#and also if platonic interactions were given like. the same weight as romantic ones in rpgs like this... which if IM sayong that ...

[raven]

astarion really exemplifies every issue with modern fandom. in the game, he is an interesting character with a complicated relationship with sex that is deeply tied to his backstory and not often seen in video game romance options, imo. and then on a metatextual level, because of the way he's a white twink, he is given a million times more content than everyone else in the game, which is frustrating at best. and of course because he's a white twink the fandom is absolutely insane and oversexualizing, when a major point of his romance arc is not wanting to have sex with you even though he's attracted to you because of how he's been treated in the past-- and fans are doing the exact same thing, treating him like an object-- so thats literally how people who don't know the game see him-- UGH.

[generallynerdy]

Uncalled they come to me, and told, they still won’t leave me (Din Djarin/Soulmate!Reader)

Spoilers for Chapter 9 (S2E1) of the Mandalorian

Summary: After the ambitious Toro Calican turns on you, his hired mechanic, in hopes of winning favour with the Guild, the mysterious Mandalorian saves your life. Now that you owe him a life debt, he’s stuck with you until you can save him back. It’s not so bad, having a free mechanic and babysitter for the kid, but things take a turn for the worse when both of you realise you might be catching feelings. For someone that might not even be your Soulmate.

Requested by Anon: Hello! How’re you doing? May I please request a Din x reader soulmate au? The one where you don’t see color until you touch your soulmate? It would be very difficult for Din to find his soulmate and I’ve always wanted to see how it played out. If not that’s ok! Thank you and have a wonderful day ❤️

Key: (Y/N) - your name, (h/c) - hair colour, (e/c) - eye colour Translations: vode - siblings, Ret’urcye mhi - goodbye (literally: may we meet again), mirshmure’cya - brain-kiss (Basic term, is Keldabe kiss. This is the soft one as opposed to the literal headbutt term) Asked to be tagged in this disaster: @pearlll09 Word Count: remember when i said this would be 4k? Yeah. It’s 6,478 words. What. The. Fuck.

Author’s Note: this is way longer than I intended it to be but I think u deserve it since u were the only one who saw my post begging for mando requests and actually sent one hksjlfdkj tysm!! I’m so happy I got to write a Soulmate AU for him tbh. Btw, I have it in my head that Yodito would’ve given him the ability to see green, as a familial Soulmate bond, but it wouldn’t work for this if your eyes are green so I just left it out. (Also wtf is up with the Cobb/Din shit, Cobb is clearly in a dedicated relationship with the bartender Weequay. I named them Sala :D) The title is from The Teller of Tales by Gabriela Mistral.

Read On AO3

*

“Do you wear those gloves all the time?”

The Mando gives you a look—one that you can’t read, obviously, but you get the idea that it’s drier than the desert you’re in.

Calican snorts, but you shoot him a glare and he shuts up. You’re only here because he’s paying well for your mechanical skills, enough that his request of an extra hand on his first bounty seemed reasonable. Finding out that he’s hunting Fennec Shand was...less than pleasing, but now that the Mando is onboard, you’re not quite so worried about the outcome. They’re supposed to be fearsome warriors, after all. And he was smart enough to figure out how to wait out Shand, which is what the three of you have been doing for hours.

“I’m just saying,” you continue, “between the armour and the gloves, it must be damn near impossible to find your Soulmate.”

He shrugs. Sort of. It’s kind of hard to tell, to be honest.

“Haven’t you heard the stories?” Calican asks, flopping back onto the sand. “Mandalorians don’t have Soulmates. They start seeing colour after their first battle; war is their only destiny.”

You roll your eyes. They’re folk tales, really, and ridiculous ones at that. Every sentient has at least one Soulmate, romantic, platonic, familial, or otherwise, and there’s no reason for Mandalorians to be any different. Still, the stories make their rounds. There are specific ones, too, like the one about the Mandalorian Jedi who made the Darksaber; he was said to see colour when he lit his weapon for the first time. Fett, too, was said to have seen a new colour with every clone that was decanted—which is mildly ridiculous.

“Maybe the Mandalorians of old,” Mando comments with a scoff. “Not many of us see battle these days.”

“Well, if you’re looking for it, I know a krayt dragon a few hundred klicks away,” you suggest lightly.

He snorts. “No thanks. I’ll take the assassin.”

“Speaking of,” you said, “you guys know I’m just a mechanic, right?”

There’s a pause. Calican nods, but the Mando is still.

“What?” he asks, displeasure in his voice.

“I mean, I’m pretty good with a blaster, but I’m gonna be useless against Fennec Shand.”

Mando whirls on Calican. “You paid a mechanic to be your back-up? Are you insane?”

He shrugs. “(Y/N) has a mean right hook.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Mando huffs. He looks over at you and you can almost feel him glaring through the visor. “Are you crazy?”

“I’m broke,” you scoff. “Same thing. Oh, hey, do you need repairs on that hunk of junk you pilot? I’ll be more thorough than that lady at the hangar.”

He hesitates. “We’ll see.”

You grin. That’s not a no.

*

“You’re a prick, did I mention that?” you hiss over your shoulder.

Calican shoves the blaster into your side. “Shut up and keep walking.”

The Mandalorian stands on the other side of the hangar, waiting for Calican to make his move. Seriously, this day could not be going any worse. After killing Shand, Toro Calican, certified dumbass, decided that kidnapping you and the Mandalorian’s—pet? Child?—passenger was the best way to go. Whatever the little weird thing that’s in your arms is, it’s pretty cute, and you’d rather he shoot you than the baby holding tightly onto your shirt. In fact, he probably will, because the kid is his ticket into the Guild—you’re just dead weight.

“Looks like I’m calling the shots now. Huh, partner?” Calican asks the Mando. “Drop your blaster and raise ‘em.”

The Mandalorian puts his hands behind his head. Next to you, Calican pushes Peli forward and instructs her to cuff him. With a huff, she moves behind the Mandalorian with the intent to follow orders.

“You’re a Guild traitor, Mando,” Calican begins. You consider sighing. This sounds like the start of a villain monologue. “And I’m willing to bet that this here is the target you helped escape. Fennec was right. Bringing you in won’t just make me a member of the Guild, it’ll make me legendary.”

In a burst of light, the Mandalorian sets off a flash grenade.

You yelp and tuck the little thing into your arms before tucking yourself over into a roll down the ramp of the ship. You fall into the sand just in front of the Mandalorian, who’s moved to fire a shot at Calican, sending him flying off the other side, smouldering.

Breathing heavily, you sit up, the child still in your arms.

“Are you okay? Is the child?”

You look up. The Mandalorian has his gloved hand held out, offering to help you up. Hesitantly, you take it and pull yourself off the ground.

“We’re both okay—I think,” you say hesitantly, holding the baby out to him. “Is he—?”

“Dead,” the Mando confirms, taking the child from you.

You frown. “Good riddance. Thank you,” you tell him hesitantly, though your tone is genuine.

“It’s nothing,” he murmurs.

He distracts himself by checking on the child, who coos up at him contentedly. You smile a little at the interaction, but put yourself back into focus.

“It’s not nothing,” you say firmly. “I owe you a life debt.”

He freezes. “What?”

“Where I come from, if someone saves your life, you owe it to them. Until I can save your life, I owe you,” you explain.

“That’s—you don’t need to do that,” he says quickly.

You cross your arms. “It’s like your Way. It’s my culture, my honour on the line. You’re stuck with me, Mando.”

“What? No. Can’t you...pay me, or something?”

“I’m broke, remember?”

“You saved the child’s life, doesn’t that count?”

Your eyebrows shoot up. “I rolled with him. You did the work, so, no, it doesn’t count, even though he’s your…” You hesitate, remembering the word. “...foundling.”

“You know, you’re kind of getting the better end of the deal here,” Peli pipes up, directing the thought at the Mandalorian. “A free mechanic, babysitter, and an extra blaster? That’s a bargain.”

“Uh...pre-warning, I don’t know much about child care,” you warn immediately.

He snorts. “Neither do I.” After a moment, he sighs deeply. “Fine. But we’re going to work on those blaster skills before you become a liability.”

“Fair enough.”

*

Sticking with the Mandalorian is probably the worst decision of your life.

Almost immediately after Tatooine, in need of more funds, he drags you into trouble with another group of bounty hunters and the New Republic, of all groups.

“Who is this?” someone asks, her voice sing-song as she enters the Mandalorian’s ship.

You don’t bother turning around, continuing your repairs on a hull panel. “The mechanic. Don’t touch anything.”

“You have a personal mechanic?”

A few people enter the ship, making you finally turn around. The first speaker is a Twi’lek woman and the second a Human, who squints disdainfully. From behind him, Mando pushes past their little crew—including a protocol droid and a massive Devaronian—to approach you, deciding to stand next to you rather than them, which brings you immense pleasure for some reason.

“No. (Y/N) owes me a life debt and, apparently, credits don’t cut it,” he explains shortly, sounding frustrated and exhausted.

You nudge him companionably—it’s an argument you’ve had a few times, the paying of your debt. He doesn’t want to be free of you, per se, but he doesn’t want you to be in his debt. Having that kind of power or hold over you makes him uncomfortable, you can tell, as every time it comes up he gets twitchy.

“Kinky,” the Twi’lek snickers.

You grimace. That would explain why Mando sounds like he wants to die. “Fun group. What’s the job?”

“One of theirs got caught. We’re getting him out,” he says. “And we’re using our ship.”

Our ship. Maybe it’s a slip of the tongue or maybe he’s making it clear that you’re with him, but either way, it brings a smirk to your face. The Twi’lek looks disgusted.

“Well, at least my hard work won’t be going to waste,” you huff.

“Mando,” the Twi’lek interrupts, “you haven’t introduced us.”

You can feel him rolling his eyes. “(Y/N), meet Mayfeld, Burg, Xi’an. Mayfeld is running point, the droid is flying, and the target is a New Republic transport ship.”

“Ugh. You guys better be good; I’m not getting arrested.”

“Mayfeld’s former Imperial,” Mando says before any of them can answer.

You scoff. “A stormtrooper? My shitty blaster skills would be better than his.”

“I wasn’t a stormtrooper,” Mayfeld spits, annoyed enough that he must’ve said it once already. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

All but the droid stay, scattered around the hull. Mando follows soon after the jump to hyperspace, having hovered over the droid while it set their course. He stops Burg from getting into the weapons cache right after he hops down the ladder and the two look like they want to kill each other.

“Someone tell me why we even need a Mandalorian,” the Devaronian grunts.

Mayfeld huffs. “Well, apparently, they’re the greatest warriors in the galaxy. So they say.”

“Then why are they all dead?”

They all laugh at that—Xi’an with a particularly nasal one, which is irritating beyond belief. You frown deeply, but try not to show how pissed their laughter makes you. That sort of shit isn’t to be made fun of; a dying race. It’s all too familiar these days, what with the death of Alderaan and the crater on Scarif.

When you come back into focus, Xi’an is talking in low tones.

“See, I know who you really are,” she says to the Mando.

You roll your eyes. Unlikely.

(Something in your brain goes: I do, which is stupid. You don’t know who he is, under that helmet, sure, but you’ve seen a lot of him through his actions. He’s reckless, terrifying, and a badass, but he’s also patient and...kind, in his own way. The way he treats the child is like nothing you’ve seen in another bounty hunter. It’s gentle, caring. The kid has really grown on him, you think. And the way he treats you is just straight up polite, even though you’re practically his servant in terms of a life debt. Still, he treats you like a person and doesn’t ask you to do unreasonable favours just because he saved your life. He doesn’t hold it over your head.)

And then they start goading him about the helmet.

Burg actually goes for it, which Mando beats him back for. You jump forward, but just as you do, the door to the sleeping cot flies open, revealing the child.

Instead, you rush to the child, pulling him into your arms.

“What is that?” Mayfeld asks, approaching.

“Back off,” you hiss.

He looks between you and Mando. “Wait, did you two make that?” When you scoff, he frowns. “What is it, like a pet or somethin’?”

“Yeah. Something like that,” Mando says quickly.

Xi’an frowns. “Didn’t take you for the type. Maybe that code of yours has made you soft.”

You snort. Soft. That isn’t a word you’d use to describe him, ever. You haven’t seen very much action since Tatooine, but you saw enough there.

Mayfeld reaches for the child and, without hesitation, you lift your blaster. The way he’s looking at the little guy makes you uneasy.

“Fuck off,” you warn instantly.

“Aw, c’mon, I just wanna hold him,” he teases.

Over the comms, the droid’s voice echoes. “Dropping out of hyperspace. Now.”

The entire ship shudders and shakes, sending everyone flying off their feet. You happen to ram into beskar, your face slamming into the metal, which makes you yelp. The baby wails in your arms as gravity makes to tug you away again. Before it can, Mando grabs your arms and holds you in place against him until the ship is steady once more.

“You okay?” he asks, helping you to your feet—again, you think miserably.

“Ugh, no,” you groan, putting a hand on the left side of your face. “That’s gonna bruise.”

Mando takes the child from you. “Sorry. We’ll deal with it after.”

You wave him off. “I’ve had worse. You worry about the job, I’ll watch the kid,” you say, taking the child back. You can’t help but smile when he coos happily.

“Right,” Mando mutters. For a moment, he watches you both, considering.

“Mando!” calls Mayfeld. “Let’s go!”

Before he goes, he puts a hand on your shoulder. “Be careful. I have a bad feeling about this.” You nod, which seems to appease him, and watch him leave.

Petting the child’s floppy ears, you wonder if he meant that to be as comforting as it was.

*

I should’ve known, Din thinks when Qin walks out of that cell.

I definitely should’ve known, he decides, returning to the Razor Crest to find a sparking droid corpse and a shaking child in your arms.

He tosses the cuffed Twi’lek to the side and rushes to yours, stepping over Zero’s limp form. You look relatively unfazed, for someone who’s just ripped a droid’s head off with their bare hands, but the child is rather distressed. The kid squeaks at the sight of Din and, much to his surprise, lifts your hand to show him.

It’s bleeding.

“What did you do?” Din questions, crossing the hull for his medical kit.

“I...may have tried to punch the droid,” you admit hesitantly. “It didn’t work.”

He scoffs, returning to kneel in front of you with bacta patches in his hands. “No karking shit.”

Your face falls as he reaches for your hand, pulling it toward him so he can patch it up. “It was gonna hurt the kid.”

“You did good,” he murmurs. “Stupid, but good.”

It never occurred to him that you might save the child again. You’re here out of necessity, after all, because you owe him, because your honour depends on paying that debt. The child is just another being in the vicinity, but you still saved him. Again. You’re either very stupid or very kind and he can’t decide which one is more concerning.

“Maybe you should teach me a bit of hand to hand, too,” you suggest warmly, wincing at the bacta’s sting.

Din makes a noise that’s sort of a laugh. “I’ll add it to the list.”

He moves to put bacta on the bruise his beskar gave you—He feels ridiculously guilty for that; here you are, paying off a life debt to him, and he still manages to hurt you—but with a hand, you stop him.

“Don’t waste it,” you say immediately. “I’ve had worse bruises, seriously.”

He frowns. “It’s not a waste.” Before you can protest, he puts the patch on top of the bruise.

You huff. “You’re a worrier, aren’t you, Mando?”

“Apparently,” he replies dryly. He hadn’t realised it, either.

“Will you stop flirting and get us out of here!?” Qin shouts from the other side of the hull. “The New Republic will be on our asses!”

You roll your eyes. “I hate to say it, but he has a point. Where are the others?”

“Dealt with,” he says simply. “It was a double-cross.”

“Well, I figured,” you shoot back with a knowing look. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

The drop is easy enough, especially since Din knows that New Republic signal is beeping steadily from Qin’s pocket. He escapes quickly, dipping back into the Razor Crest, where you wait at the top of the ramp, the child hanging onto your boot.

“Let’s go,” he declares, the ramp shutting behind him as he enters.

“Already?” you question with a raised eyebrow. “There are a few repairs I could make out of hyperspace that might be useful.”

He waves you toward the cockpit. “Later. We need to leave.”

“Oookay.” You frown but do as he says, plucking the child from off your foot. “C’mon, little guy,” you mutter to him.

Din waves away all your questions as he starts the take-off. Finally, when the Razor Crest is a safe distance away from the space station and X-Wings appear out of hyperspace, he glances back at you.

“Holy shit!” you cry as they open fire. You look back at him with a slack jaw, which makes him smile underneath the helmet. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

He shrugs half-heartedly, but it’s enough of an answer.

“You’re a maniac, Mando,” you laugh, watching the scene through the transparisteel.

Din thinks over it, staring at you for a long moment. There’s light in your eyes—maybe it’s the reflection of the explosion, but it’s captivating.

“Din,” he says.

You look over. “Hm?”

He clears his throat, trying to shove aside nerves. “My name. It’s Din.”

“Oh. Oh,” you repeat, eyes wide. Then, you smile, more genuine than he’s ever seen from you, he thinks. “You’re crazy, Din. You know that, right?”

He laughs—and that’s the first time you’ve heard a proper one from him. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

*

When Din drops a pair of gloves in front of you, you laugh.

“You’re telling me the gloves are out of convenience?” you ask him disbelievingly.

“The more skin you cover, the less likely you are to get cut up by a vibroblade,” he replies dryly. “Put them on.”

You raise your hands in surrender and take them, slipping them over your fingers. “Surprisingly comfy.”

It occurs to you that this is...sort of a big deal. You’ve kept your hands bare for as long as you can remember, mostly because you’re a romantic and finding your Soulmate has been at the forefront of your mind for a long time. But now, you think, it’s not such a big deal. You have a debt to pay and, besides that, you’re pretty happy with how things are now.

Life isn’t exactly nice with Din and the kid, so to say, but you’re content. You love the child and he adores you. The Razor Crest feels more like home than any planet ever has. And Din is...well, he’s something. Being around him is mildly addicting and whenever he’s gone, something feels incomplete.

“Better?” you ask, lifting your gloved hands.

“Much,” he says. Then, he holds out his own hand. “C’mon, up.”

You take the hand without thought, but before you know it, he’s swinging you around and shoving you to the ground.

“Ow!” you cry. “What the hell, Din?”

He huffs. “Lesson 1: Never take anything for granted.”

“Rude.” You hit his arm meaningfully, but he just rolls his eyes; just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean you can’t tell it’s happening.

“You’ll thank me someday.”

“But not today.”

“Nope. Today, you’re gonna hate my guts.”

*

He’s dying.

It feels unreal, what with everything you’ve watched him survive so far. A newbie bounty hunter, a group of pissed off bounty hunters, lots of bounty hunters, and the New Republic but a group of stormtroopers is what gets him?

Moff Gideon is what really gets him, though. The bastard that helped destroy his people is going to destroy Din Djarin. Hearing him speak Din’s name makes you nauseous, furious, even. He gave you that name in confidence, trusted it to you, the only one of his handful of friends to even use it, and Gideon decides to declare it to Nevaroo in its entirety. It makes your blood boil, enough that you get out of the initial firefight mostly unscathed.

But Din doesn’t. And now he’s dying in your arms and you feel like you failed.

“Go with them,” he tells you, all croaky and half-assed.

“No. No, I’m not leaving you here,” you declare, carefully leaning him against the rubble.

Flames flicker all around the room and the child is crying. It’s not loud or consistent, but it’s enough to break your heart.

“You have to go,” Din says again. “You’ll die.”

You laugh ruefully. “That’s kind of the point. A life debt means I save your life or I die trying.”

A pause.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he hisses through the pain.

“Afraid not, dumbass. You’re stuck with me, remember?”

He grasps your arm, his hands still gloved. If you’re going to die here, maybe you should ask him to take off the gloves. A part of you has wondered…

“C’mon, tell me it’s transferable—some ‘dying wish’ shit like that.”

You nod, though the action sinks uncomfortably into your chest. Leaving him here...that doesn’t sit well with you. But if he asks, then you’ll do it. “Yeah, you name it, but it’d better be a big one, something equivalent.”

The breath he lets out is one of relief. “Take care of the kid. Go find his people and return him to them. Protect him.”

“With my dying breath,” you swear, the words holding an air of ceremony.

Din grasps your arm tighter and pulls you down, your forehead meeting his helmet. You’re not sure what it means, but it must mean something because he mutters words in his own language, which you’ve never heard him do before.

“Ret’urcye mhi.”

May we meet again.

Din does what little he can in saying goodbye to you, as deeply as that cuts. You’ve grown on him, a little too much maybe, and it kills him to think that you’ll be without him now. You still can’t hit a headshot, he realises, suddenly worried for how you’ll fare.

And so he gives you what he can: a Keldabe kiss and a goodbye, instead of the action he wants to take. He wants to take off his gloves and see if he can figure out the colour of your eyes. On the other hand, though, he doesn’t want to leave you with that, of all things, to leave you seeing the red of his blood and the blue-tinged orange of the flames before any other colours.

You take the child in your arms and, with one last glance at Din, leave the room for the covert’s tunnels underground.

The child whimpers up at you.

You look down, sniffling, and pet his ears gently. “I know, little one. I’m so sorry.” You place a gentle kiss to his forehead.

Cara appears, tugging on your wrist. “C’mon,” she says gently. “We need to get out of here.”

It occurs to you, as the three of you and Greef move on, that Cara might help you with the child. For Din, obviously. She’s a good person and, frankly, she and Din seem pretty friendly. The second she saw you, she’d offered her bare hand and bemoaned the fact that her vision was still black and white, much to your amusement. It was all in good fun, but Din had looked a little uncomfortable, for reasons you didn’t know.

“(Y/N),” Cara says quietly, calling your attention back.

You shake yourself from your thoughts. “Sorry.”

She smiles sadly. “It’s okay. Just keep up.”

The small group turns a few corners before footsteps sound from behind. You immediately place the child in the bag hanging from Cara’s shoulder and draw your blaster, watching her and Greef do the same.

From the distant hall, two figures approach: IG-11 and—

“Din!” you half-cry, half-breathe out. Holstering your blaster, you meet them halfway to take more of Din’s weight from IG. “How—?”

“No living thing can see me without my helmet. IG isn’t alive,” Din says dryly.

You laugh, a partly manic sound. “Thank kark. You’re not getting out of this that easy.”

The noise he makes is both amused and resigned. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Where’s the—?”

“He’s with Cara,” you say, finishing the thought before even he can, in his groggy state.

It’s safe to say that when the Armourer gives him his sigil, Din almost considers correcting the Clan of two to a Clan of three. He doesn’t, reminding himself that you’re here because of a debt and nothing else, but the thought is there.

*

The months after Nevarro are more peaceful than the first week of your time with Din. 

You finally get to pull a proper sleeping space together for yourself. Well, it’s a hammock in the hull, but it’s better than the seats in the cockpit. The child gets his own hammock, too, though it’s in the cot space with Din. He loves it, so much so that he squeals when he sees it. That’s your proudest moment, for sure.

Most days, you tend to forget that you still owe a life debt. To be honest, it just feels like the three of you are normal. Din takes bounties, you take short mechanic jobs on different planets, and the two of you trade off on child-duty. It’s pretty regular, more than what your life used to be, anyway.

Din is still training you in hand-to-hand and blasters, of course. You’re getting better with the latter, but the first is difficult. On the way to Tatooine, where there’s supposedly another Mandalorian, he decides to have another training session.

“Fists higher, do it again.”

Huffing, you wipe your wrist across your sweaty forehead. It’s easy enough to obey the order—the first part, anyway. Getting into his guard is difficult, though.

One hit, two blocks—there. You slip under his guard and make an abrupt drop to the ground, sweeping his legs out under him with a fierce movement. He goes down in a tumble of beskar, joining you on the floor. As soon as he’s down, you flip over and straddle his hips, an arm over his neck in false threat.

He barks out a laugh. “Much better.”

“I’m not entirely hopeless!” you declare joyfully before bursting into snickers.

Leaning down, you thunk your forehead against his helmet. The gesture is fond, you’ve learned, something shared between close companions—or at least you think. Din told you that it’s called a mirshmure’cya in Mando’a, that it doesn’t have an equivalent word in Basic.

(Which is technically true. Literally, it means brain-kiss, but the outsider term for it is Keldabe kiss. It can be used for close companions—vode in arms, family—but it’s also used for romantic partners, so he’s mildly horrified at the idea of explaining its cultural significance to you and having to face his feelings for someone that may or may not be his Soulmate. He hasn’t gotten up the courage to ask if he can check. Or try to do it discreetly.)

A distant beeping starts up, coming from the cockpit. It’s the approach warning, which means the training session is over.

“I’ll get the kid,” you say, climbing off Din and offering a hand.

He takes it without hesitation, dragging himself up and making a beeline for the cockpit.

Tatooine is about what you remember. That is, it’s dry, sandy, and the worst planet you’ve ever been on. Stepping out of the ship and into the hangar makes you smile, though, at the not-so-distant memory of Din saving your life. It hasn’t been that long, but it feels like it’s been years.

“Oh, hey!” says Peli, after greeting the child—which is fair, he’s adorable. “You’re still with him! Haven’t repaid that debt yet, huh?”

Your face falls. “Uh, no, not really.”

On the way to Mos Pelgo, your thoughts linger on the life debt. One of these days, you’re going to save Din’s life—then where will you be? Will he want you to leave? What will you do if you have to leave? Your old life was nowhere near as interesting as this, nor did you have anyone close to what Din and the child are to you.

The dreary grey slopes of sand only make it easier to think of the worst possible outcomes. Now you remember why you hated Tatooine so much.

You don’t even realise the speeder is approaching the small town until Din taps your arm, which is wrapped around his waist. Jumping at the touch, you loosen your grip sheepishly and glance at the child, who looks like he’s enjoying himself immensely.

After the speeder comes to a stop, you take the kid while Din enters the cantina.

When you enter yourself, you find that he’s about to shoot someone, while the Weequay behind the bar looks rather distressed.

“Perfect timing, as always,” Din remarks without a glance.

You raise your free hand. “You’re the bad luck charm, I’m just here for the ride,” you retort teasingly.

“You brought a kid to a gunfight?” his opponent asks, raising an eyebrow.

Finally, you glance over at him and see why Din looks ready to kill him. He’s in Mandalorian armour but his helmet is off—clearly, he’s not Mandalorian. “You’re wearing beskar and you’re not a Mandalorian, buddy. I think you’re in more trouble than the kid is.”

“He is,” Din gets out, a twinge of viciousness in his voice.

Before they can even reach for their blasters, though, the ground starts to shake.

You grab onto the doorway for support, eyes wide as you grip the child. Din and the Mandalorian poser move toward the door, joining you and staring out at the street outside.

The entire planet feels like it rumbles and chaos reigns outside.

Something is moving the sand—coming toward the town.

“Holy fuck,” you whisper as it goes by, shifting the sand like it’s an ocean rather than earth. It flies out of the ground, sharp teeth the only thing you see as it consumes a bantha whole.

When it’s gone, the poser huffs. “Maybe we can work something out.” He turns to you, offering a hand, which is covered by fingerless gloves. “Cobb Vanth. I’m the Marshal here.”

You take it hesitantly, glad that things are still black and white when you make contact. “(Y/N).”

He notices your hesitation and chuckles. “The Weequay in there is Sala, my Soulmate. I’ll see if they can’t whip up something for the kid; I’m sure he’s starving.”

“Very,” you say, just before he goes to leave.

When it’s just you and Din, you look over at your companion. “Krayt dragon, huh?”

“Yep,” he sighs, already sounding tired.

You laugh. “I know I said I could bring you to one when we met, but I was totally kidding.”

He looks over at you and you can feel the low-level glare behind the visor, but it only makes you snicker. “I hate you.”

“You’re so full of shit,” you retort immediately.

*

You finally get to repay your debt.

It’s not what you’re thinking about when you shove Din out of the way of the krayt’s projectile venom, but it’s repaid nonetheless.

Din doesn’t think of it immediately, either, as he’s rather more concerned with the fact that you’re sent flying across the desert into a pile of debris and sharp rocks.

“(Y/N)!”

Before he can run to you, Cobb grabs his arm. “The dragon!”

To be honest, killing the dragon feels like a bonus when he pulls himself together and figures out a plan. When the great beast explodes, the Tuskens and the villagers cheer, but Din races back to the place he saw you last. He pushes aside the remains of one of those massive weapons they built to find you, laying on the ground. For a moment, panic clutches his heart, but then you groan.

“Am I dead?” you ask.

Din lets out a breath, hardly managing it, as he kneels next to you. “Dumbass.”

“Because it feels like I’m dead.”

“Dumbass,” he repeats, ripping your shirt away to find a deep cut in your side, just above your hip. “Of all the ways to pay your debt—”

You sit up, wincing. “Oh,” you say, as if you hadn’t realised it, “I guess I did that, too.”

Din’s heart is still beating a million klicks a second at how close you were to being dead, but for a second, it flips, realising that you hadn’t saved him just to pay the debt. And then, as he’s helping you off the ground and bringing you toward the others, who have bacta patches ready, his heart sinks.

Your debt is paid. You don’t have any reason to stay with him and the kid. As soon as you get back to the city, he’s going to have to watch you leave.

Shit. He didn’t think this through.

Meanwhile, you’re on the same train of thought. Does he really think you saved him for the debt? Does he want you gone that bad? It makes sense. You’re a pain in the ass, with all the training you need. But...well, you thought he might’ve—

“I’ve changed my mind,” you declare.

Din, terrified, attempts to sound neutral. “About?”

“The worst job we’ve ever taken. This is definitely it,” you huff as he helps you down onto a smoother boulder, taking patches from a Tusken.

He goes to use them, but you raise a hand.

“If you even think about getting near my wound with those nasty gloves, I’m going to skin you,” you threaten.

Frankly, Din is too shaken to even laugh. The silence lays there, stilted, as he removes his gloves and sits somewhat behind you, on another close stone. You’ve taken yours off, too, seeing as one is ripped all the way through.

He’s careful with the bacta patch and his bare hands, making sure not to touch your skin.

Now, of all moments, would be the worst time to find out that you really don’t have a reason to stay.

While he works, he thinks, briefly, that he should say something. “(Y/N),” he starts to say. “I—”

But that happens to be the moment he’s putting the bacta patch on. You suck in a sharp breath through your teeth, wincing. Your hand flies out, reaching for something to ground you. Of course, because something out there has it out for you, you grab his hand, forgetting that his gloves are, for once in his life, not there.

You realise, ridiculously, that his hand is warm.

And then the world around you explodes into colour.

The faded yellow of the surrounding desert is overwhelming with how it burns into your eyes alongside the brilliant blue of the sky. The surrounding Tuskens are in browns and greys, simple things, but so, so beautiful to your new sight. You breathe out, a shaky action.

Behind you, Din comes to see the same, but his gaze is stuck on the back of your head—the (h/c) of your hair and how the light catches in it, despite it being a complete mess.

You barely have the breath to gasp, but you do, whirling around to face him.

His beskar is beyond what you’d pictured: a shining, sparkling silver that could stand out on a star. No wonder rooms fall silent at the sight of him.

Din has the same thought about your eyes. On death’s door, all he’d wanted was to know what colour they are and now he knows, but it feels so useless now. He doesn’t even know what to call them. Sure, (e/c) would work, however weakly. You are...something else. You always have been, but now it’s like he can see it, the beauty of who you are so plainly painted into your features.

Din doesn’t even have the time to be afraid of your reaction before the words are slipping out. “I don’t want you to go.”

You just stare at him for a long moment, words processing.

It...kind of freaks him out.

He jumps when you fling yourself at him, arms wrapped around his shoulders in the tightest hug he’s ever gotten. Immediately, he responds, clutching the back of your shirt like it’ll save his life.

“Thank the Force,” you breathe out, just beside where his ear is under the helmet. “I don’t wanna leave.”

Din lets out a breath of relief and tugs you closer so you’re practically sitting on his lap. It can’t be comfortable, but you don’t seem to mind. When you do finally pull away, it’s to press your forehead against his helmet. It sends a swell of affection through him again, your constant Keldabe kisses. He taught you something important to his culture, to him, and here you are, using it without thought.

“Is it too late to tell you that this is the Mandalorian equivalent of a kiss?” he murmurs, more than a little embarrassed.

You laugh softly, arms reaching to rest around his neck. “And I thought you were so cool.”

“I just blew up a krayt dragon,” he argues.

“Oh, you’re plenty badass, Din,” you tease back, “just...not smooth.”

He huffs. “I’m gonna kick your ass next training session.”

A grin comes over your face and, for a second, he can’t comprehend why that would make you smile—until he realises that he just promised a next time. You’d genuinely believed he wanted you gone and Din thought you wanted to leave, but neither of you were right. 

A whine from below catches both your attention.

The child reaches up from the ground, making grabby hands.

You laugh, a noise Din echoes quietly, and pluck him from the ground, holding him in your careful hands. “Hey, buddy. Feeling left out?”

He squeaks a confirmation, his little hands—green hands, you realise, deeply amused—reaching for Din’s helmet. Once he has a comfortable hand, he bashes his head against the helmet.

Din yelps, not out of pain, but concern, grabbing for the kid, who wobbles dizzily.

“Oh, shit—” Din says.

“Woah, woah,” you get out between wheezing laughs. “Don’t do that! His head is much harder than yours.”

The kid makes a weak huff and curls against Din’s chest stubbornly.

“I think that was an attempted kiss,” you suggest to Din.

Underneath his helmet, he grins. Petting the child’s head with a gentle finger, he looks back up at you. “It was cute.”

“Very,” you agree.

Without prompting, Din reaches for your hand again, a little hesitant. You take his gladly, running your thumb across his knuckles, which makes him shiver.

“Clan of three,” he whispers.

You lift your gaze. “Hm?”

“The Armourer, she said, ‘Clan of two’ when she gave me my sigil,” he explains. “I wanted to correct her then.”

The smile on your face is beyond words. “Clan of three has a ring to it. You’re stuck with me for good now, Din Djarin.”

He snorts and raises your hand to his helmet, touching it briefly to the metal in lieu of kissing it.

Tatooine might be the worst place in the universe, Din thinks that it doesn’t matter so much where he is. Sitting here, with you and the kid, he thinks that this might be home.

*

River’s Tags: @hahaboop & @mystoragehatesme

Masterlist

[ridasverkisto]

who are your top ten black clover characters and ships (romantic, platonic)? talk about them!

Oooooooh. This is gonna be a long one so buckle in. I’m also splitting the answer into two—so this is top ten ships, and I’ll do top ten characters in a separate post, because this is long. 😅

Before I get going, I’m just going to say this is in no particular order—I’m listing them in the order they come to mind, as I love all of these pairings for different reasons so it’s hard for me to rank them. I’ll also preface that for most of my pairings it usually doesn’t matter much to me whether it’s romantic or platonic, so long as they’re not. Y’know. Actual siblings/family/etc. Also for the purposes of this ask, I’m leaving out stuff like...the Black Bulls as a platonic ship tag. They’re found family, it’s sort of a given, so this isn’t going to focus on that. And before anyone asks, yes, I have crackships. I am not apologizing.

[If this needs a page break to keep from clogging tags lmk, btw]

1. Magna/Luck (and/or Magna & Luck, it’s the same to me)

What can I say? I’m a sucker for two dumbass best friends who share a brain cell living their best lives. Their dynamic is fun and interesting—Luck literally views Magna as fun and interesting and he loves bothering him because of how he reacts, while Magna started out hating it but grew incredibly fond of Luck’s antics.

They’re dumbasses, but they’re loveable dumbasses who bring out both the best and worst in each other, and I just love the way they interact. It’s great and I love them both so much 💕

2. Finral & Langris

Okay okay so. I know there’s baggage here, because Langris is an entitled little asshole trashbaby, but hear me out. Finral gets to be an older brother, exasperated with Langris and trying super hard to be a good sibling, while Langris is still a trashbaby but a softer one. Like.

They are Peak Sibling Energy, because I can see Langris insulting Finral because “polite interaction with my loser brother, how tf?” But the moment someone else tries to insult Finral, Langris gets annoyed. It’s the younger sibling Rights, only the sibling gets to insult the other siblings and if you try to get in on that fuck you. Meanwhile, Finral learns to be the responsible older sibling to Langris, and steps into being more responsible in other parts of his life while repairing his relationship with Langris.

Not going to lie, a lot of my love for this ship is because I’m probably projecting my own relationship with my own brother onto them to some extent, and my love for proper Sibling Energy has no bounds because that shit’s hilarious when done right.

Let Finral and Langris develop the weird half-unspoken language of siblings, let them reference embarrassing things and blackmail each other over stupid shit like “who’s going to go refill the teapot” or something!! Let them be petty and loving and protective as they learn to be siblings again, because growth!!!!

3. Julius & Yami & William

Why yes, I am a polyshipper. But mostly what I really like about this one is the history and the dynamics between the three of them.

On the one hand you have Julius, who’s hugely respected by the other two, basically mentored/parented them both, and loves them both a hell of a lot. (You can’t look at the way Julius looks at Yami and William and tell me that’s not love, fuck you)

On another, you have Yami; he’s the outcast, loner, stranger in a strange land who was given a support system and place to belong by Julius. He also struggles to understand the less forthright William, and is fiercely loyal. Like. This man loves and respects Julius so fucking much, and it’s shown through such small gestures, it’s amazing.

And finally, there’s William—who couldn’t chose between Julius and Patry, yeah. Who’s a coward and a troll and hides behind his words and masks, but has made the choice to atone for his mistakes. He feels a lot, and is so clearly trying to be better it hurts.

The way the three of them interact has a lot of history and intricacy behind it, and even with current events in the series, I really really love their relationship with each other. This isn’t a ship I love for fluff, but for the tension and aching weight of history and growing up that lies heavy on it. It’s got this lovely sort of pain to it that feels like nostalgia in the summer heat, knowing nothing is ever going to be like it was once and still deciding to hold onto what you have with both hands.

I never said I ship for fluff and romance—I’m here for dynamics, and these three have amazing dynamics. (I will note for this one that it’s one that I can’t see as romantic at all. Not the least bc Julius was literally in his twenties when Yami and William were like 15, bc ~fuck that shit~)

4. William/Dorothy/Rhya

Is this a crackship? Yes!

Have these characters barely if ever interacted on screen? Yes!

Am I probably the only person who thought of this ship and wants to see content for it? Yes!

Do I give a fuck? No!

Not gonna lie, I know this is a crackship of massive proportions. But I’m here for the dynamics and the dynamics here have the potential to just be so damn cathartic, okay?

If I go on a deep tangent about this ship it’ll end up being an entire essay, so that can wait for another day, so I’ll just...give you this: these three have a lot to give each other to challenge and help each other grow. There’s a lot of potential, and tension, and catharsis here. The contrasts and dynamics between the three of them would be interesting and immensely entertaining.

I’ll also shamelessly admit that a good portion of this is also fueled by my personal head canons of William being a trans guy, Dorothy being feminine presenting nb, and Rhya just straight up being pan and attracted to strong people. What can I say? I know what I like lmao 😂

5. Yuno & Asta

I’m a sucker for good friendly rivalries. Especially ones full of so much mutual respect!!! Like, they both respect each other and care so fucking much is amazing ❤️

And don’t get me wrong, I get the people that ship them romantically and I’ll read it; but I see their relationship as more sibling rivalry/platonic than anything else.

You can’t look at Yuno being a Dramatic Bitch to get on Asta’s nerves and tell me that’s not Peak Sibling Energy, because I tell you I have done the exact same to my own brother. Let them be dorks and friends and brothers, bc it WORKS.

6. Rill/Charmy/Langris

Yes, yes this is another crackship. No, I do not care! And yes, i am aware it will very likely never be canon.

I just really like the image of Langris being reluctantly folded into the dynamic of two cinnamon rolls who could probably flatten him if they really wanted to. And Langris slowly coming to the realization that he actually really likes them and cares for them, even if he is a bit tsun-tsun about expressing it sometimes.

Plus, y’know, Rill and Charmy won’t indulge his asshole-ier behaviors, and if he pisses Charmy off he’s very likely to get his ass kicked.

I can’t really explain it more than that other than I just really really like the dynamics with this trio and I hold it very close to my heart 💕

7. Finral & Vanessa

Let them be friends!!! Let them be platonic best friends!!!! I love their dynamic, esp if you expand on it and take a look at how Finral and Vanessa can play off of each other. BEST FRIENDS.

8. David & Letoile

I know everyone likes to think of them as the chaotic one and the no-nonsense one, but consider: Letoile getting wrapped up in David’s shenanigans bc they’re just as ride or die as Magna and Luck are. Everyone thinks of her as the other holder of the Golden Dawn’s self restraint, and she sort of is, but her standards of what should be restrained is very different from Klaus’s.

9. Julius & Marx (can also be Julius/Marx, but only prior to the whole deaging thing)

Wholesome ship! It’s already obvious that they care about each other a lot in canon, so let that be expanded upon and developed more. It also adds the fun bit that the issues with Julius running away from his paperwork become even more comical with the added context. It starts to feel less like a subordinate yelling at their commandeer and more like an old married couple or something 😂

10. Leopold & Asta & Yuno & Noelle

Three competitive dumbasses and the exasperated one who makes it worse. I love them all and I think they make the best fucking quad friend group;; let them be friends, please. Please. Just the shenanigans they would get into makes me cackle with glee.

[flirting-with-psychology]

100 good questions to ask your friends at 4:02 am when you can’t sleep (can also function as an asks list)

Are you bothered by your cosmic insignificance? Maybe just a little bit

Do you mourn for a place or person you’ve never known? I mourn for the college experience I didn’t quite manage to have, and for the utopian life from the end of The Good Place that is impossible to get in real life

Do you really think there is somebody for everybody? Hopefully

Do you place any value in gender roles? Anyone can do whatever they want but I do associate some things with gender

Do you have to be related to be family? I don’t consider non-relatives my family

Are your platonic relationships just as valuable as romantic or family ones? I have always put a lot of weight on romantic relationships

Are you in love? Do you want to be? Not quite but I want to be

Do you think you can put love into categories (family, platonic, romantic, etc.) or is it just one general sensation? I can put it into categories

Would you be happy with a life without romance? No

Are you always going to be a little in love with somebody? Yes, probably Captain and Candy Cane

Would you change your appearance if you could? Yes, but not surgically

Do you have the feeling you’ve lost something you might have had in another life - whether it be a person, a place, a world, a language, etc.? I feel like I could have had a different life experience if I was born a decade or two sooner

Do you believe in reincarnation? No but I wish I did, there are definitely things I want a second chance at

Would you want to be reincarnated? Yes

Do you think you’re special, or just another person amongst billions? Can you be both? I would like to be special but probably not

Do theoretical ethical debates have any value? Is it important people discuss ethical dilemmas, e.g. the trolley problem? Yes, they are interesting and can often lead to real-life scenarios

Did you have imaginary friends? Do you still have them? I did when I was a kid. I still like to make up characters but I don’t consider them imaginary friends

Are you religious? Do you think your religion is ‘correct’? I am not religious, and I think it is most likely that there is no god or spiritual force

If you aren’t religious, do you wish you were? Why? I don’t really wish I were but sometimes I can understand the desire to believe your life will have a guaranteed happy ending

Do you want a grand adventure? Yes

Do you have somebody, whether it be a friend or stranger, who you think you could have loved if the circumstances were different? Yes

How long does it take you to fall in love with somebody?Is the sensation of ‘falling in love’ or ‘being in love’ better? I’m not sure where exactly like turns into love, and I have never experienced being in love in a relationship

Is love about convenience or something more? Can it be about both? It would have to be about more than just convenience

Do you think you really understand your gender and sexuality? I have not really questioned it much. I am a cis girl and I am happy being a girl, but I think if I were born a boy I would probably be happy being a boy too. I am mostly straight but maybe just a little bit bi, although I don’t think I would have romantic feelings for a girl

How fluid is your concept of gender and sexuality? Not too fluid but idk

What’s the most life-changing choice you’ve made so far? Probably where to go to college

Are you afraid of growing old? Yes

Would you want to live forever? How about for a billion years, a million, a millennium, a century? I think I would get tired and lonely living forever, but a few centuries would give me enough time to try things

Do you believe in some form of god/s? No

Are your choices fated or of your own free will? Free will

Do you have a hunch about how you’re going to die? Lately I’ve been fearing dying of covid, but hopefully not

Do you believe in star signs? No

How old do you have to be to be considered an adult? Legally 18, socially probably like 30

Was your childhood happy? I think so

What are you missing from your life? A passion

Have you ever met someone who had a very similar personality to your own? Did you get along? Not any more so than regular friends

Do opposites attract? Not really

Is your life what you expected it would be five years ago? No, even if you take out the pandemic I still thought I would be doing something interesting with my career

Do you know what you want out of life? No

What makes a person ‘good’? Are you a ‘good person’? I guess if they help people? I would not necessarily say I am a very good person but I think I am more good than bad

What fundamentally matters do you? Love and fun

Is freewill an illusion? Not spiritually, but maybe capitalistically

Do you create art? How do you define art? I make jewelry and other crafts, and videos. Art is stuff that is there to be entertaining or beautiful, rather than just utilitarian

How often do you lie? Is all lying inherently bad? Are you generally truthful? I rarely lie and I usually disapprove of lying but in some cases it can be ok

Do you want to be remembered after your death? What for? Something I create

Is true world peace ever possible? Idk. Not looking like it

Do you have to suffer to truly understand the human condition? What is the human condition? How can you really experience it? Who the fuck knows. Everyone experiences things differently, even if you suffer the same thing

Are you free? Will you ever be? Can anyone be truly free? I am legally free but not free of capitalism

Do you hold yourself to higher standards than you hold others? Yes

What do you expect from a friend or partner? Someone with a sense of humor who is easy to talk to, and romantic for a partner

What question could you ask to find out the most about a person? No idea

Do you justify all your beliefs or have you just inherited/absorbed some? I’m sure I have abosrbed some

Which beliefs do you have that is most likely to be wrong? Idk maybe still supporting Harry Potter even though I don’t agree with JK Rowling’s anti-trans beliefs

Can human really understand the complete nature of the universe, space and time? No

Is a conscious what makes someone a person? Probably

What do you think about artificial intelligence? It’s kinda cool but I don’t understand how it works

Do you thinks humans are obsessed with escapism (books, video games, movies, etc.)? Are you looking for an escape? Do you think that’s a bad thing? Yes but it’s not a bad thing

Are we eventually going to ‘run out’ of new combinations for music, art, language, etc.? Is there a limit to human creativity? I doubt it

What do you think the next era of music will be like? Who knows, I barely even listen to this era

What do you think the next era of fashion will be like? Masks will be incorporated into it

Do we live in tumultuous times, or do they just seem so strange because we’re living in them? It’s hard to say

Would you want to meet a clone of yourself? Would you like them? No, and I probably wouldn’t

How confident are you, really? Not very

How consistent is your perception of time? Not very

What age should people be allowed to vote? Should children and teenagers be allowed to vote? 18 is probably a good age, I think it’s hard to make an informed decision as a kid. I know I would either want whoever my parents wanted or whoever was more attractive

How do you feel about the idea ‘an eye for an eye’? Probably not a good idea in general

What’s the worse thing a person can be? A murderer

How do you feel about monogamy? I would like to have it

Can you be in love with someone and still fall in love with someone else? Probably

What’s the tragedy of your life? Losing all my potential

Would your life make a good play? No it would be hella boring

Should people be prosecuted for crimes that weren’t considered crimes at the time? No

Would you fight for your country? Do you feel a sense of loyalty to your nation? I feel some loyalty I guess because it’s home, but I would not fight

Do you believe in gender equality in every aspect? I believe in equal opportunities but not forcing people to act a certain way

Do we have a moral obligation to care for others? To what extent? I think as a society we need to take care of people and probably set up government resources to do so, but the specific people who do that should be the ones who feel fulfilled by it

Do you crave approval and/or praise? Yes

Is there comedy in all tragedy and tragedy in all comedy? Idk

Are you ever going to be satisfied? I hope so but knowing me, probably not

When you are sad, do you listen to music that conveys your emotions or music that makes you happy? Music that conveys my emotions

Is your music organised by mood or sensation or do you just listen to everything at any time? Most of the time I just shuffle it but I do have some playlists

Would you marry a friend if they needed you to (e.g. for citizenship)? Probably not

Are you a deep person? Eh

Given the chance to live your life on Mars, with no hope of returning to Earth but with the promise of scientific discovery and glory, would you take it? Not unless there was already an established society on mars with opportunities for entertainment and community interaction

Are you who people think you are? Not really. I think I am more extroverted than people think (even though I’m really an ambivert), and a lot of people think I should do sales or customer service which I hate even though I’m ok at them

Do you think you would be happier if you had been born a different gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality or religion? I might be happier if I was a boy, but only if I was an outgoing boy. And I might be happier if I was in one of those happier-on-average countries

What’s your toxic trait? Are you trying to improve yourself and fix it? My toxic traits are stubbornnes, procrastination, and lack of motivation, which are by nature extremely hard to work on

Do you anger easily? Maybe a little but I also let go of it easily

Are you a jealous person? Yes

If you lost all your memories, would you have the same personality? I assume not

Given the chance to reset your life (with none of the knowledge you currently have), would you take it? Maybe

Is hate as strong as love? Who do you hate? No. I hate Mitch McConnell

Do you speak multiple languages? Which do you dream in? What language would you want to learn? I only speak a little french and italian, I am not fluent. I dream in English. I might want to learn Gaelic

Do you draw meaning from your dreams, or do you disregard them? Sometimes I draw meaning

How would you describe yourself when you love? Do you love forcefully, unconditionally, gently, quietly, desperately? Probably desperately lol

Is unrequited love real love? I think so

Is your perception of yourself similar or the same to how others perceive you? Idk

Are you overly analytical? Yes

Do you ever feel that you are really a terrible person, and only act good out of societal or some other obligation? Occasionally

Do you believe in magic? Are you superstitious? No, but I wish it was real

What belief do you have that isn’t logically grounded, but you still firmly believe in? That I’ll end up with an interesting or exceptional life. Idk if I firmly believe it but I would like to believe it, because the alternative is depressing

[prophetandprincess]

Mass Effect #2

Am I going to continue to write snippets from the Normandy as I play this game?Possibly. Will anyone be able to stop me? No.

The Normandy gym was thankfully empty as Nova walked in, setting her water bottle on the floor and tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She had always found it oddly comforting that no matter what planet or ship Nova found herself, gyms always smelled the same. It had been something Nova had held onto on her first cruise, a baby faced recruit at the age of eighteen and still a little scared that she would end up floating out in space like those old movies before humans ever really figured out space travel. Everything in her life had changed since then, but this smell was the one thing that stayed the same. 

Nova wouldn’t consider herself a gym rat by any stretch of the imagination, but the one thing you could always count on no matter where you were stationed, even if it was a small closet with a couple of weights, was somewhere to workout. There was a reason military personnel were always in the gym, it was sometimes the only place they could go to be left alone for a while. You didn’t have to make small talk or pretend to be interested in anything other than what your body was doing. Usually Nova sought this little slice of seclusion out to help get her thoughts in order, giving her body something to do while her brain worked. 

Nova took time to wrap up her hands, the last thing she needed was a stupid injury while hunting Saren, and stretch a bit before walking up to the punching bag. She didn’t know why the conversations with Kaiden and Liara continued to rattle around in her head when she had a free moment, but she was hoping to work through it before she left the gym tonight. The only reason it hadn’t driven her mad already was because there hadn’t been many free moments with renegade L2 biotics and taking out a mercenary band that was run by a diplomat’s sister along with all the military mandated paperwork. 

There’s a lower-deck rumor that she’s, uh, interested in you. As more than a source of Prothean data.

The thud of her right hook landing on the punching bag, sending it swinging slightly, was comforting and familiar. She’d like to know who exactly started that rumor and possibly give them the same treatment. It was true that Nova had spent time with Liara, but that was because she was an expert on the Protheans and overall a very sweet individual. Since when did being nice equate to wanting to be romantically involved with someone? Was it just some bias against the Asari, who were accused of being promiscuous due to the way they reproduce? Had someone just watched way too many porn vids and was hoping for something that wasn’t there? Did a crew member honestly read their interactions incorrectly? 

Then again, maybe Nova had read the interactions incorrectly as well. When she went to speak with Liara later, there was some embarrassment on the good doctor’s part about how their relationship was being viewed. Liara had sworn that it was all strictly professional, but Nova had the feeling the Asari would have been blushing if she was human. Rules and regulations against fraternization were in place for a reason, so that relationships didn’t get someone killed. Luckily, both Liara and Kaidan had been working well together both on the Normandy and in the field. Still, Nova was causing chaos on her own ship because she couldn’t keep her emotions in check. 

We don’t have much downtime these days. And I like being around you. But I – I don’t want to take up your personal time.

An extremely vicious punch to the bag sent it swaying and Nova had to grab it to make it settle. Nova couldn’t deny she liked being around Kaidan too and when he had hinted at being jealous, Nova felt a bit of a rush. It was ridiculous. This wasn’t some first crush in training camp, she was the commanding officer. She was his commanding officer. She should not get entangled with subordinates, not when they were in the middle of attempting to save the world from synthetic AI and possible aliens from fifty thousand years ago. Yet, being around Kaidan and talking to him made the rest of this mission bearable. Nova unleashed punch after punch, throwing in a kick now and again for good measure. 

“Careful Ma’am, you’re going to break the bag,” Nova turned to see Ashley Williams walk in, a small smile on her face. “Bad day?” 

“Just thinking some things through,” Nova said as she took a break and grabbed some water. “Something I can do for you Williams, or are you just here to workout?” 

“I wasn’t sure what I was doing to be honest, a lot of restless energy.” Ashley shrugged as she walked over and positioned herself to hold the punching bag, “but now that I found you, it looks like you need someone to hold this bag, and possibly talk to.” 

“I don’t want to bother you with it. It will work itself out.” Nova didn’t want to pull someone else into the nonexistent drama that she was creating for herself. Both Kaidan and Liara were grown adults, Nova had made her position clear, and it was over. Well, she had made her position clear to Liara, she still wasn’t entirely sure where Kaidan sat with the whole thing, but comments about getting to explore things when all of this was over sounded hopeful as well as a definitive ‘not now’. 

“Might be helpful to say it out loud, Ma’am. Sometimes hearing things spoken gives them a different meaning,” Ashley said around a grunt at a particularly vicious punch. “Is it about Alenko and Dr. T’soni, ma’am.” 

Nova was so startled she almost missed the punching bag, stumbling forward a bit to regain her balance. So it wasn’t a lower deck rumor so much as a full-blown spectacle with spectators and commentators. Fabulous. She wondered if Joker would let her jump out one of the air locks or if he’d been too worried she’d damage the Normandy in some way on the way out. 

“These things happen, Commander, especially with groups that travel as long and as far as we have in constant danger,” Ashley continued quickly. “I’m not judging, but I can see how it might be….aggravating for you.” 

“I’ve already spoken with Liara, our relationship is professional and platonic,” Nova said as she went back to punching, though with far less force. “Though I find it interesting that the crew is so invested in my personal affairs.” 

“And Alenko?” Ashley said after Nova didn’t say anything else, not taking the bait to change the subject and rat out her gossiping crew mates.  

“Off the record?” Nova felt herself blush, but her cheeks were probably already red from the work out so hopefully Ashley wouldn’t notice. 

“Just two women having a chat,” Ashley smiled. “You’re favoring your right side, Commander. Square your hips a bit more. You’ll get more velocity in your punch and also close up the weak spot of your ribs.” 

“Is this what it’s like when you train your sisters?” Nova laughed, but did what Ashley advised and started to put more force into her swings. “Giving them tips to beat men to a pulp while talking to them about their crushes.” 

“My sisters wouldn’t be stupid enough to give me that ammunition to use against them later, or have a crush on someone under their command,” Ashley smiled. 

“Low blow, Williams, but fair.” Nova panted out a laugh. “The relationship between myself and Alenko is as vague as it’s complicated. There has been some flirting, which apparently everyone has noticed, but as Alenko points out often, there are rules and regulations. There shouldn’t be fraternization between crew.” 

“We both know that rule is broken all the time on cruises, even ones that aren’t as tension filled as ours is,” Ashley pointed out after a little ‘oof’ by a kick from Nova against the bag. “However, those relationships usually aren’t a commanding officer and someone directly underneath them, figuratively speaking.” 

“It doesn’t matter either way, Alenko is so straight an arrow that he’d never break those rules. However, I’ll speak to him and attempt to keep the harmless flirting to a minimum,” Nova said it as much to assure Ashley as to remind herself that it was the right thing for a Commander to do. Even if the thought of it pulled at something in her and made her feel a little bit lonely.  

“I didn’t say you had to do that,” Ashley laughed. “We all find it very entertaining to see Kaidan fight between being in control all the time and smiling at you whenever you’re talking to one another. It’s not like there is anything else going on most nights on the ship.” 

“That makes me feel so much better,” Nova laughed as she threw one more vicious punch before stepping back from the bag. “I think I’m done with the workout. Thanks for the assist and the completely off the record conversation and insight.” 

“Any time Commander. What are friends for after all?” Ashley smiled as she came around the bag. “Also, if you ever need a trainer, I could help you tighten up those kicks.” 

“Noted.” Nova couldn’t help but smile at Ashley calling her a friend. It had been a while since Nova had one of those. Did she really ever get her life back after the attack that killed her parents or was it just one test, one training, one mission to get to the next, never looking at anything but the goal. How much of life had she given up to be Commander Shepard. How much more did she have to sacrifice for the good of the Milky Way and the human race?

“Anything else I can help you with Shepard?” Ashley asked as she settled down on one of the weight machines, lifting over a hundred and fifty pounds as if it was nothing. 

“No, thank you. Enjoy your workout William,” Nova said with a smile, before pausing. “You need a spot?” 

“Oh, this isn’t anything major. I just need to get some of this energy out and you weren’t punching hard enough to do it. Besides, I’m pretty sure that you have some reports to write up Commander. Possibly a conversation to have?” Ashley looked up and winked at Nova before going back to her reps. 

Nova shook her head, but headed into the showers. A good hot shower would get the sweat off and also give her time to think about the conversation with Ashley. The one thing Nova did know is that she would write a thousand reports before going to have that conversation with Kaidan. It was going to be a major joy kill, especially because Kaidan would take any sort of rejection infuriatingly well. He took everything infuriatingly well. 

Nova felt like punching something again.

[bigskydreaming]

Which Dick ship(s) do you like the most out of dickbabs, dickkory, dickroy, dickwally, dickjoey and dickhelena? Also curious, do you watch Titans?

Of those? Dick/Kory for sure - I have so much fondness for this ship and how good they were for each other when they were ALLOWED to be...and I maintain that the vast majority of their problems and the reasons they didn’t work out had nothing to do with their lack of compatibility or things they couldn’t work through, but were all external based and motivated by DC’s desire to split Dick off from the Titans and migrate him BACK to the Batfranchise after originally doing the same thing in reverse to take him AWAY from the Batfranchise and centered more in the Titans. 

But they are EQUALS in the way Clark and Bruce are equals despite the massive power differentials (to me the real Trinity of the Titans generation would be Kory - Dick - Donna, with Kory in the Superman niche that would be Supergirl’s if she’d been centered more in their generation of heroes instead of so frequently off on her own.) 

But anyway, they are POWERFUL, they are RESPECTED, they are PASSIONATE, they balance each other and complement each other so well but also they challenge each other and change each other for the better. 

She’s a Princess of Tamaran, he’s a Prince of Gotham, but for all the heights each of them have been raised to at times in their lives, they’re just as familiar with being sent plummeting to the pits of what life can have in store for anyone. In the rare times when their stories ALLOW them to think about something other than desperate struggles of life and death, they know how to seize the hell out of life and live a day to its fullest, milk every last drop of enjoyment out of it, because they both also know better than to take anything for granted, trust any moment of joy to linger instead of being fleeting. I really feel that Kory’s one of the only people who’s never actually taken Dick for granted (except for a couple instances of wildly OOC behavior) and I think Dick’s one of the only people that’s ever managed to make Kory feel both safe and protected and dangerous and protective all at the same time, like...even when she didn’t know what she wanted or needed at certain key times, he managed to be it anyway. 

They were together at a VERY confusing time in both their lives, with a lot of huge changes thrown at each of them rapid fire, and it wasn’t so much that they were a rock of stability or a lifeline for each other or anything like that, it was more that like....they both changed so much while with each other because they both wanted so badly to BE with each other, and it wasn’t even about shaping themselves into specific things it was more about like...in order to be together, to be good for each other, they needed to figure out who they themselves were....and so they were like...each other’s reason to keep working towards figuring out who they were and who they wanted to be, even when everything was so confusing and constantly changing it would’ve been easy to just say fuck it and just....let go and react to wherever life took them rather than always working towards staying and being proactive, wrestling back control of their own fates and destinies.

And then DC went and fucked that all up because who wants happy couples am I right? LOL.

Dick/Joey is next - like.....pre-death Joey and Dick were just...so good. They had so much respect for each other, and were so comfortable around each other and like...the chemistry was real. And I maintain that there was subtext between them and that if Dick hadn’t been with Kory for pretty much the entire time Joey was a member of the Titans up until he died, like....they could’ve been a couple in a heartbeat. Hell, I maintain they could easily have been an angsty love triangle with Kory, or a happy threesome with Kory as well. There was so much potential based on stuff that was already there between Dick and Joey...and also plenty of foundation for more interactions and a heightened dynamic between Joey and Kory as well.

Dick/Roy is next - they are my ultimate angst ship because they are both geniuses but they are also dumb boys who insist on being dumb. Like...they clash, a lot, and all of their clashes are clash of the titans, pun intended because like....they are both BIG personalities. And VERY opinionated. But also loyal as hell, even if that loyalty spans years of not even talking to each other, but one phone call and the other would drop everything to be racing to the side of the man the last time they spoke, it was nothing but strings of four letter words shouted at each other and punctuated with “yeah well your face!” 

But then they grow up a little and Roy has Lian and Dick is AMAZING with kids and she’s Roy’s kid, how could Dick NOT instantly love her, but the angst still reigns supreme because just because Dick is and could be the best thing to ever happen to Lian and Roy, try convincing him that, and he’ll come up with a thousand reasons to stay away because he’s convinced he’ll screw up and Lian will get hurt emotionally and that’ll be the final straw between him and Roy because that’ll be the one thing Roy couldn’t forgive, because Dick knows he wouldn’t if it were him. 

But the thing is, its not like I don’t think they could be good for each other....they absolutely could and would...it would just be a long and winding road to get there, because they are both DRAMATIC as fuck, even while insisting that they aren’t, and they just....sometimes they just don’t know HOW to not make life difficult for themselves, and I feel like a large part of that is because of the double edged sword that is how often the best things in their lives have come from the worst tragedies they’ve endured....I think on some level, they both tend to self-sabotage because they don’t TRUST anything to be easy, and like, they both convince themselves that shit’s gotta hit the fan before anything worthwhile can come their way.

Also, to reiterate - they are both absolute dumbasses who absolutely fuel each other’s dumbass energy and they are That Couple that doesn’t HAVE a voice of reason in the pairing. Its just like DICK YES! and ROY YES! and enabling each other’s worst ideas because they’re just. Like that.

Dick/Helena is next - but like, pre-Flashpoint Helena, and not as an actual ongoing relationship, just a lot of dramatic hookups and then each of them recommitting the morning after to like...their view that this was Absolutely A Mistake and it’ll Never Happen Again...at least not until next time. They’re just too different ideologically and just in terms of like...what they want out of life, except the irony is they’re actually not...its just they’re CONVINCED they are, because they’ve always seen each other with blinders on and they’ve never taken those off and to be honest they probably never would, because like...they don’t talk much? LOL. They snark, they bite at each other, they squabble, they fight, they hook up...They Regret Everything, and they do it all over again. There’s not a lot of room in there for actually getting to know each other...but like, that’s not what they’re really looking for from each other. Sometimes you’re at a certain stage in your life where you don’t WANT something meaningful or lasting, you just want....passion and chemistry without the weight of worrying about it going anywhere because like...you don’t really even want it to.

But again, this is them pre-Flashpoint, because the thing is, I actually prefer the New 52 Helena in a lot of ways, but them as a pairing in the current continuity just does not work for me at all, because of the power dynamics given the nature of their relationship at Spyral, and like...the fact that so much of their interaction is rooted in betrayal and subterfuge and hidden agendas and lies. They’re this weird blend of they trust each other but also know better than to trust each other so maybe its more just that they WANT to trust each other so that makes them even more wary of actually trusting each other...bottom line is its messy and there’s not really any practical way through that, and any kind of relationship between them, even a casual one, is kinda doomed to hurt each other.

Dick/Wally is next - And in the sense that like....I don’t really ship them at all, and never have really? Like, they’re an ultimate BrOTP for sure, but I don’t really ever get romantic chemistry from their dynamics in like...any universe. They’re best friends, they have each other’s back, they can appreciate the hell out of each other’s aesthetics, but like....they just don’t go there, because they don’t need to, its not what they want from each other and they’ve always kinda known that and just accepted it as it is what it is, and that’s more than okay with them. Dick/Wally is the counterpart to Dick/Donna for me....it only exists in a platonic, familial way. They’ll die for each other, they’ll erase timelines for each other, but they’ll do it without fucking because like....that’d just be weird, bro.

And lastly Dick/Babs - lololol and I swear its not even because I’m a Dick/Kory shipper. I don’t see Kory and Babs as competition for each other and don’t like any narrative that has them see each other as competition. My issues with Dick/Babs are entirely separate from Dick and Kory’s relationship and actually predate my shipping the latter two. I just...don’t feel it between Dick and Babs, it always comes across to me as like...them trying to force it, or the writers trying to force it, its like....they keep trying because they WANT it to work, they’re convinced it SHOULD work, he’s the first Robin, she’s the first Batgirl, its iconic, they’re partners and best friends, they’re each other’s equals just as much as Dick and Kory are, just in different ways, like....all the ingredients are there! But put them all in a blender and stir it all up and the end result....is still just...not quite right, for me. 

I just think they are amazing as friends, they support each other, bring out the best in each other, challenge each other, don’t let the other pull any crap...but the second they get together as boyfriend and girlfriend, like...a switch is thrown, and suddenly they start bringing out the worst in each other, they start seeing problems where there weren’t any two seconds ago when they were just friends....idk. Its like...the writing always lacks something for me, because I feel like so many writers who put them together feel like...their iconic status and thematic compatibility just does all the work, and thus they don’t really need to put in any work writing them as a couple...and then even just when I think about tackling them as a couple and trying to write them together....again, there just always feels like some essential something is lacking...like they SHOULD work, but for some reason they don’t for me, and so I spend the whole time trying to figure out what’s missing instead of like...looking at what’s there. Idk. 

Sometimes there are people who are totally compatible, but just can’t make it work romantically, and they’re that couple for me. Maybe its that they know each other TOO well, and that includes each other at their worst as much as their best....and so even by the time they got together the first time, they already had these expectations and also these preconceptions about each other and how each other tended to act in their other relationships....so I feel like part of it is like....half the time they react to what they THINK the other is going to do, based on previous history, before the other actually even has a CHANCE to do things differently...because it would be different this time, given that its with a different partner...except the other had already boxed them into their previously anticipated behavior? *Shrugs* Like I said. I don’t even entirely get why I have such a problem with the two of them together, I just always do. I love Dick, I love Babs, but put them together and I usually end up being like...I do not like these people.

So yeah. That’s me on those various relationships lol. But also Dick/Kyle for the ultimate win, no the fact that they’ve only interacted like, five times total, like, does not matter to me in the least, look I am aware this sounds like a crack ship but it is REAL and it is a FUNGI and it kept growing and growing until it took over everything and its not my fault, I didn’t give them permission, they just did it.

As for Titans - I have trouble watching things streaming right now because of shitty wi-fi, so like....I’ve literally only watched the first few episodes of S1. All the rest of my knowledge of the show comes from keeping up with the spoilers and summaries and gifsets, lol. I very much WANT to watch it, I just...will have to binge it at some point. So I have a general knowledge of it and what’s going on, and peoples’ reactions to the episodes, and I have a basic awareness of the characters based on those first few episodes and like...matching their acting in my head to their gifsets and stuff, lol, but I can’t really do the kind of analysis of their characters and dynamics on the show as I do with the comic book versions because like....I haven’t really been able to watch all the way through to pick up on all the little stuff that forms the basis of so much of my thoughts and takes on things.

[bylerly]

alright everyone. after my rush of emotions after that season, i’ve had time to decompress, and make an actually cohesive list of my thoughts about the season. as you could probably guess - MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

first, let’s get the (much) shorter list out of the way. here’s what I enjoyed:

the acting. i want to mention how good millie was, because she was fantastic, but i almost feel like i shouldn’t, bc el took SO MUCH screen and plot time, that millie was given every opportunity to be good. she doesn’t really need any more special mention. otherwise - noah (with the little he was given) and sadie were particularly great. so were winona & david, but that goes without saying.

the elmax friendship. these two deserved it. and max bringing el out of her shell, showing her how to become her own person.... incredible. 10/10 i love them both

alexei. feels weird saying this, but he was probably the new addition I enjoyed watching the most. it would have been kind of cool to see him live past season 3.

an lgbt+ confirmed character. this one is a little.... tricky for me. as happy as I am that there is a queer woman written into the show... I feel like it’s a cop out to not have to confirm will’s sexuality. robin confirms her sexuality in less than a season, but after three with will, we still only get ~subtext~? still, this is a positive portion, so.... I guess that was something I was happy with

el moving in with the byers at the end. finally. this is one of the only things that is keeping me excited for s4. i guess i can only hope for there to FINALLY be some good willel interactions next season, but if this season has taught me anything, it’s not to get my hopes too high :-)

jancy ending s3 on a good note. parts of their storyline were fantastic, some were disappointing. but i really dug their dynamic, and the realistic struggle between the two of them, with nancy not really understanding jonathan’s class struggles, and jonathan not grasping the weight of the misogyny being thrown at nancy. their final moments at the empty byers house at the end were especially lovely.

el no longer being OP, and not being undefeatable. i love el. i really, genuinely do. i love her character, i love her traits, i lover her power. but the duffers were relying too heavily on her to constantly save the day with her powers, and it was happening too often. one of the faults of s2 was the constant thought of how easily el could’ve fought off all these threats if she was just there. i think it’s incredibly interesting to not only see her get completely worn out, but totally lose her powers. like mike said, i’m sure they’ll come back, but i want so badly for el to not just be defined by her powers.

a platonic m/f friendship. yes, one of them is confirmed queer, and they would’ve probably been romantically linked if she was straight. but i’ll take what i can get when it comes to this. platonic opposite sex relationships?? r i s e

now for the meat of my thoughts ~ what I didn’t like:

mike’s characterization. the writers completely made him into a dick this season. i get it, he’s a teenager, so he’s going to be an asshole sometimes. hell, in a recent post, I defended that, saying it’s good writing. but I underestimated just how awful he’d be, completely blowing off his friends for any chance for a second alone with el. I understand that he loves his girlfriend of course, but s1-2 mike loved his friends just as much. he was so utterly unlikable this season, that it seemed like he was a different character.

lucas as comic relief. this is so lazy, and i’m so angry for both the character and caleb, both of whom deserve so much better. he really had nothing to do if it wasn’t related to max, and the writers further reduced him down to a one-dimensional, kind of dumb, mediocre boyfriend, and that is not the highly intelligent, brave, kind lucas that i know and love.

will’s sidelining. god, this made absolutely no sense. noah fucking shined last season. he stole pretty much the entire thing. every critic, even those who disliked the season, had nothing but good things to say about his performance. furthermore, will has so much potential in so many different directions in so many aspects of his character. however, once he revealed to his friends that he was feeling the upside down/MF’s presence... they may as well have written out his character. he was sidelined almost to the point of background character. they gave him very little to do emotionally after that castle byers scene, and even fewer lines.

total lack of willel scenes. phew, if this wasn’t a bummer. will spoke a single line to el, and maybe one or two throwaway lines about her. if there is one thing most of the fans can agree on, it’s that will and el have the biggest connection to the upside down, the biggest unspoken connection, the most parallels, and the most intriguing potential relationship... and they really just said “fuck it” and didn’t have them interact at all. (that’s poor writing folks!) they better make up for this now that they’re living together.

amount of eleven scenes. i love her so dearly. i really do. and i’m so happy she grew into her own, not through mike or hopper. but the amount of el plot and screen time this season was actually difficult to watch. every other scene centered around her. so many characters and so much of the story went undeveloped, while she got way, way more than was necessary. additionally, take any kid’s plot (other than dustin), and guaranteed, it revolved around el. people were starting to catch on that the show was favoring her character more than even most shows’ mains.... and this season took it to a level i actual didn’t think it would.

the comedy. it was so awkwardly written. so much of it threw off the pace of the show. it seemed forced, and just... not very stranger things-esque, where the comedy was typically well-written and blended into dialogue.

the baddies. this was a huge letdown, too. i understand that the monster was large, but it was far less menacing to me than, say, the MF’s physical form. it had gore points, sure. it felt incredibly boring and predictable. in the same vein, i thought the ‘zombie’ style storyline of heather & co. would be deeper than that, but that was literally all it was. again... not interesting to me. billy was a rehash as well. the russians definitely had potential, but even that plot wound up being incredibly one-dimensional.

billy’s screentime. this was one of the things i was absolutely furious about. he got more screentime than the party (minus el) combined. they wanted for us so badly to empathize with him, to humanize him... i’m sorry, but you wrote a character that almost killed a boy for being black, that abuses his sister, and is a misogynistic asshole. abuse doesn’t excuse that, and it’s insulting to abuse survivors to say that billy inevitably became this way because of his dad, and that he deserves our uwus for it... and actually got el’s. he took screen time away from characters who desperately needed it, and that’s something i will never look at the duffers the same way for.

the scoops troop. I wanted to love erica... but i feel so indifferent to her. she was way too much this season. and robin. again, i love that she’s confirmed queer. and i dug her character more. but even then... i don’t know. i would have rather never had her introduced, and allowed established characters to have been better developed. and as a whole, the whole storyline of the troop was just what I feared: underwhelming and awkwardly placed.

high steve & robin. won’t elaborate on this too much, bc there’s not much to elaborate on. it just felt so wildly out of place and unnecessary.

that dustin/suzie number. what the hell was that? what could have been a 20 second joke was stretched out WAY too long and was bizarrely placed. just because you have an actor from broadway, doesn’t mean he needs to sing. and even if he does sing... you couldn’t have found a better time or situation? i literally was just staring at my screen in disbelief as that whole thing happened. entirely unneeded.

the amount of flashbacks. i understand most casual viewers wouldn’t remember certain things because of how long it’s been. but they literally put a recap at the beginning of the season. that’s what it’s for. and there were also plenty from like.... the episode before??? the amount they included took away so much time, that it almost just seemed like they didn’t have enough footage, and they had to fill their time stamp somehow. at some point, it just becomes insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

the overall tone. this season did not feel like stranger things in the slightest. off the top of my head, the castle byers scene and the byeler scene in mike’s garage were the exceptions. the first few episodes did have some moments. but overall... it kind of felt like some weird, high budget commercial or something. the charm, distinct aesthetic, and nuance of seasons 1 and 2 was non-existent.

the post-credit scene. there was some last-minute hype up in the reviews for this. was that supposed to be shocking in some way? i suppose this is more the fault of the reviewers who hyped it, but... really? a demodog? we’ve seen that before... i guess more the point was to show that the russians officially have some kind of technology for this. but still, an underwhelming reveal. more intriguing to me, was if hopper was the american in the cell he mentioned at the start of it. or maybe brenner?

the neutral:

that ending. on one hand, it was incredibly predictable. they literally placed an obvious shot of it in the trailer (easy to deduce that the byers had moved out, and that it was fall, so it was an epilogue scene). i was convinced that there would be a twist element they weren’t showing us, but nope. on the other hand, i thought some things were done beautifully (which wasn’t exactly a trend this season). as i mentioned, i loved the jancy moments. i really did like the hopper voiceover, although it was a little trope-y and heavy-handed... i still got a little emo, ngl. those goodbye hugs were somethin’. and, as i said before... el! moving in! with the byers! gimme

so uh... that’s it, i guess. no one really asked, but i needed to get my thoughts out. what did you guys think of the season?

[nerdsideofthemedia]

Bumblebee was always the plan

After seeing a few comments on this, I made a  part 2.

I’ve written about this before and I was hoping never to return to this subject, but hanging around RWBY communities has kind of forced my hand. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the only controversial post I write about RWBY’s fandom.

Even though a huge chunk of the fandom has been convinced Bumblebee was going to happen, there were more than a few people who decided to ignore all the signs. Even after 6×12, there were still people trying to remain in denial, which is fine: you do you, but it’s amazing how then they got upset when BBers turned out not to be interested in believing in their lie. Now, I don’t intend to go through all the moments of foreshadowing for the relationship – there are tons of texts about it – but I am still going to address a few moments to prove that it was heavily hinted at, while also addressing the ignorance towards LGBTQ+ experiences.

The injury

To me, I think Yang’s and Sun’s injuries are everything I should need to prove the likelihood of BB as they contrast the two main Blake ships: Bumblebee and Black Sun. While heroes tend to save many people who are indeed just friends or sometimes not even that, there’s a reason why Superman and Spiderman usually include Lois Lane and MJ (or whoever the love interest is in said film) in the climax – it makes it more personal, raising the stakes. From this perspective, it’s easy to understand the importance given to either by comparing: what the injury was, who caused it, why and Blake’s reaction, thus allowing to conclude which couple was given more weight.

What was the injury? Yang lost an arm and suffered from PTSD. Sun, on the other hand, received a minor injury from which he had almost completely recovered from by the next episode and left no lasting damages. Point Bumblebee. Some have tried to argue that Sun was actually hit by an electric weapon, so he could have died, but, ultimately, what matters is what actually happens, not what could have been. As far as we know, he didn’t even get a limitation in movement.

Who caused it? In Yang’s case, it was Adam, while in Sun’s, it was Ilia. So ex-boyfriend vs friend whose feelings were not reciprocated. This one is a no brainer: again point Bumblebee as the first one is more associated with romance. Yang having her arm cut by Adam linked them. By the way, don’t forget Yang and Adam are foils for each other.

Why? Yang was trying to save Blake, while Sun… questioned Ilia’s being a Faunus. If you want to super charitable with him, I can give you: because Ilia was trying to intimidate Blake into giving her back her scroll. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter because neither scenario holds a candle to the first one. Point Bumblebee.

What was Blake’s reaction? When it was Adam vs Yang, she put herself between them and used her semblance to get the latter to safety. When Sun got injured, instead of putting herself between him and Ilia, she stood still and refused to comply with Ilia’s demand. If you feel tempted to say: well, that’s because Ilia’s not as dangerous as Adam, then I have to say: exactly! She could have been, but the writers decided not to do that. Pretty much like Sun could have been the one being associated with Blake’s ex, but he wasn’t. Again, point Bumblebee.

Bonus points:

The use of the Kuleshov effect when Adam says “I’ll destroy everything you love…”, Yang appears, “starting with her”. I can already hear the screeches “Love doesn’t have to mean romance”. Thanks dude, I know. This is where looking at the rest of the scene comes in: it’s why I compared the scene where Yang gets injured to the one with Sun. The writers could have chosen to phrase it differently like “I’ll destroy everything you care about”, but they didn’t. Also, in V5, they got the opportunity to associate that word with Sun and Blake, yet they went for… “classmate”. You know writers care about the words used, right?

By the way, some people tried to argue that Adam just immediately notices the deep love between Yang and Blake. While I don’t disagree that he understands that Blake cares about Yang, the point is for the audience to associate the word “love” with those 2.

More bonus points

Sun was there when Yang decided to go after Blake in V3 and put Weiss in charge of going after Ruby. This shows 2 things: 1) Blake means more to her than to Sun; 2) Yang prioritizes going after Blake over her own sister. That only changed during V4 and V5 because she felt betrayed by Blake for leaving, especially when she needed her as she was struggling with losing an arm and having PTSD.

After the fall, Sun looks at an injured Blake and Yang while the first apologizes to the latter with tears in her eyes. That shot exists for Sun to realize the connection between the 2 girls, not for him to see Blake injured, otherwise it would have been better if Yang had been kept out of the frame, not to mention that he had already seen her injured. If I had to get inside his mind, I’d say that is the moment he realizes how much Yang means to Blake and it’s the reason why he brings up Yang in V4 after his injury.

If you need proof of the romantic undertones of this scene, just tell it to a friend, but swap Yang’s gender and you’ll see just how much more impactful Yang vs Adam is in relation to Sun vs Ilia. Don’t forget to mention that Adam is Blake’s ex-boyfriend while Ilia is the friend whose feelings weren’t reciprocated. Also, Adam’s line “I will destroy everything you love… starting with him”, while our gender-bent Yang enters the scene.

Dance arc

It also accomplishes a few things:

It straight up shows us that Yang understands Blake better than anyone and can get through to her like no one else;

It has Yang flirt with Blake, phrasing her invitation to the dance as “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save a dance” and winks;

Yang comments on how she’ll be turning heads, yet the only head she turns is Blake’s.

All of the rest of team wears a dress of their colors: Ruby-red, Weiss-white, Blake-black, yet Yang uses a white one instead of yellow. I think that was to create a yin-yang effect with her and Blake. (apparently this was the result of an animation problem).

Establishes the parallel between Bumblebee and Arkos as their scenes are intertwined, which happens again in V3

(After reading the comments on rwby wiki, I have to add: those were phrased deliberately that way. I know: writers care about how they word things... shock! If you think the "coming out" or the "turning heads" were phrased accidentally with Blake turning her head also accidentally, I'm sorry but you don't know anything about writing and filmmaking. There is no way the writers didn't know "coming out" is associated with LGBTQ+ and they didn't have to phrase that way. Also, there's this thing called "editing" where writers (and others) reread the script - if those weren't intentional, they would have been detected and changed during this phase. It's about other scene, but here you go). 

Bumblebee also resembles Renora as the friendship turned more and one could easily make an argument there were no hints of romance for Renora until V4, yet no one bothers to as if there are huge double standards when it comes to straight and LGBTQ+ couples: whenever two characters of the opposite gender have an interaction that can be seen as romantic or platonic, it’s seen as the first, while if the same happens to same gender, they are put in the platonic category.

Songs

Ok, so Bmblb isn’t canon, but it was still written with Bumblebee in mind. It is full of references to bees and puns, the latter was probably like the third thing the writers put on Yang’s character sheet, which probably looked like this: 1) anger issues 2) semblance: absorb and dish out energy 3) loves puns.

Bmblb is undoubtedly a love song between Yang and Blake, unlike BS song Not Fall in Love With You which was a pop song written before RWBY was even a thing. Oh, and Like Morning Follows Night isn’t romantic, except for a few Sun’s lines, but Blake’s part never treats him more than friend. Once, I read a comment saying this song was written because Jeff hates BB and finds BBers annoying. Look, if that were true (and it’s a big “if”), then, not only Jeff would be pretty petty, he’d also be incredibly stupid (again, huge “if”), because he’d OK with queerbaiting, plus it’s pretty obvious BBers would get louder as it confirmed their ship.

Armed and Ready’s first 2 verses are about Yang losing her arm and replaying the scene in her mind and within those verses she mentions “there’s nothing I won’t do for her”, which often is associated with love (“and I’d do anything for love” – not the time to express my love for that Meat Loaf’s song? My bad).

All that Matters, which includes the lines “never thought you would stay forever/never asked you to commit your life”, that definitely have a romantic connotation. The entire song reveals just how much Yang feels for Blake, even though she feels betrayed.

Red Like Roses compares Blake to the Beast and Yang to the Beauty. Tale as old as time indeed.

I could go on, but seriously just read the posts I linked to before.

So, why did Bumblebee caught so many by surprise?

Well, that one is obvious: because it’s a LGBTQ+ couple. When it comes to those, most will remain in denial and interpret everything that can be romantic or platonic as the latter while they won’t do that for heterosexual couples. Again, Renora didn’t have to be framed as romantic until V4, yet most people did think of them that way and (almost) no one complained when they became a couple.

Yet, with Bumblebee, people chose to stay in denial until the very last episode of V6 (some even after that), though it was obvious 2 episodes before. A huge part of V6 was about Bumblebee: them mending their wounds and understanding their (and each other’s) feelings. Adam attacked Yang out of jealousy, tried to make her insecure about her relationship with Blake by claiming she had promised to stay with him and didn’t keep it and, then asked “what does she even see in you?”. In spite of this, there were still people trying to deny Bumblebee as if that question appears outside a romantic context.

After all… Blake and Yang were totally straight, right? Content warning for fragile egos: yap, we’re going to talk about heteronormativity and bisexual erasure.

What do heteronormativity and bisexual erasure mean?

In this context, heteronormativity means the assumption that everyone is straight until proven otherwise. By the way, some people like to pretend this is the skeptic’s position, but it’s not. An actual skeptic (which are much rarer than internet would have you believe, because it conflates skepticism with atheism) would assume ignorance when they don’t have the complete facts. Unless a character said they are only attracted to the opposite gender or something that makes it unambiguous they are straight, they might not be. Sorry, but I’m just a bit too old to believe in a “straight of the gaps”. Sure, most people/characters are straight, but if you assume everyone is, you’ll be wrong a bunch of times.

Bisexual erasure is the failure to consider bisexuality is a thing. To be fair, most people who do this, also fail to consider pan and asexuality. To them, people are either gay or straight. And, yes, most will recognize bisexuality exists when called out, yet still fail to consider it when making an argument. They’ll point out Blake can’t be into Yang, because she had a boyfriend as if that excludes interest in girls. Spoiler alert: not only it doesn’t exclude bisexuality, it can actually not even exclude her as a lesbian (I’ll return to this later).

Both of the comments above illustrate the problems I pointed out (with the second being pretty douchey and hilariously proven wrong now). The people above act if characters aren’t straight, writers need to show it right away. After all, don’t we all meet people by saying “My name is X and my sexual orientation is y”? Or make sure people see us check out people of the opposite/same gender or both genders to reveal our sexual orientation? Just me? Not even me? OK.

I think I’ve covered the fact that attraction to the opposite gender doesn’t exclude attraction to the same. Now, let’s take a look on Yang and Blake’s interest in boys.

The only time Yang expressed interest in boys was in episode 1×03, when she was ogling some shirtless ones. “Yeah. How do you explain that? Zing”. Hold your horses mate, here’s how:

Compulsory heterosexuality (yes, I intend to explain that too, so hold your tongue/fingers before doing a GoT impression saying “shame!” over and over again);

Episode 1×03 is pretty early on, so the writers may not have yet figured out the character’s sexuality, which is supported by an interview with Monty where, when asked about future LGBTQ+ characters, he responded they might already be there, they (and writers) hadn’t figured it out yet;

It was just a joke. I have to ask if you put so much weight on Yang being straight because of that joke, why do you not exclude her as being straight (or even bi) when she makes a joke revealing disinterest in Sun’s abs? Yang is totally straight because she likes guys with abs and when she doesn’t, it has no meaning. Sorry people, but if you put so much weight in one moment where she shows interest in guys for comedic purposes, then you have to put it in equal amount in the moment she shows disinterest in guys for comedic purposes. I may not like Sun, but eternally-unbuttoned-shirt-guy-with-well-defined-abs was definitely designed to be hot. So was Neptune, by the way, yet our flirty girl couldn’t have shown to be less interested in him even though he tried to flirt with her. Our straight girl!

Compulsory heterosexuality refers to the concept that heterosexuality can be adopted by people regardless of their personal sexual preference. Basically, heterosexuality is expected and we are raised to believe that is the normal, as a result many LGBTQ+ people believe to be straight until something or someone makes them question that. So no, not everyone who is LGBTQ+ knows it right away. Many figure themselves out during their teenage years, others find out much later.

About Blake’s sexuality, all we know is she dated Adam and might have had a crush on Sun at some point. Again, this does not exclude LGBTQ+, not even the L, since, again, she might have not figured herself out. I doubt she’s a lesbian, pan/bi is more likely, but it’s still a possibility. Oh, and asexual people can have relationships too.

I’m sure some may be thinking “she has only liked guys”, but 2 isn’t a big number (and only 1 was confirmed). Like I said, in order to assert she’s straight there needs to be evidence, which there isn’t. At most, you have evidence she probably likes guys, which again doesn’t exclude her liking girls (I may be sounding awfully repetitive, but trust me, this case warrants it).

Now, some people like to pretend to feel shamed when someone claims that “If Yang was a guy, you wouldn’t see them as just friends”. I agree with the argument because… well, it’s obviously true: most people think of relationships as involving 2 people of the opposite gender, even if they are aware others exist (didn’t we just cover that some LGBTQ+ go through a self-discovery process because of that?). However, it’s ultimately counterproductive. People who do this usually aren’t aware of it (and if they are, they’ll lie about it) and it can’t be proven, usually.

Of course, some let their masks slip away too much. The person who inspired this part of the rant constantly faked outrage when called out for their behavior. They did all of it: presumed straight until proven otherwise and pretended one can be only either straight or gay. Even after being called out several times, they constantly demanded evidence that Yang and Blake weren’t straight (this was before the end of V6, obviously), though they, of course, had to provide no proof they were. Still, when someone said the endgame pairings would be SunxBlake, YangxIlia and OscarxRuby, guess what evidence they asked for? If you guessed Yang being LGBTQ+, congratulations! You win the internet!

I think I don’t have to point out the ridiculousness of asking for that when neither Oscar nor Ruby have expressed any romantic or sexual interest in anyone, regardless of gender (in 6 volumes). According to the logic of these internet-skeptics (which means: believers in gut feeling, but in denial about it), Ruby and Oscar should be asexual and aromantic until proven otherwise. Yet, even then, the assumption is they’re straight. Again, LGBTQ+ needs evidence and absence of it means evidence of absence, straight doesn’t. No double standards at all.

I think it’s time to wrap this up: writers don’t have to tell a character’s sexual orientation in the beginning. And if two characters of the same gender have interactions that can be seen as either romantic or platonic, yet you frame them always as the second, while doing the opposite for pairs of different genders – that’s on you. And if you insist on faking outrage and shame when someone points all this out (yes, it’s fake – I know it, you know it, everyone knows it), and want to keep playing the “I’m not going to be part of the system” card (’cause it’s so brave to be part of the status quo) and throwing stuff on the ground, go right ahead. Throw a hot dog, a birthday cake, your cellphone, your computer even. In the end, it changes nothing: LGBTQ+ people exist and so should LGBTQ+ characters. If you have a problem with that and demand a ridiculous standard from them that you’d never do from a straight couple, here’s a hint: sometimes, you’re just not the target audience.

More RWBY posts:

Filmmaking and Bumbleby

Bumblebee was Always the Plan part 2

Faunus and the White Fang: The Portrayal of Racism

BB & Renora

Weird Post on Weiss’s Clothes

Foils: Adam and Yang (this one is in wordpress; it was my first one and I didn’t have Tumblr then)

Let’s talk about Adam Taurus (I didn’t post this one on Tumblr because the title and tags could lead Adam fans thinking this was about “his wasted potential” when really it defends the decision of killing him off and explains why it happened)

Original post: https://rwbytalk.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/sorry-rwby-fans-bumblebee-didnt-come-out-of-the-blue/ 

[catie-does-things]

On My Way to Steal Yo...Seat: Ember Island Players & Zutara Shipbaiting

(Or: The best time for a Zutara Rant(TM) is all the time.)

Ah, Zutara, the ship of dreams, technically sunk ten years ago but still afloat in countless shipper hearts. The ways in which the creators of AtLA did the fans dirty on this one could be an entire discussion unto itself, but right now I want to focus on a particular episode, which I think suggests that, when it came to the show’s romantic relationships, the showrunners’ priorities were not where they should have been.

That episode is The Ember Island Players. And the trouble all starts with one little comedic moment.

An extremely awkward moment they went out of the way to include.

Before we dive in, let’s take a step back and establish our priorities here. I’m not going to use this post to make claims about secret Zutara subtext, or even argue the merits of Zutara as a ship, really. Conversely, to the extent that I critique Kataang, it’s going to focus strictly on writing choices and leave aside the question of whether Aang and Katara are romantically suited for each other as characters or not. For the purposes of this post, we will take as granted that Kataang was the intended endgame pairing from the beginning, and romantic Zutara was never intended at all, and look at how the showrunners went about handling that.

(under a cut because woah this got long)

The Ember Island Players is an entire episode built around the show parodying itself and its fandom. In such an episode, it would be almost impossible to avoid at least alluding to the ship wars, which for those of you not part of the fandom back then, were absolutely massive. (And encouraged by the show’s promotion - but that’s another story.) Whatever Bryke’s intentions, the Zutara phenomenon had grown so influential that Zuko was perceived by fans as Aang’s main rival for Katara’s affections - in spite of never being presented as such in the show. That’s begging for a joke or two, isn’t it?

So before the parody play even starts, we get the moment in the gif above, a joke which is painfully dragged out by Aang shyly pointing out that he wanted to sit next to Katara, and Zuko’s utter obliviousness as to why. (Katara herself shows no reaction to any of this fumbling - perhaps unintentionally foreshadowing some of the problems to come.) Aang relents, and sits on the other side of Zuko.

In practical terms, there are two things that justify this gag beyond a bit of awkward humor. The first is that subsequent moments in the episode where the characters comment on the play involve both Katara and Zuko interacting with each other, and Zuko and Aang interacting with each other, making it most effective for Zuko to be seated between Katara and Aang for blocking purposes. 

Aang and Katara don’t interact much during the play. More unintentional foreshadowing? You be the judge.

The other reason is that this moment of making a fuss over seating arrangements sets up early on what is actually going to be a significant theme addressed in the episode - the question of whether Zuko is going to figuratively come between Aang and Katara the way he literally does here. And make no mistake, the episode is very concerned with this question.

After a brief spoof of Jetara that gets only a mild reaction of embarrassment from Katara, the first time the play-within-the-show really dives into shipping is its sendup of ridiculous Zutara expectations of the crystal cave scene in The Crossroads of Destiny. Actress!Katara declares the Avatar to be like a little brother, professes her attraction to actor!Zuko, and the two embrace. This is, of course, absurd for these characters at this point in the story, but to be fair, it’s a pretty accurate rendition of the wildest Zutara fandom predictions for the episode. The silliest of enemies-to-lovers tropes have always had their place in Zutara fandom. Capture!fic was very much a thing. Haha, it’s good for us all to laugh at ourselves sometimes. 

Pictured: Artist’s reconstruction of Zutara fan fic c. December 1, 2006

Aang, however, is not laughing. After growing increasingly frustrated with his own portrayal in the play, this scene makes him so angry that he storms out of the theater. It’s clear that, to Aang, this is no joking matter - and that means it’s quickly going to become more serious for the audience as well, as we soon move into what might be the episode’s most controversial scene, and certainly the one that has the largest dramatic impact on the actual narrative of the show. The tone of this scene is a stark contrast to the majority of the light-hearted, self-referential, tongue-in-cheek episode.

When Katara goes to find Aang, he confronts her about what her actress counterpart said, and we finally, after fifty-six episodes, get a scene where Aang and Katara directly talk about their relationship. This is a big moment, not just because it’s a weighty scene in the middle of a fluff episode, but also because it’s a huge opportunity to push forward the relationship that, remember, we’re accepting as intended endgame all along. The writers know Aang and Katara are going to end up together. They’ve known it for years. After playing coy about Katara’s feelings for nearly three full seasons, they must have been dying to get to this moment. 

This isn’t a shy kiss-or-die scenario. (Let it never be said that Zutara has the monopoly on silly tropes.) This isn’t a heat of the moment, one-sided pre-battle kiss that will be ignored later because of more pressing concerns. This is the chance for these characters to have a frank conversation about where they stand and what the nature of their relationship should be.

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t go well.

Obviously we can’t have any actual Kataang resolution in this episode - we have to save that for the finale. Fair enough. So what do we do instead? We muddy the waters a bit more, make things even more complicated to resolve in the four episodes we have left, after giving this relationship little to no serious development in the previous fifty-six episodes.

Katara dismisses what her actress counterpart said in the play, but admits she’s confused about her own feelings. When Aang tries to kiss her again, she’s upset by it and storms away. This is the first and last time we ever see Katara address the possibility of her romantic feelings for Aang, until they kiss in the final seconds of the very last episode, her confusion apparently resolved off-screen.

Zuko isn’t mentioned in this scene, but from the perspective of showrunners trying to set up Kataang and unexpectedly confronting a popular rival ship they never intended, in the context of the previous scenes discussed above, this having Katara be dismissive of the play’s portrayal of her also seems like a pretty clear dismissal of Zutara. In fact, arguably this scene is a better casual dismissal of Zutara than it is a setup of the last-minute Kataang endgame.

And then, when the gaang returns to the theater for the final act of the play with the seating arrangements now reshuffled, we get one last awkward reaction shot of Aang and Katara when their stage counterparts declare their platonic affection for each other. And look who’s also in the frame for some reason.

Since they’ve all left the theater and come back, Zuko doesn’t need to be sitting next to Katara at this point. 

So the overall effect of the “shipping” subplot of this episode comes across as the writers assuring us that Zutara is silly, and that in spite of fandom expectations Zuko is not a romantic rival for Aang, while at the same time maintaining enough ambiguity between Katara and Aang so as not to preempt the resolution of them getting together in the finale.

What’s bizarre about it is...they didn’t actually have to do any of that? Within the world of the show, nobody had ever raised the possibility of Zuko and Katara being romantically involved prior to this episode. If it was never going to happen, it wasn’t something that needed to be addressed. Instead of taking this opportunity to give us reasons why Katara is going to get together with Aang - perhaps the review of their past adventures helps her clarify some of her own feelings, while still leaving her reservations about the timing? - this subplot seems more interested in trying to tell us that she’s not going to get together with Zuko. 

This is writing to the fandom, rather than writing to the narrative. From a storytelling perspective, it’s a waste of time. If the Zuko/Katara/Aang triangle is just a product of silly fans and doesn’t actually exist in the show, then there’s no need to make such a big deal of it. Rather than a throwaway gag, the seating shenanigans and dramatic weight given to Aang’s insecurities make the on-stage Zutara romance a central feature of the episode. There was no reason this had to be the case. 

So why was it?

Welcome to the realm of speculation.

One possibillity is that the writers of this episode (or Bryke themselves, directing them) simply got carried away with spoofing the fandom and lost sight of the actual narrative work they should have been doing. This is a case of bad priorities and poor judgement, but it’s fairly innocent.

The other possibility, and the less innocent one, is that it was deliberate shipbaiting. The shipping subplot seems meant to dismiss the possibility of Zutara in hindsight, working under the assumption that Kataang was always intended and Zutara never was - but it obviously wasn’t read that way by Zutara fandom at the time. With Zuko and Katara’s dramatic reconciliation in The Southern Raiders coming immediately prior to this episode, now the question of romantic Zutara is introduced and Katara’s feelings for Aang are less clear than Kataang shippers had assumed? Sounds pretty promising for Zutara when you look at it that way.

Was this actually intentional? As mentioned earlier, promotional material for the show did outright encourage the idea of the love triangle, even though the show itself hadn’t before. If the idea of this subplot wasn’t explicitly to give Zutara shippers false hope and set them up for disappointment, it may yet have been the last effort to throw kerosene on the fire of the ship wars before the show’s finale. 

It’s hard to believe that fan reactions wouldn’t have been considered when writing such a metatextual episode that engaged with the fandom so directly, but I do hate to assign malice as a motive where incompetence is a suitable explanation, so let’s assume that if this was the case, Bryke thought it was all in good fun. It still reflects poor judgement and priorities, because egging on drama among your fans shouldn’t be more important than developing the narrative you’re actually trying to tell.

So whatever the reasoning, in this episode, on the eve of the show’s finale, it seems that dissing Zutara was more important than developing Kataang.

YMMV on whether this is better or worse than the finale itself, where developing Zutara was more important than developing Kataang.

[rianaithe]

     This is more of a thing for myself and while I’m not here just to ship, I do rather enjoy exploring these different themes and events that each one brings. With that being said, I am open to any kind of interaction that someone may have in mind no matter if it’s platonic, antagonistic ( Oh god I need more of these tbh. Someone be their enemy please. ) sexual or romantic or anywhere in between all of them. I love to tell the stories that is built between the characters as they continue their interactions. Here I’m going to list the active ships that I have for each of the muses on this blog though you will see muses here that aren’t on the list just yet as they’re WIP’s but still to be included nonetheless!      Starting with Arya; 

@porcelainghosts​‘s Bi. Honestly one of Arya’s best friends and someone she’s gone so far as to revive from the dead even though it’s only going to cause trouble down the line but hey, well worth it in her honest opinion.  @uccisore‘s Jane. They weren’t the best of acquaintances when they first met. They had their bitter differences but Arya learned and she came to understand that pain she was feeling, the misery that haunts her down to her very core and she’s done nothing but guide her. Arya is well aware of the pain because she’s lived through similar, she’s been in the deepest pits of insanity and while they walk two different paths, she’s seeing that Jane has the strength to carry on even with the weight of such burdens. She knows Jane is strong however her self destructive tendencies hold her back from truly blossoming. Even with love blooming between them there is much left unwritten.  @rosephantoma‘s Fordola. They were enemies pit together in the middle of an ongoing war between empire and rebellion. Their blades crossed and words said, Arya loathed the woman until the very moment they had finally taken her into custody. As the Warrior of Light she saw to it that she would remain unharmed from the hands of the public while she remained in the Ala Mhigan quarters. There she learned more through the use of her echo and seeing her memories but also talking with her though what really brought hope from the Miqo’te is that she had helped her defeat a Primal she otherwise could have let destroy everything and take everyone. For that she is thankful. 

@rosephantoma‘s Yotsuyu. Bitter enemy of the Doman rebellion and thorn in the side of the warrior of light. The wicked woman had done many misdeeds against Doma and its people, her intention to see everything burn as she played each string like a puppeteer making her puppets dance however she fell short and soon fell to the rebellion. With the assumption that it had been her that had killed Gosetsu there was nothing but hatred for her. She had no remorse in her supposed death and it wasn’t until the two had arisen after many months that she had seen a different side of her, one more innocent and kind than whom she remembered. This woman named Tsuyu had made her wonder if she could truly live and find happiness. Start fresh and rise from the ash of her sin though she was proven wrong. It wasn’t hatred that she feels but disappointment when she now sees her as a vessel to a primal and then later killed by the hands of her foster brother but not without taking him with her. She truly believes Tsuyu deserved a better fate than one as bitter as this one. Was it love she felt for her? Or was it something more of an addiction? 

@briidunviing​‘s Brii. There isn’t much to say about the two, their paths had crossed by complete chance but this meeting sparked a flame between them. The promise of hope and peace from the warrior of light had earned her the chance of further knowing more of the woman in form of a dragon, her fears far from being misunderstood though outside of the information made obvious she knows little counting her name. 

@sibutum‘s Y’sanne. It seemed like love at first sight for Arya. She had never felt as strongly towards someone before in her life-- she was captivated by even the smallest of details that she had discovered over time however luck was not on her side when coming to discover of her previous marriage. It wasn’t until unfortunate events had transpired that they had taken that chance to see how things would hit off. Sure, it wasn’t her choice for it to happen the way it did but she was happy when it finally did happen. Through lengthy travels, she always finds a way to surprise her beloved with gifts and any time she was able to spare was given to the other miqo’te. Now she has taken time to settle down and live begin building a life with her, and taking things at a rather slow pace. They both share an amazing bond, neither in a rush for anything than to enjoy the company each other brought. They are happy together. 

@luxconcordiae‘s Melody. A bond between deity and queen. Such a relationship was never meant to be, it was only meant to last a night however the longer they continued to play this game the more they couldn’t resist each others temptation, the gift of affection and companionship something they both wanted. It was a love that sprouted from their loneliness as the ones they once loved were no longer around. She called out to the wolf and she in turn called out to the one she saw as her sun. None are as bright as she. 

@mutedbishop‘s Ophelia. She had found Arya, taken her in and nursed her back to health when she was unable to care for herself after being critically wounded. Their relationship was odd, no one would’ve been able to tell by how they interacted with each other. They were subtle in their advances. That subtleness spoke thousands of words where their mouths did not. They did not fight it, but simply allowed it to happen though with Ophelia gone she waits endlessly in hopes that she will return to her. 

@veloursnoirs‘s Amber. Such irony could be labeled at how a goddess of all things could fall for a human. She was far from perfect in the wolfs eyes however it was that flawed presentation that had perhaps opened her eyes more than what she would honestly care to admit. She follows her around, learns from her. She sees more of the world through the eyes of a human than an immortal goddess and not only has it brought love for the woman for who she is but humanity as a whole. 

@soarae‘s Tenshi. They seemed to hit it off rather well, friends whom bonded through work though that work as servants of hydaelyn that had brought many ups and downs for the two as well as their clashing personalities. They fought more and more as time continued on until they finally had called it quits. Taking time to themselves, they not only learned from everything they had been through but when their paths finally crossed again that tension of theirs was no longer there. They had seemed humble in each others company and Arya wouldn’t have it any other way for her sister in arms to be back in the picture. 

@axgmented‘s Rem. Arya’s teacher when joining the Turks after her time in Solider. They fought and fought however when put out on jobs they had gotten their work done and worked together by the standards of what seemed to be two individuals familiar with each other. They became intimate but not without having coming terms that something could happen at any moment. No matter how attached Arya became of Rem or she to her, they have to be willing to let the other go if it is their turn to go. Such is life however the wolf hopes this roller coaster never ends.

@unlimitedmcseworks‘s Raven. Who’d have thought a faunus of all things would become an active member of the Branwen tribe, Raven’s tribe. She needed a place to go, a purpose. She had been on the road for so long that she hadn’t really found anything that she could make worth while. Even more so as the Grimm only became worse over time. This bond she shares is an odd one, agreeing to help tend to their camp grounds Raven felt it only an opportunity worthwhile to claim the willing wolf. She knows this probably won’t last but she has come to enjoy things for what they are. 

Currently open for more.

Amara; 

@wiltingale‘s Dumah. It was the seek of thrill that brought them together, a relationship stemmed from hatred and violence. Amara couldn’t honestly say what had become of them as they had continued down this path of theirs, this feeling she got from being around him and unable to truly put him down and vice versa despite previous battles putting both on top at one point or another. She believed it was their fate to fight endlessly but when gifted with the chance to put down her sword, she was able to see that he wasn’t as bad as initial impressions had made her believe. Even with his wrong doings, she has allowed herself to be stuck in this weird game of love and domination. 

@endgcme​‘s Sayomi. A werewolf Amara had taken under her wing. To teach her magic was the initial intention, she swore it however carnal desire bound them in a ritual. This turn of events had surely took time to adjust and to find out more of her mate, she now knows that she is to be the next alpha of her people, their chosen. She’s young, much younger than most they’d appoint that position but Amara has seen how special she is, she supports her as much as one can support the one they love. 

Currently open for more.

Kyra; 

@luxconcordiae​‘s Melody & @mutedbishop​‘s Ophelia. They were never given a choice. They were forced to submit under the Dragons heel and taken to be her chosen. There was no love, not at first when all of it was nothing more than a night she had not wanted to remember. Though she put herself in a situation where children were to be brought in the picture, the idea itself bringing disgust from her to think she’d have mated with those whom weren’t even of the same kind as her. It was not until much, much later down the line that she had not only come to love the children she would sire but the woman whom she had gotten to know. A relationship such as this is far from perfect, one would hardly say it’s anything more than a mess should they know the whole truth though some could say that it’s quite expected that Kyra would soon find her own just as any Dragon aims to one day find their princess as stories would have it.

@incubabe‘s Riley. A half demon and surely a pain in the Dragons side with her careless remarks and antics but a small price to pay for sex, wouldn’t one agree? They both have used one another for their own selfish wants. It’s hard to say there is anything there but what can she say, why quit something that isn’t really harming anything? 

@midnightveiled‘s Elise. A foolish thief she was. Kyra could only scoff at how she had not only tried to steal her steep piles of treasures but kill her in the process. Such an offense should have earned the swift hand of death but intentions drifted elsewhere as she had tortured the girl, slowly breaking her with daily sessions until she had finally seen that stubborn flame extinguish and reborn anew from the hands of a Dragon. A demon molded into her little servant and killer. Kyra wonders how long it will be until this one finally bites the dust from the hell she’s being put through. 

@sibutum‘s Khojin. The very woman who raised the youthful Dotharl as one of the Dragons of Dravania. Dubbed Ragefire, she had proven herself through rigorous training at standing up for herself and even putting her life on the line without fear if called to do so. Over the years her skills only improved because of the daughter of nidhogg and in turn Kyra became attached to her, she saw her much like any youngling would view the one that raised them as a parent. She is Khojin’s little momma’s girl.

Currently open for more.

Megumi; N/A. There aren’t any relationships between Megumi to speak of. Currently open.

Terra; N/A. There aren’t any relationships between Terra to speak of. Currently open.

Aledra; N/A. There aren’t any relationships between Aledra to speak of. Currently open.

[lokgifsandmusings]

Definitive Ranking of Book 1 Episodes, #11/12

11. 1x05 “The Spirit of Competition”

So much probending. So much love quadrilateral.

Need I say more?

I’m back in a totally timely fashion (*coughs*) with the next definitive ranking of Book 1.

Now, I started out this list by explaining my frustration with “Endgame,” and how the biggest issues of the first season are that aside from setting up something ~cool~, there was really no follow-through from the perspective of the plot, or Korra’s development. Bryke seemed wholly unaware of what they were trying to say, and ended up with a season that stood for nothing.

With that in mind, it would seem logical that episodes such as “Turning the Tide” or “Skeletons in the Closet,” where the main plotline quite obviously began to lose its way, would be right at the bottom the list next to “Endgame.” But “Spirit of Competition” is just a special mid-season clunker. The Equalist plotline doesn’t even exist here, and it’s also probably solely responsible for every single complaint about probending since we get THREE matches, none of which are particularly meaningful.

Oh hey, Bolin feels good about himself, so he does well!

The focus is, instead, on the love quadrilateral. Sure, one of the points of this polygon is more or less missing the whole episode, but Asami’s viewpoint being dismissed as a mild inconvenience is kind of the theme of the season.

Look, I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I found Makorra wholly uncompelling from the start. In “The Revelation” I guess I saw some potential because they actually like, interacted and their differing backgrounds came up? Sort of? But the biggest reason why their scripting left me drier than a desert was that it never seemed much deeper than “you’re hot and I want on you,” largely because of episodes like this where their interactions focused on ~~feelings~~ without Bryke realizing they never established them.

And it’s not like I think giving Korra a romantic subplot was necessarily a bad idea. Girl grew up completely isolated, and there’s actually a lot to be explored as to how that might manifest with her navigating the social space for the first time, particularly with  people her own age. I just don’t really see why this is how they went about scripting it. I mean, this episode was coming hot on the heels of “The Voice in the Night,” which not only moved the plot pretty significantly, but it put Korra’s bravado and insecurities front and center. Her interaction with Amon made the stakes feel more personal, especially the way he was so clearly toying with her, and how he promised that her time would come eventually. She finally allowed herself the space to feel scared.

So why not follow it up with...a team huddle of sexual tension? 23 solid minutes of Korra trying to figure out what to do about the boy she liked? You could pretend this was her compartmentalizing and purposely not dealing with things, except that’s not really in evidence at all. Like, I don’t even think Amon is referenced. It’s okay; it’s not like he JUST HAD HER CHAINED UP.

Instead, what’s *really* important is the probending. Clearly. Now, Griffin has tried to defend probending to me a number of times. And I grudgingly understand it as a framing device for Korra’s airbending progress in Episode 2 (as heavy-handed as that was), as well as showing her learning to work with others. You can argue that’s exactly what this episode did, but really, I just don’t see the *entire* episode devoted to it as being justified.

Not to mention, this was more just showing us that pissing people off doesn’t make for the group dynamics, which...yeah? We didn’t need Korra and Mako not communicating in a probending match to understand that Korra and Mako were having trouble communicating.

Oh Jonny...

It was all very basic cause-and-effect, and combined it just seemed as though Bryke had time they wanted to burn. Except then “Endgame” was rushed and sloppy, so that’s a hard case to make. Still, recapping:

They play well in their first match

Korra asks out Mako and it’s awkward, so she goes on a date with Bolin

Mako yells at Korra for going on a date with Bolin

Mako and Korra play poorly in their second match, but Bolin wins it for them

Korra kisses Mako and Bolin sees

Everyone plays horribly for the third match, but then Korra wins it for them

I think every time we found ourselves back in the stadium, I let out a groan. But what’s even the takeaway from this? Why does Korra magically pull her head out of it? Did she have a mid-match epiphany about the value of platonic friendship that we weren’t privy to?

Mako and Bolin agree to not let girls get in between them, which is a nice brotherly moment, though I would have liked Bolin to point out that Mako should kind of shit or get off the pot here. And still the whole thing is undercut by the fact that feelings weren’t really developed between any points of this quadrilateral.

Perhaps ironically, Asami and Mako had the most depth to them of any pairing at that point, with their bonding over shared trauma.

Man, she really fed his ego...

I can’t track this for Korra’s development at all. She took the world’s worst advice from the world’s most problematic relationship coach in the form of Pema. But there’s actually something wildly endearing about how she asked Ikki and Jinora for advice in the first place, since it highlights just how much of a fish-out-of-water she is here. Of course the 11 and 8-year-olds would know this stuff! I also happen to love how blunt Pema is and could gush about the sordid Pelinzin dynamics for some time. Slay the “other woman” trope, girl! I honestly think her POV would be super compelling around the time this all went down, and one day I’ll get to writing it. One day...

What was I saying? Right, Korra’s romantic development in this episode. I just don’t even know. The way she asks him out is cringe-worthy, but supposed to be. Then she goes on a date with Bolin because she was sad about being rejected and for some reason didn’t say “sounds good, let’s go as friends.” Then when Mako calls her out for toying with Bolin (kinda? They did just get noodles), she has the nerve to say it’s so clearly his jealousy. Then they play a shitty match and Mako tells Korra he does like her, so she kisses him (honestly, reasonable). Then she’s in such a pissy mood about Mako probably yelling at her for that, that her next match she literally waterbends at the ref? But then is the person who wins the whole thing? And somewhere in that time realized she should be super thankful that Asami secured them a tournament spot in the first place?

Yeah, no shit, Sherlock

Look, navigating the world of teenage hormones is tricky, and I guess there’s something realistically dramatic and infantile about it all. But this is a scripted show, and I honestly have no idea why Bryke would think this is the compelling way to write a romance. If the idea was to force Mako into admitting he liked her, and using Bolin as that wedge, then why was Asami also necessary as a love triangle device? Couldn’t just one love triangle had sufficed? I’m also struggling to see the point of the repeated conversations between Mako and Korra, or how probending became the visual metaphor to hammer home how they’re not getting along. WE GET IT. I PROMISE.

Truly, I think the main issue is that this nonsense was all condensed into one episode. In isolation, each individual beat is fine, especially as a learning moment for Korra. I actually really liked the Borra date, not in a shipping way, but as what it was: Korra had a very good time with someone she only had a platonic attraction to, and Bolin put romantic weight onto it (for perfectly valid reasons). Then he found out in a harsh way that Korra wasn’t interested, but she apologized to him and he moved on more or less instantaneously. Their dynamic is still based on affection, and I like that the show recognized that sort of romantic incompatibility and unrequited feelings (it happens) without giving Bolin a whiff of entitlement about the whole thing.

two episodes later

I know I said I was struggling to see Korra’s growth in Season 1, which is still a complaint that’s there. But I can at least say that Korra learning to consider others was something that happened. Not as in like, “that uppity girl needs to learn empathy!” or any bullshit like that. But in the sense of, she was raised in an isolated compound and had attention on her 24/7. Everything she did was about her growth and development as the Avatar. Then she ran to the city, and quickly learned that hey, you can’t just beat people up even if it’s “justice” in your mind. You can’t just agree to dates with people you don’t want to date and not expect some hurt feelings. And you can’t just be antagonistic to your crush’s girlfriend, because she’s like...a human. I mean, you can, but Korra is a rather nice person, and didn’t want to do that after 1x07.

In some ways it’s a touch on the uncomfortable side of things, because we’re talking about a specifically brown female protagonist learning to more or less restrain herself? But it really is just about her navigating the overwhelming social space for the first time, and there’s something to be said about that as well. Aang was a fish-out-of-water in the sense that he was missed the events of the world for 100 years. Korra was a fish-out-of-water because she hadn’t gotten to experience the world at all. It’s kind of just a different way of giving us that, to a different level of success.

Like all the classics

However, I do feel like her isolation wasn’t deeply explored? Like we watched her mature and we saw her viewpoints evolve, but no one ever really talked about it, in the same way Mako and Bolin being orphans was rarely discussed too. It’s ~there~, but I do think given some of the less wonderful implications, a bit more explication would have helped.

Also, we didn’t see Korra like, having to learn greetings and slang or anything. You know, things you’d expect if this is the kind of story you’re digging into. Instead, we got Korra learning how to navigate specifically romances. Then there was her more general worldview and how she saw her fit as the Avatar, which as I said, was something heavily unresolved in Season 1 (and that’s fine). But it makes the hammering of romance all the more just...why.

I know some people watch shows for ships, but I’m not one of them (which is why I love this piece by Gretchen), and I also happen to think that [relation]ships are the most compelling when they’re not relegated to this sort of separate sphere. Book 1 was written kind of like, “oh now we’re doing the shipping episode!”

But instead of Mako and Korra yelling about the concept of dating each other, maybe we could have had them interacting so we’d have an understanding of why they wanted that. And if they were only meant to be attracted and wow, it didn’t work out ‘cause we’re incompatible (you know...what actually happened), then why focus on it like this and build it up all season as some kind of ~~true love~~?

I guess what it took me 2000 fucking words to arrive at is that “Spirit of Competition” was telling-and-not-showing storytelling for the romance itself (which sadly is "in" these days), and given that it was the only focus of the episode, it’s just not very good—not as an artform, not as a way of getting audience engagement, and not as anything that served the larger Book 1 picture.

Honestly, what follows makes me wistful for this

But at least it didn’t collapse under itself like the damn dying star that was “Endgame.”

Before I get out of here I’d like to nitpick for a second about the probending. IF YOU ATTACK THE REF, YOU SHOULD BE OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT! God, what the fuck. She didn’t even get a red card for that...just a yellow. Really violated the suspension of disbelief. Also, the random Tahno rivalry that they realized they had to build up for the next episode was so badly done. “Here’s this jerk! Hate him now!” I guess it kind of works to make Amon’s point, but the fact that we only get him in 1x05 and it’s resolved by 1x06 is very odd.

I suppose “Spirit of Competition” has merits in terms of ironic enjoyment, and there is some downright fun silliness (“you’re a bad idea!” and my favorite, “you look great, champ!”). But in that department, I’ll take “The Sting” any day.

Next time, I’ll rip into what is probably a perfectly fine episode, other than it just didn’t do it for me.

#12 1x12 “Endgame”

1x05 photo recap found here

Book 2 ranking/essays found here

Book 4 ranking/essays found here

[brakken]

Replayed Life is Strange ep. 3. Thoughts below.

This. Is. The. Best. Episode.

I can say that with total confidence before replaying the final two. The flow of choices, narrative, and exploration are working at their most intertwined. Maybe not perfect, but at their best.

Following the climax of ep. 2, we’re now getting more and more opportunities to explore the cast of characters in uncommon elements. People are losing sleep, feeling guilty, going places they shouldn’t, saying things they didn’t mean or regret. Altogether dealing with uncertain footing. Which are all great ingredients for story.

This is also the episode where Life is Strange’s true title was revealed to me, as ‘Save Chloe: The Game’. All decisions up to this point had been me trying to play the character - about helping Max find her place in this familiar yet different environment. But it’s here where it’s made fully clear that this game isn’t really about Max, or at least not entirely about a place she needs to reach. It’s not just me who realises this - Max does, too. It’s about protecting Chloe, and helping her move past her grief. And so from here on out, the bonding with Chloe became a lot easier - I was now actively trying to help her.

I talked a bit about the way that consequences were presented in Episode 2 made it hard to stay on Chloe’s level - hard to immerse in rekindling her friendship with Max. From the beginning of ep.3, there is a noted difference (and not just in my playstyle). Chloe still carries the same chaotic nature she’s shown, but is notably less obstinate with it towards Max from the get-go. Adding to this difference, is the two of them sharing a common goal - they are given a tangible and important reason to work together, which lends to showcasing what grounds their friendship was and can be built on. They’re pirates again.

This episode also has a moment where the concept of surface-level choices actually aids the overarching story. Where, regardless of if you took the money or not, Chloe still insists on scoping out the pool. If you denied her the cash, she sasses, but doesn’t resent - showing she’s still willing to engage in leisure with her friend. And it’s where Max finds it in herself to oblige in some aimless misbehaviour. She allows herself to not worry about what she’s caused, what she’s causing or what she will cause.

It’s worth taking a moment to talk about pricefield. Chloe and Max’s connection is unequivocally important to each of them and to the story, whether that’s as friendship or something romantic. I choose to follow them as friends, for the span of the game’s events at least. I find that there’s just so much going on in such a short time - so many big changes in both their lives, that it’s too shaky a leaping point for romance. There’s definitely a non-platonic weight to Chloe’s looks at Max, but the shadow of Rachel is still very present in all the goings-on. And the rekindling of their friendship is so damn central in the whirlwind of other things. How it develops after the storm is another story - one I wish we got to see.

Another scene where the railroading works in the game’s favour is choosing whether to side with David or Chloe in the argument at her house. This is the type of thing that should have bigger ripples, but the nature of this episode’s ending hides that. Despite your choice of who to side with, later events still hit Chloe hard. They still push her into being angry and hurt and closed-off. And Max is reminded of her guilt, of that last day with William.

-spoilers for the end of ep. 3-

My first time playing, this ending came as a surprise, but I didn’t manage to get swept up in it. This time, it hit hard. And I cried hard.

That final shot. Seeing Chloe. All the hurt and misery now presented in physical form, and all her life and energy in just a smile. This is the moment, and moments like it, that the storytelling really lands. 

I sometimes wonder if this story was best suited for a game format, given the various issues I’ve had with that side of it. But I’m reminded at the end of this episode of why it does work. The act of choosing, regardless of impact or narrative refinement, lends so much to this climax. The game’s designers may have taken you here - may have held your hand and led you to where they wanted you to go, but the choice and interaction makes you a part of this moment. The player is dealing with consequence as much as the characters are.

Favourite moments from this ep:

-walking through the dorm hallway at night. the mood is set beautifully with crisp quietness and light through doorways.

-Chloe’s expression after asking Max to join her in the pool. For all the game’s drawbacks in facial animation, this look speaks volumes.

-waking up in Chloe’s room. a literal calm before a storm.

-the bus ride. looking to the ocean. the fully-painted house. familiar yet different environment.

-that final shot.

It’s been oddly difficult to try and articulate my opinions on this game. There’s so much that gets swept up - big elements that are outshone by little glimmers. It’s part of what makes it special to me, I think.

Thanks if you made it this far! Here’s another drawing of smoochin

[aerithsaves]

New ship Tag: Aeris and Cloud Take to the Skies

Why a new tag? As suggested, a new tag for positive posts about the two characters might help with the current resurgence of LTD discussions, people telling other people to get over the LTD/that they don’t care about the LTD/can’t we all just get along, and other assorted strife the pairing frequently gets saddled with. So, here is my suggestion (and I will try and post some stuff to get it started).

Why this tag name? A lot of posts, tags, blog titles and so on fixate on the relationship or the character’s roles within FFVII and associated media which feels quite limiting. Instead of that, I would like the focus to be more on alternate universe ideas (because canon) and new adventures/outcomes/opportunities. Specifically I’m also trying to invoke Aeris’s interest in the Highwind and Cloud’s willingness to help her fly in it – something they never did, but could have if things had turned out differently.

So. New tag. I can’t really dictate rules or anything but please:

Yes

Aeris/Cloud as a couple (focus on the pairing)

Reasonably obvious, but please try and feature them both equally or focus on them together for the most part. Please try to avoid Tifa’s death being part of the setup (yes I am guilty of this, but not doing that kind of thing anymore)

Aeris/Cloud casual hook-up

It can just be sex, not love. Sex-friends, one-night stands, past lovers who meet up again, etc are all fine.

Aeris & Cloud as friends (if this does involve another ship, then focus should be on their interactions more so than the ship)

Platonic shipping is important. I can’t remember who said it, but why not ship two characters in every sense – not just romantically. This includes work colleagues if that makes a difference to you

Aeris/Cloud as part of a polyamorous configuration (though focus should be on the two of them or equal across participants)

With Tifa, with Zack, with Zack, Tifa & Sephiroth, with whoever!

Aeris/Cloud as a couple after past relationships (the two of them moving on together)

The past relationships is likely to be Zerith all things considered (please do not bash that ship), but in AU anything is possible. Please do not use this as an excuse to attack Cloti.

Aeris /Cloud as a couple prior to other relationships (the focus has to be on the two of them again though)

The pairing breaking up/Cloud moving on with Tifa or someone else is fine, but please don’t use this as an excuse for spite and attack the Aeris/Cloud pairing or whatever the subsequent one is. Also please demonstrate why the relationship was good before it fell apart. No doomed relationships from the start please.

FFVII (1997)

Naturally. The best resource for Aeris’s character and her interactions with Cloud. Plenty to draw on; meeting after the first mission, falling into the church (more so If you ignore Crisis Core), the bodyguard deal, staying the night, Aeris walking Cloud home, Wall Market as a whole, rescuing Aeris from Shinra, party make-up as they start travelling (if you select her), talking about the Highwind, talking at Costa del Sol, Gongaga (if she’s in your party), Aeris learning about the Cetra at Cosmo Canyon, stealing the Tiny Bronco (if she’s in your party), Gold Saucer date (if the outcome), party make-up for the Temple of the Ancients, Cloud’s dream, Aeris’s final smile.

FF Tactics

The flower girl might have no name, but the reference is clear. Life in Ivalice: go!

Kingdom Hearts

I haven’t been keeping track that well, but I get the impression Cloud wasn’t actually looking for Aeris this whole time (as clarified by Final Mix). Feel free to disregard this (AUs!). Subject to future change obviously, but KH and KH2 offer a few, small interactions for now.

Advent Children

Fine if Aeris is alive via some mechanism (AU, resurrection, whatever).

Future Releases

Eg. FFVII Remake. The only requirement for shipping is both characters are alive and well in the same time period and actually meet (crack-shipping does mean you can skip both these requirements, but in general they are helpful). So even if the Remake or some other spin-off canonises or appears to canonise a pairing, this is no reason to ship or not ship something or to no longer enjoy the pairing. Take the positives. You can ship a character with more than one other character even if the relationships are mutually exclusive!

No

Proof of canon/Proof of ship superiority

It does not matter. You like what you ship. They like what they ship. You are incredibly unlikely to change their minds no matter what the argument/evidence and vice versa. Original authorial intentions, accidental canon, retcons, change of writers; doesn’t matter! Stick to the ship and your interest in it. Canon is completely optional.

Digs at other ships involving one or both characters

As above. Please don’t trash a linked ship for any reason, and don’t accuse them of abuse or anything similar

No self-sacrifice, no suicide, no love beyond death – keep them both alive for the relationship

Given Aeris’s plotline (near certain to remain the same in the Remake) it’s preferable to not have Cloud perpetually mourning/unable to cope (or if Aeris is doing this if an inversion setup is your thing). Positive remember? Cloud can be deeply into Aeris and then move on after as above, and again AUs allow you to ignore the tragedy.

Ultimania/interview quotes/latest translation controversy (whatever it happens to be when you read this)

Even if the authorship of the books were certain (that detail is very iffy), post-canon releases/explanations tend to shut down avenues of speculation rather than leaving them open/giving more scope for exploration. Plus there’s at least one language barrier and scope to slant a translation any way you want. Also half the time the ‘canon’ of these books is less statement of fact and more leading speculation/unused ideas from development. So none of that please. 

Also the notion of pre-planning everything is very much in vogue and people like to think writers always do this, so naturally there is a tendency to imply or assume pre-planning from writers. What they say afterwards does not have to affect anything. Also language barrier again. Translators also have biases – both admitted and unconscious – and good translations are more art than science. A translation into any other language does not have more weight than the original or any other translation.

No Tifa bashing of any kind

Tifa is not an obstacle to be overcome or removed. She is a character in her own right, and if Aeris and Cloud are paired together this should provide opportunities for development for her that does not involve Cloud as much (or it can totally. Cloud and Tifa can be amazing friends. 

Please don’t just pair Tifa up with someone else to neaten things up (and if you decide to put her with Barret you should also feel obligated to develop that ship) or just leave her on her own because you don’t like her). Aeris was/is Tifa’s friend. If Cloud hates Tifa/Tifa hates Cloud or Aeris then you are doing this wrong.

Parallels to other FFs/media

Running themes in FFs tend to extend to Cid, Chocobos, Moogles, spell/summon names and crystals. There are occasionally other character/similar place names used more than once. But. Childhood friends to lovers is not a huge focus of the series (the majority of main couples do not express this trope). Neither is love after death. 

But even if these were recurring and important motifs the piggy-backing of one pairing on a different game’s pairing is somewhat frustrating and should be avoided (plus: Rinoa/Squall is more of a mix of Aeris/Cloud and Tifa/Cloud than either of them in isolation. I have reasons). In addition, something from a different fandom who seem to share parallels with the ship has little bearing on the ship itself (but could be inspiration for an AU)

Racism, sexism, bigotry of any kind

Just no.

Cheating

To clarify on the Aeris/Cloud after another relationship or before another relationship or the casual hook-ups – please do not have one or other cheat on their partner with another character (whoever this would turn out to be). Nor should this ever be the reason for the relationship breaking down, and no undiscovered adultery either please.

 So if you want to be positive about the pairing – and are able to do so in a manner that does not involve taking pot-shots at more popular pairings (as much as this may be painful to admit if you’re into this pairing, we are in a minority and this might not change) – please use this tag.

[theticklishpear]

I wanted to say that I love the posts you made about writing about siblings! Most of all when it comes to same gender siblings, very often in fiction I see the siblings having issues with each other or not getting along. Or the sibling is mostly absent during the story. I would love to see more of siblings being super close, I know some sets of sisters in my life who are super close like they are friends, and it is lovely to watchh. Why do authors tend to avoid close sibling relationships?

Thank you for your kind words! Siblings in stories are a huge passion for me, and close siblings in particular are relationships I want to see in more stories.

Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t stem from avoiding just close siblings but from avoiding close family as a whole. I don’t have any studies or papers examining the idea, no statistics I can report; what I do have are guesses based on observations and conversations with other writers about why they’re writing what they’re writing.

Myth: Main characters must have tragic backstories to be interesting.Somehow, the idea that in order for a character to be interesting, their backstory has to be tragic has become an integral part to story-telling. Taking it one step further has been the growing idea that tragic = the loss of a person or persons close to them, and who closer than family? Family is an oasis of people who know where a character comes from and theoretically are hoping for the best for them. They’re the people who are supposed to accept a character entirely and are obligated to always love them. That loss writers are looking to capitalize on may be death, but it could also be those individuals rejecting the character, shredding that expectation of love. Having encountered plenty of folks in their own lives and others for whom those tenants and core qualities of family haven’t held up and the pain that comes from that, writers’ first thought when seeking out a tragic backstory often land in the alienation from or destruction of the character’s family. Destroying what may have been something happy for them creates tension and tragedy from which a character may find their drive for the story or send them to a state of being from which the writer wants to watch them grow. More to the point is that by destroying the family, the character’s background all of a sudden has a better ability to become fraught with mystery, the best, fastest way to make a character interesting.

What writers don’t take into account:Writers must evaluate why they think their character has to have a tragic backstory. If it’s an interesting character they’re looking for–someone compelling that the audience is interested in getting to know–there are better, more compelling ways to do it than by destroying their family. If that’s is how a writer has chosen to hide the Family Secrets™, they perhaps need to rethink why that trope specifically is what their story hinges on and not on a thousand more believable reasons for the knowledge to be inaccessible. More importantly, writers must begin to realize that their character can still be tragic while retaining their family. Just because they’re close with their siblings doesn’t mean that the tragic thing that happened is negated by the joy they get out of being with, talking with, or in general interacting with their sibling. In fact, it might be an excellent relationship to use as a vehicle for the character’s growth.

Myth: Family members hold main characters back from their adventures.Family is often thought of as this immovable stake in the ground of time and place. They are the constant in a character’s life, a place and people they can return to. They are the refuge, but also the people who have the character’s safety at heart. They’re more likely to ask characters not to go (for a variety of reasons including that the family needs their help at home, the family doesn’t want them to die, the family disagrees with the endeavor, etc.). Writers feel like if the character were close to their family, they might not actually get to participate in the story the writer has planned because they’d never leave those people behind or the family would never let them leave.

Additionally, family as a main character’s greatest weakness is absurdly common. They are the ones to be abducted or killed first by those looking to lure a character somewhere or inflict the most pain on a character or force a character to step their game up a notch. Because of this, writers remove family before the fray even happens, intending to strengthen their characters in the process and make them immovable themselves, unable to be coerced.

What writers don’t take into account:Family doesn’t have to mean helpless. Give your familial characters some agency! Writing close siblings will actually give a character a huge strength in that they always know they have someone who has their back. If they let their sibling in on what’s going on and what they’re struggling with, that sibling has an opportunity to help. The idea that a character’s adventure and struggles must be kept secret from their family has fed into this–the “I don’t want to make them worry,” conundrum. It’s another situation that writers need to examine about their story and find out what’s stopping them from writing in these characters. If the answer is ever “because it’s easier,” the writer has a problem.

Myth: The power of friendship is not the same as the power of siblings.The power of friendship and love triumphing over the powers of evil and hatred is a theme nearly every story perpetuates, whether the writer intends to or not. In the same way that humans create categories and hierarchies of what’s more important or more worthy, they’ve also managed to create the idea that the relationship between friends and the relationship between siblings doesn’t hold the same amount or type of power. Love conquers all, right? But familial love doesn’t count because it’s a requirement between family members–it comes with being family. It’s not as authentic or impressive or whatever as love grown between unrelated individuals (whether platonic or romantic) because it’s perceived as being a “gimme,” something they don’t have to work for.

What writers don’t take into account:I’m not sure writers have really, and I mean really, evaluated how hard it is to maintain a relationship with one’s siblings, let alone keeping it a good one. Seriously. When you’re growing up, you see each other all the time! You know what bothers them, and it’s actually mildly amusing to push those buttons and see them struggle with the reaction they want to have and the one they’re allowed to have because you’re family. You see each other succeed and do absolutely amazing things; you see what each other is capable of, but you also see them mess up and it’s easier to hold the grudge against them for it because they should have known better. As we become adults and move out on our own, ideas about what’s right and okay are expanded past what the family rules were, but those rules still linger and tinge our perceptions, even of each other, and maybe a style of living a sibling has grates on your nerves because that’s not how we were raised or whatever. Our schedules become so full that communication falls by the wayside and suddenly, five years down the line, you realize that this person you used to talk to all the time is a total stranger. Keeping that love and affection between siblings is hard work and it should never ever, ever be taken for granted. Unfortunately, it is. All the time.

Myth: Close siblings don’t have conflict and are therefore uninteresting.Story is conflict, right? Events are happening that characters have to deal with, people with different ideas about right and wrong are blocking the way, friends are making dumb decisions, and family has chosen to never own up to the problem that runs in their veins. Writers have come under the assumption that close relationships that are healthy and benefit both characters can’t contribute to or create conflict and therefore are dead weight in the story. And no dead weight can survive to the final draft.

What writers don’t take into account:Who says people in close relationships can’t have conflict? Who says siblings who love and support each other can’t support each other right into a bad plan? Who says close siblings can’t make dumb decisions? These are two separate characters who happen to have grown up together, which also means that while they can love and support each other, they can also see the flaws and dangerous leaps of logic they each make more easily than other people. They have plenty to contribute to conflict, including coming into conflict with each other. “Close” does not mean “perfect relationship.”

I’m sure there are other reasons, too, such as not having any experience and therefore not really thinking about it or not feeling confident in portraying that kind of relationship with accuracy. I think the biggest thing writers need to do is ask themselves why they think they couldn’t have a sibling in their story and evaluate their own reasons to see what’s holding them back. Understanding our excuses can help us better address them and face new challenges head on.

I hope this has given you some insight into the issue, Anon. Good luck! -Pear

[inkuisitivskins]

Greed Lust and Envy

Give Me a Character

[FMA 03 SPOILERS]

Greed

How I feel about this character - 

I LOVE HIM SM in both 03 and Brotherhood!! I just really like his personality a lot since it’s mostly the same in both series, but I’m glad he sticks around longer and gets a revival in Ling in the mangahood. I just always really enjoy villains that turn “good”, but not wholly good I guess? Like Greed in every iteration is a smartass who is in it for himself most of the time but still. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don’t really ship him with anyone while he’s original!Greed, but when he’s Greedling I think him and Lan Fan would have a really funny dynamic hahaha. Just having Ling (bc i obviously ship him and Lan Fan) slip in and out of control over Greed while having Greed endlessly flirt and joke with Lan Fan is good lol

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Idk like??? With most characters I’m at least a bit of a multishipper but there’s not a ton I go off of that’s not canon (cept livmiles mainly) and since he’s not really shipped with anyone in either iteration (at least when he’s Greed when Greedling). I like his friendship and camaraderie with the Devil’s Nest and then with Ed when Greedling. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t really think there’s any necessarily UNPOPULAR opinions I have on him given that i think very highly of him and he’s already one of if not the most popular homunculus hah

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Kinda wished he hadn’t died so early in 03. If you don’t mind spoilers– think of how early Lust died in Brotherhood. That’s about as long as Greed lived. I really enjoyed him making fun of Envy and just dogging him all the time x’D

Lust

How I feel about this character

I like her in Brotherhood because, given the slight style change, she’s rounder-in-the-face and prettier in it, but she was literally my second favorite homunculus after Envy (which I’ll talk more about) in 03. Just like how I always like Greed’s change of heart, if you’re hesitant about watching 03, watch it if you like the concept of homunculi finding their humanity. I love love loved her in 03 and I love how she became kind of somewhat of an anti-hero? She was still “good” but still kinda sketch you know? Especially in her interactions with Scar. Which I’ll talk more about :^)

All the people I ship romantically with this character

No one besides Scar when in 03. If you’ve seen it you’ll understand :’)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

She… doesn’t really get along with anyone besides Gluttony in ANY series x’D I don’t even really care for Gluttony tbh but I like how in a lot of fan opinions, she’s kind of the big sister and even sort of a semi-mother figure to her sibings, especially Gluttony who can’t do shit for himself haha. And tbh it’s always so sad in Brotherhood when he’s like freaking out asking where she is after she’s killed asdfghj

My unpopular opinion about this character

…. 03 Lust is top-tier Lust. I don’t have anything against her in Brotherhood tho so don’t take that the wrong way :’)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

*whispers* More Lust x Scar JK I wished she lived a little longer in Brotherhood too, especially since I saw 03 first, it was kind of a shock to me to see her die so quickly in the series. She still had a really good death in both series tho

Envy

How I feel about this character

I will never know why, but Envy was my all-time favorite character in 03– I really don’t understand it xD I don’t usually have villains as favorites but he was just such a good villain, and his story and ESPECIALLY his reasoning behind what he does is so much more developed in 03 rather than Brotherhood. BUT THEN IN BROTHERHOOD HIS TRUE FORM IS LITERALLY SO COOL I CAN’T DESCRIBE IT but you also learn to hate him more in Brotherhood because I feel like he’s more mentally unstable due to the whole Ishvalan conflict than in 03 so asddfgh

All the people I ship romantically with this character

No one, sorry uwu especially not him and Ed omg no pls

My non-romantic OTP for this character

eh, I really don’t even platonically ship him with anyone? I guess,,, if I had to answer the one thing that comes to mind is how he’s sort of a mentor to Wrath in 03. But it kinda broke my heart because I also can’t help but like 03!Wrath even though a lot of people don’t, so it hurt to see him turn so bad aaaaaa

My unpopular opinion about this character

I like him in 03 and he was my favorite xDDD that’s unpopular enough I think. His character arc and backstory were just really interesting in it, and while being revealed during the weird and out-of-place ending of 03, I still thought it was a nice addition. Also if anyone’s wondering, I do hc him as genderless (it’s not much of a hc since it’s canon in Brotherhood) but I use male pronouns for him because of me seeing it first and being used to 03 canon– I can explain further if anyone hasn’t seen 03 but is interested. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I know i keep talking about 03 but it would’ve been cool to see him use his true form in that series, especially given that he has the ability to turn into an actual fantasy dragon in it. I think given how dark 03 is, the morbid nature and origins of his true Brotherhood form would have fit perfectly (though it wouldn’t have really been considered a TRUE form, you know?) Also in Brotherhood, one of the very, very few things I despise about the anime is how they made his true form out of that shitty anime cgi -_- it looks so bad and out of place and he looks like a big lumpy gummy thing. If they had stuck to the manga design (where not only the heads of Xerxes were present, but other gross-looking drippy body parts as well) and animated it like the rest, I would’ve enjoyed it more, and that’s still given that that true form reveal scene is one of my favorites in the series xD

I’m sorry for talking about 03 so much in this even though it’s not considered series canon. It was only because one of my biggest praises for 03 is how they handled the homunculi, so I feel my opinions on these 3 (given that they’re my universal favorites, minus MangaHood!Pride and 03!Wrath) are also heavily weighted with their 03 selves, especially Lust and Envy, whereas I like Greed more overall in Brotherhood due to his extended role as Greedling. I hope that was okay :’) Thank you for the ask Megan

[saranel]

Do you think UraYoru has lil parallelism with IchiRuki bond and chemistry ???? 😊😆🐕🎩 🐇🍓✨

Tagging @cocosy who asked the same question

I think they have some big differences in terms of dynamic, seeing as how the personalities and combinations involved are quite dissimilar, but I can definitely see ways in which they are alike.

Fights against Yammy are pretty romantic, I guess?

(more under the cut)

1. Chemistry

Okay, let’s start with the obvious one! There’s a reason both are such popular pairings (the most popular for each character by far), and chemistry has a lot to do with it.

Anyone who’s ever done any creative writing can attest to this, but certain characters simply take over and do the work for you, so to speak, once you become familiar enough with them.  I’ve only ever written the one IchiRuki fic, but when I tried to write dialogue for them, it just… flowed.  Same with Kisuke and Yoruichi.  I may have to tweak and polish to get the final result feeling as IC as I can make it, but the way they interact with each other feels natural and easy to replicate on paper.

And it’s all due to the fact that these two pairs have been set up in canon to work so well together.  Both Ichigo and Kisuke interact with plenty of other characters in the story with fun results, but when they interact with Rukia and Yoruichi respectively?  That’s when we get sparks. 

2. Bond

As a pair with such a long history, Kisuke and Yoruichi have an understandably deep connection.  There’s little doubt in my mind that they ‘clicked’ from the start, whenever that may have been, but there’s no denying that their centuries-spanning relationship contributes to their intimacy (both platonic and romantic).

For earlier adopters of the manga, I imagine the wait from the moment Yoruichi first gave the audience a glimpse of her shared past with Kisuke, to seeing them share panel time again must’ve built a lot of hype.  Kubo went on to be a tease for years concerning those two.  The nature of their relationship was even brought up in Kisuke’s Radio Kon interview, so this was obviously something the readers were wondering about from early on.  

And I think that one of the earliest events of the Arrancar arc was basically Kubo’s response to the audience’s rising curiosity:

Kisuke and Yoruichi were a big mystery to us at that point (NOT TO MENTION ELEVEN YEARS LATER), and Kubo displays some tremendous, economical storytelling here by giving us a succinct, yet rich answer as to what exactly Kisuke and Yoruichi are to each other:

Partners.

In every sense of the word.

I’ve often seen fans talk about the shadier aspects of Kisuke’s character and exclaim, aghast, “Does Yoruichi even know about this?!!!” and it always makes me laugh.  Because honestly, does anyone truly believe there is a single thing Yoruichi doesn’t know about him by this point?

Yoruichi knows exactly who this man is and she accepts him, warts and all. And vice versa. 

They know each other well enough that words are hardly ever needed:

And this is why it astounds me that Ichigo and Rukia reach such a level of understanding in only a few short months.  

Like I said, I firmly believe that Kisuke and Yoruichi were also a pair that developed a deep bond very fast, but given their long-standing relationship, they serve as an example of an unbreakable bond in the manga.  No one in their right mind is going to dispute those two are close, so when it becomes easy to draw a comparison between them and other pairs in the manga, that’s when you know it’s real:

^^^ What she actually says is more along the lines of: “Well I thought I might as well use this piece of crap you made so you wouldn’t whine, but without it, I would’ve dodged just fine!”  which is a tsundere’s way of saying ‘I love you’

And now you know why Kisuke wears that little half-smile in that panel ;)

3. Personalities

A few months ago, I made this super long post about the bond between mentor and student, and in writing it, I was surprised to discover ways in which Kisuke and Ichigo are alike that I hadn’t considered before. 

I like to think that this is one of the reasons Kisuke chose to mentor Ichigo: because he sees everything good about himself in his student, but none of his worse qualities. He sees a version of himself that was once more optimistic and a little less pragmatic, fiercely protective in a way that bordered on carelessness. 

Kisuke was a lot like Ichigo before the events of TBTP and his exile, and though he learned to trust in his subordinates and colleagues, his more sentimental side always shines through when someone he loves is in danger, façade and common sense be damned.  He couldn’t stop himself from following Hiyori, and he couldn’t stop himself from rushing to Yoruichi’s aid, either, instead of joining Ichigo against Yhwach.  

Similarly, Ichigo is the ‘softie’ of the pair to contrast Rukia’s stricter, more militaristic personality.  It’s Ichigo who found a little ‘sister’ to protect in the middle of the damn Hueco Mundo desert, Ichigo who will fiercely defend and show concern for people who were once his enemies:

It’s Kisuke and Ichigo who will drive away even the people they love in order to protect them (it’s worth noting that Rukia also does this at a certain point, but the circumstances are different and I’ll get to why shortly):

And it’s a similarity Kisuke himself remarks upon:

That’s not to say that Rukia and Yoruichi are cold in comparison, or not just as protective; not by a long shot.  But perhaps because they were both raised as nobility, they often fight a visible war with their own feelings:

In Yoruichi’s case, this is far more pronounced, to the point that she appears borderline emotionally stunted at times (see: tsundere).  Yoruichi was most likely taught that emotions are a weakness since she was a child (see: Byakuya, too).  I have this headcanon (last section) that Yoruichi must’ve been a very lonely child before she met Kisuke, carrying the immense weight of a legacy on her shoulders from a very young age.  And if, as I suspect, she had to compete with other candidates to earn the title of Clan Head, she was forced to sacrifice many things about herself in the altar of duty.    

Rukia’s upbringing for the first few years of her life was radically different, but we know for a fact that she was forced to grow up fast, in order to survive on her own in the Rukongai.  When she lost every single friend but Renji, she was the one who kept on pressing forward, the one who suggested entering the Academy.  And in a perfect storm of terrible events, her own feelings of inadequacy were only exacerbated when she was adopted by the Kuchiki Clan and treated so abysmally by Byakuya.  Rukia has been swallowing her own feelings since she could crawl: she swallowed the pain of being alone for a big part of her childhood so she could toughen up and survive, she swallowed the pain of losing her friends, the pain of under-performing in the academy, of being so blatantly ignored by Byakuya, the tremendous guilt over what happened with Kaien. 

What’s fascinating to me is that despite all this pressure, despite their loyalty and recorded sense of duty to the Gotei, both these women are in possession of a heart that always steers them in the right direction when it matters:

At this point, even Rukia has resigned herself to the fact that Ichigo is going to die.  She doesn’t think there’s any chance of survival, and yet instead of begging and pleading for forgiveness, for mercy, she doesn’t hesitate to make matters even worse for herself. She is literally throwing her life away just so she can be there for him in his final moments.

And then, of course, there’s this:

Do I even need to say anything here?

Yoruichi was a woman who had everything: beauty, wealth, status, respect, power, a family, friends, apprentices, and she left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation, when she didn’t even have to.

Both these women seem to struggle with expressing affection at times, but their actions always speak louder than words.  And when it comes to giving their men a swift kick up the ass when they desperately need it, they don’t hesitate even for a second:

4. Bonus: Design

It’s a well-known fact that Kubo’s original concept art for Bleach (then ‘Snipe’) had Ichigo in glasses, with black hair, but he famously changed the design specifically so it would match Rukia’s:

“Before the story was decided a Shingami uniform popped up into my mind. Unlike the design we have now it was like a uniform from Catholic school where they wore a black jacket over a white blouse with a black bowtie… and they carried a huge scissors. I thought that was what Shinigami was like. After that, to match Rukia’s design I changed Ichigo’s character design. Like Rukia had black hair so it’s best if Ichigo didn’t have black hair.”  

– Tite Kubo

And I just… I live for this kind of crap in fiction, because when it’s applied to a pair that already works well on so many different levels, it becomes the icing on the cake:

THEY LOOK SO DAMN GOOD TOGETHER.  

I love that they’re opposites in many ways, but still similar in plenty of others.  There’s always a great deal of love for pairs that are completely opposite, but from personal experience, these kinds of relationships aren’t built to last.  Give me pairs that complement each other, not pairs that are always in disagreement.  Pairs that challenge each other, but can still coexist harmoniously.  Ichigo and Rukia have their moments of tension, there’s spark, there’s passion, but they’re on the same wavelength where it counts.

And I can’t help but feel this also applies to Kisuke and Yoruichi to a T.

Kubo never made a similar declaration about Kisuke and Yoruichi’s design, but looking at this panel*** makes me think that he applied the same design philosophy here as well.

Black hair, fair hair; dark skin, pale skin; black uniform with white obi, white uniform with black obi; black turtleneck, white undershirt.

Even in their color versions, they are created to look harmonious: the pale yellow of Kisuke’s hair is complementary (i.e. opposite on the color wheel) to the purple undertones in Yoruichi’s; her golden eyes are similarly complementary to his bluish grey eyes; green, purple and orange form a color triad:

Yoruichi shows up early enough in the manga (albeit in her cat form) to make me think that Kubo conceived of Kisuke and Yoruichi as a pair from the beginning.  They were designed to look good together, and they do.  

*** Not to mention that in the manga, this panel is framed in black, making it a memory.  And since it’s Yoruichi speaking, this is her memory.  Notice how Kisuke looks on ahead, looking happy and lively, while Yoruichi is the one who’s looking at him, showcasing a gentle, affectionate smile we’ve never seen before or since in the manga.  

She’s always been a happy, laid-back person, but expressions of open, genuine affection are extremely rare from her, and the fact that she looks at him with such pride, smiles at him so softly, is really all the proof I need, tbh.