she needed to be, in that episode, was desperatelyin love with robert enough to ignore any moral compunction she initially had tonot sleep with an emotionally destroyed dude who was married to someone sheproclaimed to like, which she was).

again - it always, always comes down to aaron and in particular,robert. and MORE THAN THAT, we now have robert on screen, being shown in apretty sympathetic light (for rob), in agony over the loss of aaron, once againallowing robert to show character development, to show his absurd love foraaron. and getting into spoiler territory, we know he’s going to get pulledback into the white orbit in a particularly 2015, pre aaron’s good influenceway - something made particularly possible by this brand new unshakeable bondto the whites through his son, who is currently chilling inside rebecca

(although you would never know if from her outfits)

none of rebecca’s story has been about rebecca. she’s pregnantand they haven’t even shown that really - not much beyond the fact that herfamily are supportive and the ways in which it has affected aaron and robert.

she just. she exists for robert and aaron and their story.possibly also the end of the whites, but that’s to be seen. that’s it. andthat… kind is really offensive.

or at least, it’s just writing that is very careless towards afemale character - something which is incredibly prevalent across the show as awhole, but particularly irksome here because this is the storyline we reallycare about lmfao

[twixtandshout]

ok for the HC thing: the skelebros, undyne and alphys ofc! Thennn uhh Muffet grillby toriel or mettaton? burgerpants. Basically anyone tbh don't gotta do all bc it's a lot but any tbh I'm satisfied lmao

I’m gonna split these up into separate posts, if that’s alright, cause that’s a long list and my answers are only gonna make it longer. >:3c First up: the skelebros!

2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Type A: Realistic headcanons

I think it is super freaking likely that Papyrus is Gaster, or at least related to Gaster somehow. There are just too many weird things that don’t add up. (And I am happy to discuss this further if anyone wants more deets, but I’m pretty sure the people who are reading this have already gotten a pretty thorough lecture about this, lol.) I hc both skelebros as having autism-spectrum disorders, Papyrus with straight autism I think and Sans with sensory processing disorder. Pap’s special interests are puzzles and classic literature, but he can’t really indulge the latter cause books don’t fare so well at the dump; Sans’s special interests are astronomy and the science of magic, and I think he’s also picked up a lot of info on mechanics and especially cars. Sans also has pretty severe depression and a bit of anxiety, which he hides very well, and he’s got suicidal ideation but he realized a long time ago that wouldn’t go anywhere so he’s kinda just made peace with it. That’s a lot about Sans I guess, so, uh… Papyrus actually enjoys puns, he’s just annoyed because Sans keeps making the same few over and over again and they’re not even good. They are, objectively, terrible puns, and he knows his brother can do so much better than this – no, he doesn’t think Sans is “trying to tell a fibia about his skills”, that doesn’t even work!! Honestly!!

Type B: Hilarious headcanons

This isn’t that funny of a headcanon, I guess, but Sans isn’t a jerk about his practical jokes. Like, if he whoopie cushions somebody and he can tell they’re super embarrassed and upset about it, he’s not gonna keep targeting them or anything. I mean, sure, he’ll pull other pranks, but he’s not going to give someone who doesn’t deserve it a hard time.

…that being said, he’s uncannily good at detecting if people think a prank is hilarious but refuse to admit it. Which might have something to do with how many pranks he pulls on Grillby.

This one I just straight-up stole from my favorite Undertale fic, Never a Lovely So Real: Sans is a literal heavy sleeper and casts blue magic on himself whenever he falls asleep. Nobody can lift him up unless they can counteract the weight, so it’s not unusual for Snowdiners to have to call Papyrus in so he can come pick up his brother from wherever he’s made a nuisance of himself this time. And, going along with that, Sans falls asleep in weird places all the time. Grillby’s found him sleeping in the sink. One time he fell asleep under the ice in the local pond. Some poor soul opened their closet and found him upside-down and hanging from his slippers in there. This is the cost of living in Snowdin.

And, again, sorry, that’s a lot of Sans stuff. Um, one time Pap lost control of his gravity-defying floaty thing and ended up pinned to the ceiling for, like, an entire day. He is an amazing ice skater, but the last time he went he ended up skating over his brother under the ice, and that freaked him out so badly that he hasn’t gone near the pond in years.

Type C: Tragic headcanons

Pretty sure this is just straight canon, but: Sans made it into the royal guard, even though being a sentry doesn’t exactly count, and Papyrus didn’t. At all. That’s why Sans has actual sentry stands and Papyrus has a cardboard station.

This one’s been done, too, but here’s a bit of a different spin on it – Sans is aware of resets but doesn’t remember them, whereas Papyrus remembers them but doesn’t know what they are. So Sans is kind of locked in his one-man personal tragedy, piecing together what happened by facial cues and half-remembered nightmares because he feels like it’s his duty to remember as much as he can, whereas Papyrus is blurting out details about the future right and left because he knows what happened but doesn’t know that everyone else doesn’t. (That’s one reason why he has such a hard time making friends.)

And one more… um, it’s a hc of mine that monsters, while very advanced in many ways, don’t have much knowledge about mental health and things like that, because they’re putting so much time and energy into figuring out the Barrier that they don’t bother researching anything else. So monsters are, as a whole, very accepting of those outside the norm – like, for example, there isn’t institutional discrimination against monsters we’d consider to be ‘neuroatypical’, even if some specific monsters are jerks about that kind of thing – but because no one really knows about it, it’s treated more as a personal quirk than a treatable condition, know what I mean? Which is why Papyrus berates his brother so much for being so lazy, cause he thinks it’s an actual choice Sans is making instead of a condition he’s dealing with, and why Sans has such a low opinion of himself, cause he legitimately believes he is completely at fault and doesn’t understand why he can’t just… not be like this. Papyrus is slightly better off in this respect, because Sans is an amazing big brother who makes utterly no bones about how much he loves his bro, but he deals with the same kind of self-hatred.

Aaaaaaaand I love everything about Undertale, including its canon, so I’m gonna ignore Type D. Hopefully this’ll be enough skeleton headcanons to tide you over until we get to the rest of the list.