#and her self-esteem is basically nonexistent heh - which... I think is pretty clear in this case

[disillusionedjudge]

Would you want to marry Caelen or no since he's the father of your child? (For their Balfonheim AU!)

@tarnishedxknight

Marriage was... something of a painful topic for her, and Gylfie was silent for a long moment. Her arms crossed over her chest with her gaze down. Her expression... rather saddened, as she mulled over her answer, and then forced a weak smile.

"I want to marry him because I love him," she corrected quietly, "not just because we have a daughter together." She looked up, and her smile had faded. Her sadness evident. "But our... Our lives have been disrupted enough with everything that is happening. I do not wish to add to it, or drive him away by asking for more than he has already given." Her gaze dropped again. "Besides, I know not if that is something he would even want." That he would even want with me.

Then, with a shake of her head as if to snap herself out of it, Gylfie took a slow breath in and lifted her head. Her expression a little more controlled as she smiled, and this time, it seemed... soft. "Caelen is a wonderful father to Myra and a loving partner to me. Marriage or not, that does not change how I feel for him, and I am content with what we have. I would rather Myra grow up in a loving environment than one ruined by her mother's greed." She had already driven away one person she once loved - she would not do the same again. Not when they had a child involved, and not when she had done enough harm.

[sage-nebula]

Yu-Gi-Oh! for the ask prompt?

The first character I first fell in love with:

JOUNOUCHI. Well, my first introduction to YGO was through the anime dub, so I knew him as Joey back then, but it doesn’t matter. He is the once and future fave for this series. ♥

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Mmmmm, I’m not sure. Maybe Yuugi? I wasn’t super hyped about him when I was a kid, but I absolutely, positively adore him now. He’s the once and future King of Games. ♥

The character everyone else loves that I don’t:

Mmm, maybe the Spirit of the Ring? I do like him as an antagonist / villain, but I’m not as interested in him as some sections of the fandom are. The same goes for Kaiba, actually. I like manga!Kaiba, and I think that he’s an interesting character, but I don’t like the anime’s Kaiba Seto Power Hour circlejerk, nor do I think he’s as amazing as the vast majority of the fandom does. And as a final entry to this, potentially Atem, because again: I like manga!Atem, and I think he’s a good character, but the way he constantly overshadows Yuugi in both the anime and fandom annoys me.

The character I love that everyone else hates:

Probably Hirutani, lmao. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s a horrid person, but I absolutely love writing him and I really enjoy his enmity with Jounouchi. It’s just so much fun. Plus, I’ve put a lot of work into rounding him out, so … that helps boost my affections toward him as well, haha. That said, I guess it might be less that people hate him and more that people just don’t care about him because he’s such a minor character in canon, so … hmm. I don’t know! Though, with the way the majority of this fandom (and especially the anime team) treats him, I guess Jounouchi could sadly qualify. He deserves better.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

Perhaps strangely to some, but Kaiba qualifies here. I really liked him as a kid (even though I was obviously always aggravated whenever he treated Jounouchi poorly), particularly because he was snarky and the anime made it seem like he wasn’t really a petty asshole, but that he had a heart of gold underneath it all. But now that I’m older and have read the manga all the way through, I’m just really not interested in him.

The character I would totally smooch:

I would kiss Jounouchi on the cheek for sure.

The character I’d want to be like:

I could stand to have more dedication and focus on my dream like Anzu does on hers, tbh.

The character I’d slap:

Honestly? Mai. Because while there are certainly other characters who have far more heinous deeds to their names, Mai—a grown woman—felt it appropriate to smack a teenage boy hard enough to knock him to the ground when he was having an emotional breakdown over nearly dying + his best friend nearly dying because of him (in his perception), and then explained her reasoning as her perceiving that he had “lost his manhood”. Never mind that he comes from an abusive home, that he has struggled with toxic masculinity for a long time, or that, you know, he was freaking out because both he and Yuugi both almost just died and he perceived that to be his fault, which is a perfectly justifiable reason for having an emotional breakdown. Nah, Mai—who, I reiterate, is a grown ass adult—felt it appropriate to smack that teenage boy across the face and then berate him for not being manly. Well, okay. Okay. Fine. If Mai feels that’s appropriate, fine. But as someone who is also a grown woman, I would smack her right back, with just as much force as she used against Jounouchi. She wants to smack a teenager? Fine. But that opens her up to get her teeth knocked out right back, because adults don’t hit kids in front of me and get away with it—and yes, to me, a teenager is a kid.

(And to make it clear: I do like Mai, and I’m not hating on her. But what she did there was unacceptable, and had I been there, it would have been a fight, on the spot, no questions asked. You don’t hit kids in front of me, especially not when they’re having a very understandable emotional breakdown after a near-death experience, and you especially don’t sit there and berate a boy for showing emotions like that. You do not. We would have engaged in fisticuffs and I would not have given her warning about it, either. No questions asked, only fists swung, straight up.)

A pairing that I love:

JOUNOUCHI/YUUGI. ♥♥♥ It’s the only ship I’m passionate about in this series and it remains my OTP of OTPs across all fandoms. I’m always here for it. ♥

^The Ninth Doctor talking about Jounouchi/Yuugi. It’s true.

A pairing that I despise:

Jounouchi/Mai is my most hated, not only because there’s so much in canon to show why they are a horrible match for each other (the slapping incident aside, there are many other instances that show exactly why they’d be a disaster), and the romantic ship tease is pretty much nonexistent in the manga anyway and was created by the anime team, because apparently they can’t have two teenage boys developing romantic feelings for each other and so had numerous instances of removing Jounouchi/Yuugi moments (or creating filler episodes to directly downplay / counter Jounouchi/Yuugi moments, such as the filler episode they created following the pier duel), but having a grown woman courting a teenage boy is A-OK by their standards. Nice. [/heavy sarcasm] But on top of all those reasons for despising it, I’ve had one too many shippers of that ship jumping on my COMPLETELY UNRELATED posts (sometimes Jounouchi/Yuugi posts, one time a post about Jounouchi’s love for Shizuka) to derail them into talking about Jounouchi/Mai instead, and then the shippers get pissy when I either ask them to stop or make unrelated posts about why I dislike that ship (on my own blog, NOT TAGGED), so … bad ship + bad shippers = NOTP, basically.

That said, I also really hate Jounouchi/Kaiba because it’s not only OoC af in fandom, but it also romanticizes how absolutely terribly Kaiba treats Jounouchi (just look at that name) in canon, as well as makes it even worse for the sake of stereotyping, and just … ugh, it’s a complete mess. Jounouchi is treated so goddamn terribly in that ship, and since he’s my fave, I can’t stand it. However, I haven’t personally had too many bad interactions with the shippers (just one in recent times, but I blocked rather than get into a fight), so I tend to not hate it as vehemently as the above, even though I still do NOTP it.

I’m also re-heally not fond of Yuugi/Kaiba or Jounouchi/Atem, as I feel that both would be slaps in the face to Jounouchi and Yuugi respectively. (Because Kaiba is constantly degrading and putting Jounouchi down, so for Yuugi to “choose” Kaiba despite that would, I feel, be like driving a knife into Jounouchi’s already low self-esteem and insecurities and then pouring salt in after. Likewise, Yuugi views Atem as superior to him in every respect for a very long time, so for Jounouchi to “choose” Atem over Yuugi—and to ask Yuugi to switch sometimes!—would be extremely hurtful to Yuugi, because if even his best friend prefers Atem … ouch.) Additionally, Jounouchi/Atem especially is OoC for Jounouchi, since Jounouchi makes it clear at MULTIPLE points in canon that he prefers Yuugi over Atem, and he never wavers on this, but nonetheless. Either way, both of these are borderline NOTPs.

And lastly, any incest ships are obviously a no-no for me, but that should go without saying, heh.