#and a big part of his character arc as a whole even beyond the redemption aspect of atoning for the Overboss thing

[newvegascowboy]

I was kinda Jesting about it a little bit ago, but Killian and Shaun just have the potential to have SUCH a fucked up relationship. Shaun, the guy who considers the death of his mother to be collateral damage, who was going to free Killian as a social experiment, who finds out his dad takes off into a grief induced drug haze and becomes a raider overlord for a little bit. VS Killian, the guy who straight up tells him to his face "I love you, but I never should have been your father, and the parent who could have saved you is dead". Killian who realized he couldn't be the kind of father a child deserves wayy too late, but having a wife and kid was kind of all he had. Shaun who has to contend with the realization that his dad thought it was a blessing that Shaun and Nora were "dead". Killian who realizes he's done the exact same thing his parents did to him. DELICIOUS.

[eriexplosion]

The thing is that the finale isn't even good outside of lack of addressing Tech. It just is bad all around. It's a bad episode that doesn't follow any of the established set up for season 3.

We started the CX subplot in season 2, and then spent 3 long episodes with CX-2 in particular. This apparently was... just to set up a big boss fight in the finale and for nothing else? We spent four whole episodes across two seasons on this and had several other set up moments! For a big shootout and nothing else?

And yes, the CX-2 is Tech implications is a big part of this. Some of them even remained in the episode. How else are we supposed to take Hemlock's line "The last time we crossed paths, you had just lost a member of your squad. And it appears history may repeat itself. CT-9904 resisted my conditioning in the past, but I've made alterations to my methods. If you all survive, you will make fine operatives." other than that he used those 'alterations' to successfully CX Tech? Literally thought that was what it was setting up before *waves hand*

The Zillo beast was used to rip open a hole in the wall so that the Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair can get inside. It served no other purpose and walked away.

We spent two full episodes on the m-count plot between Bad Territory and The Harbinger. This accomplishes nothing in the entire rest of the season.

We spent all season dealing with Crosshair's hand tremors, establishing they are a psychological response to trauma. So should we... emotionally deal with that trauma? NOPE. WE'RE CUTTING IT OFF. DONE.

A small thread was set up that no one is beyond redemption/help, we see Rex reaching out to a CX, we see Omega remind Crosshair that Ventress deserves the chance to change, and in the finale... NO ONE is given a chance to change other than Emerie, who already did last episode. Every CX and commando is shot down without remorse even though they're also victims of Hemlock.

In general we just have action interspersed with the scraps of what was probably a united plot at one point. There isn't even a cavalry arrives moment in The Cavalry Has Arrived. What happened here?

The thing is I can see two subplots that would have united ALL of these that almost feel like they've been scraped out and replaced with generic shooting and a generic and undefined 'and then they had a happy ending'

First there's the force sensitivity plot. This was actually set up as early as season one episode one, when Omega takes the shot at Crosshair and manages to stop him from shooting, and then elaborated on throughout when she connects easily with animals, leading up to Bad Territory and The Harbinger - where we see Ventress tame a large, angry creature through the force. So much is made of the beast taming angle.

And obviously we have a beast. The Zillo beast. Omega does not at any point interact with this giant creature to calm it down or do anything at all she just lets it loose to rip some stuff up, have some action sequences, and then walk away into the night. But these two things united would have brought all the moments of force sensitivity hints home, as well as tied in her biggest strength - her empathy and caring. Taming the zillo beast would have been the end result of her character arc and made all that set up go somewhere instead of trailing off vaguely.

And second we have the CX plot. This could have tied in the remaining dropped threads of making the CX set up matter at all, the CX-2 is Tech hinting throughout the season, Crosshair's hand tremors, and the thread of redemption and no one being beyond saving. CX-2 is Tech, reach out to him, bring him back and through that Crosshair addresses his trauma by starting to fix one of the consequences of his biggest mistake - going back to the Empire in the first place. It wouldn't fix his tremors entirely but would help reduce them, be a huge step on the path to recovery and a great note to end his arc on.

With these two subplots, instead of endless excuses for more action and grunting, everything gets pulled together for a finale that has actual emotional significance, and the thing is that all the pieces are there so what the hell happened to make absolutely none of them come together and instead it just turns into an action shoot out?

[mdhwrites]

Five Reasons Why The Owl House Isn't Inclusive

Someone on Twitter asked me to elaborate on the concept of TOH not being inclusive beyond LGBTQIA+ labels, which I'm still happy it has, and I accidentally just made a five part list of them that helped bring together a lot of the points I've tackled not only recently but also in the past so... Why not? Let's actually make a kind of master post for this. These are five reasons why The Owl House isn't inclusive.

The demons

I don't entirely have an order for this, this isn't a top five thing, but we'll start with probably the thing that's the easiest to never even think about: It's treatment of the demons of the Isles of the DEMON REALM.

Every demon in the show is either a gag, a villain... Or the ones who get to have nuance or be good are the ones who pass the most for being 'human', much like how the witches are just humans with pointy ears. The first point is pretty obvious. A lot of random demons show up just to be made fun of for looking strange and then move on.

The villain accusation though is because like 90% of one off villains in this show, with no nuance or real personality and are obviously evil just because they're evil are demons. They also aren't allowed to be amongst the good guys for the most part. In the main cast, the only demon is Hooty who... Boy his treatment is AWFUL. It actually says TERRIBLE things about Luz that she treats him just as poorly as everyone else, especially when someone else manages to befriend him... Which the show uses as signaling to treat Lilith as lesser than the rest because now she's comic relief.

Finally the passing part. This is actually big for the fact that it's actually kind of racist in general. The only demons who are allowed actual nuance are the ones who look the most like witches or humans. Boscha and Steve are both theoretically demons as far as we know and they get kind of redemption arcs but much lesser ones than any more human character and both start as villains. Then there's Vee who is the only unequivocally 'good' demon and her whole thing is that she can pass for a witch or human. In fact, she's better at being human than LUZ is.

So point one and we've already got a weird undercurrent of an entire race being lesser than the conventional ones or... that'd be it if not for

1.5: Take a lot of what I said about demons and apply it to the guys of TOH because they're also treated like shit by the writers. They are either villains or jokes when they first appear and the only exceptions are either still pretty questionable for fitting one those roles... Or dead. You know, like Manny. I think Dell is literally the only ALIVE male character who isn't a joke or villain at one point.

2. Everyone's really fucking pretty. Like... period. Every character in the main cast is ready for the runway. The only main character who really comes close to being transgressive in their looks is Willow and like... Overwatch came out 7 years ago with Mei and that she wasn't a daring design choice then and Willow wasn't four years later. They're the definition of 'more to love'.

Admittedly, I'm normally fine with things just having pretty people. Yokotaro is based for giving an android a big ass because he likes pretty women. I don't think people should feel ashamed for that. It's just a problem when a lot of your contemporary competitors, or even old school competitors like Recess back in the NINETIES, who aren't even trying to preach inclusivity, have better body representation than the show that does.

And yes, that does tie back into the demon thing too as you might notice that all the demons who are accepted by the main cast or given more nuance are the ones who look the most conventionally attractive. Good job show.

3. Nothing here is actually transgressive.

So now we're getting away from looks and the like and actually getting into how well the show sells its theming and representation of those society rejects. The embodiment of this should be Luz if the show wishes to say that it accepts those with weird interests or behave oddly. The only problem is that Luz doesn't. At all. When she is, the things she's transgressive about are things like the safety of others and common human decency.

Luz never really defines herself by her interests after all. Azura exists sure but it gets like... A handful of forced references in S1 and then maybe a couple in S2, often not even by Luz eventually but Amity, which is literally what happens in S3 as she abandons the series effectively. This isn't technically bad. She has a healthy relationship to it for the most part. She doesn't hyperfixate or try to interject it into every part of her life. She's just a nerd... Which wasn't even a brave thing back when I was in High School a decade ago.

Straight up: I was a part of JROTC, the American school fast track into the military and people the first guy I ever heard squeal about how the Avengers were gonna happen, he swears, was a really dude in that ecosystem. He was more of a nerd than any of the drama kids I eventually hung out with and no one cared.

And Luz is less extreme than THAT. The only time she actually is is during her character introduction where she, you know, releases spiders on a classroom and also snakes that attack people. Or how about those fireworks? What was her plan with those? Set them off inside and kill burn down the whole building in the BEST CASE scenario? Because if she's been bullied so much, why would she expect her class to come outside for that? Regardless of the fact that you'd get expelled just for bringing that much gunpowder into school, let alone the other reasons she should have been expelled.

The worst part of all of this though is Lilith. Lilith actually hyperfixates. She cares a LOT about her interests and gets giddy about them... And it's almost always framed as mocking. Everything to do with her interest in history is almost always setup for a joke of some sort or to make her look smaller. She is also more genuinely interested in learning and excited about the Isles and its potential than Luz commonly but when she becomes that character, she isn't taken seriously anymore. She's a joke, just like her best friend Hooty.

So now we've rejected nerds. Can we really go deeper? Well, how about the oppressed themselves?

4: The oppressed are inconvenient to the show so they don't show up.

Because the Isles is meant to be bigotry free except for Belos (an ENTIRELY different topic that has bunches of problems of it own) the only people actually oppressed in the show, who are ever actually forced to conform and mind that conforming, are wild witches. But not only is their plight poorly shown but it's also inconsistent.

Eda is our ONLY representation of it and the show ever struggles to decide how genuinely illegal her presence is. She's allowed to just stroll into an Emperor's Coven funded school and enroll her student there. All it takes for her to be free for a day is burning some posters. But also on the other side, she is literally threatened with death ONLY for the crime of being a wild witch and not the rest of her rap sheet.

And why shouldn't it be? Systemic oppression isn't actually that bad by what the show depicts. Dana herself wrote Reaching Out where the coven system is treated like not going to college instead of a crime so severe as to have the death penalty. She also was one of two writers for The First Day where they treat the coven system as just tradition and not like multi-tracking is going to get these kids literally killed, if Bump himself isn't removed by Belos for enabling people to break the law in an episode where he SPECIFICALLY NEEDS GOVERNMENT FUNDING.

And as the coven system is the only form of oppression, no one has to actually deal with the social and sometimes legal pressures that makes one hide who they are. It can't say anything about those actually struggling because it's inconvenient. You can't just have Luz be accepted by all if her dream makes her illegal to most. You can't have her easily fall in love because that relationship is illegal. You can't have members of the government who have done literal witch hunts just turn around and be good guys because they are active participants in bigotry.

So the oppressed, the people actually other'd by the story that's being told, are pushed out of frame for the sake of the escapist fantasy of Luz getting to runaway to a magical world and save it. They exist solely to claim there IS a reason to fight but actually showing their struggle is one step too far apparently.

5. It leans into extremely harmful stereotypes of people with mental disorders and disabilities. Content warning for those topics until the BUT at the end.

This is the last one because not only do I think it's actually the most dangerous but it's also the most personal as someone who is literally disabled due to their depression. Who had to be really careful when writing about characters in crises not to peddle the same narratives most stories do. Extremely hazardous, painful narratives.

Hunter and Eda are both disabled by the logic of the world they live in. Both are incapable of magic in a world that expects it from them and it causes real difficulty in their lives, forcing them to require equipment and/or meds to aid them in dealing with the struggles these cause, doubly so for Eda because of the curse. It actually is good representation... Until you start thinking about and people start getting 'cured'.

Eda's is definitely more of a mental health disability with how much it's connected to emotions, stress, etc. like that than her physically being incapable of doing more. She suffers from not having enough spoons on any given day to do things with some being worse than others. Again, face value, this looks kind of nice.

Here's the insidious part: When she isn't medicated, when she isn't able to hold back her symptoms... she's literally a monster. Anytime she shows her pain, she is actively dangerous to those around her. Full stop. And there is no way to stop this except her murder. She will ALWAYS be a threat for the rest of her life, even after making peace with her diagnosis. After all, in the final episode she literally has to warn someone to get away because she's going to lose control. Worse yet, part of her getting a reprieve from it is to ruin another life. Lilith is made disabled because Eda's illness is so out of control that only through other people's sacrifices can she find help.

If none of this raises red flags, GOOD FOR YOU! You haven't ever had to be told you might lose your apartment just because they don't want to one day find you having done something terrible because they assume that will eventually happen, SOMETHING THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. You've never been told to hide and lie about your condition, to pass as just a normal person, so you could get a job or just so you didn't appear wrong to others. So you don't seem like a ticking time bomb that will explode.

Hunter is a mixed bag comparatively. He's better because his disability, not having magic, isn't inherently dangerous. He's not going to kill anyone someday because of it. The problem is that he is still mostly framed as lesser because of his lack of magic and that he is helpless due to it minus one time he gets to show off his skills while without his staff... To no avail. Otherwise, everytime he doesn't have a staff, he is completely at the mercy of anyone around him. His heart to hear with Willow is even about feeling like less of a person due to it and how they've both struggled with the problem, which, you know, feels disingenuous when at the end the plant goddess forces him through the ground against his will because she has her own magic and is one of the strongest witches on the Isles. It's like telling someone missing an arm that yeah, when you were young you broke your arm too but you got better while the other person is still MISSING AN ARM.

And then he is cured... By the death of his best friend. At which point, he is whole, a complete person with his own magic... at the cost of a life. You know, just like how Eda only got the curse to back off by hurting someone she cared about too.

What the fuck?

And finally, for a bit more mental health rep: Luz. People like to claim that Luz is suffering from trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. in the second half of show and especially S3. The problem with this is that after S2A, Luz is just categorically is a worse person. This culminates in what most consider to be her lowest point, Thanks to Them when she has a speech in class that potentially hints at suicidal ideation. However, in the episode she decides that instead of taking responsibility and trying to fix her mistakes like she used to, she is going to just stay home and let an entire world die. Yes, she frames it as self sacrifice and having learned from her mistakes... but it's not. It's self preservation if anything.

Anyone on the Isles should be presumed dead or something akin to it with what she experienced during King's Tide. Anyone who goes back is going to fight a GOD to try to reclaim it. To have to beat someone who is leagues more powerful than any entity they've even fathomed before. Her friends have been trying to get home and planning for this all with the expectation that Luz would be by their side. But despite the fact that she explicitly blames herself for the situation, she's staying. There's no talk about how this means dooming her found family, how it means breaking up with Amity or anything like that. Her focus is entirely on herself and the mistake she made. They can all go rot while she gets to stay home with her mom.

This doesn't even go into Luz's lower empathy or her CONSTANT LYING that was more prevalent in the second half of the show. It all says one clear thing though in this context: Because she is damaged due to trauma and depression, she is a generally worse person. She cares less about others than a functional person would, as she was a better person before all of this, and loses her morality as she is willing to let people die instead of fix her mistakes.

All of this just makes it bluntly better if Luz isn't actually depressed during this time period and more is just being a bad person because things have gotten tough. Otherwise this feeds into a LOT of bad stereotypes for those who are mentally ill.

BUT.

I do not think any of this is done with malice. Any of the five points. It's just careless. I pointed out the narrative problems for properly including a couple of them and I could easily tell you why others regurgitate issues without blinking for many of the others. It's easy to make these sorts of mistakes if you're not thinking about it. If you're just taking tropes you like instead of trying to craft towards a genuinely coherent theme. It's made worse when you know you're in a landscape that is hungry for representation so being praised for it won't be hard so you don't need to fully commit.

As I said earlier though, this is kind of a problem for a show that wants to be about inclusivity. Who's main themes, at best, are about self actualization and self acceptance. About being who you are and finding the spaces that allow you to do that. And yet... So many are left to the wayside. Abandoned because the show has a very narrow definition of a 'correct' identity and if you don't fill those definitions, it will leave you behind.

If you want a show that actually accepts everyone, that allows for all parts of identity, I've seen only one season of Craig of the Creek and it is EXCEPTIONAL at it. All are welcome in the creek. No exceptions. If someone is alone, it's because of circumstance or self selection and even they are given chances to be a part of the community.

I wish TOH had believed in something even close to similar.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[freelanceexorcist]

I watched the EC chapters 7 & 8 and of course I have thoughts. Of course I do.

*cracks knuckles*

Spoilers under the cut.

-It was really good! The drama and the resolution hit the spot. And Baby Seph's story will continue!

-So I guess Seven Seconds Til the End is officially Baby Seph's leitmotif. Interesting that it is also the leitmotif of the wingless version of him that's chilling in the Edge of Creation. I guess Ore Sephiroth hasn't been memory holed after all.

-Man, they really put Young Master Seph through the wringer, didn't they? Woof. Poor kid.

-They really went there with Rosen, didn't they? And making Sephiroth kill him? I reiterate: woof. I didn't think they'd really do it, but those who predicted that nailed it. They pulled it off very well, too.

-He just wanted to save him and give him a chance. Seeing his face go from sadness and near tears to grim resolve was a pretty emotional moment. We see him learn on the spot that you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Rosen was never going to go with him to safety. He made the choice he thought was best, but the act haunted Sephiroth for a long time. I'll bet it's why he was so compelled to try and save everyone later in life. It was essentially a mercy kill to the folks watching at home, but to Sephiroth, it was a life-altering decision that stuck to his heels for years after.

-But he got Refu to safety! He carried him. "I couldn't save Rosen, but at least I can save his dog." I'm glad to see Refu with Glenn.

-But when the TFS trio thought Sephiroth just straight up murdered Rosen for no reason. Ouch. And it looked that way from the trio's perspective, too. It made the recollection from Sephiroth's POV hurt even more.

-The only complaint I have is the bit with the locket. You mean the thing literally drops out of the sky just to give Glenn his Kick the Dog moment? They really could have found a less clunky and contrived way to make that moment happen.

-But apparently there's no hard feelings anymore. I'm glad. The way he looked at Sephiroth while the troops were cheering for him was pure "that's my son right there." Good to hear that Matt and Lucia are still alive, at least as of the Crisis Core era.

-And good lord, he really does dislike the attention he gets. But he powered through it because he knew they looked up to him. Still, when the paparazzi security officer was done snapping pics his body language screamed "*sigh* Not this shit again."

-That glitching, though. Just like Cloud.

-They're really going hard on what a good person he was well into adulthood. "If I save everyone, it could make up for Rosen. If I save everyone, maybe I can start living up to the reputation that was built for me. If I save everyone, I'll have value. I can break the cycle. Right, Glenn?"

-This character development he's getting is just *chef's kiss*. Divine. And not the kind of development a generic doomsday villain tends to get. I'm not saying a redemption arc is coming. I mean, that would be great if they don't whiff it like they did with Genesis. They're making him a big part of the story, far beyond "bad guy you have to beat in the end so you can win." They're making him even more sympathetic. They're making him likeable, and not just in a "yay, villains are awesome!" way.

-And holy shit, when the flashback happened and we find out that this was Edge of Creation Sephiroth reminiscing the whole time! Now that's one I did NOT see coming. I thought it was a CC/Wutai era scene for sure. I actually gasped when I saw where he was, because damn. I thought they had memory holed Ore Sephiroth but looks like they may run with that ball after all. It also gives a LOT of credence to the speculation that Jenovaroth the Big Bad and Ore Sephiroth at the Edge of Creation are two separate people. Or maybe Ore Sephiroth is the memories, identity and humanity that Jenovaroth shed. Yeah, EC made a HUGE case is favor of that and I'm going to be absolutely obnoxious about it. And yes, I know according Case of the Lifestream: Black he shed these memories after his defeat in the OG, but 1) Retrilogy is an adaptation and that timeline could be changed without negative impact on the core plot points, 2) do we even know how time works in the Lifestream? and 3) There. Is. A. Multiverse. Now. Things are going to be different from what they were in the OG.

Bonus teaser trailer thoughts:

-BABY ANGEAL!

-This means Genesis is probably back too, though. *sigh* I just hope they do better by that character than how they handled him in Crisis Core. Maybe this is an area where paying a little attention to fanon and incorporating it will do some good, because fan interpretations of him make him so much more likeable.

-Damn it, Hojo. That's all.

-And they're going to make young Hojo hot, aren't they? It won't work on me, Squeenix. He'll always make my skin crawl right off my body no matter what.

That's all for now. We ate good today. If you've stuck around this far, thank you for reading.

[rosetintmyworld84]

I feels cheap, is the thing

So on the whole for OFMD season 2, episodes 1-5 were perfect, and episodes 6-8 felt rushed, and any plot points that weren't part of the Stede and Eddie show were seriously pushed to the wayside. Think about all the scenes featuring the rest of the crew, in moments that aren't about Ed and Stede in episodes 6, 7, and 8. They are incomplete. I think ultimately we can blame WB for that, since there are less episodes this season. But that finale should have been much longer.

***OFMD Season 2 Spoilers under the cut***

They were trying to go for an epic battle, and instead we got a handful of fight scenes, everyone running away, and Izzy being shot and dying almost as an after thought.

I'm not really going to get into whether or not he should have been killed (he really shouldn't, because killing a character off just after all the massive character development for their redemption is cheap and overused and I thought OFMD was better than that), but it should have had way more of an impact. On everyone. Not just Ed. Because that was kind of the whole point of Izzy's arc this season, moving beyond Ed and finding family and belonging with the rest of the crew. HE'S THE NEW FREAKIN UNICORN FOR GOD'S SAKES! They should be EFFECTED by his death. And his final words shouldn't be consoling Ed, and telling him that he has friends now. For that scene, it should have been Izzy being fatalist and maudlin (you're born alone, you die alone), and ED telling him he has family, that HE was loved. Even Stede seems kind of unbothered about Izzy dying. For all that "Ed, Stede, and Izzy's arcs are tied together" it sure seems like Izzy became an after thought.

But again, ultimately everything felt incredibly rushed, and because of that we get half a plot. Think back to season 1, where we had a full season long arc of Jim/Oluwande, where they were basically the basis of the B plots for almost the whole season, sort of being a mirror to the main romance. So far in season 2 we get Jim and Olu getting new love interests, kind of? There was the beginnings of relationship development through episode 5, and then it just kind of stopped. Because we kind of stopped spending any real amount of time with anyone that wasn't Ed and Stede. We don't get the deep dives into the rest of the crew. We don't get something like the growth of the Black Pete/Lucius relationship over multiple episodes, without it being forgotten or overwritten (literally the entire plot of Izzy's relationship with the crew of the Revenge and Stede). Frenchie and Jim, integral in the first 3 episodes are afterthoughts. Roach, Black Pete, and Wee John are barely in the episodes.

We get some moments, but they aren't connected to anything else happening. It is all planting and no payoff. It's Buttons becoming a seagull to just make a weird cameo at the end. It's Stede leaving piracy with Ed after NO conversation at all. It's the crew riding off with Zheng and Spanish Jackie, and WHO THE HELL IS CAPTAINING THIS SHIP? It's the Republic of Pirates still under occupation, because they didn't do the big damn hero thing.

And I get it, they weren't sure if they'd get a season 3 so they wanted everything wrapped up, but the plot suffers for it. It's an amputated story, where nothing feels earned, or completed. There was more narrative weight tot he death of Karl the seagull than Izzy Hands.

I mean why have him make the speech about belonging, if no one seems to care that he dies?

All of this to give more air time to Ed/Stede, and they still didn't really complete that either. Things I loved about the finale, the opening with Ed totally not knowing how to do any actual fishing work, parallel to episode 1 at Jackie's with the occupation, Zheng getting used to failing, Izzy being a legend, and badass montage. Just really wish they'd have actually done something with this episode other than looking kind of cool.

I wish the last 3 episodes had the time they needed to breath and be full episodes, but here we are.

Anyways, the great thing about fandom is ignoring canon when we want, or fixing it, so I'm going to need lots of fic filing in the grieving of the crew, and also seagull Buttons raising Izzy from the dead on my desk by next week.

[archon-maenad]

got a new idea of mine I've added to my ever-growing list of tags on this blog! let me introduce the genesis generation au: my own personal post-canon naruto fix-it.

you want economies that don't run on child soldiers? genuine healthy redemption arcs? come get y'all juice!

now this has a few layers to it. the first is that it includes all of the more generous interpretations of characters and gives them chances to grow. both retroactively when considering the motivations and reasoning behind actions taken in canon, and then by taking the boruto series out back and shooting it in the head.

this includes sasuke uchiha, which is a pretty big deal for me, but while the dude is under house arrest with chakra-restraining seals because naruto he is a mcfucking traitor and war criminal just because you like him doesn't mean he should be forgiven to roam free, he is working through a redemption arc. one where he realizes his mistakes and sees a therapist and actually has a healthy relationship with naruto.

does it take him half a decade to get out of those restraining seals? absolutely. but he gets there.

sasuke does not, however, marry sakura. part of said redemption arc was him realizing he was thinking of her "love" for him as a cornerstone in his world that wouldn't change but it's not healthy or fair to use that as part of his stability. homegirl is also very busy being hokage and refuses to have a family if she won't be able to devote time to them.

you see, naruto becoming hokage in canon always pissed me tf off. he swans back in after three years on the road, becomes a war hero, and that suddenly makes him qualified to run the village?

meanwhile sakura has been the actual hokage's apprentice. she has learned how the job works. she knows konoha's people. she is naturally inclined towards all of the fiddly bits of ruling like infrastructure and organization and balancing funding.

ruling a village takes more than being good at fighting. naruto, after spending some time in village as a more mature person, both realizes that and also the fact that now that people respect him he doesn't even really want to be hokage anymore. the whole point was for him to be recognized and given positive attention. but he has that now, and it would be really unfair for him to try to aim for the position for such a self-centered reason.

instead, naruto becomes a diplomat. he gets to travel and build alliances, visit his friends, use talk no jutsu for trade deals. he has a team to help with hammering out the details of said trade deals, but he does apply himself to every aspect of the work as best he can and it's genuinely fulfilling.

naruto also takes on some sealing apprentices. the first one becomes renowned for inventing industrial and general non-militant seals, he is very proud of her! his second becomes infamous for being a creative, vindictive, and motivated nara. naruto is proud of him too!

there's also the whole raising the age of graduation for the academy, encouraging use of chakra for more than warfare, and transitioning to trade based economies instead of ones that run on child soldiers stuff. sakura drags konoha kicking and screaming into not normalizing atrocities with naruto at her side to spread the ideals far and wide, and the reforms make her despised amongst the elders too full of generational trauma and self righteousness to realize things can be better and beloved to everyone else.

this is what leads to the genesis generation title. sakura's year full of clan scions have all decided to contribute in their own ways to changing the world, and she encourages their fame to be more than as war heroes. hinata is credited with overhauling the hyuuga clan, they're now held up as an exemplar of how to move forward without losing the non-harmful aspects of traditions. rock lee has dedicated himself to fighting the discrimination against civilian born and disabled kids. on and on it goes.

eventually the title gets spread to beyond konoha, because the sand siblings deserve to be known as revolutionaries too for their contributions to a thriving suna. gaara, temari, and kankuro aren't considered "honorary" members of the genesis generation the way they kinda were with the konoha twelve: they are fully respected in their own rights. sakura makes damn sure of that.

the rest of the world was never fleshed out enough for me to pinpoint who else would be considered a face of the genesis generation, but with konoha as an example of how to thrive off of more than violence the model is being adopted by all of the young adults who want more for this world than how they were raised.

my hate for canonical konoha is a vicious thing of teeth and fiery fury, but that doesn't mean the village can't change for the better. this is how I can imagine the naruto world becoming someplace worth respecting.

[justatalkingface]

I'm rather salty about the class 1a vs. Izuku and the aftermath.

Because to me all that arc showed was that only Uraraka, Iida and Bakugou are important to Izuku, meaning that they were the only ones who at the end of the day got through to Izuku. I mean who else got big moments like them. The answer is no one else.

Okay, maybe it's too much to ask of Horikoshi to give meaningful moments for of all of class 1a. But you know there is one other person I wanted to get big moment, but didn't receive. It was Shoto.

I'm just so mad that Shoto, who always supported Izuku unconditionally, more than anyone else in class 1a, didn't get any recognition. Did Horikoshi have to ignore the friendship that he created between him and Shoto to create this arc? He just completely destroyed any hope or expectations that I had in the manga to be honest.

Am I just frustrated over nothing because it seems no one cares?

Oh, you're not the only one upset about how 1A is being treated. Someone posted recently that Kaminari is one of the favorite characters, but his last big significant moment is what, War Arc? And before him being used for only his Quirk... when was he relevant again? Once the power levels started shooting up, the 'elite' 1A (who's Quriks had to be set up before the power cap was set so damn high) has been less and less relevant as the story continued, and they became less able to compete in the big leagues the story was focusing on.

The thing that comes up with that clusterfuck, beyond how badly it treats Izuku, is how badly it treats 1A as a whole, minus Bakugou, of course. They were there as nothing more than Bakugou's backup, and all their actions just served his agenda, not their own thoughts or feelings. They just... blindly agreed, because.... reasons. Yeah.

Shoto, of course, is also being done wrong, but it's worse on him because he was a main character, but now he's just a part of other people's stories.

When we first met Shoto, Endeavour was involved with him, obviously, but the dynamic was Endeavour was a part of Shoto's story. Endeavour was relevant because how he affected Shoto.

After Endeavour became the Number One Hero, though, it started switching around, and Shoto was sidelined to focus more and more on Endeavour. He featured in that story, sure, but it was as a part of Endeavour's story, not his own. Shoto was, instead of being relevant on his own merits, became relevant because how he affected Endeavour, which only got worse over time as his acceptance of his father was more or less tactly stated as fact, even if it was never said, and so Endeavour's story could focus on Dabi more as part of his development.

Here's where it starts diverging from Izuku, though. Originally, Izuku talked some sense into him, and so they became friends, right? As time passed, though, they spent less and less time interacting on screen, and when Shoto was on screen with him? Even then, more and more of that time was about Endeavour.

They interacted when they interned with Endeavour together. When they ate a meal at Todoroki's house, it was about pushing Endeavour's story, how Todoroki felt about Endeavour, not Izuku, and worse yet Izuku ended up supporting Endeavour's redemption as part of Shoto's 'realization' of that fact he wanted to forgive his father.

So, on one end, his connection with Izuku as a friend got less focus, less screen time spent with the two of them together and they, in the author's views of them anyways, started becoming less important by dint of them just being together less, and less time of that time was spent as friends and more as working towards part of a greater objective, while on the other end, he started getting more and more assimilated as a character in Endeavour's story, not allowed to stand on his own, go his own way.

These two factors carved away at, not even their friendship, but how relevant their friendship was to Shoto and Izuku as characters, as both of them focused on different things.

Then, you know, my favorite phrase becomes relevant yet again: Everything Changed When The War Arc Attacked.

Because Post War, characters aren't relevant for their friendships, just their value for the plot, for moving Hori's agenda to the end as fast as possible, because he doesn't want to flesh out anything beyond the most basic necessities. And at this point, for the greater plot, Shoto only exists as part of Dabi and Endeavour story. So of course, under that logic, he's not a big focus when it's about Izuku. Ochako is part of Izuku's plot, as much as anyone not named Bakugou is, only in so much as she's still somewhat hinted as Izuku's future love interest, but by and by large, Izuku, or rather Deku, has moved beyond 1A, beyond friendships, and what remains of his friendship with Shoto isn't important enough to get even a brief nod too.

Hori didn't need to do this, is the thing. This is just the quickest, easiest option for him.

So... sorry to say, but I'd keep your expectations low about Shoto's future if I was you; he's already had his big fight with Dabi, and now it's Endeavour's turn, and maybe they'll fight him together, sure, but that'll be it. And after that, what purpose is he going to serve in the narrative? It's all going to be downhill for him from here.

[jessiesparkes]

OMG YOU WROTE TWINNING WITH A TWIST!!!

as someone who adores Ella and fully believes Sammy should have been a main character I love love love twintwist (does it have an abbreviation? like how slippery slopes is slipslop? the acronym is TWAT so i don’t wanna call it that lmao ANYWAY)

legit, probably one of my favourite fics. ever? I’ve reread it approximately 50 times I love it so much

it’s honestly a breath of fresh air reading, im going to be honest, most total drama fics in general because. wow what a change, the person who wrote this Actually Cares about the characters. wild. and twintwist is legit just That

the direction you took Ella and how she developed was so unexpected but made so much sense, i love how you took little details from the og season and expanded on them, like the thin apartment walls and her constantly wearing gloves (OOF) (also her Home Situation. did hit me a little personally)

and SAMMY!! omg this is what I mean when I say she should’ve been a main character!! i was cheering her and Ella on literally the whole way

Amy my beloved beloathed. kudos to you for actually giving her depth beyond “she is a bitch because reasons” and her redemption arc actually worked so well I loved it

I love how you wrote the other characters too!! did not realise a Beardo and Sammy friendship was something I desperately needed in my life but now I can never go back, Jashawn were somehow even more adorable and 100x less frustrating, Dave was. honestly a lot less unbearable

Scarlett and Sammy’s conversation in the treehouse is so many layers of fascinating. it lives rent free in my head. like yeah Scarlett was trying to manipulate a situation but like you question how much she genuinely meant the things she said. this is fully just me speculating but the line “romance doesn’t interest me personally” (or words to that effect) really makes me think. because like. that implies she could be romance-repulsed and/or aromantic, right? so when she’s talking to Sammy about how no, a lot of people will not understand Sammy and actively despise her, and it won’t be easy, but they don’t matter, you wonder how much Scarlett’s just BSing and how much she’s drawing from personal experience. she’s definitely not a good person (I processed that when she tried to kill everyone via island explosion) but there’s a LOT more to her than she lets on even post-reveal

speaking of Scarlett, when Sammy arrived on the PDL and found out apparently Scarlett was like in her early 20s masquerading as a teenager and this wasn’t her first run-in with the RCMP

i will confess

my first thought was ��wait was she Izzy in disguise?!”

listen I have fully breached the “this is not what god (you) intended this is purely me reaching” zone, but… yeah lmao

ANYWAY I think I have bothered you enough with my ramblings, I’m CrystalHavoc on ao3, so you’ve probably seen all the rest of my Thoughts on ur fic. but i somehow just now found your tumblr so. i guess this is me putting one big notice of appreciation directly in your askbox. as a tdpi enjoyer and Ella-and-Sammy lover i super super love twintwist!!!

and idk how to end this so. yeah thank you!!! for writing it!!! ok bye

Hi there!! Gosh thank you so much for the kind message, I still can't believe I'm getting such high praise for Twinning (what I refer to it as rather than its abbreviation XD) after all this time! And for you to have reread it so many times?? I never realized how much of an effect it had on people :D

To be perfectly honest there are some parts of the fic that I kind of wish I'd done differently, but I'm sure that's what every creator thinks about their work. To this day I am still incredibly proud and humbled that it has struck a chord with so many people, and messages like these help to remind me that I'm able to make a positive change in this lifetime :)

When I originally wrote the Sammy and Scarlett scene, I had been writing Scarlett from an aromantic/asexual point of view, though I've since learned that classifying a villain as being incapable of falling in love is kinda ehhhhh not a great light to put them under. So now it's partially because of her being aromantic, and also because she's far too busy creating evil schemes engrossing herself in her work that she just simply doesn't care. And while Scarlett's ultimate goal was to make Sammy suffer by encouraging her to get together with Ella and then eliminating one or the other swiftly after, she more than likely did have some history with the topic of not letting others judge you for who you are. So yeah, she's a socially conscious greedy little nutcase :D (also yeah no she's not izzy, she just managed to fake her way into the game lol, though her being an adult is based off an izzy interpretation from another fic series)

Thanks so much again for all the support!! It genuinely means so much to me to see you and so many other people still loving the story to this day. Hopefully I can work up the ability to write more in the future, though unfortunately that's becoming increasingly harder to do :'( Anyways thanks again and I hope you have a wonderful day!! <3

[silvysartfulness]

12, 17, 19, 22 for the choose violence ask game👀

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Oh man, like. All of them? I tend to only fall for unpopular characters, so that's a long list. But keeping it just to a few choice people in the Untamed;

Xue Yang. Obviously. He's brilliant, he's dedicated, he's fucked up in some really interesting ways and he got so close to having a redemption arc and happy ending before everything came crashing down! If he'd been the protagonist/viewpoint character, you know he'd be getting the fandom's WWX cinnamon roll treatment. But alas.

Jiang Cheng. That so many people dislike him honestly baffles me? I see so many takes that are frankly based in extremely shallow readings, disregarding his trauma, his world context, the impossible balance between his crushing responsibilities and the people important to him. He's not your homophobic dad or schoolyard bully, he's a deeply traumatized person doing the best with what he's got despite losing everything dear to him over and over, and he's trying so hard. He's loud and has a hot temper, but for fuck's sake, there's so much love there and you'd almost have to be willfully blind not to see it!

Jin Guangyao. Another of those "if he'd been the main character/viewpoint character, people would have loved him" ones. He's intelligent, determined, hardworking and loyal - though frequently pushed way beyond his breaking point in that loyalty. Pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness, but it's because the world's one big trolley problem to him - he sacrifices the few to help the many (even if yes, that does include himself in 'the many'), but he doesn't take pleasure in the hurt he causes (except in that one pretty understandable case of his dad). He deserves so much compassion, or at the very least understanding!

Should I put Song Lan on here? A lot of people seem to hate on him for very shallow, ship-related reasons, but within the plot, he tried his very hardest to set things right. It's not his fault they were all already doomed by the narrative and he walked into Yi City that day as the unwitting catalyst.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

For fics, Yi City fix-its that don't count killing Xue Yang as "fixing it". Stories digging into the hot mess of the complex, fascinating canon-verse, or at least reincarnation.

More fics with characterization I vibe with - a complicated, rough-edged but ultimately lovable Xue Yang, a compassionate but stubborn and somewhat brittle Xiao Xingchen and a Song Lan who feels so much and is so bad at showing it. More SXX fics overall!

For art, more art with the CQL character designs! The designs for the other adaptations are kind of cute, but they're just not my guys, and I feel pretty lukewarm toward them on the whole.

(And fellow artists - please, please, please don't forget Xue Yang's missing finger! 😭 I see so much fanart with either 10 intact fingers, or a glove with a fully articulated left pinky. His lost finger is the driving force of his entire character arc, don't just forget about it...😢)

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Hmm... 🤔 On the whole, I don't feel a lot of shame for my tastes in fiction. I'm surprised I actually ended up really liking the main couple as much as I did - in a love story, no less? That literally never happens, I always go for the sideline gremlins.Other than that, though...

Trying very hard to hold up the blorbos and my usual go-to tropes, groping around for any sense of horror or shame, but I can't think of anything really. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I guess I'm that one (1) person who actually likes the Yin Iron plot? I genuinely think CQL made a lot of good choices to tie the sprawling narrative together more cohesively, and I liked the introduction of the Yin Iron and how it led into the creation of the Yin Tiger Seal rather than tossing the latter in as an "Oh yeah, this was a thing that totally existed all along, forgot to mention". (I know MDZS was written and posted in installment, and that can make it hard to work with foreshadowing etc, but even so. I do think CQL did a good job tightening up the story in many ways.)

And don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't mind the idea of Xue Yang as an absolute nobody clawing his way up from nothing! It's a delicious version, too! But there's just something about the idea of a family he could have belonged to, a sense of community he could have had, ripped away centuries before he was even born.

If I want to be a petty, I guess I could put "Xue Yang is canonically brilliant" under this question, too, because I wish that was explored in more fics and meta. The boy is a prodigy. He's a genius. He's also a street-brawler, petty thief and murderous little piece of shit, but that doesn't take away the first point. Let Xue Yang be the highly, dangerously intelligent Problem that he actually is!

[swiftsnowmane]

@dasfeministmermaid - apologies, I realise you asked this absolutely ages ago (last year now, even!), but re: my tags on this post, I was mostly just referring to the fact that at the time Disney took over SW, the popularity of GoT was largely responsible for the trend towards dark and 'gritty realism' in fantasy media in general. I don't claim there was necessarily direct influence on the SW sequels, but if we are talking cultural zeitgeists, then aside from perhaps Marvel, GoT was certainly one of the most prominent at the time. And I can't help but see something of that in TFA’s whole 'we’re going to portray the Original Trio as colossal failures and morally grey at best, instead of the unquestionably heroic figures created by George Lucas'. Not to mention the bizarro depiction of the Skywalker family as some kind of 'cursed' dynasty that was doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, despite the fact that such a cynical interpretation flew in the face of every story element, theme, and character arc established in the original saga. The only Skywalker who was under a so-called 'curse' was Anakin (and by that I simply mean his enslavement by Sidious), and he freed himself (and his family, and the whole galaxy) from that once and for all when he destroyed the Sith and saved his son at the end of Return of the Jedi. In this light, the course of events that was supposed to have taken place off-screen in-between RotJ and TFA made no sense within the actual context established by the Lucas saga. The milieu of the characters in the PT and OT is purposefully constructed to be different from one another, hence why the Skywalker twins are raised without any direct Jedi influence, in loving families, are allowed to have childhoods, allowed to love, etc., unlike their parents who were trapped within an increasingly corrupt system that actively prevented them from living together as a couple or family. The very context in which Luke and Leia’s story takes place is a big part of what allows them to definitively break the cycle.

Of course, it can be argued that simply by continuing the story beyond RotJ at all, the Disney-sequels were always going to destroy the meaning of the Lucas saga. But the character assassination of the Original Trio in TFA was a conscious and completely unnecessary decision—after all, a sequel could have potentially been made without destroying Han, Luke, and Leia’s entire characterisations and relationships. The fact that Disney also (lazily and pointlessly) decided to construct a new 'Dark Times' as the setting is even more telling, since there was absolutely no need to do so, and all it did was add to the impression that these characters were nihilistically doomed to constantly repeat the same past mistakes and tragedies, when nothing could be further from the truth that Lucas' story established. I have gone into great detail about this many times over the years since TFA was released, so I won't dwell on it here, but the Original Trio absolutely DOES 'break the cycle', and suggesting otherwise destroys not only the meaning of the OT, but also that of the Prequels (basically erasing Anakin's entire story). The unequivocally happy ending of RotJ is likewise what 'redeems' the tragedy of the Prequels, and without that, the meaning of the entire Lucas saga is totally undermined and destroyed. I refuse to accept that, hence why I've always rejected the Disney-sequels and will never accept them as legitimate canon.

In brief, Star Wars was never meant to be 'gritty', nor is the outcome of its storyline supposed to be 'realistic'. Lucas' saga begins with a tragedy (the Prequels) that is subsequently redeemed by a fairytale (Original Trilogy), and which, when taken together, forms a created-myth, the outcome of which is meant to be idealistic, positive, uplifting, redemptive, and restorative. It is the eucatastrophe that Tolkien talks about, the defiance in the face of 'universal final defeat'. But the Disney-sequels ignored and/or actively overturned everything positive and meaningful about the original saga (that most lifelong SW fans like myself had valued and cherished since childhood) and all in the service of a decidedly lesser wannabe ‘addition’ that was devoid of the inspiring Romanticism and mythopoesis of Lucas’ saga. TFA came at a time when studios had certain assumptions about audience expectations and pandered to those accordingly. So I’m not saying there was direct influence from GoT, just that there was a cultural trend that a lot of media got swept up in at that time. Imo, it's also just the inevitable pitfall of attempting to make something that vaguely resembles ‘Star Wars' appeal to contemporary sensibilities. It was never going to work, because Star Wars (the real Star Wars) is mythic, Romantic, and transcendent—a type of story that, sadly, contemporary studios and audiences alike seem unable to appreciate.

**Note: most of the meta I've linked on this subject is from my Star Wars sideblog which is vehemently anti-Sequels, so fair warning to anyone who happens to like those. ;p

[brick-van-dyke]

Sort of a tangent, but I was thinking of this while writing stuff for Yoru and how similar he is to Riku's journey of self discovery and acceptance, while also having the issue of self hatred. So! I have some thoughts about the canon KH cast that I wanna write down as well.

// Spoilers for pretty much the whole series below.

Riku learnt to accept himself, but he's moved backwards (imo) since DDD and gone back to that same self rejection. Esmeralda actually called him out on this big time and so did Young Xehanort, which is gonna be a huge thing going forward imo. He's started to learn from the ideology of "light=better and good", "darkness=something to be fixed and changed because it's bad" which is constantly reinforced to him by his own jealously of Sora ("he is better than me for being light and me being dark is bad") and causes him to bottle up his feelings and try to suppress his emotions. I think overall Riku has had amazing character development, but I want to see how this also changes with the next arc and, I suspect, how he'll have to address that self denial and hatred of his own feelings. This will also be a huge thing for Sora as well with his most recent development of feeling like he has to be stronger and not allow others to see his weaknesses and faults. Overall, I'm excited as hell for Quadratum and the idea that Sora and Riku will literally have to fight the walking personification of "darkness is bad and needs to change" by realising they can't hurt darkness without hurting themselves and those they love. This setup has me excited af.

Meanwhile Kairi and Ventus will likely also go on the same but different journey of realising their own fears and repression of darkness has led to them being where they are now; frozen in fear. I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment.

I think Ventus is the closest to realising that, hence his talk with Vanitas and saying they ought to choose for themselves, but he's still holding onto what Eraqus, Xehanort and the Foretellers have all taught him: darkness is evil, light is good. It's something he's started to untangle as he realises Vanitas is also a victim just like himself, but he hasn't figured out why Vanitas is the way he is and is still demanding him to change. I think even fans of the series get this confused and I think this is very purposeful on the writer's part; to view darkness as evil to be fixed, not a wound to be loved and cared for; and going even further than that; why darkness exist to begin with. We, as the audience, are also supposed to feel the same way as the protagonists at this point. We are supposed to be scared and hate the cruelties that people are capable of because of their flaws. We're supposed to think a redemption arc is someone changing from light to dark. Because that's what the protagonists believe right now. But is that really accurate to how said antagonist are supposed to heal? Is that really for the best? Looking at Riku, Sora, Kairi, Ventus and Aqua, I'm inclined to think they're all suffering under the weight of repressing their feelings and trying to be something they aren't able to; perfect instead of human.

This is more my own theory here, so I might be running off a bit beyond canon and more pure interpretation, but imo "darkness exists to protect the light" is very likely it's true purpose, in my own opinion anyway. We've had so many hints of that since Kingdom Hearts 1 and throughout the series, but Ventus himself is an embodiment of that exact thing. Why do you think his heart began to fade but Vanitas' didn't? He didn't have the tools needed to handle the trauma of what he experienced. The pain was too much and he didn't have the darkness to protect the light from fading away from that pain. Vanitas is darkness itself, Ventus' to be exact, so he had those tools. You could even say that him being born from a cocoon/ egg was also a good hint to what darkness is; a shell; protection; a form of coping.

Kairi on the other hand doesn't have any of these. From day one, we've seen that she's afraid of change. "Sora don't ever change", her joke to take the raft for just the two of them, her fear of the unknown and her ending up in Neverland of all places (Peter Pan is literally a story about fearing change and aging). Kairi is terrified of being left behind, but she's even more scared of change and moving behind the safety she's known. By not confronting herself on this, she's constantly ended up as the damsel, the one left behind, the one who always waited. Kingdom Hearts 2 did wonderfully (imo) in showing how Kairi has this fatal flaw of wishing to move and be by the side of Sora and Riku, but never allowing herself to. She realises that "waiting isn't good enough". But it's still never enough, she's still terrified. The entire paopu fruit scene In Kingdom Hearts 3 has me very much convinced she's still scared. She wants everything to stay the way they are; for Sora, Riku and herself to go back to the islands and to stay together, nothing ever happening, nothing changing. It's one of the most fascinating aspects of her character and why she's such a great opposite to Riku; the rejection to curiosity and the fear of the unknown. That's the very thing she's going to have to confront if she wants to ever get stronger; she has to realise to risk and to change is to be human. And I think we're gonna see that moving forward once her and Ventus go through their own arcs alongside Terra and Aqua who also will inevitably have to learn that they aren't weak for being human. They're the two sides of how the idea of "light is superior and darkness is bad" result in harm. And I personally can't wait to see more of how that develops.

TLDR: I genuinely believe that the next arc is setting up for darkness being a form of light/ that the two are just expeirences and not that different, and that it was created from light to protect the heart from pain and trials. Much like how in irl, anger, fear, etc are all ways our brains try to protect us (fight or flight) from pain; darkness is just a coping mechanism for the heart to not break and to slowly heal, I think darkness itself will be shown in the same light (bad pun intended) as light was previously in the series as as more realistic and morally grey. As in, as something good and to be protected, not destroyed like the new villain intends. Because destroying darkness means destroying light (literally, with this setup).

Stuck on prompt 5 for (a very late and overdue) khoc week; not because I don't know what to do, but because there's so many things I want to do.

Sort of a ramble about this below: 👇

Also some sliiight spoilers for themes (couldn't help myself) with my fic, but it helps explain why I'm struggling to get something out for this specifically.

Each of my main OCs is an embodiment of the complexities of experiences that can't be defined by light or darkness, especially Zorya who literally is a being of darkness that is trying a third way of handling it; not controlling to destroy it (Xehanort and Eraqus' ideals, or rather the "teachings of light") or even embracing it and accepting it (first step that Riku found), but believing in it; seeing your flaws as a wound to heal, a possibility to be realised, just like how you love people and believe in them, she wants to believe in herself and love herself in ways she hasn't been able to. To kit hate your flaws or see them as something to be "fixed" but loved and cared for. I think Kingdom Hearts is leaning into that in the next arc, but it's not quite there yet.

Meanwhile the other two are also examples of this but in different ways. Yoru is more like Riku and delves into that "first step", but like Riku he still hates and fears his own flaws. He hasn't really fully embraced the fact he's just a person and is allowed to have those flaws yet, same as Riku (which is partly why I'm excited for the aspect of him being in Quadratum since I think both he and Sora will realise that while fighting the personification of that fear and hate towards darkness). Yoru still thinks that he's a bad person for being too curious, too scared, too angry, too this or that. But he also wants to embrace it and change. Which is all great and all when it comes to wanting to be a better person, but he's still healing. And pushing a wound that's still open won't heal it, it'll just worsen it. I want to show that, but it can't really be summed up with just light or darkness; it's both.

And Taiyo is probably the most interesting of all when it comes to the question. He believes he's strictly light, he wants to uphold his teachings and be what he was taught to be. He's exactly like Eraqus and any other Keyblade Master before that, but the thing is he doesn't have a Keyblade and he is forced to realise how human he is. He's a lot like Aqua in that regard, forced to face his limits and understand his own humanity and inadequacy when compared to the perfectionism pushed by his teachers and peers. He has to unlearn all of the toxicity and realise a heart is more than just a means of good or evil, it's also an identity; a means of love and happiness, it's also about caring for oneself as a person, not a tool. So he would say light absolutely, but like every other person, he has his flaws. Even if he himself doesn't acknowledge them.

I want to explain this all in a way that isn't just a long monologue, but by instead showing it. Yet, I also don't want to spoil the full character arcs I have planned in my fic itself or its story and every single theme in it.

Also, darkness and light are treated very delicately in my fic and with my OCs, so I tend to put a lot of thought in whenever I want to show their connections to light or darkness, because it's always very much related to mental health and self discovery and self care. It's about realising that light and darkness are subjective; mailable and unclear. But with that, there's so many ways to show it. I get so excited by that too, which in turn has me writing various drafts and having so many different ideas that it's hard to settle on just one to go with.

TLDR: This will probably be the longest and most thoughtfully written out of all the prompts. The reason I stopped with the last one is because I'm so excited to really make something that makes fans of the series think about what light and darkness really are in regards to this universe. I know it's just a little fun prompt and I don't have to. But I want to. It's fascinating and I think it's a great way to introduce people to the themes of my fic and the ideas these characters all embody.

[via-whitmore]

So I was talking with a friend today about my rash of Charles Vane apologist reblogs mostly from @twinsunstwink and my knowledge on this rewatch that he is, apparently, the most disliked character in the fandom.

I DEFINITELY get this. He is the one we see onscreen committing, what i would argue, is the most heinous onscreen act with regard to what Max is put through. I am never going to argue with anyone who doesn’t like him, his being propped up as a martyr, or can’t continue watching the show because of how that violence is portrayed so early on. I always understood it as the writers leaning on prestige TV tropes (competing with GOT) and then realizing they couldn’t have their romantic lead be this terrible a person.

I will fully admit Vane has the least interesting arc, even though it’s very personally meaningful to me for reasons. And that he never quite moves beyond being the character that is there to keep the 18 to 35 year old dudebro demographic happy. I am totally dazzled by If Bad Then Why Hot and also by only having seen Zach McGowan in a slapstick comedy role before watching Black Sails and being impressed with his range. I also was not radicalized when the show started and wasn’t thinking as critically about media so I was consuming his actions towards Max in a more passive way. This is the kind of thing pirates did. It’s a genre convention, and on I went.

But I have just seen this meta by @seaofgriefs about how, in Season One, everyone is acting according to preconceived notions of the pirate story and are slowly given more subtle characterization. In this framework, Vane is the raping pillaging villain. He is repeatedly referred to as an animal by Eleanor and Flint. His actions towards Max show him to be so. But a less competent viewer, as I was, might just take it as “well this is accurate and this kind of sexual violence is a big part of prestige TV.” Like I said, I definitely get viewers who don’t want to look past that. I am only 90 percent sold on the intentionality of this character expansion. But it makes Season One an easier sell. Maybe the writers did just realize this was a fucked up move. But maybe they used that pushback in a way that benefited the writing for the whole.

But it got me thinking it’s only after he attempts to aid in Max’s escape and realizes he can’t stop the violence he set in motion that he begins thinking about his past and goes to face the man who enslaved him. We see this as being a result of wanting to reassert power over Eleanor. But those scenes when he returns to the island have a heavy overtone of him having experienced sexual violence to me. When he returns to Nassau in power as a result of that coup, he tells Jack he won’t kill him and Anne because “I am a little less concerned about perception than I used to be.”

His perception, his notions of “a proper pirate” and his toxic masculinity motivate his method of punishing Max. But what if, once he realizes he cannot stop the situation, he sees what he has done to her as a mirror of what he underwent? It would certainly be better if he freed her in the way Anne feels bound to. But what if shame for her as well as being shamed by Eleanor motivates his return to face his abuser and move forward?

I am not saying any of this to let him off the hook. A true redemption arc would involve him asking Max how he can make amends. But it is a read that possibly integrates his Season One actions into the rest of his arc.

[tin-can-iron-man]

Hey have we ever seen Doom be romantic in that physical sense? Because when he got that woman pregnant I was like “When did that happen?” Did I miss an indication that it did? I know he likes to get married to the occasional entity, but that’s usually for political reasons.

the short answer of this all is just a simple “yes” but if you want to listen to me explain in explicit, pain-staking detail (and occasionally my own biased opinions) of what you could possibly refer to as “Victor Von Dooms disastrous love life” you’re welcome to hit that read more because strap in I’m about to write a goddamn essay (also credit to whoever has it as I took these images off the internet thank you for your service or else this entire mess would’ve have photos to break it up)

So, in reference specifically to the Amara thing we need to take a few steps back and possibly assume several things (unless I, too, have missed or forgotten about something, I haven’t read those Iron Man issues in a very long time despite regularly revisiting infamous for some light reading to unholy binging accompanied by certain other stories (life FF (2011) but specifically only when Victor is around and recent installments to either yell at them about why they’re not understanding my poor little meow meow as a character properly or yell at them because Victor is making sense in a way that is told narratively as wrong but actually has a point or two)

So, for some flavor context: Amara Perera is a genius biophysicist who was introduced in the 2016 Invincible Iron Man run as Tony’s next love interest/girlfriend. She meets Victor while she is dating Tony because Victor won’t stop bothering Tony as he’s chosen to be his sort of inspiration/ideal role model of sorts on his own path towards redemption after all the shit he’s pulled (because he realized during the 2015 Secret Wars event that even with everything he’s ever wanted: ultimate power (of the beyonder) and to be ruler of the (remaints) of the multiverse, even being Reed Richards (to an extent but, yeah he stole his entire family and replaced Reeds role because he had the ability to do that, are you ok Victor) wasn’t what he…truly wanted, so his desire to become a “superhero” is more about a journey to find a purpose as well as an apology for all of the horrible things he did as Doctor Doom for a role he realized he was not truly fitted for and the fact that you would reTCON THAT PART OF DOOMS ARC AND THROW HIM BACK INTO A VILLAINOUS ROLE MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO WIN, EVEN WE HE DOES, AND TAKES AWAY THE EMOTIONAL GROWTH HE JUST WENT THROUGH–) 

So yeah Victor keeps randomly walking in to talk to Tony or assist Tony or just kinda check up on Tony and…yeah he was really focused on trying to be Tony’s friend at this time (if you wanna call it that, Victor thinks they’re friends, Tony is being a big ol tsundere about it). And occasionally he would do this kind of thing with Amara around, or when Amara was on dates with Tony. like, straight up crashing in and third wheeling. Noting and appreciating Amara’s general lack of fear at his presence, even talking science/shop talk with her and giving her notes/advice.

Then Tony fakes his death for a mission that goes on for too long and it’s implied and slightly shown that this is the point in time where Victor and Amara are alone together. Victor gets Amara a job at Cambridge and checks in on her from time to time because, you know, her boyfriend was just declared dead. And as far as I’m aware most of their relationship, if one could call it that, happens off panel. I kinda interpret the whole situation like a soap opera (which is how most of Tony’s relationships are like in comics) (also I’m using this next bit as an example and not exactly what I believe happened): the soap opera Guy who was with the soap opera Girl dies and the guys soap opera Frenemy leaning towards friend does stuff like, buys her flowers as condolences, pays her bills for the next for months, moves in with her because “it’s too quiet in my house now” and eventually soap opera Girl falls into soap opera Frenemies arms and they uh, “spend the night together” only for soap opera Guy to show up and go ��hey I’m not dead!!!” and soap opera Girl smack him and breaks things off only to then discover she is pregnant with soap opera Frenemies baby

(also there was originally an air of mystery about whos baby it actually was, Tony’s or Victors? But everyone just kinda universally agreed it was Victors, even the comics)

So, that’s the Amara stuff sorted out. I’m very sorry if my explanation has left you more confused. Comics do that.

Now, for your question on if we’ve ever seen doom being physically romantic for a woman, the answer to that is yes! I’m sure there are other women that I am forgetting about and I’m sure there are panels out there that show that I am a dumb-stupid head, and that’s ok.

For the most part Victor's love life isn’t…exactly elaborated on and it’s mostly just that while Victor–if a writer decided to–COULD have love interests he just simply doesn’t and mostly chooses not to. (Literally, there’s an old Latverian law (re: corrupt barons handled Latveria before Victor started a coup and took over and some laws he hasn’t gotten to/kept because he decided they would be convenient for one reason or another) where the Latverian royal family has the capacity to just simply, pick a woman from the crowd and force her to “spend time alone” with them, they can’t say no, they can’t fight back, if they’re married, their husbands must let them go, they must not refuse any request made of them at this time, so Latveria is basically just a giant fucking harem to the royal family. And the one and as far as I know only time Victor has ever used this was just simply to have a private conversation with a married woman so her family could not eavesdrop. Like. He’s fucking ethical!! Thank god.) 

This is, of course, not to say Victor hasn’t been interested in women, but the things he finds attractive are–most of the time–a person's boldness and the power that they possess (re: Amara, the first thing he noted about her was that he appreciated she was not afraid of him despite his reputation) and we can see that in some of the women he’s been interested in over the years, varying from a sort of–*hand gestures*–romantically charged respect he gives to Storm/Ororo Munroe even upon meeting her even for the first time, recognizing her power, grace, and again, her lack of fear of him (something he did not appreciate so much back then). 

To a kind of–albeit, established as manipulating and for ulterior motives–protectiveness over Wanda when he tried to marry her to gain control over her chaos magic. (and even maintaining a calm demeanor when Wanda threatens to kill him later on, which reads as “if you were going to do that, you already would have, Wanda” but I personally interpret it as “hot”). He still (at the very least, on a surface level) treated them with respect, he treats Ororo as an equal (if not more) and he treats Wanda…a bit less favorably but that's just different writers doing different things. And in the reality Wanda created where her and Victor were married (although I have not personally read it) he seemed to treat her with affection and respect that she must have at least perceived to be how Victor would act around her if they were truly husband and wife. A perception that was based in reality even though he was attempting to emotionally manipulate her.

Even Zora Vukovic aka Victorious, Victors herald and general right hand (wo)man and most recent attempted wife (for political reasons, thank god) (didn’t end up married because uh long story short everything exploded) shows this kind of boldness and is infused with cosmic power!!!

The only person who doesn’t exactly fall under this “type” of his is, arguably (I see you shippers), is his childhood sweetheart and the closest thing Victors ever had to a genuine girlfriend/wife: Valeria Karela (ok her wiki doesn’t say she has a last name but I’m going off the names of her grandfather and mother because it’s the only name I have) 

Also fun little sidenote!!: NOT, I REPEAT, NOT VALERIA RICHARDS, VICTOR WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO NAME REED AND SUE’S DAUGHTER AFTER ASSISTING IN HER BIRTH (so midwife doctor doom is fucking canon, jot that down) WHERE SHE AND SUE WOULD HAVE DIED IF HE HADN’T HELPED AND HE NAMED HER VALERIA AFTER THIS VALERIA BECAUSE HE LOVED HER AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FITTING AS HE ALREADY DECIDED IN HIS HEAD TO STEAL GODFATHER STATUS. SHE IS NOT VALERIA RICHARDS, SHE IS VALERIA RICHARDS NAMESAKE, DOOM NAMED VALERIA AFTER THE WOMAN HE LOVED BECAUSE HE ALREADY DECIDED HE (PATERNALLY) LOVED BABY VALERIA)

So, haha, time to take a few steps back again! So Victor was born to a roma caravan in Latveria to Werner Von Doom (a healer/doctor) and his wife Cynthia Von Doom (a witch). A little while after his birth Cynthia sells her soul to the demon Mephisto (one of marvels top big bads) in return for power she wished to use to overthrow the corrupt barons ruling her country and put a stop to the oppression of her people, but while Mephisto had granted her the magical power to do this, she lacked control and was killed by a latverian guard and died and got her soul sentenced to Hell. Her use of “satanic witchcraft” was then used as another reason why the Romani in Latveria should be oppressed and discriminated against. This in turn turned the Caravan against Werner, her husband, and especially Victor, her son (because what is more condemning, than being the child of an evil witch?). So while they managed to get to stay in the caravan, nobody was really…willing to be around Victor anymore besides his father. (Because he’s an outsider, because he shouldn’t be here, because he’s the witches son)

Nobody…except for Valeria Karela.

A girl close to the same age as Victor and the granddaughter of Werner's close friend and confidant, Boris Karela. (yes, the same Boris who now serves in Castle Doom and has done so faithfully ever since he was introduced. Take that as you will.)

So, Victor and Valeria grew very close at this time, and by the time they were about…I’d say…just about preteens? They both fully expected to one day get married and have children together. 

Of course, this did not work out. But there’s more to it than that.

It’s not as though this was a…silly middle school romance (even though they were young), but rather things just sort of happened and snowballed in Vic and Val’s lives that eventually drove them apart for the time being (Started with Werner's death, then Victor finding Cynthia's things and starting to perform magic like his mother had) until Victor was given the option to attend State University in America on a full ride scholarship because of his genius in science, specifically engineering and robotics. Victor asked Valeria to come with him to America but she refused due to having familial obligations in Latveria. In turn, Valeria pleaded with Victor not to go to America and attend University, and they argued until she gave him the ultimatum of going to college alone in America or staying with her and getting married, like they had planned and daydreamed about since they were little kids.

And Victor chose. 

And attended his college orientation.

And then Victor literally accidentally blew his face of after trying to build a machine to communicate with his mother in Hell because he decided he must save her from her eternal torture and that explosion blew up his dorm room and he got expelled and then later got to look at his brand new deformed face for the first time.

Yeah so Victor went on a pretty depressive spiral for a while just kinda living in europe off the money he made in college by selling ideas to the military (as his scholarship program was about that) and that’s when he coincidentally meets Valeria again and they start dating again and Valeria does not mind that his face is messed up and as far as I know she is the only woman that’s ever been depicted in this kind of romantic/physical relationship with Victor. And there is a…risque panel (nothing too explicit shown but uh yeah they’re absolutely going at it) in Books of Doom

(I will be choosing to abstain from that panel)

Anyway I just cranked out a 4 page essay response (that is the page number my google doc tells me that I wrote this in like a madwoman) to a tumblr ask and it’s midnight now. I literally wrote this into the next day so if you’re still here um, thanks! I very much appreciate the time it took to read this and I am so sorry this has become such a monstrosity. But also you’re welcome.

I’m going to collapse into bed now. See ya!

–Tin-Can-Iron-Man

P.S. I totally forgot to mention the time he had sex with Morgana Le Fay a lot. also possibly Loki they had a flirty type thing going for a while or something.

P.P.S. Read Books of Doom guys it’s really good

[blorbosexterminator]

Do you think the plan was originally Palermo's idea? he said "yo te PROPUSÉ fundir oro untos", this makes me think he came up with it. But other times they just refer to it as Berlín's plan. (Raquel saying "it's your brother's plan" for example)

Oh yes, I'm nearly entirely sure it was Martin's idea. As you said, it's clear from the dialogue that he's the one who proposed it. He's refered to as the mastermind of it, Netflix refered to it directly as his poem, and, to me at least, I think it's also there in the subtext in the season 3 and 4 flashbacks when Andrés talks about the whole 'best minds in engineering, etc.'

And also, Martín has the ideological and heritage weight of it behind him, so I do imagine it makes a lot of sense that it was initially his idea and he's the one who proposed it to Andrés. Raquel and the others, I imagine, don't know that much about the plan's initial conception except that it was Berlin and Palermo's, not el Professor's, and I do think it evolved enough to be THEIR plan at the end. So I don't think it's weird that Raquel would refer to it as such.

But I do think this is an important point, not exactly who came up with it before the other, as much as that the connection between Martín and the plan doesn't end at the connection between Martín and Andrés. Of course that's a big part of it. I do think their mutual obsession with it is definitely something to consider. But it's also important to note that this is the work of his life. It's not an embodiment of Andrés nor does it begin and end only with Andrés.

Actually, I think it goes the other way around. I think the plan, this mutual idea and goal that they were both individually obsessed with, is something that had a huge effect on the development of their relationship, and what brought them this close together. Not only something Martín ever thought of just to gift to Andrés and that's it. This is why it's ridiculous to imagine that even if Martín is moving on from Andrés between one hour and the other, he would move on from the plan too. The "plan" isn't something Martín needed to heal from, nor is it something that makes any sense for him to "move on" from if we're to take this character seriously. Again, Martín has a lot of ideological involvement in it. And interwined with the ideological involvement, is his romanticised involvement too; he considers himself an artist in his craft and the plan as his masterpiece. The work to end all other works in his life. The one idea and goal he has been obsessed with for years. I genuinely don't understand why Martín "healing" would cause a sudden indifference to something that has SO MUCH weight in his narrative. That's not character development, that's fucking up actual good, weighted writing that they had earlier with 'omg look at that gay vulnerable baby learning to love again uwu' are we watching cartoons? Those aren't middle school kids learning to navigate the cruel world of puberty and heartbreak. Those are grown men and women with ideas and goals that go beyond mere romance. Martín as a character was so complex and had so much weight because of this. Transforming him from this to basically an empty person with really no actual internal, deep interwoven desires, goals, obsessions, things that he was painted for two seasons that he would fight tooth and nail for, and replacing it with 'care for team-members <3' isn't the brilliant redemption arc people imagine it as lmfao.

The thing is, Martín didn't even disregard his team-mates lives. He never did. That wasn't him. I'll remind you again that in his second-ever scene in the show, the actual first glimpse we got of him as a person, was criticising Sergio for leaving members of his banda to die. He wasn't even just speaking about Andrés then. It wasn't just because he cared about Andrés. He clearly saw it as a shameful thing that a leader would leave behind three of his team to die 'and do nothing.' We did see very clearly how much value Martín put on his teammates lives in season 3. Before his 'development and redemption' Martín still, without a moment's hesitation, tried to direct Gandia' aim to him, to save Nairobi and Tokyo. He did defened Nairobi from Gandia when he insulted her. He did ran to Denver and Rio when they were attacked in the elevator. He was completely enraged when he heard of Raquel's death. He was terrified for Nairobi and was one of the only one clear-headed enough to actually focus on her when everyone was fighting for no reason. He was the one who understood that Nairobi was scared for Tokyo and wanted to go find her. Martín didn't 'learn to open up and care about them.' Martín cared about them from day one on the virtue that they were his team.

The difference is Martín was just not all nice and super respectable, moralistic about it. He did in a very him mannar. AND that this was balanced for his love and concern for the actual fucking plan that is the work of his life. And it made him complex and interesting. Gave him many sides and simultaneous things to care about.

Him being indifferent towards the plan, going all 'uwu revenge is bad, Bogota,' towards the man who humiliated, tortured, and killed an injured member of his team right in front of everyone, and 'I don't mind at all my plan getting changed behind my back by the person I trusted to give it its respect' allowing himself to be disrespected and ordered around to run errands, isn't a character development. It's a downgrade.

[ask-ayaki]

For the mun, how do you feel about the scene with Yaki saying they should eliminate Mary?

(Note: Packaging this response with the latter two asks since I already basically answered them in-character here and here, so I'll just take the opportunity to expand upon my own thoughts on the matter.)

As a preface, I've been a big fan of Ayano ever since AToH initially dropped, and Toumei Answer was one of the first PVs I watched that got me into the series. That said, I always wanted to know more about her as a person and not simply a "sacrificial lamb"/"smiling sad angel". I actually really appreciate the manga route as a whole for giving us a closer look at her complexities and personality beyond her "death" merely being used as a device to drive the plot forward, proving she's not always such a "pure, perfect saint" placed on a pedestal by others. She's just as prone to falling into despair and desperation, if given different circumstances. It makes her a lot more interesting and relatable by acknowledging her flaws IMO, however controversial the "contradiction" to her prior image may be.

I think Ayano's "familial" relationship with Marry is important to draw parallels between her and Shintaro, and turning against her own "little sister" creates a conflict/contrast not seen before. This time, Shintaro is the one to snap her out of a bitter, defeatist mindset; by demonstrating the strength of a "hero" and how to be a true "big sibling" despite his own suffering. As someone who never actually cared for the ShinAya ship before (in part due to being aromantic myself) in the main timelines of other media - at least from Ayano's POV since Shintaro always treated her like shit before her apparent “suicide” - it makes so much more sense to me now why Ayano would fall for this side of him. Since becoming (A)Yaki, I'm sure those feelings only deepen over time as she gets to bear witness to his development over all the routes firsthand, and his ultimate desire to save everyone - including Marry - no matter what.

With the roles reversed, it makes her own "hero's journey" to atonement vastly more impressive in my eyes; where similar to Shin who grows from a jerkass stuck in self-pity (and later grief/guilt) to someone willing to sacrifice for another's sake - whether directly "related" to them or not - Ayaki represents a "redemption arc" of sorts. Personally I find the story of "falling from grace" before learning to be better and seek another alternative solution to sororicide far more fascinating than a version who is naturally kind and forgiving to a fault. So from a meta perspective, I say let her be angry, mournful, heck even spiteful in the heat of moment's loss to displace her rage onto another "easy" target... But in the end above all: regretful for her own actions and take the steps to correct such cruel, awful behavior and change her ways.

[inhonoredglory]

i dont think you ever received my last ask a while back, but now i gotta know what ur favorite duos are! (platonic or romantic!) - armin anon

o h mygod forgive me dear armin nonnie!!! the last weeks of school threw me off and then the trollhunters trailer hit and I got distracted. but I hope you’re still out there hearing my answer. I really have fun chatting with you, so thanks for this second question!

My favorite duos, oh gosh. I could even talk about my favorite trios, the character relationships in SNK are so well developed and rich.

Erwin and Levi

My top duo is of course Erwin and Levi. (My summer project is to make a receipts AMV of all the wonderful things Isayama and others have said about the pair.) Their closeness is something else, built on such mutuality, maturity, and love. Erwin looks like a devil to everyone but Levi, who sees his innocent humanity; Levi looks cold and unemotional to everyone but Erwin, who sees his compassionate nature. Erwin changed Levi’s worldview––allowing him to see beyond his own small world to a bigger one, where freedom was possible. Levi saw the darkest side of Erwin’s heart, and still trusted him implicitly, believing in him and selflessly giving up his own need for Erwin to stay in his life in order to give him peace and redemption instead. And as Isayama said,

“Levi had always seen Erwin’s goal of doing things for humanity’s future as an unimaginably altruistic act, and made it his life’s mission to reach the same heights.”

And with that final act of letting Erwin die, Levi did just that––become selfless in the hardest way possible. To let go of the person that gave your life meaning, because in death was healing, in death was innocence, in death was love.

Are they romantic or platonic? To me, love is beyond those labels. People can be romantic with each other and not really have real love. People can have real, dedicated love and never ever kiss or want to. Levi and Erwin share an undeniable soulmate bond, and while there is definite signs of romantic Eruri (Isayama hinting Levi’s type isn’t women, but tall people; Erwin getting flirty in supplemental short stories), to me the important part is that they are each other’s special person and that’s why I adore them so much.

(Artist: rozavay)

Jean and Armin

Because Jean and Armin were two of my first faves from the show, I naturally gravitated to the pair. What I adore about them is how much each one of them defends the other, desperately rushing to each other’s aid on the battlefield and trusting one another. Going through the manga, I found a really touching moment when Armin was fixing a prisoner's gag (the man who had sexually harassed him) and getting visibly disturbed. Jean felt that, and intercepted the moment, getting Armin out of that situation. Jean’s actually really good at detecting people’s emotions, so it was beautiful to see him sensitive and caring with Armin.

I don’t see them as romantic, but I enjoy some good Jearmin just the same, and there’s something to be said for Jean’s canonical jealousy of Armin spending so much time with Eren. Armin’s just that good a catch LOL.

Jean and Marco

Marco changed Jean’s life, gave him a reason to be more than himself. He believed in Jean, trusted him, and encouraged him. I find it incredibly moving that Jean keeps coming back to Marco to remind himself why he chose the life he did.

I totally got on board the ship with this amazing fic about the two of them: To Everything There Is A Season by flecksofpoppy

Canonically, I don’t believe it’s romantic, but they share the deep, beautiful bond of one person owing their entire life’s purpose and sense of meaning from the other.

(Artist: kaa05n2)

Bertholdt and Reiner (+Titan Trio)

Since Bertholdt was my bean in season 2, I really felt drawn to his relationship with Reiner. My sister loved Reiner too, so this duo was a good one for us both to enjoy. Bertholdt was always so insecure in himself, afraid to do or say anything in the big scary, foreign world he was dropped into as a child warrior. He relied on Reiner, and yet so often he couldn’t access him emotionally, since he was dealing with their tragic lives in his own way. He had to grow to be Reiner’s anchor, while still awash himself. They fought for each other more than for their homeland, fought for the things they both came to care about growing up on Paradis, and they were inseparable. Bertholdt risked his mission to see if Reiner was okay in the Return to Shigonshina arc, and he drew strength from Reiner’s trust in him to make his own choices and act on his own in that battle as well. As much as it pains me to see him fulfill his character growth in such a dark way, I still have a spot in my heart for him and his friendship with Reiner.

Levi and Furlan (+Underground Trio)

I got hit in the face with this relationship after I read the No Regrets manga, which shows so much more than the anime version regarding the equality in trust between Levi and Furlan. In the manga, Levi didn’t have subordinates (denying the term for them), he had friends who he had made his family. Levi bet all their lives on Furlan’s plan, and when he went on his first mission, he had such a falling out with him because Levi wanted to protect him and Isabel. Furlan was so grieved by the darkness in both Levi and Isabel’s hearts and put everything on the line because he believed he needed to get them out of the darkness of the underground. Their relationship is a beautiful insight into Levi’s early years and his inherent compassion and deep care for others.

^ The Levi Ackerman actually stopping to hearken to the command of someone else (who’s not Erwin lol), trusting in Furlan’s bigger plans with this stranger than just merely kicking him out, like Levi wanted to do.

Armin and Eren (+Shigonshina Trio)

The entire rooftop sequence and serumbowl shows how much Eren (and Mikasa) care and love Armin. In a way, Eren and Armin are the mirror for Levi and Erwin, with Erwin’s bigger dreams of the world outside the walls turning Levi’s motivations, built on tragedy, into something positive and forward-looking. Likewise, Eren’s darker need for anger and revenge is turned into something good and innocent when he shares in Armin’s dream. Armin’s hope makes Eren feel confident. He believes in him even when Armin doesn’t believe in himself. And of course, that painful way Armin tells him, “I’d never lie to you, would I?” because he knows Eren would never let him go through with his selfless mission if he’d known what he meant to do. To Eren, Armin is a better person than he’d ever be.

Now why couldn’t we have just ended the whole show right here lol?

Ymir and Historia

One of the few explicitly canon romantic couples in SNK! Their story is tragic, beautiful, and inspiring. Each one of them telling the other to be free of society’s expectations of them, to stop living for other people and to live for themselves––together. The change in Ymir, going from someone selfish to someone who would die for Historia’s happiness, is a gut-wrenching thing to watch. Their shared arc is complex, messy, and struck through by the goodness of a young girl who found the humanity in someone who never thought themselves worthy of love.

aaa I think that covers my favorite duos in SNK!